First Things First - 49ers vs. Rams, Deion Sanders defends Shedeur’s pantomime, John Harbaugh on hot seat, BUD List

Episode Date: October 2, 2025

(0:00) A.J. Brown frustrated with Eagles offense, Deion Sanders defends Shedeur (25:48) 49ers season on the brink without Brock Purdy, John Harbaugh on the hot seat? (40:35) Fair to compare Josh Allen and Drake Maye? (46:10) BUD List (01:07:18) Chiefs vs. Jaguars, Expect a complete game from Jalen Hurts?  (01:19:58)  49ers vs. Rams, Expect an MVP performance from Matthew Stafford? (01:27:38) ‘No excuses’ for Justin Herbert, Parkins’ Picks, Eagles scary? (01:48:27) Frenemies: Mahomes needs another monster game? (02:01:21) 49ers injuries derailing season, Should Jalen Hurts force the ball to A.J. Brown? (02:09:34) Is Shedeur Sanders jeopardizing his career? Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Live from New York, it's a show that's not going to do pantomime stuff. You didn't have to do pantomime, buddy. The question of the day, Brew, was basically... He's been the best team through four weeks. Act ridiculous on command. I didn't say that. He just said, and I said, I don't want to. Convey who the best team through four weeks is without saying any words.

We all had different ways we could have done it. Brew did a fly eagle's fly thing. I pointed at my tattoo. All you had to do was pull up one of your hundreds of Ellen Hurd's tweets and that would have done it. I didn't want to do that. You're just not a team player. You skipped our work outing last night.

I mean, come on. You skipped it? He skipped it. I didn't skip it. Brew was fronling beers. I had a previous engagement. I did too. What?

I'm not going to that stuff. Home with the kids. He's just not a team player. He's just not going. I'm here. Eight hours a day. So one extra hour for, for team building.

We got to do 41 hours. What aren't we getting to? In fairness to Wiles, the last time we did team building at the bowling alley, it did. Oh, yeah, it went bad. He lost a hundred bucks. You guys were at each other's throats. And Greg and I almost got it. Yeah.

He didn't want none, though. He backed down. He backed out. Can the 49ers pull off and upset tonight? Meanwhile, Deon Sanders supports Chador's silent interview. Our response? And finally, the most motivational segment in all sports,

it's the Bud List, alongside Nick Wright, I'm Kevin Wilde, with some news to report from the producers of the show. Talk to Dusty in the coffee area. He said, hey, I went up to talk to Brew. Brewed up there, Frazzled. Did he say Frazzled? I don't know.

Dusty. He said you were under duress putting the Bud List together. And I just didn't need him running into my office. at 2.39 saying, let's do something new with the Budlis. So I acted Frazzled to get him out of it. Apparently, it was. Brew's acting skills have coming a lot. Very handy the last couple of weeks.

First hour, first things. They were trying to mess with the Budlis, Brew? He, like, we, brew, we got a whole new aisle. He did put it on Wild. He's like, Wilde wants you to do something. He's messing with the buttless. I'm like, you couldn't have come in at noon? I asked with thesis bars on the budd list.

What? So you get bruised take. We get more bro. It's nothing sacred. I was like, you couldn't have told me at noon? He had to come in a few minutes before I got to go get dressed. We start with AJ Brown's comeback route. This time via quote, tweeted a Bible verse after his low productive game that read to some people as a criticism of his diminished offensive role.

He addressed that yesterday. Take a listen. I let my frustrations boil over. I didn't speak to the media. I had a chance to correct my frustrations, and I continue to let it boil over. That's on me. I take full accountability on that, posting that.

My message on Twitter wasn't directed at anyone in the building. I don't think it's a bad thing for wanting to ball. It's not just for targets or anything to put numbers up, but no, I see that we're struggling, and I'm a guy that wants the ball in those times when we can't find a way. Give it to me. Like when the game's on the line, give the ball to me.

I want that. I want that pressure. I put it on myself, you know, and I work hard for it. Okay, again, to the Philadelphia Eagles, which I root for. Please, buy a tripod. It's the second time I ask. Please, we'll send you one. Brew, your reaction to A.J. Brown's quote.

Oh. Bravo A.J. Brown. Bravo A.J. Brown. He owned it. I like the fact that he went there and before. the cameras and said, my bad. I was wrong. I was frustrated. I shouldn't have done that.

I was wrong. I've seen a lot of athletes and even people say, I have no regrets. Like they've never done anything wrong. Or I learned from it when I, you still, I got regrets. I've done things wrong. I think all of us have some regrets. Admit you got you did something wrong.

The way you treated Dusty. Maybe. We'll see after show. How dusty's if he took it seriously. But, no, I mean, he owned it, and I like that. Now, he may do it again because he's an emotional guy, you know, sometimes he wears his emotions on his sleeves. But his explanation was legitimate.

Like, we are struggling. They are struggling. He wants the ball. I have no problem with that. And I understand his frustration, even as they're winning. Like, he, I think we all would agree is probably a top five receipts. in the league or certainly right in that discussion. He is 61st in the league in receptions right now.

He is 70th in yards per catch, 66th in yards per game, and he's got one touchdown. And all of those outside of the touchdowns are on pace for career lows, maybe even touchdowns is. And he's 28 years old. He's right in the middle of his prime. And he wants to, when you have star ability, you want to be a star. I've said it before. If I'm Donovan Mitchell or Jalen Brunson,

I don't want to go somewhere in average 13 points as a role player and win a ring. I want to win a ring, but I want to also play up to my individual potential as a star. Now, if you're not a star, it's different. And A.J.'s already got a ring.

I'm not saying it's all right to be selfish. But I do get where he's frustrated and wants to shine, especially when the team, the offense is clicking. I don't find this selfish. I would if their offense was prolific or if they were blowing people out

with a dominant defense ball control style offense, then even if I understand, I might understand it and find it selfish. And say you don't need your same. Right. But not only do I understand this, I don't find it selfish. And I agree with Brew,

what I would have hated, what if he would have been like, man, that tweet didn't have anything do with the team. You know what I mean? just lied, you know, which was, and I think the audience has maybe picked up on this for me. I like A.J. Brown, obviously, he's a great player. I like his earnestness and honesty about who he is. I respect people who even if who you are is not the, you know, platonic ideal for teammate or whatever. You're like, I am who I am. I'm going to tell you right after the Super Bowl that the Super Bowl glow has already worn off.

Like, well, you know, I respect that part of him. And I think he is important for this Eagles team, not just because he's a great player, but Wilds because he's right. What they are doing right now is not sustainable. So these offensive ranks where they are for this year is not sustainable. Not to win, get back to the Super Bowl. Correct. That's what I mean. It's not sustainable if they want to have a chance at repeating.

So just to dig into it for our podcast listeners. Yes, they're seventh in points and then 29th or 30th or 31st in total yards, passing yards, yards per rush, yards per play. They're dead even in the league 16th in yards per game. But oddly, seventh in points because they're so effective in the red zone. But also they act that way, if they're like, hey, a team is seventh in points. Do they, are they on the right track? You would say yes. So it's just the outlier of everything else.

And they would be ninth, I think, without the special team. Right. So the special team. touchdowns helped them. Still top. But the point that you led me right to, I think the point that I was going to make, which is I do not think they will stay seventh and points. You think are an aberration.

If they don't. Correct. If they don't change those other things. I truly believed they could play this way and be 30th in a bunch of categories, but seventh in the only category that really matters, points scored, I'd be fine with it. I think that, I don't think they're going to bat a thousand. on the red zone this year, even if they're the best red zone team.

Like, that's not what they're going to be. And the other thing is those two of the last four halves of offensive football they've played have been the two worst passing halves any team has played in the league all year. And this, so look at the company that they keep on it. So the Eagles had negative 18 passing yards in the second half two weeks, last week. Negative one in the first half two weeks ago. The Bengals with Jake Brown. The Jets with a backup quarterback, I think, in that game.

It was either Tyrod or Fields, but I think that was the backup quarterback game. It doesn't matter. The Titans with a rookie and the Cardinals with Kyler, but in the game, they led the entire second half and they were really trying to run the ball. That can't happen. And here is where I will turn it a bit to you. You don't want you being Kevin Wilde's, the Jalen Hertz fan, Eagles fans who are Jalen Hertz fans.

Jalen Hertz to all of a sudden beyond the Tim Tebow section of the chart, which is like the guys I don't care that there's that throws for no yards. The guy's a winner. He's tough like those. No yards.

But don't you, he, and maybe you just use that as a description. He's beyond T's. Oh, no, no, no. No, no. But I'm saying up to if Jalen Hertz's entire career was this year. You know what I'm saying? This year,

it's like Tebow-ish in they win. I mean, he's a great. Sebo was those first three-quarters. Yeah, but I mean, the yards are about like this. And again,

I don't want to be misconstrued. I'm not comparing the players. What I'm saying is you feel, and Eagles fans feel, I think, that we have a star quarterback. And if you have a star quarterback, this can't happen. Yeah.

Like, and so. It doesn't make sense what they're doing. No. Like it really, and I'm, for Petula to, I wouldn't think it makes sense if he was coming in fresh. But to have been there for what, five, six years, whatever it is. And to know these players, that, it makes no sense the way they're running their offense. So what do you think happens now with Cirtan over there? Well, that's interesting.

I wasn't even thinking about the Certan element of it. It's like, all right, you know, the end of dope. You don't force it to him. You cannot force it to him. Then you got to creatively force it to him. No, you play your game. I think you try to throw the football more and you play your game. That means some passes are going to go to AJ.

You also have Devonte Smith over there and some are going to go to him. I mean, I just don't think you can go out of your way, especially like you said, if Sertan's on him and try to force feed him the ball. I think it has to come within the flow. How much of fixing this is on jailing? I think it's more to play calling. Did you have zero completions? Jalen threw some bad balls.

Others, he was blanketed and he still threw it to him. So I just think they're not getting, like you said, those immediate intermediate passes. We saw him talk to Petul on the sidelines. Two weeks ago, yeah, which felt a little bit like, I don't know, like heat of the moment type stuff, even though it was very a rational conversation. It's probably a better question for coach when we've seen, like you've seen Brady. and Belichick sit down and like talk about a game plan very constructively. Peyton and Breeze have a whole thing where they're like sitting down like nose in the binders.

What is the relationship between Jalen Hertz, Siriani, and Petulow where are we, is Jalen Hertz executing Petulow's system or can put is Petulow building a system that works for No, but that's, I guess that's that's not really my question. Maybe I phrased it wrong. My point is this. Do we think there is a game plan that could exist where if any of our other star quarterbacks in the league were dropped on the Eagles the last two weeks, they had negative passing yard halves? Or would those players be like, no.

Like, I am finding a way to get my playmakers involved and get the ball in their hands. The zero completions, the negative. That's what I'm asking. I get it now. And I think Jalen has enough cachet to, I'm not saying go rogue. But if it is all, the O.C. is just in over his skis. Yeah. I'm switching the play and getting A.J.

The Brown. Yes. I mean, I am doing. But not just to get A.J. No, to get DeVant. That's what I'm saying. Even if it's not A.J. Brown, we can't have zero yards at the half can't be an improvement. And that's where we've been two of the last.

four halves. Like that, and so I believe that Jalen has the ability to do that. Like, so I just find it, I find this very odd, and I don't blame A.J. Brown

for sounding the alarm. No, I'm fine. All right. Coach Prime, son mimes. Dion Sanders responded to the silent interview that Shador gave to reporters yesterday. Shepter says it was in response

to Rex Ryan's criticism of Shador, telling him to be quiet. Dion posting 10 crying laughing emojis and saying, Good one, son, you did that. Brew, your reaction to Prime's reaction. Is that just a parent's love? That's the only thing I can see that because obviously we all respect Prime as a parent

and a father figure to Travis Hunter and some other guys. I also love the way he handles himself. I love that he boldly proclaims his faith in Jesus Christ, all that. But this is a misstep. Like there is no other way to look at this and think this was good what Chedur did. Like in a vacuum maybe we said even yesterday, it could be funny. It was, oh, okay. But the context is important.

And the context here is that Chador Sanders is fighting for his football life. Like whether you think, and I'm a guy that like Chadur. And felt like he should have gone in the first round. But whether you think Chatur is getting, you know, blackballed, or whether you think the Browns just don't like him or whatever you think, the fact is every team in the league passed on him multiple times. And the team he's on, he's third string. And they just had an opportunity to bump him up to second.

And they were like, no, we're not doing that. And you also, here's the interesting thing, Because if I was a reporter covering the Browns, and I'm guessing some of their reporters are, I would be going to players privately. Shadur, how's he looked? Should he be playing? Like, you have not seen any anonymous quotes coming from players like,

man, Shadour looks good. I don't know why he's not playing. That's interesting. Like, when your quarterback has thrown six interceptions in four games, when your defense is legit, and you just simply can't win because you have no offense, there are no anonymous quotes like, man, I don't know what they're doing because Shadour looks good.

