Speaker 1: Welcome back to another edition of the Around the League Podcast.
Speaker 1: My name is Mark Susler and I am joined to
Speaker 1: my right by Chris Wesling and across from me Greg Rosenthal,
Speaker 1: fresh back from Canton. How you guys doing, what's happening?
Speaker 1: What's uh? You didn't even mention the fact that you know,
Speaker 1: and every Around the League podcast we've done so far,
Speaker 1: there's been the same person starting out that's been Dan Hands,
Speaker 1: and now reader, who's Dan Hands? Listeners tune in and
Speaker 1: who is this new voice to now? You know? Right?
Speaker 1: We we we have a protocol here. We always have
Speaker 1: someone on the desk in case news breaks. It's right
Speaker 1: in the middle of the day, and we've rotated the
Speaker 1: sub I guess and Dan's been subbed doubt and we're
Speaker 1: probably losing losing listeners by the boatload here. But we're
Speaker 1: gonna do our best and we'll call him a little
Speaker 1: bit later and see what he's working on. Right He's not.
Speaker 1: He actually specifically said to me, because we've called down
Speaker 1: a few times, he said, don't call me. So Greg's
Speaker 1: the media response was, let's call Dan. So we're gonna
Speaker 1: do that in a bit. Yeah, I mean, come on,
Speaker 1: what is this diva behavior. We gotta we gotta talk
Speaker 1: to him that is not in charge today. He's not awkward.
Speaker 1: Podcast is good, Well listen, so we right off the
Speaker 1: bat today. We had some news that started to develop
Speaker 1: last night. Brian Bulaga, and it's you know, the Packers
Speaker 1: left tackle, the one guy that we did him making
Speaker 1: the leap on injury free group. He has sustained pretty
Speaker 1: big injury. Looks like he's out for the season. What's
Speaker 1: your media takeaway Greg on this? Well, they they're big
Speaker 1: focus this offseason was fixing the offensive line. They looked
Speaker 1: at their team. Obviously they had defensive issues, but on offense,
Speaker 1: the big problem is protection. And they took a huge
Speaker 1: risk by by putting a very good right tackle and
Speaker 1: Brian Bulaga over on the left side, putting a very
Speaker 1: good right guard in Josh Sitt and putting him over
Speaker 1: on the left side. This was kind of their their move.
Speaker 1: This was the ace and the whole and now you know,
Speaker 1: before you even get to the first preseason game, Uh,
Speaker 1: it's all been you know, thrown away and they have
Speaker 1: to figure out where to go from here. Well, uh,
Speaker 1: fourth round rookie David beck tri looks like a guy
Speaker 1: who they might want to plug in. He's reportedly done
Speaker 1: very well in practice, hasn't given up a sack, even
Speaker 1: to Clay Matthews. But that's quite a stretch to think of.
Speaker 1: Fourth round rookie is gonna come in and protect Aaron
Speaker 1: Rodgers blindside. I would kind of. I'm interested to see
Speaker 1: if they go with a more balanced attack. Uh, they
Speaker 1: finally put resources into running back, drafted two rookies in
Speaker 1: the second and fourth round. Eddie Lacy looked really good
Speaker 1: in the scrimmage Saturday night, So I want to see
Speaker 1: if they run the ball quite a bit more this year.
Speaker 1: I mean, you look at Rogers last season four as
Speaker 1: you know, potent as he was in his stats that
Speaker 1: he put out there were fantastic. No quarterback was sacked more,
Speaker 1: and that's that's rough because you have to look at
Speaker 1: the line. Is a downgraded line overall at this point?
Speaker 1: Am I wrong? Well? But I gotta miss games last
Speaker 1: year too. If anything, they are used to playing without him.
Speaker 1: He missed games the year before, so it's it's been
Speaker 1: tough for him to stay on the field. But you
Speaker 1: have to worry about you know, on the right side,
Speaker 1: you have Marshall Newhouse who's battling for a job. Maybe
Speaker 1: he ends up on the left side. We we don't
Speaker 1: really know. Now. It's just kind of back to where
Speaker 1: they were last year, which was scrambling. And you know,
Speaker 1: I think West, don't you think they were going to
Speaker 1: run the ball more anyways, even before this injury? Yeah?
Speaker 1: I do. I think, um yeah, I think this is
Speaker 1: gonna provide more of an impetus to go in that direction.
Speaker 1: But you know, the Packers problem, we should probably say,
Speaker 1: isn't really on offense. It all depends what happens on defense.
Speaker 1: I mean, this isn't going to keep them from winning
Speaker 1: the division. However, if Aaron Rodgers is you know, hammered
Speaker 1: back their time and again and for once he you know,
Speaker 1: sustains an injury, they have a massive issue that team.
