Geoff Schwartz Is Smarter Than You - Daniel Jones Takes Over, Pittsburgh's Woes & Odell's 'Revenge' Game

Episode Date: September 17, 2019

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You know, we're 0-2 and you're looking for answers. So, you know, I get it. You know, when you draft a guy early and you're not winning games, these are going to come up. So, you know, I just got to keep working and do whatever my job is. From The Athletic, I'm Jeff Schwartz. Daniel Jones is the new Giants starting quarterback. Big Ben is out for the season. And should the Jets trade Sam Darnold?

It's Tuesday, September 17th, and this is Jeff Schwartz is Smarter Than You. I'm Jeff Schwartz, eight years in national football. You guys know the podcast by now. My producer, Gabe Goodwin, is going to throw hot takes, and there are a lot of hot takes on social media about Daniel Jones starting. Should they trade Eli Manning? I can't wait to get after this. But, Gabe, before we start,

you had the unfortunate night spent at MetLife with the Jets and Browns last night. Can you give us a short recap of how terrible that experience was? That was a big mistake on my part. I hadn't been out to the stadium for a Jets game in a few years. This was my big triumphant return Monday night game. I thought that we were going to steal a win against the Browns and be 2-0. That's what I thought when I bought the tickets.

Obviously, that is not how life has turned out. It was a fun night. Nonetheless, I was with a good friend. I saw some old friends, but absolutely terrible football experience. And we will get into it. We will get into it. But first, the big news about Daniel Jones becoming the new starting quarterback for the New York Giants.

Gabe, what is your hot take on this topic? Well, I think this is what we're going to start to hear from everyone. This news just came out today, so people are having a fast time reacting to it. But yeah, so he's starting for the Giants week three against the Bucs, which obviously leads to a big question or idea. I'll just throw it out there. It's, of course, time to trade Eli Manning. I suggest the Saints. He's from down that way. That would be a beautiful solution for both teams. If not New Orleans, I hear you laughing.

I hear it. If not New Orleans, Pittsburgh could be a good fit. Or why not just keep your apartment, stay in town, swap a green jersey on your back. Play for the Jets. All I'm saying is Eli deserves better than this. He should not be cast off. He should have one last chance at greatness before retirement,

just like his brother did. Get Eli out of the Giants system. All right. First, yes, the Daniel Jones story. Here's the deal, guys. I was harsh on Daniel Jones being drafted by the Giants sixth overall. Did not think he their offensive line, according to, I think it's ESPN's metric of pass rush, whatever they use for pass rush. I think they use GPS player tracking.

The Giants are in the top three as far as their pass rush success so far. Offensive line, pass block, excuse me, pass block success so far. Their pass rush is atrocious. I think Gabe can go in there and rush the passer better than the Giants can. Pass block unit is playing well right now. You have Saquon Barkley. Yes, you have injuries at wide receiver. I get it. But the reason to play Jones now

is because you're going nowhere with Eli. The more you play Eli, the more opportunities you have wasted for Daniel Jones to make rookie mistakes, to get his first year under his belt, to go out and compete and see what you got in the guy. And this idea that, well, you're going to ruin him for the future. Well, no, because if he is that guy, if he's going to be the guy,

he's going to have to play through some adversity. And again, the offense line is not half bad. You'll get Shepard back. You'll get Tate back. You have Ingram. You have Barkley. Like, there's some weapons there. And Pat Shummer did not forget how to call a football game.

Eli Manning would never throw the ball deep. He doesn't do that anymore. There's no reason to run Eli Manning out there anymore. His career record is 116 and 116. It's a perfect ending for Eli Manning to be done. So I love the move of going to Daniel Jones. We'll still be playing against Tampa Bay. But the thing I cannot stand, Gabe, and what you mentioned, is this trade Eli Manning to be done. So I love the move of going to Daniel Jones. We'll still be playing against Tampa Bay. But the thing I cannot stand, Gabe, and what you mentioned is this trade Eli Manning

nonsense. What has Eli Manning done in the last two years, Gabe, to warrant a team taking on his contract and putting him in as a starter? You go first, and then I'll give you my response. Well, no, the last couple of years don't warrant much, but I think a guy with two Super Bowl rings and such longevity, just like the football gods owe it to him to give him one last chance. I'm not saying it'll work out with a third ring, but come on, man. Like he can't end his career on the bench. It doesn't matter about what he deserves. It matters what the team is going to get from Elon Musk.

You mentioned some teams, right? New Orleans, okay? They paid Teddy Bridgewater a lot of money to be the backup quarterback. Drew Brees is out six weeks. So from a practical sense, you bring Elon Manning into the dome. You then have to get him up to speed in the offense. You're then now paying him $10 million a year, plus you're paying Teddy Bridgewater.

The reason why you paid Teddy Bridgewater is just to play. He's in to play now. That's why you paid him. Drew Brees gets hurt. He's out six weeks, eight weeks longer. Who knows? And you play Teddy Bridgewater. You mentioned Pittsburgh.

