NFL Daily with Gregg Rosenthal - What Wess Has Missed

Episode Date: August 10, 2020

A bunker FILLED with heroes - Dan Hanzus, Gregg Rosenthal, Chris Wesseling and Marc Sessler bring you all of the latest news around the NFL including the Washington Football team releasing Derrius Guice and the potential postponement of College Football. The heroes update Wess on a few of their favorite things that have happened since Wess took some time off - football and otherwise.Learn more about your ad-choices at https://www.iheartpodcastnetwork.comNFL Daily YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/nflpodcastsSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

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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. Predicted this would happen. Welcome to another edition of the Around the NFL podcast. My name is Dan Hansis, coming to you from a virtual room filled with heroes. Mark Sessler, Greg Rosenthal, and Chris Wessling.

What is up? Boys! Hey, Dan! Hallelujah! Hallelujah! Hallelujah! Hallelujah! Hallelujah!

Hallelujah! Hallelujah! Hallelujah! Hallelujah! Hallelujah! Hallelujah! Yes! Yes!

We have the rights to that song? Welcome back to the Around the NFL podcast. You've been gone so long that you went and got new glasses, and you just knocked this all for a loop there. Forget about all the other subplots. You got some new bifocals. Yeah, beard's gone. Beards gone.

Glasses are on. No need to wear contact lenses in a pandemic, really. So why not go with the glasses? more comfortable well tell us west how you feeling where are we at it's great to have you back and that's obviously a good sign it feels like uh tell the audience and and your friends here what's going on well it's hard to answer that question is one that i have to answer quite often because people care and they want to know how how i feel what what you know what my status is and the answer is it's it's hour to hour it's not even day to day so last week i didn't have treatment it was

built into my schedule where I wouldn't have chemo that week. And yesterday, went over to the neighbors, hung out there for a few hours, ended up pulling out the big green egg, making some dinner, took out the garbage. I probably did a little too much because I was feeling good. And when I'm feeling good, I think, oh, you know, the doctor told me cancer will probably, you know, the chemo will get rid of it and I'll be feeling relief. You know, and meanwhile, Keisha's warning me a few times, you're doing too much, you're doing too much. So I wake up today and my back is killing me. So, you know, pop those pills that I have to take

and try to grin and bear it. But yeah, it's just one of those things. But from hour to hour, I never know how I'm going to feel pain-wise. And you are starting treatment again this week, Wes? Tomorrow. Tomorrow. It's every Tuesday except for last week.

And you're battling fights on a few fronts too because you mentioned your neighbor was over and we got to see you briefly. Dan and I did on Saturday it was my kids were over at Hank's house and we learned you're fighting battles on multiple fronts that you have neighbors now kind of

making eyes at your wife, Lakeisha and that's a concern too and you've got to be fending them off. That feels like more of a narrative than an actual concern. It was speculation but I mean there are some breadcrumbs to follow that

this what seems like kind of a you know a fortunate bit of happenstance that you ended up neighbors with a famous author. Well, maybe the intentions of said author aren't totally noble. Well, that is one conspiracy theory. And we'll see what happens over the next few months. I haven't, like, from being around said author, I have not picked up on any vibes in that order. But you never know, people hear stories and then just, you know, jump to their own conclusions.

and sometimes those conclusions can, they can be on to something. Well, I mean, this could be packed into his next best-selling novel because he's the best-selling novelist, not just sort of one of these guys that floats to L.A. and says he's a novelist, but, I mean, who's actually drumming up proof of this if you don't, if you're not suspicious? Well, that's true. I should get on the case, maybe hire someone. I'd stay vigilant, yeah. I would, I would, you know. Dan really came up with this theory, but it could, it took some, it gained some traction. I mean, Lakeisha gave it some credence as well yesterday via text message that maybe Wes has to keep an extra close eye on what's the homestead, put it that way.

I feel like Wes has a lot on his plate right now. It feels like a good. And that's why it's the perfect time to strike if you have illicit intentions. Wait, now the text message makes sense. Like, Dan, I think you were right. And the photo, I was like, I don't get it. Did Dan really like chocolate covered strawberries or something? Now, now, you know, I'm putting two and two together.

You know, Keisha's at home alone with a two-month-old and a husband with cancer. It's been a long time since she's been able to interact with other human beings and find humor in something. So it was a very refreshing day to have Dan's conspiracy theories, you know, just at least getting her to laugh for a while and then getting the whole backyard to laugh. So that was good. There was like seven moments on Saturday at Hank's house when Lakeisha was like, Dan, I can't even with you. Exactly.

She had a blast. That was her most fun in a long time. Yeah, she's the best. And you're the best, West. We're so happy to have you back here. It's not the same without you. We do our best as a three-legged dog, but it's not the same.

So anytime we can get you here, and, you know, it's obviously, a matter of when the West body allows it to be, but we're just going to take every West episode during this time with your treatment as kind of a blessing. And to that point, Chris, a little later in the show, you know, we're in touch with you, obviously, during all this, but we don't, we're not talking football a lot.

So I don't really know if you've been tracking the NFL at all or as closely as you would have when you were not going through treatment. So we thought we would, uh, cook up a little segment call what Wes has missed and just kind of fill you in on the various you know happenings in the NFL over the past I don't know month and a half two months yeah I've I've not been plugged in my little spreadsheets that I keep on all the rosters they've lain fallow for a couple of months who knows what's going on there I've peaked into Twitter every once in a while and it has made me run away every time it's just been a nightmare so I I'm going to need to

this help to figure out what's going on in the NFL. Is there anything specific on Twitter that revolted you that you could share with us? I have many specifics, but it might take a full episode. Let's save that for the Twitter as a nightmare episode. Looking forward to it. All right. We got the whole gang back together. Ricky is well.

