Fantasy Football Daily - The Anthony Richardson Tape, A Divisional Vibe Check And Much More | NFL First Read

Episode Date: October 29, 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 the Anthony Richardson tape, Uche to the Chiefs and a divisional vibe check. 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#/ Check out The Waiver Wire - https://www.fantasypoints.com/nfl/articles/2024/the-waiver-wire-week-5#/ 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 CEO of Fantasy Points. This podcast is powered by the Fantasy Points Data Suite. Let's get after it. Joe Marino, you know how hard it is to get the gravel in the voice on the first read and when we do the 7 a.m. recording. It's very hard, Joe. You know, Brett? early for that as a guy that says what's better than this? I'm always able to find it, man. I'm always able to find it. I got to work on it. I didn't get any gravel in that one there.

So maybe I'll have Trey swap out the intro from a previous episode. That way we get some more gravitas in that read. But anyways, Joe, we are through what week eight. We're almost to the halfway point. Is that not insane? It's weird because now there's 17 games. I don't really know when the half point is, you know. What? How do we get there?

You know? Because there's 18 weeks. 18 weeks. Yeah, but every team plays 17. Okay, so I guess technically within the symmetry of the season. But I don't know. I think about each team and, you know, they play 17 games for now. That's going to be 18 pretty soon. There's going to be a million international games.

You know, all that stuff. But it's basically lopsided all the way to week 13. So, yeah, yeah. Nothing we can do about it. So next week, we'll be doing a power rankings episode. But for this week, we got to, a lot of good stuff planned. But Joe, before I toss it over to you,

I wanted to talk about this Jets football team and this hilarious loss. Did you, did you happen to watch this game, Joe? Like the beginning of it specifically? You know, in the one o'clock slate, I was focused on the Bengals and the Eagles. I'm familiar with the narrative of the game, but, you know, I didn't watch every play 14 times like you.

I told you this is the most intimidating thing about doing a podcast with you. It's knowing that you've seen every play like seven times each. You know what I mean? very difficult so people need to feel bad for me for that well this is why i didn't excuse me watch that i asked like a like a gentleman there i thank you thank you you you got to know where you got to know where you are in this world thank you so uh are you are you aware of the fact that before the jets eighth offensive play they had burned all three timeouts of the first half oh no way bro it is the funniest thing i've ever seen in my life oh just an operationally bad football team man

They fired, like, we both agreed Robert Sala wasn't doing the best job, but they fired the guy who at least was operationally decent, right? Yeah, you know, like, I thought they were looking for a spark. They didn't get it. I don't know that they're, would their record be different if they had Robert Sala? I don't know if it'd be any different. Probably not, but, but they wouldn't be burning three times within the first eight offensive plays.

This is so, I can't, that is so funny. Joe. That cracks. One of them was on defense. New England did get the ball first, but then two on offense in the first eight plays of the game. Dude, that is hysterical. Aaron Rogers just completely unhinged right now, bro. Like, this is so fun. Dude, like, for a game, there are no turnovers in the game.

No turnovers in the game. And the Jets take their fifth loss in a row in a game that they were a touchdown favorite against the New England Patriots, man. And, like, eventually, Essentially, it's not going to be worth talking about the Jets because they're a seller dweller, and we won't talk about them just like we won't really spend a lot of time talking about the Carolina Panthers or the New York Giants, right? These Tennessee Titans, these teams are irrelevant.

Like, we got to put the Jets in that bucket at some point. We got to say it's over. They got the Houston Texans this week. Is that Thursday night football? Texans, yeah. Thursday night football. This is the last one though, right? Of Jets in primetime?

I think it is. No, in two weeks they play the Colts. on Sunday night football. Oh my gosh. It never ends. It never ends. So the league was convinced this was a Super Bowl team. Either that or they knew that the narratives would be spinning so wildly that it didn't matter if they were two and five. People wanted to show up to watch things crash and burn, right? People wanted to show up to watch the demise of Aaron Rogers. I mean, that's what I'm there for. And it's not necessarily specifically because it's Aaron Rogers. It's because it's the Jets. and the never-ending circus and hype that exists that's completely unfounded and anything that makes any sense.

Do you think people are actually watching, though? Like, I haven't seen any ratings report on Jets games right now. Like I, like these are bad to watch, man. These are these are really like even that game against New England, man. That was just a tough watch through and through. Oh, I'm here to hate watch the Jets. I am 100%. I love watching that Steelers game.

I mean, I had a good time. So you know what I mean? mean like I'm here for it. I want to watch it crash and burn. It would be annoying for me and that's, maybe I'm just in a different world because I'm a fan of a rival team. Like if the Jets were playing well and steam rolling opponents, yeah, I don't want to see it. You know, I don't want to see it.

But because they're terrible, oh, man, it brings me great joy. It brings me great joy. I understand kind of like, you know, the, the Chicago Bears, Hail Mary brought me great, because I am not a Chicago Bears guy, Joe. I love to see them suffer. All right. So before we get to the hell, Mary, what are we calling this? The miracle in Maryland, what's the, is it have a cool name that has to have one?

That's the law of a game. Yeah, it's the, we're calling it the Tyreek. Boy, boy, that didn't age well, did it? I mean, talk about getting, getting cold, cold, what is it, freezing cold takes right there, right in the moment, man. That's, that's a tough, that's a tough scene. The Reds, this game shouldn't have been close. Can we start there? This game should not have been close.

The Washington commanders outplayed them in every imaginable way, but they were 0 for three scoring touchdowns in the red zone. And I think that probably has a lot to do with the rookie quarterback that didn't get reps in practice. Amherstert. Playing here. Right. Like that's probably where that shows up the most. But I'll get out of the way here, man.

Let's go in. Talk about the amazing finish for the Chicago Bears. There is an opportunity to get to, was it, five and two? or the bears could have got five and two the commanders did get the six and two which is insane by the way that is crazy right man this this game was you said it like dude the commanders had no business being in the situation they were in at the end of this game like right it felt like they were winning even when they weren't but the the red zone stuff that's kind of creeped up on them a few times this season joe i remember they had the one game where they kicked seven field goals do you remember yeah yeah i've of

them were in the red zone. So like this is not new. They probably if there's a weakness with this team on offense, it's definitely red zone scoring. They have to figure out how to punch some of these in the ends. And they did get a little hot after that seven field goal game where they had a few game stretch there where they were scoring, you know, high point totals. But that's really it, man. If they punch some of those in the end zone, this game is not even close. Caleb Williams played bad football in this game. Out of the buy. Out of the buy. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah, he was, you know, he had a couple, like, he had a dime to Keenan Allen right at the beginning of the game. I was like, oh, snap. Caleb, Caleb's ready to roll.

And then it was like, I didn't say that again for about two and a half quarters. 10 of 24, man. Yeah, yeah, 10 of 24, you know, even on the scramble drill stuff, he doesn't look comfortable yet. He's, he's, you know, it's hard to say he doesn't look like he has any timing with the scramble drill stuff because it's not really a timing play. But the way he's throwing those balls downfield, it's like he's overthrowing. every scramble drill receiver he has. It's really rough. DeAndre Swift kind of, you know, he doesn't break that long

touchdown. This game is not a game. So. No, yeah, Swift. Swift was the piece here that gave the Bears' life and their 15 points on offense coming out of the pie against a commander's defense. It's like, can we be honest about it? It's playing

a little bit better. I know that I mean, Panthers, not a big time measuring stick, but held in the seven points and under 200 yards. Great showing against Cleveland. I think these are good for momentum. I think their defense looked good against Arizona. So I feel like the commander's defense has at least got some momentum here

after I thought it was going to be like a fatal flaw for this team. They made a big switch with their coverage scheme. So obviously Dan Quinn coming over from Dallas and obviously he's got the history with Atlanta and Seattle. He's been a cover three maven his entire career. And he plays a unique brand of cover three. He usually presses the boundary side. but man, they were getting torched early in the season

and he switched to a really man-heavy approach, much more man-heavy, and he's kicked Mike Santer still to the outside, which I did not think was going to work. Emmanuel Forbes is working in a little bit as a fourth corner and having some solid reps on tape. And the demand stuff is working, Joe. Like, they're, you know, they've tightened it up a little bit.

