The Around the NFL podcast is back in the Chris Wesling podcast studio. Hell, yeah. We back. I don't know the rest of the building. The Chris Wesling podcast studio is still functioning, and that's great. And so is the Around the NFL podcast. Dan Hans is here. Got heroes. Mark Sesler, Greg Rosenthal. And yes, she also back. Connie Wolf.

Connie's the queen. She is the queen of NFL Media.

10:51, Soulja. Colleen Wolf. What's up?

Hey, what is up? I can't believe we did it again. We did it again. We both got here, 10:51. I mean, it is on the-Did it again. Science.

This one made me think there might be some Truman show scenario was going around. Why is that? Because this morning we had a week off after the Super Bowl, and we're all back together.

Greg and I actually spent the week together.

Oh, that's nice.A lot of time. Let's get to that next. But I want to hear everything on that. 7 AM, we're sending out text and email. We're ready to get back to work. All through the morning, I'm like, All right, I'm going to get there. Maybe I'll get there an hour earlier, get settled in. Then something pops up and it's a half hour. I'm still eight minutes ahead of my typical 10:51 soldier schedule. As I'm stepping out the door, UPS truck pulls up to deliver these big, heavy doors. We're just putting in a closet in our house, and I have to help the man. They're so heavy. I help the man bring in the closets, wipes out the eight-minute window, 10:51 soldier, and now it's starting to It's going to feel like a bigger conspiracy, Sestog.

All right, ready UPS truck, go UPS truck. We're just directing the whole thing. Right.

But your intention was to come here earlier.

My intention was really set.

To what end would this be a to make you show up at 10:51? What is the goal?

Well, that's what I want to know.

We don't know. The fates are working your schedule, not you.

I mean, fate would be one thing, okay? But I am thinking something bigger and grander.

He is literally always parking as soon as I pull in the garage behind him. It's always orchestrated that way.

It's not just me.Caleen.It's happened all year. Who's coming from a totally different area of the South Bay is also the way the traffic patterns work, the stoplights. How is this happening exactly at this moment?

It's raining today. That adds another wrinkle.

That's a wrench, but not in this case.

Anyway.

It's the new eighth wonder of the world.

Everyone wants to know about it.

Also, what I want to know about, Mark Sesler, you come from a different area of Los Angeles to get to work. One of your early text this morning was about something that's on your radar here in the office, and I could not wait to hear about it.

Well, it's disturbing to me personally.

Is this developing news? Is this breaking news?

What is this? I'd say it's developing. It's a developing situation.

We got to hit it. We got to hit it then. Because...

What do you got, Mike? Well, I label it under the category of theft. Uh-oh. So one of the perks when you go to the Super Bowl and do all the work that we did and have the great time that we had, you come back and on your desk, they have a Super Bowl program which you can give to a child or something.

This has never happened to me.

Oh, well, this is having us, though.

Yeah, you don't have a desk.

Colleen does have a desk, which she's never sat at before.

No, they took it away. They took it away, which is understandable.

There's a desk you could sit at near us. Oh, okay, cool. A Super Bowl program, neatly put on the desk, and on top of it in a plastic or in a cardboard box is a Super Bowl ticket encased in glass.

It's a wonderful memento, especially in the past, I'm going to say about five years, they went away the league from physical tickets, taking it to the game, and now it's a digital situation. So this ticket, I took my buddy Greg from New York to the game, and he's a huge sports fan. He'd always wanted to go to the Super Bowl, and he was really bummed, and I said, Guess what? They do have this ticket that they put in glass, and I'm going to give it to you when I see it.

It's a gift. You can give it to a child again, finds it fascinating, anyone that didn't go to the game. I always look forward to it, and I'm thankful for it. My My attitude has been pleasant towards the whole situation.

I thought everyone was just buying these ticket places.

No, they're also valuable. I come in and our desk is smashed up against glass for all these tour groups come in and all these people were riftraffing in and out the door right behind my desk.Total rift-raffer everywhere. Dan's desk, Super Bowl program, neatly put out, and his little ticket in the cardboard box. Of course, I look at Greg's desk and it's like, perfect. He's got two. Perfect. He got, Yeah, it's perfect and everything's fine. Then on my desk, the Super Bowl program has just been ripped open to someone's reading a magazine, and the ticket in the box are gone. So someone literally went to my desk, not only stole the thing, but then just sat and read my Super Bowl program, probably in my seat, and then said, F you, I'm going to take this valuable item and leave Mark, of course.That's.

Going to HR right after this.It.

Is a good read. Judy Batista often contributes, Steve Weish.

The program is not my concern. I already have a program. In. So someone- Someone stole this precious item from Simply... I walked around and every desk, like clockwork, has this perfect little program and a little trinket.

Sounds like a case for Frank Signetti.

I think it does. Signetti could use the word. It's big-based. So I don't know. Welcome back to work. It's great to be back together, as they say.

That's a major... And I understand, Mark. Especially, it's annoying because because old Greggy and the Zoos Dog both have our programs and tickets, and yet it's almost like you were targeted.

Well, it was also, and I'm not going to dig into this.

Dan, Greg, all the guys.

There was a seating situation at the Super Bowl where Dan and Greg's guests got put up in these moments, and I had to keep a lid on this, but my seats were in nosebleed central. It's like someone is on the prowel to disengage me further from the entire mission. Greg, your take.

You can have my ticket to thatThat takes care of that.

Well, that's very nice, but I actually think you could give it to Walker, for instance, who would love it, and I would just ask HR, How do I get another one of these?

Yeah, that's great. That's very you. That is very you. That was also Walker's first Super Bowl. It's robbing Peter to pay Paul a little bit.

I can't take that.

I don't think I've ever brought one of those home. I always give them to people. I don't know. I don't like having things.I.

Mean, your son.

Your son went to his first Super Bowl. I'm not a big things guy. It just feels like it weighs you down.

I'm not a big things guy. I'm not a big things guy either, but when it's robbed from me. It's more the-How old is your son?

It's a violation.

Yes, thank you.

He's nine. I feel like he would appreciate it. Okay. He would. Because we don't need to take it from walking. Mark will get a ticket. We're going to get it. It's just a matter of, first of all, Eric, can we pull the footage out of the newsroom? Sometimes I give Eric harder tests than a typical podcast producer. Do you think? We need to pull the files. We need to find out who is sitting at Mark's desk, which, by the way, is a violation in its own right. That is his desk.

They should be fired.

Can we do that, Eric? Can we get the footage?

I'll look into hacking security.

Who's the guy that runs the... That guy's busy right now because it's whole built. Listen, B-Dog, this place is sinking right now?

Yeah, we got problems.

There's cracks in the floors. There's ceilings that are caving in. Half the electrics are shot.

It's going to stop raining.

It's almost like they didn't account. They built a $10 million building, and then we're like, Oh, but it doesn't rain in LA.

They're dryvacking outside.

Oh, baby, it rains in LA in December and January.

It's like a building made of like, brambles on top of a mesa. And then, oh, weather happened, and it's like the whole place is crumbling.

And the Chris Westling podcast, maybe it's West, wherever he is, watching over us. So far is still functioning, but everywhere around us, the place is basically in chaos.

This is Noah's Ark of NFL Media.Yes.

This is our safe room.Right here.

Anyway, that's terrible, Mark. That would annoy me greatly.

Right. I was thinking in reverse, I think you would understand you'd be annoyed. It would look like they targeted you, right?

It could be someone that doesn't have a desk and didn't ever get a ticket.

Yeah, but also was like, Oh, that's a good person to target.

What about Roberts? You, first Super Bowl for Eric Roberts.Excellent work all week.Thank you. They give it a jacket to all the staff, the Super Bowl jacket. Roberts needs a jacket, too.

I will put a bow on this. I did end up getting a jacket. It's at my desk. But it was like, I've heard that. I didn't take out the bag because I got it and started working, obviously. Apparently, it's a double X. It's a quite large jacket. But I'll take it. I appreciate the gift. You could crop it. I was there for the experience, guys. It was a great week. I'm not going to let a jacket ruin my week.

We got to get Kyle Uschek's wife to modify your jacket.

That's a great idea.

It was a nice jacket. I would have been as bitter about it as I was, but it was a nice freaking jacket.

Can we get Robert's Alarge? Can we just get him Alarge? Can we get market ticket, Robert's Alarge? That's it. All right. Welcome back, everybody. Thank you for hanging around. I hope in the interim, no one listened to another NFL podcast and liked it?

Not allowed.

That's not allowed. That went without saying, but if you did, shame on you. Then you found out, Oh, all their podcasts are bad.

Well, it worked in our favor somehow.

We are nominated, by the way, iHeartRadio. We are nominated for Best NFL podcast. The award show is in Austin next month.

Best Sports podcast. Best Sports. Second time, yeah.

Hell, yeah. The competition is fierce, but also the competition is weak, ultimately, and we are the greatest. The award that we went over in the Old UK speaks to that, as does the Stitcher Award from '13 and the best new podcast.

It's seemingly We've honestly linked together.

Itunes Award from '12. Now people need to understand that. You learned a hard lesson and wasted your time on any other NFL podcast, ney, sports podcast last week. But we are now back in today's episode. In addition In addition to getting caught up on everything that's happened since Super Bowl 58, we're going to share, in our opinion, the biggest story lines of the 2024 offseason in which we are now firmly, Connie, planted.

There's a lot. There's so many... Mark has already come up with 74 different options.

Now the season's begun.

Football's back. No, not yet.

It's Binder season. Not yet. Mark had concerns about the... Russell Wilson is in the news for selling his house. Mark I asked nicely, maybe we should take it out of the news because that might be the biggest storyline of the offseason for Mark when we get to that segment.

I thought it lived in that world to some degree, but I'm sure we will spend exhaustive time during the news nugget item going down the road and explaining what it means separately.

Mark politely flagged this for you. Right.

Then to write it for it by these two. I see it.

