First Things First - Watson Browns Wk 1 Starter, Bears Hot Start, 49ers Dangerous

Episode Date: August 24, 2026

(00:00) Browns name Deshaun Watson Week 1 starter (24:05) Cowboys hype too high, too low, or just right? (38:26) Dae’Quan Wright has been waived by the Browns, and has an agreement to play for LSU this season (48:24) Expect Bears get off to hot start this year? (01:04:39) 49ers dangerous team we’re forgetting about (01:17:33) Mike Vrabel on resting starters: “Don’t think we have a very deep team” (01:23:31) Winners & Losers Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Live from New York. It's the show that I'd like to think is not lacking depth alongside Coach Manjini. I'm Danny Parkins. Coach, Ryan Horner, will join us in just a little bit, a tremendous quarterback and backup quarterback in his day. You feeling good about our depth? I feel strong. Yeah, I think we look good. You've done a nice job putting this together.

Oh, thank you. So I'm like a player, coach, general manager all in one. Yeah, yeah, you've got all those jobs. I've gotten many reps in Madden in my day. I feel like I'm uniquely qualified for all of the jobs that you actually do. Based off of a lot of takes, I feel like you do have a lot of reps in Matt. You check my references. It's like Matt in Playcaller.

That's where they're coming from. Got it. And we began. It's going to be a very smooth sailing here. Today's show, Mike Rable. He's resting his starters because he is concerned. His roster isn't deep enough. I have a theory.

He's not telling the truth. We will discuss. Also, the Ravens defense seems to be showing that Jesse Minter was a a good hire on just two preseason games. Have the Ravens officially put the league on notice? Also, Bucky Brooks seems to agree with Dak Prescott that this Cowboys offense is and can be even better than last years. Coach, I'm not going to ask you to be a fan of Dallas talking Super Bowl.

We know where you stand on that. But do you think the hype is warranted in Dallas? I think the hype is getting a little bit. too strong, too early. Oh my God. I know you love hype. I do. I love hype.

You could seriously be the poster boy for hype. You and Jack Prescott combined. But we're getting ahead of ourselves. August is it's hype month. It's hype month. Next week is predictions week. And then we can tamp down the expectations when it's game week. Okay.

But it's hype month. Okay. All right. You're in. A little preview of things to come. We begin, though, with breaking news out of course. This one's not polarizing at all. Adam Schaefter and Ian Rappaport both reporting today that Deshawn Watson has been named the Brown starting quarterback over Shador Sanders.

So coach, there's a lot there. There's an old saying in media, you know, don't pick a fight with anyone that buys ink by the barrel. Yeah. Because it's a fight you can't win. The modern day version of that is don't pick a fight with the fans because they have the ink that there's 80,000 of them at a game. They all have access to social media. Like it's just a fight. Generally speaking, you can't win when athletes pick fights with the fans. the fans, your reaction to all of this and if Deshawn deserves to be the week one starter for the Browns. I felt that the, the booing when he got hurt was, was really unfair. And I understand

a fan basis frustration with the way that this has all unfolded in terms of the expectations that he came in with the commitment that they gave to him organizationally in terms of the, was it a 250 million guaranteed, the only fully guaranteed contract in history, the amount of staff picks they gave up and then the performance that he was having as well as all the off-the-field issues and the distractions that that went into That being said to cheer anybody getting injured to me is out of bounds Says it the things like that happen in stadiums? Yeah, there's things like that that happen all the time And when you're in professional sports or in any area where you're public facing You're gonna receive some criticism that that

Just comes with it and you have to expect that and unfortunately you you've got to roll with it. You know, in this situation, he was frustrated during the game. He thought he was gonna get a different reaction, but there's still a high level of frustration with him. And then there's a different level of excitement with Chador about the possibilities of what he can be

to where I think a lot of people and a lot of fans in Cleveland just wanna move on from Deshawn Watson. It's not time yet. And this is the cold, hard truth reality, because there are a lot of, players to this story. So I'll address the thing that you said off the bat. I obviously can understand on some sort of human level why suffering a career altering injury and then being cheered by your home fans would sting a human being and impact a guy's psyche. I can obviously

understand that. I remember covering the chiefs when Matt Castle was struggling and he got hurt and some people cheered and Eric Winston came to his defense in like a very passionate. public thing and it went very viral in like the early days of virality. The players do not like when their home fans cheer the player. I understand all of that. I still feel like though that Deshawn Watson doesn't get it. I don't think he gets it because he says that that's not performance based. And it obviously is.

Like if Deshawn Watson, after they gave up three first round picks and $230 million fully guaranteed, which they gave him that trade after over two dozen women accused him of sexual assault, harassment, inappropriate conduct during massages. They made that trade after those allegations came out. If he had gone to Cleveland and bawled out, we have seen so many instances of so many stories, of so many different people who have done things off the field that are immoral, illegal, and any varying degrees within that realm, where the fans cheer for the player

because they cheer for the performance. And Deshawn has been awful. It was a franchise crippling transaction. The worst trade, the worst contract in the history of the NFL, and they're still dealing with it. And I feel like people have said that and then still not fully grasped

how much it would set them back. I saw people today saying, well, the Browns should just cut Deshawn Watson. Hey, can't. They can't. They cannot cut him. He has to be on the roster this year for financial reasons, or it would be even more crippling

into the future. If they cut him after this year and make it a post-June 1 designation, it still will be $86 million of dead cat money spread out over the next two years. When we say it is the worst transaction in NFL history, it is backed up by the draft picks, the money, the PR, and the immovability of the contract, and how poorly he's played. You're forgetting one element, Baker Mayfield, how well he's doing in Tampa Bay. Right. And so that's exactly right. And they are going to play Baker Mayfield in week two. And so, like, let's just throw up the football numbers. For Deshaun to say this is not performance-based.

That is what Cleveland has gotten as a return on their investment. Those numbers are a crucial. cross the board atrocious. So yes, he received some booze early. I'm not saying that it wasn't throughout that entire performance. But if he would have gone 10 of 12 for 136 yards with a touchdown, instead of 5 of 12 for 36 yards and no touchdown, there also would have been cheers. So for him to remove the performance aspect of this

is just to deny reality. Yeah, I imagine he's going, he keeps going back to the injury moment. Of course, just the first time he was on the field since then, and he wants to be cheered for the return to injury as the conquering hero, but he's not a sympathetic figure. He's not. He is not the victim here. He's not sympathetic at all. And it is performance base to your point as if he had gotten hurt after having Houston-type numbers and playing like he had done there, it would be a totally different thing. And, and, you know, and you're right too.

Guys have done a lot of things off the field that have been overlooked if they're performing on the field, which he hasn't. It's not only been bad. It's been terrible. And the booze are just part of what you deal with when the performance is not very good. And the other thing, this is not a good sign for Shadur Sanders. Because the Browns traded for Deshawn Watson, knowing the PR hit they were. going to take because they thought they were getting a top five young quarterback in football.

That's why they did it. They're like, okay, there's all of this horrible stuff out there, but we have had no good quarterbacks in the history of our franchise, so we are going to take that hit to go out and get one. And right now, Deshawn did not look good, Chador has not looked good. There have been varying reports about who's been better at various times and practices, all those sort of things. Neither option is the quarterback of the future for the Browns. But Todd Munkin wants to win week one. And he is saying, we're going to put him out there. And I thought that Deshawn today, when he walked back his comments, struck the right tone.

And he also said, you know, we've got two weeks. We start on the road before we come home to hopefully change how the reception would be going forward. It would not surprise me at all if Deshaun plays poorly against Jacksonville and poorly against Cleveland. Or excuse me, against Tampa. And the Browns are 0 and 2 for that home opener that Shador Sanders starts the home. opener. Yeah, they're both going to play during the course of season. No question. But what is benefiting Deshaun Watson right now is what's happened in recent NFL history with Sam Darnold, with Baker Mayfield, with Gino Smith, with all of these guys who have had second act. So now the league is

looking at this and saying guys who have been good in the past or have shown tremendous potential can can do that again. You know, whether it's a change of scenery, whether It's a change ahead coach. And as they made this decision, if you pull this up, Deshaun had one small run where he was five and one as a starter before he got hurt. And I thought the numbers were going to be even more skewed towards him. But the 61.4 completion percent, it's not as skewed as much. A lot of those games he was carried by a pretty damn good defense. And I'm not saying that's not the case.

But it's the idea and it's a copycat league. And you look at past trends and you say, okay, this is what's happening. And these are real life examples and we've seen significant amount of success with guys getting second chances who have a history of production. So whether it's ownership or whether it's the front office or where it's coming from, they're hoping that that's what's going to happen here. And if it doesn't happen, at least it puts a final, you've got a final sort of body of work to close this chapter indefinitely. And Albert Breer said it on Colin earlier today. He's exactly right. I do think it is easier to go from Deshawn to Chador than Shador to Dishon.

