First Things First - Giants and Commanders ‘should consider drafting a QB’, Must-Win, DeSean Jackson joins, Nick’s Tiers

Episode Date: September 23, 2026

(0:00) Chargers ‘legitimately bad’, Should the Giants and Commanders draft a QB? (27:46) Must-Win for Week 3 (40:51) Baker Mayfield in trouble vs. Vikings? (47:15) Nick’s Tiers (01:05:53) DeSean Jackson joins (01:18:01) Time to give Brock Purdy more credit? (01:26:37) Cool Stats (01:47:56) What’s next for the Giants? (01:59:17) QB Stock Exchange (02:07:59) Danny responds to Caleb Williams takes Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Live from New York, it's the show that has started a public campaign. I probably should have told you guys this before. What are you doing? It's the show that's starting a public campaign to get Nicholas Cage on the show for as part of his Madden promotion. I said, how are we doing on the movie? We were trying to negotiate behind the scenes. I'm just going to start talking about it on air. I'll be in Vegas again in a week or so.

I'll see if I can find him. He doesn't. Have you ever met him? That was a movie. You left? Have you ever met him? You've met Nicholas Cage? No, I was asking Nick.

I think we've talked about you kind of favorite. I don't know that I favor Nicholas Cage. That's far too complimentary to be. You guys famously handsome. But I do think he spends quite a bit of time in Las Vegas. Awesome. What will you see him? Not just the movie.

I understand. I made a good joke. Yeah, that was a good joke. When you see him, tell him that we'd like you on the show. Or just one of our many adoring fans. You know what? Someone who watches this show, maybe not on linear cable, but on YouTube, has to know him.

Yeah, he's everybody. Yeah, he's all over the place. Somebody who knows Nicholas Cates. Say, hey, check this out. It's a fun show. And say, they would like to you to come on the show. Yeah, to promote. To promote Madden.

It's going to do whatever he wants. That'd be awesome. Promote. It's going to be awesome. All right. We'll keep doing that every day. I like it. First hour, first thing for today.

Trevor, Dak, Lamar, Drake, and Justin Herbert. Who is facing a must win? Meanwhile, Deshawn Jackson has a new documentary out. And he's going to join us. Looks really good. It's in studio. I can't wait. Yeah.

Talk about his career, the Eagles and Andy Reid. And finally, oh, the committee met deep into the night for a special edition of tears. This will be fun. It'll be excellent. Alongside Chris Brousard, I'm Kevin Wilde. You said you were cooking for the committee. What did you end up going with? You know what?

I ended up ordering it. I knew it. I ended up ordering it. Marshall's gluten-sensitive, and I don't, you know, I'm a pasta guy, so I was like, we'll just order it. Why you should have just ordered for Marshall? No, I did what that would be. I didn't know he was gluten-sensitive. Not gluten-free.

Exactly. Yeah, but he could still. Yeah, still. Try to be inclusive. That makes it inclusive. Yeah. We're starting in Buffalo where Justin Herbert and the Chargers are taking on the potent offense of Josh Allen and the Bill's polar opposite starts for the QBs. But Joe Brady, the Bill's coach, it's not taking the Chargers lightly.

Take a listen. I hope our guys. The record, the opponent, none of that should have any bearing on our preparation and the way that we go into the football game with the mindset. If we play, if we're playing a team in week 10 that's 10 and O and we approach that any differently, and then it's a team that's 0 and 10 and then shame on us. I'm not doing a good job as a coach. Okay, but it's called being a human being, so it's tough. To put how bad the Chargers start is in perspective, here's a tweet from Opth the Stats.

The Chargers are the second team in NFL history to lose back-to-back games. by double digits with both coming at home against teams that had sub 200 win percentage previous season. The other was the 1926 racing tornadoes who played just one more game before folding. But in charge is in danger of folding? I doubt the charges are gonna fold but that's the company they keep?

Are the bills ending their playoff hopes, if not the entire franchise? on Sunday. Well, look, as someone that picked them to win the AFC West, I will hold out hope that they'll make the playoffs until they're like officially won.

And we saw O-N-3 team last year make the playoffs in Houston. The problem is they're not just O-N-2. You just showed it. They're O-N-2 having played two teams that no one thinks is going to make the play. Two deep sleepers.

I mean, and they weren't your pick for deep sleepers. But, I mean, so I would love nothing more than to see Justin Herbert. And I'm not like a Chargers guy or anything, but I think it'd be good for the league if he went out there and cooked. It'd be interesting, right? But even if he does cook, I don't see any reason to think this defense is going to do anything with Josh Allen. They gave up almost 300 yards passing and 26 points to Jacoby Brissette. They gave up 250 yards passing, three touchdowns, 26 points to Kirk Cousins. Those are essentially backups right now.

Those are basically two really good backup quarterbacks or lower level starters at this point in their careers. What in the world is Josh Allen going to do to them? And Brady's right. And obviously every coach will say that. But I kind of feel like he does have them not looking past this Chargers team. Because even though the Chargers are O-N-2, they have Justin Herbert. They have Jim Harbaugh. So you're not going to get a team to look past you.

So I do feel like they're going to send the Chargers to O'N-3. I don't think there's any reason other than you think the bills will just have a letdown to think the Chargers are going to win this game. Before I go, do you want to make the case for the Chargers winning? I feel like you're going to pick against the bills until they lose. I can't pick. I know, but it's a Sisyphian past. Well, we tried to warn you. They're not good reasons.

Okay. But I'll try my best. But my heart is not in it. Okay. Between the beer horn and Josh Allen is quite likable. I'm having a real hard time carrying this burden of being the bill's non-believer. That being said, there's only two teams without a, a turnover yet this year.

The Jets and the bills. Eventually the ball is just going to slip in the wrong direction. Well, and some of that spin will be just luck for the move. Right. Yeah. So eventually it's kind of the way the ball bounces. They're going to have a turnover problem. That happens.

This is going to blow your mind because Justin Herbert is not a great playoff performer. No. But when he's an underdog, actually quite good. Now maybe we can say, well, that's when he doesn't have. have any pressure. Since the start of last year, as a favorite, seven and seven is pastoral rating is 88. As an underdog, and there's seven and a half point underdogs, which is to me, it feels like a lot. That's a big number. He's four and oh and his pass for ratings about 105. Now, they can't protect the guy. That's the problem. Now, you're going to magically cure that

all of a sudden against the bill's pass rush? Maybe the bill's defense is very getable. They're giving up 31 points every time they take the field. That being said, if I, had to pick a team, I would abstain from it. Okay. So I want to say something I think might surprise the audience. Maybe not. I'm rooting for the Chargers. And it is because I am now back in the Chiefs being a viable contender for the one seat.

Oh, yeah. And so I am, it's, I'm less worried about like, oh, can we hold off teams in the AFC West? Maybe I'm getting ahead of myself. We'll see. but I'm more, like that, sorry, Brew, I was very happy with what happened to the Ravens this week. And I'm like, that's a bad loss for them. That makes it, you know, I picked them to go 13 and 4. I'm like, okay, well, that was not one of the four losses.

Like, there's that. So the bills, I thought the bills would have a loss by now because I thought they would lose week one in Houston. So I, you know, I hope the Chargers win. But they're legitimately bad. And so I have kind of two prongs of charger frustration. One is about how people discuss and, in my opinion, overhyped the team. And the other is how people discuss the quarterback. So if I can start with the team portion of it, they were an incredibly trendy pick all offseason to be a, it felt to me, not the Vegas odds,

but the media discussion that they were treated as a far sure thing this year than the Chiefs in that division. Oh, yeah. Definitely. They were... Remember, did they sweep them, beat them once? They split with them last year. No, I think they swept them last year.

I mean, no, they beat them in the first game, and then I think the second game, the Holmes wasn't playing. Okay. But whenever you saw people's playoff picks, it was way more often to see no Arrowhead logo than no lightning bolt. And all, and it was...

And Mike McDaniel was discussed as if he was going to be transformative instantly for this team. Now, maybe they would have picked up the offense a little more, had the starting quarterback been at the full off season. He did take that time off on OTAs to go to the concerts with his girlfriend, so be it, to optional activities. And I felt like one of the only people being like, guys, I know they got their tackles back. But the interior of their offensive line is going to be a train. And that was before their center went down.

Then their center went down. We spend a lot of time talking about quarterbacks needing legitimate weapons. And I looked at the Chargers weapons and I said, man, Ladden McConkey is a very useful piece. He cannot be the hub of an offense. And like Quentin Johnson, they've been trying to make happen. Like people have hopes for the first round running back Hampton, but he's just really shown flashes. So to me, they are a consistently overrated operation when it comes to the talent around Herbert. And that is a Herbert defense, except for the fact that the people that love Herbert also then

overrate the talent around him. But this is where their team has been this year. If we just show Chargers this season in ranks, they have nothing to hang their hat on. Their offense isn't good. Their defense isn't good. They're getting blown out. and we don't even, you know, we're not including, they turn the ball over, and that's with, in this last game, there were six fumbles, they recovered five of them.

Like the fumble luck has been on their side, not against them, and it's been against what we assume is very soft competition. You add to that team-wise, they have the single least or worst home field advantage in the whole sport, and people just throw that away. every office is when they're talking about him. And then there's the Herbert piece, which is, I, so our new Fox Sports writer, quarterback analyst, who is one of the pipe, there's like three pied pipers of Justin Herbert

truthorism, our Stephen Ruiz and the Dan's, Dan's, Dan Orlovsky and Danny Parkins. Like, they love, they love the guy. The dance. And I, and Ruiz, you know, tweeted today, he was like, how come the Herbert critics never include film in their criticism, like clips from the game. They're like, us defenders are always including film. And then went on to say, I rewatched this last week's game. And I really like Ruiz.

So I think you'll take this as a compliment that I'm criticizing him almost because I take his commentary seriously. He's like, I rewatched it. Herbert's performance this weekend was a seven out of ten, maybe eight out of ten. He was putting out fires everywhere. And what I just don't understand, Brew, is it's not like we've never had big, strong quarterbacks before. And I understand that he was very good as a rookie.

His second year, he was outstanding through for 5,000 yards and 38 touchdowns. And his third year, he finally made the playoffs. But even in that golden era of Herbert, he was 25 and 25. It never translated team success. And in the four years since then, this. is where he is in league ranks, if you will. Like this is, there is no argument that he is anywhere close to elite. This is in the years four through

seven. And now this. What are all the sexy stats coming from, though? There are in his career. Most touchdowns or most yards. No, no, no, no. So here are the stats that everyone holds on to. Yeah. He set the record for touchdown passes by a rookie seven years ago. And he at one point had most yards through X amount of, you know, starts, but that has, or no, not through X amount of starts. He never had that one because through this many years, through this, because some guys didn't start, you know, as rookies or whatever it is.

But those are now gone by the wayside as well, by the way. And this year, I understand that people will be like, oh, you're box score watching. Box score is in everything, but the box score can't be nothing. And this year, his numbers are indefinibly bad. Well, over the first two games. And so I just, Drew, what I am, I'm mystified that he has such massive support by large contingents and vocal contingents, not only of media, but every year of front offices. That's the other thing. He's, he, he, he crushes hurts and so many guys in all of the front

office polls. And it's just, to me, it's an idea from a half decade ago. Well, I say going into this season that this, this would be the last year he got that. Like, if they, if this doesn't improve, let's say they win seven games and he's mediocre, I don't, I think that'll go away. I don't think people will go into next season thinking, okay, I mean, that'll be. Seven seasons, right? Yeah. And it should, I think, I threw it out a week ago. I do think he has trouble playing under pressure.

Your graphic showed it. I think when, so maybe the night, although I still think there's pressure, but maybe the night, you know, as you could see if they, if they're out of it, maybe he starts cooking. That's why I think he's struggled in the playoffs. That's why I think early in his career when nobody really expected anything, he's just thrown into the fire and he played well. And now people expect stuff and he's struggling.

Okay. This century, 123 teams have started 0 and 3. Only two made the playoffs. Yeah, tough one. 2%. We're only two weeks into the season. The NFC has already lost two quarterbacks. Jackson Dart is going to officially miss the entire year.

That came down today. And Jane Daniels is visiting specialists this week to figure out what his options are. Maybe he has surgery, maybe he doesn't. So if the season goes south, for these teams, is it time to look to the future? Headline and Sports Illustrated from front of the show, Connor O'er. Never met him, but we talk about them all the time.

Why the Jackson, Dart, and Jane Daniels, injuries could completely upend the NFL or writing. Both have QB's teams that can be labeled injury risks. Both teams would be fillet if they chose to ignore this and pass on a possibility of a generational QB prospect in top five, the value of a potentially awesome first round QB on a cost-controlled rookie deal is a scale breaker. So the Giants and or the commanders think about drafting a quarterback. Absolutely. Absolutely.

Assuming they both have poor seasons finishing the top seven or whatever, maybe top five picks, they have to. And look, I think Jaden Daniels is when he plays a franchise quarterback. I've seen enough. Even this year, just the little bit we saw. He's dynamic. There's no if, Sam's or buts about it.

