Predicting quarterback battles

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Speaker 1: Me Around the NFL Podcast is tired of Bill's quarterback battle stories. Welcome back to another edition of the Around the NFL Podcast. My name is Dan Hansis and I'm joined by Room Build with heroes Lindsey Rhodes, Chris Westling and Greg Rostal. What's up boys and Earls and Lindsay and Lindsay you're a woman. Yes, I was just saying that that was the and girls was the boys and Lindsay, I don't want to be you're calling me out of sexist. I feel like right at the top of the show, Andrew Siciliano downstairs giving us a little grief that Lindsay keeps being on but she comes with you. You're not even You're not even on air today on NFL Network. You just came. I am once again off and here just for you, which I think makes my life kind of sad, Like at a certain point the people that are listening and watching are going to be like, could you just plan something on your off days? Like I feel bad for you. Well, listen, I don't look at it that way. I think you see the opportunity of not just a career, but a lifetime to be involved with our show. I gotta get in that studio. I gotta get a taste of that magic. It's a ship just taken off. Well, jump up rocket, Yeah whatever, spaceship, you can go spaceship all right. So yeah, this is the Around the NFL Podcast and we have a great show with Linz with us today. Um, a lot to get to a lot. I got a lot of papers in front of you right now. It's almost a little bit intimidating. We have, you know, we have the Hall of Fame induction this weekend. Mark Sessler was in Canton and now he's in Cleveland at that old Indian burial ground in Barria. So we're gonna touch base with Sessler, talk about the big weekend and what he's doing out there in Ohio. We have the Position Battle awards. That excited. I'm excited for that. That's I think what the drop was coming from. We might talk a little bills, but we'll talk. We'll go out some awards of how these battles are going. That one is right in Greg's wheelhouse. Because last night, late Sunday night, email lands and my Gmail and it's Greg has all these different ideas. He was on fire. I was like Wow, this is gonna be a Rosenthal show. Well, we take we're now taping early in the morning, so it's like we can't just show up and and hope TD put together for it. But you know, we know what happens then what would happen? Well, I don't know, just bad things all right there at all, t D. You want to deserve that you're doing a great job. And of course we're gonna get to all the news including uh and you know the reason West hasn't really said much yet, he's still processing the information about a certain wide receiver UM in Charlotte or formerly of Charlotte now playing in Baltimore that will no longer be with us too much longer looking at looking, I wouldn't say that. I wouldn't say. That's why I haven't said anything. I was waiting for an opening for you know, we could have talked your party Saturday, Well we can. My Wells invited, thanks Wess, my son Jack, sweet handsome Jack Carson Hansas turning one, so we had a little party. I'm sure my invitation just cassome. Now as I know that, lindsay you have a young son yourself named Jack's I believe which is nice. I don't remember getting invited to your party. Well, but really none of my coworkers were invited, so it wasn't like I invited everyone but you type of situation. And Lindsey, we're getting there, all right, Let's let's cut to the chase, because West keeps on, you know, opening up all this uh you know, dirty laundry, dumping out the contents. I just wanted to talk about a party. I feel like barely. Yeah, Lindsey, we're working towards something that would be building up his friendship, but I'm not there yet. Chris and Greg, you know, we worked very closely together, all right. Not just a handsome boy, but a very active boy. I mean that that kid he goes for the cake, he starts crawling around like a madman. I mean he's something. I will say the other The only other problem I had to the party was Greg brought his durable daughter, Ellis, who is two and a half three and a half, and she walked away with the party. She stole the party, and I thought that was a little bit like if you're gonna bring a cute little girl, like realize who the party's for and who should be the star's leaving it there. She can't help it. She's just she seems to be um a little precocious. Well he can go to her wedding someday and get her back. Oh I like that little revenge. So yeah, So that's what's going on, Lindsay. Uh, Jack turns two next year, and maybe we could work this out a whole year to build up to that. So that's everything that's cooking. And before we move on, we will check behind the glass. Every time I look behind the glasses, more and more people back there. That's how you know it's getting real. Uh TV, How you doing, buddy? What is going on? I got a whole squad with me. You know how that meme goes, squad goes. This is my squad right here. We're old. I thought maybe Lindsey had a chance to know it, but squad doesn't connect with me. I'm sorry, squad goes all right? Cool. One more thing about my party. I did buy some corn hole boards and um, they had American flags on them. I spent ten extra dollars to get the ones that had the American flag on him. And Greg, who lives on the throne of ease as we know, with the Patriots teammates with West, and again Greg aligns himself in the throne of East scenarios. West is like the Michael Jordan of corn Hall, so he pretty much just show up if you're his Teammate's great, So Greg Patriots fan cornhole with West as a teammate. Like what what else is like a throne of the stuff. It's like the rap where there's like the rapper and then the guy on the stage with the rapper that waves around the white towns. I don't need socialize at parties anymore. I just bring my cute daughter and she kind of does it all for me. It is pretty good. So good job with that, Greg, You got the whole thing figured out, this game called life. All right, let's do some news that what you knew that was. Is it gonna get old? I mean I like to think it's not old yet. Do you feel like it's been played out now? No? No, I don't think we're quite there yet. Does Casablanca get old? All right? So let's start. We'll start with some somber news. Hall of Famer Frank Gifford has died at the age of eighty four. A statement was released on Sunday, he died suddenly at his Connecticut home of natural causes. Of course, Frank Gifford is maybe the ultimate giant versatile star both offensive defense and defense during his time. He went on to a successful second career as a broadcaster for ABC. He was on that Monday Night football team with Howard Cosell. Of course, So Frank Gifford dead at the age of eighty four, and West I thought, um, you know you're a good guy to write this stuff with your knowledge of the history. You wrote a nice retrospective piece on Gifford. You can't on on one hand you can probably count the transcendent talents who are in the College Football Hall of Fame, the Pro Football Hall of Fame, the Sports Broadcasting Hall of Fame, and were the subject of the best book in football literature, History of Fans Notes. I mean, and Frank Gifford, Really, what I wish I would have paid more attention to in the article spanned the old NFL when it was behind boxing, baseball, college football, golf. It was an afterthought. And then by the by the