Curious Case of Cam Newton

out of bed. Um. I had that feeling this morning. It kind of was a feeling of normalcy. M hm hm, nice rainy day here in l A, which I like, you know, as a little uh little change of pace. It does feel like, you know, this is I do not feel like I'm losing track of days because of our schedule and we're writing during the week two and because of the shows, and we got the Friday show, which is kind of you know, can exhale after. I feel like we're we're we're kind of in the flow here.

We're in a we're in some sort of normality, which is not a bad thing. You think so. I mean, I never know where the weekends go. I don't even remember what I did with my weekend. Maybe it's probably because of the kids too. That schedule is so different on the weekends because they don't have homeschooling, so suddenly I don't really have you know, we don't have shows,

we don't have homeschooling, so it's it's way more free time. Yeah, I feel like would be satisfied if a nuclear bomb landed in his front yard, but I I do not. I feel slightly disenchanted with all things right now, and uh, I really need that different a normal may you know, like that's that's just how it goes. Sometimes I think the reason the reasons are a little different. Yes, Lakisha had a Sessler Westley Chris that the baby was coming this weekend, but the fact that you're sitting here with

us tells me that didn't happen. Well, she's moved the goalpost a little bit on that one. She said that that was more of wishful thinking, and now the baby cannot come Tuesday because she does not want him to steal away attention from our wedding anniversary. That was on the nine team so he's gotta come Wednesday or Thursday, but she thinks definitely this week. I think you're gonna learn real quick that children don't do everything that you

want all the time. And this may be the first strike of rebellion if he showed up right on that date. He's getting aggressive because she's twelve days out from the actual do date. So she's she's feeling some motherly intuition and you don't want to mess with that. Well, I don't. Also something something that gets increasingly marginalized as a married couple once kids into the fray, is your anniversary date. All of a sudden, you're in the middle of seven things.

It's like, oh, we got married seven years ago today. That's cool. First your experience on this one. But she claims that she is so large and and uh so awkward right now that the baby just needs to come out. You gotta go. Yeah, I gotta get it. Been there, uh hanging there, Lakisha. The payoff will be marvelous when Kalidas Wesling enters the world. We are still looking for a name. Still looking for a name. Hit up West on Twitter with suggestions, maybe you will name the child.

It has to be a good one though, no jokes, no bits. All right, today's show got a lot to get to Monday show. There's news to hit. Also, we are going to do a bit of a deep dive here on the curious case of Cam Newton, the former m v P and still unrestricted free agent, a man looking for work, a man who no doubt is chomping at the bit to find a new team and start

over after the Panthers opted to cut ties with him. Well, we're gonna open up the swing, open the courtroom doors, and really break down the teams that make the most sense for Cam Newton and both sides of the case why they should be these teams employing a quarterback with Newton's potential and history, and also the flip side, the defense why these teams have stayed away. So that's that's

coming up. Also at the end of the show. Oh yes, we're Spinning the Wheel, our new series where we go team by team or as long as this goes who knows, every Wednesday or every Wednesday ish, we will do a deep dive on one team and it is completely at random. We're gonna spin a wheel. Ricky worked with our behind the scenes team at NFL Media to create a completely rammed, randomized wheel and the team that it lands on will

be the team we discuss in depth on Wednesday. We'll get to more of that, uh in a bit, but before that, let's do some news. I would like to see Brady with a big glass of whiskey, right, Mark, That would be good, just telling the truth. Yes, shiver my timbers. I mean, if there's never a reason to watch the NFL Network version of Around the NFL broadcast, it is to hear those gems from Mark Sessler. Mark, take us through the thought problem. Shiver my timbers. There.

I think it was a lack of thoughts. I thought at that point, you know, hey, the show is rapping. Um Dan's gonna take us to break our show. You know, our weekend begins at that point. Essentially we know how that feeling is on on Friday, and some you threw it to me and I gave you that um non gim ever my timbers. I don't think I've heard that

phrase since watching Popeye as a child. I don't know what shiver me timbers, but I didn't really I wasn't sure what that that meant, especially in the context of how Dan threw it to you, but I enjoyed. Ever have to apologize to all three of you. Let me timbers meaning it's an exclamation in the form of a mock oath, usually attributed to the speech of pirates. In works of fiction, it is employed as a literary device

by authors to express shock, surprise, or annoyance. I mean it made sense then in the context maybe ever my timbers, what what are one? What are ones? Timbers? Right? That that's the part I don't have nailed it. They pants. I don't know forever if I always though, I was just like, I'm so scared, I'm shaking in my boots from that. But that's how I just kind of heard it my life, and I never knew what it meant it was. Maybe the delivery was confusing too, like he

didn't sound like two shocked. She truly caught off guard. It was a huge selling point for the show to the people up on the third floor or or their empty offices up on the third floor. We want people quick on their feet. Look at Mark Cesler, perfect example, drops the pirate phrase from four and fifty years ago. That's what we're looking for, all right. Let's get into

it um perhaps progress. I woke up this morning and had a New York Times alert on my phone that you know, they're they're rolling out some vaccine testing in this COVID nineteen world. And who knows, maybe that becomes a huge story and a life saving scenario for all of us, or maybe it's nothing. Uh. And in the NFL, some more potential optimism. A memo sent to teams for a path to reopening team facilities. It's been laid out

to all thirty two teams. Roger Goodell sent it out Wednesday, which includes consent from state government officials, establishment of a club infection response team, social distancing, and other measures. This is from Tom Pallisero, who reported it late last week.

