NFL Daily with Gregg Rosenthal - 9 Early Camp Takeaways and I Can Fix Him!

Episode Date: July 22, 2024

Gregg Rosenthal is joined by Patrick Claybon and Jourdan Rodrigue of The Athletic to discuss debut our new segment I Can Fix Him! But first Gregg, goes over 9 early camp takeaways (1:00). Such as Shaq Barrett retiring (1:05) , Rashid Shaheed extension (2:57), new Jaguar throwbacks (5:32) and more! After that the show debuts I Can Fix Him (7:15), as we try to answer questions such as can the Titans fix Calvin Ridley? (29:20) Or can Klint Kubiak fix the Saints offense? (32:50)  Note: time codes approximate. NFL Daily YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/nflpodcastsSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

This is an I-Heart podcast. Welcome to NFL Daily, where we are staying in the race to the regular season. I'm Greg Rosenthal and Beyond Lucky today to be joined later in the show very soon by Jordan Roderig of The Athletic and Patrick Claibon. And we're going to do a segment called I Can Fix Him. about some reclamation projects. But before that, I want to get you caught up quickly on all the news that's happened over the weekend since we last taped. One of the reasons I'm so excited about this show, Bean Daily, is training camp.

It is perfect for training camp because I want to have a spot for you guys where we can keep you up to date about what's going on with all 32 teams. And look, camp started. Texans Bears, half a weekend. Ravens Chiefs, full veterans practice for the first time on. Sunday. So Randy, hit the music here. I'm going to keep this quick, but let's get to nine things we learned over the last few days. Number one, biggest one, Shaq Barrett retired. This really hurts the Dolphins. You might not think this is that huge of news, but $7 million they gave him because they have no edge presence whatsoever with Jalen Phillips and Bradley

Chubb, both coming off torn ACLs. They're on the PEOP list. Like, who knows when they're going to be back. Sorry for Shaq Barrett. Really unique career. Third Edge Rush. for the Broncos when they won the Super Bowl helped put that Bucks defense over the top and win a Super Bowl. They're really one of the best free agent signings of the last 10 years at the edge position, really smart, and the dolphins are thin there. They have two healthy edges

right now. If you looked at who's at top of their depth jar right now, it's rookie Chop Robinson and Mo Camara. NFL Network's Cam Wolf said they will work out Emmanuel Agba. I would not be surprised if that deal gets done because they were counting on Barrett to base. play big snaps, but I know that must have been a tough decision. He tragically lost his daughter in an accident a year ago, decided to play one more season,

but says he wants to be with his family and happy trails to Shack Bear, a great career. Sadly, another player whose career might be ending, we learned since we last tape, was Ryan Ramcheck, placed on the reserve PUP list for the Saints, right tackle, who made three all-pro teams, one first team, two second teams, not officially retired, definitely out for this season, but it sounds like he's not going to play football ever again,

just could not get that back healthy. It's a shame, and it's an issue for the Saints. If you look at their offensive tackle position, they have no idea who their right tackle is, so that's a big problem spot. It might be Trevor Penning, speaking and needing fixing. Like, he needs fixing. The Saints, their offensive line, needs fixing.

We'll get to that. The Saints did have other good news. This is my third item, Rashid Shaheed. signed a one-year $5.2 million extension over the weekend. He was actually signed for 2024, so he's just about the most underpaid wide receiver in football now for 2025. That is an incredible bit of business. I never fault a guy for taking the guaranteed money.

I get it. He has not made much money in his career, but man, he is going to be one of the best values in the league in 2025. Our fourth item, Jordan Love reported to training camp. nice, just big sigh relief for the Packers. We'll see if he has a holden. I kind of doubt it. If he's in camp, it probably is a sign.

They're getting closer to an extension. The bears I mentioned have been practicing. They're my fifth item. They want to get Caleb Williams to get some reps in the preseason. They are talking this up as a focus for them. So we are going to get to see the number one overall pick. I think quite a bit in the preseason that's going to make hard knocks better. Maybe he'll even be in the Hall of Fame game.

That would be nice. The Chiefs and the Ravens. are part of my sixth and seventh items here. They are practicing. I mentioned their full teams are there. And if you happen to be on Twitter, on Sunday, checking out the other news in the world, the throw by Patrick Mahomes just absolutely preposterous

rolling left 50 to 60 yards down the field to Xavier Worthy. I'm not going to make that a news item every day, but that's one of the best throws in practice I've ever seen. And it's a reminder, Xavier Worthy, who's been really active these first three or four days of training camp, is going to have a huge part of their offense. I think he's a better football player than Rishie Rice.

So even with Rishie Rice out of the mix, I think Xavier worthy if he can stay healthy and he has been through the start of camp is going to be a big deal. And you know it's the NFL season when Lamar Jackson is out with an illness. I just want this guy to be healthy. He apparently was feeling sick on Saturday.

