Speaker 1: Every catch, every two minute, drill, every fourth and inches.
Speaker 1: If it's NFL football and it happened. NFL game passes,
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Speaker 1: The Around the NFL Podcast knows when Daddy is coming home.
Speaker 1: Welcome back to another edition to the Around the NFL Podcast.
Speaker 1: My name is Dan NS and I am joined by
Speaker 1: room filled with some heroes. Mark Sessler, Patrick claibann he
Speaker 1: and Greg Rosatal. What's up boys? Hey down? Oh yeah,
Speaker 1: Monday show. No Case of the mondays here right, Mark,
Speaker 1: We'll actually no because your hand Mark, it's get you
Speaker 1: know you had a split on at the end of
Speaker 1: last week. Thank you Tom Brady. Uh check out the
Speaker 1: show if you want to know why. From Friday now
Speaker 1: cut to Monday, and it's the entire gauze wrap and
Speaker 1: and your finger is basically has looks like it has
Speaker 1: about a foot of layering around a protective layering. What's
Speaker 1: going on? Well, A long story short. When I initially
Speaker 1: had a major laceration on the on the left index
Speaker 1: finger and I went to you know, a Tom Brady's
Speaker 1: fall incredible emergency room. I won't mention the hospital, but
Speaker 1: they decided, hey, let's just glue this together, which I thought, Fine,
Speaker 1: you guys dot like a preschooler. No, uh, this is something,
Speaker 1: this is a method they use apparently. Um, but I looked.
Speaker 1: I took the band aid off today to check it out,
Speaker 1: and the glue had completely dissolved and the cut was
Speaker 1: still enormous, and so I it did not look good.
Speaker 1: The finger was blue, and I had no feeling at
Speaker 1: the end, and I still don't. So I went to
Speaker 1: an urgent care another one I won't name to stay
Speaker 1: out of any lawsuits, but they basically, long story short,
Speaker 1: I'm very woozy. I feel woozy. But they're basically saying like,
Speaker 1: you're lucky you don't have nerve damage. And they said
Speaker 1: they stitched it up and sent me on my way.
Speaker 1: You mentioned preschooler, and I'm and I'm thinking I'm suddenly
Speaker 1: having a vision of Mark, maybe not in the total
Speaker 1: right mind. Actually last weekend and like going into his
Speaker 1: his kid's room and like Colton with like a fake
Speaker 1: doctor kit, like you know, putting Elmer's glue on him
Speaker 1: and the results would have been equal. So anyway, we're
Speaker 1: hoping that that mark fights this. But I do if
Speaker 1: there's one positive potential for a loopy Sessler here and uh,
Speaker 1: you know that could be Okay, it's happening before. I'm
Speaker 1: concerned worried about. Yeah, I'm not a doctor, but I
Speaker 1: would say that fingers got you know, maybe about a
Speaker 1: week left. Yeah, I you know, I've already thinking how
Speaker 1: to operate with nine fingers in our society. It's a
Speaker 1: crucial digit. It is. I don't want to make light
Speaker 1: of it. But will you be ready for week one? Well? Yeah,
Speaker 1: I mean my job essentially is to type. It's taking
Speaker 1: me out of that a little bit, but I should
Speaker 1: be fine by week one. Apparently. All right, this is
Speaker 1: uh uh you know, we're starting to get down to
Speaker 1: the nitty gritty. Now, what are The first week of
Speaker 1: the regular season is a week from Thursday, and uh
Speaker 1: that means we gotta start looking at some really drilling
Speaker 1: down and week three of the preseason is now in
Speaker 1: the rear view and we'll touch on that today. But
Speaker 1: now we want to look ahead, and that's why we're
Speaker 1: bringing it back. We're going around the a f C
Speaker 1: in forty eight minutes. Clay Bon, are you familiar with
Speaker 1: this segment? So familiar? I remember the first time where
Speaker 1: Sydney was required to find a sound but that initial
Speaker 1: three minutes and I actually went back and listened to
Speaker 1: it just to get back well, because this is important,
Speaker 1: the fact that that you guys would reach out and say, hey,
Speaker 1: come on and do the preview. And I'm I'm nervous,
Speaker 1: I'm shaking a little bit, but but I want this.
Speaker 1: I like it. Nervous energy is good energy. I feel
Speaker 1: like listen, it's it's you're you're Jimmy g right now
Speaker 1: going on the road to Arizona week one last season. Yeah,
Speaker 1: and next year, somebody's gonna give me twenty million dollars.
Speaker 1: Don't don't look at this as you're trying to replace
Speaker 1: Wes's football knowledge, but just know that you're actually sitting
Speaker 1: in West's seat, and that's what we'll be asking you
Speaker 1: to do Todayeah. That's why that's why I put my
Speaker 1: microphone cable across my front like like a seat belt.
Speaker 1: If you listen to last year's I can only assume
Speaker 1: that we you know, went one hundred for one hundred
Speaker 1: in terms of good points and accurate predictions. There were
Speaker 1: some things. Yeah, we don't have to get into it.
Speaker 1: I'm sure we nailed it all. A plus effort by
Speaker 1: all of us, all right, but before we do that,
Speaker 1: we got some news to do, uh, including a tough
Speaker 1: trip to the throne of sleeves. So we say, hello
Speaker 1: Erica behind the glass that's at America. Hey, how's it going, guys?
Speaker 1: How are you good? Nice weekend? Yeah, it was great,
Speaker 1: It was great. I was gonna say Mark has like
Speaker 1: permanent um like finger guns, like, hey, yeah, it's a
Speaker 1: it's a true benefit of what's what's unfold? I think
Speaker 1: you need to stay positive. Awesome, you know how I
Speaker 1: believe it was. Uh, James Garfield was assassinated by a
Speaker 1: man that had a cast with a gun within the cast.
Speaker 1: Kind of got that look going on too. I feel like,
Speaker 1: you know, calling me as presidential assassin in waiting. No, no,
Speaker 1: but if but if anyone, if anyone in the room
Speaker 1: was you know what, probably the gun cast. I I
Speaker 1: would say Greg is higher on that list, and he
Speaker 1: would like to believe in terms of a potentially dangerous
Speaker 1: public figure. Yeah, Greg's hands are in his sleeves right
Speaker 1: now too. What's happening here. Let's do some news. It's
Speaker 1: tough any time the teammates goes down, so you know,
Speaker 1: we won't playing long enough where when someone does, um,
Speaker 1: you know, other people have to step in and fill
Speaker 1: the void. Quit belly ache and Tommy. All right, here
Speaker 1: we go the big news. What I mean, we're just
Speaker 1: gonna step up whatever. But the truth is the Patriots
Speaker 1: were dealt a very tough blow on Friday and their
Speaker 1: third preseason game. Julian Edelman is not gonna be involved
Speaker 1: with the team this year. And Mr I revealed on
Speaker 1: Saturday with the team and Edelman had feared he suffered
Speaker 1: in torn a c l in his right knee during
Speaker 1: the pats this preseason win over the Lions. UH rap
Speaker 1: Sheet reported this, citing a source informed of the situation
Speaker 1: the Patriots that it confirmed that Edelman has done for
Speaker 1: the year. And you just heard from Brady just there,
Speaker 1: Uh and Greg I know um Edelman And we're just
Speaker 1: talking about this on the Fantasy show that we did
Speaker 1: on Friday. And by the way, shame on you if
Speaker 1: you're doing your dress before the third preseason game. Uh.
Speaker 1: We're just talking about how Edelman maybe not the flashiest
Speaker 1: fantasy player, but the guy was an absolute main cog
Speaker 1: in that offense. How much is this gonna affect the Patriots, Greg,
Speaker 1: I think it's a huge impact. They're so they're deeper
Speaker 1: than they've ever been on offense. But I don't think
Speaker 1: you just replaced Julian Edeman. People think, yeah, I read
Speaker 1: a couple of takes. It's like he's no longer even
Speaker 1: their top wide receiver. So it's not as big deal.
Speaker 1: Let's see Brandon Cooks do it. Because one of the
Speaker 1: reasons Edtleman is so good is because he's always reading
Speaker 1: the field the same way as Brady. He's the team's
Speaker 1: all time leader in playoff yards in playoff touchdowns. He's
Speaker 1: an incredible player for them and is their best wide receiver.
Speaker 1: Most teams do not have Chris Hogan, Malcolm Mitchell, Brandon Cooks,
Speaker 1: you know, behind him, Danny A. Mondola, so they should
Speaker 1: be able to rebound. But Edelman is as big a
Speaker 1: loss and as good at wide receiver as they've had
Speaker 1: during the Brady run. I feel like, outside of Gronkowski too,
Speaker 1: there isn't a player on the team that you would
Speaker 1: call a more committed um, you know, Apostle to Tom Brady.
Speaker 1: He completely buys into Brady's approach to the game and
Speaker 1: they have formed a pretty psychic connection. It feels like
Speaker 1: like that game. If you watch that game, that was
Speaker 1: a great example. He had three catches in the first drive,
Speaker 1: broke about four tackles in those three catches. Uh, he
Speaker 1: was dominating that druck. And in later in that game,
Speaker 1: I when Brady was intercepted, it was because Chris Hogan
Speaker 1: went one way on an option route. And they do
Speaker 1: all these routes where the receiver has to choose which
Speaker 1: way to go based on defense. Hogan went on one
Speaker 1: way the wrong way and Brady through an interception. That's
Speaker 1: the type of thing you don't see as much of
Speaker 1: that him. A lot of people really sleep on Julian Edelman.
Speaker 1: And I don't know why. You wonder why. I mean
Speaker 1: you could have some theories. I certainly do. But you
Speaker 1: you see when he plays sixteen games, he had a
Speaker 1: hundred and five catches, uh, the first time last year
Speaker 1: he had. I mean, you could pretty much book it
Speaker 1: that he was gonna have a hundred catches this season.
Speaker 1: And you don't just you don't just replace that. I'll
Speaker 1: use a wess Is um here uh that Brady and
Speaker 1: Edelman had a mind melt and there there there's something
Speaker 1: that we said for that one of the most famous
Speaker 1: catches in Super Bowl history, Julian Edelman made it last year,
Speaker 1: which if he doesn't make that catch, they might not
Speaker 1: win the Super Bowl. And now he's out of the picture.
Speaker 1: And the idea that Danny A. Mendola to use him
Speaker 1: as one of the hypothetical plug and play options they
Speaker 1: have in this situation. We've joked about it, Greg and
Speaker 1: you you you've joked about it a lot about how
Speaker 1: you know mmadel is worth every dialoxy. He steps up
Speaker 1: in the Super Bowl every time they're in the game.
Speaker 1: But he if if he's going to be the guy,
Speaker 1: he needs to become a more consistent player. Edelman was
Speaker 1: a consistent playmaker for that team and it's gonna hurt
Speaker 1: that offense big time. Yeah, he was their best wide receiver.
Speaker 1: Now they can make it up in other ways, and
Speaker 1: we'll talk about that during the preview. I think the
Speaker 1: backfields as deep as it's ever been. They have Gronk
Speaker 1: is healthy again, Dwayne Allen is at tight end, So
Speaker 1: I think you can make it up in other ways.
