Chaos Theory: NFL Pen Pals & "My Guy" for the 2023 Draft

dive right into a college. You know the rain that we have received in the LA area over the past couple of weeks, it's been out of control, correct, And I just would ask you know, I know your particular garden, the succulents, the various varieties of flowers that don't do well in an abundance of rain. How have you survived this era? Well, I'll tell you what, a lot of my cactuses have not survived this rain. And if you told me last year it was going to rain this,

I would have been like, you're lying. At this point, my fiddle e fig has some type of fungal infection because of all of the Do you know what I could do for that. All of the sittings the Around the NFL podcast here all right from the Chris Westling podcast studio. It's Around the NFL. I am Mark Sessler, joined by some heroes, Patrick Claybon, Colleen Wolf, satellite heroes. I think that satellite heroes have landed. These are the real heroes. We are so excited about this convo. It's

never been before. It's never been done. It is essentially a combo podcast, combo score Agami, Dan and Greg both on vacation. Hope they're having a great time. We have no idea what how this will go. Um. It is odd to me that I am in theory hosting a show with two people who have hosted roughly about a thousand shows on it. It makes no sense. It is a very strange thing. But we we did get a little bit of news today, which was unlike our last show, which we just deep six news. We'll get to some

of that. We have a special segment coming up. I think that's also never been done. It's called NFL pen Pals. Oh my god, also never been done before. Getting a rundown of the show in such detailed fashion, so ahead of time. I almost drove off the road when I saw it. Yeah, Mark Marks underselling his ability as a host and a producer, a schedule maker, that this has all come together like this, You've got it. Two minutes in,

you got it. I have extreme OCD, especially so a day like yesterday, which is a sort of an off day to some degree, it's like I don't do anything, um well until we get the details out. So it was really just selfish. Our brains are very aligned, I think, so very much locked in. So when I saw it, I could not. I mean I threw myself a party and then I never gave you guys my answers. But at least we also were going to do well because we're also a bit machiavellian um with the stage within set.

Today we were going to do a My Guy draft edition minus all these six week eight week you know, office business about it getting approved by someone. We're gonna each pick someone from this draft, and it's simply our guy from going forward, rise or fall with him. So we'll see how this goes. That's great to have you picked someone calling. I finally have narrowed down my list.

I have quite a few, but I have now one number one guy and it happened like I do know, I do know that you did, and you pick someone who has there are multiple people with the same name in the draft who you picked. It's it's like, yeah, it's a kind too, like the two Lamar Jacksons that we have in the league right now. It would have really been something for us to not talk about it beforehand and then out of seven hundred and forty three participants pick the same guy. It would have been great.

That would be our way. Um, I don't know, gravedigger. Hey, yeah, well I'll not come on. I'm not letting you get away with I think you just do that on purpose at this point. Sometimes it's like I know it's gonna take me a second to get to the drop, so I start talking. So there's not just like silence. Oh that's good. Well you've had like seventy or eighty reps on this, but I understand. Um, it's great to have you with us as well. We're gonna need you a little bit today to chime in. He has a great

shawnack on today. It's a it's a nice yeah, it's a very nice sweater. I've never heard that term. I always just called it a cardigan, but thank you. Yeah, I appreciate it. So we get some let's do some news. How about that Smith Schuster Kisiki. Do you think you've done enough to improve the offense for this season? We'll see.

I don't know about you, guys, but I feel like we've been doing We've done almost fifteen hundred episodes of this show, and I think for the first like fourteen hundred, the Patriots just sat on their little chair up above all of us, telling us how football teams are run, how organizations. You know, It's like Bill Belichick is used in like common business tactics because of the way that he orchestrated one Super Bowl championship after the next. It feels like a little bit of chaos is starting to

dip into all of it. And there are these creeping reports. But a couple things happened here since our last show.

Tom Curran, friend of the show from NBC Sports, went on air basically and talked about the fact that Belichick has been essentially agitated with Mac Jones for seeking outside help last season, that if he's annoyed now and for that and sort of all the Mac Jones, you know, a lot of times in primetime, the meltdowns, and now there is a report from Pro Football Talks Mike Florio that the Patriots are actually looking to shop Mac Jones that this, I guess is Bill Belichick behind the scenes

talking to a couple of different teams, the Raiders, the Texans, the Bucks, the Commanders. Colleen, how do you take all of this? Where are you with this? So? Um? All right, Well, as soon as you were talking about the Patriots being in their mighty chair above everyone else, like you know, they're they've been in the power chair which you are in today and filling in nicely like that. We haven't

really addressed the power chair and the dynamics. You're in a totally different seat, so the logistics are all different at this point. I think the more that we mentioned that I'm doing well at it, it starts to feel like that's probably not the case. But I'm just gonna ride with it. Let's see, there's the modesty, another chance to succeed in a spot, in a power move where the power is the grace that you put into it, Mark,

and it's just it's going some more graceful Okay. So anyway, Okay, so yes, there was this report and Tom Curran what he was on w EI and talked about how mac Jones obviously was not happy with the coaching situation last year and so he sought outside help and going outside of the Patriots organization is not something that is celebrated, I would imagine by Bill Belichick, and it is something

that is seen as disloyal. And I would think judging by Bill Belichick and every single SoundBite we get from him, that is something that is going to annoy him to an extreme level. And I wonder if now that we're hearing these reports that mac Jones might be shopped around, is it all stemming from that? Is he kind of just letting it faster and now he just decided that

this is it. And that was the breaking point for them, because even yesterday in Lancer Alines mock draft, Lance had the Patriots taking Anthony Richardson, which would be an extreme pairing. And I think we'll get to Lance's mock draft coming up a little bit in the show, but that was the first time that I kind of thought about mac

