NFL Daily with Gregg Rosenthal - 49ers-Vikings MNF Recap

Episode Date: October 24, 2023

In a virtual room full of heroes - Dan Hanzus, Gregg Rosenthal, and Marc Sessler recap the Week 7 Monday Night Football matchup between the 49ers and Vikings. They start by talking about the impressive performance by Kirk Cousins (02:31), Dan talks about Purdy’s recent troubling play (16:16), and take a look at some of the biggest headlines from around the league (29:02).  Note: time codes approximate. NFL Daily YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/nflpodcastsSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

This is an I-Heart podcast. Blitz off the edge. Cousins throws and it's taken away by Addison for the touchdown. He and Charverius Ward fighting for the ball. And this time, Addison takes it for the score. It'll set one big game this season. That was at home against Dallas. Here's McCaffrey.

He's gone. Touchdown 49ers. Bertie steps through. Floats in his pick. And that's it. Bainham gets another. This season is hammered. This season needs to be putting a cab and sent home before it says something.

It can't take back. This season needs to take Advil and drink four glasses of water before they go to sleep. Preventative because when we wake up tomorrow, we're going to have a big headache trying to make sense of the NFL. That was pretty good. Kirk Cousins led the way for the Minnesota Vikings and just a tremendous prime time performance. I don't think that's a thing anymore going 35 of 45 for 378, two touchdowns in a 22-17 win over the suddenly vulnerable San Francisco 49ers. His counterpart, Brock Purdy, you heard they're through two late interceptions, including a moonball over the middle to Clint.

the second straight defeat for the Niners after their 5-0 head start. I am Dan Hansis, coming to you virtually, a room filled with heroes. Greg Rosenthal and Mark Sessler. Greg, I want to start with cousins here because, you know, no Justin Jefferson, and the general idea was no hope for the Vikings, and it kind of goes back to a thing, and it's been an eternal conversation around this player. Like, is he good?

Is he very good? Is he mediocre? Man, Kirk Cousins is a really good quarterback, and he's proving it again for a Vikings team that is suddenly right back in the middle of the NFC playoff race. I love that he had this performance in prime time because it shouldn't feel like it means more because it's at night and it's in an island game,

but it does, especially because of the team he was going against. Look, I give the Vikings offensive line a silver medal in this game. I did not think that they could dominate in the way that they did early in this game. I thought Kirk Cousins held the ball like a half second longer on a lot of these plays that he normally does. And it's because the protection held up. But he held it and he waited until the last second until his receivers were getting opened down the field when he needed to. At one point in this game, it was 8 for 8 for 188 on passes over 10 yards. And I think that number got even better in the fourth quarter wasn't updated.

You're absolutely right, Dan, like he was the absolute difference in this game. And if you're just waking up in London or you're watching baseball or something and you didn't see it, you might be like, wow, the Vikings got out of there with a win. They could have won this game by 15 points. I'm really glad the result was how it finished, Mark, because he was the better quarterback. And they were the much better team on the day. It actually felt a little closer than it needed to be, but they ended up getting it done. Yep.

And I have a bit of a Niners fetish. and I agree with you. I thought it was Minnesota's night. We got the best version of Kirk Cousins in primetime. Both teams missing their star wide receiver. You don't have Debo Samuel. You don't have Justin Jefferson. And I thought the Niners are going to find a way to get their way out of this

and like find a way with all their other stars to make production. And it was the opposite. It was Jordan Addison tonight. I mean, I thought he played spectacularly. And they got production from the run game, which has been up and down all season. I think they've came into the game with 11 rushes of 10 plus yards. They had three of them early tonight. Kirk Cousins played really, I think, the best game of the entire season for himself.

And like their offensive line, there's no sacks for the Niners. I thought they found a way to, Kirk Cousins found a way to puncture the middle of that San Francisco defense. And this was the Vikings team we've kind of been waiting for. And like, you know, yes, could they potentially melt down at the end? They found a way to not do that. And the Niners suddenly, you've lost two games. You're in a strange spot. I'm not really worried about them, but they're a little banged up.

But I don't leave concerned about the Niners. But this is not where we thought we'd be with them a fortnight to go. Yeah. And by the way, you mentioned Cousins was not sacked. He had 45 pass attempts in this game and not sacked. And I think I heard a stat that that's the most attempts for a player this and without being sacked. So a huge shout out to the offensive line.