Speaker 1: How that could the the win total if they ever
Speaker 1: lost Rogers I think would drop off massively, That's right.
Speaker 1: And you know, people over eight, I think sometimes the
Speaker 1: offensive line in terms of how important they are towards
Speaker 1: how many sacks are giving up, a lot of that
Speaker 1: is on the quarterback. And you know it's on Rogers
Speaker 1: to get rid of the ball quicker. And we've seen
Speaker 1: them do well with Marshall Newhouse on the left side.
Speaker 1: I mean, they had a pretty good offense in two
Speaker 1: thousand and eleven. Uh, they were pretty good last year too,
Speaker 1: although not as consistent you know we saw with the Saints.
Speaker 1: I remember they lost their left tackle their Super Bowl
Speaker 1: year very early on. Jermon bush Rod comes in there
Speaker 1: and they end up winning the Super Bowl that year.
Speaker 1: He kind of came out of nowhere. So to me,
Speaker 1: it's more about the scheme, and it's more about the
Speaker 1: quarterback and whether the entire group can come together. Blag
Speaker 1: is a very good player. I think they can still
Speaker 1: bounce back from that. I mean, the the upside is
Speaker 1: coming off the weekend. We we finally were starting to
Speaker 1: see some interscod swimmage, scrimmages and stuff. And the young
Speaker 1: running backs look like they've been pretty good out of
Speaker 1: the gate, right Lacy and Franklin both look good and uh,
Speaker 1: all reports are that James Starks has kind of been
Speaker 1: reinvigorated this year, so they've got plenty of options back there.
Speaker 1: I would look for them to run the ball more so.
Speaker 1: We're over the Twitter photo controversy of Ettie Lacey. We're
Speaker 1: not too worried about his conditioning. No, from it looked
Speaker 1: like he he played very well in the scrimmage Saturday night.
Speaker 1: Does anything on Twitter like remain a introversy for more
Speaker 1: than hours after it occurred? No? No, Uh. That Family
Speaker 1: Night scrimmage is crazy by the way that they sell out.
Speaker 1: They sell out the stadium and it's such a big deal.
Speaker 1: I would love to go to that. That's like one
Speaker 1: of those events I would love to go to. But
Speaker 1: the reports on Lacey were glowing that once you know
Speaker 1: the paths are on and tackling that he looked like
Speaker 1: that guy that they're looking for. And you start thinking
Speaker 1: about Jonathan Franklin. I like him a lot as a
Speaker 1: third down type of guy at the very least. Then
Speaker 1: you have Starks. We'll see who else makes the team
Speaker 1: and they should be pretty dynamic. I'm still thinking about
Speaker 1: picking the Packers to win the Super Bowl for the
Speaker 1: fourth three year. It's coming handy for me once and
Speaker 1: they've looked pretty good the other years. They didn't make
Speaker 1: it all the way, but they were good, and I'm
Speaker 1: thinking about picking them to win it off for the
Speaker 1: fourth three year. This may not take me off of that.
Speaker 1: You're studying success rates, has people just Capital one out
Speaker 1: of three last three. That's not bad for US. Super
Speaker 1: Bowl tea. It's been Packers Patriots every year and the
Speaker 1: Patriots have made it a couple of times at least.
Speaker 1: All Right, hold on, So Greg just came back from Canton, Ohio.
Speaker 1: We heard very you know you were. You gave you know,
Speaker 1: specific details about you know, what you were doing, what
Speaker 1: you were working on. But I think it's a little incomplete.
Speaker 1: Give us the filling, the fill in the gaps here.
Speaker 1: What was it like? What did you experience? Give us
Speaker 1: some nightlife nuggets? Oh man, I was so boring nightlife wise.
Speaker 1: Mark knows last year he was in Canton. It's it's
Speaker 1: a little quieter of an event, but you're very busy
Speaker 1: working hard during the days. I was very boring, uh
Speaker 1: at night. I mean, you know the crew there was
Speaker 1: Adam Rank who you know, our listeners probably know, um,
Speaker 1: you know our news that are justin hath Elliott Harrison
Speaker 1: who writes for the Not really a group that I
Speaker 1: felt like going out with that much. You know what
Speaker 1: I'm saying. Okay, well that's out there on the public airspace.
Speaker 1: I'm just kidding. But uh, it was. It was great.