Jones really being out. If you're starting to get some rumors like this and mock drafts or mocking certain quarterbacks there because at that point, they're getting a guy that is extremely inexperienced with the most experienced head coach in the NFL arguably right now, and you would think that you could get like a Lamar Jackson, maybe a known commodity, but instead going here with Anthony Richardson would be a choice for them, And this would be really interesting if

they if they really did send mac Jones away. I think, like there's so many different ways to say. Of course, Tom Kerran's report makes perfect sense, Like Bill Belichick's out there and watched Alex Guerrero do all of these things with his quarterback for decades and there was clear frustrate shouldn't at that point, and Bill, like as he indicated by the way he responds to questions, he's not like secretive about voicing his frustration. It makes perfect sense. But

the thing is, we watched this Patriots tree. Familiarity is seemingly all they care about, Like Josh McDaniels is signing the same guys all the time, like Bill Belichick is looking for the same coaches to come back despite the lack of success that they've had in other spots, and all the turmoil and other things there. I just wonder if Belichick's conversations about mac Jones are like literally every other conversation that happens at the combine and it's like, hey,

you know, what do you think of mac oh? And then they don't get the offers that they want and it all just goes away. But like it's to me, like them being frustrated about being historically bad on offense and like not necessarily knowing who was calling plays or like what the actual system was. That that makes perfect

sense to me. But like looking at Florial's report and Mike, you know, he likes to hedge sometimes and it's like a source close to the situation tells us that he's been shopped, but he can't tell who all of the teams are. It's like, well, why why did you stop talking to the source at that point? Like shouldn't you have a few more? I just wonder like who the source is too, because two of the teams mentioned, the

Raiders and Texans, are like bathed in Expatriots employees. So or is it like usually there's this cone of silence around anything the Patriots do. It's like suddenly they traded a big player or acquired someone you don't hear a lot of whispers around New England in general, like is this the rare time where like New England's floating it.

I mean, that seems atypical to me. I don't know why Belichick would do that, But someone's talking to someone about this, and I'm just intrigued and like, who the sources? I perfect I do wonder that would be interesting if Belichick himself was the source. And after a year very down for the Patriots in a changing division with a sort of uncharted territory for Bill Belichick to be in, maybe now he's playing all of these roles that he

wouldn't have before. Yeah, he's like, hey, guys, you know, I don't necessarily talk to you guys, so let me call up Mike Florio provo. Yeah, becomes a little surreal.

I mean, I think in sort of an adjoining scenario, Brian Hoyer, there were whispers that Brian Hoyer, after being such a you know, a Patriots sort of top of the student, head of the class type of guy who get I think was had four different stints in New England or something, he's now signed with the Raiders that it seems like Brian Hoyer kind of ran into the into the final stages with Bill Belichick's patients as well.

I mean it's like, I think the Hoyer last year sort of sided maybe with mac Jones a little bit on a super frustrating situation because Matt Jones, to me, it's like, no matter what happens, he got to complete Mulligan for next season. But I still look at them and think he's they've got the worst quarterback in the AFC East. Yeah, and Hoyer in that report, Current said that Hoyer anticipated being back in New England, and Hoyer was vocal about the situation that mac Jones was in

every single week last year. So maybe that is the reason why they didn't end up bringing him back, And maybe Bailey Zappy out a little bit of something to do with that. There was that little bit of there was that moment, right remember when even the crowd and Gillette was like, Yeah, Bailey's zappy, this is it. How could I forget they were into him? And then minutes later it's like, oh God, that was a mistake. Yeah,

we're very sorry that all this happened. But I think that little bit, despite how loyal Bill and that organization are to people who continue to come back. It's like, Okay, the time has come, Brian. It's not really there, It's never really been there. But we're going to roll Bailey now, all right. In other news, the Ravens reportedly have made an offer to Odell Beckham. Now I do feel like

I know where these reports are coming from. I mean, because if this is strange, it's also I think if there's any other team out there that probably his interest in Odell. We know it's the Jets, But what are the Ravens doing? How would Odell Beckham or any receiver make a decision to go to Baltimore right now when you don't know what's going on with Lamar Jackson? But is it the Ravens maybe trying to say, hey, Lamar, like we're trying to find these guys that could elevate you,

help you out. What do you think, Patrick? I think the best thing to do if you wanted Lamar, if you want Lamar to be interested, would be to come up from three years, one hundred and thirty three million dollars like that. That's the clear example if they wanted to do that. My contention has been for a long time that the Ravens aren't interested in paying Lamar Jackson to be the quarterback, and Lamar has gone public in

saying that that's the way he viewsed things. I think this may just be looking at the talent on the roster, looking at what they need, the fact that they've they've gone in a new direction, Todd Monkin is here. It's like, let's just try to get some talent. We'll put an offer out there, kind of try to see where where O'Dell stands. And I think it's a good sign. I would like it more if they had paid the quarterback

