They Around the NFL podcast. He needs a sleepover at Mark's man cave.
Welcome to another edition of Around the NFL. My name is Dan Hansis, and I got heroes here, Greg Roosevelt and Mark Sessler. Sestog, you got a man cave. I've been to your place. I don't recall her being a dedicated man cave, nor have I ever seen you as a man that would go man cave if given the opportunity.
I mean, I think like you could reference the whole place. Is that on?
It's on from some angle, but no, the within the apartment. I don't have a room that would be called classically a man cave at the moment. But you've you know, before the show, you were if you're on YouTube, you were talking about my background that looks a little spartan, could use a little bit of help.
So the place is in development, I'd say.
And Greg, you know, because Greg's going to Greg and he was labeling it as constructive criticism, and that certainly was not what I was going I was offering a suggestion that maybe your remote background, because that's what we're doing the show remote for the next couple of days, that it maybe could use a touch of color on the wall, and I thought that would go a long way. Not criticism, merely unsolicited advice slash suggestion.
I did not take it purely as critique. I understand what greg was attempting to accomplish there verbally, but I didn't fall for that either. So you know, point and pointer are taken, and I you know, I look at my own setup and it does look it looks a little suspect. It could use a little bit of just a little bit of life, and I'm going to work on that this offseason.
It's not it's not normal criticism though, it's constructive criticism. That's the gentleman's criticism. Like if he's a man, a man manly enough to even have a man cave, he can take some constructive criticism. Yeah.
I don't have the men to see where maybe I can't take the criticism, but I end in this case I can.
And uh and less less we forget, I mean, silly me. Not only does Mark Havman kV has an entire Super Bowl segment based around it.
That's true, and that went very well. Now time for a trip to marchmen.
McGregor, I forgot the Devlin McGregor, the the crooked pharmaceutical giant from the Fugitive sponsored your segment.
Well, the greatest part of that segment beyond I have no memory of it because of the state of my health that day. But the Denzel Ward and Miles Garrett were We're not wearing like the cans, so they couldn't they couldn't hear. They couldn't even hear any of that.
So they greg.
I'll never forget the anxiety coursing through Mark in addition to the the germs uh due to his illness ahead of that interview with two Brown's greats, and speaking of anxiety, I want to bring in the four person on today's show. You know her, you love her, you've missed her.
Shoannie's the queen Queen. She is the Queen of NFL.
That's how I get brought in speaking of anxiety.
Great, how you been colly in anything new going on last couple of weeks?
You know what?
No, I've just been laying real, lowing low, just chilling a lot of just not doing anything.
Really.
I can't wait until we write the the Around the NFL memoir.
That's all I'm gonna say. But it's so good to see you.
Okay, it's so great to be back, guys, I've missed you. I'm preparing for a soft launch of the summer of Connie and go into full swing right after the draft, So it's this is our big months, huge lead up to what's going to be an amazing summer.
Are you doing the draft night stage thing again? That's a big spot draft night stage thing.
That's nice, that's exactly what they call it.
So yeah, I will be in Detroit on stage for night one, and then I wanted to do Day three because they're doing puppy adoptions and so I've never done Day three before, so I'm gonna skip Night two and then stay for all of the shenanigans on day three.
Are we gonna maybe leave there with a puppy.
I don't know how. I don't leave without a puppy. So we're gonna see what happens. But I'm gonna probably get my pick of the litters since I'll be with them backstage, and that's kind of my dream, is to just be in a green room with a bunch of puppies.
So it sounds great. And then like will the inevitable party at your compounds occur like how many hours after you return from the draft, roughly.
Minutes, moments, seconds, Okay, it already starts on the flight home.
You know.
I beloved dog Captain, who's now about sixteen seventeen months old. But shortly before Christmas twenty three or twenty two, Emily and I went to this I should give them a shout out because they do really great work here in terms of serving as foster a foster home for pets here in the South Bay and in the Los Angeles area. But we went over to this couple's home and there they were in the laundry room. It was Captain as a a three week old puppy, and then three other
siblings of his. So it was it was a female puppy and then three males. And here's the one advice I'll give Connie. Okay, we picked Captain. Initially, we wanted to get the girl dog, but she was totally insane. Emily wanted to get to the girl but she was nuts. And then you could tell she was the pied piper and she was a maniac. And we're like, all right,
I love the dog, but we can't pick it. The other two dogs were various levels of overactive, and Captain as a puppy was chilling way in the back and hiding and acting.
Really low key.
And We're like, that's that's the puppy we want. But I'll tell you something, Connie. We got that little bastard home and immediately he morphed into the other two brothers. Total maniac that we We wouldn't have him any differently, but they are smart enough even as puppies to to con you and sell you.
So just be aware. Can I ask you a question?
He was He just wasn't tired at the moment.
I am Greg.
I am telling you, dude, the that dog was straight up acting to separate himself from the pack. And he is a very intelligent canine, so I really give him that benefit of the doubt.
Wait, can I ask you a question like is it possible?
And I'm this is a theory, and we don't always agree with each other's theories, and it's not it's.
Also not alone.
It's not a critique, but I is it possible that Captain is maybe a little less or maybe a little more emotionally dense and wasn't aware like the other three dogs that they were the city billions were about to be separated, where the other three are reacting. Then Captain gets home and realizes he no longer has his siblings.
And I'll tell you what, Mark, I love you, buddy, but I don't need a cat guy telling me anything about the nature of the dog advance.
I'm asking. I didn't tell you.
I'm asking the question, and it was, you know, constructive criticism as Greg would would say, or just a question.
I was trying to find. I was trying to find the rescue that because you said it to me before and was telling me like, that's that after Blitzen, So I was actually looking at that rescue a bunch.
They have the cutest dogs.
But I can't find it now, but I will tell you that.
I'm going to text my wife and we're going to get it. All right, Let's get on track. We got a good app today. We're going to talk about front offices, gms, you know, coaches with pop owners, obviously, the decision makers of the organizations that dot the NFL, who's under the most pressure heading into a draft weekend. And but before that we're gonna hit some news. Let's get caught up now, third down and thirteen Bli's coming press gott able to get out of the end zone, and now.
Hears it out for Lamb.
He's gone, He's gone. When he gets there, it's a touchdown.
Calibourns time, CD Lamb from ninety two yards out. Those Although I do and we're gonna get to the NFL conquering the days of the week again in a few minutes, But I really do enjoy those late regular season Saturday night games where like Daddy can have a couple of Tito's, My sons are with me. We don't get to watch football enough do to the nature of our jobs. And when like a really exciting play happens like that, uh,
it kind of electrifies the house. That was that was when and everyone knows that listens pot, I love me some CD lamp in what was a brilliant season. That game he was an absolute monster, and now the Cowboys are dealing with the repercussions of it being a monster.
Because she gotta pay him like a god.
I'm still a little stuck on you know, you calling yourself our daddy, But I do want to move on because that that highlight I think was the first time this offseason that I saw highlight from the season, and like, for a few weeks afterwards, I got to admit, like seeing highlights from the season, it almost gives me the chills, like, oh remember that. Back then, it was just like you were in a totally different mindset. But now teams have showed up, they've started working out.
Football is back. I was excited to see, so I'll highlight there.
Now let's go.
Mark's going to reach through your monitor and put an end to your jugglers.
We're working out.
We got Kirk Cousins doing interviews in the Falcons facility.
They're they're there.
