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The Around the NFL podcast,

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The NFL Always

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waits.

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Welcome to another edition of

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Around the NFL. Yes,

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the NFL always does. Win May

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fifteenth schedule release,

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blowing up the sports where old Dan Hans

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is here with heroes

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Greg Rosenthal and

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yes, Mark Sessler,

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And that is what

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we are all about on tonight's

0:34

episode. We're taping this Wednesday

0:36

evening here on the West Coast, Mark Sessler,

0:39

the schedules out. We're gonna go through

0:42

all the interesting nugs

0:44

that we can dig up on short notice.

0:46

And I know I can see the goosebumps

0:49

through my monitor right now looking at you, Bud.

0:52

I mean, you know, I was thinking though that back

0:55

when I was in like seventh and eighth grade,

0:57

that there was a very special day each

1:00

I think it was back in April back then where USA

1:03

Today would print and

1:05

it was breaking news as a newspaper back then,

1:07

like the entire NFL schedule, and

1:09

like my brother and I would have a wrestling match over

1:11

like who got to look at it first? So it

1:14

is historically has meant a lot to me. I think

1:16

now I'm surprised that it's not

1:18

taking place over four or five or six days.

1:21

As a week long event, because I think that's

1:23

probably where we're heading with it at this point.

1:25

For some reason, like when Mark started telling that

1:27

story, I expected it to be like and then

1:29

the Milkmen came over and totally

1:33

from.

1:33

The time of their radio he's older.

1:36

Yeah, it's funny.

1:37

I huge

1:40

fan of the NFL, you know, since I

1:42

was probably about ten or eleven years

1:44

old, but I don't remember

1:46

the NFL. Obviously they didn't handle

1:49

it at all the way they do now is in terms

1:51

of a blowout event the way it is now, But even

1:53

then, I feel like when the NFL schedule dropped,

1:55

you would find it I don't know, and like

1:57

the backpage or deep in the sports

2:00

section when it was released, and there would

2:02

obviously be your local football

2:04

team or teams. The Beat reporter would

2:06

hammer out eight hundred words on it

2:09

maybe. But now

2:11

as everything is tied to

2:13

the NFL, it is it is a huge to

2:15

do and while we and

2:18

this is a good time when you think about our

2:21

great late friend Chris Westling,

2:23

we like to keep it in perspective and

2:26

not be one of those shows

2:29

or people that cover the game that put too

2:31

much into these schedules and look at them and actually

2:34

try to figure out, Oh.

2:36

This team's gonna be good, this team's gonna be bad, and.

2:38

You're gonna see a lot of that over the

2:40

next few days and weeks and months.

2:42

But also it's fun.

2:43

It's still fun to look at what's going on and

2:46

I think, GREGGI what And

2:48

I'm gonna give you the last word before we jump into it,

2:51

before we look at week one. That's

2:53

a good thing to remember too, Like it's

2:55

all fun and maybe it's a little bit over

2:58

the top and overdone a little

3:00

bit on some level, but at the end of the

3:02

day, it takes us one step closer to a

3:04

new season, and that's exciting.

3:06

Yes, it was my role, I feel like back in those

3:08

shows with Wes to just subtly

3:11

needle and be like, hey, let's lighten

3:13

up there, Larry and have a little fun with football.

3:15

They'd be like, you already know the schedules, you know

3:17

who's home and away. You just started like saying

3:20

win the games.

3:20

There.

3:20

It's like, yeah, okay, but but then you see see

3:22

the week one schedule and it does get my blood

3:25

flowing and yeah, like Walker

3:27

could not have been more excited. So now

3:29

I feel like I'm reliving what it was like to be a

3:31

fan. Not that we had this, but he immediately

3:34

starts looking at the schedule and doing the win

3:36

loss thing for various teams, which

3:38

is like, that was the number one columnist

3:40

slash beat writer move back in the eighties

3:42

and nine.

3:43

Well, they've got an NFL segment that copies

3:45

that exact same friend, and maybe he can step

3:47

right in and fill that role if they won't.

3:49

Yeah, the Falcons a corner.

3:51

By the way, I think that's Rank's corner. You better watch

3:53

out. Rank could be somebody that will

3:55

He'll go after you if you come toward his corner.

3:58

Watch out.

3:59

He gave the Falcons at thirteen and

4:01

four to start Walker, and I'm like, okay, you gotta you

4:04

can't just make every team twelve and five. It doesn't

4:06

work that way. You gotta wait the Falcon balance and I

4:09

know, I mean, you got to balance it out. It doesn't make

4:11

sense.

4:11

Why the Falcons.

4:12

Why did he he started in alphabetical

4:15

order. He's gonna do every team.

4:19

Listen.

4:20

Now, far be it from me to ever doubt what Terry

4:22

Fonteneau could do. You know, the

4:24

brain trust over there. Fourteen

4:27

seems like a better number. Let's start

4:29

with week one, Yes,

4:31

and we're gonna go through. We'll go through yes week

4:33

one because that's the next week of football games,

4:36

and we'll check out the primetime

4:38

slate, we'll check out the international games. For

4:40

the listeners out there that love that and

4:42

maybe or maybe not you

4:44

saw. I was on social media talking

4:47

with Handsome Hank Henry Hodgson,

4:49

and he gave me one of those things, which I

4:51

love it. He's like, hey, do

4:53

a promo read where it's you're giving away

4:56

the tickets. It's like, I have two tickets

4:58

to Jets Vikings October

5:00

sixth, and you give them

5:03

to the audience.

5:04

I was like, I love that.

5:05

That felt like a career checkpoint,

5:07

like a check mark, like like I've

5:09

always wanted to do something like that, So win

5:12

Dan's tickets.

5:13

Like that's nice.

5:14

I like me, I'm giving two o'clock

5:16

here in La when I, you know, logged

5:18

on my phone for about the six hundredth time today

5:20

and noticed that that had dropped, and I thought,

5:23

I know Dan is enjoying this moment because it is it's

5:25

kind of like a you're a contest announcer

5:27

at that point, that's you are.

5:28

Terry Bradshaw.

5:30

Shut up?

5:32

All right, Yes, the Holiday games,

5:34

what's on NFL Network, all that Stuff're gonna get to. But

5:37

let's start start with week one. And

5:39

how about this Greg as a way to get into it.

5:41

Because you are I say this begrudgingly,

5:43

but it is what it is. You

5:46

are the defending locks champion.

5:48

So when we do get to that first Thursday

5:50

show ahead of week one, the

5:53

Thursday Show will do on September fifth,

5:56

you'll have the first pick.

5:57

Two time defending locks champion, four out

5:59

of five. I don't forget enough enough.

6:03

You took it. It's late at night. We don't need to hear

6:05

that right now.

6:07

You will have the first pick. As a result,

6:10

what would be the game? And if you don't

6:13

know, if you're new to the show or just a little

6:15

hazy on how we do it, we don't

6:17

draft island games. But

6:20

what would you take in a non island game

6:23

draft Week one?

6:24

Pick one?

6:25

Oh, that's a spicy question,

6:29

because I'm going to take one that I don't think you guys

6:32

would want, but I want it. It's

6:34

Texans Colts. Actually I want Anthony

6:36

Richards and c J. Stroud like I think,

6:38

Please please lock yourself into that pick.

6:40

Okay, first of all, and second I love

6:42

it. First of all, the best games in Week

6:45

one are the primetime games. We

6:47

know that the kickoff game is

6:49

great. Ravens, Chiefs, Packers,

6:52

Eagles is in Brazil on Friday night.

6:54

That's incredible. The Sunday night game is

6:56

delicious, that's rams, Lions.

7:00

Your Jets are back in primetime on

7:02

Monday night again in Week one, and

7:05

to be those are like the four best games of the week. Actually,

7:07

so the draft is a little different. And

7:09

yes, I'm all about quarterbacks. And

7:11

the one hundred like twenty minutes of complete

7:14

games that Anthony Richardson played last year, to

7:16

me were just so electric and I love

7:18

me some CG Stroud like that that or like

7:20

Caleb Williams would be where I would probably go

7:22

because I just want to see you right away.

7:25

Yeah, that's a great one. I

7:27

would have the second pick, and

7:29

h hell, let's do it.

7:33

Hmm tough.

7:35

Can I tell you what the other one I was debating?

7:37

Yeah, what's the other one?

7:38

You were thinking Falcons

7:40

Steelers just because it's either Russell Wilson

7:43

or Justin Fields with the Steelers and it's Kirk Cousins with

7:45

the Falcons.

7:45

To me, that's why this is a classic Reg move to pick

7:47

multiple games when he's already picked a game.

7:50

Sorry, you know what's funny because

7:52

I would do just to either I would leverage

7:54

it for a trade or

7:56

I would take it just to get the season off and on

7:58

a horrible foot Cowboys at Browns

8:01

and Mark, you texted me about what

8:04

the news that came out.

8:05

So I think that's a really good game. I think it's an

8:07

interesting game.

8:08

It's the late Fox game, and who is on

8:10

the call, Mark Sessler, for that particular

8:13

game.

8:13

That's why I think it's just incredibly spicy

8:15

and we're all going to be watching it. But it is the debut

8:18

of Tom Brady, and you know,

8:21

I think that's something that you know, Greg and I the booth

8:23

as the number one guy, the number one guy

8:25

for Fox. Greg and I had been on a beat wondering if this

8:27

would ever occur. It's clearly happening at

8:29

this point, and Greg Olsen has been bumped to

8:32

the second booth, which I think is I did a

8:34

segment about that earlier in the offseason.

8:36

Feels unrighteous to me.

8:39

They're loaded Foxes loaded, But of course you're gonna

8:41

want to watch that game and just see how does Brady

8:43

handle a the Cowboys and the

8:46

Browns. But like I texted Greg's saying,

8:48

like I am legitimately surprised with

8:50

all the teams you could have found to

8:52

play the Cowboys in Week one and have Tom Brady

8:54

announcing. I know the Browns were a playoff

8:56

team, but that to me felt like an upset that the

8:58

Cleveland got that spot at home for

9:01

Tom Brady's first game against the Dallas Cowboys.

9:03

Kind of a strange pick, but that was

9:05

where That's where I would have gone with with the number

9:07

two the Cowboys.

9:08

Listen and we all know the Cowboys having

9:11

him been to the guy super Bowl

9:13

in over a quarter century, but that

9:15

they always do the biggest number, and Fox

9:17

is like, put Tom on that game and

9:19

and cross their fingers and see what happens.

9:22

I mean, I mean Cleveland, though

9:24

it could have been, you know, the Eagles versus Dallas or

9:26

something, but they're going Cleveland Versusallas.

9:28

The Cleveland side kind of threw me, But why.

9:30

Not, I'm changing.

9:32

I'm going to take it just to annoy Mark

9:34

and I do want the Tom Brady factor.

9:36

So that's a big one too.

9:38

Late, too late in fact, that I

9:40

kind of picked it, I think, or maybe I traded into

9:42

Mark for seven number ones to be named

9:45

later. I do, Uh, it's

9:47

there's plenty of good games there to pick

9:49

from. I I do think it's a little you

9:52

know, that guy Greenberg on ESPN,

9:54

they they kind of use him as the Jets fan mascot,

9:57

and it's a little over the top to me, to be honest,

9:59

every time I try to read a story about

10:01

the Jets on ESPN dot com. You

10:03

know, I like Samini as a beat reporter. He's

10:06

the longest tenured beat reporter in team history,

10:09

and so he writes from a perspective that's unique

10:12

on the beat. And I can't scroll down without

10:14

a giant picture of a video

10:17

still of Greenberg's eyes bugging out,

10:19

and I'm like, what is he?

