NFL Daily with Gregg Rosenthal - 40s And Free Agents: Heisman Candidates, "Looking the Part" as a Quarterback & Week 2 in the NFL

Episode Date: September 22, 2026

On this episode of 40s and Free Agents, Bucky Brooks and Lance Zierlein talk Ole Miss beating LSU, Trinidad Chambliss being a "hooper," and whether or not Oregon QB Dante Moore is a legit Heisman trophy candidate. Then, they recap Week 2 of the NFL season and discuss what's wrong with the Los Angeles Chargers, Baker Mayfield being outplayed by Deshaun Watson, Jayden Daniels durability concerns, and teams with heavy expectations that have underperformed so far.NFL Daily YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/nflpodcastsSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

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Welcome to 40s and free agents. I am Bucky Brooks. That's my guy, L.Z. Lance Zerlund. And we are going to drop the knowledge on all things football today. But Lance, what's going on? What's happening in H-Town? Well, I mean, we'll talk about it. We've got an on-to football team here that, you know, have some people.

It's time to clean house. Like, cleaning house off the Miko Ryans, really? Are we cleaning house? So, you know, you found out that life without Nico Collins is a real, real problem. So we'll get into some of that because they're one of the more disappointing O and two teams. And we've got a list of some disappointing O and two teams in that week three game. When you're O and two, that week three, is it really important statistically in terms of chances of making the playoffs? So we've got that buck.

I want to get into some college football. In fact, I want to start off with some college football. right to the Lane Kiffin Bowl, right? So I want to know where you stand on Lane Kiffin. I'm right to it. We'll go to college football, but I'm curious because we didn't really hit on this last week. Lane's one of those guys you love to hate, but there's something about Lane that I kind of like.

I don't want to like, but I just do. I think he's good. I think in a way he's good for the drama of college football. But it was fun in a way, watching objectively. It was kind of fun watching Ole Miss, you know, who got left at the altar by Lane Kiffin, right? He went to another SEC team, left you in the middle of playoffs. It was kind of fun, satisfying, watching that university and that football team get their revenge. Yeah, no, it's crazy.

One, having met Lane Kiffin way back, like first at USC, but then when he took over for the Oakland Raiders as the head coach, having talked to him, or whatever, always had a great deal of respect for his tactical. mind, his ex and O acumen, the way that he's able to put it together, particularly on offense. I loved all that. And then he kind of reminded me of some of the guys that I grew up with, kind of like the snarky, frat guys that kind of have their way. They kind of do these. They play pranks and do all that other stuff.

And so they can be a little whiny when things don't go. But I'm going to say this, and I feel like in this game, and there's so many things to talk about the game because I think Trinidad Chambers really helped himself when it comes to what we're going to talk about in the offseason to the draft. But I felt like in this game, Lane did a great job of keeping himself and the team calm. If you notice whenever they were paying to him when it was very emotional, he was always like, hey, calm it down, we're good. And I just think he has a great sense of his team.

I think his team needed to lose this game and then they'll refocus and they'll take the lessons for them and make them a bully and a power when we get to the playoffs. But, look, man, I think he's a terrific girl. I don't know why he left Ole Miss. I do understand the allure of LSU. People always talk about what you can do at LSU, the brand that LSU is. Yeah, but I think, look, he's a polarizing figure,

but I love the fact that sometimes he leans into it. I think he should just own it all the time and not kind of try and be nice guy, then bad guy and nice guy. Just be the villain, be the villain all the time. I thought Ole Miss played well. And, you know, since we talk 40s and free agents, So 40s typically is about the draft, right?

So I would say draft-wide, Trinidad Chambliss is already, it's already. It's all, man. I mean, it's already on my mind like, all right, what am I going to do with this guy? So I'm already kind of percolating right now. I'm thinking, okay, we know he's in and all that stuff. So I got a factoring that in. So I'm looking at, he's got a little bit of a wind up when he throws. But he's got arm talent.

I mean, I think he's got a lively arm, Buck. Big on. I've been impressed. Yeah. He's got a lively arm. So that wind up, as long as you throw it. the anticipation and you got a little zip on it, I'm not worried about it. And he threw with some anticipation. I thought he drove the ball into some of those windows that he needed to drive him

into. It was enough anticipation combined with enough drive velocity that I liked it. I mean, that's, I think it's what it's supposed to look like. The height thing, sometimes people want to diminish arm length. They want to diminish the height and the pocket. It is an issue if you're having, if you've got a bunch of 6-5-66-67 offensive linemen and you're a pocket quarterback and you're five-foot-10, five, ten, and a half, you know, it is something you have to consider and have to think about a little bit. Sometimes you have to game plan around. But just the player himself, I'm really coming away last year and this year. And by the way, there's an age thing with him as well because he's been around for a long time. But does he make plays? Yes. Do you win because of him?