Now they've, you know, Chicago Bears aren't exactly the best offensive team in the league. So, you know, take that for what it's worth. The Panthers the week before. So, like, they're not necessarily manning up good teams, but the results have been good, at least, and they're playing better coverage. So, but dude, I wanted to talk about this Hail Mary.

And I know you have strong Hail Mary takes. We've talked about this before. Yeah. But did you see the end of the Houston Colts game and the way that Hail Mary was defended? No. Okay. I want people to juxtapose the way the Houston Texans

handled the Colts versus. is the way the bears handled the commanders i thought for sure the the contrasting hell mary that you're going to bring up was sam darnald against the lions the same same same okay yeah because i i came to this conversation today ready to talk about that in comparison yeah but same thing i didn't i didn't i didn't know this is a week ago we have a uh even more recent example with houston yeah tamiko ryan's sent six at richardson on a hail mary the the the key to defending every hail mary is do not let the quarterback get to a spot. Especially if you're more than 60 yards away from the end zone, they can't,

there's not many quarterbacks that can hit their back foot and rip it to the end zone. And you actually can't even do that because you have to have to have time for the receivers to get down to the end zone. So you can't let a quarterback roll out of the pocket, buy time and get to a spot. You have to disturb him. The Texans played it perfectly. And obviously Richardson, you know, his first Hail Mary situation, I don't even know that he had one ever at Florida now that I'm thinking about it.

So, like, he didn't really know what to do either. But the Texans played it perfectly, just like the lines did against the Vikings. Both those plays end up in sacks. And then you juxtapose that with the Chicago Bears who dropped, they basically rush three, kind of. There's more like two with, like a spy. And they let Jaden Daniels, one of the most athletic quarterbacks in the league, pirouette five times and run around by time and then get to a launch point

and just put it right on the freaking goal line, man. beautiful, beautiful execution for the commanders, not for the Bears. Brett, no disrespect to you and I. Okay. No disrespect to you and I. But why is this seems so obvious to me, you and me, and I think a lot of other people that you can't give the offense what they want, which is time and space, time to let the routes get down there,

space for the quarterback to throw the football. Like, why are defense is willing to leave it up to chance to the throw? I don't want to get to the throw. It's too easy to not get to the throw. What is Matt Aber Flus and Sean McDermott? What are these people thinking? Now, Sean McTurman had a chance to defend a Helmerie a couple last week against Tennessee, and they made the correction.

Okay, they figured, they figured it out. But what are, why? What is, what are they thinking? What are they clinging to? What's the root of why they are choosing to rush two, rush three, and put a bunch of bodies in the red zone and leave it up the chance? and then furthermore the thought of a P.I. Oh, that's a killer, right?

I don't want the throw to happen. Yeah, yeah, take that out. Reths will be pretty willing to swallow a whistle and a Hail Mary jump ball situation unless it's absolutely egregious. So I'm not too worried about PIs, but I agree though, man. Just the more bodies you put over there, the more chaos you're creating, you know? Like how think about as a defender, how do you decide who jumps and swats the ball down when you're all? That's supposed to be coach, right? You have two layers to it where.

So in the Bears game, it was Tyreeks Stevenson, the very guy who was not in the play to start and ran over, realize it was going on. And instead of batting it down, he bats it up right to the back man and Noah Brown. I agree with you. I don't get why this is so obvious to you and I to, if you like just scroll through X, it's like everybody agrees. You have to spend extra rushers to the quarterback on the Hill Mary. But for whatever reason, there's plenty of defensive coordinators who don't do that. they don't defend it that way. And people would love to get into the batted down conversation. I agree. Okay, bat the ball down. But I think what's lost in that conversation is these are defensive backs, right? These are not,

they don't have the ball skills of a wide receiver. So as easy it is for us on TV to watch these plays and say, oh, just knock the ball down. I mean, have you ever been in a situation where a quarterback throws the ball from 60 yards away, three million feet in the air and you have to like time that up? Can we just be honest? a little bit here, that's hard to do. That's like a difficult thing to do. Absolutely. So like I, and it's like, oh, why are the coaches not telling them to bat the ball down? What are we talking about? Do you think that any coach in the world told them to try to get into an interception or tip it up in the air? No, so like there's an execution problem. It's hard for defensive backs to do this. As, as evidenced by all the history of hell

marries that we've seen that have been successful. That's a great point. It's basically like a punt return, right? Like you're fielding a punt. with the trajectory ball. And there's a reason those guys aren't, generally speaking, punt returners either. They're not receivers or punt returners. Most punt returns in the league are wide receivers. So like, so don't have no experience.

Throw happen. Heat up the throw. They need a lot of time for those people to get down there, man. It's insane to me. But you'd like to think that there's been enough recent examples where maybe some people are learning how to defend this because I don't know.

Maybe it's an exciting play. everybody loves it, right? We're talking about it. But defense has got to play this better. This success rate just feels way too, way too high right now. Yeah. So I may or may not have the research team here at Fantasy Points data looking into this. We're going to, very good. We only have five years of data that I guess we could technically probably pull together more. But we have five years of our of our data, chartered data, where we can look at this and figure out, you know, blitzed success versus not the thing is probably still minuscule when you when you break it down joe it's probably you know the success rate on both is probably not very high although recently it seems like if you're not

challenging the Hail Mary it is successful it does seem that way however um i guarantee you the success rate is significantly lower on teams that blitz the hail mary significantly lower so and we'll have five years of data so that that's pretty good that'll probably be you know upwards of what 30 to 40 attempts there So yeah, excited to see that all come to fruition. All right, folks, we got some fun stuff on the other side of it. We want to get into Anthony Richardson and, you know, how is he playing? What should the Colts do?

Maybe he's tired. We'll talk about that. Had to trade Josh Uch to the chiefs and who's the best team in the NFL. We'll get it into all of that and more on the other side of it. Be sure to stick with us. At Desjardin, we speak business. We speak startup funding and comprehensive game plans. We've mastered made to measure growth.

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. All right, Brett Whitefield, you showed up today, wanting to talk about Anthony Richardson, the quarterback for the Colts, who now in his career is up to 250 dropbacks. And obviously very inexperienced player coming out of Florida. And Shane Steichen didn't say with his chest that Anthony Richardson was going to be the

starting quarterback for the Colts, right? It certainly seems like he's open to Joe Flacco after Anthony Richardson has his second 10 for 32 passing performance in his many weeks. it feels like. Are you coming here to defend A. Rich or are like, what's where are you at, man? I am coming here to defend A. Rich. Thought you might. I'm not going to defend his body of work and hole from the season, but I'll defend

Sunday's performance. Joe, we do something here at Fantasy Points data where we happen to chart every throw a quarterback makes. We chart for accuracy. We chart something called incompletion type. And, you know, there's various buckets, things like inaccurate throw, forced incompletion, i.e., the defender, you know, separates the ball from the receiver. Drop could be another one. And then there's another bucket called the wide receiver error.

