Top 10 Offense Ratings and New NFL Slogans

west is on a plane to Tybee. A week from tonight, who after the Shield wins? Next week, Keisha and I hop on a plane and get out of incredible dedication to the Diamond Um. And on Friday show, we're gonna have a little wedding spectacular connected to the Chris and Lakisha nuptials coming up um next weekend. So we're all very excited for that big show. Today. Hey, doing great, I'm doing great. The beard is still here, it's looking good.

It's happening. It's it's gone past the point where it's a lazy thing and it's now actually, oh yeah, there's some pruning going on happening uh not really, Yeah, a little bit in the neck. It's moved into like movie roll beard like you needed to you needed it for a role, and so you grew it and it looks great. I checked with Keisha, you know. She she thought it would like mess up the wedding pictures. That's and she

she said no, she she liked it. And yeah, this this Will Brinson character got after me on Twitter thinking it was like some sort of savvy move that like I was asking your knowing she would say yes to like seem like I was a good guy. But that's not true. If Action Jackson told me to shave it, I'd shave it to tomorrow. Him boss, Henry Hodson behind the glass. We're gonna get to him in a couple

of minutes. Um about an overseas situation, which she is an expert in all matters overseas as an England native. But since you're here and you have a headset on your thoughts on Greg's beer, I like it. It's pictures of it, but um, it makes Greg look kind of older and wiser, which was yeah, yeah, okay, So a lot to get to today. Chris Westling wrote a banger Top ten NFL offenses. Um, you can get that at NFL dot com slash Westling and we're going to kind

of go through the list. That's fun. Also, our old buddy, are you kidding me? Connor Or who wrote a banger for Sports Illustrated UM and the Monday Morning Quarterback Gang the decline of the Alliance of American Football. So we'll get Connor on the horn. But but before that, we'll do news. But before that, I wanted to. It's been a while. Uh, it's time for me. And you know, I use you guys as as really a think think tank. With this some NFL slogans, I'm gonna pitch slogan slogan ideas.

Got new slogan ideas. I bet they're good. I hope you're paying her at this point. Her the great Sydney Carlson last it. I'd assume they knew on Mount Rushmore. I am attempting to get her paid as of, like as of after you asked now he is now, I mean, have your belly last. But yes, I got her paid previously. I told her that I will get her paid for this. There is a paperwork issue if you really want to since we're talking about it. Um. I managed to get her paid for the last UM song she did, and

she never did the paperwork. So it's like, I gotta, I gotta help her along together. He's doing it for the love of but I'm working with her together the conversation because what a jingle. She does, great work. Last it all Right, here we go again. These are pitches for the NFL. Uh launching slogans that will grow the game. First one, I'll start skin cells, no doubt about that. So we lean into it, Greg skin cells, skin cells. I thought you meant, like, you know, the cells, you know,

like Hans cells. Yeah, I thought was about the human body, like the real DNA stuff. No, you know, you know, sex cells. Just trying to avoid the three letter word. But anyway, here we go. The NFL get a load of the bodies on these hunks. Yes, no, maybe, so be honest, I don't think that's bad because you know, one of the things that separates the NFL is it's

popularity across gender. You know, I feel like real wide net with everyone and and a wide variety of bodies, right, I mean, whatever you're into, you would find someone to your like, you know, imagine and men too. I mean, no one talks about the male form more than Dan Hanzas, so a lot of fans out there. It covers a whole mess of demographics, alright, I know West Lakes in I got to comment on that, all right. So you always got to keep an eye on the next generation.

So and I'm not talking about Generation X or the millennials or the real young kids. So, um, how about the youth? Hey, kids watch football every Sunday or we're taking your dad. I find that fear is a very strong motivator in the young ones. It feels a little heavy handed and slightly machia valium for kids. Also like exceptionally cruel for kids who've already lost their father, right, some kids don't have the father is not at home. So it's adds to the mystery of what doesn't hit everybody.

But if I just said you know your loved one, it maybe doesn't land with anybody. You're basically hitting intact family structures where it counts. Not sure we need to play hardball with four year olds. You'll have kids one day. You'll understand they'll be fans for life. Finally, oversees a massive still we've done so much great work overseas the NFL, but still largely untapped market, huge potential. We welcome officially Henry Hotchen, Vice President of International here an NFL Media.

You can see the Hollywood sign from his office. What's up, Henry hight Dan. I'll tell you what that your first slogan there reminds me when I very first started working for the NFL. I worked for a team called the London Monits in NFL Europe, and they had a slogan, I'm really not kidding, which was come and watch fifty two men bashing their helmets, which, um, the London Monits closed down shortly after that. It wasn't a successful slogan. Yeah you know, it was a little wordy, Yeah, you know,

a mouthful there. All right, So this is what I was thinking for this one, Henry, And since you are the VP of International, you let me know. This is kind of a mad libs Hey insert country here, quit and then a disparaging play on words connected to that country's most popular sport something something NFL example, Hey England, England, quit flopping on the pitch, Come play some real football? How about that? Now about hey India, drop the cricket

bat pick up a pig skin. Yeah. I mean there's there's like three hundred years of history there that that you're asking them to essentially dispose of for your game. Time for change, Yeah, time for change. Hey, Japan, enough with the sumo wrestling. I don't know another thing that. I mean, no, I don't. I would just flatten note to all of those. Really, yeah, I thought one of those would connected. I think I like the anti flopping message.

That's the anti flopping one. I can I can kind of get behind, but I'm not sure you have to say, like everyone drop it now, now get down with this instead. All right, maybe you have a more nuance take on how to grow the game. Um, speaking of which, I whant to get a plug in here, Mark Henry, because there's something big going on over in London this September the NFL Academy tell us about it. Yeah, that's right.