10:20

What is he fired up about? Now?

10:22

In a performance based a pure

10:24

performance, Like, I know, this isn't how he

10:26

actually feels like when I'm talking about the Jets.

10:29

It's how I actually feel. It's not it's not for the cameras

10:32

or the microphone.

10:32

What a joke? What a joke? Point

10:35

being wow, hit piece on Greenberg in a big spot.

10:37

I know was like, what did he actually say?

10:39

But he said he was.

10:40

He stood up on his morning show and was screaming

10:42

that why are the Jets in primetime again

10:45

Monday night Football to start the season.

10:47

I don't know why.

10:48

I guess bad juju because of what happened

10:50

with Rogers last year. I think

10:52

it's I think it's fun and exciting, and

10:54

it's going to be obviously a reset

10:57

for the for that team, and damn,

10:59

I think it's gonna be a lot of fun to see the

11:02

Niners and the Jets in that spot. The

11:04

Jets are that great defense, the Niners

11:06

with the unstoppable offense at

11:08

home. I think that's a great game. I'm really looking

11:10

forward to it. And I'll throw one game that could be

11:12

sneaky great. How about nobody's

11:15

talking about the Jaguars this year? How about the Jaguars

11:18

at Miami? Maybe a nice little shootout

11:21

with two quarterbacksam playing

11:24

in the warm weather.

11:25

I'll give you one.

11:25

Like not all the matchups are great, but I

11:27

would think that a second round draft pick

11:30

in one of our drafts. Like I want to see Jim

11:32

Harbaugh's Chargers in their debut.

11:35

They're playing the Raiders.

11:36

The Raiders aren't that sexy to me, But like, I

11:38

can't think of a team that I'm more interested

11:40

to check out early on is just where the Chargers

11:42

are right out of the gate and what they become. And it's

11:45

like, go play the Raiders in Week one and

11:47

be something different than these past Chargers teams.

11:49

I think they will be.

11:50

I mean, if the Chargers at home

11:52

against I think that's gonna be a bad Raiders team.

11:54

Like if they can't beat the Raiders in the

11:56

Jim Harbor homecoming game, I mean, Chargers

11:59

fans are gonna be like, are you kidding me?

12:01

Is this happening again?

12:03

I know there's like, yeah, there's varying levels

12:05

of excitement about the teams around them, but to me, like

12:08

Jaden Daniels, you want to see his first

12:10

start. That's against the Bucks, so that's at the same

12:12

time as the Cowboys. If JJ McCarthy's

12:15

starting, he gets the Giants in

12:18

an early game and Bo Nicks, We're

12:20

gonna have so many damn rookie starters. It's kind

12:22

of outrageous he starts in Seattle.

12:25

But the primetime slate though that might be the best.

12:28

I was kind of looking through it that might be the best

12:31

primetime slate of any week all

12:33

season. On paper, those are pretty

12:35

much I mean, and you can't ruin it with

12:37

injuries, hopefully, you know, praying to the football

12:39

gods, you can't ruin it at least with bad records, like

12:42

we know they'll all be zero and zero going

12:44

into it. That is a like four bangers

12:46

in a row to start, So good job, Bite.

12:48

It's a good point though, because these networks,

12:51

they especially this past year, are just

12:53

getting absolutely banged over

12:55

and oh every week by matchups that looked

12:57

amazing in May that are dog

12:59

poo by November because of the

13:01

injuries. And you definitely

13:04

give yourself more coverage by front loading

13:06

these schedules, so we'll be ready

13:08

for that. Now, let's move to Monday Night Football.

13:11

Let's go through the some

13:13

of the primetime Island games. We'll start

13:15

with MNF. I guess I could start

13:18

Mark, depending on your perspective. I could

13:20

start with T and F because it's kind of the first game

13:22

of the week. But I've already said Sunday.

13:24

We've talked Sunday, so now we've gone to Monday first.

13:27

I think was that a mistake.

13:28

I don't know if we've made a mistake.

13:30

I do think it's interesting that, like, while you just

13:32

ripped Greenie a new one,

13:35

he probably, like you know, minutes later, is

13:37

wondering who this Jets guy is giving

13:39

away Jets tickets in London.

13:41

So I think there's just a rivalry there. But anyways,

13:43

we can move on. You don't think Greenie knows

13:45

who I am? Now that that hurts no.

13:47

I think I think he's he's

13:50

probably now you've heard seen you, he's probably

13:52

dismissing you to the level that you're dismissing him.

13:54

Because Jets fans in the media

13:56

don't like other Jets fans taking

13:58

their spot. I have noticed that in like over

14:01

the years. I think that's a thing, so.

14:03

I would like it. I would love some examples.

14:05

By the way, I mean, that's a deep cut into our

14:08

Culver City newsroom. I know exactly

14:10

who Dan is talking I mean, who Mark is

14:12

talking about. I know exactly.

14:14

And for the record, you know, Greenie

14:17

is legit a legitimate Jets fan.

14:19

I just think they've kind of leaned into

14:22

his Jets fandom in a bit of a overly

14:24

performative way.

14:26

But that's that is what it is.

14:28

All right now, you

14:32

don't think he knows me Monday night football,

14:34

I do. All

14:39

right, here we go. So we talked about Jets at Niners.

14:42

Week two, we have Falcons

14:45

versus Eagles, so we're

14:47

gonna get have the Falcons do.

14:48

By the way, with primetime games.

14:51

I'm glad you asked that they are in primetime

14:53

three of the first five weeks. We're going

14:56

big on Kirk Early at Philly

14:58

Monday Night. We two for Kansas

15:00

City Sunday Night. Week

15:03

three, we'll get to the Sunday night games, and

15:05

then they got an Amazon game Tampa

15:07

week five. So it is it's a

15:09

lot of Kirk Early we

15:12

got that. I'm with that.

15:13

I like that.

15:14

We also have three Monday

15:16

which I've never been a fan of, Mark, and I know you

15:18

feel this, especially three

15:21

Monday night football double headers Week three

15:24

when you have Jags Bills and Commanders

15:27

Bengals, Week four Titans

15:29

Dolphins, Seahawks, Lions,

15:31

and Week seven when you have Ravens,

15:33

Bucks, Chargers, Cardinals.

15:35

So you get three of those in a four

15:37

week stretch, in a five week stretch, and you also

15:39

get another one. This feels

15:42

is that it might be tied to the holidays, but Week

15:44

fifteen, you're gonna get Bears

15:46

Vikings and then the Falcons again versus

15:49

the Raiders. Week seventeen, by the way, you

15:52

have a epic showdown potentially

15:55

in NFC Championship Showdown

15:58

preview between the Lions and the Niners.

16:00

So ever since Joe

16:03

and Troy hit the scene and

16:05

the the the rights in terms of

16:07

just what ESPN pays for Monday Night football

16:10

and then what they're paying for that booth, these

16:12

games are so good now. Sunday night football

16:14

is always going to be king, but Monday Night football

16:17

now is a very respectable silver medalist.

16:19

I'd say this like, we are veterans

16:21

of watching multiple games at the same time on Sundays,

16:23

so if anything, we have the skills

16:26

to watch these Monday night doubleheaders.

16:27

I just I kind of it's just marked that's that energy

16:30

in October. Okay, no, I'm saying I like that.

16:32

It's the classic sense that Monday night football

16:34

used to be like the sporting

16:36

event of the week, and they're competing against themselves

16:39

with everything else at this point. So I at

16:41

some point you got to give up the ghost and be like next

16:44

year, there'll be five of them in the years

16:46

after that.

16:47

They'll be seven or eight, so you got to just roll with

16:49

it.

16:51

At least I'm glad they didn't do it in week one. There

16:53

should be an asterisk though, Like when you're looking

16:56

at all the teams, it's like shows how many primetime

16:58

games each team has. But

17:00

then you're you know, like the ESPN

17:02

Plus game for the Arizona

17:05

Cardinals Chargers as part of a double header,

17:07

It's like, that shouldn't count as a full prime time game. That's a

17:09

half of a game for the Cardinals. Sorry, you didn't

17:11

even really get a David Zaslov

17:13

over here. Now it's

17:16

the same thing, like you can kind of see it. It's

17:18

like, oh, let's give the Titans one prime time game,

17:20

but it's the it's the ESPN game when ABC

17:22

has one that that's better. On that same Monday

17:25

night, Monday Night got one of

17:27

the games. I was keeping an eye on, where's

17:30

it going to land on the schedule, The Harbor Little

17:33

Jim Jim and John John coming

17:35

to LA on Monday night

17:37

after Thanksgiving. So it's it's a big

17:39

football weekend. And then you get

17:41

a little Harbor v. Harbaugh

17:43

in Week twelve. I'm

17:46

intrigued by that. You know you remember the awkward

17:48

press conferences.

17:49

It's fine.

17:49

Oh, I'm sure modern day Jim Harbaugh is

17:51

going to handle that extremely well

17:54

with the daily pressures of the gig

17:57

at the place he is at now emotionally otherwise.

18:00

It's not just another day, it's

18:02

two day, all right.

18:03

Why don't we take a look at Sunday Night Football? Less

18:06

have been any other MNF takes.

18:09

The only one that stands out to me also though,

18:11

is Bengals Cowboys Week

18:13

fourteen. It's my main note

18:15

there is like, can we please still have Joe

18:17

Burrow at that point? That's some of these games I would

18:19

like earlier, just for what we talked about before. But

18:21

if everyone's healthy, that is, you

18:24

don't. I can't really remember a Bengals Cowboys

18:26

game of much note in my lifetime.

18:29

I'm honestly like Burrow, sure, you

18:31

always want to make sure he's on the field.

18:33

I don't know. Are the Cowboys even gonna be good this year?

18:36

I don't know. I got a weird feeling about the Cowboys.

18:39

Fourteen would be shocking to me.

18:41

But you're right, I'm with you on the are the Cowboys

18:44

going to be good?

18:45

All right?

18:45

Let's pause real quick take our

18:47

first break and when we come back,

18:49

more schedule talk.

18:52

All right, let's check out Sunday Night Football.

18:53

So I just said that Monday Night Football's

18:56

slate is always

18:58

you know, okay, and then it to

19:00

good and then now that Joe

19:02

and Troyer involved that now it's great.

19:05

But nothing ever touches Sunday Night Football it is,

19:07

which is funny, like speaking of Mark, you're.

19:10

Talking about the old days.

19:11

Uh, you know, checking

19:14

out the agate in the back of the sports section

19:16

in ninety one to see what the brown schedule

19:19

was. But you know, Sunday Night Football

19:21

used to be a total afterthought.

19:23

On some level.

19:24

It was almost like why does this game exist?

19:26

Monday Night Football was the marquee game. There was

19:28

no Thursday night football. Sunday Night Football

19:31

was this kind of weird ESPN

19:33

telecast. I remember it was like Joe

19:36

thigh, what was it thise minute? Paul McGuire

19:39

was on the call, Paul McGuire and

19:41

was it McGuire Paul McGuire,

19:43

Yeah, Paul McGuire was on the call, and

19:46

the games were sometimes.

19:47

Why am I suddenly like making only

19:50

comments about the eighties and nineties, like I do

19:52

have takes about this generation.

19:56

I think you're just correcting me there. Don't

19:58

don't beat yourself up about that, and that was actually

20:00

very important.

20:02

That was very important.

20:03

But anyway, so Sunday Night football back then was

20:06

not the place to be.

20:06

Now it is.

