NFL Daily with Gregg Rosenthal - Commanders-Eagles MNF Recap + 6 Most Improved Players (with Charles McDonald)

Episode Date: November 15, 2022

Gregg Rosenthal is joined by Charles McDonald to recap the Commanders-Eagles Monday Night Football matchup. Then, the two discuss the most improved players so far in this 2022 NFL season.NFL Daily YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/nflpodcastsSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

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Listen to the NFL Fantasy Football podcast on the IHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. Toyota, the official automotive partner of the NFL. Visit Toyota.com slash NFL now to learn more. We're going to throw on third down in seven. Instead, Heineke wisely. And now a flag. And that's going to, in essence, end the game. A flag on that hit as Heineke had taken.

Taken a knee should be the last play. Hurts underneath and now the laterals. And instead, it's going to be picked up for a touchdown on that lateral by Casey Two Hill. And the commanders have won this game. And Taylor Heineke can celebrate a big road win here in week 10. Oh, yeah, he could celebrate Taylor Heineke. and celebrate and annoy the entire city of Philadelphia when he's celebrating. Had to include that final touchdown by Casey Two Hill.

Sometimes football is just ridiculous, and sometimes it ends with Casey Too Hill doing the gritty after picking up a ground ball to end the Eagles' undefeated season. 32 to 21, the commanders got it done. I'm Greg Rosenthal. I'm excited to be joined on this Monday night football recap by Charles. McDonald. He's an NFL writer for Yahoo Sports. I feel like I've been following him and seeing him writing about football on the internet for a while. Now, I know I saw him at New York Daily News.

I think he was covering the Giants back then. He was with my friend Josh Norris at Underdog Fantasy for a minute. Now he's killing it at Yahoo. Charles, I was worried we'd have a dud to talk about tonight. And we got a fun one. We got a weird one. Yeah, I was a little worried because I was talking to my buddy and gambling extraordinaire Ben Solac before the game. I was like, I was like, yo, I was like, what's a spread on this game. I know you know what the spread on this game is. So it was like it's 11. I thought it was interesting that Washington ended up winning by 11 on that play at the end of the game.

But this was definitely an interesting game. I was not expecting Washington's offense to play as well as they did. But, you know, the Eagles defense to have a fatal flaw. and that's run defense and you know you might as well just spam it if you're able to pick up you know yards we need to first time you need to and that that made things a little bit easier for taylor heineckee who should be ashamed of himself for having him last oh okay you know the more i've thought about and i've talked to some people even around the building here at nfl network and everyone agrees with you and you're right that was an annoying celebration let's start there

actually, because we can get into how the commanders won this game. We can get into Jalen Hurts good, Jalen Hurts bad, how crazy the time of possession in the first half was. But ultimately, the Eagles defense finally showed up in the fourth quarter. They get an interception. They force a long field goal on a short field after another turnover. They get a three and out. And it looked like they were about to get the ball back, what, it would have been with

under two minutes to go and at least a chance with no timeouts, no guarantee, but down five points for Jalen Hertz. Kind of a little Jalen Hertz heat check moment as we're talking about him as Pro Bowl, MVP, all this. As a football fan, I think we were all excited for that. It's a third and long. You expect Washington to just run the ball there. I was surprised by the chutzpah of Scott Turner, actually, to throw or to call a pass,

but he must have told Heineke, look, if it's not there, just get down and take the sack. Heineke doesn't see anyone open, starts scrambling around like he does, about 15 yards behind the line of scrimmage, and decide to just give up on the play, takes a knee. And at that point, Brandon Graham, who's coming after him, trying to finish the game, pushes him over. He had given himself up on the play. It wasn't a vicious push by any means, but he had taken a couple steps after Heineke hits the knee. it's the right call. It's a silly rule.

