Fantasy Football Daily - NFL First Read | Good, Bad, and Ugly Week 1 Review

Episode Date: September 10, 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 go through the latest ugly NFL Week 1 review. 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 Joe Marino of Lockdown and myself, Brett Whitefield, the C-O-O of Fantasy Points. This podcast is powered by the Fantasy Points Data Suite. Let's get after it. Joe, all right, before I bring you in, Joe, I got to handle some business really quick. As you now know, the Thursday episode of the First Read podcast is no longer going to be. be on the Fantasy Points Now podcast feed. It is exclusive to the first read feed. So if you love what you're hearing and you want more of this in your life, you got to go, subscribe, set yourself up for downloads on the first read feed to get the Thursday show.

And I might be a little biased, but the Thursday show is going to be better than all the other shows. And I'm just saying that because I want you to subscribe and listen to it. But no, that's it. So please go do that. That's, it's really important to us. Leave us a review too if you want, you know, five stars, of course. All right. Anyways, Joe, week one of the books. How are you, my friend? I'm great. Half the, half the league is going to be 17 and 0. The other half is going to be 0 and 17. Week one is always so interesting because it's met with so much anticipation,

but then the overreaction that stems from it is just incredible. And I think the way that a lot of these games played out has got some fan bases in the dumps, man, and maybe a few that are a little more optimistic than maybe they were entering the season. My mind is so scattered because I want to start this podcast with a million different things, right? Right. I could go here. I could go there, because I just want to make sure we get it all in. But I can't look past the point that I thought Sunday's viewing a football, as exciting as it is that we got it back. The quality of play across the league was very poor. I don't know if you agree with that or not. I thought the like QB play, you know, minus Derek Carr, but that's because he played the Carolina Panthers was awful, right?

The trench play in aggregate was bad. There was so many sloppy plays, so many fumbles and weird interceptions. And it just looked like everyone was super rusty, right? And it makes me wonder, Joe, are we heading to a point where teams might start to take the preseason a little more seriously? I think that's a very valid statement. And yeah, definitely some bad ball in week one, a lot of it. And as you see teams really have different approaches and appetites for how they handle the preseason, I'm sure there's going to be some studies that tell you the snap volume that starters are taking in the preseason versus week one results and where that lands you.

But regardless of what that tells you, the fear of injuries is always probably going to trump that. Yeah. And so I don't know. I think you're always going to have a lot of variance for how teams handle this stuff. But week one did have plenty of bad ball. And it'll normalize quickly, though, I think. And I feel like I come out of week one often feeling exactly like you just said. And then it normalizes.

And then maybe the reality is Brett Whitefield that there's not that many good quarterbacks in the NFL. Maybe that's the issue. But listen, guys, you expect to be pretty good and weren't good either, though. Like this was, here's just an example of what I mean by sloppy to you guys. It's like, you know what a swing screen is or a bubble screen, right? Obviously. There were over 15 of those plays this week that actually weren't passes. They ended up as runs because the quarterback threw it backwards to the right receiver,

who was way out of time. A lot of times he got jammed. I did some digging, Joe, in the fantasy points data suite era. There's never been more than two of those in a single week. We had over 15 in week one. Timing is just off. Rhythm is off. I know teams like, and I always use Detroit as the example, because I'm most familiar with them and I listen to everything Dan Campbell says, they don't value playing

in the preseason because they think they can get more out of, you know, scrimmages and joint practices because you can, it's more of a controlled environment, right? You can, you can set a script for 60 plays and you can get exactly what you want out of it. You can work in some fourth and shorts and some whatever. The difference, though, between that and an actual game is the 70,000 screaming fans, right? And so when the Lions came out, for example, they looked, the offense was completely flat at first. Like it was like they had not ran a huddle with 70,000 people screaming at them.

Like that's like you can't, you can, you might be able to replicate the 60 play snap thing. So fatigue shouldn't be an issue necessarily, but the mindset and the mentality, it's like, it is, it is different. That adrenaline dump you get in a game is totally different than practice. I think that's a good way for, us to transition into what I'd like to start with Brett Whitefield.

And that's some comments on this Ravens Chiefs matchup that feels like a hundred years ago. Right. It was a Thursday night kickoff. We've obviously had a lot of football to watch since then. And these teams didn't start slow offensively. They both scored a touchdown on their opening drive. Ravens go 11, play 70 yards. Chiefs goes five plays 67 yards.

And then things really did revert to what you were talking about in terms of of just not a lot of clean football. But what really stands out to me about this game is the end of it. And Lamar Jackson, NFL MVP Lamar Jackson. And he's a big reason why they were in a position to tie or win the game at the end. But he's also exactly the reason why they weren't able to do it. And I think it's always hard. It's a very delicate balance between appreciating the good and what the player brings,

but also, hey, there's some shortcomings. But the last three plays of this game were an absolute disaster for Lamar Jackson. He airmails Isaiah Likeley. He airmails Zay Flowers. And then on the play where Isaiah Likeley's toe was out of bounds and it would have been a sensational play to end the game. Lamar Jackson's pure wedding in the pocket for absolutely no reason. Maybe if the throw was on time, the result was different. And I don't feel like anybody wants to talk about all the.

good with Lamar. I want to talk about how he wasn't able to come through with two easy throws to put the Ravens in position to win or tie the game. I had a lot of issues with the Ravens game playing in general. I even wrote my notes here, what in the Todd Monkin? I felt like I was watching Michigan football. It was weird. But Lamar, here's the thing, you don't, if you don't attempt a single pass downfield all game, and then all of a sudden to the final three plays of the game, you got to throw it a little bit, you're probably not going to hit those throws, Joe, just saying, like, no there was no repetition in that game where i think he had one throw 10 or more yards downfield at that or one completion it was to isaiah likely on a scrambled drill where likely ran a two

yard drag route and then lamar's scrambling around likely gets open downfield and he hit him that was that was it man everything else was a checkdown or a dump off or a three yard hitch or a slant or a screen there was no downfield passing attack so they got put in a really weird situation And then you mentioned the pirouetting out of the pocket. Joe, they had Justice Hill 1V1 with Chris Jones on that snap. I get Lamar having a little issue with that. Maybe feels like he needs unnecessarily move in the pocket. So I kind of get it from that standpoint, to be honest with you.

Justice Hill versus Chris Jones, probably not a winning proposition, but they did it two snaps in a row. That's the crazier part. Do you feel like verticality in week one in terms of passing offense was pretty, low in general. I know you mentioned Lamar and not really working the ball down the field, but I'd extend that to a lot of the passing attacks, whether that's, I mean, 14 different quarterbacks according to the fantasy points data suite were under 10% in terms of deep throws, 20 yards or more down the field in terms of the depth of the target. And you got some names in here.