So you guys, if you you know you've this year, hopefully you're going to go to a game in fact, we look at that. That's that. I don't know if that for sure, but you've seen there. Yeah, let's let's make that happen. First of all, but you've seen their

games in London. You guys have been to events in London as well, you guys would I think the start action last year for the NFL kickoff party and and so the NFL has just launched an academy in London and the the goal is to get more British players ultimately or international players into the NFL by getting kids who are really into football at young age about kids at a young age who are into football, to get them playing and to be part of this academy which

has been launched in in partnership with Tottenham, who, as you guys know, and hopefully this will be the game that we get you guys to. Tottenham now has an NFL stadium, Tottenham Hotspur and and and the NFL are going to share a stadium and so they're going to have this academy and bring kids in from the age of sixteen to nineteen. And a lot of soccer clubs in in the UK will have academies which teach the

sport but then also continue their education as well. So the goal is kind of give them this education, character education and then football on top of it, and ultimately to to get some some British players into the NFL about the idea that England proud soccer heritage, football heritage. I haven't won the World Cup in many, many, many many years. The idea of you're now going to siphon some of your best talent to a different football backfire. Uh No, I think it could. I think it could

be played. In fact, it might help more than your slogan. That might be the thing that that I mean builds the NFL. That and West has talked about some of the rugby players that have recently trying. Christian Wade is with the Bills. There's a couple other guys, guy called Ales Gray with the Falcons. So there's a there's a pipeline. But we're getting players right now who are like in their twenties much easier to start playing football and have a chance you or get him a sixteen and then

they get played college football. So that's that's really the part. But won't like the guys like Jed I especially that'll have an impact done kids seen seeing him, speaking of which he was out there you know, promoting this. There's a bunch of we gotta get him back in the NFL team out come up a little bit later in today's show. There you go. I think he'll be back

pretty soon. But yeah, there's a bunch of Actually this it's some really good Patrick mahomes O b J A couple other guys are joining in to help promote it as well. So good exciting, Henry. And that's a direct reflection of the work you're doing getting those big fish. Like I think if it as we what percentage would you say, because there's obviously there has been significant growth in terms of the international players. It's not like an explosion,

but it's significant over the last five years. Like, how much percentage credit do you take for that? Um? I mean it's as I said, it's a team effort. Everyone is involved and the cool thing is that the play is a one part and then then at least are like fans who get to watch these guys and a number to plug anymore. Now you have to give us a number of your personally responsible for these and this includes mobio morea sports I would say, I would say less than the percentage of of gs in your name.

Woll that's anywhere below sixty. Yeah, that's that's pretty good, all right. And speaking of Mobio, next time we do a Mobio update. Maybe you'll sit in again, Harry. You know what, maybe I'll bring mobile with me. Then you can look him in the eye you as you updates. It's a negative thing, it's not critical. If you can set it up. We would love to have him on the podcast. Absolutely, Henry, Thank you very much. It's been

a pleasure. I want to get any other plugs and to use no no for me, it's a thrill just to beat my favorite podcast out there. And now I get to be and see my friends hard at work and Erica as well as friend. Let's get some food. Yeah, let's do it. Okay, Friday, Actually, Greg and I having lunch on Friday. You guys are will welcome to John if you'd like to. Is that okay? Great? Please? I assumed it's it's the Friday afternoon lunch even you all right? Well,

thank you? Well, no, I know you don't like food, so could we could just call it. I don't have it delivered to my office the way that you do, So all right, let's do some news by heck bye. I'm not throwing any shade on Larry. I'm just simply saying what we're saying about death as a talent Remember, Larry Fitzgerald had to be talked out of retirement. Am I correct? Right? Larry Fitzgerald is like a Vince Carter.

He might make the whole of Fame because of the longevity and the way he was willing to keep playing without being an m d P kind of level guy anymore. Set up the best part, and that was from first take um Max Kellerman, one of the army of people over there apparently don't know anything about football, but they talk about it. Um thrown it out there that Lara Fittshell would only make the Hall of Fame because of

his what's the number? What is the term that we use for that for numbers that you just build over time compiler as a compiler, Lara fitz pilot kepad. Take also to take from Steve Smith, who likes to make things up that Larry Fitzgerald had to be talked out of retirement. Steve still technically Steve Smith, where does he get this information? He just makes it up? I mean

hete news flash all generalists. Sports programming is garbage, like every show where where the hosts have to try to bridge and like they know something about the NBA, baseball, the NHL, soccer, everything and have an opinion on it. You know more than them about your favorite sports. Like so why listen to not a sneaky shot at Mike and the Mad Dog, who I would consider generalists, I

I would agree. I mean, no, you know what they do they admit because they were not good about certain like Mike new baseball, football, basketball, and then the Horses, Bad Dog Tennis, mad Tennis baseball. Yeah that's a little different. But here's the thing though, even now, like in my in their best sports, they're gonna be bad compared to like someone that covers the sport year round. Um all right, let's get into the news life friends, the first ballot

Hall of Famer. Let's get into the news. By the way, this is uh. We're taping this Wednesday morning. Tuesday at midnight Eastern was the deadline where if a free agent was signed, um uh, the team that he was leaving could get uh compensatory pick. That no longer is the case, So that opens up, um well, hypothetically the floodgates for all these notable veterans UH to get signed. As of right now, I don't think anybody has come off the board.

I will let me throw some names out there. Well, I think we're going to mention him, but um, but that came before all that the official signing hadn't come. I got you. Here are some remaining free agents that our name brands on some level that don't have jobs right now. J G I as we just brought up, Michael Crabtree, Corey Legit and Dominan Sue, Ziggy Anza, Moe Wilkerson, Derek Morrigan, Jamie Collins, Mo Claiborne, Eric Berry. Um, those are all guys that can potentially help teams. Some of

those guys might not have anything in the tank. They might be just name brands. I didn't even mention Dez Bryant, but um, anybody you guys want to connect a player to a team that makes sense to be a prediction, and Dominican Sue and Titans makes some sense. They drafted Jeffrey Simmons in the first round because he's coming off

an a c L injury. He might not be ready for Week one, and the Titans defensive line coach Terrell Williams was Sue's position coach in Miami for three years, so there could be a fit there and can't wait there. So you just rebuild that monstrous Dolphins defense from a few years ago. I think Eric Berries had um a tough realization this offseason in terms of the contract that he thought he might get in free agency, and so

he's gonna have to accept something at some point. The Cowboys are the only team that have showed interest in him. I know they signed Georgia Loco, that should not prevent them from maybe signing Berry in the future, and I would think they'll still give him a little extra guap than any other team out there. I mean, what about John Dorsey. With Jabrill Peppers out the door, they haven't

really filled that they have. They have some veterans there, but there's those are guys get like Zeianta can help a team if he's remotely healthy. Jamie Collins can help a team. He's not like gonna change your roster, but he can play snaps still, maybe the Chief they've got these lumbering linebackers like Anthony Hitchens and Reggie Raglan. You need a little more athleticism and that Morris Claiborne could definitely help the Jets they choose to bring him back.