It's an annoying way for the game to end. And it's especially annoying because Heineke immediately starts pops up, starts, you know, gesturing for first down and celebrating. He was doing that all night, kind of like a coach's kid. And at that point, I felt like he was enemy number one in Philadelphia. What was your thoughts? As a former player yourself? Yeah, I play defensive lines like basically my whole. life. So the Brandon Graham play, you got to know to pull up there. Because the name of the game now

is protecting the quarterbacks. And really, I'm pretty sure it's been a rule for a long time that if any player gives themselves up, then the play is dead right there. But especially when it comes to a quarterback. Like, they let the first guy touch him, but then for Brandon Graham to come in and then hit him right there. Like, I don't think it was malicious. But at the same time, it's something that you have to call. But then to celebrate like a win, on a penalty like that and to get up, the big burst down. I said, come on.

I kind of like it, though. As someone that's annoying and, you know, when I play, you know, you got to celebrate the moments. You're not worried about your opponent. It was annoying. And yet I can understand. I don't think he was like trying to shove it in Philly's face or that he planned it out.

We got people in our control room who are saying, oh, that was his plan the whole time. It was like a flop. This was the plan from the time. He hiked the ball. I was like, no, Taylor Hineke is not Jedi mind-tricking them. And when he's taking that knee, he's not even trying to draw a penalty. I don't think he just knew the second that he was pushed that the game was over.

And that is one image I will remember from this season, Taylor Hineke, celebrating like that. Yeah, it was just a weird end to a weird game. And then even after that, to get the touchdown on the final play of the game, which, you know, makes the final score look a little bit bigger than uh than actually was it was a i didn't peg this to be the eagles first loss no no i didn't and um yeah i apologize i don't even really ask questions on this show i just rant about things that i find amusing and then just wait for you to rant charles by the way you should check him out on twitter he does a really good job he's one of my favorite follows and a great writer and insanely young i'm not even going to ask you how young you are but i just know you're way

younger than me. So you've come up in the game quickly like Jalen Hertz. Let's talk Jalen Hertz. And we can talk about how they limited possessions, Washington. We'll get into their offense in a minute and we'll give them their flowers. They're at 5 and 5. I thought their three game win streak

that they had before last week's loss, so the charges was about as lucky a win streak as you can get, but they just won in Philadelphia and they're 5 and 5 in the NFC. So we'll get to giving them their flowers. But the Eagles to me are the bigger story here. Jalen Hurts, in this game and the Eagles offense.

They get two quick touchdown, one on a short field after a sack, fumble, a Heineke, and then another quick touchdown. And you think they're kind of off and rolling here, up 14-7 at that point. Then they barely have the ball for about two quarters. In the second and third quarters, they ran a total of 10 plays. I mean, that is outrageous. At one point, the time of possession was like 31 to 6, 31 to 7. it ended up 40 to 19.

They had three quick drives. That included an interception on a pretty nice pass by Jalen Hertz that A.J. Brown couldn't take in. And then you get to the fourth quarter where the team does have a nice long touchdown drive. But ultimately gets the ball back a few times with a chance to go take the lead. They aren't able to do that for a few different reasons, a few fumbles. But I want to start with the drive that started at 326 left. after all the drama, back-to-back fumbles that they lose. They're still only down five points there.

They get the ball with 326 left. In theory, that kind of was the Jalen Hertz go have a MVP type of drive moment and they go three and out. Like, tell me what you saw on that drive. And then just in general, what this night made you think about Hertz? I don't know if I have too many thoughts about Jalen Hertz from that drive. I think for the entire night, I know the Eagles offense is kind of interesting because I thought that he missed, you know, a handful of throws that he probably should have had.

Especially earlier in the game, we were talking stuff like quick outs or being inaccurate in, you know, shorter areas of the field where you've got to have it. But then you kind of see how this offense plays and they'll get guys open. It's a lot of screen passes and he ends up, I think like 17 for 26 for the game. But overall, I don't really think it was his best performance as a passer. I'm not really sure, though, to me at least, I don't think that Washington really forced him into doing anything crazy. I think he was just kind of off on his own accord just with some of the accuracy, some of the shorter intermediate passes.

