Speaker 1: The Around the NFL Podcast. He's not the official voice
Speaker 1: of the Los Angeles Chargers. Why the hell am I
Speaker 1: doing this? Welcome back to another edition to the Around
Speaker 1: the NFL Podcast. My name is Dan Hansis and I
Speaker 1: am joined by Repe Belled with heroes Mark Sessler, Chris Westling,
Speaker 1: and Gregg Rosenthal. What's up? Boys? Hey? Dan? It does
Speaker 1: beg the question when we're gonna just utterly lose money.
Speaker 1: Who's now in NFL full time NFL broadcaster? Why drag?
Speaker 1: Why drag yourself up the cboard to this studio for
Speaker 1: free to record a bunch of nonsense. That's a question
Speaker 1: we've been asking ourselves of Matt money Smith for a
Speaker 1: long time actually, and now it's only becoming more apparent
Speaker 1: as he now um goes into his maiden voyage as
Speaker 1: the voice of the Chargers. So I like that. That
Speaker 1: was a good one. That was a good one. Uh
Speaker 1: This is the Round the NFL Podcast, presented by New
Speaker 1: Era UM. This is our first show after Chris Westling's
Speaker 1: dramatic um for on call Phoner and Wes. I imagine
Speaker 1: there was a nice bit of uh an outpouring of
Speaker 1: support after a Friday's show wasn't there. There was. Indeed,
Speaker 1: I wanted to thank our Reddit board, all the people
Speaker 1: on Twitter. I was flooded with all kinds of congratulatory messages,
Speaker 1: a lot heartfelt messages. It was. It's good to hear.
Speaker 1: I've probably got a little too much credit for how
Speaker 1: strong I've been. Um, I don't think when you're fighting
Speaker 1: cancer some people it's not like you choose to be
Speaker 1: stronger week Like, some days you feel strong and you
Speaker 1: can take on the world, and some days you're like,
Speaker 1: all right, let the drugs and the doctors take over
Speaker 1: and let them handle it. I probably publicly have not
Speaker 1: said how much of a struggle has been. It's been
Speaker 1: a little nonchalant on the podcast, but it's been a
Speaker 1: struggle and it's not inevitable that you're gonna win against cancer. Yeah,
Speaker 1: I mean, West has been amazing through this whole process.
Speaker 1: We haven't you know, the show's West has not been here.
Speaker 1: We have not obviously been giving a daily update, but
Speaker 1: you can understand, Uh, West has been in the fight
Speaker 1: of his life life and it's one that he's winning,
Speaker 1: which is why Friday's podcast was so special. And by
Speaker 1: the way, West, Uh, and you're aware of this and
Speaker 1: maybe some of the listeners, but not everyone. You got
Speaker 1: your first celebrity well wish uh over the weekend. Uh
Speaker 1: my buddy Bob who has been on the show before,
Speaker 1: and I do the throwback podcast with him. Um, humble humble. Uh.
Speaker 1: He is shooting something right now that included a guest
Speaker 1: starring spot from the great Dr J. Julius Irving, uh,
Speaker 1: the Hall of Famer of the NBA. Let's listen to
Speaker 1: what Julius had to say. Dr J. Here, I know
Speaker 1: you've been battling the Big Sea and then you've got
Speaker 1: good moves. So I'm really happy to hear about that.
Speaker 1: So I feel good for you. Combs up and take care. UM.
Speaker 1: Shout out to Dr J too, because he uh, Bob
Speaker 1: mentioned it to him when they were the beginning of
Speaker 1: their shoot, and then after they were done, it was
Speaker 1: Dr J himself that said, oh, you want to do
Speaker 1: that thing that you talked about. So that's that's always good.
Speaker 1: That's like a reverse laud reveal magnifico. Yeah. I think
Speaker 1: Dr J for a long time has been known as
Speaker 1: one of the classiest athletes out there. Yeah, I mean
Speaker 1: you you mentioned kind of not letting the listeners know
Speaker 1: all the tough I mean, even in this celebratory weekend,
Speaker 1: and I think I probably I'm not gonna speak for
Speaker 1: the other guy. The news it almost didn't hit me.
Speaker 1: Like listening to it on the podcast, I almost blanked
Speaker 1: out and it was like a very I mean, it
Speaker 1: was surreal. It's sort of started hitting me. And you
Speaker 1: mentioned that the news really started hitting you a few
Speaker 1: hours later, maybe when some of the medicine were out
Speaker 1: and in same with with me and as heart of
Speaker 1: a battle. It's been for us like you ended up
Speaker 1: having a fever and kind of been knocked out. It's
Speaker 1: not like you were out there celebrating all week and
Speaker 1: you you basically couldn't couldn't eat for well, the hardest
Speaker 1: part has been getting esophagitis from the radiation and not
Speaker 1: being able to eat or drink for a good five
Speaker 1: or six week period, losing forty something pounds. The second
Speaker 1: hardest part has been mentally that for very step forward,
Speaker 1: you think you can find a pattern or you think
Speaker 1: that you're going to proceed forward in a positive way,
Speaker 1: and three or four hurdles pop up and you take
Speaker 1: two steps back. And I think that's true for a
Speaker 1: lot of people. Who have cancer. Um one note by
Speaker 1: the way there, I I will say there's at least
Speaker 1: four to five people that have contacted uh myself and us.
Speaker 1: They would love to wish you well. They've been blocked
Speaker 1: by you on Twitter, but they do messages. Can you
Speaker 1: tell West that we're happy? V can't everybody blocked me?
Speaker 1: That is also that's another reverse lab Raville macnefico, a
Speaker 1: double reverse. Yes, it is blocked. You still have the
Speaker 1: decency as a human to wish you well. That's out there.
Speaker 1: That's a sentiment as well. That that makes me feel good.
Speaker 1: We should we should go back and find those they
Speaker 1: should be out blocked these people. Yeah, I don't know.
Speaker 1: West has a tough you know, you've gotta you've gotta
Speaker 1: you've gotta climb back in if you've been blocked. I'm
Speaker 1: not sure that does it? Does that do it? It
Speaker 1: kind of depends what moodham in that day. But there's
Speaker 1: a lot of times I'll just throw open, you know,
Speaker 1: throw up in the gates to anyone who just said,
Speaker 1: let me back in. Maybe Big C is not worthy
Speaker 1: of it. Maybe if you have to like overcome like
Speaker 1: typhoid fever or something, and they wish you well, although
Speaker 1: Big c is probably bigger than Typhoid Feure save for
Speaker 1: the Typhoid Fever podcast. Is what I say, big show
Speaker 1: coming up today including uh yeah, some kicker talk, a
Speaker 1: kicker story comes to an end and then has a
Speaker 1: new beginning. And I think you know what I'm talking
Speaker 1: about if you're regular listener of this show. Uh and
Speaker 1: then we have we went through the Thursday and Friday
Speaker 1: games on our last podcast of week one of the preseason,
Speaker 1: and west buckle up because there's eight more preseason games
Speaker 1: to touch on later in today's show. And this is
Speaker 1: your last show for for a little bit at least,
Speaker 1: because your surgery is coming up this week. So what
Speaker 1: better way to send you off than eight games of
Speaker 1: high octane preseason actions. I found, Uh yeah, I found
Speaker 1: a bit of a cheat around these preseason games. I
Speaker 1: don't have to watch the whole thing, just watch them
Speaker 1: on game past, the condensed version, all in a row
Speaker 1: and love it. How fun? How fun to watch all
Speaker 1: life should be on a condensed pass. That's that's that's
Speaker 1: realize right now, all right here we go behind the glass.
Speaker 1: By the way, Uh, there was a some type of
Speaker 1: ceremonial headset transfer on Friday show, but we were so
Speaker 1: busy we didn't really get to dig into it. But
Speaker 1: now behind the glass her name is Erica Tempose Tom
Speaker 1: Possi temposey nailed it. Uh, and she Erica has been
Speaker 1: here for a few weeks now and a very capable
Speaker 1: young woman, I find but we're about to find out
Speaker 1: because now now the pressure has turned up. Your thoughts
Speaker 1: so far, No, there's no thoughts. That's good. That's that
Speaker 1: means it's hyper focused about what's in front of her.
Speaker 1: So Erica, welcome aboard. Let's do some news alright, folks
Speaker 1: could have Erica on board. And so, by the way,
Speaker 1: well executed code over Sully. Yeah, it has just been
Speaker 1: shredded and scattered by the side of the road by Erica. Yeah,
Speaker 1: let's be honest. So Sully probably celebrated all weekend. He
Speaker 1: gets to go back to his little podcast and no
Speaker 1: longer does he have to deal with two shows and
Speaker 1: and Sully a shout out to Sully because he did
Speaker 1: get put in a tough position having a deal with
Speaker 1: two shows. And uh, we will miss you in the studio, Sully.
Speaker 1: I'm sure you'll probably resurface as you always do at
Speaker 1: some point, but thank you for your help, uh during
Speaker 1: our transition process at some point like like a fun
Speaker 1: gus every spring Godzilla. Um, all right, here we go.
