NFL Daily with Gregg Rosenthal - Under the radar storylines

Episode Date: August 7, 2015

A room filled with some heroes -- Dan Hanzus, Gregg Rosenthal, Chris Wesseling and Colleen Wolfe – have the latest news surrounding the Aldon Smith arrest and subsequent release by the 49ers. The crew also takes you through some of the most impactful injuries around the league. Finally, the heroes break down the training camp storylines that are flying under the radar.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. The Around the NFL podcast can play glycerine on the guitar. Welcome back to another edition of the Around the NFL podcast. My name is Dan Hansis and I am joined by a room filled with some different heroes. Colleen Wolf, Christopher Wessling and Greg Rosethal. What's up, boys and girls? Hey, Dan. Hey.

What's happening? Ah, welcome back, Connie Fox. It's great to be here. You know, this is why Connie Fox is so great. First of all, always does a great job on the show. But we hit her up on text 12 hours before the show. She's like, I'm in. Yeah, I'm basically on call.

I mean, we're paying you under the table to be here. Right. So welcome back. Thanks. Sessler doesn't like getting edged out here, this trend of like, you know, all right, Cessler, just take a day off, go to Canton. We basically just sent him away to Canton just to mix it up. He actually did say, like, he's a little uncomfortable that every time he leaves a charismatic female steps into it.

his spot is eventually a suit's going to be like well that hmm that makes sense a little that works yeah yeah he's at the hall of fame he's going he's going to tell us uh on monday how that's been going he's going to go to practice in cleveland for the brown so that'll be nobody can replace mark no mark is mark is a touchstone part of the show i will also say that um that mark is going to be he's in canton snapping photos right now so he's doing the entire experience he will be at the indian burial ground so yeah on monday we're going to get him on on the phone and see what's going on in Berea and beyond. Wes, how you doing, buddy?

I'm doing great. Yeah? Last show, we had a superstar Tony Romo on our airways. I will say, we did get some heat about Romo about, some people who are like, he's a little stiff and, you know, don't have, don't have athletes on the show. We got some good feedback, too. Listen, when a big time star comes on, we're going to talk to Tony Romo on the phone. You'll notice we have less people on as guests because. We try to avoid that, but we're going to have Tony on and see what happens.

I agree with the people who said that. Well, I already heard way more positive than negative. About Romo's spot? On Romo coming. People were just excited. I mean, first of all, to know that he's that big of a fan of the show that he called Dan and I up separately, that get me on. Anytime you can fit in.

So we're like, all right, let's wait until, this was three months ago. He said, let's wait until August when something opens up. He shot me a DM like at 3 a.m. yesterday. And he was like, hey, you sure that went okay? Yeah. He lit up when he was talking about arts and crafts, Tony Romo. He asked me how the Wilco concert was. Yeah.

Wilco concert was great, brother. We'll get into that a little later. We have a great show for you. And, you know, again, I don't throw around great. Sometimes I say good. This is a great show. You're feeling good about it? Yeah, we got the whole crew together, Connie Fox, TD Behind the Glass, Sully,

Brandon, great show. We're going to get into, there's a lot of news to get to, including some big news out of San Francisco that we'll touch on. We'll also get into, listen, there's a lot of hacks out there, a lot of jabronies, I call them, in this sports media journals that are covering, oh, these are the storylines in the NFL. No, no, no, no. Forget that. We're going to do some under-the-radar storylines that will be just as much, just as important, if not more important than the ones all the hacks are talking about. Got to blow your mind.

You just be smirched a whole field of people. These stories. People never thought the way we're thinking about these under the radars. Exactly. It's crazy. It's revolutionary. changing the game one podcast at a time we're also going to uh welcome back our old friend connor or a little later in the show uh i think you know what that means uh leave it at that

and also we'll we'll touch base with chris wessling who uh after hours and days and perhaps years of work is unveiled his latest long form on on the uh houston oilers of the late 70s and early 80s we'll talk a little bit about that but before any of uh that we will check in with TD behind the glass back from the award show. Have we been with TD since his trip? No, guys. How are you guys doing? When were you planning to tell us that we didn't win the award?

I was going to tell you guys if we had good news. That's fair. I did tweet it out. I did tweet congrats to the Grant Land team of Jalen and Jacoby that beat us out. Who are they? Guys would have a podcast? Hey, would you mind, though, because my favorite part of your trip was when you posted on Facebook, the photo of you on the panel?

Yeah, looking very intellectual. Do you mind if we put that up on our around the league handle, around the NFL handle? Sure. There we go. It's also me and Sarah Koenig was cereal. Koenig was there. TD doesn't practice that smart face in the mirror for hours for nothing.

Any sparks between you and the Koneg? No, she's a little bit hung up on a nod. If you listen to Siri, you would know. Whoa. Little inside cereal, Joe. I like it. Serial. Good job by TD.

I've got a bone to pick with you, TD. What's up? I watched, I woke up early today, and I watched Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt. Yep. I gave it four and a half episodes, and I was about to find out if I had an unbreakable iPad. Oh, cool. You can see the jokes in that show coming from three blocks away. I wasn't a fan either.

That doesn't speak well, Wes. Or Colleen. That is a great show. I want it to like it. You can see the jokes coming from so far away. It's pretty lame. It's well done, though. It's not, it's not surprised me.

Oh, I. She's so charismatic. The girl is cute. I haven't seen it. But I'll watch it and settle it. I'm going to side with Tina Faye's comedic mind on this one. Personally, I think it's a great show. But we're all entitled to our opinions.

It was like train wreck. Sort of same thing. Underwhelming. Okay, I'm with you on that. Yeah. It was really predictable. Yeah. Comedy, predictable comedy isn't good comedy.

