Fantasy Football Daily - NFL First Read | Breaking Down the 0-2 and 2-0 NFL Teams

Episode Date: September 17, 2024

Welcome to First Read, your go-to podcast for the latest in NFL analysis and insights. Join hosts Brett Whitefield and Joe Marino as they break down every 0-2 team and every 2-0 team in the NFL right now. Whether you're a fantasy football enthusiast, a die-hard fan, or just looking to stay informed on all things NFL, "First Read" has you covered. Tune in for expert opinions, detailed breakdowns, and engaging discussions every week. Don't miss out on the ultimate NFL podcast experience! Where to find us: http://twitter.com/BGWhitefield http://twitter.com/TheJoeMarino Find Our Podcasts Here - https://www.fantasypoints.com/media/podcasts#/ Use promo code - SCOREMORE for 10% off of your subscriptions Subscribe to FantasyPoints for FREE - https://www.fantasypoints.com/plans#/ Read Fantasy Points Week 2 Market Report Here - https://www.fantasypoints.com/nfl/articles/2024/the-market-report-week-2#/ FantasyPoints Website - https://www.fantasypoints.com NEW! Data Suite - https://data.fantasypoints.com Twitter - https://twitter.com/FantasyPts Facebook - https://www.facebook.com/FantasyPts Instagram - https://www.instagram.com/FantasyPts TikTok - https://www.tiktok.com/@fantasypts #fantasypoints #nfl #fantasyfootball #dynastyfantasyfootball #FantasyFootballAdvice #dynastypoints #dynasty Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

First read. We are your first read. The film and analytics podcast featuring myself, Joe Marino from Locked on and Brett Whitefield, the C.O.O of Fantasy Points. This podcast is powered by the Fantasy Points Data Suite. Let's get after it. Brett Whitefield, week two in the books. Welcome in, my guy. Yo, yo, I appreciate you doing the intro today. I'm suffering from a bad case of allergies, and I don't have the vocal range to hit that first read note. So my guy stepping in for me, you know,

probably did it better than me, honestly. So thank you for that. Listen, man, it's all about being able to adjust on the fly. You have a game plan. Sometimes a defense shows a different look, and you've got to be able to come up with something else. We were in our bag. We figured it out like a lot of teams couldn't so far.

this season yeah there's truth to that um you know before we get into this though i want i wanted to bring something up here um guys to the fellows out there who are aren't currently married find yourself a good wife you know i have to bring this up because i was um just in awe last night of my wife here's the deal football season's tough for us you know i work straight through the night on sundays i'm going on two hours of sleep yesterday and uh monday night is one of the nights i go my wife asked me hey are you going to train tonight and I was like yeah I you know I want to but I don't think I'm going to I'm just exhausted I'm beat I'm I'm tired and uh my wife says stop being a punk show the discipline that I know you to have and go train you know you're she's like you're

one of the most disciplined guys I know and then she she pulls this on me discipline the root of all good qualities the driver of daily execution the core principle that overcome laziness and lethargy and excuses. Discipline defeats the infinite excuse that says, not today, not now. I need rest. I'll do it tomorrow. Boy. So find you, find yourself a lady who cares about you enough to, uh, to remind you who you are. So you can go get after it. Well, speaking of great wives, I feel like I have one of those. They say the, um, the most important decision you can make is your spouse, right? I feel like I've aced the test there. And, and a big happy birthday to my wife today, literally, September 17th.

Yeah, so look at that, man. Just celebrating our wives here to start off first week. Yeah, heck yeah. Here for it all. One thing that I'd love to talk about with you today is focusing in on these teams that are 0 and 2 and teams that are 2 and 0 because there is a big difference in that. In fact, these 0 and 2 teams are in trouble. Since the NFL expanded the playoff field to 14,

teams in 2020. O and two teams are not making the postseason. There's been 32 teams since 2020 to start O and two and two of them have made the playoffs. The 2023 Texans and the 22 Bengals. Now the bangles are back in that boat because they're always back in that boat, but that's not a great rate, Brett Whitefield. That's 6.3%. That's your chance of doing this. That includes the expanded 14 team playoff field. And so what I'd love to do to get things started today is, examine these O and two teams. We'll get to the two and O teams. Congratulations to you guys. But these O and two teams in particular, because there's some surprises along the way and see, you know, if you find optimism or not. But I feel like the right O and two team to start with

is the Carolina Panthers because obviously they've made a big choice here to bench Bryce Young. And Brett, my initial thought on this was, man, you gave up so much to get Bryce Young. Don't you just kind of have to play him and let him figure it out or not figure it out and just declare whatever he's going to be in the NFL, especially after an offseason. Let's face it, where you did everything you could to give him an opportunity. You hired the coach that's supposed to help. Did Gino Smith Wonders in Seattle, Baker Mayfield? You went out and gave $100 million to Robert Hunt to play guard. You gave Damien Lewis big money to play left guard. You trade for Deonté Johnson. You trade into the first round for Xavier Leggett. You draft young playmakers a tight end and running back Brooks and

Jadavion Sanders. I mean, you have done so much. You fired Frank Reich quickly because you didn't feel like he was the guy for Bryce Young. You have done everything to this point to give Bryce Young an opportunity. And my thought was, boy, you better let this play out and let him declare himself one way or another. But then I thought a little bit more about it, Brett. And I thought to myself, you know what, there's 52 other players on that roster. And you owe it to them to give yourself a chance to go out and win. And let's be honest, Bryce Young's not giving you that opportunity. And there's careers on the line.

And this is a young coach and Dave Canales that if he's not going to play his best players, he's going to lose that team quick, quick. You got to be able to win. I know that everybody loves the idea of, oh, well, the best thing for this team is to have a high draft pick and have these assets. Is it? Or is the best thing to try to establish. a culture of winning football games so that there's buy-in from your locker room. Very complicated situation, but I've landed on that.

I don't think Bryce Young's a playable quarterback, and I think Dave Canales made the heart right decision. This is tough. I mean, I agree from playing on the field. Yeah, it's obviously the right decision, right? It's been bad, man. What's even crazier, Joe, so week one, you had the tape you had, and then you come back week two, and you're thinking Bryce Young is going to make some adjustment.

adjustments and the adjustments he made where he just wasn't going to throw the ball downfield at all and the problem with that is he was still putting the ball in harm's way on every third throw it felt like um i think his a dot in this game was under three so like he can't even he wasn't even functioning as a guy just taking dinks and dunks like it was really concerning so i do think this is the right call and and it doesn't necessarily mean that bryce is done forever i think that's obviously the writing is it's not good and i would say there's a significant chance he's done forever but i mean i know the there's a panthers beat yesterday who was saying who is reminding us of john elway getting benched after five starts um joan nameth i think was the other one got

benched after two starts no no sorry terry bradshaw uh terry bradshaw was the other one got benched after two starts elway yeah those those cases are out there they exist don't think brice young's turn into either of those guys. But bigger point being, it doesn't mean he's necessarily done. But the bigger thing for me is, like you said, the 52 other players on the roster, you have to be able to evaluate them. This is a young team, right?

