September 6, 2019 • 28 mins
AB's Oakland circus show and the Tyreek Hill extension kick off this week's podcast discussion, which also includes our reaction to Houston's wheeling and dealing with Seattle and Miami and a bit of what we're watching for as real football returns this weekend.
Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
(00:12):
Hi, everybody. Welcome to thisweek's edition of our Pro Football Weekly NFL
podcast. I am Hub Artist,the executive editor and general manager here at
PFW. Our managing editor is ArthurArkish, and it has been a busy
week in the NFL as we getready for Week one and Arthur, normally
I would lead with all the wheelingand dealing of the Texans and the Dolphins
(00:33):
and the Seahawks, But how dowe not start with that moron in Oakland.
The Antonio brown saga continues as werecord. There are reports that he
has made an impassioned apology in thelocker room to his teammates for his completely
unacceptable behavior of the last couple ofweeks. Anybody who wants to believe that's
(00:53):
the answer, and this is overhis kidding themselves. Mike Mayock and John
Gruden have got to stop and say, Okay, well that was the right
thing to do. That's nice.But the real concern isn't whether or not
he can apologize. It's all ofthis absurd behavior from the time he became
an Oakland Raider. Everything I hadheard prior to our starting the podcast is
they were still looking for ways toget rid of them not to resurrect them.
(01:14):
Hope. I know the technical definitionof insanity isn't doing the same thing
over and over again, although youalways hear people utter that cliche. That
being said, if the Raiders welcomeAntonio Brown back, give him another chance
here, it will be truly insane. By all accounts. They have an
opportunity to get off the hook hereof this contract and recoup the thirty million
(01:37):
in guarantees. Because Brown time andagain has broken the terms of that contract
by failing to show up for campand practices and walkthroughs and so on and
so forth. The Raiders haven't outhere, and if they don't take a
shame on them, I mean weset at the time kind of shame on
them for this deal and giving himall the new money. I want to
be careful here though, because morethan anything, this story is just sad
(02:00):
to me. Antonio Brown, Ibelieve is still going to be a Hall
of Famer. I mean, heis one of the most brilliant wide receivers
I've ever had the pleasure to watch, and just to watch his personal you
know, just his downward spiral ofthe past six months or what nine months
or whatever, it's been. Atthis point, it's just sad and you
(02:21):
just have to wonder what's going onwith him and his mental health and and
kind of worry a little bit abouthis well being in addition to all the
unfortunately selfish, you know, decisionsthat he's made that has put the Raiders
in a bind. Here. Well, and I'm going to agree with you
and then beg to differ at thesame time, I agree with you that
probably really is where our focus shouldbe because I don't see anything that suggests
(02:43):
that this is an evil young manor a bad actor who's doing harm to
anyone but himself. And because he'sharming himself his teammates, but but but
not in a you know, longterm or damaging way, and that is
where our focus should be. Butat the same time, you know,
I just don't see how an apologyto his teammates does anything to deal with
(03:07):
the danger of this happening over andover again. And you know, Mike
Mayock, I'm not gonna pretend we'regood friends, but we're friendly. We've
done some NFL broadcast together. Iknow Mike a little bit, and I
know he is extremely conscious of thefact that they've now got basically a hand
grenade in the locker room, andthe grenade has the ability to pull its
own pen, and you just can'tlive with that. At the same time,
(03:28):
I know that John Gruden is justfocused on the weapon and trying to
be better immediately. And I'm notsuggesting that Mayok and Gruden aren't on the
same page with this, but Iknow that Gruden is a lot more likely
to want to give him a fifteenthchance or whatever this would be, whereas
Mayak realizes at this point that thisalmost certainly can't end well. And the
(03:50):
one other thing I have to addto it, because I agree with you,
another thing I don't agree on isI think he deserves to be in
the Hall of Fame based on hisplay. But if he doesn't get back
on the field and become a decentcitizen for a little while, again,
he's not going to get into Hallof Fame. You can't end your career
like this if in fact, thatwere to be the outcome of this,
and then expect to land in Cantonsomeday, that's not going to happen.
(04:13):
Yeah, but we're way ahead ofourselves because the reality is, if the
Raiders are smart enough to get outfrom under this contract. There's at least
one more team that's going to takeanother chance. You know, Drew Rosenhass
is going to go out and sellhim and somebody's gonna say, let's try
it. Everybody thinks it's the Patriots. I'm not so sure of that,
you know, because Belichick would nevertolerate this kind of crap. But but
we'll see if and how that playsout. The point I wanted to get
(04:33):
back to is what really troubles methat we're not talking about. You mentioned
mental health. The other issue hereis could this eventually turn out to be
chronic traumatic encephalopathy? Is not yetrecognized by the American Medical Association because there
are still so many questions about it. We don't know nearly as much as
(04:54):
we need to know. But thiscame on really suddenly. Up until a
year and a half ago, oractually a year ago, he was one
of the leaders in the Steelers lockerroom, and you really have to wonder
if there isn't something physically or mentallythat is going on with this young man.
And I think that should be everybody'sconcerned and the best thing the Raiders
(05:15):
could do for him even if they'regoing to keep them, is still to
suspend him. Put them on whateverlist you can get them on, whether
it's physically unable to perform or nonfootball injury or whatever, and get this
guy some help, because an emotionallocker room apology, assuming that's what happened,
really does nothing to solve any ofthis. Yeah, it's great points.
There important points I'm not you know, I acknowledge the possibility. I'm
(05:39):
not comfortable speculating on that. WhatI am comfortable speculating on the hub is
getting back quickly and then we'll getaway from the Raiders. Is enough of
other things to discuss. But I'mcomfortable speculating on this Gruden in Mayock marriage
and how it was imperfect from thebeginning, and how they appear to have
very different visions for roster construction andculture building, because John Gruden was the
(06:00):
guy who signed off on Antonio Brown, Richie Incognito, Vontes Berfect as the
veteran police officers of that locker room, and then Mike Mayock is extolling the
virtues of Cleveland Farrell and Jonathan Abramas these rookies who and I think he's
right on that these are guys whoare meant to be kind of your core
(06:21):
fabric locker room guys. But howmany other teams do you see that where
it's the rookies who you know,have more credibility in terms of sort of
building that leadership structure highly unusual intome is strong evidence that these two guys
are going down different directions here.Yeah, Mike is one of the best
(06:41):
draft guys I know, and nowthat he's got a GM title, certainly
better suited to make this decision thanme. But Cleveland Farrell never should have
been the fourth pick in the draft. I don't care. You know what
his character is like, He's notthat kind of talent. We'll see how
that plays out. Obviously, Mikedisagrees, and I think he's one of
the better evaluators out with. Youtalked to multiple enough people who are stun
called the biggest surprise of roundwall.Yeah, so we'll find out about that.