I think Shadur should get a shot. We haven't seen any of that. And we know players like Shadur and you still haven't seen it. That's interesting. So I'm just saying as talented as I think he is, he apparently isn't ready. And so what this does is make the other 31 teams and the Browns think Shadour is immature or silly. It was immature. Yeah.

And it was silly. It's not getting, yeah, it's not going to endear him to anybody. And lastly, I'll say this, Nick, you said yesterday, Shadoors kind of misplayed the last nine months, the draft process. So is Dion. Yes. Like when Deion came out before the draft and was like, I'm going to, you know, he's only going to certain teams.

I'm going to make sure he goes to the right situation. I'm going to get involved with it, you know. and like that obviously turns some teams off. And so and then supporting this, this is a misstep by Dion and Chador. Yeah, I want to talk Dion then I want to talk Chador. I echo what Bruce said on the front end. I have so much respect for Deion Sanders.

Okay. I also think he is either giving Chador bad advice or in this instance not, I think. I know encouraging what I think is unproducing. what I think is unproductive behavior. And I understand folks like, Shador's a grown man. Guys, he's 23 years old.

He is a grown man. He's almost old enough to rent a car without having to pay an extra fee. However, and he's allowed to do what he wants. But, Brew, I know your dad passed a couple years ago. I'm 40 years old. I called my dad for advice Friday. You know what I mean?

My son's 27. He calls me all the time for advice. The idea that, once you are old enough to legally drink that you're like, you get no influence from any of your elders in your community, be it actual father or not, is not reality. And we're all always kind of growing and evolving and leaning on people.

So I think this is, I think Dion can't disassociate that his son is not the prospect that he was. Yes. And does not play the position that he did? You know what I mean? Because Dion, as great as he was, if he was a quarterback instead of cornerback, some of his answers.

Some of that stuff would have hurt him, but because he was so great in a different position. Now I want to talk about Shador doing this. Guys, do you realize how absurd it would be if Bo Nix spent part of a press conference getting even with me? Like, that's what happened. Yes.

You know what I mean? Like, that guy on TV has been unfair to me, and I'm going to show him. him. I, I, this is not, don't clip this internet. I'm talking about for Shador. Rex Ryan is irrelevant for what Shador is trying to do. Like, I'm irrelevant for what Bo Nix is trying to do.

It's not a shot at the network or him. It's, it's an absurd use of your time. And what nobody seems to want to acknowledge because we don't, because of the profile and what we thought the guy was going to be in the draft is right now the closest comp Shador has in sports to like how to maybe

best conduct myself given the extra spotlight and my spot on the depth chart is Brony James. Yes. You're a fifth round pick, your third string. You are fighting for your sports life.

Can you imagine if Brony was, and Brani's got his own dad there in theory to really protect him because he's on the team. And so, and I get it. Bronny was one level college player, Shador was another. I understand that.

But it's both guys with super famous dads who are celebrities that right now outpace their spot in their league, who are fringe roster guys. And Brani has done the exact opposite of all of this. You know what I mean? Now you're saying. Johnny is doing everything as it should be done. And that's not, and that isn't, and this is the last point I want to make, that is not, that is not like selling out who you are as a person.

Like, you know what I mean? That is not like changing, you know what I? Like, I am, I, we all have the way we act at work and the way we act in our day-to-day lives. And usually, often, hopefully, they're very similar, but they're not. identical. You can be as true to who you are as you want to be while also recognizing my jobs at the moment demand certain things. And I just think it makes me that the Dion comment really, I was like, man, I think Shador could be in trouble. Really? Yeah, because if he did that and the response from the people he looks up to and trust wasn't buddy, you're hurting. You're

hurting yourself instead it was that was awesome then why would he my my hope is that when dion spoke with him privately he did say look that you can't and he's just trying to publicly that's that's my hope i mean i'm just and publicly because obviously you're going to support your kids if my kids did something publicly that was you know i might say if somebody interviewed me yeah i didn't agree with what they did but throw him under the bus yeah i wouldn't just go off on them right you know what I mean, publicly, I would support them, but be like, yeah, I didn't think it was the best look. But, you know, and then probably I'm talking about it. I'm just hoping that that was the case.

And like you said, it's not selling out to be professional or do what you need to do at work. Unless you have your own football league that you're going to just going to pay you millions of dollars, you need to do what your corporation or your job needs to be done for you to be in that position. Can I play this one clip? Before you do, I just want to set it up. This is from September 21st. It was Mary Kay Cabot. I think it was Mary Kaye.

She posted and then Dove reposted it. It got millions of views. I don't think we ran it on the show. He was asked about running the scout team. Here is, literally, a perfect response. Take a listen. I have six games a week, you know, so I'm happy, rather than just having one game a week, you know, on a weekend. And so the scout team receivers, all of us, we all know, like, everyday game day.

And we definitely approach everything in that fashion and everything, because I truly believe the receivers we have on the scout team is really explosive and really great. They just need the opportunity. So, yeah, I'm very thankful. You know, I have those guys, you know, out there with me whenever I'm out there competing. It's like literally perfect, bro. about the scout team.

No one ever gets asked about the scout team. Literally perfect response. And much like real football being a quarterback, this just felt like a devastating turnover. Yes. This one quote, it's like, oh, I've been perfect the whole game, and this was a back-breaking turnover. So I hope he heads more towards the scout team quote

than the silence. Well, he seems, you said it yesterday, incredibly likable. Like in that quote, I mean, and I think, When you look at what happened with the miming or whatever, it was, I think it was a combination of immaturity, youth, and incredible confidence in yourself.

Like, I think that's what kind of felt him. Because I don't think he meant, yeah, he was trying to go at Rex. That's better than if he had just called out Rex Ryan and maybe cussed him out or something. Like,

Rex Ryan said, that was at least better than that, but it still wasn't good. But I think just youthful exuberance, He doesn't understand how bad that looked, but that's where your father comes in and says, yeah, that wasn't the best thing. And again, I don't think it looked horrible.

No. I think the problem is, and this is what is, it might be an unfairness, but it is a reality. When you have this level of spotlight on you and you don't have the ability to show your talents on the field, all you can do is make mistakes. Because nobody, if we would have done a segment on,

hey, what a great quote from Shador Sanders, everyone just five would be like, why is that news? It's news that he is saying the right things. So the only time when you're not playing that your words are going to make news is if you make a mistake. And so I think he took all of that. I was like, well, what if I have no words?

But doing it in that way was also a mistake. I'm not saying it's easy, and I'm not saying this level of spotlight on a guy that's not playing is even reasonable. But it is reality, and it is your job as an adult to recognize, fair or not. The reality that you're in, I need to have the fewest missteps possible. And if you don't, to have the people closest to you to help you out and guide you on it. And that's the part of this that makes me sad for. Horribal on the hot seat. That's next on First Things First and the Fox Sports Channel on Siri.

X-M. Believe it or not, that will not be my oldest man take of the day. I haven't older by the day. Share the podcast if you get a chance. John, is podcast doing well? Yep. How about our YouTube channel? Yep. That's good.

A special episode of, hey, what's going on coming up Friday? I can't believe. We've tried to add, hey, what's going on to the daily show? It's more of a digital show. Wild said no. It's going to burn out quickly. And now it's the name of his podcast. It's my IP.

See, I told you. What if we tried to do... He made it the name of his podcast. What if we tried to do poker hits? Still, he played the Fox Super 6 NFL challenge. You download the app. You enter for a free shot to win your share of $10,000 in cash prizes. Coach Manjini is here with us.

Coach, welcome. We are talking about tonight's game, 49ers at Rands. Brock's toe still hurts. Might be serious here, Brew. Victor Furr of the athletic writing, Purdy isn't healthy enough to be the team's emergency backup in LA, which underscores that his sprained big toe was worse than it seemed coming out of Sunday's loss to the Jags,

and that the 49ers are leery of it becoming a recurring issue this season. Is this team on the brink? Well, look, I mean, they're still three and one, which is great that they got out to that tough start. A couple of wins over division teams, too. But it looks like he's going to miss a good chunk of the season, I would think. So I do think it's going to be awfully tough for them to make the playoffs. Like, if he's out, their whole receiving court, now they still have some names.

You got MVS, you know. Some guys can win Super Bowls with the three of their five receivers. Yeah, I mean, you know, Ricky Piersall and Joanne. Jennings are out this week. Obviously, Kiddles out, obviously Iyuk's out. Nick Bowes out defensively. The defense was okay last week against Jacksonville.

And the thing is the schedule. They got the Rams, Tampa Bay, Atlanta, which is, you know, decent. And Houston. Those are their next four games. So I'll still give them a shot at the playoffs. Who knows when these guys are coming back? But I think

they're in serious. You jumped off that quick. Well, I mean, Purdy is, you know. Bertie's his guy. I thought he could lead him, but if he's. I don't think the Bengals feel bad that his toe hurts. I don't think the ratings feel bad that his toe hurts. And this report is, does he know, has he spoken to someone inside the organization?

Or is just projecting that the guy played on Sunday, hurt his foot, and can't play on Thursday. So that means he's going to be out. Oh, I think it's more than that, coach. It's that they put him out there too early. He was already injured. And they put him out when he wasn't yet ready to come back. and it got worse. Okay, but I don't think that necessarily means this is season ending.

The idea of going from Sunday to Thursday is hard for anybody with an injury. So to project that out that this is going to be a long, sustained injury. Who knows he was able to play those other games. Let me ask you this, Coach, all you guys. If they, like I mentioned their next four teams, which are pretty good teams, and the division is good, the NFC. West. could they get to a point where you're like, it's best to kind of not bring Brock back?

If he's got to miss seven games or whatever and they're pretty much out of it by that point. And then even the other players that are injured, but even looking at a Christian McCaffrey, like do we rest him is not run him into the ground when maybe we'll have a shot at being healthy. Listen, I don't, here's, that type of math would need to be done by a coaching staff

and in part a medical staff that you trust. And the Niners running Brock Bertie out there last week, now that we have this added information, is beyond baffling. The NFL does not spin a wheel Sunday night and be like, let's see who's playing this coming Thursday. They knew they were going to play Sunday, then Thursday. Brock was pushing to play,

was clearly not healthy yet if you watched the game, and now he's missing this Thursday and they're worried it got worse and he's going to miss more time. And Victor Fur covers the team for the athletic so I do imagine coach he has real sourcing on it. What a reasonable team, I believe, with a reasonable medical staff

that isn't always leading the league in injuries would say is, hey, we're 2 and O with Mac Jones. We are going to be playing on Thursday anyway. if we hold Brock out this week, three days ago, four days ago, he gets four extra days, he can then play Thursday, and then have 10 days before his next game.

They didn't do that. And so, like, that is to me, go, coach. But in fairness, now, you're a football coach. You're not a doctor, and you rely on the people who. Yeah, I don't put it on Sandy. No, I'm saying you have a bunch of guys with degrees, and you've got a trainer. And look, their injury history is problematic.

And so that needs to be looked at, I think, from a bigger picture perspective. But when you're sitting there trying to make a decision, if the doctor says he's good and the trainer says he's good and the player says he's good, then he's good. And it's hard to overrule the doctor because you're just not in the position to do that. That's why you have those guys to help you guide through the process. Did this emergency backup thing hit your radar because they had to elevate Adering Gonzalez?

Martinez, I think. Martinez. Oh, okay, from the, he was our XFL star. Oh, I might have the name wrong. Okay. But he's not healthy enough to be the backup. And now they have to, now they can't elevate him anymore without signing it. And then there's like contract issues too.

Why not just if Brock is somewhat okay? He's not somewhat okay. Yeah, like to me it seems like he can't play on Thursday night. no matter what, in any capacity. And that happens. So you elevate the sky. Now you've got a block of time afterwards. You see where you are.

I just don't know if it's, maybe it is more serious than we think. But, I mean, you're not the Bengals. I'm not saying it's going to happen. I'm not saying it's going to happen. And everyone is saying, doorstep of destiny is already being used for when Josh Allen and mini Josh Allen,

it's almost like Shingoon and Joker. playing each other. That's Sunday night, national television. So now Drake May as Shungoon? Hold on. Let him stay on. Let him stay on Mac Jones for a second. Okay. Go ahead. But this certainly feels very similar

to a doorstep of destiny type game where it's like, oh, who did Kyle Shanahan have his eye on in the draft? Went through some tough times. All of a sudden, you're undefeated. No one believes in you. It's a short week. You're eight and a half point underdogs.

You've got a bunch of chiefs castoffs to Marcus Robinson, Skymore, MVS. You do have your old buddy from New England, Kendrick Bourne. No, they had a magical connection in New England. They didn't hurt, no, they actually were pretty good. No, they were actually pretty good, yeah. Wouldn't it bum me out if he went and lit it up? No, he would love it. K.W.

Would I be bummed out? We're on the doorstep of Destiny, coach. Here's what I'm saying, though. So then you blew it first round traffic and you let him out the door and he actually can play. But he thinks, but also he feels like it's a win-win. He's got Drake, if Mac Jones. Yeah, and listen, I... This is a moment.