Hopefully it's not anything too serious. The doctor has kept him out on Sunday. It's just something with him that is always the case. So I just thought I'd note it. Part of this seventh note for me is all the players that are not practicing so far. Justin Reed, safety for the cheap, bit of a surprise there. Johnny Newton of Washington. He's on the NFI list.

No surprise because of his surgery. Mike Williams on the PUP list for the Jets will keep an eye on him, but that's not a surprise. Aric Armstead, been heard a lot over the years. Big free agent signing for the Jaguars. Jaden Reed of the Packers. Marcus Davenport of the Lions. DJ Reader of the Lions. Brian Branch of the Lions, all guys on PUP list.

They can be taken off at any time, but those were some of the noteworthy names. And then just a couple final items, not having to do with training camps. I don't know if you saw the Jaguars prowler throwbacks. These are the best Jaguars jerseys. They're going to be wearing them this year. I was just absolutely loving those old Fred Taylor getups.

They are going to be wearing them this year. And I love it if they just made that their uniforms. And speaking of old uniforms, we'll wrap with Corey Dillon. Finally making the Bengals ring of honor, this is overdue. I actually think he has a chance if the right people get behind him to make the Hall of Fame one day because there's no running backs coming for the Hall of Fame for a while. Maybe Marshawn, maybe Frank Gore.

If Chris Wessling was on this podcast with me, he would agree. Corey Dillon is one of the most underrated and elite running backs of his era. I think we have to have different evaluations for running backs. they're not going to pile up numbers like they used to. We have to adjust for era, kind of like we do for quarterbacks, but with running backs, they have lower numbers. Okay, that's it for me here.

Back in the day, Corey Dillon would have been a great candidate for our upcoming segment. If we were doing it back in 2004 when the Patriots traded for him and they fixed him and they changed his career, let's listen to this segment. It was a lot of fun. I can fix him.

So yes, here with Jordan Rodriguez and Patrick Claibon, and I love this idea of a segment here, and it's from Jordan's, you know, massive mind. You can explain it to us. It's not what I thought you were going to say, but thank you for saying it that way. I don't know what you thought I was going to say. You know, it's that time of year where you look at different coaches,

different teams, you look at them in a way that, you know, maybe you look at them a little differently than past people did with them. Yeah, and I think we've all been there, right? whether it's the fixer upper house that you purchase, it's the car that you're going to save from destruction, it's the relationship you get into. I can fix him. Whether it's the songwriters writing these lyrics about, you know, the person they genuinely tried with, you know, this is, I think, the NFL every year, this is hope season, right?

pre-training camp we're heading into training camp more training camps are opening this week and everybody has got in their heads I can fix them I can be the one to fix him right so like if you put into words like maybe those words would be when you try your best but you don't succeed when you get what you want but not what you need when you feel so tired but you can't sleep sing it no I will never sing it no performances that that has to be like I've heard that as like a wedding song or like that's a problematic wedding song. That's a problematic prom song. You don't want to be choosing fix you.

But I do love it as a segment and I love it at this time of year particularly. Yeah. I actually, speaking of wedding songs, I do have a friend that was at her ex's wedding. And the song that they danced to was the broken road, which felt like commentary at her while she was there. Oh, is this the one the broken road leading me? Oh.

Oh. And so that was, yeah, that's an awkward wedding song story. She's like, is, is this me? But, but yeah, in, especially in the NFL, right, viewpoint, where it's like if some, if some circumstance didn't work out, a lot of the times, especially as fans, we think, oh, well, this is the player. And so many times you change the circumstance, or maybe like, if we're making the relationship analogy, you change the terms of the, you change the terms of the, you change the terms of the, the relationship, right, then you could actually get what you want out of somebody. Not that relationship should ever be transactional. Not saying that. But it's something that works out for everybody. And it happens. And you can always get what you want, but if you try some time.

There you go. It happens. I was thinking about it with Evan Ingram's recent contract. Like, I wouldn't say he needed fixing, but Doug Peterson helped fix his career. I think he understood what Evan Ingram did well and what the Giants could never figure out in New York. And He fixed his, he helped Evan Ingram with more work by Ingram, fix his own career. And now he's got that big long-term deal. So I want you to start with us, Jordan. It was your brain child.

I can fix it. Your baby, you can fix him. Okay. I'm going to go with the Eagles in general. Okay. I'd like you guys to interject at various points because I am a rambler. And as I ramble on through this thing, we called life. I'd rather not do that on this show.

I'd rather be a little bit more succinct. But I'm going to start with the offense. Okay, Kellyn Moore. Jury's still, I think, out a little bit on what his it factor is as an offensive coordinator. But the word that was sort of thrown around Philly, despite all of the weapons that they have, was stale. They were the very last in the league at motion rate usage. Motion isn't everything, but it does help a lot, especially defenses are smarter than ever. They see the field better than ever.

