Speaker 1: The Around the League Podcast. Mrs Randy Moss, Welcome back
Speaker 1: to another edition of the Around the League Podcast. My
Speaker 1: name is Dan Hansis, and I am joined by a
Speaker 1: room full of heroes, Chris Westling, Mark Sessler and Greg Rosenthal.
Speaker 1: What's up, boys, Happy to be in here on my
Speaker 1: so called off day. A lot of heroes here. You know.
Speaker 1: None of us ate lunch because the news has been
Speaker 1: flowing fast today West here on his off day working.
Speaker 1: It's it's regular. Still my favorite thing. And welcome back
Speaker 1: Mark after your absence. Thank you. I had noticed while
Speaker 1: it was going on Twitter that you had lent to
Speaker 1: speculation that I had been released in some sort of
Speaker 1: final roster cut than we had to get down to three,
Speaker 1: right I did. Yeah, I did not begin that speculation,
Speaker 1: but I didn't shoot it down either. But my favorite
Speaker 1: thing probably in the world right now is Chris Westling
Speaker 1: off days. West in the office today in his khaki shorts.
Speaker 1: I just want to go over a list before we
Speaker 1: start today between the differences between West's off day and
Speaker 1: Settler's off day. Um, and get let me know West
Speaker 1: if I miss anything for your off days and involves
Speaker 1: beer and just check check check alright, shuffle board, not really,
Speaker 1: I just say that, okay, pool, yes, check Zarina's check,
Speaker 1: film study check. Okay, says I'm gonna go out on
Speaker 1: a limb and say there's only one thing out of
Speaker 1: that whole group that connects. And it's not Sarina's and
Speaker 1: it's not beer self, a board or pool. Is it
Speaker 1: just film study? It is that I I have. I'm
Speaker 1: a family man, I have two children, and I am
Speaker 1: on a wicked strict budget. Right now. West has children potentially,
Speaker 1: but doesn't know about that. He's not actually overseeing they're
Speaker 1: being raised. There are no many Malemen running around. I've
Speaker 1: never seen Dan right out things ahead of time in preparation.
Speaker 1: And that was He had that list, and that was
Speaker 1: well done. He was really ready. Check um, all right,
Speaker 1: we have a good show today. Ka Rich behind the glass,
Speaker 1: welcome k Rich. How are you today? All as well? Guys?
Speaker 1: Excited for week one? Right around the corner, k Ridge
Speaker 1: brings the youth to the show. I'm not sure you're
Speaker 1: you didn't sound that excited about it, didn't that excited?
Speaker 1: I try this time to sound excited. I guess do
Speaker 1: I sound a monotone? Now? Now you're getting into it.
Speaker 1: This is the k Rich is very feisty. She'll let
Speaker 1: you know what she thinks. But I just want to
Speaker 1: I want that to come out on the Podcstlet's just
Speaker 1: face it. She's just trying to leverage this into the
Speaker 1: Eyes and podcast and we understand that this is a
Speaker 1: temporary arrangement. That's where you'll see the exuberant Yeah, she'll
Speaker 1: be jumping off the walls. All right, So we have
Speaker 1: a big show. We're gonna talk about the Thursday night opener,
Speaker 1: which finally football is upon us Ravens and Broncos. We
Speaker 1: do a little news with k Rich. We're gonna finally
Speaker 1: make our Super Bowl picks and basically talk about our
Speaker 1: final four. But yeah, we should definitely start with real
Speaker 1: football coming back tomorrow night in Denver, the Super Bowl champions,
Speaker 1: the defending champions, Ravens against the Broncos. Who wants to
Speaker 1: start out, well, we should start with the big news.
Speaker 1: Champ Bailey is out for this game. It's not a shock, um,
Speaker 1: but it's one thing to be missing Von Miller and
Speaker 1: it's another thing to be missing Champ Bailey, your Hall
Speaker 1: of Fame cornerback. Those are your two best defensive players,
Speaker 1: and I think that story has been overlooked a little
Speaker 1: bit the last three weeks while he hasn't been practicing well.
Speaker 1: Not to mention that Elvis Dumerville, you know, coming off
Speaker 1: of one of the biggest offseason gasps of our lifetime,
Speaker 1: a complete mistake of facts related facts machine related issue,
Speaker 1: suddenly as Dumerville now chasing Peyton Manning. And I think that,
Speaker 1: you know, Baltimore's defense maybe better than they were last season.
Speaker 1: That actually isn't news at this point. I think most
Speaker 1: would agree. Yeah, I think Baltimore's defense is better. Um
Speaker 1: and if we look at the this game setting up
Speaker 1: where the Ravens are going to have to pass because
Speaker 1: the Champ Bailey's out, the Broncos pass rushers are gone,
Speaker 1: that that's the matchup that they're going to have to
Speaker 1: exploit right there. And it's intriguing because the Ravens passing
Speaker 1: game was so kind of up and down in the
Speaker 1: in the preseason, with Flacco not always on the same
Speaker 1: page as receivers. So to me, that's gonna be the
Speaker 1: most interesting aspect of this game. How how big, by
Speaker 1: the way is uh Dominique Roger's Camardi to this team.
