NFL Daily with Gregg Rosenthal - LV-KC MNF Recap + Gregg's Top 6 Tight Ends in the NFL (with Steve Palazzolo)

Episode Date: October 11, 2022

Gregg Rosenthal is joined by Steve Palazzolo of Pro Football Focus to recap the Chiefs-Raiders Monday Night Football thriller. Gregg and Steve discuss the biggest plays in the game, some controversial penalties, and the aggressive decisions by both coaching staffs. Then, Gregg closes the show with his top six NFL tight ends as of this weekend.NFL Daily YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/nflpodcastsSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

This is an I-Heart podcast. The Hall is over the middle. Pass caught Kelsey. Touchdown. He's got another touchdown. Kelsey, looking for his third. He found it. Touchdown.

In zone. He's got another. Four on the night. Carr, Adams. Downfield. He's got it. Touchdown. Las Vegas.

They handed Jacobs. And he. No signal. They didn't get it. And the Chiefs still lead by one. Car. Receiver falls down. There are no flags. And the Chiefs will take over and win this game. If you're a Raiders fan, sometimes you've got to laugh just to stop from crying. Hunter, Renfro, and Devante Adams run into each other. On the final offensive play for the Raiders of the game was fourth and one. The Chiefs come away with the big. 30 to 29. I'm Greg Rosenthal. I'm here in the NFL media newsroom, annoying the hell out of people still working here tonight, but our studio isn't working. And I'm glad joining me remotely, Steve Palazolo,

from PFF, the host of the PFF podcast, and the tallest man I know. Steve, welcome to the show. We got a good game to talk about. Oh, yeah, fantastic. Appreciate it, Greg. Always. Look, you're like a legend on our podcast, so always good too. I wish you did throw my name out there a couple of times just in terms of my Gino love. I guess the Gino thing's been great for the brand. I also pointed out before this week that Travis Kelsey would do something good this week. I was really out on a limb and it happened in this game for touchdowns. You're on the East Coast, Steve.

So, you know, you're in Cincinnati, which is a special place for hear us on the podcast. So I don't want to keep you up too late. Let's get to it. Let's start at the end with that last sequence. of plays for the Raiders. They get the ball back with a little over two minutes to go, down by one point. I think around the 10-yard line, all they need is to set up a field goal to go win. They get into a third-in-one situation, still with plenty of time.

Incomplete to Devante Adams, he can't get his feet in bounds before he brings the ball in, really on him, and then fourth and one, like, what did you think of that ending sequence? What did you think of the play calls? I was like, what are you thinking, Steve? I don't even know. I don't know how you guys record, like, right after a game, because I need to digest all, especially this type of game. But I thought when they went under center,

I was thinking quick QB, they had no timeouts. I was thinking quick QB sneak and then run up and spike it, maybe run up, you know, grab a play. Because you're really only looking for 10 to 15 yards. And then the Raiders, I mean, they pulled out the first play. With their first fourth and one play, they say, hey, it worked in the first quarter. Let's do it here.

And let's go for the whole. thing. They didn't need to hit a home run, but they went for it. That part, that part's risky. I mean, especially with Daniel Carlson, like, if you're the chiefs with your uneven kicker situation, I think you're playing it differently. But the way Carlson's kicking the ball, man, I don't know. I would have just tried to pick up that first down. But, hey, I like the Raiders' aggressiveness overall in this game. I liked them, and them being aggressive, you're absolutely right. We'll get to that is one of the reasons they were in this game. And I like, being aggressive on third and one. You know, I'm watching the game thinking, oh, this is a great

spot. They just set up a second and one after a nice throw to Renfro. At that point, there's 51 seconds left. And that's a nice play to take a shot. You might get a more favorable coverage on that third down. And they did. Devante Adams smokes his receiver. Carb gives them a beautiful ball. And that's what's the killer thing. Sometimes it's like as a fan or as just an analyst, you like want someone to blame. But it's stupid. I mean, it was a perfect play. call Adams makes that catch cleanly on the sidelines most of the time and they would have been in field goal range right there. But when you get to fourth and one, to me, we've seen this all over the NFL and Andy Reid does it successfully. It's like no one wants to run on fourth and one,