Joe, between wide receiver error and drop passes this past week, there was like nine incomplete passes for Richardson. Just from those two buckets, then you factor in throwaways and spikes. now we're accounting for 12, 13 of his incompletions. It's actually crazy, Joe. I thought Richardson actually played probably his best game of the season, throw for throw in that game. There's a variety of reasons why I feel that way. The accuracy is the best it's ever been.

The pocket mechanics were awesome. Look at the first play of the game, immediately under pressure, does a good job. He doesn't immediately start to run and scramble. He slides to his life. left, steps up, resets the line of scrimmage, resets his offensive line, and then throws an absolute piss missile, the Alec Pierce, who subsequently drops the pass. I just felt like he was

actually kind of in his bag. I really liked what I saw. I thought he made a big improvement across the board. And the things I loved about him coming out, obviously, anyone with a brain was going to tell you accuracy was going to be an issue to start his career. He's got to develop more consistent throwing mechanics for sure a better feel for throwing the ball too he throws everything like a missile so i'm expecting incremental improvements throughout his career in that regard but the pocket mechanics the ability to play quarterback from the pocket get through progressions i actually thought richardson was awesome at that stuff i actually said he was better than cj stroud at that stuff when he was coming out and this game i thought showed that work in the progressions staying in the pocket

playing from the pocket, winning from the pocket. He did all those things at a high level. I felt like his teammates in this game let him down. Now, I'm not giving him that excuse for the entire season. He's been pretty bad, obviously. But this game, I felt like he made major steps forward. With Anthony Richardson for me, you mentioned a lot of good context. I think it's the overall sum of the passing game,

whether it is receivers letting him down through drops or not. not being where they're supposed to be or Anthony Richardson's own process, maybe missing throws, decision making, whatever you want to point to. The bottom line is that Anthony Richardson is the quarterback for an inefficient passing offense in the NFL. And I think that forces Shane Steichen to take a hard look at what to do. And I think there's two sides to this. Right now I think Anthony Richardson needs reps. He's only had 253 draftbacks in the NFL after what he started 11 games in college. Like eventually we have to get to the point where he's played enough football for us to

reasonably able to say what he is or what he isn't. But then the other side of the coin, Brett, is that this is a team that's in it, man. They're, they're four and four. Yeah. And that's a pretty good record in the AFC. There's only eight teams that are four and four or better in the AFC. someone's got to be the six and seven seats. And so how do you balance out Richardson and the need for reps against what gives you the best chance to win football games right now?

And to me, when you invested a top five pick into Anthony Richardson, knowing the high-end physical traits, but also knowing the need for time on task and reps, you got to go back to whatever your plan was, which I would think is that there's got to be some level of letting him play through stuff. But at the same time, you're in it. I don't envy that choice for Shane Steichen. I really don't. It's difficult. But I think what it comes down to when you, again, you add it all up to.

together, whether it's Richardson in his own process, the passing game around him, there's inefficiency, and I don't know that that gets better without him playing. Yeah, I agree with that, Joe. I agree with you. He needs reps. And this is the second year of this tenure, right, for Stuyken and the crew. You got to assume the pressure's not really there yet to win, especially when you took a developmental pick at number four overall. Like, there has to be some grace. with the, you know, ruling regime there to let Stuyken work. Let me ask you this.

What do you make of the fact that they are not really dialing up QB runs with him? You think they're trying to save him from himself? Yes, 100%. That was the thing is like last year, whenever the flashes were so good, he's kept on getting injured. And it was it felt like a lot of times it was because of how he managed opportunities to get tackled or not get tackled. And I get it, man.

he's a 6-4, 250-pound quarterback that runs in the low four-forces. Man, he wants to go, right? I get it, but that became such a detriment to him. But it's challenging because those are good plays. Those are productive plays for the offense. They're part of the equation. I mean, obviously, I lived in Carolina for the whole Cam Newton saga. And I remember, like the conversations never stopped.

I lived through the Josh Allen stuff. Here's the reality, man. Quarterbacks mostly get injured from the pocket, right? when they're unprotected in the pocket and they have to take on throws or take on hits, usually whenever they're running, they can protect themselves. But the problem is if you don't protect yourself, then all of a sudden, now this is putting us at risk despite them being good play. So I think to maximize the full breadth of what Anthony Richardson offers, that needs to be a big

part of the plan. But through that, he has to do a better job of reducing the wear and tear on him because we saw the consequences of that last year. Yeah. The two plays he got hurt on last year were him diving into the end zone. Head first. Taking a shot. I think he got concussed on one, obviously hurt

the shoulder on another. This year the play he got hurt on was in the pocket though, so you're right about that. That happened still as a quarterback. It's just kind of crazy because I don't, I get wanting to save him from himself, but at the same time, if you remove the physical component to Anthony

Richardson's game, is he worth the fourth overall all pick, considering his deficiencies. No, I think that's a great point, yeah. It has to be part of the package somehow. And I'm not saying you dial up freaking 15 of these boys, but they had three designed QB runs this week, guys. That's not enough. He's, especially what he's averaging like seven yards of carry on the season.

Like, it's got, they got to work that in more. And I think that would honestly really help him. Give the defense another element to respect, you know, give him. a way to expose. Like you've, you've seen him develop in certain areas. He can also develop in protecting himself. And I think he's actually learned a little bit. He had, he slid in this game once. I know a couple games ago before, right before his injury, I think the play before he got hurt, actually, he had he had ran and slid down. So I think he's learning. And you got to try, you got to at some point trust him to do the right thing or else you're just never going to know

what he can bring you. You know, you're going to be stuck in this world of where, where you feel like you've got to protect him. And the armed talent right now, the accuracy just isn't consistent enough to only rely on him as a pocket passer. So you got to bring that extra element to get the value out of him. I think he should play.

I don't think, and I think both things can true. I think that this is a better team with Joe Flackaway quarterback, but the best thing for the Colts long term is to give this quarterback reps, give yourself a true chance to evaluate, give yourself a true chance to assess what you need to build around him.

and stay committed to your top five pick and see where it goes. And I think that there should be some level of stability for Shane Steichen, who I thought, you know, like they were, I thought they played better than the talent that they had last year in terms of record wise. And they're kind of there again this year. I think this is a roster with a lot of holes, man. And they're right in it.

But I think they got to, I think he's got to play. I don't think they're going to get any clarity if he doesn't play. And you can't be back in this same position again, later in the season or next year and Anthony Richardson's got less than 300 passing or 300 dropbacks again. You know, it's just he's got to play. Agreed. You want, did you want to ask about the, or talk, I should say about him checking out

of the game for a second? What do you want to say? I mean, it's, I, I, I, I, I, analyzing this is what I want to say. Go ahead. I think he, so typically when a quarterback scrambles like that, in that situation, the offensive team will immediately call a time out to give the quarterback time to get his breath and call play in the huddle i think he took himself out of the game to save his team a time

out i don't think he was actually tired i think that's that was good foresight on his part and i also think if you hear the way he answered the question kind of being funny about it i think that's what he's alluding to he's not is that a thing though our backup quarterbacks aren't like a a receiver that rotates in where they have a helmet on and ready to go like you i hear you but like is that really a thing i've never seen it that was i watched i was watching the game live when that happened and that was my first instinct was like oh he took himself out of the game to save a time out they they had to save timeouts or else they weren't calling back into that game so i i think it was a thing if people disagree that that's fine i'm just i think it's another perspective at least people should

consider before they dog pile on him. Also, what a, what a disgusting run. All right, Brett, let's get into some conversation on who the best team of the NFL is. And I think as part of that, there's a bent of trade where one of the best teams, the NFL has acquired a good pass rusher. The Kansas City Chief sending a 2026 six round pick, I think, is what they wind up giving up for Josh Uche, who obviously gives them speed, gives them bend off the edge as a pass rusher. And. I mean, obviously this makes the chiefs better and they give up a ham sandwich for him. Before we talk about that overall impact, can we just take a moment to think about this journey for Josh Uch after an offseason where he reportedly turned down 10 million per year from other teams to stay in New England where he said he couldn't imagine himself playing anywhere else?