Yes, you win because of him. Does he play with poise? Yes, he plays with poise. Once you start asking pertinent draft questions about Trinidad Chamblis, he checks a lot more boxes than you may think. There's some boxes you're not going to love. But, you know, Tyler Shuck was an older player coming in. We're going to talk about him a little bit on the NFL side.

I mean, looks pretty good right now with Tyler Shuck. He looks like not an elder millennial or whatever the phrase would be for him. you know, not an old second year player, which he is by second year standards. He looks like somebody who is who is experienced. And Trinidad Chamliss is going to be a very experienced player when he comes into the league as well. I don't know, Buck. I mean, I'm with you on that, right? And I think it's so interesting, right?

So I've seen other people already talk about him being QB1 in this class. And so people are like, oh, that's reactionary. But let's be honest, based on how people play. Let's just, if we threw kind of like the blind resume up, just from this year, there's not another quarterback that's playing better than him. You know what I'm saying? We could talk about the Miami kid, Mensa, but right now, of all the draft eligible guys, no one is playing better than Trinidad Chamas. He is the reason that they're winning. That game, LSU, and I don't even think he had an A-plus game, 33 for 48, 363, two touchdowns.

But what I love about him, the bigger the moment, the better he plays. LSU brings it all the way back, ties it, cool, game on. And he comes back and delivers every time. And so I'll be honest with you. And this goes back to last year. You remember last year in the run up to the draft, no one was talking about it. And then I remember sitting there watching the playoff game versus Georgia. Or maybe it's the SEC championship, whatever it was.

And I was like, yo, who's the dude from Ole Miss? throwing, right? Because he wasn't getting serious consideration, what you like in terms of just being a baller. I was like, man, this dude is a baller. Like, man, he's... Were you thinking that because of the throwing or the escapeability when you were watching them and thinking that for the first time? I think for the first, I think just the game, just the way that he was playing. Like, I was like, man, this dude is absolutely balling. He's a hooper. As they now say, like, he is getting it done. But I was like, okay, he's a senior, but yeah, he's short. He's this and that. and then you keep watching them throughout the playoffs. And he's like, man, you know, he's kind of putting it on folks.

And then you fast forward and you don't know what the status is going to be. So then you start researching. You're like, man, I kind of like him a lot. But it's all the things that we've been conditioned, like age, size. Like, man, you know, like it's not traditional. Yeah, Bryce Young went, but he hasn't really lit up the league until recently. He started to kind of come into his own. but it's still,

Cala Murray, yeah, but that's atypical. But then the more that you go and the more that he plays, it's hard to deny what you're seeing on tape. There are other guys who have the measurables, but they're not guys that are dominating the game. He's dominating the game.

He is the reason why their offense is running like that. It gets into the, it gets into the Dan Orlovsky heat. He made a comment about what it looks like. And it was taking a little out of context So to add context, somebody was pressing him on, you don't seem to be a Jalen Hertz guy. And he said, I am a Jalen Hertz guy. And the thought was, well, why do you give him, why do you give a guy like Justin Herbert so much more love when Jalen has, you know, quote unquote done it?

I mean, he's been to a Super Bowl twice, played well in both Super Bowls, won a Super Bowl. And Dan even admit, he was kind of an admission, right? Not because this is the reason why it was an admission because he looks the part. He's he's what it's supposed to look like, Justin Herbert. And some people took it some kind of way, but I know what he's saying and you know what he's saying too. We love big and beautiful. That's the way that, you know, if it always looked like Josh Allen and Cam Newton, that's great. And Justin Herbert, that's great.

But that's not the reality of today's quarterback play. And so you do have to really put aside some of the, you know, for me, I'm not, just because Arch looks the part, I'm going to let the tape tell me. And with Trinidad Chamblis, that's the harder part. You also have to let the tape tell you. You know, the unfortunate thing is Kyler Murray hadn't been in the college football for six years or whatever the case may have been. Yeah. You know, and Tyler Shuck, had he not had three career-ending surgeries and, you know, career-ending injuries and had,

because he was the best, he was the best pure passer, I thought, in the draft and in Cam was second. But there was never a doubt that I was going to put Cam ahead of him because I'm sorry. He didn't play a lot of poise in college when the heat was on when pressure was in his face. And he had a ton of injuries. I'd already seen Michael Pennix with a ton of injuries and he's injured again. But, you know, the tape was really good at times with Tyler Shuck. The tape is good for Trinidad Chamble's. But we can't just ignore historical norms as well.