I'm a home 7.1%. I thought that was the whole thing. This is a vertical passing offense. Baker Mayfield, 6.7%. Jared Goff 7.1%, Stafford, 8.3%, Josh Allen, 8.7%. Kyle Murray under 10%. Jayden Daniels didn't even push the ball down the field. Like, just generally speaking, verticality wasn't there. And I know that it leans into the same talking points about coverage cells and taking away explosives down the field. But it doesn't feel like we're really becoming a more down-the-field passing league at least through one week.

Yeah, I think that correlates too with just general data. was the lowest opening week passing yard total since the year 2000. Wow. What that's so 24 years of data and the lowest week. It's a passing league, right? But everything cyclical. Run game is coming back for sure. Run game is now in vogue, especially if you can find ways to empty out the box.

And actually, that was one of my frustrating things about Baltimore in this game. And why I wrote down what in the Todd Munkin is when he, when he came in and we got rid of Greg Roman, Remember, Greg Roman was 21 personnel, 22 personnel, 12 personnel. We're going to play heavy. We're going to get Lamar this condensed area so then he can break the pocket and have big running lanes on the outside. And then when Todd Mocking came in, the whole selling point was, we're going to play 11 personnel. We're going to spread it out.

And Lamar will have easier reads and cleaner throws and more receivers downfield. And it'll be easier for him to scramble because everyone will be spread out. Dude, it looks like a Greg Roman offense. still. They were in 11 personnel fewer than any team in the league this week. Even with Derek Henry, I touted Derek Henry all offseason jokes. I'm like, he's going to see a light box for the first time in his career. That wasn't true. They played 12, 21, 22 personnel all game long. Kansas City just loaded the box up and Derek Henry had no running room the entire game. It was just so, I just don't understand.

Like, they completely regressed in what they were doing. And I know it didn't work great last year, but like, come on, man. What did you think of Derek Henry? Do you feel like there's, you think he's fine? Yeah. You think it was just muddy boxes, the Ravens' offensive lines kind of bad. They're transitioned three players in there and struggling. Chiefs got a pretty stout front.

But the one thing about the Chiefs last year defensively is you could run the ball out. Yeah, and there were a couple runs early in the game, specifically with Justice Hill, actually, where he were like, wow, okay, they're going to be able to run the ball all game on them. And then it kind of didn't really work out that way. Yeah, the thing is Rosengarten and Patrick McCari were taking turns of who was getting whooped worse. Right. I mean, Chris Jones was killing them.

Dude, Chris Jones was killing them. Like, welcome to the league, Rosengarten. And then also, Macari, maybe you're not the best six offensive linemen in the NFL like we thought you were. I don't know. That was, again, that's a week one overreaction, right? It was one game. But that was rough.

They couldn't get anything going specifically because those two guys were, I mean, they started rotating him. I don't know if you noticed that. But like McCarrey would be in for a series and Rosengarten in for another one. And it was tough. So, but yeah, I thought Henry looked mostly fine. He looked explosive. He's still big.

strong. Yeah, big strong. But it wasn't a situation where I felt like they could just feed him and that would keep their offense on schedule. I mean, Lamar had to do a lot with his legs in this game to create offense for Baltimore. What do you think? What do you think about Isaiah likely, man? I mean, I loved him coming out of coastal. I think there was an overreaction to his athletic testing. The tape was phenomenal. But is this a situation where you feel like he's going to really become the featured tight end of this offense over Mark Andrews? I mean, you're talking about 12 targets for likely two for Mark Andrews that that's that was one of the bigger surprises for me coming out of the week no Isaiah likely still not doing anything he didn't run routes in this game I try to explain

this to the the writers here at fantasy points because they got they got to write the stuff up they're all freaking out oh my gosh likely's supplanted mark andrews go watch the tape again it's everything likely caught was within two yards of the line of scrimmage I mean seriously they had a couple designed screens that's great you'd love to see a tight and get a design screen that's free points right but everything else was like checkdowns and hitching little tiny two, three-yard dump-offs where Lamar's getting pressured. He's just flipping it out to likely in the flat. Reminded me of when Dalton Schultz played for Dallas.

He was the built-in checkdown on every play. Do I think likely is a good player? Absolutely. He's a stud. The tape at Coastal Carolina was hilarious because he's this big athletic guy. I don't care what the testing says. He's athletic. And they would get him these run-after-catch opportunities.

And I think he had one game Joe with a 99-yard touchdown and an 85-yard touchdown. one game, just running away from the kids playing at the coastal Carolina level, you know? Yeah, so I think he's a good player. I just don't think he's, like, Mark Andrews is actually out there running routes. He was the primary on most of their past concepts. Kansas City just did a great job eliminating him from the game. Like, you're not throwing it to him down the field. We got, we're bodying him up.

Brackett, two guys on him. A lot of rolled coverages with two high looks where they're rolling a guy down right in Mark Andrews' face, getting physical. I thought they did it. The game plan to stop Mark Andrews was excellent. And they forced Lamar to dink and dunk with Zay and Isaiah likely. Some of those plays with Isaiah likely worked, obviously. I just don't think we can project him as like the new guy there for sure.

It was a little bit fluky production profile. All right. I'll pump the brakes on being concerned as a dynasty owner of Mark Andrews. In fact, I would say go the opposite. If you're in leagues, and this is mostly for the listeners, because I don't think you play in like 30 leagues like I did. I just won. I'm a one and done guy. Yeah. So if you play in leagues where the Mark Andrews owner is panicking,

you go grab him for a bag of balls. I got him for a late second round, a late 2026 second round pick yesterday. Commissioner's mad, wants to veto it, but you know, it is what it is. So, yeah, if there's a lot of panic right now because of this, I think you can go scoop him up for free. So pro Whitefield, how much trouble are the Green Bay Packers in if Malik Willis has to play a bunch, Jordan Love? And it feels like we're just not getting a lot of information on that injury situation.

Scott Bear asked me the same thing. He asked me, how dead are the Green Bay Packers' receivers, Malik Willis' plan? I still maintain Malik Willis is the best quarterback from his draft class, but that draft class might be the worst in NFL history. So that's not saying much. Bars low there. Actually, I can't say that because Brock Purdy is really good. Dang it.

Right. Among the guys that were drafted in the first two days, I still think he's the best of the bunch. However, he's not a guy who's going to run a rhythmic offense. He's not going to sit back there and get the ball out on time and have crispy clean footwork. develop, you know, deliver accurate ball after accurate ball. It's definitely concerning for the Green Bay Packers.

