Geoff Schwartz Is Smarter Than You - The Titans and Jets Should Only Run the Ball, Also Geno!

Episode Date: November 1, 2022

Geoff is back with Gabe, and Gabe brought a new conspiracy theory along this week: the Titans and Jets should only run the ball (the Titans because they're good at it, the Jets because it's better than the alternative). Also, Geoff and Gabe do a deep dive into the NFC West leading Seahawks. Who deserves the credit for their success? This week on Moving the Line, Gabe asks about a couple of recently traded players, wondering if CMC is already the best player on the 49ers, and if Kadarius Toney will move the needle for the Chiefs next week. Plus, CFP talk, Chargers vs. Lakers, and a surprisingly positive NFC East check in.As always, be sure to leave a rating and a comment of you enjoyed the episode, and follow the pod to get notified when new episodes drop every Tuesday and Thursday.See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

it's Tuesday November 1st I'm Jeff Schwartz alongside Gabe Goodwin this Jeff Schwartz is smart on you powered by the varsity podcast network we are through eight weeks of the national football league we kind of have a sense of what the league is going to be what's not what teams are emerging what teams are falling back Gabe we have it all in front of us now so we head down kind of the middle the home stretch of this football season a lot of couple elite teams a couple bad teams and everyone else in the middle buddy how was your sports watching weekend uh nerve-wracking mostly uh but usc escaped after dark against arizona i was texting you sober this time texting you during that game i could tell very very big difference yeah and uh

watched a little bit of the world series and uh ready to talk nfl with you how about you how was your weekend look the world series man like i just don't get why you would schedule it on the weekend of nfl and and college football actually you should play the games monday through friday skipping thursday so monday through wednesday friday and then the next monday like i don't should play the games Monday through Friday, skipping Thursday. So Monday through Wednesday, Friday, and then the next Monday. Like, I don't understand. Like, I like baseball. I'm a fan of baseball. I'm a young fan of baseball. So are you. I saw the photo of you and your son watching the game. Great, right? Like, fantastic. But I'm choosing football every time. Sorry. Like, sorry, baseball, unless my team is in it it just don't put it on the same weekend as baseball you you preset the world series like you said it was also too i don't like that as well

because then you had this kind of this great talk around the cs's but then you waited like seven days to play the world series yeah like it just oh baseball just gets in their own way i feel like but and the games end again i, I mean, I know, or I'm an East Coast guy here, West Coast guy, like, bitching about time zones is not fun, and not compelling topics, but the games end too freaking late out here. Like, it's just ridiculous.

They're after midnight for a World Series game. I do not like it. What I do like is the National Football League, and, by the way, Oregon Ducks, who are playing very good football right now. But let's talk about the National Football League and, by the way, Oregon Ducks, who are playing very good football right now. But let's talk about the National Football League. Where do you want to start? I want to start with the team that actually grinds you down and wears you out and bores the living crap out of you half the time, just like in baseball.

But it's effective. It works. And they're playing your team. The Tennessee Titans, who were without Ryan Tannehill, however good he may be, went to their backup rookie Malik Willis, couldn't throw the ball, no offense in the air, all running game. King Henry had 200 plus yards, two touchdowns, set a million different records. He is unstoppable no matter how many people you put in the box. And Jeff, I just want to say that if they go even further in this direction, focus on Malik as a runner, let Derek Henry pound it 30 times a game. They will give your chiefs problems. Convince me otherwise. Well, they do play the chiefs this weekend. Look, I think it's important to talk about

Tennessee in this, in this framework. So we often praise the Colts, right? And we talked about this on the show before where, you know, know, oh my God, Chris Ballard, he's so nice to the media. He talks to the media. He builds this great team, except they ignore like all the important positions, right? Left tackle. They drafted pass rusher that really hasn't paid off

from Michigan a couple of years ago. Quarterback. I mean, Angelic retired four seasons ago. Like, time to get over it, okay? Find a quarterback in the future. Meanwhile, Tennessee is boring, as you mentioned, right? Like, they're kind of just a boring team, right?

Their new stadium renderings look awesome in Nashville, look like a cool stadium, but they're just kind of like boring. And all they do is win football games. They just win. That's all they do. They're deep playoff runs number one seeds and their offense is sort of simple as of now it's even getting simpler as ryan tannahill got hurt and then malik willis has taken over which is we're going to run with derrick henry and we're going to play action pass and we're going to play really

tough defense um and it works against Houston. The issue with this, and, you know, sorry Titans fans for going negative at the moment, but it's a very specific formula, right? And the reason why explosive pass plays are important parts of your game is it gives you the opportunity to score more points and score quickly, right? game is it gives you the opportunity to score more points and score quickly, right? And because if you have these long drives without scoring seven points, it doesn't matter. Like Kansas City will just go down and score very quickly on their own.