And yeah, Jordan Addison. We've been seeing Addison flashing this season as a real number two and the replacement for Adam Thiel in there. And he kind of put a stamp on that. T.J. Hawkinson before he went out for injury was getting open and getting the ball. He had 11 catches in the game. And, you know, listen, the NFC is weird, man. Like, Mark, I know you nominated the Vikings to be forked.

last week, and it was shot down because Minnesota has the chance in this division to get back into this thing. And they already are back into this thing after an 0 and 3 start. It took one big victory to kind of change our whole season. And here it is against the 49ers. On the San Francisco side of things, you do, yeah, you didn't have Debo, but let's face it, for you really haven't had Debo for most of this year. It's been another one of those years where he's just banged up and he could be out through the by with that fracture, a hairline fracture in his shoulder. But you did have Brandon Ayyuk, who was five for 57 in this game,

but not necessarily difference maker. George Kittle had some catches, obviously, but obviously they didn't hook up for anything, you know, in the red zone. Christian McCaffrey was held in check here. He averaged three yards of carry on 15 rushes. He obviously busted one on a short pass for a touchdown and scored another on the ground to keep his incredible streak going. So there are elements of that offense that looked,

okay but to me it's been purdy the last two weeks i worry if like when we were speaking of london when we're in london i did a heavy metal rendition of brock tober and it's returned with um brock purdy replacing brock oswiler and all of a sudden purdy is looking extremely mortal gregg and i know that you had said last week you didn't think purdy necessarily played terribly against the browns there was just stretches where he didn't play so well in this game especially with those late those late picks god you start to get a little bit of nervous about him coming down to earth now and looking more like the guy, what we expected him to be when he first entered the lineup. Well, I think this was very similar to last week

in the way I looked at it too. You heard Troy Aikman say, I think it was starting the fourth quarter, you'd be hard pressed to find a game where you thought the two quarterbacks played any better. And I thought Purdy was almost throwing a perfect game through three quarters. And then you started seeing the limitation, not like everything he did was perfect, but But they only had three drives in the first half. One of them ends on the McCaffrey fumble. Another mistake with penalties, and they missed a field goal on another. They score the touchdown on the third one.

They get a very quick touchdown drive to end the third quarter. And I thought at that point, like Purdy is playing really well. And then suddenly in the fourth quarter, they're trailing. He's throwing these timing throws with a lot of confidence. and he just misses one to Jennings. There's another play where he's scrambling left on a third down and you think like all the superhumans that play quarterback in the NFL can throw the ball across their body and complete it.

He was trying to get it to Iyuk on that play and Purdy just didn't have the arm strength to do it. And then he's given the ball late with no timeout, a chance to go down the field. Can he finally have that kind of big game winning drive? He hasn't had the opportunity to do that until last week really in Cleveland. and he just throws up a pass that was a nice play by Cam Bynum, but they were going over the middle of the field.

And you saw his limitations, I think, show up there. I'm not panicked about it, but it definitely doesn't give you confidence that, like, if he's in a Kirk Cousins like spot where people are being taken away and he's under pressure, is he going to come through? He obviously didn't tonight. I am with you. I think that, you know, it's fair to have normal expectations

about what Brock Pretty would be very early in his career. But tonight for me was about a Niners defense that's been dominant for long stretches for a number of years. They looked a little uncomfortable tonight. And I even pointed to the fact that the Vikings had one drive that ended on San Francisco's two-yard line. And that was a long drive. Then another one that ended on the three-yardland of San Francisco, also a long drive, both field goals. I mean, this game could have been a much different situation going into the fourth quarter because we got a Vikings offense that actually was like extremely productive.

and their understudies, like the Jordan Addison's of the world, stepped up and did what we thought I would have thought, like the Niners will find a way to get six guys we've never heard of to produce. It was one of the best offensive performances by any team all season tonight's Minnesota. I know that sounds weird because they ended up with 22 points, but considering the opponent, they only had eight drives, Dan. They put up 400 and what was it? 452 and eight drives.

All eight drives against the 49ers essentially were successful. until they either, you know, had the turnover on the first drive where it was Ward and Addison, you know, fighting for the ball and probably should have been Addison's catch. A similar play ended up being in touch. We can get to that. But like, other than that, they were moving the ball. And it really took Kevin O'Connell getting a little conservative on some fourth down decisions or else they would have had more. I was stunned to see the 49ers defense, which really isn't that injured. They're pretty healthy. I know Greenlaw and Warner both got banged up late in this game, but they both came back. Like, It was kind of mystifying to me to see an offensive line for Minnesota, like steamroll them. They were running well early, too. What's the defense now? And this plays into the NFL's hammer drunk right now. Like, what is the defense that has for seven weeks gone kind of undefeated, if you will? I mean, I think about all these great defenses, San Francisco, Cleveland, the Jets, Dallas, New Orleans, Detroit.

