Speaker 1: Fail Round the League Podcast has no prior head coaching experience.
Speaker 1: Welcome back to another edition of the Around the League Podcast.
Speaker 1: My name is Dan Hansis. I'm joined by heroes Chris Westling,
Speaker 1: Mark Sessler, Greg Rosenthal. Hey, guys, we're not a room
Speaker 1: full anymore. That well, no, I'm just shortening it a
Speaker 1: little bit with this one, okay, or you just kind
Speaker 1: of stumbled over it. I thought it was pretty good.
Speaker 1: It was smooth. But hey, I'll say, by the way,
Speaker 1: it smells awesome in here. Chris Westling, who has the
Speaker 1: best off days of anyone? Uh, what is that scent?
Speaker 1: Is that a perfume? That is a Kruger blant, Kruger
Speaker 1: brand thirty proof some block. I actually I thought I
Speaker 1: thought it was one of those Russian women you play
Speaker 1: uh shovel board with that, Maybe her perfume and rubbed off.
Speaker 1: It's a real person. There is a there is a
Speaker 1: Zorina there. Wesleyan is fresh off the boat from Georgia.
Speaker 1: Um doesn't know a lot of people here in l A.
Speaker 1: I give him a terrible schedule where he's working all weekend,
Speaker 1: so he has Tuesday and Wednesday off, So he spends
Speaker 1: these days just lounging by the pool and watching copious
Speaker 1: amounts of film and drinking copious amounts of beer and
Speaker 1: reading some good books, which sounds pretty awesome. I would say,
Speaker 1: wildly jealous of the guy's lifestyle in general. Fairly accurate descriptions.
Speaker 1: Tanned and relaxed. He smells great. Uh, he has great
Speaker 1: calfs because he's wearing shorts. Right now, everything seems to
Speaker 1: be turning up aces for the old Westman. I want
Speaker 1: to know what you learned from all the film watching
Speaker 1: anything stand out well? I tweeted about this yesterday. Bryce Butler,
Speaker 1: seventh rounder from the Raiders. Uh, to me, this is
Speaker 1: like what preseason is all about. You get a guy
Speaker 1: who has comes into camp with a third string offense,
Speaker 1: makes plays in the first preseason game. By the second
Speaker 1: preseason game, he's starting in practice and playing with the
Speaker 1: first string offense, catching passes with Matt Flynn. We see
Speaker 1: all these guys who are rookies and get pub and
Speaker 1: still are running the fourth or fifth receivers. This guy
Speaker 1: might have a chance to be the first or second
Speaker 1: receiver for the Raiders. You know you could listen to
Speaker 1: Dave damash x podcast for the next four years. You're
Speaker 1: not gonna hear about Bryce Butler. That is why you
Speaker 1: come to the round. You have to squeeze in a
Speaker 1: shot somehow where what a minute and happened to the show.
Speaker 1: He's not taking shots at us. That receiver situation is
Speaker 1: weird too. We don't know. I mean, he really might
Speaker 1: start right, he's got a chance. Jacoby Ford said he
Speaker 1: could be the number one receiver for the Raider. Al Right, guys,
Speaker 1: so we have a full show today. We're gonna have
Speaker 1: our a f C West preview as we wrap up
Speaker 1: that conference. Uh, we're gonna do a little hard knocks
Speaker 1: talk uh the episode last night. But we'll start with
Speaker 1: some news and in honor of NFL dot COM's Fantasy
Speaker 1: Draft Week, which you could find out more about at
Speaker 1: nfl dot com backslash Fantasy Draft Week. I love the plug.
Speaker 1: A good plug there. I hope the bosses were listening
Speaker 1: to that. We're gonna give some news that has a
Speaker 1: little bit of a fantasy spin. Um, so we'll send that.
Speaker 1: We'll send it over to Greg Rosenthal, the boss, to
Speaker 1: give us a little breakdown of the news. It's really
Speaker 1: a fantasy tinged episode. Maybe our our fantasy preview. I
Speaker 1: guess we're gonna give one big piece of advice later
Speaker 1: in the show each on what you should do for
Speaker 1: your fantasy draft. But for the News this week, let's
Speaker 1: start with with Michael Vick, which is you know, we
Speaker 1: know now he's officially the starter. My question is what
Speaker 1: are the expectations for him as a starting quarterback this year?
Speaker 1: It could go so many directions. I could see him
Speaker 1: hurt after three weeks. I could see him have a
Speaker 1: short leash and see falls in there by week four.
Speaker 1: Or I could see him have that two thousand ten
Speaker 1: type season. I mean, he certainly he has that drive.
Speaker 1: He looks good, he came in camp in shape, and
Speaker 1: he has something to prove if this offense is as
Speaker 1: good as people think it can be and catches people
Speaker 1: off guard, I feel like the guy's the limit for
Speaker 1: this guy. Yeah, I think that the thing that's encouraging
Speaker 1: out of Philadelphia is Kelly basically saying he's my starter
Speaker 1: and I'm sticking with this guy. We're a year ago.
Speaker 1: Andy ree was in trouble early, and you've got a
Speaker 1: sense that Andy Reid was gonna lose his job, and
Speaker 1: he started cycling through quarterbacks and vic got hurt. It
Speaker 1: was it was about as bad a year as it
Speaker 1: could be for Vic. I really think obviously that the
Speaker 1: whole team's energized, and Vick is like suddenly five years younger.
Speaker 1: He looks to me on the field. So we'll see
Speaker 1: again Kenny stay healthy, well, that would be the big question.
Speaker 1: I think the offensive line is much improved this year.
Speaker 1: They're all healthy, so that that helps. I think for
Speaker 1: the first time in what a twelve year NFL career,
Speaker 1: he finally has an offense that's suited to his strengths
Speaker 1: as a player. So that's promising. Uh, we always seen
Speaker 1: him in fantasy. Didn't do it for you. Jim Mora
Speaker 1: had like the exact opposite offense she should be running
Speaker 1: for for For Vick, I guess for fantasy purposes, we
Speaker 1: know we've seen him finish, uh take Take Owners to
Speaker 1: the fantasy title two or three years ago. We know
Speaker 1: he has that kind of upside. I guess that's tempered
Speaker 1: a little bit from me by the loss of Macklin.
