The Around the NFL podcast. The NFL always wins. Welcome to another edition of Around the NFL. Yes, the NFL always does win. May 15th schedule release. Blowing up the sports world. Dan Hans is here with heroes Greg Rosenthal, and yes, Mark Sesler, and That is what we are all about on tonight's episode. We're taping this Wednesday evening here on the West Coast, Mark Sesler. The schedule is out. We're going to go through all the interesting nugs that we can dig up on short notice. I know I could see the goosebumps through my monitor right now looking at you, bud.

I was thinking, though, that back when I was in seventh and eighth grade, that there was a very special day I think it was back in April back then where USA Today would print, and it was breaking news as a newspaper back then, the entire NFL schedule. My brother and I would have a wrestling match over who got to look at it first. So it historically has meant a lot to me. I think now I'm surprised that it's not taking place over four, or five, or six days as a week-long event, because I think that's probably where we're heading with it at this point.

For some reason, when Mark started telling that story, I expected him to be like, And then the milkmen came over and told us from the Transistor radio.

He's older. Yeah, it's funny. I'm a huge fan of the NFL since I was probably about 10 or 11 years old. But I don't remember the NFL. Obviously, they didn't handle it at all the way they do now in terms of a blowout event the way it is now. But even then, I feel like when the NFL schedule dropped, you would find it, I don't know, on the back page or deep in the sports section when it was released. There would obviously be your local football team or teams. The Beat Reporter would hammer out 800 words on it, maybe. But now, as everything is tied to the NFL, it is a huge to do. And while we, and this is a good time when you think about our great late friend Chris Wesling, we like to keep it in perspective and not be one of those shows or people people that cover the game that put too much into these schedules and look at them and actually try to figure out, Oh, this team is going to be good, this team is going to be bad, and you're going to see a lot of that over the next few days and weeks and months.

But also it's fun. It's still fun to look at what's going on. I think Greggy, and I'm going to give you the last word before we jump into it, before we look at week one, that's a good thing to remember, too. It's all fun, and maybe it's a little bit over the top and overdone a little bit on some level, but at the end of the day, it takes us one step closer to a new season, and that's exciting.

Yes, it was my role, I feel like, back in those shows with Wes to just subtly needle and be like, Hey, let's lay down up there, Larry, and have a little fun with football. They'd be like, You already know the schedules. You know who's home and away. You just start saying when the games are. It's like, Yeah, okay. But then you see the week one schedule, and it does get my blood flowing. Walker could not have been more excited. Now, I feel like I'm reliving what it was like to be a fan. Not that we had this, but he immediately starts looking at the schedule and doing the win-loss thing for various teams, which is... That was the number one columnness/beat writer move back in the '80s and '90s.

Well, they've got an NFL segment that copies that exact same trend, and maybe he could step right in and fill that role if they wanted.

Yeah, the Falcons at 13 and 4.

I think that's Adam Rank's corner, by the way. I think that's Rank's corner. You better watch out. Rank could be somebody that will... He'll go after you if you come toward his corner. You're right. So watch out.

He We gave the Falcons 13 and 4 to start, Walker, and I'm like, Okay, you got to... Am I on a podcast? You can't just make every team 12 and 5. It doesn't work that way. You got to balance it out. Wait, the Falcons? I know. I mean, you got to balance it out. It doesn't make sense.

Why the Falcons? Why did he...

He started in an alphabetical order. He was going to do every team. I don't know.

Listen, far be it for me to ever doubt what Terry Fontenou could do, the brain trust over there. Fourteen seems like a better number. Let's start with week Yes. We're going to go through it. We'll go through, yes, week one because that's the next week of football games. We'll check out the primetime slate. We'll check out the international games for you listeners out there that love that. Maybe or maybe not, you saw I was on social media talking with Handsome Hank, Henry Hodgson, and he gave me one of those things, which I love it. He's like, Hey, do a promo read where you're giving away the tickets. I have two tickets to Jets Vikings, October sixth, and you give them to the audience. I was like, I love that. That felt like a career checkmark. I've always wanted to do something like that. So win Dan's tickets, that's nice. I like that.Me..

I'm giving away.It was about two o'clock here in LA when I logged on my phone for about the 600th time today and noticed that that had dropped. I thought, I know Dan is enjoying this moment because it is. It's like you're a contest announcing at that point. That's a special privilege.

You're our Terry Bradshaw.

Shut up. All right. Yes, the holiday games, what's on NFL Network, all that stuff we're going to get to. But let's start with week one. How about this, Greg? As a way to get into it, because you are, I say this begrudgingly, but it is what it is. You are the defending locks champion. When we do get to that first Thursday show ahead of week one, the Thursday show we'll do on September fifth, you'll have the first pick.

Two-time defending locks champion, four out of Don't forget. Enough. I know.

You took it too far. Greg, it's late at night. We don't need to hear that right now.

You will have the first pick as a result. What would be the game, and if you don't know, if you're new to the show or just a little hazy on how we do it, we don't draft island games, but what would you take in a non-island game draft, week one, pick one?

That's a spicy question because I'm going to take one that I don't think you guys would want, but I want it. It's Texans, Colts, actually. I want Anthony Richards and C. J. Stroud.

Please lock yourself into that pick. Okay. First of all-Sons are picking second. I love it.

First of all, the best games in week Week One are the primetime games. We know the kickoff game is great. Ravens, chiefs, packers, eagles is in Brazil on Friday night. That's incredible. The Sunday night game is delicious. That's Rams, Lions. Your Jets are back in primetime on Monday night again in week one. To me, those are the four best games of the week, actually. The draft is a little different. Yes, I'm all about quarterbacks. The 120 minutes of complete games that Anthony Richardson played last year to me were just so electric, and I love me some CJ Strauss. That or Caleb Williams would be where I would probably go because I just want to see it right away.

Yeah, that's a great one. I would have the second pick, and, hell, let's do it. Tough.

Can I tell you the other one I was debating? Yeah.

What's the other one you were thinking?

Falcon's Stealers, just because it's either Russell Wilson or Justin Fields with the Steelers, and it's Kirk Cousins with the Falcons.

To me, that's funny. This is a classic reg move to pick multiple games when he's already picked a game. Sorry.

You know what's funny? Because either I would leverage it for a trade or I would take it just to get the season off on a horrible foot. Cowboys at Browns. Mark, you texted me about the news that came out. I think that's a really good game. I think it's an interesting game. It's the late Fox game. And who is on the call, Mark Sesler, for that particular game?

That's why I think it's just incredibly spicy, and we're all going to be watching it, but it is the debut of Tom braided. I think that's something that Greg and I have been in the-In the booth as the number one guy. The number one guy for Fox. Greg and I have been on a beat wondering if this would ever occur. It's clearly happening at this point. Greg Olson has been bumped to the second booth, which I think is, I did a segment about that earlier in the offseason, feels unrighteous to me. They're loaded. Fox is loaded. But of course, you're going to want to watch that game and just see how does braided handle, A, the Cowboys and the Browns. But I texted Greg saying, I am legitimately surprised with all the teams you could have found to play the Cowboys in week one. I have Tom braided announcing, I know the Browns were a playoff team, but that, to me, felt like an upset that the Cleveland got that spot at home for Tom Brady's first game against the Dallas Cowboys. Kind of a strange pick, but that's where I would have gone with the number two.

The Cowboys, listen, and we all know, the Cowboys, having been to the goddamn Super Bowl in over a quarter century, But they always do the biggest number. Fox is like, put Tom on that game and cross their fingers and see what happens.

I mean, I think that makes sense. I mean, you're on Cleveland, though. It could have been the Eagles versus Dallas or something, but they're going Cleveland versus Dallas. The Cleveland side threw to me, but why not?

I'm changing my pick, by the way. I'm going to take it just to annoy Mark, and I do want the Tom braided factor, so that's a big one.