Sure, he's got ways he can grow and he does it a lot with his legs, but he is dynamic and they always seem to be in it when he's playing. But he missed 10 games this second year. He might miss this whole season. There's no way you can sleep peacefully

thinking he's definitely our long-term answer at quarterback. Jackson Dart, same thing. He hasn't been his injury prone yet. as Daniels, but I haven't seen enough of him, Nick, to think if he's healthy, he's our guy. Now, he's been good, but it's 14 games. We saw C.J. Stroud have a whole great season, and now we have questions about him. Drake, I'm not saying there's as many questions about Drake, but so far he's been struggling

after a great season last year. And so I'm not sold on DART as a star or even the franchise quarterback going forward. So I bring in, I would, if this class continues to play well and looks like this class of quarterbacks like it is, because here's the deal. If you bring in a quarterback and he's really good, then and one of these two guys stay healthy, now you've got a trade, some trade possibility. What the draft that you spent on the quarter. Yeah, like say you draft Chamblis, Trinidad Chambliss, and then Daniels is healthy, but Chambliss looks great. You could trade Jaden and get something I would imagine for him.

Same thing with DART, right? Or vice versa. You trade Chambliss or whoever you drafted and keep the other guy. So I think they have to do that. That would be the responsible thing to do. So I think it is, first of all, I do, I have to admit a couple things. One is, when I first started reading this article, I thought it was going to have a totally different slant.

What do you mean? I thought he was saying, I thought the article was going to be that if Darts done for the year after getting banged up a bunch last year, if Jaden's done again, guys who come into the pros with major injury concerns are going to be taken off guys' first round boards. Oh, well, that could be.

And so like that, you know, my, my, my, yeah, penics, Like, are these teams going to be like, man, even if we get the evaluation of the talent right, like, are we underrating injury-related red flags when it comes to first-round picks? That wasn't the article he wrote, but you know what I mean? But I think it's what came to my mind. I am less sold on DART as a star than Danny than, you know, some people are. I am also I don't feel like

Dart has I think he is reckless more than he is injury prone meaning I think recklessness can be in theory

coached out of you and so why if I so for the Giants it's a hazier question for me because if you feel like man he is going to

be a more cautious player. We believe his body can hold up. We just need him to be, you know, play a different style. If we get a premium pick, we'd rather supplement the team. That to me, I can see both sides of that argument. Would you argue quickly that, because they've got a lot of talent elsewhere. So, I mean, I'm not saying they don't need anything else.

But, you know, you talk about a receiver. They got neighbors. You know, they have some good talent. No, I mean, they do have some good talent. But I just, there is, if the quarterback is, if you believe in the quarterback, the pick that could have been the quarterback can be a transformational player at a different position or traded for something else. For Jaden, I think the question is unequivocally, absolutely yes, for the commanders.

I think they have to draft the quarterback if they like a quarterback and if the season falls apart. For a number of reasons. One, it's going to be a new head coach if they're in that position, head coach that was not a part of, you know what I mean, of Jaden. The fact that, and I read more about it today, they seem to be leaning. He's not going to have surgery is, I'm no doctor, but it seems baffling to me.

And I just don't, I do not believe. He has brew since his rookie season, had five games that he started and finished. Really? Well, think about it. You mean after his rookie season? No, since his rookie season. Yeah.

Not including his rookie season. No, no, no, no. His rookie season, he had a whole bunch. Okay, okay. No, no, no. I'm saying last year, last year and end of this year, all of year two in this. Even though he played 10 games last year. No, he missed 10.

He played seven. Three of those seven, he left with injury. Wow. And then this year, one of two, he left with injury. So, like, it's kind of, we say he missed 10, but he has, in the last year. two years, his team has played 19 games. He has missed all over parts of 14 of them, and it has been

with five different injury instances. It's been with a knee a hamstring, the elbow three times. So my answer to that's yes. Real quick, we're to do the UFL. Can I just also, we showed part of Connor Orr's article. We elipseyed. Our producers tried to be nice to me.

They elipseyed the part of the article where he took a direct shot at me. Oh, I didn't see that. Washington, New York, both have quarterbacks that, as unfair as this feels say can be labeled as injury risk. We included that. There is a headache-inducing 20-20 hindsight debate, for example, raging about the thinness of Daniel's

frame that has resurfaced from the grave. I'm here to tell you that never went away, Connor. We talk about you all the time. Watch the show. That debate's been alive and well for three years on this show. One more thing. We haven't discussed the elephant in the room.

A manning with a Giants jersey on is very interesting. Oh, I don't think they're going to get a top three pick. I don't think even without Dart, you know what I mean? I think it's more likely it's a Manning with the Jets jersey because they have all those extra picks to trade up. Yeah. And then you hear like

by the way, not going to the Jets. Yeah. Not doing it. Okay. News breaking this morning that the UFL is expanding to 10 teams by 28. Rhode Island and Colorado joining joining the league in 27, Utah and Oklahoma in

28. So in two years, 10 teams, reaction to this news. I am, oh, go ahead. I'm most excited, brew, about where the teams are going to be. Because I like, listen, the U.S., they've had 50-some players make the NFL. It's obviously, though, it's not the NFL. And so I like putting teams in spots where there isn't professional football.

Exactly right. You know what I mean? And so, you know, Colorado Springs, I understand the same state as the Denver Broncos, but those are, they're not next door neighbors. Like Rhode Island is, you know, it's where the Red Sox AAA team plays. Paul Tuckett. Well, used to. They moved.

Okay, my apologies. But you know what, like it's the, I like the fact that this is, and that these three, at least Utah, Colorado, and Rhode Island, they're not college football rabid hotbeds where it's like this can really become the local team. I think it's really cool. No, I agree. That's one of the things I love. and that's smart business. And the fact that they're expanding, we've seen leagues try,

you know, these spring football leagues try and try and fail and fail. The fact that they're expanding is great. That shows that things are working out. And you mentioned it, about 50 guys making the NFL. The Cowboys, I mean, this year, one of my teams, Brandon Aubrey. I get it.

He's a kicker. They send a lot of kickers to the NFL, but he's a phenomenal kicker. And then they took Cavante Turpin, who's a great. great special teams player. So, you know, they definitely have major talent in this league. And it's good to see that they're having some success.

I have an announcement to make. Now, the UFL has had some changes. and my Birmingham stallions have now ridden off into the sunset. I'm here to announce that I am officially a fan of the Rhode Island team to be named on October 18th. We're going to get the team named Colors and Logans. Now, it's a lot like a baby name. When you don't know it, I will support the name whatever it is.

And right now there's a lot of, there's some, well, I have one. There's some Easter eggs on there like, hey, catch the wave. I'm like, ah, like the riptides. It's a lot of like the road nautical stuff. Wave, am I reading that wrong? Well, no, that's just like there's some of the terminal. That's some of the gnomon plate. I think that would work.

The wave? Do you have a suggestion, direct one? Because I can tell them what they, the theme. Well, a few. One, you can go right back to the paw socks. It's a little bit weird, but they moved to Worcester, Massachusetts. You can go right back to the paw socks. We've already got the hats. Number two, Brew, you'll remember this. 1928, the NFL champion, Providence steamrollers. So that's the last professional team, football team in Rhode Island. They won the championship. They beat the New York Yankees that has their opening game. The Frankfurt yellow jackets.

The Dayton Triangles, the Pottsville Maroons, and two teams you may have heard of. The New York Giants and the Green Bay Packers. So the Packers and the Giants are still around. The Yankees switch to a different sport. But the steamrollers on the board for my Rhode Island NFL team, TBD. All right.

Steam roll. I just throw the, what do you always say? No bad ideas in a brainstone. Yeah. who is far and away the most famous Rhode Island resident of all time currently living there.

My goodness, I feel like I should I know. Who? Colin Cowan. No, he's not. He does live there. He's not the answer, though. The answer is Taylor Swift. Oh. That's not her real place, but go ahead. She has a home and... She has a home there.

In Watch Hill. It's lovely. Okay. I'm saying if they, if all I'm saying is this. if they did a little olive branch to the Swifties, fill up the stadium with some fans, and maybe, you know, after he wins a couple more Super Bowls,

a little victory farewell tour, a season in the, or a half season in the UFL for Mr. Kelsey himself. I'm just saying, it's not a bad marketing idea. Again, it's not a bad marketing idea. No bad ideas in the Brazier.

No bad ideas in the Brainsmore. It's not a bad idea. If you're trying to fill up the stadium, it's not a bad idea. Big day. And I'm sure a coward would go. He loves that. October 18th, you get the team name,

colors and logos. April 2nd, the home opener. Fox UFL Friday for my Rhode Island team. Okay, coming up next, Dak versus Lamar, who's facing a must win with Coach Manjini. Next on FS1 on Fox Sports Channel on Sirius XM. Check out the podcast if you get a chance,

trivia. How'd you do on trivia today? 10 for 10. Perfect. Nine and a half for 10. Okay. And there's some fantasy stuff here We're posting our actual fantasy stuff on there.

Wow. And our YouTube channels to check it out. It's time for the most controversial segment in all of sports must win. Is it literal? Yes and no. We're starting in Rio. Ravens taking on the Cowboys. This one is Sunday afternoon.

Both teams are one in one. Who is this a must win for? Nick, you are the reigning champion. So you can decide to start, go second. What do you want to do here? Use some strategy here. There's a lot of strategy. Okay.

And there's a little bit of kindness. Okay. The strategy is, I think it's in my interest to go anchor on the third question. Yeah. The kindness is Coach and Greg are winless this year. Let's give them first ups. That achieves both objectives, Coach? Coach, you're first up.

You're gonna set the time. How is the first up the kindness aspect? Oh, go ahead. Because that way you can't be like, oh man, I was gonna say that, but someone else said it. Okay. This is a must win for a dangerous old man with money, especially if he's in Brazil. I mean, if you're dangerous and you're an old man and you're in Brazil, that's pretty exciting. But it's not going to be very exciting.

It is not going to be very exciting if the team that you think has a chance to go to the Super Bowl isn't the team that you hoped it would be. Now, the last time these two teams played, remember Baltimore got out to a roaring lead. They were a big, like 28 to 6. And then Dallas came streaming back, 2825 with two minutes left in the game. So this is all about Dallas proving that a half against Washington isn't the best they can be. Solid start. It's a solid start.

I don't know if it'll be a point-worthy start because it's a must-win for the Ravens. This is Brew discussed quite a bit during the offseason. I agreed with him. Is there easy stretch that the first six games they were supposed to be five-in-one at one? worst. They, additionally, I think they did an awesome job this offseason of convincing themselves maybe incorrectly that everything's fresh and new, that there were, you know, Harbaugh had grown stale and there were some problems there and now were a brand new Baltimore Ravens.

Well, the trademark in a negative way of the Harbaugh era were games like last week. So now those doubts start creeping into their mind a bit. Like, maybe it wasn't him. Maybe it was us. Maybe there's a reason we can't close these games. If all of a sudden you can't look dynamic against what appears to be one of the worst defenses in the league again on a neutral site coming off a bad loss, then maybe you're just not that good again like you weren't that good last year. The Ravens have to win this game. Well, first of all, you both failed to mention this is the Super Bowl preview.

Oh, this is this is the Super Bowl preview. Two teams I picked to get to the Super Bowl. And you both did a good job of kind of touching on key points, but let me drive them home. All right, take them home. This doesn't have anything fresh. No, I do. But it's more, it's more than the blown leads. And coach mentioned it last year at this very game, you blew a lead, almost blew a lead, didn't end up giving it up.

I heard him say it up. But what Nick failed to mention also, you forgot about your workhorse, Derek Henry. Also, the defensive backfield last year was a mess. They were 30th in the league and past defense. And this year, what happened last week? Chris Olavet, Juan Johnson, they looked like superstars. Tyler Shuck looked like a Hall of Famer. You are facing a very good offense now, and you have got to prove that was in the past.

Our past defense under Jesse Minner is back to being legit. Must win for the rate. He's gotten a stunning amount of the points so far this season. Brew is out to an early lead right. Going third. When you can go third and get the points. That is the early on a subject. Both of these teams are also one and one.

Oh, my God, that was so not compelling. Versus Drake in Jacksonville. First time these two QBs have faced each other. So Nick, this is going clockwise. Who is facing a must win, Prince and Drake? Listen, I, my loyalty is not to the points. My loyalty is to the audience, so I have to be honest. Kevin Wilde is facing a must win.

I'm bold. Because it is not only that the last time these two guys faced off, I remember, I watched this game from the lobby of a Great Wolf Lodge for me, my daughter's birthday party. It was in Wimbly Stadium, young, young Drake May against the Prince. And it was actually Drake's first great game of his career. The Prince, of course, out doled him, but still.

That almost feels like it's the last time Drake May played great. I can't remember the last time we saw him play an awesome game. This could be very important for you as far as are the Pats going to make the playoffs? And is Drake May still an elite player? What he's looked like so far just this year is far from an elite player. I think this game does have legitimate tiebreaker implications

later in the season if the pads get it together. But most importantly for you, KW, is that Drake May snap out of whatever's going on. You're watching Albert Breer interviews doing the Zeprooter film on them, tweeting them out. Because you're concerned to must win for you,

KW. It is a must-cook game for Drake May. He hasn't played well in their last six games. He's had one clean game, one in their last six games. It's hard, as Nick said, to remember the last time he played well. All right, both teams, similar seasons, right?