a couple of years ago or literally right now. But it makes sense, like we saw what O'Dell could do in Los Angeles. Clearly the injury hurts, but he was on his way to potentially being a Super Bowl MVP. I think it's worth making an offer standardly. And this could also be the Ravens preparing for potentially a rookie quarterback coming in and bringing a new weapon to set

up said rookie quarterback for success. If they do end up figuring out a deal for Lamar, whether they trade the Cults for Lamar and you know, jump up and I don't know. There's a there's a bunch of different ways that they could do it, but I could see that making some sense of bringing in someone who's inexperienced and making sure they have some playmakers around them, like Odell Beckham has been shopping his services for like four years. At this point, someone somewhere is going to want to

do it. The Rams have had showed interest that that makes the least amount of sense to me. I don't think that one's happening all right. From our our own little headquarters. Here a little news story from Daniel Jeremiah. He didn't report this like on his podcast though. He talked about the fact that the Titans to keep an eye on Tennessee as a team that might want to jump up to the NU three spot. And I think

that you know, when you're doing these mock drafts. We had DJ on a week ago and he talked about these things are crafted by hearing certain things, and Tennessee the idea they're just going to stay on pat with what they have. Maybe not the case. Gravedigger, do you want to comment on this first? Yes, So, I think that there's definitely validity to the idea that Titans are

looking to trade up to three. A couple of months ago, maybe not that long ago, there were reports that they were in the mix to trade up to one with Chicago, and I don't know how like how much you can take. There's random Twitter people saying that. But then the Bears did move the pick, and somebody who reported that the two teams were the Titans and the Panthers, and then three days later the Panthers traded for the pick. So

I do think there's some truth to this. And you look at who the Titans have been meeting and pro days they've been visiting. They have spent time with all five of these top quarterback prospects, significant amounts of time, and to me, that means that they are definitely looking into it. It It doesn't mean they're definitely gonna do it, but I think it's definitely a possibility. And you know, DJ said that he's been told by people around the

league to watch for the Titans. Right, So this is what other teams trying to come up with their own mock drafts and figure out how this night's gonna play out, thinking like Tennessee could be the team that comes up to three. I don't know, if that's dot connecting because Tannehill's getting older and they might need a quarterback of the future and they have met with all these quarterbacks, or if there's more substantial rumor to it. But it's interesting.

Tannehill's on the last year of his contract, so if who knows if this is Arizona sending out these messages for people to jump up. But if there is a quarterback that the Titans love, and let's say, I mean, who knows what happens with the Texans at two, But if Damiko Ryans is like in love with a defensive player and okay with one of the not two quarterbacks, not Bryce Young, not CJ. Stroud, like, maybe that's when the Titans jump up and take whoever they have there.

And you know, even if it is a Will levis Or and Anthony Richardson, guys that need a little bit more time, if you have Ryan Tannehill still on one year, you can sit and do the traditional weight. And I know, obviously, if you're trading up to get a quarterback and it's very very high pick, people are gonna want to see him right away. But also these guys, we know they're raw, we know they need time, and that could be a

nice situation. But you have to be comfortable with the third quarterback in the draft, and I think so unless Stroud drops for some crazy reason. And three, it gets you ahead of Indianapolis. You know Indianapolis would like a quarterback in some means, and so it gives you that power,

despite how you feel about Richardson or levis Um. You get to dictate the remainder of the draft for everybody who's interested in one of those first round quarterbacks, and you can and you can make a choice, and it makes it makes perfect sense for Arizona to not just have conversations with Tennessee, but literally everybody in the in the rest of the league, because there's just no value there for them in a quarterback. They have Kyler. Kyler's

going to be back. It's not likely they're going to draft somebody, you know, in the top three for five months of quarterback play. So they should be having these discussions with everybody. And it just makes sense, Like you go, you go down through. Atlanta says they're fine, the Bears are clearly fine at quarterback. The Raiders want a quarterback.

Does Detroit make a decision? Does Seattle look towards the future, like if you can get ahead of all those teams, then then you're in a better position than you were before. And that does bring us to Lance zere Len's mock draft, which I kind of I love Lance because he's the guy that, um, there is a bit of a code to be you have to wear a tie now on NFL network versus what well that was out there. I mean, at least I've I got solid in an email. We're

going we're going to tie on path. Wait, this is new, there's been a new memo so out I just we previously had no tie and now we have ties. Yeah, and Lance sort of continues to shoot the rules. He doesn't seem to care about these that that rule at all. Um. So he's in my wheelhouse on that front. But the mock draft, it has to be one of the more chaotic mock drafts we've seen because he has Bryce Young

going to Carolina. That's not that crazy, although CJ. Stroud has been whispered about it a little more heavily there. But then at number two and the land Syrian is from Houston. He's down there on radio every day. He knows a lot of people. He has the Texans going Tyree Wilson edge from Texas Tech and just skipping quarterback at that position altogether. Right, So he has Tyree first of all, like not having a quarterback there it seems

wild to me. And Bryce Young going over CJ. Stroud is super interesting going to Carolina, but then to have Tyree Wilson over U Will Anderson Junior is also a choice that a lot of people would disagree on because they think that Will Anderson Junior is the better edge player and the better defender. And like, there was also so many crazy trades in his draft too. It was a fun draft, though it was not a basic draft. No at number four, because that's to talk about what

happens at number four. Suddenly you're staring at the Baltimore Ravens who send Lamar Jackson to the Cults and end result, Baltimore gets CJ. Stroud. There's a lot happening in this mock draft. And Lance said two days before this draft came out, like, hey, people are going to be mad at this mock draft, but he's there's so many possible permutations and this is one way it could play out because he has the Texans coming back and getting Will