They have more counters than ever before. Some of this pre-snap window dressing needs to happen. And Callen Moore does a lot of that. You could tell he's got a lot of ideas. And I think that this is the big, this is the big, I can fix him with the Eagles offense being the, you know, metaphor here, bringing in a new offensive coordinator who, as Jalen Hurts said earlier this season, installed a 95% new offense than what they were previously running. And I think this also helps Nick Siriani, maybe get more hands-off,

maybe more CEO kind of mentality. They really made this move as a, he can fix us. So Kellyn Moore is the fixer in this situation. They hope he is. He's fixing the offense. He's fixing hurts. They hope he is. Interestingly, he's maybe fix.

Siriani, because that was a guy who, at the end of the last season in those press conferences, especially the one where, look, he was kind of being put in his place, looked a little dejected at the end of the year when they essentially explained their plan of we're going to take away what got you here in the first place on some level, play calling, and how you ran this offense. So this is like multiple levels of fixing. Are we confident, Patrick, that Kellyn Moore is like the missing ingredient to save an organization that really hit the skids last year. I'm kind of wondering if the Eagles and the personnel on offense may be able to help fix Kellynne Moore and his reputation as well because I think we've seen Kellymour in two places

where he's had very, very talented quarterbacks, like, you know, top half of the league or better quarterbacks where they didn't necessarily get the results that they wanted. I think we saw the differences in the Mike McCarthy Cowboys where the run game did take a step back. And I wonder how the personnel can affect it. Last year, the Chargers, you know, the quarterback, Herbert loses both of his hands at one point. Ellen Moore, of course, coordinating the Chargers offense.

Yeah. And so I think, right, Philadelphia was very lost offensively. And we're coming off of this Stuyken-led Eagles team where there were world beaters. And then we see Shane have all that success with a questionable quarterback situation, a rookie quarterback and Gardner Minchew. playing well in spurts where the focus on Siriani and the microscope got super big. I think this may be something that everybody needs. Yeah.

And that's, I'm so glad, by the way, thanks for getting it, guys. These guys just understand the plot here. So, like,

this is a multifaceted metaphor here, right? Which love that. Big brain. Because it is, the head coach needs an infusion of, of new ideas. A lot of times you see head coaches hire sometimes outside of their system because they want pieces of what other people have, but they don't necessarily want to be the one to

overhaul their entire system. So I would imagine we'll still see some Siriani system. Some Stiken. We'll still see that. Yeah, Siriani, for what it's worth, pushed back a little bit on Hertz's 95% statement and said, hey, we still got a lot of our stuff, which is part of a trend, I would say, with Jalen Hertz and his own coach not always being on the same page totally publicly, which is something to watch. It is so nice that you said the thing that I was just about to say. I'm really

glad for us. Sorry about that. You need to fix me in my interrupting problem. I can fix them. Yes. So, yeah, but I do think that this is potentially a mutual. It's also another voice in the room and outside perspective. If there are dynamics

that maybe need a little workshopping, a little couples therapy, maybe like you know you there is an outside perspective in the room there is somebody who you know it wasn't super productive um with the chargers 20.4 points for game with a quarterback like that that's unacceptable obviously but a lot went wrong with the chargers as well and then in Dallas you could also see um you know and like you said an improvement when mike mccarthy did take back over at the same time really young offensive coordinator and you could see some of the ideas that he was trying to maybe evolve for evolve a little bit it wasn't that it was always successful but you

kind of see the outline or the blueprints of who he's trying to become as an offensive coordinator and this could be a really great spot for him to do it um so much is going to hinge around cam jurgin at center um that's like one of the most significant personnel changes on any team this off season in my opinion um replacing the the great jason kelsey um and then but i think that any offensive coordinator trying to find, like, what his identity is going to be. And this is where it comes in. Maybe they can help, you know, fix, quote, unquote, Kellen Moore a little bit, too.

You know, you have to figure out, like, who you are as a coordinator and a play caller and a concept designer as well. Having the multiplicity of Jalen Hertz and Saquan Barkley together, I mean, that's a dream for any young coordinator who's trying to figure out, like, what his secret's awesome. And Goddard and A.J. Brown and Devote Smith, Elaine Johnson, and Jordan Milata, like, these guys are there.

They don't need fixing. They, it's everything around it and it's complicated. There's more questions on the offensive line than normal that we're used to. They also have a new guard, Tyler Steen. Less worried about that. That was a replaceable spot. But at center, that is huge. But they got to make this work because I saw this interview.

I think it was with a number of reporters that Siriani did, but Zach Berman wrote about it well at all P-H-L-Y. And, you know, Siriani's saying how he's found joy this offseason, connecting with the players. And I'm sure he is, but you're not going to really know how you're feeling until the season's going. And he's not the one call on the plays. And no team in the NFL, to me, has more importance in September of just getting off to a solid enough start. Because there's going to be some bumps along the way with this much different in the offense and the defense.

