Speaker 1: Do you Around the NFL podcast change producers? Like most
Speaker 1: people change suckers. Welcome to another edition of the Around
Speaker 1: the NFL Podcast. I'm your host, Colleen Wolf, and I'm
Speaker 1: joined by a room that has a couple of heroes
Speaker 1: in it, Mark Sessler and sixty cent Rosenthal. What's up?
Speaker 1: It's actually Si? I like sixty Yeah, all right. I
Speaker 1: thought it's got like fourteen nicknames at this stage, and
Speaker 1: I've always been a big nickname guy. Is that right, Rosie?
Speaker 1: You do have a lot. Well. Dan is off on
Speaker 1: vacation fighting the good fight against Little C. I don't
Speaker 1: know if we've heard anything from him, and it's cold
Speaker 1: or not. If he's he sent a message over text
Speaker 1: a few minutes ago to Gregg and West and he
Speaker 1: seems to be doing well. That's all I'll say. That's right, Well,
Speaker 1: that's good. I'm glad Wes is not with us today. Um,
Speaker 1: but we're going to power through and uh, you know,
Speaker 1: I keep I keep texting him and offering to bring
Speaker 1: over milkshakes because, like, mostly because I really want a
Speaker 1: milkshake too. He hasn't taken me up on that, but
Speaker 1: I feel like probably after the show, I'm just going
Speaker 1: to bring him a milkshake anyway, so we'll see how
Speaker 1: that was like that plan or just like buy a
Speaker 1: milkshake for yourself and leave one for him outside his
Speaker 1: place on the doorstep. So it's like all nasty when alright,
Speaker 1: So um uh, it's the last weekend of June, everybody,
Speaker 1: this is so awesome. Finally we're gonna get to July
Speaker 1: four and then we'll start maybe having a little bit
Speaker 1: of news to get to actually not much. It is
Speaker 1: a good time though, to mention, you know, because of
Speaker 1: U four, we're off official Roger Goodell holidays. The next
Speaker 1: Monday and Tuesday, we might drop a little bit of
Speaker 1: a surprise uh episode, and you know in the meantime,
Speaker 1: I guess it's no longer surprise, but just one show
Speaker 1: next week for those who are planning one new fresh
Speaker 1: show on Thursday. Okay, something to look forward to there.
Speaker 1: We do have some news items that we're going to
Speaker 1: get through. But do you have any do you have
Speaker 1: any big time fourth of July? No, I got a car.
Speaker 1: I got a new car. I traded in my car. Yeah,
Speaker 1: and we got a Jeep and it's a stick shift.
Speaker 1: So I've been re teaching myself how to drive stick
Speaker 1: and Los Angeles. I am incredibly impressed. I know, but
Speaker 1: we don't really drive that much, so it's like it's
Speaker 1: not like I'm sitting in that traffic I shift car
Speaker 1: in Los Angeles. Terrible. Yeah, there was like a couple
Speaker 1: of miscommunications yesterday getting on the freeway in terms of gears,
Speaker 1: But you know, we're good now. I think we're on
Speaker 1: the same be a little more encouraging about the multi
Speaker 1: thousand dollar dollar purchase she just made it. It's a
Speaker 1: least okay, well, it's still I'm sure more than a
Speaker 1: thousand dollars, so it's a multi thousand sally. What's up,
Speaker 1: my man? Not much? That is a bold strategy callag.
Speaker 1: I know I stalled in the parking lot earlier. It's
Speaker 1: fine traffic. I'm sure it is super fun. Yeah, I mean,
Speaker 1: so far, so good. I don't even really drive that much.
Speaker 1: I put like twelve thousand miles on the car that
Speaker 1: I had for three years, so it's that's pretty low. Yeah,
Speaker 1: I'm usually just in an uber somewhere. I'm I I
Speaker 1: put about the same on mine because I could walk
Speaker 1: to my house from from NFL network. But if I
Speaker 1: if someone asked me to drive a stick shift, even
Speaker 1: from my driveway to the road, it would be resulting accident,
Speaker 1: no idea how to drive this? Really, how can you
Speaker 1: call yourself a grown man? YEA, well, you know, I
Speaker 1: don't know the answer. I mean, that's ridiculous. Sound something
Speaker 1: that he does that I didn't do, and now he
Speaker 1: goes in that direction. But I just didn't learn on one.
Speaker 1: I didn't learn on one, and so and then it
Speaker 1: got to the age where at one point, I remember
Speaker 1: I had some girlfriend and I was trying to drive
Speaker 1: around like an abandoned school parking lot to learn stick shift,
Speaker 1: and like got about eight minutes in that I hate.
Speaker 1: I don't even like this really so abandoned fun outside
Speaker 1: the parking lot. But yeah, I also just didn't own
Speaker 1: cars for like seven or eight years in a row,
Speaker 1: so it's like I'm not getting back in with a
Speaker 1: stick shift at that point. That's yeah, that's actually a
Speaker 1: good thing. The first day we got it, I said
Speaker 1: to John before we went and did any like test drives,
Speaker 1: I was like, I don't want to do it. I
Speaker 1: don't want to like hop in and try and drive
Speaker 1: stick after like not having done it for like ten
Speaker 1: fifteen years or whatever it is in Santa Monica with
Speaker 1: like the salesman in the backseat judging, And so we
Speaker 1: got the car and he drove home, and then we
Speaker 1: got to Santa Monica and I'm like, all right, here
Speaker 1: we go. I'm gonna try it, and like I wasn't
Speaker 1: probably in the best frame of mind to get in
Speaker 1: the car. Yes, of course, I mean that's as you will. Well,
Speaker 1: that's partly why she no longer. She barely drives at all,
Speaker 1: because exactly it did not go well. And hey, listen,
Speaker 1: I'm a safe driver now. Um, but yeah, the after
Speaker 1: twenty four hours, we're in a good spot. I think,
Speaker 1: me in the car now. So hopefully, yeah, hopefully it'll
Speaker 1: it'll survive. July fourth weekend. All right, let's do some news.
Speaker 1: Linebacker Zach Or's retirement was a brief one. Five months
Speaker 1: after announcing he would be playing no more football. He's back.
Speaker 1: So he was diagnosed with a spine and neck condition
Speaker 1: where his C one vertebrae was not fully formed. It
Speaker 1: was something that he was born with, and I guess
Speaker 1: the doctor he had talked to had said that this
Speaker 1: would lead to a better chance of paralysis or possibly
Speaker 1: death when he was playing just because of the condition.
Speaker 1: So he retired in January, and apparently being away from
Speaker 1: the game only made him want to be back more.
Speaker 1: He got some more opinions, and now he's a free
Speaker 1: agent since the Ravens didn't tender him in March. Greg,
Speaker 1: it's very strange. I mean, I've never heard of such
Speaker 1: a thing happening. And my immediate reaction was, did the
Speaker 1: Ravens screw this up? Like if it was anyone, if
Speaker 1: the Browns had done this, for instance, wouldn't everyone be
Speaker 1: making fun of them? Sure? Because but but with Azzi
Speaker 1: knews and it's like measure okay, But I I looked
Speaker 1: into it. I asked around a little bit. It's a
Speaker 1: confusing situation. It sounds like there's some hesitation from the
Speaker 1: Ravens whether they would medically clear him. Now reading between
Speaker 1: the lines that they were aware of this conversation with
Speaker 1: zach Or over the last few weeks, and on some level,
Speaker 1: I think it was partly their decision, uh not to
Speaker 1: jump into it. So it's confusing. They probably wish they'd
Speaker 1: put that tender on him because or put him on
Speaker 1: the retired list, because it wouldn't have hurt, but he
Speaker 1: still has to get cleared by teams. Just because he
Speaker 1: wants to play it again doesn't mean he's going to
Speaker 1: play again. There are multiple teams interested, but there was
Speaker 1: this immediate, uh concerned Well, wait, is this a way
Speaker 1: for let's say you're stuck on a crappy team, you retire,
Speaker 1: and then you retire and you're a free agent. It's
Speaker 1: only because the Ravens didn't right next time. If if
Speaker 1: any time this happened again, they the team will put
Speaker 1: him on the retired list. They wouldn't have hurt them
Speaker 1: at all to do so, and they would retain his
Speaker 1: rights and in theory they could trade him right now.