Speaker 1: I mean, if he then I wrote this in the
Speaker 1: in the post we just did on Bailey being out,
Speaker 1: if Bailey is still Bailey when he gets back and
Speaker 1: he's now entering his fifteenth year, which is pretty crazy.
Speaker 1: But let's say if he gets back to full health
Speaker 1: and then still has it and and d r C
Speaker 1: kinda gets back whatever you lost in Philadelphia, this could
Speaker 1: be a really good secondary on the on the outsides,
Speaker 1: but also there's a chance that it's not a very
Speaker 1: good secondary at all. Right, well, we took a look
Speaker 1: at their secondary and are making the Leap series, and
Speaker 1: I actually think that Chris Harris has more to offer
Speaker 1: the defense than d r C. Although a lot of
Speaker 1: people feel like DRC is gonna make this bounce back,
Speaker 1: Elway talked about talked him up. But for me, what
Speaker 1: we saw in Philadelphia the last two seasons, what he's
Speaker 1: gonna be a factor If he isn't the player he was.
Speaker 1: You could argue that DRC is among the most physically
Speaker 1: gifted cornerbacks in the NFL. So there's always gonna be
Speaker 1: a coaching staff that believes they can turn him around,
Speaker 1: and maybe they can't. One thing about the Ravens offense
Speaker 1: real quick they passed the ball. Flacco just kept dumping
Speaker 1: it off to ray Rice when they're actually had starters
Speaker 1: on the field over and over. That makes sense. With
Speaker 1: Pitta ripped out of there, that team only has two
Speaker 1: running backs right now. They could not afford any sort
Speaker 1: of an injury. I mean, I guess I don't do
Speaker 1: a very good running back. They are saying if they
Speaker 1: lose one, though, it's like, what do you do? Who
Speaker 1: do you line up back? There? Two more than I
Speaker 1: trust out of the Broncos, we might see no Sean
Speaker 1: Moreno as a starter. By the way, there's a report
Speaker 1: out there that you know, maybe John Fox has kind
Speaker 1: of been lying in the weeds here. By putting Moreno
Speaker 1: third on the depth chart, he might get the most
Speaker 1: snaps on Thursday night. And that's a big question. There's
Speaker 1: a lot of questions about this Broncos team. For them
Speaker 1: to be such heavy favorites in this game, I'm kind
Speaker 1: of surprised they are. By the way, Also, Torrey Smith
Speaker 1: is probably more upset than anybody in the champ bill.
Speaker 1: He's not playing. If you saw what happened in the
Speaker 1: traditional playoffs in January. Speaking of the divisional playoffs, I
Speaker 1: touched on this on Twitter. In the backfield, they didn't
Speaker 1: trust Ronnie Hillman enough to play over No Sean Marino.
Speaker 1: Then he's now fumbled three times in the preseason. Why
Speaker 1: would they trust him to play over No Sean Marino.
Speaker 1: Now it's a good point. And I just love the
Speaker 1: fact that we're talking about a game. I mean, I
Speaker 1: just we we all try to get into this profession
Speaker 1: because we love football and we love the game, and
Speaker 1: we love our jobs in the off season two. But
Speaker 1: I mean, this is so much more fun. That's all.
Speaker 1: I'm just that's my public service announced. I like one
Speaker 1: random subple and I agree Greg. One random subplot Also
Speaker 1: is that I think I saw a tweet yesterday that
Speaker 1: it's supposed to be or as of yesterday, literally a
Speaker 1: hundred degrees warmer than it was the last time these
Speaker 1: two teams played in Denver, Like literally one hundred degrees warmer.
Speaker 1: It's going to undred seven degrees. Listen, this is a
Speaker 1: tweet that I read, maybe didn't read properly, and it
Speaker 1: was the corner of the screen. It's probably erroneous information.
Speaker 1: And the game, you know, by tradition, should have been
Speaker 1: held in Baltimore, right, But thanks to what what place
Speaker 1: are the Orioles in right now? They are the middle
Speaker 1: of the pack. Then, okay, so the middle of the
Speaker 1: pack baseball team that no one cares about is the
Speaker 1: reason that we now have Joe Flacco's image paste it
Speaker 1: all over Denver Stadium. Peter Angelos, the owner of the Orioles,
Speaker 1: is a well known, reputed goon, and he decided not
Speaker 1: to give up the parking lot. Uh so they didn't
Speaker 1: have to play an afternoon game, So we do nice
Speaker 1: civic job there by Angelos. Do we think this is
Speaker 1: a high scoring game? I do. I think um too
Speaker 1: much has been made of the Broncos defense falling apart
Speaker 1: this year, But for this game without Champ Bailey, without
Speaker 1: von Miller, I think that's that's problematic. But as as
Speaker 1: a season goes along, you figure they've lost only what
Speaker 1: Dooomerville and they've gained first round defensive tackle Sean Phillips
Speaker 1: Rogers Cromarty, and they've got a new starting strong safety.