Hey, are you okay, TD? I am. West just went out of you pretty hard there at the flame tour. I'm all over. I'm breakable Kimmy Smith. I, this is my dude, but we're going to have to agree to agree on that one. Okay, let's do some news. What the hell's going on out here?

That's what you call a statement drop by TD. He's been getting a lot of brushback on Twitter about where are the drops, where are the drops? I think he's got a big comeback in store today. Oh, yeah, the jobs we can use, baby. I like this kind of party. Wow. Fire.

All I know is you mess with me, you got problems. That's all I know. Enough, JJ Watt. TD's confident Don't tell me I said that All right Let's start Let's start with the big news

Out of San Francisco Alden Smith The troubled pass rusher For the Niners Was arrested on Late Thursday night For a hit and run DUI and vandalism

Or the charges This is the same Alden Smith of course That has been arrested For DUI three times Since 2012 And the 49ers Who already obviously were

on guard About where Smith was As a person right now and his health and all that acted quickly. On Friday, they announced that they were releasing Alden Smith, who now, in addition to his legal charges, now no longer has a team, which is a pretty stunning fall from grace for a guy in his first couple of years,

was regarded as, you know, one of the top young pass rushers in football and was on a historic type pace. So Alden Smith no longer with the 49ers, Jim Tom Sula, who I'm liking more every day, I got to say. I love him. Jim Tom Sula spoke passionately about, out Alden Smith, and we have the clip right here for you. It's a sad day.

This is a day that doesn't have anything to do about football. Although he won't be playing football for the San Francisco 49ers, he will be supported and helped. And he will not have to walk this path alone. If one person out there reads this. and you're struggling. Get help. Go get it.

You're worth it. You're worth it. The value in every human being. Get the help. You don't have to walk alone. Powerful stuff, Chris Wessel. Very powerful. That was... Jim Tom Saw can be...

I mean, obviously much better than his introductory press conference, but he can be a charismatic guy. You can see why players love him. But if he has that sort of emotion, and I heard someone react to it, like, oh, what he's really thinking is, we're in trouble without Smith. And I'm thinking, no, this is,

I'm a cynical guy, but Jim Tom Sulla, I believe, feels this with all his heart, and they are concerned about Alden Smith. With that said, the ownership, and I'm sure Tom Sula was part of it, made a very quick decision that he was no longer going to be on the team.

Well, the guy's been arrested five times since 2012, and Tom Sulla made it pretty clear that as an organization, they believe that he needs to vote 100% of his attention and time to his off-field issues. I guess it was a little surprising to me just because they have shown a lot of patience with him. And listen, Greg, you tweeted about it. Star players have a whole different level of rope than end to the roster guys,

and they stayed true to him. But this time, even without, and this seems like a DUI case that we don't really know all the details yet, but it's not your standard pulled over on the highway. and, you know, you blow the breathalyzer past 1-0 or whatever. This seems like something else was cooking. But whatever the case was, they decided to act immediately without letting the jurisdiction play out. It's really sad because he's so talented.

And when he's on the field, it's great. But he has all of these issues. And it's like a tornado of bad news for the 49ers, this entire offseason. And Jim Tom Sulla, you could see how passionate he was when he was talking about it. He definitely cares about him, but it seems like he doesn't have a choice. What's next, guys, for the 49ers, because after Alden Smith is removed from the team, this is a team that's lost so many players. I mean, you can go straight down the list.

What an offseason it's been? What's next? But they've got, Greg and I were talking about this earlier. The only two defensive starters left from that Super Bowl team from a few years ago are Navarro Bowman and Ahmad Brooks. They drafted Aaron Lynch last year who had a good rookie year, but he's not. Alden Smith, only four players have had 40 sacks in the first three seasons. Reggie White, Derek Thomas, Alden Smith, and Dwight Freeney. That's the company he keeps.

Nobody else in that roster can even come close to that kind of production. Well, it's interesting. I was thinking if they're going to lose someone at a position, this is a fairly deep position. As it goes, a lot of teams have worse starters out there than Ahmad Brooks and you have Lynch and you have Aaron Lynch and you have some good players at that position. It's amazing that Brooks is even still on the roster. He's had his own arrest problems. I mean, it's insane if you look at what the 49ers have gone through this offseason.

We have written three different, oh, my God, the 49ers are in trouble type of posts. Here's the rundown. Mikey Upati, Frank Gore, Chris Culver, Michael Crabtree, and Periscock's all leaving free agency. Harbaugh leaves, you know, Borland 24 retires, Anthony Davis, 25 retires, Patrick Willis, 30 years old retires, Justin Smith retires. That one not is shocking. But that's an amazing, incredible amount of guys to lose, and how do you bounce back from that? And when Alden Smith is right, do you think that he's their most talented defensive player?

Oh, without a out. So that's a huge loss for them. I think he would, you know, after two years, you would have thought he's in the top five defensive players in the entire NFL, that there's no doubt about that. And for him to not be on a team right now is mind-blowing. Well, it raises the question, will he be on a team? Now, I know the 49ers believe that he needs to devote all his time to addressing this, and that seems like the healthy thing to do. The first public words Alden Smith made about this comment was that it was not a DUI, a little defiant,

and it's up to him whether he wants to continue his career because as much as this is going to get him in trouble, maybe with another suspension. I do think teams are going to be interested. He's a free agent, and it's very rare that someone this talented is out there. Greg Hardy got a job. Alden Smith's going to get a job. He's got a job at some point.

He's going to get a job at some point. Now, I don't know if it's going to be in the next week or they'll wait for the league to come down. We're probably not going to see him this year. He's going to get a big suspension. He's going to speculate, but you would have a job. imagine after another misstep here if it plays out in the legal process that it's going to be hard to imagine him playing football in 2015 well he was suspended for nine games it turned out to be and then

this would be another infraction of the substance abuse policy almost no matter what happened so you're right it might be a year suspension and teams might wait to hear from the league before they do anything about it keep an eye on jerry jones i don't i can definitely see that i don't see that after you've already taking on Greg Hardy and I don't see that. It's all setting up for Eric Mangini to win that coordinator of the year award. You know, narratives. The ceiling's so low. Everyone's gone.

