NFL Daily with Gregg Rosenthal - EMERGENCY POD! Joe Burrow is out for the season

Episode Date: November 17, 2023

In a studio full of heroes - Gregg Rosenthal and Patrick Claybon react to the news that Joe Burrow will miss the remainder of the 2023 season due to a torn ligament in his right wrist. NFL Daily YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/nflpodcastsSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

This is an IHeart podcast. Welcome to another edition of the Around the NFL emergency podcast here in the Chris Wesleying podcast studio. I'm with my friend, a hero, Patrick Claibon, and we're usually here on Friday. to tape game debut, a fun show. Yeah. Unfortunately, we're in the podcast studio for an unfun reason. I wish we weren't.

The exact opposite of a fun Friday. Because right when I got in, I'm looking up and I'm seeing Taylor with Ian. And it's like, oh, what's the breaking? Burroughs done for the year. And I was, you know, considering the way that he reacted after the ball left his hand and like you could see he was an obvious pain, he was kind of dejected for the remainder of the game, it's like well this is going to be significant but to have to have no joe burrow for the rest of it like

the league is better when not just joe is playing but just when we're talking to joe when we're hearing those joe's thoughts about football even the way he handled his season ending now news conference just highlighted um how great it is how great of a communicator and in person a football player he is and it's just it sucks it sucks i i was talking about it with emica my wife because i was just leaving the house when this popped and and and And we were saying the same sort of thing that you do forget that this whole league, this studio, this building, everything.

Like, a lot of it is on the backs of like 10 quarterback. And like if you whittle it down, it's like six or seven. Like they do really matter that much. They add so much to what we do on a week-to-week basis. And it's such a bummer. And maybe I'm just an optimist. For some reason, it didn't occur to me that he would be out for the season. It's the same thing last night when Dan broke the news to me

mid-podcast of Mark Andrews out. for the season. I was like, oh, I just, I never think worst case in there. I was like, that'll be a high ankle or that'll be something. And this is rough because like most teams, the Bengals don't really have a backup plan. We can get into that. But I think we'll just start more on just the big picture Bengals of it all. They're five and five this season. They're 0 and three of the division. They're one and five in the conference. They had some issues that I talked about with Dan last night. We don't defensively, offensive line in terms of their past protection. We don't need to go too deep into it. It's hard to imagine them winning enough

games to make the playoffs this year. They play the Steelers, Jaguars, Colts, Vikings, Steelers, Chiefs, Browns. All those teams are in the playoff race. I guess I'm more interested looking at this team right now and that like, can they be competitive in those games? Can they win some of those games? Even if it's not going anywhere, they now matter because they're improving all these potential playoff teams is scheduled. The Steelers are kind of lucky here because they missed Joe Burrow two times. Yeah. And ultimately, because we saw, and Trey Hendrickson really gutted it out last night.

He did come up with a sack, but he was clearly playing hurt. And we saw them go through that stretch, right? Whereas Arizona, Seattle, and then San Francisco. And Lou's defense played spectacularly. And I guess that's something else we need to look ahead to with regards to 2024 is if Lou Anarumo is not the head coach somewhere. because clearly, like, losing safeties that played 99 and 98% of the snaps last year

has an impact, right? You're not just... Sometimes the off-season narrative is true. I thought it was overblown, actually. I was like, they'll probably be fine. And last night was a big change. Actually, they bench Nick Scott for the first time in that game. And they're still kind of trying to ultimately figure things out there,

but it's so much easier to go in, and obviously, it's even dumb to say, when, oh, yeah, We got Joe and Jamar and T and everything's, you know, worst case scenario, we end up in a shootout. And it's not looking good. Like the rest of the way, like even after we get to the Colts and then the Vikings, like, where's the spot? Like, where's when six coming?

I think they can be competitive. And I don't want to get into a whole Zach Taylor thing. Me and Dan have gone back and forth about him quite a bit. And I do with my Bengals fans. a lot of them who are on my side that, like, look, if you have a quality coach, you can maybe survive the loss of even a franchise quarterback. We're seeing what the Vikings are doing, for instance, right now. And just that they would be competitive in these games.

