Speaker 1: Via Around the NFL Podcast burns the Midnight Oil. Okay,
Speaker 1: welcome back to another edition to the Around the NFL Podcast.
Speaker 1: My name is Dan Hansens, and I am joined by
Speaker 1: a room filled with heroes Mark Sesler, Chris Westling and
Speaker 1: Gregg ros the thought. What's up? Boys? Hey? Dan? Uh?
Speaker 1: Welcome back. Here we are again and again and again
Speaker 1: and again Monday's episode one time after the night. I mean,
Speaker 1: we planned this show and about six minutes. Oh no,
Speaker 1: no, no no, it's twelve maybe twelve. Uh, did you guys
Speaker 1: notice the new additions to the NFL Media grounds, some
Speaker 1: of the aesthetic changes happening on this campus. Lots of
Speaker 1: big changes, lots of murals, lots of billboard type pictures.
Speaker 1: Who do you think of all the people on the
Speaker 1: wall now that they invested, Who knows, they probably paid
Speaker 1: a company ten thousand dollars to do this than that,
Speaker 1: But I don't know. Like I work in the custom
Speaker 1: dig this has been like a multi day many people
Speaker 1: working on it. There's there's cranes and like ten fifteen people,
Speaker 1: you know, putting things up, and then are fifteen people.
Speaker 1: I don't know, it was like it was like three
Speaker 1: people in those days, I'm just saying dollars to paint
Speaker 1: a few things on a wall. It's not wounna be
Speaker 1: a crazy price. Triple figures. Yeah, okay, a hundred thousand dollars.
Speaker 1: All right, Well they know who the client is and
Speaker 1: it well, all right, let's get past it. Who on
Speaker 1: the wall? Do you think it most likely? Well, they
Speaker 1: have to scrub off the wall, Uh, due to getting
Speaker 1: cut by the team they're on, or some type of
Speaker 1: off the field incident. Mark, I'll start with you, maybe
Speaker 1: Dan Helly from NFL Network. No, I didn't think there
Speaker 1: was a mistake. Well, part of that, it's not how
Speaker 1: i'd frame it. There's a picture I think it works
Speaker 1: in Dan and williamcginn favor. There's a big picture up
Speaker 1: of Dan Helly and Willia McGinnis monster picture as you're
Speaker 1: going through one of the hallways. That's that's leverage right there.
Speaker 1: When their next contracts are coming up, it's like what
Speaker 1: will he just will just has to be like, what
Speaker 1: you're gonna get rid of my guy? He's on the wall.
Speaker 1: So it wasn't a mistake to put them up. In
Speaker 1: terms of who they selected, now you know, great choices.
Speaker 1: There were some concerns that you thought maybe someone in
Speaker 1: this room and not the three of us should have
Speaker 1: gotten more attention in that space there. But there was
Speaker 1: talking about that. Who was where was there? Where was
Speaker 1: talking about that? Is that NFL Networks? Here's my answer though,
Speaker 1: I think it might be Josh Norman. I was looking
Speaker 1: at all those because a lot of them are like,
Speaker 1: unless something really crazy happens, these are like locked in
Speaker 1: starting quarterbacks that we should let the audience others. Cam Newton,
Speaker 1: these are people painted on murals outside of our building,
Speaker 1: Cam Newton, j J. Wat von Miller, Aaron Rodgers, Aaron Rodgers,
Speaker 1: these type of players in the halls that that's weird.
Speaker 1: And then Josh Freeman is back on the wall. H
Speaker 1: excuse me, Josh Norman in the mix there, and it's like, oh,
Speaker 1: we'll see about that. I don't know if that was
Speaker 1: a great contract. Well there's a reason for that, right.
Speaker 1: TV people made the decision, and TV people love when
Speaker 1: Josh Norman opens his mouth. Yeah. The other the other
Speaker 1: adjustment that was made on this campus was they ripped
Speaker 1: out the couches in the lobby and they have over
Speaker 1: the weekend installed like a kid, you not, they installed
Speaker 1: stadium seating in front of a big TV where it's
Speaker 1: actual like the seats you would say, see when you
Speaker 1: like went to met Life Stadium or any NFL stadium
Speaker 1: and you sit, but there's no other options to sit.
Speaker 1: They took out the couches and replaced them with a
Speaker 1: row of seven seats, and now you get the site
Speaker 1: and Mark, you and I and maybe all us at
Speaker 1: some point before we started working, or you sit on
Speaker 1: that couch waiting for someone to come to bring you
Speaker 1: in for a job interview. When you see people waiting
Speaker 1: to be brought in. Now they're sitting in these stadium seats,
Speaker 1: and it's it's just a little bit. It's a little
Speaker 1: silly looking and it takes some time to get us
Speaker 1: their suits. It looks like they're being inculcated by Scott
Speaker 1: Hansen and it's like we brought up on our road
Speaker 1: trip podcast, Mark Uh, it looks funny. It's like when
Speaker 1: adults are in the backseat of a car. It's just
Speaker 1: like it's exactly looking. It's going to take time to
Speaker 1: get there was also at one point a huge collage
Speaker 1: celebrating the tenth year I believe of NFL Network, which
Speaker 1: had little faces of everyone that was in the lot
Speaker 1: work so hard here, well they ripped that right down.
Speaker 1: That's gone. So that's what's going on around the campus.
Speaker 1: And I'll take a photo of the mural and you
Speaker 1: guys can listeners can chime and who you think will
Speaker 1: come down be scrubbed off that wall first, or either
Speaker 1: a move that takes them away from the team that
Speaker 1: they're portrayed within the image, or an off the field incident, Hey,
Speaker 1: gronks a little under the under the radar. That's a
Speaker 1: long shot there, whether it off the field incident, whether
Speaker 1: it's injuries or off the field incident bringing some sort
Speaker 1: of shame to the NFL family. Injury, I guess would
Speaker 1: be a mak um. All right. Today's show UH is
Speaker 1: sponsored of course by Mr Flames economics class in the Haguean, Netherlands,
Speaker 1: and UH we will now talk about we're not now
Speaker 1: a little later in today's show, we'll talk about collateral
Speaker 1: damage and collateral beneficientes or benefits UH for players. So,
Speaker 1: if you got banged by the events of the past
Speaker 1: couple of weeks, if you got helped out by the
Speaker 1: events of the last couple of weeks, those events most
Speaker 1: mostly tied to free agency? Who really came out of
Speaker 1: this better? Who came a hauff a little worse? Mark? Well,
Speaker 1: we'll get to it. We'll get to it. Uh, And
Speaker 1: I'm excited about that. Great. You wrote an accompanying banger
Speaker 1: that we'll be going up on the side at some point.
Speaker 1: But collateral damaged that one, That one is up. Yes,
Speaker 1: I mean these guys, they weren't free agents. They were
Speaker 1: just hanging out at home. They're watching the TV and suddenly,
Speaker 1: you know, shrap hitting them. They're getting affected. That hurts.
Speaker 1: That hurts. So we'll talk about that. And we also
Speaker 1: got some news to get to and checking in behind
Speaker 1: the glass of sid Sid, How was how is Magic Mountain?
Speaker 1: How was six Flags this weekend? You know it was great?
Speaker 1: I will say if I had known what going to
Speaker 1: six Flags is going to do to my mentions, I
Speaker 1: would have just stayed home. Are all sorts of horrifying
Speaker 1: pictures of Mickey Mouse that were sent my way. I
Speaker 1: may never sleep again. But you know, I've got to
Speaker 1: ride a few roller coasters, so he should you shouldn't
Speaker 1: have done that. I don't like it. Don't wait Sydney
Speaker 1: before the show. When I asked you you you utterly
Speaker 1: buried six flags? So why now is the you know
Speaker 1: a little bit of a less of a heat seeking
Speaker 1: review or should I not have just said that? Yeah? No,
Speaker 1: I just I've I've been getting I think people don't
Speaker 1: believe me when I when I just like put disney
Speaker 1: Land up on a pedal stal So I was trying
Speaker 1: to like, yeah, Mark, you've cheated on girlfriends before, Like
Speaker 1: when after the fact you feel like, why did I
Speaker 1: just do that? I feel dirty, I feel ugly, well
Speaker 1: not confirmed, I've had a girlfriend in like the ages
Speaker 1: and ages I'm talking about even as even you know, no,
Speaker 1: not in not in in any case when I sit
Speaker 1: there and say, yes, that's an easy you know, go
Speaker 1: to Greg with that one. Hey, should he? I'll be sorry.