time he started broadcasting, NFL is already number one on the list. So his career spans that by the time he's done broadcasting, NFL leaves every other sport in the dust. He is I think one of the most transcendent figures in American sports history. Well, he's one of the people that brought the NFL to the limelight, that fifties Giants team, and he was the star of it. He was the Derek Jeter and the equivalent to Mickey Mantle you know of his day. Helped popularize the sport. You got Vince Lombardi as the offensive coordinator, that Tom Landry as the defensive coordinator. You're winning lots of games. Here's a great looking guy who you're putting on the cover of all the newspapers that played that made the probo at three positions, which is a mind boggling thing as it is. And he's a guy I think if you read about the NFL in that time, he was the guy. Like if you said he's one of the most transcendent guys in sports, I think of him. If you're just ranking influential guys in NFL history, he would have to be in like the twenty names that you mentioned, right, ten twenty names that you mentioned. Frank Gifford is one of those names, absolutely, and it is amazing that if you, like, if you were a kid growing up in the eighties like myself and then Greg and not West grew up in the eighties, but you were more like a child of the early seventies, wasn't born in early seventies. My point being is that I only knew Frank Gifford is as really the announcer from Monday Night Football and Cathy Lee's husband, but there was this whole other guy, really love machine, as she very publicly referred to. I gotta talk to my wife about renaming myself. We need a new nickname for you. Yeah, another new nickname. But yeah, it's it's amazing that he was able to have two totally separate careers that were huge and yeah, iconic figure Frank Gifford that at the age of eighty four, kind of crazy that uh that you mentioned his versatility as a player, but as a broadcaster he did play by play and was also the analyst. That's a totally different skill set. That says a lot to me about how seriously he took his uh second career of broadcast broadcast either he's the broadcaster on the number one show on TV exactly, and not everybody can do it, either Lindsay or I mean, I think of Joe Namath is another try to be a broadcaster didn't work. Gifford obviously had the goods and did the work. Yeah, and and it's one thing to to sit there as the analyst, and and that that it takes the skill set to be a very good analyst to know which stories and anecdotes fit where and how to get in and out and talk for the right amount of time, especially when you're calling a game, so you don't want to talk. You want to get out before the next place starts, so the play by play guy can hop in. But but to be the play by play person, it's obviously you need to have knowledge of the game, but you also need to kind of know your role and do the traffic copying getting in and out of break Dan, as you well know as the host of this fine program, uh, Gifford on the same level of very similar like definitely here and here. Can I also point out I feel like it's poetic to some degree that a Hall of Famer passes away while the fraternity is gathered, like Art Donovan did in two. This is not a small point your point about the play by play thing. I just want to say real quick. He was known as one of the classiest guys and him, he and Howard Cosell. When I'm doing the Monday night football thing for love you Blue Cosell is doing the color and Gifford is doing the play by play. The player had you know enough humility to take on that rule? Alright? Moving on, Um, Steve Smith, West, your boy for years and years and years, is making the two thousand fifteen season his last. Uh. The Ravens wide receiver announced Monday he will retire at the end of the season. Uh. He said to reporters, I feel like this is the best place. If this is going to be the end, this will be the place to end it. Draft in the third round in the two thousand one draft by the Panthers. Uh. Smith has been no less than one of the most dynamic receivers and personalities of his era. And of course, UH, you know a guy that has been able to keep his career afloat and thriving well into his thirties, which is not easy to do. Uh, West, your thoughts about Steve Smith In the end, He's a no doubt Hall of Famer in my mind, which is obscured a little bit by the fact he played in Charlotte for almost his entire career and had one season ruined by a broken leg in his prime, had two more season sabotage by NFL worst quarterback play, in fact, some of the worst quarterback play we've ever seen. And he's still gonna be in the top twelve or third team when he finishes his career. In receiving yards, number one all time and receiving yards per game, well ahead of Michael Irvin and Jerry Rice, who are number two and three in postseason yards per game from two thousand five to two thousand and eight. The best receiver in the NFL, this guy's he's not a lot of people agree with you on that. A lot of people would think t O in that time or Randy number certainly wasn't the best time. Randy Moss and I agree with you, and now you're in a position where you can start banging this drum for the next five years that he's a Hall of Famer. But I don't think everyone's gonna agree with you on that. Chase Stewart, from football perspective, has done a lot of studies on this yards per team passing attempt. The Panthers were always a run heavy team. It shows that Steve Smith's dominance that number one and number two on the in modern history yards per team passing attempt Steve Smith two thousand five, Steve Smith two thousand eight, he has the top two season. Maybe he didn't have the cash a in terms of intimidation of some of those greats like a Moss or and Owens, but as a competitor, the guy was peerless. And and there was a great quote from someone on the Ravens coaching side, I think it was Harbor said, if you weren't prepared against Steve Smith, you're gonna get humiliated because that's he was so ferocious on the field. Well, he wasn't the mismatch that Teo was or that Randy Moss was. I mean, you're looking at a much smaller wide receiver here. So the fact that he's even mentioned in the same sentence that he is able to win those position battles, uh, Well you always here. Pound for pound, he wasn't pound for pound the toughest receiver in league. He was the toughest receiving the league. At five ft nine or whatever. And you know, like Taylor and Ronde Barber, who have three seventy career NFL starts, both have said Steve Smith is the hardest receiver they've ever covered. Sound sets up a scenario here where that'll be a part of the storyline, especially if the Ravens are one of the better teams in the league, which a lot of people think they are. It's like win one for Steve put him in the hall. Well, why I mentioned it now, it's a weird it's a little weird timing. I don't know, get a little uh, you know, you get a little uh. Everybody loves a little adulation, and that's what he's gonna get all year, people saying that he's been great, And I don't think there's anything wrong, but I think NFL players are creatures of routine, and I think you want to have that mindset going into a season like this is my last. We're gonna just miss like the sound bites. And I don't know if you've had any interaction with him, just that and what is the bananas or well, you know, I kind of thought