I mean, you know, Baltimore has been very good. I know I'm blanking right now whether they had a real slip up yet. But like you're seeing all these teams kind of go into these funks and it tells you there's probably not a truly great difference-making defense. Or maybe it's more just a long season and this is a bad night for the Niners on that side of the ball. But it is, again, you've got to give so much credit to Cousins and Kevin O'Connell to be able to do this without the best wide receiver in the league with him on the sideline wearing sunglasses, it's a pretty remarkable achievement.

And I know we've talked to like Kyle, Kyle Shanahan before, and he is a gifted offensive mind, but he can be sometimes conservative. I'm trying to wrap my head around that decision with a struggling field goal kicker early in the fourth quarter to go for the 15-yard, the 55-yard field goal with a struggling rookie to make it 2217 when it's fourth and six from the opponent 37 yard line? Like that struck me as, hmm, I wonder if Shanahan's not feeling so hot about Purdy, but you're right. Like, that doesn't really make sense because Purdy really was playing well.

That really stunned me. And I was trying to do the math in my head is like, why did he just do that? And then that's what the final score ended up being. So it didn't exactly work out. Right. I think they, you know, they were. off balance all night offensively because they're playing this insane defense. You know, Brian Flores has brought a crazy energy.

I think he's a, he kind of reminds me a Wade Phillips in that Wade Phillips, whenever you would bring him in, bring him into your 26th ranked defense. Wade Phillips will clean it up fast. It might not work forever. And Flores is even crazier than Phillips in the kamikaze style that he plays with. but he's basically taken these guys they got rid of some older veterans and he's taken like a similar secondary

for instance can bind him with the two interceptions Akalab Evans who was out there on on Ayuk all night this same young guys in the secondary and he's just in Harrison Smith who's playing like he's five years younger and he just had blitz in every time and when he doesn't blitz he only rushes three

and he drops eight and you're like what the hell is happening here and I think it just had them off balance they definitely stopped the run really well and it's not going to work every every game. And it's not going to even work every series. You saw that three-play drive where they had some good cover zero beaters with McCaffrey scoring that long touchdown. And like that can happen against Flores too. But he has them playing with an energy. And I think he was messing with

their minds a little bit. I really thought the Minnesota coaches were awesome because KOC had all the answers for San Francisco's defense. And likewise, I think Flores really scrambled them. And it was the second game in a row where we saw Purdy, who's been, if anything, like if he's not majestic, you know, athletically, but he's been safe with the football and been smart and kind of like beyond his years. And that's what you like about him. And it's two games in a row where he threw a very dangerous lobs while he's getting tugged to the ground and getting thrown around. And like, you know, the one, for all the preseason tropes that we ignore, I kind of think I'm starting to buy into the one where like a bunch of defensive. players are like, we've got a new coordinator. He's made it less complex, less mind altering. And it's like, we just go be who we are. Because like, that was Schwartz in Cleveland. That's Flores

in Minnesota. And it's, you know, if anything, Minnesota cut talent off that roster. They got a lot of young guys. Like, they cut veteran guys. And like, everyone seems to be responding better. And this was a pretty incredible, crazy, unpredictable performance on both sides of the ball by the Vikings. And it's just like something's working. And like I know probably this is, you know, it's a Monday night game and in Minnesota will translate a week from now. The Vikings are bound to disappoint us and, you know, befuddle us again as, as viewers. But this is their ceiling.

And in two weeks in a row, two teams ceilings top the Niners. And I find that to be one of the more surprising storylines of this October month. And this is why I like the Vikings, like Greg has 14 favorite teams. The Vikings would be on my list of teams that I'll always be cool watching because they really are entertaining. Like their games are more often than not. There's there's something going on in the game, whether it's weird or there's an upset one way or the other, or there's exciting plays going on. And I think cousins for being like the Huey Lewis of NFL quarterbacks, like HIP to be Square,

like he is, he's kind of fun and cool to watch as a player, and I've always enjoyed watching him. So, you know, it's, it's interesting to see where they end up. And I don't want to hear it, by the way, on the other side. And this is my last point, and you guys could share whatever you want to share. I don't want to hear because I know it's going to happen because everyone's going to key in on the two interceptions with Purdy now. And you have all these idiots and bloviators on the 14 different morning shows on all the regional networks and on the, you know, on the worldwide leader and our own. on our own network, let's be fair, that are now going to be

running those two picks on an endless loop and some of the low lights from the Browns game, even though he got them into chip shot range, basically, and the kicker blew it. And they're going to say, oh, now Purdy Stink. So, but you can't do that because you can't say when he was thriving that he's just a product of the system. And then when he encounter struggles,

you're not saying it's the system anymore. Then it's him. and it's like so just stick a sock in it let's give this guy a little room to breathe and understand that it's a long season and it was very unlikely he was going to go pole to pole as a dominant player uh i want to see the the fuller breath of things but just get ready for that there's going to be a lot of mindless chatter about purdy uh actually not being good and the should the 49ers have traded tray lance is sam darnold next up nobody's saying that i'm just saying Is Sam Darnold maybe the better option for this team long term?