Tennessee this season has scored 20 points, this is by game by the way, 20, 7, 24, 24, 21, 19, and 17. So the formula works when your defense is also allowing 10 points and 17 points and 22 points. But the one game they played this year against a good team, they played the Giants, the Raiders, the Colts twice, who they own and are stinky anyways, the Command without without Taylor Heineke the most exciting player in all of football by the way Matt texted me our producer

Matt texted me and said the last the end of the Washington game where Heineke threw the kind of the Hail Mary attempt up to Taylor Heineke top 20 most exciting moment moment as a Washington sports fan felt a little bad for him in that moment, but it was exciting. Sounds like Matt was the one drunk texting you this weekend. No, he wasn't. Now, I think also Hank agrees. Top 10 as a Washington football fan. So they haven't played anyone great, and the formula works now.

But what happens if the Chiefs score 27 points, 28-31 points? Which Tennessee, by the way, has actually played them very well in the regular season. Go back a couple years ago when the first game, Pat came back after his knee. They played well. Last year, they won 27-3 against Kansas City. That was kind of a low point of their season.

But that's the only problem with offenses like Tennessee's. It leaves you a small margin of error where things don't go well. You'll end in sevens. Your defense just isn't as good in this one game. That's the issue is that you want to have a battle to attack. Even though I agree, this system works. It's won a lot of games. But will it win games against the elite teams?

So far, they played one. They lost 41-7 to Buffalo. They have another one this weekend in Kansas City. I think it's Sunday Night Football off the bye the Chiefs had. Okay, so let me just try to make one more point then to see how you feel about this. If the Chiefs we know can and often do score in two minutes all I ever hear about the value of a run game is that it it's slow it wears the other team's defense down and if the other

team's offense comes out score seven fast and puts the defense right back on the field, those guys are going to be gassed. And there's no amount of players you can put in the box to stop Derrick Henry. Eight plus in the box, he ran 18 times for 118 yards. It doesn't matter how many guys you try to defend him with. If Malik Willis can even sell a play action, and we know he can run, at least in theory as well, won't they just wear the living crap out of the Chiefs defense, which isn't always great.

Here's the thing. This is what I say about this idea of running the football at Kansas City. A, it almost never works. If you want to provide me some examples, please. Especially in important games like playoff games, it does not work. I don't have any great ones. That's why I'm asking. If you end the drive in seven

points, it has paid off. If you end the drive in seven points, it has paid off. If you end the drive in seven points and you take up eight minutes, great. But if you end in three, you end in no points, a punt, then you have just wasted seven minutes of the game doing nothing. That's the thing. So, yes, it can work if you end drives with touchdowns. That's my only thing about running the ball, keeping away from Kansas City, is if you do that, you must end drives with touchdowns. That's my only thing about running the ball, keeping away from Kansas City,

is if you do that, you must end drives in seven points. And Tennessee, if they're going to throw the ball ten times, as they did yesterday, I find it very hard to believe they will beat Kansas City. Dude, they're, what is it, 11-point underdogs? I saw it as ten and a half. Ten and a half. Ten and a half. Yeah. It's wild.

They're the two seed in the AFC. Yeah, they're 5-2 right now. They won five games in a row. And they're going on the road, and they're getting 10.5 points. And I can see a situation where this game is like, I don't know, 31-17? Chiefs cover that?

I mean, we're not waging on the Chiefs. Matt and I have already been texting about this game. He's like, do not do it. I won't. I won't. But I think that just kind of shows you the gap between – it does not mean they can't beat Kansas City, but the gap between the two teams right now, just offensively,

you're just not going to get away with 10 passes. You're not. I mean, you're not going to – unless you force a bunch of turnovers. Malik Wallace was 6 of 10 for 55 yards. Derrick Henry, by the way, owns the Texans. Four straight games now of over 200 yards against this team. So, look, again, Tennessee wins football games. They should absolutely be commended for that.

And, well while again, we praise the Colts and, and we put the money on the Colts and all this things like great. We awesome, but they don't win. Like the Titans win. The Titans are the team in the South who we should give our love to. And Vrabel's you see the clip two weeks ago about Vrabel hugging the center,

Ben Jones, after the game, his center was playing through a bunch of injuries. Can't give him a hug. I had tears in his eyes. Guys like playing for coaches that acknowledge the effort given in games. I remember one time Andy Reid in 2013

it was a preseason and I was the backup. I was kind of the backup of both tackles sort of in the guards. And I was going to play right tackle the second half of our third preseason game. I said four preseason games back then um and our starting right guard got hurt in the first drive of the game so i played right guard the first half then played right tackle the second half i went into overtime and i played overtime too i put like 80 plays in the preseason

it's a lot of plays in the preseason, a lot, especially when you practicing as like a pseudo starter and doing backup stuff. It was a lot for that part of training camp. So we get to practice the next day and Andy Reid goes, Schwartz, you know, like, thank you. Like, like you've worked a lot of reps. I appreciate it. I wish I could take you out of practice, but we don't have anyone else. So like, you just have to, to, to gut it up and do it. And I was like, cool. Thanks for acknowledging, man. Like, I appreciate you saying, Hey Schwartz, I see you're working hard, man. I didn't need any more than that.