Erica. Sweet, sweet Erica. Let's do some news. Because I've been waiting my whole. I like to find someone like you. Speaking of the great Lakeisha Wessling with Baby Link, how about that was trying to get you cry, try to get you to cry in your return to the show.

That was a very cool video. And I don't know if you guys noticed who the artist was, Akeesia was singing there, Snow Allegra. Look at this. Famously mentioned on the podcast. I mean, Lincoln was, like, I feel like Lincoln, a lot of the comments, he was, you know, supposed to be the star, and it was beautiful harmonizing. But how about Keisha's voice there? I think that was kind of the underplayed part of that.

I don't think she wants people to know this, but I'm going to tell you anyway. She's tried out for American Idol a couple of times, and I've heard her sing around the house. There is legitimate talent there. Definitely. I do need a little bit. I think I responded to the tweet, maybe just a little bit of Wes playing like a saxophone in the back. Not right off camera, but maybe just in a room away to be part of the production

because you're part of the crew there. Yeah, I have no pitch and no rhythm. Not a singing role. It may mess it up. We've heard the singing. That is such a good idea, Mark, because, yeah, it's a lost cause. Famously, Wes's Catholic school teacher

pushed his head onto the piano, ear to the wood to try to understand pitch. And I don't think it took. Probably had the opposite effect. But if we put you in a pair of sunglasses and maybe a zoot suit and a big sacks and you wail into a solo, I feel like you could pull that off. A little Duke Silver action from Parks and Recreation. Exactly.

You got a Duke Silver vibe to you. All right. Let's get to the news. We'll start with disturbing news revolving the Washington football team. Oh, that's a thing now, Wes. I don't know if you were around for that. the R word is no more in our league.

Yeah, I have some opinions on that. I'll keep them to myself, but I've made the adjustment. Okay. No R words in our league. In our league, no R word. Got it. Right, exactly. Ron Rivera explained the situation going on with his team

and Darius Geis, the third year running back, who was released by the team on Friday, the same day he was arrested on three counts of domestic violence stemming from a trio of incidents in February, March, in April. Very disturbing stuff when you dig into the details a little bit. And Rivera, in a Zoom meeting, his first public comments about the situation, had this to say about Geis's release. Anytime you have to release a very talented young football player, it's always a tough decision. We take those allegations very, very seriously, and we had to make the decision going forward. I talked to the players yesterday, basically told them that I had made a decision that I believe was in the best interest of our organization.

And if it was the right decision, we will benefit from it. And if it's not, it will be on me. I will take full responsibility as we go forward to try and make sure we do things the right way. And we'll go from there. Greg, this is another example of something you're seeing again and again this offseason that Ron Rivera wasn't just brought in to be the head coach. He is the face. They even say it on their Twitter bio, the Washington Twitter bio, New Rivera.

And he's kind of tasked fairly or unfairly with cleaning up everything in addition to helping to build a quality football team. And it's been a while since you could say that about Washington. and here was an important move and an unfortunate move that Washington had to make. Yeah, I mean, they literally had him, you know, involved with the nickname change. It's like he's brainstorming ideas.

That's crazy. Going with Washington football team, at least for this year, this was a move of all 32 teams would have made the incidents were three separate times. They're extremely disturbing if you want to read the details, but all you need to know is he was charged with, felony strangulation, three counts of assault and battery, and the incidents, which are tough

to read about happened over the course of this offseason, but authorities weren't made aware of them until July 22nd. So that explains the timing a little bit. I was unclear, you know, why did it take so long for them to release him, but all the allegations and everything in the team only found out somewhat recently. He's a guy who, when he ran the ball last year, looked fantastic, but has only been healthy enough to carry the ball under 75 times in two years because of injuries anyway. And so these charges are so serious, it wouldn't surprise me if Darius Geis

never plays in the NFL again. Who knows about jail time or anything. But it just allows your boy, Chris, Adrian Peterson, to have a big role again. We ran pretty well last year. And it seemed like a very easy decision for me for Washington to get rid of guys. and that's probably the last we're going to hear about him in a long, long time. And Washington, they got enough running backs there anyways. Well, yeah, because Washington drafted Darius Geis instead of a different running back,

it's allowed Adrian Peterson to keep climbing the charts. If they had, I mean, a lot of that is bad luck on injuries, but Darius Geis is allowing Adrian Peterson's numbers to go up. And you look at this team last year, and I think of all the teams in the league, you say, who's the offensive nucleus, the young people to build? build around. And to me, it was Terry McLaren and Darius Geis, and maybe a couple of the offensive linemen. And that's what you had. And now you throw out Geis. And McLaren is still, I still think the world of him as a wide receiver, but this team is still hurting for

offensive talent. Right. And they lost Kelvin Harmon, who was a rookie starter at receiver, was going to be a starter this year. They do have Bryce Love. They drafted last year. They drafted Antonio Gibson this year, so they have some young running backs. But it's a pretty rough group around Haskins. I mean, I think one of the things that we're missing right now is going forward when you move past the Geis part is that, yeah, you have Adrian Peterson, but the Gibson love camp battle is interesting. I know you think I'm over here just reading like Anas Ninn novels, but I actually spent

some time looking at both players because I think they're going to both be relevant this season. Adrian Peterson, I'm not going to be the guy to say, you know, he's not going to be the starter. But Gibson, if you go watch his tape at Memphis, is a totally bizarre wide receiver running back returner weapon who does it all. Scored a ton of touchdowns off and not a lot of carries. And Bryce Love, you know, he tore his ACL before getting drafted. He had a 2,000-yard season at Stamford and looks to be the real deal. So I kind of think that it creates an opportunity for two guys they did draft when Ron Rivera probably never would have drafted Darius Geis. He had issues in college character concerns.