He's twenty nine now, He's always battingly battling injuries and he's not healthy, but they are very thin at quarterback. And remember they gave Trueman Johnson a ton of money last offseason and he was a bust. To just assume that he will get back on track would not be wise, so they should have something. This, by the way, is a is a thing for almost the first time, this

post compensatory pick deadline. This has existed for years, but no one was ever paying attention to it before, and NFL teams weren't really other than the Ravens and the Patriots and a few others weren't smart enough to really pay attention to it before. And now I think it's become a thing where these players are better than the

normal crop. Like the comp pick deal started to get written about, and there were features written about how Baltimore and New England dealt with the different again getting two more thirds next year. I think it's a good way to do it. Moving on, uh, Jason Pierre Paul is having another um off the field issue that could really haunt him. This time it was a single car accident

that he was involved with in Florida. It's led to a neck injury and Tom Pellicero, NFL Network reported on Tuesday, he'll get a second opinion on the injury, but it doesn't sound great. He's seeing a bunch of doctors and if he does need surgery, and we're hearing um talk out there that this is gonna be a potential extended absence, it would likely lead to a five to six month recovery, could knock him out for most of the two thousand

nineteen season. Um there is some hope. Pellisera reports that he would not require surgery and could be ready for Week one, but that potentially uh could be overly optimistic. We'll have to see how it plays out West. How big a loss would that be for a Bucks team trying to get on track. It's a huge twelve and a half sacks last year, and you look behind him, Shaq Barrett, Carl Nassib, even a guy like Noah Spence who fell out of favor with the last coaching staff.

You wonder where that pass rush is gonna come from. Those guys might be good for six or seven sacks apiece, but not double digits. And I think you wonder if will they go through with cutting Gerald McCoy If they also was Jason Pierre Paul. Yeah, I this injury really made me think about his Star Cross career. Of course, losing you know, his his finger in the Firecracker accident.

If you had told me after yeah, if you had told me after eleven, when he was a first team All Pro and to me was maybe the best player on a on a super Bowl champion team in terms of like the course of the entire season, that he was going to be a Hall of Famer. Like I always said, Yeah, that that's kind of what I'm expecting or not. You know, he's a twenty two year old, so he's kind of I would I don't want to

say a disappointing career, but it's you. You thought at that point he was gonna be like a much bigger figure throughout this decade than it really has been. I know some people are asking, what, because there's not a lot of details about the single car accident, what does that mean it is possible to get into a single car accident. I can tell you from personal experience. I've

known Mark for like eight and a half years. I've been in a car with him behind the wheel once and it was a drive from NFL Network to a local tavern that was about a mile away. And that's the only time I've ever seen twice because I once dropped you off to pick your car up about two and a half blocks from here. How did you do? Um? I thought he hit a curb. Maybe No, I did not at once and did just find we did get lost. It's I think it shows a level of of self confidence. Actually,

how you own this. Most people, if you're not a good driver or whatever, you're trying to hide behind that, but you know who you are. It's it's and at this point it's not going to get any better. So and yeah, like an ability to recognize one's limits. You don't even try to drive you like, it's not my thing. I don't do it. It is a crystal clear limit. Yeah. Um, Greg mentioned Jared Velder. The Patriots will sign the veteran offensive to tackle pretty nice money one year deal up

to six and a half million. What does that mean. It's probably like a million and a half base salary. Better be for this guy. Um. Anyway, I'm just saying he's up to. It's like, okay, if he starts sixteen games, that's probably his up to. And but there's no chance he or there shouldn't be much of a chance he is. Well that that's why I brought this up. He turns thirty two. He's a journeyman lineman. The Patriots said, let's

get him in here. Uh what's your pea scale on the Pat's offensive line right now in front of a soon to be forty two year old quarterback. Oh, very low. I think it's the greatest. The best offensive line in Patriots history is returning four of five starters. They they do have to replace their left tackle, but they're replacing him with the first round pick was coming off a major injury, but their first round pick from a year ago,

and they drafted another guy in the third round. I do think vel Dear may sense because it's why it's incredibly thin. After that they have like no veterans, uh if it's thin, and also it's onely untested unknown uh quantity at left tackle? Yeah that hashtag Dante Scarnecia. Yeah, but you have a first and a third round pick there. You know. Conjuiced? Is that the is he related to the other conjuiced from the Browns? David David? They also someone named Tyree St. Louis. I like people whose last

names doublest city names. It's not often always fun, always fun. Moving on, UH, we haven't touched on this. I'm just curious everyone's thoughts on it. Levian Bell, of course sat out all of the last season with the Steelers of our contract dispute, UH, and then signed a huge deal in free agency with the Jets, but has opted not to take part in the voluntary workouts with the Jets,

instead training with his own people doing his thing. He's gotten criticized, UM, I guess on social media for it, and probably on shows like uh First Take, But he wrote on social media on Monday, when it's time to play football, I gotta stick to the formula that I know works for me to be the best player I can be. I'm not just trying to win football games.