20:07

Let's check it out Sunday Night Football

20:09

twenty twenty four, and remember at

20:12

a certain point, and it's earlier than ever

20:15

now, Greggie, I know you'll have the

20:17

details.

20:17

These games can start to be flexed out.

20:20

That could happen with other primetime nights

20:23

as well now, but.

20:24

Sunday Night Football opens.

20:26

We mentioned rams

20:28

lines a rematch of that great one point

20:30

Wildcard showdown in Detroit

20:33

in January. Week two, Chicago,

20:35

Houston. Oh give me all

20:38

you got with that.

20:39

I like that.

20:40

I love that. That's creative. I think that

20:42

was like, we're gonna put Caleb in primetime

20:44

maybe a couple times. Let's

20:46

do it right off the bat and Sunday night.

20:48

That's juicy, right because especially

20:50

the Bears obviously a huge market, huge

20:53

hype around them, but they could still suck. I

20:55

mean, they have a rookie quarterback well within

20:57

the range of outcomes, but in Week two ill

21:00

sexy and there's no stink on them if stink

21:02

were to potentially exist down the line,

21:04

and then you get CJ.

21:05

Stroud Chiefs Falcons.

21:07

The leaning into the Falcons thing is interesting

21:09

to me, but it is what it is. Bill's

21:12

Ravens week four. Who that's

21:15

nice, Cowboys Steelers

21:18

week five. I'm just gonna

21:20

go through the Bengals Giants week six,

21:23

Jet Steelers Week seven, Cowboys

21:26

Niners week eight, and I'll pause here after

21:30

Jaguars Eagles Week nine. Any

21:32

thoughts in the first half of that slate, keep

21:34

it up, please.

21:35

The one thing I noticed that I love about

21:37

this season is that you've

21:39

got the AFC North where you've

21:41

got four potential playoff teams against

21:43

the NFC East that it doesn't really matter how good

21:46

they are their primetime goal. So it's like there's all

21:48

every week is dotted with these North

21:51

versus East showdowns, and I'm

21:53

looking up and down this Sunday night slate. I don't see

21:55

a bad game outside of a couple

21:57

a couple teams in a little suspect, it's like there's not

21:59

a game on the sleep right.

22:01

You can flex games

22:03

starting Week five. I mean, it'd be sad if you had a

22:05

Week five game and you got flexed out of it, but maybe

22:07

it would be a big injury a maximum

22:09

of two between weeks five and ten, and then

22:12

you can flex whatever you want after

22:15

that eleven and on as much as you want.

22:17

What strikes me, Dan is your

22:19

is your boys. You

22:22

know they're not living on Sunday Night where

22:24

they never used to get

22:26

any action. But they're just in. We might as well mention

22:28

it here. They're just in primetime all

22:30

the time. They got a Monday Night game Week

22:32

one, Thursday Night game week three, they're

22:35

in the Hot Toddy, which is an island game,

22:37

week five, Monday Night week

22:39

six. You mentioned the Steelers

22:42

on Sunday Night week seven. They got

22:44

another Thursday and another Sunday coming

22:46

up in weeks nine and

22:48

eleven. That's outrageous. They are in. They are in primetime

22:50

more than any team in the NFL.

22:53

I think they're tied with the Chiefs, but they're all also

22:56

in the first eleven weeks for whatever reason, and

22:58

then and then it dies off. So it's just get

23:01

ready. They are not They're

23:03

not America's team, but they're just gonna be

23:06

the conversation, like among the leaders

23:08

in conversation week after week after week.

23:10

I think America's time team might be the team

23:12

with six standalone games, which is the Lions. We

23:14

live in a world now where the Jets and Lions

23:17

have a combined thirteen standalone

23:19

games and they lead the league.

23:21

That is an unusual place to be. Yeah, it's

23:23

not about the Jets. It's about Aaron Rodgers.

23:25

And if you look at Aaron Rodgers,

23:28

how many primetime games he's had,

23:30

I would imagine no one's had more primetime

23:33

games in the last fifteen years than

23:35

Rogers.

23:35

He's bankable.

23:36

And last year, you

23:39

know, Jets fans had it the worst

23:41

and Rogers had it the worst the way it all played out,

23:43

But then everybody got dinged as well with all

23:45

those games that showed up. So it's almost like

23:48

the networks in the NFL had a decision

23:51

to make, which was do we, you

23:53

know, sit on the Jets a little bit and move

23:56

away from them, or did last year just

23:58

not count in a lot of ways, And this is the route

24:01

they went.

24:01

So I'll get it.

24:02

I'll get the frustration of the Jets disappoint

24:05

and they keep popping up, But there's also a very

24:07

good chance when you look at their roster that

24:09

they are going to be a team that is a

24:12

competitive playoff team. So I

24:14

get the consternation if it's out there,

24:17

but it makes sense to me with.

24:19

Rot, that makes sense. It makes sense, all

24:21

right.

24:21

In second half of Sunday

24:24

Night football, Lions Texans

24:29

dogey.

24:29

There's a lot of Texans too. Yeah, they're

24:31

betting big on the Texans, which makes sense.

24:34

Colts Jets.

24:35

So the Jets are back again and week eleven,

24:37

hopefully Anthony Richardson's back

24:39

as well. Him against that defense

24:42

makes some sense. Eagles Rams

24:44

week twelve, Niners,

24:47

Bills week thirteen. This

24:50

is a who's who in the NFL, at least where we stand

24:52

in May Chargers Chiefs Week

24:54

fourteen, Packers

24:57

Seahawks. Seahawks get a prime

25:00

time game in a Sunday night that

25:02

makes sense. They get it week fifteen, Bucks

25:05

Cowboys week sixteen. Week

25:08

seventeen a game mark

25:10

that potentially could have huge ramifications

25:13

in the AFC playoff picture, the

25:16

Finns and the Brownies. And

25:19

then Week eighteen is TBD

25:22

VTBD. They always try

25:24

to make that one either a

25:26

win or go home game or a game that otherwise

25:28

has big playoff ramifications.

25:31

The one thing I see, because if you look across these like

25:33

primetime the only they used to you know, TNF

25:36

used to be a way to you know, wedge

25:38

the dirt nap teams at

25:41

some point into the primetime schedule. And only

25:44

the Panthers weren't given a primetime game

25:46

this year, which I think when it's only

25:48

one team, that's a real slap

25:50

in the face.

25:50

I hope I was.

25:51

Saving that nugget when we got through the primetime

25:53

games. But oh yes, while we're here,

25:56

Yes they are not Monday night or Sunday Night,

25:58

and they won't be Thursday night either, the

26:00

only team without a primetime game.

26:02

But man, you go to and.

26:03

Fifteen and you know what, I

26:06

don't know if the NFL is thrilled

26:08

with the operations in Carolina

26:10

and how things have been handled in the last year or so,

26:13

so you might have a little bit of a slap

26:16

on the wrist there as well. It

26:19

doesn't not make sense to me, But if you're bryce

26:21

young, you were the toast of the town

26:23

one year ago today, and now you're on a

26:25

team that doesn't even get a single primetime game when

26:28

the NFL is probably about fifty

26:30

nine percent primetime games now. So it does tell

26:32

you a lot.

26:35

So one thing I noticed looking at this NBC

26:38

schedule is the Chiefs

26:41

are on NBC like four

26:43

or four times, and we don't see

26:45

it if you're looking at the graphic on YouTube.

26:48

There's also a Saturday game, which is a new

26:50

little wrinkle that's part of the NBC

26:53

schedule. Sometimes

26:56

was I think on the NFL

26:58

network, I think CBS as a game and

27:00

it's this it's Saturday Week sixteen,

27:03

But NBC has it, and it's like going

27:05

up against college football a little bit. You know,

27:08

some bulls are going on by then, and

27:10

it's a big time game. It's Texans Chiefs,

27:12

so it's not surprising that they're

27:14

leaning into the Chiefs. But like the Chiefs

27:16

are of the Sunday Night Football are like the NBC

27:19

team which a lot of Tariko and

27:21

Mahomes, well.

27:23

Well it's Collinsworth in Mahomes

27:25

sure, and Mark.

27:27

I get the frustration of people not

27:30

wanting to hear the folksye wisdom of Collins

27:32

Earth screaming about Patrick

27:34

Mahomes for the ninth straight season.

27:37

But I really do hope.

27:39

I have a lot of concerns based on

27:41

the current construction and the roster and the uncertainty

27:43

around Rashi Rice and the

27:46

amount of pressure

27:48

being put on a rookie wide receiver

27:50

and Hollywood Brown to be big

27:52

time stars, that we might have another somewhat

27:55

ground and pound type Chiefs team

27:58

that maybe they're not as fun to watch in prime time. But

28:01

certainly you can't complain about the Chiefs being a prime

28:03

time they're the back to back champs.

28:05

No, but that's not one of my top

28:07

fifty concerns about the upcoming season

28:10

is the Chiefs being unwatchable.

28:12

I know what you're saying.

28:13

I think they have a better wide out cores already without

28:15

even if you miss Rice for a big chunk of the season

28:18

potentially wise, and they did last year. And my

28:20

issue is more with Tony Romo and

28:22

Mahomes and this is taking some of those Mahomes

28:25

moments and big matchups away from Tony Romo

28:27

and giving them too Chris Collinsworth.

28:30

So you're right, you're there's more to consider

28:32

there.

28:32

Yeah, that Saturday thing is weird. It was a little

28:34

twist because now I'm looking at it and we'll get to the

28:37

Wednesday Christmas games. But they put the

28:39

Ravens and the Chiefs both on that Saturday game,

28:41

two big time games. The other game is Steelers

28:43

Ravens and that one's on Fox. And so that

28:45

that's just a little new wrinkle. They're trying

28:48

to take out college football. I mean, they're

28:50

coming for everyone, putting big time

28:52

games on those days and then putting the big

28:54

time quarterbacks, making them go from

28:56

Saturday to Wednesday, you know, on

28:59

a Christmas wind.

29:00

When does it end? Who?

29:02

I mean, where when do the slaughters?

29:04

See?

29:05

There's no such thing as enough enough,

29:08

as it does not exist.

29:09

All right's take a break and we'll take a look at that

29:11

Thursday night football schedule.

29:19

Yeah, right, welcome back. In case you're

29:21

just joining us. Would be weird.

29:23

But maybe you wanted to jump ahead of the ads and then

29:25

you went too far and you were like, I'll

29:29

just start here, you know,

29:31

like I'm sure that happens.

29:32

Sometimes people have a lot.

29:33

Of min thirty minutes. How bad are they at

29:36

pressing the thirty second forward?

29:37

You know, it's just it was a decision they made,

29:40

and you know, they didn't lose sleep about

29:42

it.

29:42

They're not going to lose sleep about it. Anyway.

29:44

We are going through the NFL

29:47

schedule release that went

29:49

down on May fifteenth,

29:52

that is today's taping. And you

29:54

know, I just think we're throwing up these graphics. You could

29:56

watch this on YouTube. Check out the program

29:59

on YouTube. Uh if you want

30:01

to get another viewpoint and

30:03

how this show looks and operates and

30:07

throw up like throw up Thursday night football

30:09

right now at ETP because

30:11

I'm see that there's it's

30:13

an issue because it's covering up Greg

30:17

right now. And it is there a way to make let's

30:19

play with our our head shots? Is there a way

30:21

to get all take it down? Take it down

30:23

a second?

30:25

It's obscuring Greg that doesn't see Yeah.

30:27

All right, try a different grouping

30:30

of the images for video.

30:31

Okay, now throw it up?

30:32

Good?

30:33

I like that?

30:34

Oh yeah, this one like that.

