Speaker 1: Be Around the NFL podcast pumps out so much content
Speaker 1: and welcome to another edition of the Around the NFL Podcast.
Speaker 1: I'm Greg Rosenthal in a room filled with some heroes,
Speaker 1: Mark Sessler and Chris Westling. It's just not the same
Speaker 1: as it. It's different. Greg. I thought about, like, should
Speaker 1: I just like you should just go off the top
Speaker 1: of a totally different start, you know, just like blow
Speaker 1: up the entire machine after six straight years since Dan
Speaker 1: Hans is not here today. But you know it's like
Speaker 1: only one episode that's you quelled the Anarchist. Yeah, that's
Speaker 1: usually what I want to do is just blow things up.
Speaker 1: But Dan's busy. Dan has his family in town, and uh,
Speaker 1: as the intro said, we're pumping out a lot of content.
Speaker 1: We got three shows this week Monday, Wednesday, Friday. We
Speaker 1: got the Twitter Show on Wednesday. Next week, We've got
Speaker 1: an insane amount of video shows. So you know, Dan's
Speaker 1: gotta get ready for that and the rest of us
Speaker 1: we're foraging on here. I'm not ever, it's not clear
Speaker 1: to me what um aspects of Dan's family is coming.
Speaker 1: Is it his parents, which I believe it to be,
Speaker 1: or is it Dan's hidden secret family that he occasionally
Speaker 1: references if you get a few drinks in him. It's
Speaker 1: not the in laws. I don't know. I'm just saying,
Speaker 1: there's all there's multiple ways you can go with a
Speaker 1: dan failing vacation, and he'll never listen to this. I
Speaker 1: haven't even spoken to you guys since Indianapolis. I guess
Speaker 1: Mark and I text. I mean Mark's burning the midnight oil.
Speaker 1: It was in the office on Sunday. How about that
Speaker 1: there was a scheduling tick in my own mind, having
Speaker 1: forgotten something that was due tomorrow. That is a mega
Speaker 1: ton longer esque assignment and stuff. I'm just I'm impressed.
Speaker 1: I mean, you're out there. I mean, it's not impressive
Speaker 1: that I forgot about it. Now and what did you? What?
Speaker 1: What have you been up to us? Did some work
Speaker 1: around the house, fixed up my office, Lakisha helped me,
Speaker 1: of course, and then uh have a rib catde issue,
Speaker 1: so I went and got that checked out yesterday. Oh yeah,
Speaker 1: it's um, it's a little uh, a little Carlo gissu
Speaker 1: in my ribs, making sleeping and living difficult. Yeake, you
Speaker 1: don't want to spend a Sunday at urgent care except
Speaker 1: from stretching or exercise. I'd imagine, yes, that is exactly
Speaker 1: what it is from way too much exercise. I'm sure
Speaker 1: you're just locked in though to watching our friend Daniel
Speaker 1: Jeremiah moved the sticks and uh, the NFL Scouting Combine
Speaker 1: all weekend. But you know, in case we missed anything
Speaker 1: at all, later in this show, we have our our
Speaker 1: other friend Rhoda World's Josh Norris. That's good because I
Speaker 1: did not watch a single song NFL Combines. You know
Speaker 1: what it does have, and especially with DJ in there
Speaker 1: with Rich is like if I I don't like watching
Speaker 1: golf at all, it is not something that I do,
Speaker 1: but occasionally, like on a Sunday, if it's in the
Speaker 1: background and it's a hushed off broadcast, the combine has
Speaker 1: that same sort of hushed field to it where it's
Speaker 1: very relaxing. It's great to have on in the background.
Speaker 1: My kids kind of like watching it and they pretend
Speaker 1: to do the drills and you're just like, hope, sort
Speaker 1: of that by OUs Moses, some of this information coming
Speaker 1: at you seeps in, so I had it on. Plus,
Speaker 1: you know, I noticed when like make Mike Mayock was
Speaker 1: in the booth, what that vibe was kind of like
Speaker 1: I could. I felt a little bit of like a
Speaker 1: Drew Blood So two thousand one vibe, like he was
Speaker 1: looking at DJ and being like, oh, I'm not getting
Speaker 1: this job back here. Oh, there's definitely dissension there. It's
Speaker 1: an event that many of my casual football fan friends
Speaker 1: love to watch. It's not an event that I ever
Speaker 1: need to see a second him on television for me personally, Well,
Speaker 1: that's why we have Josh, and he's gonna head a
Speaker 1: segment that tells us, uh, it's combined takeaways we don't
Speaker 1: have a strong grasp on, but Josh Norris does so
Speaker 1: he can help us. We also have uh, you know,
Speaker 1: uh an interlude what we're gonna call it a new
Speaker 1: thing we're trying out where we're each going to talk
Speaker 1: about one sporting event that we've been to in person
Speaker 1: for exactly one minute, with the backing music of our
Speaker 1: choice behind it. I like it. I mean, I feel
Speaker 1: like this could be this could be a segment here,
Speaker 1: doesn't have to be a memorable sporting event, could be anything.
Speaker 1: You just like you ever have like one of those
Speaker 1: long meals where it's like they, I mean, this is
Speaker 1: like a fancy, fancy boy thing, but a long meal
Speaker 1: where like in the middle of it they almost like
Speaker 1: drop a little palate cleanser in the middle to just
Speaker 1: kind of like refresh you and get you ready on
Speaker 1: for the rest of it. That's what that's what this
Speaker 1: segment is. That's the role of the segment. Al Right, Uh,
Speaker 1: let's not waste any more time. Ken Brown sitting in
Speaker 1: for Erica tam Post today. She's under the weather, Kent.
Speaker 1: Let's do a little news there we go that we
Speaker 1: were trying to make millions of dollars. Uh. That was
Speaker 1: Steve Smith ragging on some poor wife. Quarterback Tyree Jackson,
Speaker 1: that's full quarterback throwing uh like bullets to the receivers
Speaker 1: when he should just be leading them in those drills.
Speaker 1: He wasn't happy about it. He actually confronted him. He
Speaker 1: went there during the broadcast and talk to Tyree Jackson
Speaker 1: while he was throwing. That's amazing. I mean, that's why,
Speaker 1: that's why he love Steve Smith, whether now or before,
Speaker 1: Like he's gonna say what he thinks. They talked about
Speaker 1: him being put into the booth like once DJs yanked
Speaker 1: out as a general manager Steve Smith, and he just said, no,
Speaker 1: I don't want to do that ever. He would like
Speaker 1: burn every bridge within a year or two. But it
Speaker 1: would be fantastic to watch. Let's start our news with
Speaker 1: Antonio Brown, where it seems like we're starting the news
Speaker 1: quite a bit these days. Ian Rappaport are NFL Network
Speaker 1: Insider reported Monday that the Cardinals, Raiders, and Broncos were
Speaker 1: the teams that were most intrigued by Antonio Brown, and
Speaker 1: the Steelers have a level of confidence that they will
Speaker 1: be able to trade Brown before March seventeen, when a
Speaker 1: two point five million dollar roster bonus is in mark
Speaker 1: Are you buying it? Well, yeah, because I think it's
Speaker 1: always would have been the the unlet more unlikely scenario
Speaker 1: that the Steelers just can't find a way to trade.
Speaker 1: Maybe a bit of a headache, but one of the
Speaker 1: most talented receivers of our lifetime, like something, someone somewhere
Speaker 1: is going to think we can take whatever baggage comes
Speaker 1: with Antonio Brown and make a trade work. I think
Speaker 1: it just depends. You know, the Raiders to me have
Speaker 1: a lot of ammunition with those second two uh first
Speaker 1: rounders after the number four pick. When I look at
Speaker 1: this situation, it seems to make sense trade wise, only
Speaker 1: for a desperate general manager trying to straddle the line
Speaker 1: between building and contending. I don't think you want him
Speaker 1: on a builder, a rebuilder where he his mind is up.
Speaker 1: He wants to play for a super Bowl, And I
Speaker 1: don't think you want him somebody with a comfortable GM
Speaker 1: who already thinks he has a super Bowl contender, because
Speaker 1: then why up? Why upset the locker room, or upset
Speaker 1: what you're doing by bringing into right But you don't
Speaker 1: know what you're getting. You're getting a guy who is
Speaker 1: flying off the handle for two months straight. Is not
Speaker 1: will to look in the eye and say I made
Speaker 1: a mistake. He's not willing to do any that. When
Speaker 1: Randy Moss went to New England, that brilliance happened because
Speaker 1: he had been humbing. He had been humbled by the
Speaker 1: Oakland Years. Without the Oakland Years, that would have never happened.
Speaker 1: Antonio Brown is trying to do this without the Oakland years.
Speaker 1: What about do though any of those three fit into years?
Speaker 1: I think the Broncos do. John Elway is a desperate
Speaker 1: general manager trying to straddle that line between building and contending.
Speaker 1: You do get the feeling John John Elway. Yeah, they're
Speaker 1: they're going for a championship. Blah blah blah blah. It's like,
Speaker 1: but something tells me he would just be happy with
Speaker 1: like a nine and a nine or ten win season
Speaker 1: where the Broncos get back in the playoffs and lose
Speaker 1: a game like that. That's why you trade for Joe Flacco.