And this is a team that just feels like it needs to win a couple games early. or else that losing streak at the end of last year feels like it's still going, that it's just a continuation. Yeah, what he needs is the deodorant of winning. Yes. That was absolutely not there at the end of last year. And it felt like the wheels were falling off. And, of course, everybody could see how good this team is and the things that they could do.

And then suddenly it wasn't working. The quarterback was hurt. And there's, there's reason for positivity. And I think, no, like, Kellyn Moore isn't this world beater football revolutionizer that we thought he was five years ago, but he's also not like, you're not terrible. Below replacement level play caller. Yeah.

I think there's a spot for everybody. I just hope they don't lose Jalen Hertz's ability to pick up a first down in short yardage, which is the team of superpower. I don't know if they're going to do the tush push as much, but I'm just saying it's going to be a balance that you don't want to lose his ability to run. Sequan squats heavy plates too. So we'll see that goes. Okay, so I don't want to leave this topic without talking about the defense, because

that became rather porous, especially on the back half. And obviously bringing in, bringing back in, Vic Fangio, super, super important. We've talked about this on previous shows as well. But CJ Gardner Johnson being back in the building, that personality and that confidence and like the know-how and the knowledge, adding Quinnion Mitchell and Cooper DeGene, when we were talking with Nate Tice,

the concept of a shooting star, a nickel, a star player, that has some responsibilities that a nickel has, but also can be really a little bit more coverage versatile and matchup dependent than specifically a nickel player would be. That could be Cooper DeGine, and they could move him around everywhere. That's a huge learning curve.

I think that Vic Fangio was hired to fix this defense. Vic Fangio is not for everyone. Everybody is aware of that. Vic Fangio would tell you that to your face and probably in a very even blunter manner than I just did. But what I'm really... Always be a little wary of people that are too proud to be like, hey, I'm not for everyone. But he's very open about this.

I'm a truth teller. Okay, we'll tell the truth of somebody else then. He's very, he's very open about like, listen, like this is at this point, this is he is who he is. And I do think that he wants to be there. He's wanted to be there. And it also is really interesting to me because, he actually, you can kind of see him solving that aspect, I think, of himself a little bit

because he brought in two young assistants that he's worked with in the past, Christian Parker and Joe Casper. And those guys were with him at previous stops, but they're like his guys, but they're also very player forward. And they're going to be in charge of basically developing this young secondary. When Vic Fangio runs the type of defense he wants to run, he does really complex coverage structures, very versatile coverage structures. And then he lets the pressure,

packages be a little bit simpler and more straightforward other than some of the fake pressure that he presents pre-snap. It can really work as a back-to-front, but you need to have the players buy-in and you need to have really good coaching at every single level. And I think that's why he brought in those coaches. So there's layers within layers, within layers of the metaphor. We're fixing and fixing and fixing and fixing and fixing and fixing. And maybe fixing the Fongio Tree's reputation. Yeah. Ooh, I love that. Because look, he struggled last year. It's not as in Vogue, you saying that makes me think maybe we're going to see a little more out of, I don't know, does James Bradbury actually make this team? Does Avanti Maddox end up being the slot over

Cooper DeGine? It's such a complex defense. Can you get Quinion Mitchell, Cooper DeGine? I know they're high on Keely Ringo actually coming into this year. He's had a good offseason. He could play a lot. Sidney Brown. Like, it's maybe a tough one for young guys in the secondary to pick up. I think they have enough talent. We'll go through all the position battles. But, Yeah, both sides of the ball. And the defense, because let's be real. That collapse wasn't about the offense. It never was.

It was always a top 10 offense. It was the defense that completely collapsed. But the offense was stale, too. As was the Panthers offense. I'm going to go to Carolina and talk about Bryce Young. And... Say the thing. Say the thing.

I've got to say the thing. Give me a chance here. I'm going to say it. Look, there's nobody in the NFL. I think that is better suited to say, I can fix you to Bryce Young than Dave Canales. This guy is just all energy, all positivity, and he has the track record because he's done it.

Now, I don't think Gino Smith needed total fixing. He was always there and talented and ready for the right coach to take advantage of it. But Dave Canales was that coach along with Pete Carroll in Seattle. Baker Mayfield, very different quarterback, I think, in terms of skill set to Gino Smith. So the fact that he made it work with these two guys, Gino, who's so good at seeing things ahead of time, and then Baker Mayfield, who's not. And getting Baker to anticipate and get rid of the ball quicker, and Dave Canales did a great job

with that. And when you look at what Bryce Young should be able to be good at at the NFL level, it is that anticipation. It is that ability to see the field that is very tough for a rookie quarterback, but it seemed like it was coming along by the end of the year. And you listen to to Canales, and we're going to take a listen to him at the combine this year. And look, just listen to the man himself. No plan to fix Bryce Young. I think for me it's about building an offense that we can be proud of, something that is tough, something that is smart, that takes care of the football.

