Geoff Schwartz Is Smarter Than You - Bears Tap Trubisky & Other Uncommon Concerns

Episode Date: September 8, 2020

Mitchell Trubisky was named the Bears' starting quarterback on Sunday, five months after the team traded for Nick Foles. Does this make sense? Plus, Geoff makes predictions how playing zero preseason games will affect what we see on the field. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

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And what kind of football will we see having played no preseason games? I'm Jeff Schwartz alongside Matt Ford. And this is Jeff Schwartz's Tomorrow the New. this is Jeff Schwartz of Samara The New. Gabe is sitting out the most important week of the year. Whatevs. So we have Matt Ford in. Matt, welcome in. Matt, okay.

I have been tempered excitement for football because I just, I wanted to make sure it was coming back, right? Like I was, we've had so many things in 2020 pulled away from us, right? Especially in the sporting world, but even in life, we had a lot of, a lot of important people pass away. You know, I've, Kobe Bryant passed away. I've never been emotional, I think, before of any athlete passing away, but I grew up watching him play.

It's been a, it's been a bad year, but football's back this week and it's coming back. Like it's actually here. It's here. Chiefs, Texans in two exact days. And I could not be more excited. I'm glad people are coming along this journey with us. And there's still so much to talk about. I'm just, I'm so jacked, dude. I know. It's finally here. I'm letting myself dream. It's about to happen. We're about to see Patrick Mahomes and Mitch Schwartz take the field in two days. Let's fly. Whatevs. And look, I actually will do our gambling show later in the week. I have some bets.

I have some bets for this Thursday night football game. And there's obviously for the rest of the week. But Thursday night in specific, one I just absolutely love. So I can't wait to get to that. But we have a lot to get to, Matt, as we look at heading into week one of this uh this 2020 nfl season yeah man well it's it's great to be on the monday show um i'll get

this started with our first topic which is sort of a topic buffet to use the thing that we'll never go to ever again a buffet um there was just a lot of news that happened in the league uh first of all deshaun watson signed a huge contract with the Texans. I don't think either of us are going to have a great opinion here other than like, great kid, great deal, makes a lot of sense. But wanted to leave some space if you've got anything. Look, I'm happy anytime a player gets paid. Even though I might say like that guy's not worth it. I still am deep down excited, right?

That's life-changing money for Deshaun Watson. Obviously, the videos of his family were fantastic. And obviously, they're very excited for him. And it's what they should do. And really, my thought when it happened was, oh, geez, someone's going to have to pay Dak $40-plus million a year. That was my first thought. I said, oh, boy, that's really going to happen. Think about this.

The Texans continue to win games with Deshaun Watson with what people would call maybe a subpar coach, right? In a roster that's not very good. They just win, Matt. They win. It's because of him. He still needs to improve a little bit of his pocket presence. He's not the best at times when it comes to just kind of being aware that he takes way too many sacks. But he's so supremely gifted.

And I'm really glad he got paid. Yeah, me too. Obviously the right move, but maybe not the right move. Let's talk about Chicago, who announced that Mitch Trubisky was going to be the starter for week one. Obviously, they traded for Nick Foles this offseason, gave up a fourth round pick for this. This, to me, is just atrocious, just an abomination of a set of decisions but why don't you go first what

did you make of this news yeah so the bears are sticking with trubisky which is what i thought they would do all along and there's many reasons for this one and we get back to what i said last i'm gonna use this throughout the rest of my life and i never did the don't lie to me don't lie to yourself kind of football theory i've always used it for like for life yeah but the bears lied themselves about trubisky and they went ahead and brought in Foles for sort of competition, right? But here's the thing, guys, is when you put in assets to draft Trubisky, right? They traded up to get Mr. Trubisky. They have built a team around him. You cannot give up on him this soon, right? You just can't do it. He played okay the year they went to playoffs in 2018, right?

And he played good enough. Last year was bad. You have to hope you get more out of him. It's too early to just throw him aside. If you bring Nick Foles in, you're admitting, hey, we screwed up. We wasted entire, you know, entire, it could be a decade, right, Matt? Like by the time they draft someone else, they figure that out. You've wasted Khalil Mack. You've wasted Hicks. You've wasted all this defensive talent. You know, you've wasted

all of it. I mean, that's how bad missing a first-round quarterback can be. It sets you back a decade, right? A long period of time if you miss on that quarterback. Because, of course, you missed out on draft slots as well because you traded to get Trubisky. So there's a lot of issues with moving on from him. So you have to put all the resources, all your energy into getting him on the field and making sure he's your guy or not your guy. And the Bears are in the worst spot in all of football, Matt. The worst spot.

Really, I would say, in all sports. They're not good enough to win the Super Bowl with Trubisky, and they're not bad enough to draft in the top five. They're in the middle again. And they're going to be in the middle with Trubisky, and they're not bad enough to draft in the top five. They're in the middle again. And they're going to be in the middle with Trubisky. He's not going to be much improved. Now, they're going to, they trimmed down the offense a little bit, right? They've got rid of their old staff they had last season.

