We're Back: NFL Training Camp News and Reaction!

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Ayo, oh, we are back from summer break.

Heating that call.

New look, same heroes, and we got so much to get into.

Getting you caught up.

This training camp kicks off across the league.

Ceci, are you ready?

I am prepared.

I am excited.

I am very serious about this.

Season two, baby.

Let's roll.

Let's go.

Hi, hello, and welcome.

We're heating the call.

Season two.

Dan Hans is here with Mark Sessler.

Justin Graver on the ones and twos.

And yes, new look,

new opening,

but same bros.

We're going to workshop that one.

What's up, Ceci?

Welcome back.

Good to see you again.

I hope you had a great summer.

We've got a whole fresh viewpoint and look here.

I'm excited about season two.

They say the sequel sometimes doesn't match the original.

I hope that we can absolutely obliterate that concept.

Yeah, we're going for the Godfather part two and not gladiator two.

That's kind of the goal here, and we'll see if we could pull it off.

And yeah, we have the new look for the show.

And, you know, I have a new background here, as everyone can see.

You do not, Mark.

I think.

Well,

that only magnifies what you've done.

That's why I just

kind of put it on the radar a little bit that I was getting a new background.

I was going to work on it during our break.

I know, of course, Justin has the rich mahogany behind him.

So consider this kind of like, have you ever had that moment where your wife or whatever, and it's your anniversary is like we exchange gifts.

And then this certainly is not coming from real life experience.

Like she gives you a pair of gym shorts or something and like, and a new pair of like sneakers, running sneakers or something.

It's like, hmm, is that a hint?

Am I?

I had

a wide variety of

gym shorts, brand new.

No, that's that's nice.

I would say that in my marriage experience, there were a wide variety of experiences there.

And it may be including touching on what you're discussing to some degree.

I knew, I also knew that when you asked to log on a little early to test, you know, to test run your background, I knew this conversation would be coming up quickly.

That like we're now, we're going to have to silently be judging Mark's background.

I think it's a beautiful.

Also, you need to see what I'm, the room I'm dealing with here is not allowing any

immense landscape.

I'm in a garage, Mark.

You know, you, you're, you have, yours is, I call it, uh, insane asylum chic, where you, because you had good behavior, they let you hang up some shit you found.

Okay,

that's not unfair.

All right, without further ado, we got a lot to get to because we got a lot to catch up on, of course, as it's been a few weeks since our last show.

Uh, let's welcome in the legend, uh, who we could not come back.

He was on a part of our first show, season one.

Now, first show, season two.

Hit it, Gravy.

Today's the NFC.

Christmas comes today.

It's Connor.

Oh, what's up, Con Man?

Connor Orr.

That's illustrated.

All things in between.

Area man, Central New Jersey.

You know, when we did this last year and I was on the first episode, my

best case scenario for trajectory was like the bipolar brother and Ozarks, where I can make it through like 10 episodes before I get shot in the face in front of a diner.

But the fact that I'm here for season two is this is great.

I feel good.

We picked up your option.

Put it that way.

And yes, it's great to be all back together.

It always happens whenever we take some time off.

It reminds me how much I love doing this and how lucky we are to have this job.

And sometimes it feels like a jobs, but sometimes it feels like, oh, wow, I'm just talking with my buds.

And that's how I feel right now.

And at the same time, I don't feel like we missed a lot, Conman.

And I respect everyone that powered through the early weeks of July in their respective podcasts.

But like,

you know, do I need like a top 10 countdown of interior linemen with the nicest calves?

Do I need like Greenie

telling me about like sharing his worst jet memories that interrupted wine and cheese parties on Long Island?

Like, don't need any of it, really.

It's non-essential.

But now training camp's back, and that means we're back, and it's time to dig in.

You need that separation to have life experiences that then color the upcoming season.

And, you know, a lot of highs and a lot of lows over the last two weeks, but all of it I'm bringing here to the table.

So

I noticed

some incredible photos, Dan, of your trip east.

One of you driving a boat.

Very masculine, very manly Instagram image there.

And so that's the kind of experiences we feed off of before we return to the fray.

Absolutely.

Absolutely, Mark.

Yes, my travels have concluded.

We are back here in Southern California, you and I at least.

And now it's time to dive in.

Let's hit some news.

Of all of the people that I've sat down with as a player,

of all the players that I've ever negotiated with,

Michael Parson is as savvy and knowledgeable and understanding of his financial business relative to football as any player I've ever been around.

Did he say Michael Parcel?

I believe so.

That's not a great sign.

I was going to say, like, I just, as we celebrate the kickoff of a new season with Training Camp here,

as he began his speech from that, you know, now iconic dais at Jarrow World or the star,

how many more do we get of these?

You know, how many more of these Jerry speeches?

And then I see something like that, and it's kind of like

the first Biden debate.

And I'm like, oh, is this going to be, how many do we get?

This might be the last one.

We might have already watched the last one because he just called Micah Parsons Michael Person.

yeah

I

I've come full circle on Jerry where I used to back in the day when we were allowed to like write anything we wanted to on dot-com like I would rip into him like seven times a year but I've come around where his voice just brings me comfort and I feel like

this guy has been talking to me or at me for five decades at this point so he's like an old grandfather I think it just represents a very non-threatening tone to the rest of the NFL, too, because the more he does this, the further Dallas gets away from winning anything or accomplishing anything in a serious way.

And the part of the press conference that I really clocked was how he was talking about his acting skills and like ditching, dissing John Hamm, like not even mentioning John Hamm by name.

Who he shared that scene with, right?

It's proof of concept that this whole thing is just about him and has always been.

And the Dallas Cowboys are no closer to actually winning a Super Bowl in the capped era.

So it's thrilling, thrilling for me.

I don't know if you guys have noticed it, but I've seen it.

You know, I try to unplug a little bit during our break, but keep an eye out on things and then you plug in as we lead up to this show.

The questions around the Cowboys, because it's been so long now, like it's 2025 now, and the Cowboys have not been to the NFC title game since like Wonder Wall was on the charts.

So it's like it's now almost become a defining trait of the organization.

It's like, you guys haven't been special

in an entire generation.

So I've seen multiple star players be interviewed about that specifically and like the idea of bringing the Cowboys back to greatness.

Will this be the year?

We'll get to a little more with Jara early later and also all the other, you know, drama round contracts that are unsigned, Parsons being one of them.