They both, you know, beat up, you know, what we think are bad teams, even in the same division, Pittsburgh and Cleveland. And then they both had close losses to what we think are good teams. But Jacks, it feels like we believe a little more in Trevor, even though they're both still, you know, somewhat questionable. But I just feel more secure in Trevor than Drake at this point. Wow. And so, because Drake has been so long. That hasn't been that long.

It's been six games since he played well. Well, Trevor didn't get a chance. Two games, two weeks ago, Trevor was up there in Bruised out. So it's a must play well for Drake. I mean, Trevor didn't get a chance to play more games because he threw the ball to the wrong team and was eliminated. Coach? That's his way. I'm not getting that.

So we know that the Patriots defense is going to be good and they have been good and that's been consistent. But this to me is it's not just about Drake. This is a must win for Drake and Josh. And I talk about this a lot of times where I think the best thing that happened to Drake May is to be paired up with Josh McDaniels. And Josh's ability to take young quarterbacks and continue to develop them. And not just because of what he does offensively, because of his perspective defensively, Josh having that background creates a more complete quarterback. So at the end of the day, it's a muslin for Drake and Josh.

And they've got to figure out whether or not this is going to be a Nickelodeon show or whether or not this is going to be a legitimate NFL offense. Thank you, Coach. I don't understand. Nickelodeon. There was a Nickelodeon show called Drake and Josh. Oh, I didn't understand. Kids? I mean, I mean, I don't, we missed that.

I don't know if they're too young or too old. I missed that when I did not know. Okay. I just like the one. Coach. Coach got that. You didn't even get his joke. It doesn't matter. It was coach and analysis. And he put a little bit of the blame on Josh McDaniels.

Finally, deep sleeper alert for Thursday night football. The windless Falcons will have Michael Pennix at the helm, still looking to run a play in the red zone this year, taking on the Packers, who has barely escaped, thanks to Aaron Glenn's clock management against the Jets, who is facing a must win? You get to run the anchor leg.

I know. And how much is this one worth? Oh, yeah, by the way, the score is now one for Brew, one for coach, and this one is worth three, so it's still anybody's ballgame. It's obviously the Green Bay Packers. Okay, Atlanta has built-in excuses. Kevin Stefansky first year on the job. Cooper Rush was your quarterback in the first two games. Michael Pinnock's coming back from injury.

If they lose, nobody's going to raise an eyebrow. Stop trying to make that a thing. It hasn't popped. You love it. I read the comments. They love it, all right? J-Lo and the Packers must. Get going.

All right. This is, Nick talking about it with the Ravens, this is supposed to be the easy part of their schedule for the Packers. You thought,

okay, they should be at the tread water with this schedule until Micah gets back. If you can't beat the freaking Falcons, then who are you beating? And you're falling way behind

already in that division. So they have to come out and win this game. And their head coach, I thought it was a nuts a year ago when it was starting to be. talked about

Matt Lafleur is and should be on the hot seat. A little bonus take there at the end. Coach, you can steal. One thing that I've missed throughout the course the last few seasons is Micah Parsons' podcast and I've gone through the spent most of the afternoon trying to find

anything relevant about Micah Parsons or any comments he made or anything that I could enjoy and there's nothing there. So now they're playing an offense that's 30 second points, 30 seconds pass. You 29th and total yards, or even as bad as their defense has played without Micah, they should be able to win this game.

And if they don't win this game and they're trending the way they're trending, even when Micah comes back, they're irrelevant. And we don't get to enjoy all the wisdom and insight and special moments that Mike has provided to the show. This is a must win for one person and one person only. And Brew got there at the very end. It is a must win for Matt LaFleflore. Matt LaFleur, it is

since Aaron Rogers left, they have been the seven seed every year. Since Aaron Rogers left, they won the first playoff game they've played in and then had three consecutive, disappointing postseason appearances. The idea behind LaFleur is that he is one of those

quarterback whispered, offensive, genius, young head coach types. Jordan Love, I don't know that you can say he's progressing at the moment. I think the offense, which was supposed to have the best weapons that it's had, they spent the first round pick on Matthew Golden, Greg told us how much he loved the receivers, that Tucker Kraft back has been a total herky-jurkey mess, and KW in your setup, you touched on it.

That Jets game is a loss for the Packers, against maybe 28 other coaches in the league. Aaron Glenn doubling down on his clock management at the end. I know it's your guy coach, but it was a disaster. Matt LaFleur, if he almost, they lose week one, almost lose to the Packers, and then at home on Thursday night football against a team that only one person in the entire country believes in, me.

It's a disaster for him. It's Matt LaFleure. Excellent job elaborating on Brew's initial point. No, Drew threw it in. Yes, baby. Yes. Wait a second. Four to one, Brew takes it.

Deanna, can we please put up a poll on YouTube as to who wins this content? Because I had Drake and Josh, dangerous old money. I didn't understand Drake and Johnson. That didn't register. This should be called must put people to sleep. Oh, my God, put a poll up and see what they say. You know what you have to put a poll up, Gianna. This is a travol.

You should ask some of that. It's probably doing your tape. Tom's not fingers. It's not our fault. Who is? We need a poll. After the headlines spot right. Ram trucks, nothing stops.

If Mosecon Seco showed up, he better be walking right. You kidding me? This place named after me. Like you're undefeed in our expected to have Kyler Murray back for their game against the winless bucks. Brian Flores' defense shut down a bear's offense that had designs on being the best offense of all time and went on a PR tour. to tell you about it. They scored three points. Here's Brian Flores.

Our players want to be aggressive. I think our coaching staff wants to be aggressive. I certainly want to be aggressive. I've said that many times. I tell our guys all the time, you know, if we're going to go down, we're going to go down a certain way. You know, and so, you know, we're going to go down, you know, blitzing people. Blitz rate this season, the Vikings are basically 79%. And the rest of the NFL is 31%. I got two-prong question for you. Okay.

A, is Baker in trouble and B, the one we were kicking around the meeting? Can the Vikings just continue to play like this, blitzing at a 79% rate? Well, you heard what he said, that if they're going to go down, they're

going to go down fighting, and they haven't been very good when they tried to play regular defense. So what they've had to do, and the numbers reflect that, they're close to last in the league in past defense and and total defense, but where they've been effective is sacks and and takeaways. So those are two areas where it's something that can even the game when you don't feel like you're very good in other areas.

And sometimes you can die by a thousand paper cuts. That's one way where they just move it down the field slowly. Or you take it as, hey, we're going to get our shots in. to get their shots in. Let's see where it all ends up when it's all said and done. And that's the approach he's taking. I don't think he feels like they're strong, you know, collectively to just play core defense. So they've got to bring heat.

Yeah, Baker, I don't know what's happened to Baker because, and I think you have a graphic, Dick. Yeah, we can just, you know, we can just show my graphic. Is it the last 13? It's since November. It's Baker since November. last 11 games. Oof. He's just, and he, remember he was playing at an MVP level. Yeah.

Early last year. So it, I just say, he obviously struggled these, these first two games against teams that you figure they would have been able to play well against. I'm just worried about him. Yeah, I don't, I don't understand. So, go. Well, I just remember before he got the contract, I

kept bringing up that he's led to the NFL and turnovers since he's, ban a Tampa Bay Buck, so that was problematic. And to me, this game for Baker is, we know that Minnesota is going to be aggressive and reckless to some degree. If Baker tries to match that, he's got no shot, trying to run around with the ball, making things happen. He's going to get, you know, that's going to be a problem for him. If he's willing to be patient, patient, patient, wide receiver screen, run the ball a little bit, quick passes, and then take your shots, I think they've got a real chance to score points and score a lot of points.

It's can he rein in his natural tendency to match Minnesota's recklessness with his recklessness? Well, that's what I was going to say. It seems like he's the former. Like he's going to try to match them. Oh, you want to bring it? Let's do it. Let's do it. Let's dance.

It's trying to go toe to toe to with Tyson. Like it's not good business. And that this is, you know, if you want to trade haymakers, you're probably going to lose. But if you wait and be patient and take some shots. the 32nd in total defense. Minnesota's 32nd in total defense. There's opportunities there. You've just got to be,

got to choose your shots. I think I'm one of, if not the, over the last half decade, maybe longer, most vocal Baker Mayfield like proponent in the media. 100%. I'm worried about him.

Like, not like, last year, I chalked it up to he was playing through injury. He's in. He doesn't have the, we saw that derail his career in Cleveland. And, you know, and so I, he had been put good enough football on tape for consecutive years in Tampa and the first half last before he got hurt that I just really just threw it out. I was like, he was hurt, he played through it, whatever. The recklessness with which he played that first game of the season, where he has a bad fumble on the sideline, trying to get extra yards.

And then after that has a moment where he gets the first down. He's not going to score a touchdown. It's like the difference between going down at the five or going down at the three. There's no difference of that. You've gotten the first down. And he's still fighting and he fumbles into the end zone. And in my opinion, that's why they lost to Cincinnati. To have that be week one and then week two just play a blah game against the Browns.

Now I get it after the two-hour weather delay. He did throw a really nice pass to Ted Hurts. that would have won the game, went off his hands. But you can't be in a position to lose a game to the Browns like that. And so it's now been, as the graphics showed, three consecutive months with an offseason and a time to heal in between and a big contract received to get right, and he hasn't gotten right. So I, the bucks, it's very rare that teams have second thoughts about a contract this quickly

without a player having suffered some unlucky injury. But I'm sure that's how the Bucks are feeling right now. I believe Baker can turn it around, but it would be foolish for me to act like he's been anything other than very bad since the midway point of last season. And this year he hasn't been very good. I really like him and I believe in him. But yeah, I'm concerned.

I'm absolutely concerned. Interesting narrative quarterback narrative, Kyler versus Baker. Kyler's first game back, yeah. Yeah, it is. Tears up next are the Chiefs. on top. We discussed next on first things first. Don't you wish you could just hit skip on the worst parts of your life?

You know, the same way you can skip an ad? I get it. I'm Siaiaia and I live in Ice Cove. I've made some questionable decisions that didn't end up the way I planned. And today, I'm still figuring it out. Somehow things usually get worse before they get better. Apparently, that's how I roll. So bundle up and come along for the bumpy ride. stream a new episode of North of North Tuesdays on CBC Gem. Live from New York, it's the show that's looking to have Nick Cage on the show someday. Movie Madden is coming out. We'd like to have Nicholas Cage in studio.

If you know Nicholas Cage, tell him that we'd like to. I have to admit something here. Your friend Nacho knows Nicholas Cage. No, that's not. I'll see if any of the- Nach-must. Poker guys know him, but that's not what it was. When you said at the top of the show, because I'm a huge Nicholas Cage fan,

I was just excited we won on the show. I didn't totally understand it. And then you were like, he's promoting Madden. I'm like, okay, it's a weird guy to promote the video game. The movie. It wasn't until this moment. I'm like, oh, the movie about John Madden that he is starring in as out of David. We're the perfect platform for that.

We're really off. I was like, also, why is Madden? The game's been out for two months. I was so confused. Now I get it. All right, now I'm locked in. Nick Cage, let's do it. Text Nacho.

All right, I'll text him right. He might not know who that is. Okay. Second hour, first things first. Today, why the Hall of Fame is tweeting about Brock Purdy? Bruce's been on this for a long time. Meanwhile, Deshaun Jackson is in the building. He's got a new documentary out, and he will join us in just a few minutes.

But right now, let's get caught up to speed on what's been happening at the Wright household. Last night in his own kitchen, where he actually ordered Chick-fil-A instead of cooking, an elite committee of experts, analysts, and people who keep running. referencing the video of the airplane lady who yells, that's not real when discussing the start of the season. Not enough data. Fought and toiled and burned the midnight oil to deliver the best segment in all of sports.

It's an honor. It's a privilege. It's time for Nick's tears. Indeed it is, Kevin Wilde. And week three is the earliest we ever bring out the facing elimination team. Oh, wow. This year, however,

However, we've decided not to. We don't do it every year. We've decided no one quite this year's facing elimination. It feels to the committee like there is a potential kind of soft underbelly of this year's potential playoff field. And that it's too early to eliminate anyone. With that said, the bottom of the tiers, which has been leading up to the season, the deep sleepers tier. And last week was the might be asleep tier. This week, the bottom of the tears is potentially comatose.

Dolphins, Titans, and my Falcons. I don't know if these teams are waking up. The Falcons are going to need to do it Thursday. The dolphins, I'm not sure they, you know, they might have a DNR. Yeah, they might be like, we're fine with it. And the Titans are, they had a shot. We were nine seconds away from winning. They looked, they looked, I do wonder if that actually is too much of a stomach punch for them

overcome whatever not facing elimination but they're not in good shape fan amnesty Browns Cardinals Jets here's what I mean I I know all your teams have one win which is just enough to give you a little bit of hope for the season just so they can rip it away from you I'm here to tell you Browns fans Cardinals fans and Jets fans you're allowed without shame this season to have a second to have a side piece oh wow you can have a team you you you you can You can have a team on the side that you, you know what I mean? Listen, it's not forever, but it's just for now.

Because you deserve to enjoy this season. And the Cardinals got your hopes up in week one. The Jets maybe did the same. It's like, oh, we're going to be two and oh, no, they're going to rip your heart out. And Aaron Glenn, I don't know if he knows how timeouts work. And the Browns are intentionally antagonizing their fan base with the quarterback they're playing. But this last week, he played well enough. they're going to keep playing, including the home opener.