Speaker 1: Because that Carl was pretty good. Yeah, I mean he
Speaker 1: played really well. And it's interesting because I was like, well, what, like,
Speaker 1: how serious is this? Because when he retired I remember
Speaker 1: it was like a very somber thing where he talked
Speaker 1: about how this was it for him, and the doctors
Speaker 1: couldn't believe that he was still playing with it. So
Speaker 1: I actually talked to a spine specialist. Yes, uh huh,
Speaker 1: and oh, maybe let's do it. So what he said
Speaker 1: was there's no real medical data on the matter, but
Speaker 1: an unfused C one does not really carry any more
Speaker 1: risk of paralysis than affused SEE one. So he said,
Speaker 1: really that just because there's not a lot of cases
Speaker 1: of it, it's super super rare. But zach Or had
Speaker 1: said that there was a college football player who had
Speaker 1: the same condition and he played and was totally fine.
Speaker 1: It was his former bail or quarterback. I guess, wait,
Speaker 1: did you just yelp doctors to try to think No,
Speaker 1: I know an orthopedic surgeon, and then he put me
Speaker 1: in u in touch with a spine specialist who wanted
Speaker 1: to talk more about it at four o'clock this morning,
Speaker 1: a Pacific time, and I was like, I think this
Speaker 1: is good enough. So well he was like because he's
Speaker 1: on the East coast, and he was like, I can
Speaker 1: explain it. Well, like, I can can explain it a
Speaker 1: little bit better to you, the reason why there's not
Speaker 1: any more or less risk with a fused or unfused disk.
Speaker 1: And it would be good if I shake you from
Speaker 1: sleep at four am over continue the alarm. I like
Speaker 1: set my alarm too. I was like, well, maybe maybe
Speaker 1: i'll like do it because it's seven o'clock there. For yeah,
Speaker 1: I can do math seven o'clock on the East Coast,
Speaker 1: So I guess, like before surgery, yeah, I was like,
Speaker 1: that's not happening. But you have to be a pretty
Speaker 1: big time athlete to be the most athletic or in
Speaker 1: the family. And when he pasked Connor, that's when we
Speaker 1: knew Zach was legit. When he when he picked off
Speaker 1: Ben Roethlisberger. People forget that that moment in weeks at Steen,
Speaker 1: I thought that was the moment that the Ravens were
Speaker 1: gonna win the division last year. I mean, he could
Speaker 1: totally he met with the Lions first, he would totally
Speaker 1: change that team. A weakness at linebacker would suddenly be
Speaker 1: a strength with with him and Jared Davis both together. Yeah.
Speaker 1: I think I've read about eight different teams that contacted him,
Speaker 1: but it feels like the Lions would be a good
Speaker 1: fit considering their linebackers were. I mean that group was
Speaker 1: really weak last year. I think that they added about
Speaker 1: three linebackers in the off season that could be starters.
Speaker 1: So we'll see what happens with that. Let's move on
Speaker 1: to the Cowboys front seven. We have some news on
Speaker 1: both ends here. So first up, David Irving, the Cowboys
Speaker 1: will be without him for the first four games. It's
Speaker 1: official for violating the p D policy. We first talked
Speaker 1: about it in May, but it was pending appeal. The
Speaker 1: appeal was denied, so now it's official. This is quite
Speaker 1: a trend for the Cowboys too. This is the fourth
Speaker 1: straight year now that they're going to be starting the
Speaker 1: season without a defensive starter. Mark It's I was just
Speaker 1: about to say the same thing that this field is
Speaker 1: like a disturbing year after years scenario and I irving
Speaker 1: this podcast loved him last year and he really was
Speaker 1: one of their most effective pass rushers. It puts a
Speaker 1: lot of pressure on Taco Charlton to step up from
Speaker 1: deuce right away. And you know our our concerned with
Speaker 1: the Dallas defense. I mean, it kind of is at
Speaker 1: every level. It's especially in the secondary. We've talked about
Speaker 1: that on multiple network hits, I feel like twenty two
Speaker 1: times by the time we got to this point, but
Speaker 1: it's it's almost at every level at this point, and
Speaker 1: there's just more pressure on the offense to do what
Speaker 1: they successfully did last year, which is hold onto the
Speaker 1: ball for the second most amount of time of any
Speaker 1: team in the league and score points on almost every drive,
Speaker 1: he could move inside it out. I mean he was
Speaker 1: not only are they missing him, I mean people forget
Speaker 1: about Randy Gregory. That was, you know, their next great
Speaker 1: pass rushure. I don't know if we'll ever see him
Speaker 1: again at all. I mean, you don't have a great
Speaker 1: pass rush. I don't really have any almost natural pass
Speaker 1: rushers unless Tackle Charlton comes out, you know, swing and
Speaker 1: DeMarcus Lawrence is finely solid, and you don't have a
Speaker 1: great secondary. It's a bad combination. Yeah, I mean one
Speaker 1: will will definitely expose the other for sure. But I
Speaker 1: think the thing with David Irving is he was banged
Speaker 1: because it was an over the counter substance that are
Speaker 1: used in an attempt to endorse the product. I feel
Speaker 1: like there's a major so I read that too, and
Speaker 1: that through me that like at some point, like there
Speaker 1: were not enough boxes checked here and he is essentially
Speaker 1: endorsing a product that got kicked and kim kicked out
Speaker 1: of the league. That's awful. I feel like in some
Speaker 1: way the league needs to better protect the players from
Speaker 1: something like this, And I don't know, I don't know
Speaker 1: what that is, but there's so many like supplements and
Speaker 1: things that you can the people are using now, and
Speaker 1: I don't know if the list that they give the
Speaker 1: players is that definitive. Well, they're gonna have a tough
Speaker 1: time finding another player to endorse them. At this point,
Speaker 1: I say, it's a tough run for that company. Yeah,
Speaker 1: it's just also coming from like sort, there's always there's
Speaker 1: always these reasons. Who knows, I don't. I don't necessarily
Speaker 1: believe you know that they over the counter supplement decisions
Speaker 1: or explanations whenever they come out. It comes out every time.
Speaker 1: And trying to pay attention to what you were saying.
Speaker 1: But Sully came in the room and he was about
Speaker 1: six inches from your neck. He was dropping the means
Speaker 1: read for a little later in the show. Yeah, wow,
Speaker 1: I've never done this. There seems to be a lot
Speaker 1: of instructions. Great okay um. On a positive note though,
Speaker 1: for the Cowboys, Jalen Smith has apparently one healthy and
Speaker 1: bawling out. That's according to cornerback Byron Jones, who spoke
Speaker 1: glowingly of him on a Total Access here him in
Speaker 1: Taco Charlton that he was talking about So Jalen Smith,
Speaker 1: as everybody knows, he missed his rookie season because of
Speaker 1: that a c L and m c L tear and
Speaker 1: the nerves that weren't firing drop foot, all of that
Speaker 1: um and this is after people were saying that he
Speaker 1: might not even ever be the player that he once was.
Speaker 1: He looks like he's going to be a good asset
Speaker 1: to the team. The players are saying it, and Jerry
Speaker 1: Jones seems like he's pretty sold on a too. I mean,
Speaker 1: I think it's a player that's it's great because he himself,
Speaker 1: Jalen Smith talked with extreme confidence a couple of weeks
Speaker 1: previous to this story coming out, and they did go
Speaker 1: through ot as they went through mini camp, and there
Speaker 1: were also reports that you could occasionally see something of
Speaker 1: a limp when he wasn't on the play itself, kind
Speaker 1: of coming back to the to the defensive huddle. But
Speaker 1: it's it's I guess the arrows pointing up. It's certainly
Speaker 1: someone that you need to see it happening in games
Speaker 1: if you're the Cowboys before you fully feel confident about this.
Speaker 1: But it's great story. Or playing football again, I mean
Speaker 1: they're kind of playing football. They're not tackling, they're in shorts.
Speaker 1: It's different now by all accounts like in this was
Speaker 1: his reputation at Notre Dame. Like he's really intelligent player,
Speaker 1: kind of a natural leader, you know, Sean Lee talked
Speaker 1: about sort of he was like asking questions and meeting
Speaker 1: rooms last year, like really intelligent questions, which made Sean
Speaker 1: Lee study things. Where so it seems like a guy
Speaker 1: everyone would root for and if if he's physically all right,
Speaker 1: that he'll be a big time help. But it's this
Speaker 1: time of year. I'm not getting carried away. It's June everybody.
