September 12, 2019 • 39 mins
The guys talk about how the Patriots and NFL could handle the sexual assault and rape allegations against new WR Antonio Brown and share their biggest Week 1 takeaways — including the standouts (New England, Baltimore and Tennessee) and biggest stenches (Cleveland, Chicago and Miami). We also talk big injury fallout, what to watch for in Week 2 and a lots more.
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
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(00:11):
Hello, hub Arkish, here forPro Football Weekly. It is time for
our Pro Football Weekly NFL podcast.I am joined as I am almost every
week by our managing editor, ArthurArkish, and with one weekend in the
books, Arthur, there is certainlymore than enough to discuss on the football
field, But I think what we'lldo is take care of some business off
(00:33):
the field the first few minutes andthen move to what I think is always
the more interesting, exciting part ofthe National Football League. But there are
plenty of stories to discuss. Obviously, the biggest news of the week Antonio
Brown now charged with three different occasionsof sexual assault, one of them actually
being called rape. His accuser asa young lady named Brittany Taylor. She
(00:59):
alleges it these incidents took place intwo seventeen and two eighteen. They are
horrific if it turns out that theydid happen as she describes. We have
a statement from Antonio Brown's lawyer whichmakes some rather serious allegations against Miss Taylor
and calls her trustworthiness into account.We have no idea which side is telling
(01:23):
the truth. We have seen nooffer of any evidence or proof from either
As of yet, we have tohope we will get that at some point.
You never want to be involved inone of these, he said.
She SAIDs I think the initial reactionthat I get from most of the people
I've talked to is, with AntonioBrown and everything we've seen the last couple
months, why would you assume he'sinnocent? Well, the reason is because
(01:46):
number one, in this country,you are innocent until proven guilty. And
number two, for all the sillystuff that Antonio Brown has done in the
last year and a half, thisrises to a whole new level of criminality
and disgust. And we just don'tknow. Um from miss Taylor's on her
side of the story, I haveno reason not to believe her. But
(02:07):
but but the the allegations are soserious that you can't just jump in with
both feet until you know what's reallygoing on here. Yeah, that's well
said, and that's our our intenthere. Unfortunately, unlike some of our
you know, media brethren, whoI think have already said some things they'd
like to take back. As faras this whole situation is concerned, we'll
(02:28):
just um let the process play out. We can say from a football standpoint
that, uh, you know,the Patriots certainly seemed shocked and and didn't
expect this to be coming down.And um, if there's any team that
you would assume can whether this typeof uh you know, adversity or distraction
just from a football standpoint, ateam standpoint, well it's probably the New
England Patriots. But um, it'sjust so fluid hub and has been.
(02:53):
Of course, as you mentioned,these are far and away the most serious
allegations uh you know that potentially hascommitted in this downward spiral. He's seemingly
been in for the better part ofthe past calendar year, but things like
not like it, but other instancesthat have put Antonio Brown in the news
(03:13):
have occurred almost daily. So it'sjust so fluid, and this thing could
change so much by the time thispodcast is even recorded that I'm really not
sure what else there is to say, except for that we hope that justice
is served here and that and thatsomeone pays the price, because someone on
one side here definitely did something wrong. Yeah, and there actually is another
important football side of the story,which we'll get to in a minute,
(03:35):
but I think it's worth at leastsixty maybe ninety seconds to have a quick
exchange on just the state of ourindustry right now. The state of media
and sports is certainly a part ofthe bigger picture, the impact that things
like Twitter and Instagram have on allthis. I mean, some of the
conversation both sides of this situation arejust disgusting when you look at Twitter and
(03:59):
you look at some websites and someof the things that are being said and
being done, and you know,again, we're not defending anybody, We're
not accusing anybody here. I thinkAntonio Brown is a bad guy. Is
he that bad a guy that heis instantly guilty with something like this?
Of course he's not. We've gotto see some evidence and some proof.
We know nothing about miss Taylor,and I have every reason to believe that
(04:20):
she's a good individual. But butthe reality is, until we know who
is telling the truth, to takea shot at either one is just wrong.
And yet we're seeing so much ofit, and people act like it's
their right to jump to these conclusions, and it is kind of an unfortunate
comment on where you know, Twitterand some of these instant reaction opportunities have
(04:44):
taken us. Yeah, no doubt, And I think it spands well beyond
just sports too. I mean,and I'm not trying to bring you know,
politics or anything else into this,but there are enough other instances in
our society right now, unfortunately,where women who are real victims are too
shamed or are too afraid to comeout. And that's why this sort of
unfortunate culture that we're living in.It just makes you hopefully take another step
(05:10):
back and realize that everyone deserves theopportunity to tell their side of the story,
and that until that happens, reallythere's just no sense in anyone who's
not involved saying anything on it.Yeah, and in this one instance,
Arthur, I will say that politicsis very much an important course of aversation
too well, only for the pointthat there is plenty going wrong on both
sides, conservative and liberal. It'sthe problem right now is that people jump
(05:34):
to these conclusions. They don't havea conversation, you don't try and work
it out, you don't try andcome to some agreement, you don't dig
for the facts. And it's justit's it's an unfortunate reality of our society
today that is making it harder andharder for us to communicate with each other
as human beings. And this iswhy it is so important to me,
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and I know you, and Iknow most of the people in our industry,
in the media industry, is thatwhat we were trained to do.
The reason we got into this businesswas to tell the story, to tell
it correctly, to tell the truth. And there is just not enough truth
being told these days, with peopleputting their opinions ahead of doing their jobs.
But but I'll get off my soapboxnow and let's move on to a
(06:17):
very real football part of this story. I've talked to multiple sources out east,
also checked with some folks in Seattle, in Cleveland, because we know
for a fact that that Pete Carrolland John Dorsey wanted to sign Antonio Brown
as well. And the folks inNew England have told me this one they
didn't see coming. You know.They felt they all felt like they had
(06:40):
done their homework. They were willingto take a risk on the hyper personality,
on all the other things that weregoing on with Antonio Brown. But
but they just didn't expect this tobe the next act. Nobody saw these
charges coming when they did. Oh, I don't think it's wishful thinking when
I say that that might be themost believable part of any of this,
because what team could be stupid enoughto want to open up this box,
(07:02):
even for a Hall of Fame talentlike Antonio Brown, with any knowledge that
this could be you know, thiscivil suit could be coming down in sure
enough, it came down one dayafter the signing of Antonio Brown became official.
So you know, if people aregonna want to jump to well,
now the Patriots title defense is,you know, it has a big roadblock
(07:24):
thrown in the middle of it,I would just remind them the Patriots go
to Miami this week, then theyhost the New York Jets, likely without
Sam Darneld. Then they stay inthe AFC East to play the Buffalo Bills.
Then they play Washington, the NewYork Giants, and the Jets again.
So the defending Super Bowl champions aremore likely to you know, at
least start the first half of thisseason undefeated than they are to really be
(07:44):
tripped up by whatever becomes of theAntonio Brown situation. You know, Arthur,
the Patriots were the best team inthe AFC before they signed Antonio Brown.
And if ever there was an organizationwe know at least is not going
to be distracted by this. Itis certainly not anybody but Antonio Brown.
It is the Patriots. I think. The one big question it does raise,
and this may be taken out oftheir hands. The Roger Goodell in
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the League office may step in andput him on the example list, depending
on where this now necessary investigation goes. Take the decision out of the Patriots
hands at this point. Well,I mean again, I nobody has any
facts. That's the problem. Imean, if you put him on the
example list, then you get intothe issue of does he get paid or
(08:28):
not? And if he's innocent,is it fair for him not to get
paid? This clearly can mess withhis incentives because all that money that Rosenhaus
claimed was guaranteed is not guaranteed.Some of it is a lot of it
has to be earned if he missThere's a lot that goes into this.
And so I'm not worried about AntonioBrown getting paid at this point. But
the one issue that I was goingto is if the league either decides not
(08:54):
to put him on the example listor doesn't make that decision in the next
few days, do the Page Patriotslet him suit up on Sunday against the
Dolphins. I mean, it's atough one because again, if he is
innocent until proven guilty, and heshould be, you don't have a lot
of justification to not suit him up. And so this is a decision that's
(09:15):
going to be watched very closely leadingup to kick off of that Patriot Dolphin
game. And it would be sillyto ignore the history on both sides here
with the NFL in the league thatis seemingly made the wrong decision when they
were facing the right one was staringthem in the face at every turn on
these types of incidents. And thenof course the New England Patriots in their
(09:39):
past with suspensions from the league andso on and so forth, and just
the you know, Bill Belichick beingtruly one of a kind in this situation.
So I don't know, That's whyI said, I think it would
probably behoove the NFL to take thisdecision out of the Patriots hands. There
was enough, there was enough stinkfor some with the way that Antonio Brown
(10:00):
ended up in Foxborough, even beforeit took on a whole new life and
a lot more serious life, tobe clear that I think they could probably
the league could probably rationalize you justput him on the list and wait and
let this situation play itself out,all right, But and stay with me
for ten fifteen seconds here, becausetake me that to make the connection.