So there is, there's a, it's a nuanced discussion we have to have. when it comes to Trinidad Chambers, I think. And it's going to be interesting, right? Because so the other names that you talk about, like Arch Manning will be in that conversation, Dante Moore, some people may say Julian Singh, C.J. Carr, those are the guys that are prominent right now in the discussion. And so you go through that list. Oh, Mensa, because we talked about Mensa early. Mensa hasn't played. So we'll get a chance to see him play in some headliner games and we'll have a better feel for him. But when you go and you look at Arch Manning,

through three games, Arch Manning has two games with less than, 200 passing yards. Even the Ohio State game that people are celebrating, he had a hundred and 995 yards, and he had more moments than pure domination in terms of what he did again. Less than six yards per pass attempt in that game. I mean, so we like the name and we like some of the stuff, but you wonder. And then with CJ Carr, it's always going to be a little more conservative when you deal with Notre Dame and what he is and some of that stuff. And so you like that, but you can't say that anyone has had those high moments. And with Mentsa, I watch him.

He's throwing it all over the yard. And he's been really successful everywhere he's been. First Tulane, then Duke, and now it looks like at Miami, he's going to put together a strong season. There's going to be some intrigue there. With Dante Moore, you know, the funny thing with Dante Moore, I think that his low lights end up standing out more than his highlights. And even though he only has a few low lights that we think about is just notable, right?

The two games against Indiana last year, then we have a game against Oklahoma State where they lose, which isn't necessarily his fault, but you're just like, man, like, y'all shouldn't lose that game. Can you carry them over the threshold? I just think the conversation when we get to the spring is going to be so nuanced about, one, who are the first rounders, who should be QB1? And are you courageous enough to have someone who is an outlier be the number one guy listed on your, you know, on your board? Yeah, it's a lot more to go. Josh Hoover's had a good year coming from TCU over Indiana. They haven't played any. anybody yet, so we're going to find out more about Hoover, but the numbers look good.

Numbers looked okay at TCU as well. He'll be in a Heisman conversation. We know that we've talked about the other ones, Drew Mestamaker. There'll be some talk. I don't think he's a first round talent, but we will see. I thought some of his tape headed into the year was pretty good, and he got the win over Oregon. I do think Arch Manning and Dante Moore are the two, the two, and potentially C.J. Carr, I didn't, I didn't, I didn't think he's, I don't see first player in the draft type type stuff with C.J. Carr, but we'll see how it plays out.

But Mensa, Manning, Hoover, to me, those are going to be the three to keep the closest eye on. Chambliss, I think, I still want to see what happens with Chambliss. I like him as a football player, but like I said, people will be looking for anything they can to say, okay, I knew it. Yeah, I did not put him up there because he got hurt here. or, you know, he had a bad game against his team or whatever the case may be. But Manning really has some work to do. Dante Moore has some work to do. Those two guys have work to do.

But based on last year for more and based on Arch, the projection, people are going to be willing to give those guys the benefit of the doubt until it gets late in the season. And then it's going to just turn into how did this guy play in his biggest games? Dante Moore's got a lot of work. They got wiped out and he played poor. poorly against Oklahoma State who got beat double digits by Tulsa the way before. That's a tough loss to come back from.

I'm glad you put a bunch on Portland State, but no one cares. No one. No one. Yeah, no one cares. And that conversation, as relates to quarterbacks and what they got to put on tape, it's going be an interesting one as we go forward. And I'm going to hit you because you talked about Houston and what's going on in Houston.

But I got to tell you before we talk about the Texans, thoughts on Deshaun Watson. having a game. Having a day. He finally put together a game. The Cleveland Browns going the road. They knock off the Tan Bay Buccaneers. DeShine Watson was, by all the accounts, played his best game as a brown. He was quick and decisive with the ball. He found a way to get into a rhythm. More importantly, he led the Browns to a win.

You know him. You know his game really well, having watched him all the time when he was with the Texans. Are you surprised that he was able to dig in the crates and pull out a classic? Yeah, I was actually because it's been so bad. Like it hasn't looked anything like what I saw with Houston, Texans. So I was a little bit surprised. It was a strange game because they had a long weather delay. It was a torrential downpour they had to wait out.

But he made some throws. He made some good-looking throws. So I was a little surprised. He reached back in a way-back machine and pulled it out. Now, we'll see if they can do it a second game in a row. And we'll see how Deshaun plays underwereux. Munkin. We'll see if that's one of those things where Munkin can get more out of Dishon Watson than he has shown previously at Cleveland. We'll see if that happens. But I was a little bit

surprised, yeah, to see him have that kind of game. It was a highly efficient performance, high completion percentage. I thought he did a really nice job. You know, on the flip side, look, I mean, a guy who was going to be a free agent, Baker Mayfield, is no longer because they gave him a bunch of money. He needs to play better than he's played so far to start the year in the first two games. Yeah, man. You give that buyer's remorse is going to be serious if Baker doesn't start picking

it up because it's not like he ended the season. Well, the second half of the 25 season wasn't good, but the first half was like really good. So you figure, yeah, there were some injuries and things got out of what. We'd rather have Baker than not have Baker. Let's just give him the money. Well, you follow the bad second half of the season. with the beginning he's had so far,

and that's got to be a little bit of a concern right now for certainly the fans and maybe the front office in Tampa. He's got to pick that up in his play. Yeah, to think about it is, though, now you, Domino's late. I mean, you've already played the Domino is there, so you've got to stick with it. And what it does is it's troublesome in terms of

if they move on from Todd Bowles. The next coach has to inherit Baker Mayfield. And he has to be okay with Baker Mayfield's game and all that other stuff. So that would be really interesting to watch. He hasn't played well. He needs to play better. First, it was the fumbles week one. Dennis just not being able to efficiently get it done against the Browns.

