Green Light with Chris Long - Bills End Bengals Playoff Hopes, Daniel Jones' Injury + Shedeur Sanders | Chris Long Reactions

Episode Date: December 8, 2025

Chris Long reacts to the 1 and 4 pm slates from the NFL's week 14 action. Joe Burrow and Josh Allen put on a show in New York as the Buffalo Bills essentially ended the Cincinnati Bengals playoff hopes. The Pittsburgh Steelers strengthened their playoff hopes as Aaron Rodgers out-dueled Lamar Jackson, the Indianapolis Colts are falling back to earth with Daniel Jones' achilles injury knocking him out for the rest of the season, and Shedeur Sanders had his best game as he battled fellow rookie Cam Ward. For the NFL's My Cause My Cleats, visit these sites to support:https://mcmc.rayzeapp.com/beauallen http://strongerthanyouthink.org/ Have some interesting takes, some codebreaks or just want to talk to the Green Light Crew? We want to hear from you. Call into the Green Light Hotline and give us your hottest takes, your biggest gripes and general thoughts. Day and night, this hotline is open. Green Light Hotline: ‪[phone]‬ Also, check out our paddling partners at ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Appomattox River Company ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠to get your canoes, kayaks and paddleboards so you're set to hit the river this summer. Green Light's ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠YouTube Channel⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠, where you can catch all the latest GL action: If you want some Black Friday merch, check out our sale:https://greenlightpodcast.shop/?fbclid=PAZnRzaAOR1RFleHRuA2FlbQIxMQBzcnRjBmFwcF9pZA8xMjQwMjQ1NzQyODc0MTQAAad3Jup6i1N2qH77pK8eUeSbKt2Y0OXMldIw1dRTq_xDRuY3Ctp99Qj4pfyGAw_aem_w9tp_XwGL-ZptFIHvlrM1g Green Light with Chris Long: Subscribe and enjoy weekly content including podcasts, documentaries, live chats, celebrity interviews and more including hot news items, trending discussions from the NFL, MLB, NHL, NBA, NCAA are just a small part of what we will be sharing with you. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Good deal. All right, here we are. Here we are. What's up, y'all? What's up? I'm going to, first off, I want to congratulate Grayson and Jeff on getting married last night. And it's a particularly important marriage because, or wedding, because it kept me from going to Charlotte to watch Virginia. You know, at first, when I got the save the date, I didn't think anything of it. Because if you're a Virginia fan, you don't really like circle the date on conference championships. That's just not what we do. And then as it got closer, I was like, damn, would you look at that? I got to go to a wedding and my alma mater's playing in the AC championship. But thanks to Grayson and Jeff, I watched the second half of that game from the safety of my bedroom. My kids wanted to sleep over and watch the game.

They were asleep by the third quarter. I woke one of them up, the older one, Whalen, and I said, the game's going into overtime, buddy. He said, okay. And then he laid back down. And that was the smartest thing that kids ever done. Golly, being a Virginia fan is tough. Congratulations to Duke.

I know there's not a lot of probably Duke fans in here, and this is an NFL podcast, but I've got to let you end on kind of what's going on in my world. I was totally fucked up. And I cannot wait to give it to Notre Dame tomorrow on our live show. I don't follow college football. And I know Notre Dame fans will say, well, everything you say after I don't follow college football is rendered null and void.

But you guys are a bunch of fucking babies, huh? It's like, we're not going to. Oh, sorry, let me get my voice right. Oh, we're not going to play in a bowl game because we're mad. Oh. Join a conference, dude. It's pretty simple. I just got off the phone with Ryan Missilla who said,

look at Alabama's record. You know, he's all, or their schedule compared to Notre Dame schedule. I don't know whether he's right or not. I just know service level. I saw Notre Dame today talk about, like in a memo, like, hey, we have decided not to play postseason football.

We have decided to take our ball and go home. And that's fucking, hilarious and I think it'd be hilarious if one of these teams was like all right you don't want to play we'll play in your bowl game too because we just like football it'd be a tremendous marketing opportunity for that school just join a conference man I don't think it's that hard um I know ban was bad I get it that's that's Ryan Rissillo's take not mine but it is pretty fucking funny if you think about it all right so talking about pro football I don't know where to start today, probably the best game of the day, if it were a standalone game, like,

and we all had to watch it was Bengals Bills. There were moments in that game where everybody in the room audibly gassed. I mean, that was like, that was, if you wanted to show somebody who didn't know anything about football, a football game, that would be the one. I'd be like, hey, check this one out, see if you like it. And if you do, I could probably show you another one. But, but, you know, if you don't like this game, then you don't. like football. If you love defense, if you love rock fights, then it wasn't for you. But that's kind of