Just because of the money invested in Deshawn, the age of Deshawn Watson, the fifth round pick. You could say, all right, Shador will wait, he'll develop. He maybe will be our QB2 of the future. I think that, like, Shador has a real chance to be on the Browns next year. I think it's almost zero. I think it's zero percent that Deshaun Watson is on the Browns next year. season. Yeah, ideally he would play well and you could have him in the building in some context because you talked about it. It's about $30 million next year in dead money and $50 million

the following year in dead money. So if you could figure out a way to push that off again, it's better for business. It just doesn't look like it's going to happen that way. But we're going to get to find out really early in the season what we're looking at. Feels like we have a two week sample to me of Deshawn Watson before the next real decision has to come in. All right. Let's go to New England. Patriots head coach Mike Vrable has chosen to sit Drake May and other key starters during the Patriots first two games of the preseason. Vrable was asked about the importance and what went into that decision. Here's his response. I don't think we have a very deep team, Mike. So, you know, I think we have to make sure that

we're preparing our football team and that we're doing everything. that we can to keep our best players available. And if that means playing Thursday, part of preparation, then that's what we'll do. I have not made that decision yet. But I would say that that's something that I'm confident in with where we're set up currently. It's a great quote.

I don't think we have a very deep team. What's your reaction to him being that forthcoming? Well, he talked about it today too. On the radio. And he explained what he meant by that. And there's a lot of truth is during the, we've changed the preseason. So now we're at three games instead of four. And you've got to be able to evaluate the group of young guys that are there.

And so you have a smaller window to do that. Usually the fourth game is where you're able to see all those guys. And if you don't feel like you know who the third outside linebacker is going to be, who the fifth offensive linemen is going to be, who the core special team. guys are going to be and you've got this group of candidates the best way to determine how those guys are going to distinguish themselves is by playing them you know so that's part of it now the other part is that if you don't feel like that next guy in is a comparable upgrade then you better do everything you can to protect the guys that you have and the worst thing that can happen is to lose

guys in preseason we see it with the chargers they lost a starter we We've seen it with the commanders. They lost the tonsils. So it's a mix where you want to see the guys that are candidates to make the squad. And you also want to protect the guys that you have. So you have the best opportunity to play them in meaningful games. So I always come out on the side of rest the guys who matter because I just believe that I'd rather deal with a little bit of week one rust among my best players than. have fresh guys for week one, but their backups,

because my starters got hurt in meaningless games. Like, that's where the Sean McVeigh school, basically, of thought. Like, he does not play his guys in the preseason. It seems to work out pretty well for him. But great coaches have gone the other way. Like Andy Reid normally gives guys a tune-up. So I'm not saying that this is like confirmed science. You can debate things on either side.

I just thought that Mike Vrable, and I listened to a couple of the clips from the Greg Hill Morning Show in Boston that he went on, because I guess people in Boston were taking it as like, was this a shot at Elliot Wolf, the general manager, for not giving him enough? And I didn't take it that way at all. He was saying, like, we need to figure out who our sixth tackle is and who our third linebackers. And we know who our starters are, but it's more important for us to identify who our backups

are going to be, which is totally fair. But the Patriots are a deep football team. They are. Like, they just went through an entire draft, and none of the players that they drafted are, as of today, projected to be starters. Caleb Lomu, they're... That could be really good or really bad. That either means that your starters are really talented

or that means that the guys you drafted aren't as good as you hope they'd be. Sure. And they're picking at the end. But that's a very optimistic way to look at it. But most teams, most years, good teams and bad, have to start at least one or two rookies who they draft. There's just so much turnover in the NFL.

That's generally speaking how it works. But if you're drafting an offensive lineman number one or in the first round, you're expecting that guy to come in and play a thousand reps. You're expecting him to start. So the fact that he's not starting, and it's not like their offensive line last year, everybody was looking at and saying, okay, this is the strongest group in the NFL.

Right, the reports on Caleb Loom so far have not been that encouraging, but they've also played him at different positions. He might just be the 28th or whatever it was, 30th pick in the draft, and be more of a swing type of player and a backup. for now before he moves into the starting role. But when you're playing guys at different positions who you've drafted number one overall, it's not because you're just trying to build flexibility. It's trying to see whether he can beat out one of those guys that you're playing.

I'm sure they would be thrilled if he was ready to come in and be like, I'm going to be the left guard or I'm going to be the right tackle for the future. I'm in complete agreement with you. But that team, I pull up their roster. It's like, what is their big weakness? I know everyone is concerned about the left side of their offensive line, but there's no perfect team in football. Their roster, to me, looks considerably better on paper than it did last year and they were in the Super Bowl.

But to Mike's point, then, if none of those guys have been able to beat out the ones, the ones must be significantly better. So then from his perspective, what's the best thing to do? Protect that group. Yeah. And then let all these other guys play. I guess you're right. That is definitely a way to look at it. How many teams would trade rosters with the Patriots?

Like if the Patriots aren't a deep team, who is? Like how many deep teams are there? I think they're pretty well equipped compared to the majority of teams in the league. Any time you're going from the one to two, there's going to be a drop-off probably. It's just how big of a drop-off is it? And that's, you know, from Mike's perspective, it wasn't, it's too big to risk losing one of those guys. It was a good Patriots coach speak, though. By you, by Vrable, by everybody.

Let's go to ball. The truth. A.k.a. The truth. That's right. In Baltimore, the Ravens defense has been very impressive this preseason. It was again this week against the Vikings. Through two preseason games, Coach Baltimore has allowed 10 points, recorded six sacks with two takeaways. Of course, this Ravens squad coming off a season where they were 18th in points allowed. So, coach, I know it's preseason, but they hired Jesse Minter from the Chargers. do you expect the Ravens defense to return to their dominant form? I was thinking a lot about preseason,

and there were times going through preseason. Let's say you're struggling on third down in preseason or you're struggling in the red zone in preseason. My experience is that those problems tend to follow you into the regular season, and you'd like to say, okay, you're doing great in those areas, and you'd like to think there's this correlation between preseason performance and what you're going to get during the regular season.

But there's no definitive studies that show that that correlation exists. That makes sense. So it's positive in the sense that if you are a new head coach and a new defensive coordinator and you go out in those first two opportunities for guys to see what you're doing

and then they have a lot of success. And then you, I think against Philly, Philly didn't have a first down against them, all positive. But on the flip side, is this a little bit of indictment of Phillies offense and Minnesota's offense as well. Now, their numbers last year from Baltimore weren't very good if we can bring them up. So you talked about the points per game at 18th, but look at the pass yards per game,

not bad against the rush at the top 10, total yards per game 24th. And most of those guys are back. Now, they had two guys in the team that have bumped up who are now starters, and they had to Trey Hendrickson and Nate Wiggins, their number one overall draft pick at cornerback. So that should help the passing game component. It just can they go from 30th in offensive yards per game to a top 10 pass defense? Can they go from 24th in total yards per game to a top 10? It's hard to find the correlation of teams that have made that.

I don't think preseason, like, I would have answered this question, yes, before I saw the games in the pre-CISA. I loved what they did this offseason. Now, they tried to get Max Crosby, backed out, ended up with Trey Hendrickson, but they were able to retain their draft capital in addition to it. Thought that worked out pretty well for Baltimore. And Jesse Minter overachieved relative to the talent that he had with the Chargers. So let's just first start with the Ravens side of it. This is what returning to dominance would look like for the Ravens.

Like last year was a year off for them. The thing that was devastating for them last year was the pass run. went away. And that's why they went on and got Hendrickson, Maddie Bucke's injury, certainly played a role in it. But like Baltimore had been, with this roughly collection of talent, they had been able to disrupt and make the other team's quarterback uncomfortable. Last year, that went away. So teams were like, we're not going to run against you. We're going to just sit back and throw because our quarterbacks are going to have all the time in the world to, you know, pick them apart. And Jesse Minter with the Chargers,

we were trying to figure out the best way to quantify this. And I'm not going to say that this is exact science what I'm about to show you here. But I think if you just pulled up the rosters, you'd agree with me anyway. Look at the all pros. Guys who have ever been an all pro on the Ravens versus where the Chargers were.

The Ravens have the most defensive players who have been all pros. Now that's not necessarily, not last year they were all pros, but at any time in their career. And only Callais Campbell is really past his prime. You're talking about Marlon Humphrey, Kyle Hamilton, Roquan, Smith, Trey Hendrickson, first or second team all pros.

If Jesse Minter was able to have the Chargers defense be better than the Ravens defense, considerably, with lesser talent, why would I not think that if Jesse Minter goes to a team with excellent talent, he won't be able to coach them up and be great? Yeah, you look at a guy's track record of success, and you'd like to think that, you know, you could go from one, team to another team and be able to carry that concept forward and it'll hit. But do the things, the things that the chargers did well that allow them to be where they were, will the Ravens be able to do it as well, you know, under the same system? Do you have the same type of communicators? Are you going to carry the same philosophy?

If they were built, and I'm not sure what Jesse's pressure philosophy is, if he was more of a high pressure guy with the chargers, but they're not really built for that. And Baltimore is it going to be apples to apples? It's encouraging right now. I'd say the other addendum is he's head coach defensive coordinator. So he doesn't have the same level of time that he can spend on the defense that he had, the luxury of having in LA.