Speaker 1: I thought, you know, two or three years ago he
Speaker 1: had the best weapons in the league with they had
Speaker 1: so much speed with Jackson maclen McCoy and if you
Speaker 1: take Macklin out and replace him with Riley Cooper, the
Speaker 1: upside isn't quite as good for me. Who's Riley Cooper.
Speaker 1: I'm buying Michael Vick because of what you said about
Speaker 1: the offensive line. Could be such a weapon for them,
Speaker 1: and he's the perfect type of guy. I didn't have
Speaker 1: many strategies and fantasy pole but my main one was
Speaker 1: guys that are really talented that are coming at discount prices.
Speaker 1: He's already shown he can be a dominant type of
Speaker 1: player and he's gonna be. You could probably take him
Speaker 1: pretty late, and he has the upside of a top
Speaker 1: couple guy. And I mean, I'm excited about watching this offense.
Speaker 1: I'm buying into the entire Chip Kelly experience. And look
Speaker 1: at the defenses in that division. None of those secondary
Speaker 1: scare me at all. I think those are gonna be
Speaker 1: a lot of high scoring games in the NFC East.
Speaker 1: I will say this about VIC and fantasy league's there's
Speaker 1: gonna be one guy in your league that's either an
Speaker 1: Eagles fan or is reading a little too much into
Speaker 1: the hype of Kelly's offense that will probably reach and
Speaker 1: grab him, probably two rounds before he should go, so
Speaker 1: you might have to act aggressively. That would be my
Speaker 1: guess on that there's so many younger, cooler like versions
Speaker 1: of Michael Vick now though, that people will take first
Speaker 1: right the whole quarterback position, where if you had to
Speaker 1: grab one of those five or six guys a year ago,
Speaker 1: it's like you've got you can go another round and
Speaker 1: still get someone of value. Now, what else is in
Speaker 1: the news? Levy on Bell we learned today is gonna
Speaker 1: miss some time in the regular season. He's got a
Speaker 1: Liz Frank injury. Uh Ian Rappaport reported for US it
Speaker 1: sounds like he's gonna miss most likely the first month
Speaker 1: of the season. They were really counting on him, uh
Speaker 1: to be a big factor for them, be their starter.
Speaker 1: They had so many problems in the running game. You know,
Speaker 1: what do we think about this Steelers running game now?
Speaker 1: I think it's West said it's so well when he
Speaker 1: when Bell was going to play that first preseason game
Speaker 1: and he didn't, that it robbed the fans of a
Speaker 1: chance to watch this young back and really what would
Speaker 1: have been one of the first featured backs for the
Speaker 1: Steelers and a long time, We're gonna keep waiting and
Speaker 1: you know, the Steelers are do a good job of
Speaker 1: overcoming injuries a lot of times every year they seem
Speaker 1: to have someone sideline, but it's a big loss for them.
Speaker 1: We've heard this narrative out of Pittsburgh for a couple
Speaker 1: of years now since they ran off Arians that Tomlin
Speaker 1: and the Rooneys want to get back the smash mail
Speaker 1: football check touched on in the last week's podcast. They
Speaker 1: want to pound the ball. I can't do the pittsburgher
Speaker 1: act the yet their accent like check, but yeah, they
Speaker 1: want to pound the ball. And it turns out they
Speaker 1: basically have the same you know, running back by committee
Speaker 1: that they're gonna have as last year, except you throw
Speaker 1: in Steven's Halling, who isn't in every down type by
Speaker 1: any means, so it's a patchwork committee. Again. I'd just
Speaker 1: like to say that I did the a t L
Speaker 1: post about the update that he has a List franc injury.
Speaker 1: I did not provide an upper case for List Frank,
Speaker 1: and then our senior news editor, Justin Hathaway emailed me
Speaker 1: to say that it was actually a human being, this
Speaker 1: List Frank character. And then, as it turns out, he
Speaker 1: was a pioneering this is Wikipedia pioneering French surgeon and gynecologist. Well,
Speaker 1: the injury came from soldiers. I mean, that's two pretty
Speaker 1: different things right there. That the injury came from soldiers
Speaker 1: falling off their horses and getting their foot stuck in
Speaker 1: the stirrup and that would break their foot right in
Speaker 1: the middle of it. And that's how you got a
Speaker 1: midfoot sprain. Or laying by the pool. This is what
Speaker 1: happens when you've got roughly seventeen or eighteen hours to
Speaker 1: read a week case of beer pool research, reading off Wikipedia.
Speaker 1: Wesley's got it all upstairs. I got a little Cliff Clayman.
Speaker 1: I mean it's the mailman dates, that's right. One of
Speaker 1: Wesleyan's favorites this year is Jamichael Finley, the Green Bay
Speaker 1: Packers tight end. Mike McCarthy quoted UH this week saying
Speaker 1: it's his best training camp he's ever had. Clear cut,
Speaker 1: he's blocking, now he's catching. Are we buying the Jamachael
Speaker 1: Finley hype? This goes back to the last six or
Speaker 1: seven games of last year. He had played much better
Speaker 1: than people realized he did. He got over his mid
Speaker 1: season shoulder injury, and I believe set a new career
Speaker 1: high for yardage last year, even though we missed a
Speaker 1: game or two and was playing hurt. He's a better
Speaker 1: player than people realize. They don't have Greg Jennings there anymore.
Speaker 1: They're gonna need Finley to run more in the middle
Speaker 1: of the field. And I think Eddie Lacy opened things
Speaker 1: up a little bit too. I just see everything you know.
Speaker 1: You hear the offensive coordina you're talking about. He finally
Speaker 1: knows how to run routes. To me, that's a tangible thing,
Speaker 1: not not hype. If he finally knows the offense he's
Speaker 1: putting in a time, he's maturity, He's in a contract year.