All club facilities have been closed since March, as we all know, and now we have an outline of protocols and procedures on the path towards opening them back up and greg for anything to happen in in terms of a season, whether it's a full season or a truncated season, these buildings have to open. So if they can get that done, it's a big step in the right direction. It's a start. It's not a huge deal. I don't think because it's just medical personnel, you know, it's not coaches.

It's just rehabbing in players until coaches can until coaches can get into the building. In every state they're not gonna let any coaches into the building. And we'll see if that takes us through the end of what would have been O T A S and mini camps or not, which would be the end of June. But even in California, you know, everyone was freaked out about the stay at

home order, you know, kind of being extended. But the governor and and and the mayor of Los Angeles are opening up different parts of the city daily almost and and the governor says, you know, some sporting events can be back, you know, in June. And frankly, they already are happening, whether he's allowing it or not. Santa Anita has been racing uh down in in San Diego County, So we're seeing some pretty good progress at least that there's hope that camps could open on time. I think

that's what everyone's hoping for. I would guess. I don't. I don't know what to trust anymore, I don't know what information to trust. I don't know what people to trust. Uh, it seems like one day deaths continue to rise, and then the next day everything's opening up and nobody's worried about a second wave or a third wave. Um, so I'm just taking this as a fluid situation and who

knows what will happen. I'm very much with us. I mean, you can get drawn into the latest narrative, but then it seems to to flip by the next morning's news cycle. And Uh. At the same side, I mean, getting people into rehab and stuff is an important step. We weren't there two weeks ago, and there's a cast of characters that need legit, like Team medical help, and so I

think that in terms of long term preparation that matters. Um. But you know, I think with this whole thing that we're seeing the tick of human nature where you've got groups of people saying we've beaten this, but a virus doesn't really care about what people want to say. Um, you know, through microphones and stuff, it's like, we have no idea what the future is. So it's very much a wait and see, And it feels a lot more probable that they're gonna play games now though than it

did a month ago. In other news, this is a potential huge deal in the NFL. The league is came from Jim Trotter, who reported it on Friday. The NFL is proposing a plan to incentivize minority hiring that could could include an improvement in draft positioning. Trotter said the league will present a pair of resolutions at tomorrow's virtual

meeting to try to create more movement. This comes after an offseason's hiring cycle where there were very um There were many job openings, but again a few minority hires were made, both at the head coach and um management level. The first resolution would remove the barrier that prevents assistance under contract with the team to interview for a real coordinator job with another team, with Goodell reserving the right to determine if it's an actual coordinator role. And then

the big one, the one that everyone's talking about. A team that hires a minority head coach would move up six spots in the third round to the following year's draft, and hiring a minority for the top personnel job would create a ten spot improvement, so you can move up your draft order and UM West this is like I said, coming off an offseason where they're just not seeing the gains that they they want and need in evening the scales here and the Rooney Rule obviously, which was put

into effects some time ago, was designed to help minority coaches get jobs, but it's not working in the way they intended, so they're thinking of ramping it up. Your thoughts, well, sometimes in sports it's instructive to take a step back and think like somebody who has not been following sports your entire life. And when you look at the NFL and you see on the field it's almost all black players, and then you see on the sidelines it's almost all white coaches, and the g m s are almost all white.

There's just something incongruous there that doesn't make much sense. And the current plan, which seems to be let Bruce arians handle all of this, doesn't work. Um, So I'm not surprised that they went back to the drawing board. My question is for such a small move up the draft board, and it is a tiny move up the draft board, is it worth the stigma that's going to be attached to a coach or GM who's hired in

this fashion. I think it's an interesting idea. You know, a lot of people I think shot it down without really having any better ideas. Like I think it's a it's such a problem that trying new ideas make sense, and I think that's what they're going to But I thought the same thing wes um less about the stigma. I don't know if that would be a concern, although there's certainly a segment of the fan base that that would probably put a segma on it, And maybe that's

what you're talking about and more of that. Is it really a that huge of an incentive, I mean, is that really gonna yeah, like they're gonna try to get every interview possible. It seems like fixing the problem on the core level of like growing young black and you know, people of color coaches is the bigger issue. It doesn't seem like a big move in the draft. I don't know that. It's just like people are willing to throw away those sort of moves for anything in the middle

of the draft. It just doesn't seem like that huge and incentive to me, whereas the most of the criticism seemed to be this is given away way too much.