Defense that struggled a week before against the Jags. You're just surprised. And it's just one of those things, man. You can't really figure him out. I can't figure out why it hasn't clicked. He was ball and under Liam Cohen. Hasn't played at the same level since then. But can he get it back?

He has to get it back because they're invested in him. It would be interesting to see how they proceed. You brought up Tyler Shutt and the New Orleans Saints. They go and get a big win against the Baltimore Ravens. Look, a win that I don't think anyone saw. But the, man, the second year quarterback is really coming into his own. And there's a lot of things that like on tape. He leads the NFL.

He's averaging 331 yards per game passing. Tyler Shet is a baller. Am I off on that? No, I think he is. And it's not just that, but he's been coming back on teams. Like he, he's not letting defenses off the hook late in games either. He came back against, I really thought, watching some of that Ravens game at the time, I thought they had it under control. And before you knew it, there was two consecutive scores that Shuck led his team on. And he kind of took over that game when Lamar, you know, Lamar Jackson did not play well at the end of the game.

And on the flip side, Tyler played really well. And this was something I was worried about him coming out. So I wasn't sure that he would respond well to in-game adversity and pressure in his face. And I'm still waiting for him to look frazzled by pressure because so far it hasn't happened. This may just be a miss. I know Saints fans, I remember the videos Saints fans who were so mad they didn't take Shador Sanders and that they grabbed Tyler Shuck. They were just furious.

Well, Texans fans were mad. We didn't draft Nick Fairly, instead got JJ Watt. So that happens sometimes where the fans will miss. And you go back and look at those videos, it looks kind of funny. But I got a couple good friends that are Saints fans, and they're very happy with Tyler Shuck right now. Very happy. So that's something to keep it on.

And he's one of those older quarterbacks. First one that we had really seen. So it's funny, once you have a Baker Mayfield come out and have a good rookie year, it's easier to draft. Yeah. Kyler Murray the next year with the first pick of the draft. Because remember, Baker played pretty well as a freshman. Once you have a six-year, seven-year guy like Tyler Shuck, perform well,

makes it easier to pull the trigger on another guy like Trinidad Chamble. It's just to kind of roll it back into the draft. It makes it easier when you've seen it already. We say, okay, this guy, because he's got a lot of experience, adjust more quickly to the NFL. So I'm going to keep an eye on. Well, look, there's a lot of things that are going to kind of play in that favor. So one of the things that we know works well in terms of predicting quarterback success is the number of snaps and stars that you get as a collegian. We saw where Brock Purdy come out of nowhere but had a ton of experience.

We're talking about Tyler Shud, even though he had all the injuries, he spent a lot of time in college, like the experience matters. The maturity that you have going into the league. But more importantly, Lance, like here's the thing about quarterback play and why you really shouldn't factor in, some of these quarterbacks are playing into their 40s. So what if you get a guy at 25? If you're really drafting and thinking about the next 15 years, which you really shouldn't be. But look, okay, he plays 15 years.

He'll be 40 at that point. You're really trying to find someone that is ready to play. And at a time where younger guys are forced them to feel quicker now than they've ever been, I would kind of be okay with an older guy stepping in and provided the idea as the talent and the tools to be able to get it done. Yeah, yeah. That's, you know, the Saints have been a very surprising team so far. I've been very pleasantly surprised. I've been shocked at the Raiders. That Raider win, and we'll talk about discipline. I want to save the other team for the disappointing side,

and we come back from a break. But just to paint the positive right now, wow, what a job the Raiders and Clint Kubiak have done so far. They're getting a, you know, a little better blocking up front. They spent some money and some draft picks and got some injured guys back. and Ashton Jensi is a bigger factor right now. But the offensive scheme of Clint Kubiak, and you and I talked about it before the draft. I love the Kubiak scheme. It's more old-school Shanahan.