Just shut it out, shut out the noise. In fact, use it as a barometer of whether you should watch or listen to those programs. Okay? That's my advice. Greg, I love. Greg, I love the, well, so Dan, as a purdyite, like I really love what you just said. And it's kind of like you're sending out a proclamation. Anyone that's, you know, paying attention to this show.

Producers out there I'm a purdyate I think like let's see if let's see if people can calm there and cool their jets a little bit let's not go down Dak Prescott Avenue with Brock Purdy

because I think you have to look at the overall like body of work as I knock something off my desk like he look at he's allowed to throw a couple rough interceptions and a couple rough passes like every other quarterback we follow

He is very deck-like I think in he's going to stay that way because I think he's going to be there for a while And I'm going to, I'll say this too. Like the Cowboys heading into their biweek, I thought it was kind of interesting some of the things they were saying because in our podcast is not as innocent of this. The Cowboys have a stinker and we are just laying them to waste. But if the Niners have a stinker, the Eagles have the stanker where I feel like we're just a little bit more soft on those teams. I mean, the Cowboys have had two.

The Cowboys got beat by what we consider. I'm just saying. I get their point. Uh, because of the, it's because, it's because of how seasons have ended there. I mean, it's because of how seasons have ended. I think you're right. I'm pretty. I think he's a very promising young quarterback.

I think it's interesting to see Kyle Shanahan, you know, go through on the sideline. You could see his frustration. It's almost like, I think he believes in Bertie so much in the same way that he once believes in Kurt Cousins. It's very interesting to have this loss to Cousins, the guy that he famously was trying to get back in 2017 and then they tried to get Brady and then they had jimmy g and so then they couldn't get cousins and like and cousins is absolutely shredding him with an unreal performance um i that it was interesting because i think he's almost surprised when purdy makes any sort of mistake but he

also threw some dimes tonight and i think that if if i'm laying blame like number one is is on this defense for a total stink fest of a performance and more to the point i'm just given credit for for cousins like him moving out moving inside the pocket kind of like a tom you know a very poor man's tom brady but moving in the pocket away from pressure especially on that last third down third down after third down these are third and sevens third and nine's with no logical like guy who's winning one on one addison left that game hockinson's in and out he's throwing to brandon powell and kj osborne Tristan Jackson and Ty Chandler. I mean, I love this was great offensive football from him

and from his head coach, I think, really just in a groove. And it was a season changing win. We talked with Mike Garifolo earlier on Monday on the trade deadline special. Everyone should check that out. And we talked about the Vikings sort of like, well, if they lose tonight, you know, Danielle Hunter and would cousins even be, you know, everything is much different than it was earlier today and very different than when it was.

Oh, Rosenthal, if they listen to that show, they heard Rosenthal totally dismiss Minnesota's chances in his football game. I still, because I think Quessie, like, in his heart would love to get a first round pick for Hunter, which they maybe could have gotten. But now it's, now it's hard to trade him away. They're three and four. He tried to win next week. And maybe the luck's coming back. You know when I thought that was the, the, I'll like end with this, because it was a crazy play. 16 seconds left in the half.

It was the game changing play in the first half. No timeouts. they get a 60 plus yard touchdown on a play that Charverius Ward probably should have intercepted it goes through his arms probably cousins worth throw the night turns into a long touchdown I thought oh maybe the the football gods have returned to Minnesota now they're sprinkled in 2020 luck back on this team wait a minute wait a minute like the football gods they're winning what score games again they're back

the football gods if they're if they're sprinkling luck on the Vikings typically it's just to take you and tug you somewhere deeper into the fall and winter where we break your heart again. I would say this, because I think with football more than any other sport, we break down and look at individual games. We stop down and watch,

like, we'll go watch the Buccaneers film. If it's baseball or basketball, you just move on and look at like who scored what and you bypass it. Like, they're five and two, the Niners. I would not be surprised that they're 10 and 4 when you double the record. I would not be surprised at the Vikings

who are three and four are six and eight. Like it's one night in the season. It was a return to normalcy in terms of like the Vikings are, better than their record, I think, a little bit, like, especially on offense, they've been productive. But, like, I'm not, I just, I refuse to. Oh, what a night though for Kirk. It was a big night for Kirk. Come on, Cess, dog. It was a magical night for Kirk. If nothing else happens this season, he had this night. This was a nice night for Kirk. Oh, come on, Mark.