There's a lot of turnover going on. You have a young coach, relatively new GM. They're trying to figure it out. They have to know where their roster stands going into next year. And the only way to evaluate that legitimately is with Andy Dalton, that quarterback, unfortunately. And there's a really solid chance, Joe. They're

picking first overall again. Like, really solid chance. So, you know, that puts them in the market for QB, obviously. I'm interested to see what type of fight this team shows the rest of the way. But we saw last year in the NFC, two, three, and six teams make the playoffs in a four and seven team win that division, right? The Bucks. So I think you have to look at it through that perspective. And you do have veterans on defense. I mean, you brought in a lot of veterans to this football team. So for as young as it is, I mean, there's still a Judevian Clowny and a Deontay Johnson and Adam Thielen and a Taylor Moton and, you know, there's, there's vets on this roster.

And so Shaq Thompson's on this roster. I'm not optimistic, but I think they have a much better chance to win football games with Andy Dalton. And a lot of people liked Bryce Young, Brett Whitefield. A lot of people did. A lot of people thought this was the right thing for Carolina. This was going to be their answer to be their franchise quarterback. You and I didn't align with that throughout the scouting process. And so I think a lot of the way that you feel about Bryce Young and where he goes from here is rooted in what you thought of him as a prospect.

If you thought he was going to be Steph Curry and this point guard, that's going to distribute the football and make plays and occasionally, you know, get off script and be dynamic and do the things that he flashed at Alabama, then you're thinking to yourself, okay, well, it's just a matter of time. If you're like myself who saw an unbelievably limited player that has no size, no armed talent, limited athleticism, very, very, very, very. delayed processor, right? I saw way too many flaws for me to believe that this guy was going to be a franchise quarterback and those receipts exist prior to this moment. Then you're not, you're like, yeah, okay, well, I told you so. But I still, I still am surprised that there were such wide ranging viewpoints on a player like this. And I understand that there generally is with any player. But from one side of the spectrum thinking, I don't think this guy has a path to yeah, this guy should, this team should give up everything to get this guy to be their

quarterback. That's such a wide range. And you've seen, I mean, people that I really respect that evaluate quarterbacks were in on Bryce Young. And I've been confused ever since. I'm not going to sit here and say I was out on Bryce Young, but I definitely, in the context of what the Panthers were doing, for me, it was like, well, if you're trading up to one overall, you have to swing for the fences. You got to go upside. For me, it was Richardson. I also made the argument. It should be C.J. Stroud at the time. Richardson, you know, I had a head of Stroud, but either way, both those guys have a lot of ability that extends beyond just where they were at the time. Like, there was a developmental pathway there for those guys to be awesome, where you and I both

just didn't really see that with Bryce. So the limitations were so obvious to me. So I honestly don't understand the decision. Obviously, you have the whole ownership angle to this too, right, Joe? like what like I really want to know what happened was was who was the coach before canales why my blankin mat rule Matt was Matt rule forced to take or was that administration forced to well I'm so sorry it's Frank Reich Frank Frank Frank Frank yeah you forget him he was only there for 11 games yeah you know was Bryce Young forced on them because that was David Tepper's guy and I think that's something that has to get answered because I'm not sure there's a pathway forward for the franchise if David Tepper doesn't take a step back and stay out of oh 100% all business 100%

And yes, that's the most concerning thing about Carolina moving forward. It's not figuring out quarterback. It's can they survive with this clown of an owner? That's probably the worst owner in professional sports. The last layer of this conversation, I think, is important for Carolina, is being mindful of the steps that they did and did not take since Cam, the wheels fell off Cam Newton, right? They chose not to participate in drafting a quarterback multiple years in a row

when they were in position to do so. And then for you to finally have the moment that we're going to get this quarterback and give up all that we did for a guy that, whether you could have been the biggest Bryce Young stand that ever existed, you had to be mindful of the limitations that existed and the pathway for him not being a thing. And I understand that that exists with any quarterback, but especially for an outlier like Price Young.

100%. I mean, shoot, we're already seeing the tweets of the trade, what the Bears got versus what? the panthers got in that trade. It's very ugly. At Desjardin, we speak business. We speak startup funding and comprehensive game plans. We've mastered made-to-measure growth and expansion advice, and we can talk your ear off about transferring your business when the time comes.

Because at Desjardin business, we speak the same language you do. Business. So join the more than 400,000 Canadian entrepreneurs who already count on us, and contact Desjardin today. we'd love to talk business. Well, on the other side of that, I guess we can talk about a two-and-o team. The Chargers beat the Panthers. And, you know, the Chargers have been a confusing team for me to kind of sort

myself out with and what I think they are and what I think they aren't. But the bottom line is they've won two football games. The defense has been better than I expected. And their ability to run the ball has been unbelievable. J.K. Dobbins is having explosive run after explosive run. Quentin Johnson with two touchdown catches against Carolina. J.C. Horn's giving up touchdowns pretty much every time that I look at my TV screen. And the Chargers have some momentum right now.

I think as Harbaugh comes in and wants to move this operation forward in his image, winning these two games is a big deal in laying the foundation and kind of jumpstarting his era as the head coach. it sounds tacky, but what are the Chargers doing differently? They're running the football and they're stopping and run. It's like they'd stop their run like this, though, but yeah. That's the thing that's crazy. I mean, right now they're averaging just 1.6 yards before contact per carry, adjusted yards before contact per carry, which compared to last year, that's a great number for them.

If they can hold on to that, man, they'll be competitive, you know, and they're kind of slowing the pace of the game down. Quentin Johnson's showing signs of life. Signs of life is a big, deal also, right? Yeah, huge. Huge. That, the touchdown he caught, you know, the stat line at the end of

day still wasn't great. I think it was like, what, five catches, 51 yards and two touchdowns or something like that. That's not great. Well, for run heavy offense. I guess that is, yeah, fair enough. But the rep on that first touchdown, I thought was really good because he actually beat the brakes off J.C. Horn.

It was a really nice release, you know, good explosiveness, getting up the sideline there, and then made a great adjustment on the ball. And the catching aspect of Quentin Johnson, has been the big most suspect thing, right? And so for him to come down with that contest, because Herbert under threw that ball by a lot. So all of that was promising to me. And so now they've got Ladd McConkey, who showed out in week one,

Quentin Johnston showing signs of life. It kind of just feels like it's coming together. And we knew Harbaugh was a good coach. I just didn't think it would happen this quickly, man. I think you and I both picked them to finish third in that division and just be feisty, right? But they handedly beat the Raiders. And then obviously they beat the brakes off the.

Panthers here, but there's no elevators, right? Is that the tagline for Harbaugh and Company there with the Chargers? So good for them. Long season off to a great start. Another 0-1-2 team that I'd like to get into. I think we both predicted this team to go to the playoffs. It's the Rams. And boy, I mean, they're 0-2.

They obviously showed a lot of fight against Detroit in week one, but the Cardinals killed them, man. Explosive plays in the passing game, left and right. and they're 0 and 2, and it's not just that they're 0 and 2, it's like their whole team's hurt, man. The whole thing, Cup, Nakula, Avila, other, I mean, the list goes on and on. And for a team that has so many young players on defense that they're counting on,

that the identity was supposed to be this offensive line and running the football, and then you have your, you know, you're really talented receiver pair of Nakua and Cup. Like, it's falling apart right in front of our face. Yeah, they're what? They're down nine starters already on IR? Come on, man. like plus some rotational guys too right running on like it's it's tough now jonah jackson's can't

play he's really hurt he's not i are yet but he could be i are as of today like they are so i mean give us a little grace here we picked them going to the playoffs we had no idea that the entire of course it's going to get swept i mean this is this is this is rough so um you know you expect stafford to to do a lot with a little at this point in his career but i don't know man when you when you lose both Puka and Cup and you got the O line issues. I just, I don't see a way they overcome this. And in fact, you know, a couple of years ago, they kind of just shut the whole thing down. This was going, you remember like, it wasn't last year as a year before.

