The Around the NFL podcast. Twitter misses you Mark.
From the Chris Westling podcast studio.
It's x man, it's Around the NFL.
I'm Dan Hansis. I got Mark Sessler here, and here's the thing. Everybody unplugged for one moment. Okay, because here's Mark talking into a microphone. You don't need to live on social media. You got the real thing right here.
I have found it to be an interesting experience. I'll still go on as a like a distant observer because there's news happening in like, oh yeah, news, but what's happened to Like I know this is already happening with X me. The the algorithm of what they're feeding me now has become complete total lunacy and has nothing to do with anything that I used to like.
It's just because I would.
Like to see what you're getting served.
I will. I'll show you after the show for sure. Also joining us. You heard her there?
Hi, she didn't get introduced, came in.
Hey, I'm here. Great to see you guys. What a day the day we have in store?
Oh yes, it's we got a Connie Wolf. We got the tiniest of all boxes.
We got a Tuesday show with Colleen, not Tuesdays with Maury, It's Tuesdays with Connie sitting in the Greg chair.
Greg on a well.
Deserved vacation in the tropics of the Pacific, so he will be back next week. He's actually gonna we're gonna tag each other out. I'm gonna head out for the tropics after he returns. I was thinking, with Greg not here, how can we make the most of this? This Greg is an impossible person to replace on the show. Is football acumen and his ability to disagree with everything cannot be replaced. However, how about this the idea that is
he really on a tropical vacation. Do we know, for instance that it Delaware isn't back together?
Yeah, we don't know.
Wow, there's conspiracy theories all over the place.
And then I actually have a file when Greg brings up Delaware, because you know, I want the tapes Greg's high school band, Delaware, And it says actual in my notes cut and paste Delaware bio.
This is all I have right now.
But if you're out there, we're looking for the tapes, the demos, the release of the album.
How do you Want It Cooked was the name of the album.
I believe this was a follow up album or perhaps a single Shiny Man went to frog Town. These are Delaware. This is actual titles to Delaware material.
Was it an actual I don't know if they've produced multiple albums, but sorry anyway.
The drummer, lead singer and keyboards, Greg Rosenthal. We're not getting anything off him. Drummer Jeff Lash. That's traditional Jeff spelling lash Lash.
He was the drummer Jeff.
If you're out there, if you were from Western Massachusetts and you know a Jeff Lash, please reach out to him and have him reach out to us with any potential demos. Also, there's a guy named Andy in the band. Don't have the last name, just Andy Andy from Western mass If you're out there, we will give you a signed eight x ten glossy of Mark Sessler in Levi the jacket if you reach out to us with the tapes.
It's probably only two hundred and seventy five thousand andyes in that area. So like it's spread a wide net and get to work.
I have confidence in the subreddit. I feel like they can they can mobilize and answer this for us. Also, why hasn't there been like some type of sing off with Greg, like you have to kind of trick him into singing, and why hasn't there been a segment yet?
We have to He's sheepish about his musical past, and I've tried to get that out of him, but I do want to hear how do you want to cook their debut album?
I would love that there was There was at one point at one of the band members of someone who knew Greg, maybe it was any Maybe it was claimed to have, you know, the tapes. So they're out there, and you know, we're getting in to the age where maybe some of these people don't live, They're not on the earth anymore.
Let's just positive that. I don't know.
Wow, by the way, if anybody, we just were blown away by the Patrick Claiband SOG submissions. If anybody wants to take a crack on what Delaware might sound like, he's he said there mid nineties alternative music, the vein of like a Flaming Lips type artist, that type of underground alternative band, a little bit of a he said, not prog rock, but kind of you know, very left of center alternas. It's a little yeah, it was alt and like Greg had like a part down the middle, I.
Believe, with the marsh hair down both sides. At some part of that.
I remember there was a guy that I had a huge crush on in like fifth grade, and he had that haircut and he loved Silverchair, and I was like, yeah, well I'm gonna get into Silverchair too, just because he had he likes them.
The Australian Teens Silverchair. I remember that. Man.
I would love if the listeners submitted some songs for Greg and specifically focused on what Greg sounded like on vocals.
And We'll give you, We'll give you the again the titles of We'll choose Him as songs Okay, how do you want it cooked? And shiny Man went to Frogtown? Either of those give us a I mean, I think Greg would really appreciate starting the show this way and potentially extending this bit that he's been hoping to kill, like the pix competition for years, undoubtedly, but instead the old Zuzzar has turned into an opportunity.
Yep, that's what I does. Part.
That's what I don't doubt your your abilities to They call me Sicky Davis for a reason, you know that. Yes, all right, let's get into today's show, because we got a good one coming up a little bit later. We're going to sleuth the top ten of the NFL draft far away from the draft.
Holy god, we're.
Inside a month now from the twenty twenty four NFL Draft. In fact, Connie, I know right before you joined us you were in hardcore scramble mode prepping for this show because you were doing a.
Just did a mock draft live with Bucky Brook's latest mock, his third one that he dropped. So just analyzing that Lancer line, isn't it?
And you hosted the proceedings.
Yes, I did.
Where can people see that? Bye?
That is all Come on, It's all over the place. It's on the network today and today is Tuesday.
Today is Tuesday, March twenty six.
Yes, it's on NFL Plus as well.
There you go.
Oh yeah, just your local listings.
Can you stack these assignments?
Do you feel better beforehand or do you feel better when they are crossed off your list? I always feel better about your personnelity after.
Everything has been accomplished. It is a little bit of a sprint. I was flying back from the East Coast yesterday and I have to fly back there tomorrow. So I'm you know, I'm I'm prepared and I have a lot of information in this old brain rock.
Do you like it better on the hard thing is in front of you or behind you? I mean, I think everyone's gonna have this similar.
Of course, but I think it's a little more asterisk slash like special with Colleen because I understand when she's coming in my car the same way, like there was a fair amount of palpable tension in the room when she was in preparation mode. I was just imagine that her on her drive home is going to be like luxury for her.
Oh it's I love when it's over everything. But I my notes that I was preparing for this show while I was hosting the other show, and I know that this is not a visual medium, but my notes, look.
Well, we have a YouTube program. Can we get a tight.
Scrambled on a cocktail napkin? And this is what I'm working with. So you know, it's uh, I can't even read what any of you.
Yeah, slightly psychotic but on the back of the yeah, all right, so that check that out.
And we're gonna do some draft stuff, as I said, but we're gonna sleuth it like an old friend of ours.
And we'll get to that a little bit later.
But first we got a lot of news to get to because the NFL owners meetings went down to Orlando, and that's always a source of I don't know, intrigue, that's a little strong. It's always a source of gruel.
For the old news.
Yeah, when you haven't been sent there, which is a pattern of late, it's less intriguing.
The good old days. They used to send us there, and now I've never been.
All I do is hear about the swag. There's parties and.
The salad days. Yeah, as they say. Anyway, true back to reality. Let's hit the news and this is going.
To be inside the tent. And this is dropped picked up by Beck. Beck still going running to the right side. Beck has some room. Twenty five, thirty, thirty five, forty, He's at the fifty. He's at the forty five of Jacksonville. Beck across the third. That's what the fifteenth, ten to five, Are you kidding? Rock and Roll touchdown Houston. My goodness, oh my Beck picked up the ball. The earth started shaking in North Florida, and he.
Ran on the right side and found the lane to the end zone.
Man oh Man, Mark vandermir with the call kilt. That was Andrew Beck full back, the up back on the kickoff in Week three against the Jaguars, and impossibly he took it to the house.
And why do I play that?
Because you'll never see that again in the NFL, because everything is different now. The NFL owners approved a massive and I mean massive revamp of the kickoff on Tuesday, after three days of discussions at the league's annual meeting, they passed a proposal twenty nine to three in favor
of redoing kickoffs and essentially ending the days. And we've talked about this, We even talked about it, I think Super Bowl Sunday night at the stadium in Vegas, Like how many times you get all pumped up at the beginning of the game, touchback, touchback, touch back, all throughout the games. And so they finally decide to go with a rule that's very similar, almost identical in fact, but
not exactly the same as an XFL rule. So during the twenty twenty four season, kickers will continue to kick from the thirty five yard line, but the other ten players on the kickoff team will line up at the receiving team's forty, so everyone other than the kicker is now on the same side of the field. At least nine members of the return team will line up in a setup zone it's called between the thirty five and
thirty yard lines. Up to two returners can line up in a landing zone between the goal line and the twenty yard line, and no one other than the kicker and returners can move until the ball either hits the ground or hits a player inside the landing zone. So touchbacks will be marked at the thirty yard line. By the way, no fair catch is allowed, so that lasted
what one year. Fair catches on kickoffs and so now there's always going to be a play and that was kind of the goal figure out to make the kickoff a play again. Also, the idea here is to lower the reason why they put in a lot of the rules, Marc is to try to lower the instances of head injuries because the big running start down the field.
