The Around the NFL podcast is fresh out of zummy drops. No, no. From the Chris Wesling podcast studio, it is Around the NFL.

I am Dan Hansis.

I have heroes here because there is no offseason for around the NFL. Or so we've been told. Mark Sesler, Greg Rosenthal, and yes, because, God damn it, we it right now. One more person. Connie and Wolf. Connie's the Queen. She is the queen of NFL Media. Thank you so much. Great to be here. A lot of competition for Queen of NFL media, but well, maybe not. But you are absolutely the queen of around the NFL and really all areas where you roam.

Wow. Thank you so much. That's great. I love being a regal member of society, and this is great.

We've asked Patrick Claybon, who has a host of songs, too.

We've encouraged him because he doesn't do this, to blast these anthems suggesting how great he is, how handsome, how statuesque. Inside his house, statuesque, inside his house so that his significant other understands the weight of what she's been given in this life.

What she's scored, yes. Yeah. So, Gonzo, at this point, it's about 11:44.

I am probably in a bathrobe, wandering around your compound. Does he need to be reminded? And would you willingly do that? Or I just have it as my ringtone, so I just walk around everywhere and let people know.Efficient?Efficient? Yeah. Greg, how are you, bud?I'm great.Good. Good. Big show. Big show coming up. It is the return of the Around the NFL glossary of terms because this offseason, just because right now... Well, OTAs kicked off. So in a lot of ways, football is back.

Back?in some ways, Mark.On Monday, they started throwing the pigskin around. Yep. In some ways, Mark. In some ways, I will go that far.

So to celebrate the return of Football, why not open up the glossary and give the people a real above the treetops view of the current landscape of the NFL?

That's what today is all about. And I feel like, Colleen, that's a public service that we can offer that I believe will connect with the audience. I think so, too. This is one of my favorite episodes that we do.

I love all the offseason episodes, and I'm happy to help provide this service.Unbelievable.Yeah..

All right. You want to get into it?

Let's do it. We're going to try to get through it. We did it in two parts last year.We're going to do it.Go try. What's our over-under on time for this?I will say we flippantlyA to Z. We flippantly, with very little discussion, decided just to pack it back into one episode. Yeah, we'll see. We're going to see.We're.

Going to see.Lip and drag. Last year, Mark said that we were on letter D, and we were 40 minutes in.

That was two years ago. Then last year, we decided to cut it into two, but it's back into one big cake.

But here it is. Here's where it goes, Greg.

Ultimately, the conversation will dictate.

Unless we want to do a two-hour show, which we don't typically want to do.

Mark, I know you don't want to do.

But the conversation will dictate. Whatever it takes.Whatever.

Is best for the show.

But we're in control, and yet we have no control. You can say that again, brother.

All right, let's get into Let's start. I'll get it going. We all got tagged with a certain amount of letters, and I got A. So A, in the glossary of terms, announcing retirement. Announcing retirement. And who is announcing their retirement?

David Johnson, all pro running back with the Cardinals. He has announced his retirement after eight seasons in the NFL.

He wrote Sunday in an Instagram post that he is, quote, Looking forward to the next career path in life. He doesn't know what it will be, but he hopes it brings him the same passion, excitement, and love as football debt. Drafted by the Cardinals in the third round of the 2015 draft, he is in the, and this will get to my second point, the around the NFL era, one of my favorite players. When he was at his peak, and his peak wasn't very long, he was a true do-it-all guy. He got first-team all pro honors when he was at his peak, and in 2016, led the league, Reggie, 373 touches, 2,100 yards from scrimmage, 20 touch downs, and also, from everything we hear, an A plus dude, great teammate, and an underdog who turned into a superstar. So part one of this is David Johnson retired. An absolutely ridiculous dominant season, up there with the best seasons we've seen at Running Back or almost any position since we started doing this show. I remember how much Wes loved David Johnson as a rookie, where he was a big part of that 2015 team that we fell in love with with the Cardinals.

Then he was even better the year after that. There hasn't been a season since then of a player that put that many yards from scrimage and that many touch downs together in the same season since.

That's how good he was then. Unfortunately, everyone thinks injuries don't matter anymore. You just assume 39-year-olds off torn Achilles are going to be fine. Sometimes injuries do matter. He was never really the same. Yeah, it reminds me a little bit of the career arc of Terrell Davis, who minus injuries could have done 8-9 years of what he did. But he was so dominant in 2016. You mentioned the numbers. I do recall West. West could see runningbacks before other people, especially in the preseason. It'd be the one thing that he watched the preseason. It was one of his superpower. It really was. It was based on health.

It's based on a lot of things. I can't think of too many AP-level, all pro-type players that were taken away by injury the way he was because he never was the same. I just remember what a big deal it was when he was traded to Houston for DeAndre Hopkins in Arizona. I feel like I can remember where I was when that trade happened for some reason. I remember being at the All or Nothing documentary premiere, downtown, Jay Zumwalt was with me, diehard Cardinals fan. I always remember that moment.

He's in the theater with us amongst all the other luminaries of that Cardinals 2015 Cardinals team that was documented on that series. There's a scene where their running backs coach, Stump Mitchell, tells Johnson that he should be a Hall of Famer once his playing careers are over.

People who knew saw the talent that he had. He fell short of that. Obviously, his body didn't quite cooperate. But my other point I was going to make, I think of fun offseason activity, and I've mentioned it a few times, but I think this is the This year, we do it. We either make an ATN all-time team, like 2013 to present, who's the greatest, the roster of the ATN all-timers. That'd be fun. Another idea because I thought it'd be fun. We could reference it during the season if we made an ATN 100 or ATN 50, top players in the game right now where they rank on our list, either or, something that celebrates that second idea is more like the current landscape. But I do like looking back and Would David Johnson be in that conversation? Maybe, maybe not. It's not a career thing. It's like our group fell in love with a collection of players. Yeah, I like that. Just workshop and some things for the future. That's fun.We do. I like the team. I like the all-ATN. All right, ATN all time team coming up later this summer.Mark?I like that.Sorry.

You're researching.I will now.All right.All right, I'm up. Here we go.B.B.Coleen. B is for blurred, as in the relationship status between a player and their team.

Tee Higgins, who requested a trade, who hasn't signed his tag yet, who skipped voluntary workouts but said that he'll play for the Bengals this year.

You have Trey Hendrickson, who returned to the team after After requesting that trade because he wanted the long term deal.

There's plenty of examples of this. Justin Jefferson, another one. I talked to Tee Jay Hawkinson last week on the schedule release show, and he was saying because the JJ, McCarthy is there now, there's multiple JJs on the team. So Justin Jefferson will now be known as just Jets, which could be confusing for some, Dan. That feels like it doesn't solve the problem. It just creates a new one. Yeah. But hey, I guess there can only be one JJ per team. But the whole situation with the Cowboys, how murky that is right now with CeeD Lamb not knowing where his contract is because he's waiting for the Dack contract to go down. And obviously, Michael Parsons needs to be paid. There's plenty more, but a lot is blurred.

Blurred lines. A classic that really hasn't held up either as the singer.

Has any trade request ever been summarily ignored and disregarded as much as Trey Hendrixon's? That's a great question. They did not care about it. He was back immediately and he just was like, Well, I love this team. I got to admit, I'm not going anywhere. It was just like, it was a moonshot. I see you're Trey Hendrixons.

I raised you Austin Echler last summer. At least that was a story. It was like a story, and he stayed away. We gave him some attention. Hendrickson was just like, Hey, I tried, and then showed up five days later, and everyone was like... He gave up a little too soon. Or his camp did. But yeah, even Burrow was like, That's fine if he wants to get traded.

He's player.

He deserves to if he wants to. But then nothing comes of it. Jefferson is not going to be under the radar. Something to keep an eye on, Jefferson.

Pam Hayward, too, with the Steelers.

You're on it. Yeah. All right, C. We're moving fast here. C. You just jinked it. All right. My word is codpiece. What?

What are the grossest things? Medieval. It was a piece of-Were you wearing a codpiece at the Renaissance?

Donate to, I didn't.

It does feel like it would be of a piece.

I don't know if you can just go purchase one at a typical store. I did some research.

It is a piece of material worn by men in the 15th and 16th centuries to cover-It's just like a merkin? That region.

It's mentioned in Shakespeare like it's 600 times.

I mean, think about it, too.

The codpiece, it makes you look enormous. I feel like that's a good thing to have.

Okay, so back then, I think it was- Before there was the miracle bra, there was the codpiece.

It was just fabric. In modern times, for our purposes, the athletic cup functions as the cod piece.

I just wanted to point out the offseason is a no cod piece necessary environment.

Ota phase three starts today, as you mentioned.

So many teams, and there will be takes.

I brought this around to having some analysis. There will be takes based on whatever happens in the next 10 practices of OTA phase three, but there shouldn't be. No live contact is allowed. No tackling. Preach. There was a point, even since we were covering the game, that there was live contact, that there was way more. There used to be 17 or 18 OTAs. There used to be two mini-cams. Two of them, they could have six days of hitting and stuff in the offseason. That was in the odds, but I remember none of that is allowed, and that's fine. I think it should be a teaching period, but it also means no evaluation necessary. It's just teaching and learning. Unless Caleb Williams could throw a mean spiral. No, take it. Well, we've got to ignore those things. And I think if anything-No codpiece necessary. Right. People that have listened to this show for a long time, they're up on this. I think they realize that there are portions of the offseason that you just glance beyond and get to the next It's the perfect day to just make that public service announcement.

I think they have a job.I'm in a codpiece rabbit hole. You're on the company laptop, Colleen. We'll check back with you later, Colleen.

Let's move to the letter D with Mark Sesler.

All right, I did these my way, so it's going to just be what it is.Oh.

I love this.All.

Right.d is for Dom.