I want a ring West. Would this annoy you? It doesn't annoy Adam Gaze, he says, Would it annoy you if you were the head coach, I'd be slightly annoyed because of the deal he signed. And you want him to come in and send an example. UM, I would look at this slightly different from the Jaguars, where I've ripped on Jalen Ramsey because they have a leadership vacuum there and he's supposed to be the best player on the team. I'd like to see him send an example

left Bell. I think this will probably be a non issue by September. I feel like it's either not voluntary in the sense that if you don't show up, the media around it turns it into something where then it becomes a social media thing where lev Bell has to

deal with it everyone else does. This does feel a little different to me in the one sense it unless he was going to do the most extra thing ever, which what I would totally applaud to sit out the entire season for more money from the Jets is like, why not get in there with your teammates and make a good first impression? Would it kill you that much? How long are these ots go up there for a couple of days and not and just don't make this a story. But he may be thinking his training regiment

may have him thinking completely different. I don't know what he's not worried. Give him the bet of the dad. He's a multiple time All Pro, he has a system. I don't argue. I don't think it's anything to care about. But then it's annoying to me that it's a story because every person that doesn't show up to these things, it becomes a story. So leave it alone. Then people got to realize Levian Bell, it's one of the best

running backs the last twenty years. It's like the lack of respect for him just when you talked about like people think he's over the hell, he's twenty seven years old. Give me a break, He'll be fine. Last football game was that Jaguar's playoff flows. I got some breaking news. Devon and Yanni coroduced not only are they not related, but Yadney said, everybody keeps asking me if we were related,

but I don't even know who he is. Little he, little he, And if you look at this, the skin the skin tone, nobody should have been asking him, um, if they were related. Oh that's not always necessarily an indicator. That's true. Conclusions, that's fair. But it's a pretty dramatic difference. I mean, but it doesn't matter how much of a difference. It makes sense that we asked the question, but in person, I don't know. I also had no idea what Yadney

could used to look like. I mean, I'm saying if you're in person, and I let me just say that, although the bar has not been raised in terms of the level of importance to the NFL world, I do believe you're breaking news. Um in breaks here are getting more entertaining, and that's the most important. There was a while they were they were just completely superfluous, and now there's a Now there's actually have to talk about off them. So bravo. Thank that's what's happening in the news, all right.

Chris Westling wrote a banger. Oh my goodness, he wrote a banger. Uh. It is called the NFL's Top ten Offenses. What does the J stand for Christophe J. Westling? I don't know. I thought in the rundown I put Christophe J. Westling's top offense rankings. I can't remember what your middle name was, so I just guessed Jay. But am I wrong? Robert Christoph R. Westling? Okay, well we like to say Christopher R. West Christoph's not that that's a French that's

the French uh pronunciation. Um, so you wrote a banger. This is one of your pieces you do every year, and uh as always great work. Clearly a man that put in the effort and did the work, did the research, and you broke it down by you know, positions, quarterback room, the backfield, receiving corps, offensive line, uh and giving out letter grades and nice rundowns. And at the top of

the list you have New Orleans Saints. And let me say that I am a little bit surprised because you've been beating the drum a little bit about your and you wrote about this in the piece. Um, you were a little worried about Drew Brees, how he performed down the stretch, Um, And now this is about spinning forward. I guess you're not too concerned ultimately that Brees is not a guy in decline at age forty. Well, this is much less about the Saints and much more about

the fact that everyone has questions. Every team asked questions, and maybe the Colts have fewer questions. But you know, but that's a big question around that offense. But I my guess is that Drew Brees was hiding an injury for six weeks and it's not really that he's fallen off a cliff. We don't know the answer to that, but on all of these so every team has questions, and every fan base has come at me this week saying, well, this is the best case scenario for our team, they

should be the top ten. Well, I did that for thirty two teams. You did that for one. First of all, I looked at some scenarios for every team and had those debates already with myself. All these teams have questions. The Saints question to me is I have to I have to come up with some conclusion. And my conclusion is Drew Brees probably played through an injury and is not, in fact a terrible quarterback right now. You know, he also had some moments there in the Eagles game, in

the Rams game, and terrible seems strong. I do think it's natural to expect him his arm, which this has been a question for five years, whether his arm is falling off, and he always has great numbers throwing the ball down the field. But I think it's like Tom Brady, like we should be expecting Tom Brady and Drew Brees to fall off. It's outrageous that they haven't that much. And Brady has, I mean, that was the worst offensive season he's had and that the Patriots offense has has

had in many more than a decade. Name another offense with three MVP candidates. I mean, that's why they're number one on this list. They've got Kamara, they got Michael Thomas, and they got Drew Brees. The Chiefs used to be up. I think, yeah. I think when you in the coaching staff and the system to me is like almost as important, not as important as the players, but the track record that they have. They're the team. You know, we talked

about like writing teams and pencil for the playoffs. They're the team you can just write in in pen as a top five or six offense. Like there's almost there's so little chance that they're just gonna fall off a cliff mark Ingram to Latavius Murray to you, is that that's sound great? A significant Um? I would call it fairly significant. But I also think that Jared Cook is a major upgrade over who played tight end for them last year, so they sort of balance out in my mind.

Let's move on number two. Unless you got the Cults not a surprise. This is a big fan of this Colts team and where they're headed. Um, Greg, do you have any reservations about this indie team or is it let it rip and see how they score? You know, after no, I don't. I was a little surprised they got up to number two. But then I see what west is point that there's that there were very few teams that were just that you couldn't make the case.

So to me, they would be in the next they would be one of the next five or six teams, and I wouldn't have argued. And after going through the rosters, I agree with West. I showed a little too much disrespect earlier in the week on this YouTube hit that we did. People should check out Worst the First. I don't know Erica, not yet, but it will be just like, just go onto YouTube every twenty five minutes or so

until then and right Worst the First. Uh? And and you thought I didn't show enough respect to not just kind of put the in your right. Their roster has almost no holes in it top to bottom. After doing the projected starters exercise on them, they should be absolutely the favorite in the n f C South. And it's because the offensive line to start is maybe the strength of the team, which is a shocking thing to say

about the Colts. I can't wait to see what when Chris Pallert focused on the offensive line, frog on defense and now it's like what went wait till he uses a draft two to hit specifically offensive skill position players. But they did grab Paris Campbell. Do you need him to be a home run out of the gate to maintain looking at their wide receiver, that's the only spot I had questions because I know we trust um uh the GM's judgment here, but Devin Funches was never a

breakout guy. You kind of assuming he's gonna take the next step in into here. So they were a top five offense and waited dvr um And now you add Devin Funchis who playing with a more accurate quarterback. I think that that is a good fit just because they needed a size, physical wide receiver in Indy. I think that's a good fit. Paris Campbell, I think as a wild card. And then you also have Dion Kane, who they absolutely loved last year and I think is one