They had the injury bug and they. Yeah, really checked out. Coming off the Super Bowl year. Yeah. Yeah, they just shut it all down. Like, nope, this is in our year. We'll retool for next year. Boy, that's a tough place to be this early in the season for a team that I thought could

at least be a wildcard team. Yep. So I think what's interesting about maybe. diving further into this Rams conversation is considering the Cardinals and Kyler Murray playing out of his mind. It wasn't just like the stats were good. The big time throws were there, man. He was doing some really dynamic stuff. But then what does that tell us about the Lions? And I know that you want to get in the Lions. The Bucks are a 2 and O, a team in the NFC. So like, how do we layer all that together? Wow. Okay. So if I'm hearing you, right, you're asking me why the

lines struggled with the Rams when they're this depleted? That was a very roundabout way to get there. that's what I asked. So I think, you know, McVeigh had time to game playing for that, and he still had Cooper Cup. I think the Lions played conservatively in that game. They were definitely rusty. Jared Goff is on the struggle bus early in the year so far. All those things combined just led to a way tighter game that it needed to be.

Those two teams always play each other pretty tough as well. I mean, shoot the playoff game went to overtime as well, right? Yeah. And then the Rams since then, I've lost even more players. Like the Rams lost several players in that game. And now they're, you know, they've lost even more than that. So I think they're, yeah, I think the Rams team we saw on Sunday, like the second half of that game was so depleted. I don't think, I don't think they could even contend with the lines at this point.

So, but man, the line, I want to talk Jared Gough for a sec, Joe, if you don't mind. So because golf, one of the things like we've, we've grown to love about golf as a quarterback is the consistency in his mechanics, his processing, his, the way he gets through progressions, the way you can reset the line of scrimmage, the way you can get his team into the right play, just consistently throwing from a great base leads to, you know, repeatable accuracy over and over. And that's really been his calling card in the NFL is the accuracy. And you're seeing it right now where he just doesn't feel comfortable for whatever reason.

And I don't know what's going on or why that is, but he is speeding up his process so fast. he's playing everything insanely fast. Just look at his stats from last year. He ranked third and highly accurate throw rate. Fifth and adjusted completion percentage. 11th in off-target throw rate, which is good. That means he was top 12 basically in limiting those off-target throws.

And then ninth in EPA per dropback. And he had a time to throw of, you know, well into the two sixes. This year, man, he's playing everything so fast. Just this game against Tampa Bay. He had 26 pass attempts with the time to throw lower than 2.4 seconds. 15 under 2. And it's really messing him up. He doesn't have that athletic off platform ability, right?

So when he's playing that fast, he's creating unnecessary off platform throws for himself. And you're seeing it kills accuracy. I think right now he's got, yeah, he ranks like in 25th and accurate ball rate. So like a massive drop off. He was third in that stat last year. And he's ranking 25th right now.

And it's just the way he's playing. And I'm not sure how they get him out of this. He went through a small stretch of this last year. It was like the Ravens, the Packers, and then one other team. And then all of a sudden he snapped out of it and was completely fine the rest of the year. I'm not really sure what's going on with him. I don't know why he's playing everything so fast. I think the offense has struggled to get in a rhythm and maybe he's pressing a little bit,

just trying to take what the defense gives him. But man, this has been kind of ugly so far for Jared Koff. I was wondering if it was that he's rushing everything or he's just so confident. I was trying to figure that out when watching and play. I was like, man, he is ripping everything as quickly as possible. And is it because he's rushing or is it because he's just really confident and it was what he's seeing? And obviously, I feel like that early interception that should have been illegal contact. Yeah. Like it was like to me in that moment, it's like it just felt like it wasn't going to be his day. And then it wasn't. Well, you know,

it's crazy. The offense played great between the 20s. They out gained Tampa Bay by 250. 50 yards and lost. I mean, that's, I mean, short fields were, they were gifting them, right? In so many different ways. Oh, to. Yeah. So you had what a failed fourth down conversion. You had the interception.

There wasn't that many short fields, though. Couple of them, though, right? Yeah, a couple of them. It wasn't like Baker Mayfield was killing the lions. No, absolutely not. They had two good drives the whole day. Right. That's all they needed.

That's all they needed. Yeah. No, the confidence thing, that's a good point. I would say I would agree with that Watch some of these dropbacks Where he's throwing over the middle of the field So Jared Gough's stamp on the league Since he's been in the league

Is he kills the intermediate middle Part of the field Kind of like to a kind of like C.J. Stroud Like awesome, he can throw with anticipation So he can beat you with both his mind And his arm, right? It doesn't matter if coverage is tight Because he can win by throwing with anticipation

Over the middle. Master dig route thrower, deep crossers, seam balls Like golf is amazing at all those things. But when he's throwing over the middle of the field right now, I don't think he trusts what he's seeing. And maybe part of that is Jamo's now the X. And Jamo's running that, you know, intermediate deep route tree, those deep digs, things over the middle that are typically a little more contested.

I don't know that him and golf have that contested catch rapport yet where golf's going to put it on him. And then Tim Patrick got in the mix this week. And, you know, one of golf's interceptions, Tim Patrick ran the wrong way. You know, it was like he ran a corner route basically, and I think he was supposed to run a post, essentially. And golf throws it with a little anticipation before the break, and ball gets picked off.

And so every time something like that happens, though, you see golf claim up a little bit more, a little bit more, a little bit more. And take it by, you know, game by game. I think maybe he bounces back against a little more porous Arizona defense here. But he's just not, I don't think he's trusting what he's seeing over the middle of the field. So he's pushing everything shortened to the outside, and that's why he's playing it so

fast. The bucks on the other side are 2 and 0. So wins over the commanders in week one, then they go to Detroit and win in week two. I feel like some of my biggest questions about them have been answered. In some ways, at least with like, I wondered if they had another starting

caliber corner, and Zion McCollum seems to be playing pretty well. They were able to, I mean, against Detroit, they didn't have Colagia Cancy, Ta, Vida, Devea goes down at some point in that game and they're able to kind of still make it work. Maybe they're just a team that has some momentum right now and maybe those issues that, you know, seemed unresolved with their edge rush, a yadiyadiobi looks like he's going to be okay, but do they have enough outside of him?

You know, I still think there's questions, but right now they're making it work, even with their interior offensive line. Yeah, they are, man. Here's the thing. They won the Super Bowl, what, two years ago, three years ago? Yep. The roster's still really, really good, man, like top to bottom. And then since that time, they've filled in some gaps.

I mean, shoot, Baker-Makefield took him to the playoffs last year when Tom Brady couldn't do the same thing the year before with relatively the same exact roster. There's a lot to like about this Tampa Bay roster. And I know you and I both kind of been warming up to them even before this week. I really like what I see. They're a complete football team, Joe. And that's what it is. They have enough defensive playmakers, enough offensive playmakers that like, no matter what the game script is, they don't have to get in shooting. out they also don't have to be in dog fights they can win a variety of ways that's always a good thing and

some of these young players they found i mean even at jalen macmillan now is the is the wide receiver three a bucky irving as a complimentary running back to rashad white so he's not playing 95% of the snaps like these are little things that help um i i really i'm really in on this team right now i i in baker mayfield is just dealing too that's the other thing the mobility the off platform out of structure stuff is really starting to pop for him too um You know, Dave Canales's scheme, I thought, was really good for him to build confidence. But it did limit him in that he didn't have a lot of auto-structure opportunities. And go back to the Oklahoma tape with Baker.