I feel awful for Tyreek Hill.I never want to see a player get
(10:22):
injured. I don't care who heis. But it turns out that the
NFL did him no favors by allowinghim to play. The man should be
suspended. I'm sorry. There's notwo ways around it, because the league
constantly gets this wrong. He wason the field and has now suffered a
serious injury. Not blaming the leaguefor the injury, but the point I'm
(10:43):
getting to here is that I can'tremember the last time Roger Goodell or the
NFL got one of these decisions.Right. When you ask me the question,
should they put Brown on the examplelist or not? Just don't know.
I want to be fair to themin this one, because as badly
as I think they've screwed up everythingwith Tyree Kill and Kareem Hunt and Ezekiel
Elliott and I can go on andon, you know, and go back
to the flight Gate on everything youwant. In this one, I'm not
(11:07):
sure what the right answer is soI'm not going to criticize them for it.
Fair enough, and you're right,and I'm more or less with you,
but I tend to lean a lotcloser to put them on the list
and at least than you've taken itout of the Patriots hands. But again,
I don't I don't know they're rightor wrong answers in this particular instance.
Either. It's not as black andwhite as say Ray Rice and how
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Roger Goodell had to have in aboutface if we're going to go back that
far, because that truly is largelykind of the poster situation for all of
the regrettable decisions the NFL has madesense when it comes to disciplining players.
Yeah, I'm gonna apologize to ourlisteners because I should know the answer to
what I'm about to say, ButI don't for sure. If the CBA
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allows for the league to put himon the exempt list with pay, then
I think that probably would be theway to go. I think that's what
Adrian Peterson was on a few yearsago when he had his child to be
scandal, going, oh, Idon't think he got paid. We got
the little Google machine here, we'llcheck on that. But but I think
that probably is the answer, Andyou can always go back retroactively and find
(12:18):
him if it turns out that heis guilty and he got paid for something
he shouldn't do. But but probablythe best way to handle this is to
find a designation in which Brown doesn'tget to play, but does get credit
at least for being on the roster, so he earns those incentives. Now,
let's not forget one of the thingswe know about that contract is there
is a significant seven figure incentive forreaching some statistical goals that if if he's
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out for two or three weeks,that he's certainly not going to reach.
And if it turned out he wasinnocent, that would be unfair. But
I think the only real righteous answerhere is for the league to find a
way to sit him down, butmake sure that he has not penalized financially
if it turns out that he's innocent. Right, And I'm still looking here
on the going back to Adrian Peterson, and he was ultimately suspended without pay
(13:09):
for the season, but I stillbelieve he started on that commissioner's exemple list
with pay, so well, I'llkeep doing the digging on that. It's
it's obviously a separate situation, andagain, the ab thing is so fluid.
Gosh, by the time we're donerecording this podcast, we could have
an answer on a hub. Wewill be keeping an eye on it for
you at Pro Football Weekly dot com. Be sure and stay with us on
(13:30):
this because it's an important story interms of the impact it has on everybody
in the National Football League when wecontinue to get, albeit from less than
one percent of the participants, theseunfortunate off the field incidents occurring now a
ton on the field Week one,some good football. One of the big
stories for me, Arthur though,was the injuries. The last year or
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two. It seemed like the earlyseason injuries had fallen off a little bit,
but we saw some really serious oneslast week. Obviously, we start
in Jacksonville, where their free agentquarterback didn't last a half and Nick Foles
is now on injured reserve with abroken clavicle. We moved to Kansas City,
whereas I already indicated, Tyreek Hillsuffered a clavicular sternal joint injury that
(14:18):
has him out for an indefinite periodof time. Not on IR we have
the Eagles. Malik Jackson now goingto IR Obviously, the MVP played the
football game but got banged up early. And we'll keep an eye on that
knee. There's at least half adozen others that I know I'm forgetting.
Darius Guys in Washington has a tornmeniscus likely to cost him half the season.
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Jonathan Abram, the Raiders third firstround draft pick, looks like he's
gonna miss the season with a tornrotator cuff that he played through. By
the way, it sounds like thatinjury occurred early in the game. And
there's there's more too. There wasanother Henry, of course the Chargers,
because who else but the Chargers couldget more bad injury luck. It sounds
like Hunter Henry is going to missat least half the season, if not
(15:03):
more too after another knee injury.Yeah, and we and we have just
touched the tip of the iceberg.I know there was at least four stealers
that left the game and didn't return. T J. Watt was one of
them. That would be a seriousloss for them. And now again we're
hoping that these are not serious injuries, but there were enough at C.
J. Mosley, who played lightsout for the Jets, left the game
in the fourth quarter and couldn't return. So it was happening all over the
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league. Not going for a biggerpoint here, not not suggesting that there's
a way to avoid it or thatanything was different this year, but it
was just a very costly Week one. And I think the one point that
you can make, because we continueto hopefully this will be the last week,
we do have this conversation. Butthe teams around the NFL who don't
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believe in the preseason anymore, andthe main, if not soul rationale,
is that they're trying to protect theirplayers and keep them healthy. This is
one of the arguments I've been making, what is the difference between losing a
player one of the regular season andlosing him in the preseason. And in
fact, with a number of theseinjuries where these guys are going to return
like a Tyree Hill, quite possiblylike a Nick Foles, if it had
(16:11):
happened in the preseason, they'd missless regular season games for it. So
the only real endgame on that isthat you can try and protect players as
much as you want in the preseason, it does nothing to limit their risk
for injury the second the regular seasonstarts. Yeah, no doubt about it.
Let me just ask you too,because I don't want to make any
more proclamations when it comes to that. But what team is best equipped to
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handle? I mean, these areall serious injuries we're discussing to critical players,
so I think it's probably safe tosay the illist equipped is the Jaguars,
who are now going to start asix rounder in Gardner Minshew. And
he played great. I mean,let's be very clear here. I think
he completed eighty something absurd just hisHe barely had any incompletions and kept the
(16:57):
Jaguars hanging around in that game,at least for a little bit against the
Chiefs when they were up against it. So I would assume that the answer
has to be Nick Foles. Butwhat about the Chiefs offense without Tyreek Hill?
Obviously they had spent what I thinka second rounder. I'm Nicole Hardman
thinking they might not have Hill becauseof suspension, but not injury of course,
with the you know, the draftnight story that came out with Tyreek
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what else? I mean? Icharge Jokay a thought hunter, Henry.
There's actually there was a rumblings yesterdayfrom Anthony Lynn in La that they're worried
about Mike Williams too. So ifyou put Hunter Henry and Mike Williams together,
remember they're already without Melvin Gordon.Now those start to feel like they're
compounding. Yeah, I mean,clearly, the biggest loss is Nick Foles.
You know, he was the hopefor a bounce back to contention in
(17:41):
that division. We saw how theChiefs kind of ate up that defense with
a defense that is still trying torediscover itself in a rookie quarterback. Even
and actually the AFC South, whichI thought had a chance to be the
worst division in the league, wasvery impressive on opening day if you think
(18:02):
about it other than Jacksonville. Imean the fact that Indy went out to
Sandy, to Los Angeles and tookthe Chargers to overtime, and Jacobe Broussett's
not first start, but first startas the new franchise quarterback, that the
Tennessee Titans absolutely destroyed the Cleveland Browns, albeit with the gift of eighteen penalties
in one hundred and eighty two yards. We'll talk about the Browns in a
few minutes. Suddenly that division islooking and then the Houston Texans. You
(18:26):
know, we can say all wewant about what Bill O'Brien did in the
future of that team with the draftchoices he gave up, but clearly with
Laramie Tunsland, Kenny Stills, they'regoing to be a better football team than
we thought they were. Even thoughWatson was sacked three times, he was
lights out. So I don't thinkthere's any question that it's the Jaguars who
suffered the most from that injury.Yeah, but if nothing else, because
(18:48):
of the position he plays, ofcourse, and just because Nick Foles,
in addition to stabilizing the quarterback position, was supposed to bring so much leadership
and stability to that immature locker room. So hard for me to disagree with
you, Air, although color meintrigued by Gardner Minshew, and not just
because of not just because of theincredible numbers, but kids got an interesting
(19:10):
story. He seems like he isa big time personality. Of course,
spent you know, just the oneyear with Mike Leach at Washington State.
I guess fell in the draft,and he had himself a decent Senior Bowl
in pre draft process, but Iguess his ordinary measurables and arm talent ultimately
is what led to him being availablein the sixth round. Um small sample
(19:30):
size alert to be sure, butJackson has to be encouraged by the first
time out from Minshew. Yeah.I think some Scotts just thought that his
mustache was bigger than his arm andthat was part of the problem. Yeah,
I love it. It's part ofYea. His personality is Gardner Minshew
is gonna be fun to watch andfun for the league. That's sort of
the silver lining on the Nick Folesinjury. Welcome back, everybody, Thank
(19:56):
you so much for being with usfor this week's edition of our Pro Football
Weekly and fl podcast. I'm HubArkish, Arthur Arkish, I'm managing editor.