he would have been a Ron Rivera pick. Wes, there's a development for you. Another tape dog has got a bone. It's Mark Sessler. I don't. I'm not claiming that title. Gibson Tape Dog. Well, we could save this for the latter segment, but while we have Mark's tape dog eyes on this,

now didn't the Redskins say that they were going to play Gibson at just one position and not both? Or did I misread that somewhere along that? I think that's got to be TBD because he, I think he's a better runner than he is a wide receiver. They're playing him at running. back. I think they're going to use them here and there in some ways that maybe running backs wouldn't be used. But it sounds like, yeah, there are plenty on him being a running back. And that was

before this move. In other football team news, Ron Rivera said this week that Alex Smith, as we know, who's coming back from all those surgeries on his leg, surgeries that not just saved his leg, but saved his life. Now he wants to play football again. And it's a nice comeback story. It's a beautiful. beautiful comeback story and it shows the courage of Smith. But this could be more than just a human interest angle, at least if you listen to Ron Rivera, he reiterated on Monday that he believes that Smith could vie for reps and potentially the starting job if his body allows it. Rivera said this could be a very interesting challenge for us because of Alex Smith. And West, of course, Dwayne Haskins is in that building. They got Kyle Allen as well from Carolina. But it kind of

makes sense. And it's an exciting thought and you would feel so good for Smith if he's actually on the field and moving well. But Alex Smith, even out of the league for a while now, could be a real alternative to a veteran coach like Ron Rivera, especially if Haskins gets out of the gate slow. It's the right thing to do for Ron Rivera to approach it this way. If there's any chance whatsoever that Alex Smith can play, not just football, but at the NFL level, by all means and keep encouraging him, keep allowing him to compete. Now, before this injury, Alex Smith was having a brutal season as a starter for the Redskins, and it was quite obvious that he wasn't the athlete that he was early in his career.

And you're talking about a quarterback who derived most of his value from his legs, not his arm. You could say decision-making was also involved in that. So I think this could be one of the best sports stories we've ever seen in team sports if he was able to get back there, just because the odds to me are so. long. I just don't believe he's a viable candidate to take that starting job based on how serious the injury was and what he was before the injury. I think it's interesting. I mean, Ron Rivera is he, I with you 100%. You've got, why not be anything but totally encouraging of one of the better stories. We talked a couple episodes ago that you just give Alex Smith comeback player of the

year right now. But the other side of it, I find a little interesting is that there aren't that many people last year or this, they come out and just all automatically say Dwayne Haskins is our guy. There is no questions asked here. And I just wonder if Alex Smith were, you know, QB2 on the New York Jets or the Browns or the Broncos. Would you be hearing this about competition? I mean, there would be no question that your young starter is in place. And I mean, I think that's probably what they'd like to happen here too. Why not? But you just don't have too many people saying Haskins is the guy and there's no questions asked. Good luck to everyone else.

No, you're right. And you've heard some buzz that, like, look, Scott Turner, who's the new coordinator, they like Kyle Allen. You know, not that he's going to win the week. Right. It's not like he's going to win the week one job, but they brought him there. The Alex Smith thing, I hope if he is somehow healthy enough to get cleared, they can figure it out because the worst outcome is that he's activated and then they feel the need to cut him.

Now, I don't think they would do that because it's just. very awkward. He's the highest paid player on the team. If they cut him, they'd have $28 million in dead money. You hate when finances come into it, but you wonder if they could figure out a way between Alex Smith to renegotiate his contract. It's ugly to ask him to take less money if it's guaranteed. Whatever it is, they might have to come to some conclusion to figure that out. Or you just keep them on as the second or third string who's making a ton of money. And most of it's guaranteed anyway. So you might as well just keep them on the roster.

But that's sort of the awkward part of it that Rivera and whoever's really running their front office, you know, who didn't give that contract to Smith, they're going to have to figure it out. And I'm sure just because they're all adults and they respect Alex Smith, they'll figure out a circumstance that's better than cutting Alex Smith. Well, now they're all adults. There weren't a lot of adults that seemed in the building. year ago. That's new. I missed that the last couple of months. Well, I'm giving that your boy, Kyle Smith. You were all about Kyle Smith back at the

Combine, the new Redskins personnel guy. You know, they got Rivera. I'm saying they're adults. I'm going on. Now it's changed this February. Yeah. Yeah. So much has changed. In other news, foreboding news, over in the realm of college football, commissioners of the Power 5 conferences, those are the big

conferences that dominate college football, held an emergency meeting on Sunday. And according to ESPN, sources tell ESPN, there is growing concern among college athletics officials that the upcoming football season and other fall sports cannot be played because of the corona virus pandemic. No major decision is made as of this taping. But it sounds like this is something that could come soon. And what that does for college football is that it's something where the seasons canceled or pushed to the spring, which has been special. on what does it mean for the NFL the customarily or always has their draft in the spring that's going to be interesting we'll see how this all plays out mark sessler but college football

is looking grim in terms of fall play well i think it just points a microscope on how you know since we've been young college football's been a largely disorganized group of power structures and you got the Big Ten right now, reports are out that the Big Ten is out, although not every team in the Big Ten feels that way. The Pac-12 might soon follow. I mean, I think the biggest story coming out of this in the last, over the weekend, because college football right now is, and I get staying off Twitter, but like the story changes every 10, 15 minutes,

and the news is refreshed, but that the players who are much more united than they've ever been are looking at the NFLPA and saying in a letter, we want a player's representation here. And I think going forward, that's probably going to be a change. I think it's scaring some of the power elites in college football right now. I mean, it's messy because you got the SEC, the ACC, the ACC, and the Big 12, probably on the other side. The SEC would probably would play college football through four alien landings and six nuclear bombs. So I don't, I think they're going to be your outlier.