Speaker 1: I wasn't interested. I don't know if you guys saw
Speaker 1: the analysis by Erica tam Posey done immediately after the
Speaker 1: injury on Twitter, and I'm gonna quote this. It's in
Speaker 1: all caps. Edelman, you better shake it off. Oh my MG,
Speaker 1: I swear that that was a that was a voice
Speaker 1: recording of myself just now. I just heard it. I
Speaker 1: mean it was it was identical. Shake it off. Okay.
Speaker 1: Edelman is like the heart of that team when you
Speaker 1: have Brady. I mean, it's an emotional it's not just
Speaker 1: he's your caps on. I'm heartbroken. I caught West West
Speaker 1: as I are a few two or three years ago
Speaker 1: when I said Edelman at his best is absolutely better
Speaker 1: than Wes Welker at his best. And I think his
Speaker 1: play over the last few years is is born that
Speaker 1: out a little bit. You know, he won't be there.
Speaker 1: So let's see West feeling a disturbance in the forest, right,
Speaker 1: And he's been essentially sub tweeted on this show. But
Speaker 1: remember the Patriots won the Super Bowl without Rob Gronkowski
Speaker 1: last year. I would not count them out with this loss.
Speaker 1: Is yeah, So here we go. Moving on. The Cincinnati
Speaker 1: Bagels are facing an absence themselves. On Sunday, linebacker Vante's
Speaker 1: perfect um he returned to interception sixty two yards for
Speaker 1: a touchdown. Everybody who was saying, oh, perfects looking great.
Speaker 1: Another great piece of that defense. But guess what perfect
Speaker 1: might not be around? NFL Network Inside Ian Rapport reported
Speaker 1: Sunday night, the Perfect is facing a five game suspension
Speaker 1: for a hit that he put on Chiefs fullback fullback
Speaker 1: Anthony Sherman. Uh. Last week, video of the playing question
Speaker 1: appeared to show Perfect hitting Sherman. After Chief's quarterback Alex
Speaker 1: Smith released the past headed for tight end Travis Kelsey.
Speaker 1: ESPN first reported this development. Rap Report reported that Perfect
Speaker 1: and tends to appeal the ruling. Uh, what are what
Speaker 1: are your thoughts on this? Patrick Claybon Perfect five games Now,
Speaker 1: it's really getting serious in terms of the league coming
Speaker 1: after him. Yeah, history of factor. It's almost as though
Speaker 1: there was this giant vants perfect file and no next
Speaker 1: time he does anything questionable. Uh, we we're gonna have
Speaker 1: to drop the hammer on him because you look at
Speaker 1: this and you wonder if if anybody else is coming
Speaker 1: across on a on a mesh concept and gets hit
Speaker 1: a little bit after the quarterback throws the ball. If
Speaker 1: we're even having this conversation, well, that's that's the league rule.
Speaker 1: I think any other player would just be fine thousand dollars,
Speaker 1: and they have a system where it's bigger punishment each time.
Speaker 1: And the last time he was suspended, which was for
Speaker 1: three games, they cited six different times that he had violated.
Speaker 1: And so I think with the with it and basically
Speaker 1: any other player, I think you would have just been fined.
Speaker 1: It's hardly if you go through his cattle log of
Speaker 1: you know, egregious hits, it's hardly the worst. It's hardly
Speaker 1: the worst. And even the player, even Sherman afterwards said
Speaker 1: clean hit told him that on the field, that's what
Speaker 1: Perfect says. But it's a huge loss for the Bengals
Speaker 1: because Perfect has never looked better than he had this preseason.
Speaker 1: One thing that that's a great point, and I think
Speaker 1: he's like one of if the key members that defense
Speaker 1: other than Geno Atkins. But what's been lost here is
Speaker 1: there is a rules emphasis at play that I don't
Speaker 1: think a lot of fans and I wasn't had forgotten
Speaker 1: about really where certain illegal hits, including these blind side hits,
Speaker 1: which are essentially collision low crossers. Remember that book we
Speaker 1: talk about that. That's what this that's what this hit
Speaker 1: is that a blind side hit where where he knows
Speaker 1: the guys out of the play, or at least they
Speaker 1: believe he knows the guys out of the play. Is
Speaker 1: now a rules emphasis that you're gonna get fined for more. Um,
Speaker 1: we'll talk about this Cincinnati Bengals a little bit later
Speaker 1: as we well the Patriots. UH. Finally in the news,
Speaker 1: Tropical Storm Harvey has been wreaking havoc UH in South Texas.
Speaker 1: Houston took a has been taking a barrage all through
Speaker 1: the weekend. More than thirty inches of rain has fallen
Speaker 1: on parts of Houston since Thursday, according to the National
Speaker 1: Weather Service. UH. The death toll on Monday had risen
Speaker 1: to eight. And we're talking in a situation where tens
Speaker 1: of thousands of people are going to be looking for
Speaker 1: emergency shelter. UM. The Texas the governor called in the
Speaker 1: entire National Guard of the state to help out. UM.
Speaker 1: There's been a lot of outreach and in terms of
Speaker 1: people trying to help out. A nice job by J. J.
Speaker 1: Watt fundraising the Texans as well. UM. But what does
Speaker 1: this mean for the Houston Texans now? Uh, Greg, there's
Speaker 1: they are on they have week one uh scheduled, they
Speaker 1: have a game at home. What are they saying right now?
Speaker 1: Are we gonna be seeing the Texans in Houston? It
Speaker 1: seems impossible right now. Right now they're practicing at the
Speaker 1: Cowboys facility. They have not announced as we tape this
Speaker 1: where what they're gonna do with Thursday's preseason game. I
Speaker 1: would expect that word to come down soon whether they
Speaker 1: played in Dallas. I suppose they could just cancel the
Speaker 1: game entirely, but that seems unlikely. We've seen in the
Speaker 1: past teams play another stadiums and if Houston is not ready,
Speaker 1: And I think this this flood has been a hard
Speaker 1: thing to wrap your mind around because it's not over
Speaker 1: like I've seen some before and after shots of like
Speaker 1: what's happened. It's like it's not after. They had more
Speaker 1: rainfall last night's Sunday night than they usually have for
Speaker 1: two months at a time, and it's still going. So
Speaker 1: it's I don't think people really know because it's impossible
Speaker 1: to know the damage that's gone on and how long
Speaker 1: this this recovery is gonna take yeah, the storm has
Speaker 1: turned out back towards the Gulf of Mexico. But the
Speaker 1: flooding could actually get worse in Houston, Uh, with their
Speaker 1: flood control reservoirs and and having to release water. And
Speaker 1: it's a situation that I think, I mean, it seems
Speaker 1: like it turned into a worst case scenario from where
Speaker 1: it was on Thursday and now here we are Monday,
Speaker 1: and things are a lot lot worse than everyone uh
Speaker 1: has had realized. And uh, really you feel for those people,
Speaker 1: and you hope that this things they get some good
Speaker 1: news down there soon. I mean, yeah, the the location
Speaker 1: of a preseason football game probably one of the low
Speaker 1: wattage um angles to this. There's a lot more going
Speaker 1: on in that city than where the game will be
Speaker 1: played against them. And but for the team, they're in
Speaker 1: a really unique circumstance. For Tom Savage is talking about,
Speaker 1: you know, his seven month old baby, and his wife
Speaker 1: is there, and pretty much all of their families are
Speaker 1: in Houston, and they're separated from them because they were
Speaker 1: on the road at a preseason game. Uh. Some of
Speaker 1: the coaches I know had to evacuate their houses. I
Speaker 1: can think of I evacuated to Houston once during the hurricane,
Speaker 1: and in the place the parents house that I stayed at,
Speaker 1: parents of my friends, they they their houses flooded. Right now,
Speaker 1: his wife's house is flooded. So there's a lot of
Speaker 1: people whose lives have been totally upended. And I don't
Speaker 1: think anyone really knows where it's going. Tough to even
Speaker 1: think about the number of people that had to uproot
Speaker 1: and leave the Gulf Coast in New Orleans after Katrina
Speaker 1: and in southern Mississippi and actually relocated to Houston, who
Speaker 1: might be in the same situation now over a decade later.
Speaker 1: It's just horrible. It's crazy. And uh, Bill O'Brien, the
Speaker 1: Texans coach. Uh, here's what he had to say. Um,
Speaker 1: obviously is the coach or you're a manager, you have
Speaker 1: a lot of people that are looking to you. And
Speaker 1: here's what O'Brien had to say about the situation. You know,
Speaker 1: football is obviously important, but I think the most important
Speaker 1: thing right now is doing everything we can for our city.
Speaker 1: I will tell you right now, we're gonna dedicate this
Speaker 1: season to the city of Houston, the people of Houston. Um,
Speaker 1: you know, there are no guarantees on football. That's not
Speaker 1: what I'm here to say. But I will guarantee that
Speaker 1: this team will go out every Sunday, Monday, Thursday whenever
Speaker 1: they ask us to play, and we'll play our eyes
Speaker 1: off for the city of Houston. I promise you that.
Speaker 1: All right, So that's what's going on in Houston. Will
Speaker 1: track that, um as the week goes. All right, that's
Speaker 1: what's happening in the news, folks, And yes it is time,
Speaker 1: uh to go around. Some people say, oh, let's just
Speaker 1: go right through the content. No, no, that's not the
Speaker 1: best way to really get an idea of what's going
Speaker 1: on with each of these teams. So we go around.
Speaker 1: You could almost say we're circumventing the A f C
Speaker 1: on some level, waiting it entirely. Some level you could
Speaker 1: say that. But actually what we're doing is we're going
Speaker 1: around it so we can get the real angle on everybody.
Speaker 1: Three concentric circles fill it in kind of concentric e diagrams. Yeah, so, um,
Speaker 1: all right, So that's what we're gonna do. And here
Speaker 1: are the rules, because we can't be here all day.
Speaker 1: We got jobs. Everybody's got jobs. Clabon might get called
Speaker 1: breaking this show. That's just a fact. Sometimes it happens,
Speaker 1: absolutely could happen. So we're gonna do three minutes for
Speaker 1: each of the a f C teams for divisions, for
Speaker 1: teams in each division, four times for sixteen. Double check
Speaker 1: my math. Two teams divided by two equals six team. Okay,
Speaker 1: nailed twice. There we go, got it? So I showed
Speaker 1: my work there, Greg, And you think getting at thirty
Speaker 1: nine and a state mandated math test would shake my confidence? No,
Speaker 1: I just plug in the numbers and keep rolling. You're
Speaker 1: never too old to get better. All right, here we go,
Speaker 1: and we're gonna start with the a f C East
Speaker 1: and and Greg, I'm gonna start with the Throne of
Speaker 1: Ease we already talked about Julian Edelman. So, Erica, this
Speaker 1: is your first time doing around the a f C
Speaker 1: or and we're gonna do around the NFC on Wednesday.
Speaker 1: Don't you worry? NFC heads? Is that a thing? Uh?
Speaker 1: It's just people. It's like people they only watch NFC games.