Like I was really sad to see Jordan go down, honestly. Yeah, I mean, hopefully it's not a big deal, but like the, the information has just not been very good. And that, not that we want to go chronologically through the week, but that was a tough game to watch because that field sucked, man. Like, we got to, we got to start being real honest about these international games and putting guys on surfaces that are going to allow them to play football. a reasonable level. I mean, guys were literally just couldn't get their footing on the soccer

field that's not designed for, you know, massive human beings being rooted into the ground needing to generate power from it. And they couldn't, they couldn't keep their footing. And it was, it just made for bad ball. For sure, it's weird that it seems like the Eagles are in these games all the time. Like I feel like every bad footing game involves the Eagles somehow. Yeah, that said, that's not why Jordan Love got hurt though, right? But right, no, yeah, of course. of but I just man I understand the wanting to globalize the game and all of that football is an amazing game that I think

the whole world should have opportunities to see like I love that but we got to get these guys some fields to play on man yeah I'm pretty sure the NFL has standards for the NFL fields that go through inspection I don't feel like these I mean we have change standards because this is happening to it's happening in what I'm saying is I think they throw the standards out the window for the international games you know like well it's it's obvious right? It seems like this is a problem often.

I think the only stadium that doesn't do this to them is Wembley in England there. Like I think that's the only international stadium. They haven't had like serious footing problems. So I don't know. Something to look at. We kind of got into the vertical passing offenses across the league. But two guys that were very willing to push the ball down the field were Anthony Richardson, who didn't have a ton of passing attempts, right?

And obviously hit that unbelievable throw. I think otherwise I think Richardson was kind of rough. I know you're a big Richardson guy, but like he had his moments. But then Bryce Young, Bryce Young also 20% pushing the ball down the field. And I mean, I don't want to sit here and just dump on guys. But right now it's very difficult for me to think that there's a path forward for Bryce Young to be successful. And if you liked him coming out of college, maybe you disagree with me.

But when you coupled the way that I thought about him as an NFL prospect and what I've seen to this point, man, this is tough. And that trade should. everything not completely change around, that's going to cripple the Carolina Panthers for a team that was already in the dumps. And so, like, thinking about bad ball, bad quarterbacks, Bryce Young, Deshawn Watson are the poster boys for this conversation.

Could Deshawn Watson even play? I mean, that was one of the most disturbing quarterback efforts I've ever seen. I know the tackles were hurt, but I mean, that doesn't explain the decision making. That doesn't explain just completely errant throws that aren't in the right zip code for these players. Like at some point we got to just recognize that D'Shawn Watson is cooked. And the contract is obviously a major problem for Cleveland. But I think the worst thing that you can do is continue to trot this guy out there and pretend like he can play.

You have James Winston for a reason. You have Piler Huntley for a reason. This is hard to watch, man. Juxtapose, I don't want to be scattershot here, but I think it's a really important comparison. Juxtapose what Dishon Watson did on Sunday with his, tackle is missing versus Matthew Stafford on Sunday night. Matthew Stafford had the ball out in under 2.5 seconds on 80% of his dropbacks.

He had, I think it was like 60% were under 2.3 seconds. Like snap throw basically. Deshaun Watson in their hand was like, no, I'm going to hold the ball all day long. He's always done. He's always done. And they had like a 47% pressure rate in that game. But it was mostly Deshaun Watson's issues because he's literally holding the ball all day long. I think I counted at least 10 snaps where he had the ball over 10 over four seconds.

It's that's unbelievable. Like how are you at what year seven of your career and or year eight, whatever it is and you can't you can't figure this out? I mean, what are those meetings like? What are the meeting rooms like with the quarterback's coach? Like they talk about this stuff, right? Surely right. Anybody that understands how the position is supposed to be played,

you're having these conversations. You're seeing literally no growth or regressing or getting worse. Oh, yeah. The story with Cleveland this year is that defense, right, and being able to have the season that they did last year with Joe Flacco coming in, just throwing up moon balls. And now, like, the script is too hard for them, in my opinion, especially without their tackles, especially without Nick Chubb and that run game that they can lean on.

It's disappointing because I think Cleveland's talent level, it collectively is very, very high. But this quarterback play is probably going to be too much to overcome. if we don't see significant growth. Yep. I know before the show, Joe, you were, you were talking like maybe doing some supplative stuff. I have a suppleative for you. Let's get it.

It's right in line with this vein. Most disappointed player I was, I was in this week was Jalen Hertz. I know we kind of skipped over the Green Bay Philly game minus the turf, but the Jalen Hurts performance on Friday night was so bad. I'm at the point where my concern levels through the roof. because like he ended the season on this note right where it was like week 12 or 13 something shifted in that team and he his play went just completely down the drain we talked about it all offseason we both kind of got back to being excited about jelan hurts i think we both ranked them in our top

10 qb still despite the way he ended the season but then week one after an entire offseason of good vibes right him and a j brown are back on the same page he's made amends with the coaching staff all that. Well, what the heck was that the other night? I mean, his brain is completely fried. He was trying to do things, Joe, that weren't even remotely there. The amount of harm he brought on his offense by putting the ball in harm's way was it was absolutely insane. Yeah, he's frustrating to watch, right? And then there's like a moment where you're like, oh, yeah, there it is, right? He can play a little bit, but it's decision making. It's how he sees the field. It's even some mechanical stuff where I thought Jalen has had decent mechanics throughout his career. It's like a lot

of like just getting zero lower body into his throws, very flat-footed and like even some of his, like, I feel like the ball is kind of getting away from his frame a little bit when he's trying to throw the ball and it's really affecting his placement. So you just, you have a lot of issues here with what Jalen Hertz. And it feels like on a week to week basis, I just don't know what to expect, which is not what you want to say for a player of his status and what the type of commitment is that Philadelphia has for him as their guy. Also, am I crazy or does he have like no juice as a runner anymore? you're not wrong about that. Every time I see the guy take off the run, he's going nowhere.

Right. And I think his rushing, I don't even want to say output, but I mean, obviously he, him and Josh Allen both set a new record last year for rushing touchdowns by a quarterback. But I think the way that you get to those touchdowns are very different, right? Jalen Hertz is very much the brotherly shove or whatever we're calling it. And that's where a lot of that comes from where I think Josh Allen's certainly doing a lot more than just plunging it in from the one yard line. But I think that the success of that play and the amount of touchdowns that he's had from it kind of skews the reality of the runner that he is with the ball. That's a great point. I know his yards per carry last year even were massively lower than previous seasons. So at the end of the year, people were chalking that up to an injury.

I think he had like an ankle or something bugging him. Well, he's healthy right now. I don't know. And he still looks stuck in the mud when he's trying to run. So that's a bit concerning. Can we talk about, like, I know that you, collectively we feel like the quarterback play was not good. Yeah. But I have a take here.