Speaker 1: I mean, Joe Flacco is not a guy that you're
Speaker 1: getting to win a Super Bowl. There was quickly a
Speaker 1: report in Denver that tried to shoot this down, so
Speaker 1: I don't really know what to believe about Aunt's Antonio
Speaker 1: Brown reports. Mark, you mentioned the Titans have been thrown
Speaker 1: in the mix to the Cardinals and Raiders, though, like
Speaker 1: that that smells fun. The Raiders. The Raiders have three,
Speaker 1: you know, first round pick and they're gonna have some quarterback.
Speaker 1: They're gonna either have Derek Carr or maybe a top
Speaker 1: shelf young quarterback or who knows who they'll have. Like
Speaker 1: that is a move of like, we're sick of losing.
Speaker 1: We want to get back into it right away. I mean,
Speaker 1: Peter king through the Redskins in there as well. Think
Speaker 1: about this, though, if you do have in Arizona, suddenly
Speaker 1: Antonio Brown and David Johnson and potentially Kyler Murray if
Speaker 1: it's not Josh Rosen or Josh Rosen and Cliff Kingsbury.
Speaker 1: That to me is spicy. I don't hate that. I'm
Speaker 1: not sure. I'm not sing their offense do anything without
Speaker 1: an offensive line though, No, But I mean, here's the thing, like, like,
Speaker 1: he's not going I don't think they want to trade
Speaker 1: him inside the a f C. North. That's pretty clear
Speaker 1: they don't want to trade him to New England. So
Speaker 1: how many of teams fit the fit, the fit the
Speaker 1: call sheet for him? Who really fits and for the
Speaker 1: offensive Like I've convinced, offensive line is more of a
Speaker 1: function of the coaching staff and then the quarterback than
Speaker 1: anything in today's NFL. Because you could pick twenty teams
Speaker 1: and the Cardinals are among the worst. We picked twenty
Speaker 1: teams where the offensive line is a problem. I guess
Speaker 1: they're hoping that whatever Kingsbury is cooking up schematically is
Speaker 1: somehow going to cover up whatever their offensive line issues are.
Speaker 1: And that's a GM too. He's the one making the
Speaker 1: call that's worried. Gotta be worried about his job. So
Speaker 1: maybe Antonio Brown is a get get quick, get right
Speaker 1: right away type of guy. Well, speaking of the Cardinals,
Speaker 1: Larry Fitzgerald, who spent several years catching passes from the
Speaker 1: likes of John Skelton, Max Hall, Richard Bartel, John Navar
Speaker 1: and Kevin Cobb, said, A B doesn't realize how good
Speaker 1: he's had it with Big Ben. Yes, I agree that
Speaker 1: part of it is absolutely correct. So we've talked a
Speaker 1: lot about Antonio Brown this offseason, We've talked a lot
Speaker 1: about Nick Foles this offseason, and I wanted to throw
Speaker 1: this into the news that Les Bow into. The Philadelphian
Speaker 1: in Quieter was one of many over the weekend that
Speaker 1: said the Jaguars are expected to sign Nick Foles. He
Speaker 1: said it the strongest rappaport rap sheet mentioned it. Mike
Speaker 1: Garafolo meant and it. Somehow everyone who was in Indianapolis
Speaker 1: and talking to people came away saying every this this
Speaker 1: combination falls in the Jaguars, that everyone thinks it's gonna happen. Yeah,
Speaker 1: it is gonna happen. Nothing's getting in the way. I'm
Speaker 1: not sure we needed a report to tell us what
Speaker 1: we already expected to happen, but I report says exactly
Speaker 1: what we are expected to sign it. But it's just
Speaker 1: inching you closer and closer, and I think they talked
Speaker 1: to someone. I think it's different because there it's sourced
Speaker 1: that they're saying a source, and you can connect the
Speaker 1: dots with folds because it's coming from the Philadelphia papers
Speaker 1: that like, Okay, everyone's been speculating about this, but actually
Speaker 1: there was some pushback in Jacksville. There wasn't any really
Speaker 1: hard reporting West and this now everyone's just kind of
Speaker 1: joining in. Expected to sign his He said he's he's
Speaker 1: expected to side, which is what we've been saying on
Speaker 1: this podcast. Would say we we sourced it to on
Speaker 1: the source, I expect him to sign. I'm gonna put
Speaker 1: it in say Nick Foles and his people are expecting
Speaker 1: to side. There, that's a little different. Rap Sheet said
Speaker 1: he would not rule out the Dolphins, and there are
Speaker 1: significant interest in fools around the league. I mean that's
Speaker 1: because number one, until it's final, why not allow someone
Speaker 1: else to come in with a whole different deal the
Speaker 1: immediate loser and not for me because I'm not one
Speaker 1: of these like NFC East people, but the television, the
Speaker 1: schedule makers, the primetime matchups that would have had potentially
Speaker 1: like a New York Giants placed Nick Foles first Philly.
Speaker 1: The games that we've talked about the last couple of
Speaker 1: weeks that would have been front and center on the
Speaker 1: Prime Times. I'm not giving up on the Giants, or
Speaker 1: even the Raiders or someone surprising getting the Giants are
Speaker 1: seems like it. The Giants don't see I want tomorrow
Speaker 1: that like chaos happens and crazy things happen next week.
Speaker 1: Next week is the week. This isn't the week. Well,
Speaker 1: I mean the Giants are they They make all their
Speaker 1: decisions based on what will happen to the future. Eli
Speaker 1: Manning statues are gonna build, So I don't know what's
Speaker 1: gonna happen. All right. West was underwhelmed with that item
Speaker 1: of news. Can I you can I interest you in
Speaker 1: another piece of expected news, which is that the Chiefs
Speaker 1: are gonna tag d Ford. But here's the unexpected part
Speaker 1: from Rapaport again, that they will listen to offers for
Speaker 1: d Ford, that they are kind of putting him on
Speaker 1: the trade block. What do we think? So this made
Speaker 1: me think that with Steve Spagnola they're switching to a
Speaker 1: four three defense. Well, yeah, they announced d Ford has
Speaker 1: been great coming off the edge as an outside linebacker,
Speaker 1: and a lot of times that skill set transfers to
Speaker 1: defensive end and a four three, but it's not exactly
Speaker 1: the same, And maybe they don't think that d Ford
Speaker 1: is going to be quite the terror off the edge
Speaker 1: if he's playing defensive end. Yeah. I mean, he had
Speaker 1: twelve sacks and seen but three of his other seasons
Speaker 1: have two four and two sack totals. And he's only
Speaker 1: graded positively this past season on PFF, and he had
Speaker 1: a couple of years where he was not even on
Speaker 1: the radar years ago. But it's I'm wondering if maybe
Speaker 1: the idea of a huge long term financial commitment with
Speaker 1: a scheme change is put it all together and see
Speaker 1: what you can get for I thought he is a
Speaker 1: perfect candidate for a tag even before they were changing
Speaker 1: schemes because of what you just said. I mean, he's
Speaker 1: had basically two years where he looked like bust. One
Speaker 1: year in two thousand and sixteen where he looked like
Speaker 1: an all pro like he did this year for about
Speaker 1: six or seven games. That was where he filled up
Speaker 1: that season. Then he got hurt and and was playing
Speaker 1: through it and and didn't really so he has not been
Speaker 1: consistent at all, And now the fact that they're listening
Speaker 1: to the offers makes me think there's a good chance
Speaker 1: he's gonna be traded because they It makes me think
Speaker 1: they've decided, well, we'll pay him this year, but he's
Speaker 1: probably never gonna sign long term with us with the
Speaker 1: scheme change, so we might as well listen to see
Speaker 1: if we can get a second round pick for him.
Speaker 1: And I would think in this market where there's so
Speaker 1: much money available, some team will will give up a
Speaker 1: decent pick for d Ford and signed him to a
Speaker 1: big contract. I think so too. And then you have
Speaker 1: to They also talked about moving justin Houston potentially. Well,
Speaker 1: this was a in in many ways, not a good
Speaker 1: defense last year. Their past rush was effective, Like what
Speaker 1: what are we replacing these people with? What's a great point?
Speaker 1: Because Houston is supposed to get traded or released over
Speaker 1: the next week, we think that will happen. We'll have
Speaker 1: to wait and see on Ford. But while we're talking tags,
Speaker 1: let's let's do a little tag round up here. On Monday,
Speaker 1: we got news of three tags. Did Evan Clowney gonna
Speaker 1: be tagged? Donovan Smith of the Bucks their left tackle tagged,
Speaker 1: and then DeMarcus Lawrence. No surprise, they're not going to
Speaker 1: get a deal done before the tag deadline, which is Tuesday. Uh,
Speaker 1: and he will be tagged as well. Any thoughts, gentlemen, Well,
Speaker 1: the Lawrence and Clowney tags are no brainers and we're
Speaker 1: expected to happen. Um. Donovan Smith, that name has been
Speaker 1: bandied about for a last few weeks in Tampa Bay,
Speaker 1: is likely getting the tag, and in this case, I
Speaker 1: think the franchise tag actually helps the player. He's gonna
Speaker 1: get paid more than he's worth, right, He's gonna make
Speaker 1: fifteen or sixteen million dollars. He's one of those guys
Speaker 1: that PF thinks is terrible and that his own team,
Speaker 1: one of those guys that Chris Wesley and watches get
Speaker 1: over by speed rushers almost every game. I was gonna
Speaker 1: mention he's one of those rare guys, one of those
Speaker 1: guys that PF seems to hate, like that he's literally
Speaker 1: one of the worst starters, and that the team is
Speaker 1: always saying, oh, yeah, we love Donovan Smith. Great, we're
Speaker 1: gonna you know, he's terrific, But that when you watch
Speaker 1: the games, it seems like Jamis Winston is always under
Speaker 1: pressure from people who are going up against Donovan Smith.