The Patriots had nothing but cap space to give him, right? They have the most calf space in the NFL. They could have taken care of this guy who obviously wants to be there that as things are crumbling, as they can't get players to go to New England, this guy's begging to be there. He takes like a minimum type deal only for eight games into the season to be sent to Kansas City. Now, you'd feel like this is a good thing for him. He's probably very excited. He goes from a two and six team to a seven and O team.

Patrick Mahomes got a real chance to go win the whole damn thing this year. But it feels like from him as a person, it feels like it feels. feels it feels a little bit weird at least yeah how much is is agent speak playing into this like sometimes when a guy signs for less than what the agent thought the market was they immediately do the damage control leak i'm going to leak to adam schafter that he had an offer for 10 million dollars but he turned it down to be like so is it true to stay for 1.2 million or whatever he the gap is huge and when you consider the fact that new england had the most cap space it just probably doesn't seem true to me, Joe, that they couldn't get him somewhere.

I got to clown the Patriots when I can, Brett Whitefield. I got to get it in. Well, I think you should clown them for sure because Josh Uche. I call him Uche. Is it Uch? Brother, I don't know. I think I've went three different pronations already on this podcast.

So I don't know. Fair. Well, I think Josh Uche is a good player, man. I think like, you know, we don't have pass rush wind data readily available on the site. but I think his career pass rush win rate is like in the 18% range, which is like that's like top 10 in the league since he's been in the league. It's ridiculous. And I get he's a specialist.

He's not a guy. You're going to play a ton on base downs. Maybe the chiefs will because they do play a little bit of odd front stuff where they like a little slim linebacker action. Maybe they will play him on base downs a little more than New England was. But yeah, just for a for a pass rush specialist, this is what a deal. What a great deal. But for Uche, man, yeah, I, I, if it's,

true that he took less money to stay with the Patriots. And then they trade him eight weeks later. It's a bummer. But bro, you're getting out of a seller dweller and you're going to play for glory, man. Like I think it's got to be exciting for him. But man, what a pickup for the for the chiefs, man. It kind of makes me sick as a Lions fan who need an edge. And then you see this guy get traded for a ham sandwich.

You're like, oh. Two things here. Pro football reference, their pronunciation of Josh is Ushay. So yeah, none of the above. If this is correct, Ushay is how it's pronounced. Number two, kind of thinking about this impact on the chiefs. I mean, obviously this is a great addition that I think comes at a low cost and gives them a bit of a niche player, but in a big way, right? We're talking about legit pass rush.

And I think one thing that I've really come to grow fond of is the idea of your edge rushing group to be. a variety of skill sets, right? I think we talk about that with running back situations with wide receivers and, you know, hey, you want a mix of skill sets. I think that's helpful when you're trying to develop your rush schemes, right? And I think you want a blend of long arms and heavy hands and compression style guys. I think you want some guys with some burst and some bend to kind of compliment that. I think that's when a team is at its best rushing the passer.

And when you think about the chiefs and their best rushers, Mike Dana, Chris Jones, George Carl Loftus. Those are kind of their best guys where they were, to me, missing this. And I think certainly Felix Anadukee Uzoma, their first round pick from 23, was supposed to be their burst of Ben guy. It just really hasn't come together to this point. He's been pretty quiet throughout a season and a half of his career. And so getting some proven skill in that type of style, I think obviously only

strengthens Kansas City and their ability to rush. and two big trades here for the Chiefs in the last week to get Hopkins to help on offense, to get Ushay to help on defense. I mean, giving up pretty much nothing along the way. I don't think there's no downside for these moves. It makes a good football team better. Yeah, and the thing that's been consistent with Steve Spagnolo as the Chiefs, D.C. is he loves these, like, big athletic linebacker types.

I mean, Leo Chanel, Willie Gay, Nick Bolton, Drew Tranquil. there now. So like his I know we give a lot of credit to like the Brian Floreses of the world and and who's calling plays in Green Bay right now. Jeff Halfley. Jeff Halfley. I get this wrong every week. Yeah, I know. You got top put some respect on Jeff Halfley, man. Yeah, yeah, for sure. But like they they get credited as the Blitz guys. Todd Bowles is another one. But Steve McNollo is another blitz wizard. And given him a weapon like Uche, or sorry, Ushay, where you can line him up all over the front. He could be your speed rush or you can, you know, mug the A gap a little bit and get after it that way. Like that's kind of an exciting piece for that, man.

Like him and Leo Chanel coming from alignments you're not sure of is going to be kind of scary, actually. That's, yeah, the sim pressures are going to be annoying. Yep. They're going to be annoying to deal with. Speaking of annoying teams to deal with, talk about the best teams in the NFL. And this should be fun. I think you're kind of getting into these up rationale teams,

especially after the Lions with a blowout win over Tennessee, Kaylee Freeman, obviously the star there, big special teams day for the Lions. The Bills, I don't know if you saw this, they blew out Seattle, in Seattle, three touchdown win. Obviously, the Chiefs are 7 and 0. Baltimore takes an L to Cleveland. So I think we'll lead with this.

Are the Detroit Lions the number one team in the NFL? Is this the best team in the league? No, they're the best team in the NFC, though. Wow. Okay, I think that's pretty easy, that's an easy place for me to agree with you on. I still have to go with the Chiefs. Because they're 7 and 0. They're not playing the best, but they're 7 and 0.

No, but you know what, though? Look at the way the lines just beat the Tennessee Titans. You know, they had 225 yards of total offense. Now, it wasn't the offense's fault, obviously, it was special teams and defense. getting you the ball inside the 20 on freaking five possessions or whatever it was. But the defense didn't start that game great. You know, Mason Rudolph, you know, Calvin Ridley had 120 receiving yards in the first quarter.

I think that's a season total that he had going into the game. Right, exactly. So like, but when you're a, when you're a great team, you play complimentary football. You play all three phases. Eventually, you know, you win in two of the three phases every week. You have a pretty good chance to win. And I think what we've seen from the Chiefs now this year, last year, they're just a good football team, man.

They play complimentary football. That defense is awesome. Special teams will get it done for them. And then Mahomes obviously has the ability to just decide at any given moment. That offense is going to be good. And they are. And so that's what you get. You get a good football team.

And I just think top to bottom, they're just a little bit better than the lines right now. And it's not just because they're 7 and 0. The track record speaks for itself, obviously. And then you add a guy like, ooh, Ushay, I think it really helps. DeAndre Hopkins is a big get for them. I know he didn't really do much in this game, his first game in the offense.