Pick another team for the year. Come back home after the season. Disasterous debuts, debuts. Commanders, Steelers, Colts Chargers. Start of the season couldn't go worse. I'll explain why. Commanders, it's obvious. Quarterback got hurt.

Steelers, it's obvious. Quarterback is flirting with getting hurt. He's 42 years old. God knows what the next podcast is going to look like. The offense is broken. He and Mike McCarthy. He's sniping at Mike McCarthy. Mike McCarthy's doing the press.

I was like, I've got to do better. I know, like, son, I can't believe I sign up on this again. Colts, there's no shame in losing of the Ravens and the Chiefs. And Jonathan Taylor looks good and Daniel Jones is back. I don't think that defense is going to stop anyone all year long. They're giving up 500 yards per game. And it's very concerning. And so, and for the charges, it's obvious.

We've talked about it at nauseam. I understand it's everyone but the highest paid. person in the history of the franchise is full. I get it. The left guard play has to be so much better. But they're 0 and 2 and the schedule's about to get tough. One more solid week. And you'll have everyone's attention. Raiders can get to 3 and 0.

Panthers can get to 2 and 1. Saints can get to 2 and 1, but both of them have had super potent offenses that Panthers lost in week 1 despite scoring 37. The Saints lost in week 1 on a 2.3. conversion. The Raiders already have two wins. Like, I don't think America yet fully believes in any of these teams. There might be a Saints Panthers. Well, it's the NFC South level of belief, but not actual. Like, oh, that's a good team belief. One more solid week and you'll have America's belief. Sorry, KW. Fair is fair. And I'm including my guy on this. Major QB concerns. Patriots, Giants,

bucks. What? I knew he was going to get mad. The Giants quarterback's out for the year. That's a major concern. And Baker, it looks terrible. That's a major concern. There's silver medalists.

Last year. Drake has not looked better than Baker. They've won a game, but he has not looked better than Baker. Jerry, we have, KW is still going through the various stages of grief about Drake's play thus far this season. Grief. We're one-on-one. I didn't say about the Patriots. I said about Drake's play.

You're just, you're sending out sad tweets. You're like, this is KW's tweets the last two days. A video from a fan that might show a ball being tipped on a terrible pick. That was like, and he writes, this made me feel much better. That's true. And then a terrible under throwing ball, we got a reason for it. And he was like, this makes a lot of sense. It does.

He's just, savvy analysis. I'm not, listen, I still believe in Baker. I'm not, I'm just saying it's major concerns. Gotta get it going.

Cowboys, Texans. You're, you're going to have more benefit of the doubt because you have proof of concept for the Cowboys. You can have an elite, elite offense, and we saw it last week. We have proof of concept for the Texans.

You can have an elite elite defense and we saw it the previous couple years. But going to get late early, as they say, for the Texans, certainly because they're, and two and Dallas has to show some punch defensively like where Marcus Marriota and Jaden before he got hurt moved the ball at will so you got to get it going Marshall

kind of mailed this one in I'm gonna say he was getting teased about that pollutant sensitive thing that's unfair the NFC North that's the tier to the NFC North Marshall's off his game I now while the name of the tier not exactly that interesting. I think these four teams being lumped altogether is exactly right. The Vikings are 2-0,

but a weird 2-0. Down 22 to 10 late, comes storming back with a bunch of turnovers, then win a game. You know what I mean? You should have seen the Doppler radar that night. The Bears have the best offensive performance of any team in the league this year

and the worst offensive performance of any team this year, and their quarterback suffered a catastrophic injury that might keep him out zero games. The Lions, Dan Campbell's telling everyone, what's our identity? Anybody tell me? And the Packers are just like, my God, we built the entire plane out of Micah Parsons. Can he please come back? I think any of these teams can win the division.

I also think if you see any of these teams on your schedule, you're like, that's a good team. We don't want to play that team. Like the, so the NFC North should be fine. Ravens, Jags, Broncos. All one in one, all should be fine. I believe in all three. of these teams to varying degrees. I believe in the Ravens the most because of Lamar.

I believe in the Jags as far as the most well balanced on both sides of the ball. I think they have a good defense and a good offense. And the Broncos, you know, rivals are not as much as Sean Peyton can irritate me. They should have an excellent coach, an excellent defense, an excellent offensive line. And so if Bow Nix gets going, they should be fine. Not the exact start of the seasons they wanted, but should be fine. steady, Eagles, Bengals. I think people have been more impressed with the Bengals because we expect slow starts

from them, but they weren't great in week one overall. It was the four Tampa turnovers. And in week two, oddly, their offense, you know, it shouldn't be odd because they're playing the Texans, but their offense wasn't that explosive, but they're two and oh, you know, try to be three and one every quarter of the season or whatever boring stuff you guys say. And they, you know what I mean? They're more than halfway there.

the Eagles is doing what they do, which is win game, slow but steady. Love where they're at, Niners Rams. The Rams have just decided week one didn't count. We're one in O in America, and that's what we care about. The most patriotic team. They also, though, feel like, okay, Aaron Donald is back and in full force, even if we're going to be able to use them like that. Stafford looks like Stafford.

Both our running backs look good. We're going to be able to survive without Miles Garrett. The Trent McDuffie trade's already paying dividends. And the Niners have just been utterly sensational in both games they've played. Now, granted, the second game they played was against one of, if not the worst team in the league, but still, they played almost a perfect game. September champs versus actual champs. It's going to be a collision course we're getting part five this January.

I don't know if the divisional round. I don't know if it will be in the AFC championship game, but I feel like we are getting either. It might be the first playoff game ever in that stadium. Might be an Arrowhead again. I don't know that. Do know they're the two best teams in the AFC, but they are not atop the tiers because the defending champs who have won 12 in a row are also excellent at everything. Did you know they have far and away the best punter in the league?

They do. They have one of the three best kickers in the league. They don't have their starting quarterback, even though he practiced today. Drew Locke has the highest passer rating in the league. He's their backup quarterback. They have the best receiver in the league. They might have the best defense in the league. Their best running back might be on the pup list.

They're still running the ball well. They're excellent at everything except for Mike. McDonald not knowing when cameras are rolling, buddy, they might release that footage on you. It is the latest edition of the TIRS. Coach. I really love the name of the TIRS. I think that's definitely the strongest part of this. And there's a lot that I do like about this list, although the top of the list, not the very top, but the second row,

feels a little USA Todayish. It just feels a little bit like you're doing what everybody is. else is doing. And let's celebrate the Buffalo Bills, right? They've got a new stadium. They've got a new coach. They've got a new attitude. We've never seen this before, except we saw it last year. They started with a 41-38 win over Baltimore. The next three games, they run, right? They won four in a row. They scored 30 in every one of those games, and, you know, things were rolling and they were, you know, just knew where everything was heading. But let's look at where they are defensively this year versus last year. So I went back. I just checked and they're worst defensively in points per game, the worst defensively in yards per game, the worst defensively, you know, in four out of those five categories.

They're a little bit better on third down. So we're seeing exactly the same production that we saw offensively last year. They're worse on third downs too, coach. They're just not bottom five in the NFL. They're giving up worse. Yeah, no, they're worse than everything. Yeah. So there we are.

And I know in the USA Today and everybody's like, the bills, the bills, the bills. and obviously they got a little tired last night in Nick's meeting and decided let's plug them in because we've never seen this happen before. It's yours to take. I mean, yeah, coach. It's why it's a committee though. He's not sure.

Yeah, the whole committee. They're tired by the time they got the end. They're like, who do we put there? Kansas City and the bills. Start at the bottom? Huh? We don't know. We don't know.

We don't know. Well, it looks like you did. It looks, I mean, Tennessee on the bottom. First of all, don't presume to know how the committee works. second of all, you're just reciting my own takes. To that, to me. Just take.

But I do want to, I have gotten me and the committee, just me from Holmes Mountain, has somehow made it so. Bruce Mahomes Mountain take was Mahomes is too low and coaches, tears take his bills are too high, which really just means my

take integrity and unbiasedness is as unimpeachable as ever. Brew, go right ahead. Well, I got a second. coach on the names. Mansfield was in his band. Marshall. Marshall. I knew it was an odd name. There should be a manseil on the committee,

though. That's a great name. It's a strange name. I haven't gotten it right yet. Marshall? Marshall. Do you know anybody named Mansfield? I don't know anybody anybody named Marshall either. Not first name. Anyway, look, I was disappointed in what happened on Sunday.

But I do have to give the Saints a little bit of credit. I think they should move up. I'm not ready to put them really high, but move up a tier. Doesn't match the names but move up a tier. Look, their first two games

at Detroit, which we think is a playoff team, at Baltimore, which we think is a playoff team, and they're one in one. And what, they missed two point conversion away from being two and O'N OLAV. The office looks great. Shuck, and I mean, Olave is,

I think one of the best receivers in the league. And they're playing really good football. Then you look at their schedule. They got, I mean, they got the Raiders, the Falcons, Vikings, okay, then the Giants without Dart probably. They got a chance, Pittsburgh and Cleveland. They have a chance to really, yeah, have a nice record in a month. So, yeah, I think the Saints should be marching out.

Listen, I do wonder how much of that is unintentionally. of course, Ravens bias. Like, Saints must be awesome. They'd be pretty. Like, holy molly. They gave a little more than I bargained for. I'll tell you that. You know, initially, what does

my bar say here, Dusty? I think I said to flip the Packers because I wanted to diss the Packers a little bit. But I'm going to change it because I actually think the Patriots should be on the should be fine category. What? Because we're with all the other one-in-one teams.

Our loss was to the top team that is I believe Marshall called Excellent at Everything. Okay, that seems fair. It feels like we should be in the should be fine category. Also, the Packers need to just, I don't think the Packers belong there. Packers have won one game. You don't think the Packers belong in the NFC North? No.

Take them out. It needs to be thrown out. Here's the thing. We'll get to Drake May in a second, but Drake May is not the whole team. No. I know you got to. AJ Brown's on the team. He's not even, he's not even there.

right now. Yeah. Your right guard just out for the year. At a certain point, Patriots defense plays well one game. Okay. Plays well two games. All right. Three games, four games, five, six, you're something. Nine games. I'm not, and we've had some light competition. Drew Locke is not Sam Darnold and Aaron Rogers is not Packers, Aaron Rogers. But at some point, it's like, huh, this defense is pretty good. Now, the bills

scored 35 points. That was the game they, that was that the game that came I don't think, I don't think so. Yes. Yeah, that was. That was even the second half. So second, 13 points is pretty good. Still the NFL. Five, that's fair.

Eight interceptions. Passer rating is at 66 as best in the league. So look, it's not a murderer's row of quarterback. It was the Ravens with Lamar, but Lamar was hurt. Jets, Dolphins, Herbert, CJ, the snow game of Jared Stadham. The Super Bowl is in there. So that takes everything down. Drew Locke and Aaron Rogers.

The defense is real. Yeah. As far as Drake May goes, look, his numbers have not been good. He's 25th in yards. He's behind, immediately ahead of him, Caleb Herbert and Baker.

Am I very worried about those three quarterbacks? No, I think they're all pretty good. I expect Drake May to get a little bit more comfortable this weekend in Jacksonville. I will be a little bit nervous. be a little bit nervous if he still looks uncomfortable. I'll admit. Want to me admit it? I admit it. It has reached my nervous file. I have a file of things in here. What? What? I am nervous about. There is a paper that says Drake Mae. It says...

I mean, you're... That's one way to put it. Another way to put it is, after week one, you compared his performance to Bruce stealing his best friend's watch, and then in week two, he played poorly again. He had a bad, I don't know if poorly is a word. Beneath his standard. You guys scored 13 offensive points. We only needed, well, we only needed four to win the game. Plus nine. It was totally fine.

And there's a fumble on. Two safeties would have got it doing. Yeah, it would have been fine. Deshawn Jackson joins us in studio, talk about its new documentary. That's next right here on First Things Fruit. Fourth quarter, it's just a time bomb, waiting to erupt. DeShon Jackson!

Chick, tick. Chick. Growing up, football was everything, and our father's words was like gospel. It's America's game. He believed they would be our path to wealth and freedom. But I never loved the game like they did to make a movie. I needed a star. In the end, I found two.

Go Deep, the Deshawn Jackson stories out tomorrow on Prime. Joining us now, Deshawn Jackson. Deshawn, welcome. Thanks for coming. Can you give us a preview of the documentary that's out tomorrow? In the preview of the documentary, it's been a long year, a long time waiting. I was excited to have over 35 years of raw footage uncut. A lot of ups and downs, positive, negative.

I mean, it goes on and on. But it's a family-oriented documentary where you had a father that wanted to play sports and his dad didn't allow him to play sports growing up. So he had his kids and he said, whatever I got to do to make my kids become successful. And to make it to the NFL, that's what we're going to do. My brother was the first trial and didn't really quite work out to the extent. and then here it is that my brother puts down the football and picks up a camera

and starts filming. So, I mean, it's really unbelievable. Like the, I mean, the fact that you had the career that you had is still obviously in the game at Delaware State, but, and at what point, I ask athletes this a lot, but it's, and it'll

show up, I assume, in the documentary and you see the full thing tomorrow, but at what point in your life did reaching the NFL, switch from dream to expectation. There's a good question. I want to go back before then because when I was young,

growing up in Los Angeles, California, like it was a lot of dollars. There was a lot of naysayers. And I was always one of the smallest, but always one of the fastest as well, too. And I think throughout the whole way, my dad faced obstacles where, you know, he was a father that wanted his sons to do well.