You get it because you're- No, we don't need this. We get it stuff. I said, We'll take it out of the news if that is indeed your biggest offseason storyline.

No, because I already did an end around before the show.

Then you said it was not on your list of 14 possibilities.

I didn't put it on the list because I knew it would caused mental confusion.

All of a sudden, we're in this smart vortex because we did... I said, We'll take it out. We'll take it out.It'll.

Be all yours.No, no, no. It's definitely the least necessary news item, to be fair.

I think we don't change the show during the show.

No, it's good.

Now we're in two deep. We're off. Let's do some news. So is that a wood elf? Are we talking high elf, dark elf?

I think it runs the whole gamut. I mean, if you get into... I'm not, I'm not. I'm an average elf A tough individual. But the fact that I think some people thought it doesn't represent a tough football player. Well, there's a lot of things happening with elves that could cause a problem for the Ravens or stealers, I think, depending on some of their powers. We'll leave it out. We'll leave that right there at that.

In case you missed it from Radio Row, that's Mark Sesler in a sit down with Denzel Ward and Miles Garrett of the Browns. You can only tee these players up. You know what I mean? I thought you did a brilliant job there, giving them a chance, a platform to dig in on the elves. If they don't want to take it and run with it, they don't have to.

Well, so two things were happening real quick. I realized I've already talked a lot on this show about personal items, but they-Go ahead, Mark. Well, no, one. That's on me here. Be you, bro. That was the day that we drove into Las Vegas. They sent us right to this. This was 18 minutes into the show where it's like... I had come in with my health at a one out of 10. I talked about it, I had no voice, and I just felt medicated. At one point, I'm looking over and Miles where it was where Dan was. He's just looking at me like, This guy has got issues.

This is also a top 10 brown of all time.

They looked very amused. Denzel Ward had a look on his face like, I'm not going to have to say much here. This guy's doing great. This is fun for me.

It got better because I had two lists of questions because this has happened. We've been to rail before. It's like, Serious questions or fun questions. I was like, I'm not going to go down the wrong road. Then you're supposed to ask the sponsor question first. I'm eight questions in and realized I hadn't asked the sponsor question. I asked in a weird way. The note we got from upper management the next day was like, You don't go off script on the sponsor. Then you were saddled with overly serious questions.

I was killed the rest of the week.

I'm very distracted right now because Lincoln, Westalina, and Lekisha are walking by. Oh, look at that. Oh, hi. Podcast studio.

Okay, Link is waving, and it's melting my heart, and the whole show is derailed now.

Wow, I forgot that Lekisha's in town.

Wow. That was an incredible stop-by.

I'm not overly I'm confident. I'm feeling good that Link is in this building right now. I feel like this might be the most dangerous building in Los Angeles based on the-But he's going to come inside the Ark.

Here, we're going to get him inside the Ark two by two.

I saw them yesterday for a little bowling in dinner. It would have been Chris Westling's 50th birthday.Oh, my God.Oh.

My God. Happy birthday, Greg. And your birthday, Greg.

And mine as well.And Roger Goodell's.And Roger Goodell's. The tree, the free-In that order. The Holy Trinity. The pillars, like The Rams have Aaron Donald and Stafford, the weight-bearing walls.Unbelievable.How.

Old did you turn?

I'm 45. So I'm five. I was five years younger.What's going on? Big one. But I think Chris would have been proud with no prep, no telling him what to do. Link just took that bowling ball and threw the thing down there for a three-year-old like an athlete.

He's fearless. It's in the Wesleyan DNA. I mean, their ability to play parlor games and bowling and things of that In fact, I was last weekend or this past weekend, I was up in Big Bear, where I go every year with my buddy Bob and his family and our family. We have a nice time together. We happened to be staying at a house that we had rented that was directly behind the Motor Inn motel, where in 2015, I think we figured out, Mark, Wes, and myself did a weekend in Big Bear that was debauchers on multiple levels. It was an all-time Chris Night Out performance by Chris.

The twinkle in Sesler's eyes right now.

No, because it was like it had many layers. It would be hard to tell a few hours story about.

All I can tell you is the night ends with us putting Wes to bed in one of the twin beds, and Mark and I going into this little kitchen and eating bad pizza and listening to Count & Crow. But we had an amazing... As I walked, we cut through from the house through this parking lot, and there it is. It's room number one, this motor lodge with the chairs. Then I got this flashback because Wes and I were very dorky about softball. We brought our gloves, and I remember the parking lot where we were having catch, and I believe you were sitting in the chair and we were just talking. Then there was a brewery across the street where we went to Bear Mountain Brewery. A lot of memories. I didn't even connect that it was on his birthday that all this was going on. A 50th, that is a crazy, crazy thing. All right, get on track. He's like, I thought this was a football podcast.

We'll get there.

I'm so serious.

The offseason has begun, guys.

Yeah, it's like we haven't seen each other for a week. We have a lot of catching up to do. We just couldn't...

They don't really talk football. I like a real deep dive. Shut up.This.

Feels...shut up. Quiet, you little nerd.

I love the listeners.

Right. I don't think anyone's thinking that. It's about me. It's just this weird thing in your head. Shut up.

Silence.

Shut up, Holy...

Silence, Four Eyes.

You're nerds. All right, let's get into it. Oh, God. Connie, when we were in Vegas, when we talked about the subplots that are under the radar that... Oh, no. That real football heads know, which we are, we can be that and also have personalities and be human beings. What was your subplot going into '58?

Did it have to do with Steve Wilkes? Steve Wilkes.

I don't even remember what it was.

It was that it could be a launching pad to greaterif he was able-It was a launching pad, all right.

If he was able to get the defense together and have a good performance and beat the Chiefs and turn things around for himself because the narrative all year long was that he wasn't going to fit and there was a wrong philosophy and Everything was terrible about that take.

Steve Wilkes was relieved of his duties three days after the 49ers fell short in the Super Bowl against the Chiefs, a game where I didn't think their defense played overly poorly, but there were more elements at play behind the scenes very clearly. We talked about it on the show going into the Super Bowl that maybe something wasn't quite right. Here is Chanahan at his press conference. This morning, I relieved Steve Wilkes of his duties.

Going to end up making a change here at defense Coordinator.

Really tough decision because really says nothing about Steve as a man or as a football coach. He's exactly what we wanted as a man. He is a great football coach. But just where we're going, where we're at with our team from a scheme standpoint and things like that, looking through it all throughout the year through these last few days, I felt pretty strongly that this was a decision that was best for our organization.

I'm not as surprised because Steve Wilkes came from outside the Shana Han tree, didn't have experience with him before. Albert Breer wrote this thing, and it sounded like something he had heard from inside the building, that the management of the overtime period where it was like the last straw, but that he might have been on shaky ground, even going into the overtime, where there's a third and six, and they rush seven, but the defensive backs are all back, if you remember that play. It was a pretty easy conversion. Then Shana Han actually took a time out later in that overtime because he saw what a similar setup was going to happen on another third down, I believe, and didn't like it and made him change the call. People are getting on Shana Khan for making Steve Wilkes a bit of a scapegoat. It felt like an awkward fit all year, and they did underachieve. I think that's just the way it goes sometimes. Yeah.

I mean, it's the old... We saw a lot of midseason coordinator firings on good teams this year. But Shana Khan had them come down from the booth after they were whacked a couple of weeks in a row in the middle of the season. I thought his words... Shanaher, at least, is going to be honest about stuff. He just said it was harder than it needed to be. You're exactly right. It's almost Belichickian where so much of their coordinator action, they've lost a lot of coaches along the way, or just they're grooming in-house, and it just wasn't a fit. Wilks has been successful in other places. He'll work again. That's not the question. But I think it's not just a scapegoat. Their defense really let them down later in the year. Or their overall season.

Now, that's why they lost the Super Bowl because of the offense. They played defense more than well. If the offense played to 75% of their average game in the Super Bowl, they win it. I pointed out in that postgame pod, the first nine drives, the Chiefs had 13 points. That's an entire game. So the 49ers offense lost that Super Bowl if we're doing blame here. Steve Wilkes would not have been fired if the defense had a great performance in the Super Bowl, which it did until the offense let the Chiefs back in it. So that's just bad luck, but that's also football. It's a lot about luck.

But also the players didn't totally buy in, it felt like, the star players, like the guys like Fred Warner and nick Bosa. Even after the game, nick Bosa said that the defense was not prepared well enough to defend Mahomes. And the Niners do run their defense a very specific way. When Robert Salah came in and did it for the three years, and then Demeco Ryans was promoted from within to run it that way. Steve Wilkes, his whole background is mostly with DBs. That's where a lot of his energy and focus went to. That's not really how they are run. They run more of that Seattle cover three. Then I was thinking, Well, what if Pete Carroll ends up going there in some capacity?

I had that thought, too, and it's like a peak.

You think he's going to take a step down and go back to be in a DC at 72 years old.

People were also like his first call to be to Bill Belichick. I'm like, I mean, that's interesting. Why not call? It's hard to imagine.

We talk about it with this podcast, no reverse gears in this tank. Can Belichick or Carroll, would they ever go and not be the leader of their own staff? That seems unlikely, but it doesn't mean it doesn't make sense.

Carroll fits just because I don't know if he's head coaching again at any point. Mike Rable is out there, too, but he's too big and too tall and too strong, apparently, to work inside any building.

By the way, it also poked a hole in what was a plug and play narrative going into the season that anybody that was DC, that would be a launching pad because Salah, D'Amico, and he was also a victim, Wilkes, of the success of those guys, as it turned out, because they were dominant under Ryan's last year. This year, they weren't bad. They finished third in points allowed, 17.5. But their underlying numbers, if you've popped the hood, they were only ninth in defense of EPA, and they got killed in the playoffs, especially on the ground, giving up over 5 yards of carry and 149 yards in the postseason, although they shut down, Isiah Pacheco. It's a tough one, but you got to trust Shanaher.We'll talk about Kyle.Shanaher.

Can't fire Shanaher, so he had to fire-Although they're looking outside.