Alongside we want to thank all ofour great sponsors as well as our
incredible executive producer, Dan Mott.What he does behind the scenes to make
all of our podcasts, our TVshows, our radio shows work is just
unbelievable. Also, thanks to theguys that Humphrey's McGee for allowing us to
(20:18):
use some of their outstanding music forour sound beds, our intro music in
and out as well as our bumps. Arthur, let's get right back at
it. And talk about, well, let's break them into two actually,
and let's go positive first. Mostimpressive opening day performances. You know,
I think, I guess I startin my mind anyway with the New England
(20:41):
Patriots, because I don't believe thePittsburgh Steelers are one of the worst teams
in the NFL, and they mightas well have not been there and in
New England. And you know,we've talked so much about the retirement of
Gronk, they had two serious injurieson the offensive line, they're bringing in
other teams backups, and yet suddenlyhere's Opening Day and they are the most
(21:03):
dominant, most impressive team. AndI think one of the things we've forgot
is that they in that Super Bowllast year, became more about the defense
than the offense. And you addMichael Bennett and some of the guys that
they've been able to bring back aswell some of the youngsters they've brought in.
I thought the Patriots were the teamthat impressed me the most on the
opening weekend. Yeah, hard toargue. Thirty three to three, you
(21:26):
know, just a blasting of thePittsburgh Steelers in Foxborough. And let's not
forget they did it shorthanded. Kylevan Noy left to go be with his
wife and labor. I mean,he has become a huge part of that
defense. You know, they're hopefulthat Antonio Brown is eventually going to become
a big part of this offense.Of course, he didn't play in that
game either, So yeah, thePatriots were awesome. That secondary is just
ridiculous. They were able to takeJiujie Smith Schuster more or less out of
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the game. That certainly had tobe the concern in the first time out
for Big Ben without a B iswho else is going to step up?
And at least for one game theyhad no one day Moncrief was just a
disaster. James Washington didn't seem toget a lot of chances. I didn't
see a lot of Vans McDonald.So yeah, that's a credit to what
Bill Belichick and now what Gerard Mayoare doing over there on defense. So
(22:12):
yes, really really good. Idon't care that it was against the Miami
Dolphins. Hub I gotta say theBaltimore Ravens, I mean to do what
they did on the road with LamarJackson just dominating from the pocket to hang
a fifty burger man, they hadfifty nine points in that embarrassment of the
Miami Dolphins. And again, weneed to see more from Lamar Jackson,
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There's no question about it. ButI don't know how you could be more
excited about what he did with MarquiseHollywood Brown, his tight end, Mark
Andrews, mark Ingram and his Baltimoredebut. Earl Thomas gets an interception in
his Baltimore debut. So again,it's the Miami Dolphins. But at least
for one week, the excitement thatwe've been led to believe was coming with
the offense was there, and therewas no drop you know, drop off
(22:57):
with the defense that lost all thebig pieces in the offseason. Well,
I mean, I absolutely agree withyou that the Ravens belong in this conversation.
Hats off to Lamar Jackson for anincredible opener, But I do care
that it was about the Miami Dolphinsbecause that's not an NFL team. I
mean, that's just that's embarrassing what'sgoing on down there. And when you
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plug in the fact that now theycome home Week two and get the Arizona
Cardinals and their opener, who areclearly better than the Dolphins, but also
one of the NFL seller dwellers.I'm going to slow my role on the
Ravens a little bit out. That'sfine. I want to get a little
deeper in their schedule, but Iwant to throw out another team that is
actually a very comfortable train ride fromBaltimore. The Philadelphia Eagles embarrassed themselves in
the first half, but they cameout in the second half and showed why
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some of the analysts are as excitedas they are about them. They scored
at will, did whatever they wanton offense. The defense turned off a
Washington attack that had put up twentyone points in the first half, and
yeah, you gotta play sixty minutes, but I actually and then seeing the
impact that de Sean j Xon immediatelyhad on that football team and the way
(24:02):
Carson wentz through the football in spiteof them embarrassing themselves in the first half,
I came away pretty impressed by thePhiladelphia Eagles. Yeah, no doubt
about it was almost like they justI think it was you who wrote in
the power rankings they kind of missedtheir wake up call. But certainly that
looked impressive once it came together inthe second half. Good to see Brandon
Brooks coming off the achilles. Ibelieve, play every snap there on the
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inside of that offensive line. Likeyou said, Deshaun Jackson's homecoming and revenge
game against Washington couldn't have gone muchbetter. So really good. One more
team I would throw in there.You know, certainly needs to be mentioned
as a Tennessee Titans, for say, which will about the Cleveland Browns and
Freddie Kitchens tough tasks meant managing notonly the egos but the expectations for that
(24:44):
franchise. But let's credit Tennessee herefor a minute. A Marcus Mariota was
awesome through three touchdowns, played aclean game, did nothing wrong. It
looked like the December version of DerrickHenry in what their new coordinator Arthur Smith
promises is going to be an offensebuilt or round the former Heisman winner.
And then defensively, I'm not sure. I gotta I gotta watch the tape
(25:04):
more to find out whatever it wasthat DNPS was able to do to make
Baker Mayfield so darn uncomfortable, tohold onto the ball so long, and
to make what everyone thought was goingto be this juggernaut Brown's offense just just
a disaster. I know they beatthemselves a lot too with the penalties,
but Cameron Wake, I mean,there were a lot of contributors on that
(25:26):
Titans defense in that dominant performance aswell. I liked Tennessee all through the
offseason. I liked what they weredoing, and I kind of got talked
out of it by some folks justhearing the doubts about Marcus Mariota and the
age of Cameron Wake. But Ithink that is an interesting team. We're
gonna get back to that game whenwe get to the glass half empty part
in a minute. But two moreteams that I want to mention another one
(25:47):
for their dominance. And yeah,I know it was the New York Giants,
and I want to see Dak Prescottdo that more than once. But
the Dallas Cowboys were as dominant asanybody on opening Day. And and if
Dak Prescott can play like that weekendand week out, and if Michael Gallop
you know who didn't excite you asa rookie but now looks to be the
(26:11):
real deal, you know, alongwith the addition of Randall Cobb, and
you know what Ze Galliot can do, I think the defense is still gonna
have some things to figure out,but you gotta love what Dallas did,
and at the time, a teamI never thought i'd mentioned here, Cincinnati
went into Seattle and and you know, you talk about an inexperienced rookie head
(26:32):
coach and Zach Tyler. They didn'tget to win, but but the battle
that they gave the Seahawks, whoI think maybe a pretty good football team,
they were the downtrodden, if youwill, who surprised me the most.
And I'm taking a step back now. Bengals aren't gonna win the division,
They're not gonna go to the playoffs, but I'm kind of rethinking where
that team is at because I thoughtthey were going to be one of the
three or four worst teams in theleague, and they sure didn't play like
(26:55):
it on opening weekend. I'm gladyou mentioned that was the one other team
I was gonna mention, and Iwanted to make sure we would. You
know, they're the one sort ofteam that ended up in the losing column
that still did impress in defeat.In the connection I would make between those
two teams, the Dallas Cowboys andthe Cincinnati Bengals, is the impressive debuts
they got from the play callers andKellen Moore, who somehow unlocked a whole
(27:17):
new Dak Prescott and was pretty muchthe antithesis of what they were doing there
previously under Scott Linahan. And thenof course Zach Taylor, the young head
coach of the Cincinnati Bengals, whocertainly appears to have brought you know,
a big chunk of that La Ram'spassing game over to Cincinnati, and that
was fun to watch. John Russ, maybe a late bloomer, remember the
(27:37):
former number nine overall pick, whoplayed the Brandon Cook's role and played it
really well there against a tough Seattledefense. And then you know, Tyler
Boyd plays well. Andy Dalton wasgood, and they got some surprising pass
rush that I didn't see coming fromthe likes of Sam Hubbard and Carl Lawson
and of course Geno Atkins more predictably. But yeah, maybe there's a slightly
(27:59):
more there than many of us thoughtas recently as a week ago. All
Right, I teed it up afew minutes ago, glass half empty.
What was really unfortunate? The biggestfail, if you will, the Cleveland
Browns, I mean, you know, not only did Baker Mayfield get picked
three times, not only was theoffense really ineffective all game long against Tennessee.
(28:26):
Those eighteen penalties in one hundred andeighty two yards are on the Browns
coaches and players. I mean,that's part of the game, that's what
you get ready for. And itis a classic example of exactly the reason
I've been saying all off season I'mnot sold on that team at all yet,
low character, locker rooms, commita lot of penalties, okay,
and it's too early. You know, they may turn out to be the
(28:49):
greatest humanitarian team in the NFL.I'm not, you know, writing the
final epitaph or chapter on this team. But the reason I just couldn't get
on board with everybody picking Cleveland forthe Super Bowl and picking Cleveland to win
the division is because you have broughtin a lot of questionable pieces. Is
the puzzle going to be completed?And we had no idea why Freddie Kitchens
(29:12):
was John Dorris's choice for that.Freddie Kitchens may turn out to be a
great coach. Do You do notjudge these guys on one performance, but
you also don't annoint them until yousee it on the football field, and
what we saw on the football fieldfrom the Cleveland Browns last Sunday was every
bit as bad as the one infifteen and oh and sixteen versions of that
team. Now, they're way tootalented to be that. Obviously, they're
(29:34):
gonna play better, they're gonna becompetitive, but that team has a long
way to go before anybody should thinkthat they can be a playoff team.