What's here? Clearly the best three quarterbacks in week one were Derek Carr, Baker Mayfield, and Josh Allen, comfortably. And you can throw one of those out because you played the Carolina Panthers. Well, the one thing that's supposed to be good about the Carolina Panthers is the defense, but they have zero pass rush. And they're, I mean, they don't have a second corner. Yeah. So it's like, what are we doing here? And at a fair amount of turnover with the person.

now for that defense altogether. And their number one corner got absolutely cooked by Rashid Shaheed. Oh, she's a baller, man. I love that guy. One of the best values in the entire NFL with him kind of coming up the way that he did. And they have him signed through next year. He signed like a one year $5 million deal for next year. Yeah, I thought he played well enough last year to get a bigger contract than that.

Right. I wouldn't have taken that. Considering what the Saints were dealing with with Carl all year, like in the way he play. Like I thought Shaheed, especially if he was healthy, he would have had a well over a thousand yard season and then he got didn't really get paid like it so um interesting but yeah he he's a so guy every time a guy like him comes around it makes me more inclined to to to really spend time on the d2 guys coming out of college or even the the lower school d1 guys so like the guy those guys are out there you just have to find them you know this is a this is a great value yeah no doubt

baker mayfield are you what's your vibe there is it just to hey we played washington and it's a lot new pieces, running a new defense, but I mean, you're certainly, if you're a Bucks fan, you're through the moon right now thinking about Baker Mayfield. Yeah, I really enjoyed watching Baker in this game. He kind of picked up where he left off last year. He was very good last year, like very underratedly good. You know, there's a reason Dave Canales got a head coaching job in the NFL, a lot of that, you know, those two worked really well together.

And I'm just really thrilled to see Baker now go to another coordinator and have success. Now, obviously, Liam Cohen coming from the Sean McVeat, tree. You kind of assume he's going to be good, right? Because most of those guys have been. But man, this, this offense looks fun. Now listen, Washington was a mess on the back end. Their secondary was all over the place. They didn't have a single dude that I think performed well. Even my guy, Mikey Sandr still was on the struggle bus. This is, this is tough for that defense. And so a lot of it was that. He's picking on maybe the worst secondary performance of the week for sure. But ultimately, man, I like what I see from Baker. He had, dude, his time to throw in this

game was like under 2.2 as well, which is even crazier. Just dealing. I feel like Leon Cohen, I feel like certainly was the right choice to pair with Baker. And I think about Leon Cohen. He actually got good play out of Will Levis at Kentucky. And I mean, I feel like we're all over the place, but every fear that I had about Will Levis in that offense was revealed in week one. And like, the interceptions that he threw just like late and chucking it. Like just literally three hours late and just chucking the ball, man. Like in a game that you're, up you didn't you didn't have to you didn't have to do that you had you had kind of the bears exactly where you wanted them that game was hilarious to watch i so typically my workflow on the one p m slate

i have five games on my computer that i'm charting at one time and then i have a game on like a tv or another monitor that it's just like i have it as background noise and i kind of pay attention here and there so that was the game i was watching because i really wanted to watch caleb and his you know debut and bro the qbby play in that game was left a lot of lot to be desired will levis made multiple boneheaded plays one of them so the the interception at the end the pick six where he's like flips the ball out he made the same exact play earlier in the game that almost got picked and had to get reviewed to make sure it wasn't picked broden learned his lesson and thought you know what i almost got it picked the first time let's make sure i get it

picked this time and then launches it a little bit further horrendous they were up 17 zero in that game yeah in a game the bears literally couldn't move the ball right I think they had, what, 150 yards of total offense? And they won, and they won. That is crazy. Crazy town. So we kind of got into players that have disappointed us. Let's flip it to the other side of it.

Is there a player that stood out, maybe exceeded your expectations, impressed you, get something that made you say, hmm, I'm curious in monitoring that the rest of the season. Yeah, there was a lot. One that I'll note here, a skill player from Minnesota. My guy Aaron Jones, bro, looked awesome. looked healthy. The explosiveness was there. He was making guys miss. Had that wiggle. Gosh, he's just so perfect for that outside zone scheme that they run, getting the ball on the edge

with him. It was just a treat to watch. I kind of called it. Like, I loved the fit there with Jones and the Vikings. So I got to shout him out. He looked like vintage Aaron Jones. I don't know that he'll sustain whatever. He had 20 touches for the whole season there, but it looked really nice. Yeah, I think that's a good call. I think several running backs popped. And I'm not sure this type of workload is going to be there for them for the entire season, but like Joe Mixin, 30 carries, 159 yards of touchdown. Sequan Barkley was terrific for the Eagles. I mean, not just the running, but the receiving output that he had.

I mean, got to be over the moon if you're an Eagles fan there. J.K. Dobbins, big day for the Chargers. I think Antonio Pierce with that cowardly punt kind of cooked them. We got a cowardly punt in a separate bar. keep going, sorry. No, I just, I think there was those running backs I thought really showcase themselves well. I mean, even the Lions doing what they do, like at some point, it's like, okay, we're just

going to, we're going to shove David Montgomery down your throat. We're going to win a football game, right? They did that week one last year against Kansas City. So. Yeah. When push comes to shove, it was like, all right, Dimo, just go, go win the same. Yeah, it works. Ramander Stevenson, bro.

He balled out. Yeah, yeah, he was, I had him on my short list here. I just didn't get there. But, yeah, I mean, obviously, situation where the, the, the, the, Bengals, man. I mean, I know they had drops and certainly no Higgins and Chase has been weird all offseason, but you got to beat the Patriots, man. You got to beat the Patriots in week one. I think we charted Ramonj with 11 force miss tackles, 25 carries. Healthy. 4.8 yards after contact per carry. Like he was, he was a menace. And that's with a battle line,

you know? Right. Right. And I think you saw that in pass pro, right? Like the, Percette was under a ton of pressure, if I'm not mistaken, throughout this entire game. And good thing I have the Fantasy Suite, data suite open so I can validate that. Yeah, he was pressured 48% of dropbacks. That was fourth among quarterbacks this week. So the offensive line play was bad.

That's an unsustainably high number. Like 35% is too high for most teams, you know? So getting near 50s insane. That is unsustainably high. Which is where Daniel Jones was, 51%. Speaking of quarterbacks that are cooked. Hey, he's still the starter. Still the starter.

What are you supposed to do? I mean, the entire, because we got to watch Hard Knocks, we know this. The entire plan was, well, we're paying Daniel Jones $40 million. He's got to be the guy. And congratulations, you're going to do that and you're going to get fired. You're going to get fired. There's a lot of bad QB contracts out there right now. And then you see DAC get $60 million.

And I know one of the themes on our show has been, it's a lot easier to get worse at quarterback. But are, then this is probably a bigger conversation for its own show. Are we heading to a point though, Joe? We're like, if you don't have Patrick Mahomes, the rest of the QB landscape is relatively even. It seems like we have to get there. Like we can't keep one-upping each other on quarterbacks that aren't better than Patrick Mahomes. All right.

