Speaker 1: Thea Around the NFL podcast is legal in the continental
Speaker 1: United States, but not Hawaii. Welcome back to another edition
Speaker 1: of the Around the NFL Podcast. My name is Dan Hands,
Speaker 1: and I am joined by a room filled with some heroes.
Speaker 1: Chris Westling to my left and to his left the
Speaker 1: great Colleen Wolf. What's up? Welcome back? Colleen's great to
Speaker 1: be here. It is that was by request. Yeah, it
Speaker 1: is a little bit jarring to be in the studio
Speaker 1: with Western Colleen, who did NFL now hit? Uh you
Speaker 1: know on camera right before? And I'm wearing a four
Speaker 1: year old polo shirt and they're both looking like Madame
Speaker 1: Tussaut's wax figures. Yeah, all made up. Actually, you both
Speaker 1: look beautiful, but I'm not being able to notice. And
Speaker 1: that looks like a new jacket. West I bought myself
Speaker 1: a suit when I was at the draft, Mr, are handsome?
Speaker 1: Did you really? I like it? It's like my first
Speaker 1: adult suit. And I could tell um that that's a
Speaker 1: nice shirt too. By the thread count, Oh you can yeah,
Speaker 1: did that cost your money? Three ft away? You can
Speaker 1: tell it? Did that cost you more than fifty dollars? Okay, Collee?
Speaker 1: And now you like that? That's great, that's good analysis.
Speaker 1: G Q. I'm available, No, I'm not. The NFL is
Speaker 1: very kind to me. Shadowy league figures. So big show
Speaker 1: today with Colleen. We got Mark on vacation staycation. Um,
Speaker 1: although I did see Mark yesterday. It's good to know
Speaker 1: a brit handsome Hank got his tickets to the Noel
Speaker 1: Gallagher show at the Orpheum Downtown and we actually ran
Speaker 1: into a podcast van Eddie from l A who we
Speaker 1: took a picture Eddie, we got a picture. Yeah, so Eddie,
Speaker 1: thank you for listening. Uh so that was pretty cool. Um.
Speaker 1: But we'll talk a little later in the show. We'll
Speaker 1: get into a little some concert experiences amongst the group
Speaker 1: and TD you can get involved with that as well.
Speaker 1: I know you are a musical man in you know,
Speaker 1: in addition to being young ish, Kobe and the court
Speaker 1: lightly competitive. I'll be there, all right. I don't know
Speaker 1: what competitive trying to win? Are you trying to win
Speaker 1: the best first concert? Okay? And I didn't know the Yeah,
Speaker 1: mine is gonna lose big time. It's like a lose off. Um. Alright,
Speaker 1: so we're going to Yeah, we'll talk about that a
Speaker 1: little later in the show. We're also going to get
Speaker 1: to Um, Chris Westling, you wrote a piece that's earned
Speaker 1: why to claim it internally? Out for three minutes? Yeah,
Speaker 1: everybody telling west is long form piece on the Ohio
Speaker 1: River offense, which was really what the West Coast offense
Speaker 1: should be known as. He wrote a great piece and
Speaker 1: we're gonna dig into that a little bit. We highly
Speaker 1: recommend you check it out. And actually when we make
Speaker 1: this stuff up, um, the when I make up vanity
Speaker 1: U R l s. In this case, there is one
Speaker 1: NFL dot com slash Ohio River Offense. Also, we're breaking
Speaker 1: new ground here. This is the first time you actually
Speaker 1: have read the article. I know where you've talked about it.
Speaker 1: That's why I'm I'm really excited to do is being prepared.
Speaker 1: It's almost like the show could be better, um. And
Speaker 1: we'll also get into the Roster Resets series, which I
Speaker 1: think we touched on the a f C East last
Speaker 1: week or the week before. We're hitting every division, but
Speaker 1: we're not hitting everything on the pod, but we will
Speaker 1: do the NFC West because there's some interesting stuff going
Speaker 1: on in the West West. You also wrote that, So
Speaker 1: we're gonna kind of uh, you know, go through the
Speaker 1: great Westling well dressed, spent over four dollars on the
Speaker 1: close he's wearing today in addition to the makeup and
Speaker 1: the shaved head. What a package. But before thank you,
Speaker 1: I feel good. Dan is pumping me up today. I
Speaker 1: feel great. But before before we get to any of that,
Speaker 1: we turn our attentions behind the glass Mr Competitive himself.
Speaker 1: What's going on, guys? And with Greg now being in today,
Speaker 1: I can't lie completely mild in the money tag open today.
Speaker 1: I didn't even tell how come? How come the Continental US? Uh?
Speaker 1: What was it banned? Or something banned in Hawaii? But
Speaker 1: what about Alaska? Alska? What about the comic state of
Speaker 1: Puerto Rico? Did not factually check that money tag? My apologies.
Speaker 1: West definitely took issue with it. It was it didn't
Speaker 1: make sense. And even you know money who does such
Speaker 1: a great job, even he struggled to get through the
Speaker 1: wordiness of it. It It was just clumsily. That was like,
Speaker 1: I don't I don't know where that one came. Okay, yeah,
Speaker 1: all right, let's do some news. You've got a few guesses.
Speaker 1: You can feel bad for you. I don't think about
Speaker 1: you at all. One of my favorite moments in history
Speaker 1: of madness. Shout out to done. Now you know what,
Speaker 1: I should spoil it just to punish you. It's a
Speaker 1: cultural touchstone moment the finale. If you're in on the show,
Speaker 1: I know, but I had a lot of he was
Speaker 1: too busy. Oh yeah, it's it's mad Men, Baby, the
Speaker 1: greatest show ever. Maybe Sopranos is better in my out
Speaker 1: the wire. I think you're sleeping on northern exposure? Is
Speaker 1: that the Moose Show? If Burt Reynolds, all right, let's
Speaker 1: do some news. We'll start with the New York Jets, who,
Speaker 1: uh we had been led to believe Todd Bowls. Their
Speaker 1: new coach had said that Gino Smith was going to
Speaker 1: get the first team reps initially, but Ryan Fitzpatrick, who
Speaker 1: they traded for in the offseason, was going to be
Speaker 1: in the mix for the starting job. It sounded like.
Speaker 1: But then Shan Gilly, of the team's offensive coordinator, came
Speaker 1: out on Wednesday and said Gino Smith is going to
Speaker 1: be the team's starting quarterback. Uh. He said that that's
Speaker 1: what they expected it to be, that that's always been
Speaker 1: the plan. So Gino, as we know, as we've or
Speaker 1: I specifically I've I've wrote that Gino coaster up and
Speaker 1: down for two years, he's gonna it. Sounds like he's
Speaker 1: gonna walk into a third year as a starter. I
Speaker 1: don't want to ride it, but I gotta ride it.
Speaker 1: I got no choice. Yeah, yeah, So that that's the
Speaker 1: other thing. It's we need. It's a roller coaster and
Speaker 1: a train or two different things. Was anyway, Colleen, we'll
Speaker 1: start with you on this. Are you surprised that the
Speaker 1: Jets have essentially handed Gino the job before the summer
Speaker 1: has even hit? On one hand, I'm surprised just because
Speaker 1: there there's no reason for him to do it this early,
Speaker 1: for them to do it this early. But part of
Speaker 1: me kind of thinks that it might just be them
Speaker 1: saying it so they don't have to deal with the
Speaker 1: questions and the stories and just everything that they'll have
Speaker 1: to deal with the entire offseason in preseason. So maybe
Speaker 1: they are going to have a competition, but maybe they
Speaker 1: think that Gino is gonna end up winning it. I thought,
Speaker 1: um there was a headline on this, and I think
Speaker 1: it was in maybe dead Spin yesterday. They put it,
Speaker 1: well that those Jets look at their depth chart sigh,
Speaker 1: named Gino Smith starting quarterback because what ultimately you have
Speaker 1: Bryce Petty who they draft in the fourth round. He's
Speaker 1: not going to touch the ball this year. Ryan Fitzpatrick,
Speaker 1: who I seem to like a little more than some
Speaker 1: other people on this spot us, but still at the
Speaker 1: same time, he's Ryan Fitzpatrick. You know what you're getting
Speaker 1: out of him, and he's coming off a broken leg,
Speaker 1: so he's not even healthy right now. Geno Smith West
Speaker 1: seems like the guy that's the best fit for this team.