what we expected. Even with the snow, I thought what happened in that game is like the Bengals got out in front and forced Buffalo to push the pace in the snow. Luckily against the defense that's given up a lot of yards and points this year. But I thought the game script coming in was going to be Buffalo to run the damn ball and play keep away from that Bengals offense, which is really firing on all cylinders coming into the game. And they couldn't do that. And they were forced to be uncomfortable and they were forced to play from behind in the snow. And ultimately, it's the turnovers that make the biggest difference. But the damn quarterbacks, you take away, I know there's a lot of people that just come in here with baggage, Joe Burrow hurt your team, Josh Allen hurt your team. But you know, you take away the last

five minutes of the game for Joe Burrow and those really uncharacteristic mistakes. And I want to give Christian Benford a lot of credit for making the play he did. Because that's, that's, that's, That's just an incredible play as well. It's a dumb throw, but it's incredible play as well. The quarterback play through 50 minutes of that football game was like unreal. When you consider the conditions, I mean, Josh buying time down in the red zone, playing one-on-one football. It's just him and Shakir out there.

You know, Knight's got his back turn and he put, you know, he cuts Knight's sideburn with that throw. Like he puts it behind his head only where Shakir can catch that ball. you know, the late in the down heroics in the red zone. Just, I mean, they're so tough to stop when they do have Kincaid on the field and the run game's going. Obviously, James Cook, the fumbles, you can't have that. You know, it's kind of a situation where if you were watching, you were like, damn, he is lucky that ball didn't go out the back of the end zone. And you said, oh, what the hell, let's challenge it.

I don't hate that. But then it ends up being a fumble like two plays later. down in the red zone. It was a wild game and the snow was beautiful. So I can't wait to watch that game back, but I think the Christian Benford play for a defense that much maligned, right, like that's the word they were using to, that was the phrase they were using to talk about Keon Coleman.

And that's absolutely true. But I thought, I thought that defense making plays at the end of that football game was all you could ask for. I don't think anybody should write the bills off. I know that they're beating a four-win team or whatever it is there, but that's truly, I think, if the playoffs started today and everybody was in, like, the Bengals are that team that people don't want to see. And, you know, like, if you have baggage, you might reject that sentiment wholeheartedly. I'm not saying they're the best team in the AFC. What I am saying is there a team that if they snuck in, teams would not be real excited about drawing. And I understand if your baggage precludes you from agreeing with me, but to the rational people in the group, I think you know what I'm talking about. And so that's a big win. It just is. And with the Patriots coming up, you know, I said that coming into this game, I actually thought Sinci would pull that game out, you know,

and you know how hard it is for me to pick against the bills, but I just thought the way that Cincinnati's been playing offense, if they got especially out to a lead, they could keep that lead. That obviously didn't happen. I think the bills are going to beat the Pats. I do. I think in the rubber match, they're going to win. That doesn't mean I think they're the better team.

But I do think these things kind of even out. So I think the AFC playoffs are shaping up to be pretty fun. And one of the things that, you know, it's not real fun to watch on TV, but it does complicate the AFC. It does complicate the AFC is the Daniel Jones injury. And, you know, first off, I want to say in that game, I'm going to wear it tomorrow. Dr. Fax is going to murder me on national TV.

And I deserve it because hand up. I just have not believed in the Jags. And, you know, if you were to ask, me like do I think they're like a contending football team I'd still have my doubts but what I wanted to see was Trevor Lawrence play play his best and he played his best today I thought he played really well there were some drops in that football game um he's kind of the the part of the football team that's kind of lag behind the rest of it in my opinion obviously this year he's had injuries outside there have been drops um the whole nine yards but I thought he was very good today in the rain

I did I mean that's really tough to throw the ball in the rain and the run game helped them a lot And once Daniel Jones goes down in that game, it's not only a shell shock team, but they can't keep up, especially because Daniel Jones gave Devin Lloyd, you know, he threw him a bouquet early in the game. So it was like,

you started off turning the football over. Nobody planned for Daniel Jones popping his Achilles, but then you got Riley Leonard in the game, and you're not going to come back. So I think the Jags look really good. I just want to give them credit. And I want to put my hand up and say, hey, like I'm not asking for Jags fans to like me.