(07:02):
But what is more interesting is thepoint that you make, and the
whole situation is so unique in thatMike Mack is one of the only general
managers in the NFL who doesn't havefinal say over his fifty three and even
more than that, he's got ahead coach who's bringing players in. And
so while Mike is an excellent evaluatorand Mayak has committed to finding a way
(07:25):
to form a unique marriage with JohnGruden, you got to go a step
higher. Mark Davis is the leastqualified owner in the NFL. It's just
that simple, you know. Imean, you know, some of these
guys, even though they know nothingabout football, you can say, well,
they're they're you know, extremely wealthybusiness people. They're very bright in
many respects. I'm not saying Davisisn't a bright guy, but but he
(07:47):
has nothing on his resume and thefact that he has arranged this, you
talk about marriage of convenience, theleast convenient marriage I've ever seen between Gruden
and Mayack. It's just it's toughto figure out how this is gonna work.
You know, should Mike Mayock's titlereally be player personnel director because that's
really all he is. And youknow, in this case, you've got
(08:11):
somebody who needs to make a toughcall, and Gruden doesn't seem to want
to make it. From everything we'rehearing, what's ironic, hub is that
they've brought in a lot of reallytalented personnel men in that new look structure
they have there in Oakland. Butit's a point that we're going to keep
hammering on because I feel like itmight get missed by some They're all getting
trump by John Gordon ten years,one hundred million dollars. He has finals
(08:33):
say, I just don't want anyoneto mistake this and how this thing was
puttings talked about it. I mean, this is not behind the scenes,
inside information. This is the waythat organization is set up to work.
There isn't another one like it inthe NFL, and there are good reasons
to doubt that they're going to besuccessful. Yeah, we'll see. If
nothing else, the Oakland Raiders aregoing to be that team you kind of
(08:54):
can't keep your eyes off of thisyear. It's probably going to be for
you know, more neck of reasonsthan positive. But we'll see. They
have added a lot of talent.It's just such a combustible mix. There's
a lot to get to. Ithink we should preview some of the better
games this week, But the bignews is we're taping here Friday. Outside
of all the circus antics in Oaklandis in the same division if you just
(09:16):
had a little bit east to KansasCity, where Tyreek Hill is now a
very rich man, three year,fifty four million dollar extension reportedly, And
we've talked about Hill's backstory in sortof the troubling circumstances that led to this
this big deal for him with theChiefs. Well, go ahead, tell
everybody what my first reaction was whenyou gave me this news. I think
(09:37):
you said it makes you sick,and it's hard not to agree with you.
It's just it's it's a tough lookbecause we all heard the audio,
and we all have heard Tyreek himselfmentioned what happened in college and and ky
that was in college. And webelieve in second chances, but there is
strong evidence to suggest that Tyreek hasclearly not made the most of his second
(10:01):
third, whatever chances they are.So the football side of it, hub
the roster construction side of it.Three years and fifty four million, that's
the part at least makes some sense. From the chief side. It's a
shorter term deal. If he'll screwsthis up, he's not going to be
around. But still, the aesthetics, I mean, it's just it's a
hard thing to reconcile. It ismind boggling to me that Tyreek Hill is
(10:26):
not going through a significant suspension bythe NFL. And I've heard all the
explanations for it, but nobody isdisputing his pattern of domestic abuse. Whether
it's mental abuse, physical abuse,it sounds like it's both. Some of
it happened, we know that,and it happened with his second chance.
And so I don't want the guypunished for life, but rewarding him with
(10:52):
thirty five million dollars and locking himup to the team, what do you
do now with his next incident ofdomestic And I hope it doesn't happen.
But again, these are just wishesnow, because the evidence that we have,
what we've seen, is that thisguy has a problem, right and
and and and for him to getthis contract, you know, you pointed
out and you're you're absolutely right.They tried to hedge their bet. He
(11:16):
basically got similar money, but halfthe security that Michael Thomas got and that
Julio Jones is gonna get. It'sa little bit less comparable. It's a
little bit less It's it's a threeyear deal, you know, it's half
the guaranteed money. So you've gotBut but again I wouldn't do it at
all, you know, I mean, make the guy at least go through
another season and prove that he canstay clean, you know. And I
(11:41):
get his football value on the footballfield, he is worth much more,
quite frankly, than they paid forhim. But but this is not a
guy who I believe, based onhis his behavior, is entitled to be
rewarded in this way. That makestwo of us say I don't. I
don't really even know how much moreI can added that the one thing I
(12:01):
will say, we have not seenthe contract for Tyreek Hill yet and will
sort of withhold some judgment just tosee what level of sort of you know,
flexibility or outs there are involved forthe team. It's not going to
change the factor or the aesthetics ofthis. It's a bad look for the
Chiefs, the league, for everyone. But I am curious to see how
(12:22):
much of these guarantees, how muchit's signing, how much can be recouped
if Hill does have another legal run, and we'll try and get to the
bottom of that. It's not evenso much about the money to me,
as the Chiefs who dodged a bulletwith this had every opportunity to say,
you know what, we want tosupport this young man. We think he
can be a solid contributor to society, but minimally he's obviously on some probation
(12:46):
at this point. We're getting himhelp. We're watching it very closely.
None of that. They went outand gave him thirty five million bucks.
Yeah, they showed where their truefocus was on, and that was the
football side of it, in havingthe opportunity to get a below market deal
done with the top five receiver atthis point in the NFL early. So
yeah, that's that part of itstroubling. And I mean, this is
(13:07):
the same team that traded d Ford, who at minimum is the equivalent of
Frank Clark, and brought in FrankClark and gave him d Ford's money.
Now, in fairness to Clark,the people in Seattle say that he has
made the most out of his secondchoice. Clark had all of his trouble
the University of Michigan eventually got kickedout, and there's some really ugly stories.
(13:30):
But everything I've heard is that inhis time in Seattle, he became
a spokesperson for dealing with domestic abusein these kinds of situations, but still
why he was a better choice forthem than d Ford unless they brought him
into tutor you know, Tyreek Hill, which would be kind of goofy,
you know. I just the Chiefsare not a good looking organizam right.
(13:52):
And one thing I would add tothat, but it's not, it's not
It's not gonna paint them in anybetter light, probably even a worse one.
Is I think that Frank park isa better football player than D FOURD.
But again that shows where the Chiefshad his ad on this one.
And it's not about finding the rightguys, It's about finding the best football
players. I'm not naive. Ithink that a lot of other teams around
the league share that mindset, butnone one is. No one's done it
(14:16):
as publicly as the Chiefs have laidup. You have to wonder if the
d Ford decision wasn't at least inpart to try and not have to relive
the memory of that offside penalty.Welcome back, everybody. We want to
thank all of our great sponsors whomake our podcasts possible for us every week.