So there's definitely the haves and they have not said quarterback. I totally agree with that. But that's the market has evolved into the next reasonably good young quarterback. That's contract is up. they get the reset. And even if you haven't done much, right? Like maybe you've had some good statistical moments, but it's a big deal to commit that type of cap space

in a limited resource environment in the NFL to one guy. And again, it is easy to get worse at quarterback. And but the reality is the league has let these contracts get out of control. At what point does it, so like the, the QB market expansion has way outpaced the salary cap growth. Right. Way outpaced. not even close you have a guy like brock purdy making a million and a half versus dac prescott

making 60 now i'm not saying purdy is every bit as good as dac prescott but the gap there is not 59 million dollars dude you know it's so like well that's an extreme example right talking about the seventh round draft that's selling a rookie deal what point though is the the meta the most effective tactical advantage throwing darts at qb's on the cheap like a baker mayfield's a great example why why not bring him in versus paying a guy so much i don't know it's just so you can't build a roster when you're paying dac prescott 60 million dollars it's it just seems great or daniel jones 40 million dollars or dashan watson whatever he's making they owe that man 172 million dollars after this season it's like what are we doing i think the mohomes deal is working out just fine i think the bills

are quite satisfied with josh allen and his 43 million a that when it was signed when joseph Josh signed that deal is the second highest percentage of cap committed to a quarterback in the history of the NFL. So there's that piece of it. But yeah, teams are going to realize how difficult it's going to be. We're talking about Jalen Hertz. We're talking about Daniel Jones. And these are players that limit the operation. And you have to be able to elevate and bring more out of your teammates and overcome what you're commanding because it's a limited resource environment.

And opportunity cost matters a ton. I saw a tweet that blew my mind. I can't remember which Talking Head tweeted it. But just nine years ago in 2015, Aaron Rogers was in his third year, third consecutive year of leading the NFL and quarterback pay. You know what he was making? $22 million. God. That was only nine years ago, bro.

That's crazy. The market has unbelievably exploded. Like, to heights, we never thought were possible. This is, it's seriously crazy. I think this is a big problem in the NFL and something that we're going to have to keep talking. about because at some point the tactical advantage will switch like we can't keep sustaining this this market growth it's it like you know roster construction philosophies will change for sure especially as the run game starting to come back like i'm telling you right now we're going to see a big shift

defensively was there a player or a team that you thought really popped for you and the people don't maybe people don't know this about you brett whitefield but i think you're probably one of like i don't know maybe five people in the whole world that have watched every snap of every game and probably for most of those snaps two, three, five times. Yeah. Yeah, that's fair. That's a weekly thing too. You know, you can expect that level of detail from me every week.

So yeah, there was a bunch of guys, you know, with how sloppy the offense is where I think it gave an opportunity for defensive players that really stand out, you know, so I'd be remissed if I didn't mention my guy, Aiden Hutchinson. That guy, that left tackle, that backup left tackles having nightmares right now. I was still negative about Hutchinson. Bro, and that guy owes Matthew Stafford some props for keeping him. Like, Hutch whooped him, but to the average eye, you didn't know he was getting whooped because Stafford was getting the ball out so quick.

Right. Stafford protected him big time and himself, obviously. Right. But like, Hutch, I think we, when I went through and charted that game, I think I counted Hutch for well over 10 pressures, 19 pass rush wins. So his his past rush win rate was like well into the 40%. I mean, he was whooping that guy, both of them. The second snap, he hit him with the spin move.

I'm like, bro, you did it like you waited all of two snaps to hit him with that, you know, and just completely miffed the guy. So Hutch was great. What about you? One thing on spin moves, like spin moves to me are like the best and the worst move of all time. Like when it works, it is so nice. But there are times where like you're just literally. it's a waste of a play.

But Hutch, Hutch has one of the better spin moves in the entire NFL. His is the best sense Dwight Freeney in my opinion. Yeah. If you have an average spin move, just keep it in the bag.

Just keep it in the bag. You got to have a good one. The thing that's crazy about his spin move, too, is he doesn't have to set it up with something. So a lot of guys have to really hit that outside shoulder, bowl rush. Ice pick that he has, man. He's just,

it's so great. Like, he actually, there's a point in the game where he hit the spin move on three plays in a row. So no setup involved. It just doesn't matter. You can't stop it. But yeah, the whole losing contain thing is an issue against athletic guys. Like, yeah, that's, it's maybe not my favorite move, but it's fun to watch.

So anyways, who is your standout? I guess I want to, I should say Greg Rousseau. I have to say Greg Rousseau. Six tackles, three sacks. And I mean, he was the difference in the game for the bill's defense as that game normalized a little bit. He was able to kind of take over. He was phenomenal against. the run. I mean, Kyler Murray had some scrambles, but James Connor was very limited in this game in

terms of the running output. And that's because they attacked the edges and Greg Rousseau was not having it. But the pass rush impact, when you think about the bills, and for me, at least the primary concern that I had for the team was can they get clutch pass rush in big moments? And obviously Greg Rousseau met that moment with two huge sacks in the second half of this game that ended drives ones was a strip sack that put the bills in position to take the league. So Greg Rousseau, as a young player that last year he played, you know, almost 75% of the season with a broken bone in his foot. He was off to a tear to start the year. I think you're kind of seeing him realize his potential for a guy that doesn't even turn 25 until April. So I wanted to shout. I was, you know,

it's funny. I was thinking I got to talk about Keon White, the Patriots defense event. I'm like, no, no, I got to mention Greg Rousseau, my guy for the bills. The thing I like about Rousseau is he finishes plays at a pretty high up. Lank. Yeah, he's got the length. Like, Hutch, that's his biggest downfall. is he'll rack up 12 pressures in any game he might get a sack or two off of it some of that is he hasn't had counterparts to also get you need two guys 100% yes but watching rousseau it's like he didn't he didn't win nearly as much as hutch but when he did he made it count he's getting hits he's getting sacks um love that about him and length is obviously a big a big deal how about t j watt

man looking like vintage t j watt he was all over the place in that game and i know he only you know rush the pass are what 25 times but freaking three sacks on 25 patch rush snatch is insane Falcons are a flop in week one in general right like yeah another team that was super sloppy all game which again we were wondering where

Kirk Cousins was all off season maybe he needed some reps maybe he shouldn't play that game he couldn't move Joe I don't know if you noticed he literally didn't come off his spot I think one time the entire game ball was out or he was taking a hit there was no no evasive tactics being performed

there at all. Maybe the Falcons Brass knew exactly what they were doing when they picked Michael Pennix with that pick and shocked everybody. So then why did you pay the man? I don't know, brother. There's there's some sequencing here. That's really off. But, you know, it's the delicate balance between letting it kind of play through with Kirk, but also not letting the season get away from you. But then also if Pennix is your best player, you got to play them. I don't know, man. And it's, again, it's week one. You don't want to like overreact, right? Because week one can be a liar.