Number one, we got to create more explosives. And then, of course, we have to minimize damage with exotic pressures and things like that. So I think just elevating the whole group and really asking Bryce to just do his part. Patrick, you watched a lot of Bryce Young tape over the years. years. I did. And tough first year. What are you hoping for here? Well, Dave Canales's task is to fix the Carolina Panthers. I think first and foremost. So we could see, I believe in, Bryce, but I can understand the people who didn't get a chance, right, to see him out here in high school or to see him in Tuscaloosa, to see what other people believe in. But the offense

itself was so bad that it was just impossible to evaluate the quarterback. And so you, you, you, you see, like, his rating when targeting Adam Thielen was 102, right? Tommy Trimble, 105. Like, there's places where you saw Bryce be successful, but the overall product was so difficult for anybody to deal with. And I struggle to think of a quarterback that we could just place in that situation, you're one with that team, and say, hey, be successful. Of course, like, the greats wouldn't be bad, but for a rookie, that was a heavy lift.

He doesn't necessarily have, like, the creativity or the physical, traits in terms of his movement or his big arm to just like wow you to get over that bad of a situation. But if you watch those last four games, I do think it got a little loss in the shuffle. PFF's

grades for the final four weeks of the season. He was 12th in passing. I went and watched a lot of it and yeah, the arm doesn't overwhelm you, but he hit a number of deep sideline throws that showed anticipation, a guy that understood coverages that was always

throwing before the guy made his break, which you don't always see out of rookie quarterbacks and putting it in the right spot and a little bit of creativity more than you would expect, more than I would say you saw, see out of Tua Tua Tua Vailua. And I bring up that name because I think if you just close your eyes and you watch those four games and for the most part, he looked like a real NFL quarterback. I see similarities with Tua of anticipating getting rid of the ball quickly, putting it right on the money. And I think he can win in the same sorts of ways that Tua did. But he had a number of throws kind of running left, running right.

It was like, okay, that's Price Young. And I think those four games should give him some confidence going into this year. Yeah, it was a really interesting situation saying that kindly in that we don't even still really know what his ceiling is, but that roster last year lowered his floor. And that was hard to watch at times. I remember, so you brought up the Dolphins. I remember when Mike McDaniel was asked about him, you know, when the teams were about to play each other. And he just, he raved about some of the same things that he loves in Tua.

And I think that so many times last year when watching the Panthers kind of just get in their own way a little bit, you just thought, man, I'd love to see him like in an actual version of that system that the dolphins are running, giving weapons, getting weapons. weapons all around helping the quarterback in a few different ways. But then also building confidence in the quarterback. Let's not forget, Tua's confidence was shot too a couple years ago. And they, you know, it's about building the relationship with the coach as well and with the entire coaching staff top to bottom in, hey, like you can kind of gaslight yourself into thinking, like maybe some of the problem. I mean, I'm not in therapy right now, but maybe some of the problem is me. Like, You know, and you can kind of, if you're in that type of over and over week after week after week, after week, it just was such a struggle. You can kind of convince yourself, like maybe, you know, and yeah, he's got some things to work on.

And obviously, you know, any rookie quarterback will. And we don't know still what the ceiling is or even what he can look like in a consistent environment. And so I think that this is going to be really fascinating to watch, not just on a. schematic level or a quarterback level on the field, but also on a personal level. Like, can you come back from enduring that? And, you know, you've, you've talked to him. You've watched a lot of him over the years. And I met him at the NFLPA rookie premiere out here in L.A. last year.

And flex, I know. And I was, I've wandered into the, wandered into the Coliseum. And it was, I was actually, I was all of, all of these young quarterbacks, Anthony Richardson and C.J. Stroud and Bryce Young, I was really struck at how mature they all seemed beyond their years at really, really ready for the moment. I don't think anyone could have been ready for what Bryce had to deal with last year. No. And I'm glad you mentioned that because that's why I think Canales could uniquely be well suited to be a guy that can fix him. Because his, canals has said it, like, his North Star in what he wants to be as an NFL head coach is Pete Carroll.

And Pete Carroll has been the biggest influence on his life. He's talked about it in terms of his coaching method. And I think he is very much about building up the person and building up the quarterback specifically. And I think he did a great job. I think Pete Carroll did too. I think Pete Carroll has a hand in Gino-Smith success. Gino was always a confidence guy,

but they built him up. They did the same thing with Baker, and they're very different skillsets. I think Bryce is probably closer to Gino. And I think Canales can work with that in terms of, the route concepts and the anticipation, but also just as a human. Like, he just seems like a bundle of positive energy nonstop. And man, Carolina could have used that last season.