There's not as many wrinkles, but Clint has thrown some wrinkles in there. They're doing such a good job of creating explosive opportunities. And Cousins has done a really nice job over there. It's very happy to see the Raiders have some success, because I like the Kuviaks, and I want to see that go well. Also, here we are with 49ers looking really, really good. The Kansas City Chiefs, Pat Mahomes, I want to see a little bit more,

but they turn back the clock again with Travis Kelsey having a monster Monday night game and Pat Mahomes doing what he always does. I mean, I may have written them off a little bit too quickly. May have written them off a little bit too quickly. And the Bengals, too. You can't say enough about Dexter Lawrence. The addition of Lawrence, the addition to Jonathan Allen, and then Brian Cook on the back end as a safety. What smart moves they made in the offseason because the defense went to Porris from Poros to they're pretty stout defensively right now.

And you can't, you can't run with Dexter Lawrence in the middle. You just, you can't do it. Double teams and you get no movement against. No, no movement. And I was talking to my dad about him. Obviously, dad coach him, he's in shape. And when he's in shape and he's motivated, he is nearly impossible to block. And you saw that whatever happened in their game, somebody pissed him off.

And you saw all pro dexter show up. The Bengals are interesting because it's not just him. And this is what I would give them credit. Maybe we should have expected that. The combination of Dexter Lawrence and Jonathan Allen, not only two guys who've played at Pro Bowl levels, but two guys that have a lot of leadership ability that maybe were underrated. Jonathan Allen has really taken that leadership. mantle and run with it for the Bengals.

They have an older experienced team on that side of the ball. They're playing really, really well. You think about holding the Texans to six points, even though C.J. Stroud moved the ball up and down the field. They're getting what they want out of their defense because it's complimenting an offense that is really explosive with Joe Burrow and Jamar Chase and to all those guys. It's coming together for them. And they look, they're right at the top of the division, which you want to see from them.

And so that part has been really, really impressive. to see Zach Taylor find a way to kind of get this team going because I don't think any of us thought about that being the thing. And then going back to your point about the Raiders, Clint Kubiak. Everyone talked about Clint Kubiak kind of being the leader of man, but here's what I think Clint Kubiak has that is really important. He has a dad who is really successful being a head coach. You can say whatever you want to about Gary Kubiak. Gary Kubiak had a lot of success in his league. You were there in age time when he was doing it. I think just having that supporting to fall back on.

Not that he's trying to be like his dad, but he stepped in and he acts like a head coach. He doesn't act like someone who is learning how to be a head coach. He kind of has a self-assuredness about him that, hey man, I know what I'm doing. We're going to get this right.

And when I talk to people in the building, the one thing that he did is he held everybody accountable, particularly Max Crosby. And that sent a message to the rest of the team about how everyone gets down. And I think that is huge. in terms of getting to Raiders to play much better to anybody anticipated. Yeah, let's break it right here when we come back.

We'll talk about three teams that maybe are disappointing us to start off with. It's a long season, right? Long season, but you don't want to go 0 and 3. So we'll talk about the O and 2 teams that really have a big week of games or really have a big game on Sunday ahead of them. The music you love. Your favorite radio stations. Everywhere you go

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Listen to NFL Pro on the IHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcast. The NFL never stops and neither does its newest podcast. The NFL Report hosted by me, Andrew Siciliano. It is your home for everything football. Williams, drifting, sprinting for space, in all times of trouble, put it up for depth. We're tapping the biggest news stories, giving you expert analysis, fantasy previews, game picks, and more. We fly around every single play. We dominate every single play. Want to hear from the league's top stars ahead of the biggest matchups? We've got you covered.

They're a really good football team. We've got to have all hands on deck. Join me at an all-star cast of analysts for everything you need to know from around the league. Get new episodes of the NFL Report Monday through Friday all season long. Listen to the NFL Report podcast on the IHeart Radio. video app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. All right, Buck, so we talked about the good, right? We got to get to the bad end. We might as well get to the bad end, the ugly.

Good, bad, and ugly. Well, bad and ugly to me is one and the same right now with three teams. The Bucks, the Texans, and the Chargers. And I want to start with the Chargers for a second. I'm going to work in reverse order. Wow. The Chargers have been beaten by double digits. two home games by teams with terrible records last year,

including the team who had the first pick of the draft. And they're not even playing their first pick, Fernando Mendoza. We talked about why the Raiders are playing well, and Klubiak deserves a lot of that credit. I think they did a good job of reworking their roster as well, even though it's going to take more than a year. What is going on with the Chargers, Buck? I mean, I understand there being a period of trying to figure out

what Harbaugh likes to do with McDaniel, because they're two very different personalities, very different offenses. But that was just bad football that the Chargers played two weeks in a row. Yeah, bad football. And a few different things stands out to me about the Chargers. I always worried about this connection when it was Mike McDain's and Jim Harbaugh. I just wondered how it was going to fit because I don't know what their common links were. Because I think about Harbaugh being quirky but buttoned up having a very specific way

it likes to operate in terms of his offense and the way team looks. And then McDaniels always strikes me as being kind of loosey-goosey, particularly coming off of watching him operate in Miami. I just never knew how this was going to work. And now we get it together and we see them on the field. And this offense just has too many moving parts right now. Like shifting motions, all the cute stuff, team not picking it up. So they're beating themselves before they can even get started.