You try to fork the Vikings last week. And now you're trying to take the wind out of their sales to end this segment. No, no, I'm not. Don't try to straw man me into some corner. Like, I'm happy I am not. I'm just saying what you're saying. Don't get excited about this win. It's more from a Niners angle. Like, I'm not going to panic about Brock Purdy.

To your point, this is what your argument was. I'm not talking about. 14 regional, like local shows that you are talking about. Like, they're going to be 10 and 4 and be fine at some point. So like,

cool. Well, nobody, I don't think anybody's disagreeing with that. I don't think I, I don't see a tailspin for the Niners here. Right. Although they haven't lost two games in a row,

the Niners in like a couple years and they have a tough game next week too. It's been a strange like 10 days. It's been a weird 10 days, but they will learn from it. They got the Bengals next week. They got a resurgent Bengals team next week at home. That's going to be a lot of fun. And last thing is to ties it all together. Kyle Shanahan, Kirk Cousins is like his white whale, right? You know, Kirk Cousins is heading towards free agency. I don't know. That feels like six years too late, but that's just saying. And Rock Purdy probably is there for, you know, a long time.

I think Kyle Shannon loves him. I'm just saying Kirk Cousins is headed toward free agency. I'll never forget that. It's like a Mike Silver report on NFL.com, how he was like desperately trying to get Kirk Cousins. I forget. I think it was 2017. You could look it up.

We're like doing podcasts and writing newsers. And, you know, sometimes when it was a hot newser, you'd even write an analysis off the newser. We're double newser in it. People wanted Mike Lennon for a couple years, too. I mean, people are strange. Mark, can you say that it's possible also that the Vikings are eight and six after 14 games? I do think it is.

I'm not. That was more of like a not panic about the Niners take than me trying to like cut Vikings fans off of the knees. They're wicked sensitive. I get it. Like I wish well for them. I think it was more just like it was a nice night in the Kirk Cousins career arc. It was just for him to be the star. They're playing better.

In fact, yeah, the difference was. between the 13 and four Vikings and this three and four team, they can get hot in that division. They can get hot. All right. Let's take a break and then we'll do some news. All right. Welcome back.

Yes, as we mentioned earlier, we had Mike Garifolo on the program from the Chris Wesleying podcast studio earlier today in Englewood and where Greg is sitting right now. as a matter of fact and we did our trade deadline primer digging into the potential storylines as we look ahead to next Tuesday's October 31st deadline to acquire a team acquire players some other team so make sure you check that out also and this is I mean geez it's back I mean I check your socials this guy gets it with Mark Sessler and

Mark this guy gets it the season premiere and this is very in line with how, you know, big-time TV shows operate through the years. You come back with your premiere, you're looking to do a big number with the Nielsen's. And like, this idea that you ran with was so hot that we couldn't even reference really what it was exactly in our social media tease. The people will have to hit it up on the audio podcast to find out. I think they will. Um, you know, I think when you, I'd take the model that I know of a couple shows that have a big sort of launch and announcement and say, we're here to stay, you know, uh, and, and they put out one episode a year. And like, um, I kind of learned from that. We did one last year. We've got one this year, but I waited this long. I didn't want to rush. I didn't want to be superfluous. Like, uh, the topic I found, um, to be honest, because I think no one of, of, you know, importance higher up in the companies. listening to this. We kind of like snuck it by the NFL. We snuck it by the company because

it's a topic that's a little too hot. You couldn't put an NFL.com story out there about it the way you'd want to. You've got to find a way to, you know, shove it in there. And that's what we did. This topic, what we've done, I think people will see exactly what we're talking about. It is hot to the touch. It's electric. And I think it's going to be succinct in the sense that the episode is about an out like a minute and 41 seconds long um but why waste words it's time to be succinct that explanation was almost as long as the the actual episode it was longer than the it reminds me of you know when a big feature drops and you're like i in the art of in the author is like i have been working on this feature for 17 months you know you've been working on this

this guy gets it for 12 months yeah and it's my flowers of the killer moon i think you know if you if you saw the write-up in the hollywood reporter mark was referred to as a more carnally furious morally safer so i mean if that doesn't get you plugged in i don't know what it is and finally before we get to the news NFL plus game of the week is back we absolutely just killed it with our breakdown i thought of brown's cults 3938 so check that out for some deep discourse we might have included some elements of the game that we probably should have included in the Sunday night recap so like you know we find a way to patch it up in the end so what does that mean what do you mean I'm a journalist and I like a well I don't need to get into it on this show but like there are there elements of that game that maybe if you know there had been a little more robust encapsulating why are you are you cult some cults some cults fans are angry at the cess dog about not talking about the penalties. They are, and I don't do well with that, so they can stick it up their own butt. First of all, kick rocks, I mean, we do literally a trillion shows, and we don't all hit home runs every single time.