Football is back, all right, And we just lost Colleen. Hopefully we'll get her back. He has technical difficulties sometime design on these remote shows, but we'll hopefully we'll get Colleen back. And if we don't, it was a great seeing her and she'll be back soon enough. Let's get into the cd Lamb story here, which is I don't know if i'd call it thorny, but it's on the
radar and it's worth talking about. The Dallas Morning News reported that there is quote NFL precedent for CDE Lamb not taking the field until he signs a contract extension. He's entering the fifth and final year of his rookie deal. But he is one of the best wide receivers in football we just talked about. He's coming off an incredible season where he posted career highs and receptions one hundred and thirty five receiving yards seventeen forty nine touchdowns twelve.
So he's a first time All Pro. He deserves a contract that matches that, and yet the Cowboys are just in slippery conditions here Mark with their salary cap, with what's going on with Michael Park, Parsons, with Dak Prescott. In some ways it's a good problem to have, but also in others ways you're seeing the challenges of a team with top flight stars bunch together.
Yeah, I mean it's you know, this stuff happens. There is a precedent, I like that word attached to this.
But they've gotten to this point with those three players you mentioned, like Prescott, Parsons, and Lamb where all of them need their contracts to be addressed, and it for all the business and hype around the Cowboys, it just feels kind of like bad business, like a little bit disorganized because these wide receivers each year get incrementally so much more expensive that you could have done this before. You could have found a way to do this before.
Like the whole Dak thing, I'd say the same thing. It's like quarterback wide receiver becoming incredibly inflated price wise, And I think it's Lamb's prerogative to say, look, I want to be paid like what I am, which is one of the top receivers in the league, and you're not going to have my services without that money. And if you look at what else they have on the depth chart, they don't only choice but to make it happen.
It's just part of the offseason playbook right now. I mean skipping offseason workouts. They're voluntary anyways. If he skips a mini camp or not, it's not that meaningful. If he starts taking into trading camp again, that's part of the playbook.
It's it's a catch twenty two.
With this fifth year option, you retain his rights longer than if he was a second round pick. But they just never want to play on that fifth year option if they're the kind of player that Ceedee Lamb is. He's made a total of fourteen million dollars in his four years, which is, you know, great money for a normal person, but for the level of production that he's had, you know, it's minuscule. They will get the deal done.
They don't have a ton of cap space. But I do think the Dak Prescott situation is looming over this that they, in my mind, are going to choose on some level to pay CD Lamb first and wait and see how Dak Prescott does this year. And I think it's meaningful with the coming up because I just look at a fairly deep quarterback class and I know they don't have a high pick, and yeah, I just look at like the model that the Packers have shown, and to me, it's not crazy for the Cowboys to be
considering taking a quarterback in this class. And part of that equation I think is Ceedee Lamb's going to get his money.
It's just a matter of time.
We don't need to spend like a crazy amount of time this offseason, even though I suspect it we'll go into training camp or something like that.
And this is you know, their Cowboys are a victim of their own success on some level. But also it's another reminder and it's like you know, you saw the Digs trade and the Bills in some ways, and you look at their roster and what they're doing now. They're trying to reload on the fly with the star quarterback that the Cowboys had their window like they had it like that when you hit on Parsons, Lamb and Dak you had that three or four years where that's when
you go and you win Super Bowls. And they weren't able to get over the hump in the NFC. And it doesn't mean that they can't contend for the Super Bowl again even this year, but now it's getting increasingly more difficult. And Parsons is a top five, maybe even top three player, maybe the number one player at his position. Lamb you can make the same case for his position. These are two of the highest paid positions in the sport.
And then Dak maybe not top five, but probably a top ten quarterback and he's a QB, so that's the highest paid position in the sport. So it's almost a perfect store mark k which I'm less being feeling critical of the Cowboys, but that they didn't get the job done winning and now they have to find a way to pay these three dudes at like the most expensive price tags in the sport, and it's kind of impossible.
Yeah, And I think, like, I mean, there's no way to really shape shift the message to not say that Dallas has had an awkward, unpredictably strange offseason that I guess the starts goes against the actual messaging of what they claim to be this offseason. And I'm with Greg though, I mean, we can let this one go until he gets paid.
You know.
The Chris Jones hold out last last year was one of the rare ones where like a star isn't there when the season starts. I typically just tend to think these things get ironed out, but they're they're in a thorny spot.
Yeah.
I think the story here is not the idea of will see Lamb play for the Cowboys?
Will he show up?
And more just like the bigger yeah picture situation around the Cowboys.
He said, by the way to TMZ, I'll be in Dallas, which was like a clever non answer to like, yeah, you'll be in Dallas, you live there. But he wasn't saying he was showing up to practice necessarily.
Yeah, parse that Harvey Levin all right? In other news. We told you NFL one. They've defeated days of the week. There's no longer any issue. You could play an NFL game whenever you want, and issues with competition be damned. There will be a way and a streaming platform that will air it. And let's talk about Week one. It's gonna have a new wrinkle. There's a lot of new wrinkles with this schedule now because everything's been blown wide open.
The Eagles will play the NFL's first.
Game in Brazil to kick off twenty twenty four, and yes, they will do it on a Friday night. So now we get the Thursday night opener. We're gonna have a this is the Brazilian national anthem, by the way, We're going to have Thursday night opener, We're gonna have Friday night. We're gonna have a dozen games on Sunday and then games on Monday. So you do the math. That's four out of seven in one week of football. So the
Eagles last played an international game in twenty eighteen. We'll face a two be announced opponent in Sam Paulo Friday, September sixth, the day after the NFL season kicks off on Thursday, night, So it will be the NFL's first Friday game on an opening weekend in more than fifty years. Mark what was happening fifty years ago when they last played.
I mean I was born fifty years ago, so I think that was probably one of the bigger news items in the country.
Yeah, I was just saying it was in your life cycle, so not Greg and I.
So I didn't know if you knew who were the teams.
They have TV back then? Did you watch it?
There was a form of television back in the in the early seventies.
Greg Roger Goodell had this to say, By the way, we are just incredibly enthusiastic about our.
Growth on a global basis. Same seas.
Yeah, I was curious because I saw our frequent guest Andrew Marshawn, asked the question, is the NFL even popular in Brazil? And I know it is popular to some degree, but I wasn't sure as much. But the NFL says that Brazil has the third most amount of fans in the entire world, number one US, number two Mexico. They credit thirty million fans in Brazil. Now, it's not a huge part of our audience because of the language barrier, but bring it on, Brazilians.
We're sending you a good game.
It shows how much we respect Brazil to give them Packers Eagles.
I mean, that might be the best primetime game of Week one.
I also read that actually in Brazil that the Packers, you know, they probably looked into this, have one of the biggest, one of the biggest, like fan fit the teams. The Packers are like the second or third most popular team there. But you know, Dan, you said that they can play games any day. There is this like age old rule out there called the Sports Broadcasting Act of nineteen sixty one, which happened before I was born. But you are not allowed to play a game on Friday
as of the second Friday in September. So what they've done is they've found these calendar openings where because Labor Day is happening on September first, second, or third, you can squeeze it in there.
And they've noted.
That the other years that are eligible will be twenty twenty five, twenty twenty nine, twenty thirty, and twenty thirty one. So it's they're not gonna they can't do Friday night every night. But when they find their way. They're gonna squeeze it in there and disrupt your weekend in we'll see.
