First Things First - Cowboys ‘Greatest Offense There Is’, Patrick Mahomes ‘will be cautious’, Will the Bears regress?

Episode Date: July 31, 2026

(0:00) Cowboys “Greatest Offense There Is”, Mahomes come back, Lions NFC North favorites (24:30) Jaguars feel “disrespected”, Will Trevor Lawrence outplay Caleb Williams?  (38:56) Deebo Samuel signs with 49ers, How big of a deal is this for Brock Purdy? (44:14) NFL Training Camp Stories: Texans, Cowboys, Packers, Vikings (01:02:09) Biggest key for a Ravens Super Bowl run? (01:16:11) Fair to still doubt Sam Darnold?  Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

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Bring it with SAP Grow, AI Cloud, ERP for any size business. Live from New York, it's the show that's online, at 40 pictures of Caleb Williams. It's first things first. I actually thought 40 pictures when Liam Cohn said that. I was like, it's a little light.

There's way more than 40. Just from Bears Packers games, I could give you 40. I'm Danny Parkins alongside Coach Manjini and Willie Colon. Do you like that coach? Liam Cohn. A little dis in the Bears direction. I mean, typically, we're 13. Typically, there's little, all that talking before the season

really affects the outcome, so yeah, I love that stuff. I know you do. I thought he might. I thought he might. Very embrace. Yeah, on today's show, I'll handle that part of the story, I guess. Andy Reid said he sees strength in Patrick Wilms' legs, but is the quarterback ready to return to MVP forum?

We'll discuss. Also, Sam Darnold is still being asked questions about showing up in big games. Same. We were able to facts check this. The Super Bowl is in fact a pretty big game, which is going to be big for that discussion. And finally, Mikey Ben Johnson responded to the aforementioned William Cohen saying the Bears are the number one regression candidate. Willie, you know what they say? Can't take two steps forward unless you take one step back, you know what I mean?

Oh, don't move. Or don't move. See? You don't even, you're not even there. You're not even near where I'm at right now. No, because I always get blown off the ball. I'm always taking step back. I'm not able to anchor in position.

Right. Yeah, that's a problem. But you know what, it's not that way to give an insult. You have to be good to be a regression candidate. That's what I would say. Thanks, Gary. Let's start in Dallas. That's more of the same.

Drew is out today as he tries to get a trademark and copyright for S. Bob. However, Dak Prescott, he's working on his own acronym for this season. Gotti, aka greatest offense there is. Here's the quarterback explaining it in case he can't figure it out for yourself. Take a listen. A lot of times you have a lot of turnover and we didn't have a lot of turn or much turnover or fall on our offensive side, right? We added some guys and some younger guys are going to have to step up.

So, you know, maybe we seasoned the group a little bit and guys are getting older, but we're close to some historic things last year. Why can't we be? You know, and just, yeah, let's be the greatest offense there is. You know, you've heard the greatest show on turf and all the other different nicknames. Now, Coach, I know you don't love talking about it. You want to be about it. But I checked there are no games to be played on July 31.

first. So you get asked questions. That is just the way of the world. I'm on board with this. You're on board of this. Here's what I'm on board. And from a organizational standpoint, there's always been high expectations in Dallas. And you hear Brian Schottanheimer talk about the Super Bowl. And again, I'm not a big believer in talking about things like that. But I think what Brian's doing, he's embracing the expectations that are always part of being a Dallas cowboy. And he's embracing it in a really positive way.

And then from Dax's perspective, it's the same thing. He's not talking about what the defense is going to do. He's not talking about what the special team is going to do, how many games they're going to win. He's talking about what he can control. And I think that there's a difference between bravado and confidence. And to me, Dac is projecting confidence in what they can do as opposed to just saying something for the sake of bravado. And if you look at Dax's production, he's one of the, the few guys who over three out of the last five years has thrown 30 or more touchdowns.

And a couple days ago, we talked about how the offense has been over the last five years, also extremely productive, except when he was there. So for the leader of the offense to project confidence to the rest of the offense, I'm okay with that. I think that's a positive. I would have gotten that one wrong. I would have thought that you would have disliked it. I love that.

All right. I also think part of the confidence comes from the fact that they feel like they're multi-layered, right? I think we forget last year. The Cowboys finished ninth in rushing, right? They ran for 125 yards a game. And as much as we talked about CED and all these other weapons they had, you know, Javonte Williams was a thousand yard back, right?

He did a great job. And so now because of Clayton Adams and his ability to draw things up and be creative and have these blocking schemes that really can elevate this office, Dak is looking like, hey, man, if we can throw it, run it, there's nothing we can do, especially if I'm on par and healthy. I think what he doesn't get a credit, himself for credit, and enough credit is that he's become a lot more polished pocket pass. When he came into this league, he was considered a dual threat.

Because he's, what, the second oldest quarterback in the NFC, like he's realizing, like, man, my health matters, right? So if I got sit in his pocket dissect at the line of scrimmage, if we could run the ball efficiently like we did last year, and if we can throw it all over the field, who's stopping us, right? And so I think their measuring their stick is the Rams. They look at the Rams can do it. They said we can do the same thing.

So I support the confidence, but I'm kind of on the, I'm on coaches. boat. You got to prove it. Generally speaking, I don't love acronyms. I just think that they're kind of silly. You should be able to just communicate your thoughts with just whatever words come out and then you don't have to put words attached, like letter acronyms attached to it. But I will say, it's a fairly remarkable accomplishment what's happened with Dak Prescott. Like we in these types of jobs, a criticism of us, and I would say at times a fair one is,

man, you guys just talk about the Cowboys. Like, when in doubt, do a Cowboys segment. We joke about it all the time. Talk cowboys, talk cheap. They sell. Right, they sell. But it's a remarkable accomplishment. Despite Jerry Jones and all of his bravado,

despite all of the talking heads and everything we say, despite all of the hype, despite all of the national TV games, despite all of the huge opinions about this team, Dak Prescott is still underrated. He is awesome. He has just become a tier one excellent quarterback. And you mentioned the last five years. Even though I knew this in terms of the state,

and how good he has been, and I showed you those numbers earlier in the week when he was out. If you do most points per game as a starting quarterback over a five-year sample, Dax's number one. Yeah. More than a guy who's been to a Super Bowl, more than a guy with two MVP, more than a guy with one MVP, more than a guy with the best offensive line in the sport. Like, Dak Prescott puts the ball in the end zone when he plays. So given that they do return basically everything on offense,

given that there is continuity with the coaching staff, given that he's one of two guys last year who had 600 or more pass attempts. Like, it is a high volume passing attack, which leads to a high ceiling of potential points scored. Dax confidence is earned in this case. Like, if Dack plays, they're going to score a ton of points. They should score a ton of points.

And with Brian in that head coaching role and things, they're not having a lot of transition on the coaching staff. I know obviously that transition. defensively, just like we talk about with Caleb or Drake, just another year of how this is going to run with a veteran quarterback and other guys that have been there for a long time, you just start at such a higher point. So you have a chance to be, you were explosive before, you have a chance to actually improve on that explosiveness. Yeah, I think to what you speak about,

I think some of the reasons why DEC doesn't get the credit is because we know that he's capable of winning 10 to 12 games a year, right? It's what they do in the playoff is what kind of hinders. That is how is that correct. So I think overall, Dak right now, his confidence should be high. Also because I think he honestly believes the defense is going to be better too. So he finally is going to have a defense. You made a comment yesterday, and I agree with you, if the Cowboys, just like the Bengals,

could at least be ranked 20th, right? Now we're looking at this team in a whole different situation. When you've got to go out and score 28, 30 points a game, that's a lot of pressure. Now, Dak's saying, if this defense is going to be. better is going to be better. That takes the pressure off me. As a quarterback, takes the pressure off the offense. If we only have to put up 21 points and the defense shows up, we're okay. We're in a good spot. So I think that's where part of that confidence comes from. And look, that hasn't been totally overlooked here until Mahomes signed his deal this offseason,

he was the highest paid player in the entire NFL. So it's not like, it's not like people have seen more criticism than praise. And I think that's what Danny's talking about. And a whole lot of money. He's been paid a ton of money, but some of that was a lot of the commentary around that was about Cowboys mismanagement that they had given him that deal where he had the no tag clause, the no trade clause, so Dak had him over the barrel. So they had to give him the huge deal. Like when he signed that, nobody said, and that's because Dak Prescott is the best quarterback in football. And he was injury prone too. Well, he had dealt with significant injuries for a couple years. I wonder in terms of, because like this conversation is less about them as contenders. It is about,

to your point, like just focused on the offense and like their ability to be statistically dominant. If they are better defensively, like if it works, if the two first round picks and the new defensive coordinator, Chris Parker, all the things that they've done, does that bring it down? Like I wonder, like they had 600 pass attempts for DAC last year. Are they going to actually be less prolific of an offense if they are a little bit better defensively? Because they won't need, they won't be trailing. They won't be in as many shootouts, as many games in the 30s. I'm not sure if it means they're going to have to be less prolific. They should get some more opportunities because the defense, those drives won't be going forever.