Everyone's expecting a bad team. You know, they have some talent. Docket, Glendorsi, Eric Armstead, Reed, you know, Bethay. It's not the worst looking defense in the world to see it. It's just so different looking, though. Yeah. All right. Moving on.

So Brandon Marshall and Jay Cutler once upon a time where teammates with the Bears, it didn't work out. Marshall traded to the Jets. and he was on first take the ESPN Belovieter program where he had this to say about Jay Cutler and their relationship, or I guess how his relationship with the bears started to falter. Here's the quote, I feel like I was the only one in the organization that had the huevos. Colleen, that's eggs. Yeah.

I speak Spanish. Yeah. Baxter. To hold him accountable referring to Jay Cutler. He also had this to say, I think when you strap it on and you say I'm going to play for the bears or I'm going to play with the Jets. You give it. You've got to play for more than the money.

You've got to play for more than yourself. So, Greg, pretty kind of pointed words that maybe a work ethic issue with Jay Cutler, it goes beyond just his struggles on the field. We've heard about these whispers about Jay Cutler for years that he doesn't put in the work. And really, Marshall is the first one to kind of put his name on him and just put it out there.

And a lot of coaches, they always love Jay Cutler coming in, and then they're always going out about a year or two later. Another time we heard criticism of Jay Cutler was from an announcer. It was weird because John Gruden never criticizes anyone on Monday Night Football. And late last year, he just picked Jay Cutler apart the whole. And the point was this guy isn't prepared to play. He couldn't pick up blitzes. He didn't know the cover just to call it the line of scrimmage.

And for John Gruden to point that kind of stuff out, it seems like the same things Brandon Marshall's saying. Well, it seems like it's coming from somewhere and you don't like the source out. But Mark Trisman and John Gruden are buddies. and, you know, Tressman's throwing Cutler out of the bus. Yeah, and we saw them have good chemistry at first in Denver and in Chicago. I mean, Brandon Marshall had back-to-back 100-catch seasons in Denver and then Chicago again, and then last year it just all fell apart. So these two clearly have some bad blood that was brewing,

and we saw it all last season. By the way, this link, this is getting linked to right now for a different Jay Cutler story right now. And they changed the headline to, I had the guts to call out color. Just put it. I had. You got to hate that. I had the eggs to call out Jay Cutler. I love, though, that there was another quote about Cutler this week.

Adam Gaye says his intelligence is way better than what I thought, which is like the most basic. Backhanded compliment. And it reminded us of a post that Chris Wesleyan wrote just two years ago, quote, Jay Cutler is borderline brilliant, Bears quarterback coach says. And Brandon Marshall also said what everybody was thinking last year. He said, you look at that offense on paper, you had all Sean Jeffrey, Martellus Bennett, Matt Forte, that offensive line, and it did not translate at all.

Everybody was thinking that. What the heck was going on? Where Colleen does Bad Blood rank in the Taylor Swift power rankings for singles? You know, I don't even want to like Taylor Swift, but I watched that video. You know, I kind of kept playing it again and again. But where is it? It's up there. It's top five for sure.

What's number one? It might be that. I kind of like it. I know. Dan, are you cool? with the Brandon Marshall Post next year when he's talking trash about Gino Smith. Yeah, from the CFL.

All right, moving on, the Detroit Lions and DeAndre Levy, their stud linebacker, have worked out a new extension, a four-year $33.7 million deal. This went down on Wednesday. The team announced it. The deal is worth $20 million in guarantees. And, you know, one of the league's top weakside linebackers, Chris Wessling, but maybe not a guy that gets the pub,

but the Lions had the four. Orsite are the smarts to lock up this guy. Linebackers in 4-3 defenses do not get publicity. They don't get Pro Bowels. Levante, David, Thomas Davis, DeAndre Levy. Probably the three best 4-3 linebackers in the NFL over the past three years. None of them has been to the Proble. DeAndre Levy, I thought last year was one of the six or seven best defensive players in the NFL.

The Lions had the best defense in the league statistically, I believe, for most of the season. And Levy and Sue basically drove that defense. He was, he sidelined to sideline in on every play, led the NFL in solo tackles last year. He's a playmaker. Something's wrong with the Pro Bowl format when those guys have never been to a Pro Bowl and Andy Dalton's been twice. There's a... Jermaine Gresham went once. I think like 15 tight ends dropped out.

That's bad, dog. That's a fair. One of my Twitter followers had an interesting idea. Why not have one team of 3-4 defense and the other team of 4-3 defense in the Proble? I like that. That is a good idea. Yeah, I mean, Levy, when you look at their roster, he's probably their best defensive player. had back-to-back solid seasons, 119 tackles in 2013.

He had 151 last season. He deserves what he got, and he said that Sue was not the defense. Very quick tackler, very instinctive, which is usually the word that people use for smart that he basically can see the plays before they're happening and go get to it. When Wes was doing his top 10 defensive players in the entire league last year, he put him in the top five. He and Sue tied for number five.

Okay. They drove that defense, but it was really telling that, The video that they put on the top of, I think you wrote the story on his contract, right? The video they put on top of that. I can't remember anything passed. It was his Top 100 video, and they have a really cool scene with Tom Brady talking to Josh McDaniels, and Brady's just saying, Levy and Sue are all over the field. They're everywhere.