Penalties, six fumbles in this last game where they're just, the ball is hitting the ground too much, they have to quit beating themselves before they can even think about the opponent. And then everyone likes to dance around this, but I'm gonna say it. And Justin Herbert is playing bad ball. There's no other way to explain it.

He is playing bad football. And we keep giving him a pass on that. But you can't play the way that he's playing and the way that he's been playing and get away with it. I mean, Lance, he's been terrible. He's been bad, man. I mean, just bad. There's a lot of, this is a lot of, there's a lot of experience under the belt.

There's really no, no, I understand things taking a while to come together and gel because you got a new offensive coordinator and you got this and that. But look, if you're a good football player, you make players around you better, you make plays. He's not making enough plays. He's not making place. He's not making other people around him better. And Herbert looks the part, but he's not playing the part right now. And that's a big, big problem.

Like you've got to dip down and rescue your team. You say, we're not going to lose a second. I'm going to have a big fourth quarter. We're going to come back and we're going to pull this out. And everyone's going to say, who, boy, the Chargers, can you imagine they almost lost to the Raiders to start O&2? Now they are O&2 and it looks bad. Like there's not a lot to lean on right now. Your interior offensive line is not playing very well at all.

I have real concerns for the Chargers moving forward because this has been bad. football two weeks in a row. I'm going to go with the Texans now, I said we work in reverse order. The Texans, they've gotten off to, in three of the four years, Domingo's been here in Houston. He started O and two. Now, you know, I knew last week was going to be really tough to beat the Bengals just because without Nico Collins and then Jaden Higgins is lost for the year and he got hurt in preseason. You now were stuck with wide receivers who wouldn't be threes on any team and probably not fours on most teams. So you're stuck with a team full of fours and fives trying to fill in the gaps and you ran 11 personnel, 86% of the time without viable NFL separators

at wide receiver. And then you knew you couldn't run the football and you quit maybe a little too early against the Bengals or didn't try to find ways to get it outside the tackle box with the run game. I look at the Texans and you're disappointed in the defense in the first week. The second week, you're just disappointed in general. However, I do think it is going to look different with Nico Collins. Like, I'm less worried about the Texans than I am about the Chargers. Because with Nico Collins back, I think the first game, you got beat by an MVP and Josh Allen, and you maybe read your press clippings a little too much. And by the way, D'Amico has kind of referenced, well, I keep hearing everyone's a playmaker.

If you're a playmaker, you've got to make plays. He said that this week. Last week he talked about, I heard about this defense supposed to be so great. That was 2025. It's not 2026. So D'Amico's trying to check his own guys. But I do think that C.J. has actually played pretty good football. So I'm not really worried about the C.J. Stroud thing.

I'm more worried about, is the offensive line going to be good enough to run a football? and can they can Nico Collins stay healthy because they can't survive without Nico Collins? They just, they don't have enough at wide receiver to survive offensively. No, they don't have enough. And one of the things that you worry about are they constructed with enough diversity to be able to get through a stretch where you don't have your top guys? And right now it doesn't appear that you're able to do that. Or you have a play caller who is stubborn and wants to stick to the call sheet as opposed to

what they need to do to win that game. 11 personnel without your top two wide receivers, probably a little crazy unless it's just third down situations. The other part, I do wonder, because you talked about Demico Ryan starting out 0 and 2, what you say, three times since he's been. Three or four years, yeah. Man, what's happening in training camp

and what's happening in the preseason? Now, it doesn't have any impact on this year, but I think if you are the Texans, you've got to figure out why you keep getting off to these slow starts. There's something that is being done in training camp, that is not preparing you to be ready to go when the season kicks off. So that's one of the things that you have to do. And then you talk about the playmakers, not making plays.

I do believe the defense hasn't lived up to the hype and the reputation that people had for it going into the season. Last year, man, we watched this team dominate playing a simple Simon defense. They didn't blitz much. They lied up and played traditional coverage. They rushed with four and won with four. This year, they're not at the same level. Granted, created no turnovers. They've created no turnovers too this year,

and that's something that's unusual for a D'Amico Rind's defense. I mean, they live by that. They live by the creed in terms of like C-ball, get ball, go get to it. That's one of the reasons why they play with a more simple, a simplistic scheme. They're not getting the benefit of that. So D'Amico has some work to do. I believe they'll completely fix the defense,

but can this offense get to the point where they can score enough points where if the defense is having an off date that the offense can jump in and be like, we got this one this week. We'll find a way to go hit 40, those things. That's what's kind of missing to me. They don't have an explosive element in the back field that you have to like

keep an eye on or whatever. And look, there's no disrespect to Dave Montgomery. But I think when you're looking at their team, now that those top two are out, there's no one that you come into the game saying, But, hey, man, we have to shut this dude down or he can take over the game. It's hard to have 13, 14 play drives. It's hard enough for any team in the NFL.