But one that did get done was someone in Parsons orbit, Michael Parson.

Was that what his name?

His name is T.J.

Watt.

T.

Parson.

That's really bad.

It's not even a problem.

It's an issue.

Like, if I'm a Cowboys fan

and I call

arguably the second

most important person on the team and a guy who's been a superstar there for five years by a totally different name, it's a bit of a red flag.

Michael Parson.

TJ Watt, let's get into it.

The Steelers and the great pass rusher have agreed to a three-year extension that makes him the highest paid non-quarterback in NFL history.

That's the second time that's happened with Watt.

He turns 31 in October.

It's a three-year, $123 million extension.

This happened last Thursday, and it ends a contract negotiation that was not always pleasant.

But at the end, it's a very pleasant situation for Watt, who gets $108 million guaranteed.

And Cesee, this is, I don't think anyone's surprised by this.

The Steelers, I think there's a bit of a disconnect between where the Steelers think they are right now, which is on the precipice of Super Bowl contention, and the rest of us were like, oh, this feels a little 9 and 80 still to us.

But if they do indeed believe with Aaron Rodgers, they're going to make a run this year.

They were never going to trade TJ Watt.

And in general, the Steelers are not a team that are in the business of getting rid of their kind of legacy players.

And Watt has absolutely become that over the last decade.

Yeah, I think it would have been fairly shocking for this to end up in any other way than it has.

And with most of these contracts, I just assume they're going to get done at some point.

There was this one little moment in this very kind of weird, slightly weird offseason for Pittsburgh and how we view them that I wondered if they never got Aaron Rodgers and had no quarterback.

Do you ever entertain kind of blowing it up more deeply?

And could TJ Watt have ever been moved in a different parallel universe this offseason?

I think the minute the Rodgers thing happened, like this was locked in, and they view themselves as a

deep, a playoff team, no doubt.

And probably where we separate that from reality is like winning a playoff game or two does not feel like this Steelers team to me.

Judging how long Pittsburgh and at behest of ownership, because Ben Rothesberger had said this, how long Ben Rothesberger was allowed to play fantasy camp as a quarterback, far beyond his prime,

was the indicative factor in terms of they were always going to bring TJ Watt back.

I could make the argument probably pretty successfully that Watt is a more valuable player than Rothesburger was maybe even at the height of his prime to Pittsburgh.

And I think is probably going to end up more emblematic of that franchise and their style of football.

And

we laughed about it at the time.

We laughed about it when the trade rumors surfaced.

And we can laugh about it now.

This was never going to happen.

He was always going to sign that contract.

In other contract news, the Jets, they pay their two young stars.

Once upon a time, Garrett Wilson and Sauce Gardner were reigning rookies of the year,

and the Jets have not found any success during their runs with the team, but the Jets decided under new leadership that Wilson and Gardner are part of a solution that ends their 13-year, is it 13, 14-year playoff draft?

Who's counting?

Garrett Wilson gets a four-year, $130 million extension.

That includes $90 million guaranteed.

Sauce gets four years, $120.4 million, including $60 million guaranteed.

That makes him the highest paid cornerback in NFL history.

There is some,

as always, some funny money involved here.

I believe

Florio over PFT wrote about the Sauce-Gardner deal and how, while by the final number, it's the biggest.

Stingley and Houston actually had probably a better contract in many respects.

And I wonder if Sauce, having a somewhat down year by his standards in 2024 slightly deflated his value, which ends up working out in the Jets' favor if he bounces back and becomes the player he was his first two NFL seasons, which I think he will.

And there is an optimistic streak in me.

It's a sadistic streak that I can't get rid of that I always hope the Jets are figuring it out.

I really loved that they got these deals done.

The timing of them, that they didn't have to do them now, but they got ahead of it.

And also the message it sends to the locker room that these are the dogs that we believe are going to take us out of this long time sludge we've been in.

And we're showing it with money.

So they're going to report to camp and they're going to be in good spirits.

And in general, positive vibes are so important around this organization, Connor.

Yeah, two things.

I think not getting Garrett Wilson outside of that leapfrog game of highest paid wide receiver was huge, especially after the Jamar Chase and Justin Jefferson contracts.

You're playing a different game and you're not sacrificing a lot of long-term cap flexibility.

And let's not forget, these were the two players who were organically growing into leadership roles before this entire thing got stuck in a toaster oven, right?

And their voices kind of got muzzled a little bit, and other players got brought in and vets and all this complicated stuff.

And so I think returning the team to its natural grilled state, which it was in and it was in a healthy spot, is great across the board and just great contract work, too, by the GM.

I mean,

this is exactly what you'd want out of the start of a new regime.

And

the GM, Darren Moogie, like he, one of the whispers coming out this week are that the team, the organization is, and we've seen it, more proactive.

And, you know, these holdouts that last with certain players on certain teams for multiple, or like the contract stalemate, they go on for multiple offseasons.

Like you guys, you lock these guys up as quick as possible.

Both of these contracts will look great a couple years from now And you want to believe that this happened because of Aaron Glenn because of the GM because these were guys that you know a calendar year ago didn't seem like they wanted to be on this team the same way they do right now So it does I'm always speculative of this, but it feels like the Jets are doing things in a wiser fashion It's hard to do it things less wisely than they were before, but like I think it's the people involved Yeah, I mean, look, we're going to talk about the cowboys in a bit and and how they continually put themselves in the same position of waiting too long to sign their superstars and then being held hostage in negotiations.

And it just seems to stilt the team building here.

So the Jets getting in front of it.

It's a smart move.

And yeah, the Glenn thing, I had this conversation with my dad, actually, on the Jersey Shore a couple days ago,

which was beautiful.

Connor, just again, kudos to you and all your people.

No problem.

You know, we don't know if Aaron Glenn's going to be good.

We don't know.

Just like any team, you hire a hot shot coordinator and then you cross your fingers and hope that he wasn't over-promoted.

I like the Robert Sala move when it happened, and he looked apart, and he had plenty of success in San Francisco.

And then it kind of became clear, even with the dysfunction around him, it became pretty clear to me and a lot of other Jets fans and eventually, obviously, the Jets that he wasn't the right guy.

And I bet he'll thrive back in San Francisco now as the DC.

We don't know if Glenn is going to get it in the big chair, but I like the culture vibe.

I love, I still love that story that he sat down with Aaron Rodgers and within 10 minutes was like, you're out of here, dude.