That's what he was awesome at, right? Like, you know, just like Kyler Murray, just like Jalen Hertz and that Lincoln Riley offense. That's what Baker was good at. You're seeing him kind of feel himself again and get back to having fun mentality and just getting out there and playing ball. And I think it's really taking them a long way or taking them very far. No Antoine Winfield Jr. No Luccaddecki. Vita Vea goes down. No Coliza Kansi.

Boy, I thought it was going to be a long day in Detroit. And I guess that's why they play the games instead of just talking about. Let's focus a little bit on the AFC. I think you have two teams here in the AFC North in the Baltimore Ravens and the Cincinnati Bengals that are both 0-2. And, I mean, both 0-2 because they lost the game to the Chiefs. But the Ravens went on to lose to the Raiders, and we saw the Bengals lose to the Patriots. So like for as much as the Chiefs appear to be a quality loss, the other ones are not so quality. The Ravens, is this offensive line just going to be too much for them to overcome and they don't really have a clutch factor?

What do you think in Baltimore right now? Yeah, I mean, I don't love it. I thought the pass protection in week two was a lot better than week one. But the run game was still tough. You know, it took a while for Henry. It's muddy. It's muddy and everything looks chaotic. I think after Henry's first 10 carries in this game, he had like three yards.

His first, after his first five, he had minus four or something like that. Like, it was just, it was an uphill battle all day to get anything going. I do think this is problematic. For whatever reason, Lamar Jackson also doesn't trust Rashad Bateman to be his number two. Bateman's open a lot. Like, I've diving deep into the film. Obviously, we have the ask scores that are going to come out later today. But man, he just, he's not trusting what he's seen.

And Bateman is winning his routes at a very high rate. Nothing downfield. I think Lamar's ate out in this game again was under eight. So I mean, this is, this is tough, man. I don't, I don't really know what's going on there. It's the offensive line has issues for sure, but Lamar's traditionally overcome stuff like that with his mobility. Defensively, you know, their pressure rate is in the tank.

They're not getting, they're not getting home on the quarterback. You kind of excuse some of that when you're playing Patrick Mahomes, right? but then you go do it again in week two. Seems like a trend. I think that's a bad recipe. You can't really pass the ball and you're not getting home on the quarterback. Like you're limiting the upside potential of both your offense and your defense. Yeah, no deep stuff.

The screen game's not working for them right now. Play action rates are low. And so if you're just going to run the ball and have Lamar be a dropback passer, I don't know, man. I don't know if that's going to work out well for you. Um, so the Ravens, oh and two. The, the Bengals owe in two that, now that's, that's par for the course for Cincinnati, but I thought they showed more fight against Kansas City. I think in some ways you're encouraged with that perspective, but they're in a hole.

Oh, I was massively encouraged in this game. Um, Joe Burrow kind of looked back. He, he was competing. He was out there, you know, doing everything he could to, to will his team to victory. Obviously, they fell short. But you got contributions from Mike Gassiz. Sicki and Jermaine Burton. And I think those are nice, complimentary pieces they'll need down the stretch to get out of the hole, right? And so when T. Higgins comes back, you know, Jemar Chase, obviously very frustrated in this game, you know, it sounds like he's going to get a hefty fine for his antics in that game.

But yeah, I was encouraged though, man. I feel like we saw some good signs, signs of license, especially from Burrow. Like the vibes after week on were bad and then kind of left week two feeling pretty good. So I think maybe we overreacted to that Patriots game, right? The Bengals had, I think, four very costly drops. And, like, I think they have issues with some of their defensive line and stopping the run. But of all the O and two teams, I feel like I feel the best about them.

Like, very comfortably the best about that. Ravens, Bengals, Jaguars, Titans, Colts, Broncos, Panthers, Giants, Rams. You feel the best about the Bengals, right? Yeah. I mean, it's hard not to say the Ravens. They have a two-time MVP at quarterback, right? But. You know, you know, two-time MVP?

I threw that in there just for you. God. To rub salt into that wound. I'm not even saying Josh should have won it last year, but it shouldn't have been Lamar. Yeah, I agree with that. Rock party or something, like anything else would have been fine.

It's freaking DAC. Dak statistically unreal last year. Sure. Yeah. The Bengals have Trey Hendrickson as well. And he is, I mean, he, down the stretch last year,

actually you look at the on-off splits for that Bengals defense last year with Hendrickson. They're wild. But holy crap. He dominated this. game. He literally took over this game and wrecked several drives for Kansas City. Well, they got that Suamayatia, the rookie left tackle got benched. Brought in Juanio Morris. But yeah, that's, I mean, Kansas City's kind of figured out their tackle stuff always, right? They've kind of had bad tackle

play for the last five years. Let's be honest about it. And now, I know running backs don't matter, but Isaiah Pacheco looks like he's going to be on the shelf. And so they're going to be leaning into what, like Carson Steele and Stavage, P. Ryan, for the, for the. that run rushing offense. So the Marquis, Hollywood Brown, not going to help him this year. So I think they got some stuff to kind of sort through. I will say the combo of Worthy and Rice does look like the best, the best thing Mahomes had going for him in a while as terms of weapons. Yeah, the tackle stuff is funny, though, you mentioned that because Mahomes kind of got back to, you know, 12-yard drops in this game. Like, you can see, like, he's like, ah, can't trust that guy.

I'm just going to drift until I'm in another state, you know, and that's kind of, that's I know what he was doing this game. That stuff makes offense hard because you're actually hanging. You think you're protecting yourself, but you're hanging your tackles out to dry when you do that. And we haven't really seen Mahomes default to that in a couple of years here. Best middle three in football and the tackles have just been ever since they went, was it, they went to the San Francisco Super Bowl or it's the Tampa Bay, they went into the Tampa Bay Super Bowl and they didn't have their left or the right tackle,

right? It was Fisher got hurt and then was it Schwartz or whoever it was. And you're like, oh, man, that really hurt them. And then they could have been able to figure it out at the tackle position. A lot of moves there, too. Right? They're trying. They're certainly trying.

Hopefully for them, Juan Ye Morris can stabilize left tackle. And maybe Sulamia Tia was more of Andy Reid, BYU. Let's give him a chance. But, oh, boy, that's not going to work. He needs more time type situation. So we talk about the Ravens and the Bengals being 0-and-2. Well, Steelers are 2 and O. inevitable Pittsburgh Steelers are two at all on top of the AFC North.

Maybe this is a little schedule driven. You know, they played what they played up Denver this past week. And then what was their week one matchup? It's escaping me right now. It's the Falcons, right? Their first game with Kirk and all that. So maybe some of that was, you know, an 18 to 10 win over the Falcons, a 13 to 6 win over Denver. They get the chargers coming up.

has to lose next week. But I think if there's something to be excited about for Pittsburgh, it's their defense, right? They got a front man. They got a good corner in Florida. They got some good things going on this defense. Defense is nasty. And I said it last week, but I'll repeat it again because it was evident in this game. They might have the best four-man pass rush in the NFL because they're getting home.