But I just didn't understand that I feel like we all get a sense when you go through these annual UM firings where there's a you know, a flood of interviews for each team, and I feel where the insult seems to lie a little bit is when you can tell that team, a, we already know they want to hire this big name, but then they have to bring in a minority candidate to do basically a token interview, where I would imagine in some cases we've seen it

turned down because that candidate knows they're not a serious candidate for the job. And so the current incentives, the current plan is not working. I mean, they the NFL each year has a racial and gender report card and it was the lowest this past year that it's been

in fifteen years. And that's that's kind of shocking. And you know, Lewis Riddick to your point, though West made a made you know, he he had an interview too, and he's he's someone that's been looked at as a GM candidate, but he kind of looked at this this proposition and said, I get it. I think we all

get it. But what happens if you get that job based off of what seems like on incentivized program and then you become a GM, and what do people around that team do they think that you're you want to be seen as someone that earned it. And I think that it can it can affect that a little bit. But for a while, I don't know what else to do because it is a critical issue in the league. And there are two gms right now that are minorities, and there are only four coaches, and one of them

is Ron Rivera, who has been around forever. And you look at the QB coaches and the coordinator roles and there's not enough to Greg's point um growing people into those positions, and that's probably where it starts. Another one of those minority coaches is Anthony Lynn of the Chargers. He spoke to CBA Sports Radio and he was critical of the plan. He said, I think sometimes you can do the wrong thing while trying to do the right thing.

I think this is out of desperation. This is something that we're throwing out there, but it is what it is. You can't make people hire someone they won't don't want to hire for whatever reason. So we'll see, uh, if this is something that moves forward or if it it stops right where it is as a proposal, and they come up with maybe something else. But it does seem like there will be more changes and and more help for these minority candidates down the line. We'll see if

this is the plan that ends up being used. In other news, bad news around the Giants and Seahawks in the legal realm, Giants cornerback DeAndre Baker, who the team took in the first round last year, and Seahawks cornerback Quentin Dunbar both turned themselves into the Broward County jail on Saturday, uh to satisfy a rest warrants in connection with an alleged robbery in Miramar, Florida last week. Uh.

This is heavy duty stuff. There were guns involved, lots of money and good stolen, and both players are in the center of it. DeAndre Baker has been told by the team, the Giants, to stay away from team activities right now, the virtual meetings, and it seems like a situation that could you know, last well into the season potentially and uh, some real legal consequences in uh the offing.

Potentially tough situation here. Yeah, Baker was a first round pick of Dave Gettlman, and he struggled for most of the last year, and he fell in the draft, you know, because there were, you know, some concerns coming out of school about his focus and off the field and and all that. And now he's in a situation where it's pretty clear reading the you know, you can just look at his bond. He had to pay two thousand dollars to get out of jail. Dunbar was half as much.

Dunbar's lawyer at least swears up and down that everyone has recanted that he was there in the first place, and he might have an easier legal route out of this. We'll see, who knows, um, But Baker Baker struggled so bad, and it's such a serious claim. Who know, like if you told me he's never remember the giants again, Like it's it seems like it's at that level. But it's hard to guess where we're legal cases they're gonna go.

We're in a weird spot where really the only punishment they could lay on him was you're not invited to the Zoom meeting um this week, Uh, positionally, And I mean, you know, we're at the point where we're all in have been on I think now it's not cool to do zoom meetings with your friends. What we're post zoomed, right, it's it's become tired and all that. But I mean, I imagine there's a few jabronies out there that after a couple of zoom calls with old friends, they said,

let's not invite um Robbie back next time. And I think that's just Baker just got he got zoomed out of there. Well running around with the guns. I just did the projected starters for NFC's The Giants have maybe the worst cornerback group in the in the league, or one of them. Anyways, if they had Baker, you know, they have James bad Berry, Baker and Sam Bill and nothing behind those three. And Baker and Beal struggled in our second year players. So it's like the whether whether

you know, whatever happens with this legal case. This is a major problem for Gettleman, who kind of invested in Baker as a as a key part of their future. Unfortunately, Baker is not the only former first round pick from two thousand nineteen to run a foul of the law over the last past few days. Bills defensive tackle Ed Oliver arrested on drunk driving charges in Houston over the weekend. Uh He was found allegedly with a beer between his legs.

They searched his car, a gun turns up, So this could lead to a suspension, perhaps a beefy one for Oliver, who's coming off a promising West rookie year in Buffalo. Now it's just been complicated a bit. Yeah, similar to Baker. There were questions about Oliver's character coming out of college. Um and to me, like, I'm afraid to go to the grocery store. How are these people partying and committing crimes in the middle of a pandemic. I don't know

what's going on acting stupid beings. I mean, I think there's like we always hear there's two America's. I think there might be another division whereas people over forty and people under forty. The way they're treating the pandemic, well, I also think where the at least the Baker incident happened in Florida. It's a different world in Florida right now that it is in California. And that comes from the leadership you know above that whether it's the governor

or the local mayors or everything. It's a different world down there in Miami Beach right now, go ahead, no, God, I will, I'll go now. I just was thinking, like, you know, you can include Erica in this. What would would if we had to over the next week, UM organized it collecting you know, a large enough arsenal of guns and pull off a bank robbery. What would our chance zero to one polling that off successfully. We're not unintelligent individuals, I think for the most part, but we

have no experience in at realm? Would we just would do we even know how to get guns if we needed to? Am I allowed to even ask this question? I don't walk across the street from the NFL network offices right see, But that that lines out the door when the pandemic started. That's not the way we think. There's another crowd of people that are thinking, I must get guns immediately, and maybe so you want to go

underground to find some illegal firearms before we rob a bank. Well, I don't want to go and empty handed two into the you know the north. I mean you gotta roll into the dream scenario. Are female assassins have evolved taking you out at the end of it? Well, we have Erica attached to us. I wouldn't put that, but we'd all be in new categories. So I mean there there was a successful bank robbery right across the street from Ellis's elementary school in the fall, like straight up old

school that the kids the neighborhood total lockdown was. She said it was her favorite day of school all year. They just watched movies all day, um and they got wait with it old school. So it still happens sometimes. I had a friendly worked at a bank and he said that a lot of people try to rob banks on Friday because you think that people. Yeah, but Monday is the day to rob the bank because that's when the Brinks trucks come with all the money for the week.