So they try to address it with this. Let's see if it works.
It's a huge change in the way football will look and feel, but one that I think we all agreed was kind of necessary.
It's a one year trial I think from the fan angle, it's going to be visually amazing to experience because it's completely different than anything else. I was trying to think of, like in our lifetime, like a rule change that was as steep as this and as different, and I would go back to maybe like in nineteen ninety four when the two point conversion was brought in. It's like that it's that much of a game changer, because when you
watch this, it does absolutely what you're talking about. Because with these two lineup lines of special teamers just separated by five yards, they go and they clash and then the runner is close behind them. I just wonder, like, it's if it's gonna take time for if your defensive or offensive to figure out like the tweaks in this, because it just seems like because you have to have two guys deep, if you were to take like your fastest defensive lineman and have him blow up one player
in that like lineup because you're not, they're not. It's like it's there all it's a line like you get like your fastest wide out behind him, he's gone, Like there's It's like, I just wonder if it's going to create in a wonderful way, I guess, like crazy scoring opportunities, but it's it's also going to separate kickers because the kicker has to literally put it in a twenty yard zone now unless you want to boot it out of
the end zone. But it's like you can't just power kick and assume everything is gonna be a touchback.
It's gonna be wild to watch for the first month or two.
And when the XFL did this, there were more returns, there were fewer injuries, So that's clearly what the end is shooting for in this situation. But it also revalues because we talk about players being devalued, it revalues kick returners. And it's kind of apropos in the year that Devin Hester is going into the Hall of Fame, Like, we want to see this, We want to be able to see these plays back in the game, won't. We don't want to see people getting hurt. But it makes it more exciting.
Also makes it, I would think, and you know, I didn't watch the XFL full Disclosure show, so I don't know. It feels like it's going to make it more congested and more difficult to run kickoffs back, but maybe not. Maybe there's enough of a buffer zone because they can't move the defenders until the balls reaches the player, where you could still effectively set up the blocking the way
special teams coaches do to ensure high level kickoffs. By the way, and the event a team wants to tempt an onside kick, this is notable as well, Like, for instance, Saints fans that are listening, like, arguably you know one of the most important and pivotal plays ever and say its history was the onside kick fake or the surprise on side kick I should say by Sean Payton that led to the recovery.
Do I have that right? Yeah? Yeah.
In Super Bowl forty four, you cannot surprise the team with an onside kick. So in the event of a team wants to attempt an onside kick, will have to inform officials of its intent and then they would be allowed to use the NFL's traditional formation. No surprise on side kicks are allowed, so which, by the way, I don't know if.
That it's so weird now you have to declare it. It takes all.
Well, here's the other thing, surprise.
Out because of and we've talked about on the show, like we get it like, and everyone gets it.
You're trying to make the game safer.
But because of some changes they made in the onside kick rules to protect players, it's almost impossible to recover an onside kick now. So now on top of everything else, now you've removed this surprise elm and so it makes that play that much more difficult.
It's a trade off because obviously, like with the kicker thirty five whatever yards behind is other ten special teamers on sid's kick would be absurd. That play already felt like it was kind of dead over the last couple of years because of the rule change.
I think there's still work to be done to work on that.
If this works, let's move to fixing the outside kick, cause I think that's a broken plate, right.
But I think the one thing it shows, because if you're the NFL and you're the king of all leagues, like, it shows a bit of humility to borrow from the XFL, And I think that tells you that the on side's kick, if it remains the sort of dead zone, like, they'll address that. Like I do give them credit for wanting. I will never forget being at the Super Bowl. And while it was a special moment on the opening kickoff,
like the last one we'll ever watch. That way, the stadium and Allegiant Stadium went into this hush.
It was totally quiet.
But then it just resulted in nothing, and it was like, wait a minute, and that it was Greg who after the show said the kickoff has got to go and he's in Hawaii and got.
His wish light in though it was just still a kickoff. This like the change, no, the change to the dead cud way that it was. You was saying, just get rid of it, and I was saying, like, it's football. You still you have to have to find a way to keep it in there without just turning into okay, okay, change a position, you get the ball to twenty five, Like I like it.
We'll see if it works. It'd be weird if they take it away after one year.
I tend to think, like, but that happens unless it's a total colossal failure. It's already proved also work in another league. You move forward to the humility. I don't know if i'd put that with our.
I'm just saying, I'm just saying, to pull from a it's kind of easy to pull from the XFL when it's failed fourteen times in the last twenty years, so it's like it doesn't It's not like the AFL in nineteen sixty nine where it's like you're actually looking at them like uh oh there. But to the XFL's credit for all their struggles kind of when they first came and I think two thousand and then they've rebooted and now I believe they've merged with maybe the af.
I have a lot of versions stuff.
Yeah, the NFL has not the first time that they've taken elements of what they do, some of its production and TV production that they they kind of said, oh, that's good, we'll take that.
But now we have a rule that they've taken.
As well, So you could argue, yes, it's good to have competitors quote unquote or not a total monopoly on on the sport.
So then you can learn it's.
Like a best kitchen. Yes, we're going to see how it works over here. Watch you go through it and figure out the data, and then maybe we'll give.
It a whirl.
And one last thing before we move on to the other rule changes. Chris used to say this all the time.
Wes.
The NFL has always been pretty good about messing with the product to try to find the best version, which not all leagues do.
This another example, like the.
NFL takes pretty big swings in messing with the product, and that's I think that's all healthy. On Monday, owners
approved three other rule changes. This one's got me a little bit more like, uh oh, we'll see, because for all the good, sometimes meddling and messing with rules just leads to a bigger mess, like when they again the Saints seemed to be the center of everything after they got robbed of that trip to the Super Bowl on the missed PI call against the Rams and THENFC Title game, they put in pass interference as a reviewable play and then that quickly went sideways and they got rid of
it after one year. Now they have they're prohibiting the uh swivel hip tackle technique. So I just want you to I don't want you guys, people to dwell on it too much, Colleen.
I want you to put yourself like as the Eagles.
Fan had on Like it's third and seven and it's a huge point in the game, and your linebacker makes a great open field tackle to get off the field and then out comes the laundry and the officials confer, and it's very borderline and it's moving very fast, and the tackle happens. Suddenly they decide that it was a swivel hip drop tackle and not a standard hip drop tackle or just a a tackle, and all of a sudden,
it's fifteen yards in a first down. Yeah, I'm a little worried about trying to legislate what kind of tackle was that. Now some are obvious, and I think that's what they're trying to enforce here, But I'm just worried about it.
I'm just saying it out loud now.
In March, am I in the fourth quarter of the Super Bowl in the scenario are the Eagles playing the Chiefs. In this scenario a lot of gray area. The players and the former players absolutely hate it. Just doing GMFB last week and talking to Jason mccordy, and the last time I was in there, it was Kyle van Ney and Cam Jordan and Jason mccorty, and everyone was like, so, this is how you're taught to tackle. You're taught to wrap up. It's a fundamental And yeah, I can see that.
The data says that it leads to more injuries. But now you're asking defensive players to relearn how they play
the game, which they're going to have to do. But it's also when you think about the rookies that are coming into the league and these rookies, who a lot of them are not going to be paid a lot of money, and they're also trying to get up to speed with the speed of the NFL and now learn how to tackle completely differently, and the coaches how much time they're going to have to spend in training camp looking at tape trying to figure out how how to do this because it's also like a gravity thing with
the way with your body weight in the tackle, so you have to change everything that you're doing. And I think that that's going to be hard to officiate because of all of the gray area.
And I think, uh, you know, that's tough too on everyone because there isn't open tackling in camp and in practice in generally there there would have been a long time ago. Jeff Miller, the VP of Safety, noted that there were two hundred and thirty of these this version of the hip drop tackle, the swivel that's that's illegal. That happened last season in fifteen and it resulted in fifteen players missing time. The Mark Andrew Mark Andrews was lost because of this.
But there was.
Argument initially that that wasn't even exactly what they're talking about, that particular hip drop. Now they say it is that it's part of the list that would not would have been flagged. I think what it probably will will turn out to be because I think it's fans are going to it's a lightning rod if it. If it does, I mean in the fourth quarter to a team finds changed changed the way players tackled again.
But a lot of this started.
It was interesting to hear that, like when the Legion of Boom rose up, that they were teaching those players to in some cases tackle this way to avoid the helmet to helmet. So now this is being taken away, and I couldn't agree more with just from a physics angle, if you're one of these defensive guys, how do you what.
Do you do?
