First Things First - Cowboys trade deadline, Ben Johnson joins, Caleb Williams-Shohei Ohtani comparison, Nick's Tiers

Episode Date: November 6, 2025

(0:00) Cowboys-Quinnen Williams trade grade, Kyler Murray on IR (37:32:) Ja Morant's lack of trade value (48:53) Nick's Tiers (01:10:08) Must-Win (01:23:44) Luka vs. Wemby (01:30:08) Sauce Gardner's debut (01:33:54) Matthew Stafford MVP race, Caleb Williams (01:54:56) Ben Johnson joins (02:16:01: Why trades are good for football Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Salary cap. Live from New York, the show is just filled with content creators. The first hour of first things first. Jam-packed show today. Jam-packed. Jam-packed. They said our A-block can't go. It's customary 30 minutes.

And I said, you know what? Don't tell me what to do. I'm a content creator. Today, the dust has settled. Professor Brissard now has the grade for the Cowboys move and perhaps some change of hearts on the panel. Really? Well, maybe.

I guess we just wanted Jerry Jones to just twiddle his thumbs and go and... Oh, wow, this guy. ...deal with his wells. This guy can't win. Meanwhile. Okay. Who needs to win more? Bruze Ravens, who literally need a win, or the...

I get it, you might have a point. We've had an easy schedule Patriots. Fresh episode of must win as Bruce tries to defend his title there. And finally, the committee met deep into the night. Indeed. Watching sports last night? Yeah, some little NBA on the background, but we're folks. You locked in.

Yeah. Catered? No. Really? No. Just people thirsty. No, there, I mean, there was drinks, but no food. Oh, okay. I like, Dusty, make it fun of it. Make it fun of you. In my ear. Does, can I tell you something? You're not on the show. Dustin, he said it was just a trough of chick play, just scattered about everywhere, like he does for lunch. Nick Wright, Kevin Wilde's, Chris Brassar. It's a power-pack show, I told you. Yeah. We're starting with Jerry Jones. Jones, the deal maker. Quinn Williams and Logan Wilson, newest additions to a Cowboys defense that has struggled against pretty much everybody. Here's coach Schottenheimer.

It's exciting. Just, you know, kudos to, you know, Jerry and Stephen and Will. And, you know, I think, you know, being aggressive and but smart because, you know, a couple of the moves we made, you're getting guys not just for this year, but beyond, which I think is great. And it gets you excited as a coach. and I think it's two terrific players, but also terrific young man. Calvin Watkins quoting Dak here on the trade.

I'm blank pumped. You can quote me on that. Wow. Brew? What grade are you giving the cowboys? Well, look, I have to be fair when I judge these grades as a professor. So this is not the Micah Parsons' Street. trade. Okay? Just

letting everybody know. This is not Micah Parsons. That was a fail. We get it. Now it's time to move on. I like Quinn and Williams. I like him a lot. At the very least, he's a very good player. At best, he's a

all pro level player. So I like adding him. I am not buying into the oh, they're only three, five, and one. Why are they adding him? Because I look at it as a future. He's only 27. He's great, unlike Kenny Clark, who's great against the run, but, you know,

okay against the past. This guy's great against the run and the pass. So he's a good pass rusher, but also great against the run. And at 27, he'll be around, you know, should they want him for a few years, several years. And they have him locked up for a few years already. Aaron Donald played to, what, 32. Chris Jones still going strong at 31. So you got him for a few years. And I

understand the value of draft picks. I think sometimes they can be overrated in that I think they give fans hope and they give GMs, maybe bad, and sometimes bad GMs, a little

life. You know, a little hope, a little, you know, extra time. So I, you know, again, I understand the value of picks, but all picks don't hit. and you have to make those picks hit. So they got a proven commodity in Quinn and Williams in contrast to somebody that might not be a good.

I had this graphic. Now, these are number one picks since 2014. Two of them are legitimately great players. Joe Burrow and Miles Garrett. And then Baker, Mayfield, and Jared Gough have become very good players but had kind of a rocky road and been around them all. Bush. And those are number one picks. So I'm just saying

like just having picks, I feel the same way in the NBA. They can add value for trades and stuff. But if I can get a young proven player that I already know it's good, I won him. So I didn't go overboard, but I didn't kill him. I think it was a B.

Okay. I'm going to say A. I love this bit. I mean, I think it's a resounding F. Yikes. And I and I just, I so fundamentally and vehemently disagree with

the evaluation of the value of draft picks in the NFL. In the NBA brew, I agree with you in large part because the NBA is about having a couple real difference makers. But you look at

every good team across the league and who their best players are and how they got them. And 90% of the best players on the best teams are home-grown guys. Everyone that matters on the

Cowboys, aside from George Pickens is a guy they drafted. Javonte. I mean, Javonte, right, but the, and I also think that is, I don't look at Javonte as a foundational piece. I think he's having a nice year. But the T, and so

I, and you're right that it is fair to look at the Micah Trade has finished business and the Quinn and Williams trade as separate business. That's fine. Because I get it. If you combine them, it's a disaster.

But I do think it's okay since the main capital changing hands in this one way and then the other way was draft picks is to judge this trade on did you overpay. But the mica trade, and I will do this as quickly and simply as possible, according to the draft value pick charts essentially, was worth. worth 474 points. That's approximately because you don't know exactly where those picks are going to be. In this trade, the Cowboys sent out

437 points. So that difference is the equivalent of about the 100th pick of the draft. So they got back for Micah Parsons barely more than they gave out for Quentin Williams according to the draft value charts. That is disastrous. That is either you think,

they got, they absolutely robbed Green Bay blind or that they way overpaid for Quentin Williams, or I guess the third option is Quina Williams and Micah Parsons are very close in caliber of players. Like those are, and I don't think, I don't think they robbed Green Bay blind, and I don't think Quinnon Williams is close to the caliber of player Micah, Micah Parsons is. I also think Jerry Jones himself one game ago said, this wouldn't make a lot of you. sense to do when he said, I don't know what's realistic. Could one better player, if we didn't pay too big of a price, have a better player on defense to possibly help? I'm not trying to be cute,

but that's why you'd go get him because you think that could help your defense. Are we one player away on defense? I think we're not. I think we're more than that away. But we're closer with than it looks in my mind is executing better on defense. He's saying we've got the people. We seem to execute better. And I know they got two players, but one of them they got for a seventh round pick who has been benched by the only defense in the league worse than the Cowboys. And if it's not about this year, then why did you not just make the trade in the offseason? This trade would have been there. Like you are giving away what might be the 40th pick in this year's draft for this year's production from Quentin Williams when we all think the Cowboys are going nowhere. And I

don't I don't think brew a detackle that turns 28 in a few weeks is young. I don't think he's old. I think he's right, dead in the middle of his career. Yeah, I mean, he's six years in, right? He's got, he should have four or five years. I think five would be optimistic, but sure. I mean, I don't look at it like trading for sauce. Like, you know what I mean?

The sauce, I think probably has eight years left. And again, I think so, and I don't love that trade either. But the point is, like, I just, this is a baffling move for me. from the Cowboys and one of the reasons, in my opinion, you do do the Micah trade is, hey, we now have two chances that a team, whether it's us or Green Bay next year, has the year from hell, the year that we talk about all the injuries. The fact that in this trade, they give up whichever pick is better,

they're not inoculated against a Jordan Love injury, and the Packers having the sixth pick, then they trade that away. Like, that's a very NBA-esque maneuver on here that the Jets get the better of the two. I just think it is disastrous. I think it's disastrous. Their upcoming schedule, Raiders, Eagles, Chiefs, Lions. Breer are you writing off the Cowboys? My athletic playoff predictor has him at 4%, which I thought was strange because that DAC was so fired up.

He's not like he's executive pumped for. If I'm DAC, I'm. I'm trying to be as optimistic as possible. And I think as a player, you never, you know, until you're mathematically out of it, think you're done. So I get his optimism. But yeah,

it's about next year. It's about next year. I don't think, I mean, I think they'll be better with him with Quentin Williams, but not a payoff. Can I just add one other thing? And again,

I'm not conflating the trades. But part of the micro rationale was how much they love Kenny Clark. This guarantees Kenny Clark is cut. They gave OSHA. Diggyzua, 20 million a year. Quinn and Williams is it 20 plus million a year. Kenny Clark, who plays the same position, is it 21 million

next year. So like that's the other you're not having three defensive tackles at 20 plus million a year next year. So that's the other piece of it is you are now saying Kenny Clark is not going to be on the team. I didn't know Kenny Clark is making it 20 million. 20 million each of the next two years.

Now they can cut them for nothing. There's no dead money associated with it. But yeah, it's too much. Dallas on a buy then in Las Vegas. I guess. Colts, talk about the other trade. They're in first place in the AFC. The offense first in points, the defense seventh in points. But opponents passing yards per game, well, that was 26th. So enter Soss Gardner, who should shore up a weak spot on the squad,

two first and Mitchell to New York. How much pressure, Nick, does this put on Daniel Jones? Oh, it puts more pressure on Indy's front office because now Daniel Jones. Daniel Jones is going to get another huge contract. Guaranteed. Or the franchise tagging will be $46 million. The cults have somehow painted for reasons, I don't totally understand, put themselves in the exact position the Giants found themselves in,

which is, oh, man, we're going to end up having to pay this guy without being certain of him. And I don't think you can be certain of them after one year. You can franchise it. Right, franchising him, but $46 million is a ton of money. And so there is huge. pressure on the Colts front office. Yes, there's pressure on Daniel Jones. The shame of it for Daniel Jones is one of the, there are two major issues with Daniel Jones.

One is an opinion-based one. How good is he actually? And, you know, different people can disagree. I've just, Greg is a reasonable, really smart football guy. He and I disagreed on Deon Jones for five years. So that's a subject of debate. What is not a subject of debate is, is he going to be healthy? And he has completed one season.

his career. One season in his career and they are, so they are pushing their chips into the middle of the table with a quarterback who in college broke his collarbone. His first year and the pros had a high ankle sprain, played 12 games. His second year had two injuries, played 14 games. His third year

had a neck injury, played 11 games. His fourth year was healthy. His fifth year towards ACL played six games or 10 games, I'm not sure which. Or played six games. And then last year, remember, they've been him because they were worried he would get hurt and injuries would guarantee

would tick in back there. Right. So, yeah, I mean, there is, the cults have been made a massively aggressive move that also signals to Daniel Jones and his people, you're the guy, no matter what. So, yeah, it's pressure on everyone involved there now. Tons of pressure on Daniel Jones. All right. When you look at that team, obviously they're all in on winning now.

this Super Bowl. And you look at that team. I mean, everybody else, the receiving core isn't star-laden, but it's very good. You obviously have a great running back in Jonathan Taylor. I know that PFF has become kind of beleaguered on this show, but they say the Colts have the third best offensive line, which I think is pretty accurate. Offensively, defensively, defensively, there's seventh rank scoring defense in the league. The real question mark, no matter who you add, is is Daniel Jones.

is going to be able to get it done as the quarterback. And you look at this graphic. He is beating up on the tomato cans. Look at the numbers difference versus winning teams. His pass a rating drops almost 30 points. Okay. Touchdowns, interceptions, even five and five. And then against the losing teams, nine to one.

I mean, he's great then. And so the yards per game, he throws for a lot against winning teams, you know, because they may be in the short. shootout or whatever, but completion percentage dropped. So he's got a, it's a lot on his shoulders. So he's got a lot of pressure. It was really just the, can we, it's really one bad game against the Steelers, right? The turnovers.

Well, that's not just turnovers. That's interceptions. Oh, okay. That's just interception. There was a game, another game he had two interceptions. Yeah, that's a good team. Yeah, so that's not. Yeah, it's not all of those were in the store.

I thought the Steelers game was so bad. I don't know the Rams game wasn't horrible. No, the Rams game wasn't horrible, but it was. But he doesn't light it up. That's the thing. He's only thrown five touchdown. In four games is I think. So my, I, do you guys think the cults would be all in if Baker and Darnold weren't awesome?

That's a good question. Because I don't think so. And I don't think Daniel Jones is Baker or Darnel. So that's my other issue. So I think, so if we, so Baker to me, like before we show the graphic I want to talk about each of the players Baker was excellent as a rookie

better than Daniel Jones. Dale Jones best year. Yes, very good. Right. Daniel Jones' best year was his rookie year. Baker's rookie year was better. Yeah. And then Baker won a playoff game.

Year three, they won a playoff game. With Baker, they won 11 games. And he played well. And he played lost. Right. And then week four, or year four for Baker was the year he played through the injury. He only had one bad, healthy year.

And, you know, so he had really good year, bad year. really good year, and then bad injured year, and then he was gone. Darnold did not have nearly the same number of reps, seasons, opportunity in New York as, we can show you the numbers, as far as games played. Like, Donald had 38 starts with the Jets before they were like, we're done with you.

Baker had 59, and some of them I thought were really good. Daniel Jones played almost 70 games with the New York Giants, got to a second contract and, you know, matured. And so I think Darnold there was an element of the jets are dysfunctional. He was a very young prospect who was young when he came out of school and, you know, was not as fully for himself until the year in Carolina. There are two years in Carolina, the year in San Francisco and then Minnesota. Baker, I think, was good.

Was good. Wasn't as good as he is now. What was good, had the bad year or the bad year in Carolina, and then found his way. Daniel Jones is not to me like an enigma. We have six plus seasons of who he is as a pro. But don't you think, I think his early career was much better than Donald's. Like you said, his rookie year was very good, 24 touchdowns, 12 interceptions. to me the only really good year he had.

I wouldn't say it was really good the year he led him to the playoffs. But it was a solid year. He didn't throw for many touchdowns, but he ran for a, remember he was like a really good runner and then won a playoff game. And he also had a lot of head coaches and offensive coordinators.