That doesn't surprise me a ton. But Hopkins as a sloc guy there, I think is very viable. Xavier Worthy gives defense's nightmares. The run game, Chiefs run games is the best run game in the NFL. I think a lot of people put the lines at number one, or the Ravens. By success rate, the Chiefs are number one,

and it's not even close, actually. I think there's 62% success rate on rush attempts this year. which is that's mind bending stuff right there that the chiefs have the best run game in the NFL like that's that's so weird to me but i yeah i just think i think they're probably the number one team uh lines are close though they're knocking on the door if they can go get an edge before the trade deadline i think they're right back in the conversation for best team of the NFL let's frame this through the lens of if you are a fan of the just whatever team it doesn't it doesn't matter like a non NFC West and on AFC,

NFC North team. You're a fan of, see, I know this is difficult because it becomes more matchup specific, but if you're just a fan of some middling team, are you more afraid right now of playing Detroit or are you more afraid of playing Kansas City? Nobody wants to play Detroit, man. Nobody wants to play Detroit, dude. Yeah, yeah.

They're going to strain and challenge you in unique ways. They got two different running backs that they can throw out you a great offensive line. a team that plays together, X factors on special teams, a vertical threatened Jameson, Williams, LaPorta, St. Brown. I know it's the Chiefs, man, Kelsey Moe Holmes, great interior offensive line. They're an efficient operation, right?

They play winning football. I'd rather play the Chiefs and the Lions, man. And as a Bills fan, those teams are both on the schedule. They're both on the schedule coming up. Way more concerned about the Lions game than the Chiefs game. Maybe that's because the Bills have beat the Chiefs the last three years. in the regular season. It's the post season where it kind of gets away from them. And that game's certainly more meaningful, right, for playoff seating and stuff like that.

But I'm like, man, I don't want to deal with the Lions. Yeah. When you frame it like that, man, the other thing about the Lions, too, is like, it's, this sounds tacky, but the trick plays, dude, they, they can make the only team that runs trick plays well, by the way. Like consistently, there's at least one a game. Like Ben schemes up at least one, upshot off a trick play a game. It's crazy. I'm watching Baker Mayfield. They set up a flea flicker for him to throw a interception into double coverage. It's like, what are we doing with the trick plays?

But no, the lions, the lions do it. Ruin my whole talking point. Yeah, that's, uh, you know what's kind of funny is you're seeing the, the lion's effect on the league. Dude, there were five fake punts this week. Not lions either. Five non-lions fake punts this week. You can't tell me that Campbell's success on fake punts hasn't influenced that a lot of

of it. I mean, for one play, I know for sure they literally stole it out of the lines playbook. It was the speed option fake punt deal or whatever. It worked, by the way, went for a first down. Now, most of them ended terribly for the team that tried them. But it's still crazy, though. You're just seeing, you're seeing all these trick plays and fake puns. You got to assume the lines are having an effect on the league that way. But Ben Johnson has said that they have over a hundred trick plays in the hopper. And they practiced these on a regular. Isn't that crazy? Isn't that crazy to have that type of inventory available to you?

He goes back to the 70s watching college and pro football to find these things. Yeah. That's nuts. Yeah. See? Scary team. I have a Detroit one, Kansas City, too. For the reason that I gave you in terms of as a fan that has to play these teams,

I don't want to play Detroit. So the way you framed it, I probably agree. I think maybe the Kansas City resume is what is super scary. to me. It matters. It matters for sure. Who's three? I got to go with, I don't want this to be the Homer show, Joe, but I feel like I got to go with the Buffalo Bills here. For one, I'll just say this. Go watch that defense play a Seattle rush offense. That's very good. That was my biggest concern about your Buffalo Bills was their ability to stop the run. And you've even admitted, they don't necessarily even care. They're going to play five, six DBs and they'll just

you know, let the chips fall where they may. It did on 43% of the snaps against Seattle. Brother, they were fitting, fitting gaps, though. They were stout. Kenneth Walker had nowhere to go. I think at halftime, he had six carries for seven yards. Yeah.

What in the world happened? So if that's going to be a consistent thing where they can actually fix that and live in some balance of, you know, forcing inconvenient third downs, that defense is going to play a lot better in aggregate across the season, across the playoffs. and that that gives me hope that they're but josh anil's just playing so good right now and the past weapons are coming kiann coleman's everything you guys hoped he'd be and more probably the dude

is awesome i don't care what anyone says about his you know rawness as a player dude he is awesome he's he's going to be great i i love watching him abari cooper a great addition not really producing it but you got a you got a true man-beater now that's opening things up for secure that's going to give kean coleman those one-on-one opportunities down the field and in the end zone i love i love what I see across the board from the bills. Sorry. I'm happy to listen. No, are you kidding me? I was, I was ready to get a cup of coffee and listen. I was happy for everything you're saying. The two-headed monster with Ray Davis and James Cook. Cook has these games where he just looks awesome. But Ray Davis, man, every time I watch

him, I'm like, they have some insulation and depth there. If they get into a game script where they just need to pound the rock, they can do it, man. They can do it. So I like a lot of things I see from the bills right now. Defense, where they get Von Miller back this week, too. And they get Matt Milano in a few weeks, you know, sometime in December. They played that game without Terrell Bernard at middle linebacker, which was a big deal. And yeah, their front, their front met the moment for sure. Dude, Kian, it's impossible to ignore the growth that he's displayed, but also the chemistry that he's developing with Josh Allen.

I mean, you saw on a third and goal from the four testing Rick Wollin on a fade route. Do my favorite play in that game from Josh, Keon was the no hitch seam shot. I've never seen it. I've never seen Josh no hitch seam shot. Just launch one and just know, hey, you're in the slot. I trust that you're going to go up and get this football ahead of that safety that was coming down. And he did.

He stacked Rick Wollin. He was playing tight press coverage. This is the PI that he forced. Inside jab, arm over, forced the fall start. And all of a sudden, Rick Wollins in recovery mode. He's pulling on his jersey to try to get back on top of him. Yeah. That was called a show study right there, man.

They definitely saw a look on film that they wanted to exploit because the way Seattle kind of rotates their safety is down a lot. Rock and roll post snap. I felt like they had them in that call pretty good there. And then Josh just perfect. Yeah, dude. It's, I didn't, I mean, 21 year old rookie that, I mean, hasn't really even been committed to playing football that long. True. And, you know, look, I thought about all the receivers that Josh has been good with.

and it's Steph Diggs, it's John Brown, it's Cole Beasley. It's like, man, those guys aren't like Keon Coleman. And to see it come together, man, is really cool. And I think like you mentioned, the bills have kind of found their guys. Coloshekear, obviously unbelievable efficiency. Not just a yak guy. He can win down the field. You saw that over route, got behind the defense.

Cooper, Kincaid's good. Knox, got him going a couple shots down the field. Yeah, dude. I think they're three. The hard part is that they, got smoked by Baltimore, which I thought was more game script. The game script got away from Buffalo. I don't, I mean, the bills aren't going to get smoked by Baltimore again like that.

I don't, I wouldn't think. But Baltimore's got some ugly losses, dude. They lost the friggin Browns and they lost the Raiders. That's on the resume. You know what I mean? That's tough. But I think they're four and I think Green Bay's five. If I had to do a top five right now, we'll do full power rankings next week.

I go Lions, Chiefs, Bills, Ravens, Packers. Okay. my expectations for the Packers have been tempered a little bit just from what I've seen from Jordan Love the last few weeks. I hear you, I hear you on that. I'm concerned about that as well, but like, I think their defense has been really good. They've been able to lean on the run game a little bit. I think Matt will flur like he, I think he's a good coach, man. So I think they're five. Who are going to, they're five. Am I going to put Houston above them? I'm going to put Washington above them? Definitely. Philly, like those are the next teams.