Here we are just say, if you want to know, Monday is the day. I would say, this is how to do because I've watched a ton of real crime programs, including one recently that profiled a collection of bank robbers that were successful over a long stretch. In fact, they robbed the same bank at three or four times over a eighteen month stretch. I believe you don't want to do it l A. There's there's too many police forces in l a that you know, there's there's just too

much heat around here. Uh. In fact, there's a world famous, like all time bank robbery here in l A that involved the massive shootout with swat and all this stuff. We got to get out to a countryside. We gotta get out to a a po dunk town and hit that one one that's not prepared, that doesn't have the police force, and it has to be coordinated. There has to be a getaway driver. There has to be all sorts of knowledge of the inside inner workings of the bank.

I mean that's that goes without saying steepy Ham and egger Town. We just ride in, we strike at eight am, and we're out by eight thirty with you know, seven eight hundred thousand dollars each or or throw a zero on that and jewelry. We've got a big problem here. Who among us is the muscle technology technology, who has handled a gun at any point in their lives? Well, I think my question gun range. My my guests would be Greg. Greg will be the guy, the trigger man.

We're not going to hurt anybody. Written A motorcycle bank easier I come from. No, A motorcycle is the easiest way to go through the drive through and or to get quick enough. Another bank that my friend worked at. You know, they do bank robbery training when you work at the banks, and they say that motorcycles are way harder to catch. I call sidecar. I mean I like that mentioned were each getting seven that I mean I need a little more to risk it all, you know,

than seven. Well, but you learn on the small banks and they only have so much in the coffers, and then we'll then we then we'll strike big in like Seattle. Two other things, to be wary of the silent alarm that is right underneath the um the counter where the teller is. Got to make sure that person doesn't compromise it. And also they put the paintball thing in the bags of money. They explode and then the money is both traceable and worthless. So just just a lot of stuff.

We want to do this. We've gotta take it off pod. We don't need a gun. You just hand him a note, tell him to keep quiet, and hand over the money. Um, all right, that's what's happening in the news. There's a couple more things, but we we kind of ate up the time with the bank robbery talk. Well, sorry that that shook out. It will Todd Gurley be healthy for the Falcons out of the rundown? We have no answers

to that question. It is perhaps notable that Derk Cutter is openly wondering if Todd Gurley is healthy after taking him on. That's a bit interesting seeing the quiet part out loud. I mean Todd Gurleys was for we'll move on, but yeah, he was fourth in the league and snaps back to back years. People honking a lot about a guy who plays a lot. It just hasn't been that good. M That's fair, all right, let's move on. It's time to get into it. It is the curious case of

the m v P quarterback and the invisible team. And we're gonna go through for NFL franchises who have been linked to Cam Newton, the Great Cam Newton, the unemployed Cam Newton. And this is how we'll do it. Um. One of us will be the plaintiff. One of us will be the defendant for each of the four cases. Okay, I'll do a little double duty as a judge if I need to keep things under control and the judge Wattner role. But I'm gonna try to stay out of the way as the judge and let the plaintiff and

the defendant do what they have to do. Ricky, Um, none of this pop culture is ephemera, is connecting with you, I'm sure, but you would be the Doug Llewell and hypothetically, hypothetically who's kind of just in the studio talking low into a microphone. Um, I'll let you know if we need you for that. You've got Doug Noellen vibes, though I feel it. I'm sure that's an insult. Um, but you Yeah, he was Doug a little well and was

not the muscle of the people's court anyway. All right, let us get into it real quick, Ricky, whoa the verdict? Are you guilty of lazy cliche thinking, shrinking from the challenge of giving your organization the best chance to win? Guilty or not guilty? All right? I like that. See West just amped up the stakes considerably. Hit it, Ricky. Denver Broncos up first. This is the plaintiff, me Dan

hands us. He contends that the Denver Broncos are making a huge mistake by ignoring a major need at quarterback. He's suing for franchise negligence and emotional abuse on the fan base. This is the defendant, Chris Westling. He believes the Denver Broncos and John l a are right to throw their support behind Drew Lock, a promising second year passer who guided the team to four wins in the final five games of the season. M let's get into it.

What you are witnessing is real. The participants are not actors. They are actual litigants with a case bending in a California immuniss of bold court. Both parties have agreed to dismiss their court cases and have their dispute settled here in our forum, Popold's court. All right, let's get into it.

The plaintiff speaks first. That's me. Listen, Wes, I know, I know the Broncos there, that's your team there, your boys, and I and I get that John Elway is a man that inspires confidence, even if he's had swings and misses, and he's even promised us he's got a lot more swings and mrs in it before they send him packing.