that he was going to be a little intimidating because he's got that edge on the field that I sort of thought he was going to come in and be maybe a little bit difficult, and he was just as nice as could be. And um, I felt like I learned a lot about his personality when he came in. He came in to do Total Access a few years ago, and he was promoting a charity that he has and I'm going to I don't know the name of the charity, but it's essentially like he and people from his church go and wash the feet of homeless people and it's a humility exercise. And it's not the kind of thing you would associate with Steve Smith if you've only watched him on the field and all the trash talking and stuff his person I was telling us where to go eat and like Compton or you know some of the local places that he still comes back to in frequent remember interviewing him. Maybe it was last year he when he came to the to the studio. In the middle of the interview, his whole family walks into the little office and his daughter sits on his lap and he like continues interview. So it's like, this is not the Steve Smith that keep to leave, deal with, dealt with during his career. I have an anecdote on this. I I wrote last year an article on him, and I summarized all the fights he's been in where he's basically left the other guy in shambles. Three fights in his NFL career, and he got ahold of Panthers pr and they called me and told me to take it down. He didn't want that image of him out there. Interesting. He also released a tweet today. Sometimes it's better to walk away when you hear that voice talking to you than to wait and they push you out the door. Greg. We can we can distill that down to head the call by the way West, any empty nest syndrome. Famously, Steve Smith has the honeymoon suite in your stable of boys? Is this in Odell Beckham connection? Is he's going to move right in to Steve spot or do you retire this? I think you have to vacate that for a while. Yeah, that makes sense, all right, Steve Smith? One year to go? All right? Moving on? Uh. Nick Foles has signed a contract extension with the St. Louis Ramsas is something that was reported by Ian earlier in the summer that something was cooking, and I think we all were a little surprised that it could be something that happens, but they struck a two year deal. Nick Foles now has some security in St. Louis to go with the starting job. Greg, were you surprised that this uh happened? I mean, because we haven't seen much since from Nick Foles since last year's injury. Well, on the face of it, it seems insane. Why would you be signing up for more years of Nick Foles with Frank Signetti who has never been the offensive coordinator in a shaky It just sounds bizarre. But then when when I haven't we haven't even seen all the details, and I think there's a reason for that. There's fourteen million dollars guaranteed, and I suspect almost all of that, if not all of it, will just be this year's salary. So if you're Nick Foles, you're at the last year of your rookie contract. He's gonna get paid like a starting quarterback, which he deserves to be, and I suspect there's almost no commitment after that. So if he plays well, the Rams have him for a couple more years at a pretty low rate. If he plays terribly, I I suspect they'll easily be able to cut him and he gets to be paid this year in in a fair manner instead of like a backup. Do you want your starting quarterback going into the year without a deal past this year? I mean mentally, it's like, you're gonna tell everybody, everyone who will listen, that you believe in Nick Foles, that Nick Foles is the guy that can get it done this year. You want Nick Foles to believe that you believe that, and you're gonna let him go into the year with essentially a lame duck status. That's the way I look at this. I think think this is just kind of and it's two years. It's not like they extended him for four or five or something like that. They're just giving him a little bit of security thing, we believe in. You get it done, and then we'll we'll come back to the table, we'll discuss someone. I agree. I think it's going to be very team friendly. If anything. The only person who could come out bad in this is fold if he happened to have a Pro Bowl type of season, which would be bizarre. I think Lindsay made a good point. I think it's more important to identify the right quarterback than it is to get a mediocre guy under contract. But like you said, it's only two years, and like Greg said, it could only be one year. I mean, they can cut ties after this year if they want to. But I think I've read uh Don Banks from S I talked to Jeff Fisher, and what comes across is they really like fulls height. It's weird because after Sam Bradford got hurt, they just thought, all these backups we have can't see our wide receivers when they're open. They just wanted a tall guy. They do have a lot of smaller wide receivers. Yeah, that doesn't get me excited about the St. Louis offensive minds in in place right now that we just want reivers. Yeah, that's true that he was due one point five million in the final year of his deal. That's fourteen million and guaranteed coming his way twenty four and a half over two years. So pretty nice money for a guy that doesn't have much to show for in his career. So if it, if it helps him at all this season, it's an investment that is certainly worth taking or baking. If you're the St. Louis Rams. I mean, think of how much you're investing and better, I got the Rams going to the playoffs. Go Fols. That's weird alright, Moving on, so we have Vante David has a new deal as well. This comes a week after the Lions got DeAndre Levy under contract of the big note new deal, and now according to Ran Getlin, our new guy for NFL Media, the Bucks have agreed to terms with David on a five year deal worth fifty point million with twenty five and a half million guarantee. That money from rap sheet. Uh that includes some escalators as well. Uh. Lavante David now getting paid like a superstar. Uh. Linebacker and Chris Westling does he deserved that time type of money? Absolutely? He. Thomas Davis and DeAndre Levy are the are the trio of for three linebackers who should be Pro Bowlers every year. They're that good. DeAndre Levy as a rookie had twenty tackles for loss, which was the highest total by a rookie since the second highest since the year two thousand and then, as a second year player in two five interceptions, seven sacks, five tackles, he just stuffed the box score every game. I think that's one of the best four three linebacker seasons we've seen in a while. Another guy under the radar. A lot of people probably know him more because that Week one against the Jets where he pushed Gino Smith out of bounds and it costs the Bucks a game. You don't get a lot of pub when you're on a bad team playing well. I feel like that was maybe most high profile play in terms of what the public knows about him. But this guy has been doing it for several years. Now, Pay your linebacker month in the NFL, Well, it's very rare that. It's very rare that you see three contracts come that are so direct leave related to each other. I mean, Bobby Wagner's contract lead to Levy and this contract. If one of them, if none of them got done, if if Wagon hadn't started it, I don't know if any of them get done, and then all three of them get done together because it's basically around the same the same level. You