Like their pressure rates 44 percent and they're getting home with four guys. Like they're very rarely blitzing. I think they have just a handful of blitzes on the year. and they're still getting home at a 44% clip. And in the time to pressure, time to throw, they're both relatively fast as well. Their QB pressure rate over expectation, Joe, is freaking 10%.

So they're getting home 10% more than they should via the analytics here. And that's huge. So then when you combine, they got a shutdown corner in Joey Porter Jr. And the way they deploy him is so cool to me. They play a lot of zone, drop zone stuff, but they're leaving him manned up a lot of the times and like split coverage looks.

It's just really creative. It reminds me of like an old Belichick thing that he would do, you know, back, you know, when he had a shutdown corner for years, whether it was Stefan Gilmore or somebody else. But really like what I'm seeing from Pittsburgh. It's got to the point where the offense doesn't have to do a whole lot, right? You know, control the clock, run the ball,

some QB run stuff with Justin Fields. The question I have for you is, we're just going to say no to Russell Wilson at this point, right? Like we're 2 and 0. The team's play. playing for Justin. He doesn't look bad. He doesn't look good, but doesn't look bad. I think we can win with this formula. We got a stranglehold of the division. Let's just keep going, right? Yeah, I think you ride it. And I think that Justin Fields was always the upside

play. It's, you know, whatever, however we got here was the calf injury from Russell Wilson. I think it saved them. I think it saved them in a lot of ways. Because Russ is a fundamentally flawed quarterback that I think when you're looking to have this recipe of, hey, we're going to play suffocating defense, run the football. We just need a couple of plays on offense. Fields is going to give you that. Russ is going to give you negative plays, but not necessarily interceptions, right? Negative plays with the decisions that he doesn't make negative plays because he cares

about his passer rating will run out of bounds and take a negative loss instead of throwing it away. Like it's gross stuff. You can't deal with that. And Fields is at least going to sprinkle in some dynamic stuff, keep his head above water, and give you a chance when, let's be honest, like you're undermanned offensively. You don't have enough receiving talent. Your offensive line is a bit of a mess.

I'm not putting Russ Wilson in there for that. I think Justin Fields, that's kind of what he's used to, right? Spend his career to this point with Chicago Bears. He's right at home here in Pittsburgh. Yeah, and their offensive line surprising me too, man. I think that's helping Fields a little bit. I know they have a, compared to the league, they have a high pressure rate allowed, but you got to remember Justin Fields holds the ball for an eternity.

So he's inviting some of that. When you adjust for quarterback pressure over expectation, He's actually, like the line's playing pretty well. So I, it's a good thing. Like, Zach Frazier looks like he's already one of the better centers in the league. I mean, legit looks like a bouncer at the club, just throwing people out. What do you think about this running back situation with Nage? Because they're ultimately like, they're going to lean into these guys a lot, right?

Nagee and Jalen Warren. Jalen Warren's a little healthy. Cordell Patterson getting in the mix because he's Arthur Smith's boy. Right. I think that's what they're going to have to lean on. I mean, I like, I like that they. They, there's versatility with these backs. They can catch, they can run.

Warren has some outside perimeter juice as well. And hopefully their offensive line can continue. I know that they're kind of like still sorting it out, right? With Broderick Jones and Troy Fetanoo coming in at right tackle. And then Spencer Anderson played left guard in this game. So they're figuring it out. And bigger tests are coming. Yeah.

But they're inevitable. Like there's going to be a certain floor with this operation with Mike Tomlin. And maybe the ceiling's not that high. but they're going to be a competitive team that's not going to roll over. So they're 2 and 0 on top that division. This isn't a preview show, but they play the Chargers this week. I know. So it's kind of a fun game of just smash mouth.

You know, we're going to run the ball. No, we're going to run the ball. Right. There will take the over on the rushing attempts, 60 plus rushing attempts in that football game, right? No question. Speaking of overs on rushing attempts, something that blew my mind this week. I would have assumed the Raiders Ravens game would have had the most rushing attempts on the week. Had the least.

Isn't that crazy? And I asked our projections guy, Chris Wecht, where he had that game in rushing attempts. And he actually had 12 other games with more rushing attempts. So Chris is a lot smarter than I. I don't know how he got to that conclusion. But he knew. He called it. So crazy.

I'm curious to see what Chris has, though, for that Chargers, Steelers game, though. because there's no way that one's not the the weak leader and rushing attempts. I just, I don't believe it. Wow. Well, we'll check with him. He's the one. He's the one with the information. I'm keenly aware that the Buffalo Bills are two and oh.

I feel like I've lived through that pretty, pretty well. Come from behind win over Arizona in week one. And then, I mean, they invited the Miami Dolphins to beat themselves and they did. Playing too high, middle of the field, open covering. Tua not being patient, throwing three interceptions of pick six. Some moments running the football. Josh Allen just has to, you know, drops back 20 times, 13 and 19. Different script for Buffalo, but they win 31 to 10 on the road in Miami in a game

where, you know, for Miami, you felt like this was a big one for them with blowing the three-game lead with five to play last year. The bills take the division from them again at their place in week 18. and they come in and lay a massive egg. And so the bills get to 2 and 0. And then on the other side of it, you have the one-in-one dolphins and 2-0 with a very unfortunate head injury in this game

that kind of makes you wonder, you know, what his status is going to be moving forward. And if they can steady the ship with Skylar Thompson until then. Oh, you're not predicting a Ryan Tannahill reunion here? I don't know, man. Like they just signed what's New Puntly. Yeah. another guy that these guys keep changing their names, man,

throwing me off. But when I first saw that tweet come across the wire, I was like, who the hell is right. Huntley? Oh, it's Tyler Huntley. Yeah. Right, right. Whatever.

I mean, we'll call you what you want, but there's obviously an adjustment there. I don't know. It's a complicated situation for Miami. I don't envy being in that spot. They just paid this guy. Now, there's different structures within that contract that matters in the equation here. But this,

this operation's built. for Tua and that's the whole thing he'll be back shortly i i agree with you but are you not left wondering like when when's the next time he's going to have a lapse in judgment dude they were down they were down three scores in the fourth quarter oh talk about QBs that are broken right now too is on that list you know the short list is jalen hurts Tua and jared goff but yeah he's on that list i sorry when i said broken i don't mean physically i mean like he's not he's not seeing it he's not feeling this offense is really struggled in back-to-back weeks. Well, how much you put that you put that on their off season?

It's a timing based offsy offense. And Tua's missing practice with contract stuff. Tyreek Hill's missing practice with contract stuff. They, they sign Isaiah Wynn and Odell Beckham to be meaningful pieces of their operation. Neither one's ready to go. Yeah, this was my concern all off season when we talked dolphins, that O line with the injury history there, Taryn, Taryn's already hurt, right?

I mean. Yeah. I mean, another news water is wet. Yeah. Brewer also hurt again, right? I think he plays through it, right? But he's,

he's dinged out. He's playing through it, yeah. Yeah, this is just, this is what's happening. Robert Jones are left guard. So I was down to Lester Cotton.