We can't get anything complete because they cover the whole thing. So they take care of business, do the Lions, and we move on now. Let's talk a little bit about the injuries. Injuries piling up a little bit this week, so we decided to do kind of like a round up. We'll start actually, though, with Kevin White, the rookie wide receiver for the Bears top 10 pick. They're expecting a lot from him. But his recovery from this mysterious shin injury is not going to plan so far. Ian Rappaport reported on Inside Training Camp on NFL Network on Thursday that he hasn't done any running on hard ground. He's doing all

his work in the whirlpool. And from Ian's understanding, Ian whose hair probably isn't natural, I'll throw out there. Whoa. Well, you keep saying that, but what? What do you mean? Because it looks to me, a lot of product in it, very hard. I think he dyes his hair. Okay. He's not. Categorically denied that.

It wasn't until he was calling me out for having gray hair that I feel like I have to launch this assault. But, you know, keep it real. So you're calling him a liar. So I was just clarifying because you could have been talking hair plugs, you know, some sort of formula. I think his hair. They have the spray can to cover up bald spots. That's one of the things out there. I mean, all that's probably in play in the future for him.

But for now, it's just for men. Would you ever dye your hair? I thought about it, yeah. But then I realized I would be too self-conscious to walk around in public. It would be amazing if you did it. Yeah, because now it's too late already. You got to hit that off right away. Anyway, so we're talking about Kevin White.

So there's a good chance he'll remain on the Pup list when the seasons start. So he can miss the first six regular season games. This is not good news for the Bears. I hate this because when you think about a rookie receiver and the chemistry that you have to build between a receiver and a quarterback, just in training camp alone, that trust, the quarterback needs that trust to throw the ball to him, and they're not going to build any of that, and they might not even build it until, like, at what point in the regular season?

On a smaller scale, I was talking about when Devin Smith for the Jets hurt himself, he's not going to be able to get any chemistry, he's not going to get any NFL reps, and you worry about what that will do to his season. Here's some other injuries. We'll start on the offensive side of the ball. DeShon Jackson fell. Originally was reported that he ran into a... blocking sled.

But I think he fell near the sled and hurt his shoulder. He'll be out a couple of weeks. Fred Jackson has a hamstring. Todd Gurley. Jeff Fisher told Andrew Siciliano today on NFL Network that he was probably not going to play in the preseason, but that won't mean necessarily that he won't play in the regular season to start. Does anybody have any words on that situation, Wes?

I thought the most interesting part of that was Jeff Fisher adding that whether Gurley is 100% or not, there will be a heavy rotation. because they believe Trey Mason, the word he used, is special, which backs up what Greg's been saying. I've been saying that for weeks. About this most exciting backfield in the NFL. This is one of the weirdest points you've ever tried to pick with me, West, that somehow Trey Mason and Todd Gurley are not a very exciting duo.

How is it that you always ignore the fact that Gurley's coming off an ACL injury? Well, eventually he'll be healthy. People get excited about rookies. You are ready to put Kevin White in Canton. He can't even run on hard ground. It's the Rams. He's not playing the pool, Wes. You've got to get on the grass.

I've played football in the pool before. What is the old line? You can't make the club in the tub? Exactly. You're a fool in the pool. Oh. What? I've never heard that one.

I just made that. Just keep going. You're a slub in the tub. Michael Floyd, too. Michael Floyd, by the way, gross injury. Three dislocated fingers. Did we ever get the, what happened with that? How did that happen to get stepped on?

I'm not sure. He had a teddy bear with him on Instagram. He actually, I don't know how it happened, but he landed on the football. I don't see how that made skin go through his. Three dislocated fingers and the skin, his bones went through the fingers, but they think he might miss week one but won't be out too long. I feel like my career would be over. I just cut the fingers off because that's too good.

Get rid of them. Yeah, you don't need him. Darren McFadden still nursing that hamstring strain. He'll be back. On the defensive side of the ball, Mark's boy, Markievius Ming, He got his knee scoped. He's out a few weeks. They hope he'll be back in a month,

but that's just a hopeful timetable, according to Rapporteur. Robert Mathis might not be back to October without Achilles injury. D. Milner, my boy, the former number one pick of the Jets, had wrist surgery on Friday or will be having surgery

as we're getting hurt in practice. He continues to be snake bit. And our boy, Kiko Alonzo, the chunky soup pitchman, suffered a concussion, so that's something to keep an eye on. I would keep an eye on the McFadden and Fred Jackson injuries. Fred Jackson, we talked about as a guy that might not make the

Bill's team necessarily. He was expected to. You missed three weeks and your hamstrings not ready for week one. They could think about cutting him. And Darren McFadden, I've been thinking they're going to sign another veteran there this whole time. And if he doesn't get back and look good, I think that's almost for sure going to happen. Also, the Floyd injury, good news for John Brown, too. Smokey Brown, making the leak. All right. Just for fun, Wes, John Brown, you ready? 70 receptions over under. I think he nailed it.

70. 1,200 yards over under. Under. Eight touchdowns. Under. By the way, talk about not answering the question, 70, as if he's going to exactly get 70. What would the odds be?

Hey, let's talk about this when he gets exactly. There's a sandwich on that? I'm just saying, 73 or 68 or whatever. Dan is a little bit of a seer here. Just watch. I just remember this. I like John Brown, I'm going over for that one. Wow.

80. 81,200. Whoa. Pick them up in your fantasy. That's making a week. Fantasy Spectacular Week for around the NFL podcast is coming up starting next week, I believe. No, the week of August 16th, we're going to dedicate parts of all three shows to some fantasy talks. I got these football heads in here and I got to do something with them.

And Mark. And Mark's here to be here to keep us company. But, you know, with Wes and Greg here, these guys built Roto World brick by brick. So just get ready for all that stuff. Apologies to Evan Silva, who's like throwing his podcast player against the wall. Hey, before we move on, Michael Floyd, gross injury. A tweet I had a couple days ago, grossest sports injuries, five to one. Number five, dislocated elbow.

