Graybeards 2023: Best available free agents over 30 years old

A room filled with some heroes - Dan Hanzus, Marc Sessler, Gregg Rosenthal and Colleen Wolfe bring you the latest news from around the league, starting with the NFL tabling the conversation about flexing Thursday Night Football games (7:08). The Patriots are reportedly "out" on Lamar Jackson (16:58), we discover a "new" Marc Sessler (18:55), Gregg recaps a busy Falcons offseason (22:16), Ran Carthon called the Derrick Henry trade reports "erroneous" (25:52), and we have a handful of Odds and Ends (33:57). Then, Dan introduces the 2023 Graybeards roster (38:17), hitting every position from quarterback (43:28) to running back (47:20) to wide receiver (51:30) to tight end (54:23) to offensive line (56:22), then flipping over to defense with EDGE (58:03), defensive tackle (59:35), linebacker (1:00:09), cornerback (1:01:05), safety (1:04:05), kicker/punter (1:04:49), and the coaching staff (1:06:01).

Note: timecodes approximate.

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
The Around the NFL podcast is only as old as
they feel. From the Chris Westling podcast studio, It's around
the NFL. I am Dan hansis Room Heroes Everywhere, Mark Sessler,
Greg Rosenthal, the Great Colleen Wolf. How is everybody? We're great,

(00:24):
really good. That's a great zummi drop because it is
Graybeards day here on around the NFL, and we're gonna
get to it in a little bit breaking down the
best remaining free agents age thirty and over, and it's
pretty decent crop. I'm not gonna say it's as good
as the team last year, which I predicted would be

(00:45):
ten and seven, a pushback of all the Graybeards finish
in the end last season as usual, they ended up
at four and thirteen. But I had a lot of
optimism about the Graybeards last year. This team I'm not
as pumped about. I mean, they were better than the
Bears in the Texans, so they definitely closed better than

(01:06):
the Bears. They were competitive throughout the season. Um And
we'll also go through some news. We had our big
atn dinner with a Grave Digger yesterday. Oh yeah, a
State of the Union. That was nice. Justin How was that.
I know it was long waited and uh, we had
a couple of diabolos. Oh yeah, you know, it was

(01:27):
nice tequila drink there in Culver City. It was fun.
I had a good time with you guys. Feel like
we bonded a little more, got close. Felt did you
feel like? I had a tremendous, tremendous time And it
was a pleasure to have justin there and to talk
to him um ever since. I mean, it sent me
into the night and I just feel that I'm on
sort of eternal autopilot. Graver and Cessler have complained about

(01:50):
lack of sleeping now Grave Diggers, partly because it's paramore.
Jessica also was out drinking last night and he just
said they didn't get a lot of sleep. So get
into that now. Well, I did have her in the
middle of our dinner, had to pull out my phone
do a quick FaceTime. He's got bits he had. He
did this during the dinner. He had did get me.

(02:13):
I bought it. I bought that you were truly gonna
face Well. Once we learned that Super Bowl week that
you had a five hour FaceTime uh and watched a
movie together, I was like, Okay, everything is believable at
this point. So but that means you guys are in love? Yes,
so good for you? Good for you has a little
anxious attachment. Do you guys? Go on? Do you guys

(02:35):
have UM like in your neighborhood or I live in
kind of like a small town like a community. Uh? People,
do they know that you're like NFL network people like
the people into mind you. I've never even met my
current neighbors, so I would say no unless I'm being
heavily spot I mean twice in the ten year period
someone has either seen me running or walking UM and

(02:58):
said like NFL network. But that's that's the limit of it.
Real They were strangers and the like that happens here
and there, but not not in this friendly what about you?
I tried to talk to my neighbors. They don't want
anything to do with me. Actually, yesterday I rolled down
my window to try and say hello to someone that
lives on my street and she just kept walking and

(03:19):
I was like, Wow, fine, we won't be friends. I
won't have any friends in this neighborhood. Didn't you eat?
Because I think this happened to all of us. Story
in Corona when you're broadcasting out of like a room
in your house, and you realize it's coming right through
the window into the neighbors yard or territory. Weren't you
didn't you receive a complaint? Oh? I got a passive
aggressive written note left that please asking me to please

(03:42):
close the windows when I'm working and broadcasting because my
voice carries. And multiple times there would be neighbors that
yelled turned down the TV, and then John would yell back,
she is the TV. Yeah. So it's like a Bronx
high rise in nineteen sixty where in a tight lea
I saw that apartment. It was tightly packed in there. Yeah,

(04:04):
and I was hosting Total Access day a weekroom. Why
did we just keep doing everything when coronavirus was raging?
I think ultimately changed anything. We just did everything from
our homes. Well, there was the need for paychecks to
continue to floss their way into the budget. I bring
it up because, um, yeah, because I'm also like a

(04:25):
very active as you are. Greg. I know a little
league dad, so I know a lot of the people,
and I've gotten to know the people in the town
and they do know I work in NFL Network and
one are the lines that I get a lot, and
somebody did it, said it to me in my driveway
while I had the leaf blower out. The other day,
he goes on my yardwork getting my tan and he's
like hey, and it could tell he was thinking of

(04:47):
something to say. He's like, what am I gonna say?
What are we gonna say? He's like, recovered from the
super Bowl yet? And that is like the mote. That's
the trope line that everyone says to me, Hey, recover
from the super Bowl? Yet, I'm like, well, I think
the Statue of lim Aitations is up on that small talk.
It's almost April, sir, do you ever get that? You
ever get a hey, we're covering from that super Bowl yet?

(05:09):
I mean that specifically, live in a community besides me,
I'm close even with a number of my neighbors. But
the NFL network thing never come, never came up. Yeah,
they don't care about football, or it's never it's never
been brought up. Um, all right, that was good, All right,
let's uh get to the news. Had one funny experience.

(05:32):
I you know, one of the rappers is to Is
two Chains, and so I saw him on the sidelines.
But one of our games. We had invited him, I guess,
And I didn't know why. I didn't know why he
was called to change. I didn't know who he was.
And I said, hello, staff, make sure you point them
out to me. I want to be respectful. I mean,
I don't probably listen to his stuff particularly, but I

(05:52):
do want to be respectful and I appreciate his support,
you know. So they did, and I said, you know,
and I said, I can see why. You know, your
nickname is two chains, these big chains around his neck
and what have you. So he said to me, well,
do you want you know, I mean, we can get
some chains for you. I said, I don't. I don't
think about it. I'm not sure that's the right look
for me. But the two chains, Arthur Smith, excuse me,

(06:17):
Arthur Blank, who is the owner of the Falcons, speaking
of two chains, And yeah, you definitely heard the queens
in Arthur Blank there when discussing two chains. I think so.
And that comes on the heels of Robert Kraft casually
name dropping Meek Mill making a push for Lamar Jackson
to England. I kind of can't believe that meek Mill

(06:38):
didn't get it over the goal line quite Frankly, I
would love to see their text conversations like they're just
they're back and forth. What's that rapport? Like? Yeah, I
wonder if Robert Kraft is like, do you feel like
like when way older people are texting, anything can happen.
Like I would even point to go look at Tom
Brokaw's tweets and things like that. It's like this was
no a newsman at one point, and I'm not. He
cannot put a sentence together on Twitter. So no, all right,

(07:00):
let's get into We were talking about some of the
rule changes and the proposed rules at the owners meetings
this week. There is a there is a push to
flex Thursday night football and make games flexible from Sunday
to Thursday night. There already is a new rule and
effect that now allows teams to play up to two

(07:22):
Thursday night football games. But this is an idea of
taking the looking of the schedule and then based on
what you know, Let's be honest. Helps Amazon, They're a
major corporate partner, and gives Al and Kirk a better
game in the booth, especially late in the season. The
idea of flexing games to Thursday night and that was
tabled by the owners, which means it wasn't shot down,

(07:43):
it was just pushed to the side for now, which
means there's a chance that this is going to happen
on the Giants co owner John mara is one of
the more influential figures in the NFL, and he spoke
out adamantly against the idea. I am adam alive posed
to that. Flexible scheduling as it is is really inconsiderate

(08:05):
to our season ticket holders and to people who will
fill our stadiums every week. People have gotten used to
going from Sunday afternoon to Sunday night. That doesn't mean
that they like it. This year we could be flexed
to Monday night, which I think is really inconsiderate to
our ticket holders. But to flex a game back to

(08:26):
Thursday night, to me is just abusive, abusive Greggy right there.
I thought about like the history of the NFL and
listening to this, because the two most vocal opponents of
this rule are John Mary heard there and then the
Rooney family with the Steelers, and so many of the

(08:47):
NFL's best decisions that they've made over time have been
from ownership like that original owners really pushing back what's
good in the interest of the league versus owners just
wanting to make money in the short term. I mean,
that's why the league is essentially socialist, that they share