Like, you're not.

It's like if you

dated pop culture reference, but great movie, Roadhouse, when Swayze gets hired to clean up the double-deuce, and immediately he just starts shit canning the drug dealer and the guy that's and the guy that's stealing from the till and the other guy that's you know, you know, skipping work.

And

so,

so consider it severance pay.

Take the train.

Like, he's just, it just seems like they're cleaning things up.

So, Woody, stay the f out of the way and let them do their job.

And maybe, just maybe, this will be the year.

This is Eagles-like.

This is Lions-like.

This is locking up your young players before they become massive liabilities financially.

It's a great move.

This is what we've been asking teams to do for a long time, and only the best teams have been doing it.

And let me catch up.

for this shit.

This will be the year.

By that, I mean maybe not lose 11 to 14 games and make Dan suicidal by Thanksgiving.

That's all I mean.

That's where the bar is at, correct?

That's where the bar.

The bar is not only on the floor,

it's sunk into, it was like a quicksand, like an Amazon jungle quicksand.

We're just trying to pull the bar out from the earth itself.

Anyway.

Okay.

All right.

The Chiefs.

Now there's a team.

There's a team to respect how they do their business.

There's a reason why they've been to three straight Super Bowls.

They know how to build around their star players.

Trey Smith, the guard, has re-signed a four-year $94 million contract, $70 million in guarantees.

This was just ahead of the deadline for franchise-tagged players to sign deals.

That is now since passed.

He's the highest-paid guard in NFL history.

So that offensive line, which was exposed, a lot of things were exposed by the Eagles in the Super Bowl, but the line got

the clown suit put on it in that game.

But obviously, Smith is a key player, and they keep him around.

Also, staying around is George Carloftis, who extended on a four-year, $88 million extension, max value of $93 million in new money.

And another example, Connor, Carloftis is a guy that they drafted.

Why do the Chiefs?

Everybody gets pissed at the Chiefs because they always get the breaks and they're always playing in the end of January and early February.

it's the drafting and the development of players.

And Carloftis is a perfect example.

Again, when they won their Super Bowls, they had to kind of pick and choose, and they had to trade, and they had to maybe do some unsavory stuff to get after the passer with Frank Clark.

And that was a move that not a lot of people were thrilled about at the time.

But they pivoted to this organic movement, which has been really the driving force behind the phase two of the Mahomes era.

And you have homegrown offensive line, you have homegrown protection, you have homegrown weapons now, and now you have a homegrown pass rush.

This is the only way that the Mahomes era takes another step and makes it into its another level.

And so, I think hitting on a pass rusher, I mean,

what could be better?

It's almost as if you keep the same coaching staff and front office around for eons that it starts to show results in the NFL.

I mean, where every other team is spastically running through regimes.

It's an interesting season, though, for the Chiefs, in my opinion, because they've been able to trounce that division for years.

And I look at all three teams, the Chargers, Broncos, and Raiders, as improved foes at this point.

And teams that now seem to have a vision of their own versus wandering in the wilderness.

So you've got a Chiefs team that's played, what, like immensely more football over the last four or five years, almost 20 more games than other teams.

In a division with young quarterbacks and competitive coaches, like AFC West will be a little bit more of a dogfight.

And it's like the next phase of the Chiefs just having to deal with that, survive, and thrive.

Great point, Mark.

So great to hear you.

Thank you.

And just look at you.

I'm assuming that you mean that sincerely.

I do.

I do.

You mentioned the continuity and how that's helped the Chiefs.

There is some fortuity as well with their continuity, right?

When you look at, first of all, the advantage of having a head coach who's also kind of your offensive architect.

So you're never going to lose your play caller.

Okay.

So Andy's there.

And then in Spags, they have this guy who's like a Hall of Fame level defensive coordinator who bombed out as a head coach and then I guess aged out of getting another gig.

So they've never had to worry about losing him.

I mean, it's such a huge advantage.

And I'm watching, we're going to talk about it later this week because quarterbacks came back on Netflix and I thought it was an awesome, awesome ride.

I just finished it yesterday.

And I was checking out the Lions coaching staff and Ben Johnson and Jared Goff's vibes together.

And of course, Aaron Glenn, who doesn't show up in that, but obviously he is now with the Jets.

And the challenges that a contender like Detroit faces and all teams that kind of begin their rise against the Chiefs who have been able to kind of sneak through that a little bit and maybe underplay it a little bit, Connor, when we talk about

the run that the Chiefs have been on for a decade now is having that continuity that other great teams don't get that benefit.

It's a next-level problem, but it shows foresight on behalf of Andy Reid.

And you actually saw Kyle Shanahan start doing that after every year he started getting gutted and gutted and gutted again.

And then you do things like, okay, I'm going to bring in Brian Greasy from Monday Night Football because I can teach him what I think he needs to know.

And the chances that he ends up rising up to OC and then play caller and then leaving to go somewhere else are probably a little bit slimmer given his age and all that kind of stuff.

And so you see coaches who are getting routinely gutted start thinking that way because behind the scenes, losing guys and the competition for keeping your best assistant coaches is cutthroat it's breakneck it's one of the grosser parts of our business so to be able to understand that to know that these guys will come back is is gigantic all right let's stop right there those are deals that got done let's take a break when we get back business that has not been settled and and the chaos that that may cause all right stay right there we're back baby

All right, this episode of Heed the Call with Dan Hanses and Mark Sessler is brought to you by BetterHelp.

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All right, we are back.

Oh, we are so back.

Training camp

has kicked off across the NFL, and let's dig back in now with the contract issues that some teams are facing.

Let's start with those Dallas Cowboys,

three-time all-pro Micah Parsons

or

Michael Parson or that guy will report to Oxnard for training camp despite not having a long-term contract extension with the team.

And here's a little sound, more sound from Jara on Michelle Parzon

talking about the quandary the Cowboys, like every year, find themselves in with a star player and money matters.

Just because we sign him doesn't mean we're going to have him.

He was hurt six games last year.

Seriously.

Seriously.

We've signed, I remember signing a player for the highest paid position in the league, and he got knocked out two-thirds of the year, Dak Prescott.

What are we doing here?

That one eye wasn't even open.

No, I was going to say it.

I don't, because he's an older man, and I'm not taking a shot at his physical appearance, but is he okay?

It looks like one of the eyes was sealed shut.

I'm not even making light of it.