30:36

This works, but this is ridiculous.

30:38

Then I'm now I'm blocked. And that works for

30:40

you.

30:40

But it's cleaner and it's actually even tighter on

30:42

Dana looks good.

30:44

It looks good.

30:45

Yeah, Eric said he was going to fix

30:47

it. I don't see how this is how I would label it. I

30:49

mean, I you know, I can understand

30:51

for some of the listeners of the viewers, but I'm

30:54

completely off the screen now.

30:55

So nice work.

30:56

This is accellently kind of amazing, just

30:58

hearing marked disembodied voice behind

31:01

a you know, Broncos versus.

31:03

Slowly getting more angry like

31:05

that I.

31:05

Need to do. Do I need to discuss Thursday

31:07

Night Football still?

31:08

Or you know, it would be good if we could do in post production

31:11

the literal steam starting to come out

31:13

from on the sides of the schedule

31:15

for Thursday Night Football, so pictable.

31:17

All right, No,

31:20

you could go back to the original one, because Mark's

31:23

gonna be get mad.

31:23

So all right, let's let's go.

31:25

Let's go through Thursday Night because

31:27

Thursday Night is again

31:30

it used to be the redheaded

31:32

stepchild of the primetime slate. But then

31:36

the NFL network sold or

31:38

NFL Media sold, or NFL sold

31:40

it to Prime, and

31:42

and now Prime says, no, you got to give us some good games.

31:45

So we've gotten better games as a result.

31:47

So what we found in a lot of ways here

31:50

is that the

31:52

Sunday product, ironically,

31:54

which is you know what it's all

31:56

about. Because of the business

31:59

side of the NFL, so many games

32:01

now have to be farmed out to these primetime slots.

32:04

Mark that Sunday doesn't

32:06

always have the best games anymore,

32:08

and usually doesn't, except when you take

32:10

out Sunday Night Football. But the

32:12

plus side is these Island games have gotten a

32:15

lot better over the years.

32:17

Thoughts on that, Well, yeah, I still

32:19

think that that four PM slot, whether

32:21

it's Fox or CBS, will

32:24

continual to have major bangers because they're

32:26

paying a ton of money for that. But you're right, like the

32:28

best games on paper when we're looking at it now,

32:31

each one of these primetime venues

32:34

are solidified. There isn't like one that's

32:36

just sort of floating stinkers out there like TNF

32:38

used to be. So I see on this one we

32:40

can get into it. But on this slate for TNF

32:43

this year, yeah, they're leading hard into

32:45

divisional rivalries and they got a lot

32:47

of good divisional games, especially late in the year.

32:49

You know, I agree with everything you're saying,

32:51

Dan, but this is the spot

32:53

where you sneak in a couple

32:55

teams. So we get the PAI. The Patriots get

32:57

one primetime game. Oh how the Mighty

33:00

have fallen? You know, they got the international game, but they

33:02

have one prime time game. You do it early

33:04

before their record Maybe is too bad? Is Drake

33:06

May? And isn't it funny? Now? The Jets

33:09

are the big team lifting

33:11

up the Patriots for their old only

33:14

primetime game, and then you kind of see it here. It's

33:16

like the Bucks didn't get a lot of primetime love

33:18

even though they won their division three street times. Let's

33:20

sneak them in here. It's like the Broncos and Saints

33:22

don't get a lot of love. Now let's do the Sean

33:25

Payton revenge game. And I don't know if it's revenge,

33:27

but Sean Payton comes to New Orleans

33:29

and so that's like a fun game. So some teams still

33:31

this is like where they slide.

33:33

Yeah.

33:34

Absolutely, it's still of the of

33:36

the island slots. Thursday is still going to

33:38

be the landing spot in that sense. But I

33:40

mean, I've been

33:42

with the company for the entire run

33:45

of Thursday Night Football, and it

33:47

used to be it used to feel like the Jaguars

33:50

and Titans played every week, and

33:52

if it wasn't actually the Jaguars and Titans,

33:54

it was those type of matchups almost every Thursday.

33:56

And now we got Bangers.

33:58

So let's go through a Week two because obviously

34:00

Week one is the kickoff game and

34:02

that.

34:02

Goes to NBC.

34:04

You have Bills, Dolphins, and

34:06

then you have a rivalry game Pats

34:08

Jets with new

34:11

quarterbacks in the mix, Cowboys, Giants,

34:14

Bucks, Falcons.

34:15

So Mark, you're dead on.

34:16

These are big time division rivals, Niners,

34:19

Seahawks. Now we have an intra

34:21

inter conference Broncos Saints Week

34:24

seven, Vikings Rams

34:26

Week eight, Texans Jets,

34:29

Big Showdown Week nine, Week ten, Bengals

34:31

Ravens Week eleven, Commanders

34:33

Eagles Week twelve, o

34:36

Markie Steelers, Brownies Week

34:38

fourteen, So I think we got

34:40

Thanksgiving their week thirteen, Week fourteen,

34:43

Packers Lions, Week fifteen, Rams

34:45

Niners Week sixteen, Browns

34:47

are back against the Bengals, another

34:49

big primetime game. And then week seventeen,

34:53

two teams that are hoping to be in

34:55

the postseason race Seahawks

34:57

and Bears.

34:58

Like that week takeout, Week eleven, Commanders

35:01

Eagles. I mean, we don't know where we're gonna be about

35:03

with the Commanders, But ten, twelve,

35:05

fourteen, fifteen, sixteen, those are

35:08

megaton matchups between playoff

35:11

teams, Like that's that's unusual

35:13

for TNF six years ago.

35:15

To your point, Yeah, Packers,

35:17

Lions and Rams Niners fourteen and fifteen

35:20

back to back. The Bengals Ravens.

35:22

It is.

35:23

This does seem like they're doing everything they can

35:26

to keep al as invested

35:28

as possible in this last year, potentially

35:31

on this contract.

35:32

So the Panthers are the only one. Yeah,

35:35

that that feels a little personal. It

35:38

should have been like twelve, two teams, then

35:40

you're not alone, you know.

35:41

Oh yeah, but me though, GREGI like, if it's two

35:43

teams, then you can say, well, you know, there's

35:45

a reason and there's only so much space.

35:47

But when it's just the one team,

35:50

I'm.

35:50

Just saying the Cardinals had only ESPN

35:52

plus the Jags get the international

35:55

games, but they only have one sort of secondary

35:57

Monday Night football. Actually, now they have a couple of my Now,

36:00

you're right, it's it's not great,

36:03

but they were you could they

36:06

were truly an abysmal team.

36:08

Yeah, all right, let's check you

36:11

You know, we have a ton of

36:13

listeners overseas, so why don't we

36:15

check out the international game

36:18

schedule as you know, and

36:20

that the Zuzzer is giving

36:23

away two of his own tickets the Jets Vikings

36:25

October sixth about at the Hot Toddy.

36:28

Check out social on

36:31

NFL UK and Irish

36:34

NFL side of things, and of course

36:36

my own handles where you can. All you got

36:38

to do, by the way, on that post

36:41

is comment and tag

36:44

a buddy and you could get those

36:46

tickets.

36:47

I'm gonna do that. There's no there's nothing.

36:49

I watched the video. Nothing

36:51

in the video says that Mark and

36:54

I are you know.

36:54

No literally in the video and says yeah,

36:57

you you must be a resident

36:59

of the United Kingdom or Ireland.

37:01

So we are not eligible.

37:03

But we can hopefully if

37:05

we're at you know, that game, we

37:07

can meet those fans that I like.

37:09

Where Greg's head is out though, I mean that was that's

37:11

I would have done there too, if there were no stipulations.

37:14

I like, I like us being involved in like a quiz

37:16

show level scandal over this. That

37:19

feels like a nice way, Like of all the ways

37:21

that we could exit the company. That

37:24

feels like the best version of our out

37:26

of our ouster.

37:31

Hot take.

37:31

God Saved the Queen better

37:33

song than God Saved the King. The

37:36

lyrics had just hit harder. I thought, lyrically, it was a

37:38

better song.

37:39

He had a great run.

37:41

Yeah, let's check out the schedule. I

37:47

mean, King Charles, they just had his portrait.

37:49

Do you see that he looks like Vigo

37:52

from Ghostbusters too, like what are we doing?

37:54

They made him look he looked

37:56

relatively youthful and hotter than

37:59

I believe he is today, by my

38:01

per just my personal take, but he

38:03

looked a little more fiery and youthful.

38:05

But well, the reason it looks more

38:07

fiery is because you could see

38:10

it as what it would feel

38:12

like to be in hell. I mean, that's all. It's

38:15

it's quite red, that's all all right. Let's see the schedule.

38:19

Nice king talking a big spot, A little king

38:21

breakdown. International

38:24

schedule, sen Paolo, Brazil,

38:27

Friday Night, Week one. You

38:29

know what, I've come around on this. I came around

38:31

on this pretty quickly. I bet this is going to be an awesome

38:34

vibe, great energy, and a great

38:36

game. Jordan Love coming off his breakout

38:39

twenty twenty three season against

38:42

the Eagles, who obviously are the offseason

38:44

champions as they always are,

38:47

but they have some doubters

38:49

to prove wrong now as a new season kicks

38:51

off and they get a fresh start in

38:54

Brazil and then we get

38:56

three games in London. I mentioned

38:58

that the Jets Viking October

39:01

sixth at the Hot Toddy.

39:04

You have Jaguars.

39:06

Doing the back to back as they are

39:08

wont to do Jaguars

39:10

against Bears, so you're getting again,

39:13

you're getting Caleb Williams. Hopefully the

39:15

Bears are the real deal and they're

39:17

a good team or an

39:20

entertaining team by the middle of October and

39:22

the Jaguars bounce back after a rough ending

39:25

to their previous season, and then the next week

39:27

you get the Pats who

39:29

It's interesting, Greggy. The Pats people might not

39:31

know this people in the United Kingdom do, but and

39:35

surrounding territories that

39:37

the Patriots, because of their winning

39:39

ways, were the

39:41

most popular team in that

39:44

region when we first made

39:46

our trips to London about

39:48

five years ago. I wonder what kind of

39:50

hold they have now that they've had

39:52

some down years post Tom

39:54

Brady. It's just interesting, but they are there

39:57

obviously for a reason. They want to

39:59

keep a foothole in the market. They get the Jaguars.

40:01

That game's at Wembley Stadium,

40:04

so let's talk about the London games.

40:06

I think they have a huge foothold just based on

40:08

social today because I saw the announcements for these

40:10

games and every other

40:13

reply just about where Patriots fans

40:15

being like five make say yeah, like

40:17

we're so excited because they actually haven't played in

40:20

the UK. They were in Germany last year, but they haven't played

40:22

in the UK, I believe in a decade, so

40:24

it's been a while. So these are popular team.

40:26

Bears are a very popular team in

40:29

the UK. That's a fun matchup.

40:32

I like it.

40:33

We got we gotta get to the Hot Toddy. I guess we're going

40:35

to see your team, you know, if

40:37

we were picking one. I don't know if we're going to any of these,

40:39

but I feel like if we were going to one, we're

40:41

probably aiming for that Jets game.

40:43

They do get Aaron Rodgers, you get you

40:45

know in theory JJ McCarthy, that's another

40:48

rookie.

40:48

And I think.

40:51

Aaron Rodgers versus Sam

40:53

Darnold at the Hot Toddy, pinch

40:56

me.

40:56

I've woken up and gone to have.

40:58

I think they're trying to squeeze least one

41:00

win here for the Jaguars based on the opponent,

41:04

and because you know, they only have seven games in Jacksonville,

41:06

so I feel like a home game.