But it is TBD for all of it. I mean, for our side of it, and I'll leave it to you guys, but if you ever try to do this spring college football thing, which I don't think the timing to me doesn't make a lot of sense. It completely gets in the way of the draft, and you have scouts and coaches and other people out there, they're going to, and Daniel Jeremiah tweeted about it, there is a potential you have to run a draft off of no tape,

and I think that creates all sorts of issues, obviously. Well, I think the spring idea, which like the Mac, which was the first conference to cancel, you know, wants to play in the spring, and I think the Big Ten, which it is reported, is going to push off fall. We'll probably, we'll see. A lot of these announcements won't be announced as cancellations. They'll be announced as postponements to the spring. And so then the NFL would have to adjust.

There is part of the CBA, which says you have to conduct the draft by a certain day in June. But they could renegotiate that if they had to anyways. And spring sports might be done by that anyways. I think there was a pretty strong feeling from a lot of people. people watching this a month ago that they were going to push as hard as they can for it to happen, but it was very unlikely to happen. Just logistically, financially, there were so many obstacles of holding college football at a time when most colleges cannot hold classes safely, that they have, you know, they have the information from the, from experts in their own, you know,

university and their own conferences saying that we can't really conduct classes safely. And so getting the amount of testing, which is millions of dollars, to try to do football safely, was always going to be really hard. And I think the feeling is as much as the SEC and other places want to hold that hope as long as possible, that, you know, they all might not end up playing in the end. And the NFL will just have to adjust. To me, that's like, that's a pretty small part of the equation. I think both things can be true that it's basically impossible right now with the virus as strong as it is to hold college football and that it's heartbreaking for these players, you know, that have worked so hard.

Like both of those things can be true. Of course it's heartbreaking. Of course they want to play for the most part, whether it's safe or not. And you mentioned them rallying together. This pack 10 story of them, you know, asking for what they've asked for over the last. It's one of the most fascinating and biggest sports stories I think we've seen in our lifetime because it really, I think, is going to change the scope of what college athletics is like in this country moving forward.

And the pandemic will end up being like a big part in kind of kick-starting that process. It's incredible. Go ahead, West. I was just going to say it's incredible in 2020 that college sports still are what they were. Right. You know, 20, 30, 40, 50 years ago. It's been overdue for a change. a long time. Well, it's, you know, like Nebraska coach Scott Frost to one of the, you know,

that he's came out, he just talked before the show and came out very strong saying, we want to play. And there's talk of the SEC inviting other teams in. But he also made the point that if we don't make our profits off of college football, the school doesn't function. And that's, that seems like an imbalance. But, you know, we're not college guys. And Dan, I hope you don't put, are you, the new term is, are you a Corona bro, Dan? Dan. Are you one of those? Well, it's sort of the person who is so hooked into, and I'm not saying that you are,

I'm just asking you what you think of the tag. So invested with coronavirus. No, you just asked me if I was that. You asked me if I was that. Well, I would say that I think none of us are, but I think that we would be softly put in that category with everyone else who tracks the coronavirus to such a degree and there's this interest in it impacting football

and maybe we kind of want it canceled and all this other stuff. Yeah, right. I mean, nobody... I just think that's, you know, we're not Corona Bros. We're just following the news that's impacting our sports. But I have seen a lot of reactions to this. Greg, he asked me the question, not you. Oh, that's right.

Are you a Corona bro? The answer is no, I am not a Corona bro. Okay. Well, I would like to think that none of us are... Of course not. I was amazed, though. There has been a lot of reaction to this. It just shows how important football is that, look, like one of our former co-workers,

I remember his tweet yesterday. It was just kind of like, this is, this is really. getting to be a sign that the country is not handling this well. And I was kind of like, this is what did it for you? But without being like dismissive and a jerk, it's like I actually think this will be what does it for a lot of people, that suddenly this is the thing that they're pushing back, that they're like, wow, this is really, this is really like a problem. I mean, it's great.

No, it's not. You think people are going to wake up because of football? I don't necessarily think it's going to change people's behavior, but I think this is, an action that's being taken place that they're like, oh, maybe this isn't, maybe this is more serious than, than we've been making it out to be. These people have no ability whatsoever to look in the mirror, Greg. Stop. They are not going to say, oh, look, maybe I'll take it seriously now. This is a sport without leadership in a country without leadership in a populace where 40% of the people have adopted a world view

not based on reality. It's a huge problem. It's going to continue to be a problem. Right. My point is that this is. taking away something really important to them that frankly maybe nothing else in this pandemic has done like yeah your school your kids schools are going to be way worse and other certain things have changed but nothing is going to hit people as hard as this i think it's just it's just a sad fact and in the case that there is no college football the NFL is likely to act upon that pro football talk reported yesterday that Per source with knowledge of the situation,

the NFL will likely move games from Sundays to Saturday if there's no college football. It's unclear whether the games would be broadcast or streamed or some type of pay-per-view setup, but the league likely will look to take advantage of that open Saturday window. And then I saw a report from ESPN's Adam Schaefter, who pointed out even Friday night, potentially on the table.

And the idea that the NHL will be over in October. Get ready. Tuesday night. Baseball would be over. Wednesday night. In October, the NBA season will be over. So the NFL would have the entire sporting landscape to itself for the most part. And they might and probably will, Mark, make the most of it.