The defense will actually be able to get off the field on third down. Now, could it change the complexion of how the games are called? Could we see more runs? Yeah, you could definitely see more runs if the games are closer or if they've got a significant lead or enough of a lead to be running out the clock. So, yeah, there's always that balance, but the ability to match score for score like they've shown in the past year, I don't think that's going away. It is fairly remarkable, too. Like, again, it's early. We still have all of August here for someone in Dallas to say something crazy.

But, like, George Pickens just signed the franchise tag. It was offered. He signed it. No holdout. No complaining. No belly egg. No nothing. Jerry Jones had an opening press conference.

you know, there was some weirdness around the questions about if they was going to trade for Max Crosby, but he was being careful to not tamper and everything was just like fairly normal. And it's just, okay, Dallas is a good football team with expectations. Normally there is a circus around them. There's a documentary around them. Part of it is because you look at the division, right? Like they're probably the most complete team right now, second to complete team. I mean, Eagles from a standpoint is probably the most complete team.

But I think we know who they are. I think offensively we know they can score defensively. I think we believe they're going to be better. I think if you look at every team in division, there's multiple question marks on how they're going to perform. I think we know Dallas is going to be a jugger out of offense. So you have confidence that they're going to run division and land in the playoffs. And if they've been doing something for 30 years that hasn't really worked, why not try doing something different? Why not try instead of lighting a bunch of fires instead of creating a bunch of headlines?

Maybe a nice, quiet, confident offseason could be a really big positive for Dallas. It's a bold strategy, cotton. We'll see how it works out for him. Moving on to Kansas City. Now, we do not have official video of Mahomes dancing at Travis and Taylor's wedding, but training camp footage seems like he's ahead of schedule, given that he's already been fully cleared. Here's Andy Reid on what he's seen from Mahomes in practice.

Take a listen. They look pretty good today, I thought, you know, strong. You see the strength in his legs and which is important with a leg injury. You kind of look at that first. See how his feet are moving and feet are moving well. So I thought it was positive. I mean, I thought he looked well. Willie, what version of Mahomes do you expect this year?

Probably more calculated one. I know from my office alignment that when you deal with a quarterback dealing with a knee injury, the quarterback now evaluates the pocket differently, right? Because he's used to having his lays to get out the back door and improvise. Now he's going to have to step in the pocket and maybe buy some time and really kind of take some hits or maybe just be more dependent on the run. game. I think for Patrick Mahomes right now, the question is, you know, what do I have around me? You know, as far as Xavier Worthy, Rashid Rice, Travis Kelsey, as much as we love him, you know,

he's aging, right? And you talk about the offense and line that there's still some questions. You got Justice Simmons who didn't play a whole lot last year for whatever reason, now back in the fold. So I think there's still questions with the offense. I think with him, per se, I think the knee will still be an issue. I think it's going to be a slow transition. I don't see him coming out the gate and being explosive, buying time with his legs, running for first downs. I think he's going to be a lot more careful, a lot more cautious. And when I look at this, and every injury is different.

So every person comes back from injuries differently. But I try to look at things historically that have taken place. Remember, Tom had that serious injury coming off of a fantastic season. And then I wanted to see what he did the following season. So if we can bring that up, this is Tom Brady. The first year was, prior to the injury was his undefeated season. You see the points per game. touchdown interception ratio was ridiculous at 50 to 8.

Passer. Pretty good year. And so then he gets hurt and he comes back the year later. Now we've come down in games. We've come down in points. We've come down pretty dramatically in TD interceptions and quarterback rating. And so that's what happened historically. And we're talking about a guy that didn't have to move around as opposed to Patrick Mahomes,

who understrength is moving around. And if you look at Patrick's year, last year, we're starting at a much lower level. One of his worst seasons in terms of completion percentage, quarterback rating, the percentage with which he was sacked. So it's not like he's coming off the undefeated, you know, or a Super Bowl season coming off a pretty rough season with an injury. There's a lot of, there's a lot of,

I respect the history there, but like that team, that team wasn't as good. that he did not have Randy Moss to throw to. Xavier Worthy was hurt last year. You know, it's just that I look at Mahomes. But Danny, I totally get that, but the worst completion percentage, the worst quarterback rate. Was this the worst team that he's had in his career?

I mean, they had a lot of things go wrong for them last year offensively, including Pat being hurt, right? That would be pretty high up on the list. But I just felt like they had a revolving door of pass catchers for him last year. I looked at it a little differently. Like, the big addition for them is Kenneth Walker. And it's a running back. And so, you know, it's not the most valued position in the league.

And I don't know where you guys come out. There's a little bit of a debate. I feel like in the analytics community, I'm like, if a better running game means you'll be better in play action or if their play action numbers are more predicated on, like, your deep threats. Right. But I wanted to look at how Mahomes has been off of play action,

because it seems logical to me that the more of a threat you are to run the ball, the more effective your play action should be. Touchdown interception ratio last three seasons. Mahomes has nine touchdowns and nine picks on play action. Pedestrian. Has not been a weapon. And they have not had much of a threat of running the ball. They've been ranked in the 20s most of the years running the football.

You go back before that. And again, it did coincide with Tyree Kill being there, which is part of the deep threat. And they weren't an amazing running team, but they were better. 38 touchdowns against seven picks. If you add Kenneth Walker and Mahomes is this smart cerebral. player who knows how to pick you apart from the pocket, and you add a running game to Mahomes. I would personally be expecting this to be Mahomes' best season since 2022. 2022, he won the MVP.

I'm not saying he will be the MVP of the league, but he'll be above 27 touchdowns, which he hasn't been since 22. He'll be above 4,300 yards, which he hasn't been since 22, roughly in that area. Like, I would expect Patrick Mahomes to have his best year in four years because he'll have more of a running game. I like the way you're thinking. I didn't know you were such an advocate of the running game. I mean, it is great. You got to be balanced.

No, but it is great that he's seeing the value of a really good running. I hang out with you, Coach. Hang out with you, Coach. On top of that, I think one thing that we have to pay attention to is if there are goals going into this off season, as far as going into the season, the run game has to now become feared, right? Like the defense no longer fears the run game in the Chiefs. They had one rushing play over 20 yards last year, right? And so that's bad for TV. Well, because then all you're doing is taking away the pass.

Way out on that. Do you believe play action is more effective if you have a better running game? Like, are those two things correlated? Yeah, that's peanut butter jelly. That goes to games. Absolutely necessary. And it's not just the better running game. You have to be able to sell the play action too when you go to the past.

Like, it's a group and concerted effort to do it. And they have to know that you're really committed to the running game. That it's not just, hey, this is what we do, but not really what we do. Well, then with what they paid Kenneth Walker and the fact that Mahomes is coming off of the knee injury, I expect them to be committed to the running game, which is going to make Mahomes' life. Well, that's why you go get Eric Bienemy, right? And they brought back Bienemy, who was right there, too, in that 2020 to 2020. He was a part of all that success.

In terms of the play action, that's right. Moving on to Detroit. Now, the Lions finished 9 and 8 last season, which was good enough for last place in the loaded NFC North. They missed the playoffs. So Dan Campbell wants to get back. This is going to shock you. Dan Campbell wants to play smash-mouth football. Take a listen.

Probably the most... I want to know that we can run the football. I want to know we can stop the run. And I want to know that we're ready for situational football. Probably those three things. But if you want me to feel comfortable, the other stuff will come. These are the odds in the NFC North, despite finishing last last year. The odds makers still favor the lions to come out of.

arguably the toughest division in football. Coach, do you look at the lines and say they deserve to be the favorites in that division? Yeah, when you look at the issues that were there, so they had the offensive coordinator turnover prior to the season, then they go into the season, it's not working out, they turn over the offensive coordinator in game 10. But across the board, Jared Goff, I think was fourth or fifth in touchdowns and right around there in yards. Jamir Gibbs had another Pro Bowl season.

They had the only two wide receivers in the league, the only tandem that had over 1,000 yards combined. And right on down the line, there was success after success after success with all of the noise and distractions and other things that went wrong. So I don't think they're very far away at all. And now with Dan going through the transition

and an offensive coordinator, he's better prepared for dealing with that too. Yeah, I also think part of it, like, you know, coach made that Coach Campbell, that is Dan Campbell made that statement because he's in the heart of training camp and they start running back, Jamir Gibbs is doing a hold in, right? And so now he's, you know, there was a question that's like, how do you feel, what do you need to see going into the season that's going to make you feel comfortable? He's like, I want to know if we can run the ball, right? I want to know if we can stop the run and I want to know if we can protect on the back

and how can we stand up in a situation of football. I think every head coach, and since I've been, coach can attest to this, When you start the season, there's things you need to see to make sure your team's ready for the starting line. And when you don't have your star running back, you lost David Montgomery. And you start to say, man, there's some continuity we need before we start this thing. And Jemir Gibbs right now isn't playing. You know, he said, I'm holding out. I want more money.

And rightfully so. They're going to pay him. You would think, but they don't have to because they still have to pay Sam LaPorter. They still have to play Brian Brantz. Like, they're still two more years on his deal. So I think for Coach Campbell, that is, I think there's a situation. I need my guy in the building doing what he does best right now for me to feel good about the season. So I think that's why some of that apprehension is right now.