Speaker 1: Let's start with yep, let's talk about Robbi Iguayou forty
Speaker 1: seven yeard attempt kick his up he pushed it. Wow.
Speaker 1: He just does not look smooth when he's kicking the fall.
Speaker 1: All right. That was the final kick of Roberto Wio's
Speaker 1: career with the Tampa Bay Buccaneers. The battle between Nick
Speaker 1: Folk and Robbi Aguayo was over because the Tampa Bay
Speaker 1: Bucks after Aguya missed that kick and an extra point
Speaker 1: uh in the preseason affair against the Cincinnati Bengals. UH,
Speaker 1: they waived the second round pick the former second round pick,
Speaker 1: which obviously marks the end of what is a very
Speaker 1: embarrassing saga. A tough situation obviously for the kicker, but
Speaker 1: an embarrassing situation for the Bucks who traded up to
Speaker 1: get Aguayo thought they were getting a guy that was
Speaker 1: going to be a solution there for many years, and
Speaker 1: he didn't even make it to his second season. UM.
Speaker 1: Shortly after that, after his his cut, he was claimed
Speaker 1: on waivers by the Chicago Bears. Who Uh, well, it
Speaker 1: looks like we might have another kicker battle in our hands, folks,
Speaker 1: Aguayo Bars. Actually, you know what, I just can't. I'm
Speaker 1: not doing this anymore. Yeah. So Connor Bart, the guy
Speaker 1: that got cut when Robbi Aguayo got drafted, is now
Speaker 1: competing with Robby Iguire with the Bears. But for me,
Speaker 1: in terms of and obviously old Jus has been tracking
Speaker 1: this very closely, it ceases to be a wildly fascinating
Speaker 1: subplots me now that he's no longer associated with the
Speaker 1: team that had so much stock in him. Uh your
Speaker 1: thoughts West? First of all, why were you laughing the
Speaker 1: third person usage? There was a weird situation to go
Speaker 1: third person. I like it, Uh my thought. I can't
Speaker 1: believe it's been almost a year. We were going through
Speaker 1: this before. In his second week of the preseason. There's
Speaker 1: a rookie. That's how early his struggle started. Uh. And
Speaker 1: to me, I was surprised that they didn't give him
Speaker 1: more more belief. You know when I I heard this
Speaker 1: before I watched the game. That I watched the game,
Speaker 1: it was like, oh, he kicked one off the upright,
Speaker 1: the other one barely missed. I don't know it. One
Speaker 1: was an extra point right, he kicked with the extra
Speaker 1: point off the upright. The other one barely missed. It
Speaker 1: didn't seem like he embarrassed himself. I think part of
Speaker 1: the issue is that if you're the general manager Jay's
Speaker 1: and Light, you've probably been hearing about this NonStop, and
Speaker 1: and I wonder the presence of hard knocks and this
Speaker 1: young person's career in the whole situation it's meant for
Speaker 1: the Tampa Bay. Do you did they cut Bait a
Speaker 1: week or two earlier than they might have if there
Speaker 1: wasn't this intense media focus on them. Yeah, maybe it's
Speaker 1: not even all hard knocks. But I think that's right
Speaker 1: that he was a long shot to win this job
Speaker 1: they were starting to see because Nick folks had set
Speaker 1: thousand guaranteed anyway, So I think Oguio entered this camp
Speaker 1: as a sizeable underdog, and then you see him make
Speaker 1: a couple of mistakes like that, and just the attention
Speaker 1: that's like, let's it's almost like a mercy killing early
Speaker 1: in a in a episode or a television series season,
Speaker 1: like let's get rid of Oguyo now before like let's
Speaker 1: not drag it out with this poor guy. And in
Speaker 1: an interview with Monday Morning, quarterback Peter King spoke with
Speaker 1: the GM Jason Light, who's the one that has the
Speaker 1: most egg on his face over this first of all
Speaker 1: NFL Films got the whole scene of the release. It
Speaker 1: will be on some our night's episode. Here's what Light
Speaker 1: had to say. You never feel good when you shatter
Speaker 1: someone's dream. That is always tough, especially someone you had
Speaker 1: such high hopes for. You don't have good feelings about that.
Speaker 1: It's a little bit of a sense of I don't
Speaker 1: want to say relief, but we've ripped off the band
Speaker 1: aid and we move on. We're moving forward. I think
Speaker 1: a couple of things was, yeah, he just it was
Speaker 1: just two kicks, but he actually not not a kicking expert.
Speaker 1: But the fact that he just looks stiff. He didn't
Speaker 1: look natural. You could tell the moment was still pressing
Speaker 1: on him. And if I was Jason Lytton, I was
Speaker 1: the Bucks and Dirk Cutter, You're thinking yourself, it's this
Speaker 1: kid is still not right in the head. And if
Speaker 1: I forget about the mccanics, this is still something he's
Speaker 1: dealing with. We gotta move forward. We can't continue this
Speaker 1: because it was turning into a soap opera. That's part
Speaker 1: of the reason we're having fun with it. But it
Speaker 1: was really something I was weighing on the team. Well, yeah,
Speaker 1: it's it's starts in your head and then then it
Speaker 1: affects your fundamentals, so that that's what happens. But it's
Speaker 1: also outside of the quarterback. The coach loses confidence in
Speaker 1: the kicker quicker than any other position on the field.
Speaker 1: It's not like you need to even review the game film.
Speaker 1: You can tell when a kickers messing up just there
Speaker 1: on the film. I mean, I I just wonder if
Speaker 1: you're let's say Aldrick Rosas out there and you're in
Speaker 1: the middle of a fiery kicker battle with Mike Nugent
Speaker 1: and you're thinking, what about me, us, I'm kicking with
Speaker 1: a former Jets legend against him. I'm in MetLife Stadium.
Speaker 1: That's pretty spicy. Or maybe you're Randy Bullock, who used
Speaker 1: to have a nickname on this podcast, Big One. Randy.
Speaker 1: You're in the middle of a war with Jake Elliott
Speaker 1: and you're thinking why why all the why? All the
Speaker 1: pub from the zeuser Very simple, very simple it did
Speaker 1: not have the elements of Greek tragedy. Like Robbie, don't
Speaker 1: overdraft these kickers. You you mess with him when you
Speaker 1: do that. Absolutely all right, moving on, Good luck Robbie.
Speaker 1: By the way, Robbie eleven for eleven in his first
Speaker 1: Bears practice. It shouldn't surprise anyone if he has a
Speaker 1: successful NFL career now that he's away from the spotlight
Speaker 1: a little bit. It's pretty typical that kickers that do
Speaker 1: have long careers often bounce around. Nick Folk is one
Speaker 1: that comes to mind that's had a great career that
Speaker 1: bounced arount very early, the last second round pick for
Speaker 1: a kicker. Uh, let's move on and talk about the
Speaker 1: Indianapolis call. It's Andrew Luck. It's one of the great
Speaker 1: mysteries of NFL summer. When will Andrew Luck be back
Speaker 1: on the field. Will he be ready for the start
Speaker 1: of the regular season. Will we start the regular season
Speaker 1: on the pup list, which is where he is right now? Uh?
Speaker 1: In terms of training camp, they're hoping to avoid that.
Speaker 1: There everything is trending towards him not starting the season
Speaker 1: on the publist. But at the same time, Jim Ursey
Speaker 1: was asked, um uh, this vas CBS four in Indianapolis.
Speaker 1: Uh if he would be ready for the regular season
Speaker 1: opener against the Los Angeles Rams, and ursay did not
Speaker 1: come down with anything definitive. You know, I can't say
Speaker 1: I I can't say that unequivocally he'll be ready for
Speaker 1: the RAM game. But I can say I feel very
Speaker 1: confident that he'll be ready just start the season. Now
Speaker 1: that may not be the RAM game, but to start
Speaker 1: the season. Yes, But well that that put my head
Speaker 1: into a child game. His Week one for Claire. I
Speaker 1: think it might have been he was just he was
Speaker 1: not using his words. Well there, he'll be ready at
Speaker 1: some point in the season. Is that what he's gotting out?
Speaker 1: He's obviously not gonna be ready for the start of
Speaker 1: the season. If he's not ready for the Rams game,
Speaker 1: the game, maybe he's viewing the start of the season
Speaker 1: as a multi game like September. Maybe it's September because
Speaker 1: that that that jives with what Ian Rappaport reported that
Speaker 1: it will be maybe week one, maybe week to something
Speaker 1: like that. I mean, by the way, we'll get to
Speaker 1: Scott to I was gonna say, yeah, okay, we will.
Speaker 1: You cannot wrote right into the battle in the ANFC
Speaker 1: South with with what they have at quarterback behind Luck,
Speaker 1: I don't care how you define start of the season.
Speaker 1: I gotta get somebody else in there well, or say.
Speaker 1: The most interesting thing he said was that they did
Speaker 1: look at kind of a veteran quarterback to bring in,
Speaker 1: but they said it was too much money. And I
Speaker 1: was thinking of who is that. Wouldn't it be fantasic?