41:08

Am I crazy? I feel like they play well

41:11

over there.

41:12

They've been good overall. Last

41:14

week, last year, yeah, last year,

41:16

turned their season around really at

41:19

least for a while until until it didn't. They

41:23

you know, reached the new stadium deal,

41:25

which I was wondering how that would affect London, but

41:28

as stipulated and it's not completely

41:30

agreed to, there's there's a lot of stuff going on. But they

41:32

still be coming to London one game a year.

41:34

I don't think they'll be coming to anymore, or at least

41:37

according to that deal, that they'll be

41:39

still planning to do the one game in

41:41

London. Uh even when

41:43

that starts, which won't be for another five years.

41:46

You'll be kind of an awesome move.

41:49

If Shotkun's Sun

41:52

still had the neck brace in October.

41:54

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

41:57

incredible.

41:57

Or maybe even like maybe he's more injured,

42:00

maybe he's in the you know, the old what's

42:02

funnier or more pathetic than the neck brace

42:05

whenever someone's in the full body cast, when you

42:07

have it on the arms and the legs and you're

42:09

in the wheelchair, you're just a human

42:11

disaster and stuff ramp

42:13

it up. And finally,

42:16

the international game in Germany

42:18

this year in Munich is.

42:22

Against the Panthers, so.

42:24

They get a stand alone game.

42:25

They do, they get I guess they give them that, yet

42:28

keep on, they bury the

42:30

Panthers somewhere in Eastern Europe and uh

42:32

and and they get they do get

42:34

a nine thirty am Eastern

42:37

Germany game. So Okay,

42:39

I didn't know that. I didn't realize that. So

42:42

so they can. So let me just walk back

42:44

what I said a little bit earlier, like they

42:47

didn't get nothing, you know what I mean. They

42:49

got, Oh, we're sending you, we

42:51

are And imagine the phone calls

42:54

like no, no, no, you can't be upset. We're sending

42:56

you to Germany. That's an incredibly

42:59

important and ferociously

43:01

growing territory for US, and we've

43:03

chosen you, mister

43:06

Tepper, to represent us there.

43:08

So they're covered a little bit there. That gives them

43:10

a little bit of back end coverage from

43:13

this perspective.

43:14

Also, I mean, that's how you grow a

43:16

German fan base. There could be a bunch of seven

43:18

to nine year old first time football

43:20

observers and they fall in love with the Panthers,

43:24

unknowing of what state they sit in the NFC

43:26

South at the moment.

43:27

Maybe they'll be much better. It

43:30

does make me think

43:32

about the Germany game last year, though I know there

43:34

was two. One of them was called Pats.

43:37

But I saw the little the graphic for

43:40

this one, you know, Giants, and I'm excited. Those

43:42

three London games and the Germany game. They're

43:44

all our NFL Network games.

43:46

That's our time to shine. But I remember

43:48

the graphic for last year's game in Germany

43:51

and it was Tyreek Hill and Patrick Mahomes

43:53

and in this time it was you know, Bryce Young

43:56

and Dexter Lawrence. And I actually

43:58

had to google because I'm like,

44:00

that's probably Dexter Lawrence, but I'm not really

44:02

sure what his face looks like. He's he is

44:04

the best player on the Giants, and it was kind

44:07

of a beefy face, but I had to make sure it

44:09

was Dexter Lawrence. It was Dexter Lawrence.

44:12

Nice. Well done, by

44:15

the way, Yes, good point. Mark.

44:17

Because these European football fans,

44:19

they are they have long memories.

44:22

I mean the fact that the Bears are a popular team.

44:24

The Bears have done like nothing in forty years.

44:26

But a certain age of a

44:29

football fan that came up in the

44:31

in the mid eighties, when the NFL's first started

44:33

trickling through and getting across

44:36

the sea. That's why there's a lot of Marino

44:38

and dolphin fans like Handsome Hank,

44:41

And then there's a lot of people are like my

44:43

favorite players, Refrigerator

44:46

Perry.

44:46

What a specimen nut Perry

44:49

was over there? So that makes a lot of sense.

44:52

Oh my god, from one yard

44:54

out, why didn't

44:57

Walsh a python get the ball? All

45:00

right, let's check out the

45:03

holiday games back here in the States. Thanksgiving

45:06

twenty twenty four, can't

45:08

wait, maybe my favorite

45:11

holiday outside of Christmas. Love

45:13

Thanksgiving November twenty

45:15

eighth. We got Bears lines in the

45:18

early game. And again there's you

45:20

know, Marky, there's a lot of pressure on

45:22

the Bears not to suck when as we go

45:24

through these island games here

45:26

on schedule release day, because if

45:29

the Bears are fun and Williams

45:31

is ahead of pace and I

45:33

did see. We had our first trope alert around

45:36

a rookie quarterback that popped up on

45:38

social media earlier today, some

45:41

type of beat report. I don't think it was a beat report. It might

45:43

have been a TV reporter. I actually don't know

45:45

who it was. I think he was a fan more or

45:47

less a fan account was It said I

45:49

know I shouldn't say this, but Caleb

45:52

Williams as he's just throwing warm up tosses

45:55

on you know, Slants, is like, he

45:57

looks so comfortable, he's ready for

45:59

this, Like ope, alert, Holy God,

46:01

can we just let the guys get

46:05

a little more deep into the summer at least before

46:07

we start with that business anyway, Bears Lions

46:09

on CBS, and then you have

46:12

Giants Cowboys, And I'll be fair

46:15

here, you know, I try to be positive about the

46:17

g Men, but we need the Giants

46:19

not to be one of the worst teams in the league, which they

46:21

could be. That game, of course, is

46:23

always going to be in Dallas, so that game could be a

46:25

dog potentially, and then the Thursday

46:28

Thanksgiving night game Dolphins

46:31

versus Hackers. We're outside

46:33

of the Super Bowl September

46:36

Dolphins at this stage, so the

46:38

idea is this game in Green Bay. Yes,

46:41

I'm a little nervous about the Miami

46:44

Dolphins in late November giving

46:46

us a show, but maybe this.

46:48

Year is different, or or it's a way

46:50

to show us that, like in the

46:52

fridge or that temperature bay,

46:55

they can survive. But this slate

46:57

throws me just a little bit because

46:59

I think I feel like, you know, it's this always seemed

47:01

like a place for like Ravens

47:04

Steelers or something that just like absolutely

47:06

had, like you know, conference title

47:09

game implications. I just don't

47:11

see that with this slate. But I kind of

47:13

love the idea that we could get a really

47:15

spicy Bears team here, Giants

47:17

TBD and Dolphins Packers. Is uh,

47:20

that's intriguing and it's just a little atypical for

47:22

Thanksgiving to me.

47:23

I do like sacking the Giants and the Bears

47:26

both to be good might be a lot, But if

47:28

one of those teams is feisty, then

47:30

then I could live with it.

47:32

I love Dolphins Packers. You're right though, I

47:34

saw that and I was like, oh, that is a It doesn't feel like

47:36

a Thursday night game, but it does are a Thanksgiving

47:38

night game. But Green Bay like Lambeau

47:41

on Thanksgiving Night. There is something spicy

47:44

by that. And I was thinking about the Giants Cowboy because they

47:46

had this game just two years ago. The Giants were

47:48

pretty good two years ago. But this

47:51

is usually the most watch

47:53

game of the year. Is that game

47:57

or it's the lie the two most watch

47:59

games of the year Our Lions Early

48:01

you know, Thanksgiving and then the next Cowboys

48:03

won, and it's like maybe they just feel like it's

48:06

it's team proof. You can you can throw anyone

48:08

in there, you throw in a big market or whatever.

48:11

But it's like people are watching that no matter what. I'm

48:13

not I'm not turning it off.

48:14

If it's a blowout, maybe they should actually,

48:16

you know, because at this point they're like, we dominate

48:18

the ratings no matter what.

48:20

Let's put Panthers Jags in there

48:22

and see what happens. Kind of number we do.

48:25

Maybe that's yeah, that's a that's a bridge good concept

48:27

and I take that to the top of the network.

48:29

I'm sure I'm gonna

48:31

say it. It is my favorite, and that is the best holiday.

48:33

It's past Christmas for me now? Is

48:36

that because my family leaves

48:38

me like three nights before Christmas and we have to

48:40

pretend it's Christmas the week?

48:42

Greg Rosenthal, so whatever we saw,

48:45

Hi, I feel like for you and Jeneral, it.

48:47

Always was as a kid, we we always celebrated

48:49

the twenty fifth, it was Presence Day,

48:52

but yes, Thanksgiving wins.

48:55

They said President's Day.

48:56

I was like, oh, you celebrate the US President's

48:58

on December twenty fifth.

49:02

President Day.

49:03

All right, let's check out Christmast

49:05

further ado, somehow

49:08

we made it happen because the NFL defeated

49:10

days. Now Christmas falls on a Tuesday,

49:12

I think Tuesday or Wednesday.

49:14

It's a Wednesday.

49:14

And in fact, to your point, like the

49:16

one little nugget about the team that we want,

49:18

like the Chiefs, who we're gonna they play on

49:20

every day of.

49:21

The week this season except for Tuesday.

49:24

Every day of the week except for Tuesday, I read.

49:26

I mean, if you go look at it, because this game seals

49:28

it.

49:28

But well they don't play out of Friday though, but yeah,

49:31

but close, there's

49:33

that one Friday game.

49:35

Anybody else that gets funny Like when

49:37

we were kids, like every game was on Sunday

49:39

and maybe one Monday night game. And now you

49:42

have the defending champion playing what six

49:44

days a week?

49:44

Greg they play on blacks, Oh my god, they do.

49:46

I'm so they play.

49:48

Every day of the week except for Tuesday. Like that's

49:50

never happened to an NFL team in the

49:52

history of our of the earth.

49:54

Never.

49:54

You just laid out another challenge for Mike

49:57

North in the Park Avenue, like how

49:59

can we make ca we get all seven they'll

50:01

do it.

50:02

They'll figure it out. They got the Black

50:04

Friday Game. They really you know, it's

50:07

not quite to the level of NBA where

50:09

like the players like if Lebron

50:11

or Curry's on, it's just like that's

50:13

why, that's why they talk about them so much. That their

50:15

games just like do double other games. But Mahomes

50:18

and the Chiefs are kind of like that now that they're

50:20

just like, anytime we need a big spot

50:22

like Amazon, tell us the one thing

50:24

you want the most this year, we

50:27

want Patrick Mahomes on that Black Friday game.

50:29

I swear, I bet bet that was it. And it's like, okay,

50:31

we can make all that.

50:32

And by the way, I hope, I hope

50:34

you the listener.

50:37

Have the financial wherewithal to have

50:40

multiple streaming options because it

50:42

continues to build

50:44

up what you need to watch all these key games.

50:47

Because the Christmas games this year are on Netflix.

50:50

That's a new.

50:50

One, and

50:53

the next two years also they would get

50:55

for that.

50:56

They're great.

50:57

So the Christmas Day games, which

51:00

again is a Wednesday, but now football's

51:02

played on Wednesdays. Chiefs versus

51:04

Steelers one pm Eastern,

51:07

and then you have Ravens versus Texans

51:09

gorgeous four thirty pm

51:12

Eastern. A little

51:14

bit surprised that they don't have a Christmas

51:16

night game.

51:17

I wonder why Wednesday. I

51:20

think that's why even two. I saw

51:22

that there was two. I felt like that's a stretch, just because.

