Earl Thomas & 2020 Hype Champion Contenders

literally on the situation. You know, we were texting a little bit and I'm like a super newby to the sport. But Dan, I liked your take on this that you presented to us in private, which I don't know if you'd want to share in public. Maybe not. No, I would not. I would never share my thoughts on the Fernando Tatis junior controversy in public. Uh oh. I was saying, well, this is a bit, this is a bit stale. Now,

this is like last week's news. But uh the young Padres star who we saw at Western Bachelor Party a year ago in fact, but now he's become a superstar. The Padres were kicking somebody's ass. I think it was the Rangers last week, and uh it was a three account with the bases little late in the game, his co his manager, the other team was hoping he would not swing at the meat ball thrown right over the middle of the plate on three oh Tatis, said Effort. He said he didn't see the sign. He hit four

thirty feet. Everybody was mad at him. And then sports Twitter does this thing as someone that follows base all very closely, and it's one of my favorite, like sportswriter tropes concerning baseball. Sportswriters and baseball writers love to let you know that they're on the side of being against the old rules the way the game should be played, and they want that out front, and they want to make sure. I don't want to say who the person was, but there's one person that actually has ties to our

company that also does baseball stuff. He took time out from his off day video chat video chat pool side to let it be known that he sided with Fernando Tattoos Jr. As well. It's just one of my funny thing that I've noticed in that realm. Well, it's also one of those like, hey, I might be out on a limb here, But don't you know, I think it's fine to swing in three out. It's like, yes, you and of the people that's it's not really a take.

Everyone agrees with it. There's very few people who disagree at this point, so it's like not an interesting thing to talk. Everyone younger than Bob Feller agrees with it. I like how he stole the next day. That was when. That's when he won me over and night. I'm still learning the basic rules, so forget the unwritten rules. I don't need to deal with that. You keep saying that you worked at Baseball Weekly and you grew up a big baseball fan. I'm confused, Like, did all that information

just you know, seep out of your brain? Oh entirely, Like you could I stopped following football or working in football. I mean, you know how many how many of these absurd names, you know, second third string safeties and linebackers would go immediately into the hemisphere. I mean I would be spending my time completely differently. And that was when I worked for Baseball Weekly. I mean that that is like essentially the nineteen fifties right now, So you know,

not a lot of knowledge to connect the dots. My my move, I said to Mark, was to take the side of the unwritten rules on Twitter. Be like, I believe in the unwritten rules and they should be respected, and that that would get you some pop if you want to get some heat, I would love to get some retweets. And all right, it is west Monday, and this is three in a row with Mr Westling, which which means we're on a streak. Speaking of baseball, it's a ripke In like streak. Let's go for it. It's

a Joe d type streak. Why don't we go for fifty six straight weeks? West? Um, how you feeling, by the way, feeling all right? My back hurts a little it, but um, it just just depends on the day. Um. Weekend was pretty good compared to the previous week, So I'd say I'm feeling better now that I was a few weeks ago. Alright, so we have progress. I think that's valid. Call it progress, not a progress stoppers. Bill

Parcels would say one of my favorite parcelsism. Actually, it came up actually on Friday's edition to the Around the NFL broadcast, which I hope you guys are tuning into and uh, if you are checking in on the subreddit, there's a link up there if you missed it when it was on the network or on NFL dot com live streaming on Friday, and we'll have another episode coming up Friday today's show. Yes, Yes, Greg hit me that

I wasn't expecting. Uh. It is ironic that Bill Parcels in hindsight was kind of a progress stopper for for old his old assistant, who's outshine him. That's I don't know about that. That is reductive thinking, but that's your opinion. That's fine. Um, all right, today's show, we're talking about hype teams. Every year there are a few teams that get really pumped up by the football gagnenty and this year is no different. Mark. You know all too well that it was your team that was the hype bunny

champion of didn't work out. Um, but this is a new year, so we're gonna kind of look into that phenomenon and and look at what teams could be, what teams kind of are in that on the hype train this year. If there's a team that's the hype team champion like the Browns of and more importantly, what teams are out there that deserve hype aren't getting it and then will end up surprising people once we start playing football.

That's coming up later, but first let us do you some news pulls up three pointer fine, pit's goods the game at the buzzer. You can't tell us to stick to football. We we cover all the sports baby today. Yes, yes, of the Dallas Mavericks. Just the virtuoso performance. Uh. And I texted West yesterday after the game. I hadn't been watching a lot of the NBA playoffs today. It's just been a weird dopsy turvy kind of year and I hadn't been plugged in. But I started watching a little

bit this weekend. I was lucky enough to watch that whole game. And that dude, he is special, and it's like Mahomes special potentially. Uh. In the NBA's twenty one years old, West. I looked it up. I figured, because he's, you know, from another country, that maybe he was a euro ball ball star for about nine years. And he's a twenty nine year old rookie. No, he's twenty one. He was born in nine West ninety nine. When you're doing things that only Oscar Robertson and Charles Barkley have

ever done. I mean, that's some pretty elite company at one years old, and I was, you know, I have been paying attention to the NBA. I've been watching it.

I like watching it, but I go back and forth on it because it's it's amazing how skilled these guys are, especially the younger players like Luca to be twenty one years old and have that many skills, to have like thirty foot range, to be a point guard in a six seven forwards body, to get seventeen rebounds in the same game, and at the same time, like the game of basketball is kind of boring because it's just a

three point contest, so you gotta balance that out. Like the players are so much more skilled, yet there's not as much fun basketball to watch. I do think it another annoying um Twitter phenomenon, if you want to call it. That bloomed off of this and that's when you get the everyone's like when I was twenty one, I was raking leaves in my yard and it's like living in my base and it's like we get it, like nine of us you are not achieving what he's achieving at

age twenty one. Okay, wait, you're you're not matching up to like a generational athlete in achievement at your age. It's a shocker. Luca Don was a star in the euro League, by the way, at like seventeen, and still four teams passed them. It's it's amazing. And we talked about the Bears trading up for Trabiskie uh, and then Patrick Mahomes going to the Chiefs several picks later, the Atlanta Hawks had the rights. In fact, I think technically