I was like, thanks coach. And that's what Vabel did. He gave me Ben Jones. Like guys will play for you when you do that. When you just acknowledge, give us a little bit, give us a little bit of like, give us an attaboy. And, um, that is what, um um that is what um that is what uh why i think brable works i think it really does his guys believe in him man he fights for his

players he gets his players um and he's a good football coach and um i wish he i think he gets the credit that he deserves but again we just we pump the Colts up too much. Yeah. Well, I'll say this reluctantly. Vrabel may be the example of how to take a lot of the good that Bill Belichick brings, but then put an actual human personal touch on it, like what you're saying, by giving the players credit, treating them like humans. And I do think if he had a Tom Brady-type quarterback, they know they would you know like i don't know like will also be that guy who knows but i i think that like we look at them they would have a legit opportunity i think to win superbowls like if they had that type of player quarterbacks i think the team plays in a way where um you'd be you'd believe in them a

little bit more you mean you need to have a good quarterback to win in this league uh yeah believe it or not you do yeah oh yeah okay well the jets are finding that out the hard way again uh i don't know why the jets are always sort of surprised that they don't have the guy when everyone who's for them and watches them knows instantly that they don't have the guy. We've all been living this for 20 years. Even when we win a few games, it's clear we don't have the guy. So Zach Wilson stinks and the Jets are frauds and their hated rival who are crap themselves. Prove it to everyone.

You know, they can't they can't hold a lead. They can't play a good game against the Patriots, which would be all that anyone wants to take from this season. I'm never quite sure if I'm in or out on the Jets. And then weekends like this happen, I'm like, good. I'm glad I don't invest my time in these guys. They have been a fraud since the beginning of the season, right? We're just finally seeing it. Yeah, we're just seeing it again.

You want to talk about, we just talked about kind of a system, right, with Tennessee, and they're better than New York. What's New York's system, right? Play good defense. Run the football and hope Zach Wilson doesn't screw it up. And guess what Zach Wilson did yesterday? Screwed it up, and Brees Hall's not there, and your offensive line's beat up. And that kind of formula doesn't work.

I was on with Mina Kimes last week on her podcast thanks for mina for having me and we talked about zach wilson like the idea is of like they got to find a quarterback after the season and i said this about you remember all the way going back to baker mayfield when the browns made the playoffs in 2020 remember i came on here and said you know the browns should like do an Alex Smith-Pat Mahomes trade. Like just go get a quarterback. Get someone else. You have the pieces there.

The Jets are in that spot. The Jets have pieces. Defense, man. Right? Feisty. Rush the passer. Aggressive. Offensively, when they're healthy.

Good offensive line. Brees Hall. Wide receiver weapons. They're missing a quarterback. Dude, those throws Zach Wilson had on Sunday. Dude, you're not playing Nevada in the Mountain West anymore. Like, what are we doing? With a roster that has a bunch of guys who can't play because of COVID,

you know, in front of no fans when nobody even cares. You can't just like lazily throw the ball over the middle of the field in the NFL. Like, what are you doing? Like, Gabe, he didn't do it once. He did it twice. He threw an interception just trying to throw the ball away. He, like, didn't throw it out of bounds enough. It's not – you're not playing Toledo on a Thursday night in Provo.

Like, what are we doing, Bryce? What are we doing? It's not, not good, man. And they're in a spot where, and I'll tell you, these younger general managers. And I think,

I think Douglas is a good general manager. They, they don't have an attachment to quarterbacks like, like in the past where you just play these guys out and you just like said, oh, he's our guy. We, we,

I don't know. I don't know anymore Gabe I feel like in this draft especially there's some good quarterbacks give yourself a new one yeah well we thought the year that he came along there were a lot of great quarterbacks turns out like at least so far you know that class Trevor Lawrence Zach Wilson Trey Lance that was the big three up top then Justin Fields Mac Jones Jones, Davis Mills. Not great. I mean, none of them have been really what we wanted them to be.

You know, injuries play a role, but like maybe people don't know how to draft quarterbacks. Maybe that's what we're learning, that whatever we think we see in a college game is irrelevant to the NFL. Well, that's, that's, that's true. I mean, I think that it's a couple things are happening. One is the college game continues, I think, to be just so much different than the NFL. We've made this point.

I made this point on this podcast for many years now, Gabe. It's just different games. I mean, you watch enough college football. They don't even look the same. Like, everything about it is different. Guys in college football are wide open. They're wide open. You watch USC Arizona. How many

throws did either quarterback make that were contested throws? In an area where you're like, wow, the first touchdown the singer had for Arizona, that one-handed catch. Team Mac had one freshman was here for Arizona. Two, like two all game.