Speaker 1: I was thinking maybe it was J Cutler because he
Speaker 1: has a little bit of a I believe a history
Speaker 1: with some of the coaches there, and so now it
Speaker 1: makes sense that he was too much money. I'd love
Speaker 1: to see Andrew Luck backed up by Robert Griffin to
Speaker 1: bring that draft class back to a full head. I
Speaker 1: also love to see Jim Marsay give up like a
Speaker 1: first round pick for J. Cutler. It's like a total panic. Yeah,
Speaker 1: like just the just the Dolphins clean up off this
Speaker 1: J Cutler signing. We'll see what happens. But Andrew Luck,
Speaker 1: we'll be ready for the start of the season, but
Speaker 1: may not be ready for Week one. That's a takeaway there.
Speaker 1: Other quarterback news, one person you will not see at
Speaker 1: all in the preseason is you know what I got
Speaker 1: to go into the Ravens Nest top end, always a
Speaker 1: bad place in terms of news. It seems uh here
Speaker 1: in the Ravens Nest Joe Flacco will not play, uh
Speaker 1: in a preseason game this year. Flacco, this is not
Speaker 1: no fluco. He will return to practice in the preseason,
Speaker 1: but he's not expected to play in the games the
Speaker 1: ray And announced in a statement. Um The Baltimore Ravens
Speaker 1: also announced the plan is for Flacco to be the
Speaker 1: Week one starting quarterback on September ten against the Cincinnati Bengals.
Speaker 1: Of course, uh, Mark Sessler Flacco dealing with a back injury.
Speaker 1: This is a little bit of a murky situation too.
Speaker 1: I feel like back injuries are always massively unpredictable, and
Speaker 1: I wouldn't put Flacco out there in the preseason. At
Speaker 1: the same time, I mean, this was meant that has
Speaker 1: always been been harped on. Is not an issue, not
Speaker 1: a big deal, going to be back right out there,
Speaker 1: and it's an extending timeline now. They Jim Harbaugh literally
Speaker 1: said Joe Flacco will definitely play during the season preseason
Speaker 1: on August one, and now he's not. They also publicly
Speaker 1: went out of their way to discredit Ian Rappaport's timeline
Speaker 1: of three to six weeks for his back injury. When
Speaker 1: they did that, and some other national reporters did too,
Speaker 1: that was three weeks ago. Joe Flacco is not back
Speaker 1: on the field, and it sounds like he will be.
Speaker 1: They believe he'll be practicing at some point in the preseason.
Speaker 1: But ian Ian proved to be a right and everything
Speaker 1: that they've said so far has proven to be a lie.
Speaker 1: And they did add another quarterback, by the way, not
Speaker 1: Colin Kaepernick, but they dumped Dustin Vaughan and added a
Speaker 1: journeyman Thad Lewis to the mix. So there's another new
Speaker 1: quarterback there, but maybe not the one that people are expecting. Yeah,
Speaker 1: they've got a problem at quarterback. And you know, one
Speaker 1: of my takeaways from the first week of the preseason
Speaker 1: is that coaches always want a backup quarterback who knows
Speaker 1: the system and can help the starter. In the quarterback room,
Speaker 1: they place a we know that just from following football.
Speaker 1: They place a high priority on it. Bruce Arians really
Speaker 1: drives that point home in his new book, The Quarterback Whisper.
Speaker 1: But at what point is that familiarity and comfortability with
Speaker 1: your backup quarterback not worth it. At what point are
Speaker 1: you costing your team because you're underrating how how valuable
Speaker 1: quarterback insurance is. We saw it with Ryan Mallett. You
Speaker 1: could see it, the Cowboys with Kellen Moore, the Bills
Speaker 1: with t J. Yates, the Titans with Matt Castle. These
Speaker 1: guys are not good enough to be backup quarterbacks. Mal
Speaker 1: is just so not smoothed, like whatever. The opposite of
Speaker 1: poised is like that that right that Brenne, that's Ryan
Speaker 1: Mallet and he misses throws. And the Ravens they've had
Speaker 1: the roughest preseason easily. They also lost a starting guard,
Speaker 1: Alex Lewis for the season. Uh since we last talked,
Speaker 1: So that's their third offensive lineman that was a potential
Speaker 1: starter lost for the season. Since June one, Dan Hansis,
Speaker 1: they have lost nine players for the season to suspension
Speaker 1: or injury. Man, I tell you, it's a hard knocks
Speaker 1: life here in the Ravens Nest. It's a shame because
Speaker 1: I really loved what I saw out of their first
Speaker 1: team defense the other night. They swarmed to the ball,
Speaker 1: and they've got so many injuries on the offensive side
Speaker 1: of the ball that I think that they're gonna be
Speaker 1: undone by that. Moving on, the inevitable is our reality.
Speaker 1: Ryan Tannehill will not play a snap in two thousand seventeen.
Speaker 1: The Dolphins quarterback. Uh, we'll undergo uh surgery to repair
Speaker 1: that a c L tear in his left knee, rap
Speaker 1: Sheet reported on Friday. Miami Herald first had it. Miami
Speaker 1: placed Tannehill on injured reserve on Saturday morning. Surgery scheduled
Speaker 1: for next week. If everything goes to plan, he should
Speaker 1: be ready for um, you know, summer activities, maybe even
Speaker 1: spring activities next year. Uh. We don't know if that
Speaker 1: will be with the Dolphins, but that's something to study
Speaker 1: down the line. So it is now, Jay Cutler moving forward, Greg,
Speaker 1: here we go. It should be fun and and for
Speaker 1: Ryan Ryan Tanneill should be fun for me at least
Speaker 1: watching Jay Cutler. And for Ryan Tannehill, he's reportedly been
Speaker 1: very helpful with Jake Cutler and and all that. But
Speaker 1: there has to be part of in thinking, well, if
Speaker 1: this team goes to the playoffs, is this my team?
Speaker 1: Because I don't know, I don't know if it will
Speaker 1: be any It's like he would be very tradeable though
Speaker 1: as as valuable as quarterbacks are in this league, like
Speaker 1: if if they didn't want him next year, they could
Speaker 1: trade him. It's not the Teddy Bridgewater scenario in terms
Speaker 1: of the grizzly nature of the injury or the or
Speaker 1: the cloudy future. But it does show you that, you know,
Speaker 1: two weeks ago, Ryan Tannehill was a guy you thought, well,
Speaker 1: he and Gaze could ride this out for another three
Speaker 1: or four years potentially, And now you have no idea
Speaker 1: who's going to be the quarterback next next year's Week one.
Speaker 1: I also wondered behind the scenes where Ryan Tannehill's at
Speaker 1: with how this was all handled. Uh. Maybe he was
Speaker 1: as aggressive as anyone else trying to rehab and move forward.
Speaker 1: Or maybe there's some bitterness between the two sides about
Speaker 1: how this played out, costing the season of his prime.
Speaker 1: In any event, Uh uh, this will be now a
Speaker 1: major test in the Tannehill Miami relations. I don't take
Speaker 1: him to be a bitter man. If you recall I
Speaker 1: once utterly crushed his wife's purse under my shoe, and
Speaker 1: he and his wife handled it very with poise, as
Speaker 1: Greg would say. For a couple of years when we
Speaker 1: were under the boss on the management structure. We covered
Speaker 1: the the Honors NFL Honors red carpet the night before
Speaker 1: the Super Bowl. By far, my least favorite assignment to
Speaker 1: ever have to work, because you would all these guys
Speaker 1: would be bringing their wives and girlfriends and have their
Speaker 1: favorite suit that they just bought for like thirty dollars,
Speaker 1: and they'd be parading around their their lady and it's
Speaker 1: just this whole fun scene. And then we're like, do
Speaker 1: you think it'll be a salary camp casual? Thank some
Speaker 1: CAPRONI asking a totally vanilla question. Excuse me, why do
Speaker 1: you think about the draft of prospects that could endanger
Speaker 1: your starting job next spring? It's like what I once
Speaker 1: waited forty five minutes with Ryan, with Russell Wilson and
Speaker 1: his agent and one of these events to try to
Speaker 1: get some sort of post up before leaving. Got the interview,
Speaker 1: a nice three minute long interview, a lot of information.
Speaker 1: Look down, I'd never turned the recorder on. God, what
Speaker 1: am I doing here? Because that's what everyone was looking
Speaker 1: for the night before the Super Bowl, the right up
Speaker 1: of whatever is going to come out of that heat
Speaker 1: seeking interview. Um those days are over, hopefully, UM, Greg,
Speaker 1: we were you were just doing your job as the
Speaker 1: ball Well, actually it was pretty correct. Yeah, you had
Speaker 1: that job before I came along, and eventually you got
Speaker 1: out of it while I still wasn't charged. By the way,
Speaker 1: I'm still going to NFL honors. Granted I'm not going
Speaker 1: on the red carpet, but my goal never go. I
Speaker 1: think you're going to achieve that. Um. Finally in the news,
Speaker 1: Jordan Matthews. You know this is so Buffalo. Uh. They
Speaker 1: trade Sammy Watkins to l A. H. In a corresponding move,
Speaker 1: they trade for Jordan Matthews to become their number one
Speaker 1: wide receiver, and almost immediately the guy exits the picture.