Too late. In fact, I picked it, I think, or maybe I traded it to Mark for seven number ones to be named later. There's plenty of good games there to pick from. I do think it's a little... That guy, Greenberg on ESPN, they use him as the Jets fan mascot, and it's a little over the top to me, to be honest. Every Every time I try to read a story about the Jets on esbn. Com, I like Semeni as a Beat reporter. He's the longest tenured Beat reporter in team history, and so he writes from a perspective that's unique on the Beat. I can't scroll down without a giant picture of a video still of Greenberg's eyes bugging out. I'm like, What is he fired up about now in a performance-based... A pure performance. I know this isn't how he actually feels. When I'm talking about the Jets, it's how I actually It's not for the cameras or the microphone. What a joke. Point being, wow, hit piece on Greenberg in a big spot.

I know. I was like, What did he actually say?

I still don't know. But he said he stood up on his morning show and was screaming that, Why are the Jets in primetime? Again, Monday night football to start the season. I don't know why. I guess bad juju because of what happened with Rodgers last year. I think it's fun and exciting, and it's going to be obviously a reset for that team. And damn, I think it's going to It'll be a lot of fun to see the Niners and the Jets in that spot, the Jets with that great defense, the Niners with the instoppable offense at home. I think that's a great game. I'm really looking forward to it. I'll throw one game that could be sneaky great. Nobody's talking about the Jaguars this year. How about the Jaguars at Miami? Maybe a nice little shootout with two quarterbacks that love playing in the warm weather.

I'll give you one. Not all the matchups are great, but I would think that a second round draft in one of our draps. I want to see Jim Harbaugh's chargers in their debut. They're playing the Raiders. The Raiders aren't that sexy to me, but I can't think of a team that I'm more interested to check out early on as just where the chargers are right out of the gate and what they become. It's like, go play the Raiders in week one and be something different than these past chargers teams. I think they will be.

If the chargers at home against... I think that's going to be a bad Raiders team. If they can't beat the Raiders in the Jim Harbaugh homecoming game, I mean, chargers fans are going to be Are you kidding me? Is this happening again?

I know there's varying levels of excitement about the teams around them. But to me, like Jaden Daniels, you want to see his first start. That's against the Buc, so that's at the same time as the Cowboys. If JJ McCarthy is starting, he gets the Giants in an early game. And Bo Nicks. We're going to have so many damn rookie starters. It's outrageous. He starts in Seattle. The primetime slate, though, that might be the best. I was looking through it. That might be the best primetime slate of any week all season on paper. You can't ruin it with injuries, hopefully, praying to the football God. You can't ruin it, at least with bad records. We know they'll all be zero and zero going into it. That is four bangers in a row to start. So good job, bud.

It's a good point, though, because these networks, especially this past year, just getting absolutely banged every week by matchups that looked amazing in May that are dog poop by November because of the injuries. You definitely give yourself more coverage by front-loading these schedules. We'll be ready for that. Now, let's move to Monday Night Football. Let's go through some of the primetime island games. We'll start with M&F. I guess I could start. Mark, depending on your perspective, I could start with TNF because it's the first game of the week. But I've already said Sunday. We've talked Sunday, so now we've gone to Monday first. What do you think? Was that a mistake?

I don't know if you've made a mistake. I do think it's interesting that while you just ripped Greeny, a new one, he probably, minutes later, is wondering who this Jets guy is giving away Jets tickets in London. So I think there's just a rivalry there. But anyways, we can move on.

You don't think Greeny knows who I am. Now, that hurt.

No, I think he's-Now you've come from my throat. He's probably-Now you've hurt me, Mark Sesler. He's probably dismissing you to the level that you're dismissing him because Jets fans in the media don't like other Jets fans taking their spot. I have noticed I've noticed that over the years. I think that's a thing.

I would love some examples, by the way.

That's a deep cut to our Culver City newsroom. I know exactly who Dan is talking. I mean, who Mark is talking about. I know exactly.

For the record, Greeny is a legitimate Jets fan. I just think they've leaned into his Jets' fandom in a bit of an overly performative way. But that is what it is. All right, now, You don't think he knows me. Monday Night Football.

I do.

All right, here we go. We talk about Jets at Niners. Week 2, we have Falcons versus Eagles. How did the Falcons do, by the way, with primetime games? Did they get a lot?

I'm glad you asked that. They are in primetime three of the first five weeks. We're going big on Kirk early. At Philly, Monday night, week two. Home for Kansas City, Sunday night, week three. We'll get to the Sunday night games. Then they got an Amazon game, Tampa, week five. It's a lot of Kirk early. Just fine. I'm with that. I like that.

We also have three Monday, which I've never been a fan of, Mark, and I know you feel this, especially. Three Monday night football double headers. Week three, when you have Jags, Bills, and Commanders, Bangles. Week four, Titans, Dolphins, Seahawks, Lions, and week seven, when you have Ravens, Bucks, Chargers, Cardinals. So you get three of those in a five-week stretch, and you also get another one. This feels... Oh, that might be tied to the holidays. But week 15, You're going to get bears, Vikings, and then the Falcons again versus the Raiders. Week 17, by the way, you have a epic showdown, potentially an NFC Championship showdown preview between the lions and the Niners. So ever since Joe and Troy hit the scene and the rights in terms of just what ESPN pays for Monday Night Football and then what they're paying for that booth, these games are so good now. Sunday Night Football is always going to be king, but Monday Night Football now is a very respectable silver medalist.

I'd say this. We are veterans of watching multiple games at the same time on Sunday. So if anything, we have the skills to watch these Monday Night double headers. It's just the classic-Mark, keep that energy in October, okay? No, I'm saying I like that. It's the classic sense that Monday night football used to be the sporting event of the week, and they're competing against themselves with everything else at this point. At some point, you got to give up the ghost and be like, next year, there'll be five of them. And the years after that, there'll be seven or eight. So you got to just roll with it.I.

Don't like them at the same time.I'm glad they didn't do it in week one, at least. I'm glad they didn't do it in week one. There should be an asterisk, though. When you're looking at all the teams, it shows how many primetime games each team has. But then you're like the ESPN plus game for the Arizona Cardinals chargers as part of a double header. It's like, that shouldn't count as a full primetime game. That's a half of a game for the Cardinals. Sorry, you didn't even really get a...

It's like David Zaslow over here now.

It's the same thing. You can see it. It's like, Oh, let's give the Titans one primetime game, but it's the ESPN game when the ABC has one that's better on that same Monday night. Monday night got one of the games I was keeping an eye on. Where is it going to land on the schedule? The Harbor. Little Jim and John. John coming to LA on Monday night after Thanksgiving. So it's a big football weekend. And then you get a little Harba v. Harba in week 12. I'm intrigued by that. You remember the awkward press conferences?

I'm sure modern day Jim Harbaugh is going to handle that extremely well with the daily pressures of the gig at the place he is at now, emotionally and It's not just another day. It's today. All right. Why don't we take a look at Sunday Night Football? Unless we had any other M&F takes.

The only one that stands out to me also, though, is bangles, cowboys, week 14. My main note there is, can we please still have Joe Burrow at that point? That's some of these games I would like earlier just for what we talked about before. But if everyone's healthy, I can't really remember a bangles, cowboys game of much note in my lifetime.

I'm honestly like, Burrow, sure. You always want to make sure he's on the field. I don't know. Are the Cowboys even going to be good this year? I don't know. I got a weird feeling about the Cowboys.

Out of the mix by week 14 would be shocking to me, but you're right. I'm with you on the, are the Cowboys going to be That's good.

