Green Light with Chris Long - Jets Fire Robert Saleh, Aaron Rodgers' Future in New York, Drake Maye to Start for the Patriots in WK6 & Chiefs Similarities to Patriots Dynasty!

Episode Date: October 9, 2024

Chris Long reacts to the New York Jets organization firing their head coach Robert Saleh on Tuesday morning and naming defensive coordinator Jeff Ulbrich the interim HC. Did Aaron Rodgers have a hand in this with the reports out that Saleh was going to remove play calling duties from Nathaniel Hackett? Chris weighs in on all that and then gives his opinion on the Patriots decision to start Drake Maye after watching Jacoby Brissett get hammered through the first 5 games of the 2024 season. Is this neglegence and impatientness from the Patriots or do they have a plan? Chris also takes a look at the similarities between the Chiefs and Patriots' dynasties and talks the 49ers red zone issues ahead of their Thursday Night Football game against the Seahawks. And lastly, Chris got to see Shaq at ITNFL so Chris reminded Dr. O'Neal about the time Chris saw him in concert in Montana! (00:00) - Intro (6:01) - Robert Saleh, Aaron Rodgers and the Jets (23:40) - Patriots starting Drake Maye vs the Texans (26:55) - Anthony Richardson and the Colts (29:50) - San Francisco's Red Zone Woes (33:57) - Similarities between the Chiefs and Patriots Dynasties Want your Green Light Merch so you can look exactly like Chris and the fellas? Hit the website below and get kitted! https://stores.kotisdesign.com/yotehouse/products 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]‬ Send any Talent Search submissions to: [e-mail] Include any video of your talents, takes and bits as well as a little bit about yourself. Love hearing from the Green Light fans. 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. https://paddleva.com/ Green Light Spotify Music: https://open.spotify.com/user/951jyryv2nu6l4iqz9p81him9?si=17c560d10ff04a9b Spotify Layup Line: https://open.spotify.com/playlist/1olmCMKGMEyWwOKaT1Aah3?si=675d445ddb824c42 Green Light Tube YouTube Channel: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCgxWFAA-wuB7osdiAJyLOcw 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

The defense, and I feel for these guys and I feel for Sala, and I'm not saying there aren't guys in the locker room that might not like Sala. I'm not saying that I know everything about the dynamic of what happened inside the locker room. Like, he might have, you know, bad reviews. Like, I don't know. Like maybe some of the veterans don't fuck with him. But I know this. When you watch this team, the problem is not defense. I mean, that's obvious.

Like, when I was sitting here about to, like, talk about this, I'm like, what's the take? What, like, is there any take to have other than the. obvious, which is that like the offense got the head coach fired. And the head coach has done a really good job with the defense. As you've heard, we've teamed up with BetMGM this season. We'll be using BetMGM lines to make all our picks and we'll have special offers for you listeners each week. If you all haven't signed up for BetMGM yet, use bonus code Greenlight and you will get up to $1,500 first bet offer on your first wager with BetMGM. Here's how it works. One, download the BetMGM app and sign up using bonus code greenlight.

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Call 1-800 Next Step, Arizona, 1-800-3-2-7-50-50-Masachusetts, 1-800-Bets off, Iowa, 1-800-9-8-1-0-2-3, Puerto Rico, first bet offer for new customers only, subject to eligibility requirements, rewards are non-withdrawable bonus bets that expire in seven days, in partnership with Kansas Crossing Casino and Hotel. Don't forget, if you haven't signed up for BetMGM yet, use bonus code Greenlight and get your $1,500 first bet offer today. Welcome to the Greenlight podcast. Wednesday afternoons, right after inside the NFL, Chris jumps on with us, rips around the NFL. The big news, the Jets firing Robert Solid.

Did Aaron Rogers have a hand in this? Chris reacts to the firing to Aaron Rogers' comments and where the Jets can go from here with Jeff Ulbrick as the interim head coach. Chris also talks about the decision by the Patriots to start Drake May against the Houston Texans defense. The Patriots haven't been able to block anybody all year. The Texans are one of the best pass rush teams in the league. So we'll see how it turns out for Drake. Chris also makes some similarities between the Chiefs and the Patriots of Dynasties, what they have in common and what the Colts should do with Anthony Richardson now that Joe Flacco is playing so well.