(09:09):
all the money that the cap it's better for all.
That would never happen now. Can you imagine owners sharing
all their money with other teams that are making way
less money. It would never happen like that now, And
I think it's one of the reasons the NFL is
so great and they try to keep the long term
interests in the fan in front of mine. And I
loved that Maura is standing up and doing this because

(09:32):
it is absolutely insane. To imagine a scenario where you're
going to New York for a game and you find
out fifteen days before it's not that far before, fifteen
days before that, actually it's canceled. It's on Thursday night.
Figure it out, and I think, excuse me, absurd, Mara,

(09:54):
I think is speaking out of frustration because they only
missed this as show, Absolutely do they only miss I
knew that was going to happen too, I feel it
coming from me. Until now I knew it was gonna happen.
It only fell to votes shy and so I think
Mara knows that, you know, behind the scenes, they're gonna

(10:15):
find a way to get two people to say yes,
because it's it's just inevitable, and it just it made
me think randomly of that Corona era Raven Steelers game
that happened at three forty Eastern on a Wednesday, and
the quality of that game. For multiple reasons, you know
that would be different, but t enough games to me
always feel a little tilted, a little strange, a little

(10:36):
bit of a lower quality product um And I just
think we're moving closer and closer to games happening all
week long, all the time, which I know, Greg, you
sort of said that was a you were witch casting
that at one point I felt years ago, I was
at a different point in my life. I feel differently
when I when we started to experience elements of that
a couple of years ago, was like, we don't need that, right,

(10:57):
so you don't and the players don't. I know, that
was just funny, how seriously you said that it was
a different man. Then It just was like it was
back when I was working at Rhoda World. I started
at the two games a day for the whole season.
Theory yeah, but now I need more time. You're in
twenty twenty, we did I think I hosted Thursday Night

(11:17):
Football on Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, Friday, Saturday, Sunday. And
I'm so intimately familiar with the games that we've had
on Thursdays throughout the years. And the Broncos Colts game
from last year still haunts me. That went into overtime,
that was so incredibly terrible, and that when they wouldn't

(11:39):
avoid it. That was Week three and like everyone thought
that'd be a good game with Russell Wilson and that
one you still get stuck with. It was actually so
bad that it ended up becoming entertaining. It came back around.
It went so far off. But you can't put people
out like that. It's so expensive, first of all to
attend a game as a fan, and then it's extravagant
to travel if you go on the road, you're paying

(12:01):
for hotels, you're paying for flights, you're doing all of
this ahead of time. That's so much money that you're
putting people out there. People are taking off from work.
I mean, it is it just I feel like that
has to be a non starter. But obviously if there's
it's close, and Roger Goodell was really upset. You can
tell he really wants that he didn't. He was upset

(12:23):
with the way that Mara talked about it because the
light that it painted the NFL. And and to be clear,
I just I do want to explain what the rule
would be. It's weeks fourteen through seventeen, okay, um, and
Monday Night Football is starting that too next year, by
the way, which is a huge change and is, as
Mara mentioned, is similarly h abuse to fans. Not it's
not as dramatic, but that's still a pretty big difference.

(12:44):
Like if again, if you're flying into a city and
you can play more tnfs, by the way, they don't
count if it's back to back t NF like so
if they if you already had a TNF in week
ten and they want to put you on week nine,
then you could get up to like three And they
absolutely do that with the Cowboys, by the way, who
essentially play that TNF after Thanksgiving every year, and that

(13:04):
kind of of of course, we want the best games
possible in prime time. I don't I don't want to
be doing a two and a half hour pregame show
for two terrible teams. But it's just like there's got
to be some type of middle ground here, as always
in the NFL and life follow the money. I'm sure
we'll find that middle ground. I get it, but like,

(13:26):
but that's why this is happening, right, absolutely huge deals
with ESPN with Amazon might might take his Amazon must
not have been happy with what was going on, and
of course not they paid so much money. I mean
before when it was on NFL network, the network could
eat it, like put their foot down, you know, and
they they're just being these games get plucked away, right,
Are they second class citizens in this because they're they're

(13:48):
paying a pretty penny as we'll still have their protected games,
and so I don't know how that rule changes exactly,
but it won't be like the top. I guess what
I would say is like, yes, these games aren't great,
we still have three sometimes four days of games at
that time of year. It's still an NFL game between
two NFL teams, and more people will still watch that

(14:11):
on a streaming platform than literally any other show that
is on television that week. So, like, I get it,
it is about the money, But it's like in the
answer to when is it enough? I guess is never.
But it's like, but that's not a reason people still
watching that Texans Broncos, like they're still watching it. Like
just just eat it a little, just like when Mara's

(14:33):
talking about and I like seeing an owner talk like
this on behalf of the fans, Like the fans that
are affected by this season take holders are the diehards
or the diehards, and they're just gonna do it. They're
gonna swallow it because they care that much. But it
doesn't mean you should do it because you can. I don't.
Speaking of John Mara, he man, he's a quote machine.
This week at the owner's meetings, he was on the

(14:56):
NFL radio on Sirius XM talking about Brian Dable and
his big year and his rock star image he has
now in New York after leading the Giants to the
second round of the playoffs, and he had this a
little quotable, Jim, I knew when you were hiring Brian
Dable that you knew all you needed to know to
hire him. But he's so built for New York. He's

(15:17):
so built for the personality of those fans. Like that guy.
If you Carcel's had it, but this guy has it
and it's they love his animated routine. Really, Oh, we
kid him. I mean right now he's Bono walking around
New York City. But I've told him, I said, in
this business, it doesn't take long ago from Bono to Bozo. Um, Wow,

(15:41):
that was workshop to sink on these podcast. Bosos. Yes,
as Bozos ourselves, we can relate to that. Wow, Bozos
to Bano. Though for you guys, m depending on your part, yeah,
thank you. We we did some research and that clip
where Yes, if you're new to the show, I think
it was a sound engineer who wanted to called us

(16:04):
bozos and we overheard it. Well. Now, now that was
six years ago, in two thousand and seven. You see
him frequently. You'll see him floating through the hall, and
Greg claims to have had multiple conversation with him. I
just had sort of a cheapish interaction. Bozo's line. He
likes you know, he likes it's a good running. He
likes Greg. I definitely trust you to have the temperature
of what what will make someone uncomfortable or not? For sure,

(16:27):
you said you bring up every time you talk to
him now, but it's like he I think he worked
on gave debut, so I was like, yeah, you did
see him, and you know, and yeah, a little bozo
talk way. By the way, there were on on the
day Ball front. There were reports that, um, you know,
the owners meetings is partially a vacation for these guys
and a drinking event and a day drinking event, and
that day Ball was the first NFL head coach reportedly

(16:49):
to crack a beer at about ten thirty in the morning.
Respect Phoenix time. Respect, he's working off East Coast time,
walking down, He's walking down the street with shades on.
He's feeling himself. The athletics Jeff Howard reports that the
Patriots will not trade Oh Greggy, let's give Greggy some
sad violin here. Will not trade for Lamar Jackson this offseason.
How said that the Patriots could test Jackson's too desire

(17:12):
to link up with an affordable deal because the way
he put it, Uh, but it is unlikely that that
will be the case, and it will be mc lamore
Jones rolling forward. McCord. Look, I'm riding with McCorkle. I've

(17:34):
been higher on him. I think his census. He's just
not Lamar Jackson. So that's my whole you know, I
think you've wavered on mccorkyll a little bit last. No,
I'm seven months. I think I think he can be
a plus starter, but he's not Lamar. The only way
they would ever get Lamar Jackson is if a report
like this came out like four weeks before they actually
got him. That's my So you're not giving up, hope,

(17:57):
I'm not giving I can't imagine a world where the
Ravens and the Patriots are agreeing on something too just
in terms of their history together. But I don't know.
Maybe mac Jones turns things around this year with Bill O'Brien,
like they do have that former relationship from the couple
weeks at Alabama where mac Jones was teaching Bill O'Brien

(18:18):
the whole system where he was gone. I think he'll
be good. I think he'll be better. But you wanted
to get me excited about life in the NFL as
a Patriots fan in twenty twenty three, gave me Lamar Jackson. Yeah.
I mean, I think if you if you're in the AFC,
it's so top heavy with quarterbacks and mac Jones probably
is a bounce back candidate but the idea that like
they've gone and got anything other than a middle tier

(18:39):
tier signal caller at this point, what is the ceiling
for New England? I just I find it to be
an uninspiring era. I like, I like this feisty. You've
been absolutely well. That was a low point rampage start
with its night what. I don't know if we ever

(19:01):
even should talk about it. I don't know if it's
a personal thing. Yeah, who didn't see it last night?
Well it was. It's not personal, it's not personal. That
was something on the books with Justin for a long time.
Uh huh, but I don't Can we speak on it
the dinner? I don't know what you're discussing, but your um,
your meal, your food. Oh sure, Mark Cessler, drumroll please,

(19:25):
I'm so excited about what you're going to say. I
don't know what it is. Maybe even a breaking news,
Yeah this is It could go either way. He had
dinner Mark Edward Cessler for dinner last night at our
atn Summit. Had a towering double cheeseburger. What, yeah, let's

(19:46):
play some celebration. Let's do something even none of us
even noticed when he ordered it. It wasn't until the
burger arrived and we're like, well, I didn't do it
for effects. Um. I mean, I you know, I hadn't
eating around you guys in a while, but I just
was trying to change up my diet a little bit
and try some new things. So I will say it
might be the reason I was Music is the Night Court, Duane.