So I think he was shifting all the time. And so, Darnold showed you nothing. Like people had completely written him off. I think Jones was a lot better than John Lerling. No. So I, I, absolutely agree with you that Jones versus Darnold, their careers with their first teams.

Like, Darnold's career with the Jets was a disaster. My point was, it was relatively brief. It was three seasons, and he was a very young prospect, and he then had a lot of time removed there before he was good. He had two years in the wilderness in Carolina, a year on the bench in San Francisco, and then kind of reborn in Minnesota. Yeah. Daniel Jones, we are less than one year removed from him being just a bad starting

quarterback. That was a toxic contract. You put that on Daniel Jones. You put that on the Giants offensive line. Man, I feel like, yeah, I put a lot of it on Daniel Jones. Okay. A lot of them. But all these court, other than Baker, all of these guys that have had resurrections,

we could say, Gino was showing you nothing to think he was going to be good. Obviously, Donald, I do think Donald's more talented, certainly armed talent, than Daniel Jones. Like, Gino's started less than 15 games. Yeah, but some of that's on them. No, no, no, no, of course. But no, no, no, I'm not, Gino's started less than 15 games in his career with the Jets, gets his jaw broken, is then a backup for eight seasons and then, you know, gets another chance and is a different, you know, mature, older, different player.

Daniel Jones had 70 games and the confidence of a second contract with the New York Giants. And that team, this time last year, was like Tommy DeVito is the better option. So it is so hard for me to believe that it's been that quick of a transformation to where he is now a legitimate, like a team can say, he is our starting quarterback and we are A-list Super Bowl contenders to go all in and that's what they're doing. All right, flip it.

What if I was Daniel Jones and you were at Chris Ballard? Okay. Hey, you know what? You saw what I did in New York up and down. I think a lot of it was the offensive line. Saquan couldn't get going there

and all of a sudden he almost set the record once he did. I think I could be on a similar path. So I'll make you a deal. What if halfway through the season we're first place in the A.A. and we score the most points and I'm tied for second in passing yards. Would you then believe in me? Yeah, I mean, again, I'm Chris Ballard.

That's a weird spotter. I'm saying, like, I've held up my end of the bargain. He has absolutely held up his end of the bargain, and it would be an amazing story. The point I'm making is, if I were Chris Ballard, I wouldn't then, I wouldn't tell him, you do that, and I will de facto commit the. future of the franchise to you. I will trade away any flexibility we have to find our next quarterback and essentially guarantee you.

He's going to get another $160 million deal. I'm not sure. Yeah, he has to play well. He better keep playing well. If he struggles and let's say they win the division with five losses, six losses, at best, I'm franchising him. Why would I give him a long? Because you have no flexibility.

Look, there are quarterbacks found later in the draft, as we've seen. There's tons of quarterbacks that are taking. He is who you found. No, but I'm saying, well, we're talking about if he's not that guy. There's still a chance he's not that guy. Maybe. I mean, are you fully, before we move on to the Jets, I just, I'm not trying to corner you at all. Are you fully convinced Daniel Jones is just a good quarterback now?

I think it's hard for mediocre quarterbacks to play. excellent. Why? I mean, we see it for a half season. We've seen it multiple times. We saw Nick Foles do it in the playoffs. We honestly, I saw... He was kind of unique in that regard. We see, we saw... If that how it ends, I mean, I would argue we're seeing Joe Flacco do it right now. I don't think Joe Flacco is like, good now. Joe Flacco is having a hot streak. That's a good point. That's what backup, yeah, Mac Joe,

and not to start anything, but Mac Jones... Jones might be a good example of it right now. Now, maybe he ends up being good. I would argue that Mac Jones is a good quarterback that had a dip, not a bad quarterback. Well, look, Daniel Jones was drafted sixth. So, I mean, a lot of these guys are taking high in the draft. I don't know. Maybe he's not good, but if they're in the AFC championship game, I don't think it matters.

Oh, of course, if they're in the AFC championship game. If they go from 7 and 2 to 11 and 6 and out in the first round and they don't have their first round pick this year or next year, it really matters. That's my point. That's the point I'm making. Coming up next, did Kyler Murray, speaking of quarterbacks, did Kyler Murray get benched in what are the Cardinals going to do now? Also, are Brued Ravens officially back?

That's next on FS1 on Fox Sports Channel on Sirius XM. But drop to the podcast rankings, currently number two in the world, our YouTube channel, still number one. You know what passed the podcast? What's right. Is that true? It's amazing. Yeah, we're on a hot show.

Goodness, great. Check out What's Right with Nick Wright if you get a chance. It's a separate side venture. Cardinals are a three and five after a three touchdown game from Jacoby Brissette, who has put up better numbers than Kyler and his three starts. And it looks like it's now the starting quarterback. Gannon was asked if this decision was based on Jacoby's play or Kyler's health. Take a listen.

truthfully both factors Gambo you know what I mean I like what the offense is doing right now I like where they're at and like I said Kyler I just told the media like he's Kyler's not fully healthy right now so just makes sense to me to just

you know get out in front of it I think it provides clarity for our team right now so we can game plan and do the things that we need to do getting ready for Seattle okay here are the numbers brew five more points which go over said about 70 more yards and third down percentage up 16%.

What do you think is next for Kyler Murray? This does not mean it's over in Arizona. Because one, they know Jacoby Brissette is not their future. They know it, all right? And so the hope I would believe, if I was in their shoes, my hope would be this humbles Kyler Murray. We know he's got talent. He's a two-time pro bowl.

He was offensive rookie of the year. His problem reportedly has been his attitude and study habits or lack thereof. And height. You would hope, no, no, I mean, that's you, but they drafted him number one as a short player. And he's a two-time pro bowler as a short player who led them to the playoffs. So I'm not saying he's going to be a Hall of Fame. I'm just saying he's got talent far more than Jacoby Brissette. He just has to learn.

So if I'm the Cardinals, that's my hope that this humbles him and he will learn. Because either way, I got to put him in. I have to play him because even if I want to trade him, I have to put him in and hope he plays well enough to up his trade value a little bit. He's got what, the five-year, $230 million contract. I don't want to interrupt you. Just because you're talking about playing. Dusty just got in my ear and said, Kyler has now been put on the IR, so he's out for at least four games. He's not going to play.

He's not playing again this year. I don't think he's ever going to play again for the Cardinals, bro. So they're just, what are they going to do? Cut him and just give him away? Yeah. They'll trade him in the off season. That's a hard contract to trade. No, I, I disagree with you.

I think it's a very easy contract. Really? A five-year $230 million contract? Well, it's not, it's not, Drew. For a guy that's got benched for Jacoby Brissette? Hold on, just real quick. It's no longer a five-year, $220 million deal, right? It only has a few years left. You can get out in what?

After two seasons? No, but once they try. and brew, then you can, whoever acquires him, the guarantees have been paid. So whoever acquires him would be basically have him on less than $40 million a year at will. And so I don't think you're going to get a major draft hall back for him, but I think that you can get, I bet they get a fourth round pick for him and get him off the books. I don't think Kyler will ever play for the Cardinals again. The only way Kyler plays for the Cardinals again is if Jonathan Gannon is fired.

Like, the head coach can't bench the quarterback for Jacoby Brissette and then next season be like, that's going to be our guy. And so I, the... Troy Aikman was benched. Yeah, Brew is a seven-year player. Not seven years into his career. But still, he was a good player. I would be absolutely stunned.

If Jonathan Gannon is the head coach of the Cardinals next year, Kyler Murray is not going to be on the team. And maybe you'll have a reclamation. Bruce's right that one of my critiques has been, we just heard Tua saying. Listen, I just have trouble sometimes seeing the middle of the field. Kyler's three or four inches shorter than Tua. I think there are limitations on him from a size standpoint.

I think we have seen his play and the team fall off at the midway point of the season every year. And that his play drops off somewhat. the team can't win games. I don't know that he is built for a 17 game season. And I don't think he's a great leader. I don't think he has great work ethic. And I don't think he's going to be the Cardinals quarterback next year. Like I'm taking that as a gibbonic.

Where's the trade? I mean, everything you just said, why would I trade for him? Because teams are starting in Tyler Shuck. There's needs. And I'm with Nick on this one. I don't think he plays for the Cardinals again. Largely because when you have issues that have been looming of leadership issues,

attitude issues, and it's stemming from the most valuable position at quarterback, and then you get a guy who's been a journeyman who's when he's got an opportunity because of his ability to be locked in, be prepared mentally to go in and perform. He's performing like this,

and you get your first round pick from a couple years ago, now all of a sudden popping in Marvin Harrison, Jr. We haven't seen that with Kyler at all, and you mean to tell me I'm going to bring back Kyler Murray and say, you know what, Marvin, I think he's going to figure it out. No, what Kyler needs to do is take a critical look in the mirror. Use the resources that are right there in Arizona around you. There's a guy who played for that team, Kurt Warner, that I guarantee you if he reached out, he would sit down and just teach you how to become a better pro. Like a leader, a studier of them.

And I'm not trying to attack Kyler Murray because he has talent. And I believe in this league, when you are drafted that high and there's this feeling of he has something that we can work with. There's always going to be somebody who's willing to take that chance and feel like I can pull the best out of him. They weren't the coaches for him. And if he's willing to take that step for himself critically, then I think he continues to play. But not for the Arizona Cardinals. Nick, let me show you a graphic because I think you were, this is kind of a. graphic based off one of your takes, which is

shorthand, if it was going to happen, it would have happened. No playoff wins for a quarterback drafted number one in his first six years. So Kyler is in year seven. It's Kyler Stafford, who eventually obviously got a Super Bowl and Vinnie Testa Verdi. Go ahead. No,

no. I, to Bruce's point about all the knocks on him, why would somebody want him? Because there's 32 teams and there's maybe 20 good quarterback. and then there's five or six young guys that you hope, you know, that come in the league each year. But in a world where Justin Fields can get two years $30 million from the Jets,

like there will be a team that says I can fix him because of the talent. He was the greatest player in the history of Texas high school football. Like that's, that is a universally held opinion for maybe the greatest state for high school football there is. He was the guy. So if Aaron Rogers retires, I would imagine Mike Tomlin would say, I can do something with him. I think if the Raiders tear everything down, which might happen, it's very sad. But I would imagine they would give it a look. I don't know what Tyler Shuck in New Orleans is going to show.

And God only knows what the Cleveland Browns are going to be doing. And everyone isn't going to be able to draft a quarterback next year. And so they'll be a home for him. But this, to me, you cannot say they had, Gannon had an out of just, Kyler's just hurt. And instead, he has been, in that radio interview, made it very clear, even if he were healthy, we think Jacobi's the better option. Completely different than what we're hearing from Kyle Shanahan.

Correct. That's a great point. Yeah, so he is, to me, Jonathan Gannon is severing the relationship. Now, now that he's gone on the IR. Well, is this I don't know. I don't want to speculate about the IR. We thought he was coming back, coming back, and now he's on the IRA. Well, the latest report is they had another foot specialist look at it and they're like,

actually it might be four to eight weeks. Like the only way that I think Kyler is on the Cardinals next year is if Gannon gets fired and the new coach basically doesn't like the quarterback class and it's like, no, Kyler's our guy and they give him a year with that. But either way, I think this is a, I think this is a divorce. Go ahead, Katie. Look, I don't think we're the smartest football people in the world. Okay.

Speak for yourself. Well, I'm just saying. But when that contract hit, and they're like, hey, we're putting a video game clause in here. And we're putting the thing in that says you have to study. We were all like, hey, this is really bad. If you have to put, you have to study on your own in your contract extension, he might not be the guy. And next thing you know, a few years later. It's not the guy.

Bright side for Kyler. Don't make some video game comment. Well, the new Call of Duty is released in nine days. Of all the times, lose your job a week before the new Call of Duty, I'm just telling you. Dusty already asked for a day off. Yeah, absolutely. Dusty's going to have another Dennis to get this point. Another wedding to go to.

At this point. Dusty, I'm a Tuesday wedding daughter. Check it on the Ravens. They added Draymont Jones of the Titan. and so the defense got a little bit better, bro. The other good news is that after Kyle Van Nuoy just viciously shot down your idea that the toy toss was to thank for the turnaround.

Derek Henry supported you. Take a listen. We needed it. I mean, that's what we needed. That's what we needed to focus. We do all that ping pong stuff later. We got a job, dude. What else did he take out?

What else left? I haven't heard the... Everything is gone. Like what? TV. Okay. Anything that's true, a game is gone, everything. He said except the TV.

Okay. Are the Ravens officially back, bro? Also, Rich Eisen, thanks for not watching our show, I guess. He's like, what else was taken out? I haven't heard. You haven't heard. We've covered that story soup to nuts for two weeks. I mean, look, I wanted the co-sign from Kyle Van Nooy, but I'll take it from King Henry.

I will take it from King Henry. And I get it, Kyle. You're the defense. You don't want to get ahead of yourself. Count your chickens before they hatch, so to speak. You got work to do. All right, so don't get cocky. I actually like that attitude.

But I considered shelving T7. But after the king, oh, thank goodness. I thought he was about to say brew is right. I mean, he gave it such a strong coside. The toy toss that transformed the tacklers is. back and so are the Ravens. Nick, look at this.

Look at this graphic. What am I looking at? Look at this graphic. It happened last year. It's happened this year. Defense was giving up 35 points a game. Now 13. Yardage dropped.

Look at the rush. I mean, almost cut in half. The takeaways have doubled in less games. Passer ratings dropped tremendously. And they still have work to do. Now, they're going to continue to get better. Minnesota is not an easy get like they don't have any room for error. So they have to like show up and they seem to have the right attitude.