All right, let's check out Sunday Night Football. I just said that Monday Night Football's slate is always okay to good. Then now that Joe and Troy are involved, that now it's great, but nothing ever touches Sunday Night It is, which is funny. Speaking of, Mark, you're talking about the old days, checking out the the Agate in the back of the sports section in '91 to see what the Brown schedule was. But Sunday Night Football used to be a total afterthought on some level. It was almost like, why does this game exist? Monday Night Football was the marquey game. There was no Thursday Night Football. Sunday Night Football was this weird ESPN telecast. I remember it was Joe Thia. Was it Thiesman? Paul Maguire was on the call. Paul Maguire. Was it Maguire?

Paul Maguire, yeah.

Paul Maguire was on the call, and the games were sometimes- Why am I suddenly making only comments about the '80s and '90s?

I do have takes about this generation.

I think you're just correcting me there. Don't beat yourself up about that one. That was actually very important. That was very important. But anyway, so Sunday Night Football back then was not the place to be. Now it is. Let's check it out. Sunday Night Football, 2024. And remember, at a certain point, and it's earlier than ever now, Greggy, I know you'll have the details, these games can start to be flexed out. That could happen with other primetime nights as well now. But Sunday Night Football opens. We mentioned Ram's Lines, a rematch of that great one-point wild card showdown in Detroit in January. Week 2, Chicago, Houston. Give me all you got with that. I like that. I love that.

That's creative. I think that was like, We're going to put Caleb in primetime maybe a couple of times. Let's do it right off the bat in Sunday night. That's juicy.

Right, because especially the bear is obviously a huge market, huge hype around them, but they could still suck. I mean, they have a rookie quarterback well within the range of outcomes. But in week two, they're still sexy and there's no stink on them if stink were to potentially exist down the line. And then you get C. J. Stroud, Chief's The Leaning into the Falcons thing is interesting to me, but it is what it is. Bills Ravens, week 4. That's nice. Cowboys, Stealers, week 5. I'm just going to go through them. Bangles, Giants, Week 6, Jets, Stealers, Week 7, Cowboys, Niners, Week 8. I'll pause here after Jaguars, Eagles, Week 9. Any thoughts on the first half of that slate? Keep it up, please.

The one thing I noticed that I love about this season is that you've got the AFC North, where you've got four potential playoff teams against the NFC East, that it doesn't really matter how good they are. They're primetime gold. So it's like every week is dotted with these North versus East showdowns. And I'm looking up and down this Sunday night slate, I don't see a bad game outside of a couple of teams that are a little suspect. It's like, there's not a bad game on this slate.

Right. You can flex a game starting in week five. I mean, it'd be sad if you had a week five game and you got flexed I'm not of it, but maybe it would be a big injury. A maximum of two between weeks five and 10, and then you can flex whatever you want after that 11 and on as much as you want. What strikes me, Dan, is your boys. They're not living on Sunday night where they never used to get any action. But we might as well mention it here, they're just in primetime all the time. They got a Monday night game, week one, Thursday night game, week three. They're in the Hot Toddy, which is an island game, week five, Monday night, Week 6. You mentioned the Steelers on Sunday night, Week 7. They got another Thursday and another Sunday coming up in weeks nine and 11. That's outrageous. They are in primetime more than any team in the NFL. I think they're tied with the Chiefs, but they're all also in the first 11 weeks for whatever reason, and then it dies off. So it's just, get ready. They're not America's team, but they're just going to be the conversation among the leaders in conversation week after week after week.

I think America's team might be the team with six standalone games, which is the Lions. We live in a world now where the Jets and Lions have a combined 13 standalone games, and they lead the league. That is an unusual place to be.

Yeah, it's not about the Jets, it's about Aaron Rodgers. If you look at Aaron Rodgers, how many primetime games he's had, I would imagine no one's had more primetime games in the last 15 years than Rodgers. He's bankable, and Last year, Jets fans had it the worst, and Rodgers had it the worst the way it all played out. But then everybody got dinged as well with all those games that showed up. It's almost like the networks and the NFL had a decision to make, which was, do we sit on the Jets a little bit and move away from them, or did last year just not count in a lot of ways? And this is the route they went. I'll get the frustration if the Jets disappoint and they keep popping up. But there's also a very good chance when you look at their roster that they are going to be a team that is a competitive playoff team. I get the consternation if it's out there, but it makes sense to me with the Rockets there. No, it makes sense.

It makes sense. All right.

Second half of Sunday Night Football. Lions, Texans.

There's a lot of Texans, too. You're betting big on the Texans, which makes sense.

Colts, Jets. So the Jets are back again in week 11. Again, hopefully, Anthony Richardson's back as well. Him against that defense makes some sense. Eagles, Rams, week 12. Niners, Bills, week 13. This is a who's who in the NFL, at least where we stand in May. Chargers, Chiefs, week 14. Packers, Seahawks. Seahawks get a primetime game in a Sunday night. That makes sense. They get it week 15. Bucks, Cowboys, week Week 17, a game marked that potentially could have huge ramifications in the AFC playoff picture, the Finns and the Brownies. Then Week 18 is TBD v TBD. They always try to make that one either a win or go home game or a game that otherwise has big playoff ramifications.

The one thing I see, because if you look across these prime time, TNF used to be a way to wedge the dirt nap teams at some point into the prime time schedule. Only the Panthers weren't given a prime time game this year, which I think when it's only one team, that's a real slap in the face. I hope it might be.

I was saving that We dug it when we got through the primetime games. But yes, while we're here, yes, they are not Monday night or Sunday night, and they won't be Thursday night either. The only team without a primetime game. But man, you go 2:00 in 15, and you know what? I don't know If the NFL is thrilled with the operations in Carolina and how things have been handled in the last year or so, so you might have a little bit of a slap on the wrist there as well. It doesn't not make sense to me. But if you're Bryce Young, you were the toast of the town one year ago today, and now you're on a team that doesn't even get a single primetime game when the NFL is probably about 59% primetime games now. So it does tell you a lot about where they're standing at this moment.

One thing I noticed looking at this NBC schedule is the Chiefs are on NBC four times. We don't see it. If you're looking at the graphic on YouTube, there's also a Saturday game, which is a new little wrinkle that's part of the NBC schedule. It sometimes was, I think, on the NFL Network. I think CBS has a game, and it's Saturday, week 16, but NBC has it, and it's going up against college football a little bit. Some bowls are going on by then, and it's a big-time game. It's Texan's Chiefs. It's not surprising that they're leaning into the Chiefs, but the Chiefs are the Sunday night football, are like the NBC team, which is a lot of Tariko and Mahomes.

Well, it's Collinsworth and Mahomes.

Sure.

Mark, I get the frustration of people not wanting to hear the folksy wisdom of Collins-Mahomes screaming about Patrick Mahomes for the ninth straight season. But I really do hope, I have a lot of concerns based on the current construction of the roster and the uncertainty around Rashe Rice and the amount of pressure being put on a rookie wide receiver and Hollywood Brown to be big time stars, that we might have another somewhat ground and pound type Chiefs team that maybe they're not as fun to watch in primetime, but certainly, you can't complain about the Chiefs being in primetime. They're the back to back champs.

No, but that's not one of my top 50 concerns about the upcoming season is the Chiefs being unwatchable. I know what you're saying, but I think they have a better wideout core already, even if you miss Rice for a big chunk of the season, potentially-wise than they did last year. My issue is more with Tony Romo and Mahomes. And this is taking some of those Mahomes moments and big matchups away from Tony Romo and giving them to Chris Collinsworth. So you're right. There's more to consider there.

Yeah, that Saturday thing is weird. It was a little twist because now I'm looking at it and we'll get to the Wednesday Christmas games, but they put the Ravens and the Chiefs both on that Saturday game, two big-time games. The other game is Stealers Ravens, and that one's on Fox. And so that's just a little new wrinkle. They're trying to take out college football. They're coming for everyone, putting big-time games on those days, and then putting the big-time quarterbacks, making them go from Saturday to Wednesday on a Christmas Wednesday.

When does it end? When do the slaunters cease?

There's no such thing as enough. There's enough. There's enough that does not exist.