The Steelers aren't some world beaters. The Colts, we know what the Vikings are dealing with, that maybe they can pick, like, a coach and a defense and all that talent. You said that's still there on offense can maybe pick off a couple of these games. But it's going to be tough. Jake Browning played fairly well. I thought last night, you know, we checked the PFF grades right before we started. He got a 68. That's pretty good.

And that passed the eye test that he didn't do too many things wrong. He made a couple accurate throws. He kind of went through his reads. And I was like, okay, that was better than the version I saw in the preseason when he had one of the worst training camp battles. Because they played the whole preseason because Burrow was hurt. And I watched most of it for some reason. And him and Simeon couldn't have been worse. and I don't know.

It got very frustrated with these teams who don't invest in backup quarterbacks and just weirdly don't seem to take that position that seriously. Our friend Chase Daniel was honking about it on Twitter. And I agree with him. Like, Teddy was just sitting out there for a while. Like these teams that have championship aspirations, I guess you're not winning the championship with Teddy,

but you can't tell me that a playoff run wouldn't be a lot more entertaining and be worth it for the fans paying money. and be worth it for T. Higgins and Tyler Boyd in a contract year. Like, the next seven weeks matters, even if you're not going to win a Super Bowl. And they got super cheap this off season. And a couple teams did that. And I just don't get it.

It doesn't make any sense. I mean, the best possible explanation a few years ago was, well, we don't want somebody to come in and the quarterback lose the locker. The Carson Wins back up situation. And it's like you're worried about somebody's feelings. Like, if the feelings are that much of a concern, maybe the quarterback's not very good. Right. No one's worried about Joe Burrow. feelings he can handle it yeah joe will be fine um it you've got to you got to invest at the position

and maybe um this changes things for 2024 but everybody's stuck now like Tommy devedo is going to be playing for the rest of the season because like there's there's just no other than pulling somebody off the street well Joe flacco did uh work out for the browns Friday you know what's funny is I was thinking like is are we in a world where the Bengals are like damn they got to flacco first or there's actually like a bidding war. Yeah, Joe Flacko sweepstakes. I mean, maybe. Why not?

Or Matt Ryan or someone. I mean, part of it is there's just not enough, you know, proven quarterbacks in the NFL. But I just think it's an under, I don't know, underpaid position. It's kind of crazy to me because like, James was available for cheap. Andy Dalton was available for cheap. Baker was available for cheap. Any of these championship level teams or even playoff. level teams could have just invested the five, six million dollars that it costs.

And it's so worth it because it's a weird sport where one position so far outweighs every other position that it's like driving your car without insurance. It just doesn't make any sense because, yeah, like Tom Brady could stay healthy for his entire career except for that one year with Matt Castle. And yet I was always supporting Bill Belichick taking Ryan Mallet and Kevin O'Connell and Jacoby percent and Jimmy Garapola. He just kept doing it like over and over because it totally makes sense. That position is so much more important.

Why not spend a second or a third on that instead of spending a money on some cornerback that you're going to cut if you're Bill Belichick in year two? I just had a second theory. What if they don't want to answer the questions about the backup? I think that's part of it. In a two game skid. And then it's like, ah, let's put in Bailey Zapier. And like it literally never works, but people are going to continue to ask.

I think that's part of it. And Belichick was one person that didn't care. but I just... Maybe that's why he put them in final drive. My larger point was just like it doesn't make any sense that that's not treated financially and draft pick-wise as important as you're starting off-ball linebacker

or even your third-edge rusher. Whatever money or just not unspent money or just money that's there that's available to be spent and they just don't spend it. That's just sort of a frustration. I've long had and it's funny with this, team in particular because I listened to Paul Dainer, his podcast with the athletic and I read his stuff there. And this was like story number two behind the safeties all off season was why don't,

why are our backups so bad? Why aren't we investing in backup? So it is a case of first guessing, not second guessing. Greg, where do you get all the time for all these podcasts? Uh, you listen on 1.5 speed. You do a lot of stuff around the house. You pick and choose, uh, but I've sort of added the team podcast. It's, it's good. All right, what else should we talk about? The Bengals, they're done for the season. Let's look at the division, I guess, quickly. The Steelers are just riding a wave of the zombie Steelers.