I don't think they have a... They didn't have a logical replacement that's built from within guy. Brandon Staley is an option. It doesn't seem like they know who they're going to-They wanted Vic Fangio last year.

It didn't get him.

Jimmy Garoppolo's NFL career has taken another twist. The former 49ers and current Raiders' quarterback has been suspended two games for violating the NFL's performance-enhancing substance policy. It is related to Jimmy Jimmy G. Using a prescribed medication without having a valid therapeutic use exemption from the league. Jimmy G will not appeal the suspension, so he'll miss the first two games of the season. A reporting out there also says that the Raiders are expected to release for Opel before the fifth day of the new league year. That's next month. So Jimmy G, who just signed a three-year, $72.75 million contract that never felt right. Even when it happened, I think everybody was like, I don't know. That included nearly 34 million guaranteed. I don't know if the suspension messes with that at all. It does. But Josh McDaniels was the team's head coach. Dave Ziegler was the general manager. None of that is the thing anymore. That's how Jimmy G ends up back. I don't know where he is on Greg's free agency 101, if it gets to that. But it can't be very high because I feel like he's at a low value point right now in his career.

Yeah, he'd be a good backup 1B type.

See a good maybe 101?

Probably a little higher. He would be higher, I think. It's a good point because he's not on my list. I forgot about him because he is still on a roster right now, but I will... That's not good. Well, I don't need to put him on now because he's not a free agent, but I do want to be mentally prepared where to put him. It's pretty rare that you lose $11 million, though, off of a suspension like this. That's what PFT reported that he will lose because of it because it's no longer guaranteed.

That is pretty brutal. He made 150 million in his career and has one season where he started every game. I think that his starting days outside of a disaster, are done. You want to go somewhere and ride it out as a well-paid backup, maybe the Texans, because he's been in that offensive system, not having to learn a new system from scratch. But who can pitch him as a starter at this point? We've seen it. We've been there. We've done that.

I wonder where the Raiders are going to go now, too, because Antonio pierce said that he doesn't want some bandaid situation at the quarterback position. They're at 13. Do they end up trading up at some point? They don't really draft quarterbacks early. They never really have, traditionally. But Antonio pierce does have a connection to Jaden Daniels from LSU, the Heisman winner. So they go back. Pierce recruited him at ASU. He gave Antonio pierce a shout out in that acceptance speech, and he was also in Raiders locker room after that win against Denver. They have that connection going, so that could maybe be an option for them. Good nugget.

Good lug. Speaking of Antonio pierce, he was on Max Crosby's The Rush podcast recently. He had this to say about Patrick Mahomes. Of course, the Raiders during the interim run that pierce had that got him this job in a full-time capacity with the Raiders, they shut down the Chiefs on Christmas Day. Here's what he said on the Rush podcast. You got the Jordan rules, and I'm calling now from now on, as long as I'm here, the Patrick Mahomes rules. So you remember when Jordan was going through it with the Pistons, all those guys in the '80s before he came, Michael Jordan, the Air Jordan, the Pistons used to whip his head. Any time he came to the home, elbows, filling them, love taps. We touched them, we in the head, mentally, physically, emotionally, spiritually, I'm touching you. So I show those guys, Jordan getting his head whooped. And you get more of that at his Twitter handle, The Rush with Max. It's a little different. I'm just saying there's some Rex Ryan vibes with Antonio pierce, which could be good or it could be bad. I am very dubious of that higher. It feels like one, a late season run by an interim coach that I don't know if it's going to be repeatable in the regular season.

I like, from a content standpoint, someone going after Patrick Mahomes and saying, We're going to whip on you, but you're just giving Mahomes more reason to whip your ass twice next year.

I don't know why you need to verbalize that on the podcast. But Dan, you've been on the beat, the suspicious Antonio Piers beat from the start.

I know Rater fans are, every time I mention it, they're unhappy about it, but It's okay for someone else to have a different opinion about this guy. I just don't know. He's a perfect intern coach. I just don't know if this is going to translate.

I wanted to work so bad that I'm so all in on it. These always come crashing down on me.

He's in a tough spot being in the division with Harbaugh, and Andy Reid, and Sean Payton. But talk... I do like that. It's why we liked Robert Salah, I think, when he first got the Jets job because he was good on the mic and said certain-What happened to that guy? Right. Certain confident things. That's why we like Rex Ryan. I like the rare coach that actually speaks to it, and they did beat Patrick Mahomes' ass. I mean, that was maybe the worst performance by Patrick Mahomes and the Kansas City Chiefs since he's been there. I know they didn't win the Super Bowl of it, but it changed Antonio Pierce's life. I think it got him a four-year contract.

I think that was it. I think that was the win that did it. It was in Arrowhead, too, as I recall. All right. In other news, you mentioned Rex Ryan. This was a good little media internal battle over in Bristol because the Cowboys, before they made it official that they were hiring Mike Zimmer as their new defensive coordinator, replacing Dan Quinn, who got a head coaching job. Rex Ryan had interviewed for the job. When Adam Schefter reported on, I believe it was the NFC or the title game Sunday, that Zimmerman was going to get the job, Ryan on live television on ESPN refuted Adam Schefter's report. No. As far as I know, this is not a done deal. I'm in it. Well, sorry, Rex, because the Cowboys did indeed go with Mike Zimmer, so takes over here as Zimmer at his introductory press conference last week. We're not trying to reinvent the wheel here. I mean, they've been pretty good. I know there's been some situations where things haven't happened, but that happens in coaching. It happens a lot. So we're going to look at the players, try and figure out the best way to use them, put the scheme together.

And again, we want to take the good things that they've done and maybe add a few more other things that we've done good in the past.

I'm happy that Zimmer is back. I like a good, cantankerous old coach, and he's grumpy. And if things go sideways in Dallas, whenever they give him the mic, there's going to be some entertainment there. Zimmer, the old grump is back.

I think Zaddie made an interesting comment because it's a lot of them just slapping each other on the back. But they faced each other a ton. He said that when he'd get together with Aaron Rodgers, that they both identified Zimmer in his defense in general as the the thorniest thing they'd run into each season. I mean, that's not how it ended in Minnesota for Zimmer, where I think one of the reasons he was flushed out was like, this guy can't get along with younger players. He runs people the wrong way in the building. But I think when you take away all the head coach layer of junk you got to do, and you can just focus on this, you know what you're getting with Mike Zimmer. I think, if anything, the Cowboys can't go into the season on either side of the ball with a big mystery or question mark.

Jerry Jones knows exactly. To us. What he's getting with Mike Zimmer because he was with the Cowboys for a long time as a defensive assistant, a TV coach.

I think of him mostly as a Cowboys guy.

Exactly. He was there in the '90s when they were just like a powerhouse through Bill Parcells.

He brings drama. I mean, even this negotiation to get the job brought drama because the flip side of what you said to Rex Ryan was at some point, I think it was the Monday after the Super Bowl, for an hour, Adam Schefter actually reported, This Zimmer job that I had reported was done is maybe not as locked in as we thought, and Rex Ryan is now a strong candidate. Within an hour, it was Zimmer's job. It was basically Jerry Jones and company saying, All right, you've messed around long enough, Zimmer, wanting more money. We're not giving you the money. Stop this. It has been a week. We are going to hire Rex Ryan. We're going to tell you by putting it through the thing, take the job. We want you to take the job. And then he takes the job.

All right, let's pause right here for a minute and take a break and then get back to the news. All right, we're back. In other news, the Bucaneers and Mike Evans. It's looking increasingly possible. He's played his last game in Tampa. It was reported the Bucs had a soft deadline to get an extension done with Evans that told yesterday. Both sides, according to Jordan Schultz's Bleach report, are far apart. So Tampa Bay will take on over seven million in dead money if they don't get a deal done, which they didn't. Now, I think because of Greg, the situation with the way his contract is structured, any type of franchise tag would be very burdensome to them. It's very possible he ends up in your free 101, right?

Yes, which would be fun. I think the tag for him would be $28 million, which just seems a little wild, even for a one-year contract, which is always nice for the team. And yet now they're already paying putting $7 million on the books now, as you mentioned, in dead money. Even if they do resign him, they're going to have dead money from not having resigned him by this week, which it does make it a lot more that he's gone. I think part of it is they want to use that franchise tag on Antoine Winfield, would be my guess. Baker Mayfield is also a free agent. They have other free agents, and they really might say good. But I wouldn't totally rule it out that they just step up and give him, but it doesn't make financial sense. It's like, why would they have dead money and then sign them for even more money?

The tag doesn't make a ton of sense because they want a playoff game and they had a nice season. It's like you got a lot of moving parts with Baker and the rest, but it's like, this isn't a one year with Super Bowl window team where you bring them back and then have to do this next offseason. But I don't love watching Mike Evans just go out the door either.

This is great news, Mark, for fans of teams in the AFC North that are not the Pittsburgh Steelers fans. Jerry Dulak, isDulak? Dulak? Dulak? Dulak? Dulak?

It could be all of them. Dulak.

I don't know. Gary D. Of the Pittsburgh Post-Gazet had this. He wrote this recently in his reporting. In fact, there appears to be some internal division that maybe Mason Rudolf should be the starter after the way he finished the 2023 season, winning the final three regular season games to gain entry into the playoffs. In any event, Dulak went on, the Steelers are not interested in bringing in a quarterback who wants to be a starter. That would include Justin Fields and Kirk Cousins, and probably even Russell Wilson, who has a connection to the team. They are committed to giving Kenny Pickett a third season to see if he is the guy to do more than just win a playoff game, something they haven't done in a franchise record seven years. The post Big Ben landscape and really the end of Ben's career there, the quarterback has been a problem for Pittsburgh. I think this is... I mean, if you're a Stealers fan, you're pulling your hair out because you know Rudolf is who Rudolf is, and Pickett hasn't shown enough. Are they actually Is this a smokescreen, Sestog? Are they actually serious about this?