Let's take a break, and we'll take a look at that Thursday night football schedule. Yeah, right. Welcome back. In case you're just joining us, would be weird, but maybe you wanted to jump ahead of the ads, and then you went too far, and you were like, I'll just start here. I'm sure that happens sometimes.

People have a lot of-I mean, 30 minutes. How bad are they at pressing the 30-second forward?

It was a decision they made, and they didn't lose sleep about it. They're not going to lose sleep about it. Anyway, we are going through the NFL schedule release that went down on May 15th. That is today's taping. I was just thinking we were throwing up these graphics. You could watch this on YouTube. Check out the program on YouTube if you want to get another viewpoint into how this show looks and operates. Throw up Thursday Night Football right now at ETP because I see that it's an issue because it's covering up Greg right now. Is there a way to... Let's play with our head shots. Is there a way to get Take it down. Take it down a second.

It's obscuring Greg.

That doesn't seem fair. All right. Try a different grouping of the images for video. Okay, now throw it up.

That's good. I like that. Oh, yeah, this works. I like that.

This works.

This is ridiculous. Then now I'm blocked and that works for you.

But it's cleaner and it's actually even tighter on Dan and I. It looks good. Eric said he was going to fix it.

I don't see how this is how I would label it. I can understand for some of the listeners or the viewers, but I'm completely off the screen now. So nice work.

This is actually amazing. Just hearing Mark's disembodied voice behind a Broncos versus Saints.

Like slowly getting more angry. Do I need to Can we discuss Thursday Night Football still? Or are you telling me? It'd be good if we could do a post-production, the literal steam starting to come out from on the sides of the schedule for Thursday Night Football.

So predictable.

All right. No, you could go back to the original one because Mark's going to get mad. All right, let's go through Thursday night because Thursday night is, again, it used to be the red-headed stepchild of the primetime slate, but then the NFL Network or NFL Media sold or NFL sold it to Prime, and now Prime says, No, you got to give us some good games. So we've gotten better games as a result. So what we found in a lot of ways here is that the Sunday product, ironically, which is what it's all about, because of the business side of the NFL, so many games now have to be farmed out to these primetime slots, Mark, that Sunday doesn't always to have the best games anymore, and usually doesn't, except when you take out Sunday night football. But the plus side is these island games have gotten a lot better over the years. Thoughts on that?

Well, yeah, I still think that that 4:00 PM slot, whether it's Fox or CBS will continue to have major bangers because they're paying a ton of money for that. But you're right. The best games on paper, when we're looking at it now, each one of these primetime venues are solidified. There isn't one that's just floating stinkers out there like TNF used to be. I see on this one, we can get into it, but on this slate for TNF this year, they are leaning hard into divisional rivalries, and they got a lot of good divisional games, especially late in the year.

I agree with everything you're saying, Dan, But this is the spot where you sneak in a couple of teams. So the Patriots get one primetime game. Oh, how the Mighty Have Fallen. They get the international game, but they have one primetime game. You do it early before their record, maybe it's too bad, is Drake May. And isn't it funny? Now the Jets are the big team lifting up the Patriots for their only primetime game. And then you see in here, it's like the Bucks didn't get a lot of primetime love, even though they've won their division three straight times. Let's sneak them in here. It's like the Broncos and Saints don't get a lot of love now. Let's do the Sean Payton Revenge game. I don't know if it's revenge, but Sean Payton comes to New Orleans, and so that's a fun game. Some teams still, this is where they slide.

Yeah, absolutely. It's still of the island slots. Thursday is still going to be the landing spot in that sense. But I've been with the company for the entire run of Thursday Night Football, and it used to feel like the Jaguars and Titans played every week. If it wasn't actually the Jaguars and Titans, it was those type of matchups almost every Thursday. Now we got bangers. Let's go through week 2 because obviously week 1 is the kickoff game, and that goes to NBC. You have Bill's Dolphins, and then you have a rivalry game, Pat's Jets, with new quarterbacks in the mix. Cowboys, Giants, Bucks, Falcons. So Mark, you're dead on. These are big-time division rivals. Niners, Seahawks. Now we have an Intra, Inter, Conference. Broncos, Saints, Week 7, Vikings, Rams, Week 8, Texans, Jets, big showdown, Week 9, Week 10, Bangles, Ravens, Week 11, Commanders, Eagles, Week 12, Oh, Marky, Stealers, Brownies, Week 14, so I think we got Thanksgiving there. Week 13, week 14, packers, lions. Week 15, Rams, Niners, Week 16, Browns are back against the Bangles. Another big primetime game. And then week 17, two teams that are hoping to be in the postseason race, Seahawks and bears.

Take out week 11, Commanders, Eagles. I mean, we don't know where we're going to be with the Commanders, but 10, 12, 14, 15, 16. Those are mega-ton matchups between playoff teams. That's unusual for TNF for six years ago, to your point.

Yeah, packers, lions, and Rams, Niners, 14 and 15, back to back, the bangles, ravens, It is this does seem like they're doing everything they can to keep Al as invested as possible in this last year, potentially on this contract.

So the Panthers are the only one?

Yeah.

That feels a little It should have been like two teams.

Then you're not alone.

Oh, yeah. But me, though, Greggy. If it's two teams, then you can say, Well, there's a reason and there's only so much space. But when it's just the one team, that's tough.

I'm just saying the Cardinals had the Only ESPN+. The Jags get the international games, but they only have one secondary Monday night football. Actually, no, they have a couple in my bad. No, you're right. It's not great, but they were a truly abysmal team.

You could follow some breadcrumbs there, I feel like.

They were truly an abysmal team.

Yeah. All right, let's check. We have a ton of listeners overseas, so why don't we check out the international game schedule, as you know, that the Zuzzer is giving away two of his own tickets, the Jets Vikings, October sixth at the Hot Toddy. Check out social on NFL UK and the Irish NFL side of things. And of course, my handles where you can... All you got to do, by the way, on that post is comment and tag a buddy, and you could get those tickets.

I'm going to do that. I watched the video. Nothing in the video says that Mark and I are in Ireland.

No, literally in the video, it says, Yeah, you must be a resident of the United Kingdom or Ireland. We are not eligible, but we can... Hopefully, if we're at that game, we can meet those fans. That would be nice.

I like where Greg's head is at, though. I mean, I would have gone there, too, if there were no stipulations.

I like us being involved in a quiz show level scandal over this. That feels like a nice way. Of all the ways that we could exit the company, that feels like the best version of our ouster. Hot take. God Save the Queen. Better song than God Save the King. The lyrics It just hit harder. I thought lyrically, it was a better song.

He had a great run.

Let's check out the schedule. I mean, King Charles, they just had his portrait. Do you see that? He looks like Vigo from Ghostbusters, too. What are we doing?

They made him look like he's in Hades. He looked relatively youthful and hotter than I believe he is today by just my personal take, but he looked a little more fiery and youthful.

Well, the Everything that looks more fiery is because you could see it as what it would feel like to be in hell. It's quite red, that's all. All right, let's see the schedule. Nice king talk in a big spot. A little king breakdown. International schedule, San Paulo, Brazil. Friday night, week one. You know what? I've come around on this. I came around on this pretty quickly. I bet this is going to be an awesome vibe, great energy, and a great game Jordan Love coming off his breakout 2023 season against the Eagles, who obviously are the offseason champions, as they always are. But they have some doubters to prove wrong now as a new season kicks off and they get a fresh start in Brazil. And then we get three games in London. I mentioned that the Jets Vikings, October sixth at the Hot Toddy, you have Jaguars doing the They're back to back as they are want to do. Jaguars against bears. So you're getting, again, you're getting Caleb Williams. Hopefully, the bears are the real deal, and they're a good team or an entertaining team by the middle of October. And the Jaguars bounce back after a rough ending to their previous season.