Speaker 1: News you want to do some news? Okay, what happened
Speaker 1: to the analogy? What Mark che on his girlfriend? Oh? Well,
Speaker 1: obviously Mark wants is to get away from that topic.
Speaker 1: It's there's nothing there, there's no evidence, there's nowhere around
Speaker 1: other than you're panicked like stammer. It's maybe like the
Speaker 1: sixteen year old me, but not great non denial. Maybe
Speaker 1: the thirty four year old version of me. But not true.
Speaker 1: Nice to try by you. Let's do the news. I
Speaker 1: implore you everyone, um to check out the trailer to
Speaker 1: speaking of Rob Gronkowski and things that could get him
Speaker 1: taken off um the wall here at NFL network headquarters.
Speaker 1: Uh he he has a cameo on a new movie
Speaker 1: and I wrote about it on the end around. Uh.
Speaker 1: It's one of those you know it's a bad movie
Speaker 1: when a name brand like Rob Gronkowski. Uh, he agrees
Speaker 1: to do a low budget movie and has one line
Speaker 1: in the movie and they put him front and center
Speaker 1: on the poster and put his name above the line
Speaker 1: the name of the movies. You can't have it, and
Speaker 1: even the name is terrible. Watch the trailer I've embedded
Speaker 1: on my uh A story on the on the article,
Speaker 1: but that's Gronk's entire dialogue and movie first build front
Speaker 1: and center on the movie poster. Gront doesn't say no
Speaker 1: to anything. What is it like a rom com? Or
Speaker 1: is it it's it's um about I don't know. I'll
Speaker 1: just read the tagline drinks, sex, murder all before last call.
Speaker 1: You can't have it? All right, let's do some news
Speaker 1: and let's start. Let's stay with the new England Patriots
Speaker 1: and uh, yep, it happened. Case cracked. Tom Brady's missing
Speaker 1: Super Bowl fifty one jersey was found. Oh my goodness.
Speaker 1: The NFL on Monday released a statement confirming that a
Speaker 1: joint operation between the league, the Patriots security team, and
Speaker 1: the FBI. Goddamnit, the FBI mark recovered quarterback Tom brady
Speaker 1: stolen Super Bowl fifty one jersey. Also apparently we didn't know, uh,
Speaker 1: probably because the old stewser didn't get that on video.
Speaker 1: The stolen Super Bowl forty nine jersey that was also
Speaker 1: gone and recovered. And according to rap sheet, the man
Speaker 1: who allegedly took the jerseys is Mauricio Ortega, a former
Speaker 1: executive with Mexican newspaper company Diario La Prinza. Uh. In
Speaker 1: a statement, La Prinza announced Ortega resigned from the company
Speaker 1: last week. Not a good look. Closed essentially a one
Speaker 1: man crime ring. Yeah, which is weird because he stole
Speaker 1: the jersey two years ago and he still had it
Speaker 1: in his possession, so it's not like he was able
Speaker 1: to move it and have a big score, uh and
Speaker 1: then say, oh, let me get another one. So he
Speaker 1: had both in his possession, so gotten nothing. Out of it,
Speaker 1: probably a lot of stress and anxiety and got banged
Speaker 1: on it. Also, I'm quite impressed because we're talking about
Speaker 1: dive bombing into do two totally different NFL venues. Who
Speaker 1: knows how much experience he has in either locker room
Speaker 1: and pulling off a master heist with hundreds of cameras
Speaker 1: and other recording devices all over the place and eyes everywhere.
Speaker 1: How do you get away with this? Didn't? We also
Speaker 1: see that he's still von Miller's helmet too. Look at
Speaker 1: this guy, This guy's flying potentially. Yeah, he was the
Speaker 1: director of the newspaper. I gotta think his long game
Speaker 1: was he was going to sell this in you know,
Speaker 1: many years from now, and moved watt there. I don't know.
Speaker 1: I mean he was going to have to sell. He
Speaker 1: was waiting. He was waiting for to die down a
Speaker 1: little and sell them in ten years and retire on it.
Speaker 1: You got from my fingers, Um, all right, you could
Speaker 1: sell that stuff on the dark web. I mean, as
Speaker 1: as someone that was so involved in this, does it
Speaker 1: give you closure? Dan, Well, it's funny you should bring
Speaker 1: that up, Greg, because as the resident a t N
Speaker 1: media insiders, obviously I played a small role in an
Speaker 1: international crime conspiracy. I shot the video that led to
Speaker 1: the breaking news, and I don't want to do a
Speaker 1: ton of media on this. I don't want to do
Speaker 1: a lot, So I figured, why don't I just knock
Speaker 1: out my availability on the show today? Has there been
Speaker 1: any requests for you to do any you don't, I
Speaker 1: just let me do it all today because that way.
Speaker 1: I got a wife, I got kids, I got other
Speaker 1: work to do. So what I wanted to do, and um,
Speaker 1: I want to say, who do I respect in the media.
Speaker 1: It's like when someone has like a big sit down,
Speaker 1: Oh give me Diane Sawyer. Well, okay, I couldn't get
Speaker 1: Diane Sawyer. But who I could get was CBS UH
Speaker 1: sports dot Com senior writer Will Brinson. He will represent
Speaker 1: all of the media. So again, with peace and love,
Speaker 1: no more requests I have Will on the line. Will
Speaker 1: you here? Yeah, Dan, I thank you very much for
Speaker 1: making me your Diane Sawyer. So they got Will senior
Speaker 1: writer a CBS sports um he will um serve as
Speaker 1: the media contingent asking me about this. Last time I
Speaker 1: talk about it, Will fire away. This is like a
Speaker 1: pool report and Will is playing the role of Peter King.
Speaker 1: At the Super Bowl. Absolutely. In fact, I'm probably wearing
Speaker 1: similar outfit right now. So that works if you combine,
Speaker 1: if you combine Peter King and Diane Sawyer and created
Speaker 1: this a hideous monster. Yeah, that's well, well, look, Dann,
Speaker 1: we'll get right to it. First of all. You know,
Speaker 1: and the simple question is, how does it feel to
Speaker 1: know that you're the sole person responsible for blowing the
Speaker 1: lid of a vast international conspiracy to steal millions of
Speaker 1: dollars from the merchandise from multiple Super Bowl MVPs. You know,
Speaker 1: at the job of any journalist is to get get
Speaker 1: your hands dirty when you have to, and if you
Speaker 1: see injustice, to seek it out and expose it. And
Speaker 1: I and you made a good Showshank Redemption West minutes ago. Uh,
Speaker 1: the same thing, Andy Dufrayne. He gets the warden's uh
Speaker 1: incriminating documents. He he puts it in the mail. You
Speaker 1: let the media and authorities handle the rest. That's what
Speaker 1: I did. I just got the video. I said something
Speaker 1: was going on here, blasted out and away we go.
Speaker 1: We're flying. So it feels good. Not all superheroes wear capes, uh, Dan,
Speaker 1: you know followed to that, At what point did you
Speaker 1: really understand that you'd used your natural media insider instincts
Speaker 1: to sniff out the biggest and most viral NFL moment
Speaker 1: of the two thousand seventeen years. Um. I didn't do
Speaker 1: very well with that. In fact, I sent out the
Speaker 1: tweet with the video and I even labeled it incorrectly.
Speaker 1: I labeled it as uh, Robert Kraft hands out Victory Cigars. Didn't.
Speaker 1: I didn't realize what I was sitting on. It wasn't
Speaker 1: until like, it wasn't until I got back to the
Speaker 1: press box and I told the social media, uh, man,
Speaker 1: here Bryce Gustafsson, who's very good at what he does.
Speaker 1: What I had, whatever, you know, Goose, there you go.
Speaker 1: I told Goose this. He he was like, whoa, that's
Speaker 1: really good, and that's I only then realized what I
Speaker 1: had really the procured anything else? Yeah, one more thing,
Speaker 1: But I would I would have added that were I
Speaker 1: was actually in the press box when you tweeted it
Speaker 1: out and noticed it's like, wow, Victory Ciguards. We've got
Speaker 1: halfway through. Brady was yelling about, all right, really has
Speaker 1: no idea what he has. So the insider, the insider
Speaker 1: didn't know anything of money. You've just you've just incriminated
Speaker 1: your son. Are you a little worried about this? Jealous
Speaker 1: NFL dot com Greg Rosenthal, Go ahead, thank you very much,
Speaker 1: here with dot COM's Greg Enthal. Sorry, well dot com,
Speaker 1: NFL dot com dot Com. I should I should mentioned
Speaker 1: that I came up in the news on some articles
Speaker 1: today when this news broke, and I was references NFL
Speaker 1: network stand handsOn a couple times. I don't know where
Speaker 1: that sits with you, Greg, but I like it all right.