Okay, we'll get to Pittsburgh more on a broader note later. But they believe in Mason Rudolph. It's very clear. And why would they trade for Eli Manning when they've made some of the moves they've made? And that's a little teaser. We'll discuss that moving forward. The Jets. All right, you're a Jets fan, Gabe.

The Jets are going nowhere, right? Do you want to trade for Eli Manning for four weeks before Darnold comes back from his mono? Is that what you want as a Jets fan? Do you want to see Eli Manning in those weirdly green uniforms with the bright green helmet now playing for four weeks, paying him all that money to then have sam darnold come back in that time and take the team over again no no i have i have a better idea for what the jets should

do with the quarterback position but we're going to get to that later i'm not actually serious about the eli manning idea to the jets but i'm i i am surprised i want to go back to so i'm i'm kind of just messing with you a little bit like i do think Eli should they should trade him and they should find a good partner and I'd like to see him get one more chance that's actually how I feel truly but I want to go talk about Daniel Jones for one more minute here because I'm curious if you think this is a little bit of a desperate move by Shermer because you know his record hasn't been great either uh he inherited Eli he wanted Jones don't you think their fates are a little bit tied and doesn't this suggest that if this doesn't work like we're blowing the whole thing up is that kind

of where you take this next no I think they put him in now because they have to just you're gonna have bumps and bruises as a rookie look not everyone's Pat Mahomes you're coming right away and everything's just fabulous right most guys do take time to develop. We saw Carson Wentz. I think it's a great example here. Carson Wentz, they traded Sam Bradford before his rookie season, right? Right before the season. And they said, Wentz, you're playing. And he had a rough year, right?

They were 5-11, I think. Ups and downs, bruises. The following year, he was MVP candidate before he tears his ACL in Los Angeles. Like, you have to go through the rookie bumps and bruises. And you might as well do it this year in a lost season for you and for Daniel Jones. And then, obviously, next year you start fresh. He's your starter.

You build around him. You draft Jerry Judy in the first round from Alabama, and you have another weapon for him. Your offensive line is set. You continue to hopefully add some players on defense because you have no passers right now. But this is a great year for him to just learn the game learn the pro game get some reps obviously hopefully 14 games worth and be ready to play in year two it's not desperation in my opinion by pat sherman it's

actually the opposite it's just i need to see my future and he's our future let's let him play and we'll get ready to really go after this next year all right well to cap the eli part of it uh from chris mortensen who you know gets this stuff right all the time he just cautioned everyone his reporting is eli doesn't seem to want to play for another team and a reminder he says he has a no trade clause so it is fun to fire these ideas at you and i'm sure that twitter will be coming up with even wackier ideas than the ones I've suggested. But it doesn't seem likely at this moment that a trade would get done. So your read seems right to me, Jeff. Do you want to move to the next topic?

Let's do it, buddy. Well, we're staying actually in the same stadium, and you mentioned I was at the game last night. So I'm just going to frame it this way. The Jets are terrible. We don't really need to talk about them. But OBJ got his revenge in his old house. Six for 161. A freak touchdown.

An unbelievable one-handed grab up the sideline. I observed him all night long. And it was clearly important to him to prove something in that stadium. And what he proved was that he's still awesome. The Browns' offense is working. They're back. We had given them a brief break from Super Bowl talk, but they're back. We're going Super Bowl with the Browns.

It's obvious after OBJ's performance last night. Gabe, what revenge did he have on the Giants last night? Because that's the team we traded him, right? The Giants, not the Jets, right? Like, he's in the same stadium. I get it. But these are the Jets. The Jets aren't the rivals of the Giants.

Sorry, Jets fans. You're not the rivals of the Giants. Like, this had nothing to do with the Giants whatsoever last night. Who's the revenge did he get last night? On who? Dude, I was watching him all throughout pregame. Well, I don't care about that. I'm asking who.

I'm saying, like, who did he. I get that Odell wanted to make this a big game, but it doesn't make sense to me when you're playing the Jets, not the Giants, that this is a revenge game that should be treated anything different. You're going back. Like, I mean, if you played on on the Rams and then you played the Chargers in the same city, is that a revenge game for you for going back to L.A.? Hey, man, I'm not saying it's rational. I'm saying the dude obviously needed extra motivation. And a serious point. It seems like having a chip on the

shoulder works for him. We already think it works for Baker. Greg Williams was their bad guy. It worked. Even if it makes no sense, the dude was getting off on winning in what used to be known as Giant Stadium.

Out at MetLife. it made him go so maybe they should figure out a bad guy in every game they play this season maybe they need to find a way to get him pissed off every week and make him think it's a revenge game because he looked awesome well it's not helping Baker Mayfield at all this season who is who was completed 54% of passes last night yes hit that long touchdown to Odell but that was an RPO man and it just was a quick little read hit hit Odell in the slot odell ran 89 yards for that baker mayfield man just looks really off he's they're five of 23 this year on third down um and i can't tell if baker doesn't trust what's happening around him i think there are some jitters because of

the offensive line issues but there are times last night when the offensive line was fine. And he's not seeing things like Greg Williams last night did a good job of fooling him a lot of times thought it was man would work back out to zone and bigger just doesn't seem to have the same mental processing he had last year. And look to me, it's not a surprise. I said this before.