And, you know, sometimes that caused friction with head coaches. And it shows a little bit in the documentary where he kind of got into it with Coach Tepford. But I would say me losing my father early on in my career, you know, I lost him after my first year. And with him passing away, it was like I had to own up to everything he always said. You know, it was like my son's going to be one of the best ever to play this game, one of the fastest. And I had to go prove him right.

So for me, I just kind of wore that on my sleeve and through every step of the way. Like I just had that chip just because of the daughters and the naysayers. So your brother, he started videotaping you at four. And I saw in the preview, I think you played baseball too. I don't know if you played basketball. Did you play basketball? Did you play basketball? Okay, so was it always like NFL or was the NBA of thought, maybe baseball, anything like that?

Yeah, I mean, it for sure in my eyes was always the NFL. As a young kid growing up in Los Angeles, California, I used to just turn on TV on Sundays, and I just had a big, huge passion for NFL and for football. I played obviously every sport, basketball, baseball, track, and I had an opportunity to get drafted as a senior in high school, and they wanted me to stop playing football. I mean, yeah, to stop playing football. I remember my dad, they coached me up and said, when they call you, because it was the Tambay Debrose,

they had the 29 pick, and I was a senior sitting in the class. I stepped out to class, and it was like, we prepared it up to this. When they call you, you got to say you're going to give up football. And when I got the call, they asked me, I was like, no, I can't give up football. My dad was a big car, yeah. Oh, so he wanted you to go play baseball? My dad wanted me to play baseball because he grew up with Roberto Clemente and Pittsburgh, and, you know, that was his thing.

Tracking baseball was his thing, but obviously he loved football too, but he wanted me to play baseball. Wow. That's a cool story. What position were you? I was in the second base suit. But it's crazy because I think about it at the time, he was like, he wanted me to play both. But at that time, baseball was my way out right away.

And he was like, we need to go get the millions right now. And then you could try to play football after that. But he was mad. He's like, man, why you tell him no? Is there anyone that you're still following the league? Is there anyone that says, oh, you know what? I see a little Deshawn Jackson style of play from this player. I think Jamie Williamson is one, you know, in Detroit.

He's one. I really was taking a like to Tang Dill before he got hurt. Tang Dill was, you know, a lot of similar to me. But, you know, it's this era of football, man. I wish I had to play in this era, man, for one, the paychecks. And they're throwing the ball all the time. Yeah, man. But yeah, man, it's a lot of good talent in the league right now, man.

So you won't remember this, but I used to do a radio show as well as this. And in your last couple years in the league, you were a guest one time, and it was when you had tied the record for 60-yard touchdowns. It was right off that, but it was right before you had broken it. And I remember us discussing

the difference between just straight-line speed in a 40-yard dash and NFL game speed. And you obviously had great straight-line speed, but you also were unkatchable on the field. When you watch certain guys, I'll use my team for instance. The Chiefs have the fastest player in the history of the league, Xavier Worthy, except he's never been the fastest player on the field any game he's played that I've seen.

It seems like there is, it hasn't translated. So what is the through line of being just fast on a track and then also being able to be fast on the field? Good question. I think you're just your instincts. When I play football, I feel like I play like a cat. I never really had a plan. I just reacted.

And I feel like sometimes people make it more bigger than what it is. You got to go out there and you just got to play freely. You know, sometimes the game may be not processing as fast. Maybe he's thinking about plays. Maybe it's other things he's worrying about where the defenders are. You know, for me when I went out there, I just reacted to everything. And I just felt like my dad always told me if they can't catch you, you know what I'm saying? They can't hit you.

And I live by that my whole career. And then another thing I was able to train with Jerry Rice. And I ran every route. He was like, well, it's just one route I want to work on you with it. And it was a quick out. He was like, you run it too fast. He was like, once you figure out how to be smooth and control your speed in and out of breaks, he said, no one's going to be able to message you.

And I just found that tempo and that speed where I'm really running, but I'm in control because at the end of the day, you got to be able to break in and out of breaks. And if a defender breaks before you, as a receiver, that's no good. So I just kind of control my speed and I just play fast. You play briefly with Lamar Jackson. And are you, it was 22. He had an okay year, you know, but are you, he's now the all-time. leader in passer rating. Are you surprised at how great of a pastor? Like even if he's not running,

he's still a great pastor now. Are you surprised at how great of a pastor he's become? I wouldn't say I'm surprised. I feel like, you know, Lamar has grown and, you know, he's took steps to, you know, say, like, address the areas that it was concerned, you know, as far as, you know, winning, I think he's been a winner in season now he has to transition that into the playoffs. But, you know, when I was able to play with Lamar, it was the 22, 22, 23, I only played half the season with him, but when I came there, man, he got an arm. His arm is crazy, and I didn't think he could throw that well because you don't see in the offense he was in with Greg Roman and whoever else was the offensive coordinator before

then. You didn't really see, you know, him utilizing the skills of his arm, but he can make any throw. There's not no, not one throw I've seen him not make. When he came into the league, he was obviously comped a lot to Mike Vick. You and Vick played together. Vic's a friend of ours was one upon, once upon time, regular on the show. You and he also have arguably my favorite highlight in NFL history. Yeah, the 80-yard bomb to open the season, right, on Monday night football against Washington.

It's just as sick of a play as you'll ever see. And Andy Reid's calling the shots there. Andy is, you know, he leaves Philadelphia as this great offensive mind, but can't, you know, wasn't able to get over the hump. Yeah. Now he's in the discussion as the Mount Rushmore of coaches. Sure. Two part question, I guess.

One is how, you know, gratifying is it for you to see Andy be recognized like that? And the second part is what makes him and his relationships with his player so special? Because it really does seem like as good as he is X's and O's wise, it's his relationships that people talk about. Yeah, I would say first off, the first part of that question is in 20, I think it was 2012 was his, his last year in Philadelphia. And it was one of the worst years of my career. We think we went four and 12. But you could kind of just tell his time in Philadelphia,

you know, the fans was kind of booing us every game because we wasn't winning that game. But you could tell that, you know, everything that he meant to Philadelphia, it was transition on his way out. But I mean, what he meant to Philadelphia, I think, you know, he's created a lot of that. And then when he leaves a few years after that,

they get a Super Bowl. I mean, he's just a father figure. He's very personal with his players. I mean, for me, he's a Cali guy. He grew up in Cali. And so he understood my temptations, my things I had to deal with off the field. And, like, he sat me down and said at the end of the day, like, you can't let that way on to what you're going through on the football field.

Because if I'm worrying about what's going on at home and I'm trying to play in the NFL and play in the game on Sunday, it's going to affect me, you know? So I think he's just able to pull back the layers and just be understanding to his players and what they're going through. What's a – just on the coaching idea, what's it like to be coached by Deshaun Jackson? I think it's fun, man, because, you know, I can relate to a lot of these guys. I'm young.

I'm not too far removed from the game. A lot of these guys want to go to where I've been. So for me, I'm allowing my players to be authentic to who they are. I'm not trying to change them. You know, I'm just trying to give them the game and just really inspire them to let them know. It's tough coming from HBC. It was not too many opportunities the guys get to go to the NFL.

But at the same time, I'm just here to just uplift and just really give them game on the game that I went, that I had to go through and the things I did wrong, the things I did right, and just kind of point into these young men. Yeah, I mean, You had some quick success there. They had won, I think, two games, the previous two seasons.

You took them to the conference championship game, your first year, last year. One, how did you kind of do that? And two, what are your coaching aspirations? Do you want to go maybe FBS, NFL, anything like? Like, what are your aspirations in coaching? First off, coming into a situation where you won two games in the past two years, we were two and 22 coming into that. I mean, the talent was there.

I just feel like they didn't really know how to win. You know, they had to be taught, again, what it feels like to win. Because when you're going through a season and you're losing, it's not fun, right? Anybody plays and you have a competitive spirit, like, you do not want to lose. So for me, I had to make it fun again. I had to figure out what was it that was making them lose. And I think a lot of it came down to conditioning, discipline, you know, just characteristics and learning how to win, becoming a brotherhood,

creating a culture where it's fun to go to practice every day. And a lot of things really going back to, like, Andy Reed, And what I've learned from coaches that I respect Sean McVeigh, Andy Reed, and Dion is like, you know, my favorite three. I picked up everything that I respected in them as far as Andy Reed and Sean McVey that I adapted to as a player. And I said, that's what I'm going to make my coaching staff be about or my coaching philosophy, you know, where I respect guys and I just want guys that, you know, put it on the line.

And I feel like for a head coach, if you're willing to go through the brick wall for your players, then they're going to be willing to go through the brick wall for you. As your team seen the documentary? Yeah, they did, man. They enjoyed it. It was inspiring. Obviously, some things that I did in the documentary that I was young and just, you know, being a young college player, but I feel like I'm able to, you know, teach them if I didn't do certain things,

you know, what would have been the difference, you know? That's great. Go Deep, the Deshawn Jackson story is out tomorrow on Prime. It's really cool. It's really a cool. Raw footage, man, authentic. Like you said, hoop dreams don't got this raw footage. And it turned out.

Look at me now. There you go. Thank you, Deshawn. Best of luck this year. More first things first after the break. Start Saturday strong with big noon kickoff on a Fox. Live from the horseshoe in Columbus, 10 a.m. Eastern. Classic Big 10 matchup, Illinois at Ohio State.

Covered starts at 10. Big noon Saturday only on Fox. Welcome back to the show. No Bullsone time. Sponsored by credible great rates on the Bull. Brock Purdy in the Hall of Fame. Not yet, Brew. But the Hall of Fame social media is putting Purdy's career into historical

perspective. Is Brock Purdy in a class of his own fire emoji? I don't know if I want the ball of him. He's in emojis. No quarterback has more games with 140 pass rating through their first

five NFL seasons. It's Purdy. Kurt Warner, Roger Staubach, and Big Band with seven. Back then? Yeah, that's pretty much. That's impressive because it's easier now. Let's talk about him. The question that we decided on.

You know, in the week, Jack passed the touchdown record, I feel like we should give Swalbock a little more shine. It feels like you've softened on Purdy. I wasn't even sure we should do this question. Well, listen, it's not so much that I've softened. It's that I am more so than anyone on the show open to my opinion evolving with new evidence.

And Purdy has been objectively excellent this year. Last year, I did not feel like, and you guys can, I will do this quickly since this is a question directly to me. Brock Purdy was a hotly contested topic on the show. Brew would bring out the goalpost said I was unfair to him. Maybe I was a little draft biased unfair. I don't know if that's right or wrong. Not maybe, but. But, yeah, I mean, no, I did.

I mean, I definitely had some draft bias. I just don't know if that's unfair. But, and then there was. was he was up here and one of my big questions was what would he look like without all the Avengers they had the Christian McCaffrey injury year and his performance significantly dropped him like a checkmark in my favor and then last year when Mac Jones who I don't think is a high level NFL quarterback I don't want to start a fight there put up identical numbers to him although that was another checkmark in my favor of hey he's obviously a starting quarterback he

obviously was under drafted but he's not a force multiple player, as coach would say. This year, I don't think they have this abundance of talent. McCaffrey is still a great player, but he hasn't been quite as explosive last couple years. The receivers are injured all the time. I do think Shanahan's a great play caller, and it's a great system, but that can only go so far, and he's playing close to perfect football. So this year would be a very heavy checkmark in the I have underrated him column. We're only two games into it, but he was up on third row of the. mountain. Like I do try to be fair. Right now, I hold him in the highest estimate. I hold him

in a higher estimation right now than I did the day of the Super Bowl he played him. You know what I mean? Like that as far as him as an individual player, I think he's gotten better. You know what I mean? And I think that he has put more, given us more evidence of that. And right now he seems to be the best version of himself. That's what I'll say. He said coming into the season, and he wants to go back to earlier in his career. Like his first few years where he was just, he just felt like he was technically sounder. And I do think, and you brought up the quote

where he was like, I want to be like Tom Brady. Yeah, step on people's throat. Yeah, and it seems like he's kind of gone back to let me just do what I do and not, you know, go outside of what I need to do. But he's their star right now. Like McCaffrey's got 91 Russian yards. I'm not saying he has played bad, but he's not lighting the league.

Purdy's been their best part. They got no, Mike Evans has 103 yards. That's like the highest receiver, you know, yards they have. So he is the star. Like you said, Nick, he's got to keep it up for this whole season. But he looks great. And I've said it, he's going to become the all-time passer rating leader. Yeah.

He's got like four more games left before he does that. So, yeah, he's, I mean, he's. I think coach does he show that how because I just think it's it's darn near impossible it feels like to evaluate college how guys are going to transition from college to the pro at the quarterback position. And he's an example of how important the processing is, the study, how smart you are on the field. Obviously he's got athleticism. It's also a great example of how important it is the situation you end up in. Yeah. And I'm not trying to take away credit from him at all.