You don't have to give us that. We know.

We've been doing this a long time. Can I get three sentences in a row? That's why I'm doing it.Well.

You said it.Challenging the group.

But I'm just letting you know you don't need to even say that. We know it.

It's my favorite part of the story. D is for Dom DeSandro.

Yes.

Senior advisor to the GM and Chief Security Officer for the Philadelphia Eagles, East Coast Jesus. Big Dom is more like Buddha, though. Anyone close to him, with a sense of the beyond, sees that clear as day. Sit in place, in peace, and cast off anger from the jealous. Sit in silence and feel the world burn into your beautiful body. Big Dom has hired a local painter, Jose Wiggens, to paint full portraits of Dom as he sits in his small Philly base garden. Around him are sunflowers and wind of the willows In each portrait, Jose Wiggens has been instructed to include the image of Howie Roseman standing beside Big Dom in the garden. Howie Roseman in deep prayer. They are one with the gods. When seven large pizzas arrive, along with five kegs of domestic beer, Dom treats Jose Wiggens as a treasured guest. Jose Wiggens gets the first pick of meat lovers pizza. He is allowed to rest in the garden of sunflowers. Then Big Dom paints Jose Wiggens in acrylic on a canvas that sits in the shade by keg number two. Large glasses of chilled beer are drank all afternoon as Dom and Jose Wiggens celebrate what is to come.

14 regular season wins for a team whose religious centerpiece will be crucified no more. Big Dom. I mean, that was That was gorgeous.

That was amazing. I think it's huge that he's back. Oh, my God.

I think it matters more than people realize inside the building. It's massive. The security guy on the sideline.

I'm trying to get a response. 14 wins.

Here we come.

He's more than that.

He was the senior advisor to the general manager/chief security officer. Entering his 25th season. He got a big-He's the lifeblood of that team, Dan. I know. So I've been told. It was funny at the Sixers game.

I'm waiting for a response from him about East Coast Jesus.

From Tom. Tom himself? He was at the Sixers game. Let's track that. They introduced Tom, and they introduced the recent draft picks. They were both watching a Sixers playoff game. Tom got bigger pop. That's the most silly thing ever. Tom is a folk hero.

He is.

He forever has been.

He fits the town.

There's nothing else to say. What else is there to say?

I don't think there's a whole lot more to talk about. I think it's beautiful.

Great job, Mark.

Everything just funnels into the same place.

I would like to see some of Wiggan's work, too. His portfolio is our portfolio.

This is an extension of your first one. E is for extension drama. The Jared Goff contract extension in Detroit. It's going to to celebrate across the NFL landscape, but perhaps the tremors will be felt most in South Beach. This Tua situation is interesting.

It's a situation.

It's a certified situation. This is Diana Raciney's reporting. Dolphins QB, Tua Tunga-Viloa is in the building for the start of Dolphins OTAs. Per a source, the QB is slated to become the next quarterback to receive a big payday, but the sides are in negotiations. Tua said he was planning on attending the workout, so that's good. You don't want to have that thing where the quarterback is out in the media fighting battles. He is one of the five quarterbacks selected in the first two rounds of the 2020 NFL draft, along with Joe Burrow, Justin Herbert, Jordan Love, Jalen Hertz. He's the only one that has not signed a second deal. Then you look at the money, and you see that Burrow and Herbert signed deals worth 275 and 262 million, respectively. Hertz, 255 million. Love is in a different bucket, obviously, but he signed that one-year deal worth $13.5 and guaranteed, but that was only one season as a starter so far. But total guarantees are big. It's around 200 million, give or take, 20 million for all the guys. They have to make a decision, obviously, around, too, whether he is worth that type of investment.

I think it's a total flashpoint around the history of the Dolphins. I think if they buy in on Tua as their long term guy, and he has a big, big run here and becomes a true franchise quarterback, which they're already calling him one, but I don't see it yet. He He's going to prove a lot of people wrong. But if you invest heavily in this guy that can only get you to a certain place and give you some stats, and he ends up being an albatross on you, it could set the franchise back quite a way. So big decision for Miami. I wouldn't do it, but I think they're going to.I.

Think they've made their decision.Miami. I think they're probably far enough in negotiations, whatever their offer has been, that he's there, that it sounds like they're making some progress. I I do think him and Goff are in a quite similar situation where you can reasonably say the situation around them, the system elevates them. For Goff to get all that money, and Goff has done a great job. His agents have done a great job getting a lot of money. Maybe it sets a little bit of a groundwork here for Tua, and I think they'll end up doing it. Goff's deal was really like a three to four-year deal, depending on how you look at it. The fully, fully guaranteed money was like 1.15. It was a little less some of those big-time quarterbacks. But you're right. That's a lot of money for a guy that most people, including myself, would not have in the top eight.

I'm with you, though. Can you be convinced if you're running Miami's front office, that if Tyreek Hill went down for 11 weeks and you lost Jalen Waddle or whoever, that Tua is just still the same guy that's going to make it work with whoever's around him. Because the top quarterback money should go to the, realistically, five or six guys that you know can do that. There's a lack of... There are some tiers. You've got the car contract. But it's like, there should be more tiered contract, quarterback scenarios. And to it, to me, it needs to be tiered because I don't care about the numbers so much. I don't know what it is. It's just a football fan of me. I'm a little suspicious of who he is minus the system and the stars.

If McDaniel believes in him, which it really feels like he does, then that's going to be the key part of it.

But then the domino effect, too, from if he doesn't get the long term deal, how do some of the other quarterbacks in the league proceed with their own situation generations with their teams? Whether it's Dak Prescott, whether it's Jordan Love.

I'm curious because Love did get a second contract, but it was this weird in between contract. I think he's going to get paid this offseason, too, and that's going to be interesting.

Even though Goff and Tua are bedfellows in that, I think everyone agrees they're not superstars, but they're really locked in and loaded in trench starters, Goff has had pretty incredible durability. Has he missed games in his career? I don't even know. That factors in, too. I I know to it, got through his first season healthy, but the rest of his career also has been checkmarked with serious issues, including great injuries.Not.

Last year, though. To be fair.

No, that's what I said. He got through this year, but that doesn't mean now that's not an issue anymore. That means he was healthy for one year. Anyway, that's part of the reason why it's a tough decision. Up next. Glad I'm not making it. Up next, the letter F with Colline.Fastidius.

Is the word.It was. It's so fun to say, but But as in the detailed approach that certain players will take to their offseason preparation, players like Kirk Cousins, who has weekly notes from every game he's played in as a starter, and he catalogs them in folders and tiny little bins. His whole situation has been very detailed. He's learning some new things under offensive coordinator, Zack Robinson, who was the passing game coordinator and quarterback's coach for the past two years with Sean McBay, who obviously has the ties in Washington, where Kirk was before. I wonder how many of the concepts are going to be that new to him. But also he's recovering from the Achilles, so he won't be active during OTAs anyway. And there's the Michael Penix Jr. Of it all. It's not like he's going to immediately take that job. But if he does pop during these workouts, he'll add some flair, an additional F load for you to the offseason.

I love that.

Good word. I do think when you think the word fastidious, I can just imagine Kirk in his office. Very clean.

In his lab.

Getting it all ready.

Yeah.being prepared.Oh, absolutely.

Although, to be fair to him, he's done a good job adapting. He's always landed with these coaches that coach that system, but he has had a lot of different coaches, and he adapted fairly quickly to Minnesota when he got there.

I just think it's a huge benefit to roll into a system that at least you have some understanding of and can be shaped around you versus being thrown into something because I think that delays you a year, depending on who you are.

All right. Letter F was done just now. Letter G with G.

That's right.

Triple G. That makes four Gs. That's a quadruple G. Very rare.

I'm adding one G to the mix here, and that is Genghis Khan, who at one point, and this is exposing a bit of maybe a flaw in our setup here. We had this topic before, but this will be a different spin on it. At one point, Genghis Khan was the perfect player for David Johnson, who we mentioned announced his retirement. For this, I'm going to throw to an audio clip from October of 2016, a week 6 TNF recap of Cardinal's 49ers, which Wes and I traditionally tacked to the top, or at least that year, tacked to the top of our preview episode back then. One bit of context before you listened to it, Randy, and start it. Wes and Mark had spent that night watching the game together at an unknown location. Let's hear it. Which brings us back all or nothing when Honey Bidger is on the sidelines saying, That's a bigger version of Marshall Falk. And what Mark Sessler would like everyone to know tonight is, David Johnson is like Genghis Khan running with the horse, and the wind is blowing the main, and He is taking the Mongolian steps while the 49ers linebackers are little Prairie soldiers hiding behind trees, hoping David Johnson doesn't trample them.

And with that, over to you, Dan Hanson. That was the wrapping up. There you go.

That was a good one. I wish I could remember what preceded that speech. I do know that Genghis Khan has populated half of 1% of the entire Earth, which is not true of David Johnson, but would be if David Johnson were healthier, perhaps.

Now, that night, I believe David Johnson had about 190 yards from scrimmage. There was a stat because I ended up listening to this recap here that him and Fitzgerald had combined for 92% of their offense. Yeah, I think he had It was like, 294 yards. He was doing that on the regular. But I do remember that night, West came in laughing, and he had written it on his phone in the notes, and had shown it to me. That's why I was even laughing before he said it because I knew what was coming. That was your Genghis Khan. Prairie soldiers.

That was incredible. By the inflection in his voice, I'm going to guess, was that recorded at Culver City Studios?

Yes. Usually, we'd watch the game there, but that day, he had gone off with Mark, I think, and watched it and then come back.

I would imagine there is a place in Culver City, which I believe still exists, called The Garage, which we've all been to. That was a TNF hangout.