(20:10):
I think it's appropriate. I like it, so it's in
our library and I labeled it as a funky romantic jazz. Yeah,
as you said, the mistake maybe some decisions that you
made in nineteen ninety seven and haven't really rethought since
you're willing to rethink. Yeah, it's not a day by
day thing. I'm just I'm trying it out and it
was remarkable and you didn't wake up at midnight wide

(20:31):
awake and never went back to sleep. Correct. I do
think there is um a link there. I would suggest
there's somebody I would imagine because that wasn't just any cheeseburger. No,
that had some real girth to it. Yes, it was
a double. I mean I think we sort of all
got the same, but it was it wasn't really a double.
I mean, there was a lot of it was like
it was a big patty. But it was like they
call it double because they like have two different types
that they smashed. As as a journalist, I must get

(20:53):
I must ask how how'd you like it? I liked
it a lot? And I think the thing the thing
about food that is weird is like I haven't I
haven't had that particular dish in a quarter of a century.
So wait, that burger with us was the first burger
no I've had. I haven't eaten hamburgers. I've had like
other meat, bacon, and I've tried little things that are

(21:16):
like I don't some things just do not appeal to me.
That at the moment it did, But it was like
I had just had one yesterday. It felt that familiar.
It wasn't like you forget your taste. Buds seem to
never look at you, lose their memory. Who says a
man nearing the half century mark can't reinvent himself? That's
what I think. Yeah, I don't say that. I don't

(21:37):
none of us should. I guess now I want a burger? Um? Wow, Yeah,
I didn't know it was. It was such a big thing,
a huge thing. I didn't even know whether we should
bring it up. It felt intensely first, I think it's
a I'm fine with that you did. It's not a
huge deal to me. Huge announcement. Mark A Meady a carnivore.

(22:02):
All right, wow, that was That was such a revelation
and conversation. Just now we got to take a break, regroup,
and we'll be back with more news. All right, here
we go and other news. I know it's hard to
recover from that. The Falcons. The Falcons signed Class Campbell,
formerly of the Ravens, to a one year deal. Atlanta

(22:24):
has been beefing up the defensive side of the ball.
He uh, and this a team that cannot get to
the quarterback and wasn't very good against the run either.
Campbell's thirty seven years old. Connie, everybody loves Class Campbell.
I mean there was a time where he was one
of the best defensive players in the league. That's not
quite the case anymore, but still obviously capable how to market.
Multiple teams were interested. He chooses the Falcons a team

(22:48):
and this surprised me because does Class Campbell have a ring? No, no, nope,
Falcons probably not winning a ring this year. But ultimately
he wanted to go to a place that I guess
that he liked. He just went to Lena. Why, I
have an answer for you. He has ninety nine career
sacks and just as his personal goal, he wanted to
have at least one hundred. Oh, I'm sure he's coming back.

(23:11):
I mean yeah, But like he was a cap casualty
because of the Lamar Jackson situation in Baltimore, So I
think that they probably thought they would be able to
bring him back sign him for cheap. But I mean
now he gets to get paid probably a little bit
more with the Falcons, get that get to that mark
for himself. He's coming off a good season for himself

(23:32):
in his standards. And look, he had five and a
half sacks last season. That would have been second on
the Falcons in twenty twenty two. That would have been
first in twenty twenty one. The pass rush is a
perennial problem for the Falcons, so they've done a lot
of additions to this defense already. They've bring in Jesse Bates,
they signed David an Yumata. But it's a nice signing

(23:55):
I think for them, and I just love Calais in general.
Super Bowl I had to check because I remembered I
thought I covered him on that Cardinals team that made
it. It It was his rookie season, so man, he has
been in the NFL a long time. I wanted to
take this moment to just take a quick look at
the Falcon's offseason just because here are the people they've

(24:15):
brought in that are probably starting for them. I don't
know if there's a team in the NFL who will
be starting as many people as they signed in free agency.
Klais Campbell, David an Yamada. You mentioned those, Kaden Ellis
the linebacker who had some nice times for the Saints
but wasn't really a starter there, Jesse Bates. That's four
starters on their defense, Mac Collins and or Scottie Miller.

(24:39):
Maybe one of those two guys is right now at
least starting at wide receiver. John who Smith is like
the backup tight end, but they might start two tight ends. Man,
that is a lot of That is a lot of
free agency, and I think that's Terry Fonteno and Arthur
Smith knowing like maybe from the outside we're not thinking
this is a team that is going to win or
needs to win, but I think they know that they

(24:59):
need to maybe have a winning record. They have a
new defensive coordinator too. Dnp's out the door. Ryan Nielsen
takes over. So there's a lot of change. I mean
to me, of all the teams in free agency, they
went for it, but not enough because it's like there
they stand out. There is the quarterbacks. Lamar Jackson. I've
been saying this would have been like suddenly you think
completely different about the future of the Falcons and you're

(25:22):
trying to fit Desmond Ritter in there as your guy,
and it's a TBD. He came down. It came down
to the Jets and the Falcons. He said he thought
he would have a chance to have a bigger impact
on and off the field. He stressed, Austin, Now you
know he's as a Man of the Year. He is
for the in Atlanta, widely celebrated, is one of the
best dudes in the sport. And yeah he won Man

(25:43):
of the Year. He's basically every locker room he goes into,
he's the most respective guy. So good for him. I
was a little surprised. I was hoping he would land
with the Jets, but we'll see what he could do
with the Falcons. Uh In other South Division news. On
the other side, Titans general manager Ran Carthon rejects any
notion that Derek Henry is on the trade market. Here's

(26:04):
what Carthon had to say at the league meeting. There's
nothing new to report. Um, it was a nice report
that came out. I was moving to Todd you know,
Darren trumpers and move and you know we're in a
good place. So it's not that new report from there.
I know Derek trains like crazy, um in the location

(26:24):
where he trains, I know the location. I don't want
to put it out here, you know, but Dar's going
to come back. You know, he's going to spend and
take his time away into what he has to new
to make sure that he's ready to go. So I
feel we're in a good place. It was this taken
from like the ballroom of a steamship or something. What
was where was he one of those one of those

(26:44):
little couches in that biltmore? Were there four years a right?
And thanks to Toron Davenport at T Davenport underscore NFL
for capturing that. Well done. They should trade Derrick Henry.
I think that's there's no way that's not still a
possibility if it's like right around the draft and the
team decides, like where we're sitting, there's a running back

(27:06):
that we want or we don't. I just love the
idea of him. I've said it all along to Buffalo.
But second note, Ran Carthon looks like a go He's
a well built individual, looks like something. I don't know
if I had really seen Ran, I think of his father, Maurice.
Was that his father? I don't know, remember him back
with the Giants. It's not a typical name, so I'm

(27:26):
gonna guess there is a connect, he said. I don't know.
That was pretty strong, saying it was an erroneous report.
I think maybe maybe there were some teams or there
was some talk and they realized that the value wasn't
kind of come back and they decided now they they'll
probably keep him. And Mike Rabels said he expects Ryan
Tannehill to be the Titans QB. He said, of course,
I expect him to be the QB. But he also said,
I won't commit to anybody on the entire roster being

(27:48):
on the roster after what happened with A. J. Brown,
So I guess it's and listening to offers, even if
he's not actively calling off they like, so they they're
compounding their mistake. You shouldn't have traded AJ Brown, and
you did, and now you should trade Derek Henry and
you're not going to well then your offense, so you're
just blowing up the whole thing. I think it's like,

(28:11):
and then him and running game. How can they have
no market though it's got to be a contender is
running back that season? Yeah, but you can make a
deal and get some draft capital back, but it's like
a one year rental. I think I think there maybe,
maybe maybe there'd be a team that would actually pay
him that money. But they're just like, I'm not going
to give up anything, right, Hey, I would give up
a late round swap and ignore that Titans don't want

(28:33):
to bother ignore the chance to get Derek Henry with
something left in the tank and potentially a chip on
the shoulder at your own peril. Is kind of where
I come from, the same guy, but man last year
or so. But we need some trades. I was thinking
about that looking back at you know, we had those
all those wide receiver trades, we had the quarterback moves
twenty twenty two off season better than twenty twenty three
off season. Step it up. Okay. Ran Carthon, by the way,

(28:56):
is indeed the son of Maurice Carthon, who won two
Super Bowls with the Giants in the Yes, justin, is
there a GM head coach duo you would take in
a fight over Vrabel and Ran Carthon? Not not at all.
Maybe Dan Campbell and Brad Holmes. That's the only one
that I could think. What is what is Holmes looking
like these days? He's a big He's a big, bulky man.