Speaker 1: They're just like, oh, I hate the style of play
Speaker 1: in the a f C. Never watched them. So once
Speaker 1: I throw it to Greg, start the clock, and then
Speaker 1: you know, give us like a warning around the one
Speaker 1: minute Mark and then once we hit it, we're moving
Speaker 1: on to the next team. Just the heads up, it
Speaker 1: will be the zoo ser So I'm giving myself a
Speaker 1: heads up. After that, I will throw to Mark and
Speaker 1: then Clayban and then we'll just repeat going in each
Speaker 1: of all this is a little bit exciting, a little
Speaker 1: bit exciting right now, all right, here we go, New
Speaker 1: England Patriots start us off. I want to buzz something,
Speaker 1: just go all right. Their backfield right now in New England,
Speaker 1: and I this occurred to be watching their game this weekend.
Speaker 1: Dion Lewis has emerged as a big time preseason story
Speaker 1: because it looks like the old Dion Lewis is back.
Speaker 1: He has a chance to be their starter Week one.
Speaker 1: Rex Burke at has showed out well, Mike Gilliesleie is
Speaker 1: healthy again. Looks like their goal line guys gonna be
Speaker 1: a big time factor. And James White's a Super Bowl hero.
Speaker 1: I think this is the deepest backfield, the best running
Speaker 1: game that Bill Belichick and Tom Brady have ever had,
Speaker 1: and that can help mitigate the loss of Julian Edelman.
Speaker 1: And I'm looking at it as something that's gonna be
Speaker 1: different about this Patriots team that I think this running
Speaker 1: game is going to be a big time story and
Speaker 1: one of the reasons why their offense is still among
Speaker 1: the league's best. It's funny because a couple of years
Speaker 1: ago in the off season, I wrote a piece ranking
Speaker 1: NFL backfields and had someone on the Patriots tell me
Speaker 1: that out of ten he would rate his own backfield
Speaker 1: as a two or three. This is before Dion Lewis emerged.
Speaker 1: But you look now, and without Edelman on the field,
Speaker 1: I think someone like Rex Burkehead could wind up playing
Speaker 1: a major role in the passing game for them. They
Speaker 1: just have so many different guys that can do so
Speaker 1: much out of the backfield. They're just they're gonna do it.
Speaker 1: They're gonna get the production. It's just going to look different,
Speaker 1: and it's all right. They're going to be different. Think
Speaker 1: they're gonna be on the field at the same time.
Speaker 1: A lot like Gillisley will be in the backfield, one
Speaker 1: will be in the slot. And that's why, as as
Speaker 1: much as it hurts for a Patriots fantasy Edelman, because
Speaker 1: that's one of the best players, one of your favorite players,
Speaker 1: that they are deeper than they have ever been. It
Speaker 1: is you know, on paper, it's all paper. They're better
Speaker 1: than they were in two thousands. The games aren't paid
Speaker 1: paper though, Greg, You know what I mean? Greg? Yes,
Speaker 1: how about this? Can you point one area of the
Speaker 1: team that you would say you're I don't think it's
Speaker 1: a good front seven. I don't think it's a good
Speaker 1: pass rush in terms of the pass rush talent. I
Speaker 1: think it's below league average, no doubt. It's not one
Speaker 1: of the better front sevens that they've had. They've lost
Speaker 1: a lot of their their talent over the year. I
Speaker 1: don't know if they're like a a well above average defense. Um,
Speaker 1: the Coney Eely trade didn't work out, and that was
Speaker 1: another guy that maybe they hoped he would be Pastors
Speaker 1: actually signed on waivers with the Jets. Uh. Yeah. But
Speaker 1: Dean Lewis it's easy to forget now. He came back
Speaker 1: and made some noise last year, But before he blew
Speaker 1: out his knee the year before, he had emerged as
Speaker 1: this like killer option uh for Belichick in that offense.
Speaker 1: So if that's if that comes back again and he's
Speaker 1: that guy, he's gonna get a lot of work. Uber
Speaker 1: talented satellite back. Part of the reason, too, is these
Speaker 1: guys have all been there. The offensive line is is back.
Speaker 1: Hogan now has some experience there, like two of those
Speaker 1: running backs have been in their ground. It's like the
Speaker 1: continuity that McDaniels has and Brady has been in the
Speaker 1: entire same system the entire time. Well, they're basically using
Speaker 1: the Bills as a farm team too, which is annoying
Speaker 1: if you're from Buffalo. A lot of things to be
Speaker 1: admired about if you're in Buffalore. Three to one, all right,
Speaker 1: I'll go with the Dolphins. Let's talk a little Dolphins here.
Speaker 1: And you know, all the focuses on Jay Cutler in
Speaker 1: this offseason or in the summer, and right rightfully, So
Speaker 1: that's a that's a big addition following a devastating injury
Speaker 1: to your starting quarterback. But I'm gonna assume Jay Cutler
Speaker 1: is gonna be Jay Cutler, all right, and nothing in
Speaker 1: this preseason has told me otherwise. He's gonna make plays,
Speaker 1: he's gonna make mistakes, he's gonna be Jay. He's probably
Speaker 1: gonna be maybe a little better or a little worse
Speaker 1: than Ryan Tannehill. So to two points, I want to
Speaker 1: make number one. The Dolphins have the Bills and the
Speaker 1: Jets four times, and the Patriots do too, but the
Speaker 1: Dolphins do too. So this idea of the Dolphins maybe
Speaker 1: falling back now that they lost their quarterback, you're gonn
Speaker 1: to have two teams in your division in the midst
Speaker 1: of a major rebuild. Uh So I think that that's
Speaker 1: gonna really obviously help them when if they take care
Speaker 1: of business, that's four wins right off the bat. Oh
Speaker 1: my goodness. You gotta love the Dolphins for that reason alone.
Speaker 1: But here's the reason not to love the Dolphins. I
Speaker 1: don't know if you guys caught their last preseason game.
Speaker 1: They got shredded on defense. They gave up twenty eight
Speaker 1: points in the first half, and that's what most of
Speaker 1: their defensive starters playing in the game. Uh. And this
Speaker 1: is the same team that was twenty ninth overall in
Speaker 1: yards allowed last season. Uh. They've been bad throughout the
Speaker 1: preseason so far. I don't want to put too much
Speaker 1: into it, but bad defense last year, not looking good
Speaker 1: this year. Jay Cutler is there, but if they can't
Speaker 1: get stops on defense, this is gonna be a problem.
Speaker 1: How worried are we about their d mark? Well, I
Speaker 1: mean it was it was an overt concerned last year.
Speaker 1: The best case scenario for Miami is you almost take
Speaker 1: a Cowboys type approach where Jay Cutler I would say,
Speaker 1: I don't know if he's ever been on a team
Speaker 1: with more weapons around him. I mean, he's got a
Speaker 1: great trio of wide receivers, and if you're the Dolphins,
Speaker 1: you use J G I and you eat up the
Speaker 1: clock that you want to control the ground game, the
Speaker 1: possessions and keep your defense off the field as much
Speaker 1: as you can. J J I made it work last
Speaker 1: year and the spots that he played in, and so
Speaker 1: you wonder, obviously Maryan Tamihill is it doesn't bring the
Speaker 1: same opportunities that Jay Cutler does. So it's it's gonna
Speaker 1: be a totally different looking offense. But like you said, Dan,
Speaker 1: you're gonna get Jay Cutler. I don't know what for
Speaker 1: this team. Wins not any different. I think they were
Speaker 1: very fortunate to get the amount of wins. They want
Speaker 1: a lot of close games last year, they would do
Speaker 1: very well to maintain a ten win type of pace,
Speaker 1: Like I don't really see to be there at eight
Speaker 1: or nine win type of team outside of that Bill's
Speaker 1: Jets thing though their schedule has some brutal turns. They
Speaker 1: I mean they got a playoff team type schedule. I
Speaker 1: mean they have Andre Branch, Cameron Wake, William Hayes, the
Speaker 1: first round pick in Charles Harris as their past that
Speaker 1: that's pretty good. But right behind that, you're you brought in, uh,
Speaker 1: some linebackers. We'll see if Lawrence Timmins works out. You
Speaker 1: definitely have questions the secondary, Like you're right, the defense
Speaker 1: to me worries, Yeah, but they made it work last year.
Speaker 1: Maybe they'll make it work. It seems doable. Moving on,
Speaker 1: you just talked about the Jets. I have to ask
Speaker 1: with the Buffalo Bills if they are a legitimate threat
Speaker 1: to New York's at this point not secret planned to
Speaker 1: say basically chase the number one draft pick. Because I
Speaker 1: look at a roster that we even in the last
Speaker 1: couple of weeks. You see how how much they're turning
Speaker 1: this roster, how differently they want the team's identity to
Speaker 1: look than whatever they inherited from Rex Ryan. I see
Speaker 1: a quarterback that probably is in his last year starting
Speaker 1: for them, may not even finish the year as a
Speaker 1: starter for them. I see Lashawn McCoy, who could be
Speaker 1: traded by Halloween. Is this a team? It could this
Speaker 1: be the worst team in the a f c M.
Speaker 1: The way they're off there there that offense every preseason,
Speaker 1: there's one offense where you heard all off season was
Speaker 1: a dis after in practice, and then they get to
Speaker 1: the preseason they just can't make a first down and
Speaker 1: it it actually does carry over and you worry about it.
Speaker 1: And they are that offense this year and we didn't
Speaker 1: even mention Tyrod Taylor had a concussion. I started to wonder,
Speaker 1: and Bills fans are crazy. They want to start Nathan Peterman.
Speaker 1: They want to start this fifth round pick who's had
Speaker 1: a couple of flashes, but it's not like he's lighting
Speaker 1: it up in the preseason. This concussion is very weird
Speaker 1: timing wise, Like could Peterman start Week one? I thought
Speaker 1: maybe they could trade Tyrod Taylor. I was starting to
Speaker 1: think they might just dump him, but they can if
Speaker 1: he's hurt. You gotta feel for Bills fans. They're part
Speaker 1: of the sad brotherhood that they've just missed the playoffs
Speaker 1: for sixteen straight years and now they're going to go
Speaker 1: into a painful rebuild. Uh and yeah, I mean Reggie
Speaker 1: Ragland was traded today's second round pick. Uh two year
Speaker 1: or last year? Never even played it down with this
Speaker 1: team blood his knee and was being used sparingly, was
Speaker 1: on the roster bubble bubble, so he was sent to
Speaker 1: k C Mark, I believe you have the scoopage on
Speaker 1: that one, uh last month. Oh yes, that's right. You
Speaker 1: put it in trades, you see, and well you know,
Speaker 1: and it was like it was like we didn't even
Speaker 1: know how to make this story a headline. It was
Speaker 1: like potential logical trades that couldn't make sense for some teams,
Speaker 1: and it was, you know, somewhat of a laughing stock.