Levis and if they've looked at CJ. Stroud and said, well, the premiums not necessarily there. We would like Bryce. The Panthers want Bryce, That's what they traded up for. If they if they evaluate Will Levis and say, hey, Bobby, you've seen all these quarterbacks have success within this Shanahan tree, Like, could will let us do that? If they feel that way and they can get the value, I've clearly like

to me, and I'm not some draft nick. I've watched Will Anderson's productions and seem as a freshman, that's a bit of a stretch to me to say like, oh, yeah, we would like traits over production when the production has been like that for so long. But we've seen we saw Cleveland Farrell go on the top. I mean these things like when Trayvon Walker went over Aidan Hutchinson last year that you know, that buzz really ramped up as

we got closer and closer to the draft. And Tyree Wilson has a lot of you know, he's athletically similar to Trayvon Walker and Will Anderson production wise is pretty similar to Aiden Hutchinson. And we saw, you know, the Jags decide to take the athletic freak over the productive player. And that's Trent Balky's thing too. He always loves like to take the gamble on a guy that's more athletic.

Another thing I thought that was interesting and we sort of touched on it before with Lance's mock is Lamar Jackson being traded to Indianapolis and then thinking what that fit would be Like it's kind of a fun game that we've all played over and over and over again, so it's becoming less fun. But what Lamar Jackson would look like in certain offenses. And I did find this one quite interesting because Shane Steiken as the head coach, had dealt with Jalen Hurtz for in Philadelphia, same style

of quarterback. So just to see Shane Steiken and Lamar Jackson work together, and you have Jonathan Taylor, A lot of your key pieces there are in their prime, So you need to get someone now if you want to make it work for Indianapolis. And you gotta be if you're Frank Reich, I mean, you're gonna have your own quarterback. But you're like, I just did this the last five years in Indianapolis with a bunch of Hammond Eggers, and now I leave and the new guy gets Lamar Jackson.

Sounds a little absurd, Yeah it is, and he should, but there was so much. It was a whole lot of clarity and honesty. And Frank Reich has been in the league for so long, and as a news conference and he says, well, you know the question what went wrong? And he's like, I don't have a problem answering that. Like, we were able to run the ball, we had great

line play, and we couldn't get it done. And now here comes a guy who's instantly going to improve the run game purely by being on the field, Like Lamar doesn't have to do anything for the run game to get better. He could just turn and hand the ball off and it can be improved. And I think whoever the offensive coordinator is at Lamar Jackson's next job, it's not gonna be Greg Roman. Like, there's going to be differences.

We're not gonna have a three D feel safe. Yeah, twenty pound guys not gonna be running dig routes anymore. So it's clearly going to look different. And I just think get guys open, Like, get guys open and snap the ball to Lamar, and I think everything is going to be fine, because otherwise, what is their choice at quarterback? What are they gonna do because they're gonna miss out on the top guys in the draft. They really haven't

done anything in free agency. They're coming off a season where they won four games, So this is the only way that they can really have a solution to the problem. Seems like the obvious choice. Did you see the report from the Athletic today or sorry, Wednesday morning? Jim erse wants to draft a quarterback. Colts owner quote deep down

prefers to find the next quarterback in the draft. Sure, of course, everybody, every owner, every GM, every coach would love a rookie quarterback because that rookie quarterback money allows you to build a team. Of course, they all want to find the gem in the class. But how are they going to get there? Yeah, it's it's great to want things, um, but Lamar Jackson is twenty six years old. Like it's it's not You could have Lamar and see if it will be your quarterback for the next thirteen

years if you wanted to. Yeah, I mean I would be outside of Lamar, I'd be a little concern about Chris Ballard selecting another veteran quarterback. At this point, I feel like that's happened a lot fair all right, I Colleen, we have to do this to you at this point, I feel like this used to be a fun exercise, but we're going to dip into some odds and ends. Would you mind doing the latest incarnation of what's become a psychotic did he? I don't know if I have

another key to give you, guys, but we'll try. Okay, odds and ends? Odds and ends? Hey, everybody tell your friends it's odds and ends. I think you nailed it perfect. The aura of that song is has turned dark. All right, let's go with the other song. There we go from pell raiser Tom Pellicero dal and Cook is making excellent progress in his recovery. Patrick, do you care? I do care because I think that was a good football player. I want running backs to be healthy. How about this

out of Denver? Colleen, Tim Patrick on Steve Smith's Cut to It podcast, Everyone has a show. At this point, he's clear to do everything post acl tear. Yes, I love it. I was at training camp last year. I'm a huge Tim Patrick guy. I was so upset with the acl tear that was supposed to be his breakout season last year. This will be his season all right, and out of Ohio, Joe Burrow now tops reigning champ Fiona the Hippo as the voted in best Cincinnatian Patrick,