They're both on Arizona. Everyone's wide open. In the nfl nobody's wide open a window in the nfl is as wide as my computer screen like that's how that's the window you have to throw in the nfl and um i think guys that come in the nfl just kind of the transition is just tough to make you have coaching like if you're if you're lawrence right now you went through urban meyer for a year now you're kind of learning Doug Peterson. You have a good quarterback coach. I think next year we'll see a jump. Justin Fields, I think we're seeing the Bears finally say,

hey, look, we found an offense that works for us, okay? We're going to limit kind of the traditional passing plays, and we're going to give him one read. We're going to move out the pocket. We're going to play action pass. Like, they're trying to work, and I think it's going pretty well. Mack Jones, to me, is the same guy he's always been like just kind of like zach wilson right like yeah i'm missing who am i missing i'm missing who else am i well trey lance

but trey lance who hasn't played so yeah i mean i think that's i think that's like if you look at this year's class very quickly so you have cj stroud and you have bryce sunny alabama watch those guys play like watch ohio state i don't know who they played they played obviously penn state last weekend how many again how many contested throws do they have guys are wide open yeah they're wide wide open middle of field down the sideline and so i think that transition is so tough now we hit the NFL and Justin Fields had this problem specifically we've seen on primetime against a couple weeks ago like guys are open he's not throwing the ball they kind of simplify it for him which is good but again that offense only takes you so far so yeah it's been surprising I thought Trevor Lawrence would be better right now

I didn't buy Zach Wilson so that does not surprise me i thought fields would and he's starting to get it together which is good to see trey lance obviously injured and mac jones is what he is i mean it's what this is what mac jones is yeah well i've never believed in mac jones there is the guy who he replaced though is back thankfully had another great game and there's really just these two teams at the top of that division in the Dolphins and the Bills now who look like actual playoff teams. So are you surprised to see Tua playing this well this soon after all that scary stuff? He put up real numbers yesterday.

No, I'm not. I mean, he's got two good wide receivers, and the offense gives him easy opportunities to find those guys. All right. There's no surprise, honestly. Lions also 32nd in every defensive category ever known to mankind. They just fired their defensive backs coach, by the way, today. That's going to make a big difference, Lions.

The Dolphins are at the Bears, get the Browns, Texans, Niners. I mean, they're going to end up with – the back half of their schedule is much more difficult. Niners, Chargers, Bills, packers showed some life last night patriots and jets so we'll see kind of how they finish the season but yeah tyreek hill's been worth the money he's paid off for for what they want out of this offense yeah both sides of that one seem like they're okay with it so you mentioned oh yeah the the nine or you mentioned the Packers and Rodgers showing some life on Sunday night, but apparently having a bunch of stats

and doing most things right still isn't enough to even keep it close against the Bills. Are you ready to admit this thing's getting a little out of hand, that Bills really are a whole level ahead of everyone else? So, I mean, the Chiefs almost just beat them a couple weeks ago. Let's not act like... But they didn't. So, I mean, the Chiefs almost just beat them a couple weeks ago. Let's not act like –

But they didn't. No, they didn't. They lost before. They dominated both sides of the ball. The Bills are the favorite right now. I am – where's the tweet right now? From Aaron Schatz, who does Football Outsiders, okay? Here's his tweet today.

At FO underscore A Schatz. I thought about the Buffalo Bills. They are about as good as the best team usually is. Not really better or worse. Since 1981, the median DVOA, which is the number that we cite often that Football Outsiders uses, for the team at number one after week eight is 39.3%. The Bills are number one at 36.3%.

An excellent team, clear favorites, but nothing historical. Like, they're good. Good football team. But they're not, like, historically good. So that kind of makes me believe that we're going to see Chiefs and Bills again in the playoffs. And the game will be in Ralph Woodson Stadium. It'll be loud. It'll be crazy.

And we'll see what happens in the game. And, you know, Buffalo's going to go 14-2 probably. I guess you can't do that anymore. 15-2, 14-3 depending on if they have to play anyone in Week 18. And they're a good football team. They're the best team in the NFL. They're my pick to win a Super Bowl this year, so I haven't changed off that.

All right. Let's see if you've changed anything over in the NFC then. I think it's time for you to admit that Pete Carroll is good at this this whole coaching thing he has a team full of what other people thought was hot garbage and a bunch of young guys and uh they keep winning and they keep putting up numbers and they will be part of the only basically good matchup in the nfc this coming weekend so what do you make of them and are you willing to admit pete carroll might be good at this well pete car? Well, Pete Carroll surely made sure that we all know that he's good at it yesterday. That was a pretty funny press conference where he basically was like, run the ball and play good defense.

Like, screw you guys. I'm doing it my way. It works pretty well. I mean, yeah, good point, right? Seems to work pretty well. Geno's playing really well. You know, the defense keeps improving each week. The run game has been good.

Really what's made a difference this year is they drafted really well this draft class this year has been fantastic charles cross and lucas and wound like they've just been been crushing it the draft class has been has been fantastic and yeah i mean i don't think we we thought he couldn't coach i think people thought he was getting a little outdated, right? That he was, you know, in an era where, you know, we saw, you know, the explosive pass play, kind of the idea of the pass to run situation. Like, but again, like the difference here,

Gino Smith is throwing the ball down the field. Like, are we pretending that Gino Smith is digging and dunking? Because he's not. He's throwing the ball down. Like, he's getting chunk plays all the time. So I think no one thought Pete couldn't coach. I think the thought was he couldn't adapt on offense. And it looks to me, it feels like they're adapting pretty well on offense right now.

