Geoff Schwartz Is Smarter Than You - Final Preseason Takeaways, Drafting Worst-to-First Teams, and New Faces

Episode Date: September 1, 2023

Geoff and Matt are back to recap all that they learned from following the preseason. Also, every year an NFL team goes from worst to first in their division. Geoff and Matt take turns picking who that might be this year.Be sure to rate, comment, and follow the pod if you enjoyed, and check out @geoffschwartz on Twitter and Geoff Schwartz on Youtube for live video shows, plus a recorded video version of this episode.See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

It's Monday, August 28th. I'm Jeff Schwartz alongside Matt Forth. This is Jeff Schwartz of Smart. You are back on Twitter and on YouTube and on your favorite podcast platform. Thank you for joining us. Matt, we have done it. The NFL preseason is done. There are cuts happening as we talk.

There will be cuts tomorrow, unfortunately. The rosters are trimmed down to 53. We have a full slate of college football coming up this weekend. We'll get back to all that in a few minutes. Buddy, how did you manage the preseason? Did you make it out okay? Yeah, I didn't place any bets because I made a whole impassioned rant on this very podcast that you shouldn't bet the preseason.

I did have a conviction. I will say that I did think that Washington would beat the Ravens to end their streak. I really did have I did think that Washington would beat the Ravens to end their streak. I really did have a feeling about that. I did not bet it, but that's good. Restraints is an asset. Scarcity is an asset. It's good to save your bullets.

I have a lot of – you and I talked about it for the last month. All of our preseason futures put a lot down on that. So feeling good. Feeling fresh. Feeling unscathed, baby. I'm ready. I'm ready i'm ready to just dive in the pool no wounds i gave out 10 picks for fox sports in the preseason including the hall of fame game i went eight and two and lost one of those games by half a point so um

that just means we're going oh and five buddy in week one however i love our week one i don't know man this is a. Maybe this podcast doesn't just have a clever name. Maybe you actually do know what you're talking about. Pittsburgh plus three, baby. Let's do it week one. Also, just pay attention to some college football stuff I give out throughout these shows. I think I gave out the end of last show, Hawaii plus seven against Stanford, and it's now like four and a half or four. So I do know what I'm talking about every now and then, guys, especially in the Pac-12 conference.

But let's kind of get to some big-picture topics as we head into the NFL regular season cut days. I mentioned happening today, a little bit tomorrow. They trimmed the rosters from 90 to 53. Now, remember, guys, the roster's not done. This is the worst part about cut day by far is that they cut everyone down to 53. Then you get a list of all the free agents you can now claim,

and you claim some free agents, and then players who think they've made the team get cut again. I've seen it happen many times. The 52nd guy, the 53rd guy, you don't get told as a player where you're in the picking order, but guys think they've made it. They call their parents, hey, I made the football team, and then all of a sudden they're released when more waiver claims happen. So we're going to see kind of this influx the next couple of days

of roster movements, of trades, of things like that. So if your favorite team, if you think they're done, they're really not. But we're going to get a good picture of where these teams stand with some competitions we're seeing today. Some kickers get released. A weird amount of offensive line trades. Teams looking for depth. But, Matt, my point from the preseason after watching three weeks of this is that we cannot

take away much of the preseason anymore and i think that the takes are hot about oh the preseason never matters and it does matter i've talked about this before it does there are things that you want to see happen you want to see the good be good you want to see if it's bad you know second and third string it's going to be going to play worse but we've never had a year where we haven't matched up ones versus ones twos versus twos and threes are in threes versus threes quite like this year we had teams ones verse twos and threes pittsburgh was playing atlanta in the third preseason game with their one offensive line i looked up the players on the Falcons' defense, Matt. They're like undrafted rookie for agents, third-string linebackers playing against Pittsburgh's number one offensive line.

Like, Pittsburgh's going to dominate that. It's like a Rams starting defense. Yes. We've never – yeah, exactly. We've never had a disparity before where – the Cleveland Browns against the Chiefs, they played their first offense for four or fives against the Chiefs they played their first offense for four or five series against the Chiefs backups now again it should look good if you're

the Steelers offense or the Browns offense but it used to be more uniform ones played ones twos played twos every now and then you get ones versus twos or twos there's ones this year's all over place we we made fun of the Bears and Colts for not playing fields and Richardson in game two all of a sudden in game three they're playing their guys while the other teams are sitting out. So, to me, I don't think there's much to take away from this preseason, Matt. Like, there used to be. We used to get good film on ones versus ones and this guy versus this guy. It doesn't happen anymore.

And I kind of miss the days when you could watch these games and really see where teams could be after the preseason who does that disadvantage the most is that a coach does that affect coaches does that affect the players needing a few weeks to get sort of prepared like how does this spill into the regular season um i said this last year and i do feel pretty comfortable in saying that i think that the offensive lines that play together in the preseason end up playing better in the regular season to start off at least. A lot of teams just didn't play some offensive linemen, which I do not understand. But I did think that the coaches

in general played their starters more than I feel like they did this year. It just was random times, right? It's hard to take away much. Again, we used to say, if you play ones versus ones, I get it. It's the preseason, but that's a good tell, right? You play ones versus ones i get it it's the preseason but that's a good tell right you're ones versus ones you're seeing your one wide receiver against the one corner your one left towel against the one defensive end you can see guys work through things but you can't do that anymore again you take it for what it is let's use offensive line they look good but they're playing guys that aren't going to make the falcons team. In previous years, that was one versus one. So I'm not sure it benefits anyone. Just for us, as we evaluate these teams, I can't look at the preseason and say, well, I like this team more or less now.