It's really hard for the Texans. They're just not built really for that. I know that's what they want to get to eventually. But you've got to have some guys who can hit some explosives and they're just not doing it. I do think the Texans can turn it around. And I think they beat the Colts. It's going to be a tough one. They've got to stop Jonathan Taylor.

I'm not sure the Colts get out of there. I'm not going to put the Colts in the heavily underperformers. I thought they were highly competitive against the chiefs in a very difficult situation. The Bucks, on the other hand, you know, that's not a tough division over there. It's not supposed to be with Atlanta, with Atlanta, the St. Carolina. But Carolina is coming out and saying, hey, we're going to play ball. Like even though they gave up 59 in the first week, but they put over 30 on the Bears.

They put it on Atlanta. You've got, you know, the Falcons are a mess right now. So, but the Saints just got the win like we talked about in Baltimore. Now you've got, you had Cleveland coming in. And it just, Cleveland looked like the better team, to be honest with you. And I, I don't know, I saw Bucky the odds are. Todd Bowles is the first quarterback gone this year that those odds came out. Now you just gave Baker Mayfield, a big contract, hasn't really gotten off to.

He's got one touchdown and one interception over two games. so far. I'm a little disappointed with the Bucks. I'm not sure that I expected them to be a great team this year, but I thought they could, you know, I thought they could get off the, get off the mark at least meeting the Cleveland Browns. Yeah, I think that they really hurt them to perception because I felt like this is a team that was going to take a while for the pop, right? They got so many young guys filling in. Ruben Bain, Josiah Trotter, those guys cracking the starting lineup immediately. But I thought the good part of their team would be their offense and the offense has let them down in terms of being able to put voice up on the board

consistently. Todd Bowles has a lot of people, a lot of detractors that are beginning to pop up because it hasn't been great the last couple of years. It hasn't really been great for this team since Liam Cohen left when they had the offense jump started and Baker Mayfield through for 40 touchdown, 40 plus touchdowns. They have to find a way to figure out who they are. The other thing that I'll say this about Tampa, I don't think you can be a successful Buccaneers team if you don't have the potential to field a dominant running yet. And even though we like Baker when Baker's run around and making plays, he needs to be protected by a strong rushing attack.

I like Bucky Irving. I like Kenneth Gainwell. But between those two guys, I don't think you have a number one. You have to have a bail cow, a workforce, someone that defenses have to put their pads on, they got to worry about them. They don't have that. And that, to me, opens them up for some of these losses and stuff to that. Yeah, you really do.

When it comes to creating a roster, you have to build your running game around the type of quarterback you have. Like, if you have a great quarterback and elite quarterback, you know, the Colts figured out when they have Peyton Manning, they said, we'll let Edge go. We'll just find, we'll just find running backs, which actually made it tough around Peyton Manning in the offense. Tom Brady never really had dominant belcow rate. Corey Dillon, I mean, he had a guy here or there. But if you are going to have, let's face it, an average quarterback, then you need to have an above average group of either wide receivers and or running game. I think running game first.

I think you need to have a strong number one or two wide receiver twos on your team that can operate interchangeably. And you've got to think about how you, and then if you're going to have the running game, you obviously have to spend the money and do a good job of evaluating and developing offensive linemen. So, you know, Josh Allen can cover up a lot of issues. He can have some average wide receivers and they still get a bunch of, you know, that's when you know you have a special quarterback.

Yeah. But right now, the bucks are not, they're frankly not built to withstand average quarterback play. They can't withstand that. And nobody can withstand or sustain or withstand, I think I said with stain, which is a new word buck, but nobody can withstand having injured quarterbacks in the league. And we got a bunch of them now. We got Jackson Dart as heard is going to be out.

Caleb Williams is out. Maybe not as long as the cart would have led you to believe when he got carted off. I thought, oh, man, this is bad. And then I heard, oh, one or two weeks. Okay, well, that's not as bad as I thought. The one that scares me the most is Jaden Daniels. Rookie of the year. Yeah.

He looked phenomenal. I was always worried about the slender frame, but, you know, he wasn't injured really that much in college. And he had such a great rookie year. And now the elbow has been injured three different times, dislocated elbow. The last one, he was just going down and put his hand down to break the fall. Where are you on Jaden Daniels now? When you have a quarterback who can't stay healthy in the first couple, in two of the first three years, man, I am really concerned about,

and especially because of his body type, I'm very concerned about Jaden Daniels' health moving forward. I'm really concerned about Atlanta. Three injuries to the same elbow is significant. And I have to wonder, like, man, there's nothing we could do to protect it. There's not a brace we can put on it. There's nothing we could rehab it surgically, anything to lessen the odds. And it seemed like a nondescript play, nothing out of the ordinary.