Benoit seemed to have the right attitude. Obviously all of them are talking the right stuff. But you know, you can't slip up. Minnesota's tough. But I do expect them to go out there. Their offense obviously is great. And the defense is getting there and I think we'll continue to get better. Yeah.

Look, they're policing themselves. I love it. I love that this was a thing that your court. quarterback came out and said, you know what? I did it. This was on me. I took the toys out, all the games, all the extracurricular because we had to focus. It truly aligns. And I know coaches can say this type of thing.

And you guys heard me when we thought it was a harball-led thing. It's like, man, that might not go over well. But when it's done by your quarterback, you're going to respond accordingly. I think this, to say that they're back, I want to see what they look like, against the Minnesota Vikings. Because you weren't here. I did not think the defense played well in the first half against Miami. They allowed six points in the game, so it sounds weird and it sounds like I'm being a hater.

Miami got the ball inside the 30, a half dozen times. It felt like Miami could have had 20 points at halftime, but they're the dolphins. It was been, but don't break. Right. And it was. And so I was less encouraged by that defensive performance than the dolphins. allowing six points would suggest. And it seems like you feel similar.

Yeah, look, I think the acquisition that they just got with Draymont Jones is going, it can be big. Their biggest issue is in the middle, in the center of that defensive line, losing that meat, that bulk that they, absolutely.

But however, they haven't been able to get past rush. They've struggled in the back end. And when you don't get those things, we've talked about this at nauseam. When you're talking about great defenses, you're constantly talking about guys who can pressure the quarterback. Who can disrupt what you want to do as a passing attack. If you can't do that, you're going to struggle. I don't care who you are.

You're going to always give a team a chance to come back like the bills did and make a run to beat you in the winning moments of the game. So I like the move that they make. I think they're getting, they're figuring it out. This game against the Vikings. Okay. Yeah. It's huge. Yeah, one on Fox.

Coming up next, John Morant was supposed to be one of the faces of the league, and now nobody wants him. We discuss next. It's the greatest segment in all of sports. Special edition of the committee's tears right now. Quick episode of Weird and Wonderful. Two dunk-of-the-year candidates, bro. First up, UC Santa Barbara versus San Francisco State,

Zion Sendsley with the dunk of the year off the inbound. And then number nine, Kentucky taking on Nichols. This is Colin Chandler with the dunk of the year. Oh, that was nasty. Kentucky wins and the Gauchos wins. That was nasty. That was nasty. So unfortunately, Zion Sensley is eliminated.

That's good. That was one. I don't like UC Santerboro. There we go. They did win by 31. Weird. That was crazy. Magic down to the Raptors.

Desmond Bain misses this three. Hustles back on defense. That's good. So he gets a. file, he takes his foul and then spikes the ball. He got ejected. The Magic are three and five and they still can't score. And Matt, they can't shoot.

That's what they can't do. Bain has been really bad. How low? Weird. I mean, they gave up what, five firsts for Bain, four or five. And he was supposed to solve there. Yeah, and with the wide open east, it was, I loved the trade. I thought it was smart.

It's early, but it's been bad. Yeah. It's not getting late yet. Okay. It's just early. Uh, weird Thunder Clippers, Hartenstein. Between his own legs and then sets a screen for Caruso, who drains the three Thunder,

our 8 and 0 for the first time in franchise history. Too soon? No, not too. I'm saying, listen, what 70 win watch is Pass A at this point. The Warriors record watch is what it is now. I mean, they're 8 and 0 without Jdub playing a game. Your guy Chet's missed three.

I think they're winning by 13 points. Yeah. They're not close again. Just cruising. Prime performance sponsored by Voya. Well planned. Well invested, well protected. I like that a lot.

John Morant's played listless basketball, suspended by the team for one game. He agreed to the idea that he lost his joy for the game. And now might be looking for a new home. Mark Spears kicked the tires on the trade market. Not good. Four of the execs I talked to today say they really have no interest in trading for Jha.

Here's his numbers so far. Everything is down in his field goal percentage is the third worst in the NBA, is three point percentage. is 14%. Your reaction to this newest Jah drama. Well, I have two strong takes on this. Obviously,

it's just sad what's happened to Jai Moran. And it's not too late, but right now it looks like and these two guys, when I covered the league, like Steve Francis, who was a superstar early, and I think Jai is better than Francis was at his height,

but he fizzled, and you thought he was on his way to like a Hall of Fame career. And Stefan Marbury, as well, who looked like he was on his way to a Hall of Fame career and then kind of fizzled self-impulsion, both of them, you know, and so, and Jai's worse than what those guys, you know, went through. So this is just sad and unfortunate for him. I do think he needs a new setting. If I was Minnesota, their name's been mentioned, I would take that chance if I'm Minnesota

or resurrecting his career. Miami, I would take that chance. I know some people might say, do you want him in Miami? but he's a great player. And in that culture, if they could get the best out of him, I like that. But the other thing is this. And one of the things Jai is upset about is when he has said, and I'm not trying to take anything off him, this is self-impulsion.

However, when he said, ask the coach and all that, John Moran is only playing 29 minutes a game. All right, that's the most on the team. They got 11 guys averaging double figures. What I'm saying is the NBA or some of these teams need. to be careful. All right. It might be,

it might seem more efficient and everything to play a ton of guys and nobody 30 minutes or more. But that, the league has always been at its height, was drawn to fans

and the popularity are superstars. And if you're only playing guys 28, 29 minutes a game, you're limiting their ability to be superstars. I was hoping and praying that Wimby would get to play 35 minutes a game.

or something this year. And that's the strategy in Memphis now. And that's what upsets job. He's still averaging 20 points, but he's only 20 minutes. So I just think you have to let, I want the best players, Nick, to play 38 minutes a night. I don't want to see, even if it's more efficient, I don't want to see 11 guys doing the same type of stuff and no superstar shining. So I just think the league needs to be careful about that. So that, I think that's a fair and smart point.

I look at that is, I think Jodd be unhappy you're playing 33 minutes. Yeah, and I'm not trying to absolve him. And it is, so here was the stunning part of this to me, was when I tried to like, you know, I like creating trades. And I have, for, you know, two years now, created my Mercurial Southeastern United States point guard swap. Jada, Charlotte, Lamello to Atlanta, and trade of Memphis,

which again, maybe one team has to attach a pick, but you could convince yourself of that. But if you remove that, which is kind of pie in the sky, it's not going to happen. And I thought about who would you trade one for one John Morant for? And I thought about the players that he three years, before the gun fiasco, which this is unrelated but related to the gun fiasco, just because that to me was the beginning of his fall from grace,

that he has not recovered. from. Before that fiasco, he was considered at least as good, if not better, than Jalen Brown. Right now, if they called and offered John Morant for Jalen Brown, the Celtics would laugh at them. He was certainly considered better than either of the, Darius Garland and maybe Donovan Mitchell. Yes. If they called and offered Jha for either of those two players. the Cavs would laugh at them. Like right now,

could you trade John Morant straight up for Tyrese Maxie? I don't think so. I think Darrell would not do it. Would the Celtics do straight up? And again, I know the salaries don't necessarily, but in this, suspend that for a moment. John Morant for Derek White.

I don't, I, I, I, No, but all of that is, it's all the off-the-court. court stuff. It has nothing. Like, he's a better player than there. But the off the court stuff has now

become on the court. I get it. But I'm, he's hard to trade because everybody's worried about this dude self-employed. But so, but some of it to me, though, Brew is in addition to the,

the off the court stuff has led to on the court. He's a worse player. Like the numbers wild showed it, you would hope that in less minutes, maybe the point scoring goes down. But the idea is the efficiency should go up because you're fresher. Like, when you say Miami, like, I, John Morant for Tyler Hero is, like, I don't, I think that's,

I would. Yes, I agree. But that's my point. I would do that. But that's an odd trade if I said that three years ago. Like, if they called the magic, I think the best they could do is Franz Wagner. Like, that's the point I'm making. The point is, he is, like, trading him for Tyler Hero right now is probably

about as good as Memphis would do, which is crazy that that's where we're at because the other piece of it, and then go, he also is a huge injury risk. Like, that's the other piece of it is. He doesn't play that much. So this is the question. Is it just off-the-court stuff that you say morphed to

on the court on the court, you know, ineffectiveness? But this is the graphic from Kevin O'Connor, and this is from November 1st, So these numbers may have changed, but I don't know how many games plays in November 1st. At-rim frequency. Early on, 2020, you close your eyes. You think of John Moran.

Clos of his shots at the room. Yes. And you see him going to the rim, and we were actually worried about him. We had conversations about him. Maybe that was an injury. Yeah. That he would just go up, but he was so electric near the rim. But now he's at 28%.

Now you would like to say, well, good news. His three-point shot is great. or his mid-range jumpers, but he's taking less shots at the rim, and it's not like he's become this great shooter. Correct. So I think this begs the question, oh, are you just not the same guy anymore?

That's what I think. So that's where I think maybe Brew, you and I disagree. I don't think he is still a great player. Do you think he can't? Right now he is not playing great. I think he definitely with the right, and he may never get the right attitude again.

That's a problem with him for real, but if he has the right mentality is happy where he's at, you don't think he could recapture what he used to do? It's easy to get to the rim. He needs to attack the rim because, I mean, with him, teams will give him the three,

so it's probably not quite as easy for him as some players. But still, he's John Morant. He's electric. He can get there. I think he could be essentially what he used to be. Really?

If he was right mentally. Okay. I'd hope so. We had that whole conversation last year. like, I'm not dunking anymore. And we're like, oh, that's strange. Here's the other weird part of this story. And it's a quote panel from Chris Mannix,

a friend of the show that you wrote in Sports Illustrated, about if you wanted to trade, JAA, and could you do a rebuild? While no league official would come within 100 miles of publicly naming relocation candidates, the Grizz and the Pelican, small market teams with arena deals that expire before the end of the decade, are often whispered as the most likely targets.

In other words, going full rebuild maybe out of the question. So I was like, oh. So then I guess that means you just have to trade job for Zion. The one two picks of the draft, like, just be like if they both have to have a superstar and both teams don't have a little bit of like we need to keep butts in the seats here or we're going to lose the franchise. There's a whole other later. I was joking.

That's an interesting one. Jop for Zion? Yeah, because Zion, they just drafted Derek Queen and they gave up all that stuff for him. and he's kind of like, he just plays Zion's spot. Don't hate it, but I wish I would want both guys in like stable environment. Well, yeah. I mean, I don't know if either is great for him. It just.

It does make, I mean, Zion's even more injury prone to Jai, but it's not terrible. Yeah, one problem for. Or Adam Silver needs to just call up Danny Aange and be like, you have all those draft picks. You have to trade for both. Like for the Walker Kessler's out. Yeah, Walker Kessler's out. We need these guys focused on. We're trading you both to Utah.

A fresh episode of tears coming up right after the break. Live from New York, it's a show that has bad news if you play basketball at Arizona. No, James Hardin went there. That's a good point. No, it's just hard to make the NBA. Spoiler alert, kids. Making the NBA, harder than you think. Really hard.

Second hour of first things first. Today, who is facing more of a must win, the Ravens, or the first place Patriots. What a question. We discuss in a fresh episode of Muslin. Meanwhile, Luca versus Wembe tonight, who's the MVP? And who would you rather have this year? Who do you think the MVP?

Yons. By a mile. Janice? Ten games? Yeah, well, through 10 games. Yonis is in first and BJ Edgecombe is in second. No one has Josh Bitt. Yeah. Josh Biddy is bowling. No, but for real, She's also really good. But right now, right now, You're in for a special treat last night in an old movie theater playing just the scenes from Mission Impossible where Tom Cruise reveals

He's been wearing a full face mask of the bad guy. Surprise! Where's the microchip? An elite group of scientists vibes guys in the sports media ombudsman, which is a great segment Faw and toiled and burn the midnight oil to deliver the best segment in all sports It's an honor and a privilege. It's time for the committee's tears Thank you for the wonderful introduction, as always, Kevin Wilde, even though you disparaged the greatest film franchise. The greatest film or the franchise. No one knows with a microchip.

Actually, there's only one microchip ever. No one ever knows what anyone is talking about. Again, KW, I'm sorry that the movies went over your head, but, you know, it lasted 30 years and a couple billion dollars. Oh, the identity. Pretty good. The entity. The entity. The entity.

No spoilers to the entity. No one even knows. I'm kind of with you, Wiles. Okay. Time now for the tiers, sad day. For the first time in a few weeks, we have some fresh eliminations. Oh, no. Eliminated from the tiers.

Four teams had been, we can show it to you. Saints, Titans, Dolphins, Jets were already eliminated. The Raiders. That was your squad. Yeah. Playoff team. Gee, no. There's a few of our playoff teams on there.

I see the Titans on there, KW. They got eliminated in week one. None of mine. The Giants sadly eliminated as well. That Giants game, Brian Daebel, by the way, his rookie year as a coach, started seven and two. The three years since, two and seven every year. Probably not the guy.

Facing elimination, I'm shocked as anyone that the Browns are still on here, but they are. Browns facing elimination and the commanders. That's a tough fall, man. But the commanders, especially with Jaden out for at least the next month, facing elimination as well. Well, how do we get here, tier?

Falcons, Cowboys, Bengals, Texans, Cardinals. Falcons are the most confusing team in the league in that they, you see Drake London, you're like, why is he not one of the two best receivers in football? Bejohn is one of the two best running backs in football. Pinix is up and down, but the, they have a defensive coach and a really good secondary, and still they're just mediocre.

The Cowboys trade away their franchise defensive player, have a terrible defense, then over. pay for a lesser franchise defensive player. The Bengals should know exactly how they got here because it's the exact same playbook as last year. Oddly, without Joe Burrow, the offense still hums again. I'm not saying. I'm not saying anything.