There's certain players I think I like after preseason, seeing the jump they've made. But teams, I feel no different about any team, Matt, after the three preseason games. Well, one thing that I think really is interesting about this is the rookie quarterbacks, because I don't recall a year, especially think about last year bryce young is starting it seems like this year there was just no thought of like well of course the rookies are going to start and the quarterbacks are going to start week one without the preseason you'd think they'd be more disadvantaged right like that seems it can't all be ownership pressure when it's all of these different teams like i know that's people think that might be the case in indy and maybe another, but I'm curious what you think, what the effects are of that. Well, the problem is the backups on those teams stink.

There's no reason to play those guys, right? And so you want to get the young guys acclimated as soon as possible. But yeah, the lack of reps, I just don't get why Anthony Richards is not playing all three games. It makes no sense to have a rookie quarterback with limited reps of Florida and not get all the reps possible in the preseason. He's not going to get hurt.

He's 6'5", 250. Like, come on. You need to get him the most reps possible. I think Bryce Young, I think he played the most. Stroud actually looked decently well, too, against the Saints. But again, the Saints didn't play anyone, right? So, to me, my opinion about these guys has not changed until i see them play right to the game they made some good throws all of them they made some bad throws the problem with

bryce young have did you watch any panthers football in this preseason by any chance can't say i did i've seen him i've seen his highlights and i saw his touchdown in the last game like i've seen him play he is smaller than i thought he'd be on the field like matt it really worries me like when i see these defensive linemen run after him i'm like please go down please he looks very small which we knew anyways and i'm i'm terrified and maybe this is one opinion i do have from the i'm terrified to watch him get hit it's not going to go well. There's a reason why they say they want a bigger body style, right? Because you have bigger shoulders, bigger legs, bigger hips. When you fall, that 300 pounds is not falling on a 185-pound frame. It's falling on someone who's

205, 215, 210. And I just worry about him. But again, my opinion on these quarterbacks, I thought Stroud was pretty accurate. He looked like he did at Ohio State. He made some really good throws. Richardson had a couple throws. You're like, wow, okay, I see that. Bryce Young, I mean, it doesn't change any of my opinions until they play actual regular season games.

Yeah, it's true on Bryce Young. Seeing him out there is it is extremely striking and you know people have said this but if he is going to succeed it will be a historic outlier like no one has ever been this size and been at least in the modern nfl and been a prolific quarterback so i we're rooting for him you're you live in charlotte you're definitely rooting for him um but yeah it's it's it's a tall uphill battle for him all uphill pun not intended um yeah it'll be interesting week one i feel like it might be a good chance i haven't really looked at too many of the lines yet but we might be getting a bargain with some of these teams with these rookie quarterbacks without a real preseason right like i wonder if we should maybe think about an edge

there same by the way, with rookie coaches. Like, I feel like in the past, you and I specifically, I remember one year we bet some unders where there was a game where there were, like, two new offensive coordinators or something like that. But, like, a new rookie quarterback, a rookie offensive coordinator without a bunch of preseason reps, especially that third game where everyone used to sort of use that as their dress rehearsal.

Now it doesn't really even feel like there is that. So maybe we should take a look at that. Like maybe it's, you know, Panthers, Falcons under 40 might be a way to do something like that in week one. Well, yeah, I mean, that's what we did last year. I think it was a good way to look at it, right? As you take new coordinators and new spots and you bet the under, we'll look at that as we move forward forward because obviously we're going to have next week a gambling show we're going to give our five favorite wagers we as we've done in season we're going to finish we're going to finish 41 of 41 because that's what we do every year um and it was then we're no we're going to be better this season we're not bringing any any

baggage into the new season sorry 45 and 45 We have 90 games this year to go over. We are absolutely not going to go 500 this year. We are going to do better than 500, and we are going to be a winning podcast. We're going to set our intention today. That has to happen. I love it. I'm with you there.

I have one other preseason take that I think is tough because I just mentioned the Steelers didn't play anybody and didn't play starters. They played the Bill starters, I think, for a little bit. I'm very happy we're on the Steelers, Matt. I feel that's like the most happy I am about a take that we gave this preseason is being high on the Steelers. I think Kenny Pickett's going to make that jump from year one to year two, that big jump we always see in starting quarterbacks

and become that kind of franchise type of player. Wow. They just – they look good this year. Like the offensive line looked better. Pickett is really good. The offense seemed to function better. I know that, again, it's the preseason. Again, I get it.

But like did you – I got that feeling last year from Pickett and nothing changed watching this preseason to where I felt any different. Dude, I think it's similar to the, uh, the commander's take I had. It's like Pittsburgh was nine and eight last year in a division with two playoff teams in the tougher conference and a brutal schedule. And Pick it was a rookie and everything went wrong with drisky like they're going to be good they're a good team already and i think i like betting on mike tomlin is one of my favorite things to do i love that we were on this team i love we took them over um and i love that we have them week one against against brock purdy and the dysfunction that is san franc Francisco 49ers.

Did we talk about that last week? Did we want to maybe hit on that a bit? The Trey Lance? Yeah. I honestly don't even remember what day that was. I know. We didn't talk about that. But basically, obviously, Trey Lance is moving on to the Cowboys. But not his process was bad.