We'll see, Mark, that's true under reporting though by me like a challenge. Mark didn't know all that, and I think it was valuable to anyone making plans for twenty twenty nine.
I could see the league. You're just challenging him on sports back too, all.
Right, so, and thank you guys for giving me that information, an updated information about their opponent.
That is exciting.
Moving on, Josh Allen, No, the other Josh Allen, the one that plays for the Jaguars, gets paid. He agrees to a new five year, one hundred and fifty million dollar deal makes him one of the makes them one of the highest paid players at his position in the league. It is a contract that includes eighty eight million guaranteed, and it replaces the franchise tag that he was playing under that was set to pay him a little more than twenty four million.
GREGGI.
Allen coming off his second Pro Bowl trip in five years. He is coming off a perfectly timed breakout year where he had seventeen and a half sacks, sixty six tackles, two forced fumbles, an interception, big time player.
They nailed the draft pick.
Remember when he came into the league, was like, oh, it's another Josh Allen, Is this the right way?
And it turned out to be yes, the right play right.
He's sort of a classic example of a first round pick that was a big win, a B plus a minus, that wasn't a superstar but better than the average like and got better and better and developed, I think in
times his best season for his contract year. And it just reminds me how important self scouting and getting ahead of all these contracts are because they could have paid they could have paid him so much less a year ago, and they could have paid him this contract months ago, and then they could have kept Calvin Ridley, but they couldn't because then the franchise tag wasn't available and he
ended up being able to squeeze him. It's a good thing though, for players like franchise tag players we saw with Kyle Duggart earlier this week are getting their long term money, which is sort of how it's intended to be used. But these quieter contracts like the Eagles, for instance, with Dickerson and my Lot, who are doing it years ahead like those are the teams that are smart, they're even money in the long run, because this is pretty wild.
I think it's seventy six fully guaranteed eighty eight gart like he's getting that money.
It's it's not backloaded at all.
He actually has a chance to play a lot of this contract that I think by the looks of it.
And it links to exactly what we were just saying about Micah Parsons. I mean, it's exactly what Dallas has to look at and say, oh, we're gonna have to top that. And like, you're right, seven of nine tag players have gotten contracts and quicker than they would have in other times. So like, I like that's that part of it. And the Jaguars needed to do this. I mean they Calvin Ridley is not to me like a
star wide receiver, but they are letting players go. And you're watching the AFC South, the Texans specifically turn into a fire storm and you got a wait and see on what Anthony Richardson's makes the cults. So it's like the Jaguars, who you know, six hundred days ago were a really sexy new operation in the AFC, are now like maybe the second or third at least the second best team in the South and maybe the third.
I was going to say, hold that thought, but it was too late. We'll talk about the Jaguars a little bit later. Potentially we're gonna.
Have a Balkie off. I mean our multiple co hosts here.
Don't be ridiculous, all right.
Finally in the news, God, if there's one person out there that got that reference, please hit me up.
I did social media. I enjoyed it, but go ahead, I.
Mean I do.
I don't want to spell it out for the listeners out.
There that you know. I give me the locky barlacamists.
I'm fans, Okay, the Bartaka heads out there.
Anyway.
Finally in the news, Bill Belichick is about to enter an NFL season not as a head coach or a coach of any kind, and that will be the first time since nineteen seventy four, which.
Predates Mark Sessler.
No, it is I was, you know, on the earth to witness the start of that career for Bill dom Man.
This is like a whole fun game, like can we find an event in history where Mark wasn't alive anyway? Fifty years okay? And Belichick, though, is keeping busy. He recently spoke at Nebraska's annual coaching clinic, and you know, the head coach is an old man, an old friend of the show, a guy that once stole Mark's heart at the NFL scouting combine at a tavern, a local steakhouse.
That is Matt Ruhle.
He did not do well as a head coach in the NFL, but obviously he's landed on his feet well. And he was blown away by Bill Belichick's presence, his knowledge, his quah at this clinic. Let's listen to Rule, who also was very pointed in his commentary about Bill being out of work and how is that possible?
He is so smart, It's seemed so much that he can make the complex so simple that it humbles you and embarrassed. I was embarrassed just how smart he is, how simple it was.
He went, what he how we went?
He went?
He went four and a half hours, was just with the coaches. Forget the clinic, Like he came in and met with our coaching staff, and three and a half hours in, I was like, coach, would you like a water coffee? Like to use the restroom because I desperately had to use the restroom, you know, and he's like, I'm fine, Matt. I was like, yes, sir, and just sitting there and just talking right, and just his recall
from things fifteen years ago. And you know, the only reason why we don't get through more information is because he's having to slow down to make sure you understand what he's saying. I mean, So, you have this man who's a savant, right, Who's been a defensive coordinator, He's been a special teams coordinator, he's coached, you know, he could be an offensive coordinator, has been a head coach twice,
he's been a GM person. I mean, he's and he's talking about football in a way that just like I mean, illuminates things and make things so simple that you're like, oh my goodness.
I love that.
And I wish things worked out better from that rule, because he seems like a good guy and a personal guy in the NFL. So and some people and I saw some you know criticism out there that who cares what that guy says?
He's terrible at his job.
Okay, he was bad as a Panthers head coach, but he's clearly someone who respects the profession that's done it for a long time, and what he's telling you right there, does that sound like an over the hill football man, someone that doesn't have more to give to this league. I think it's one of the great follies and honestly the most ridiculous thing in all our time doing this podcast, which is we're going into our twelfth season that Bill Belichick wanted a job and did not get one this year.
And that will probably be rectified next year, but let it be remembered when the next round of firing and firings and dismissals goes down, that a lot of those teams had a chance to get Bill Belichick and instead chose to outthink themselves.
I could I could see one you know, silver lining here for Belichick, because it's pretty trenchantly noted that when coaches take a year off, they their health improves, they are able to watch football more globally. I mean, it's you're not gonna teach Bill Belichick new things. I get that, but just the idea of kind of getting out of the grind, re energizing, taking a look look at football from a different place, and I think for Belichick to go around to these you know, these coaching clinics and
to talk to other coaching staffs. It's got to be fuel for him. And I think it takes the hot butt rankings and everyone who's on that list. It dials the notch up. Because whatever exhaustion or agism was happening around Bill Belichick a couple of months ago, at the end of the New England thing and the documentary that came out all that, It's like other owners are now gonna be like, wait a minute, everyone passed on Bill Belichick.
But if I'm like the Giants owner, I'm like, we could bring Belichick Bill Belichick back to New York to be the Giants coach in a bit of poetry, if this thing continues to go south. So I think everyone's now about to be watching it, like, wait a minute, Belichick is already the lead candidate to take a job a year from now.
Like that's all stuff I agree with from both of you. And yet I don't think it was some travesty. He didn't get hired, He needed a year off. What he was doing was stale, he was doing a poor job. I think it's going to be extremely valuable for him to take a step back and do some self accounting of how he went twenty nine and thirty eight with no playoff wins for four years, three out of four losing records, like cause there's no way he is happy with that. And he is as critical as it gets.
And I randomly like reread a critical of himself as he gets as he used to be.
I reread this book, Patriot.
Raign, which is one of the great season in the life embedded reporter books that kind of got slept on. It's Michael Holly who spent two seasons all sorts of inside stuff with the Patriots two thousand and two, two thousand and three.
It's kind of amazing.