So you don't buy the, right. So he's got a head coach responsibility, not just focus on that side of the ball. So you don't buy, like, to make it an analogy, like Jesse Mentor's a great race car driver, and he just got given a faster car. Well, we see this all the time where a guy is an offensive guru. Just look at Denver. Sean Payton is pretty well established as a very, as an outstanding offensive coach. Yeah, great play caller.

What's Denver been known for since he's been there, their defense? It hasn't been their offense. So it's not apples to apples from when he was in New Orleans to when he was in Denver. he hasn't changed philosophically as a head coach. He hasn't he hasn't forgotten how to coach offense. It's just been a very different group of players that he's got to pull together and try to figure out how to make it like he had in New Orleans.

I'm trying not to fall for the preseason hype. It's possible, though. Yeah, you're the hype guy. It's August and you're the hype guy. I'm the hype guy with predictions week one week from today. It's not even going to be like in vogue for people to pick the Cowboys to make the Super Bowl. Bucky Brooks, the list just gets longer and longer.

Welcome back to first things first. We're talking some Cowboys who seem to have a lot of positive momentum, juice expectations heading into the 2026 season. Count NFL.com's Bucky Brooks among those buying Cowboys stocks. Brooks Brooks writes, I'm not crying wolf. 2026 is the year the boys reemerge as a true Super Bowl contenders. And he gave his three reasons why. He says, Dak Prescott is an underrated MVP candidate.

The Cowboys Unstoppable Offense is even better in 2026. And finally, defensive coordinator, Christian Parker, is quietly building a real defense. Now, Brian Hoyer, kind enough to join us now. Brian will get you in here. Is the hype around the Cowboys? And now this is sports talk on television. So we love to hype the Cowboys. Is the hype on the Cowboys too high, too low, or just right?

Coach and I were kind of brought up in the rule was don't believe or fuel the hype. But I'm in the media now. So I'm all about the hype, Danny. I'm with you. Thank you. Look, to me, the biggest flaw of the Cowboys has been the weakness on the defense. Well, what did they do in the offseason? They addressed the defense.

Obviously, they traded for Quinn and Williams last year, but they go out and get Rishon, Gary. You draft Caleb Downs, who I thought was probably the most pro-ready prospect in the draft last year. And you go and get Kobe Duran, Jalen Thompson. So they made the improvements on the defense. And really, offensively, there's no flaws. I mean, you got the duo at the receiver position between C.D. Lamb and Pickins. Javante Williams had a great year last year.

I think Shottie taking over as the head coach said, look, we got to emphasize the run game a little bit more. We can't just throw it all the time, even though we have these great receivers. And you throw in Ferguson in there in a really solid line. And I think, Dak, look, as a quarterback, you're always going to get judged with how far can you take your team. But when it comes to being a leader, being a quarterback,

throwing the football around, Dak is as good as any of them in the NFL. And so I'm all for the hype. I really do. And I think, especially in that division, The Eagles are at a bit of transition right now, right? You got a new offensive coordinator, Sean Mannion, working in with Jalen Hertz, A.J. Brown's gone.

And the big thing is the Cowboys actually took one of the Eagles coaches in Coach Parker, and he's going to be over there kind of implementing that Vic Fangio-style scheme. So I'm buying the hype on the Cowboys for sure. You couldn't buy any Dallas Cowboys stock last preseason when Brian Schottenheimer took over. So Brian was my offensive coordinator in New York, and I really liked him, and I thought he was getting killed when they promoted him, and he was really talented, and he's shown that, which is great, and he's in year two of the system, but the hype's a little bit too high.

As a stock, I'd say this is a hold as opposed to a buy right now. They haven't been to the NFC championship in 30 years, and Dax's best season was his rookie season when he won 13 games, and he hasn't won 13 games since then. He's had some outstanding defenses when Dan Quinn was there. They were great. And as much as the division is in flux, it's still a very talented division. Eagles in the Super Bowl two years ago.

You got Washington. Who knows where Jaden Daniels comes out this year. They were in the NFC championship game. The Giants, they get Harbaugh. What does that transition look like? I know, Brian, you probably aren't manifesting. I don't think that was ever part of our program. or had a shirt that said Gotti or any of that stuff.

I think they're adding unnecessary pressure and expectations, and I don't see how that helps them. Danny Love it. Yeah, I agree. I always, always on along the lines of undersell, over deliver, but this is the Dallas Cowboys we're talking about. I think if you would have told me, you know, when they traded Micah Parsons last year,

I thought, man, that's your best defensive player. What are you doing? Well, you brought in Kenny Clark, you go and get Quinn and Williams, you draft a few guys. I really love Caleb Downs and what he brings the defense. And with Christian Parker coming over from the Eagles, there's been a lot of

talk about how Vic Fangio is using Cooper DeGine. I think Caleb Downs is going to play that role. He's going to be a safety where he can also cover the slot. Then he could move to nickel. He can move to the dime. So look, there's a lot left to be seen. But I do know I really enjoyed watching Shottie and the way the team responded to him last year.

I think you have Dak who's going to put the team in the best position to win. And if it's really about that defense, you know, getting stops because I think this offense is going to score 28 plus points a game. So that's the, right there at the end, Brian, like, we know they have a Super Bowl caliber

offense. And the question is, can their defense just be good enough? And what I love about the hype around Dallas this year is that even if you disagree with it, and sure, there was the acronym on the early press conference from DAC

and he wore the T-shirt when he reported to training camp. So cutesy things that Super Bowl alarm clock. The alarm clock. Okay, fine. But like it's, it is mostly, most of the hype is football driven. New coach on defense, no drama around the George Pickens contract. They retained George Pickens.

They signed Quinn and Williams. They used two first round picks on defensive players. They spent more money on a defensive player in free agency than any year since 2012. You had to go back to Brandon Carr. You know, I mean, they're going to have five. new starters on defense this year, a new scheme on defense, to Brian's point, some questions in Philly. Like, like, yes, it's the Dallas Cowboys are a show. Jerry Jones produces it as such. Netflix documentary notwithstanding, so much media attention that little things are going to

always seep its way into the bloodstream of the internet and the sports take industrial complex, like alarm clocks and T-shirts and stuff like that. And I know it's always going to drive you crazy coach. But the majority of the hype, I think. think is about what if a top five offense gets a top 15 defense and how good they could be? I've been so impressed by Jerry Jones's offseason. That's what I'm the best part of it. But two years ago he said we're going all in and they did nothing. And then this year he said nothing and they've literally gone all in. They drafted. They added free agencies, free agents, they made trades. They spent money. I, I love that part of it. I think at changing defensive

coordinator as much we want to say, okay, there's definitely going to be this up. he still is a young defensive coordinator. I think he's the youngest they've ever had in Dallas. And so there's going to be a learning curve with him as well. Hopefully they can go from where they were last year, which is we're not talking about a high starting point to somewhere in the middle. And that should translate into more wins.

I just don't think there's value to creating expectations in August as opposed to just quietly working and building up to the season. of the season and then going and having the expectations put on based off your performance. Brian, do you think the defense is, like what would you say your expectations are for the defense? Because it's a lot of new. So I think people like me are just like, well, it has to be better because it's different. Or do you actually believe in what they're doing there? No, I think the scheme is actually going to fit the players that they have. They've acquired really good players to go along with it. Look, coach and I are always going to go, are going to lean back

on what we were brought up in. And until you go out and prove it, you kind of want to just sit there silently and sneak up on people. But this is Dallas. This is the gambler, Jerry Jones. And so he's kind of right. Like they didn't really talk much this off season.

They did their talking with the moves that they made. And so Christian Parker has got to go in. You've got to install a system. That's going to take some time. There will be a little bit of growing pains. But if they can get that under wraps and get that going early in the season, we know the offense is going to score points.

So I'm looking at this defense. If you start off and you, gradually get a little bit better. And by the end of the year, you're playing, you understand the system, and you're only giving up 14. I think even if you give up 21 points, you would probably say the Cowboys have a good chance of winning that game. All right.

I'm coming out on just right on the amount of hype for the Cowboys right now because it's football hype. The Chargers, though, as we move on, were hit with some very bad news yesterday, really just confirming what we already expected. Veterans Center, Tyler Biotish was placed on season-ending injured reserve. Beiotish suffered the damage to his ACL and additional injuries to a. was left knee during a joint practice with the 49ers last Tuesday. So that's their $30 million on that three-year deal contract coach, Tyler Biotish,

out for the season. Another offensive line injury in front of Justin Herbert. Too soon for Chargers fans to panic? Yeah, look, it's terrible whenever you lose a starter. It's terrible when you lose a free agent that you spent a lot of money to bring in and hopefully upgrade the team. But the good news for the Chargers is their second. around draft pick was a center. And Jake Slaughter out of Florida, he started 33 games there.