Speaker 1: So I don't know what the Bucks are seeing that
Speaker 1: we're not. Is it just also because if you remove
Speaker 1: him and where he goes somewhere else, you're you're even
Speaker 1: that farther up the creek trying to find a left tackle,
Speaker 1: and they're just not I get it. But like last
Speaker 1: year when I was doing like the cuts list, I
Speaker 1: was like, I wanted to put Donovan Smith on it
Speaker 1: because he was gonna get that fifth year option, and
Speaker 1: it seems like he's not, you know, very good at
Speaker 1: professional football, I think, But I don't know that I
Speaker 1: do on some level still trust like NFL coaching staffs.
Speaker 1: It's like they must know something more that he's okay. Yeah,
Speaker 1: I think that when you look at what their offense
Speaker 1: has done, the way they've moved the ball, especially between
Speaker 1: the twenties, I think a lot of teams put a
Speaker 1: high value on a guy who is decent enough that
Speaker 1: he won't sabotage the offense single hand, and the general
Speaker 1: manager essentially is bulletproof in Tampa Bay, right, I mean,
Speaker 1: it can't be for much longer. I don't know they
Speaker 1: did just hire a new coach. I think they Jason
Speaker 1: Light's gotta win sooner than later. I I know I
Speaker 1: was thinking with the DeMarcus Lawrence tag today, that's no surprise,
Speaker 1: but what a great, uh twelve months he's had. I
Speaker 1: went back, you know, I I do some journal work sometimes.
Speaker 1: Dan's not the only insider on this podcast, and I
Speaker 1: wish I could bring it up. I mean, he's the
Speaker 1: only like real insider like in terms of media. But
Speaker 1: voice memos that I have on my phone saved DeMarcus
Speaker 1: Lawrence from March thirteenth last year. I went back and
Speaker 1: listened to it because I thought I remembered he said
Speaker 1: something which I never did it right about, and he said,
Speaker 1: they I'm fine playing under the tag, but I'm gonna
Speaker 1: be more expensive next year than I am this year,
Speaker 1: so they would be served well by signing me to
Speaker 1: a contract this summer. He had no rancor about it.
Speaker 1: He just said, I'm going to be more expensive next
Speaker 1: year than I am right now. I promise you that.
Speaker 1: And you know what, he is way more expensive now
Speaker 1: than he was a year ago, not just because he
Speaker 1: had a great year, but because they're a tire fire
Speaker 1: in that front Line with Randy Gregory suspended. David Irving
Speaker 1: now is suspended. I'm a little disappointed that when you
Speaker 1: pulled out your phone and showed us your messages, he
Speaker 1: pointed to Marcus Lawrence. I thought for sure we were
Speaker 1: getting like DeMarcus Lawrence called you personally to clear something,
Speaker 1: and instead it's like you taped something on TV. I mean,
Speaker 1: it's interesting that you know he was here, he was here,
Speaker 1: he was here, he was here in the building, one
Speaker 1: of those like, hey, you want to go talk to
Speaker 1: de Marcus Lawrence for six minutes. Well, so he's like
Speaker 1: a sandwich. And I'm like, yeah, so you did personally
Speaker 1: speak to him, Yeah, okay, yeah so that So do
Speaker 1: you ever just play those like late at night to
Speaker 1: yourself when you can't sleep, to Marcus Lawrence interview segments
Speaker 1: that you've kept on your phone? Not so much like
Speaker 1: a one I can't sleep, but just like if I
Speaker 1: really want to treat myself like kind of light a candle,
Speaker 1: put some music on, some essential oils, here's your husband
Speaker 1: talking to a pro football player. I think greg sleeps well.
Speaker 1: I do sleep, but I am a little disturbed though.
Speaker 1: And when I was looking for that the other day,
Speaker 1: I went back and deleted everything. The only things I
Speaker 1: kept were DeMarcus Lawrence. UM, there was a couple of
Speaker 1: things from this last combine I haven't deleted yet. And
Speaker 1: then Uh, an epic performance by Brassy at your house,
Speaker 1: Chris Wesley, and I was like, I can't lose that.
Speaker 1: I don't know what that is, but for some reason,
Speaker 1: I decided to record her. I have a series of
Speaker 1: Brassy videos from several nights at my house. Brassie, of course,
Speaker 1: is the social coordinator of um our entire news operation.
Speaker 1: I would say she's, you know, recovering from some some
Speaker 1: sort of hangover. I'm sure I think the Super Bowl. UM.
Speaker 1: Then right into combine for her were um. From what
Speaker 1: I gathered, there were a lot of high points. But
Speaker 1: you know, potentially you're paying the price. But I'm gonna
Speaker 1: I'm gonna keep I'm gonna keep those as blackmail. It's
Speaker 1: gonna be okay. Well, that is the relationship that you
Speaker 1: and she have, so I think that's good. I mean,
Speaker 1: she like, we was having dinner at the combine with
Speaker 1: a friend and uh, and then Tiffany Blackman, her friend
Speaker 1: on the network, sat down with us and then suddenly Uh.
Speaker 1: Some tequila shots are just sent over and it's like
Speaker 1: you don't even have to guess who it's from. It's
Speaker 1: from Shona. I would I would have gone Reggie Bush,
Speaker 1: but no, he wasn't there either one. He wasn't there.
Speaker 1: All right, let's move on. Eagles. They're a team that's
Speaker 1: like going to sign some contracts, a lot of a
Speaker 1: lot of contract and salary cap issues these days. They
Speaker 1: brought back Brandon Graham on a huge deal three years,
Speaker 1: forty million I think twenty plus in the first couple
Speaker 1: of years, all guaranteed. They also signed guard Isaac Siamalo
Speaker 1: today and to a three year deal. That was a
Speaker 1: bit of a surprise. And there's a report that Michael
Speaker 1: Bennett is on the trade block mark. You can take
Speaker 1: it any direction you want. Graham see a Malo Bennett.
Speaker 1: It would be surprising if you went to see a
Speaker 1: Malo but zero. I mean, I'm not going to see
Speaker 1: a Malo. I think that the Bennett thing is just
Speaker 1: the natural reverb to giving thirteen million a year to Graham,
Speaker 1: who's thirty one. Bennett's thirty three. Bennett costs another seven
Speaker 1: million this year. I don't is there a team and
Speaker 1: worse cap hell right now than the Eagles. I believe
Speaker 1: they're that they have the least amount of cash at
Speaker 1: the moment, so they got to make moves. They have
Speaker 1: a lot of things. They just have a million things
Speaker 1: going on, and they're pretty good at being flexible. But
Speaker 1: you're right, they are about as tight to the cap
Speaker 1: and having to make tough choices as any team in
Speaker 1: the league. Brandon Graham takes one of the better pass
Speaker 1: rushers off the market. But I think for me what
Speaker 1: surprises me is it over all the coaching changes and
Speaker 1: scheme changes in Philadelphia for a guy who's never had
Speaker 1: a double digit sax season. He's a great pass rusher,
Speaker 1: but most of that is coming on pressure, not sacks.
Speaker 1: I'm just surprised that he's gonna end up playing his
Speaker 1: entire career with the Eagles. Well, he you have to
Speaker 1: be a badass to get that third huge contract, to
Speaker 1: get the set He signed a real when he signed
Speaker 1: that first five year deal, I believe it was with
Speaker 1: the Eagles at the end of his rookie contract, people
Speaker 1: are like, Oh, really, you think Brandon Graham is that
Speaker 1: good that you're gonna give him a five year, fifty
Speaker 1: five million dollar. He made it to the end that
Speaker 1: like never happens in the NFL. So they evaluated him well,
Speaker 1: and you're right, it's kind of a score for the
Speaker 1: pressure is almost as valuable as sacks and hits kind
Speaker 1: of brigade, and I think I'm just saying that's more valued. Now.
Speaker 1: They're very analytics heavy type of organization, and I think
Speaker 1: they think he's a badass, and it's it's a guy
Speaker 1: that kind of like Everson Griffin is very similar in
Speaker 1: my mind in Minnesota, just the kind of career he's
Speaker 1: at where it's like nationally not that well known, but
Speaker 1: the team that has him thinks he's a super He's
Speaker 1: also etched into like Philadelphia lore for the st of
Speaker 1: sack that helped win the Super Bowl. And you know,
Speaker 1: I mean Michael was not right. That's that's a good point.