It's like him going to Belichick's cousin's house with Belichick when she has cancer, all this stuff, and that like the number one thing that he stressed that he was important to him was to not have yes men around him, to have people around him that he respected that could push back on what he said, because it can't just be one person running the show, like it can't just be one person. And Scott Pioli, especially in that book, was really important as someone who he trusted to do
a lot. And he loved how me and Genie pushed back, and he said, I never want to be the type of leader that gets masturbatory. Heed that word in terms of my opinions, and no one's gonna didn't have to use that word, but he didn't.
But he was.
And and what did he turn into. He turned into a guy who had who started making all the decisions, had had no one around him, didn't groom anyone that would push back, and he will, I'm sure reflect and say I did a poor job for four years twenty nine and thirty eight with three losing seasons is a bad job no matter what.
And I think he'll come back a better coach.
But it to me, it's not some like like he was a little He needed to reset and change the way he was doing things.
I know, but everybody, everyone seems to be so sure of their opinion that he needed to reset and he needed this.
Year away, But he didn't. He didn't think it.
And just because he listen, he could have gotten a job in January and still done some self reflection and self scouting and went into this enlivened and re energized and learning from what happened at the end of the New England Run and the idea, like I think agism played a part in the fact that he's in his early seventies and now you're kind of in some way like the point I'm trying to make will be made in January when multiple teams want the guy, and it
won't be because like, oh, now he's had the year and head coach jail where he was able to, you know, come clean and go to confession and finally see the air of his ways. Like he's going to be the same guy and he'll learn and he's learned some things away from the game. But I think he would have been learning and scouting himself. Either way. That's such a bad job. Well he I mean that's also unders I understand what you're saying, and you could point to the
end of the run. He also ended up with a quarterback that couldn't really play and that and that really shades things. I think if if he ended up with a better quarterback prospect than mac Jones, we probably aren't having this conversation. And that's not to put everything on mac Jones, because he played a major role in Mac Jones. He was the face of the organization behind the scenes as well. I just I still can't believe, and I don't want to dwell on it anymore. And I think
we're all on the same page. I'm just a little more strident in my feeling that the teams, Uh, these teams think they're so smart and it's a copycat league, and I think once other teams kind of put it out there that, oh, we don't want that guy.
He's he needs a.
Good team, though I'm not assuming he's going to do well. The odds would say like he could be mediocre.
He loves that Greg.
The Jets, not like the Jets are going to high him, but a team that actually has it in place. His mind is obviously so sharp. He's such a great defense of mine, like he can do all that running an organized I think he showed that his best days are are behind him.
When it comes to that.
He'll he'll need to make some adjustments, obviously, But I and he's not somebody to speak on this. He's not going to do a Last Dance Jordan thing and speak his mind on this stuff. But he loves like guys like national guys like a Greg Rosenthal, who no one was ever more in his corner saying he can't do it anymore. He's got to be in a perfect setup. He needs to kind of. He can't run the show like he used to. I think he's going to be hungry. And I think it would have been hungry this year too,
I guess. Is my point this idea that he needed to take the year off, Well, he's getting the year off and let's see what happens.
Because I think a little all of it.
I think a little bit of all of that can be true, Like even if he didn't want the year off, it can help him. Like he can be doubted, but we don't. You have to look at the full body of work. He's one of the greatest coaches, if not the greatest coach of all time. And I find your versatility, Dan to be impressive that you can come out and attack appropriately the aegis and the people that you know killed for his age on a show where you're asking if I was here for to witness the Revolutionary War?
So I that moatility is?
I think versatility, I'll tell I think I think you're saying it's a little hypocritical.
Versatile seems like the word that's a nice guy move.
All right, let's take a break and we will talk about, speaking of pressure and decision makers, who's under the most as we enter a draft season.
Welcome back.
I'll tell you what this sport is not for the meek of heart and leadership in the front office, that Holy Trinity owner, GM, head coach. All teams are different and who has the juice, but ultimately there's always someone who's responsible, who will be either celebrated or dragged through the mud.
For the draft and.
Free agency is a test for these decision makers. But I feel like the real pressure point, the future of the organizations are really built on the back of these three days every April.
And that's what we're going to talk about right now.
And that's why you're hearing that ominous synth Mark Sessler, because I can only imagine. I mean, look at we just talked about Belichick. One day, you're the goat, the next day you can't even get a job. And that's the pressure these guys are under. It's what have you done for me lately? And if you're coming off a so so draft, for instance, and there are a lot of gms and front office leaders that are coming off so so to bad drafts, man, you better hit on
this one. Or you'll be joining Bill Belichick at the next corn Huskers summit.
If you're lucky.
I think you're right. It's a stark, stark environment. That's why it seems to be happening a little bit less. But you got these like coach doesn't like to brag about being in the office ninety hours a week. In gms right now are doing the same thing. They don't
see their families for four months. And I think this year especially to a lot of new gms, but the pressure is turned up on some of them, but especially some of these guys that have been around for a while, and there have been some disappointing tracks in the background.
So this segment comes at the right time. Den.
I don't want to get you know on this podcast especially, but I did hear one of the many of what you know, a lot of new head coaches. To make your point, Mark, I heard from a birdie that an example is one of the coaches toward the facility after being hired, and the first thing he asked was like, where are the beds where the pullout couches for my assistance?
And you could infer quite easily what will be expected of that staff and the fact that the assistant coaching offenses didn't have a place to sleep meant that needed to be.
Handled. Put it that way.
So, yes, there's a lot of pressure all the way down the chain. But let's get into some teams and front office leaders who are under the most pressure entering this draft. And Greg, why don't you get us go and throw throw a team out there. We'll go around the horn. And by the way, for those that are wondering, Colleen Wolfe still missing in action. We're going to continue to track this and hopefully she returns, but hope is growing dim.
Go ahead, great, I'll save Bartokamas for you because I'm that kind of teammate. And I want to mention a name I feel like has not been mentioned since the day he was hired. And he's going to be drafting for the first time actually, and he's not in a great spot, and yet I still feel like he's under a lot of pressure. His name is Dan Morgan. He's the Panthers GM not getting a lot of pop pop
this offseason. The Panthers get a lot of attention, partly because they don't have a first round pick, but you know what they do as have is the first pick in the second round and then another pick six picks later in a draft that it's the perfect spot to have those two picks where people really feel like the strength of this draft is in the top fifty picks, that the difference between let's say fifteen and fifty is
not that great. And to me, the Panthers have so many needs that he can put a little bit of a fire sale up for that thirty three spot overnight and see what he can get for and pick up more and more.
They're thin everywhere.
I love the Deontay Johnson move, but Adam Thielen, you can't expect what you got out of him to happen again. Like he is a three in a perfect situation. You need more juice. You don't have a receiver, you don't have a tight end. Your left tackle from a couple of years ago has essentially been a bust. And they're gonna say that they love them, but they're gonna need another option there. And then I look at their defense and they've added some good, just veteran players that kind
of fill the the snaps. Josie Jewel, DJ wantam Ayshawn Robbinson like clown he's there like a bunch of solid guys who can play, and they needed that. But when you look on our lads, which have my favorite depth charts, you could see, you know, when they got drafted where they came from. And I noticed like only three players on the Panthers starting defense were drafted by the Panthers, and one of them, Shaq Thompson, who was practically playing with Dan Morgan. Back with Dan Morgan was quite an
exciting middle linebacker back in the day. And so they need homegrown talent and they need to win fast because we've learned with that owner. Like you might think you have a timeline. Dan Morgan's been in the building, he was part of the last regime. He's not gonna have that long of a timeline. And they just need to start finding some players. And I just wanted to say hello to the Carolina Panthers fans that listened to.