But instead of being the last pick of the draft, of the last pick of the seventh round, he was the first pick of the seventh round, which means the worst team in the league that year got him. Like, do we, does he have a, like, do we ever see him? I don't know the answer to that. It's very similar to Tom Brady's story, right? If Tom Brady didn't get drafted by New England,

and we didn't keep four quarterbacks, and that system wasn't so based on being cerebral and him embracing that and the work. So you've seen a lot of those things from Brock Purdy, and I may have a little bit of draft bias with him too. It's just I'm torn. When you look at it, he's 32 and 15 to the starter, which is great, 105 pass rating for his career, that's great.

But he's got double-digit interceptions each of the last three years. I struggle with that. He had the one year with the 31 touchdowns, but it's been 20 touchdowns, 20 touchdowns. Those numbers aren't great either. and Kyle Shanahan's produced a lot of really good results from a bunch of different guys playing quarterback with all different skill sets.

And scheme does play a factor. And this year, it's been good, but the Rams were sleeping in Melbourne. A little bit of an asterisk there. They've got the dolphins. So let's see as this season goes on. And there is a ton of talent on that offensive field. I mean, the guys may be older, but.

That group that he has, there is a ton of offensive talent. Don't you think he's the driving force, though, at this point? It's only been two games. Listen, I'll think Shanahan is almost always the driving force, but as far as the players on the field, he's been the driving force on offense. And, like, this is where I will just be as fair as I can be. You know, we used to do the whole Avengers thing.

And I was like, they have first team all pro running back, full back, tight end, receiver, Debo. Right now, the San Francisco 49ers do not have markedly above league average skill position talent. They're right around to me. I'd probably rank them like 12th best group of skill position guys in the league because I think the receivers are below average on the whole, given the injuries. Kittle has, in recovering from the Achilles, has not looked quite like George Kittle and McCaffrey is I still think a great player just hasn't produced as such so I have to be fair there like he is not he's not operating from a hugely advantageous position as far as the

talent around him on offense and he is I don't know if I'd be pleading poverty on talent I'm not I'm not but it's not but it's not but it's it no one would argue they have the best group of skill position guys in the league not with the Avengers but they're he's the superhero right a lot of We have some breaking news, and usually I don't like to cut into a segment, cut anybody off. But coach tried to hijack the segment. Wow! In question my voting decisions. The polls aren't closed.

You call for it. You call for a poll. 35 percent. Can we get to the end of the show? No, I hate to tell you. At Brue went called his family during the break. They set the poll for an hour, and they are close. So, poll is closed.

Wow, very close. What about the absentee ballots? This makes it even better. The fact that there was protests and I still won. Otani activated by the Dodgers. Can they go on a World Series run that's next? I didn't even get the vote. Coach, coach, take this L.

Take this L. What are the numbers? Live from New York, first things first overtime. Today, what's next for the Giants? Jackson Dart, unfortunately, done for the year. Meanwhile, another edition of QB stock market. How much Justin Herbert stock is Danny selling? And finally, a special edition of the only sports segment with leather gloves.

Yes, it is cool stats alongside Chris Bressard. I'm Kevin Wilde, Nick Wright. And in under the weather, Danny Parkins, who is gutting playing hurt. Oh, my goodness, it's like your flu game. Josh Allen, Michael Jordan, and you. That's what I just said during trivia. This whole week is my flu game. How did you get, how did you get to?

Were you out hiking in the cold or what happened? It's a kindergarten cold. I have kids that do not know how to cover their mouths. The parents should have taught them. Blame in the kids. Unbelievable. You have tiny young children. I got to tell you something.

You have tiny young children. Yeah. You get full credit and full blame for everything about them. Oh, really? Yeah. Your kids were four. They were covering their mouth. I don't know.

I'm not saying that. What I'm telling you, what I wasn't doing. What I wasn't doing. was blaming them for their deficiencies. I was saying, Eli, this is your fault. That's right. Four years old, you got to figure it out.

Danny's Chargers headed into Buffalo Sunday at one on Fox. LA trying to avoid an 0-and-3 start Parkins. Only the Texans have made the playoffs this century at 0-and-3. They did do it twice. Here's Jim Harbaugh on the Chargers' upcoming tough schedule. When the going gets tough, the tough give going. That's the general message. And I counter our guys.

Yeah, we put a lot on them, put a lot on ourselves. But, you know, number one is the confidence you have in yourself. That's each individual teammate and the confidence you have in your teammates. You sense a lot of confidence in that corner. Yeah. I do. Yeah, it's not like we lost to the Cardinals in the race. Oh, we did? All right.

Here's that tough schedule. It's not easy, Parkins. You need a win. Can Herber and the Chargers make you even more of a believer? Do you still believe? Just give us an update on your belief. I mean, can they? Yes.

Will they? No. This is. Are you picking your Targary and to lose? Yes. Oh. So are they done? Oh, and three?

They're coming back. They get to 10 wins. They can get to 10 wins. I would say the bills are the number one worst possible opponent for this team this week based on how they're playing. Why, the Bill's defense is awful. Yeah, you're going to score 30. I know, but there's not a world where the bill's offense is going to play poorly. The Chargers offense is clearly not up to speed yet in Mike McDaniel's system.

They're snapping the ball into receivers who are running in most. You know what? Can we act like, can we stop acting like that to never happen before? No, but they've had wacky stuff. The 10 silliest plays, like four of them are the Chargers. Really? They got three guys block one guy. They had an interception from New Jokke with he passed in the ball. They had that wacky play and they had another wide receiver blocking the other guy.

Correct. The most pressures allowed through two weeks are the Chargers. The most penalties on the offensive line of the Chargers, the most drops by wide receivers in a game this year through two weeks are on the Chargers. They're not playing well. They are not executing the offense well. And even if the Buffalo defense helps you play a little bit better, you still need to, if Brew was grading it, you need to play an A game. Absolutely.

Josh Allen's going to put up 30, and I just do not think they are ready to put up 30. If they were playing the Texans. CJ Stroud did put up 30. Yeah. Right? CJ Stroud and the Texans offense. We think that's a – the Lions who do have a good offense, they put up 30. Like, if you're, look, I'm not going to criticize Herbert if they lose this game,

35, 31 or whatever. And it's just, hey, our defense isn't up to snuff. The bills are a machine. They've been the, so I'm not saying, like, the Chargers, it's an indictment if you lose in Buffalo. They might be the best team in the league. There certainly have an argument for it. But the fact that you are not confident that this can be a back-and-forth shootout

when that's all the bills have played this year, and one of the teams they played was a Texan's team who I definitively, you don't believe in their offensive talent, their offensive system, or their quarterback is a stunning development to me. They look broken. Maybe this is just what the doctor ordered, and maybe this is the get right spot, but I do not think that what has happened to the Chargers through two games,

having watched every snap of it, is it has not been like imposed on them by, the Raiders and the Cardinals. Max Crosby was excellent in that game. I'm not saying that none of it was, but a lot of that was self-inflicted. The Chargers are saying they haven't carried over the sharpness and the execution from practice into the games.

So maybe that will come. But I do not think what has happened so far through two games has been because the defense has shut down their offense. I think their offense is just fundamentally broken. And if your offense is broken and limited, it doesn't matter who you're playing, to continue to make mistakes. Well, you're saying that like it's, it's almost, and I know you've stated they're not

playing well, but you're saying it like it's almost not their fault. It's just be falling and they got a new offensive court. No, it's their fault. There's no excuse, right? You agree with that. I don't care if he's the first. He's not, they're not the only team with first year coordinators. No, I agree.

And some of them are having more success. The Raiders, got a new head coach who's also to play college. All of them. Every single first your coordinator is having more success. This is the most disappointing team in the lead easily. Yeah. No, I agree with that. Yeah, I agree with that.

But, okay, so I feel like I'm going to go crazy. Here we go. No, I just, I, I'm fighting a multi-front war against people who just keeps screaming at me how much they've watched of this team. And I, you keep telling me you've watched every snap. Stephen Ruiz keeps saying, you know, he's watching the film. Orlovsky's talking about watching the film. Guys, we all have Sunday ticket. Maybe we're not all breaking down the all 22, but this is not an overly complex problem.

By any fair metric, the offense has been broken. There is multiple people responsible for that. But in every other situation, when we talk about superstar veteran, highly paid quarterbacks. The front of the line of culpability is the quarterback, assuming he's healthy, and especially if he has no resume to fall back on of like, well, we know he's so unimpeachably great. There must be something else going on here that is different. And that's the part that is maddening to me. I don't think Herbert is playing as poorly as. the team is their overall record is.

I think a lot of that is because you guys wildly overrated this team in the offseason for the fifth straight year. So be it. That ship has sailed. But would we, let me ask you this. Is it possible for a Josh Allen team to look, if they made KW the coordinator, could a Josh Allen team look like this through two games

against the Raiders and the Cardinals? Shots fire. Josh Allen is better than Justin Herbert if that's what you're getting that. No, no, no. But could they look like this? Is that possible? Could they look like it?

I mean, listen, Josh Allen had some struggles before Joe Brady took over, but probably not. Probably not. Right. Who are the other great quarterbacks? Because that's what, I'm in Neanderthal because I won't accept that Herbert is just objectively great.

Who are the other great quarterbacks? But Mahomes struggled last year and had bad offensive output for stretches of time, right? That is a thing that has happened for Mahomes for the last few years. There have been games and stretches of time with bad office. Listen, there is no doubt that if you pick the worst two-game stretch of Patrick's career, you can find what these first two games of the season have looked like for Justin. There is no doubt about it. and people keep wanting to compare the two-time league MVP,

three-time Super Bowl MVP to zero playoff game winner Justin Herbert and being like, Nick, I don't know why you don't want to have this debate. I don't. I think it's embarrassing. I want to know who are the great quarterbacks that we could say they got the best offensive coordinator acquisition imaginable and it knee-capped them. Because all off-season, this was what you wanted.

I agree. It's not going well. What do you want for me? Whose fault is it? That's my question. Whose fault is it? Danny is beating down. No, I...

Dan, you have to take it down that much. I have to take it down on the towel. It's all over. This conversation. When this... He's tapped out. He has. And what are we going to pull you off of him?

I'd be like a UFC match. As soon as the conversation started with, the bills, the charges have no chance against the bills. That was the... Oh my gosh. Parkets. Mike McDaniels been the dolphin coach for how long was he the Dolphins coach?

Three, four years. He played Josh Allen eight times. Yeah. He's one a few of those games. There's no possible way this is the real off. Take some stuff. Hey, don't block the receivers. Guys, block the defense. Herbert, we're going to let you do your thing. I'm going to score 30 points against his team. Herbert, are you ready? You're confident? Yeah, Harbaals. You got a chance in this game. You have an any given Sunday chance in any game. I'm sorry. They haven't done anything through two games to me. I'd rather than I'd rather than play Kansas City. I'd rather than play Houston.

I'd rather than play Baltimore. Hold on. So this is going to get. And then we can be wrong. I'm not trying to, because it's really not just about Herbert, so I will move off that for a moment. I, you keep saying all the, would you rather them play the Raiders and the Cardinals?

I mean, again, that's, that's gone poorly. I mean, that's, that's, that. They're not just 0.2. They're 0.2 against. The getting worse. Wait, wait, but I'm honestly curious. So you guys want me after losing to the Raiders and Cardinals to come out and hear me like, they're going to beat the bills? No, I just think you should.

You mock that too. I just honest to God think we just shouldn't have done that. You have backed up. You have backed up Justin Herbert. In darker days. Yeah. Some of those playoffs. Darker days.

Yeah. Those playoffs. You were, he threw four picks in a playoff game after throwing three picks all season and you were blaming the receivers. That was not a good performance. Yeah. I mean that. Or by their offensive line. Quickly, just quickly this question, can they, I don't expect them to.

I think they're going to get beat. But a win would not convince me, make me a believer in the Chargers again. Because looking at what they have to go through in their schedule, they would have to drill the bills. Wow. I mean, they would, because if they just win a close game, yeah, it's a great win. They need it. but I would just be like the bills just, you know, didn't show up, took them lightly, whatever. But for me to believe they have a chance in having a respectable record through the next, what is that, seven weeks, whatever, they got a hammer buffalo.

You know what? Hammer them. I'm going the other way. I've now thought about this. Yeah. I'm picking the Chargers. I'm picking the Chargers. I'm a Justin Herbert guy, not a Chargers guy.

That's not true. Justin Herbert's on. You have kicked them to me. make the AIM championship and win the toughest division in the league. You're in a bad spot right now. It's not the toughest division. If Justin, if the, if the Chargers beat the bills, you will get no credit for it now. Guys, I'll be fine.

I'll be, I'll take all with Justin Herbert credit. And don't come on here squawking if they do. Okay. This is, this is a catastrophe. Well, we're going to, don't worry, we're back with cool. I know everybody thinks, aren't stats just for. fancy financial mavens with outdoor pizza ovens living their best lives not necessarily they're also very cool here now is danny parkins you know what looks extra cool today

parkins your leather gloves thanks i know you like them there's a lot of things that are cool you're done with the gloves you guys know what else is cool oh dear sticker laden briefcase Marriage. That's my husband. That's right. That was that we could have done it. I could have half an hour on that. Yeah, absolutely.