but this was a great Josh Jacobs game. And I was just hoping, you know, just they haven't stopped Josh Jacobs all night, hand the ball off to Josh Jacobs, get the first down, and then on your way, you still have about 40 seconds to go. They did have enough time to run the ball. And I really think every team, we saw the Eagles, you know, with a million QB sneaks. We've seen Jacoby Brissette become a QB sneak specialist when he's the backup and just as much as a starter. I think every team should have the QB sneak package and that a lot of what the Patriots have done through the years where it's like, all right, if they do stack the A gaps, you get that little outside zone run where you're just outgapping. Like you should be able to outgap the defense

with a QB sneak, run left, run right on every single fourth and one. Now fourth and, you know, a long one or two. Even the third one, you could have done a hurry up. The Eagles did a great job doing that on Sunday. Yeah, look, I mean, I joke that, like, you could just call better plays. It's easy when we're sitting watching. But there are probably, like, is there going to be an advantage at some point in the NFL? If teams are going forward and forth down this much, can some teams just be better in those situations?

Will they just always, can they find a schematic advantage? can they find something that will raise them? Because we always talk about the percentages of if you go for it and what's going to happen if you get it or if you don't. But what if you can increase your odds just a little bit when you go for it? And I think that's what I don't know if there's an edge there. It's kind of like let's be good in the red zone, right? It's like it's more of a prayer.

Running the ball, basically. And I think a lot of teams are doing that this year. The teams that are finding advantages, it was such a heartbreaking way to lose, though, because to back up a minute that the Raiders had a 17-0 lead in this game, they give it up. The chart, they go for a two-point conversion down 24 or down 30 to 29 with 427 to go. A decision I really liked for a lot of reasons.

They didn't get it, so they're down one point, but they actually get the ball back. And just the way this Raider season has gone with some brutal losses. All four of their losses have been close. The Cardinals' loss and this loss were. crazy. It just felt sometimes like you've got to know what you're good at. And man, they've really, I think, developed already into a pretty good run blocking team. Despite having a rag tag group of blockers, they were putting six offensive linemen on the field tonight. And they were running the ball really well. Josh Jacobs ends up with 154 on the ground, 39 through the air. He's awesome. And

they went away from him at the last second. And they don't get that win in Arrowhead. That just felt like it was there. Like this is their white. is beating Patrick Mahomes if you're Derek Carr, and now he's lost eight of nine career games soon. I mean, isn't it, you just need everything to go right to beat the Chiefs? I mean, you look at the start that the Raiders had, being up 17-0, like you said. It felt like Josh McDaniels dusted off the 2018 AFC championship.

It was a different team, but it was against the Chiefs, right? Having a fullback, running power, running play action off of that. Same dude, Jacob Johnson running in place. Yeah, you've got the same fullback. back, like same idea, except you just threw an extra offensive lineman in there. And again, you've got that early aggressiveness. They go forward on fourth and one, hit the bomb to Devante Adams for a

58-yarder, but everything has to go right against the Chiefs. You go from hey, we're running the ball, we're hitting some big plays, we're rushing the, you know, Mahomes and pressuring him, and still didn't matter. They still find a way, the Chiefs, to, you know, just

adjust enough and just be special enough between Mahomes and Kelsey and some of their other guys. And they, well, and they shorten the game too like the I never buy into the short in the game thing unless you're really it works well unless you're really inferior and it's sort of like a way that like if you don't have a lot of talent I like the idea of having Don Martindale as your defensive coordinator because you're almost like a college team trying to scheme above your talent level shortening the game is sort of a different way to do that but even though they shorten this game there's only

about eight or nine possessions for for each team their defense stopped getting stops after the first three possessions. The chiefs, until that final punt, went touchdown, field goal, touchdown, touchdown, touchdown. So yes, you had shortened the game, but the chiefs still ended up with way more plays, and they still ended up with 30 points despite having only eight or nine possessions. And that's why the next thing I want to ask is just like kind of where you see

Mahomes in this offense right now, because there was a period of this game where he felt like he could do anything. He's really doing a good job. moving outside the pocket when he needs to, staying inside it. He picked up rushing yards when he moved. It seems like the game is moving very slow for him. And at a certain point in this game,

it felt like he could do just about anything and that they weren't going to get any more stops. And that felt like last week. It felt like week one. It felt like the Chiefs of 2018 to 2020. Yeah, I mean, the big question coming into the season was how much are they going to miss Tyree Kill? Because we've seen, I mean,

Tyree Kill is still a special player. But one of the questions on top of that was, was it going to change the way Mahomes played? Was he going to rely less on the two guys? And we see that, right? It's Valdes. One drive, it's Valdes Scantling. You see Jujoo. You see Mikul Hardman.