He spent all offseason worrying about things outside of football. And I get it. He prepared for football. He's ready to play. But when you worry about how many interviews you can do and arguing with national radio hosts and worrying about what Twitter says about you, you're not as prepared as you should be.

No other quarterback was out here doing all that stuff, worrying. And this goes to coaching as well. Like, I don't think – there's nothing that showed me that Freddie Kitchens threw two games. Only two games. Again, only two games. It's a small sample size, barely a tiny sample size. But his teams do not seem disciplined.

Baker Mayfield is not getting better. Their offense has no rhyme, no rhythm. Looks poorly constructed. And I don't know gabe i i don't i don't i don't think it's gonna work out with this coach um i will and i think baker can play too i think baker's a good football player well i'm i'm optimistic about them because of what i saw last night and i think if obj is plugged, and Chubb looked pretty good too, I hear you on Baker, and something does feel a tiny bit off, but I think he can figure it out.

The reason for caution, though, that I don't think you've really explained yet is have you looked at their schedule? Their next five opponents are currently 10-0. They've got Rams, Ravens, Niners, Seahawks, Pats. Then they get a little reprieve, and then they get the Bills who are 2-0. So that would be my worry, not that Baker Mayfield isn't right. Yeah, and then the backing of their schedule is much easier, though. But if you can't get through this, you mentioned the Rams.

I think it's coming on Sunday Night Football, right? Yeah, Sunday Night Football, a short week, you get the Rams, who looked really dialed in. They had a rough first half, you get the Rams, who looked really dialed in. They had a rough first half-ish against the Saints, but they came out in the second half and blew them out. Obviously, without a breeze of blood, it's kind of...

I don't know if you can say it's quite a blood. The Ravens, who I have to maybe swallow my pride on that a little bit. They look pretty good so far. The Niners, you're on the road in San Francisco on a Monday night. Again, the Seahawks, the bi-week Patriots. Look, the Broncos are not going to be easy. That defense is really good.

And again, Baker Mayfield has not played well against the better pass defenses he's seen in his career. And so you have a lot of great pass defenses coming up. And look, Pittsburgh, at the end of the year, they're going to be no slouch. The Dolphins are going to be 0-16, so you'll beat them easily. And so, yeah, this team is, I think they still get the nine wins, but their

offense is far shakier than I thought it'd be. It comes down to, again, I was not on the Freddy Kitchens hire because he had no prior experience of being a leader. He was an OC of a sinking ship for 10 games last year. Okay,

congratulations. I haven't seen it from him. I haven't seen it from his team. They look disorganized. The Odell visor thing was interesting. I get the timing. Everyone's upset about him being pulled on third down, but he shouldn't have a dark visor on.

That's the Cleveland Browns' job, whether the coaching staff or equipment staff, to see their players wearing a visor that's not allowed during games. Players often wear tinted visors in warm-ups. Odell's done it forever. Then the equipment staff comes back inside and changes the visor for the player. The player's not out there with a screwdriver and a drill and changing the visors. They're not doing that.

It's just another little notch, Gabe, in the Cleveland Browns dysfunctional organization tab. That was confusing to everyone in the stadium as Odell threw a two-minute tantrum running off the field when they were in the red zone. It made no sense at all. It was only a few minutes later on Twitter that we realized what you just described. And yeah, that is a total bonehead move.

You've got to get a guy with a good screwdriver on the sideline because you can't leave that up to Odell. Let's move across their division here. Let's we touched on it. Let's get into Big Ben. So obviously we know he needs elbow surgery. He's out for the rest of the year. Some think maybe forever retirement word is out there on the Twitters. So the way I break it down is this. The Steelers have a few options. They could, A, tank like the Dolphins. B, start the madman Mason Rudolph and hope that era begins well.

C, take Twitter's advice, sign Colin Kaepernick. Any of those three options would have been reasonable. Instead, they've gone with option D, trade next year's first rounder for Minka Fitzpatrick, a move that has drawn, I will just say, mixed reactions. But it suggests, I guess, that they like their quarterback and aren't worried about needing that pick. So this one was a real confusing one when we heard about this trade. What do you think of the Minka Fitzpatrick deal with the Steelers?

Well, let's back up here to Big Ben being out. Obviously, it's like a Tommy John injury. UCL in the elbow. Obviously not good. Might be the end of Big Ben. Now we're starting the Mason Rudolph era. We'll see how, obviously, that ends up going. You mentioned the tanking thing, and I suggested that yesterday,

and I kind of thought about it more. You know, the Steelers are a proud organization. They're never going to tank. So the idea of them doing that was never going to happen. Plus, you know, you have to tank. You have to be – what's the best way to put it? You have to be the Dolphins to tank in the NFL. You have to have literally nobody

on your roster to tank like you have to be pathetically bad to tank um and the steelers aren't that right they have a good offensive line they have james connor and washington and juju and defensively they can't stop anyone but at least they have they have players right they're not good enough to tank it. And even with Mason Rudolph in there, they're still going to win enough games to be out of the top five. So they're going all in on Mason Rudolph. But even saying all that, they might have a top 10 pick next year.