Speaker 1: And it seems like a great guy, like very well
Speaker 1: known in the community and the locker room and all
Speaker 1: that sort of stuff. Well, the guy we're going to
Speaker 1: have on later. Josh Norris from Rhoda World has often
Speaker 1: said one of his biggest truisms disruption is production. WHOA
Speaker 1: that's a catchphrase. I mean, that's how you step on
Speaker 1: a lot of people at the Rhoda World Office is
Speaker 1: to become one of the real big stars. I mean
Speaker 1: nor You think Norris has gotten to where he is
Speaker 1: without a little bloodless coup. It's probably like down with
Speaker 1: you know, Evan Silva, which would not be an easy
Speaker 1: take down. We saw Evan Selva the big Fish by
Speaker 1: the way in Indianapolis. Did you know this? Mark? He did?
Speaker 1: He's He actually messaged me soon after and said sorry
Speaker 1: that you were not there. I did not go out
Speaker 1: the final night. We saw the big Fish at say,
Speaker 1: now Most, the famous steakhouse that every sports writer talks about,
Speaker 1: and people were blown away. Dan was just like, I
Speaker 1: didn't you know, I wasn't really ready for the size
Speaker 1: and the stature that Silva's bringing to the table. I mean,
Speaker 1: Silva's like Silva's like Jason Peters or something. I mean,
Speaker 1: you're over Kevin Patrick's Bill West. You've you've for a
Speaker 1: long time knock that this is different. This is like,
Speaker 1: this is like a boy. This is like an NFL
Speaker 1: left tackle size patra you know, it's in fine shape
Speaker 1: and always husband. I never would have looked at him
Speaker 1: as sort of like a paragon of mail um body type.
Speaker 1: It's always in fine shape. Let's be real. It's always
Speaker 1: annoyed you a little bit how much credit Patra got
Speaker 1: for his body. And even back in the day, you
Speaker 1: almost were annoyed that he got the credit over like
Speaker 1: he's like, I have that body now. No, no no, no,
Speaker 1: I never thought that I deserved credit for my body.
Speaker 1: I never thought that at all. Now, how you feeling
Speaker 1: about it? Uh, now it's time for some credit. I
Speaker 1: did not feel like my body is in great shape.
Speaker 1: I'll put it all right. We are almost to some
Speaker 1: combine rumors. We aren't buying another another little like mini
Speaker 1: seg we're throwing in here. But finally, Jamie cons expected
Speaker 1: to be cut or traded soon. How would you remember
Speaker 1: that Jamie cons era mark very underwhelming And I thought
Speaker 1: it was they got him for a relatively low um
Speaker 1: acceptable draft pick, and then I think, in one of
Speaker 1: these sort of confirming your own move turn around and
Speaker 1: overpaid him. But they had a ton of cap space,
Speaker 1: and they almost were at that place they needed to
Speaker 1: reach the cap floor, and they had no names on
Speaker 1: their defense, and I thought they probably felt like it
Speaker 1: was the first step towards building that side of the ball.
Speaker 1: And there have been the thing that I kind of
Speaker 1: remember most are these sort of whispering jabs at him
Speaker 1: where you can't tell exactly where it's coming from. The
Speaker 1: people aren't happy with the effort. They aren't quite happy
Speaker 1: with the effort on game day or not on game day.
Speaker 1: And I don't feel like he fits into where they're going.
Speaker 1: And they definitely need to need help at linebacker, but
Speaker 1: he's I don't think they're going to re up with him.
Speaker 1: That would be surprising to me. This is one of
Speaker 1: those I usually at this point would expect the guy
Speaker 1: to get traded, Like Michael Bennett. He's do six mill
Speaker 1: in this year. I think they could find someone to
Speaker 1: at least do a pick swap for that. Why not,
Speaker 1: he's still pretty good. But Jamie Collins making ten million,
Speaker 1: I don't think anyone wants to deal with that. I
Speaker 1: think he's I mean, it was the Patriots who were
Speaker 1: listed as a team that we're open to eventually trading
Speaker 1: form last right, and I think they would probably take
Speaker 1: Jamie Collins back. But why why start at a twenty
Speaker 1: two million dollar two year contract. I just don't think
Speaker 1: he has that sort of like value at this point. Uh, Finally,
Speaker 1: uh an idea West had here combine rumors he's not buying.
Speaker 1: What is the combine rumors that's grinding your gears? Well
Speaker 1: it started, this wasn't really a rumor. Someone asked Kurt
Speaker 1: Warner what he would give up for Josh Rosen. He
Speaker 1: said a third round pick, and then Peter King interviewed
Speaker 1: another NFL executive who said Cardinals shouldn't expect to get
Speaker 1: more than a third round pick for him. And I
Speaker 1: think this is insane. I think that's crazy for many reasons,
Speaker 1: not least of which is the Cardinals have already paid
Speaker 1: six of what his rookie deal will be for four years.
Speaker 1: They've already paid most of it with up front. Funny,
Speaker 1: he's only gonna count two million against your cap every
Speaker 1: year for the next three years. And you're telling me
Speaker 1: the teams like the Giants, Redskins, and Dolphins who need
Speaker 1: quarterbacks are saying, or even the Patriots who need a
Speaker 1: success for top successor for Tom Brady, are saying, no,
Speaker 1: I won't go above like the nineties something pick in
Speaker 1: the draft for Josh Rosen. I just don't believe that
Speaker 1: for a second. I mean, it depends what the team is,
Speaker 1: and who's drafting him with everyone knowing he's just gonna
Speaker 1: be a long term backup, Like you're drafting him to
Speaker 1: be a starter. If it's the Redskins, who would make
Speaker 1: some sense. You can't. You can't try possibly tell me
Speaker 1: that you're going to get an Arizona to accept nothing
Speaker 1: more than the third round pick for that when you
Speaker 1: when he is going to be your plug and play,
Speaker 1: low cost starter. Yeah, and Peter King, you talked to
Speaker 1: I think to front office guys, and Okay, those guys
Speaker 1: don't want to give up a third round pick. That's fine.
Speaker 1: It only takes one team, you know what I mean.
Speaker 1: I don't. I don't get that at all. Like it
Speaker 1: also depends what front offices those You also hear all
Speaker 1: the time gms who signed guys in free agency, And
Speaker 1: I think Dante fowler Is is a good case study
Speaker 1: for it. This year. Well, we had him ranked really
Speaker 1: high coming out of college. You always hear this about
Speaker 1: first round picks and get to free agency and aren't
Speaker 1: playing that Well, Well, we really loved his college tape
Speaker 1: and we loved him. And that's it's like, what, there's
Speaker 1: not a bunch of teams out there that didn't love
Speaker 1: Josh Rosen's college tape and wouldn't give it up. I would,
Speaker 1: I would, Uh, I would remain a Patriots fan if
Speaker 1: if they go pick up. I'm thinking about checking out
Speaker 1: as soon as Belichick and Brady are goal. You know that, Brady,
Speaker 1: I'll stick out. I'll stick it out for Belichick, but
Speaker 1: I think I might retire with Bill. I mean, how
Speaker 1: could you top that? It's just like, it's just like
Speaker 1: you just lived through the best. Why even bother can
Speaker 1: The definition of a fan is to jump ship the
Speaker 1: minute things I want. I want the soldier, you sunshine, Patriots,
Speaker 1: what are you doing? Your your You gave up on
Speaker 1: the on the Bengals. I did not give up on them.
Speaker 1: They give up on me. Here's the thing. I just
Speaker 1: think mentally, it's possible that they just become like one
Speaker 1: a of all the other teams. But it's just like
Speaker 1: not the same. It is crazy where we even were
Speaker 1: two weeks ago with this Josh Rosen story, where it
Speaker 1: was like largely unbelievable that this would even happen, and
Speaker 1: now it just seems like a foregone conclusion that the
Speaker 1: Cardinals have enough. Mean, that's changed even since we last
Speaker 1: talked on Thursday, so since then, Okay, Kim Jones said,
Speaker 1: the expectation at this point around the league is that
Speaker 1: the Cardinals will take Kyler Murray. That's what everyone thinks.
Speaker 1: Don't believe this either. I don't believe the Cardinals have
Speaker 1: finished their due deal. That's what made up their mind.