It's interesting. The Texans after back-to-back divisional championships are now fighting to stay relevant. And the Cardinals started to an O, lost heartbreaker after heartbreaker, and now bench Kyler Murray. Next, could sneak in. Bears, Jags, Vikings, Panthers. The Jags right now are in.

if the playoffs started today. Thank God, though, they do not, because if that happened, the Chiefs would be in it, and then it's basketball season in America. Bears, five and three, but not in. Vikings hanging on, and we'll see what JJ would like is.

They want to make the playoffs, but they really want us to feel good about J.J. McCarthy at the end of the year. And the Panthers, who I read today, I almost don't even want us. They have not won as a favorite in four years. But I also think that's because they aren't favorites very often. Twice.

But they're five and four. They're the worst five and four team. Oh, I don't know that. I don't know that's true. They, there's something. Yeah, they did something. And that, really? That wraps up.

First things, first panthers coverage for week 10 of the NFL. Next, KW. Panthers stuff. KW. The Patriots better not be on this. KW. Tier. What is this?

It's not the standing. Thank you. Not the standings. Oh. Niners are six and three, but they are so injured. And I've been really impressed by them. But at this point, and they just lost their first round pick to an ACL, these poor guys. And Christian McCaffrey is just the usage you worry about him.

The Broncos are seven and two. Again, I do not believe it. I know they are, and they have an excellent offense line and a legitimate defense, withstood the loss of CERTAN at least for a week. If I am the last man on, the Broncos aren't actually that good ship. So be it. But I don't believe it.

And the Chargers, we all know that they just, oddly, Joe Alt's the most important offensive linemen since Anthony Muño's evidently. And he's out for the year. And so I just, I think they're in trouble. Next, Hall of Fame quarterbacks, defensive DNA. And I put that in quote, because this applies brew to the Steelers. as well as it does to the Ravens.

The defense can't be that bad. It's their culture. It's their DNA. And look, now, they didn't have to throw out a PlayStation in order to get better on defense, but they did get better last week forcing five turnovers against Greg's All-American Daniel Jones. And obviously, listen, Lamar is currently one of the greatest quarterbacks in the league. Aaron is one of the greatest quarterbacks of all time, who is having a really nice season. I don't think he's been great.

He's obviously not playing at the level Lamar is. But that's champion head coaches, Hall of Fame quarterbacks, and you think the defenses should get better. All in with quarterback questions, the Packers and the Colts. The Packers, Jordan Love's numbers have been really, really good. The feeling you get watching Jordan Love is not always really, really good.

And I know that feels like fuzzy analysis, but there is a level of trepidation that associated with him that I don't think is associated with many of the quarterbacks on the tiers above him. And again, the Colts told us yesterday, they are all in. Both of these teams traded away their next two first round picks for defensive pieces for this season because they believe they can win a championship. I have questions about the quarterback more Daniel than Jordan, but both of them, that's where they are. KW, you'll like this one.

Could be the one seed. Legit. Love it. The Patriots of the Seahawks could be the number one seed. Sam Darnold is playing great. Jackson Smith and Jigba looks like a first team all pro. He was a wide receiver on Bruce Bell. That's incredibly rare.

They just added Rashid, who I really like. And shout out to Shaheed for being able to get out of New Orleans. And the Patriots are a really good team with they've had an incredibly easy schedule. And it just gets easier. Yeah. I mean, somehow they haven't, they have both of their Jets games left, and they, they ducked the tough version of the Jets, evidently. So both of these, and the Seahawks defense has been maybe the most underrated unit across the NFL this year. Definitively dangerous, no matter what Danny Parkins will tell you, the Bucks are for real.

And the Bucks disrespect is baffling to me. They win the division every year. Baker's good in the playoffs every year. They, unlike some other teams, are able to sustain injury. But luckily, those guys are slowly but surely coming back with the exception of Mike Evans, who they'll probably have to wait until the playoffs. And we know how dangerous the Lions are. I understand there's a bad loss this weekend against Brian Flores and the Vikings,

but they're definitively dangerous. Championship caliber, critical stretch, Chiefs and Rams. So the Chiefs are on a buy, and then they are at Denver, home to Indy. That is obviously a must split at. least, but really need to go 2 and 0 to feel like you have any margin of error down the stretch of the season. The Rams right now are not leading the division. The Seahawks are.

It's tiebreaker stuff. But they are at the Niners, home for the Seahawks, home for Tampa. That three-game stretch will likely determine the division. We'll determine tiebreakers. Could determine are you the one-seed or are you going into week 12 on the outside looking in of the playoffs? That's how jam-packed the NFL, the NFC is. I believe, obviously, in both of these teams,

but they have seven losses between them. They need to do well during this tough stretch of football. Officially running it back. Eagles said we're not trading AJ Brown. We're the defending champs. Our quarterbacks turn the ball over, what, twice all year, once all year? Sequin just came off his best game. We added the defense.

We're running it back, you know, the, All of our main characters from last year are here. We're going to try to defend our title coming off a buy. We didn't even play that great. The first eight weeks of the season were six and two, we feel good. And then atop the tiers, for the first time, I believe, all year, is this the year? The Buffalo Bills.

Now, they did not treat the trade deadline like they thought that they were a piece away. They treated the trade deadline like they thought they have enough. They just beat Kansas City in Buffalo when they were the, underdogs. Josh Allen is healthy. They have seemingly faded the devastating injury on the offensive side of the ball. Obviously, Ed Oliver's tough for them on the defensive side of the ball. And is the final year of Highmark Stadium going to be here the bills finally get back to the Super Bowl for the first time in more than 30 years? That is the full edition, Greg Jennings, of the committee's tears. I'm going to jump right into it. You got the Eagles second officially

running it back. I got them. number one. They should be atop of tears. And the reason why I say this because I love the, I love the name plate, officially running it back. Even with being on a by week, they won week nine. Wow. They got to win week nine because of what they were doing and what they acquired defensively, the depth that they put on that on that roster. Love what Howie Roseman does. You talked about the other day, Jerry Jones not having the plan. This is a team that has always had a plan and they continue to retool and show us. why that plan works.

The last time we saw this team play, we saw Sequin, we saw that offense, we saw that running game get reestablished. They did not have A.J. Brown. Jalen Hurts still threw for four touchdowns. They were spreading the ball around. And then you go in week nine. When you're off, players, you take a rest.

We're going to still work as management. We're going to improve our roster. We're going to hold on to a guy who we feel we can't win without this year. We'll see what happens in the off season. But right now, you can't tell me this team isn't the best team in football. And you look at their schedule, it suggests that. When you look at who they've been able to play already and get wins with,

the Kansas City Chiefs check that box. The Rams, check that box. The bucks, who you really like, you got them representing the NFC, check that box. And if you keep going down, well, we know who they got Monday night at Lambo. Against the Green Bay Packers, we'll see what happens there. And you got the team that's ahead of them coming in week 17. We'll see if they checked that box. But for right now, with the moves that they have decided to make, yes, they are running it back,

but they found who they really are and they are loving it because they can run the football. Yes, it was against the Giants a team two weeks before they played them last. They could not run the football at all. I like the direction they're going. The fan base is going to be excited. We'll see what they end up doing in the second half of the year. Yeah, listen, I'm not going to. going to, I don't take any major issue with any of what you said. If I have them by themselves

and second, you obviously make the case by themselves in first. I, I guess the one distinction I would make is this. I thought that, so their common opponent, if you will, with Buffalo is Kansas City. They, the bills got Kansas City in their building. They got Kansas City on the road. Correct. But they faced a Kansas City team that had worthy and rice. They faced a Kansas City team without either. And I think the bills dominated that. game more than Philly did, but it's a, I'm not, I'm not really arguing it. Like, you, you make a strong case. I think, right now I think Buffalo is the best team, but it's by the slimmest of margins.

The Buccaneers are a little bit high, but I always pick on the Buccaneuettes. Yeah, yeah. You and Danny, you guys, you and I like Baker, but they need to come down a little bit. I nick for my main stay in this, I'm eliminating a tier. What? Yeah. Uh, the, the, the, the Hall of. Fame QB's defensive DNA.

It's nicely named as always, but I'm moving the Steelers down. To not the standings. And I'm moving, yeah, the Ravens up. Just one, I'm going to be patient, but I'm moving the Ravens up with the Packers. Wow, you think they have quarterback questions. Wow.

What a shot. Well, no, the titles don't match. The titles don't match. What a shot at Lamar. I'm looking at the titles are always great, but I'm saying I'm just looking at the tears themselves. Pittsburgh, the defense, unlike the Ravens,

their defense has not strung together a few, you know, impressive performances in a row. So I'm not sure if the defense are back. You are right. It is their culture. You would think it'll come back. It clearly did this last week, but I'm still iffy on that.

They don't have the run game. And Rogers is playing good, efficient football, but not really explosive football. So I think there's a ceiling. I would drop them to with the, the Niners in those teams. And the Ravens are moving up. The offense is just, I mean, with Lamar, it opens up things for Derek.

Henry, he's going to probably be much better second half of the season because of Lamar's presence. And the defense, like I said, is getting better. I like the addition to Draymont Jones. He's not phenomenal. Nobody's going to act like that. But four and a half sacks in his last four games, he's on pace for a career high. And they only have 11 in eight games.

all season. So him doing anything in terms of pass rush will help them. I think their defensive backfield is pretty good if they get some type of any type of pressure. They haven't been bad when they, you know, if they get pressure, I think they'll be good. So Ravens are on the on the rise. Steelers sinking. So I'm going to switch. Here's the problem for me with that. It's less about your commentary on the Ravens and it's more about the kind of disrespect of Pittsburgh. Because it's not the standings. But Pittsburgh has some really good wins this year.

Baltimore has beaten the Browns who are on the brink of elimination, the dolphins who have been eliminated, and the bears who I don't, you know, are not on this part of the, you know, this high up on the pier. Impressive though without Lamar. Absolutely. The Steelers beat the Patriots. I know Wilds doesn't like how they beat the Patriots.

Patriots, but they beat the Patriots. And then they forced them to cough the ball. And then beat the Colts in a similar similar fashion. We also now, with the Steelers at 5 and 3, and we might get into this summon must win, it doesn't feel like

Tomlin's streak of winning seasons is going to end or not finishing below 500. And that might force Baltimore to get to 10 wins, which at 3 and 5 could be a, you know, a tough road to host, so to speak. Seven and two.

That's very doable, though. It sounds doable. I think it could be real tough. And so I think the Steelers, this last week, earned their place. Go ahead. You know, there's a lot of studies that say people in your vicinity have a real effect on your own personality and opinions. You know, they say if you take like your 10 friends,

closest friends and you see how much money they make, you'll make right in the middle. and that you're politically, you're more likely to have the same political opinions as people that live close to you. Romantically, you fall in love, you get married to people that are around. You went to school with or in the same town, even though the world's got billions of people in it. Maybe your true love live somewhere else, but you're probably get married to somebody in your town or whatever. I feel like that also pertains to sports opinions. For example, my kids are growing up in New York. They've only been to Massachusetts a handful of times, yet they, I, I, I,

I've turned them into Patriots fans and Red Sox fans. You don't believe in Bo Nix. So when I'm watching Broncos games, I'm like, I don't believe in Bo Nix. I'm like, hold on a second. The Broncos are pretty good. I don't even have a formed opinion on Bo Nix. You've just, I've just sat next to you for years telling me Bo Nix is not good. I looked at it like, I mean, Bo Nix is good.

Maybe it's just I'm being informed by someone sitting near me. The Broncos are actually good. So they're at home. They've won nine in a row. The best home team or the hottest home team in the NFL, Broncos Colts. And then the chief chiefs are only one for Broncos 1-9. Defense, I'm the guy that says defense wins championships. We all like Pat Sartan.

Defense is fantastic. Defense is fantastic. So defense wins championships. And they were great at home and they're going to, you know, they're in first place. All these things are lining up. And then finally comes down to Bo Nix, who even if you know, You think he's pretty good? His fourth quarter has been excellent.

Dude's been on fire. So just keep the game close. And then the fourth quarter, this guy wins the game. The defense will keep the, I'm like, what the heck? I like the Broncos all of a sudden. So move the Broncos up. I've been, you've been tricking me this whole time. And I know it's just a study.

It's just not your fault. Listen, you know what's crazy about that? What? I've been sitting next to you just as long as you've been sitting next to me. And never once has one of your opinions made me believe something. Let something go wrong in Houston. What are you going to be saying? So I am, so I before the year on this show had a very confusing take, if you will,

which was I thought the Broncos were going to finish below 500 and miss the playoffs and start six and two. Because I believe that the second after their schedule was going to beat them up. Now, part of that math was I thought they wouldn't get to seven and two. they'd lose to Houston. I, every week, I watch the Broncos, and I'm like, all right, maybe they're going to prove me wrong. And every week I watch the whole game, and I'm like, nope, that team stinks, and then they win. And this week was, and stinks is too strong. I don't think the team stinks, because the defense is obviously excellent.

Ovens line is really good. But I did not, I watched that Texans game, and it's 13-13 against Davis-Mills, and I'm not filled with competence. Then, Bo Nix did have his fourth quarter scramble, and they get in fuel. field goal range. I am, listen, I will have the marks, our old friend Mark Schlarith, he has me on his radio show all the time. They make fun of me, they yell at me, they throw pies in my face, you know, metaphorically. We'll see. I think the Broncos are due to have a regression to the mean on this fourth quarter stuff. If I'm wrong, I'm wrong. But when is it going to happen? The Chiefs? Well, obviously. Okay. They got two against the Raiders.