of the reasons why they let Ryan Grant go. Why don trelle Imman hasn't resigned because they like Deon Kane coming off that a c L injury. I think this this offense is load it. I think Jack Doyle coming off the hip surgery is crucial for them you know, like they're counting on him, or they would love to count on him. He's gonna play more snaps than Eric Gibron if he's healthy, and he's always been a big asset, but he wasn't quite the same last year, and he's

coming off a big surgery. So I think for them that's a big question. But the line and Frank Reich makes Maybe it's a limited sample tized, but at this point, like Reich is right there with me with any offensive play caller in the league. Well, and we'll get to but Frank Reich is has his name all over this this This top ten lists number three the Philadelphia Eagles, where he was the form of offensive coordinator. You have

them at three. You know, this one jumped out of me and I would would not question was but you have them ahead of the Falcons at four and the Rams at five, and then the Chiefs that fall out of the top five. You have them at six. Right now, Why are you so bullish on the Eagles being a truly elite offense in twenty Well, the number one takeaway from this exercise this year as opposed to other years, is that out of top fifteen offenses in d v

o A last year. The Colts, Falcons, and Eagles look to me like the only ones that can be expected to be improved. Everyone else lost too much and didn't gain enough. Everyone else has major questions. The Eagles revamped their backfield, revamped their wide receiver corps, added to their offensive line, get Carson Wentz back presumably healthy. To me, they're absolutely loaded on offense. Wentz is kind of the Wentz playing more consistently to me, is the key to

all of that. Because you're right, I think Dallas Godder is kind of a sleeping giant there. If he was on another team, he might be headed to a Pro Bowl. They might have two Pro Bowl quality type tight ends. Along with adding d Jackson in some draft picks. I love also that you know, two years ago when they won the Super Bowl, they had a stocked back field with different type of runners, and they have it again.

I liked for me, I like Josh Adams last year, and you have added a guy in essentially Jordan Howard, who is a he can do a lot fore and Miles Sanders they love. I mean, they may not even make the team. Josh Adams at this point. I mean he'll be battling for him in smallwood and coming off major surgery too. But say, a lot of people thought Sanders was the best running back in this class. So for the record, Dan totally just flaming your Eagles pick,

But the rest of us love you as well. I don't really care about the numbers besides the away like, I didn't really flame him either, but that's fine. Um, Yeah, the Falcons at four, that one kind of makes sense. And and I guess West You've said that you feel that the outgoing offensive coordinator Steve Sarkisian was scapegoat a little bit um in Atlanta. Well, in comes dirt Cutter to take over that old job again, and maybe there's

you know, there's a lot of talent there. Obviously, this to me, this looks like the best wide receiver corps in the NFL. With Calvin Ridley scoring tech touchdowns as a rookie, and then you expect him to get better. Mohammed Sanu is a really good number two, and they have the luxury of using him as a three this year. Julio Jones obviously is great. And then you know Austin Hooper had a kind of a breakout. You're at tight end. I think, if you can protect Matt Ryan, this is

a great well. They added a ton of offensive linemen so everyone So then you're just like, you know, are people in Atlanta are certainly thinking, Okay, well that's solved. But it's like it's not that easy, you know what I mean. We we fall into this and I'm guilty of it too. Of just like, okay, let's slot in that second round guard, he's going to help out, and have you know, more times than that he doesn't help out.

So that's why I was. If I was gonna say I was surprised about anything on this list, it was that the Rams and the Chiefs were as low as they were there. The next two five and six Chiefs didn't even make the first here. I would definitely put them ahead of the Falcons. I think I would put them two in three on my list because I think continuity,

consistency coaching. They have those, and they and the Chiefs specifically have Patrick Mahomes, And to me that that's an edge where I would put them right there, maybe maybe at the top one and two if I was ranking quarterbacks. Sure, but I've made my feelings on Tyreek Hills football ability known on this podcast, he is the best most important skill position player in the NFL, and I'm not going to change that. They were a great offense with Alex

Smith and that had Tyreek Hill. So I guess we'll kind of see, you know, we'll see me Tyreek Hill was the m v P like on that team the last two years. Stay tuned for the end of the podcast to find out if Wes changes his opinion from Tyree Hill. How about if he's the number one most important skill player, Todd Gurley has got to be in

that conversation behind him. Absolutely. If Todd Gurley, uh, if we turned back the clock a year ago and there was no such thing as arthretic knee condition potentially and to talk about two running back sets and all this stuff, where would the Rams be on this list of Todd Gurley had no question marks. If Todd Gurley had no question marks, Cooper Cup wasn't coming off in a c L and Jared Goff wasn't in an extended slump. For the last two months of the season, they've been the

top two or three, maybe number one girly specific. That's why they're not top three because they have sumed too many questions, but all those ifs would have put them where they were at the mid season of last year when they were the premier offense. That that's a lot to overcome coming out of this offseason. Yeah, Cup, I mean at this point, guys coming off a CLS. I

know you always say that, but it's not true. It's a concern they don't always return as the same play off is the bigger concern for me really of all three of those, because with Malcolm Brown and Darrell Henderson in their offensive line, and Sean McVeigh and whatever, and Girly of course, it's not like he's not there. I'm

not that worried about their running game. But goff, whether he's closer to the middle of the NFL in terms of starting quarterbacks or what he showed in the first five weeks last year, like that to me is the number, Like, that's a bigger question. I think that's fair. I think it's fair. He's still a really young starting quarterback. I do. I think age is more important than we give it.

That like the fact that him and Baker Mayfield essentially, like I do give Golf a little bit of leeway there that he's so young, even though he's played a lot um and the rest of the top ten mark there's one team I know is jumping out to you. Yeah, bro, yeah Bro. Let it rip at number seven. I mean, I would say I've been reading the Wesleyan lists for you know, years and years, and well it's just not hard. It's much hard, much harder to write them than read them.

But the fact that the Browns are number seven and literally anything on any of these lists ever, to me, I'm not shocked by it by based on what they have, I do wonder where you would have put them coming out of last year in terms of one through thirty two Ballpark pre O, b J pre I guess Kareem Hunt. Later part of the year, they were still an interesting, productive offense, but middle of the pack. I actually feel like this number seven is conservative. I did too, um.