Well, it's also two years ago they were fourth in amount of rushing attempts per game. And last year they were 26. Yep. So it's pretty obvious what one of the big factors was in the success and failure overall of the team. And I'm sure he's looking at that and saying, hey, we're at least going to be top 10 and maybe top five. Well, yeah, what happened last year just to put an even big. bigger sample on it, it was jarring. They had six games where they ran for less than 75 yards last year.

In the previous three seasons, they had that number of games. We could put it up there just so that you know that Troy actually backed it up graphically. But, I mean, that was the thing that you could count on most went away for them. And now part of that, sure is David Montgomery. Part of it was offensive line health and the weirdness of the season and not playing from out in front as much as they did. did, but I had no problem when the Lions opened as the favorite in this division because they have the largest body of work. The Lions have been a very good team and a contending team for going

on four years now. They got blown out in that playoff game when they were the one seat against Washington, but they were decimated with injuries on the defensive side of the ball still scored 31 points. The year before that, I remember they beat the Chiefs in the opener when the Chiefs hung the banner. The Lions have been a really good team for a number of years making the playoffs, playing in big games, scoring a ton of points. The Bears have had one year of success. The Packers have been inconsistent. The Vikings have another new quarterback.

So I have no problem with the Lions being the favorite, but I don't think that they are much better than any other team in this division. I think there are question marks about all four teams in the NFC North. Yeah, but I think, I don't know. I think they're ahead of the Bears. I think they're – I mean, the odds say that they are for sure. They're ahead of the Packers.

I think the one question for the Lions going into the season is the secondary, right? That's the one sore spot. Offensively, like, yeah, there's some issues on the offense line dealing with injuries and what, you know, who suits up. I mean, they're counting on hitting it with Miller. Right. At right tackle, Penae Sewell, the best right tackle in football is playing left tackle. So that's at least somewhat of a game. But they still have their high.

Taze, the pre-in center they got from Carolina. Yeah, it could be four new starters in terms of where they're playing on the offensive line. But as far as they're high in talent, they still have it. They still have Moncee Browns. They still have Jameson Williams. They still have, you know, Leporta, the gang. So the gang still there. The problem is they, I think the window's closing.

And I think that's part of the, I guess, the anxiety with this ball club is how long can you keep these guys around? Because some guys have to get paid. And the division as a whole is getting a lot better. But it's amazing they were fourth and scoring fifth and yards last year, offensively, with all the things that were going on on the offensive side of the ball. and the amount of individual sort of accolades that guys got throughout the course of the season and for them to finish the way they did. Well, they didn't have a bad season.

Like, they had defensive injuries again. It was a weird offensive line year, and they still finished with nine wins. I think that's why they're the favorites. They have a very high floor. And, you know, the running game, I'd like to think that some of it is Ben Johnson, given that I'm a Bears guy, and the Bears were such a great rushing team last year. with nowhere near as much running back talent as they've had in Detroit. Like, I do think some of that was the brilliance of Ben Johnson leaving Detroit and going to Chicago.

But don't you think it feels like such a worse season because it's 15 wins a year before? No question. So they've declined by six wins, even though you have a winning season, still feels like, oof. No, I'm saying if that was a bad year, that's why they're the favorites this year. If a bad year is still nine wins. And that's what's the amazing thing, too, about what's happened in Detroit. is 9 and 8 is now a bad season where for a lot of years, that would have been, he might have got a parade.

I guess Dan Campbell has officially changed the culture there. But listen, be the preseason favorites. The Bears will take care of it coming up this year. But coming up, speaking of the Bears, Trevor Lawrence out playing Caleb Williams this season. I would say the answer is no, but the coaches are already talking about it in July, so we're going to weigh in coming up on first things first. Hey, y'all.

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Wayfair, every style, every home. Thanks for hanging out with us on first things first. Let's talk Jags. They came off a 13 and 4 season where they won the AFC South, hype around them heading into this year. It's got to be at an all-time high. But according to Liam Cohen, who says according to Google, no one's talking about it.

Nobody's looking for it. Take a listen. You know what I said to the staff the other day? I go, guys, this is the best part of coaching the Jacksonville Jaguars. You don't have to make up telling your player stuff. You don't have to make up the fire. You don't have to make it up. It's given to us every day.

And it's like a gift from the heavens. You know, you just scroll. I just go, pull on my phone, look at the NFL Network website, and just pop up here. Any column. I'm curious if I see any photos or anything about the Jacksonville Jaguar. I think I'll just scroll right on through. You keep going, yeah.

I think I'll see 40 pictures of Caleb Williams, and I won't see a single thing about any of our players. I'm here. Liam Conan, real time learning about market size. It's amazing. Coach, we know you are a fan of the Prince. So I assume you have him out playing Caleb Williams this year. Well, first of all, I don't know.

I guess with that interview, it's fantastic. He was talking about the value of not being talked about. And from a coaching perspective, that's what you want. You don't want to be the team that's being talked about all the time. It's a much better space not to be because you're not dealing with a bunch of distractions. Seattle last year was 60 to 1 odds to win the Super Bowl. Arizona had better odds to win the Super Bowl. It's okay to not be talked about.

It's a good spot. So you probably shouldn't complain about it. But in terms of Trevor versus Caleb, yeah, Trevor could outplay him just like he outplayed him last year. If we bring up the numbers, we saw it earlier in the week. I know you don't want to see this. Oh. He had 13 wins. Danny.

He had 4,000 yards. He had 38 total TDs. Well, you're going to have to give me a better pass rate in. Yeah. So, yeah, could he do it again this year? Yeah. And I don't know why it's really a question. because he already did it.

Okay. Don't, don't. All right, can you just wait to score the argument until it's over, please? I'm just saying if you're going to swing, that's how you come out swinging. Please put it back up on the screen. How long has Trevor Lawrence been in the NFL? Last year was five years, right? Oh, we're putting asterisk on it?

I think we can grade on a curve here. Was last year? Last year was your two for Caleb, you're five for Trevor. Sure. Right? Okay. Okay, so remember we're grading on a curve from not. All right. So I'm supposed to be wowed by 65 more passing yards for year five Trevor than year two, Caleb.

I'm supposed to be wowed by 0.9 passer rating points. I noticed you didn't have interceptions on there because you know what? Trevor Lawrence beat him there. He had 12. He did have 12 compared to, what was it, five for Caleb. Do you have a graphic that shows that? I got a tall top of the dome coach. 61% completion percentage for Trevor 58 for Caleb. I'm supposed to be wowed by three percentage. points for a year five player versus a year two player. You know what else was it on there? Playoff wins. I know you like those.

Caleb had won Trevor Goose egg. So, I mean, is there a chance Trevor outplays Caleb? Yeah, but I'm guessing that year three ascending Caleb is going to pass your beloved prince and leave him in the dust. And that's another comment I have for Liam is he obviously doesn't watch first things first because we do talk about the prince and Nick gave him. Put us on in the facility, coach. Grow on FS1.

He gets talked about. Look, I didn't know we were grading on a curb. I thought we were evaluating. There's a projection here. If you were the number one overall draft pick and came into the league and you said, hey, we're never going to have to punt the ball. They're texting the punter. Don't worry about it.

And all those things, I would imagine there's expectations to come with that. But let's grade them on a. I feel like if year two of one guy is basically equal to year five of the other, guy, I think that it's totally reasonable that by year three, that guy would pass the other one in year six. That feels the call it a curve. Well, I mean, you would say the same thing about someone who's drafted number one overall versus someone who has drafted further down in the draft. You would expect the number one overall draft pick to be better than no, you know. Sure, but these guys were both drafted number one. No, I was talking about like Jaden Daniels his first year. Okay. How was Jaden last year? I'm just saying, say we've graded that on a curve or not. Jaden was very good as a rookie. That's a good point.

I can score that one for coach. Well, I say this. I think both of them have continuity on their side, right? So that's a win for both of them. Senator Liam Cohen has another year with Trevor Lawrence and obviously Caleb with Ben Johnson. I think the issue with Trevor Lawrence is that he's had stretches of elite play, but then it's production sometimes falters because of coaching,

production or whatever. But I think what Caleb has to prove next year is that from snap to snap, he can be efficient. That's one of the goals, right? So I think both of them, there's room for growth. But I think right now who's probably the more hungry if I have, I had to say it has to be Trevor Lawrence because I think we've watched them long enough. And I think we're looking at him to have that true kind of statement game.

I think we're still waiting for that type of game. To your point, Danny, I think him going, you know, Caleb going into his third year. Like I think we're still growing with Caleb. I think we're ready to turn the channel with Trevor. And hopefully he gives us something before we kind of completely write him off. Trevor was. Caleb lit up Drake May too, right? Statistically last year?

No, he did. They don't know. He did. All right. Coach. Coach, who would you rather have? I'm just creating on a curve. I'm just asking, okay, all right, new topic, new topic.

Who would you rather have Trevor Lawrence or Caleb Williams? Right now? Yeah. Come on. Which team do I have? No, no, you're drafting a team. The team is starting, you don't have a roster. It's the first round.

I don't know. I'd have to evaluate it. Oh, my God. What a cop out. Come on, Willie. I'm going to go, Trevor. Like it. Like it.

Like it, Willie. I'm going to go Trevor. Based on what? He's a tough of quarterback. The tougher quarterback? By far the tougher quarterback. Multiple all-line switches, didn't really have a big run. I mean, there's a lot to go.