A great Wednesday show ripped around in the NFL. Make sure you come back on Friday 930 Eastern for our live NFL preview shows. Little House keeping off the top. I am at Inside the NFL, just rap doing the show with Ocho, R.C, and the hoodie, Bill Belichick. Who's supposed to be the next Jets head coach? That's what I read this morning. After sitting in a production meeting with him

and being out on set with him talking about, like, the way the organization came upon this decision, I don't think he is in a rush to go coach the Jets. I don't know. You watch the show. tonight and uh and and and be be be a judge of it yourself uh i'm in the joe nameth room honestly this is like this is poetic i'm in the joe nameth room usually i'm in like the room with the big nfl emblem but i like this room better it's airier you got joe nameth in the background

fur coat and we're going to be talking about the jets and i want to shout out philip rivers because I got the bolo, rocked the bolo on inside the NFL today. I also want to shout out, what's his name? Rob. Rob sent me, evidently, a box full of Zin-6s. Rob, you're a month or too late. I have, I have, I will never do a Zinn-6 again. I'm on threes now. I've cut down my nicotine intake.

If it was a, if, if, if my nicotine intake in a given day were a cake, I'm only having one piece where I had the entire cake back in the day. If there's like eight pieces in the cake, I don't know how to put that mathematically. I'm having an eighth of what I used to have. So the last 10 to 14 days for me have been like a living hell. Anybody out there that's gone through nicotine withdrawal, buddy, let me tell you, that's a powerful, powerful substance.

So if somebody wants to send me some threes, that'd be great. But I'm not touching the sixes. I'll give it to my drug addicted producer, Matt. He likes his vices. I actually already stole some from you. I figure what flavor they send? Chill. Oh, such a good flavor too.

You know what I do now? I put in two threes before bed. That's my big reward where it used to be three sixes. Now I put in two threes to get the feeling like maybe there's a bunch of nicotine in there. There's not. So thank you, Rob. A little bit late with that one, but I appreciate it. and Nate's going to appreciate the Pokemon cards that you sent out to.

Talking about the Jets, I'm just going to let it rip. You know, like I wanted to get on the other, well, when this happened, this was yesterday morning. I wanted to like get right on and talk about it, but I'm a little bit fucking tired. So I was like, maybe I'll talk about it Friday. Maybe I'll talk about it on the tail end and inside the NFL. We finished early. So here I go.

You know, I don't know where I got this saying, but I've always said, don't piss on my leg and tell me it's rain. Now, I don't know where that saying came from. It's one of those like old-timer sayings. And supposedly I've been doing a lot of those lately. I sound like a coach. That's what Dr. Fax said. But Aaron, don't piss on my leg and tell me it's rain.

It is very clear to me what went down in this scenario. You know, and for a guy who, and I'm not passing any judgment, I'm not here to parse through which conspiracy I agree with, which I don't, but like the guy has a way of thinking um and in the same breath to get on pat macgave's show today and say i cannot believe that somebody would infer that this is what happened i cannot believe that somebody's first reaction would be i had something to do with firing this guy if the glove don't fit you must acquit brother you got this guy fired Like, I'm not saying it's all your fault, but obviously, here's the way I put it on inside the NFL today.

Rogers made the bed and Sala sleeps in it. And that's what happened. I mean, I cannot believe today what I heard. Like, listen, again, I don't hate Aaron Rogers. I'm starting to not, I'm starting to be tired of hearing him talk about shit because, come on. If you're going to be real, be real. You know, it kind of felt like he was going on state TV today. I feel bad for Robert Sala.

Obviously, not the best head coach in the world. He hasn't had the best deck of cards dealt to him either, including like last year. Who knows how different this goes if Rogers doesn't pop his Achilles, which I don't blame Rogers for at all. It's an injury. It happens. He's older. But it throws off the entire thing. You know, when you deal with organization,

and I was talking to a former coach today about like just all the considerations contractually. You draft a guy in the first round. The next year you draft a guy in the second round, like the fact that they're going to be up at the same time. The whole thing like organizations have windows mapped out. Like making decisions on on rosters based on the ebbs and flows of what you're doing organizationally. Like you know when the window's wide open. And if you have a plan starting it a year after you intended upon it is not. not like it's not a perfect world so for everybody involved in that decision i think like it's a little bit

unfair because last year they intended to be in year one and this year they intended to be in year two with rogers and i think certain things happen that make it harder when you haven't had the continuity you know like even though it's the coach that you handpick calling the offense and all that stuff and half the play and this is why this is why i'm just like i'm listening to rogers today he's talking about I just can't believe anybody would think I'd have that kind of power. Says the guy who brought in Lazard, Cobb, Billy Turner, Malik Taylor, Tim Boyle, and Nathaniel Hackett, who should have been the first head to roll in this scenario. That's the way things go in the NFL.