Speaker 1: You know, he's a nice guy. Yeah. I think this
Speaker 1: was the surest sign we've seen yet that the regime
Speaker 1: is not gonna handle things the way they did with
Speaker 1: under Rex, Ryan and the what is he the Iceberg?
Speaker 1: The Yeah, well, I mean, look at the last three years,
Speaker 1: you had the circus with Tebow and Sanchez, then you
Speaker 1: had uh Sanchez and Genos Smith and then last year
Speaker 1: they could for some reason, they just couldn't. They didn't
Speaker 1: have it in them to tell Michael Vick that he
Speaker 1: wasn't even involved in the process, and but it was
Speaker 1: still a controversy. Every year. Now they nip it in
Speaker 1: the bud, and to me, it's a no brainer. This
Speaker 1: division is wide open. You're not winning a division with
Speaker 1: Ryan Fitzpatrick. He doesn't win more than six games in
Speaker 1: any season. I think the surrounding talent says, take a
Speaker 1: chance on Gino. He has more talent than fitz Patrick
Speaker 1: and see what he can do. Well. We were talking
Speaker 1: about and I don't know if you Calle and listened
Speaker 1: to our last podcast where we try to dig through
Speaker 1: the Daltons and we Blake Boardles. I thought of Gino.
Speaker 1: We were talking about Blake Bortles and West. You had
Speaker 1: said that you would rather have Boardles in Dalton because
Speaker 1: you're thinking of upside. You could say the same thing
Speaker 1: for Gino Smith. There's more upside there. So if you're
Speaker 1: really looking every team is trying to win the Super Bowl.
Speaker 1: If you're looking for the quarterback that has the best
Speaker 1: chance to make a leap, it's probably Gino Smith over Fitzpatrick.
Speaker 1: Oh absolutely yeah. And he's improved his completion percentage, his
Speaker 1: touchdowns by one. But also he's lowered his interceptions. And
Speaker 1: you look at the weapons that they have and and
Speaker 1: they brought in Brandon Marshall, they have Eric Decker, they
Speaker 1: drafted Devin Smith. Their run game last year was like
Speaker 1: third in the league. With this is what it's they're
Speaker 1: going to have a really good defense. I'd be shocked
Speaker 1: if they don't have a you know, a top ten
Speaker 1: or even top five defense. And you know, to me,
Speaker 1: it's like all they have to do to get to
Speaker 1: nine or ten wins is have a quarterback that doesn't
Speaker 1: kill him. But I'm very nervous about it because Gino
Speaker 1: Smith kills the Jets. He did it for two years.
Speaker 1: Maybe he Chan Gailey gets something out of him. Was
Speaker 1: Chan Gailey? I think that's his reputation. I mean, he's
Speaker 1: he got something out of Tyler Thigpen. One year. He
Speaker 1: got Ryan Fitzpatrick a sixty million dollar contract, So I think, yeah,
Speaker 1: Chan Gailey can work Wonders. He's shown that. But to me,
Speaker 1: it comes down to almost every quarterback controversy comes down
Speaker 1: to this question. Gino Smith has a chance to be
Speaker 1: the answer. Ryan Fitzpatrick doesn't. Well, it's bad news for
Speaker 1: Ryan Fitzpatrick. If Geno Smith has already beaten out and
Speaker 1: they have him and Chance sort of have a history,
Speaker 1: I would not be surprised. In fact, I would expect
Speaker 1: them both of Star Games this year. I still feel
Speaker 1: that way. That would not surprise me. Um the Geno scale.
Speaker 1: Maybe that will time next year, and it's possible this
Speaker 1: time next year, all right, And moving on other Jets
Speaker 1: and news. Darrell Rivas, of course, won a Super Bowl
Speaker 1: of the Patriots in his one season there and then
Speaker 1: jumped back to the Jets and the New York Daily News.
Speaker 1: Venetia Metta, who's been on our show before. He is
Speaker 1: the calumnist for the Daily News. Just former beat reporter,
Speaker 1: spoke with Reeves his first real comments about the deflate
Speaker 1: gate scandal, and uh, a little bit surprising. He was
Speaker 1: really didn't have any sympathy for the Patriots or Tom Brady. Uh,
Speaker 1: this is what he said. Everybody's blowing it up because
Speaker 1: it's Tom Brady. I understand that. But if the NFL
Speaker 1: feels he did the crime or he did something they
Speaker 1: want to penalize him, then that's that the Patriots have
Speaker 1: a history of doing stuff. You can't hide that Tom
Speaker 1: was there when they did that stuff in the past. Colleen,
Speaker 1: what is that all about? I love that he just
Speaker 1: comes right out and he's saying that they have a
Speaker 1: history of doing stuff. I like that that is also
Speaker 1: like that's the headline. Of course, they have history of
Speaker 1: doing stuff, but also that stuff. He really yeah, exactly,
Speaker 1: he didn't really hesitate to sort of throw his old
Speaker 1: team under the bus, the team that gave him a ring.
Speaker 1: So I thought that was kind of interesting, really taking
Speaker 1: his higher gun roll to a new level. He's absolutely
Speaker 1: no emotion whatsoever out his time in New England. Cut
Speaker 1: that he's a cold, cold man, Like, uh what um,
Speaker 1: Jeff dank Er, No, who's Jeff Bridges. Jeff Bridges in
Speaker 1: The Fabulous Baker Boys. He's just this cold cold man
Speaker 1: Baker one of my favorite movies. Michelle Peiffer calls him
Speaker 1: on it. He's so cold, that's Darrell Rivas. If I
Speaker 1: fail a drug this is a quote. I'm not saying this.
Speaker 1: If I fail a drug test, then I fail a
Speaker 1: drug test. If I get a d U I, I
Speaker 1: get a d U I, Revas said. If Tom gets
Speaker 1: caught with a d I d U I, it's a
Speaker 1: d U I. They're saying what he did, what he's done,
Speaker 1: then the suspension is the suspension. That is an analogy
Speaker 1: that does not work on any level. Doesn't click. No, sorry, Drell.
Speaker 1: Stick to football is one of the most insanely idiotic
Speaker 1: things I've ever heard. I love it, though, I mean,
Speaker 1: and you know, I agree, a guy from Billy Madison,
Speaker 1: But I also love that Rivas is all in. He's
Speaker 1: back on my he's green. Let's do it, judge, let's
Speaker 1: do it. Let's get back to the playoffs. And it's
Speaker 1: you know, let's get back to the game, the big
Speaker 1: one nineteen sixty nine. We have not been back. It's
Speaker 1: gonna be all right. I don't think this is the
Speaker 1: year though, Alright. Moving on, Uh, big big setback for
Speaker 1: the New York Giants and their offensive line. Left tackle
Speaker 1: Will Baity Uh undergoes surgery for a torn pectoral muscle.
Speaker 1: He was lifting weights working out and he suffered the injury.
Speaker 1: This is a big setback that will keep him out
Speaker 1: probably deep into the season. And now West this puts
Speaker 1: him in a tough spot. They drafted Eric Flower's number
Speaker 1: nine overall. He was supposed to be the future guy
Speaker 1: at left tackle. Uh, you have Justin Pugh in the
Speaker 1: mix too. Maybe he becomes that guy. But all of
Speaker 1: a sudden, all this effort they put into stabilizing this
Speaker 1: line for the back end of Eli's prime, now they
Speaker 1: have an issue in a major one. Well, the way
Speaker 1: I look at this, you're weaker at three positions now
Speaker 1: because you have to move Flower to the left tackle,
Speaker 1: you have to make move Pew back to right tackle.