I think the environment could change depending on who becomes available. There was some whispering during Super Bowl week that Ryan Tannehild was maybe on the radar of the Stealers. But if this is their plan, they're such a Charlotte consistent organization. I always have been. But then also you get stuck in your own thinking here. This is about as uncreative a solution to a quarterback problem. Quarterback problems get people fired. Mike Tomlin is in a better position than most coaches and most coaching staff. But you're in a division with Joe Burrow, Lamar Jackson, and in theory to Sean Watson, but also the Browns and Ravens defenses. It's like you're going to tell Steelers fans, In mid-February, we're going back in with the same two dudes at quarterback. You don't wait till year three or four to find out if a rookie can't play. Connie, it seems impossible.

Yeah, well, you cut Trubisky, and then Mason Rudolf is an impending free agent, so you don't have a backup to, Can he pick it? What is your plan exactly?

I guess they assume that they'll want Mason Rudolf more than any other team, which is a pretty safe assumption. For people in the building to want him to start, they also are probably looking at Mason Rudolf, not as you did, and saying, We know who he is, Dan, and looking at him as-But they made it in a different way than I do. Right. They're looking at him as a guy that didn't play for two or three years. Then when he did just play at the end of last season, they believe they saw a different guy, and they're going into it. It seems insane, and I don't quite buy it because Arthur Smith has no history with these guys. He's the offensive coordinator. It's funny that they used the first hours of the offseason to cut Trubisky. It was just like, it's almost like mean. And their punter, who did have some pretty bad moments with Cressy Harvin, and they were starting right They mistakenly gave a huge contract to just a couple of years ago, O'Cora for Chuck O'Cora for, and so they've caught him, too. It's like, I don't know. I don't buy this.

What team doesn't want to bring in a quarterback that wants to start?

It just seems-We've seen Arthur Smith without a quarterback.

Doesn't it feel like a little Stealers-y, though, too. That's the only reason I believe it. Let me preface this by saying there are many teams who are worse than the Pittsburgh Stealers in the NFL right now. Hell, they did make the playoffs this year, but in my opinion, there is not a more boring team in football right now. A team that I look less forward to watching on Game Pass than watching the Pittsburgh Stealers.

I give you the New England Patriots. I mean, it's February. But they're bad.

They're in that world, though.

Yeah, but they're bad and boring. I understand you have a personal connection to them, but I'm saying, when I put it on, unless you get juiced watching their defense make plays and T. J. Watt, and I get that. But in terms of offensive football, the Steelers are with... Especially they have players. They have players Sometimes you see it, but it's such a slug. It always feels like it's raining. You don't have to watch this for a number of months, though, at least.

There's no sun.

You know that old story about the girl that gets locked in the closet when there's the one sunny day on Mars? That old fable or whatever that tale was?

No, but I'm interested.

Like, Rapunzel's cousin?

I'll look it up. I'll find it. On Mars. I feel like I'm the little girl locked in the closet for the one day of sunshine. Every time I get out, it's raining again at the old Heinz field, and I'm watching a slog 1610 game. I'm just sick of it. Stealers fans, you hear me. You might even know what I'm talking about, about the girl that never got to see the sun.

Connie, are you searching that for me? No, I'm just writing down that Dan is the little girl locked in the closet.

So it was happening on Mars also?

I feel like it might have been a Mars scenario. That's a fable? I don't know. Let me look into it. Go ahead. Let me tee you up on another item. I'm going to get out of the way. Russell Wilson is selling his Denver home, Mark, after a disastrous two-year run with the Broncos. It appears at an end. Also, the player he was once traded for, Gino Smith, the Seahawks, go ahead and guaranteed his base salary this year, paving the way for another season. There, go ahead.

With a home was worth about $25 million. Let's start right there. Let's end right there.

I think they said it's the most expensive property ever sold in the Denver area just two years ago.

Oh, my gosh. Wow. I think I saw 12 bedrooms.

That's what I'm talking about. I got to sell it. I get that. You're not going to Airbnb that. That sounds difficult. You get out of tent, you're gone. I do think the one reason I thought about putting this into our story lines, it's more from the Bronco side, because they're going to need, obviously a lot of quarterback, something to keep Sean Payton happy. There's ways they could go, depending where they are in the draft. But the financials saddled to Wilson are insane. I feel like any team get out of these things, but they will essentially have them 85 million in dead money.

There's a pretty strong case that it's the worst trade in NFL history, and it's right there with Herschel Walker and all these other-And the GMs survive. For what they got, what they gave up, the money that you're saying is now even hurting them into this year. You got one disaster season in one season where he was the 19th best quarterback in the league out of all that. It's crazy. I don't see the home for him because Pittsburgh, like Chato Chocinco is on his podcast saying he's been hearing all week that Russell Wilson and The Steelers, that's a match. That wouldn't match up with the report we just talked about, though. That report from Dulac almost felt like a response to all this Russell Wilson stuff because it was going around quite a bit in Vegas. The Steelers are the favorite for his next destination. I don't think that means anything. I don't know if there's a starting job for Russ out there.

Finally, in the news, the tag window has opened. Greggy, what do you got? Anybody a little tag talk?

You want to do a little tag? I want to do a little tag talk. Not a tag talk. It's a tag talk. The Gino thing, by the way, was interesting. I did want to mention just that they guaranteed him the base salary, which was pretty low, but almost immediately, the Schefters of the world put out that the Seahawks thought, Look, he has a low price. In that whether we keep him or trade him, he's basically an asset. I was like, oh, well, that would indicate to me they're thinking about possibly trading him. Depending on how the offseason goes.

Their new offensive coordinator was the Washington Huskies head coach, Ryan Grub. If you think that maybe they could keep Gino, because I think this is the opposite of the Russell Wilson. In the words, he's an affordable quarterback at that price. But Grub was the guy who was attached to Michael Pennex Jr, who is a rising name at quarterback. Maybe Gino works as a keep him around for one season and let Pennex Jr. Be your dude or fill in the blank, rookie.

It just struck me as when I saw that from the Schefters of the world, it was just like, They're not sure yet. They're going to see what maybe shakes out, see how they feel in a month or two, but they'll be happy enough if they have Gino. That's a good option, but they might be looking around. Or maybe they'll do something with Pennex.

That's fine, but I'm still stuck on the fact that Russell Wilson has fewer wins in Denver than he had bathrooms in his house that he saw.

That's statistics. He's never going to pass it.

That's a good Rich People mansion story that's up there with when MCAP Hammer went bankrupt. They're Did you know he had gold-plated clotsets in his bathroom? Probably shouldn't have done that.

Patrick Mahomes and Andy Reid also have more wins in Allegiant Stadium than any Raiders coach-quarterback combo. That's a fun one.

All of them together.

Wow. That's a tag. Okay, so the tag, it's open. It's a big tag day, February 20th. Everyone, I don't know, you're celebrating. You can apply the tag. You got a couple of weeks to do so. Made a quick list. I think Antoine Winfield, I think he gets it.

Over Baker, over Evans. Yeah.

Tee Higgins almost certainly is going to get it. After that, a little few or less locks than normal. Josh Allen, I would say, with the Jaguars.

Can you pause there one second? Rewind. T. Higgins. I thought it was a foregone conclusion he was going to reach free agency. Did something change there?

I think they're going to let Tyler Boyd go do that. But then you could lose two guys and you got to pay Chase, too.

Because it's the Bengals, they keep things in-house in terms of sourcing and reporters better than just about any team. No one really knows. I just think it'd be crazy to let Higgins go to that. I agree with you.

I feel like everyone's been already putting him atop the free agency board. I think Burrow came out and basically said that he needs him back.

They have the cap space, right?

We'll see. That should not be in the lock. I used to do it as a column, as a lock. It's close to it, but Josh Allen, I think is the lock. Brian Burns is probable. Justin Matabike for the Ravens, good chance. Christian Wilkins for the dolphins, good chance. These, again, are all the best possible free agents. Jalen Johnson, I think the cornerback for the bears, decent chance. Lejarius Sneed and Chris Jones is a huge Chiefs conversation where Chris Jones would be doing 32 million on the, I think would be his tag number. Yes, that's it. That's wild. Insane. Or Lejarius Sneed, who I think is going to become, if not the highest paid cornerback in the league, close to it. That's trick.

I was thinking about that right after the Super Bowl because I ran into spags on the field and he was crying. When I asked him about It was just the win, obviously, he immediately went to, This group is never going to be together again, and we're never going to have these players experience this. It was more from a place of sadness than it was celebratory tears, and that really hit me. In that moment, I was like, Chris Jones, Chris Jones, Chris Jones.

Would they really just let him walk? To me, the best way to do this probably would be to tag Sneed and get that deal done with Jones before free agency somehow. He's going to cost a ton of money. This was at the celebration.

Jones verbalized that he wanted to be there for multiple more years. He certainly had a few beers, but I think that leads to more truth.

Then it's It's independent. No, I think you're right.

They were all duels, though. But also, if they're going to pay him, and let's say it's a little bit less than he goes to some hideous team that has a ton of cap room, like the Commanders or something. Why not win multiple Super Bowl for just a little less money. Yeah.

Yeah, I think that's what Mahomes did with his contract, bar or less. I love that.

Not all about the Greenbacks.

He's already making so much money. He wants to have the big-Why is it enough? I think the saddest thing is when a great player wins Super Bowl and then goes to a terrible team, and it's just the one guy on a terrible team.

He needs the three-year guaranteed money, but he should get that.

If you're bored by the steal, I don't want to see him on the Panthers or the commanders.

No, I'm saying life is just not about all Greenbacks.

Yeah. No. I was agreeing with your take.It's not. I'd say for the 90% of doing the show, we knew it was not all about greenbacks. It gets closer to that all the time.

Saquon Barkley, by the way. A couple of other big news, which is less likely.Tag talk is still happening.Saquon Barkley, Derek Henry, Tyron Smith. I think they're all unlikely. No. One thing, though. Then Kirk Cousins and Daneel Hunter, who you might look at, why are they on the free agents list? Both of them cannot be tagged because they have that in their contract. The Vikings will not be using their tags. Well done. Good job on the agent.