(29:18):
I'd like to know what Joe D could bench press.
You know, you can't tell. He's a big guy, solid, solid,
could handle himself. Yeah, Joe D's looking like he whipped
himself into shape too. Based on the footage from the
Joe looks like the bouncer, like the double deuce type guy,
like he's you know, not gonna win any physique competitions,
but probably is stronger than a bowl. So I think

(29:39):
they would have a chance. The Gang Green contingent. But
that's a good that's a good conversation. Yeah. Send us
on Twitter, people, send us other GM coach like brawl rankings.
What I like Mike McDaniel comes out with one of
those like member the guy with the green dust and
he just spray in someone's face. He was a different
way to Rick Model Martel or mister Fujie, mister Fie

(30:02):
assault in the eye. Well, some guy with green dust
and it was like the Martel had his own cologne
called Arrogance that he would spray into people's mind like
a smoke bomb. Would be perfect. How about Bill Belichick
it would just be himself since he only hires like
friends and family members. But maybe since they don't really
have a GM, it gets to be Bill and Steve.

(30:25):
I could see Steve with that mullet running into the
Travis Kelsey and his brother Jason have a very popular podcast.
It is called The New Heights Podcast and a part
of the one of the traditions, and Kyle brand on
Good Morning Football does a great job every year breaking
down the coach's photo that gets put out each and

(30:46):
every year. Check that out. UM, I have it on
my Twitter profile. That's one way to access it. Kyle's profile,
I'm sure he is amplified it as well, but UM
amplified it anyway. The Kelsey brothers, Jason asked Travis to
name as many coaches as he could, and it was
a fun exercise. It's even better when you see the image.

(31:07):
But it's fun just listening along as well. Here we go,
let's give it. Let's give the Travis. Else's trying right now?
I can, I can. I'm the worst with names, but
I can tell you team. Okay, all right, starting on
the left, Chargers standing up, got it, sitting down, standing up,
standing up, Chargers, Giants, San Frank is that guy? Steelers?

(31:32):
Can you pause it there a second? McDaniels looks a
little different he did even a couple of years ago.
So that that there's a there's something there. Okay, keep going.
He did not know Arthur Smith's not a surprise. I
don't think Arthur Smith's wife might not know. Okay, go
on his head. Steelers, Tampa? Is that Tampa? Detroit? Campbell?
No chance you're getting this, one zero percent chance? Jet

(31:57):
after Jets, nothing. I don't even I've never seen that man. Yeah,
that's that's era I couldn't name. There's some tough shadows.
It's a weird photo. Yeah, it's a bad one, but yeah,
he had no chance at O'Connell which is funny to me,
but ebra Flus. I think if you ask the entire country,
Jonathan Gannon might be in there too. It might come

(32:19):
in thirty two of guys who have done a year
and then the next guy concept And it's funny that
um Salah I was like, oh, I thought Salo was
taller than I realized. He's next to O'Connell who's eight
feet tall. Right, and Campbell all right ahead? Is so good?
I mean three in a row. I have no idea.
Those dudes are every everybody between the Jets are off.
The coordinator Shane Stik for the Coals, Come on, Travis,

(32:43):
Jason's pretty good. Who's who's next to Doug pe Who
should know that one? You should definitely know that one. Demko,
who's the other one? You should know him because he's
arguably your biggest rival. Oh that is yeah, that's Sincy.
That's not he's a dope. No one's ever said that
about Zach Taylor. That's that's coach sive or is that enough?

(33:08):
I think that's good. Yeah, that's good. He did drop
Stefanski was the guy as there's no uh, there's no
chance that guy's a coach in the NFL and he's
as Fansky, which why is the good one? Seems unfair
to Stefanski was out of place calling Mike McCarthy, uh, Dave,
Matt Foley Chris Farley's character. I guess he was on

(33:30):
S and L recently, so he had it on his mind.
Don't do Zach. He called Sean Payton QB's quarterbacks. It
is a little next level And I love that because
then you realize not all NFL players are big NFL
fans like us. And if him not knowing Sean Payton's
name is a little next level quarterbacks quarterback, I would
I would love to do the column like Travis Kelsey

(33:53):
disrespects the game. Just slaughter him for two thousand words.
All right, Connie, ready for some odds and ends? Yo? Sure? Cool?
All right, here we go, no pressure, all right, I
have to do it different too, right now, just you
know whatever feels it's it's a creative choice. Do it
your way, okay, ends it ends everybody. We have to

(34:20):
stop this. I think we need to go. The room
is haunted, the building is haunted. O my god, how
do you how do we recover and do a football podcast?
After knowing the world is ending. I just pull a
knife out of my pocket. That used to be such

(34:42):
an enduring delight. Right, something has changed, all right, here
we go eight o'clock delight. Marvin Jones. He's still at
it and he's back with the Detroit Lions. Good for him.
Zach Taylor said, contract talks with Joe Burrow are underway.
That is huge. That's an interesting subplot considering all the
Lamar drama and blah blah blah. The Bengals. Anthony Richardson

(35:05):
meets with the Panthers. He's the number ten ranked prospect
by our friend who's on the podcast, though he is
not Raiders too, though Raiders would be an interest in
Raiders a little. What do they have? Seventh pick? Seventh pick? Uh, Connie.
The Kelly Green unis are back with the Eagle. It's
about time. So it's not like a color rush thing?

(35:25):
Is color rush still thing? Did they get colors? I
think that's been but it's an alternate uniform. Yeah, they're
not gonna wear take on that one. I don't have
a take. I just think that um. I always hear
like the best uniforms of all time are the Eagles
Kelly Green uniforms and it's like, yeah, that's correct. I
just simply totally disagree. I'm not saying that I think
they're still fine, but like that's an over celebration. In

(35:48):
my book of play cop, what's some of your top
what better? Tell me what's better? New York Giants? Everything?
It's better than the Eagles. Wow, that is the New
York Giants have ever done. I'm so offended by it.
I mean, not their team last year, the classic Cleveland
Browns better than anything that he's back to meet and

(36:09):
he's back to the brown No, I'm just I think
those are classic uniforms that have not the like Kelly
Green or Fine. It's just I think that we're acting
like now the world's problems have been solved because they're
going to showcase them for a game. We'll see and
maybe while we're here. The Eagles chan is a rip
off of the Jets chan. So that's cool too. I mean, what, what,
why is everyone coming for me today? What is this

(36:30):
speaking of the Jets, the Sacramento to the dinner like
we're hitting out ghost us. The Sacramento Kings clinched a
playoff spot, which means the New York Jets now have
the longest playoff drought of the four major US sports,
and that's compounded by the fact that they also haven't
been to a Super Bowl in fifty four. That is
all going to end this season, though, did your chant

(36:52):
in Part one? Shot up one of the reasons, one
of the reasons why Aaron Rodgers going to a team
with a very good defense is interesting in a big
subplot this year that is brutal. And the crazy thing
is the ten years before this twelve year drought, they
were kind of in the playoffs semi regularly, and they
made it to two title games, and then it got

(37:13):
very dark, very quick. It's a little more embarrassing for
an NBA team, like every NBA team and NHL team
makes the playoffs a little harder in the NFL. Who's
rights behind the Jets? Now for the end the NFL,
the Lions have to be well, they've been in the playoffs,
but like they're nine in a while, they might be
number two now, but they had even that thousand and
fourteen maybe well that was two thousand fIF when the

(37:35):
Dos caught against the Broncos since they were on the
Super Bowl. Really yeah, wow, And the lines are one
behind them. I mean it's not like hard to make
the playoffs in the NFL either. Now you're right now
it's fourteen. So it's fourteen out of thirty two and
come out of sixteen thirty will say it's like it
was Cleveland in the Jets for a long time because

(37:55):
that Brown Steelers game altered the scenery. Yeah, Broncos posts
uper Bowl has been like a sneaky bottom five franchise's
been rock sitting and you look at everything that's happened
being rough. All right, let's take a break and then
get to the gray beards always like Seacrest out we
got m h. Great bits. We're gonna save the day.