Speaker 1: I went to It was the first time I've ever
Speaker 1: been to the the Pro Football Hall of Fame. I did
Speaker 1: a big photo essay on that. I mean, if you
Speaker 1: love football, you have to go to it. And then
Speaker 1: the Hall of Fame game. It was really cool going
Speaker 1: to the stadium. I know that sounds stupid, but it
Speaker 1: was like, kind of this small town Ohio couldn't be
Speaker 1: any more football. Everyone's getting excited, everyone is out on
Speaker 1: the streets. It's a beautiful night. The stadium there is beautiful,
Speaker 1: you know. Then the game starts and it's kind of
Speaker 1: like who cares, uh, But but before that, it's a
Speaker 1: very cool atmosphere and it's a great weekend. Just seeing
Speaker 1: all the Hall of famers, I mean I just just
Speaker 1: walking watching them enjoy the weekend is really cool. I mean,
Speaker 1: I think you called I'm looking back on the article
Speaker 1: here on Around the League you called it a anti
Speaker 1: super Bowl. Yes, well it is because it was. It
Speaker 1: was it sleepy was the other word you used for it.
Speaker 1: I mean it is. I was there last season. It's
Speaker 1: a it's a down tempo NFL affair for sure. Well,
Speaker 1: the weekend is great. Everything they put on is fantastic,
Speaker 1: and the game that they put on everything along with
Speaker 1: It's great. Yeah, the game, Who cares? I mean, in
Speaker 1: the middle of the second quarter, We've got Lance Dunbar
Speaker 1: out for the night. Gotta keep Dunbar healthy, you know
Speaker 1: what I mean. We like we we can't leave him
Speaker 1: out there anymore. I mean we're into the third stringers. Uh,
Speaker 1: Nick Stevens, the third string you know, Cowboys quarterbacks in
Speaker 1: the middle of the first quarter. It's not that you know,
Speaker 1: it's a problem. I think. I think it's a little
Speaker 1: bit of a problem for the NFL. I really do. West.
Speaker 1: How many minutes of last night's Hall of Fame game
Speaker 1: did you watch? Zero zero? I can't wait to get
Speaker 1: back to football. I told Greg this the other day.
Speaker 1: I'm experimenting with no television service at my at my apartment.
Speaker 1: That's crazy, but you need to get TV. I mean,
Speaker 1: I know you'll be here on Sundays, but I think
Speaker 1: for your job, it's gonna end up coming in handy.
Speaker 1: You didn't miss much. I watched it, although I will
Speaker 1: say the one thing that's stuck out. I looked up
Speaker 1: at one point and the guy that West has been
Speaker 1: touting all off season, Lamar Miller, ghastly fumble. I don't
Speaker 1: want to overreact to it. The guy is gonna be fine,
Speaker 1: but it was an ugly loss of the ball there. Well,
Speaker 1: just because I touted him, don't everyone outs. I have
Speaker 1: as a as a locks you know, completely locked in
Speaker 1: guy to go nuts this year. It was the first
Speaker 1: play of the game, so that that's a little alarming.
Speaker 1: But yeah, we don't need to overreact. He had two
Speaker 1: more runs. He ended up not getting charged with the fumble. Anyways,
Speaker 1: He had two more runs. He looked very explosive on
Speaker 1: those two runs, and that's kind of I'm talking about.
Speaker 1: You can't draw too much from this week. I mean,
Speaker 1: he had he had two runs. The one thing that
Speaker 1: stuck out for me more than anything in the game
Speaker 1: was the Dolphins left tackles, because that's been a theme
Speaker 1: we've been writing about. We hit it hard yesterday and
Speaker 1: Jonathan Martin wasn't in there for long, only about ten plays,
Speaker 1: but he gave up a couple of pressures in those
Speaker 1: ten plays and Tannehill had to get rid of the
Speaker 1: ball quickly. And then his backup coming supposedly the guy
Speaker 1: competing for the job, Dallas Thomas, and he got worked.
Speaker 1: I mean, he made this guy George Selvey on the
Speaker 1: Cowboys look like Reggie White. It was one of the
Speaker 1: most dominant defensive and performances and all night long. The
Speaker 1: quarterbacks for the for the Dolphins, especially the left tackle spot, uh,
Speaker 1: you know, really struggled. I asked Phil Been about it afterwards,
Speaker 1: and you know, he just he didn't know what to say.