Other changes? I like this one, This one's makes too much sense. This one of those ones that never made sense to me, that was even the way it was. Now there's a new rule that allows teams to receive a third challenge after one successful challenge. Previously, the team had to be successful on both challenges to receive a third. This proposal was submitted by the lines Good job, Detroit makes all the sense in the world.
You don't just.
Because if the officials got something wrong and you corrected them. You shouldn't have to go one hundred percent on your challenges to get that challenge back. You should never lose a challenge if you want a challenge, all right, if there is oh another.
In other news, da da da da, the.
Teams voted down the fourth and twenty on side kick altern So maybe try that rowelve years ago. Good news, Colleen, but we'll see in a post Jason Kelcey world. No ban on the tush push not going anywhere, and it's all right, we'll see. It'll be interesting to see if the Eagles are still using it this year. Yeah, and this.
One also made sense.
I know Greg was honked about this, although I don't think they went far far enough. The trade deadline is being moved to the Tuesday after week nine. That's one week different. So it's usually been right around Halloween, which is week eight. Now it's the week after the Tuesday after. You know, the Monday Night Football of week nine. I'd say pushed even to ten or even eleven.
I could see that even like next offseason if it seems to benefit everyone, all right, that should have happened like in the nineteen eighties.
Yeah, I kind of can't believe that that it took this long.
Let's take a quick break here and then get into more news. All right, moving on, we'll head back to the owners meetings in a bit. But first, some news that went down. This was a big name that had been hanging out there, Lugarious Need, Super Bowl winning cornerback of the Chiefs. He had been tagged by the Chiefs
but had been given permission to seek a trade. He found a trade sent to the Tennessee Titans, who then quickly agreed to terms with Snead on a four year, seventy six point four million dollar deal includes fifty five million guaranteed twenty million signing bonus. That from rap sheet. Obviously, that was a contract that tells you that Sneed is viewed as an up end cornerback and certainly the Tennessee Titans are counting on him to be that.
Connie. The deal.
The trade, by the way, was Kansas City accepting a twenty twenty five third round pick and a swap of seventh round selections. I wasn't blown away by the return, but I'm always I always seem to be often on what players can fetch in a contract in a trade so they get a Day two pick back. The idea that they could or my original thought that they can maybe pair their top pick this year with the sneak Hall to move higher up the board. Maybe it still works,
but it's something. It's just not a ton for a guy that was a big time player for them.
It's not Kansas City. They've been planning though for this loss for two years now, when they took Trent McDuffie in the first round. They've selected a couple other quarterbacks before that twenty twenty two draft was finished. But it's like I think, for the Titans, this is great for them. They've been trying to fix that secondary for so many years.
Their pass defense hasn't finished in the top half of the league since twenty eighteen, and over the last four years they've used four Day one or Day two picks on cornerbacks alone. Look at Christian Fulton, Caleb Farley. I could keep going but Lajerious Sneid is an absolute upgrade for them. They also added Chadobi a Woozia during the first wave of free agency, so they have now a nice little group with Sneid, Ouzier and Roger McCreary in
the slot, plus their DC Denard Wilson. He was a DBI, So you know that the emphasis is going to be on that secondary and hopefully after all of these years in purgatory, they'll be able to make some improvements.
Yeah, I think you said it.
I mean it's I would have thought a couple of weeks back that it would have been a second, not a third. But if you're the Chiefs, you didn't want this salary and you were ready to move on, and so it's acceptable and I kind of trust the Chiefs to make something to have it. But I don't know for this franchise and trade thing. Like the terms, this was a surprising term to me. I love it for Tennessee.
Yeah, and the Titans, who have been very active of this offseason, but maybe haven't gotten the best grades overall. This one, I can't quibble with this. They've now addressed another key point part of their team by adding a high end cornerback. So they're improving and we'll see what happens next, maybe what we need to do, because this happens to us all the time, and we're not alone.
We always think a player is gonna fetch more. Let's just start, let's get ahead of it now, and just it's attacked.
So whatever you think it's going to be, just drop it down around right.
I think we could have we could have say that not on the air, so that people start to just think that innately we've grown that way.
But I'm with you one hundred percent. I'm not atit added post. Yeah, I always feel that.
Way whenever we do. You're the GM and we're trying to figure out trade values. I'm so bad at that. I wasn't good at math, I'm not great at the finances. And then the resource swapping is sort of in that same vein sure. So yeah, I mean maybe if there was like a class on that, it'd be cool.
Moving forward, Moving forward, We're going to have this nailed. Let's head back to news out of the owners meetings, where Steelers head coach Mike Tomlin said Russell Wilson has quote pole position to open the years the team's starting quarterback. This is the same team that also now has of course Justin Fields, who also we kind of miscalibrated the old trade market.
Up, No we didn't.
So here we go, yeah, edit that out and post as well. Here is Mike Tomlin on the QB Sich Sich.
The term that I've used is Russell has pole position. And why do I use that term because during this time where we are not formally working, man, I just think it's beneficial his experience International Football League, his process that's been honed and perfected. Talking about over a twelve month calendar is not only good for him, it's good for teams. It's good for receivers, tight ends, running backs, etc. All the things that people are that are really committed
to winning do this time of year. Russell has those resources, man that structure, and so that's why I say he has pole position.
Man.
It just creates a synergy that I think is good for this time of year when it's time to compete. We get in training camp like settings and going to preseason stadiums and so forth. Obviously Just will be given an opportunity to show his.
Capabilities preseason stadiums.
Wow, all right, I mean, I think will you parse that, but it's yeah, they want Wilson to be the quarterback, and they like that they have someone to be there if Wilson is washed.
Also, if Justin Fields plays fifty one percent of the snaps, that conditional sixth round pick turns into a fourth round pick. So of course Russell Wilson is going to start the season.
Right, Yeah.
I mean, and Mike Tomlin hasn't exactly been like the Washington Post with his quarterback reports and updates to what do you Yeah, it's.
Like not not a total wappo situation.
No, so I think like this is this is true until it's not true, which is probably as soon as Justin Field starts doing special things.
All right.
Speaking of Mike Tomlin, he was in conversation at I don't know where it was. I think it was the owner's meetings, makes sense. It was with John Lynch. Oh no, that might have happened before. Okay, Uh, maybe it was a pro day. You know these days, a lot of things going on, a lot of gray area, a lot of gray eye, a lot of who's what's and what has anyway? Uh, and Tomin's like, hey man, what's going on with.
The without you and uh, what's his sitch? That's his sitch.
Let's wa poo post saying on that anyway, John Lynch came out of the owners meeting.
He said, no, Brandon and Yuke's not available in to trade.
In fact, uh, you know, my my coach Shanny, he wants him to stay.
We're just using all abbreviations and nicknames. I love the show.
Nothing's going on there. We're actively talking with Brandon trying to figure something out. And you know I always talked we have a good history of working with the guys. We want to get done, to get something done, and it takes two sides. So can we do that? We'll see.
Hmm.
There's a number of different directions you know that it could go. But appreciate that guy is a player and want them to be a part of the Niners. So we're going to work towards.
Making that reality. My radar is going off a little bit, really a little bit, like.
I'm not now could by the end of his podcast, could there be a newser that's out that's like brand UK is now the top five highest paid wide receive in the league. Certainly possible, But I think there's just enough wiggle room in the way he was talking there
that the Niners are always a forward thinking team. Might still be open to moving Ayuk at the right prices if it means them being able to reboot and get younger and cheaper at that position rather than have Debo and Ayuk on the books in addition to all the other talented, expensive players they have.
I mean, I think anything is possible with anything any of these people are saying in March, like anything is still out there as a possibility of someone.
That's our job, Mark Sessler.
But I don't so my cod My response is that I don't think that this is a specific there's some background suspicion here. I think I want to keep them. You're the Niners, like your super Bowl window is wide open. Like I'd say he was more important than Deebo Samuel for large chunks of last year. Became a true star and they waited a long time for that. So now you move on and hope that someone else you fill in the blank with, Like if.
You drafted Brandon, you drafted Deebo Samuel, Right, they Yeah, that's the only thing I'm just I'm thinking of from their perspective in a very rich wide receiver draft, if they would ever get a little.
Here's the thing that they did say they wanted to re sign Deebo Samuel, and they did, and even with Jimmy g as messy as that got, they said, we'd like to make this work, and they did until it was completely over and they found another quarterback.
But they haven't.
If I think of Deebo went somewhere else, or story Guy A B or Seed, and then I would believe them a little less. I don't believe like Shanahan on half the stuff he says, but I think they Shanahan wants to keep his arguably best wide receiver.
Yeah.