Speaker 1: Last question, well, yeah, it's fortunate that I know the
Speaker 1: length of alls dropped by the way there. There also
Speaker 1: is some chattered dan out there that the success of
Speaker 1: d around in your NFL media insider success could lead
Speaker 1: to a zooster in the morning spinoff podcast, a Danity project,
Speaker 1: if you will, Can you confirm or deny that something
Speaker 1: like that is in the works. Well, my contracts coming up,
Speaker 1: and uh, we sit down with the people and we're
Speaker 1: gonna hammer something out. I love being here, I love
Speaker 1: working with these guys, but you just never know. Now
Speaker 1: that I'm on the radar like this, it just as
Speaker 1: God forbid, it all comes to an end. Well, thank
Speaker 1: you very much, and that's it. That's it. That's it now.
Speaker 1: Will I want well to stay on the line if
Speaker 1: you can, Mr Brinson, Yeah, I got nothing else that
Speaker 1: a right. Can I ask you one follow up questions?
Speaker 1: This will be okay. Last question. Listen. So you've you've
Speaker 1: essentially undone a Mexican crime ring and these people no
Speaker 1: longer have jobs. Are you concerned at all that they might,
Speaker 1: you know, cross the border back into the States in
Speaker 1: the southern not just end your career as a so
Speaker 1: called insider, but just end you so like some type
Speaker 1: of Mexican mob. I mean, you know your name's out there,
Speaker 1: is the guy that started all this. It sounds like
Speaker 1: a perfect scenario just to take you out. I didn't
Speaker 1: think of that until you just said that. I don't
Speaker 1: like the thought. I hope I didn't plant the idea
Speaker 1: in their head either, but it seems like a very
Speaker 1: logical CounterPunch to the embarrassment you've caused many criminals. I'm
Speaker 1: a little nervous about that. I gotta be honest. Streets
Speaker 1: have been talking a little bit about that. You know,
Speaker 1: you made a big name with this with this scoop
Speaker 1: weeks ago on this podcast, we kind of were like,
Speaker 1: all right, well, you know, Insider, where's kind of the
Speaker 1: follow up scoops? And you're like, yoh, yeah, we got
Speaker 1: we got some scoops coming. Are you a little worried
Speaker 1: this far out? You know? Since this big break, it's
Speaker 1: it's been pretty quiet on the Insider breaking news front.
Speaker 1: I'll just say two things. First of all, I know
Speaker 1: what it's like to be rap sheet now. It's a
Speaker 1: stressful life. You have to stay on the leaderboard. Uh.
Speaker 1: Second of all, and I can't discuss it on the show,
Speaker 1: but I think you guys will agree that I got
Speaker 1: some big scoopage, internal scoopage at the combine that I
Speaker 1: couldn't share here. Some of my scoopage isn't for public.
Speaker 1: It's just you know, talking to people. I got, I
Speaker 1: got stuff going on. Is that not a fair answer
Speaker 1: at that stretch? Okay, you did, you did get it
Speaker 1: internal scoop. I'll give you that. Talking about good podcast. Um,
Speaker 1: all right, well we're gonna do some more news. You
Speaker 1: wanna hang around? Yeah? Literally, I have nothing to do.
Speaker 1: All right, Let's move on and talk about bucks g
Speaker 1: the bucks gm uh. Jason Light, it's not licked right,
Speaker 1: Jason Light turned the light off and on. Jason Light
Speaker 1: is speaking out on Roberto Aguayo this after the Bucks
Speaker 1: signed Nick Folk as training camp competition and uh In
Speaker 1: an interview with the Tampa Bay Times, uh Light was
Speaker 1: very very open. Quote read the stats. He wasn't very
Speaker 1: good last year. He wants to improve me. He's going
Speaker 1: to work at it, and we still have confidence him.
Speaker 1: But you're always trying to get at her. Will you
Speaker 1: know this? Um? Like everybody else, he got drafted in
Speaker 1: the second round. The Bucks traded up to get a
Speaker 1: kicker in round two, unheard of, and then he was
Speaker 1: twenty two of thirty one last year. What does what
Speaker 1: does the GM's statement tell you that they're gonna move
Speaker 1: on if they have to move on? Look, I mean
Speaker 1: people move on for first round quarterbacks all the time
Speaker 1: in the NFL these days because of the lower salary scale. Now,
Speaker 1: don't get me wrong, the second round kicker is absolutely
Speaker 1: the worst drafting mistake we've seen, maybe since the Vikings
Speaker 1: forgot to make that pick a while ago. But I
Speaker 1: think that you know what what what we West and
Speaker 1: I were talking about this the other day, But like
Speaker 1: the worst thing on Twitter, the worst thing you can
Speaker 1: do is not be willing to admit a mistake and
Speaker 1: go fix it. I mean, the absolute worst thing he
Speaker 1: could do is just say, no, we invest in the
Speaker 1: second round picking Aguia. We're gonna keep rolling this Shawshank
Speaker 1: redemption machine out there and just let him keep kicking
Speaker 1: and missing left and right. You've gotta bring in some
Speaker 1: competition making his stripes next to the quarterback. The heck
Speaker 1: coach is confid waivers with the kicker as much as
Speaker 1: any position in the league. If you're running back in
Speaker 1: a wide receiver in a slump, they keep you in there.
Speaker 1: If you're a kicker, they got to get rid of
Speaker 1: you because you have to be able to trust him
Speaker 1: with the game online. That's why you don't spend second
Speaker 1: round picks on kickers. I also there was another I
Speaker 1: don't know who was the same interview, but I saw
Speaker 1: it over the weekend where Light had this to say
Speaker 1: about UMGUYO. He's a rookie twenty one years old. He
Speaker 1: had to learn that he's not doing this for fun anymore. Mark.
Speaker 1: That almost speaks to like some issues behind the scenes
Speaker 1: that they thought about, maybe his work, habits or every
Speaker 1: That's how I read that. You do you feel and
Speaker 1: I think if you're going to invest in a second
Speaker 1: round pick, you should know pretty securely what he's going
Speaker 1: to be like on that front coming into the NFL. Now,
Speaker 1: I mean, we all followed teams that have done exactly
Speaker 1: the opposite with first round I mean, it was the
Speaker 1: most bizarre pick ever, partly because he wasn't that great
Speaker 1: a kicker in college, Like he missed half his kicks
Speaker 1: between forty and forty nine and his last year in college.
Speaker 1: It's like, I don't know the whole thing concerned. And
Speaker 1: by the way, Nick Folk, as I know as a
Speaker 1: Jets fan, he's a good kicker. He's always been a good,
Speaker 1: steady kicker. So I wouldn't be surprised if Folk isn't
Speaker 1: the kicker Week one in Tampa. We'll see. Moving on, Oh,
Speaker 1: is this some bad news for Doug Walley. E J.
Speaker 1: Manuel's time of Buffalo has come to a close. The
Speaker 1: former Bills quarterback signed a deal with the Oakland Raiders
Speaker 1: on Monday. The team announced terms of the deals not disclosed.
Speaker 1: Please don't do it to me, Please don't do it
Speaker 1: to me. I love this guy, e J. Manuel. I
Speaker 1: believe it. Just don't do it. Wow, I mean that
Speaker 1: was Doug Waley on the your the GM segment, not
Speaker 1: actually Doug Walley, but what might have been happening behind
Speaker 1: the scenes, will uh your thoughts on this move? And
Speaker 1: Doug Welly finally saying goodbye to e j Manuel. Yeah,
Speaker 1: we were doing admitting the stakes. You should have been
Speaker 1: admitted eight years ago. Man was the somehow the first
Speaker 1: quarter the two thousand thirteen draft class in terms of quarterbacks,
Speaker 1: I mean, Mike Glennon is is the shining star in
Speaker 1: this group of guys, I mean ej Manuel Geno Smith. Yeah.
Speaker 1: And the weirdest thing I thought about the whole ej
Speaker 1: Manuel experiment was that, so when when he was actually drafted,
Speaker 1: Buddy Nicks was the GM and Buffalo and Doug but
Speaker 1: and Doug Waley hadn't actually been promoted. And then after that,
Speaker 1: Doug Wale got promoted to GM and people asked him,
Speaker 1: They're like, hey, you know, were you the guy who
Speaker 1: pulled the trigger on EJ Manuel? Or was that buddy?