Yes. I had narrowed it down to the Cozy Joxxers Daily or The Garage. One of those. All were options where televisions were plentiful. Excellent. Great to hear West. Also, David Johnson getting amazing pop in the set. I love it.

This is the David Johnson episode.

All right, let's take a break, and then we will continue on with a glossary of terms. All right, we are back. We are off and rolling here. Let's move to H with Mark Sesler.

All right, H is for Holly Hobby, an innocent children's doll discovered during a modern-day pirate raid at the Gulf of Guinea in March of 2024. Her child owner thrown overboard days ago. She gone, poor Holly Hobby is taken from port to port by unhidged pirates. Our little doll friend dreams of escape. She knows in her belly that some pirates are Pirates more aimed at human entertainment than modern day raids on ships filled with offshoot heroine and stolen crates of funions. She believes the Las Vegas raiders are kind pirates. Here for our enjoyment, our Sunday thrills, she dreams of Garner Minch Minchu, saving her and saying as he carries her little cloth body away from a 22 person raid vessel, You are protected now. Minchou then tells her this, We are a sneaky nine-win team that will be made fun of today, but the giggles will cease when autumn becomes a crucible of the Damned.

Holly Hobby.

There she is. That's her if you're watching. She needs a wash.

If you've ever thought, Should we subscribe to the YouTube channel or not? This is The biggest-Give her some fingers. This is time.

Give her some fingers in a big spot. That's what I would say.

I do feel like Mark is very fascinated with the dolls and child equipment or toys from his childhood.

I recall them. I guess when it pops up during the day job, you'd have to question that, Greg.

Also, sneaky, supportive of the Raiders in the offseason, which is very anti where you were a year ago at this time.

A year ago, I listed the 13 AFC teams that were better than them and lacerated online. I don't believe that. I think that they're a little bit of a sneaky under the radar operation.

It's not that hard to win. Let me ask you a question. What is it about them that gives you that sense?

I am more statistically looking at the league in general and thinking that every year there's a team that somehow in their regression candidate, the minute the season ends, sneaks out nine wins, but they aren't nine win worthy. It doesn't make a lot of logical sense, but they keep coming. I was meditating on which team is going to do Tell me we don't expect because this happens. I just kept coming back to the Raiders, and it could be as nonsensical a take as I have in the entire offseason. That feels like you are locked and loaded, hopefully, with Bill Barnwell again, when we do over-unders. Yeah, well, I went over-What's their over-unders, Greg?I think it's six and a half.I went over for four trying to be logical a year ago. So I'm going to go in a different...

You know what? You weren't really You should. You should want to go logical. Bang the over. You weren't off too much about that they weren't better than many teams in the AFC. Even though they won eight games, only three teams, four teams, had a worse record than them, which is strange.Mark.

Do you remember...The.

Afc is all 8 and 9 and above.

My Prima Ballerina?

No, but I was talking to someone about dollypops, if you recall.

Dollypops? No. My Prima Ballerina was the ultimate. I wanted one so bad. I got it for Christmas, and then all of a sudden, my prima ballerina disappeared, and my parents said that they put it down the basement. So I spent, I don't know, as a child, maybe a year and a half searching the basement for my prima ballerina.

Why was it put away?

They took it back to the store. They returned it, and they just said that it was down in the basement. So maybe one day I'll find it. I don't know. Holly Hobby brought back some memories. No, did this come up with the... Suzanne. Well, I've moved on from Suzanne. What? Now I'm with Andrea.

You let Suzanne, your psychiatrist, go.

Yeah.what'd you do?My therapist. Therapist, excuse me.

It's outdated. It seems like emotional to do that. Yeah.

Well, I did it in a text. I needed to move on.How's.

Andrea doing?No good way.

She's great. Love Andrea. Honestly, lovely. Wonderful.

I'm writing this down.

She has a Vespa that she showed up on before our appointment the other day, and I was like, Well, this is it.

This is perfect. She comes to your abode.

No. Oh, you? Okay. Yeah, I was early. You met in the middle. Good times.

All right. Well, Andrea, welcome to the Around the NFL team. Let's move to I.

Key member.

I is for indictment of prior regimes. This is a... And shout out to nick Shook, who wrote this article on nfl. Com, and Gordon, and everybody else on the desk that just hammered out this content in the offseason. We've been there. Sometimes it feels like you're comb in the desert. Here is a nick Shook story. Here's the headline, Falcons tight-end. Kyle pits tabs himself, Super rookie as he learns new offense. Hit the trope alert, Big Funk, because I hope this becomes one, this idea that you can just wave your entire career and say, I'm starting over, and then say, I'm a super rookie. I love it. It is an indictment, obviously, of everything that the Falcons have done. Here's the exact quote. I would say, I'm a super rookie. I'm not a rookie, rookie, but we're all in this new offense, new regime, new schedule. We're all in this fresh, which, sure, is true.

Glad you read that.

He also said that We talked about, was he healthy? Has he been healthy? He said that that knee injury that ended his 2022 season prematurely lingered throughout 2023 in what was a really rough season for him, statistically. I'll add that I don't see anywhere in this story in this May write-up. Did he have an additional procedure? Did he do anything to make the knee better now? How do I believe on face value that the knee is now fine, even though it wasn't fine more a year after the injury that you said you couldn't get over throughout last season. Keep an eye on the health of Kyle pits and whether his knee is going to let him be the athlete he was coming out of college. But anyway, the Falcons, the last three years never happened. It's super rookie season.

The only thing about it is that I can't think of a team that you were part of this, Dan, and so were others, more frustrated with how that offense was run. Two years running, but especially last year, there's a lot of potential stars. They're not used correctly. Could He didn't make the argument that Pitz and the rest of them feel like we're let out of jail at this point?

He got 1,000 yards his rookie year, and he had moments his rookie year where he did look like that dude. He has been a big reason why he hasn't lived up to his billing the last couple of years. It's not just about the people.

Even with a run-heavy scheme and Desmond Ritter?

He just isn't moving the same way. He just said it, too. Dan mentioned it. He just wasn't moving the same way. He wasn't as explosive. He didn't win as many a jump ball type of situations, 50-50. I was like, Drake London is the perfect reason why I think it's fair to criticize Kyle Pitz. You look at Drake London and you say, That is a dude. That guy might already be one of the 10 or 12 best wide receivers in the league. That was, I think, a home run pick or a triple pick. He is that guy, and you can see that despite the surroundings. Kyle Pitz, I don't think you can see it. I wonder if they'll make him. He's not that old, though. He's like Sam Laporte's age. He's young. He came out so young.

I think he's only, I mean, 23?

He's 23 right now. He's turned 24 in October.

I wonder if they'll make him more of a focal point because it felt like he was just always in Drake London's shadow, which is impossible because he's such a big dude physically. But it just feels like all of the... Because I had this later, Dan, so now I have to scramble for a new situation. Scramble drill. But the amount of puff pieces that will be written about the Falcon offense and where they can go from here. It could be a brand new offense with a new head coach and just a complete renaissance for everyone there, but especially Kyle Pitz.

You could keep it. You don't have to pivot. I stuck with mine. I had a sound drop.I.

Think it's a good challenge.I didn't give up on it.It'll probably happen to all of us.We'll see what happens.

We can find new ways to discuss the topic if we wish, and maybe we don't wish.

Just to revisit in general Atlanta's draft strategy at the top of these drafts, they took Kyle Pitz fourth overall in 2021.

Yeah, but no one was killing him for that at the time.

At four overall? I feel like that was seen as earlier than expected.

That was like generational talent. He's like a...

He was not. It wasn't like it's a tight end.

He went fourth overall in '21.

A lot of people, I think, thought, Is he the best player in this draft other than Trevor Lawrence. I guess Jamar Chase is in that draft, too.

You took Drake London, eighth overall in '22. You took Bijan, eighth overall in '23, and you took Penick's eighth overall in '24. In the top eight, you took a tight-end, a running back and a backup quarterback in the last four years, three of the last four years. It's an interesting way to build your office.Your.

Future quarterback.

You need one of these guys to really hit and become what you thought they were, maybe both. All right, up next, Jay with Coleen.

Okay. So Jay, I'm already trying to work on my new V-word.

You just roll with it.

Here we go.

As in-Anxiety, creeping in, calling on Andrea, speed dial.

Jaunt, as in Dave Canales' appointment in Carolina. Will it be long term or will it be just the latest in a recent line?

Now I got thrown into the blunder.

Oh, you're in the blender, baby.

Under Tebber B. Talking, the coaches have been Ron Rivera. There was the interim Perry Fuhl, Matt Rule, Steve Wilkes had a moment. Interimly, we had Frank Wright, and then Chris Tabor took over last year for a bit. So now it's Dave Canales' turn. And what does that mean-Tepher be churning.for Bryce Young? Because Canales was credited with all of the help that Gino Smith got in Seattle and Baker Mayfield and Tampa Bay. They brought in Deontay Johnson. They drafted Xavier Laguette at the wide receiver position, so they jugged the offensive line as well. What does that mean for Bryce Young and Dave Canales? Because now they will be linked forever in this season ahead.

I think Dave Canal, I love that we're talking about him because I think he's under the radar. He's going to be a big figure coming up because he has an interesting vibe, ton of energy. It totally makes sense to me that he's extremely close with Pete Carroll, and he looks at Pete Carroll as his greatest life mentor and coaching mentor because he feels, to me, like a younger version of the vibe Pete Carroll gives off. Incredible positive energy, I think, brings people with him, and it's just a a lot. I think he's done a good job. He's done a good job maximizing his guys. If Bryce Young is going to get to average this year, which I think would be a good outcome, if he's just a solid enough quarterback, then I think Canales is the guy to do it.

There's no better resume builder than two years in a row reviving quarterbacks. Everyone falls for that. But this is a team because some teams get back in this situation. You can't make any personnel moves for years. You got to just let these guys do it. You can't recycle again. What is happening over there?