bring up an interesting point though, about the guys who haven't been to the Pro Bowl that play a linebacker. They're clearly among the best linebackers in the league. It almost feels like we've come to a point in the NFL's evolution where you need to separate them, where it's like somehow you've got a pretest rusher category and then you've got the sideline tackler. I find the sideline has to be a different category than edge rush. Call it the roads rule. I would love that. Yes, let's let's definitely name an NFL rule after me. I like it. I'm on board for that being it. Let's give PFF a little off too. By the way, I always make fun of Pro Football Focus. Well here they're like the things we disagree with, but I think they've raised awareness for some of these guys. They were early on the lead the Levy and Lavante David Um bandwagon. And look, the NFL teams agree. They're paying him ten million dollars. Absolutely, three cheers for PFF. That that's big words from West. Remember the awkward showdown you had with that guy was very nice. I didn't think it was awkward at all. You basically assassinated him on the air. Well, look, you can't have Gary Barninge or whatever the guy's name was as your top rated tight end like Gary barn is getting something. Actually it wasn't. Yeah, Ben Harts is your number one rated tight end because he's a good blocker. Give me a break, All right, let's move on to the New York Giants Jason Pierre Paul. We all know what happened to poor jp P on the fourth of July. Lost the finger, jacked up his hand thanks to some fireworks Shenanigans. Uh. New York Giants coach Tom Coughlin said Saturday that he's finally uh spoke with his star defensive end. They had a quote good conversation on Friday, but then again the news that Pierre Paul is not going to report to the Giants and signed that franchise tag until he's healthy enough to get on the field. Coughlin had this to say, He's looking forward to coming, He's anxious to be here, but he's not gonna come until he feels like he's ready to play. Clearly, you don't have to read between the lines. Giants management is frustrated with how JPP has handled all of this, and uh, they don't know when they're going to get him back. Are we gonna see Jack lindsay, We're gonna see JPP on the field this year. This is a weird situation this year. I don't know, not at anytime soon. And then when he does get back on the field, is he going to be able to do what he did before? I mean, and he's sort of for a while. He's missing too, right, because he has that fractured thumb also, so I don't even really know how messed up the hand is. Beyond the finger the thumb, that could be even worse. Well, John John Mara keeps saying the same line. He said it on Monday again when he spoke that he doesn't know how many fingers JPPS, which sounds like he's almost making a joke about it, but I think he means it. He said at that point he was sending him a message, I think right, because that was before JPP really had talked to anybody in the organization. And he's saying, look, we don't even we don't even know because we haven't seen him, because this guy won't at us in the room. I mean, he won't return our phone calls. I pointed this story out as something we talked about just because it seemed crazy to me that Coughlin didn't speak to him until Friday, and that they have no idea when he's going to show back up, and that Tom Coughlin texted him almost immediately after it happened, and JPP didn't get off to him. That doesn't seem like the kind of coach that you blow off a text from and then you're gonna come back and you're gonna be welcomed back into the organization. Tom Coughlin seems to mean he can say everything's fine, but he just doesn't seem like I mean, if you're five minutes early for a meeting, you're late. If it's Tom Coughlin, this guy doesn't text you back for a couple of weeks. I be happy if this continues. I would not be shocked that this relationship falls apart entirely if the communication doesn't build back up and he never plays again for the Giants. Steve Steve Tiss, who's the Giants, Cohner has said he you know, quoted the Daily News saying he's very frustrating because Pierre Paul won't reach out to him. Said that we have the New York Giants have the best doctors in the country, if not the world, and we want to help you, and yet you you insist on being in Florida. There's a serious amount of frustration building up and I get it. And look, we've made quite an investment in you and this wasn't like you got in a car accident. Something was completely out of your control. And you know you're understandably upset about how this will impact your life moving forward. Needs some time to yourself. You made bad choices, and those will have ramifications for our football team, Like we're reaching out to you to show you a little empathy. You need to give us something back. In fairness, did you see those pictures of his the band is and everything like that would be tough to text with. I'm just trying to imagine you didn't. I've got the voice a little too. That is, it's about a month or so, maybe six weeks, and we can make the texting hand joke. Okay, sorry, we'll revisit that. Uh lindsay you're bringing the fire today, Fire and Flannel. That is like the nickname if you had to remember those posters, the cheesy nineties posters where they would be in like like Warren Moon would be like full moon, howling fire and flannel, like in the middle of the death Wait wait, would I be going like that? Arms, arms like price, like hashtag fire and flannel. All right, uh, we have football. By the way, football was played for the first time this season, the Hall of Hall of Fame game, our own Mark Sessler, who again the sizzler who's been out of the mix on the show for the past few shows. We'll be back when we talk to him a little bit later. But there was a game the Minnesota Vikings and Pittsburgh Steelers. A really exciting action packed the game. You never forget four teen three Vikings win. I'm just kidding. It was not exciting. No big bend, no apeah, nothing, nothing to get excited about. But football's football, and it did gangbusters ratings. I think I saw a tweet that it had better ratings in the Stanley Cup finals. So football, yeah, people are I can't wait to tell my husband because he was making fun of me that I was excited for this. He was like, it doesn't matter, and I said, look at for one theories that matters this week because you're going to see some starters. Wait, I watched Bridget Jones diary instead of this football. That's ridiculous. It wasn't my choice. Do you know you're gonna date. Do you watch it? Cost you your job? You want to keep that fan base that you alluded to on the last show. Look Bridget jones Diary but it forgive me in a side here. But Mark Darcy, the guy in that show, should have never gone with Bridget Jones. Who's just she messes up everything, she has nothing going for her, and that whole show is just ridiculous. This would have been a great topic for the podcast, or whenever, that's a terrible movie? Who was we agree with on that? How did this? How did you even come to see that movie? I was given a choice of a few, and that was wait, did you watch it with a lady friend with a lady lady? Lady? Was it the one that's in the mix right now? There are a few in the mix, wait saying whoa hey, oh do they listen to the podcast? To be careful, he will be careful with your words. I