What about Caleb is not tough? Excuse me, I'm confused. I want to keep my job. That's what I said. Oh, my gosh. Listen, okay. I took Jason Daniels. He wasn't available.

The question was Trevor or Caleb. And if you got to hang your hat on a nice six-game sample of Trevor Lawrence to finish year five as to why he's going to be better than Caleb Williams, based on how he finished last season in year two, by all means. I am comfortable being over here with Caleb Williams. We'll see. Listen, he won't have his star center. Drew Doman's retired, right? So now he has to sit in pocket and be the elite complete quarterback by dissecting and being more efficient. Once again, snap to snap. You're taking Trevor Lawrence over Caleb Williams because of Drew Dahlman? Yeah, because Drew Dorman called the protection. He did a lot for Caleb.

All Caleb had to do was handle his side of the ball. Not his side of the ball. Not his side of the ball. That's wrong words. But I say there wasn't a lot on his plate when Drew Dorman was in. And Trevor Lawrence had a tough rookie year and then came back and had a really successful and positive second year. So let's see how it goes in year three. Listen, at least you answered the question. I'm going to swing. At least you answer.

I'm going with Trevor. All right. You can go with Trevor. Coach is, you know, taking J to Daniels. Well, that was a, A or B, you took D. I got caught up with grading on a curve. I'm stuck there. All right, fine.

Let's stick with this story because this is going so well. Ben Johnson was asked this morning if he had heard the comments from Liam Cohn. And surprisingly, his algorithm talks nothing but Jaguar. It's unbelievable. Here was Ben Johnson's response to Liam Cohn. Take a listen. Well, we're the number one regression candidates. So I think we got plenty of motivation ourselves.

We talked about Caleb in the past. He's used to handling a lot of attention, so I'm not worried about that. This one gets me mad too. Should I go first or last? Go first. You want me to go first? Okay, so the question is buying a bear's regression is on the board. Yeah, of course, it's on the board.

But in order to regress, you have to be regressing from somewhere good. You know who else is a regression candidate? The Super Bowl champion 14 wins Seahawks. You know who else is a regression candidate? The AFC champion 14 win Patriots. You know who else is a regression candidate? Trevor Lawrence, your favorite, and the 13 win Jaguars. Or the 14 win Broncos.

You know who's not a regression candidate? Jaden Daniels and the commanders, because they were terrible last year. You have to be great in order to be a candidate to regress. So yeah, is the offensive line probably going to be more injured than last year? Yeah. Are they going to lead the league? in fourth quarter comebacks? Probably not.

Are they going to lead the league in takeaways? Probably not. But Caleb Williams improved so much from year one to year two. If he improves that much from year two to year three, you can make fun of this if you want, coach. But he will be in the MVP conversation based on the year one to year two jump. If he takes the same jump from year two to year three, that will more than make up for it.

And regression talk will be earned because they were good, but it will be silly, because 18 will be awesome. Yeah, but I think it's a little more complex to that. I think from this standpoint, nobody expected the bears to run the ball as well as they did last season, right? So now people are looking at that component

of their game as a strength. So people are going to be hunkering in and stop the run. On top of that, the run game save Caleb, right? And on top of that, we're hoping Caleb can play all four quarters. We know that historically, especially last year, he was a second half quarterback. And defensively right now, they still need help, right?

So the regression with all that is still real. Like they can, we won't see this high-octane offense like we saw last year because I think more people are looking at, they're going to take them serious. And especially with the fact that right now, Caleb, you know, listen, there's going to be more on his plate to do more and be better. Why, whenever Brent Johnson calls plays, they're an awesome running team. Like, people take the Rams seriously. We expect them to be a good offense.

People take the Cowboys seriously. We expect them to be a good offense. People take the Bengals seriously. We expect them to be a good offense. Why? the bears are going to be taken seriously so Ben Johnson and Caleb Williams won't be able to move the ball? I think, right, I think if you look at last year and how they played their games, there was a lot of times where Caleb wasn't doing anything, right?

It was the run game that saved them through the game and allowed him to have those fourth quarter comebacks. My point is, if you're a defense right now, you say, hey, man, if we stop the run and force Caleb to beat us, that's a different aspect than what he had to deal with last year. So, yeah, they may be regression if he's not from the neck up there right now. And I don't know why you're frustrated with the regression talk. And I think a little bit of what Ben was saying is he was tongue in cheek, obviously, saying they're the number one regress. Oh, he hears it. He hears it.

And the reality is regression happens more often than you realize or that we talk about because we always talk about worse to first. Very rarely do we talk about it going the other way. But just look at the ones from last season. These are all significant. 15 and 2 down to 6 and 11, 12 and 5 down to 5 and 12. 15 and 2 down to 9 and 8. These are a significant amount of games where teams have regressed, and it happens

just like there's four or five teams that go to the playoffs that weren't very good. There's four or five teams that are pretty good that suddenly takes steps back. But also, all those teams up there, they've made deep playoff runs, right? And so sometimes, I've heard you say this on here, like sometimes we're a team that's a custom of taking those long runs. Your team necessarily may not

be covered from the past year, right? And so I think we're watching the Bears, they may be going through that. They haven't, they didn't they haven't been custom to making those playoff So they go into this season, they're like, man, we're still trying to shake off last year. And you're trying to learn how to deal with success. And you're hoping that the things that you've added, the pieces you added are going to be really positive and the pieces that you lost, you're going to be able to compensate for.

And the way that you're being played is going to be a little different than the way you're played the last year. Your schedule's more challenging. You may have Thursday night games or Monday night games or playing at 4 o'clock, which you didn't have before, playing on holiday, all those things that are disruptors. that you have to adjust to with success. But, I mean, to be clear, I'm saying, you are only a candidate for regression if you're good.

So the idea that the Bears are a regression candidate does not bother me at all. Just, they are a regression candidate just like the Patriots are a regression candidate, the exact same. Mediocre teams have become really bad. Okay, but I mean, I don't. So regression.

Listen, they won the end. NFC North last year, they won a playoff game. They almost beat the Rams in the divisional round. Like, I don't think they were a mediocre team. No, no, I wasn't saying that. I'm just saying regression can take a lot of forms. Yeah, I'm not. I think you're right by saying, listen, to be good,

regression is a part of it, right? But I also sit, I look at it from this standpoint. It's how you regress. Like, if Caleb takes a step backwards where he's turned over into a ball more, where he looks, you know, from a mechanic standpoint, he looks all over the place in the pocket. Those are legit regressions you have to worry about because of everything that coach just talked about.

If that happens, I will absolutely be concerned. I will be floored if that happens. If Caleb Williams personally regresses, I think he's too talented with too good of a coach. They might lose more games. The division is awesome. The wrong guy could get hurt and all of that. But I think when you are a blue chip talent with a blue chip coach and you're as young as he is and you have as much buy-in as those two guys have together,

I don't think Caleb's going to be worse this year individually. I think the team could be. I will be Florida if Caleb is worse this year. Let's go to the Bay. Debo Samuel is back. They're getting the whole band back together in San Francisco. Good sign from Brock Purdy. It's coming up.

We'll just be debated Caleb. Trevor during the break. Coach is going to make a call. Summer heats up in FX's The Shards. Set in 80s, Los Angeles, the Shards follows a group of beautiful privileged prep school students who are preyed on by the trawler, a serial killer targeting teenagers across the city.

This fever dream of youth, beauty, sex, and mystery is a must see. FX's The Shards, streaming August 5th on Hulu on Disney Plus. Sign up now at Disneyplus.com. 49ers are bringing Debo Samuel back on a one-year $7 million deal, up to $7 million with the incentives. This after the news that Ricky Pearsall could reportedly miss the entire season with his knee issues. All right, Coach, how big of a deal

is this signing for Brock Purdy and the 49ers? This is great. And to be able to get this done at the start of camp, the difficult thing is, is another talented player that comes in, really positive, that's had a ton of success in the system, really positive.

But just like a lot of their group, there's an injury prone element to, you know, his situation. And so you're adding another layer of, yeah, we hope he can get through the whole season. And if he does, he's probably going to make a big contribution. But there's going to be question marks with that. And look, Debo wanted to go somewhere else. He made a lot of noise to go somewhere else.

He went and experienced that. Didn't work out. Comes back home and could be really positive for both sides. Yeah, I think we also have to understand as he returns, they can't use them like they used in the past. Like Debo was a guy who carried the ball. He did a lot of different things for him. This guy's gotten old and age.

And they have to use him like a specialized weapon. If they can do that, then he can be impactful while he's healthy. But I think right now, you know, listen, losing Juan, Geniston, Minnesota, Ricky going down, Brandon Ayup, not in the building. The 90's still, they're still in trouble from a depth standpoint when it comes to the receiving court. So they're still going to have to bring some people in that can hopefully stabilize the offense. But to add a guy like this at the start of camp who has familiarity with your system and the success and has worked with your core, like all those things.

And a guy who's gone somewhere else. and realizes, hey, I didn't have it too bad where I was. So I'm sure that his attitude and his approach is going to be that much better coming back to San Francisco after spending time away. They have the same thing on defense, too. Drey Greenlaw was gone for a year in Denver, and then he came back to San Francisco. I know like Uchech and Kittle were kind of recruiting Debo to come back. So like for all of those like soft factors of like chemistry, getting the band back together,

over the reunion, all of that stuff, I think the vibes are great. Also, it's a one-year deal worth up to $7 million based on incentives. Yeah, it's a home run at this one. For the Niners, it's really all upside. Because to your point, Debo, he did leave. He did go get paid. He is older. He is older.