If the offense is the thing weighing the team down, in my opinion, if the organization's run correctly, and you're doing this like, this sequencing of like rolling heads, the first rolling heads, the first rolling head is Nathaniel Hackett, you know? If I had said to you, good thing they fired Sala because the defense has been holding them back, I sound crazy. Like that's what we're supposed to say out loud. The Jets offense ranked 22nd in EPA per play and fifth in EPA per play on defense. The defense, and I feel for these guys and I feel for Sala,

and I'm not saying there aren't guys in the locker room that might not like Sala. I'm not saying that I know everything about the D.I. of what happened inside the locker room. Like he might have, you know, bad reviews. Like, I don't know. Like maybe some of the veterans don't fuck with him. But I know this. When you watch this team, the problem is not defense.

I mean, that's obvious. Like, when I was sitting here about to, like, talk about this, I'm like, what's the take? What, like, is there any take to have other than the obvious, which is that, like, the offense got the head coach fired. And the head coach has done a really good job with the defense. and I don't think any amount of game management or clock management or situational football is the difference between this team in its current state and the team where you want it to be, which would be a contending football team.

I don't think the delta between those two teams is defined by Robert Solis, defined by the offense. And the truth of the matter is like some of the offense is like it's just not in its current form. ever going to be good enough. Because I don't think they're built perfectly up front. You know, I don't think they're physical enough in general. I don't think they've, schematically, when you're, when you're number one young, number one wide receivers, the only guy can really get open is bitching about,

I don't know what we do with the offense. And he's saying that out loud. Like, that's not a good sign. Like, I don't know what we're doing. So for you to get up there on TV and say, I don't know where people are getting this as if we're crazy, that's gaslighting. And I'm not going to be gaslit. I mean, to me, the timeline sounds like it makes a lot, like a lot of sense.

Like, I'm not in the building again. But when I hear, hey, Tuesday, Sala reportedly wanted to give the play calling responsibilities Todd Downing, who used to be in Tennessee and actually St. Louis before that. and then five minutes later he's being called into the office to meet with Woody Johnson, who's kind of a live wire, dude. You know, he's kind of one of these owners that is in a class of ownership where it's like, time's ticking. I got to win now and, you know, seems impulsive, seems a little bit knee jerk.

You know, again, I don't know this, but if I had to guess, Roger says, uh-uh, that ain't happening. Hackett runs over to Rogers locker and says, hey, they just fucking took the play calling duties away from me. And the next thing you know, I would imagine Rogers says, well, I'll fix this. That's what I think happened. I would rather be called, I would rather be called a sensationalist media member by Aaron Rogers than a fool by everybody listening to this podcast. It is what it is.

And it is, as he put it, it's a tough business the end of the, NFL. Rogers put that that way. It's like, it's like fucking Casey Anthony a day later being like it's just such a tragedy. It's like, you know, one of these serial killers or one of these fucking, they go back and they look at, they look at the footage and the next day, the guy's like feigning sadness and tears and is like, I don't know what happened to my kids or my husband. Who could have done this? Help me figure out who did this. My brother in Christ, I think you did it. I'm sorry.

Call me a liar. Call me whatever you want. Call me a Rogers hater. I don't, I really don't walk around grind in a Rogers axe. I don't care what we disagree on. Like, that's not even, like, it's really about team building. And when you give a quarterback this much leeway on the way in and this much say, you know, I kind of assume he still has that kind of power,

especially because the narrative has been, if we can just make things right, we're going to be damn good with Aaron Rogers. And that's like kind of, that's all the hope, all last year, you know, all season long after that injury, it was like, hey, if we were waiting for this one thing. And for all that waiting, you know,

the guys on defense, the offense, the whole thing, to show up and realize, that he's not going to rescue you. He's one of the best quarterbacks of all the time. I have so much fun watching him play. I respect his game so much. And when you have your moments like the New England game, you're like, holy shit, he's back.

A couple of throws you see in the San Francisco game. But he's not young Aaron Rogers anymore. And he can't rescue this team. You know, like it's just not built perfectly. And you built it. And so, you know, know like you made the bed and now sola has to sleep in it i just can't for the life of me figure out how a guy who's an independent thinker expects nobody to think independently about this thing

don't have any power look at the whole team look at look at nathaniel hackett he's still got a job okay so this is akin to like me pissing on the toilet seat my wife being like who did it and be I just, I'm in sense that you would even, who would have pissed in our, in the main bathroom on the seat? Maybe it was one of the kids. I don't, it wasn't me. How could you accuse me of this? You think I have this much power? You think I piss in my bathroom every day?