Speaker 1: And he could have pawned him off and he took
Speaker 1: ownership of it. That tells me everything I need to
Speaker 1: know about Doug Whaley's management and personnel skills. The fact
Speaker 1: that he was like willing to own up to ej
Speaker 1: Manuel when clearly there was a major problem with him
Speaker 1: coming out of college. And as soon as you got
Speaker 1: in the prosce, I would just say that had we
Speaker 1: known when that pick was made, it was such a
Speaker 1: surprising pick, it was a total reached for a quarterback
Speaker 1: in that's draft at that point that they if we
Speaker 1: known that Whaley and e j Manuel were going to
Speaker 1: survive in Buffalo for four plus years and would have
Speaker 1: you would have thought a lot of critics would be wrong.
Speaker 1: There would have been something good that came out of it.
Speaker 1: Will couldn't be more right this, This divorce should have
Speaker 1: come two plus years ago. Right he was. He didn't
Speaker 1: admit any mistake. He just had people come into the
Speaker 1: organization that you know, took his legs out from under
Speaker 1: him and he didn't get to make the decisions anymore.
Speaker 1: As recently as midway through last season, there's still these
Speaker 1: leaks coming from the Bills that are like, well, we
Speaker 1: still kind of want to see e j Manuel like
Speaker 1: that we wanted to bench Tyrod Taylor midway through last season,
Speaker 1: Like those leaks came. Remember when they were in London,
Speaker 1: when you were in London back in two thousand and fifteen.
Speaker 1: The Greg Roman at the time was the one that
Speaker 1: a lot of people thought liked ej Manuel. There were
Speaker 1: issues with whoever else was at quarterback, but what a
Speaker 1: mysterious career free j Manuel? So far? Am I the
Speaker 1: only one who thinks the Raiders should be aiming a
Speaker 1: lot higher for the car insurance after what happened in
Speaker 1: the playoffs? Good point. I would have taken. I take
Speaker 1: Matt McGloin on a resigned contract over ej Manuel. I'd take. Yeah,
Speaker 1: I would take plenty of Pean Fitzpatrick to be something
Speaker 1: and e j Manuel that these talent evaluators see that.
Speaker 1: I mean it wasn't a back. Yeah, he's a leader.
Speaker 1: Like people liked him coming out of he was Mike
Speaker 1: Mayock and Greg cos he was all their number one
Speaker 1: quarterback in that class too, like he had some skills.
Speaker 1: Moving on, a report from The Observer reporter Ben Roethlisberger
Speaker 1: leaning toward a return to the Steelers. The exact quote, actually,
Speaker 1: I'm leaning towards it. That's that's the entire articles. That's
Speaker 1: the that's the article. Roethlisberger uh in January, after the
Speaker 1: Steelers were knocked out of the playoffs by New England
Speaker 1: set on his radio show that he had to think
Speaker 1: about whether or not he was going to play in
Speaker 1: I will give credit to this room, but also the
Speaker 1: football Cogna sent for seeing through this that Big Ben
Speaker 1: was never going away. Well calm down, big Ben. Nobody
Speaker 1: believed anyway. Yeah, I mean breaking news. Uh, screw bitch here.
Speaker 1: I am also leaning towards writing about football in TV,
Speaker 1: and I mean, unless I could get fired, I guess
Speaker 1: like a Moral's close. In the next breaking news, Will
Speaker 1: Brinson will continue his career as a sportswriter. Well, as
Speaker 1: he said, barring disaster right again where Morals called, that's
Speaker 1: entirely possible. I do. That's not actually the most interesting thing.
Speaker 1: And I don't know Dale Lolly at all, But did
Speaker 1: you guys, I'm sure at least one of you clicked
Speaker 1: on this observer reporter thing. Did you notice his bio
Speaker 1: in the top right corner. Until I could think about
Speaker 1: what I was, let me read it. I'm after hobnobbing
Speaker 1: around the NFL and the press boxes and sidelines, sports
Speaker 1: reporter Dale Lolly will let you know the insider Scoop.
Speaker 1: Dale can also be heard on the Steelers Radio Net.
Speaker 1: We're pretty sure prior every game follow her on Twitter
Speaker 1: at the lollybyes hobnobbing. Who's talking with the hob nobbing
Speaker 1: about It's not you don't You're not doing work at
Speaker 1: your hobber. Lolly's got the insider scoop. So if you
Speaker 1: based on this profile, if you do x amount of
Speaker 1: hob nobbing at any period, you're at that point you
Speaker 1: can go into the bunker and just be an insider.
Speaker 1: I guess. I guess so you probably would know. I
Speaker 1: thought you had to stay in the streets. Well, I'm
Speaker 1: kind of all. I'm all over the place. I'm the
Speaker 1: you've carved your own path. Yeah, everybody goes their own route. Uh.
Speaker 1: The lollyman the lollipop on his own route. Well, I
Speaker 1: like that that. Ben Roethlisberger's is still not committing. He
Speaker 1: said he's leaning towards it. Like, at what point is
Speaker 1: he getting pissed or depressed or just is it making
Speaker 1: him crazy that literally no one believes him when he's
Speaker 1: threatening retirement, like his general manager has spoken about it publicly.
Speaker 1: The owner has said that they all expect him back,
Speaker 1: and yet he's they didn't do anything to address the
Speaker 1: issue in free agency. Yet he's still out there kind
Speaker 1: of being like, well, you know, I'm leaning towards it.
Speaker 1: Maybe not like no one believes this guy. I would
Speaker 1: go crazy if I were him. Maybe he should just
Speaker 1: retire just to stick it to people. I would be
Speaker 1: fine with that. Would that would be a weird move
Speaker 1: to retire. Really, no one believe I'm going to retire
Speaker 1: out of spite. We all got loullied there and finally
Speaker 1: in the news. Oh man, it's a big one. Tripolet, tropolet, tropolet, tropolet, tropolet.
Speaker 1: Blake Bortles triple art machine is gonna blow. Blake Bortles
Speaker 1: confident about his offseason progress. This Bordles told Jacksonville dot
Speaker 1: Com the first week, it wasn't pretty. It didn't look good.
Speaker 1: Part of trying to change things is it won't be
Speaker 1: great right away. But we were able to hash it out. Mark,
Speaker 1: They hashed it out. No more mechanics issues, no more
Speaker 1: Crumby interception rate. Blake Bortles is back because of his
Speaker 1: work with quarterback in Guru's Tom House and Adam do
Speaker 1: do By. No, it's a trope because it's completely ponderously
Speaker 1: predictable that we'd be getting this story right now. Thankfully
Speaker 1: for me, I won't be touching this issue all offseason.
Speaker 1: We have our no right lists things we will never
Speaker 1: be asked to write about. Mine includes Blake Bortles in
Speaker 1: the NFC. Has this ever been the entire end of
Speaker 1: done with them? Just one question on that one, but
Speaker 1: I'll respect that. But I don't have any power within
Speaker 1: the organization to have the middle managers signed off on this.
Speaker 1: The people that would hypothetically assigned to you various stories
Speaker 1: been fine so far. Mark has basically taken napalm to
Speaker 1: our instant messenger client lately and told the bosses that
Speaker 1: he's doing whatever he wants to do. This is some
Speaker 1: of the same advice that Mark has given me in
Speaker 1: my dealings with my wife. Just if you wanted to
Speaker 1: bring that up, Greg, that's fine. I mean, I don't
Speaker 1: know why you needed to do that. Neither does Will.
Speaker 1: I would imagine there is a little bit of a
Speaker 1: connective this year from Office Space five with you right now, Mark,
Speaker 1: where you're just seeing how far you could push middle
Speaker 1: management before they act, and maybe you'll just you know,
Speaker 1: just promotion will come out. I think that's exactly what
Speaker 1: could happen? Do you ever do this? Will at CBS
Speaker 1: just start going rogue, push your boundaries, you know, start
Speaker 1: telling Priss go to shove it, gotta gotta fish at
Speaker 1: your cubicle. I tried it, Um, And if you the
Speaker 1: problem is, if you go rogue on Prisco, he's like,
Speaker 1: he'll rat you out. He's just you know, he's just
Speaker 1: he's just a very can narc and he will just
Speaker 1: he will, he will, he will take he will go
Speaker 1: to the boss and tell you, tell them exactly what
Speaker 1: you said. And I'm not, I'm not. I'm like, I'm
Speaker 1: really more of a state in my lane and grumble
Speaker 1: quietly to the side about how about as Greg is
Speaker 1: starting to do, going totally rogue on the home front.