I'm not saying this in a confrontation, way, but I really don't give a fuck. I just try to call it how I see it. And how I saw it today was the quarterback played well. And so, you know, I will, I will wear it tomorrow. I will gladly wear it. But I will definitely give Nate some shit and I'll troll him a little bit tomorrow. He's easily agitated about his jags. But to the indie side of things, and I apologize for not going into, you know, the exes and I was on a, you know, was a 38, 13 type ballgame. It was ugly. Yeah. And you know what the fucked up thing is I thought Indy had a chance when they took a shot on

third and one before the half and then they ran the ball on fourth and one before the half out of the gun it was like a what are you doing kind of situation I was like are you fucking kidding me but it ended up being a situation two weeks in a row where the Jags kind of like the other team was in the game

you remember the Tennessee game as as ugly as that game got there was a moment before the half where the Titans kind of imploded you know the Titans couldn't pick it up and and then the ball went the other way and and the jaggs made the most of it before the half. Same thing happened this week. You talk about winning the middle eight.

It's impressive stuff. But the Daniel Jones injury, as soon as it happened, we kind of all sitting there, we're kind of all sitting there like, we're kind of all sitting there like I respect playing through it. And I respect it being broadcast as a double ed short because as I've talked about it doesn't invite pressure and all sorts of things. And it kind of narrows the game playing down a little bit from the long. of points and that sort of thing. But, you know, the thing we were worried about in the back of our minds was, is this going to be a deal where, you know, his leg breaks all the way at some point or like, I don't, I don't know, it's a load-bearing injury or whatever it is. Evidently you can play through it, but a lot of times when you have an injury like that, it might get worse all of a sudden,

or it all goes to shit and the guy breaks his leg or what have you, or, you know, a guy pops his Achilles. you know and when when the chain is compromised and you know the biomechanical chain or whatever it is you know i i can i can't explain it because i was a player you know not a not an athletic trainer but i'll just say like it is a chain and your body moves in a chain and and um you compensate for things so when you get hurt it's a lot of times why you see you know guys get hurt in other areas of their body overcompensating you know they're not running correctly their biomechanics are not correct And so, well, I can't say for sure that the Achilles is a direct result of playing on a broken leg, I have a feeling.

And so it's a tough deal. Just the fact that they're playing him, I would have thought Riley Leonard would have looked better because they've had opportunities to add somebody to the roster or like find a, you know, dress a third quarterback with a guy who's playing on a broken fibula. And they hadn't done it. And, you know, obviously Anthony Richardson is still on IR. And who knows what happens the rest of the way this year. and maybe we are writing them off too soon. Like maybe Anthony Richardson gets healed and it's his hero story moment. Like maybe that's the one thing we're not considering.

We've been sitting here for 30 minutes like, do you pay Daniel Jones? As if the end of the season is a foregone conclusion and all that stuff, as if they need to pack up their tents and leave. It's not that simple. We all sit here as fans and we're like, you know, yada, yada, somebody who said, who the fuck is Riley Leonard? Am I tripping? Is he not the quarterback for the, for the Indianapolis?

as Colts. He's the backup quarterback that I watched for 45 minutes today. He's the guy who played. He came in for Daniel Jones. He's a Duke guy just like so it's awful man. Like last night we lose to Duke today I threw the Colts and some teasers and I swear they cover the teasers if not for the fact

that one of their Duke quarterbacks get hurt and the other one doesn't look like he has any business being out there respectfully at this point in his career. So long way to say I think I think number one you don't want to write a team off. They're prideful group. Maybe they have an answer. I doubt it, but maybe they have an answer. Number two,

if they don't have an answer, this opens the field up a little bit. There's a little bit more insurance for people like the Cheves. And I see a Houston, Texan social media site. Social media site for the Houston Texans stole our, what's that word? It's part of the Greenline zeitgeist. Chiefs. We made that word up. Houston, Texans did a whole thing about the Chiefs tonight i don't what the fuck that was get your people ever gearlings um but then on top of that it you know it opens things up for you get a little bit more um insurance if you're a team like the bills or you know say you're the steelers and you don't win the division or one of these things it does if you if you're imagining that the colts if you're imagining that the colts go down in flames

you know the a fc field is happy and i'm not saying that because i think they were afraid of the colts i think they're a scary team and everything but it does open the field up a little bit. And the third thing is this, if you're going to parse the future of the Indianapolis Colts. And, you know, I talked about this when they made the trade for Saus Gardner. It's a good trade because your window is next year and this year. Okay. The dudes are who are up after this season, Daniel Jones, Braden Smith, Quitty Pay, Alec Pierce, Nick Cross. After 26, I think the door shuts a little bit. Pitman, Buckner, Nelson, Taylor, Kenny Moore, Grover Stewart, Josh Downs, it is, it is time right now.