You think that sometimes I might be too lazy to lift the seat? Like, it's gaslighting, dude. It's gaslighting. And I don't pee on the seat. I don't pee on the seat. Chase Daniels called him a coach killer. I'm not going to say all that, but I think Chase Daniels is pretty damn good at this job.

I was watching that clip with him and Shady and Ocho and all them. And James Jones, who I couldn't tell if he was like pro or anti this take. But the bottom line is it feels like the book is out on Rogers now as a guy. And I'm not saying he's a bad person. I'm not saying that. But what I am saying is he'll fucking tell you something that he'll tell you this guy's green, dude, with a straight face. And it just doesn't make any sense.

And for Sala now, he's a coach that I respect. He's a guy who's had success. He's going to get a job somewhere. Somebody's going to be very happy with him as a defensive coordinator. And I saw somebody mentioned this. It maybe ends up in Green Bay because of him in LaFleur's, relationship. You know, look what happened with Vrable. Vrable got canned, um, depending on how you feel about that. He ends up a consultant in Cleveland.

And, uh, he's kind of bought it his time doing that. And I think Sala should get a job. Like I would hire Sala like, like next week to come in. And if, if I'm Philly, I'd hire Sala, like come in, you know, weigh in. Tell us what you think. Um, you know, if I'm the Buffalo bills the way that you know how when I was in the league it's still this way we'd be getting ready to play a team and we just bring everybody that they've recently cut into the building and bring them on the you know on the practice squad and you know they're over there extracting information and that sort of thing like if I was Sean McDermott I'd be like yeah come on up here because the headman up there is a defensive head coach and he's not going to feel challenged by having

him in the building what do you know about us tell us what tell us what tell us what us the book on Josh. Tell us the book on on Joe Brady. Tell us the book on my roster. What really bothers that defense? And it's interesting you bring up Robert Sala maybe to the Eagles because who's on the Eagles who used to be on the Jets and had a really good relationship with Robert Sala who needs a kind of kick in his pants. Bryce Huff. Maybe he can get, maybe he can get a little something out of Huff if he goes to the Eagles. I think the Huff thing is more about him overthinking it and like as being a defensive lineman before and unrealistic expectations. I mean like you're signing a guy who I'm a big fan of Huff.

Like I talked him up a lot in New York, but like if you want him to be the guy that that's worth that kind of a deal, he certainly can't be playing like this. And I just think part of it when I'm watching is like, whatever they're doing to him, it's slowing him down. And maybe part of it is just the expectation. You know, the expectations can slow you down.

Nobody plays freer than somebody with nothing to lose. You know, that's a true thing. You know, it's part of the reason why a lot of undrafted guys end up in great situations. And it's a fucking grind being that guy. But also, you are thoughtless. You know, you're just out there like, nobody's expecting me to do anything. I think Bryce suddenly being a guy that's making X amount of money every year, that's a big adjustment. I do think the Sala thing is going to be interesting, where he winds up, what he wants to do with the rest of his year, what he wants to do in the future?

I had a wild hair read, and I know nothing about college football, so maybe somebody in the chat can tell me, but like, is that Michigan guy on the hot seat? Sarom Moore, Cox. Shroom Moore? Shroom Moore. Jerome Moore? He could be on the hot seat. I mean, more of his thing is the quarterbacks. Like, they've gone through three

and none of them have been able to play well. I think Sal was a Michigan guy. Yeah, I'm sure he wants to get back in the league, but I was in my fantasy land head. I was like, oh, wouldn't it be cool? You know, the last pro coach worked out pretty well for him. But I know they got sanctions and shit because of Conor Stallions,

who's now doing a podcast tour. Is that wild? He's just casting Asperian? Do I have this fucked up, Matt? Have you seen the... He's out there dry snitching on other programs? Yeah, he said that all but two Big Ten schools were doing it. He's like...

He's like how easy it was. Yeah, come on. So listen, like, as far as the Rogers thing, that's all I got. Like, it is a tough business. And I guess the NFL, this is a rare circumstance where the NFL is like the NBA. You know, usually a player can't get a coach fired. There's just the organization's too big. The five-year plans too detailed.

It's too, like you can't be a player making personnel moves in most places to start with. But then firing people, that's a whole other thing. And I'm not, I don't have proof. But I was, and I wasn't even born at night. Not last night. I wasn't born at night, period. I was born first thing in the morning. Can't fool me on this one.

And here's the other thing. And I said this earlier. When Brady worked at his second stop, when Peyton worked at his second stop, I never got the idea. And maybe a little bit more with Brady, where he was like, it's my, you know, like I'm bringing my guys down the whole thing.