And Kelsey's obviously the guy. At all points, like Aikman was saying, whether it's zone, whether it's man, it doesn't really matter. Like, that guy can get open. There was a point where the Raiders, not in the Red Zone, mind you, but there was a point in the Raiders, on third and 15, put two guys on Travis Kelsey. And third and 15, they got Cleland Ferrell trying to press him at the line with another defender there. Of course, it's illegal hands to the face. So, yeah, I mean. That's a great play to point out.

Not only did they have to penalize Kelsey to take him out of the play, but they hit that third and 15 with like. And they hit it. Was that the ridiculous kind of the side arm up the middle? I'm losing track of the ridiculous Mahomes plays in this game. But that was a thing. Even when they would get sacks and penalties against them, they were getting out of the long yardage situations, which is very chief. yeah i mean if you're if you're a raiders fan or anytime you're going up against mahomes it's like you're you're looking for any kind of win oh you got you finally got a sack i mean there there's

nobody in the NFL better at avoiding sacks than patrick mahomes now he invites pressure himself but he knows how to maneuver the pocket he knows how to get out of the pocket i think the way you described it was great anytime an edge defender will stunt he'll get outside the pocket right he's just got a such good feel spatial awareness which and and i like the fact that he's spread on the ball around and he's not just it's not a three-man game anymore. There's Kelsey, who's your go-to, but you get these other guys in Holmes doing a great job throwing the ball accurately, and he was unstoppable in the middle of that game. I mean, Kelsey had the fourth fewest yardage in this game. He had a truly amazing

stat line, seven catches, 25 yards, four touchdowns. Two of those were one-yard touchdowns. This was the Bubba Frank special. I don't know if you remember old Bubba Frank. Like there was a time in fantasy football where Bubba Franks would get drafted maybe ninth, even though you knew he wasn't going over 200 yards on the season because 200 yards and like eight touchdowns was good enough for to be the ninth best tight end in like 2006. I don't want to hijack it with fantasy talk, but I did have Josh Jacobs, Travis Kelsey, and Devante Adams tonight. I wasn't even watching the score.

I was like, oh, I'm down like 50 going into the game. I ended up winning by 60 or whatever it was. So, hey, big game for all those guys. That's a good job by you. I think you should mention it. I mentioned on the podcast. We'll get to that a little later that I expected something special. Travis Kelsey was so on a limb.

I do want to mention for listeners because I think Dan's mentioned it on the show and we're going to get down to breaking down this game a little more. This game, sometimes on these Monday nights, there's only so much to talk about. I could talk about this game for a long time. But I do want to point out right now we have the biggest gap in height

in terms of an NFL podcast in history. You were listed on your baseball reference page. And so I'm going by the facts. I don't know if this is right. At 6.10, you are a minor league relief pitcher made it up to triple a i'm five six if you round up i know your co-hosts on pf says like everyone thinks he's like this little midget um because he's always next to you and when he says

that it hurts my feelings because i am that little midget you know i i really am that short so the two of us together would be unstoppable yeah we got to do these uh we got to get in person here at the combine and really you know really make the record official for sure yeah i am listed at 610 Isn't it annoying to you that just like it doesn't help you at all in this format, that it's a great equalizer? Like your height is doing nothing for you right now. Just sitting here on my chair. You know, I know, like this isn't even your job.

You're up at midnight right now helping me out. What did you think of the Andy Reed punt, fourth and three, three minutes to go, I believe. I'm going to get the exact time right here. It was fourth and three. They had just set up a second and three. It felt like the game was about to end, Steve. The Raiders take their second time out. At that point, it's 240.

The Raiders hadn't had a stop in forever. Andy Reid, being the genius that he is, like, breaks out his Skymoor package with the game on the line. Like, out of nowhere, he just has different Skymore swing passes that are working like a charm to get eight yards at a time. Edward DeLare's run the ball well. They basically need three yards, and the game is almost over. But Devon Diablo makes a great tackle on second down. And then they go for a deep shot to McCull Hardman, which hasn't worked all season. Hardman never seems to run the right routes.