These guys, Coleen and him are just arguing. Greg and I are attempting to point this out. That was good. I'm going to guess. You're off on your own little island. Are you arguing how hot is Dave Canales?

That's how it started. But ironically, it is his hotness that has been his undoing in his past. Breaking news, funk, Breaking ass news from the New York Post. Beca.

Breaking how many years ago?

It was late January, but for us, it's breaking news. New Panthers coach Dave Canales had a, quote, secret life of Porn Addiction and Binge Drinking.We.

Wrote a book on it.Yeah..

How was the book? Mr. No et al. He wrote a book on it.

He talked about this at his opening press conference.

Greg googled already and found out seconds ago.Oh, he wrote a book on it.No.

He talked about it at his opening press conference. He literally has a book that I think it was-I wrote a book on it. His faith helped him work through his problems with infidelity.

That was part of the ATN Book Club, right?

It was. Third on the list.

The book is called-We got to start meeting every Wednesday night.

The book is called... Now we do. This Marriage, the Question that changed everything.

All right. Well, that's interesting. Cool. What letter were you again? That is wild.

I did. I brought this up.

Wait, it's this marriage?

Yeah.

That's how a question mark works.

Big time question mark in a big spot. This marriage? The question that changed He said he wrote the book to help other couples struggling with marriage.

A question the author is asking himself and then answers with the book and what's happened since.

How about he also used to be a cowboy boot salesman?

Well, that's cool. Wait, or is it this marriage? Or is it this marriage? That really matters. Or is it this marriage?

Well, I think it's the reader can decide.

How do you think he intended it, I guess, is what I'm seeing.

I don't remember. You've given the example number 2?

They sounded pretty similar.

Like great art. I think you want to leave some room open for interpretation. With your book title, though?

I don't know.

I'd stress this because it's not any marriage. It's this marriage. I'd stress this. This marriage? This marriage? Yeah, like that.

This marriage? Hours? Yeah. While we're talking Keep Pounding, I don't know if you guys knew last week was actually Keep Pounding Day in North Carolina and a number of events in communities, giving back to the community. Keep Pounding. Keep Pounding Day. Panthers I did that.

I like that. Rich. When a Panthers-oriented element comes up later in the show, we just gloss right by. We don't discuss it after.

Todd Downing, Offensive Coordinator of the Titans. What book did he write? Well, they use his poll quote right on top of the cover, and he ends it with, But that is exactly what Lizzie and Dave have provided with this marriage. But then it's not a question mark there. It's tough. That's That's a tough one because technically, it should end with a question mark there, too.

Well, that's on the editor's- Unless he doesn't have a question about it anymore.

Well, there you go. That's your guy now, Todd Downing.

We got him. Locked him in. All right. Who's next?

I believe. Are we at K?

K with Greg Rosenbaum. Good job, Colleen.

Yep.

That was good.

I have regrets all of a sudden.

K is for catalogophobia. K-a-t. A-t-a-g-e-l. Ophobia, catalogophobia, which is the fear of being ridiculed or laughed at. Sometimes this phobia, this fear, it starts in childhood. Just people that are exposed to criticism, maybe.

It's tough.They.

Have an elementary... Something to bring up to Andrea. They have an offended psyche. Whereas if you have a better foundation, maybe you're not a victim of this. Some teams, I think, experience catalogophobia. They're more sensitive. You know what I mean? You can probably guess who they are. It often goes along with a history of little success. But I thought I'd flip this around and name my three figures or teams that would be least likely to have this who are just so secure in their own skin. I love this exercise. Number one would be, or number three, rather, would be the Cowboys just as an organization. You can say a lot about the Cowboys. They will invite criticism. If anything, they almost seem like sometimes they seek it out in a way. I remember when we were at training camp and there was a crazy story about a contract holdout, and they make their players available to all the media so that it can become a big story, even though they're getting criticized in those stories. I think in the end, they're fine with whatever said about them.

I think they are very He's very confident, to your point, in the cowboy-ness of it all, and that that will see them through the darkest of days. Right.

So they're confident.

And this is ranked three to one?

Not center. Three to one, yeah. Number two would be Mike Tomlin. I don't know if we have that old That's a good entry. Where he just was like, I do not care. We do not care. Oh, there it is.

Good job, Funk.

I believe it. When coaches say, We don't care about what they're saying on the outside, when Mike Thomas says it, I do believe it. Whatever he believes, he believes. I don't think he's getting bothered. Then number one, I guess, would just be Jim Harbaugh. I just feel like he's rolling with whoever Jim Harbaugh is. John Harbaugh could be on this list, too. But he is who who he is. He's not going to make any complaints.

It's not just another day. It's today.

He's very confident in who he is. I'm scared of it. Not worried about the criticism.

I agree. I think also the teams that have... When you win, that makes you feel you're above outside. I'm sure Andy Reid feels pretty confident in himself. A lack of catalogaphobia.

Catalogaphobia?

Catalogaphobia.

What was the other phobia that we always talk about? Misophonia. Misophonia.

Yeah, that one. That's a tough one, too. People with catalogaphobia may experience symptoms such as burning cheeks, desire to look away, awkward half smile, feeling like everyone is staring at you, and goosebumps.

That sounds terrible.

It's toughy.

Have we not all experienced that?It's in some form.It's.

A very human feeling. Some level. I think the phobia would be another level.

Maybe not to the phobia level, but maybe to the phobia level.

All right, Mark L.

Okay, L is for Laur Metcath.

Check your catalog phobia at the door. Here we go.

L is for Lauryn Metcath. Do you have anything else?

I said check your catalog phobia at the door.

L is for Lauryn Metcath. Do you remember her? The hardworking Hollywood actress who played Jackie Harris, the issues laid in Sister Roseanne on Roseanne, a 1990s runaway hit. Metcalf also starred as Kevin Costner's Loyal Aid, female Assistant DA Susie Cox, and Oliver Stone's 1991 film JFK. Before appearing as a landlady in Leaving Las Vegas, a nick cage, Meg Ryan hit, released on October 27, 1995, right during the Cowboys' Buy Week. Dallas was six and one. There was zero question on our Earth, to Greg's point, about their power. We didn't need hollow speeches or self-loving statements to help us understand their vice grip over the weak, over the strong, over everything in sports. Now we're in the dumb days, or are we? Has Jerry Jones finally found the special sauce, the Dream Tonic, a team with a handful a couple of stars and a coach playing for their contracts and NFL lives? How about Laurie Metcalf playing behind the scenes heroine Charlotte Jones in the 2026 Hulu-funded drama, How About Them Cowboys, Colon Daddy's Home?How about Jim Cowboy?That.

Would be great. I'd be following up the documentary. But for a team like the Cowboys, you can't get enough. I mean, the Lakers have had docs and they've had series, and they just keep cranking them out.I love the title, too.

I don't get the feeling that the Cowboys are going to be a buzzy pick right now.

Isn't that good for once?

Maybe. But I don't think there's going to be a reason for it because I think we almost saw the best of this Cowboys nucleus already, and it wasn't good enough.

What I was wondering because I was like, I wrote us going on the road of just killing them. I was like, No, what if it's flipped where it's like he's got them or they've got them into a situation where it's like, it's not that the vice grip is on because that never feels the way to some degree. But it's like all of you could I could completely blow up this team and start it over an offseason from now if I wanted to. If I wanted just to completely nuke this thing because everyone's at the end. So it's like, do these players on this team respond? Or to the, We don't care about critique or anything, are they just floating along as they float along all the time? We'll see.

Great job by Laurie Metcalf and Lady Bird. That scene, I love Lady Bird when she's driving her to the airport. That was a great apparent moment.

Almost impossibly, I believe she still plays Jackie Metcalf on a tell the show that airs on ABC.

Yes, there's a spin off.

Yes, I noticed that. I do a pretty good Roseanne laugh impression. Do you want to hear it?

Oh, no.

What? You don't want to hear it? No, I'll hear it. I won't know. I'm not going to say it. I would like to hear it.

You want to hear it?

Yeah, now I want to.

Dan does that a lot.

That's also like every evil clown from North America.

But if those who know the opening credits of Rosanne. I think that was good. Then I also have a running joke with my wife when it's the middle of the week and we got two kids and we got a busy house. Hey, what's the dinner plan for tonight? Then sometimes it'll just slip through like, We don't have a plan, and at 6:30, and then I'll do a joke where if Emily's like, I don't know, I'll be like, I go into my Roseanne impression. I'll go get them some hamburger, hamburger junk. She loves it.

She loves it. That seems like a healthy way to approach that.

What a window into your week.

Now we're talking how the sausage gets made.

I don't know, in junk.

All right, that is my Roseanne. Up next is... This is hard the way it's graphed out. You just went, right, Mark? I went.

No, no, Mark went.

That was L.Lauri Metcalf.It is a fog for me.Lauri Metcalf. There we go. All right, so let's move to M. It will be M for Mr. Rader. Jim Otto, a Pro Football Hall of Fame center. Those who know, know. He wore doubles zeros, and he was in the pivot of some of the great Raiders, offensive lines, and teams ever. He died at the age of 86 over the weekend. He was known as the Original Rater. The dominant center of his era. He had a singular goal. Now, here's a quote. This was his mantra that he repeated over and over again. And junk. Never will they kick my butt.

That's the quote.

That's the quote. Never. He did a lot of butt-kicking, starting in the AFL, through the merger in '70, retired after '74. He started as a center. We're not talking about whatever happened to Gary Cooper. When men were men. Ottawa started 210 straight regular-season games, 223, including the playoffs. Twelve-time Pro bowler. There was talk that he should be the face of the Rater on the logo with the eye patch. He said, But with a broken nose. Whatever happened to Gary Cooper, he played center for the opener.

