NFL Daily with Gregg Rosenthal - Top 10 Offense Ratings and New NFL Slogans

Episode Date: May 8, 2019

A room filled with heroes - Dan Hanzus, Marc Sessler, Chris Wesseling and Gregg Rosenthal are joined by "Handsome Hank" Henry Hodgson to come up with some new slogans for the NFL that will unite overseas fans. (02:46) The heroes bring you the latest news including Jason Pierre- Paul's neck injury from a single car accident, (17:00) and the Patriots signing Jared Veldheer to an unsettled offensive line. (20:04). Chris Wesseling's Top Offense rankings hits the scene with fire, (25:24) and Conor Orr breaks down the demise of the AAF (41:55).Learn more about your ad-choices at https://www.iheartpodcastnetwork.comNFL Daily YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/nflpodcastsSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

This is an I-Heart podcast. Hey, everybody. Daniel Jeremiah here. And I'm Bucky Brooks. On Move the 6th, we take you inside the game from breaking down college prospects and NFL rookies to evaluating team building philosophies, coaching trends, and how front offices construct winning rosters. We study the tape, talk to decision makers, and give you a perspective you won't find anywhere else.

It's everything you need to understand the why behind what happens on Sunday. Don't miss it. Listen to the Move the Sticks podcast on the IHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. I'm Marcus Grant. And I'm Michael Florio, and together we host the NFL Fantasy Football Podcast. Ready to dominate your fantasy league this season? Then you need the NFL Fantasy Football Podcast, your ultimate source for player news, draft tips, and winning strategies. Whether you're a rookie manager or a fantasy vet. We've got the insight to help you crush your opponents.

Listen to the NFL Fantasy Football podcast on the IHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. Toyota, the official automotive partner of the NFL. Visit Toyota.com slash NFL now to learn more. The Around the NFL podcast. Have terrible English accents. Welcome to another edition of the Around the NFL podcast. My name is Dan Hansis. And I'm joined in a room filled with Heroes, Mark Sessler, Chris Wessling, and Greg Rosenthal.

What is up, boys? Hey, Dan. Wednesday show, Hump Day. What's that smile, Mark? You got a smile on your face. I mean, it's Hump Day. Once we get through this production, a few other circus acts, we are on to the end of the week. You know, a week from tomorrow, Wes is on a plane to Tybee.

A week from tonight. Woo! Oofa. After the shield wins next week. Yep. Kisha and I hop on a plane and get out of you. Incredible dedication to the diamond. And on Friday's show, we're going to have a little wedding spectacular connected to the Chris and Lakeisha nuptials coming up next weekend.

So we're all very excited for that. Big show today. How are you doing great? I'm doing great. The beard is still here. It's looking good. It's happening. It's gone past the point where it's a lazy thing and it's now actually a thing.

Oh, yeah. Oh, there's some pruning going on. It's happening. Not really. Yeah, a little bit in the neck. It's moved into like movie roll beard. Like you needed to it. You needed it for a role and so you grew it.

And it looks great. I checked with Keisha, you know, she thought it would like mess up the wedding pictures. Hmm. That's thoughtful. And she said no. She liked it. And, you know, this Will Brinson character got after me on Twitter thinking it was like some sort of savvy move that like I was asking or knowing she would say yes to like seem like I was a good guy. But that's not true.

If Action Jackson told me to shave it, I'd shave it tomorrow. There. She's the boss. Henry Hodgson behind the glass. We're going to get to him in a couple minutes about an overseas situation, which he is an expert in all matters overseas as an England native. But since you're here and you have a headset on, your thoughts on Greg's beer. I like it.

I'd seen pictures of it, but it makes Greg look kind of older and wiser, which was much needed. Yeah, yeah. Okay. So a lot to get to today. Chris Wessling wrote a banger. top 10 NFL offenses. You could get that at NFL.com slash Wessling and we're going to kind of go through the list.

That's fun. Also, our old buddy, are you kidding me, Connor, or who wrote a banger for Sports Illustrated and the Monday morning quarterback gang, the decline of the Alliance of American Football. So we'll get Connor on the horn.

But before that, we'll do news. But before that, I wanted to. It's been a while. It's time for me. And you know, I use you guys as,

really a think tank with this some NFL slogans I'm going to pitch New NFL slogans New NFL slogan ideas Dance got new slogan ideas I bet they're good

I hope you're paying her at this point her The great Sidney Carlson Lassit I'd assume they know On Mount Rushmore Are you paying?

I am attempting to get her paid. What the f***? As of like, seriously. As of after you ask, now he is now starting the process. I mean, have your belly last. But yes, I got her paid previously. I told her that I will get her paid for this. There is a paperwork issue if you really want to, since we're talking about it.

I managed to get her paid for the last song she did. And she never did the paperwork. So it's like I got to help her along together. She's doing it for the love of. But I'm working with her to get into the compensation because what a jingle. She does great work. Lost it.

All right, here we go. Again, these are pitches for the NFL launching slogans that will grow the game. First we'll start. Skin cells, no doubt about that. So we lean into it, Greg. Skin cells? Skin cells.

Oh, I thought you meant like, you know, the cells, you know, like cancer cells. Yeah, I thought that was about the human body. Like the real DNA stuff. No, you know, sex cells. I was trying to avoid the three-letter word. But anyway, here we go. The NFL, get a load of the bodies on these hunks.

Yes, no, maybe so. Be honest. I don't think that's bad because, you know, one of the things that separates the NFL is its popularity across gender, you know. I feel like it casts a really wide net with everyone. And a wide variety of bodies. Right. I mean, whatever you're into, you would find.

someone to your liking, I would imagine. And men, too. I mean, no one talks about the male form more than Dan Hanzas, so a lot of fans out there. It covers a whole mess of demographics. All right. I know Wes likes it. I got to comment on that one.

All right. So you always got to keep an eye on the next generation. So, and I'm not talking about Generation X or the millennials or the real young kids. So how about the youth? Hey, kids, watch football every Sunday. Or we're taking you. your dad. I find that fear is a very strong motivator in the young ones.

It feels a little heavy-handed and slightly Machiavellian for kids. Also, like, exceptionally cruel for kids who've already lost their father. Right. Some kids don't have. The father is not at home, so it adds to the mystery of where that is. It doesn't hit everybody. Right. But if I just said, you know, your loved one, it maybe doesn't land with anybody.

You're basically hitting intact family structures where it counts. Not sure we need to play hardball with four-year-olds. You'll have kids one day. You'll understand. They'll be fans for life. Finally, overseas a massive. Still, we've done so much great work overseas the NFL, but still largely untapped market, huge potential.