This is a moment in NFL history if this happens. It might be more than a moment. Wow, even more. No, I mean, if Brock is out, he gets a chance to resurrect himself. But now Patriots fans are like Jets fans that cheering for Sam Darnold and Gino Smith. That's okay. Shearing for Mac Jones. Shearing for the Raiders because Brady's got a piece of the Raiders.

Sharing for the Fox broadcast, we're all over the place. Okay, we are moving on to Texans, favorite against a Lamarless Baltimore squad. Ravens trying to avoid a one in four start brew, which wouldn't doom the season. But since 1970, only 16 teams made the playoffs at 104. Jeff Shrebeck of the athletic writing, Harbaugh must keep this team afloat until it presumably gets healthier

following the by week. If this tailspin continues, The offseason changes within the organization could be wide reaching. Coach, you want to start here? You love these hot seat combos. What's it based off of? Because it's right there. Could be wide reaching.

Okay. So the guy hasn't earned the benefit of the doubt. So after four games where you're decimated from an injury perspective, now suddenly he can't coach. Suddenly he doesn't know how to run the organization. They've been pretty good for a long time. he's won a Super Bowl, but now they've got a four-game stretch where it's not very good. See, I don't think it's the four-games stride.

Let's have wide-ranging changing. Go ahead. I agree with Coach, and where I disagree with the article was he has to keep him afloat. Like, I'm not looking at that. I don't care if he keeps him afloat or not. To me, I do think Harbaugh should be on the hot seat, but it's nothing to do with staying afloat. It is if they go out now, look, let me first. start here where I wouldn't think he should be on a high seat. If Lamar misses the next several

games, they already have these other injuries and the season ends up being kind of a lost season because of injury, then I'm not, I don't have a problem with a hardball stand. But if they go out like they have these last few years, Lamar gets healthy, they start rolling, make the playoffs, and then they go out kind of like they have when you're expecting them to win and they lose in the playoffs because the things that they that have failed them in the playoffs are things you typically would look at the coaching staff for. A lot of penalties. They get a lot of penalties.

Then stuff like lack of discipline, taunting penalties, unsportsman-like penalties, you know, forgetting kind of your game plan like they did against Kansas City a couple years ago, not running the football, bad play call in which we've already seen this year. like that's the stuff that if that hurts them in a playoff game and they lose, that's when I'm looking at Harbaugh. Because coach, sometimes you just need a new voice. He's been there 18 years. Andy Reed got fired after 14 years.

Belichick essentially got fired. You can get fired even as you're a good coach. He came early. He was in trouble before he got Lamar. He was in trouble. A lot of people think the reason they switched from Flacco to Lamar was because they needed to spark and it had been a long enough time. We can show you his, you know,

the first seven years versus last 10 years, and that's not including this season. It's that years with a playoff win that jumps out at you. Six of his first seven years, they won a playoff game. Three of the last decade, they've won a playoff game. We're talking about if that continues. Here is what I think is fair, coach.

Go ahead. So the Andy Reid decision, that was a playoff. decision for Philly. They're like, well, we really, we really nailed that one. Andy went up to Kansas City and won back-to-back Super Bowls and drafted the next generational talent at quarterback. They got two super bowl. They got two super bowl.

And they've been on three coaches. It's just a, don't you think sometimes, you need a new voice. Even it's not saying hardball is not a good coach. I think he would get another job if he wants it in the league. I just think of Andy Reed is a really good. maybe it's not apples to apples, but it's not like Andy Reid was washed up. He went out and lit it up and came.

But they were struggling those last years and fun. I think I'm glad you brought up Andy Reid. Because here is the deal, guys. If you have one of the contemporary Mount Rushmore quarterbacks, you're always on the hot seat. Yes. Reed, Harbaugh, McDermott, Taylor. They must be.

perform every single year. And because the Chief's success has prevented those other guys except for Taylor from ever even being like, we got to a Super Bowl, you don't have, every year feels like it ends in disappointment. Every year you have Josh Allen or Lamar Jackson or Joe Burrow or Patrick Mahomes that you don't end up in the Super Bowl, you feel like you came up short. And since Patrick Mahomes tends to go to every Super Bowl, we go into the year like McDermott's on the hot seat.

Harbaugh and the other piece of it is because, my opinion, there is so much protectionism of Lamar, it can't be, well, we're coming up short because in the playoffs, we don't have a Mount Rushmore quarterback. In the playoffs,

we have just a guy. And so then the scrutiny goes on Harbaugh even more so. You're not getting rid of Lamar here. No, obviously. We're not, but can you also give him credit for taking Lamar when most of the league said 100% hard pass. It was a long time ago, though, now.

I understand that. And he has helped develop Lamar. I will give you that. So then he had Greg Roman there who fit really well with Lamar's skill set coming out of college, giving him time and them time to win games and develop Lamar as a passer.

There's got to be some value in that. And I know we're looking at where he is now and then discrediting all the other things that come to it because we're on a little bit of a skid. I just think you've got to look at the body of that. I don't think it's the one and three just coached.

I think Ravens fans went into this year feeling like we could have won a Super Bowl two years ago. We came, you know, had a home AFC title game, didn't play well. Last year, we had historically great health. We couldn't even get back to the AFC title game. Like, I think there was pressure going into this season, and now that it's gone this way. And he seems to be feeling it a bit with that press conference really putting a lot at Todd Munkin's feet. So I don't think it's unfair. I remember they lost in the playoffs to a team they had beaten by 25 points.

One of the best players dropped a pass that was in his hands. Yeah, but I would argue should it have been that close. Drake's on the doorstep of Destiny Nights. Bill's huge favorites when they host the Patriots who are on the doorstep of Destiny Sunday night. Revenge game for Stefan in his first trip back to Buffalo. Here he is on comparisons between Josh and Drake. I was with a young Josh.

I mean, he wasn't there young. And then obviously I'm with a young Drake right now. but I see the similarities. I'm trying to get into player comparisons at all. They're two different young men, but I see why they say that they all play with that mindset, that dog mindset, and I see Drake coming along the same way. So I see why. Okay, here are some comparisons if Stefan doesn't necessarily want to do it, I'll do it.

Completion percentage goes to Drake May, total yards. Josh, you don't get me wrong, no one's played the game like him. Has nine more yards. yards. That really makes yards per pass. Exactly the same. Touchdowns, 9 to 3, 10 to 1. Pass rating identical. Well, no, again,

Josh Allen, who has never played the game like him, is at 109.7, and Drake May is at 109.4 on the doorstep of Destiny. Do you think this is a fair comparison, bro? Look. Yep, exactly. I wouldn't mind being wrong. I like Drake May.

I like him as a player. Like I, last year, you know, I thought. No, I'm just saying, I don't think he's going to be as good as Josh out. Yeah. Right, right. There's been very few quarterbacks ever as good as Josh out. You don't think he's going to be a hallfamer and winning BP? Yeah, I think it's a fair take.

But I think the comparisons are fair. Like he, he's big. He's six four, two, 25. Not in that picture behind wild. Josh Allen is. Yeah, that is bigger than that. They're both of us. He's an inch smaller, it's shorter than Josh.

So he's a big guy. He's got a cannon for an arm like Josh. He can run the football. You know, you said it, like Michael Vick and all that. And he came in kind of raw. Like we're going to mold him. He's got all the physical tools. Not a traditional powerhouse school.

So, yeah, I think the comparisons are fair. You do see some similarities for sure. When you look at their first seasons, Drake actually probably had a better first season statistically than Josh did. And the other thing that's valuable to both those guys, so Josh had Brian Dayball with him, and now Drake has as Josh McDaniels, which I think is going to be a significant part of his development. And it just depends on how hard he works in the classroom. And if he legitimately has that same work ethic that I think Josh Allen has,

then he has a real opportunity to make significant strides, not just this year, but moving forward. And that gives him the best chance. The other issue is Josh went through that phase of, you know, tons of touchdowns, tons of picks, which Drake, that's an issue as well. So will Drake be on the roller coaster as well, or will he be able to figure that aspect out because he can't be losing games while you're, you know, you're trying to hopefully win a few? It does feel like Josh makes this offense a little bit easier for Drake just watching the games. Like he doesn't have to do.

Josh McDaniel. Josh McDaniel, sorry. Drake doesn't have to do a lot of heroic stuff. There's some play's like, oh, that play will work. It's a simple play. It with simple passes, what Mac Jones benefited from. We all know that Drake is on the doorstep of destiny in this game. I do have a caveat because people are like doorstep of destiny.

That means the ball is going to be flying around. It's going to be like Mahomes, Josh. going to have 300 yards. I don't think everybody is thinking. Everybody. I'm just telling you. I don't think. One person at the destiny.

Go ahead. The horse have a destiny. Yeah, sure. Buffalo's run defense is giving up 164 yards per game. Against bad teams. New Orleans. Not Baltimore. No, but New Orleans who it's like, oh, they're going to be down.

They're going to throw it. New Orleans, they gave up 189 to New Orleans, 130 to Miami. The Jets ran for 100, including 50. You know who would definitely take advantage of that? Who? Michael Vic and Randall Cunningham. Hello. I just think we're going to be running the ball a lot, and it's not going to be.

But you have the most prolific rushing pass in the history of football. Yeah, that's what I'm saying. So he's going to run. He's going to run, and he hasn't really done a ton. But it's not, I think it's just going to be more of a ground and pound game than the ball. It's also, it might be windy. Have you seen this video of Josh Allen throwing the ball in the wind? Can I just give me 15 seconds to give my take on this.

I like Drake, the second most of any quarterback. his draft class. I liked him more than Jaden. I think he is actually ahead of schedule. I think any Josh Allen comp is unfair to a player. I think Josh's trajectory and Josh is unlike

any player we've ever seen. Where I do agree, we joke about the take of he plays the position better than anyone who's ever played it or whatever the quote was. He does have physical traits that to me are only matched in NFL history by Cam. As far as his size,

his rushing ability in arm strength. And I think Drake May is good size, good rushing, you know, arm strength. I think he can be a great player, great player, and not be Josh. The game feels very slow to Josh Allen. Some people say he looks like Sam Donald. Yeah, that's coached.

I forgot about that. It's still there. That would be disappointing. From New York is the show. It's on the doorstep of destiny. KW, you're running a risk here. About what? Your Patriots-related catchphrases

have always Doorsstep of the testing? No, no, no. Dynasty Gapier. The drive for five wins. That was good. Take them to the hill. That fell apart.

Baby goat. That's for four. Yes, he's hard. Charreth the javelin. Charrette de Javlin. KW. You've got to be. careful. None of those have hit. None of them. You don't have a never a doubt in your. I feel like I'm due.

That's how you turn it around. You're due. It's. I don't really. Second hour, first things first today. Do we expect Jalen Hertz to get the Eagles back on track against this tough Broncos defense? Nick Spino's been maybe the best of Penn's player in football this year. That's a bit big. I like that. Yeah. Meanwhile, Mac Jones and some former chiefs. But Stafford on upset alert or is Stafford going to have a huge game. Is that your upset alert? Are you laying claim to that?

No, not yet, no. Because I'll let you have that if you. I don't want that one. You can't do it. It's tonight, upset alerts tomorrow. No, you can always do that. You can't pick it after the games happened. No, not after the game.

No, I just, I'm doing. We're doing picks at the bottom of the hour. I'm not going to do. Yeah, New England is upset. That's going to be your. Don't tell me. I don't want to, I want to leave it to you if you want New England. I think that's fair.

No, if you want to take the doorstep of destiny team. Right now, of course, it's time for the most motivational segment in all sports. Also, time we read some viewer mail. Every day, we just get a boatload of letters. We go to the post office. Christina brings them back. She looks like Santa with a sack of letters in there. Not toys, letters.

Some toys when people send them to us. I think your kids would like this. So what? 13. I was going to do with a little train set. Dear Wilds, love the show and all of the somewhat clever bits. Wow, thank you.

Have the injuries to brew and the Ravens replaced the sandwiches bit? Thanks, Ryan and Brian. That is a good point. We weren't expecting this bit to take off like it has been, but it's actually grown more popular than the sandwich bits.

And of course, our crack staff is always looking to capitalize on the popularity of your acting skills. And that's why we introduced the cowboy brew first game. Bring home all the joy of first thing first. With a special cowboy brew first aid, and they are flying off. It came in handy this week.

The last two weeks, really. You see, I'm up and out of my mom. It's all good. Fantastic. And I think of those bits is related. Oh, you do? Yeah. The whole sandwich thing to the,

that's why I put the robe on, because I made them get me their role. They're in the same cinematic universe. They're all, they're all worn. Good carryover. I just haven't, you know. The Bruce.

The Bruteau is in another universe. All right, here we go. At number three. Now, to show you that the Bud list plays no favorites, there are no favoritism in the Bud list. You're going to like this, Wiles. Great. At number three, even though I like Brian.