But as I've said on this pod many times before, now in this off season, it's seems very strange to use a five game sample from Drew Lock and then build a playoff caliber roster all around this young former second round pick, and then just say he's the guy because you want him to be the guy. And I'll tell you what I did, West, and you'll be proud

of me for this. I went back and I watched those drew Locks starts because I've been getting so many I've been getting killed by Broncos Twitter, and I watched those drew Lock starts and I came away largely man about the whole thing. I think he averaged about six and a half yards per attempt. He showed good mobility, uh in an ability to keep plays alive. He's got a nice arm, but he also a lot of bone

headed mistakes. Of course, he's a rookie and that is to be expected, but that was something that was the m O on him going back to college, that he's a guy that made a lot of bad decisions. And it just seems ridiculous to me that Drew Lock and then a couple of Hammond Eggers beneath him on the

depth chart. All due respect to I believe Jeff Driscoll and somebody who's worse than Jeff Driscoll that with Cam Newton sitting out there and and otherwise playoff ready roster that you wouldn't seriously consider slash go through with bringing in Cam and giving yourself that safety net. Arrest of my case, watch well out of order. Let me first

date that Cam Newton is not a backup quarterback. He's a starting quarterback in the NFL, and it makes no sense for a team with a two thousand nineteen draft pick to bring him in as an underminey force. He makes sense more with an established quarterback who might be injury prone and you need a hack high caliber backup there in case of emergency. Drew Lock was the top quarterback on our board in two thousand nineteen, above Kyler Murray. We almost picked him in the first round. We traded

up to get him in the second. We like him, we like his college tape, and anyone who doubts he has what it takes to be a long term starter in Denver should go Rewatch the Texans game over and over again. Aggressive downfield, tight window, throws outside the numbers, throws his tight end open for a TV, made plays late in the down through improvisation. One of the hardest quarterbacks to sack through his five starts in the entire league.

We've surrounded this guy with the talent he needs to succeed because we believe he is a first round quarterback who just happened to fall to the second round. And you want the truth, I'll level with you. All of us in the a f C West are the Bill Pollion coolts. If the starter goes down, we're screwed. The Chiefs are head and shoulders above the rest of the division. If we lose Drew Lock, we're not winning the division.

So why why bother undermining his confidence or confuse the team about who our quarterback is when we know if he gets injured, we're just not winning the DIVI is what kind of way is that to to run a football team? Then oh we're done? He had this guy has to be a star. Or why what are we even doing here? Your job as a team builder, John? Am I talking to John Elway? Or am I talking to West talking to John Elway? Okay? John? Uh? If

very good? If if my job as a team builder is to make sure this team stays afloat, that I have them fully prepared, that I'm giving my head coach the best opportunity to win. I owe it to the fans and the team to build a roster where we're not shipwrecked. If a second round pick who had a question marks all around him coming into the league, uh, doesn't become the star. I mean they you can't leave

the cupboard bear behind Drew Lock. You just it's just irresponsible and John Elway and John I don't mean I want to be disrespectful, but like you stink at this You've been You've proven time and time ago. I'll court ordering the court that was disrespectful. Um, I'm sorry, I withdraw that. But there's been a lot of evidence pointing to the fact that you do not know what you're doing at the quarterback position. A lot of irony. They're giving your background as a quarterback, but it's the truth.

How why should I give you the benefit the doubt? That's my closing comments. Well, I'm not gonna take this personally. You raise a good point. My job is to give this team the best chance to win. And people like you you have the luxury of thinking like a fan. I have to think like a general manager. My job is to put Drew Lock in the best position to succeed. And that's responsibility. I have to an organization, to an

ownership group, to my fans. The guy who I believe has what it takes to succeed, I cannot undermine him. I have to give this franchise the best chance, and to me, the best chance is to make sure Drew Locks this is a successful quarterback. And this is turning into the O J trial. Let's get to a verdict here. Hey, hey, hey, we don't need anything from the galley anohing from the peanut gallery. All right, uh, Greg Rosenthal, you're in the judge Wapner role here. What is your verdict? Oh I uh,

my decision resides with the prosecution. John Away, You're guilty. Yeah yeah, yeah yeah. Next case. This is the plaintiff, Greg Rosenthal. He believes the Washington Redskins have numerous reasons to believe Dwayne Haskins is not the long term answer quarterback and they cannot pass on the opportunity to bring a former m VP into the building. He is suing for lack of organizational commons sense. This is the defendant,