And that's why they made that move the way they made the move. And, you know, for me to sit here and say that football should be fair and Daniel Jones should get paid because he earned that paycheck, you know, that sounds good in theory. I'm so gutted for the guy. You know, you think about like nothing, nothing good happens to Daniel Jones. I mean, he obviously got drafted high on everything, but his, his luck from a career arc standpoint has not been great and he's made some of it. But New York was a shit show.

He makes his way out of New York. He looks this way right up until he gets hurt. He threw a bad pick, but he's still throwing the ball well the last month of the season. Is he missing some things? Yeah. But he has worked his way into a position where he's valuable to a team and he's in line to get a big deal. Now, luckily, he's not hurting for cash, but it just does fuck the Colts timeline and Daniel Jones timeline in his career where now the Colts are going to have to consider like seriously,

do we pay Daniel Jones? And if they don't, I wouldn't be mad at them. You know, if they do, there are options here. And I think it's also okay tonight right after the injury to say, we don't know. Like we sat here for 30 minutes. Like, would you do it? Would you not do it? We've thrown around this, that, and the third. I, I, my initial inclination was no. I would not pay him because the Achilles is nine to 12 months. months. In recent history, we tell you that quarterbacks don't look as good off in Achilles, at least not the first year. Aaron Rogers is older. I get that. Kirk Cousins is older. I get that. Deshawn Watson might have had more mileage. I get that. But you do get the compensatory injuries.

And the first year back, where you're squarely in your window, you're going to be waiting, like, you know, I don't know, three, four months in the season, worst case scenario. And then Daniel Jones comes on late. You might not even be in the race at that point. So if you give them like a Geno Smith type deal, you might be kicking yourself. You did that. It is maybe the only responsible thing to do and you try to bring in a bridge to get you there next year. But in my mind, I have no idea what you're doing until you tell me the training staff, what kind of track is he on if we get this thing surgically repaired? And I'm not an athletic trainer, obviously.

I don't look like one. I don't know anything. So, like, to me, I tear the Achilles. I don't, I tear my Achilles. I don't diagnose Achilles tears. I couldn't tell you as a player. what this and it's never happened to me knock on wood i'm not planning to pick up basketball it's my biggest fear but like i have no idea what it's going to heal like on him and i think for

everybody it's different so let them get into that process and see what happens i think that's the fair thing but let's say he's a year i wouldn't pay him i wouldn't pay him and and that's tough it really is you know i think what else is tough is you've already gone all in you know and i love the way they were going and they go out and make the sauce trade but now like the other guys that I see who are veteran quarterbacks who the first two names off my mind who were actually Mac Jones and Jacoby Brissette as fucked up as that sounds. But I actually think the Mac Jones deal would be pretty good. But he's under contract.

So you have to send something, you know, and you've already given up capital to cash in on this window. So I don't know. You know, and the other one's Aaron Rogers, right? Golly. And, you know, if you're Aaron Rogers and you're sitting there and saying, do I want to come back to Pittsburgh or do I want to make it, you know, Aaron, Rogers might be the guy there. I'm just telling you.

Because they got a run game, something they've had to kind of manufacture in Pittsburgh, and they've got better receivers, and they've got better offensive coach. And, you know, there's actually more money to go around because they haven't sunk it all into the defense. You know, I, you could also argue that in that division, your competition is Trevor Lawrence and C.J. Stroud.

You know? So I kind of feel like maybe that we're going too far down the road here. But that's the way my mind goes. You know, we're thinking, we're thinking. I don't know if they have the capital to go out and get somebody. So this game's about to start. I'm not going to stop doing what I'm doing right now. I'm just going to make sure that I put a little bit more on the Texans tonight.

I absolutely needed the Green Bay Packers to not just win for my family's sake, but also to cover. I know some of y'all don't like gambling. I'm going to take this opportunity to tell you that I don't. care that is totally your choice um Houston Texans line is moving in the wrong day I don't wrong way I really don't give a shit it's at five now I gave it out of three I might be a big moron but I just feel like this defense is uh it's it's it's gonna muddy this thing up um Houston Texans let's let's do a little something on the Houston Texans I apologize guys

you're like oh what a what a sicko it's actually a steady source of income for me so I just you know, I'm like, actually not bad at this. So, gambling has ruined my marriage, Chris. That's your choice. You know, alcohol can ruin your marriage. Marijuana can ruin your marriage. Your sex life can ruin your marriage. You know, there's a lot that can ruin your marriage.