But even then, you know, he's still able to hit that long ball to Quest Watkins, which was a great throw. And then immediately punished with the fumble on the back end. bet. So, you know, I think with Jalen Hurts, I would have liked to see him, definitely, you know, play a little bit better with that chance to come back. But to me, the more concerning areas were more at the start of the game when he was a little bit more inaccurate. Yeah. And I think that's, that's part of the Hertz experience. And I get into these arguments. Sometimes Nate Tice points out some of the shortcomings in Hertz's games. He's a young quarterback. Does he read the

whole field quickly at this point? No. Like a lot of third year quarterback so that's not his strength is he is he reading the middle of the field fast is he always that accurate in the short game like he he can be streaky i i think he had a few plays tonight and i would include that last drive third down as one of them where he left the pocket before it really needed to be left and i think he thought maybe he had a running lane there and he didn't uh but it was something where they got quick pressure on him one of the two plays before that. And it looked like something like a busted play call.

I'm not even sure what happened on the second down. And then he kind of panicked in the pocket on the third down. And that was, to me, like a young quarterback play. And it was a reminder he hasn't been in this spot that many different times. It's the first time they've trailed in the second half this season. And that was just a moment where you wanted calm out of your quarterback. And it was just one play that third down. But there was one or two other plays similar to that.

I think Troy Aikman pointed them out where he left the pocket, panicked a little bit quickly. And that's the growing process for Jalen Hertz. And he didn't end up getting the ball back. Yeah. I mean, this is his 28th start. So we're not even at two full seasons of him being an NFL starter yet. So I think I tend to think that the young quarterbacks in the league, especially, you know, over the past, you know, it's called six years, have been pretty good. it's kind of adjusted or maybe warped our expectations on what a growth line looks like.

And I feel like Jalen Hertz is still on a really good pattern for himself. Tonight didn't work out well. Maybe you still want to see some more from him as a passer. But in terms of like where he's grown, I think, you know, his skills as a quarterback has undeniably improved since he got here. But, you know, you're still seeing some of the young quarterback mistakes. It's like that third down sack. I thought he built the pocket a little bit early. I don't know what rushing lane he thought he saw

because there was nothing there. I mean, it seemed like he ran right into the arms of whoever was rushing a three-tech beat that play. He freaked out a little bit. That was kind of his version of a Kirk Cousins play, just a different version of that. And for the most part, it wasn't like an offensive line is collapsing type of game.

They just didn't have the ball. They still average 5.6 yards per play, which for the Eagles is not that much, but they only had 47 yards plays, rather, over the course of the game. No, he's one of the most improved players in the league. We're actually going to do a quick list at the end of this of just some of the most improved players. And he's one of them. He was one of the most improved players last year, and he's one of the most improved players this year.

He's absolutely like an NFC pro bowler right now. This won't hurt his mythical MVP talk. But even that, there's nine games left of the seven or eight games left of the season for them. I'm not too worried about that. I think Washington did a nice job taking it away. And for the most part, in the fourth quarter, he played well, went right down the field, made a nice throw to Goddard in that drive, had that beautiful deep throw to Watkins.

And then Watkins, you know, fulfilled something I've always noticed, which is if a guy makes a diving catch or hits the ground as a receiver and gets up, it's a fumble 100% of the time. Like, it's never not a fumble. It's always bad luck because to me, it's almost like, Like, you know, when you see a guy who you know has really good hands and they kind of take their eye off the ball and start running up field and they just kind of drop it. It's like you're so preoccupied on what's next. You forget about the part where you need to hold onto the ball.

So I was kind of with you. Like when he got up and started running, I was like, oh, no, no, no, no, no, no, no. Like, this is either going to be a touchdown or a turnover. And, you know, he got so excited. He got, he was on his way to the end zone, got hawk and the ball just. right out. And I mean, that's one of those plays, like, you've got to have that, especially when you're in that specific moment of the game. Because who knows, like, maybe Hertz does finish that drive and they punched in for the score. Maybe that would change,

you know, how we feel about this performance. But man, just really unlucky. He's trying to do a little bit too much. I mean, I remember last week, you know, I'm a Falcons fans for people who don't know when the Falcons play the Chargers and you have the play where Austin Eckler fumbled the ball and then Falcons defensive tackles take on Graham who never touches the ball picks up the ball and starts running with it and while he's running I'm like bro fall down just fall down you're doing too much yeah and he let go of the ball and the charges got it back sometimes he's got no one to quit on a play yeah like I struggle with this sometimes but I try never to forget as I get older.