Speaker 1: He was supposed to make guard better, and you have
Speaker 1: to put John Jerry back in at guard if that's
Speaker 1: the route they choose to go. It was will Baby
Speaker 1: was their only good offensive lineman last year. He was
Speaker 1: one of the best left tackles in the league. And
Speaker 1: now you've got a raw rookie who was supposed to
Speaker 1: be worked in slowly guarding Eli's blindside. It's not a
Speaker 1: recipe for success. Yeah, and the thing that we talked
Speaker 1: about all offseason was one of the biggest needs for
Speaker 1: them besides safety, was an offensive lineman so you could
Speaker 1: move Justin Pugh inside to his more natural position. So
Speaker 1: when they've drafted Eric Flowers, this was like, oh great,
Speaker 1: they got the safety. They did this like it's perfect,
Speaker 1: and now they're going to have to have Justin Pugh
Speaker 1: outside and that's a big liability for them. I mean,
Speaker 1: if there's any positive and there really isn't, but at
Speaker 1: least you could say, you know, it's it's May twenty.
Speaker 1: If the injury happens, you have a lot of time
Speaker 1: to figure out how to how to rebuild the line
Speaker 1: or or rebuild on the fly here. But let's face it,
Speaker 1: Manning is you know, nobody's more durable than him. He's
Speaker 1: never missed a start, um, so you don't started worry
Speaker 1: about him getting hurt. But at the same time, he's
Speaker 1: not a mobile guy. Uh, so he's not gonna be
Speaker 1: escaping the rush. If you don't have a good line
Speaker 1: in front of him, he's gonna throw interceptions. Yeah. We
Speaker 1: Colleen and I just in NFL now and she talked
Speaker 1: about how the Giants offense looks really good on paper,
Speaker 1: but when you talk about an offense on paper, you
Speaker 1: always ignore the offensive line. And I think that's a
Speaker 1: big thing. The Giants were gonna be my pick to
Speaker 1: win the NFC East, a surprise pick, but I don't
Speaker 1: think I can do that anyway. So it's it's that
Speaker 1: biggest setback for I think it is. I think it's
Speaker 1: a huge setback because the offensive line has been an
Speaker 1: issue for them for what three or four years now,
Speaker 1: and to me, it's not fixed. Now. Moving on to
Speaker 1: another NFC East team, the Dallas Cowboys did not take
Speaker 1: a running back in the draft. They didn't uh resigned
Speaker 1: to Marco Murray in free agency, and yet they have
Speaker 1: remained confident, Jerry Jones going as far as saying that
Speaker 1: they'll get more more production this season than they did
Speaker 1: last season. So it's pipe dream time in Dallas. But
Speaker 1: that it does seem like they're still looking to take
Speaker 1: with a backfield. Bent Tate, who played with three teams
Speaker 1: last season, UM including Pittsburgh for a game in the playoffs.
Speaker 1: Uh is working out with the team. Uh Tate, of course,
Speaker 1: when when he was in Houston, is the number two
Speaker 1: guy behind Arian Foster. Showed some things, but you know
Speaker 1: he really regrets last year as a player. But Cowboys
Speaker 1: are kicking the tires now, Colleen, this is almost like
Speaker 1: the ultimate test. Tate seems like if he's healthy, good
Speaker 1: enough running back, you would think, and Jerry Jones is
Speaker 1: very confident. They have the best offensive line in years.
Speaker 1: Put bent Tate behind that line and give him two
Speaker 1: hundred carries. Is he one thousand yard rusher? Yeah? But
Speaker 1: is he going to be happy with it? Because that
Speaker 1: was the whole issue with him was that he was
Speaker 1: complaining about his role before. So you have Darren McFadden
Speaker 1: and you have Joseph Randall. There too. So if he's
Speaker 1: not the main guy, he's not gonna be happy. Wes,
Speaker 1: You're you're a big Darren McFadden. You're on the bandwagon.
Speaker 1: It's a little lonely on it, but you're you're not
Speaker 1: afraid of that. You like that. Uh does this give
Speaker 1: you any pause that they're bringing Tait in for workout? No,
Speaker 1: we've talked about this one now. Also, you evaluate the game,
Speaker 1: not the name. Ben Tate was one of the slowest
Speaker 1: running backs in the NFL last year. That's the reason
Speaker 1: he played for three different teams. He couldn't make any plays,
Speaker 1: and running backs are a little a little bit like
Speaker 1: Major League Baseball pitchers. You never know what's going to
Speaker 1: happen in a new year. Maybe the arm get fixed,
Speaker 1: maybe his knees better. This year, he kind of had
Speaker 1: to take running backs on a year by year basis.
Speaker 1: So maybe he comes in and he's a different guy.
Speaker 1: But what we saw last year, there's no reason to
Speaker 1: believe he'll even make the team. All right, let's play
Speaker 1: the the over under games. Let call you do this
Speaker 1: every once in a while. It's time again. Okay, okay, alright,
Speaker 1: what is it? What are we doing here? You know, No,
Speaker 1: it's just like I could feel you judging me with
Speaker 1: your eyes, and well you're talking, so I'm looking at yes, Okay, okay, okay, guys,
Speaker 1: all done up with your fancy outfits and your makeup
Speaker 1: and stylists. All right, the open, very very simple, very
Speaker 1: simple over under game. Darren mcadden's two thousand fifteen season. Okay,
Speaker 1: over under, Colleen, two hundred carries over. Let me look
Speaker 1: at his career care Come on, you can't do that.
Speaker 1: You can't say you can't be on the bandwagon and
Speaker 1: say he's not getting too Hundy. It's so injury prone.
Speaker 1: I just feel like he's going to be their only option.
Speaker 1: I don't know if bent it's going to be there.
Speaker 1: I think that Darren McAdden is the guy they have
Speaker 1: to go with. I'll take the over all right yards
Speaker 1: college um under. If he's getting twound carries, I'm taking
Speaker 1: the over on one thousand, one hundred yards behind that
Speaker 1: line eight touchdowns over, I'll take the over that's including touchdowns. Yeah,
Speaker 1: we'll do. I'll take the over there you go, yeah,
Speaker 1: I mean, if he can stay healthy. But that line
Speaker 1: is so good, and then you have Lyle Collins there
Speaker 1: now too, so it just got even lucky though. I mean,
Speaker 1: I've seen plenty of a high profile rookies struggle at
Speaker 1: the to come into the line and offensive line in
Speaker 1: the NFL, and you know people also and maybe to me,
Speaker 1: I feel like the Cowboys has been a little bit
Speaker 1: of uh, you know, over confidence here. You could love
Speaker 1: your line in May, but you get two injuries and
Speaker 1: all of a sudden, you've got some guys that aren't
Speaker 1: doing the job. All of a sudden, what it's a
Speaker 1: super strength gets knocked down, and then what do you got?
Speaker 1: Then you've got a bad running back. But I don't know,
Speaker 1: I just feel like we shouldn't like lock them in
Speaker 1: for whoever is in that backfield to be a stud
Speaker 1: because you don't know what's gonna happen. Well, it's like,
Speaker 1: if that doesn't work, and if there's injuries on the
Speaker 1: offensive line and they're running backs don't work, then everything
Speaker 1: is going to fall apart. It's going to all crumble,
Speaker 1: and Tony Romo won't play sixteen games either, right exactly.
Speaker 1: It all affects the next thing, all right, And that's
Speaker 1: what's happening. I'm sure. I'm not sure if you guys
Speaker 1: brought it up and news reports say Felix Jones is
Speaker 1: uh trying out for the Cowboys? Yeah, we do? You
Speaker 1: run a four nine forty at the Vetteran combine. I'd
Speaker 1: like to see listen he's saying t d say, don't
Speaker 1: shoot the messenger. I would like to see a foot
Speaker 1: race between Felix Jones and Bentate right now with like
Speaker 1: the fastest guy in our newsroom, which against the two
Speaker 1: of them, maybe Dwayne Munn against the two of them.