Speaker 1: It's cool for him, though, I mean not to rain
Speaker 1: down on his parade. It has been a long process
Speaker 1: to get to that point where you thought you might
Speaker 1: be a top five NFL pick, and to have that
Speaker 1: sort of injury in a bowl game. I mean that
Speaker 1: was now what sixteen eighteen months ago. That's a long
Speaker 1: process to get back out there doing what you love again.
Speaker 1: And if you're Jerry Jones, this is a second round pick.
Speaker 1: You've had, you had second round. You've had some risky picks,
Speaker 1: and you've taken some players now with Jalen Smith's but
Speaker 1: with other guys with character then yeah, and it's like
Speaker 1: on offense, all these things have worked out on defense.
Speaker 1: A lot of this stuff's up in the air. That's
Speaker 1: got to be so frustrating for him to just like
Speaker 1: having to talk about it all the time and just
Speaker 1: like read about it all of these stories. So hopefully
Speaker 1: he can get back out there and help them. That
Speaker 1: defense is is kind of en shambles a little greater press.
Speaker 1: You know that, Colleen, what you don't want to read
Speaker 1: your own press? You know? Never? You know that very well?
Speaker 1: All right, how about this? This is such a crazy
Speaker 1: story Clinton portis uh Sports Illustrated has an insane deep
Speaker 1: dive right now on like the darkest corners of Clinton
Speaker 1: Porter's life. He thought seriously about murdering the investors who
Speaker 1: drove him into bankruptcy. He lost about eleven million dollars
Speaker 1: with these guys. And in the story he talks about
Speaker 1: sitting outside an office building in Washington waiting to confront
Speaker 1: someone and saying it wasn't about beating them up, it
Speaker 1: was to kill I mean, this is this is a crazy,
Speaker 1: crazy story. This was money for you know, he said,
Speaker 1: his retirement taking care of his mom and his kids.
Speaker 1: But it came right after the whole Bernie made Off thing,
Speaker 1: Right after Bernie made off was arrested. Uh this they
Speaker 1: started their own Ponti scheme and it involved a ton
Speaker 1: of layers NFL and I think NBA two. There was also,
Speaker 1: you know, he admitted a terrible uh tendency to spend
Speaker 1: his own money before that. I mean Santana Moss's teammate
Speaker 1: talked about that. So there was like a lot of
Speaker 1: layers to this Clinton Portis thing that was sad, but
Speaker 1: him talking about that, he was serious. That he was
Speaker 1: sitting outside waiting, you know, to potentially murder this person.
Speaker 1: And he had a friend I think that had some
Speaker 1: family therapy background that ended up like talking him out
Speaker 1: of this. But if circumstances had a different he's it's
Speaker 1: it's crazy because you think of Clinton ports is kind
Speaker 1: of like the happy clown, funny guy, like that was
Speaker 1: his his thing as a as a player, and to
Speaker 1: see this after his career is you know, it's sad.
Speaker 1: It happens. You read these stories occasionally where these players,
Speaker 1: if they've been wiser not with their money, they do
Speaker 1: have these money managers and a couple of them occasionally
Speaker 1: get totally fleeced out of crazy amounts of cash. And
Speaker 1: imagine that though like the desperation you would feel. I
Speaker 1: don't think murder would be the answer, but like simply
Speaker 1: watching someone going like six years in jail, that doesn't
Speaker 1: feel like the answer either. When you you've saved this
Speaker 1: money up for your family and your children. It's I
Speaker 1: I don't know. I think these players some of the
Speaker 1: post career stuff is tricky. Yeah, I mean just just
Speaker 1: thinking about being driven to that point where you're actually
Speaker 1: sitting you have driven, You've gotten in your car and
Speaker 1: you drive, You've you've gone to the place where this
Speaker 1: person works, and you're sitting outside waiting for them with
Speaker 1: thoughts of murdering them, like the place that you have
Speaker 1: to be for that is just insane. And his former
Speaker 1: managers didn't even you know, part the reason he was
Speaker 1: partly so frustrated is didn't no jail time, like they
Speaker 1: can't financial advisors anymore, but no jail time, no prosecution,
Speaker 1: zero punishment. They took the money. I was on the
Speaker 1: East coast last week and found out around like ten
Speaker 1: at night that I had lost my credit card. And
Speaker 1: so immediately I'm thinking someone you know, a it probably
Speaker 1: an irresponsible move by me, left it somewhere in which
Speaker 1: that's true, and then someone is now draining my family's
Speaker 1: bank account. And I started to get up step and
Speaker 1: I realized I only have about six hundred dollars in there,
Speaker 1: so there's not how much damage can they possibly do?
Speaker 1: Where was the card? Never found? It? Had to cancel it? Oh, no,
Speaker 1: did anybody put any charges on it? Well, I mean
Speaker 1: there were charges that I assumed were mine. It was
Speaker 1: a hazy I was on vacation. Things were very hazy.
Speaker 1: Not not by someone else as far as I could tell.
Speaker 1: So I once got a call. I had a corporate
Speaker 1: card at my old job at NBC. I know they
Speaker 1: don't even do that at the NFL, And I once
Speaker 1: got a call for you, at least for me. For me,
Speaker 1: once got a call that said, did you just spend
Speaker 1: seventeen thousand dollars at at jfk uh like like the
Speaker 1: terminal three. I was like, no, that wasn't me. They're like, okay, yeah,
Speaker 1: someone somebody clean house of duty free. Basically I think
Speaker 1: they did some an airplane. They basically did something where
Speaker 1: they went crazy at duty free stuff and then they
Speaker 1: returned the money to get cash or what are you buying?
Speaker 1: How much stuff are you buying? A duty free. You
Speaker 1: would think that, yeah, you would like the right side
Speaker 1: of the shop. You would think around the you know,
Speaker 1: five hundred bottle of Johnny Walker black or wow wow. Yeah.
Speaker 1: I I remember I was going through one of my
Speaker 1: credit card statements one time and there were all of
Speaker 1: these charges at Abercrombie and Fitch. And this was like
Speaker 1: two years ago, and I was like Abercrombie and Fish like,
Speaker 1: I don't think I've ever bought anything, like yes, I
Speaker 1: was like, wait a minute, this is still an active chain. Yeah,
Speaker 1: so it pending since from the mall. It's weird though,
Speaker 1: like how they can get your information, Like there was
Speaker 1: somebody in the store using my card, so I don't know,
Speaker 1: idea they somehow it contacted the credit card company and
Speaker 1: got a copy of it. The very dumbest thing I
Speaker 1: did recently with this group was we were at a
Speaker 1: um like a podcast meet up in San Francisco before
Speaker 1: Super Bowl fifty and someone asked to sign like a
Speaker 1: her hat and it was a it was a football.
Speaker 1: I signed it with my social Security number. I thought.
Speaker 1: Then I thought later like wait, why on earth? Really? Yeah,
Speaker 1: why would you do that? I don't know. Yeah, it's
Speaker 1: very cly a trusting fan. Nothing's come of it as
Speaker 1: far as right she It's not like she was asking
Speaker 1: for anyone's social security. He was just like and he
Speaker 1: he signed his name. I believe it's just like everyone
Speaker 1: else you know, gives the full name. He just goes
Speaker 1: like Mark, you know, m A R. But then he
Speaker 1: puts his social security very this took place, this part.
Speaker 1: This happened at a bar, so that could explain part
Speaker 1: of the thinking. Well, I'm glad that another thing has
Speaker 1: come of it. Hopefully that fan will never sell it
Speaker 1: on eBay or something like. All right, um, oh, one
Speaker 1: last story I saw this. I didn't really get to
Speaker 1: dive into it, but Mark, I know that you're sort
Speaker 1: of an expert on the subject. Russell Wilson is on
Speaker 1: a new diet and it's showing it. Uh it is.
Speaker 1: It's kind of you know, it's it's it's the very
Speaker 1: end of June and I was searching everywhere for some
Speaker 1: story to write, just to prove that I had actually
Speaker 1: been at work today. Yeah, and I thought it would
Speaker 1: just be another one of these things where he's you know,
Speaker 1: cut down on his the food intake and he's changing
Speaker 1: his exercise. But it's this guy that's right here in
Speaker 1: Santa Monica, and I believe it's Philip either Gogglia or Golia.
Speaker 1: But he is the uh, same trainer that worked with
Speaker 1: Chris Pratt, the actor who remember in like Parks and Wreck.