This show, I'm with you, because they've they've been completely excited. That is a perilous spot because I think if you're anyone's gonna want to try their test at being a GM and it was kind of an un I think Dan Morgan could be as good as anyone else somewhere, but it was a higher from within, which tells me sometimes about what the owner wants to be able to have control over. I don't know if that's the case here, but the odds on situation tells us the tepper wants
to have the strongest voice. You don't know if the quarterback can play. You inherited a job where you have given away a ton of draft picks for the future and made a ton of terrible team building decisions over the last three or four years.
That's why Matt Ruhl doesn't have a job.
So it's like I think Dan Morgan like selling that pick maybe and acquiring all the assets you can. I agree with Greg, I think that makes sense.
Yeah, because this is obviously the critical year for Bryce Young. It comes quick in the NFL, the number one overall pick coming off a nightmare rookie year. If he's bad again, very very real chance that they just clean house.
Two fifth as they mentioned too high seconds and then the first pick of the third like they keep like that third is almost as good as a late. Yes, so he does have some even though they traded all this picslay, they have some maneuverability.
They got to make it happen.
Yeah, I though one more before we throw it to Mark with his pressure point just a little.
Greg. I liked the way you did that.
That was an optimistic type way to say hello to the Panthers fans. That one thing that you got to remember to do, no matter what, no matter what obstacles you face, no matter the hardships in your past, there's only one thing you gotta do.
Piled in.
All right, it's been a while.
I you know, when you look at like the last Panthers GM, Scott Fitter like not surprising why he's not there anymore. I think there's one GM sitting out there that it's like it is a surprise to me that he's still in the building. And it's George Peyton, who I think we have a nickname for. Was it Keaven Saunders? I believe that's it. Okay, So Kevin Saunders has enough
on his resume where he shouldn't be there. I think he's a He's got a head coach who essentially like probably runs that front office, if not directly, just sort of spiritually, and a head coach and Sean Payton who's verbally whether I know, Greg always thinks whatever Sean Payton is saying that he's lying, but he says, you know, there are teams up there above us in the draft where they're at number twelve that we are. You know, trading up for a quarterback makes them very valuable front
offices and assets. And I think, like you're looking at a team that has Jarrett Stidham and Ben Denucci in a post Russell Wilson apocalypse, and there is a lot of pressure to get up there and get someone if they don't like who's going to fall to them as the fifth or sixth guy. They do have more draft assets than you would think. But I think either way, if for some reason it doesn't go the way that Sean Payton wants, that Sean Payton has the easiest.
Fall guy around.
And there are you know, once every couple of years there's a team that cleans house in the front off right after the draft, and I could see that being a real problem for George Peyton slash Kevin Saunders if it doesn't come out real well for them.
I mean they absolutely need it.
I mean that's happening. The decisions already made.
If it doesn't matter, they're not gonna let him do anything on draft weekend if they're gonna fire.
Well, so I'm saying I don't know if the decision's already made or if they maybe they work better together than we realized.
I don't.
I just think that the power structure puts them in a tough spot. And it's almost like you have someone you can blame other than Sean Payton. If you're Sean Payton, if it doesn't go well a couple weeks from now, I.
Mean you could almost like look at it a different way than Mark like that, Especially these teams coming off disappointing years, there's not a lot of pressure. I mean there's pressure to try to be better. But if things go wrong, Sean Payton's pulling the strings anyway, and he could just blame the GM and start over there. And if things go right, well, Kevin Saunders keeps his job most likely, and mickveigh and and Peyton gets all the credit.
I don't like that.
I don't like the power structure for George Peyton to begin with. But I would say, secondly, who like Kevin Saunders? But if you, if you like, go into another rough year with Sean Payton. I think things get real ugly, and you know, I just I just do. I just think they I think they've got to come out of this draft with a lot more hope than they were. Their roster to me on offense is just like come on, guys, like and the drafts have not been great. They out
they've not had great drafts under Kevin Saunders. So it's like walball track record here.
As a Walmart that that owns the Broncos. Yeah, I don't. We don't know yet how patient they are. We when we talked about the Russell Wilson trade, I I made my opinion that I shared my opinion that I thought, if they're being run the right way, that Peyton should be mostly absolved of year one because he had to inherit the Russell mess and everything that came with it,
for sure. And now it's pretty widely known across the league that the Broncos are in a very difficult spot and terms of how they can spend over the next couple of years because of that disastrous Russell Wilson transaction. And I guess I just disagree just a little bit about like what the expectations are in Denver and when the expectations are lowered because of their unique situation that maybe it's it's not as high a pressure point as other teams.
Brongos fans didn't like it going into last season, But I'm gonna make the same point now, is like, where is the strength of this team? Give me a position group that has has much. It's a pretty bad roster. I might put it in the bottom six in the NFL. Like I think Peyton did a fine job, Sean Payton. That's why we talk about Kevin Sun. They find job coaching up what they had. But there's not a lot. There's not a lot to like wrap your arms around here and feel good about for the Broncos. So I'm
with you. They need some talent and fuse it and if it and it's tricky like b Nicks as the second rounder feels okay, Bonnicks if you take them in the top fifteen feels a little rich.
Yeah, they definitely need to get beat all right. We started with two bad teams, two sad teams. A bad team in a sad Panthers are kind of sad and bad.
Anyway.
Panthers Broncos two teams that are looking up at hill.
I want to look at.
I want to talk about a team that's in a really the opposite place, but I kind of attached the headlines to these. So the headline here is take a window, for granted, and soon enough it will be a wall. M I like that pretty good. Made that one up. Talk about the Packers, and yeah, Brian Gouda Kuntz has been there for a while now. He survived the Aaron Rodgers power struggle, handled it beautifully looking back on it, nailed the Jordan Love pick. You have Matt Lafleur there,
his sixth season with the team. There's been a lot of success in those six seasons, but also they have not gotten to the big one with Lafleur. And then that's this is an organization that expects to get back to the super Bowl. And last year's the whole last season they went nine to eight, They closed very strong. Obviously, they went into the playoffs, they were the team nobody wanted to play. They took the gave the Lions all that they could handle. And now it is understood that
this is the year that they make that leap. And it better be because I think that these windows, especially at the Jordan Love situation, Greggie, and maybe you can provide just a little clarity because of his situation, where is he that contract was.
He's entering the second year of a two year contract. They're probably gonna give him a new contract this offseason. If I had to guess in the summer.
Yeah, and then things get a little more difficult for the Packers. And so what you have with their situation. They have the twenty fifth overall pick and they have an early second round pick that is the Aaron Rodgers trade. It was going to be a first rounder, but Rogers didn't reach the percentage of snaps because of his injury, of course, so they get a second rounder, so that is the ninth pick the second round. They also have the twenty sixth pick of the second round, and they
have two third round picks. So that's pretty nice they have for a team coming off a successful season with a really exciting young corps.
They now have five picks out.
Of the first ninety one, including three in the top sixty. And I think the pressure here is it's not like Gudakun is going to lose his job, but this is look at the Bills as a recent example, or what the Lions are now entering as they come into what feels like a big time important year for their organization.
I could have talked about the Lions in this exercise. This is kind of the year.