Yeah, it appears that way.And you know, I'm one of those
who did pick the Browns to winthe division, and I'm not backing off
of that. And I will mentionbecause we went heavy on the Steelers at
the top part of the reasons becauseI don't think Pitts Steelers is gonna be
(29:55):
very good this season, and Ithink the rest of the division is going
to fall off. I realized wejust praised Baltimore in Cincinnati, but that
was a part of my thinking ongoing with Cleveland. I'm not backing away
from that. What I might nothave thought enough about though. We talked
about the egos, about the volatilityof the talent that they've acquired. But
I just think a whole separate partof it that I alluded to briefly,
it's managing expectations as much as egos. So those are two separate things in
(30:18):
my mind. I mean, yougot the unpredictability of what you know nowhere
don't know about your players. Butthen you've got the weight of an entire
fan base the most you know,I think the most the fan base that
has suffered the worst in the NFLfor however long. So that's a whole
separate part of it. And FreddyKitchens is a lot to show rebounding from
that performance. Hub I know,we have a whole separate podcast for them.
(30:42):
But the other team for me thatmessed the bed like no other than
the Cleveland Browns in Week one wasthe Chicago Bears. Gonna get to that
in a minute, But one otherthought on the Cleveland Browns, Arthur,
is that one thing that is strictlyon the field, and this is on
John Dorsey. Clearly we knew theyhad a chance to be the worst offensive
line in football. I think they'regoing to be the worst offensive line in
(31:02):
football. I mean, when yougo in counting on Greg Robinson as your
left tackle, one of the epicfails of the NFL draft. In two
other cities right now, you're reallygambling. And then when you see him
trying to kick people on the headand get ejected week one, I mean,
they've got a mess on the offensiveline that they have to fix and
it gets worse too. Off ofthat, I mean to cut you off,
but let's not forget that. JohnDorsey traded Kevin Zieler to the New
(31:26):
York Giants and Olivier Vernon also committedat least one awful penalty in that game
and brought that reputation from New Yorkto Cleveland and being a little bit of
an undisciplined player, So that wasnoticeable. The absence of Kevin Zieler was
certainly noticeable, and we also haveto point out that John Dorsey probably felt
like he was okay doing that becausehe's got the thirty third overall pick in
the draft two years ago. AustinCorbett, who I believe was a healthy
(31:49):
scratch in Week one this season,so he has gone from penciled in as
the starting right guard to replace KevinZieler to a healthy scratch I think to
begin his second straight season. Yeah. Now let's get to the Chicago Bears,
who definitely disappointed in the big NFLseason opening debut. But we do
have to be careful in how wediscussed this because they were clearly once again
(32:13):
the number one defense in the NFL. I mean, we're talking about teams
that succeeded and teams that failed.Half the Chicago Bears failed. The defense
could not have played any better andactually made Aaron Rodgers look bad. But
offensively, it was one of theworst performances we've seen from an NFL offense
in possibly several seasons based on whatwe expected from them, and this is
(32:36):
a team that was supposed to bedramatically improved from their twenty first total offense
ranking last year because of the newweapons they had surrounded mister Bisky with.
So certainly that you demands first criticismand second conversation, do we have to
rethink the Bears like you just saidabout Cleveland. I'm still picking the Bears
to win the NFC North because wehave to remember they were an epic fail
(33:00):
last year and they're open or blowinga twenty point lead and still went twelve
and four. Everything that happened canbe fixed, but it just shouldn't have
happened with a game that they hadnine months to get ready for right and
again, we have a separate podcastfor this. We're not going to go
in great depth. We hope you'llgo check that one out too. I
mean, we are covering the Bearswall to wall here in Chicago. But
hube I would just add that itwas so jarring to see the inaptitude on
(33:23):
offense because we've been hearing for monthsand months about the strides that Mitch is
taking behind the scenes and how he'sclicking with his new supporting cast, and
that was just that could not havebeen less evident in the opener and what
it means. I'm not backing offmy prediction either. I still believe the
Bears will win the division, buttheir margin for air has reduced greatly early
(33:44):
in the season because they've got theseThis was a game they certainly thought they
should have. Now they go toDenver and what already feels like a game,
they have to have Washington on aMonday night after that in case Keenum,
then the Vikings at home in weekfour before going to London to see
the Raiders. Once they get backafter the Week six by the sledding gets
a lot tougher they need to havea favorable outcome over these next four or
(34:06):
five games to feel pretty good headinginto heading overseas to go face the Raiders.
Yeah, we're running a little overtimehere, but a couple more teams
we just do have to mention veryquickly. The other side of that football
game, hats off to the greenBay Packers. That was a huge upset.
I don't think a lot of folkssaw them going into Chicago in that
situation. And what was really intriguingabout that is, like the Bears,
(34:28):
it was all their defense. BecauseAaron Rodgers was bad, there's now the
Bears defense will do that to you. I'm not worried about Aaron Rodgers,
but the Packers offense was enepped allnight long. They put ten points on
the board. Their offensive line againwhere they offerer? Is the Bears pressure
that good? But Rodgers took abeating. But for their defense to play
the way they did, and that'swhat leaves both of these teams so difficult
(34:50):
to analyze, is was the Bearsoffense that bad that we can't credit the
green Bay defense? Was the greenBay defense that good that we shouldn't be
so hard on Mitch Drubisky. Weknow this. We know the Bears still
have one of the best defenses inthe NFL. And I think we know
even though Matt Lafleur is a rookiehead coach who's putting a new system in,
I think we know that given atleast a couple more weeks with Aaron
(35:13):
Rodgers, they're going to be betteron offense. Yeah, I think that's
safe to say. And just kindof closing things down here, one more
team that impressed, especially in lightof all the distractions they're feeling with,
and we give them a lot offlak on the ProFootball Weekly website. The
Oakland Raiders. They took care ofbusiness. And you know, the Broncos
weren't very good, and it wasVic Fangio's debut performance. But let's give
a little bit of credit where it'sdue to John Grum because he had those
(35:35):
guys ready to play in the opener, and Derek Carr looked really good.
And then for all of the scornthat Mitch Drubisky has been facing for a
week now, it's probably only fairto mention that a former number one overall
pick messed the bed almost as bad. Jamis Winston's Bruce Arians' debut in that
offense was abysmal three interceptions. Thisis a maker break here for Jamis Winston,
(35:57):
even more so than Mitch Drubisky.And to lose at home the way
they did to the San Francisco fortynine ers has to be just crushing Well
and Arthur one more epic fail andthen I promise folks will let you go,
although I guess you can turn itoff when everyone pick it up again,
so we need to go. Butthe Atlanta Falcons, I mean,
you know, dan Quinn blew upeverything, fired all his coordinators. He's
gonna fix this, He's gonna takecare of it. They rebuilt the offensive
(36:19):
line. That score is misleading becausethey were completely inept on offense for three
quarters. I've never seen Matt Ryanplay like that. That was really disappointing.
And again on the flip side,the Minnesota Vikings, they should have
been on our list of teams thatreally impressed. The only reason I back
off from that a little bit isthey only showed us half the offense.
(36:40):
I love Dalvin Cook, have knownif he ever stayed healthy, he was
going to be a great NFL back. He's healthy. Right now, you
saw what he can do. Weknow that Viking defense can be dominant,
and it was. It was greatagainst the Falcons. But the one question
that needs to be answered, andArthur we will end on this is what
about Kirk Cousins in that passing game? Because while it worked in the opener
(37:04):
at home, they threw the ballten times all game long, they only
ran forty nine plays in sixty minuteson offense. That is not a consistently
winning formula in today's NFL, especiallynot for the quarterback who just reset the
bar. On the way that NFLcontracts are done. You didn't pay Kirk
Cousins ninety four million guaranteed eighty fourI can't remember what it is, but
(37:27):
to be their third option after thedefense in the run game. So yes,
that will have to sort itself out. We'll see if it happens against
again. It looks like it's goingto be a really good Packers defense.
But after that you got the OaklandRaiders. The Giants are on the schedule
shortly thereafter Washington. There's gonna besome opportunities for Kirk Cousins to re establish
himself as part of this thing too. The reason that I and we all
(37:49):
love the NFL so much, orthrough thirty five minutes just isn't enough for
our podcast to cover. Now thatwe're into regular season action, it was
a great week one we hope everybodythoroughly enjoys. We too. We thank
you so much for listening. You'rethe most important reason we do this podcast.
We do also, of course,want to thank our great sponsors,
our executive producer Dan Mott, theguys that um Freese McGee. You look
(38:10):
like you want to add something.Yeah, I just want to tell the
listeners make sure you get to thewebsite for our picks. We did not
put our picks on the podcast thisseason. They are free and they are
going to be available all We'll bepicking every game for everyone, so make
sure you go get over to thewebsite and check those out. We had
some success last year. Again,those picks are free and maybe able to
help you out at the window thisseason. You mentioned last year, I
didn't even look. Did I embarrassedmyself on hope? You did? Oh?
(38:34):
I don't. Yeah, I'm notsure I needed I still need to
review. I thought you mented youembarrass yourself last year, and yeah,
you did, but that's okay.It wasn't awful. Yeah, I think
I don't mind embarrassing myself for aweek. I don't think I've ever embarrassed
myself for a full season, soI just had to gloat a little bit.
I was the winner of the Handicapper'sCorner among three of us last year.
Now it's just hub hubbing myself,so you can imagine it'll be even
(38:57):
more competitive, and I guess I'llbe taking shots because that's the way this
thing is starting out. He wasbound to beat me once in thirty seven
years, and it's okay, allright, guys, that's gonna do it
for this week. Thank you somuch for being with us. Don't forget
to download our Pro Football Weekly Chicagopodcast as well. I really appreciate you
visiting with us this week. We'lltalk to you again most week.