Speaker 1: But then I nailed it. Yeah, so what do you
Speaker 1: think about that Navy Brandon being there? GM was reading
Speaker 1: and uh, there you go, that's a pretty good idea. No, no,
Speaker 1: you would not. Then you would not want them to be,
Speaker 1: you know, sourcing their team plans off of like a
Speaker 1: blogger on NFL dot com. They can't do that when
Speaker 1: they've got a giant board and said things Doug Waley
Speaker 1: did and they're just marking off I mean, I mean,
Speaker 1: for for an organization that had so much patience a
Speaker 1: Doug Walley, I mean, now they're not making any any
Speaker 1: bones about it. They're just stripping his legacy completely. It
Speaker 1: is a defensive coach with some talent on defense, and
Speaker 1: their defense is look great in the preseason. It's worth
Speaker 1: mentioning and that they have some players. Marcel Darius got
Speaker 1: sent home over the weekend, but he's there still. Jerry
Speaker 1: Hughes had a great preseason. They love their rookie cornerback
Speaker 1: got Avius White like they could be a You have
Speaker 1: to hope that. The hope is that the ownership, which
Speaker 1: is said has been a lot of tumult own under
Speaker 1: that ownership group in Buffalo that they said to the
Speaker 1: coach and GM, we realize it's gonna get worse. You
Speaker 1: have a chance. You have a chance. You're not gonna
Speaker 1: pull the plug on you guys in two seasons. Don't
Speaker 1: undermine tyre r. Please to answer your question, I don't
Speaker 1: think they're the worst team in the NFC, but their
Speaker 1: bottom Speaking of go hey, let's talk about the Jets.
Speaker 1: Um So, the last time the Jets won five games,
Speaker 1: it was back in nineteen sixty five. They were in
Speaker 1: the a f L. Do you guys know what happened
Speaker 1: the year after that? Uh? Lass time they won five games.
Speaker 1: They won the Super Bowl the next year, No, they
Speaker 1: won six games. Keep yeah, keep hope alive. No. I
Speaker 1: think they drafted Joe Namath around then, didn't they. Yeah?
Speaker 1: Sometimes around the things things got good. There's hope. There's hope.
Speaker 1: Shout out to dance Dad. There's there's good news. Uh
Speaker 1: there the battle for the Snoopy Trophy, which I found
Speaker 1: out was an actual trophy. Bro It's a real thing.
Speaker 1: Um So Hackenburg looked horrible. Bryce Petty came in and
Speaker 1: led this miraculous comeback. So then of course Bryce Petty
Speaker 1: gets hurt. He's gonna be out for four weeks. Now
Speaker 1: he'll be okay, Let'll be okay. Heckenburga comes back in
Speaker 1: and then they ultimately lose. But so now we get
Speaker 1: Josh McCown. And when I think about this Jets team,
Speaker 1: and as Mark intimated the efforts to obtain the number
Speaker 1: one overall pick, I think of a fictional baseball team
Speaker 1: that the ownership did not want them to win, but
Speaker 1: they rallied around an aging veteran. Josh McCown is Jake Taylor,
Speaker 1: and he's gonna come in bomber moment in the locker
Speaker 1: room and says, nothing left to do now but win
Speaker 1: the whole thing. Wow, there you go. So you're saying
Speaker 1: that Jash mccount is gonna channel Tom Berenger in a
Speaker 1: big spot. Yes, not like Berenger, though, there's at least
Speaker 1: a little part of Dan that suddenly just woke up
Speaker 1: and was like, you never know, Well, you never know,
Speaker 1: you never know, you never know. I know. In fact,
Speaker 1: the the Bryce Petty did light it up against the Giants,
Speaker 1: the third and fourth stringers. That was nice to see
Speaker 1: through three touchdown passes and then of course Bryce Petty
Speaker 1: always gets hurt, he gets rolled up on. But that's
Speaker 1: just a minor spring. I think he even practiced today,
Speaker 1: so he should be ready for week one. Um, and
Speaker 1: he is going to I think get uh the most
Speaker 1: starts on this team. That's what I think. That's how
Speaker 1: things have changed now. I think McCown was named starter
Speaker 1: today obviously, Christian Hackenburg is I think after another dead
Speaker 1: on arrival performance, I think his window is shut. You
Speaker 1: don't need to evaluate him again. Yeah, I think I
Speaker 1: think that's the way they this Thursday. I mean, he'll
Speaker 1: play Thursday again. I think the writings on the wall though.
Speaker 1: That's just the way it seems to me. And Bol
Speaker 1: said something on Monday praising Petty which seemed to be
Speaker 1: sending a message that he's kind of setting the table
Speaker 1: here because you know, h McCown is not going to
Speaker 1: play more than eight games this year. I think Hackenburg's done.
Speaker 1: I think Hackenburg, if he was drafted where Petty was drafted,
Speaker 1: would not make this team. And watching that game, this
Speaker 1: wasn't like the normal developmental bumps. This is watching quarterback
Speaker 1: play that you just don't normally see in the NFL
Speaker 1: because the players are just better, you know, Like he's
Speaker 1: so overwhelmed that I wouldn't shock me if they just
Speaker 1: cut him, if they just decide, let's release him right now,
Speaker 1: if mccag can have the moving on to the a
Speaker 1: f C North. A lot of negativity around the old
Speaker 1: Ravens this offseason, well, a lot of injuries and we've
Speaker 1: been talking about no one's had any worse sluck. But
Speaker 1: I think this Ravens team is sneaky confident because they
Speaker 1: have a bunch of young defensive players that I think
Speaker 1: not a lot of big names. Taias Bowser, a rookie,
Speaker 1: Brent Earth, Uh Matthew, Judean, Uh, Michael Pierce, all these
Speaker 1: guys that are are kind of no names, and there's
Speaker 1: other the stars are still there. They're in the secondary
Speaker 1: and they got thrilled Sucks. All these guys when you
Speaker 1: add them all up, there suddenly very young and they
Speaker 1: kind of came up together and they're fast. And I
Speaker 1: think we're gonna be looking at some old early two
Speaker 1: thousands Ravens style game, not that they're the two thousands
Speaker 1: raven defense, but we're gonna be seeing some twelve to
Speaker 1: nine ugly games that remind you of Kyle Bowler and
Speaker 1: that the Ravens could still be pretty good winning games
Speaker 1: like that, like the old Ravens. Shot out Kyle Bowler,
Speaker 1: Big Bowler, shout out in the big spot. Hey, justin
Speaker 1: Tucks still in the building. And I believe I think
Speaker 1: this is a team that can win nine or ten
Speaker 1: games for sure. Well I feel that way about the
Speaker 1: Ravens every year because they've they've had a few, um,
Speaker 1: you know, total stink job regular seasons, but that was
Speaker 1: typically tied to injuries. You have to look at that
Speaker 1: offense though it's it's it's possible, but that we're in
Speaker 1: a different NFL than than year two thousand two. The
Speaker 1: league has vastly changed. And this formula where Tucker is
Speaker 1: gonna hit five field goals a game and they're gonna
Speaker 1: win fifteen thirteen, A lot has to happen for that
Speaker 1: kind of thing to play out, Like if Flacco's back,
Speaker 1: injury becomes an extenuating thing that goes on. And it
Speaker 1: hasn't practiced, big problems in Baltimore. I mean, you're gonna
Speaker 1: would be you main only be giving up twenty points
Speaker 1: a game, nineteen points a game, but how are you
Speaker 1: going to score them? And then the offense wasn't exactly
Speaker 1: humming with Joe Flacco last year, right, Nope. And he
Speaker 1: said this weekend Harbough that Flacco would definitely be back,
Speaker 1: But it's getting close, like a week and half away.
Speaker 1: He hasn't practiced foot I don't trust any I kind
Speaker 1: of stopped listening to them talk about the Flacco in
Speaker 1: general by the waits Perriman had who I was excited
Speaker 1: about this season. I don't know why he hasn't practiced
Speaker 1: in a month either, So that they're they're pretty thin.
Speaker 1: Ryan Mallett continues to confound me that they have not
Speaker 1: gone out and gotten another quarterback. Are you hinting at
Speaker 1: a certain quarterback that they haven't got out and got
Speaker 1: Colin Kaepernick. Yeah, that would be the one, because to
Speaker 1: the point where they talked to him and stuff, you
Speaker 1: think they really sounded it really sounded like the coaching
Speaker 1: staff and possibly the front office wanted him. It's gross
Speaker 1: negligence if this turns into a situation where Ryan Mallett
Speaker 1: starts through September and they decided to just take a
Speaker 1: chance that Joe Flacco's back was going to get clearly
Speaker 1: they thought would be better by now, even if they
Speaker 1: haven't said that. But if Malad ends up starting multiple games, yeah,
Speaker 1: you almost give yourself no chance to win. You play
Speaker 1: the Bengals, Browns and Steelers in the first month, and
Speaker 1: if you don't have, if you don't have, and it
Speaker 1: could be so frustrating because of Jimmy Smith and Eric
Speaker 1: Weddle and Tony Jefferson, because they're gonna be so good
Speaker 1: and yet they still might not be able to get wins.
Speaker 1: Don't say anything. Doesn't know how to build an offense, right, Well,
Speaker 1: he didn't. He didn't go out and personally injure the
Speaker 1: twelve players they've lost in the preseason. The Pittsburgh Steelers. Okay,
Speaker 1: so the Steelers are really there's there's slow playing their
Speaker 1: their opponents on this preseason Schales, you haven't seen anything.
Speaker 1: Big Ben's rarely played a lot of dinkin Doug stuff,
Speaker 1: and they're mostly recent preseason game. Forgot about that though.
Speaker 1: When the lights go up, you're gonna have left bell.
Speaker 1: Who's gonna report in a couple of days. Uh Martavis
Speaker 1: Bryant rejoining Antonio Brown on the outside. I have no
Speaker 1: reason to think that Martavis won't be an immediate playmaker there.
Speaker 1: Uh So my question is who's gonna stop this team
Speaker 1: in a healthy stay eight from putting up thirty points
Speaker 1: a game? And we were were bullish about the steam before.
Speaker 1: Bryan's has spentioned last year. Now with all the pieces intact,
Speaker 1: who's gonna stop them? How about this? Nobody until, like
Speaker 1: every other season, Pittsburgh finds itself in the divisional game
Speaker 1: of the a f C playoffs and they stopped themselves.
Speaker 1: I don't. I think we've been asking this question about
Speaker 1: the Steelers relevantly for years. It's like who who outside
Speaker 1: of Pittsburgh is their worst? I guess my point is,
Speaker 1: leave Bell seems to always get hurt at the worst time.
Speaker 1: Bryant wasn't there at all. I'm just from let's say
Speaker 1: you're an apt optimistic Steelers fans saying, Okay, all the
Speaker 1: pieces are there. What if these guys do stay on
Speaker 1: the field. This is this is the season the Tomlin
Speaker 1: has turned it over, turned the defense over from le
Speaker 1: Beau to Keith Butler, and they have a young defense
Speaker 1: that I think is primed like this is kind of
Speaker 1: Tomlin's defense. You're not gonna get left Bell, Antonio Brown,
Speaker 1: Roethlisberger and Briant all in their primes together all at once.