What about Patrick Queen, though, also in Baltimore. You think they're going to try that?

I just don't think they would do it. Are you jumping into tag talk?

I think that's a good question. I just see him listed.

Yes.

I personally don't think that they would-I'm jumping in.

Water's nice.

… Put that much money on another inside line tracker when they have Roquan Smith, but maybe they would surprise me, especially when you have a Matabike as an option.

All right, we're caught up. That's what's happening in the news. Here we go. You ready? All Summer in a Day is a science fiction short story by American writer, Ray Bradbury. First published in March 1954. The story is about a class of students on Venus. Right? Tronque Marquis, which is in the story, a world of constant rainstorms where the sun is only visible for one hour every seven years. One of the children, Margot, moved to Venus from Earth five years ago, five years earlier, and is the only one who remembers the sun since it shines regularly on Earth. She describes the sun to the other as being like a penny or a fire in the stove. The other children, being too young to have ever seen it themselves, do not believe her. Just before the sun comes out, a boy named William rallies the other children and they lock Margot in a closet down a tunnel. The teacher arrives to take the class outside to enjoy their hour of sunshine. In their astonishment and joy, they all forget about Margot and gleefully rush to play outside, savoring every second of their newfound freedom. It begins to rain again.

The children start crying once they realize they won't get to see the sun again for another seven years. The children run back inside as the sun disappears and it starts storming. At this point, one of them remembers Margot. They let her out of the closet and stand frozen. Ashamed over what they have done now, that they finally understand what she had been missing. That's what it's like watching the Pittsburgh Stealers.

It's an incredible vision that you've created for us. I think like, Raymond Bradbury, obviously testing the limits of various substances. And Anne was on the child gang beat well before other people. I've been on that beat myself, that these child gangs are a problem.

For about 15 seconds there, I thought that was a live ad read.

Dan Ismargo.

For Audible, I don't know what it would be for.

Let the American viewing public out of that closet of Pittsburgh Stealers. At least you can do. Let us see the sunshine. Yeah. Okay. That's it. We'll be right back in when we return. The biggest story lines of the offseason. First and goal.

Mahomes flings it. It's there. Hartman Jackpot, Kansas City.

And this was the Andy Reid special. This was the Andy Reid special we talked about. He was saving all day. He's going to fake a motion to go across. And at that moment, turns and goes back. Hartman, who they didn't have, right? And they go get Hartman and bring him back. And the game-winning drive of Mahomes career. He's been waiting for his once-suit goals, but he's never had it in an overtime. He is the best. He is the standard. Here, Michael Jordan wins it again. There it is, the call of the shutdown to Nicole Hartman from Patrick Mahomes in overtime. That was, I thought about it on the flight home from Vegas, the first time in NFL history. Now, second overtime game. But that, obviously, Falcons. Oh, my God. Kyle was the overtime. Both of those. That's crazy. That's a tie game, obviously, when you're running back, was it James White, goes in the end zone. That was the first time in NFL history where the Super Bowl has decided one team's winning when the play starts and the other team wins when it's over. That is crushing. To the very last play, and I still can never...

I'll always remember sitting at that great spot we had, that perch where our studio set up was, all of those Niners fans right below us. Even though it was creeping death, there still was a chance. If there's a Malcolm Butler type play or something could happen, a bad snap.

They were almost incredibly hopeful.

Well, right in front of us, there was a lot of anxiety, which is understandable. The center for the Chiefs all game was bad snaps, over and over and over again, their former first-round pick, holding out hope, but hope was not going to be rewarded.

That feeling of them coming down the field to quote Dave Damoschek was like, That's living to me. There's a lot of that's living. Most of it's in your life with people that matter to you, that you love doing things and stuff. But to me, that's why I love sports.

You're exhaling emotions.

No, I'm saying in a moment like that where you've built the entire season to just like, it's all going to happen in these next couple of moments. There, to me, is a heightened sense of life, of reality, where everything, you notice more in those spots, you see a little more in those spots. It's one of the reasons why this job is so great.

The guy that I'll always think of was directly below me. When Moody hits the field goal to put them in head in overtime, he He was seated with his head down. He can't even watch. I think his wife and his buddy pat him on the back. He was like, he made it. You can imagine where he was minutes later. It's a great sportsman.

I also have this memory of because unlike other Super Bowl, we're on the East Coast, and you come back to the hotel, and there's eight people awake because we were there till 2:00 in the morning. You go back to our hotel in Vegas, and it's like, We haven't even begun this evening. Everyone's... But there were hordes of Niners fans, obviously, in our hotel. I just thought, How low are you feeling? Where you're in this haze post-game, where you're wandering around with your pals all in used check and Mccaffry jerseys, and you just lost another Super Bowl. I think it just feels so hopeless for the losing team. Even though I looked at the DraftKings' odds and the Niners were the number one team to go back to. I'm thinking, I will never not pick the Chiefs to win the Super Bowl in the next couple of years. I'm not falling down this trap door ever again.

Same. Where we were Our green room in the stadium shared a wall with the Chiefs' locker room. So for two hours after the game, we could just hear everything that was happening. And so everyone that works on the Super Bowl, the whole crew, just stays and drinks afterwards and hangs out on the field. But it was so interesting to all huddle around with our little red solo cups, trying to listen to the Chief's speech through the concrete wall.Very.

Cool.that's wild. That game, I had this theory, the way that game... It really was a great game in terms of strategy and everything that went on the last quarter, overtime and a half, essentially. But it reminded me of a great tennis match. In a previous life, when I used to get into these sorts of things, no sport has the odds flip as quickly as a great tennis match because you get to the championship, you have a match point, you might lose that point, lose that game, and then it's right back to tied.

That terrible win probability chart.

It goes off to go nuts. All you need is one more point. You're minus 800 to win. Then two seconds later, you're an underdog. That's what the Super Bowl felt like because there were a couple of match points. The 49ers coming out of that two-minute warning, all they needed was a first down. That was essentially a match point. You only needed four yards. The whole last Mahomes drive, you could look at it like the defense just had to make one play, and then the whole thing would be over. There was a second 18, there was a third and long. There It was all just like the whole thing could have ended on one point, but it didn't.

The fourth quarter into overtime was some of the best Super Bowl drama that we've ever been in person for. I really agree with you. At the end, you could just feel this building, the tension in the building rising.

A few other Super Bowl takeaways before we look head to the offseason. First of all, shout out Colleen Wolf, who was the in-stadium host of the freaking game. We mentioned it on Super Bowl Sunday. That was fun. But Connie, All throughout the pregame, including her Thunderbird birds going up in the jet. Watch that with astonishment in the stadium, including the iconic shot of you in the suit with the giant American flag in front of you.It's.

On your Instagram, right?It's beautiful. Because I missed it live, but I was glad you posted it.

You did a great job explaining it on Radio Row, but actually seeing it was... I was blown away. Then you did an awesome job all throughout the game that then went into overtime. Did you get paid extra when it goes into overtime?

No, but that's okay.

People know when you're in commercial break, watching in the game, Coleen is with a co-host. Who was it?

There was a few different people. There was a few. Sibli, Mike Rob, Steve was there, Smith.

Basically, talking through the crowd to 70,000 people, what's going on, sharing different thoughts. It was very cool.

I think also one good thing because it's common place for us to watch you just go star like this, but we were lucky enough to bring guests, and we're like, Oh, that's our friend down on the field announcing to the entire stadium and flying around, and you have to like, That's your friend.

It It makes it feel like a home game. You and Cynthia also had a couple of segments where she was voicing stuff in the pregame, and I'm just like, Wow, our friends are just voicing the freaking Super Bowl.

I think you put it well on the Super Bowl wrap-up show, Greg. It feels like our world has gotten a little smaller for a game that big, which is a cool thing.

That was my comment. That was actually Greg.

I knew, but I was going to give it to you if you needed it after the ticket fiasco on your desk. Yeah, thank you. My takeaway after... Because, again, we're watching the game in person. Our vantage point isn't always great. We don't have access to replays, and then we go and we do an hour and a half right after the game talking about it. So getting to read and watch things. I thought it was a boondoggle for Kyle, I thought. Shana and things that I've watched about his strategy. One, I watched a real deep dive, a cut up of mistakes that he made in strategy, his failure to protect, adequately call up Protect schemes for purdy, typified by the final possession they had in overtime before the field goal, where they call a fake end around to CMC that involves to sell the fake to CMC involves the center pulling away from Chris Jones and then leaving the middle of the San Francisco offensive line, which was their weakness throughout the game. The way they ran the football, the way they played right into Spags' hands throughout the game, where Spags schooled Kyle Shanahan, where they're running McCaffee over and over into this area occupied by their guards, which is their weak point, and Chris Jones, the most dominant defensive lineman on the planet.

Then right down to, of course, the overtime situation, which we talked about a little bit on Super Bowl Sunday. But the team, San Francisco, clearly not maybe having a handle on the overtime rules and the, obviously, the decision not to give the ball to the Chiefs after they win the coin toss in OT. On the New Heights podcast, Travis Kelsey and his brother Jason, they get into how overtime played out and the setup and how prepared the Chiefs were for it. The Patriots famously had Ernie Adams, their guy that was behind the scenes that had that team always one step ahead, especially in these type of crucible games. Well, the Chiefs have someone, a guy named Mike Frazier, who is their Statistical Analysis Coordinator. Travis Kelsi made a point on his podcast to give him credit for having them prepared in a way it seemed like the 49ers were not. He's the one that goes over all these scenarios, all these big-time situations. And a half and a game, rule changes. He's the one that comes up, stands in front of the team. When he comes in front of the team, you hear everybody get fired.