You'll see, you know, I'm an old man doing this job. And after a while, you realize so much of what we talk about over the course of the week, good or bad, is just based on completely random-ass luck plays that's going to change everything you say. And try not to get too carried away is what I'm saying about those two or three totally random plays that change a game, change a season, and they add up,

and it doesn't mean too much to me differently about how I feel about the Eagles long term. Their turnover luck over the course of the season, though, probably was going to correct at some point. They led the league in turnover margin. Your friend, again, Ben Solac, getting a lot of pop on this show, had a nice little graph that pointed it out. They were plus 15 going into this game.

No one else was greater than plus six, which is just outrageous. They had more turnovers. if you count that last play, and you do, in the official scorebook, they had more turnovers in this game four than they had in the entire season coming into this game, which was only three. And that was huge for Washington, who's been terrible at forcing turnovers. And one of them, and I'll just mention this now before we get to give in the commander some flowers,

because I know Eagles fans will whine about it. One of them came on a face mass penalty for Dallas Goddard. So this game will not come without. controversy. The undefeated Eagles season ends with a couple shaky calls. One wasn't a bad call, but it was just a stupid rule and a stupid way to end the game. And then this was a bad call. The face mask on Dallas Goddard is part of a fumble that ends up leading to a second Joey Sly 55 plus yard bomb. I mean, the Eagles were quite unlucky. Everything that could go wrong in this game went wrong. Yeah. And I hate to be someone that wants to give

these referees more power over the game and take more time from us like actually watching football. But do it. I feel like with some of these bigger penalties, you got to be able to look back at it. Like if we can look back and see, oh, Davis's knee was down when he got touched with the ball. I don't understand why you can't rewind it two more seconds and see that there was a face mask on the way down. It's all about just getting. Oh, they saw it. They're watching that And they're just cringing at everything that's going to happen. Like, oh, my God. We messed up.

We messed up. But I don't understand why that's in the real book, but you can't pull that back either. And I think that should be extended to even, you know, we're talking about these field flipping passing interference penalties, too. Like, we should be able to take a look at that. Just if we're going to care about getting everything right. I mean, I think it will be a terrible TV product.

But at the same time, we've got down that road. You know, we've gone down that road because of pass interference and Rams and Saints a few years ago. I don't think they'll go back to pass interference, but I'm with you. The Sky Judge is becoming a bigger part of the game. And the NFL doesn't get much credit for it because when things go well, no one talks about it. But actually, this season, the games are shorter than they've been since 1987. Now, that's mostly, I believe, because of the style of play that's happening. You're getting teams like the commanders and the Eagles also that are just grinding out these long drives

and the way defenses are playing and that just makes the game go quicker and that's great. But part of it too is the Sky Judge has come in quick. We don't have these long replays anymore with the guys under the boot. The way that they've had New York make quick replays and then sometimes even when a play isn't challenged, correct mistakes that are allowed to be corrected quickly has improved. it's just subtle and I'm with you Charles I think it can be just keep expanding it they expand it like a little more every season

the Sky Judge is a little more involved this season than they were or the New York office and yeah like if you're already reviewing it make it like a scoring play where you can review every element of the scoring play even if it's not the part that's being challenged you can review different elements of it allow the element to also be

you know some amount of penalties now I don't know if they're going to get into past interference, but face mask feels like one you can definitely throw in there. That's easy. Everyone watching at home, that would have been a five second thing. Yeah, yeah. And on a play that that's big, I just feel like that's one of those moments you have to give

it right. And like you said, like we all saw the face mask. I don't even know how they how they missed it in real time. Like sometimes I feel like I just don't know what these guys are looking at. Right. I don't either because I thought there was no one there, but then when they showed one replay, there was one guy on the side judge looking right at it. Yeah. And it's the same thing when, you know, you have plays on the sideline where you're trying to figure out as a catch or is a touchdown.