Maybe Brady's a better GM than Rogers. You know? And I think for Peyton, who when he won a Super Bowl, he's a shell of himself physically, the defense was so damn good. Not a dissimilar situation, but at least they set the thing up knowing that that was the situation.

I kind of feel like the Jets naively were like, hey, Rogers is just going to fix everything. You know, he pops his Achilles, comes out this year, and he doesn't look the same. No, that's not to say in his best moments, he doesn't look like Aaron Rogers, but he can't move. And the offensive line's going to be a problem.

rest of the year. And Jeff Alberg's a guy who I really, really like. I've always liked Jeff Albrick. And I've always said, I hope he gets a head coaching opportunity. Now I fear that his interim opportunity is going to keep him from getting a head coaching opportunity. It sucks. It

absolutely sucks. But how about the highlights of that guy? Is that in any given Sunday looking motherfucker or what? I mean, he was a, a football player. Anyways, the only other thing that I would talk about this week is the Drake May, the Drake May deal. What are we doing? Like, Gerard Mayo's my guy, but I'm kind of wondering where this is coming from, you know, starting Drake May, five, six games in the season when you kind of make, when you make that decision, you say, we're going to, we're going to sit him,

at least in my eyes, it's an admission that you might get him killed out there. And it's an admission that you want to develop him on a schedule. So what changed? It actually only got more dangerous out there. Like it's more dangerous than it appeared to be week one, which is all the more reason to just keep letting Jacoby bite the bullet back there. Jacobi is his Kevin Costner. He's Whitney Houston.

Drake May is Whitney Houston. And now there's no Kevin Costa. This was the last line of defense of keeping this kid. Now he might come out and light it up and he might look great. And maybe they'll figure some things out schematically. But I can tell you, I had a bunch of stats prepared for inside the NFL today. Okay. Current Patriots offensive profile, 26 and EPA per play.

32nd in pressure percentage allowed. 20th and EPA per rush. Best receivers, Kendrick Bourne, played his first. 16 snaps to the season Sunday, working back from an injury. And the defense has not been as good as you might expect. So,

there's not going to be some sort of like, and I wonder how much of it is the pressure of looking around the league and saying, holy shit, Bo Nix has went in. The Broncos have a winning record. The commanders are one of the best teams in football right now, right now, at least from a buzz standpoint.

Caleb Williams took a big step Sunday Maybe Robert Kraft's like, bro, I've seen enough of this shit. I want to show my new car off. But you're going to total it. You might total it. You got to be careful. I don't want Drake May picking his teeth up off the turf at Gillette

just because you wanted to see him. This is a very mental position. And it's wild that this change is happening this week. The Texans against Caleb Williams, another rookie quarterback, seven sacks. and a 48% pressure rate. Honestly, it kind of makes me think of the parent that's like, you know, if Drake May's, you know, I want to start, I want to start.

Okay, you want to smoke a cigarette, have the whole pack. You want to play? We're going to roll you out there against the Texans. Is that game in Houston? Thank God. No, it's in New England. But my question is, like, if you're going to start Drake May, why announce it and let the Texans know?

Like, why not just roll them out? Sunday. Well, they could be fucking with the Texans, but I would have saved that card for a game you can win. You know what I mean? I saved that bullet. I don't know, man. I just know, like, I'm a big fan of developing quarterbacks and letting them sit. It's like the Richardson thing. I said this a couple weeks ago. It would be nice to give him a break. Well, injury took care of that. And some Colts fans were on me like I was giving up on the kid. you got to listen. You have to listen to the words that are coming out of my mouth. I'm not saying he's not the answer. But what I am saying is I would redshirt him. He had a medical red shirt last year. I'd redshirt him this year.

Flacco, while he still can play, is a guy to keep this, this motor running so that you're in a good place when Anthony comes back. And I know what probably is going to happen. They're probably going to put him back in the game. They put him back in the game the other day after he fucked his hip up. and they put him right back into quarterback run. They don't seem like, and we talked to Chris Ballard when I asked him about the, you know, the physicality and his running style, he kind of was like, I don't want to make him not be who he is. And so I don't think organizationally they're tripping on like protecting this kid physically.

They also have a good offensive line, but the guy can't hit a speed out right now. And it's not because he doesn't know where to go with the football. It's because the ball is coming off his hand like, like Bull Durham, dude. So, you know, I used to pitch. In baseball, it was kind of like Vladimir Putin playing hockey for the national team. It was like, I guess because Chris's dad is part of the group of dads that paid for the uniforms, we got to throw them sometimes. I used to just sail the ball, dude, just like I do when I go out and throw the first pitch

out for the Cardinals. And my dad used to say to me, he called me the guy from Bull Durham. what was it, La Lusche, the guy Leloush, was played by Tim Robbins. He'd be like, man, you just hit the mascot out there. That's kind of how I feel like Richardson is right now. Like occasionally you'll see a ball that you're just like, only he can do that.