Bye, family. Is Daddy ever coming home? Well, Daddy will be home. Daddy's not leaving. The question is. where daddy will be attending to all this flurry of football action in one's home. I mean,

I think four daddies here are probably wondering that. I know. I used to know it. Greg, Greg, Greg, you for years. For years, Greg. This was your fantasy scenario. This was my theory. I wanted two games a day. You're getting, mine was a dystopian America, which I'm finding out the fantasy was not as rich

as one thought in his mind. Wait. You're going to get this. We're in Greg's world now. No. This is the last thing I want. He's at home. with his family at all times and there's books everywhere and there's football on at all times and he's able to handle it all without even a grimace just a peaceful smile in the sunlight there's nothing i would want less than football every day right now that theory was made before my kids were growing much less my kids um home for school like i don't know the

the whole school thing is all I think about. Like, I don't know. It's amazing how that has so little of the focus that no one is like planning it all for these kids just like missing an entire year of school. Dan, I'll ask you a second question. I mean, do you think that at some point league officials high up said, you know, this is our sort of franchise podcast here? They did very well broadcasting five days a week and they flexed their muscles and said maybe we could even throw in a broadcast on Saturday or Sunday if stuff happens. happened. And they said they're flexible. These guys can do this. Let's do it. Let's spread these games over six, seven days a week and take zero into account what anyone covering the

sport is doing in the private life. I'm not sure what the question is. I don't know what the question is either, but I feel like our league feels that we can handle it. And on our broad shoulders, much can be put upon them. I'll grind to us our bones to a fine powder. That's what's happening in the news. All right. as we said Chris Wessling has been out of pocket

on the podcast what was the last podcast you did with this West before your hiatus it was while you had paternity leave and then that bled

into something more unfortunate but when was that when was your last show wow I think that would have been late May because Link was born May 22nd so we got your back

buddy we got your back in all ways including what you may have missed during your time away. So we're just going to kind of, Greg, myself, Mark, going to throw some things out there, just get you caught up to date and feel free to chime in because I know you're, you know, take machine. You've got a lot of thoughts and a lot of opinions that you have not been able to

share. I've got to change my Twitter bio, take machine. So if you have any takes on any of these news items as we kind of spin through them or whatever they are, please do. Mark, You want to get us going, actually? Yeah, you know, we plan these over the phone sometimes, and I'm not sure I got the full gist of what the segment was about, but I do think that there's something that Wes, because I'm imagining Wes is not watching or listening to every episode. A personal development, I think at this point you'd be thinking

that I'd be frothing over the Brown's latest one year higher at head coach, but I'm not. It's passed me by. Don't really care that much. We'll see how they do. But all in on, we, well, I'm all in on the chance that we had to chat with Matt Ruhl, who is one of my pet projects at head coach. And I think, you know, he'll be fielding.

You took him under your wing? He'll be fielding one of the youngest defenses in 10 years in Carolina. That's such a unique sesslerism. Mark, that's such a unique sesslerism. I don't think anyone else on the podcast is the way that you are with certain individuals that you really do kind of tie your fortune to them. Dan Quinn for a number of years. Dan Quinn, Kyle Shanahan now.

Well, I was going to mention that Kyle Shanahan has now been. in my mind, he's like king of all oceans, Kyle Shanahan. I don't see what's stopping him from becoming the greatest coach in the league. So those two guys I was going to mention. That was a good one. That was a good one. That was. And he's encountered some choppy water since then.

What you also missed, West is none of us believing anything Mark says about being somehow disconnected in some way to the Browns. But that's not really a new development. That's like the last seven and a half years old. In action, how many. times have I stood up here telling you how excited I am about it hit a rarely exhaustion these other two guys right Matt rule is fresh in the NFL and Kyle Shanahan has just been proven it since we began our show that he's the best mind in in in in the NFL and in when it comes to offensive country minds we had

baldy come on and he totally agreed so I'm you know I got someone telling me you're right about that wait baldie greeted you that Kyle Shanahan is a great offensive mind yeah it's the first question I asked no that I said the number one. The number one in the NFL, not just a great one, like the preeminent mind. So you have taken Matt Rule under your wing and he is your pet project and you're very excited about this. Well, and I was going to say that we had a chance to speak to him in person and it was almost like a little Debbie moment for me where I squeezed a question out in between Greg telling Matt Rule that Dan and I hated his new quarterback, which threw a wrench into the rapport of the whole thing, but I attempted to recover. See, I don't even remember that. I was not really here for some of the last few months.

All of this checks out. I believe that's exactly how it went down. I'm not sure what the exercise was about here. You want to get us back on track. That's fine. I need to know these things because I have not been in every episode listener of the podcast. Okay. I'll tell you just so you know that the Jets have developed one star in the past 10 years

and they traded him a few weeks ago. He's 24. just letting you know that that was cool yeah I was sorry I missed that episode because the way you and you and Mark were going at each other on Twitter it seemed promising for some actual fireworks

I thought it was pretty we were pretty peaceful Dan weren't we and Greg the three of us tried to be I well that was one of my favorite moments of the offseason when the rage that you had over the Jamal Adams trade actually outpaced mine but maybe I was just in shock at the time

I don't know but you were certainly fired up. You have been beaten down by this situation for about what, a year and a half, two years, so at the end of the last October, yeah. I feel like your perspective was, now that all of this has gone down, what they were able to recoup for him,

pretty good job. Whereas I think Mark was coming from, all of this didn't have to go down that way. That's well certain. All right. Go ahead, Greg. Sure. I don't know if you've missed. I think it would have been a bigger story, if not

for the pandemic. But it started bubbling up in recent days that a little more, that Aaron Rogers has made it absolutely clear. He doesn't mind the draft pick of Jordan Love at all. He's totally cool with it. He totally hasn't started cataloging all the differences between his situation and Aaron Rogers and pointing that out the first second that he gets. He isn't holding any animosity towards the front office for possibly thinking that he's

done. He is just, he's totally fine with it. He's living in Greg's Los Angeles right now. He's in like Aaron's Green Bay. Nothing is bothering him. Like, nope, he's not someone who would use slights at all to hold it against his organization. And knowing what we know about his personality, you believe approximately zero of that? Yeah. I mean, he is, it, it's good to have Westback. He's, he's putting it all out there in a way where it's almost like if he could listen, I feel like to the Kyle Brandt podcast clip that we've heard that that that that they put out there that if he could just re listen to that he would he would almost be like oh wow that that comes off differently than I than I thought I feel like like I'm trying to convey I'm