And then the next week, you get the Pats. It's interesting, Greggy, the Pats. People might not know this. People in the United Kingdom do, and surrounding territories, that the Patriots, because of their winning ways, were the most popular team in that region when we first made our trips to London about five years ago. I wonder what hold they have now that they They had some down years post-Tom braided. It's just interesting, but they are there, obviously, for a reason. They want to keep a foothold in the market. They get the Jaguars. That game's at Wembley Stadium. So let's talk about the London games.

I think they have a huge foothold just based on social today because I saw the announcements for these games, and every other reply just about where Patriots fans being like, Finally.

It makes sense.

Yeah, we're so excited because they actually haven't played in UK. They were in Germany last year, but they haven't played in the UK, I believe, in a decade. So it's been a while. So these are popular teams. Bears are a very popular team in the UK. That's a fun matchup. I like it. We got to get to the hot tot. I guess we're going to see your team if we were picking one, I don't know if we're going to any of these, but I feel like if we were going to one, we're probably aiming for that jet scheme.

They do get Aaron Rodgers. You get, in theory, JJ McCarthy. That's another rookie. I think they're trying to-Or Sam Darnold.

It could be Aaron Rodgers versus Sam Darnold at the Hot Tatie. Pinch me. I've woken up and gone to heaven.

I think they're trying to squeeze at least one win here for the Jaguars based on the opponent. Because they only have seven games in Jacksonville, so one of these needs to feel like a home game.

Am I crazy? I feel like they play well over there.

I don't know what their all-time record is. No, they've been good overall. They swept last year. Yeah, last year, it turned their season around, really, at least for a while until it didn't. They reached the new stadium deal, which I was wondering how that would affect London, but as stipulated, and it's not completely agreed, too, there's a lot of stuff going on, but they still will be coming to London one game a year. I don't think they'll be coming two anymore, or at least But according to that deal, they'll be still planning to do the one game in London, even when that starts, which won't be for another five years.

It'll be an awesome move if Shad Khan's son still had the neck brace in October.

You got to lean into it. I think that'd be incredible.

Or maybe even like, maybe he's more injured. Maybe he's in the old, what's funnier or more pathetic than the neck brace? Whenever someone's in the full body cast, when you have it on the arms and the legs and you're in the wheelchair, you're just a human disaster. Good stuff. Ramp it up. Finally, the international game in Germany this year in Munich is The Genen against the Panthers.

They get a standalone game.

They do get- I guess they give them that.

Keep owning. They bury the Panthers somewhere in Eastern Europe, and they do get a 9:30 AM Eastern Germany game. Okay. I didn't know that. I didn't realize that. Let me just walk back what I said a little bit earlier. They didn't get nothing. You know what I mean? They got, Oh, we're sending you... We and imagine the phone calls. No, you can't be upset. We are sending you to Germany. That's an incredibly important and ferociously growing territory for us. We've chosen you, Mr. Tapper, to represent us there. So they're covered a little bit there. That gives them a little bit of back-end coverage from this perspective.

Also, that's how you grow a German fan base. There could be a bunch of seven to nine-year-old first-time football observers, and they fall in love with the Panthers, unknowing of what state they sit in in the NFC South at the moment.

Maybe they'll be much better. It does make me think about the Germany game last year, though. I know there was two. One of them was Colts, Pats. But I saw the little graphic for this one, Giants. I'm excited. Those three London games and the Germany game, they're all our NFL Network games. That's our time to shine. But I remember the graphic for last year's game in Germany, and it was Tyreek Hill and Patrick Mahomes. Then this time it was, Bryce Young and Dexter Lawrence. I actually had to Google because I'm like, That's probably Dexter Lawrence, but I'm not really sure what his face looks like. He is the best player on the Giants, and it was beefy face, but I had to make sure it was Dexter Lawrence. It was Dexter Lawrence.

Nice. Well done. By the way, yes, good point, Mark, because these European football fans, they have long memories I mean, the fact that the bears are a popular team, bears have done like nothing in 40 years, but a certain age of a football fan that came up in the mid '80s when the NFL first started trickling through and getting across the sea. That's why there's a lot of Moreno and Dolphin fans, like Handsome Hank. Then there's a lot of people are like, My favorite player is Refrigerator Perry. What a specimen.

Perry was over there, so that makes a lot of sense.

Oh, my God, from one yard out. Why didn't Walter Payton get the ball? All right, let's check out the holiday games back here in the States. Thanksgiving, 2024. Can't wait. Maybe my favorite holiday outside of Christmas. Love Thanksgiving. November 28th. We got bears lines in the early game. And again, there's... You know, Markey, there's a lot of pressure on the bears not to suck as we go through these island games here on schedule release day, because if the bears are fun and Williams is ahead of pace. And I did see we had our first trope alert around a rookie quarterback that popped up on social media earlier today, some type of beat report. I don't think it was a beat report. It might have been a TV report. I actually don't know who it was.

I think it was a fan, more or less a fan account. Was it?

I said, I know I shouldn't say this, but Caleb Williams, as he's just throwing warm-up tosses on slants, is like, He looks so comfortable. He's ready for this. It's like, Trope alert. Holy God, can we just let the guys get a little more deep into the summer, at least, before we start with that business. Anyway, bears, lions on CBS. Then you have Giants, Cowboys, and I'll be fair here. I try to be positive about the G-men, but we need the Giants not to be one of the worst teams in the league, which they could be. That game, of course, is always going to be in Dallas, so that game could be a dog, potentially. Then the Thursday Thanksgiving night game, Dolphins versus Hackers. We're outside of the Super Bowl, September Dolphins at this stage. The idea, is this game in Green Bay?

Yes.

I'm a little nervous about the Miami Dolphins in late November giving us a show, but maybe this year is different.

Or it's a way to show us that in the frigid temperatures of Green Bay, they can survive. But this slate throws me just a little bit because I feel like this always seemed like a place for Raven stealers or something that just absolutely had conference title game implications. I just don't see that with this slate, but I love the idea that we could get a really spicy bears team here. Giants, TBD, and Dolphins packers. That's intriguing. It's just a little atypical for Thanksgiving to me.

Maybe asking the Giants and the bears both to be good might be a lot, but if one of those teams is feisty, then I could live with it.

I love Dolphins, Packers. You're right, though. I saw that and I was like, Oh, it doesn't feel like a Thursday or a Thanksgiving night game. But Green Bay, like Lambo on Thanksgiving night, there is something spicy by that. I was thinking about the Giants, Cowboys, because they had this game just two years ago. The Giants were pretty good two years ago. But this is Usually, the most watched game of the year is that game. Or it's the two most watched games of the year are Lions early, Thanksgiving, and then the next Cowboys one. It's like maybe they just feel like it's team proof. You can throw anyone in there. You can throw in a big market or whatever, but it's like people are watching that no matter what. I'm not turning it off if it's a blowout.

Maybe they should actually, because at this point, they're like, We dominate the ratings no matter what. Let's put Panthers, Jags in there and see what happens. What number we do.

Maybe that's a bridge to you.

Good concept, Dan. I take that to the top of the network. I'm sure they'd sing that.

I'm going to say it. It is my favorite, and that is the best holiday. It's past Christmas for me. Now, is that Because my family leaves me three nights before Christmas, and we have to pretend it's Christmas the week before.

Well, your name is also Greg Rosenthal. Well, whatever. Christmas is not high up, I feel, for you in general.

It always was as a kid. We always celebrated the 25th. It was President's Day. But yes, Thanksgiving wins.

I thought you said President's Day. I was like, Oh, you celebrate the US President's on December 25th? President's Day. All right, let's check out Christmas without further ado. Somehow we made it happen because the NFL defeated days now. Christmas falls on a Tuesday, I think. Tuesday or Wednesday.

It's a Wednesday. In fact, to your point, the one little nugget about the team that we want, the Chiefs, they play on every day of the week this season, except for Tuesday. Every day of the week, except for Tuesday, I read. If you go look at it because this game seals it.