So when you see that talent, don't you want to protect it? You know, and for me, nobody's going to be thinking about why didn't he play the first two years of his career if he's a guy that you absolutely have to pay in a couple years. You know, I know the rookie quarterback window thing, but Flacco, there's no drop off right now. So what's the point?

You know, I would rather protect that asset and get his mechanics right. And save his body. Tangent here. But, you know, we're talking about developing quarterbacks. Drake May is going to be thrown into the fucking fire. Have the whole pack of cigarettes, Drake. Smoked the whole pack. Let me know.

Let me know. Here's another thing. Spencer Rattler might play this weekend. I'm excited about that. I got a funny feeling he might be decent. I got a funny feeling he might be decent. And we also uncovered a pretty interesting trend with the 49ers. Like I was going to save it for the, I was going to save it for Friday when we talked about previews,

but they play Thursday night and they play Seattle, and that's going to be a good game. we've been kind of talking about what's missing in San Francisco without Christian McCaffrey. Like, you know, obviously Jordan Mason is good back. So they're still running the ball. But I always talk about it's everything else you can do with Christian McCaffrey. And one area that it's really showed up to me is down in the red zone. You know, me and Nolan came out of the game Sunday. I think of what, one for six in the red zone?

Now, part of that is because you don't have a kicker in some situations. but they are not finishing drives. Through five weeks, the Niners are in first. The Niners are first in the league in the number of Red Zone plays. So they're running a ton of Red Zone plays, but 29th in Red Zone scoring percentage. That is the difference between winning and losing games. Okay?

So 29th, but first in number of Red Zone plays. So they are everywhere else in the field. They're running the ball up and down the field. So what changed? Because in 23, including the playoffs. Niners scored 54 touchdowns from inside the 25-yard line. That's the high red.

That's where the high-red starts. That was the second most in the league behind. The Lions, who also had red zone issues a couple weeks ago, inexplicably getting in the gun and not being who they are. Okay. Christian McCaffrey scored 22 of those touchdowns, 16 rushing, six receiving. So that's 41% of those touchdowns. Okay?

That's a lot. and then obviously you have Debo with eight of them, Iuke, six of them, Kittle, three of them, which surprised me. You'd think Kittle would be a bigger red zone target. The matchups you can get down there at the goal line with Christian McCaffrey, the place you can put him. You talked about him being like a really good slot receiver.

Like, Debo is his own kind of thing. Thinking about a guy like Christian McCaffrey at receiver down at the goal line is a big deal. Thinking about him at running back is a big deal. He occupies eyes. You motion him. everybody's looking at him. And, you know, I just, so 72% of your 2003 red zone touchdowns came from your stars.

Christian McCaffrey hasn't played this year. Debo's only played four games. Kittal has played four games. And then IUC has played all five, but wasn't around in August. So the space is confined. It's all about the matchups. And they just haven't had the same ability to employ those matchups.

What stood out? And I asked Nolan to go back and look at the two, 2024 red zone plays 72 red zone plays the old line isn't doing a great job in the wrong game you know um i do think this offensive line has become like more pedestrian than they once were you know i think for a long time you thought of it as like a really good group overall i like the young kid puny Trent Williams is Trent Williams but they have not been the same um and obviously without christian mcalfrey dibo all eyes are on him you know You know, they know they can key on it.

And people trigger on the screen. So I think when you look at like San Francisco, one of the issues is not just having Christian McCaffrey, but not having them down there in the red zone. Like this is the difference between winning and losing ball games. You know, and you look out at the, it's confounding because you watch the Niners. And for a lot of the game, you're like, man, it's so easy. When they want chunks, they get them. Like that Jets game, you know, that was, there were times in that game where I was like,

holy shit, the Jets are a good defense, which they are. So, yeah, I think if they can get Christian McCaffrey back, which I don't know when he's coming back, they look a lot different. Now, they have to figure out how to cash in, you know, and hit on those four-point plays in the red zone because it eventually adds up. Let's see. What else was I going to talk to you guys about? Oh, Monday Night Football.

Here's all I have to say about Monday night football. The chiefs have settled into this place, and I always said this about the Patriots. One of the reasons I respect how to coach Belichick and what they were able to build. It's not just getting to one Super Bowl. It's going back. That's so hard to do.