Of course John Lynch is going to say that he's not available until he is, but I think that he's going to want to keep him around. I've been in this social media rabbit hole though. That Brandon Ayuk. He was really I think he was on a Twitter break for a little while and then he got back in. He dipped his toes in the water, and now all of a sudden, I'm looking at his ig store worries and if you guys saw it, it's just emojis where there's a cash sign someone talking, well.
Looks we got to retire that one a cow. I think it's I.
Think it sounds to retire Ayuk is on fire. It kind of is.
You're not into it.
It kind of just it had its Bothers made that one. I don't know why.
What if he was a jet and that was part of the Jets situation, because.
Everything would be different, right, it's always different.
We love it and you're so shallow all your criticism easily diffused by just turning him into a jet. No, we could do better than Ayuk. We could do better for him. Let's find a new Ayuke drop how about that?
Yeah, so I'll redd it. But listen, I have a delaware submissions and uh Ayuk submissions.
Giving him a little too much homework made. I don't know.
I feel like they'll still deliver.
I hope. I hope it gets traded. That would be exciting.
It'll be interested to see that that that move and the team that that brings him in.
That would be cool.
All right, Well, well, so what do you think he would net in the trade now that we're in this new world, In the new world, like a low fourth it would be I.
Would say he would he would bring back I would think it would be like a first round, but that's probably I would say bring back a third round pick third.
I mean that is like that is with.
The tax, with the internal secret we figured out, I would think easily a sex So I shouldn't argue it. I should say that sounds wised in unless it's first round pick we think, and then it's a second round pick tax.
Maybe that's what it is.
I think second, I would say second, I guess.
We might find out. This would be the first big test of this idea.
If it happens.
Brave New World, all right.
Let's see, by the way, thanks to Tracy Sandler on Instagram for that. In other news, Robert Kraft, Oh, by the way, let me frame it this way. I think I know who's the next figure to be found or not found, because they're buried under the mass Pike.
There's a couple of them. Matthew Hamachik.
He was the director of the ten part documentary series The Dynasty on Apple TV Plus.
You heard like.
Andrew Ciliano flowed it on the Around the AFC in forty eight minutes that he was surprised by how pointed it was at times, and what seemed to be criticism of Bill Belichick, who of course is no longer with the team, that became the only thing people really were talking about about this documentary is like, Wow, that was
a little slanted pro ownership or anti Bill. Robert Kraft wants you to know that that was not his intention, and he feels like other Patriots that were involved with the project, perhaps duped by the nature of the doc short for documentary.
Felt bad that there was so much emphasis on the more controversial and let's say challenging situations over the last twenty years. I wish they focus more on our Super Bowl wins, twenty one game win streak. You know, I felt bad. There were players who gave hours and hours of interviews and they felt only the negativity.
So oh.
Little disappointed that there wasn't more of a real positive approach. Oh special man, man.
I think Robin is getting in that Jerry Jones flow where if you're transcribing a Jerry Jones quote, no need to stop the recorder, no point, just beautiful wight and type.
Truly, how about this, don't speak on camera if you don't want it to be absolutely legally and rightfully used in a documentary. Documentary is not an in house hype film. It is meant to tell you a story, the good and the bad. And I kind of find this like a billionaire is unhappy with result of something. Well, you can't have your way all the time.
Devin mccordy and Rodney Harrison both came out saying that they had done hours and hours and hours of interviews for this documentary, this docuseries, and the only things that were used were the negative things that they said. So yeah, that's how they felt.
A little different.
I get that, But like I guess part of it is like why are we talking about it because it was Newsy, Like if it was a bunch of people glowing over the twenty one game win streak and the Super Bowls, like we we all live that we've been there. I mean, I feel for McCardy if like you have, if you've given all this time.
I get a little frustration. But it's like, filmmaker, want to sign up for do it this is? And I don't know. I haven't, I don't want to. I don't want to.
I'm uneducated on the topic, so I don't know. So is this was NFL Films. Is this an NFL Films.
Project at all, because if it's not, I don't know.
Yeah they so if this was an outside project and new paper terms, if it bleeds, it leads.
And that's all I'm saying is like I did see why they were attracted to that part of it.
And we can act like if we're Robert Kraft, we could act disappointed that there was too much focus on the the the the last three or four years and how Bill Belichick and Craft went from the most powerful duo in football to estranged and separated. But that's an important like whether he I know it's called the dynasty, but if you're telling the story, you tell the story of how the dynasty ended it too and then be kind of becoming no longer on the same page.
That's a big part of the story. Like so I don't know, I didn't want to.
I've seen one episode and I actually really liked it, so.
Like, I don't. I That's why I don't want to get too deep into it personally. But you kind of you got to expect people to focus on things like that because I mean the fact that and I've been hammering on this for for weeks and weeks on the show. The fact that Bill Belichick couldn't get a job, like he's just kind of a figure of fascination at this point. Like what happened from is it just because he's older, or is like what happened with Belichick within the ranks of the NFL to be in this place?
Now?
Where did you watch the game?
Right?
And I think like news should be something that you don't know versus something that we all know very well, and it should be something that probably is unpleasant to many people.
All right, let's see, let's see, let's see the Lions. This was a weird story. Cam Sutton, cornerback of the Lions. He has been released from the team after he was involved with some legal trouble.
There was a period of time.
First of all was domestic battery by strangulation, that's the allegation. There was a period of time and this happened like you know, going into the weekend and stuff where no one seemed to know where he was. And then like the team president of the Lions, Rod Wood, admitted Monday that the day before the Lions released him that he was inside the team's facility and so you know, I don't know how all that marries up exactly with the
quite wondering where he was. But that's why it's a It doesn't look great for the Lions, but they've released him and he's gone. He joined the Lines as an unrestricted free agent last summer after spending his first six seasons in the NFL with the Steelers, And we touched on this around the NFC Connie that the back end of their defense is a target for improvement and now setting out of the picture, that becomes even more of a glaring need for them.
Yeah, now that's their heat. Their hand is forced when the draft comes around, and how they're going to kind of play this and just looking at some of the mock drafts that are out there right now, not to because I don't really want to focus too much on Cam Sutton, like I don't know, I don't know what the details are, but they don't sound good whatsoever. So for the Lions, the fact that they're picking as high as they are, we haven't seen that in years and years.
They have the twenty ninth pick in the upcoming draft, and for a lot of them like yeah, they they're probably gonna end up taking a corner. Maybe it's kool aid McKinstry, maybe they take an edge, but I think for them it would be really prudent to beef up that secondary now that they lose Cam Sutton.
And finally in the news, we're gonna do a little speed round. But last item here, they did it.
What happened?
The NFL did it? What they do.
I knew they were gonna do it, and they've done it. The NFL has defeated Days. NFL won Days zero game over. You thought that as big as a ratings hit the NFL on Christmas was after they came for the NBA's throat and stumped it, that they would say, well, we got to wait a few years until it syncs up with the calendar, because obviously can't play a football game on Wednesday, can't play an NFL game in the middle of the.
Right course, be contreur.
It will continue in twenty twenty four with two matchups on the schedule, despite the holiday falling on a Wednesday. It was announced matchups for the games, which will include teams that played on the previous Saturday to account for their recovery window, have yet to be determined. I am sure those teams are going to be thrilled to learn they have playing on a Saturday on a short week and then have a turnaround.
Enjoy your Christmas. You got a game on Wednesday.
No, anyway, this is all of obviously, because the three games played on Christmas Day twenty twenty three did massive ratings. In fact, ESPN's Ravens Niners telecast that Gnarley Niners blowout had over twenty seven million viewers, making it the second high second most watched Monday night football game since nineteen ninety six, almost thirty years when TV was a totally different thing.
Good job yours.
So there it is. NFL one Day's zero got them.
It's well, it's saying so predictable.
Here's what the scheduling tick that concerns me, because you know, you get into late December and these four teams that might have looked like we're gonna combine them for incredible matchups back in April, like you know, the three of them could be roadkilled by then with like the third quarterback plane and we have to see them in Island
games two weeks in a row. But beyond that, I think we made the prediction that they were going to find a way to have games on like May Day, and I think we're only a couple of weeks from that happening for weeks years, please.
Man, most every day of the week. Why not. It was like during the pandemic, we did it so and what great times they were. Tuesday night football, Wednesday night football. Let's just keep going.
But everyone digs this except people working football, and so most people were probably shut up.
I will say like this past year, on Christmas Day, I wasn't working because I worked Christmas Eve, and I went to a friend's house who big Niners fans, the whole family, and we sat at this big, long table and they had a projector on the wall and the hearth and every and it was so it felt right like it was nice to sit around and watch the Niners lose with Niners face.
All right, eightclck delights kind of you cunny, Yeah, I hope you're invited back.
Saints tackle Ryan Ramcheck, his knee issue, could miss the entire twenty twenty four season. The in season hard knocks could feature four teams from the same division.