Then sure enough, he goes over these situations. I'm pretty sure we went over the overtime rules three times, four times in the two-week span that we were in the play. Actually, the overtime rules, every single week, we talked about overtime rules in the play-outs. And Frage was up front, giving what we would do in all these scenarios. So everybody on the team, we knew exactly what the best situation was, how we were going to handle it, how we were going to attack it. And a guy like that, man, you don't realize how big of a job it is to do that stuff because it's like, All right, you're just going over the rules. We know the rules. But it's like when you harp on them, it becomes second nature, and you don't even think about it in the game. And it's just, Frage coming up big, man. They got to get a Frage over there in San Francisco.

I mean, hold on, though. Sunson burner. Frage can walk away knowing that Travis Kelsey obviously was listening to Frage. But then you've got the narrative that Michal Harmon didn't even know the game was over. So someone's not paying attention.

You can only do so much.

It's not Frayge's fault, but Michal Harmon didn't stick into me.

Well, I think he was just... Yeah, I don't know if he didn't know the rules as much as he was just in the moment.

Also, how many catches had he even made to that point when he was all season long before that.

I think he was just focused on like, I'm going to make a play. That doesn't change. But do you think the Niners don't have a guy like that? That would battle. No, I don't.

There was enough reporting around the game afterwards that there was a lot of confusion.

I don't think Kyle Shana had a good feel of it either. He came back the next day and then said, Well, actually, our plan was we wanted to get the ball third. If we match, then we wanted to get the ball third. I was like, I don't believe you. You've lied a lot in public situations. You lied about that you were going to keep Steve Wilkes the day before you got rid of him. I understand why you have to do that. But the day before, when he got asked the same question, he didn't have that answer. He just said, Come on, we wanted the ball.

That's what he said. He inadvertently pulled on himself again when he said that, because I think Kelsey also The Chief's plan written in stone is that if the other team scores a shutdown, we get the ball back. We go for two if we score a countdown. No matter what, there wasn't a third possession coming for the Niners, and he wasn't prepared for that as a possibility either. I guess the one other thing I'm going to say is that I watched another cut up of their game plan. We talked about Debo Samuel was targeted 11 times, three catches. He is not as good in man coverage. He eats up zone coverage. They're man coverage destroyers, Brandon Ayuk, who just throughout the play house, really, was not getting targeted the way he should. They showed all these moments in the game, whereas you're targeting Ayuk, he's probably shaken free with his route running ability in a way that Debo doesn't because he has a different skill set. All these things, it's just like Kyle doesn't get a pass. I'm not going to bury Purdy at all. I don't think he played a great game but didn't play poorly.

Shanaher, I think, got outcoached in a huge stage. When we talk about him, not being able to get over the hump and choking, this is more like digging into it a little further as how is he getting beaten these giant games? Well, he got outcoached, and that plays a massive role.

When we go in critique, like Bangle's teams under Zack Taylor of old were like, they couldn't adjust the offensive line in game and Burrows getting killed. It's like, Brock Purdy, actually, we didn't blame him after the show. We shouldn't. He faced a ton of just pressure where no one was unblocked. Pass rusher is coming right in. I think there were nine in that game.

Chris Jones had a free rush on that third down. That play cannot happen.That play.

It's funny, though, how Super Bowl sometimes get decided a little bit. John Feliciano, who's not a great player, got hurt in the first half of that game. He was replaced by Spencer Burford, who, after the game, had to own up on Monday to be in the guy who blew that protection, only because his own teammate, Feliciano, who had gotten hurt, came to the right tackles defense It's on Twitter saying, That's not Colton McKivitz's fault. Stop blaming him. Everyone's like, Oh, wait. So you're blaming the other guy. They had to talk it out and stuff. This is what happens when you lose Super Bowl. It's a lot of blame.

I just... Michal Hardman is just stuck in my head because it happened in the end zone that was right in front of us where we were standing. Then Rick Berkholder, their head trainer, the Chiefs, ran over to me on the field because I I used to work with him when I was in Philly. He grabbed me and was like, Oh, my God, Michal Hardman. Look up how many catches he had in this game. It was only two or three, and that was the one that wanted it for us, and then just ran off. It was like a fever dream of sorts.

He didn't say, How are you doing? How have things been for you?

He was like, Go talk to... Go find him.

Anything else game-wise, takeaways? We should mention, because we haven't mentioned yet, there's the parade that happened in Kansas City after the Super Bowl was marred by an act of senseless violence, a shooting where over 20 people were shot. A person was killed. All the other people who were injured had been released from the hospital, which is great news. I don't have to say much on this. I don't know what you guys have to say other than this stuff sucks, but it doesn't surprise me anymore in this country. It's sad gun violence and these type of mass shootings continue to happen. But once, I guess I do want to say something that What happened in Sandy Hook Elementary School in 2012, when a room full of first graders were murdered with an AR-15, and our political system couldn't get on the same page to do anything about that. We've had hundreds and hundreds of people murdered since in these type of acts. I just have no faith in our country and our system to stop these things from happening, and it just sucks.

Half the wounded were under age 16. That stands out because I think this is meant to be... Kansas City has had a bunch of these, but it's still a special event for your fan base, many who can't afford to go to games. It's like the players... There was a report that Andy Reid was actually helping children that have been separated from their parents and stuff. It's like they were integrated with the crowd in a big way. It's like, this is what you have to worry about happening. We have kids, and it's like, 30 years ago, this wouldn't be on a parent's mind. But now it's like, I'm sending my kids to school in a cityscape to some degree, and I don't know if it's safe at all. It's like, there's all this half the country saying, Well, these are things. We want these weapons for protection, all this stuff. Enough with that nonsense. Stop taking money from the National Rifle Association politicians and do something about it. At what point? Because I think you're right. It's a news story. Then when the first time it happens, when it's Columbine, the nation is stunned and it's a two-year, three-year long story.

Now it happens and it's gone off the news cycle in two days because we're not surprised by it.

No. We want to focus on the positive and you focus on the heroism of the day, and you do respect that to the end degree and how the chiefs have reacted, and how everyone in that city reacted. And yet it's the least surprising thing ever. When we're talking about American exceptionalism, it's like this doesn't happen anywhere else. This is just us.

Yeah. I mean, it's awful. There's nothing else to even add to it. Just the fact that there were so many kids that were harmed, and the nurses from the hospitals that were treating them talked about just the fear that was in their faces when they got to the hospital, and just how heartbreaking that is that you go to celebrate a Super Bowl win at a parade, which should be the most exciting and fun thing to do as a parent, with your kids, with your friends, for your entire city, for your team, and then to end up at a hospital and be that scared and have that trauma happen because that is not something that leaves you for a very, very, very long time.

Shout out to Patrick Mahomes and his wife and Taylor Swift and Travis Kelsi and everyone else who gave money to try to support the victims.

The people that tackled the others, too. The fans that just went and put their lives on the line, too.

All right, let's take a break, and when we come back, let's dig into those offseason story lines to come. All right. Okay, welcome back. Big beefy show. We were away for over a week.

We just couldn't help ourselves. Wait to get in front of the bike and talk.

We love it. Greg turned 46 about 12 minutes ago.

The honking, it's been heavy honking, but I think it's been a nice eb so far. Absolutely. I got nowhere to be, really. I do, but we're here.Not.

Right away.I have a lunch date with Cynthia and Alex Curry.

Quite frankly, I'm a little afraid to step outside the studio. One false step. Ground's a little shaky. The temple of doom that we now have it here. Hopefully, we'll be safe on our ways back to our car. Anyway, before we do that, it is the 2024 offseason. Officially, we have free agents. In fact, announcement horn. That old down, down, spin horn.

I like that one.

I like this. It builds anticipation about stuff. Greg's free agent 101 list is dropping later this week, and on Thursday, or something, close enough.

I think Monday. Monday. It's due this week. It's due. They got to edit it.

For the old edit at the end of the week. But on Thursday, we will be talking about it. And Mark, it just did It dawn on me, and we probably play a little catch up, but I don't doubt our ability. Do we want to roll out maybe a free agency 102 this year?

Well, you had talked about on our last show or a couple of shows, that you wanted to maybe take the job from Greg. An outright swipe.

I've abandoned that plan. I enjoyed my days off.

Yeah, he announced that would have to happen during your vacation. Yes, I think that we've customarily come up with our own list. I think we were capable of doing that. Maybe we just go. We don't have to go 100.Dueling list. One deep, necessarily. We You want to go 11? Go 200, 300 deep if we need to.Oh, you want to go that way?Yeah. Then the viewer who's new to the exercise is like, Wait a minute. Those guys worked harder than that guy. How many free agents are there? I know, but after you get to 200, 300, it's a random name generator.

How many like...

He threw out 11.

How many dues paying union members connected to... That's a good question. The Players Association are eligible for free agency? Because I'm saying the A whole list. We'll do 1,200.

I don't think it's that many. I know it's not that many.

But if it is-Let's find out. Eric, once we get that footage from upstairs, can we find out how many free agents are there? Or maybe put a Randy on that one.In.

A typical year.A.

Big funk on that one. Got it.

Probably got to be what? 3 to 500? I have no idea, though.

Big funk is calling as your all not coming home today.

Sesler's list will be 3 to 500 then?

Well, it's Sessler and Dan and Mark, too.

I felt better about the 11, but...

I think it sets the bar in any case.

I like your ambition. It blinds me with the greatness of it and the loftiness of it. So let's do it. So the free agency 301. Let's do that. Mark and Dan dropping at some point. At some point. We're going to sneak attack on the old Rosen dog here. But Greg's 101 is coming next week on. Com, but we're going to talk about it. So you have free agency. That's coming. Of course, the draft is coming. Move the Sticks guy. He's already up to Mach 2.0..

Oh, Mike. Already?

With that in mind, let's get into it. Colleen, do you want to get us going? How strong do you feel about this? Who cares about Jeremiah? I feel great. I feel great about this. This feels like a can't miss.

This is very easy. Although last night, it was sexiest story lines, and then this morning, it was huge story lines. But that's okay. Story lines are story lines, and it's the same thing.