Speaker 1: He was kind of like lovably a big, little pudgy,
Speaker 1: but in a great way. But then he by the
Speaker 1: time he was in Guardians to the Galaxy, he was
Speaker 1: like ripped like some sort of and I don't mean
Speaker 1: like pudgy in a bad way. I feel like people
Speaker 1: are going to come after me for that. Like he
Speaker 1: just like wasn't like shredded up. No, he was just
Speaker 1: like a dude basically. Side note though, Zach Dresser, one
Speaker 1: of the old podcast producers, he yeah, exactly. One of
Speaker 1: the many uh was that he's at BuzzFeed now and
Speaker 1: they did a did a whole video and like that
Speaker 1: was over five months and he got with the same
Speaker 1: dude that guys like it's pretty close and Dressler lost
Speaker 1: like fifty. He looks great, he's looks he looks absolutely great.
Speaker 1: So basically like Russell Wilson was, he was he felt
Speaker 1: he wanted to trim down and basically, like you know,
Speaker 1: Eddie ankle and the issues last year, and he wanted
Speaker 1: to change his kind of body makeup for this season,
Speaker 1: and so this guy put him on a daily calorie
Speaker 1: count that went from previously like hundred, which is kind
Speaker 1: of what like a lot of athletes would eat and
Speaker 1: even regular people, to forty eight hundred per day on
Speaker 1: a nine meal plan that includes like it's almost like
Speaker 1: what you think Hobbits would eat in Lord of the
Speaker 1: multiple breakfasts and lunches, but tons of snacks. Oh my god,
Speaker 1: I want to go on this diet. It's you. You
Speaker 1: should take a look at it. It was you just
Speaker 1: need to have the time to work out, like three
Speaker 1: hours a day. Can you do that? College? Yeah, that's
Speaker 1: the thing. It's definitely for It's definitely for like the
Speaker 1: athlete who is constantly like body crafting all day long
Speaker 1: and like has somewhere right, that's true, yeah, or an actor,
Speaker 1: same deal, but it works. It works. That's kind of
Speaker 1: what it's like at the Wolf Gonzo House. Well, like Socraft,
Speaker 1: We're going on vacation and we have like tried to
Speaker 1: start eating healthier and John gets like crazy and he's
Speaker 1: like I'm gonna you know, you know, John Gonzoz. Yeah right.
Speaker 1: John Renald Gonzo more Mar twelve is an American sports writer.
Speaker 1: Was married NFL meda broadcaster College Wolfe. John, who was
Speaker 1: a pieces, resides in Los Angeles with his wife and
Speaker 1: two dollars. Glad we cleared that up. Um, He's like, oh,
Speaker 1: he's paleo right now, so he like only eats meat
Speaker 1: and vegetables and fruit, and so I'm kind of like,
Speaker 1: all right, well, I won't eat bread, and I have
Speaker 1: gained weight on this diet. I cut bread and like
Speaker 1: grains out a diet. No, no, not not eating any
Speaker 1: carbs really at all, Like no carbs and no sweets
Speaker 1: or desserts, and I've gained weight. So I'm going to
Speaker 1: go back to just like drinking and eating recklessly because
Speaker 1: that seems to really work. That was working, well yeah, yeah,
Speaker 1: Or you could do this forty eight hundred calorie thing.
Speaker 1: Wilson has lost eleven pounds and went from sixteen body fat.
Speaker 1: It's only it's only about a mile from our from
Speaker 1: where we live. I should we go? Should we go
Speaker 1: together and just check it out there? Wait? So I'm
Speaker 1: sure it's affordable to hundred calories a day? Are you
Speaker 1: just like eating all day, Like, well, there's a pre breakfast,
Speaker 1: to breakfast, to snack, than a lunch, than a second lunch,
Speaker 1: then a snack and a snack than what's this is
Speaker 1: it does the food like, does it give you what
Speaker 1: the food is? I think it would be shaped for you.
Speaker 1: It would not. You would probably not be eating Russell
Speaker 1: Wilson's exactly shaped for for your knee. It's so not
Speaker 1: you know, maybe more bread, more beer, more, yeah, more
Speaker 1: of everything, just like I just want to go on
Speaker 1: a carb diet. We'll see how that goes. He's like,
Speaker 1: look into it, Like, give me some food that will
Speaker 1: make my Instagram account even cheesy. Greg not buying into this,
Speaker 1: but it's the results, you know. He They showed a
Speaker 1: picture of him from like O t A or from minicamp.
Speaker 1: Looks felt wow. Good for him. All right, we'll see
Speaker 1: if it actually changes anything on the field. That's that'd
Speaker 1: be awesome. So I got a text from Sessler a
Speaker 1: couple of hours ago, and he said, for the show today,
Speaker 1: I had wicked bad insomnia last night and wrote down
Speaker 1: something that was keeping me up in the middle of
Speaker 1: the night, A theory I was I was bothering Greg
Speaker 1: with with the I on, I am earlier than I
Speaker 1: I honestly came to work with like twenty three hours
Speaker 1: of twenty three minutes of sleeping me And how are
Speaker 1: you like up and running not talking? I'm not doing good,
Speaker 1: but I was writing down something. What was keeping you up? Though?
Speaker 1: I feel like usually there's something something's on your mind
Speaker 1: can open up to. We won't tell anybody generally, like
Speaker 1: guys stress, dad's stress like work life stuff. But you know, guys,
Speaker 1: stress sounds like something that no one could fully criticize.
Speaker 1: Half the population does not claim to know what I'm
Speaker 1: talking about, so I can. But a this was on myself,
Speaker 1: and I wrote this down on you know, just typing,
Speaker 1: and I want you just to be open minded to
Speaker 1: this because this is where I was. Is there multiple pages? No,
Speaker 1: it's one page, he says. Do do we really know
Speaker 1: that someone like George Washington ever existed? Think about this?
Speaker 1: During July four we were told that he was born
Speaker 1: in seventeen thirty two and died in seventeen nine. This
Speaker 1: is the story passed down to us. But it feels
Speaker 1: equally possible that the entire idea of George Washington is
Speaker 1: a complete creation it's logical and accepted for someone to argue, well,
Speaker 1: of course he exists, because that's what was shoved into
Speaker 1: our heads from the earliest days. And the people who
Speaker 1: taught us this narrative were taught at the same thing
Speaker 1: and the same song and dance when they were children.
Speaker 1: And it's comfortable to up this. And people get very
Speaker 1: angry if you suggest otherwise, meaning it's all going according
Speaker 1: to plan. People get angry. Have you been I'm just thinking, well, okay,
Speaker 1: this is the textas not. I don't think I fully
Speaker 1: flushed this out. But honestly, when you think about George Washington,
Speaker 1: it's just these paintings of him crossing the river and
Speaker 1: surprising that there's like a lot of history books and
Speaker 1: stuff like, but what's that? What is all that? It's
Speaker 1: just been passed about the ones that were written back then?
Speaker 1: What about I guess we're assuming that was you have
Speaker 1: to believe that. My reporter question would be, then, at
Speaker 1: what point how did this come about? How did the
Speaker 1: myth of George Washington start? Because at some point it
Speaker 1: has to come, you know, has to begin. I that
Speaker 1: i'd agree with you, I don't have the facts on
Speaker 1: when I think that would have happened. But I do
Speaker 1: sometimes think that all of this, like deep American myth,
Speaker 1: is just complete fabrication. There's there's a if you just
Speaker 1: think about it, not say yes or no, that it
Speaker 1: could be all just a story that we were told
Speaker 1: and we came here at some other time and in
Speaker 1: more in a different type of way. Well would the
Speaker 1: Wooden Teething story. I mean to me, you're you're going
Speaker 1: beyond George Washington. You're essentially questioning all of recorded human history,
Speaker 1: all of them, at least of them. Could you trust
Speaker 1: anything real, at least all of American I'm not saying
Speaker 1: that I'm questioning. I'm just saying that I was thinking, like,
Speaker 1: why do we automatically buy that George Washington isn't a
Speaker 1: very neat creation. I think the good point. I think,
Speaker 1: even if even if I won't go as far to
Speaker 1: say that, you know, he didn't exist or these things
Speaker 1: didn't happen, I think your point still raises. It raises
Speaker 1: good questions of how how much of it is true
Speaker 1: and what's changed. I mean, because the Zero History, I mean,
Speaker 1: what's the most popular book, and you know, the history
Speaker 1: of the world, the Bible, I mean that that was
Speaker 1: something that was just kind of talked about it down
Speaker 1: for ages. That was oral history. So someone wrote it.