And they just traded a top 10 pick for a player in Fitzpatrick, who's a good player, but does not help them win any games this year. Like, they're not going to be a playoff team because of Fitzpatrick, who's a good player, but does not help them win any games this year. Like, they're not going to be a playoff team because of Fitzpatrick, and they've locked themselves into Mason Rudolph now, unless they trade up next year for a quarterback. So before you really know what Mason Rudolph is going to be, you've now locked yourselves into him. Assuming Big Ben doesn't ever play again, he might come back next year, obviously. But assuming Big Ben's done for his career, which is probably more likely, I'd probably put that him assuming big ben doesn't ever play again he might come back next year obviously but assuming big ben's done for his career which is probably more likely i'd probably put that at 60 40 right

game i mean i think that it's a bad injury his older quarterback who knows if he comes back um but you're basically putting the organization in mason rudolph's hands without knowing if he really is good or not and i'm not sure that that that's a risk that I would take if I were the Steelers. Well, I'll take the devil's advocate side here and say that apparently the team likes him. He's a madman in practice. He wears the helmet on the sidelines. He's always ready. He's just killing it six days out of the week. So now we'll see what he can do on the seventh day.

And I will also say that the team seems a lot easier to manage for a young quarterback. Some of the guys who were difficult in that locker room are gone, namely Antonio Brown, obviously. So, I mean, maybe they know something more than we do. Maybe this is more similar to the Daniel Jones decision than not. Maybe they just know that this guy is about to be the one who takes over but they would have not they would have not um like if they thought that they might have not even wanted to play ben anymore like i don't i guess

the court of the the situation with his contract makes it really hard to get out of um but it just um they obviously think mason Mason Rudolph is the guy, but, but again, until you see someone play regular season snaps, you really don't know. And it's, it's,

there's a lot of faith in a quarterback that you don't know is going to be your guy, especially when there's a lot of guys coming out in the draft this year who could be the guy. And the history of the NFL shows that third round draft picks like like Mason Rudolph aren't often aren't often successful I mean look Russell Wilson's a third round pick he played right away remember he beat out Matt Flinders they just paid a bunch of money to he just was flat out better than him Colin Kaepernick I mean not Colin Kaepernick Dak Prescott played it's a fourth

round draft because Romo got hurt and now we're actually seeing in his fourth year, the best year of his career, at least so far. I think they continue to play well. Tom Brady, there's just not many guys drafted out of the first round or out of the top of the second round that became superstars in the NFL. So Mason Rudolph is kind of, if he were to be great, he would kind of buck the trend of where guys are drafted in order to be successful in the NFL. All right.

Well, then let's use one of the guys you just mentioned who did buck the trend. So I want you to take a big, deep breath here. Maybe a sip of coffee. Whatever you're going to need to handle what I'm about to say. And this is not from me. This is from an all-pro former NFL player. The Jets should go get Kaepernick. Des Bryant thinks it.

I've seen other NFL players tweeting about it. It's everywhere right now. We've touched on these teams, and we've touched on Kaepernick, but let's put it all together here. This makes sense. Colin Kaepernick should be the Jets quarterback immediately. Why? Well, I watched all the snaps last night, and I know you did too. They don't have anyone who can throw the ball on that team.

They do have a great player in Le'Veon Bell who can do all kinds of stuff. I mean, catch, he ran Wildcat last night. He was the emergency quarterback last night. He was. Like, they've got an athletic bunch of players that could fit in nicely

with Kaepernick. Gase is a quarterback guru. Let's see him guru Colin Kaepernick. So, what are we assuming Sam Donald's out? Like, how many weeks do we assume he's out for?

Well, I've seen estimates that take him into mid-October. Okay, so you say you bring Colin Kaepernick in this week. How many weeks before you think he plays? How many? Sorry? A week, two weeks? Probably two weeks before he plays. We need a quarterback for at least two weeks.

But here's the thing talk to Jets fans I don't think people are sold on Sam Darnold but you have to play him you just you drafted him you have to play him like you have a choice you have to play you have to play Sam Darnold with a brand new coach you have to do it you don't have a choice so you play New England by week and then so do you want Colin Kaepernick to start at, at Philadelphia and then Dallas and then play New England's first three games? I want to see anything other than what I've seen through two weeks. Here's the deal.

Colin Kaepernick is the answer. Okay. Here's the deal with Colin Kaepernick. Do I think he was screwed? Yes. Do I think that he was blackballed? Yes. Do I think they're going to find collusion?