(14:39):
Also, our executive producer, DantDan is the best in the business
and how he gets all this stuffsounding as good as he does. He
also does a lot of our videoand our TV work. He's a genius
when it comes to the video stuffas well. And our thanks to the
guys that Humfrey's McGee, the greatChicago based band who give us all of
their music and allow us to useit for our intros and outros and all
(15:01):
of our bumps. Thank you somuch for the guys at Dumfries. You
know, Arthur, it's not somuch new, but it's still fascinating.
It's only six days old. Allthe wheeling and dealing that the Houston Texans
were doing as they moved to thefinal cut, it was just last Saturday.
It's hard not to discuss it alittle bit. And this is a
(15:22):
true glass half full or glass halfempty thing. I think it's very dangerous
to be running an NFL team withouta general manager. We've never really gotten
any explanation as to what happened withBrian Gaine or why he was one and
done after a single season. Whatwe do know is that Bill O'Brien went
for it this year. Six daysago he the Jadeveon Clowney move. He
(15:46):
wasn't going to be a Texan again. I'm not sure how much better he
could have done. I thought Seattlewas brilliant in what they did because they
give up a third round pick,bring him in on the franchise tag,
and if they can't sign him atthe end of the year, they were
going to get a compensatory three threeyear pick back for you know, third
round pick for whatever he signs for. UM So, Seattle looks brilliant in
(16:06):
the thing. I don't fault theTexans so much for that one. They
got backed into a situation they couldn'tdeal with. And it will be interesting
to see what clown he does withthe Seahawks, because as much as he's
been in the Pro Bowl the lastthree years, he's never quite met the
expectations that we had for him comingout of South Carolina. The deal that
I will, I mean, letme stop be just to say, why
wasn't Clowney going to be a Texanagain this season? He wasn't gonna leave
seventeen million bucks on the table.The Texans have had some salary cap issues
(16:30):
over the last couple of years,and I think that minimally it left them
with no flexibility. UM you know, they've they're going to have some other
guys to look at. They've gonebeyond this season. I would agree with
you, but they would have hadhim this year. They weren't rescinding the
tag. No, But what I'msaying that he wouldn't sign the tag,
you know, and so what werethey gonna do? Let him sit there
for eight nine weeks and get nothing. Well, it's hard for me to
imagine he was going to leave themmoney until but I understand what you met
(16:52):
now. It's just just for clarity. Every indication was that he was We
saw what levy On Bell and othershave done. Yeah, you know,
leavy On Bell said out whole season. I don't think that that Clowney was
going to do that. But hewasn't going to play the first four or
five six weeks. He was goingto be a distraction and a disruption.
So I understand why they moved onfrom him. Yeah, I'll go a
step further. This goes back acouple of years, but I think I've
told this story before. I talkedto one of his teammates their rookie year
(17:17):
who told me that he has neverseen a less motivated, less focused,
less understanding player in his life thanClowney was. When he came into to
Houston as a rookie, he wasentitled. He thought he was going to
show up and play him be great. And it took him really three years
before he arrived in the NFL,basically is what it amounts to. Now
he has arrived the last couple hehas been Although he's never been a finisher,
(17:38):
he's never been a great sack guy. He does play the run really
well for a pass rusher. Sowe'll see, you know, I think
he's in the right place. Ifanybody can get it out of him,
it's going to be Pete Carroll.So that'll be interesting to see. But
the bigger part of the story tome is you give up two ones and
I think a two also, Yeah, I mean you back to which although
(18:06):
Stills is not just as Sweeteners theword I was looking for. He's a
player, yeah, but he wasnever the player in Miami. He was
in New Orleans. And he's anice fit along with DeAndre Hopkins and Kiki
if he can keep Kiki on thefield. But we will Fuller of course
too. I feel like he's abetter insurance. Yea fuller but but the
price that they paid, that's whatyou pay for a franchise quarterback. There
(18:26):
are there are left tackles in theleague like Jason Peter, who I want
to say was a free agent,and Charles Leno, who may not be
the best but was a seventh roundpick. And you can find David Baktiari
was a mid round pick. Youcan find these guys all over. To
pay that price is really absurd.Um. Now, Tunsil is one of
the better young left tackles in theleague, and he does feel a huge
(18:48):
need and I do like both ofthe kids they drafted, Titus Howard and
Max Sharping Mark Shop. You justcouldn't trust him at left tackle as rookies.
Um, And so this may fixthe whole offensive line issue. And
that's why I say, I thinkwhat he's doing is going for it this
year and do they have enough?I don't think they do. But that
appears to be what that was allabout. The ironic part of this,
(19:10):
And I'm not the first come upwith it. I've seen it on Twitter,
I Pausily. I don't know whohad it first, but to me,
maybe the ultimate irony in this dealis the GM lest Texans who are
being run by Bill O'Brien, Well, he can't really be on the hot
seat because he just mortgaged the team'sfuture. It made the whole package less
appealing for the foreseeable future with whathe has done to bring in Tunzil.
(19:30):
So if the Texans get tired ofBill O'Brien, well, they may now
suddenly have the harder time sort ofluring in the best potential replacement in the
short term, just because of whatthis thing looks like now with no first
rounders for the next couple years.Remember they don't have a first round or
two years ago either for the DeshaunWatson deal. So yeah, it's fascinating.
(19:52):
They clearly are and win now modeand we'll see what happens there.
But I can't wait to see theSeahawks Jenevion Clowney in ziggy ons on opposite
edges. That has to be asimposing just from a physical standpoint a pair
of bookends maybe as there is inthe league. Now. Yeah, that's
assuming the ziggy is healthy for morethan four or five to six games.
You know. The other thing that, in all fairness that we do have
(20:14):
to at least mention because we talkedabout the Raiders in Mark Davis. You
know, Bob McNair passed away lastyear. His son Chris is basically not
running the foot. But I don'tknow anything about Chris McNair. I don't
know. I believe right, CalMcNair, I don't know. We have
a double check forgive my ignorance,But whichever it is, I don't know
anything about Obviously, I don't knowthink about him. I don't know his
first name. But at the endof the day, what I'm getting at
here is I don't know what kindof guidance O'Brian is getting. I don't
(20:37):
know what kind of trusts you knowMcNair has in him. I don't know
how hot the seat is. Ifeel pretty safe in saying if he's not
a playoff team this year, O'Brien'sgoing to be out. Some people wondering
if you'd be back two years agoafter the four and twelve season. But
you know, again, at somelevel, this always starts at the top,
and so I think you got tolook at that piece of this too.
I don't know much about kill McNaireither, but I know no one
(21:00):
knows the Texans better than John McClain, and he has very positive things to
say about the succession plan that theyhave gotten under way in the passing Bob
mcnaver the past year. So that'sout of it, and then the final
side of the deal or the flurryof deals had before we break, the
Miami Dolphins have to be the mostobvious tanking team that we have seen yet
(21:22):
in the NFL. Couldn't argue,Yeah, although this deal just looks smart
because they were going to have thenumber one overall pick next year regardless.