And if Guta Kunz nails this draft and makes smart moves and picks up, hits the first round pick, and then gets value in those ever valuable second and third rounds, that could really fill out whatever ills this roster at this point, whether they decide they want to go after an offensive tackle, even though they had a pretty good season from Rashid Walker who filled in for Bacdiari, but that's a former seventh round pick. You want to upgrade at that position. If you want to add some help
to the defense. You finally made the decision and change defensive coordinators. But do you want to add more talent there? I suspect that they will, and they'll be aggressive addressing the defense because the offense is in a very good place overall. But this is such a pivotal moment in recent Packers' history because if you hit this draft, look out,
you could be hoisted in Lombardi in February. If you miss on it, you could be the next Bills a team that could have, would have, should have, that was on the make and then never got there.
I would just say, like one thing though, quick though, because I see what you're saying that it's could swing either way. But you know, with the way the Packers operate in general, like I would give Goody like an A if not in almost an a plus on rebuilding the offense, because in a way, even though Aaron Rodgers is Aaron Rodgers, it was a little bit of a
progress stopper. And we're only only like four months removed from finding out that Jordan Love can play, and now I think like the hope is gushing out of the organization. They went back to back MVPs before that last season. No I know, but I guess it's more like you, like, in a way, they found a good quarterback in Love, but then you his rookie contract has been eaten up by that situation.
It's two different things in a way.
But like they're pretty conservative with what they do with their front office and stuff, and I think Goody has to be as safe a GM is anyone in a division in a way.
But also.
Because I'm not talking about I don't see this segment as like who's on the hot seat. Necessarily, it's about like who is in kind of in many cases it will be, and probably the other teams that bring up it will be. But in good cunts the situation, it's more like, here is a moment and it might not be on everyone's radar that this kind of could be the year that separates them and makes them a true super Bowl team if he hits it, and it's like a moment in time before love gets that big deal.
Well, I think you said that he would be in trouble for some reason if things went, if this draft and go well, which maybe you weren't.
But you would live with regret more than he'd be in trou Okay, I.
Think that's so true that as you were talking and I'm thinking about it, like they have a chance to really set themselves up as the consistent team in the NFC. A young quarterback and a really good young core, a lot of which is on offense.
That's that's how you win consistently.
And when you say watch out, you turn into the Bills, And part of me thinks like, well, you should be so lucky.
I mean, they did win.
Like the most amount of games over the last four years, and I don't view the Vill's story as remotely closed. To me, Josh Allen is in the middle of their prime and so their windows open. So consistent winning is what they want. You want to get a little over the top and some good picks on defense, especially, I think in the secondary. Mate, maybe you get a little younger with the pass rush. But they're a team unlike
the Broncos. Where I look around, I see a lot of strengths and I don't see a ton of huge, screaming needs.
You mentioned a couple of them.
I think they'll definitely address the secondary at some point with those first three picks.
But he's in a good spot.
I mean, if Damashek does that list of like the greatest positions in sports, and you know he puts like Bruins center and Yankees something I don't even remember what it was centerfield, It's like, how about Packers GM going from Wolf to Thompson to Guda Kunst.
You know that's pretty good.
I feel like.
Most of Dave's like cross sports points just circle back to Mario Lemieux.
Yes, it's it is.
The center I think is like number one all time or something.
All right, Let's take a break and then we will go around again talking about different teams that the decision makers.
What am I calling this again? Pressure points? Was decision making team builders? Pretty good? All right, we'll be right back.
Right everybody, you never played that, Thank you very much, Greg Rosenthal who said that. Uh, by the way, Greg, any have you given any thought so far about the Delaware tapes now that they are in the possession?
No mean, despite you know, the firestorm on of interest on social media. Wait, no, I haven't heard from one listener on this thing. Nobody cares. We waited too long for this bit. The desire has really diminished over the years. After the listeners are like, what's Dan even talking about? It's this is from eight years ago.
What a mistake that was? Everyone, all the soldiers of the ATN Army. Please hit up Greg on Twitter. We need and let him know that you do want to hear the Delaware tapes and and and it would be a win, Mark, like you said, a win for everyone, a win for you.
And I think so, I think, like you know, when we're hearing the innocent voices of children, you know, young minds and hearts asking that this be the wish that were fulfilled not only just for us, but for the future generations.
So I think it's important.
Yeah, that was a rookie mistake by me, and I know you're not. I will be turning off notifications until Monday, April fifteenth, all.
Right, so start sending this on Monday April fifteenth now. And I know you're not in it for the glory, but just think, Greg, that you two could have a sign football from Dabo Sweeney.
Like me that I helped.
I potentially played a role in the I'm gonna say an orphanage that was erected in the Clemson region. I'm not sure, but I did play role because I got that ball. You too could have some type of artifacts celebrating your great Filmthrampic mind.
I think it was thanking you for speaking to the Young Capitalists of America conference or something.
So let's come down with the Orphanage.
Young Capitalists of America. That is so that's so false.
So anyway, again, just before we get back to it, who wins Mark and I, who wins the audience, and who wins the Santa Monica Food Bank as an example, we will donate on behalf of Greg if he lets us all here the Delaware his Prague acid rock group from the mid nineties in high school out of western Massachusetts. Some of their great work includes I have it under Delaware, bio under stickies on my laptop, how.
Do you want to cook? Shiny Men went to frog Town. These are all output from Delaware. All right, let's get back to it.
We must listen to Delaware.
Shy Man went to Frogtown. You're up, Greg, I'm gonna go with Brandon Bean point you.
Know, I started with Carolina. Let's go to a former Panthers staffer here, Brandon Bean who arrived in Buffalo after one season of Sean mcdermotty. He joined his power there twenty eighteen. I think what they've done since McDermott got there could be taught at like a sports business school of how to rebuild a franchise through picks, through trade, through free agency, how to take something where there was
basically nothing and create a consistent winner. Hopefully they you know, for them, they get a Super Bowl eventually, and it really completes that story.
But I think he was excellent.
But you look at the track record over the last few years and in the draft specifically, there's just not enough home runs. There's a bunch of singles, Like at Oliver, you found a guy who you can kind of build around.
That was twenty nineteen. For the most part, all.
Their best player, their core players, were found back then when they first got their seventeen eighteen nineteen, maybe twenty, and since then they've been hitting singles. He needs this fine guys that can be around now. They don't pick until late. I've seen some stuff that maybe they trade up for wide receiver. I think that's crazy because they do have some fifths and sixth in this class where they can trade to move around. But I think they need to find two or three real difference makers in
the top seventy five picks. We're going to talk receiver tomorrow, but you know their number one receiver right now out wide is Curtis Samuel or Khalil Shiftier.
I don't even know who.
Geez it's concaid. I mean they need a wide receiver.
They've signaled that they're really happy with their offensive line. They recently signed Layout Collins too, so I think that's one area they won't hit. But especially in the secondary, the defense and at wide receiver, They need core guys. They need the bills that are gonna help carry Josh Allen to where he hasn't gone before. I think he can do it because he's done it before. But they're they're starting to run out of time. I liked the
draft last year. It worked out okay, but they need to start stacking him.
One thing I don't like about Buffalo's situation is when you know, less than a month before the draft, you created a burning need at a you know, for an offense that you know you can say, Josh Allen, go do it all on, it's on his own. Well, no, we can't. Like, that's just not how this is going to work. And so you have to go find that
wide receiver. It's absolutely you need to use it. You might need a trade up if you fall in love us on, but then you need that wide receiver to like produce right away.