Speaker 1: I don't know, if you know, we're not sure if
Speaker 1: Big Ben still his prime right now. He's got to
Speaker 1: show that X don't have that mid season swoon where
Speaker 1: you lose to the Browns and the and the Bills
Speaker 1: back to back in weeks five and six. We see
Speaker 1: these guys and we see them individually, and the idea
Speaker 1: is once they're all there together, then suddenly there's going
Speaker 1: to be all the points are going to happen at
Speaker 1: the same time. But the issue is that there's only
Speaker 1: one football and a lot of times Antonio Brown was
Speaker 1: getting all those balls because he was really the only option,
Speaker 1: and so I'm not exactly sure it leads to good
Speaker 1: defensive line, though that can make up for a lot.
Speaker 1: I mean that can n this is the goal and
Speaker 1: then getting at mark your point, I think this is
Speaker 1: the goal of stairs. You cannot you can't control injuries,
Speaker 1: but you you cannot go into one of these mid
Speaker 1: season funks which takes you into the spot where you
Speaker 1: end up ten and six, eleven and five. You need
Speaker 1: to play up to your potential and so when you
Speaker 1: get to that divisional playoff game, it's in your building.
Speaker 1: They cannot go to Foxborough again because we've seen the script.
Speaker 1: You need to find out a way and find a
Speaker 1: way to have a better record than the Patriots in
Speaker 1: the regular season. Otherwise I feel like you're gonna go
Speaker 1: down the same road again when the when the lights
Speaker 1: are on in January. I I really think that even
Speaker 1: though we've made fun of Broethlisberger from the beginning for
Speaker 1: his retirement, whispers and questions, that this potentially could be
Speaker 1: the end Hayward to its free cesir. This is the team.
Speaker 1: They always act like they're like we're one of the
Speaker 1: franchises like this is the year go have one of
Speaker 1: those Fife Cordell Stewart seasons or one Rosburger type of season.
Speaker 1: So that's what you should have. This team can take
Speaker 1: out the Patriots. Mark Sessler. Oh, it's how to talk
Speaker 1: your team, all right. Well, when it comes to Cleveland
Speaker 1: all preseason, let's talk about the quarterback situation over and
Speaker 1: over and over. The biggest difference that I've observed with
Speaker 1: this team compared to the past literally since they have
Speaker 1: somehow figured out how to tackle players on the opposite team.
Speaker 1: I have never seen this before in Cleveland, and I
Speaker 1: I do also think that not that they were game planning,
Speaker 1: that they took this preseason very seriously. They wanted to
Speaker 1: be where they're at three and oh and show culturally
Speaker 1: we can start to expect to win. So maybe they
Speaker 1: were doing a little more game planning on defense and
Speaker 1: some of this is a result of that. Forget the
Speaker 1: quarterback business. Do we believe that Cleveland's defense there is
Speaker 1: talent here, maybe is beginning to turn a corner or
Speaker 1: is it a mirage that gets found out in Week
Speaker 1: one when you play Pittsburgh. It's not a mirage. I
Speaker 1: mean Myles Garrett is a spectacular football player, and we
Speaker 1: saw him get triple teamed at times over this past weekend. Um,
Speaker 1: they've got guys that can make plays. Not sure how
Speaker 1: Peppers is going to translate. He's looked good. Yeah, he
Speaker 1: was able to get Jamis Um. So it's it's uh,
Speaker 1: it's it's weird that Myles Garrett being a total beast
Speaker 1: in the preseason, one of for what it's worth, PFF's
Speaker 1: top rated players in the preseason that's been a little
Speaker 1: under the radar that like, hey, this number one pick
Speaker 1: is absolutely looking like a number one pick. Maybe no
Speaker 1: want it? You know, the same way with Clowney when
Speaker 1: he came in with such expectations. Yeah, I think they're
Speaker 1: more talented. They're a lot more talented this year. And
Speaker 1: you can't if you have, like Joey Bosa showed last year,
Speaker 1: how how that could have a transformation, transformative effect on
Speaker 1: a defense, if you have a guy that's an instant
Speaker 1: impact guy. I wouldn't put really anything into their three
Speaker 1: in and O record. I get the logic of it,
Speaker 1: and also the tackling thing. Uh, that's good that they
Speaker 1: seem fundamentally sound, but I really want to see them
Speaker 1: win a game that matters in September, because I think
Speaker 1: if they just win their opening game or or even
Speaker 1: split those first two games, all that stuff gets washed open.
Speaker 1: The game is Pittsburgh, and we just announced them as
Speaker 1: the team that can have a theory that Greg Williams
Speaker 1: stick works best. Early in his tenure. I believe they
Speaker 1: might have won the super Bowl in his first season
Speaker 1: in New Orleans, especially with like a young team who
Speaker 1: kind of buys what he's in, is a little scared
Speaker 1: of him, you know what I'm saying. So I think
Speaker 1: that's the time when Greg Williams message. So Cleveland's window
Speaker 1: begins now. Right now, we haven't even mentioned de Shaun
Speaker 1: Kaiser is the week one starter, and you are buy
Speaker 1: an incessler right now. You said don't talk about the quarterback,
Speaker 1: but give me a break. I am buying in. I mean,
Speaker 1: I think that you know number one, this is the
Speaker 1: guy you have to evaluate before next year's draft. And
Speaker 1: and it's why waste time on brock Oswiler. That never
Speaker 1: felt right to make. You said that this team is
Speaker 1: gonna be A and A on your Twitter. I could see,
Speaker 1: I can I could see him going Nate Nate the
Speaker 1: I mean, that would be huge human Browns just to
Speaker 1: get there. And it was a anti Browns thing to
Speaker 1: do to to not go with brock Os Widler. And
Speaker 1: that's another positive sign of things are a little different
Speaker 1: right now. It looks like a real quarter. Greg the
Speaker 1: buzzer sounded Screw the Bengals. Screw the Bengals. The headline
Speaker 1: for the Bengals discussion. By the way, Claiman continuing to
Speaker 1: make his power playing Chris westling seat wants to tuck
Speaker 1: Cincinnati had Patrick um and into west of his Perhaps, Uh,
Speaker 1: they had real problems on the opposive line last year.
Speaker 1: So Andrew Worth was spectacular, leaves to go to l
Speaker 1: A and Kevin Zeisler goes to the Browns, And so
Speaker 1: what do they do? They they're they're going with the
Speaker 1: rest of the guys that they drafted in the past,
Speaker 1: and we don't really know a lot about the guys
Speaker 1: that are gonna play on the offensive line. And that's
Speaker 1: a real question. Uh, John Ross comes in, Joe Mixon.
Speaker 1: You think a J. Green is gonna be healthy. But
Speaker 1: if Andy Dalton doesn't have time to get the ball
Speaker 1: deep to John Ross or to a J. Green, what's
Speaker 1: it gonna be, what's the future going to be for
Speaker 1: not just the team, But at the end of this,
Speaker 1: does Marvin Lewis decide, you know, this has been fun guys, um,
Speaker 1: I'm done with this? And does the team move on
Speaker 1: from Andy Dalton? There's a lot of questions uh to
Speaker 1: be determined about the Bengals long term from this season.
Speaker 1: Dalton was not protected well last year when they did
Speaker 1: have those guys on the line. I mean he he was,
Speaker 1: He was battered around and the sack count was ridiculous,
Speaker 1: and son, you lose him, I think, you know, we
Speaker 1: spent a lot of the offseason talking about that line.
Speaker 1: What is hopeful to me and why I think that
Speaker 1: you could prevent all this uh turnover, is that what
Speaker 1: they've did, what they've added on offense makes them a
Speaker 1: completely different cre Asian than what they were in the past.
Speaker 1: I mean mixing and if Ross pays off, but Mixing
Speaker 1: to me looks like he is going to be a
Speaker 1: fantastic How about sixteen games of Tyler Eiffort, right, the connections, Yeah, well,
Speaker 1: he's gonna stay healthy. But the connection that Dalton had,
Speaker 1: I thought that that was the main difference in terms
Speaker 1: of making Andy Dalton a really good quarterback two years
Speaker 1: ago is that he formed this deadly red zone threat
Speaker 1: with Eiffort. I think he had something like thirteen touchdowns
Speaker 1: before Dalton went down. And if you get healthy A J. Green,
Speaker 1: I feel like I really do like the Bengals. I'm
Speaker 1: not an offensive line expert. I don't know how that
Speaker 1: unit's gonna look when Week one starts, but if they
Speaker 1: are just proficient, as long as they are not a
Speaker 1: major liability, I think that this team could threaten in
Speaker 1: that division. I think like eleven win season and I
Speaker 1: think they're a playoff team. I'm with you. I think
Speaker 1: they're a playoff team and trusting those tackles to rise up.
Speaker 1: We'll see if it works. But that's what the Bengals do.
Speaker 1: Football Outsiders had a great article about them that they
Speaker 1: have more of their own homegrown players on their team
Speaker 1: than any team in the NFL. That's what they do.
Speaker 1: They draft their players, they keep it. They're kind of
Speaker 1: zigging while the rest of the NFL is zagging in
Speaker 1: terms of free agency. They truly are a draft and
Speaker 1: developed team. Their secondary they've got first rounders barely even
Speaker 1: played for them. Darkus Denard and William Jackson is now
Speaker 1: coming up. I think the Perfect injury or the suspension
Speaker 1: really really hurts them. He's kind of the centerpiece, and
Speaker 1: if West was here, he would want me to mention
Speaker 1: that Perfect deserves it because he's the dirtiest player in
Speaker 1: NFL history. According to all Right, halfway through the game,
Speaker 1: I just want we should just why don't we throw
Speaker 1: out we're all we all got the Patriots in the
Speaker 1: a f C East, right, Yeah? Yeah, comfortably. I don't
Speaker 1: think any of us. Do we see the Dolphins going
Speaker 1: back to the playoffs. I don't know. I don't personally,
Speaker 1: I wouldn't shock me. Um. And then in the North,
Speaker 1: where do we all stand on a division? When I'm
Speaker 1: gonna go with the Steelers personally, I'm just curious for
Speaker 1: you guys. I like the Steelers to go deep and
Speaker 1: then the Bengals to make the playoffs with you. I
Speaker 1: think that that that feels right, Man's a f C
Speaker 1: North feels like the same thing to me. Over and
Speaker 1: over standing, do you have to go? Yeah? I was
Speaker 1: gonna run down and do an update. Apparently we've got
Speaker 1: a solution in the Thursday preseason game. All right, So
Speaker 1: there you go, a little breaking news from Patrick Claiban.
Speaker 1: He's gonna put his headset up. We're gonna continue on.
