NFL Stock Exchange: An NFL Draft Podcast - 192. "What Matters Most" From Each Game in NFL from Week 1 (2023)

Episode Date: September 11, 2023

Hosts Trevor Sikkema and Connor Rogers give you their takes for what matters most from every game of the Sunday slate of games from Week 1 in the 2023 NFL season

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 talking what matters most from the Sunday slate of week one in the NFL. If you guys listened to the show last year, you know the drill. We're going to go through every single game that happened in the afternoons

on Sunday, the early and the late slate. We're going to tell you what matters most for every single team. We're going to give some draft angles, but also some big picture stuff as well. I'm Trevor Sycamore. With me as always is Connor Rogers. Let's ring the bell. Welcome to the opening bell of the NFL Stock Exchange Podcast. I'm Trevor Sikama. That is Connor Rogers. Joining you for a post-week one show for the first time in the 2023 NFL season. If you guys were listening to the podcast last year, you know the drill. It's that same format.

We're going to give you what matters most from every single game. Now, we're recording this during Sunday Night football. So we're missing Sunday night football analysis. And of course, Monday night football analysis as well, but we'll give you Thursday night football. We'll talk about the Detroit lions and the Kansas city chiefs, and then all of the games that happen in the early and afternoon slates of Sunday. And we will tell you what matters most from each of those games, Connor, how the hell we feel. And after seven hours of commercial free football for the first time in 2023? I mean, shout out to Scott Hanson, man.

My goodness. He brought it today. It was awesome. Feeling great. The fork, the finish to the four o'clocks, like that's when the heart rate started to really, yeah, it started to get going. And I was like, I mean, what do you think? You just be like, OK, how many times have we seen this before? But really, I mean, it started to get going. And I was like, I mean, what? Like, you think you'd just be like, okay, how many times have we seen this before?

But really, I mean, it was incredible. That finish. We had a lot of good games in that slate. We also got to see a lot of interesting, you know, some bad weather games, some surprises. It's just so great that NFL football is back, dude. What else is there to say? When I was writing down my notes for each game, it just felt so good to have a full slate to

go through yeah we're gonna try to stick to the format a little bit more this year than we did last year we know that we did like a what matters most but it became a running joke amongst you guys listening to the podcast it's like oh what matters most here's eight things that matter most because we just like to talk about football so much but we're gonna try to stick to the format because we want this to be a little bit faster paced. We want to have a big takeaway for you guys to listen to because mainly this is an NFL draft podcast. Yeah, of course, we're going to talk about general NFL because what happens in the NFL week to week goes very far into what will end up happening on draft weekend. But we do want to have those takeaways for you. And sometimes they're going to

be draft, more draft focused than other times. We'll talk about teams that of course, if they're, it looks like they're going to need a QB or we're going to talk about that plenty, like, okay, well this team is starting to look like a playoff team.

So they're going to be picking back of the order versus at the front of the order. And so a lot of things to get to, we won't be able to hit every single point here with week one, but there's a ton of excitement and we definitely want to dig into it. We can just start with Thursday night football though. I know it's a couple of days away. Everybody's had some time to digest the Lions huge upset going into Arrowhead.

I know, I know Chris Jones and Travis Kelsey didn't play in it, but I'm not taking anything away from Dan Campbell's Alliance. That was a fun as hell game to kick off the season. Connor, what was your, what matters most from the Lions win in Kansas City? I think for me with looking at Detroit, I think and I know the Internet was not a fan of this. I think the Gibbs Montgomery dynamic is great. I really do.

And I hear it. They're going to work. They're going to ramp up Gibbs's touches. I mean, people shouldn't be freaking out. It's week one. It's the dude's first real NFL regular season game. But I think there is something to and I say this a lot and you see a lot of the really good teams in the NFL do this. Being careful with the guy out of the gate, especially a guy that is, you know, was under 200 pounds at the combine. You see how specially is when he touches the ball, the explosiveness,

the acceleration shot out of a cannon. But I also think there's a dynamic there in Detroit where Montgomery's hard-nosed running style, trying to tackle Montgomery and trying to tackle Gibbs are such different experiences. Because if you kind of blink with Gibbs, he's run by you. But if you hesitate against Montgomery, he can roll right over you. And I think the Lions, as they wait for Jamison Williams to get through the suspension, they are a very Amon Ross, St. Brown volume team. And it was good to see Sam Laporte get off to a hot start because they're going to need him. I think the dynamic of how they use those two backs and most importantly, protect Gibbs because he's such an important player to every aspect of their offense.

I think it's smart. I think it's really smart. And I think that might be one of my rare contrarian takes. I know people were not happy about this. They felt like they should have just unleashed Gibbs. And I think that day will come. But I think this is a very smart offensive coordinator that has proven himself and a team that is being wise with the young player. And the Lions got the win.

It ultimately worked at the end of the day. So I love the dynamic they have between those two. And I have no problem with how the usage started out. And I think they'll learn or walk that fine line very, very wisely this season. Yeah. Look, advantage football is very popular, right? And I think that's my main living almost you know you're right so i'm not gonna say anything bad about fantasy football at all whatsoever uh shout

out to uh the people paying connor's mortgage uh but look if i had one we obviously get a little bit carried away at the beginning of the season you know i think a little bit to the atlanta game right everybody's freaking out about the atlanta falcons drake london gets one target playing 90 at the beginning of the season, you know, I think a little bit to the Atlanta game, right? Everybody's freaking out about the Atlanta Falcons. Drake London gets one target playing 90% of the snaps for the team, right? Tyler Algier still gets the goal line touchdowns for that group, despite drafting Bijan Robinson number eight overall this past April. And so I think people kind of freak out about some of the stats and usage, especially when it comes to the early parts of the season. But these teams are just trying to win in any way possible, right?

I mean, if Jameer Gibbs doesn't slip and fall and actually gets into the end zone on that little cameras, like, right, are we having this conversation at all whatsoever? No, we're not. I don't think we are. So I thought the Lions did a nice job ramping them up. I thought that you could see signs of like, hey, here's how we're going to use this guy as a receiver. Hey, here's how we're going to use him, you know, to the field side of things.

We're going to use his speed. We're going to draw the defense in one way. He's going to be able to cut it back and go the other way. Like you already saw, I think, little signs of that. It's not all going to manifest itself in one single game. One game, especially week one one does not define who you drafted these rookies to be so i think jameer gibbs time even getting the lion's share of the carries and the touches in the game plan like that's all coming so i would agree with you

totally don't forget alvin camara and that that to me is wildly exciting if i'm a lions fan yeah so i i did want to say my what matters most i'll go to the chiefs talk about the chiefs in a second but i did want to shout out the lions defense man levine was arique aline mcneil uh aiden hutchinson jack campbell making hell of a playing coverage already right i mean what cj garner johnson was able to do from the safety spot like this defense is a lot better than it was last year and you and I talked about it on this very show if the Lions even just had like middle of the pack defense we're talking about obviously a team that would have made the playoffs last year in the NFC and I think that's

the road that we're on now for them to go into Kansas City and defeat the Kansas City Chiefs I think is a big deal even with their two stars out now getting to my what matters most I'm glad that you hit on the Lions because I'm gonna hit on the chiefs a little bit here i'm not trying to get clipped on tiktok or a motivational video but for as long as kelsey and chris jones missed time and i would even tell you even when kelsey comes back because what he hyper extended his knee right i mean like hyper extending your knee to me in something like all right you're good one week like you're you know we're good to go we're 100 that feels like it's something that might be in the back of his mind might make him a little bit hesitant so even when they get kelsey back and i want the

dude to be 100 fully healthy as much as anybody else. Like that connection between Mahomes and Kelsey, it's Hall of Fame worthy. That's where both of these guys are headed. But with the situation as it currently is, with Chris Jones clearly getting more value by the day as much as he sits out, and he's talked about sitting out at least until the middle of the season, and with Kelsey still up in the air, we haven't seen him play come back from injury yet, that receiving core was horrible on Thursday.

I don't think Kadarius Toney is going to have a repeat of like 18 drops in a single game. I think it has to be better than that just from a numbers perspective. But for as tough as the schedule that the Chiefs have and for them being in the conference and in the division that they are in still think the Chiefs are absolutely a playoff team but it might not be this 14 you know 13 win team like we've seen in years past like the Chiefs might get in with like

11 wins or something like that now is that going to make them any less of a juggernaut when they get there no probably not and certainly if they're healthy and have both of those stars back it's going to be all moot point but the chiefs might just not might not be this guaranteed lock of a win every single week especially playing in the afc until they get those two star guys back it might be a little bit of a little bit more of a struggle and a work to get those W's than we've seen in years past. They might become like your Tampa Bay Lightning. Oh, don't do this to me. What are you doing?

Come on. No, no, no. It's not a bad thing. What are we, six minutes into the podcast? Yep, and it's hockey time. So, especially in September, great time for hockey talk. You know where they might limp a little bit throughout the season, but they care about when it's

playoff time that Chris Jones, Travis Kelsey, Patrick Mahomes, and everybody's healthy and rolling. They are obviously always going to be the favorite in those situations where they don't... It just doesn't have to be perfect for the Chiefs.