We welcome officially Henry Hodgson, vice president of international here at NFL media. You can see the Hollywood sign from his office. What's up, Henry? Hi, Dan. I tell you what, your first slogan there reminds me When I very first started working for the NFL, I worked for a team called the London Monarchs in NFL Europe.

Yes. And they had a slogan, I'm really not kidding, which was come and watch 52 men bashing their helmets. Which the London Monarchs closed down shortly after that. It wasn't a successful slogan. You know, it was a little wordy. Yeah. You know, a mouthful there.

All right, so this is what I was thinking for this one, Henry. And since you are the VP of International, you let me know. This is kind of a Madlibs. Hey, insert country here, quit, and then a disparaging play on words connected to that country's most popular sport, something, something NFL. Example. Hey, England, quit flopping on the pitch. Come play some real football. How about that?

No. How about, hey, India, drop the cricket bat. Pick up a pigskin. Yeah, I mean, there's like 300 years of history there that you're asking them to essentially dispose of for your game. Time for change. Yeah, time for change. Hey, Japan, enough with the sumo wrestling. Greg.

I don't know. I don't think, I mean, no, I would just flat note to all of those. Really? Yeah. I thought one of those would connect you. I like the anti-flopping message. The anti-flopping one I can kind of get behind, but I'm not sure you have to say, like, everyone, drop it.

Now get down with this instead. All right, maybe you have a more nuanced take on how to grow the game. Speaking of which, why don't you get a plug-in him? here at Mark, Henry, because there's something big going on over in London this September. The NFL Academy. Tell us about it. Yeah, that's right. So you guys have, you know, you've, well, this year, hopefully you're going to go to a game, in fact. Oh, look at that. That's nice.

Do we know that? I don't know if that for sure. Get us there. You've seen there. Yeah, let's make that happen, first of all. But you've seen there are games in London. You guys have been to events in London as well. You guys with, I think, the star attraction last year for the NFL kickoff party in London.

I thought so. And so the NFL has just launched. an academy in London and the goal is to get more British players ultimately or international players into the NFL by getting kids who are really into football at a young age kids kids at a young age who are into football to get them playing and to be part of this academy which has been launched in in partnership with Tottenham who as you guys know and hopefully this will be the game that we get you guys to Tottenham now has an NFL stadium Tottenham Hotspur and and the NFL are going to share

stadium and so they're going to have this academy and bring kids in from the age of 16 to 19 and a lot of soccer clubs in in the UK will have academies which teach the sport but then also continue their education as well so the goal is kind of give them this education character education and then football on top of it and ultimately to to get some some British players into the NFL about the idea that England a proud soccer heritage football heritage haven't won the World Cup in many, many, many, many years. The idea of you're now going to siphon some of your best talent to a different football. That's fine.

That backfire. No, I think it could be part. In fact, it might help more than your slogan. That might be the thing that builds the NFL there. And Wes has talked about some of the rugby players that have recently trans. Christian Wade is with the bills. There's a couple other guys called Alex Gray with the Falcons. So there's a pipeline, but we're getting players right now who are like in their 20s.

much easier to start playing football and have a chance if you or get them a 16 and then they get play college football. So that's really the pipeline. Works for my career. Don't, like the guys like Jay Ajay especially, that'll have an impact on kids seeing him. Speaking of which he was out there, you know, promoting this. Yep. There's a bunch of guys. We got to get him back in the NFL, some team out there.

That will come up a little bit later in today's show. There you go. I think he'll be back pretty soon. But yeah, there's a bunch of it. Actually, there's some really good Patrick Mahomes, OBJ, a couple other guys are. joining in to help promote it as well. So it's exciting. Henry, and that's a direct reflection of the work you're doing,

getting those big fish. I think of it as we. What percentage would you say? Because there's obviously, there has been significant growth in terms of the international players. It's not like an explosion, but it's significant over the last five years. Like, how much percentage credit do you take for that? I mean, as I said, it's a team effort.

Everyone is involved. And the cool thing is that the players are one part of it. Then all of the fans who get to watch. watch these guys. A number. A number to grid. You can't plug anymore. Now you have to just give us a number of how you are.

That you're personally responsible for the growth. And this includes Mobo. Mori's Bored. I would say less than the percentage of G's in your name. Wow. Well, that's up to 50. That's anywhere below 60. Yeah.

That's pretty good. All right. And speaking of Mobo, next time we do a Mobo update, maybe you'll sit in again, Harry? You know what? Maybe I'll bring Mobo with me. Then you can look him in the eyes as you update.

So you always think it's a negative thing. It's not critical. If you can set it up, we would love to have him on the podcast. Absolutely. Henry, thank you very much. It's been a pleasure. You want to get any other plugs in there? No, no.

For me, it's a thrill just to be my favorite podcast out there. And I get to be and see my friends hard at work and Erica as well. Love you, buddy. Also a friend. Let's get some food. Yeah, let's do it. Friday. Actually, Greg and I are having lunch on Friday.

You guys are welcome to join if you'd like to. Is that okay, Greg? Please. I assumed it's a Friday afternoon lunch. Even you, Mark. All right. Well, no, I know you don't like food. So we could just call it.

I don't have it delivered to my office the way that you do. So it's, you know, I forgot about that part. All right, let's do some news. Bye, Hank. Bye. I'm not throwing any shade on Larry Fitzgerald. I'm just simply saying what we're saying about Des as a talent. Remember, Larry Fitzgerald had to be talked out of retirement.

Am I correct? Right. But Larry Fitzgerald is like a Vince Carter. He might make the Hall of Fame because of the longevity and the way he was willing to keep playing without being an MVP kind of level guy anymore. Shut up! The best part, and that was from first take, Max Kellerman,

one of the army of people over there apparently don't know anything about football, but they talk about it. Throwing it out there that Lyre Fitzgerald would only make the Hall of Fame because of his... What is the term that we use for that? For numbers that you just build over time?

Compiler. As a compiler? Lyer Fitzgerald is a lot of... Well, that's a bad take, also the take from Steve Smith, who likes to make things up, that Larry Fitzgerald had to be talked out of retirement. Steve Smith? Stephen A. Stephen A.

It's still technically Steve Smith. Stephen A. Apologies. Where does he get this information? He just makes it up. I mean, news flash, all generalist sports programming is garbage. Like every show where the hosts have to try to pretend like they know something about the NBA, baseball, the

NHL, soccer, everything, and have an opinion on it, you know more than them about your favorite sports. So why listen to this? Is that a sneaky shot at Mike and the Mad Dog who I would consider generalists?

I would agree. I mean, maybe their prime but they knew their specific story. They would admit that they were not good about certain things. There were certain sports you had to tune out to. Like Mike knew baseball, football,

basketball, and then the horses. But bad dog, tennis, baseball, yeah, that's, a little different. But here's the thing, though, even now, like, in my, in their best sports, they're going to be bad compared to, like, someone that covers the sport year round. All right, let's get into the news. Larry Fitzgerald's the first ballot hallfamer. Of course.