We can use it here. Although we've got it going in this studio today. We're going to listen to what Patrick or who Patrick maybe wants to pick. It's a fixing. Right after the break. Back on NFL daily. It's the latest episode of your favorite game show. I can fix you.

That's not a game show. But we're trying to go around the NFL and we're trying to see what situations we can ameliorate. Yes. And so much of everything is related to perception. And so I am going to fix one particular one. And I feel like we've come a long way in doing it just by the fact that the scenery has changed.

And that is Calvin Ridley. When you consider, right, Coming into the season, if you had told more people that Calvin Ridley was going to cross a thousand yards, like he was going to have these catches and these touchdowns, I think they've been like, oh, you know, he's been gone, he's been out of the game, and now he's back. That's respectable.

But then the way that the season played out for the Jags, it did not put Calvin Ridley in a light of what he can do, and I don't think he was being utilized. And you mentioned Doug with reference to Evan Ingram. I think it kind of went the other way with Calvin Ridley, and by the time they figured out how to use Calvin Ridley, like not as much far outside on the X, not in motion. That's when Christian Kirk went down.

And so the utilization just didn't necessarily add up. And now he's in a spot where they're not going to ask him to do those things in Nashville. And I think he can have a better season and change the way that we look at Calvin Ridley back to the way we used to when he was playing opposite Julio. Titan sneaky compelling this year? I'm into it. I'm into this whole division. Has the AFC South ever been, like, more interesting from a young quarterback perspective?

Definitely not. But even the Titans, I love it. I love the choice because I think he just went into last year with unrealistic expectations. Maybe I had it for him, too. His issue, and I think Trevor Lawrence's issue and the coaching staff's issue is they just clearly weren't on the same page. He wasn't where Trevor Lawrence thought he was going to be

a particular, like, moments in a given play or in a given game. and it just was up and down. But the physical skills are there. And you think he's this great, he is a great receiver, but I was reading, you know, ESPN did the executive polls and top 20 and honorable mentions.

And I noticed Calvin Ridley and DeAndre Hopkins didn't even get into the honorable mentions. They were like on the also like ran sort of list. It was like 20 to 28. And then you're like, wow, is Calvin really and DeAndre Hopkins really down that low? But there's just that many good receivers.

But they have two of them. And they have a fun young, quarterback. I think they're going to be fun. Yeah, it'll be fine. It's kind of like, you know, getting Calvin Ridley in this new situation and, you know, it's a new head coach, play caller, all of that. And you're going to see the quarterback has to grow up too. And I think having receivers who understand more of the league landscape, understand what things could be in different places, what things, the things that worked, the things that didn't work so much, having that perspective and then pairing those people with a young quarterback.

who does, you know, showed some exciting potential but still has to grow. I think that's, I think that's really kind of exciting and maybe they'll fix each other. Yeah, I think because when we view them perhaps separately, I think there's a difference in how these two receivers specifically in the way that you can utilize them on the field, work out for each other where the parts of their game where they don't overlap, the other one can do for the other one. And so I think it alleviates a lot for nuke on the outside to have Calvin inside on the slot and vice versa. I'm excited to see it and we'll get more intel on Will Levis and see like those flash spots where like, oh, this is Will Levis. He's the yolo ball guy.

Or like was that him just because he's a rookie, right? And we just talked about, we talked about earlier with Bryce, like the game can only come to you so much and you just go back to those, I'll try to run somebody over. I'll try to throw the ball really far. and in the second year with more around him, I think we can see some good stuff. Yeah, I'm excited. I'm excited their offensive line should be better. Tyler Boyd's there, Traylin Berks.

A lot of people need fixing in Tennessee. I'm going to New Orleans with my next one. And this is a mission for Clint Kubiak to look at an offense. Clint Kubiak, by the way, the offensive coordinator of the Saints. Of all the big changes in the entire NFL, which is going to totally change

like in one side of the ball. I feel like Clint Kubiak's got about as little pop as anyone. I get that the Saints are off the radar, but you want to talk about a stale offense last year. They were fine. It's not like they were that bad, but it was just they had all these different things

and Pete Carmichael's there and they all didn't really work together. They were less than the sum of their parts, I thought, in New Orleans. And then here comes Clint Kubiak, great lineage. Do I give him a better chance of fixing the Saints

just because of his last name I absolutely do like nepotism works the NFL in a nutshell yeah like that's part of it but you know what he was in Minnesota

he took over for his dad there as the offensive coordinator that magical Jefferson Justin Jefferson season Kirk Cudence had a great season like that was with Kubiak

he got thrown into the Nate Hackett troubles in Denver that wasn't a lot of fun but he was the guy who took over actually late in the season in the play call and upticked a little.