Speaker 1: I'm buying in on Drew Michael Finley. I go with
Speaker 1: you on the Lacy factor. Two. I watched that Rams game,
Speaker 1: and West and I were talking about this before that,
Speaker 1: the fact that like defense is actually have to respect
Speaker 1: to some level the play action in Green Bay versus
Speaker 1: a year ago when it was a complete joke. It
Speaker 1: opened up that part of the field where Finley was
Speaker 1: just so dangerous, and he had what three catches a
Speaker 1: ton of yards in that game against the Rams, did
Speaker 1: a nice job, and I just I think that's the
Speaker 1: kind of games we could see from him consistently, and
Speaker 1: that's just shaking his head vigorously over here. You know
Speaker 1: what I and I respect. Here comes a two thousand
Speaker 1: and nine reference. Now, I respect everyone in this room
Speaker 1: their opinions except for settlers. And I will say this that, Uh,
Speaker 1: the one thing I know about Finley is that he's
Speaker 1: consistently inconsistent. And I understand that he has all the
Speaker 1: tools there. But I've seen enough from him to to
Speaker 1: think to myself, I don't see him ever becoming a
Speaker 1: star player. He's gonna have his moments. He's in an
Speaker 1: awesome offense, offense that could be more dynamic with a
Speaker 1: better running game. Now, but he drops the ball, He's
Speaker 1: gonna have drops, He's gonna go and dog dog house.
Speaker 1: I I just don't think he's gonna be the guy.
Speaker 1: And if you want to spin it back to fantasy,
Speaker 1: I think he's a great late round flyer if you
Speaker 1: can get him in the tenth round or something. But
Speaker 1: I would not bet your house on Finley becoming a
Speaker 1: Jimmy Graham type player. Well, you have to also consider
Speaker 1: the uncertainty at the tight end position. This year, there's
Speaker 1: only what two or three tight ends that we've lost
Speaker 1: a bunch. You only feel comfort about wit M Graham
Speaker 1: and gonzalways. Maybe I'm liking Finley. The one thing I
Speaker 1: can tell you about him is that he's tall. I
Speaker 1: mean in the last television spot I ever did was
Speaker 1: one of an NBC Sports Network was one of the
Speaker 1: more emasculating moments of my life. Interviewing Jamachael Finley outside
Speaker 1: in the freezing cold in Indianapolis. He showed up late,
Speaker 1: so we had to do it live, and uh, I
Speaker 1: not only have to stand on a box, it was
Speaker 1: it was a pretty big box and that that was
Speaker 1: the first for me, and that just sort of that
Speaker 1: just sort of let me know where I was. But
Speaker 1: if you want, if you somehow found that tape on
Speaker 1: the internet. However, me and Jamichael eye to eye right there,
Speaker 1: you look daunting on that close up shot. Yeah, it
Speaker 1: was a little a little scary, alright. Anything else, Uh,
Speaker 1: Arian Foster's back on the practice field. Uh, we don't
Speaker 1: know how extensive it is, so we don't know how important,
Speaker 1: but he is off the populist. We talked about him
Speaker 1: the other day. Also Lamar Miller and Daniel Thomas, your
Speaker 1: boy Miller Westling over there is struggling to get ahold
Speaker 1: of this starting running back job. They are splitting reps
Speaker 1: in Miami. Yeah, he seems like he's just not playing
Speaker 1: with confidence. I the coaches, No, he's a better talent.
Speaker 1: That's what they talked about all off season. They want
Speaker 1: to give him the job. It seems to me like
Speaker 1: this is one of those motivational ploys. He has to
Speaker 1: earn it, and he hasn't earned it yet. To me,
Speaker 1: the talent will win out in the end. I wouldn't
Speaker 1: worry about too much of Daniel Thomas. We've seen what
Speaker 1: he is as an NFL back. Uh, He's a bit
Speaker 1: on the plotting side. He fumbles a lot. He hasn't
Speaker 1: really converted in short yardage yardage like they like. So
Speaker 1: I think I think this is gonna be Lamar Miller's job.
Speaker 1: But for fantasy purposes, I would I guess I would
Speaker 1: advise don't expect him to be reliable in September. He's
Speaker 1: one of those guys at the hype maybe inflated him
Speaker 1: too much now to the point where he's not really
Speaker 1: a sleeper anymore. He's just a guy that's going early.
Speaker 1: Because everyone like Wesley has been talking him up all offseason.
Speaker 1: How could he be battling with confidence if he was
Speaker 1: a making the lead candidate for around the league. It
Speaker 1: seems to have taken You think he would be just
Speaker 1: filled and pouring out. Could it be because one making
Speaker 1: the leap candidate after the next has been filled by
Speaker 1: injury or like at all? That's not true. Between forty guys,
Speaker 1: you know, some are gonna get suspended, some are gonna
Speaker 1: get arrested. Whatever we need that Brady Bunch Hawaiian episode
Speaker 1: background noise, the cursed thing whenever we talk about making
Speaker 1: let's find it on YouTube. Um. Okay, So Mark Cesler
Speaker 1: and I are are mirror mortals when it comes to
Speaker 1: fantasy sports. We both play. We we co own a
Speaker 1: team in NFL. It's called alson brie Um and she
Speaker 1: finds out about probably restraining order is in line. But
Speaker 1: the two gentlemen. The other gentleman in the room, Greg Rosenthal,
Speaker 1: former editor in chief and overall czar over at Rhodo
Speaker 1: World for like eight years, that's two presidential terms. And
Speaker 1: then Wes was were you like a Consigliari type of character? Yeah,
Speaker 1: you could say that. Okay, So you guys are experts.
Speaker 1: So you know, take what Mark and I say with
Speaker 1: the grain of salt. But listen, listen very closely to
Speaker 1: Rosenthal and Westling as we give each of us give
Speaker 1: our advice for the fantasy draft coming up. I hate
Speaker 1: that word expert. That's my that's my point of advice.
Speaker 1: Is it, you absolutely love it. The experts don't know
Speaker 1: what they're talking about. That's my piece of advice is,
Speaker 1: don't pay that close of attention to the fantasy rankings.