He's known to be smart, like a really smart player, athletic. So he'll be able to handle protections and things like that. And they've been working him at other spots. I've been working him at guard. But he's going back to his natural position. It's not like he was a, you know, a guard that has to now transition in the center. He's going from a position that he wasn't natural at to position he is natural that. So it's about as good as it can be, considering that this is a season-ending injury to have a second-round draft pick

that a lot of people feel really good about to be able to plug in. Yeah, I think Jake Slaughter is the saving grace in this situation. You drafted him in the second round. You were going to plug him in because he's going to be one of your best linemen playing at guard. Now you can slide him back over to your natural position. I will say this, having played in this West Coast system,

under Kyle Shanahan, who obviously Mike McDaniels are very close with, that center position is the heart and soul of that line. They make all the calls. They have to be able to get people going to the right blocking schemes, all of those things. When we were in Cleveland, we had Alex Mack, who was one of the best centers in the league, and midway through the season, we lost him,

and we were able to hold it together for a little bit past that a few weeks after he got hurt, but ultimately he was so hard to replace. And so now you have to put that responsibility on this young center, but as coach said, like smart kid, athletic, And the one question I would have is you have this great veteran quarterback and Justin Herbert. Does Mike McDaniel maybe say, hey, look, we're going to give you some of the responsibility that the center typically would have because we need to work this guy in and get him ready and get his feet wet.

He's a rookie playing arguably the most important position on the line with the scheme that we run. So I hear you, Brian, on the importance of the center in that offense and on the offensive line and calling out the checks. But at best, he's their third best offense. lineman. He is their third best offensive lineman. Roshan Slater and Joe Al are back. They're two of the four highest paid players on the team. So I would just say you can't panic over your third best offensive lineman being injured. Like if your third best offensive lineman being out for the season causes panic or derails your season, then you were never going to have a good year to begin with. Last year, why I got criticized for making excuses for Justin Herbert was pointing to the offensive line and all of the things that were around him.

But I said, like, he lost one of the best left tackles in football and one of the best right tackles in football. And they started 10 different offensive line combinations, which was the second most in the NFL. And he was sacked. Only two guys in the league. Cam Ward and Gino Smith were sacked more than Justin Herbert. Like, it was a critical mass. It was an accumulation of things. This isn't even two years ago, three years ago,

when Corey Lindsley, their Pro Bowl Center, played a few games and then had, it was a heart problem that emerged. It was like an out-of-nowhere mid-season thing, and it ended. Or Rashaun Slater the year before that, when he had tore his biceps. The Chargers have dealt with way bigger setbacks than having a month before the season, three and a half weeks before the season, their third best offensive linemen getting out. I'm not saying it's not a loss. It is.

But this should not be the type of thing that derails the season, coach. I think a lot of people underrate the position of center because it's not a glamorous position. So when I was in New York in the first round, we drafted Nick Mangold. And when I was in Cleveland in the first round, we drafted Alex Mack. And for me, that was so important because he's one of two guys that handles the ball every single play. And then in our system, the quarterback would point out who the mic was. In a lot of systems, the center has to point out who the. Mike is and he's responsible for the protection. So when you've got a person who's responsible for

protection and setting that much, that much responsibility for dealing with blitz and things like that, it's easy to underestimate their value because, again, most people don't get it, but it's so critical to have a guy that can do that and do it really well. Yeah, you're right. I mean, the guy touches the football on every single play, getting into the quarterback. And now not only you have to work on that, you've got to get out there and people take it for granted, but coach, you know, if you fumble to snap in practice here in New England, you were taking a lap. Like, this is something that you do every single day over and over again.

You have to build up that relationship and you've got a young guy doing it and now taking over. Not only does he have to get people going to line up the right way, he's snapping the ball and having to block. And so you're right. He's their third best linemen because they have two great tackles. But he has to get everybody going in the right direction. Ryan, how many times did you hear? It's the most basic play in football.

They're doing it at Foxborough High School. Like a thousand times? My rookie year, I fumbled a snap. They put me in there with the stars with Dan Coplein. I fumbled a snap. And Dan cussed me out the entire lap around. You rookie, you can't get the snap. So, like, people take it for granted.

They do. But it's one of those things. There's some intricacies to that. And now they're going to have to get caught up on the center snap, the cadence, against all of those things Jake Slaughter is going to have to get up to speed on now that he's touching the football and not playing guard. It's a patriotsy reunion here on first things first. And coming up next, got a weird one as the Brown's rookie tight end is heading back to school. That's right. From the NFL to LSU. Don't see that every day. Back here doing some weird and wonderful. I'll take it from here, Wilde, who will be back next week.

It's wonderful. Kyle Kirkwood wins the Freedom 250. 250 Grand Prix this weekend took the lead early from Alex Palo held on late in front of the show Kyle Kirkwood coach fastest car you've ever driven I don't know uh a Porsche my brother had a Porsche a little while I drove had pretty good get up my 94 Camry kill it whoo nice yeah I crushed it in high school Brian you can believe it I got a range a rendered range rover in the Audubon in Germany and got up to like 120. So that was pretty fun. Oh, that's nice. Yeah.

Shocking. Professional quarterback has driven the fastest car. More on breaking news later in the show. Weird. Check out Eagles running back Carson Steele with the hurdle on his way to scoring. Oh, sweet. Brian, you got one more hurdle left in you? I have no hurdles. And if I fell down like this, I think I'd be on IR for the rest of the year. I was at this game doing the sideline. He had a few hurdles in that game. It was pretty impressive. He's taking the finger too from Seekwan. Oh, that's good. He's Lord in practice. Wonderful.

Jacob Young doing his best Spider-Man impression. Catch of the year? We give this award out almost every week, but coach, not bad. Two feet on the wall? It's pretty good. Yeah, nice ups. I give a catch the year. I mean, we pretty much get that. We give it out a lot. Yeah, like every day we give catch of the year. So yeah, I'll do catch a year with catch of year nominees around here. But that's pretty good. To the wonderful. This one has a special play. in my heart. Cowboys quarterback Joe Milton, 53 yards, flick of the wrist in the air. Jonathan Mingo on the receiving end of the touchdown. Now, Brian, this throw reminds me of

another Joe Milton throw. I've been a Joe Milton guy since the Orange Bowl. That is him throwing an orange 110 yards in the air. I saw that video and I was like, you know what? I want to draft him. Brian, good way to scout a player. He's got the strongest arm I've ever ever seen. Obviously he was here in New England to start his career. I went to practice and I said, I don't even know if these guys are going to be able to catch some of these throws that he's that he's unleashing. So incredible arm strength. I mean, he threw that last go for a touchdown with just a flick of the wrist. So super impressive. All right. See strongest arm he's ever seen. Danny's thinking about adding the orange throw to the combine. I mean, I've seen worse ways to scout guys. This is kind of wonderful if you're missing hoops. Fiba basketball World Cup. Check out Wemby. It's back to black, back blocks. and of Joker, who gives him a nice little reaction here? But this is, I mean, this is arguably best on best. And one and two.

That's not bad. That's not bad. That's football season right around the corner, but I'm also ready for some hoops. Should be a good year in the NBA. All right, let's get to it now. Time for afternoon headlines sponsored by ram trucks. Nothing stops Rams.

Brown's tight end, Dekwon Wright, is going back to school. Now, Wright, who played for Ole Miss last season, was signed by the Eagles this summer as an undrafted free agent. He eventually was claimed off waivers by the Browns. However, Cleveland eventually waived him. And now after clearing waivers, Wright has chosen to sign with LSU to play college football again. The tight end is believed to be the first player to return to college after signing

with an NFL team. Here's Brown's head coach, Todd Munkin's reaction to everything I just said. Take a listen. I mean, I don't even know what to say. I mean, I don't know what to say. I mean, you know, I wondered why Lane Kippen reached out a week ago. Now I know. I mean, I didn't know.

Now I know. I didn't call him back. Now I guess I should have. I mean, it's an incredible quote by Todd Munkin. I guess he's too busy to call back Lane Kiven. Brian, what do you make of De Kuan Wright going back to college? Basically what Todd Munkin just said. I mean, first of all, the more I watch.

watch Todd Monkins press conferences, the more I like him. And he keeps it real. But this is unprecedented. And I would just say, like, don't hate the player, hate the game. Like, I'm not mad at Dayquan Wright for going and doing this. It's available to him. I just, to me, the Pandora's box that's being open right now, I don't know how you go back. Like, I was going to ask coach, if you're, if you're an NFL coach and you cut a guy and he goes back to college, how do you evaluate him?

Do you evaluate him next year coming into the draft? Does he sign as a free agent? Can you get drafted twice? I have no idea the path that we're going down right now with what's going on in college football. Yeah, I don't think anybody has any idea. It is wild, but everything that's happening in college football is wild right now. And I don't mind if he has an opportunity to go and make some money playing college football that he wouldn't have in pro football, then he should have every right to do that.

And hopefully he'll make a lot of money and maybe he'll put some better tape on to where he could get drafted higher. We got to stop with the make-believe that it's about student athletes or about the education. The college football is just pro football's minor league. That's all it is. And I would imagine at some point you should have the ability if you're the Cleveland Browns and you need a tight end to go and bring him up from LSU and let him play. Well, they waived him. It should go both ways because he's been in pro football.

So any team that wants a tight end, if he's mid-season, you need him, Hey, we'll sign you. I like that. Well, so you say you like it. I mean, they did wave him. I only laugh at it because it is so absurd, but I can't really say it's absurd because it's not any more absurd than this. And we do not, we all know the questions before the show, but we do not know each other's opinions. And coach, you and I are of one mind here.