Speaker 1: This feels like the podcast. I just don't buy the
Speaker 1: George Washington like little wigs. I think it just popped
Speaker 1: into my head that it's just seems something about it
Speaker 1: seems a little patent on the nose. Save it for
Speaker 1: the Heat and Light podcast. Great episode this week. Everyone
Speaker 1: should check out episode four. Well, they're all, they're all.
Speaker 1: What's on episode for We discussed mail fraud. One of
Speaker 1: the two of us had been charge class story. If
Speaker 1: you mark it's one of my favorite story stories. So
Speaker 1: check it out. That's great. Um, sorry to totally stop
Speaker 1: the show with that. Now that was I'm thinking about
Speaker 1: like history books, I'm thinking about wigs, like I'm thinking
Speaker 1: how false teeth. I wasn't thinking that's already there's a lot.
Speaker 1: I mean, all it takes is to read three history
Speaker 1: books on the same person and they're vastly different. I
Speaker 1: mean that alone will get you thinking very concerning, you
Speaker 1: know what, I'll I'm thinking about pants. How to elevate
Speaker 1: your underwear game to the next level with me, Andy's
Speaker 1: I can do this now, right? Do I just please
Speaker 1: here we go. I'm gonna wait back here, just looking
Speaker 1: for the drop. You maybe ask you yourself what is meds?
Speaker 1: And you know what? They are? Just seriously solved, feel
Speaker 1: good Andy's delivered right to your doorstep. That's super convenient.
Speaker 1: I don't know where the pauses are in this, so
Speaker 1: you're power through Me Andy's. They're designed in l A
Speaker 1: and made from sustainably sourced micromoldl okay a fabric three
Speaker 1: times softer than cotton. Wow Meandy's softer than soft lugsdys
Speaker 1: common at ever changing selection of classic colors, bowl shades,
Speaker 1: and adventurous patterns, so you can tailor your AND's to
Speaker 1: your own personal style. Isn't that so cool? Greg? And
Speaker 1: guess what Mark what? You can save time and money
Speaker 1: each month with a monthly subscription. And if you're not
Speaker 1: ready for that, because it's kind of a lot of commitments,
Speaker 1: it's okay. You can still save. That's because Me Andy's
Speaker 1: is offering off your first pair and just use our
Speaker 1: special U R L meandi dot com slash oh around
Speaker 1: the NFL. I got the wrong read here. It's not
Speaker 1: oh around the NFL. It's just around the NFL and
Speaker 1: get your first pair, So go ahead revamp your underwear drawer.
Speaker 1: You deserve it. Once again, It's me Andy's dot com
Speaker 1: slash around the NFL shout out to a shadowy League
Speaker 1: figure who finally um I he had a box of
Speaker 1: me ands for both men and women. Yes, I picked up,
Speaker 1: I got, I got too for myself, but I said,
Speaker 1: because he was saying, no, no, there's so many women
Speaker 1: attached to the podcast that we need to give the
Speaker 1: female version out too, and I said, there's not fifteen,
Speaker 1: and so I definitely want to take one home to
Speaker 1: my wife, like and so he said, let me see
Speaker 1: if I can find like enough people attached. But this
Speaker 1: this week handed me a pair that has printed all
Speaker 1: over it and multiple colors like have a night stay
Speaker 1: Like what, oh no, that's cool. I didn't see those.
Speaker 1: So this shadowy league figure sent me an email and
Speaker 1: was like, can you come to my office? And I
Speaker 1: was like, oh, no, mind troubled, Like what did I say?
Speaker 1: And so I went over and he was in the
Speaker 1: middle of another meeting and he just like reaches behind
Speaker 1: him and grabs this box and says that he didn't
Speaker 1: want to email me and ask what size I was,
Speaker 1: so I could just pick out of whatever was in
Speaker 1: the box, So he didn't want to avoid the awkwardness
Speaker 1: of an elder male superior handing you a box of
Speaker 1: female underwear. My god, So I I grabbed a pair
Speaker 1: of underwear out and then I was like, all right,
Speaker 1: and now I'm gonna walk across like this campus to
Speaker 1: wherever I'm going with a pair of underwear in my hand. Yeah,
Speaker 1: And I was like, well, I hope, I hope I
Speaker 1: don't drop these. I hope I don't run into anybody
Speaker 1: with these, like I need to hide these by Basically
Speaker 1: I got them safely to my car and uh yeah,
Speaker 1: so that happened. Thumbs up there, But we got something
Speaker 1: more important. Weather Underground website indicates the temperature and I
Speaker 1: ran today hit a d nine point two degrees, tied
Speaker 1: for the highest recorded temperature. Are you just trying to
Speaker 1: get on the board of breaking news. I mean, that's
Speaker 1: that's relevant to some people. You need you need to
Speaker 1: come up and I just broke news that the president
Speaker 1: that George Washington just not exists. Potentially. I think that's
Speaker 1: has a little bit more attached to just trying to
Speaker 1: figure out a way to move on from the end,
Speaker 1: right that was good getting their money worth talk a
Speaker 1: little making the leap. Oh wait, do you want to
Speaker 1: do tag talk? I forgot about t do a little
Speaker 1: tag talk? Yeah, Thursday, tag talk. Um okay, So the
Speaker 1: deadline was moved up, so it's now or moved back?
Speaker 1: Yeah back because back two days. It's now July sevent
Speaker 1: for teams to sign France Ehies tag players. We have
Speaker 1: a couple still out there Redskins. They are in talks
Speaker 1: with Kirk Cousins. I and Rappaport said that things are,
Speaker 1: you know, more positive now between both sides. Uh. And
Speaker 1: I think that Derek Carr signing his deal will obviously
Speaker 1: just help things with him. Charlie Castlely was on our air.
Speaker 1: He's saying he didn't think this Cousin's deal could happen.
Speaker 1: I didn't see anyway. That's that's my that's and I
Speaker 1: there's no reason to doubt Charlie. I I don't know.
Speaker 1: I feel like if they I still think the way
Speaker 1: that the last Redskins season ended is been under played.
Speaker 1: That two of their last three games, really three of
Speaker 1: their last five, which they lost, Cousins played poorly. They
Speaker 1: didn't score, they scored one touchdown and two of you know,
Speaker 1: combined in week fifteen, weeks seventeen, and they've always been hesitant.
Speaker 1: So I don't know, I just feel like they're fine
Speaker 1: going with this year to year thing. I'm with you.
Speaker 1: I mean, Chefter also can still called it a long shot,
Speaker 1: and I just it there would have been a way
Speaker 1: to somehow get this done at this point. I think
Speaker 1: if they if they really mutually wanted to do it,
Speaker 1: and I just I don't see what happening. Yeah, it's
Speaker 1: it'll probably happen to night. Now that we've said that,
Speaker 1: of course we're gonna that's that's definitely gonna happen. We
Speaker 1: put that out in the universe, UM and then Levian
Speaker 1: Bell and the Steelers. That's sort of The talks are
Speaker 1: going slow, but both sides expect to push before UM
Speaker 1: before the deadline to get the deal done, which makes sense.
Speaker 1: It looks like his groin injury is okay after that
Speaker 1: basketball little basketball video the hoops bid that he posted,
Speaker 1: so that would make sense. If I mean, I don't
Speaker 1: know what they're waiting for. They need to just sign him.
Speaker 1: I think he's just a uniquely difficult player to sign
Speaker 1: because the running back market is so low, but he's
Speaker 1: so valuable. But he also has an injury history and
Speaker 1: a suspension history, and the and the tag number here's
Speaker 1: where they were cousins get some problems to tag numbers
Speaker 1: so high it's over twelve million for Leviandell that it's like, well,
Speaker 1: he's not gonna sign it unless he's making on average
Speaker 1: thirteen million dollars over the next two years, because that's
Speaker 1: what he would get with two more tags. And so
Speaker 1: I don't think it's gonna happen, and we think they're
Speaker 1: ready to do it. I don't think there's much more
Speaker 1: to say on that one. I just you know, uh,
Speaker 1: And what about Tremaine Johnson. That's he agreed to play
Speaker 1: under the tag for the second straight year. And everything
Speaker 1: that we're hearing is nothing is going to get done.
Speaker 1: Can you believe that this guy is going to potentially
Speaker 1: make thirty one million dollars over to the Rams? Just
Speaker 1: don't seem bought? And well I think they find is
Speaker 1: he a scheme fit? Wait? Phillips like they have the
Speaker 1: thing though, like Aaron Donald's potential new deal is kind
Speaker 1: of tied into it loosely where you could help the
Speaker 1: cap if you maybe signed Johnson to a deal that
Speaker 1: helped the cap this year or next. But they don't.