51:25

I think it's because you had these but these

51:27

teams mishmash and play each other

51:30

the Saturday before, so you'd have to get another

51:33

two teams.

51:34

Right, because the turnaround is so brutal,

51:37

you have to at least do an earlier game to do

51:39

a primetime game, which you can't give all these I

51:42

guess you could figure out a way. What I'm

51:44

curious what the Ravens and Texans have the

51:47

week after Christmas? Right, but

51:49

it's after byes, so they're both playing, so

51:52

that that is tough Jesus, I

51:54

mean that is.

51:57

That's tough. So we had Puka Akua

51:59

on NFL Network. I'm using the the NFL

52:01

network. We and he said they asked

52:04

him what he thought about the schedule, and he said,

52:06

all I look for is that is the Thursday

52:08

night games, because it's like that's

52:10

the that's the weeks you have to sort of almost

52:12

plan ahead to prepare my body and that's just

52:14

going to be a totally crazy different week than

52:17

any other week. That's on the player's

52:19

minds first and foremost.

52:22

Think about that. Think about the

52:25

by the end of the.

52:26

Regular season, the physical

52:28

toll of these games and

52:30

these these two teams, I mean four

52:32

teams playing on Wednesday,

52:35

that they then have to turn around and I'd

52:37

have to go before I kind.

52:38

Of well, they go Saturday, they go Saturday

52:41

to Wednesday. So it they those

52:43

four teams. As Mark pointed out that that weird

52:45

Saturday I was talking about before that's now going

52:47

to be on major networks.

52:50

Those teams will then flip and also

52:52

play on Wendes.

52:53

Think about this though, because I mean, you know, this

52:55

isn't huge to us, but even from like a

52:57

fantasy angle, if the game is

52:59

on Wednesday versus even Thursday

53:01

or the next Sunday, there's a handful of players that

53:03

might be like, well, I could have played on Sunday, but I can't

53:06

get out there on Wednesday. And

53:08

there's teams that don't even really add a lot of

53:10

like schematical intricacies

53:13

for Thursday night games, or don't even practice

53:15

they just do a walkthrough. So it kind of truncates everything

53:18

in a way that we haven't really seen outside of that

53:20

Raven Steelers Wednesday game during

53:22

Corona when half the Broster's route with Corona.

53:25

Now, the flip side is that's like Fantasy playoffs,

53:28

and you got people who like their dfs

53:30

and they like watching the games

53:33

for gambling reasons or whatever, and

53:35

that's kind of fun to add an extra day of that, you

53:37

know, and don't Saturday and add the Wednesday of

53:40

that.

53:40

I'm glad we're talking about this though, because

53:43

if you really want to dig in and like, what

53:45

does matter in the middle of May

53:47

when you look at these schedules, the turnarounds

53:50

and which teams have these brutal

53:52

turnarounds does matter? So And

53:55

I'm citing because

53:57

you know Florio, I mean, how

54:00

many he's written, probably fifty five

54:03

articles today about the schedule he has

54:05

won. Here he mentions

54:07

that there was a rule for many years

54:09

that the NFL acquired teams to play only once

54:11

per year with a four day turnaround. They

54:13

got rid of that before last season, and

54:16

now multiple teams play multiple

54:18

games with only three days off between games.

54:20

This year, thirteen teams do it

54:22

twice.

54:23

So the Jets that is

54:25

a flip side of having all that, you

54:28

know, the spotlight on you is that you have

54:30

a lot of short weeks. The Jets, the Niners,

54:32

the Seahawks, Rams, Bengals, Browns,

54:34

Dolphins, Cowboys, Giants, Bears, Steelers,

54:37

the Ravens, and the Texans all

54:41

have multiple games with only three

54:43

days off.

54:44

Basically last year's playoff teams plus

54:46

the Giants and the Giant those

54:48

are all good teams.

54:49

So the two New York teams and then playoff teams,

54:51

so you know, you could you could kind of figure

54:53

that out. For Pittsburgh, Baltimore

54:56

and Houston, one short week happens between

54:58

Sunday and Thursday, and the their

55:00

lands on US Saturday to Wednesday for

55:02

Christmas. The Chiefs also have a five day

55:04

turnaround to Black Friday and a

55:06

four day turnaround between Saturday, December

55:08

twenty first and Wednesday, December

55:11

twenty fifth. There are studies

55:14

that the league has done that

55:16

short week football injury

55:19

rate is not higher. But you also listen to

55:21

the players and they and as you just said,

55:24

they have to wrap their head around

55:26

it and plan and be prepared mentally

55:28

as well as physically, because it's very

55:31

challenging, all right,

55:36

anything else, guys, before

55:38

we do a little news and say goodbye, anything about

55:40

the schedule that

55:43

jumps out to.

55:45

We get Russell

55:47

Wilson returning to Denver's

55:50

week two if he make if he

55:52

has a job. I

55:54

did think like the teams that and this is more

55:56

of a schedule thing, if you were ever going to try

55:59

to get into this schedule of like what's

56:01

helpful. I feel like the

56:03

team's divisions that play the NFC

56:05

South, that's helpful. So the NFC East plays

56:07

the NFC South or vice versa, that that's helpful.

56:10

The AFC West, the Chiefs. The

56:12

Chiefs to me have one of the even though they

56:14

have the quick turnaround and they have the first place schedule,

56:16

they actually have one of the easiest schedules because I think that

56:18

division's pretty lame, and they play the NFC

56:21

South out of division, So you know,

56:23

did the victor go the spoils? I guess Chiefs.

56:27

We also get Chiefs Niners

56:30

week seven in that four to twenty

56:32

five slot, so not everything's on prime time. I can't

56:34

wait to see that one.

56:35

That's good. That's fun.

56:37

Let's see the NFL research

56:40

department. Who I am, as you

56:42

boys are quite fond of.

56:45

They have.

56:47

Some great tidbits

56:49

in their schedule released research packet.

56:52

They take a look at They have a whole

56:54

section.

56:56

Here on revenge. Throw

56:58

some revenge games at you. You'll

57:00

love revenge.

57:01

Right, this is where Chris's

57:03

eyes would especially glaze over.

57:09

Let me see, let me see if I can find this.

57:12

Let's take a break real quick, and then I'll

57:15

find this, and then we'll hit a little bit of news

57:17

and say goodbye.

57:18

Be right back.

57:20

All right, we are back as promised.

57:22

And I know people were just.

57:26

They couldn't.

57:26

I mean, they wanted to respect the sponsors,

57:28

so they didn't fast forward through the commercials. But it

57:30

must have felt like an endless

57:33

weight to get to the to the top ten

57:35

revenge games of twenty twenty four.

57:38

I want to hear them. I guys ready that the rust

57:40

I mentioned has to be on there. I spoiled one of them.

57:42

I'm sure.

57:43

Etp give me some like revenge

57:45

background music. Okay, all

57:47

right, Saquon Barkley versus

57:50

the Giants, saqua and

57:52

you know what I'm sick of, like being

57:55

critical of the Eagles and taking a little break

57:57

from that.

57:57

But also Saquon did not cover

58:00

himself in glory.

58:03

He was sitting courtside at Sixers games

58:05

during that Sixers Knicks series. It's like

58:07

he was like trying to taunt Giants fans

58:10

because some Giants fans were mean to him on Twitter.

58:13

Buddy, just you know what, live

58:15

along and prosper my friend Star Wars reference.

58:18

Just you know, have fun, enjoy yourself.

58:20

You don't need to tweak Giants fans. They didn't

58:22

want you to leave. That was management that decided

58:25

to sign Daniel Jones. Bizarre anyway, saquon

58:28

Giants week seven and eighteen, we mentioned

58:30

Russell Wilson at the Broncos

58:32

Week two.

58:35

He throw magical, He.

58:36

Turns into twenty fourteen Russell Wilson

58:39

and lights up Sean Payton for four seventy

58:42

and four touchdowns.

58:42

That's like legit revenge. That's a real revenge

58:45

game if it is but dark.

58:46

But Russell Wilson was like,

58:48

if you have to come from the angle that Russell Wilson

58:51

was done really wrong by the Broncos.

58:53

Like it.

58:54

He didn't come in there and shine and then was ingloriously

58:57

cut. It was like a disaster that they

58:59

had to to walk away from.

59:01

No, I don't know.

59:02

Him and his coach didn't get along. His coach showed

59:04

him up a little bit.

59:05

You know.

59:06

They were the late season benching, which was

59:08

financially justifiable, but was also

59:11

you know, for a guy of Wilson's stature in the

59:13

league was it was a tough one to swallow. He was

59:15

released. I'm just looking at this written

59:17

down. It's still crazy when you look at it. Wilson

59:19

was released after two seasons into

59:22

a five year, of two hundred and forty five million

59:25

dollar contract he signed in twenty

59:27

twenty two. Stefan Diggs versus

59:29

the Bills in Week five.

59:31

I'm sure he's gonna want to have many catches in that

59:33

game. We'll see if he can get open still.

59:36

Kirk Cousins at Vikings in Week fourteen.

59:40

Aaron Jones versus Packers, Week four

59:42

and seventeen.

59:43

Derek Carr versus the Raiders.

59:46

Oh, I kind of like that.

59:47

That's good. Well that's in week seventeen. Let's

59:50

see where Derek Carr exists in our

59:52

life at that point. That's fair, that's fair.

59:54

It could be Spencer Rattler versus the Raiders.

59:56

All Right, this one, I'm gonna have to I'm gonna swing by

59:59

the U.

1:00:00

I'm gonna swing by the research department to say

1:00:02

we need to remove this one. Calvin Ridley versus

1:00:05

the Jaguars. I can't, I can't

1:00:07

go there.

1:00:08

I don't know.

1:00:10

They just needed a round ten number.

1:00:12

Let's get Jakobe Brissette versus Washington

1:00:15

or something.

1:00:16

Montes sweat at.

1:00:18

The Come on, I

1:00:21

mean they needed ten fine.

1:00:25

Sweat at Commanders. Brian Burns

1:00:27

at Panthers. Ooh

1:00:29

la la from Germany, im

1:00:32

Germany.

1:00:35

Revenge.

1:00:37

I love Dexter Lawrence, but yeah, give

1:00:39

give the Burns.

1:00:41

We will have revenge up. Bryan

1:00:43

Burns.

1:00:47

Hacktung Baby forty

1:00:49

nine Ers versus chiefs Ah

1:00:51

because of the Super Bowl.

1:00:53

Wait, what order is this list in that's not buried

1:00:55

below? Derek Carr versus the Raiders.

1:00:57

Oh my god, I love our research department.

1:01:00

They have honorable mention. Let's

1:01:03

keep going. Bills at

1:01:05

Rams, Tredavious White versus the Bills.

1:01:08

Hell, yeah, okay, Rams.

1:01:11

You know, Devin White versus the Bucks.

1:01:15

Ravens tox somesh

1:01:17

on on Devin White back in the day.

1:01:20

So that's real revenge.

1:01:22

Ravens versus Bengals. Geno Stone

1:01:24

versus the.

1:01:25

Raven Chiefs

1:01:29

at Bills twenty twenty two AFC

1:01:31

Divisional Round rematch.

1:01:33

We're losing. Momentum Ravens versus Steelers,

1:01:35

Patrick Queen. Patrick

1:01:39

Queen goes and makes a ton of money and it's

1:01:41

his revenge game.

1:01:43

And finally Marky me arc

1:01:47

Jerry Judy versus the Biancles.

1:01:49

Me Ork, I don't

1:01:51

Jerry Judy to me? Is like if

1:01:54

like the Broncos won that one.