And there's been a lot of clear situations where we get the call wrong in the first time. I'm like, come on. Well, I always bring this up that when I've watched the game on a sideline, I'm always amazed that any call ever gets right. And it does give me an appreciation for football players, of course. But it also gives you appreciation that officiating is impossible, that a certain point. point it almost feels like there's no way humans could officiate these athletes who are so fast and strong doing all these different things with all these different rules that it's almost impossible and the fact that they're not even worse is almost a minor miracle there are ways they

can improve it i'm not saying i'm not being a company man but just watching it you're like i i wouldn't know anything that goes on but a play like that seems that's so clear in real life and and on video you got to be able to fix that at least yeah i and to be clear like i 100% agree with you on your take on how difficult to on how difficult referee is but i'm still going to complain about it oh yeah i know it's part of it let's give washington some credit here because for three quarters of this game it felt like they were playing the game of their lives and i think the fourth quarter is going to give a different feel to people because at that point it's almost like the commanders remembered who they were and the eagles remembered who they were and if that clock kept

tick in if they played five more minutes or if they didn't have three or four kind of crazy things go against them they were going to come back and win that game but for three quarters they really did everything they wanted to do they finished with 49 rushing attempts most of them were in those first three quarters because that's when they had a 13 play drive a 12 play drive a 16 play drive and a 14 play drive at one point they had five straight scoring drives before that taylor Heineke interception, which did turn the game around in the fourth quarter. Do you feel like giving Scott Turner any flowers or Taylor Heinecke any flowers? Or do you just want to give it all to Terry McLaurin, I guess would be the guy?

Terry McLaurin. I don't, okay, I don't really think that this is like some genius game plan or anything. Like the Eagles, they have a clear weakness. Jordan Davis is not in. and even when Jordan Davis has been in the game, it's not like they've been even like a league average run defense. So this is the time to kind of span it. I was surprised when at the end of the game,

I think it was Troy Aikman. He said, you know, Washington, they ran for 3.1 yards to carry tonight. I was like, that can't be right. Like, that can't be right. Like, I watched every play tonight. How is that correct? But like you said, they kind of got back on

they playing defense well in the fourth quarter. But I think, you know, Terry, Terry McLaurin, he's been incredible. Like, I think he's really stepped his game up to another level this year. He's kind of entering that, like, unguardable sphere of players. Because it's not like he was going up against a cupcake opponent tonight. Derry Slay and James Bradbury, they've probably been the best quarterback to go in the league this year. And now Terry just kind of comes in and makes it look easy. So, you know, here's another story in.

during the broadcast I thought was interesting was like the insinuation that Carson Lentz is going to get this job back because they asked Taylor Heineke at the end of the game like you know if this is your last start for the season how's it feel? I'm like why the hell would that be his last start? Yeah, don't ask that in that spot.

I got to admit I entered the game thinking if Heineke plays like he did last week or really honestly if you watch these commanders games Hineke has not played well. He hasn't. Every game he gives the opponent three or four chances. And I do buy into there's something about the fourth quarters, and they've found a way to win these crazy games,

and it's been luck sometimes, and sometimes it's been good plays by him or just giving these guys a chance. And I thought they're going to have to win this game if Carson Wentz is healthy for him to start next week. But they did win this game, so there's no question. And I don't know if Wence is going to be ready anyway. Heineke played well,

though, I would say. This was as well as he's played all year and would be right there with the best games that he played all of last year or two. To me, it's this in the playoff game that he played as his best two games. Because for the most part, he made good decisions. He skied a couple throws.

He does that every week. And if there's a safety back there, then it ends up being an interception. He threw that pop-up that ended up being intercepted where he thought his arm was better. than it was, and that seems to happen every week. But that was really the one really bad decision. For the most part, he made three or four nice throws to the outside.

He got the ball out quick. He kind of went where the defense was telling him to go. And it was like that was a good version of Heineke. And it got them to a point where if they could run the ball in the fourth quarter, that they would have won a little more easily. Yeah, I think this was his best game of the season, which is interesting given the opponent because the Eagles defense, they've been kind of smothering everyone.

that they've played this year. And I look, I mean, coming off of that game, I would be hard pressed to bench him just because. No way they're benching him. You kidding me? Right. And it's, it's, you have to factor in like what the other option is too.