haven't told them that I do a podcast. Okay, that's smartly, but they clearly these are deep relationships that you're going figure it out, all right? Is this the moment? I mean, you scream podcaster? Alright, flawed? I'd like us that we're talking about all this highlights. Mike Zimmer and Mike Tomlin are glaring down. We should still keep talking about it. Well, there's nothing really to report, Okay, alright, Well she got you to watch Jones diary. We know that a football we know that you can be pretty well. Look, I'm not going to watch the Hall of Fame game no matter what. You could be pretty unbendable, Bridgewater. You can watch game pass comes up sometimes soon you can watch it on that Hey, I'll give you a little uh, I'll give you a little takeaway from it. Your boy Ryan's his ear all over the field again, he's Mr preseason. He looked great. That was my only takeaway. You know something? Is there a lady in the lead right now? Off your heart? I don't even think my heart's into it yet. Let's let's see what happens here. I mean, let's let's take it slow. Are how many dates in are we? How many dates deep with this girl too? Okay, all right, I'll give you that interesting. What does she think about dree Archer? She has no idea who dree Archer is. Okay, West play in the field. I like it. He's in the game. All right, that's good at a lot there. So that game happened, and more football is to come. The biggest news really to come out of the game. The place kicker for the Steelers show on Sweet him towards a c L. So his season is over. So and by the way, I know, we joke around kickers who cares not easy to kick in Hines field, extra points are further back. They gotta now, they gotta find a kicker that's not a that's not a small small thing. He's been one of the most accurate kickers in the NFL the last couple of years, which is surprising. He had a pretty bad start to the crew. You're right, that used to be kind of the graveyard for kickers, you know, a tough place, probably fine one where they found seem for free. Just wait till somebody drafts him in your fantasy league. Good point. Um, all right, that's what's happening in the news. Hey, let's talk about some position battles. In fact, it's called the Position Battle Awards. Let's go for it. So why don't we go around the table here and each throw out a position battle in training camp right now? You know, for the sake of let's have some fun here, give it a title, what what the what the award is, and we'll start with fiery and flannel Lindsay Rhodes. We're gonna start with me. Excuse me, We're gonna start with I would love to lead us off now listen, We're not gonna do it, though. Listen, We're listen the now transitions coming right now. It used to be able to throw to whoever I wanted to, and it was fun. Now I'm I'm very structured. Td S glaring at me. He's disapproving of my abilities as a host. We're gonna start with West, get us going, baby, most Matt money Smith alluded to it opening Drop the most life draining quarterback battle in the NFL. The Bills, who just every time you hear anything about them, you don't think they can get any worse, But they do. I think um. One of the Beat writers, used the phrase mostly putrid to describe their performance in in the scrimmage on Saturday, Matt Castle basically they told him to hand off every time. E J. Manuel won by default because after all three quarterbacks had gone against the first, second and third team defenses, he finally found the end zone, Tyrod Taylor made a few good passive and missed too many throws. Uh So, basically all three continued to be underwhelming, subpar, humanistic, robot awful quarterbacks. Whatever. I have two tweets from the session today, one from Matthew fairburn ej Manuel's first pass of the two minute drill against the third team defense was intercepted by undrafted rookie West Miller, and from Tyler Dunn. Manuel bobble the shotguns snapping through it at Wood's feet on a quick out. Bad day for him, good day for Castle. Castle did get some good news. He will start the preseason opener, which the first crack. Yeah, what's concerning to me is that every day that you check in with a beat writer there on Twitter, every day a different quarterback has had a good day and an awful day. It's there's no continuity there. Well, part of the biggest part of the problem. And I've been watching this one pretty closely. If they're going up against Mario Williams and Marcel Darius and that defensive line, and then, oh, by the way, the Bill's offensive line could stink like it might be a really poor offensive line. You got Corty Glenn. You know, you would think he's solid. Other than that, they're getting overwhelmed and they're definitely not quarterbacks that are going to be able to overcome that. So even though they're not going to go up against the Bills every week, they are going to go up against the Jets and the Dolphins and and have some troubles. That does Rex Ryan put himself back in this position. It's the exact same thing. It's Groundhog Day in his NFL career, and he said it himself. I don't know if it's true, but when he got hired, he said, this is my last chance, and I'm going to make sure I make this work. Will you just put yourself in the same situation that sabotaged your first shot at this It's the team that is in quote quarterback purgatory, according to its general manager Doug Whaley, who went on local radio last week and essentially said, like, we're probably not getting a franchise quarterback anytime soon because we're gonna be too good to draft them that high. Hey, by the way, that don't assume you're gonna win eight games or nine games again. You might be back at the top of the draft. I think the Bills personally will be good, but it's the NFL. Only about three teams can assume they're gonna win ten games. After that, anyone could be a four or five win team that defense can give them. I was gonna say, you see the number of wins. Maybe the GM shouldn't say that, but you see his point, like they're probably gonna will that defense could will them to at least six wins, and then you're out of the top five in the draft. Hey, draft, how about look at the top quarterbacks in like Drew Brees, Russell Wilson, Tom Brady. There's plenty of guys that aren't. You know, it's not that easy to find a quarterback. Mr Thron, did you see what I've been a quarterback purgatory since seventy Did you read why Rex didn't even know what's that? Rex said he considered signing Michael Vick, but his hands are too small, which seems on the list of problems with the Bill's quarterbacks pretty slight compared to E. J. Manuel Matt Castle on Tyrod Taylor. Small hands might get you the job in Buffalo, Lindsey the next award, Let's go for least dramatic quarterback battle, and I think that that obviously goes to the Eagles, Sam Bradefood Mark Sanchez, who here thought this was going to be a quarterback battle coming into the year, because they sort of said that, and then as soon as training camp started, they were like, hey, guess what, Sam Bradford's our guy for I did not because I have a sandwich on it in Weston Market and look, he could go down with another a c L injury any minute. Well that's fair. That was part of the reason why I took the proposition, because you thought he might tear as a c L. Yeah, I think Sam Bradford, there's no I mean, anything can happen between now and then as far as injuries go. And he's not a guy who inspires