Hello, hub Arkish, here forPro Football Weekly. It is time for
our Pro Football Weekly NFL podcast.I am joined as I am almost every
week by our managing editor, ArthurArkish, and with one weekend in the
books, Arthur, there is certainlymore than enough to discuss on the football
field, But I think what we'lldo is take care of some business off
(00:33):
the field the first few minutes andthen move to what I think is always
the more interesting, exciting part ofthe National Football League. But there are
plenty of stories to discuss. Obviously, the biggest news of the week Antonio
Brown now charged with three different occasionsof sexual assault, one of them actually
being called rape. His accuser asa young lady named Brittany Taylor. She
(00:59):
alleges it these incidents took place intwo seventeen and two eighteen. They are
horrific if it turns out that theydid happen as she describes. We have
a statement from Antonio Brown's lawyer whichmakes some rather serious allegations against Miss Taylor
and calls her trustworthiness into account.We have no idea which side is telling
(01:23):
the truth. We have seen nooffer of any evidence or proof from either
As of yet, we have tohope we will get that at some point.
You never want to be involved inone of these, he said.
She SAIDs I think the initial reactionthat I get from most of the people
I've talked to is, with AntonioBrown and everything we've seen the last couple
months, why would you assume he'sinnocent? Well, the reason is because
(01:46):
number one, in this country,you are innocent until proven guilty. And
number two, for all the sillystuff that Antonio Brown has done in the
last year and a half, thisrises to a whole new level of criminality
and disgust. And we just don'tknow. Um from miss Taylor's on her
side of the story, I haveno reason not to believe her. But
(02:07):
but but the the allegations are soserious that you can't just jump in with
both feet until you know what's reallygoing on here. Yeah, that's well
said, and that's our our intenthere. Unfortunately, unlike some of our
you know, media brethren, whoI think have already said some things they'd
like to take back. As faras this whole situation is concerned, we'll
(02:28):
just um let the process play out. We can say from a football standpoint
that, uh, you know,the Patriots certainly seemed shocked and and didn't
expect this to be coming down.And um, if there's any team that
you would assume can whether this typeof uh you know, adversity or distraction
just from a football standpoint, ateam standpoint, well it's probably the New
England Patriots. But um, it'sjust so fluid hub and has been.
(02:53):
Of course, as you mentioned,these are far and away the most serious
allegations uh you know that potentially hascommitted in this downward spiral. He's seemingly
been in for the better part ofthe past calendar year, but things like
not like it, but other instancesthat have put Antonio Brown in the news
(03:13):
have occurred almost daily. So it'sjust so fluid, and this thing could
change so much by the time thispodcast is even recorded that I'm really not
sure what else there is to say, except for that we hope that justice
is served here and that and thatsomeone pays the price, because someone on
one side here definitely did something wrong. Yeah, and there actually is another
important football side of the story,which we'll get to in a minute,
(03:35):
but I think it's worth at leastsixty maybe ninety seconds to have a quick
exchange on just the state of ourindustry right now. The state of media
and sports is certainly a part ofthe bigger picture, the impact that things
like Twitter and Instagram have on allthis. I mean, some of the
conversation both sides of this situation arejust disgusting when you look at Twitter and
(03:59):
you look at some websites and someof the things that are being said and
being done, and you know,again, we're not defending anybody, We're
not accusing anybody here. I thinkAntonio Brown is a bad guy. Is
he that bad a guy that heis instantly guilty with something like this?
Of course he's not. We've gotto see some evidence and some proof.
We know nothing about miss Taylor,and I have every reason to believe that
(04:20):
she's a good individual. But butthe reality is, until we know who
is telling the truth, to takea shot at either one is just wrong.
And yet we're seeing so much ofit, and people act like it's
their right to jump to these conclusions, and it is kind of an unfortunate
comment on where you know, Twitterand some of these instant reaction opportunities have
(04:44):
taken us. Yeah, no doubt, And I think it spands well beyond
just sports too. I mean,and I'm not trying to bring you know,
politics or anything else into this,but there are enough other instances in
our society right now, unfortunately,where women who are real victims are too
shamed or are too afraid to comeout. And that's why this sort of
unfortunate culture that we're living in.It just makes you hopefully take another step
(05:10):
back and realize that everyone deserves theopportunity to tell their side of the story,
and that until that happens, reallythere's just no sense in anyone who's
not involved saying anything on it.Yeah, and in this one instance,
Arthur, I will say that politicsis very much an important course of aversation
too well, only for the pointthat there is plenty going wrong on both
sides, conservative and liberal. It'sthe problem right now is that people jump
(05:34):
to these conclusions. They don't havea conversation, you don't try and work
it out, you don't try andcome to some agreement, you don't dig
for the facts. And it's justit's it's an unfortunate reality of our society
today that is making it harder andharder for us to communicate with each other
as human beings. And this iswhy it is so important to me,
(05:55):
and I know you, and Iknow most of the people in our industry,
in the media industry, is thatwhat we were trained to do.
The reason we got into this businesswas to tell the story, to tell
it correctly, to tell the truth. And there is just not enough truth
being told these days, with peopleputting their opinions ahead of doing their jobs.
But but I'll get off my soapboxnow and let's move on to a
(06:17):
very real football part of this story. I've talked to multiple sources out east,
also checked with some folks in Seattle, in Cleveland, because we know
for a fact that that Pete Carrolland John Dorsey wanted to sign Antonio Brown
as well. And the folks inNew England have told me this one they
didn't see coming. You know.They felt they all felt like they had
(06:40):
done their homework. They were willingto take a risk on the hyper personality,
on all the other things that weregoing on with Antonio Brown. But
but they just didn't expect this tobe the next act. Nobody saw these
charges coming when they did. Oh, I don't think it's wishful thinking when
I say that that might be themost believable part of any of this,
because what team could be stupid enoughto want to open up this box,
(07:02):
even for a Hall of Fame talentlike Antonio Brown, with any knowledge that
this could be you know, thiscivil suit could be coming down in sure
enough, it came down one dayafter the signing of Antonio Brown became official.
So you know, if people aregonna want to jump to well,
now the Patriots title defense is,you know, it has a big roadblock
(07:24):
thrown in the middle of it,I would just remind them the Patriots go
to Miami this week, then theyhost the New York Jets, likely without
Sam Darneld. Then they stay inthe AFC East to play the Buffalo Bills.
Then they play Washington, the NewYork Giants, and the Jets again.
So the defending Super Bowl champions aremore likely to you know, at
least start the first half of thisseason undefeated than they are to really be
(07:44):
tripped up by whatever becomes of theAntonio Brown situation. You know, Arthur,
the Patriots were the best team inthe AFC before they signed Antonio Brown.
And if ever there was an organizationwe know at least is not going
to be distracted by this. Itis certainly not anybody but Antonio Brown.
It is the Patriots. I think. The one big question it does raise,
and this may be taken out oftheir hands. The Roger Goodell in
(08:07):
the League office may step in andput him on the example list, depending
on where this now necessary investigation goes. Take the decision out of the Patriots
hands at this point. Well,I mean again, I nobody has any
facts. That's the problem. Imean, if you put him on the
example list, then you get intothe issue of does he get paid or
(08:28):
not? And if he's innocent,is it fair for him not to get
paid? This clearly can mess withhis incentives because all that money that Rosenhaus
claimed was guaranteed is not guaranteed.Some of it is a lot of it
has to be earned if he missThere's a lot that goes into this.
And so I'm not worried about AntonioBrown getting paid at this point. But
the one issue that I was goingto is if the league either decides not
(08:54):
to put him on the example listor doesn't make that decision in the next
few days, do the Page Patriotslet him suit up on Sunday against the
Dolphins. I mean, it's atough one because again, if he is
innocent until proven guilty, and heshould be, you don't have a lot
of justification to not suit him up. And so this is a decision that's
(09:15):
going to be watched very closely leadingup to kick off of that Patriot Dolphin
game. And it would be sillyto ignore the history on both sides here
with the NFL in the league thatis seemingly made the wrong decision when they
were facing the right one was staringthem in the face at every turn on
these types of incidents. And thenof course the New England Patriots in their
(09:39):
past with suspensions from the league andso on and so forth, and just
the you know, Bill Belichick beingtruly one of a kind in this situation.
So I don't know, That's whyI said, I think it would
probably behoove the NFL to take thisdecision out of the Patriots hands. There
was enough, there was enough stinkfor some with the way that Antonio Brown
(10:00):
ended up in Foxborough, even beforeit took on a whole new life and
a lot more serious life, tobe clear that I think they could probably
the league could probably rationalize you justput him on the list and wait and
let this situation play itself out,all right, But and stay with me
for ten fifteen seconds here, becausetake me that to make the connection.
I feel awful for Tyreek Hill.I never want to see a player get
(10:22):
injured. I don't care who heis. But it turns out that the
NFL did him no favors by allowinghim to play. The man should be
suspended. I'm sorry. There's notwo ways around it, because the league
constantly gets this wrong. He wason the field and has now suffered a
serious injury. Not blaming the leaguefor the injury, but the point I'm
(10:43):
getting to here is that I can'tremember the last time Roger Goodell or the
NFL got one of these decisions.Right. When you ask me the question,
should they put Brown on the examplelist or not? Just don't know.