On merit. Let's get into the news. By the way, this is, we're taping this Wednesday morning. Tuesday at midnight eastern was the deadline where if a free agent was signed, the team that he was. leaving could get a compensatory pick. That no longer is the case. So that opens up, well, hypothetically, the floodgates for all these notable veterans to get signed.

As of right now, I don't think anybody's come off the board. Not a floodgate at the moment. Let me throw some names out there. Well, I think we're going to mention them, but you would be one. But that came before. Oh, the official signing hadn't come yet. Gotcha. Here are some remaining free agents that are name brands on some level that don't have jobs.

right now. Jay Ajai, as we just brought up, Michael Crabt, Corey Legit, Indomacin Su, Zigianza, Mo Wilkerson, Derek Morgan, Jamie Collins, Mo Claiborne, Eric Berry. Those are all guys that can potentially help teams. Some of those guys might not have anything in the tank. They might be just name brands. I didn't even mention Des Bryant. But anybody you guys want to connect a player to a team that makes sense?

Maybe a prediction? And Dominican Sioux and Titans make some sense. They drafted Jeffrey Simmons in the first round because he's coming off an ACL injury. He might not be ready for week one. And the Titans defensive line coach, Terrell Williams, was Sue's position coach in Miami for three years. So there could be a fit there. And Cam Wake there.

So you can just rebuild that monstrous Dolphins defense from a few years ago. I think Eric Barry's had a tough realization this offseason in terms of the contract that he thought he might get in free agency. and so he's going to have to accept something at some point. The Cowboys are the only team that have showed interest in him. I know they signed Georgia Loca. That should not prevent them for maybe signing Barry in the future. And I would think they'll still give him a little extra guap

than any other team out there. I mean, what about John Dorsey with Gibral Peppers out the door? They haven't really filled that. They have some veterans there. Those are guys, like Ziggianza can help a team if he's remotely healthy. Jamie Collins can help a team. He's not like going to change your roster, but he can play snap still. Maybe the Chiefs, they've got these lumbering linebackers like Anthony Hitchens and Reggie Raglan.

You need a little more athleticism in that unit. Morris Claiborne could definitely help the Jets if they choose to bring him back. He's 29 now. He's always battling injuries and he's not healthy, but they are very thin at quarterback. And remember, they gave Trumane Johnson a ton of money last offseason and he was a bust to just assume that he will get back on track would not be wise, so they should have some depth. This, by the way, is a thing for almost the first time. this post-compensatory pick deadline.

This has existed for years, but no one was ever paying attention to it before. And NFL teams weren't really, other than the Ravens and the Patriots and a few others, weren't smart enough to really pay attention to it before. And now I think it's become a thing where these players are better

than the normal crop that are out there. And like the comp pick deal started to get written about and there were features written about how Baltimore and New England dealt with it differently. Patriots are doing it again. They're getting two more thirds next year, I think.

It's a good way to do it. Moving on, Jason Pierre-Paul is having another off-the-field issue that could really haunt him. This time it was a single-car accident that he was involved with in Florida. It's led to a neck injury, and Tom Pelliserra of NFL Network reported on Tuesday. He'll get a second opinion on the injury, but it doesn't sound great. He's seeing a bunch of doctors, and if he does need surgery, and we're hearing talk out that this is going to be a potential extended absence,

it would likely lead to a five to six-month recovery, could knock him out for most of the 2019 season. There is some hope, Pelliserra reports, that he would not require surgery and could be ready for week one, but that potentially could be overly optimistic. We'll have to see how it plays out. Wes, how big a loss would that be for a Bucks team

trying to get on track? Huge. 12 and a half sacks last year, and you look behind him, Shaq Barrett, Carl Nassib. even a guy like Noah Spence, who fell out of favor with the last coaching staff, you wonder where that pass rush is going to come from. Those guys might be good for six or seven sacks apiece, but not double digits. And I think you wonder will they go through with cutting Gerald McCoy, if they also lose Jason Pierre Paul.

Yeah, I, this injury really made me think about his star cross career. Of course, losing, you know, his finger in the firecracker accident. If you had told me after 2011, yeah, if you had told me after 2011, when he was a first-team all-pro and to me was maybe the best player on a Super Bowl champion team in terms of like the course of the entire season that he was going to be a Hall of Famer

like I would say, yeah, that's kind of what I'm expecting or not, you know, he's a 22-year-old. So he's kind of had, I don't want to say a disappointing career but it's, you thought at that point he was going to be like a much bigger figure throughout this decade than it really has been. I know some people are asking what, because there's not a lot of details about the single car accident.

What does that mean? It is possible to get into a single car accident. I can tell you from personal experience. I've known Mark for like eight and a half years. I've been in a car with him behind the wheel once. And it was a drive from NFL network to a local tavern that was about a mile away. And that's the only time I've ever seen Mark. Twice because I once dropped you off to pick your car up about two and a half blocks from here.

How did you do? I thought he hit a curb maybe No, I did not No, that's not accurate He drove me to the airport once and did just fine except a ticket We did get lost I think it shows a level of self-confidence

actually how you own this Most people, you're not a good driver or whatever You're trying to hide behind that But you know who you are Oh, it's trying to hide it's and at this point It's not going to get any better so And yeah, like an ability to recognize one's limits You don't even try to drive

You're like, it's not my thing. I don't do it. It is a crystal clear limit. Yes. Greg mentioned Jared Valdir. The Patriots will sign the veteran offensive tackle. Pretty nice money. One year deal up to $6.5 million.

What does that mean? It's probably like a million and a half base salary. Better be for this guy. Anyway. Ouch. I'm just saying these up to, it's like, okay, if he starts 16 games, that probably is up to, but there's no chance he, or there shouldn't be much of a chance he is. Well, that's why I brought this up. He turns 32. He's a journeyman, lineman. The Patriots said,

let's get him in here. What's your P scale on the Pat's offensive line right now in front of a soon-to-be-42-year-old quarterback? Oh, very low. I think it's the greatest, the best offensive line in Patriots history is returning four or five starters. They do have to replace their left tackle, but they're replacing him with the first round pick who's coming off a major injury but their first round pick from a year ago and they drafted another guy

in the third round. I do think Valdeer makes sense because it's incredibly thin after that. They have like no veterans if it's thin and also

a completely untested unknown quantity at left tackle. Hashtag Dante Scarnackia conversation over me. It's a big concern but you have a first and a third round pick there.