Number four, collapse slash punctured lung. Number three, ruptured Achilles. Gross. Number two, quote, muscle torn from bone. Oh, yeah, that one. That is the Aryan Foster Special. And the number one, grossest sports injury, is... Compound fracture.

That's the longest drum roll drop ever. I mean, listen. Completely interrupted in our production meeting at our free show set up just to get that in it. Give me what I want. You know, this guy, man. I want what I want. That's huge for compound fracture, though, just because things have been going great for it to get that kind of recognition.

It's been a long time coming. It's all overlooked, the greatest of all gross sports industry injuries. So, yes, that's that. All right. So that's what's happening in the news. One little last bit of news, TD, I'll throw it to you because you're very knowledgeable. And you have a lot of, like, quality hot takes on this. Seahawks quarterback Russell Wilson hinted on the Dan Patrick show this week that Sierra,

his pop star girlfriend could soon be engaged. And I guess Patrick had a follow-up. What's going to come first? Super Bowl ring or engagement ring. Wilson responded, hopefully, ball. I hate the story. Come on. Really, Russell Wilson?

I'm not even going to speak. I bet this. Talk directly to Russell Wilson. Exactly. I want to speak directly to his friends. Are you off of him yet? He's my guy. He's hard to root.

But I'm going to speak to his friends. Read an article about his friends in Sports Illustrated. You'll think differently about him. Get TD the floor. If you're Russell's, boys right now this is where you earn your keep you need to pull your boy russell to the side and be like dude you need to slow it down you know you need to slow that no sierra's hot i know she's play it cool exactly you already have the girl you

don't need to act like a fan right now russell you can't be even if you do want to get married to this girl you don't put that out there on the news right what happens to surprising with the uh proposal and all that stuff russell how let me we can talk about this man because you need some help i like the relationship advice excellent analysis by t d say you're saying you should You shouldn't talk about your relationship to Dan Patrick. Exactly. It's not only that.

It's that maybe Sierra and Russell Wilson are on the same page on this. But what if Sierra is just like, I know, I'm having fun with this football player. And he's going on and telling, like, people in the media that he's hoping to have an engagement ring on her finger in, like, six months. That's my biggest fear. As a Seahawks fan now, that's my biggest fear. Oh, you're a Seahawks fan now that they've been to the Super Bowl. It's said he is. Colleen, you're a married.

woman now but imagine at the early stage of your courtship with gonzo if if he would have been saying that we were we only dated for five months and then we were engaged really it works with so he he did a whirlwind romance but did he ever go on c sn philly and just start talking about never let's let's save this for the cupid strikes hard podcast oh colline we'll save that for february sounds like a good one anyway but my point being forget gonzow for a second i mean more just the idea of someone telling the public about his intentions about your relationship to get married. No way. Yeah.

It's fine as long as it's a complete PR scheme that will be over and say. Oh, it is too. And that's even grosser. That would be the only thing more disappointing. All right, let's move on. All right, under the radar storylines, I told you about all those chumps in the media that all they do. Blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah. Here's important things.

Peyton Manning's arm strength. Forget all that. We're going deeper. We're digging. That's the type of stuff we do around here, under the radar storylines from camp, stuff that not everybody's talking about. And I've set it up so much. It's only fitting that Connie Fox starts it off.

What is your under the radar story? So Tim Tebow, it seems like, all right, yeah, sure, he might not be under the radar. But the under the radar thing about Tim Tebow, Brandon Graham is in love with Tim Tebow, right? So not only did he say that he's going to make the team. He's going to get a ring on his finger by February. He's going to score. nine touchdowns, he said. Jeremy Macklin led the team last year with 10 touchdowns.

LaShaul McCoy had five. There's no way he's going to score nine touchdowns. The very specific number, too. It is. Exactly. It's almost like he has buzzes. It's almost like you with John Brown. Yeah.

That's right. 70 catches. Yeah, so that takes a lot of Huevos to say that, I think. Bags. Right? If Tim Tebow scores nine touchdowns this year, all of our lives will be less enjoyable. I thought you were going to say you'll, eat my softball pants.

No. All the mainstream media pundits are Tom Tebow? Who's that? Tom Tebow. That's what we're about. Yeah. So, Colleen, good. That was good.

I have an actual good one, but we won't go into that now. We got Wes up. We're coming back to you. Tebow's making the team. She's right. I didn't think he was going to make the team. He's going to make the team. Remember Doug Martin?

Used to be a good running back for the Buccaneers. Worst nickname in the world. Muscle hamster? Yeah. Did you know he's starting for the bucks again. He's going to be their lead back. Lovie Smith said this week. Under the radar. I feel like every year we look for a guy in the preseason. Two years ago was Ryan Matthews. Last year it was Mark Ingram. Guys who have been written off as no good anymore, but they're

former number one draft picks. And you can see when they play in the preseason that these guys have recaptured whatever form they lost. Ingram had it last year, Matthews the year before. I think Doug Martin could be that guy. I really think C.J. Spiller's the guy. But I'm confident in that. Doug Martin's the guy I want to see. C.J. Spiller is the storyline that all the gibrony schmows know, you're talking Doug. Yeah, I'm talking under their radar. Well, it's never been explained why Doug Martin turned into a bad running back. Yeah, that was weird. Yeah, he had the shoulder injury in 2013, but last year. This is interesting, though. Shoulder injuries on running backs, you don't think about it

because it's not their legs, but if you watch any running back who's had a shoulder injury, they stop hitting the hole aggressively. Ryan Matthews, perfect example, broke both clavicles that year before. Mark Ingram last year was blowing through defenses, then had a shoulder injury, and you could tell as explosive playmaking ability wasn't there, they just don't blow through holes as hard. And maybe the blocking will be better, too, with two new guys on the offensive line, Donovan Smith, Allie Kippet. I would not hold my breath for that one. Allie Marpet, I don't know about Hobart, but we'll see. Connor's boy, Allie Muppet. I've got a candidate to be the kind of Ryan Matthews or Mark

Ingram who emerges in preseason. How about Ryan Matthews? I like it. People saying Ryan Matthews looking better than this. to Marco Murray in Philadelphia. Everybody was all over yesterday. I'm just saying I feel like it's Ryan Matthews. If you put them next to each other, Louis Riddick, who's really good on ESPN, he says, if you watch them in practice, Ryan Matthews is better running. You know who else has been saying that all offseason on this podcast?