Yeah, tail back door cover, man. We're well above 500. Okay, somebody said, Josh Allen buys my grocery so often. Dog, that's great. Welcome to the Greenlight podcast presented by BetMGM. If you haven't signed up for BetMGM yet, use bonus code Greenlight, and you will get up to a $1,500 first bet offer on your first wager with BetMGM. Just download the BetMGM app and sign up using bonus code Greenlight. Deposit at least $10 and place your first wager on any game.

If that bet loses, you will receive up to $1,500 in bonus bets when using bonus code Greenlight at signup, then get access to second. chance promos odds boost tokens same game parlay's bet mGM original bets and so much more bet mgm make it legendary so real quick the packers man i just what a physical football game that was like the there was a moment in there where monongai um absolute you know what i'll put something on the under too there was a moment where manung guy knocked the pain off a cooper's helmet boy that was a fucking nfc north type of game brother My goodness. Something to see.

So I got my money's worth there watching that game. I think the bears are terrific. I thought the second half, Ben Johnson came out with a great game plan. He layered that game plan. It's such an intelligent, intentional deal watching him call plays. Like, everything comes off of the last thing, you know. And he'll come back to concepts, and he's got to run to pay. with the past, man.

You don't see it when you watch your favorite team, maybe, but if you're a Bears fan, you've gotten used to seeing that. And the other thing you probably getting used to seeing and loving getting used to seeing is, they are a nightmare late in downs. Caleb Williams, rolling right, rolling left, take your pick. He's a nightmare late in the down. And in the first half, he couldn't hit the damn broadside of a barn. And that's been kind of the problem at times is his consistency on some of the easier throws.

but the tough throws where he's off platform, where he's rolling right, where he's rolling left, where he's buying time, the guy's like John Elway. Not really, but Josh Allen's more like John Elway. But like Caleb Williams, man, I'm all in on the guy. Hey, he's proved to be not only an adult in his second year in the NFL, you know, and that was the one thing that always bothered me

about the way people analyze them is, you know, they judged him by stupid bullshit like he cried after a bowl game or he had a purse like dude you could you could you could carry like a purse a tote another purse if you throw the ball like that in the second half you're that's my quarterback bro and you know what I don't give a fuck man like the guy can play football and uh and the run game's great it's great to have that run game for a young quarterback. I don't care who you are. So I just, if you're a Bears fan, and I said this during the week, is one of the one things I got right this week is I said, this is definitely a Packer's spot. It's Toyota Thorn. It's going to be six degrees out there. I think Matt LaFleur wants to really wants

to beat this group after the Ben Johnson. I've enjoyed beating, you know, Matt LaFleur twice a year. That was some petty shit. And I don't blame him because it's kind of like taking a college job when you go to like one of these charter franchises like you know they they they're kind of you got to win the press conference too and um and he won the press conference he's also won on the field but matt lafleur one and oh this year against ben johnson but i thought ben johnson was fantastic in the second half listen there were a couple of plays in this game green bay with the big plays um just did such a great job uh i thought jordan loved there were a couple plays here he checked him into that rPO to watson that went the distance, right? Middle of the field sees man coverage, checks him into it. The other long ball that he threw, he's getting blitz off the edge to the left.

He sees man coverage. He changes the protection. He gets him in the right look. He goes to, I think it was to Watson again. Man, Christian Watson has completely transformed this offense. And you know who transformed the offense, really, and we'll continue to transform the offense down the stretch, is going to be Jaden Reed.

Jaden Reed is one of those people that maybe some people in the NFL forgot about, where he was, you know, some people forgot about the question is, how do you manage gambling so it doesn't ruin your life? I use grocery money and rent money on parleyes. My family hates me. Don't do that, maybe. You know, gambling with the grocery money. You know, all of a sudden you're bringing home knockoff goldfish and shit.

Don't do that. You can explain that to your kids. Here's what I do so that doesn't ruin my life. I picked the Packers in the 4 p.m. spot. So I just look at this thing and Jordan loves playing his best football right now to get Jaden Reed back. Sure, they don't have craft. If they had craft, it would be fucking scary.