I I see them as easily top five potential, and I think coming out of last year they were a top ten offense and waited d V d v O A, which weighs the end of the season much more than the beginning of this season. It's more reflective of how how they were playing at the end of the year. And I think they already were a top ten offense. Thing you had O'Dell Beckham. My concern though, is is the offensive line. They did a nice job obviously down

the stretch with coaching patches. You're still relying in theory on Greg Robinson to play left tackle for sixteen games. Chris Hubbards no stand out on the right side, So when your tackles are potential weak spots and left tackles, definitely that's a concern. I just think it's a hard ask for the coaching to have to get everyone on the same page right away, just because it's a lot of new pieces. But I think that will be kind of balanced off by Baker Mayfield just getting better. I mean,

he was a rookie last year. He should This is when they should take the biggest leap of his career. The Packers cracked the top ten. I I can almost guarantee in West and the five or so years you've been doing this on the site that this is the lowest they've been Because Aaron Rodgers offense is always get the better of the doubt that they're gonna soar, But now there's a little more doubt. Even with the coaching razine change. Uh, but this makes sense back Aaron Rodgers

put him in the top ten. I can't imagine doing this list in future years and not having the Packers in the top ten just because they have Aaron Rodgers. As long as they have him, they're gonna get respect for me. That's true. Now, if you think about it, West, then we look good. Now we scrolled down at the end of this assignment offensive knocking on the door. You think about it, What does it mean really just to

throw a team on there? What is it? You know, how does it affect you personally or listeners or people you consider friends. Would have really really hurt? Would it really like bothered you just to throw the Jets on there solely for me, like as like a Dan, thanks for being a good friends. Here your your groomsmen. I'm just I'm gonna throw them on the knocking on the door just because I like you. Well, that would have

been so hard. That's a fair question, and I appreciate you asking that, But for honesty's sake, they were not like the final cut. I mean, you have a Tennessee Titans, their their quarterbacks throwing eighteen touchdowns in the last twenty three games. Uh, you know, their third eye. I mean, if there's one fan base that that come and I and I don't even disagree because I think they have

to fall off at some point. But the Patriots, for all the struggles that they had ended you talked about waited d v o A. For offense, I mean, they ended up top four in the league last year. They were a top five offense overall. They've they've been a top five offense I think for ten straight years. So even though going into the season the rosters got some issues, it's good on the line, it's pretty good in the backfield.

I think Brady is still an asset. It's a type of team that maybe not September, but I kind of expect them to be a top ten offense in the long run. It you know what I mean, I mean, I get it. Nobody everybody thinks the Patriot can just keep losing guys and getting older and they'll never suffer any consequences. I know that's the feeling everybody here. I don't. I don't have that. I think I've said the opposite.

I think I think the receiving corps is atrocious. I think for them falling off to eight or nine offense is kind of dramatic and changes the way that they've they've been if they don't have Josh Gordon. You're right, the Whiteouts are are pretty rough and their quarter back is another year older and already defined last year. Yeah, Dan likes that. At least it's happening. Um, good stuff, West, Great,

thanks UM NFL dot com slash Westling. I just thought, you know, wait a minute, Um, all right, it is now time one of our favorite people, Um from the Around the NFL podcast, Long Rich History. Uh, a former colleague of ours, A man who um has one of the more popular enduring segments on this show. Or are you kidding me? Where he grinds you know what's grinding his gears? Well, that's not what today is going to

be about. Today is about a piece he wrote, a long form about the rise, the curious rise and rapid decline of the A A F. It's a great piece, getting a lot of good buzz about it. So let's talk to him. Connor or welcome to the Around the NFL Podcast, wolos Connor, Hey Connor, that was fun. It's on. You're it? Well, I mean I think so you like, do you answer robot calls that way? So you you

thought it was probably the NFL calling. I know. I well, actually that I called somebody else from a Culver City number for a story like two days ago, and I didn't I didn't know if when whenever you guys give me a time, I'm always like, is it eastern or not? And so you know, I just kind of roll with it. I'm more excited about what Culver City number you were calling. Finally doing that Amber THEO Harris profile. Maybe Uh. All I can say is watch out, guys, you know, look

look out. Yeah, sounds which wouldn't surprise me. Connor, and yes, welcome to the show. Good to have you back, because you know, there's a term in the industry about owning a story, Connor owning this a a F story, And it's a good one to own, and it's a great piece. If you go, um, look at look it up. It's in Sports Illustrated, it's online. Um, the Rise and Fall of the a A F. What is the actual headline

I should have that it's a bad job. I made the spectacular, the curious rise and spectacular crash of the Alliance of American football. Um, it's like a book title, and you do a great job kind of giving the the story behind it. Um, what would you say, what is like the overall thesis at the end of when you have to kind of um put a bow on it. What this story is ultimately about. Uh, you know, it's a it's about a bunch of people who like who

love football. Um. You know football players, staffers, ticket sales people. Um, that sort of got sucked into this pipe dream. Um. Uh you know by this guy who promised them that they had three three years worth of funding and uh promised him that they would have jobs. And then all of a sudden, eight weeks into of their inaugural season. Uh,

you know, the lead just shuts down. And you know, from beginning to end, there were just so many pitfalls from their initial funder is uh is now about to be on trial for bank fraud um and may have like toppled the cryptocurrency industry. And then um, you know there's their second funder, the owner of the Carolina Hurricanes, a hardcore business guy who didn't share their vision. And so obviously when profits started running out or you know, the profit margin is in, Um, he just decided to

shut the league down. So it was it was crazy. I mean for something that only lasted eight weeks, it really was like a heavy thing for a lot of people. Yeah, because I think it like what would what was the excitement level just from from Afar and reading your stuff and and talking to a few people, I think like

it's underrated. What an exciting opportunity this was for so many people, not just the players of course, but the coaches in the front office and the people behind the scene who saw the as kind of as as like another way into professional football if they weren't in it currently. Yeah. And I mean if you look at it from the outside, like if you got the same sales pitch that all these people got, you would be excited, right because not only you know, you have guaranteed three year contracts, So

that's that's like great. I mean you don't get that in any other job. And then you know, we have this technology, we have you know, tech people from Yahoo and Tesla and Lockheed Martin. If we're going to become um so tech savvy that the NFL is going to want to partner with us, And so you're sitting there thinking like, oh, this is a good idea like why aren't other people doing this? And you feel like you're on the ground floor of something which is a lot