Huh okay, you lov uh yeah.
Further for Ramcheck, I mean, and the Saints they have so many needs, they have so many holes on that roster, and now they're probably going to have to draft a tackle right away because of Ramcheck.
Damian Harris, the running back veteran running back retires. He's only twenty seven, I believe, and he had some really nice years with the Pats, went to the Bills, suffered a pretty serious injury.
Now he steps away from the game.
The Browns are looking to extend their GM and head coach Barry and Stefanski and maybe be building a dome.
Mark what's going on there?
Well, they absolutely want to either take their current stadium and make massive renovations to it. But the Haslams talked about a dome which had been floated in the past.
Well, the Bills are doing it right.
I don't as a you know, a longtime Brown's follower, I'd like them to play in the mud and the snow.
What else advantage do they have?
Mike McDaniel, Miami has made it off or to Odell Beckham, Woody Johnson. If we don't trade Zach, we're going to keep them. They're backpedaling on that one. They're eyeing Ja Davian Clowney and the Bears and Texans will play the Hall of Fame game starting off the season.
Kanye, I just saw.
The Odell Beckham junior Kim Kardashian broke up.
So.
I didn't know they I didn't know either. I feel like what I should What is up with that Kim Kardashian.
She's always in the news like she'd want to go to Miami every ant with someone paining her way, although.
She's probably way richer than him.
I think so, Yeah, ten times, let's take a break and we'll do some investigating.
Welcome back.
Sometimes getting to the bottom of a mystery requires you to.
Get your hands dirty, work in the shadows, turnover rocks. But we're never meant to be turned over, and that's why it's time to go full Signetti on the top ten of the NFL draft.
Mark. You asked, what is full Signetti mean?
I mean, I can only imagine he's been on some tough cases in the past. He's unearthed some problematic human scenarios. This one seems broadreaching.
I've been wondering where he's been Frank Signetti.
I did a little investigating of old Frank Frank the tank Signetti. How long we've been mentioning this man in the show a decade, the offensive coordinator of the then.
Saint Louis Rams.
In two thousand and fifteen, he was the OC and then bounced around in different position rooms for the Giants Packers Boston College. He recently got let go by Pitt in the colleging. So he's you know, he's been on a lot of different investigations.
It's a hard scrabble detective.
We always thought that Frank Signetti private eye, So why don't we get our full Signetti on and figure out this draft the top of it.
Anyway, I would love that, you know, Signetti, he's been working a lot of cases, a lot of cold cases, and I mean the nights, the weekends, the hours that he spends and his dedication to his craft is just I haven't seen anything like it. So whenever I have an issue, a question, I need a little PI work, I always go straight to the source. I go right to Signetti.
I'd say he's pretty teflon too, and he's he's resilient because I'm looking at the most recent headline about him that I can find. Yeah, what went wrong in the Frank Signetti junior era at pitt so's he's got to lead a double life.
He's got to be.
Willing for these things to fail because his time becomes too absorbed in these cases.
They pull him in and they're asking questions in Western Pa. But guess what. Frank just slips into the shadows and he's gone, who's that guy?
The trench coat gone, never saw him, and the fedora gone.
All right, let's get into it. So we're gonna get our signetti on here. We're gonna and what does that mean? Because it seems pretty nebulos? What does it mean? What does it mean? We each split We split up the top ten of this draft because we can go one through thirty two, but you can go anywhere for that. Everyone knows those first ten picks, and then just in addition to just being the most high profile picks of a draft, they kind of set the tone for the
rest of the draft board. So we each split it up and based on everything that's out there, all the reporting, anybody you've talked to, any again, rocks that were turned over, any meetings and diners where you know the thing you do. One guy sits in the booth one way and the other guys sitting in the other booth and they either slide a bag across the floor and the other guy leaves, or they just have full on conversations with the menus in front of them like.
Stuff like that. Yeah, that's stuff we do. I have a skill set, Yeah, to learn.
That's where you meet big time parking garage exactly, always not well lit.
At all, subterranean level, gotta go all the way down.
And you know, cigarette smoking continues to be on the decline, but you have to sometimes pick up the old nicotine stick.
You need it.
Pack and darts. Gotta pack and darts.
So let's get to it.
I'll get it going with this investigation doesn't need a signetti. Let's be honest. This number one overall pick Watergate scenario. Everyone knows that the Bears are going to take Caleb Williams with the number one overall pick, and I should just so we're not going to dwell on this because we've got the Bears coming up later and I'll do a little deep dive on that, which is certainly more intriguing. But I do think it's just notable that and some teams are like this in these type of.
Drafts where we all know who's going number one.
But in many instances teams are still needlessly cloak and dagger about it.
Sure that's not the Bears.
They they're talking openly about Williams, you know, going to his pro day and and and speaking on him, and you know, not even trying to be cute about the Justin Fields thing. They're like once they granted they didn't maybe get the most value they could with Fields, but they made it a point to clear the path for this rookie to come in and be the guy with no distractions and of course build up a real nice infrastructure around him. So Caleb Williams of USC will be
the first pick. And I don't really maybe I failed it in my Signetti tasked to do any more diving in this one. But sometimes you got to know when to stop turning over rocks and just be like it's staring right at you.
Don't want to get too cute. But maybe maybe others might not be able to see what you've seen. But Frank Signetti suss this out with no issues, and there's not a lot good job around it.
Yeah, Signetti's time is precious. If he knows the answer, He's moving on to the next case.
Colleen, does he know the answer?
I like now that we've had a subtle shift in the seg and now we are Frank Signetti and I like this. Okay, So Frank tell us about the Washington Commanders at number two.
What are you hearing? What have you learned?
Well, what I've done here is I put a tail on this Peters guy. Adam Peters mark the new GM his nineteen eighty nine black Lincoln Continental with the maroon crush velvet interior, moonroof eight track player. It was on my radar immediately. I knew that something was up. Where was he going in this car, where was he parking? What was he using it for? And he was using it to check out these quarterbacks because there's no doubt in my mind that the Commanders will be taking a quarterback.
The question is which one Caleb Farley going to be off the board? That's fine, But this draft, it starts at too with Adam Peters, and he's got to get this right. New organization, new owner, new times, new quarterbacks got to come through. And when they got rid of Sam Howell, I felt like that was a very interesting shift because most mock draft out there have the commanders
taking Jaden Daniels. Most people right now talking about the commanders and surrounding the commander's organization seemed pretty pretty steady on Jadeen Daniels, the Heisman winner. That's the most popular pick, and it would go well with their offensive coordinator, their new one there, Cliff Kingsbury, because it's the same type
of quarterback that he had in Arizona with Kyler Murray. However, the pell Raiser, I wouldn't normally out my sources like this, but pel Raiser came right out and said it himself. So I'll let you guys know what he said. And he said that of all of the decision makers he was talking to at the owners meetings, they think that Washington will go JJ.
McCarthy So, oh that would shake it up.
Okay, is this legitimate? Is it a smoke screen? It is a classic smoke screen season right now. So you got to watch your back. You don't know who's giving you bad information, who's an actual narc I mean, you have to really wait what you're hearing and triple source check everything every time. But in this line of work sometimes you don't have that luxury. So when the commanders
sent Sam Howell to Seattle. That made me think and made me believe that they will be drafting Drake May because Drake May and Sam Howell were best friends, former UNC teammates. Interesting that was one of May's best friends, his mentor, they obviously played together. So it felt real spicy when the commanders, who for all of these years stood by their man Sam Howell, and then right before the draft send him back into Seattle. Got to get yas that's rich.
That's a rich bit of evidence right there, that Jeremiah kat Yeah, he's.
I got some of him, I got some stuff on him.
Going to be trusted, I don't know. On the outside, he appears to be of high care.
Squeak.
Yeah, they call him the wholesome assassin. He's got Drake May going there as well. And if that is indeed what happens, and it is Caleb Williams and Drake May one two that takes us to the New England Patriots.
And I'm hit to this.
Mark Sessler cap He's all over this.
This was a fortress for many many years in England. And you know, Bill Belichick was a person that allowed no other sources in the building because he essentially played all the roles himself and anyone that did investigate too far into going bye bye yep, were you an innocent little ball boy?
Yeah, they even have this is a true story at Patriots headquarters. They have a backo that has the Pat's logo on it that they used to break ground and bury people.
Openly because that was a again, it was a fortress, and like.
You know, the States were in their back pocket. There was there's I mean to different era.
They're bought off all theses.
That directed that documentary will be another test case of the might of the Patriot way.
Signettian friends see something different right now though what they say. I see that the walls of the forgers have willingly and openly come down to some degree, and what would have been a monumental investigation for me looks at it looks to me just to be a situation with multiple unknown final solutions. But I'm going to guide you to what I think will happen here. Take us DRAWD Mayo has been we don't need a triple source when d
Mayo is telling you things himself. And I think here's the difference between DRAWD Mayo and eighty eight.