I mean, the Patriots are not going to go 17 and 0 this year. You know, there's going to be a lot of things that are going to happen here. But I don't envy, I don't envy that that's positioned to be in if I'm Atlanta. You got to play your best quarterback. That's what I, like at the end of the day, can we just simplify it? Get the contracts out of the way. Play your best players. All right, Jameson, Winston, you're up in Cleveland.

Let's go. Dude, it's not hard for me to do that. Andy Dalton, you're up in Carolina. Yeah, for sure. Like, what are we doing here? Oh, man. Do you have any more defensive guys? Because I could keep throwing guys all day. Dexter Lawrence.

Yes, Dexter Lawrence. Come on, man. Free Dexter Lawrence. Free him. That guy is such a, I mean, so Aaron Donald's now gone. Chris Jones is getting to that age where maybe you see the play start to slip a little obviously it didn't look like it this week. I know.

Brother, he was killing the ratings. But point being is Dexter Lawrence is probably the best player in the league you've never heard of. If you're a casual fan, right? This guy is, dude, he was so good last year, got paid rightfully so. What's crazy about it is he's producing like he is from like a traditional nose tackle alignment, too. He's not even three tech, bro. He's just, he's rushing passer, splitting double teams all freaking game long. God, I love that guy.

He is so good. Right. And the other talent that they have is on the edge. He doesn't have a running mate. It was like Rakeen Nunez Roches is her other defensive tackle. Right? Leonard Williams is a while. And then.

I know. I don't know what, I mean, I don't know what Joe Shane's been doing for the last three years, but this is, for this roster to look like it does at this point, brother, that's tough to watch. It's tough to see. It's not good enough. It is not good enough. Yeah, he, Lawrence is a beast. Free Dexter Lawrence for sure.

What about, what about Jalen Johnson? That's one of your guys, right? Don't you love him? I mean, doesn't everybody like good corners? Well, true. Obviously, he's, he's, his glow up over the last year or so has been really outstanding. And I think a lot of that was, getting healthy, right?

Kind of some things earlier in his career, some things at Utah that got in the way. But, you know, I think I, that was, man, I'm nervous about, I'm nervous about how this Titans team is constructed offensively with what they want to be in the quarterback that they have. And it's, again, it's week one, it's week one. But I never thought of Will Levis as a guy

that was going to play in a precision-based timing West Coast offense. And here we are. The way he operates some of those plays reminds me of a guy who would like mayonnaise in his coffee. You know, you know, right? And like, it's funny is what is Will Levis done to deserve these types of commercials and stuff like that? But when you're such a like, mayonnaise like in coffee, like, yeah, I guess you're going to get that deal. Well, he's yoked. Like when he retires from football, you can do bodybuilding videos, you know. Yeah, you know, exactly. It's good to have fallback plan. I mean, the thing is I like Will Levis. Like I was like

definitely a defender of him coming out, but you got to put him in a situation that's going to make sense for his skill set agreed hey man they they believe in him it's it's all good i got one more defensive guy for you okay i'm going to go with uh stealers cornerback another steeler's defender joey porter junior balling this guy bro he so he was a we chart shadow coverages and you know for famously purposes obviously so as a rookie he shadowed in 10 different games last year or no sorry it was seven different games that's a lot for a rookie though to say hey no matter what happens your take the other team's best receiver for to put that on a rookie's plate shoot we just saw the lines do with terrian arnold who followed cooper up the field but that's that's crazy and he did it i mean he

was an eraser and then this game he didn't start shadowing drake london the first two drives he was just playing i think left cornerback drake london catches two third down passes and then guess what happens on the third drive joey jrway porter junior comes along and says not today drake london didn't catch a single pass after from that moment Not one single pass did he catch. And he only had one target. Like the guy is just an absolute eraser. The luxury with that pass rush to also have a corner who can,

you can just say, you know what? Just go lock down. The other team's number one. Dude, it's just exciting. And then unfortunately, we got to deal with,

you know, Pittsburgh's not going to have a great quarterback situation this year. If they can get like, if they can get what Russell Wilson did last year for the Broncos, that team should be very good, in my opinion. The defense looks awesome. How about,

um, Christian Gonzalez, welcome back for the New England Patriots. Speaking of Shadow Corners, man. Yeah, he's got the stuff, right? Like, he's a stud. I think he's going to be really one of the special guys in the league, but he was able to really kind of clamp up Jamar Chase, a good bit in this game.

And if you're, if you're New England, I think you look at him and you look at Keon White, and it's very unfortunate what's going on with Christian Barmore, but like Kyle, Kyle Dugger, you got some pieces here on this defense that I think you're going to always do, be a foundational element to what they're going to be. So the conversation is probably always going to be, can they figure it out on offense. My favorite thing about the shadow corners, guys like Gonzalez and Patrick Certain and Joey Porter Jr.

People don't realize how good they are because the way PFF grades, the cornerback grades are predicated on ball production. Right. So those guys aren't targeted to get ball production. They're just run, they're out there running routes for the receivers, right? So it's like, you know, Christian Gonzalez is a guy who I'm pretty sure via the PFF Twitter account didn't grade very well, but the dude was obviously very impactful. Can I shout out a guy that I think is a little bit lesser known, but I think over the last few years is really growing on me that we need to start talking about. And that's Reed Blakenship

safety for the Philadelphia Eagles. I mean, obviously the interception he had was terrific, but he's become a very sound player overall in coverage. And obviously he's a missile as a tackler. And he was a fun player to watch at Middle Tennessee State. And he winds up going undrafted. And it didn't take very long for him to find a way, his way under the field, a starter last year. And I mean, I thought he was terrific against Green Bay. And, you know, Vic Fangio, the coordinator now in Philly, I get excited about him being part of that mix with Quignan Mitchell, who they're playing in the slot. I don't know if you found that to be interesting or not. But there's some, there's some young pieces in that Philly secondary that I think has me feeling pretty

good about that piece of their operation. Yeah. What's interesting is, was he green dotted in that game? Do you know? Oh, I don't know. If you watch the, I guess the posture of the defense coming out of a huddle, it was always blank and chip that was getting guys lined up, you know, barking out calls, I couldn't see if he had a green dot or not. I should probably go back and look, but it seemed like maybe he's now the leader of that defense from a communication standpoint, which would make sense. Quick Google search would tell you that it looks like he might be the green dot guy. Oh, nice. There you go. Rare to have a safety as the green dot. So that just shows you, you know, his leadership and obviously ability. and knowledge of the defense. That's pretty cool. Trench play. Before we get out of here, Joe, let's, let's hit some trench play.