I like to blame him, not Mahomes. And they at that point have two minutes and 36 seconds left at the Vegas 46. So we've seen a lot of aggressive fourth down calls lately. Andy Reid chooses to punt there. What did you think? I didn't hate the punt on fourth and three. I saw some, I don't know what the PFF model would have had. I don't have it up during the game.

I'm not that into it. But I saw some models that had like a strong, strong go for the chiefs. I don't know if it's that strong. But look, the models basically factor in how easy it is to move the ball 30 or 40 yards in today's NFL. Now, maybe this year, offense is down a little bit. Maybe it's a little bit more difficult. But it factors in being able to move the ball. So that's why.

Well, it's funny. They actually got back to that exact yard line. That's where they stopped, was the 46. They got back there with 51 seconds to go, which is not really a tradeoff you would want if you're a Chiefs fan. No, you wouldn't. I mean, that's the thing, right? Like nobody, I know Brandon Staley went for it yesterday, and it was fourth and one and a half to whatever it was. I'm intrigued by that, though, right? You are one play away from winning. This was the New England Patriots, 2009, Bill Belichick against Peyton Manning. And the explanation was we were afraid of Peyton Manning, right? We haven't stopped them all day, but I really think there's something attractive about being one play away from victory, right? Like, I think people underrate being one play away from the win versus 10 to 15 plays to, you know, to seal the win. Yeah, and it wasn't surprising either because as aggressive as Andy Reid is and coming up with all these plays in the red zone and they did a great job. Like, sometimes I just want them to run the ball up the middle on a one-yard run because that's a percentage play too. And you should, you need to be good at that some point in that. the NFL season and yet tonight they absolutely refused to and they made the right call every time they like got a wide open receiver so it's it's hard to really blame Andy Reid but fundamentally he's

kind of conservative he's still an old school coach even though he's aggressive in terms of his play calls it didn't surprise me that he punted there and it didn't surprise me that the raiders got back in position devante Adams ends up with a weird stat line two three for one 24 two touchdowns and he drew two long past interferences Steve Spagnolo like came out aggressive it was not working but when it came down to it Steve on that final fourth down play I kind of this thing I love about spags is like how many rushers did he send there it was at least six it might have been seven so I don't know like if a run up the middle would have worked there either there was a lot of bodies coming like if you had like like it sounds great yeah run it up the middle like a toss to the left

would have maybe won the madden play and you end up running 30 yards down the sideline but like this isn't matted you don't get to find out what the call is ahead of time but that was very Andy Reid all night and very Steve Spagnola. Yeah, I don't know if it was, I don't know if he was trying to blitz, you know, for the pass. I really think it looks like guys were creeping to take away the QB sneak, to take away the, you know, Josh Jacobs right up the middle. But yeah, they were, they were aggressive and the Raiders were aggressive back. It was, you know, it makes for, it was kind of a anti-clemactic ending. It's just like, oh, I have to Renfro runs into Devante.

I know, it's embarrassing. It was such an anticlimactic ending. to one of the best games of the year, I think. This was a really exciting game. It had a little bit of everything, including controversy. Let's get to the Chris Jones call. I know everyone is fired up about that. I get it.

Chris Jones called for a roughing the passer on a play that he forced a fumble. Did something I've never really seen in that, you know, he knocked the ball out and then possessed the ball almost simultaneously. He didn't take the ball. It just sort of bounced, you know, he just immediately was in his possession. And before he even landed on Mahomes, he had the ball. And they called roughing the passer. And I think it was full body weight on the quarterback was the explanation.

Of course, he was sacking Derek Carr and up Mahomes. That ends up giving the ball or allowing the Raiders to keep the ball. They end up getting a field goal out of the situation. And people lost their minds. Like bad calls are going to happen. there's been a few of these. This wasn't as bad as the Tom Brady call on Sunday, but it was close. Like, what do

you think realistically we can do here, I guess would be my question? You have somebody in their ear. I mean, there is someone in their ear. And there's enough time for them to review that. Like, there's enough time yesterday to say Tom Brady was

not maliciously thrown to the ground. He was tackled. I mean, he was tackled the same way Tua was tackled, the Same way Mahomes was tackled tonight. Same way. The Jones thing. I mean, it was in a different way, but that was, it was a clean play by Jones. It didn't even feel like the body weight thing because he put his arm down.