Percent of the coaches out there.
He's openly said, I don't know how good of a he said, I don't know how good of a head coach you'll be.
I don't know if my general manager can do it. We don't know yet.
And he said basically, look, I we are still a team that needs so many things. They need offensive tackle, wide receiver, quarterback, running back, defense. So priority is quarterback to get one. But he has talked highly about Jacoby Brissett. And I think this is a team because they need so much and he's asked for patients that they want to create the environment where they can grow with maybe
multiple draft picks. And I think that because of what happens at number two, again, the future is somewhat of an unknown element.
A beautiful mystery. Aaron Rodgers would absolutely.
I think that trading down.
Might be their preference because I think then the Patriots they have Jacoby Brissett, can get you through this season and you could acquire multiple draft picks and start to rebuild a team that lacks weapons all over the place. And I think he's very open to that. This is not a one person operation. I'm leaning in that direction right now overtaking the third quarterback in the draft that they may not be in love with.
All right, So and your study of the reporting around the team indicates at willingness to do that. Now my question that I'd have for Signetti and his associates the Patriots have the stomach to potentially pass on an instant game changer at three when we know, ay, moving back, however far you move back, gives you less of a chance of addressing that position effectively.
And b we already know there's not a lot of.
Hype around the Cats at the quarterback position next year, so this they It's hard for me to imagine that the Pats are going to look this opportunity in the eye and say we're gonna build the roster in a different way.
I think they're going to take a swing here. I really feel that.
So I think it's not it's a possibility, But I do think this that they just parted ways with a very high, highly drafted quarterback, and I believe they want to create a better environment for who they bring in. And I'm not worried about next year's draft class, and I don't think they are yet. If it was anyone who would be Jade and Daniels, but you've got to see who falls them. I don't think it can be the just the third guy they like off the board.
Unless it's JJ McCarthy and they go ahead.
With that would fit quarterback. I don't think he's going to be there, I agree with I think he may go number two.
Actually that factor.
Didn't and then see the Patriots then passing on the presume number two pick, that would be a whole ton of guts and it would leave them wide open for second guessing. I'll just say this. You mentioned they took a big swing on mac Jones. That was you know, it was a first round pick, but it's a fifteenth overall pick. So now they're living up in the in the penthouse of the draft at number three. And when's the last time the Patriots have been up there with
a chance to take a quarterback. We'll see, we'll see. I'm not refuting anything Signetti and his people.
I would say, unlike the Chicago report and maybe even the Washington that the Patriots are the first like they could go A or B and we need more time in this investigation to some degree, which.
Takes us to the Cardinals. What are they saying six.
The Cardinals control the entire draft in my opinion, because we get it like we're running out of quarterbacks at number four and the Cardinals. I was looking this up and mentioned this before the show, and this is what creates the conundrum in our investigation. They need a wide receiver, they need an edge rusher, they need a cornerback. They need defensive line, they need offensive tackles. They need interior
offensive line. That's your entire offensive line. They need linebackers, running backs, quarterbacks, a quarterback, tight end, safety, punter, kicker, and long snapper.
I agree with everything you just said, except for quarterback.
That's well, take a backup quarterback, but that was rucially, that's deep down the list.
But crucially, SIGs, that's deep down.
They don't need a quarterback, which is what I think what you're getting at here.
They don't need a quarterback. But look at their wide receiver room right now. Michael Wilson, good number two developmental guy, maybe two point three, Greg dertsch Zach Pascal. You have Marvin Harrison Junior sitting there, and I think what Cardinals fans want for Kyler Murray and what they want for their team after that, you know, unlike not only like others. They passed on Adrian Peterson back on the day, they
passed on Terrell Suggs back in the day. These are like arrows that stick in Cardinals psyche going way back. And so now the bloodline of Marvin Harrison is dropping to you at number four, presumably. And yet I my investigation tells me that GM monteasen Fort, just like last year, is very willing for a team with all those needs yes to trade down. And this is where I think the trade down happens. And this is where I believe
that the Denver Broncos. It was Sean Payton who called monte ausen Fort one of the luckiest guys around and realistically saying that this is where someone.
You stepping on your mock draft, Mark, be careful here stepping on my own mock draft.
Yeah, I think this is that's Frank Signetti.
I think they are.
I think this because this is where if it does and I believe I think Trey activity is going to be wild in the first five picks.
I think the Patriots could be doing it.
But if the Broncos, for instance, can get a better offer from the Cardinals and don't believe the Patriots would take their quarterback. But that's danger zone. I think the Cardinals are trading the pick down, okay, And there's a number of people, the Vikings, the Broncos that could trade up. I really think the Vikings are love it here.
I love where you're coming from, Connie or Frank new what Frank three point zero makes so.
Much sense because that's the point I was trying to make was that if they were a team that needed a quarterback and they're in the top five, take a swing at a quarterback or even move up to get a quarterback you want. But they have this ability to build the team with high level picks and trading out of that spot to accumulate make they make so much sense.
And getting the best wide receiver on the on the board. Also, you couldn't kill them for it, but they could still get a big time wide receiver in addition to multiple extra first picks, including potential first round picks.
But you could kill them for drafting a wide receiver in that spot because this draft is so stacked, so deep with wide receiver point into it. So with all of those needs that they have, trade down you're still going to get an incredible wide receiver and some other amazing blue chip players unless.
They see that wide receiver and so we're all like in lockstep that it feels like an offensive skilled player here.
They're so in love with him. They see them as a Hall of Fame talent.
If they see like another Larry Fitzgerald on the board, in their opinion, maybe how can you kill them if they if they're that strong and that feeling it they're again, because that could change that whole organization and give Kyler a reboot. Interesting yep, Alien and Signetti here we go. Okay, another interesting team. I'd love to know what you what you've seen, what you've heard, who you're talking to?
Back to back diner stuff. Los Angeles Chargers.
So many diners. I've been to so many diners, so many years. Actually investigating this team, it seems like they always have a nose for trouble. They're always getting themselves into these situations and following them over the years. It's like they can't get out of their own way. So
this time, though, it feels different. It feels like they got to get this draft right with Jim Harball there now because he might have Joe Horretz sleeping with the fishes if this does not pan out correctly, if this first round pick, which I mean that is the most crucial, crucial one, and I feel like there's been plenty of clues as far as what they might do, but a real breakthrough at the owner's meetings when Jim Harball was talking about that fifth pick and how excited he was
to have it, and he said, hey, if four quarterbacks don't go in a row, he said, you know, maybe maybe there's still another quarterback where we are when the fifth pick comes around, somebody wants to and then stopped himself. So again, that'd be like having the number one pick for us. But seems like he wants to trade down, and if he does, plenty of options here. You can
acquire picks from a quarterback desperate team. You can get a wide receiver, because look at their current wide receiver group, I mean, Quinton Johnson, Josh Palmer, Darius Davis Faoco. This is not Keenan Allen and Mike Williams anymore. They're gone.
They stripped the entire cupboard.
That's it. Yeah, So maybe they do end up getting a Marvin Harrison Junior, if the Cardinals opt to trade out of that spot. I mean, Harball knows him well from coaching at Michigan, having to face Ohio State so many times, and what Marvin Harrison did to him and his teams at Michigan wasn't good. But also, maybe he
goes Joe Alt. Maybe he gets the best offensive tackle out there, gives someone that can protect Justin Herbert after all of the injuries that we've seen from Herbert over the years, plus the run game that Jim Harball is absolutely in love with. Maybe he goes with someone up front. But I could also see them grabbing a tight end this high because Rock Bowers one of the most talented ever. And in the AFC West where the Chargers are and they're constantly playing the Chiefs and looking at a guy
like Travis Kelce. You have George Kittle out there who played in the Super Bowl as well. Tight Ends are different now and this guy can catch, he can run, block, he can do it all. He's a good route runner as well. So Jim Harball loves a good tight end. And that's one right there.
Okay, interesting, And this is the team with serious history at the tight end position Kellen Winslow senior Tonio Gates. That would be a Stunn this one to me. Signetti really screams to me, and bad coffee and run down the.
Wrong there's no cream, there's no sugar.
Screams to me.
Alt The tackle that aligns with what Harbor is looking to do. Is anything you're reading seeing anywhere about JJ McCarthy the quarterback.
No Harb, No Harball has Justin Herbert.
I know, but what if what if? Well, in that case you that would break the case wide open.
Well, and we have discussed the discussed little whispers on this front before that, or maybe they were self created whispers on just you know, trying to try possibilities.