They tried to play him. Remember, he was going to be the starter last season. He got hurt. They tried to give him reps. It just didn't happen. And then they just were happy to get rid of him because, look, you can't have a third string quarterback who sucks up all the energy, right? Who people talk about, who people want to see play. Just can't have that. And obviously, Jerry Jones does not care. So he traded for Trey Lance because everyone's talking about every time Dak Prescott struggles,

get Trey Lance in the game. But the Niners, they whiffed. They swung out. They swung and missed. And the issues they're going to have is that Brock Purdy, I don't think is a good enough quarterback to win a Super Bowl. We'll find out. But two is the depth, right? I mean, they lost a lot of first-round picks.

Like, they lost players. and you look at their roster, extremely top-heavy, like, very, very talented team. But even Niners beat reporters will tell you that there's some depth issues. So the process of getting Trey Lance just was not good, right? I mean, if you're going to draft Mac Jones, great. But you can trade up and draft a project while your team is ready to win now. Bad process, man. Bad process. And the reason no one's really killing them for this is because they're still winning. If it was a bad process and they were 6-10 or 6-11 now, 5-12, you would knock them for

this process and they're not getting as much heat because they're still winning anyways. 100%. And I'm not the first to go through the 2021 draft and think huh if they had stayed at 12 they could have gotten micah parsons or rashaun slater or mac jones of course um and i you know it's so funny like people have done the deck it's a great topic right will the cowboys turn to trey lance if that falls apart which they might but trey lance there is so if he was drafted by any other team no one would have cared about this because when you look at the other like zach wilson when i picked before him no one is clamoring for a zach wilson trade i actually happen to think

like zach wilson there's something to save there like he's shown some throws in the nfl he was put in a really tough situation and now Aaron Rodgers is there. And it's like, you know, Zach Wilson just has no buzz, but Trey Lance is this totally unknown quantity who Kyle Shanahan liked for an off season. And everyone's like,

this guy's gotta be awesome. He's going to be the next starter behind Dak. Like, no, he isn't. He hasn't showed us anything. And if he was valuable, you have to think San francisco would have figured

out a way to keep him or at least elevate him to beating sam darnold for the number two spot like what are we talking about here the stakes are low so i just think that everyone needs to just rein their trey lance takes in and we were all really excited about him we all had really high hopes for him but i think at the end of the day like this is a little bit of the come to jesus with kyle shanahan that i keep talking about it's like this guy is mortal like he's not going to be right 100 of the time and if he deserves any credit it's for folding when he knew that you know this guy still had some value left because maybe he's not anything i'm rooting for him it seemed i mean he's really fun to watch when he's doing his thing but uh it doesn't seem i don't think dallas like turned a

fourth round pick into their next franchise quarterback. No, and I think that there's – the thing with Lance that really sucks is that he's probably never going to get a chance, Matt, to ever prove himself in the NFL. It's just the way that the cycle works. He's going to have to find a home next year that's going to let him compete in camp, right? I mean, it's not going to be Dallas. They might keep him on the roster. But where's he going to go next find a home next year that's going to let him compete in camp. It's not going to be Dallas.

They might keep him on the roster. Where's he going to go next year where he has the possibility of competing? He's never going to get the chance now to become a starting quarterback in the NFL. Well, he did. That's the thing. He had his chance. Yeah, he got injured, but then pretty good at his thing.

I'm glad you mentioned this because I just came to this thought. It's really apt here. So you mentioned – excuse me, I've got some stuff in my eye there. You mentioned that he got a chance. He got a chance. First-round picks get 17 chances, right? Like I was seventh-round pick. I got a chance, one chance. First-round picks are supposed to get more chances, right? Like, I was seventh round pick. I got a chance, one chance.

First round picks are supposed to get more chances, Matt. That's what makes this so different than other first round picks is because a lot of teams say, yeah, we'll suck it up. We'll play the young kid. Hopefully he gets better. But because the Niners are in win now mode,

they obviously don't have the opportunity to be that patient. Most, again, most first round picks get multiple picks and multiple tries, which is obviously why he got to trade to Dallas. But they typically will get three, four, five opportunities on a team, and he got one opportunity here. It's so interesting.

I love that take, and it relates back to you so well. Well done. I will say, though, I i also think to go back even a step further if he went to ohio state if he went to michigan any even just a d1 school like if he went to byu maybe with zach wilson's case like he's not getting another chance because he did not play in college either like he took a year off of course, but he also played for North Dakota state and Carson Wentz isn't helping this case. Like there's a lot of like mental shortcuts that decision makers have to

make when they put this all into account. And I just have a feeling like him being under recruited in high school is like coming back to bite him here. You know what I mean? Like he's almost a victim of his own success in the draft and how high he was drafted because we would, he would just be like a guy if we didn't know about him from going number three. It's fascinating.

This whole thing has never really happened before quite like this. It kind of reminds me of the Josh Rosen situation a few years back where I really liked him coming out of college. I think you may have liked him too. I know our friend Blackjack. I did, yeah. I feel like him and I were the chief shareholders of Joshosh rosenstock and then he fell apart and he got one more chance maybe maybe two and that was it and you know we're seeing it with baker mayfield right

now like he's getting another chance probably just because he was the number one pick and went to a big school and you know i think that's how it goes but this trey lance thing is fascinating uh i'm glad we touched absolutely speaking about new faces and new places, buddy, let's get to number two here. Yeah, I'm curious. This is, I mean, this is that time of year where we sort of look around and go like, oh, right, like, you know,

new coaches that we haven't thought about in a few months, like your guy, Eric Bien-Ami, my guy now, Eric Bien-Ami, D'Amico Ryans, Todd Munkin. He's gotten a ton of buzz. That Ravens offense, everybody seems to be really high on the Ravens right now. Who is maybe the most fascinating person who's in a new spot that you're looking at as the season starts that you're most intrigued by? Well, I really think there's three, right?