You know, and it's one position. Is that the, is he related to? the other kajus from the Browns. The David. They also have someone named Tyree St. Louis. I like people whose last names

double as city names. It's not often you find that. Always fun. Moving on. We haven't touched on this. I'm just curious everyone's thoughts on it. Levion Bell, of course, sat out all of the last season with the Steelers over contract dispute and then signed a huge deal in free agency with the Jets, but has opted

not to take part in the voluntary workouts with the Jets instead training with his own people doing his thing. He's gotten criticized, I guess, on social media for it and probably on shows like first take. But he wrote on social media on Monday, when it's time to play football, I got to stick to the formula that I know works for me to be the best player I can be. I'm not just trying to win football games. I want a ring.

Wes, will this annoy you? It doesn't annoy Adam Gays. He says, would it annoy you if you were the head coach? I'd be slightly annoyed because of the deal he signed, and you want him to come in and send an example. I would look at this slightly different from the Jaguars, where I've ripped on Jalen Ramsey because they have a leadership vacuum there, and he's supposed to be the best player on the team.

I'd like to see him set an example. Lev Bell, I think this will probably be a non-issue by September. It's either not voluntary in the sense that if you don't show up, the media around it turns it into something where then it becomes a social media thing where Lev Bell has to deal with it and everyone else does. This does feel a little different to me in the one sense that unless he was going to do the most extra thing ever, which what I would totally applaud is sit out the entire season for more money from the Jets, is like, why not get in there with your teammates and make a good

first impression? Would it kill you that much? How long are these OTs? Go up there for a couple days and just don't make this a story. But he may be thinking, his training regimen may have him thinking completely different. I don't know what he's doing. I'm not worried. I give him the benefit of the doubt. He's a multiple time all pro. He has a system.

As a jetman, I don't care. I don't think it's anything to care about. But it's annoying to me that it's a story because every person that doesn't show up to these things, it becomes a story. So leave it alone then. People got to realize Levy on Bell is one of the best running backs of the last 20 years. It's like the lack of respect for him, just when you talk about people think he's, like people think he's, He's over the hill. He's 27 years old.

Give me a break. He'll be fine. Last football game was that Jaguars' playoff loss. Ooh. Got some breaking news. Devin and Yadne Cajduced. Not only are they not related. But Yadne said, everybody keeps asking me if we were related, but I don't even know who he is.

Whoa. Little heat. Little heat. And if you look at the skin tone, nobody should have been asking him if they were related. Oh, that's not always necessarily an indicator. That's true. It's not jump to conclusions there, Greg. That's fair, but it's a pretty dramatic difference.

I mean, but it doesn't matter how much of a difference. There could be an adoption. It makes sense that we asked the question, but in person, I don't know. I also had no idea what Yadni could use to look like. Right, that's what I mean. I'm saying if you're in person. Fair. And let me just say that although the bar has not been raised in terms of level of importance

to the NFL world. I do believe your breaking news in breaks here are getting more entertaining. And that's the most important thing. There was a while there where they were just completely superfluous. And now there's actually stuff to talk about off them. So, bravo.

Thanks. It means a lot. That's what's happening in the news. All right. Chris Wessling wrote a banger. Oh, my goodness. He wrote a banger. It is called the NFL's top 10 offenses.

What does the J stand for in Christoph, J. Wesleying? I don't know. I thought in the rundown, I put Christoph J. Wessling's top offense rankings. I couldn't remember what your middle name was, so I just guessed J. But am I wrong? Robert. Christoph R. Wessling, okay. Well, what do you like to say, Christopher R. Wesleyan? Christoph's not bad. That's the French pronunciation.

So you wrote a banger. This is one of your pieces you do every year. And as always, great work. Clearly. a man that put in the effort and did the work, did the research, and you broke it down by, you know, positions, quarterback room, the backfield receiving core, offensive line, and giving out letter grades and nice rundowns. And at the top of the list, you have New Orleans Saints. And let me say that I am a little bit surprised

because you've been beating the drum a little bit about your, and you wrote about this in the piece, you were a little worried about Drew Breeze how he performed down the stretch and now this is about spinning forward I guess you're not too concerned ultimately that Breeze is not a guy in decline at age 40 well this is much less about the Saints

and much more about the fact that everyone has questions every team has questions and maybe the Colts have fewer questions but I you know but that's a big question around that offense sure my guess is that Drew Breeze was hiding an injury for six weeks, and it's not really that he's fallen

off a cliff. We don't know the answer to that, but on all of these, so every team has questions, and every fan base has come at me this week saying, well, this is the best case scenario for our team. They should be in the top 10. Well, I did that for 32 teams. You did that for one. First of all, I looked at the best case scenarios for every team and had those debates already with myself. All these teams have questions. The Saints question to me is I have to come up with some conclusion, and my conclusion is Drew Brees probably played through an injury and is not, in fact, a terrible quarterback right now. You know, you also had some moments there in the Eagles game and the Rams game.

Terrible seems strong. I do think it's natural to expect him, his arm, which this has been a question for five years, whether his arm is falling off and he always has great numbers throwing the ball down the field. but I think it's like Tom Brady like we should be expecting Tom Brady and Drew Breeze to fall off it's outrageous that they haven't that much and Brady has I mean that was the worst

offensive season he's had and that the Patriots offense has had in many in more than a decade name another offense with three MVP candidates I mean that's why they're number one on this list they've got Kamara they got Michael Thomas and they got Drew Breeze the chiefs used to be up there could have been the chiefs

I think yeah I think when you in the coaching staff and the system to me is like almost as important, not as important as the players, but the track record that they have. They're the team, you know, we talked about like writing teams in pencil for the playoffs.

They're the team you can just write in pen as a top five or six offense. Like there's almost, there's so little chance that they're just going to fall off a cliff. Mark Ingram to Latavius Murray, to you is that a... That's a downgrade.

A significant one? Mark would a C. I would call it fairly significant, but I also think that Jared Cook is a major upgrade over who played tight end for them last year. So they sort of balance out in my mind. Let's move on number two on the list. You got the Colts.

Not a surprise. Wes is a big fan of this Colts team and where they're headed. Greg, do you have any reservations about this indie team or is it let it rip and see how they score? You know, after, no, I don't. I was a little surprised they got up to number two, but then I see what Wes's point, that there's, that there were very few teams that were just, that you couldn't make the case. So to me, they would be in the next, they would be one of the next five or six teams, and I wouldn't have argued. And after going through the rosters, I agree with Wes. I showed a little too much disrespect earlier in the week on this YouTube hit that we did. People should check out worst to first. Is that live? I don't know. Erica? Not yet, but it will be by Friday. Just like, just go on to YouTube every 25 minutes or so until then and write in. Refresh. Worse to first. And you thought I didn't show enough respect to not just kind of put the, and you're right, their roster. has almost no holes in it top to bottom.