1:01:55

See they they clearly are focused on players

1:01:58

that change teams this last year. Yeah,

1:02:01

but I'll circle another one for you. Week thirteen,

1:02:04

Danny Boy, Yeah, Gino

1:02:06

Smith at the New York Jets, let's go.

1:02:09

Okay's got that? I buy?

1:02:11

That feels like the water is way under the bridge at this point,

1:02:13

but it's fine. It could probably replace

1:02:16

Geno Stone versus the Ravens. I think

1:02:18

it could probably edge out.

1:02:19

In met life Gino shows

1:02:22

you proud of me?

1:02:23

No, Dad, I

1:02:26

could probably. I know this sounds crazy, Greg,

1:02:28

but I could probably. Not one Jets fan has ever thought

1:02:30

to themselves if only we had Gino Smith this

1:02:32

whole time?

1:02:34

All right?

1:02:35

News Jared

1:02:38

Goff, Yes,

1:02:42

the Lions have six primetime games.

1:02:44

How about that?

1:02:45

And Jared Goff will be the quarterback

1:02:48

if the fates allow, and he's going to be the

1:02:50

quarterback there for multiple

1:02:52

years to come. Because right after we finished

1:02:54

recording and I thought, I thought we declared vengeance,

1:02:57

by the way, the whole industry

1:03:00

to do this. But not an hour after we left

1:03:02

the studio on Monday, GoF

1:03:05

and the Lions four year, two hundred

1:03:07

and twelve million dollar contract extension

1:03:10

got out there. He was heading into

1:03:12

the final year of a four year extension. He originally

1:03:14

signed with the Rams back in twenty nineteen,

1:03:17

traded, of course, to the Lions

1:03:19

in twenty twenty one. Listened to this show at

1:03:22

that time, listened to anything at

1:03:24

the time. It was widely assumed that

1:03:26

GoF was a bridge to whatever came next

1:03:28

to quarterback for the Lions and nothing

1:03:31

more than that. But instead

1:03:34

GoF returned to playing at a high level

1:03:36

like the early days with the Rams and

1:03:38

became a beloved figure in Detroit,

1:03:41

almost the rare Greggie

1:03:43

underdog figure for a guy that was a number one

1:03:45

overall pick who had been to a Super Bowl before

1:03:48

he got to Detroit. So now

1:03:50

he is amongst the highest paid

1:03:52

players in football.

1:03:54

He will receive one hundred and seventy million and

1:03:56

guaranteed money on this new deal, contract

1:03:58

runs through twenty seven, an option to remain

1:04:01

with the team through twenty eight. It's

1:04:03

a remarkable comeback story

1:04:05

in a lot of ways, a

1:04:08

unique one because the circumstances are

1:04:10

so different than a typical comeback story.

1:04:12

But it is a comeback story. Don't get it twisted.

1:04:15

You're absolutely right. There

1:04:17

isn't quite a

1:04:20

perfect comp to anything like this happening

1:04:23

in NFL history, partly because we've never had

1:04:25

these sort of contracts, but a player

1:04:28

that was traded as a

1:04:30

distressed asset, where goff

1:04:33

last contract, which was very similar, I've

1:04:36

actually believe depends on how

1:04:38

you slice it up. I think the numbers are a little

1:04:40

fluffed up. But there's one way to look

1:04:42

at it. With the new money that he's like the second highest

1:04:44

paid quarterback in new money per year

1:04:47

average. And that was what he was when he signed

1:04:49

the huge deal with the Rams, that he was the second highest

1:04:52

paid quarterback, and that contract proved

1:04:54

to be so bad that they had

1:04:56

to trade him essentially as

1:04:59

a like with negative value. And

1:05:01

yet here he is just a few years

1:05:03

later signing the equivalent to that

1:05:05

contract. Again, it's remarkable.

1:05:08

Basically the first three years of this

1:05:11

are more or less guaranteed, so he he

1:05:13

is locked in at least three twenty twenty

1:05:15

six, which and for huge, huge

1:05:17

money.

1:05:18

Yeah, because I think, like you always wait a

1:05:20

couple of days to find out like if there's Fugezi

1:05:22

elements to some of these deals. Like it's a lot of real

1:05:25

money that he is getting, and I

1:05:28

mean it is interesting to see what happens

1:05:30

with him the player. But in twenty twenty

1:05:32

six, he has like a nearly seventy million

1:05:35

dollar cap hit, So I mean it's

1:05:37

it's just like it, I think. But in general

1:05:40

with the cap, like these

1:05:42

deals don't concern you the way that they

1:05:44

would have in the past.

1:05:45

There's just a way to get through these.

1:05:46

But this is like not they this

1:05:49

is full belief in a player that the

1:05:51

general manager knew going in and like

1:05:53

took a chance on. And even at the draft,

1:05:55

it's like the roster loves him, the town loves

1:05:58

him. He's getting paid, and it's one of the it's

1:06:00

one of the better stories because you're right, Dan, like I

1:06:02

used to make I used to just use words to describe

1:06:05

Jared Goff as one of the most dull to the

1:06:07

eyes quarterbacks around and he's

1:06:09

completely transformed the way that we look

1:06:11

at him over the past two seasons.

1:06:14

Can I have like a medium

1:06:16

hot take on this, Like this

1:06:20

contract might not be great, Like

1:06:23

even in a best case scenario, we

1:06:25

are in this weird spot where like

1:06:28

the top thirteen or fourteen quarterbacks

1:06:30

all get to be about the highest

1:06:33

paid quarterback in the league for a

1:06:35

little while, but they're not

1:06:37

even Like the fact

1:06:39

that Jared Goff essentially is getting the same

1:06:42

contracts as Joe

1:06:44

Burrow and Josh Allen and stuff, and think

1:06:46

he's nowhere near as good a player, Like that's

1:06:49

that's not that helpful to the Lions. I

1:06:51

don't think you want to. You maybe just don't

1:06:53

have a choice. But like

1:06:56

he's significant, Like his numbers are very

1:06:58

poor against pressure, they always have been.

1:07:01

He needs things to be right. He's somewhere in like

1:07:03

the eight to twelve range, and that's great. They

1:07:06

he stabilized them. He's perfect for them. But like

1:07:08

just as a pure like analytical

1:07:11

numbers thing, like it's not great for them

1:07:13

that they basically have to give him Patrick Mahomes

1:07:16

and Joe Burrow's contract when he's nowhere

1:07:18

near as good as those players. I mean,

1:07:20

Kelly, it's worth noting, right.

1:07:22

I mean, who's the big the biggest winner or

1:07:25

all these quarterbacks that are better than him? Like

1:07:27

right, Like, well they just raised

1:07:29

the floor. So if you're now I eight even

1:07:31

feels strong. I like golf a lot, but I

1:07:34

feel like, and we'd have to do

1:07:36

and we'll do this exercise, We'll do little Dalton

1:07:38

scale at some point this offseason. But I

1:07:41

would say he's in that ten to twelve range

1:07:43

maybe, And and if he's getting paid

1:07:46

this outrageous sum, that just lifts

1:07:48

it up for everybody else. I feel

1:07:50

like, ultimately, though, in a lot of ways, like the Lions

1:07:52

were in a tough spot because what

1:07:54

are you gonna do? You're gonna play hardball with GoF

1:07:57

You're gonna move on from golf like

1:07:59

you're gonna or are you gonna try to keep

1:08:01

this the ship which is running

1:08:03

on very the fuel is

1:08:05

like high octime, high octane,

1:08:07

good vibes in Detroit and a lot

1:08:10

of you know, a lot of feeling about

1:08:12

this.

1:08:12

This could be the year.

1:08:14

Hey the quarterback, you heard it, You

1:08:16

heard those fans hens of

1:08:18

that, hundreds of thousands of Detroit

1:08:20

or is chanting his name. It's they

1:08:23

overpaid, I'm sure, but if if you're a quarterback

1:08:25

that could play at a high level in that offense,

1:08:27

there are worse ways to spend your money.

1:08:29

I also like the Lions are, and not

1:08:32

like in an annoying way that I think, like the Eagles get

1:08:34

on your radar, Dan obviously, but like they

1:08:36

just kind of Brad Holmes and the

1:08:38

whole front up, they do things their own way, and they kind

1:08:40

of they believe what they believe and they've been proven

1:08:43

correct building this team, and it's

1:08:45

like they got this done before, like

1:08:48

Dak Prescott gets paid or too.

1:08:50

I mean there's other quarterbacks sitting out there.

1:08:52

There's a Trevor Lawrence sitting out there and other dudes

1:08:54

Jordan Love where it's like these contracts

1:08:57

are should have happened in some cases, I

1:08:59

think twos is a is a mysterious one.

1:09:01

How to handle that, But like now it adds

1:09:03

like a little heat to all of those deals as well.

1:09:07

By the way, it's the coverage of the Philadelphia

1:09:09

Eagles that I have a problem with, not the Eagles

1:09:11

themselves.

1:09:12

Well, but I mean when they're like the Eagles think

1:09:14

differently It's like, I think the Lions think differently,

1:09:16

but it's not on everyone's radar because they're probably

1:09:18

closer to being America's team than the

1:09:20

Cowboys for many.

1:09:23

And one other transaction.

1:09:26

Marquez Valdez Scantling, formerly

1:09:28

of the Chiefs who won a Super Bowl,

1:09:32

made a few plays there on the way to

1:09:34

the Lombardy has signed

1:09:36

with the Bills. And you know, we did that exercise

1:09:39

a couple of maybe

1:09:41

last week looking at

1:09:43

some position groups

1:09:46

and I pulled the Bill's

1:09:48

depth chart and trying to make sense

1:09:51

of it in a post Digs world, And

1:09:53

yeah, MVS is just like yet another guy

1:09:56

in that room.

1:09:57

It's you take a look at this Bill's

1:09:59

depth right now. This is listen.

1:10:02

We're putting a lot of faith in Josh Allen.

1:10:05

The offensive line is good,

1:10:08

and the running back broke out last

1:10:10

year, James Cook. So we're not gonna say

1:10:12

the Bills are gonna have stroke struggle

1:10:15

scoring points.

1:10:16

But he's probably their wide receiver for although

1:10:18

I think he actually adds some

1:10:21

value just because they didn't really have

1:10:23

like an outside burner.

1:10:26

Usually he keeps on signing with the right quarterbacks.

1:10:28

I'll get I have to give MBS that.

1:10:31

He's usually good for like four hundred yards in the regular

1:10:33

season, but then suddenly it's the AFC Championship

1:10:36

game and he's like two for seventy five with a game

1:10:38

winning play, and so maybe he'll

1:10:40

keep that going. But yeah, your your depth chart would be

1:10:42

what there's no one.

1:10:44

This is awesome. They are the just the guy all stars.

1:10:46

Here we go. Curtis Samuel, I know we like him. We

1:10:48

got the rookie second round pick, Kean Coleman,

1:10:51

who knows what he's going to give you a year one, you got Khalil

1:10:53

Shakir. You have you

1:10:56

have Chase Claypool's in the building. You

1:10:58

have kJ Hamler in the building. You

1:11:01

have Andy Isabella in the building. You

1:11:03

now have Marcuzveldez Scantling in

1:11:06

the building. Mac Hollins is

1:11:08

in the building, Quintes Cephas is in

1:11:10

the building.

1:11:11

What a motley crew. They just need

1:11:13

to tell those guys the pop.

1:11:15

It just reminds me of like the

1:11:18

last team MBS was on a bunch

1:11:20

of guys in the wide receiver room.

1:11:21

Yeah, a little better a

1:11:23

little bit. Shakir is a nice player, Damuel's

1:11:26

a nice player. They're a little similar though,

1:11:28

But.