They're going to run the ball a little bit more, I think. Do kind of the quick dink and dunk stuff. But Trubisky's not the guy. And Foles is not really the guy either. stuff, but Trubisky's not the guy. And Foles is not really the guy either. I do not think, outside of Philly, Nick Foles is appreciated enough for what he did in 2017. I think it's incredible.

Look, his best year of his career was 2013. Then he's basically out of football, came back. He did not play terribly great up until that Vikings game. The Atlanta game was good. He had no touchdowns, no interceptions, completed 70-ish percent of passes in 260 yards or something like that, but no touchdowns, no interceptions. Then he played out of his mind for two games. He's never been that guy outside of one game the following season when he had 400 yards.

He's been hurt ever since then. Gardner Minshew beat him out when he came back last season. So Foles wasn't the answer either, Matt. The Bears should have got Cam Newton. I mean, I think we all agree on that. But this made sense of why they had to stick with Trubisky. They have, again, they put the resources into drafting him. They spent the time, obviously, in scouting him and drafting him.

They need him to hit. Otherwise, it sets their team back a decade because they have to go find themselves another quarterback. And Nick Foles is just not the guy. And so you have to hope find themselves another quarterback and nick foals is just not the guy and so you have to hope you know that that trubisky finds a way to get it done but hold on a second i want to sort of unpack this point a little bit because you're right that if you draft a quarterback that high you trade up and then you miss it really does set you back unless you find an easy way out now don, if the Bears give up more draft capital for Nick Foles,

who is clearly not bad enough to clearly be a backup, but is actually, so far it seems, he's not good enough to overtake Mitch Trubisky, then why even get him in the first place? I feel like there's more of a... You don't get him to be a backup. If you want a backup quarterback, go sign Case Keenum. You could have gotten him for like a minimum contract. Like there's a million.

You could have gotten Andy Dalton. You mentioned Cam Newton. Cam Newton's probably too good. So I just don't understand what they even were thinking with Foles in the first place. Well, it wasn't a good decision. I think they were, I think they were, I think that they thought, okay, you know, let's, if you, Matt, if you had a full off season, off season there might be a chance for nick to come and win that job i do wonder if the shorn part of training camp hurt the ability for him to get up to speed

but it's an offense he's run before i mean he was in the west coast offense with doug peterson and look there's very variations obviously between what naggy does and peterson but it's generally the same concept so i don't think that was a concern. Obviously, he's a very bright kid. I mean, there's no surprise about that. I don't know why they made the move. I think they thought maybe he could be their savior, and they got him into camp and realized he's not that guy anymore.

And Trubisky gives him, I guess, the best upside. You know, he runs a little bit better. Maybe he plays with his legs, which, you know, I hate. It's kind of an idea of a quarterback because that's not what the best guys do. He stinks. Right? They pass the ball. But again, Matt, the Bears are stuck, man.

And that's the worst part about this. If you're a Bears fan, is you're stuck. You're stuck. You have nowhere to go. You have another quarterback. Play him. Like, see what you've got. Like, you know what Mitch Trubisky is.

But Nick Foles is not going to get you to the promised land is mitch like you well so if you have if you have two guys they're equal let's say you're going to go with the guy you drafted and kind of have to put the resources into which is trubisky over i think this is a guy like it just makes no sense like i don't even think i'm disagreeing with you i think i'm agreeing angrily like i just don't understand you're angrily saying like why you know basically why didn't they you know why they make this move they weren't going to play him i thought all along the goal was to play trubisky like that's what i thought the plan was and so it's not surprising to me obviously i understand your point is valid why trade for nick foals and put and give him you know a guaranteed money over the next couple of years

if he wasn't going to be your your guy i understand that argument any sense i'm just telling you from from ryan paste and matt nagy think which is that we got to make sure trubisky's our guy maybe look maybe trubisky improved i don't know i I mean it would seem unlikely but it's possible practice and no preseason games he's definitely better I my Washington football team traded a sixth round pick for Kyle Allen who played in Scott Turner's offense last year and I think is a second year player and everyone was like that's way too much and now like Dwayne Haskins is never going to be able to play with this guy staring down show this is a fourth round pick in the Super Bowl MVP. It just feels like a huge price to pay for a guy that you don't even want to play.

I just think it's, oh, no, it's it ends. It ends up being a bad sign because he's not playing. But I get why they did it. And look, and, you know, Kyle Allen was never I thought Hasselhoff start the whole time. Obviously, Haskins was announced to start. I'm excited to see him play with Trubisky again, those are the reasons why I think they did it. Whether it's the right call or not, you disagree, obviously, because they paid Nick Foles. But in the end—

They traded for him. They gave up more draft capital. It's like, what else? God, they're just—I don't understand. It was—again, they lied to themselves about who Trubisky was, and they're paying the price for it now. Well, let's move on to a decision I have no problem with, actually, which is the Dolphins named Ryan Fitzpatrick the starter for the beginning of the season. This wasn't a surprise to me at all, you know, with Tua coming off of the injury. But I wanted to see if he felt differently about that.

No, this is a great job by them. It makes a lot of sense. The Dolphins are not in a position to win right now. I know people are saying, hey, oh, just look at this roster. Yeah, it's a young roster. It might have some talent, but they are really, really young. And when you look at their schedule, here's their schedule, Matt. Would you start Fitzpatrick, I mean, would you start Tua with this schedule?