They should change the acronym. It should no longer be the NCAA. It should be the professional college sports. association. It's not necessarily minor leagues to the pros because some college players make more money than pro players. It's just professional sports who wear college jerseys. That's what it is. Carson Beck leading it to the national championship. He was asked by a reporter who clearly didn't really know what was going on. He was asked, he was like, so did you go to class this week in the lead up to the title game? He's like, I graduated two years ago. I didn't go to class.

That's not what it is. It's just they can make millions of dollars. playing college sports with agents. And I'm all four players getting paid and name agent and like this, but they had such little, they being the NCAA, had such little foresight as to what was going to happen, that it was lawless for so long that now we have situations like this where guys in basketball can play in the G League and then go back to college.

You get 26-year-old college basketball players. Like this is patently ridiculous to anybody who understands college sports. and pro sports, but given that none of this has been governed effectively, why not? Good for Dayquan Wright. Go make a million bucks to play tight end for LSU. But it's not really ridiculous. It's, it college football has been pro football's minor league for a long time. And there's been a lot of money in college football for a long time. It just hasn't been openly reported. It's existed and we can pretend like it hasn't existed,

but that that's the reality of it. And and to me, It's now really Division III and to some degree Division 2 is more in line with what the NCAA will be governing as opposed to what's happening in, you know, big time football. It's just pro football on a, you know, developmental level. Yeah, I mean, I feel like that's your new acronym is appropriate. I actually saw this on the Internet the other day. It was listing the salaries of the top five college quarterbacks and the top five rookie quarterbacks. and Darien Mensa is making more than Ty Simpson, Carson Beck, Drew Aller, and Kay Klubnick this year playing quarterback for the University of Miami. And now, look, I'm not, the players do deserve to be compensated.

I remember being a quarterback at Michigan State hoping my dad would slip me a 50 before he left for the weekend after my game. So I'd be able to eat, you know, a good meal for that weekend. So there's definitely got to be some type of middle ground here, but this is obviously unprecedented. Be in the NFL for an entire offseason and go back to college. LSU pays well. Like, I mean, that's, that's, I mean, it's, the, the minimum right on a practice squad player. I was reading, you know, 13 grand a week or whatever it ended up being. If you were on the practice squad, I, there's not a lot of transparency around what these players are getting in college.

So Brian, whatever you read on the internet about that quarterback, maybe it's true, maybe it's not. I don't know. But it's clearly, based on the television contracts, millions and millions of dollars that's available to these players. So it doesn't surprise me at all that he can make more money playing college football. Hedge funds are starting to buy into university. I would imagine that eventually funds or individuals will own college sports teams where the college will sell the rights and that person or that hedge fund will run the team like a professional team. The PCSA, the professional college sports association.

It solves a lot of problems. As long as you can have some rules that are buying the P. Yeah, confident leadership with a little bit of foresight to see a problem, to see around a corner. That collective bargaining agreement is going to be a pretty big struggle to get signed with that many teams. I know, because, but they're all in denial. There's only 32 in the NFL. There are a lot more in college. There are a lot more in college.

Coming up, though, have the Browns made the correct choice for QB1? And will that choice only exist for a week or two? Live from New York, it's the show that's guaranteed to start the season off high. It's first things first. Coming up, Caleb Williams says the Bears offense should be rolling by week one. You expect them to? Coach don't answer that. I do.

Bears' offense will be just fine. And also, George Kittle and Christian McCaffrey are back. How dangerous is a healthy 49ers squad? We'll get to it. But we begin hour number two with the big news of the day out of Cleveland. Adam Schaefter and Ian Rappaport reported it, but also the team announced it that Deshawn Watson has been named the Browns started quarterback over Shador Sanders. There's a lot there, Brian. Did the Browns get this right?

I mean, if you had asked me before this press conference, I thought, especially talking to my family, you haven't grown up in Ohio, talking to the media members, that Deshawn Watson would be the quarterback. After he made those comments, I thought there's no way Todd Munkin can stick with him. But what this tells me is how far ahead is actually Deshaun Watson was of Shador Sanders. If you're sticking with him after those comments he made, and I know he tried to walk back. It just tells me that the decision was probably made beforehand. And even regardless of the comments, they wanted to stick with the guy that they felt at least early on gave him the best chance to win football games. So look, having grown up in Cleveland, it's a blue collar town.

Deshawn Watson, you haven't lived up to the contract, that fully guaranteed contract on your half or your side up to this point. And I get it. I thought when they cheer when he got hurt, it was terrible. I thought, you know, no, no player should have to deal with that, dealing with an injury. But look, I played quarterback for the Cleveland Browns and I was a hometown kid. and they booed me too. So it's a result-driven business. You've got to sometimes keep those things close to the vest. I like the fact that he came out and walked it back a little bit,

but it just to me shows that this competition was already pretty much over with because Deshaun didn't even play that well the other day to begin with. So the decision was probably already made. They want to go with a guy who's a veteran, albeit he hasn't played a lot the past few seasons. And I heard you guys talking before. It's always easier to go back to Chador, then start to Chador and then go to Deshawn Watson.

Brian and I have being booted in Cleveland in common. Nice. I've experienced that plenty too. I've gone through quarterback competitions. I've gone through situations. We have to make decisions. And sometimes it's not necessarily getting to the right answer. It's just that you've got a bunch of questions.

And there is no great answer. There is no right answer necessarily. There's just questions that have to be answered. And organizationally, this is a question that has to be answered. And with Deshaun, with his contract, with the fact that he's healthy, with the fact that he has produced in the past, with the way that quarterbacks who have struggled in the past have now excelled at other teams, there's a track record for that.

So that's what they're hoping for. And look at last year, and even this year, Joe Flacco's still playing. Joe Flacco won some games last year. Philip Rivers came off the couch and played quarterback. back, unbelievable. So the idea that Deshaun Watson could play well again is not unbelievable. If anything, we see that it is possible. And I'm sure that's what they want to find out.

And to Brian's point, I bet you he's been a lot better in meetings. I bet you he's been a lot better in practice because he has a lot more experience than he has a lot. He should be. He should be. And they're going to go into the season and see if they can answer some of these questions. Yeah, the answer probably is that there is no right answer. Like, neither one of these guys is very good.

That's probably where we're headed. That's the overwhelming likelihood here is that they're building a pretty nice team, but they are in such a disadvantaged position because of the worst transaction in NFL history. Three first round picks, fully guaranteed contract, $230 million contract. They got 19 games out of him, and he was terrible, and the 19 games that he played. and you add in the off the field and the PR hit and the immorality of the situation. And it just is a franchise crippling thing that is going to take years and years to claw out of. And neither one of these guys, you're talking about a fifth round pick and a guy coming off of an Achilles injury who hasn't been good in five years.

These are not good options for a team with quarterback. And I just think Deshaun is clearly wrong that it's not performance-based. Like his performance has been awful. and to Brian's point about Cleveland being a blue-collar town, they also have never seen good quarterback play. So, like, no disrespect. I apologize. I didn't even think about who I was saying that, too.

But you know what I mean? Wow, they had not have a franchise quarterback in their history who has, you know, going into Canton wearing a Browns jersey, who has won Super Bowls for them. Like, they are waiting for that. They thought this guy was going to be that, and he isn't. And then he's up there fixing his earring with his big watch and his big jeweler that he's earned through the contract,

but not because he's been great on the field. And optically, it's like he said in that clip, we didn't play it, but in the totality of the press card, he's like, I have no regrets in my life. You can't think of anything that you might regret, Deshaun, really? It's just, it does not come across as a person with a lot of self-awareness or contrition or, or accepting of his role in how he is being treated by the Cleveland fans. And I've said it before about him, and I'll say it again, he is not the victim in a story that has real victims.

So I just, I don't feel myself feeling badly for Deshaun Watson because he went five of 12 in a preseason game and got booed. Look, I don't think it's out of the realm of possibility that we see whoever the third quarterback is in Cleveland this season. Dylan Gabriel. Yeah, if Dylan is the last man standing in Cleveland as a third quarterback, I could see this, you know, at some point in the year where he gets an opportunity. Because the thing, if neither of these guys ends up being the answer,

you've got to go through the whole roster of quarterbacks to see if anybody gives you some glimmer of hope. And then at least you go into the offseason saying, okay, this is where we are. Todd Monkin can clearly make a case for this is how we have to move forward. Yeah, I mean, it's just, look, they're going to be in QB, Pergat, They're going to keep adding names to that infamous jersey with all the quarterback names on it where my name is right there in the middle. And don't worry, Danny. I was okay. And then I kind of fell off.

So no hurt feelings over here. I'm not going to hold you to it the way Deshawn Watson held the fans in Cleveland to it. As soon as I said it, I was like, this could get awkward. But that picture of the fan with all of the jerseys is a remarkable avatar for what Browns fans have been through at the most important position in football. So I appreciate your forgiveness there. Let's talk Caleb Williams, who made his preseason debut against the Bengals this weekend. Also wasn't anything spectacular, going two for five for 28 yards in his lone series of the game. Brian, do you expect the Bears to get off to a hot start this year?