selected uh Luca Don. Chicks. Chicks. It's a little weird though the Sun's getting for like drafting, you know, eight and number one overall. Get there. Young is pretty good too. I Mean the best tweet I saw was the Bears missed on this NBA player, which is Yesterday. Um anyway, so yeah, and where is the defense was and the teams got eliminated. Yesterday dropped a hundred and fifty points on him. Know it's about that. Well, it's get to the point where where it's like football, where you can't

really compare stats. I mean, if you look back to the nineties, right when Jordan's in his prime, and you think about some of those series against the Knicks and the Miami heat Um. Even the Jazz final scores are in the seventies and in low eighties and now typical scores in the one twenties. Like you can't compare stats. Yeah, that's true, all right. And ice hockey, and he got an n h L playoffs talk before we get gone,

get Zack Goldman in here to talk a little beautiful game. Hey, anytime you get the gold standard and you gotta do it. We should do that next offseason. We should just have a random segment, just hit the listeners out of nowhere. Just Goldman talks, chops it up for twelve minutes on something what's going on in the Champions League or wherever I think it would please a huge chunk of our audience that exists on the other side of the ocean. Ricky make note of that, all right. Reg Now, all right,

he's awake. Let's get to it better late than ever. Uh. Baltimore Ravens Earl Thomas. You hate to see a divorce. Never happy. They've decided the Ravens to abruptly part ways with their seven time Pro Bowl safety after an on

field altercation with teammate Chuck Clark. This happened over the weekend, and it becomes especially intriguing Greg Rosenthal because the Ravens announced that they had terminated Thomas's contract for personal conduct that has adversely affected the team and the Ravens that means are coming after his money. They're gonna expect it to avoid his ten million guarantee salary, and you can safely assume the safety will file a grievance. So it's sloppy.

Earl Thomas doesn't figure to be out of work for long, but it's pretty wild how quickly it's come apart for him and Baltimore. It wasn't just one incident. It wasn't just the fight with Chuck Clark. You would not cut a quality starter like Earl Thomas just for one incident. And it's the Ravens kind of putting their money where their mouth is because a lot of teams talk about well not no one's more important than the team, and it's all about the organization. It's the culture. It's like, yeah,

if a guy's talented enough, people ignore that. But with uh, with Earl Thomas, it really was about that because they don't have a backup Deshaan Elliott is the guy stepping in. He's played forty snaps in his career. Earl Thomas played well last year. It's not about the money. They have enough, you know, salary cap space. It's just about that they felt he was untenable. Uh. He apparently missed a number of meetings last year. He was fined a number of times.

According to The Athletic. During training camp this year, um sounded like he had problems with multiple teammates and they just decided the risk was not worth the reward. That this guy just needs to get out of our building. I think the most interesting thing when you look at this is the young guy had had enough of the

Hall of Famer. Chuck Clark a young player and what his third or fourth year, he had enough of the of the All Pro, the perennial All Pro, didn't know his assignments, like you said, had been late to me, and he's Mike Silver reported that last week he told him he couldn't couldn't show up on time because he was getting his car washed, car washed, car washed. The old guy, the future Hall of Famer, was putting the younger players in such a bad position that they said

we can't handle this guy anymore. We don't want him around anymore. He doesn't care, he's not committed. And you talk about progress stoppers, that's what the Ravens decided that a guy who maybe was slightly above average starter last year, um, in the first month this season was a liability big time. You could tell he didn't have the speed anymore. And to me, he plays more like a box safety now than a free safety. UM. And I think the Ravens

said that this guy's stopping our progress. Wait, we'd rather go forward with the Sean Elliott. Yeah. When you for me, when you see Pete Carroll and John Schneider and you see John Harbor and Eric to Costa move away from a player like this, uh, and you hear the stories and we have there are some Earl Thomas stories that we've heard that not aren't necessarily out there. Um. I think he's just been a phenomenal talent, but a different kind of guy and not necessarily obviously not like a

locker room glue guy in Uh. You know, the Ravens to me are one of those teams where if they get stuck with all this dead money because the NFL p a will will have to go through and you know, deal with this because I think it's interesting. It's not just you don't just fight for Earl Thomas and this because there was a leadership council of players and others in Baltimore that made the decision we don't want this

guy on our team anymore. So it's complex. I the Ravens to me, you know, as a Browns fan, dealing with them year after year, they are um, their culture is real and and Earl Thomas was getting in the way of that. And I think it's a tremendous statement to the rest of the roster to say we're not putting up with it. I don't know if you guys noticed this. It was one report. I don't know if it was schefter. I apologize for not citing who it is, but uh, there was some talk. And you've heard this

in different areas as marks alluding to Earl's Earl. That's just Earl being Earl, and that's the old Damnit check or Adam Corolla is um. When people describe a guy that way, well, not the best due to deal with well, and a great locker room guy might be tough to deal with and it. It's also something where like, Okay, there's one thing when you're a young player coming up and he was not the leader in that locker room, and maybe you get away with kind of being a loner.

It's a different thing when you're getting paid a lot of money, you've been there a while, but you're the new guy. And uh, he had other you know, he had the off field issue this offseason where his wife was arrested, you know, for threatening him with a gun. So you you worry about you do worry a little bit about Earl Thomas as well being seeing some of his Instagram posts and something, and that has to be

something that any team that signs him thinks about. Well. Yeah, also the fact that two Super Bowl contenders, two very well respected organizations, have thrown in the tal on him. Now. You also had the middle finger thing with with Pete Carroll a couple of years ago. I don't know if teams are gonna be lining up for Earl Thomas at this point. You'll get a job, though he was playing pretty well by the by the end of last season.

For what it's worth, PFF Adam is like a top five in terms of coverage, did not a lot of big time plays, but he was pretty solid. Someone whill give him a job, whether it's a Cowboys Patriots, I don't know, someone will give him a job. I mean, like, you know, the other thing that stand outs to me is when he was on the Seahawks and walked over to the Cowboys locker room in his uniform, shoulder pads on,

holding his helmet and said, come get me. I mean, it's just you know that you're gonna have That's great. So he's gonna get a job, He's Is he gonna change from this location in Baltimore to the next. I don't think so. I think you're gonna get more of the Earl Thomas effect than less. What is with tiresome but talented safety is telling Dallas to come get them. Jamal Adams did that a month ago or so as well.