After doing the projected starters exercise on them, they should be absolutely the favorite in the AFC South. And it's because the offensive line to start is maybe the strength of the team, which is a shocking thing to say about the Colts. I can't wait to see what, when Chris Ballard was focused on the offensive line, he's done a lot on defense.

And now it's like, wait until he uses a draft or two to hit specifically offensive skill position players. But they did grab Paris Campbell. Do you need him to be a home run out of the gate to maintain, looking at their wide receiver? That's the only spot I had questions because I know we trust the GM's judgment here, but Devin Funches was never a breakout guy. You're kind of assuming he's going to take the next step and into here. So they were a top five offense and weighted DVR.

And now you add Devin Funchis, who playing with a more accurate quarterback, I think, that is a good fit just because they needed a size. physical, wide receiver in Indy. I think that's a good fit. Paris Campbell, I think, is a wild card. And then you also have Dion Kane, who they absolutely loved last year. And I think is one of the reasons why they let Ryan Grant go, why Don Trell Inman hasn't resigned,

because they like Dionne Kane coming off that ACL injury. I think this, this offense is loaded. I think Jack Doyle coming off the hip surgery is crucial for them. You know, like they're counting on him, or they would love to count on him. He's going to play more snaps than Eric Gibran if he's healthy. he's always been a big asset, but he wasn't quite the same last year, and he's coming off a big surgery. So I think for them, that's a big question. But the line in Frank Reich makes, maybe it's a limited sample size, but at this point, like, Reich is right there with me with any offensive play caller in the league.

Well, and we'll get to it. But Frank Reich has his name all over this top 10 list. Number three, the Philadelphia Eagles, where he was the former offensive coordinator. You have them at three. You know, this one jumped out of me. And I would not question, Wes. But you have them ahead of the Falcons at four and the Rams at five. And then the Chiefs that fall out of the top five.

You have them at six right now. Why are you so bullish on the Eagles being a truly elite offense in 2019? Well, the number one takeaway from this exercise this year as opposed to other years is that out of the top 15 offenses in DVOA last year, the Colts, Falcons, and Eagles look to me like the only ones that can be expected. expected to be improved. Everyone else lost too much and didn't gain enough. Everyone else has major questions. The Eagles revamped their backfield, revamped their wide receiver core, added to their offensive line, get Carson Wentz back presumably healthy. To me, they're absolutely loaded on

offense. Wentz is kind of the, Wentz playing more consistently to me is the key to all of that. Because you're right. I think Dallas Goddard is kind of a sleeping giant there. If he was on another team, he might be headed to a Pro Bowl. They may have two Pro Bowl quality-type tight ends along with adding D-Jack's and some draft picks. I love also that, you know, two years ago when they won the Super Bowl, they had a stocked backfield with different type of runners, and they have it again.

For me, I liked Josh Adams last year, and you have added a guy in essentially Jordan Howard, who he can do a lot for you. And Miles Sanders, they love. I mean, they might not even make the team Josh Adams at this point. I mean, he'll be battling for it. him in Smallwood. Coming off major surgery, too.

But a lot of people thought Sanders was the best running back in this class. So for the record, Dan totally just flaming your Eagles pick. But the rest of us love you, Wes. Well, I don't really care about the numbers besides these teams, anyone. I didn't really flame him either, but it's fine.

Yeah, the Falcons at four. That one kind of makes sense. And I guess, Wes, you've said that you feel that the outgoing offensive coordinator, Steve Sarkesian was scapegoated a little bit in Atlanta. Well, in comes Dirk Cutter to take over that old job again. And maybe there's a lot of talent there, obviously. To me, this looks like the best wide receiver core in the NFL

with Calvin Ridley scoring 10 touchdowns as a rookie, and then you expect him to get better. Mohamed Sanoo is a really good number two, and they have the luxury of using him as a three this year. Julio Jones obviously is great. And then, you know, Austin Hooper had kind of a breakout year at tight end. I think if you can protect Matt Ryan, this is a great offer. Well, they added a ton of offensive linemen, so then you're just like, you know,

or people in Atlanta are certainly thinking, okay, well, that's solved. But it's like it's not that easy. Of course. You know what I mean? Rookie liming usually struggle. We fall into this, and I'm guilty of it too, of just like, okay, let's slot in that second round guard. He's going to help out and have, you know, more times than not, he doesn't help out. So that's why I was, if I was going to say I was surprised about anything on this list,

it was that the Rams and the Chiefs were as low as they were they're the next two, five, and six. Chiefs didn't even make the first tier. I would definitely put them ahead of the Falcons. I think I would put them two and three on my list because I think continuity, consistency, coaching, they have those.

And the Chiefs specifically have Patrick Mahomes. And to me, that's an edge where I would put them right there. Maybe at the top one and two. If I was ranking quarterback, sure. But I've made my feelings on Tyreek Hills. ability known on the podcast. He is the best, most important skill position player in the NFL, and I'm not going

to change my opinion on that. They were a great offense with Alex Smith, and that had Tyree Kill. So I guess we'll kind of see, you know, we'll see what kind of is. To me, Tyree Kill was the MVP, like, on that team the last two years. Stay tuned for the end of the podcast to find out if West changes his opinion on Tyree Kill. How about if he's the number one most important skill player, Todd Gurley has got to be in that conversation behind him. Absolutely.

If Todd Gurley, if we turned back the clock a year ago and there was no such thing as arthritic knee condition potentially and to talk about two running back sets and all this stuff, where would the Rams be on this list? If Todd Gurley had no question marks, Cooper Cup wasn't coming off in ACL and Jared Goff was in an extended slump for the last two months of the season, they'd be in the top two or three. Maybe number one. That's a lot of ifs. That's why they're not top three because they have too many questions. But all those ifs would have put them where they were at the mid-season of last year when they were the premier offense. That's a lot to overcome coming out of this off season. Yeah, I mean, at this point, guys coming off ACLs.

I know you always say that, but it's not true. It's a concern. They don't always return as the same play. Goff is the bigger concern for me, really, of all three of those. Because with Malcolm Brown and Darrell Henderson and their offensive line and Sean McVeigh and Gurley, of course, it's not like he's not there. I'm not that worried about their running game. But Goff, whether he's closer to the middle of the NFL in terms of starting quarterbacks or what he showed in the first five weeks last year, like, that to me is the number.

Like, that's a bigger question to me. Was that just a hot streak? Yeah, or I don't know. I think that's fair. I think it's fair. He's still a really young starting quarterback. I do, I think age is more important than we give it that, like, the fact that him and Baker Mayfield are essentially, like, I do give Goff a little bit of leeway there that he's so young,

even though he's played a lot. Yeah. In the rest of the top 10, Mark, there's one team I know is jumping out to you. Yeah, bro. Yeah, bro. Let it rip. The Browns.