Speaker 1: He just said, we gotta be better there. You know,
Speaker 1: even with all of the new weapons that the Dolphins
Speaker 1: they have with Mike Wallace, Dustin Keller, Brandon Gibson have
Speaker 1: all been brought in, I would not touch Tanney Hill
Speaker 1: and fantasy leagues for that reason because I don't believe
Speaker 1: he'll get protection from left tackle. It is interesting cause
Speaker 1: they went out and they had made this big splash
Speaker 1: they signed these weapons. But it's not unlike Green Bay
Speaker 1: in a sense that if you can't protect the quarterback,
Speaker 1: you can't get the ball to those weapons. No, I mean,
Speaker 1: are you buying the Dolphin type. I just read the
Speaker 1: Football Outsiders chapter for them. Then they have about they
Speaker 1: have them about six wins. I I actually took a
Speaker 1: look at that yesterday when I was writing this Ryan
Speaker 1: Tannehill piece or Tanny Hill as uh, as West would say,
Speaker 1: and uh, you know, I don't because I think every
Speaker 1: year we see this where they've accrued all these you know,
Speaker 1: high profile names. But I look at the names they added,
Speaker 1: and outside of Keller, I'm not really convinced that most
Speaker 1: of them are gonna make the impact that that we've
Speaker 1: been told they will. Philip Wheeler is the type of
Speaker 1: guy that that's the exact guy you don't want free agency,
Speaker 1: the guy who just hit it rich on a one
Speaker 1: year contract. You want him on the one year contract,
Speaker 1: not on the five year contract where all of a
Speaker 1: sudden he's gonna have a lot attention. He had a
Speaker 1: really bad night for his ten plays. Uh, he missed
Speaker 1: a couple of tackles, struggled on a on a long
Speaker 1: Cowboys drive. But I'm not gonna draw too much from
Speaker 1: these preseason games other than who's playing, who's not, who's
Speaker 1: winning jobs, because it's fooled us too many times of
Speaker 1: for so let's let's make a pact, guys, let's not
Speaker 1: let's not fall into the trap of the preseason hype.
Speaker 1: We won't over do. I saw Philbin one last note
Speaker 1: on the Dolphins at the combine, walking down a gigantic,
Speaker 1: cavernous hallway and he was in a sweater vest, in
Speaker 1: a turtleneck and chords and looked not unlike uh, mid
Speaker 1: middle management man at IBM just room does he look
Speaker 1: at as he bulked up? Is he looking a little
Speaker 1: bit more like a football coach at this point? Now
Speaker 1: he's pretty skinny. And I thought the same thing because
Speaker 1: he had to push his way. He was coming out
Speaker 1: of locker room, and I don't know if you remember
Speaker 1: the locker rooms. They're very small high school locker room
Speaker 1: basically as you would expect. And he's trying to get
Speaker 1: out of there, and there's a crush of crowd, you know,
Speaker 1: trying to get home and they're trying to bring Joe
Speaker 1: Philbin through it. And he's so nice, you know, he's
Speaker 1: being very polite. He's not saying anything, and he's basically
Speaker 1: just standing there because he doesn't want to, Like jut In,
Speaker 1: Finally someone, some security you know, gets people out of
Speaker 1: the way. But I thought the same thing that if
Speaker 1: you didn't know he was the coach, you thought you
Speaker 1: would have thought he was going home or going to
Speaker 1: friendly for ice cream whatever. He is a nice man.
Speaker 1: According to all accounts, all right. So, as we mentioned,
Speaker 1: Greg has insisted that we dial up Dan, who we're
Speaker 1: gonna find out if he's actually working right now, because
Speaker 1: when we're not around, we don't know where the guy is. Right. Yeah,
Speaker 1: he maybe he's taken off for this half hour, but
Speaker 1: we're gonna go find out and see Dan Hansas. What's happening. Wow,
Speaker 1: it's the Around the League podcast calling you. What's going
Speaker 1: on down there? A little bit of a surprise I heard.
Speaker 1: I heard a rumor that you didn't want us to
Speaker 1: call you. Well, let me just clear this up. Dan.
Speaker 1: I made it very clear that we had discussed the
Speaker 1: option of calling you and you had next to the option.
Speaker 1: I thought I thought the three of you guys could
Speaker 1: handle it, and I'm sure you are, and I didn't
Speaker 1: think that maybe it was necessary. Um, you know, I didn't.
Speaker 1: Maybe I didn't think that the the the whole idea
Speaker 1: was that dynamic. But perhaps I was wrong. Wow, Dan,
Speaker 1: just trying to just torpedo the segment as he's on it.
Speaker 1: I just thought would be good. We're taking turns doing this,
Speaker 1: we could see what you're working on. I was hoping
Speaker 1: maybe you'd answer, like complex litigation, this is John something
Speaker 1: like that. Yes, a little call back to the Sports
Speaker 1: Guys podcast. I well, if you want to know what
Speaker 1: I'm working on, I'm working on the Colts wide receiver
Speaker 1: depth chart, which is changing as as we speak. Darius
Speaker 1: Hayward Bay who suffered a knee injury and practice this weekend.