I want to be fair to themin this one, because as badly
as I think they've screwed up everythingwith Tyree Kill and Kareem Hunt and Ezekiel
Elliott and I can go on andon, you know, and go back
to the flight Gate on everything youwant. In this one, I'm not
(11:07):
sure what the right answer is soI'm not going to criticize them for it.
Fair enough, and you're right,and I'm more or less with you,
but I tend to lean a lotcloser to put them on the list
and at least than you've taken itout of the Patriots hands. But again,
I don't I don't know they're rightor wrong answers in this particular instance.
Either. It's not as black andwhite as say Ray Rice and how
(11:31):
Roger Goodell had to have in aboutface if we're going to go back that
far, because that truly is largelykind of the poster situation for all of
the regrettable decisions the NFL has madesense when it comes to disciplining players.
Yeah, I'm gonna apologize to ourlisteners because I should know the answer to
what I'm about to say, ButI don't for sure. If the CBA
(11:52):
allows for the league to put himon the exempt list with pay, then
I think that probably would be theway to go. I think that's what
Adrian Peterson was on a few yearsago when he had his child to be
scandal, going, oh, Idon't think he got paid. We got
the little Google machine here, we'llcheck on that. But but I think
that probably is the answer, Andyou can always go back retroactively and find
(12:18):
him if it turns out that heis guilty and he got paid for something
he shouldn't do. But but probablythe best way to handle this is to
find a designation in which Brown doesn'tget to play, but does get credit
at least for being on the roster, so he earns those incentives. Now,
let's not forget one of the thingswe know about that contract is there
is a significant seven figure incentive forreaching some statistical goals that if if he's
(12:43):
out for two or three weeks,that he's certainly not going to reach.
And if it turned out he wasinnocent, that would be unfair. But
I think the only real righteous answerhere is for the league to find a
way to sit him down, butmake sure that he has not penalized financially
if it turns out that he's innocent. Right, And I'm still looking here
on the going back to Adrian Peterson, and he was ultimately suspended without pay
(13:09):
for the season, but I stillbelieve he started on that commissioner's exemple list
with pay, so well, I'llkeep doing the digging on that. It's
it's obviously a separate situation, andagain, the ab thing is so fluid.
Gosh, by the time we're donerecording this podcast, we could have
an answer on a hub. Wewill be keeping an eye on it for
you at Pro Football Weekly dot com. Be sure and stay with us on
(13:30):
this because it's an important story interms of the impact it has on everybody
in the National Football League when wecontinue to get, albeit from less than
one percent of the participants, theseunfortunate off the field incidents occurring now a
ton on the field Week one,some good football. One of the big
stories for me, Arthur though,was the injuries. The last year or
(13:52):
two. It seemed like the earlyseason injuries had fallen off a little bit,
but we saw some really serious oneslast week. Obviously, we start
in Jacksonville, where their free agentquarterback didn't last a half and Nick Foles
is now on injured reserve with abroken clavicle. We moved to Kansas City,
whereas I already indicated, Tyreek Hillsuffered a clavicular sternal joint injury that
(14:18):
has him out for an indefinite periodof time. Not on IR we have
the Eagles. Malik Jackson now goingto IR Obviously, the MVP played the
football game but got banged up early. And we'll keep an eye on that
knee. There's at least half adozen others that I know I'm forgetting.
Darius Guys in Washington has a tornmeniscus likely to cost him half the season.
(14:41):
Jonathan Abram, the Raiders third firstround draft pick, looks like he's
gonna miss the season with a tornrotator cuff that he played through. By
the way, it sounds like thatinjury occurred early in the game. And
there's there's more too. There wasanother Henry, of course the Chargers,
because who else but the Chargers couldget more bad injury luck. It sounds
like Hunter Henry is going to missat least half the season, if not
(15:03):
more too after another knee injury.Yeah, and we and we have just
touched the tip of the iceberg.I know there was at least four stealers
that left the game and didn't return. T J. Watt was one of
them. That would be a seriousloss for them. And now again we're
hoping that these are not serious injuries, but there were enough at C.
J. Mosley, who played lightsout for the Jets, left the game
in the fourth quarter and couldn't return. So it was happening all over the
(15:24):
league. Not going for a biggerpoint here, not not suggesting that there's
a way to avoid it or thatanything was different this year, but it
was just a very costly Week one. And I think the one point that
you can make, because we continueto hopefully this will be the last week,
we do have this conversation. Butthe teams around the NFL who don't
(15:48):
believe in the preseason anymore, andthe main, if not soul rationale,
is that they're trying to protect theirplayers and keep them healthy. This is
one of the arguments I've been making, what is the difference between losing a
player one of the regular season andlosing him in the preseason. And in
fact, with a number of theseinjuries where these guys are going to return
like a Tyree Hill, quite possiblylike a Nick Foles, if it had
(16:11):
happened in the preseason, they'd missless regular season games for it. So
the only real endgame on that isthat you can try and protect players as
much as you want in the preseason, it does nothing to limit their risk
for injury the second the regular seasonstarts. Yeah, no doubt about it.
Let me just ask you too,because I don't want to make any
more proclamations when it comes to that. But what team is best equipped to
(16:36):
handle? I mean, these areall serious injuries we're discussing to critical players,
so I think it's probably safe tosay the illist equipped is the Jaguars,
who are now going to start asix rounder in Gardner Minshew. And
he played great. I mean,let's be very clear here. I think
he completed eighty something absurd just hisHe barely had any incompletions and kept the
(16:57):
Jaguars hanging around in that game,at least for a little bit against the
Chiefs when they were up against it. So I would assume that the answer
has to be Nick Foles. Butwhat about the Chiefs offense without Tyreek Hill?
Obviously they had spent what I thinka second rounder. I'm Nicole Hardman
thinking they might not have Hill becauseof suspension, but not injury of course,
with the you know, the draftnight story that came out with Tyreek
(17:19):
what else? I mean? Icharge Jokay a thought hunter, Henry.
There's actually there was a rumblings yesterdayfrom Anthony Lynn in La that they're worried
about Mike Williams too. So ifyou put Hunter Henry and Mike Williams together,
remember they're already without Melvin Gordon.Now those start to feel like they're
compounding. Yeah, I mean,clearly, the biggest loss is Nick Foles.
You know, he was the hopefor a bounce back to contention in
(17:41):
that division. We saw how theChiefs kind of ate up that defense with
a defense that is still trying torediscover itself in a rookie quarterback. Even
and actually the AFC South, whichI thought had a chance to be the
worst division in the league, wasvery impressive on opening day if you think
(18:02):
about it other than Jacksonville. Imean the fact that Indy went out to
Sandy, to Los Angeles and tookthe Chargers to overtime, and Jacobe Broussett's
not first start, but first startas the new franchise quarterback, that the
Tennessee Titans absolutely destroyed the Cleveland Browns, albeit with the gift of eighteen penalties
in one hundred and eighty two yards. We'll talk about the Browns in a
few minutes. Suddenly that division islooking and then the Houston Texans. You
(18:26):
know, we can say all wewant about what Bill O'Brien did in the
future of that team with the draftchoices he gave up, but clearly with
Laramie Tunsland, Kenny Stills, they'regoing to be a better football team than
we thought they were. Even thoughWatson was sacked three times, he was
lights out. So I don't thinkthere's any question that it's the Jaguars who
suffered the most from that injury.Yeah, but if nothing else, because
(18:48):
of the position he plays, ofcourse, and just because Nick Foles,
in addition to stabilizing the quarterback position, was supposed to bring so much leadership
and stability to that immature locker room. So hard for me to disagree with
you, Air, although color meintrigued by Gardner Minshew, and not just
because of not just because of theincredible numbers, but kids got an interesting
(19:10):
story. He seems like he isa big time personality. Of course,
spent you know, just the oneyear with Mike Leach at Washington State.
I guess fell in the draft,and he had himself a decent Senior Bowl
in pre draft process, but Iguess his ordinary measurables and arm talent ultimately
is what led to him being availablein the sixth round. Um small sample
(19:30):
size alert to be sure, butJackson has to be encouraged by the first
time out from Minshew. Yeah.I think some Scotts just thought that his
mustache was bigger than his arm andthat was part of the problem. Yeah,
I love it. It's part ofYea. His personality is Gardner Minshew
is gonna be fun to watch andfun for the league. That's sort of
the silver lining on the Nick Folesinjury. Welcome back, everybody, Thank
(19:56):
you so much for being with usfor this week's edition of our Pro Football
Weekly and fl podcast. I'm HubArkish, Arthur Arkish, I'm managing editor.
Alongside we want to thank all ofour great sponsors as well as our
incredible executive producer, Dan Mott.What he does behind the scenes to make
all of our podcasts, our TVshows, our radio shows work is just
unbelievable. Also, thanks to theguys that Humphrey's McGee for allowing us to
(20:18):
use some of their outstanding music forour sound beds, our intro music in
and out as well as our bumps. Arthur, let's get right back at
it. And talk about, well, let's break them into two actually,
and let's go positive first. Mostimpressive opening day performances. You know,
I think, I guess I startin my mind anyway with the New England
(20:41):
Patriots, because I don't believe thePittsburgh Steelers are one of the worst teams
in the NFL, and they mightas well have not been there and in
New England. And you know,we've talked so much about the retirement of
Gronk, they had two serious injurieson the offensive line, they're bringing in
other teams backups, and yet suddenlyhere's Opening Day and they are the most
(21:03):
dominant, most impressive team. AndI think one of the things we've forgot
is that they in that Super Bowllast year, became more about the defense
than the offense. And you addMichael Bennett and some of the guys that
they've been able to bring back aswell some of the youngsters they've brought in.