Speaker 1: You can use them to give you some information on
Speaker 1: who's draftable and all that, but after a while there
Speaker 1: becomes a logic like this guy's a second round pick,
Speaker 1: this guy's a fifth round pick. Don't take him to it.
Speaker 1: It doesn't None of it means anything. It doesn't mean anything,
Speaker 1: and no one could possibly predict how crazy the season
Speaker 1: is gonna be. If you lined up what the end
Speaker 1: of the season rankings are for everyone and you made
Speaker 1: that your preseason ranking, somehow people would say you were nuts.
Speaker 1: I mean, I was talking to a friend the other
Speaker 1: night and he had the number two pick, and he
Speaker 1: was saying, Oh, I like these guys. I kind of
Speaker 1: like McCoy though, Is that is that that crazy? To
Speaker 1: take mcquoy is like, why wouldn't you take Lashawn? Just
Speaker 1: take him? I mean, oh, but he's supposed to be
Speaker 1: the fifth or sixth pick. If no one knows any thing,
Speaker 1: I mean, give me, give me a break. Am I right?
Speaker 1: You leaving the industry and then torching it. I think
Speaker 1: I'm seeing and then a match when when I was
Speaker 1: at Rotor, what I told people the exact same thing
Speaker 1: is greg there's no right answer. This isn't scientific. Go
Speaker 1: with your gut. If you like a guy, take him.
Speaker 1: Information is great, learning more about all the players in
Speaker 1: the situation. That's all good. Knowing all the players, that's important.
Speaker 1: That's where fantasy. You know, analysts, everyone can help you out,
Speaker 1: but they'll just be sort of a logic that sets
Speaker 1: in and none of it makes any sense, Like, oh,
Speaker 1: you can't take if Colin. If you like Colin Kaepernick,
Speaker 1: make him your top quarterback, make him the number one quarterback,
Speaker 1: and take him in the first round if you want.
Speaker 1: It doesn't matter. He could be the number one quarterback.
Speaker 1: Why not. Crazier things happen every every year. Quarterback in
Speaker 1: the first round. Not necessarily, but if I found feeling it,
Speaker 1: and that's who I want sure. Yeah, don't let the
Speaker 1: experts say so, you're saying that's the type of stuff
Speaker 1: not to listen to the experts always have this, take
Speaker 1: this position in this, don't worry about any of that
Speaker 1: position stuff. Just take best player on your board. Shouldn't
Speaker 1: you build a team off of players that you don't
Speaker 1: hate number one, that you don't want to succeed. That's
Speaker 1: what I never liked about fantasy football, was like, why
Speaker 1: am I rooting for Heinz Ward to score a three
Speaker 1: our touchdown and knocked the Browns out of this game? Well,
Speaker 1: along with that advice is I did take a peek
Speaker 1: a peek at the average draft position this year just
Speaker 1: to see what's going on, and it was crazy that
Speaker 1: Stephen Jackson and and Reggie Bush were in the top
Speaker 1: twenty or twenty five. As I is this two thousand
Speaker 1: and six. What is going on that somehow has become
Speaker 1: a logical thing And that's not logical. So that's my point.
Speaker 1: I'm done. What do you got? You guys want to
Speaker 1: hear a bit of a rank? Yeah, it's just kind
Speaker 1: of piggybacking off at Greg's point, like um getting and
Speaker 1: you guys are like industry men who are on for
Speaker 1: like beer number four. This is like Don Draper when
Speaker 1: he kind of goes off and destroys his own agency.
Speaker 1: I hate the term expert to all these guys from
Speaker 1: all of the different webs sights who write about fancy.
Speaker 1: They all stand in line behind each other and become
Speaker 1: this big click and everybody's afraid to stand out there.
Speaker 1: Just you. Just everybody has to agree on where you
Speaker 1: should take a player, and to me, it defeats the
Speaker 1: whole purpose of the game. Along those lines, you know,
Speaker 1: like Greg was saying, you have to take this guy
Speaker 1: in the first round. Guys that ask who should I
Speaker 1: take it? Number three? Overall, do you want me to
Speaker 1: wine and dine your wife, for you to kiss her
Speaker 1: at the end of the night, for you make up
Speaker 1: your own mind? This is your team, alright, So really
Speaker 1: you're still gonna That was my ramp, but my piece
Speaker 1: of advice. Okay, with all of this information handy, We've
Speaker 1: got Twitter, We've got sites like Rhodo World, NFL dot
Speaker 1: com has a one hour fantasy show every day. Information
Speaker 1: everybody has it. Now, you're not getting a sleeper. To me,
Speaker 1: the sleeper is dead. You go for guys take advantage
Speaker 1: of recency bias, which is Ryan Matthews was seventh and
Speaker 1: Fantasy points in two thousand and eleven, but because he
Speaker 1: played through two collar bone injuries last year, everybody assumes
Speaker 1: he's an injury prone guy who will always disappoint you.
Speaker 1: Matthew Stafford a few years ago have missed eighteen of
Speaker 1: thirty two games. Everybody called him a China doll. Then
Speaker 1: he throws for five thousand yards and thirty eight touchdowns
Speaker 1: the next year, and all of a sudden, he's cured.
Speaker 1: This is recency bias. Take advantage of it. There are
Speaker 1: so many bargains out there. Like Greg said, who you
Speaker 1: want are the really talented guys who everybody has written
Speaker 1: off and decided they're no good anymore. To me? A
Speaker 1: guy like Ryan Matthews falls in there, and if you
Speaker 1: look at his injuries, they're kind of like, um, the uh,
Speaker 1: what you see isn't their factor. People forget that we
Speaker 1: don't see college injuries. So Adrian Peterson, it's kind of
Speaker 1: similar injuries to Ryan Matthews. Because they happened in college,
Speaker 1: they're not on fantasy owners minds. And the way I
Speaker 1: saw Ryan Matthews run the other night. To me, he
Speaker 1: looks like two thousand eleven Ryan Matthews Wesley dropping knowledge. Hey,
Speaker 1: I could jump in and give mine, but I'm gonna
Speaker 1: throw it to Sessler. She always want to be the
Speaker 1: guy that follows, the guy that failed, not the legend
Speaker 1: you know by the way. So Dan and I are
Speaker 1: heading into year three of co owning a team, and
Speaker 1: the last two nights of the draft. Dan has been
Speaker 1: the first time. He was flat out, just on vacation
Speaker 1: and on an unavailable. Last year he was like in
Speaker 1: New York, partly available, and when he needed him too,
Speaker 1: I stepped away and needed him to make a pick.