Mark Sessler. He believes Dwayne Haskins never received a fair shake in his first season and that the former first round pick deserves more time to reach his potential in our league. Well, I get that everyone wants to just shove Cam Newton onto any team in the league at this point and tell everyone how great that would be. Um. And it does fit for a bunch of teams, I think, and I see why it would. It does not fit for our Washington Redskins. And I'm gonna tell you why

right now. Uh. We have Ron Rivera in the building, we have Scott Turner in the building. And while you can pitch the argument that these guys have worked with Cam and no him, they also had a chance and still have a chance to go get Cam Newton or make it clear to Cam Newton that they they are interested. And there has not been so much as a quiet fart on that front, not a whisper. There's no interest order,

order of course accepted in the courtroom. I am sorry, your honor, but I I believe in the point that the Redskins have a belief that Dwayne Haskins was not given the same type of chance that other first round quarterbacks were given. Last year, you had Bill Callahan had to take over a team, and you know, with all

due respect to what Bill Callahan did. You're not gonna get a good look at a rookie quarterback and a frazzled offense that wants to run the ball fifty times a game and close out contests in two hours and three minutes. He needs more time, he needs better coaching. And it's basically you're tangling narratives and you want to

talk about the Redskins is disorganized. It's go draft the first round quarterback that you can't really even argue has had a fair shake, and then go bring in a veteran that's gonna completely disrupt his development and on a non win now team, not even a great situation for

Cam Newton. Frankly, you're gonna have fans calling for Cam Newton to displace Haskins immediately or as soon as the team um encounters trouble, which will be about eight minutes into the first quarter of Week one, and then you're that's the team. You're gonna be dealing with, total chaos. And that's what Ron Rivera was brought there to neutralize that. You don't bring in Cam Newton. I mean, you start

listening to these fans, you'll be one of them. I mean the Redskins have been listening to their fans and making emotional decisions for two until you have a quarterback, just keep bringing them in. Don't worry about it. The only good decision the Redskins ever made at quarterback really over the last few years was draft and Kirk Cousins in the same draft as Robert Griffin. The third you get to you don't worry about the fans saying, oh that's a bad pick. You know, we don't, we don't

need him here. You just you just see what happens. And in in terms of like wait until next year, I mean this organization, they've been waiting until next year forever. We got an adult in the building, Ron Rivera, let's just start getting classy. I love when this show evaluates quarterbacks after one season because about that. I like Dwayne Haskins more than than any um. I think of of the four of us uh in this courtroom. Then if he's the guy that we think he can be, then

he'll go be great in this offense. He'll he'll show a lot of promise and he'll win that job. It can't hurt to have two quarterbacks. I've heard Judge Wesling your your final thoughts, your honor. Vertically, I find the Redskins guilty of lazy clich thinking and also thinking that Kyle Allen's a better quarterback than Cam Newton. Give me a break with that one. They thought it last year down the stretch, and they think it again this year. Sorry, guilty,

Let's move on. This is the plane if Mark Zessler back for another go around. He believes the Pittsburgh Steelers are showing far too much faith in Ben Roethlisberger, thirty eight year old quarterback coming off reconstructive elbow surgery. He's suing for franchise negligence and abuse of blind faith. This is the defendant, the old juser. He believes that Big Ben is shown progress in his recovery from surgery and deserves the benefit of the doubt for sustained greatness over

a Hall of Fame career. Mr. Sessler, this one's pretty simple to me. It's not an argument of Cam Newton is better than Big Ben or offers more than Big Ben. But this is a team that, even last year, with Big Ben out of the lineup and a rash of other injuries, was still knocking on the playoff door. A couple with a couple of weeks to go in the season, and if you're Cam Newton, you want to go somewhere where, let's be honest, you are not a starter at this

point in terms of most teams bringing you in. You want to go to a quality organization where you have a chance to basically show the league once again, here's who I am. In a year from now, I will be starting elsewhere. And I think that this, to me has a little bit of a Teddy Bridgewater to the Saints type vibe to it, where Cam Newton is probably gonna get a chance to play two or three very critical games for the Steelers in place a big bend

just based on history. That's a roll of the dice um and if he does, he's in an offense that can sing right away. You're not dealing with a bottom five scenario there. Cam Newton could come in to be very productive, being immediate fan favorite. The defense is a Super Bowl defense, and you can trust Mike Tomlin to

do right by you. And while I don't like the idea of Cam Newton going and having to blow up a young rookie starter who a team believes in UM, I do like this as a Super Bowl window operation. They certainly see themselves that way, even if maybe some do not um a playoff contender getting stronger at quarterback. We they have nothing behind big Ben that I trust at this point. It blew up their season a year ago. I think it's a great situation for the players around him.

If big Ben goes down and look Cam Newton maybe someone you could use in that offense alongside big Ben. And I would say this as a final note, we need to see what big Ben is and if there's any reason he's six percent of Big Ben or his beard is weighing him down too much. I know he got a trim, he looks looks real sharp right now, But big Ben injuries have sidelined this team too many times over the course of his long and celebrated run with the Pittsburgh Steelers. Cam Newton makes a lot of sense.

We need to start looking at Ben Roethlisberger as a different case here. This is not Drew Lock, this is not Dwayne Haskins. This is a guy that has been a star for a long time. So the idea of bringing in Cam Newton would create a circus. You can have Ben Roethlisberger and Cam Newton on the same roster together. It is not a situation that's gonna do anything but turn the Steelers into a circus. That's not what this organization is about. They don't do things that way. They

do not bring Tin Tebow in. They don't do uh circus type maneuvers at a desperation. And I think the way here is to look at what Big Ben is doing and his workouts and his rehabs and what we're seeing, uh that he just released a video, uh that he's throwing the ball. He looks good. He looked you know, he looked a little bulbous. I'm gonna be fair. It's a little heavier last time at the at the end

of last season. But you see him throwing and working out uh this past week, and he looks like Big Ben to me and now to calm any other and alleviate any other fears, Mark, he is trimming the beard back and so you don't have that scary mountain man vibe to him, like a guy that's lost all grip with society and he's gonna go Ted Kazinski in a cabin somewhere. This man is ready to play football and play at a high level, and I don't need Cam Newton coming in here and mucking up the whole situation.