Yeah, it does. And I'm surprised by it. But they just came off probably two of their tougher games, at least through this stretch of the season. The Giants are a Fugazi 6-2. I'm not worried about that. Fair enough, but they were playing hot and they beat them by two touchdowns.

Yeah, I mean, Seattle's schedule is interesting. So they're at Arizona this weekend. They're slight favorites. God, Arizona is just the worst. I just... Does anyone look like they hate P playing football more than Kyler Murray? He just never looks like he's having any amount of fun out there. The time he could be spent playing Call of Duty, Warfare 2, Modern Warfare 2.

So Gabe, some of us have kids and jobs. We're not able to play Modern Warfare. I know. I said to my wife this week and I was like, hey, maybe we should get a PlayStation. And she thought I was out of my mind. My wife didn't like me playing video games when we were single or not single. We had no kids. That's like how long ago it was when we had no kids.

But what's funny, dude, is like I can lay in bed and play a game on my phone and she doesn't care. But if I put on an actual system, I don't get the same thing. Because you're taking the good TV away. I can play with my phone. Like I, there was the real housewives reunion was on in my house yesterday, but I was still tracking everything that was going on with my phone. So I, nobody was upset. The, the iPad, the iPad.

Oh, you know, I did this weekend too. You don't like this. So we were outside watching football. My wife was, um, wanted to just be outside. It was kind of a cooler night. We put the fireplace on. Um, and so it was only one TV out there.

I used my iPad to watch a game. I grabbed the kid's iPad and watch another game. I had two iPads going and a big screen. I was very proud. I almost got the third iPad. My other kid's iPad or my wife's iPad had I got three football games on the iPads, man. It's a good, it's a good, iPads are helpful in marriage. Yeah, man.

I mean, and blow it out. Put them everywhere. I'm surprised, you know, you must have very strong Wi-Fi. Streaming all that. I do, pay. I have a business, like I have like a business line because I try to get the, I have a fiber line from AT&T. No advertisements here. This is a company that i choose to get my internet from and they wouldn't give me like the fiber line until i like said it was a business account so i have very good internet yes okay can i um

let's see if your internet can keep up with this stat okay here goes so gino replaces ross wilson Here it goes. So, Geno replaces Russ Wilson. Obviously, the offense looks a lot better. Russell Wilson goes to Denver. They look like hot garbage most of the time. Fun stat, our boy Hank found, the Broncos are averaging 15.1 points per game

this year. Second worst in the league. Do you know who averaged more points per game while in Denver not all that long ago? I mean, if not all that long ago, it was 10 years ago. I don't want to hear about it. Tim Tebow. The Broncos that year averaged 19.3 points per game. It was 10 years ago.

Ergo, Tim Tebow is better than Russell Wilson. Let's ride. And potentially, Geno Smith. Let's ride. God, that guy just... The high-knees thing is... I mean, the reaction all of you gave, you being former players,

to how silly that was, tells you just how out of touch Russell must be these days well here here's a problem game okay is that we our job is to get our bodies ready to play that's our job right that's our job i don't i don't think that's something you should brag about like like do you brag about your prep for your work no that's your job your job is to be prepared for a work meeting or for a podcast mildly prepared for this one but for for the most part like the basics of our job is getting our body ready to play and when you openly brag about it you come off as a it's a

gym hardo right like a weird workout person but when it's going well, you're like JJ Watt, right? Who, who just like kind of one of those guys, even though I've kind of given a pass now, cause he raised like $40 million for like hurricane funds. Like I've given him a complete pass. And he seems like a great human is like when you're the hall of famer. Okay.

We can put up with like some of the, the workout hardo stuff, but when you stink, it doesn't help us feel better about your play. It seems to me like, Hey man, with like some of the workout hard-o stuff. But when you stink, it doesn't help us feel better about your play. It seems to me like, hey man, stop doing so many high knees and just play better at your freaking position. Like that's the problem, right?

The problem is that A, he's putting himself above everyone else. I work harder than you. I'm doing high knees on the airplane. You're sleeping. Okay, just play better. Play better football. And if I see you do all these extra things where it's not, it's not actually helping you play better than I look at you even worse.