Hey, Colleen. Oh, no. Don't be surprised if Brian Matthews outrushes to Marco Murray. I've been saying that since they signed both. I like that. I will throw one out there. And we're talking up the Broncos is as long as Peyton Manning is healthy. They're going to be in the mix.

they got this running back running game now it's solid you got all the receiving targets but people aren't talking about under the radar is this bronco's offensive line which is in tatters right now and you have a 70 year old quarterback and you got a running game that you're leaning going to lean on hard you want to turn l manning into like the new elway from the late 90s but you have uh Luis Vasquez is back he's the right guard but you could have four starters new starters on their line Orlando Franklin left in free agency. Ryan Clayty hurt his knees out for the year. So as much as we get excited, as long as Peyton's okay, the Broncos are okay.

If they have a bad line, first of all, Peyton's going to get hurt if that happens and the running game won't take off. Let's give some kudos to TD. They've got some training camp offensive line footage at one point. That goes to Sully, actually. Okay, good job. Good job, guys. I would say, though, that the offensive linemen, that group has to have consistency,

maybe more than any other group. They need to play together and know each other well for it to work. And with all of these new pieces and the inexperience, that's concerning. Well, and they're still figuring out who it's going to be. So on Thursday for the first time,

they had Trimbio, Trimbio, whatever it is, at left tackle. Symbrio at left tackle. Then you have Max Garcia left guard, Matt Paradise at center. All three of those guys have never taken a snap in the NFL. Those last two guys, you made them up. No, one guy was on the practice squad last year,

another rookie, none of them. Sounds like a character from Jack Kerouac. There's a chance that from left tackle to center, they'll have three guys that have never played a snap. That's a concern. You don't hear national guys talking about that. Is there any other quarterback that could deal with it better, though, maybe? Watch 15.

That's a fair point. You're afraid of him getting hurt, but. It's a fair point because of his pre-stap judgment. Right. But he's got a new offense, too. He's never run a Gary Kubiak offense before. Watch 10 different. NFL shows or podcast, listen to him.

Hear a lot of chumps talking, talking, talking. You'll never hear them talk about Paradise. You'll never hear them talk about the Bronco. Max Garcia. This is getting distasteful on our part, by the way. I liked him in Rushmore. You know who has talked about a lot at this point last year was the free agent who got paid the most money all lost off season?

One of our old friends around the NFL podcast, Jaris Bird of the New Orleans since. Ja, Iruz, Byrd. Jairoos. Byer. Good to hear you, our old friend. You know, it's been a long time. We haven't heard that, partly because, you know, people aren't ready for the drop sometimes. But otherwise, it's because he, no one's heard.

Where is Gerriss Bird? That was a sub-tweet on podcast. No one's seen Jarus Bird in a long time. He actually was. Wait, who? He was back. Who? Who are we talking about?

Gyrus Bired. That guy. That guy. Jairos, Byrd. Very tough name to pronounce. Tough for him to get on the field. He had that back surgery last year. He had the knee surgery.

Then he shows up to camp this year, and Sean Payton won't say what's wrong with him. But he just hasn't practiced at all. No one's seen him, and they won't even say what it is. And he said last year that missing OTAs and missing some of training camp actually affected his chemistry a lot with the secondary.

Well, that was one of the under the radar Jaris Bird stories is when he was on the field last year, he was a disaster. I mean, he's... So was Kenny Vicaro. Right. He's been one of... I mean, it's early,

but it's been a terrible, terrible sign. We didn't even mention. that when we talked about the bad saint signings. It's not working out too well. Let's throw out a couple more before we move on. Clay Matthews. Stuck at Inside Linebacker. Didn't we kind of expect that would have been just a short-term thing?

Well, isn't he playing inside on early downs and then moving outside on passing downs? Possibly. We'll see. Seems like that could work well. They're really not expecting. They think they're really bad at Inside Linebacker and he's not moving. They are right. It seemed like a move at a desperation, but it's just sticking now.

He can't be too thrilled about it. How about Hakeem Nix, Titans wide receiver? I feel like I'm on an island on this one. Nobody really wanted to sign him, and every time I read Roto World, they're killing him for being a bad player. I wrote an article late last year because when I watched the Colts film,

he was making plays on a weekly basis for a five or six weeks stretch that he had it made since that Super Bowl run. I think he can play, and I think he could be the Titans right there with Kendall Wright as their two best receivers. He said the Colts offense wasn't really his style.

and that this system now is a little bit better for him. I wrote. Yes, you seemed perplexed. I don't understand. I wrote the around the NFL post on it. He's like he will be the first and only guy to ever say the offense that had Andrew Luck and it wasn't the good fit for me. It wasn't blaming on luck, obviously.

But still, if you're a wide receiver worth your salt, is that the expression? This passing attack, whatever. You've got to succeed in that offense, right? What he meant to say was, I'm out playing Reggie Wayne by leaps and bounds every week and they're still playing this jabroney 80 snaps a game. You know what, Reggie Wayne, that's a little disrespectful. I think, I feel like I gave a great tribute to Reggie Wayne last year. I think that gives me some leeway.

It was emotional. You know what, you're right. West got choked up talking Reggie Wayne. One last veteran that's impressed. Kind of like Nick's out of nowhere, Stevie Johnson. Looks like he's going to start in San Diego. Philip Rivers loves him. People are, if we're talking up Stevie Johnson, come back.