It kind of does tie into the earlier conversation.

It's like, Jared's getting up there now, but is he okay?

The questions are bubbling up.

We've been to that training camp.

There's a lot of sunsplashed areas there.

Maybe that was part of it, but I don't see that being the case here.

One thing that annoys me, first of all, you don't need to go down that road with Micah Parsons, who we've seen play through injury and is one of the toughest guys.

He played in 17 games in back-to-back seasons after playing 16 as a rookie.

So why are we dinging him with the he's unreliable potentially if I pay him?

It just sounds like a clunky,

clunky negotiation, BS, you know, I don't, you know, that you're doing in public.

But yeah, so that that is happening right now.

Yes, Justin.

He also only missed four games last year, and Jerry seriously said he missed six.

So

whatever.

That's really unfair.

You're going, you got to be, I mean, I feel like you're being a little hard on Jaron now, but like, if you're going to go on, sit at your dais and disparage one of your core players and then upgrade the amount of games that he missed by two, I'd be mega-pissed.

And he showed up to camp.

That sounds like, by the way, what...

The whole read between the lines, that sounds like a classic hold-in situation where Parsons will be there, but ain't doing shit until he gets paid.

Also, the Cowboys have signed former Browns and Lions defensive end James Houston.

They placed cornerback Trayvon Diggs, who was coming off an ACL, and

linebacker DeMarvian Overshon, who had a brutal knee injury last year.

They're both going to start training camp on Pup, and rookie cornerback Siobhan Revelle was placed on the NFI list.

Okay, and other unhappy pass rusher news, Bengals, four-time Pro Bowl defensive end Trey Hendrickson.

He's gone home.

Okay.

He went home.

He went to Florida.

Man, I was in Florida.

Holy shit.

You have not felt

humidity, heat, and pain until you are huffing it across Disney World in the middle of July.

And it was great.

It was with my family.

My parents celebrated their 50th anniversary this year.

It was important, I know, to my mom especially to kind of have this.

Yes, yes, give it up to Dev and Keith

to get my boys together.

My sister has two girls to all have this

great experience together.

But when I left Florida, I said, I will never come back here

in the summer ever again, unless I am like forced or I'm extradited or something as part of a criminal case.

You will not catch me in Florida in July.

And that's no shot against Mark, the people of Florida and listeners that might be angry at these comments.

This is just facts, man.

I'm already there worried about alligator attacks and other things that could happen to me down there because it is Florida after all.

But you got to miss me with this heat and sunshine.

And I don't know how the Miami Dolphins, it makes so much more sense that the Miami Dolphins are an absolute train wreck at the end of these NFL seasons when these are the conditions they spend most of their time in during an NFL season.

Enough.

Put a dome over the whole goddamn state and let's just settle it up.

I think also, like, and congrats to your parents, and that's a good reason to, a great reason all to get together.

So aside from that, and aside from the personality of people in Florida, which we could have a separate conversation about some of them,

I think you're pinpointing the reality that Orlando specifically, when you're a child, it's the home of Disney World and you're thinking it must must be this magical place.

I personally have found Orlando to be, and I'll use

underwhelming, and that's being generous, that it's not like the rich beating heart of Florida.

There are better parts of Florida.

Orlando is a bit of the pain,

a mental pain to me.

This is perhaps, all right, nice takedown of Orlando.

It's a nice civic area with a lot of great people.

The Magick are a decent basketball team.

But we do have a little fortuitous here, Mark, that the man that is synonymous with Orlando, there was a song on the old show called Connor Orlando Today about when he got snubbed for a Super Bowl trip and was instead sent to the Pro Bowl, which was being held in Orlando at that time.

And we learned later, I think years later, in fact, that Connor was so angry about the theme song and that discourse on that particular program that I think he unfollowed us or blocked us all on social media.

And that, I mean, that's pre-TNC, Connor.

That's peak pre-TNC.

Yeah.

That was a tough time

professionally and personally.

But I will say

you opted not to take a shot at the people of Florida.

I'll go ahead and do it

because this isn't really the flex that Trey Hendrickson thinks it is, where it's like, bye, guys, I'm going to Florida.

I said what I said about...

Cincinnati.

I mean, Florida is so much worse than Ohio.

And I don't know if you've ever gone to

a Jimmy Buffett concert or maybe one of these faded acts from the 70s and you see just these like drunk like leather-skinned people falling all over the place and you're like, where do they go?

And it's all Florida.

That's where they are.

They just all somehow fade away and get dropped into this.

absolute equator hellhole.

And so I don't think Trey Hendrickson is

making anybody jealous here.

I admire, you know, one of the things I admire about you, Connor, you know, as someone that just spent a lot of time in New Jersey and enjoyed it, obviously.

But New Jersey, obviously, maybe unlike any state in the union, has a target on its back for taking deserts.

And the fact that you always come out swinging against other states in the continental U.S.,

I admire that because you do leave yourself wide open for people who want to come at you with like a snooky takedown or something about the

factories that line the turnpike or whatever.

Like you, you're not, you don't care about that.

You just come after the states

outrageously.

And we are on, we are, this show seems to have an active rate where every 1.5 episodes, Connor finds a way to disenfranchise himself from like parts of Europe,

states.

Really, the entirety of Europe at this point.

Yeah, like most of Europe.

So it's,

that's who you are, Connor.

We love you.

Just think about it logistically, right?

Where all the people that you've ever come across who are not smart enough to realize that where they are is absolutely fine.

And they're like, when I'm done, I'm going to Florida.

And it's like, okay, go.

And it's all these people that get down there and realize that being in 100-degree heat and chewed alive by swamp mosquitoes is not the way that you'd want to spend your remaining years in life.

I am miserable every second that I am in that state.

And I've been to Disney World.

I've ridden the nine and three quarters train to Harry Potter.

I've drank the buttered beer.

And every single second of it, I'm like, when can I get on the damn air-conditioned bus ride to get the fk out of here?

It's a dense takedown of by all three of us for various elements.

That spun out of control a little bit.

Sorry.

So we're just going to.

Talk football.

Anyway, about Florida.

Trey Henderson has returned to Florida in July, which is crazy because July in Florida...

No, okay.

Yeah.

Go ahead.

It's unclear when or if he'll return to Cincinnati.

He'll be back, trust me.

Mike Brown

had this to say.

We operate under a cap system.

We've paid out the last couple of years more than the cap.