I mean. Yeah, true. She's. What are we doing? It's tough. So some of that I put on that for sure. When you say things like that, though, like you realize we're,

we're on an island the way we're old school. You know, like we're at the age where we're, I'm 37 years old and I'm considered old school because I think guys should be in camp practicing with their team not worrying about their contract. Okay. All right. I hear you. I just gave you evidence of how that's an issue. Do you watching the Cincinnati Bengals? You think it'd be helpful if maybe that Jamar Chase was around? You think maybe the cowboys would look a little better if they had their players around? Like, come on, man. What are we talking about? Yeah. The proof is the proof is right there. It's right there. I agree. But you want to get better at playing football and be a better football team?

practice doing it. It ain't basketball where you're on pick and roll in ISO and that's the only things you do. Right. Come on, man. Um, so aside from the offense, Joe, the defense is struggling too, though. Like, we got to talk about this. They're their run defense. They're missing Christian Wilkins so much. Their run defense is not getting it done. I mean, they are, they got ran over by giving up explosive runs. Give it, give them up explosives. James Cook. Shoot, I thought Ray Davis even had a couple of nice runs in this game. I think those be last week had some. Yeah, go back to week one. Tank Biggsby and Travis Etienne ran through them. Atienne was more of the slow grind, but, you know, Biggsby. If Holland doesn't get that peanut punch against Jacksonville, they might lose that game by two scores.

Exactly. That's what I probably do. They should be on this 0 and two list is kind of what I'm getting at here. But I guess should have got to. The bills are on the two and oh list. And they what they are doing with their defense right now without Terrell Bernard and Matt Milano and Taryn Johnson with the second level just, I mean, I'm talking. and just guys have been watching in the preseason for the last three years coming in and making an impact. Sean McDermott can coach TVs and back seven, man. If there's anything he can do, it's that. Von Miller looking like he's got a pulse. But to me, it's the maturity of the offense that I've really enjoyed to this point.

I think Josh Allen, the way that he's playing quarterback is, I mean, you're not going to be blown away by the stats. The stats are fine. But I think it's his approach. It's his decision making. It's how he's working progression. I'm seeing him manipulate defenses with his eyes at a high level, not putting the ball in harm's way.

Embracing the game script is what he's done a great job of through two weeks. And so find myself encouraged with Buffalo. Josh has continued to mature. And what is this year seven? I know, isn't that crazy? And he's still getting better. I think that's a good sign for any quarterback. They always say a quarterback's peak is like 30, 31, right, usually.

So he's right there. Oh, well, we're old school. Brett Whitefield, we're old school. You got to be great right away, you know. You got to be great right away. you're never going to be anything. So I mean, Josh was great in year three,

but. Yeah. The maturity, though, it speaks volumes, man. Like he's, he's just taking what the defense gives him, man. That's sometimes it's as simple as that.

We've seen Mahomes go to how many Super Bowls in a row? Well, and I think Kansas City figure that out with Patrick quicker, right? Like, they talk about, well, what happened the last few years. Well,

Mahomes matured. It wasn't just, hey, we're going to drift and launch it, right? He was able to play with structure and keep the offense on schedule and they've won the last two Super bowls. So I think there is something to that. You know, with these quarterbacks, man,

you know, you got some special ones out there. But when you take an average quarterback and a special quarterback, it's about 10 plays a game that are different. You got to be for the, if you're going to play at what, 60, 70 plays a game. Yep. For for 50 or 60 of those, everyone just needs to be a regular player, right? Just do their smart, right, normal thing with the football. And then for those eight, 10 games. That's when you do the things that only you can do. But it's not about those 10 plays. It's about can you do the other 50 to 60 plays? Just do the normal thing. Yep. And I think the quicker you can figure that out, the better. And I think watch Will Levis, watch Caleb Williams and these other

quarterbacks. And like, you can see, boy, they got a lot to figure out in that capacity. Just do the smart normal thing 90% of the time and be special 10% of the time. That's a great take. I think I I touched on that last week with Matthew Stafford and his development under Sean McVeigh. That's kind of what he's become, right? He's, you know, Lyons Matthew Stafford was a gunslinger. You know, you'll win games because he's making those extra plays, but you're going to lose a lot of them too because he's pressing all the time. And since he's been like, shoot, he was 25th and deep ball throw rate last year, Matt Stafford.

Matt Stafford, 25th and deep ball throw rate, just learning to take what the defense gives him is ultimately what won Matthew, a Super Bowl there. why they made the playoffs last year with a beat-up roster. So, yeah, that's a great take, Joe. Let me give you three, we have three more NFC, 2-0 teams, the Saints, the Vikings, the Seahawks. Are any of these teams for real? Are the Saints going to win 45 to 10 every week?

The Vikings just going to figure it out? Seattle, is it just a product of the schedule? Are they for real? What are you feeling about these three teams that now sit at 2-0? All right, so Seahawks, I don't necessarily trust. But with that said, the division's wide open right now. with, you know, San Fran having some struggles. No, I still pick them to win it.

Rams probably being out of it. And the Cardinals definitely playing well, but, you know, I don't think they have the defense to sustain a deep run. Seahawks could be in the mix. I kind of have come around on the Saints. And maybe this is just me. Boy, from 0 and 6 to I've come around, Brett Whitefield. So I would say, I think maybe this is that.

I'm feeling so embarrassed by my 0. and six take Dennis Allen first coach fired then now I'm like well let me just go the complete opposite direction right but when you look at the way they've won what's working for them it it leads to future success like quarterbacks playing at a high level offensive lines playing especially when you go back and listen to all of our offseason discussions Joe about the saints O line was our biggest concern right the offensive lines played out of their mind they are running the ball down everyone's throat. Not allowing pressure on Derek Carr.

And that's with Derek Carr. I think their time to pressure rates 3.1. And it's not like Derek Carr's just sitting there dinking and dunkin. Like he's throwing, he's back to whipping deep balls, man. It's like deep ball or checkdown for Derek Carr. So I don't know what to think of this. I know they haven't played the toughest teams in the world, right? It went into Dallas and you and I are both down on Dallas.

Yeah. But in Dallas, they're like a great team, right? That's the thing with the with Cowboys. But yeah, I think the offensive line has been the story, right? Like the first stuff to Shaheed, Camaro four touchdowns. Bro, their car is not getting touched. It's, it's wild. Even against this Micah Parsons to Marcus Lawrence defense that we highlighted as a key

matchup for us, he's not getting touched, bro. It's crazy. I don't know. I don't know. Right away, baby. We see this, though, right? Like, you see teams that start hot fall off. Yeah.

That's not an uncommon thing. especially with a new offense in Clint Kubiak, right? They gutted that offensive coaching staff. You kind of have to figure out what they're going to be. We knew they'd be pretty good on defense, and that's been certainly the case. But as there's tape on this team and teams start to adjust to what they're going to do, and Kubiak's able to anticipate those adjustments and what counterpunches does he have, it'll play itself out.

I'm not ready to declare the Saints a contender. Off to a great start, but I think the real meaningful stuff is what comes, moving forward. And I think you can see there's a reason that neither you or I picked this team to make the postseason. So I think all of those possibilities still exist. And that's why, like, they don't, nobody wins the division in a week two.

But I'm optimistic. I'm more optimistic than I was, of course, three weeks ago. Let's do this. Week five, I think we'll know who the saints are. They go Eagles, Falcons, Chiefs. I think we'll have a very good idea if they're legit or not after week five. That's their next three.

Eagles, Falcons, Chiefs. Yep. I don't, man. So you would feel like the Eagles can threaten that offensive line a little bit, but Eagles passers has been nothing. I know. Bryce has stinks. What is up of that?