I don't think, I didn't understand it until, you know, like I ended up doing one of those seasons where you're playing in February. Like as a player, taking my experience was going to Philly and then trying to defend in Philly a year later. Like, it was clear to me why teams don't get back. You know, there's a lot that goes into defending a title. And I think also, like, from a programmatic standpoint, if you're going to do this for a long time,

and obviously you have to have the quarterback and the head coach, they have that in Kansas City. you have to be able to morph into what the moment demands. And, you know, when you hear Patriot Way, it's so reductive. You hear Patriot Way you think they do everything the same all the time. The thing that makes the Patriots great

or made the Patriots great was the ability to adapt and change into whatever form the team needs to be to meet the challenge at hand. And so whether that was you know, more of a power running football team, you know, early in Tom Brady's tenure, maybe more play action.

I was young. Okay, I didn't break that tape down to like the Randy Moss days to, you know, we got to replace Wes Welker. How are we going to do we find another white guy, Julian Edelman, find another little slot receiver to the defense, you know, like I can remember my year, Jamie Collins got moved. We changed the way we ran the defense a couple weeks in the season. And like they make adjustments. And I think that's what made them have the staying power that they had.

And Kansas City last year can't rely on the, you know, the receivers. Let's adapt. Let's work around that. Let's become a defensive football team, which I think happened anyways. And we said, hey, not every year is going to feel like the Tyreek year, the Tyreek years, where it's like outscore us. Last year, you were a defensive football team. And they made adjustments as the team, as the season went on and figured some things out in playoffs.

You know, and I think this year it's the same thing. It's like the running backs go down, you know. You lose a receiver. You lose a couple receivers. Rishie Rice and Hollywood Brown. You lose Brown Rice. That was like the whole thing this year. Brown Rice is oftentimes high in arsenic.

it's not as healthy as you might think all right so but brown rice is gone but checo's gone if you just said that at the beginning of the season you'd be like there's no way they're five and no but they are and they are because they can hit the curveball and they have an interior three that really raises the floor of this offense the two guards the center obviously tackles people freak out about tackles and I thought last year the tackle situation was bad. It hadn't been great this year either. But what can Patrick Mahomes work around? You know, he can work around edge pressure. Quarterbacks really struggle when the guys inside are just getting beat to sleep. And those guys are pretty good. And if you can run the football, as they've

decided that they're going to do, then there are things that can come off of that and make a life of quarterback a little bit easier. And Patrick Mahomes didn't even playing good ball. He would tell you that. He's not even like, he's spraying the ball. he'll figure it out whatever it is he'll figure it out he's also he's also gotten so damn good i don't know if you guys feel this but like he'll he'll throw like a bad ball and in my head i'm like yeah he meant to put that there y'all do that too it's a mind fuck i'm like was that supposed to be a back shoulder thing is he throwing this guy away from his own and like maybe sometimes he is but maybe sometimes he's just missing yet they're still five and oh because they play really good

defense. Talk about replacing Willie Gay, replacing Legerious Need, you know, and offensively replacing all the guys you're missing and changing kind of the way you do things again to suit the circumstance. It's a New England thing. You also look at the guys that come back for them and play. Like Hardman, who else is that? Juju, you know, Kareem Hunt. We got three guys that are that are giving you meaningful snaps right now. that probably if you ask 31 other cities like these guys got juice nah but they do in kansas city because they know how they operate they know how the program runs and those guys at least you know that they're familiar with how we do things and i think that's another new england staple like

i told nola i was like go back and look it's a bunch of new england guys that have played a ton of snaps in a second act situation for new england a guy will pop up up again in new england you'll be like he couldn't get enough of it they say the place isn't fun but obviously guys like coming back and playing dion branch and sorry if i'm fucking any of these names up but like tally ban to cane i think had multiple uh malcolm butler jamie collins kyle van oi andre carter patrick chung brandon bolden like there are guys that show up in second acts in new england i think it just speaks to like the organizational mindset which is that like It's not always about the best player.

It's about the player that knows how to do what we're trying to do. And I think that's on full display. When you get the best quarterback in the world year after year, and you got one of the best coaches in the history of the game, and you have one of the best coordinators in the history of the game on defense, you can put some pieces in, and some things are interchangeable. So one thing about going to play in a team like that, you are replaceable. The other night, Juju, after the game, said it's pretty cool to get the band back together.

man, I'm telling you, there's no place like this. What we have here is special. It's unreal. It's really cool. I mean, those guys have a blast. That stadium looks like it's really fun to play in. The other night, I ended up right before the game, bet in the under.