I mean, I would hope so in Caleb's second year in this system. Now, we talked about hype earlier before about the Cowboys. I mean, Ben Johnson came out and did the hype train for the Bears and said he wants to break records, the highest scoring offense of all time. So he's clearly feeling good about it. He's clearly feeling good about where Caleb Williams. is. And I think for Caleb, the best thing that ever happened to him was Ben Johnson coming in and just trying to teach him how to play the position, how to play within the system. And when it's not there, use your God-given abilities like we see on a play just like that. He's so unique in the way he plays the game. And so I would expect with, you know, this being his second year, a full offseason under his belt of, you know, running OTAs and training camp and all of those things. I think that they should come out how they clearly put the players around Caleb to allow him to be great. I think that you, when you look at the start of the season, they've got some challenging games.

You feel like Carolina is a lock. I did not say it was a lock. I said if they do not win at Carolina, I'm going to be very, very uncomfortable to be around on Monday. They've got the Eagles. They've got the Packers and those first five games. Brian Flores, Vikings defense. Well, not just that, but we don't know what Kyler Murray is going to be and how that's going to work out. So you could say the Jets is probably the.

most is probably the brightest star on that that list but all those other ones are are challenging and when you look at at the bears I know you don't like to consider this but there is a defense and and yeah I know I know they actually have to play defense and they weren't very good defense in last year yeah okay 29th in total yards 23rd and points allowed last year both those are are challenges they signed two guys in the secondary and and both them are hurt so now the third guy is a rookie pick, who I think is going to be very good, first-ride draft pick, and Thinemann, but they tried to address some of those problems, and two of those guys aren't going to be available. So can they outscore everybody? Is this the Dallas program from last year, where

they've got to score a bunch? Is this going to be the Cincinnati Bengals? Like, what are we talking about? You know what's funny is, you know, you and I have not worked together for a couple of years and you're starting to be able to read me like a book because even though the question here is expect bears to get off to a hot start this year in my head and how I prepped it, I had the question as expect bears to get off to a hot start on offense this year. Yeah. Because I absolutely do. That's not what the question was. I absolutely do. That's how I took it. Thank you, Brian. Because I mean, that's what Caleb was talking about. Because they didn't score on his drive. I expect the bears to get off to a hot start on offense.

Listen, I am 100% with you. I've got serious questions about that defense. They're not going to lead the league in takeaways again. They got 12 interceptions from last year that aren't even on the team this year. And then to your point, the guys who they replaced them with that they thought were upgrades in terms of overall play, guys like Kobe Bryant from the Seahawks are heard and potentially out for the year. Kyler Gordon is still heard. I do think the Jalen Johnson return is going to be massive for them because I do consider him a true number one cornerback front of the show by the way.

But so I think the defense, hopefully in the aggregate, will be healthier this year than last year, but is still clearly a weak point. And to your last point, though, coach, like, yeah, I do think that the formula is Dallas. I think that Ben Johnson said what he said because he is not afraid of hype and expectations for his offense. I know that he believes they can be the best offense in football. So I do think they expect to be scoring 28 plus points per game. Dallas last year barely missed a lot. playoffs and four out of their last five games, I think they, the opponent, what, average about 34 points a game.

I'm not saying that they're conceding the defense will be bad, but I do think that they, they expect to win games by scoring a ton of points. Which I get, which is the same program that Cincinnati's been on for a few years, and that hasn't worked out. Dallas was on it last year. That didn't work out. So, and to Caleb's point, there's going to be some bad days. There's going to be some days where as hot as they may be, it's a, it's not very hot

offensively and what are they going to do? Well, you remember when I picked the schedule. Yeah. I had them starting 7 and 0. He had them a loss week 8 at Seattle. Vegas had had about 1% chance of happening. It's a tough game week 8 at Seattle. 7 and 0 no Micah in that Packers game.

It seems sensible. On to the Falcons. One of the last ones standing with an open quarterback competition and this is a legit quarterback competition. It was looking like Tua was a lock. But now Michael Pennix Jr. has been cleared to fully participate in practice starting this weekend and NFL sources revealed the CBS sports that the third year quarterback has still impressed to make what's left at the competition interesting saying, quote,

some of the balls that jump out of his hand and that kind of live arm, it's impressive to see. And on the competition, quote, you're able to get a real sense from that aspect now and who's able to bring this offense to life, end quote. Now, Brian, coach and I disagree a little bit here, so we'll start with you. Who do you want to see start week one? Michael Panix or Tua? Well, I mean, I think for me, when you talk about this competition, I thought it would be the last one to be settled just because of where Pennix was coming from his rehab.

And now that he's out there, I just feel like if you're Kevin Stefansky and the Falcons, you want to give Michael Pennix every opportunity to win this job because he's younger, right? Tua's been established. He's played long enough. You got him on a cheap contract and he's been able to hold the fort down while Penix is rehabping. But to me, if you're the Falcons front office and head coach, you want to see Penix because if he can you know, answer the bell, now you don't have to address the quarterback position going forward. So I would assume, even if it's a little bit too late for him to get back in and

and Tua starts, I would assume you see Pinnock's early taking over that role because they've got to be able to see, is he the guy of the future or not? Yeah, I would imagine that they're going to go with Tua, and they should go to Tua just because he has more experience. He's played well in spurts in Miami. With Pennix, as much as he's been cleared, It's like any rehab from injury, it's very different where you're controlling everything and you're able to anticipate reactions versus having to react to live bullets and let your body take over. So with Tua being able to play early, again, going from Tua to Pentex is probably going to be easier going from Pentex to Tua. So that's the same argument is in play as well. and the first four games, they play mid-level defenses,

or what was mid-level defenses last season, probably gives you a better chance to win early. I think that that part makes sense. It just feels like Tua is so far ahead because if he's just getting cleared now and the games are starting in a couple of weeks, that makes sense. He's so far ahead from an experience perspective, too,

in terms of games played versus Pemner. Sure, the games played. I know that Pennix had been doing the seven-on-seven stuff, but he's finally now getting cleared for the 11 on 11 and he can take a hit, and which is obviously the last hurdle that he could clear. I would just say that I don't know that I would ever feel comfortable committing to Tua. He has a great eight games.

He has a great 12 games. He has a great 16 games. Whatever it is, it would just always be in the back of my mind that one concussion could potentially derail a season where a lot of guys are coming back in one or two weeks. weeks. And for him, it is so much, it is such a serious issue and it would take him a lot longer to come back. And I know Penix has had serious injury concerns in the past. It's his third ACL injury with college and the pros. But they're in an interesting spot because it's a new coach and a new general manager in Stefansky and Ian Cunningham. So they didn't draft Pennix. But to Brian, to your point, because of the age, even if neither coach or GM is really tied to either of these. players long term. I think if they could push the button and say, this guy represents the higher ceiling for the future of our franchise, they would choose the younger player who doesn't have the

concussion scare. Yeah, you just saw the quote about the ball jumping out of his arm. No one's ever going to say that about Tua. And I think it's actually kind of disappointing from Tua's perspective, like, you've had the advantage. You've been out there and you haven't separated yourself to the point where they're like, all right, we're just going to go with Tua. We're going to let Pennix, you know, get healed up, rehab, be ready to go. Like, they're still keeping it open. And so to me, I think I agree with coach. They're going to start with Tua because of his experience of being a veteran guy because he's had experience all off season.

And I think at that point, it'll be a short leash. It'll be like four games in. If it's not going well with Tua, we're going to go with PENIX because ultimately we have to see what this guy can do and determine if he's an option for the future with this new staff that's down there in Atlanta. All right. Coming up, there is a team that actually got some good news on the injury front. The 49ers, how dangerous are they if we actually.

say, you know what, they're going to get a healthy year, which happens every year to a few teams in the NFL. We welcome you back to first things first. We go to San Francisco. Not as affordable. The 49ers finally got some good injury news on Sunday. Tight end, George Kittle was activated off the Pup list, running back Christian McCaffrey, practice for the first time since August 10th. All right, guys, so the question is going to be how dangerous is a healthy Niners squad. And I fully understand any team could be decimated by injuries and injuries are the variable that we can't predict, but the Niners have more older players, so there may be more susceptible to injuries. All of that conceded.

But I want to kind of make the case that the Niners might be like the dangerous team that we're forgetting about. If they have Christian McCaffrey, they are good. They've had a really high floor when he plays. And when they've had him and George Kittle, they've been basically unbeatable. So this is, McAfrey gets there in October of 2022. When both of them play, they win 76% of their games. When they have neither of them, they're 0 and 2.

They've been decimated by injuries at various points over the last three seasons. But it feels like every year when we're doing shows coach around playoff time, we're talking about, well, this team was hurt. This team is healthy. This team is a huge, like we saw it last year in the playoff game between San Francisco and Seattle. San Francisco was really hurt. Seattle was really healthy. Seattle's coming off the by. Seattle thrashes San Francisco. Want to put up this graphic. These are teams last year that had the fewest games missed by starters. Guys who started week one, there's a common theme here. Eagles playoff team. Texans playoff team. Colts and Chiefs.