Well, they don't play on Friday, though. But yeah, but close. I don't know. Because there's that one Friday game. I don't know. I got to check it out.

Does anybody else think it's funny? Like, When we were kids, every game was on Sunday and maybe one Monday night game, and now you have the defending champion playing, what, six days a week?

Greg, they play on Black Friday.

Oh, my God, they do. I'm so sorry.

They play on every day of the week except for Tuesday. That's never happened to an NFL team in the history of the Earth.

Never question.

You just laid out another challenge for Mike North in the Park Avenue. How can we get all seven? They'll do it. They'll figure it out.

They got the Black Friday game. It's It's not quite to the level of NBA where the players... If LeBron or Curry's on, that's why they talk about them so much. Their games just do double other games. But Mahomes and the Chiefs are like that now. They're just like, Anytime we need a big spot. Amazon, tell us the one thing you want the most this year. We want Patrick Mahomes on that Black Friday game. I bet that was it. It's like, Okay, we can make that happen.

And by the way, I hope you, the listener, have the financial wherewithal to have multiple streaming options because it continues to build up what you need to watch all these key games because the Christmas games this year are on Netflix. That's a new one.

And the next two years also, they would get a three-year deal for that.

They're great.

The Christmas Day games, which, again, is a Wednesday, but now football is played on Wednesdays. Chiefs versus Steelers, 1:00 PM Eastern. Then you have Ravens versus Texans. Gorgeous. 4:30 PM Eastern. A little bit surprised that they don't have a Christmas night game? I wonder why they-It's Wednesday.

I think that's why. When I saw that there was two, I felt like that's a stretch just because-I think it's because you hadn't these-It's Wednesday.

But these teams mishmash and play each other the Saturday before, so you'd have to get another two teams in there to do that. You're right.

Because the turnaround is so brutal, you have to at least do an earlier game to do a primetime game because you can't give all these. I guess you could figure out a way. I'm curious what the Ravens and Texans have the week after Christmas. But it's after buys, so they're both playing. That is tough. Jesus, I mean, that is...

That's tough. We had Pukunaku on NFL Network. I'm using the NFL Network, we. They asked him what he thought about the schedule, and he said, All I look for is the Thursday night games because it's like, that's the weeks you have to almost plan ahead to prepare my body, and that's just going to be a totally crazy different week than any other week. That's on the players' minds first and foremost. How the hell?

Think about that. I think about by the end of the regular season, the physical toll of these games, and these two teams, I mean, four teams playing on Wednesday, that they then have to turn around, and I'd have to go before I ground down this point.

Well, they go Saturday to Wednesday. Those four teams, as Mark pointed out, that weird Saturday I was talking about before that's now going to be on major networks. But think about this, though. Those four teams will then flip and also play on Wednesday.

Think about this, though, because this isn't huge to us. But even from a fantasy angle, if the game is on Wednesday versus even Thursday or the next Sunday, there's a handful of players that might be like, Well, I could have played on Sunday, but I can't get out there on Wednesday. And there's teams that don't even really add a lot of schematical intricacies for Thursday night games or don't even practice. They just do a walkthrough. So it truncates everything in a way that we haven't really seen outside of that Raven, stealers, Wednesday game during Corona when half the rosters were out with Corona.

Now, the flip side is that's like fantasy playoffs, and you got people who like their DFS, and they like watching the games for gambling reasons or whatever. And that's fun to add an extra day of that, to add the Saturday and add the Wednesday of that.

I'm glad we're talking about this, though, because if you really want to dig in and what does matter in the middle of May, when you look at these schedules, the turnarounds and which teams have these brutal turnarounds does matter. I'm sighting because Florio, this guy. He's written probably 55 articles today about the schedule. He has one here. He mentions is that there was a rule for many years that the NFL required teams to play only once per year with a four-day turnaround. They got rid of that before last season. And now multiple teams play multiple games with only three days off between games. This year, 13 teams do it twice. So the Jets, that is a flip side of having all that, the spotlight on you is that you have a lot of short weeks. The Jets, the Niners, the Seahawks, Rams, Bangles, Browns, Dolphins, Cowboys, Giants, Bears, Steelers, the Ravens, and the Texans all have multiple games with only three days off.

Basically, last year's playoff teams plus the Giants. Those are all good teams.

So the two New York teams and then playoff teams. So You could figure that out. For Pittsburgh, Baltimore, and Houston, one short week happens between Sunday and Thursday, and the other lands on a Saturday to Wednesday for Christmas. The Chiefs also have a five-day turnaround to Black Friday and a four-day turnaround between Saturday, December 21st, and Wednesday, December 25th. There are studies that the league has done that short week football, injury rate is not higher, but you also listen to the players, and as you just said, they have to wrap their head around it and plan and be prepared mentally as well as physically because it's very challenging. All right. Anything else, guys, before we do a little news and say goodbye? Anything about the schedule that jumps out to you?

We get Russell Wilson returning to Denver. That's week two. If Maybe if he has a job. I did think the teams, and this is more of a schedule thing, if you were ever going to try to get into the schedule of what's helpful, I feel like the divisions that play the NFC South, that's helpful. The The NFC East plays the NFC South or vice versa, that's helpful. The AFC West, the Chiefs, to me, have one of the... Even though they have the quick turnaround and they have the first-place schedule, they actually have one of the easiest schedules because I think that division is pretty lame, and they play the NFC South out of division. So to the victor go the spoils, I guess. Chiefs.

We also get Chiefs Niners week seven in that 4:25 slot. So not everything's on prime time. I can't wait to see that one. That's good. That's fun.

Let's see, the NFL research Department, who I am, as you boys are, quite fond of. They have some great tidbits in their schedule release research packet. Let me take a look at the... You have a whole section here on revenge. I'm going to throw some revenge games at you. You all love revenge, right? This is where Chris's eyes would especially glaze over. Let me see. Let me see if I can find this. Let's take a break real quick, and then I'll find this, and then we'll hit a little bit of news and say goodbye. Be right back. All right, we are back as promised. I know people were just… They wanted to respect the sponsors, so they didn't fast forward to the commercials, but it must have felt like an endless wait to get to the top 10 revenge games of 2024.

I want to hear him. You guys ready? The Russ one I mentioned has to be on there. I spoiled one of them, I'm sure.

Etp, give me some revenge background music, okay? All right. Saquon Barkley versus the Giants. You know what? I'm sick of being critical of the Eagles and taking a little break from that. But also, Saquon did not cover himself in glory. He was sitting courtside at Sixers' games during that Sixers' Nicks series It's like, he was like trying to taunt Giants fans because some Giants fans were mean to him on Twitter. Buddy, just, you know what? Live long and prosper, my friend, Star Wars reference. Just, have fun. Enjoy yourself. You don't need to tweak Giants fans. They didn't want you to leave. That was management that decided to sign Daniel Jones. Bizarre. Anyway, Saquon Giants, week 7 and 18. We mentioned Russell Wilson at the Broncos, week 2. Imagine he He comes into 2014 Russell Wilson and lights up Sean Payton for 470 and four touch downs.

That's like legit revenge. That's a real revenge game. It is.

But Russell Wilson was... You have to come from the angle that Russell Wilson was done really wrong by the Broncos. He didn't come in there and shine and then was ingloriously cut. It was like a disaster that they had to decide to walk away from.

Him and his coach didn't get along. His coach showed him up a little bit. The late He's amazing benching, which was financially justifiable, but was also for a guy of Wilson's stature in the league, was a tough one to swallow.

He was released. I'm just looking at this written down. It's still crazy when you look at it. Wilson was released after two seasons into a five-year, $245 million contract he signed in 2022. Stefan Diggs versus the Bills in week five. I'm sure he's going to want to have many catches in that game. Let's see if he can get open still. Kirk Cousins at Vikings in week 14. Aaron Jones versus packers, week 4 and 17. Derek Carr versus the Raiders.