Isn't it just weird the timing of it all that you would think Harball is kind of an intense dude that just spent all these years at Michigan, and maybe he loves that kid and it just so happens.
That he's there.
If that's how you felt, I think what you have to do is find a way to make a blockbuster franchise alter in trade of Justin Herbert to one of the teams above you, because JJ is not going to be there at number five that all we have, every clue in the book is telling us that he is like one of the He is someone that is not going to be available.
You have a clue book. I feel like that would be helpful. Can I get that?
Can I read the tea leaves are burning? And like I, JJ is long gone by then. So that would make the Chargers, who seem like a trade down candidate, have to trade.
And I know Chargers fans are screaming like, don't even bring this up.
It's ridiculous.
But that's what we got to do because we're we're outside the mainstream right now. You have to think you're in the underground way and we're just wondering about that.
That's right. So a tight end, maybe a tackle.
Wide receiver, wide receiver, maybe the biggest trade of the last fourteen years.
That would shake things up, really would. Let's take a break and we'll hit the rest of the back. Take that base for a walk.
Hey, Joe, come in slow on the high hat Billy Bob article their ivories, they saying, make that horn sing. I feel uncomfortable. Number six, All right, number six.
We got the giants. All right, I've been up here all over the Jersey Turnpike, up and down that drive. It's a lonely drive, it's a grueling drive. But it's time to really go over the clues, the cold cases, the various hunches you might have. You just got time time to think to yourself.
Sometimes it's the worst thing to do all alone with your own thoughts.
But it's all part of the investigation, all part of the job. And part of that was to hear what John Marra had to say about Joe Shane and Brian Aball going into year three together at the owner's meetings. That's what I needed to hear.
What did the big man say?
Well, John Marra came out and said, if Joe Shane and Brian Abell have conviction on a quarterback at the top of the draft, he supports going in to get him. He's still confident in Daniel Jones, but says, why not bring in someone to compete and let the best man win. He also said that it's ridiculous the Giants haven't fixed their offensive line after all these years, so I don't know, maybe one of these could be a red herring, you don't know.
I thought it was very notable that the big Man Mara seemingly gave the green light to make the move. A make a move on QB.
Exactly because one would think, all right, on the surface, you're gonna go wide receiver, you don't have any Maybe go ah Molik neighbors just like Odell. You get a wide receiver one from LSU. Repeat history a little bit. They haven't had a one thousand yard receiver since they traded away Odell. But I just don't I don't know if that. I don't feel that is the correct way that they're gonna go. They could go Joe Walt again there if he's still on the board and fix that
offensive line, but that doesn't feel right either. I think what ends up happening. I think the Giants they don't they don't draft a quarterback at where they are.
They move up their move another trade.
We've got I think six teams, but I think they move up with the Patriots, and I think that they take Drake May at three, and that's what ends up happening, and.
That could dig it.
That lines up with what I've been feeling and hearing about the Patriots based on the whispers.
Really well, that's what I tell me more two Francs.
The Patriots were candidates to trade down and you got the Giants, These two Patriots, these two teams feel kind of linked to And I think maraa Maa is basically saying I'd be.
Open to it.
But anyone wise enough knows that you're not getting that guy at number six, So you've got to do something different. And I think Daniel Jones, no matter what they say with their pretty little words, is yesterday's news in the Meadowlands.
Tennessee Titans at number seven.
I was told by our friend Chris Westling that the Tennessee Titans were in the Midwest. As I steered my vehicle down through the country. I don't fly, I just like to I just kind of whind the car down to think to process.
Do you have like a Maddenmobile?
It's an old beat up JEALOPPI and I switch cars every three months. Smart and I they come from parts on now.
And he got a whole trunk full of license plate. Cell phone, Yes, what's what's the cell phone?
Don't have one.
Tennessee in my in my world is in the South. So I saw that investigation for myself. You know, Signetti is fifty eight years old. When we used to talk about him, he was in his late forties. But he's got a lot on his plate and he's humble enough to get help sometimes. Because my investigation of the Titans, here's a team that new coaching staff hired a bunch of parts off the free agency list. Calvin Ridley, Tony Pollard. These aren't they don't blow me away, but they still
have one burning knee. They were the worst offensive line arguably in football over the last two seasons. And this is where I believe because the Giants are going to do what we think before. Here sits your left tackle, Joealt. But I like to lean on some of my best sources, and I had someone who was willing to go on the record.
Directly, and here it is. What's up, Fellas Grave Digger.
Here I want to give my take on what the Titans will do in the top ten of the draft this year. Look, there is no secret they need a left tackle. They've addressed many of their needs in free agency. Still have a big hole it inside linebacker. Probably need a safety, probably need someone else on the d line. You're not taking that in the first round. I don't think if Joe Alt the tackle out of Notre Dame is on the board, I think you write it an ink, he is the Titans pick. If he's not there, maybe
they look to go Dallas Turner on the edge. Maybe they look at the second best tackle, someone like Olufashanu. There's reports that they love JC Latham. I think the Titans have to get a tackle here. Ran Karthun recently said it's a deep tackle class. There will be guys available throughout the draft, but I don't know if you can risk it. You gotta find out. If will Lovis is the guy. They've done a great job surrounding him with pieces and weapons, building up that defense, trading for
Lagarious Need. The last missing piece here is a stalwart left tackle. If Joe alt is on the board at seven, I think he is the Titans pick.
I'm hip to that cat.
And I'll tell you one more thing about the grave digger. That Titans helmet moves real quick and circles behind.
Him, just spinning around, spinning.
I mean, he's on that beat, and he's been on it for a long time. As the wrong side of the tracks.
That was a thorough autopsy that he did on the on the Titans.
He is the grave. He's got he's doing a lot of different jobs.
He has his fingerprints on everything.
The post mortem side of things makes a lot of sense. You know what else makes sense?
At number eight? What the Falcons?
What they have going on?
One of one of our favorite draft tropes, teams who draft all on one side of the ba all to make a point, the Falcons could be one of those teams this year on the defensive side. The quandary they face and in my h.
My conversations and my research, in my.
Fearless ability to just go to places other people fear.
To tread train tracks, you're going across them.
Right across those tracks.
They're a trained common not even checking, doesn't matter, doesn't matter, you're concerned.
Kind of would be my concervative. Went at the wrong moment, you'd find out a second too late.
The train stops for signetti. Signetti doesn't stop for the train.
I hope, I hope it stops. I hope Frank makes anyway.
The quandary they face is whether to take the sure thing quote unquote. At number eight, and and let's let's be serious about this. The draft board is set up beautifully for this team because because of their needs, which on the other side of the football where at the top of this draft is living and they are set at quarterback, and they have the quarterback, they have the wide receiver talent, So do they trade back?
That makes a lot of sense.
Try to fill multiple holes. It's perhaps more sensible, but you really don't trust your football people. You're gonna move out of the top ten here. But in the end, and I'm reading just in the frustration around the organization that I imagine is also happening inside the walls at Flowery Branch, the curse of John Abraham is strong there. Oh on, what a curse it is. I think it's going to be too much to ignore for Terry Fono and Raheem Morris. I pulled up the John Abraham Pro
Football Reference. Is something smelled rotten?
What'd you find?
Well?
As we talked about on the show, Abraham started his career with the Jets. He left as a free agent after the two thousand and five season, and the Jets have been looking for an edge rusher really ever since. And now it's the Falcons who saw him leave in free agency after the twenty twelve season. They've been looking for an edge rusher, since it's Abraham that ties the
whole conspiracy together. I think the Falcons, with a plethora of pass rushers at their disposal, will not move and they are going to say we've had enough of this waiting game for the next Abraham and will take the cat that we like most.
So I'm not even going to tell you they're going to take. There are a lot of.
Mock drafts out there that have big time edge rushers staring at them, so they're gonna have their pick of the litter most likely, and I think that's what they do. They take the best pass rusher could be the first defensive player off the board, and that's the move they make.
And everything I'm reading tells me this team thinks that they could really contend in that conference if they hit on a big edge rusher, use the rest of that draft to continue to build out the defense, and then hope Raheem could build it up further once he has a roster.
I think that's what I got a tipster telling me Dallas Turner might be their guy at Alabama.
That would make that is the guy at edge and there aren't a lot of them, and that's that makes sense. And I think if you're Raheem Morris and you're working well with Terry Fanho, you've come in quickly. You've found the quarterback that they lacked in these frustrating last three years. You're now killing curses that have plagued the Falcons for
a long time. And you give Raheem Morris his guy, which takes us to the ninth pick, and we're back with the Chicago Bears, the monsters of that meaning, these.
Cats are feeling good about themselves because they took Caleb Williams.
At number one.