So yeah, maybe you're like a little bit nervous, but are you, you would have to ask yourself, are you putting Houston, Washington, Pittsburgh, or Philly ahead of them? Because those are the only other teams in the conversation to me to be the number five team. Well, let's do this, Joe. Let's do a divisional vibe check right now.

And we won't get into power rings necessarily, but let's look at each division real quick. You want to do that? Right after this. All right, Brett Whitefield. divisional vibe checks. That's what we're going to hit them all. We're going to hit them all here. We're not going to spend a million hours on each one,

but we're going to get to each one of them. And just like talk about it, man. It's halfway through the season. Some of these divisions are close. Some of them feels like we've already got a winner. I want to start in the NFC West. I think this is the most fascinating race out there where the four in four Arizona Cardinals

lead the division. They're two and oh in the division. As you see Seattle, I don't know what that team's week to week crazy to me. LA with the big win against the Vikings and they're getting healthier. And then San Francisco bounces back beating Dallas on Sunday night football. This thing's going to go down the wire in my opinion. Yeah, this is exciting. Rams are absolutely back in the fold, by the way.

100% dude. Consistency we've seen from the other three teams. And by the way, I have to note, Kyler Murray and the Arizona Cardinals will do the opposite of whatever I say. they're doing in the moment. So week two, I come on here. I wax poetically. Kyla Murray's figured some stuff out, Joe. He looks awesome. He's great. You know, I feel like I had like Donald Trump's Kate. It's just there for a second. But you're a little bit. So, you know, Kyler looked awesome. And then all of a sudden, the next four weeks, he plays bad. And then I come on here and say, yeah, Cardinals are dead. Kyler stinks. He's not playing well.

And then Cardinals play what, they win two in a row. They look great in both those two games. Kyler's got it back. Marvin Harrison Jr.'s feeling it. So I don't know. Whatever I say the Cardinals are doing, they're going to go and do the opposite immediately after. So I'm not going to have any commentary, but this division is so tight. I don't know why, but I have this budding feeling that the Rams are just about to come out of nowhere and steal this from them.

49ers left the door open with the way they're playing. you know we didn't expect the cardals and sea hawks i guess be this competitive with the 49ers but they are they left the door open i think the rams are coming boy they're coming they're healthy if you had to eliminate one team from this race and say you know what if i had to bet on one of them not being the team that that wins it who is that and why is it Seattle yeah i think you're seeing a first time head coach there right now is what you're seeing boy they you you can tell man operationally goofy. And I almost feel like it's more with Ryan Grubb and that offense, dude. You know, like more than Mike McDonald. It's it's definitely more Ryan Grub who I mean,

this is kind of an unprecedented hire in the history of the NFL for him to literally never, never coach in the league, never. And they hand them this offense. And you could tell. You could tell like they don't run the ball. They're at all. And they can. They should. They have two good backs. they've invested in the offensive line. And in a game where they're without D.K. Metcalf against the bill's defense, running the that's been kind of suspect, man, I don't know. They just had the wrong stuff. They had the wrong stuff. He's so easily swayed. Like, they are a good running football team. And you're coming into a game against a team that you and I have both identified as not really

concerned with defending the run. And they get discouraged by a couple bad rush plays to start the game. Yeah, there's muddy runs. There's, muddy runs in the NFL. It's not always just gashing, you know, Fresno State. It's not. Especially Ken Walker, right? Because he is a guy who's going to seek to hit the home run. Almost the worst back you possibly have. Because you got to live, with Ken Walker, you got to live with some dirty runs. You got to live with 30 runs. You got to have a really good, a deep second down playbook for sure. You can get you back on schedule. But yeah, you're you'll live with it, though, because the guy is also going to rip off like a 9% explosive run. rate. And he's going to get to a 50. He was 9.2 going into the game.

What was exactly? So there you go. Breakaway run right. I was I was very afraid of Ken Walker this week. Yep. Very high ranking and mistackles force per run. Very high ranking in yards after contact per run. It's like, boy, if they just give him the ball. Like I was thinking to myself, I might want D.K to play because I don't want them to be committed to the run game. Well, Ryan Grubb, buddy, I don't know. I don't know what that guy. All right. So the NFC West is compelling. Tight. tight, tight race. Let's go to the NFC South because this was a big win for the Atlanta Falcons. Now have, they're 2 and 0 against Tampa, 2 and 0 against Tampa. So Tampa's going to have to have an outright better record to win this division. Good luck. Good luck with that defense, right? I think that's, I mean, they're won back, but it feels like it's more than that because Tampa, credit to their offense, right? They're moving the ball. But defensively, I don't, I don't think Tampa. got it. No, they're technically more than one back because of the, the tiebreaker. Atlanta has a tiebreaker from now until the end of the season. And so they're basically two back. Yeah. So they're basically two back. Yeah. So they got a, dude, I don't. The Falcons just absolutely

shredded the Bucks in both their games they played this year. I mean, it's, it's rough, man. it's with the bucks losing evans and godwin for the season evans for you know what probably the next three three more games here this is i don't know this isn't a great outlook for them man i think the falcons take hold of this division or run away also just just want to point out joe the saints i i proclaimed they would start the season oh and six i just had the wrong six games they've lost a row you know they did beat the panthers you got to factor that in uh but i was pretty right on them to start the year. Right. We had to normalize a little bit.

Talk about early season being a liar. The New Orleans Saints smoking the Panthers and Cowboys, nobody cares. All those articles about Kubiak and how he's, he's, he was primed to be a head coach. There's no doubt. He was. He was all those. There was, dude, after week two, there was at least six articles for major, major publishers claiming that this guy was the secret sauce. to the Saints. And he might be, but obviously not this year.

NFC North, everyone's got a winning record, even the Bears after losing on a Hail Mary. Lions leading division at 6 and 1, Packer 6 and 2, Vikings 5 and 2, losers of two in a row. They won their first five, but then they dropped consecutive games to the Lions and the Rams. They're now in third. This feels like it's Detroit's division, but obviously there's a lot of head-to-head matchups. There's only been two divisional games so far for the NFC norm. Yep. And we'll get a bit better picture after this week.

The Lions play the Packers. You know, if the Lions go up on both the Vikings and the Packers head to head, it's tough. It's going to be hard to get that back from them unless they have some type of late season collapse. That said, there's a lot to like about the Green Bay team. I think even going back to what week, last time we did power rankings at the quarter mark, you know, the Vikings were undefeated at the time and I still had put the Packers ahead of them in the power rankings just because top to bottom, I just like a lot more about this team. The thing that concerns me and why I'm not super concerned as a Lions guy is Jordan Love's play of late has just been rough.

Not seeing it. A lot of turnovers, the untimely turnover. He looks more like first eight games of the season, Jordan Love from last year than he does final eight games of the season, Jordan Love. So can he get it back for sure? We've seen the peaks for Jordan Lovin. They're awesome. He could get high at any moment and take control of this division. It's just, you know, I don't love what I'm seeing right now. And I kind of have to base my take on that. Well, Green Bay can play great all they want, but that's only half the equation.