Speaker 1: Dwayne Mun's the fastest. I clicked Dwayne Mann at a
Speaker 1: five to forty a couple of months ago, our social
Speaker 1: media guy for people that uh two is pretty good
Speaker 1: for a grown mantlocking people in the office. We went
Speaker 1: outside to the parking lot because Dwayne claimed he could
Speaker 1: break a five oh. And it's one of my contentions
Speaker 1: that no man in his thirties, unless he was like
Speaker 1: a major college athlete, can break a five oh. Okay,
Speaker 1: all right, well five oh is much class, much faster
Speaker 1: than than your average forty year old man believes. Will
Speaker 1: you have strong feelings on this west I do. Everybody
Speaker 1: thinks they're a better athlete than they are. Well, that's true.
Speaker 1: People gotta let go of the dream. All right, so
Speaker 1: let's talk about the projected Starters series where we've moved
Speaker 1: on to the NFC West and um we'll start. Why
Speaker 1: don't we start with the defending NFC West champions, the
Speaker 1: Seattle Seahawks. Uh. You know, I look at this piece
Speaker 1: which you could see at NFL dot com slash around
Speaker 1: the NFL UM and West. You see the offensive line
Speaker 1: as a quote, I'm gonna quote, you're glaring weak spot. Well,
Speaker 1: they you're looking at a team that really has no
Speaker 1: weak spots other than the offensive line. You lose. You're
Speaker 1: starting center and Max Unger and the Jimmy Graham trade,
Speaker 1: and then James Carpenter signs with your Jets, so they lose.
Speaker 1: But he's not that great either, right, but there was
Speaker 1: a reason why he was starting over a guy like
Speaker 1: Alvin Bailey who now has to be playing, and Max
Speaker 1: Hunger was starting over Lemuel Jean Pierre I believe, who
Speaker 1: might be from Haiti. But anyway, Um, two of these
Speaker 1: guys who when they've played in the past were liabilities.
Speaker 1: So now you're making them starters. They drafted a passle
Speaker 1: of guys in the mid rounds, but they're probably not
Speaker 1: gonna be ready to play, So you're taking a strength
Speaker 1: their running game. And and now it's a bit of
Speaker 1: a question mark. Uh, Colleen. When the Saints traded for
Speaker 1: Jimmy Graham, that added obviously major weapon for Russell Wilson. Uh.
Speaker 1: And they didn't really upgrade their wide receiver group, which
Speaker 1: a lot of people thought was gonna happen. You got
Speaker 1: Doug Baldwin there, Jermaine Curse. The number three receivers spot
Speaker 1: is up for grabs right now. Maybe Chris Matthews, who
Speaker 1: had that stud Super Bowl, but right he Shureton, do
Speaker 1: you think that they made a mistake by not bringing
Speaker 1: in somebody in free agency or there? Well, I mean
Speaker 1: I think that we saw what they've been able to
Speaker 1: do this entire time without a big wide receiver. They
Speaker 1: brought in Jimmy Graham, so that's really all they need.
Speaker 1: They have Marshawn Lynch. I'm worried about the offensive line
Speaker 1: without Max Younger. I think it is going to affect them.
Speaker 1: But also I'm worried about Carrie Williams being the second
Speaker 1: corner back. I mean, they get rid of Byron Maxwell
Speaker 1: and they bring in Carrie Williams. You have Richard Sherman. Sure,
Speaker 1: but everybody is going to throw at Carry Williams. Everybody Wells.
Speaker 1: And here's here's the thing with the Seahawks, and that's
Speaker 1: part of the reason why. You know, any Super Bowl
Speaker 1: loss is devastating, Any super Bowl loss in the final
Speaker 1: seconds is devastating. But also there's a window here with
Speaker 1: the Seahawks, and every year since they've gotten good. Now
Speaker 1: you know, first they had all these manageable salaries, but
Speaker 1: now they're starting to have to sign these guys and
Speaker 1: they're losing people every year, especially in that secondary. Eventually
Speaker 1: it's going to catch up with him. And maybe this
Speaker 1: is the year. I wouldn't bank on what in the secondary,
Speaker 1: at least I think that. I mean, they're most of
Speaker 1: these guys, who Richard, they're big guys, Richard Sherman, Earl Thomas, Camp, Chancellor,
Speaker 1: they're supposed to be back by training camp. And if
Speaker 1: they've got a few weeks to get ready for the season,
Speaker 1: I you know, maybe they come out of the gate
Speaker 1: a little slow, but they're they're easily the best team
Speaker 1: in the division. What happens if Richard Sherman gets hurt
Speaker 1: and then you have Carry and who I mean that
Speaker 1: that's a major issue if that happens. Yeah, I think
Speaker 1: that's a fair question. If he gets hurt or if
Speaker 1: Earl Thomas gets hurt, big trouble. All right, Let's move
Speaker 1: on to the second place team in the division, the
Speaker 1: Arizona Cardinals UH eleven and five last year a limb
Speaker 1: to the finish because they had all sorts of quarterback
Speaker 1: issues with Carson Palmer going down with the knee uh tear.
Speaker 1: He's gonna be back. We talked about him on our
Speaker 1: last part about where he fits in on the Dalton scale.
Speaker 1: He's kind of uh. We kind of agreed he was
Speaker 1: in the middle there. He's probably still the guy, and
Speaker 1: you hope he stays healthy. But West the question to me,
Speaker 1: I never understood why they didn't make that move and
Speaker 1: running back maybe a stronger push to get Adrian Peterson.
Speaker 1: Andre Ellington is not the guy to be a workhorse. Well,
Speaker 1: I think, yeah, we've weave been criticizing them for this
Speaker 1: since a year ago, that they want to give him
Speaker 1: twenty to twenty five carries a game. We know his
Speaker 1: body's not gonna hold up to that, So why didn't
Speaker 1: they get somebody better? I don't think that David Johnson
Speaker 1: is a guy who's gonna come in and run between
Speaker 1: the tackles, and they've talked about Ellington is going to
Speaker 1: continue to be the lead back. I see this as
Speaker 1: an issue for them, and it's been an issue for
Speaker 1: a while. The Cardinals have ranked or worse in rushing
Speaker 1: yards and eight of the last ten seasons, you look
Speaker 1: at their yards per carry three point three. That was
Speaker 1: last in the NFL. Last year. I mean, they really
Speaker 1: needed help here and they couldn't do it. They didn't
Speaker 1: do it, So I don't know what they're going in.
Speaker 1: It seems like they believe with Mikey Potty in a
Speaker 1: healthy Jonathan Cooper and then they draft d J. Humphries
Speaker 1: that the offensive line is going to make the running
Speaker 1: game better, and I don't know if that's true. On
Speaker 1: the defensive side of the ball, they have Lamar Woodley there. Um,
Speaker 1: do you think west Woodley's got enough in the tech
Speaker 1: to make an impact on this defense? Not from anything
Speaker 1: we've seen in the past three years. I know that
Speaker 1: Arians knows him because they were together in Pittsburgh. So
Speaker 1: he's taking a chance on his guy. Maybe he's envisioning
Speaker 1: the two thousand and ten Woodley. I haven't seen anything
Speaker 1: to make me believe that Woodley is going to break
Speaker 1: out with double double digit SAX. Yeah. And also you
Speaker 1: look at that cornerback position there too, and Antonio Crimardi
Speaker 1: he's with your jets now and they didn't replace him. Yeah,
Speaker 1: And I'm curious about, you know, Honey badger, Um, how
Speaker 1: he comes back. Is he gonna be all the way
Speaker 1: back this year? What West? What were you what were
Speaker 1: you seeing by the end of the last season. Was
Speaker 1: he close to the guy who was as a rookie?
Speaker 1: Now he would? They were still he was still on
Speaker 1: a rotation basis. They were not playing in full time snaps.