Do you care? I do care because there's so many incredible people, Silent film actors, Theodore ba Is from Cincinnati, Andy Blockenburton, a dancer and choreographer Ron Bohmer. There's so many great people from Cincinnati. I'm definitely not reading this off of Wikipedia. I'm like, how what is happening? I mean, and Nan also, a human has lost to an animal five years in a row. That hippo had was on a five year winning street. If you were an animal, what would you be a bird? I think? I mean,

that sounds very cliche, but it's the first thing. Yeah, you know, there's so many different choices. Yeah, fly, maybe out of here. My initials are called, so it makes sense that mine mine are mess So that also makes sense. How about this last little bit, because you know, I like rub A Browns fan and John Elway tortured my youth um and then it came back and brought the Broncos new super Bowls and all this other business. He

is officially out um of business with the Broncos. His contract is run up, and I don't know what else we can do other than to bid farewell with another one of our songs that we've created on this show. This one's for John, This one's for John, This one's for John. This songs for John. This swan's for John, and that swan's for John. So this swans for John. All right? That once for John. Good to think of it. This once for John, and also that once John perfect Sidney.

I mean, that's from the great Let's say, though, why if he hasn't you know, is going away press conference? If that occurs, why is that not the intro and outro music it should be? Is he gonna are they gonna give him one a press? I mean, I feel like he's had seven or five, seventy five of those, but walk out of music for it. I'm gonna start playing that at my house. That was really soothing. That was really nice. It was really nice. All right, Now we're going to take a quick break and then we

will come back. All right. That was a really incredible break we just took. So much occurred during it. When you take these breaks, you really get a chance to go backstage, hang out. You know. I don't think people realize that just the yeah healed truly an organic human moment for us. Uh. Now we are going to do something called NFL pen pals, and the conce is essentially and I know a lot of times we do these segments, Colleen, and we leave you off a cliff where you don't

you come in like, what is the second about? This felt pretty straightforward. I thought this is good. I can't mess this up. Yeah, I didn't get too many follow up questions from you. You basically take the role of an NFL player character GM figure and just like I don't know if you ever had it. Did you ever have a pen pal? Patrick? I did too. My handwriting is catastrophically bad. So no, it never worked out in the letter thing. Now that's why, because you had bad handwriting,

nobody would be able to read it. But instant messenger, I was your guy. What was your name? What was your screen name? It was pac du fifty two. It was my basketball number, and pack do as if I blocked a shot because I was you know thirteen. I love that Mine was Malibu four twenty, but this was post as a child. Did you actually have like a written pen pal? I feel I didn't really high. That's

a job. Everyone should know this. Sometimes when I'm listening, I honestly don't know if it's a job or not. I had an actual pen pal that I met on a train who what was? Could you describe the person? I think her name was Julie uh And we messaged and wrote physical letters to each other for many years, and she was like really cool and really sweet, and I like really looked up to her. And then all of a sudden she didn't answer and she was gone,

and I lost her forever. She's just like a friend you've never like you knew her last name and stuff. You weren't able to relocate her online. I feel like next move. I just can't remember a lot of details about her now, And I think in the moment I felt like sort of upset that I had been broken up with by her for some reason, she had ghosted me. It was the first time I had Julie. Julie, if you can hear us, I'm sorry, Julie. Whatever I did, I feel like AOL. You could get heartbroken on AOL too,

Oh easily? Yeah? Did you have a screen name? Mark? I? You know, I skipped the AOL thing for I don't know how it just like my dad worked for this side AOL company called Prodigy, which I think so. Yeah. I wrote to a few people on Prodigy here and there. I don't not to the level of Julie on a train, but there were some individuals. That's the case here. In this case, it is sort of like you get a chance to be someone to write the letter where you're

just confessional. You know, we're dropping you in mid relationship, and uh, why don't we start patrick with you? Okay? Um? Mine is from Mac Jones to Matt Patricia. Hey, Matt, I just wanted to reach out to you in light of recent speculation regarding my relationship with Coach Belichick and to let you know that there's absolutely no ill will

between me and coach. It's you that I hate. When Malcolm Butler pulled me aside last year and said he got benched in the Super Bowl because you two had beef, I thought to myself, No, that's preposterous. No one would undermine themselves on the world's biggest stage, only to see Nick Foles throw for three hundred and seventy three yards and three scores against you. But clearly I underestimated you.

In Tuscaloosa, I watched Jalen and Tuba go on the field before me and I returned to my ancestral home of Jacksonville, Florida, and had a vision I would never be benched again, only to see you run Bailey Zappy out there on a mission to run your catastrophic offense. I'm not surprised by the reports that I was frustrated after regressing in almost every statistical category. They also could have reported that I have ten fingers and ten toes and there's fifty million nuclear tied pairs in my DNA.

What I am surprised by is the commitment to you by Coach. He was just asked if you would be back with the team and said he wasn't sure. Here's one thing I'm sure of, Coach, if you're back, be ready to fight me. This isn't a metaphor. I will physically strike you, render you unconscious, and remove you from the premises as if you were a Detroit Beat reporter who ran a file of your dress code. You limited my capacity to throw touchdowns, but I promise I can

throw these hands hatefully. Mac so a threat? So a threat letter A promise? Yeah, I don't know. It feels like that was sort of a one time letters from a magazine, ransom note Mac Migo Julie after this, Yeah, you just may not respond. That's fair, that's fair, pel cathartic because I think we've all felt like frustrated for Mac Jones and when he's going nuts, like coming off the field onto the sideline, it's like, I feel this guy like like, what's he allowed to do? What's he