If you were looking for some deep discourse on the end of that game as an addendum, check out the NFL Plus breakdown of that game. All right, now let's get into the news. Kick rocks. I'm bringing kick rocks back. Yeah, kick rocks, see? All right. Let's get into it. Starting with a trade. And actually, there's something that came down when we were doing our trade deadline primer with Mike Garifolo. The Eagles added some reinforcements to their banged up secondary. They get Kevin Byard in a trade with the Tennessee Titans on Monday. The Eagle sent back Terrell Edmonds plus two draft picks to the Titans. It's a homecoming for Byrd who's born in Philly named after Brian Dawkins. How cool is that?

And now he joins a new team. Is anything else you wanted to add there? Either of you boys. Well, no, just I think it speaks to where they know they're weak on their team. And it could work out really well. It might not. Like he's a little older that, you know, he's an aging player. He might be on this team next year.

It's more about this season. He's a player I always remember first became famous because Dion Sanders didn't know his name as he was headed towards an all pro season. And he was upset about that. and Dion took offense. And now he's going to be much more in the spotlight. And they needed it. Like, I think they know they are not right in the secondary.

But I don't think it's like some sort of game-changing move. It's just one that makes me think, man, the Titans might be selling. And Derek Henry might be somewhere else. And that's going to give us some fun stuff to talk about in the next week. The only thing I'd add is that there are, like, I've seen Titans fans out on X and other platforms a little annoyed that they've become this sort of, you know, pipeline to recreate the Eagles and position groups where they're struggling.

You need a wide receiver. Let us just sell you, AJ Brown, and have our head coach march out of the draft room. Oh, you need a safety. Oh, you're struggling. You might be a little vulnerable. We'll just give you Kevin by or no problem. It's like, I don't know.

At some point, it's like when do we stop just feeding, force feeding, and pink ponying the Philadelphia Eagles? forgot about pink pony. AJ Brown has more receiving yards than the entire Titans wide receipts. receiver group by the way this year wolf and who would know more about pink pony the operation connected to the patriots during their glory years than mike vrable head coach of the titan so

tough sitch um justin fields in injury news uh unlikely uh to be back in the lineup in week eight against the charges that from head coach matt eberflus who said he is doubt feel doubtful to play so that means another start for uh rookie tyson bagin uh who had some big moments and flash some impressive ink along his breastplate and uh when he had his shirt off during game ball and also uh eric rabbits our producer who is inked up so hardcore that he will travel uh like to san diego for instance to go to tattoo festivals and competitions um that's not here nor there but uh bejant has it on his back as well so i just i'm just into bajin he's an interesting guy and he gets another start.

Yeah, if Bayesian beats the Chargers, that's a fascinating draft picked of a game between two-two-win teams this week just because there's a lot of chaos possible if the Bears win that game. I'm interested. Their offense would look completely different with them, and it certainly wasn't bad. It's also happening on Sunday night. Like, if you're Tyson-Bajent, like, you were anonymous two weeks ago,

Now you're going to be playing on Sunday night football. The Chicago Bears against the Chargers. This is just real. We'll preview it during the week. But man, Brandon Staley, if I was Brandon Staley, Jason Bajett is the last guy I want to be facing on Sunday night football. I mean, what an indictment. This is potential to not make it to week nine for Brandon Staley.

What an indictment of the entire Brandon Staley enterprise that he's shaking his boots because Bajun's getting another start. But it's a weird situation there. In other injury news, the NFL is asking. Injury report compliance questions to the Atlanta Falcons about when they knew rookie running back Bejan Robinson was not physically well and why it wasn't reported per league policy, Adam Schefter reported on Monday. This is standard practice when a player day of game suddenly is not available. There are a lot of reasons why it's very important that teams comply with the injury things in terms of things that happen in the desert. It's a very serious thing.