Speaker 1: It's a sprain. ESPN. Chris Mortenson says it's going to
Speaker 1: be a few weeks and that means t Y Hilton,
Speaker 1: who's one of our Making the Leap candidates, has got
Speaker 1: a good chance of now sliding into that number two
Speaker 1: slot opposite Reggie Wayne. I like that. Um, I feel
Speaker 1: like this is our team, the Making the Leap team.
Speaker 1: We're gonna be rooting for these guys. Well, we were
Speaker 1: concerned the potentially after Bulaga went down, will this take
Speaker 1: sort of a horror show approach where every one of
Speaker 1: these forty guys are, you know, removed by gas injury?
Speaker 1: This season sounds like a Stephen King novel could happen
Speaker 1: off to a good start. And the other thing I'm
Speaker 1: just seeing this and this is a special note for
Speaker 1: Chris Westling, is a report also from mort that Jake
Speaker 1: Ballard might not even make the Pats fifty three man
Speaker 1: roster his knee knee issues. I am shocked for a
Speaker 1: tight end. I am shocked that a tight end who
Speaker 1: moved like a guard before he had micro factory surgery
Speaker 1: and a torn a c L is not quite as
Speaker 1: fast as he was before. I feel like this is
Speaker 1: personal for Wesselen. You really have it in. When Wesley
Speaker 1: doesn't like a player, he makes it extremely crystal clear.
Speaker 1: Now that I kind of time is getting a little
Speaker 1: hazy on me. But what was the name of the
Speaker 1: guy that clubbed Nancy Carrigan on the knee? Why? Yeah,
Speaker 1: I mean, and there's actually some physical resemblance between Galule
Speaker 1: and Wesseley. Think about it. Didn't they have a whispy mustache. Yeah,
Speaker 1: it would love the Jeff Foxworthy varide like it was.
Speaker 1: It was West's prior head shot before he got the
Speaker 1: sleeker updated one, the prior when he kind of looked
Speaker 1: like a thug. If you can imagine West back in
Speaker 1: the nine early nineties something like that. I could see
Speaker 1: see him looking and West probably was what in his
Speaker 1: thirties back then, So you know, it's possible in my
Speaker 1: blue collar mailman days, I could have taken uh, I
Speaker 1: could have taken Jake Ballard out with a tire iron.
Speaker 1: I could see that West listening to a lot of
Speaker 1: candlebox getting angry about Jake Ballard. Well, there we have it.
Speaker 1: Jeff Cleally making his first appearance on the NFL media stage,
Speaker 1: by the way, eating a mediocre shrimp rap from the commissary.
Speaker 1: We gotta watch it here because we don't know who's listening.
Speaker 1: This is where I'd be worried about. I can talk
Speaker 1: trash and Elliott Harrison and I'm not worried about the repercussions,
Speaker 1: but if they somehow found out we're dogging their food,
Speaker 1: it could be a problem. Usually it's pretty good this
Speaker 1: when that just didn't come together, this has been very informational.
Speaker 1: We got Hayward Bay injured, shocker, I couldn't see that coming. Uh,
Speaker 1: and then a lot of other good information about Jeff Galouley, Uh,
Speaker 1: Chris Wesleyan's boy, Thank you Dan. I just feel like
Speaker 1: we all have to be part of each one if possible.
Speaker 1: We don't want to be left out. That would have
Speaker 1: been Dan's first absence from the podcast if he didn't. Yeah,
Speaker 1: I was I was afraid that Greg was going to
Speaker 1: launch into another division by division breakdown something happy. Why
Speaker 1: don't you get back to work? Okay? Thanks Dan? Well,
Speaker 1: I'm glad we did that. That Actually, you know what,
Speaker 1: that's why you're running the ship because that was a
Speaker 1: wise move in the end, we learned something there and
Speaker 1: a little awkwardness. You know, great television is made from.
Speaker 1: I'm just glad because a lot of times Dan's phone
Speaker 1: will ring and hill and as I do that, when that,
Speaker 1: when that desk phone rings, it rings two times that day,
Speaker 1: just ignore it entirely. He actually picked up the segment connected.
Speaker 1: All right, Well, hold on, so we've got about a
Speaker 1: couple of minutes left here. Why don't we cycle through?
Speaker 1: Were coming off the weekend. A lot of stuff just happened.
Speaker 1: Wes Uh, you were here during one weekend day with
Speaker 1: me on Saturday, we toiled away. What stands out to
Speaker 1: you about what you've seen in the last forty eight
Speaker 1: hours or so from the league? I find it interesting, uh.