The last thing I wrote for the Chiefs was the Chiefs didn't have their best defensive player, their best non-Mahomes offensive player, are working in young pass catchers and still lost by one point to a team expected to win their division. Right, right. But you're right. The wide receiver thing is worth watching.

And if they are the Chiefs that we even projected them to be going into the season with Jones and with Travis Kelsey fully healthy by the time January rolls around,, they'll be good to go. But all I'm saying is, and the thing that matters most is, especially for the first half of the schedule, if Chris Jones is really going to hold out that long, and for as much as that might be Kelsey not at 100%,

those teams that have the Chiefs on the schedule, that might not be a guaranteed loss anymore. That's kind of how things could change to me in the playoff picture. And even the NFL draft picture. So chiefs schedule moving forward, they got the Jags and Jacksonville next week. They host the bears. They go to New York to face the jets.

They go to Minnesota. They host the Broncos. They host the chargers. Then they go to Denver and then they the Broncos, they host the chargers. Then they go to Denver and then they host the dolphins. Those are the, those are the next eight games for them. So there are some teams in there where sure. Healthy Christian's healthy. Travis Kelsey go. Yeah. Easy. No, maybe it's not as easy. That's all I'm saying. Maybe they pick up a couple extra losses and maybe more

importantly, they give a couple of teams wins that they might not have been planning on going into the season. So those are our what matters most from that game. Let's start the Sunday slate talking about the Cleveland Browns and the Cincinnati Bengals. This game was drunk. It was wet. Indeed. It was raining on and off in cleveland this game was in cleveland

the browns win it 24 to 3 and connor the this is just some of the most non-bengals offense stats you're ever gonna see okay joe burrow went 14 for 31. 82 total passing yards, zero touchdowns, zero interceptions. Jamar Chase had five catches on nine targets for just 39 yards, led the team. Tee Higgins, this is the craziest stat of the week, without question, the craziest stat of the week. Tee Higgins got eight targets zero catches zero yards that was nuts to me Higgins like didn't even look like he wanted to be out there man it was a little weird I won't pretend to watch it that I watched every single snap of this game I

didn't but like when they were cutting to a Higgins target it looked like he did like barely even wanted to be out there. I don't know what was going on. Obviously Joe Burrow doesn't play the preseason. He was coming off the calf injury. You know, Burrow's week one last year was super shaky as well. And then week two on, I mean, they were just rolling. It was totally fine. It was water on the bridge.

So maybe that's what's going to happen again. But dude, what was your, what was your, what matters most from this game? I wrote down for the Bengals that Burrow will be fine. He didn't have a summer. He did not have a summer. He did not have a training camp. He didn't have a preseason. He was not a real game time decision.

You can kind of hear following, you know, Zach Taylor's press conferences this week that it seemed like he was going to play, but they just wouldn't officially say that until pretty close to before the game, like two days before the game. But I'm just not worried at all about the Bengals. I'm really, really not. It was a very wet game. Both quarterbacks never looked really comfortable. Yeah, I think Burrow, we've kind of seen this before. Remember how slow Bastardi got off to last year? They just have so much talent. It would just really, really surprise.

I think what matters most is that Joe Burrow and the Bengals offense will be completely fine. Good win for the Browns. Don't get me wrong. Good win for the Browns. Yeah. In some ways. I mean, notably, you know, I'd run down Myles Garrett. Easily can win defensive player of the year.

He was unblockable in this game. He's unblockable pretty much every week. But the most important thing is that i still think the bangles are one of the favorites in the afc and we have seen this from them before and it's like it's the one game where it's like i don't want to have an overreaction to this game yeah certainly for the bangles side you've seen too much good bangles football over the last couple of years to allow yourself to overreact like that for the Browns. Obviously it's a huge win, awesome win for them. Uh, especially in one of what we call the tightest divisions in the NFL, maybe the toughest division in the NFL to come out and to beat the Bengals, who I think would are probably the odds on favorite for most

people that you would ask to win this division to get a win against them i think is really huge and you mentioned the defense defense had an unbelievable performance i mentioned from some of the blundering numbers that the bangles had well who was forcing all that it was a browns defense so it's not just a what happened to the bangles it's a tip of the cap to what the browns were able to do uh on defense and so that unit, you have to give some praise to my, what matters most though, is that even though the Browns got the win and I hate to be negative here, cause I don't like doing this to start the season, but the Browns are in the same spot to me because Watson looked bad. Now I get it. It was, it was rainy and the adjusted completion percentage was a lot

better than the raw completion percentage. You figure some drops kind of went into that. If the weather was a little bit better, maybe things would have looked a little bit more crisp. But he just still was not looking confident, was late to reads, was hesitant, just bad throws, some bad decisions. He had a couple of big-time throws in this one. But, man, it just just I'm sitting here wondering at what point is the Houston Texan version of Deshaun Watson not showing up and I'm not saying that that's going to be the

case I don't know but it just feels like we we gave last last year was a complete pass with everything that had happened with Watson and why he wasn't playing and, and the timing of it and all of that stuff. Like people just threw that year out the window and they said, no, no, no. I mean, he's going to, he's going to be much better this year. This wasn't better. This wasn't better. So now to me, you are officially starting the timer of is Houston Texans version of Deshaun Watson never showing up? Because if it's not, then we're also going to –

I don't want to sit here and ask – this defense is too good, man. It's such a shame that this defense is getting wasted on bad quarterback play. And the run – they can run the ball. For the last four or five years. Yeah, not to mention, obviously, what they can do on the ground so that's my what matters most is the timer has started to when we need to start answering the question of if houston texas version of the sean watson is just not going to come for the for the for the cleveland brown long

season long season but we have to start the time right now because of what we saw this week. And we've said that. This isn't new. I mean, we said last year he didn't look good, but you give the classic like, okay, let's see if he's shaking the rust off situation. But now this year it's going to be,

there will be reactions game by game. And game one was bad. It was wet out it was tough to throw the ball but he couldn't throw the ball he's I just man even when he escapes from the pocket and buys himself all this time the danger or the threat of him making those plays as soon as the ball leaves his hand is does not look the same. I think Deshaun Watson gets analyzed differently, and because he deserves to, he makes almost $50 million a year, and he has an unprecedented contract in the NFL.

I mean, look at the extension Joe Burrow just got. It still wasn't Deshaun Watson's in terms of the guaranteed money. The Browns did everything they could, including taking a horrific PR hit in the process, because they felt like if they had a top I don't know eight quarterback and they paid him to be more than that and they could win a Super Bowl and when you look at their roster they have a guy that can win defensive player of the year but their corners played really well they have a great offensive line they have

one of the best running backs in the NFL they have a play caller that absolutely knows in my opinion how to dial it up the it feels like the anchor right now is the sean watson yeah the browns and it's something that you know the browns gonna sneak into the playoffs or the browns gonna be one of the biggest threats in the afc that's on the show it's on to sean watson literally it is on to Sean Watson. No, I agree. I agree completely. So yeah, Bengals, we're not overreacting. Big shout out to Jimmy Schwartz, the defense coordinator for the Cleveland Browns, pitching an absolute beauty. Oh, they were phenomenal.

That defense was incredible. But yeah, we're still sitting here with quarterback questions for Cleveland. And to me, that's what matters most from now on. New Orleans Saints and the tennessee tights look just because the titans are projected to have a top five overall pick doesn't mean they're easy out that is not in mike vrabel's no sir in new orleans saints do pick up the win 16 to 15 derrick carr's debut he throws for over 300 yards. Crystal Lava had over 100 yards receiving.

Rashid Shaheed was awesome. I mean, he is growing into a fantastic wide receiver. Tannehill, not so good, but we'll get to that when I get to what matters most on my end. But what mattered most to you from the New Orleans Saints win over the Titans? So I cheated because the Saints win. I wanted to give them one good as much as the bad is kind of something I'm really focusing on with them. The good real quick. I just love the player Rashid Rashid Shahid is growing into. I mean, to me, he's their future number two across from a lot of it. We had to pick sleepers for fantasy football happy hour,

and I have like. Planted a flag on this guy because you just look at and you go, if Michael Thomas doesn't hold up over the whole season, and clearly then if he does, he is still a huge part of this offense. He's awesome. What a great story. His road is right now. I loved how much they got all three of those guys involved.

Ten targets for Chris Olave, six targets for Rashid Shahid, eight targets for Michael Thomas. Olave had 112 yards. Shahid had 89 yards and Michael Thomas. Olave had 112 yards. Shahid had 89 yards. And Michael Thomas had 61 yards. Like, to me, that's a great day at the office passing. Like, that is what will be the formula for them to score

in the 20s and 30s every single week, is when you were able to distribute the ball like that. Because all three of those guys have skill sets that can really put stresses on the defense, I think. Even still, Michael Thomas. I really do do believe that so i'm glad that you gave them a shout out there because she he was awesome the one thing though i wrote down i'm starting to wonder if trevor penning can play right like is he if he is he going to grow into the player that this team use the resources on to draft him he allowed two sacks and three more hurries in this one.