(38:47):
Great bits, just give us one last say we're here today,
gone tomorrow. Will you watch your follow It don't mean

(39:09):
I cannot play. You will see me leave the way.
Gray bits never go away, Gray bits never fed away.

(39:36):
There goes my hero. What your mass? He goes, there
goes my hero. It's over, thirdday, Well done, well done,

(40:06):
goose bumps. Wow that was the range right there. We
now we have a full band. How you were unhappy
with the performance a year ago? Repair I was not here,
but like I messed up the role. Um, I was
not given clear instruction. I was a backup singer last year,
you were, you were assigned to some backing box. I
think we, even in real time, started over. We did,

(40:28):
and I was very nervous about the second time because
I still was unclear on the second go round right
and get it. I think this time what we did
was important. We did a run through before the show. Yeah,
I will say the run through was not duplicative of
what happened when we actually didn't run through a little
bit tighter I thought than the actual performance here. But
by no means was it a failure. It was good.

(40:52):
I think we all felt it in our souls. It's
not about you about like um, you know, hitting the
perfect feeling the music and Greg and I spoke privately
with Greg Bovis. I said, Greg, the final line is
the cathartic payoff of the whole song, and you creatively
take that, but it's got to come from your heart.

(41:13):
And justin point of ox, I asked it. I asked
for some lyrical help. I forgot what the lyrics were
and justin what did you point out to me earlier
this morning? Well, when you sent me the lyrics this morning,
you had all the gray beards. You were referring to
them in the third person, like they never go away,
they will the lyrics I had remembered that miss, but
the actual lyrics are more first person, as if from

(41:34):
the point of view of the gray beards, like give
us one right, which I think is really as we age, right,
there's a shift. Do you feel more connected to these players?
And I certainly do. I find some conflict with um
where you're going here? You said there is an early
line we're here today, gone tomorrow, which is you know,
that speaks to all of us and the human condition.

(41:55):
But then it flips around said, the gray beards never
go away. They never fade away. They're the return, they
don't go away. I think that's the duality of man there,
you know, all right? And then you were aspirational. You
also capitalized him, right, which is essentially Jesus. All right.
That's just a religious component to this as well. The
original Graveyard Jesus was thirty three, so like he was

(42:21):
a roster by the end and probably unstoppable theology podcast
Tugbo Sorry God, all right, So what is what is
what is this? What is this what are the grave
It's really about that song. But then there's a segment
we have to do. So this is This is the

(42:41):
tenth year I've done this on NFL dot Com. I've
written the Graveyard's column, which is my You'll see it
everywhere and it comes out and on other lesser platforms
across the web. Um, oh, you're the best remaining free agents?
And all right, anybody could do that, but I I
like to kind of just dig a little deeper. Who

(43:02):
are the best remaining free agents who are age thirty
or over? And these are the players that the league
kind of forgets and are ready to phase out. Hence
the lyrical and feel of that song, like don't forget
about us, Like we are not fading away, give us
one more chance. So that's what this is about. And

(43:22):
there are every year, with the unstoppable march of time,
always new names to add. And I'll start with the
quarterback position because we have a couple of new names,
starting with none other than a man that has been
waiting to become a graybeard for a long time, really
feels like for about five years now, and now he

(43:43):
is Carson Wentz. Here's the quarterback room. Okay, and we
could talk about where these guys fit in the order
they should be in. But my three quarterbacks in this room,
he got three. Yeah, I'll probably have a cut I'll
probably have a cut down day in summer. But Teddy
Bridgewater from the Graybeards, that's when you know it's time

(44:04):
to hang up. I got a Teddy Bridgewater and Carson
Wentz in a open camp competition, both thirty years old,
both first year eligible to Graybeards. And then I got
Joe Flacco in the room. Just got Joe in the
room because Joe doesn't want to stop playing and I
respect that, and he literally has a grizzled beard at
this point, so he's in there. But it's Wentz v. Bridgewater,

(44:24):
and I know where this room is going to come
down and say Teddy all the way, And I don't
necessarily disagree with that either, But Teddy, there's a reason
Teddy's still in the market right now. When he has
gotten opportunities in recent years, he hasn't been able to
stay on the field, and I wonder if he's just
breaking down. Wentz has just been mostly ineffective. I could
use both in this offense if you wanted to I

(44:45):
think you've got we're not going to do that plan?
All right? But then i'd go Teddy, But have you
did you give any consideration to Cam Newton? No? Oh,
not just flat out no. I think this is one
of the better quarterback rooms the gray Bards had. I mean,
you could argue this quarterback room is better than a
couple of NFL quarterback rooms. Wow, the Falcon I would
take him over. That's my favorite job. I mean, the

(45:09):
Texans they will add. Just just wait till Cam finds
out he's not on the gray Beard. It's not going
to be pleased with this. Teddy and Carson there. They
both have trouble staying healthy. So when one guy goes down,
you'll have another guy ready to go. Can I say
I don't want to. I want to also say that
I don't think Cam is Graybeards eligible. If you out
of the league for a full year, um, I don't

(45:31):
know if I could put you on. I think you're
kind of out of the football until otherwise we're told
that you're I think Teddy. Teddy fits in whence I
think good question is like does he want to be
a backup? Does he want to be a backup on
the Gray Beards. I mean, who knows he's gonna get
an opportunity though, doesn't this one? For some reason, these
two guys really hit me with the passage of time,
like that they are now eligible for the Gray Beards

(45:52):
because we were doing our show when Teddy Bridgewater suffered
that injury. That's a very memorable NFL moment. Were doing
our show during Carson Wentz's rise, of course, and like,
I remember what a huge Wentz guy West was during
that run and everything, and and now he's on the
grade season when he scrambled for that touchdown, even the

(46:14):
season before though, he was like I could still see
the replay of that. And then I remember even after
he came back and he was kind of with an
Eagles team that was very mediocre. I remember I liked
the way he played like he was kind of being
let down by those wide receivers all the time, and
he just put his body on the line. And then
I wonder if a lot of that also took a

(46:36):
toll on him. But here he is, now thirty years old,
Nichole's winning the Super Bowl and then having like a
statue good room. There's there's another quarterback room for now,
they're better than the Colts. Guy would take them over
last year's. Last year's tandem, by the way, was Ryan
Fitzpatrick and Gino Smith. Oh that room was better. Talk

(46:58):
about Gino going from graybeards back up to how much?
How many guaranteed dollars did he get? And Seahawks seed?
But yeah, twenty five a year. Matt Ryan, by the way,
is available, and I don't know if he wants. We
considered Matt, but it's just that's not the direction. Yeah,
I feel like we watched fourteen too many Matt Ryan

(47:19):
games a year ago. Um, the running back room, it's tough. Um,
it's tough. So I like Jak McKinnon a lot. I mean,
the guy had ten touchdowns last year in Kansas City.
I think he's a good guy to have. And he
was the lead back for most of their season, I mean,
or the season went along and then he kind of
Isaiah Pachenko kind of rose up. And but McKinnon's a
nice guy in there. Um, your friend Mark mark Ingram Uh,

(47:44):
he's up there in age two. Um, so I have
him on the roster, but I'd like to upgrade if
I could. It's an excellent locker room guy. There's gonna
be a lot of malcontents on this roster, There's no
no way around it. Yes, Rex Burke had I put
on here. That was awesome for you. Mark. I know
you like your white running backs, not a guy. You're
a white running back guy though, according to you. Wow

(48:06):
the star of my high school football team, Rex Burkett.
There you go. And then, um, I actually have to
eliminate this guy because if I'm going to eliminate Cam
for the same reason I had David Johnson comeback season
with the Saints briefly, Okay, so David Johnson's comeback season
kind of I thought you might have Latavius Murray list.

(48:28):
I'm glad you mentioned it. Okay, so this isn't fit.
This is going up on NFL dot com next week,
so right now, so give me some tapping with your
your fingernails. Are we getting any bright? Because I want
to I want to be a pro personnel director at
some point for the Graybeards, maybe an intern. And I write,

(48:48):
you're a singer for the I was um dogging that tape,
raw dogging it and uh, we don't know. Nope, you
just look at the tape. So it was pretty good
in the National Football League last year at playing football
and running was all right. He looked pretty, he looked

(49:11):
almost Uh he was frisky last year. All right. I
met a Latavius McKinnon tandem there. I like that, all right,
you know, I was sad as I led to look
up Zeke's age and he's like, he's not this okay,
and just um because this is always fun. Last year's
running back room Jerk McKinnon great signing. Yeah, had ten touchdowns.

(49:33):
So the Chiefs that won a Super Bowl. And uh
David Johnson, who I was thrilled when he was on
the graveyards because that was the first year eligible. And
then it just he just ran out of juice. I
guess another passage of time moment. What he at one
point in the NFL got a guaranteed contract, I believe
with like forty million dollars guaranteed or something insane that happened.