But this is the team that's got a top five defense that's the best on the other side of the ball, in my opinion. Because this defense, although they bled a lot on the ground today, they're a really good group. And what the fuck? Hold on one second. They're a really good group. And they're going to make it tough, especially if they're a really good group.

especially if they play home games in the playoffs. I think the Rams and the Packers look like the best two teams in the NFC. It just looks like that way right now. So anyways, Josh Jacobs, man, you got to consider how Josh Jacobs got to Green Bay, dude. He was running the Rock through loaded boxes in Vegas in meaningless football games. longest time. As he is owning that drive down the stretch today, I just couldn't help but think about how far he's come. Not as a player because he's always been dog, but where his career is. He's running through people. There was a pile of Chicago Bears on one of those plays late in the game. He's running

through people in the three-degree weather, outdoors, meaningful football. I mean, you've got to be thrilled for the guy if you're Josh Jacobs fan. He's a big part of what they do, obviously. The offensive lines had their issues this year. But just a fantastic job by him when they needed him in crunch time. And you got the big Toyotathon plays from Jordan Love. He threw that pick early in the game. And I was like, oh, fuck, which Jordan Love are we getting? Is this not the Toyotathon Jordan Love?

But he was the Toyotathon Jordan Love. And it might be Toyotathon Christian Watson now going forward because he was uncorking it to that dude. I just a great rivalry, two really good football teams. obviously when you play cover two you want to have two deep safeties at one point the bear's busted in the secondary that's not what you want not against a team like that they're going to see them again in a week or two right um that's the fun thing about these late season duels where there's two teams playing each other twice in like a month is you know game planning strain and you know what you do on you know without a lot of scouting between matchup one and match up two you almost kind of have to have

it's the same game plan, but you maybe hold a couple things. I don't think so. I think you play your best. Like when you're vying for number one in the division, you don't hold anything back, but then you've got to find some new wrinkles for the next game. And so I think these coaching staffs, they got their work cut out for them because that was a fun,

knock-down, drag-out type match-up. You know, and the Bears are really impressive because they're able to come back in that football game from down two scores in second half, featuring the run game heavily. You know, they're able to close in on teams without just airing it out irresponsibly. And of course, Caleb Williams on the move.

Just so many moments where Quay Walker's like, fuck, I'm in the A gap. I need to get out to this crosser because we just jumped the flat because they're rolling them out to the right. Like it's just, there are a lot of binds that they put you in as a player. I mean, watch the Philly game last week. It was, you know, there's people running in every direction. You know, they do things intentionally. So that was a, that was a hell of a game.

somebody said Watson will get injured again like he always does man that's a weird thing to praying for you um so anyways this game's about to start but i want to finish talking about two rookie quarterbacks number one shudor sanders i thought today was was easily his best game i'm going to be honest that after the last two games i didn't see it you know um and i've kind of i've alluded to the fact that you know and by not seeing it i'm saying i don't see what people are seeing when people are saying he's you know this that and the third already um i think pretty plain to see most sane people would come out of the first two games saying hey it's a rookie you know and i've i've made it clear that um i don't like either end of this dialogue the the

hate in the kid the everything he does is the worst and then the other side of it is he's he's you know he's immediately uh bret farv you know what i'm saying um probably a better guy but you know um But I just, I look at the thing and in a game like today's game, he put such good touch on the football. And that's what I want to see from a young guy, you know, varying speeds, throwing receivers open. There were some situations on vertical routes where he was throwing guys open. There were a couple where, you know, the ball's behind, you know, the receiver or whatnot. But and even if you took away the 260 yards and one of them's the screen and all that, you're going to hear people say yada, yada, yada, yada. yards after the catch. I thought he played really well. Now the part of it, and we can talk about the

two-point conversion, sure. Somebody said, how do you take them out on two-point conversion? Because they're tanking, because they're tanking. Or because they're really confident in their wildcat down on the dam on the goal line. I just think it's so funny to see people who have watched the game for a long time and seeing the way the NFL operates, you know, that are shocked that a team is not trying their best to win, if that's what you, you know, because it didn't square, it didn't square with me. They're taking him out, especially because I like some of his low red throws early in the game, which really impressed me seeing him work in the red zone. So you've got to avoid the pick. He's got to speed up. Okay, that's a big part of it, right?

Longest time to throw, second longest time to throw by any quarterback this season. Okay. So detractors need ammo. Here it is, right? It's the Titans defense. He's holding the ball for 3.57 seconds on the day. Second longest time to throw and a pressure rate of 63. Okay.

And it is the Titans. But I'm just going to shoot you straight like I always do. And I'm going to tell you he looked pretty fucking good when he did let the ball lose. So, you know, this is evaluating rookies, man. He was fantastic. He was really good. There's not a lot of rookies who throw for that many yards in the, their rookie year and he joins a list of guys like and i looked this up earlier to illustrate something

quarterbacks you know i really should screenshot shit quarterbacks who have thrown for 300 yards stat muse 300 yards in a game i don't type this slow usually that's quarterbacks who have that's a long list my bad rookie quarterbacks who have thrown for stat muse So he joins a pretty good list. Justin Herbert, C.J. Stroud, Andrew Luck, Joe Burrow, Daniel Jones, Kyler Murray, Caleb Williams, Davis Mills, Carson Wenz, Peyton Manning. Could be Peyton Manning. Warren Moon. He could be Warren Moon.