confidence there. Well, he's inspired confidence in the Eagles coaching staff and maybe they just have to say it. But he hasn't missed, by the way, a single rep of training camp, forget miss a day. He's been taking all the snaps. He's been out there for every rep. And they said, you know, Chip Kelly's talking him up that he picks up our reads. He's accurate. I don't know if they're just saying that to build him up. But whatever it is, they're making it clear. Like Lindsay said, it's not really a battle. Things over sorry mark Over. Before it started, they never really battle. They said it was going to be a battle, and then before they even took their first reps, they were like Bradford Winner, Eagles West. Nice try Sanchez with that move. It is his move and he is a perfect backup quarterback for that team, and he knows the offense and he performed decent last year. How about a little drama though we talked about this on our last show, but Tim Tebow, you know if the quarterback room is he gonna make the team? Was a little drama there. There is a little bit bark Barkley or Tebow, Right, one of them's got to go. There's Barkley. You're a usc um a lum, right, Lindsey, I am. So you have very close personal ties to Matt Barkley. Probably go the same wine mixers and sent you wine mixers. That's the mos Trojan's Do you like him? I like him very much. Barkley is a good guy. That Barkley is a very nice guy. I'm reading between the lines that means bad guy. Maybe no, absolutely, yeah, yeah. Not much drama in Philadelphia, maybe there will be some drama in Cleveland. I'm gonna give the Cleveland Battle Award that transition a B plus. Okay, I'm gonna give it the Metaphysical Battle Award because Johnny Manzel, he's not battling Josh McCown, who is you know, a person flesh and blood out there with him every day. He's battling something in the future. He's batting November Josh McCary. This is You're painting quite a picture here because he's not gonna start Week one. But like a science fiction team, I think Manzel is battling. Ultimately, he's battling himself, and he's battling the version of Josh McCown that's going to be out there for the three and seven Browns in November. And so what Johnny Man's doing right now he smarts Josh. He's building up a resume, and he's trying to show to the bosses, hey, guys, I'm much better this year. When this season goes poorly, which most likely will because your number one receivers, Taylor Gabriel, Let's go to me I'm gonna show you something in August like he did at the scrimmage on Friday night, where you know, people were pretty impressed with what Manzel did, and and try to show that he's in the mix later in the season. The ongoing disrespect for Josh McCown in this studio is just ridiculous. Albert Albert Brier, who was just in Borea, he came away convinced that the Browns think Josh mc they're getting the two thous not the two thousand fourteen. Josh mcowny was stuck behind the worst offensive line in the NFL. This is his seventh team. I'm not the only one who you know, do the have faith in Josh McCown. Six other teams that football Cogniz said he don't have faith in. But let's just take a step back and look at this logically, that Josh McCown has never had sustained success in the NFL. He bombed out in his most previous recent season, and now he goes to quarterback health. The purgatory is in Buffalo. Quarterback Hell's this is mann't have Flutie Jeff Garcia. None of that happened in Cleveland I'm just saying these things have Quarterbacks have been known to have late career epiphanies. Jeff Garcia did happen in Cleveland, asked Browns fans about that, well, different type of I take issue with your crowning Taylor Gabriel is their number one. That that was essentially a shot their lack of number one. By the way, Mark again, we're gonna get him on the phone and talk to him all about Brown's camp. And you haven't lived until Mark Sessler is live tweeting Brown's practice on your tweet deck, and I I am enjoying. I feel like that my whole life has been building towards this happening, and it was going on this morning, so I can't wait to talk to me. Mayak was really talking men Zo up or his calm feet and saying they've strung to gather three practice. What I'm saying is there's no reason to ignore the fact that he apparently is building a little bit all right now, speaking of the Browns, I will throw out the most depressing quarterback battle it's happening down in Houston, the Sight of Hard Knocks, by the way, starting tomorrow Tuesday, the old Zeuser uh is continuing the hard Knocks recaps for around the NFL. Uh So check that out. We'll be talking about some hard knocks. That's not the point, but it's good to get a plug in, even if it's for myself the moment. Oh, by the way, hard Knocks is will also be airing. That's kind of a love how he made that about himself. I think the joy slash shock on Lindsay's face when he referred to yourself as the old Zeuser that he signed an email to me as the old suser. Well that's my name. That cap it out too, just throwing it in my face. Hey, you had your chance, give me a nickname. The most depressing battle is Brian Horyer versus Ryan Mallett, because we're getting reports out there that either guys really pulled ahead. I guess Hoyer has seen as the favorite, but Ryan mall was the guy that I think everybody in Houston they wanted him to somehow be this steal that they get from the Patriots. It's not gonna looking like it's gonna work out. Malt can't throw to a receiver, he has no accuracy, so Hoyer will probably be the week one starter, you would think. But at the same time, this is a legitimate competition still between two middling C two C minus quarterbacks and without Arian Foster there, and we talked about this West they go from, you know, playoff sleeper type team too. If they got atrocious quarterback play with Alfred Blue behind the quarterback, this could be a terrible offense. I'm glad you brought up Arian Foster because I thought about this over the weekend. That should change the quarterback battle. When they had Arian Foster and they can be a run heavy team and hide Brian Hoyer, it made sense to go with Brian Hoyer. Now you have no running game, Like Greg said, the average three point one yards per per carry all the other running backs in Houston without a running game, Why don't you just see what you have in Mau who actually has the arm to pull off a passing attack. M You can't structure this game around play action fakes. Now, when did you think of this Saturday? While I was walking under the bridget Jones's diary or three quarters because your mind had to have been wandering Saturday. I was walking down the beach before I got a ride to Dan to Dan's party walking down the beach, you know, thinking about the King of Houston and Ryan Mallett that that almost made sense your point on Mallett Hoyer, thank you, It almost made change. They're thinking. But I don't know either way. You just you need to find someone who could do You remember what happened to Brian Hoyer late last year with the Browns when they didn't have a running attack. It wasn't fun to watch. The bloom came off the rose. It is an interesting question, though, that you bring up that Hoyer is sort of established as an average quarterback in this league. He's had a shot. We know what he is capable of doing, although not in the best of environments. Uh, is it worth just giving Mallet a shot? I think let's roll