It's weird. Uh. And speaking of the Cowboys, Mike McCarthy said he has discussed signing Thomas with the VP of Player Personnel Will McClay that according to rap Sheet, so keep an eye on that. I bet that's where he ends up. It always always felt like that's where this was gonna end up. Eventually, we'll see if it happens. Next up in the news Peter King, long time scribe. I mean, when Peter King decides to retire, people are gonna throw some bouquets at his feet as one of

the greatest to do it, and he'll deserve it. In my opinion, Greg disagrees, I think King is one of the great football writers. Please, what are you trying to do here? Former coworker of Corner Coworker I've mentioned this podcast. He would give me a drive back from Stanford, Connecticut, back to New York City every Friday, every Friday evening from NBC Sports Channel. What a guy. You know it doesn't have to don't you. Don't you see in his nice driven car. Don't you see what I was doing

in my own kind of way? Greg, I was just teeny up to tell that story again because I know it brings back warm memories of your days as a rising fantasy writer in the industry before. Is he unwilling to take public transportation? Who's driving into New York City from Stanford? I would beat put me on a train. I'd get in a car accident New York City about four minutes. No, you know how John Madden wouldn't fly. He hated planes. Peter King kates trains well, he doesn't

write about taking tins all the time. I got something for you. One of one of the better football magazine articles of all time was Peter King's nineteen nine article on John Madden and the Magnan Cruiser called bus Man's Holiday, where Madden is in the role of John Steinbeck in Travels What Travels with Charlie and King chronicles his bus ride across the country. It's one of the better articles.

Look it up, bus Man's Holiday, dig it up. Bussy certified anyway, Peter King, you know this time of year he travels around the country visiting camps. He spent the week at Chiefs training camp, and Peter King wrote draft Clyde Edwards Hilaire in the first round of your fantasy draft. Believe me, you'll thank me for that tip on the

l s U rookie. This came after King observed what was going on over there and also had a conversation with Brett Veach, another guy that Gregg once had issues with, the Chiefs general manager, who said that he's quote on pace to have a big year to be our primary ball carrier. Well, by the time I left Rhoda World and Greg was at Pro Football Talk, we had a point and laugh at Peter king roll whenever he dispensed

fantasy advice. I think it was it was probably after he told everyone to draft Danny Warfel at quarterback, after he told everyone that Eddie Royal was gonna catch like ninety passes for the Chargers and draft him. Anytime there was like a fourth or fifth receiver that nobody would ever touch in their draft, Peter King would tout him

as his fantasy pick. So I just want to put that out there before saying I think that most of the fantasy industry had already arrived at this decision when Damian Williams decided to pack it in for the for the year that if you're gonna be the number one running back in this offense and you're built like Edwards a layer to be that guy who operates in space and makes people miss, of course he's going to be a first round fantasy pick. Lewis Riddick beat him to this.

Take the ESPN Monday Night Football announcer said, he take them number one overall, and and that's a guy who has made it clear he has deep connections inside the Chiefs building. So someone is someone high up, um, maybe even someone that I once gave a you know, a high pitched voice too in our what is that segment called them? It doesn't mean I was I was getting on Vach. I was just giving him a high pitched voice.

You know. I would point to speaches comments about Patrick Mahomes the year before Patrick Mahomes became the starter after he had made one start the year before, and he gushed over Mahomes at the Combine and it made headlines because there were you know, it's it's fair, but they were p We'll just saying, hole, you know, pump the brakes on Patrick Mahomes. Let's see what he's actually like when we when we get a full season at him. So when Mahomes go or when Veach goes off on

Eilaire this way, UM, I'm gonna listen. His a DP is twenty two right now, I've looked it up. You guys know what tracking this stuff. I would ask you this in the first round, would you take Clyde Edwards Hilaire over Patrick Mahomes, who's going at eleven right now? Hold that thought, that's a, that's a cliffhanger, West, it's

a cliffhanger because Wednesday coming up. I'm gonna be here Wednesday, alright, So that was okay, You could feel free to expand on this after this plug the fifth annual maybe around the NFL Fantasy Extravaganza and it's the biggest one ever. Folks guests galore. If you're respected in the fantasy industry, you're a good yak, or if you do your homework,

this is the fantasy special for you. So that's coming up on Wednesday, show West, since you will not be with us on ones that, do you want to expand on that? Oh? Well, just that the fantasy industry, they spend all their time agreeing with each other on everything instead of doing useful things like fixing their sport. When the quarterback is the most important position in all of American sports, and yet it's not important at all in fantasy football, So fix your sport. It's a fair point.

They get it. They get in that fantasy bubble, and a lot of the analysis is sort of comparing itself to the other analysis out there, like, oh, we're higher on this guy than others. Like people want to give yourself a pat on the back. You have Lamar Jackson in the eighth round. Uh, you know instead of him average going in the ninth. Well, you didn't put him in the second, and then people would have won their league. So I don't want to hear about that. They go,

Greg and West Brick by brick. They built road a world, so they speak from a place of knowledge. So they might sound cranky to you, like old men, but no they are. They are forefathers of the industry in a lot of ways. I would wonder what our forefathers and our grandfathers would think of fantasy football in general. Here you go now, because you can't play both sides of the fence. Now, I didn't say dropping, dropping a DP and all this stuff, and then then you start doing

your little hobby horses. Now. Now, I didn't say here's what they would think. I said, I wonder what they would think. I I will not answer for them. I wonder I think they were coming back from you know, coming back from the warfront World War two and signing up for a fantasy football team. Don't think so well. I think if you go back far enough, our grandfather's thought that sports pital i mean, do not even fantasy sports,

just actual sports were not worthy of their intention. Imagine telling Ed Sessler the first mark that for your primary primary income, you talking to a microphone about football. Oh, I'm sure they have difficult questions. They've had multiple questions about what I'm doing in general for for decades. So you know you're right and rest in the peace ed Cessler the first eighteen eighty one to nineteen fifty not you not You haven't totally nailed the name there, But

um I see, I appreciate the lineage check, thank you? Okay, cool alright. In other news, the Chargers have their wide receiver room thinned out because rap sheet reports that Mike Williams has been diagnosed with the sprained shoulder. He's week to week. We don't like to hear a week to week at this stage. We're too close to the season. In fact, the season come Thursdays, two weeks away from kicking off for two weeks and three days for the