with a lot of people. Felt like you know that this was going to be the next you know, Apple or Facebook or this next big startup that they were going to be a part of. I thought you blended the I guess sort of the tension between the tech people in the building for each of these teams and the football people in a really in a really um interesting way in this story, where there were grumblings at times where the actual play caller was get being paid less than one of their sort of high octane think

tank tech guys. But I would read this for Connor or the writer because knowing we all know Connor from our days of being he's always been remote on sort of our chat client with him for hours. You get the real Connor, and a lot of it comes out in this. I love little tiny nuggets. I'll give you a couple one where the team communications app warned a player during this whole meltdown about having to pull away expensive bottles of Cholula hot sauce out of the dining

era area. You dig into a Memphis express part of the article by hitting on It's so don Delilo to me, I know you love like hitting on their hotel room. There's so Nesta e s sweets on Old Poplar Pike Road, and you dig into what happens at Senesta for like paragraph, graph after graph, and it's just a fascinating read but interwoven with all of this. And also Charlie Eppersol using a quote from get Kevin Garnett, You're waiting for this

great vote, and the quote is anything as possible. I'm not sure Kevin Garnett came up with that, but everything throughout this thing, I do honestly feel like this could be stretched into a larger We're gonna need an A A F book, and we found the guy. The guy you've sort of you've laid the groundwork for it. I think here about that. So we actually came out with um A Part two today and I'll give you, like, uh,

sort of like a cliff notes to it. One of my favorite stories that we found out for the second part of this was during their quarterback draft. They had an initial draft right where all the team's got the chance to UM select the quarterbacks live on CBS Sports Network, and so Marshawn Lynch shows up to support his cousin Josh Johnson, who ends up getting taken number one overall.

Charlie ever Saw approaches him and says, Marshawn, would you do an interview for the Alliance to help us get everything off the ground, And Marshawn says, yeah, sure for five thousand dollars. So he writes him a che for five thousand dollars and hands it to him, and Marshawn says no in quarters. And then so in quarter the owner of the Alliance of American Football literally could do it to the front desk of the hotel and gets twenty thousand quarters delivered to Marshall on Lynch's hotel room.

He does like a two minute interview that the employees that I talked to you said they never even saw. And so there goes like down into like the annals of history. Uny, Wow, we all love Marshawn Lynch, but that sounds like a massive move, like what what is he doing? Well, he loves Papa Shot, so now he's just like he's just like got the quarters for the next two years. I look forward to seeing Connor on

the the Netflix Firefest version of this whole. There's a lot that there's a lot, there are a lot of potential revenue streams. I know, we don't want to make light of all these people that lost their jobs, but this could be a major financial boon for Connor. Two things. First of all, cholula very expensive. There's always too little in the house at the Handsas house, and it goes quickly and you added up over the years. So I

kind of get it. But the Reggie Fowler, this character that proceeded uh dundin um to me when I read the piece, and I'm sure this is oversimplifying it, but isn't his issues with the law and he got ended up getting charged with bank fraud. He's in deep. He's in deep do too. Isn't that essentially the turning point for this story, when it went from something with promise

to something that was never gonna make it. Yeah, I mean this is sort of a pivot point where you know, some people that I talked to were like, this is where they should have just said, you know what, let's stop trying to beat the XFL to the punch. Let's pause this and let's take another year to get the

funding part of this, right, but instead that's Firefest. Yeah, And and instead it was just like, oh no, I mean, let's just get another investor because we already bought all the stuff, we did all the stadium deals, so let's just let's just barrel ahead with this. And so I see that there was an element there of you know, we just have to keep going, we just have to

keep pushing through. And you know, one of the things that was interesting to me was half the people there are kind of used to this stuff, Like, you know, I don't know exactly how um aligned those experiences are, but in Silicon Valley that's kind of a deal. Right. A lot of these tech startups are fly by the seat of your pants. One day you have money, one day you don't. You just get used to it. And so there are a lot of people just sitting around saying, well, okay,

I mean that's fine. I mean, this is what happened to Uber, and so they're fine. And but you know, it's so much different. I think when you bring in the football aspect of it, and the football people who are used to the NFL and kind of the way that that it's run there, and then Fowler. Once his funds got tied up, Dundon stepped in. He promised the two fifty million, and when this all went down and went down, you know and public and it was a

huge fire, fireball of disaster for this entire company. But um, Dundon caught a lot of the heat as kind of the bad guy. Is that how you read it once you kind of dug into it or or was that was it already kind of a done deal by that point. Yeah, I mean I think it's sort of convenient to paint him as as the executioner in this. I mean, you know, I think that you could look at anybody a top that power structure and said, like, you definitely should have

done this differently. I mean, you know, you should have had a better business plan. Um, you should have vetted your funders more aggressively. Um. You know, if you're initially promising to be this funder, you should know that maybe you're getting investigated for bankrupt and you're not going to be able to have access to your money. So I think there's a lot of different things that that could

have been done there. You know, some people I talked to you said, you know, I don't blame Dundant at all, because you know, when you get into this and you start to get a look at the books, I mean, you know, if you already through seventy million dollars at something and it's not working, why would you double that or triple your investment when you don't believe that there's

going to be a return on it. And I thought the reporting initially when the whole thing utterly when you know, and on to turn on fire and just melted, was that Dundin was all after the gambling technology. But your article I put that completely to bed, that that, if anything, he was ambivalent or disinterested by that side of it.