No, because I think that was, and that's obviously the case has been settled now. Here's the deal. There's a couple reasons why maybe outside of just the kneeling that he wasn't signed. One is that I don't think he was very good as last year. I know people are throwing out the 16 touchdowns, four interceptions. So I like football outsiders.

Football outsiders to me does a great job with their analytics. They have easy stats to comprehend. They use DVOA, which is basically a metric that's value per play. So, for example, Gabe, if it's third and two and you rush for three yards, that's a positive play, correct? Even though yards per carry, not very good, only three yards per carry. If you rush for three yards on first and 10, that's a negative play because you want to at least get four or five yards.

So that's my best example of how they weigh into their formula. They come up with value, right? So Kaepernick's last year in the NFL, he was 30th for quarterbacks in DVOA. 30th, all right? Wasn't very good, all right? The year before that,

I think I saw he was 34th in DVOA. So 15 and 16. He was not a very good quarterback. That plays part of this as well. Also, the way he handled his little injury bonus situation, which not talked about very often, but I think that kind of pissed off people in the NFL. But he's obviously not playing because of his kneeling.

It's a terrible situation. I'm on his side about that. I get it. But he hasn't played in three years, Gabe. No one's signing him. And the idea, this is one thing that's always bothered me about the way we talk about Colin Kaepernick and his contract situation.

And I think you'll agree with me here. So Colin Kaepernick believes he's a starter, all right? And he wants to get starter money. And there are times in my career when I was like, hey, I should get this amount of money to play football, and if I don't, I'm not playing football. I've had friends in the same situation that it's a physically, obviously, grinding game, mentally grinding.

I'm going to play for this value, and that's it. So we keep hearing that about Colin Kaepernick. Colin Kaepernick wants to take a starting quarterback deal or some sort of deal that gives him a lot of incentives and he wants to be the starter. So he's not going to accept a deal, everyone, to be the third string quarterback on a team. Every time someone gets signed,

like let's say the Jets go out and sign, I don't even know who quarterbacks are available, whatever. Let's throw out some names, some guy who's been around for, Brock Osweiler, is he on a roster somewhere? Throw out Brock Osweiler. Well, they signed Brock Osweiler to be the backup quarterback in a veteran minimum contract. That's not the same

contract that Colin Kaepernick is up for. He doesn't want that deal. So can we please stop saying every time a quarterback gets hurt that they should sign Kaepernick to be the backup to that guy? He does not want that. If I were him, I wouldn't even accept that anyways.

So the Jets are not going to pay him enough money to come in and be the quarterback because they're going to have to pay. They paid Sam Darnold. They're going to have to play him. So Kaepernick is not an option for a lot of these teams. Like, you know, oh, the Saints would sign him. Well, they have Teddy Bridgewater.

They paid Teddy Bridgewater. Jacksonville, well, they like Gardner Minshew. He just should have won that game in Houston this weekend. Like, they like the guys they have teddy bridgewater they paid teddy bridgewater jacksonville well they like gardner minshu he just should have won that game in houston this weekend like they like the guys they have they're not going to pay kong capric to come in and kong capric he's not going to accept a backup contract like i don't not know why that principle is so lost on people well uh i think that the principle is not lost on people i think that the part that people don't agree with is that the guys who they have on the teams that you're naming are good but better than what we remember of colin kaepernick so i get the money i get the business side we don't know if gardener minchu is good or not he hasn't played yet we don't know if teddy bridgewater he's been

hurt he's been on the silence for three years now we don't know if he's good or not like we don't know if Gardner Minshew is good or not. He hasn't played yet. We don't know if Teddy Bridgewater, he's been hurt. He's been on the silence for three years now. We don't know if he's good or not. We don't know if these guys can play or not. We're assuming they can play or they cannot play because Colin Kaepernick was 30th in DVOA in 2016. Okay, that's a good stat. I learned something when you explained that to me, so thank you. But I do know that he was good at football when he played it and won a lot

of games including you know like put up good stats in the year that people point to as like when he proved he didn't have it any longer so that was that year i mean that was 2016 okay all right so there's a couple stats that indicate he wasn't as good as some people thought i i just i guess what i'm the reason i'm bringing it up is that the explanation for why he isn't worth a shot feels more strained than any explanation for why we should give him a shot like it just feels like a lot of you can't use games one as a stat anymore he was 3 and 17 his last his last uh 20 starts i think i think that that the truth of the matter is this issue won't ever go away

because he stands, obviously now, in people's minds, he stands for a lot more than just is he one of the 32 best quarterbacks in the league? Clearly, that's why this conversation gets sidetracked. But how can you have that conversation if you haven't played in three years? The passionate fans look at quarterbacks

who stink and think that guy would be better than them. It's as simple as that. Right. But we have. Here's the thing, though, is we have to think about. Other like I and I hope I explain that well enough, like there there are other factors just beyond, you know, that guy's better than this guy. Like for the Jets, I keep explaining this. So if you bring Colin Kaepernick in, like, let's say Donald's out four more weeks.