No one's what stinks. All these Georgia dudes, they're not getting it done, Joe. What's going on? Is it possible that picking an entire college defense wasn't the best idea in the world? Just saying. Eagles, Eagles are a tough team for me to figure out. Like, I think this is a. a big week for them coming up.

Yeah. Which we'll talk about on Thursday, but. Yeah. Against the Eagles. Against the Saints. Yeah. Um, one more two and O team, the Houston Texans sitting on top. I mean, is every team in that division. Oh, every team that division's own two except for the Texans are two and oh. So what did I say they'd have the thing wrapped up by or was it the chiefs?

I know I had one team that had the, you said the Texas would have it wrapped up by week 15 or something. It's looking good. Looking good, Brett Whitefield. I don't even want to talk about this. This is, this is hurt my brain, bro. Because I picked the Jags and the Colts to both finish ahead of them. It's still early, but the math suggests that the, you know, I think five teams I picked to make the playoffs are O and two right now.

Boy, kiss of death. Yeah, the Rock Chalk kiss of death right there. Texas, though, they're playing good. I would, I think what I can appreciate about C.J. Stroud is how bad all the other young quarterbacks of men lately. You know, like he stands out in a field of thorns. He's the rose. I don't know if that's a metaphor or not, but I came up with that or maybe I tried to, but I feel like he's playing good ball and he's playing with confidence. They're able to run the ball a little bit. Defense is making some big plays. Those games have been close, right? I mean, both of those games

were close and they probably shouldn't have been at least against the Bears, especially with Caleb Williams being historically bad through two games. But as long as they don't get in their own way, they're going to be just fine there in that AFC South. The Houston Texans offensive line, this is another bright spot, right? You get good a line play. You're going to be pretty good. One of the best teams in adjusted yards before contact per carry right now,

and then their pressure rate allowed just 28.6% despite C.J. Stroud having the fourth highest time to throw in the NFL. So Stroud is holding the ball. They're letting him get the looks he wants. He's getting through his progressions and he's not seeing a whole lot of pressure. So I think this is this bodes really well for them long term. The Nico Collins thing too, man. Boy, he's good. 24 and a quarter per season, man.

That's 10 million too low. It seems that way, bro. Like his stat line the other night was what? Let me pull this up. It was eight for 135 and one. And that doesn't even do its justice of the impact of the end of the game. He dominated that game. Jalen Johnson couldn't stop him.

Tyreeks Stevenson had plenty of opportunities. Couldn't stop him. He was all over the place. I know, dude. I went in on some tankedel overs because I thought, I was like, okay, these corners are going to at least limit Nico Collins a little bit. You know, tankdell is the familiar name there.

and I predicted him to hit all these great stats and he didn't get any of them. I would have probably agreed as much as I love, Nico is a big time ass man, by the way. He's top five and average separation score in 2023. And then if you go back to 2022, the data predicted that he was going to break out last year for sure. So I love Nico. What's funny is Stefan Diggs is basically a tight end for them.

Like he catches flat routes and that's it. Hey, he got that one vertical shot. He did. A little toe tap that I, for the rest of my life, I'll wonder why Matt Everflew's challenge to play. I'm like, what are we doing here?

But he has a little corner, right? He has a little corner route. It's like the most obvious catch anyone's ever seen. It's like, man, this is a prime same game, buddy. I'm having a hard time staying awake.

Can we not do this? Right. It is funny, though, like most of his routes are legit, just like flats and hitches and just, he's just a little security playing it for C.J. Stroud,

which is, hey, it works. they got a nice receiving core over there. Let's focus on the 0 and 2 teams in this division. And I want to really emphasize the Colts. What's up what's up with this run defense, man? They give up 213 rushing yards of Houston. They give up 261 to Green Bay. When you knew they couldn't throw the ball,

they had Malik Willis as their quarterback. I mean, the Colts are getting beat up with their run defense. And that's a demoralizing thing, man. Like if you can't stop the run, that teams just snatch your soul. And I'm very concerned about that right now for them. And it shouldn't be this way. have the Forrest Buckner and Grover Stewart and all these defensive ends that are like big

physical guys paying some linebackers like what is up with this? Yeah if I remember correctly they finished the season very poor there let me bear with me I can actually tell you yeah they were they were they were 24th bottom bottom eight in total yards but I know that that's not the best measurement I'm sure you have some other things yeah so from week uh let's see it week 13 on no week 11 on Week 11 on, they were the second worst team in the NFL and adjusted yards before contact. So D-Line is just not doing their job there, basically. I mean, they're getting bullied by every offensive line. So that's not great, Joe.

That's really not good. I think weeks one through 10, they were, yeah, they fell off a cliff. So they started the season hot. Weeks one through 10, they were a top eight rush defense. And then since that moment, they have just been getting ran over by everybody. So I don't know. That's not good, though. I felt like the offense, though, Joe, has played a little better than we, you know, I feel like Richardson's off to an interesting start.

I wouldn't say it a good start, but they're able to create a lot of explosives with him. Yeah, it's so boom or bust, though. There's no efficiency with this offense, right? Like, no. That's the thing. That's what they're missing with Minshu, I feel like, a little bit, where MNshoe just kept them on schedule. Now, the upside plays weren't there, but it's like, you got to find the balance. You got to get Richardson in rhythm quicker.

Pitman just is like an afterthought in this offense now with Richardson. Isn't that weird? That's not supposed to be the way this is supposed to go. Well, Pittman's whole game is timing and rhythm. He's the backside slant on the RPO and Richardson's just not throwing it. I don't know. Richardson in this game, he made a couple really bad reads on read option where, you know, I think one play he handed it off when the end was literally chasing the line.

And then another play he kept it when the end was literally standing there waiting for Richardson. He's just not, I don't know if he's guessing or what's going on, but he isn't making some great decisions. Sub 50% completion percentage. And this statistic has got to be crazy. His yards per completion is 16. 16 yards per completion. What?

Yeah, that's, Hell like Pierce has 120 more yards than any other player in this passing offense. That's not, that wasn't the plan, right? It wasn't the plan, but when you think about it, it makes sense. Pierce is a great deep ball guy. He was on the all. He was on the all cardio team last year, bro. He was running, you know,

nines and post routes on every single play. And Minchu. The thing he can do, man. Yeah, it is the thing you can do. So, oh, go ahead. I was transitioning. I was finished your thought, please.

I was just going to say the, the thing that might really help her just in is when Josh Downs comes back. Right. Short area quickness. Maybe get him some easier layup type of throws. That's the thing about Pittman is as good as he is. He's not really a big time separator. so it's like like Richardson kind of wants to see it before he throws it right now.

I don't know. It's not a great quarterback receiver pair, right? There's, I think, I think that's a relationship that's not beneficial for Pittman. Correct. But other other quarterbacks he'd be phenomenal with. That's not a great fit to me. Do you have any confidence in any of these 0-2, AFC South teams, Jags, Titans, Colts, the vibes are bad in Jacksonville.

Titans have Will Levis. That's detrimental to winning. and I don't know if the Colts can stop anything right now. No, Titans are cooked. I mean, I do want to spend some time talking Jags, mostly, but real quick on the Titans, when your coach is seen on TV asking you, what the F are you doing?

Probably not good for Will Levis. Oh, he doubled down after the game, too. I know, bro. He went off. Right. He went off. And then tried to claim, I told him I love him, though, and I wasn't mad at him.