And you mentioned a couple of them. Todd Munkin is the OC because you know this is now the opportunity for baltimore and their offense to move away from what greg roman did right everyone says hey man greg roman held this offense back right there's a possibility that you know lamar jackson the passing game is just so much better right they have an opportunity to be so much better well guess what you have it now you have a an offense coordinator matt that's going to let them throw the football. He's going to let Lamar Jackson play in a quote-unquote more pro-style offense. And so this is the opportunity everyone's been asking for in Baltimore. So Todd Monk can be able to do this with, again, the weapons aren't great,

but the offensive line should be better when all healthy. And look, it's up to Lamar, right? I mean, this is what you wanted you want this offense and you play a tough division remember guys it takes eight to ten weeks for an office to sort of settle in and so we're might not get the best of baltimore early on or any of these teams as we're going to talk about but you know the back half of the season is when you probably feel feel better about them but i'm just fascinated because if it doesn't work with Todd Munkin, then it's just that's not what Lamar can be in the NFL.

Yeah. I mean, people are giving him a lot of credit. We've seen this before. Steve Sarkeesian comes to mind for me as these college sort of – these big-brain college guys that come up, and they have varying success. Of course, I'm not going to say the word Steve Spurrier, but they've come to mind for me personally. But it happens a lot where people project the success of the college thing

onto the NFL, and we'll see. A lot of hype on the Ravens this year, and I think there's other teams in that division like Pittsburgh that look a lot better to me too. I mean, I think that the story, the number one thing I'm intrigued by, I think, is Jordan Love. Because Jordan Love, if the Packers were to have another good, stable quarterback after, what, damn near 40 years of stability at that position, 30 years, 35 years at this point, that would be a – talk about historical outlier. That would be the first time ever that somebody would be a talk about historical outlier that'd be the first time

ever that somebody would be this lucky uh at the quarterback position we're seeing new England sort of deal with their ebbs and flows we saw the Colts get close with luck and Manning but like this just doesn't happen so it would be unbelievable if the Packers were to nail this but you know people I think are just assuming the packers are getting a lot of buzz like they're getting a lot they're getting postseason buzz they're getting sleeper in the nfc buzz while the detroit lions are also in that division and you know i'm we're on minnesota i think a little bit to take care of business there but i think jordan love is going to be the most interesting week one story for me so absolutely he's on high on my list here here's the thing about jordan love

i feel like matt if he was that good the packers would have moved on from rogers already right like if you if he showed in almost like a patrick mahomes alex smith thing right where they sat patrick mahomes and he was so good that he were to alex smith of course alex and aaron rogers two different players so it's not really an apples-to-apples comparison. But, you know, you felt so good about that quarterback, you had to get rid of the other guy. And it feels unlikely that he will be as good, or obviously he's not going to be as good as Aaron Rodgers,

but close enough to make this team a 12- or 13-win team, right? Their offensive line's good. They have a run game the better better weapons ish i like the tight ends obviously watson year two matt but i i don't i want to see him play i'm looking forward to watching him play but i i don't have my expectations do you i i really i win total seven and a half i think that's about right yeah i i don't know what to expect i don't know what's a fair expectation for him like the counter to your argument would be like what were they supposed to do trade the mvp

like or trade the mvp the the next year you know what i mean like rogers was just so unbelievable these those last years and then last year yeah you know he was dealing with the injury so i don't know but you know it's that i think we'll know right away. And I do think that all of the sort of comments that Rodgers, well, not comments, the results of what Rodgers' year was last year without Devontae Adams there, without a tight end really. Now people are really gassing up Watson and Dobbs and this rookie tight end.

We'll see. they're a huge question mark and the packers like yep the packers could be a blow it up team like if they're in week three or four and aaron jones is looking good like they're in their own four like they might ship them out of there um they could do the same with bakhtiari who could go to the jets like rogers once so i mean there's lots of ways that that he's not he's he's not going to Jets maybe not maybe next year but not during the season all right Matt every year there is a worst to first team not every year it feels like every year in the NFL last year was Jacksonville right in 2021 they were 3 and 14. I believe that was the the Urban Meyer season and now they are um now they are uh now that last year they were what were they uh right

here at nine eight and won the division um we have eight candidates for that jets broncos browns texans commanders cardinals bears falcons we're going to do a draft we're going to draft our favorites to be this team worst to first i'll let you go first. I'll go second, and we'll go three, four, five. So who are you going to go first? You didn't want to go first? No, I'm – well, I will go first. I think the obvious pick is if we're calling the Falcons, there was a three-way tie for last in the NFC South.

So I thought maybe you were going to get a little tricky there. I think that you have to take the Jets first for obvious reasons. They have the best quarterback on this list. They have the best defense on this list. They play in the toughest division, at least you'd think. If they were the story, if they went worst to first and Rodgers got them back to the playoffs and the Bills maybe took a step back, I think that would be the least surprising outcome of this list um but i i so i will take them first um i'm with you here that's the number one pick that has to be the

number one pick um and because they have the best quarterback right that's it's toughest division but uh best quarterback i'm going with look according to nfl standings the falcons were the worst team in the afc assuming the nfc south just because of i guess there were seven and ten but they had finished up behind the saints and panthers for tiebreaker reasons only because matt that they're in a bad division like they can easily make this jump with the bucks in their division let's say the panthers and the Panthers and Bryce Young have a rookie pain season. And Derek Carr, to me, it's the Falcons, right? It's the next pick, I feel like, in this

situation. I mean, 7-10 to 9-8. You have to have two win improvements to win this division. I agree. Very easy schedule. I thought about taking them first just to zag, but I couldn't pass on Rodgers. Ritter, again, he's not a new face, but a huge question there. Rest of that roster looks pretty good.