He wasn't as productive. And now he's coming back. He's like, hey, I want to get back in that Kyle Shanahan system and try to win. It's like if he produces, the Niners reap the benefit, Debo gets a little bit of financial reward. But it's not much of an investment. Like Christian Kirk got hurt on the first day at camp. Piersole has these knee setbacks. So this is just a, this is just a dart throw.

It's a name we know, and he was great at times. But I wouldn't be rushing out to draft Debo Samuel and fantasy. I don't think he's going to be a 10 touchdown guy for them. But it's not much of an investment for San Francisco, so there's no risk. But it also gives a pretty opportunity to trust somebody, rather than bring somebody who has to kind of teach and kind of grow and trust that, you know, they can be on the same page. Steve, like you said, Debo's coming in, knowing what to do, knowing what to expect,

and now he's just plug and play, which helps Purdy right now, because he's looking at this office and saying, all right, I know what we have, but it's something, I know where we're deficient at, too, and that's the receiver room. Yeah, to avoid the learning curve to add to the chemistry of that building, to be, they can't use them with the volume that they've used in the past, but he still does have flexibility in terms of how they can use them, and I'm sure he's excited to some degree to maybe do a couple different things, even though it's not as much as it was before. And the

cost is minimal compared to what other free agent receivers are getting, and they're getting to start a camp. I wonder how many, this is maybe a podcast topic, but I wonder how many divisions the Niners would be the favorite in. They are so overlooked

because it's... NFC South. Well, the NFC South would be an easy one. They probably wouldn't be in the NFC North. They're not in the NFC West. But in a lot of divisions, they would be a team that would be co-favorites or the favorite to win it.

Now, they are old. They do have guys that are injured. But you're talking about wide receiver questions. I was thinking, I was like, yeah, you're right. Oh, yeah, they also have Mike Evans. It's a pretty loaded roster that in a lot of other scenarios... But don't forget, Mike Evans has been plagued with hamstring issues for a while now.

No, no question. We talked about it yesterday. They are counting on a lot of old guys to stay healthy, and now they've added another veteran player with injury issues. So I'm not like saying this is going to be the tipping point thing for them, but it's another piece of if it goes well, the Niners do have a path to being a very good team this year. Yeah, absolutely.

And they dealt with a lot of injuries last year and surprised people with how well they ended up finishing the season. Yeah, Kyle Shanahan team's very, very high floor. Coming up, though, on first things first. We're going camping. Oh, yeah, that's right. Get around the campfire, tell some stories. Shmore.

Smoors. Okay. Spelled smores. There's no H. I'm sorry. When do we get to winners and losers? Loser, pronunciation is coming up. On Thursday, start.

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Scotia Bank, you're richer than you think. Live from New York, it's the show that's practicing. It's touchdown celebrations. It's first things first. Willie, you got a favorite celebration? No, I wasn't at liberty to do any of those things. You never got into the end zone? No, I had to go right and get ready for field goal protection.

So they're celebrating on my behalf. I bet Willie would have some great something. Oh, yeah. Given the opportunity. Given the opportunity, I'll show up for you. So if I was your quarterback, I'd hand you the ball and let you celebrate when I scored. Would you? No.

I'd look for the nearest camera. Big me, me, me. Big me guy. I did that. I did that. I'm the reason we won. Right. Is that frowned upon?

No, not from you. Oh, thank you. Coming up. Derek Henry. Believe it or not, he wants to win. We'll discuss the base key to a Ravens Super Bowl run. Also, the Eagles lost AJ Brown this off season. But did they gain an evil genius?

We discussed it. Maybe I'll do my Dr. Evil voice. Who knows? But right now, let's go camping. We are just under six weeks away from opening night. So we've been going city to city to break down the biggest storylines as we gear up for yet another NFL season. First up, take a trip down to Houston where the Texans,

very impressive 12 and 4 last year. last year, of course, ousted by the Pats in the divisional round because, well, CJ Stroud through four interceptions. Let's take a look at what the Texans did this offseason. Will Anderson got the massive deal, acquired David Montgomery, made some moves on the offensive line, both through the draft and free agency, which was necessary given how often C.J. Stroud was staring up at the ceiling. My biggest camp storyline, though, it is very simple.

it goes to C.J. Stroud, and it is a simple question of if he's good enough. I thought, personally, that his rookie season that everybody loved so much was a little overrated. It was impressive for what it wasn't. He didn't turn the ball over a lot. He only had the four or five picks his rookie season. But a cluster of touchdowns in one game, it was like low ceiling, high floor serviceable. Then he has a good year, and then since it's been bad. They picked up his option for next year.

And if you look to his losses from last year, or the Texans losses from last year, they didn't have one where you could say, well, Stroud played great, but they lost. In their six losses last year, including the playoffs, among the 33 quarterbacks who qualified for these statistics, he was a bottom five quarterback across the boarding losses. When the Texans lost, they lost because of him.

They have the best defense and football coach. I don't know if C.J. Stroud is good enough to take full advantage of that defense. I agree. I don't know if he's good enough either. And the playoffs last year, God, it was so rough. There was two touchdowns. And I'm trying not to overrate that one game, even though it was awful. He's two games. He hasn't been good for it. He's been good for two. You're right. Two touchdowns, five interceptions, put the ball on the ground five more times and lost two of those. It was horrifying. 51 quarterback rating. Guys were open and it looked like wide open, even move the pocket players where there's nobody in his face.

and the ball's going in the dirt. I thought there was a serious chance that he was going to get benched at halftime, and maybe they should have done that. But it's just so hard from a coaching perspective to move on from who you think and have believed into your franchise guy during a playoff game. That would have been a really gutsy move. But as they look moving forward, they obviously weren't willing to commit to him with a new deal. They went the other way and picked up his fifth-year option.

and now it's going to be up to him to show that he does belong. Yeah, last year he legit had the yips, man, and I don't think I've ever seen it that blatant since Chuck Knoblock, right? Who? Cross Sport 25-year reference, I love it. But I also think if you're to Houston, Texas, you've got to keep him out of obvious passing situations. And hopefully he can do things within the office

where he constantly elevates the office and not ride the coattails of the defense. So, listen, am I a believer? No, because I think I can't. can't get the playoffs out of my mind. I just can't. As much as I want to, I can't. So I don't believe you can do it. But I mean, listen, we've done it before. We've shown, you know, first 20 games, next 20 games. Yeah. The C.J. Strattel. The playoffs stick with us because they were playoff games and it did look like the Yips. He has not been a consistently productive quarterback for well over a year now. And you could say, well, they traded away Laramie Monsel and he's had offensive line problems. And then, you know, Nico Collins got hurt and Tank Dell got hurt. Like it has not been perfect around him. I'm not saying that.

but he has not been a quarterback who has elevated their offense. And when you're as good as they are defensively, you can't be a quarterback that just doesn't win games. You know, they can actually live with that. If you're a quarterback that doesn't win games, they can live there. He's a quarterback that's losing games. It's a different dynamic. And he struggles to do that.

It feels like if CJ Stroud this year was the 14th best quarterback in football, they could win the Super Bowl. with that defense yeah right it's the it's the best defense in football yeah until until iron don't joins the Rams it's probably it's the best pass rush he could be a little lower than that and they could probably win him okay so that that's yeah 16 18 but be a top 20 quarterback and they can win the Super Bowl but it goes to what we're saying just don't be the reason why you lose and I don't think that's hard you know what I mean just do enough with the because of the defense you do have well so then that is clearly the biggest storyline for the Texans who have a

ready defense. Let's go to Green Bay, where the Packers are coming off a 9-7-1 year. That was really a tale of free mica injury, post-MICA injury. Lost in the wild card round. Who did they lose to, coach? I can't remember. Yeah, it was the Bears. How's there? Let's take a look at the Packers offseason. They paid their wide receivers. They made the choice on their wide receiver room finally.

They were like, all right, we drafted Matthew Golden, we're paying Watson and Reed, we're letting Romeo Dobbs go. They let Malik Willis go. obviously did not have a first round pick. So my biggest camp storyline for the Packers is, is the offense going to be ready week one to carry them until Micah comes back? Because the NFC North is absolutely loaded.

I genuinely believe any of the four teams can win it and any of the four teams can come in last place. So Micah Parsons is going to miss at least four, maybe up to six games depending on schedule and ramp up once he comes off the public. So if we throw up the Packers schedule, early. It's pretty favorable. If you look at, you know, is he going to come back for that Bears game, which I believe is week five? Is he going to come back for the Cowboys game, which is week six?

You can take my word for it. Yeah, there it is. I nailed it. Bears in week five, Cowboys in week six, Vikings, Jets, Falcons, Bucks. If you then look to, well, what does that mean for a team without Micah? I think it sets up pretty well. You play one playoff team in your first six weeks, the Bears. and you play one top 10 defense, Minnesota. Jordan Love should be able to carry the offense right out of the gate. I know there's Josh Jacobs, legal questions. I know Tucker Kraft is coming off the injury. But Jordan Love needs to be hot early until Michael Parsons can come back.