No disrespect to the former heavy pick. All right, well, god speed with your bulbous quarterback, formerly bulbous, temporarily bulbous. Can I tag in here as Christopher Darten? What is this circus talk? How is this any different than Drew Brees and Jamis Winston? You make it clear that Cam Newton's the backup, he's an upgrade on Mason Rudolph, and then you fly Drew Brees, Drew Brees. It is not well said, it's poorly said. Then Roethlisberger is a Hall

of Famer. So is Joe Breese. No, Ben Roethlisberger is a Hall of Famer. Cam Newton is an m v P. You're you're lining Cam Newton to Jamis Winston. Nobody knows that gets Nobody knows what camp in the summer two years ago. Jamis Winston is a deeply inconsistent quarterback who threw so many interceptions this past year that the fact that he threw thirty plus touchdowns in five thousand yards

was wiped away. He got dumped and had to sign almost at the veteran minimum Cam Newton is a former m v P at least revolution the quarterback position in the last decade. You can't compare the two guys that would. It's a totally different scenario in terms of what it does. Hey, Peyton Manning is available to what happened two years ago, it doesn't matter. All right, we we go to the judge.

Uh well, obviously not gonna be west I'll go to credit well despite um the first use of bulbous I've heard since a description of Bill Clinton's nose that that was pretty much the only time I've ever heard the word bulus. It's just always talk about that bull list and and really strong arguments. I gotta go with the prosecution. Mark Sessler here, gutless behavior by the Steelers. All right, Mark needed the win. That's fine. Final one. How dare you?

This is the plaintiff, Chris Westling. He believes that the Patriots decision to part ways with Tom Brady then failed to address the quarterback position in a substantial way, has set up the organization for potential incompetence in He's suing for franchise negligence and belief in false gods. This is the defendant, Greg Rosenthal, this is what I've been waiting for him. Bescientists going at it. He believes the Patriots have never done anything wrong and Bill Belichick is completely

and totally in fallible. Mr Wesley Jared Stidham drafted on Day three, which means he was evaluated by the NFL as a backup coming out of college. Due to a strong preseason salary cap issues in the absence of Tom Brady, he is now seen as a savior. But how relevant is the preseason? Right there on your roster you have Chase win Of It's the preseason defensive player of the Year who went on to play about two nineties snaps

out of a thousand during the season. How relevant is that you have a fourth round pick who outplayed Stidham in the preseason, Ryan Finley. For the Bengals, they decided halfway through the year he was their answer and better than Andy Dalton. He lasted a few starts. We saw he was a backup, a backup, that's what he is. Uh. Why bringing Cody Sessler after the pick six? If you thought he was good enough, if you thought he was good enough future starter, you'd have kept him on as

your backup in the middle of the season. Rather, you're out of order. Boston Boston Sportunal says Jared's did him evaluated by the Patriots themselves as being a year away from ready to start for this team. So to me, yeah, go ahead, Greg, defend your team. Um. Were you or were you not? Um? The same person who said just a few minutes ago, if you just have a two thousand and nineteen draft pick, why do you want to confuse everything by bringing in a veteran were you just?

It's yes or no question. I did not say that two thousand nineteen early round pick. Was was Jared'stidham or not expected to be a first round pick before? You know he would before his senior season? Yes, like Javon sneed a few How often have you watched jared'st did him at practice? Never? So? How often has the you know, the greatest coach of all time watched him at practice enough times to say this was not by design? Having

only Jared stid him? Answer? Do you think you have a better evaluation process than the greatest badgering the witness? I do not. Also don't believe that he believes Are you aware of the one thousand meals that jared'stid him and his wife have given away um to families in need during the pandemic. So we found something he does better. The quarterback strike that from the record, that's irrelevant. Relevant that is that is part of the process of being morning.

You be careful here? Do you want to be Hey, look at your boy, Nick Saban. Do you want to be the Nick Saban of the Dolphins. You refused to bring in a guy because you have questions about a shoulder. Do you want to be the Nick Saban Dolphins for the next decade? Oh? Look, when you've got when you've got a backup court like uh, like Brian Hoyer. There, you just don't want Who am I kidding? This is ridiculous. Give up all these teams for about practice. This is

Cam Newton we're talking about. He should be in the league. What are you all doing? YouTube? Patriots? I'm going back to pro bono. Somebody get a straight jacket. Yeah, that's that's how you want your lawyer to act. There. You know, just Jack, you're gonna be happy about his counsel here. I thought that guy had good lawyers. It seems like that guy's got great lawyers. I want someone else on the wall. All right, Well, Mark clean this up as the as the judge here, I don't know what even

to make of what we just saw. Well, I have to almost throw the case out. I mean, you have to take this back to square one. But based on what I saw, um, I think you know, football in general, Bill Belichick is someone that has always wanted to get the best possible player. I remember when the Cleveland Browns under Bill Belichick had Bernie cos Bernie. Well, this is this is you know, you're you're using past cases, and a past case would be Bernie and Belichick brought in

Vinnie tested verdie caused all sorts of problems. Jared Stidham is not Bernie Kozar. I don't see why you don't do this. I'm with West, and by the way, West seems to be one of the two sides, the two lawyers that believe in his own case. I like your use of precedents. That's very precedent, baby. Yeah. Well he was very efficient with his words, you know, not us not a known bloviator that Judge Wapner. Alright, tune in next week for more cases here at the People's Court.