Some underrated additions on defense. I keep forgetting Calais Campbell went there. I keep forgetting Jason Tate went there. They were a really fun team, and they are going to have a really different style. So we'll see. I will third pick here. I'm really between the Broncos browns and commanders just do it just hometown it no i'm not going to i think i'm going to take i think i'm going to

take the browns um because they're you know they're a team that i haven't spent a whole lot of time thinking about because i hate them but They have a brutal, brutal schedule. They play the NFC West. They have San Francisco. I guess the rest of that division isn't too bad. Their division in the AFC North is killer. Start the season with Cincinnati. They have a week five buyout. I could see them just kind of like, if Watson were to return to form they could be awesome they have an unbelievable offensive line they have possibly the best defensive player in the nfl

on their defensive line they have a great secondary kevin stefanski like isn't the worst coach she's the best coach they hired jim schwartz which is kind of an interesting hire they're not a team that's gotten a lot of buzz and that's probably a good thing like i could see them having a bounce back. Even if it means they'd have to get by three, you know, possible playoff teams, it is possible that they could go to first.

I'm with you again, quarterback. Again, I think this is a podcast. It doesn't refer to Sean Watson, but you can play football, right? Like it,

it definitely makes sense. They could do that. I'm going to go with the Bears here, Matt. Yeah, and not because I think they're going to be great, but just looking at my kind of divisions and the chance. Let's say Justin Fields improves,

right? The offensive line gets better. They have more weapons, and he makes that jump. The Lions, to me, are a team that everyone's too high on. So I think we both agreed that like, no, we would have no playoffs, right?

That was one of our wagers. We talked about the Packers and Jordan love the Vikings are going to be tough, but if the Vikings go two and seven and one score games, not nine, Oh, the bears are in this, right, Matt,

like they're in, they're in the discussion to win the division late in the year. If things break, right for everybody. It's a good case. I bet the Bears under. I am a huge seller in the Bears. I think they haven't improved enough at any of the positions

where they really need it except for DJ Moore, who I think lovingly is not the player that people think he is. They start the season Green Bay, Tampa's winnable, at KC, Denver, Washington, Minnesota. That's brutal. Not a Matt Eberflus guy. Just out on the Bears, but good case. So in round, the seventh option?

Yeah, no, the fifth option, I'll take the Commanders here. I've made that case at length on this show before. They had eight wins last year. Interesting comments from Ron Rivera today. I don't know if you saw those about Sam Howell, where he said that if he had known what he was capable of, he said, fuck, if I would have known this, I would have played him sooner while watching him play the Cowboys

last week of the season which is bizarre for about 10 different reasons uh so i think rivera was impressed with sam l and i think that eric the enemy is a massive upgrade so uh the only big problem here is the other two the other three teams in the division that could all win it as well so i'll take the commanders with the fifth overall it's a pretty odd comment right like that is it your job to evaluate these guys in camp and during practice yeah didn't you draft him like isn't this like wasn't wasn't the report wasn't the report last year they had that taylor heineke had to beg for him to play the last game of the season yeah taylor heineke took himself out and said, put this guy in.

Pretty strange. Ron Rivera's had a kind of goofy offseason, and I think without Snyder there, people are going to stop grading him on a curve. Shout out to Hank. Lower third says commodes right now instead of commanders. I like that. So are you going to have enough cognitive distance to take Denver,

or what are you doing next? Can I do something for the rest of our listeners right now and just – can we punt on the last three teams? Broncos, Texans, Cardinals. Yeah, there's no chance the Cardinals, Texans, and Broncos are winning. No. So we'll just skip that. Broncos would be the only reasonable one, but yeah.

Yeah, and we'll get to the last one here as we wrap up a shorter episode today as we get regular uh ready for the nfl regular season also college football as i mentioned starting up again in full this past uh assuming this upcoming weekend we did have college football this past weekend um with some kind of little appetizer is Notre Dame steamrolled Navy, and then USC beat San Jose State 56-28. Takeaway from that game is USC's defense still don't like it. It's game one. I get it.

But they have dudes now to play, and they still run really complicated and overly aggressive defensive schemes that don't allow their players to get the best out of what they can do. I just don't get it. But the main takeaway from USC remains that Caleb Williams, Matt, is an incredible football prospect. And he got hit way too much in this game for my liking. We've got to find a way to get the ball out quicker sometimes.

And I know they're having some offensive line. They started a true freshman left guard. And they're trying to find ways to kind of patch up the offensive line to get in the conference play but got hit way too much nonetheless the dude is incredible he dropped a snap the ball rode backwards he picked up and threw a 76 yard touchdown pass anyways um you cannot tackle this guy like no one touches him the entire game even when there's guys that are in his face he jukes and makes a miss and he is the closest thing we've seen to really the last surefire prospect was andrew luck right like where everyone's like yeah this guy's gonna be good kayla's is gonna be good in the nfl is he patrick mahomes i don't know

but he's an elite level talent and that brings brings me to the Arizona Cardinals, who today announced that they are cutting Colt McCoy and they're going to play either Josh Dobbs or Clayton Toon at quarterback this season, Matt. And I could not be happier that a team is just saying, fuck it, we're tanking. Like absolutely, 100%. I know Colt McCoy is not a world beater. I think he won three of those last six starts the last two years. He can play some football. He completed 70% of the passes over the last two years. He's manageable. He's good enough. Josh Dobbs is not good. Clean tune is not good. They're emptying the roster. Isaiah Simmons, gone. They're getting rid of the entire roster.