rest of the teams. Uh so, yeah, there's a there's a good chance they are, says so that Mike Williams isn't available for Tyrod Taylor and company. And that is not great. I mean, outside of Keenan Allen, the the what's left at wide receiver is super concerning. You got rookies, You've got Joe Reid, kJ Hill, I mean, uh, you got Tyrod Taylor at quarterback. I don't love this offense at all right now, depending on what happens here. It

worries me. When we talked about last week whether the Charges would be a team of a t l candidate. They remind me a little bit too much of the Detroit Lions of the past couple of years, where they're so shallow at the scalp skill positions. Running back if Ekeler gets hurt there in trouble, wide receiver, if Williams is out there in trouble, tight end of Hunter, Henry's out there in trouble. They just don't go deep at

any of those spots. They they are a team screaming to sign a veteran wide receiver at cuts or make a trade because those guys you mentioned, not one of them as an NFL catch. I asked Daniel Jeremiah Buddy who he thinks would even start for this team. He thinks it would be kJ Hill, who's a rookie late round pick, because he looks pretty polished, but I mean that that is that's pretty grim. They need to make a move and because Williams and Keenan Allen have both

have had their issues with injuries over the years. Finally, in the news, reportedly seventies seven individuals connected with NFL teams tested positive for the coronavirus over the weekend. However, the NFL later cleared all those individuals who tested positive after what it's testing partner called and isolated contamination during test preparation. So now all of those tests, all seventy seven, as the report is attributing the number at have been

classified as false positives. Great news and on top of the great news, but also a little bit troubling. We'll get to that in a second. Tom Pallisa reported just earlier, uh this hour that Dr Alan Sills that guy's a rock star. The NFL's chief medical officer says from August twelve to twenty, there were fifty eight thousand three tests tests administered, including three thousand, two hundred and sixty two players. Six confirmed positive test zero among players. So this continues

to go really well. However, not great that there was a contamination because what if that happens on Saturday before week four, right, Like one of those players who had a false positive was the starting quarterback for the Buffalo Bills. So what happens if this, if this occurred three weeks from now on a Saturday night Sunday morning and Josh Allen can't get cleared in time for the starting game. Do they delay the game? Do they work with the

company they have faster results? I think this, uh, incidents might cause them to um shore up a few things in their rules there, right, Like they there was some you know, some talk about maybe the game scenarios, you get this stuff done on Friday, uh, in case this occurs. But it's it's like the good news is it wasn't positives. That would have been like a nuclear bomb landing on

the NFL. But like the concerning fact that you're sort of held hostage by these test results and they're and you know, I'm like, along with Josh Allen, Kevin Stefanski tested positive according to this and he didn't have it, And they missed practice. The whole team, UH did a walk through instead of a padded practice, which some of these you know, programs can't afford all that to happen, and I don't know. I mean, it's you're just rolling the dice and whenever it lands on a twenty sided

Dungeons and Dragons, dice lands on twenty. So it seems like the system working. Though it seems like the system working, obviously don't want this to happen, and you hope nothing this widespread would happen again. But that's good. They every everyone was playing, it's safe. Like if the Bills lose a game because it goes wrong because it's testing, you lose a game, it's like or the delay the game,

it sounds more like, but that wouldn't be. Everything's going fine if the Bills lose a game because of I'm just saying in the scheme of things, the fact that everyone, like the Browns got their practice delayed from eight am to two thirty pm, it actually seems like it's a system working where like they're not trying to cut corners. Uh, and this this was not ideal, but the whole point

is to just prevent an outbreak. And as long as that's like not happening, I don't know, I mean, I guess I'm not that worried about like teams getting a one game delayed or or even like some competitive disadvantage whether you like lose a game. Well, I think the good news is is that, I mean, even after all all these positives rolled in, like I think the teams

themselves knew something was suspicious. There we were you know, if you're tracking on Twitter, you weren't buying that they were all positive, you know, an hour into it, because how successful it has been with non you know, the low percentage of positive cases. But that is a thorny side show. If that occurs six times over the year, I I wouldn't shrug that off. This is one of my favorite of Greg's infamous Who cares? I mean you're

saying that. You're saying if there's a false positive and the starting quarterback misses the game and they're at a competitive disadvantage, it doesn't matter. Actually, the process to which this all happened is totally understandable, and it's positive, like it's a good thing and that's it. Like they would I'm sure they would delay a game if if they thought there was any chance that it was a false positi.

But the process that this is all happening is what we want, right, I just can't imagine telling that Bill's fan, Hey, we made you sit your quarterback even though he doesn't have COVID and you lost the game. Just deal with it this year. Yeah, you know, there's more important things than your team winning, of course, but I think, like that's not a small thing. Whether he actually has COVID or not should be the determining factor whether you can play.

You've brought that up several times during this crisis, Greg that like, ultimately who cares? That's small potatoes, But within this miniature world, it's a huge deal, even if within the bigger I'm not saying who cares. I'm saying the process is what like we're looking forward to work, and it seems like it worked here. Nothing really bad happened, no one was put at any risk, and all the teams were back like within twelve hours. So it just doesn't seem like it's too big of a cause for

a longer. As Mark said, they should tighten up some things, and I think the testing is primarily gonna be on Fridays to avoid something like this happening. Anyways, And because I spent all my time with a nine and eight year old, can I ask you can I say, what does small potatoes mean? What? What would be the why is something small potatoes versus a normal size sized potato issue? I have the etymology for you. I don't it just it's a weird maybe in the context of like a

maybe in the context of a big dinner plate. That's how I pictured. And you got a big, delicious piece of steak and maybe some delicious greens on the side next to that, and then there's some small potatoes on the plate, and it's like, we're not going to focus on that because that's not nearly as important as the other stuff on the plate. Well, it's also of the thirty for thirty on Donald Trump in the USFL. Right,

small potato. That's what he said infamously of the USFL after it folded, after he helped his spearhead moving it to take the NFL on head to head, and then the league promptly folded. Uh. He kind of washed his hands of the league and said it was small potatoes to start with. Enraged enraged people. Yes. Dating from the mid nineteenth century, the phrase suggests not bothering with undersized

spuds while harvesting or buying the vegetable. Yeah, you need those big big ones or else just get rid of it. It's like real men, farmers of the earth. All right, that's what's happening in the news. What an informative, you know, well rounded episode of the podcast. So far, I've learned about all the major sports, just about hockey accepted, and now I've learned about small potatoes background. What a ride, And we're just getting started because now let's talk hype.