Jake Browning, he could be Jake Browning, you know. I don't know. And that's the point. Teddy Bridgewater, Mayfield. Weedon? Shut the fuck up. Weedin? So I guess that's the point.

The point I'm saying is, and you know, some people might not like the point I really don't care. That's a great thing about me. I don't work for myself. I don't work for anybody. So I'll call it down the middle. Did he look great today in spots?

I thought he looked great in some spots. And I love the way the ball came off his hand. And I love the way he's carrying himself. And, you know, for people saying, you know, you need this guy to act a certain way for you to like him or whatnot. I've liked him the whole time. I just really like the way he carried himself after that football game. I like the way he's carried himself the last couple weeks.

And as a second generation guy, I know the pressure he's facing. So I'm rooting for the dude, but I don't want to turn. I don't want to be the victim of. And some of y'all can do it because you can afford to because nobody's going to call you out on it. You can go, hey, he should have been the first pick. and then next week, if he doesn't play as well, I didn't say that. I'm, you know, like I do this for a living. I want to see the guy's body work through the entire year,

just like I gave him some slack the last two weeks. I'm not going to jump out of the gym because they came this close to beating the Titans. Now, he looked very good. So I just want to see more. And you know what the nice thing is? He has piqued my interest. He's piqued a lot of people's interests around the league who are now leaning in when he plays. and I want to see how he plays against the Bears next week

and Dennis Allen's looks and how he plays against the bills in a pressure spot against two teams that are trying to go to the playoffs, right, that have aspirations. And later in the season, he's going to get, fuck, there was another good defense. But the point is, it ain't over. He's got to repeat that performance.

Maybe not that performance, because that's not going to happen every week, but he's just got to keep plugging along. And so the other guy, I would agree. Somebody said Sanders is best QB on the Brown's roster. I mean, like, I didn't see Gabriel look that way. I got to be fair to the kid at any point this year. You know?

So I think where I sit on it is do I get on Twitter and laugh at some of the ridiculous tweets, the hyperbolic shit, the, you know, the fan boy, fan girl stuff that I see? Yeah, I absolutely laugh. Do I get annoyed when when I see some people knock? giving the kid any chance at all. Yeah, I get annoyed. But what I like to do is I like to sit back and let the season play out. And so I'm really looking forward to seeing him get more opportunities. And the other guy that I've been talking up, for sure, he's better than Watson. Watson's so washed, he's been washed. Shador and Shuck. You know, I said this a couple weeks ago,

everybody's looking over here, and they should be, right? Because there's a Browns quarterback who's playing really well. But Shuck just beat a division opponent who's trying to go to the fucking playoffs today. And I came out of that Miami game and said to myself, and I said this on the pod last week, I will join the Shuck fan club. I want a reason to join the fan club. I need him to play well against Tampa Bay. And he didn't just play well.

He beat Tampa Bay running around like he was Mike Vick out there, dude. you know and so these are two young quarterbacks who i don't think either the teams came into the season being like i know who's going to be the quarterback of the future right but they're both going to have opportunities to be a part of the future and it depends on how they play towards the end of the season and how things how the chips fall that's the other thing like you're playing the titans who um you know if you lose that game to the if you beat the titans you know the titans another game and you get this much closer. It's the NFL, man.

You know, I would reject the, there is a chance Kevin Stavansy he doesn't like the fucking kid. He wouldn't be the first coach not to like the quarterback that was drafted. Holy shit. Right? Like, we've seen that a million times.

What's going on in this game? It's still zero zero. Oh, great. I'll be done soon. Like, I'm just, I want to level with you guys. I've been in the NFL. Well, coaches don't always like the guys that are picked. You know, especially if you're not picked in the first round.

Like, you know, the coach has a choice. But Stefansky, I don't think has a lot of leash unless what you saw at the end of the game tells me he's assured he's got his job next year. Because that to me was so curious running that wildcat that the only plausible explanation is that they were tanking. And then on top of it, it would have to tell me that, that, that's the fancy's probably been given some assurance because otherwise you're trying to win the fucking game and you know stefancy you put him in a lot detector test he might tell you no i really have i have concerns about the guy in the low red and uh we run the wildcat really well you know juggins is our best player but i i don't like the call i don't like the call at all but

you know what i did like was shadore at the podium be an adult about it dude just be a fucking adult control what you can control and that's what he's been doing so good for him tiler Shuck, keep balling. And he's got a good thing going where he's playing in New Orleans and nobody's paying attention. You know what I'm saying? So, you know, he might be a guy that you're saying, how did he fall to the wherever the fuck he fell? Where did he fall to? Chuck, second round. Some people are saying Shuck should be the first pick overall. I'm just kidding. I still think it's Cam Ward. Cam Ward. And that's the thing when you contextualize the game. Cam Ward's playing against a top three NFL defense, a top three NFL defense.