Speaker 1: We're gonna soldier on and and we'll start before we
Speaker 1: do that, before we move to the second half of
Speaker 1: our a f C and forty eight minutes. New Era
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Speaker 1: here we go. Uh, we'll start with the a f
Speaker 1: C South, Greg get us going with the defending division
Speaker 1: chant watching the preseason. If I did a power rankings
Speaker 1: of the worst offensive lines, should not really be a
Speaker 1: big metrics scrap. I don't think, uh, Houston's under the
Speaker 1: radar here, Tom Savage, Deshaun Watson, they have had absolutely
Speaker 1: no time at all. No one seems to remember that
Speaker 1: their left tackled Dayne Brown has been holding out. I
Speaker 1: went like googling for articles about it. No one has
Speaker 1: written about Dwayne Brown, even in Houston for the last
Speaker 1: month for some reason. It's just I guess they expect
Speaker 1: that he'll be back. But even when he gets back,
Speaker 1: it is a rough looking group on paper, and I
Speaker 1: do worry for Savage or Watson, who under the radar
Speaker 1: had a had a quite an up and down preseason
Speaker 1: that just was typical for a rookie, but he did
Speaker 1: not look ready to play. I think these quarterbacks are
Speaker 1: in a really tough spot, really thin. That wide receiver
Speaker 1: you got DeAndre Hopkins and really no one else and
Speaker 1: a pretty poor offensive line like that is a recipe
Speaker 1: to me for this offense to be just as bad
Speaker 1: as it was for Brock as other Maybe the quarterbacks
Speaker 1: are a little better, but I'm not sure if the
Speaker 1: offense is really going to be much and they're not
Speaker 1: noticeably better. And I realized in that Saturday night game
Speaker 1: that Houston didn't have a flood of starters in there.
Speaker 1: I mean, no starting there's top three whitelets, but they
Speaker 1: looked ghastly. Was a bad performance. It was bad football,
Speaker 1: and if you're Houston, you spent all offseason with this
Speaker 1: quarterback battle. These are the kinds of teams where they're
Speaker 1: gonna play two, if not three quarterbacks this season. They're
Speaker 1: all gonna play. They're all we're gonna see you know,
Speaker 1: we know O'Brien. You think you think they're going to
Speaker 1: Brandon Wheaton, Well, I think you could. You could, you
Speaker 1: could if you well, because because if it becomes some
Speaker 1: sort of a mash unit by the end of the year,
Speaker 1: you never know. I mean, it's it just feels like
Speaker 1: every season under O'Brien he's forced to play more than
Speaker 1: even two quarterbacks. All Right. The counter there is that, Okay,
Speaker 1: the Texans aren't a perfect team, but this is not
Speaker 1: a perfect division, and especially with Andrew lux uh situation
Speaker 1: up in the air. I know people, a lot of
Speaker 1: people think the Titans are ready to make this the
Speaker 1: next step up. But I think the Texans, on the
Speaker 1: strike of nothing else other than j. J. Watt and
Speaker 1: Jeneveon Clowney potentially finally ready uh to both just kill
Speaker 1: it together. At the same time, I think their defense
Speaker 1: still has that ability to win games. The offense isn't
Speaker 1: gonna score a lot of points, but I think O'Brien
Speaker 1: and I know he's not a super popular figure. Uh,
Speaker 1: he seems to get the most out of his team,
Speaker 1: So I think he'll find a way because it seems
Speaker 1: like the Texans always do yes on that it's the
Speaker 1: right division to be in. If you want to go
Speaker 1: nine and seven and be a division warner, that's a
Speaker 1: great argument to receive the playoffs. It'll be interesting. It's
Speaker 1: impossible to know how to impact the team on the field.
Speaker 1: But the the hurricane, I mean the flood rather, it's
Speaker 1: gonna be something that really shapes this season for them.
Speaker 1: We'll see how long that they're away from home, and
Speaker 1: they're already said they're playing for the city, and there's
Speaker 1: gonna be a lot of emotions and families effected. I
Speaker 1: don't I don't know what that means, but I'm with
Speaker 1: you on Watton Clowney. I can't remember being more excited
Speaker 1: to watch a duo of defensive lineman play together in
Speaker 1: in my what's better than what? In Clowney, I like
Speaker 1: that Craig coming strong, the Indianapolis cults or the Indianapolis cults.
Speaker 1: Some other people say, all right, so let's talk about it.
Speaker 1: Claib already play about his back after only missing one team.
Speaker 1: We did, we did the ad read Claibin while you
Speaker 1: were gone. But still yeah, sorry, bro, yeah we are.
Speaker 1: What's the news. We thought that we had an update
Speaker 1: on the solution. It turns out the newsroom has just
Speaker 1: given up on getting an update from the NFL whether
Speaker 1: this game and that's okay, all right, let's start with
Speaker 1: the Cults. Okay, so we know the situation. We know
Speaker 1: the situation that we don't know the situation Andrew Luck
Speaker 1: is he gonna be ready for the start of season.
Speaker 1: It increasingly feels like he won't be, even though we
Speaker 1: haven't been given any official word. Scott Tolzene under center.
Speaker 1: Three first downs and a total three points in the
Speaker 1: first two games. That's Hackenburgh esque. Uh. They were a
Speaker 1: little better against the Steelers. They scored a touchdown, they
Speaker 1: had seven for us down so there was some progress.
Speaker 1: So here's here's the big question for me if the
Speaker 1: Colts have any chance this year. First of all, Luck's
Speaker 1: got to come back sooner withouther than later. But their
Speaker 1: schedule is somewhat favorable. In the first month at Rams
Speaker 1: home against Cardinals, home to Browns, at Seahawks home to
Speaker 1: forty nine is not a cake walk, but not a
Speaker 1: tough schedule. Can they survive for a month if let's
Speaker 1: say that's how long we're missing luck, because it's all hypothetical,
Speaker 1: I'll just throw a month out there, Clay, Okay, they can't. Uh,
Speaker 1: the Titans are going to be better. The somebody out
Speaker 1: in the West is going to make a push for
Speaker 1: the wild It's it's the options for the Colts with
Speaker 1: no Luck for a month or zero. To me, the
Speaker 1: options are that the rest of the a f C
Speaker 1: South is bad if that happens. I don't think that
Speaker 1: will happen, but that they that one in three doesn't
Speaker 1: kill you. That he maybe he comes back, he misses
Speaker 1: four games there, one in three, and he can at
Speaker 1: least fight to bring them back into the mix. If
Speaker 1: you're Chris Ballard, I mean, I thought he did a
Speaker 1: lot of good things this offseason. They've had some terrible luck.
Speaker 1: The whole situation with Andrew Luck if you if you know,
Speaker 1: the whole point was to make this team not so
Speaker 1: dependent simply on Luck alone, that you'd have to be
Speaker 1: more around him. And it feels like it's almost never
Speaker 1: been more in this direction. That because with the quarterback. Well, right,
Speaker 1: but it's like other teams lose quarterbacks. Like this team
Speaker 1: could go two and fourteen if they didn't have Luck
Speaker 1: in the lineup. I mean, you put Derek Anderson or
Speaker 1: whoever a good backup quarterback on that team, and I
Speaker 1: think they would have a chance. But they have so
Speaker 1: many question They're gonna be starting seven or eight new
Speaker 1: guys on the defense too. They they have injury, you
Speaker 1: know they have injury. Their their center is injured. Jack
Speaker 1: Muhor is injured right now, that they've got all sorts
Speaker 1: of issues that Luck's not even the only one. Let's
Speaker 1: say he does miss that first month five games and
Speaker 1: they go on the tank, and he's are you gonna
Speaker 1: rush Andrew Luck back? If you if you put yourself
Speaker 1: in a really bad position early in the season, they
Speaker 1: and I'd be worried, or Chuck Pogano about my job
Speaker 1: because you've essentially you're on your second chance in Indianapolis,
Speaker 1: And it's a very questionable if he stays there all year,
Speaker 1: if they really die, but he keeps them afloat, it'll
Speaker 1: be his best coaching job. Now he's done some fire
Speaker 1: and brimstone speeches already, where he's like he's he's like
Speaker 1: no more. They had a big headline no more and
Speaker 1: Mr Nice Guy and they had Chuck you know, kind
Speaker 1: of yelled at his team, and they did respond with
Speaker 1: a nice preseason game. I don't know if that means anything.
Speaker 1: This schedule they have could not be easier if you
Speaker 1: even look past the first month. So who knows told
Speaker 1: me and got sucked into another terrible interception. Ryan Shayzy
Speaker 1: Are just completely had him walk into an easy pick.
Speaker 1: You could just see that happening a lot if he's
Speaker 1: gonna put. I mean, the Colts probably see the Browns
Speaker 1: and think, oh, that's a Winna book game. But now
Speaker 1: the Colts are the team that the race again, looking
Speaker 1: at everyone's looking at and say, hey, we got the
Speaker 1: Colts win. Mark Seler, you're up, all right, Let's go
Speaker 1: to Jacksonville. Two basic questions. And we we've talked about
Speaker 1: the Jacksonville Jaguars so much and to me feels like
Speaker 1: nothing's changed at all. But to the one question here,
Speaker 1: do the Jaguars have any idea what they want to be?
Speaker 1: Part two? And after another hope off season, is this
Speaker 1: already a lost year in Jacksonville? No, not yet, but
Speaker 1: it's it has the marks of it. I don't like
Speaker 1: to say that because that fan base us the identity
Speaker 1: was your first question. I think they might, which is
Speaker 1: give the ball to Leonard four Nette twenty plus times,
Speaker 1: take the ball out of the quarterbacks hands. Which it's
Speaker 1: not just hinting, it's not just oh, we're picking this
Speaker 1: up from watching preseason games. The head coach said, we
Speaker 1: do not want to throw the ball ever. Now does
Speaker 1: that work? No, But that's what they're going to try
Speaker 1: to do. And exactly just let everybody know. Maybe he's
Speaker 1: all setting everybody up, but he's gonna throw it fifty
Speaker 1: times a game. I don't know. But the defense, Greg
Speaker 1: tell me I'm right or I'm wrong. The defense was
Speaker 1: actually pretty good last year. And if that defense takes
Speaker 1: the next step and four nets of the real deal,
Speaker 1: maybe they can win some of these close games again
Speaker 1: in a bad division. I mean, they were featured in
Speaker 1: two thousand seventeens making the leap. This defense. I believe
Speaker 1: it's the top ten group, partly because the Klais Campbell
Speaker 1: Man he had a monster game in in their last
Speaker 1: preseason game, dominated the couple of quarters that he played.
Speaker 1: You add him to a lot of talent around him,
Speaker 1: making a leap an entity with a flawless track record.
Speaker 1: So if you're a Jaguars fan, just sit back and
Speaker 1: enjoy it. Went with a new strategy this year, just
Speaker 1: went for four groups, so it would be really easy
Speaker 1: to keep track of whether we got him right or not.
Speaker 1: At what point does does Brandon Allen not become a
Speaker 1: part of the conversation. I just I wonder seeing Chad
Speaker 1: Hinny and Blake Bordles and what they do. Um, it's
Speaker 1: it's perhaps time. This is the Vegas who consider Allen
Speaker 1: the Vegas prediction ever, But something's gonna happen here this weekend.
Speaker 1: There's gonna be some big trades. I don't know if
Speaker 1: it'll be the Jaguars necessarily, but it wouldn't surprise me.
Speaker 1: Between the Jaguars, the Jets, the Rates, the Ravens, and
Speaker 1: the Colts, I feel like there's cards left to be played,
Speaker 1: not just Kaepernick, but just things we don't even see coming. Well.