At number seven. I mean, I would say I've been reading the wrestling lists for, you know, years and years. And, well, it's just not hard. It's much harder to write than to read them. But the fact that the Browns are number seven in literally anything on any of these lists ever to me, I'm not shocked by it based on what they have. I do wonder where you would have put them coming out

of last year in terms of 1 through 32 ballpark, pre-OBJ, pre, I guess, Kareem Hunt later part of the year. They were still an interesting productive offense, but middle of the pack? I actually feel like this number seven is conservative. I did too. I see them

as easily top five potential, and I think coming out of last year, they were a top 10 offense and weighted DVOA, which weighs the end of the season much more than the beginning of the season. It's more reflective of how they were playing at the end of the year. And I think they already were a top 10 offense thing. You had Odell Beckham. My concern, though, is the offensive line. They did a nice job, obviously, down the stretch with coaching patches. You're still relying in theory on Greg Robinson

to play left tackle for 16 games. Chris Hubbard's no stand on the right side. So when your tackles are potential weak spots and left tackles, definitely. That's a concern. I just think it's a hard ask for the coaching staff to get everyone on the same page right away just because it's a lot of new pieces. But I think that'll be kind of balanced off by Baker Mayfield just getting better. I mean, he was a rookie last year. This is when they should take the biggest leave of his career. The Packers crack the top 10. I can almost guarantee in West in the five or so years you've been doing this on the site that this is the lowest they've been because Aaron Rogers's offenses always get the benefit of the doubt that they're going to soar. But now,

there's a little more doubt, even with the coaching regime change. But this makes sense. Respect Aaron Rogers. You put him in the top 10. I can't imagine doing this list in future years and not having the Packers in the top 10 just because they have Aaron Rogers. As long as they have him, they're going to get respect from me. That's true.

Now, if you think about it, West, now we scroll down at the end of this assignment, offensive knocking on the door. You think about it, what does it mean really just to throw a team on there? What is it, you know, how does it affect you personally or listeners or people you consider friends? Would it have really, really hurt? Would it have really, like, bothered you just to throw the Jets on there solely for me? Like, as like a, Dan, thanks for being a good friend. Getting down a brass tacks here.

Your groomsman. I'm just, I'm going to throw them on the knocking on the door just because I like you. Well, that would have been so hard. That's a fair question. And I appreciate you asking that. But for honesty's sake, they were not like the final cut. I mean, you have Tennessee Titans, their quarterback's throwing 18 touchdowns in the last 23 games. You know, their third on the second.

I mean, if there's one fan base that could come, and I don't even disagree because I think they have to fall off at some point. But the Patriots for all the struggles that they had ended, you talked about weighted DVOA for offense. I mean, they ended up top four in the league last year. They were a top five offense overall. They've been a top five offense, I think, for 10 straight years. So even though going into the season, the roster's got some issues, it's good on the line. It's pretty good in the backfield. I think Brady's still an asset.

It's a type of team that maybe not September, but I kind of expect them to be a top 10 offense in the long run. You know what I mean? Okay. I mean, I get it. Everybody thinks the Patriot can just keep losing guys and getting older and they'll never suffer any consequences. I know that's the feeling everybody hits. I don't have that. I think I've said the opposite.

I think the receiving core is atrocious. I think for them falling off to eighth or nine offense is kind of dramatic and changes the way that they've been. If they don't have Josh Gordon, you're right. The wide outs are pretty rough. And their quarterback is another year older and already declined last year. Yeah, you did. Dan likes that at least. It's happening.

Good stuff, Wes. Great things. NFL.com slash wrestling. I just thought, you know, would have been nice. All right. it is now time one of our favorite people from the around the NFL podcast long rich history a former colleague of ours a man who has one of the more popular enduring segments on this show or are you kidding me where he grinds you know what's grinding his gears well that's not what

today is going to be about today is about a piece he wrote a long form about the rise the curious rise and rapid decline of the AAF. It's a great piece, getting a lot of good buzz about it. So let's talk to him, Connor, or welcome to the Around the NFL podcast. Hello, this is Connor. Hey, Connor. That was fun. Hello.

Am I just on? You're it. Well, I mean, I think so. Do you answer robocalls that way? No. So you thought it was probably the NFL calling? I know, well actually I called somebody else from a Culver City number for a story like two days ago And so I didn't I didn't know if when whenever you guys give me a time I'm always like is it Eastern or not

And so you know I just kind of roll with it I'm more excited about What Culver City number you were calling finally doing that Amber Theo Harris profile Maybe Yeah I'll like to say is watch out guys you know oh look out yeah sounds like a deep doubt which wouldn't surprise me connor and yes welcome to the show good to have you back because you know there's a term in the industry about owning a story Connor is owning this aaf story and it's a good one to own and it's a great piece if you go um look at look it up it's in sports illustrated it's online um the rise and fall of

the AAF. What is the actual headline? I should have that. That's a bad job by me. The spectacular, the curious rise and spectacular crash of the Alliance of American Football. Love it. It feels like a book title. And you do a great job, Connor, giving the story behind it. What would you say, what is like the overall thesis at the end when you have to kind of put a bow on it, what this story is ultimately about? You know, it's about a bunch of people who like, who love football. You know, football players, staffers, ticket sales people that sort of got sucked into this pipe dream, you know, by this guy who promised them that they had three years worth of funding and promised them that they would have jobs. And then all of a sudden, eight weeks into their inaugural season, you know, the league just shuts down.

And, you know, from beginning to end, there were just so many pitfalls from their initial funder is now about to be. on trial for bank fraud and may have like toppled the cryptocurrency industry. And then, you know, there's their second funder, the owner of the Carolina Hurricanes is a hardcore business guy who didn't share their vision. And so obviously when profits started running out or, you know, profit margin was thin, he just decided to shut the league down. So it was crazy. I mean, for something that only lasted eight weeks, it really was like a heavy thing for a lot of people.