That isn't being cheap.

And

Jordan Schultz, old

former guest on the program and adversary of Rapsheet, reported that the key issue has been the length of the commitment and the the guarantees tied to a potential new deal.

Both sides remain stuck.

The Bengals want to stick to their structure.

Hendrickson wants something that reflects his value.

So far, no common ground has been found.

Now, listen,

Hendrickson deserves it, and he's, I think, right around the same age as TJ Watt.

So he wants that contract or a dollar more,

and he deserves it.

But this was the problem.

We saw this coming miles away, or you should have, when Joe Burrow, and we'll talk about Burrow at length on Thursday's show when we we talk about the quarterback series, but when Joe Burrow used his might within that organization and made sure that he brought back both of his superstar wide receivers, or his one superstar wide receiver, and his great second wide receiver, T.

Higgins,

that was going to cause an issue for this team.

And I said it at the time that I thought they should have let T.

Higgins walk.

And obviously, you pay Jamar Chase because he's a top three talent at the position.

And then you make Trey Hendrickson full, and then you figure it out.

They are in a situation now that I understand why Mike Brown is saying this, Connor, because they really did spend up to the edge of the limits here, and they've invested so much in the quarterback and two wide receivers.

It's a Cowboysian move that now makes it much more difficult to field a balanced roster.

And we know, check out how many games that team blew last year on the defensive side of the ball to disenfranchise your most important player just seems kind of, you know, you were asking for it and now you got it.

I'm never going to side with ownership, although I will say this about the Bengals that I think just gets lost in the shuffle.

I think three times since Zach Taylor has been there, they have been the first, second, or third team in free agency spending.

They have redone this offensive line twice to pacify Burrow after he got shellacked his rookie year.

And so all of this does compound to some point where the owner has to throw his hands up.

He doesn't have to, but he's going to feel the need to and say enough.

And it sucks when you're the Bengals because now that point is suffocating your entire pass rush, and you have a new defensive coordinator coming in that's trying to get all this organized.

And none of your two best pass rushers are going to be in camp, possibly.

I mean, I'm optimistic that both of these get done.

And I think that eventually, like August 5th, Trey Hendrickson is going to walk in there and everything's going to be fine.

But the fact that this is going to be arduous and require every inch of the timetable provided is, like you said a reflection of prior decisions and i think that mike brown like if we just took the name off the person

he he is correct as you pointed out that the bengals under duke tobin in that front office have been more aggressive and they have tried to build around burrow and they gave burrow what he said he wanted but i don't like these situations where they're offering Hendrickson one-year guarantee, but he's looking at the other pass rushers in his own division who are centerpieces of that defense, getting more guaranteed money over multiple years.

Then you get these guys into camp, including a rookie that's never been on an NFL team.

In late August or something, the Bengals started one in four a year ago.

In 2023, they started one in three.

The year before that, two and three.

Slow starts.

And so you can't have your most important people jumping on board in late August or early September.

It usually leads to disaster or underwhelming results.

I mean, come on.

That guy is a franchise staple, and a guy who has balled out for years, and you're giving him, offering him a deal that has one year guaranteed.

That's insulting.

But,

you know,

this is the Bengals, and this is why historically they've been an inept organization.

And that's not the only Bengals story here.

Their rookie, their first-round pick, Shamar Stewart,

he's still holding out.

He left their rookie camp and has not reported since.

And,

okay.

And

now here we are as training cap is underway.

Their first round pick.

By the way, another defensive end, and again, a defense that just ruined their season last year.

The tone here around this player has gotten into an ugly place.

Duke Tobin says, I think Shamar needs to be here.

And Mike Brown, the owner, says the level of negotiations has risen to, quote, silliness.

Here's a little more from Brown.

Well, if we get a player who gets involved in something like that or does something that is just unacceptable, guess what?

I don't want to pay him.

I really don't.

If he's sitting in jail, I don't think I ought to be paying him.

And so we say that

if he got involved in conduct detrimental, we'd have the right to

terminate the guaranteed part for the back years.

He says, or his agent says, oh no, you can terminate the guaranteed part only for the remaining part of the year and

I get it.

Just figure it out.

Christ.

I mean,

I get it.

I mean, I understand from the team standpoint, apparently the issue is that he wants to be paid even if he runs into some serious legal trouble.

Figure it out.

Everybody else figures it out.

You should too, Cincinnati.

Just figure it out.

One point defending him and one point not.

The point defending him, just to put a bow on Trey Hendrickson, right?

Trey Hendrickson had 43 sacks over the last three seasons.

And I think part of the issue for him long term is Daniel Hunter, who had 39 sacks over the last three seasons and accepted a one-year deal worth like $36 million, right?

And so I think that that is clogging up Trey's market because they're probably looking at them as, okay, similar players.

That guy got a one-year deal, high-end one-year deal.

This is what we want for you.

For the Shamar Stewart thing, the whole point of you keeping everything tight and keeping a smaller scouting staff, which

they've since expanded on, is that you know the players more intimately and the coaches know the players more intimately.

So just don't draft a guy that's going to go to jail.

Like his whole scenario that he's concocted in his head is like, well, what if this guy goes to jail?

Draft a guy who's not going to go to jail.

Like

that you're 100% certain is not going to end up in prison.

Like that, that's it.

Problem solved.

Problem solved.

All right, let's move on from Cincinnati.

I mean, Christ.

All right, in other news, blotter.

Love that word.

B-L-O-T-T-E-R.

Blotter.

I don't know if they're still functionally even being used in police stations at this point or wherever, whatever it pointed to.

It feels a little old-timing.

Like, speaking of old-timing, things that kind of...

You think about the previous decade of NFL football, like something that definitely wouldn't exist today, but did exist back then was Pro Football Talks landing page, which is amongst the most trafficked websites in all of the realm of Pro Football.

Had a existing sidebar graphic days since last arrest of NFL player.

Yeah.

Very Florio-esque.

Right behind me.

is

a police scanner.

I have one up in my...

Yes.

And it's an active police scanner.

now all police departments have since gone digital so you can go on the apps but that is an an there's an analog police scanner behind me which i love we should have that justin something because we have a new look it's season two can we just keep at a low volume at all times connor's police scanner in case something it picks up something around the jets or the giants or the eagles you know or really anything Running A to Z through the show at all times.

Yeah, that sounds like a really good audio distraction.

And I don't know if people would like it.