Speaker 1: He missed it and we got auto drafted Ridley, who
Speaker 1: was our best player. Maybe people just turned the volume
Speaker 1: down from the next time. I would like to invite
Speaker 1: you to be part of the process this year, Dan, uh,
Speaker 1: But I'm gonna give you two guys, a a riser
Speaker 1: who in a bust. Listen, if you're out there and
Speaker 1: you're a complete novice, this will be of use to you.
Speaker 1: But I love Shane Vereen on the Patriots hand language,
Speaker 1: I'm not you know, I have enough going on. Fantasy
Speaker 1: football is not my top priority, but I like Shane
Speaker 1: Vereen on the Patriots for the reason that we talked
Speaker 1: about Aaron Nandez cannot be completely replaced. But this is
Speaker 1: one guy that's gonna take some of that action. And
Speaker 1: I don't think he's a he's maybe a flex guy.
Speaker 1: Plug him in that way. They're going to use him
Speaker 1: as a runner, as a pass catcher, and I think
Speaker 1: that Belichick saying, listen, Verene, We're gonna give you a
Speaker 1: big chance. It's up to you to make a click.
Speaker 1: And he's done really well early on in the preseason.
Speaker 1: So that's my guy to cling on to. Potentially it's
Speaker 1: a flex guy. My bust potential is Monty Ball not
Speaker 1: feeling it, and I and that maybe that's presumptuous right now,
Speaker 1: but I think number one, it's that's cooked right into
Speaker 1: a complete We're gonna use him, and we're gonna use Ball.
Speaker 1: Neither one of these guys for a while is going
Speaker 1: to take over in the run game. I'd stay away
Speaker 1: from him. That's some hardcore fantasy advice right there. That's
Speaker 1: actually it reminds me of what we talked about a
Speaker 1: month or two ago on the podcast. You were that
Speaker 1: just slotting those rookies in that they're gonna be fine. Well,
Speaker 1: suddenly Bell is out a month, Ball is struggling to
Speaker 1: get the starting job. Arthur Brown and Matty Elam aren't
Speaker 1: even starting in Baltimore. It's usually doesn't as well as
Speaker 1: you expect it to go um real quick. For me,
Speaker 1: I would just say draft as many cults as possible.
Speaker 1: I think that offense is gonna be a dynamic. I
Speaker 1: think like that. I think Luck, by the way, and
Speaker 1: I don't want to this is a bit of a teaser,
Speaker 1: but later in the month our blog is going to
Speaker 1: have some heavy p picks. But I think Luck is
Speaker 1: gonna be amazing this year. I love Reddy Wayne, I
Speaker 1: love t Y Hilton, even like Kobe Fleaner, like in
Speaker 1: my bratshow potentially, I even like d HB a little bit,
Speaker 1: Darius Heyward Bay No, Duayne Allen love making the lead
Speaker 1: Oh sorry, Duayne all and even love Duyne Allen. So
Speaker 1: give give the cults a good look on your board.
Speaker 1: I know making the lead candidates there a prepared statement
Speaker 1: of any kind, But Greg made a point the other
Speaker 1: day on our record predictions, and I feel like I
Speaker 1: may have sold the Coults a little short. No you
Speaker 1: made an excellent point. If if we believe Andrew luck
Speaker 1: is going to be one of these quarterbacks who can
Speaker 1: carry his team, why wouldn't I predict them to be
Speaker 1: a better than eight and eight team. I think that's
Speaker 1: a good point, all right, So that is that is
Speaker 1: our fantasy segment for the for the show. I thought
Speaker 1: that went pretty well. We might have to bring that
Speaker 1: back sometime. We'll let us know what you think. Hashtag Crystal,
Speaker 1: how did that sound? By the way, that's amazing, except
Speaker 1: you forgot hashtag NFL A t L Right, Okay, Well,
Speaker 1: hard to please, Cristal, I've found in my life so far.
Speaker 1: But we're always trying. We're always trying. We're gonna go
Speaker 1: on now. We have the a f C West preview.
Speaker 1: We've done all three the other three a f C divisions.
Speaker 1: We're gonna wrap up the West. We're gonna move on
Speaker 1: to the NFC on Friday. But let's start one question
Speaker 1: each of us and then we'll break it down. The Boss,
Speaker 1: Greg Rosenthal, Broncos. All right, von Miller was suspended the
Speaker 1: first six games of the season. My question is, does
Speaker 1: that really have a big impact on the Broncos this year? Well,
Speaker 1: I thought von Miller was the second best player defensive
Speaker 1: player in the NFL last year, behind J. J. Watt.
Speaker 1: Having said that, it sounds so incongruous to follow up
Speaker 1: with it doesn't matter that division is so weak and
Speaker 1: the Broncos are so much better than the rest of
Speaker 1: the division. Even if they get out to a five
Speaker 1: record over the first seven or eight games, they're gonna
Speaker 1: tear through the rest of the second half of the season.
Speaker 1: I agree with that. I think it's it. You know
Speaker 1: that that defense is not going to be as dynamic
Speaker 1: as it could be. But listen, this is Peyton Manning's
Speaker 1: swan song. Potentially they've built the whole team for Super
Speaker 1: Bowl Search. They've had a tremendously rough offseason, but I
Speaker 1: think you're right. They get out of that first stretch
Speaker 1: three and three, four and three or so, and then
Speaker 1: they roll from there. That's what they did last year. Well,
Speaker 1: let's look at the schedule over those six games that
Speaker 1: he's missing. Do you have opening home against the Ravens.
Speaker 1: Tough game at the Giants, is tough home to Raiders.