Right. What else can you do? And I don't even know how defenders, like how do you, you know, change the laws of gravity, like when you're tackling someone to roll off of them. They're being taught to try to like roll off the quarterback. They're actually doing a pretty good job. You know, the one thing is they actually have learned to pretty much avoid those types of plays. But it was like the angle that the refs saw it. I think if he saw it from a different

angle, he wouldn't have called it. And it was just a bad call. That was the old Tony Syragusa play against Rich Gannon, right? Like, Syragusa just went like full body splash on Rich Gannon in the AFC championship and knocked him out and the Ravens go to the Super Bowl. But in this one, it's like Jones is like you're saying, in the middle of stripping the ball. He puts his other hand down. And yeah, some weight went on Derek Carr. Like that, that was inevitable because he stripped it. That was one of the best defensive plays of the year, and it would have, I mean, look, the Chiefs ended up winning anyway. It was in the middle of turning things around for the Chiefs, but it was an incredible play, and, yeah, pretty bad call. Yeah, if Chris Jones had been on the wrong side of two of the most insane calls of the year that cost the Chiefs their two losses, that would have been interesting.

I don't know if it was a ball don't lie situation, but the Raiders, you know, ended up kicking the field goal there. They got a little conservative a couple times. They kicked a field goal on a fourth and one. And they also set up a field goal with like a draw and third and eight at one point. After being aggressive, they were almost playing for three, which I didn't love. And the Chiefs got a quick three back despite only having 30 or 40 seconds, which ended up being a big sequence. And I'm on Twitter.

I'm doing this Channel 5 coverage in the UK for Monday Football. And I see how just people are mad because it's like it's no longer football anymore. That's what Tony Dungy said. And Troy Aikman's making like take off the dresses and stuff. And I get that. And the emphasis is there to protect the quarterbacks. I just think if there's someone in someone's ear to change these calls on the field in terms of in or out of bounds that quickly,

and they're doing it a lot. They're doing it a lot more than they even announce. Like, why can't you just do those calls? I just feel like that's the next step. Because they're going to keep making mistakes. The people get so mad at the refs. After watching a couple games on the sidelines, I'm amazed any call is ever quick. It's so fast.

It's impossible. how, like, high school games look fast to me. NFL games are so fast. It is so difficult to make those calls. And it's like Patrick Mahomes makes three or four major errors in every game, and he's the best at what he did. Like, the refs are going to mess up calls, especially these calls, what they're being asked to do.

So it's like, how can we fix that? I don't know. I mean, if the ref throws a flag, I think I saw something and somebody's just in his ear and, like, I would do it for everything. Like, is that a pick play? The number of times that they, I mean, Chris Jones got held. on a call later, pretty blatant hold. There's a pick play.

Like, pick plays are just a guessing game. Did you run a route? Did you fake it enough? Did you act enough? Oh, this is a pick. This isn't a pick. And then the roughing the passer. I mean, if they just throw the flag, I think I saw it, wait 10 seconds.

Uh, no, can't really do much about that. All right, pull up the pick the flag. People aren't going to be that upset. They're going to say it's a Pandora's box and look at what happened with the past interference a couple years ago and you don't want to delay the game. And I guess I would say, though, they have the spotters there now at the game. They have the extra official up in the booth. They're pretty quick on some of these.

And I don't know how you break it down, but I think they can figure it out. But in the meantime, like, everyone just take a deep breath because this is going to keep happening. Good entertaining game. But look, the big picture thing is we're also a week removed from the Tua concussion thing. and if you're going to, if you're going to air on the side of caution because of, you know, head injuries, that's, I don't know, is that the worst thing in the world? It's kind of, it might make for some bad calls. I didn't have a problem with them not letting Teddy Bridgewater back into the game, even though no one actually had a video of what happened. Someone saw what happened and we've seen the players can convince themselves back into the game.