Okay, they weren't very injured, but they lost their quarterback. Tough to recover when you lose your starting quarterback. Seattle, Super Bowl winner. Patriots, Super Bowl. runner up, Broncos, 14 win team. Like if you are healthy, you win a lot of games. So I guess my question to you two, and you guys can take it from here, Brian, I'll go to you first. If the Niners get a healthy season from the right players, Purdy, McCaffrey, Kittle, Trent Williams, Bosa, you know,

like the stars, are they dangerous? Yeah, there's no doubt in my mind. And another slogan coach will know is there's nothing more important than the health of the team. And so you just talk about that. those teams that you showed right there, few missed games. The 49ers, I would assume,

were on the opposite in the spectrum and still had a deep playoff run. Third most. Third most. Yeah, it talks about to me how great of a coach Kyle Shanahan and his staff are. I mean, they were able to withstand Purdy going down. Mack Jones revitalizes his career.

All these guys get hurt. Someone else steps up. And to me, as you watch them play last year, you just saw guys stepping up left and right. Guys we'd never heard of, you know, filling in for Fred Warner, all of these guys stepping up. And so to me, you're right,

if you have those players that are healthy with the quality of coaching that they have out there, they're definitely dangerous. Now, they're probably in arguably the toughest division in all of football in the NFC West because to me on paper, I don't know if there's ever been a team as well put together as the Rams,

the Seahawks are the defending Super Bowl champs, but the 49ers, I expect fully to be in the mix because if they can get the players healthy, maybe we get that electrical substation move down the road, then maybe now you take the good quality of coaching with your star players and you make a run come January? Yeah, they were hurt a ton and they were dangerous. And what was it, 12 games, which is amazing considering the amount of time that the

starters miss. The problem is that they're still one of the oldest teams in the NFL. And that's always an issue. And it's similar to Washington's problem. When you have an old team, typically about mid-season, those teams' injuries spike, And when you have a young team, those teams, the young players are emerging and growing, and they tend to get better. And philosophically, they're fine with building with older players. And the reality is when you build that way, you deal with a much higher injury rate.

And you could take the 49ers over multiple years, the last five years, there's got to be either the highest amount of games missed by starters or right there in the top five with high. highest amount of games missed by starters. So is it even like worth the hypothetical? Because I mean, I would always say like hope is not a plan. You can't just hope that they're going to be healthy. Like you have to have a younger roster and have more depth and those sort of things. But like I do, I can see a world where the 49ers get good luck with injuries this year. And you could say it would be luck because of their age and their injuries.

But like in a year where they get good luck with injuries, I feel like they are the forgotten the Super Bowl competitor. Absolutely. And every year there has to be an element of good luck with injuries. And some teams get bit by the bug and they have a young team and that happens. And vice versa where you get extremely lucky and you don't miss a lot of time with your stars. The problem is statistically and what we've seen over time is it's going to be a function of luck, not a function of what will probably happen in order for them to operate that way.

Yeah, I think it's just there is an element of luck. I mean, I look at the time that I played, you tear an ACL. It's not a, it's a non-routine play. Like some of those injuries are just freak occurrences that you really can't avoid. And so there is an element of luck. Your luck starts to go down, the older you get. And they didn't get much younger, right? They signed Mike Evans, who's always been injury prone.

They bring Debo back. He's older. I know they got scribbling that they drafted in the second round, but Kyle wants smart and tough and veteran players to be able to run the schemes that they have. And so for them, there is the element of luck of just trying to keep those guys healthy for a 17 game season plus the playoffs. Are you a believer in the substation as the thing that's causing all this? I only play there for a short time, but I never noticed it. But now I'm starting, I mean, it's got its own Instagram. It's got its own Twitter now.

I mean, this thing is taking on a life of its own. I was there for three years. I noticed it. I don't know if it's the reason why, but it's close. Well, if it's got an Instagram and a Twitter, then it's got it. Then it must be real. To Washington, this is good news. Jaden Daniels saw his first action of the preseason on Saturday against the Lions.

The bad news, he got three snaps, went 0 for one, was sacked once. All right. Now, Brian, I got to go to coach first here as our resident Jaden guy. He always talks about him as being the forgotten guy on this show because of me talking about Caleb and Wilde's talking about Drake May. So coach, do you expect your guy, Jaden Daniels, to return to form? Yeah, so Brian, the way it works is the rookie season doesn't count on this show. So all the things that Jaden Daniels did, that does not matter. It's not true.

It's not matter either. It only matters what happened in the second season in terms of projecting it out. But the way that I feel about Jaden is he did accomplish all the things that he was able to accomplish, which was remarkable in his rookie season. obviously got hurt last year and took a step back. Statistically, I would imagine that he has just as much ability as Drake May or Caleb to come out and have a big year. More experience, more poised, more connection with the guys around them. I think Stefan Diggs is a real plus form.

The struggle I have with Washington, just like we talked about with San Francisco, here's another old team. They've already lost tonsil in the preseason. So that to me is going to be the limiting factor for watching this season as same, same form of San Francisco. Can they stay healthy? Yeah, and I think with Jaden, the big thing is his health. I thought he had one of the best, if not the best rookie season by a quarterback of all time.

It was incredible. And it wasn't just running the football. I mean, dropping, I'll never forget, he threw a touchdown pass against the Bengals. They brought up weak safety blitz, and he hung in there and delivered a dime. to McLaren and you're like, this is a legit guy. Now, the problem is the way he plays, he puts himself in harm's way. And so that's going to be the big thing. You got a new coordinator and David Blow, a guy who's played the position, who has a little bit of influence from Ben Johnson. So what's this offense going to look like? I'm happy that they signed Diggs. I think he's a

good compliment to McCorm. But to your point, it's an older team. And they don't have, he doesn't have the same type of star players around him that Drake May has or Caleb has. So I do still think Jaden has a bright future ahead of him. He's got to learn to protect himself because as we talked about earlier, nothing more important to the health of the team. And if he's not at their playing, it really takes away the chances of them having a good season.

Yeah, Brian, I've said similar things. Like, best rookie season of my lifetime. Like Justin Herbert set the rookie record for touchdown passes. That was a great one. Cam Newton's was a great one. Andrew Lux, RG3. Like, there have been some great, Dak Prescott won the 13 games.

wasn't as enamored with it because it felt very risk averse. And Jaden Daniels was so impressive because it was like, his third down numbers were ridiculous. His fourth down passing numbers were ridiculous. They put so much on him and you combined the statistical production with the deep run to the NFC championship game. But I feel like I got to amend it. Like to your point, coach of not forgetting the rookie year, it is one of the great

seasons in football history. Now, not one of the five greatest seasons, but if you put up these parameters, on it 30 or more touchdowns, 12 or more wins, 10 or fewer turnovers or under 10, so nine or fewer. It's happened 15 times. Rogers did it four, Lamar did it twice, Brady did it three, and then it's a group of Brett Farr, Patrick Mahomes, Drew Brees, and Jade and Daniels as a rookie. So it is a remarkably incredible season that he put on tape. The question is, to Brian's point about

health style play if it's repeatable. You don't seem to have that concern, coach. Yeah, when you, he didn't play much in the preseason. Obviously, he had the three plays. And the one sack that, where he got sacked, they're having a tight and block of defense van. That never works. It won't work.

It won't work the whole season. So he might as well just throw that out, Washington. But when you, when you hear about how he's been practicing, and then coming from Miami coaches who they had to join practice with, The things that they were saying about him with his accuracy, his poise, his ability to create plays, all of the things that you would like to be able to see in preseason games, especially coming off of an injury, it sounds like it's happening. We just haven't seen it happen in the game.

Yeah, I remember scouting him coming out of LSU, and I remember sitting there watching and be like, man, this guy kind of looks like Joe Burrow a little bit. And then he would take off and run. And I'm like, well, that looks like Lamar Jackson. So we just got to make sure that no one wears number five at LSU anymore and we'll be good. But I was so impressed of him coming out of college. And then you come in as a rookie year. No one expects the commanders to do anything.

And he takes him in the NFC title game. And he was just so poised and so collected and by his throwing. And then obviously the running. And so I think the biggest thing for him is how do I, in year three, mature enough to know when to, when to slide, when to get out of bounds, when to protect myself. because when he's out there, if he's healthy, he's one of the best young quarterbacks in the game. There's no doubt about it. Are you surprised, though, Brian, that he hasn't put on more weight now being in league?

Like, you would think being in a pro weight program and the fact that that's been a bit of a concern, that he would have put more on his frame. And I know that's Nick's big issue with him. I thought we'd see a little bit bigger version of him coming into camp. Yeah, totally. I agree. I mean, he just, he looks so skinny. And I get it, he moves fast.

But if you move fast and they eventually get you, I mean, there's some big men out there hitting you. And so that's part of the position. Look, as a quarterback, you're going to get hit enough as you hang in the pocket to throw the pass. Now you add that to design runs, scrambles. You're out in the middle of the field. There's fast linebackers.

I mean, you're going to take hits. And so whether you adjust your play style or then in the offseason, train in a certain way that you put more mass on to be able to withstand those hits. A combination of Joe Burrow and Lamar Jackson, and sounds very scary and very dangerous. And it was. And it was.