Started his career with 11 straight All-Pro teams, and only one of those was a second team. Started out... I can't imagine there are many players in the history of the NFL that started their career with six straight First-Team All-Pros as a rookie. Then he had a second team for one year. I don't know who beat him out in '66. And then he racked up another four. That's on the short list of all-time grades.

When you go to pro football reference and you can see, Oh, of Kyle Pitz. He started nine games. When you go to Otto's page, like you said, it's just 14s head to toe. He never missed. It's a different era. But also to say that he was the face of the Raiders because I'll never forget when I cover that final Raiders game, I did a separate piece talking to eight or nine dudes from that era, and a lot of them mentioned him. There was a lot of competition to be the face of that Raiders team, from the coaching world to the players to some of the legends. And he was that dude. So, yeah, there's not a lot like him.

I like that he talked about the hardest hit that he ever received in a game was from Ray Nitzsche, and that he broke his face mask, and that's what broke his nose and said it the way that it was.

Broke my cheekbone, my zygomatic archbone.That's not good.Detached my retina in my left eye. I was blind for six months in my left eye. It was really bad. It all swelled up, and I couldn't see, but I kept playing. I never went out of the game.

With a detached retina?

But Kyle Pitz's knee is sore, guys. That is unbelievable. Anyway, a true warrior of the game passes away, Jim Otto at the age of 86. Let's take a break, and we will continue onward. All right, we All right, back. We are moving on. Coleen, you are in the pivot now with the letter N.

N is for nascent, as in Detroit's reconstructed secondary in its nascent phase. They needed a rebirth after only Washington allowed more yards, passing yards per game last season. They used their first two draft picks on corners, traded up for Terrion Arnold, got Ennis Rake straw at 61, and then they traded their third rounder to the Bucks for Carlson Davis. So all three of those draft picks are potential week one starters in their secondary?

They looked at what their biggest issue was last year, and they couldn't have addressed it any faster, any more aggressively. They tried to do it a year ago, to be fair. There was a little bit of like, Hey, they've improved their secondary year ago at this time, and those guys are no longer on the team. But having Brian Branch to begin with, like hitting on that draft pick and then adding, you would think Arnold feels like a pro-ready type of guy, and Carlton Davis has already shown he's a good starter.

I think a team like the Lions, too, where it's like, don't have any lips on the radar, and you don't have too many weaknesses. They've done a lot in two or three off seasons, but you You keep Aaron Glenn, the defensive coordinator. You keep Ben Johnson, the offensive coordinator. You could have rolled the dice that one of those two, if not both, could have been somewhere else right now. You're starting over with new phraseology, new coaches, new everything. It's like, this team is so much about their coaching staff, and I love that they've kept it all together. It's like, what's the weakness here? I know you could nitpick a little, but not much.

They thrived under higher expectations last year, as we know, starting right in week one when they knock off Kansas City in the opener. When they with 12 wins last year, where did they land last year?12 and 5.12 and 5, and make it all the way to the NFC title game. Damn near win that game against the Niners. I can't sit here and then say, Well, how will they handle expectations this year? I think they'll be fine. However, now it's a bird of a different color. You have to get over the hump. Anything short of getting out of the NFC now is maybe not failure, but a disappointment. The Detroit lines, as we Two of them are totally transformed, but it's very hard to get over the hump, and there's still a lot of big-time competition in the conference, so we'll see what they can do. It's going to be a battle, and we'll see if they can get over the hub.

They're set up so well. I also love that Terion Arnold and Brian Branch played together at Alabama already, so that's nice that they already have that probably report filled in.

All right, Greg, the letter O.

All right, I'm going to go with a great word, obedient, complying with or submissive to authority. I like when a word just sounds like it should obey me. Obedient. All right. I'm saying...

Made Colleen uncomfortable, but we're going to keep moving.

Greg was saying this exactly at this time yesterday on Sunday in his house.

Go ahead. I don't think if the Raiders and the Saints come out to Southern California for training camp, and they are, that they should be obedient to this NFL rule that because of marketing rights in the Southern California area that they don't necessarily have the rights to have fans at their training camp. Now, the Raiders have been more out in front saying, We're having conversations with both teams about the logistics of it. Talks are still ongoing. It sounds like they're pushing for it. The Saints aren't really answering questions. I just feel like going to a training camp is such an outstanding way to grow the support of your team and have young fans go there for nothing and just be around football, that having training camps without fans doesn't feel like training camp at all. And yes, I know it's the Saints in Southern California. How many people are really going to be showing up there every day? I'm sure people would be showing up. And so I hope they push to make that happen. I hope it's not something where, I don't know, that either the Rams and Chargers don't allow or that the teams really don't even want it.

I don't know. To me, that's not training camp. Don't be obedient in this way. And if they do try to keep fans out, fans should let them know. You're trying to grow your brand. The Raiders have done a great job over that. Saints, you're trying to grow fans. Don't keep them out.

It feels like a weird NFL thing in general that some of these stipulations, I get maybe why they were cooked up, but they went to what? Was it Greenbriar for years and years? That's right. At Secret Compounds. I don't know what it is. But why would you have any fan base? I would just promote it everywhere, so I'm with you. It just feels like this is just weird NFL business.

This is just to be weird NFL business. In California here.

Well, the rule would apply, I guess, everywhere, but it only matters because everyone's trying to come to Southern California. Yeah, because they're technically in the Raiders. The Raiders and the Saints are coming into the Chargers and Rams area, and they either need to get some permission, but there's questions about whether they even want the permission and how they're going to do it. The Raiders do say that they're trying to figure it out.

Saints team President Dennis Lauscha explained that on-site logistics, not NFL marketing rules, are a bigger hurdle for the team. He believes that Finding a room for fans at UC Irvine's campus is going to be challenging.

Okay, I read that, too, but I went to multiple great training cramps with the Rams. My kids had a blast the day they went, and that was the same facility. So just saying.

And they had food trucks and stuff out there.

It was all happening.

You said training cramps.

Just trying to move past that. I'm out.

There are a lot of cramps there.

Good one. All right. Hopefully, that all works out, Greggy. Up to Mark Cessler with the letter P.

All right, here is where some crossover occurs, and I don't give an F. P is for Penix, Michael, Junior. In our news room, I listen to dense white noise on earphones, hail and rain and chaos in the woods while banging out alphabet narratives as an adult male. Pressing question, how will humans react when Michael Penix Jr. Takes over as QB1 for Atlanta as early as week 6? The 2 & 3 Falcon's crumbling inexcusably. 23 to 10 to the Carolina Panthers. A sense of dread hovers. Beloved Kirk Cousins hasn't been himself all season. Five touch downs, 10 picks, including a pick six just before the half. Raheem Morris recalls a tweet from Michael Penix senior, issued on June 27th, 2020. You see my boy. He's coming into his zone. I can feel it. End tweet. Morris decides it's time to be his own man. Throw chatterbox media types into the circular file and bring Penix Jr. Into the fire. Four More touch downs later, the Falcons, 38 to 23 victors over Carolina, are reborn as a new creation of the elegant South.

Wow. That is quite a scenario. I love these scenarios. It's giving up on Kirk quite quickly, although he's struggling. It's two and three. It's a tricky situation. It's early enough. Could you trade them? Probably not with all the cap hit that you would get, but maybe the next offseason. People like myself that say, Okay, they're locked in the Kirk for two years. I mean, there is a crazy scenario where if this It happened, for instance, that they could trade Kirk next offseason with that guaranteed salary.

Haven't they set up a a dangerous situation? Let's just say it did struggle. I'm not saying this happens. This is a bit far fetch.

I think they've created a dangerous situation.

Yeah, your fan base, if he lights, if Pennex is whipping the ball like they say he will during training camp, your fans, it just lodged their minds like, wait a minute.

Or if Kirk just-This is a game which happens with quarterbacks, especially ones coming off in Achilles.

Not him until last year. Fair.

But preseason, too. We I've seen it so many times where the rookies come in, they light it up. It's preseason. They're not playing great competition, and that's when everything starts.

That's why-Think of Lamar. Everything, if you... That's certainly... Michael Penix could be a star. You don't know I bet. But then everything keeps for me going back to the same question, but then why did you sign Kirk Cousins? Why did you put this roadblock in front of him and the kid and create this hyper awkward situation that could undermine the entire operation.It.

Reminds me of the quarterbackFactory.It will never make sense to me. That Howie Roseman talked about when they drafted Jalen Hertz, and they had Carson Wentz in place, and he was like, The Eagles are trying to be a quarterbackFactory.

Okay. But there was a different situation. Then this was a totally unique situation we haven't really seen before. We'll see. I would imagine Cousins plays one year and they trade him, right?

I think if he plays well, he plays two years. Kirk had his first press conference in front of the Atlanta Media, handled it all well, I thought, really embraced Pennex. But the one key moment where I was like, Oh, that was the real answer was when they asked about it, well, if you had known they were going to draft Pennex, and he was just like, Well, I don't deal in hypotheticals. It's like, okay. Because he was trying to be real, at least a little real in that moment.

It was an all-time rug pull on a player, too, to give him that contract, promise him the world, this is team now, and then without any notice, draft the replacement before he ever played a game. It's unreal. It's crazy. We're going to see how it all plays out. Tell me more about this white noise, Mark.

I don't need to use it anymore, but back when our newsroom, I did this morning just because there were people shouting something. But when our newsroom was crazy, it's like, oh, everyone's just chatting and eating sandwiches and throwing food around. It's like, Oh, but a breaking news just happened, and you have to write three graphs in four I was like, F the surrounding noise because it does bother me more than some. I found, because I also had a baby, a baby or two babies at the time, a lot of white noise happening in the house. This sounds helpful to a baby to sleep. I can write with this where I could hear nothing but intense nature sounds that were consistent.