Yeah. No, no, at this point, They are a huge favorite to make the playoffs. I no longer think because part of me thinking they were gonna have the second half swoon was, I thought the two Raider games are gonna be tough. Turns out those games probably, I mean, again, Gino could get gone, but probably not that tough. But I think they're gonna go 0 and two against Kansas City.

Okay. Is Drake May in a must win? Wow, we are really turning it up a notch these must win coming up next. That was amazing. What's going on in Indiana? Indy 500. We should just set up shop there.

I mean, I got to tell you, I do think McAfee beat us to that property. Unbelievable. He's like Indiana's sports cattle. He nailed it. But he nailed it. I mean, he did a great job. Must win it. Good point.

Ravens at Vikings. This one's on Fox. Brew, we're hoping that you're winning it at the park. Oh, Ravens practice. He loved that. I just meet at the park down the street. The first five games, the defense, of course, was no good. Last three games, the defense has been excellent.

You are the reigning champion of must win, so you can, of course, decide to pass or play. It will go in clockwise order, so be smart here. I think I'll take it. Okay, here we go. I'll play. Just quick, briefly. It is a must win for the Ravens,

but also a must validate tea time. golfing thing. The T's, it seems like if you lose within, say, a month, then your T-6, the tackle that turned the tide has actually been mocked by Danny Parkins, who created a T-3 man. The tackle that meant absolutely nothing. So they must validate T-7. Got it. The toy toss that transformed the tackler. So they must win, but they also must play well defensively to continue their climb toward contention. That's it. I do short and sweet. Okay. It was power pack. Points available. Definitely points. I just think about it. Think about it. I know it was a little above your head. But think about it. We are got it. We are. This is actually a must win for the

Vikings. Look. Vikings? Yes, absolutely for the Vikings. When you look at the Ravens, I feel like they're in the division where they can still make up ground depending on what they end up looking like. But for the Minnesota Vikings, they're last in their division. They have questions surrounding their quarterback.

He hasn't been great. You have weapons around him. Defensively, they just put on a remarkable showing against the Detroit Lions. Now you have to go up against a Ravens offense that can put up just as much points, but their defense is not as good. is the Lions, you want to see something out of your young quarterback. It starts now. You can continue to build on that and potentially creep your way into the playoffs because

you're on the outside looking in in a really tough division. This is a must-beam for the Lions and or I'm sorry for the Minnesota Vikings. They don't have a lot of checkmark wins. It was a great answer. Just the dismount. It's a dismount, but that's only like a point-to- You stumbled like. Here's the, listen, you didn't even get off the ground.

Exactly. Here's the reality, KW. Yeah. If the Ravens lose, they're done. They're done. Done. And we talked about this when Brew correctly said going into the Bears game. The season comes down to the Bears game.

And I said, I agree. But the problem with that when I had my faded, ill-fated poker analogy about Aces versus 2-7 that you hated so much, was you have to just run. You have to do it. again and again and again. And if you, I don't know if you can put it up or not, DUS, their schedule versus the Steelers schedule. But if they, if they lose this game to fall to three and six,

they're just finished. Because we know they have two left against Pittsburgh. We know they have two left against Cincinnati. We know they have the Patriots and the Steelers. I'm sorry, and the Packers. And so it is not realistic to say when we saw the Steelers get a win that we did not expect them to get, that the Ravens can drop this game to Minnesota,

and then all of a sudden go from three and six to 10 and seven to be the minimum they have to do. Their season is on the line Sunday. So it's a must win for them. Nick gets it. Thank you. Patriots, underdogs in Tampa Bay. Stumbled over.

Buck's coming off a by. I mean, I thought that meant something. When I make a misstep verbally, I made a misstep. I get punished for it Nick did. He had a graphic. Honestly, when you bring stuff to the table, it was a lot of stuff.

Usually I don't like that. Bucks off a buy. Patriots have won six straight, and Drake May has literally been their best road quarterback in the NFL. Undefeated, completion percentage of the best. This is the best everywhere. Practice, home, away. Touchdown.

Practice. Yeah. They practice on the road? Watch it. Saying he's the best quarterback. quarterback, you know, whatever. Yeah. It's the most passes.

You get it. Who's just a must win for it, Greg? It's a must win for the bucks. Love it. Coming off a by, Baker's been questioned. Brew, absolutely, he says he's this guy, but he absolutely does not believe in you. He's still thinking Kyle Trask. You're gonna win that division.

You're gonna have to start stacking some of these wins because there's a team in your division, believe it or not, that's kind of a creepy cat. I don't know if you're paying attention, but you might want to be a airline. might want to pay attention to that team and it will help to get a win against a New England Patriots team who have been knocking on the doorstep of destiny. Heck yeah, dude. Heck yeah. I landed that.

That's Nadia Colmanich out there. It is perfect. Brown knows and words. So here, listen, this is not a must win for either team. These are two really good. playoff. He's not even playing the game. I am playing the game.

There we go. Sometimes we have a double must win. Sometimes we're not in this way. This is not a must win. That's fair. It is, it would be disrespectful to the sentiment of must win to act like these two teams that are combined 13 and four that both have at least one really good win already on their resume with Tampa beating Seattle and with New England beating Buffalo.

One of them has to lose. It's not going to be a disaster for either one of them. Yeah. Somebody always has to lose. Not necessarily. Cowboys Packers was a tie. Yeah, I know there's. Well, you said, this is the rare double must win.

It's the opposite of that. It is a must win for bake and Drake. All right? A must win for bake. You already won't. Because look, they're getting no love in these quarters, the Buccaneers, and many other courts. Here's why not.

Atlanta by three. Houston, by a point. The Jets. I know, Nick, the tough version of the Jets, by two points. All right? That kind of nullifies the one good win they have. Is it one good win over Seattle, right? And they beat San Francisco.

With their backup quarterback. Who might be their better? Anyway, so it is a must win. So this would be a really good win for Tampa Bay. And it would raise their, you know, what they are in my eyes. For Drake, he's in the MVP race. That's true. He is flat in the MVP race.

And if he plays well, they already have won six straight, which is impressive. You beat Tampa Bay, Baker Mayfield? Oh, you might be a top Bruce Ballad next week. I have to make a ruling on this before we go, Dust. I'm going to award no points. Why? We were looking for, you guys think your hot stuff? Just because you rebuilt your whole team in the post-Tom Brady era?

Well, guess what? We did too. Now we're going to go into your building, put our feet up, and order a sandwich. No points. That's what we were looking for. Number three. Eagles Packers. This is the bonus round.

It is worth two. so anybody can win it. It's anybody's ball game still. But if you were to happen to award no points here, then I win, correct? Yes, no points is definitely on the board. Eagles off a by, Packers fresh off of being upset by the Panthers. Siriani perfect with an extra week of rest. Four and O.

I guess he's not a good coach. All he does is win for him. Nick, you're going first here. Who is this a must win for? Unlike when Bruce says it, because every week, Bruce like this is. the ultra rare. How rare is it if he does it literally every week?

I checked the archives with Dusty. I've not had one of these since week three when it was Chiefs Ravens, both teams O and two. And it was like, what the heck is going on here? Yeah, we were like, what the heck? This is a double muscle. I like how you, yeah. For the Packers, they have one game left against a losing team, the Giants.

It is a gauntlet moving forward. And they are on the precipice of being out of the playoff picture on a season. They did go all in before. You look at who they have. It's divisional games. It's the Broncos who I know you really believe in. It's the Ravens who you really believe in Brew. The Giants are the only soft spot left on their schedule.

The Eagles, on the other hand, did make a choice by not trading A.J. Brown. They said we are going to, and I don't need the Eagles schedule, because it's not about their schedules. The Eagles are obviously going to win the division. They're obviously going to be a playoff team. But they cannot have the best vibes game they have all year without AJ into a bye, keep him, and then have some level of unrest after this game because he doesn't get the ball or they lose, whatever it is. So both of these teams face a critical moment.

The Eagles off the by, standing pat, and the Packers off an off. loss, double must win. What's your take on that? It is the rare. I told you. Double must win. See? Wow.

It is the rare double must win. For the Eagles, it's a must win plus because you must win, but you also must send the message to Micah Parsons. The only thing that's changed, brother, is your address. All right? We owned you when you were in Dallas in our division. And we will own you now that you have moved up north to Green Bay. Nothing has changed but your address.

And then for Green Bay, it's simple. Who are you, J-Lo? Are you J-Lo future MVP winners predicted by me? Or are you J-No? No, no. I need to know. The Packers need to know with Tucker Kraft out for the season. Are you going to lift us?

This is when the great quarterbacks do it, Wilds, when there's an injury and the team needs to know that he's going to carry us. So it's the rare double muscle win. This is, Wilde, the rare double must win. They're all just taking my take. The double must win for the Green Bay Packers and for your streaming. This is my Super Bowl team.

You traded for Micah. I was super excited. This Eagles team is a team that has owned you, starting last season at the kickoff of the start of the season, and then they ended your season in the postseason. You can't allow this team to come into Lambo and run through you because they have found their running game,

like their Rico Dowell and the Carolina Panthers. Like, I don't care. what you do. If the Eagles come into Lambo, you must fight. It's not just about Jordan Love. Jordan, I believe in you. I know you're going to be great, but you have to find a way to beat this team because you know who you're probably going to face to have to get to that vaunted Super Bowl appearance, this team. So you might want to send the message right now. At home, Monday night, get it done. Not only for you, I need this one too. Double must win.

Thank you, Wiles. Unbelievable ruling. The rare double must win. Greg and Nick gets points because you had a previous one. Yes. The rare double must win. Unbelievable. That puts me in the lead for the season.

What? What a game. Thanks for joining us. Totally first after the break. Wow. Oh my gosh. A rare double must. What?

What the? I told you he doesn't like giving to a row. That's all. That's all that was. The rare. Oh, it's the rarest. College Hoops is back, and it's back on Fox on Saturday. Alabama, number 15, going up against number five St. Johns.

That's noon right here on FS1. And then on Fox at 7, number 14, Arkansas, first number 22, Michigan State, Calipari, which is a good one. Right now, for you. Of course, you're entering the No Bull Zone, sponsored by Credibly. Get great rates, you have to deal with any of the Bull. Spurs in LA tonight, first matchup between Wembe and Luca. Both players off to ridiculously hot starts.

Take a listen to Wembe. Luca is one of the hardest players to scout, because he understands the master's the game more than almost everybody else. So it's always a great challenge. I don't think I don't think I don't want to this stuff. Luca is averaging 41 points so far without shooting the three well. Ridiculous. And Wemby's blocking five shots a game.

This is just nuts. Who would you rather have this year? Look, I love Luca. So this is no slight on him. But even just for this year, I think going forward we all would say Wembe, but even for this year, I would say Wembe. And it's mainly Nick because of the defense. Well, yeah.

Right, which he is obviously far in away the best defensive player in the league. You mentioned the five blocks. His defensive rating is 95. The second best defensive rating, Isaiah Hardin's. It's really three straight OKC guys is 102, 102, 103 something, 102. And so that's how far out in front of every other defender he is. But beyond that, Nick, I also think Wimby's just easier to play with, because Luca is ball dominant,

which you have to kind of be careful. You know, you need a specific type of players to fit around Luca because he's so ball dominant. He's shooting 25 shots a game this year. They'll probably come down. But Wimby, I think you can fit pieces around him easier. They're fitting young kids and stuff around him this year. And so I just think like he's got San Antonio

number one defense in the league. Lakers are like 14th. And look at the champion. like OKC, Shea is a good defender. They're a great defensive team. Boston was a great defensive team. Denver, Yokic is not a great defender, but because of his size, he ends up being solid. Golden State was obviously a good defensive team.

Janis with Milwaukee. Like, you keep going down when the Lakers won their title. Great defensive teams. So that's why even now, I would take Wembe over Lucas. I'm a little surprised by that being your answer, even though I know how much you love Wimby. Because not to wade too far into the Durant, Draymond, what's more important offense or defense debate,

but I think that debate kind of missed it. Because I do think that, you're right, Bruda, win a championship, you have to have a solid defense. Like there's been, over the last 30 years in the NBA, I think two champions that didn't have a top 10 defense in the regular season, and at least one of them was one of the Lakers teams with Shaq and Kobe, and it was just because they were in cruise control during the regular season. I think team defense can be a bigger predictor of postseason success than team offense as far as rating.

But as far as how we grade and evaluate individual players, it is not 50% of your value comes from defense, 50% comes from offense. The most valuable thing in the NBA for an individual player is creating offense. And Luke, in my opinion, does it so much. much better than Wimby right now, that it covers the defensive gap. And I think, listen, the gap between them defensively is enormous. Wimby is one of, is the best defensive player in the league and has chance to be one of the greatest defenders of all time. And Lucas strives to be an average defender.

I get that. But the game Wimby had the other night with nine points simply does not exist for Luka. There is no night where Luca plays a full game and doesn't create at least 30 points of offense through his scoring and his passing. Because he's going to shoot so much. Well, he's going to shoot 20-something percent. But he's, but I mean, he's been super efficient this year. He is shooting 55 percent from the field despite shooting 28 percent on 12-3s a game. And so right now this moment, I think Luca is the better player.

I think that maybe by the end of the year, Wembe catches him, but I also feel like Luca is just a known quantity. You know what? Like every year he has been in the league that he's been fully healthy, he's been a top five player, and I feel like he is, you could argue, again, tiny sample, he's playing the best he's ever played in his career this season.

Yeah. And so, and... 40 points pretty good. Well, yeah, and he scored 40 in three of the four games he's played. Who do you think has a bigger night tonight? I think they both going to have huge nights. Wimby, I'm sure, because you're right, he had, what, nine points? Nine points, yeah. It was a weird game because he really wasn't that involved.