I, you know, put in a Juwan Johnson anytime touchdown because I figured, like, with a baby, new baby, congrats to Juan Johnson. Check out the mustache on that guy. He's fucking total stud. Okay. Now, it ends up being the other guy that has the touchdown, the damn tight at Morrow, Foster Morrow, and really cool moment for him,

somebody who actually beat cancer this month coming up with that big, big play. But I was just taking aback at how, like, I knew they'd take shots, but, like, Carr was like, we're going to punt the ball seven to ten times with my arm in the game and just see what happens. And I don't hate that. I really don't.

With the frequency that flags are called outside on shots, like, you know, I don't hate that. I did hate the first one. I loved it from my standpoint. You know what else I loved is an under better, under 44, bought up to 44, suckers buy points from 43.5. That Saunders kid, he's running through my dreams. When he picked the ball off, he looked like a plus size angel to me.

You know, like a little plus size angel running with the football. It was like he's number 50. He's not supposed to have the ball. Juju, thank you very much for babbling it. He saved the under. And I just, how could you not love this guy? I'm watching the game without sound. Evidently, his brother is a backup dancer for Taylor Swift.

Really? Yeah. Fucking crazy. Script. The script is scripting, right? But this dude. also from St. Louis, I believe. Is he a St. Louis kid?

This Saunders kid? Look it up for sure because I definitely want to salute this kid. Fucking awesome, man. Parkway Central. Shout out to Colin Saunders. Okay? Fucking awesome. Not many guys built like that get to run out on that,

like just run with the ball. It's a childhood dream. Came true for that kid. So yeah, there's not much else to say, guys. I just figured we'd get on here and empty the clip a little bit on what happened this week. Today on Inside the NFL, I mean, if you're watching this before 9-8 Central or whenever this show comes on, they just flex this to Wednesday night, which is a good thing. I think people are excited about the show.

I did give my football guy to James Connor. We'll see if I won. Ryan Clark gave his football guy to Riley Moss, and I know what he's doing. He's trying to appeal to Bill. he went to this whole spiel that he's the first white corner since the millennium the only guy with that paint job

to pick a ball off in the NFL since Y2K that's insane you know and Bill's like how the fuck do they figure this stuff out I'm like Bill it's not a big data set that they're drawn from and also I said to Ryan I go you got this thing fucked up you thought you're going to win this thing because Bill likes white corners

this white wide receivers he likes you know speaking of that What happened to Hunter Renfro? Why is he not on a team? So I had James Connor. We talked about Aaron Rogers. You'll hear much of the same of what I just said. And we actually go through the Ravens,

the Ravens defensive game plan, getting ready to play Jaden Daniels. So we had a fun day. Talked about Drake May thing. We had Shaq on. Shaquille O'Neal. Quick story, 1998, Flathead. Flathead Lake County Fairgrounds.

Your boy took a 15-year-old girl. I was 13 to the fairgrounds there. I should slide that one in there. It's 1998, okay? I was just trying to tell you I had an older woman on my arm. And I took her to the go-carts and then I took her to, took her to the Shaq concert, Shaquille O'Neal at the Flathead County Fairgrounds. I had to take it to Shaq and Peter Guns.

Okay, so I got to ask Shaq tonight. Was that the best stop on the tour? He laughed. Now, the first thing he said when he came on screen, did you hear this from in there? He was like, you know, Ocho's talking to him. He was like, oh, what's up Ocho? And then R.C.'s, you know, giving him his spiel. And he's, and Shaq's like, who's the white guy?

I was like, Shaq, it's me, Chris Long. You were on my show last summer. And then when I asked him about it, because I still got the tickets from that concert saved on my bulletin board in Montana's a quarter. workboard i got those things stuck up there shack peter guns flathead lake county fairground i said shack i was at that concert i showed him tickets he goes and i'm paraphrasing here he's like i knew it was you you john travoltah looking motherfucker you know it was a compliment he was like good looking but i don't know where he came up with john travolta considering

the very guy who gave me my DNA was the villain in a John Travolta movie which is Broken Arrow. Everybody knows that movie. Howie Long getting kicked out of a train by Christian, what was his name? Christian Slater. He had a nice run.

His younger brother made fun of me because I didn't know what the word blowjob meant at the time. I'll never forget that. All right, we'll be back Friday with the preview. Friday with the preview. you. Thank you all very much for listening. I'm not going to lie. I hit a wall this week and I'm pretty burnt the fuck out. But this has been fun. I didn't want to do any pods until Friday. It was

fun. Thank God Robert Sala got fired so I had something to talk about. And who could it be that did it? It's like a game of clue. You know? We get the Hardy Boys on this thing, huh?