And I will give a little hat tip here to Kevin Clark over at The Ringer who wrote a piece last week talking about hype and how people often hype up the wrong teams and how that happens and why that happens. Um, So it just gave me the kernel of an idea, and I thought one way that kind of take that thought, the thought of hype, and then spinning a different direction. It's actually trying to figure out

who these teams are as we approach week one. So I kind of was going through the team's boys and um, trying to figure out, first of all, who are the teams that are getting kind of if there's a hype champion, and unfortunately Mark the Browns were last year and then

it did not work out for Cleveland. In fact, you could you could say, and I think Clark wrote this in his pieces as well, The Night two thousand nineteen Browns and the two thousand eleven Eagles, the quote unquote dream team, which, by the way, Vince Young said dream team, And I think that always kind of got buried a little bit. Vince Young, who is, I believe, a backup quarterback at that point. He's the one that said and

then people attached that to everyone in the organization. Maybe not so fair, but that was the other team everyone said taking him to the super Bowl they bombed as well. Those are the two I think biggest high teams. Anybody else have another like monster hype team of the past ten years that jumps out to you that fell on

its face. This year's to Tampa Bay Buccaneers. Okay, so let's get into it that way, because, um, the teams when I kind of went through the list, tell me if I'm missing a hype champion contender for or if one that I have here, I have five doesn't belong. So I have the Colts, the Bucks, the Cowboys, the Cardinals,

and the Bills. There's teams that have all seems begaun a lot of love in the industry, and their fan bases are on fire about their Super Bowl chances, and there seems to be a very popular sentiment that these teams are gonna take their game to the next level. Is that any of those five teams Indie, Tampa, Dallas, Arizona, Buffalo not deserved to be there? And do you see another team that does deserve to be there? I think outside of the Buccaneers, I've heard the Broncos more than anyone.

And maybe that's just like selective viewing on my end, but I think the cults are a reflection of this podcast. I'm not sure if I hear a ton of Colts talking elsewhere. The Cowboys are the one in that list. Actually a hard hard time thinking of like who this season? Um is so clear the Bucks sure in terms of media attention. I don't know how if how many people are gonna be picking them to win the division, even though against the Saints. I guess they find out. But

the Bills make a lot of sense to me. The Cowboys make a lot of sense to me, and then the Bucks certainly fit. The Bucks are in their own category. I mean, I I find the exercise a little tough because we're talking about this. I think it happens because you're talking about this stuff NonStop when when the league is in stasis and not a lot is really occurring, and then camp starts and suddenly the teams looked hot at twelve injuries and they're off the list. But the

Bucks have been a bee line from start to finish. Yes, I'm with you on that, and it makes sense. They're a team that UM finished strong defensively last year that everyone kind of agreed that Jamis Winston was killing them and uh, certainly with the turnovers that you can make a strong case that that was the case. And then they go and get Tom Brady and gronk it all the recipe is all there. So I would say, yes that that they feel like they might end up being

the twenty twenty hype champions. And Arians has coached some hyped up teams that came through, I mean with the Colts and then certainly with the Cardinals. I think Arians being there gives them UM a sense of professionalism and like that they actually could be legit in a way

that a lot of hype teams maybe don't have. Where I'm actually, you know, you buy into it a little more when you have Arians and Todd Bowls who have worked together and have some skins on the wall in the NFL right where that Eagles team ed Vince Young, as you said that the Browns team from last year had a second year quarterback in a coach that um apparently never took notes or game plans. So I mean, you know you liked the makeup of the box a

little bit more. Somebody reminds me, was Vince Young they're starting quarterback in two thousand and eleven. It wasn't right, no, no, but I would say that even though he's the one who said it, there was nobody on the Eagles saying this guy's not. This guy's crazy. Everybody he kind of captured the spirit of whatever. Basically, we were already good. We signed Non the awesome, while vic vic had, you know, a little flirtation with the m v P award We're

gonna fly. But no, this was before Namdi Asoma was eating lunch alone in his car in the in the locker room was falling a part of the scene exactly. They went, uh, yes, they went eight and eight that season. It's amazing how we think of Namdi Asima now versus before that season, he was mentioned like like he was Derel Revis. He was two or three years right, and he was thought of as a guy who was going to be in the Hall of Fame. I mean, I think of him now as Mr Mr Carey Washington having

a pretty good Hollywood career as an actor. Just you know, pretty rare that you pull that off. That was Mark and I second season at NFL, and I remember that was when the Jets and Rex Ryan were at their peak. The Jets were said to be in the driver's seat to get him, and everybody was going nuts about Namdi and Revas in the same secondary. And then he went to the Eagles and he did not in addition to his issues with teammates, he did with lunch and loneliness. Man,

we've all been there. I don't know, but he didn't play well. All right, So let's get into now. Uh, let's bring up some teams that deserve more hype this season, and maybe if they're in the best position possible, you kind of it's better to be under the radar and then um kind of make your mark on the season, jump up a win or two or three get to the playoffs, make some noise, Greg, do you have a team to you that deserves a little more hype than

they've gotten and are primed to do some damage. It's a tricky exercise because we're like reaction reacting almost to what we've said to because we are the cognizenting, you know. But I do think when I when I thought about it, what I tried to think about, what team has a chance to be in a conference championship game that really no one is thinking about in that way. And I have two teams, but I'm gonna throw out one that we haven't talked about in this way in a long time,

and that's the Los Angeles Ran. I just I just think that their floor last year for offense was average. And it's an offense first league. It's a quarterback. When I went back and looked at when I did the QB index in I had golf seventh. I mean, he really did play well that season. If their floor last year was average and they averaged about thirty thirty five points in the last five weeks of the season on offense, then you then you think they should get better on

offense this year. They should be closer to a top ten offense with woods and cut back makes a huge difference. I really like cam Akers. Their offensive line is a problem, but Higbee finally came through for them. You have Gerald Everett, like you have plenty of weapons, you have a good quarterback, and you have what we thought is a great play caller. Then you go to the other side of the ball and you have superstars. You have Jalen Ramsay and Aaron

Donald to build around. You have a secondary which I think has some um promising players. Troy Hill played well, John Johnson has been good over over the years. Really, their safety um Combo is one of the better ones in the league potentially with Taylor rap if he if he can play well, and to me, there's a lot there and there's sort of an organizational success that I've seen in the past that Hey, a little like the