This was a very different situation, and I think roughing the passer is a very difficult one to call. even that Tom Brady call, which was terrible, you can see in live speed how someone would make a mistake. And that's all, that's my only point is like mistakes will happen. There was also a crazy penalty on the chiefs, chiefs had a missed field goal attempt. We never got a good replay of that. I don't, they usually don't get those calls wrong, but it was a, it was a holding on special teams. That led directly to seven points. Like, there was a lot going on here. 14 or whatever. That, that drives me nuts in general, like the five-yard penalties. that's the automatic first down.

I know it's the rule, defensive hold. I get why they have it. But defensive hold on a field goal, like that was a game changer too. That was a total game changer because the Chief's kicker, what was his name, Right? Matthew Wright, had a wild up and down game, missed a couple field goals,

including that one that got pulled off the board, but also made a 59-yarder, which is pretty amazing at the buzzer. This game had a little bit of everything, and I really feel for you, Raiders Nation. You are the best one in four team, the league. I mean, I'm giving you that. They're like comparable to the giants who are four and one. You're not what your record was. I don't care what Bill Parcell says. You are not

what your record says. No, I think the Raiders have shown progress. I don't have like a lot of love for their defense, but they do have, you know, one of the three or four best edge rushers in the league. Max Crosby, who had another monster game. Chandler Jones is getting better. He's at least made an impact the last couple of weeks. I think there's close. There's so little difference between them and most of the three and two teams out there. And they have a easier part of the schedule coming up. But this was a heartbreaker because they could have gone into their buy at two and three, which it would have felt more fair. But life's not fair, Steve. Yeah, especially with the win over the Chiefs. I don't know how much it takes for Derek Carr adjusting to the new

system. Josh McDaniels runs completely different stuff from John Gruden, completely different terminology. We might be underrating the adjustment period, maybe for Carr and Daniels. And I think it's you can see it like i mentioned with the offensive line this is a bad looking offensive line on paper but they've they've gotten that patriots running game going the last couple of weeks and josh jacobs is an incredible player right now making people miss it's it's coming along it's coming i think derrick car look more comfortable this week too i just overall it's coming along but they're one and four um yeah football's not fair genetics aren't fair you know you got 610 you know how good it well i don't know 610 might be too tall for tennis tennis

was my thing. Actually, 610 is way too tough to tennis. I don't move all that well. You want to be 6-1. A ridiculous percentage of the greatest male tennis players of all time are between 6-0 and 6-2. It's like you don't want to be taller than that. You don't want to be short. Yeah. That was like, I wanted to be a major league

shortstop. And then before you know, and I was way too tall for that. So I was like, I guess I'll pitch. Well, I was, you know, a member of the Shield softball team championship of 2017. So we got some bona fides too. It was huge. Thank you for coming, Steve.

You do a great job. I love the PFF podcast. They make our recap show look like, I don't know, like an episode of the office or something. Like your show goes, what, two and a half hours sometimes? We go about, yeah, two and a half hours on a Monday morning. And I feel like we leave a little bit. There's always one fan base. It's like, you didn't talk about my team.

No, you don't leave that much on the bone. You and Sam, you eat that bone. But you do a great job. A lot of tangents. And you guys are great in terms of draft coverage, too. I really love you guys during draft season. Not that you aren't great all season long, but people should check out the PFF podcast. Steve doing great work over there.

And you're like, I don't even know what you do. You're like an executive too. And then you're just like, you're like Andrew Hawkins who just, you know, like sprinkles in being the on-air talent. But your actual job is being an executive. So you're a smart one. Thank you, Steve. appreciate it. Yep, thanks, Craig. Go to bed. Thanks for staying up with me. I'm going to finish this show off. See you later, Steve, with a top six tight end list. And I'm going to welcome in

Grave Digger. First, I want, Justin, for you to play the clip of, like, one of the boldest takes I've ever had on this podcast. This came on the Friday Fun Show. Everyone should be listening to this. All right. My prediction is just that Travis Kelsey wrecks shop against the Raiders. It's like all these other tight end come along lately is oh Darren Waller's going to be the future. Oh, Kyle Pitts is going to be the future. Oh, like here's this guy, this guy. Who's still the best tight end in the freaking NFL? It's Travis Kelsey. He's on pace to have one of his very best seasons ever. Travis Kelsey still he still got the championship. Wait, what is that but what's your prediction? Because I'm seeing this was hero the week. He's the hero. He's the hero.