Speaker 1: You don't get the feeling that they really want him
Speaker 1: around long term. I mean, RAMS fans can tell me differently,
Speaker 1: but did did they feel like they got fifteen million
Speaker 1: dollars worth that at Tremaine Johnson last year? I think
Speaker 1: I think generous Jenkins leaving created some sort of schism
Speaker 1: within that RAMS team of who wanted to keep him
Speaker 1: who didn't, and that, you know, you gotta look at
Speaker 1: it that as a possible regret letting him go. Yeah,
Speaker 1: he slipped a little last year. He had a good season.
Speaker 1: That whole defense fell apart last year too. I mean,
Speaker 1: but it's they've got other they've got other priorities. Well
Speaker 1: that was tag Talk, brought to you by me Andy's.
Speaker 1: They got a sponsored segment to apparently that's what Sally said.
Speaker 1: Um okay, now let's get to making the leap. I
Speaker 1: feel like Dan, this is on purpose. Dan isn't here
Speaker 1: to do making moa like is this was this a
Speaker 1: strategic thing? Now, we just didn't know what to talk about.
Speaker 1: Was searching for a topic. But it's a good time
Speaker 1: to do this topic. I like this one I thought this,
Speaker 1: this is great. I have a couple, we all have
Speaker 1: a couple. Let's go around and talk about who we
Speaker 1: think is going to make the leap once again this year. Mark,
Speaker 1: well already I'll go first. But this ties into a
Speaker 1: series that that Greg is working on four NFL dot
Speaker 1: Com by Away. Just thought i'd throw that out there,
Speaker 1: um and thankful because I'm not working on it this year.
Speaker 1: Once was forty was once forty players. Now it's just
Speaker 1: five and actually I'm mostly doing like groups teams or
Speaker 1: groups it up. Yeah, that's good. If I had to
Speaker 1: do one. I one player that I love watching last
Speaker 1: year was Jamison Crowder, and I with making the leap
Speaker 1: to one of the reasons that I always got tricky
Speaker 1: for me because it's like, what is making the leap?
Speaker 1: Jamison Crowder you could argue could have been a pro
Speaker 1: bowler last year for a special team skills and what
Speaker 1: he can do a wide receiver. Didn't he leave the
Speaker 1: team in touchdown? He did? Any? I mean That's the
Speaker 1: thing is I think though you can talk about making
Speaker 1: the leap doing even more now the different types of leaps,
Speaker 1: there's different types of LEAs one he can make a
Speaker 1: leap to a whole other leaves. He's never made the
Speaker 1: Pro Bowl, So it's like, I mean not that that means,
Speaker 1: that's a whole different conversation, but you have to yards.
Speaker 1: Let's not get care exactly was exactly. I do think
Speaker 1: that he showed at times to be in so incredibly
Speaker 1: game changing and dangerous for that all fence. And now
Speaker 1: the question is they're putting him outside. He was a
Speaker 1: slot guy and he's gonna have to face different types
Speaker 1: of coverage. Um, you got Terrell prior to obviously take
Speaker 1: people away from you, but you have no DeShawn Jackson,
Speaker 1: Pere Garson's gone. They're gonna still throw the ball a
Speaker 1: ton and I think he has a chance. If he
Speaker 1: shows that he can match up with number two sometimes
Speaker 1: number one coverage and succeed, it could be a really
Speaker 1: special player for the Redskins. So it's a leap candidate
Speaker 1: in my mind. And if he made a leap, I
Speaker 1: mean that, I think we're talking year and I don't
Speaker 1: think that's crazy because you think, what is Kirk Cousins
Speaker 1: good at. It's it's not going deep on the edges
Speaker 1: of the field. I know he had better success last
Speaker 1: year throwing vertically, but it's it's throwing two guys in
Speaker 1: the slot and you've got Crowder and I know a
Speaker 1: play outside some too, but also be in the slide.
Speaker 1: You got Crowder and Jordan Read both in the slot.
Speaker 1: Maybe they're next to each other, maybe they're on opposite sides.
Speaker 1: That's a lot to handle. And Cousins his best strength
Speaker 1: is picking out the open receiver and just getting to
Speaker 1: a and letting them make place after the catching crowd
Speaker 1: is awesome. Yeah, especially with DeShawn Gone and Pierre Garson. Yeah,
Speaker 1: that opens it up for Crowder. Maybe it'll be a
Speaker 1: career year for him. All right, Greg, I mean, I
Speaker 1: like Mark used to get very stressed. I feel about
Speaker 1: like everything. You didn't up all night last night washing.
Speaker 1: I think it was about to bring up a sore subject,
Speaker 1: but I think it was Toby Gerhardt back into that.
Speaker 1: That really that really hurt you because you you put
Speaker 1: a lot into him, a lot of research, watched him
Speaker 1: quite a bit, You wrote a very compelling piece. You
Speaker 1: really put your name out there. Uh, and then you
Speaker 1: heard a lot about it throughout the season. And I
Speaker 1: think that and in seasons afterwards and emotionally scarred you. Yeah,
Speaker 1: it was. It was this this, this effort was ultimately
Speaker 1: not worth it on any level. Greg, Greg Greg Greg's
Speaker 1: out for Mark today. I think he was. I think
Speaker 1: that was that was very fair, very fair. Have you
Speaker 1: hit on any of your making the leaps, Greg, I
Speaker 1: get like one out of four right or whatever? I mean,
Speaker 1: I don't know. It's like, yes, I jinx is ridiculous
Speaker 1: compared to what we have done with some crazy stuff
Speaker 1: fit plenty. But it's a little secret I learned um
Speaker 1: when I was writing Fantasy football full time. It's a
Speaker 1: lot easier. This was that roadal world. It's a lot
Speaker 1: easier you write. If you're the guy who writes the
Speaker 1: busts list, you're gonna look like a genius. You're gonna
Speaker 1: get most of those right, because in the end most
Speaker 1: people write up being disappointing. If you're the guy who
Speaker 1: writes the sleepers list, it's hard to get those right.
Speaker 1: And you know, not that many people really uh overachieve,
Speaker 1: and that's that's harder to predict. So that's why, Well, yeah,
Speaker 1: in our next and next week, we have you know,
Speaker 1: dirt nap teart players ready to take a total dirt
Speaker 1: nap Alright, So for my making the leap my first one,
Speaker 1: which I really believe in. Uh, it's a team and
Speaker 1: a uniform that Toby Garhart wants or and it's a
Speaker 1: team that's snickerd us before and then almost every year
Speaker 1: it's like, now I'm taking the you know, turn doing
Speaker 1: the Jaguars offseason hype piece. But here's what I'm hyping.
Speaker 1: Just their defense. I I don't know, who knows if
Speaker 1: Blake Portles of the offense will be any good. They
Speaker 1: might be a mess, doesn't matter. The Jaguars defense is different,
Speaker 1: I think this year because never before in the past
Speaker 1: have they had Jalen Ramsey entering his second year. Now,
Speaker 1: Ramsey's a guy who Mark loved early last season and
Speaker 1: he was he was ahead of the curve because Ramsey
Speaker 1: was great and feisty early, but he was just good late.
Speaker 1: I mean, he was arguably the best cornerback in the
Speaker 1: league late in the season. Was talking with Steve Smith
Speaker 1: that that was early and he was great, Like he
Speaker 1: has the I've watched it, you know, getting ready to
Speaker 1: write this piece this week, and he just has this
Speaker 1: competitive arrogance that's like amazing to watch. There was one
Speaker 1: play where I swear he baited Marcus Mariotta into throwing
Speaker 1: across his body so he could try to pick it off.
Speaker 1: He didn't pick it off, but he knocked the ball
Speaker 1: down almost a pick, and you can almost see him
Speaker 1: back and off for a little bit. And then when
Speaker 1: he sees the receiver break or the quarterback up, you
Speaker 1: know Matt Castle and another play in that in that
Speaker 1: same game where he got a pick, the guy just
Speaker 1: breaks and he is big. I mean he can he
Speaker 1: can cover to Marius Thomas. He shut to Mary's Thomas
Speaker 1: down one game. He's a very physical receiver, but he's
Speaker 1: fluid enough where I watched him really shut down t
Speaker 1: Y Hilton for a large portion of that game and
Speaker 1: then Hilton got his and it was competitive back and forth.
Speaker 1: But he can cover all sorts of different types of receivers.