They're redoing it. And the way you take in this league, for the hundredth time I've said this, is to have a bad roster and be bad at quarterback, Matt. And I love the blatant taking for Caleb Williams that the Arizona Cardinals are doing. It's fascinating. And love that the Commanders play them week one good for our commanders over

ticket good for uh good for my personal sanity good for your survivor pools potentially great tease candidate the the comandantes are favored by seven that could be a really nice tease down i was putting together a little tease in my head as we're doing this topic um yeah it's a tough one for like it's like hey raiders like maybe double check that Jimmy Garoppolo foot injury like maybe just like maybe get a second opinion that says he can't play this season like I agree this guy I mean you said Andrew Luck like to me it was Trevor Lawrence like Trevor Lawrence when he came out he was the most can't miss it I couldn't be higher than him this season and look what but like say they're about the same look what he did after a disaster year

one trevor lawrence has jacksonville in the playoffs and like there it looks like they're division now for the next few years um so it's it's just the ultimate shortcut and this guy looks i mean his highlights are ridiculous like i've i've never seen anybody quite like him he's it's like mahomes but he's got size and he's got just like, yeah, he's awesome. He's, he looks like a perfect fit for the future of the NFL.

And I look into the, the fallout here is Kyler who like has this huge contract is still like, I don't even know if they're going to be able to move him with his injury. He's not, they just reported. They're not taking him off a pup yet. Like what are they going to do with him? Who's going to buyler murray at a discount next year and pay him all that money so not really a discount i remember i was on i think it was on carton show like a couple months ago

and um i made the comment that i don't think color mario will ever play for the cardinals again um yeah and people were like whoa i'm like yeah i. I'm like, yeah, I don't think so. Yeah, he's owed $35 million next season in 2024. His dead money cap hit would be $81 million in 2024. It's $29 million if they cut him after. Wait, I'm sorry. Post-June 1st, the cap hit is $48 million. sorry, post June 1st, the cap is $48 million. And they'd be 29 million in the red for cap savings, which obviously doesn't even matter for 2024 if they cut him. He's probably untradeable at that current contract, right? But here's the thing though, with the rookie wage scale,

you can sort of afford to get by for a little bit with two quarterbacks essentially, right. Getting paid a good amount of money. And Caleb Williams to me, Matt is worth the headache of figuring it out, right? Like, like, like let's get Caleb Williams in our building, in our building. And if Murray sits, he sits for a year and we get rid of them. Some team injures a quarterback in training camp. They want a new quarterback.

But Caleb Williams is better than Kyler Murray. And remember, Carlos have a new general manager, a new head coach with no ties, no allegiance to Kyler Murray. They didn't draft him. They didn't pay him. They do not care about keeping him around. They want their own quarterback. Caleb Williams, besides the point in the field, Matt,

I've interviewed him a couple times. I've seen him at media days. I've talked to people at USC. Great dude. Like, humble, down-to-earth, still has that confidence and cockiness that you need, that ego as a top-flight quarterback. But, you know, kind of, again, the down-to-earth qualities about him. He's everything you want in a quarterback.

And you cannot be hung up on Tyler Murray as the reason why you don't do this you do it and you figure it out later that's a great point and something to look forward to and maybe start to track we can be early on this one a lot of a lot of potential for quarterback movement next year um someone brought this up with the dac prescott contract when the trailance trade was made they the cowboys have an out next year. If they're not liking where that's headed, they could get out of that contract. They do.

Kirk Cousins is a free agent next year. Ryan Tannehill is a free agent next year, and they just drafted Levis, but we'll see. Jared Goff, there's an out. Russell Wilson, there's an out. And I believe I'm missing someone else. Did I say Jared Goff? There's lots of teams that could potentially move around.

Who knows what happens with Stafford? Garoppolo, obviously, is another one. That's a lot of quarterbacks. Every couple of years, it seems like there's a quarterback earthquake and a whole reshuffling of the deck. We'll see. It's a great year to have the number one pick. There's going to be another quarterback, by the way, on your roster like kyler's probably getting a first round pick

you'd think like if you know the vikings were to say we're done with her cousins we got to the playoffs or whatever but that's it again they have like the 20th pick like that's pretty good deal for kyler murray i would think right now so it's going to be fun next year it's uh we'll see we'll see what happens but uh very interesting love that they love that they are just going full tank and and uh love that they're facing the commanders week one let's go i love it anything anything else in your mind any nfl college football in your mind quickly i wanted to talk about the matthew stafford thing we we were talking before air about the rams um and how a lot of people including me to some degree are sort of saying like hey hold on like isn't this a team

that could kind of turn it around as a as a not worse the first but close contender um he said today that he's having trouble relating or his wife said i think that there he's having trouble relating to his younger teammates they're all calling him sir uh he's sort of confused as to how he fits in with this younger group a lot of sort of undrafted we've mentioned on the show before a lot of rookies um did you ever is this where it went one way or the other like with an eli or somebody one of these older quarterbacks or is this a sign of hey maybe like something's going on with the rams that we should pay attention to here well i think this is something that when I was with Eli Manning, it's not a problem, but we were a new offensive line for him.