Seahawks going into last year. If you're bad seasons nine and seven, I'll give you a chance to win or eleven or twelve games. And they're a team that because of the losses and because of how last season was disappointed. I feel like we just haven't talked about a lot this off I'm with you, but I I think that Golf was a different player behind that offensive line. Last question, they didn't do much to address that the run game

wasn't the same. I mean, I think this is the most interesting RAMS team in Los Angeles for me, because you're you're basically this is sort of not a rebuild, but they a re I guess, a reload with new players, and in Sean McVeigh. The luster, uh you know, dimmed a bit last year. I think that's all just perception. I mean, I think he's still the same coach, but

everyone looks different when the offensive line is not functioning. Yeah, this is this is a team I had at the top of my list to um uh, you mentioned Sean mcveigh's lost some luster. I still think every bit as highly of him as I once did. And I was reading an old article where the year after Jeff Fisher left and McVeigh came in, less Sneed was hoping the offense would go from about thirty second to maybe twenty, and McVeigh kind of looked at him with a sparkle

in his eye and said, really, that's it. You think we can only get the twentieth huh? You know? And they were top five, they were one of the they had one of the most dramatic turnarounds ever. And it's just that confidence that McVeigh has, just that innate confidence that he's smarter than the other coaches. I buy it. I think he's still got it. And this year he doesn't have to spend the games handing off to to

a guy who can't make people miss. And I think I think that is a media construct on several some level as well, that McVeigh three or four years ago he was what Kyle Shanahan is now, where everyone was just raving about how he's the future, and no one sees the game like he sees it. In three or four years from how Kyle Shanahan will be where McVeigh is now and somebody will be talking about some other guy.

I think that's just the nature of it. So I think it's good that we're, you know, we're being responsible about this. Sean McVeigh is still Sean McVeigh. There's no reason to think that he can't cook up a great offense. Let me throw a team from the a f C out there. Um it is the Pittsburgh Steelers, and I know that feels I'm sorry that was well you with feel free to tag team they are a team that we're so great on defense last year and it's incredible

that they almost made it to the playoffs. Um with with Duck Hodges and Mason Rudolph who were hysterically well, hysterically and historically terrible like after Big Bend ripped up his tendons in week two and from week two on, the Steelers had two games where they had more than

two yards passing too. This is twenty nineteen NFL. And while that was going on, while that offense was hitting the wall and James Conner on top of that was battling injuries, and defenses were stacking the box because they knew that there's no quarterback that could beat them, and it was just a train wreck. The defense evolved into one of the best in the league, led by a trio of superstars and Devin Bush who hit the ground running, micka Fitzpatrick, great trade, t J. Watt, who is a

defensive Player of the Year type player. So you factor in that the great defense, You factor in the schedule, which is the second easiest in football. You factor in Big Ben Roethlisberger being back, and the idea that Okay, maybe he's done. Maybe at this age he's done. And if he is, or if he gets hurt again, they didn't do a good job with the quarterbacks upgrading that room. They put too much faith in Big Ben staying healthy.

But okay, a lot of you could. You could name twenty nine other teams that will go down the toilet if they're starting quarterback quarterback gets hurt. Big Ben's one of them, and the Steelers are one of them. So I'm saying Big Ben is kind of Big Bennets. He doesn't have to be his best version of himself and just that that leadership and that ability at quarterback will make them a better or even an average or even

very good offense. Pair it with the defense, and this is a super Bowl level team and people aren't talking about that because people are just dwelling like a d D set on Friday show, the Network show, Oh is Big Ben? Skinny's Big Ben Fat? Can you throw spirals anymore? Big Fan doesn't have to be a superstar. He just needs to be pretty good. And this team is gonna

go deep, deep, deep into January. I think part of the problem for Pittsburgh is, you know, a like we we just remember what happened the year before, and so there's that they were eight and five by the way, and that was what I was thinking. Mike Tomlin is a coach, my type of Coach of the Year candidate because of what he was coaching around to get them to eight and five. Then the wheels just fell off,

and it's not a surprise that they did this. To me, is UH an issue with the fact that you're in the same conference with the Chiefs and the Ravens who are superpowers, and it's like, how do you get past those guys if you want to make an argument for Pittsburgh. They're always there if they're healthy. And I I that was my pick two right out of the gate, and I to me, I think guys like Deonte Johnson he's gonna be I could see a huge lead from him. And you know, I add who was on our our

around the NFL broadcast on Friday. She kind of ended my um my season uh with with her whispers because she had she went to Pittsburgh's practice and we had her come on to talk the whole a f C North and she went to Cleveland's and she I don't think since she really because we were running out of time, she didn't really get to say what she wanted to say at the end there, which was that the difference between how those two teams were practicing right now was

so stark and so night and day that it Honestly, I have not escaped that conversation in my mind since um but I want to put the positive light more on the fact that it's Pittsburgh. It's Mike Tomlin, you know what she's being really, but it's also styles. It's stylistic choices. Tom drive them tackling to the ground and has them high energy, and there's a lot of leaders. Look, I I kind of buy into everything Dan said and what you're saying, so I'm not really arguing, but the

fact that they're practicing differently. There's twenty five other teams that are doing no tackling at all, that aren't going to run like the crazy practices that Tomlin does. That's their style of works for them. I don't necessarily like the Rams are the complete opposite and the Chiefs are the opposite in some ways, And I don't know that I wouldn't be too worried about this. How quiet I am gonna get too worried about trust me, this is me,

not you. I'm I'm freaking out about it. So yeah, uh, you know, and I guess the other part of it is. DD also mentioned that the Ravens are much much better this year. We'll see. Listen, they went fourteen and two last year, and I know they in January, but it's way more likely that they probably are an eleven or

twelve win team or even below that. Uh, if you just go off you know history, what it tells us, which West often is instructive, instructive, good out of division schedule though for that, I think sometimes you look at the division schedule and you think, what what divisions can sneak two or three teams? And that's a concern with my first pick, the Rams, because that division, the NFC West is really tough. A f C North, the division

is pretty good. But out of division and play the a f C South and then the NFC East, you get the you know, the Washington football team, you get the Giant. You know, I I like them piling up some wins out of the division, both the Steelers and the Ravens and the Browns for that matter. Can I offer a quick one and I won't go on about it. I I think that UM and this is a team that when I think sort of year after year we say this team would go five and eleven or eleven

and five because it's I don't think that's changed. That's the Texans. But I think the DeAndre Hopkins trade UM turned everyone so vehemently against Bill O'Brien, the general manager, that we forget that he's a good game day To me, I think he's a good game day coach. And they always seem to be in the mix. You still have to Shaun Watson. I really don't hate the group of wide receivers. You've got Brandon Cooks, Randall Cobb, Will Fuller. Now they all have to stay healthy. That's an X factor.