How awesome it was? I think that's what he would have said. I'm not sure if Travis Kelsey, her husband, can be expected to keep up this level of production, though. Do you know that targeting Travis Kelsey right now is the fifth best in the NFL in terms of passer rating? Last couple of years hasn't been good. The only guys with a higher passer rating when targeted so far through two games,

JSN, CD Lamb, Justin Jefferson, and Amon Roth, St. Brown. Travis Kelsey and Patrick Mahomes has been, it's been a throwback. It's been in the prime. Can they keep this up? Yeah, of course. Of course. Well, yeah, because there's... You think Kelsey can keep this up?

I mean, I don't think he's going to have, what's he on pace for? Like 12, 1, 1,400 yards? No, I don't think he's going to keep up the volume. But I think there have been two fundamental differences that will exist all year. The first one is he has more space to roam because the line-backer or the safety that used to be assigned to him now has to keep an eye on or is assigned to Kenneth Walker. So he just absolutely has more space and freedom and he is still as agile as it. Like he's not as fast or as athletic, but he knows the angles like, you know,

he does seem still pretty escapable. And the other one's this. And this is why I think that that's my husband thing actually was relevant. What do you do in the months before? before you get married. What do you actually do? Getting the best shape of your life. Travis still got the wedding bod going and is playing great because of it. And so, yeah, I mean, I think that he is going,

he has been held to his own standard rather than good NFL tight end standard. Like even the last couple years, when it was way down, he was like, last year he's like the sixth best tight end in football. It's still a very positive player. So yeah, bro, I expect him to be excellent all year. No, I think Mahomes is just going to keep getting better.

Yeah, Kelsey, I obviously will not play at this level, but he looks great. And Nick's right. I mean, now the defenses have to worry about the run game, it's just opened up for him and the rest of the receivers. Great start to cool stats. That was a cool one right out of the game. Thanks. Mahomes has completed 12 with 16 passes targeting Travis Kelsey, but you guys know what else is cool? What else?

It's actually, I messed that up. It's okay. You know it's not cool. Oh, not cool. That's right, because I'm the arbiter of cool. I can also tell you what's not cool. Yeah, I'd love to hear it. Thanks for asking.

Repeating mistakes. It's not cool. And Dallas is repeating the exact same mistakes from last year. We're supposed to be a new defense. Yeah. This year, averaging 13 pressures a game. Last year, 13.2 pressures per game. Got worse.

Quarterback hits per game. Six. Last year, 6.4. It is worse. They have two sacks? Two sacks through two games, 29th in the NFL. Jerry is not talking about this just to hear himself speak. He enjoys that. But if Pickens is gone next year, which a lot of people expect him to be,

this is the team that's going to be the most talented for a while. I do think Jerry is going to be willing to trade more future draft capital for a defensive player to improve this team if the offense continues. Everyone's talking about Max Crosby. Maybe it's Max Crosby, Brew. I don't know if Kavon Tibado would get traded in the division from the Giants. If their season falls apart. Oh, that's interesting.

Joey Porter Jr. If that thing falls apart completely in Pittsburgh, help the secondary to help your pass rush, kind of work back to front. there are guys that are going to be traded on the defensive side of the ball. I think Jerry's going to do it. Yeah, they need to do something because you're right. They do look as bad or worse. Statistically, they are worse than they were last year in a lot of different metrics.

And it's just shocking because up front, I thought they would be tough up front. And they're just not, at least not so far. And now they got Baltimore. We'll see how that goes. But yeah, it looks like the same old. as long as last year. Like, a guy you didn't mention, and I know he's coming off an injury,

but his team's season could go south potentially as well. They're almost, they're this close to being O&2. Do you think they could trade for Micah Parsons? I think he would help. I think he could make a real difference in that. He would help. He'd have to, yeah, show these healthy. Yeah.

It'd be a weird way to go about getting great defensive talent if you go out and got Max Crosby. But he has the best pressure rate of his career through two games right now. He's eighth in the NFL in pressures. What do you mean? be a weird rate to go out. I'm saying what?

Since you gave up. Trading Micah. Trading Micah to then go up and give them. The thing is, as long as the Raiders are alive, they're probably not looking to move. Going to make that tougher as well. You guys know what else is cool? Yeah, we look at it.

Hold on and get the lights. I got one more. One more cool stat, the best one. And by the way, the briefcase doesn't have the Chargers logo anymore. That's how you know I'm a Herbert. I was going to ask you what happened there. Max and Dart's still there. Well, I mean, I'm not going to take the guy off for injuries.

It's not his fault. a fluky play, but I mean, the Chargers logo. You know what would fit? Caleb's not there twice. You know, Nick got right. He wanted a plug. Oh, I didn't even know that. I would have been nicer earlier. Thank you. I didn't know where that came from. It was the smallest logo.

But you know what would fit perfectly right in the middle? The picture. That's not cool. He's got to a Caleb. What is cool is reliability. Jackson Smith and Jigba. All reliable. Proving to be quarterback proof.

He leads the NFL in receiving yards. It's just through two games. These are the guys in the Super Bowl era who have ever led the NFL in receiving yards in back-to-back years. Really? Doesn't happen often. There's a lot of tournaments. That's stunning. I didn't know that at all.

Calvin Johnson, Andre Johnson, and then Jerry Rice did it a few times. Jerry Rice. Nice little outlier on the extreme end there. But JSN, I know it's two games, whatever, but it's all with Drew Locke. Right. Yeah. It's pretty remarkable what he's doing. and you watch the guy play, he's just always open.

He's the best route runner in football. Yeah, so I, you know, I said going into the year that I thought Puka was the most important non-quarterback in football because of him being the fulcrum of that offense. But then he missed the game. Devante Adams had 200 yards. I was like, all right, that take needs to go back in the oven for a bit. And maybe the answer was staring me in the face the whole time.

Because there isn't, listen, I give Darnold credit. Darnel obviously hasn't been there this year for his improvement, and how good he's been his last two seasons. Obviously, that team is great. Defensively, great at all this stuff. But there is no one else now on that offense that really, like, scares you. I know Kenneth Walker had that unbelievable playoff run,

but prior to the playoffs, like six games ago, Kenneth Walker was considered just like, you know, one of two backs in Seattle. Then he had the great playoffs, and now the first two games in Kansas City looks unbelievable. obviously he's not there. Charbonnet's not there. The quarterback's not there.

Shaheed hasn't popped as a receiver the way I thought he would, and nobody can guard him. They should do the thing that you always told teams to do with Travis Kelsey. Get a hand up. That's why we lost the Seahawks game. We couldn't guard him? No, because it was a fourth and one. Oh, yeah.

Decide not to guard the past. Yeah. I would have called the play to guard him. Yeah. That's what I said. Yeah. I still still the idea from you. Just an excellent episode of, of, cool stats.

Thanks. On the heels of a little bit of a rough go for the Herbert stuff. I mean, it was, does the cool stat character like Herbert? I mean, he's cool guy. Obviously, he's got a rocket arm. He's still on there. I'm a Herbert guy, not a Chargers guy. I still believe in Justin Herbert.

Hey, I'm taking a week off from the Chargers. That's okay. That's fine. And then after they pulled an 0 and 3, that's when they're going to rip off that 10 and 4 stretch. That's right. That's right. next on the OT. Welcome back to the OT.

Coach Mangini hanging out. Let's stay right here in New York and we have breaking news. Moments ago, John Harbaugh confirmed what had been reported that Jackson Dart will undergo season-ending knee surgery. Harbaugh, of course, notes that Dart is expected to make a full recovery after the surgery. We'll get to what's next for the Giants here in just a second. But obviously devastating news, coach, you've been around plenty of teams, plenty of injuries. In the moment, it seemed like they were shell-shocked. How do you pick up after an

injury like this? Well, especially for a guy like John Harbaugh, he's been around for so long and been through so many different situations. You realize that this can happen at any point to any player, and you try to prepare the best you can with who you have from a depth perspective. And I know James didn't look great in his first outing. No, he did not. And he did spend a lot of time in the offseason doing things besides. football. But James, to me, is, you know, he's a confident backup. And this era of guys having second acts in their career, I don't see why this couldn't be a second act for him. And you forget, when he was in New Orleans, he went five and two as a starter. And that was the one year

where he had, like, the 14 touchdowns and three interceptions. But James has always been, yeah, you could get five touchdowns, but you're probably going to get five picks in the same game. He had the 30 touchdown, 30 interception year. James's 2019 is one of the funniest seasons that will never be repeated. 5,000 yards, but a 30 touchdown, 30 interception season. We'll never see it. Yeah, he was a roller coaster ride, but then he did show the ability in New Orleans to go and be able to be productive

and throw touchdowns without having a 50-50 type situation there. So that's in his bag. And with a full week of practice, and getting locked into the team and being the starter, I would imagine we'd get a much more competitive version of James than we saw last week. I expect James to be better also. I don't think that there is a move that you can make, though.

The Giants needed a high ceiling guy. I think the team is good. I think the team has some talent. Neighbors is really good, but young and has had injuries. They had a top 10 pick at lineback or a top 10 pick on the offensive line. You're waiting for those guys to come along. likely is now being featured at tight end. That's nice. They've got a lot of pass rushers, but questions at corner.

It's a talented team that I thought was like a year or two away from being a complete team. But why I picked him this year was I thought they had a playmaker at quarterback who was ready to take that star turn. You go out and get J.J. McCarthy or Anthony Richardson or Mack Jones, like some young quarterback that you may be like that doesn't know your system on another team that's going to take a few weeks at least to get up to speed here. I don't think the ceiling that any of those guys represents is anything close to what Jackson Dart did. And so I don't mean to be apocalyptic here,

but their season is over. There's not a move on the chessboard that I can see for this team that represents the ceiling that Jackson Dart presents. But when Mack Jones played in San Francisco, nobody thought that he was going to be as good as he was. And he showed that he could. and when in Kyle Shanahan's system though, right? Okay, but in Minnesota, Sam Darnold, when J.J.

McCarthy first went down, everybody thought, oh, my God, Sam Darnold going in. And Sam Darnold had been four and two in Carolina as a starter, but it was still that sense that the season's over, and he did what he did. Gino goes to Seattle. He does much better than he had ever done up to that point in his career. And look, you can go get someone who's younger, but the reason they're very, available is they weren't very good wherever they were at that point, you know, whatever team they've been with. James has been productive.

James has won games. James does have a lot of ability. He's got a ton of charisma. Guys like him. Guys want to play for him. There's no reason that this can't be a second act. And there's nobody in New York going two games into the season. The season's over.

There's a lot of ways to win football games. It's not just with the quarterback. And as much as we're anointing Jackson Dart as the savior of the New York. Giants, we're not looking at this giant body of war that says he was, he was necessarily going to be that guy. A lot of positive things, but no guarantee. Let's throw up the Giants schedule for a second here if we can. What James does have going for him is Tennessee, Arizona, Washington. And I'm not even to include New Orleans yet. I think New Orleans just beat Baltimore. But even because Harbaugh said they're going to go add a quarterback to

the roster. But we don't know if that means trade. or veteran free agent. We don't know exactly what that means yet. But James is going to get a window of opportunity to play and he knows the system. And it's a weird system, right? Because it's a combination of a lot of different coaches with Nagy and Calhoun, the whole thing. But if there is a second act to be had for James Winston, pretty good runway here. With Tennessee, Arizona.

There's no reason they can't be four in one going into New Orleans. And with New Orleans, we don't know where they're going to be too. This has been a really nice start for them. They've been obviously competitive in both games, and a lot of things look good there. But who knows whether this is an illusion or not illusion? So the idea of writing off the season, two games into it, it's too apocalyptic.

I know teams don't think like that, and I would not expect them to. I feel for Giants fans, I was talking to my buddy Nick Costos on his radio show today. He's a huge Giants fan. He was like, you know, when it rains, it pours, you lose Jackson Dart. He's got him losing to the Titans and Brian Dable, like right here in this week. So it's a very tough spot for that. Do you feel for Washington? They lost Jaden Daniel.

Of course. To me, it's the same thing. Unfortunately, it happens too much, and now it's happened to a lot of young stars early in the season. Caleb looked like he was going to be out for a long time. I don't know how long he's going to be out for, but it's the reality of the NFL. And as we talk about having extra quality depth at quarterback, you can't have enough. You just can't have enough.

Not enough good quarterback. Let's talk about another team that's had a lot of injuries in the past, but is off to a great start this year in San Francisco. The Niners, 2-0, also with a couple of blowouts in there. I had them in the playoffs when I had eight teams in the NFC, but you're not allowed to do that.

Here's their tight ends, George Kittle on their offensive dominance through two weeks. Take a listen. I think the biggest thing is that this is essentially like the same offense we've had for quite a while now. I got really lucky. I got to play with Trent Williams, right? We got him.

Hall of Famer plays like a Hall of Famer still. Mike Evans, Hall of Famer, plays like a Hall of Famer still. And so just when you add guys like that, it's just so much fun. Because, I mean, every time we call a play and I know Mike has a chance to get in the ball, I'm like, this is so sick. Like, Brock Purdy is throwing the ball to Mike Evans and I'm blocking for him. What a dream come true. That seems very genuine to me.