Nice try, though. I did not give you a Mixed cross signals. No, you didn't. Sexy, huge story lines.

Right. I feel like the number one thing for me is, where does Kirk Cousins land? Because for the quarterback- Good one. The quarterbacks in general, between him and Baker Mayfield, I need to know what happens. But with Kirk Cousins, he's obviously... He's going to be 36 this summer. He's coming off the torn Achilles. But he did say... He didn't say he would take a hometown discount, but he said that he's not worried about the money at the stage of his career. Mark, how you were talking about earlier, maybe money is in everything for Kirk Cousins.

He was on our show, too, last at Radio Row, and he made it very clear he is all about testing that market, too. Kirk knows how to get paid, so I don't know if I buy into that. He likes the money.

But okay, so Justin Jefferson said he's not signing a new deal until he knows that Cousins is coming back. So he's got that leverage going for him. And then Quincy Adolfo-Mensa, their GM, expressed his desire to keep cousins, and he had already redone whatever the extension was before. So it's not like those two are completely disconnected. They've already worked on a deal together before. So that makes me think that he could potentially be back. But it's been a while since he tested free agency, and we know what happened when he did. Yes.

There's reporting out there. I think PFT reported that the Vikings aren't necessarily willing to give them an all-guarantee contract. Our own Pelraiser reported that the Vikings want Cousins back, but this is interesting, Dustog, could go after a cheaper veteran like Sam Darnold if Cousins is too expensive, hoping the veteran, referring to Sam Darnold, Sam It would be, quote, this year's Baker Mayfield while also buying time to develop a rookie.

So you have players to this. That puts your Sam Darnold, Baker Mayfield argument to bed. You're just trying to get him to be Baker Mayfield at this point.

Well, so hereSo they believe-He makes a good point. Well, the point being is that people see Sam still as give him an actual chance, and he could do what Baker did last year. That's more buying into the old Zuzer's point that Darnold has a market because people see a playmaker still. But that's beside the point.

Back to you. Sam Darnold, yes.

Back to you, Colleen. So the Vikings want him back, but they want to do it their way. And if he does end up hitting the open in the market. It is like Aaron Rodgers is the big offseason quarterback story. Cousins could help a lot of teams in a profound way. Very big one.

But how will he even be coming off that Achilles at his age?

He is such an interesting case. I thought when he became a free agent last time, he was going to do better than people thought, and he did, ultimately getting the fully guaranteed contract from the Vikings. This time, I'm not totally sure because he's coming off in an Achilles and you just go through the that would give him $40, $50 million a year. Will the Vikings? I'm not totally sure that the Vikings will. I'm sure they would have them back, but I think they might be thinking, We got to pay Justin Jefferson. We need to start over at quarterback at some point. Maybe this is that point. Would it be Denver? That, to me, is the team that is most desperate and almost plug and play in terms of their coach, and that Kirk Cousins would make sense there. That's one team. But after you get past that, it's like the Raiders, maybe like Falcons, maybe. There's no one that just you look at and you say, They'll definitely give up 40, 50 million dollars a year.

And then the Steelers come in. Right.

I don't think the Stealers are outbidding anyone.

Let me out of the closet.

If they were courageous, that would be a good match. The one thing like Sean Payton during the Super Bowl week went out of his way to talk up Baker Mayfield a ton, too. I I think that Baker, and that's a whole different conversation, but it's like, I think he's going to go after a veteran if they don't want to trade up and try to get us.

It's just not that many teams because the number one overall pick that takes the bears out of the mix, basically. You figure Washington's probably out of the mix. Although you never know. In a weird world, they could decide to trade that pick. The Patriots, they're a little... There's only so many spots here. The 49ers, I don't think they would do that.

Oh, that would be That is such an en... That keeps coming back over and over the Shana Khan, Kerr Cussings.

That would be... Well, because if it was any other year in the Shana Khan era, I think it would have happened. But this year, it won't happen. I'm with you.

All right. So Cussins, the top, the quarterback discussion list. Right Next to him, I would say, is Justin Fields. That is another huge storyline right here. The Chicago Bears, of course, have the number one pick, thanks to the Panthers and the trade that they made. This one's interesting because I mentioned move the sticks. He says in his latest mock, he's got Caleb Williams, the USC star, going to the bears. That's an option that they have at number one. They have a bunch of options. Another option is that they keep Justin Fields and either use the number one overall pick or on something else, or maybe even a quarterback, or trade that number one pick down, or maybe you keep Justin Fields and you trade that pick and then take a quarterback later. They have so many choices or not take a quarterback at all. This, I will tell you, though, here's reporting. Good job by Jenna Lemoncelli of the New York Post. Notice that Justin Fields no longer follows the bears on Instagram.

I'm not doing that.

Trope alert. I mean, not doing what? He did it.

I know. It's like... Now.

Would you guys unfollow NFL Media during your negotiations? My contract is coming up, so I'm just wondering.

Would they even notice?

I would do it if... Right.

Who's tracking It's just a sad tree falling in the forest.

No, in this case, I'm saying that we do that to our own company.

On the LeMarchelli Beach, he might report. We also have a contract coming.

I don't even know if I am following them.

Let's maybe try it.

That's a fair question.

I'll do it at once.

Anyway, and that is a famous trope alert now with players that are unhappy for whatever reason, unfollowing the team that they're on. I thought it was notable. At the very least, it means he's just annoyed that most likely he hasn't been given a firm answer one way or the other. There's also, you could look at it as maybe he was told that they're going in a direction that involves Cade Williams or whoever else. He's already now looking forward, and he's like, I'm done with the bears. They told me they're done with me. Anyway, there's so much intrigue around this, and it has such a big butterfly effect, Greggy, whatever the bears decide, because not only if their decision changes the trajectory of their franchise, it also, if Fields does end up hitting the trade market, that changes the draft for whatever team ends up going for him. I mean, it's a big story.

He's a very unique player to be available in a trade. I can't think of many that are quite like him, that are young, promising, have a lot of tape. You can look at it a few different ways. He's not like a Kevin Cobb or a Jimmy G or these guys who tend to get some pop in the trade market at quarterback that you saw him for five games, you know what I mean? And they end up getting a nice draft pick for him, but they're just more promised than ever... Like someone you actually... This is a top pick who's shown a lot and is pretty good, I think it's at the Dalton line or above it or right around it at this point, but certainly has done a lot of good things. Guys like that just don't become available very often. I think he's a fascinating participating case. I've never believed that this was a decision. I don't think he had any chance of staying. I don't think he has any chance of staying. I'm sure they go through the process of thinking about it or whatever, but I've never thought he had a realistic chance at staying because there are great quarterbacks in this class, and why would you keep Justin Fields over that?

Great college quarterbacks in this class. That's part of this. You don't know.

I get it, but I just don't think they would look at it like that. I think they would look at it like, We've seen him for this long, and we're not totally sure.

I'm just saying, they're not... Whoever it is is not a guarantee either. Just like, Fields wasn't a guarantee. It's not... Of course. It's not like Kirk Cousins or Justin Fields.

But he came in... You just drafted Justin Fields highly. Right.

But not nearly as highly. He's not even in the same ballpark that Kayla Williams or Drake May were coming out of college or maybe even Jaden Daniels. I do think that the players themselves mattered, but I think he's going to have a bigger trade market than people think.

Well, I think people will want it. I think people will want it. Because I think his gifts, especially when you talk to defensive coaches, they are all in on the mobility of a quarterback. I think he's just that dangerous. I think you could look at the bears and say, Nice end of your season. We've seen growth in Justin Fields, but we don't really trust that you know how to maximize a quarterback. We do. We're going to take a chance on this guy, and I don't know what you'd get for him in terms of a trade.

That's the thing. I talk with people about this, and they was like, Well, if it's a third, sure. I don't know if I want to give up a second. I'm like, Justin Fields is a pretty good option for Atlanta, for the Raiders who have his offensive coordinator from a year ago, for maybe the Vikings, maybe the Bucks, maybe the Patriots. He's a pretty big upgrade. I think they're getting a second plus, maybe even first.

I got to count for you. We mentioned Arnold. When he was traded from the Jets to the Panthers, he was a former number three overall pick. The Jets got back a 2021 six-rounder and a second and a fourth rounder.

And he stuck with the Jets.

The fields has shown-Well, that's what I'm saying.

But that was good value. But that's other teams thinking we can do right by.

I think that's a baseline what fields could command. Could he get a late first round pick? Maybe.

I don't think that's a crazy thing to do.

One other thing that complicates this and why I know you're certain of it, Greg, and I think the way it's trending is he's probably starting over somewhere else. I thought he was pretty good last year. I thought he really showed growth last year. I think the locker room loved him. You heard that constantly. Everybody wants him back. They gave him a number one receiver and DJ more and more played like an all pro last year. I thought it makes it more difficult in terms of a decision because I think he did show, again, it's tantalizing.

Helps his value. But also from a financial standpoint, they're going to want to restart on a rookie contract so they can continue to rebuild.

I get that. That's a good point because that's part of the business model with these teams, and they treasure that. But man, if Fields goes to the Giants and becomes a superstar, the bears are going to be happy if their guy is a stud. But it's a big risk. He's shown enough where it could really backfire if they moved him, and that's what makes it a really fun, interesting storyline. Greggy, how about you? Okay.

My overarching one is, will any big name wide receiver get traded, and who will it be? We've seen it happen enough that I now believe, Oh, this is one of the things that you can either expect or is possible in an offseason. Name some, Greggy. Well, this offseason, there was some buzz, I think, last week floating around about Justin Jefferson. I don't think they would ever trade him, but I think him throwing these flares up and the amount of money he's going to cost. I think teams will maybe try to sniff around.

How did he get to Minnesota, Greg? Right. Stefan Diggs wanted out, and they did the trade for the number one pick.

Another name I think that fits in.