the dice and see and then we can always go back to Hoyer. I don't I don't know. I think we heard this thing might end quickly, and now it doesn't seem like it's gonna all right. So there it is. Those you have another one, Greg, did you want to throw something else out there? Well? There were you know, there's lots of other battles. Those are just quarterbacks, of course, I mean I would throw out the the in Belichick we trust award to the Patriots running backs if any other team was potentially rolling out Treveris Cadet and James White and Lewis Dion Lewis has potential week when starters would be making fun of them and talking about what you know, disaster this is, and yet Patriots like it'll be fine, leaguered out with Jimmy will have Tom Brady for sixteen games, got a screen. Let's just count on la Garrett Blunt when he gets back from his knee surgery and his suspension, he'll be fine. Jonas Gig, He's a reliable guy. Blunt. That's a good in though. I mean, give me a break, Jonah. I was sleeping on Jonah Square a little bit. It's not like I ever did anything to uh not earn any more benefit of doubt after two yard four touchdown game and just stopp getting played. Yeah, I mean, he could be he could be a guy. There's a lot of injuries affecting these running back the Falcons running backs, and either one of them are healthy right now. Darren McFadden hasn't been able to play for the Cowboys. We're just getting going. We got four more weeks? Exciting? Is this football is really back? You know, you go through the off season, you're trying to come up with things to talk about that is no longer the case. J jabber jabber. Okay, this podcast has sounded much like that, Lizzie, are you regretting? Get your decision? If you at what point in the show we're about the forty four minute mark, did you start regretting coming in? Ah? You know, how about when you were doing again you were seeing Sarah McLaughlin before the show. We get a little bit that. No, Actually I wanted to queue it up for when we were talking about West the Stable Boys losing its greatest tenant, and then you would drop a little acapella. So we're gonna throw it to you. Here you go. What song was it again that we're doing? I will remember you? Yeah? Okay, just pretend we'd like, are you going to talk over? I'm no, I'm laying the music bed. Oh I thought it was a lovely render. Pretend the screen is showing a bunch of adopted dogs, very sickly. All right, here we go acapella. I feel like you need to continue talking about something behind you. I meant always appreciated, and he's not leaving life. He's still going to be around. It's just not well. I think it's better to go out on top than to regret there. You stay too long. You don't care about that. That was really good. I liked how you guys acted it out to You have looked like this is a very serious conversation. Anone's going to drop some serious knowledge. I had nothing. I feel like you guys had more pressure on you in that little than I did. Pressure a fake conversation. All right, let's go. Let's background actor. That was good, Linda, because like banana rudebag or something like that, so that it looks like this isn't a shot at Dan, but you definitely have the best singing group of singing voice or a singing voice. Yeah, you're lying, but Dan does not. Yeah, he was no offense. Dan, I will remember you, You remember me. Don't let you past got the lyrics, don't let your past at that. Dylan's like, Saray, do you want to take another pass at that lyric? No, I don't let your pass pass your by. That's what I want. Get those dogs on the screen. All right, here we go, Let's get Mark Cesler speaking of dogs and the Dog Pound, Mark Sessler are are great around the NFL writer. He was a Canton this weekend. Now he is at an Indian burial ground known as Brown's Camp. Where he is, Uh? Where are we are at the the Indian burial ground known as Brown's Camp. Fellas, it's Mark there, I am you know TD put me? Oh, there you go, that's what you're waiting Quart. Sorry, I sense that we were waiting for something. I was, but I didn't know what. You put me on the line about five minutes ago and the train is completely off. Um. I hope that is not a reference to my singing, because that was good stuff. That was That was high shelf Dan. Actually, I can vouch for Dan that if you get a few uh gray hounds and Dan he can sing. Thank you. I think you got to put him in the right fire. I've had some moments in karaoke where I've got confidence a very talented group. Well, as we established much earlier in the podcast, I'm not invited to those types of gatherings. So I yet I couldn't say not yet. You're on approbation Park, So you were in Canton this weekend? Why don't we start there and then we'll get to what's going on at Brown's camp. Um, we'll start and can so tell us a little bit about the Hall of Fame experience. I know you've been there before, but this is now your second go around. Tell us about it, you know. I this time around, I found it to be much more enjoyable. And I'm not sure what it was. I just think that, uh, it's a weekend where there's a lot of football players around and they're not currently athletes where they're trying to keep a lid on whatever is going on with them and their team. They're very willing to talk and I mean, you know, for lack of a better word, it's sort of just a big celebration. And I thought it was just the access to these guys was great, and the ceremony itself, but the thought that, uh, you know, it was one of the better ones, and it was it was fun to cover. I thought that what Sydney say I did did a great job. I thought, I mean, under a lot of pressure and each of them, you know, we got a chance to speak to each of the Hall of Famers the day before they were inducted, and I know that you guys think that I love like a offensive and defensive coordinators. My new thing is GMS Bill Poling and Ron Wolfe. You could just sit and talk to those guys for days on end. They were giving us just great stuff about Bill Parcels passing on Reggie White out of the USFL back in the day. I mean, these guys, you know, they just want to sit and talk about the old time. So I enjoyed that. I was talking to Charles Haley. Did he leave an impression the day before? Yeah, I mean I think Haley, every time he opened his mouth, it's going to be something that you pretty much didn't expect and probably doesn't have anything to do with the question that you asked. So it was that wasn't that was enjoyable. I think he's, you know, he's not the guy he was necessarily back in the Cowboys and forty Niners locker room. I mean he kind of went I think he came to Canton trying to put that forward and express that, um, he was by far the most entertaining, unpredictable of the group, and I don't think the speech the speech showed that a little bit, but kind of the day before just being in the same room with him, and the way he was interacting with some of the old cowboys be writers. I mean, he was completely off the cuff. I thought. One of the most powerful moments, and I agree the ceremony was really good this year was when Charles Haley talked about his mental illness, Like he he talked about something that's an issue that's that affects a lot of people, and he talked about it very openly, I think in a way that people had no idea from him, and it kind of explains a little bit what you heard about Charles Haley and when he was on NFL network. I mean I found him