What about naming Ryan Fitzpatrick the Weekone starter that I don't know that you
can say that's tanking. I thinkwhat they're saying is he may be in
better position to compete than Josh Rosen. It just makes no sense because you've
(21:45):
got a year to find out whetheror not you already have your franchise quarterback.
I'm not a Josh Rosen guy,but there are a lot of people
who are. They stole him withwhat they paid for him based on where
he was ranked just a year agocoming out of school, and you've got
a season to find out if youneed to draft a franchise quarterback. Maybe
you do already have the guy,in which case then they're really brilliant with
(22:06):
two picks in each of the firstthree rounds on the next two drafts,
because you can build around that guy. But to be playing Ryan Fitzpatrick,
that to me is the one pieceof this that that may not be makes
no sense unless Josh Rosen is thatbad a guy. Ryan Fitzpatrick is the
sacrificial lamb because they just traded LarrymieTunzil and have lost They've got rid of
Marquis Pouncy, and they've got youknow, they've lost all these other pieces.
(22:27):
Jowan James leaves in free agency.Maybe they literally aren't confident that they
can keep you know that they havethat Ryan Fitzpatrick's well being. Is it
a good spot with the offensive line, with the weapons around him? You
know what's interesting? Or Harvard ManRyan Fitzpatrick. The other thing about this
situation is that it's pretty well documentedthe Bill Belichick disciples have not done great
(22:51):
as head coaches, but some BillBelichick disciples have done a pretty nice job
in the front office. You gottalove what what you know Thomas Demitra has
done down in Atlanta. Um.You know, I think John Robinson has
done some really interesting things with theTitans. I think Mike Vrabel was a
good hire. Don't know yet whatto make of Quinn and Patricia in Detroit.
But now you've got Brian Flores.Chris Greer was in the organization before
(23:17):
Flores was hired, you know,he was groomed for this job. And
he's a young GM that we reallydon't know anything about. And you know,
it's nice to get all these draftpicks, but what you do with
him is a lot more important.And and and we'll see, you know
how that works out. I mean, right now, Howie Roseman, I
think is considered by many to beone of the sharpest wheeler dealers in the
(23:40):
NFL, and he came up theother way. You know, he was
groomed for years to run the Philadelphiafranchise and is doing a pretty good job
of it right now. He hadto win a power struggle with Joe Banner,
which he eventually won in chip Kelly. I look at at Chris Greer
in Miami. I just don't knowmuch about him, you know, And
so um how he and Flores areworking together. What they're gonna do with
all this capital? It remains tobe seen. But I gotta tell you
(24:03):
this, If Rosen is not thestarting quarterback there by a week three or
week four, what the hell didyou make the trade for? It just
doesn't make any sense. Well,we know that career was not only the
second, but probably the third fiddlein recent years behind you know, Adam
Gayson, Mike tannenbomps, and nowhe gets his opportunity. But look no
farther than Cleveland. Look no furtherthan Cleveland for another example of how you
(24:23):
can get all the draft picks,but you might need someone different to spend
them. Obviously with Sashi Brown whobrought in that unprecedented hall, but then
it was the organization that made aswitch to John Dorsey to bring in the
talent and spend those picks. Andit's looking pretty good so far, but
that's obviously to be determined. Thejury remains out on that one. Now
we're going to finish on that subjectand talk about it for a minute too,
(24:45):
Because it looks great on paper.You know we're gonna find out someday
ow it looks on the football field. And I'm not arguing. I've known
John Dorsey since he was a youngpersonnel guy in Green Bay. I forget
if who's late eighties or early ninetiesBig Joel Bucks Bomb disciple by the way,
or at least not disciple but follower. And I think John is one
of the best evaluators in the business. But he also takes as many chances
(25:08):
on bad actors and questionable fits asany GM in the league. And you
know, I don't think we've everreally determined why his surprising departure from Kansas
City took place. But but Ilook at what he is put in that
Cleveland locker room, and I lookat what has the potential to be one
of the worst offensive lines in footballin front of the franchise quarterback, and
(25:32):
I look at OBJ already. Well, my hip isn't going to be ready
until I go full speed on it. I mean, what the hell is
that all about? You know?So I still have a lot of questions
about culture is a big issue inthe NFL these days, and Cleveland,
in addition to me still having someweak spots, has some potential culture issues
that could you know, make allthe talent in the world irrelevant. Well,
(25:56):
who brought in Tyreek Kill to KansasCity? I mean, we can
start where, you know, finishwhere we started. You're still kind of
seeing the you know, kind ofthe ramifications of some of those volatile decisions
in case kind of coming you know, to head here. And now we'll
see what happens to Cleveland. I'mI'm glad you mentioned the football volatility too,
because you know, I don't know. We'll see how all the personalities
(26:18):
match, but it's that offensive lineis the one real question I have about
the actual personnel and what's going tohappen in between the white lines. All
right, and I guess with thatwe will finish where we started. Because
not only did John bring Tyree killingthe Kansas City, but as we talked
at length at the top of thepodcast, they are at this point surviving
him. They have not yet proventhat this is going to be the answer.
(26:41):
And now you've got the same situationin Cleveland, not just with OBJ,
but but you know, you've gotKareem Hunt there. Now. They
brought in Sylvester Richardson, who's beenan interesting character, you know, depending
on where he's gone. Even BakerMayfield, who I was adamant should have
been the number one overall pick inthe draft, and certainly look like it
is. Rookie here is going tohave to figure out where his play on
(27:02):
the field is to take over forhis mouth and maybe even though it's okay
if you back it up, sometimesyou just don't need to say everything you
say. And so these are allthe questions that we'll watch with the Cleveland
Browns as the season goes on.We've got to say goodbye for now,
but again we thank you all somuch for joining us on our Pro Football
Weekly NFL podcast. If you're aBearrass fan or you just like listening to
football talk, make sure you downloadour Pro Football Weekly Chicago podcast as well.
(27:26):
Once again, all our great sponsorsare outstanding executive producer Dan Mott,
the guys that Humps McGee for jointingus use all the music. We thank
you all. Most of all,all though, thank you all so much
for listening. We'll be back againnext week with some thoughts on Week one
in the NFL. Here at ProFootball Week
Hi, everybody. Welcome to thisweek's edition of our Pro Football Weekly NFL
podcast. I am Hub Artist,the executive editor and general manager here at
PFW. Our managing editor is ArthurArkish, and it has been a busy
week in the NFL as we getready for Week one and Arthur, normally
I would lead with all the wheelingand dealing of the Texans and the Dolphins
(00:33):
and the Seahawks, But how dowe not start with that moron in Oakland.