Let's. I bought Joe Alt, man. How about Joe Alt with the Los Angeles charges? We talked about that being a big assignment for him. I thought he met the moment, man. I thought his technique was really sound. And he did a good job against a guy that you said last week was the best past pressure, best pure pass pressure in football.

Absolutely. I was blown away. Absolutely blown away. you know, Rose of the Challenge. Obviously, Crosby didn't only rush Joe Alt. He had some reps against Rishan Slater as well. But, man, yeah, Alt looked awesome. The run game, too, popped.

And Alt looked great there. Like, zero complaints, man. We knew the floor for him as a pass protector would be high because the length and the athleticism for a guy that big. But where I thought he might struggle in the Greg Roman scheme was that, you know, power counter run scheme where they're going to really get after it and move their tackles around. And, man, he, he fits.

right in. I mean, there's a reason he was a blue chip prospect, right? There's a reason he should have went third overall and not fifth overall. And we saw it all on full display. Yeah, I, whenever I went back and most of my tape that I've watched at this point, I want to kind of look at a lot of the rookies when it comes to trench and I want to watch a lot of the offensive lineman. Joe Alde, I thought, held his own. And I know that the Panthers don't really have any pass rush threat, but like, Talis Follago, I thought was pretty good for New Orleans. I thought Zach Frazier at center was good in his debut for Pittsburgh. And I thought maybe there were some rough moments for him during the preseason because

I'd watched him quite a bit in preseason as well. But I thought those guys in terms of rookie offensive linemen in their debut, I thought they performed well for themselves. Yeah, I agree with that. Another guy I was all in on this week who probably had the block of the week was Charles Cross, Seattle left tackle. Yeah, the right tackle situations. They're in trouble, right?

They are. Man, they were able to run the ball a little bit in this game, especially down the stretch. And Cross had a play where, who's the other linebacker next to Singleton in Denver? It's escaping me. Less important to the conversation anyways. Play was designed Charles Cross goes up to the second level right from the snap and absolutely baptizes of the guy. I mean, just basically picks him up and runs with him, just slams him into the ground,

complete finish. One of the best finishes of the week. And it wasn't like a finish off of a double team or where he's catching a guy off guard, just straight one-v-one, just curbs, the guy. It was impressive. Charles Cross looked awesome. Who's the best rookie defensive player that you watched this week? Verse, right? It's Jared Verst, right? I thought Neeland. Neeland was good. I was going to go, I thought Quinnian Mitchell looked good. It's a good call out. Yeah. I mean,

a real deal. Interesting. He played, I mean, he factored into that defense. I mean, and I love, it was CB1 for me, so I was excited to see that. But yeah, he definitely, he popped. You know, me, I always got to go, you got to go. That's, that's me and you. I'm going with the lineman you're going with the back seven guys yeah yeah i thought queenian was good there the the trust in him to move him around to like he was in the slot then he would you know play outside then then they'd roll him back into safety and like to put that on a rookies play it just shows you how special the guy is and obviously the movement skills have always been there but the instincts and the ball skills everything we thought he was good at really translated the field right away so i was

really really loved what i saw from him shout out to vandre sweat for what they were able to do him and Jeffrey Simmons D-line. He looked good. No doubt. No doubt. He looked like a guy you did not want to encounter that day, too. Like the power of force, the nasty streak he has. Man, gosh.

Yeah, rough. He put those Chicago Bears guards on blasts for sure. Yeah. What's the biggest lie? The biggest lie from week one, in your opinion, was. Oh, man. The biggest lie. You put me on the spot here.

I mean, we already hit the likely stuff. I think maybe that's a little bit of a lie. Now, again, likely's good. He'll be involved in the offense, not supplanting Mark Andrews yet. Do you have one? Let me think of one, if you have one. Yeah, I think there's,

the thing is that there's a lot of things that you could go with here. I think the Patriots are probably the biggest lie. I think they cost Cincinnati at a good time. And I think that the Patriots are definitely destined more for a top five pick than they are to be a team that's going to be pesky and getting in the way of potentially being a spoiler type team. So I'll say that the Patriots collectively are the biggest lie from legal. Okay.

All right. I got one. In Cincinnati's run defense has spent bad for a while now, right? And to me, losing DJ Reader and putting in Sheldon Rankins, I mean, come on. That is not how you get better with run defense. And then Cam Sample, I think, is an important, like, rotational piece of that unit. And he's gone for the year. I thought it was kind of a perfect storm situation.

reminder too that we talked about the swap for for DJ reader to rank ins and in how that looks like the silly silly yeah go listen to the ASC north uh review we did we we talked about it at length there so yeah i think that's a good call i do actually want to hit Cincinnati after this because I think there's some stuff to talk about there but I think the biggest lie is that the buffalo bills aren't six points better than the Arizona Cardinals I think that you're not wrong about that that game was unnecessarily close right oh necessarily close I mean starts off with that like ridiculous play the bill stop him on third down they call a ridiculous personal foul that was not even close gives them an extra set of downs they score a touchdown

Josh Allen has a weird fumble that they wind up being able to get the ball back the kick return for a touchdown by Arizona the bills offensively were really good and I don't know if the bills are going to be great offense this year and it's more that Arizona just doesn't have dudes on defense but the bills falling into that 17 to three hole in a fluky way made that game script weird but it obviously took care of itself yeah and kailer murray was objectively bad in this game it was it was a really weird game because even when i was watching at 17 to 3 and i'm obviously not even a bills fan i was going i did i never was worried for the bills it was the weirdest thing usually when a team's down two scores you you know you start get a little nervous i was never worried i was

like okay i'll check back in in a little bit here and see the score and it was it was you know where it should be keiler played well to start the game but i think that's because they were able to just run their the bills they lose taren johnson like very early in that game and that that created a massive shift because they wanted to play dime defense quite a bit they they leaned into these three safety sets last year and so their plan was that cam lewis was going to play as the as the as the as the as the as the dime safety and dorian williams is going to come off the field well terran johnson gets hurt now cam lewis is your nickel defender and you have to bring in jamaurks ingram to be the dime safety so they got to like refigure it out and once they did and the weird thing

stop happening offensively for the bills. And it put Kyler Murray in a situation where he didn't just have to run the offense. He had to like make decisions in high leverage moments. You know, you saw that not work out. And I'm sure if you're a Cardinals fans, you're saying, well, what if Michael Wilson doesn't drop that wheel route? What if Marvin Harrison doesn't drop that ball? Like maybe it's a little bit different.

But I think the reality was those balls came maybe even unexpectedly due to just the nature of the way that Kyler was playing the game and at the point where he had to actually start making decisions. as opposed to running the offense. Yes, spot on. I also think there's an element to game script, right? Or sorry, scripted plays. So Arizona comes out.