Speaker 1: They're gonna take care of business their home against the Eagles.
Speaker 1: I think they're fine there and then you have at
Speaker 1: Cowboys or do we think that they can't beat Dallas
Speaker 1: on the road without von Miller? And then home against
Speaker 1: the Jaguars. They should easily have three wins there and
Speaker 1: maybe four. And if they get out as long as
Speaker 1: they get out with three or four wins, who cares.
Speaker 1: It's fine. I worry about giving wins and losses. But
Speaker 1: Jaguars and Raiders at home. That those that's the two
Speaker 1: easiest games that you could possibly come up with. I mean,
Speaker 1: I think the case against Denver is von Miller when
Speaker 1: he comes back, isn't quite von Miller. I mean everyone
Speaker 1: in football kind of glosses over the p DS or
Speaker 1: substance abuse policy. You know when you're missing six weeks
Speaker 1: that you're just gonna come back and be the same
Speaker 1: guy right away. You know, you don't know that he's
Speaker 1: gonna be able to back up that season. And then
Speaker 1: you worry about their defensive line. They lost Dumerville. Champ
Speaker 1: Bailey's getting up there in years. Uh, he's not a
Speaker 1: hundred percent. He might have been ready for Week one either,
Speaker 1: some change that lineback of right Derek Wolfs hurt. So
Speaker 1: I think the case against them is that their defense
Speaker 1: would really have a big decline ultimately, though, I don't think.
Speaker 1: I think they still have a great chance to get
Speaker 1: a buy in the a f C. I do I
Speaker 1: could see costing them maybe one or two wins in
Speaker 1: the big picture, but that's still probably to me puts
Speaker 1: them at eleven or twelve. So I think the Bronchos
Speaker 1: are going to survive this. And in the a f C,
Speaker 1: I don't see you know, three teams with eleven or
Speaker 1: twelve wins this season. That's the thing. It's really less
Speaker 1: about maybe the other teams in their division, and they're
Speaker 1: competing with the other teams in the a f C
Speaker 1: for that one and two seed. Okay, so I'll jump
Speaker 1: in next with the Chiefs. There maybe the biggest buzz
Speaker 1: team in that in this division. You know, a lot
Speaker 1: of people I was in this building last year, there
Speaker 1: were a lot of people that were excited both here
Speaker 1: at NFL media and across the media and fans that
Speaker 1: we're thinking that last year the Chiefs are gonna be
Speaker 1: a team that could be a playoff team. They ended
Speaker 1: up going up in flames, huge dumpster fire when they
Speaker 1: go to and fourteen. Now you you got Andy Reid
Speaker 1: in a coach, you have Alex Smith in a quarterback
Speaker 1: and a Romeo Cornell is as it's a huge upgrade
Speaker 1: from Cornell, and Smith is a big upgrade from Castle.
Speaker 1: But are we supposed to buy in automatically that this
Speaker 1: team is a playoff team. I'm not sure I'm in.
Speaker 1: I can't buy that. I don't see the talent on offense.
Speaker 1: If Jamal Charles gets hurt, let's say, bottom of the
Speaker 1: barrel offense, Jamal Charles is going to be their joker.
Speaker 1: From everything we've read, They're gonna use him for mismatches
Speaker 1: out wide, in the slot, everywhere. He's a chess piece
Speaker 1: for Andy Reid if he goes down. I mean, what
Speaker 1: Donnie Avery couldn't separate from Jonathan Baldwin before they gave
Speaker 1: up on Baldwin. Now we're supposed to buy that he's
Speaker 1: a number two receiver with mccluster. Every coach who comes
Speaker 1: in there, every offensive coordinator, talks about how he's got
Speaker 1: all these plans from a cluster. He never does anything.
Speaker 1: Dwayne Bow is good. But from what I saw in
Speaker 1: film watching yesterday, Alex Smith through every pass in the
Speaker 1: middle of the field. He's not throwing outside the numbers,
Speaker 1: the Dwayne bow Everything's going to running backs and tight ends.
Speaker 1: I don't see this offense really as in. The defense
Speaker 1: is average too, I guess, but I don't see this
Speaker 1: team making the playoffs. If you give it up on
Speaker 1: Andy Reid as a as a difference maker, yes, I have.
Speaker 1: Really I don't know if I can agree with with
Speaker 1: the Andy Reid knock there because I look at Reid
Speaker 1: and and Alex Smith and logically West what you're saying
Speaker 1: is is true. It's hard to project this as a
Speaker 1: team with a winning record, nissarly, but these two seem
Speaker 1: to be and this is this is what football is about.
Speaker 1: Sometimes these guys seem to be driven to prove their
Speaker 1: detractors wrong. And I think that, yeah, they're not the
Speaker 1: most dynamic offense in the in football, but they play
Speaker 1: in a division where with the charges and Raiders alone
Speaker 1: they can pick up wins they wouldn't in another division.
Speaker 1: And I wouldn't have a huge problem with them going
Speaker 1: eight and eat or better. I think the issue I
Speaker 1: have also is with Alex Smith and the benefit of
Speaker 1: the doubt that he now gets that his career is
Speaker 1: now turned around and he's going to be the Alex
Speaker 1: Smith that he was the previous two years in San
Speaker 1: Francisco hardball. I think Jim Harbor had a huge role
Speaker 1: in turning him back into a quality player, and more importantly,
Speaker 1: he protected him in terms of the plays they called
Speaker 1: in the throws he made. I don't think Alex Smith
Speaker 1: is gonna win games single handedly. I saw maybe do
Speaker 1: it once in a playoff game against the Saints, but
Speaker 1: in general, I think he's a game manager, potentially a
Speaker 1: good game manager, but I don't I don't buy into
Speaker 1: Smith as being the savior in Kansas City. I shared
Speaker 1: Dance concerns about Smith, but I feel like we're selling
Speaker 1: Andy Reid short. A couple of years ago, we were
Speaker 1: talking about him as the best coach or one of
Speaker 1: the best coaches in the NFL, along with Bill Belichick,
Speaker 1: and I'm buying into the revived Andy Reid in a
Speaker 1: new city making a difference for them as an offense
Speaker 1: in general, and whenever I'm looking for surprise teams, I
Speaker 1: look to the schedule and it's tough. It's tough to
Speaker 1: predict to as an easy schedule, but that division has
Speaker 1: some easy wins, like Mark mentioned, and they play the
Speaker 1: a f C South out of division, and I think
Speaker 1: that's a pretty another easy division. So I think there's
Speaker 1: room for either the Chiefs or the Chargers to be
Speaker 1: a surprise team. And because of Read, I like I
Speaker 1: like the Chiefs. I have two follow up thoughts on Read.