It's the only way that I can concentrate on anything. Yeah, I think it's-But I use brown noise. That's a different frequency, and it's much better.I use it for sleeping.I use music.

Music is a nice...

Music, I'm too distracted by the lyrics and everything else. I just need nothing, almost.It.

Brings you to a place of nothing, nothingness.I get that.

The old newsroom, there was not only food being eaten, but being thrown around?

I don't know. Everyone's like, everyone... No. But you know how it was.

It was like a cartoon pizzeria.

You were the one person writing the story, and it seemed like everyone else is just giggling and dancing and running around and shouting.

Especially in the Damosheck era. Right.

Then you had that Tuesday sandwich tosses. That happened.

Thursday sandwich tosses.

Yeah, that's the Friday pizza toss.

I would cover my ears sometimes because I We did not concentrate. We are the same, Mark.

I cranked out the story, though. I got the story. You sure did.

You got it done.

What's the other alternative?

Take a walk. There it is. This is Mark's mind.

It's great.

If you really turn it up in your ear, it removes all of the-I could actually picture you writing a Rex Grossman 300 order right there.

It's really nice.

It's peaceful, but if you just turn the dial 7%, it's the start of a horror movie. Yeah.

Yeah. Or you hear it, you see Mark focusing, and then you look down and you see the headphones aren't actually plugged into anything. All right, Q.Q, right? Is that right?Who has Q?Q, me. Q is for question, Colin. Nailed it. Will you watch the latest version of Hard Knocks?

I will.

Yep, Company Woman. Absolutely.

I haven't watched all the NFL offerings with Hard Knocks, and I didn't even watch the first in-season one for long, but I'll give this one a shot because of when it's coming out in the calendar. I actually think it's a perfect time. It is when you're... I think early July. It's why they did drop the Netflix show then. You're hankering for a little football. Just that it's different, and it's off-season, and it's draft stuff. I'm curious how deep they go into the front office stuff. I'll check it out once. I'll check it out this season or a few episodes, and if it's good, you stick with it.

I don't think we talked about it on our schedule release show. It's the New York Giants covering what? From the end of the offseason until essentially when it comes out.

Hard Knocks: Offseason with the New York Giants.

I'm fine with it.

I would imagine a lot of it is the draft.

How could it not-I want to see the Saquon fall out.

I guess I do. But my one thing is because I think the one thing about Hard Knocks, even though Hard Knocks is what happened in the past week, the training camp one, you're tied to those story lines and you find out new stuff. If it's going to be an hour about why the Giants signed Brian Burns, okay, I want to really learn about how front offices It's work. That's all. The news itself is from 4-5 months ago, and we've been talking about the Giants at that point for 4-5 months. You got the challenges, make that fresh. They must think they can do that.

There's a reason why those that know the Hard Knocks history, and Connie, we've done the podcast the last two summers. Exactly. If you know the history, and the history is Rich. Rich. The Giants have never done the show, and the Giants are one of those Tiffany franchises that distance themselves from things that are, quote, distractions. This is something they can control. It's like this is an in-house operation where they could work on the edit of it. Part of what makes the original and still greatest iteration of it, the training camp version, and why I wish they would just honestly focus on the hard knocks. Less about being a brand and just like that show, because I think that show is special, is you can't, as a team, totally control it because it's happening in real-time, week to week. You have control of the edit, of course, and you've seen it, I feel like, more in recent years, them try to filter out things that maybe they don't want focused on when it comes to hard knocks. But still, the way a training camp moves along, you're a little bit vulnerable, and teams like the Giants don't like that.

This to me feels like an in-house NFL Films operation that the Giants signed off on. It's safe, and Giants fans will like it. If I was a Giants fan, I'd watch it. If you're not a Giants fan, maybe you will, or maybe you'll wait till August for the original version. That's all I can say.

As soon as I hear the music, I want to watch, though, so I'm just drawn to it.

It's going to be a different cast of characters, though. It's not going to be funny players talking about dinosaurs. It's a bunch of front office people.

It'll be different. The reason why I have more optimism, I think, is that these team... And ultimately, look, NFL Films, we're all one big company. It is always an in-house operation when it's NFL Films. These team videos that they make of behind the scenes for the draft, which is even more explicitly, they're not going to put anything that puts the team in a bad light, have been pretty informative, and a lot of times does have stuff I'm interested in, and those are created by the team. Now, those are quicker, and this is a longer format, certainly. But I think that's why. I am interested. Then when they have good team inside, ones that are made by the team, often it's pretty good.

I like Hard Knocks a little dangerous. When we're at the Browns Hard Knocks and you see the head coach and offensive coordinator battling for the control of the team in front of the camera. I love that. There's nothing like it when it's. To the Brown's credit, they're like, You know what? We agreed to do this. This is what's happening. This is going out there. The more you take away from that world. I like the idea of like, Oh, I want to see how are they going to handle this? How are they going to spin it or not spin it and just show us the unvarnished truth of the situation? You know what? I don't know if I'm watching that, but you know what? I am always checking the latest edition of Walking with Giants. I don't know if you guys, this is, of course, the great Christopher Walkin, Oscar-award-winning actor, I believe native New Yorker, and obviously a huge fan of the New York Giants. So he started his own podcast. And one thing we haven't really touched on is Tommy DeVito, quarterback of the Giants, became a cult hero at the end of last season, Tommy Cutlets and all that.

All of a sudden, it's like, we don't really hear about Tommy so much anymore, even though they didn't draft the quarterback. So hopefully he is a-He was just at the draft with me.

We did a pizza contest.

There he goes. He's still in the mix in Italian-American ways. But what's his NFL future? He said, Apparently, there's an article he had as a chip on his shoulder, and I had to hear what Chris Walkin had to say about it. Here's an excerpt from that. It's time once again for Walkin with Giants. With me, your host, Chris Walkin.

Change has come to my beloved football team, the New York Giants, Big Blue, the G-men.

We all go through it, change.

My neighbor is now a woman, or In the parlance of her times, she was always a woman. Or in the parlance of a times, if she was always a woman, she's now just living her truth.

Hold for a fact.

Now that you're done applauding, let's talk about someone going through change on the giants. Homegrown talent.

Jersey boy done good.

The entire nation got behind. His Italian mannerisms and Guido good looks. Tommy DeVito. He feels slided. Cast aside. He feels as if his yesterday's news and he has something to say.

He's not going away the same way.

We all do one day. Enough with the rhyming. Well, I got news for you, Tommy. It's going to be hard. It's going to be hard to assume. It was six hours. The best quarterback who's ever lived. The man, myth, the legend. Eli Manning, mic drop, walking off. Walking off. He is a huge Eli fan. We've heard that in many episodes.

Yeah, that's been a B-line. I like that. That was the full episode and the ability to take the football analysis and link it to our own lives.

Right. I mean, thank you to Chris, who was from Astoria, Queens, by the way. So a New York native to the bone.

Good context, yeah.

Hopefully, he can fall in love with Drew Locke. That's what I hope for Christopher Walk.

Good call. The letter R with Colleen Wolf.

Okay. R for recuperation. We're recouping, and so is Anthony Richardson, the forgotten rookie. Had four starts last year, and now we're all just waiting for him to come back with that throwing shoulder. He's playing for the right coach and Shane Steiken. But everything we heard and saw was he's an athletic freak, and it was so exciting when he came out and he was able to back it up, and then we only got a month of the ball from him. So now he has Adani Mitchell there that they added in the draft. Obviously, Michael Pitman Jr, who the Colts locked in as well. And they drafted two offensive linemen early that also help with him up front. So I feel like the fact that he looks like he's all the way back from surgery right now, he's going to be a huge storyline. The Colts are going to be a huge storyline. And is it going to happen to me again? Am I going to be like front and center on the Colts? You were on. I know. But this is like we're watching all of the recuperations divisions for guys like Joe Burrow as well.

But Anthony Richardson and Joe Burrow at the top of the list.

I like the division they play in, Connie. I think it sets up well for them to make a run here, potentially. And so much of it is Ken Richardson, stay healthy and grow as a player. But I think they're a fun team to get behind again. I don't think you're in the wrong here. I think it's funny.

I was quite high on them. I did the Projected Starters series for the AFC last week, and I looked at that roster. I was like, Chris Ballard's done it again. I like him. All right. I like them as a sneaky division winner. We watched this college tape and stuff during the draft season. It's like, whenever I'm watching that, I know I'm not a real draftnik because all I'm thinking is, wouldn't it be nice to just watch them professional football where they're better? Oh, dang, bro. I went to Anthony. I went to Anthony Richardson because he really only played two games that he survived. It was so short and it's electric. It's also a little more inconsistent, I think, than people realized. His accuracy issues definitely showed up. But I think he made good decisions. It's just the good throws and the good runs that he made were just so good that you want to see more.

The year that you jumped on their, not bandwagon, but just generally their operation, like running back goes down. The offensive line just crumbled. Everything fell apart. It was like an Apocalypse, but where they are now, two years later, there's a lot to believe in. I think a lot of it is like, Anthony Richardson is at the center of it. But Ballard's defense and what he's built up and what he believes in, it's been a slow process. But I believe in their defense I did last year. I think You're going to need to be able to get to the quarterback in this division. The Colts, to me, also have a really interesting coaching staff. I think it begins right there.

Yeah, I was just two years early on it, so I never left.

Frame it that way.

I think what they lacked last year was a big-time difference maker on their offense. Now they potentially have it. I don't want to put too much on the shoulders of the kid, but hey, they brought him in to be the franchise, and let's see if he is.

He might leave the league. Maybe Calum Williams will in the OTA videos that are just...Oh, my God.Oh, that's awesome. The cult showed one where he throws at 85 yards or something bonkers.I.