fascinating. It was a lot of fun to watch. Yeah, I agree, and I think that it you know, something that you kind of never know when these guys are playing, is the support they're getting at some point from like their owners. The way he talked about Eddie de Bartelow and Jerry Jones and how Jerry Jones went out of his way to help his daughter when she had leukemia. I mean, you just you know, we have these vague ideas of what Jerry Jones is and some of it's accurate, some of it's not in a de bartelow. You know all the history with the legal stuff, but behind the scenes, like I think Charles Haley looked at those guys almost as father figures. That's the way he spoke about them. So tell us about Brown's camp. It, Well, I am currently not there. I'm at an airport hotel where there's someone in the hallway vacuums, very loud, very concerning. But UM camp was great. I almost did not get there because there was a massive car accident on the highway and I tried to use Google Maps to get there and it rerouted me to like central Kentucky, so I just made it, and uh, it was cool. I thought it was. You know, I haven't obviously knocked into a lot of practices, so it was a little surreal. Um got a chance to talk with Mike Patton, and I noticed because you were doing in your live tweets at at one point Danny Shelton's calves. Yeah, I like Danny Kelton is absolutely massive, and at one point you referred to Petton as pet. Well, listen, that's where I'm at with Pennon at this point. That's that's what's going on, you know, I sat down with him, I said what I I. We got to the point I asked him what kind of he's at a bar? What does he drink? He's a Moscow mule drinker. Oh, interesting, I made. I made something for my wife over They carry trendy well, he said, he ticked it up about six months ago. He's normally Budweiser, Miller and he's also Dan. You and I read a Stephen King book. He read it twice. He's obsessed with the g He's obsessed with the jfk Assess name one thing about Patton just I don't want to stop him. Mark. But in the words of the Rick Flair Macho Manfeud and ninety two about Miss Elizabeth, he was mine before he was yours. Well, he's mine now fighting over Yeah. I love that, and too think it's a rare move to go from Miller, Lite and Budweiser to Moscow mules. Yeah. Maybe it's a little cosmo folitan in Cleveland now. I think his salary probably went up at some point. That's a fair point. Did you feel like Jerome Bettis was taking a personal shot at Browns fans and most particularly you, when he kept saying Ohio is Steelers country. And then the Steelers fans who were there, and we're there in bigger numbers than I've ever seen any teams fans be there at the Hall of Fame responded and basically we're taunting you. Uh, it did feel that way. I tried to remove myself from the situation to some degree, but you know, we're up in that press box and it's at number one. It's a high school stadium like I've never seen in my life. I mean basically it's it is three times as big as the high school stadium I went to, and it was terrible. Towels swinging in the air, and for me on some level was a massive nightmare. Jr. Own bed it's how can you not like Bet? It's like mean he I thought he was a total class act and like they all came out for him, and that fan base. You could put it. You could have put this in Central Russia and they would have shown up. That's what they do. One thought on the Hall of Fame ceremony, if listeners out there, if if like me, you missed the ceremony, Mark did fantastic job. It's really well written and he captured really all of the poignant moments in his article recapping the entire insrinement ceremony. So definitely check it out. Can we back up really quickly? You missed the ceremony too. Oh whoa, you have to watch the Bridge Jones Diary sequel. I was at Dan's party. Well, you throw all party during the Hall of Fame, you'll be invited next year. Lindsay went over this. I'm not Hall of Fame dude. I don't know. It's not my bag, but I mean I Mark makes it come alive for me here with the Mark did a great job of it. West is really not gonna like the Hall of Fame when Eli goes in and about nine years puts him in the Hall of Fame. West, I think you would like to cover it though, because there are some like hot, like total hot, radioactive, hot button deadlines. Deal with that. Mark will talk about women. No, No, I'm like I'm down that road. There was this lady in a bettest Jersey speaking uh Sessler did Instagram and Facebook a picture of cheerleaders from behind and the caption was Football's back. Well, you know, I gotta be honest, that's one of those things where you're moving a hundred miles of a minute. I thought it was a nice photo, and immediately after the first couple of responses came in, I thought, oh, man, I wrote the wrong tagline here. Oh I thought there was a nod to the s I swimsuit cover with Christie Brinkley. It says, no, I don't. I'm not nodding. I mean, that's not that wouldn't be my my a game to be coming off the Hall of Fame weekend trying to make light of at it just sort of had it happened, and I thought afterwards this could be problematic, But like everything, it just fades into the ether that I wanted to comment on that thread and say, smartass, well what I like the most that I put it on my Facebook page, and our producer t D tried to create some sort of rift, you know, I have like my family, my parents, parents in law. Yeah, well I don't have a FI. I'm not going down that road. But TD trying to raise, you know, get the controversy started with his comment on that photo. Did not appreciate that one bit. It was just an interesting shop and it's all an interesting angle. I was, you know, just wondering that's what I took away from Hey man t D. You know, never to go against a mother. Your own mother would say, not like that, but maybe. Yeah, hey Mark, next time you need GPS helped, try out Ways much better than Ways is superior. Yeah, and that's a free plug. Pay us next time. Ways. Um, All right, Mark, we gotta let you go, but thank you very much for calling in. And you know, I have a safe journey home. Hopefully you'll Usually you bump into a offensive coordinator in the airport and you have long conversations and trade text messages in the future. Hopefully it happens again. I hope so too. And guys, I miss you all. I'll see you soon, miss too many. Hi, go help with the vacuuming. Well he did leave Bury now that I think about it, So you want to be hearing this anymore. But maybe the ghost flattering picture of the hotel he was staying that could be as well. All Yeah, we gotta go to some HR training for Dan's imitation of TDS. I that is I've heard mother speak. I've heard TD's mother speak. That's the best I can do. The impression that that's it for uh. Today's version of addition of the Around the NFL Podcast. Lindsey, thank you so much for coming in than Yeah, it's always it's always a pleasure to have Lindsay on. We'll be back. We have two more shows this week to get to and then of course next week I'll tease it again Fantasy Week Spectacular for the Around the NFL Podcast. Also follow us uh subscribe on iTunes and leave comments all that good stuff. This is Dan hans Has signing off for Fiery Flannel, Were and Lindsay Rhodes, the Mailman, the Boss TV and all our friends behind the glass. But twesdaye Benz is the best. She works with us and she comes in just for the show. We appreciate her. This is my favorite song.