All right. Because their schedule sucks. And they say, look, we're not going to bring him back. The Jets, sorry, Gabe, play the Patriots, Eagles, Cowboys, Patriots, all right? Let's say we're going to bring him back to face the Jaguars in four weeks. So again, do you sign Colin Kaepernick with everything that he is going to bring to your team as far as distractions, which is a thing, guys. I know people pretend that's not a thing. It is. To play, let's say, against the Eagles, Cowboys, and Patriots,

and you're probably going to lose all three games with Colin Kaepernick in there or Sam Darnold in there. It doesn't really matter. You're going to lose those three games. You're not very good. To then just have him play two or three games and then put Sam Darnold in. Why would even Kaep take that deal anyways? But as a Jets fan, is that what you want, really?

You want him to play two games and Donald's coming back? Donald's coming back in when he is healthy to play because you drafted him third overall and you have to play him this year. All right. I mean, you read some folks on The Athletic, you poke around on the internet, and you start to wonder, does Adam Gase love Sam Darnold? And it's not entirely clear to me.

I don't know if he does, but he's got to play him this year to see if he loves him. Like, you have to actually play in football games. I saw someone tweet yesterday, well, the Browns offense looks different than the preseason. Well, no shit, because the preseason doesn't count. It's different. You have to play Sam Darnold in regular season football games

to see if he's good or not. I think we're going to have to agree to disagree on this one. Luckily, you're smarter than me, so I think the audience will tend to take your side. I just, maybe it was a couple too many white claws last night, and I started getting some wacky ideas about what the Jets should do, but I'm telling you, it didn't look like a team that should be hanging on to the players they have. It looked like a team that should consider some new options. Levy and Bell, special player.

Not many other guys out there looked like they had it. It would be fun to see Kaepernick try to play with Lev. Why don't we move on to a little game and try to lighten the mood a little bit. I feel like you're getting a little amped up about Colin Kaepernick. I'm not. I'm good. All right. All right, Jeff. Let's play Move the Line, a little betting game we made up.

Some of these over-unders I'm about to give you are very real. You can bet them in Vegas. Others, I sort of made them up. So let's start with one I made up. Aaron Rodgers and his new head coach, Matt LaFleur, blowups the remainder of the season, 13.5. Are you taking the over or under? That averages to one per game left in the year.

I'll take the over on this. I'll take one per game. Obviously, the first half, that Packers team on offense looked fantastic. The second half just bogged down. I can't say that a blow up. I mean, he just kind of yelled him for a second. Did LaFleur even yell back? I don't even know.

I'll take the over. I think they have one of these a game. I think there's one time a game where aaron rogers will be upset with the point calling okay do you think that matt lafleur makes it through the season if they have two losses in a row like does aaron rogers just cap this guy as soon as they've lost twice i guess it depends on if the losses are because of the offense or the defense. This might be the best defense he's had since he won the Super Bowl. Do you think, though, there's any scenario where they lose and Aaron Rodgers thinks

that wasn't this new cool coach's fault? He can actually be rational about it and not blame the coach? I think Aaron Rodgers is a new guy this year. I think he can do it. Okay. All right.

Next up, we are going down to New Orleans. We touched on Drew Brees and his injury earlier. So he's expected to miss six weeks. So I will ask you, Drew Brees' games played the rest of this season, 7.5. And there's 14 left. I think he plays over. I think he comes back in six weeks and plays the eight remaining games. So I think slightly over here.

This number obviously is right kind of where it's supposed to be. I think over. I think he comes back and finishes the year. I think he'll be fine. He generally avoids hits just because of the way he plays. And this is a very freak injury. I just kind of like hit his finger like on Aaron Donald. So I think this is a freak injury.

Okay. And so you don't think this is like going to linger or turn into one of those things that's bigger. But do you also think Bridgewater can keep them sort of in contention enough over those six games to make it worth Breeze coming back like that's kind of the essence of the question is can they hang around um this is one of those where I don't I don't have a great answer man I I don't know I don't know Bridgewater is when he's played in the preseason or the end of last season or at least he doesn't look very good so i would say probably not oh okay so they're not necessarily in contention but breeze comes back with a busted hand anyway interesting um all right

this one well he's he's not busted if he's healthy. Okay. This one's in your wheelhouse. I set Ravens Chiefs for week three. Ravens Chiefs over under at 64.5 points. That would make it the highest ever higher than Chiefs Rams last year. Are you taking the over under if it's at 64.5? I am taking the under. I am always going to take the under in a lot of these because I love taking unders,

and that's the best bet to make most times. By the way, 4-0 this year on NFL unders. It's been a fantastic year for that. How about this week? I know this is not this exact bet, but there was a record number of holding calls this week in the NFL, which used to be fixed, by the way, NFL officials. The under this week was 13-3 as well.

So there's a direct correlation, in my opinion, between calling a record number of holdings and the under hitting in 13-16 games this week. So just a little nugget there. I love that nugget. And by the way, the actual opening over-under is 55.5, which seems, to me, incredibly low. So talk to me about that number.