The Antonio brown saga continues as werecord. There are reports that he
has made an impassioned apology in thelocker room to his teammates for his completely
unacceptable behavior of the last couple ofweeks. Anybody who wants to believe that's
(00:53):
the answer, and this is overhis kidding themselves. Mike Mayock and John
Gruden have got to stop and say, Okay, well that was the right
thing to do. That's nice.But the real concern isn't whether or not
he can apologize. It's all ofthis absurd behavior from the time he became
an Oakland Raider. Everything I hadheard prior to our starting the podcast is
they were still looking for ways toget rid of them not to resurrect them.
(01:14):
Hope. I know the technical definitionof insanity isn't doing the same thing
over and over again, although youalways hear people utter that cliche. That
being said, if the Raiders welcomeAntonio Brown back, give him another chance
here, it will be truly insane. By all accounts. They have an
opportunity to get off the hook hereof this contract and recoup the thirty million
(01:37):
in guarantees. Because Brown time andagain has broken the terms of that contract
by failing to show up for campand practices and walkthroughs and so on and
so forth. The Raiders haven't outhere, and if they don't take a
shame on them, I mean weset at the time kind of shame on
them for this deal and giving himall the new money. I want to
be careful here though, because morethan anything, this story is just sad
(02:00):
to me. Antonio Brown, Ibelieve is still going to be a Hall
of Famer. I mean, heis one of the most brilliant wide receivers
I've ever had the pleasure to watch, and just to watch his personal you
know, just his downward spiral ofthe past six months or what nine months
or whatever, it's been. Atthis point, it's just sad and you
(02:21):
just have to wonder what's going onwith him and his mental health and and
kind of worry a little bit abouthis well being in addition to all the
unfortunately selfish, you know, decisionsthat he's made that has put the Raiders
in a bind. Here. Well, and I'm going to agree with you
and then beg to differ at thesame time, I agree with you that
probably really is where our focus shouldbe because I don't see anything that suggests
(02:43):
that this is an evil young manor a bad actor who's doing harm to
anyone but himself. And because he'sharming himself his teammates, but but but
not in a you know, longterm or damaging way, and that is
where our focus should be. Butat the same time, you know,
I just don't see how an apologyto his teammates does anything to deal with
(03:07):
the danger of this happening over andover again. And you know, Mike
Mayock, I'm not gonna pretend we'regood friends, but we're friendly. We've
done some NFL broadcast together. Iknow Mike a little bit, and I
know he is extremely conscious of thefact that they've now got basically a hand
grenade in the locker room, andthe grenade has the ability to pull its
own pen, and you just can'tlive with that. At the same time,
(03:28):
I know that John Gruden is justfocused on the weapon and trying to
be better immediately. And I'm notsuggesting that Mayok and Gruden aren't on the
same page with this, but Iknow that Gruden is a lot more likely
to want to give him a fifteenthchance or whatever this would be, whereas
Mayak realizes at this point that thisalmost certainly can't end well. And the
(03:50):
one other thing I have to addto it, because I agree with you,
another thing I don't agree on isI think he deserves to be in
the Hall of Fame based on hisplay. But if he doesn't get back
on the field and become a decentcitizen for a little while, again,
he's not going to get into Hallof Fame. You can't end your career
like this if in fact, thatwere to be the outcome of this,
and then expect to land in Cantonsomeday, that's not going to happen.
(04:13):
Yeah, but we're way ahead ofourselves because the reality is, if the
Raiders are smart enough to get outfrom under this contract. There's at least
one more team that's going to takeanother chance. You know, Drew Rosenhass
is going to go out and sellhim and somebody's gonna say, let's try
it. Everybody thinks it's the Patriots. I'm not so sure of that,
you know, because Belichick would nevertolerate this kind of crap. But but
we'll see if and how that playsout. The point I wanted to get
(04:33):
back to is what really troubles methat we're not talking about. You mentioned
mental health. The other issue hereis could this eventually turn out to be
chronic traumatic encephalopathy? Is not yetrecognized by the American Medical Association because there
are still so many questions about it. We don't know nearly as much as
(04:54):
we need to know. But thiscame on really suddenly. Up until a
year and a half ago, oractually a year ago, he was one
of the leaders in the Steelers lockerroom, and you really have to wonder
if there isn't something physically or mentallythat is going on with this young man.
And I think that should be everybody'sconcerned and the best thing the Raiders
(05:15):
could do for him even if they'regoing to keep them, is still to
suspend him. Put them on whateverlist you can get them on, whether
it's physically unable to perform or nonfootball injury or whatever, and get this
guy some help, because an emotionallocker room apology, assuming that's what happened,
really does nothing to solve any ofthis. Yeah, it's great points.
There important points I'm not you know, I acknowledge the possibility. I'm
(05:39):
not comfortable speculating on that. WhatI am comfortable speculating on the hub is
getting back quickly and then we'll getaway from the Raiders. Is enough of
other things to discuss. But I'mcomfortable speculating on this Gruden in Mayock marriage
and how it was imperfect from thebeginning, and how they appear to have
very different visions for roster construction andculture building, because John Gruden was the
(06:00):
guy who signed off on Antonio Brown, Richie Incognito, Vontes Berfect as the
veteran police officers of that locker room, and then Mike Mayock is extolling the
virtues of Cleveland Farrell and Jonathan Abramas these rookies who and I think he's
right on that these are guys whoare meant to be kind of your core
(06:21):
fabric locker room guys. But howmany other teams do you see that where
it's the rookies who you know,have more credibility in terms of sort of
building that leadership structure highly unusual intome is strong evidence that these two guys
are going down different directions here.Yeah, Mike is one of the best
(06:41):
draft guys I know, and nowthat he's got a GM title, certainly
better suited to make this decision thanme. But Cleveland Farrell never should have
been the fourth pick in the draft. I don't care. You know what
his character is like, He's notthat kind of talent. We'll see how
that plays out. Obviously, Mikedisagrees, and I think he's one of
the better evaluators out with. Youtalked to multiple enough people who are stun
called the biggest surprise of roundwall.Yeah, so we'll find out about that.
(07:02):
But what is more interesting is thepoint that you make, and the
whole situation is so unique in thatMike Mack is one of the only general
managers in the NFL who doesn't havefinal say over his fifty three and even
more than that, he's got ahead coach who's bringing players in. And
so while Mike is an excellent evaluatorand Mayak has committed to finding a way
(07:25):
to form a unique marriage with JohnGruden, you got to go a step
higher. Mark Davis is the leastqualified owner in the NFL. It's just
that simple, you know. Imean, you know, some of these
guys, even though they know nothingabout football, you can say, well,
they're they're you know, extremely wealthybusiness people. They're very bright in
many respects. I'm not saying Davisisn't a bright guy, but but he
(07:47):
has nothing on his resume and thefact that he has arranged this, you
talk about marriage of convenience, theleast convenient marriage I've ever seen between Gruden
and Mayack. It's just it's toughto figure out how this is gonna work.