If David Johnson, David Johnson did not arrive in a casket, I am just saying he's he's an actual player who might be good. I'm not. I didn't love the trade at all, but I'm not writing him off quite yet. You've got pieces offense. He actually did and it was like an undertaker thing in w w F where he sat up dramatically and the crowd went insane. Well, I like that see. I like that. Then he understands the perception and he's saying I'm not don't put me, don't

put me six ft under quite yet. I just think the Texans, if they were in the final four in the a f C, I wouldn't be surprised at all if they snuck into the NFC Championship game. Not surprised at all. I like your premise here. I think people are way too down on their offense because of losing that big name DeAndre Hopkins. I mean, not just the big name, a great receiver, but like you said, still an above average wide receiver, corps quarterback, quarterback, five quarterback,

the best offensive line they've had there and years. Uh to me. The problems on the other side of the ball, and they haven't fixed a secondary that's just rotten. But but I agree with you on their offense and they should not surprise people if they were right back in the mix of things as they always are. Maybe they could get Earl Thomas. No, I would put them in the their own kind of category, and maybe you could.

I just think Earl Thomas is trouble. I don't know, but maybe you can put them in a category of teams that have a high floor and a lower ceiling. To me, they exist in kind of this realm where I can kind of see them going eight and eight or ten and six, and not really too much in

either direction outside of that. And I don't think they could sneak into the a C championship because I don't think you really can, first of all, sneak into the conference championship game often unless you have a buy And I don't see them as a team that wins multiple playoff games. I don't know. I just think they have a roof. Uh, the ceiling is the roof. As a Michael Jordan once said, I agree with both of you, and I got one team. I think that's got championship roof.

But a lot of things got to go right. That are not a lot of teams that people are talking about right now. The Eagles are as under the radar as as they've been in a long time, probably probably since Doug Peterson took over, maybe since that Sam Bradford Chip Kelly year, maybe maybe even further back. And and they have a you know, a decently low floor. But they've been as injured as any team in the NFL the last couple of years, they've still made the playoffs.

You know, they still won that division over Dallas without anyone healthy at receiver at the end of last year. And I do think they're kind of a boomer Bus team that could that could go seven and nine or eight and eight. But I do think they have super Bowl upside. They have to have a lot of things

go right. They already lost Brandon Brooks. But if Dillard, their first round pick at left tackle, plays like a first rounder, you got him and Lane Johnson, and you know Peter's playing guard like Kelsey's still there, that could be a really good offensive line. On the defensive line, you got Malik Jackson back, he's supposedly looking good. You still have Graham, you still have Fletcher Cox Uh, you have Darius Slay in the secondary. They like their secondary

depth more than ever. You need to Shaun Jackson to stay healthy, Jalen reagor Uh to do some things that It is a lot of ifs, But I think if you just looked at like, hey, if they're top twelve players stayed healthy and you stacked up their team versus everyone else's top twelve players staying healthy, the Eagles are up there, and we know their coach is good. We know their quarterbacks pretty good. I mean, maybe he's not

top three, but he's good. Like they I don't see why they should be discounted as a team, um that can go to the super Bowl. Maybe that's because I just picked them to do that every year, and I just hoping I picked them last year and that that one. I mean, I like that you have Washington in your division, you have the Giants. That's gonna help. It's not you're not gonna all it's not a dog eat dog division. But they're also playing the af C North. They got

a first place schedule. I mean there, they could be thorny. I don't know if they're gonna get a buy. I mean, you're the only one team does now. But I mean the road to get to the conference championship will be tough. This isn't fun because there's no way to predict it, and even if you could, that would be a crappy thing to predict as well, even though Mark you've been

known to do it. But injuries play such a huge part in this, Like when you're trying to figure out who that team is gonna be and uh, this from Football Outsiders via the Clark piece that they've been tracking adjusted games LOS since two thousand one, says that metrics shows that injuries are higher in the past six years than in previous seasons. And you know that it is a gauntlet, and you it's a battle war of attrition, and that ends up becoming as big as Look at

the Eagles last year, the Steelers last year. That's just luck to me. Some people say I hate this, but some people say that luck or health is a skill. I don't know, man. I think sometimes you just get lucky. A guy rolls up on you or he doesn't, and

that's gonna affect these teams. People want to be the quarterback and play his first postseason game never you know, one of the primary points of that article from Kevin Clark that you mentioned this is based on um is that we miss a lot on the hype teams because of we don't factor in offensive and defensive lines. They're harder to I guess gauge, and I think that's a little bit unfair. I think most analysts, most pundits do factor in the lines, but they're like every other position,

they're unpredictable. You think a team is gonna have a good line and then the right tackle goes down in week two, or you think they're gonna have a good line and they just don't gel because their first round pick isn't ready and he's not a good player. Um. But what you know, back to the Colts, that's one

of the reasons to believe that they're they're legit. And I think the Ravens and Chiefs have to be considered by far the class of the a f C. But then right after that are the Colts because the offensive line they've been together with since their third year now where they have the same exact starting five, they're one of the top five units in the league. There. And

then the defensive line. That defensive Matt Eberflus has the most important, most important position on that defense is the three technique tackle and they go out and get the Forest Buck. Yeah. I think that was a huge pickup and he's gonna play better than ever. You know, there is Stephen Holder there. Beat writer put a report out today that Jonathan Taylor, who is going to ease like offensive Rookie of the Year type candidate obviously is getting to the second level. UM over and over and over

behind that offensive line. Now that's happening against the Colts defense. So you know, make of that what you will. But you know, Michael Pittman, Jonathan Taylor, Paris Campbell's getting a lot of buzz and Rivers you know, unlike some of these guys, isn't going somewhere where he's you know, having to start completely from scratch. He and Frank Reich, Nick Sirianni, these guys all know each other and work together well. So you could see it being a very smooth transition

if you get a good Rivers year. I like it too. The last time that we were talking about the Cults on this podcast with Wes, he was rightly calling out the idea of Rivers throwing timing balloons deep into secondaries. That's got to be a concern about a hype team, though, Wes, the old quarterback who's a turnover machine, it is you just don't know. I mean, that's one of those things where you gotta wait for the games because these old quarterbacks.