I mean, as you know, from basically 48% of commercials connected to the NFL now. So the Falcons declined comment Monday evening from I covered that game for the podcast yesterday. And it like the stench was in the air, just how weird it all smelled. Not because it's so strange that a player would wake up and I guess was it reported as headaches after the fact. I don't know. It was all the way it was all reported. The way that he was in the, he was. active and dressed and on the field for some snaps and then getting a carry in the final

minute. Everything about it were just, I mean, it had Artie Smith's fingerprints all over it for starters, but, you know, whatever. Yeah, and he also, like, I mean, he was not feeling well on Saturday. So it was the day before. And I think that we all are, if you're in a fantasy league, everyone had the group thread were one of the friends who had Bejohn Robinson is, you know, writing the text where he's annoyed that the Falcons did this. He's probably annoyed with the Falcons in general, this happened. But then on top of it, like, it made me think a little bit back to the like four billion like NFL.com posts written about Percy Harvin with migraines. I was like just like yesterday. I wonder if this was like I don't know what it was. Maybe it was just a headache. But like

a migraine kind of thing could come and go. You might be better the next day. But I don't know if you're the Falcons. But that's the thing though. Like if he would have woken up with migraines, Mark. And they come on in the telecast. And after. He doesn't play in the first half. We come out at halftime. And Christina Pink does that interview. And the head coach says, yeah, he woke up. He had some head issues.

He had some migraines. No one who does bat in an eyelash because the league takes it very seriously brain trauma and things of that nature. And yet the wording around it was just odd. He just wasn't feeling like himself or wasn't feeling great. Odd. The whole season over there has been odd. And yet the Falcons are in first place.

Also in first place, the Kansas City Chiefs. but they will be without one of their most important defenders, Nick Bolton, the linebacker. He had a wrist injury. This was kind of a harrowing report from the CBS telecast. I think Wolfson reported that he was screaming in pain as he headed back to the locker room. And that's typically what happens to people

when they dislocate their goddamn wrist and he needs surgery and it's going to cost them approximately two months, according to Pell Razor. And we mentioned that briefly on the trade deadline show as well because in an underhanded way, Pelliserro snowed under the old rap sheet, and you know rap sheet won't forget. He won't. And I won't forget Brett Veach, their general manager,

for signing one of my favorite off-ball linebackers that I always thought could do a little bit of everything, Drew Tranquil. And when he's come in for Bolton this year, has really looked great. So I think they're fine with Tranquil and Gay, but it's, and Willie Gay is the other one. But Bolton was playing at a Pro Bowl level, so it's a big, disappointment for them. In other injury news, the bills are losing a big part of their offense.

Dawson Knox, their tight end, also had a wrist issue that required surgery. He's been dealing with that for a couple of weeks, and they decided to shut him down, get the surgery done. They don't have a timeline on when he'll be back. He played 63% of their snaps on Sunday. Dalton Kincaid, their rookie tight end, saw more work in that game, and you imagine he will continue to see more work after that. Keep an eye on the bills during the trade deadline thing because like, remember we

talked this whole offseason? It was like, oh, who's going to step up for being a weapon? Oh, they're going to do the two tight end thing. And they did. They were playing two tight ends more than anyone in the league until this week against the Patriots when they started to back off it. And it's just like they, where's the third receiver? Where's even the second receiver?

Gabe Davis comes and goes. He's been fine. But they feel like a team, especially after this injury, I think that might try to make make a move. That really showed up in the Patriots game. I think we mentioned that on Sunday night. It was just like, where was the other weapon that they could have used when it's not Stefan Diggs? And like, I know with Kincade and Knox, they were doing what, you know, not the 12 personnel, but the 11 and a half personnel where they're using two tight ends all the time. And like, I think Kincade may be a little bit less as a blocker. But if anything, it might, the one like

blessing in disguise is if you get Kincade in there like 100% of the time, I think he is that weapon. And like he's sort of shown that. And like maybe they come out of it with him growing. Bill's got problems. Keep an eye on the bills here. Bronco safety, Kareem Jackson suspended four games for multiple violations of unnecessary roughness. Wolf, the suspension comes after Jackson was disqualified from Sunday's win over Green Bay after delivering a hit to Packers' tight end, Luke Musgrave, who was deemed a defenseless receiver. he was flagged for a personal foul penalty in addition to his disqualification from the game and you do the math.

I'm not sure what his salary is Cream Jackson, but essentially a four-game suspension that's without pay. So whatever is game day check times four, that is a huge penalty. And you take him off the field for essentially a quarter of the season trying to send the message to Jackson and others, just like with the gambling policy, hey, don't do this because we're going to come for you and it's going to hurt in the wallet as well as your reputation. One of Wes's favorite players because he's a throwback, like a Bob Sanders type. I mean, he loves hitting guys in the head.