Speaker 1: I want to see if the Patriots are using Shane
Speaker 1: Vereen as a joker. A joker being a offensive skill
Speaker 1: position player who can line up at multiple positions and
Speaker 1: dictate the coverage for the defense. The Patriots have been
Speaker 1: using air in her Nandez in that rule, Veren obviously
Speaker 1: is gonna have a bigger role. They've been playing him
Speaker 1: in the slot, out wide and at running back. Um,
Speaker 1: I guess I want to see. He's not gonna take
Speaker 1: her Nandez all of her. Nande's a snaps, He's not
Speaker 1: gonna be able to do as many things. But I
Speaker 1: want to see if Josh McDaniels uses him to kind
Speaker 1: of dictate how the defense plays them. Well, they always
Speaker 1: find someone, right, they always. Everyone is still assuming the
Speaker 1: Patriots win the a f C. So people are saying,
Speaker 1: Bradial figure it out. Well, to figure it out, you
Speaker 1: gotta have some talent around you, and some of those
Speaker 1: guys have to step up. Who's a better candidate than Verene?
Speaker 1: I mean, Ridley is gonna do what he does, but
Speaker 1: Veren is probably the next most explosive. Julian Edelman made
Speaker 1: our making the leap list. He's got to proof he
Speaker 1: can stay healthy. I really like this kid. From what
Speaker 1: I've heard. Kenbrell Tompkins sounds like he's gonna be uh
Speaker 1: someone who gets on the field as an undrafted rookie,
Speaker 1: which is interesting. But someone has to step up because
Speaker 1: they're not just gonna start running the football. Well, you say,
Speaker 1: everyone assumes they're gonna win the a f C East,
Speaker 1: and I think that, yes, there's that. Let's hold on
Speaker 1: on predicting doom for New England. But I feel like
Speaker 1: it's been a while since there's been kind of a
Speaker 1: suspicion that maybe Brady and Belichick have hit a wall here.
Speaker 1: Do you really feel like everyone's that confident that this
Speaker 1: team just rolls through the division. No, But I'm almost
Speaker 1: thinking just from a production standpoint, Tom Brady is not
Speaker 1: gonna just fall off a cliff and some somehow a
Speaker 1: Kyle Bowler numbers, So someone's gonna have to take those numbers.
Speaker 1: Amendola will do it. But Shane Vereen to to us
Speaker 1: his point, is probably the next most dynamic guy on
Speaker 1: that offense. And if Belichick and McDaniels have shown anything,
Speaker 1: they're good at maximizing what their players strengths are, and
Speaker 1: I think they'll find them with Verene, right. I think
Speaker 1: we got a little bit of a preview that in
Speaker 1: the playoff win over the Texans when Vrene had what
Speaker 1: three touchdowns and UH had two big plays outside at
Speaker 1: wide receiver where he's beating linebackers down the field. If
Speaker 1: the Patriots do a lot of that, there's no linebacker
Speaker 1: that can hang machine Verne. I think it'll be great
Speaker 1: to watch them this season. You know, as we've noted
Speaker 1: early on, they're always kind of testing what they can
Speaker 1: do who they have. But this year especially, it's like, yeah,
Speaker 1: I don't know that the training camp in preseason games
Speaker 1: are gonna be enough to really figure out what their
Speaker 1: identity is and who's gonna stick. And they'll be fascinating
Speaker 1: just to watch what Belichick dots week to week and
Speaker 1: think about their wide receivers. Seriously, you have a Mendola,
Speaker 1: but after that, if Edelman is not healthy, it might
Speaker 1: be the next three guys or rookies. I mean, that's
Speaker 1: really crazy. Dobson boys and Tompkins who I mentioned. I
Speaker 1: trust enough people around that team that say he's been
Speaker 1: the best guy on the field out of the rookies,
Speaker 1: maybe out of anyone. This other rookie tight end Zach Sudfield,
Speaker 1: who uh Sudfeld that Westling talked about earlier. He's gonna
Speaker 1: play too. So what a what an interesting mix this
Speaker 1: is of all these rookies and Brady. It's a little
Speaker 1: worrisome because the Patriots haven't developed wide receivers, third wide receivers,
Speaker 1: free agents, or trade targets like Wes Welker. They haven't,
Speaker 1: I mean, Chad Jackson. There's a whole list of them
Speaker 1: that just haven't panned out. Not not a Bethel Johnson fan.
Speaker 1: They seem to bring their own guys back after letting
Speaker 1: them sign, whether the teams are trading them away, they
Speaker 1: seem to bring the same old guys. That's the first
Speaker 1: year where it's like a complete cast of unknown. So
Speaker 1: we'll see what happens there. What about Greg for you
Speaker 1: something else that we haven't talked about that sticks out well.