Thought I wasHe's great for that. I thought I was stealing my fantasy league last year when I took Richardson high. Not high, but it was like, this is going to be my QB2 that shocks the world. But I would do it again this year. I think it's worth rolling the dice on. All right, next. It's me with S. We got one more break to take, actually. Let's take one more break, and then we'll close this out. All right, we're back. Greggy, take us, baby. Take us where we need to go.

The letter S is for Superchargers, which will make more sense when we play the following clip from the 2015 season.

San Diego Superchargers. San Diego Superchargers.

Oh, my God, I remember that.

That just felt…

I don't mean it was important. I mean, to be attached to an earphone when you say that is a rugged way to go out.

What a tribute by you.

You got Wes in the show twice, Greggy. Good work.

I may or may not have just heard that while looking for the other clip and thought, That would be fun to just play on the show.

The San Diego Charger. Look, I just did that with myself. For you, Mark.

It was all for you, The context for that was we thought it was the Chargers last game in San Diego.

It actually wasn't. Remember that we thought they were gone, and then they ended up one more year, but that was why you sang that.

The safety lane on the field after the game, was it that game?

Yes.

Good. That was 2015? That's right. Let's see if the falsetto still holds all these years later. Supercharges.

You got it.

Supercharges. Well, I When I was younger. I was only 35 then. You can't hold the notes forever.

Great job by Big Funk just having that ready, the cut-up version. You're doing great.

Let's give it up for Big Funk. Listen, let's hear your music, Funk. It's quiet around here right now, and there's not a lot of staff.

To say the least.

This is my favorite theme song, is Big Funk.

And yet, one man could do it all. Big fun on the ones and twos. Eric Robbins having a baby. Maybe funk will, too. You got an SO right now, funk?

Yeah. Been dating for seven years.

Whoa. Crazy, right? Seven?

You're legally married, I believe, or your partner. We are technically domestic partners.

I think they just took That's what I say, that law.

The call. She got grandfathered in, though.

Yeah. Clock's ticking, she's expecting a big rang.

It doesn't help that Eric's my neighbor, too.

I was going to say, do you ever double date? Yeah. We had a few times. Because Eric got engaged married, and now child.

Yeah.

It's crazy.

It all happened at once. Funk feeling, I hate.

We can't assume that his significant other wants a baby.

We can't assume. Which is a lot of time.

We're the same mind where it's like we want to be able to afford one before we have one or open that discussion, but it doesn't help that Eric's wife will be walking around, and lately, the conversation has been like, Oh, she looks so pretty.

She's so beautiful. Oh, that's a sign. I'm watching TV.

I'm like, Oh, that's crazy.

Seven years is 2,555 days.

I can't believe you just googled that.

All right. Good job, though, Funk, behind the glass. Thank you. That was his girlfriend pulling him out of the studio to go down to the city courthouse. All right, let's see. Where else? What do we got left?

Where are we?Mark, T.T..

T is for too many. Too many long reads by Mark. Too many letters. Here's a quick one. I know. Well, we learned the lesson, but we unlearnt it.

To streamline this.

I think we've done a good job moving along.

It has been quicker. I do have a quick one for you, though. I have four playoff teams not returning in my little world of worlds. I looked at the standings from last year. Pittsburgh, Cleveland, Miami, and the Rams. If I'm wrong, replace one of the teams with someone else because my sports lock of the week is that four new playoff teams will emerge as they have every year since Hillary Clinton first discovered the magic of a pantsuit. Go.

Okay.

It was Pittsburgh, Miami, who?

Pittsburgh, Cleveland, Miami, the Rams.

Okay. I think the Rams stay in. Stunner. Well, first of all, it's funny to be that- Rosenthal gets behind Rams, news at 11. It's funny that you're taking the Browns out when you've been unhappy that they're not getting enough pop this offseason as a contender.

I was suggesting that they aren't. They're not unhappy, but they aren't. I think there's a regression element there.

I'll take out the Bucks just for the Rams. Sorry, Bucks.

Well, that's sensible. Rams, I felt was a little edgy, but like-I think you got it right.

Yeah.

Really? Good job. You're right.

Are we just moving the segment along?

Well, I can throw four other teams out there.

I don't think Pittsburgh is crazy, although I think they've got better. Cleveland's not crazy. Rams, not crazy.

Okay, I got another one. I'm taking out the Cowboys and putting in the Packers.

The packers were in the playoffs.

All right. I'll see you're crazy and raise you. I'm taking out the Texans and putting in the cults.

I'm an idiot. I'll put in someone else. I don't know who I'm putting in, but I'm taking out the Cowboys.

You're going to put in Are they going to?

I might. I haven't done that part of it.

It's a little early making these predictions because we're just going to.

Sorry, Mark. It's been deemed too early by the old Rosie.

He put the packers into the playoffs.

Yes, because they could have won the Super Bowl last year. That was a space. All right.

Good one, Mark. Good luck to you. Well, no, because I know you don't want to be right on that, but maybe you will be. We shall see. You. Unfair. That's what it stands for. Hey, this new schedule We have moved. We've not so quietly started to shift away from a traditional Sunday schedule to more... This is like the NFL's primetime era. The more streamers that are involved, the more miles there are to feed, the more days of the week that are being used. It's creating schedule havoc that we've never seen before because the schedule makers. Maybe that helps us to explain why the schedule, based on what we heard with some reports, ended up being delayed a week because they're like, How do we make this all work? Anyway, Warrant Sharp, if sharp football had this little data point. Since 1994, a total... 1994, how long ago was that? Thirty years ago. A total of three teams over 31 years played at least seven games where their opponent had over one week to prepare, three in 31 years. This year alone, there are two teams who play seven games versus opponents who have over one week to prepare, two teams with seven plus games.

The Patriots are on the other side, Greg, and they play zero. The Chargers, here we go, six games versus teams with extra rest and prep for them, zero games versus teams with short prep. The Patriots, zero games versus teams with extra rest and prep for them. Three games versus teams with short prep. So my point being, I get it. Listen, the NFL is here. They're making money, and everyone loves the primetime games, but it feels like it's adding in in terms of Look at my Jets for it. They have six primetime games in 11 weeks to start the season, and they're flying all over the place to do this. It is a major challenge for the schedule makers and your boy Mike North to try to figure out how to make this fair because it's quite simply not as simple as it used to be the way the schedule is laid out.

I think number one, there already were costs to all this because it's just inched up by derivations, more so this season. But I listen to what the players say about it. It's the health. It's like the rest is not just someone's going to get there and strategize their way to a win. It's like their players have an extra two or three days to rest. I think that matters so much towards the end of the season. And yet it's asking a 7:37 to suddenly stop in midair and turn around and go the other way. It's just not going to change, at least not anytime soon, because it's the money. It's like, Oh, we can put a schedule release out on the same day as the NBA playoffs and blow them out of the water. It's like, why stop? I don't think there is a lack of care for certain people involved, namely the players and the coaches and their lives.

But there's also no way that they're going to be able to make this completely fair for every single team with all of the different iterations. They try.

They have to give up something to get something. To give up some of this. The competitive balance, quite frankly, you're getting millions upon millions of dollars in primetime victories.

It reminds me, as you were discussing it, it's a good point to raise of the NBA, because in the NBA, there's so many what they call schedule losses, where one team's on a back-to-back on the road, third night in four games, and the other one has been resting for three days and just waiting for it. Being an NBA fan, you almost have to have this context of where your schedule is and where the other one is, and like, Oh, that's a fine lot. Some losses aren't real losses because it's just like you were in such a tough spot, you can't overcome it. You hope that that all evens out over the course of an NBA season. In this case, there's so few games. I don't know if it evens out. We need a little more research on how much does this affect these teams and on their records versus the rest.

The NBA also, and it's an issue because fans pay top dollar to go to the games, and then LeBron's not playing because it's a rest day. It's like, you could do that because it's an 82-game season or whatever in the NFL. Every game, even now that we're at 17, it's so precious, these games. It's something. All right, V, Connie.

Football is completely different than basketball.

That's a nice final point to put on it, Mark. Good work.Coleen.All right.

You grabbed my Kyle Pitz one earlier, so I had to pivot off of Voluminous, and we're going with Visistitudes instead. Oh, look at you. The many Visistitudes that former Jets quarterbacks have made. In In this exercise, it will be watching two in particular. So a competition in Minnesota between Sam Darnold and JJ McCarthy, and then the competition between Jared Stittam and Zack Wilson and Bo Nicks in Denver. Now, that one isn't exactly a heated one, but still, these quarterbacks have been through a lot on their journey. Not always the best situations, but they've dealt with some adversity, and now we'll see if they're able to weather the storm and come out on top.

The cystitude, a change of circumstances or fortune, typically one that is unwelcome or unwelcome.

You just rewrote that during the show. Yeah.

I mean, the changing topic as a good example of a visititude of my topic here, I believe, because it's related.I do have a vice.What?For W? Yeah, for W. You want to just combine them? Yeah. My W is wanton, which is It's a versatile word. It can mean a lot of things. I'm not talking about the soup, the template. It can mean like with wanton disregard, like you're just totally...A wanton.Yeah. Isn't it wanton?Delibate or...It's wanton.Wanton. Say it either way. I don't know. You were saying facisitudes all crazy, too. We were just... We're blowing it. We're blowing it.

We were hit out of chew. I thought you said it fine.

Facisitudes, no? I think just facisitudes. There's no T in the middle there, is it?

There is a T. Wanton. That's essentially wanton. But one of the definitions, though...

Yeah, but one of the definitions, though.

Wanton.

Yeah, that was the end of it. One of the definitions is lustful. You have that wanton desire, libidoness.

Wanton desire. Livicious.

There's a lot of words like that. That's how the Viking's fan base is going to be about JJ McCarthy by the time we get to meet week one, much less by the time he plays.