I like that.

That's in week 17. Let's see where Derek Carr exists in our life at that point.

That's fair. It could be Spencer Rattler versus the Raiders.

Watch out. All right, this one, I'm going to have to... I'm going to swing by the... I'm going to swing by the research department to say we need to remove this one. Calvin Ridley versus the Jaguars. I can't. I can't go there.

I don't know. Stretch.

That's a revenge. They just needed a round number. Let's get Jacobi Brisset versus Washington or something.

Montez Sweat at the…

Come on.

I mean, they needed 10. Fine.

Sweat at Commanders. Brian Burns at Panthers. Oh, la la, from Germany.

From Germany.

That's right.

We will have our revenge.

I love Dexter Lawrence, but yeah, give the Burns.

We will have revenge on Brian Burns. Hacktung, baby. 49ers versus Chiefs. Because of the Super Bowl.

Wait, what order is this list in? That's not buried below Derek Carr versus the Raiders.

Oh, my God. I love our research department. They have honorable mention. Let's keep going. Bills at Rams. Tredavius White versus the Bills. Hell, yeah.

Okay. Von Miller versus the Riders, too.Egles at Bucks.

Devon White versus the Bucks.

Ravens versus bangles. Talk some-ish on Devon White back in the day. That's real revenge.

Ravens versus bangles. Gino Stone versus the Raven. Chiefs at bills. 2022 AFC divisional round rematch. We're losing momentum. Ravens versus stealers. Patrick Queen.

Patrick Queen goes and makes a ton of money, and it's his revenge game.

And finally, Marke, meerk. Jerry Judy versus the Biancos meerk.

I know. Jerry Judy, to me, it's like if the Broncos won that one.

They clearly are focused on players that changed teams this last year. But I'll circle another one for you. Week 13, Danny Boy. Yeah. Geno Smith at the New York Jets. Let's go.

Okay. That I buy. That feels like the water is way under the bridge at this point. It could probably replace Geno Stone versus the Ravens. I think it could probably edge out.

In MetLife, Geno shows You're proud of me now, dad?

I know this sounds crazy, Greg, but I could probably not one Jets fan has ever thought to themselves, If only we had Geno Smith this whole time. All right. News. Jared Goff. Yes, the Lions have six primetime games. How about that? And Jared Goff will be the quarterback if the fates allow, and he's going to be the quarterback there for multiple years to come because right after we finished recording, and I thought we declared vengeance, by the way, on the whole industry to do this, but not an hour after we left the studio on Monday, Goff and the Lions, four-year $212 million contract extension got out there. He was heading into the final year of a four-year extension. He originally signed with the Rams back in 2019, traded, of course, to the Lion's in 2021. Listen to this show at that time, listened to anything at the time. It was widely assumed that Goff was a bridge to whatever came next, the quarterback for the lines, and nothing more than that. But instead, Goff returned to playing at a high level, like the early days with the Rams, and became a beloved figure in Detroit, almost the rare Greggy underdog figure for a guy that was a number one overall pick who had been to a Super Bowl before he got to Detroit.

So now he is amongst the highest paid players in football. He will receive $170 million in guaranteed money on this new deal. Contract runs through '27 with an option to remain with the team through $28. It's a remarkable comeback story in a lot of ways, and a unique one because the circumstances are so different than a typical comeback story. But it is a comeback story. Don't get it twisted.

You're absolutely right. There isn't quite a perfect comp to anything like this happening in NFL history, partly because we've never had these contracts. But a player that was traded as a distressed asset where Goff last contract, which was very similar, I actually believe, it depends on how you slice it up. I think the numbers are a little fluffed up, but there's one way to look at it with the new money that he's the second-highest paid quarterback in new money per year average. And that was what he was when he signed the huge deal with the Rams, that he was the second-highest paid quarterback. And that contract proved to be so bad that they had to trade him essentially with negative value. And yet here he is, just a few years later, signing the equivalent to that contract Again, it's remarkable. Basically, the first three years of this are more or less guaranteed. So he is locked in at least through 2026, and for huge, huge money.

Yeah, because I think you always wait a couple of days to find out if It's a lot of Fugazi elements to some of these deals. It's a lot of real money that he is getting. And it is interesting to see what happens with him, the player. But in 2026, he has a nearly $70 million cap hit. So I mean, it's just like, I think, but in general, with the cap, these deals don't concern you the way that they would have in the past. There's just a way to get through these. But this is full belief in a player that the general manager knew going in and took a chance on. And even at the draft, it's like the roster loves him, the town loves him. He's getting paid. And it's one of the better stories because you're right, Dan. I used to just use words to describe Jared Goff as one of the most dull to the eyes quarterbacks around, and he's completely transformed the way that we look at him over the past two seasons.

Can I have a medium hot take on this? This contract might not be great. Even in a best case scenario, we are in this weird spot where the top 13 or 14 quarterbacks all get to be about the highest paid quarterback in the league for a little while, but they're not even. The fact that Jared Goff essentially is getting the same contracts as Joe Burrow and Josh Allen and stuff, he's nowhere near as good a player. That's not that helpful to the lines. I don't think You maybe just don't have a choice. But his numbers are very poor against pressure. They always have been. He needs things to be right. He's somewhere in the 8-12 range, and that's great. He stabilized them. He's perfect for them. But just as a pure analytical numbers thing, it's not great for them that they basically have to give him Patrick Mahomes and Joe Burrow's contract when he's nowhere near as good as those players. It's worth noting, right?

I mean, who's the biggest winner? Are all these quarterbacks that are better than him? It just raised the floor. So if you're now, 8 even feel strong. I like off a lot, but I feel like, and we'll do this exercise, we'll do a little Dalton scale at some point this offseason. But I would say he's in that 10 to 12 range maybe. And if he's getting paid this outrageous sum, that just lifts it up for everybody else. I feel like ultimately, though, in a lot of ways, the lions were in a tough spot because what are you going to do? Are you going to play hardball with Goff? You move on from Goff? Or are you going to try to keep the ship, which is running on very... The fuel is high octane, High octane good vibes in Detroit, and a lot of feeling about this could be the year. Pay the quarterback. You heard it. You heard those fans, hundreds of thousands of Detroiters chanting his name. It's they overpaid them, sure, but if you're a quarterback that could play at a high level in that offense, there are worse ways to spend your money.

I also like the lions are, and not in an annoying way that I think the eagles get on your radar, Dan, obviously, but they just Brad Holmes and the whole front-up. They do things their own way, and they believe what they believe, and they've been proven correct building this team. And it's like, they got this done before Dack Prescott gets paid or Tua. I mean, there's other quarterbacks sitting out there. There's a Trevor Lawrence sitting out there and other dudes, Jordan Love, where it's like, these contracts should have happened in some cases. I think Tua is a mysterious one, how to handle that. But now it adds a little heat to all of those deals as well.

By the way, it's the coverage of the Philadelphia Eagles that I have a problem with, not the Eagles themselves.

Well, but I mean, when the Eagles think differently, it's like, I think the lions think differently, but it's not on everyone's radar because they're probably closer to be an America's team than the Cowboys for many.

And one other transaction, Marquez Valdés-Scantling, formerly of the Chiefs, but won a Super Bowl, made a few plays there on the way to the Lombardi, has signed with the bills. We did that exercise a couple of, maybe last week, looking at some position groups, and I pulled the bills depth chart and trying to make sense of it in a post in his world. Mvs is just like yet another guy in that room. Let me take a look at this bills depth chart now. Listen, we're putting a lot of faith in Josh Allen. The offensive line is good, and the running back broke out last year, James Cook. We're not going to say the Bills are going to have struggle scoring points, but- He's probably their wide receiver for, although I think he actually adds some value just because they didn't really have an outside burner. He keeps on signing with the right quarterback, so I have to give MBS that.