Speaker 1: Now we did. I wrote an article a couple of
Speaker 1: weeks ago, maybe a week ago, that the Cardinals believe
Speaker 1: he's all the way back just in the past couple
Speaker 1: of weeks. What they've seen in practices, and I think
Speaker 1: they're off their off season moves tell us that he's
Speaker 1: gonna be in that same role he was in a
Speaker 1: rookie where he plays safety in base packages and then
Speaker 1: moves into the nickelback role on third down. So I
Speaker 1: think that they're counting that's one of the reasons they
Speaker 1: let Chrome already go is because they're counting on Matthew
Speaker 1: to play that rule one guy. I'll be keeping on
Speaker 1: keep an eye on. Also, is Michael Floyd kind of
Speaker 1: a put up or shut up here? For Floyd? Who
Speaker 1: we were, We've been hired, he's been on our making
Speaker 1: the leap list before. UM. Obviously there's a lot of
Speaker 1: people thought he was gonna kind of succeed laras Fitzgerald
Speaker 1: as the guy the leader of that wide receiver group,
Speaker 1: but hasn't quite happened yet. Now you got John Brown
Speaker 1: in the mid who's a promising second year player. Where
Speaker 1: does Floyd foot fit in going forward? I think Fitzgerald
Speaker 1: still better than him, and I think John Brown's a
Speaker 1: better talent than him too. I think Michael Floyd seems
Speaker 1: to be kind of limited to that deep threat sideline guy. UM,
Speaker 1: and they've taken Larry Fitzgerald out of that role to
Speaker 1: put Floyd in it, and to me, Fitzgerald still better
Speaker 1: than Floyd. Did they put Fitzpatrick back in it? I
Speaker 1: don't think so. I think Arian sees Fitzgerald as a
Speaker 1: guy who plays the Reggie Wayne rule and moves all
Speaker 1: over the offense. Now he plays a lot of slot.
Speaker 1: I think that's where they're comfortable with him. All right,
Speaker 1: Let's move out to the forty niners, who are coming
Speaker 1: off really a tough offseason, as we all know, a
Speaker 1: lot of guys out the door. In just this week
Speaker 1: they lost Justin Smith, who decided to retire after fourteen seasons.
Speaker 1: We know all about there are other issues. Um, Colleen
Speaker 1: will start with you here. You know you look at
Speaker 1: this offense. You're gonna have there no Frank Gore. You
Speaker 1: have Kaepernick who's now you know, starting with a new
Speaker 1: coaching staff. Uh, Carlos hide An, Joan Bolden, Torry Smith
Speaker 1: us there, Quentin Patton. I want to get said, where
Speaker 1: is Vernon Davis? Who is Vernon Davis? Anywhere that I can?
Speaker 1: What is this? Is this a good offense? Just where
Speaker 1: are we at right now? I think that we're out
Speaker 1: of place. That might be worse than last year. I mean,
Speaker 1: you bring in a new head coach, you have all
Speaker 1: of these pieces that are moving and it's a lot
Speaker 1: like the Rams too. They have a lot of pieces
Speaker 1: that need to sort of mesh here. And I don't
Speaker 1: think they're going to be better than eight and eight
Speaker 1: next season. I can't get excited about this team. I think, yeah,
Speaker 1: I think a few of our regular listeners keep sending
Speaker 1: me Twitter messages saying, don't quit on thet. But what's
Speaker 1: to get excited about. I mean, they haven't have they
Speaker 1: fixed anything that was a problem last year. There are
Speaker 1: so many question marks. You lose all of your leaders,
Speaker 1: Patrick Willis, Justin Smith, Frank Gore, guys, they were the
Speaker 1: backbone of this team. I just I don't know, they
Speaker 1: have so many question marks. You need Navar Bowman to
Speaker 1: come back and be healthy, and we don't know if
Speaker 1: that's ever gonna happen. Arnell Dockt to also coming off
Speaker 1: an a c L injury doctor to to be the
Speaker 1: guy he was. You need a new secondary to to
Speaker 1: to gel quickly. You need Colin Kaepernick to to uh
Speaker 1: start heading upward again in his career trajectory. You need
Speaker 1: Vernon Davis, who I said earlier when he was one
Speaker 1: of the top five tight ends in football two years
Speaker 1: ago and last year, what do you have like three
Speaker 1: yards receiving? How is that even possible? He had a
Speaker 1: back injury in the midli year that I still believe
Speaker 1: was the reason for his down season. But you're right,
Speaker 1: we don't know what he was to me. I look
Speaker 1: at this and a lot can change. I feel like
Speaker 1: a lot of things have to go right for them
Speaker 1: to get the kind wins. And I'm wondering what Colin
Speaker 1: Kaepernick is going to look like when he comes back
Speaker 1: next season, just because of all of the stuff we're
Speaker 1: hearing about him working in the off season, about trying
Speaker 1: to be better in the pocket, He's working with Kurt
Speaker 1: Warner and all this stuff, I mean doesn't really matter
Speaker 1: and we really see a difference or is he just
Speaker 1: going to go back to doing what he was doing
Speaker 1: because he's good at it, but I mean doesn't work.
Speaker 1: We see this with quarterbacks every off season, like this
Speaker 1: guy's working with so and so. Now, I mean, who
Speaker 1: either you're good or not. I was gonna say, who's
Speaker 1: the last CAUs you do hear that every year to
Speaker 1: one of the tropes, when's the last time that actually
Speaker 1: led to the quarterback then being a different guy? When
Speaker 1: I can't? All right onto the Rams? Who every year
Speaker 1: people get excited about the Rams and every year they
Speaker 1: won six or seven games, and maybe this is the
Speaker 1: different year. I know Greg has been chirping or to
Speaker 1: use one of Greg's choices of words, honking that this
Speaker 1: is the year the Rams get over the hump and
Speaker 1: become a playoff team. We'll see. I mean, you've got
Speaker 1: Nick Foles a quarterback, Trey Mason running back of course. Uh.
Speaker 1: They drafted uh the rookie, uh, Todd Gurley at number
Speaker 1: ten overall, so he's gonna be in the mix and
Speaker 1: could be a major player. We as Kenny Britt, who's
Speaker 1: interesting to me. I'll start there with their number one
Speaker 1: wide receiver. Two years ago you said he was the
Speaker 1: He looked worse than any player in football, or at
Speaker 1: least any wide receiver, and then he showed a little
Speaker 1: life last year and now he's at the top of
Speaker 1: his depth chart. Yeah, he's not your ideal number one receiver.
Speaker 1: I don't He's not what he was early in his career,
Speaker 1: when was explosive and he could make big plays. He
Speaker 1: has about two or three he had. I think he
Speaker 1: had two or three really good games last year and
Speaker 1: then wasn't much of an asset for the other twelve
Speaker 1: or thirteen. So he's not a guy that you're like,
Speaker 1: all right, we're lining up Kenny Britt. That's an advantage. Yeah,
Speaker 1: I mean they have a new offensive coordinator and Frank Signetti.
Speaker 1: They have exactly I love that Nick Foles, Todd Gurley.
Speaker 1: I mean, all of the they brought in, how many
Speaker 1: offensive linemen and all of these pieces have to fit
Speaker 1: together and build some type of chemistry for the season.
Speaker 1: You have to wonder about that. Now. Obviously their defense
Speaker 1: is improved, and their defense was great last year, but
Speaker 1: it's I mean, if they're going to win games, it's
Speaker 1: going to be running the ball and it's going to
Speaker 1: be really low scoring. With the offense, I think could
Speaker 1: be one of the worst in the NFL. I mean,
Speaker 1: look at the right side of their offensive line. You've
Speaker 1: got a rookie right tackle, a rookie right guard, a
Speaker 1: first time center who has really not shown well. That's
Speaker 1: three three piece is your offensive line who could be
Speaker 1: well below average. Your receivers as a whole are among
Speaker 1: the worst in the NFL. You know, girls coming back
Speaker 1: from an a c L so who knows what he'll
Speaker 1: be in September and October. And Nick Foles to me
Speaker 1: is a bottom ten NFL quarterback. I mean, there's the
Speaker 1: defense is very promising, what a great front line that is.
Speaker 1: But to me and I when we did one of
Speaker 1: our exercises post draft, I thought that, um that you know,
Speaker 1: Todd Gurley could be if he's healthy, guy that gets
Speaker 1: the ball a lot and can put up a big
Speaker 1: season as a rookie. They need that. They need somebody
Speaker 1: behind that in that backfield to have a big season.