Speaker 1: He can lay people out, which not a lot of
Speaker 1: cornerbacks love to do. And so he is, to me
Speaker 1: the difference of this Jaguars defense than before. Then suddenly, okay,
Speaker 1: a j Bouyer comes in. It's not as big of
Speaker 1: a risk. I don't think to give him all that
Speaker 1: money because he's paired with such a good player in
Speaker 1: Jalen Ramsey. Now Collas Campbell comes in, he's up there
Speaker 1: in age on the defensive line, but that's not as
Speaker 1: big a risk because they're so deep on the defensive line.
Speaker 1: Malik Jackson played incredible down the stretch last season. They
Speaker 1: have done the fault Fowler they have in gock Way. Uh.
Speaker 1: The guy who really stuck out for me watching this
Speaker 1: was this guy, Abrey Jones. If you didn't know Abrey Jones,
Speaker 1: I feel like I'm just saying and I'll stop my
Speaker 1: right now. But if you didn't know him, if you
Speaker 1: didn't know anything about them and just watch that last
Speaker 1: month of their play, you would say he might be
Speaker 1: the best player on their defense. He might be a
Speaker 1: pro bowler. Him and Ramsey are a kind of the
Speaker 1: two key guys you have Kelvin Smith. There's a lot
Speaker 1: of fun to watch. I just think their defense is
Speaker 1: loaded and they can't screw it up, and that the
Speaker 1: defense will be really good. Time have you spent watching
Speaker 1: JAG's film lately? I mean I've watched a bunch this week.
Speaker 1: I can I can feel it. I can sense that. Yeah,
Speaker 1: you know a little yeah, a little we got time
Speaker 1: in the oboe, A little coaches film a little game
Speaker 1: pass game passed by the way, you know, nice remodeling.
Speaker 1: I like what they've done. I'm starting to come around
Speaker 1: on this. Locked out of my account right now. I'm
Speaker 1: with you, Greg really struggle because of how burned I
Speaker 1: feel by the Jags. But but part of it is
Speaker 1: I maybe maybe never been in on them totally. I
Speaker 1: used to love Bardles, but not like as a team.
Speaker 1: It's like a fun thing to do every offseason. It's
Speaker 1: just like talk about how great the Jags could be.
Speaker 1: But you can't let like that. That's just an emotional
Speaker 1: response what I'm feeling like logically, like they're they have
Speaker 1: at a pieces. I think if you kind of believe
Speaker 1: in the switch, the coaching switch to which which there's
Speaker 1: something around that, right, I'm with you. I mean, I
Speaker 1: think the defense has all the pieces. If they if
Speaker 1: it's if they somehow, if it doesn't materialize and they
Speaker 1: go three and thirteen again, I'm shipping this team to
Speaker 1: Mars like they are leaving the Earth. Yeah. The difference
Speaker 1: is now, I think like Kelvin Smith really stood out.
Speaker 1: He's in his third season, so I think he's he's matured,
Speaker 1: and Fowler and gock Way they're getting better. Malik Jackson
Speaker 1: took him a little while to get, you know, up
Speaker 1: to speed, but he was great. So it just feels
Speaker 1: like a nice team where there's some veterans, there's some youth. Yeah,
Speaker 1: and Dante Fowler too. I mean that first season it
Speaker 1: was completely derailed with the injury. I mean, he's a
Speaker 1: first round pick. Last year he had a shoulder issue
Speaker 1: that was bothering him, and I think he was bench
Speaker 1: midway through the season a couple of times. Because of
Speaker 1: his play. I think that this will be the year
Speaker 1: for him if he as long as he can stay healthy.
Speaker 1: I mean that that'll that'll be great. If the offense
Speaker 1: is lousy, but I don't think the defense will be
Speaker 1: the reason that they're badness. I think they'll be a
Speaker 1: top ten, top five type of defense. I like that.
Speaker 1: How about this one. I'm kind of playing the odds
Speaker 1: here because at some point the starter just has to
Speaker 1: he's so old and he's so good. But I'm just
Speaker 1: gonna keep making this by making the leave candidate every
Speaker 1: year because at some point it's going to hit Hunter Henry.
Speaker 1: How many more years is Antonio Gates going to be
Speaker 1: in there? He's been like the number one guy for
Speaker 1: a decade. Him and Philip Rivers have this amazing connection.
Speaker 1: But I think Hunter Henry last year he led the
Speaker 1: team and receiving touchdowns. He was tied with Michael Thomas
Speaker 1: for the most touchdowns out of rookies. He really doesn't
Speaker 1: make any drops. He runs good routes. He was awesome
Speaker 1: in the red zone last year. Look, it's a second
Speaker 1: round pick, and I think at some point Antonio Gates
Speaker 1: is going to his age is going to catch up
Speaker 1: with him and we're going to see that on the field.
Speaker 1: So I think that Hunter Henry might get some more
Speaker 1: snaps this year, and they're going to try and get
Speaker 1: him those reps to groom him. Because I wouldn't be
Speaker 1: surprised if this is Antonio Gates last season. How how
Speaker 1: old does Antonio Gates think? If Antonio Gates had caught
Speaker 1: this touchdown that I witnessed uh during the Chargers last
Speaker 1: game in San Diego where they tried to get him
Speaker 1: the all time record for tight ends, UH might be gone.
Speaker 1: It was broken up. Who knows, maybe he wouldn't have
Speaker 1: retired because he clearly loves the game. He's thirty seven.
Speaker 1: I think that was the reason to definitely come back,
Speaker 1: and he's talked about kind of seating ground to Henry,
Speaker 1: that's a great sign that he said, Look, I don't
Speaker 1: need to be out there every single snap, but it
Speaker 1: is amazing the chemistry that him and Philip Rivers have.
Speaker 1: They've played together for so long. It's almost I would
Speaker 1: see those two guys like finishing each other sentences. I
Speaker 1: think with Henry, I mean, the tight end position is
Speaker 1: one that year one is really tough, and even like Bronx,
Speaker 1: year one stats were not crazy and Henry shows, you know,
Speaker 1: statistically as much promise as really any of these guys,
Speaker 1: and he really grew last season. So that's a very
Speaker 1: logical candidate to have a much bigger role this year.
Speaker 1: I thought he was awesome. I mean, it's really pretty good.
Speaker 1: Right in some games, their their whole you know, their
Speaker 1: whole skill position group. Is that is I didn't you know, Colleen,
Speaker 1: you didn't know this, but that is that is one
Speaker 1: of my my making the things. So I'm not just
Speaker 1: limited to Henry, but it's kind of that whole young
Speaker 1: group together. You can throw Keenan Allen in there, you
Speaker 1: can throw Melvin Gordon in there, you can throw Tyrrell Williams.
Speaker 1: Just like this, this young little charge. This Charger's core
Speaker 1: certainly has been been injured in the offseason, so we'll
Speaker 1: see if he like gets up to speed. But that's
Speaker 1: like a fun young group. You like the Chargers, you
Speaker 1: like the Jags. I feel like that saying the Jags
Speaker 1: as a whole team, just the defense half of it.
Speaker 1: All right, Uh, should we do with speed? Round? Should
Speaker 1: do one more? Sure, let's go around. Do you have another?
Speaker 1: The second one I picked was Noah Spence for the
Speaker 1: for the Buccaneers. Um, I had to do an article
Speaker 1: of trying to find for like first time Pro bowlers
Speaker 1: for each team, and the Bucks have so many Pro
Speaker 1: bowlers actually, so I went and picked Spence. But there's
Speaker 1: more to it than that, Like his own teammates are
Speaker 1: I mean, that was that was my only argument. It
Speaker 1: would be rather weak. But Gerald McCoy's he's the guy
Speaker 1: he picked as a breakout year with Spence, and Robert
Speaker 1: Ayers said the same thing. He called him like a
Speaker 1: fifteen plus SAT guy in this defense this season, And
Speaker 1: you know he had some I watched a little bit
Speaker 1: of him for this piece and just showed some flashes.
Speaker 1: I think that like, along with you know, Kwan Alexander.
Speaker 1: There's a lot of talent on that defense that down
Speaker 1: the stretch. The Bucks they were overall not a great unit,
Speaker 1: but they had some games where they were really stinging
Speaker 1: down the stretch and I think Spence will I'll put
Speaker 1: I'll put that one on the line there, Yeah, and pops,
Speaker 1: he pops off the screen, just his speed and his
Speaker 1: quickness and cut ten towns. Like they said, how hard
Speaker 1: he's working in the office. I like players that like
Speaker 1: he's he's like in the film room all the time.