I just don't love the situation. I think things. I think there is a.
Lot of pressure on the coach, there's a lot of pressure on the quarterback. There's a lot of pressure on the front office. And they were they did Brandon Bean did such a good job building this thing. But they're in a place that they did not plan to be I don't think on any level right now.
And they could they could make an aggressive move up the board potentially to grab one of these top wide receivers, but it might end up being more likely that with that twenty eighth overall pick, or even in this second round where they pick sixtieth. Yeah, they have to be sharper than ever and identify someone that is a high
value guy and hope they hit on it. They see I agree with it you're saying, Mark, They just seem very kind of vulnerable where they where they are right now, and if you were going to trade digs, the timing of it post free agency, pre draft almost just puts more pressure on the organization to hit on something. And it's not easy to hit on these guys. It's as
good as this wide receiver classes. And like Greg said, we're going to talk about that episode later this week, Like, it's not easy to land on the guy that actually turns into a big time pro, and they need a.
Guy who's going to be a big time pro. They're trying to win a super Bowl.
It's not good enough anymore just to go twelve and five or thirteen and four. Immense pressure in Western New York. That was that, GREGI Marky.
I mean, I think the most interesting spot in the first round is number four there on the Cardinals. And I think with some of these guys, like with Brandon Bean, you can look back and say, well, what have his drafts been? And with Monte Austin Fort their GM, I'm less concerned with. You know, he doesn't have that track record, but he did. He almost reminds me of our old guy Sashi Brown, where he came in with a very distinct strategy they used last year to compile draft picks.
They didn't trade Kyler Murray, which was kind of this thing that people, you know, I thought might happen. But they're cool at quarterback, so they're not a candidate to take a quarterback at number four.
They talk about a team that needs wide receivers.
They've got Michael Wilson, who I like, Greg Dortch, who I like. Is these are supporting guys and Chris Moore essentially, so you know there are there another team that like, well, what do you do?
You created this burning need.
You could also, I think, obviously trade these picks to the Vikings and get a good wide receiver down down in the down the board a little bit. I guess I just cannot wait to see what they do. They've got eleven picks in this draft, and it's cool to
keep accruing them. But to go back to Sashi Brown because the one that kind of comes up is like I love the strategy because I think it's it's like you're always gonna have a team when you're number four, and they have needs all over the place, so recreate this team with young players. But that's Sashi Brown, a crewman of draft picks, and this is other teams to try this too. It's like you got to hit on
them and they missed on a lot. There was one draft where they drafted like four wide receivers and a quasi like tight end wide receiver type hybrid and like none of them worked. None of them worked, And like
that's only the beginning of how it didn't work. So I guess what I want to find out is like Monte Austin fort, great plan, good strategy, You've got you sit at the inflection point of the entire first round where you're gonna get great value like you did from the Texans a year ago, and you can't argue with that strategy. But then are you the front office, the GM, the group of people to go get the right players, because if that doesn't happen, you passed on someone like
Marvin Harrison Junior. It's like you could get a legit, bonafide likely Hall of Famer, or you can continue your draft capitol building plan. I just cannot wait to find out what they're offered, what they say yes to, what they say no do, and what they do.
They have so many needs and they're just like a little unlucky. Do you remember I sort of memory hold this game, but week seventeen, they were down twenty one to six to the Eagles and Kyler Murray ends up putting up thirty five points. This is like it felt like the bottom of the Eagles season, and yet they had more lengths to go and they won that game, and you know, they would have only won three games.
I think they would have been two picks higher if they hadn't won that game, and they would be in such a better position here to trade that number two pick for a quarterback that they could have gotten the farm for. And sometimes it is a little lucky. It's like the Panthers got this one pick for the pan I mean the Bears got this number one pick for the Panthers being like this bad. No one expected them to be this bad. So it's just like a little
bit of bad luck. And they have so many needs that it's like you could pick any position and they need it other than quarterback.
I would say maybe maybe offensive line.
I'll go glass half full in the sense that, yeah, we don't know if this management you know, and never forget ownership, and when you look at the teams are successful and teams that aren't, like it all connects like can you trust the Arizona Cardinals to make the right decision?
And if they were sitting with the number two pick, as you're saying, like, then they have to or more most likely make a decision either to draft a quarterback or they trade out of the pick, and maybe they the trade they make is great, or maybe it makes them overthink things and mess things up. The way it is now, it's almost dummy proof. It's like you got
in a top flight wide receiver year. You need a top flight wide receiver for this quarterback that you paid all this money to go Just take Marvin Harrison or whoever you think is the best wide receiver, don't overthink it and and get better overnight.
How do you mess this one up? Like, I don't know.
It seems like a tough one for even the Cardinals too, But they're like I think they're likely. I would greg, where would you put the odds that they trade it? I mean, it depends what I think the vikings are already called them. It's like I would put it at like sixty percent that they would maybe trade it. That may be a little bit high.
But or just like justin Jefferson or Jamar Chase or a player of that level to your roster right now with your quarterback that you're still trying to figure it out.
Like right, I guess that's what I mean.
I said, there's nothing wrong with trading back when there's a quarterback starve team out there and you have to pick up the phone of it.
It rings.
But also, like I feel like just taking a potential first team All Pro level wide receiver is a path to getting a lot better also, you know.
And to give my Monte Austin for credit, look, last year Will Anderson turned out to be great for Houston, But the Cardinals are happy with that trade. They already did a trade down last year, and they had a sneaky good rookie class. They got, you know, four or five real contributors, real NFL players, so they're off to a good start. I think it's a good coaching staff and the GM has done a good job so far. And yeah, Mark, I think it's significant the chances they trade.
I'd put it a little lower just because Harrison's so special that it's like forty sixty. But it feels like it could happen for sure.
Okay, I got a weird one here in terms of the headline, because I wanted to give a headline for each of these Yes, the Jaguars, let's talk about the Jaguars, Little Bartacamas, the Bartaka heads are going off right now. Got Doug Peterson, and I was thinking a headline for some reason. The phrase I do not want what I haven't got just came into my head, and that is the title of Shenado O'Connors nineteen eighty nine album that had of course nothing compares to you on it, And
I'm like, why did I think of that? Why did that just come into my brain? That seems strange? I'm not even like a huge shnade head, like a respector and rest in peace, and he is Irish. I loved Sinead O'Connor's voice, but like, it's not like I was a super fan. I don't own an album, so why did I do not want what I haven't got come
into my brain? So anyway, apparently it's a you know, it's a song off the album, and it's it's said to be about finding acceptance for what can't be changed, making peace with loss and limitation, and finding the courage to live and love.
I said that.
Kind of it's about Trevor Lawrence.
Wow, like are the Jaguars now we maybe didn't draft the savior of all saviors and and he's he could he could be very good, but there's some limitations here. He's not gonna be the guy that takes you just on his back.
But you can move on from that. You once you know that you have a.
Very good, potentially great quarterback, but maybe not a first ballot Hall of Famer. Now that we know that, we process that and maybe there's some grief involved there, but it's not the end of the world. You still have a quarterback that twenty five teams in the league, maybe twenty three teams in the league, maybe twenty teams in the league would kill to have.
So we move forward, and how do they do that? Now?
They and this is here's a quote. Do we have this quote by the way, etp from Doug Peterson.