Speaker 1: What's Duke ian Nacho? Is that? How you yeah? Something
Speaker 1: who looks pretty good? So to me, this this defense
Speaker 1: could even be better by the end of the year.
Speaker 1: I don't get the hand ringing there. But for early season,
Speaker 1: I think they will have a lot of high scoring
Speaker 1: games because they're going to score um today. By the way,
Speaker 1: Damarius Thomas became the latest guy to come out and
Speaker 1: say that Manning's arm strength is spectacular compared to last season.
Speaker 1: How much am I supposed to be buying into that?
Speaker 1: And will that make him even better than what people
Speaker 1: forget how good he was last year, which drives me
Speaker 1: hand spectacular arm strength right or much improved from last
Speaker 1: year and he's another year it's more comfortable in that
Speaker 1: offense is from what we've heard, gonna go fast paced
Speaker 1: from start to finish, and the Ravens are often basically
Speaker 1: a no huddle offense, so we're gonna see, you know,
Speaker 1: two teams are gonna push the ball downfield. It was
Speaker 1: not a good game by Peyton Manning the playoffs, and
Speaker 1: I thought that was gonna be one of the dominant
Speaker 1: storylines of the off season. It kind of got forgotten
Speaker 1: that they didn't push the ball down the field at all.
Speaker 1: I don't know if it was the weather, but he
Speaker 1: didn't play well. It's it's crazy that Wes Welker's return
Speaker 1: is your first game for the Broncos kind of slipping
Speaker 1: under the radar too. There's a lot to chew on
Speaker 1: in this game. So who's gonna win? Should we go
Speaker 1: around the horn and make our prediction for this game? Sure?
Speaker 1: Why not? All right, I'll start. I think the Broncos win.
Speaker 1: I have the Broncos. Uh well, I don't want to
Speaker 1: give too many teasers for our Super Bowl talk later,
Speaker 1: but it was a bit of a teaser right there.
Speaker 1: But I think the Broncos are gonna be very good
Speaker 1: again this season. They're a bit under the radar for
Speaker 1: a team that shouldn't be under the radar with Manning
Speaker 1: and all the talent they have. And I think in
Speaker 1: a high scoring game would say I think it'll be close,
Speaker 1: and I like the Broncos to win a close one.
Speaker 1: Maybe Chris Wesleyan's boy Julius Thomas announced as the starting
Speaker 1: tight end, plays a factor here because I think James
Speaker 1: ahead of bow is starting at safety for the Ravens.
Speaker 1: I don't think that's uh something you should be too
Speaker 1: excited about if you're a Ravens fan. Uh So, how
Speaker 1: about those tight ends for the Broncos doing well? I
Speaker 1: think the one thing that the Ravens came out of
Speaker 1: that playoff game very upset with even though they won.
Speaker 1: Was their special teams because Denver used to scorching kick
Speaker 1: returns to basically stay where they were in that game.
Speaker 1: You take that away, it would never have gone to overtime.
Speaker 1: I'm going Baltimore. I think it's gonna be a very
Speaker 1: tight game, but I think it's gonna lead to questions
Speaker 1: a week from now that are ill placed. What's wrong now?
Speaker 1: I like the upset picks. You know, last year we
Speaker 1: do the picks on the website. We're gonna do it
Speaker 1: again this year. We have a category named hero picks.
Speaker 1: That's when you get the game right and the rest
Speaker 1: of the group gets it completely wrong. Mark and I
Speaker 1: tied for the hero picks Leyla last year, but Mark
Speaker 1: dominated us. I'm just you know, I hate all the
Speaker 1: group things, by the way, but Greg, excuse me. Mark
Speaker 1: also earned the nickname the Sizzler because he was among
Speaker 1: the top five, top three even UH expert prognosticators in
Speaker 1: the entire nation among sports writers. That comes off of
Speaker 1: literally eight straight years of losing to my mom in
Speaker 1: a pick um pool. So I don't continue with that.
Speaker 1: To continue, I don't see that continuing this season, like
Speaker 1: the Baltimore Ravens of the picks were old surprise champs.
Speaker 1: No one's given him any respect this year. Sessler like,
Speaker 1: I don't trust that. I was gonna say, yeah, it
Speaker 1: seemed like you're gonna give Cessler a raise. You're so
Speaker 1: happy that he took the races West. Who do you have?
Speaker 1: I feel like we've been talking about this all offseason.
Speaker 1: The Ravens defense is actually improved, and I think they're
Speaker 1: even better than we thought from what I saw in
Speaker 1: the preseason. Daryl Smith looks like a pro bowler um.