Speaker 1: I don't know for how long, but Matthew sustained a
Speaker 1: chip fracture. That doesn't sound good in a stern um.
Speaker 1: How do you chip your stern um? The hell's going
Speaker 1: on around here with the old human body? Uh. During
Speaker 1: his first practice with the club. According to an official
Speaker 1: statement made by the Bills, he is listed as week
Speaker 1: to week. And I don't have to tell you guys
Speaker 1: that when you are traded uh deep into training camp
Speaker 1: and they are expecting you to have a major role
Speaker 1: on the team and you need to get reps and
Speaker 1: you need to get in to the mix, and your
Speaker 1: first practice you break your chest. That's not good, not
Speaker 1: good at all. If fortunately they have a really deep
Speaker 1: depth chart at slot receiver, they just don't have any
Speaker 1: outside receivers. They there and you never know. Some Sometimes
Speaker 1: the consistent reports that like one side of the ball
Speaker 1: just isn't working, it proves it's not that big a deal.
Speaker 1: The Bills, though, since basically the first day of training camp,
Speaker 1: the reporters there have said how much the offense is struggled,
Speaker 1: the Tyra Taylor's struggling, and they're just it's not clicking yet.
Speaker 1: I think this also points out one of the things
Speaker 1: Brandon being their GM, noticed about the roster when he
Speaker 1: took over. It's incredibly shallow and if if a few
Speaker 1: players go down, they are one of the worst teams
Speaker 1: in the NFL. That's what's happening in the news. Let's
Speaker 1: talk about New Era Madron. New Era's NFL Training Collection
Speaker 1: has a great combination of innovative performance and style, but
Speaker 1: features like UV protection, moisture wicking, and cooling technology. There's
Speaker 1: no reason you shouldn't make the New Era NFL Training
Speaker 1: Collection eight part of your daily attire. It's available in
Speaker 1: retailers like lids, NFL shop dot Com and Dick's Sporting
Speaker 1: Goods in your favorite team. All right, now, a lot
Speaker 1: of preseason games played, thirty two teams, everybody played, thirty
Speaker 1: two good back two sixteen games talked about eight Thursday
Speaker 1: and Friday. Eight more to go. So let's go, right,
Speaker 1: did I have that right? Everything? Check out sounds right
Speaker 1: to mailed it nailed it. So let's go down the
Speaker 1: list and uh again, we're not going to dive into
Speaker 1: although I personally will be tracking the preseason standings fairly
Speaker 1: closely to see who will rise above all by the
Speaker 1: time the dust clears in the first week of September,
Speaker 1: for the rest of the people that listen to this
Speaker 1: podcast and in this room, I know it's more important
Speaker 1: to just to have um kind of takeaways from the games.
Speaker 1: So we'll try to marry that. We'll try to balance
Speaker 1: out what what some people want to know about the
Speaker 1: precinct games, what people like me want to know about
Speaker 1: who won and who lost, and what does it mean
Speaker 1: who's on the hot seat, things like that. Um, let's start, Uh, well,
Speaker 1: let's start. I'm gonna go right kind of through it.
Speaker 1: We'll start with Pittsburgh and New York Giants. Not not
Speaker 1: the the sauciest game, but West is nodding his head.
Speaker 1: He's got to take about the Steelers at the Giants.
Speaker 1: Go ahead, West, get his going. This was one of
Speaker 1: my favorite games to watch. I think the Steelership play
Speaker 1: the Giants every year. I thought their game last year
Speaker 1: in the regular season was fun to watch too. T J. Wat.
Speaker 1: I heard Greg talking before the show that if you
Speaker 1: just look at the two sacks, maybe you're not then
Speaker 1: impressed with him. I thought the second sack when the
Speaker 1: left tackle missed the block, was still very impressive. His
Speaker 1: change of direction. A lot of a lot of pass
Speaker 1: rushers missed the quarterback on that, he got to him quickly,
Speaker 1: threw him down violently. And if you watch the rest
Speaker 1: of that game, t J. What was living in the
Speaker 1: backfield hitting quarterbacks More than the sacks. He hit the
Speaker 1: quarterback a couple more times, knockdown the pass. He's the
Speaker 1: real deal. He's gonna be an every down player, the
Speaker 1: pitt Pittsburgh Post Gazette said today, and James Harrison is
Speaker 1: gonna be a relief pitcher. But I think t J.
Speaker 1: Watt made more plays in his first preseason game than
Speaker 1: Jarvis Jones made him four years in Pittsburgh. There was Wow,
Speaker 1: there was a play for all Jarvis, sorry double j.
Speaker 1: There was a play. The two sacks are obviously impressive,
Speaker 1: and that's what people are gonna pay attention to. There
Speaker 1: was another play in the first half where he did
Speaker 1: the J. J. Watt thing where he chased down a
Speaker 1: ball carrier on the far side of the field and
Speaker 1: actually made the tackle near the sideline. Uh. He just
Speaker 1: he just and he also has Now we're not gonna
Speaker 1: say he's gonna be J. J. Watt, but he had
Speaker 1: to me like, you reminded me of the way his
Speaker 1: gate and the way he was. He looks like his brother,
Speaker 1: Like how your brother and you would have similar mannerisms. Uh,
Speaker 1: looks like we got a winner there, I thought, outside
Speaker 1: of Mitchell Drabinsky, he was the second most impressive person
Speaker 1: I saw a weekend. That's too early to get riled up.
Speaker 1: It would be wild if the NFL criminally undrafted a
Speaker 1: second watch brother. I mean, if you watch that game,
Speaker 1: he under drafted issues. He looks like the real deal,
Speaker 1: Like he's gonna step in day one as a three
Speaker 1: down starter, not the real deal, Geno Smith. I don't
Speaker 1: think we need to dig any deeper. How dare you
Speaker 1: I saw I saw? Did you tweeted something like he'll
Speaker 1: he'll give up? Or you texted I am done with that.
Speaker 1: You'll you'll give up on being a Gino fan after this,
Speaker 1: after he watches this one. First of all, this was
Speaker 1: a classic Geno game. A couple of great throws. Are
Speaker 1: you a fan of classic Geno? That's a couple, and
Speaker 1: then one head scratcher scratching through a second interception that
Speaker 1: got waved up there the one. The one thing he's
Speaker 1: got going for him is he's going up against Josh Johnson,
Speaker 1: who might have had the worst three series of any quarterback.
Speaker 1: Uh and reportedly he's winning that battle well. And he
Speaker 1: like got miss games and the Giants. I mean, you know,
Speaker 1: I know what the fall off is between Eli and
Speaker 1: Geno Smith at this point. You're right, it was the
Speaker 1: perfect Geno game because he comes out there and right
Speaker 1: away you see the difference between him and Josh Johnson
Speaker 1: because he can pass and he's out there peacocking around.
Speaker 1: There's a bounce in his staff. He's throwing these play
Speaker 1: fakes with a little bit of flur a little bit
Speaker 1: of flour and flourish, and you're like, look at Geno's confidence,
Speaker 1: and then he throws a brainless interception. It takes a
Speaker 1: few sacks, just unravels in front of you, and you're like,
Speaker 1: maybe he's not the perfect backup quarterback. After that's when
Speaker 1: I texted you, Greg, I don't miss him. I can
Speaker 1: tell you that. And also it did flash through my mind,
Speaker 1: not that it would ever happened. I don't and I
Speaker 1: don't want to step on something an announcement you're gonna
Speaker 1: make later, Mark, But there is a scenario just because
Speaker 1: it could play out because he's on the team. If
Speaker 1: Geno Smith ever led the Giants to a Super Bowl title,
Speaker 1: that would be my sports fan nine level, that is,
Speaker 1: that would be for you, a horrendous, you know occurrence.