I mean, Trevor, it was big time draft capital put into this player to be the future anchor of their offensive line. And I thought it was scary, in my opinion, today. It was pretty scary. And the Titans have a great front. Don't get me wrong. But you got to at least be competitive i think against those

great fronts and you know they they obviously extended ruiz who was it was also an up and down guy today they've used big capital and trevor penning they really need this young offensive line to step up and it was scary hours out there for me titans i mean titans titans defensive line is nice oh yeah um obviously you've got um jeffrey simmons jeffrey simmons who's the anchor who's a monster you know they have arden key now they have um denico autry uh you know harold landry obviously he's been fantastic when he's been healthy um and so it's not like it's it's it's a terrible defensive line they're going up against. It's quite good. I'm looking at some of the initial pass blocking grades. And anytime we do a show on Sunday night,

these grades could certainly change because there's a lot of rechecks that happen. But the initial grades, in the 30s for Trevor Penning and Cesar Ruiz for pass blocking, it's in the 40s for Eric McCoy and James Hurst. Ryan Ramchick had a good game. He was in the 80s. But initially, we have six pressures allowed from Trevor Penning and two sacks, four hurries, that 15.4 pressure percentage.

You're right. It's just straight up got to be better. I mean, he was a lot better in run blocking, but there's a lot of offensive linemen that can be great at run blocking. That job is simply being strong, using good leverage, and displacing a guy from his spot. I don't mean to oversimplify it, but you've got to have a lot of technique and patience and awareness and everything to be a good pass blocker.

It just hasn't been in Penning's wheelhouse so far. I agree. Top 20 pick. It's got to be far. So I agree. Now, top 20 pick. It's got to be better. What would you have in this one? So my what matters most is I think we're going to see Will Levis a lot sooner than we thought we were going to this season. He was a healthy scratch today, I believe. Correct.

They had. He was. Malik Willis was active today. And they had Malik Willis active as the qb too but you know i don't think the leash is going to be too short for ryan tannahill because he has done so much for this team mike variable obviously loves the guy he's a veteran in the room he's a leader there and you don't just bench guys like that especially before you know that your season might be over and lord knows a variable coach team is going to believe that they're in it

until they're mathematically eliminated. But Ryan Tannehill was horrendous today. That's a good New Orleans Saints defense. But Ryan Tannehill was bad. He threw three interceptions in this game. And we have, as an initial grading, we have him with five turnover-worthy plays. Like, that is just, you are losing the game for your team. Yep. No question about it. Especially this one.

This is a one point contest and you had five turnover worthy plays. I mean, that just cannot be, he was 16 for 34 with 198 yards, no touchdowns. And then those three interceptions, man, I just, you, you can't have, 298 yards, no touchdowns, and then those three interceptions. Man, I just... You can't have... I don't think they're all going to look nearly that bad because Ryan Tannehill, I think, is too smart of a quarterback. But even if you eliminate the bad, for the most part,

if you can't give them the big-time throws, like if you can't give them the other side of the good, you got two quarterbacks on the roster who might be able to do that. And Malik Willis looked a lot more comfortable and a lot more confident this preseason than he ever had last year. And I understand it's preseason, but we get four or five games into this thing. They're going to give him, I think they're going to give Malik Willis the ball. And then they're probably going to give Malik,

right, a good amount of time, because clearly they don't think that Levis is ready yet. But we might, the reality still exists where we might get to see Will Levis around the same timeline that we saw Sam Howell last year for the Commanders, maybe even a little bit earlier, right? We might get to see Will Levis in December.

And I really was not sure that that was going to be the case going into the season based on where he was in the depth chart and kind of how they were talking about him so i think my big takeaway is i think we're going to get a good look at malik willis and we might even get a decent look at will levis by the time this season is over in tennessee wouldn't shock me i mean we know Vrabel is, Vrabel, rightfully so, is always going to think they're in it. But Tannehill, it's just, that was a tough one. He was staring down everything today.

He was staring down everything today. And like we said, Tennessee defense is very, very good where you can't have a quarterback that's going to give away games. So that takes us, where do you want to go next? Let's do, let's do Bucks Vikings, baby.

Huge win. Massive win for the Bulls Baker Bucks. To start the next 10 years of Baker Mayfield in Tampa Bay, baby. Bucks pick up this win on the road in minnesota 20 to 17 baker mayfield 21 for 34 passing 173 passing yards two touchdowns no interceptions um on the other side of things uh it's incredible that they didn't win the game with the stat line but kirk cousins was 33 for 44 with 344 passing yards two touchdowns one interception justin je Justin Jefferson had nine catches for 150 yards on 12 targets. Jordan Addison also had four catches for 61 yards and a touchdown.

So you just look at the box score and even go to rushing. Rashad White for the Buccaneers had 39 total rushing yards on 17 carries. It was a 2.3 yards per carry average um seth walder who works for espn tweeted out that rashad white had a negative 38 uh rushing yards above expectation which was i don't remember what he said but but one of the lowest scores they've ever had. So Tampa couldn't really run. They sort of could pass, especially in the second half. Good job by them.

But then you look on the other side of things, and it felt like Minnesota was absolutely stuffing the stat sheet, and yet Tampa comes away with a big dub. What was your won't-matter-most, Connor? So this is a rare one where I will ask a question of it. By the way, I've had the Giants game on. I just have to do this mid pod. I have to do this.

I've had the Giants game on in the background. OK. There has been a blocked field goal brought back for a touchdown. What? And now I popped up pick six. This is all for the Cowboys. The Cowboys have a pick six. They have a block field goal for a touchdown.

They almost had a third touchdown on the drive before this. It is like just pure chaos going on behind me in this game. But anyways, to stay on what matters most. Trevor, I wrote down. The Bucs defense will help them scrap together wins this year. Is that good? It's a genuine question. I don't really know.

You are a pretzel right now. Well, I don't really know how to answer that because on the surface level, I would tell you no, right? I would tell you that it's probably a more streamlined path to having a Super Bowl window if the team is bad this year, especially if the quarterback class that's upcoming is as good as we think that they're going to be. And I also think that winning sort of complicates things because there's a reason why they haven't given Mike Evans a new contract yet. There's a reason why they didn't give Devin White a new contract yet, right? It's because they don't know where they're going to be when the new league year rolls around for 2024, because if Baker Mayfield plays really well, I mean, Baker Mayfield's on a nothing contract for them right now. If the Bucks win nine games and make

it as a wildcard team somehow, you're going to pay Baker a lot of money. You're not signing him to a five, six-year deal, but you're signing him to a pretty hefty three-year deal. The Geno deal? Is that what we're thinking?

I don't know if it would be exactly what Geno got. But then all of a sudden, if you do that, are you probably not bringing Mike Evans back? Are you probably letting Devin White walk? Can you bring Antoine Winfield Jr. back? You know you're going to bring Tristan Wurst back, so you have to do that. And I think the same is with Antoine Winfield Jr.

But then you're probably saying goodbye to Mike Evans. You're probably saying goodbye to Devin White if they're not moving money around in different ways, which some Bucs fans might like that. But it's a really complicated question because it's a lot easier to think there's a path to Super Bowl contention if they lose enough games to get a great quarterback in this draft. But I agree with you that I think the defense is just straight up going to be too good under Todd Bowles to be close to that anyways. So it's there. They're just in a really, really interesting spot that you just have to wait to see how it plays out. I don't know what Jason Light, their general manager has up his sleeve when it comes to the contracts. I don't know what the plan is behind the scenes.

They know a lot more of the numbers than I do. But I wonder if Tampa looks back on this in four months and goes, damn, if only we would have dropped that one of the Vikings. Maybe the draft position's a little bit better. Maybe you're in a different spot. I think they beat the Bears next week. I also think they beat the Bears next week. I also think they beat the bears this week. Yeah.

So I just, they just, your NFC South division leader. Yeah. Did we do Vikings? No. So my Vikings. Yeah.

My one thing that matters most was actually for the Vikings. And it goes back to a conversation that we had last week. I don't think this team is going to be inspiring enough to bring back her cousins, whether it's 10 wins, whether it's eight wins, nine wins. I think it's probably going to be somewhere within that wheelhouse for the Vikings. I mean, obviously if it's below 500, they wouldn't bring Kirk back anyways, but even I'm saying, even if they get nine, 10 wins,

and even if they sneak in as a wildcard team, I don't think the minnesota vikings are going to be inspiring enough for them to extend a contract to kirk so going to the draft angle like we talked about at the beginning of the podcast you're gonna hear us mock a quarterback to the minnesota vikings a lot on this show at least when i'm controlling the vikings that's that's what i'm going to do because that was my big takeaway from this team. Listen, I think they kind of feel it a little bit when you look at how they've dealt with Kirk's salary over the years. I think they've been bracing for that.

And I think they're such a fascinating team because they're not a bad team. They're not an overly good team. But they will win enough games that they won't have a shot at Caleb, Drake May, maybe even the third or fourth quarterback off the board. But at some point, they need to take somebody and not in the form of like Kellen Mond in the third round.

They need to take somebody and be like, this is going to be the guy that's throwing to Justin Jefferson and TJ Hawkinson and Jordan Addison for a really long time because they think they got the coach. I think they got the skill guys. They're going to try to rebuild that defense. I'm with you. I'm totally with you.

The Vikings are fascinating to me because they, this feels like the year, like you said, it's what matters most to our show and how we talk about teams is that the Vikings are right at the front of this quarterback conversation in a good year to need a quarterback. You brought up Kellen Mond, and that got me to thinking. And so now, unfortunately, Kellen Mond's going to catch us straight here. Oh.

So in the 2021 NFL draft, we had five quarterbacks going in the first round. Lawrence, Wilson, Lance, Fields, Mack Jones. Trask went 64 overall kellen mom went 66 overall davis mills went 67 so those guys went back at very back in the second round and very early parts of the third round i have thought about this over the last couple of weeks you put all three of those guys in this year's quarterback class i mean like what are we talking here sixth round picks monday's not on a team right now right right but i'm even i'm trying to even give him the benefit of doubt like draft like like all those guys are like mid late day three picks yeah Yeah, that's a good point. In this upcoming quarterback class with as deep as it is.

The depth of this class. I mean, you know what it's like. We wake up on Sundays and you just try to watch as much tape as you can in the morning from the day before. And it's it's jarring. It's jarring how deep the class is. So it's a good point. Didn't mean for them to catch a stray but people always like to ask us like hey how does this class whether it's quarterbacks or wide receivers or whatever compare to last year's class they'll say like hey you know like where would you put

um michael pratt in last year's class like whatever it is that's a way an early way that i would quantify what we're talking about and how much the hype I think is real for this upcoming quarterback class is you've got guys in 2021 that were back end of the second round and early part of the third round picks. And maybe they shouldn't have been even at the time because I was a little shocked even at the time. But the league was starving for quarterbacks. I think all three of those guys are like mid-day three,

late-day three players in this upcoming quarterback class. Like it's not even close. Without a doubt. Anyways, getting back to it. Arizonarizona car speech speaking of quarterbacks arizona cardinals washington commanders commanders win this one in washington 20 to 16 not it was sweaty not gonna lie a lot closer than I thought it would be. A lot closer. Dude, Mike Bidwell was... He was trying to make a call.

Like, who is the owner in the Draft Day movie where he's just, like, pissed the whole time? Like, he wants to move up to number one and everything? Like, that's Michael Bidwell to me. Yeah. Howell goes 19 for 31 202 yards one touchdown one interception gets the big dub uh josh dobbs on the other side 21 for 30 132 yards no touchdowns no interceptions it's a very dobbsy in game sure it's kind of like that's kind of the stat line when Dobbs has to play. Hell,

you can make a shitload of money doing that for 10 years. I feel like Dobbs is always in these like gutsy games. Yeah. He gets called upon with almost no notice. It's like, Hey, Josh Jobs, you're starting today.

Like I felt like I wasn't on the team three days ago. Every time. It's amazing. He deserves actually more credit credit when you think about it he does didn't he kind of like am i remembering his situation at tennessee very similarly like obviously he was a starter it's not like it's not like they said to him like hey buddy you're starting this week and you're going from like walk on to starting quarterback but oh at college yeah i was talking about with the titans off the street well no no with the titans actual college yeah but college i also felt like dobbs was just always in these close games with the vols he's got to be tired man he's been in some exhausting battles and he

found himself in the middle of one today he did uh what was what mattered most for you from this game so i know we're gonna get into how on the commander's side so i'll take a cardinals one because the cardinals are at the top of our draft conversation they get caleb williams in every mock draft that you consume i wrote down i thought it was a draft show right so i tried to be rookie centric when I could. I thought Paris Johnson played really, really well. And keep in mind, this man might be blocking for Caleb Williams, who will be the most hyped up number one overall draft pick. It might like since maybe Andrew Luck, he might surpass Trevor Lawrence.

That's how crazy we could get by the end of this thing. Paris Johnson playing really well matters a lot this year. It matters a real lot this year. And I thought he looked the part. I really did. I loved what I saw from him today. Yeah, obviously we don't think it's going to matter in the win column this year,

but I think Arizona... Let's look at the future picks, shall we? Doing this on the fly. I'm looking up Arizona Cardinals future draft picks. So the Cardinals have two first round picks next year, a second round pick, three third round picks. Is this right? Yeah, you got one there and then one oh there's swimming in picks yes like a ball pit of picks three just a mcdonald's ball pit baby uh cardinals have three

third round picks a fourth round pick two fifth round picks don't pick in the sixth round hold your horses there man code really made us reevaluate some things that exist huh like oh you're talking about ball pits i don't think i was allowed to go in the ball pit there's no way do ball pits exist anymore there's no way since covid there's no way since COVID. There's no way. I mean, whatever ball pits survived COVID are an endangered species now. Yeah, they're almost a relic. I don't know if that's the right word. They're a rarity. Like, McDonald's that have ball pits should, they should like advertise that, right?

Like, it should be like essentially Disney World at this point. Right, we have a ball pit. They should like advertise that, right? Like it should be like essentially Disney World at this point. Right. We have a ball pit and like, I mean, there might be people listening to this show that don't even know what we're talking about. Google it. Learn yourself. Ball pits were some of the most high point joy of our childhood. Oh, it's American Ninja Warrior for kids.

Bro, you get a chicken McNugget box. You absolutely slam that down and then you go play in the ball pit while your mom yells don't run too fast so you'll throw up there's the glory days dude uh all right so anyway speaking of not throwing up how did not look overwhelmed he really didn't i thought that he was ready for this moment i thought he was ready i thought he showed signs in the preseason of him being ready. I thought we saw signs from him last year at the end of the year when he got some playing time as well that the NFL is not too big for this guy. You know, Connor, I just wonder why he went in the fifth round. He's yeah, it's weird he's a little bit more reserved he's not as outgoing and i know that coaches and gms want to see this like natural alpha and i don't know if that was sam howell

but you you couldn't have sat here and think that he was some system quarterback at unc he lit it up for two years passing and they lit it up as a runner the third year. This dude could clearly play ball at the NFL level. I just mentioned that Kyle Trask, Kellen Mond, and Davis Mills were second and third round picks. How is Sam Howell a fifth round pick? I all do respect to Mond, Mills, and Trask who continue to catch strays from us on this show.

Maybe it's not strays anymore. Maybe I'm just putting them straight down the barrel at this point. It's weird. You're right. I don't know why this dude was a fifth-round pick. And what matters most is, on one side of things with the Arizona Cardinals, we're going to be talking about quarterback nonstop. Going into the year, people potentially projected quarterback for a spot for Washington

and it's going to take a lot for me to get there I think how is going to show enough promise this year and I think that he's going to get improved enough to where they're probably not going to be in that conversation they're really not so that was my what matters most maybe it's an overreaction monday take but i find myself rooting for how i i like his moxie it's cool dude he man he's a little reckless at times but i'm glad the commanders want to work through that with him but you can see in the red when he drops back like if the first guy he doesn't like he's like i'm running and it's awesome like it's kind of crazy but it's it is awesome to watch um so i hope it works out for him i hope they win some games and i hope he gets a real chance there and they're giving him every chance possible all right yeah go ahead

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Terms and responsible gambling resources. Bonus bets expire seven days after issuance. It's important you guys got to remember that. Eligibility and deposit restrictions to apply on all of that. Let's do. Oh, Atlanta, Carolina. I feel like this one was spicy.

A little NFC South matchup to start the season. The Atlanta Falcons are victorious. This one was in Atlanta, so they defend home turf 24 to 10. This is also Bryce Young's first start. We got Brian Burns, who looked like he was one quarter in the NFL season, looked like he was about to win Defensive Player of the Year. He could have sat out the rest of the games this regular season. He might have been on the final ballot. That's how

well he was playing. A very interesting stat sheet and usage for the Atlanta Falcons. Connor, they came away with a big win. Is that what mattered most? Tell me what mattered most here from this game. I think so.

I wrote down the Falcons will be like the ultimate training wheels offense, but Bijan and their overall run game might be good enough that it's enough. I wrote, it's not good for Drake London or Kyle Pitts. People in fantasy are going to be pissed. It's, you know, obviously maybe you, well, not maybe, you know, obviously maybe you,

well, not maybe you'd love the team to have a quarterback and trust in a quarterback to have more of an aerial aggressive attack, but Bijan is so good. And I think their run blocking is very good that this is just who they are. And the defense can get it together this year. And Jesse Bates, of course, had a day. Oh, boy.

Like the Falcons can win this division with that training wheels offense. What was Bates' initial PFA? Yeah, he had the two picks on Bryce. I wrote Bryce learned the hard way. He had the two picks, right? And he had forced fumbles, though. Oh, I didn't know he had two forced fumbles. He's either one or two. Oh, 94 And he had forced fumbles, though. Oh, I didn't know he had two forced fumbles. He's either one or two.

Well, he had, okay, 94.4. Let's go, baby. I mean, Jesse Bates was like, it's why they paid him. I mean, dude was awesome. Dude, that was sick. How many forced fumbles did he have? Hold on. One.

We got it. Okay. All right, he only had one? That's what I saw. Oh, wow, only one? Yeah, only one. Could have been better. Only one?

Why don't you get those numbers up next week, Jesse? Why don't you defend the run? It's where football starts. Get your nose in there. I don't know if anybody told you. No, my what matters most is sort of similar to yours. Although mine's a little bit more harsh. You said that this is the ultimate training wheels offense,

but it's it's going to be successful i agree with you completely but i don't want to judge jasmine ritter too hard because like this is the full season where we really are going to be able to evaluate them i think for a full 17 games and i i think for as much as people myself included would love to jump to conclusions to get the final answer on jasmine ritter. We don't have to do that. And in fact, it's not going to work out like that. You know that Arthur Smith and Terry Fondo are not going to operate like that. They're not going to make a decision on their quarterback,

I don't think, unless Ritter just goes full off the rails. They're not going to make a decision on their quarterback until this year's already over, no matter how far they go this year, whether it's playoffs or not. But it does look like from what we saw last season and how the Falcons kind of came out of the gate, it does feel like this team is still a good upgraded quarterback away from

being really, really damn good. You know, if the Falcons for this is if the falcons were somehow to get drake may i mean this team's without question my pick to win the nfc south the next year like all of a sudden falcons football gets fun as hell yeah i would say tannahill next year though just so you like we can get that out of the way now come on don't do that think it was the coach no michael panics jr oh sign me up let's go no it's gonna be bonix everybody's gonna be

except for me except for me except for me i'm just gonna be sitting there with a bonix sign in the stands a foam finger that's just a foam finger oh man but it's a pumpkin shaped foam finger oh no it's too far no but i i just i do think that the falcons they're gonna be just like the lions they're gonna be just like the titans they're not gonna give a about any stats for any player as long as they win it doesn't matter it does not matter drake london played what 90 of this snaps i think i think you played 90 of the offensive snaps today one time one target zero catches yeah it's pretty insane you picked him number eight overall two years ago

that's the weird part right they don't care no they don't hear the thing the thing with the falcons is they don't draft for volume they don. They're just putting pieces together in the offense. And some weeks, Drake London's going to have 10 targets. Other weeks, clearly, I didn't think this was possible, but clearly, he's going to have one target for zero yards, zero catches. But if they win, it doesn't matter. Arthur Smithith is just the ultimate i don't care about volume for any player he does not go into games i don't besides derrick henry that was it and it's a whole life well but i think henry was different because henry was like all they had you know they had to build the entire offense around the volume of henry and that came with

the play action work and then things to the tight ends like it all it all went off of derrick henry it it doesn't it's not like that in atlanta they don't have a even drafting bijan robinson they're gonna split time between bijan robinson and tyler algier tyler algier's running style is to kick ass for them to put him on the bench. They're just not going to give B. John all these crazy carries. They're going to give him the football, and when they do, they're going to expect magic to happen. It's the same thing with Kyle Pitts.

It's the same thing with Drake London. When they target these guys, it might be just a very few amount of times, but when they do, they're going to expect major results. But the Falcons' offense is not this volume-based offense, I don't think for anybody. But if they get themselves a better quarterback, I think things change. And I think those numbers in all areas start to get a lot better. And maybe a year from now, we're talking about the Falcons

in a different light, depending on who the quarterback is. Oh, yeah, Kyler Murray. When Kyler Murray is on the Atlanta Falcons next year, it'll be a different story there you go uh stealers yeah yeah we can do that so the niner stealers niners 30 stealers one of the bigger surprises of the day right of how the lack of this game was not competitive at all no which is not second half it was like even but the score was already out of reach yeah yeah it was like let's run this clock out yeah basically uh what was your what matters most from this one man i wrote for the

niners like two quick ones i wrote I can easily be the guy this year. Like we've had the Debo year. We've had the moments of Kittle. We know what McCaffrey is capable of. I look at Iook and he's just playing out of his mind. And he had a thousand yards last year and it felt like nobody really cared. But if Iook has this kind of rapport with Brock Purdy and is run blocking his ass off in the run game

the way we saw today, I mean, this is a dude that can go for 1,400 yards, 10 plus touchdowns, never come off the field in a Kyle Shanahan offense where, like, that's scary because you already have Kittle, you already have Christian McCaffrey, you already have Kittle you already have Christian McCaffrey you already have Debo and now Ayuk is going to be the player that we've always known

he can be he had a lot of things to clean up coming out of school actually after watching this game I purposely went back and watched like my initial reaction when we did the BR draft show to what I said about him and I liked the pick but I also was aware like he's gonna have to like polish his game and now you're kind of seeing him age like him marinate where he's looking like a refined player in an offense that requires that and I mean he's legitimately could be a star this year it was maybe it's a week one over reaction but I thought he looked like a guy that was like he's always been a good player I thought he looked like an incredible player today yeah he was always a really nice athlete at Arizona State. Like I felt there were certainly even times where he'd create a ton of separation with

the droughts, but it wasn't consistent. I think he's very consistent now. I think he's grown into that role and he's even more than just a really good route runner now. I mean, he's a good deep threat. He was a great blocker, as we saw in that christian mccaffrey run like i i think that uh blossoming uh what is is the right word to use when you talk about brandon iuk and i don't think this is a up and down fluke for him i think that he is here to stay as their wide receiver one on this team on the flip side of things my what mattered most yeah i mean the 49ers

were absolutely dominant i'm not worried about ken Kenny Pickett yet. Kenny Pickett really struggled with his accuracy and some of his decision-making today. Niners have one of the best defenses in the NFL. And of course, Pickett wants to get to the point where he's able to best the best defenses in the NFL. Just because he's not there yet doesn't mean that I'm totally worried about him or that I'm totally discounting what we saw,

certainly in the second half of last season I think he'll be fine this is one of the worst games I saw him from him from like an accuracy and decision standpoint but as of right now to me it's an outlier it's it's not like oh here we go this is the this is the real Kenny Pickett now I think there's a lot more evidence from, like I mentioned, the second half of last season, and of course, if you go back to his final year at Pittsburgh as well, there's more evidence to good quarterback play, good decision-making, good accuracy, good ball placement, things like that.

So I am not worried about Kenny Pickett yet. No, it's too early. I am worried, though, about, like, they need to get broderick jones ready to play for this team that's my takeaway when i watch their offensive line i thought dan moore had a really rough game that kenny pickett who is a player that was so similar to derrick carr when you're trying to find a ceiling comparison for him coming out needs to be protected and he was not in this game dude how about how about tj watt in this game i mean tj watt had a 94.3 initial pass rush grade three sacks six total pressures 23.1 pass rush win percentage yeah he's insane's insane. I mean, it was not Pittsburgh's day,

but this dude absolutely put himself in early defensive player of the year category with a performance from what he had against San Francisco. Baltimore and Houston. Can we go to that game next? Yeah, for sure. So the Ravens win this one. I think most people believe the ravens were gonna win this one it's in baltimore cj stroud's first start was on the road ravens win 25-9

um lamar jackson led the team in rushing but with just 38 yards went 17 for 22 passing 169 yards um through the air had Had some questionable throws. Zay Flowers. Oh, I didn't even realize that. I'm reading this for the first time now. I feel like that Trump meme. Wow, you're telling me this for the first time. 10 targets, 9 receptions.

Let's go, Zay. He looked great. No, the couple of times that I was able to watch him get the ball in his hands when I was watching Red Zone because I didn't have that one on locally. He looked awesome, but I didn't realize he had 10 targets. But it's Todd Munkin. Todd Munkin is going to put the ball in the dude's hands

that has the best yard after catch ability. I thought Lamar didn't play well at all, and the Ravens won big. This was like a game where it's like, Lamar knew it. He was looking around, beating his chest. That fumble's on me. That's on me. It felt like a tune-up game in college football for the Ravens. Is that what mattered most, or did you have a different play? No, what mattered most to me watching the Texans

is that it will be so hard to evaluate C.J. Stroud this year. They got a ton of injuries on the offensive line. They didn't protect him. They don They got a ton of injuries on the offensive line. They didn't protect him. They don't have a ton of playmakers. Robert Woods kind of came out of nowhere. My man. Yeah, I mean, what a career he's had. And it looked like we were at the end for him last year.

So good to see him have six catches, 57 yards. It's just so it's going to be so hard to evaluate shroud in this offense they are not only are they not healthy which is a massive key for them on the offensive line goes all the way down to damian pierce being able to get the run game going but they just they don't have a lot right now where it's it's going to be like that in my opinion all year for stroud my what matters most is is similar but i'll sort of take a different angle with it. I agree with you completely. I think it's going to be a rough year for CJ.

But I will say this. If Stroud can show even any sort of improvement this year through the toughness that it's going to take for him to show that improvement. I think that the Texans will know that they've got a potential franchise quarterback on their hand because this year is going to be really rough. It's going to be really tough for him to progress. I agree with you completely. He was sacked five times today. He was hit 10 times. Let's not even talk about pressures. I'm talking about QB hits. He was's hit 10 times and we know that the receiving core is not in the top half of the league to put it lightly if stroud can survive this season and showcase mental toughness they're gonna know they've got somebody that they can ride with. So I think that this is truly going to be a trial by fire season for Houston.

But if Stroud comes out the other side, and even if he's beat up, he's still standing, they're going to know they got their guy. And I think that's going to be really important to him, especially for a player who's the glaring part of his scouting report was dealing with pressure and how he played under pressure. That was something that we were really worried about going from Ohio State to the NFL. But I feel as though from what I've seen in the preseason and what I saw today, he is up for that challenge. He's not crumbling. And that to me is really really important so like i

said if he survives this year they'll know that they got their franchise guy i like it and i'm with you if you're gonna be able to evaluate anything like i said it's hard to evaluate him this year it's the mental toughness to get through a season like that and this is a good start i think this is the last of the 1 p.m games that we have here the jacksonville jaguars versus the indianapolis colts jags win this one 31 to 21 although this is back and forth man this is a lot more back and forth than i thought uh lawrence ended up finishing the game with 240 passing yards two touchdowns calvin ridley man hell of a day for their first regular season connection 11 targets eight catches over 100 yards, and a touchdown.

He looked awesome. Travis Etienne had over 4 yards per carry. Jags obviously get the big win here. Anthony Richardson, I thought looked... Given expectations, honestly, I thought he looked really solid. But I want to hear what matters most was from this game. So we'll get into Richardson, right? For me with Jacksonville. I said somebody was talking to me recently and they were like they were really very high on Jacksonville.

And I was like, listen, I like that projection. Jacksonville is going to be a team that's on the right trajectory. We saw that last year under Doug. But I need to see this defense really crank it up because when you got to stop the big dogs in the playoff run, like we know Jacksonville is a good team in their division. We know Jacksonville is a playoff team. But when you got to run to Burrow, Mahomes, Allen,

that gauntlet in the playoffs, you need to have a defense that really has some playmaking and some star talent. Tyson Campbell is the star that the Jacksonville defense needs. What I'm talking about that. That's the guy where I'm like, they have a star on defense. And a lot of people don't realize it because I don't know if it because maybe because he plays corner for Jacksonville.

I feel like all the coverage around Jacksonville is around Trevor Lawrence and to a different scale because of fantasy ETN and Calvin Ridley. But man, Trevor, this dude is just I know he had a great year last year and there was really times where he took over this game today Campbell had a sick forced fumble that was like you it was the kind of play that you would see from a middle linebacker where he's tackling a guy from the side and from behind, he just goes in, he just rips the football out. I mean,

you don't see that from corners. That is, I feel like when I watched Tyson Campbell, you were watching such a fierce competitor, no matter what he is asked to do in the moment. And I think that that's huge. And I agree with you completely. I think they've got their CB one there.

I don't know. Maybe Jags fans will get on me for this, but I feel like I could take a victory with my Andre Cisco scouting report. Like I loved Cisco coming into the NFL. I thought he was going to be a starting safety and a playmaking safety. And I feel like he has become that for Jacksonville. So I'm i'm you know what i'm taking a little i'm taking a little victory here on uh on that please go while we were on uh jacksonville side of things um what was my what mattered oh so my what mattered most i'm glad that we talked about jacksonville because

my what mattered most does come from indianapolis And that is the fact that Anthony Richardson sure looked a hell of a lot more ready for the NFL than I think a lot of people were giving him credit for on draft night. I think a lot of people looked at Richardson's time at UF last year and they were like, this dude's going to be terrible in the NFL. There's no way you could start him right away. The accuracy was terrible. The decision-making was all over the place. If you start him in the NFL, he's going to look like a lost puppy dog. He's going to have no idea what's going on. That was not the case. Was Richardson's day perfect? Of course it wasn't, but he looked like a, he looked like a regular first round pick quarterback. There was no like massive learning curve for him.

And he wasn't like catastrophic to the team just because he was out there. Like it sounded like some people were talking about him going into the draft. I thought that he looked ready. He looked ready for this moment. You know, when he got announced as the starter, I think a lot of people, again, were freaking out because they were like, there's no way. What we saw last year at Florida is going to be ready to start in the nfl week one and it was it was great all things considered led the team in rushing yards he had 10 attempts 40 yards 4.0 rushing yard average um had that rushing touchdown 24 for 37 passing 223 passing yards one touchdown one interception.

Do I have the quarterback stats up right now? I don't. Hold on. Give me a second. I want to see what the initial passing grades were. I know he wasn't super high, but. I thought he just looked. You know, it's like very cliche,

but I thought he just looked like an NFL quarterback. The way he can run through tacklers. Yes, man. The way he can, you can put something on his plate. I think what Richardson, what's fascinating to me is, yes, he can, you can put something on his plate. And then what Richardson, what's fascinating to me is yes, he's raw. Yes. He has his misses all that.

He's the guy that could do the most with less right now because of his physical ability. Like there was times today where Bryce just a hundred percent, he just couldn't do much partially because of what's around him, but partially, you know, his decisions and stuff. Same with CJ. CJ was just stuck because he didn't have a lot around him, but partially, you know, his decisions and stuff. Same with CJ.

CJ was just stuck because he didn't have a lot around him. But Richardson, it's like, man, he doesn't have a lot around him, and he can just make something happen because of how physically gifted he is. He raises the floor, right? I mean, I think a lot of people on Twitter have been talking about things like that. When you have that rushing ability, it raises the floor of what you can do as a quarterback. And I just, I, what matters most to me is that Richardson looked fine.

Richardson looked fine, and he had them in that game. Jacksonville's a playoff team from last year with a lot of talent, and they're going to be better this year. And Richardson had them in that game to put them in a position to win without Jonathan Taylor. And I think that that's huge. And in a position to win without Jonathan Taylor. And I think that that's, that's huge. And I felt like that spoke volumes of Richardson. Let's get to the four o'clock games. The first one, we have to talk about the Los Angeles Chargers and the Miami

Dolphins first. This game was sick. You know, when you started the podcast and you were like, wow, the, you know, the, the four o'clock games, they were coming down to the wire. It was exciting. This is the game that I think that you were mainly talking about here. Dolphins end up winning in LA 36 to 34. Tua has probably the best game of his career by my mark. He wasn't obviously like the numbers of 28 for 45 completions. That's not great. But 466 passing yards, three passing touchdowns he threw one

interception the initial numbers here that we have on him is nine big time throws from that is without now some of those might go down like like i said they do rechecks and regrades and everything before they kind of make them final sometime on Monday. But it's not like it's going to go from nine to three. You know, it's still going to be very high, whether it's nine or whether it's seven or whatever it is. I mean, we watch the game. That's got to be by far the most big time throws that he's ever had in a game. I mean, he was sick.

And to me, that's what mattered most. That is what mattered most in this game, is that Tua looked legit. Does Tua have the arm strength that Josh Allen or Justin Herbert or Patrick Mahomes or Anthony Richardson or whoever, does he have that kind of arm talent to him where if he is hesitant on a read, he can see something, fit the football in a football-sized window in the blink of an eye? No, he doesn't have a frozen rope arm. That's not Tua.

But what we saw today is how awesome it can look when he's throwing with confidence because this dude throws with touch, he throws with accuracy, and he throws with timing. You're always going to question the arm strength. You're always going to question the arm strength. You're always going to question the arm strength. If you want to look at that with Tua, which is an important part of playing the position. I'm not saying that it's not. But if you want to sit here and say he doesn't have a strong arm,

you will be able to argue that for his entire career. All I'm saying is, even though that's true, be careful how hard your stance is, because you might miss him doing something awesome like we saw this past weekend, where the accuracy, the confidence, the touch is beautiful. And I don't want anybody out there telling me that it's just because he has Tyreek Hill, okay? Tyreek Hill, yes, is the fastest player in the game. But when Tyreek Hill is running as fast as he is, that only means that your timing, your accuracy,

and your ball placement, your rhythm, everything, has to be that much more confident. Because the margin for error is lower because he's running so fast. That last touchdown that he threw in the corner, right over the shoulder, I think it was JC Jackson, just straight into the bucket, showed you the kind of day that Tua had as a passer without being able to say, oh, it was just Tyreek's speed.

So that's my rant, rant over what mattered most to me. Tua was legit today. I hope we get to see it from him for the rest of the season. Dolphins offense is an absolute unit. They got a great engineer in Mike McDaniel. They got a good point guard in Tua. They obviously have

incredible speed at every skill position. And with all that being said, there is no excuse for Brandon Staley's defense to allow this performance. That's what matters most to me. Miami's going to go off on a lot of teams. They're equipped to do that.

You can't give up this. Because of the timeline you're on for the Chargers, you hit it out of the park on your quarterback pick. You have a star in justin herbert right who is now entering his prime you have an aging wide receiver in keenan allen who's still phenomenal mike williams quentin johnson austin eckler who's probably not going to be there next year right and even if he whether he comes back whatever i don't like windows right but the timeline they have built they're're ready, theoretically, the Chargers. Yeah, they should be.

They should be ready. Yep. They have the offense. We saw it today. They were awesome today on offense. Brandon Staley is there to not only be the head coach of the team, but to put out a capable defensive unit. And they're horrendous.

I mean, the Dolphins didn't even have Teron Armstead in this game. No pass rush. No pass rush. but to put out a capable defensive unit. And they're horrendous. I mean, the Dolphins didn't even have Teron Armstead in this game. No pass rush. No pass rush. Nothing against Kendall Lamb, who did a very admirable job. But you're telling me that they couldn't rush the passer and they gave him 8 million yards?

I understand if Tua went off for 300 and had a day and all this. I mean, it wasn't even close to that. So... Man, they didn't have a sack they didn't even want sniff Tua in this game Brandon Staley I mean the only two QB if not now when like how much does this guy need yeah no this team to win the big games this team should be winning the big games. And because of his defense, they don't. So, it actually pisses me off because the Chargers should be so much better than this. Honestly.

No, I hear you. Like, it's cool that you were the guy that didn't punt and you had the videos and all that. Defense looks awful. Chargers deserve better. They deserve better. Yeah, this is, you know, everybody knows that Staley's on the hot seat. defense looks awful. Chargers deserve better. They deserve better. Yeah, this is, you know, everybody knows that Staley's on the hot seat.

It's not a good start. Not a good start. Even if you tip your cap and say that the Dolphins, you give the Dolphins the credit they deserve. And they do deserve credit. The defense, man, you gotta, yeah, it's gotta come from somewhere, man. Defense has gotta step up somehow um this was a surprising result this next one los angeles rams get the dub in seattle

decisively over the seahawks 30 to 13. Connor, how the hell did it... Dude, Pook and Nakua. Oh, man. Tutu Atwell. Tutu Atwell. Respect his name, Trevor. I'll never. Best second round pick I've ever seen.

That's how you draft. I never doubted that pick. Gun up. All right right so what we should we've never missed on a prospect we've never missed on a prospect i just every time i look up daniel jones is getting hit every time i look up oh things are going good um going well all right what what mattered most from you from this game? That the Rams hitting on picks like Puka Nakua is how they are going to turn this roster around. The Rams, like it was fun and they won a Super Bowl and they're like the F them picks and they got the shirts.

And like, it's awesome, right? The Rams won a Super Bowl. It all worked. But now as we go into phase two, like F them picks gets left behind. It's now, oh, we actually really like these picks and need to hit on some of them. And this is how you do it, because everybody, including myself included, clowns the Rams top heavy roster, right?

They are like the top one of the most top heavy NFL rosters I've ever seen because they have a really good quarterback. They unfortunately is hurt, but they have an elite wide receiver and they have one of the best defensive linemen the game has ever seen in Aaron Donald. Then you look at the rest of the roster, and you're like, oh, wow. Like, what happened here? Well, they didn't have picks for a long time. And you got hit on these depth picks.

And I thought, we laugh about 2-2 Atwell, but him and notably Puka Nakua looked the part today. They looked the part against a really good Seattle team. I don't really know what to make of this game from Seattle's point of view. I don't. I think this is a result from Seattle that I'm not going to overreact to,

and I don't really have a take on. Yeah, I'm with you. My what matters most is very similar to kind of what you were saying, and I'll spin it a little bit more towards a forward-thinking draft perspective. If Matthew Stafford's healthy for all 17 games, Matthew Stafford and Sean McVay are way too good for this team to be anywhere near picking Caleb Williams or Drake May.

You look at this roster, straight up, this is one of the worst rosters in the NFL. There's no question about it. Starter level, depth, even with Aaron Donald included, this is one of the worst rosters in the NFL. Actually, I don't know. I shouldn't say it like that. This is one of those unproven rosters in the NFL. Just guys that are journeymen or young players that don't have a ton of experience or guys who are on their second or third stint or like whatever. This is a makeshift group,

man. Alright, two more games. The New England Patriots and Philadelphia Eagles. Gonna be straight up with you. Gonna keep it a buck. I don't know what the hell happened in this game. I don't really even have a take in this game.

Eagles won 25-20. Mack Jones actually felt like he lit it up. I think we had him with five big-time throws by the end of the game on the initial count. And yet, still not enough for the Patriots to win. by the end of the game on the initial count and yet still not enough for the patriots to win it felt like the eagles played their worst game possible and they still got the w to me they're just i don't know i i didn't really have a strong take here in this game what about you connor i mean this is the game i might have watched the most of and the patriots just put themselves in such a bad hole

out of the gate with mistakes, which is very unlike, you know, Belichick team, you would think. They made mistake after mistake to put them in this massive 16-0 hole. Yeah. I think the Eagles side, to me, is that I'm really going to keep an eye on, like, how big of a deal was Shane Steichen to the offense, right?

And it's week one. It could just be Russ. Jalen Hurts is going to be fine. They got great offensive talent. They have great defensive talent. But it's the one thing I will like, was it a one week thing or will this be a pattern? I think that's what we'll be watching.

But it just goes to show you, like you said, Trevor, the Eagles had played as badly as the Eagles could probably play and they still won. Wait, Jalen Carter got a sack? I mean, how much did he play? They were rotating like crazy. Like crazy. Oh, my gosh.

I'm just watching a clip, and his very first play of the regular season, he just eats this dude's lunch. He had a 32% pass win rate what because he didn't play a lot he really i don't think he played much no he didn't he he had 38 snaps but but they're like to put in perspective like dariarius Slay led the defense with 78. 38 snaps? How many were pass rush snaps? Can you see that? 33, I want to say.

32. Yes, he was kicking ass. And he got a sack, and he had a 32% pressure rate. Jalen Carter, pretty good at football. Holy cow, man. That's insane. That's my takeaway. My one thing that matters most is you should fear Jalen Carter. Yeah, he's already going to be an elite player.

That's insane. All right, last game we're talking about. Green Bay Packers. We didn't do Raiders Broncos. Oh, we didn't do Raiders Broncos. Yeah. You're right. That could be a quick one.

How did I forget about that one? All right. Yeah, what do you got? What matters most? Jimmy is a way better fit for Josh McDaniel's offense than Carr. Oh, it feels like it's a perfect fit. It was a perfect fit. He looked so much more comfortable than Carr ever did.

Yeah. I know he got hurt at the end of this game by a really bad hit. I don't think it was intentional, it was a not the kind of hit they want the game anymore yeah yeah i wouldn't go i wonder if new england will regret giving that money to juju over jacoby i'm not saying they will i'm saying i'm wondering i thought jacoby meyers looked so in sync with this offense so in sync he looked really good jimmy looked really comfortable the raiders i don't know how their season will go, but I know that Jimmy is an upgraded quarterback for what they want to do. I'm not saying he's a better player than Carr, although there's times where it looks that way.

But I just think that you could see it all today. Yeah, I think that I agree with you. I don't want to steal your what matters most from this one but i definitely agree that jimmy is more along mcdaniel's speed um i don't think that's going to be to the advantage of davante adams fantasy owners like i don't think that you're gonna it's gonna be like force feeding davante adams the ball i don't really not that he's not gonna eat he's gonna have some games where he absolutely goes off he's still at nine targets in this game but i just think it's gonna be a lot more spread out it's gonna be a lot more spread out. It's going to be a lot more balanced. The Raiders are going to score around 20 points a game. Like some weeks it's going to be enough. Some weeks it's not

going to be. And I think it's not going to be a lot more than the former, but it got it done today, man. I was, I was, I was pretty, I was pretty surprised in this one. I would say on the other side of things, I don't know if Broncos fans are gonna be mad at me for this but I thought it looked better I did like for every time I was catching the game and every time I was catching Russ on offense like I thought he looked more confident I thought he knew where he was going a little bit better with the ball it didn't end up being a high scoring affair for them. But for game one of the Sean Payton connection with this offense, I thought it was a step in the right direction.

And I think there's a chance that mid season, this offense is really rolling at a much better level than it ever was even last year. So to me, I felt like the Denver Broncos got off on the right foot. But yeah, hat tip to the Raiders. I did not think that they were going to pull this one out. Yeah, everything just looked better with Jimmy under center. I agree. And you're right, though.

The Broncos, for sure. Things looked better for us. It was not an overly exciting game, to be honest with you. No, it was very. Yeah, it was a low ceiling game. The Broncos played everybody on offense. They threw to like three or four tight ends. They gave every running back touches.

Yeah. How many? All the way down to the undrafted kid that made the team mclaughlin jaleel yep which is really cool like good for him five six seven everybody got the ball 10 11 11 different broncos players got a target yeah love the share you love to share the ball around like that you know everybody gets involved everybody has fun you know you sign your kids up to play football, and you hate it if they don't really play a lot.

That's what Sean Payton's doing. He's the dad coach of the team. Everybody's getting equal playing time, so the parents don't call him, and they're not mad about it. He's doing what he needs to do as a coach. That's a good peewee football coach. Last game, Packers-Bears. Packers

38, Bears 20. Jordan Love picks up the dub in Chicago. This is a fun little division matchup to start the season. Jordan Love did throw three touchdowns. He was 15 for 27, 245 passing yards. Aaron

Jones felt like was the hero in this one. He had 86 receiving yards and a touchdown. He also had 41 yards on the ground on just nine carries. So really good averages there, both on the ground and through the air. Justin Fields, Ed, not so good. I mean, he was good as a runner, nine carries, 59 yards. But as a passer, 24 for 37 216 passing yards one touchdown one interception connor what'd you think what mattered most from

this one so stat here from the chicago side this is um zach pearson on twitter who covers the Bears posted this. Justin Fields' pass chart, he had 37 pass attempts today. Only four attempts out of the 37 went past 10 yards. And I just watched this game. Number one, I was very shocked. And I don't say this like in a hindsight. I have plenty of picks that are wrong. I was shocked the Bears were favored in this game. And even if they wanted,

they wanted to favor him in this game, that's fine. I was shocked how much they were favored over Green Bay and the division odds in books because of the Packers entire roster. I know Jordan loves an unknown, but let's call it like it is. Justin Fields is an unknown.

You're coming into this game. He is an unknown. He's a fantasy football star last year. We don't know if he's going to be a good passing quarterback and nothing today showed us that. The stat I just read, it's two things, Trevor. One, that he's not doing it. But two, the way the Bears come out of the game,

they don't even trust him to or they ever dictate the flow of the game. Like, they're always going to be playing from behind if this is how they're living. Jordan Love made mistakes today. Jordan Love also was money on third down and made some big throws when they needed him to make big throws.

It really is like first real game, right? Like, let's call it what it is. This is the Jordan Love era. Aaron Rodgers is gone. Jordan Love had his misses, but on third downs and some big plays, the Packers not only trust him to make big throws, but he trusted himself to make big throws. This was the perfect game to watch somebody side by side, like a young quarterback. We don't know what he is yet compared to Justin Fields, who's kind of the same, but kind of starting to skew that he's not. I'm losing faith quickly, very quickly,

because Jordan Love trusts himself. I don't know if I can say that about Justin Fields right now. Yeah, when you said that Justin Fields is unknown, the reason why I say is he is because it's like are we kind of just figuring things out like is he we're getting to the point where it might be a known with him and the known is just the answer that people don't want to hear now justin's a hell of a talent and right always i can certainly understand any franchise whether it's the Bears or anybody else, giving him every chance you possibly can because he is that athletically and physically gifted. But I'm with you. This game was nothing but a step in the wrong direction in proving that he can be the passer that you need to be to succeed in this league.

Like I I'm, I'm hesitant to say this because obviously I haven't watched every snap of these guys, but like off first watch, I'd tell you that Anthony Richardson was a better passer today than Justin Fields was. And Anthony Richardson's in game one of his NFL career. And so, yeah, man, we're just, unfortunately we're digging holes with Justin Fields already this season and didn't want to be doing that. So hopefully kind of figures it out, turns it around,

plays Todd Bowles defense next week. So not great, but the thing that mattered most for me in this one is actually on the opposite side. It's a Jordan love loving like the world on fire. I don't even think he had a big time throw in this game. Maybe he had one, Me and this one is actually on the opposite side. It's a Jordan Love. Love didn't light the world on fire. I don't even think he had a big time throw in this game. Maybe he had one, but he just looked really confident.

Like there were multiple times where I was watching the game and I actually got this one on local feed. So I could see a lot of this one. There were multiple times where Jordan would look at his first read. It wasn't there. The pressure would come to him. And then he could see that the second read, the second guy in the progression was going to be open, but he needed to accelerate his process to get the ball out and get it to them accurately on time and in a throwing window. And a lot of younger guys panic. Either the ball doesn't get where it needs to go, the ball placement is bad, or they're just freaking out. They're tucking and running. They can only think about the pressure around them and they can't really think about the

throw. So they try to tuck it or they take it around or they try to do the Madden thing where they go all the way outside the pocket and try to go to the sideline love I felt like had a couple of times where when he was getting to that second or third read in his progression the pressure was kind of starting to come towards him but he didn't panic and he still was able to deliver the ball that was a great sign to me so I thought that no he didn't have a vintage 400 yard four touchdown Aaron Rodgers type of game but he played really well in his first I think big time start with all the pressure and all the eyes on him with him being the man this season and I thought he handled it really well I thought he handled it with a lot of confidence and that confidence is the thing that matters most to me moving forward with love i thought so too i'd rather see a guy trust himself and fail but then

bounce back then with like once again i hate to harp on fields because a lot of young guys go through this they do but i fields we talk about so much because he's he was he's always had the talent he was drafted really, obviously, very early. And he's been given this chance. It was the perfect game to kind of see that weird balance where I'm like, man, Jordan Love looks like, yeah, there's going to be warts and hurdles, but you're seeing glimpses of Jordan Love where you're like, okay,

when he starts to kind of dial into more of that, I know I have a guy that can do it. And with the other side of the ball, it just felt like you're like, God, here we go again. It's the same thing. So it was a fascinating game to watch. It really was from that perspective. All right, Sunday Night Football update.

The game is at halftime. I've watched none of it uh cowboys 26 giants nothing cowboys defense is so fast it's insane it's insane how fast they are daniel jones says he's five for 13. Jeez. Yeah, he's been hit like a thousand times. All right, hold on, hold on, hold on, hold on. We're looking at stats. We're looking at stats.

There's been a touchdown scored by every phase. Special teams, defense, and offense. Four sacks already for the Cowboys defense. We've got seven QB hits. Stephon Gilmore's got a pick. It's not good. It's not good for the G-man. If you're a Giants fan, listen to this. I'm sorry. At least we waited to the end

for you. We would love to hear from you guys. Let us know what you thought on the weekend that was in the NFL for week one. Tell us what you thought of our What Matter was in the nfl for week one tell us what you thought of our what matters most and we would love to hear what matters most from you we know that you're an nfl fan listening to this podcast we know that your favorite team has played at some point unless they're monday night football then you can save it for next week if you want to

but we would love to hear what matters most from you you can even give us takes on multiple teams we would love to hear the best way to do. You can even give us takes on multiple teams. We would love to hear it. Best way to do that is on the YouTube channel and in the comments to this very video, www.youtube.com backslash at NFL stock exchange. If you're audio only, you can give us your what matters most by hitting us up on Twitter or Instagram at Tampa tray at Connor J Rogers. Connor, a lot of takes today.

A lot of takes, but anything else before we get out of here that we need to remind the people of? I think I'll close on this. Week one lies all the time. So I tried not to have takes that are totally from week one, besides the good ones. I want to be positive about Rashid Shaheed, right? There's things you're excited about

uh paris johnson awesome debut week one lies a lot so i think the goal you and i trevor always try not to be like oh my god like that team's doomed because of one bad week one but there were plenty of things it was interesting it was uh look i completely i completely agree with you two tungo lo is gonna win mvp yep uh the pittsburgh sealers are gonna pick number one overall yep like it's all you know it's it's uh nothing nothing tells the truth more like week one baker mayfield's gonna geno smith extension baker mayfield's getting a patch of my homes oh my god that would be your Bobby Bonilla contract.

We would love to hear from you guys on what you would love to hear from this channel. I know some of you talked about, hey, can you devote some time to some rookies who are getting into the NFL, playing for the first time, whether it's the quarterbacks or things like that. Maybe we'll end up switching the Monday format instead of a what matters most. Maybe we'll get into some rookie performances, if that's what you guys want to see from this channel. Wednesday, well, yeah, Wednesday's show is going to be a little bit more draft focused. We're going to look back on college football and what was.

We're going to talk about a lot of the stock ups, stock downs. We're going to give you a ton of the segments that we sort of introduced last week, but we're going to build off of those as well. So if you've got more draft-related topics, things you would want to hear, let us know on that as well. But, dude, if you got anything else, speak now. Refer everyone to your piece.

We'll be back in the middle of the week. That's the beauty of it. We don't have to cram it all in like a sardine can. We get to do this thing twice. Yeah. Normally, just so you guys know what we're thinking for the schedule is 930 p.m. on Mondays and Wednesdays is when we're going to release the episodes tonight. It was obviously a Sunday night one or recording Sunday night because Connor's got to work

on it night football. But normally it's going to be Monday nights at 9.30, Wednesday nights at 9.30. That's what we're going to give it to you. So we wanted to get a centralized time so you guys can remember, hey, 9.30, Mondays and Wednesdays, that's the time that you get to listen to NFL Stock Exchange. So we will see you guys on Wednesday for more NFL draft and college football updates. I'm Trevor Sikama. That's Connor Rogers. Thank you guys so much for listening to the NFL Stock Exchange Podcast. See you on Wednesday. Bye.