Like, bro, you just told the whole world you're mad at him. What are you talking about? He said what we were all were thinking, but it's the same stuff he did last week. Mind-numbing mistakes, right? Mind-numbing mistakes. And then back-to-back weeks with a punt block? Come on, man, you can't do this stuff. And their defense is decent that just wears down at some point. Yeah, that's, well, yeah, because the offense is not sustaining any drive. Complementary football just not happening in Tennessee. It's tough. The Will Levis thing is funny, because I feel like, so he's kind of sneaky athletic, right? Like, he's local. I think he's

tremendous athlete yeah yeah but when he runs it's it's so chaotic looking it's like george kittle he looks like george kiddle when he runs oh my gosh he does like the ground is shaking as he runs but it's like he doesn't know where he's going even though it's like oh i'm running but i'm not sure and he's tripping and he's falling everywhere and he's just chucking the ball behind them as he's falling every time that's three three plays in two weeks he's done this where he's going down to the ground and just chucks the ball behind him i bro this is so this is so weird anyway I don't think they're getting anything done with Will Levis right now. Young quarterback struggle.

My take is Ben, going into the year and Titans fans wanted my house burned down because I said this. Mason Rudolph will start a game this season by coach's decision. I feel like we're on that path. Not to say Mason Rudolph is better than Will Levis, but what the Calhouns want? Let's say what the Calhans want for this offense, timing, rhythm. Pick them up on your fantasy leagues if you need a quarterback. Go ahead and get them on your team. especially in Superflex Dynasty.

You want that guy stashed. Right. For sure. And I do have him in a couple leagues. All right. No, I did want to spend time on the Jaguars. What the heck is going on in Jacksonville, bro? Doug E.P., man, the more he gets his hands on an operation, the worst it gets.

They just play situational football so poorly. Over and over. It's a talented football team. It's not a talent issue in Jacksonville. No, it's not. Everything on the, like, with this team suggests they should have their best year with Lawrence at quarterback. and it's nothing nothing's working dude defense isn't playing well offense is really very much struggling

I don't know man it my question for you is is Doug Peterson the new Jeff Fisher where it's like 8 and 8 8 well they don't do 8 and 8 anymore 8 9 9 and 7 he's been more on the 9 and 7 side in his career I think that's like but like other than the Super Bowl run bro that he that's his entire career is 9 and 7 7 and 9 9 and 7 yeah and I think the streakiness of his teams are just really what's concerning. They start six and two last year. They finished nine and eight. Then was it 2022 this first year in Jacksonville? They start three and seven. They finish nine and eight get to the playoffs to be the chargers. They take it to the chiefs. They're just a very streaky operation. And that's dangerous to me. I feel like for whatever it is, I question his leadership.

And his comments after the game were troubling. Dude. You sent me that. I was blown away. It almost was like he's checked out. Like, felt like it for a guy, week two, for him to have that type of like tail between his legs type vibe. Yeah, man. Got to figure out why his team's not motivated week two. Yeah.

Come on, man. They went out. They spent all kinds of money to bring in these players. Left and right, trying to fix his football team. I feel like they're going to the wrong direction. But the collection of talent seems good enough to me, more than good enough. Yeah. That's what I kept going back to.

I originally went through and I predicted the season and I didn't have Jacksonville making. I was like, man, I feel like their talent's too good. It's year three. I really like Ryan Nielsen. I'm like, I think this is going to be a decent football team. They're O and two. I go in Buffalo, Monday night football. The bill's getting a three and O.

And the Jags getting O and three. Well, easy there. Three and O for the bills. Well, the Jacksonville's been the Bill's Cryptonite. They've lost last year, the London game. They lost to the Urban Meyer Jags. Like, I feel like the bills have had. It's a little bit like they're Vikings.

It's a Vikings 49ers thing. So we'll see. Oh, what was that the Vikings 49ers thing? Yeah, you nailed that, brother. That's right. That's right. You nailed that. I was good.

Thank you for that. I wish I would have predicted the Vikings money line. Instead, I just went with the points. With the cover. I think it's possible on this show. I just said cover. But on the matchup point show, I firmly planted my flag and said Vikings to win that game. So, boy.

Two years in a row, I've called that, by the way. Last year they did it without Justin. Jefferson. This year they did it with Sam Darnold. And without Hawkinson and without Addison and they figured it out. So good. You went out, what we talked about, Minnesota. Are they just, is this just the latest little bit of Kevin O'Connell magic or is there some sustainability here? What's what's going on? Well, dude, anytime you have the O-line play that they're capable of providing, especially

with those tackles, they can be competitive, man. And that's the thing with the, is that predicting that game was less about what I thought of the Vikings and more about what I know about the 49ers. No de-line depth, corners that can't survive on an island. And so if you have a team that can pass protect, the 49ers struggle, go back and look two, two, three years now. Any team they play that can pass protect,

they struggle against no matter what. Pretty much every game they've lost is against a team that can pass protect. And then every game that they're, you know, a game that's closer than it should be. It's because they can't get to the quarterback. And when they can't get to the quarterback, that defense sucks. I'm not saying that it's 100% across the board, but O line play has been a common denominator in most of these two and O teams.

Bills, Texans, Chargers, you talked about the Steelers offensive line being a little better than we expected. The Saints, the Vikings, right? Like Tampa's had better offensive line that would play than we've expected. Like, it's definitely a common denominator. When you look at some of the teams that aren't there, Rams, Ravens were concerned about that O'Lon. line, Titans, right? Like, there's, there's definitely something to this offensive line play and it's importance to winning and losing in the NFL.

That's a hot take, right? You didn't tune into this podcast for me to say something that basic, but it's definitely something that you can see on both sides of the equation. Well, then explain the lines to me, Joe, because they're getting it done in the run game. They're protecting Jared Goff. Jared Goff, you know, has barely been touched. He's barely been breathed on in two games. And they're one in one, Joe, and they've struggled in both games.

Sorry, now I'm mad. Now I'm mad. I feel like, I feel like Detroit played well enough to win against Tampa Bay. Their quarterback was the limiting piece of the pie, right? And I think that's always the most important thing. And not that Jared, I think Jared Goff's a good player. He didn't play his best football. And I think it got, you talked about how it's, it tends to roll downhill with him.

And early in that game, it didn't matter that he had the dime to James and Williams, right? And I'm like, oh, boy, here we go. This is going to be a big game. It was that elite, I don't know why they didn't call legal contact, but that interception. And he was confident. He was, you know, that's what he wants to do. He wants to work that intermediate middle of the field.

He was ripping it. He saw it. And I think that put him in a bad spot to start the game. And so I think that's what it was. You always preach situational football. It's one of your big talking points. I agree. Lions were one and seven in the red zone in that game.

Come on, man. Can't do it. Come on. Yeah. You got to score touchdowns on there, man. Yeah. You got to. In the last two years under Ben Johnson, they were third and fourth in red zone

touchdown rate. So one in seven's not cutting it, Joe. You're not going to win a lot of games doing that. Well, they'll get better. A lot of growth opportunities. You know what I mean? Get back to the coach speak. Yeah.

All right, dude. Let's call it there. This is a good, good review show here. I like it. Thank you for steering the ship. Hope your voice feels better, man. I don't know if you can tell you. It has loosened up.

little bit since we've been talking. But, right. Yeah, hopefully I'm good for tomorrow's recording. For Thursday, yeah. For Thursday, yep. All right, guys, no matter what develops, we will always be your first read. Thank you for listening. We are out.