Speaker 1: I don't think it's possible to do a better coaching
Speaker 1: job with Alex Smith and Jim Harrible and Greg Roman
Speaker 1: did that was just masterful. That's they just played to
Speaker 1: Smith every strength he had and took away every weakness.
Speaker 1: But if you want to defend Andy Reid, you can
Speaker 1: say that he gave too much of the offensive responsibility
Speaker 1: to Marty morning Wig, and he came out and said that, look,
Speaker 1: we we didn't run the ball enough, and it was
Speaker 1: because morning Wig didn't want to run it kind of
Speaker 1: threw them under the bus. But now Doug Peterson the
Speaker 1: first time off into coordinator and maybe we see Andy
Speaker 1: Reid taking control again. I feel like we're I'll just
Speaker 1: doubting Andy Reid. Don't back the Andy Reid into a corner.
Speaker 1: You've seen him at those putty passing kid competitions. It's
Speaker 1: a bad man um Alright, So we got the Chargers
Speaker 1: and Mark Cecil will handle that I actually am doing
Speaker 1: the Raiders den alright, we're gonna do the Raiders, and
Speaker 1: we're going to Mark Sessler. All right. So obviously one
Speaker 1: of the bigger in house bets, uh inside the A T.
Speaker 1: L world is that if the Raiders were to reach
Speaker 1: or surpass six wins, Chris Wessling and I have to
Speaker 1: do nothing if they don't do this, but if they do,
Speaker 1: Wesling has a vowed to he's a softball player, to
Speaker 1: eat his softball pants. Now we have discussed before that
Speaker 1: I believe a third of the cloth can be made
Speaker 1: into a soup of some sort, but regardless, that would
Speaker 1: be a rough road, and so a broth. You could
Speaker 1: do whatever you need to get that third of the
Speaker 1: pants down, but the rest has to be straight on
Speaker 1: sort of cloth chewing with some the zipper, the entire thing.
Speaker 1: I don't have to eat the zip. The entire thing.
Speaker 1: We'll discuss. But like question, flat out, do we get
Speaker 1: to Christmas or let's say New Year's in his west
Speaker 1: eating his softball pants? I don't think so. I'm just
Speaker 1: hoping it's close, so that we're getting to week seventeen
Speaker 1: and we're watching like Sebastian Janikowski lineup for a vehicle
Speaker 1: and the in the softball pans eating is all on.
Speaker 1: That would be exciting. I think that would be great.
Speaker 1: I will bring the pants into the office, will hold
Speaker 1: them up. We're watching Sea Bass kick. I think that
Speaker 1: would be a fun atmosphere. What does it get? Six wins? Come?
Speaker 1: No way? Just to get to six, right, that would
Speaker 1: do it. I have pulled them out of the marinade.
Speaker 1: I've given him at talk. I've told him there's no
Speaker 1: way we're not stretching another single into a double. It's
Speaker 1: absolutely gonna happen. Don't worry about the Raiders. I like
Speaker 1: that you talk to your clothes. Losing Jared vel Deer
Speaker 1: was huge. I mean if if they win six, I
Speaker 1: honestly think Dennis Allen should be a Coach of the
Speaker 1: Year Canada if they go six and ten or seven eleven,
Speaker 1: because that they they're talking about this isn't last year.
Speaker 1: With the rebuilding process has started. But I don't know.
Speaker 1: All those starters are brand new guys and not a
Speaker 1: lot of talent. And the only thing I will say
Speaker 1: about the Raiders current leadership structure is if Dennis Allen
Speaker 1: pulled out five or six wins to him and Mackenzie
Speaker 1: still get fired. I could still see, I could see
Speaker 1: it happening, and it would be a terrible decision. But
Speaker 1: I don't. I'm just I don't trust that entire organization
Speaker 1: from the top down. They need more time, I mean,
Speaker 1: but they may not get it because that's not how
Speaker 1: the NFL works right now. But it's like, will Mark
Speaker 1: Davis suddenly go somewhat insane, pull the plug on the
Speaker 1: entire operation. But what's listening to this right now? I
Speaker 1: hope he is? What's to love about what the operation is?
Speaker 1: At this point? It's possibly the least talented team in
Speaker 1: all of football from a roster like what, what's even close?
Speaker 1: And how long does Alex Barron last as left tackle?
Speaker 1: Is that? Is it gonna end after this week? Is
Speaker 1: he gonna make it to the regular season? I'd say
Speaker 1: he doesn't make it out of September as the starter. Yeah,
Speaker 1: that could be maybe for like a softball Jersey. Um, alright,
Speaker 1: so West, you actually have the San Diego Chargers. Okay,
Speaker 1: so we poke fun at the Raiders expense, We make jokes,
Speaker 1: we make bets. Do the Raiders have a chance to
Speaker 1: have a better record? Than the Chargers. From what I
Speaker 1: saw Philip Rivers, every pass he threw more than fifteen
Speaker 1: yards was a jump ball between the offense and the defense.