yeah because i think like what was what was the excitement level just from afar in reading your stuff and and talking to a few people i think like it's underrated what an exciting opportunity this was for so many people not just the players of course but the coaches in the front office and the people behind the scene who saw this kind of as as like another way into professional football if they weren't in it currently yeah and i mean if you look at it from the outside like if you got the same sales pitch that all these people got, you would be excited, right? Because not only, you know, you have guaranteed three-year contracts. So that's like great. I mean, you don't get that in any other job. And then, you know, we have this technology. We have, you know,

tech people from Yahoo and Tesla and Lockheed Martin. And we're going to become so tech savvy that the NFL is going to want to partner with us. And so you're sitting there thinking like, oh, this is a good idea. Like, why aren't other people doing this? And you feel like you're on the ground floor of something, which is a lot. with a lot of people felt like, you know, that this was going to be the next, you know, Apple or Facebook or this next big startup that they were going to be a part of. I thought you blended the, I guess, sort of the tension between the tech people in the building for each of these teams and the football people in a really, in a really interesting way in this story, where there were grumblings at times where the actual play caller was being paid less than one of their sort of high-octane think tank tech guys. But I would read this for Connor or the writer because knowing, we all know Connor from our days of being, he's always been remote on sort of our chat client with him for hours. You get the real Connor. And a lot of it comes out in this. I love little tiny nuggets. I'll give you a couple. One where the team communications app warned a player during this whole meltdown about having to pull away expensive bottles of Chilula hot sauce out of the dining area. You dig into a Memphis Express. part of the article by hitting on, it's so Don Delilah to me, I know you love, like hitting on

their hotel room, the Sonesta ES suites on old Poplar Pike Road, and you dig into what happens at Sonesta for like paragraph, graph after graph, and it's just a fascinating read, but interwoven with all of this, and also Charlie Ebersall using a quote from Kevin Garnett, you're waiting for this great quote, and the quote is, anything is possible. I'm not sure Kevin Garnett came up with that, but everything throughout this thing, I do honestly feel like this. This could be stretched into a larger. We're going to need an AAF book. And we found the guy to write it.

It's Connor the guy. You've sort of laid the groundwork for it, I think, here. How about that, Connor? So we actually came out with part two today, and I'll give you sort of like a cliff notes to it. One of my favorite stories that we found out for the second part of this was during their quarterback draft, they had an initial draft, right, where all the teams got the chance to select the quarterbacks live on.

CBS Sports Network, and so Marshawn Lynch shows up to support his cousin, Josh Johnson, who ends up getting taken number one overall. The fleet. So Charlie Ebersol approaches him and says, Marshawn, would you do an interview for the Alliance to help us get

everything off the ground? And Marshawn says, yeah, sure, for $5,000. So he writes him a check for $5,000 and hands it to him, and Marciaun says, no, in quarters. And then so The owner of the Alliance of American Football

literally goes to the front desk of the hotel and gets 20,000 quarters delivered to Marshaun Lynch's hotel room. He does like a two-minute interview that employees that I talked to said they never even saw and so there it goes, like down into like the annals of history. It's very kind of funny. We all love Marchion Lynch, but that sounds like a massive move. Like what is he doing?

Well, he loves Papa Shot. So now he's just, like he's just like got the quarters for the next two years. I look forward to seeing Connor on the Netflix Fire Fest version of this whole thing. There's a lot. There's a lot. There are a lot of potential revenue streams. I know we don't want to make light of all these people that lost their jobs,

but this could be a major financial boon for Connor. Connor, two things. First of all, Chalula, very expensive. There's always Chalula in the house at the Hanzas house. And it goes quickly and you add it up over the years, so I kind of get it. But the Reggie Fowler, this character that preceded Dundon, to me when I read the piece and I'm sure this is oversimplifying it, but isn't his issues with the law and he ended up getting charged with bank fraud, he's in deep, he's in deep doo-doo. Isn't that essentially the turning point for this story when it went from something with promise to something that was never going to make it?

Yeah, I mean, this was sort of a pivot point where, you know, some people that I talked to were like, This is where they should have just said, you know what, let's stop trying to beat the XFL to the punch. Let's pause this and let's take another year to get the funding part of this right. But instead... That's Fire Fest. Yeah. And instead, it was just like, oh, no, I mean, let's just get another investor because we already bought all the stuff. We did all the stadium deal.

So let's just barrel ahead with this. And so I think that there was an element there of, you know, we just have to keep going. We just have to keep pushing through. And, you know, one of the things that was interesting to me was half the people there are kind of used to this stuff. Like, you know, I don't know exactly how aligns those experiences are. But in Silicon Valley, that's kind of the deal, right? A lot of these tech startups are fly by the seat of your pants. One day you have money.

One day you don't. You just get used to it. So there are a lot of people just sitting around saying, well, okay, I mean, that's fine. I mean, this is what happened to Uber. And so they're fine. But, you know, it's so much different. And I think when you bring in the football aspect of it and the football people who are used to the NFL

and kind of the way that it's run there. And then Fowler, once his funds got tied up, Dundon stepped in. He promised the $250 million. And when this all went down and it went down in public and it was a huge fire, fireball of disaster for this entire company. But Dundon caught a lot of the heat as kind of the bad guy.

Is that how you read it once you kind of dug into it? or was it already kind of a done deal by that point? Yeah, I mean, I think it's sort of convenient to paint him as the executioner in this. I mean, you know, I think that you could look at anybody atop that power structure and said, like, you definitely should have done this differently. I mean, you know, you should have had a better business plan. You should have vetted your funders more aggressively. You know, if you're initially promising to be this funder, you should know that maybe you're getting investigated for bank fraud

and you're not going to be able to have access to your money. So I think there's a lot of different things that could have been done there. Some people I talked to said, you know, I don't blame Dundit at all because, you know, when you get into this and you start to get a look at the books, I mean, you know, if you already threw $70 million at something and it's not working, why would you double that or triple your investment when you don't believe that there's going to be a return on it? And I thought the reporting initially when the whole thing utterly went, you know, turned on fire and just melted was that Dundon was all after the gambling technology.

But your article, I put that completely to bed, that if anything, he was ambivalent or disinterested by that side of it. I thought a turning point was when he talked to TV people that said, the league is going to need to keep paying us money to be on television for quite a bit of time that he thought that seemed to me like the point where he thought this is not a good investment. Yeah, I mean, that's kind of what, you know, was pointed to for me. I mean, obviously, you know, Tom, Charlie, Reggie, and none of them would talk to us for this story. But, you know, that sort of be, that was sort of the sense that I got. And, yeah, it was interesting.

I mean, the theory was like, oh, maybe he'll steal this technology and use it for the Carolina hurricanes. Or maybe, you know, he'll use it as a window to get into the NFL or to get a seated ownership or something like that. But, you know, what a lot of people told me was, you know, if he wanted, the technology, all you had to do is pay to keep the engineers together because it doesn't matter whether or not you have the source code or the material. It's the guys who know how to run it and operate it. And so the fact that he fired all of them along with everybody else, you know, leads everybody, leads me to believe that, you know, that kind of wasn't high on his priority list.

Man, they did the XFL a favor. Not only did they point out some mistakes that you can make and then get out of the way, but I think they kind of primed the public. It was like a little teaser. that the XFL can now take advantage of next off season with a pretty good broadcast package. You'd like to think the XFL learned from their first attempt that went completely sideways too.