Speaker 1: Moving on, Oh, by the way, before we move on,
Speaker 1: Chris Boswell hit a thirty seven yard field go to
Speaker 1: put the Steelers ahead eight and then Terrell Watson at
Speaker 1: a fifteen yard run to ice the game a twenty
Speaker 1: to twelve Pittsburgh win. Off to a nice one or
Speaker 1: start and a road win, which is always important to
Speaker 1: get shows of the team as mental fortitude. Moving on,
Speaker 1: the Tampa Bay Buccaneers went to Cincinnati and uh, Mark,
Speaker 1: you are all excited about Joe Mixon. Well, I I
Speaker 1: do think that number one. When you talk about Trabisky,
Speaker 1: you talk about what those two debuts, you couldn't have
Speaker 1: asked for anymore. Joe Mixon to me, who really didn't
Speaker 1: play nearly as long as as those guys did. This
Speaker 1: is special running back and I understand the circumstances of
Speaker 1: why he was someone who fell in the draft steeply,
Speaker 1: but he's a top five draft talent this year's class,
Speaker 1: no question about it. I thought watching him a there
Speaker 1: were two plays that stuck out in my mind. One
Speaker 1: where he caught the ball out of the backfield and
Speaker 1: three Tampa Bay defenders were just flicked off him until
Speaker 1: the fourth finally brought him down. I mean, he's a
Speaker 1: natural pass catcher who is going to be an incredibly
Speaker 1: amazing element to that offensive. Second thing, when he ran
Speaker 1: the ball at one point hand off, he had a
Speaker 1: little bit of a levy on bell type patients where
Speaker 1: he saw what was ahead of him and then the
Speaker 1: speed came and he darted right through the defense. I
Speaker 1: think this guy is someone that you could even think
Speaker 1: about trading away Hill if you needed to, if someone
Speaker 1: gotten real deep, deep trouble at running back. This guy
Speaker 1: is an immediate Week one starter. Yeah, fair warning for
Speaker 1: the listeners. Every time we talk about Joe Mixon throughout
Speaker 1: the season, we are not gonna in the domestic violence
Speaker 1: element and address that before we talk about the football
Speaker 1: part of right, because and we've already done this a
Speaker 1: few times. I mean, he he looks about as talented
Speaker 1: as any running back I think that's come into the
Speaker 1: league in the last handful of years. It just it
Speaker 1: just leaps off the page in college and he looked
Speaker 1: like the same guy. Um, and I'm gonna say, you know,
Speaker 1: Andy Dalton's final pass of the game was not a
Speaker 1: good one, his interception, but right before that interception and
Speaker 1: Jeremy Hill was running well on the first drive, and
Speaker 1: then we saw obviously the stuff from mixing and then
Speaker 1: you factor in a j green and healthy Tyler rightfor
Speaker 1: I'm I'm kind of sneaky in on the Cincinnati Bengals
Speaker 1: and watching that game, I was getting a little pumped
Speaker 1: up about their prospects, especially if the Ravens continue to
Speaker 1: have the fortune of like essentially twelve twelve dead people.
Speaker 1: John Ross practiced fully for the first time on Monday,
Speaker 1: So that's a good sign for them. They're dead people
Speaker 1: have poor was my thought was coming to an end.
Speaker 1: I had to get out of there. That offensive line
Speaker 1: needs a real test before I'm buying in. How depressing
Speaker 1: is it um for me that I was genuinely wistful
Speaker 1: when Ryan Fitzpatrick scrambled into the end zone for a
Speaker 1: touchdown in the second half of this game. Well, I
Speaker 1: think the Bucks are are wistful of their quarterback situation
Speaker 1: before this game, because Ryan Griffin got hurt and reportedly
Speaker 1: Ryan Fitzpatrick, who who I should take it back, maybe
Speaker 1: had a worse three drive stretch than Josh Johnson did.
Speaker 1: Was kind of embarrassing. You know how to stop it? Oh? No,
Speaker 1: I mean he had an embarrassing stretch of decisions and
Speaker 1: fumbles and sacks. They were talking about Ryan Fitzpatrick in
Speaker 1: that game. Did we watch the same game and then
Speaker 1: adown drive? Yeah, early, and then he don't think he
Speaker 1: was well had a rough, rough stretch. He was reportedly
Speaker 1: losing this battle to Ryan Griffin. That Ryan Griffin was
Speaker 1: the favorite and they're the local reporters thought Fitzpatrick might
Speaker 1: not make the team, but Griffin got hurt in this game,
Speaker 1: and so now it's gonna I think Fitzpatrick's the kind
Speaker 1: of guy that just says I refused to take the
Speaker 1: preseason seriously. I think he's one of the best backups
Speaker 1: in the league. Thank you, Wes Josh Malone. By the way,
Speaker 1: an eight yard passed from Jeff driscoll. That is what
Speaker 1: really broke this game open. And then Randy Bullock at
Speaker 1: a forty nine yard field goal, big bone, Randy Gettinger
Speaker 1: done win for the Cincinnati Banka. Um, who Randy, what
Speaker 1: do you mean he's he's just split the uprights from
Speaker 1: fifty out. As soon as the lights come on, he's
Speaker 1: gonna miss it. Stop fat shaming. I'm not. It's just
Speaker 1: that I've seen Randy Bullock and and I've seen this
Speaker 1: act moving on. The San Francisco forty Niners in Kansas
Speaker 1: City Chiefs played football. Um, I don't know who wants
Speaker 1: to jump in with something here, I got some and
Speaker 1: we got Patrick Mahomes. Not not a finished product by
Speaker 1: any stretch at this point. You see things breakdown occasionally,
Speaker 1: but the arm I I sometimes you know how like
Speaker 1: in high school, every guy like the same one girl,
Speaker 1: and then you find out, no, I'm going to go
Speaker 1: in a different direction. Everyone has the same five or
Speaker 1: six players they love, Oh this player, and it's endlessly
Speaker 1: carouseled around at NFL dot Com and network and Fantasy
Speaker 1: football blah blah blah. I like to find my own
Speaker 1: little guys that get me excited. And we're not gonna
Speaker 1: see Patrick Mahomes for quite a bit. And wasn't it.
Speaker 1: Wasn't he like the most popular, I would say, the
Speaker 1: most popular draft quarterback. I'm carving him out. He's mine
Speaker 1: starting right now. Here's the thing, I honestly, I understand
Speaker 1: that ideally you don't play in all the season, But
Speaker 1: if Alex Smith and I and justin with my days
Speaker 1: with Alex Smith have come to an end, who marched
Speaker 1: his team into the end zone and Alex Smith looks fine,
Speaker 1: there's no reason, There's no reason, the beautiful there's no
Speaker 1: reasons slide him aside. I'm just saying, when when they start,
Speaker 1: if they encounter trouble, if the team, if things don't
Speaker 1: go as planned, I would love to see Mahomes play
Speaker 1: in a regular season. Are you hinting at Patrick Mahomes
Speaker 1: being in the Quarterback of the future in Kansas City. Yes,
Speaker 1: I am. I saw marks tweets before I saw this game,
Speaker 1: and the game went so much differently because I was
Speaker 1: watching this on television and NFL never kept switching back
Speaker 1: to the fourth quarter of this ridiculous Giants game for
Speaker 1: some reason, so I missed chunks of Mahomes. When I
Speaker 1: watched later, I thought, oh, my tweets were a little aggressive,
Speaker 1: but I love his arms. Doesn't matter that the entire
Speaker 1: secondary was made up of ups, drivings and club bouncers.
Speaker 1: By the time he got in the game. His first pass,
Speaker 1: I don't know it got called back by his arm
Speaker 1: is live, man. I just love his arms. He looks
Speaker 1: for a little frenetic right now, but he's young. He
Speaker 1: already passed Tyler Bray, so he's officially their backups. I
Speaker 1: mean the idea the Chiefs having an exciting quarterback. I
Speaker 1: like that concept. That's certainly fair, and you would wonder
Speaker 1: how tempted they will be if Alex Smith goes into
Speaker 1: one of his you know, Smith type funk where he's
Speaker 1: really uninspiring, will they be tempted maybe get maybe get
Speaker 1: Patrick in the game a little earlier the rest of
Speaker 1: the preseason. I don't want to see Tyler Bray playing
Speaker 1: ahead of him. You won't be they they officially elevated
Speaker 1: him in practice after this. I was excited. If you're
Speaker 1: a forty Niners fan, their two first round rookie picks
Speaker 1: both showed out well in this game. If you're watching
Speaker 1: deep in the third quarter, you got Solomon Thomas running
Speaker 1: from one hash mark as a defensive tackle all the
Speaker 1: way to the other sidelines. You don't see that too much,
Speaker 1: and just blasting a guy forcing a couple of punts,
Speaker 1: and those two I think are going to be starting
Speaker 1: Week one. What else you don't see too much? The
Speaker 1: San Francisco four to nine are ripping, ripping off eighteen
Speaker 1: unanswered in the fourth quarter to secure seven to seven win.
Speaker 1: Tough loss at home at Arrowhead to start to see
Speaker 1: j Bethard with two touchdowns leading, It's really gonna test
Speaker 1: their metal losing that August game in their own state.
Speaker 1: I think what you saw here is just toughness. Kyle saying,
Speaker 1: an open camp with nine consecutive padded practice to go.
Speaker 1: Speaking of showing out, let's move to the medal lands
Speaker 1: or the New York Jets opened their preseason. There are
Speaker 1: there's a lot of adorable buzz being bandied about about
Speaker 1: the Jets going oh and sixteen, So people were perhaps surprised,
Speaker 1: But um, people were perhaps surprised that the Jets looked
Speaker 1: at times, especially on the defensive side of the ball,
Speaker 1: competent against the Tennessee Titans. The Titans couldn't get anything
Speaker 1: going against the Jets first first team defense. But I
Speaker 1: guess Christian Hackenburg was the big story in this game. Uh,
Speaker 1: he didn't make any big plays, but he didn't look lost.
Speaker 1: He didn't kill anybody on the sideline with Aaron throws.
Speaker 1: And I guess it speaks to where the where the
Speaker 1: bar is with Christian Hackenburg. But but he looked real.
Speaker 1: He looked like a real backup. But he looked real. Yeah.