Sound off in the comments.

Do you want that in the show or not?

How about that?

Justin.

Nicely done, Justin.

Anyway, blotter, Rashi Rice, Chiefs wide receiver, has pled guilty to third-degree felony charges of collision involving serious bodily injury and racing on a highway causing bodily injury.

Idiot.

He's sentenced to five years probation, 30 days

in prison.

Don't expect him to serve much time at all.

But the NFL now has the ability to suspend him for violating the personal conduct policy.

We'll see when that happens, but I would fully expect it to happen.

So the Chiefs are probably bracing

to lose him for two to four games.

I would guess.

Maybe it's four and they get it down to three on appeal or whatever.

But he's going to miss time.

So fantasy heads plug in on that.

And Chiefs, for a team, Mark, that has not an overwhelming number of weapons at their disposal and Rice, who's coming back from a serious leg injury last year, yeah, it's a little bit of a complication for this team.

Yeah, I mean, they've done more than maybe some would think at that position over the last couple of years.

Like, I wouldn't say they're star-studded, but they're pretty deep.

Um, I don't like losing him, though.

I mean, even

here at camp in the first couple hours of camp, he was like Mahomes' number one targeted guy at practice.

So it's like he, they still see him as extremely central.

I do think, though, in general, like in the world of football, when we freak out, I get it from a fantasy angle, it's its perturbance, but we freak out about these guys that are suspended for like the first two or three games.

But by the time you get to like deep October, November, it feels like ancient history.

And so, do I think the Chiefs, after all we've said about them, can overcome something like this?

Yes, I do.

I believe they will as well.

Speaking of fantasy, I got for the first time really, really, I think since 2003,

which I used the draft pick on Ricky Williams, if I'm not mistaken, that didn't work out too well.

Hook'em horns.

Yeah.

I have the first overall pick.

And

do you like that?

You know,

I'm a little bit torn.

And if we have listeners.

that are in my fantasy league, just know that I'm open for business at number one.

You can trade the pick in your league.

Yes.

I'm using this platform to formally open up negotiations on a potential blockbuster trade.

So thank you.

And now we move on.

Jordan Addison has pled guilty to a lesser charge in his DUI case.

He'll be placed on probation for 12 months, pay a $390 fine.

Just round it up.

Just make it $400.

Right.

What the fuck are we doing?

Must have been in Florida.

And complete two online courses.

He's likely facing a two or three game suspension now that that matter is dissolved.

I see you wrote that in the rundown.

He's likely facing two or three.

Is that just Justin's opinion on this?

Yeah, no.

It's not like sourced or anything.

So you're just...

It's a legal take.

You just feel that's your take?

Two or three?

Minnesota beat writers said that.

So I'm like, yeah, let's go with it.

Two or three sounds cool to me.

I don't know.

I thought DUIs cost like 10 grand.

They always kind of scare you straight by.

So $391 feels like he's getting off light.

Yeah.

Copied and pasted that from somewhere.

I don't know.

But, well, here's how it works, right?

He's got a very expensive lawyer.

Well, the lawyer.

He got that down to $390,000, but then he owes $10,000 to the lawyer.

Yes.

In society, sometimes you're getting banged no matter what.

And hopefully, Addison will be playing carefully.

He's played a slight role in that.

Sure.

Hey, boomer, enough with the wallet in your back pocket.

What a joke.

Clean up your act.

Move into the 2020s.

Talking to you, Sessler.

I'm on board with your messaging.

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All right, we're back.

Let's close this out.

In random news, random.

Darren Waller has been traded to the Dolphins.

What the f?

That guy, Darren Waller, who's probably most famous for being in attendance when Mark Sessler and Dan Hanses were asked to lead a symposium by NFL Media on how to build a successful podcast.

That's right.

But also, once upon a time, was an all-pro

tight end,

got traded to the Giants, did not care.

Like the symposium,

his dedication at the symposium could be questioned.

He seemed asleep for most of it.

Hot and cold.

His tenure with the Giants, you could probably say the same thing.

So Brian Dable and Dan and Mark had a similar effect on Darren Waller and his

level of effort.

Anyway, but then he retired.

This was last year.

But then I guess he unretired.

And then he got traded by the Giants to the Dolphins for a seventh-round pick.

The Dolphins receive a seventh-round pick.

The Giants get a conditional sixth-round pick.

What are we even doing here?

It's over.

What are we doing?

I'll say one thing quite a bit.

A conditional sixth for a seventh?

We don't need to do this.

Don't even file this with the league.

Right.

Just give him, just put him on a plane.

Make it a cat.

And let's just call it even.

This happened very early in our break.

And I was like, oh, this has to be like a story from four years ago.

Like, no, this happened today.

And it just adds to my feeling that the Dolphins feel to me like they're just sort of drifting into a different dimension this offseason.

Large

plan.

They're not eating on the show today do you want the 30-second backstory to why they did this and we will move on very beyond the fact that they traded away jones smith to pittsburgh yes um

so when darren waller's career got revived in las vegas it was because of then raiders tight ends coach frank smith who darren waller was recovering from his substance abuse issues frank smith actually flew to darren waller's parents' house and like did a deep download of who he was as a person.

Like, basically, went on a journalism reporting trip to learn about Darren Waller.

Those two are very, very close.

Frank Smith is now the offensive coordinator of the Dolphins.

They think that they can squeeze a little bit more toothpaste out of this.

So, that was the idea behind it.

So, sort of a Nepo baby scenario.

All right, in other weird news,

Trump wants the Redskins' name back, dot, dot, dot, or else the president is threatening to hold up a new stadium deal for Washington's NFL team, now called the Commanders, if it does not restore its old name,

that is, of course, considered by many to be offensive to Native Americans.

This is crazy.

I mean, sometimes this stuff just blows my mind.

He also talks about the Cleveland Guardians, how they should change their name back.

I mean, seems like potentially a classic misdirect if you read about other things in the news.

When in doubt,

let's stoke the culture wars

and play it that way.

But it doesn't seem like it's going to have, despite the power of the sitting president, the DC mayor, Muriel Bowser.

Whoa, the DC mayor's name is Bowser.

He's got to be a bad guy.

Anyway.

Even you would get that video game reference, Mark.

Super Mario Brothers, 1985 or whatever.

No,

I played and watched people play Mario Brothers for many hours back in the day.

Like, I don't know much about DC, like, local politics.