Speaker 1: And a bunch of people like DJ and all these
Speaker 1: people are saying that's what everyone thinks, but no one
Speaker 1: really knows. That's just like that's not really news necessarily,
Speaker 1: it's just what everyone thinks, the Cardinals and then possibly
Speaker 1: that the Raiders are thinking as well. People. But you know,
Speaker 1: there was a quote that Gruden's not much of a
Speaker 1: poker player, uh, and that it's kind of obvious how
Speaker 1: much they like Kyler Murray as well. If but I
Speaker 1: think before, you know, he was two weeks ago he's
Speaker 1: been mocked to oh, to the Redskins at fifteen or
Speaker 1: falling out of the top twenty and stuff. Now it's like, no,
Speaker 1: this guy, like every single year, a couple quarterbacks are
Speaker 1: gonna go way higher than people thought initially. And Kyler
Speaker 1: Murray has multiple NFL coaches super interested. Yeah, and I'm
Speaker 1: with us, by the way, I don't buy that for
Speaker 1: a second. Rosene two. Now, I mean he came into
Speaker 1: the league young. His tape is not nearly as bad
Speaker 1: as everyone thinks. I promise you he He did more
Speaker 1: as a rookie than guys like you know, Godford Trabinsky
Speaker 1: did in in similar situation. I saw enough where I
Speaker 1: was like, okay, I saw some good things. I'm still
Speaker 1: on the Josh Rosen trained So a lot of people
Speaker 1: who went um broke trying to guess how good of
Speaker 1: a gambler other people are. I'm not that confident in
Speaker 1: anybody's ability to read a gambler. M But what what
Speaker 1: makes you an expert on reading John Gruden's Not you,
Speaker 1: but anyone? What makes you an expert in reading John
Speaker 1: Gruden's gambling? And what makes you think that you're good
Speaker 1: enough to read it? Right? I think that he's not
Speaker 1: just already broken you. I think literal professional gamblers like
Speaker 1: are probably good at that skill. But I don't think
Speaker 1: that's who we're talking about here, right. I think there
Speaker 1: are a few people on earth who are really good
Speaker 1: at that. But you're not a fan of the combine West,
Speaker 1: and the combine essentially is like one massive hot stove
Speaker 1: League session where whispers and rumors and generated news reports
Speaker 1: are what this part of the football seasons. I think
Speaker 1: it makes for a great quote for someone to say
Speaker 1: John Gruden's a bad poker player. I just don't have
Speaker 1: any confidence in that person's ability to read John Gruden's poker.
Speaker 1: I'm with you, but I mean a year ago, we
Speaker 1: thought the entire Raiders offense was gonna run eternally through
Speaker 1: Marii Cooper. So he's ability, he has an ability to
Speaker 1: spin yards that we fall flo That's a great point.
Speaker 1: You know, he's a great poker player. We found out
Speaker 1: this week. John Gonzalez, Colleen Wolfe's husband, was once almost
Speaker 1: a professional poker player. Seems to have a free time.
Speaker 1: He was on like the early early auspices of kind
Speaker 1: of like the poker professionalism going around. That's like, can't
Speaker 1: you just imagine him with his like hat pulled down
Speaker 1: low at a at a poker table, like taking people's money.
Speaker 1: That was a low point in sports television when like
Speaker 1: every third sports network had like eight Jabron who was
Speaker 1: sitting around a table plane poker for four hours. It
Speaker 1: was it was a mania and it was exciting. It
Speaker 1: was it was a interesting time. I'm not no, I
Speaker 1: never I never went was into poker. But when Rhoda
Speaker 1: World was started way back in the day, when we
Speaker 1: were building a brick by break this is even pre whistling.
Speaker 1: It was all. It was like thirty people all in
Speaker 1: about three rooms minimum twenty four of them were betting
Speaker 1: on poker to an insane degree, and most of them
Speaker 1: seemed to be making money from it, including the people
Speaker 1: who like owned this company. People were like losing their
Speaker 1: minds just playing online poker all day every day and
Speaker 1: like just stealing money from some you know poorschelub in Nebraska,
Speaker 1: who's signing on for this. It was. It was the heyday.
Speaker 1: It was a dark time, and I believe they all
Speaker 1: saved to me having fun. Though I liked like the
Speaker 1: spirit of it, I wasn't into I didn't know how
Speaker 1: to do poker. I think it's accurate that I would
Speaker 1: never would have moved to Tybee Island if not for
Speaker 1: the poker craze that swept the nation. Between poker and
Speaker 1: at the same time, when m m A Is becoming
Speaker 1: really big and all my softball buddies just wanted to
Speaker 1: sit around watching M m A And playing poker, and
Speaker 1: I was out, I gotta leave this city. There is
Speaker 1: nothing here for me. I mean there was some road
Speaker 1: there were some like Christmas. Christmas is where, you know,
Speaker 1: there were rumors where the road world was having a
Speaker 1: little trouble paying the payroll. So as far as I'm considered,
Speaker 1: poker might have saved us sounds like a toxic convert,
Speaker 1: you know, it might have said it might have been
Speaker 1: the only way that they were still making money paying us.
Speaker 1: And now look at it today. Is there any other combine?
Speaker 1: Rumors were body that was pretty much mine though, well
Speaker 1: the only other one that I thought was absurd, just
Speaker 1: because everyone attached to the Redskins is fighting for their
Speaker 1: job right now. And I like Cult McCoy, the person
Speaker 1: I named my son Cult after Cult McCoy the day
Speaker 1: that he was essentially replaced by Brandon Weed and being
Speaker 1: dry in the first round. But the idea that they're
Speaker 1: talking up Cult McCoy as the starter, to me, that's
Speaker 1: all that says is if all our other plans don't work,
Speaker 1: then we have it on paper that we're excited about
Speaker 1: Cult McCoy. That cannot honestly be where this team is
Speaker 1: coming from holistically to fix their quarterback situation. It's just, hey,
Speaker 1: we said it. If if this is what we wind
Speaker 1: up with, we told you all along we were excited
Speaker 1: about this. That's to me is just not a rumor.
Speaker 1: It's just like a it's good, it's good housekeeping. Well.
Speaker 1: I do believe that Jay Gruden thinks more highly of
Speaker 1: quote McCoy than anyone else in the NFL thinks of
Speaker 1: quote McCoy. But I also think you cannot you cannot
Speaker 1: have followed this guy's career and believe that he's gonna
Speaker 1: stay healthy for more than two or three games coming
Speaker 1: off leg He's always coming off of something because he
Speaker 1: always gets hurt, right, I take him. But he's like
Speaker 1: he's been in the perfect position as a backup you
Speaker 1: hope to use a game of year most there's like
Speaker 1: no doubt to me that he's gonna be Jay Gruden's
Speaker 1: quarterback coach on the you know six what team is Jake, Yes,
Speaker 1: that it would be the Bengals or or the offensive coordinator.
Speaker 1: He's getting paid Colt McCoy, by the way, three point
Speaker 1: six million dollars, So that's kind of or not three
Speaker 1: point three million dollars that that shows what they think
Speaker 1: of him. They think he's a backup. They think he's
Speaker 1: the best backup in the NFL or one of the best,
Speaker 1: and he fits j grud in or all out. But
Speaker 1: then but don't don't conflate it into he's suddenly our starter. Okay.
Speaker 1: So that's you know, the news and a lot of
Speaker 1: chunky content. There a lot of a lot to digest, frankly,
Speaker 1: and before we get to some more real like nuts
Speaker 1: and bolts, meat and potato football, we're just gonna have
Speaker 1: a little bit of a power cleanser and uh something
Speaker 1: that really doesn't have a name to it. But it's
Speaker 1: just one minute of talking about a memorable sporting event
Speaker 1: that we witnessed with the back in music of our choice.
Speaker 1: And and since this was my idea, that's just all
Speaker 1: I can start. Kent you ready, let's do it. I
Speaker 1: haven't heard this yet. That's nice, all right, I'm gonna
Speaker 1: Foxboro Stadium, Sullivan Stadium, they would call it. Doug Flutie
Speaker 1: New England Patriots gets the ball in the red zone late,
Speaker 1: just fell down about four points to a rookie Chris
Speaker 1: Chandler of the Indianapolis Colts. Doug Flutie comes in gosh,
Speaker 1: who who is he replacing? A total? A total bum?
Speaker 1: He comes in off the bench to replace Gus Ramsey,
Speaker 1: a total bum, leads them to victory on a bootleg.
Speaker 1: That the moment everyone in Boston was waiting for Flutie
Speaker 1: to become the Patriots head coach, and that place celebrated
Speaker 1: like it was a super Bowl. And I always remember
Speaker 1: that game. It's one of the only Patriots games I've
Speaker 1: ever been to as a kid. We didn't go off
Speaker 1: and that seemingly meaningless wins to get to two and
Speaker 1: three in a last season can mean so much to
Speaker 1: fans in the NFL, because that game meant so much
Speaker 1: to me. We we ate off that game for about
Speaker 1: five years. I love that music. That was a good
Speaker 1: music choice. That minute snuck up quickly, but that's good
Speaker 1: to know. Yeah, it was good, but I mean, uh,
Speaker 1: it's like thanks Tom. Tom Rosenthal not a huge football guy,
Speaker 1: more more baseball basketball, but we we loved. Uh, I
Speaker 1: loved football and brought me to that. And it's like,
Speaker 1: any wait, I'm going over my minute here. Still, that's
Speaker 1: all right. Sometimes it has to be unpacked further. Alright, Mark,
Speaker 1: let's go next. Alright, So I have seen Michael Jordan
Speaker 1: play live. I've been to multiple Super Bowl guys, super
Speaker 1: Bowls with you guys, which I mean honestly, those are
Speaker 1: the incredible moments when I really was thinking about one
Speaker 1: sporting event that changed my life. When I was in
Speaker 1: the college, I had a sort of a um, a humorous,
Speaker 1: roundish guy that lived next door to me who was
Speaker 1: like trying to graduate early, but he needed to pass
Speaker 1: this fencing class. He was in fencing, and so it
Speaker 1: was a fencing final where we were gonna. I was
Speaker 1: gonna go watch him in this tournament. The final was
Speaker 1: a tournament and you had to come in like top
Speaker 1: top up to get a good grade, otherwise you're in trouble.
Speaker 1: We went out to eat lunch and he got on
Speaker 1: this long, wandering story about this girl he liked on
Speaker 1: the third floor, this untotally unimpressive girl, and I was
Speaker 1: trying to talk him off the ledge, but here he go.