Well, you've got to be able to score in the 20s, right? Because they lost their closure in Michael Parsons. That's what Mike is known for in the fourth quarter. Five minutes left of the game. He's going to go get the quarterback, either get a turnover or shut things down. They don't have them. So now you're actually more out of the offense to produce. and with everything you just, all the guys you just named,

they're going to need those guys ready to go right out the gate. Do I think Jordan Love can deliver in that factor? Yes, I do. I think the Packers are good enough offensively to do it. Well, like we talked about with Mahomes and the play action component, with Josh Jacobs, they had 1,300 yards two years ago, and then it was a little over 900 last year, and he was dealing with the injuries.

So he was a big factor in their offense. We'll have to see how that plays out. And the Tucker Craft issue missed at nine games last year. Tucker Kraft was arguably the best tight end in football, the first half of last year. Yeah. So is he going to be ready at the start of the season? Is he not going to be ready at the start of season? And that dynamic is a big part of how successful Jordan's going to be.

Yeah, Tucker Kraft activated off the pup list today. But you look at it and you're like, okay, they got Reed, Watson, Golden, Kraft, Jacobs. It's a really good skill. More enough. Oh, yeah. With Jordan Love. They are one of many teams who think they can be a top five offense this season. All right, let's get in the RV.

Head north, Minnesota. I like to go camping in an RV. Is coach still driving? Still driving? Yeah. Yeah. Looks like I'm just busy eating. They stuff.

Smores. I must be smuggling all this more than. Head is gigantic. Look at how little your head is, Willie. My head is like. It's the pads, coach. It's the pads. Besides that Minnesota.

Oh. I look good. Vikings went 9 and 8 last year behind. I don't know if I can call it a three-headed monster and quarterback of JJ McCarthy, Carson, Wents, and Max Prasmer. This was the Vikings offseason, and it was an interesting one. They signed Kyler Murray. Willie mentioned it earlier when we were talking Niners. They signed Joanne Jennings, made a big signing on the offensive line,

gave, got rid of Grenard to Philly. So big changes on, you know, the interior of the team on both sides of the ball. But whenever there's a true quarterback battle, it's obviously the biggest storyline of camp. And the reports are, I was reading it today over the Athletic, apparently J.J. McCarthy is two for two in out dueling Kyler Murray. Now, he has more familiarity in the system, obviously, so I'm not declaring him the winner. But they are treating this like it is a true quarterback battle. And my question is if the winner is going to make them forget about losing Sam Donald.

because Sam Darnold just won a Super Bowl. And if you throw up what their numbers were, Kevin O'Connell operated from a place of what I would have said was earned arrogance. He was like, I got Kirk Cousins to have great numbers. I got Sam Darnold to have great numbers. So instead of paying those guys, I'm going to draft J.J. McCarthy, and I'll have him have great numbers. 2024 is when he had Sam Darnold.

And it was great. Cross the board. Last year with the three quarterbacks, it was abysmal. Kevin O'Connell learned what life was like without. So I guess, coach, the question is simply whether it is McCarthy or Kyler, I think it'll end up being Kyler. Can they get more of 2024 production than 2025? Yes, they can. Are they going to still be happy that they let go of Sam Darnold or will it make them ease the regret of losing San Donald?

No, I don't think so. I think they're going to probably regret it even more after the finish of this year because either guy, I doubt. is going to give you anywhere close to what Sam did that one year. And now the fact that he's gone and done it again in a different place and had the success. And I would anticipate that trajectory will continue for him. And is Kyler Murray the answer long term in Minnesota? No. We've seen other guys have great success at their second team.

But I don't know if it's going to ease the pain. Well, you say Kyler's going to win the job. I hope is J.J. McCarthy. He's only played 10 games. That's right. He's still a young quarterback. And the Minnesota Vikings have this way of being extremely impulsive with their quarterback. Sam should have never left the building, right?

But it is what it is. It's history. If you're going into this competition battle, that is, I feel like you have to invest in JJ McCarthy because he's younger. And he hasn't played a lot. A lot of the kid to grow in within his system and continue to flourish. He was so bad, though, when he played. But he was also coming off an injury. Like, he's still trying to find his way.

Listen, at the end of the day, I felt like I wasn't a pro to year three or four in my career. career, right? Where I fully got what was going on and what was in front of me. Now, this kid went to Michigan. He's probably a lot smarter than me. But nevertheless, man, he still needs time to grow. Don't give up on him. I hate the fact that he's even in this position. Really? Yeah. He just got the GM fired. The head coach isn't going to get fired because of him. How did he get the GM fired? Because the GM let him play and let Sam Darnel go. And they drafted him. And it has been, it's been abysmal. But what, but don't you think you, I understand that from that standpoint.

point, but my point is every guy needs time to grow. You can't put, this isn't a microwave type of situation where you plug and play. Totally understand, but they've got a talented team and all, you can let the kid grow. But if you sit there and have all this talent and a ridiculously competitive division and you got another guy that's better than him, I don't know how it's better than him. Like he was benched in Arizona. Well, listen, we're going to, we're going to see. That's what the competition's for.

And the bar is not very high based off his numbers last year in the games that he played. Well, I guess my question would be, has J.J. McCarthy in year three earns not having competition? No. Right? Not even close. I just don't know. I think you can, I think that's a better question to ask him if he's played a full season. I, listen, I understand that.

Because you have a larger, but you can't count, you can't count on the guy to be healthy either. But that was, but that was his, that was always been kind of his knock. Well, I mean, he still drafted him. You can't give up on him. Well, I think they're about to. I think they are very much about to. But hey, if he beats out Kyler Murray. And maybe he'll be someone, Sam Donald, somewhere else.

Yeah, or, I mean, you just don't want to mess around with Justin Jefferson's prime. You don't want Justin Jefferson. Or you just be looking for a quarterback year after year. Or Justin Jefferson will ask out of Minnesota at some point. Like, you got to write that ship there. That is a team that's ready to win now. Let's go to Jerry World. Final stop on our camp tour today.

Cowboys finished last year, 7-9 and 1. the playoffs for back-to-back years. Cowboys off-season, I mean, honestly, it was pretty busy. Franchise tag on George Pickens, and it went well. Spent money in free agency, like they don't normally do, most since Brandon Carr for a defensive back in free agency back in 2012 for Thompson the safety, then drafted Caleb Downs, used two first-round picks on defense, traded for Rashon Gary, pretty busy offseason for Dallas. So my biggest camp storyline is, are they legit Super Bowl contenders with Gotti? The greatest offense there is.

And you mentioned it kind of early in passing, Willie. It is the NFC version of the Bengals. Sure. Like, Dows can be a top three offense in the NFL. Can you then be the top, a top 20 defense in the NFL? I showed those numbers yesterday for CINC about, you know, teams like the 06 Colts, you know, or the chiefs from a few years back like where it was like, you were a top three offense and you were a middling defense,

but it was good enough to win. Didn't want to do that in terms of the history since I showed it yesterday for SINC. If Dallas can just be a little below average defensively, look at what they've done when their defense scores less than 25, or allows less than 25. They are 41 and 6 if they hold the opponent to under 25 points per game. That's not asking a lot. League average, 23, 24 points per game.

Just be a little below average and you win basically every game. I feel like with Christian Parker, like new defensive coordinator, first round picks, money spent, full year with Quinn and Williams. I feel like that's in play for Dallas this year, Coach. Yeah, to me, they've done more than Cincinnati has done to build their defense. Since he has the Dexter Lawrence trade, they spent a lot in free agency also. Yeah, they let a star go for nothing. Dallas traded a star and got a lot of occur.

No, that is definitely true. And they went and parlayed those trade or those draft picks into. to other players that you could argue are definitely front line guys. And I don't think 25 points a game is unreasonable for this year in terms of a bar. And if they hit that, we see how successful it's been. It's definitely in the realm of possibility. Yeah, I think the optimism comes with Christian Park and his ability to disguise and get after the quarterback. I think they still probably one more game record away from kind of being a legit contender.

Hopefully, you know, we'll see what Jerry has up the sleeve. But if the defense shows up, I agree with you. They're in contention because of what the offense can do. It's just, I feel like their offense gives them a pretty high floor, assuming health, obviously. We're all assuming health here. Yep. And then it's did they hit on Malachi Lawrence with the 23rd pick in the draft and get like a legit pat? Like you need someone to kind of come out of nowhere.

Because I don't think Rishon Gary is going to all of a sudden be great. Yeah. Right. That guy in great big. Exactly. So I don't think he's that type of thing. But if you can figure out one place where you just overachieve on the defense. Can you overachieve?

I don't see it. I don't see defense as being just one place where you can overachieve because typically if there's only one place that you overachieve, they don't attack there. They attack everywhere else where you underachieve. And what Dallas has done a good job of is they've addressed a lot of things. In the second, they've tried to address the layers of the defense. so maybe they won't have the massive breakout star, but cumulatively, they should be significantly better.

Well, then I think they're going to be in contention well into December and maybe even January. Speaking of a team that has expectations of making a Super Bowl, it's coach's favorite topic, talking about the Super Bowl in July. Baltimore's doing it. Love it. So we will discuss. You know I was going to get done.