allowed to say? We need to bring back pen pals, like right, I have a I have a friend lives in San Diego and he'll just send us postcards from random spots all the time, and I love it. I love getting physical. Male. I'm so old. I am an eighty year old in this body. That friend sounds slightly so I feel like we need more details. Tino, have you met Danino? You probably have? You guys have met him? Okay, Dantino sending postcards? Yes, okay, that was good. I like

that one. Oh, thank you good start. Do you want to yes, all right, here we go. So this letter is to Dan Quinn, Cowboys defensive coordinator from Mike McCarthy. Okay, here we go. Hey Dan, DQ, mister que essential, what's good? Mmc here? Just hitting you up in a super CASU way. I know we'll see each other in the office soon. But don't you think we need a wide receiver. We don't have enough offense. It's looking a little suss and Jerry just keeps showing up at my front door with

photos of Tom Landry. Is that good or bad? We just got rid of my favorite tight end, Dalton Schultz, and I like Brandon Cooks. But look at you. In your defense. You have Michael Parsons. I would love to have Michael Parsons on offense. I love Ceedee Lamb. I think I need two Ceedee lambs. Can you believe I almost beat Philly last year with that super team and what I did with Cooper Rush. Do you think people notice that at all? Maybe? Can you imagine losing Michael

Parsons and still competing what I did? Did people talk about it, by the way, at all? I mean people should really have people should have talked about it. We went four and one with Coope. I sure hope Dak can stay healthy this year. Do you think the offensive line will be okay? Dan, how do you think Jerry will like my offense? Do you think Jerry likes me? Don't you think I like it a lot more? My offense with a wide receiver? Okay? Bet signed your boy? MMC brilliant. Wow. I feel like we I did not

know Mike McCarthy this way before. I understand a whole lot more about Mike McCarthy, through the way that he views not just his boss, but his co worker, the guy that's allegedly working for him. Yeah, like he does he realize he's in charge, you know. I think he's working through some things, and you can tell that he's looking for some validation. Maybe there's some insecurities there. His first time in a while calling plays is coming up, so I'm sure that that is probably an anxiety in

the back of his mind. And Dan Quinn seems very confident, very able in his position, and he has a group of stars on that defense, so I I can sense just some you know, some stress coming from Michae McCarthy. There's a lot of people out there dealing with imposter syndrome. And I think despite the generation, Micha McCarthy, Zaddie, you're so extra famously zaddie, right McCarthy. The spartlet CD says, I think you mentioned imposter syndrome like that when I

went to one of your parties. It was like the third thing you mentioned me, like the third sentence. I was like, I relate to that. I think, yeah, well, you know who. The first time I ever heard about imposter syndrome, Joe Thomas was telling me about it. And Joe Thomas was telling me how he had imposter syndrome and how so many of the players that he played with had it as well, and so many of his friends in the league. And so I was like, well, I'm sorry, what tell me more? Go go on? What

is this? And I'm like, oh my god, I have it. I didn't know this was a thing that other people had. Might have had something to do with the Joe Thomas part of it, but that is stunning to me because you would not you would not think that at all. Um, all right, I will offer a third letter. I can't wait. This is a letter from Cliff Kingsbury, stationed in Thailand, to Kyler Murray, his ex quarterback Kyler, Hello again from Thailand. You didn't respond to my last letter. Have you been

over to water my plants? I only ask because that one fern in the den becomes an absolute disaster if it isn't tended to every four to five days. If you can't make it over, please have Rondale More swing by. He's help before and knows the doorcode. Secondly, have you considered my invitation? Zero response from you? Don't hide away, Veronica, and I demand that you visit our hut has Wi Fi. We're in the beating heart of the Golden Triangle, Opium Country, Kyler.

Nobody here talks about the cover two shell. By the way, your name came up at breakfast. We've met this couple from America. The guy is Bernie, the girl is Susie. Bernie is this failed author who won an Audie on the prize's right. He turned around, sold the vehicle on the dark web and bought a ticket to Bangkok. Anyway, your name came up because Susie is some sort of super celeb on that Twitch site you're into. She banks about four k a month live gaming, eating lollipops and

talking to dudes from Ohio. These are your people. During breakfast, I got a text from Bill Belichick. You ever coming back? He asked, Someday you'll buy that one way ticket too. I wrote back, Kyler, I know we have had our ups and downs, but I want you to know something. Last season is nothing more than a sheet than a sheet blowing gently in the wind on a clothesline over the hillside in a gentle rain. You are my friend, Cliff. Why are you not writing fiction? Like? Why are you

doing this? You have I feel like I'm living at How did you develop four characters two minutes click fleshed out like Bernie and Susie Are I'm rooting? You know? One thing I learned about what I have respect for dying because I was like coming up with this like eight minutes before the show started, and I had like eight different names and they were all the wrong names, so it needed a proof. I'm glad I proved it.

I like the sound of a hut with Wi Fi by the way, so I actually looked up where I think like someone like Cliff Kingsbury would stay, and they had these super luxury huts that are waterproof to start, but Wi Fi talked about like, um white linen robes. So I'm sure he's I don't know if he's still there. I actually tried to look and see if he was still there. There wasn't concrete evidence of where he was. When when you're in the heart of Opium country, you

can be anywhere. Yeah, that's a great way to life as a metaphor. Yea, that Golden Triangles had some problems there. I'm picturing a glass bottom hut like so you can see all the fish and the coral and everything underneath. Yeah, I love that. All right, now we're going to take a quick break and then we will come back. All right, Now, before we get out of here, we're gonna quickly go around. We've had this thing, my guy, for a long time.