Purdy. What a fair Budlis. All right, Mac Jones, smart choice to go to the Niners. Not because

Brock Purdy got hurt, but to learn under Kyle Shanahan. And now that Brock did get hurt, this is your chance at redemption. Sam Darnel,

Gino Smith, who's the other one? Baker Mayfield. And maybe Daniel Jones. I think the jury's still out. But those four guys that were left for

dead and at least three of them, maybe four of them, are now viewed as legitimate franchise quarterback. So that could be you. It won't be easy. You got the Rams tonight. Maybe you'll get a few more games too. And your receiving core is depleted. But it's not supposed to be easy.

All right. So you have a chance to go out and reestablish yourself to the point that if you play well, next year, you might go into camp somewhere with a little. legitimate chance to start. It won't be San Francisco. Wilds, I'm sorry. It won't be San Francisco. I do think Brock is better than you, but also he's got the $265 million contract.

However, you could earn a spot somewhere else if you go in there and play well. Matt Jones, I'm leaving the door open to your resurrection. We'll take it. We'll take it. All right. All right. At number two. Dylan, Gabriel, and Shador.

Sanders. Now, guys, we knew this day was coming. We knew 40-year-old Joe Flacco was going to struggle. And nothing against him is just 40 years old, all right? And you two would get real live NFL tryouts in games. And that's what you're going to get. Dylan, you are up first. You can end this thing. If you go out there and play well, spark the offense, maybe get a few wins, even if you don't get some wins. If you just play well and give the offense a spark, we may never see Shadur playing this season. So you have the first shot.

I don't think it'll go that way, but hey, you got your chance. Chador, here's what you have to do. I think you will get several games worth of action. I think Gabriel will struggle to the point where they will give you your shot. Until then, you have got to make sure you know that offense backwards and, for you. forwards. I want you to get in early and leave late. I don't really want you to do any interviews either. All right, don't do any interviews. If you do, though, talk. Talk in your interviews. All right, if you do them and just say, I'm pulling for Dylan and actually show that you're

pulling for him. I get inside. You're a human being, right? It's human nature. You want to play. But just say all the right things. I'm pulling for Dylan. He's my guy. Be supportive. Show on the sidelines look like you're supporting him. If he does something great, give him a hand, whatever it is. All right.

Even if you don't feel it, it's just the right thing to do. All right, so go ahead and do that. And then you get your shot. Dylan, we'll see. Shador, I definitely believe it. All right. At number one, C.J. Straub.

CJ, hey, what's going on? Perfect. I mean, Coach has the MVP going into last year. We all thought you were that guy. What were you, he was your MVP, right? We all thought you had a

fantastic rookie season, but last year was a struggle and what the first three and a half games this year have been a struggle. I get it, you don't have much of an offensive line. You really have since you've been there and you overcame that as a rookie. But look, good news.

The second half of last week's game against Tennessee, which isn't a bad defense, you got going. You looked like the CJ of old. You had two touchdowns for the game, a 125 passer rating. And look, the good Lord is shining on you, CJ. Now you got it going. And here come the Ravens.

Yeah. Here come the Ravens. two, one, don't have a good defense at this point, and two, have seven of their starters from that defense out. So you have a chance to go in there and really cook and not only save the Titan season, but really save your own image or position as a future up-and-coming star quarterback. CJ, you know, I believe in you. Excellent.

Excellent. What a lot list, right, coach? Fantastic. that. It means more coming from that, coach. No offense. Nice reset. I'm going to add somebody.

I'm going to add Nick's favorite draft pick in the last probably 20 years, Aston Genti to the list. And when Genti was coming out, I had concerns. I had concerns about him catching the ball out of the backfield. I had concerns about him consistently holding up. And I had concerns about him going as high as he did in the draft. And looking at Pete Carroll's draft history, that really wasn't the way he went.

but they decided to go with him and his early games were disappointing. So then last week he switches back to his, I think he calls it as Michael Myers stance, but his very unique college stance. And things turned around a little bit. So he ended up with 138 yards on 21 carries, two receptions for 17 yards, and three total touchdowns. All excellent. Now, one of those runs was 64 yards. So he had a big run.

And if you look at the rest of the average, 20 carries, right into the first. rest of the yards, there's still under four yards of carry, which is disappointing. Now, he's going to be facing the Colts with Jonathan Taylor, and we know everything that he's meant to the organization. If we can show his numbers versus Jonathan Taylor's numbers. So there's some comps here, but he needs to be for the Raiders what Jonathan Taylor is for the Colt and what he's done for Daniel Jones. Hopefully, Aston Gentie can now do for Gino Smith. So that's, I want to believe in you. Come on, come on.

You want to run the damn ball. I want to, I want this progression to continue. And you could say, well, you know, maybe he's too small. But there's another guy that was the same size. And this is who they're hoping they're going to be. And that was Barry Sanders. Barry Sanders was 5'8. Barry Sanders was a little bit lighter when he came out.

Now, a little bit different overall production, but that's who the Raiders are hoping he will be. Do you coach? That's the Raiders. So that's where they're hoping. They drafted him that hot. Well, I mean, Barry Sanders might be the greatest running back. If he could be three quarters of Barry Sanders.

I'm only bringing up Barry Sanders in case somebody says, well, you know, his size, that could be a little bit issue in the NFL. They're identical sizes. No, yeah, it's not his size. And then you've got the impact that Jonathan Taylor had for the Colts. And hopefully he can do that for the Raiders. I got a question for you, Coach. Do you buy the whole stance thing?

Here's what I'll say. Just like Pete Carroll, Pete was really happy with the production he had. He changed his stance. If that's what makes him feel good, stand any way you want. You can stand on your head if you're going to get me five yards of carry.

I do think he can see, he said he can see the defense better. That's why he likes it. Because he can see the way the defense is. When he's down like this, he can't see the way the defense is lining up. And so he said it helps. That's why he's.

likes it. And it's one of those things in the NFL where if a guy feels really comfortable with a certain thing and it makes him play better at that point. Yeah, I would be just a placebo effect. Yeah, it could be just mentally what what he feels. But that makes sense. Yeah. If you can see better with it, it's like a guy's jump shot. You know, and going in, don't change the full. And seeing that I won't be here tomorrow, I'm going to also add a little to this. Wow. Coach is an early upset alert. Wow. Wow. As in Gentie. Oh, so you do believe in Jenty. And the Raiders.

will upset the Indianapolis Colts. Wow. There you go. Great coach going for a 10-pointer. I love it, coach. You're trying to extend the lead. You guys already have a lead. Wow.

Great job. Hopefully he's watching the bud list. Hopefully he hears what I'm saying. Hopefully, Genev doesn't turn the ball over. I love it, coach. And it's a lot of great. We only have a 30-minute short of one. Well, still.

Oh, that's fair. Yeah, you get to go see his boys play ball. 30 minutes. That's the A block. Yeah, exactly. It's time that's 413 on a Thursday, which means it's time whether you like it or not. For the sports media ombudsman, we're going to look through the world of sports. That's quite the introduction, Kevin.

Take it in the world by storm. Before I get to it, a quick story about myself and kind of my journey through religion. Wow. Here we go. How much kind do we have? It'll be brief, but it applies here. Then brew, you do yours. So people pay good money to hear of it.

So I was raised Roman cat. Baptized, grew up in the Catholic Church, even went to Catholic school for the first few years of my education. However, my grandfather, my mom's dad, was Jewish. So I learned a little bit about Judaism through him. I went to the temple a couple times to see what it was. And in high school, my best friend and basketball co-captain was a kid named Muhammad who was Muslim. And one year I even fasted with him during Ramadan and went to mosque with him.

And my biggest takeaway from that was two things. One was I feel like all groups could maybe learn a little from the others different things. And there's a lot in common. Like there's a whole lot of overlap, which you don't always see because it seems like there's a lot of conflict amongst these groups throughout all of world history. Well, the same thing is happening right now. Sports media world, the NFL, the film watchers, and the feel watchers. We can learn from each other and we don't have to be at war.

I feel like watching or surveying sports media that the field watchers, the guys who just like, as Danny Parkins would say, I can see the NFL, sometimes take info, from the film watchers or data. And it's like, oh, I didn't know that. Oh, that's interesting. Whether it be that when we look at this team and 12 tight-in personnel, 12 personnel is extra effective,

or this quarterback's really good to play. It's like, oh, I'll add to it. Sadly, it does not feel like it goes in the other direction. Feels like the film watchers almost feel like they have a monopoly on football knowledge. Oh. And it doesn't matter. how much, how many games you can watch and be like, you know,

now is this about Lamar a little bit? It doesn't seem like Lamar plays his best in big games. It's like, really? Small sample size right up your nose, sir. And it's more than just that, though. At its core brew, this is about how great Isaiah Thomas actually was. How important running the damn ball actually can be. Why a nine inning starting pitcher in baseball actually matters?

Those things, there is validity to it, even if there's not numbers to fully back it up. So here is what I petition. We should have a summit. And guess who can be the intermediary? This guy right here. Sports Media Ombudsman. Yeah, I can go, because, guess what?

I can wear both hats. I can go do the math problems with the nerds. I can chug beers with the field watchers. I can play both sides to that coin because there is something to be learned from both sides of it. It is neat and a lot of it. It can't just be, I feel this way watching a player,

and it can't just be, I put in the numbers, and this is what it tells me, and you take none of it. So I think we could all come together a bit, turn the temperature down, as they say, and learn from each other. I thought that was very good. Just can I add one thing to it? Yeah.

As someone who's a field watcher, you are a nerd. I see, I knew you're doing. That is not. That's what I'm saying. You are not in the middle. You are 90% nerd, dude. See, that's what I'm saying. I feel like I have, my roots are in the nerddom,

but the nerds have abandoned me entirely. And I feel like you identify three different groups. The field watchers, the film watchers, and really aren't you talking about the number crunch? I feel like the film watchers and the number crunchers hang out together, and they think the feel watchers don't know what they're calling about. I do think there are. I agree with them.

I agree with them. People who know actually what's happening. Yeah. That's fair. Did you see the Spaggs quote on PFF? I did. I thought that you were going to use it. I thought it was good.

Well, go ahead. Well, I'm not doing that. What was the vote? He was just talking about like, you know, PFF does a good job, putting grades on people. And usually, you know, there's controversy on what grades people get. And Spaggs is like, if you don't know what the person's assignment was exactly, how could you know if they executed the assignment? I think it was like a Christian. Maybe it was a Chris Jones?

Well, listen, I think PFF does overall a really good job, but they have an impossible job because of the exact point they made. And also, like, their lowest rated quarterback in the league this year of 37 qualifiers is Aaron Rogers. And I'm like, that doesn't, that to me just doesn't, and I'm not a Rogers guy. That doesn't fit what I've seen. You know what I mean? There's no world where I'm like, you know, Bryce is playing, and Jake Browning are playing much better than Rogers. Like, it just doesn't feel that way.

I'm doing a quick Travis Hunter on the Bud list. Oddly, we spent a lot of time talking about Travis in Colorado. We talked a lot about Travis in the draft. And now he has arrived. We talked about in preseason. What is it going to do? And now he has arrived. He's played four games.

And I think this is the first time we've talked about him, which is a strange mix. So remember, early on, we were like, he wants to play 100% on offense, 100% on defense. And people are a little skeptical. Here's how it's played out so far. Snap percentage on offense. We are at 58%. He's got under 30. He's played 58% of the snaps.

On offense. And then on defense, he's at 39%. He's got 11 tackles and intercept it. Now, the team is winning. So maybe this does work. And as a bonus, I try to look at the next wide receiver drafted, which is Tet. So he's got, Travis got 13 catches for,

118 yards. Ted has 18 catcher for 278. So it's not a huge gap. The next cornerback was Barron from Texas. He's played for the Broncos. He's only played four games, 74 steps. So maybe a lot of those guys aren't getting a ton of burn. But I expected to get more, to see more of Travis. And maybe he'll get better as the season goes, coach. He's also got the chiefs on Monday. So this may be a little coming out party or you think he's just going to be suppressed? Those numbers, if you can combine him, that 96% or so he's played that less than one player would have played on once if he's like every snap well he's played yeah no no he's played less than one player who would on if you if you

if you drafted a right if you drafted a full-time player yeah he played yeah he's played less so i do listen i don't yeah i think correct no he is no i know we have nick here so no i he has the like I think he has played a lower percentage of snaps this year than Josh Simmons, who was the 32nd pick of the draft for the Chiefs. Because he's the starting left tackle, and he's played every game, you know, everything. This, I was all in on Travis trying to do both. Like, why put a limit on him? It feels to me probably having a closer eye on Jags games than most that they are getting the worst of both worlds at the moment. You know what I mean?

That they are getting what you were working. about that instead that they are getting a mediocre receiver and a mediocre corner instead of you know what I and I don't think he's that I but I'm saying that's the production they're getting up to this point classic one I just did not for all all the great athletes in this league including the Dion Sanders like I was just like he's that much better than all of them none of them went full time both ways he's better than them so I think his best I don't even know if it's be a star on one side of the ball. But I think that's his best chance to become one. I try to play him 100% on defense and mix him in on offense. He's also out there just blocking. That's throwing it out there. Maybe that's the but that's most motivational segment in all of sports.