Speaker 1: He doesn't have the army we once did. He's got
Speaker 1: no offensive line. The question is, do the Chargers have
Speaker 1: a chance to finish as the worst team in that division. No,
Speaker 1: I don't think so. I mean, you're just always a chance,
Speaker 1: but I think the Chargers have a much better chance
Speaker 1: of being second place. I'm a little surprised that no
Speaker 1: one out there. I haven't seen your guys predictions yet,
Speaker 1: but Chargers aren't getting much love as as a bounce
Speaker 1: back team, and they kind of makes sense to me
Speaker 1: for the same reason I picked the Chiefs. The schedule
Speaker 1: in the division, and they've got a quarterback who's shown
Speaker 1: it can be pretty good. Uh, you know, I think
Speaker 1: they have a better chance to go eight and eight
Speaker 1: than than be like the Raiders. I have to go
Speaker 1: down that same path. I I see where you're coming from,
Speaker 1: and actually, when I look at my standings, they really
Speaker 1: don't look a whole lot better than the Raiders. In
Speaker 1: my book, Rivers is pretty questionable, but I actually believe
Speaker 1: that McCoy is the kind of coach that can get
Speaker 1: the most out of pretty average offensive weapons. I mean,
Speaker 1: I don't want to always go back to what he
Speaker 1: did with Tebow, but he's a creative coach. He's willing
Speaker 1: to play to his players strength, and so I don't
Speaker 1: see them completely bottoming out and losing the a f C. West.
Speaker 1: What's Philip Rivers strength at this point in his career? Well, no,
Speaker 1: I don't think that Phil River that was that was early.
Speaker 1: He peaked early with that too. Um yeah, I think
Speaker 1: it's not crazy to imagine Philip Rivers becoming a top
Speaker 1: ten quarterback again. I mean, he's pretty young, he's showing
Speaker 1: a pretty high level. If they can protect him, it
Speaker 1: wouldn't be that surprising, would it. I mean, he's still
Speaker 1: pretty ten. Seems I would be shocked. I think he's
Speaker 1: basically Carson Palmer right now. He's lost too much arm
Speaker 1: strength and that makes him gamble too much and throw
Speaker 1: too many picks, too many turnovers. To me, he's a
Speaker 1: journeyman quarterback now he's car Your question is will they
Speaker 1: be worse than the Raiders? And I would take Philip
Speaker 1: Rivers over Matt Flynn or anything the Raiders are throwing
Speaker 1: at you, plus we got making the leap candidates Kendall,
Speaker 1: Reis and Corey. Legit. The Raiders don't have any combo
Speaker 1: like that. They got some interesting but Eric weddled, you know,
Speaker 1: butler line. Alright, fellas, so let's do it. Let's do
Speaker 1: let's go around the horn um and pick the records West.
Speaker 1: Start with you Broncos eleven five, Chiefs seven and nine,
Speaker 1: Chargers three and thirteen, Raiders two and four. All right,
Speaker 1: it's fair, go ahead, Mark, mine are similar. I have
Speaker 1: the Broncos at a eleven four and one, and because
Speaker 1: of that tie with the Chiefs, the Chiefs sneak into
Speaker 1: the playoffs at nine, six and one. He's buying the Chiefs,
Speaker 1: the Chargers four and twelve, and the Raiders bringing up
Speaker 1: the rear at two and fourteen, right, and that's probably
Speaker 1: gotta be getting them the number one pick there two
Speaker 1: and fourteen. I guess we have to see the rest
Speaker 1: of the Seltzer's pick. I have the Broncos falling back
Speaker 1: to Earth a little bit because of that defense and
Speaker 1: going ten and six, the Chiefs also making the playoffs
Speaker 1: at nine and seven, going back to uh. A lot
Speaker 1: of rib eating for Andy Reids. Well, part of it
Speaker 1: is you got to pick some new playoff teams, and uh,
Speaker 1: this would still make four of the six a f
Speaker 1: C teams for market I returning the playoffs, Westling and
Speaker 1: Data are just going chalk even more so. But you
Speaker 1: gotta Cleveland Browns the rest of my case. Okay, Chiefs
Speaker 1: nine and seven, Chargers six and ten, and the Raiders
Speaker 1: at three and thirteen. All right, and then I also
Speaker 1: had the Broncos eleven and five. Uh, they're gonna lose
Speaker 1: a winner two because of Miller, Chiefs at seven and nine,
Speaker 1: Chargers five and eleven, and the Raiders. They drop a
Speaker 1: one in fifteen. Wow. No, wait, quick questions. So who's
Speaker 1: everyone's number one seed in the ANFC now that we've
Speaker 1: gone through. Mine would be, uh, the New England Patriots
Speaker 1: and the Steelers would be the number two seed. I
Speaker 1: have the Colts and Broncos winning division, and then the
Speaker 1: Chiefs and the Ravens and the Chiefs as the wild cards.
Speaker 1: I have Broncos is number one, Texans is number two.
Speaker 1: I don't think the Texans even get to DAFC Championship
Speaker 1: because of a lack of preparation. I don't have my
Speaker 1: records in front of me, but I think I have
Speaker 1: the Pats at twelve and four, so that would have
Speaker 1: made them the one seed, and then the Broncos and
Speaker 1: Bengals are both eleven and five. Let's say the Broncos
Speaker 1: get the tiebreakers, so Broncos and pass again. I have
Speaker 1: four eleven and five teams for the division winners. I've
Speaker 1: got Patriots number one seed, Texans number two seed. So
Speaker 1: not a lot of surprises in the a f C.
Speaker 1: I've you know, I have sources that have shown me
Speaker 1: some of the NFC picks. They are a little more exciting.
Speaker 1: The NFC is tougher to pick. There's more new playoff tunes,
Speaker 1: there's more upsets, so you have that to look forward to,
Speaker 1: not as boring as these a f C picks. All right, so, um,
Speaker 1: we ran out of time, so we can't talk about
Speaker 1: hard Knocks today, which is probably for the best because
Speaker 1: half of us didn't even watch the episode. Um, we'll
Speaker 1: be back on Friday where we break down. I guess
Speaker 1: the NFC East. NFC East is next, Yes, get excited, um,
Speaker 1: and I guess that's it. Download download our podcast on iTunes,
Speaker 1: Rate it, leave comments. There's something called stitcher. I don't
Speaker 1: know what that is, but get that. Also, do whatever
Speaker 1: has to be done to give us world dominds, and
Speaker 1: we'll be back Friday. Thanks for listening.