Are you going under 55.5? Yeah, look, here's why. I think last year you saw a 27-24 game in overtime. This is the best defense the Ravens have seen so far, and they struggled a little bit against Arizona. Obviously, the best defense the Chiefs are going to see. It's kind of a rematch of last year, same sort of offenses. I think you're going to get a little bit of a lower scoring game.

All right. I don't think fantasy players want to hear what you're saying. I think people are expecting seven touchdowns out of Mahomes and Lamar Jackson. But all right. That was a great nugget about the holding calls. I didn't realize the connection between that and the under. That's good. All right.

It's this time of year. I didn't make your head fully explode in the first segment talking Kaepernick. So here goes. goes um if the miami dolphins played alabama this week over under dolphins by 27 and a half can they cover that spread um the dolphins would cover that yes theins would win by four touchdowns against Alabama right now. Yeah. Does this topic bother NFL players more than any topic ever? No, I think NFL players just over talk. It's so silly.

NFL players never like over like talk. It's just like it's so silly. Like NFL players never, never talk about that because it's just silly. Like why would that? That would never. It would never happen. Like everyone in the NFL is a pro player. Not everyone in Alabama is a pro player. So it's clearly the NFL team would whoop up on a college team. So it's clearly the NFL team would whoop up on,

on a college team. Couldn't I argue that not everyone on the dolphins right now is an NFL caliber player. You definitely can make that argument. Sure. Yes. That's a fair argument to make. I always find that this time of year, when somebody poses that notion,

it's the stupidest debate there ever is that of course, what you're saying is true. Like, yeah, at best, what you're saying is true. Like, yeah. At best, Alabama has a few NFL, future NFL starters. And the Dolphins, even if we're joking about how bad they look, all of those guys have played in the NFL. So it's a silly one.

All right, last one's maybe even sillier. And you're going to have to carry this. I do not know a lot about this, but I want to ask you. And you're going to have to carry this. I do not know a lot about this, but I want to ask you. The number of people who will be arrested while trying to raid Area 51 this week. This is a thing that is being talked about on the internet. I'm setting the over-under at 19.5 arrests at Area 51. Which side are you on?

I'm going over here. So here's the deal with this. I'm surprised that you didn't know this, Gabe, considering you keep up on pop culture. So there was a Facebook group called Storm Area 51. They Can't Stop Us All. It was planned for September 20th in 2019. And basically, people were going to just storm Area 51 and just hope that the military officials couldn't stop everybody.

And the military has talked about, if you show up, we're going to make it a problem for you. Now the creator of the Facebook group has canceled the event now. It might still actually happen. But the cities that surround or close to Area 51 now of the Facebook group has canceled the event. Now it might still actually happen. Um, but the, uh, the cities that surround or close to area 51 now have, have planned like parades and music festivals.

And there's no, none, not a hotel rooms. Like they, like they declared like emergencies in their cities. Uh, here it is right here. Um,

they said, um, that, uh, they, uh, are declared, they're fearing a possible humanitarian disaster

for everyone showing up in the area because it's just small little, you know, one-stop light towns. So amazing, incredible. This is actually a thing that is not going to happen, but it's pretty funny if it did. I'm just going to say anyone listening right now in that part of the country who's thinking this is a good idea i'm going to strongly advise against it i do not think you should try to raid area 51 we're all curious what's going on in there maybe one day we'll find out uh i don't think it's a good idea to try to

barge your way in so don't do that let's hit our social mailbag uh just a couple more minutes here there's another topic going on in the football world that kind of blew up the other day, and I wanted to get your take on it. So I'll read you a tweet from Zach Banner, ZBNFL, plays for the Steelers. He says, scholarship check equals $1,600. Rent for a 600 square foot apartment in South Central LA equals Tim Tebow does not represent all of us past, present, future players. He represents the kids whose family could send him cash. He's obviously referring to the fact that Tim Tebow went on First Take and talked about how he doesn't believe that college football players or college athletes in general should be paid money or even get any portion of the money made from collegiate sports.

He thinks it sort of goes against the purity of the game. It's not why he played, and he said he wouldn't have taken the money. A lot of people jumped on Tim for these comments. I'm curious what you think of his take and also how Zach Banner responded. idea that adults can seek compensation for their image and likeness and their name, which is kind of opposite of what you think anyone would ever argue. And then a bunch of other stuff, you know, the whole thing about being selfish if you want money and just blabbering away, right? Like Tim, you can still go to Florida and live your dream, live your grandfather's dream

of seeing his grandson win an NCAA championship game, and people in California can still go to school and get a little bit of cash on the side. I also don't think, Gabe, there's going to be a lot of players that are going to get a ton of money in this system. I don't see the need for a four-string offensive tackle to go get something, get $500 to go sign something. It's not going to be a lot of guys affected by this, but just felt like Tim Tebow was projecting his upbringing onto other people, which obviously no one should ever do.