Up next, the Prince versus the king of the AFC. Oh my. Dun dun dun dun. Doc Allen? Oh, stop. Um, right now he's clearly a better corner. NFL double a header this weekend. Dacking the Cowboys taking on the Jets.

Then in America's game of the week, it's Justin Herbert, Danny Parking's guy. And the charges taken on the commanders, Jaden's back. It's Sunday only on Fox. We're not going to huddle this segment, guys. And you're like, wow, it's, we know, what are we going to do? Don't worry.

Broncos, Ed Eagle, Sunday at 1. Jaylen Hertz talked about what the team learned from this second half of the Bucks game, which saw the offense put up zero passing yards. Take a lesson. I see it as a great opportunity. the negatives and turning them into positives and then build it upon the positives. You know, it takes true synchronization.

Obviously, we strive for consistency. And it takes great focus. You know, nothing we can do can be casual. We just got to do it with great focus and great intensity. And that starts with our preparation. Being very efficient football at rates. And then we've had these lows. And so we just got to stay together and band together.

I love him. I just love him. He'd be a great coach someday. That's a great take. Yeah, he's so good the way he possesses both. Eagles 20. So this is the last eight games from the Eagles. They're eight wins, which is nice.

They've won in the playoff games by 17. They've only won these games by five. Hertz total yards is down 30 plus. And Sequan's yards are almost cut in a half. Yikes. I didn't realize that bad. 143 to about 77. Are you expecting a complete game from Jalen and the Eagles against the Broncos neck?

I mean, no, because we haven't, in my opinion, really seen one yet. And I think the Eagles right now, Coach, are a great case study in one of your favorite catchphrases that I'm sure you didn't come up with what I give you credit for. No, I didn't come up with it. Because I think you're going to tell me you got it from Parcells or something. Do not ignore in victory what you would not ignore in defeat. Did you come up with that? No, I don't even think I said it that way.

Okay, all right, whatever. You know what I'm saying? And because right now the offense is broken. And I don't think that's an overstatement. If we show you their offensive ranks, to me, the fact that they're able to score 27 points per game, despite being 30th in yards, 31st and passing yards, 16th in rushing yards, 29th in yards per rush, 30th and yards per play. tied for 25th and explosives, I don't think that's sustainable.

So maybe we don't like or people didn't like the way A.J. Brown has sounded the alarm because it feels A.J. Brown-centric. The kinder way or the more optimistic lens to look at it is, AJ Brown is saying, yes, I want the ball, but that's because what we're doing isn't working. And so I do think they need to change what they're doing in order to have a chance to keep the undefeated record, which is the only reason we're not sounding major alarms. Yeah, when you look at it, it's hard to know what a complete game for Philly is anymore because it used to be Sequin would be dominant. And then, you know, from a passing perspective, they made enough plays to win, but they didn't have to rely on it. Now the passing game doesn't really work.

Saquan's not really working, but they are winning. And at the end of the day, that's what the most important thing is we talked about the Chiefs last year and the way that they won in a lot of different ways. And you've got to give them credit for that because that's a sign of a mature team to be able to find that. But to Nick's point, there is a lot of stuff broken. And they did transition to offensive coordinators again. And that happened last year because the offense coordinator of the year before wasn't very good. Maybe that's a much bigger issue than we think in terms of play call continuity, the types of plays that are being chosen. so it's nothing they don't realize,

and it's going to get significantly louder the first game that they lose. And to not be able to somehow show some progress in these victories, I think it's going to be a huge, huge issue when they finally do lose a game. I mean, look, Denver could beat them. I would expect Philly to win, but Denver's a good team. And, you know, Philly's not going 17 and O. I don't expect the complete game either offensively. Denver's defense is really good.

They lead the league in sacks. They've only given up two past touchdowns the whole season, and that's best in the league. So what I expect is Philly to look really good at points. I'm not saying it's going to be one great half and one bad half offensively, but I think they'll have their moments and they look good, and then they'll have moments and they'll look pretty bad. And I think they'll win a game that's, okay, they got to win,

but we're not like raving about the offense. Do you think they can fix? Like do you like do you? Yeah, I definitely think they can because you got a quarterback. They've shown like whenever they let him throw, he does it well. But what's not sustainable is they can't be this bad throwing the ball and this bad running the ball and this inconsistent with production on either side of the ball for significant stretches. It's worked to this point.

But it's hard to imagine that we're not going to get to a point like when they hit the supernatural funk a couple years ago. Right. They've had spurts. Their spurts are winning them the games. You just hope that once they do fall, it doesn't spiral like it did two years ago. Like you look, Dallas, the Rams, and Tampa Bay. They have spurts for like a half offensively. Kansas City, they were kind of insane the whole game.

That was a decent game. It's just, it's, the weirdest thing about it all is they've played a brutal schedule. Yeah. They've won all the games. They have thoroughly dominated their opponent in half of each of the last two games. They thoroughly dominated the Rams in the second half. They thoroughly dominated the Bucks in the first half. They, you know, they beat Kansas City straight up in Kansas City.

And this is why this is a compliment Eagles fans. You're doing this without. playing well. You know what I mean? It's a compliment to the overall talent and depth of the roster right now but I agree with coach. I think that from a vibes perspective

the thing keeping it steady, Jalen's a great leader but is that they have lost. You know what I mean? Once that heat's going to because then it's going to feel like we're massively underachieving statistically and we've lost. Monday night the king of the AFC

taking on the prince Mahomes versus Trevor. O'N3 versus Mahomes in his career. The Jags defense forcing turnovers and the Prince will try to get himself off of the following list. Winless against Patrick, Baker, Drew Locke, the Prince, Tua, Jimmy G and Big. And that's actually a side. I mean, that's a list. That's a really good quarterback. Some Big Ben's a Hall of Fame.

Jimmy G's one of Bruce's favorite. You have to be good enough to keep playing. He loved Tua. Well, listen. That's a decent list. Yeah, I mean, Drew Locke just plays. played in the division and was bad. But Baker's awesome.

Trevor's the Prince. Yeah. So we're going to flip this. What would a win over Mahomes mean for Trevor? Oh, it would mean the Prince is full on back. They're four and one. You beat Mahomes? At that point, people would not.

Here's the bright side to playing in Jacksonville and nobody really paying attention. The national media is not focused on the fact that Trevor hasn't played well this year. I am because I'm invested in the guy and I, you know what I mean? I watch him. I bet on him last week. Appreciate coming through for us, Jags there.

It wasn't so much him. But I think Trevor is having one of the worst starts to a season, maybe the worst start to a season individually since his rookie year. They are winning despite it. And I think that is encouraging because I think Etienne, who was seemingly a little on the trade block maybe this offseason, but then they traded Bigsbee instead and Etienne's been great. They're turning the ball over like crazy.

That's the piece that I don't think is sustainable, so they will need Trevor to play better. So in order for them to win this game, I don't think they're going to be able to win it the way they've won their games up to this point in the year, which is despite the play of the quarterback. I think it would mean Trevor has an awesome game against a defense that last three games is playing really well. And I think people all of a sudden be like, wow, look at the Jags. Four and one. First in the division. Second best record in the AFC beat Kansas City. I think he'd get back to his princely status.

I don't think it's going to happen, but that's what it would mean. Yeah, so the giveaway takeaway ratio has saved Jacksonville. And there's been a bunch of problems with this team that have been overlooked because of the giveaway takeaway ratio and the fact that they've been able to win these games. But they're first in the league in penalties, so the most penalized team, their first in league in drop passes. That's not service fault. And, well, I mean, we'll see where the, yeah, the pillowy ball might be not so pillowy.

But those problems that Jacksonville has are, are. pretty disappointing and you'd like to see them get better or have gotten better but but but they haven't been so a win a win over kansas city if trevor lawrence is actually responsible for the win would have real significance if if it's more a function of the defense being able to turn the ball over against mahomes and those turnovers leading to the win i don't think it has the same the same impact. Yeah, look, a win, it would be huge for Jacksonville. Like, it would kind of mean, okay, they're, they're for real, not as a contender,

but in the hunt for that division championship. Yeah. For Trevor, first of all, I don't know what back means. Like, when was he, I mean, like, back to the Clemson days? Yeah, back to before he came out. Right. Back to before he suffered a career ulcing injury that his career hasn't in the same sense. I mean, this is how Trevor.

You mentioned how he's been struggling, Nick. Look at these ranks. I told you. I didn't know they were this bad. That is horrific. You were like, it's pretty bad. I didn't know it was this bad. Yeah, that's why I knew Nick was going to soft pedal it.

I didn't soft peddle it. I said he hasn't been good. All right. That's not good. That's like horrific. Bad, I would say. And so I, even if he goes out there and cooks, I have to see more.

Like, I'm not going to be like, oh, Trevor has arrived. I got to see he's not in the Daniel Jones territory I won't put him there but I want to see a several game stretch where for the most part he is like okay he looks like a really good quarterback

just one great game won't don't do it for it so a lot of times we have those bad quarterback stats we say offensive line you know that's a lot with or coaching or coaching Trevor's been pressured on 21.7% of the

second level lowest in the league. I'm here. He's got one of the best running backs in the league thus far. I'm here to tell you. Two very good receivers. Yeah, I'm here to tell you, the coaching's been good, the protection's been good, he's had a great running game.

The only part of this that I think is not on him is the drops have been brutal. And I don't, that part, that part I do not think is fair to blame Trevor Lawrence for. But he has, not only has he missed some easy throws, his mistakes. come in the red zone. And that sadly is the trend for his whole career. This is why they call me the mayor affair.

I'm the, even though he's my guy, I have to be honest about what I'm saying. We're like year 12 with Trevor. We're like year 12 with Trevor. No, maybe he's kind of like, all, first of all, it's year five. Second of all, year two, seventh and MVP voting, pretty good.

He was seven. Year two, year two. By that point, Just like, whatever. I don't care. In year two, there were six whole players more valuable than Trevor Lawrence. I'm sorry. Got to apologize for us.

Coming up next, we discussed tonight's game. Staff are going to put on MVP-esque performance. Oh, guess what? Big noon Saturday in Ann Arbor. Pre-game starts at 10 a.m. Eastern. Then it's Bryce Underwood and the Wolverines. Against the Wisconsin Badgers at noon. It is only on Fox.

The Wilde family are going to be locked into this. You might want to include Michigan in your emotional heads bed of the weekend. Great call by you. Yeah, I got you. Good point. 49ers at Ram, Stafford rolling. Over 1100 yards already, second in the league.

Eight touchdowns, only two picks, short week at home. Nick, this is your guy. Are you expecting an MVP performance from everybody's All-American? Matthew Stafford. Listen, I think Stafford. will be excellent. I also think throw a little curveball

because the MVP award is not the quarterback of the year award that Puka Nakua could have an MVP performance. Love it. And two years ago, we were honestly discussing if Tyree Kill got to 2,000 yards, should he get real MVP consideration? Puka through four weeks has 500 yards

and 42 catches. He's on pace to shatter the catch record and shatter the yards record in a 16 game season. He has 17. Now, I don't, obviously, you don't know how he's going to keep it up.

But yes, I do expect Stafford to be excellent. I also don't think that's going to be the story of the game or the segment because we have late breaking video. So I have not seen this, but you were over the moon. Mack Jones is getting his third start for the Niners.

Here's what he wore. Here's what your guy, Mac Jones, wore in today. Hold on, see if we get the reverse angle as well. He went all red once. He's now going, how would you like the, like the Riddler? Yeah, I think it's a Riddler outfit. And it's in the back, I did see a reverse angle before. It's split like that as well.

That's your guy, KW. Sockless, which I know you like. Loafer, similar to the ones I bought you in your. returned. Can I give my take on this? Yes, please, please do. Don't hate it. You got swag.

Exactly. I do not hate it. You've got he has to walk the fine line between confidence and I'm undefeated and set the completion record at Alabama Alabama Mac. This may be trending too far. Well, you've got to feel like you know what I can beat this Ramstein. And a lot of the stories around this first four weeks of football, are the Ravens actually good, even though they're one in three because they lost to great teams?

I will flip it and say, are the Rams actually good? Yes. Okay. Let me just, can I make an argument that they might be a tad overrated? Let me hear it. 14 to 9 over the Texans, which we thought, wow, well, you know, that's just a defensive battle. But then we've further learned that the Texans have real problems on offense. 3319 over the Titans who are might be terrible, even though Coach Trudeck convinced me they're definitely, they're definitely terrible.

33, 27 against the Eagles, they played great for a half, could have won it on a field goal, but they went scoreless in an entire half. And then 27 to 20 over the Colts, who had two touchdowns off the board, one ridiculous, one holding penalty for Jonathan Taylor. I know you could do that for a lot of teams. The Eagles could have lost on the goal line. I mean, they beat the Colts who were undefeated. They played the Eagles as close as a team can play them. They're down one kicking a field goal to win, and they lose the game. Yep.

And then they blew out the one definitive bad team they played. Like, yeah, the Rams are good. The Rams are definitely good. Did I move? Did I sway you even a little bit? No, little. Thank you. That's all I'm talking.