Like it doesn't actually help your perception. If you tell me all this workout, hard stuff you do, that doesn't actually help you be better at your job. I think it was Tyler Lockett who obviously had some great runs with Russell Wilson. You would have thought they were friends. I believe he's he pretty directly laid it on Russell. And he said, it's amazing what you can do when you're not trying to figure out who gets credit for the success in reference to his own team still in Seattle. Do you think that that's also part of it? It's not just look at me. It's not just, hey, I'm working harder than you guys. It's like, and I want all the credit uh you

know if things go well it will be about me as well do you think that players care about that more than they let on sometimes well i think players definitely care about who gets the credit where we've obviously seen like but i mean it's understood quarterbacks will get too much credit but it seems like everyone's willing to accept it for certain quarterbacks but not necessarily for ross well they accept it if you quarterbacks, but not necessarily for Russ. Well, they accept it if you win Super Bowls, like if you're the reason why. And I think that a lot of players in Seattle,

and I actually defended Russell for a long time. I thought the other players were kind of just like being jealous. But, you know, even Tyler Lockett came out yesterday. It was like, it's nice to play the quarterback who doesn't care who gets the credit, or not a quarterback. He didn't say quarterback, but a player. And we all knew it was Russell Wilson. All right, well, let's talk about a guy who gets't care gets the credit or not a quarterback he didn't say quarterback but a player and we all knew it was russell wilson all right well let's talk about a guy who gets tons and tons of credit but might actually be a difference maker in that division christian mccaffrey that's next when we move the line jeff we're back uh let's talk CMC. Obviously a big trade that happened,

but it sort of seemed, you know, to guys like you, like, ah, whatever. It's like a big name, but how's this really going to make a big difference? So I want to ask, is Christian McCaffrey already a top blank player on the Niners over under 1.5? Best guy?

Something after that. Um, well. Three touchdowns on Sunday. That's a good question. I think Bosa's the best player on the team. Best guy, something after that. Well. Three touchdowns on Sunday. That's a good question. I think Bosa's the best player on the team. So, yeah, he was really good. There's a funny – I saw something like Jimmy Garoppolo completed his first pass of the season that went 30-plus air yards, and McCaffrey already has one of those completions in two games.

That's funny. air yards and mccaffrey already has one of those completions in two games that's funny um i i remember fox sports about mccaffrey and the only word of caution i i had is that the niners play the rams very well like let's see what it looks like not playing the rams that's it okay yeah niners niners feel to me like the team that, and we've sort of been saying this for a few years, but they feel like the team that hangs around, and then we look up in December, they're healthy, they're on a streak, and they head into the playoffs,

and everyone's like, wait a minute, they're the team. That seems like where this is headed to me. It'll come down to health. Well, they put every year they do that way. They get healthy on defense. They're a tough out, man. All right, let's talk about a team you love. We hit on them earlier.

We didn't say this name, though. Over under 65.5 receiving yards for Kadarius Toney in his first game with the Chiefs this weekend. I'm not even sure he'll dress. Sounds like an under. This feels like very much a 2023 play. Yeah, so what was the move here? Because he's, are we sure he's a guy?

I mean, I can't quite tell. He feels like a guy fantasy owners love. Is he really a football player? So, we don't know. Right. Hasn't played very much. I mean, the Chiefs look at him, and so the Chiefs for so many years

have those interchangeable pieces, right? Like McCole Harmon and Tyreek Hill. And I think they're kind of trying to go back to that. Is that, you know, it's Kadarius Tony kind of fits in that mold. Plus they probably aren't going to sign MVS after the season. So my guess is this kind of, this is a 2023 play. We need to have faster players

and we have a faster player here. Well, then we won't get our expectations up for this coming week. Over, under, I can't believe we haven't talked about this division yet. Over, under three and a half teams from the NFC East who make the playoffs. Everyone's 500 or better right now. Yeah, how about the Los

Commandos? Well, I mean, no more than three, but I'm trying to think of like if the Giants can hold on long enough. They're the sixth seed right now. Well, hold on. So the NFC North is looking like one. Yeah, I don't want to count the Packers out completely yet, but sure, yes.

The NFC South is looking like one. The NFC West obviously has a couple good teams in it, but even the good teams aren't winning. It's possible. It's possible if the commanders play good ball, we could see what I just described. Yeah, but that's your acting commander is to play consistently good ball, which feels... With a quarterback switch, it might be happening. The commanders play the Giants,

then take a bye and play the Giants again. Todd. That's very weird. Where is the calendar? Well, you pull that up. Let's reframe this, though. I think instead of talking about the two worst teams in the division, and obviously it seems unlikely both will make the playoffs,

the Eagles just keep on winning. The Cowboys, with their quarterback back are winning more impressive games now we're really good yeah what like what how good are those teams when they start playing each other cowboys look really good man you know i've been kind of off the cowboys like yeah i'm off as usual um man they they look good yesterday their defenses and their offense looks like they're kind of figuring out a rhythm here with Dak Prescott. I mean, I think it's them or the Eagles kind of playing for the one seed at the moment is my sort of guess. But the Vikings have a favorable schedule.

I just don't know if they're good. I'm confused about the Vikings. They're not, but they're going to win a bunch of games that they should win. And they're building a little bit of a pad right now. We have the look at it. If the season ended today. I don't think you're getting four teams in there. But just let me read it out to people so they don't think this is totally crazy.

Eagles are the one seed. They're undefeated, obviously. The Vikings are the two seed at 6-1. Seahawks leading the NFC West at 5-3. Falcons have the edge in the NFC South, which is looking miserable. Cowboys is your top wild card. Giants are in at 6-2. And then the Niners are 4-4.