Speaker 1: I know you have, you know, a young child, You've
Speaker 1: got to Karen White, but just going utterly rogue, you
Speaker 1: know inside your house. Yeah, yeah, no, that's that's my movie. Mark. Um.
Speaker 1: Usually I'll like, I'll take all the TVs up to
Speaker 1: my office and and just and just hang out up
Speaker 1: in my office and not do any work. I'll plan
Speaker 1: trips to other cities to see concerts with friends and
Speaker 1: tell my wife the week before we leave so that
Speaker 1: you I mean, those sort of things just really even
Speaker 1: just power place if you will, you're owning that space.
Speaker 1: I like it. Um Will Brinson at will Brinson on Twitter,
Speaker 1: make sure you follow him. You could read his stuff
Speaker 1: at CBS sports dot com, where again he's the senior
Speaker 1: NFL writer. That is a good title. I gotta get
Speaker 1: one of them. I gotta get a senior Daniel Lane.
Speaker 1: Dan back up, and again, Will thank you for serving
Speaker 1: as the conduit for all the global media. And I
Speaker 1: say this one more time, no requests. If you want
Speaker 1: any of my thoughts on the Tom Brady Jersey saga
Speaker 1: see earlier in this podcast. Will thank you. I will,
Speaker 1: no problem. I will. I will type up my pool
Speaker 1: report and have it to you guys. I'll have it.
Speaker 1: I'll have it along with the TBS report tomorrow morning.
Speaker 1: Thank you, very very nice. Will Brent's everybody, and that's
Speaker 1: what's happening in the news, all right, guys, Very nice
Speaker 1: of Will stop buy and do that service. Mark did
Speaker 1: a great job. I thought. He asked some you know,
Speaker 1: the three top questions right out of the gate, like
Speaker 1: a true journal and you're right, You're right right. It's
Speaker 1: time from and I gotta I gotta break something new. Globally,
Speaker 1: streets are talking. You know, at least they're talking. I'll
Speaker 1: take that. At least people are talking. What's what's hands
Speaker 1: is coming up with next? It was like Michael Jackson
Speaker 1: after Thriller, What's coming next? I feel like I've been
Speaker 1: you know, if I was against this whole movement, I've
Speaker 1: been more accepting of it on this show. But Greg
Speaker 1: seems to constantly becoming coming at you. I think you
Speaker 1: could read between the lines and that really it's coming
Speaker 1: on Greg's corner. I'm going to be Ian's corner. No,
Speaker 1: but like you know, the some of the network references
Speaker 1: I've gotten and do we think, I would imagine not
Speaker 1: highly threatened. Not yet. I think in terms of exposure,
Speaker 1: Greg has the most exposure on the network and things
Speaker 1: of that nature. So like this comes around all of
Speaker 1: a sudden, Greg's like, hmmm, we don't like you this much,
Speaker 1: speaking of which can mentally challenge Yoda. Well, I'll be
Speaker 1: on the network Tuesday, up to the minute live with
Speaker 1: a live hit. The show has now moved, Dan, do
Speaker 1: you know what it is? No, No, it's literally we're
Speaker 1: taping it during the show so you should be able
Speaker 1: to figure it out PM Eastern two pm Pacific. All right,
Speaker 1: that's great. Our head will be somewhere in the middle
Speaker 1: of that, I think, But yeah, I think we're on
Speaker 1: a few times, definitely Tuesday. The producer actually approached our
Speaker 1: cupical today and say, hey, we're moving you up in
Speaker 1: the show a little bit. That I feel like that's
Speaker 1: a good son. Well, last time out, Mr F got
Speaker 1: to mention on NFL Network that was that was excellent
Speaker 1: people starting a job by Mr Patrick Claibon with the
Speaker 1: Mr F ref in a big spot. All right, now
Speaker 1: let's talk about Oh yeah, it's collateral damage time. Greg.
Speaker 1: Is a two part column, and why don't we talk
Speaker 1: about it. We'll go around the horn here a couple
Speaker 1: of times, and you can go, um, collateral benefits for
Speaker 1: a player, uh any player? Or collateral uh damage for
Speaker 1: any player? And Greg, Um, why don't we start, Greg,
Speaker 1: since you wrote the piece at NFL dot Com, I'll
Speaker 1: start with the Patriots in general, because I think the
Speaker 1: Patriots what they do that is unique is they do
Speaker 1: a good job of planning for this year's team and
Speaker 1: ahead at the same time. So three of their moves
Speaker 1: this year I think spelled some bad news for players
Speaker 1: on their roster coming up. Julian Edelman, his contract runs
Speaker 1: out at the end of two thousand seventeen. Oh, I'd
Speaker 1: like like to have an extension. Oh, a little bit
Speaker 1: of less leverage, certainly fewer targets after getting Brandon Cooks.
Speaker 1: I mean, I don't I can't see Julian Edelman having
Speaker 1: the same numbers. And he's been one of the most
Speaker 1: underpaid players in the NFL, I would say over the
Speaker 1: last few years. Signing a four year, seventeen million dollar
Speaker 1: counter he's never He's probably never gonna get a big
Speaker 1: time NFL contract, and he probably won't get in New
Speaker 1: England now. I think he'll have to take a below
Speaker 1: market deal if he stays because of Brandon Cooks. And
Speaker 1: then similar to that, James White is the hero of
Speaker 1: the Super Bowl and they bring in Rex Burkett, who
Speaker 1: does some similar things, maybe even a little better than
Speaker 1: James White. And Malcolm Butler is a super you know,
Speaker 1: Super Bowl hero, and they bring in Stefan Gilmore, which
Speaker 1: is gonna I don't know if he leaves New England.
Speaker 1: I still think Malcolm Butler might end up staying, but
Speaker 1: he's gonna have less leverage. He's not gonna get the
Speaker 1: contract necessarily that he wants because the guys coming in
Speaker 1: the one. And I'm not questioning any of these moves.
Speaker 1: Some of the loyalty issues, I could factor him, but
Speaker 1: they listen there, they know what they're doing. My one
Speaker 1: concern I would have since you brought up Malcolm Butler,
Speaker 1: what Logan Ryan's gone. Stephon Gilmore has had up and
Speaker 1: down NFL career. He was actually really bad the first
Speaker 1: half of last year and then came on. What if
Speaker 1: you get like a crappy stuff on Gilmore and then
Speaker 1: Logan Ryan's gone, and you let Malcolm Butler go to
Speaker 1: New Orleans, they could jack up their secondary potentially. Um
Speaker 1: so they're gonna do some collateral damage to themselves. Possibly,
Speaker 1: it's possible, which is one reason why I wouldn't be
Speaker 1: surprised if they keep Malcolm Butler, and who knows if
Speaker 1: they trade him. Maybe they use the first round pick
Speaker 1: in assuming they get one that they get back, Maybe
Speaker 1: they use it on a cornerback and kind of start
Speaker 1: all over there. I I think Dion lewis too. I mean,
Speaker 1: he's got to be watching this thinking like how do
Speaker 1: I fit in in this backfield where everyone's are receiving
Speaker 1: back the dark timeline that you laid out twelve and four.
Speaker 1: I mean, I would say, Dean Lewis, if anything could
Speaker 1: be on his couch watching Super Bowl fifty two, the
Speaker 1: Patriots taking another one. This will work out fine for
Speaker 1: I do this every year. I'll lay out a dark
Speaker 1: scenario for the Patriots and it never takes. So this
Speaker 1: is my my new one right now? Is the secondary,
Speaker 1: I guess, but it's there's some logic to it right that, No,
Speaker 1: that could backfire. It absolutely could happen. And then the
Speaker 1: offense scores thirty eight points again thirteen and three give
Speaker 1: us some collateral? Well, are we going forward benefits here? Beef?