I mean, I'm not as high with them as Nick. I think they're a good team. I'm not as high on a little. You think they're a. I think they're the best team in that division. I had picked San Francisco. But you think they're a contender, right? Yeah, like a, yeah.

I would be, I like Detroit, Green Bay, and Philly better. What do you have to base liking Green Bay more than the Rams? Oh, that defense. See, I'm not swayed by one bad game. Statistic. Yeah. Cleveland's defense is good. I'm not swayed by that.

I like what I see in Green Bay. Okay. I like a little adversity. That suit, like, how? What's the progression? So do you go to a designer? And you say, okay, I want the half red, half black suit, and then you get fitted for it.

It's someone telling you like this is going to look good. I think it was a full black suit with half red. But you get mad at Shador yesterday for doing that interview. I mean, he's been in the league. So there is an argument that this is. That's as bad as the interview. Listen, I'm glad. Let me ask.

How about this? I think that, I think, again, this would, because, he's the starter, I'm giving him grace that he gets to have starting quarterback swag. I would not like this if he were the backup today. I'm also going to say this. I also don't like it. Just because it's so, it's so bad looking. I'm not ruling out at some charity thing.

A child designed it or something. I think the fit is better. The actual fit of the suit is better than that red double breasted when he wore. Also, Dusty corrected me, I said the Riddler. Obviously, I meant Two-Face. Oh, thank you. Dusty is, terrible job by me. Got his finger on the pulse of the Marvel universe.

It's not Marvel with DC. It's D.C. We're doing game picks, debuting a new graphic that you've seen for years. We finally got one. Coach, who you got tonight? I am going to go with the Rams. I think the 49th's defense has been better with Solidare. but they haven't been able to produce any interceptions.

And I do like the fact that Stafford's at eight touchdowns this year. He only had 20 last year, so he was almost halfway to where his production last season. Listen, even though the Niners are trotting out of receiving core, that we know you can win Super Bowl with. Thank you. DeMarcus Robinson, Sky Moore, and Mark Wesvalda Scantling, all Super Bowl heroes with the Can't Sea Chiefs.

Not only do I like the Rams tonight, I like them enough that I think if you're multi-screening, the baseball game will turn. to the bigger screen by the second half of the football game. Really? Yeah, I think Yankees Red Sox is going to be more in doubt than Rams Niners. Have Mac Jones suit moved the line? The batting line?

Oh, his outfit? Maybe. I mean, sorry, bro. Believe it or not, I would love to see the Niners win. I mean, they were my division. We all believe it. I would love to see it. They're a Niners guy.

But I think the Rams tonight. I feel like, obviously, I believe in Mac Jones. I believe in Kendrick Vorn. I believe in the Super Bowl pedigree of all of the Chiefs. I believe in Kyle Shanahan, the genius, Kyle Shanahan. I also believe in Robert Sala in this defense. I also believe in a short week benefits the underdogs. I also believe that the Rams have some hollow victories.

A little bit. I'm just not, you blasted the time. So who are you taking? We got to take. Taking the San Francisco 49ers. Wow. My guy, Mack Jones is half a suit. Half a suit, full win.

It's a show that's trying to figure out an emotional edge for all the teams that I'm actually rooting for. Brew, you want to get in on it with me? Brew doesn't gamble. The Ravens thing? Ravens? And I can get you gambler by you. It's first things first overtime. We have a special edition of First First Overtime because we're debuting Parkins Picks in the A block.

What? Wow. Which I've never been a part of it. Well, we've got to do something, Danny, and see if you can retrieve last year's mojo. Because thus far this year, it's been, I don't want to be harsh, but mortifying. It's been a pedestrian six and six with two mortifying beats. Remember, the segment only works with people believe that you know what you're doing. Support friendly banterable.

Let's support the picks. Made or follow. Also, oh, does Patrick Mahomes need a huge game? Coming up after Parkins' picks, the segment that's taking. in the world by some frenemies. Indeed. That's right. An excellent.

Danny's down 3-1 in Frememies now. Frenemies also scored. He's started off 1 and 0 and is now down after week won three. He's had three straight. Frontenieuaries. This is arbitrary scoring. Oh, check the arpex. Tough one.

Right now, we're starting with the Eagles hosting the Broncos. Jalen Hertz locked in as usual. Here's what he said about this upcoming game. I see it as a great opportunity. the negatives and turning them into positives and then build it upon the positives. And it takes great focus. You know, nothing we can do can be casual, just got to do it with great focus and great intensity. And that starts with our preparation.

Coach, Danny, how scary are the undefeated Eagles? I think they're terrified. Really? Yeah, because they look like a team that should be one in three or two and two and they're undefeated. They're 31st in the NFL in passing. The only worst passing team are the Tennessee Titans. This doesn't make any sense. You've been making the comp that the 25 Eagles are the 24 chiefs.

But we knew why the 2024 chiefs struggled offensively. Xavier Worthy is a rookie, four different guys at left tackle, Rishie Rice is heard. Isaiah Pacheco wasn't the same since the injury. Why are the Eagles struggling offensively? Kevin Petulow and vibes. Like, they'll probably figure it out. They have so many, too much talent not to. So the fact that they've gone undefeated against this schedule while looking this bad

means that their ceiling is terrible. Well, so maybe I'm looking at it differently. I agree with you that it is reason for long-term optimism that they are winning despite not playing well. but because of how they're playing right now, to me, they are not a scary team. Right now, like in this regard, I think any team that plays the Eagles right now is like, we can beat them. Yeah. I know it's weird because they have every team in the NFL.

Well, but yes, I understand you going to games thinking you can win. But the Eagles right now, to me, even though they've lost once in a calendar year at this point, don't have the same invincibility that we were talking about with the Chiefs last year. You know what I mean? Or that it even felt like they had at different points, they being the Eagles, last season themselves, because every game they've played, the other team feels like they're right there,

and it feels like the Eagles aren't doing anything on either side of the ball, that you're like, man, what are we going to do with that? Last year people went into every game like, what are we going to do with Sequin? And nobody could do anything with it. So I don't, I think the Eagle, I think there is great reason for optimism for the Eagles over the course of the season. But I don't think the Broncos walk into this game feeling like the Eagles are a juggernaut, even though they have the record of a juggerna. I'm with Danny, who clearly watched my take from you.

Wow. I watched the show. No. They are playing their. D game. They brought their D game to Kansas City and won. They brought their D game against the Rams and won. They brought their D game against Tampa Bay and won. You can say they spotted the Rams a huge lead and just said, okay, we're going to, let's,

let's turn it up. They had a switch and they turned on that switch. And then he's right. Like, they are not running. I don't think San Juan Barkley is washed at all. There's not a fiber in my being that thinks he's washed. So I expect him to, I don't expect last year, but I think he'll get it going. They obviously have two very good receivers.

Jalen Hertz has shown he can throw the football, even if he's not doing it well in spurts here. The offensive line has not been what it typically is, so I think that'll get better. And I do think that defense is improving. Like Cooper DeGine, I think is becoming a star. So I just expect them to not get better every game of the, you know, going on weekly. But if I'm Philadelphia, I'm like, we ain't even playing well.

And we beat three of the elite teams and the league. So I agree that the Eagles have a ton of reason for optimism. But I guess the way I look at it, and I'll ask you, like last year, if you were playing the Eagles, you walked into that game feeling like, man, they might have the best defense in football that we're up against. You don't feel that way right now. And the other thing you felt like is just pencil Sequin in for,

If he has a buck 05, we did great. And this isn't a knock on jail. And I don't think at any point have you been terrified of the Eagles passing game. It's just not what they've leaned into. You know what I mean? He can make the throws. But it's just right now, if you are in the Broncos game planning room, what do the Eagles do right now that scares you?

What is it the – Just red zone efficiency. They get in there and it's like, all right, now – Yeah, I mean, the Tush push. We can't let him. That part of it. Like that, so, yeah, I mean, that's a good point. But they, and I don't think Seekwan's washed either.

But I do think we are seeing the effects of a, however many touches he had last year. Like, I don't think Seekwon this season is all of a sudden come week eight going to be $1.25 a game again. So, like, I just think they're fundamentally a less ominous team than they were last season. What about, but the fact that they've been winning against the team. they've played. What do you think about that? I find it impressive, and I think winning is a skill. But I just don't think they, like, I think right now,

teams are more intimidated, so to speak, by Buffalo than by Philadelphia. I think teams are more, I think they are more intimidated right now by Detroit than Philadelphia. Maybe. That's the only other one that I would say is a debate. Detroit's offense has been great the last three weeks, what they did defensively, to Baltimore. I think maybe that you could debate that one. But like, we've seen them look scary for stretches of time. Like that's second half against the Rams was like, oh, that's an explosive team

that could- First half against Tampa Bay. First half against Tampa Bay. So while I don't know if they'll do it against Denver this week and Denver's defense is very good, I do think a breakout performance by Philly feels inevitable. And they'll probably be undefeated. Put some tomato cans on the schedule. Like, everything's been so tough. It's just because the bill's got to beat up on you know. No, but the Jets, the ramps got to beat up on the Titans. Except we've said, though, that the Cowboys defense is supposed to be a tomato can. We said, like, the Cowboys, the Detroit put up 50,

Caleb at the game of his life. The first half. You're right, but what did they score? 24 in that game? It's 24. After the delay. Yeah, and so like that, so that piece of it, and so I don't know. Like, I think they're a great team.

I don't think they're a scary team right now. Fair. We're going to be back. Herbert looking to bounce back. Here's Jaden Daniels. Take a listen. They're coming off a bad taste in their mouth too, so we know we're going to get their best game. And they're going back home. You know, we're going on the road. So we haven't played the best on the road. So we kind of just focus on ourselves and go out there and having fun and, you know, cutting it loose. Are you expecting a bounce back game for Justin Herbert? So here it comes. Here it starts.

Earlier than I thought, here come the hedge. I promised, Nick, that this was the no excuses tour for Justin Herbert. Thank you. I promise. Because I knew it. You can set your watch to it. The chargers are great. They're in a great position.

Things go a little right. It's not Herbert's fault. It's gone a lot of ride on the offensive line. I mean, this is a little crazy what's happened to him. They invested in their offensive line with Joe Alte and Rashford. Sean Slater, arguably the best tackle duo in the NFL. They paid Mackay Bechtin in free agency, and it's week five, and all of them are out. And if we show you Justin Herbert, week one and two, this was without Slater, but he had Alt and Bechton.

The pressure percentage was down. The past attempts are way up. He's not taking sacks. He's not taking hits. And he looks like the MVP. The last two weeks, his pressure rate is higher than it was in that Texans game when he threw the four interceptions and now he's got a commander's team coming in that is harassing opposing team quarterbacks and we don't know if beckton's going to play and alt isn't so i'm with you on no

excuses but you're not expecting a bounce bet but this is a lot for anyone to overcome so it just objectively is i mean just listed about five excuses this train this train is never late i knew i walked out in that and i walked into it last year last year it's just objectively true last they got to let Justin Herbert throw the ball more. They have to take the handcuffs off him. It's unfair. Last week, can he get some help from the running game?

The guy's averaging 10 yards of carry. Can you let him hand the ball off a little bit more? Herbert is a super talented player. Nobody denies that. But he would have to be the unluckiest player in league history if his talent matches what some of the Herbert Sicafants believe it is,

and he just simply always is just, the situation's unsustainable. Like, the commanders are not a great defense. They pressure the quarterback. They're at home. He's coming off his first truly bad game of the year. If he is at Peyton Manning 2.0 and the MVP of the league through September,

he has to bounce back, right? The Chiefs all of a sudden got their mojo back, You need to keep pace with him. Like, if you believe in Justin Herbert, you have to believe he's going to have an excellent game this week. And I believe in him, and I think he will. And Alt got hurt in game. And now he gets to prepare for his offensive linemen to be out. So that should help.

And I'm just saying, a lot of guys out. There is no conviction in your. See, I'm scared. You have such lack of, you are displaying such a lack of food. You cannot do this. This has become a thing for you now. What? What?

It's unchristian-like. Are you going to steal Herbert? He takes everybody's takes. You're giving them away. No, no, no, no, no. No, no, no. Wait a minute. No, not just takes.

I'm not taking anybody's takes. Okay. I'm just saying you're abandoning your quarterback. Oh, he's right. I'm there to welcome to me. Yes. He's a heard of saying. He's like, he's not.

I'm just tossing it out there. I was going to say I'm tempted to go ahead and welcome. Jumping. It's not available. I don't believe he's going to have the bounce back game. It's 100% available. So why you're jumping on me? I don't.

I'm ceding any ground on that. I'm just using. You have no faith in your guy. I'm burning out an objective fact that that's a lot for him to overcome. He won the game against Denver despite the pressure. He lost last week against the Giants. He needs to win this one. But I'm a little worse.

So this is my point. I don't think he'll bounce back either. I think I think he'll play well. I don't think it'll be what he was. He doesn't think he'll play well. I'm just, no, I know. I've got more. That's what I'm saying.

Can I tell you something? It feels like he's there. Because we got to get to Parkinson's picks. Yep. Okay. Take your time. Mack Jones is my guy. Yeah.