Speaker 1: There was only eighteen more seconds. He went to the
Speaker 1: He went to the fencing class late, and the teachers like,
Speaker 1: you're out, you get an F. You can't be late,
Speaker 1: and he said, you know what, forget the F. I'll
Speaker 1: take the F. But I'm gonna do the tournament. And
Speaker 1: he knocked out this girl in the first round, blew
Speaker 1: up some long hair due in the second round, got
Speaker 1: to the finals and lost, but she basically said, you
Speaker 1: know what, I love the effort. You get a B minus.
Speaker 1: So he saved his grade. And to me, that was
Speaker 1: one of the things where you could just mope and
Speaker 1: leave and wander home. I'm doing it. I'm fighting this tournament,
Speaker 1: and he destroyed these people. I love life lesson. This
Speaker 1: is why, this is why I'm glad I left it
Speaker 1: wide open. It didn't have to be the greatest sporting
Speaker 1: event you ever, when it's just something memorable love putting
Speaker 1: it back from the brink. Nobody on earth could have
Speaker 1: predicted you were gonna go down that avenue. No One.
Speaker 1: I thought, well you you gave me a heads up yesterday.
Speaker 1: So I thought long and hard on the Sunday, no one,
Speaker 1: no One's offense and coming all right, West, We're going
Speaker 1: back your same year as you. Greg. The Reds have
Speaker 1: a pitching prospect, frustrating but talented. Six five to forty.
Speaker 1: He looked like a combination of Ralph Mouth from The
Speaker 1: Happy Days and Frankenstein. He had red, wavy hair was
Speaker 1: receding and he was an ugly dude. Pete Rose had
Speaker 1: nicknamed him the True Creature. We just caught him the Creature.
Speaker 1: As kids, we're at this game because it's the Cliff
Speaker 1: Kid Glove Game in Cincinnati, the one game a year
Speaker 1: that all the little leaguers get to go to. This
Speaker 1: guy is one pitch away from a perfect game, and
Speaker 1: the ninth inning, two outs, two strikes, Wallace Johnson of
Speaker 1: the Montreal Expost serves a soft liner in the left field,
Speaker 1: breaks up the perfect game, and Rock Rains hits a
Speaker 1: two run homer. Now Ron Robinson, the Creature doesn't even
Speaker 1: get to finish the game. John Franco has to come
Speaker 1: in for the save. Robinson gets traded. Two years later,
Speaker 1: two months before the Reds win their their last World
Speaker 1: Series that they've ever won. So this song is supposed
Speaker 1: to be some takeoff on Shattered Dreams, But Johnny, remember
Speaker 1: Johnny hja is the one hit wonder Shattered Dreams. The Creature. Ah, well,
Speaker 1: you guys did a much better job than I did.
Speaker 1: I thought they were all good. That was that minute?
Speaker 1: Is that it was quickly? Well, what was your kind
Speaker 1: of musical inspiration? Mark just because I loved it and
Speaker 1: it was well. I know that our like our library
Speaker 1: as a wild card, but I sort of wanted like
Speaker 1: medieval um into like gallants, like a sword fight type thing.
Speaker 1: I think you did a nice job, Ken No, I
Speaker 1: thought it was really good. It was like firing me up.
Speaker 1: I mean, I blew it. It was Tom Ramsey, by
Speaker 1: the way, Shattered Dreams. Tom Ramsey was the quarterback who
Speaker 1: was the replacement for Steve Grogan. I mean, what you
Speaker 1: couldn't make Flutie the backup? He was a third stringer.
Speaker 1: Give me a break. Whenever you search like swords or
Speaker 1: swords fights, it's just a lot of like metallic clanging.
Speaker 1: And I figured the medieval stuff worked a little now,
Speaker 1: Thank you. That was beautiful. Those were some interesting stories
Speaker 1: that say I think, I think, I mean, it doesn't
Speaker 1: need to be a sporting man could be one minute
Speaker 1: on anything. As it happens, May of eighty eight, while
Speaker 1: that game was going on, Shattered Dreams was climbing the US.
Speaker 1: Wow it it was. It was Kis Mett alright, also
Speaker 1: Kis Mitt, Josh Norris. He's been watching the combine for
Speaker 1: how many days? Has it been? Probably about nine hours
Speaker 1: straight because that's just like what he does. They have
Speaker 1: they have podcasts literally every day during the combine. At
Speaker 1: Road to World, he's pumping out content. The big Fish
Speaker 1: is now kind of taking it easy during the combine.
Speaker 1: He's making Josh do all the work. Oh we got
Speaker 1: a little breaking news. Add another franchise tag to the mix.
Speaker 1: Multiple national reporters are reporting that Frank Clark because getting
Speaker 1: the franchise tag from the Seattle Seahl. Okay, well, I
Speaker 1: mean Pete Harold over and over and over said he
Speaker 1: is not leaving the building. Yes. Basically, all those guys
Speaker 1: on our top one O one list at the top
Speaker 1: that we thought we're gonna get tagged half, Tom Pellicero
Speaker 1: and Peter Schreger have confirmed expected to use the franchise tad,
Speaker 1: So Landon Collins to me is the only real wild
Speaker 1: card right now that we don't know which way it's
Speaker 1: gonna go at this point, I'd be very surprised if
Speaker 1: Tree Flowers did get the tag, even though I would
Speaker 1: support it and think it's a good move, it seems
Speaker 1: like no one believes that's going to happen. So landing
Speaker 1: Collins seems to be kind of the one guy everyone's
Speaker 1: waiting for it. We'll find that out later in the week.
Speaker 1: But before waiting any longer, you know, I gave him
Speaker 1: the big preamble. Let's get to Josh Norris. Josh, what's
Speaker 1: going on. I'm doing great, We're on, you are on
Speaker 1: with the Around the NFL podcast. I think we're just
Speaker 1: gonna jump right into it. I don't need to give
Speaker 1: the flowery preamble any longer. I already talked you up enough.
Speaker 1: How you've stepped over so many people that road to
Speaker 1: world to get to the position that you're in, and
Speaker 1: then now trying to push Evan Silva side. Uh, you know,
Speaker 1: I admire the hustle. Hopefully, guys, this doesn't turn into
Speaker 1: something like fre My parents call me at PM asked
Speaker 1: me how to work their remote control for their television.
Speaker 1: I'm excited to talk athletic testing with you. Wow. Well,
Speaker 1: what does that mean that that they're going to try
Speaker 1: to listen to this podcast? I don't I don't quite follow. No, No,
Speaker 1: as I they don't understand you know, updated modern text.
Speaker 1: Oh and we don't. And you're saying we, as simpleton's
Speaker 1: don't understand what's going on with the test now you're
Speaker 1: pretty much right. I mean, the title of this segment
Speaker 1: is combine Takeaways. We don't have a strong grasp on,
Speaker 1: but Josh Norris does. You're with You're with Chris Wesselena
Speaker 1: and Mark Seler as well. Josh, Hey, Josh, what favorite trio?
Speaker 1: I was just telling all of our listeners that disruption
Speaker 1: equals production? Is that a Josh Norris original? It is?
Speaker 1: It was from a Jadeveon Clowney article back in the day,
Speaker 1: um back when you know he was getting knocked for
Speaker 1: his sacks and I'm sure you guys talk about that
Speaker 1: all the time, how sacks really aren't the end all
Speaker 1: be all, but we're talking about Brandon Brandon Graham's new
Speaker 1: deal that he's a disruption equals production guy. There we
Speaker 1: go and backet talk to your line with Clowney like
Speaker 1: he was the only one getting four yards in the
Speaker 1: back room and the quarterback could just move around and
Speaker 1: avoid his his lines to the quarterback. So that's where
Speaker 1: disruption equals production game. Wow, it's great to get the
Speaker 1: etymology here the creator himself. Yeah, I don't know what
Speaker 1: you exactly think we're gonna talk about here, Josh, because
Speaker 1: I did ask you you know, hey, is there any
Speaker 1: names you want to you want to talk about, um,
Speaker 1: you know, before the show, and then you sent me
Speaker 1: like a four part breakdown of why you the measurements
Speaker 1: that you use are superior to the ones that are
Speaker 1: often talked about, and frankly it went over my head.
Speaker 1: I just kind of wanted to hear like who did
Speaker 1: well at the combine or not? Like pretend like you're
Speaker 1: speaking to you know, total simpletons. I just want to know, like, oh,
Speaker 1: is don't pretend like Rashan Gary, Like what do you
Speaker 1: think about Rashan Gary? You know, aren't you a little
Speaker 1: worried he didn't produce it all? After watching There's only
Speaker 1: a handful of times in my life I'll be able
Speaker 1: to talk to the heroes. So I saw I would
Speaker 1: try to put my best step forward, my best foot forward,
Speaker 1: and and and do my best in this regard. So okay,
Speaker 1: well you're off to a great start. Can I ask
Speaker 1: about some specific guys? I think that I think the
Speaker 1: best way to start this conversation if I can kind
Speaker 1: of take control here Greg as to kind of explain
Speaker 1: why in my opinion, that come by matters, and like
Speaker 1: why athletic testing matters because back in before I didn't
Speaker 1: think it mattered at all. Um, But because it's kind
Speaker 1: of how the combine is broadcast in some ways where
Speaker 1: for four days it's you know, forty yard dashes in
Speaker 1: their position drills, right, So we all kind of equate
Speaker 1: athleticism to a forty yard dash when really there's six
Speaker 1: or seven other tests that can be factored into someone's
Speaker 1: athletic profile, right, and then combine that with wait, because
Speaker 1: there's a major difference, and you know, a four pound
Speaker 1: receiver running a four four five versus aound receiver running
Speaker 1: four or four five, right, Um, kind of gives you
Speaker 1: a composite score. And that composite score allows you to
Speaker 1: compare across decades um and across players in the same
Speaker 1: position as well. So who like who stuck out to you,
Speaker 1: who is like towards the top of the draft for instance?