It's the same thing with Tom Brady. Like to me, it was obvious that we saw a drop off in Tom Brady's skill set last year. People who are close to the to the Patriots disagree with that, so we'll see how it plays out. I thought it was obvious that we saw a decline in Philip Rivers too, and Greg, I don't think so as much, So we'll see kind of how that plays out. Rivers was on Inside Training Camp Live with Siciliano, Our Our Buddy and Kurt Warner

last week. I just hearing Philip Rivers speak with like a Colts hat on and talking about the whole opportunity like it's surreal, and it's got me fired up. I really do think it's one of the best storyline and it's not getting a ton of national attention, but he's such a great NFL figure and if they can pile up some wins early and they kind of become one of those teams everyone's talking about, I think it's something people can get behind America American. Greg, you didn't categorize

Kurt Warners or buddy. Would you like to cycle back and give him that label? Well, we did do the show with him on on Neil Reynolds. With Neil Reynolds in the NFL UK, I was gonna say Sky Sports that was not for Sky. I don't know Kurt personally. Um, you know, I guess he was aware of us based on being on that show with him, but I don't know.

If I don't know if you guys see him personally, I'd like to be Neil at one point said something to Kurt and then set me up on something and Kurt looked at me like I was a contest winner. That's your call. So I don't think we can safely classify him as a friend. It's a little early, by the way. Winner. That reminds me, UM, have something we meant to talk about a few weeks ago about our

friends overseas. While we're on the topic, that Sky Sports has a brand new NFL channel and it's it's debuting, it's unveiling with the opening kickoff and continuing on through all sorts of content hopefully. Uh. It sounds like they might put our broadcast show that we're gonna do during the season previewing games there. They might put it on that Sky Sports NFL channel. So big, big cheers to Neil Reynolds, and I don't want to call him out, but that would be foolish not to. I mean, we

are the pre eminent NFL podcast overseas. Here's my correct deposit information. Should I be factoring a windfall into this for the Wesleyan House within The answer is no, but great visibility for the entire Westling family. Before we sign off, Does anybody have like a thirty seconds or less team out there? Because I had one more. I don't know if anybody. I'll give you a lightning, give me a lightning one, I'll give you a Chicago Bears. And I wish they would have got a different I wish they

would have got a different quarterback. But Nick Foles isn't the worst in the league, and this defense was super Bowl caliber two years ago. Um, we know they can do it on one side of the ball. I think you could see some bounce back years for guys like

Allen Robinson, Tariko and ave In Montgomery. Alright, and I'll throw out the Seattle Seahawks, a team that I as much as they gave up for Jamal Adams, I like the move because it showed a sense of urgency I think is necessary in that building where since the Malcolm Butler incident, as we'll call Super Bowl forty nine, that team has they They've won the their division once in

those five years. They've not been to the title game in the NFC a MC since, but because they have to me a top five quarterback in Russell Wilson every year, they're in contention at a certain point, and Russell Wilson's about thirty now or thirty one. You got an now take that next step and become a Super Bowl contender again. So I like the Adams move and maybe they could leverage that to to take the next step on defense.

So that's a team to keep an eye on, because I think people are so used used to the Seattle Seahawks going eleven and five and playing a playoff game or two that nobody even like is looking at them as super Bowl tenders or teams are a team that's bad, that should be criticized. They're just in the mix. It's time to take a step up, and maybe they can with Adams, who's obviously a special player on defense. Mean you look how banged up the Niners are right now

on on all over the place. Like it, it makes some sense if you can get out to a fast start in the Niners get out to a slow one. The Seahawks have had a mediocre defense for three straight years, so they're they're getting to the playoffs and winning a playoff game here and there with a mediocre defense. So you're right, there is some upside there, Dan, if the defense actually becomes an asset on top of Russell Wilson. Look, it's not easy to beat Josh McCown with his calf

ripped off his phone in January. So I credit where credit is due. And obviously, yes, that was a gutsy effort by Seattle. It goes without saying that because of the Jamal Adams trade and how personal it was for me as a Jets fan, I needed to step off formally Seahawks Corner in I say goodbye, But like Earl Thomas, my Instagram story, despite bad blood, was one of respect. They said, Hey, Seattle Seahawks, great working with you. I really had a fun time with you in twenty nineteen.

Thank you for the opportunity and best best wishes going forward. Seahawks and Seahawks Corner. Am I alone on the because Greg stepped off at last, lose track of which one of which one of you guys are trying to kiss butt on Seahawks Corner. I'm not on it, mob. They got there in the Pacific Northwest Twitter. But less is gonna get a let's gonna get a Mina Kimes d M for that comment calling the Seahawks fans a mob. I think she's the only Seahawks fan I haven't blocked

on Twitter. They're like you, Wes. They're a cantankerous you know, well read Uh, I'm not a Manchurian candidate. They are. They're nothing like me. They don't think they're on thinking up there. All right, I'm still on that corner and happy to be there. West Mondays delivering once again. Oh yeah, all right, West Monday was a hit, as it always is. We'll be back on Wednesday, of course with the fifth

Ish Annual Fantasy Extravaganza with special guest s galore. So you cannot miss that, especially if you're drafting this weekend or next week as you should, so make sure you tune in for that. And uh, that's it. Anything else, everybody, that's it. This feels like a good jumping off point. West Good luck to you this week. If everything. Thank you, We love you, buddy, thank you, love you too. I got it this time. They hadn't signed up for the Mailman.

The old Boss Rick Hollywood Kill the Extravaganza. I don't think I didn't notice that you didn't sign me up there with the names I miss you, Mailman, the old Boston Rickey, Hollywood. I'm gonna be thinking about that in the next couple of hours. Dan Green, that's that's that's that's, that's that's wait, I said myself, is that what I did? Thank you? Just did? You said, you know, appropriately, just skipped right over me, which is signed. I thought I

signed up for the old Sitizer. I think it would be a muscle memory at this point. Then it's okay.