Speaker 1: But having said that, out of all the great offenses
Speaker 1: in the NFL, I really like that the Cowboys are
Speaker 1: doing the Falcons the Saints. I think the Broncos, with
Speaker 1: Wes Welker and Julius Thomas joining that offense, have the
Speaker 1: best chance to go like two thousand and seven Patriots
Speaker 1: in the NFL this season, and I don't think the
Speaker 1: Ravens can stop them. I'm picking the Broncos. I like that.
Speaker 1: So you're you're talking potentially I'm talking a potentially historic offense.
Speaker 1: Darryl Smith just mentioned on a podcast for literally the
Speaker 1: first time in his life welcome, Daryl Um. Alright, anybody
Speaker 1: else want to put a bow on this topic or
Speaker 1: should we move on? I like, I like the Thursday
Speaker 1: night preview. Will do that every Wednesday. Oh yeah, very exciting.
Speaker 1: Uh kay, Ritchie's still there? Are you hanging out with Eisen?
Speaker 1: I was talking to Eisen? But I'm back now. Alright, great, alright,
Speaker 1: so let's let's do a little news. We're by the
Speaker 1: way k Rich's news jingle, it's you know, coming together.
Speaker 1: It's hasn't been produced or even we haven't reached out
Speaker 1: to anybody, but she will have a jingle eventually, it's coming,
Speaker 1: but for now, it's just this is all you get.
Speaker 1: So kay, Rich, let's do some news, all right, Let's
Speaker 1: do it now. This is a team that never, ever,
Speaker 1: ever fails to make headlines, the notorious New York Jets.
Speaker 1: Rex Ryan will not commit to Gino Smith beyond week one?
Speaker 1: Wes who cares? Who really cares? There's no there's no
Speaker 1: fresh news here. Both quarterbacks stink, The Jets are terrible.
Speaker 1: The rest of the country doesn't care. Just the national media.
Speaker 1: All right. I will say that it actually is news
Speaker 1: because Rex what he could have done today was say
Speaker 1: Gino is my quarterback. He will be the quarterback this season. Instead,
Speaker 1: he's playing it by ear, which is probably the smart
Speaker 1: move when you're coaching for your job and you need
Speaker 1: at least seven wins to stay alive. You're not gonna
Speaker 1: drown with a rookie for the sake of the progress
Speaker 1: of an organization that you won't even be with next year.
Speaker 1: What a poorly handled situation. Though I know I'm not
Speaker 1: supposed to say that, blah blah blah, but Rex had
Speaker 1: a chance to say, look, we've got a first year quarterback.
Speaker 1: We believe in this guy. We're gonna stick with him. Instead,
Speaker 1: he continues to muddle the message, and I just think
Speaker 1: it's the Jets want their coach to speak about the
Speaker 1: team in a certain way, and Rex keeps going off
Speaker 1: that message over and over. I feel like we're just
Speaker 1: throwing this Jets news in now to troll Wesley to
Speaker 1: get him angry. It's working. It's working. You can't, you
Speaker 1: can you cannot slide the word Jets past our editor's
Speaker 1: desk or tibo. It's it's going to be suggested that
Speaker 1: we write about it if anything in the Jets comes up. Yeah,
Speaker 1: we gotta keep doing this, Hey, Christal, what else is
Speaker 1: on the news? All right? Next up? This is not
Speaker 1: about Tim Tebow, by the way, this is a story
Speaker 1: that hits close to home to me. With Seattle Seahawks
Speaker 1: QB Russell Wilson as my backup in fantasy, we weren't
Speaker 1: expecting to see his white out Percy Harvin anytime soon
Speaker 1: until he tweets out keep an eye on week seven.
Speaker 1: Mm hmm. That's interesting. Well, and we we Dan and
Speaker 1: I reacted immediately to this. By we were supposed to
Speaker 1: have a post up very quickly, but we dropped everything
Speaker 1: to make a transaction on our fantasy team to pick
Speaker 1: him up, racked him up. Well, yeah, this really is
Speaker 1: an all seriousness of potentially big development. I don't know.
Speaker 1: Hip injury is scary, but the only thing really if
Speaker 1: anybody's not going to pick the Seahawks to win the
Speaker 1: Super Bowl to me is that if Harvin is a
Speaker 1: complete nonentity of the season, if he's back midway through
Speaker 1: the season, which let's say he doesn't come back close,
Speaker 1: but by December he's Percy Harvin, this is a huge
Speaker 1: news development. If he's feeling good right now. Well, a
Speaker 1: few things on this I never trust the player's injury prognosis,
Speaker 1: so they're always overly optimistic. You know. That's one. The
Speaker 1: second is Percy Harvin is probably driving the Seahawks crazy.