Speaker 1: They need the defense to be a top five defense.
Speaker 1: And then it what to me, it would be crazy
Speaker 1: for them to win ten games if those things happen.
Speaker 1: But Foles also has to be closer to the guy
Speaker 1: he was his first year with the Eagles as a starter,
Speaker 1: as opposed to that second where he was really shaky.
Speaker 1: But now he's got Frank Signetti and not Chip Kelly.
Speaker 1: When your case goes cold, detective Frank Signetti. They're going
Speaker 1: seven and nine. It's what they do, is Nick Foles
Speaker 1: an upgrade over a healthy Sam Bradford. I tend to
Speaker 1: doubt it a wash. Maybe yeah, it doesn't really do
Speaker 1: anything for me. They're both hammadaggers, to quote Bob Brainheen
Speaker 1: and curtain jerkers. It's a mate I can all right.
Speaker 1: So that is our our look at the NFC West
Speaker 1: projected starters. Colleen has to get back to uh, you
Speaker 1: know NFL now, she's so in demand within and we
Speaker 1: called the campus here at NFL Media. I have Charlie
Speaker 1: waiting over there. But before we before we let you go,
Speaker 1: we gotta let's talk a little music. Because yes, as
Speaker 1: I said, Noel Gallagher, the the erstwhile frontman or songwriter
Speaker 1: of Oasis, marks that I missed this one. Yeah, Mark,
Speaker 1: And uh and Handsome Hank got us in Handsome Hacker's
Speaker 1: connections to the to the Gallagher family. Uh so thank
Speaker 1: you to Hank for that. Uh So we decided, why
Speaker 1: don't we go down memory lane and talk about our
Speaker 1: first concert experiences before we get out of here today?
Speaker 1: And uh, this is when TD needs to earn the money.
Speaker 1: That was T's first concert, TD earning the money right now?
Speaker 1: This is kind of rave as that I don't know
Speaker 1: what what was that T was going on? Like I said, guys,
Speaker 1: it's Alice show, completely milling and ready for weekend. It's
Speaker 1: a little hic off there, but should be ready to
Speaker 1: going here. And this'side all right? Good? So why don't
Speaker 1: we all, you know, share our first concert experiences? I
Speaker 1: thought that'd be fun to talk about it and maybe
Speaker 1: we'll get Connor roar on the phone. Um. Uh. And
Speaker 1: if you're wondering, I haven't brought up Kevin patra I.
Speaker 1: I talked to Kevin before the show. Uh, I said, Kevin,
Speaker 1: do you want to be involved with the pod? Like,
Speaker 1: what was your first concert experience? And Uh, he said
Speaker 1: that he had, you know, no concert experience. He's not
Speaker 1: a music fan. I don't know if I trust him anymore.
Speaker 1: Patrick and I have talked about this, and it's been
Speaker 1: shocking that he just basically has no feel for music whatsoever.
Speaker 1: He doesn't even it's not part of his life. I
Speaker 1: think we talked about it at the draft is coming
Speaker 1: back now is exact quote and the instant messenge conversation
Speaker 1: when I said anything about music and he said nothing
Speaker 1: of note, nothing like that. All right, So why don't
Speaker 1: we start? I guess I'll start. Why not? And technically
Speaker 1: my first concert was August eight seven, Uh, Monkeys, the
Speaker 1: Monkeys and Weird Al Yankovic. My sister was a Monkeys
Speaker 1: then because the last trained to Clarksville. Yeah, they started
Speaker 1: uh showing reruns on Nick at Night and got like
Speaker 1: a second life amongst like kids and teens of the eighties.
Speaker 1: Weird story, and I was dragged to that I was
Speaker 1: a kid. But my first real concert that I was
Speaker 1: I paid for and all that. You gotta go to
Speaker 1: nineties six Beacon Theater in Manhattan, great band out of
Speaker 1: San Francisco with opening with the opening Active Cake. So
Speaker 1: it was a real nice one too. Nineties punch with
Speaker 1: you know, seeing Adam Dirt's moping on stage. I think
Speaker 1: he was dating Courtney Cox at the time, So Jennifer
Speaker 1: Adison was in a good time. Has any frontman ever
Speaker 1: had a better career year than Adam Dirts. He had
Speaker 1: a nice run there in the mid nineties, both as
Speaker 1: a musician and as a lothario. I still love the
Speaker 1: Counting Crows. I still listen to them. This is my
Speaker 1: second concert ever. Really wow. Yeah, interesting, Well we'll get
Speaker 1: to that. I was at that store. I've been to
Speaker 1: multiple count of growth stores. I am not ashamed to admit. Now,
Speaker 1: Chris Westling, as we know famously, West a little older,
Speaker 1: has tastes that famous a little in a little more
Speaker 1: vintage when it comes to his case. He's a little
Speaker 1: more of the you know, classic type dude. So West
Speaker 1: your concert experience, Well, I love music. I'm a huge
Speaker 1: music but I hate concerts. I don't like masses of
Speaker 1: humanity just putting their b oh and other bodily things
Speaker 1: on you and just paying a generally a point. I
Speaker 1: don't like concerts with a lot of people and the
Speaker 1: music is never as good as it sounds in the studio.
Speaker 1: So to me concerts, I love going to a bar
Speaker 1: and listening. So my first concert ever was that a
Speaker 1: bar down the street from the basically like a five
Speaker 1: minute walk from where I grew up. It was called
Speaker 1: the Blue Note, very smoky bar, and it was a
Speaker 1: band from Australia called the Little River Band. They had
Speaker 1: a bunch of top ten hits, including this, the Albatross
Speaker 1: and the Whales. They are my brother yeah cool chain
Speaker 1: by the way, and I was doing the pre production
Speaker 1: work before the show. Uh the YouTube video of this
Speaker 1: is just a bunch of dolphins, dolphins jumping through the air.
Speaker 1: I think. Actually at this concert, the guitar player from
Speaker 1: the band player which had the song baby come Back
Speaker 1: any kind of fool cool But I was wrong. Actually
Speaker 1: it was redone as a parody song Cutty Comeback by
Speaker 1: a Bears fan a few years ago about color. But anyway,
Speaker 1: they played that song too. Also a huge hit in
Speaker 1: the late seventies. The name of the band again, Little
Speaker 1: River Band. Alright, TD, by the way, just does TD
Speaker 1: know do you have you heard of the County Crows? Yes?
Speaker 1: County Crows? Yes? Have you heard of? Has been no idea?
Speaker 1: So I knew he was here them. Yeah, alright, Colleen,
Speaker 1: your turn. Charlie Cassidy right now looking at his pocket watch.
Speaker 1: So let's get you might have to actually pull a
Speaker 1: Greg and leave the studio, but we need to hear
Speaker 1: your first concert experience. You said, the County Crows are
Speaker 1: your second experience. Count of Crows Live two thousand, Yes,
Speaker 1: and there was like a lot of Dave Matthews bands
Speaker 1: sprinkled throughout there. But my first ever concert was two
Speaker 1: thousand and I was way too young to be going
Speaker 1: to a concert. I didn't even really let's just leave
Speaker 1: it at that. Um. So it was Jimmy Buffett right
Speaker 1: so in beautiful Yeah, so Camden as like a fifteen
Speaker 1: year year old that probably wasn't the greatest, but who
Speaker 1: doesn't love little Jimmy Buffett in the summer when you're
Speaker 1: sitting outside by the pool or whatever. Me not, I
Speaker 1: never understood the appeal personally, but not not in a
Speaker 1: snooty way, but I get that he really connects with
Speaker 1: a strangely high number of people, like Incinnati is his hotbed,
Speaker 1: Like he would do four or five concerts a summer
Speaker 1: in Cincinnati, that he would do more concert there than anybody.