It's not like Carson Wentz was killing it before, before he got hurt. And to me, you know, Robert Rivera seems like one of those guys where he used to be going to go, well, we're what, like four and a or three and one with Taylor Hineke,

four and one, something like that. so we might as well just keep riding hot hand and he's a vibe he's a vibes coach for sure and hey look taylor's doing this to his credit just find terry find 17 just give them a chance to go find the ball and that seemed to be working for them but you know i i thought that it was impressive that the impressive part to me was that they just kind of just kept going with the run and we're really able to run as many places they were i think one time in the fourth quarter they had run like 24 plays to the eagles five plays and anytime you can just kind of sit on the ball like that

and in and keeping the offense that's good off the field I know that you know we've kind of learned a little bit more about the true value of time of possession but you know when it's that stark I think it's something that really matters and it gave them a cushion going to the fourth quarter at least and I think that that and a little help from the officials which was just enough to help them to keep the Eagles away Right. The theory is that you wear them down and then by the end of the game, you'll really be rolling. That did not play out.

They had 81 plays to the Eagles 47, but the fourth quarter is when the Eagles bowed up and stopped them. But it was kind of before we get to the most improved players, we're going to hit it soon. And Tori McClorn, I wouldn't put him on there because he's been so great throughout his career. I'm sitting in the Chris Wesleying podcast studio. And even as a rookie, Chris, my friend and co-host, former co-host, said, oh, this guy's going to be special. and you can see the next level trades. I'm with you. I think if he was like on the Vikings, for instance,

or on a team that had a legitimate pass passing attack and quarterback, we wouldn't put him in Justin Jefferson and Stefan Diggs' class quite yet, but I think he's a lot closer than people realize. Like that he's in that, I think now you'd have to make the list because there's so many good receivers, but he's getting close to that top 10 range. And maybe he would be right there. But one last thing on this game would be that,

When you mentioned the yards per carry, that really struck a note because in the first drive even when they went all the way down the field, this was the ultimate, like, Ron Rivera and defensive-minded coach's vision of a game. Like, well, if we just get three yards on first down and four yards on the second down, and then we have third and short, then it's third and manageable, and we can keep it going. That was the whole game. It was like Brian Robinson, three yards, Gibson, four yards, and then on third down, they would get their four yards again. And it just kept happening over and over like that. Robinson and Gibson ran for a combined 40 attempts.

You want to know how many, what their long run was, Charles? Tell me. 11. And they only had one more than seven. They had 49 rushes, only one more than seven. But everything was three and four and three and four. And they just kept hitting it. And that's like, to me that's like Ron Rivera's dream,

because I'm with you, time of possession is totally overrated. And sometimes when teams try to shorten the game, it just like shortens how quickly they lose when they try to do that against the Chiefs. But when you're significantly worse than the other team, in this case, they are. It's not a bad idea to shorten the, if you can really pull it off like this,

like less possessions means more randomness and basically a shorter game. And worse teams can win a shorter game. Yeah, I was just kind of surprised that. I guess one surprise is for me this season really. is how bad Philadelphia has been against the run. Like if you're if you're game playing for that defense, like that has to be a core part of what you're going to do

because passing the ball hasn't been all the successful against them. I mean, Terry McLaurin, I mean, it's not like watching this past game really did anything outside of Terry McLaren. The leading receiver was Curtis Samuel, who had two catches for 28 yards. But for whatever reason, they can't stop the run, which is interesting because, you know, I know Fletcher Cox is a little over the hill now,

but they still have Jeffon Hargrave and guys like Milton Williams are pretty solid players too. Graham's good against the run, you know, they should be. But when they get down to like, I think to me, like one of the most stark areas where they really stink is like some of these C-Gap runs, like where they're trying to just either just like go off tackle there because their linebaggers are so bad at filling the run.

Oh, no. They're so bad. Is this Kaiser? Or white slander. I've been in an... I mean, look, look, I don't even feel right slandering him because I don't even think he's playing the right position right now. Yeah, he's more of a past defender.