Speaker 1: He was the one who announced this hip surgery before
Speaker 1: they even uh okay that now he's saying he's back
Speaker 1: in week seven. I'm sure they don't want that out there.
Speaker 1: If for some reason it is true, it shows at
Speaker 1: least they're optimistic that maybe it's not late December, maybe
Speaker 1: it's November. And I don't be ashamed about the fantasy thing.
Speaker 1: I did the exact same thing. Unfortunately, uh, someone already
Speaker 1: had drafted him. I mean Pete Carroll officially today said,
Speaker 1: look we have we're not even gonna develop some sort
Speaker 1: of timetable form until later this month. But he's progressing. Well,
Speaker 1: what do we know. It's a hip surgery. I don't
Speaker 1: think Harvin even knows when he'll be back here. I
Speaker 1: wouldn't pay any attention to the week seven part. To me,
Speaker 1: the takeaway here is they're optimistic, and you know, when
Speaker 1: guys come back, they're not the same right away. So,
Speaker 1: like you said, maybe by mid December he's back to
Speaker 1: the old Percy Harvin, But I wouldn't expect Seahawks fans
Speaker 1: to get excited and say, Hey, Week seven and we've
Speaker 1: got Harvan back as our new weapon. At least it's
Speaker 1: not Hey, there's been a setback, and you know, temper expectations.
Speaker 1: I'm really excited to see this Seahawks offense this Sunday
Speaker 1: against the Carolina Panthers defense, which looks so good in
Speaker 1: the preseason, and I just wonder if teams are gonna
Speaker 1: do something with Russell Wilson's second year to muddle hip hop.
Speaker 1: I know I'm getting ahead of ourselves with a preview.
Speaker 1: We're gonna preview all the games, and that'll be definitely
Speaker 1: one of the games we preview on Friday. But what
Speaker 1: a what a matchup. I I just debate every week
Speaker 1: about what games I'm going to assign to myself, and
Speaker 1: it's like the toughest decision. I think I gotta go see.
Speaker 1: Looks like I'll be We're gonna have to put in
Speaker 1: a strait jacket by Sunday. I've never seen you this,
Speaker 1: excepted I might have a hero pick on that one today.
Speaker 1: So I think that's a fact. We all have to
Speaker 1: be excited. They have to be moving on. Yes, Lions
Speaker 1: first round pick rookie defensive end Ziggy on Saw is
Speaker 1: still not practicing and has been out for ten days.
Speaker 1: He's counting and he's officially out with a concussion, So officially, yeah,
Speaker 1: that's gonna be. That's a big blow for them, And
Speaker 1: the fact that they're announcing he's out on a Wednesday
Speaker 1: is not a good sign for future weeks. And he
Speaker 1: suffered the concussion like ten days ago. He hasn't practiced
Speaker 1: that long. It's a shame, I think for fans because
Speaker 1: you've got Adrian Peterson against the Lions what would be
Speaker 1: one of the nastiest front fours in football especially I
Speaker 1: don't know. It's a little bit different for me if
Speaker 1: you take Ziggy out of there. But Peterson also when
Speaker 1: he doesn't have his full back in, has not been
Speaker 1: sometimes the same player, although he's a superhuman. So who
Speaker 1: am I to say? What else is in the news?
Speaker 1: K Rich alright, guys, next up. I'm sorry I keep
Speaker 1: making references to my fantasy team, but just had my
Speaker 1: draft because everyone's fascinated by other people's fantasy and it
Speaker 1: was great. So huge matchup in Week one. We have
Speaker 1: Green Bay at San Francisco. Now Niners head coached him.
Speaker 1: Harbaugh dislikes Clay Matthews tough talk about his team. What
Speaker 1: do you guys have today about that? Shut up? You
Speaker 1: know what? Not? I like hardball a lot, But this guy,
Speaker 1: who does he think he is? Honestly and by the way,
Speaker 1: I know you've had and yeah, he thinks he's Keith.
Speaker 1: What does he won before we This guy thinks he's
Speaker 1: a deity. He's not a deity. He's one squat. He's
Speaker 1: won the same amount of Super Bowl titles as Rex Ryan.
Speaker 1: So shut up. People can talk about your blessed team
Speaker 1: and all your beautiful players deal with it wing with
Speaker 1: a ring? Do you want to tell the audience what
Speaker 1: hardball is? Point was, well, what's the context here? A
Speaker 1: lot of games? First, he's won a lot of games,
Speaker 1: But what does he won? Like why does he I
Speaker 1: feel like he believes, uh, that he is above everything
Speaker 1: and and his team is above everyone else. But they're
Speaker 1: really not. You know, this is not a this is
Speaker 1: We're not dealing with some type of dynasty in San Francisco. Well,
Speaker 1: so he specifically said what that he feels that the
Speaker 1: Packers are talking about singling out the quarterback for punishment.
Speaker 1: I'll explain it. So. Clay Matthews did a radio interview
Speaker 1: earlier this week where he talked about the best way
Speaker 1: to stop a read option quarterback is to hit the quarterback.