You know, should Mike Mayock's titlereally be player personnel director because that's
really all he is. And youknow, in this case, you've got
(08:11):
somebody who needs to make a toughcall, and Gruden doesn't seem to want
to make it. From everything we'rehearing, what's ironic, hub is that
they've brought in a lot of reallytalented personnel men in that new look structure
they have there in Oakland. Butit's a point that we're going to keep
hammering on because I feel like itmight get missed by some They're all getting
trump by John Gordon ten years,one hundred million dollars. He has finals
(08:33):
say, I just don't want anyoneto mistake this and how this thing was
puttings talked about it. I mean, this is not behind the scenes,
inside information. This is the waythat organization is set up to work.
There isn't another one like it inthe NFL, and there are good reasons
to doubt that they're going to besuccessful. Yeah, we'll see. If
nothing else, the Oakland Raiders aregoing to be that team you kind of
(08:54):
can't keep your eyes off of thisyear. It's probably going to be for
you know, more neck of reasonsthan positive. But we'll see. They
have added a lot of talent.It's just such a combustible mix. There's
a lot to get to. Ithink we should preview some of the better
games this week, But the bignews is we're taping here Friday. Outside
of all the circus antics in Oaklandis in the same division if you just
(09:16):
had a little bit east to KansasCity, where Tyreek Hill is now a
very rich man, three year,fifty four million dollar extension reportedly, And
we've talked about Hill's backstory in sortof the troubling circumstances that led to this
this big deal for him with theChiefs. Well, go ahead, tell
everybody what my first reaction was whenyou gave me this news. I think
(09:37):
you said it makes you sick,and it's hard not to agree with you.
It's just it's it's a tough lookbecause we all heard the audio,
and we all have heard Tyreek himselfmentioned what happened in college and and ky
that was in college. And webelieve in second chances, but there is
strong evidence to suggest that Tyreek hasclearly not made the most of his second
(10:01):
third, whatever chances they are.So the football side of it, hub
the roster construction side of it.Three years and fifty four million, that's
the part at least makes some sense. From the chief side. It's a
shorter term deal. If he'll screwsthis up, he's not going to be
around. But still, the aesthetics, I mean, it's just it's a
hard thing to reconcile. It ismind boggling to me that Tyreek Hill is
(10:26):
not going through a significant suspension bythe NFL. And I've heard all the
explanations for it, but nobody isdisputing his pattern of domestic abuse. Whether
it's mental abuse, physical abuse,it sounds like it's both. Some of
it happened, we know that,and it happened with his second chance.
And so I don't want the guypunished for life, but rewarding him with
(10:52):
thirty five million dollars and locking himup to the team, what do you
do now with his next incident ofdomestic And I hope it doesn't happen.
But again, these are just wishesnow, because the evidence that we have,
what we've seen, is that thisguy has a problem, right and
and and and for him to getthis contract, you know, you pointed
out and you're you're absolutely right.They tried to hedge their bet. He
(11:16):
basically got similar money, but halfthe security that Michael Thomas got and that
Julio Jones is gonna get. It'sa little bit less comparable. It's a
little bit less It's it's a threeyear deal, you know, it's half
the guaranteed money. So you've gotBut but again I wouldn't do it at
all, you know, I mean, make the guy at least go through
another season and prove that he canstay clean, you know. And I
(11:41):
get his football value on the footballfield, he is worth much more,
quite frankly, than they paid forhim. But but this is not a
guy who I believe, based onhis his behavior, is entitled to be
rewarded in this way. That makestwo of us say I don't. I
don't really even know how much moreI can added that the one thing I
(12:01):
will say, we have not seenthe contract for Tyreek Hill yet and will
sort of withhold some judgment just tosee what level of sort of you know,
flexibility or outs there are involved forthe team. It's not going to
change the factor or the aesthetics ofthis. It's a bad look for the
Chiefs, the league, for everyone. But I am curious to see how
(12:22):
much of these guarantees, how muchit's signing, how much can be recouped
if Hill does have another legal run, and we'll try and get to the
bottom of that. It's not evenso much about the money to me,
as the Chiefs who dodged a bulletwith this had every opportunity to say,
you know what, we want tosupport this young man. We think he
can be a solid contributor to society, but minimally he's obviously on some probation
(12:46):
at this point. We're getting himhelp. We're watching it very closely.
None of that. They went outand gave him thirty five million bucks.
Yeah, they showed where their truefocus was on, and that was the
football side of it, in havingthe opportunity to get a below market deal
done with the top five receiver atthis point in the NFL early. So
yeah, that's that part of itstroubling. And I mean, this is
(13:07):
the same team that traded d Ford, who at minimum is the equivalent of
Frank Clark, and brought in FrankClark and gave him d Ford's money.
Now, in fairness to Clark,the people in Seattle say that he has
made the most out of his secondchoice. Clark had all of his trouble
the University of Michigan eventually got kickedout, and there's some really ugly stories.
(13:30):
But everything I've heard is that inhis time in Seattle, he became
a spokesperson for dealing with domestic abusein these kinds of situations, but still
why he was a better choice forthem than d Ford unless they brought him
into tutor you know, Tyreek Hill, which would be kind of goofy,
you know. I just the Chiefsare not a good looking organizam right.
(13:52):
And one thing I would add tothat, but it's not, it's not
It's not gonna paint them in anybetter light, probably even a worse one.
Is I think that Frank park isa better football player than D FOURD.
But again that shows where the Chiefshad his ad on this one.
And it's not about finding the rightguys, It's about finding the best football
players. I'm not naive. Ithink that a lot of other teams around
the league share that mindset, butnone one is. No one's done it
(14:16):
as publicly as the Chiefs have laidup. You have to wonder if the
d Ford decision wasn't at least inpart to try and not have to relive
the memory of that offside penalty.Welcome back, everybody. We want to
thank all of our great sponsors whomake our podcasts possible for us every week.
(14:39):
Also, our executive producer, DantDan is the best in the business
and how he gets all this stuffsounding as good as he does. He
also does a lot of our videoand our TV work. He's a genius
when it comes to the video stuffas well. And our thanks to the
guys that Humfrey's McGee, the greatChicago based band who give us all of
their music and allow us to useit for our intros and outros and all
(15:01):
of our bumps. Thank you somuch for the guys at Dumfries. You
know, Arthur, it's not somuch new, but it's still fascinating.
It's only six days old. Allthe wheeling and dealing that the Houston Texans
were doing as they moved to thefinal cut, it was just last Saturday.