Right. I wouldn't call it luck because I think they've won these games and they have a good coaching staff that's figured out a way to do it. And they've gotten a little luck along the way. But it is crazy. They've been out gained every game and there's six and three. And now in the last week, they've seen both Deshaun Watson and Joe Burrow leave the division.

The Ravens are a couple games ahead, but they're in a weird spot where they're eight and three and the Steelers are six and three. That bothers me. I know it's only for four days, but like what are we doing here, sport, that there's an eight and three and a six and three?

That bothers me. Do you think the Steelers now, like they got two games against the Browns, like do you think they were a playoff team? Yeah, I think the Steelers, like, why wouldn't they be other than the fact that the numbers that you mentioned, I mean,

you could also make the case that, like, Lamar and the Ravens, were the best seven and three team of all time before last night are considering the way that things had gone statistically for them. It's so hard to continue to win in the way that they have. But while they keep doing it, like who's to say, because we look back at last year's Vikings and it's like, oh, that was a fraud.

Well, like, here comes Kevin O'Connell again, right? And so, like, I know it's cliche and it's like, wins and losses are all the matters, but like they keep doing it. And they keep doing it in weird fashion. It works out. I keep, I kept believing at some point they're actually going to play better. You know, they're, the offense looked a whole lot better.

They actually are already, since the buy, Kenny Pickett hasn't been disastrous. He's just kind of been like a below average quarterback, but he's been a below average quarterback that's not going to crush your team. And their offense has been average to better than average because the running game's getting going. So I think they're going to play better. This is a big game this weekend. I'm actually picking the Browns to win this game, a little tease for NFL game debut.

people should check that out. We're on reruns throughout the weekend, even if you don't hear this right away. But I think we're 5 p.m. Pacific on Fridays. We're on Sunday mornings before game day. Got us on Saturday, too. Yeah, Saturdays, it's there. We'll do the picks.

I think the Browns, like the Browns are winners here too because they don't have that Bengals game coming up or anything like that. Or they do. They finish the season with the Bengals. So, like, there's a difference between these two teams. The Bengals do not have a difference making difference right now. Yeah.

You can say that they can play better because of the personnel they have, but the Browns have the best events in the league, the Bengals are just there. Yeah. It's depressing, man. It's like I think about the big picture of it all, too. And we will wrap up soon. We got to get going.

But I think back to that play in the Super Bowl, the penalty on Logan Wilson, and then certainly what happened with the last drive against the Rams, it's just so hard to get back to that point. and that was a coin flip game. I believe those two teams were as even a Super Bowl as you'll see.

And you feel like you have all the time in the world and they're going to be very good, I think, throughout the Joe Burrow era. But this offseason, they're going to be a very different team in 2024 than they were in 20203. Here are some free agents that the Bengals have. DJ Reeder, their best interior defensive tackle.

What a great free agent signing. Right there with Trey Hendrickson. Does he get another contract with the team? he's getting a little older. Tyler Boyd is a free agent. T. Higgins is a free agent. That was part of what made them special. These receivers all together.

Jonah Williams, who's played a ton of snaps for them and has been fine this year at right tackle, is a free agent. Chidovia Woosier, who hasn't maybe played up to his previous level coming off a serious injury, he's a free agent. Those are as core of five, you know, starters as you could find from this three-year run. So it just, I just kind of want to start.

circle how it's difficult. You need a lot of things to go your way. And Burroughs had bad injury luck. The Bengals have had some in general. And they're going to count on Duke Tobin and partly Zach Taylor to come up with like a new version of this Bengals team because they're not going to be the same. And people may be tired of us talking about it, but always have to go back to it. It's really hard to win that one game. Right. It's really hard. A lot of stuff has to happen. And then you lose that game or you come up short before that game. You never get a chance to play in it. And we make the case about the quality of people's entire careers, on the outcome of that.