He's usually good for 400 yards in the regular season, but then suddenly it's the AFC Championship game, and he's 2 for 75 with a game-winning play, and so maybe he'll keep that going. But yeah, your depth chart would be what? There's no one. This is awesome.

They are the Just a guy All-stars. Here we go. Curtis Samuel. I know we like him. He got the rookie second-round pick, Kean Coleman. Who knows what he's going to give you in year one? You got Khalil Shaq here. You have Chase Claypools in the building. You have KJ Hamler in the building. You have Andy Isabella in the building. You now have Marquez Valdes-Scantling in the building. Mac Holland is in the building. Quintez Ceefus is in the building. What a Motley crew. They just need a couple of those guys to pop.

It just reminds me of the last team MVS was on, a bunch of guys in the wide receiver room.

Yeah.

A little better. A little better. Shaqir is a nice player. Samuel is a nice player. They're a little similar, though.

But they're leaning on a rookie to do a lot quickly, too.

You're going to lean on Dalton Kincaid. I think they're hoping, at least.

Finally in In the news, I don't know if you saw this, but Tom braided has come out and said he regrets the Netflix roast, Mark, that you attended last weekend. He said that he, on some level, misread it, and he didn't realize the effect. Let's see, he was on the Pivot podcast, and he was upset about how it impacted his children, the people he cares about most in the world. So he has regrets. I should throw out there that I was texting with a friend of the podcast, Nikki Glazer, who was the breakout star of The Roast, and we were just commiserating about this, Nikki, who was on the show Super Bowl Week, had no connection to the sporting world, and then shows up at this roast, and her career goes through the stratosphere and becomes linked to Tom braided forever as a result. Can someone I would say, sneaky backdoor flashpoint focus.

Nikki Blazer. Yes, I think so. She I mean, she noted to us at the Super Bowl, and she said this since when people asked about why she did the rose, but that she had no connection to football at all. It was Taylor Swift that got her involved. And she wrote a lot of her own stuff. She went through a lot of her material on Stern that she didn't use. Got a little bit of help, too. But I think I texted you guys during the show. This was the runaway hit from the night. There was a lot of good stuff, but she was the runaway hit. But as for Tom braided, I mean, yeah, you see the reaction and you don't want to do it, but you knew what was going to come up, I would imagine, topically during that, during a roast.

I listened to it, and I don't think he totally had wrapped his head around it for whatever reason. Just that he said it affected his kids, and he just, for some reason, didn't connect the dots of like, Oh, yeah, they're going to bury me related to my divorce, and that's going to hurt my kids. He said the rest of it was fine. Everything was about me was fine. It was a fun night. I love comedy, all this stuff. I don't think he even fully said that I regret doing it, but he does regret that part of it.

I think he regrets doing I said, Greg.

Yeah, I guess you're right. He said, Yeah, I wouldn't do that again because of the kids. Yeah, shout out, Nicky. The AFC couldn't stop Tom braided, but Nikki Glazer did.

Nikki and I go way back and we would joke about how I was a sports guy, and she didn't know anything about sports and didn't care about sports. Then I said, Isn't it ironic that being involved with this sports event changed your career forever and sent you into the stratosphere. She had a monoculture moment out of it, which is just so crazy. But Tom, I don't know. Listen, Tom lost 30 million on crypto. Tom has made some strange decisions in his life, and this is another one. He's a fascinating guy to track. Now he's going to go into the Fox booth. Is that going to be a similarly disastrous decision? We shall see.

A It's a little bit of a wandering soul.

I think so. I think there's something going on there.

But I do want to say as much as I love everything I've worked on when it comes to the flashpoint focus, I do want to say as executive producer, I would have thought if that was a flashpoint focus moment, we probably should have- Back up the truck? We should have probably mentioned- Are you talking about Mark and I? Yeah, I'm talking about you guys. What would you have done differently, Greg?

You tell us.

Usually, it's not the gaffer's role to be sharing this, but go ahead.

I would have maybe mentioned or said the word flashpoint focus at some point in the Nicki Glazer conversation.

No, I think, Mark, I think I called it a sneaky backdoor flashpoint focus.

Which I think it was.

And they have industry-wise, they have backdoor pilots, things like that where it doesn't seem like it in the moment, but you look back and you're like, Oh, okay. I see they had something cooking the whole time.

I knew what you were saying.

Next show, let's work up a sneaky backdoor flashpoint focus song with Lassid.

All right. Good show. Good app. We'll be back on Monday. Oh, before we say goodbye, Mark, do you want to share with the audience why you weren't here on Monday's episode?

I want I want to compliment some of our listeners because someone sent me a link to... There goes the flute. People were like, Oh, what's the flute about? Because we had talked about flautus and flutes during the big funk song, but someone connected the dots that I went to a Los Angeles renaissance fair.

Wait, who is someone?

Because I think it was a thread of people trying to guess, and I was stunned that someone pieced it together in the LA region that this occurred. Based on what?

What were the...

I don't know. It wasn't like- Are they geo-tracking you?

Where was this? This was on the Reddit board you were saying?

Yeah, it was just someone pieced together and someone else like, Wow, that's a really interesting theory or something. I was like, How did they possibly know that? But I went with some friends. I had never been in one in my life. I had no idea what it would be like. It was about 96 degrees out with a burning sun. I just was happy to get out of there without a sunburn. But it was an experience, and I made sure that no photos leaked because I was given a slight costume/outfit to wear. It never arrived. It was sent to my building, but then was either stolen or the package was put somewhere incorrect. I had to buy something else on Hollywood Boulevard on the fly, and it was an absurdest-looking thing that I wanted.

You have to share with the audience.

I really don't even know if I have a photo because like I said, it was 98 This was a furry tunic that was so hot that I was dying, so it wasn't on me for long. A furry tunic. But if I can find a photo, out of honor, I will provide it.

I like the picture Furry tunic is probably what I would have guessed. A veil of flowers and then panaloons. Then-no. Then, like moccasins that curled up almost like an elves.

No.

I imagine the puffy pirate shirt from Seinfeld, that thing.

It wasn't that furry, but with a good attitude, I decided to not be the only one not in our group dressed up. But there was a limit to it, that is for sure.

You know...

I can't believe I'm telling you this. I could have said I could have hedged this story.

No, I like this is the new Mark. Yeah, you're on a journey, Mark. He's open and letting us in.

You're going through new adventures. As someone who is now married for a long time, I just celebrated my 12th anniversary. The idea of not having to do things I don't want to do is something that I really... One of the very best things about weddings, but you're not there right now with your life. But I'm hoping you made the most of an event.

I would say this. It was definitely for adults. I would put it that way. It It was not... There were some kids running around, but it was for adults in many ways, and I found that angle of it to be intriguing.

I also believe that Mark is a man who does what he wants, and that you might not want to be dressing up in a furry tunic, Dan. I know I'm not, but I think Mark probably enjoyed it. If he did it, he wanted to on some level.I.

Applaud it.I applaud it.Thank you. I was like, I'm going to It was good. I knew it.

Oh, you're so naive, Greg.

No, it was enjoyable.

Had a good time. Maybe the Renaissance Fair is something... Because I could see Mark, free spirit, and he could float around it. That's what I mean. I could picture Mark, Oh, yeah, I'll float around the fairgrounds for a few hours on a Sunday. Some of these events, it's like, Wow, Mark went to this. Mark went to the roast. Oh, Mark's going here. Mark's going there. It's like, Oh, the The roast was connected to our career on some level, I think.

Roast was very normal. I'm not going to... A lot of people were at the roast.

Oh, Greg. All right. Anything else? No? All right. In that case, we'll be back on Monday. What we're going to talk about? What do we talk about after the schedule? I'm sure there's some OTAs, and you never know. So make sure you check out the show. We'll certainly find something fun to chatter about with the league. Thank you for checking this show out. Until next time, beat the call.