There's this group. Jefferson is the least likely, but it's A. J. Brown. I never would have thought A. J. Brown would have got a trade. Diggs is another one. Brandon Ayuk, he wants more money now. Devante Adams, I think, is going to stay at this point because financially, it hurts them to trade. The Raiders think they're going to the Super Bowl, so he's not going anywhere. He's another one. I would just throw, is Tyrie kill the craziest person ever? Again, these guys bring back such a huge draft haul, and they cost so much money. Just Which, if any of these guys, gets dealt in the way that Ayuk is putting it out there, and it's the same way that... He tries to get the contract. He tries to find out from other teams what they would pay him, and then they can start making it uncomfortable on the 49ers if the 49ers aren't ready to pay him 34 49ers.

I had specifically Stefan Diggs because I think the bills are... Because they were wiped out a month ago at this point, you forget how dark that season and where that team sits. And like, Gabe Davis has been verbal about the fact that he wants to test free agency. He could be gone. He could get much more money than the bills want to pay him. Stefan Diggs ever requested a trade. You are left. I already thought this was a team that was missing an element for Josh Allen in the offense. They seem like one guy short in a number of games, and suddenly they could look completely different on offense. If these chips fall in a certain way where you lose your your dump of one guy, but then Gabe Davis has these games where he explodes out of nowhere.

The reason why they felt a player short this year because Stefan Diggs wasn't Stefan Diggs anymore last year. You're saying, was that one of your storylines? Because what is Diggs's market coming off the year? He just came off and he's another year older.

I think he'd get paid, though, for just I don't know. Do we think he's fallen off?

What's his contract? He's under contract. What would a team give up if he were put on the market as one of those players you're referring to, Greg?

Not as much. Could you get a first-round pick still for Stefan Diggs? I don't know. Also, the-I personally think that's not crazy. Again, I look at the Rams, not every first-round pick is equal. 20 to 30 for a couple of honeymoon years of Stefan Diggs.

What if you're the chief sitting at number 32? That's not a first-round pick. The Chiefs, that's better than anything they're going to get at 32.

I would be afraid of giving Patrick Mahomes another-In general, though, also, like you're mentioning Jeremiah again.

So it just shows a level of…We're evolving. Maturity. The Patriots have the more abundant offense of the Patriots. He has Marvin Harrison Jr. Going there. If Harrison is as good as everyone says, you got to use a premium pick on a wide receiver. But also these drafs keep churning out big-time players at wide receiver. First round, second round, third round, fourth round. Do you really want to give up a top-tier asset for an expensive veteran wide receiver who might be a pain in the ass? That's fair. That's fair. In this class. To use Diggs as a reference there, where if you trust your scouting people, you could probably find someone at a much lesser draft value that is a young, up-and-coming contract-controllable player. It's very interesting.

This is supposed to be an incredibly good wide receiver class. I think Dane Broogler of the Athletic had 17 in his top 100.

It doesn't seem like wide receiver classes are just going to get better and better.

Malik Nabors and Romeo Dunzey, those are top seven. Three are probably going in the top seven or eight pick. That does throw a little bit of a wrench into this. But I wanted to throw that out there because I don't know what the name is going to be, and yet I feel like someone weird is going to shake loose that we end up talking a lot about in March.

Aaron Rodgers runs the Jets, and if he tells Joe D. And Woody to pick up the phone and call the Raiders, I still wouldn't be stunned if Adams ends up there just because Rodgers has that much power to say, Get it done. Now, the Raiders, if they want to answer on the phone, that's another conversation.

If Ayuk wants 30 million a year and they can get a monster deal back for him, do they make a decision of him under Devo and all that stuff?

Go ahead, Mark. What do you got?

It segues into my one because I obviously like the ones that you mentioned are all obvious ones, too. But there are a couple of teams that just ended the season in chaotic corners where it's like everything that you thought about them has changed. I would list, and I think the offseason could to change everything you think about even a junk team. There are these teams that came into last season with a ton of hope, and the Eagles, for instance. Where are we going to be after the free agent and draft process with two new coordinators again? Do we feel differently about them? Do they reset the board? Because right now it feels like the energy around the Eagles, and for years, it's like Howie Roseman, and the whole organization is just top class, and they're going to keep overachieving.

There's been ebbs and flows.

I'm I'm more saying of late, they're the smartest team around. They're drafting the player that no one else can develop. We're in a weird place with them. We're in a weird place with the Cowboys. Can the Cowboys actually get us hopeful and excited about their season again versus just the moniker around them? I throw the Jets in there because it's like the Jets are fundamentally no different than the team that we were talking about as a potential AFC Super Bowl team. They've got another draft, and they've got another round of free agency. But there's this feeling, like you just mentioned, that they're controlled by with their quarterback, which is about as unhealthy as it gets. That you kept an offensive coordinator that showed no acumen to run an offense, that your head coach seemed to go from alpha male to, I'm not sure this guy even knows what he's doing at this point. It all feels like those three teams. But there's others I throw in there that are mysterious, like a Harbaugh, Greg Roman offense with Justin Herbert. I can't wait to see what pieces they add to that and what that offense looks like a couple of months now.

But these teams that are in a dark spot, will it get any better? Or is it just going to crescendo even worse into ugly territory?

The teams that had either ugly seasons last year or disappointing ends, what they do.

That's interesting that you mentioned the Cowboys, too, because I think about Dak Prescott and his absolutely insane cap hit that's coming up this year. His cap number is $59.4 million. The highest cap hit this past season was Patrick Mahomes at 37. But the way that Dax deal is done, remember You remember how difficult it was to get his deal done last time and all of the negotiations that went into it? He has one year left. He has a no-trade clause. He has all sorts of clauses in there. He can't be tagged. He can get, honestly, anything.

One of the things that I'm most certain about this offseason is Jera and Dak doing business together because Jara has no... They have to. We might start to have doubts about Dak's ability to really lead a team all the way, but I don't think Jara has any doubts. He'd fire everybody else before in my opinion.

Yeah, and if you're saying it's a risk.

I just mean they got to get that done.

They got to have to. They will. They've got a lot going on in terms of cap issues. Tyron Smith, void deal, just void it. He played at a high level. The Eagles, to me, are the team, though, that I expect will look very different a month from now, whereas the Cowboys, I think, are just...

They're locked in.

They're going to add some... They'll do things on the edges. They've got some important players coming up. Whereas the Eagles, there was that report that Hassan Redik might be traded, but they have all their older guys are up for it. I don't know what they're going to do, but when I'm talking about these receiver, could A. J. Brown be that person that gets traded? I doubt it, but they're just the team that... I don't know what they're going to do, but they're going to do something. They're going to do a lot.

I thought you were going to bring up A. J. Brown.

Yeah, he would be another option.

Who, of course, is the famous trade from the Titans. But he was, by all outside reporting and stuff coming, an unhappy camper there. I would imagine after the last year ended, Connie, they're trying to change the culture, freshen things up a little bit, put a new coat of paint on.

I think they need more than that. Or is it Devante Smith?

The slim reaper? People would love a little Devante.

Mark, the slim reaper. You can't just change the culture in three weeks. No.

I don't even know what that means.

Especially if you have a lot of the same people in the building.

You trade some of the guys that they believe are contributing to a bad locker room.

Yeah. Well, how many games ended with A. J. Brown picking rocks? Jalen hurts one of those guys. I don't know, Connie.

I still go back to my explanation. He's just on Abbott Elementary. No,no one knows. No one knows what happened. You're right.

Never mind. Things just happened. That show seems to be well beloved.

We love Avid Elementary. Okay.

All right, we're having two different conversations. Sorry. All right.

That's a sign that we should-How long is this pod been? This has been two hours. It's over.

I would love to put a moratorium on everyone's stressing about how long our podcast is. I didn't say anything. If the conversation is good, then it's fine.

All right, well, then in that case, Bill Belichick and Tom braided, two more people to throw in the interesting offseason story.

Tom braided actually announce the game?

Also, we only have two shows this week, so we're giving the people a little housekeeping. We're going to be Tuesday, Thursday this week, so it's less than usual.

People want to come to us and tell us the podcast is too long, then we'll have to maybe start talking. I haven't heard anyone ever say.

What people? You would change the show if a rando from deep Scotland told you that?

No, if there was some type of deep call with people saying, Our show is too long, there's too much honking, it would make sense to have an internal conversation. It was hurting our data points. I don't sense that. Let's stop stressing about it.I.

Think I'm just hungry.I think it's more a concern. That's different. When you tell us you have nowhere to be, then there's no railings on what could happen. Where are you got to go? I got all sorts of places to be. This is the only safe place. No, it's not.

It's Noah's Ark. It's Wes's Ark.

Well, people eventually got off Noah's Ark. They didn't just die on the ship and it sunk. They got off the ship and started a new civilization, according to the theories. According to the theories. I'm not...

Save it for the theology, Bob.

Eric, anything-That's a great point, Mark. Anything in terms of footage from the newsroom about the missing Super Bowl ticket?

Nothing at the moment. I've heard that the water leaking from the ceiling may have slowed the process.

I sense you are very earnestly investigating this.

I'm digging through emails as we speak.

Big funk. Any updates on how many free agents will be on Mark and I's write-up? Which I'm saying 150 words each on the blurbs.Oh, at least.We'll just split it up, half use it. Get Connie in there a little bit. Sure. Get Connie on about 100 blurbs.

After extensive research, I've realized I'm not that good at math, and so it's going to take me a little while longer.

I'd say upwards to 300 plus free agents.

I've seen five lists that are top 200 free agents.

That doesn't help you. You need to find out all of them.

That doesn't scare us.

It's their picking and choosing.

All right. Funk, are you around on Thursday? I am. All right, we have to have a conversation. But all conversations can only be had on microphone.So until then, naturally.We say goodbye. We say goodbye to the audience.

We didn't even get to hear about their week together. Yeah. But maybe next Thursday.

Come back Thursday. Big, big funk conversation. Also, Greg and Mark, private time.No.

Microphones.no.not needed.We'll.

Dig in. Connie, you've said it all. There's a drop. Until Thursday. The call. Good to be back.