And you wrote about this too, Connor. AAAF obviously was a failure and an embarrassing one at that. But the on-field product was the one thing that people weren't really complaining about, which is the first thing that usually a startup league like this is going to get killed with. So, yeah, if the XFL is smart, they might be able to follow the path.

or it could be one of those things like from Final Destination or a movie like that where you wake up from the nightmare of your own demise and then you're like, oh, now I have to avoid that or you just have the nightmare and then go headlong into it either way. Also known as every morning. Yeah, I mean, it's really, you know, I talked to someone who said, and I think it kind of puts it well as like, you know, the first time, you know, they were so nervous about the football

that they closed off training camps to journalists because I didn't want anybody to see it in case it was bad. And then when one employee got his first look at one of the games, he told me that he cried for an hour. He was so happy that he literally was crying tears of joy for an hour because he said, I did this. Like, I helped put this together, and we did it. Because at that point, in their mind, it was all that we were worried about

was the football, and the football is good, and we have the money, and we have everything set up, and so we did it. And so I think that that's one of those things that's like, you know, it sticks with me because it's like, wow, I mean, at that point, these guys are thinking that they pulled it off, you know? And really, that's what everyone was worried about. Is the football going to be bad? And it wasn't. Yeah, there's definitely a sad component to the whole story for sure. All right, the curious rise and spectacular crash of the Alliance of American Football. Check it out. S.I.com. Also, newsstands and Sports Illustrated. Also, Conner's on the MMQB NFL podcast.

He did a show about this story and hopefully he's going to do a book and a Netflix special. Great job, Connor. Maybe we get an executive producer cut on it for introducing the idea. Otherwise, we'll have to go into lengthy litigation to sell a little. That's up to Connor. Finally, Connor, before we let you go, where are you at on your rundown of the AFI's 100 greatest films? A few years back you told us that you were going to comb through the entire list and give detailed reviews. Where are we at on that project?

I know you've been busy. Yeah, well, I know. I think Mark knows this because I think he might be going to see something as well. I'm skipping ahead to a movie that's coming out on Thursday that I know is probably going to be number one on the list anyway in a couple of years. And that's Detective Pikachu. I don't know how excited everybody else is about this, but I am fired up. I've had my tickets purchased for weeks. So I'm 100% ready to go.

So this isn't a bit. You have had a... Do you bring in your kid? Connor is an adult Pokemon fan who, you know, grew up as one. Oh, a lot of people are. My kids are too, and out of the blue, this is how nice Connor is behind the scene.

He was a beat reporter that had to, you know, do bad things to other people, I'm sure. But behind the scenes, he sent out of nowhere a box full of his old Pokemon cards to my two boys and our house exploded. They think that Connor or is, they don't even, they never met him. They think he's the greatest human,

much better than their dad. And so, Conner, good job. Also, Machiavelli and Connor definitely sent that, knowing that this appearance was coming up, and then that story would come out. No, no, it was ages ago. That's how I operate, but I'm serious. I mean, it's going to be, I'm so excited.

I'm sure Mark's got to go to, so maybe we can do a little follow-up movie review, you know? And Connor also, one last plug, also just did like a two-hour podcast on Draft Day, that pile of shit movie that came out like five years ago. So he's obviously, he's really plugged in on the higher end of the cinema spectrum, as we expect. I thought about Mark a lot

I reread his review his initial review of draft date 14 before we started it but do we still have that yeah let's play that at the end of the show no anybody who knows me knows I love drinking in the afternoon and watching

draft day and so to be able to get paid to do that was was pretty great very good Connor always great to hear your voice you're a special man miss you guys miss you too okay all right okay Connor Connor or What a guy.

All right. That's it for today's show. Good stuff, guys. A reminder of Friday. We have our third show of the week. And we're going to get into some wedding-related themes. Hopefully, Colleen Wolf, Connie Fox, will join us as well. And we will have some Friday fun.

So that's it. Erica, how you don't know? You're coming to the wedding? Oh, yeah. I didn't know you were coming to the wedding until I heard the conversation earlier. And that is great. You're what I would call a great wild card to have, whether it's a bachelor party or at a wedding, because you're going to mix things up.

You're going to have fun. You're going to bring some life to the party. I'm sure that's what Wes and Lakeisha were thinking when they sent out the invite. Yeah, I think so, Wes. Take it away. All of that is true, but I think that Erica is going to be hailed as a conquering hero on Tybee. It's going to be like Katsukodal coming to Mexico. It's just going to be like a glorious stomping of Erica taking ownership.

ship of the island. I can't wait. Is the moment going to be too big for you? I don't think so. No, we'll be good. Yeah, I can't outshine, you know, Keisha and West, so I just...

No, that would... Everyone else, though. It's interesting that that's what you first thought might be possible. I like that... Well, no, it couldn't be possible, so I'm just gonna go... Are you gonna wear, like, a white dress

with a long train? I don't want to clip your wings. No, no, no. If you can outshine, people, go for it. No, no, no. Not shine. I'm just excited to be there and to be able to witness it.

and spend the weekend with my favorite boys. Yeah, wow, a lot of good feelings at the end of today's show. Have Sidney sing about that. Oh, no. Was that annoying when I sent you that file? I mean, no, it's fine. She's good singer, isn't she? Yeah, she's good.

You have the ability to toy with it, you know, tell it, like, engineering-wise, to make it sound much less attractive. To do, like, a reverse auto-to? Throw it out there. No, I would never. I'm a very good person. and I respect talent, and she can sing very well. Very magnanimous.

Through gritted teeth. All right. That's it. This is Dan Hansa, signing off. Four, Quiet Storm, the mailman. The old boss and Ricky Hollywood, behind the glass. Let's get that draft day review at the end of today's show. No.

Till Friday. Full of heart from start from start to finish. is on the great tension of the NFL draft while showing how human the entire process is. Mark Sessler, NFL.com. You're out of your mind. Yeah, I am. Haven't I proved that already?

I'm Marcus Grant. And I'm Michael Florio, and together we host the NFL Fantasy Football Podcast. Ready to dominate your fantasy league this season? Then you need the NFL Fantasy Football Podcast. your ultimate source for player news, draft tips, and winning strategies. Whether you're a rookie manager or a fantasy vet, we've got the insight to help you crush your opponents.

Listen to the NFL Fantasy Football podcast on the iHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. Toyota, the official automotive partner of the NFL. Visit Toyota.com slash NFL now to learn more. Hey, everybody, Daniel Jeremiah here. And I'm Bucky Brooks. On Move the Six, we take you inside the game. from breaking down college prospects and NFL rookies

to evaluating team building philosophies, coaching trends, and how front offices construct winning rosters. We study the tape, talk to decision makers, and give you a perspective you won't find anywhere else. It's everything you need to understand the why behind what happens on Sunday. Don't miss it.

Listen to the Move the Sticks podcast on the IHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. This is an IHeart podcast. Thank you.