It's hard not to discuss it alittle bit. And this is a
(15:22):
true glass half full or glass halfempty thing. I think it's very dangerous
to be running an NFL team withouta general manager. We've never really gotten
any explanation as to what happened withBrian Gaine or why he was one and
done after a single season. Whatwe do know is that Bill O'Brien went
for it this year. Six daysago he the Jadeveon Clowney move. He
(15:46):
wasn't going to be a Texan again. I'm not sure how much better he
could have done. I thought Seattlewas brilliant in what they did because they
give up a third round pick,bring him in on the franchise tag,
and if they can't sign him atthe end of the year, they were
going to get a compensatory three threeyear pick back for you know, third
round pick for whatever he signs for. UM So, Seattle looks brilliant in
(16:06):
the thing. I don't fault theTexans so much for that one. They
got backed into a situation they couldn'tdeal with. And it will be interesting
to see what clown he does withthe Seahawks, because as much as he's
been in the Pro Bowl the lastthree years, he's never quite met the
expectations that we had for him comingout of South Carolina. The deal that
I will, I mean, letme stop be just to say, why
wasn't Clowney going to be a Texanagain this season? He wasn't gonna leave
seventeen million bucks on the table.The Texans have had some salary cap issues
(16:30):
over the last couple of years,and I think that minimally it left them
with no flexibility. UM you know, they've they're going to have some other
guys to look at. They've gonebeyond this season. I would agree with
you, but they would have hadhim this year. They weren't rescinding the
tag. No, But what I'msaying that he wouldn't sign the tag,
you know, and so what werethey gonna do? Let him sit there
for eight nine weeks and get nothing. Well, it's hard for me to
imagine he was going to leave themmoney until but I understand what you met
(16:52):
now. It's just just for clarity. Every indication was that he was We
saw what levy On Bell and othershave done. Yeah, you know,
leavy On Bell said out whole season. I don't think that that Clowney was
going to do that. But hewasn't going to play the first four or
five six weeks. He was goingto be a distraction and a disruption.
So I understand why they moved onfrom him. Yeah, I'll go a
step further. This goes back acouple of years, but I think I've
told this story before. I talkedto one of his teammates their rookie year
(17:17):
who told me that he has neverseen a less motivated, less focused,
less understanding player in his life thanClowney was. When he came into to
Houston as a rookie, he wasentitled. He thought he was going to
show up and play him be great. And it took him really three years
before he arrived in the NFL,basically is what it amounts to. Now
he has arrived the last couple hehas been Although he's never been a finisher,
(17:38):
he's never been a great sack guy. He does play the run really
well for a pass rusher. Sowe'll see, you know, I think
he's in the right place. Ifanybody can get it out of him,
it's going to be Pete Carroll.So that'll be interesting to see. But
the bigger part of the story tome is you give up two ones and
I think a two also, Yeah, I mean you back to which although
(18:06):
Stills is not just as Sweeteners theword I was looking for. He's a
player, yeah, but he wasnever the player in Miami. He was
in New Orleans. And he's anice fit along with DeAndre Hopkins and Kiki
if he can keep Kiki on thefield. But we will Fuller of course
too. I feel like he's abetter insurance. Yea fuller but but the
price that they paid, that's whatyou pay for a franchise quarterback. There
(18:26):
are there are left tackles in theleague like Jason Peter, who I want
to say was a free agent,and Charles Leno, who may not be
the best but was a seventh roundpick. And you can find David Baktiari
was a mid round pick. Youcan find these guys all over. To
pay that price is really absurd.Um. Now, Tunsil is one of
the better young left tackles in theleague, and he does feel a huge
(18:48):
need and I do like both ofthe kids they drafted, Titus Howard and
Max Sharping Mark Shop. You justcouldn't trust him at left tackle as rookies.
Um, And so this may fixthe whole offensive line issue. And
that's why I say, I thinkwhat he's doing is going for it this
year and do they have enough?I don't think they do. But that
appears to be what that was allabout. The ironic part of this,
(19:10):
And I'm not the first come upwith it. I've seen it on Twitter,
I Pausily. I don't know whohad it first, but to me,
maybe the ultimate irony in this dealis the GM lest Texans who are
being run by Bill O'Brien, Well, he can't really be on the hot
seat because he just mortgaged the team'sfuture. It made the whole package less
appealing for the foreseeable future with whathe has done to bring in Tunzil.
(19:30):
So if the Texans get tired ofBill O'Brien, well, they may now
suddenly have the harder time sort ofluring in the best potential replacement in the
short term, just because of whatthis thing looks like now with no first
rounders for the next couple years.Remember they don't have a first round or
two years ago either for the DeshaunWatson deal. So yeah, it's fascinating.
(19:52):
They clearly are and win now modeand we'll see what happens there.
But I can't wait to see theSeahawks Jenevion Clowney in ziggy ons on opposite
edges. That has to be asimposing just from a physical standpoint a pair
of bookends maybe as there is inthe league. Now. Yeah, that's
assuming the ziggy is healthy for morethan four or five to six games.
You know. The other thing that, in all fairness that we do have
(20:14):
to at least mention because we talkedabout the Raiders in Mark Davis. You
know, Bob McNair passed away lastyear. His son Chris is basically not
running the foot. But I don'tknow anything about Chris McNair. I don't
know. I believe right, CalMcNair, I don't know. We have
a double check forgive my ignorance,But whichever it is, I don't know
anything about Obviously, I don't knowthink about him. I don't know his
first name. But at the endof the day, what I'm getting at
here is I don't know what kindof guidance O'Brian is getting. I don't
(20:37):
know what kind of trusts you knowMcNair has in him. I don't know
how hot the seat is. Ifeel pretty safe in saying if he's not
a playoff team this year, O'Brien'sgoing to be out. Some people wondering
if you'd be back two years agoafter the four and twelve season. But
you know, again, at somelevel, this always starts at the top,
and so I think you got tolook at that piece of this too.
I don't know much about kill McNaireither, but I know no one
(21:00):
knows the Texans better than John McClain, and he has very positive things to
say about the succession plan that theyhave gotten under way in the passing Bob
mcnaver the past year. So that'sout of it, and then the final
side of the deal or the flurryof deals had before we break, the
Miami Dolphins have to be the mostobvious tanking team that we have seen yet
(21:22):
in the NFL. Couldn't argue,Yeah, although this deal just looks smart
because they were going to have thenumber one overall pick next year regardless.
What about naming Ryan Fitzpatrick the Weekone starter that I don't know that you
can say that's tanking. I thinkwhat they're saying is he may be in
better position to compete than Josh Rosen. It just makes no sense because you've
(21:45):
got a year to find out whetheror not you already have your franchise quarterback.