Just keeps happening over and over. I thought he might get traded, but that's not going to happen now. I love, you know, you're concerned about his reputation, that his reputation is going to take a huge hit with all of us. I honestly could not care less. but I do like that Wes liked him, but I also, like, being a, like, I'm a throwback, I'm a hard-nosed guy, I'm going to knock this guy's head off. He won't know where he is after the game. Like, we don't do that anymore. So you got to, you got to adjust. Got to adjust. I'm sure he might now that he's lost, I don't know, like $2 million or whatever it's going to be. Finally in the news,

give me that iconic. Mark Robidow theme. Little hard knocks. All right, we're coming off the New York Jets hard knocks season this summer, but unless you've been under a rock, you should know that they've been doing a in-season version for three years now. And this is a pretty good get, I thought, for the Hard Knocks and HBO team. The Miami Dolphins will be the featured in-season.

team this season, the team and HBO and NFL films announced in a joint statement. Last year, we tracked the Cardinals. I could not have cared less about that team or season, so I did not watch that. The previous year was what? Colts. Colts? Colts. And I guess there was some palace intrigue because they collapsed horrendously down the stretch. But the dolphins are a bona fide

AFC contender that have all this kind of buzz around them. And, and crucially, Mike McDaniel, who is a hugely compelling figure. So this might be one that I'm checking out. I feel like these shows depend on the coaches so much. And Mike McDaniel being the leader of this team. And this team, and we'll see where they go. They got the Patriots this week. And who knows what their story will be.

But they feel like one of the freshest, most interesting stories of this season. And so for Hard Knocks to have the Jets in training camp and then the Dolphins now, nice season for Hard Knocks, I will be watching this because of my spiritual brother, Mike McDaniel. Yeah, there's an invisible string, Mark, that ties Mike McDaniel to Greg Rosenthal. And if anybody can unlock Greg, which we certainly have not been able to do in the last 12 years or so, it would be McDaniel. So in general, I would love, I mean, I, I would love for us to talk to Mike McDaniel and maybe that's what we could work on

because I think we're all, all of us are kind of super into the personality and then it's this guy that's an innovator in the league. And I feel like he would be, I feel like he'd be good on the show. I think if we could get him on the program, that would be fun. So maybe watching this show will give us some good background if we can make that happen. He would be great on the show. I don't know how, and Greg, I understand where you're coming from. Like, I don't know how you co-opted Mike McDaniel.

I think that there's a fascination. This is my theory, actually, I have to say. Dan, I just, the way, kind of the mannerisms and the some, it's like, you can't tell is he being purposefully obtuse, but he's obviously, there's some deep thinking going on, but why is he trying to annoy me right now? There's a lot of things. There's a lot of layers to McDaniel. and Greg that I just see parallels.

I know, I think like, like, Greg, do you call it like a fresh choice or whatever? Like, I mean, the last two years of the show was like, first of all, we have football happening like literally every second of every day, whether it's news or games. And it's like, it's just, but this for this choice, I don't know how they can't. Maybe they've updated how they decide what team to pick and maybe it's a little bit. Let's find out where we are like a couple weeks into the season. But like, I'll watch this. I'm interested in this

if you pick 25 other teams hard out don't care like I'll survive without it I'll watch this and I think Mike McDaniel is an absolutely core reason why it's the it's the biannual Mark Sessler caveat filled hard knocks endorsement

no but you know but listen but like that's because they made the right choice like there was a period where like we got either the Rams or the chargers on like the summer and the autumn version and all this other business So they'd live or die show or whatever it was called like all in. Like it's just like I don't need to see anymore like Jeff Fisher or Rams. It's all or nothing.

All or nothing. All or nothing. This. This I'm in for. This I'm in for. I'll probably at least watch two episodes. We're curious. The invisible string connects Greg to McDaniel.

My invisible string connects to Jim Tom Sula and Mark's invisible string connects to Frank Reich. So that's that's everything for you. This is not accurate. Mark's invisible string connects to Kate Winslet That is accurate He wishes All right

That's it Okay so Again This guy gets it lands in your feed On Tuesday So do not miss that Because it's trenchant

And like I said The Hollywood reporter Called Mark A more Carnally furious morely safer. So if that doesn't get you to tune it, I just don't know what will. And we'll be back on Wednesday with Colleen Wolfe in a very, very special holiday episode in a way. So it is kind of a holiday on our show for this particular episode. Until then, you get the call.

This is an I-heart podcast.