Yeah, more of one of those like overhang, strong safetys that can like masquerade as a lineback every once in a while. But when he's playing linebacker every step, it looks really, really bad. So I kind of wonder with the Eagles, like, what's the deal with the Kobe Dean? Is he just not... Because I feel like if you, if you look at the state of your linebackers and then just you pick Nikobe Dean, why not see what could happen? I don't know what happened there.

Right. That is, they clearly have a fatal flaw. And we'll see if it's actually fatal. And the Eagles would tell you, well, if you're going to have a flaw, let it be run defense. That's sort of how they've set up their personnel, it's how they've set up their scheme. Maybe not their personnel because you're right. They have a lot of good defensive linemen. They should be better at it.

Nikobe Dean has played four defensive snaps this season. I did not see him on the field tonight. It is crazy. Maybe he's still coming off of that injury. I know he's healthy enough to play. But they need help there. And it's interesting looking at the Eagles' upcoming schedule. This loss kind of keeps the Cowboys in the division race.

I mean, if they won this game, they would have been three games up, which doesn't sound insane. But when you only have eight left to play. and you have some easy games on your schedule. Like, that's a lot of games to be up. Now it's only two, and the Cowboys get them again. And the Giants are only one game back. You know, the team you used to cover.

And here's who's coming up on their schedule. Some Jonathan Taylor, I mean, I don't think they'll have problems with the Colts, but Taylor looked a little revived last week. Then you got the Packers, good run game. Titans, good run game. You're going to have the Cowboys a couple weeks after that. You got the Giants two different times. So they will be tested

And the Bears And the Bears Good call So those are a lot of good running teams They're kind of like In the crosshairs here That's the trend of 2022 NFL

It's all about the run It's really not all about the run But it's part of it Yeah And honestly you can even If Alvin Kamar is healthy They even have a game And gets the same

That team's giving up That team Man I think by Jane They play Week 17 By that team I don't know Joe Vitt might be, you know, coaching the Saints for that week,

and Camara will be on vacation or something. I don't know what's up with that team. Let's get quickly to the most improved teams. So shout out to the commanders. You're going to be in the wild card race for a little while. And the Eagles take a step back. Not worried, though. Most improved players, all right.

I had just like a list. I usually do a list here. I'm not going to put you on the spot, Charles. I'm going to throw out six players here as my most improved list. list here. And I'm not going to put them in order this week. I don't feel like it. And you can just tell me what you think and who you, if I'm missing anyone or what order you would have them on. Christian Derisaw is on the list for me, left tackle for the Vikings. People thought he might be a problem for them. And he's ended up being a great left tackle.

It's really interesting to see these second year left tackles improve. It just happens over and over. On your team you used to cover, I don't, you're not a Giants fan. but do you kind of have a soft spot for them at this point? No, I used to cover the Giants and the Jets and don't really have a soft spot. No, but you live in Brooklyn? No. Yes, it's got nothing.

So you're just annoyed by them then and their fans? They just exist. Like, I'm a Falcons fan. I got my own problems, bro. Yeah, you got a lot of problems. I'm trying to think who would be the most improved on the Falcons. But I got Manson for the Falcons. Okay.

Let's hear it. Caleb McGarrie. Oh, yeah. I was looking at the tackle list and I thought of that. I thought, like, that's a little too deep for me. Can I really speak intelligently about Caleb McGarry? Not really, but I've heard he's played well. And when I've watched him, like, they hold up.

And he's good in the running game. He's nasty. Yeah, he used to be really bad, and now he's pretty good. All right. So I don't know if he's making the officialist, but I'll throw out Dexter Lawrence on the Giants. It's always been good. But he's taking another step.

Derek Brown of the Panthers, I've mentioned on this show. It's a guy who just hadn't done a lot as a top 10 pick over the, his first three years, and he is going to get paid. Greg Rousseau of the bill's quiet rookie year where he did not play much and has popped. I know he's hurt right now. I'm not putting Gino on this list because he never actually played. I'm with Gino.