Speaker 1: To use your example, actually DK metcalf. Everyone was talking
Speaker 1: about his performance this weekend, but then I saw like
Speaker 1: a note about how his three cone drill was actually
Speaker 1: worse than Tom Brady's three cone drill. That here is
Speaker 1: the most athletic, amazing freak you've ever seen. But actually
Speaker 1: in this in this measurement, he was worse than two
Speaker 1: thousand Tom Brady, So like, how what do you how
Speaker 1: do you put that all together? What's your takeaway from
Speaker 1: all that? Yeah, and let me first say that, at
Speaker 1: least for me, evalue like watching games is the most
Speaker 1: important piece of these valuations. But if we can just
Speaker 1: like add tools to the toolbox here to hopefully improve
Speaker 1: value stations and hit on players and multiple days of
Speaker 1: the draft, like that's the only goal here with d K.
Speaker 1: Mattcalf is interesting because you mentioned it like his forty
Speaker 1: was outstanding, His jumps were amazing at forty and a
Speaker 1: half inch verts over eleven foot broad jump um at
Speaker 1: two eight pounds, but then like his three cone was
Speaker 1: in like the fifth percentile and his short shuttle was
Speaker 1: in like the third percentile. Um, if we can go
Speaker 1: back and kind of look at players that were somewhat
Speaker 1: similar in that regard, Um, a Stephen Hill pops out,
Speaker 1: a Greg Child pops out. I'm not necessarily gonna put
Speaker 1: Kevin White in that regard, but if you go back
Speaker 1: and look at Ole miss Um, it was a somewhat
Speaker 1: similar offense that Kevin White ran back at West Virginia.
Speaker 1: Whereas he was locked into one side of the field.
Speaker 1: Everything was run on that kind of linear plane, straight lines,
Speaker 1: and then outside breaking routes off of that. And so
Speaker 1: it's not that type of offense where you see him
Speaker 1: run all the routes, do everything across the formation line
Speaker 1: up in different areas of the field, and so that
Speaker 1: would get you pause. But obviously Mark just threw up
Speaker 1: in his mouth a little bit. I mean, but he
Speaker 1: has huge muscles. So can we just sort of wipe
Speaker 1: all this away and just someone draft him at thirteen?
Speaker 1: Wasn't child too? Are both proteller tendons? Yeah? I do.
Speaker 1: I do think it is important to note here though,
Speaker 1: that like athletic testing can also help you determine if
Speaker 1: what you saw in games is actually something that actually exists. Okay,
Speaker 1: because I mean I don't know about y'all, but my
Speaker 1: eyes lie to me at points. Um, like going back
Speaker 1: to Jarvis Jones for example, Yeah, we know, we know
Speaker 1: that Jarvis Jones led the SEC in sacks during his
Speaker 1: final year in Georgia. I mean, he was an outstanding
Speaker 1: player there, right, Farmers Steelers first round pick. There we go,
Speaker 1: And actually when he went through his athletic testing, Jarvis
Speaker 1: Jones tested like the worst first round pick of all time. Okay,
Speaker 1: since this has been tracked um like in the bottom
Speaker 1: tent person entitle Okay, and as we have known and seen,
Speaker 1: Jarvis Jones didn't have a very long career. So just
Speaker 1: because the production was there part of that, and especially
Speaker 1: if it does edge rushers and defensive linemen like, to me,
Speaker 1: that's where athleticism is most significant, right, Like, it's one
Speaker 1: of the true one on one matchups on the NFL
Speaker 1: playing field, and so at the very least in the
Speaker 1: simplest form, wouldn't athletic advantage give you a step up
Speaker 1: on your opponent? And Jarvis Jones wasn't even average in
Speaker 1: that regarding average is fine, he was well below average
Speaker 1: and in many ways staying away from non NFL caliber athletes.
Speaker 1: It's how we should use athletic testing. Does let me
Speaker 1: ask you the flip side of this, So guys like
Speaker 1: Montes Sweat, who just have one of the best combines
Speaker 1: ever for a defensive end slash edge rusher, and Rashaan Garry,
Speaker 1: who had a very good combine, both are being sort
Speaker 1: of criticized for not being quite as good on the
Speaker 1: field or for having game taped. I know Sweat I
Speaker 1: believe was ranked in the like the eighties by PFF.
Speaker 1: Um where would where would these guys fall for you? Like?
Speaker 1: Do you have faith in them? Yes? Uh? And my
Speaker 1: bias again as I mentioned towards edge rushers into your
Speaker 1: defensive lineman with athleticism. I think maybe the best example
Speaker 1: in previous years was Dunell Hunter, and I think part
Speaker 1: of it, um kind of comes down to the type
Speaker 1: of coaching they get once they reach the NFL. Hunter
Speaker 1: was an absolute awful pass rusher in college l s
Speaker 1: U who's a great run defender when he goes and
Speaker 1: is one of the best athletes in his class and
Speaker 1: draft in the third round and has become one of
Speaker 1: the best edge rushers in the league in my opinion. Um,
Speaker 1: do I think that Rashawn Gary and Montes Sweat have
Speaker 1: that potential? Sure, A big part of that is obviously
Speaker 1: the system and situation that they land in. But with Sweat,
Speaker 1: he's someone that can get up the field in a hurry. Um.
Speaker 1: I mean that obviously matches his athletic testing. His first
Speaker 1: two or three steps are are outstanding and when you
Speaker 1: know when you face those heavy footed offensive tackles, it
Speaker 1: can be fairly easy to run uh past them? Now
Speaker 1: does he have that been like von Miller? No? But
Speaker 1: ag in if if I'm trying to invest in a
Speaker 1: first round edge rusher or a first round into defensive lineman,
Speaker 1: the gold does get after quarterback and when on one
Speaker 1: on one matchup, Yeah, I would absolutely love them to
Speaker 1: have a superior And in these cases a profile is there,
Speaker 1: Like can I just shift to quarterbacks for a second,
Speaker 1: because I really don't have I'm not able to do
Speaker 1: much more at the combine than like hopefully see the
Speaker 1: quarterbacks for a couple of seconds. The rest of it
Speaker 1: is just a white haze and then I catch up
Speaker 1: with it later. But um, when it comes to outside
Speaker 1: of the Kyler Murray, is there a quarterback that's caught
Speaker 1: your eye that you feel like is going to be
Speaker 1: someone that could surprise everyone? Or is that not the case?
Speaker 1: Which is fine? Also well as we know, like if
Speaker 1: a quarterback gets taken outside of round one, there's really
Speaker 1: a very little hope for them in general. Um, I
Speaker 1: mean it's kind of true. Yeah, I mean it's not.
Speaker 1: You can point to various little that's absolutely true. I
Speaker 1: mean the exception rather than the rule that's fair. But
Speaker 1: this exception that proves the world there's plenty of decent
Speaker 1: second and thirds out there. I mean they're out like
Speaker 1: there have been throughout history. Russell Wilson current, I'm kind
Speaker 1: of like Andy Dalton to me, is a draft hit.
Speaker 1: If you got a France, if you've got a guy
Speaker 1: who starts that many games in the second round, or
Speaker 1: Kaepernick for that. You know what I'm saying though, like
Speaker 1: those guys matter, and those are those aren't Those weren't
Speaker 1: first round picks. But I hear you, especially in today's NFL,
Speaker 1: doesn't seem to happen to him, right, It kind of
Speaker 1: grapple up if you want if you want to stay
Speaker 1: in those situations, right, and like don't want to improve
Speaker 1: off of them. Um. Now with that said, I will
Speaker 1: go to someone that is not going to be taken
Speaker 1: in the first round. Um, and I'll go to Easton
Speaker 1: Stick out of North Dakota State. Um. We all know
Speaker 1: that that's assistant that Carson Wentz came out of and
Speaker 1: Easton ran the exact same one. So if you go,
Speaker 1: great name went and and yeah, right, should be a
Speaker 1: hockey player named after a baseball bet he is there
Speaker 1: You go and if you have watched went back in
Speaker 1: his college days, you saw everything was under center, a
Speaker 1: lot of things that a shotgun off play action, moving
Speaker 1: out of structure, inside of structure. Um, Eastan Stick could
Speaker 1: do all of that. Now, he did not have a
Speaker 1: good East West Shrine week, But to me, like Sticks,
Speaker 1: someone look, if there's like a Taylor heinuch out there
Speaker 1: is a backup quarterback in the league. If like Alex
Speaker 1: Tanney is a backup quarterback in the league, it makes
Speaker 1: someone like yeah, right, Easton Stick should easily be a
Speaker 1: backup quarterback in league. He has a lot of fun
Speaker 1: to go and watching those YouTube pighlight clips if you want,
Speaker 1: I like it. I'm all over this Eastern Stick uh scenario.