Patriots, Bills, Jacksonville, blah, blah. But then Seattle, San Francisco Denver, Chargers Rams, Cardinals I'm pretty sure we took them over in our AFC East preview I did not, I don't know if you did

I think I did, oh boy and then they have the Jets and then a bye after the bye, it's Jets, Bengals Chiefs, Patriots Patriots Raiders Bills I mean like that bye that you know the Jets game sandwich with the bye feels like the time when you get to it so it makes a ton of sense why why they're not doing that yeah I think so too I'm excited to see him play but I'm also excited that they're not putting him in a bad spot last sort of transaction that happened before we move on to some other topics

is jadevian clowney finally signed and we had talked about him last week on our or two weeks ago on our thursday show about the nfc west and why the seahawks decided not to re-sign him look this this to me reminds me of when you're a single person and you go to a bar and you see someone who you're interested in and it's like nine o'clock and you're like, oh, I have all night. I'm not going to talk to this person. Right. And then suddenly it's 11 o'clock and you're like, hmm, maybe now. No, I'm good. And then at one o'clock, everybody's trying to talk to everybody.

And then all of a sudden that person's gone and you who knows that could have been the person that changed your life and you didn't talk to them this is what happened with javion clown he's been sitting out there all season all off season anybody could have had him and then all of a sudden the saints and titans get into this weird bidding war the week before the season starts so he's not going to be acclimated to the team right off the top. And then, like, why didn't the Titans sign him two months ago? I just don't understand this.

Like, what do they need to know between now and then to make this decision? So I think many factors go into this. One is Conor's expectations for a contract. He thought he was getting, you know, a four-year deal, 22 million a year. He thought he was getting top end of the market and obviously wasn't. And for either a long period of time, he thought he'd get that deal at some point. And obviously that came to an end. And then it was, okay, let me hold out a training camp as long as possible. Older players

do this, right? Like, let me just hold out as long as possible and we'll see what shakes out after training camp and who wants me. And then obviously the last you know three or four days was a bidding war to get him to a certain price which which tennessee did it's a great deal for the titans by the way it is a low risk and a ton of reward if calling puts up to his ability the problem with clowny the reason why i didn't get that big deal is he's way too inconsistent for a guy to get paid 20 to 22 million dollars a year he does not hit the quarterback enough he didn't get that big deal is he's way too inconsistent for a guy to get paid $20 to $22 million a year. He does not hit the quarterback enough. He doesn't impact games enough.

He had one game last year where you're like, dang, he really impacted that game. It was that Monday night football game against the Niners, right? They have one big tackle in college. Everyone looks at that tackle and thinks that's the guy who it is, right? The Michigan-South Carolina game. It's not who he is. And so no one was going to pay him that money for a guy they don't trust to bring it each and every Sunday. And I hate questioning guys' effort because I don't think it's an effort issue.

I don't think he's as good as people think he is. And that is what this came down to is that he didn't get a deal he wanted. He didn't fire his agent, by the way. Buzz Cook, who's a fabulous agent, didn't forever. He's Brett Favre's agent, famously. And that doesn't help with signing him or not. And then he chose the Titans over the Saints. I think the Ravens were taking a chance on him.

But I think the greatest thing to come out of this, though, was the Saints' idea of how to fit this under the cap yeah which was a sign in trade which as the deal was never never done before so do you want to explain or you mean to yeah i can get started i mean this was it was reported we don't know who this other team was but new orleans was in talks with some other team presumably a dolphins a jaguars a washington some team with a lot of cap space and they were he said it was cleveland oh it was cleveland yeah cleveland oh interesting the last report i saw didn't name a team so oh okay so i thought it was cleveland maybe not well if it's cleveland we'll leave

this in if it's not we'll say it was a mystery team. So the point of this was they were going to sign Clowney and then trade him to the Saints, and they were going to sort of like, it was literally like borrowing him and then trading him away. It's obviously an NBA thing. This happens quite a bit, but it's even a little bit different in the NBA. Interesting idea.

I respect the Saints for giving him a shot. quite a bit, but it's even a little bit different in the NBA. Interesting idea. I respect the Saints for giving him a shot. But again, why didn't they just sign him in August? Like they could have just had him. I agree. I agree. So the Saints have no money. They're going to be in a lot of pain next year.

They have $7 million in cash base. They could have given him six. You didn't mention the part that is why this sign and trade thing was going to be. It's that basically, because they couldn't pay the $15 million that he got. They're going to say, hey, Browns, you give him a $7 million signing bonus. You eat that signing bonus. We give you draft picks in return for that bonus, and we get Clowney back. And we only have to pay Clowney $7 million.

Like that was the transaction that was going to happen was to get him for less money the nfl was never going to allow it i saw a report today by the way that um that whoever there was some deal set up where the ravens were going to be part of this trade too where they were going to end up getting clowny via this backdoor channel thing that they were trying to do but nonetheless i mean created by the saints created by the saints but again could have could have had clowny like in that weird time when cam newton signed where it was like if they waited another month for cam newton they're gonna be 12 teams bidding for him and i i just think that it got to a point where clinton was like i'm just gonna now i'm just gonna hang out because there's no point in in signing going to camp when i don't have to.