Speaker 1: I think we talked about potentially Bordles heading out and
Speaker 1: Kaepernick heading in in Jacksonville. There's still time for that
Speaker 1: to be correct. Very interesting. Yeah, we didn't even we
Speaker 1: haven't even talk since they announced them as starter, which
Speaker 1: seems Blake Bortles is their week started. I don't I
Speaker 1: don't understand how they reached that decision. I don't know.
Speaker 1: In general, the preseason used to make a lot of
Speaker 1: sense the way it was structured. And now whether from
Speaker 1: how much teams are playing their guys to now you're
Speaker 1: starting your guy in week three and then not making
Speaker 1: your week one started, things are changing, and I don't
Speaker 1: like what things change. Like, Henny played fine in that game,
Speaker 1: not great. Bordles certainly didn't play greatly through it. He
Speaker 1: had a terrible first drive and a bad interception on
Speaker 1: its decision. If you throw a touchdown against the fourth
Speaker 1: strength defense at the end of the game, that does
Speaker 1: not mean that you should now be the starting quarterback.
Speaker 1: What kind of coaching I think They mentioned his mobility
Speaker 1: with the reason, which is a nod to their lousy
Speaker 1: offensive line. Alright, claibon, finish out the division. Alright, So
Speaker 1: we've discussed Blake Bortles, Tom Savage, and Scott Tolzine. Marcus
Speaker 1: Mariona kind of seems to be the outlier in that
Speaker 1: group of guys, and you look over on the other side.
Speaker 1: At the defense, the front seven is largely intact. But
Speaker 1: they go out and they get Logan Ryan. And if
Speaker 1: Logan Ryan can get the calls that he used to
Speaker 1: get in New England, he can be the guy that
Speaker 1: makes plays if he can be grabby um as he
Speaker 1: was allowed to be there. Jonathan Cyprian, they harvest him
Speaker 1: from Jacksonville, comes over, gets four years, five million dollars,
Speaker 1: and so eventually they're still gonna have some problems. Mariota
Speaker 1: is at some point going to throw an interception in
Speaker 1: the red zone. That streak is gonna die, and we're
Speaker 1: all gonna be sad when it happens. But Jack Cocklin
Speaker 1: had that the best rookie year from for an offensive alignement.
Speaker 1: UM Eric Decker is is going to come in and
Speaker 1: be a difference maker for Mariota that he hasn't seen before,
Speaker 1: Like we haven't had Marcus with that guy other than
Speaker 1: a Delaney Walker, but now we have somebody that can
Speaker 1: play on the outside move into the slot. UM. I
Speaker 1: really see so many paths in the division, but the
Speaker 1: most path I see wind up with the Titans winning it.
Speaker 1: The one thing I like about Tennessee owner John Robinson
Speaker 1: is that I just asked about the Jaguars. There's no
Speaker 1: question what the Titans want their identity to be, and
Speaker 1: they've done a good job in quick order of making
Speaker 1: that a reality versus something they just talked about. And
Speaker 1: it's weird. It's a weird feeling in Nashville. But this
Speaker 1: has to be viewed as if they if they can
Speaker 1: operate and improve and and and live up to their potential,
Speaker 1: this is their division. That's that's something that also veteran
Speaker 1: teams that do that year after year know it how
Speaker 1: attacked that those expectations. It's just a question of Tennessee
Speaker 1: can get it done with so many young players on
Speaker 1: the team. The two things that I I want to see, One,
Speaker 1: can Marcus Mariota stay healthy, which we haven't seen in
Speaker 1: the first two years. And number two, if you remember
Speaker 1: this time last year and the Titans were the team
Speaker 1: that everyone was pumping up in this division, and then
Speaker 1: they came out and they kind of laid an egg
Speaker 1: and it took them a while to get going, and
Speaker 1: then eventually they did and they finished nine and seven.
Speaker 1: But even then with that nine and seven finish, the
Speaker 1: game that Mariota got hurt, they were kind of taking
Speaker 1: a game not on purpose against the Jaguars where they
Speaker 1: got beat bad to basically ruin their their season. So
Speaker 1: I want to see this team kind of put it
Speaker 1: all together because it didn't happen. Lest you're despite the
Speaker 1: positive strides, the secondary I believe has been a huge
Speaker 1: problem for a long time and so they had addressed
Speaker 1: it aggressively. But those don't always work. Like Logan Ryan too,
Speaker 1: he he had a rough first Priests game. Not gonna
Speaker 1: get crazy about that. He's not a number one cornerback.
Speaker 1: To me, Door Jackson is an undersized guy who Mike
Speaker 1: Glennan shredded on Sunday and really picked on in his
Speaker 1: starting for that team. Lashawn Simms is another guy they
Speaker 1: might start, So to me, they have questions. They could
Speaker 1: really use Corey Davis to get healthy. He missed the
Speaker 1: entire first month. But Taiwan Taylor, He's the rookie on
Speaker 1: this team the third round draft picked who I think
Speaker 1: is gonna be a bigger factor than Corey Davis season.
Speaker 1: We all have the Titans winning this division. Wow, we're
Speaker 1: I don't like being of the same mind this much.
Speaker 1: I I do because I'd like one team that we
Speaker 1: hype up in the off season in the NFC stal
Speaker 1: to not be a comple disappointment, right, I'm picking the Titans.
Speaker 1: I'm not. I'm not getting off I'm close to the Texans.
Speaker 1: Going with the Texans to safe. It feels like the
Speaker 1: safe secure, you know, not in a negative way. To Okay,
Speaker 1: I'm gonna go with the Texans. All right, Finally the
Speaker 1: a f C West, congratulations, Uh Texans, alright, finally AFCs Greg,
Speaker 1: get us go with the defending. Well, they don't win
Speaker 1: the title last year in the division. The Raiders go,
Speaker 1: should be great on offense, not worried about that. Have
Speaker 1: a good looking, great quarterback. Hit me Derek Carr who
Speaker 1: should be ready. So I'm not worried. The offense is
Speaker 1: gonna be good. The defense, I still don't know why
Speaker 1: I should think they're too much, too um, why they
Speaker 1: should be any better. These are some of the players
Speaker 1: that are playing the linebacker for them. Johnny Jenkins, Tyrrell Adams, uh,
Speaker 1: Corey James. Like they are still figuring out who they're
Speaker 1: starting linebacker group is. David Amerson got hurt their last
Speaker 1: preseason game. They haven't seen their first round pick, Gary
Speaker 1: and Conley on the field really at all. They're optimistic
Speaker 1: you get back Sean Smith. They were saying might not
Speaker 1: even make the team, Like that is a weird looking
Speaker 1: back seven and I worry a little bit about this
Speaker 1: team that they had so much success and they're feeling
Speaker 1: themselves and and can they do it again, because it's
Speaker 1: not that it happens that you win eleven or twelve games.
Speaker 1: Not many organizations can do it year after year like
Speaker 1: it just doesn't happen. I don't think they're built to
Speaker 1: go twelve and four again record wise there. I think
Speaker 1: they weren't a twelve and four team last year, to
Speaker 1: be honest, I think they were much closer to a
Speaker 1: ten and six team, and that's probably where to be.
Speaker 1: I I am not in love with the assumption that
Speaker 1: your Marshawn Lynch is going to come in and be
Speaker 1: a workhorse back for you. They do have depth in
Speaker 1: the backfield, but they're gonna probably have to score twenty
Speaker 1: five points a game to get out of this division.
Speaker 1: This is that they're in there. Talk about some some
Speaker 1: of these teams in an easy schedule. Their schedule is brutal.
Speaker 1: If you look at they have to play in their
Speaker 1: own an f c West. Yeah, the number of close
Speaker 1: games that the Raiders won that even came down to
Speaker 1: fourth down conversions. Is that kind of success something that
Speaker 1: you can duplicate in this league year after year after year.
Speaker 1: And you know, the numbers show that those are the
Speaker 1: teams that typically have a you know, quick route in
Speaker 1: the other direction. I think they would What they need
Speaker 1: is for their offense to go from one of the
Speaker 1: best you know, five, six seven offenses to the point
Speaker 1: where they're in the mix as the best offense league,
Speaker 1: which is certainly possible. Like you can imagine with that
Speaker 1: line and car and crab Tree and the deep backfield,
Speaker 1: like you can imagine that they have the best offense
Speaker 1: in the league. To me, that's their recipe. I like
Speaker 1: these We didn't forget your radios. We didn't forget about
Speaker 1: you guys, who feel very good about you guys. Any
Speaker 1: other points, guys, Well, I think it's interesting that the
Speaker 1: you know, the announced move to Las Vegas has had
Speaker 1: seemingly zero impact on this team at all. Yeah, it
Speaker 1: would tear other other cities and their Fran fan base
Speaker 1: completely apart. It's had to literally no factor. I think
Speaker 1: Marshawn came in and fixed all that. That was kind
Speaker 1: of a savvy move because they kind of did throw
Speaker 1: it off the center. But if they go, if they
Speaker 1: start out two and three and the Denver Broncos, huh,
Speaker 1: the never Broncos boys a little bit overlooked in this
Speaker 1: division right now? Okay, let's let's look at it this way.
Speaker 1: If Trevor Simeons is a league average starter, isn't this
Speaker 1: defense good enough to make them a threat in this division?
Speaker 1: And if Trevor Simeon, as Greg seems to contend, is
Speaker 1: an above average starter potentially or is he we have
Speaker 1: to rule it out right, Calm down, I'm just making
Speaker 1: your point for you that he's good. Why can't they
Speaker 1: be a favorite to win this division? I just feel
Speaker 1: like they they have been become an afterthought two years
Speaker 1: after winning a Super Bowl. Uh, and we just we
Speaker 1: saw it again. We don't put a lot into the preseason.
Speaker 1: They shut down the Packers with their starters on the field. Uh.
Speaker 1: Von Miller put a spin move on Jason Spriggs should
Speaker 1: be illegal. It's how good it is. You still got
Speaker 1: the no fly zone there. I just think that this team,
Speaker 1: which can easily be eight and eight and the quarterback
Speaker 1: position would be to me the main reason why, and
Speaker 1: I still have doubts about them, but I'm also willing
Speaker 1: to say there's no reason to think that they could
Speaker 1: be an eleven and five, twelve and four team if
Speaker 1: some things go the right way on the offensive side
Speaker 1: of the ball. Thoughts. Kind of like the Bengals, I'm
Speaker 1: giving them credit to bounce back because I don't just
Speaker 1: I think it's luck that they made the playoffs five
Speaker 1: streight years. I know they didn't win a game, but
Speaker 1: it's not just luck that the Broncos did that hardest
Speaker 1: thing in the NFL to do, which just win twelve
Speaker 1: games a year for four or five streight years. They
Speaker 1: have a lot of those same players there, and there's
Speaker 1: things to like c J. Anderson. It's like, you get
Speaker 1: he kind of has the one year on, one year off,
Speaker 1: or like he's very different dependent. He looks like a
Speaker 1: good CJ. Anderson. This year, Jamal Charles sowed a little
Speaker 1: something on Saturday night and they announced that he's gonna
Speaker 1: make the team. I like that. And then D'Angelo Henderson's
Speaker 1: look good. So that's a nice little backfield they got.