Speaker 1: The Raiders quarterback situation. We were really excited in the
Speaker 1: summer about Tyler Wilson and people talked about him maybe
Speaker 1: battling for that job. He was kind of a trendy
Speaker 1: pick to win that job. And right now he's fourth
Speaker 1: and depth chart. Not only not gonna win the job,
Speaker 1: but he's fallen behind an undrafted rookie. He's probably not
Speaker 1: going to get out at this rate. He's not going
Speaker 1: to get on the field this year. Even if Flynn struggles,
Speaker 1: you're gonna see prior and I think those are the
Speaker 1: two guys that are going to get a chance. And
Speaker 1: that's a big change from what we were thinking only
Speaker 1: a couple of months ago. And you never know, maybe
Speaker 1: he'll play great in the preseason. It's still pretty early.
Speaker 1: But when they start pulling back on the snaps that much, uh,
Speaker 1: it's a sign that basically Tyler Wilson isn't ready and
Speaker 1: that's that's fine. He's a fourth round rookie. And also,
Speaker 1: I mean in Philadelphia, some stuffs bubbled up today. Looks
Speaker 1: like that quarterback competition might be seeing some separation. Yeah,
Speaker 1: beat writer Reuben Frank came out and said Vick has
Speaker 1: been tremendous and has gapped Nick Foles. He's pulling away
Speaker 1: from him. Uh. We kind of all expected that. I
Speaker 1: think a lot of the Beat writers had Folds as
Speaker 1: their favorite going into camp, but we just Vick's more talented.
Speaker 1: And you know, one of the answers for us always
Speaker 1: just look where the money is, And they brought Vic
Speaker 1: back with with three million guaranteed. Maybe so to me,
Speaker 1: he was always the favorite, and um, I would I
Speaker 1: would imagine the next step in that competition is they're
Speaker 1: just gonna weed fools out and let Vic get more
Speaker 1: repetitions in Chip Kelly's offense. I mean, I just I
Speaker 1: can't take Vix seriously in terms of the four d
Speaker 1: eighties stories we've written about him, because you know what, Yes,
Speaker 1: he's gonna be named starter in about eighteen minutes into
Speaker 1: the seas and he's gonna have a rib injury or something.
Speaker 1: We're gonna I mean, are we gonna see every one
Speaker 1: of these guys. I don't know if we'll see Barkley,
Speaker 1: if if falls and Vic stay healthy enough that one
Speaker 1: of them is healthy at all times. But it's a
Speaker 1: great point that, yeah, we're not gonna He's not gonna
Speaker 1: start sixteen games regardless, so they're both gonna have to play.
Speaker 1: You know what strikes me, though, is so many teams
Speaker 1: needed quarterbacks before the draft, and we kept seeing reports
Speaker 1: the Eagles weren't even going to consider trading fools. And
Speaker 1: the question has always been how does he fit Chip
Speaker 1: Kelly's up tempo offense. He's not that mobile. Why wouldn't
Speaker 1: they consider trading him to the Jets who have Morning
Speaker 1: Weg who was his offensive coordinator last year. To that
Speaker 1: always uh, it's up there with the Rams not considering
Speaker 1: drafting Robert Griffin the third and keeping that pick. How
Speaker 1: are you so confident that he's your guy? You know,
Speaker 1: I don't know that. That just boggles my mind. Do
Speaker 1: you think they could still possibly trade him this year
Speaker 1: or you're just surprised. I think he loses a lot
Speaker 1: of value if he doesn't win the starting job against Vic.
Speaker 1: It's not that crazy a thought to me. This is
Speaker 1: a tryout year for everyone under Chip Kelly, and if
Speaker 1: they decided, you know, they're they're kind of They're going
Speaker 1: to see how this goes, but you know it's a
Speaker 1: to be decided at quarterback. None of these guys are
Speaker 1: are in it for the long haul. Probably for them. Well,
Speaker 1: I'm still crossing my fingers that Ryan Mellick gets shipped
Speaker 1: to Cleveland. Not for the on field side, but I
Speaker 1: owe Henry handsome handk and Dan like a massively expensive dinner.
Speaker 1: If that doesn't happen, You've got bets going on all over.
Speaker 1: I'm losing. I'm losing lots of them. You're sort of
Speaker 1: in the host ral today. I want to hear what
Speaker 1: you're underrated storyline is? I mean something? Well, I think
Speaker 1: that's very well. I will say that I got a
Speaker 1: kick out of the story when we called West. Actually,
Speaker 1: the other time you were working on this, Carson Palmer
Speaker 1: running the read option, which turned out to be a
Speaker 1: complete non starter. They were just giving their defensive look.