convincing no one but that's okay because I'm Aaron Rogers and I want to kill everyone I feel like he has a little bit of Michael Jordan in him where he uses slights to such a degree that it's even abnormal for a professional athlete. So I'm with you on that. That's his public facing persona right now. But he also combines it with like this karma like I am, you know, he's very into

meditation and being peaceful. So it's this weird sort of combination where he's projecting that, but then inside it's a big time battle. I totally agree with your take on this that when you're into that kind of meditation, it's a battle going inside because

it's against his nature. It's admirable that he wants to be into meditation but it's against his nature to be so laid back about this. If you buy into the idea that motivation and the idea of revenge or sticking it to somebody, even if it's in your own front office, really can lift someone's game back up to a level that you thought had been lost, then you really do have to feel good about Aaron Rogers this season because he is in that situation on a whole other level compared to usually, the way these situations play out where it seems like the guy straining a little bit to find motivation.

He has every reason to feel like they're kicking him out the door. And the way the rookie quarterback contracts are set up and the advantages that they bring, the Packers are going to, I would think, struggle to come up with a situation where he's on the team next year unless he's awesome. And then he could stick it to the Packers and put him in a really tough situation, which would be probably the most beautiful thing of all for him, other than winning a Lombardy. He also has to have noticed that the football cognoscenti has finally kind of given up on him as a top five guy.

It took a while. It took maybe a year longer than at least the numbers would have indicated. But this was kind of the offseason where it became a little more conventional wisdom that like, yeah, Aaron Rogers is good, but he's not a top five type of guy anymore. And you suspect he's aware of that too. I feel like, what, three out of the last four or four out of the last five years, at some point in the season, We've all had a what's wrong with Aaron Rogers conversation, and if we have one of those again, then he's gone. Mark, you got another one?

I mean, I think kind of bridging off of that conversation where Aaron Rogers was years ago to now, the whole quarterback landscape changed a lot. And we had an episode that we really wished you could have been a part of because it centered around the Dalton scale. We had Damashek on. And, you know, I'd love to get your take on this. I think that we, obviously, we looked at where we were with the Dalton scale a couple years ago.

The amount of functional quarterbacks and the lack of teams with a total black hole at the position changes that exercise. Do you have someone that you could say he is the Dalton scale right now? We came up with someone, if I recall. We kind of agreed on someone at the end, but it wasn't an easy home run. That's a good question. Off the top of my head, I think I might lean towards Ryan Tannenhill. I think we did too. That was popular in our chat with Damashak.

But I did listen to that episode because Keisha was listening and she was laughing at such a frequent weight that I said I got to hear this Sheck performance. At our takes, at our analysis? At the whole thing. It wasn't just Sheck she was laughing at. It was the whole thing. Is it like annoying you're trying to get away from the podcast and you have someone in your house listening to it? No, it's more annoying when she listened to it when I'm on because I don't, when I hear my voice, I just want to like run to the other room. she doesn't listen to any rival podcast does she no not she doesn't listen to any other football

podcast she can barely she doesn't even listen to this one for the football she listens to does this novelist next door have a podcast of his own i mean everyone else does is she maybe listening yeah finding lekeisha is the name he does not have one that i know of but dan could be on to something there that's where that's the moment where lekeesha at home is listening and be like dad you did it again I'm not going to do an impression. It's crazy. Wes, you know what?

Just to touch on that for one more moment. Obviously, I've never met this person. I don't have the inner workings of what's going on in your neighborhood. But it's just like head on a swivel. Head on a swivel. Because if you're dealing with someone that is looking to do what we think this person is looking to do, this would be the time where they would go for it when you are in a compromised state. So you just need to summon up whatever.

power you have in you right now to make sure that this evil is vanquished. While cozy enough to you, Wes. Then concentrate on the big sea. And right, Wes, don't, if they're kind-hearted and generous to you, I'm sure that's all fine, but head on the swivel is a good term there. I mean, just be a lot of plots, a lot of motivations. I appreciate the advice, but I would say that he's a pretty smart guy, so he should be smart enough to know that when he goes on the offensive, he leaves his flank open. interesting just putting it out there i mean you you come from you come for what's mine i come for what's yours hmm priority list right now priority list number three

priority list number three you know tape dog get ready for another season number two battle that big sea in a big spot obliterate it once more and number one keep that homestead safe protect well yeah i i might I might put number two more at the top of the list than that. Number three feels like it could fall down a bit if we got into a picture. It feels like a big drop between tape dog and in the big C. Well, I don't know if there will be any tape to dogs, so we'll find out. Greg, go ahead.

Sure. Where should we go here? Got a few options, but I have noticed there's been less contract. I know you're not into the contracts as much, but I started doing a top 25 list. for next year's free agency. I mean, if it's hard enough to think about next week, try to think about next year. It seems so far off in the distance that it's silly,

but you know what, front offices are having to think about it. And the free agent list that I put together, it's the best one that there's ever been, and the salary cap space is going to probably reduce by a significant amount. And not many contracts have happened since you've gone. I guess that's a thing you haven't missed, basically. You miss Joey Bosa and Patrick Wilhelm's are getting paid,

and I don't think anyone else is going to before this season. Maybe George Kittle, but it's just going to set up this situation, I think, where you look at the list of players that are available, and it's not just DAC going every, you know, going year to year, kind of like Kirk Cuddle, but Jalen Ramsey, Kenny Clark, Bakhtiari, Alan Robinson, every single guy that got franchise tech this year,