Speaker 1: Their undoing last year was you know, being dealt with
Speaker 1: one of the worst offensive lines in the a f C,
Speaker 1: if not the entire NFL, and it costs quarterback injuries.
Speaker 1: They couldn't run the ball at will, they couldn't stop
Speaker 1: the run with their own defense, so you've got to
Speaker 1: turn that around. I think the offensive line is key
Speaker 1: for them to have a winning record. Paxton Lynch suffered
Speaker 1: a shoulder injury and the Week three preseason game. He
Speaker 1: is now out of the mix for multiple weeks. Um.
Speaker 1: It looks like so Trevor Simeon, you know, you never
Speaker 1: want to see a gotta go down, but there will
Speaker 1: be nobody looking over his shoulder. This is his team
Speaker 1: and his chance to run with this job, which is
Speaker 1: a pretty good situation for a former seventh round pick
Speaker 1: to be and especially with a team that has some
Speaker 1: weapons in place and a defense as good as this.
Speaker 1: I just think the Denver Broncos should not be overlooked
Speaker 1: and they seem to be like are they the third
Speaker 1: or fourth team that gets brought up when in terms
Speaker 1: of like what are buzzy teams to talk about this?
Speaker 1: Well there, I think it's just that the not the new,
Speaker 1: flashy new thing, No, not at all, And a lot
Speaker 1: of people sleep on trail exactly for a while, you've
Speaker 1: been traff. I didn't know that that's good. If Jared
Speaker 1: Goff has the season that Trevor Simeon had last year
Speaker 1: this year, people are gonna be like, Wow, he's really
Speaker 1: finally living up to his number one Sean McVeigh quarterback whisper. Okay,
Speaker 1: let's go to Kansas City, where I My issue with
Speaker 1: the Chiefs is is always the same. It's just that
Speaker 1: I feel like you're gonna go eleven and five, You're
Speaker 1: gonna lose in the playoffs. It's it's it's it's a
Speaker 1: very nagging, annoying thing to observe over the course of
Speaker 1: seventeen weeks. If you're Andy Reid and you're still hanging
Speaker 1: around in the West, or if you're not. We always
Speaker 1: talked about, we talked about, excuse me, Patrick Mahomes, someone
Speaker 1: that simply will not see the field. No, the sky
Speaker 1: will fall and you know, countries will take over America
Speaker 1: before Patrick Mahomes ever plays as a rookie. I ain't
Speaker 1: buying it. I think that, honestly, I'll always not perfect.
Speaker 1: He has a lot to work on that we could
Speaker 1: see him this season. Do you believe that's possible. It's possible. Well,
Speaker 1: i'd owet to take. You mean to be two games
Speaker 1: under five halfway through this season or later, like a
Speaker 1: completely healthy Alex Smith. And Andy Reid says, and they're contending.
Speaker 1: Andy Reid says, you know what we're going. We're going
Speaker 1: that something occurs where the ceiling that's typical ceiling with
Speaker 1: Alex Smith becomes obvious once again, and you've got a
Speaker 1: quarterback behind him that offers so many different traits. You say,
Speaker 1: the ceiling, And I get that he's not flashy, but
Speaker 1: it's not like gonna for instance, the last four seasons
Speaker 1: with Alex Smith at quarterback eleven and five, nine and seven,
Speaker 1: eleven and five, and twelve and four. So this is
Speaker 1: a team that they win with a head coach and
Speaker 1: a quarterback and and perhaps they run out of juice
Speaker 1: in January because they get out classed. Well, then why
Speaker 1: do you trade up for a quarterback? And if everything so,
Speaker 1: you don't even secure in Kansas because I don't necessarily
Speaker 1: believe you need to immediately throw the guy in the fire.
Speaker 1: This is the best situation for a young quarterback to
Speaker 1: come into. Smith is good, but not great. They get
Speaker 1: to the playoffs but don't win games, so they have
Speaker 1: the ability to kind of bring the kid in slowly
Speaker 1: and developed and Smith is it perfect? Just how often
Speaker 1: does that happen in the NFL? I think I just wonder.
Speaker 1: I think if they're four and six that's your answer,
Speaker 1: then yeah, then maybe you try it. And I think
Speaker 1: they want to get my home's more season. As exciting
Speaker 1: as he's been. I think that third preseason game in Seattle,
Speaker 1: if you watched them, he was very frenetic. He didn't
Speaker 1: he didn't seem like he was quite ready, which is normal.
Speaker 1: But the problem. The problem is I don't think the
Speaker 1: Chiefs are gonna lose enough for that to be That's
Speaker 1: what I was saying, Like they they've been winners with
Speaker 1: Smith behind center, and they've not been winning playoff games.
Speaker 1: But they would have to go into a funk that
Speaker 1: hasn't really happened since he's been there. If they get
Speaker 1: the real Justin Houston, which they they haven't had for
Speaker 1: a full season now for a couple of years, If
Speaker 1: they get the defensive Player of the Year candidate justin Houston,
Speaker 1: like that that changes who they are. To me is
Speaker 1: when I do I from them, I get I put
Speaker 1: Sherman out there, Anthony Sherman, haven't get popped by like
Speaker 1: major team's best defensive players week after week, drawing, you know,
Speaker 1: just deplete the rest of the NFL of resources, you know,
Speaker 1: but people just love to pop Sherman. He's just a magnet.
Speaker 1: Five game suspension. I don't want to pound the table
Speaker 1: too hard for Alex Smith, but if he's on the Broncos,
Speaker 1: they would have been my division pick. I think Alex
Speaker 1: Smith is a pretty good quarterback. You I would take
Speaker 1: Simon over him. People think you close it out, Patrick
Speaker 1: clay Bun. All Right, the two thousand and sixteen Chargers
Speaker 1: managed to go one and eight in single score games,
Speaker 1: and uh shouting out Justice Mosicata for this stat the
Speaker 1: first team ever to finish back to back seasons with
Speaker 1: a sub five DRED record in in single score games,
Speaker 1: and so like you had that up and you look
Speaker 1: at the injuries and it's like, well, this team is
Speaker 1: just really unlucky, like does luck exist? And so they
Speaker 1: have problems on the offensive line. Um they they would
Speaker 1: feel like they had addition by subtraction. They lose H.
Speaker 1: D J. Fluker in Orlando Franklin, who weren't really playing
Speaker 1: that well on the interior offensive line. They go get
Speaker 1: Forest Lamp and then promptly Forest Lamp Taters is a
Speaker 1: C in camp and so he's out as well. But
Speaker 1: there's there's still so much to feel good about and
Speaker 1: all the things that we liked. Year two of healthy
Speaker 1: Joey Bosa, a full year of Joey Bosa with no
Speaker 1: contract nonsense. Uh, he's able to get in. We saw
Speaker 1: him in Melvin Ingram team up for a sack, fumble,
Speaker 1: h touchdown return against the Rams. I think this offense
Speaker 1: is going to score a lot of points, and I
Speaker 1: think the defense is gonna make place. They're gonna rush
Speaker 1: the passer um. The Chargers are gonna be back. This
Speaker 1: is the back. This is why there's a lot of
Speaker 1: buzz about the Chargers being a potential of te t
Speaker 1: We're getting your three minutes. They're up super Beer. This
Speaker 1: is a very special honor. Anyway, they're in the mix.
Speaker 1: Other thoughts about the Charge don't don't underrate the Philip
Speaker 1: Rivers Ken Wizzen Hunt connection at this point, the two
Speaker 1: times that they've been together, and now they've got some continuity.
Speaker 1: Rivers has never had this much young talent around him.
Speaker 1: It's the most talent he's had period since about two
Speaker 1: thousand and seven. If the line is just average, you've
Speaker 1: got difference makers at every level of the defense, in
Speaker 1: terms of the pass rush, in terms of Casey, Hayward
Speaker 1: and Brett in the secondary. I love just like the
Speaker 1: top tier, top ten players on this team. This is
Speaker 1: Philip Rivers is time. This is the time to win
Speaker 1: the division. I'm when you picked then to the super
Speaker 1: Bowl between That's right, you're all in all between Benjamin
Speaker 1: and Tyrolle Williams. It's tough to find two guys on
Speaker 1: one team that can just flat out fly on the
Speaker 1: watch Keenan over the middle over. Everything looks good and
Speaker 1: they certainly look like a better team than the Rams
Speaker 1: never existed. It seems they're gonna I think if they
Speaker 1: start winning, they're gonna sell out their little soccer stadium
Speaker 1: and that will be dismissively. Well, they drew twenty one
Speaker 1: thousand for the first game, which was a bit troubling,
Speaker 1: let's be honest, But if they start winning, that will
Speaker 1: cure that. I would think. Uh, they just gotta put together,
Speaker 1: which they haven't been able to do for years now.
Speaker 1: And I don't want to be a doubter, but I
Speaker 1: gotta see it. I guess I love this division, best
Speaker 1: division in football. I would I would be pleased to
Speaker 1: just be assigned to be the a f C West
Speaker 1: beat writer and like cover all these four teams. Yeah,
Speaker 1: nerd oubt, Greg, I love it. Pick a winner of
Speaker 1: the division though. You got the Chargers mark they're winning
Speaker 1: the division to go to have them as a wild
Speaker 1: card team Broncos. Wow, Yeah, I'm about that. I will
Speaker 1: go with the Raiders. About that, well four, you didn't
Speaker 1: you never actually picked the team. Well, I picked my
Speaker 1: divisional teams in the chiefs and they're losing the playoffs.
Speaker 1: So there we go. We got we had all four
Speaker 1: divisions represented. Okay, that's it for around the af C
Speaker 1: forty eight minutes. Yes, and and the Chargers are in
Speaker 1: the mix of as team of a t l. Uh.
Speaker 1: We'll have to marinate any other teams we talked about. Uh,
Speaker 1: you know, something to think about, and then Wednesday we
Speaker 1: will do the NFC teams. Uh and UH, I'll be exciting.
Speaker 1: Patrick Laban, you've done an excellent job pinch hitting uh
Speaker 1: for what is a very important segment in society. Wise,
Speaker 1: I feel like they're going to call you down because
Speaker 1: they did just announced that the game, the preseason game,
Speaker 1: will be played in Dallas. There you go, and uh,
Speaker 1: let me throw something out here, uh. In terms of
Speaker 1: what's going on down in Houston, donations to the Red
Speaker 1: Cross for those affected by Harvey can be made online
Speaker 1: or text Harvey to nine zero nine nine nine. Donations
Speaker 1: to the Salvation Army can be made online as well,
Speaker 1: if you want to help out what's going on done there.
Speaker 1: Shout out to all our Houston listeners. Absolutely, stay safe,
Speaker 1: stay dry, uh and and good luck with everything. We'll
Speaker 1: be back Wednesday. As we said. Uh so, let's let's
Speaker 1: move forward into the week. This is Dan Hansons signing
Speaker 1: off for the Sizzler Get Well Soon, Buddy Claiban the
Speaker 1: Boss and Erica Tamposey behind the glass some call or
Speaker 1: a loose cannon until Wednesday