We don't. Kittle is out. Joanne Jennings is out. Brandon Ayuk is out. Ricky Pierce all out. Guard is out. Ben Bartch. I don't care.

Full steam. And that's not even that good. And he's not as good as Judge Herbert. That's, that's not as good. That's the way it goes. If on the show, I think it would help. If he's your guy, it doesn't matter. Let me write this down.

If he's your guy. He has to bounce back. He has to. It also is not. Learning. It is not accurate to present it, and I'm not saying you're doing this, but as if he has the, now he is in the worst position of any quarterback in the league. No, what I don't listen.

You know. I do think they probably against Washington should run the ball a little bit more. But I also think that this is now a seminal moment for Herbert. Not this game, but this stretch where it's like, okay, we saw for the first time the production briefly match the talent. You do have a margin of error within the division with Kansas City trying to catch you in Kansas City having back-to-back really tough games as is. it would be a bad spot for them to lose this game at home against a commander's team where Jaden's in his first game back from injury. And you're favored.

That's what I'm saying. You're favored at home with a quarterback in his first game back from injury. You're not playing the Broncos pass rush this week without your tackles. You're playing the commander. You would agree, you don't need him to throw 40 times or more. No, that's where. Figure out a way to win the game. I think figure out a way to win.

I think he's going to do it because I believe in you. Wow. It's time now. But he doesn't believe it. I believe it. I believe it. Community of property. It is time now because we have a short show tomorrow.

That's right. That it's Parkins Picks times. Wow. I'm very excited. As am I am. I am seeing the NFL very clearly. This is the official pick segment. I plug it in the Matrix.

I see the league clearly. I'm not going to let 3 and 0 change me. I'm not scared of picking big games. Taking the points with Detroit. Lay in the wood with the Chicago. Chicago Bears. Easy, easier and easiest. I know that I'm right.

Parkins picks last week. Pick the Packers, that was an L. Pick the Ravens, that was an L. The Bears in Vegas. Skin of his teeth. So moving out the season record to six in six, currently in second place in a two-man race between Parkins' picks and Nick's picks.

Danny, what do you have for us today to get you back on? I'm still wearing this. I have winners. I mean, it's about time, buddy. Yeah. Of course I'm still wearing this. I am the Picks King of FS1, looking way down at Colin Cowhert in the standings, looking slightly up at Nick Wright, but that's okay.

Six and six for treading water, two terrible beats. Let's get you right to the winners this week. We begin with the Rams tonight, eight and a half point favorites over the Niners. Mac Jones has no one to throw to. That's not good if you're treading. If you're trailing in the game, the Rams will defend against Christian McCaffrey, the Rams will get out in front, Mac Jones will need to throw, and he won't know who any of his receivers are because this Rams defense,

second in sacks, fourth in pressure percentage, fourth in takeaways, top 10 in opponent's points per game. Everyone talks about Pooka Nakua, he deserves it. Sean McVeigh, Matt Stafford, Devante Adams, Kyron Williams, and how they are a balanced offense. It's really the Rams defense that's been carrying them through four games. I think that- Not everybody's all American? I think Mac Jones struggles to score 17 points.

tonight, Rams in a blowout. The team that could have beaten the Rams last week, the Indianapolis Colts, I'll lay the seven against Nick's Raiders. Wow. The game is back in Indianapolis. Yeah, I have no problem laying big numbers. Or you could say that I'm a public.

Yeah, guy who's a little square going with big favorites. I know that Nick will say that at a second. But Indianapolis at home so far this year has been incredible on the offensive side of the ball. 31 points per game. Mac Jones basically perfect. At home, no punts, putting up points on 14 of their 17 drives in the dome. But the thing too, we all agreed that the Rams were good.

I know Wilde's is questioning it a little bit. The Colts easily could have beaten the Rams last week. A.D. Mitchell doesn't drop that ball. Holding penalty took a Jonathan Taylor, touchdown off the board. I don't think that means the Rams are bad. I think it means that the Colts are on the Rams level, which means they're way ahead of the Raiders. Geno Smith leads the league in interceptions.

That was good for us. Last but not least, we'll take an underdog. Tampa plus three and a half at C. Seattle. The Bucks are injured and Seattle's defense is good, but the Bakeshow is just a criminally underrated and underappreciated player. If you look to where he's been as a road underdog in his career since he's been in Tampa, a whopping 12 and 2 against the spread, 2 and 0 outright this year as a road dog.

They play close games, but if you get three and the hook, three and a half, I think it's a good number in this spot against two very evenly matched teams. I'll take Baker on the road plus the points. The Colts to blowout, the Raiders, and the Rams get me to seven and six on the season with a blowout win tonight over the Niners. Brew, must have been nice for you to be around some perfect picks. For a chance. Look, I am going, I think you're wrong about Seattle and Tampa Bay. Tampa, I don't think they've played that well this year.

They beat, they're beating teams with a three and nine record combined. They meet an elite team last week and get shellacked in the first half. they try to make a comeback. Seattle's playing well. They're at home in this one. Seattle stabilized themselves. So I think the Seahawks will take out Baker and the Buccaneers. I have land of points.

Yeah, I worry about as much as I like Tampa. I worry about the injuries and it's the furthest flight of the year for them going from Tampa all the way to Seattle. But that's not the one I have issue with. I kind of like your side more. The Colts Lange 7 is just too many points. It's just too many points. and it is a massive overreaction

to what was a nice September by the Indianapolis Colts. The one thing they have not done well this year, Parko, is defend the run. I think they're 22nd in yards per carry. We just saw Ashton Gentile. Now that he's back in his upright Michael Myers stance,

run all over your Chicago Bears last week. The worst run defense in the NFL. All they need is for Gino not to turn the ball over and they can win outright, much less cover. a number of seven. I understand the Colts have been a nice surprise story,

and the Raiders have been, at least for me, a bit of a disappointment. But this, in the summer, we would have thought this line was going to be two and a half. It's now seven. That's way too many points. The Raiders, if you got to pick a side in this game, and that might be a side we have tomorrow. And Nick's picks, the Raiders getting the points is the better side.

Oh, nice. I don't know what it's going to take for you to believe in the Col. They're good. They might be good. They might be good. I'm open to the possibility that they're good, but even if they're good, I don't know that they're going to blow out the Raiders.

The Raiders just, Gino's playing the worst ball of his, in the last five years for him. If he doesn't turn the ball over, they're fine. Their defense has been better than we thought it was going to be this year. Ashton Gentie got his, you know,

mojo going. The Raiders are not a bad team. Excellent episode of Parkins' picks. Thanks. If you are, if you go 0 and 3, are we still wearing this, This, I don't know. I was just to buy a new outfit.

Yeah, this is my winnings from last year. Coming up, frenemies. Jealous of my crown. Patrick Mahomes versus the Prince. That's next on first things first. Overtime. Time for frenemies, but it's a segment that demands a correction at the top of the show. I am a man of integrity when 65% last year gets the spread in the NFL.

I was very proud of it. And this year I'm off to a rough start. I'm a mere six and six. Yeah. And Nick's like, that's embarrassing. That's terrible. And then I said, oh, yeah, because you're seven and five. No, you didn't say that.

You just said you were looking up at me in the standings, and I didn't correct you because I just figured you meant metaphorically you were looking up at me in the standings. I'm also six and six. Also six and six. I'm not making excuses. I'm not saying too horrific beats for me and four. I'm six and six.

I had the Bengals plus seven and a half. They got dog walk Monday night. It happens. Don't worry about it. It's a bad pick. That's your, is your correction of your own misinformation? Because I said nothing. I just let it sit there.

There was a lot of bad. Bad info percolating out. This guy, point thumbs, not fingers, Parco. My fix are public. You could have fact checked it. Instead, you're putting so much on poor Troy's plate. Troy, we got to do better. Yeah, you got to do better.

Let's go. You're also one and three in front of me's. I think we're tied. Let's talk Chiefs. Patrick Mahomes, this is a tough game for you. He's facing off against the Prince, the Battle of Nick Ray. Last week, Chief's offense, looks like the old Chiefs. They got Xavier Worthy back and everything was fixed.

also is a little bit to do with the Ravens defense. Patrick Mahomes, though, weighed in on what they need to do to keep the edge going offensively. Trying to find ways to execute, especially earlier in football games, to build leads. I mean, like I've always said, when you build a lead with Spags calling the defense, it really unleashes him to really go out there. And so we'll continue to work at the little things fundamentally and try to all be on the same page so that we can execute it at a higher level early and then keep that momentum through the rest of the game.

All right, Nick, do you need to see another monster game from your guys? my home. No, I don't need it and I don't actually anticipate that we're going to get it at least early. I think the chiefs are going to have one early goal in this game, which is not let the Jags defense turn them over because that's what the Jags have feasted on this year. 13 takeaways, right? 13 takeaways through four games after nine last season. I mean, both of those stats are bananas. The fact that this year they're averaging more than three a game. and last year they averaged a half a turnover forced a game. That's an improvement.

And so I think the Chiefs will have likely a conservative-ish game plan early. Now, what I do think is if they have a lead in the second half, that's when I could see them saying, you know what, let's work even more on spreading them out and the downfield passing attack because I do think they're going to need that the following week, against Detroit. But this game, listen, I like, everybody knows, I like Trevor. I believe in Trevor theoretically.

But this year, he has not been good. And unless Trevor comes out and is dealing and it's like, oh, we're going to need to score 30 to win. I think the Chiefs will probably have a, let's see if we can just make sure the Jags have to consistently drive the length of the field. Can they do that? And so I would imagine, I don't think it's going to be a running game focus game plan, but short, quick pass is a lot like what we saw from the Chief's offense last year.

That's what I think is more likely in this game. I don't know that you need to have a shootout and score 35 points or anything like that, but since the Chiefs have become really good defensively with Spagnolo, when Patrick Mahomes plays well, they're basically undefeated. And I know I can parse like basically any Chief Stad and make their record look really good. But if you just go like, hey, Pat, don't think. throw an interception going back to 2023. They are 20 and 1 in games where Mahomes throws zero interceptions.

And the one loss was week one this year against the Chargers in Brazil. When Worthy goes out on the third play of the game. Hey, Patrick, can you have a league average passer rating like 95 or above? 18 and 1 in that span, 15 and 9 when he's below it. Can you get league average offensive production? 23 points. If they score 23 points, they're literally undefeated. So I don't know that it's monster game, but from here on out,

because I have no faith in the Chiefs running game, whether it's short passes or deep passes, it's all going to be predicated on Mahomes producing. Oh, that part's definitively true, that this offense is going to have to run, pardon me, through him almost exclusively. Yeah. And you had yesterday a stat that I was unaware of in suitcase stats.

Pack stats. I forget. My bad. Never leave home without your stats. And it was that what? The Chiefs are averaging 28 a game in the last? 27.6 in the last five that Worthy played. The Steelers game last year, the three playoff games last year, and then Baltimore.

Baltimore. So what I do think, and this is, I think people underrated how ravaged by injury the chief skill positions were last season. And then because this year, we knew going into the year, Rice was suspended. That was kind of baked in. And then when Xavier goes out instantly, it almost felt like, oh, we're going to run the same excuses script of. doesn't have the weapons when to your point, the reason I think the worthy numbers are noteworthy is for a rookie receiver, I don't think you really are a number one receiver until the tail end of the year. Right. And so another way to look at it is Mahomes, as long as he has a number one receiver, they're

scoring nearly 30 a game. It's also why I think that in a few weeks when Rishi Rice takes the Juju role and JuJu's been really reliable, but he runs at this point, I think of 5.040. Like, I think the offense will be even better. But I, to me, the underlying tell me if I'm right before we move on. Sentiment of the question is, if they are, if they have a low scoring performance, are we going to say, oh, that Ravens game was just about how bad the Ravens are, not so much about the Chiefs being back offensively, because I won't think that, because I think all they needed was competent offensive line play, which they've gotten,

and wide receivers at least one who can just get open on his own. No, I agree with you, and you brought it up, but just to put a point on it, we should be open to the possibility that Xavier Worthy's awesome. Yeah. And what that would mean for the league, because we know that Rishie Rice is awesome, right? He had, what, 23 catches in the two and a half games before he was out of the city?

If all of a sudden we're two weeks away from the Chiefs having two legit, number one wide receivers, then the light show actually might be back. Real quick. If Xavier's got to stay healthy and we got to see what Rice looks like post-catastrophic knee injury. Sure. But if Xavier stays on the trajectory he's on and Rice is in short order, the player we saw him be for the final eight games of his rookie year in the beginning of last year. And then all of a sudden, your number three is Thornton and Kelsey's work in the middle. Like you have a real dynamic core of past catchers, which they have not had since 20.