Speaker 1: And this is something John Madden uh said earlier this offseason.
Speaker 1: Chris wrote about it really not too controversial. Jim Harbaugh
Speaker 1: came out on Wednesday and said he thinks that tough
Speaker 1: talk and that that was his words, um, you know,
Speaker 1: could be interpreted as targeting a specific player. And he's
Speaker 1: gone to the NFL for clarification about the rules of
Speaker 1: hitting the quarterback that are in the read That screech
Speaker 1: what he thinks about it. Sure has changed since I
Speaker 1: was in school. This is the oldest trick in the book.
Speaker 1: Go to the refs in the league, just so they'll
Speaker 1: be aware of the situation when Clay Matthew's lights up Kaepernick.
Speaker 1: Quarterbacks are going to get hit in the read option.
Speaker 1: They're gonna have to deal with it. And it's the
Speaker 1: defensive job to knock the snot out of him. It's
Speaker 1: a non issue. It's just horriball being a weasel. Don't
Speaker 1: we like a little gamesmanship? I mean, we talk about
Speaker 1: the coaches that are so boring in their press. I
Speaker 1: like that Jim Harbaugh is unpredictable and he's he doesn't
Speaker 1: mind zinging the other teams. He does it to Pete Carroll.
Speaker 1: Remember Kevin Gilbride last year teams come at the forty
Speaker 1: nine is just a little bit like Matthews had pretty
Speaker 1: benign comments. Kevin Gilbride had some benign comments last year,
Speaker 1: and then Jim Harback comes back guns blazon heroes his
Speaker 1: quote last year about Gilbride after Gilbride said something about
Speaker 1: Justin Smith. Kevin Gilbride's outrageous, irrational statement regarding Justin Smith's
Speaker 1: play is at first an absurd analogy. Second, it is
Speaker 1: an incendiary comment targeted at truly one of the exemporary
Speaker 1: players in the league. It's obvious the Giants coaching staff
Speaker 1: sole purpose is to use their high visibility to both
Speaker 1: criticize and influence officiating. Now, would you rather have that
Speaker 1: or would you rather have Eric man Genie's press conferences.
Speaker 1: I'd rather have harb West cannot stay off killing Cleveland
Speaker 1: owns officials and players can get four hours the coaching
Speaker 1: how about press conferences? Is like what am I getting
Speaker 1: out of this, Yeah, they were not ENTERGA makes the
Speaker 1: league more entertaining, but pride comes before the fall. Just
Speaker 1: get ready a little hubrist interesting. Hey, anything else in
Speaker 1: the news. Yeah, you one last thing up. Panthers white
Speaker 1: out Steve Smith. Get ready for this one. So that
Speaker 1: Brown's head coach Rob Chazinski got too cute with Panthers offense.
Speaker 1: Well I think Smith is number one. The guy talks
Speaker 1: too much. But second late, I know now love him.
Speaker 1: Uh he is finding he is correct because before the
Speaker 1: Panthers figured out what how to kind of get their
Speaker 1: run game going, they you know, we wrote a post
Speaker 1: about this last year. They basically run endless stuff out
Speaker 1: of shotgun and read read zone option plays and basically
Speaker 1: had very little effective is trying to channel it through
Speaker 1: Cam Newton and they got back to basics. And that's
Speaker 1: what Smith was talking about that you know, Chud got
Speaker 1: too cute and it happened number one on that Week
Speaker 1: three game against the Giants, which was a disaster for
Speaker 1: Caroline on multiple levels. And but it's a guy, you
Speaker 1: know saying basically, oh, Mike Schula is gonna come in
Speaker 1: and save us. I'll wait for about three weeks to
Speaker 1: hear what Smith has to say about Mike Schula. If
Speaker 1: he's still alive, he might be taped to a chair
Speaker 1: getting pushed. Well. Probably the most offensive thing Smith said
Speaker 1: was that Chadynsky was just auditioning for other head coaching jobs,
Speaker 1: that he was putting basically his own personal career interests
Speaker 1: ahead of the team, and that in and by the way,
Speaker 1: just for fun, just for Mark especially, I'll give you
Speaker 1: one more Brown's headline, Brown's kicker, Billy Kundiff replacing a
Speaker 1: legend like Phil Dawson quote is a good thing that
Speaker 1: we'll come back to. Um Okay, okay, Rich, that's it
Speaker 1: for the news right, all right, So our last top
Speaker 1: Thank you kay, Rich. That was great, twelve out of ten.
Speaker 1: As always our last topic, we're gonna do our Super
Speaker 1: Bowl pick. It's time all season we're gonna be doing.
Speaker 1: I guess we'll do some variation of our weekly picks,
Speaker 1: and our debut of the weekly picks will beyond Thursday
Speaker 1: on the on the site that around the League blog.