Speaker 1: I'm gonna track. That's like the name of Mark's next time. Finally,
Speaker 1: Stanley Morrigan Jr. You know, Canny live up to the name.
Speaker 1: That was the name of like my fantasy football team
Speaker 1: for years and years. It was just like Stanley Morgan.
Speaker 1: So like, Canny live up to that. What are your thoughts? Um,
Speaker 1: is this the wide receiver out of Nebraska. That's right,
Speaker 1: That's right. His dad is uh, you know, one of
Speaker 1: one of the great speed stres in Patriots history. Alright, Greg, Uh,
Speaker 1: I am very at knowing what I don't know, and
Speaker 1: I'm just gonna tell you I know very little Stanley
Speaker 1: More that didn't make even very good athlete on your
Speaker 1: hands there and Stanley Morgan. There's a player I really
Speaker 1: want to know about. I have a buddy, um who
Speaker 1: goes by the name spice Rack, who is a big
Speaker 1: college football fan and you know, fancies himself as a
Speaker 1: bit of address draft expert himself. And during the season
Speaker 1: he told me that I am going to fall in
Speaker 1: love with little Jordan Humphrey out of Texas. He said,
Speaker 1: he's just a big playmaker. This dude ran a four
Speaker 1: seven five at the combine. Please tell me why my
Speaker 1: friend talked him up so much? And is he an
Speaker 1: NFL wide receiver? Yeah? I have no idea. Um. Look,
Speaker 1: he didn't fall even with that four steven five. He
Speaker 1: didn't fall out into that like non NFL caliber athlete territory. Um.
Speaker 1: But if we're talking about players you get, you should
Speaker 1: get excited about it. Six ft four, you know, over
Speaker 1: two hundred pounds. He's certainly not the top of that
Speaker 1: list in this group. Like even a ton of massive
Speaker 1: wide receivers, there are a lot of fun Instead of
Speaker 1: wasting your time and watching little John Humphrey or whatever
Speaker 1: his name is, well still Jordan, which I think is
Speaker 1: a great name. He's not I mean Michael Jordan's just
Speaker 1: little and spice racks defense. He is standing on the
Speaker 1: table for Dwayne Haskins. Not that he's the only person
Speaker 1: in the world that's doing that right now, but it
Speaker 1: is is convinced Hassen's is gonna be like the next
Speaker 1: or one of the next great. Uh. Well, instead of
Speaker 1: wasting your time with Mr Jordan's, I would watch someone
Speaker 1: Keim Butler out of Iowa. Sink Um, this is a
Speaker 1: super fun player. Like you look at you know, big
Speaker 1: wide receivers six pounds and like naturally they think you
Speaker 1: think that you can do like Aushan Jeffrey type stuff. Right,
Speaker 1: just or at least Jonathan right. Um. But what Keim
Speaker 1: Butler does he shows you elements of the small game
Speaker 1: as well. Um, Like you turn on that Iowa game
Speaker 1: and in like a fourth down scenario he want he
Speaker 1: runs a whip route along the sideline and creates in
Speaker 1: some separation like getting alone his brakes, creating that space
Speaker 1: and that's just not something you see out of receivers,
Speaker 1: out of the size. We're gonna have a whole discussion
Speaker 1: about him and drops, but like that's an overage discussion
Speaker 1: as well. Um, but yeah, definitely go and watch you king,
Speaker 1: but you'll like what you see. I'm well, I'm sorry,
Speaker 1: Josh for you know, throwing you that Stanley Morrigan curveball here.
Speaker 1: But otherwise I think you knocked it out of the park.
Speaker 1: I think if people did happen to just like miss
Speaker 1: the previous four days and thirty two hours of coverage
Speaker 1: we had on NFL Network, I think the last fifteen
Speaker 1: minutes probably made it up for you. I mean, I
Speaker 1: think if we covered ever covered, we have everything. If
Speaker 1: I can just plug my own podcast, I already did, Josh,
Speaker 1: don't you worry about it. Well, I'll have a fuel
Speaker 1: a fool uh combined recap on there if you want to.
Speaker 1: You know, if we missed on anything of last bit match,
Speaker 1: which you know might not have happened. Now you're grinding
Speaker 1: six days in a row with the podcast. Now, I
Speaker 1: don't have anyone here know about that now. I'm That's
Speaker 1: why I wanted you on. Josh does an awesome job
Speaker 1: with UM with the really kind of cavalcade of stars
Speaker 1: that you have run through that show. Josh is smart,
Speaker 1: He's kind of the main one, and then the rest
Speaker 1: just rotate so everyone knows who's the most important. So
Speaker 1: he's the sun and they're the plan, right, and so
Speaker 1: different guys come on different days and and all that
Speaker 1: and it it is really good. UM Rode a World
Speaker 1: Football podcast. You know they started it Um too late,
Speaker 1: but they've made up for lost ground. I know you
Speaker 1: were pushing for it for years before they let you
Speaker 1: start it. That's the only reason why I'm There's there's
Speaker 1: no money incasing, right except for us. We're just drowning
Speaker 1: in it. Yeah, drowning in it. All right, Thanks Josh,
Speaker 1: thank you, all right, see you. So uh that was
Speaker 1: Josh and Norris. And before we go, we do have
Speaker 1: one last item of breaking news. We got three items
Speaker 1: of breaking alright, let's let west well. First of all,
Speaker 1: the Falcons announced that they are franchise tagging Grady Grady Jared,
Speaker 1: their defensive tackle yep Adam Schefter has been told that C. J.
Speaker 1: Mosley will not be franchise tag by the Baltimore Ravens,
Speaker 1: and rap Sheet is reporting that Landing Collins is not
Speaker 1: expected to draw the franchise tag from the Giants. Wow,
Speaker 1: I uh yeah, we start we forecast that before anyone.
Speaker 1: The land In Collins News got another one rap sheets.
Speaker 1: The wording is the Giants are quote viewed as unlikely. Okay,
Speaker 1: well we got twenty four hours, so at this point
Speaker 1: he's he's probably not getting the tag. He's gonna get
Speaker 1: very close to the top of our rankings, Grady Jarrett,
Speaker 1: That's no surprise. He was ranked. He was our number
Speaker 1: three player overall, so that is no surprise. I mean,
Speaker 1: you do this top one list and it's a wonderful thing,
Speaker 1: but then it's like immediately burned to a crisp, Like
Speaker 1: the only name value products on the entire thing are
Speaker 1: held by their own teams. No, I mean, yeah, you know,
Speaker 1: you know most of them are gonna go, but we're
Speaker 1: gonna have Levian Bell. You're right, the top is now
Speaker 1: going to be Levyan Bell, EORL Thomas, Tree Flowers, Foals
Speaker 1: Land and Collins Land and Collins. I mean that that
Speaker 1: We've had much worse years at the top. I'll put
Speaker 1: it that way. We had a year where it was
Speaker 1: like Malik Jackson and then like you know, collecchi assemile
Speaker 1: or something, one could make the point that are timing
Speaker 1: of the release and updates is suspect that maybe we
Speaker 1: should wait until after the franchise tags are in before
Speaker 1: we do this problem. Now people want to know. They
Speaker 1: want to start thinking. You know, it's all about the
Speaker 1: uh page views. You know they're getting more Uh, well,
Speaker 1: I mean that absent the page views. Yeah, like the
Speaker 1: top ten guys on your list every year or generally
Speaker 1: the top two guys. Well, it's a good discussion to have,
Speaker 1: and c J might I'd reboot the entire project and
Speaker 1: give it to two other people. Mosley. Mosley is interesting.
Speaker 1: He's the one that, Uh, I think they really want
Speaker 1: to keep them, and it's a rare case. I think
Speaker 1: they If I had to guess, I bet they still
Speaker 1: will find a way to keep them, even though they're
Speaker 1: not going to tag them. They just don't want to
Speaker 1: start the discussions at fifteen million a year, right, And
Speaker 1: I don't blame him for an inside linebacker. Maybe the
Speaker 1: Browns will steal them. I don't know why. That just
Speaker 1: feels like that's that just feels like a guy who's
Speaker 1: just gonna like come in and improve the culture and
Speaker 1: make your opponents, I mean the end of their season
Speaker 1: with an interception, so it'll help him out. It all
Speaker 1: comes back around, all right. On Wednesday, we will be back.
Speaker 1: We have a Twitter show early this week. I believe
Speaker 1: it's airing early unless unless we're pre taping. It is
Speaker 1: airing at Pacific one thirty Eastern time, and then we
Speaker 1: are taping the podcast after that. We will also be
Speaker 1: back with the podcast Friday morning. Dan will be back
Speaker 1: on Wednesday for Mark Ssler, The Quiet Storm, Chris Westling
Speaker 1: mail Man, that's it, Kent Brown, Josh Norris, Evan Silva. Everyone,
Speaker 1: we'll see you Wednesday