They need the lions to have some hiccups along the way. And obviously, they win this week. If Green Bay wins this week, you know, this feels different. But right now, I think with the way Detroit's playing, with some of the issues that loves having, I don't know about his health for this week. You know, you feel like Detroit's probably in the driver's seat. Let's keep it in the NFC East, or excuse me,

the NFC and finish with the East. Commanders have taken command of the division at 6 and 2. With the Eagles, I think it's kind of coming together a little bit here with the Eagles. Defensively, this team's playing pretty strong. And then I think obviously with AJ Brownback, offensively, that team's different when he's on the field or overcoming some offensive line injuries. again that game against since he was obviously since he got off to a decent start here but what

I've learned about these west coast teams is that their opening scripts are pretty good but once they have to kind of get outside of that it gets a little dicey and Philadelphia took control of that football game I was I'm coming back around on Philly but I think this is a two team race Dallas is soft and the Giants don't have enough good players and Daniel Jones stinks no you're you're spot on man eagles Eagles are for real they're back you know obviously Jaylan hurts getting A.J. Brown and DeVante Smith back helps. Those are two great players, you know, that's, that makes any offense feel better. But hurt, I think everything, like anytime traumatic things happen or anytime you have to go through adversity, it's, it's always an opportunity to get better.

And hurts having to play without those two guys for several weeks. I think it actually fixed him, Joe, because it wasn't. It sounds crazy. I think it actually helped them in the long run, because we were at this point with Hertz where he wasn't reading the field, wasn't seeing progressions. It was like, hey, where's AJ? I'm chucking it. Or hey, where's Devante? I'm chucking it.

And then he actually, for three weeks there, he had to learn how to work the progressions, play the offense the way it's designed, figure out how to keep the sticks moving. And I think it kind of fixed him a little bit because he looks good right now. This is the best he's looked since early last season, like really early last season. So plus the run game is robust.

The run defense, too, Joe, has come around. That was a big issue the first few weeks of the season. They were getting absolutely gashed. I think the last three or four weeks, their yards per carry allowed is like 3.9, which is really, really nice. They're also, you know, you can see it on tape when you watch. They're stuffing a lot of runs. Just, you know, they're getting a lot of zeros and minus ones and minus twos,

which, you know, again, you want to help your pass rush get right. Get your team, you're playing in obvious passing situations on third and 10. Yeah, and maybe we overlooked. too much that this team had a new offensive coordinator and a new defensive coordinator, right? You have to adjust to those schemes. And so coming out, it's no surprise to me that they're two and two going into the buy.

Coming out of the buy, they win three in a row and feel like they're hitting their stride a bit as a football team. They're next two. They host Jacksonville this week and then they go to the Dallas Cowboys. You feel pretty good about seven and two. Then a defining stretch for them. Washington at the Rams, at the Ravens. I think that's going to be really where we find out about this Philly

team. They got two more games to be hitting their stride, but obviously Washington in control of this division. And I think what's going to be fascinating there is like how it stabilizes throughout the course of the year with, I mean, let's face it, a lot of, a lot of new on that team, coaching, rookie quarterback. I think that that's sustaining it right. When you're, you're not sneaking up in anybody right now. You're a six and two division leader with a good looking young rookie quarterback and the defense is playing better. Like, there's nothing to take for granted playing against Washington. And so I think it's it's hard to stay there, you know, it's hard to stay there without a proof of concept. So I'm, I'm interested to see how things play out, but obviously they're in the

driver's seat right now in the NFC East. All right. Let's go to the AFC side of things. We'll start in the AFC East where the six and two bills have the same amount of wins as the rest of the division combined. Yeah, we don't have to spend a ton of time here, especially because we've already done the deep dive on the bills. But yeah, there's the dolphins are dead. The Patriots are dead and the Jets are dead. So congrats on another AFC East title, Joe. Yeah, they don't usually hand those out in October. And we'll play the rest of the games and see what happens. I thought Miami, Miami losing at home to Arizona, a short week for Arizona, across the country trip,

for that game to get away from them, it was just like, is it is, it's, it's Mike McDaniel, man. I'm telling you like this, the operational game day, it's too much. It's too much to overcome. And I just, I don't think he's got the stuff. So they play the bills this week. And if it's not already over, if the bills beat Miami in Buffalo, boy, that's, that's not going to be good. AFC North, the Steelers get a win on Monday night football against the Giants to improve to six and two while the Ravens lose to the Browns. and the Bengals miss out on their opportunity to get to 500 with their home loss to the Eagles.

It's hard to take the Bengals or Brown seriously here. But can the Steelers stay on top of this thing? Can they hold off the Ravens? I think they can. Doesn't mean I think they will, but they for sure can. By the way, Russell Wilson is bawling. I know. He looked great last night.

I mean, he looks really good in the second half of his first start. And then, boy, oh boy. pretty obvious why they made the coaching, or the QB switch there. So it looks really good. Unlocking a big part of that offense. Calvin Austin getting involved is huge. I was a huge.

Kelton Austin guy the year he came out. Actually, he scored better than me in my system than Tink Dell as a prospect. I compare the two because they're very similar players. I agree. But we charted that senior ball year all of the, you know, the one-on-one, seven-on-seven reps.

I'm specifically Calvin Austin. year. I was just looking at the data the other day. Calvin Austin had a 100% win rate. Here's a senior rule. He didn't lose a single rep. I know side tangent there, but anyways, Russ is ball and Steelers' offense is kind of come together. The run game is robust, Joe. Nagee Harris looks the best. He's probably looked in two years. Jalen Warren, a really good complimentary skill set with the burst and explosiveness.

I like what I see. Man, obviously, I mean, we're bearing the lead. The defense is insane. Their defense is great, really, really good. probably the best four-man pass rush in the NFL, and then they can aisle up the blitz if they need to. Look at just the average time to throw against them right now. A lot of people have cited that their pressure rate's not actually that good. Yeah, well, when the quarterback's getting rid of the ball in, you know, 2.4 seconds on average, they have the lowest time to throw in the NFL by a mile.

Oh, yeah, that's, I mean, it just shows you the respect the league has for them. The defense is great, though. The Steelers are going to write the. own script here. All of their division games are coming in the last eight weeks of the season. All six. All of them. Yeah. Holy cow. And their non-division games are at Washington, at Philly. And then hosting the chiefs. Could you, I mean, come on. So we'll know. By the time, playoffs, we will know for sure.

All your division games, and then those are your three non-division games. So the Steelers, they'll either do it or they don't, there you won't. We'll find out. And then Baltimore's got to be careful what they go they should have beat the browns right we're talking about like drop interceptions and like but that's i mean that's why you play the games right it's why you play the games and it's for seating purposes i mean it's it certainly matters a lot but you know the ravens will have their their opportunities again they get the browns again they'll have a chance to play the steelers twice um so it'll write itself out i think it's a two-team race though i think the bengals losing that game to philly made me say yeah i don't know i don't think you guys are going to figure it out

In the AFC South, Houston on top at six and two, the four and four Colts, followed by the two and six Jags and the one and six Titans. You could stick a knife in the Jaguars and Titans. Obviously, the Colts needed, if they're going to win this division, I mean, the same thing that we talked about with Tampa. This is now two losses already to Houston. That's going to make it pretty freaking tough to win this division, even if Houston's a pretty flawed team.

Especially when they should have arguably won both games against the Texas. I mean, combined, what, five points in two games, but they were white there. You know, actually, in the first game, it was Richardson overthrowing a wide open Adonide Mitchell. In this game, it was a dropped touchdown pass from, I think it was Michael Pittman. Actually, there's three dropped touchdowns in this game, actually. So, yeah, you're right, though. They shouldn't have lost both. They did.