I found a sentence, Greg, to help you. Her cheeks burned as she recalled how forward she had been, how wanton.

Yeah.

Do you understand the context now, Dan?

Oh, absolutely. Well, I know the word and the pronunciation.

So you're saying... So when you're ordering a medium wanton, medium wanton, that was a bad job.

Medium wanton soup. That's what I do. See, I have it wrong the other way.

I was thinking about a fortune cookie this whole time. It was just totally different, too.

I blew it. These Vikings fans, they're just going to be hot for this kid. If you think about quarterback history with the Vikings, they haven't had a ton of homegrown guys. They had cold pepper for a minute. It was hot. They had Teddy. They were very excited about Teddy. But other than that, since 1977, Tommy Kramer was the only first-round pick I could find, and he was a late pick that had to wait two years. They've always been cycling through these older guys. Culpepper wasn't old, but like, Farrat at one point in his career, Farr, Postpackers, Cousins, Post-Washinson, Kenum, Bradford. It's like, Now we got our own guy. They're They're just going to be feeling one time.

I agree. That's why I was bummed out.

They're going to be ordering some one time.

Jj is playing. I think he's going to play week one, most likely, I would think.

Well, yeah. It just makes sense. It's really more on Sam Darnold to completely outplay him.

I don't know if he can do anything unless JJ really bottoms out in training camp.

It's a great situation, though. Yeah. That could help Bradford, too. That way, that maybe he looks so good in camp, that they're like, All right, let's see if his ceiling right now, because he has the experience It feels a little higher. Maybe we'll start out with him, but we'll see.

All right, very good. We are coming near the end of the line right now. Up next, Mark Tuffy, X.

X is for your ex-lover from 11th grade.

Well, that's E-X.

I know, but it's the X in E-X.

Got it.

Randy, you're going to have to figure that out.

A little bit of a cheat, but we're just going to move forward.

I am willing to acknowledge I did. Well, little did she or he, depending, your choice, little did this person know that you adored the National Football League. You quietly huddled away on a desktop computer in your room, creating statistical reports long before a pack of nerdlings cooked up EPA and various dense nonsense to describe beauty. Of course, this was a bad move. You should have hitched to the fields beyond the community center where said love interest was drinking out of a solo cup with Matt Troy and Phil in the Blank while you watched Clash of the Titans on VHS. As you become more concrete in your desire to track the prowess of war and moon, she becomes more unhinged and lost to the wind. You call her up and her dad answers, and it's like you're on the phone with Mao Zedong. Do you think today she or he, depending on who you are, understands, and we're cycling back, that Bryce Young unanimously win Comeback Player of the Year while Dave Canales nabs Coach of the Year for a Panthers team that carves out nine wins, Tapper v. Tenglen.

Oh, great end.

And we've already discussed the topic, so we don't necessarily need to.

One topic that Dan and I especially like to hit on repeatedly is Mark's strategy with these crazy predictions. This is even for him is in a show where it's not really about predictions. For him to drop in five predictions that no one will ever remember unless one of them hits, and then he'll bring it up.He's.

Spamming.so.

Smart.

That's like when you've done things 10,000 times, you've gained that professional knowledge. I respect it.

Well, good luck to you on that You're spamming. Yeah, you're spamming out there predictions.

Because by August, these will not be your predictions.

No, he'll go the other way.

Well, life changes. But if Bryce Gunn were kidnapped.

But if they're seven and four in November, we're going to hear this clip.

There's a lot of narrative behind that. But in that case.

To be clear, you're talking about the 1981 version of Class of the Titans, not the 2010. No, VHS. Neither of which I'm- Old school.overly aware.

No, it's the first thing that I saw on I had a VHS back in the day. When I was in middle school, I lost to a girl in wrestling.

I was just trying to think the whole time who my boyfriend was in 11th grade. Can anyone remember 11th grade?Your.

Boyfriend?of.

Course.

Did you remember who I dated in 11th grade?

I I know. I remember my boy. Junior year, you can't remember?

I don't really remember my childhood.

Wow. You're going to have to talk to Andrea about that.

I feel like I'm really high on live.

All right, let's go letter Y.

Is that you, Dan?

It is you, Dan.

It is. Oh, Y for... This is from the movie John Wick or maybe the sequel. Y is for, You leave me no choice but to declare you excommunicado.

Yeah.

We can't have Harrison Bucker in the kicker club anymore. He's got to go. He's got to go. We're going to slide him out of the club. That's all. He's excommunicado.

I don't think anyone's fighting you on that.

Well, you'd be surprised, but we're going to move Matt. He's going to have to do a pen He's on the outside of the velvet ropes moving forward.

It's a great honor, and it's a privilege, and it's up to you more than anyone who gets in in a row.

You're the bouncer.

Right. It brings me note because he's in A tremendous kicker. Get him out. It makes me think of the old Payton Manning sound bite from the Pro Bowl all those years ago.

About Mike Banderjack.

The old Mike Banderjack line. Reminds me of that one.

Keep on. Yeah.

Which takes us to letter Z.

Z.

Close it out, Connie.

Z is for zeal, as in how Brock Purdy is approaching this offseason. He finally has a full offseason as the starter. His rookie season, it was Trey Lance that was there. He was just learning the playbook. When OTAs began in year two, he was still recovering from the UCL. And now, here they are, fresh off of a Super Bowl loss, but Super Bowl appearance. And now, he gets the full offseason healthy to get everything in line for this year.

And they did not trade Brandon Ayut. They did not move on from Debo Samuel. He also, Brock Purdy, has bulked up. I think it's for a lot of these quarterbacks, you need a couple off seasons to figure out exactly. And he already was thick in general, but he has bulked up. I like any quarterback three years running in Shana Hans' offense.

I do like if he's going to be my avatar as an NFL quarterback, that he's bulking up, that we're not just these little children.

Bulking season.

Is that Is it a trope that quarterback ex beefs up for biggest year ever?

I mean, unless you're Lamar Jackson.I mean, yeah. I think the losing weightIt was a trope for him, though, two years ago.

It just didn't work out.

He just decided to bring it back. He's also coming off. Probably his worst three-game stretch of the season happened to be the playoffs. I think he played well enough in the conference Championship and the title game. I mean, in the conference Championship in the Super Bowl. But I think he wants to play at a higher level than he did.

If this is who he is, which is good, that wouldn't be surprising either. He was a Mr. Irrelevant for a reason. It's not like we should expect him to now keep developing into the next Tom braided. Maybe this just is Brock Purdy, who's a good quality quarterback, especially when he's in this system, but he's not going to be the guy that's special. And is that enough for these Niners to finally get over the hook?

I have some optimism that he can continue to improve because I think if he was drafted in the second round or the first round and Tua had put up the two seasons that he just put up, we would look at a guy entering his third year who improved a lot from year one to year two, which is easy to forget. He was a lot better last year overall. And that he continues keeping it going, and he's in the best situation maybe in the entire NFL.

I would like to think if he hit the ground running the way he did, I think it could improve because to do that that quickly tells me that we don't know what else he can do. I think it's only because of the draft stock in a situation that we're punching holes or looking for something that might be fool's gold.

And it's like, we areIn fairness, it's also his play, which there have been... It hasn't always been incredible. There have been moments where it's like, Okay, is this the guy? Is this truly the guy they hope he can be? I don't think he's been flawless. I don't think he was flawless last year.

Not flawless, but it's also like, I could point to 10 first-round pics that have That's a bad streak.

No, he's already hit. I mean, he's a huge hit for them, regardless. I don't know. I'm not even arguing anything other than this idea that he has to continue to get better and better. Maybe he is like Jared Goff level good. If he is, is that enough?

It's funny how different we would look at him if the protection was better on that third and four play where Chris Jones just got in fresh. The more I've watched that, it's like, That's really not on purdy in any way. It just was a tough spot. If he hits that throw, then he just... Granted, the drive is mostly about McCafree anyway, so it's always tough to pull out. But either way, he would have come up with a shutdown winning drive potentially in the Super Bowl.

That narrative completely changes.

I think you were pointing out that he had a terrible game on Christmas against the Ravens, lit up a terrible Washington team at the end of the regular season. Then in the playoffs, three games that were three games of sub-90 passer rating.

The Packer's game was bad. They should have lost that game, and then that would have been a different narrative that people would have been blaming him.

He didn't light it up in January and into February. But listen, huge hit for them. This guy saved their butts in so many ways when they whift so badly on Trey Lance. Let's see if he can build on it.We.

Did it.Oh, my God.

He's in the best shape of his life.

You know what? We're only doing two shows a week. We're going to give him a nice meaty sandwich that they can throw around the office.

They'll be tossing it around. All right, any final thought?Coleen, you've said it all.That.

Visualization is unnecessary.

The food fights in the user.

No, the meaty sandwich. Most people hear that and they get hungry.

Yeah, I'm starving. It's the way that you say it.I am hungry, too. It is unrewarding.

You didn't like the inflection of it.

Yeah.okay, I understand.I didn't dislike it. I just think it takes you to a certain place.

I asked Coleen if she had anything else to add. She said yes. Now the floor goes to Coleen Wolf.

Do you guys want to get a sandwich after this? Yeah, absolutely.

Okay, great. Would love to. Mark?

Mark has something he has to do.

We'll see.

I already know Mark's answer.

This sounds like if Coleen has never asked us in show, Hey, do you want to get a sandwich afterwards?

I'm starving. I'm so hungry.

Same.

Think about Coleen. This could be an important conversation.

I'm considering it right now at the minute.

Bunk, hit it. That seems like it's going in the right direction. We're up to, I'm considering.It does.

How do I say it? Visititudes? Is that not right?Visistitudes.Wantons.Visistitudes. Visistitudes.

He the call. The Kall.