I don't know if he was fatigued or what. I would expect him to want to come out, obviously, it's the Lakers, too, and just make amends for that. Yeah, there. Now, I think Luke will be great, too, but I expect a big night. Luca rested, and I think I read right for the show, Austin, not playing again tonight, which means Luca is going to have to do. everything. So I, you know, I would expect another 40 piece from Luca. I mean, it's not that he is, he is right now having the like hardened 17, 2017 statistical year where it's like

it's just 35 and 10. It feels like every night. Over under is 35 and a half. That's that's so yeah. He'll be over that. Yeah. Fresh video of sauce Gardner practicing with the Colts. Wow. Looks good to me. That's a good trade. That's next and weird and wonderful. Put in practice video and weird and wonderful. I like it. Tomorrow, Drew is off.

So we have a special edition of the but list. What? Danny's coming on for the dud list. What? Danny's under duress. He doesn't believe in the teams. It ends with, I don't believe it. It's not motivation.

No, it's people he does not believe in. On the dud list. But right now, quick episode of Weird and Wonderful first wonderful sauce gardener back on the practice field oh look at that causing fumbles he's headed to Germany play the Falcons with the cold so I'm excited for this what he's causing havoc out there I know what I know this is obvious or maybe it's I don't know he does have freakishly long arms and you notice that like whenever you watch him you notice it I think maybe just because of the sleeves it stands out

here. What's the time out? What's going on here? What are they playing? Dodge ball? Well, I don't know. I don't think it's a real drill that he was, you know. I mean, he forced to fumble on a guy wearing a red, no contact jersey, which makes me think it

wasn't a real drill. Well, that, this one I'm like, well, this is one of the best defenders in the end. This is, he blocked that. It looks like it's just. This guy in behind. Look, that guy's just playing dodge ball. He's having fun. Yeah, well, I have to change.

What's going on? Listen, I, I, you know. I just want to be on the record. I think he's going to be really good. I think sauce is, he's had down year and a half. I think he's going to be good. But don't you think he's, you just got it. You couldn't help but get rejuvenated.

You would hope. Now listen, if I'm a Jets fan, I'm like, I would have hoped the $120 million contract we signed you two 10 weeks ago would have had you juvenated. It's a very team friendly deal. Yeah. Well, it's, it made it very tradable because it was no, it was not a signing bonus.

It was option bonuses. That's why they were able to trade. Wonderful. Two dunk of the year candidates. New way that we're doing this now. We're going to put the dunk of the year candidates. Yeah, I don't want to belittle that guy, but it just doesn't stand up compared to the next. This one, Zion Sainsley?

It's nice. It's nice. Of UC Santa Barbara? Yeah, it was nice. But this next one is ferocious. Kentucky versus Nichols, Colin Chandler, they're going head to head into dunk the year. The loser of this will be eliminated. So we will never see Sendsley's dunk again.

Yeah, I mean, the Kentucky kid went. Yeah. That is got us being the running. We'll see if we see a better dunk in college issue. Okay. And he posed in the air when he? Weird. Magic down to the Raptors.

Desmond Bain misses a three. He hasn't really been as good as advertised as you guys were like the magic is the number one seat all of a sudden. We didn't say that. They're playing the Hawks just real quick. The Raptors. You still loved him. But this is weird by Bain. Like he obviously was mad already.

I think it's just frustration. I would assume, but you're right. The volleyball spike. No, it was bad. And then, yeah, the whole. He should be suspended. Suspended? Maybe.

Maybe. No. I mean, I spiked the ball off of the dude 10. I don't know. We have to check the jail and Carter rule. I mean, he was, he actually missed the, he missed the quarter and a half. A quarter. Yeah.

Weird Thunder Clippers, Hartnstein between his own legs to get the ball to Caruso. This sweet little play. Thunder are 8 and 0 for the first time in France. franchise history. 30 seconds left in the show until we go to overtime. Brew, if I, would you say yes, no? They win 70. Right now. It was a good take from you. I hate to kind of validate that take. But right now, it looks good right now. Yeah. I think they're winning seven. I mean, they, they, they don't have to lose. They haven't had their second best player all year.

They're eight, no. First thing's first overtime coming up at five o'clock. AJ Brown's a great player. Um, he wears. to see for a reason. When you're a team like ours that is looking forward to an opportunity to compete for a championship, you just don't get rid of the guys like that. To get a bona fide number one corner in this league, he's sticky in coverage, the past breakups to interceptions, he's feisty, he's going to elevate everybody. If it's close in the fourth quarter, you better out. There's the three, one, two, three. Pairs! Kudos to, you know, Jerry and Stephen and and Will, you know, I think, you know, being aggressive. And, but, small.

Mark. Wednesday, 5 o'clock. It is time for first things first overtime. And we have Ben Johnson coming up. About 20 minutes. Do you ask him about his enthusiastic locker room speeches? Oh yeah, right off the top. It's in the plan.

It might come up the whole time. Who knows? I'm trying to be my best. Good, better, better, have a letter rest. Okay. Until your good gets better. I think I'm going to start supporting Ben Johnson. No, too late.

No, I have a lot of old pent up Patriots Bears. Yeah, 1988. From the 85 Super Bowl? Yeah, dude. You guys getting beat, what was it, 55 to 10? It wasn't great. 46 time.

40, oh, thank you. I got you. First thing for us to overtime right now, we're starting with. Getting Philly with it. I get it. I get it. Just saying, I get it. You got to sell, Bill.

You got in Green Bay, where the first place Packers will take on the first place Eagles. Eagles GM, Howie Roseman. Added Jaylin Phillips from the Dolphins. J.A. Alexander. from the Ravens. That was a short-lived. Yeah. Classic one by me. That was. Thank you. Lamar was so happy.

Didn't even know if they played together. Michael Carter is second from the Jets. Wow. He's a great. You probably love the toys, you know. Brandon Graham from retirement. Here's Howie. Can't be afraid to fail.

I think for a lot of times, for you to get to the top, that you got to be willing to take chances that you know, may look controversial at times. And so if There was an opportunity to do that that we thought gave us also an opportunity to be the last team standing and put confetti on our head. You know, we're going to go aggressive in that direction. Fentity on your head is sick.

Did the Eagles do enough to go back to back? I normally let the confetti fall on my head. I don't just plop it on my head. I thought that the Eagles had enough to go back to back before any trades were made. And I don't know if that's a cop out here, but they arguably have the most impressive this. season resume of any team in football. It's at least arguable when you figure in like strength of victory, which they actually, among the playoff team.

Drew loves strength of victory. Well, among, among, a good precursor. Well, among playoff teams, like teams that would be in the playoffs today, they're number one. The Giants is actually higher, but they don't have enough wins to really qualify for it because the Giants beat the Eagles, they beat the Chargers. But they have the best strength of victory. They beat the Chiefs.

They beat the Cowboys. They beat the Bucks. They beat the Rams. but also just the eye test, Sequan's coming off his best game, which was right after Jalen Hertz was coming off of his best game, and they added three players,

and whatever we make in TV about A.J. Brown and whatever's real about A.J. Brown, they said, it's not bad enough to trade him, because if they would have traded A.J. Brown, everyone would have agreed this team got worse this year. Like maybe it would have been better for the future, maybe you would have gotten a good draft pick, but this team would have been,

worse. And they're saying, no, we're good with AJ Brown. And so they're going to go try to win this year's Super Bowl. And I think they're one of the two or three favorites to do it. They won the Super Bowl going away with AJ Brown reading books on the sideline. And really lighting the season on fire, what? Five weeks with five weeks left? I mean, it was late in the season when he made those comments about we need to throw more and they still didn't have a problem winning. I agree with you. Look, I think the addition to Jalen Phillips is decent. You know, he's not a superstar, but their pass rush hasn't been great either. Correct. You know, they're near the bottom as well in terms of sacks. So I think he gives

them a little bit of a boost there. But I agree. I mean, on paper, they can do it. The only reason, and I did not pick them in large part because of this reason, but it's just history says, man, it is difficult to even get back to the Super Bowl, let alone win it again. This century, three teams have gotten back, right? The Chiefs and the Patriots with Brady and Mahomes have won it. Mahomes have won it. And then the Seattle got back but didn't win. So it's just hard to do.

But on paper, yeah, they have enough. Even if they didn't make a move, they still had enough to win it. So, yeah, they, how he's done a fine job. Yeah, listen, I think the only, the question about Philadelphia was not a question that was going to be addressed at the trade deadline. I do think adding Jalen Phillips was a real impact addition. That is, while everyone was talking about the chiefs adding Brees Hall, I would have liked if they had added some Jalen Phillips.

He was probably the best edge rusher moved at the right? That was available. And it was moved. I think it was definitely, yeah, definitely the best edge rusher moved at the deadline. And then Quinn Williams for best rusher. Yeah. And so I like that move, but I don't think that's the question for them because I do believe, if Philadelphia doesn't reach their ultimate goal,

I don't think it's going to be because they don't get enough pressure, in part because I think Jalen Carter can attract enough attention that you're not going to be awful at getting to the quarterback when you have healthy Jalen Carter. The question to me is going to be what Sequin are they getting? And that is not going to be, you weren't going to trade for a running back. Like it is, and that is the question looming over post-by week, Because the numbers going into that last game when he was awesome were grim.

It was almost his yards per carry were barely 60% of what they were the previous year. They had no explosive runs averaging 50 yards per game. And then he has the monster game going into the buy when they don't have AJ. And I don't think this team is at its best win. They have to just turn Jalen Hertz into a dropback passer. I don't think it's what they want to do. They have shown when they in an emergency press that button. He has come through quite often in that spot,

but I don't think that's their path for three consecutive playoff victories leading into a Super Bowl. I think it's the type of team they have tried to be since Jalen Hertz has been there, which is a run-first play action, you know, Jalen Hertz deep bomb or Jailen Hertz with his legs. And Jalen's not running as much this year, and they need Seekwon. So that, to me, is the overwhelming question about your Super Bowl pick is, is the, was week eight, a fork in the road for Sequin where it's like, okay, we're getting closer to last year's Sequin, or was it a blip? And that part, I don't know. And so I wouldn't have been moved. They have too good of a roster to, unlike Buffalo, people like trade for Chris Alave or even the chiefs, trade for Brise Hall.

Once they added Jail and Phillips, there was nobody out there really. we were like, man, the Eagles need to go get what? And that's a testament to Howie. It's because they don't really have a lot of holes. And on defense, it's young players that they want to play because they want them to get the experience. Yeah, Howie Roseman is probably the best general manager in football. Not every trade that he makes works.

They did the Robert Quinn trade last year. They didn't really do any dividends for them. But we were talking about the value of the draft pick that they gave up. They traded their third round pick for Phillips. And they still have the Jets third round pick. That's probably 20 picks difference, 25 picks difference in this round. So they're just a very well-run organization. The reason I'd have optimism about Sequin, though,

offensive line's getting healthier. If the offensive line is healthy, and he can get back to last year where those yards before contact, he was best in the NFL, which is what it looked like in that last game, he's good. I don't think Sequin fell off a cliff here. My guess is that that game last week, or I guess a week ago because of the buy, was not a blip for him.

My buddy from Philly was... The one who was hollering out. us at the Super Bowl saying was he in New Orleans when we were up on the thing? He was? Yes. Yes. Yes. Wow. Wilde doesn't have a lot of friends so I can identify him very quickly. He was big on

like the Eagles were planning on a 20 game season for Sequin. And that's one of the reasons why you would see less usage. That was probably just Well, they clearly, no, listen you don't trade multiple picks for Tank Bigsby.

You don't have, gosh darn it, the big guy, Quadzilla, thank you. Like, they clearly want Sequin to be fresh going into the postseason. And to be clear, I don't think Sequin is bad. I do think he might be tired. And I don't know that just the by week is enough to get over. So here's the weird thing. They're 98% to win in the division. The Cowboys are done.

The commanders are done. The Giants are done. Yeah. So how do you use Seekwan from here on out? Well, listen, I super value the buy. So I don't think that they can just go into third gear and be like, we're going to win the division. We're going to have a home playoff game.

I understand they didn't have the buy last year and they didn't need it. It's a hard, it's a much harder path, obviously. And because the division's so soft now, they have the smoothest. The other team's going for the buy. This is one of the reasons I believe in Tampa. I know you don't. Tampa has a relative. smooth path after these next few weeks.

But the NFC West and the NFC North teams are going to be in a fight for their life just to make the playoffs while the Eagles and Bucks are going to be fighting for seeding not to make the way. It's hard to see the one seed coming out of the north or the west. That's what I'm saying. Because I think they're going to beat each other up to.

Even with Sequine not playing up to his standard, they have those wins you mentioned. Kansas City and Tampa Bay and the Rams. So if he gets going, then like, If every team plays its A-plus game, they probably win it. I was thinking about that.

Like, if you were grading the Eagles every week, you wouldn't have really given them A's. Oh, they beat the Chiefs with like a B-minus game. They beat the Rams with a B game. Rams 49ers this weekend battle at two excellent quarterbacks when Mack Jones takes on Matthew Stafford, who is the subject of the first edition of this week's edition of Packed stats. Stats are cool. Making stats cool again. Oh, you guys both just want to fight over the slogan?

No, I'm just adding to it. We're all, we're all, we're all on the same direction. All right, stat number one. Stats are making a comeback. They're making a comeback. One week at a time. Matt Stafford, the Rams passing strategy could get Matt Stafford the MVP. The stat is eight, as in eight passing touchdowns from inside the five-yard line.