Also two players with a lot of injuries though on their track record. But we're going to get Brian Hoyer in on this whether or not the Patriots are poised for a step back this year. Tough to take a step forward from the Super Bowl, but Mike Brable talking depth or lack thereof. So let's get back to New England where Patriots head coach Mike Vrable has chosen to sit Drake May and other key starters during the Pat's first two games of the preseason. Now Brian, Vrable went on with the. Greg Hill in Boston and said, you know, that people were taking that as a shot at the GM. That's not what he meant. He's just like, I know who my starters are. I need to figure out, you know, the third linebacker and what my tackle depth is going to be. And he wants more game tape

to evaluate his depth is basically what his expansion was there. But what's your reaction to the candor from Mike Vrable and the Patriots depth. Yeah, well, Mike's very forthright. It's just the way he is. It's the way he was, you know, brought up as a player. Now as a coach, he's going to, he's going to say how he fields and and haven't been around New England a lot. They're right. They're trying to find, you know, who's going to be the swing tackle? You guys talked about Caleb Lomu earlier. They signed Greg Van Rotten, uh, Roten a veteran guard to bring in for depth on the line. Who's going to be the fourth corner? Who's going to be the third safety? Now they've traded Kishon Booty and got Jalen Reed from, from Houston. So they add a little safety depth there.

Who's going to be the fourth linebacker? Is it MoMA? So I think what he was saying along the lines is we need to see who these guys are going to be. And those are, guys who are out there need to play better. He was not happy with the way, particularly the defense played the other night. I mean, he called a timeout like it was a basketball game because they were just getting pounded by the Eagles all the way down. And they asked him, he goes, I was just tired of watching bad defense. Like, he wants to see those guys who can be the guys that have to step up play better in the preseason. So you're, you're pretty close to this. You said you were doing sidelines, right? Yeah, I was on the sideline.

Okay, so you're doing sidelines. You've been around the Patriots. You've been around Mike. So you could kind of translate it for me. But if I took that quote, like, don't think we have a very deep team, and applied it to how we normally talk about teams, like quality of depth, my thought is like 25 rosters would trade place with the Patriots? Maybe like by my definition of it, like they do have a deep team. They just went through a whole draft class and none of those guys are expected to start. They were in the Super Bowl last year and their roster looks better on.

paper this year than last. They add AJ Brown. They add Romeo Dobbs. Like, do you think the Patriots are deep based on how the rest of us normally would talk about a team in that term? Yeah, I think the top 30 on the roster is great depth. Now you're talking about the back end is a young player's new veterans that are coming in learning the scheme. I mean, look, the Rams have probably the best roster. They don't have a lot of depth either. So I think what Mike's trying to use this statement is, is, hey, guys, if you're trying to make this team and you're not on the top 30, you better wake up. Like you got a short period amount of time to make an impression to show us

that you're worthy of being on this team. Because as coach knows, there's going to be 1,100 transactions here in the next few weeks. I'm sure they're going to be looking for veteran players. They feel like it could come in and step into some of these roles. And so I took it more as a message to the players that are going to be out there playing and playing for jobs is if you want to be on this team, you better step up. Yeah, and I don't think that not having a draft pick starting is necessarily a badge of honor. You could look at it as like, wow, that's fantastic.

They're so good that nobody can start. But you want your number one draft pick to be starting. Like you're looking for that player to give you a thousand reps that first season. And I'd say the other things that's changed with preseason is in addition to taking one preseason game away, so it's three instead of four, there's so many of these joint practices where you can get what you want in terms of work with your starters in a controlled environment. and really limit and the susceptibility of injury, where you can now take the rest of the group who you have to figure out how they're going to operate in a game

and give them more time in the preseason. So it's so different because the volume of these joint practices has exploded over the last four or five years. Yeah, and the Patriots had a joint practice with the Colts. They had two with the Eagles. I was there for both. I mean, the starters took the majority of those reps. So the Patriots offense had great work against that Philly defense and vice versa.

So to your point, coach, like at a certain point, and I think Braybill haven't been a player and now a coach, he's like, what is it worth me putting my starters out there for six plays, right? Only bad can really come from that. Someone can get rolled up. He's gotten a lot of work. And these guys played a lot of football. I mean, they played all the way to the Super Bowl. So they had a longer season last year. So I would say when it comes to the starters and, you know, the next maybe 10 players on the roster after those 22,

they have a really good feeling about that. I think they're trying to figure out the depth of that back end of the roster. And like I said, he was not happy with some of the play, the effort on Saturday night when they played against the Eagles in the preseason game. And the guys that are going to play in this game on Thursday against the Browns, like there's roles up for grab and how you play will really determine if you're on this team or not. Do you think they're going to be very good again? I do.

I mean, AJ Brown has been absolutely incredible. and now I see, you get to see how Josh McDaniels is working him into the system. I think we're so used to seeing AJ on the outside. If you look at Josh's history, whether it's Randy Moss or Devante Adams, he's going to move the number one guy around so teams can't key on him. And what that does is open up for Romeo Dobbs, for Pop Douglas, for Kyle Williams, the tight end group. I think one guy to keep an eye out for is Eli Raarden in the tightout out of Notre Dame.

I was high on him coming out of the draft. There's been really good reports, and I've seen it with my own eyes, his understanding of the system. And we all know how New England likes to use tight ends. So I do believe that. And the defense, I think, will be a top five defense again. All right. Great stuff.

Some good insight there from Brian Hoyer. Speaking of A.J. Brown. Already win that trade? Quick addition, coach, of winners and losers. We've got some good ones on today's show. Predictions week is just around the corner. Can we get me a tie, please?

And, I mean, come on. I'm taking this seriously just like everyone else. Can I get a neck? Well, no. We have no amount of technology. Okay, I didn't know if that. We have for that type of transformation, coach. Look like I'm on the Sopranos here.

Yeah, I was just going to say, what is this? The second to last episode of the Sopranos? It's the Jets coach, sweetheart. I should say hello. We're going to have a great predictions week, one week from today. Let's get to winners and losers as we're wearing ties. Winner, Kyle Kirkwood. He wins the Freedom 250.

It was just a great performance. in a great spectacle and a friend of the show. They drive really fast. They drive really fast on a course that nobody's ever run on, and they have to be able to adjust it in, what, a day or two? They get, like, a little bit of a trial run, and then have to race at those speeds. It's amazing. It's amazing.

It is a crazy thing to experience, to watch, and took over for Pillow. Also, right? Palo had been winning everything, gets that in front of him, and holds him off to win the waist. So, congrats to Kyle Kirkwood. Kyle Kirkwood. Next up, we'll put this one as weird. Yeah, Saints rookie Zavian Harris

joins Dayquan Wright at LSU. That's right. Since the show started, two NFL players have been like, you know what? I think Wayne Kiffin might have something going at LSU. I am going to be really interested at when the cuts come down here, how many of those kids that get cut suddenly go back to a massive amount of colleges, the guys with, with eligibility. And I know this is a in theory a one-year loophole as the five-year five-year eligibility rule was challenged in court so some of these guys should come back and this should not really be a thing for the 2027 class but anyone saying that they know what is going on in college football and what it's going to

look like six months a year six years from now they're lying to you it just doesn't pass the smell test of logic that you could have guys in the G League or overseas go back and play college basketball that you could have guys in the NFL go back and play college football. The NCAA should be the PCSA, professional college sports association. It's professional sports. That's what it is. It is not college sports, as we have always known to understand it.

Next up, O'Dell Beckham Jr. This would be a loser. Father time. How about this? Looking, what? Pretty good. It's a nice little juke. I don't know OBJ.

This angle will be better. I don't know. He still had that in him. What quarter is this? Is this early in the game or is this late in the game? I didn't know there would be follow-up. I believe it was early in the game. This is a little bit different than the highlights were used to seeing from him. Second quarter. Second quarter. Six minute mark.

I mean, listen, it's preseason football and it's the Dolphins. They might be the worst team in the league. But still, a little bit of time comes up with all of us. Not yet. You look looking pretty good out there. All right, next up. Another loser coach. We both have children.

Yes. I don't know if you want to ever admit that you've lost or misplaced one of your children. But if you ever misplaced a child on the pitch, they had to stop a game because this baby got out onto the field of play. Yeah. What's going on? I mean, I know a baby a sideline pass. I'm all for him. He seems like he's having a great time.

Just an adorable child. But safety first. Super cute and obviously he's he's a go-getter. You've got to love his. Oh, interesting. You know, you've duped security. Mom got distracted. I'm just saying that.

However, if he got there on his own, you've got to give him a ton of credit. Now, he's going to be a handful as a teenager, but this is, this little guy has got a future in something. Pochitino's scouted. Yeah. Also for the 2042 World's Cup. Yeah, love his enthusiasm. Something like that. Final winner, AJ Brown, just got to hug it out.

Seeing old friends, nice little reunion, him and Cooper de Jean, Devante Smith, getting together on the field. The vibes are really strong with AJ Brown and some of the Eagles. Yeah, who is he not hugging? See, I always look in glass half negative. No, I'm just trying to see who he's not. I didn't see Jalen Hertz anywhere in the picture.