I like that. And he could have included himself as a guy who's going to get Hall of Fame consideration, Christian McCaffrey, Hall of Famer as well. It's a ridiculously stacked roster while it's healthy. We know they've got receiver injuries right now. Do you consider the Niners, though, Coach, a Super Bowl caliber offense? Yes. If everybody can stay healthy, which in San Francisco is almost an impossibility

based off of what we've seen of last, what, two, three, four, five. You take your pick every year. They're one of the top teams in the league in terms of players missed time. Yeah, it's. talented guys at every position and they're older talented guys, but even Debo coming back and doing the things that he's done. People thought maybe he's washed. Maybe he can't get back to the player he was and maybe he won't reach that level, but he's done

a lot of good things getting back into this system and being productive. Brock Purdy, there's been a lot of things said about him, by myself included, about like, he just kind of benefits from the situation that he's in. He's got this unbelievable offensive coach with all this unbelievable talent, but he executes the system. When he's been the starter the last two years, and he's been injured, he's been a part of the grouping. But we can throw it up. Across the board, they win at an elite rate, he completes passes at an elite rate, they score an elite rate, the rating is where you would want it to be. So I think the answer to that question is objectively yes.

They have a Super Bowl caliber offense. They have a Super Bowl caliber team and roster. Last year, they won 12 games, and they were the third most injured team in the league. So if they can somehow be the 13th most injured team in the league, like no one is predicting a season of full health for the Niners, if the key guys are healthy at the right time at the end of the year and they survive whatever injuries are going to come over the course of the next three months, but they're healthy for the December-January run, even in the NFC West, I do think that they can be a team. that comes out and is a legitimate contender. And you talk a lot about guys who are offensive geniuses,

and that term gets thrown around so loosely. And sometimes guys who have one year of offensive success, they're anointed, and I know you like to do that. But the difference here is Kyle Shadhan's been really good at calling offense for a long time. And he's been really good at doing it with a lot of different guys. And not just a lot of different guys in terms. terms of the overall make of the offense, but a lot of different guys playing quarterback.

And to me, that's the other component of this. He does nice things with putting his players in positions to maximize their ability and to be successful, and he does it year in and year out. It kind of makes them the forgotten contender because the Rams are the favorites deemed the super team. The Seahawks are the champs on the incredible. incredible win streak. And so everybody in the world, myself included, is like, well, the Niners are going to finish third. And they finished third last year. But again, it was third place that was

12 wins. 12 wins, wins a lot of divisions. It was 12 wins with a ton of injuries. So one or two things goes against those teams, one or two things breaks for them. They can come out of this and take on an NFC North champion, an NFC East. Like, if the Niners were in the NFC East, I would have picked them to win the NFC East. Obviously, if they were in the NFC, South. I would pick them to win the NFC South. Right now they'd probably be the favorites if they were in the NFC North. The only division, they're not the overwhelming

favorites in in the NFC, is the division that they happen to occupy. And we talk so much about the AFC West and how hard that is, the NFC North, how hard that is. The division therein is salty and it's salty every year and they find a way to win and find a way to be competitive. Coming up, we're talking

quarterbacks and Brock Purdy will make an appearance on the quarterback stock exchange. That's right. Coach's diversified portfolio versus my quarterback takes. Coming up, the market's open for the OT. The OT quarterback stock exchange is open. Now, as always, I'll say it every week. This is a volatile market, a lot of ups, a lot of downs.

It's not for the feign of heart. Invest in these takes with caution before we get to the 10 best quarterbacks in the NFL right now ahead of week three. Coach, we have given you the power of the button. I'm going, but whenever you hit that button, I have to stop. Do you understand the power that we've entrusted to you? Yes. I'm comfortable with it. You're comfortable with that power? Yes, I might hit it every single time.

The man knows how to invest. Disclamer, you have to be healthy to be on the list. At number 10, I'm as surprised as this by anyone. Bryce Young comes in, makes his debut at the quarterback stock exchange, leads the NFC in points through two weeks. Second and yards, sixth in pass-a-rating. He's making Jalen Koker and Ted McMillan, both top 10 in the NFL in passing yards. Cleveland and Detroit, up next for Bright. young over the next two weeks I expect our short king to keep it up I'm investing in Bryce Young speaking of surprises let's invest in Tyler Shuck if you watch the Saints close this year you already yeah I don't know how we've got

Tyler Shuck ahead of Bryce Young that seems a little bit out of control okay they saw of of their production based off of what we'll come back we'll come back though okay my guy sorry he's already sluryslawed me out well I Here's what I say, listen, if you watch Tyler Shuck last year, you might already own some stock for the rest of us, maybe a little late to the party. I would still say it's a buy. No first or second year player has had more yards through two weeks since Lamar Jackson's MVP campaign in 2019 than Tyler Shuck this year. At number eight, you got to have him in your portfolio. All reliable, Jared Gough.

Yeah, it was a loss, but not because of golf. You score 31 points and put up four touchdowns with no turnovers. You expect to win. Unfortunately, golf's whole secondary is banged up. He ran into the buzzsaw that is the bills. Jared Gough, safe in any portfolio. At number seven, Mr. Pissmistle himself, Dak Prescott. After being outside the top 10 for one week,

I expect Dak to remain here in his rightful place in the top 10 for the rest of the year. He's too good. The talent is too good on the team around him. They pass too much for him not to produce big returns. Now at number six, Joe Burrow. Listen, Joe, I'm sorry. Is it fair?

that you dropped a spot despite picking up a blowout win over Houston? Maybe not. But it speaks to three things. The production in that game, more Jamar Chase than Joe Burrow. How great the quarterbacks above you are playing and the fact, you were sacked five times, your top four in quarterback hits. I have some concerns on whether or not this is going to be sustainable for Joe Burrow the rest of the year, but right now he's in at number six.

At number five, let's add some Brock Purdy to the portfolio. Huge jump for Purdy. He's got a couple of blowout wins this year. we were just talking about him. The Niners are an astonishing 9-and-2 scoring 29 a game over the last two years when he plays. If Purdy's out there, the Niners' offense is going to produce MVP ballot coming for Brock Purdy. Fourth best quarterback by of the week, he's back. Matt Stafford.

No Pooka Nakua, no problem. Did the banged-up giant secondary help? Yes, it did. Absolutely. But Stafford put on a clinic, and my guess is we'll be calling week one the Australian anomaly. I think Matt Stafford is back and he's going to be on this list almost every week the rest of the way. At number three, now last week, this pains me. This spot belongs to Caleb Williams.

So I apologize. You don't like Lamar Jackson here? So Lamar Jackson plays the Colts, right? So the Colts are essentially like the team that the Harlem Globetrotters play every week. The Generals? They literally make everybody look good and then when it comes down to the end, he's got to make a play in order to win the game. And not only does he make a poor throw,

He literally throws it to, it was like a punt in flag football. The kids have. There's no receiver anywhere near the area and ends the game. I expect with Zay Flowers coming back, Lamar's going to be there. I dropped him a spot, but some of this is pedigree, some of this is accomplishment. I only dropped in one spot. Touchdown numbers need to be higher, but I think Lamar Jackson is going to bounce back in a big way. All right, let's get to number two on the quarterback stock exchange.

Time is a flat circle. Patrick Mahomes. Oh, my God. I should never have given you this buzzer. First week was Kenneth Walker, right? Yeah. Okay, and the second week, who did they play? They played the Colts.

Exactly. Bad defense. You just made that point. Okay, well, this is what I say about the Holmes. Last week, I had him sixth. And I was like, well, if it's Amazon, and he's got a bad earnings report, it's still Amazon. How low can I drop him? Well, one week later, he's still Patrick Mahomes.

He is now off to the best start through two weeks in yards, touchdowns, and pass-a rating since his last MVP can. campaign in 2022. Looks like the Holmes is rounding back into form. This one, no surprise, top spot, Josh Allen. You can't hit the button here. His skeptics will say we've seen this September before, as if he isn't also the best statistical quarterback in December. The guy is playing on another level. He's got nine touchdowns in two games, no rest for the best. Next three, Chargers, Patriots, and Rams. I expect him to continue to dominate every step of the way. I do not see Josh Allen giving up the top spot. There you have it. Your top 10 quarterbacks ahead of week three.

Yeah, look, I have problems with a lot of different spots. Bryce Young, I buzzered in really early. To me, you're not giving him enough credit. When you look at where they're ranked offensively, in terms of his production, in terms of the team's production, in terms of his passer rating, they're number one in the league in passing right now. Take a look across the board.

Pass yards per game first, points per game, second, total yards per game, fourth. Passer rating, six. how you're not putting him ahead of Tyler Shuck. I know that's a trendy pick right now, and you like trendy picks? Well, I mean, the win for Tyler Shuck against the Ravens, I thought it was like a very impressive win.

Bryce Young lost to the Bears. He played great. Bears' defense, I know it firsthand. It's not good. How many points did they put up? They put up, what, 37 against the Bears, and then 34 the following week against the Falcons. You're discounting his performance because the defense is bad, but you've got Mahomes and Lamar bumped up, even though they both lit up a defense that is objectively to this point.

No, no question. It's a blend, you know. It's the idea of what you have accomplished in the past, what you're accomplishing right now. It's a rich tapestry? Some people would call the market a rich tapestry. Yeah, exactly. There's a lot of factors, coach, that go into investing. You know, you want to have a diversified portfolio.

You understand. Listen, Bryce Young, I have been a very, very. impressed with it. Do I think over the course of this year that they are going to be a top 10 offense in Carolina? Is Ted McMillan and Jalen Coker going to both be top 10 in receiving yards? Or is that a product of you played a terrible Bears defense and you were playing catch up the whole time because you're shooting after 59 points and you played Atlanta. Atlanta has not had a single play in the red zone yet through two games. They are not a representative football team right now. So if Bryce Young, I thought I was giving him a lot of respect through two

weeks having him in the top 10 above, and I know we don't put guys in who are hurt, but I mean, he's above Jordan Love right now. He's above Baker Mayfield right now. He's above C.J. Stroud right now. He's above Caleb Williams. And again, hurt, so we're not putting him in there. But he's above, he's above, he's above a lot of guys who have accomplished a lot more than Bryce Young has. But through two games, Bryce has been very good. You make that, or you go through that list, but Bryce Young has been so impressive this year. And to some degree last year, you saw him trending in the right direction. And we are talking about a rich tapestry or what he's done in the past.

Yeah. And you might have a little bit of bias of him underachieving throughout the course of his career. But at some point, you've got to recognize that he is trending in the right direction. And I thought that was your thing. I think you've got. I do like the trends. I do like when the arrow's pointing up. You have a lot of guys that are young and unproven who, in your mind, are going to be unbelievable players.

And Bryce Young is taking a little bit longer. but first in the league in multiple categories or top five in multiple categories. He's been great. I will say maybe I'm a conservative investor. Allen, Mahomes, Lamar, Stafford. You want to have blue chip guys at the top guys you can depend on week in and week out. Yeah, but you're not necessarily going to make a lot of money with those. It's going to be safe money and you're going to do what everybody else does.

Coming up, I'm going to defend Caleb Williams, believe it or not. Time now for first things last. You know what there hasn't been enough over the last few days? Caleb Williams takes. So allow me to go meta and have a take on your takes. Many of you should be embarrassed. What happened to shame? If that was still an effective deterrent,

a lot of my colleagues would have kept some of these opinions where they belong. And to be clear, I'm not talking about the memes. Sometimes that's just how the internet goes. And as an unapologetic bears and Caleb Williams fan, If the price for him missing minimal time with a grade one hamstring strain is, he's got to be the main character on the Internet for a while, I'll happily take it. And I'll laugh along, too. I also felt like a hero for spending the night on those uncomfortable hospital beds while my wife was in labor.

The jokes are fine. It's the people with real platforms, with real careers, who put their real names behind some of the dumbest things I've ever heard. And they are so threatened by someone who wears his emotions on his sleeve and their own sense of masculinity is so fragile that when another grown man paints his nails or sheds a tear that it causes them to anchor their analysis in homophobia and or misogyny.

Now, I shouldn't be surprised because there's ample evidence that that's where our discourse has fallen to. But I still am, so I guess the joke's on me. But honestly, even more shocking than the caveman opinions of some of my fellow never having played the game takesmits were the takes from those who did play the game.

And you should know better. The special teamer who said crying on the cart was sacred, or the linebacker who simply said you can't do that, or the wide receiver who called Caleb Williams soft. Caleb Williams, the same guy who if he misses Monday night, it'll be the first missed game of his pro career, and the same guy who barely missed a snap despite taking 68 sacks as a rookie, soft. Guys who know what it takes to lace him up and have suffered injury, but have never experienced having the weight of a franchise and city on their shoulders like Caleb Williams,

Going off not with jokes, but with character assassinations on his toughness. For what? A retweet, a view, a download? Cool. Caleb Williams will get the last laugh. And I want to say thank you for letting the rest of us sane individuals know that that's exactly what we should do when we see one of your takes forced onto our feeds by the algorithm. Scroll right by and laugh.

That's all we've got. Thanks so much for being with us here on first things first overtime. We're back tomorrow. This family is on the brink of Civil War. Mobland, the hit original series is now streaming on Paramount Plus. We are the Harrogans. Don't know the Earth? And Google us. From the underworld of Guy Ritchie.

Do you want to step up the ladder? I won't comment dead. Starring Tom Hardy, Pierce Brosnan, and Helen Mirren. Do I have to do everything myself? You want to want! Moblad, new season is now streaming on Paramount Plus.