Put them in a hole. Yeah, I'd be stunned if Houston didn't win this. Just like I'd be stunned if the chiefs. Chiefs didn't win the AMC West. They're 7 and 0. The Broncos are 5 and 3, man. So I think that's kind of a fun story. Bo Nix certainly played better in the first half after some of narratives that he

can't play in the first half in their win over Carolina. Chargers are 4 and 3. I mean, you have three teams here with a winning record and then the Raiders are 2 and 6. I think they're cooked. I think what's most interesting is between the Broncos and Chargers, if either can actually be one of the wildcard teams. Because right now they are. Right now this NFC,

AFC, West is three teams in the playoffs if it ended today. I think the Broncos can. Their defense is kind of nasty. Bo Nix is playing really good ball. We got to start talking about Bo Nix as a Konami Code kind of guy. Do you know what the Konami Code is? No clue. I'm excited to learn about this.

It's like a cheat code and fantasy where you get mobile quarterbacks that rack up fantasy points because they wrote it. Oh, as a dynasty owner of Bo Nix, I have very much enjoyed this. Yes. Yeah, I mean, he's had good rushing production in most games this year. I mean, I know he only only had like five yards rushing this past week, but he had a touchdown. The week before, he had 10 carries for 75 yards. This wasn't really on his scouting report.

We knew he had some athleticism and some mobility, especially going back to his time at Auburn. But I don't think people expected him to be one of the focal points of their run game. These are designed QB runs, you know, that they're scheming up for them. So like this is, that's an interesting element, interesting wrinkle that Bo Nix is bringing that Broncos offense. It's kind of keeping defense is

off balance right now. Love it. Five and three, they're next to at Baltimore at Kansas City before hosting the Falcons. So it could be a five and six football team here before we can blink. Then they go to the Raiders, the Browns, by week, Colts, Chargers, Bengals, Chiefs.

So I think they'll flirt with 500, I think, all season long. It's just going to be a matter of what's it going to take? What's the six and seven seeds in the AFC? It's just a different conversation than we expected to have this year. Or we have, we only have eight teams that are 500 or better in the AFC. In the NFC, we have 11. Yeah.

In fact, in fact, we only have eight teams that are within a game of 500. The Bengals are three and five. You have 13 teams in the NFC that are within a game of 500. That's crazy. Eight in the AFC. What is the NFC's record against the AFC this year? It's got to be insane. I'd probably have to ask Siri about that.

I don't have that readily available. Well, yeah, I can have someone pull that data for me later. Man, that's, so the Broncos, they got to get one of their next three to be competitive. They got to get one. They got to get one, I think. But I mean, right now your five seat is the Broncos, your six is the Ravens, your seven is the Chargers. All you have to do is hold off the Colts, Bengals, and Browns, and dolphins. You know what I mean?

You'd expect the Ravens a stick for sure if they don't win their division. Yeah, Ravens or Steelers, one of them will stick. One of them will stick and probably even become the four seed, would be my guess. Right. Or the five seed you meet. Yeah, yeah, sorry, five seed. Yeah. And then Broncos, they're right there, man.

They're right there. They just, they got to get one of the next three and then things get easier for them. But that's, dude, that's what to me, if you are, if you're the Colts or the Bengals, you're not out of it. And even the dolphins at two and five. I, too many issues, but like, you can't sit here and say that the season's over. It feels over, but like, that's all you got to do is climb that far. It's not, you know what I mean?

Like, we don't, that's why we play all 17 games. The Cincinnati Bengals season at 3 and 5 is over, and they should trade Trey Hendricks into the Detroit Lions. Yeah, we didn't get there. Who the lines? Dan Campbell was certainly, you know, acting like a kid that has a secret to tell everybody, but he can't say it.

So who are the Lions trading for today? What's going on? I don't know. I think a lot of people read that because I watched that press conference live. A lot of people are reading into that differently than I did, which doesn't make me right and them wrong. I just, I felt like he was more trolling the beat because they've asked every day since Hutch has been hurt.

So I think he did the jumping up and down thing like, like, you know, I'm a puppet for you guys. They expect him to break news right there. It's like, oh, man, I forgot to tell you. It didn't get out there. But yeah, we traded for player X, you know. Yeah, here's the thing, Dan is a guy who just doesn't lie to the media. Like, I don't, do you follow the coach speak index account on Twitter?

No, I got to say. They keep track of everything a coach says. and then they have a rating system for how likely it is that he's telling the truth. What is this account? It's called Coach Speak Index. Oh, man, I got to get on this right away. They actually have a premium Discord account that is worth the money, I'm telling you. So they can, they do a really good job deciphering when coaches are lying and not based on their past.

And Dan Campbell anyways, I say all that to say. He's by far the most forthright coach in the NFL with what. he says so when he says Brad's been working the phones you know there's might be something coming i think there there's truth to that so i would expect them to make a move i think the obvious candidates i had it down to four guys going into yesterday sidarius smith being one carl granderson being one josh which obviously is no longer going to happen being one and then arden key tennessee titans speed rush oh arden keith looking kind of nice bro he looks real nice he does look good that's a good pull they should i mean that would be i think that's a low key it ain't hutch but that's

they just got to scout him this week they played against him yeah he he got a sack in the game i'm pretty sure he had two okay i think there you go took taylor decker on the first play of the game cooked him and that's not an easy tackle to cook you know he made him look silly hit him with a ghost move right out the gate golf blasted so the the lions titans connection people don't talk about it enough, but whether it's, uh, is it Kaylee Freeman, didn't he come from Tennessee? Yeah, DJ shark action. Uh, how long has been in Tennessee? Who? This is here. Arden Key. No, he's been there for two years now. Yeah, he's, he's, he's kind of got his career going, man. So you know who the lines defensive line coach is,

though, right? Terrell Williams. Ah, let's go. Who was the Titans defensive line coach for the last five years. And by the way, was not even fired. He chose to leave the Titans. for the same position with the Lions. So there's a connection there. And a lot of times, especially with a team like the Lions who, and we're spending a lot of time on us, with a team like the Lions who are so concerned about the locker room

and so concerned about culture, it would be pretty rare for them to make a mid-season acquisition for a player they didn't already know very well. So that's why Carl Granderson's also on that list. It's like, you know, they, Dan and Aaron were there when he got drafted in New Orleans. And he's obviously developed into a pretty nice player, not really a great pass rusher.

He's good, but he's serviceable as a passenger. It would be more of a run stuffer. Arden Key, though, gives you that speed rush element that would pair well with Josh Pascal, who's more of a power rush guy. And they've been looking for that speed rush opposite hutch for a while. Anyways, shouldn't be long. Shouldn't be long, Brett Whitefield. My expectation is end of today.

So if it rolls around like tomorrow morning and they haven't made a move, I'm going to be a little salty, just saying. Just saying. It's coming. It's coming. Zedaria Smith is the top of my wish list, though. He does everything they want. Hopefully that win to get them to two and six doesn't inspire them to think they can go on a run here with James Winston. I know, right?

Right. Winston's hilarious, by the way. That guy is so funny. No helmet decal. No helmet decal. Did you see the, I don't know. Just his pregame speeches just cracked me out, man. He's just, he's so good.

He's so good. Anyways. Good, cringe, tomatoes, tomatoes. You know, Russell Wilson is cringe. James is funny. You can be cringe in multiple ways. That's true. That's true.

That's true. All right, let's get out of here, dude. We'll be back on Thursday. It's going to be another great episode. Remember, folks, no matter what develops, we will always be your first read. Thank you for listening. We are out.