That's coming up on first things first. Coming up August 9th on Fox, the stars of IndyCar. are going full throttle as they look to chase down Alex below in Portland. That's August 9th, only on Fox. Time now for the top performance, sponsored by Capital One. What's in your wallet? The Ravens goal is always to reach the Super Bowl. Hard to do when you miss the playoffs, though.

Like last year, we were able to confirm that. But Derek Henry, he's still eager to accomplish their ultimate goal. Take a listen. If I ain't got about year 11, then I don't know what I'm going to get it, But yeah, I mean, that's always been my focus is want to be better, wanting to do better than a year before, and wanting to win the championship. So that's the number one goal always.

Seems pretty straightforward, Coach. What's the biggest key, though, to the Ravens team, that Brew will come back from vacation. They will be S-Bob, Super Bowl or bust. They are every year in Lamar's prime. They haven't done it. What's the key to them actually doing it this year? The key is going to be how well they transition to the new coaching staff?

And there's 18 years of John Harbaugh there and that not just the coaching side, but organizationally, he did things one way. It could be operations. It could be PR. It could be medical. Be strength and conditioning. He touched so many different areas. Now you bring in a new coach with a new philosophy and that touches all those areas too.

And it all plays into the product on the field. So there's the head coach and how well he can handle those responsibilities as well as being the defensive coordinator and then there's this the new offensive coordinator and things that he's talked about and and it sounds like the guys are excited Lamar's excited about the offense other guys have talked about how how interesting it'll be to infuse these new plays in but my cautionary tale is when you've got a guy who's been a two-time MVP could have won a third you better do a whole lot of what he does well and then incorporate the other things that you want to bring then based off your skin.

Yeah, I think it starts up front. Honestly, we talked about this revamped office line. They give them 36 acts last season, right? And Lamar missed four games because of injury. But Lamar also turned over the ball in time. So you talk about what needs to happen. They got to find the way to get those boys up front to be a lot more efficient than it.

And get back to playing that black and blue football, they loved it thriving, right? That kind of bully ball. They get back to being that. I think that's going to help Lamar a lot. I think it's also going to slow them down. I think a lot of what we saw last year when they referenced to turn it,

him turning the ball over is because the lack of protection. I think he felt rushed. His footwork was all over the place. So I think they just have to get back to neutral as an offense and climb up. Hopefully they can do that with Decladio as a new O.C. So yeah, your focus on the offensive side of the ball, you're talking to coaching. And I guess I'll just kind of complete it. And I'll be on the defensive side of the ball, but kind of because of coaching.

I don't look at the Ravens when I just pull up their depth chart. I don't see a ton of high-end talent on offense other than Lamar. Jackson. Obviously, Derek Henry is still excellent, assuming at 32, 33 that he is. But I was amazed at what Jesse Minter was able to do with the Chargers. Like, I feel like if you put the Chargers depth chart on defense and the Ravens depth chart on defense, most people would say that the Ravens had more talent. But the Chargers were ninth in points allowed. The Ravens were 18th. The Chargers were sixth in defensive EPA points per play. The Ravens were 20th in EPA per play. Now Jesse Minter gets Madibuque and Roquan Smith and Trey Hendrickson and Nate Wiggins and Marlon Humphrey and Kyle Hamilton.

He gets all this elite talent on defense that now maybe he won't be able to overachieve as much defensively because of the transition from coordinator to head coach. Like that's an unknown for every coordinator who makes the jump. Some guys are really successful. Liam Cohen was successful. Ben Johnson was successful. Other guys struggle at it. But I feel like if he can overachieve with the Chargers level of the field, defensive talent, I'll be amazed at what he can do with Baltimore's.

It's interesting, though, that that's where you go with it in the sense that you've got Lamar Jackson and you're excited about the defense. And you've got Derek Henry and you're excited about the defense. I feel like I know what their offense. But to me, he needs to play like an MVP. He needs to play like a great court. We talk about this all the time with with quarterbacks, whether it's Josh Allen or Patrick Mahomes, to whom much is given, much is expected. When you've achieved at the level

he's achieved, him having another down year, it can't be in the cards. And it can't be about the Ravens defense. That could be one component of it, and that could get him to the Super Bowl. But the expectation should be that he's great. I don't know, though. Okay, go ahead, Willie, go ahead.

What I'm saying, I think I agree with coach from this standpoint because Lamar has a, what, three and five playoff record, right? And his pass a rating drops when he's in the playoffs. So when you're an MVP candidate year after year, there's an expectation when it comes to playoff time, you can't melt under the lights, right? And we've seen Lamar do that.

But I do think defensively what's going to be interesting is can they get after the quarterback with their four instead of blitzing, right? Because the excessive blitzin was gets them in trouble because there's holes in their secondary. That's why you go out and get a Trey Hendrickson. And you hopefully mad at B'Keefe is that guy. And you hopefully you get all these guys that can add pressure. because one thing that we saw last season in the playoffs

was that every team of the playoffs had what, a defensive line that can get after the quarterback, which helped the back end, which took the pressure off linebackers. If the Baltimore can get to that aspect, we can let these dogs up front get off the leash and control the game at the line of scrimmage, then we can get back to being more of a dominant defense.

Hopefully they can get to that point. One of the things I love about the NFL is, obviously, it's very complicated, and it's complimentary, and there's a ton of players that have an impact. It's not just one guy can carry a team. But also, you can follow the money. Like, they tried to trade for Max Crosby, didn't get it.

Then they threw money at Trey Hendrickson. They hired a defensive head coach. Like, their actions, they lose Tyler Linderbaum on offense. They lose Isaiah likely on offense. I feel like their resources and their attention this offseason went more towards their first round pick was an offensive lineman. Sure. But most of their resources this year went.

towards upgrading and fortifying the defensive side of the ball? Yeah, because they're paying Lamar and they're paying Derek Henry. And at some point, you want to shift some resources over. And that's what happens. If you start paying a few guys top money, then those guys have to carry the day on that side of the ball. And you got to make do with maybe some guys that aren't stars. And you should be able to. And ideally, you shift money to the other side of the ball where you don't have

the two-time MVP who could have been a three-time MVP. Yeah, that's why for me the key is give Lamar a great defense. Lamar carries the offense. You invest in the defense. And he didn't carry the offense last year. No, he was hurt, though. The whole year? He played 13 games.

He played through quite a few injuries. 13 out of 17? And he was, he played hurt. Yeah. I mean, the rush, okay. And he played 13 games. He played 13 games. The rushing totals were down.

It seemed like he was playing hurt. Let's move on to Phil. Philadelphia. The Eagles just put up 22 points per game last season. Good for 19th in the NFL. They also lost their number one receiver this soft season. But I love this. This media session with Jordan Milata, their tackle was fantastic. He thinks their new offensive coordinator, Sean Mannion. He might be just what the doctor ordered. Take a listen. When we're being taught this game, just the explanation of how the defense is going to see it and what the plan is. It's, is, in those meetings, you just see that, oh, wow, that's like, that's actually pretty smart. What did I think of about that, you know? There's a lot more to it than, you know, I guess I thought an offensive coordinator can bring to the table. And, yeah, I've just been blown away by that evil genius.

I don't know if that's the best, the endorsement for Kevin Petulow. So I joined my lot as a rookie, and he's like, I had no idea that when we put a guy in motion, it's supposed to set something up and up. What do you think of that? It falls in line to with me and coach was talking about the day behind the curtain. There's a difference between teaching and talent. When you have a good teacher,

he can explain concepts, details, structure. When you've played along as these guys have played, meaning Maelada and Hertz and all these guys, you respect the guy who can put something on the board, explain to you, and put a visioner front of you where you can see it. And they say, oh, that makes sense to me. When you don't have that as a player,

then half of the time you're out there trying to do what you're told, than then you're assuming. And that's where miscommunication and bad synergy starts. So I think from his standpoint, he's sitting down and saying, hey, man, I'm talking to somebody. I'm listening to somebody who's making it digestible, right? So now collectively we all feel like that,

and we're approaching week after week where we feel like we're digesting things that we're on the same accord, then there's no reason we should question our identity or what we're trying to do on the offense. So for me, that's a positive because we haven't heard that in a long time, especially out of somebody like that who's considered a leader and kind of the voice of the locker room. Yeah, there's layers of learning and you want the players know what to do,

but you also, the next layer is them understanding why you're doing it, and how it all fits together, because you can't practice everything that you're going to see defensively, and defenses will come up with stuff that maybe you hadn't talked about, but if guys understand why you're running a play and what you're hoping to achieve with that play, they can usually fix the mistakes or fix the problems themselves in real time. And that's huge.

Look, what is it, 100% alignment, 0%?0% entitlement. Nailed it. I love it. Give me all that all day. So Jalen Hertz has had all these different play caller every year, right? We do it all the time. Every year of college, every year of the pros, he's had these different play callers. Nick Siriani's been the constant.

They've been to the playoffs every year that he's been there. He does have an offensive background. I know you'll say this is oversimplifying it. oversimplifying it. But like, shouldn't being the offensive coordinator of the Eagles be pretty easy? Like, relative. It's definitely oversimplified. Okay, but I'm just saying relative to.