I thought the Patriots were the teamthat impressed me the most on the
opening weekend. Yeah, hard toargue. Thirty three to three, you
(21:26):
know, just a blasting of thePittsburgh Steelers in Foxborough. And let's not
forget they did it shorthanded. Kylevan Noy left to go be with his
wife and labor. I mean,he has become a huge part of that
defense. You know, they're hopefulthat Antonio Brown is eventually going to become
a big part of this offense.Of course, he didn't play in that
game either, So yeah, thePatriots were awesome. That secondary is just
ridiculous. They were able to takeJiujie Smith Schuster more or less out of
(21:49):
the game. That certainly had tobe the concern in the first time out
for Big Ben without a B iswho else is going to step up?
And at least for one game theyhad no one day Moncrief was just a
disaster. James Washington didn't seem toget a lot of chances. I didn't
see a lot of Vans McDonald.So yeah, that's a credit to what
Bill Belichick and now what Gerard Mayoare doing over there on defense. So
(22:12):
yes, really really good. Idon't care that it was against the Miami
Dolphins. Hub I gotta say theBaltimore Ravens, I mean to do what
they did on the road with LamarJackson just dominating from the pocket to hang
a fifty burger man, they hadfifty nine points in that embarrassment of the
Miami Dolphins. And again, weneed to see more from Lamar Jackson,
(22:33):
There's no question about it. ButI don't know how you could be more
excited about what he did with MarquiseHollywood Brown, his tight end, Mark
Andrews, mark Ingram and his Baltimoredebut. Earl Thomas gets an interception in
his Baltimore debut. So again,it's the Miami Dolphins. But at least
for one week, the excitement thatwe've been led to believe was coming with
the offense was there, and therewas no drop you know, drop off
(22:57):
with the defense that lost all thebig pieces in the offseason. Well,
I mean, I absolutely agree withyou that the Ravens belong in this conversation.
Hats off to Lamar Jackson for anincredible opener, But I do care
that it was about the Miami Dolphinsbecause that's not an NFL team. I
mean, that's just that's embarrassing what'sgoing on down there. And when you
(23:18):
plug in the fact that now theycome home Week two and get the Arizona
Cardinals and their opener, who areclearly better than the Dolphins, but also
one of the NFL seller dwellers.I'm going to slow my role on the
Ravens a little bit out. That'sfine. I want to get a little
deeper in their schedule, but Iwant to throw out another team that is
actually a very comfortable train ride fromBaltimore. The Philadelphia Eagles embarrassed themselves in
the first half, but they cameout in the second half and showed why
(23:41):
some of the analysts are as excitedas they are about them. They scored
at will, did whatever they wanton offense. The defense turned off a
Washington attack that had put up twentyone points in the first half, and
yeah, you gotta play sixty minutes, but I actually and then seeing the
impact that de Sean j Xon immediatelyhad on that football team and the way
(24:02):
Carson wentz through the football in spiteof them embarrassing themselves in the first half,
I came away pretty impressed by thePhiladelphia Eagles. Yeah, no doubt
about it was almost like they justI think it was you who wrote in
the power rankings they kind of missedtheir wake up call. But certainly that
looked impressive once it came together inthe second half. Good to see Brandon
Brooks coming off the achilles. Ibelieve, play every snap there on the
(24:22):
inside of that offensive line. Likeyou said, Deshaun Jackson's homecoming and revenge
game against Washington couldn't have gone muchbetter. So really good. One more
team I would throw in there.You know, certainly needs to be mentioned
as a Tennessee Titans, for say, which will about the Cleveland Browns and
Freddie Kitchens tough tasks meant managing notonly the egos but the expectations for that
(24:44):
franchise. But let's credit Tennessee herefor a minute. A Marcus Mariota was
awesome through three touchdowns, played aclean game, did nothing wrong. It
looked like the December version of DerrickHenry in what their new coordinator Arthur Smith
promises is going to be an offensebuilt or round the former Heisman winner.
And then defensively, I'm not sure. I gotta I gotta watch the tape
(25:04):
more to find out whatever it wasthat DNPS was able to do to make
Baker Mayfield so darn uncomfortable, tohold onto the ball so long, and
to make what everyone thought was goingto be this juggernaut Brown's offense just just
a disaster. I know they beatthemselves a lot too with the penalties,
but Cameron Wake, I mean,there were a lot of contributors on that
(25:26):
Titans defense in that dominant performance aswell. I liked Tennessee all through the
offseason. I liked what they weredoing, and I kind of got talked
out of it by some folks justhearing the doubts about Marcus Mariota and the
age of Cameron Wake. But Ithink that is an interesting team. We're
gonna get back to that game whenwe get to the glass half empty part
in a minute. But two moreteams that I want to mention another one
(25:47):
for their dominance. And yeah,I know it was the New York Giants,
and I want to see Dak Prescottdo that more than once. But
the Dallas Cowboys were as dominant asanybody on opening Day. And and if
Dak Prescott can play like that weekendand week out, and if Michael Gallop
you know who didn't excite you asa rookie but now looks to be the
(26:11):
real deal, you know, alongwith the addition of Randall Cobb, and
you know what Ze Galliot can do, I think the defense is still gonna
have some things to figure out,but you gotta love what Dallas did,
and at the time, a teamI never thought i'd mentioned here, Cincinnati
went into Seattle and and you know, you talk about an inexperienced rookie head
(26:32):
coach and Zach Tyler. They didn'tget to win, but but the battle
that they gave the Seahawks, whoI think maybe a pretty good football team,
they were the downtrodden, if youwill, who surprised me the most.
And I'm taking a step back now. Bengals aren't gonna win the division,
They're not gonna go to the playoffs, but I'm kind of rethinking where
that team is at because I thoughtthey were going to be one of the
three or four worst teams in theleague, and they sure didn't play like
(26:55):
it on opening weekend. I'm gladyou mentioned that was the one other team
I was gonna mention, and Iwanted to make sure we would. You
know, they're the one sort ofteam that ended up in the losing column
that still did impress in defeat.In the connection I would make between those
two teams, the Dallas Cowboys andthe Cincinnati Bengals, is the impressive debuts
they got from the play callers andKellen Moore, who somehow unlocked a whole
(27:17):
new Dak Prescott and was pretty muchthe antithesis of what they were doing there
previously under Scott Linahan. And thenof course Zach Taylor, the young head
coach of the Cincinnati Bengals, whocertainly appears to have brought you know,
a big chunk of that La Ram'spassing game over to Cincinnati, and that
was fun to watch. John Russ, maybe a late bloomer, remember the
(27:37):
former number nine overall pick, whoplayed the Brandon Cook's role and played it
really well there against a tough Seattledefense. And then you know, Tyler
Boyd plays well. Andy Dalton wasgood, and they got some surprising pass
rush that I didn't see coming fromthe likes of Sam Hubbard and Carl Lawson
and of course Geno Atkins more predictably. But yeah, maybe there's a slightly
(27:59):
more there than many of us thoughtas recently as a week ago. All
Right, I teed it up afew minutes ago, glass half empty.
What was really unfortunate? The biggestfail, if you will, the Cleveland
Browns, I mean, you know, not only did Baker Mayfield get picked
three times, not only was theoffense really ineffective all game long against Tennessee.
(28:26):
Those eighteen penalties in one hundred andeighty two yards are on the Browns
coaches and players. I mean,that's part of the game, that's what
you get ready for. And itis a classic example of exactly the reason
I've been saying all off season I'mnot sold on that team at all yet,
low character, locker rooms, commita lot of penalties, okay,
and it's too early. You know, they may turn out to be the
(28:49):
greatest humanitarian team in the NFL.I'm not, you know, writing the
final epitaph or chapter on this team. But the reason I just couldn't get
on board with everybody picking Cleveland forthe Super Bowl and picking Cleveland to win
the division is because you have broughtin a lot of questionable pieces. Is
the puzzle going to be completed?And we had no idea why Freddie Kitchens
(29:12):
was John Dorris's choice for that.Freddie Kitchens may turn out to be a
great coach. Do You do notjudge these guys on one performance, but
you also don't annoint them until yousee it on the football field, and
what we saw on the football fieldfrom the Cleveland Browns last Sunday was every
bit as bad as the one infifteen and oh and sixteen versions of that
team. Now, they're way tootalented to be that. Obviously, they're
(29:34):
gonna play better, they're gonna becompetitive, but that team has a long
way to go before anybody should thinkthat they can be a playoff team.