Speaker 1: They say they cannot get him out of the facility.
Speaker 1: So these things sometimes with the DNA of a good
Speaker 1: year tight end in defensive ender, I think are two
Speaker 1: of the hardest positions to make an impact as a rookie.
Speaker 1: So if you can make an impact like Henry did,
Speaker 1: like uh, like Spence did. Yeah, and he was playing
Speaker 1: with torn laborum, which he was able to do all
Speaker 1: of that and not be one. So when he's one hundred,
Speaker 1: I mean, he's going to be so much better. This
Speaker 1: might be the first time we're talking Bucks without the kicker.
Speaker 1: Kicker bad, Well, you just did mention the kicker anymore? Yeah, well,
Speaker 1: let's hear it. Let's hear it. Then we haven't heard
Speaker 1: an Aguayo update. The biggest cliffhanger since that one episode
Speaker 1: of Friends. When Rachel went to meet Ross at the
Speaker 1: airport after his work trip to China. It was stunned
Speaker 1: to see Ross cuddling up to his new squeeze Julie.
Speaker 1: It doesn't get old, ridiculous. It's okay. They are there
Speaker 1: for Hard Knocks. After being saddled you know, I'm sorry
Speaker 1: Amazon and NFL Films, But after being saddled with the
Speaker 1: rams for Hard Knocks and all or nothing back to back,
Speaker 1: I am excited for a little hard knocks. Tampa Bay
Speaker 1: Bucks they picked up. Yeah, especially with DeShawn there. I
Speaker 1: don't like having covered him in Philly. That's he'll be
Speaker 1: a good character. There's a lot to like. I mean,
Speaker 1: Mike Smith back in the mix. Wow, Yeah, hot to
Speaker 1: the touch. Al Right, Greggy another I do. I'm gonna
Speaker 1: go again with an entire defensive unit. Bend in the
Speaker 1: rules a little bit here, huh. I don't know, there's
Speaker 1: there there's no rules, there are no rules. I'm going
Speaker 1: with the Falcons defense. I know they were in the
Speaker 1: Super Bowl past, year, but that they're the reason they
Speaker 1: didn't win the Super Bowl last year. They weren't a
Speaker 1: good defense. We spent a lot of the Super Bowl
Speaker 1: week trying to bend over backwards saying, Okay, you know,
Speaker 1: dan Quinn's really getting his you know, mojo going, and
Speaker 1: they've they've improved, and it's it's like, no, they gave
Speaker 1: up a ton of yards, a ton of points. Yes,
Speaker 1: they did better, uh in the NFC playoffs, certainly against
Speaker 1: the Seahawks and Packers. But the reason they won those
Speaker 1: games were was offense. Offense, offense, and for the most
Speaker 1: part it was a problematic defense throughout the year. Yet
Speaker 1: I think they were so young and they had a
Speaker 1: lot of injuries. They didn't have Desmond Truffont, and I
Speaker 1: just like the mix of them, and I do like
Speaker 1: dan Quinn. I think it takes a while people don't
Speaker 1: think about it, to really get your own system going.
Speaker 1: This is dan Quinn's third year in Atlanta. These guys
Speaker 1: have now been with him in between Dion Jones and
Speaker 1: Kean O'Neil, and I really like Grady Jarrett upfront. You
Speaker 1: bring in don Terry po it's just Vic Beasley. You
Speaker 1: draft McKinley. It's just a lot of young pieces who
Speaker 1: I think have a lot of speed and they'll be
Speaker 1: helped out by that offense. And I think that defense,
Speaker 1: this team has so much room for improvement because the
Speaker 1: defense was not in the top twenty tow defenses in
Speaker 1: the league last year, and yet they were still that
Speaker 1: good as a team. The players that they have drafted
Speaker 1: under Bradley have they've developed quickly. Right, that's a great
Speaker 1: sign and right, and that's let's you know, it's the
Speaker 1: same system nineties something percent as Gus Bradley's and that
Speaker 1: wasn't happening in Jacksonville or Gus Bradley. So I think
Speaker 1: that that I think this is a great pick for
Speaker 1: that because they if what they if they can keep
Speaker 1: growing from where we saw in the playoffs into this
Speaker 1: season half season three quarters through h Yeah, dan Quinn,
Speaker 1: I think he's done a really good job just like
Speaker 1: grooming these guys. They're they're so young and they have
Speaker 1: so much talent, and there was a lot of rookies, right,
Speaker 1: I mean that they expected a lot out of to
Speaker 1: be on such a big stage with not a lot
Speaker 1: of experience and pretty deep in the secondary, like Robert
Speaker 1: Alford has a big contract. He was you know, injured
Speaker 1: as well. Jalen Collins, Like, it's just a group. I
Speaker 1: think they're kind of buffeted or I don't know what
Speaker 1: the word is, that they're not at that big of
Speaker 1: a risk of falling off because I think a buffer,
Speaker 1: have a buffer, even though the offense has got to
Speaker 1: fall backwards. I think the defense is naturally like they
Speaker 1: can't help but improve this year. Yeah, alright, so you went.
Speaker 1: You went double defense though, Okay, I'm going double Oh,
Speaker 1: I'm going. When was the last time we talked about
Speaker 1: the Colts on the show? A lot of Chris Ballard
Speaker 1: talk about the team. How about a little Dante Moncreef.
Speaker 1: I think he was probably on the list last year,
Speaker 1: and that makes that makes total sense because everybody was
Speaker 1: really high on him last year, and I think that we're, yeah,
Speaker 1: we're Oh, that makes me feel even better. So we were.
Speaker 1: I think we were all in agreement that the expectations
Speaker 1: for him were really high and that he was talented,
Speaker 1: but um he I think he would have made the
Speaker 1: leap if he didn't get hurt. Last year. He only
Speaker 1: had a three and seven yards, but he scored seven
Speaker 1: touchdowns in nine games hundred yards last year. Yeah, and
Speaker 1: two of those nine games he didn't even finish because
Speaker 1: he got hurt. So he scored in every single game
Speaker 1: that he finished when he was healthy. He's a super
Speaker 1: physical guy. He should be. Andrew Luck's probably favorite red
Speaker 1: zone target, so I would expect a lot of scores
Speaker 1: from him. And if Andrew luck shoulder is good, I
Speaker 1: think Dante Moncrief will be too. Yeah. I mean, you
Speaker 1: want to see the whole offense get back to what
Speaker 1: they were doing if if that's what's going to happen here,
Speaker 1: and I think they they've they've finally addressed the line
Speaker 1: to some degree, and if they can keep Luck healthy,
Speaker 1: then it's a huge arrow up for a guy like Moncrief.
Speaker 1: And he's only turning in August. He was a young
Speaker 1: player entering the league. So the fact that he's entering
Speaker 1: his fourth season and just turning, I'm with you. I
Speaker 1: think there's nothing that really should stop him from making
Speaker 1: that leap. It doesn't hurt to have the NFL's leading
Speaker 1: receiver on your team either, No, No, that can only
Speaker 1: help it away a little bit of attention, that's right,
Speaker 1: all right, So that's it for making the leap. Guys,
Speaker 1: when is your article coming out? I have a Steelers
Speaker 1: one up already thinking the leap, So they're coming out
Speaker 1: a couple couple of weeks, so you're not five of them.
Speaker 1: There's another Jaguars one coming out, so it's a full
Speaker 1: article for each leap candidates as a group. That's how
Speaker 1: we do it. That's how we used to do it,
Speaker 1: most of us. So Greg, does it now? Got me
Speaker 1: off that shore? Does anybody have July four plans? No?
Speaker 1: Not really? Its snuck up this time. I know. Figure
Speaker 1: it out, alright, not get arrested something. Let's let's uh,
Speaker 1: let's figure this out. Get arrested. That's a star. That's
Speaker 1: not get arrested by some firearms that are across the
Speaker 1: street from the NFL media fireworks, fireworks, go to the beach,
Speaker 1: some beer, get crazy. That sounds danger risk, but I'll
Speaker 1: like it four July. So let's do this all right,
Speaker 1: let's wrap it up. This has been great. When are
Speaker 1: we back again? Back again? Monday too, backing in with
Speaker 1: a fresh show? Thursday? Oh Thursday, that's right, and it's
Speaker 1: a surprise. Get excited, all right, everybody. Amount I'm spent
Speaker 1: that's it until next week.