So now what Now we know they got Keenan Allen Okay at receiver and talking to some people and reading some things. They weren't expecting that they said that they're on record. Ryan Pulls, the GM said Keenan Allen's he popped up. It wasn't something that they had been working on for weeks. It wasn't on the radar until the Chargers realized they had to move on. They called it a quote this part of the athletic, a really cool opportunity.
That's a hard bullet quote from where we are headed, which is going to be hang on missed the quote, called it a really cool opportunity that popp up.
They made the move.
Keenan Allen, I think wide receiver was an option at nine, and I think it's more likely they move away at this point from that group, even though there's going to potentially be some or there will be still big time names there. And then I think about the defense. They are trying to figure out what their defensive line.
You have.
Matty Eberflus was on the record saying that you need an interior interior defensive line and an interior defensive lineman that could be a major impact player. Irvin Dexter, second year player, former second round pick. They liked his development, but would they look for a hog Molly at the top of this round.
I think that could be it as well.
So I think you look and looking on the defensive side of the ball with this team, and I think you're going to see that's.
Where they end up going.
I like it.
I like it.
A lot of eyewitness accounts have been also saying that they've seen some things that might lead you to believe that that's the direction they're going in, but only Signetti is really truly knowing.
I think also Signetti, he's going to a great judge of character and how people transform and change. And I get the sense that Flus is going to get his way because this has been in the last couple of weeks and months. He's grown a beard and changed his hair a little bit. He just looks confident. He feels like, you know.
He's just go on the run.
Well there's that too, and he's changed. Oh yeah, it feels like an odd time to leave the Bears as head coach compared to other scenarios coaches have been in.
But we'd be telling him we've got.
Our eye on them, which takes us finally at a number ten, the New York Jets, And I think the entire football industry was locked in on this, these Cats going for an offensive lineman after you know, the disaster that was their line last season, Aaron Rodgers' injury, which by the way, came not to pile on poor Dwayne Brown, but came on a miss block on the fourth play
of the season that led to the achilles injury. But then they went out and they got Tyron Smith, and they added two other starters in addition to Smith and free agency in one week and now makes people think, oh, they're done at offensive line, and they could be. There's a lot of people connecting to that Bowers kid the tight end. I know the Jets have a bit of a cursed history at tight end in the first round, so I'd be a little jumpy about that if I
were them. If there's a big time wide receiver Mike Williams. I know they added Mike Williams, that's a one year deal. Potentially, I wouldn't rule out them going after a wide receiver here, but I do think they might surprise people and stay with the initial plan and take an offensive tackle the best guy on the board.
They're not going to get Alt.
If Alt was still there, they would run up to the podium, but he should be long gone by ten. I think they take the second best aligneman on the board, somebody that they like a lot, and it gives you that injury protection on the line and a successor to Tyron Smith or whomever.
They decide to kind of plug this guy in.
He'll find a role quickly because guess what offensive lineman get injured. You know who else gets injured, older offensive lineman. I still think it's a major need for this team, and I think they still end up taking Hogmley offensive Lineman.
I really I like that.
I think that Joe Douglas does not want to mess around with that entire position group. I do find it interesting, and I know you have a hot and cold relationship with this fellow draft investigator, and you'll Jeremiah.
I'm sure he's hearing things.
And I can't think of someone that seems more closely kind of linked to Joe Douglass here and there. And this could just be him creating something that's gonna get clicks.
I don't think so.
But he has them trading up in his latest mock to number five with the Chargers to get Marvin Harrison Junior.
I believe that that draft came out or the mock draft came out a day before the Mike Williams trade.
I would I would say that, like, just because you have Mike Williams, you'l like Tyron Smith and Mike Williams are both players that you can count on for maybe ten or eleven games a season, and you're gonna lose them, Like if you can do this, or even if it's Roma Dounzay, I just say, if it's Mark, if you had it, if they if they had it in their head that there's some whisper that we're gonna try this, then you have Marvin Harrison Junior as a Hall of
Fame potential talent for the next half decade. It's not even about Aaron Rodgers. You just have someone to pair with. You'd have the best wide receiver tandem in the AFC.
Well, I have. I have a little bit of a situation that I'm working on right now that a little bit of a lead. Usually my sparrows will sing like canaries when I asked them about what's going on specifically.
In classes are really paying off?
Oh god, I have a dozen ten years? Get off my back. However, I will say that from a very reliable source, at the owner's meetings, there was a very heated conversation between Woody and Robert Sala to the point where it was a little awkward. What were they arguing about?
Where was this?
Tell us more at the owner's meetings, at the the party, at the party last night, I'm surprised.
I'm surprised that has happened.
In developing news here.
Can we just make news.
I'm just saying that who and hey, who knows could have been about anything. Maybe they were disagreeing on how they liked their steak cooked.
Doubt that, though probably not anything very interesting.
So so an argument between the head coach and.
The owner, wouldn't say argument of just a passionate exchange. What were they discussing? That is the lightest lead you did.
Your source said it to the to it reached the point where it was almost.
Awkward stle awkward. The awkward So was.
It was it around in the midst of a larger group or was it off to the side, Like what made it awkward?
I think just the body language potentially, but.
The fact that a coach is arguing with an owner, which I don't think I've ever seen at a bar.
Were they alone having the argument or were they part.
Of a I'm not saying it's an argument, saying.
The heated exchange passionate exchange.
Yes, a lively conversation.
Where they have kind of on their own having this conversation. Or was it part of a large group.
It's two of them, so what was that about?
That's or de coonzic that he does.
My guess it might have been potentially about this very conversation we're having right now.
The number ten.
Overall, Well, the love that it's been unearthed, gonna hop in the Lincoln Continental with the moon roof, drive on down to wherever they are, the Lincoln Continent.
Let's take a break, it will wrap up. All right, we're back. The show is continuing, for God's sakes. Thank you, Mark. All Right, there we go.
That was the signette breakdown of the that the sir the top ten and uh, but I I'm still that was a little bit of a bout those developing news.
I thought. Uh. And again it wasn't.
An argument and and and let me just speak clear, just heated conversation and was not last night was Sunday night, So Monday nights ago Sunday night.
But just so we have the setting correct, they have the owner's meetings. And then there's and we've been a part of this party in the past, right, there's a large party on an open lawn type setup.
It was that party, not like a separate bar type late night out.
It was that.
It was It was not the big party that was last night. That's like the oh so it wasn't that party. No, okay, it was Sunday night and it was according to my source, super awkward.
So it's observed by many people that I would assume or multiple multiple take.
Well that is, I mean that could be anything.
Obviously, well there's smoke, there's fire.
I mean they could have been They could have been arguing over I don't know, like the who versus led Zeppel.
I don't think I would.
Desmited, Like the year contest that Dave Damishek used to run.
Would have been the fruit of the year. Yeah, I mean, we don't know.
It's the last time Woody Johnson like went into a grocery store and felt fruit and find out that really come up.
He's definitely hit the way Room looks beefy.
It could have been about that, you know, could have been about Zach Wilson, because by the way.
And the comments that with Johnson made that make no sense for the way that team needs to proceed.
Woody had to Woody, as we quickly addressed in the eight o'clock Delight came out and said a few weeks back that you know, our season was room because we didn't have a quarterback, making it very clear that they didn't think highly of Zach Wilson and they were moving on and then walked back at the owner's meetings in a way that was like very obviously transparent saying, oh, we we'd have him back.
Sure, It's like, no, could it be about that? We don't know.
That would make some sense though, because I think that that whole thing burned down everyone quarterback coached GM.
It's like you're doing that again.
Also owners and head coaches, I'm sure in every building, but had some time to time. But in a public setting that's signetti at.
Now how public this was, I don't know, but it was seen.
Keep sleuthing, Colleen, What a what a morning into afternoon for you.
I know you've done it again. You've said it all.
Thank you. It's great to be back with you guys.
And yes we'll be there.
She is the call and we'll be back on Thursday with the great But oh oh.
Man, I always get so excited to see you here.
He lost he lost part of the it's the one that hits the boot.
You know.
We're not hard on him about it. We're just we just understand it's a thing that we work with it up.
It was the slow jazz of the whole entire show just kind of loaded me to sleep back here. Look on the trigger. I'm looking for the clothes button. It's just kind of.
I'm sorry, we're boring you.
I'm just saying it was I was really relaxed. I was wasn't on my toes like I usually am. So I jumped to another folder and.
So it had nothing to do with the missing portion of the thumb. No good, How was that going on?
Like nine?
No way, that's great.
Body's crazy human body, ladies and gentlemen, a miracle.
Let's go. Uh yeah, so we'll be back.
We have a special guest uh joining us on Thursday show, Connor or We're gonna have some fun with Connor.
Yeah.
But until then, thank you, Connie, thank you for listening. Thank you Frank Signetti wherever you are and heed the call.