That's a mutual affection there. Stevie Johnson said the other day, I wish I had Philip Rivers for my entire career. All right. So that is, listen, that was way under the radio. You know, there's like action movies. Like, we can't see the jets. Where are they? Oh, they're under the radar.

That's good. What movie was that? It's like some Harrison Ford also ran film of 1988 or something. I miss that one. It's like we can't see them on radar. Not there. I was thinking we're more like a souped up car in a 1978 Southern TV show sneaking by a cop waiting on the side of the road.

We're losing the audience, guys. Oh, sorry. All right. Now we move on. Listen, this is, it's time to talk about Chris Wessling's latest think piece. Long form. He wrote it about the Houston Oilers teams of the late 70s, early 80s. Love you blue, Oilers.

Wes, this was an opportunity for you to dig in on a really fun team of that hour, but also you got into a little bit of the fan experience and what it's like to be a fan. Well, this team is basically the relationship between the fans and this team. From what I did a lot of research, it never happened before or since in the history of professional sports that a team lost in back-to-back years in the AOC Championship game were welcomed back home from losses by crowds that were estimated anywhere from 50,000 to 300,000 people. They just turned out, and this team...

300,000 people is what Dan Pastorini estimated from the airport. As far as along the highway, guys who were locked out of the gates of the stadium because it was already over capacity and they were waiting streets behind barricades. So it was basically what Robert Brazil, who John McLean is trying to get into the Hall of Fame this year, he was Lawrence Taylor before Lawrence Taylor, the first great three, four outside linebacker. He said, you know, you've heard of a welcome wagon. This was a welcome city. The entire city turned out to welcome them home. And it's a really cool team because Bum Phillips, to me, is the most fascinating coach in NFL history. Wow.

He created a really good family atmosphere. He thought about football differently. He didn't think of it as a life and death thing. And it was one of the best defensive minds of the era. So they were a winning team because of him. But treated his players like men. I think he is a fascinating dude, probably one of the funniest guys. I like the line in your piece.

I'm not sure you said it you could let me know. But he kind of played up the country bumpkin angle, but he was really a smart guy. person said he was dumb like a fox yeah pastorini said that yeah and and one of the because i read it too i said about that i know well i knew you read it i had full confidence that you read this um the one of the cool things about it was talking to the guys they were just really cool guys to talk cambell you talked to earl campbell was cool pasturini is a really good storyteller mike remphro couldn't have been nicer robert brazil was great and this article wouldn't have been nearly as good without john mclean

of the houston chronicle who put me in touch with all those guys really i love the bumisms you have in here too I sent, I sent Ali Bumpuri about 35 of those, maybe 50 or 60 of them, really. And he chose five of them. Yeah. Yeah. Bum is the best one-liners in NFL history. I didn't know much about this team at all. And I've read a lot of football books and really into it.

So I learned a lot. I told Wes, we've been reading great history football for a long time. Both of us love reading that stuff. Now Wes is writing it. You know, now Wes is on the other side. He's writing it. People go out there and read the article. It's fun.

I can't wait to read this. I told Wes he's got to write a book eventually, and I want some of the profits. Maybe I just. Why would you get it? What? A hype man. I convince shadowy league figures to let me tie all these long form pieces into one book. Ooh, I like that.

That's no extra work than technically. Well, no, what he should do? Hey, my mom didn't raise no dummy. He does, you know, the six or seven long forms, and then he includes including two new ones. Oh, bang. You know what you are now? My agent. There we go.

10% baby. You could read all this vanity URL. That's when you know you did very well. NFL.com slash Wes, you done, did it again with your latest think piece. NFL.com slash love you blue. L-U-V-Y-A, the color blue. NFL.com slash L-U-V-Y-A-B-L-U-E. That's correct?

Yes. Read it. And, you know, Wes, great work. Thank you, Dan. I mean, the guy can write, all right? I mean, the guy, the guy can write, all right? So, Greg, maybe next time you just say, listen, I'm going to give you the benefit of the doubt West. You can write, kid.

This is one of those sports radio. Greg hired me. This is, yeah, I brought him from Rotoward. They've hired him twice. All right. What is happening? Colleen, next time you doubt West, why don't you read one of his long forms? It's like one of those sports reading are you can write.

I do. I read his long forms. I don't know who I'm at at. It's all those, somebody's not giving Wes enough credit. It's all those chumps in the national media. Yeah, that's who it is. That's it.

One of those radio hosts. Yeah, I tell you what, I don't care of what people say, Don Brady's a great quarterback. I don't care what they're saying out there. He can do it. Thanks for taking a stand. All right.

So that's that. Hey, we got to bring him back because it's been too long. He is our around the NFL, New Jersey correspondent. He lives in a house that has a mortgage. He's only 26 years old or so, but he's a man wise behind his years. He is Connor or. What's that, buddy? What's going on, everybody? Hey, Connor. So that's Connor. And if you know Conner's on there, you know it's time to do our semi-weekly segment where Conner gets something

off his chest because life is hard, man. And Conner is, he's running around. He's making those mortgage payments. He's got a fiance to deal with. He's covering jets and Giants Camps. Busy guy. So he's got to get it off his chest. And that's why we have a segment called, Are you kidding me? All right, Connor, this is your chance. Let it fly, baby. Dan Hansis, I want to know after finding out this week,

like really finding out for the first time what went down between Tanya Harding and Nancy Kerrigan. Why don't we have awesome sports controversies anymore? It's ridiculous. That's a great point. We need more buzz. Was this brought on by Drake and Meek Mill? It was brought on by me reading the Tom Brady settlement

of like 400 pages of like pithy emails. And like, you know, it's ridiculous. Pithy emails. Straight to my spam folder. I mean, like, let's get real again. I mean, this girl's boyfriend, like, clubbed this lady. I mean, it was, you know, I'm not going to say incredible, but it was relatively nothing too bad happens.