Speaker 1: I thought he made two mistakes. He had a tipped pass,
Speaker 1: which is not a huge deal, but he lost a
Speaker 1: snap that the Titans recovered. Other than that very bland um,
Speaker 1: you know, there's not a lot to like or dislike
Speaker 1: about what we saw from Hackenburg. I just think that
Speaker 1: what did he throw for five point? When you're they
Speaker 1: were having him throw the ball like four ft per tempt.
Speaker 1: I mean he was a little ridiculous. You got hit
Speaker 1: with a couple of drops. Uh, Because again that's one
Speaker 1: of the tricky things about the Jets makeup of this rosters.
Speaker 1: How do you going to really figure out how your
Speaker 1: quarterbacks look when these guys don't get separation and can't
Speaker 1: catch the ball. But I thought he was fine. I
Speaker 1: just the opening team looked good in the account. I mean,
Speaker 1: you'd have to make an incredible argument from account not
Speaker 1: to just be the week one started, no questions asked. Yeah,
Speaker 1: there was not a hot take from this game with Hackenburg,
Speaker 1: but the coaches were very clearly just trying to like
Speaker 1: build his confidence with baby step. Some of the positive
Speaker 1: reaction you know failed to you know, mentioned that they
Speaker 1: crossed the fifth yard line one time I think, and
Speaker 1: they didn't score in eight drive. So it was not
Speaker 1: a good performance. It just wasn't a bad performance. And
Speaker 1: play quarterback, he was a wet nurse. I didn't let
Speaker 1: him do anything dump off up offs and check the
Speaker 1: whole time. A couple of times where he had to
Speaker 1: do something a little more advanced, you know, eyes downfield
Speaker 1: there are Russia's coming at him, or go through his
Speaker 1: lee read and throw deeper. Those those players did not work,
Speaker 1: so so you you want to see more out of him,
Speaker 1: But it could have been. He was definitely it was
Speaker 1: definitely better than he was a year ago. Like you
Speaker 1: could tell, he's a significant he's a different clue. There
Speaker 1: is some progress in his development. And I guess to
Speaker 1: me it's another example of why everyone is in such
Speaker 1: a rush to write a final judgment about this guy.
Speaker 1: One way or the other, it was he was such
Speaker 1: an embarrassment last year because he didn't play, and now
Speaker 1: this year after he was one game where he doesn't
Speaker 1: embarrass himself, It's like, wow, Christian he where he was
Speaker 1: a real surprise on Saturday. It's like, no, it wasn't really,
Speaker 1: he was just he kind of was more or less
Speaker 1: the same guy. Let's I want to see him get
Speaker 1: um snaps against the first team defense before the preseason ends.
Speaker 1: I don't know if it happens, but that would be
Speaker 1: a nice test. Forms say, one thing, this the whole
Speaker 1: scam for Sam Let's go oh in sixteen thing I
Speaker 1: do question it's and it's not just based off this game.
Speaker 1: Is some of the talent they have in the front
Speaker 1: seven and the way that Leonard Williams looked in this game.
Speaker 1: He was dominant. They completely destroyed the Titans from beginning
Speaker 1: to end. I don't know if the defense is going
Speaker 1: to allow you to go, oh in sixteen, you're gonna
Speaker 1: win some games like this. The seven to three type score.
Speaker 1: There were more drives than first downs. This was a terror.
Speaker 1: This was if you cannot watch one game for the
Speaker 1: rest of your life. I'm a little gonna take too
Speaker 1: many takeaways away from Alex Tanney, right. Marcus Mariota and
Speaker 1: they knocked him out of the game for a bit.
Speaker 1: It's great that Marcus Mariotto is out there playing fully,
Speaker 1: looked quick, didn't make a great decision, but the fact
Speaker 1: that he's out there is a little under the radar.
Speaker 1: He was one of these guys that had the serious
Speaker 1: injury at the end of last year. He's full go
Speaker 1: he's looking you know, he's right, he's looking full speed
Speaker 1: in terms of his house. So that's a pretty big positive.
Speaker 1: Jets going seven and nine. I hope not, but I
Speaker 1: was a little bit alarmed. Football Outsiders Almanac. I was
Speaker 1: reading up on their right up about the Jets. They
Speaker 1: have them, and you know they do a lot of
Speaker 1: you know, breakdown statistically and and and how they get
Speaker 1: to what they expect for a win total. They have
Speaker 1: him at about six and ten, which is not going
Speaker 1: to get a job done. I do not want six
Speaker 1: and A lot has to go right, I'll go one
Speaker 1: in fifteen, a lot like Cleveland very came within three
Speaker 1: plays of being four and twelve last year. Right. The
Speaker 1: difference between Yeah, difference between six and ten, uh in
Speaker 1: three and thirteen is really not a lot. So there
Speaker 1: is some reverse luck that you need. We'll see what
Speaker 1: happens with I'm sure will not work out just by
Speaker 1: based on the history of the franchise. Moving on, the
Speaker 1: Dallas Cowboys, a big win for the Jets. Top Yes,
Speaker 1: look out, New England Patriots. The Jets put up seven
Speaker 1: on that first drive and then the defense just held court.
Speaker 1: A seven, three win sit down. Be humble, Marcus Mariota.
Speaker 1: Not often you getta win when you have you score
Speaker 1: once and then have thirteen straight scoreless drives you hold on.
Speaker 1: It's like a baseball game. We're talking bears here, potentially
Speaker 1: with the Jets. I never thought the Patriots would have
Speaker 1: to come from behind to win that division. They're being
Speaker 1: tested let's face it, one week into the preseason, moving
Speaker 1: on the Dallas Cowboys, Uh face the Los Angeles Ramps
Speaker 1: and Chris Westling, what was your biggest takeaway from that game?
Speaker 1: Cooper Rush looked a lot better than Kellen Moore. Cooper Rush,
Speaker 1: I don't know if he's ever going to be an
Speaker 1: NFL backup, but made some great throws. Rico Gathers, their
Speaker 1: tight end who hadn't played football since eighth grade and
Speaker 1: was still so talented that he got drafted anyway, Baylor's
Speaker 1: all time leady rebounder has made big plays in two
Speaker 1: straight games. I don't think he's gonna have a big
Speaker 1: role this year, but he could end up being the
Speaker 1: guy who succeeds Jason Wittn at tight end for the Cowboys.
Speaker 1: All due respect to um Boomers size some one of
Speaker 1: my boyhood heroes, but Kellen Moore is not making a
Speaker 1: good case for the lefty quarterback which is close to extinction.
Speaker 1: I think he's at least last year he was the
Speaker 1: only one in the league and he spent the season
Speaker 1: on our are It just don't look right. Let's be
Speaker 1: honest here, just be honest. Here, see him Kellen Moore
Speaker 1: does at because he's a left there. I'll just keep
Speaker 1: it real here. I mean they should be worried that
Speaker 1: they're gonna have a two thousand fifteen situation again. Yeah,
Speaker 1: if if they had an injury at quarterback, this team
Speaker 1: would have a chance loss. Over my point, you tell
Speaker 1: me it looks normal, It looks like I think it'd
Speaker 1: be cool. I'm I'm it's looking like Walker my son
Speaker 1: is left hand and I'm thinking, oh, that's big. He
Speaker 1: could be like a relief pitcher. He can give matchup problem.
Speaker 1: You know, lefty tennis players are tough to deal with,
Speaker 1: like whatever sport. Being Roberto type, I'm saying that it's
Speaker 1: an advantage though. Todd Gurley, by the way, it's obviously
Speaker 1: a tiny sample in this game, but just seeing him
Speaker 1: drop behind the lines several more times, it's like, I
Speaker 1: can only imagine what's going on and said he's like,
Speaker 1: I am not going through another season of this. They
Speaker 1: need to block for that. This may be the game
Speaker 1: not to watch. Twenty one first downs and nine fumbles
Speaker 1: in this game, which is outrageous. They had five fumbles
Speaker 1: in the first half. The NFL preseason is such a
Speaker 1: terrible product, and Roger Goodell knows it. He keeps talking
Speaker 1: about that we need to shorten the preseason and watching
Speaker 1: on Saturday night the games you were covering, Mark really
Speaker 1: hammered at home. How add the first week is and
Speaker 1: how point like Rico Gathers was the number one takeaway
Speaker 1: west in the Dallas papers, I would say for the
Speaker 1: second straight week. So that's your number one takeaway is, Hey,
Speaker 1: this guy looks like he's probably going to make the
Speaker 1: team as a backup tight end. Well, and that's the
Speaker 1: number one takeaway, Like the stakes are so low and
Speaker 1: and all those fans show up and they watched Jared
Speaker 1: Goff have eight snaps like Jared Goff couldn't use that takeaway?
Speaker 1: Why why doesn't that ire starting offense that is not overachieved?
Speaker 1: And since essentially the late nineties, how about you play
Speaker 1: more than more than two series? It's it's it's by
Speaker 1: the way. Some some people cannot even go to regular
Speaker 1: season games. You go to a preseason game. You want
Speaker 1: to do a better product. Don't put him out there.