I don't know if I'll ever get over it. I think for me, it's going to be my motivation, my fuel, you know, moving forward, you know, and I'm not going to let it cloud the vision. But at the same time, it's going to be it's going to be close in my mind as I move forward with the team.
This spring, Doug Peterson was talking about the one in five finish to the season when they were eight and three and on top of the world. They won in Houston on right around Thanksgiving to go to eight and three, and then the wheels fell off and Trevor Lawrence's injury played a big role in that, but it wasn't the only thing. The defense melted down as well. So now they have to figure out where they're at and they
have let's see, they have the seventeenth overall pick. They also and they have the forty eighth overall pick in the second round, and then they have a compensatory pick in the third round. So they have three picks in the top ninety six, two in the top fifty.
Where do you go if you're Balki? Where do you go?
If you're Doug Peterson, who took the end of that season very personally, you're definitely set at quarterback.
You believe you got to decide whether you're going to.
Make Trevor Lawrence a top five paid quarterback in the league. That's a decision that it's going to be difficult. But what do you do to try to get better in the AFC South and be as also Peterson said in that press availability at the owners meetings, like they're back to being the hunter in the AFC South, and I'm looking at like move the sticks mocks Terry and Arnold
to cornerback out of Alabama to Jacksonville. There's a lot of issues with miscommunications in the secondary, a lot of blown coverages late in the season, So that makes sense, and say also the repercussions of a move that a lot of us first guessed at the time that Trayvon Walker first overall pick when you had Aiden Hutchinson who seemed like the safer pick because Walker hasn't become the guy they expected them to be. They have a big
needed edge rusher still. So I think it's the defense where you're focused, but you can't ignore the offense that needs help. With Ridley out the door and Trevor Lawrence at a kind of an inflection point in his career, like who is he will give him the right setup and give him the cast that allows him to maximize what he is very important, a lot of pressure on the brain trust in Jacksonville.
I'd kind of maybe part of it is, like, see what type of wide receiver falls to you. They're seventeen, you said, because it is, it's a special draft on that note, and like, I kind of think it's easier when you're a team that has a couple burning needs, like they need a wide receiver, they need secondary help.
Like you maybe can't go I mean, you can go wrong with any of these picks, but you probrobably can't walk away from the first round of feeling good about whoever you add, Like it's I don't hate their spot there.
I'm higher on Trevor Lawrence maybe than you are. And I know what you're saying.
But like the injury hurt him a lot last year, but he's still like the way he ended the season before outside of the playoff game, Like he's six y six, he can run, he can do everything.
Mark, Where would you have him in your quarterback rankings right now?
Well, so, I mean the QB rank the QB Index is based on like literally the last kind of stuff we saw.
Over the off season, we just kind of doll I wipe that.
Just in general, I would say this, I think he has absolute potential to be a top ten quarter But where.
Would you put him right now? That's all I'm saying. Twelve?
Yeah, and I would too, I would put him in that territory. And I'm saying, do you is it time to give the ghost that you have the top three guy?
Not yet?
And that's all I'm saying, Yeah, just not yet. I mean that that would be like ad But.
By the way, you can win with the top ten quarterback obviously and many half so it's not the end of the world. I'm just saying him as the all world savior Peyton Manning type guy. Maybe that's the calibration that need or the recalibration that needs to be made.
Yea, I need to I need to write the list down, and I feel like I'm lower on Lawrence and consensus, but maybe not in this room. I feel I think he's still in the top ten. He's probably right around nine or ten. And that's his play so far, and I think he can get back. I think he's he had a lot of good play last year that that they were not supporting him early in the season. But they are a weird team. I agree Mark that the
need the needs aren't that screaming. They're a better version to me of the Broncos, where it's like they're average to good at most spots. Secondary to me is an especially cornerback is the biggest need.
But they feel like.
They solve something by signing Ark Armstead, but that you know that's an older player with an injury last year, and so you need defensive lineman even if it's a third edge with Walker and Alan, or if it's a defensive tackle, and they would have loved to keep Bridley, so that receiver wasn't a need, but now you go into it with aany like. I think Lawrence is emblematic of this whole team. It's sort of in the middle.
They spent a lot on the offensive line, and it's not a bad line, but they've spent a lot of resources for it to just be eh uh. And you know their guy, our guy Balki, our guy. You know, he survived a lot of different power struggles. Do you know who the coach was when Trent balk entered the building there.
That'll be ridiculous.
It was Doug Maroone, it was, you know, he was there with Moron my urban Meyer kept him around as like, okay, you can kind of be my guy who takes care of that side of things.
Uh.
Darryl Bebbll remember he was an interim head coach there for a while and now he's still here with Peterson. He had all those power struggles in San Francisco. He supposedly wants a team that's like bigger and tougher and stronger and faster than everyone. And I don't quite see that. They're they're very middle of the pack.
Hmm. I agree.
That's you know, it's time figure some things out there. All right, good stuff, let's a break and then we'll wrap things up. All right, we're back, and by the way, we're still you know, Colleen has been missing for about forty five to fifty minutes now, and it's I think where we're at now, Mark, it's gone from a search and rescue to I hate to say this a search and recovery.
Well, yeah, I mean, I think part of the difficulty is that we're still, you know, locked in our chairs trying to produce the show while realizing that we've lost our friend. And so we're going to shift into full investigation mode after the show. But if you can find the Delaware tapes, I believe we can find like a five foot one blonde.
There have been reports out there from various police scanners on the East side of Los Angeles that there's been witnesses to a young blonde woman talking about Quescia Dolfo Mensa's third year in his rebuild that that it's kind of go time. So I do feel like that might be a little bit of a clue for where to find her, just talking just on the street street street corner.
It's a little worriesing.
Colleen has become like the gone girl of this podcast over the last couple of weeks.
We just got to find her and hope she's okay.
All right, That is it for the Wednesday show, and we'll be back a little later in the week. As we said, we're gonna continue our draft wormhole and and really dig in on one of the most exciting positions or maybe the it depends quarterback wide receiver position groups in this draft, which is wide receiver.
So that's coming up later this week. Anything else to add.
Boys before we say goodbye, been a pleasure as always as always, and Mark again, not constructive criticism, but just a suggestion about your background on remote.
You have put it on my radar fully and I'm going to think about how to address it.
Oh and let me underline this with my wife got back to me. The dog rescue place is Love Leo Rescue if you are in the southern California area. It is an incredibly run organization that really put the pet first. Adopt a dog, save a life. Love Leo Rescue as a non based profit based a nonprofit based in Los Angeles. We believe all dogs deserve a second chance, so check out Love Leo.
Rescue dot org. That's where I got my.
Beloved captain and they do amazing work, So check that out. And until next time, he's the call. Where are you, Connie.
Hey, guys, thanks for listening to this episode of the Around the NFL podcast.
I can't wait to do the same.
I'd like to thank producer Eric Roberts for going into the office on an off day just so I'd have everything I need to do the show remotely.
Eric, we tried our best.
To Greg, thanks for sending out the news items so early. It's a true hero move.
You know me so well.
To Mark, my brother in anxiety, thanks for probably over preparing today. You're always ready for anything and everything. I just wish I could say that about my internet provider, especially today. And to Dan who never stops believing that my remote appearances could maybe work this time. You miss all the shots you don't take, and we've taken a whole lot of shots, so good times. Gang will reconvene in studio to properly heed the call. And now I gotta go.
I'm gonna go throw my computer into the sea.