She got to skate in the Olympics anyway. Let's get back to that. It's awesome. So, all right, let's unpack this a little bit. What we're hearing from Connor is we need more goons taking people out by the legs. You need more, I think what Connor's saying is you need more cartoonish violence and basically just kind of soap operatops storylines in the sports world. We're missing those right now.

I think it's like, you know, now everything creates the opportunity for someone to write like an 8,000 word think piece. And like there's like if something like that happened, it's just like, oh man, that's so ridiculous. Like there's no think piece. It's just, this is hilarious and ridiculous. Long four, more like long bore. What else you got, Connor? You got anything else? Um.

Yes. I mean, you know, we can go all day. You know, I also wanted to complain about the lack of Nicholas Shea, but I can do that next week, too. Wow. The lack of? Now, let's just keep that one. The 98 degrees crooner?

Yeah, I mean, you know, he's the most well-adjusted sports figure slash boy band personality from the 90s, and we just let him disappear. He's a sports figure? Do we have, like, a flamengo guitar solo for the Nickla Shee hot take? We let him disappear. I know what Connor's getting at there. He's a local hero in Cincinnati when I was back there a few weeks ago. He had just opened up a restaurant.

It's very nice. We walked up. Is it called 98 degrees? I think so. I think it might be called Leschais. So your final hot take, and I feel like I take responsibility for letting the segment go further here. Your take there, Connor, is Nick Lechay, put him back in the spotlight

because he never deserved to leave. Yeah, what are we doing? Like, what did Justin Timberlake bring to the conversation? Like, Nick Lachey's a hard-core USC fan. He knows a lot about Cincinnati basketball. I saw him at the Big East tournament once, just hanging out in, like, terrible seats. He's awesome a great guy. It seems like a genuinely good guy.

And he was the first man to marry Jessica Simpson. I'll leave it at that. This does go back to Conner's really view on life in general. If you were nice to Connor in person, you were a good source. He's cool with you. If you ever at all one up to them, you're done. Trusted sources for the win. You're done, son.

All right, Connor. Well, I mean, are we going to say it? Oh, yeah. Stupid me. Thank you, Wes. What do you have anything else to say, Connor? I have to say, were you kidding me? Thank you, Connor.

Thank you, guys. Have a good weekend. That was great. That was awesome. I mean, here's the thing. Classic or. He ran the Nicolet thing by me last week. And I thought, like, I knew exactly what Conner was saying,

but I didn't know if he would be able to summon, like, the rage, how it grinds his gears. I didn't really sense the rage there. But the first topic, I know exactly what he's talking about. We need some proper controversies. Yeah, we need more of those. We need more people breaking people's legs before Olympics. This is something that Damash actually,

begging for for a while. He really hates that the NFL is not more like WWF wrestling. Well, the controversies are, you know, rather tame humorless. Yes. Deflate gate. A lot of legal stuff last year. I leave it. That bounty gate wasn't exactly a ball of laugh.

It's a little too self-serious. And even our friend, in a nutshell, Tony Romo, our friend yesterday, it was hard to get them to open up because these guys won't serve anything anymore. Everybody's buttoned up. I blame Peyton Manning for everything. I think you bring back the celebrations and then it just trickles down from there. All right.

So Connor doing God's work. Before we go, TD, I should, I want to cut you off at the past here because we need to go over the results of the poll about your MVP segment and take this however you will, but over 6,000 votes were cast and 78% of our listenership says,

no more TD MVP segment, 4,782 votes against 1,366 saying it should stay. I want to get your thoughts on that. Well, first of all, obviously, it was rigged. You might be right. It was even for a few days. It was even until I RT Dan's tweet. I think my fan base doesn't care for TD's MVP.

Here's the thing. And TD, you have a point because it was about 50-50 for the first, I'd say, 12 to 18 hours and then when we sent out the second to it i don't know if you have some enemies out there but also i got a lot of him came a runaway so uh i think that that decides it unless you want to have one more uh before we say goodbye to the segment i'll see i'll say this dan what wise man was told me if you don't have haters you're doing it wrong so you got to have haters who told you that somebody who's really hated by a lot of people probably um secondly that's why i gave it a mark last time i knew the segment was coming to me and

That was good, but I would say that. So I had to do it one last time, and the drops of it back, as we noted, and that's because not because I was not paying attention to the shows because we have a whole lot more going on because starting next week, we're going to be an NFL now, www.com, video shows, and you can watch some of it. Yeah, you can watch some of that stuff right now, and that is because the team behind the glass and putting in crazy work.

That is very true. A much better work. So you're giving yourself? Well, I'm not giving it to my self. I'm giving the team behind the glass. That's the MVP because that made the show a lot better. Are we missing the real story here? Sully and Brandon behind the glass.

You know, a lot of people are doing work, but those are the two guys that are right behind TD and they do excellent jobs. No, that's not what I'm talking about. Three minutes ago, West said he had a fan base. That's the breaking news from this show. So are you right? That's right over our heads.

Wes is now written two long forms and the ego is just out of control. My fan base. My fan. I can't believe I said that. Maybe we can you cut. LA is getting you. I can't believe I said my fan. Let's cut that and play it again at the end of the show.

So everybody can just soak in the exact moment that Wes was taken over by egomani. It's so true. All right. I'm done. All right. That's it for Friday's edition of the Around the NFL podcast. Colleen, Wolf, Connie Fox. Thank you for all that.

Both of us had a great time. Yes. Make sure you subscribe. and iTunes. Dan Hans is signing off for the Wolfman, the mailman, the boss, and everybody behind the glass until Monday. We're going to be the next.