Speaker 1: All these people in Jared goff jerseys watching him essentially
Speaker 1: played for five minutes and he's out. But what's the solution?
Speaker 1: I don't know they're getting rid. Getting rid of a
Speaker 1: preseason game is going to happen. It's a question of
Speaker 1: whether it's gonna be two or three. But it has
Speaker 1: to be collectively bargained with the players, because because Goodell
Speaker 1: is really against you're making the Cowboys play five of
Speaker 1: these games, but they're not playing them. They're playing two.
Speaker 1: I mean, think of it. They they got five games,
Speaker 1: but their main players are only gonna play two. They're
Speaker 1: gonna sit out the process of the team and go
Speaker 1: through five weeks of the preseason. I mean, I get
Speaker 1: that they're benching almost everyone. It's interesting to Belichick is
Speaker 1: already kind of have ahead of the curve and he's
Speaker 1: putting all this stock in preseason scrimmages against other teams
Speaker 1: and then resting almost everyone important during the game. He's
Speaker 1: scrimmaging against other teams three straight weeks. No other team
Speaker 1: in the league is doing that twice even And remember
Speaker 1: this is a time the way technology is now and
Speaker 1: and the advancements made in televisions and the home viewing
Speaker 1: experience where getting people to go to the games is
Speaker 1: starting to become more of a challenge. The fact that
Speaker 1: you you're getting charged full price for two preseason games.
Speaker 1: If you're a season ticket holder, you could definitely make
Speaker 1: the argument they deserve a better product if you're gonna
Speaker 1: charge them like it's a regular game. Shout out to
Speaker 1: our co workers Andrews Siciliano and Daniel Jeremiah doing a
Speaker 1: good job on this telecast. Marshall, Marshall, why not, Marha
Speaker 1: He doesn't know who any of us are. He was good.
Speaker 1: He doesn't need a great care who we are either.
Speaker 1: That's that's true. Dan Helly did a nice job with
Speaker 1: the Tennessee Jets game as well. Good to see everybody.
Speaker 1: Charles Davis two doing so well all around us. Moving
Speaker 1: on the Oakland Raiders. Uh face the Arizona Cardinals, and oh,
Speaker 1: I should tell you it's a thirteen ten win for
Speaker 1: the Rams. Travis Coon's I mean six eleven to play.
Speaker 1: This is where heroes are made. Drills, A thirty six
Speaker 1: yard field goal. That was the difference. Thirteen tis the
Speaker 1: last two minutes. You know, people complain about the last
Speaker 1: two minutes of NBA games, t in roughly like the
Speaker 1: last two minutes of this thing. I was begging someone
Speaker 1: on the news tas just to kill me with a
Speaker 1: bow and arrow. From across the room. I mean, it
Speaker 1: could not have taken longer to end itself. I mean,
Speaker 1: what a bus opportunity though. For the Cowboys we talked
Speaker 1: about they're getting an extra of five, They're getting an
Speaker 1: extra game, So five and oh would have won the title.
Speaker 1: And now with this last it's even worse. Not only that,
Speaker 1: now you can win out and still not be the champ.
Speaker 1: Lack of lack of planning on their part, lack of foresight. Yeah,
Speaker 1: maybe next time Dak Prescott's out there in the fourth quarter.
Speaker 1: What I'm saying, Uh, Moving forward the Cardinals and the
Speaker 1: Raiders West, this was a game where you wanted to
Speaker 1: see all those Cardinals veterans looking spry and making plays
Speaker 1: and and I feel like you're happy if your Cardinals
Speaker 1: fan based on what you saw. I think you're happy
Speaker 1: about Honey Badger being Honey Badger again. We've seen signs
Speaker 1: that it was happening in training camp, and he was
Speaker 1: pretty active in the few snaps he played. Uh in
Speaker 1: the first quarter of this game. And Uh, I think
Speaker 1: Robert Kim kim d J. Look two games in a row,
Speaker 1: Kim d check him, d ch What did you fall
Speaker 1: out that wind? Though? Kim d J, km d J,
Speaker 1: k m d J. Make sure you jumped through this
Speaker 1: window of opportunity. It's kind of like a Bonnie Tyler
Speaker 1: was Yeah, new places there, thank you. That is not
Speaker 1: Bonnie Tyler. That is a piano representation of what her
Speaker 1: music might sound him. Just to be clear with everyone,
Speaker 1: but Kim d J second week ago, looking good two games,
Speaker 1: and I think that defense is interesting when someone like that,
Speaker 1: we don't know if he's gonna if he's going to
Speaker 1: develop the way they wanted to. You're getting honey badger back.
Speaker 1: Kim d J looked blowing people up at the line
Speaker 1: ending drives. It's an interesting defense. Carson Palmer missed a
Speaker 1: gimme layup touchdown to John Brown, but then came back
Speaker 1: uh and punched the ball in the end zone. So
Speaker 1: he gave you what you were looking for. Uh at
Speaker 1: the end of the day. Any other thoughts, guys, No,
Speaker 1: this was another one of the there worse than this
Speaker 1: was a lot. There were some games that were fun
Speaker 1: to watch, but this was not one of the headline
Speaker 1: like the takeaways in Oakland on this one was like
Speaker 1: e J Manuel probably gonna be the backup, Like that's
Speaker 1: the that's the biggest news. That's not worth the game. Um,
Speaker 1: and the Cardinals jumped out to that seven nothing lead.
Speaker 1: It was a lead they never relinquished. Final score in
Speaker 1: the desert the Raiders fall to oh and one. And
Speaker 1: you wonder if there's a little bit of a questions
Speaker 1: about Marshawn Lynch, whether he is somebody that can be
Speaker 1: a leader on this team now windless after a week. Yeah,
Speaker 1: I mean, he wasn't involved on even one play, so
Speaker 1: his impact, you know, hard to measure. Moving on, the
Speaker 1: Lions and Cults played a football game, and Uh, somebody
Speaker 1: in this room is excited about a wide receiver for
Speaker 1: the Lions. I know that. Who is it? Somebody? It
Speaker 1: was me, that's us. Kenny Golladay, who has been hyped
Speaker 1: consistently since offseason practice has started. Actually, a lot of
Speaker 1: people liked him in the draft too. He's been hyped
Speaker 1: by the fantasy community and he's been living up to
Speaker 1: it in training camp and in this game. He makes plays.
Speaker 1: He's big, Uh, he's athletic, and the thing that stands
Speaker 1: out to me is he has really good hands. He's
Speaker 1: not just a physical freak kind of guy. Yeah, he
Speaker 1: had three catches two touchdowns, and they were all contested, difficult,
Speaker 1: somewhat acrobatic catches, and and then I immediately thought he
Speaker 1: was catching those from old Jake Ruddock. But he's gonna
Speaker 1: be catching it from a quarterback in Matthew Stafford. Oh yeah,
Speaker 1: you know Jakie rudd Uh, he's got Matthew Stafford loves
Speaker 1: just throwing the ball up for players, for his receivers
Speaker 1: to go make plays. And and he in Goladay. Seems
Speaker 1: like when you get that much hype every portion of
Speaker 1: the off season, then you start to buy into it.
Speaker 1: By the way, behind the glass Sully, one quick takeaway
Speaker 1: from this game. When Peyton Manning played at Lucas Oil Stadium,
Speaker 1: I remember one time at the at the Combines, someone
Speaker 1: that worked there basically told us he would never allow
Speaker 1: that roof to be opened. That he he it is
Speaker 1: essentially is not used because he was the quarterback. Now
Speaker 1: they're opening it up a little bit and the sun
Speaker 1: shining down on Detroit's new uniforms. Their uniforms, to me,
Speaker 1: were the nicest looking I saw in the entire week
Speaker 1: of preseason action. Look beautiful except for one little thing.
Speaker 1: Little lions etched across the sleeve. Don't need that, but
Speaker 1: they just looked fantastic. Put the Lions outside enough with
Speaker 1: his dome. That's a hot take right there. Scott Tolzine
Speaker 1: is a lost waiting to happen. Can't let him start
Speaker 1: a game. He's devolving because he was someone that Mike
Speaker 1: McCarthy absolutely loved back in Green Bay. And what's what
Speaker 1: is there to love from what we're seeing now? Um
Speaker 1: Troy Mayne Pope had a one yard run, capping a
Speaker 1: fourteen play ninety yard drive for the Colts as time
Speaker 1: expired in the fourth quarter, but it wasn't enough for
Speaker 1: the Lions, who are one a night. Good job, guys. Finally,
Speaker 1: that's a rare walk off. That's down to make the
Speaker 1: scar ten a loss. You don't see it a lot.
Speaker 1: You do not see it a lot. Finally, the Seahawks
Speaker 1: traveled to the stub Hub Center and UM got got
Speaker 1: going in a twenty five thousand UM venue person venue.
Speaker 1: I can't talk anymore, which was an interesting site to
Speaker 1: say the least. It was weird not to watch an
Speaker 1: NFL game without a third tier that that felt kind
Speaker 1: of like as the trip uh to me and and
Speaker 1: earlier reports so that was a fun scene to be
Speaker 1: at people at work here that went to the game.