Tiebreak stuff goes their way. Commanders 4-4 are just on the bubble. Yeah, I don't think we're getting 4 in. I don't like that. I don't think Washington or the Giants will keep up this pace. Okay. Alright, let's talk about my guy. We're finally here. It's time.

Jeff, over under two and a half weeks until Tom Brady comes up with an elaborate excuse to quit and retire again. I don't think it's going to happen. He does look kind of miserable. The news is finalized, right, of the divorce, and I think he'll be fine moving forward.

Do you think he can live with a losing season that's his fault? Well, we're going to blame everyone else. Like the play calling, offensive line. So no one's even going to blame him. I'm going to. I think some people will. Yeah, but that doesn't help you get to become part of TB12's production company. I'm not trying to be part of TB12's production company i'm not trying to be

part of tb12's production company let me just tell you uh i'm looking i'm scanning i don't see any year where tom brady let's see i see first place in the afc east they're not gonna they're not every single year but one when they were 11 and five, I think that was the year he was out anyway. He's never really had a losing year, right? Am I mixing things up? Was 2020.

He's not. You're right. He's even if they've underperformed or come up short in the postseason, no one has ever been like, man, we've face planted this year. Like Tom Brady blew it it that's just never been the narrative not once that's gonna happen this year i don't think tom brady i don't think

the team will finish under 500 okay nick wright our buddy told a great story uh on his show a few weeks ago about how he was running the um he was running a four by hundred relay in high school and i think he was uh he was going last and he got the baton and he was like in about third place and as he was running a couple other guys passed him he was like falling out of contention it was going to be entirely on him because he got handed a baton and a chance to metal. And then guys kept passing him and passing him and passing him. And so,

you know what he did? What? He faked a hammy pull. He knew he wasn't going to get there. So he faked a hammy pull and he, and he pulled in and he was like, ah, sorry guys did my best.

He didn't admit that he faked a hammy pull until about 20 years later on his show. I think Tom Brady's going to do something like that. I don't think he wants to do that. They're going to beat the Rams this weekend. It gets if it was like 4-9 he might do that, but I don't think they're going to be that bad. Okay. Alright, Jeff. You said it.

They won't be that bad. Here we go. Speaking of bad, more wins in November. The Lakers or the chargers i'll read you the chargers schedule and then tell you a bit about the lakers chargers go to atlanta go to san francisco at home against kansas city and then at arizona not an easy schedule how many wins are you going to give them? I will give them I mean, two That's kind of what they're at right now, right?

Two and two feels right The Lakers have, I believe 14 games In the month of November At the rate they're going That would be two wins as well God The Lakers are so bad

But I guess That would be two wins as well. God. The Lakers are so bad. But I guess Westbrook played well off the bench last night, they said. Yeah, I guess. I mean, if you weren't watching baseball over the weekend, you sure as shit weren't watching regular season. He was plus 18 off the bench yesterday. Wow. Off the bench. That's an important change, though.

I know. He was shot 50%. He made two threes last night. Get out of here. No, come on. That's not right. All right, here's my real Lakers question, or Chargers question. Neither of them are playing like they should be.

Yeah. Nobody will want to play them if they get hot and make the postseason. Not one team. The Lakers, no one cares about the Lakers in the playoffs. You think people worry about them in the playoffs? Once they have 80 more games under their belt, you draw them. Are you assuming that AD is healthy for the playoffs? I'll give you that.

But, I mean, he's never healthy. All right. Well, then I make it about the Chargers and we can get out of here. Good. If the Chargers, do they have a chance to get healthy enough by the postseason if they can hang around and make the playoffs as a wildcard team and they get a bunch of guys back, can they be as good as we thought they might be?

No, because I don't trust their coaching staff. All right. Just poor offensive coaching staff. Don't trust them. All right. And last thing before we go, and you can talk betting with Matt later this week, give me your latest Pac-12 odds of a Pac-12 team making the playoff,

given what the hell's going on in the SEC and the Big Ten? All right, so Ohio State and Michigan is going to be a playing game. The winner of that, I don't think Illinois will beat either one of them in the conference title games. That's one slot, right? Tennessee-Georgia this weekend, okay? If Tennessee wins, they would rematch against Alabama

in the SEC Championship game. Alabama wins that, maybe both are in? No. I don't know. Then we have a choice about Tennessee or Georgia. I mean... Well, Georgia would be out, I think. Georgia would not play in the SEC Championship game.

The one loss non-loser in... Whoever doesn't make the championship game. The one loss non loser in whoever doesn't make the championship. Yeah. And the sec and has one loss to a team who's in the final. Yeah. But the difference is that the difference is this Tennessee will have been undefeated and lost Alabama in the title game. So there'll be one loss. They'll be in over Georgia who didn't make the title game who Tennessee beat.