It's the inverse of the tush push, guys. They added Devante Adams, and all of a sudden, every time Sean McVeigh gets down inside the 10-yard line or the five-yard line, he's dropping back to pass. Stafford's got the most pass attempts, the most completions, and the most touchdowns inside the five-yard line this year. And we know his touchdown interception ratio. It's working. If it were voted on today, it's not a projection, if it were based on what they have done up to this point, are we all in agreement that he'd be the league MVP? that if we said if we did a segment, who's been the MVP through at the midway point of the season, my vote would be him.

You had him at the top Bruce ballot. Yeah. I don't know if you're. It would be interesting. I think Drake May would get some vote. Like if the regular voters were voting today, it would be interesting to see. Because one thing I'm saying,

even though I had him atop the ballot and I feel he would, he's my MVP at this moment, you can argue, man, Drake does not have nearly the amount of, of weapons that Stafford has. And so that's an argument in his place. And he's taking a team from, you know, not quite worse, but worse to first, so to speak. So perfectly said.

That's exactly. I 100% agree with everything he said. Well, it's just an interesting formula for the Rams. Like 14 of his 21 touchdown passes are inside the 10 yard line this year. Kyron Williams has not been the focal point. Sean McVeale talks about I want to run the ball. It's like, well, maybe if you have one of the best. pure passers in the NFL and a top wide receiver duo, just pass your way into the

Yeah, I don't, I think that's, I think the inside the five part is probably rare. I don't think it's that rare that, I bet most quarterbacks, well more than 50% of their touchdown passes have come inside the 10. I don't think it's a bunch of, I don't think there's many quarterbacks inside the 10. Yeah, because he said, you said 14 of his 21 inside the 10, 14 of his 21 inside the 10, five of Stafford's eight touchdowns inside the five have gone to Devante, but he leads the NFL in past attempts and touchdowns inside the five. Yeah, inside the five, I do find interesting.

And I think some of that, Sean McVeigh's interesting because he objectively does not like, I shouldn't say that, he appears not to like his kicker. He certainly doesn't trust him. And I don't know, and I don't know how much he trusts their power run game. And so I think he just feels like in got to have its spots or in the most high-levered spots, I don't know I just put the ball on Stafford. I'll take the touch push. Well, you can't do it from the five.

Why not? You can do it twice. Oh, good. Making stats cool. That's right. You said it, not me, but I agree. Stat number two, it's been a while since we talked about Justin Herbert. Oh, sweet.

Well, it's a big game this week. Chargers and Steelers. Herbert's going to have to be Superman again this week. I mean, no Slater, no alt, injury is all over the offensive line. He has been pressured 165 times this year. That's 30 more than any quarterback. and you can roll your eyes and put your head in your hands. You saw what happened to Patrick Mahomes

when he had one game where he was pressured as much as Justin Herbert has been consistently this year, and Mahomes had the worst game of his career. That's 30 more pressures than anyone. He's playing in a Pittsburgh team that has four games where they've had at least five sacks this year. So are you closing up your briefcase on the Chargers season? I think it's going to, I mean, listen,

I think they can still be the wild card, but I do not think that they can win. that they can win big this year without either of the taxes. Okay, so this is, here's the reason I put my head in my hands. If the, the year the chiefs traded away Tyree Kill, I came on TV and picked him to win the Super Bowl. If they then lost a wide receiver and then I came on, I'm like, whoa, what can you expect?

They don't have that wide receiver or Tyree Kill. All of your Herbert stuff was, hold on, hold on, wait, wait, wait, no, no, no, was post Slater's injury. So the Slater's injury, so they have not lost Slater and old. All of the Chargers optimism, but all of the Chargers optimism, we knew Slater was out.

Post Slater. And it was post Slater. And so if what we're saying is, Herbert was going to have the Peyton Manning here, the Chargers are going to be a legitimate contender, all of that, and they lose one player. And it all falls, apart, then he's not the guy you're telling us he is.

They haven't just lost one player, though. They also lost their third tackle. They also lost Omarian Hampton. Khalil Mack was hurt for a period of time. They have had nine starters on their offensive line through nine games, second most in the NFL. They've been one of the most injured teams in football. It's not just for Sean's later.

And by the way, Herbert has been great this year. He's been great this year. He's been very good. He's beating the league in passing. But again, yards. But. But so is his passer rate. 98.

Which is very good. Not great, though. Yeah, I mean, I don't think things pass range. Eight picks. I just, this is all, you get one and the, they are passing the ball a ton, which leads him leaning in passing, which is great. It also leads to him being pressured more than other people, which is bad. I just, we are staring down the barrel of another year of, man, it's just not just in

Herbert's fault. It's been, he's been in the league. I buy this one though. This is bad luck, man. All of his offensive linemen are getting hurt. But you got to look, we've seen Joe Burrow overcome, you know, bad offensive line play. Like, you just got to. I get, yeah. Yeah, they made the Super Bowl and the AFC championship game with bad offensive line. Okay, he's also been, you know. He's been in here. I think that's good. But I think that's cool. The lights move us on. All right. If you guys didn't like that one, I'm not sure how much we're going to love this one. Caleb Williams, people are asking, people are saying that he's the show hey Otani of the NFL. We might have to do you.

Just get ready here. This is worse than T3 man. Two rushing touchdowns and receiving touchdown. Look at that handsome Irv Com. Receiving. Irv Combe. And two catches. That's right.

Or else Josh Allen would have been on it last year. You got to go back to Irv Com. Fun fact about Irv Combe Nick. He can only see out of one eye. True story. Look at this handsome fella. Okay. I mean, honestly, Showe Otani, we would do stats.

We'd be like the first player since Jim grunting Shaw. This is all because he caught one extra pass. I did like, I did like that he caught the past. But he caught two. Two in one. The Phillies special and then one in the middle of the field. I'm just saying, does your quarterback have 10 passing touchdowns, two rushing touchdowns are received?

No, because you catchers? No, because they would never be like, hey, Patrick, we want you to go run a seam round against the same. safety. Well, it is not what they're going to want. A little bit of a unicorn. Show Hey Otani of football. That's too much though, but I like it.

It's too much. It's too much. It's too much. And I understand it might be trying to butter up Ben Johnson because he's about to be on. Be like, oh, Danny's my guy. He's calling. But I bet even, I bet even Ben Johnson would say it's a little too much. No.

It's a little too much. All right. All right. Well, then I'll just zoom out and I'll bring this up with Ben Johnson in a little bit. Do you know what? was the second most explosive plays in the NFL this year. Now that I find interesting. The Chicago Bears. Indianapolis Colts won, the Bears, too.

So that part, brew to me, does mean something. That they are all of a sudden a big play offense. Four and yards per game, sixth in points per game, ninth few of sacks in the NFL this year for all. And I know they played Dallas in Cincinnati, and that inflates the stats, two of the worst defenses in the NFL. But the Otani of football is real. So that the Otani of football, I can't get with.

But I do, here is where I'll be with you. Thank you. Because Caleb right now, Colin made this point earlier this week. I think it was a smart point. He is not great at some of the easier stuff, as great as we would hope he would be. To overcome that, you need to be excellent at the explosives. If you're going to miss some of the layups, you've got to hit some 40 foot threes. I would like to see a, you know, if we're in a scientific.

scientific experiment, a control, like a normal team. I like to see him do it against a normal team. Not the Cowboys and not the bad. But if they're second in the league, KW for the whole season on explosive plays, that it didn't all come in those two games. No, of course not. A lot of it did, though. And to be, to be fair, a lot of it have been running plays.

Like, they've been a very good running team. Now the truth comes. How much of it is Caleb against normal teams to use why? Troy run the numbers. We'll get Troy to run. Like one. No. For all the questions of the Bears' offense.

He does have some. There's no doubt he's got the explosive potential. I mean, there's no question about that. No, and they've been an explosive offense this year. That part is true. And that's that that is surprising at least to me. You know what? That's why stats are cool.

The Otani thing. Yeah, you went way too far. I went too far. Yeah. I mean, we did it with O'Ton. Troy just said 29 explosive runs, 43 explosive passes. So that's good. Okay.

It's pretty good. They didn't all come against Dallas and Sins. It's not right. Probably about 30. All right. Coming up next, Danny sits down with Ben Johnson. Talk a little Caleb and talk about where the Chicago Bears are headed. That's next on first things first over time.

Good better best. Never let it rest. Hold up a second. Oh, no, no, I found it. Fire right there. But don't apologize for a win in this league, guys. Good. And now we welcome back to first things first.

I can't come. confirm whether or not that's my ringtone. Good, better, best. It's the absolute greatest. Ben Johnson with us here on FTFOT. Coach, thank you so much for the time. How you doing today? I'm doing great. It's good to see you guys. Good to have you with us. So another crazy win. You guys have been wildly exciting this year and another fourth quarter comeback to get to five and three. And I'm curious, your quarterback, I don't know if you saw this, but he was caught on the sideline, kind of given a little smirk right before he went out. for the final drive.

And his fourth quarter numbers are by far his best when you, when you break it down. Seems to me to have that it factor. What do you see from Caleb in these clutch moments? Yeah, I would agree with that wholeheartedly. I think he really appreciates those opportunities because really gives him a chance to write his story, you know? And so a lot of confidence in him in those waning minutes.

And he just finds a way. It might not be exactly how you draw it up as a coach. And yet he just has. that playmaking ability, him and really the rest of the crew, too. I can't speak enough about how all of our past catchers, all of our blockers, they just do a phenomenal job when the pressure's on. They just stay steady. And so I think it's been a good thing so far the season.

Yeah, so the thing that maybe not everyone saw off that play, you mentioned one of your blockers, Darnell Wright, as he is trailing Colston Loveland, and this is a large man, he ends up doing a cartwheel. Not a big deal, just 300 plus pounds doing a cartwheel on the touchdown. But that wasn't his only viral moment from the game. He also had a pancake block where he takes the guy, I don't know, 15 yards, horizontal across the field. Curious in the film review with the team, which got the bigger wow, the block or the cartwheel? Yeah, definitely the block. A little collateral damage there too with DJ getting caught in the wash.

Those whiteouts got to watch their back there, don't they think of? Yeah. No, I mean, the guys are freak, man. There's not a whole lot he can't do. You know, it's him blocking right now, but I'm telling you, he does some things in practice. We've thrown the ball a couple times, and he's just, he looks as good as any of our past catchers,

to be honest with you. So, yeah, he's pretty impressive. Preview of things to come, Darnell Wright, Scott Schacher. But we'll see, we'll see. Everything's on the table. Coach, you've always alluded to how you envision this offense looking, And obviously with Caleb at the helm, how do you view his growth in allowing that offense to look the way that you've desired it to look week in and week out?

We're getting there. We're making a lot of progress. You know, we talked about it at our by week that we wanted the second quarter of the season to see our run game come on. And so I think that's happened to a large degree. I'm very pleased with our progress there. Our combinations up front are looking a lot cleaner. I think our backs are trusting what they're seeing a lot more and they're running hard. And so with that starting to ignite, I think the rest of the offense is really going to take off as well. Caleb is starting to get a lot more comfortable with some of these concepts. It's now his third, fourth, fifth reps of some of these things in game settings. And I think you're starting to see it add up. He's playing faster.

We're still working through some of these mechanical issues with our footwork. tied in with where our eyes and where everything needs to be. But that, you know, that's a young player learning the offense for the first time. So none of that surprising to any of us. But I think we're right on track. I'm really excited to see where this thing goes second half of the season. Yeah, it's interesting. I know you won't spike the ball on it.

And I know you're in a coach speak and game week and all of that stuff. But like, we're eight games into this thing. And I see the smirk there. If I put up some of the offensive stats so far, I've been blind. watching the Bears for 40 years. You're eight games into the Ben Johnson era. You guys are sixth in the NFL and points. That's not since the buy.

That's not just against bad. Sixth in points, second and explosive plays. Top 10 in sacks allowed, fourth and rushing. Like is it where you want it to be at this point in the season? Are you on track, Coach? Well, you know, I can't, I don't even look at those so much. We've had eight games and we've scored enough to win five of them so far. And so that's that's, that's.

That's the number one thing that we're looking to do each and every week. Whatever it takes to win ball games, whether that's run, grow. We got a score in the red zone. We can still play a lot cleaner brand of football. We haven't even gotten there yet. We made some strides in the red zone and with our penalties last week, but it's still not where it's where it needs to be for us, especially when you look at some of these really good defenses we're going to face here second half of the season. And so it's a small sample size. I can't take too much stock in those stats at this. hour, but you know, what we are, I'm really pleased with what we're doing so far. And I think we're going to continue to improve. You know, it's a, we're starting the third quarter of the season and we've got goals set out and that's what we got to achieve. Coach, I'm going to throw a different type of question at you because I had the luxury of having you in the building with me down in Miami. We were there together. And you, you always went to work with the level of detail and intensity in terms of your preparation. Now that intensity is turned into like these facial expressions and just the body language and the intensity on the sideline. How is that evolved and do you,

are you aware that you do this? Well, no, I try to be, I just try to be steady Eddie, you know. Do you try to be steady Eddie with these faces? Yeah, I just try to, I try to, you know, I from Mike Sherman. That was my first coordinator when I got in the NFL that the head coach needs to be the model of consistency. You know, if he's if he's up and down, the whole team's going to be up and down. So I try to do that throughout the week. And then on game day, I just I try to stay focused and and help out where I can, which for me and in my role right now, that's calling plays on offense. That's managing the game with the timeouts and, you know, dealing with the officials, all those types of things. So I got to stay as level ahead as I can be. I can't get too emotional with it. And so. Or else I'm not doing my job and my part for the players. So no, I don't look at necessarily the facial expressions, the whole lie. I just try to stay pretty consistent with it. The wife or kids don't say, just chill out. Just chill out a little bit.