Speaker 1: But let's talk about some takeaways from the game. Greg
Speaker 1: Thomas Rawls is the guy to talk about. He's been
Speaker 1: running with the starters throughout camp, and he ran with
Speaker 1: the starters on Sunday night, and I'm not taking that
Speaker 1: much away from veteran play. He looked good. Eddie Lacy
Speaker 1: looked fine too, in in a backup role. But I
Speaker 1: think you can learn from the rotations and that if
Speaker 1: Rawls right now is the starter, and I I expect
Speaker 1: he'll be the starter going into the season as he
Speaker 1: should be agreed a running back to Eddie Lacy and
Speaker 1: I don't think we were honking about it back in
Speaker 1: May pick him up in your fantasy drafts. He's getting
Speaker 1: drafted way behind Lacey. I think he I think he's
Speaker 1: a better runner. To prush your fingers that he stays
Speaker 1: on the field until Eddie Lacy gets it down to
Speaker 1: about two forty pounds, which he was his rookie in
Speaker 1: his second year in the league, when he had really
Speaker 1: quick feet and was good in the passing game. He
Speaker 1: shouldn't play over Thomas Rowles. What did you guys think
Speaker 1: of well, one note, I like this Seahawks tight end
Speaker 1: Marcus Lucas a little bit triguing little player at a
Speaker 1: nice catch, but um one other thing. That's why if
Speaker 1: it's Cardil Jones looked up at his eyes like panicked,
Speaker 1: like wait, came off before Marcus Lucas came in on
Speaker 1: two targets early in the game. He didn't, he didn't
Speaker 1: know I missed him. Interesting catch, but you're saying he flashed,
Speaker 1: flashed baby, Cardil Jones. I this guy is huge and
Speaker 1: he can move like he's he showed some speed outside
Speaker 1: the pocket. Those good I I wonder what will happen
Speaker 1: with him, because I don't think you can trust as
Speaker 1: a backup at all right now, but maybe with a
Speaker 1: couple more years. Yeah, he's the number three and the
Speaker 1: Chargers previously have been keeping two quarterbacks. That doesn't bode
Speaker 1: well for either him or your boy Bercovici. But Kellen
Speaker 1: Clemens being terrible does pretty well. They used tiresome. Your
Speaker 1: boy Paul Richardson got hurt in this game after an
Speaker 1: amazing catch. I think it might have been on that
Speaker 1: amazing catch, I don't know. And now he's going to
Speaker 1: be out for some time. Sounds like multiple weeks, and
Speaker 1: that that's a thin, thin receiver group that could really
Speaker 1: use Richardson to be a consistent factor, and now they're
Speaker 1: they're not gonna have him for a little bit. The
Speaker 1: Seahawks had three quarterbacks. All three of their quarterbacks post
Speaker 1: to passer rating over one hundred. You know what that means,
Speaker 1: baby blowout city win. Uh spoiling the Chargers debut in
Speaker 1: Los Angeles. Mark, finally, you had the final addendum to
Speaker 1: this recap of the preseason. You had some type of vision.
Speaker 1: I believe I had a vision. I was at a
Speaker 1: place called the Irish Times, and so I'm not sure
Speaker 1: this is a trusty vision, but I'm sticking with it.
Speaker 1: I saw the Super Bowl and it included two teams,
Speaker 1: the Los Angeles Chargers from the a f C and
Speaker 1: from the NFC, the New York Giants. Logical, no, but
Speaker 1: we'll see weird things. This is your official Super Bowl prediction.
Speaker 1: I'm just gonna stick away. I don't want to see
Speaker 1: any NFL dot Com thing. I'm sticking with this from
Speaker 1: in every on all media platforms, where in past years
Speaker 1: I would just do seven or eight matchups and I'd
Speaker 1: get something, right. I am so tired of picking this.
Speaker 1: I picked the Steelers every freaking year in the a
Speaker 1: f C. They always disappoint our Patriots. Packers yawn. I'm
Speaker 1: just going with this rolling the dice, alright, So mark
Speaker 1: it down someone I noticed who wins. By the way,
Speaker 1: I don't know that. I'm not gonna lie about my visions.
Speaker 1: I just saw them in the Super matchup. It's also
Speaker 1: kind of funny that if there was any Super Bowl,
Speaker 1: your prediction last year, of course, that that super would
Speaker 1: not have a winner. This feels like the season a
Speaker 1: year where there actually would not potentially be a Super
Speaker 1: Bowl given the current events in the world. But you're
Speaker 1: you're seeing an actual Super Bowl. Sometimes visions can be
Speaker 1: a year or two off. You don't know sure. I mean,
Speaker 1: you know, I think probably he achieved a little bit
Speaker 1: more than I did in this field. But in his prediction.
Speaker 1: I remember this from an old Orson Wells special where
Speaker 1: he predicted that a great monster would rise up from
Speaker 1: humanity and his name was Hissed. Just missed it, well,
Speaker 1: just missed it, scold for Hitler got hissed there. Sometimes
Speaker 1: they're a year or two off, and sometimes they're just off. Well,
Speaker 1: someone what did Someone tweeted to West and said, you know,
Speaker 1: do you take stock in this? And you basically, you know,
Speaker 1: rightfully said huh. I said, it's it's important too to
Speaker 1: have a healthy respect for for Mark's visions, but don't
Speaker 1: take them his gospel truth a working respect. We did
Speaker 1: have a listener that actually like dialed up Vegas and
Speaker 1: put a bet on this super Bowl, So I respect that. Yeah,
Speaker 1: well we don't talk. Well that's their choice. I didn't
Speaker 1: make them do it, but I thought that that showed
Speaker 1: an incredible amount of faith. Good on you. There you go.
Speaker 1: So you heard it here first on August fourteen that
Speaker 1: the Super Bowl is set. Better not be Geno Smith
Speaker 1: in it. That's all I'm gonna say. Um, all right,
Speaker 1: that's it for today's pod. Remember the subreddit super contest
Speaker 1: work shopping the title of the contest still I like
Speaker 1: the sound of that, though, uh is coming up the
Speaker 1: trivia contest where you the listener could be on the
Speaker 1: show and could be the recipient of a grand prize.
Speaker 1: So all you have to do sign up for the
Speaker 1: subred if you haven't already. And yes, people are already
Speaker 1: reaching out trying to curry favor with the various members
Speaker 1: of the Around the NFL podcast team. I'm not saying
Speaker 1: that that will work. I'm not saying that it won't work.
Speaker 1: Do what you gotta do. Um, even if that means
Speaker 1: just hoping you get plucked for obscurity on the board,
Speaker 1: or maybe you you make a stink and you get picked,
Speaker 1: or maybe we use that again, it's you a lot
Speaker 1: of ways, a lot of ways. All I know is
Speaker 1: this means Gregg has to go to the subreddit to
Speaker 1: get his town. That's really what the nature of this.
Speaker 1: I'm not I'm not gonna go I'm gonna choose my
Speaker 1: ten from whoever it leaves Itune reviews with your email
Speaker 1: as an extra Itune review. How about that? Soulless and cunning?
Speaker 1: Do people who file iTunes reviews want to leave their email?
Speaker 1: I don't even know how that works. I just was
Speaker 1: trying to know what you can do. That's a good
Speaker 1: idea because that will curry favor with the old zeuser
Speaker 1: to actually, so keep that in mind. If you leave
Speaker 1: an iTunes review and then at the end of it,
Speaker 1: just sign off with your subreddit handle, We'll take it
Speaker 1: from there. We'll figure it out from there right. All
Speaker 1: we need is the handles. Yeah, I think that's the handle.
Speaker 1: Would be would be harder to track that person down.
Speaker 1: If you're just a person out there and wanting to
Speaker 1: destroy someone who left an iTunes review, you can't track
Speaker 1: them down, you know, don't leave people vulnerable. Greg Classic,
Speaker 1: Greg Leaven, our listeners just sitting there. It is your
Speaker 1: It's a complicated quiz and there's lots of processes. I'm
Speaker 1: just trying to fit in. All right, Well you're fitting
Speaker 1: in just fine. Greg, Thank you. Um wes uh, best
Speaker 1: of luck with everything. Obviously, will be in touch with
Speaker 1: you throughout this whole process when you go in for
Speaker 1: your surgery on Wednesday, but we hope to have you
Speaker 1: back with us as soon as possible. It won't be
Speaker 1: the same without you, let's be honest. But hopefully with
Speaker 1: all the good news we got last week, this won't
Speaker 1: be an extended absence. Yeah, I honestly have no idea
Speaker 1: how long I'll be out, so we'll see. Good luck
Speaker 1: to you, buddy. Ye all right, that's it. We'll be
Speaker 1: back on Wednesday. But I always tell you the end
Speaker 1: of this anyway. So this is Dan hansis signing off
Speaker 1: for the Sizzler, the mail Man, God Bless the Mailman,
Speaker 1: the Boss and Aerica behind the glass till Wednesday,