And, you know, maybe someone gets hurt. Maybe someone panics and signs. You know, the Bears, obviously, you know, they panicked with Nick Foles. I mean, maybe, you know, maybe a team panicked. Maybe someone gets hurt and they bring him in for more money. So it made sense why he waited. But I agree with you. It might take a little bit of time to get him up to speed and get him ready to play i mean the saints were apparently getting ready to part with the second rounder to this to this team that may or may not be in the brown like think about i just it just

boggles my mind how wasteful that is it's like you could have had him he was just sitting sitting on the couch for the last six months um well let's uh we can move forward now that we're, we've, we've hit the news from the weekends. I was really interested in this story, Jeff, because I was doing my, I had the same sort of like realization of, oh my gosh, like football is actually about to happen this week. Is this going to work? And I read this article on a Football Talk talking about how veteran players were concerned that the younger players were going to need to be monitored more closely. They were saying now training camps over, you know, there's less at stake. Now players are going to obviously be living their lives for the next couple of months. And they were saying that the young players would potentially have just more risk than the older players.

And the first thing that came to my mind was Kirk Cousins last week saying like, oh, well, whatever. If I get sick, I get if I die, I die was his actual quote. So I found this to be like an odd little example of ageism in the NFL of just like saying, well, it's the young people who are going to screw this up, but I've never played professional football. So I was curious what you thought of this. Well, young guys are the ones that go out to the club more often, like the ones that don't have families, the ones that, that are in practice squad. I mean, look, my practice squad year was a long time ago, 2008, obviously. We came in on Saturdays and we had to work out Saturday mornings. No one else did, right? They're preparing for the game. And so, you know, guys would go out Friday night and just

be puking all Saturdays. They worked out. I mean, like young guys don't have responsibility. We just go out. We just go out. We have a good time. And, you know, you think you're 21, 22, 23. I'm invincible. I'm not going to get COVID. I'm going to go eat out. The rules don't apply to me. That's what they're worried about. It's not an ageism thing. I think that those guys just don't have as many things in their lives to keep them busy. I had a family when I was older in my career. I'm not going out to a club on Monday

night after a game. It's not going to happen. I think older players understand too the economics of this, right? If they get shut down for whatever reason, how that hurts them financially, how it hurts the league financially, they get all this. Younger players don't, Matt. Well, I understand that, obviously.

And we're seeing that with the college stuff where, you know, obviously college kids are having these sort of outbreaks in their college towns. because of course um what i what i think is it's way more likely that a bad team is going to be the cause of this rather than like a good veteran or a good rookie on a good team like i isn't it more likely that the 47th guy on the jaguars is going to break by week four when they're oh and three and gardner minshu stinks and their whole team is falling apart and they're 0-3 and Gardner Minshew stinks and their whole team is falling apart and they're in Florida rather than the guy, the rookie on the playoff team with good veteran leadership.

I think it's kind of lazy to say, oh, it's going to be the young guys that break this. I think it's going to be the ones who don't have as much to risk. And I get that with like, oh, if you don't have a family, that's obviously less risk. But I think I would be very hesitant to like play the jaguars in week 17 because at that point like they're going to be out i don't mean to pick on the jaguars but

like they're going to be out of it those teams that are done after like week eight like how disciplined are they going to be we've seen this all over the country like nobody no everybody who doesn't like have direct experience with this thing thinks that it's not that big of a deal until it is so that's a very good point about teams that are kind of their season over right do they lax on that i think this is obviously we're talking about the nfl but i think college football is going to be that way there'll be teams that are like are one and six and their players just all get sick and they just say screw it and we're just done for the season yeah i think that's way more likely in college football than in the NFL

because, look, the money matters here. The NFL is going to fine you. If they hear or see you in an indoor restaurant, in a bar, in a club, in a movie theater, like there's actual money consequences, monetary consequences. Young players don't actually believe they're going to get fined. Like they don't think it's, oh, no one's going to fine me. No one's going to find out.

I'm at the bar. I'm at the club. All those NFL teams that have spies are're going to get fined. Like, don't think it's, I'm almost going to find me. No one's going to find out. I'm at the bar. I'm at the club. All those NFL teams have spies. They're all going to find out, Matt. Do you think that NFL players benefited from, again, I don't mean to pick on Lou Williams here,

but I'm sure you saw that story. The guy who plays for the Clippers, he, he got a photograph. Yeah. He got magic city and chicken wings, man. Well,

that's one of the things he probably got it at Magic City. I would like I almost feel like that's I'm I'm glad the NFL is going second, given that they don't have the bubble. Like they've already seen people fail and get caught and see that there's consequences. Right. Like players have to pay attention to that stuff. Right. Yeah. I think baseball is a better example though when because they're not in the bubble right now that's not what happened with the marlins and which it's clear on hard knocks that they're preaching yeah very by the way have man i love

hard knocks dude this season's just tough it's just not very good yeah um i thought the episode where they dealt with sort of the social movements was really cool to see that kind of unfold. But I will say like you and Gabe talked about the fudge guy. What's that guy's name? Clay, whatever. Yeah, the Panthers claimed him as Charlotte. I should be his friend. He should sublet your extra bedroom there. But it's like that guy would have been the 19th guy on any other Hard Knocks, but he was like the star of this one.

That was, that was sort of a good sign. And they had two teams to pick from, like, come on, give me a little, give me a little more, you know, Keenan Allen, give me a little more Robert Woods, like, give me some, give me some, some, something I can use in my drafts. It's been, it's been, it's been poor, but I get it. It's tough. Look, the problem with Hard Knocks is there's so many teams have behind-the-scenes stuff now. The Chiefs have one. The Colts have one I've watched before. Everyone kind of knows how the sausage is made. But what makes Hard Knocks fun is the personalities.

And also, it signals the start of football. After the Hall of Fame game, the first episode comes out. You're like, oh, my God. Hard Knocks is here. Football is happening. But because of the audio this summer, it didn't feel quite right that Hard Knocks was on. But there's just no personalities. There's nobody.

I mean, Clay Johnson is the linebacker's name. He says fudge a bunch. But it's not like his story of knowing Brett Favre. And it's not like like his story of like knowing brett farve and it's not it's not just it's like all right well he knows a famous football player i think well i i think hard knocks is on is unbelievable um and most years what helps is the preseason games which i think we should just pivot to now um but without that sort of action to follow along with and see like oh look the fourth string guy is going to come in he's like he better not miss his assignment here or else he's going to not make the

team like that's what hard knocks is so i you know we obviously just didn't get that this year but let's it's a good point i actually wanted i'm really curious about this this uh lack of a preseason thing so obviously there's been you know lots of ink spilled about what this is what how this is going to affect teams preparation right but sure i'm sort of looking at this from a gambling perspective just a little bit here but like yeah i'm wondering take a team like kansas city who obviously fairly familiar with so they are known for having all these wrinkles in their offense right like you know the jet sweeps and all these crazy packages and in the preseason they don't really show any

of that stuff but they're probably working some of their meat and potato stuff that they're going to use and build off of right so i'm curious that like if let's maybe start with a kansas city or baltimore those teams that have really complex offenses, does the lack of a preseason mean that they're going to kind of like slowly phase that in? Or do you think the teams are just going to go crazy in week one and catch everybody by surprise? I think that it's business as usual for those teams, the Chiefs and Ravens and Saints and Niners with the same offense, same quarterback business as usual for, for,

for those teams. Well, they have all the wrinkles in probably so Matt. And the reason why is that the players all know them already. Like there's, when you put in kind of game plan wrinkles, it's not a lot of crazy new stuff. It's just stuff out of different formations.

It's okay. We're going to run our man beaters this week because the Texans, for example, run a ton of man. Here's our man beaters. to run our man beaters this week because the Texans, for example, run a ton of man. Here's our man beaters. Here's our zone beaters. Here's a new formation because of this is how they align.

You're not like drawing in new plays each week that you've never run before, right? And to your point, though, it's true that training camp is used to work on everything in your playbook and then pare it down. But those teams already know. Like Pat knows there's nothing that Andy Reid is adding to the playbook that's so complex that Pat doesn't know it by now, right? Does that make sense? Like this offseason, they're adding some stuff, but it's not so complex that Pat doesn't know what he's doing. The Ravens, for example, they probably added some wrinkles in the passing game.

I have to imagine they want to open up the passing game a little bit. Sure, would it have been good for Lamar to have a couple of preseason games? No doubt. But it's not going to be so extensive, Matt, that he doesn't know what to do in the office. And so the problem is the younger teams who don't have the luxury of being together for a long time, who don't have the luxury of a great um a great play caller quarterback relationship uh you know i think this

is gonna affect the offense a lot more than and defensively affected via the tackling i think tackling is going to be piss poor but offensive offensive um just rhythm and flow takes time to develop and you haven't had that time in the precseason. So I'm really curious to see how it's like, I'm we'll do a betting podcast, but like I am almost deathly afraid of betting the NFL. Like I have no idea. I've looked at the bets. I like three or four so far. I mean,

pretty, pretty so far. And it's just, it's going to be tough to see how this goes. Like I'm almost sitting, I'm almost treating the first four weeks of a preseason. Let's see what happens. And then by week five, six, seven, I should have a better grasp on what's happening.

But the problem is the Super Contest starts week one. It does. Not week five. And I don't have time. I got to start making my picks now. Well, two piggybacks off of that. The first is I'm kind of worried that some of these teams, especially like the Bengals,

they come to mind obviously with Joe Barrow coming in and a ton of potential, but not a lot of expectation. So I feel like they're probably going to treat the first couple of weeks a little bit like a preseason game, right? Like they're going to try to see what they've got with this guy and figure out what works and what doesn't. And in the preseason,

you can tell a little bit of that stuff i would think so i think they're going to probably be doing like do they even are they even going to be thinking like let's go win this game in week one or are they going to be like let's see what we got with this burrow guy and like if it's close at the end we'll button it up i that team is dude man i't, I don't know how that team's going to operate, man. Look, I, I, it's going to be so hard for Burrow. He's going to, it's both had new play callers. And week one, you were like, take the under because the defenses are going to be buttoned up and these offenses aren't going to be in sync yet. to be thinking that there's going to be hey there's going to be a lot of points in week one or do you think it's going to be one of those like the defense like it seems like in all the preseason games it starts with the defense being a little bit better than the offense is that so that would that would yeah um i i yes and no because i think the tackling is going to be so bad that i don't know if people will be able to tackle Matt.

Like, I don't know. I don't know if teams, if defense will be able to tackle. Like, it's easy to say, and it's true. Like, the first couple days of training camp, especially in pads, the defense is always ahead, right? They're playmakers. They're, you know, they just have to run. Of course, there's a day of assignments,

but a defensive lineman can just put his hand in the dirt and go, right? Offensive lineman got to think, okay, where's my blocking angle? What am I doing here? Where's this affecting? Where's the pressure? Like we have more to kind of comprehend and see and everything, okay? So defenses tend to be ahead and we catch up, all right? But part of the being ahead part is that, you know,

you work on tackling and you work on being physical and you have the preseason games as well. And there's none of that's there this year, right? There's no physicality because you had a pair down training camp and there's no tackling. So I can say to you, hey, this defense should be ahead of the offense in general, right? For the first preseason game. But I don't trust the tackling. A quarterback can throw a wide receiver screen out and the guy can just get 15 yards because

they missed four tackles. Like that's an easy offense. You don't need to be, you know, ahead or behind to run that offense. Just throw the ball out there. Can he make the tackle? Right? And so, like, that's my concern

with saying the defense is ahead. Yeah, they are to start training camp. They are the early preseason, but they're also allowed to kind of hit and tackle in the preseason. None of that's happening this year. So I do not know how good these teams will be without the physicality of training camp, a full training camp, I should say.

The other thing that I've been worried about is, I mean, forget the COVID testing part of this, where something could go wrong and, you know, we could have, God forbid, a Marlins situation happen in the NFL. It's possible. But the other thing that seems to be missing from this pre-season besides the games is there hasn't been that like that holy shit injury yet which seems to have always happened i mean the entire eagles are injured somehow without playing a single game which like we can that could be a whole podcast of how the hell does that happen? But I am curious, like, it feels like it's going to be those first couple of weeks where it's hot, like it's a hundred degrees in California. You know, how is that going to go for the Cowboys and the Rams?

Like, you know, there's going to be all these like weird things that happen. I would think, right. Like that, those first couple of hits really matter in preseason games. I would think to get your body tuned up. Like, yeah. Like, so offensive linseason games, I would think, right? To get your body tuned up. Yeah. So offensive linemen talk about getting calluses, right? We know what calluses are. If you lift weights, just general home, you get calluses on your hands.

When you get calluses on your hands, it's easier to grab those weights, right? It's that barrier for your skin to be able to hold on to that weight. It doesn't hurt your hands anymore. Well, if you're in training camp and you're hitting, right, your body gets those calluses built up. So when you get to Sunday, you're used to contact. That's what my biggest fear for the season is injuries. 100% injuries. It's that guys have not been in position to get hit and be hit and be in positions where their bodies are awkward and absorbing loads and absorbing contact

and punching and striking, all that stuff that you do in full training camp in a preseason, they don't have as much of that. So your body's not going to be used to the physical beating it takes for an NFL game. So I really am concerned about injuries this season. That's my number one concern. It's just everyone being hurt

because of the lack of a normal build-up to to the season oh that's uh who two questions first is who does that who who is that worst for it feels like it'd be running backs or offensive linemen or quarterbacks even um well the quarterbacks don't get hit uh who's it worse for i mean i don't know if there's like a a worse i i don't know honestly i don't i don't really know i think it sucks for everyone yeah well the other thing that i found interesting i i think that i think that the lack of preseason hurts the offensive line maybe more than any other position offensive line quarterback just the lack of practice of preseason but as far as the physicality part of it i'm not quite sure well the the other part of this quickly is is uh the refs like i'm kind of wondering if we're gonna see a fail mary

thing that happens in the first week because the refs didn't get the preseason i'm serious like i have a friend who is a producer for one of the networks that covers the games i don't want to reveal him but he he was talking about how usually by week one they've done four, sometimes five, which they do the Hall of Fame game like they've done a lot of preseason reps, too. And so they're a little bit worried about, oh, we got a new whatever theme song or graphic or whatever, like they don't have a preseason. The refs are going to be like that, too, right? Like the refs are going to come out there and be like,'s the pass interference rule again because it changes every goddamn year like i have a feeling we're going to see some of those crazy calls in the first couple weeks right and also i don't know people realize this the referees go to training camp like they go they're there in the spring and they come to training camp

and they referee practice like three or four yeah yeah. They come to our training camp and they referee three or four days. We ask them questions. They show us the videos of what our emphasis is going to be this year. And obviously, they're not doing that this year. So you're right about refereeing. I'm glad football's back. But it's going to be just a complete – I just don't know what to expect, Matt. I don't know.

I think we're just going to take a lot of points in the first couple of weeks and just say, let chaos reign. I would not... I'm not going to bet. I'm not going to bet totals on all things. Yeah, okay. I just don't know.

I'll hold you to that. In two weeks, we've each got 15 totals each week. Speaking of betting, why don't we hit the move the line segment here let's let's do it so i'm very excited i don't think i've ever hosted the over under on this show so so let's see how i do here um first of all adrian peterson starts this season over under one and a half i would say over i mean he's he's probably better than who they have on their roster when he gets fully moving right when he gets going obviously that position though a

start is not as important obviously as as just um reps right but i'll go over i think he's he's hall of famer he's a legend when he's up to speed he'll probably be starting again yeah obviously you know carry on johnson was everyone's fantasy darling they drafted deandre swift this year um i gotta just say this adrian peterson's pr team deserves a nice like tap on the head here i mean he was unsignable three years ago and now it seems like everyone's falling all over themselves to praise his upstanding character. I mean, do the Google search if you don't know what I'm talking about. I was very surprised. I remain very surprised just how quickly everyone seemed to just forget about that.

Yeah, this is not the time for that, but point well taken, yes. Well, let's move on to a much happier story than that uh and this is alex smith who made the the washington football team roster so let's say this alex smith starts the rest of rest of his career over or under 0.5? It's zero. Unless, unless he gets a ceremonial start and takes a knee and just is done with football. Like that's a possibility. A ceremonial start just to say, hey, I made it back to hand the ball off,

take a knee and that's it for him. So I will revise my bet to say over for that purpose i do not think he plays in a game as nfl quarterback i think he could take a ceremonial snap as nfl quarterback i think you're you're betting with your heart here and not your head i don't think that washington would have kept him on the roster if they didn't think he could actually play i just think there's too many young players that they could have evaluated. They owe him the money. Schauer is guaranteed this year.

Sure. So put him on IR. Put him on the coaching staff. There's a million other ways you could pay him. That's a roster spot. That's really valuable. You're a Washington football fan. Unfortunately, yes.

He's had two practices, I believe, where he's taken live reps, right? And they're both without pads on. And it was like one drive each, right? Or two drives, I think it was. Sure. Like he hasn't practiced. He's not going to play. Well, okay.

But you're saying he's not going to play week one. Of course he's not going to play week one. He will not be able to – He's not going to play all one. Of course he's not going to play week one. He will not be able to play all season. But then why did they keep him on the roster? They could have kept another. Because they owe him the money. They would have owed him the money if they cut him. I don't understand what the argument is.

That's why they kept him. So to pay him to take a roster spot instead of cut him. To pay him to basically to mentor Dwayne Haskins. Sure, but he could have done that from Zoom via injury reserve. I really think that what this means is they think he is going to play again in his career. I'm not saying it's going to be week one. I'm not going to say it's going to be week 10. But I will say if he is anything, and let's play this out.

We sort of did this a few weeks ago if haskins is good then he might not play the whole season if haskins is great and they want to showcase smith's value at some point during the season he might play if if haskins stinks they might they you would think that they would actually try to see if he's got anything. And so they could trade him. The bears gave up a fourth rounder for Nick Foles to be Mitch Trubisky's backup. There's clearly gotta be a spot for Smith. If he can still play.

Or they kept Alex Smith for good publicity, right? Right now we're talking about Alex Smith, not all the other terrible crap that's happening with the Washington football team. They also kept Reuben Foster, but they kept him on IR. So I don't know.

You know, he's basically been cleared of all three of those things. Go look it up. Nonetheless, still. But we're talking about Alex Smith and not the terrible dumpster fire that seems to be happening behind the scenes. Yeah, that's true. God, my stupid football team well yeah i think we're gonna talk more about the washington team on wednesday's show because i have a few uh

i have a few things to run by you um all right well this one was a really fun story this week i don't know if you saw that uh josh mccown signed with philadelphia to be on their practice squad seems like washington could have done this with Alex Smith, just saying, but they signed him to their practice squad, making him the oldest practice squad player ever. He'll make $12,000 a week. So weeks it would take Jeff Schwartz to get ready to join an NFL practice squad over or under three and a half.

All right, let's backtrack here. This year, because of COVID, they're allowing six veterans to be on practice i did not know this until it's happened this week yeah unlimited experience their unlimited experience it used to just be like you you couldn't have played more than like a thing a season or two in the roster i thought the first guy i was theoretic like he was drafted in 2013 and he was on practice squad so josh mccown is getting 12 000 a week to live in texas and be the eagles of bernstein quarterback a quest you know two hundred thousand dollars for the year it's a fantastic gig he actually by the way he coached his son used to play on the local high school down the street from my high school i i watched him this year coach a game then flying

flew back to Philly afterwards. I think they moved to – my guess is they moved to Texas so they could play football this year because North Carolina is not playing high school football. So nonetheless, my buddy said – my trainer said, Duke Maniweather, said he could get me ready by October 1st to play football. We then pretended to joke about it. We posted a bunch of videos of me training from 2016 it was like just just back in it matt there are no amount of weeks that i could catch

do you ready to play football again the answer is is never never gonna happen ever ever ever i guess never again now that you're a member of the media that's the twelve thousand dollars a week it's just that's beer money right um i i thought to myself like okay how would i make this right go to dallas and start training how to do my podcast i like for my turn to marathon i was like my wife and i was like that's what what if someone were to sign me and she's like oh all right and no one's gonna sign me so we're not doing it even though i'll tell you what nfl teams are looking for veterans man they want to know veterans are in shape especially for offensive linemen i'm i am nfl i'm not that guy if you want to sign me to be to be a cheerleader on twitter for you okay fine but i'm not playing football ever again i'm totally fine with that i think you're fairly uh you're you're fairly booked in that capacity for the kansas city

chief so i don't know that i didn't yeah i didn't get a ring or nothing for being a cheerleader no well jeff i okay serve it buddy what is work okay i obviously am a chiefs fan my brother plays for the chiefs can we talk about derrick really derrick car david car david car david car works on the network David Carr. David Carr. David Carr. Works at NFL Network. He picked the Raiders to win the AFC West. He picked John Gruden to win the coach of the year. He picked Hunter Renfro to have the most touchdown catches this season. And he picked his brother to win the MVP. Dude, we get it. Your brother plays on the Raiders.

We understand. Jeff, this is not your lane. This is not your lane. This is my lane. You're the biggest team fan in the world because your brother's on the Raiders. You understand. Jeff, this is not your lane. This is not your lane. This is my lane. You're the biggest Chiefs fan in the world because your brother's on the team. I bet against them in the AFC Championship game against the Patriots. But on the podcast, you said you didn't. That's the whole point.

Well, I didn't because I didn't want to. I don't really tell people when I bet like four against the Chiefs because I just – it's more of a – it's more of just a – I don't – my brother and I never talk about gambling. We never talk about much football, much anymore. There's no point. Hey, buddy, how's your week going this week? Oh, you know, we put in four plays. We don't have any of those conversations.

I don't really bet on the Chiefs. I just don't want people to think there's something happening. That's why – so in that game, there was one game that week. I had to bet it obviously. It was part of the show we were doing so i said so i said so i said i bet that yeah and so i said i bet the chiefs even though i bet the patriots um so it's almost like putting david derrick car is your mvp knowing full well he has no chance in hell being the mvp of anything yeah but um i am'll tell, look, if the Chiefs play terrible on Thursday and Mitch plays terrible, I'll tell you on Twitter, like, I have no problem doing that.

I mean, Carr would never do that. That's true. Well, look, we kind of got into it there. But this is the one where we're actually, I think, going to square off kind of hard, Jeff. I think, going to square off kind of hard, Jeff. So you tweeted something on September 6th, which was Sunday, Labor Day weekend. Perfect day to get with your buddies on Zoom this year, crack a beer, and have a fantasy draft.

And you tweeted, fantasy football drafts take way too long. Just explain. I mean, we have an over-under here. It's ours. A fantasy draft should take two and a half. Tell me why you're taking the under because I can't understand it. I'm not a big fantasy football guy, so maybe this is why.

But, like, I just – once I got my starters, I'm like, I just don't care anymore. I wanted one guy in, like, the middle rounds that was my guy. I wanted the Gibson kid, the running back for Washington. Like that was my guy. Someone took him right before I was going to take him in like the seventh round. That pissed me off. And I was like, screw this. This is stupid.

I don't need to – it's just – part of it was we had 90 seconds between picks. People were taking all 90 seconds like how do you not have your next guy just boom boom boom boom boom like you shouldn't take that longer between picks get it done folks what are you doing the point of fantasy football is to prove to people you care about that you're smarter about football than them you have a podcast called josh works is smarter than you why do i need to prove it fantasy i don't do fantasy football okay matt need to have like matt last year protection as a stat so that you could actually pay attention is that what you need last year my pancakes

won the first game and lost the next 13 weeks in a row. So I'm just like, whatever. It's like my team is who cares? I don't know. They graded me a B plus for the grant, the draft. So I obviously did a good job while I was, while I was bitching about it.

I guess because you played actual football, maybe it's less cool to play fake football. Is that, am I owning myself at this point? I'd much rather bet. I much rather, you know, bet,

you know, lose money, I guess, gambling than lose money, fantasy football. Yeah. Cause at least you don't lose to your stupid friends from, from high school.

Like I, my draft is tonight. It's my, it's my favorite. It's seriously. It's one of my favorite nights of the year. Everybody gets together. Everybody looks older and worse.

Every year you do the same joke from the first time you ever drafted. It's just the best. It's just such a good, it's such a good way to talk smack to people. You would never get the chance to otherwise. That's I, I, I do with some dads of my son's friends, too.

I mean, it's fine. And it wasn't even in person. I get it in person. It's just on my computer. Like, hurry up, everybody. You got things to do. Yeah, in person is better. All right, guys.

Another fantastic show. Matt, I appreciate you filling in. We'll be back later this week. Pleasure. Do the gambling show. Football's back, guys. Another fantastic show. Matt, appreciate you filling in. We'll be back later this week. Do the gambling show. Football's back, everyone. I'm so excited. Please rate, review, subscribe. We'll talk to you guys later in the week.

Have a great couple of days. Get ready for football. Let's do it. It's happening. Let's go, folks.