Speaker 1: It's a weird year because the signings are so spread
Speaker 1: out and so many of the big names Tony Romo,
Speaker 1: Jimmy Garoppolo, Adrian Peterson, Jamal Charles J. Cutler, like Garrett
Speaker 1: Blunt even are still out there. So if the Packers
Speaker 1: or the Raiders had signed like Peterson to go with
Speaker 1: Martellis Bennett or Peterson to go with Jack Cook and
Speaker 1: court Darryl Patterson, I could see those being winners. But
Speaker 1: I'll take Jamis Winston just because I thought he really
Speaker 1: needed that second receiver behind Mike Evans, and he got
Speaker 1: the best d threat in football into Seawan Jackson. I
Speaker 1: know Greg was really excited about the Bucks last year,
Speaker 1: and I wasn't ready to go there with Jamis, but
Speaker 1: I could see this being the breakout here. Offensively, I
Speaker 1: agree because I think they're they're gonna get better at
Speaker 1: running back to I don't know who it's gonna be,
Speaker 1: whether it's gonna be a free agent or UH draft
Speaker 1: pick or both. And Doug Martin actually does something just
Speaker 1: the simple fact for wins. They can't get worse. Charles
Speaker 1: Simms is healthy and in two thousand fift team was
Speaker 1: one of the best receiving backs in football, and he
Speaker 1: didn't really have his services last year at all. I
Speaker 1: like teams that understand that it's not just signing a
Speaker 1: name at the top of the list, the guy that
Speaker 1: costs the most, but it's about fit inside your offense,
Speaker 1: and de Sean Jackson was the perfect guy to match
Speaker 1: with Mike Evans, and by all accounts, jam and what
Speaker 1: Jamis Winson had been lobbying for Deshan Jackson for weeks
Speaker 1: and weeks, and so they showed his quarterback to We're
Speaker 1: gonna get you what you need. How about Nick Carter,
Speaker 1: the blond one from the Backstreet Boys publicly pushing for
Speaker 1: a Deshan Jackson signing with Tampa. Are you that play
Speaker 1: a role at all? That was a huge factor. Maybe
Speaker 1: out here we don't notice that, but down in Tampa
Speaker 1: that is an utterly massive factor. West named one Backstreet
Speaker 1: Boy song back Streets Back. All right, that's correct, that
Speaker 1: is a song. It's in saying that. That's the name
Speaker 1: of a song by Backstreet Boys. Um, Sydney, we can't
Speaker 1: play this. Yeah, there's a good job. Command play the song.
Speaker 1: But let's play a song that sounds like Backstreets Back.
Speaker 1: She likes a peppermid bubble gum Sunday. She's like that. Okay,
Speaker 1: that's kind of what it sounds like. Alright, mark your turn,
Speaker 1: get collateral. I'm gonna go collateral. Damaged this person was
Speaker 1: damaged so far by the free agency process, like psychologically
Speaker 1: or well, I don't know. I think you'd have to ask.
Speaker 1: You'd have to ask. It's Colin Kaepernick and this is
Speaker 1: a guy that is, you know, years from from being
Speaker 1: a super Bowl starter. I know, he's not the quarterback
Speaker 1: that he was and his potential has bottomed out. But
Speaker 1: the forty Niners quickly went out and signed Brian Hoyer
Speaker 1: and Matt Barkley as better options than Colin Kaepernick, which
Speaker 1: a couple of years ago would have been a would
Speaker 1: have been like a stunning move. At this point, I
Speaker 1: think the reason I look at Kaepernick as damaged is
Speaker 1: because of what happened last season, all the sitting sitting
Speaker 1: during the national anthem business. You thought, all, you know,
Speaker 1: people will get over that, and the country's changing and evolving,
Speaker 1: and by the time the off season hits, Kaepernick's market
Speaker 1: wouldn't be affected by something like that, except you look
Speaker 1: at who the NFL is owned by for the most part,
Speaker 1: and it's super billionaire. Typically, you know, conservative, conservative, hyperpatriotic
Speaker 1: don't want to affect their alliances in business or their
Speaker 1: marketability of their team, and they don't want to bring
Speaker 1: in that kind of drama. And this is a guy
Speaker 1: who over the weekend raised over a million dollars to
Speaker 1: fly an airplane to Somalia, which is in deep famine,
Speaker 1: to bring water and supplies. It's one person doing something
Speaker 1: he cares about Colin Kaepernick in many ways has done
Speaker 1: nothing but this kind of stuff for the last year two.
Speaker 1: He is becoming, in his own way, politically aware, he
Speaker 1: cares about issues, he's doing something positive to try to help,
Speaker 1: and he cannot get a job. He's viewed, as it
Speaker 1: seems to me, completely toxic to most of these teams.
Speaker 1: Had someone texted me today who is not a big
Speaker 1: football fan but is socially aware and wanted to know
Speaker 1: why what? What is the real answer for why Colin
Speaker 1: Kaepernick isn't getting interest? And it's a very complex issue.
Speaker 1: First of all, we're talking about guy who lost his
Speaker 1: job to blame Gabbert and then couldn't regain it last summer.
Speaker 1: That matters in the NFL. When you're a quarterback who
Speaker 1: can't beat out blame Gabbert his he's he lacks field vision,
Speaker 1: he lacks accuracy, he lacks touch. These are issues he has.
Speaker 1: So twenty five out of thirty two teams probably aren't
Speaker 1: even gonna sign him because they don't want him as
Speaker 1: a starter. And at that point, are you going to
Speaker 1: sign him to compete? It's the same thing with Tebow.
Speaker 1: Do you want the circus in town? And one anonymous,
Speaker 1: a f C general manager UH spoke with Bleacher Reports
Speaker 1: Mike Freeman, and here's in that vein what the GM
Speaker 1: had to say. The problem is three things are happening
Speaker 1: with him. First, some teams genuinely believe that he can't play.
Speaker 1: They think he's shot. That's what West is getting at.
Speaker 1: I'd put that number around Second, some teams fear the
Speaker 1: backlash from fans after getting him. They think there might
Speaker 1: be protests or Trump will tweet about the team. Think
Speaker 1: about that. According to this GM, that feels that the
Speaker 1: President tweeting would stop a team from pursuing a quarterback,
Speaker 1: a football player. I'd say that number is around ten percent.
Speaker 1: Then there's another ten percent that has a mix of
Speaker 1: those feelings. Third, the rest genuinely hate him and can't
Speaker 1: stand what he did kneeling for the national anthem. They
Speaker 1: want nothing to do with him. They won't move on.
Speaker 1: They think showing no interest is a form of punishment.
Speaker 1: I think this is getting out with Mark, you were saying, Mark.
Speaker 1: I think some teams also want to use Kaepernick as
Speaker 1: a cautionary tale to stop other players in the future
Speaker 1: from doing what he did. Yeeks, I want to see
Speaker 1: this play out a little bit, and I look, I
Speaker 1: you'll never You'll never go wrong expecting the worst out
Speaker 1: of billionaires generally. I mean so so on some level
Speaker 1: it makes sense, but everyone's saying blacklist, and I guess
Speaker 1: I wanted to see it shake out because I think
Speaker 1: if if he did nothing last year off the field,
Speaker 1: there was no kneeling controversy and he was a free
Speaker 1: agent right now, would I would any of us be
Speaker 1: that surprised? Now? I mean, Jay Cutler is a free agent,
Speaker 1: Ryan Fitzpatrick's a free agent, Chase Daniels a free agent,
Speaker 1: Robert Griffin the Third's a free agent. So if he
Speaker 1: doesn't get a job the entire offseason, then I would
Speaker 1: listen to that. And maybe all this is true, but
Speaker 1: he he's damaged goods even putting all that aside. So
Speaker 1: I kind of think, and I'm thinking the best of
Speaker 1: these these teams that he will get a job, and
Speaker 1: that just like Gino Smith just signed for two million dollars,
Speaker 1: you know, for a very low price. I think eventually
Speaker 1: he'll find some fit. Like the other guys, like Fitzpatrick,
Speaker 1: I refuse to think that it is only because of him.
Speaker 1: The football player Aaron Murray has signed a deal. Kellen
Speaker 1: Moore just resigned with the Cowboys. But people above, I
Speaker 1: think it has to be we would have to we
Speaker 1: would have to willingly close our eyes to say this
Speaker 1: has nothing to do with something beyond football, And again
Speaker 1: not in every case, but with large chunks of the league,
Speaker 1: because when you're if your GM goes and does that,
Speaker 1: who does the GM have to answer to owner? I
Speaker 1: think this is an ownership issue in many more cases
Speaker 1: than it is a GM or a coaching staff issue.
Speaker 1: And it could be that the owner isn't even publicly
Speaker 1: or even privately voicing these concerns. It could be just
Speaker 1: the g M saying I know my owner wouldn't like
Speaker 1: this because I'm not reading the leaves, like what's what's
Speaker 1: the benefit here, what's the opera cost? Basically what it is.