I don't think I had it. I didn't. I picked up Tyler Algier like throw a lot of red tape at the end of the season, but Greg had roughly twelve of them. Um, Dan, your guy. That's how that process win. But this time around, we've got the draft and we're even letting Grave Digger get a guy. You're gonna pick someone that you just want to back. Tell us why briefly and we're just green lighting it right now. This is your guy, Grave Digger, you go first. I'm

going first, all right. My guy is a big twelve pass rusher who has a lot of bend. He's probably not maybe a late first round guy, not exactly a first round guy, but I'm going with Will McDonald the fourth. I think that he's one of the bendiest pass rushers in this draft class. The way he can turn the corner. He's got a great dip move, a great rip movie's really technically sound with his hands. I think he has a pretty advanced arsenal of pass rush moves for a

guy just entering the league. And he's got really long arms, which I think helps him. He's able to get to the quarterback pretty nicely and force fumbles, which is a thing that I think, you know, can change games, and that having those long arms helps him do. So I am pretty much all in on Will McDonald the fourth as a pass rusher. I think when he comes into the league he might need a little bit of time to bulk up. He's a little bit lighter, but so he probably won't be an every down guy when he

first comes into the league. But I do think that he's going to be a guy that we're we're talking about as like a pass rush havoc reaker. And I don't know if you saw this. I'm about to play a clip for the YouTube audience. Look at this. He can jump over a car if you want to roll this what Sorry for the audio listeners, but you got to check us out on YouTube. This guy is a crazy athlete. And uh, I'm all in. And that was like,

that was not a not a car either. That was a seventeen through twenty twenty two Mazda c X five. It's impressive. So like a crossover tight, I mean that's it's a full on suv. I mean he put his hand on the hood just a little bit. He still jumped over the car. Now, so he was the fourth version of that human you passed up hard, passed on the first three, but you're now finally into it. Yeah, exactly right. He's just an athletic freak and he's really

technically refined for for a young guy. So I'm all in, all right, it's got he's yours. There's no issues here. Congratulations officially your guy. I am going to take a cornerback out of TCU who's actually the nephew of one of our co workers and one of the best players in NFL history. It's tre ViOn Hodges. Tomlinson just finished an incredible season at TCU. He was the Jim Thorpe Award winner, played in the Shrine Bowl, which we love.

The Shrine Bowls a great bowl game. But it's something that popped up on our radar was Jim Meggie was asked why the Jim Thorpe Award winner didn't get a chance to be invited to the Senior Bowl, and he said, because he's five to seven, and five seven guys don't normally get drafted. I don't care. I do not care. Go back and watch the Michigan game that people are Why are you talking about a defensive player from a game where the other team score forty five points. They

did nothing on trey ViOn. It absolutely nothing. In fact that one of the two passes they attempted at him, he knocked one away. They picked off the other one and ran it back for a touchdown. It's like, do you need there's all kinds. I'm six feet tall. I can't cover a j Brown. Like, how much is height really doing for you? You need a guy who can be there, who can cover, who can tackle, and Treyvion can do all of that. And I'm just I'm sick of the hight thing like same join you on that.

I have all the hype privilege in the world. It's overrated. It's not doing anything for me. I'm going to the knee doctor today. It's pointless. Like Trevion is my guy, I'll take him, but he doesn't. He won't need me because he'll be perfectly. That is too. So many listeners who are you know, under a certain height range where it's just like you're not even showing up on dating site, you know, so you're not even like you're just thinking, you know what, You're a hero to those people, to

all of them. Well, you guys are heroes, all the short kings, all the short kings and queens and non binary short folks, like you're the hero. Don't literally, I thank you, thank you, look up to your distance from the ground is not a personality. We just end the show right there, Yeah, end it right there. No, let's go. We're discussing that. I'm gonna get an MRI. We'll find out.

We'll keep us posted. It's more machine than man. How About we'll save you for last and I'll get my up because my thing is more of an issue with teams that make this kind of mistake. Joey Porter Junior is my dude, no questions asked. First of all, Joey Porter Senior was one of the more like ragtag badass players of AFC North history. I'll never forget the Steelers defender when he got in a fight with William Green, Brown's running back back in the day, and it totally

rattled the Browns entirely pregame. He just knew how to get into people's head. He did the thing where he do the crab walk across the field. This is Joey Porter junior, cornerback Penn State, six two and a half inches, thirty four inch arms. There are things, there are some things. He's maybe not the greatest cornerback in the draft, but this guy is a disruptor. He gave up of only one fifteen yard pass play last season according to PFF. He's got great size, length, speed. But here is my issue.