Is he a giant dragon or like a, does he have a huge shell?

And can he shoot fire?

And does he have like spikes and stuff?

Like, like, tell me more about Muriel Bowser, I guess, is what I need.

Justin, get on that.

Justin, can you find out if Muriel Bowser is a half-dragon, half-turtle?

Yes, he's the princess.

That person is not.

They're just a human being.

Sorry.

Yes, he has an unquenchable thirst for the princess's affections.

Anyway, he's confident, Bowser, that the commanders will return to the city, that deal won't be scuttled despite the president's threats.

Scuttled.

You are the ultimate commander, so.

So anyway,

yeah,

that's what he believes, Bowser, that the president can't stand in the way.

And do not expect any of these team names names to change.

But yes, it's a cultural

fire starter and the flames have been stoked for

it.

I don't know, but you nailed it.

It's a misdirect.

Also,

how much time is he spending writing these tweets/slash

missives online that are each about 700 words?

800, 900 words, just going on and on and on.

I mean, I know

he's got like a female aide that he just voices this to and then she types it out real fast, but these are insane-looking public missives.

Dude, save it for the next edition of Silver Horses, bro.

I don't touch on that in that publication.

I know that's the popular

assumption by one-American.

It slots in very nicely from what I understand.

Great job by the NFL jumping in bed with this because

we only got a year before the draft that we're doing on the White House lawn.

So, what could go wrong?

You know, it's going to be great.

All right.

This feels like a good time to pivot to,

geez, we're here again.

I feel like it's an every episode thing.

Hit it, Justin.

Good afternoon, and thank you for holding.

I have Mark Sessler on the line from Quiet Storm Crisis Management.

We're patching Mark through right now.

Hi, this is Mark.

I'm still here, apparently.

They just keep you on the line at this point.

You just have like a...

You're on like a retainer, like a 24-7, 365 retainer to be ready for the lady.

Yes, Justin.

Mark's just walking around with one of those old school Bluetooth earpieces.

Right, it's like a 2007 Bluetooth that

who's the Jeremy Piven character in Entourage, like his

assistant.

He is

like a big old Bluetooth piece.

I don't know if I don't, There's no evidence I'm getting paid to do this increasingly volcanic job.

He's got the cell phone in a holster on the outside of his pants.

You know, that's my greatness.

Listen to Mari.

Listen to the producer painting a picture.

Oh, baby.

Great.

All second-round picks in the NFL have now signed except for one.

It is the Browns running back, Quinshawn Judkins, who was, on a serious note, arrested on a domestic violence and battery charge in, wait for it, Fort Lauderdale, Florida, in early July.

The 21-year-old had his initial court appearance this past Sunday.

And,

you know, the details of the case are obviously unsavory, and he is innocent until proven guilty and all that.

But

the Browns now have yet another distraction.

We now throw it to Mr.

Sessler.

Well,

thank you for throwing it to me.

This is not a particular case that I'm going to make an argument for the player.

Let's see how this plays out.

They were relying on him in a huge way in a post-Nick Chubb world, along with the other rookie they brought in at running back.

I think this could be

the worst Browns team

outside of a couple star players.

They could be the worst team in the league right now.

And if you look at, I'll say one thing, because this is not very PRE of me.

If you look at their situation this season, there's a lot to not like.

But if you look at what's happening.

When are you going to understand this bit, by the way?

At what point

you're going to get the bit.

I'm effectively trying to lose this job.

We need you to represent the Browns as the PR mouthpiece, and then we can go into the Mark Sessler analysis of the actual situation.

Like, that's how the.

That's the intention of the bit.

I just want to get that out there.

If I were to go from a real PR angle, I would say no further statement at this time.

And just let everything just ride it.

We just ride it out.

Electric comedy from Sessler.

Did you see?

Did you see Poop Cruise on Netflix?

Yes, excellent.

Okay.

So they have

one of the people that they interview, and for background, there was a cruise that was like in the Gulf of Mexico that got stuck there.

And then like rivers of shit just started flowing through the place and it turned into Lord of the Flies.

And they had the Carnival Cruise PR guy on that documentary.

And just like the ability for him to just be like, yeah, this will blow over, you know, was so incredible.

And if he can do it, and certainly Mark can do it too.

Yeah.

Thanks.

All right.

All right.

Now let's transition, Mark, to the non-bit.

And do you have anything else to add?

Yes.

I feel like the Browns are heading towards...

forget about like a bad season, but like one of those seasons.

Like one of those seasons.

1992 Mets type seasons.

Right.

Where the only other point I was going to make was that they pushed all this money down the road for Deshaun Watson and others.

But in in general, like their cap situation next offseason presents immense problems, and they have like 18 players whose contracts are ending.

So I just don't see like a light at the end of the tunnel.

Hey, it's the year that Peyton Manning was hurt.

So let's go one in 15 and draft Andrew Luck.

Like that's not where this goes.

It goes somewhere darker than that.

I have my belief.

Yeah, I have some running back options for you.

My first choice would have been Nick Chubb, actually.

Literally, Nick Chubb.

But how about Kenny Pickett?

How about this poor Dylan Gabriel fellow?

As our running back.

Well, that may be becoming a possibility and now our running back.

Rehabbing Deshaun Watson in like a tush-push scenario.

He just has to push off the other leg.

No, I'd stop following sports.

Joe Flacco, he's big, might be hard to bring down.

Like that.

We have a lot of different quarterbacks that we can just

slide him over.

I go hire a big fatty, like the fattest person I can find to play running back.

Get the refrigerator back.

Is he still with us?

Is the fridge still with us?

I believe he is.

Did we lose the fridge?

She

Justin looking alive and well, 62 years old.

Find him, baby.

Bring him in.

34 percentage.

Let's go for the chains.

Good for him.

All right, eight o'clock delight.

Colts quarterback Anthony Richardson.

This is good news for Colts fans, maybe.

Will not start training camp on the pup list and is trending toward, quote, being a full go with no restrictions.

So let's pump the brakes on the Danny Dimes as starter potentially in Indianapolis.

As the Bills report to camp, sources say that James Cook will be there, but we'll see if it is a holding.

He wants his money after a 23-touchdown season.

The Commanders bring in veteran Von Miller, one year 6.1 million.

Von Miller was pretty much invisible last year in Buffalo, but maybe he could still play the guitar in Washington.