Speaker 1: And I think it's because it's so landlocked and they
Speaker 1: don't get to have any fun. So that's like they're
Speaker 1: living through Jimmy Buffett. You know the song like she
Speaker 1: came down from Cincinnati probably, Well that's how Finns, I
Speaker 1: believe fins to the right fin That song opens with
Speaker 1: that line he did as a tribute to the city
Speaker 1: that there's but there's a lot of like pageantry involved
Speaker 1: too with everybody that goes the parrot Yeah, they get
Speaker 1: all dressed, the parrot heads. That's right, so so far,
Speaker 1: by the way, the cool quotient not through the roof.
Speaker 1: Nobody saw a velvet underground. Nobody was like velvet under
Speaker 1: you know. But he saw the first Nirvana show at
Speaker 1: you know, uh, some little club in Hoboke. Well we
Speaker 1: are I think we take pride in being a little
Speaker 1: anti hipster. Well, you know, I likely we both like
Speaker 1: hipster music too, but at the same time so far,
Speaker 1: little mainstream. You don't have to claim to be the
Speaker 1: first one to see them underground, you know. How about
Speaker 1: how about Connor Or? We'll get him on the line
Speaker 1: because uh and Colleen, if you have to go, you
Speaker 1: gotta go, but stick around, walk out whenever you want.
Speaker 1: We will judge you. Connor Or on the line. Are
Speaker 1: you there, buddy? What's going on? Hey? There? He is
Speaker 1: from his haunted mansion in suburban New Jersey. Is Connor Or?
Speaker 1: How's things going in the old haunted house? It's pretty good.
Speaker 1: I mean the summer months usually the haunting is kind
Speaker 1: of you know, the ghosts need time off too, so
Speaker 1: it's nice a little bit of the time to get
Speaker 1: your equilibrium. I think you're your psyche and your emotional
Speaker 1: well being. Also, it's good not to have spirits wandering
Speaker 1: through your you know, library and such. Um really just
Speaker 1: turning the voices off in your head for a little bit. Uh.
Speaker 1: And I I felt like you would be a good
Speaker 1: person to ask your first concert experience. So far, we
Speaker 1: have the Little River Band, West County Crows, Dan, Jimmy Buffett, Colleen,
Speaker 1: give me something edgy, give me like you saw the
Speaker 1: Strokes on the Lower East Side? Right when is this?
Speaker 1: It came out in two thousand one, give it to me. Yeah,
Speaker 1: it was me and Julian Casablankets and we were sharing
Speaker 1: a camel light and opining on it was awesome. Uh no,
Speaker 1: it was it Matthews. You know, I was worried they
Speaker 1: were going to come up. How did you enjoy How
Speaker 1: did you enjoy your sorority? Connor? On that note, I'm
Speaker 1: leaving because you just said about you know, yeah, what
Speaker 1: is hazing? Like? Is it? Do you feel any humanity? Oh? Man?
Speaker 1: At least it was like, I'm not going to defend it,
Speaker 1: but you know, it was. It was a time of
Speaker 1: my life. You know. It's just it's it's a certain
Speaker 1: thing that happened, you know. Yeah, there was as somebody
Speaker 1: went to college in the early two thousand's, there was
Speaker 1: a rule that every girl, it seemed at least, had
Speaker 1: to have that one Dave Matthews poster. Where he was
Speaker 1: it was like, I think it was black and white.
Speaker 1: It was just him standing on a stage. Colleen's nodding
Speaker 1: her head as she walks out of the studio. Thank you,
Speaker 1: Colleen for She's off to do now. Always great to
Speaker 1: have the great wolf woman, give us a wolf sound effect.
Speaker 1: Um yeah, everyone had that west like it was a
Speaker 1: picture of Dave just chilling on the stage, and it
Speaker 1: was like I would I would go to parties at
Speaker 1: colleges like Bowling Green in Ohio and girls would have
Speaker 1: posters of Brady Anderson with Um, what year was the
Speaker 1: d MB concert. I think that was like two thousand
Speaker 1: three or two thousand four, somewhere in that. Uh So,
Speaker 1: really at the height of you know, like every teak
Speaker 1: house in the country was playing like the new Post
Speaker 1: nine eleven album that had just come out, and like,
Speaker 1: you know, it peaked commercially already by that point, but
Speaker 1: you were stolen. Oh yeah, I mean at that point
Speaker 1: I was you know, I thought that was it like
Speaker 1: this is uh, this is uh, this is great, but
Speaker 1: you know, it wasn't the best concert everying. Al Right,
Speaker 1: we'll keep you on. We're gonna keep you on the line, Connor,
Speaker 1: because finally, uh TD decided to chime in. He said
Speaker 1: earlier in the podcast that it wasn't just that he
Speaker 1: wanted to take part, he wanted to win. So TD,
Speaker 1: you will now share your first concert experience. You feel like,
Speaker 1: I'm definitely gonna win with our audience to Blandis you
Speaker 1: guys would call him um for me, I'm with West.
Speaker 1: I am not a fan of crowds. I do not
Speaker 1: like to go in places where a lot of people
Speaker 1: just gets annoying. So my first constant experience, I actually
Speaker 1: didn't go to a concert. The concert came to me
Speaker 1: in college. Loupe Fiasco can performing on a campus and oh,
Speaker 1: Loupe was my guy. Okay, Loupe's first couple of first albums,
Speaker 1: especially the cool. I studied that album like a book,
Speaker 1: probably actually studying my college books. But Loupe was my guy.
Speaker 1: So this this con on our campus pretty much right
Speaker 1: next to my apartment was That's pretty cool. And Lupe
Speaker 1: Fiasco also one of Kanye's best singles, touch the Sky.
Speaker 1: He sings the hook and that doesn't it. Yeah he's
Speaker 1: on there man. Yeah, so that's a good one. That
Speaker 1: is probably the coolest one. You did, win, I'll give
Speaker 1: you the win. Congratulations, Thanks, guys, you win. I've just
Speaker 1: done the report card of this podcast and you won
Speaker 1: the podcast. Well, actually, like I said, I'm mailing it
Speaker 1: in today, guys, So I have no real reason for
Speaker 1: the podcast. MVP. I was just gonna go with best
Speaker 1: dress and the best dress and we just left the room.
Speaker 1: So by default, Chris Westling, okay, he is. He's way
Speaker 1: better just than I am. Um, alright, good. So you
Speaker 1: have it and you know, people but oh I talk
Speaker 1: about football. He can mix it up. It's may. You know,
Speaker 1: we could talk a little, you know, music or whatever. Not.
Speaker 1: Greg's gonna probably send me an email. We pride ourselves.
Speaker 1: I'm being a little more well rounded. I mean, you
Speaker 1: don't want it to just be. Connor and I were
Speaker 1: discussing this on Slack the other day. You know, fans
Speaker 1: are ripping on him for he's got the wrong outside
Speaker 1: line inside linebacker for the Packers on his projected Starters
Speaker 1: series and tell him you should answer every tweet with
Speaker 1: take your sweetheart for a stroll this evening. It's it's
Speaker 1: May mid May give up on football for a minute
Speaker 1: with a wrong outside linebacker. It's just somebody's opinion on
Speaker 1: who it should be. And it's like, you know what,
Speaker 1: it's a beautiful life. You know, it's a wonderful time
Speaker 1: to be alive. So let's but let's do We'll talk
Speaker 1: a little more football before we get out of here.