1:11:28

They're leaning on a rookie to do a lot quickly

1:11:31

too.

1:11:31

You're gonna lean on Dalton Cancada. I think

1:11:33

they're hoping at least yeh.

1:11:36

Finally, in the news, I don't know if you

1:11:38

saw this, but Tom

1:11:40

Brady has come out

1:11:43

and said he regrets the Netflix

1:11:45

roast mark that you attended last weekend.

1:11:48

He said that he on.

1:11:51

Some level misread it and

1:11:54

he didn't realize the effect. Let's see,

1:11:56

he was on the Pivot podcast

1:11:58

and he was upset about

1:12:01

how it impacted his children, the people he

1:12:03

cares about most in the world.

1:12:06

So he has regrets, and I should I should

1:12:08

throw out there that I was texting with

1:12:10

a friend of the podcast, Nicki Glazer,

1:12:13

who was the breakout star of

1:12:15

the roast, and we were just commiserating

1:12:19

about this. Nikki, who was on

1:12:22

the show super Bowl week, had

1:12:25

no connection to the sporting world and

1:12:27

then shows up at this roast and

1:12:30

her career goes through the stratosphere

1:12:32

and becomes linked to Tom Brady

1:12:34

kind of forever as a result.

1:12:36

Can someone say sneaky back door

1:12:39

flashpoint focus?

1:12:41

Yes, I.

1:12:44

Think so. She I

1:12:46

mean, I

1:12:54

mean.

1:12:55

She noted to us at the Super Bowl

1:12:57

and she said this since when people asked about

1:12:59

you know, why she did

1:13:01

the Roads, but that she had no connection football at all and

1:13:03

was it was it was Taylor Swift that got her involved.

1:13:06

And you know, she she wrote a

1:13:08

lot of the her own stuff. She she went through a lot of her

1:13:11

material on Stern that she didn't use. Got a little

1:13:13

bit of help too. But like I think I texted you

1:13:15

guys during the show, this

1:13:18

was the runaway hit from the night. There was

1:13:20

a lot of good stuff, but she was the runaway hit.

1:13:22

But as for Tom Brady, like I mean, yeah,

1:13:25

you see the reaction and you didn't want to do it, but you

1:13:27

knew what was gonna come up.

1:13:28

I would imagine topically during that during

1:13:31

a rose.

1:13:32

I listened to it, and I don't think he totally

1:13:35

had like wrapped his head

1:13:37

around it for whatever reason, just

1:13:39

that like he said, it affected his kids,

1:13:41

and I guess he just like for some reason didn't

1:13:43

connect the dots of like, oh, yeah,

1:13:45

they're going to bury me related

1:13:48

to my divorce

1:13:50

and that that's gonna hurt my kids, he

1:13:52

said. He said, the rest of it was fine. Everything

1:13:55

was about me was fine. It was a fun night, Like I

1:13:57

love comedy all this stuff. Like, I don't think

1:13:59

he even fully said that I regret doing

1:14:02

it, but he he does regret

1:14:04

that part of it.

1:14:05

Oh, I think he regrets doing it. Gregory, Yeah,

1:14:08

I guess you're right.

1:14:10

I wouldn't he said, he I wouldn't do that again because

1:14:12

of the kids, and yeah,

1:14:15

shout out. You know Nicky, you

1:14:17

know, the

1:14:20

the AFC couldn't stop Tom Brady, but

1:14:22

Nicki Glazer did, you know?

1:14:24

And like, Nicky and I go way back,

1:14:26

and we would joke about how

1:14:28

like I was like a sports guy and she didn't

1:14:30

know anything about sports and didn't

1:14:32

care about sports. And then I said, isn't it ironic

1:14:35

that like being involved with this sports

1:14:37

event like changed your

1:14:40

career forever and sent you into the stratosphere.

1:14:43

She kind of had a monoculture moment out of it,

1:14:45

which is just so crazy. But

1:14:49

you know, Tom, I don't know. Listen, Tom

1:14:51

lost thirty million on Crypto. Tom has made

1:14:53

some some strange decisions

1:14:55

in his life, and this is another one. He's

1:14:58

gonna fascinating guy to track. Now He's

1:15:00

going to go into the Fox booth. Is that going to be

1:15:02

a similarly similarly disastrous

1:15:05

decision?

1:15:05

We shall see a.

1:15:06

Little bit of a like a wandering soul.

1:15:09

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

1:15:12

But I do want to say, as much as

1:15:14

you know, I love everything

1:15:17

I've worked on, when it comes to the flashpoint

1:15:19

focus, I do want to say, like, as executive

1:15:21

producers, I would have thought

1:15:23

if that was a flashpoint focus now,

1:15:26

we probably should have. We should have probably

1:15:29

mentioned, as you're

1:15:31

talking about Mark and I, yeah, I'm talking about

1:15:33

you guys that what would

1:15:35

you.

1:15:35

Have done differently? Greg, you tell us.

1:15:37

I mean would usually it's not the gaffer's role

1:15:40

to be sharing this, but go ahead.

1:15:42

I would have maybe mentioned or said the word

1:15:44

flashpoint focus at some point in the Nikki

1:15:46

Glazer conversation.

1:15:48

No, I think Mark, I think I called it a uh

1:15:51

sneaky back door flashpoint

1:15:53

focus, which I think it was, And

1:15:55

they have industry wise, they have backdoor

1:15:58

pilots things like that where it doesn't

1:16:00

seem like it in the moment, but

1:16:02

you look back and like, oh okay, and I

1:16:04

see they had something cooking.

1:16:06

The whole time. I knew what you were saying.

1:16:08

I think up a sneaky backdoor

1:16:10

flashpoint focused song with Las said,

1:16:15

all right, good

1:16:18

show.

1:16:20

Get up. We'll

1:16:24

be back on Monday.

1:16:27

Oh before we say goodbye, Mark,

1:16:29

Uh, do you want to share with the audience why you weren't

1:16:32

here on Monday's episode?

1:16:36

I want to compliment uh some

1:16:39

of our listeners because someone sent

1:16:41

me a link to there he goes

1:16:43

to flute. People were

1:16:45

like, oh, what's the flute about? Because we had talked

1:16:47

about floutests and flutes during the you

1:16:50

know, big Funk song. But someone

1:16:53

connected the dots that I went to a Los

1:16:55

Angeles Renaissance fair.

1:16:58

Wait, how did someone who are the who is setting

1:17:00

up?

1:17:01

Because I think these are like the the It

1:17:03

was a thread of people trying to guess and I

1:17:05

was like stunned that someone

1:17:08

pieced it together.

1:17:09

Uh that in the LA region that they start?

1:17:11

What the I

1:17:13

don't know. It wasn't It wasn't like.

1:17:16

This. This was on the Reddit board.

1:17:18

Yeah, like it was not.

1:17:19

It was just someone pieced together and someone

1:17:21

else like, Wow, that's a really interesting like

1:17:23

theory or something. I was like, how did

1:17:25

how did they possibly know that? But I went

1:17:27

with some friends. I had never been to one

1:17:29

in my life. I had no idea what it would be like. It was about

1:17:32

ninety six degrees out with a burning sun.

1:17:34

I just was happy to get out of there without a sunburn.

1:17:37

But it was a it was an experience, and I

1:17:39

made sure that no photos leaked because

1:17:42

I did. I was given a slight

1:17:45

costume slash outfit to wear. It

1:17:47

never arrived, it was

1:17:48

It was sent to my building, but

1:17:50

then was either stolen or the package

1:17:53

was put somewhere in correct, so I had to buy something

1:17:55

else on Hollywood Boulevard on the fly.

1:17:57

And it was an absurdist looking thing

1:18:00

that I'll have to share with the audience.

1:18:02

I really don't even know if I have a photo,

1:18:04

because like I said, it was ninety like eight

1:18:06

degrees and this was like a furry

1:18:10

like tunic that was so hot that I was dying.

1:18:12

So it wasn't on me for long. But

1:18:14

I will if I can find it. If I can

1:18:16

find a photo, I will, out

1:18:19

of honor, I will provide you.

1:18:20

Wearing I like to picture furry

1:18:22

tunic is probably what I would have guessed. A

1:18:25

veil of flowers and then like

1:18:28

pantaloons and then kind

1:18:30

of like moccasins that

1:18:32

like kind of curled up almost like a like

1:18:34

a like an elves.

1:18:36

No I imagine like the puffy

1:18:39

pirate shirt from Seinfeld, that sort

1:18:41

of thing.

1:18:41

It wasn't that furry, But like I made,

1:18:44

I with a good attitude. I decided to

1:18:46

not be like the only one not in our group dressed

1:18:49

up.

1:18:49

But there was there was a there was a limit to

1:18:51

it to it, that is for sure. You

1:18:53

know, I

1:18:57

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

1:18:59

the incredible story.

1:19:00

No, I like this is the new Mark. He's

1:19:03

yeah, you're on a journey Mark and you're.

1:19:06

Going through like new adventures.

1:19:08

Uh.

1:19:09

And you know, as

1:19:11

as someone who is now you know,

1:19:13

married for a long time.

1:19:15

I just celebrated my twelfth anniversary.

1:19:18

You know, the idea of not having to do things I don't

1:19:20

want to do is something

1:19:23

that I really one of the best, very best things about

1:19:26

weddings. But you're not You're not there right now

1:19:28

with your life. So but

1:19:30

I'm I'm I'm hoping you made the most

1:19:32

of an event.

1:19:33

I would say this, it was definitely for adults.

1:19:36

I would put it that way.

1:19:37

It was not like there were some kids running

1:19:39

around, but it was for adults in many

1:19:41

ways, and I found that angle of it

1:19:43

to be intriguing.

1:19:45

I also believe that

1:19:48

Mark is a man who does

1:19:51

what he wants, and that you

1:19:53

might not want to be dressing up in a furry

1:19:55

tunic.

1:19:56

Dan.

1:19:56

I know I'm not, but

1:19:58

I think Mark Mark probably enjoyed

1:20:01

it. If he did it, he wanted to on

1:20:03

some level.

1:20:03

I was like, I'm just gonna apply thank

1:20:06

you. I was like I'm going to do.

1:20:07

It, and so naive.

1:20:08

Greg. No, it was enjoyable, had

1:20:11

a good time.

1:20:11

Maybe the Renaissance Fair is something

1:20:14

because I could see Mark, you.

1:20:15

Know, Mark pre spirit and he

1:20:18

float around.

1:20:19

I could like, I get picture Mark. Oh yeah,

1:20:21

I'll float around like the

1:20:23

the fair grounds for a few hours,

1:20:26

like on a Sunday.

1:20:28

Uh.

1:20:29

You know some of these events, it's like, Wow, Mark

1:20:31

went to this, Mark went to the roast Tomorrow,

1:20:33

Mark's going here, Mark's going there.

1:20:35

It's like the roast

1:20:38

was connected to our career on some level.

1:20:40

I think roast was very normal.

1:20:42

I'm not gonna a lot of people were at the roast.

1:20:47

O Greg, all right? Anything

1:20:50

else? Anything else? No?

1:20:55

All right? In that case, we'll be back

1:20:57

on Monday. What we're going to

1:20:59

talk about? What do we talk about

1:21:01

after the schedule.

1:21:02

I'm sure there's some OTAs and you

1:21:05

never know, so make sure you check out the

1:21:07

show. We'll certainly find something

1:21:10

fun to chatter about with the league. Thank

1:21:12

you for checking this show out. Until

1:21:14

next time, beat the Call.