Speaker 1: But right now we're gonna do Super Bowl picks. Uh West,
Speaker 1: do you want to start out? Who do you have
Speaker 1: your final four? And who wins it? All? Sure? I'll
Speaker 1: start you know, I was um watching a lot of
Speaker 1: Texans film last night, and the more I watched him,
Speaker 1: the more I liked him. Shop is still a question mark.
Speaker 1: But J. J. Watt is the best player on the
Speaker 1: field almost every time he takes the field, and he's
Speaker 1: just in the backfield on every play. It's it's incredible.
Speaker 1: You throw in Cushing, DeAndre Hopkins. Uh. Jonathan Joseph is healthy.
Speaker 1: I watched him shut down A. J. Green for the
Speaker 1: entire first half of that playoff game. Um, you've got
Speaker 1: um Bentaate is healthy. He wasn't last year. So you've
Speaker 1: got two new weapons on offense that you didn't have
Speaker 1: for the most of last year. And you've got too healthy.
Speaker 1: Two out of your three best defenders are healthy this year.
Speaker 1: The Texans are going to roll through the NFC or
Speaker 1: the a f C South, I think. Um, so they
Speaker 1: play the Broncos. Broncos go to the Super Bowl. Like
Speaker 1: I said, I feel like the Broncos offense can go
Speaker 1: two thousand and seven Patriots and their defense by the
Speaker 1: time Von Miller gets back will be good enough. Uh.
Speaker 1: I think people forget that the Broncos had the best
Speaker 1: defense in the NFL for the final three months of
Speaker 1: last season after they got off to a slow start.
Speaker 1: So I've got Broncos and in the NFC, I've got
Speaker 1: Packers over Seahawks just because I trust Aaron Rodgers more. Um,
Speaker 1: I feel like the Packers upgraded at running back and
Speaker 1: in on defense. I just, you know, even if the
Speaker 1: Seahawks have a better roster, I trust the Packers to
Speaker 1: come through in the playoffs. And I've got Broncos over
Speaker 1: Packers in the Super Bowl little nineties seven rematch right there.
Speaker 1: I like that, uh Sel, what do you got? I
Speaker 1: uh mentioned right off the top that I thought that
Speaker 1: Denver would lose this game against the Ravens and people
Speaker 1: would start to freak out. But I think they'll quickly realize,
Speaker 1: as West has mentioned, that Denver's offense is good enough
Speaker 1: to harry whatever issues they have on defense. I also
Speaker 1: think that we overrate players being out for the start
Speaker 1: of seasons in the sense that by the time von
Speaker 1: Miller is back, you know, there's plenty of room for
Speaker 1: Denver to make up whatever was lost. Count It might
Speaker 1: be it's a strange form of it. Maybe I have
Speaker 1: them getting to the a f C title game against
Speaker 1: New England and I've mentioned already that Tom Brady is
Speaker 1: my m v P pick, and Uh, I believe that
Speaker 1: New England will beat Denver in one great last Tom
Speaker 1: Brady versus Peyton Manning duel and go to the Super
Speaker 1: Bowl against the winner of the Seahawks and the Bears.
Speaker 1: I think the Bears are going to win a playoff
Speaker 1: game over potentially a higher seeded team, get into the
Speaker 1: NFC Title Game, but fall to Seattle, and then I'm
Speaker 1: going to have New England topping Seattle in the Super Bowl.
Speaker 1: One last Belichick, Brady Crown, did you listen to our podcast? Uh?
Speaker 1: The other day Monday? Again? There was no I was busy. Please,
Speaker 1: what do you think about our theory that you love
Speaker 1: the Bears and Mark Trestman so much? Because Mark Trestman
Speaker 1: is the coach that reminds you the most of Mark Sessler.
Speaker 1: That spelled with a ce, spelled with a sea spelled
Speaker 1: the noble way. Um, I'm not sure I know enough
Speaker 1: about him to say that he reminds me of me,
Speaker 1: But a little nugget from his past. When Cleveland last
Speaker 1: won a division title pre Belichick, it was an eighty
Speaker 1: nine with Bud Carson and our offensive coordinator was Mark Trestman,
Speaker 1: and he got a lot out of that offense, and
Speaker 1: I never forgot him since I'm not sure that I
Speaker 1: see like a personality blueprint. All roads lead back to Brea. Okay, Dan,
Speaker 1: not Flora park Corea. Um, okay, my pick. You know what.
Speaker 1: I agree with you. By the way, Cessler. I believe
Speaker 1: that we get one last Brady Manning Bowl and it
Speaker 1: would be the fourth one in January. And uh, at
Speaker 1: least that's what I hope happens, and we ie we
Speaker 1: kind of got robbed of this past January. I think
Speaker 1: it happens this year. I think, um, this time, the
Speaker 1: Broncos get over the hump. I think they beat the Patriots,
Speaker 1: who I think will be good but won't be better
Speaker 1: than what Manning has put together this year. That's a
Speaker 1: great team and they will also. I also have Seattle
Speaker 1: going into the NFC Title Game, but I have them
Speaker 1: beating the Redskins. I almost had. I almost did it.