Keenan Allen, T.Y. Hilton, there's just like, it goes on forever and ever, like 40 players. And I do, it is something that's on my mind that next year is just going to be, like, year's going to be really weird, but it's not just going to be like a one-year effect, no matter how quickly a vaccine comes out. Like the pandemic, whether it's the draft or whether it's free agency, is going to like totally change 2021 too. Good for Bosa and Emma Holmes, who was able to parlay that new contract into a percentage of the Kansas City Royals. Good for him. But it does

seem like it be a little imprudent right now for a GM to be locking guys up long term when we have no idea what's going to go on next week, much less next month and next year. So it does not surprise me at all that guys aren't getting paid. Right. Go ahead, sorry. I find an interesting you call it the best free agent class you've seen because maybe it's more balanced, but we've just come off a free agency period with like seven high octane quarterbacks moving in a situation that I don't think I've ever witnessed before. Yeah, that's fair. At this point, there's like eight or nine really good wide receivers like godwin cup allan robinson golladay t y keen and out like they're it just had other position and the guys like cam and philip rivers that were free agents that

were kind of the biggest names to move other than brady um they'll be free agents again it's just like it's a lot but i know front offices are probably thinking that way and that the guys who got the money now are unique like my homes took i think an incredible hometown discount just the way that that deal was structured to get that done. And then Bosa, I don't know. The Chargers had a lot of money to spend. So maybe that's what got that done. What did you do kind of your first work through of the free agent list, Greg?

Like when exactly? Over the last week, it's coming out today. Yeah, like two weeks ago, Mark and I went through it for the first time. Oh, really? Yeah. Well, it's not even worth mentioning at this point because this pattern. Just we did it first, that's all. Right.

Where is that? no it's internal it's just we kind of we chop up tape we dog it out and uh and look at the list and talk to different people inside the league we started this process two weeks ago so just scribbled a few notes right Greg just to give you like a quick snapshot what what happens is dan will run through tape of you know hundreds of defensive players i'll handle offense but then we'll do is we'll flip so that we'll see where our notes uh combined so where did von miller end up on yours. We're not sharing that because it's going to become part of your article by

tomorrow morning. It's already filed. Let's try. Oh, jump into the CMS and edit it. We know how this works. Do we still have a CMS? Did I miss that? If we have a new one, actually. We don't have a password. I'm going to just run through a quick list of

things in case you missed any of this stuff, West. DeVey and Clowny still doesn't have a job, so you didn't miss anything on that front? Well, yeah, that's a little surprising. I thought once the Football. Have we started football? Let's start there. Soon. I think it's starting later this week. Football list is starting later this week. James and Texans are. I maintain Clowny has not been signed because of his knee history, the micro fracture.

And maybe once the football starts, then we'll see him. Logan Ryan is still unemployed, the cornerback. Still wants $10 million a year. I want my $10 million. I want my $10 million. You know what? We should try that negotiations and see if it goes better. NFL media. I've tried to. Russell Wilson, Wes.

Russell Wilson goes by Mr. Mr. Unlimited. He goes by Mr. Unlimited now. What? Yes. See, this is what Wes really has no context where I love it. It's like Antonio Brown called himself Mr. Big Chest. What's going on with this point of nicknames for yourself?

Well, because sometimes, you know, you think that Russell Wilson's going to Pete Carroll for advice? No, he's going to Mr. Unlimited. That's himself. Because everybody, everybody, Wes, everyone has an alter ego now. And he needed one too. And everybody thinks, oh, it's just Russell.

It's a robot. No, no, no, no. He's Mr. Unlimited. Well, and also he created that nickname two years ago. So he's been Mr. Unlimited for the past two seasons. Just if you want to address that in your tape watching. So when we speak of him, should we speak of his ego or his alter ego? I will refer to him personally as.

Mr. Unlimited now. Okay. But that's up to you. That's good to know. Let's see. The Giants' first round pick last year might be going to prison for a decade or so. Derek Carr said he's sick of everybody picking on him. Baker Mayfield announced that he is, quote, moving in silence this off season.

Good man. Good job, Mark. Big Ben is kind of skinny now, but, you know, like skinny for Big Ben. LaShawn McCoy can throw his ladies-only parties in Tampa now because he's teammates with Tom Brady and Gronk. Ooh, gronk would definitely go to Lashon McCoy Ladies' Only Invite Party, like the good old thing. Yeah, I think so. Totally.

I'm getting major defense going to be better than the offense vibes in Tampa Bay. I mean, this idea that you're going to sign LaShawn McCoy who couldn't even make it off the bench with the Chiefs, come on. Well, their whole backfield had Corona about a week ago. I'm still waiting to see how this all shakes out. Yeah, we're going to evaluate the name, the game, not the name for this offense in Tampa, A lot of names being thrown out there. See how much game they got.

Oh, I like that. And finally, Wes, Travis Kelsey confirms breakup with girlfriend, Kayla and Nicole, but he angrily denied cheating accusations. This has been a big topic in the Wessling household. We are fans of Kayla Nicole. Kisha and I both follow her Instagram. Who is she? What's her thing?

Very nice gal who was dating Travis Kelsey. Society girl. She's like a. Anybody else? have anything else? I have one. I can't believe this hasn't been brought up. But, Wes, your name, you know, and it's been a while.

I know the last time this happened in a newspaper, your name appeared in the Gatesville Messenger down in Texas a couple weeks ago. Well, I saw that. That's true. I saw it on Instagram, gave Dan a shout out on my Insta story. You know, it's not every day you get front page of the Gatesville Messenger. Front page of any newspaper. I mean, that's a big accomplishment.

Well done, Dan. Thank you, Wes. That was kind of, I was going against current. on my own podcast with Sessler and Rosenthal, but it's nice to hear someone with a non-cynical, just like a take like a friend. So thank you. I appreciate that.