I'm not a Josh Rosen guy,but there are a lot of people
who are. They stole him withwhat they paid for him based on where
he was ranked just a year agocoming out of school, and you've got
a season to find out if youneed to draft a franchise quarterback. Maybe
you do already have the guy,in which case then they're really brilliant with
(22:06):
two picks in each of the firstthree rounds on the next two drafts,
because you can build around that guy. But to be playing Ryan Fitzpatrick,
that to me is the one pieceof this that that may not be makes
no sense unless Josh Rosen is thatbad a guy. Ryan Fitzpatrick is the
sacrificial lamb because they just traded LarrymieTunzil and have lost They've got rid of
Marquis Pouncy, and they've got youknow, they've lost all these other pieces.
(22:27):
Jowan James leaves in free agency.Maybe they literally aren't confident that they
can keep you know that they havethat Ryan Fitzpatrick's well being. Is it
a good spot with the offensive line, with the weapons around him? You
know what's interesting? Or Harvard ManRyan Fitzpatrick. The other thing about this
situation is that it's pretty well documentedthe Bill Belichick disciples have not done great
(22:51):
as head coaches, but some BillBelichick disciples have done a pretty nice job
in the front office. You gottalove what what you know Thomas Demitra has
done down in Atlanta. Um.You know, I think John Robinson has
done some really interesting things with theTitans. I think Mike Vrabel was a
good hire. Don't know yet whatto make of Quinn and Patricia in Detroit.
But now you've got Brian Flores.Chris Greer was in the organization before
(23:17):
Flores was hired, you know,he was groomed for this job. And
he's a young GM that we reallydon't know anything about. And you know,
it's nice to get all these draftpicks, but what you do with
him is a lot more important.And and and we'll see, you know
how that works out. I mean, right now, Howie Roseman, I
think is considered by many to beone of the sharpest wheeler dealers in the
(23:40):
NFL, and he came up theother way. You know, he was
groomed for years to run the Philadelphiafranchise and is doing a pretty good job
of it right now. He hadto win a power struggle with Joe Banner,
which he eventually won in chip Kelly. I look at at Chris Greer
in Miami. I just don't knowmuch about him, you know, And
so um how he and Flores areworking together. What they're gonna do with
all this capital? It remains tobe seen. But I gotta tell you
(24:03):
this, If Rosen is not thestarting quarterback there by a week three or
week four, what the hell didyou make the trade for? It just
doesn't make any sense. Well,we know that career was not only the
second, but probably the third fiddlein recent years behind you know, Adam
Gayson, Mike tannenbomps, and nowhe gets his opportunity. But look no
farther than Cleveland. Look no furtherthan Cleveland for another example of how you
(24:23):
can get all the draft picks,but you might need someone different to spend
them. Obviously with Sashi Brown whobrought in that unprecedented hall, but then
it was the organization that made aswitch to John Dorsey to bring in the
talent and spend those picks. Andit's looking pretty good so far, but
that's obviously to be determined. Thejury remains out on that one. Now
we're going to finish on that subjectand talk about it for a minute too,
(24:45):
Because it looks great on paper.You know we're gonna find out someday
ow it looks on the football field. And I'm not arguing. I've known
John Dorsey since he was a youngpersonnel guy in Green Bay. I forget
if who's late eighties or early ninetiesBig Joel Bucks Bomb disciple by the way,
or at least not disciple but follower. And I think John is one
of the best evaluators in the business. But he also takes as many chances
(25:08):
on bad actors and questionable fits asany GM in the league. And you
know, I don't think we've everreally determined why his surprising departure from Kansas
City took place. But but Ilook at what he is put in that
Cleveland locker room, and I lookat what has the potential to be one
of the worst offensive lines in footballin front of the franchise quarterback, and
(25:32):
I look at OBJ already. Well, my hip isn't going to be ready
until I go full speed on it. I mean, what the hell is
that all about? You know?So I still have a lot of questions
about culture is a big issue inthe NFL these days, and Cleveland,
in addition to me still having someweak spots, has some potential culture issues
that could you know, make allthe talent in the world irrelevant. Well,
(25:56):
who brought in Tyreek Kill to KansasCity? I mean, we can
start where, you know, finishwhere we started. You're still kind of
seeing the you know, kind ofthe ramifications of some of those volatile decisions
in case kind of coming you know, to head here. And now we'll
see what happens to Cleveland. I'mI'm glad you mentioned the football volatility too,
because you know, I don't know. We'll see how all the personalities
(26:18):
match, but it's that offensive lineis the one real question I have about
the actual personnel and what's going tohappen in between the white lines. All
right, and I guess with thatwe will finish where we started. Because
not only did John bring Tyree killingthe Kansas City, but as we talked
at length at the top of thepodcast, they are at this point surviving
him. They have not yet proventhat this is going to be the answer.
(26:41):
And now you've got the same situationin Cleveland, not just with OBJ,
but but you know, you've gotKareem Hunt there. Now. They
brought in Sylvester Richardson, who's beenan interesting character, you know, depending
on where he's gone. Even BakerMayfield, who I was adamant should have
been the number one overall pick inthe draft, and certainly look like it
is. Rookie here is going tohave to figure out where his play on
(27:02):
the field is to take over forhis mouth and maybe even though it's okay
if you back it up, sometimesyou just don't need to say everything you
say. And so these are allthe questions that we'll watch with the Cleveland
Browns as the season goes on.We've got to say goodbye for now,
but again we thank you all somuch for joining us on our Pro Football
Weekly NFL podcast. If you're aBearrass fan or you just like listening to
football talk, make sure you downloadour Pro Football Weekly Chicago podcast as well.
(27:26):
Once again, all our great sponsorsare outstanding executive producer Dan Mott,
the guys that Humps McGee for jointingus use all the music. We thank
you all. Most of all,all though, thank you all so much
for listening. We'll be back againnext week with some thoughts on Week one
in the NFL. Here at ProFootball Week
Popular Podcasts
Stuff You Should Know
If you've ever wanted to know about champagne, satanism, the Stonewall Uprising, chaos theory, LSD, El Nino, true crime and Rosa Parks, then look no further. Josh and Chuck have you covered.
Dateline NBC
Current and classic episodes, featuring compelling true-crime mysteries, powerful documentaries and in-depth investigations. Follow now to get the latest episodes of Dateline NBC completely free, or subscribe to Dateline Premium for ad-free listening and exclusive bonus content: DatelinePremium.com
CrimeLess: Hillbilly Heist
It’s 1996 in rural North Carolina, and an oddball crew makes history when they pull off America’s third largest cash heist. But it’s all downhill from there. Join host Johnny Knoxville as he unspools a wild and woolly tale about a group of regular ‘ol folks who risked it all for a chance at a better life. CrimeLess: Hillbilly Heist answers the question: what would you do with 17.3 million dollars? The answer includes diamond rings, mansions, velvet Elvis paintings, plus a run for the border, murder-for-hire-plots, and FBI busts.