And I thought a turning point was when he talked to TV people that said the league is gonna need to keep paying us money to be on television, that he for quite a quite a bit of time that he thought. That seemed to me like the point where I thought this is not a good investment. Yeah, I mean, that's kind of what you know was pointed to for me. I mean, obviously, you know, Tom, Charlie, Reggie, none of them would talk to us for this story, but um, that would sort of that was sort of the sense

that I got, and yeah, it was interesting. I mean, the theory was like, oh, maybe he'll steal this technology and use it for the Carolina Hurricanes, or maybe, you know, he'll use it as a window to to get into the NFL or to get into a seated ownership or something like that. But you know what a lot of people told me was, you know, if he wanted the technology, all you had to do was pay to keep the

engine years together. Because it doesn't matter whether or not you have the source code or the material, it's the guys to know how to outrun it and operate it. And so the fact that he fired all of them along with everybody else, you know, leads everybody leads me to believe that, you know that that kind of wasn't high in this priority. Man, they did the XFL favor. Not only did they point out some mistakes that you can make and then get out of the way, but

I think they kind of primed the public. It was like a little teaser that the XFL can now take advantage of next offseason with with a pretty good broadcast package. And you know what, you'd like to think the XFL learned from their first attempt that went completely sideways too,

and and you wrote about this to Connor. A f obviously was a failure, and an embarrassing one at that, But the on field product was the one thing that people weren't really complaining about, which is the first thing that usually a startup league like this is going to get killed with. So yeah, if the XFL is smart,

they might be able to follow the path. Or it could be one of those things like from Final Destination or a movie that where you wake up for the nightmare of your own demise, uh, and then you're like, oh, now I have to avoid that, or you just have the nightmare and then go headlong into it. Either way, it was every morning. Yeah, I mean it's really you know.

I talked to someone who said, and I thought, I think it kind of put puts it well as like, you know, uh, the first time, you know, they were so nervous about the football that they closed off training camps to journalists because I didn't want anybody to see it in case it was bad. And then when one employee got his first look at one of the games, uh,

he told me that he cried for an hour. He was so happy that he literally was crying tears of joy for an hour because he said, I did this, like I helped put this together and we did it because at that point in their mind, it was all the all that we were worried about was the football, and the football is good, and we have the money and we have everything set up and so and we

did it. And so I think that that's one of those things that's like, you know, it sticks with me because it's like, wow, I mean, at that point, these guys are thinking that they pulled it off, you know, and and really that's what everyone was worried about in the football gonna be bad, and it wasn't. Yeah, there's definitely a sad component to the whole story for sure. All Right, The Curious Rise and Spectacular Crash of the Alliance of American Football. Check it out s I dot Com,

also on news stands and Sports Illustrated. Also Connors on the mm QB NFL podcast. He did a show about this story, and hopefully he's going to do a book and a Netflix special. Great job, Conny. We get an executive producer cut on it for introducing the idea. Otherwise we'll have to go into lengthy litigation. That's up to Connor finally kind of before we let you go? Um, where are you at on your um rundown of the A F I S one greatest films? A few years back he told us that you were going to comb

through the entire list and give detailed reviews. Where are we out on that project? I know you've been busy. Yeah, well, I know. I think Mark knows this because I think he might be going to see um something as well. I'm skipping ahead to a movie that's coming out on Thursday that I know it is probably going to be number one on the list anyway in a couple of years, and that's Detective Pikachu. I don't know how excited everybody else is about this, but I am fired up. I've

had my tickets purchased for weeks. Uh, so I am. I'm ready to go. So this is this isn't a bit you have had you bringing your kids. Connor is an adult Pokemon fan who you know grew up this one A lot of people My kids are too, and out of the blue. This is how nice Connor is. Behind the scene, he was a beat reporter that had to, you know, do bad things to other people. I'm sure but behind the scenes, he sent out of nowhere a box full of his old Pokemon cards to my two boys,

and our house exploded later. They think the Connor ore isn't even they've never met him. They think he's the greatest human, much better than their dad. Uh, and so Connor a good job. Also, baca Velli and Connor definitely sent that knowing that this appearance was coming up and then come out. That's how I operate. But I'm serious,

mean it's gonna be I'm so excited. I'm sure Mark's got to go to So maybe we can do a little follow up movie review, you know, Mark and Connor also one last plug, also just did like a two hour podcast on Draft Day, that pilot movie that came out like five years ago. So he's obviously he's really plugged in on the the higher end of the cinema spectrum, as we expect. I thought about Mark a lot. I reread his review, his initial review of Draft Day before

we started it. But do we still have that Let's play that at the end of the show. Anybody who knows me knows I love drinking in the afternoon and watching Draft Day, and so to be able to get paid to do that was was was pretty great, very good Connor. Always great to hear your voice. You're a special man. Miss you guys. All right, Connor or what a guy? All right, that's it for today's show. Good stuff, guys. Reminder Friday, we have our third show of the week, um,

and we're gonna get into some wedding related themes. Hopefully Colleen Wolf Countie Fox will join us as well. Uh, and we will have some Friday fun. Um. So that's it. Erica, how you doing. You're coming to the wedding? Oh yeah, I didn't know you were coming to the wedding until

I heard the conversation earlier. And that is great that you're you would what you're what I would call a great wild card to have, whether it's a bachelor party or at a wedding, because you're gonna mix things up, You're gonna have fun, You're gonna bring some life to the party. I'm sure that's what West and Lakisha were thinking when they sent out the invite. Yeah, I think

so we take it away. All of that is true, but I think that Erica is going to be hailed as a conquering hero on Tybee it's gonna be like Katsukoto coming too to Mexico. It's just gonna be like a glorious stomping of Erica. The ownership of the island is gonna be too big for you. I don't think so. No, we'll be good. Yeah, I can't. I can't outshine you know, Keisha and West, So I just would everyone else. Though it's interesting that that's what you first thought might be possible.

I like, well, no, it couldn't be possible. So I'm just gonna go. You're gonna wear like a white dress with a long train. I don't want to clip your wings. No, no, no, you can outshine people. No, I'm just excited to be there and to be able to witness it and spend the weekend with my favorite boys. Yeah, a lot of good feelings. At the end of today's show. Have Sydney sing about that, Oh was that annoying when I sent you that file? I mean, no, it's fine. She's a

good singer, isn't it. She's good. You have the ability to toy with it, you know, tell it like engineering wise to be sound much less attractive to do like a reverse auto to No, I would never I'm a very good person and I respect talent. And she can sing very well, very gritted teeth. All right, that's it. Dan Hands is signing off for Quiet Storm, the Mailman, the Old Boss, and Ricky Hollywood behind the Glass. Let's get that Draft day review at the end of today.

Show No Til Friday, Full of hot from stock to finish, delivers on the great tension of the NFL Draft while showing how human the entire process is. Mark Cecla, NFL dot com, you're out of your mind. Yeah I am having I proved that already