Speaker 1: I almost put the Redskins in the Super Bowl. Greg
Speaker 1: kind of said something snarky when I first mentioned it,
Speaker 1: and he talked me out of it. That's not true
Speaker 1: that I didn't know you were thinking about the redket Yes,
Speaker 1: that's what happened. And I almost did it, and then I,
Speaker 1: you know, I hedged my bed a little bit and
Speaker 1: I rethought things, and I said, let me play it
Speaker 1: a little safer. So I'm gonna have the Seahawks getting
Speaker 1: past the Broncos, and excuse me, see how it's getting
Speaker 1: past the Redskins. And then I do see the Seahawks
Speaker 1: beating the Broncos super Bowl champs. I look, I look
Speaker 1: towards the organizations and the quarterbacks and the winning this
Speaker 1: team over the last decade by I think it was
Speaker 1: eleven games. Is the Newing and Patriots they still have
Speaker 1: the same Well that's part of it. I really debated
Speaker 1: whether to go with the Patriots or the Steelers as
Speaker 1: my a f C team. I've been thinking about it
Speaker 1: for two months, really that those were gonna be my finalist.
Speaker 1: I finally went with the Patriots. The Steelers, not coincidentally,
Speaker 1: the third best team over the last decade. I still
Speaker 1: think they have one of the best head coaches, one
Speaker 1: of the five best quarterbacks in the league. So those
Speaker 1: are my two final teams. Got the Patriots going to
Speaker 1: the Super Bowl because I think their defense is going
Speaker 1: to be better than it has been in five or
Speaker 1: six years. Really like the linebackers. I think they have
Speaker 1: a lot of depth on the defensive line. And then
Speaker 1: in the n FC again, one of the best teams
Speaker 1: over the last decade, Green Bay Packers, the best quarterback
Speaker 1: in the league. I try not to outsmart myself, So
Speaker 1: I'm going Packers over Seattle. And I think Green Bay's
Speaker 1: defense is going to be a weapon as good as
Speaker 1: it's been um in the last couple of years, can
Speaker 1: be a top ten defense. And so I have them
Speaker 1: winning the Super Bowl and beating Tom Brady and give
Speaker 1: him a third Super Bowl loss. What happens to England
Speaker 1: if they win another? If they lose another Super Bowl?
Speaker 1: I think all Patriots fans would agree that they would rather,
Speaker 1: you know, never make a Super Bowl again then then
Speaker 1: go through that. I guess that's obvious enough, but it
Speaker 1: would just be well, that must be a nice problem,
Speaker 1: right right. I mean, I think in their heart of hearts,
Speaker 1: a lot of Patriots fans when they lost to the
Speaker 1: Ravens last year, thought, well, if they're gonna lose, it's
Speaker 1: better now than than in another Super Bowl. Alright, those
Speaker 1: are picks. I think they all seem to be I
Speaker 1: wouldn't call them chalk, but they they seem to be
Speaker 1: going with what the experts are saying for the most part.
Speaker 1: But you know, get off our backs. Um packers is
Speaker 1: kind of not a ton of people. Most people who
Speaker 1: are going none of us went for hackers. Just a
Speaker 1: tremendous stretch. Um all right. By the way, a couple
Speaker 1: of a little housekeeping. We have some really good content
Speaker 1: on the around the League block. I don't know if
Speaker 1: anybody's noticed, Greg, you just put out the QB Index.
Speaker 1: That's uh West. You have your running backs running back
Speaker 1: power ranks should be up within and well by the
Speaker 1: time you get this podcast, it will be they will
Speaker 1: be that. Uh Cessler. You have your ten things that
Speaker 1: you're looking forward to. I also rank long snappers, do that,
Speaker 1: and I have my the final Hard Knocks recap the finale.
Speaker 1: So check all those things out. Anything else we wanna
Speaker 1: talk about before we go today, I just wanted to
Speaker 1: say that I enjoyed I really enjoyed your Hard Knox
Speaker 1: recaps all year, some of the finest work we put
Speaker 1: out on around the league. That's the only reason I
Speaker 1: brought it up. I was fishing for the compliment, I
Speaker 1: got it, got there's a victory. Um okay, So on Friday,
Speaker 1: we'll be back. We have the we're gonna review Thursday night,
Speaker 1: we'll talk big, big Week one preview. Uh I'm excited
Speaker 1: about that. And uh that's it. So thank you the mailman,
Speaker 1: the sizzler at the boss k Ridge, behind the glass,
Speaker 1: and of course lie all the intent until Friday. I
Speaker 1: would venture to guess that a nap at least a
Speaker 1: dozen times in the fowerysh