Speaker 1: Because we do need to touch on West. Is excellent
Speaker 1: long form piece. And I say this completely educated on
Speaker 1: the matters I read it. It is uh titled the
Speaker 1: Ohio River Offense. Uh it is about uh West. I'll
Speaker 1: throw it to you, but it is in essence you
Speaker 1: dig into the roots of what most people remember or
Speaker 1: see is or how it's known the West Coast offense
Speaker 1: really had its roots in your home state. Well. Bill
Speaker 1: Walsh was the offensive coordinator in Cincinnati in when the
Speaker 1: Bengals were an expansion team and all Brown was the
Speaker 1: head coach. They had a quarterback named Greg Cook, who,
Speaker 1: if you believe Bill Walsh and Sam Wish and the
Speaker 1: people who played for the Bengals and people around the league,
Speaker 1: could have been the best quarterback in NFL history and
Speaker 1: was probably the most gifted quarterback of the era. People
Speaker 1: believe he was more gifted than Joe namath so and
Speaker 1: the handsome man to boot handsome man could have been
Speaker 1: I think a lot of people said could have been
Speaker 1: the Marlboro Man. But um so. Greg Cook suffers a
Speaker 1: torn rotator rotator cuff in his rookie season, and to
Speaker 1: meet he had the best rookie season in NFL history
Speaker 1: for a quarterback. A lot of his records still stand
Speaker 1: for yards per attempt, yards per completion, et cetera. Tears
Speaker 1: his rotator cuff and really only through his three passes
Speaker 1: again the rest of his career, and that came five
Speaker 1: years later. So that was the impetus for the change
Speaker 1: to the West Coast offense. They brought in a guy
Speaker 1: named Virgil Carter who had no arm. So Bill Walsh
Speaker 1: and Paul Brown decided to do a rollout offense where
Speaker 1: it would be really short passes, precision passes, an extension
Speaker 1: to the running game. And this is what the West
Speaker 1: Coast offense became under Bill Walsh. But it all started
Speaker 1: in Cincinnati, and Bill Belichick, among other people, has said
Speaker 1: it should be called the Ohio River offense, not the
Speaker 1: West Coast offense. In fact, the first time it ever
Speaker 1: has called the West Coast offense is nineteen eighty five,
Speaker 1: late eighty five. Bill Parcels, who was an adherent of
Speaker 1: power football smash mouth you need big guys, made fun
Speaker 1: of Bill Walsh after the game, is that, how do
Speaker 1: you like your West Coast offense now? Um? And then
Speaker 1: the name kind of stuck and Bill Walsh kind of
Speaker 1: always bristled at the name. He thought it was lazy um.
Speaker 1: Most West Coast offensive coaches think it's lazy. So and
Speaker 1: then Sam Wise, who was Greg Cook's backup, ends up
Speaker 1: being an assistant coach under Bill Walsh, and he becomes
Speaker 1: the Bengals head coach in the early eighties and starts
Speaker 1: the no huddle offense, which is now the offense that
Speaker 1: most of the NFL uses, and at the time he
Speaker 1: was criticized, uh, he had to fight for it. Marv
Speaker 1: Levy before the eight championship game went to the commissioner
Speaker 1: and said, basically, I'm been a fake injuries. So Pete Roselle,
Speaker 1: the commissioner at a time, told Sam why she couldn't
Speaker 1: use it, why she had to fight for it. He
Speaker 1: finally got to use it. Two or three years later,
Speaker 1: Marv Leady, Marvel Levy, and Jim Kelly are using the
Speaker 1: K gun no huddle and they get more credit now
Speaker 1: than Sam Wild, which is crazy totally. Not only did
Speaker 1: Levy try to infect the the game, the integrity of
Speaker 1: the game, and one of the biggest games of the season,
Speaker 1: he then basically gets the credit for the offense he
Speaker 1: was trying to stop by faking injuries, having his players
Speaker 1: fake injuries. It's a wild thought. And and believe me,
Speaker 1: a teenage Chris Wesley was not a big fan of
Speaker 1: Marv Levy at the time. Yeah, I I don't imagine
Speaker 1: you would be. And just the the idea that Walsh
Speaker 1: gets all this credit, which he deserves obviously for being
Speaker 1: the architect of the West Coast offense or the Ohio
Speaker 1: River offense, and then you get Marv Levy, who gets
Speaker 1: all the credit on the back end for the Noah
Speaker 1: Huddle k gun attack. With them, there's port Sam Wise,
Speaker 1: who really is forgotten now coaching as a in high school.
Speaker 1: And you had a great I thought you ended the
Speaker 1: piece in a in a really excellent way, which again
Speaker 1: proves that I read it um you know, to the
Speaker 1: victor go the spoils. So he gets because they fell
Speaker 1: short in two Super Bowls against the Niners, and it's
Speaker 1: really their own, their own fault. I mean, that's part
Speaker 1: of the pathos of the piece that the Bengals don't have.
Speaker 1: This reputation is so innovative, even though they were because
Speaker 1: Paul Brown in nineteen seventy six walks away leaves the
Speaker 1: sidelines and becomes an own he already was the owner,
Speaker 1: but he decides to give up coaching, and Bill Walsh
Speaker 1: was obviously the most talented coach on his staff. But
Speaker 1: he didn't think Bill Walsh was tough enough, so he
Speaker 1: named Bill Tiger Johnson his successor. Walsh knew then that
Speaker 1: he would be typecasts as an assistant if he didn't leave.
Speaker 1: So Walsh leaves, ends up in San Francisco and beats
Speaker 1: the Bengals and both of their Super Bowls, and the
Speaker 1: Bengals have only themselves to blame for that. Connor your thoughts.
Speaker 1: I think it's like, you know, it makes me think
Speaker 1: today then you know how how we're gonna, like if
Speaker 1: if that era is gonna at least force us to
Speaker 1: think deeper about the innovators today and and have like,
Speaker 1: twenty years down the road, who's going to be kind
Speaker 1: of screwed out of credit for something that they came
Speaker 1: up with right now, you know, not to open a
Speaker 1: whole another can of worms, But I feel like there
Speaker 1: are probably a lot of you know, White's out there
Speaker 1: right now. Oh absolutely, and you're you're absolutely right. And
Speaker 1: I think to me, one of the reasons I wrote
Speaker 1: the pieces because well, for two reasons. In nineteen sixty
Speaker 1: sixty nine, Cincinnati was about to hit a golden age.
Speaker 1: The Bengals had back to back Rookies of the Year
Speaker 1: on offense, they had the reigning defensive Rookie of the year.
Speaker 1: They had the coach of the Year. They're moving into
Speaker 1: a new stadium in nineteen seventy along with the Reds.
Speaker 1: The Reds are hosting the All Star Game in nineteen seventy.
Speaker 1: They go on to have the Big Red Machine and
Speaker 1: dominate the nineteen seventies, late seventies w k RP, and
Speaker 1: Cincinnati hits the airwaves, dominates TV for a while. Supposed
Speaker 1: to be Cincinnati's golden age, and they never have it
Speaker 1: because Greg Cook gets injured, Paul Brown doesn't appreciate Bill Walsh.
Speaker 1: So that's one reason. And the other reason is that
Speaker 1: Sam Weis is one of the best innovators in NFL
Speaker 1: the street and it's not seen that way. Very interesting,
Speaker 1: So yeah, you really got to check this out. NFL
Speaker 1: dot com slash Ohio River Offense a long form from
Speaker 1: West and whether West wants to or not, he's made
Speaker 1: his own bed now because I think we're going to
Speaker 1: see more of these long form pieces from West and
Speaker 1: if you had any hair, it would fall out. I
Speaker 1: would imagine shadowy figure called me over this morning. I
Speaker 1: was about to head the NFL now, so I was
Speaker 1: just trying to have like a thirty second conversation and
Speaker 1: and he said, um, hey, do you want to do
Speaker 1: those once a month? And I said no, I thought
Speaker 1: he was joking. You pulled to like back to back
Speaker 1: all night ers, right, yeah, I thought he was joking.
Speaker 1: And I pointed out, I said no, I I put
Speaker 1: myself through hell to write it. And he said, well,
Speaker 1: I think it's gonna be on your plate now whether
Speaker 1: you want it or not. And that's why you do
Speaker 1: podcast MVP right here, there you go, there you go,
Speaker 1: West wins. Uh the farcical MVP honors for today's show.
Speaker 1: All right, that's it. Connor, thank you for calling in buddy,
Speaker 1: anytimes it would be the ghost presence of the podcast.
Speaker 1: I loved it, all right. Damn the signing offer, Colleen Wolfe,
Speaker 1: thank you for joining us, Uh, Colleen, great job and
Speaker 1: the great Chris Westling and TV behind the Glass until
Speaker 1: next week. M