He had played with guys for so many years, and it takes time to form that bond. We were older, though. We weren't a bunch of young guys. The Rams offensive line, I mean, they just traded for Dotson from Pittsburgh, but it's a bunch of young dudes. Cooper Cup is older. That's it, young dudes like cooper cup is older that's it right like aaron donald older that's it we thought we went off the list of guys on defense and

absolutely it's a tough thing and if his wife is mentioning it on a podcast then it must be a lot because matt's talking about a lot then at home right i mean like he he's coming he's talking about a lot of she she feels the need to mention it on a podcast i i think on our show did you try to convince me the rams are going to be good or i did i do that someone did that right on our last show preview show i try but i didn't try that hard because i don't totally believe it i just think mcveigh deserves the benefit of the doubt yeah that shanahan gets i the rams are a great candidate to have the first overall pick right like stafford gets beat up early in the season and they right like they lose a they lose a cooper cup for half a season again

and that who who is left who's making plays for them yeah if cup if cup were to miss three games i would say if if cup misses any games you have to take their under like cup is the offense and he's going to get the same amount of targets he's gotten in years past where it's just constant it's you're right like i they're just they're just young men they're just young they're just yeah it's a real coaching challenge and if sean mcveigh if anybody can do it it's mcveigh but i i agree they're a team that uh i wouldn't i wouldn't feel great if i were one of their fans and uh but it's interesting that they could be a candidate to tank and potentially get caleb williams to stay home in southern california that'd be pretty interesting i hadn't thought of that but maybe they should be on that list.

Matt, you're going to have a time when you have kids, you're having your first child soon, when they just walk in your office while you're recording podcasts multiple times for no apparent reason to tell you that something arrived from Amazon on our front porch. My daughter just keeps walking in here, man. It is what it is. Like, it's just something arrived at our porch matt i need to go look at she's not playing in that sweet new room she's got set up oh yeah they did come yeah they did come home and look at that room my wife i don't know if your wife is like this matt i'm

sure some people listening uh they have wives like this or maybe you know the husband is like this but wife corner well my wife doesn't do well with downtime. And she treats downtime like time to rearrange the entire house. So yesterday we had nothing to do. And so she just decided to rearrange the entire house by herself. And we have two rooms now that look completely different than they did when I woke up Sunday morning. And I'm going to Eugene this weekend with the kids to take them to the Oregon football game. When I come back, the house is going to be different. She has promised there will be changes. I'm a little terrified of what the house is going to look like. And this is why she always says, I'm going to quit my job. I'm like, hon, you're going to destroy my job i'm like hon um you're gonna destroy my house our house if you do this

like you cannot sit still in one day she redid two rooms like it's going to be it's a lot matt it's a there's a lot happening in my household at all times i love that story meredith is the best I love that story. Meredith is the best. A few rooms in a day is prolific. That is a prolific level of output. It is. My wife is very private. Like on social media, there's no like, you know, you don't,

you never get to see much of it. I think her Instagram is public now. Who knows? But she doesn't post anything. Even like we go out to dinner that night. We didn't post like we're out to dinner. We just like don't talk much about our I mean we're doing personally but um when people meet her she is a unique there's one of one man there ain't there ain't

there ain't no one like oh I remember was it it had to be like two years ago like maybe less where you just we were on a phone or podcast or something and you were like hey i just learned today like meredith doesn't follow me on instagram it was like weirdly recent it was like it was not like six years ago it was like one year ago i'm tired of your crap on the internet i'm unfollowing you it just doesn't look like you were like tagging her forever and she never saw any of your stuff. Yes. She's like, why don't you post stuff on Instagram anymore and tag me? And I go, I do, you don't follow me. The best part is like, she's one of those people that is so good at work,

like so on the ball, so focused, that in her real life, it's just not the exact opposite. It's it's quite the dynamic to see her like in work mode and doing work and then just like clicks it off and turns into the exact opposite at home. It's quite incredible. I admire that. Well, I do, too. She's a she's a killer and great for her. I have a question for my marriage corner here, which is we've entered. So as the listeners may know, we're expecting our first baby boy

around Halloween. So Jeff, we'll have to see if I'll maybe send some pics via text, or maybe you'll have to pick those weeks with Gabe when I'm out for a few weeks. But my question is that we're enter we're in the third trimester now and it's a very different trimester like second trimester you're you're flying everybody's feeling great like you know it's still like it's it's it still feels very like far away but also pretty manageable that third trimester comes and like you know you've got a closet full of baby clothes like i do behind me like stuff starts to get more real and my wife's getting very uncomfortable like it's it really the body's really changing

at this point uh what can i do to be a good uh a good teammate at this phase what what's some what's some good advice from there's a lot of things i could be doing better but there's certainly no there's a lot of i get a lot of suggestions and i'd like to sort of focus my energy yeah into anything that can make real progress. Nothing. Nothing. You just have to support.

If she's like, give me an ice cream. You're like, yes, ma'am. Go get her ice cream. Yeah, done. Just whatever makes her comfortable, just do it. The thing about the dad part about kind of the whole pregnancy and birth, there's nothing to do like even even when the baby is born matt if if your wife or any wife is breastfeeding like the baby

cries you just hand it back to the mom like it's nothing to until the baby starts on a bottle like the dad's nothing to do all you're there is to support your wife or your baby mom it's your only job whatever that entails for you or for anyone else that's what you're there is to support your wife or your baby mom it's your only job whatever that entails for you or for anyone else that's what you're there for when the baby gets to three or four months you start giving more bottles and whatnot or maybe obviously everyone's plans different but like when my kids started having a bottle then i became more involved with the like everything right because now i can give them the bottle and i can help them sue them i can do that but like this this time just whatever she wants, just here you go, hon,

whatever you need to do. And I have no parenting advice, by the way. I'm not willing to give you any parenting advice. I have none. It's like just everyone's different. Raise your kid how you want to raise your kid. I just don't understand. Yeah, like what am I going to tell you?