Buccaneers offensive tackle Tristan Wurfs likely to open the season on the pup list after undergoing knee surgery.

Per Shefty, he couldn't miss the first four games.

How big a deal is that for Tampa Bay, Connor?

I mean, it's a huge deal.

The way that everything's kind of predicated on the run game, you're breaking in

another new offensive coordinator for Baker Mayfield.

And yeah, this staff kind of keeps getting gutted and having to reformulate.

So a lot on Todd Bowles' plate right now.

I will say one quick thing.

Bowles

had some interesting quotes where he suggested that Werfs would be back sooner than expected.

All right,

TBD.

All right, also hoping he's back sooner than expected.

Chargers running back Najee Harris, who sustained, here we go, again, an eye injury after a fireworks mishap.

He'll start training camp on the NFI list.

And by the way, go check in with Jason Pierre Paul.

Ask him if we should be using fireworks, especially if we're millionaire football players in our 20s.

Lions defensive tackle Levi Onwuzarike has underwent ACL surgery.

He'll miss the entire 2025 season.

So the Lions hope that's not a sign of things to come after their defense was massacred by injuries last year.

Oh, this is a bummer.

Let's bring in Gravedigger.

Tysons backup.

Titans backup.

Will Levis will undergo shoulder surgery and miss the entire 2025 NFL season.

No memes.

The NFL just got a lot less fun in 2025.

Why are we even doing this?

Yeah, I mean, he wasn't going to play anyway, barring massive catastrophe.

Titans were probably going to try to trade him at the end of training camp anyway.

Weird decision on his part, though.

Apparently, my source is telling me the Titans didn't necessarily want him to do this, but he did it anyway.

Hell yeah.

Oh, get the surgery.

Yeah.

Yeah.

Like, they didn't necessarily believe it was serious enough to recover.

They should just do the giant stolphins trade I had.

Just get him a bus ticket and send him somewhere.

And Clegg.

Egone.

Yeah, send him Clegg.

Cleanlin' be a running back.

All right, let's see.

Also, tight ends release tight end

also elsewhere.

Seahawks release tight end Noah Fant.

He was guaranteed $8.5 million.

He was a part of that Russell Wilson trade once upon a time.

Reed, Connor Orr's Russon Wilson profile.

Maybe we'll get into that later this week.

Bucks wide receiver Chris Godwin is still recovering from a dislocated ankle.

Will not participate in team-related activities to begin training camp.

He will instead be rehabbing with trainers.

We'll see if Godwin is able to start the season on time.

Bears GM Ryan Pohl signs a multi-year contract extension that keeps him in Chicago through 2029.

I would have waited.

I would have waited.

I'd see how this Bears season went personally, but hey, listen, that's the decision they make.

The Niners have an issue with Juwan Jenkins, who wants a new contract, or trade me.

Terry McLaurin also wants a new contract, but he's not saying trade me to Washington.

They should pay Terry.

Juwan, I would probably hold off.

Steelers GM Omar Khan signed a three-year extension with Pittsburgh.

I'd wait there too.

I'd hold off on that as well, but that's just me.

And finally, Chargers news, Mike Williams.

Remember Mike Williams?

He signed back with the Chargers and there was some talk that he was going to be a nice lift for Justin Herbert as a deep threat.

No, he now retired.

So that's over.

He's not playing the guitar.

The guitar has been put down permanently,

and so too has the guitar been put into the case and into the closet officially.

What?

For Philip Rivers, who,

Mark, he is now officially retired.

Final thoughts?

I mean, that's just like, I'm like, he already didn't retire like two years ago at this point, but I get just your filing paperwork.

It's that time of year.

You probably go do one of these frilly, you know, press conferences with the team, and then write it up and they have a big gala, and everyone has a nice time.

You're going back to high school and like none of your teachers are there.

Like you're retiring as a Charger and Jim Harbaugh doesn't know anything about this person.

It's a different facility.

It's largely all the beat reporters have moved on and changed hands because it's hard to be a beat reporter for that team because there are no fans so no one reads their articles.

And so it's, you know, I don't know who's there celebrating this with him.

I don't think he's particularly tight with ownership either.

So it is an empty cupboard.

Well, you also, but you got to look at it from a bigger picture.

Like the press conference, it will be filled just with his children.

I mean, so he's, he's from a, he's like way ahead of the game in terms of just bodies by getting the Rivers fam in there.

Phil Rowe, yeah.

And he could pump out a couple kids between now and the press conference for all we know.

I mean, I think they,

I think there's things happening in that family about the gestation period of a child in the womb that's even advanced and probably should be the subject of a Netflix documentary as well.

I mean, if we're doing poop poop cruise, we should probably talk about Philip Rivers' wife at some point.

You can actually,

not to plug this, but on the MMQB podcast this week, we did a deep dive on

he has a grandchild that is the same age as his youngest child, Philip Rivers.

See that?

I'm not a math guy, but that seems actually impossible.

So there has to be some gestation trickery

going on in the Rivers family.

Did you say a grandchild or a grown child?

He has a grandchild

that is the same age as his youngest child.

Impossible.

Impossible.

You need to see proof.

I want a documentary and I want a full study.

I want a DNA test.

I want it all.

All right.

Good, good, good.

We're back.

It's good to be back.

Thank you, everybody, for rejoining us.

And we'll have another show coming up in just a couple of days.

And like I said,

while you're there,

until then, check out the Connor Orr profile on Russell Wilson, which I will acknowledge I have not gotten to yet, Connor, but I know you had teased it during its

gestation process, and I'm looking forward to it.

So we're going to talk about that on Thursday.

We're going to talk about the Netflix series quarterback and all the other things that are going on in NFL in this first week of training camp.

Mark, you say the final words.

It is a thrill to be back here.

I cannot wait to read this Russell Wilson piece.

I've been saving it like a piece of cake in the fridge for a special time.

So let's dig on into it.

Next show, great to be back.

You're a real piece of cake, Zesla.

All right, till next time, heed the call.

A man's man got a mortgage.

Drinks the brown stuff and wrecks up his porn.

The next beating man turn my knot state ballet.

Pretty good.

Got super bowl snubs, so it's Connor Orlando today.

He got super snub, so it's Connor Orlando today.

That's

about that.

Are you kidding me?

I don't know what would have raised Connor's ire there

in that situation.

All I can think of is me screaming at whoever my boss was at the time about not getting sent to the Super Bowl.

I forgot those lyrics.

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