Speaker 1: It's as you said, it's a complex issue because I
Speaker 1: think if if Kaepernick was thirty better last year, then
Speaker 1: it wouldn't be an issue. Get a job one last
Speaker 1: By the way, if the idea of this guy kneeling
Speaker 1: an international historical sign of fealty and respect during the
Speaker 1: national anthem causes you to hate him, you really need
Speaker 1: to do some soul searching yourself. That's all I'll say
Speaker 1: about that. You gotta watch out with those Trump tweets too,
Speaker 1: I'll get you in trouble. Mark looking at you, buddy, Well,
Speaker 1: he might be tweeting at you soon about your investigative
Speaker 1: work on the Patriots quarterback Good friends with You're getting
Speaker 1: closer and closer to the web. You're insinuating that I
Speaker 1: am in great danger. I'm just putting the I'm putting
Speaker 1: the energy out there to see what happens. You're trying
Speaker 1: to get me and my family killed. That's not really
Speaker 1: that didn't come out exactly the way i'd say, But
Speaker 1: I'm gonna throw one out there, and it's it's kind
Speaker 1: of a tricky one because it's collateral benefit that can
Speaker 1: become collateral damage. Is that even possible? That's part three
Speaker 1: of the series. His name is Eli Manning and uh
Speaker 1: the reason should be obvious? Obvious? Why benefit? Brandon Marshall
Speaker 1: Um was signed to a pretty healthy contract for a
Speaker 1: team that maybe wasn't hurting at the wide receiver position.
Speaker 1: They went out and spent money to bring another veteran,
Speaker 1: Brandon Marshall, who is people don't forget things quickly, but
Speaker 1: he had as good as wide a season as any
Speaker 1: wide receiver in the entire league. In UH, the guy
Speaker 1: can still play even if maybe he's lost a half step.
Speaker 1: He's a great addition and uh certainly an upgrade over
Speaker 1: West's boy Victor Cruz. So you slot in Brandon Marshall
Speaker 1: with Odell Beckham and Sterling Shepard. Is that the best
Speaker 1: big three in football? It's probably in the conversation maybe
Speaker 1: in terms of wide pop my head, that's the number one.
Speaker 1: And then you have Eli Manning who's coming off a
Speaker 1: wolfull season. He's thirty six years old, and this is
Speaker 1: where the damage comes in. It's almost like the Giants say, hey, Eli,
Speaker 1: put up our shut up now, because if he has
Speaker 1: another season like he had last season twenty turnovers, you
Speaker 1: really get the vibe that Eli's starting job for the
Speaker 1: first time in fifteen years would be in grave danger.
Speaker 1: Uh if if he's not able to take this offense
Speaker 1: and put points on the board. And to that point,
Speaker 1: earlier this month, um Ben McAdoo uh kind of put
Speaker 1: Eli on the spot a little bit and he said
Speaker 1: Eli needs to do a better job of playing with
Speaker 1: fast feet and I think he needs to sit back,
Speaker 1: sit on that back foot in the pocket. He kind
Speaker 1: of puts some of their ills on him. So Eli's
Speaker 1: gotta have a bounce back season or I don't know
Speaker 1: if he has a job, is starting job. The GM
Speaker 1: also said in January, elies on the back nine of
Speaker 1: his career. You don't hear Belichick saying that about Tom Brady,
Speaker 1: who's five years older than him. Well, they got they
Speaker 1: they should draft a quarterback then because they they're not
Speaker 1: signing one. So I mean they signed Gino Smith, but
Speaker 1: that even I don't think that's a long term answer.
Speaker 1: So that means they'll tell us what they think with
Speaker 1: their draft, because that sounds great. But I will believe
Speaker 1: that the Giants will move on from Eli Manning when
Speaker 1: when I see it, I think they're gonna stick with
Speaker 1: him a year or two too long. Well, I think
Speaker 1: it's stressful. I'll never forget that Jimmy Johnson Miami Dolphins
Speaker 1: era where he he attached himself to a late period
Speaker 1: Dan Marino after being with Troy Aikman's heyday and you
Speaker 1: could kind of just feel that it was not going
Speaker 1: to all these people were like, Oh, you're just gonna
Speaker 1: go into doubt into Miami and duplicate what happened with
Speaker 1: the Cowboys, and it showed how hard that is. But
Speaker 1: especially when your quarterback is declining, and now if you're
Speaker 1: Ben McAdoo, it's a stressful role to be at the
Speaker 1: back end of Eli Manning's career versus the every three
Speaker 1: years four years he takes you to the Super Bowl
Speaker 1: and has an amazing playoff run. I'll just add I'm
Speaker 1: not ready to count him out. I think he could
Speaker 1: have a good year next year. We'll see about the
Speaker 1: arm strength and west. You brought that up many times.
Speaker 1: If that arm is shot, then it's gonna probably come
Speaker 1: back to to really haunt him and lead to the
Speaker 1: end of his career. We have no idea. It could
Speaker 1: be an in season's arm fatigue or something I'm just saying.
Speaker 1: People have done for a long time. And he seems
Speaker 1: to have overcome doubts his whole career. So if he
Speaker 1: could extend his career another couple of years where he's
Speaker 1: a proficient starter, I would not be stunning. There are
Speaker 1: things they don't need to draft a quarterback now, it's
Speaker 1: not a great class for that. If they're not in
Speaker 1: love with someone, they don't need to find his successor.
Speaker 1: And I think the geno smith, you know, signing for
Speaker 1: whatever it is a patch, tells you exactly that. But
Speaker 1: couldn't you see it? Would you be shocked? If I
Speaker 1: wouldn't be shocked picked in the second round and then
Speaker 1: blew the doors off everyone and be like, whoa, they
Speaker 1: just took a quarterback in the top three round. That's
Speaker 1: what That's what the Patriots did. When the Patriots took
Speaker 1: Jimmy Garoppolo, it came higher than a lot of people
Speaker 1: thought the Patriots would pick a quarterback. But it was
Speaker 1: at a time where you think Tom Brady's great, but
Speaker 1: you don't know you have to taking these quarterbacks. They
Speaker 1: took Mallett, they took bur Stt. Now it's like, I
Speaker 1: don't I think quarterbacks. And the Patriots are showing this
Speaker 1: with there were so much he's just take take a
Speaker 1: lottery ticket in the third round if you get someone
Speaker 1: you like, all right, one time, one more time around
Speaker 1: and then we go Greg, I'm gonna go to someone
Speaker 1: else that got damaged about that about Thomas Rowles hundred
Speaker 1: and sixty one yards in the playoffs, you know, at
Speaker 1: times he's looked like a top five running back, a
Speaker 1: guy who can carry the load. Now, Eddie Lacy comes
Speaker 1: in some similar skill sets there. I don't blame Pete
Speaker 1: Carroll at all for wanting more guys, but I think
Speaker 1: Rawls Rawles has had his chance and he hasn't been
Speaker 1: able to stay on the field enough. At the same time,
Speaker 1: I mean, this is a guy that they believed in
Speaker 1: enough coming off ankle surgery that they didn't really get
Speaker 1: much support for Tomas. They were expecting him to come
Speaker 1: back and kind of be the man. I think they
Speaker 1: expected too much. They don't want to get burned this
Speaker 1: time around. It's gonna be tough for him to get
Speaker 1: all those carries again. Most backfields ride the hot hand,
Speaker 1: and I'll be shocked if Thomas Rawls is not the
Speaker 1: one with the hot hand entering week one. I mean,
Speaker 1: I think Pete Carroll is very concerned about the durability
Speaker 1: of that backfield they had an incredible Part of the
Speaker 1: reason is your is your offensive line is a mess
Speaker 1: and and your running backs cannot stay healthy. I like
Speaker 1: the signing. I just I we'll see it's gonna be
Speaker 1: a full on competition. That's all Seattle does. I'll do
Speaker 1: another benefit twin Jared goff Todd Gurley. Wow, very faint benefit.
Speaker 1: I like this. You haven't heard a single positive thing
Speaker 1: Proffert on this site about the Rams, and here it comes.
Speaker 1: They got the best tackle on the market, Andrew Whitworth.
Speaker 1: They put him at left tackle. They moved Greg Robinson,
Speaker 1: who has been an immense draft bust off of left
Speaker 1: tackle where he's been terrible, and you move him. He's
Speaker 1: going to compete at right tackle. But the best idea
Speaker 1: might be just moving him into guard where he can
Speaker 1: blow people off the ball. He was okay as a
Speaker 1: rookie played guard. Yeah, maybe you can help the run
Speaker 1: game and the passing game. You're definitely gonna help the
Speaker 1: passing game with Andrew Whitworth, who is still playing at
Speaker 1: a Pro Bowl level as of two thousand sixteen season.