The fact that you said that out loud. I'm saying it as a compliment. Like, they have. Talent doesn't produce wins. It takes more, just because you have a talented roster, it takes a scheme of vision and a buy-in. We looked at this team year after year. There's been lack of buying to some degree, maybe because of the new OC, a multiple. or AJ Browns.

Like, there's things that's always kind of handicapped his team. And we're watching this, from my lot of voice, it seems like they're like, man, all that's behind us. We're getting back to football.

That's a blessing. No, I'm not saying that it isn't. What I am merely suggesting is they have had, Shane Steichen was there. He was awesome. He leaves he gets a head coaching job. Some guys go there and they get fired because they're not able to take it.

The talent that is there clearly is enough to win Super Bowls. Who was there before Kellynne Moore? I mean, I can't remember. Was that a motion or a firing? Well, no, that was, that was, wasn't that Stuyken? Where Stuyken went to Indianapolis and went off and was the head coach. And Kelly came from Dallas.

Yeah, so it's like, right, exactly. Some guys get promoted to be head coach. Some guys get fired and go out the doors. It's like the talent is enough. And I think you might be thinking to Brian Johnson. Was that the order of it? There's been a lot of turnover. So I'm trying to get the order.

Yeah, but my, I got a promotion and who, got it was Brian Johnson, but my point, my point is that like, you take this job knowing that if I execute, play, get the talents to play up to the level of which they are there, I can be a head coach in the NFL. Like, that's just what the track record has been. And they've got awesome offensive linemen, an awesome running back, an awesome number one receiver, an awesome tight end, a Super Bowl MVP caliber quarterback. You have all of the pieces there. So expect the offense to make a Big Leap? Yes, the talent on Philly suggests that there is no reason why they should not be an excellent offense. Well, one of the things that you didn't mention is they have an awesome front office.

It's a great organization. And they do a really good job of when there's a problem. They address it and they address it in mass. They'd make sure that that problem is going to be handled. And it's just interesting to see the way they've approached this wide receiver transition, understanding that they were going to move on from AJ Brown. And Tontavian. drafting McCoy Lemon, taking some chances on some guys that maybe haven't been as successful to see whether or not they can hit. So that's the thing that they've also done really, really well over time. Well, and I guess if it doesn't, Sean Mannion will get blamed.

At some point, Nick Siriani will get blamed. But number one's going to get blamed. Jalen Hurts. He's the quarterback. That happens. He's the quarterback. And they moved off of Carson Wentzen had the biggest salary cap hit of the time when they did that. They moved off of Super Bowl winning head coaches.

Yeah, you don't get a lot of leeway in Philly if it's not been. And in Philly and remember that ESPN article that came out shortly after the season that just happened to point out about how there's not any more guaranteed money. Jalen Hurts. It was like J. Y. Brown is no longer in Philly. Right. But they're not committed financially with guaranteed money to Jalen Hertz beyond this year.

But I also think Hertz knows that. And I think that's why there's an expectation for him with Mangan, what they've been able to, what they plan. to do this far as going to be a better season for them off. Yeah, I think everyone knows it now. They wrote about it on the internet. If it's on the internet, it must be true. People are still asking if Sam Donald could win a big game. They missed the Super Bowl.

It's unbelievable. I would have watched it if I were those people asking questions. It's next. My first things first. Saturday night is baseball night at America. Two iconic clubs shine under the lights in prime time. Ben Rice and the Yankees face just off the top of my head. You know, Pete Crow Armstrong, 6.4 war leads all of baseball and OPS of 9-20.

24. Yankees are up to nothing, by the way. Best defense. What happened? Whatever. What happened? Did that say something? Oh, yeah, we off two nothing.

I'm just stay tuned to first things first. You could watch this game tomorrow, 7 Eastern on Fox. Brought the mood down there, Willie. Time now for the prime performance presented by Lexus. Experience amazing. So two years ago, Sam Donald went 14 and 3 in Minnesota. It wasn't good enough. It wasn't great at the end.

Then he went out to Seattle, went 14 and 3 again. And this time won the Super Bowl just to double down on how wrong his doubters were. Apparently, still not good enough. Here's the quarterback on how he perceives the narrative surrounding his big game play. Take a listen. I think for me, I've never paid attention to stuff like that. You know, I've been very confident myself. I've been very confident in my teammates and the coaches that I have.

So, yeah, I don't allow myself to really pay attention to anything like that. that and if I do catch wind of it, you know, I have my process on how to, you know, handle that. But, yeah, I think for me it's just about, again, like I just said, it's about handling my process and doing it my way so that, you know, I get out there. It's not about what I've done. It's not about what I'm going to do. Coach, is it fair to still be doubting, Darnold? Yeah, I think it is.

This has been, what, his fourth team now that he's played for. And he had success in Minnesota, but at the end, it wasn't very good. And there are times during the course of this season, I think it was the first Rams game, which was really a big moment for him. And they had a down game. Yeah, he had all the turnovers. Pretty significantly down game, where it kind of harkened back to what we had seen historically from him, the whole I was seeing ghost type scenario.

And winning the Super Bowl, I think, has moved, changed the narrative dramatically. And now the question is, is this who he is? Is this the Sam Darnold that we're going to see moving forward? Or is there still going to be an element of peaks and valleys? And, you know, we'll get the guy that we've seen, unfortunately, a little bit more early in his career. Yeah, you would think winning the Super Bowl was silence the doubters. But if you look at Sam right now, I think someone would say, man, there's a difference from leading.

a championship outfit than carrying a team that's flawed to the Super Bowl, right? I think some people feel because after a bad game, he did have a wrong game he can lean on and kind of took some of that burden off his shoulders. He did have a defense he can lean on and take some of that weight off him. So if that's the case, you say, man, yeah, you love him from what he's been able to do the last two years, but if he was on a different team and carried that team that was flawed and had deficiencies, then you look at him in a total different light. Like how we would pop to look at a Josh Allen on Lamar Jackson or Joe Burroughs.

But nevertheless, man, I like him. I thought the Super Bowl was changed my view about him for sure. So winning a Super Bowl does not absolve you from criticism. Ask Jalen Hertz. Right, right. Jaylen Hurts, been to two of them, played great. He won and they questioned him. He's been a Super Bowl MVP, a Super Bowl champion, been to a second Super Bowl,

played awesome in that Super Bowl, had the fumble, but arguably outplayed Mahomes in that Super Bowl he lost. And we still question Jalen Hertz. So it is fair to have questions about Sam Darnold. What I would say, though, is it is no longer fair to say, can Sam Darnold win you the big game? Because A, he literally did win the Super Bowl. And then if you were going to say, well, he wasn't great in that Super Bowl,

he was great in the NFC championship game. He had 346 yards, three touchdowns, they had scored 31 points through three quarters of that game. He was spectacular in the third down, conversions, fourth down conversion, like keeping drives alive. He was amazing in that NFC title game. And they were so dominant as a team that, you know, they blew out the Niners in the divisional round.

They blew out the Patriots in the Super Bowl. Like he didn't need to be spectacular because, to your point, the team was so good around him. So I would say, doubt him in terms of top five, putting him in the borough, Lamar. Sure, no problem. But can he be the reason you win a big game? NFC championship game is a pretty big one, and he was the reason they won that game.

The discussion around him, though, has consistently been when is it going to go pumpkin mode? When is it going to fall back to the pattern that we've seen him fall back into? It would have been great for the story if he had been the Super Bowl MVP and kind of built on that NFC championship game to where you come out of it and like, wow. He could have erased a lot of doubt if he would have done that in the Super Bowl, too. Sure. Yeah, but the hero's arc that he's taken is fantastic. And to be able to do what he did in Minnesota and then come back and do it in Seattle in back-to-back years

when Minnesota implodes without him, that to me is another real strong argument about the value he has to an organization. Let me show you this graphic then, too, because it's from the playoff run. Because, yes, they blew out the Niners and they blew out the Patriots, but a starting quarterback to go through a full run in the playoffs

without having a single turnover. He's on that list with three Hall of Famers. Those are the last four instances and you've got to go all the way back to Aikman in 92. He had the real high moment of the NFC title game where he wins the shootout with Stafford and was spectacular. But part of it is also not making the mistakes. We were talking about with C.J. Stroud earlier.

Don't be the reason your team. If you've got an awesome team around you, don't be the reason your team loses. He did that against the Niners and the Patriots also. So I hear you, and I am a guy who has watched Jalen Hertz do it in multiple Super Bowls and still question him. So I promise I'm not trying to be a hypocrite on this one. But like the can you do it with Donald thing, I don't know, he just went through a playoff run where he didn't make mistakes and he won a shoot out and he won a ring. It's a pretty ironclad case.

I think it's two things. I think there's still blueprint on how to beat him. I think that's why people will, you know, they feel like, man, if you get a you get a feisty front four, especially in two interior defensive tackles that can collapse the pocket, that speed. speeds him up and he starts seeing ghosts. But on top of that, man, I think I'm going to believe you win the big one. You win the big one.

Like, you should get the big piece of chicken at the end of the night, right? Like, at some point, all that should erase and you got to believe in a kid. So I believe in him, he just has to keep doing it. Keeps playing out at a high level. Yeah, it's can he do it consistently now? What have you done for me later?

Yeah, now the narrative changes to. He's got one. Can he do it consistently? Not for long. It's a tough league.