I just feel like this offense, you're not going to get Derek Carr to be a totally different person, but Derek Carr was at his most efficient and decisive and his best under John Gruden. And I see a lot of connection here that Clint Kubiak can bring that sort of offense. And the offensive line is a little bit of a mess, but there's fun. There's Chris Alave. There's Rashid Shahid. Juan Johnson needs to be better.

He's coming off an injury. Camara and Kendri Miller at running back. it's not like he doesn't have some good players to play with. And I think it's just going to be more cohesive. And I start with the line. The personnel, I have questions about it, but coaching can make up for a lot. And when I think Gary Kubiak,

I think really well-coached offensive lines, really cohesive. And because Mike Shanahan kind of had a bigger presence in the NFL than him, he gets overlooked as like one of the more influential offensive minds in the last 25 years. We'll see if his son can be the same. but I'm just assuming it because of the last name. I can't actually move forward with this episode

until I share what I discovered when I was on a different topic than the Saints, but I was doing some quarterbacks research for this show. And I was looking at, like, Sam Darnold, for example, we'll get to a little bit later. But then I was looking at how many Kubiaks were in San Francisco during Darnold's year, which then in my notes I wrote a passel of Kubiaks.

Then I started thinking, what are multiple things called in things, like in groups? And I came up, I have a whole list and the best one that I thought of for the kubiaks. So a group of hawks is called a kettle. So we have a kettle of kubiaks. Anyway, I just had to make that point. Or you could just call them like the kubi eye. I kept almost laughing as you were because I kept. Wait, there was other ones.

So Clint Kubiak, to be clear, was he got a nice little dusting of the Kyle Shanahan magic as the passing game coordinator last year. I should have mentioned that, too. That's where he was with the number one offense in the league. Yeah. You know, the kubiaks have been and will be,

they'll permeate the league. And I was looking at, like I said, I could not move forward with any opinion until I shared that with you guys that I discovered that. How many kubiaks were there? I didn't know there was other kubiaks.

There was multiple kubiaks. There's three kubiak children. They all coach. and their first and last, well, obviously their last name, but all their first names start with K. So they're all KK. And so a kettle of Kube.

Absolutely perfect. I'm not into the whole keep the initial with the kids the same for every kid. No. It's a little like, look at me. Apologies to anybody

who's done that. No, or if that's you. I just, not for me. It's a little, not for Greg. It's just a little like, hey, aren't we cute?

So Walker had no chance of being Greg? Oh, definitely not Junior. Greg is a dead name for a reason. Never liked that name. But if you go and search like, you know, what are the most popular names or whatever and they keep track of the top thousand. Like Greg dropped off the entire list.

Like no one's naming their kid, Greg. That's done. It's never coming back either. It's coming back. I don't like junior. Juniors are, maybe juniors are okay, but it's more of the same initial

with the same letter. We're way out track. But I'm compelled by this team. I think they're going to be more interesting than they were a year ago because of Clint Kubiak. I have high hopes that he can have a cohesive offense. And this team has a chance to win that division, whether you like it or not.

Cohesive with a K. Yes. They'll be down in Irvine. They're going to be where the Rams used to be for training camp. You give us who you want to fix, Jordan. Yeah, well, I've done the very subtle undermining of your topic in order to transfer it to my topic. Wasn't that subtle.

You called it out. so new old quarterbacks uh quarterbacks who have changed teams quarterbacks who are paired uh with different things so one of my hobbies is watching chopped I love the show chopped on food network now it's all over on HBO you can watch season on season on season of chopped and in every season in every one of one out of every like six episodes

somebody tries to make polenta and you it gets to a point like it's a thing over time this is a long series has has gone on for our UK listeners the series has gone on for like decades at this point and still people who watch the show and our chefs come into the chopped kitchen and they try to make polenta and you just want to yell at your TV and scream you are not the one who is going to be the first to successfully make polenta in this kitchen your polenta will be thick and you will be chopped And I got to say, I think Kevin O'Connell might be able to make polenta. Like, I think he might be the one who can help Sam Darnold at least, and I'm not, I'm not crowning anybody, right? But I think that Kevin O'Connell, because of what he personally experienced as a quarterback and the way the language of his system works, I do think that he could be the one to, at the very least, raise a little bit of the level of play that we've seen in the past certainly build

what I have this like sneaking suspicion that they're doing because they've been very open about they're going to give J.J. McCarthy time. I think they're basically installing all concepts around the quarterback who's not eventually going to be running them but that guy will run

them well enough in order to be successful himself and maybe earn a contract somewhere else but then also show literal proof of concept, not just to the younger quarterback, but also help the coaches troubleshoot those concepts and also the skill players around as they get used to playing with the guy who they drafted quite clearly to be the long-term quarterback in J.J. McCarthy. And I think that that's a really delicate balance. So is making polenta in the chopped kitchen. She brings it for full

circle. I love it. And that's, but that's what I really do think. I do have a suspicion that they're basically installing all of the structure and having a guy who they don't need him to be Kirk Cousins or anything like that. They need like 2022 Rams Baker Mayfield. They need a guy who can come in and like be a good leader, be exciting, be able to execute these concepts, raise the offense just a little bit as the offense in turn raises him and provide, like develop all of this structure around who the eventual plug-in quarterback is going to be. That all makes sense to me and I think it's a great situation that he's entering, but he's polenta for a reason.