And I also think to credit the Browns in their future, while I think some of the play calling is conservative at best or at worst, tankish in spots in the game, they do have some good young playmakers fan and Judkins. I thought Judy played pretty well today. Obviously, I got to watch it back, but that was a hell of a week those two had last week. So just very interesting. Just very interesting, man. Shuck looks like a second rounder to me.

Shuck looks like a second rounder to me. So anyways, somebody said, but he has no pressure. He's not a top pick. He's not famous like Sanders. He has zero pressure. I know what you mean, bro. Talking to a guy with a famous daddy.

Right here. Wanye Morris is out the first play of the game. Geez. Yikes. dude. And another thing I want to say before, wow, read, you want to read that last comment? That's wild.

That's wild. That's wild deal. Anyways, that's crazy. I'll tell you later. The last thing I want to say is this. I can't get that comment out of my head. The last thing I want to say

is this. Zach Earts had a terrible injury today. That's my dog. And this, I mean, when you see an injury like that, it could be end of, you know, your career, as you know it. And I don't want to count the guy out, but like he went out for a pass, you know, Reed, Cowboy Reed sitting here. He's like, oh, Zach, oh, and the group text is going crazy. I knew what it was.

And Reed's like, do you still want to see it? And I said, yeah, I do want to see it. Because I don't get queasy when I look at this stuff for the most part. I got more queasy when the guy got table topped in the Jacksonville game and the back of his head hit the ground. You know, is it like that security guy that was fucking crazy. Prayers up to him.

But like, Zach Hertz is a buddy of mine and a great person, great teammate, and he's been an amazing player in this league for a long time. And the one thing, you know, that I, that I, when I watch Washington this year, I can only imagine what it's like I played on bad teams when I was young, right? So I never had to go back to it.

As part of the reason I just fucking retire when I did because I didn't want to have to go back to that. You risk going back to that if you change teams or whatnot. Zach Hertz has continued to play and he's continued to play at a high level. And this year he's supposed to be on this great team and they end up being terrible. And he's catching the ball from different quarterbacks and there's injuries and things are falling apart. And he just was the consummate pro, you know, through. the whole thing. And he played his ass off every week. I saw him at times like a couple weeks ago. Even war, he's coming down and just trying to level him on the sideline. And I'm like,

damn, Zach's like 36, bro. He's dealing with these young bucks, man. I mean, I know it's harder when you get old in the league. And just every week he came in like a pro. And so I just wanted to shout out, Ertz. Everybody thinks about, you know, the primary career. And he was such a fucking great player for our team in 17. Like legit nails. You just went to him and you knew he'd catch the football. You knew he knew where to sit down in zone. Like he was one of the smartest players. But I think the way a guy plays late in his career tells you a lot about the kind of player

and the work habits of that player and the character of that player. And he has burnt the candle until there was nothing left on the candle. And maybe he'll come back and continue this awesome career. But if this is it for Zach, because it looked absolutely hideous, you know, happy trails. because he was such a dog. And you know what? If Zach, if you're seeing this and you're like, hey, don't write me off yet.

I don't want to come back next year. Good on you. But I just wanted to shout out Zach. I mean, like, he was a great player in the prime of his career and late in his career. He's been just a consummate pro and a really productive player. And it sucks for him this year. It's gone this way, man.

Thinking about Zach Hurst, man. Anything else? Did I miss any games? I don't think I did. No games worth talking about. They had the roof at the big. toaster open and they the Rams proceeded to kick the fucking Cardinals at a three-legged race to the hospital as as Mac daddy would have called it. So anyways, okay we

we shouted out Trevor Daniel Jones we talked about Daniel Jones. Oh I can't wait to talk about Mendoza tomorrow cutting FCA promos. He's off my draft board or we put a gag order on him after the he could be joe montana but you can't talk after the game um yeah man it's toyotathon what can i say go pat go hey uh we will be live tomorrow at two o'clock um absolutely love y'all um call in ask questions find the landline on our twitter do that um you know ask questions rant if you want get a little drunk tonight and commiserate with us so um Y'all have a good night, okay?