Yeah, it appears that way.And you know, I'm one of those
who did pick the Browns to winthe division, and I'm not backing off
of that. And I will mentionbecause we went heavy on the Steelers at
the top part of the reasons becauseI don't think Pitts Steelers is gonna be
(29:55):
very good this season, and Ithink the rest of the division is going
to fall off. I realized wejust praised Baltimore in Cincinnati, but that
was a part of my thinking ongoing with Cleveland. I'm not backing away
from that. What I might nothave thought enough about though. We talked
about the egos, about the volatilityof the talent that they've acquired. But
I just think a whole separate partof it that I alluded to briefly,
it's managing expectations as much as egos. So those are two separate things in
(30:18):
my mind. I mean, yougot the unpredictability of what you know nowhere
don't know about your players. Butthen you've got the weight of an entire
fan base the most you know,I think the most the fan base that
has suffered the worst in the NFLfor however long. So that's a whole
separate part of it. And FreddyKitchens is a lot to show rebounding from
that performance. Hub I know,we have a whole separate podcast for them.
(30:42):
But the other team for me thatmessed the bed like no other than
the Cleveland Browns in Week one wasthe Chicago Bears. Gonna get to that
in a minute, But one otherthought on the Cleveland Browns, Arthur,
is that one thing that is strictlyon the field, and this is on
John Dorsey. Clearly we knew theyhad a chance to be the worst offensive
line in football. I think they'regoing to be the worst offensive line in
(31:02):
football. I mean, when yougo in counting on Greg Robinson as your
left tackle, one of the epicfails of the NFL draft. In two
other cities right now, you're reallygambling. And then when you see him
trying to kick people on the headand get ejected week one, I mean,
they've got a mess on the offensiveline that they have to fix and
it gets worse too. Off ofthat, I mean to cut you off,
but let's not forget that. JohnDorsey traded Kevin Zieler to the New
(31:26):
York Giants and Olivier Vernon also committedat least one awful penalty in that game
and brought that reputation from New Yorkto Cleveland and being a little bit of
an undisciplined player, So that wasnoticeable. The absence of Kevin Zieler was
certainly noticeable, and we also haveto point out that John Dorsey probably felt
like he was okay doing that becausehe's got the thirty third overall pick in
the draft two years ago. AustinCorbett, who I believe was a healthy
(31:49):
scratch in Week one this season,so he has gone from penciled in as
the starting right guard to replace KevinZieler to a healthy scratch I think to
begin his second straight season. Yeah. Now let's get to the Chicago Bears,
who definitely disappointed in the big NFLseason opening debut. But we do
have to be careful in how wediscussed this because they were clearly once again
(32:13):
the number one defense in the NFL. I mean, we're talking about teams
that succeeded and teams that failed.Half the Chicago Bears failed. The defense
could not have played any better andactually made Aaron Rodgers look bad. But
offensively, it was one of theworst performances we've seen from an NFL offense
in possibly several seasons based on whatwe expected from them, and this is
(32:36):
a team that was supposed to bedramatically improved from their twenty first total offense
ranking last year because of the newweapons they had surrounded mister Bisky with.
So certainly that you demands first criticismand second conversation, do we have to
rethink the Bears like you just saidabout Cleveland. I'm still picking the Bears
to win the NFC North because wehave to remember they were an epic fail
(33:00):
last year and they're open or blowinga twenty point lead and still went twelve
and four. Everything that happened canbe fixed, but it just shouldn't have
happened with a game that they hadnine months to get ready for right and
again, we have a separate podcastfor this. We're not going to go
in great depth. We hope you'llgo check that one out too. I
mean, we are covering the Bearswall to wall here in Chicago. But
hube I would just add that itwas so jarring to see the inaptitude on
(33:23):
offense because we've been hearing for monthsand months about the strides that Mitch is
taking behind the scenes and how he'sclicking with his new supporting cast, and
that was just that could not havebeen less evident in the opener and what
it means. I'm not backing offmy prediction either. I still believe the
Bears will win the division, buttheir margin for air has reduced greatly early
(33:44):
in the season because they've got theseThis was a game they certainly thought they
should have. Now they go toDenver and what already feels like a game,
they have to have Washington on aMonday night after that in case Keenum,
then the Vikings at home in weekfour before going to London to see
the Raiders. Once they get backafter the Week six by the sledding gets
a lot tougher they need to havea favorable outcome over these next four or
(34:06):
five games to feel pretty good headinginto heading overseas to go face the Raiders.
Yeah, we're running a little overtimehere, but a couple more teams
we just do have to mention veryquickly. The other side of that football
game, hats off to the greenBay Packers. That was a huge upset.
I don't think a lot of folkssaw them going into Chicago in that
situation. And what was really intriguingabout that is, like the Bears,
(34:28):
it was all their defense. BecauseAaron Rodgers was bad, there's now the
Bears defense will do that to you. I'm not worried about Aaron Rodgers,
but the Packers offense was enepped allnight long. They put ten points on
the board. Their offensive line againwhere they offerer? Is the Bears pressure
that good? But Rodgers took abeating. But for their defense to play
the way they did, and that'swhat leaves both of these teams so difficult
(34:50):
to analyze, is was the Bearsoffense that bad that we can't credit the
green Bay defense? Was the greenBay defense that good that we shouldn't be
so hard on Mitch Drubisky. Weknow this. We know the Bears still
have one of the best defenses inthe NFL. And I think we know
even though Matt Lafleur is a rookiehead coach who's putting a new system in,
I think we know that given atleast a couple more weeks with Aaron
(35:13):
Rodgers, they're going to be betteron offense. Yeah, I think that's
safe to say. And just kindof closing things down here, one more
team that impressed, especially in lightof all the distractions they're feeling with,
and we give them a lot offlak on the ProFootball Weekly website. The
Oakland Raiders. They took care ofbusiness. And you know, the Broncos
weren't very good, and it wasVic Fangio's debut performance. But let's give
a little bit of credit where it'sdue to John Grum because he had those
(35:35):
guys ready to play in the opener, and Derek Carr looked really good.
And then for all of the scornthat Mitch Drubisky has been facing for a
week now, it's probably only fairto mention that a former number one overall
pick messed the bed almost as bad. Jamis Winston's Bruce Arians' debut in that
offense was abysmal three interceptions. Thisis a maker break here for Jamis Winston,
(35:57):
even more so than Mitch Drubisky.And to lose at home the way
they did to the San Francisco fortynine ers has to be just crushing Well
and Arthur one more epic fail andthen I promise folks will let you go,
although I guess you can turn itoff when everyone pick it up again,
so we need to go. Butthe Atlanta Falcons, I mean,
you know, dan Quinn blew upeverything, fired all his coordinators. He's
gonna fix this, He's gonna takecare of it. They rebuilt the offensive
(36:19):
line. That score is misleading becausethey were completely inept on offense for three
quarters. I've never seen Matt Ryanplay like that. That was really disappointing.
And again on the flip side,the Minnesota Vikings, they should have
been on our list of teams thatreally impressed. The only reason I back
off from that a little bit isthey only showed us half the offense.
(36:40):
I love Dalvin Cook, have knownif he ever stayed healthy, he was
going to be a great NFL back. He's healthy. Right now, you
saw what he can do. Weknow that Viking defense can be dominant,
and it was. It was greatagainst the Falcons. But the one question
that needs to be answered, andArthur we will end on this is what
about Kirk Cousins in that passing game? Because while it worked in the opener
(37:04):
at home, they threw the ballten times all game long, they only
ran forty nine plays in sixty minuteson offense. That is not a consistently
winning formula in today's NFL, especiallynot for the quarterback who just reset the
bar. On the way that NFLcontracts are done. You didn't pay Kirk
Cousins ninety four million guaranteed eighty fourI can't remember what it is, but
(37:27):
to be their third option after thedefense in the run game. So yes,
that will have to sort itself out. We'll see if it happens against
again. It looks like it's goingto be a really good Packers defense.
But after that you got the OaklandRaiders. The Giants are on the schedule
shortly thereafter Washington. There's gonna besome opportunities for Kirk Cousins to re establish
himself as part of this thing too. The reason that I and we all
(37:49):
love the NFL so much, orthrough thirty five minutes just isn't enough for
our podcast to cover. Now thatwe're into regular season action, it was
a great week one we hope everybodythoroughly enjoys. We too. We thank
you so much for listening. You'rethe most important reason we do this podcast.
We do also, of course,want to thank our great sponsors,
our executive producer Dan Mott, theguys that um Freese McGee. You look
(38:10):
like you want to add something.Yeah, I just want to tell the
listeners make sure you get to thewebsite for our picks. We did not
put our picks on the podcast thisseason. They are free and they are
going to be available all We'll bepicking every game for everyone, so make
sure you go get over to thewebsite and check those out. We had
some success last year. Again,those picks are free and maybe able to
help you out at the window thisseason. You mentioned last year, I
didn't even look. Did I embarrassedmyself on hope? You did? Oh?
(38:34):
I don't. Yeah, I'm notsure I needed I still need to
review. I thought you mented youembarrass yourself last year, and yeah,
you did, but that's okay.It wasn't awful. Yeah, I think
I don't mind embarrassing myself for aweek. I don't think I've ever embarrassed
myself for a full season, soI just had to gloat a little bit.
I was the winner of the Handicapper'sCorner among three of us last year.
Now it's just hub hubbing myself,so you can imagine it'll be even
(38:57):
more competitive, and I guess I'llbe taking shots because that's the way this
thing is starting out. He wasbound to beat me once in thirty seven
years, and it's okay, allright, guys, that's gonna do it
for this week. Thank you somuch for being with us. Don't forget
to download our Pro Football Weekly Chicagopodcast as well. I really appreciate you
visiting with us this week. We'lltalk to you again most week.
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