I mean, I feel like I'm giving you publicity. I don't think that was a shot. I would point out that the writer could have included Erica's name, but that's for another day. Maybe the writer wasn't fed Erica's name. Ooh. Well, I don't want to. I don't want to bring it up.

I got an idea, Mark. When you get on the front page of a paper, you can mention Erica. Well, I was. I mean, you included my name in there, thankfully. I'm kind of surprised you did, but I'm thrilled to read the article and find my name in there. Oh, Mark's a rapper now. That's the other thing. I saw the Estonia clip. Two thumbs up. Well done. One thumb. Been nice knowing you. Swept the nation over the weekend, or part of the nation, or part of a town. Anytime you could put Margus Hunt in the lyrics, it's a good one. I did want to point out while you were gone.

The Atlanta Falcons. They're a team that still exists. They have not been mentioned one single time on the podcast, I believe, in three years now. I'm not sure. So some things still change. They're in a division with two great teams and one team that looks really bad, but has a fun coach, but they still exist. They're out there.

How about Broncos fans are angrier than ever at Dan for dismissing Drew Locke. But I've watched enough Drew Locke that I don't know if he's going to be great. No, you haven't. You can't have not watched enough, Drew Locke, because he's only played five games. Well, let me finish. I'm saying, I've watched enough to say, I don't know if he's going to be great or not, but I've watched enough now to say, I'm excited to watch whatever he does next. And I've kind of come along, too, in the meantime, to a corner that Wes was on the whole time,

which was appreciating Daniel Jones, too. And it took a little more taped dogging to get there. but the Broncos fans are now now they're on my side of the corner too with you. That's a nice way to put a bow on the segment because this Broncos discussion is like it encapsulates what the off

season of the NFL is. We knew all this stuff in December that he's only had five starts that there's some good, that there's some bad, that Broncos fans are way too optimistic that doubters are way too pessimistic and we'll just have to wait and see what happens but yeah that's where the Broncos are. That's where they've been since December.

Yeah, Broncos, I'm not saying that drew lock can't be a good quarterback in our league i just have been kind of taken to task for insinuating the possibility that maybe they should have had a a backup plan in place that was a little stronger or maybe not just assume you now found your franchise answer based on december football that didn't really matter i don't know that's just remind me again who is their backup quarterback driscoll jeff driscoll yeah i think it's a good idea in the nfl to have a second quarterback who can play and won't like nosedive your season as soon as he gets in there but you know so i'm on dan side on that one sure i am too but flip side i mean we've you know

john elway's gotten a little bit of heat a few uh jokes poked at john elway on this show and maybe he feels an extra bit of pressure to have his eighth the eighth quarterback he picked um finally pan out in the draft here so maybe he said i'm not going to bring cam newton in and create all that side interference and traffic to make this podcast out there Klam up. Forget about the Broncos fans. This would be a huge 360 windmill dunk by Elway on the old Zuser if Drew Locke turns into a star. 360 windmill.

Like straight out of the gate, week one, he shreds whoever they're playing and then just like rolls to second team all pro or something. You know, I'll take that L and I'll be happy that the people of Colorado and surrounding territories will have a young man to watch for the next 10, 15 years. I was going to ask Greg. Greg just walked off for a second. Someone, and it's not my house because it's quiet right now, but one of the fathers right here is lost control. Oh, yeah. That's me right now.

This is the first pod I've done with them here in a while because he was out of the house during this time of day. And yeah, it's going to be, this season is going to be something. I mean, I think at this point, Walker should have been mentioned in the Gatesville Messenger. He's had a prominent role on this episode here. Walker carries a lot of power in that household. I'm impressed that he's, you know, in five years, he's been able to, like, accrue a ton of power in that household.

He's number one in the power, Rankin's. I started to teach Walker a little bit about wagering on Saturday at Hank's house with some dollar bills tied to catching footballs and the idea of double or nothing. And then I realized he was probably taught this while he was still in the womb by his father. Well, it was a great move I'm going to steal this This whole move that you have Of giving the dollar bills to your friend's kids

Because he's got to remember that forever He came home telling Emeka about it You made his day He's got the you know He's got the two bucks He made the couple of catches You know under pressure So that's good for his confidence

It's all around It all worked out It's a good grown-up move Carry a couple singles around Just to throw it You know keep the kids entertained I'm a veteran uncle at this stage Yeah

All right, West, do you have anything else you want to add, you know, at the end of your first show back in quite a long time? Well, I just want to thank all the listeners, especially the UK listeners who put together a YouTube treat for me, 15-minute tribute. That was nice. Very nice. And I've gotten a lot of messages on Twitter, but especially on Instagram, a lot of people have, I would say, even much more personalized messages now than there were a few years ago. It's been very uplifting, to say the least. So thank you to everyone who's reached out. It sucks that you have two separate incidents or times in your life now to be able to cite that way.

But at the same time, it's just, it's good to see again, like, how much you're loved by the listeners, West, and loved by us. So this is, again, a real treat that you joined us today. and hopefully this becomes a semi-regular thing. That would be awesome. Well, yeah, I'm not going to write off any show. Hopefully I'll be able to do them all, so we'll see. Yeah, buddy. It depends how I'm feeling that day, but we'll see.

He's got to go and watch the Reds later today, you know. I think they have an off day, which means their bullpen won't blow the game. Hopefully they all stay in their hotel rooms or wherever. All right. Good stuff. That's a real concern. That's the world now. All right. Thank you to everybody for listening. Wednesday. We'll be with you again. We'll be talking some of the Hard Knocks premiere. Check out that piece I have on NFL.com. It's up now. And everything else that's going on in our league. This is Dan Hansa signing off for The Quiet Storm. The Mailman, the old boss, and Ricky Hollywood from her room until Wednesday.

Thank you. 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 opposites, construct winning rosters. We study the tape, talk to decision makers,

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