I believe that he's been this good the whole time. He just never had a chance. But I will put Tua. Do you think Tua deserves this list? Or did he just need the chance? Yeah, I think there's definitely a lot of areas where Tua has improved. to me, I think the most exciting part by the Dolphins' offense is how damn good

Mike McDaniel is like, he might be the best play caller in the league. Like, if there's any one of those guys that was like the actual boy genius of the Shanahan squad, so like Mike McDaniel really just got something to figure it out. But that too was definitely improved. Where you said what parts of his game,

what parts of his game have improved? Oh, I think just like the consistency on the deep balls, I think he's depicting it and finding his spots better. Like, and I will say that Tyree Kill and Jalen Watt will definitely give you a room for error on this. But he's been able to find out like a timing pattern that works for his arm strength where he's still able to pin passes on the sideline like right when he needs to or if he's able to even just give guys a chance to get him open down field. like sometimes I feel like Toa he'll throw the ball earlier when he's throwing the deep ball fast. Throwing the deep ball's like Tyree Kill and Jalen Waddle because he knows like, well, I can't, I don't really have the arm strength to afford to wait here.

So I'm going to let go of his faster. And when people don't really get about arm strength, it's not, because I'll see people put, oh, well, he threw the ball 50 yards down field. Well, yeah, like every NFL quarterback can do that. It's about how long it takes the ball to get there. Right. It was like the Heineckee throw tonight. 2a would have thrown that a half second quicker and it wouldn't have been as big of a air balloon

but he would have thrown it quicker to give his receiver a better chance you're right his timing on out routes too I know most of it's over the middle of the field and everything but his timing is excellent he has gotten better you're right McDaniel is that dude that's why Kyle Shanahan tried to stop him from leaving him for all those years and tried to like hide him yeah I think from your list though I would probably go with Derek Brown

okay as number one just as someone like who has improved their not only their their their play this year but like you said like the career outlook kind of has shifted for him oh yeah he's gonna get paid yeah he's finally playing like that guy that that they drafted him to be uh i was i was i was i was like the biggest der grown thing coming out of the drafts because i was like you know i i prefer the guys who are going to be able to be three like one gap uh penetrators the three technique types but you know he he's starting to figure that out uh to his game too like he's gotten really explosive really strong uh and i i think you know it was interesting because when the panthers were going through their the trade deadline stuff uh and it was coming out where the reports were like derrick brown was one of their untouchables you know i was talking to people and they were like really derrick brown was like right go watch him play this season It was just this year, but I understand the thought process if you just watch him play this year. Like, he looks fantastic.

Yeah, he is that dude. And there's not many of those dudes. And there used to be kind of a cliche that those types of guys develop slower. I don't know if that's even true, but like the Ted Washington types, which you don't even see in the NFL, but he's the equivalent of a Ted Washington type who's just big dude. And yeah, I'm not usually into those guys before the draft. But let's give him his flowers. Sure, we'll put him at number one. I guess McGarry snuck on the list now that I counted it as number six.

Christian Kirk was another guy. I would throw out there just because I didn't think Christian Kirk had everything that he's had in his game this year. He's shown to be like a nice slot that can get vertical. You could do it all too, Charles. You stayed up late. I appreciate it. I hope like no one is, you know, waking, you're in Brooklyn. So I'm guessing do you share walls with other apartment dwellers?

Like are you waking them up right now? I'm actually on the first floor all by myself. You know, I never got to that point. When I was in New York for 10 years and if I was screaming on a podcast late at night there, like people were annoyed at me. So hopefully no one's not. I definitely got lucky with my living situation. I'll say that for sure.

That's nice. Charles does a really great job. He's at Yahoo. He's a great follow on Twitter. Check them out there. Appreciate having you on and we'll do it again. And thanks. You gave us good luck here, Charles.

We've got a fun game. That's right. All right, for Charles, I'm Greg. We will be back on Tuesday. Do we have a special guest? Oh, yes, we do. We have Mark Sanchez joining the show. It's not confirmed.

It's not confirmed, but we'll try to get him on the show. Let's show up, Mark Sanchez. Come on, we need you. He'd the call. Hey everybody, Daniel Jeremiah here. And I'm Bucky Brooks. On Move to Six, we take you inside the game from breaking down college prospects and NFL rookies to evaluating team building philosophies, coaching trends, and how front offices construct winning rosters.

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