All right. My prediction is just that Travis Kelsey recs shop against the Raiders. It's like all these other tight end come along lately. Oh, dear and why. Please, I can't listen to myself anywhere. That was so long. You didn't help me out graver because you just put along the bottom. Travis Kelsey will be good. Well, you know what?

I don't care. Maybe that sounded safe, but whatever. Travis Kelsey did something memorable tonight. You scored four touchdowns. I think you get full credit for that. That was an excellent prediction. I know, part of it was I was thinking maybe I'm going to set up this Monday night pod. I'm going to finish every Monday night pod.

Now that we're back here in the States, Got my jet lag is gone with a top six list to wrap up every Monday night football recap. And I thought tonight with Travis Kelsey and Darren Waller playing, we're going to do my top six tight ends in the NFL right now. This is like a power ranking. This is like the tight end index. Maybe that'll be my new IP. So it's just about where they are right now.

It's not historically. It's who's the best tight ends in the league right now. So Darren Waller, you're not making it. You've had a sloppy year. He left today with a hamstring injury after about. seven snaps doesn't have a lot of production normally he would be on this list there's other some other injured players that aren't going to make it number six and i'm throwing tasem hill because he qualifies there in uh fantasy leagues so i i don't know really what he is but just

tasem hill has made a massive difference on the saints and it's a thin uh season right now among tight ends i thought about gerald ever for this last spot who's actually playing really well uh number five i am giving uh george kidd a little bit of like historical love he i know he's at a slow start of the year coming off an injury, did lead the 49ers in targets and catches. So he gets kind of grandfathered in at number five just because he's George Kittle. Number four, David and Joku.

What a weird contract that was graver in the off season. People are like, you're paying David and Joku that money. And now look at David and Joku, making plays each and every week. And he has the reputation as a great blocker and went to PFF to check his blocking score. It's fantastic. Right now you can make the case in Joku is the,

most complete tight end in the NFL. How about that? Wow. And he's probably Cleveland's second best receiver right now. He's making big place each week. Number three is Dallas Goddard. Always been underrated. Dallas Goddard is averaging over 10 yards after the catch for catch. That's ridiculous. I was like, is that a thing? I know it's a lot of tight end screens. But like Travis Kelsey, he is very good in terms of weaving in between defenders, knocking people over, always getting some extra yards really good hands really good in the red zone he's gotten better every season of his career i've always liked dallas goddard now he's on pace to go over a thousand yards he's incredible he's still a tick behind mark andrews who's the man who i who i think is kind of the jenga piece

other than lamar jackson on the raven's offense if they ever lost mark andrews they would be in huge trouble he's producing again uh he'll have a drop or two but he'll also have incredible catches. And so you'll take the drops. He's number two. And then number one, still Kelsey. I mean, I knew it coming into tonight. I feel the same way right now. He's not only his hands good and he's going to be a first ballot Hall of Famer, I believe. And his yards after the catch on that like eight yard touchdown, he's so good at just having people bounce off him. But he understands leverage and zone defenses. And him and Mahomes just improvised. in a way that even Gronk and Tom Brady never could.

Because they weren't about that improvisational life. They were about reading the coverage the same. Like that Kelsey touchdown where he ran across and ended up beating those targets. It's like that was not the play call. He runs across, knocks a dude over. They lock eyes and they always just like figure out. Like when they play football, it's like it's like jazz music, Justin Graver. That's why he's number one.

And he's not just good at weaving with like his eyes and his vision, but he's hard to bring down. He was stiff. he stiff-armed two raiders to the turf on that touchdown. And people are like, it's like, oh, well, he's not that much of a blocker. A, he's fine. He gets the job done. The variety with which they use him and sometimes put him in line is enough. He gets in the way, and the way they use all their tight ends are great.

And there was a moment last year I thought he was maybe starting to get a little older. And that moment has passed. He looks incredible this year. and their offense is going to be just fine without Tyreek Hill. 30 to 29, man, this was a long one, but it was a great game. I feel for the Raiders, though. I was pulling for them at the end. Like, I usually just pull for Mahomes, and by the end of that, you're just like,

give the Raiders a little bone. Tough loss there. All right, Justin. We'll be back on Tuesday with Dan and Mark. We're going to talk a little frisky. We're going to talk a little spicy. Until then, go ahead. need the car

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