No, I think they get into it. It sounds like they get into games just as much as I do. You know, my son broke his foot in the preseason because Cole Comet called a 30-yard pass. He jumps off the couch and he breaks his foot, you know. So these guys, they're invested just like the rest of us. Sounds like I should watch a game with your son. The things that I say during Bears games are, I cannot broadcast them. You guys are giving me a little bit of a heart attack this year.

You mentioned quarters of the season. A lot of football coaches break it down. I saw the clip that you said, you know, went three and one in the last quarter. That was a goal. What can you share with us about what your goals are, like the short-term goals for this next chunk of the season? Well, really for us, it's not that much different than the second quarter in terms of we need to end this next one three and one as well. If we want to achieve what we're setting out the goals that we talked about in training camp and in the springtime. So that's that's a big objective for us. We know the task

at hand. We've got two home games, two away games. We got some conference opponents. We got a division opponent mixed in there. And so like I said, teams will start to separate themselves. There's a big group of really good NFC teams right now. And a lot of teams still in the hunt to make the playoffs. And so we need to continue to be that once we get done here with the third quarter. In this second half of the season, obviously we were able to see a young man get it going and actually just step up and make plays for the first time, really all season in Colston Loveland. How good of a sign is that for fans and your offense of what's to come and how this offense is just expanding in terms of the players that you guys have to make plays? Yeah, well, I appreciate his patience with it. You know, we knew early in the season there were a couple games where we needed them a little bit more in the run game and in past pro just to help us out there.

And then he got dinged up and in and out. And now he's fully healthy. And, you know, the ball came his way and he made the plays. You know, I mean, I think that's the biggest thing is we got a number of really talented playmakers. And, you know, we got to capitalize on the opportunity when the ball's in the air coming our way, catch it and make something happen after we get the ball in our hands. And so he did that. I do think it's a little bit of, of, I don't want to say. say relief for him, but, you know, it's a big game. And, you know, he's the offensive

player of the week. And so I think it's just a really good confidence builder that everything he's doing, he's very much a professional as a rookie as I've ever seen. I mean, he goes, his approach is really strong. And to see it pay off with results like that, I think it's only going to continue to improve and ascend where he's going. Well, Coach, this is now the second time you've joined the show. Greg and I talked to you before. the season. Now we are here at the midway point. Was this interview good, better, best? Where are we at on the scale? Oh, this is definitely better than the first one. So we're getting there. We're not going to let it rest. Continued growth.

All right. Thank you, coach. Yeah, thank you guys. That's Ben Johnson. More FTF overtime. Greg Jennings and Diana Rossini coming up. So we're very lucky to have NFL insider Diana Rossini out here with Greg Jennings and myself because I had to yesterday. Today's trade deadline, Cowboys made moves for their, we'll say, highly criticized defense. They got Logan Wilson from the Bengals, Quinn and Williams from the Jets. That was of course after Jerry Jones insinuated that there would be no defensive transactions that could make much of a difference. Just figure it out for yourself.

Here's head coach, Brian Schottenheimer on the moves. It's exciting just, you know, kudos to, you know, Jerry and Steve and the Will and, you know, I think, you know, being aggressive and but smart because, you know, a couple of the moves we made. You're getting guys not just for this year, but beyond. Excited to see both those guys here and get them welcome to the family. All right, Jerry Jones and Brian Schottenheimer, Diana, are you buying that the Cowboys got this right? Can you believe that Jerry Jones didn't lie to me a couple weeks ago?

Remember I said to you guys? He said, I'm going to make a move and it won't be past rush. But then the week after he talked to you, he said that they weren't going to make a move. He says back and forth. You've got to clear it out. It's very confusing. Here's the problem, though. I don't think they have a plan.

I don't think there is any philosophy. here. I think in his mind, he has these picks and he brags about it, right? He's like, look what I got from Micah. You may not agree that I made this trade, but look what I got in return. And he admitted he's 83 years old. And as soon as I heard him say that the other day in an interview, then it kind of put up the red flag of, okay, he is aware he's getting old. He doesn't have that much time. And I hate to be so morbid, but the reality is he doesn't have a lot of time. And when you're pressed, what do you do? You start making decisions that may not be the best for the future because you want to win now. And he certainly does. I looked at it this way. I understand

why they were buyers here. But I wanted them to be a seller even. George Pickens to me, right? They traded him for a third and a fifth. I think in the market, they could have gotten a second rounder for him right now, right? Because he's just going to become a free agent at the end of the season. Jerry would have been able to get even more picks back because teams have to have honest conversations with themselves at this point. In fact, I had this conversation myself with an owner recently, a GM of his called and said, hey, we're going to make this trade. What do you think? He said, will this get us to the Super Bowl? Will this trade make it happen? And he said, no. He goes, well, then don't do it. No one's asking Jerry that, right? No one's, no one's got,

there's no checks and balances in Dallas. But I don't think these moves are getting them to the Super Bowl, Greg. So no, not this year. No, I don't, look, I don't think he got it wrong. I think if we look at what they did with Micah and the picks that they were able to acquire, you would think that you would have moved a little quicker, a little sooner earlier in the year when there was still time to kind of fortify what you what you knew you didn't have. But getting this, knowing that you're going to have it going into next year, understanding that overshone is coming off that injury and what he provides to you defensively.

I like the pieces. I think it makes sense. And they will be better. Like Quinn Williams is a all pro. They'll be better, but. For what? They're the 11 seat in the NFC. Right now, yes. Not for this year. Sure. And so listen, you could argue there, Quinn and Williams would not have been available in the off season.

So you make the trade now. But if you are as plugged in as anyone, you're like, they don't have a plan. And he's making it because he's an 83 year old who calls himself the general manager. It's overwhelmingly likely that they're not going to get it right. Because you're motivated by things other than football. It also reminds me of, have you ever played roulette before and you put like five bucks on a couple of numbers? And then you hit and then all of a sudden you find yourself you're putting $25 down on a number because you have house money. I think with those picks in there, he was willing to do things that may not be what with the Dallas Cowboys actually wanted you. They just want to use them.

It's like they were burning his pocket up. Reinvesting his profits. Correct. And always goes poorly from here at the casino. Let's go to Philly, a team that's much more trusted around these trades with Howie Roseman. They got ahead of the deadline with Jalen Phillips, then Jair Alexander, Michael Carter. Name's not seen, though, A. J. Brown. is remaining in Philly.

Here's the aforementioned Howie Roseman on AJ. When you're trying to be a great team, it's hard to trade great players. And AJ Brown's a great player. He wears the sea for a reason. He's an important part of this team, of this organization. He cares about winning. He cares about his teammates. And I think that when you're a team like ours that is looking forward to an opportunity

to compete for a championship, you just don't get rid of the guys like that. And so I feel very lucky to have him on our team and excited about the second half of the season with him. So I think it would have been ludicrous to trade A.J. Brown. Like if they would have lost both games of the Giants or lost both games of the Giants and lost the Vikings game and we were talking about an Eagles team that was on a four-game losing streak,

well, then maybe. Yeah. But A.J. Brown did weird stuff last year and you won the Super Bowl. He's a top five receiver in the sport. You were one of the three favorites to win this year's Super Bowl. trading A.J. Brown would have been terrible, and they clearly are used to the chaos. So no, I'm not surprised they kept them. Yeah, the C on his uniform was, call me, right, that from A.J. Brown's perspective, probably, right? Because here's the thing. I feel like Philly is in denial about where A.J. Brown is at. No one wants to just say it. He's not happy. It's very obvious. You look at the captions on social media. He's reading the book last year. This is obvious. This is simmering and simmering. So when you ask, am I?

surprise they didn't trade them. No, because Philly put out the bat signals to the world. We're not moving him. It also didn't make sense financially, right? They had to do a couple gymnastics to make that work. It would have cost them tons. But that being said, how is this going to look in the second half of the season? How is this going to get better? I think it's all on the shoulders of Saquan Barkley. If the run game, as we've discussed before, the run game takes off, the offensive line can get healthy. The passing game will open up and then Aegee will be fed. But is he ever going to really be happy in this offense with Jalenhurst? See, it's not a matter of him being happy right now.

It's a matter of what are we going to get despite him being disgruntled, despite him not getting the opportunities that he feels like he should be awarded. Look, when you have the type of locker room that they have with Jalen Hertz in that locker room, Sequin Barkley, Lance Johnson, and when you have pro pros, you can deal with this. You can have a guy who's a little on edge at times, but you have to have the guy. within the locker room that can bring everything back together that's not going to rattle, that's not going to crumble, that's not going to bend to just these type of attitude, antics, whatever you want to classify them as.

A.J. Brown is going to still produce for this team. And Howie Roseman said it. He speaks to it. You talk about somebody who has a plan? He has a plan. They always have a plan. You don't trade away players like this if you're trying to go and repeat as a champion. I just wonder what would have happened if they weren't on a bye week right before.

for the trade, right? Because he was unhappy after Minnesota, after he had two touchdowns, 120 yards. They had that week off where he didn't play football so he wasn't upset about anything because he didn't have anything to react to. What if they had played? And he was miserable.

And maybe he's asking for a trade instead or putting up another caption. I don't want to be in Philly. Who knows? I just think this worked out in favor of Philly because they need them. After Lane Johnson, he's the best player on that team. And then they can revisit it in the off season.

Right? Maybe you don't win the Super Bowl and he's disgruntled and you trade him in the off season, but they can still win this one. Let's go to the team with the biggest trade of the deadline. The Colts got a new player, big headlines, Sauce Gardner, two first round picks. A.D. Mitchell goes out. Head coach Shane Steichen likes this for his team. I bet he does at 7 and 2 with Sauce Gardner. Take a listen. His resume speaks for itself, Pro Bowl are all pro. So to get a guy into the building like that, it just elevates everybody around us. So really excited to add him to the fold. To get a bona fide number one corner in this league, like I said, it elevates everybody around us. He's got all the elite traits you look for. He's sticky and coverage.

The past breakups, the interceptions. He's feisty. He's aggressive. Just to add that to the fold of the back in with the guys we already got back there, like I said, it's going to elevate everybody. So for me, I like this one more on the jet side because they were a bad team with him and you got rid of them. and now you got a bunch of picks and you free yourself with the money. I don't normally like trading multiple first round picks and then some

for a defensive player who isn't Micah Parsons, Kalil Mack. Salskartner, very good player, but not having his best season. So far it was a huge need for the Colts, so I guess I respect the aggression. And the other piece of it for Indy, they don't have to immediately pay him. He's already under contract, so they don't have to reset the market there. Who do you think won the trade? I agree with you. I think the Jets did, but I think it's more because of the mystery of what they're going to be.

I know what the Colts are. I know what Daniel Jones is, right? And obviously, Indy thinks that Daniel Jones is the future. You don't make this move if you don't think he's your quarterback with what you give up in terms of draft capital because it's obvious they can't go after a top one. And they're going to be committed to him and most likely do a deal with him. But that being said, I just think the idea of what the Jets could be in three years. We're either having a conversation right now, guys, that holy cow, this team is dangerous. They are good or we're having conversation who the next general manager is going to be.

Do you hear you guys? You're talking about the jet. Stop it. Look, the Indianapolis Colts and what they have done thus far through the course of the season, I have identified. We have a chance. Not many teams can say that at this point in the season. When you have that chance, you take a risk and you put your money all in, your chips all in. And you say, you know what? We're going to go forward. Wow. And this is Diana. Poker from you. It's my kind of show. Keep it coming. If this pays off, if this pays off, you know who we're going to be saying got the best end of this deal? The Indianapolis Colts.

Yeah. No, listen, if Sauce Gardner solves their problem and they win a Super Bowl, I'm with you. And that's the Jalen Ramsey argument. Correct. I didn't love the Jalen Ramsey trade at the time, and then he only had one contract with the Rams. But they won a Super Bowl. So who cares? But that's, you're now all in with Daniel Jones.

Yes, you are. And you don't like that. I think it's a little risky. Yeah. You're giving credit to Chris Ballard and that entire organization for being aware of like, look, we can do it now. I give credit to New York Jets to say, we stink, tear it down, let's rebuild this thing over the next two years. It was a great deadline. I think that's more to come for the NFL. Next.

Time now for first things last. Trades are fun. It's a simple concept. But in a world where we seem to agree on less than ever, I think it's a unifying thought. Who doesn't like trades? If your fantasy league doesn't have trades, you're in a world. boring fantasy league. If you don't remember offering up pudding cups for Dunkeroo's, did you even go to grade school in the 90s? We just came off one of the most exciting deadlines in NFL

history, and I think that's going to be the new norm. NFL owners pushed the trade deadline back to after week 9 starting last year as a response to the lengthened 17 game season. The later deadline allows for more teams to come to the realization that they should be sellers. There were eight deadline deals this year and last year, and in the previous 10 deadlines, the average number of deals was just three and a half. And I know why we historically have fewer trades in the NFL. Each offense and defense is a language. So picking up a new system mid-year, getting into a groove,

it's much harder in football than it is in, say, basketball or baseball. And I'd argue that now that seven teams make the playoffs in each conference, you could even push it back another week. Maybe Atlanta or Houston or Washington with another loss would have been more inclined to move off of some pieces instead of fooling themselves into believing that their, still in the hunt. Because the thing the NFL actually has going for it on the trade front that the other sports don't is an obsession with draft culture. You trade a pick in the NBA and there

are restrictions and ping pong balls and a million complications that keep a fan from really getting excited. Meanwhile, yesterday was one of the most exciting days of the last five years for a Jets fan. You have five first round picks in the next two drafts to try and maneuver and find your franchise quarterback and the next core of your next great team. Of course, you could find your next Zach Wilson. And that's the beauty of a trade. Sometimes you lose and sometimes you get Dunkeroo's. That's all I've got. Thank you so much for hanging out. Thanks again to Ben Johnson for coming on. We'll be back tomorrow with more First things first.