Speaker 1: But what seems to be real in Arizona is that
Speaker 1: Patrick Peterson, one of the better cornerbacks and football, is
Speaker 1: being put on the offensive side of the ball. And
Speaker 1: you know, Bruce Arians this weekend basically said this guy
Speaker 1: can be a top five receiver in the NFL, and
Speaker 1: they're they've got a package of what fifteen plays or
Speaker 1: so for him, and that sounds legit like they're gonna
Speaker 1: give this a real I have a question about a
Speaker 1: player going both sides of the ball and actually sustaining
Speaker 1: through the season, but that should be interesting to watch.
Speaker 1: The only guy we've really seen do that and have
Speaker 1: a major role on offense was Dion Sanders for that
Speaker 1: one season Dallas h. Charles Woodson's only had like what
Speaker 1: two or three catches in his career, and they always
Speaker 1: talked about him doing it, So I think skepticism is advised,
Speaker 1: but it sounds like Arians is very serious about doing this. Uh,
Speaker 1: and the Cardinals don't really have a fourth receiver, so
Speaker 1: maybe they'll get him in for maybe we'll see him
Speaker 1: one or two times a game touchable. The thing I
Speaker 1: love about it is the coaches comments that when they
Speaker 1: put him out there, you know right away his route
Speaker 1: running was like he was a pro wide receiver, that
Speaker 1: it wasn't any you know, big adjustment. That they were
Speaker 1: just so impressed about how he chopped up his steps.
Speaker 1: And I mean, you mentioned Dion, that's that's maybe a
Speaker 1: good comparison to him. I mean, there are different sorts
Speaker 1: of players, but it would be a lot of fun
Speaker 1: to watch, even if it's only a handful of times
Speaker 1: per game, to just add that into the mix. It
Speaker 1: is interesting if you figure you spend your whole career
Speaker 1: playing a certain type of position, knowing how to beat
Speaker 1: receivers and cover them, and then you know from the
Speaker 1: other side, here's how cornerbacks think, and I know how
Speaker 1: they think at the highest level. Let's let's try this
Speaker 1: on the other side of the ball. I am being
Speaker 1: told by Wilk though he's frantically swirling his hands, we
Speaker 1: were running out of time. There's no one book for
Speaker 1: the studio after so I'm not sure if he's just
Speaker 1: getting bored but I think we need to call The
Speaker 1: Honey Badger story was pretty interesting. That's right. Do we
Speaker 1: have time for one more anecdote out of the desert.
Speaker 1: We're gonna blow past this yellow sign like Dave Damask.
Speaker 1: Let's do it so. Ron wolf Ley, who played fullback
Speaker 1: for the Cardinals in the eighties now is one of
Speaker 1: the radio guys, has spoken to some sources around the
Speaker 1: Cardinals and Honey Badger seems like he is the real deal.
Speaker 1: One scout said he has, pound for pound, the best
Speaker 1: player on the field in Cardinals camp, and an offensive
Speaker 1: assistant said, Honey Badger is going to change the whole team.
Speaker 1: You know, as a Browns fan, I was so annoyed
Speaker 1: that they didn't just go out and draft that guy
Speaker 1: just for the sake of why not? And they had
Speaker 1: all these long winded reasons why it didn't make sense.
Speaker 1: And I think that a lot of teams are gonna
Speaker 1: maybe regret completely passing. He just seems like one of
Speaker 1: those guys where football comes naturally to him. He's learning
Speaker 1: safety cornerback nickel corner and has already already has the
Speaker 1: system down. They kind of need him too, because if
Speaker 1: you think about that secondary last year. Greg Toler's gone,
Speaker 1: Adrian Wilson's gone, Carrie Rhodes has gone. That's a lot
Speaker 1: of change, and that's three quarters that you're starting. Secondary
Speaker 1: has changed. So they're gonna need people to come in
Speaker 1: and play well right away. And it was Wilfully, i believe,
Speaker 1: back during his playing days, said if it's third and
Speaker 1: one and you need a yard, I'll get you a yard.
Speaker 1: If it's third and three, I'll get you a yard.
Speaker 1: Which that's how I'd like to reflect on my job
Speaker 1: hosting the show in Dan's absence here. But let's get
Speaker 1: out of here. We have a lot to do today.
Speaker 1: You got the first down, give yourself some credit. Mare.
Speaker 1: It was either third and one or third and three.
Speaker 1: I'm not sure, but it's time to go. It's been
Speaker 1: fun and so everyone. We will be back on Wednesday
Speaker 1: to wrap up what happens between now and then. Thanks
Speaker 1: for joining us on the Around the League Podcast by
Speaker 1: Kills Office. Oh hi, we have the wrong number. Sorry
Speaker 1: about that, okay? Nor another striking victory by Wilkie behind
Speaker 1: the Glass m