If that makes sense. Okay. Got it. I mean, I, yes, I follow you. If Tennessee wins this weekend, then loses to bam in the final yes they're still in because of the win over georgia most likely and the win over alabama early right okay that's two um if georgia

wins this weekend tennessee's out of that game georgia alabama play if georgia beats bama bama's out with two losses tennessee maybe maybe in right right but georgia for sure ohio state in for sure clemson is in there's gonna be undefeated sorry they're in that's three and the final slot comes down to either that other sec team if tcu run the table they're in uh And then the other options are Oregon or USC. And I don't think USC beats UCLA. So they'll be out of that. They're not beating Oregon in the Pac-12 championship game either. So USC is not only going to get in there.

Oregon's got to do some work, man. They got to beat Utah, then beat USC or UCLA in the Pac-12 title game and hope that the Georgia loss doesn't matter. Like, I made this point, maybe I made this point on this podcast or other places, Gabe. Like, I'd be very happy playing Michigan in the Rose Bowl. Like, sign me up for that. Like, I don't need to be rematched against Georgia.

We saw how that game, would it be 49-3? No, but 38-14. You know what I mean? Like, 38-21. I don't even see that again. I watched that game already. Give me Michigan and the Rose Bowl, man. Like the idea that it's playoff or

bust for every team in the country is a wrong way. It's playoff or bust for three teams every year, it feels like, right? Or really four this year. Georgia, Alabama, Ohio State, Clemson. It goes four into the season, playoffs or bust. Tennessee's kind of boom, popped up, right? Or really four this year. Georgia, Alabama, Ohio State, Clemson, right? Those four into the season, playoffs are a bust. Tennessee's kind of boom, popped up, right?

TCU, boom, popped up. Oregon, USC, boom, popped up. UCLA even. Oregon can go 12-1 and play Michigan in the Rose Bowl. Look at this, 13 wins. Sign me up. I'm good with that game. Totally fine with that season being a successful season for the Pac-12 Conference.

It was funny, last random college note. I saw Chip Kelly say they're playing again at night this weekend, I think, at 10.30 Eastern. So 7.30 Pacific. He made a comment of like, oh, I'm glad we're going to Big Ten because we'll be out of that time slot. Who's playing those games at night? You are.

You and USC are playing night games each week on FS1 when you're playing someone who's not Ohio State or Michigan. Every home game will be a night game. What are you two are playing at night? That FS1 late slot, would they rather put Nevada, Fresno State, or USC in that late slot? Put USC in that late slot.

Well, unless the Big 12 starts getting in there with some of the random-ass West Coast stuff that's getting in there. Yeah, but the Big 12 doesn't have – so the reason why the after dark slot works is because the Pac-12 can play in that. No one else – you have to be in the Pacific time zone to play that slot. Otherwise, you're starting games way too late if you're in the Mountain time zone in that slot or the Central, obviously.

So, yeah, we'll see. It's been a fun season, man. It's been a really good season in college football. It's been, you know, we want parity. I think we got a little bit more of it this year. We got three Pac-12 teams. Excuse me, four. Rates between eight and 12.

I can't tell you the last time that's happened in week nine of the college football season. So exciting, man. Could we get a football? And looking forward to, we got one more game tonight. We actually have football. Did you know this? Every day, like for a month now, Maction starting up this week.

A little Maction action on Tuesday. Absolutely love it. Anything else, buddy? No. Game day was at Jackson State. Deion was on display. Shador Sanders looked great. That was fun to watch.

So Auburn just fired their head coach while we've been talking. Yeah, they're going to make a call with Deion. I don't know, man. I've dug into that story a little bit this week. I don't think Deion goes just for the money. And I don't think Auburn means anything to him. I think that Jackson State can pay him enough money. He can make enough money on the side. He has enough money.

I think it means more to him. I believe he's sincere about trying to change that program and the conference and what HBCU ball means overall. I think all of that is real, and I think he'll stay there for a little while. I don't disagree with you. He did say he would at least listen to the phone call. Who wouldn't?

Who wouldn't? Is it a Pac-12 guy? My wish list for Arizona State is Deion Sanders. One, two, three, four, five, six, seven. I mean, I would love... I will say the one caveat to De Dion moving up that quickly is like, it's, it's a big jump from Jackson state to Auburn, like, or Arizona state. Like that's, that's the only thing that's like the only caution is like, it's a, he's

been, I mean, he's far exceeded anything I thought he would be. He's like 18 to one. Like he's been great as a coach. Well, yeah, the last two seasons, he, he kind of inherited a season, but yeah, the yeah the um he's been great and he's recruiting better than anyone could have guessed and his son's a great ball player and he's just like the sincere fun version of dion which i think is what we saw on game day is like an inspirational guy you know um he's using his gift to boost a lot of other people up i don't i don't think it's just look at me, look at me, look at me, which is obviously what made him famous in the first place.

He's done a great job, man. So we'll see if he goes somewhere big. All right, that's it, everyone. Powered by the Varsity Podcast Network. We'll talk to you guys on Thursday. We grind out another 3-2. Another 3-2. Could have been 0-5.

3-2, man. It's exhausting gambling on the NFL, but we have fun doing it. We'll be back later in the week with some more takes on gambling. Have a great couple of days. Talk to you later.