(49:55):
I remember the running backs coach on All or Nothing
pulling him into like a training room after his rookie
season and saying, like, you have the ability to be
one of the best running backs that has ever played
in another West favorite I know he was banged up,
But did he ever suffer like any catastrophic injury or
was just like another example he was, Yes, he did,

(50:15):
he did. He never really was the same after it.
Well was it a Nate m I think summer tough position,
tough position, wide receiver? All right, for the second straight year,
we got O'Dell there. It's kind of where he's at
at this point in his career. And by the way,
there are reports out there that multiple teams have offers
out to O'Dell though, and he's he was initially looking

(50:36):
for twenty million. Now the idea is that it might
be closer in the range to fifteen million, which is
still a lot. What what is going on with it?
I don't believe that. I mean, I believe it'll be
an up to but I believe it'll be significantly less
than fifteen with some incentive. I mean, he came out
on Twitter and totally denied that, but behind the scenes
it's probably maybe that was his start nine and six
million in incent of something like that. Does he count

(50:58):
if he wasn't in the league get all last year
technically with your rules out, well, he was injured, it's different.
It wasn't out of football. It was injured, right, but good,
that's good. He actually did spend last year on the
great Beards, good dynamics. I like that. That's important. For

(51:20):
the second straight year. Oh, another first time entry age
thirty season, Jarvis Landry. So we can get O'Dell and
Jarvis season. Um, it's the beginning of the end of
this Browns are for the second straight year. We have
Julio Jones here, kind of a legacy pick. I don't

(51:43):
know how much juice he has. Can't stay healthy, but
he's a great beard, uh for me right now? Um?
And now we have some other options here. Um. Randall
Cobb is another option in the slot, but I think
he's duplicative with Jarvis. That your guy Aaron Rodgers, Right,
that's true. No more drama. T Y Hilton, Oh interesting

(52:04):
made a couple of plays when the couple of boys
signed it him. I mean, wasn't he was better than
some mother huge play like right after he had yeah, third,
fourth and thirty one was yeah, not a terrible wide
out election. How about Robbie chosen Anderson he changed his
name a locker room headcase. We're not gonna have rob
but he's at age thirty. He's the first year And

(52:25):
give me a little timpany drum here, because I've been
waiting for this. We've all been waiting for this for
what feels like fifteen years. For the first time age
thirty season. You're not gonna believe this. I think I
know it is. Go ahead, Sammy Watkins. Sammy Watkins is

(52:47):
finally thirty. What Sammy Watkins who was twenty seven for
eight straight years is now thirty three? Time making to
leave candidate. That's shocking. Like a playoff legend that is
actually literally a clutch player. Usually people get more respect
when you have the kind of clutch moments he had
in the playoffs. A lot of big munch Juju Smith

(53:08):
Schuster is now brown. Is the guy wide receiver that
is twenty seven forever or twenty five forever. Sammy Watkins
came into the league at nine years old. I like
that group. I'm gonna say it, like, if everyone stays healthy,
that's better than a few rooms in the NFL. I mean,
that's that's better than the Titans receiver in group right now. Well,

(53:29):
these guys are literally all avail. Yeah, well, you're gonna
get every single one. I mean Julio Julio, it feels
like he might be at the end of the line here.
Kenny Galladay is available, by the way, I don't think
you want him, but just wanted them. You're gonna get
four or five primetime games with Odell and this crowd. Actually,
now I'm looking at last year because Jarvis turned thirty
last November, so he was eligible. So last year we

(53:50):
had Odell, Antonio Brown, Jarvis Landry, and Julio Jones Brown
sod over very similar positional group Antonio Brown that year.
You know, at that point it was like, is he
still on the picture? And then I think he like
stripped nude in a swimming pool around families, and then
it was kind of like, okay, against the code of
policy for Graybeard. He's kind of at a level that

(54:11):
there's no coming back nude in the public swimming pool.
You know what, I think you owe me a sandwich
that talked about that he would not be back in
We'll have to check out, Go get my lunch dot org.
All right, moving on tight end, this is a tough
room to room. I got Cameron Brait, who I believe

(54:32):
is looking to retire. Okay, okay, it seems like a liability. Okay,
I have Eric Tomlinson in his age thirty campaign. Okay,
and pinch yourself. I have um forty year old Marcedes Lewis.
This is to me, he's a graybeard. He is height.

(54:53):
The Jets are putting the final touches on a one
hundred million dollars deal for him, but if that falls through,
I think you're struggling in here to find any playmakers.
So why not have a guy who's the sixth tight end.
I'm not saying you're putting him on the front of
the the pamphlet or whatever. It's the press guy. It's

(55:14):
like it would like it's now the team pamphleteer would
like like this, we have this pamphlet of Jewish sports heroes.
But I feel like he embodies what you want. He's
like the Calais Campbell signer for the Falcon. It's kind
of amazing that he was drafted at the same time
as MJD. And we've been working with MJD. I don't know,
and the MGD was a better draft pick. That was

(55:35):
the the sneaky part. He was a much better player
than Marcedes Lewis. During their bag Wars I feel like
if you watch Sunday Night Football with MJD as we
did this best season. Marcedes Lewis comes up every night
capacity as one of the great players of azra H.
Mikole Pruitt also in the mix there. That's that's a
tough room. It's a tough room. Kyle Rudolph was Tyler Crawford.

(55:57):
I like, last time Kyle Rudolph made a play, were
you in a while Brady did not get him going.
I would maybe go Lewis and Croft, but yeah, it's
I like the offensive line. And by the way, some
of this research was done last night after two tequila's um,
so there could be some guys that are going to
con claim now it's got a coffee that because you

(56:18):
were going to work. Well, it's not too for a week. Also,
the Organs continue to work shop it and put Daddy's
going away next week, so Daddy's gotta write tomorrow, jog
through it. This is the best offensive line. I think
the great Beards have everything. It's very good. So I
have Donovan Smith on the left side, I got Roger
Saffold at left guard. I got Ben Jones at center.
I got Greg Van routing a routing at right guard.

(56:40):
I got Taylor Luan. I'm kicking him to write tackle
and then it's swing tackle to give me some coverage
because we got some injury concerns. Got Cam Fleming. Hum,
there's Eric Fisher out there. Last year he was on
the team. It didn't work out. So Isaiah Wynn, former
first round pick of the Fan, was a consideration as well.
About Jason Peters has the veteran in a many years,

(57:03):
he was a gray beard, but we've moved forward to
Jason Wow. Although he's like he is a great gray
beard because they keep rolling him out there like halfway
through the season. It's just like, oh, yeah, he's fine.
I just got bored of putting Jason Peters on this list,
so I get it. We're just moving. I take it
back now that I realized I had three players that
were like twenty seven on my original list. There's a
lot of Titans on this line. Right. Three is that?

(57:24):
By my count? Gabe Jackson I believe is thirty. Um,
he's played a lot of football, was making a lot
of money for the Seahawks. I think I think he
could put him in there over Van Roten. All right,
let's do that strong about him. Dennis Kelly is a
solid swing tackle guy who was also a former Titan.
He's out there just use last year's Titans line. Yeah yeah,

(57:45):
trying to please resigned the worst offensive line in the league.
Luano gives you like the podcast pop and yeah, but no,
I like that. I like that. And he hasn't retired
or anything. So he's up in the air. He's with us.
He's feeling good. He's feeling good. He's got some juice
back in that knee, as he said, a wall kind
of juice, but it's in the knee defense edge rusher.
Welcome Jadeveon Clowney. I'm sure I'm going to enjoy having

(58:07):
you around. H We also have Leonard Floyd. We got
some good this is we. We've had Evan Silvall in
the past. I gave Evan a blow this year because sorry,
I feel like, go ahead hit it again. That sounds
kind of like a porn because you know, Evan I
is this very serious football man and I just was

(58:28):
giving him. It's given him a break in twenty three,
and we're gonna bring him back in twenty four if
he wants to join us. Um but I he has
pointed out last year. He's like, oh yeah, you just
get these like rotational veteran pass rushes and you could
do make some damage here. So I got Clowney, Leonard Floyd,
Melvin Ingram, the third, Frank Clark, Bud Dupree. That's a

(58:50):
that's a solid group. Group great might be overstated. Did
you mention mel Ingram? Yep, justin Houston. Yeah, he was cut.
He didn't make it. Wow, Marcus Golden, unless you think
he should be ahead of dun had some moments, least
I would. He he has been excellent for the Ravens
and then no one signs him until about August. He's

(59:13):
not gonna make the Hall of Fame, but he's like
the Hall of very Good and yet no, he just
he's like the new and Dominican Sue. He signs for
like four million dollars every August and ends up playing. Really,
if you added Carlos Dunlop, you could have literally every
player that I went to Italy and Germany went with
on this roster. Let me make that adjustment right now.
But Dunlop actually continues to be a good player. No,

(59:33):
he doesn't make it, but that's cool um interior line.
Here we go matt Ionidas Shelby, Harris Mark wood A
se A, Keem Hicks and yes and Dominican Sue always
available this time of year for the Graybeards. I felt
like maybe that was Sue's last time around last year.

(59:53):
Just felt like it was demisioned gen Richards. How old
is Ashan Robinson? I think he may quality? Oh he
does not. He was a guy that I know, our
friend Jordan Rique thought he was going to get eight
to ten million dollars and clearly didn't. It is still
a free agent, but it's a good ball player. But
he's not old enough. In my bad linebacker is a
little bit tricky. Um got Denzel Perryman, Marcus he's now signed.

(01:00:16):
Oh he's out? Okay, thank you checks and balances, Marcus Golden,
Anthony Barr, Kyle van Noy, John Bostick. You're this is
where the team weirdly starts to fall apart. Good line play,
but bad uh linebackers. Anthony Anthony Barr feels like a
like a great beard. All right after that? I have

(01:00:37):
a good secondary? Is there another inside linebacker to add
to this? I couldn't believe that Kwon Alexander is a
sneaky Sammy Watkins All Star. He's twenty nine years old.
If it's before February thirteenth or so, we're desperation. In
your voice, we need a little inside help here. When
when he said that, um, I was telling a J.

(01:00:59):
Klein is a guy who's played football. He will be
twenty nine at the end of the season. Quan ar trouble. Okay, cornerback.
We always have trouble at cornerback. Obviously, speed is an
issue against faster teams. Uh, Marcus Peters, Marcus Peters. Uh,
let me just check the twenty twenty two team, by
the way, tight end. Last year, I had Gronk who

(01:01:22):
never actually signed with the team, and Jared Cook. M
that's a good that's a good room. Where Jared Cook
now was he he's a free agent again in my
mind for some reason, he's just always a saint forever.
And so wait, you had the services of Gronk in
this theoretical Yeah, he plays beards. You don't want him
to sign this year. He's not in the mix. He's

(01:01:43):
been out of the league for a year now. You
put Gronk's a good guy to put on the cover.
I guess you're putting O, b J and uh and
on the cover of the of the Pain. It's just
a giant face shot of Carson Wentz like they do
the Love where he looks sweaty with the eyeball back on.
We all know, yeah, something really go ahead and start

(01:02:04):
to take command. We want to recreate that energy that
the commanders you have to do. I feel like you
should do more of like uh, I know they traditionally
play in San Diego, but maybe they could do a
year in Baton Rouge and you just do like a
fourth sort of LSU theme with ob J and Jarvis
Landry and just get the locals to come out. I mean,
I feel like we just did that high school. I'm

(01:02:24):
just saying. It's kind of like the USFL. It's like
they just pick a different place, it seems like, and
they just stay there. All right. Just Brandon, you're a singer, Okay,
let's just stay in earline singer. All right. My tackles
last year, by the way, I Dwayne Brown on the
left side, um, and then Quentin Spahn Spain yea Spain. Uh,

(01:02:46):
Matt Paradise, where's not playing for Daryl Williams and Eric Fisher.
That was last year. UM. Last year on the edge,
I had Melvin Ingram, Justin Houston, Jerry Hughes and Jpp.
That group was better than some groups in the NFL.
That was a good group. UM last year I had
on the interior a Chem Hicks, Claias Campbell, Lynvaal, Joseph

(01:03:10):
and Sue She's always there. The Eagles were like looking
for help in the middle of the season. In the
front office was like, forget the analytics, let's look at
the great exactly signed two of these guys. Linebacker, I
had A j Johnson, Danta Higtower who recently retired, and
Anthony Barr. And now we'll move to this year's cornerback group.
Marcus Peters, Bryce Callahan. Where's Logan Ryan Att He's a safety,

(01:03:34):
but I think he could definitely be in that groups.
Kick him out of there. Byron Jones, William Jackson. I
think Byron Jones like said he can barely yeah, walk,
that's a problem. Hill. I mean he I was hoping.
I wasn't. Don't say walk yeah, I'm not trying to
make light, but it seemed like banging his career might

(01:03:56):
be over unfortunate. I'm gonna put it in a nice
gonna put three question marks next to Byron Jones. Maybe
can't walk, okay, Um, we might have to replace him.
Safety Adrian Amos, Oh yeah, Rodney McLoyd, Cloud Cloud, Dron
Harmon and Logan Ryan. That's a good group. And Logan Ryan. Um,

(01:04:18):
you know family famously was going to that dog shelter
with Tom Brady everywhere. That could be a little bit
of Instagram pop for you guys. Good for the community outreach.
I like the cornerback group. Actually, I'm gonna propose Peters,
William Jackson and Anthony Brown and Callahan. That's a four
pack right there, if you need four. That's not bad

(01:04:39):
coming off an injury Anthony Brown, but it was a
good player. I'm trying to see if Jamal Adams will
be safety eligible for me next year. No, but he's
turning twenty eight. Got some time, all right? Hey, kickers,
kicker and punter. I got two forty year olds. You
have a great kicker Robbie gould Boom and punter Andy
Lee two forty year olds, will you? I mean, so,

(01:05:01):
how does that work with the Kickers club? Is there
like a Legacy wing. Yeah, I mean it's yeah, there's
tapioca served and you know, the bedtimes very early. It
just doesn't get like, uh in the Graybeard's wing of
the club. It's it's what Mark hates most in the
world world grown men drinking milk as opposed to you

(01:05:23):
enjoy that, No, but for seven who knows anymore? I
was having expecting Mark to order a big pint of milk.
The milk yesterday at dinner with the burger that does
not appeal for some reason. We spend five minutes last
night and Mark's hate of a grown adults that drink milk. No,
just grown men for women. Yeah, I'm not really, It's

(01:05:43):
not something I think about a lot. But like the
idea of like dad's drinking full glasses of milk is
weird to me. Was like just a large segment of
the population. I feel like he's he's hitting out at
a very I mean, I have witnessed examples and it
just through me in the wrong direction. Um, head coach,
al right, head coaches and staff have to be fifty

(01:06:05):
and over for the second straight year. Mike Zimmer is
my head coach. Oh okay, why who do you guys
want I'm open to suggestion. I want of a son
of a bum. I want Wade Phillips, who's killing coach.
He's killing it in the XFL. He puts the gray
in Graybeard. I don't know if his hair is actually gray.
But how old is Wade Phillips right now? And at

(01:06:26):
no point has he ever not coached well? The last
time he was in the NFL he was doing well.
Seventy five. He's seventy five. I think this is a
good team to bring, like Jerry Glanville back into with
the public amerry yet with us. Spoke to him a
couple of years ago and him could not have been
more of a live wire. So I just think, like
this team, you wanted to spice him up a little bit.

(01:06:46):
I don't know if Mike Zimmer's that guy. Zimmer is
a little bit like of a disciplinarian. I feel like
these guys, Yeah, it might not vibe. Wade feels like
good vibes. I feel like Mike Zimmer deserves he see,
but he'll so fits the profile of what I'm looking for.
Just a mean old man. Okay, Wade's a nice guy.
I could make him the DC. I mean at least

(01:07:08):
the DC, but I mean, all right, so the OC,
I have Greg roman Um fifty years old, so he's
he's eligible for the first time, but he doesn't have
a job. I didn't defensive coordinator. I have Rex Ryan actually,
who expressed interest in joining the Broncos staff. So he's
his heart I think is in it, and he's got
to be probably in the sixties now right around there. Uh.