It's your kid. You raise them how you want to raise them. Well, I look forward to sharing my other lessons with the listeners over time this is nice safe space because we're positive that our wives are not listening or watching this oh no there's no chance um i i i like that you're going to experience this like in a different because like my kids are obviously nine and seven gabe's kids are getting into like you know little toddler age and you're going to have the baby and you're going to, you're going to get the dad jokes.

You're going to get, you're going to understand, like I might send you a pair of new balances for your birthday or the, or the air monarchs for the birthing present. I'm going to give you a birthing present. Are you, have you done present for me? Have you done that yet?

A push present. Have you figured that out yet? No. And you were, as you were mentioning the like you know just do whatever she wants like i'm way ahead of you there that's just sort of how this relationship has worked from the beginning so oh can i give you one he's just like i'm gonna get it that's what i'm that's what's gonna happen i'm just going to buy that for myself so do you have

clothes hanging up in the background i think those are baby clothes not your clothes um they're very small jackets very cute um they go through clothes like crazy buddy don't buy your kids shoes so they can walk shoes are expensive for kids and they don't even they can't use them why we bought for my son we bought like you know 20 pairs of shoes he didn't wear a single one he doesn't stop walking we didn't buy we bought zero for my daughter until she could walk. It's like, otherwise, why would you have him wear shoes? Right. And then they're not walking outside. Or when they start crawling, maybe outside, you want them to wear shoes.

But when they're infants, don't put shoes on them. It's a waste of money. Save your money. That's a great thing. I gave some parenting advice there, I guess. Yeah. Oh, we're dragging here a little bit too long. It's our last show before the season.

We're going to button it up. Last question for you. Are you excited to be in the Blue Duck Fantasy Football League? Talk to me about your excitement level and your strategy about facing off with me, Hank, Gabe, Ryan Shazier, among the other. Let me see. Let me see. What's the app we're using for this? Sleeper, I think, or DorkyPADaniel.

Shout out, Daniel. Oh, Sleeper. Here we go. So I have to change my name, I think. I think it's just like Jeff Schwartz's team. If you do this thing too late, I'm just going to auto draft. That's basically. So you better not do the draft too late.

Well, I'm on the East Coast. We're planning this around you now. Consider that. So let's see. I know most of these people I think are here. Oh, Vic's in there. Great. Okay.

Yep. Vic, who's on the other line of this. Hasbulla. That's probably Hank's team, isn't it? I think that might be Daniel's team. Wait, Hank's team has two coaches? Yeah, I think Hank is too afraid to manage a team by himself. So is Gabe.

Gabe is also afraid to manage a team by himself. I'll just have a baby in the middle of the season and still win this league. Don't worry about it. I'm not big into fantasy, but I will have fun talking smack about luck. I really care. That's my favorite part of fantasy.

I'm like – I set my lineup. So, to be fair, I do radio Sunday mornings at 10 a.m. That's typically when I set my lineup. I remember I set my lineup at that point. To be black. Yeah. And so, yeah, that's when I do it. So, yeah, I hope to – I'm going to draft some sleeper maybe.

I don't know. Who knows? I don't know. I have no idea. I like to gamble. I feel like you can only gamble or do fantasy, not do both very well. Maybe you can. I mean, I'm living proof, brother.

I do them both poorly. All right, everyone. We'll be back next week. I'll be in Eugene this weekend. College football is back. I'll give you my Pac-12 plays of the week on Friday, probably even though two of the lines. The hard part about week one, Matt, giving out picks,

is that I have Hawaii plus seven, and that's now four and a half. I have an under I like that moved three points already. I always get caught in this dilemma week one. Do I give out the lines that I have myself or give out the lines that I have an under I like that moved three points already. I always get caught in this dilemma week one. Do I give out the lines that I have myself or give out the lines that I have on Friday? You get credit for your smart ones. I feel like I do, right? Anything that's actionable for the listener.

Yeah, we'll take whatever you've got. Got any parting shots? Got one for me that I can just put in right now? Well, like I said, I mean, so I think it's pretty reasonable to bet USC's team total over every week. I don't know what it is for the Vata

game this weekend. That's one that hasn't been played yet, hasn't been posted yet. That one I feel comfortable doing. The game is, you know, they're going to... 51.5. Yeah, that feels over. Yeah, I would take the over on that. Otherwise, as I mentioned, I have Stanford –

I'm assuming Hawaii at plus 7. Like, that's a plus – Is it 4 now? Dropped to 3.5 last night. It's 3.5 right now. I got plus 7. There is one other Pac-12 number that is kind of odd. Washington is coming off an 11-2 season.

They're 10th in the country. They're only favored at home by 14.5 over Boise State. I find that number to be really low. Like TCU is here by 20.5 over Colorado. I find that number just to be shockingly low. So, yeah. Interesting. Well, maybe the Hawaii thing is a tease and I'll tease

USC down to 31 and a half. You should. All right, guys. We'll talk to you next week. We're back, I think, to a week very soon here. I'll be some exciting new things in the future. All right, guys. Have a good one. Talk to you guys next week We're back, I think, to a week very soon here. Always some exciting new things in the future. All right, guys.

Have a good one. Talk to you guys next week. Take care, everybody. Bye. We'll be right back. Bye. Oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, Thank you. Ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh,