NFL Stock Exchange: An NFL Draft Podcast - 104. What Matters Most From Every Game of Week 8 in the NFL

Episode Date: October 31, 2022

Hosts Trevor Sikkema and Connor Rogers go through every game on the Sunday slate of games form Week 8 in the NFL and tell you what really matters most beyond the final scores. VOICEMAILS: Send us a voicemail to get your question answered on the show! https://www.speakpipe.com/NFLSE

This episode is brought to you by our good friends at NFL Sunday Ticket on YouTube TV. I'm sure by now you've all got back into your Sunday routines, but they could be even better. With NFL Sunday Ticket and YouTube TV, you get the most live NFL games all in one place, every game, every Sunday. And you can even watch up to four different games at once with MultiView, one of my favorite inventions of this decade. It's exactly what you need to catch all the action. Make your Sundays more magical. And also, YouTube TV is great. I got it this year.

It's awesome. Sign up now at youtube.com slash BS, device and content restrictions apply. Local and national games on YouTube TV. NFL Sunday ticket for out-of-market games excludes digital-only games. Welcome to the NFL Stock Exchange Podcast. In this episode, we're taking a look at the Sunday scheduled games from week eight in the NFL. We're going to be telling you what matters most from every single game. Sometimes that's an individual performance or a total team performance, but it could also be a lot more long-term. We could talk about how it impacts the 2023 NFL

draft, the offseason, the playoffs. We'll be able to tell you. I'm Trevor Sycamore. With me, as always, is Connor Rogers. It's Monday morning, baby. Let's ring the bell. Welcome to the opening bell of the NFL Stock Exchange Podcast. I'm Trevor Sikama. That, under all of that beautiful costume and beard, is Connor Rogers. Joining you guys on Halloween. Happy Halloween to everybody that's out there. Whether you celebrated this past weekend on Friday and Saturday, as it seems to be for people in their twenties and thirties, or whether your Halloween festivities are more about tonight, passing out candy, getting some candy, maybe

stealing some candy from your kids when they're not looking, whatever it is. Happy Halloween to, to everybody out there. Connor, are you under there? My friend, is it actually you? It could have you, this could be somebody else doing the podcast right now because that costume is so good i could have actually pretended to be macho man this whole show but i think people would be like okay that's enough i don't want to hear what matters most and oh yeah oh yeah yeah it would have got old really quick but yeah dude it's me under here i i texted you i was like listen man i'm dressing up sunday night uh happy halloween to everybody obviously a really fun show here yeah no this is great i'm uh this is also the outfit that i'm going to be wearing on the it's just football monday show this is my aaron rogers

cowboy and i don't have my jeans on right now but during the show that we're gonna do on youtube i'm gonna have like the matching jeans and it's just going to be pure denim on denim action couldn't get a bolo tie in time but figured if we buttoned it up all the way to the top we would it works we would basically get the same sort of effect so hello to everybody who's listening to the podcast appreciate you guys tuning in it's a monday edition of the podcast and though we're obviously having a little bit more fun for the holidays it's time to talk about what mattered most from this sunday slate of games in the nfl week eight action and there's a lot of things to get to connor i will let you start i say we just go we go down this bad boy in order we started the day with broncos jaguars maybe not uh the most

thrilling matchup in terms of the stakes these are two teams that their season is kind of on the line as my beard gets in my mouth here this gonna be a tough one today i don't you might you might uh you might the beard might be coming off the beard we'll see how long the beard and glasses last but i had to i had to at least get through one game i told myself through this but i, I mean, with this one here, obviously Russ came back from the injury maybe earlier than people expected. We know the whole high knees thing on the plane. Just such a grinder.

He's such a grinder, man. Do anything it takes to win. Anything that it takes to play. Even keeping your teammates awake on the plane, whatever it takes to win. I think with this one, this isn't really groundbreaking it's it kind of goes two ways right what matters is something we've said is that the Denver defense truly can win them games they're that good and on the flip side as we saw this happen to Zach

Wilson maybe not on this level he just didn't really do anything against the Broncos Trevor Lawrence really really struggled and has kind of been on the skid right now where this isn't raising the alarm to me but Trevor Lawrence is what matters most in this game right Trevor I think that that's kind of the takeaway is that he came out of the gate looking much better to start this season and now he's kind of had a really really tough stretch um you know and I think the coaching staff there is fine I don't really have a ton of gripes with them but just when you look at him that it's the decision making right and we could talk about that with a lot of the young quarterbacks but it's the the red zone interceptions that are starting pile up to pile up to me where i look at it and go man trevor lawrence's development matters most

right now and i think it hasn't really gone away a lot of jacksonville fans hoped for to start this season yeah unfortunately what matters most is is you you're right. It's the Trevor Lawrence factor here because we're two years into a lot of these 2021 quarterbacks. And you remember it was five guys. You got drafted in the top 15, right? Unprecedented. It never happened before. Class doesn't look anything close to as strong as what we thought it was going to be right we'll get to zach wilson in a little bit but trevor lawrence's struggle justin fields was awful at the beginning of the year we barely even saw trey lance uh wilson obviously did not have a good day mac jones's struggle and there was thoughts of him getting benched for bailey zappy right and

it's just it's crazy how much we touted this quarterback class. And you know what's, I don't know if this is like, I was going to say, you know, it's wild about it, but it's not really wild. Each one of these quarterbacks had something that we wanted to see get fixed in the NFL, right? Progress when you got to the next level. If you're really going to become this great prospect, there were things that you had to work on.

We'll get to Wilson. I know we'll devote some time to that as we get to the Jets game. But for Lawrence specifically, ball placement was an issue when he was at Clemson. And it is still an issue. Now, there were some, sure, some boneheaded decisions that he made at Clemson, but I think that's kind of the progression

and the journey of every quarterback. You figure that a lot of that's going to get better, at least for the best ones, it always does. But you're right, man. These red zone turnovers. The one that we talked about when they played Houston against Derek Stingley, this one today,

that ball was picked off incredibly by Justin Simmons. I don't want to make sure that we note that, but sure. I'm pretty sure that ball gets picked off by whoever was in the back of the end zone to the trajectory and the path of that ball. If Simmons wouldn't have touched it was going to be so far behind the way the receiver was rolling to the right that I honestly think that it would have been picked off by the guy who was on the back end as well so it was a throw that could have been picked off twice was certainly picked off once and probably

the higher difficulty way but I know a lot of Jaguars fans are getting apathetic and negative. I wonder where their heads are at, right? I was not good, man. Yeah, I was feeling it out during the game. I always try to get a gauge. Obviously, I cover it every Sunday, a young quarterback from that class too that gets really a lot of tough reactions, good or bad, right? If he has a good player, everyone goes nuts.

If he has a bad player, everyone's like Zach Wilson can't play in the league. So I watch it closely with trevor lawrence who was my qb1 that year and obviously pretty universal it felt like he was a lot of qb1s yeah and it's interesting to me because it just feels like the uh head scratching turnovers aren't going away they're not going away and And I think this fan base, unlike the Patriots, no matter how Mac's playing, the Jets, no matter how Zach's playing, those teams have won already. They've won this year.

They're at least 500 or above. Jacksonville is like, we want to win, man. We got this guy, and we think he could be really good, and we want to win. And some of his back-breaking turnovers are impacting not just a drive, a quarter, a half, but the outcome of games. I think it is important to remember that Trevor Lawrence did just turn 23 years old. Oh, yeah, we're not out on Trevor Lawrence. No way.

You've got some quarterbacks who are playing the best of their career when they're 33, 34, right? Almost a decade later when you're in this league for a long time right and yeah and and i think there's a lot of quarterbacks that have been like that you know we saw rogers like that we saw brady like that we've seen plenty of quarterbacks matthew stafford's a guy who just won a super bowl and was playing um somewhere near his best last year whatever you thought of his best right what russell wilson what he's been able to do in his 30s there's so many different guys to name how quarterback.

We want these guys to succeed right away. But then also on the flip side, we sit here and say on podcasts and shows, Oh, good quarterbacks. One of the toughest positions in all of sports, not just football. Okay. Well, then you probably got to have a little bit of, you've got to give these guys time to grow and fail and all of that. I think the important thing to remember is that Trevor Lawrence is going to

be this team starting quarterback next year. yeah i i thought about it today as i was watching these games what if jacksonville gets the number one overall pick in this draft and the more the more i thought about it they're either drafting will anderson or they're trading it there's there's not going to be a reality where they entertain bryce young i don't think that that's going to be the case so we can sit here and be frustrated with Trevor Lawrence but the fact of the matter is he had a dumpster fire of a circus last year that he had to go through and this is his first year with a real NFL coach who's probably teaching him how to learn with failure for the first time in a long time a lot of what he went through at

Clemson was easy stuff the offense was simple it was was super easy that he was able to operate yeah we saw flashes of some NFL back shoulder throws and deep passing concepts and things like that but there are few and far between it was a lot of screens it was a lot of slants it was a lot of short stuff so we knew that there would be a progression but we haven't seen it yet from trevor lawrence especially in the areas that are really important like you mentioned and i think people are freaking out about it but the thing to remember most is yeah trevor lawrence has struggled and we need to note all this we can't just we can't just sit here and be like he's the golden boy he's gonna figure it out it's worth pointing out at this point but it is also worth making sure that

you are realistic knowing that trevor lawrence isn't going anywhere in jacksonville he is going to get at least another year probably a year after that so there's plenty of time for him to figure it out on the flip side i know that you can fill out the bingo card because we're mentioning multiple things that matter from a game but i will say this one of the teams that had the biggest pool of players to sell off at the deadline was the denver broncos bradley chubb jerry judy kj hamler okwe bunam dalton reisner uh melvin gordon potentially so many different players that they could have had if they were in a fire sale i don't know if they trade any of them

now because of this win that they got this week maybe they convinced themselves at three and five that um they could still turn around they could still be where they need to be so i just don't think we're going to see a fire sale from denver the way we would have if they lost this game my last take on this game is something personally that I find myself trying to do is I have been when I was at Bleacher Report that year, I also helped out with some recruiting stuff because when we were a smaller company, I did everything. And so I've been around Trevor Lawrence since he was in high school, right? Like I've seen him throw and practice and all that stuff since he was in high school.

And he was so special then that and then he was so special in college so fast that I find myself often trying very hard to separate the guy that was just always so much better than most people in high school and then in college. And now that he is going through the real growing pains of the NFL, not to just sit in my brain like he'll be a top three quarterback he'll be a top three quarterback like say it over and over again it just happens like and i'm not saying he won't be but it's something that i've personally struggled with his process because i've only known him for how many years to always be one of the best football players at any level he's at yeah and this is you know this is where a lot of these guys are experiencing adversity for the first time right in high school they're the best football player on the team when they're in college sometimes they're the best football player on the team and i think that was the case with trevor lawrence and now lawrence goes to

one of the uh worst rosters in the nfl his first year certainly i think jags are going in a different direction they're getting better roster wise but it's just a different scenario and you're seeing these guys in different environments for i think the first time in their football career so this is where you see what kind of player and person they are when adversity strikes if you will so i think that that's going to be the interesting thing to watch moving forward panthers falcons thriller watch it you get to did you get to watch much of this game because this is a one o'clock game i know you're covering the jets and everything but like this was nuts to the very end yeah so i was checking in on it we were sitting at the desk by the time this game went to overtime but we have uh like the little monitors under our desk and i have my phone too

right we have obviously a ton of commercial breaks so watching this thriller man uh this game was insane not unpacking a game recap because that's not what we do on this show as cool as this game was what matters most to me i have a falcons take i think arthur smith really is showing he's the guy and i know that might seem insane but i look at the falcons i saw albert breer had this tweet that they are carrying 60 million in dead money this year 60 million dollars if you factor in what they can do when they clear off all that dead money and get some players in there get a quarterback that he trusts to throw the ball a little more i think schematically they have really really figured out a lot of things where what matters

most of the falcons that are competing to win a division right now, a team that's three and one at home. They're four and four on this young NFL season. Not that young, halfway almost, but midlife crisis. Yeah. I think the Falcons are in a place where it's like, wait, we really believe in our staff. If we get them some of the right players and a better roster, we have our guy for the future to run this division at some point. That is to me, the one thing that matters in this game is that the right team won. When I looked at the Carolina Panthers beating the Buccaneers, I...

The cream rice. I saw you do it with the Instagram. I grabbed a curry cup on the spot. I was like, oh, I got to do it, dude. Anybody who hasn't seen connor's instagram he does the pose with the little like the little cup in his costume you guys gotta go see i got home dude i ripped off my suit and tie so fast and got right into this shirt and i was like i feel normal again yeah now you're at home now you're at home sunglasses and a giant beard and a and a bandana

over your head dude that's over my real hair right oh yeah uh anyway so okay when the panthers when the panthers beat the bucks last week i i talked about how the wrong team won that game and not just from a bucks bias perspective because i want that team to win but carolina is in a place where not really fighting for anybody. Like, I don't think that Wilks is going to be the head coach there. I really don't. Now, I get that the players are sick of losing, but they kind of need to lose here.

Like, they need Bryce Young. They need that number one. You're not wrong in any of this. They need that number one overall pick. They really do. Falcons, on the other hand, look, the falcons win the nfc south are they going to lose in the first round of the playoffs you bet your damn ass they are they're probably going to get absolutely killed no matter who they play but this is a team that has a lot of their core

in place this is a team that has a first time first year head coach in place that goes back to the winning culture that you that you and i talk about on this podcast all the time instilling a winning mentality and a appetite a desire a hunger for success for winning becoming winners that is a real thing i 100 that i believe that to be a real thing if carolina would have won this game, which let's face it, they probably should have. DJ Moore doesn't take it. Well, there's so many ways you can look at this. I was going to say, you can say it for everybody.

Right. You could look at the DJ Moore catch, the Hail Mary catch, and say to yourself, okay, that shouldn't have happened. But then if you say DJ Moore, if he doesn't take his helmet off, they probably kick the extra point. They win that game. And then in overtime, if Eddie Pinero just makes whatever helmet off, they probably kick the extra point. They win that game. And then in overtime, if Eddie Pinero just makes whatever it was, a 35-yard field goal, they win that game.

So Falcons absolutely were able to grab this from the clutches of defeat or however the saying goes. But if Carolina would have won this game, I would have told you that this whole contest was basically like a no win for anybody carolina got further away from picking the guy that they wanted the top of the draft and the atlanta falcons who were still going to be a spunky team going for a division title even though it's not the greatest division trying to win as many games as possible they would have not accomplished that goal either so all of that to say the the right team won here.

Falcons are establishing their identity right now. They're a rushing team. They didn't rush the ball as well today as they have in the past, but they still stuck to their identity, I thought. You look at Caleb McGarry. He was next to Chris Lindstrom, who has been one of the best run-blocking guards in the NFL so far this year. Caleb McGarry is the one who had an elite run blocking grade today which is is great to see the

entire offensive line kind of take on that identity they give kyle pitts nine targets today which you love to see and i think they're kind of coming into their own is the talent level low on this team yes it is but i think they're establishing their identity they're establishing that winning culture and they're having fun doing it so connor my main takeaway my thing that mattered most the right team won here in both occasions dude i, I think that's a great take. I think it is and everybody wins. As fun as it was for the Panthers while watching this game, and I know this division is wide open,

I'm totally with you on that. All right, Bears-Cowboys. A bit of a tricky one here. I have Bears takes, but I really prefer to talk about the Cowboys in this spot. You talk about the Cowboys then, because I'll talk about the Bears. Perfect. I mean, what matters most to me, if the Dallas Cowboys want a shot to be in the Super Bowl,

Tony Pollard is their guy. Tony Pollard's the guy. I'm not breaking news to Cowboys fans. Cowboys fans know this. Jerry Jones, immediately after the game game felt the need to say that when Zeke's healthy, Zeke's the guy. I don't really understand that besides the fact you're paying him. I just look at the

Dallas offense. I'm trying to envision myself as a defensive coordinator or any opposition playing them. And I look at Dak back. I look at CeeDee Lamb. I look at some of the nice pieces they have on the offensive line. Tony Pollard touching the football more scares me. Tony Pollard touching the ball is big play threat, is creating his own yards,

is explosive in every aspect of the game. The Dallas offense, Zeke is not going to just ride the bench. You're going to use Zeke. But at some point, as a coaching staff, you need to look at what you've seen now for so long and be like, we are terrifying with Tony Pollard as our lead running back.

And if we finally just accept that we have a shot to legitimately go very far in the NFC playoffs this year. Yeah. I mean, look, Tony Pollard has long been the more explosive, more dangerous player with the ball in his hands. And now we have like concrete proof. Legitimate proof before it was just kind of flashes and everybody wanted to see it from power, but it wasn't realistic. dangerous player with the ball in his hands and now we have like concrete proof legitimate proof before it was just kind of flashes and everybody wanted to see it from power but it wasn't realistic

now we're getting to see it with him getting a full-time uh carry load and i agree with you i think that i thought dac played really well today um i thought that he looked more comfortable than he did last week and that's all you really want right i think the cowboys want to ramp up for the playoffs shoot man it it doesn't look like they're going to catch the Eagles. It doesn't look like the Eagles are going to lose more than two or three games this entire regular season. So, yeah, I don't know. We'll get there.

Yeah, we'll get there. We'll talk about the Eagles in a little bit. But all that to say, I think the Cowboys are also a team that's going to make the playoffs. So I think that it's just a matter of being healthy, playing your best ball by the time the end of the season gets there so wasn't worried about that last week he looked even better this week i think they were certainly on a roll especially with tony pollard as the guy getting the carries um on the other side of things i figured that the cowboys were

going to win this game right the the what matters most to me was not really the Dallas Cowboys winning I always thought they were going to win I feel like this offense has the kind of capabilities to put up a lot of points in the 40s what mattered most to me I get it Bears lost by 20 ain't no moral victories in the NFL but this is a good game for the Bears I mean like this given exactly where they are as a franchise as a roster as a team right now this is a good game for the Bears I mean like this given exactly where they are as a franchise as a roster as a team right now this was a good game for the Bears think of what the Bears were in the outlook for them going into the season and now think about the way that we look at the Chicago Bears I think the most important thing is that Justin Fields getting a little bit better

and more than a little bit better more confident right okay Justin Fields has not become that cerebral passer that we saw a good chunk of while he was at Ohio State that part is still coming but he is getting more confident because of how they're playing and they're allowing him to go on more design runs they're allowing him to have more say more big plays more ability to contribute in the run game they don't want to be winning games right now either like as much as it is fun for chicago to have a couple of these wins where they've like really gutted it out and got some wins and haven't been embarrassing like their record's not going to be embarrassing at the end of the year they don't want to be stacking too many of these bad boys up you know i don't think they're in the

situation the same situation that the falcons are in so the important part to me is that the young players are looking better and i think the young players are genuinely looking better bears rush for over 200 yards for their third straight game i saw this on the broadcast that's the first time since 1968 that they've been able to do that as a franchise now the year part doesn't matter the success does because it's the fourth time that they've been able to rush for over 200 yards as a team so far this season so if you look at this half of their games they have been able to do exactly what they've set out to do. Be a rushing team, rush the football, control the time possession, control the game. That's what they want to do. They know they're not explosive. They

know they don't have that talent. So instead they're sticking to their identity. This O-line man, they're becoming maulers in the run game. If you even go back to their early games they had earlier in the season, when the O-line was definitely struggling you take that into the equation they still have the fourth highest run blocking grade as a unit for our grading system this year so i think all around yes 20 point losses people might be looking at me like trevor you are crazy how are you saying this is a good game no 20 point loss ever a good game fair but if i'm looking at it half glass half full this was still the identity of the bears and guess what they still scored 29 they still scored a lot of points that's a lot of points for this offense the way

that it is so that tells me that things are going according to plan on that side of the ball and i think that when you have a rookie quarterback with as much talent and as much potential as Justin Fields, that is what is most important. So I think that that was the big takeaway for me. Yeah, absolutely. It feels like they've tailored the offense around Fields a little more. It was nice to see Khalil Herbert lead the backfield in carries. I mean, obviously, we want to see.

Well, it wasn't for me because I had a four- leg parlay where that was the only one that didn't hit. And I would have won like two hundred. Sorry, buddy. But it's OK. I was running awesome. So you know what? I tip my cowboy hat to you. You are running beautifully done, beautifully done. Get it because it was the Cowboys game. All right. So it's true. Dolphins-Lions. This was kind of a wild game because the Lions in the first half were very true to form where they really weren't playing a lot of defense, but they were scoring a ton of points. And then the second half, they just couldn't get anything going on offense. Man, I'm just torn on this, right?

There's part of me, what matters most, I don't want to ever keep doing the same what matters most i don't want to keep doing like i don't want to ever keep doing the same what matters most i always try to avoid that but to me what matters most is that the lions need to and i don't know if i know the i don't know the answer necessarily the lions need to distinguish the lack of talent versus coaching. And what, like, are they separate issues? Is one an issue? You know what I mean, Trevor? I look at them and I go,

how are you this inept defensively? Like, I've seen rosters with really no talent on defense. And they've invested a little bit on this defense. It's not like they've done nothing. There's a couple picks. They're also shorthanded i'll admit that is and i love aaron glenn man aaron glenn is like a jets legend i think aaron glenn is a guy that people love when he speaks i want to see aaron glenn figured this thing out i think what matters the most of the lions though right now they're one and six they're not going anywhere this year i don't think they're going to pull the plug on this staff i I really do think they believe in Dan Campbell.

But when you say that, the equation often is from ownership, hey, man, you've got to change something on your staff. We can't just run the same thing back. And I'm not saying fire Aaron Glenn. I'm just saying you need to figure out what that is. Tyree Kill, 12 catches, 188 receiving yards. Jalen Waddle, 8 catches, 188 receiving yards jail and waddle eight catches 106 receiving yards the thing is that like you can't let both of them go off the way that they did in this game and not both you so you brought up a fantastic point when you started your what matters most about this who's to blame what's the root and i think that is the important

question because look at one and six they're one and six now right now one is yeah one they're one and six brother i mean at one and six your season is done they're not going to be making the playoffs yes they can win a handful of games down the stretch maybe put themselves in a better position if this staff is coming back to where you believe in it a little bit more. But this is an utterly disappointing start to this season, and it's a gut punch. If you are management, if you are the front office, if you are the owner, whatever it is, you want to figure out what the root of the problem is here. Because I mentioned those two wide receiver stats right there. After the game, Dan Campbell was asked on,

hey, how did you let the Dolphins, how did you let Fertua pass for almost 500 yards? How did those two receivers get over 100 yards? It's not like they came out of nowhere, right? It's not like they were late round gems. This is Tyreek Hill and Jalen Waddle. You knew where they were. They were on the billboard.

They were the guys that you had to worry about. Dan Campbell said after the game, quote, we didn't hit them. We didn't hit them at the line of scrimmage. That was a part of our game plan. We didn't disrupt them. We did not disrupt. And when you let them do that and get into your defense, we didn't want to turn this into a track meet,

and it absolutely turned into a track meet, okay? That was after the game today where he talked about we didn't get hands. weren't up in press we were not physical with these two guys where if you don't do that and you give them free releases they're gonna kill you this is thursday this quote was thursday from aaron glenn oh man we have to get hands on them don't let them utilize what they have you always want to put yourself in an advantageous situation and our guys are bigger lengthier guys so that's something that we're going to get a chance to do on them be able to get hands on them just disrupt them one thing that you can't do is just allow receivers to get into the teeth of your defense and when you do that usually bad things happen so you have two coaches

one two days before the game one after the game who clearly they had the same exact thought process they had the same exact game plan and they were on the same page so there is no oh this game plan was bad going up against the miami dolphins who's not getting this across are the players just simply not executing what is being told of them because if that's the case that's more of a roster issue that's a player thing that's a that's the root right there or is it the fact that these coaches somehow can't get these guys to do it we this is this is a rare instance where we all love to throw around play calling uh game plan scheme like we all love to throw around these words, but often we don't have enough context because we're not in the building

to know exactly what was said, how it was laid out, what the plan was going into the week, who's blowing it, the players, the coaches, what's up here? We normally don't know. This week was a perfect example of, we know exactly what happened.

The players just didn't execute, but now it's why? How did we get to that point of why? So that is my takeaway from the Lions. Actually, my main takeaway was from the Dolphins. But if you had something else to say about the Lions, I was going to let you go off again. No, no, that's it.

That's my question with this team right now. I find myself trying to root for the Lions. There's a lot to like about the Lions. And I know Dan Campbell and Brad Holmes are there on five-year deals. I mean, like, this is it, right? You're not just going to keep tearing it up. But when things look this bad, you just have to ask some hard questions. And I get it.

The Dolphins have done this to a lot of teams. But this has happened to you every week, man. Like, it's happened to you every week. Like, aren't you sick of it? So, I didn't really have a big Dolphins takeaway here. The Dolphins takeaway here. This, my, the Dolphins, this is who they are. If you want to get into a track meet with them, you're going to, you're going to lose. You're going to fall behind. If you want to get into the, what is it? The freeze in baseball. You ever see that guy? He starts way behind everybody and

then catches up. It's a gimmick thing. If you want to run against the freeze, you're going to lose, but the Dolphins defense, you know, they, they have to they have some uh self-reflecting to do and I think it's maybe good that they're trying they're doing that now and not learning the hard way at the end of the year but at some point that has to improve as well here's what I will say about the Dolphins actually my one thing that mattered most was was about the Dolphins um regardless of what you think of to his overall, of how he matches up against the other quarterbacks in his draft class, what you think his next contract should be and whether he's worth the next contract in Miami,

regardless of all of those long-term things, if you are looking at things just this year, Tua is plenty capable of getting the ball in the hands of these offensive weapons the dolphins are right there is potentially that fifth best team in the nfl i think there's a code there's a there's a handful of teams that that we could talk about in that conversation later in the show i'm going to tell you who i think the fifth best team in the nfl is but the dolphins are right there they're going to make the playoffs and like you just said connor if you get in a track meet with them if you let things get out of hand tua will beat you was a couple were there a couple of underthrown balls

attire we killed today yes there were that's just who tua is but also a lot of quarterbacks do that every single week but we put two under a microscope with it so i'm not talking long term i'm not talking versus justin herbert and joe burrow i'm not taking con talking contract i'm not talking versus Justin Herbert and Joe Burrow. I'm not taking con talking contract. I'm not talking ceiling. I'm talking this year right now. What matters most to me is Tua can operate this offense. He can get the ball where it needs to go. And if you get into, like you said, if you get a new track meet with him, the dolphins can beat you.

And I think that that's also a recipe that can win you a playoff game. So I'm interested to see who they match up with when it comes to January. All right. What's next? I'm glad you got the Tua point in there. That's an oversight by me for not bringing him up because I really liked Tua as a prospect. I knew that the health thing became a bigger issue,

and he's in an offense that is just under McDaniel with those wide receivers is perfect. People just got to say it. Tua's a good player. None of Tua's issues, for the most part, have to do with accuracy in his brain. Those things will carry you a long way. He just needs to stay healthy, and that's a big wild card.

But let's go Cardinals-Vikings. My big takeaway here is definitely on the Vikings side, who are now 6-1. Are they the quietest six-win team in the NFL? I really think so. I mean, yeah, 100%. They're also about to run away with the division. Sprinting away.

They are 4-0 to home. That's what my main point was, that they're just running away with it. Okay, so I'll toss to you in just a sec, because I have a Vikings point that'll be a nice follow-up. I love how balanced their offense is under Kevin O'Connell. You look at what the Vikings can do and why they're so much more successful this year in terms of previous years, at least in my eyes,

is that they can run the ball effectively with two running backs, not one, with both Dalvin Cook and Alexander Madison, who both scored today. And both were wildly efficient with their carries. And they can throw effectively accurately with her cousins to really good weapons and justin jefferson adam theelin getting cook involved as a pass catching back so i just look at the vikings and i think their offense is is so balanced because of the

head coach they hired and that is how they can find a way to outscore, get as many points as they need to, to keep on winning over and over again. Kevin O'Connell is doing a great job, man. Great job. We highlighted him earlier this year and talked about how good the Vikings were as an on-script team, meaning drives that are right out of the half

or right out of the beginning of the game or two-minute warnings as well, two-minute drives too. Things where you have practiced exactly what plays you are running and what order you are running them and how you're going to get down the field and why you're going to get down the field. He was clearly really great at instilling that within his offense. Guys knew exactly where they needed to be.

They knew they were why they were doing it and they were able to move the ball really well. Now, I think they're figuring it out in the in the in between as well a little bit. And it wasn't a perfect game from the Vikings. You know, it was a lot of back and forth, and the Cardinals almost came back. And look, if I had a little point about the Cardinals, we've talked about the Cardinals and team building

and kind of where the roster is. But look, they were down three of their starting offensive linemen. James Conner wasn't in the game. They had wide receivers down. So, like, they were so hurt. It was basically Kyler Murray and DeAndre Hopkins versus the versus the world which holy cow deandre hopkins unbelievable man guys to get back huh you know they're and they're one and one since hopkins came back and i think that's the most important thing right they clearly were not good enough on the offensive side of the

football without deandre hopkins now they've got him back the team was beat up this week but he still played really well so that's kind of i didn't really have a ton on the Cardinals, but for the Vikings there, I think they're absolutely going to run away with this division. They're six and one, the Packers, you were recording this on Sunday night. I assume that the Packers are going to lose to the Buffalo bills, which would then put the Packers. That won't come back to bite us.

Which, okay. Yeah. Well, look, I I'll take it. I guess if the Packers win, I'll take it. i'll take it i guess if the packers win i'll take it i'll take it on the chin but if the packers lose tonight they will be three and five they will be tied with the chicago bears and they will be three and three whole ass games behind minnesota for the top of that division minnesota went into this week with the second highest odds in the NFL to win their division, second only behind the Kansas City Chiefs, I believe, were 88%. The Vikings were 87%. If the Packers do lose tonight,

the Vikings are going to be like 94% to win their division with half a season left. It's nuts. They're going to be in the 90s with half a season left? It's crazy. That's insane. So ready to see minnesota in a playoff game because they're absolutely going to be in a playoff game hosting one hosting one for minnesota one all right raider saints maybe a quick one because both teams significant losing records a game that the saints won 24 nothing my takeaway is raiders base trevor i mean it has to be it has to be i know it's not always all his fault although it seems that way the derrick car

era with the raiders is over it's over man it's over i mean and i think it's best for both sides is that okay like this isn't an i don't even think this is an insult either way i think both sides i know the davante adams thing is the combo we always come back to we've talked about cars contracts i mean they can get off the hook for a lot of the money i just man it's just hard right now this is This team's not supposed to be bad. Can we just say, like, this team is not supposed to be bad. Josh McDaniels, honestly, might suck as a coach. Again. Again.

He might suck again. But I think them hiring McDaniels, whether he's bad or not, it's probably going to be the end of Carr because I think McDaniels will want to start anew with a quarterback and then you still this is probably your last offseason that you could trade Carr for anything of value at this point there's going to be some teams that are going to need a bet that they trust to not win or lose them games but play in the offense and get them by I that's my I know that's harsh to have that takeaway from this game where so much was wrong but that's my i know that's harsh to have that takeaway from this game where so much was

wrong but that's my i know what the conversation is going to be this offseason it'll be the most important thing uh my most important thing from this game is i have it written right on this tab this is derrick cars last season with the raiders i i agree with you and me and trevor don't we don't talk about any of this before we sit down and record. Nope, nope. Maybe we should, but we don't. We want it for live entertainment. It's good.

We don't usually have the same take a lot, so it means that it's, it freaking matters. Yeah, this is, it was tough, man. Derek Carr completed one pass beyond 10 yards today. Look, I've talked about it. You play in New Orleans, it's tough in New Orleans. It's just a tough place to play but you got to be able to score more than zero points man

it's too much money invested in that offense uh i get that it's not perfect i get that the offensive line was letting him down i get all those things but it's got to be better than what it is and unfortunately we're at they're going to be at a crossroads i think this upcoming off season where um they can get out of derrick carr contract. If you want to cut him, you only have $5 million of dead money where he skyrockets against the cap. He goes to, I believe it's 35 million on the cap next year, 34 or 35. And then those last two years of the deal,

24 and 25, he goes up to in the 40s for cap space. And you can't even think about paying a quarterback who's playing the way that Derek Carr has played so far this season that much money. The interesting part is you talked about him getting traded. He has no trade clause in his contract extension, which is just a interesting part of all of this is if they do want to get rid of him,

then they would have to get him to sign off on it. So one way or another, I think that this is probably his last year because the team is going to see an opportunity to move on from Derek Carr, start a new era that has been, I think putting a lot of Raiders fans in an apathetic state, which is where you never want to be as a team. You can't have your fans go, oh, well, another loss, you know, like like that's that's the worst place that you could possibly be as a as a franchise so with it being mcdaniel's first year even if i agree with you

that maybe mcdaniel's just isn't good at this head coach thing it's probably more realistic that they get rid of car knowing how much money they can save on the cap versus keeping car firing a head coach after one season and completely cleaning house they have the sixth overall pick in the current nfl draft as it stands today let's check out the projection i don't know if they get higher than that i don't really if the if the raiders are picking five or if the raiders are picking top five i don't think they're picking top three if it makes sense if that makes sense i don't know if they're going to be bad enough to get in that top three range so instead i think it's going to be probably somewhere from four to eight that's where the raiders are going to be picking and you're going to consider quarterback.

You have to consider quarterback. So I think that's the, that's the big takeaway from this game is that this is the, this is the final year that Derek Carr will be a member of the Las Vegas Raiders, which, which I saw somebody who tweeted this out. I want to get, I'm going to give credit to this person. Somebody tweeted this out that I read. can't find it god i'm bad um derrick carr has now lost to 30 teams in the nfl the only two teams that he has not lost to the carolina panthers and the las vegas raiders obviously because he has been a raider his entire

career although i'll get the chance the record is 30 i think because he has been a Raider his entire career. Well, don't worry, he'll get the chance. The record is 30, I think. So he has tied a bunch of other quarterbacks who have also lost to 30 other franchises. They don't play the Panthers this year. And they don't play the Panthers next year. But if he gets traded, he has an opportunity to maybe lose to both of those franchises and become the only starting quarterback to ever lose to all 32 NFL teams.

And it'll be on primetime because there's nothing the NFL likes more than having a quarterback play against their former team on primetime. That's very true. We've seen that many times with Russell Wilson already. Before we get to the next game, got to talk to you guys about our friends over at Mojo.

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Where are we going next, Connor? I put the glasses back on because we're going to jets pats and i just trying to block out the sadness brother brother help me understand because my one thing that matters most is not kind but i'll let you start it's probably the same what matters most is the jets are a good football team with a quarterback that can lose them any game any game and i i mean who better to hear it from than both me and you who liked zach wilson a lot in that draft i mean and yeah it doesn't really matter how you slice it because all the quarterbacks are like when you take their full sample size of what they've been there's just no winner right now so it's i mean just being honest

here it is right now zach wilson and i don't know if this is a habit he can break until he stops constantly drifting and fading backwards, putting himself in compromised positions and still throwing the ball in the field of play from those compromised positions, the Jets are always going to be playing with their arms tied behind their back or running with a potato sack on. And it hurts to say, man, like it hurts to say man like it hurts to say because the good thing is there's so many reasons this team already has five wins and why they're in huge games like these that have gone right but the quarterback is just you cannot say with confidence that it's one of them right now where the defense played really well mac j Jones looked... Here's the take.

If John Franklin Myers doesn't get the roughing the passer that negates the 80-yard pick six at the half, Mac Jones does not come out to start the half. It's Bailey Zappi again. That's how bad Mac Jones was, in my opinion. And the Jets still lost. I don't want to say decisively it was close enough, but it just felt like they were so far away. Even with Mack playing, honestly, poorly,

the Jets defense playing well enough, Zach Wilson was that bad that he just threw away the game for the most part. There's other things here, but what matters most is for the Jets. They need not good, not average, mediocre quarterback play right now. And they got a shot almost all the time. Maybe not against like the Bills, but almost all the time on their schedule. And they didn't get that.

And it's what matters most because it's a question that isn't going anywhere, Trevor. It's not matters most because it's a question that isn't going anywhere, Trevor. It's not going anywhere. This is from a football perspective, an account on Twitter. Zach Wilson's the first quarterback in nine years to throw for 350 yards and complete less than 50% of his passes. Matthew Stafford also did it in 2013. Wilson still thinks he's at BYU. And that's... BingoYU and that's bingo. That's, and that's really dangerous,

right? Because I think a lot of us that really liked Zach Wilson coming out of the draft, looked at him and it goes back to the Trevor Lawrence conversation that we were talking about there. There were a lot of things to like and invest in and have hope in from that quarterback class in 2021. But that didn't mean they were perfect prospects. When you looked at Zach Wilson, the lightning quick release, the big arm, the mobility, how he could extend plays, how he was a big game hunter, all of those things you loved.

What you didn't love was the fact that he played behind one of the best offensive lines in the country, and they played one of the softest schedules in college football over the last two years so zach wilson had no concept of pocket management because nobody was getting close to him and he basically zach wilson when he was at by byu he would bail from pockets for fun like for the hell of it because it didn't matter to him because right he was playing madden and when you look at some of those throws that he threw today he is playing madden he is he he is throwing like there is no consequence and i'm not saying that he doesn't care because you saw in the post-game press conference when you know i saw the clip with

him and and connor hughes he's getting i think it was connor hughes he was getting a little snippy with him when he was talking about stats and he was yeah he was pretty pissed today and that's the thing like i i don't think zach wilson is um who's the who's the quarterback in the the replacements who's like the old quarterback who's sucking and he's basically just still like smiling on the sideline he's like i don't give a shit i'm rich you know he's not him yeah he's basically just still like smiling on the sideline. He's like, I don't give a shit. I'm rich. He's not him. Yeah. He's not him. Like Zach Wilson's clearly frustrated that he's not playing well.

But my guy, my brother in Christ, the only one who can alleviate that is you. And that is the biggest issue with Zach Wilson is not what is happening. It's not the turnovers exactly like that. It's not the turn, the stat and the turnover column. That's worrisome. It's the fact that the turnover is coming about the exact same way that we saw in college two years ago.

Now I just got done saying that Trevor Wilson is Trevor Wilson. Trevor Lawrence is young. And then we've got to keep that in a perspective. I still think that's the case with Zach Wilson. But the issue is that when your problem is turnovers, that hook comes a lot quicker because your head coach ain't trying to live through you giving the ball away. And that's the major issue with Zach Wilson right now

is I don't think he's going to get yanked. I don't think he's going to get benched. But that has to get better quickly. You look at Justin Fields' situation. Fields, not a good passer right now. He's just not. He's not a good passer. But the thing is, he hasn't been catastrophically bad in that instance.

He's just not as consistent. He's not as dynamic. He's not as dynamic. He's not what you want in the passing game yet. But especially because of the running ability and they've figured out a way to get him in the offense, he's not like an active negative for you. Like you brought up in your point. Zach Wilson is.

He is an active negative for the Jets right now. And he hadn't been. And it hit the breaking point. And that's when you start getting dangerous because they were in a situation where dude that first touchdown was beautiful gorgeous throw rocket to the front pylon you know fit it into it right on the chest of the wide receiver while the corner was close to him beautiful fantastic touchdown pass but then it's almost like zach wilson was just like all right it's zach wilson time you know like at some point dude and you're like my guy so that's that's that's my biggest takeaway is obviously zach wilson and that's kind of what it is yeah i i just i call me biased i

just don't have a new england takeaway from this game like all their problems still exist no but i don't credit credit to belichick like he they outcoached the jets today and they got the win. There's no, like no bitterness about that. But the, what matters most from this game is that Zach Wilson threw it away. So, yeah. By the way, while we're still recording bills are already up 14, nothing on the Packers as the second quarter is starting. So I don't think I'm gonna have to eat my words to the Packers.

I just saw the digs touchdown and he was, he was fired up after what happened on the field before. A little John going on. It's a pretty crazy environment there in Buffalo, as always. All right. Steelers-Eagles. Maybe a quick one. Yep.

Probably. I mean, the Eagles are just a wagon, man. What else do you want me to say? They're a wagon. I want to pull up their schedule right now just to kind of see like when are we going to learn something about the eagles so i know it's like mike and i so like mike and i on it's just football did um when we're right right right mike and i on it's just football we did when are the eagles going to lose and i said maybe against

the colts in week 11 and mike said they won't lose until week 16 when they play the Cowboys again I agree that's now what now I also have to agree dude what is this the Eagles might lose one game or the Eagles might lose one to two games this year that's what I mean that which makes me wonder um like what is Jalen Hurts's MVP odds right now because I know it's he's only the second best he was the second best odds recently oh man okay I mean it's it was it's probably to open really rough on Monday morning, but he was in the 200s. I mean, and the Steelers, dude, it's like... I don't want to make excuses for Kenny Pickett because he doesn't look good, but I just don't know a lot of quarterbacks that are going to go in that situation

and flourish, to be honest with you. It's hard to have real Kenny Pickett takes right now. I don't think he looks good, but I'm not going to go in that situation and and flourish to be honest with you it's hard to have real kenny pickett takes right now i don't think he looks good but i'm not going to sit here and be like oh man they really screwed this one up uh my main takeaway is kind of the same thing beers is basically the eagles are a house and if we're getting more detailed into it my what matters most is that jalen hurts is not this cute he's He's not this cute story about a running quarterback who's doing just enough to elevate a really good roster around him. Like, this is a legit MVP candidate.

This is a legit MVP candidate. Those two nine-ball throws, those fades to the corner of the end zone that he hits the A.J. Brown touchdowns number two and three. It's just stupid. Oh, those were fantastic fantastic those were just beautiful passes so now not only is Jalen Hurts a weapon in the run game we already know he plays behind one of the best offensive lines in the NFL now you're telling me that he could take the top off a defense like that with a guy like AJ Brown good luck he's got Devontae Smith, Quez Watkins, Dallas Goddard, Miles Sanders.

Can it gain well when he's healthy, right? Like, I mean, like, there's so many places where this ball can go, given that it's behind the Eagles offensive line the way that it is. This is Jalen Hurts. I just wanted it. That is my what matters most. This is not a, he's, you know, he's doing enough. Like, he's managing a really talented team

no no he is he is part of the talented team he is part of the reason a major reason why this team is as good as they are so don't let don't let your friends talk about it other way if they are stay in your ground for jail and hurts robert quinn making his eagles debut uh had a quarterback hit in this game only played he had 15 pass rush snaps he had the quarterback hit in a hurry he'll go get his legs under him there i'll close out the eagles by asking you this trevor is howie roseman maybe the best jam in football right now yep i like the conviction in that answer because i yep i think so too yeah you know what was uh speaking speaking of the eagles did you see the kamara trade rumors that were going

around how it was like and i'm not saying like the rumors i don't know if i don't know how true they were but it was always it was always funny when i was reading the same headlines i feel like a lot of people were like copying and pasting, and it was, Saints would consider trading Kamara to the Eagles if they got their pick back. The funniest part about that was you saying, would consider. What, you think the Eagles are going to give you a top five pick for Alvin Kamara?

Alvin Kamara, whose cap number skyrockets next year i think i mean if you're all in on winning a championship sure i guess i get it but like the reason why the eagles are in the situation they're in is because they didn't do shit like that exactly exactly dude it was funny it's like the biggest like whoopsie like trade ever oh Oh, that's the good stuff. Hold on. Let me look at Kamara's contract real quick because I think it was just... Yeah, Kamara.

Okay, so Kamara's 6 mil on the cap this year. He goes up to 16, 16, and then 27 in the last three years of his deal. So you'd have to get so complicated with moving the money around and stuff. Oh, yeah, let's trade the number five overall peg for a running back who goes 16 we consider it next year we'll think about it yeah i bet you would call us back instantly dude anyways i love trade headline season it's the best i i want you to start with the next one uh because i've kind of

been running away with these obvious ones. Maybe this one, there's no crazy take, but Titans-Texans. We got Malik Willis' first career start. What do you have for this game as the Titans improve to a quiet 5-2 and the Texans unfortunately fall to 1-5-1? Yeah, I mean, this is going to be a quick one because I don't think we learned a lot in this game, i mean the final score was 17 to 10 what's the thing that we've talked about with the titans all the time timo timo risque said this uh pff's employee that

the tennessee and titans will always just be a little bit better than whoever they're playing in the afc south that's it and it look if they're playing another afc south opponent that is like a super bowl caliber team guess what titans are just going to be a little bit better than him because that's what always happens. If they're playing a team that is in contention for a number three overall pick like the Houston Texans are, Titans are just going to be a little bit better than them. And it's like, that's just, it's true. That is how the Titans play football. They're never going to be a team that's going to absolutely blow you out, but they're going to play their brand of football. Unfortunately, I didn't see enough of this game

i didn't see enough steps of malik willis to really be able to give you my take i wish i could but he goes six for 10 55 yards um no touchdowns one interception uh didn't do much on the ground either five attempts 12 yards so i mean i think that we're still a ways away from it being malik willis time in tennessee but Tennessee but lord Derek Henry 32 carries 219 yards two touchdowns the man was an absolute moose in this game and there's nothing that the Texans could do about it I touched on it last week Texans just aren't a talented football team they're not that's okay they're getting there that's where they are in their rebuild they're just not that talented of a football team and that's why a team like the titans should and did beat them so honestly my what matters most is that this game went exactly

the way that it should again for both teams and i think that uh in the long run both of these teams are going to be happy titans are going to be happy that they won this game houston texas are going to be happy they lost this game so that was my my takeaway. I have a Texans takeaway, so I'm glad you did Titans. From watching enough of this and the Texans as a whole, nobody respects them as a passing offense

to the point where now they can't really even get Damian Pierce actually going in their run game. I mean, he had 15 carries for 35 yards. That's 2.3 yards a carry. They load up the box. Why wouldn't you not? I just think when nobody respects you as a pass offense,

and it's not just Davis Mills, but he's also not the answer in my eyes, it's just hard for you to function as an offense. And the Texans, they know they have a long way to go on this rebuild. And they're they have a long way to go on this rebuild it's that and they're gonna have the opportunity with draft capital and salary to figure that out but i think it's sometimes what matters most is the most obvious like obvious issues and the texans is that just

nobody respects them in the throat yeah nobody respects them i agree i agree completely on that one and nobody will until they show they can. This was just the beginning, honestly. Ooh, thriller in this next one. Washington Commanders, Indianapolis Colts, Commanders 17, Colts 16. They won it at the very end from a heroic drive by Taylor Heineke. And honestly, a crazy awesome performance from Terry McLaurin.

Insane. He had six catches, 133 yards in this game. Anybody who was watching the broadcast already knows this, but Terry McLaurin was an Indianapolis guy. He was Mr. Indiana for football when he was a high school player there. Him and his dad had season tickets when he was growing up in that very stadium. He was a Colts fan growing up. He won two state championships playing high school football in that stadium.

He won two Big Ten championships playing at Ohio State in that stadium. And he got a massive come from behind last drive victory that he was a major part of now in that stadium. So very cool moment for Terry McLaurin. But what do you think mattered most from this one, Connor? Yeah, that was really, really cool. I thought that was a big takeaway. I think I'll try to go on the other side of the ball to the Colts then and just think that Sam Ellinger, while not perfect by any stretch of the means,

I think he gave this offense some juice, some life. It just looked like they were alive today. And even with Jonathan Taylor, I know Jonathan Taylor is going through more injury stuff, and I don't want to say it's a lost season for Jonathan Taylor. It just feels like nothing can go right right now. even with ellinger you know his limitations i just thought this was a team that had a little bit more uh spark than what we saw under matt ryan you know i think that this my big takeaway was that honestly the colts had more spark

period just like overall i thought the defense was flying all over the place today and it clearly this team is not going to be a team that gives up right i was wondering what the mood of the team was going to be like going from a quarterback that you traded for like matt ryan when you put him on the bench and you put a guy in who's never thrown an nfl pass in a regular season before what does that do to the rest of the team Does the rest of the team believe that the season's over, that they need to punt the rest of these games? Like, where's the motivation? And I felt like Frank Reich had those guys still absolutely flying around,

playing with a ton of energy. I think that this loss hurts, but clearly I don't think the Colts are just going to be this big pushover for the rest of the season. I don't think it's going to be a team that caves in. And a good win for Washington. It really was. Taylor Heineke's fun, man. I don't to tell you tyler taylor heineke is fun he's got a ton of energy and they're not going to be a team that beats the top tier teams in the nfl

they're just obviously not but when you get into these fun matchups with the mid to low tier teams taylor heineke can put on a performance it can get you a dub. So we saw that today. Man, when is Chase Young? Where are we at with Chase Young? I don't know what his timetable is. Yeah, there's just not a lot. They just keep saying they're taking it slow. Okay, they're going to open his 21-day window to return starting next week.

Okay, there we go. Obviously somebody we'd like to watch, but I'm with you. All right right 49ers rams uh niners win pretty decisively 31 14 in a game where the rims started out good in the first quarter and it just went downhill from here uh what you think in this one trevor wait which one you literally broke up while i was listening niners rams okay niners rams all right all right this is my take fully healthy and pretty confident the niners are

the fifth best team in the nfl and they're in they're in tier two right now with how well the eagles are playing and with what the eagles even look like today the type of team they look like i would put them in a tier with the bills and the chiefs would the eagles win more games out of a 10 game series against those teams maybe not but they'd win enough for me to say this is a team that's in the same tier the eagles are playing so well i think that we or at least i i'll just speak for myself i'm going to put them in that top tier with the bills and the chiefs i am because i think that they have the ability to win those games against those two teams.

In that second tier, I think there's a lot of teams that you could bring to the table, but I think the Bengals, when they're fully healthy, obviously not having Jamar Chase is going to hurt them over the next six weeks or whatever it is, however long he's out with that hip injury. But I think the Niners are right there as well. Fully healthy, even with Jimmy Garoppolo. Everybody likes to talk about Jimmy.

Jimmy this, Jimmy that. Low ceiling, low ceiling. The rest of that team is so good. Them having McCaffrey and Debo Samuel in the same offense. I know Debo wasn't out there today, but I cannot wait to see what Kyle Shanahan cooks up with McCaffrey, with Debo Samuel, with Brandon Ayuk, with George Kittle,

with those guys on that team, because they took it to the Rams, especially in the second half. They absolutely controlled the crap out of that game. And on the defense side of the football, I think that they're really, really strong too. Of course. I know they took it on the chin by the chiefs last week, but definitely defense that you knew was going to bounce back.

Another big takeaway that I have is unfortunately, because of how good I think this 49ers team is, we might look back on this Emmanuel Mosley injury with him being out for the year and be like, if only they had mostly. And I, I'm already lamenting that scenario being a potential thing down the stretch. Once they get, once they get into the playoffs, because I really do think, man, Kyle Shanahan is the offensive mind and all those offensive pieces to Meikle

Ryan's and the defensive mind that he is with all those defensive pieces. This is a complete team. I think they have a chance to beat almost any team in the NFL, any given week. So I think that they are a top five team in the league. They're freaking scary. I mean,

it, I know it sounds nuts how we're talking about a four and four team, but I've been preaching on this pod that I always believe in the Niners bounce back because they just start slow like this every year. And you look at them. I mean, how natural does McCaffrey already look on this team right now? There's that aspect to it.

I mean, my other big thing here, cause I don't really have a, what matters for the Rams. Cause if you've been listening and I know they're only three and four, I just don't buy into the Rams this year. Nothing's gone right for them them they were always due for aggression by their roster retirements and what they've lost in free agency and not being able to

guess what at some point you have to draft players to replace players I know like the whole like oh f them picks like oh it's so fun put it on a shirt yeah it's funny now like and you want a Super Bowl so who cares like it all worked out for you right but like the point is like it's funny now. And you won a Super Bowl, so who cares? It all worked out for you. But the point is, it's fun until it's not. And now it's not fun anymore. I'm not having fun anymore. So the Niners, Nick Bosa got his eighth sack of the season in this game. Nick Bosa has a very good shot to win Defensive Player of the Year. He's up there with a couple guys.

And Fred Warner's amazing. Fred Warner had a great game. He had 12 total tackles. He just made plays everywhere. So good. The Niners, everybody that listens to this show knows we're huge D'Amico fans. Think D'Amico's going to be a head coach after this year.

I really like your take, Trevor. The Niners are, they were that team to buy the stock a couple weeks ago when things weren't looking right. And they figured it out. Maybe I need to go on Symbol and see what the price is now see if i can still get in on it last game uh because the bills package game is not going to be over yet uh packer scored though by the way 14 to 7 as we were live updating here on this pod new york giants seattle seahawks giants fall for just

the second time this year um se victorious at home, 27-13. Connor, what was your big takeaway from this one? I don't really over... I try not to overreact to quotes after games, but this one meant a lot to me. Tyler Lockett said after this game, it's amazing what we can accomplish when no one cares who gets the credit.

I don't... Tyler Lockett's obviously really chilled non-problematic dude in every possible way and i don't even know if there was intentions behind this quote i think it was very real and authentic and not while thinking about somebody else but actually thinking about them as a team but it still matters a lot. And I think it matters that everything had came to a boiling point with Russ there. And I think along the way, I know I'm guilty. I'll raise my hand. We forgot that Seattle had a lot of talent that just wasn't Russ.

But Russ's image and persona and all these things about Russ, them letting him cook, them letting him not cook, all those things. We kind of forgot about the rest of this team. And they had a great rookie class. That is a huge part of all of this. And I don't think anybody really saw Geno doing what Geno is doing. Geno is playing at a high level. But that quote to me summed up the Seahawks. The Giants are still good. Giants had a tough week. It's a rough game. It's a tough place to go travel to. It happens. No real crazy reaction about the Giants here. But the Seahawks at five and three playing as a

unified group. I don't know, maybe Russ leaving. There's like this deep breath sigh of relief and they got new blood in there and they got Gino who's super confident and I think for Seattle that alone shows how for real they are now I wonder if I love that quote by the way I truly do and I've been thinking about it more since since you read that I wonder if Russ leaving was truly allowing this team in its current state to turn the page. Because when you look at the last 10 years of Seattle, when you think of the Seahawks at their prime, what do you think of? I think Tyler Lockett, yes, you would consider his name in there.

But you think of Russ. Not really, though, which is bad that we don't. I don't want to disrespect Tyler Lockett because he was there and he was doing stuff. But when you really think about it, you think of Russ. You think of Marshawn Lynch. You think of Doug Baldwin. You think of the Legion of Boom.

You think of the linebackers, specifically led by Bobby Wagner, right? All of those pieces, other than Lockett are gone. And when you still have the quarterback, I think that's the most important part of the identity. For as much as the other guys were incredible at what they did, especially during their run, Russ being there, I think was, I don't want to like fully say holding them back, but I don't really know how else to say it

other than they weren't really fully allowed to turn the page into what this next era of young players and what they were building this roster to become. They weren't fully able to do that while Russ was still there. Now, that's not a main catalyst for why you go, okay, let's trade this guy. Certainly there were other things behind the scenes

that led to them trading Russell Wilson wilson but now that he was gone for lockett too and i don't think there was anything just off just off the rip of hearing it i don't think that was anything malicious i didn't think it was anything pointing or anything i think ty lockett like you said was genuinely thinking that everyone was was projecting the seahawks to win five games or less this year. Basically everybody, everybody, no expectations. You're going to be a seller dweller team. You might get Bryce Young. You might get Will Anderson, start the Jersey swaps now. And I think that Pete Carroll has found new life and new energy about being able to coach a group of underdogs into believing that they can be something together that no Russ isn't there no Marshawn's not there no

Bobby Wagner's not there no Richard Sherman's not there Earl Thomas isn't there but when you have a group of guys that are almost nameless if you will in a sense then that becomes a team that really can rally around each other and i think that we're really seeing that especially in a story like geno smith who is now elevated into that starting quarterback spot so you know my what thing that mattered most is this is a game between two really coached highly competitive teams now i, I said highly competitive. I didn't say that there were teams that were going to light up the scoreboard. That was never going to be the case.

But they've always played teams really hard this season, win or lose, and I think their records certainly speak to that. You look at the score, 27-13. You go, okay, how competitive was it? Well, Richie James fumbles two punts, and on both of those occasions, Seahawks scored a touchdown off of one and a field goal off the other you take those 10 points off the board all of a sudden it's 17 to 13 football game that's an extremely close final score there so you take away those two special teams turnovers and you see how evenly matched these teams are my one thing that matter

most is simply that both of these teams are playoff caliber in the NFC this year these are two teams that could absolutely be in the playoffs and uh honestly give whoever they place and fits because they're they're just well coached team they clearly believe in each other after hearing that quote that you said which i love to hear and um it was just fun to see those teams go these teams go up against each other it wasn't going to be chiefs bills you know it wasn't going to be rams chiefs of a couple of years ago right We weren't expecting anything for that like that. But it was two good football teams who went up

against each other who I think are playoff caliber in the NFC this year. I think that's the perfect way to put it. It's kind of funny how obviously we were all fired up for Giants Seahawks, but we knew exactly the reasons why because they have that underdog scrappy we have

we need basically 35 guys to come together you know 35 plus guys each week for us to win where when you watch the bills as great as they are the Chiefs all those teams you know that one guy could put on a show and that could be the difference in the game. So I'm with you. I just said that locker quote meant a lot to me. Maybe not, we don't always have to do the Seattle thing of Russ this, Russ that, but it is cool to look ahead with what they are now and realize it's a good thing that no one saw coming. There we go.

That's what matters most from every game on Sunday. As we are looking at the bills Packers live score, where the two minute warning in the first half bills are up 14 to seven and they have the ball at green Bay seven on a second and four, I believe is where we are here. So not looking good for the pack. I'm going to go out of the limb and say that the bill score here. Hopefully I don't live to regret that tomorrow when this podcast drops.

And I do. I think the bills are going to win. And I think that our takes are going to stand in the middle of the show. So Connor, anything else? Oh, sorry. Before we get out of here, we are setting up a speak pipe for you guys.

We want to connect with you guys more. We want to get you guys in on the show. We haven't had as many mailbags or fan Fridays or whatever we've called them. And we haven't really been able to get you guys in on the show we haven't had as many mailbags or fan fridays or whatever we've called them and we haven't really been able to get you guys as involved in the show as we have wanted to so we have set up a speak pipe if you have never done a speak pipe before you just go www speak pipe p-i-p-e dot com backsl NFL S E. And whether you're on your phone, whether you're on your computer, whatever it is, you can leave us a voicemail. So you don't even have to type anything out. If you're listening to this podcast and you've got to take, you can literally pause the

podcast, go to speak pipe.com backslash NFL S E and just start recording and be like, yo, this take trash. Here's why. Or you can be like, I absolutely love this take. Here's my own spin on it. Here's my own take. I agree with you. This is why. We would just love to hear from you guys. And on Thursday's show, at the end of the show,

what we're going to do is we're going to take some of the best ones that we want to kind of start a conversation with and bring up at the end of Thursday's show. Maybe if you guys give us so many, then shoot we'll do it in the the wednesday show as well if that's something that we think makes sense but we want to see what we want to hear from you guys we would love to hear from you and we will play your voicemails on the show so don't get too crazy about it you know don't be using you know this is a family-friendly show you know we let some things slip every now and then but still you, you know, we got kids listening.

Come on. So, you know, keep it family friendly. But we would love to hear you guys' voices on the show. Truly make it a family like we're always preaching that it is. So we were starting that. I want to make sure we got in that before we before we ended the show today. Perfect, man. I can't wait to I can't wait to actually hear our questions.

It's going to be incredible. Yeah, we don't have to read them off anymore. It's going to be incredible. Yeah. We don't have to read them off anymore. You guys can read them off to us, so we won't butcher it at all. Anything else before we get out of here, my guy? No, man. That sums it up. It's going to be like sports talk radio comes to the sex community. It's going to be unbelievable.

Happy Halloween, everybody. Please be safe. The sex community, he says. Happy Halloween, everybody. Like Connor says, appreciate you guys listening and watching the show. I am Trevor Sykema. That, of course, is Connor Rogers. We will see you guys on Wednesday.

Thank you.