Now, to the point, to this exact tweet from Zach Banner, my brother went to Cal Berkeley in Oakland. He got a $1,000 scholarship check a month. He got a $1,000 scholarship check a month. His rent was $950. He shared a three-bedroom. He shared a room1,000 scholarship check a month. His rent was $950. He shared a three-bedroom. He shared a room in a three-bedroom apartment. My parents had to give him money so he could just live in Oakland.

Like, not everyone has the means to go do that, and it sucked. And my brother was not getting his jersey in the bookstore, but imagine being, you know, Javid Best, who he played with, the running back, who's, he wasn't living with him, but let's use for example, living with my brother, who has $50 after rent to spend that entire month if he doesn't have a Pell Grant or have some help from his parents. And you walk in the bookstore and there's a thousand of your jerseys on sale and you're getting no compensation from that. jerseys on sale and you're getting no compensation from that well i i'm not sure that um it's worth trying to defend you know tim's take here uh or try to explain what he might have meant

um obviously the blowback has been pretty consistent so i want i want i want you i know oh wait hold on i know that you are you are a uh a big fan of uh tim too i want to hear can you can you defend him for a second i just want to to hear it. I need to hear it. It's like in my veins. Put it right here. My defense is maybe not – I can't say for sure if I'm right. What I think is Tim Tebow is a sincere person, and what he said was from the heart,

and I think if he was aware of the kind of response it got before he went on TV to say it, I think he would have considered the point of view of his former teammates and guys who played in the league, and I think he would have realized, oh, wait a second. Yeah, this isn't exactly fair of me to say for everyone. I am a bit of an exception. And I think he would have changed part of what he said. But I don't think his intention was to dismiss the the needs or concerns of other players I think he just got carried away talking about how much he loves the game of college football and what it meant to him

and he lost sight of the fact that you know he's different than most guys who ever played college football and and I so I don't know that there's malice in it and that doesn't mean he doesn't deserve some of the pushback and hopefully he's learning something like a lot of us are from this. But I don't think there was ill intent in this, at least from everything else I've seen Tim Tebow speak about publicly. I don't think it was there was ill intent. But I feel like if you're going to go on a platform like that, you better have your thoughts nailed down on what you want to say. I think that's fair. Okay.

So I know. Sorry. We're beating up on your boy. It's bothering you. All right. We got anything else? Well, no. I actually have one more question about this, and I'm fine with him taking it.

I like him because I think he's a fun player to watch, and he's been a nice guy whenever I've been around him. But if he gets criticized, that's totally fair. I guess my question is, though, in this world that everyone is imagining where all these players have access to this extra revenue and can take some jobs and do some work that they're currently prohibited from. Like, how much money are we thinking that guys can end up making? And because I think clarify for us what difference this could make to people. And this all sprung from a law, you know, that's nearly passed in California. I mean, it's, it's more than we can get into now. But what type of money could people make to make their lives a little better and easier

as college athletes? So on my radio show last night my pacto show we interviewed um a uh the leader of the um we try to get the the northwestern kids uh unionized right so he he's on that side of the law uh and kind of push for players to get compensated so he brought this up and i asked the same question i just i don't think it's a lot of players going to be there to benefit from this and he brought up a couple of good points. He said basically that, you know, maybe, you know, your hometown newspaper wants you to write an article for them.

They pay you like 250 bucks. Or, you know, there's an event in your hometown where you get $500. Like, and I guess that, you know, I'm from LA. There was no event that I was going to do that was going to get me paid. That's just not going to happen.

But for other players, maybe you're from a small town and they want to, you know, someone wants to pay you a 500 bucks to come back to the county fair or something like that. That obviously feels like some instances where that could be the case. But again, that that's not like where I would have ever seen money from. Well, OK, but I'm glad you clarified that that because I think a lot of people pounced on the situation and started confusing the types of revenue players might have access to. This is not just about jersey sales or being paid directly by the school. It's about those small events you're talking about or being able to coach the sport that you play at a very high level and make some money off of it. Like, I just wanted you as a guy who's been through this to explain that.

Yeah. But even like, but even like in the off season. So like, you know, like your work, your, your,

your work, like your ability to work and stuff is, is, is limited. Like there's just little things that, um, that like you're not allowed to do to just earn extra money, which I feel like this law would change.

And so I'm excited. Hopefully this goes into law. All right. Well, we've covered a lot of ground, and hopefully we've helped make people a little bit smarter about a few of these topics. And hopefully we'll also have some new and interesting quarterbacks to be watching in the New York area.

We've got a lot going on. I will point out, Josh Allen reminded everyone, he is the only quarterback in New York technically, and he's 2-0. So good on him. All right, Gabe, another fantastic show as usual. I think today was the essence of what we want this to be, right? A little back and forth, a little fiery. I really enjoyed doing this with you as usual. I think today was the essence of what we want this to be, right? A little back and forth, a little fiery. I really enjoyed doing this with you

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Hey, hey, I need some more of that.