Or even last year, they were so close to being in that game again. You kind of forget about that as a heartbreaking loss. That Chiefs loss, they could have very easily been back in that Super Bowl and won it. And there was nothing separating those two teams, to me, really either. Just that day the Chiefs were three points better. Yeah. And so, like, I'm looking at that list of free agents and maybe it's Tyler Boyd. And Tyler Boyd is the odd man out and he's somewhere else and he's no longer around.

the Boyd, Chase Higgins receiving group with Burrow, like it deserves to be remembered and because, you know, because, you know, there was an incompletion to Somaget Piran, you know, because there was a hedge

on Aaron Donald that didn't quite get there, like, we have to say that this group was a failure, but they aren't a failure. We don't. Yeah, yeah, to hell with that. We're our own podcast. We're the around the NFL podcast. We are the thought leaders, Patrick.

We don't have to say it. And I might as well make predictions here. Reader chance to come back. Boyd, he's probably gone. Ouzier probably gone. T franchise tag, if I had to guess. But no guarantee he's back in Joan Williams probably gone. Or maybe actually they're the team that does pay him.

So I think there's going to be a lot of change. And you just feel you said it really well at the top. You feel for Burrow personally, he's had a few injuries now. Now he's had the ACL, had a knee sprain, I believe late in the 2021 season. Nothing that kept him out a long time until this calf injury, which bothered him. So he's just, he's just had bad breaks and you feel for him, you feel for the whole organization and even the smallest bit for us, because we're going to have like Jake Browning in primetime. Yeah, that's going to be tough.

I'm just going to be annoying. uh let's wrap the show with more bad news uh ian rappaport as we are taping this uh reported just kind of the extent of the mark andrews injury and uh i believe it's a fractured fibula along with uh the knee uh or the let's see what it is sorry cracked fibula and the ankle ligament injury so that it makes sense that he that he's out for the season but that still is disappointing um because that's a really serious injury when it's both of those combined like the the broken in a situation like this you almost root for a broken leg because that's a cleaner recovery and that's something he could be back working pretty early in the off season but it makes sense that they so quickly rolled him out for the year because that that is a long time recovery so we wish the best for him too yeah and possibly multiple surgeries and you could see it in Lamar's reaction both on the field and after the and after the game that this will significantly

impact the chances for Baltimore. Because there's plenty of times where Mark is the one. Well, he's the most important one. I've been waiting for their passing attack to just be a little more consistent, a little more on the same page. I think we're seeing that with O'Dell and Bateman, who are kind of the, we know what we're getting out of Zayflowers. I think the way they use him makes sense.

But those two guys, it's been better. And they still have more than enough, I believe, to go on a, a Super Bowl run, but that is still a major loss. And the AFC just feels different. The Bills are no lock to make the playoffs. The Bengals are no lock to make the playoffs. The Browns are now playing with the backup, and it absolutely leaves more room for Miami.

And a surprise team somewhere that we're not even thinking about, whether it's the Chargers or the Colts or, heck, the Las Vegas Raiders. I'm not going that far. I'm just saying it does open it up. It opens it up a little where if you look at the who's going to make it as the seven seed and the six seed before I would have said, well, you at least got to get to 10 wins. And you might be looking at tiebreakers there. And now it's like, okay, 10 wins maybe feels a little safer. Maybe you don't need the type of year.

Who knows? Maybe 9 and 8 gets involved here because all these teams are closer than they are apart. And with so many common schedules, I think 9 and 8. 9 and 8's ultimately going to get it. Right. And like, I feel more confident today, Jacksonville and Houston. both get in, for instance. Just because I actually thought they probably were good enough to do so already. And now it's like, you just look at the picture. Everything changes with the quarterback. It is a bummer. But I'm glad, you know, we do this game debut together so that we were here

to be able to do this today. And it didn't wait until the Sunday recap show. Yeah. Let's, let's do an emergency pod when something awesome happens next time. That would be fun. Until then, we will be back on Sunday we hope and we plan for Mark Sessler to be back there get better buddy and

until then for Patrick Claibon leave the call This is an IHeart podcast.