(01:07:29):
And then the special teams coach. We're actually keeping the
chair empty until Mike west Off comes back from Denver,
so that's out of it's gonna do it. It doesn't matter.
Just whatever Westuff would have done is kind of their
guiding principle, like we're gonna have a giant Mike west
Off signed in the practice bubble. It just says, do
your job with a mean old Mike west your kicker
and punter a combined eighty years old. So they seem

(01:07:51):
to they'll have some internal knowledge. Uh. I'm looking up,
wait is four and two right now as the head
coach of the Roughnecks six seven percent. I'm looking at
trying because I wanted a defensive numbers um the XFLS
you know stats page first time I've been here. Admittedly, Uh,

(01:08:11):
they could go a little more. They've got like fur,
They've got like four stats, not including like points allowed
or anything. The mail bad question we didn't get to
it last week, was like why are you guys not
talking about the other leagues? Are you not allowed? It's like, like,
you mean the XFL and the other thing. It's not
it's not personal or anything. It just it does not
interest me. It's too much at all. I spring football

(01:08:34):
as a concept has nothing to do with me working
for NFL. It just does not interest me. That's when
I watch the NBA and I watch baseball and we
talk NFL news. I don't need more leagues. I couldn't
agree to any higher percentage with what you just say.
And I might have felt differently maybe at different points
in my life or we didn't have this job, or
when you wanted there to be two football games a

(01:08:55):
day every day of the year. Yeah, or like in
another yeah, in another timeline where I've got hot dog
fingers or something. But like we're I feel like we're
still watching football, we're preparing for the drafting, the like,
we're still doing some NFL watching in the off season.
That's there's only so much bandwidth here. That's all I need.
I got the Miami say that against tonight, you know,

(01:09:17):
but jes let's go um and remember our team model
remains unchanged just when sometimes baby, what do we think?
How many wins this year? Five? I'll take I'll take
five and twelve. That's progress from from a year ago.
I think they say it for four and thirteen. Yeah, really,

(01:09:37):
what's what's killing us? Ultimately, I'm gonna take the defense.
I think I'm gonna take what west traditional role is,
and I'm gonna say one in sixteen. Yes, every year
he would like talk it up that like, well, you
know you're looking better this year and then you go
one and sixty. Yeah, real future they have. I can't

(01:09:58):
wait until the first one in sixteen. T even the
NFL that that's almost more embarrassing than oh, in seventeen,
you couldn't even do that, right, No, Yeah, but last
year I thought my team was going to go ten
and seven. I honestly think if I'm now going through
it again, this is a five and twelve unit. Okay,
dun you announced that publicly on the in your article. Yes,

(01:10:20):
that's how I'll end it. Tough for the pamphletier to
go into the season with someone else that can write this.
Do we have someone else? I could listen to this
past for them? Good stuff anyway. Yes, the other thing
where someone just transcribes the podcast, because there have been
I don't know if it's still an NFL dot com writer,

(01:10:42):
but there it was absolutely an NFL dot com writer
who worked in a public medium and would have his
show transcribed and then that would just be an article.
You outsourcing this on the pod is truly? Is that
could we do? Could we just throw in this roster
and then put my name in and maybe and just
chatbot it? Wow? I think it's a great exploration. Why

(01:11:04):
see what happened? I haven't tried that yet, but is that?
Is that how it works? I'm not really sure the
tech I feel you didn't fire up the chatbot. I
don't know, because Elon Musk was part of a group
that sent out like an open letter yesterday begging people
to stop developing the chat GPT whatever it is program
because he's afraid that, hey, I will take over civilization

(01:11:25):
and humanity. That's good, just don't take away my blue
check mark. Start there. I think that's happening soon or
it already happened. All right, there you go. Those are
the graybeards, the baton rouge graybeards. So what you said,
I think switch We're just going to rip another team
from San Diego because Greg went to College of Julane
Palm Beach would be bad. You got snowbirds them they're

(01:11:49):
wearing you like, put them in the cash money. I
don't know. You could just really play into the baton
rouge of it all. And they're a football mad state.
San Diego fell in love with the team though. Okay,
we want to do that for Lauderdale. That's where a
door Lean lives exactly. All right, good one, good show.

(01:12:11):
We'll be back next week. I will not be back
next week. I will be on vacation. But we have um,
Greg and the Gang on Monday, and then I go
on vacation after that, and then Greg goes on vacation
and then the show everyone's excited for Cesslermania. Are you
going to be in the host chair? Yeah, I'm not
going to change physical seats. I'm going to stay right

(01:12:33):
here because maybe this is the host chair that day.
Can I get unsolicited advice? The reason I am in
this chair. It is known in the industry. I know
you think I came up with this name, but it's
an industry term. It's the power chair. It allows you
to have direct eye contact with your producer. Now you
have to turn to make eye contact with your producer
when you are leading the show and driving the conversation.

(01:12:55):
You're gonna want to have that right Justin, How how
vital is it in our conversation? Oh yeah, most of
the time, when like a drop's coming up, or a
segment or a bit we're doing, it's like I look
at your eyes and I know when to hit. Now,
I'll move out of the way. I won't say another word.
What you're gonna learn is that come that episode, all
these rules that have been dropped on our society simply
do not exist will be Colleen will be part of it.

(01:13:19):
I'm looking forward to the to the chaos, actually embrace it.
From my experience doing the Monday Night thing, where I
would sit there, Um, maybe you're spacey like me, Maybe
you're not. I don't think I looked at Justin once
in the forty minutes, or I would forget to look
at the things he was sending me. On the computer
because I just sort of got into my own world
like I would do in any chair, So it didn't

(01:13:40):
have a big impact. Very different takes. I would consider
your advice. I think Dan makes a good point, but
it didn't end up impacting me because I'm just too
spacey and I'll move out of the way again. We'll
be just I'm gonna move back in the way, just
to say, how about Thursday. It's the Chaos Cast and
now I'm gonna move out of the way. I think
that's essentially it will be out of the way. I
have nothing to do with the episode that I'm not

(01:14:01):
gonna do what everybody thinks I'm gonna do. All right,
all right, before we go, this has not been a
great week here at NFL Media. We have lost some
colleagues to some cutbacks and other you know things going
on behind the scenes right now. Jim Trotter, who's a
guy that we all have a ton of respect for,
no longer with the company. Mike Giardi, who's been on

(01:14:22):
the show and is a great reporter and an awesome guy,
is moving on. And also, as people know by now,
Rachel Bannetta, whom I have so much respect and fondness
for as a person and as a professional. I know
you guys feel the same way. And she has been
a great part of this show and just the brief
time she was here and became a really good friend

(01:14:44):
to all of us, and she's going to continue to
kill it. But I think we all wanted to talk
about and just at least reference it because it is
something that has been kind of weighing on the whole
media group and for us and Rachel especially that that
won't hurt. Yeah, I think like Jim and Mike were
absolutely excellent what they did, and you just can't replace
their personalities and their value. And someone like Rachel. I

(01:15:06):
always found her fascinating to work with and get to
know because she was an atypical fit for NFL media
in all the right ways. Like and I think sometimes
media houses don't know what to do with someone when
they're totally original, creative, throwing you for loops with their humor,
doing stuff on social that was completely unhinged and enjoyable,
and just doing stuff that there was only one Rachel

(01:15:27):
Bonetta And so wherever she goes, she'll be she'll fill
that role again very well. And so I mean it's
like I'm almost like it's just excited to see what
she does. I hate that. I think my favorite part
about this job is the people. I've met. So many
of my greatest friends here at NFL Media. You guys
were my first ever friends when I moved here to

(01:15:48):
Los Angeles, and so I hate losing anyone at any point.
And I know it's going to happen because that's just
the nature of this industry especially, but it does. Really,
you know, once you get close to people, and Jim Trotter,
Mike Giardi and Bonetta, I've had a chance to kind of,

(01:16:08):
you know, have these nice relationships with them, and especially Banetta,
I've gotten really close with her. I think the world
of her. We spend a ton of time together in
Munich and it was just she's so creative, so talented,
and just such a cool, down to earth, amazing, genuine
person that I'm lucky enough to say is one of
my good friends. So she's going to go on and

(01:16:29):
do great. Yeah, total gem of a human, like a
capital T talent where she could be a host. She
was a great host on Game Debut and really brought
that show together and was really fun doing it. And
I was just thinking, like it seemed like she she
made a big impact in this place. And I was
thinking back to when I first met her, and it
was like a week before the season or a couple
of weeks before the season started, just a year and
a half ago for the twenty twenty one season, you know,

(01:16:51):
to meet and meet the new game debut crew, and like,
we had a lot of good times. A Friday Fun
show is awesome and I'll always remember her coming up
on stage with us in London. So it's like that
as a great memory to having our Backpock not going anywhere,
we'll be watching her on TV doing who knows what.
And it was like a packed house in London, and
we didn't even give her much like direction. We just

(01:17:13):
said we're gonna put up some various figures on the
screen and then just be Rachel. And the crowd loved her,
and we love Rachel and uh and maybe who knows,
we'll cross pass down the line. But I'd love to
everything you guys said too, because I worked with her
obviously closely producing Benched for over a year and yeah,
extremely creative person and I will miss working with her.
We did not get better um hope to see her

(01:17:35):
again soon. All right, now that's it. We'll be back
next week, not all of us, and then after that
week we'll all be back together. Recharge those batteries crossed, yes,
fingers crossed, this right Jesus right till then he's the call,

(01:18:08):
Great Bear. We're gonna see Great Bew. Just give us
one last hip. We're here today, gone tomorrow. Will you watch?

(01:18:41):
Youall follow it? Don't mean I cannot play. You will
see me the way grave bits never away, you play,

(01:19:05):
bits never been away? The girls, My hero, what's your ms?
He goes there, ghost, my hero. It's over. Third day,