They have their script. Kyler seemed very comfortable with whatever that those first 10 plays were. And then the second they were off that, I don't know if you notice this, something you and I have talked about off air a lot is Kyla Murray might have the slowest trigger in human history. It was something you didn't like about them coming out. I remember talking to you about it.

This was true in this game. Like as soon as that those first 10 plays went out the window or whatever their scripted offensive series. Right. It was just hold the ball, hold the ball, take a sack, take an unnecessary hit, scramble for nothing. It was really just really strange. Like he, it's just like he wasn't seeing it.

Or the guys weren't getting open. Like I, you know, we'll be doing the separation charting starting today and tomorrow. And I should get a good look at those Cardinals receivers. So it was just strange, though, how so the trigger was there. And, you know, again, I was never worried about the bills coming back and winning this one. you said you want to talk Cincinnati let's do it yeah just are the vibes they're horrendous right now of course they are I mean this is like I think a lot of people nationally thought Joe burrow's a type of quarterback that can overcome a multitude of sin I don't know I don't I'm starting to doubt it

and I'm not overreacting to week one this has been like the last 18 months of my brain of just since they lost at Super Bowl the vibes have been bad and they're just really really bad right now Chase kind of being this, you know, holdout and then not really a factor in a game against a team like New England. It's so weird. T. Higgins now is injured. Chase almost didn't play in this game, but then he did. So the whole thing just seems off to me. I don't know what's, it's got to be an ownership issue, right? I don't know what's going on. It's always top down ownership with them, right? They, I mean, respectfully, I mean, Mike Brown just is different kind of cat, right? Like, just runs his operation very differently from how he manages, uh, the people. people underneath him, how they have to do business with their players, not taking care of guys.

Like I think eventually that boils over and you don't have the culture and the buy-in that you should have. I mean, talent has not been an issue in Cincinnati for the last 30 years. They've been extremely talented, maybe a couple seasons here or there, but it's all we've we've ever talked about. This is one of the best rosters in football. Well, why don't they have more to show for that? Eventually, you've got to look at the guy that's at the top.

and realize that there's a trickle-down effect to his impact and it limits his football operation. And I can say that because, you know, rest in peace, Ralph Wilson, Jr., he was that guy for the Buffalo Bills for a very long time. Yeah, I mean, there's, I can relate to the lines, right, until, you know, William, Clay Ford ran the lines for a long time and they can never get over the hump. They were, you know, those, that 30-year span of dread was under his reign, right? and now his daughter is running the show and things have got a lot better. But all right, before we get out of here, I did want to ask you one question.

Did you, I should say one final question, is there an L that you want to take? Something you thought was for sure going to happen in week one or something you predicted that didn't come to fruition. And you're kind of skittish about it now and think you might be taking it. Oh, hi, Brett Whitefield. Do you want me to talk about Keon Coleman being the guy that ran the most routes for the bills, had the most targets, the most receptions? Is that what you're trying to get me to say? No, it really wasn't.

But thank you, though. I actually wasn't going to go there. But no, that's, is that, is that your L then? Immediately he's the one, right? It seems that way. I guess. I mean, how could you say that they only completed 18 passes, right? And it's nine different receivers.

Five guys had multiple receptions, but he had the most route. He played the most snaps, ran the most routes, had the most targets, the most receptions, most yards. So, like, that definitely stands out. In terms of, and L, I mean, obviously I picked, I thought the Raiders were going to beat the Chargers. And I was wrong about that. Same. I picked that too.

Yeah. So I probably have a couple. One, I predicted Ray Davis to be way more involved than he was. And what's weird is I thought he looked good. Yeah, I think it's just a matter. It's still week one, right? Like. One, yeah.

Yeah. The biggest L, though, is the New Orleans. I predicted them to go 0 and 6. Well, we always knew the major hurdle was week one. Was equal. I told you. I was like, I don't know, brother. they're going to win that game. I definitely underestimated how bad the Panthers could be.

Holy cow. And talk about a team that didn't play their starters in preseason. They had one drive, one drive. If there's a team in the history of the NFL that should have played their starters in the preseason, it's a Carolina Panthers in year one under Dave Canales with Bryce Young in a new offensive line and new weapons. I mean, come on. Yeah, the whole new outfit, basically. Do you have no idea how it works in a game setting? Oh, man. Yeah. So that's a big L though, obviously. In New Orleans, like, I get that they played Carolina but the the way they beat them makes you feel a little better about what they're

doing so it's like am i just going to be wrong in general on new orleans it feels like maybe instead of oh and six they're going to go three and three or two and four even but that's still way off from where my prediction was so maybe maybe dennis allen won't be the first coach fired and that's probably got a lot more to do with brian dable and roberts hollah roberts we didn't even get to the jets we didn't get to the jets we didn't get to the jets we got we got a few minutes we got we got a few That's, Rogers had some good throws late in the game, but come on. I mean, I think my concerns about what that defense was, I've been saying that does not have the depth that they've had in recent years, particularly on the defensive line. They're drafting three undrafted free agents and that is not for a good reason.

They've regressed there. They don't have the depth. And like, that's what's carried the team. The whole thing is like, oh, you were seven and ten the last two years with Zach Wilson in a bad offensive line because your defense carried you. Well, now your defense doesn't have the same talent level that it's had in recent years. I mean, so I thought the 49ers defensively played a little bit better than I thought they would. Yeah. I agree on both accounts.

But you should victory lap the Jets thing hard because there were people that would have listened to that conversation and thought we were crazy, man. And they got absolutely ran over by a truck named Jordan Mason and Dominic Pune. We didn't get to him in the trench talk. Pune was awesome. Yeah, I love him. Because we didn't think they had a right guard or we thought the O line could struggle. now they got another dude potentially on that on that uh and shoot he held up against quinn and williams too which was you know Williams was often on the other side but i watched

all of the one v ones between puny and williams and he puny looks good you know you talked about cincinnati's vibes i mean the jets vibes are bad too yeah you know what i mean the jets they're always bad though the vibes that is not the team the vibes are always bad well the team's always bad too what was going on with sauce he like walked off the field it's just like standing there nobody's around him. Yeah, I think he got disciplined. It had to be some type of disciplinary measure that was taken that he wasn't playing. Because then the reporter comes on and says it wasn't health related. It's like, well, then why is your best player sitting on the side?

Vives are bad. Vives are bad, Brett Whitefield. All right, guys, that is going to do it. I'm going to do another reminder here. If you like what you hear today, you got to go over to the first read feed, NFL first read on Spotify, Apple, Google, Google Play. Make sure you subscribe and get the download set up because as of last week, the second show of the week will no longer be

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That will happen. I don't know. The timeline there, the Mastermind hasn't told me that, but I do know it is coming at some point. So please go subscribe, get download set up. All right, that's going to do it, folks. No matter what happens, remember, we will always be your first read. Thank you for listening. We are...