2021 was the last year they had dynamic pass catchers. All right, let's talk Ravens and go to Baltimore here where with Lamar Jackson out, we believe, although there's still a little bit of discussion that he could try to play. There are two and a half point underdog against the Texans. Ian Rap report reporting, like I said, that he's trying to play despite not practicing with the hamstring injury. This is Mark Andrews on the possibility of going forward without Lamar Jackson. Take a listen. That's a challenge, you know, it's a obviously, you know, the type of player and leader

that Lamar is and how much he means to us. You know, the beautiful thing is that we've got a lot of fighters in this group and, you know, a deep organization with a ton of players that are going to step up and make plays. And I just got a lot of faith and trust in the guys. How would you look at this in terms of the Ravens season being over with a loss of the Texans? So I will not think their season is over because, and I don't know if we can throw up their schedule or not, I think that they, even if they lose,

I'm just being honest, even if they lose their next two, if Lamar assuming they lose their next two because Lamar is out. You know what I mean? If Lamar plays and they lose the Texans, then it's like, okay, they're just bad for some reason all of a sudden. I will,

if Lamar is back after the buy, I will pick them to win six consecutive football games going into that sealer game. The Bears would be their toughest opponent, dolphins are a mess. I don't trust the Vikings, the Browns are the Browns, the Jets, and then the Bengals with whatever it is. So I wouldn't say they're seasons over. What I will say is for the Ravens to, you know, steal a line from Brew, because they're so

S-Bob, it's less about are you going to stay afloat for the postseason? And are you finally going to live up to your preseason expectations, which right now, Danny, feel incredibly unlikely. They were the Vegas favorite by a little bit to win the Super Bowl and the media favorite by a lot to win the Super Bowl and right now they just don't look like a good team.

They don't and I still think the offense will be fine. I still think that they will make the playoffs. But if I'm wrong about those things, which clearly now they've eliminated their margin for error and it's possible, it might present just an opportunity to say, all right, 18, years with John Harbaugh was a great run, but it's enough. And firing a guy because of a bunch of

injuries will obviously feel unfair. But you know I covered the Cubs for a long time. Theo Epstein, the great baseball executive, would quote the great Bill Walsh, the great football coach, you would say, 10 years. That's the expiration date on leadership for both the leader and the organization, because you just need to have some change. And for Baltimore, it feels like the issues have been festering for longer than this. Like since 2020, The Ravens lead the NFL in 10-point leads blown, 14 losses when they've been leading entering the fourth quarter, most in the NFL,

nine losses when they've had a seven-point lead entering the fourth quarter, most in the NFL. They get out in front, and then they find a way to lose, and now with the injuries, at some point they're going to look around and say, maybe we should make a change. So they're not going to root for it in Baltimore. I understand that.

But sometimes a lost season isn't the worst. worst thing in the world for an organization to take a step back to take three steps forward. Well, listen, I believe that if they were to move on from the coach, it would be one of the most sought after jobs in recent NFL history. I agree. Lamar is prime. Right. And we were talking about, no, not taking a shot here, how sought after the charger job was going to be because of Herbert, and it was, and Herbert is not Lamar. You know what I mean? And so it doesn't have the accomplishment of Lamar. I also think that it's not, I don't really blame Harbaugh for the last couple years, them not living up to expectations.

I, we don't have to rehash it. I think that he has the expectations that a coach gets when you have an MVP at quarterback. And what sucks for him is, come the playoffs, he doesn't have an MVP at quarterback. But the reality is, Lamar's going to be the quarterback for the Ravens for the next decade, one would hope. Yep. So I am a believer in this, this is not a believer. thing. It's a stat. Every coach quarterback combo ever that has won a Super Bowl

together won their first one within the first five years. This is year eight for those guys together. And so... It feels like if it was going to happen, it would have. Yeah, and that's also kind of a Sean McDermott, Josh Allen said as well. That's a separate issue. But yeah, I feel like those guys every year start the year on the hot seat. If you have a, if you have a Mount Rushmore quarterback, every year you start the year on the hot seat because the every year the expectations deep playoff

right price of being s bob and going bust there you go yeah that's oh wow that was good that was good there is that was good it's el don't sound so surprised did that mean I won frenemies we were in agreement so it's a tie this week oh it's 3-1 1 3 1st it's the packer's record it's tough to keep track this official scoring welcome back to first things first we got coach mangenie and willie cologne out here we begin in philadelphia where a j brown addressed the tweet heard we're on the world and his frustrations and his cryptic posts. But you know, hey, by the way, the Eagles are 4 and 0.

Here is AJ Brown. I let my frustrations boil over. I didn't speak to the media. I had a chance to correct my frustrations, and I continue to let it boil over. That's on me. You know, I take full accountability on that, posting that. My message on Twitter wasn't directed anyone in the building.

I don't think it's a bad thing for wanting to ball. It's not just for targets or anything to put numbers up. But no, I see that we're struggling. And I'm a guy that wants the ball in those times when we can't find a way. Give it to me. Like when the game's on the line, give the ball to me. I want that. I want that pressure.

I put it on myself, you know, and I work hard for it. All right, Willie, that tweet fired you up yesterday. Now you've seen him address it. Do you think the Eagles should be forcing the ball to A.J. Brown? Yes. Okay. Yes. Yes, yes, yes.

Because the Eagles can't afford for A.J. Brown to check out. Because he's all dog. And when you're all dog, and you need to eat and you don't eat, you become destructive. If I'm Kevin Petulow, the office corner of the Eagles, my first 15, I have to feature A.J. Brown. And on top of that, you know, I do have to take a step back. I did call him selfish.

I did call him a big me guy. But then I had to think, man, I would want to play with a guy like that. I did play with guys like that. You know, when I was in the locker room, I did have fortunate, I was fortunate enough to play with Antonio Brown. And I was an elder statesman, man, I did have an opportunity to talk to him about him. But one thing I had to realize it's about grace and patience. When you brought A.J. Brown in, you hired him to be a killer.

You hired him be that guy to be him. But on top of that, A.J. Brown has to understand you have an offensive corner of Kevin Petullo who's growing into the position. You have Jailen Hertz, who you have to trust his preparation of what he sees on the field. And you have to understand that the end goal is to win another Super Bowl. So all parties have to come together and understand like, man, you only have one shot at this year after year. And teams break up. So while we're special now, we have to maximize it. And hopefully he understands that.

But I, if I'm the OC right now, man, it's get AJ Brown the bowl. Yeah, I don't think you want to force it to him, but you do, to Willie's point, want to get him involved early in the strip. So, and I think there is a distinction there. If you start forcing it to the guy, then you can be throwing in double coverage. You could be making poor decisions. You could be doing things that really don't make sense from what, from what Jailings reads. are, but there are ways that you can work the ball to or make sure he's the primary read on the play, things like that, to try to get involved early. And to his point, things aren't working

very well overall. It's not like Sequan's having a killer year and they're lighting it up running the ball and it's been very inconsistent throwing the ball. And I appreciate his competitiveness. And the words I liked is, I work hard for this. And I do believe that he does work hard for that. and I respect that. I just think you also have to keep in mind there's a bigger picture and this can be very disruptive. Because I feel like you can argue with the way

that he has delivered the message. It was selfish. It was look at me. No coach or teammate would like it. Jaylen Hurst doesn't want to be answering those questions, but I don't feel like I can argue with the message. That's fair. The passing offense has been

bad. His production has been low. He is excellent. give him the damn ball. So the method of the message, not good. The substance is good. Yeah, but coach hit it right on the head. When you force the ball, you invite turnovers. And we know that was a bugglebole for Jaylor Hurts in 2023.

Sure. And when he came out of 2023, they took it out of his hand, and they went more run dominant and what happened, Super Bowl. So you can't fault Jayland Hurts and say, hey, I tried that. I know how that ended. We got blowing out by the bucks first round of the playoffs. When we kind of cleaned things up, Super Bowl, and they want to go back to the Super Bowl.

But I think right now for AJ Brown and Jalen Hearst, they got to get on the same page. But how does it play with like, it's not like Devonte Smith is crushing. It's not like Goddard's crushing. It's not like Sequan's crush. Like no one is producing here. AJ Brown just seems the most outwardly unhappy. Yeah, well, that's the strangest part of this whole equation is if if Sequin was having a season like last year, then it's so much easier to sit back and say, okay, well,

this makes complete sense. Sure. This is working so well, but that's not working well. The passing game isn't working well. working well. The level of inconsistency is a problem. And it is a new offensive coordinator. There's probably some growing pains there. Yeah, lost McCaude Beckham was huge for the moment. And once they lose a game, this temperature is going to get turned up dramatically. So hopefully they can get some of these fixes before

before that first loss. Well, and not an easy test with the Broncos defense coming to Philadelphia. Let's go to the game tonight, though. The Niners do not have Brock Purdy. They are eight and a half point underdogs against the Rams. Other injuries for the Niners in addition to Purdy. Pierceau has his knee injury. Juan Jennings. I have no idea who Matt Jones will be throwing the ball to. But he is 2 and 0 in games where Mac Jones has played this year.

So guys, we will discuss here the Niners. Are they playing for their season despite being three and one given all the injuries? I don't think they're playing for the season. The fact that they are three and one gives them some cushion as they get these guys back from injuries. And this is a very different situation than Cincinnati. And even to some degree, Baltimore, Baltimore's had that rash injuries. San Francisco's approaching that, but they should get all of those guys back.

They haven't had a lot of season-ending injuries, which has been fortunate. So I don't think they're at the point of no return with a loss or even a couple losses, especially because these injuries aren't necessarily, you know, season-enders. Well, yeah, I do think it's a pivotal game, just only because of the way they a division shaped up. I mean, the Cardinals at last in division, but they're two and two, right? So if they win this game, that puts them in the lead. However, what scares me about Brock Purdy,

toes and shoulders linger during the season, right? And the schedule is only going to get harder, especially when you talk about spotty guys as far as Kid will coming back, who knows what Juan Jennings. Like, there's certain guys that impacts this offense for them to be like, oh, that's them. That's the Niners we know with them to be. But if you're moving forward right now,

you have to trust that one, Mac Jones is 2 and O. He's done a hell of a job holding the ship up. And on top of that, you've got to trust that Kyle Shanahan is going to do with what he has. But all that said, they need to win this game. Oh, I'd be shocked if they won tonight. Well, because it's about the pass rush. They got to be able to get the Stafford.

They don't get to the Stafford. It's over. Yeah, I just, Christian McCaffrey, in terms of total yardage, has been very good, but in terms of explosiveness, hasn't. I don't think he has an explosive run. And the yardage has been in the passing game. It hasn't been as a runner. Correct.

So I would imagine this Rams defense, which is top five, you key in on Christian McCaffrey, and then what? What else can San Francisco do realistically tonight offensively? I'm with you. Non-season enders, weak schedule, maybe they can fall to 3 and 3, 3, and 4, get healthy, and make a run. But I don't see much of a path for them tonight personally. Yeah, but I also, like I said, I trust Mac Jones because he's shown that he's confident at the position. And I like Shanahan.

Like, he's been in, we understand. He's been in this position before. now back in the San Francisco season, they went one to seven, so that wasn't a good sign. Overall, the injuries are happening now. Hopefully, as these guys get healthy, they can make a run. But it would be good to see the Niners pull this one out. And the benefit of a Thursday night game is you don't get to do the same extensive game planning as you normally would. So maybe some of the things that they would have normally done with Chris McCaffrey that can't quite get to in the short week.

Not as much depth all of a sudden. You pay your quarterback a bunch of money, not as much depth. You keep having all of these injuries. and a season can get away from you very, very quickly. Coming up on first things last, Shdor Sanders talking his way out of ever seeing the field. I'll make the case. Time now for first things last.

We go to Cleveland where Shadur Sanders is headed in the direction of never taking a single snap in the NFL. And I say that with no malice or joy. Just if you look to NFL history, if we remove the ultimate outlier of Tom Brady, there have been 85 quarterbacks drafted in the, the fifth round or later since the year 2000, and Ryan Fitzpatrick is the only one to start more than 100 games.

More than 25% of those players started zero. Then we can judge the actions of the Browns. They benched Joe Flacco this week, and names Dylan Gabriel their starter. The same Dylan Gabriel, they drafted two rounds before Shador. Then after making the switch, they kept Shadur third on their depth chart, meaning in the case of an injury to Gabriel, they'd rather see more Joe Flacco than any Shadour Sanders.

And don't forget to Sean Watson. He's their $230 million guaranteed man who's reportedly doing a great job with his rehab. He can enter this conversation sooner than later. Now for Shador. In the last week, he has twice entered the national news cycle. Once for saying, if you look at the level of quarterback play, he knows he's capable of doing better. And then again, in this bizarre video where he silently answered questions reportedly because of criticism from TV talking head Rex Ryan.

Is either news item a huge deal? No. But if you were one of the 31 teams that passed on Shador at least four times in the draft and you saw that video, would you be thinking that you made a mistake? Also no. So given that the Browns don't seem close to playing Shador and he isn't making a great impression for the rest of the NFL, it's probably time the media at large drops its pre-draft groupthink and fascination with Shador's last name and treats him like what

he is until further notice, a third string quarterback on a bad team. That's all I've got. We've got the Rams and Niners tonight. We'll be all over it tomorrow. Thanks for hanging out with us on First things first.