And, like, he was in a great kitchen last year. You know, he was in San Francisco. And I know it was only like 50 dropbacks or whatever, but. But he wasn't getting real reps. Kind of like, yeah, looked like the same guy. It's funny, Palenta to chopped is risotto to top chef. You don't want to make risotto and top chef. I don't think you'd want to make risotto and chopped either.

But, yeah. I need you to be an expert on. Palenta and Sam Darnold, right? I need you to be an ice cream machine expert if you're going to go in that chop kitchen and utilize the ice cream machine. I don't want to see it overmixed, all right? And I'm ready to believe, Jordan. I am ready to believe, but the skepticism is very hard to let go

with Mr. Darnold. But let me be clear. I'm not, I'm not crowning anybody. I'm not saying he's going to come light the world on fire or anything like that. I'm saying he's going to be able to basically be there to help this entire structure of this offense develop the way that it needs to and then maybe he'll get a solid contract out of it.

And then J.J. McCarthy comes in and it's a ready to run offense and obviously superstars, you know, in a couple of special eight receiver. But like you're and you're also showing proof of concept. Basically, you're showing what the chop chefs not to do, but then somehow they still do it because every coach thinks that they can be the guy to fix the quarterback.

and that's kind of the, you know, Sean Payton, Zach Wilson situation. Like, I can fix him. Yeah, Sean Payton's kind of a different connotation. He is the king of this exercise. He is the I can fix you guy. And to his credit, he's done a good job with almost any quarterback he's ever had. Yeah, it's kind of a case for Sam Donald to be the ideal bridge.

Yes. Yeah. Everybody gets what they want out of it. We come in knowing like, hey, this is this is not your case keenness. run where maybe we keep you an extra too long like we already have the plan do your bridge job go somewhere else good luck to you j j's our guy it could work out forever right someone will pay you too much money because they still believe in that in that i can fix you profile that they wrote in 2018 like no one wants to give up whatever they thought five years ago even if sam darnald shows otherwise

let's wrap up with patrick yeah i talked about the the cowboys running game uh from last season and i think we can fix Tony Pollard. Yes. And I think time fixes Tony Pollard because Tony Pollard had, he had the strap ankle surgery in 2023. He also was coming off of a fractured fibula. And of course,

like the idea of Tony Pollard carrying more of the load being the main driver in his yards per carry and everything else dropping off, I think him being hurt was the biggest driver and the yards per carry dropping off and so the home runs weren't there. And it's kind of like you have a, a home run hitter that can't hit it to the fence anymore.

And like, what do you do? I think Tony Pollard has plenty of gas left and will have a spectacular season for multiple Titans. I'm all on board, baby. I love it. Justin Graver is listening somewhere thinking like, yes, we're finally getting some attention on this show. He's compelling. I don't think he had confidence in in the leg last year. And you do hope that returns.

There's no guarantee at running back that you're going to run with that. same energy juice throughout your career. That's kind of what goes at some point when you get older. But he's not old to your point. And he's in a great situation with Tajay Spears where the two of them, I think you can keep them on the field for an entire drive. And then the other one can take over. They can both do everything. And I think they will complement each other well. I think they're one of the best backfields in the league. And if you get Pollard of 2022 with 24 Tajay Spears, you're cucking with gas. I'd rather have that than Derek Henry. much as I like Derek Henry, I'd much rather have that, that duo.

I do think that's kind of a magic sauce you'll start to see moving forward is like running backs who can like sort of seamlessly take over for each other in a way that's both complimentary and supplementary specifically to the fatigue and the exertion placed on the body, particularly coming out of injuries like that. I think it's a great situation for him. I also, I am a fan of this backfield here. And I think, again, help out the young quarterback, you know, the quarterback's got to make a jump,

year one year two, and all of these players around him, including this run system that they're going to install there, it's like, help out the quarterback. Yeah, so again. Help us, help you. We have fixed the Tennessee Titans.

We fixed so much around the NFL. It's that time of year. It's happening, folks. Training camp is off and running. It is really here. This is week three of the NFL Daily podcast, and we really appreciate everyone. who has been tuning in.

And, yeah, the news is going to start flying. People are going to start flying all over the country. Patrick will be going to inside training camp, but he will be back later this week before he does all that. Jordan Rodrigue will be going at training camp. And she'll be back on this show. But until then, I'm Greg Rosenthal. See you next time.

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