This is adjourned. What is it called? This courtroom is adjourned? That's it? Nice work, all right, before we go? Good stuff. I don't know what we accomplished there, but you know that was fun. Um it is now time. Yes, we get people complain. We get complaints sometimes not all the time, but occasionally that certain teams don't get enough coverage on our podcast. This is the around the NFL podcast, and it does. I suppose makes sense that every team gets

equal coverage. That said, that's impossible. It's just not the way. It's not the way any podcast can operate. Taking notes and to the second, to the minute, to the hour, how much love each team gets. A team only gets

as much love as they're interesting to us. Really, But what we're introducing here in the middle of a pandemic with let's be honest, some Minutes to Kill is a a new recurring segment where we will choose one team at random, selected at the end of a Monday show, and then devote an entire segment to that team, UH and prove to you that we do care about your team, your team matters, and will UH put our heads together after each Monday show, UH decide who's the best kind

of outside beat right or beat reporter or whomever to connect with. Will have a guest involved on each show. Ideally that will give a in depth perspective, uh, someone who's covering the team on a day to day basis.

So we're really gonna have fun with this. Also, we're gonna as a group it will be a homework assignment for us that we will do our studies and we'll do some reading and learn up and learn more about these teams before we have a nice conversation on Wednesday, because nobody wants uh, I'll informed Jabron he's talking about their team. That's a real greg that's a real test, as you know from going back a long time now p f T. If someone's gonna read about or listen

to their team. They want the national people to have a general idea, not just general, but an actual idea of what's going on, not brush strokes, broad strokes that we're going in with a fine detailed uh tiny comb right. It's fired about going national. You got you gotta be able to match the hometown fan base at least, you know, for all thirty two teams. This will be a great test.

So for one show at least we will match, uh that level of coverage, and Erica worked behind the scenes to get us a wheel of teams that you can see here if you're watching a video component of our show. We're gonna spin the wheel and being completely honest and transparent, we do not know where this wheel lands that has been set up. Ricky, can you jump in for a second and just explain to the audience the mechanics behind this that there's no way to throw this in any way. Yep,

I was sent it via the graphics team. It's programmed that once it lands on a team, it gets cut from the wheel. Um and there will be no repeat. So once it lands and I'm I was afraid to even press it for the first time, so I don't even know where it's gonna land. Okay, so this is the moment of truth and and mark people. If it lands on the Jets, Browns, We're gonna catch hell here. But again, this is completely randomized, and uh, that's just

the way it is. But the odds are it will not hit the Jets, Browns, Patriots, Bengals, Broncos, Colts, our favorite teams. It will hit on another team, but there's only one way to find out rights. Well, I think the Jets, Browns and Patriots should be taken off the boards. No, that's not how you guys want to take your pick. Who you feeling a feeling? I mean it's one and thirty two, right, A strong feeling it's gonna land on

the Cardinals. Okay, I am almost certain, just because it's been talked up it will be the Jets are Browns, Vikings, all right, Ricky, I don't guess money one, Oh Marbot Cardinals. I told you, I have told you I had a feeling. So he had a Sessler. Wow. I want everyone to realize that Mark saying that he did not see the wheel. There's been no wheel. Mark just accurately predicted that the Arizona Cardinals will be the focus of our Wednesday show

also did not. I also did my research on the Cardinals um over the weekend, so I just you know, I felt very confident that would be the case. Convincing surprise from Erica too. I thought it was great all the way around. Wait, I really didn't know. We didn't

know it was good. Dan's probably a little annoyed this happened because it feels like if the fixes in it was genuinely Greg not so subtly trying to undermine the segment as usual by saying Ricky knew what it was, market Marc if you hadn't said anything, but it wouldn't have been as big a giveaway where I swear on thor that I did not text anyone, or right, why are you eating lunch in the middle of the post were done? It's like one you know. It also just

happens to be first alphabetically among the teams. All right, well that's something attract for Danna. No, no, that's wrong. So tune in Wednesday any Cardinals fans out there. This is a special show for you. Uh, it will not be the only thing we talked about on Wednesday news and anything else going on. Uh so, uh, check in on Wednesday our next audio show. And yes, reminder, every Friday they ran the NFL broadcast on NFL Network. All right,

that's it, good stuff. Everybody, Monday's over from a work component angle. That's good. Brian continues, though, Yeah, alright, this is Dan Hanson signing off for Quiet Storm, the Mailman, the old Boss, Rick Hollywood behind the glass. Congratulations Arizona Cardinals, you will fly with us on Wednesday, so then SA