As someone who watched the Browns house, Clay Matthews for a decade plus is one of the greatest linebackers in NFL history and then trying to build identity, passed on Clay Matthews, his son. Just a highly annoying pr move, and it turned out to be a disastrous idea for everyone that watching. JJ Watt said, Hey, you know what, We'll go pick some no Namer instead of t J. Watt. Another dumb move. I don't know how half these guys

are doing any of this. But if you pass, if you're in that middle of that round and you pass on Joey Porter Jr. And you're the Steelers, bad idea. But especially if he ever came down to where the Ravens would be or something, and you could take a great Steeler from the offshoot of a great Steeler, You've got that in your wheelhouse for the next decade plus. So be smart about this. Don't pass on this guy. I like everything about him. He's yours. That's your guy, Yeah, Joey,

your guy? All right, Colleen, Okay, here we go. My guy Byron Young out of Tennessee. All right, there's two, so I'm going with Tennessee. Okay. So the reason he is my guy is because I love his story. He went from working multiple jobs, including assistant manager at Dollar General, worked at Burger King, worked at Circle K to a second round prospect in three years time. So his boss at Burger King convinced him to get a second job at Dollar General to potentially make a career as a

store manager. So he's stocking shelves, he's making milkshakes, he's mopping the floor, and he sees, by chance, a flyer for a football tryout at a military college nearby. He loved football. He went to the audition, he aid the team he was ready to be discovered. Then COVID shut down everything. So what he did was he made his own highlight tape, his own mixtape, sent it out, and

then went back to work in the grille. Tennessee noticed, and three years later he's a starting defensive end for them for a top program, playing in a national championship game. He shined at the combine. He ran a four four three. This guy is everything. I love him. He's mine, he is yours. You've got him officially your guys. He's twitchy, guys, so that is that is something to keep an eye on.

But yeah, his like he's disruptive. Lancer Line says that he has a great motor um and you know he's chiseled as well, which, um, most of these prospects are unless you're I guess an offensive lineman. I love it. We went deep into the ask food realm, into the day job realm, and lick everyone out there. You just

look at those flyers on that wall. You never know, don't do the one where it's like ride across to ride share across the country with PERSONEX is that one that you considered have you do in college all the time it's like, oh, I've got to get back to the east coast from like central Ohio. I could just say the variance levels on how that goes is high. Yeah,

And that's also like, don't don't stop. Just because the structures that are in place like have missed you, doesn't mean like that there's some sort of failure in you. It's a failure in the system. Battle them. He fought back, and look at him. Now he's Colleen's guy, like guy. I think you like he's on Twitter. I'm assuming right, Um, maybe we've got to let him know that he that he is. You know, you're a guy. I'll let him know,

all right. I put all these notes together for this show, and I just got to a period in my notes here where it's just blank, there's nothing else to do. Apparently I did unlike Dan, I did not use the little clock here to tape this. Oh yeah, I have no idea how that show is sixty seven minutes. Apparently this has not If you need more time to fill I have a couple other guys. But like, if we're done, I think that would run a foul of the premise. Okay, oh right right. I mean I'm trying to get you

out of here on time, Colleen. Okay, No, we're having a great time. I mean we can go longer if you if you need the tell me tell me. No, I want you to tell me what, like, to give me something that is annoying you right now before we leave each of you. Oh my gosh, something that's annoying me right now? Well, Um, I did a like I did a very high potency face mask thing to resurface my skin. Like it's basically gets rid of all of

like the dead skin and stuff like that. And so now my skin is peeling off, Like I got a really bad sunburn and I had to put make up over it. So that's really really annoying me right now, Okay, I can piggyback on that because they have those whatever it's called Michaeloid patches. My wife had a pack and I had a zip and I'm like, oh, I'll put

this on and it'll do something. Now I have like a permanent dark mark from this from this patch, and it's like, why didn't not just let the permanent like it's it's not going away, Like it's right here, right dark spot on my forehead where I try to use this patch that allegedly gets rid of temples. It sounds like a litigation heavy, right, I don't know. It's it's it's not going away, and so we'll see, we'll see if that happens. Also, anti labor practices branching out into

that are bothering me at this moment. I will tell you what bother. We have a wonderful building here. It's a great place to work. I am contractually off I must say that, but it's it is a nice building. But when you get into a scenario where like you're walking behind someone who's like walking down the hall ambling

slowly texting mall walkers. Yeah, you're just like at the slow walker and right, like there's no way to get around the left side or the right side without it being super awkward, and it's like I have somewhere to be and it's taking me five times longer because they're pounding out a huge text to like their honor uncle.

You have to be on the left, guy, you have to just like say, on the left, on your left, and then you know, you know what, Like I when what I do, which is the worst, Like I'll duck down a side hallway and to sort of wait for like fifteen seconds and then come back around and be like there's more space I can attack this again from a different way or incredibly nice people. I just I look for the scene and then I hit the hole

like I'm running running. I'm starting to I'm starting to take that approach though, because there's the wasting of the time. It's not working. So I mean that too, Patrick, except I'm really like, I don't know, I'm just like very awkward and shy about it. So I'm like, oh, excuse me, sorry, sorry, sorry, I'm walking by. Sorry. The other day is little Sessler in the hallway and I we were moments before the podcast,

and I just mindlessly started following Cessler. So it's like, I'm sure he's just going to the studio, and all of a sudden I found myself near the screening room because you were like getting some type of beverage and then I was just standing next to you for no reason. Basically, So my annoyance is my navigation. It's not always on. Yeah, well I'm a apologize for setting you down that that dark galley or whatever that was, but it was meant to be. All right, Well this was this was fun.

Thank you for joining me A plus. I hope we can do it again, but we need to have Dan and Greg back here at some point and assuming they don't get like another outbreak of something happens in that they're on vacation for seven years of the go