Speaker 1: And then if you move, if you move Robinson to
Speaker 1: guard and leave Hanstein at at right tackle, I think
Speaker 1: you've helped the offensive line immensely. He also went from
Speaker 1: Kenny Brits to Robert Woods wide receiver. Yeah, but you,
Speaker 1: but you went from Jeff Fisher's coaching staff, Sean McVeigh.
Speaker 1: I think they would, and then they have a high
Speaker 1: draft pick. Correct. No, the Titans have their first run.
Speaker 1: They sold the farm. God. Yeah, I was gonna say
Speaker 1: they would be well set up to take one of
Speaker 1: these dynamic offensive talents in the first round. But they
Speaker 1: kind of bang themselves a little bit here. But let's
Speaker 1: stay positive. I like that we might get we might
Speaker 1: get to see the first five games of his career.
Speaker 1: Version of Todd Gurley. Who knows. M hm, that's fair,
Speaker 1: all right, Mark, Why don't you finish it up? Collateral benefit.
Speaker 1: I'm gonna try very hard to spin this positively. Who benefits?
Speaker 1: How about football followers hoping for a mostly quiet march
Speaker 1: and very humdrum free agency period. If that's what you wanted,
Speaker 1: you benefited. That's what you got because wanted. I don't.
Speaker 1: I I like drama as much as the next person.
Speaker 1: But I think that you talk about this, you don't
Speaker 1: like drama. You like things nice and calm, really person
Speaker 1: like drama. I think if it came in the form
Speaker 1: of Jimmy Garoppolo to the Browns, yeah, I mean the
Speaker 1: rest of it. I think we just we talked about
Speaker 1: the cap space thing where teams don't have to make
Speaker 1: dramatic cuts, where this guy that you thought, oh my gosh,
Speaker 1: there's no way he wouldn't be on this team next year. Well,
Speaker 1: they got a free up cap space. I just think
Speaker 1: that free agency, if they want to turn it into
Speaker 1: this three day long television gala where it's like the
Speaker 1: biggest thing on the planet, well you got to back
Speaker 1: it up year to year. At some point there's got
Speaker 1: to be these ten pole moments, and this free agency
Speaker 1: period did not have that. In my book. You can
Speaker 1: you can point to the brock Oswiler trade, but it
Speaker 1: was more unusual than it was utterly you know, game changing.
Speaker 1: He's not gonnaven be on a team next year necessarily,
Speaker 1: and I I think that they've this is not going
Speaker 1: to get better in one year. It's going to continue
Speaker 1: to trend this way. It's gonna be truly about eight
Speaker 1: or nine hours of real drama tucked into what we're
Speaker 1: being told is four or five days of unbelievable television.
Speaker 1: Well that this year has been weird though, because of
Speaker 1: what West said before the biggest names. I've been on
Speaker 1: the hook to write a ventual Adrian Peterson column for
Speaker 1: two weeks running now for both weekends, Like, okay, if
Speaker 1: with Adrian Peterson signs, you're writing a calm. Well he's
Speaker 1: still he's still out there that anyone. There's someone on
Speaker 1: the Juny, someone's on the Tony Romo beat. If if
Speaker 1: Tony Romo happens, if it's Saturday night, you gotta write
Speaker 1: it's like that hasn't happened either. Those are the big names.
Speaker 1: Jimmy g is still sitting out there. Cousins is in
Speaker 1: theory not sitting out there. But no one's totally closed,
Speaker 1: like the door on that. All the big names this
Speaker 1: year still waiting. I got I got Mark on the
Speaker 1: Garrett Blunt beat for next week. Well, what happens, Greg?
Speaker 1: If Adrian Peterson signs at ten at night on a
Speaker 1: Saturday and you have like six glasses of wine and
Speaker 1: you Greg's gotta write it. Well, Greg's not gonna have
Speaker 1: six classes of wine. And first of all, is that
Speaker 1: how you get a sign of these things? But I
Speaker 1: thought it was a sneaky, a humble brag from Gregg.
Speaker 1: It's like, oh, I'm on the beat for writing the
Speaker 1: story about the most legendary running back of the last
Speaker 1: third He and he or if that's a brat, If
Speaker 1: that's a humble brag, I'll trade it one of you
Speaker 1: guys can go on that hull. I have no desire
Speaker 1: to be on so exactly. But you're like, I struggled.
Speaker 1: I've written this column for a few years, and it
Speaker 1: was it was harder to come up with some good names.
Speaker 1: Like I went with Tyrod Taylor as a guy who
Speaker 1: suffered some damage, and like, what did he really lose?
Speaker 1: Like Robert Woods and Marquis Good. It's just he doesn't
Speaker 1: have any receivers. You know, he's stuck at not having receivers. Well,
Speaker 1: I you know, but your number two receiver at the
Speaker 1: time I wrote it, his number two receivers Walt Powell.
Speaker 1: So that seems that sounds that sounds like a guy
Speaker 1: that works in the maintenance department with the parks. Right,
Speaker 1: and then that's assuming Sady Watkins even healthy. He might
Speaker 1: he might be number one a pal. You're on pitch
Speaker 1: amount duty. Make sure it's round it off nicely. You
Speaker 1: make a very nice you make an appropriate parks and
Speaker 1: wreck manager yourself. You that that was a good order.
Speaker 1: That was the sinct I could do that. It's good
Speaker 1: to have a backup plan. That's much. It's a deep backup.
Speaker 1: I signed up for it, all right. Wait, I have
Speaker 1: a question on Greg's duty here. Oh yeah, so have
Speaker 1: you pre written any of it? Have you been tempted
Speaker 1: to pre write an article like guessing on which team?
Speaker 1: A couple of nutgrafts wasting time on pre writing things
Speaker 1: as marks game. I don't want to cut in. I
Speaker 1: would have written like two thousand words about the you know,
Speaker 1: the summing up his career, and just put like two
Speaker 1: paragraphs on top about where he went. I got right,
Speaker 1: you could does right right now, the state of his career,
Speaker 1: why people didn't have interest in him, that kind of stuff.
Speaker 1: I mean, I got burned in the Super Bowl prewriting.
Speaker 1: I don't want to go back. So the mental in
Speaker 1: terms of unsolicited advice from your colleagues, bust a couple
Speaker 1: of nutgrafts. Just get them out a little prewriting as
Speaker 1: a couple of you, I think you can't lose trust me,
Speaker 1: all right. It's just like the background on his that's
Speaker 1: how it wear a whole belt story and whatnot. I
Speaker 1: might leave that out. It was a switch. I just
Speaker 1: want to be factual as well. This is a big
Speaker 1: prore's a big spotlight on you. This story. It happens
Speaker 1: Adrian Peterson to the Patriots. Away we go. We're flying
Speaker 1: into nineteen and oh and maybe that's why you don't
Speaker 1: want to pre write it, because it becomes more about
Speaker 1: the Patriots being unstoppable. Once he's connected, you're gonna be
Speaker 1: home alone with your two children like you're handling them
Speaker 1: for hours and hours all they're gonna be going nuts.
Speaker 1: And Adrian Peterson is gonna retire and you're gonna be
Speaker 1: screwed because you didn't pre write a word of it.
Speaker 1: Take our advice, Greg, all right, that's it. We should
Speaker 1: call up Judy Batista and offer advice on her writing
Speaker 1: career too. Maybe former New York New York Times scribe
Speaker 1: now writing for NFL media, Judy batistaging everyone to be
Speaker 1: know every name that's mentioned deep background for anyone that
Speaker 1: might not be aware. You're referring to. When I pointed
Speaker 1: out that the John Gunzoz his nickname was Guy, I
Speaker 1: had many people on Twitter thank me for considering that
Speaker 1: they might not be totally aware of One of our
Speaker 1: co hosts, husband Shadow League Figure, was in your corner
Speaker 1: on this one too, The White Night of the Around
Speaker 1: the NFL podcast, Greg Ros for all the uninformed listeners
Speaker 1: out there. I catered to the informed ones. I don't know.
Speaker 1: I got all the banks. It's happened the last two minutes.
Speaker 1: All right, we'll be back on Wednesday. We hope to
Speaker 1: have a special guest joining us in studio. No, it's
Speaker 1: not little Debbie, but it is someone that we love
Speaker 1: and admire and uh has not been here in a while.
Speaker 1: So hopefully that will materialize. We'll see. If not, it
Speaker 1: will be just the four of us and we'll have fun.
Speaker 1: That's all we do. Let's go. You're in deep trouble,
Speaker 1: shouldn't he? I'm really mad. Then, as the signing off
Speaker 1: for Quiet starring the mail Man the Boss, a new
Speaker 1: money behind the Glass Wednesday, mm hm everybody, yeah, hel