But then here he is on the shield for some significant time. I think you have to figure out what to do with that, how to handle that. And then I think we do have to have a serious discussion about his durability or lack thereof because he has been great when he's been available. But he hasn't been available consistently. That rookie season seems like it was a decade ago based on all the things that have transpired with him since then. They have to get them right. And I don't know how you can protect him because these appear to be like fluky injuries.

It's not like he's leaving the pocket and running around and doing great stuff. I mean, he's in the pocket trying to get up and then, whoop. I mean, it just, it's crazy. But I think it's a major concern because we have seen this team without him, no shot. No shot. Well, I mean, in Buck, I mean, just getting a fantasy football for a second. I remember in our fantasy draft and I kept thinking, well, Jaden's back. But as soon as Laramie Tonsel went down with that injury that knocked him out,

I'm not touching Jaden Dane. Because he doesn't have a blindside protector. This is going to be, it's hard enough to find two, it's really hard to find two good tackles. It's pretty hard to find two average tackles. It's impossible to find a backup, to find three good tackles. or three competent tackles to keep the offense running at the pace you expect. And as soon as they lost Laramette Tunsell, I was like,

I ain't drafting Jayden Daniels because he's going to be running for his life the whole year, and I don't trust that he can hold up. And sure enough, that's where we are now. Jaden's hurt. It wasn't from blindside rush. Like you said, it was fluky, but it's the same issue, three different times, an elbow. I just, there's a reason small guys, you know, it's one thing to be short.

It's another thing to be slender and slight at a position where you're going to take a lot of pounding. And that's the concern when you have, you know, we start talking about these 200-pound quarterbacks or sub-200-pound quarterbacks or skinny leg guys. I'm sorry. It just, you know, those guys tend to be injured more. It's just what happens. Yeah, and it has happened. It's happened enough that you're concerned about it.

Another thing that has happened, Caleb Williams, popping a hamstring. Now, I thought it was something. to super serious given his reaction initially. Like I, they had the card him off. He had the towel. Hold on, Buck. Hold on, Buck. Oh, yeah, you got to put the towel over here. The towel over here. It's bad.

It's, oh, oh, he's back. He's, he's, he's, he's, he's, he's, he's, he's, he's, he's, I've never seen anything like, look, I literally thought. Then when they said it was a hamstring, I was like, okay, I mean, a little dramatic, but it's fine. He feels what he feels. And the fans should feel what they feel, but I got to tell you, man, like, he's played well. He's played great.

Yeah. Also, he's been beat up and banged up and those things. And some of it, people say, because he's running, quarterbacking those things, I was like some of it is just understand overall the awareness of the game and situations. Like sometimes you have to understand where you are, what's going on in the game, when to put yourself in harm's way, and when to be like, hey, man, let's start going to play another down. I think all young quarterbacks have to figure it out. It's just unfortunate that the last two that we named Daniels,

Williams, respectively, are sidelined for a minute. Jackson Dart, another young first-old quarterback. Those are, you know, those are three early first-round quarterbacks all, all injured. So, and Jackson's one, another one that we've got to worry about all the time because he runs and takes hits. And now this one was another one where he was in the pocket. So I won't call it fluky, but it's not for the reason that we think because he runs and doesn't slide.

But still, I mean, you miss time, you miss time. And it's hard to win with a backup quarterback. Hard to win with a backup quarterback. Look, your best asset is your availability. And when you're not available, you allow someone else to get used to sitting in your seat. And after a while, they kind of like sitting in your seat. So you just got to make sure that as much as you can, you want to take care of yourself and avoid the big legs. But, man, so many injuries to these young quarterbacks, it changes the dynamic of their respective

teams, but it also changes the landscape of the NFL and which teams are serious playoff contenders and which teams we can already write up about, hey, these guys will be picking in the lottery next year. Yeah, and that's why we, that's why every week in this show, we're going to, we're going to be hitting on quarterbacks in the draft because it's the headliner and there's going to be, while the level play hasn't been what we wanted so far early in the college football season, there's a lot of them to consider this year. So there will be a lot in play in the first three rounds.

least for us to discuss. So it's going to be a constant conversation here in 40s and free agents. Yeah, a constant conversation in 40s and free agents. We can make sure we bring you the latest content when it comes to the NFL draft, the NFL season, and anything around the game. That is my man, LZ. I'm Bucky Brooks. Make sure you come in and check us out next week. We're back with 40s and three. The new NFL season is here. And you should be listening to NFL Daily as we march along to Super Bowl 61. It is in the name NFL Daily. You'll have fresh content in your feed. every day all season long. That game-winning drive, maybe it's Herbert, maybe it's Gino, maybe it's Mahomes. We'll have the highlights. If Fernando Mendoza or any of the rookies are

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