NFL Stock Exchange: An NFL Draft Podcast - 195. "What Matters Most" From Each Game in NFL from Week 3 (2023)

Episode Date: September 26, 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 3 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, it's back, baby. What matters most is back. The people asked for it, and it's here. We're giving you our talking points for what we think the big takeaways were for every single game of the Sunday slate from week three in the NFL. 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 Sycamore. That is Connor Rogers joining you guys for the return of everybody's favorite format back by popular demand. It is what matters most. We're talking about everything that matters most from the Sunday slate of games from week three in the NFL. Connor, they say week one lies. They say week two, you can kind of get away with some things,

but week three, that's often where the chaos really begins. Because those first couple of weeks in the NFL, oh, we think we know. We think we know what's going on. Oh, this team's going to be bad this year. This team's going to be good. And then week three comes around and boom, baby, it's just straight on its head. You got teams that have no business winning, upsetting teams that should have been runaway favorites. It was a wild week.

I'm excited to dig into it, my friend. How you doing? I'm good, man. Another wild week in the NFL. You're right. I mean, we had a couple of huge upsets. One that was massive. We had another team just get throttled in a way

we haven't seen in the NFL in a very, very long time. It was almost a historic win by points scored when you look at the Dolphins. So I'm glad to be back to this format. I wrote down a ton of stuff when I was on the train home on Sunday night. I know you wrote down a ton of stuff, and I know the fans really like to jump in on this as well. So this is a really fun show. Yeah. Last week, we tried to dig into things a little bit deeper, maybe some less topics,

but y'all spoke. And we, of course, listen, because we mean it when we say that this is as much you guys' podcast as it is ours. You want to hear hear takes on every single game we're going to give you takes on every single game so we're going to go down the list we don't have thursday night football though sorry still so far away it does man it was like way too long ago yeah giants fans who like to leave who's who starts night football what was thursday night football giants lost by a lot to the niners um oh yeah right right yeah so we don't even need to talk about that one the what matters most from that game uh daniel jones's contract not great i don't know uh debo samuels still that dude still that dude

yeah and kyle shanahan remains a wizard because we as we sit here we still don't know whether or not brock perry's good and yet and yet he still has not lost which is enraging on twitter what game you want to start with what game you want to start with there oh let's take a look here how about the bears i know it was a bad i know it's not a good game sure sure but i think it's a game where things matter and my honest take in this game has nothing to do of course with kansas city right when you look at this game i mean did we learn a single thing they could still score a lot of points it turns out that mahomes is still pretty good player i'm very surprised that you started with this game because i didn't learn a damn thing about either team i learned something about the bears okay let's hear it what do we got i mean maybe we already knew this but i feel like a lot of the world has been trying to deny this

and the reason why i did learn something from this game is because of how things played out for arizona and how things have played out for Arizona. I mean, the Bears are a very real place for Caleb Williams. Oh, sure. Very real. And I think the combo going into the summer was always, okay, the Bears have extra capital. We don't know if Justin Fields is good. We don't know how this is going to work out. There's a chance the Bears are in on the quarterback class of 2024.

I think that's a fair take. Whether you love Fields or didn't like him or wherever you thought, you thought that that is in the range of outcomes is what I like to say. I came away from this game because this was the whole, okay, how are they going to respond? The Bears had a week in the news from literal hell.

Like they were the main character on Twitter the entire week. And were they going to respond by competing against the Chiefs? Where even if they lost, competing where it's like, okay, the Bears are going to respond by competing against the Chiefs, where even if they lost, competing where it's like, okay, the Bears are going to scrap together some wins this year, and Fields might be able to climb out of this. They just got ran over.

And the fact is, with how hard Arizona is playing right now, they just beat Dallas, and we'll get there. I'm not saying the Bears are the worst team in football, although when you look at how C.J. Stroud is playing right now, you look at how hard the Cardinals are playing right now, barring the Vikings trading Kirk Cousins really early, the Bears could be the worst team in football. And what matters most about that is that Caleb Williams will be their quarterback of the future.

And I didn't know we'd get all the way there this early in the season, personally. We're three weeks into this thing and you know what you brought a good point i i said that i didn't really learn much from the chiefs and and the bears but i i think you have a good point in just how bad the bears are because certainly if you take roster talent into account i think the bears are without question the worst team in the nfo like basically who are who would you have them up against all right the vikings sure but if the vikings faced off against the bears wait i think the vikings win by 21 points if they played the bears i don't think it'd be 21 points but i i would comfortably

take the vikings in that game i would i would comfortably take the vikings in that game versus the bears arizona cardinals at this point after taking the to the wire, and basically they should have beat the Giants the week before, but it's a new team, a new regime. They're trying to figure out how to win. They got a bunch of backups who are playing the starters right now. So they ended up losing that game, but they really took the Giants down to the wire.

They ended up beating the Dallas Cowboys, like you mentioned. The Arizona Cardinals go up against the Chicago Bears. I'm taking the Cardinals. The Vikings play the Bears, by the way, October 15th. So we'll get an answer to that. That is the Caleb. Will Caleb Williams be at the game? Will he be in the suite? They should actually

put him in a suite. Give him his own suite and like have the hats on the table. Put the hats on the table and when the game's over, he has to put the hat on of the team that loses. It's a billion dollar idea. Billion dollar idea. There'd be more TikToks about this than Taylor Swift.

Lids should sponsor it. Lids should NIL for Caleb Williams on this. Wow. We have this all figured out. It's pretty brilliant. I actually like this a lot. Caleb Williams. What did you say?

October 15th? October 15th. Yeah, he will be there. He will do a signing with the fans for the game, and he will put on the hat of the team that loses. Yeah. That's great. And Confetti actually shoots put on the hat of the team that loses. Yeah. Yeah. That's confetti confetti actually shoots out of the stadium of the team that loses of the team,

of the team that loses. Yeah. Real sicko stuff. So I, I do, I do agree with you though, because the only team I'm looking at tankathon right now, I'm just looking at the order to kind of like refresh my memory.

I think if Carolina plays the Chicago bears, it's close, right? I think both these teams are bad, but because of Carolina's defense, I probably take Carolina in a pretty close one. And then the other one is of course, like Houston,

you could throw in there, but CJ Stroud's playing better than Justin Fields is. There's no doubt about it. I'm a close. And then the other team is the Tennessee Titans, right? I think the Titans are the team where it's like, okay, I don't really have faith in the Titans to beat anybody.

You know, it's Mike Vrabel's team. So I think they'll play hard, but I just don't have a lot of faith in the Tennessee Titans this year. It doesn't feel like, it doesn't feel like the way that they want their team to go is even a strength of the roster as it is currently constructed. So yeah, Bears, the worst team in the NFL, certainly through three weeks.

Doesn't look good, brother. The only thing I had in here for what I learned in this game is, you know, how much is Taylor Swift going to affect how Travis Kelsey plays down the stretch? Because as much as it is a joke, this man might be famous. He might be a Super Bowl champion but taylor swift attention

and paparazzi is some of the craziest stuff i've ever seen be careful what you say next that crazy dude did you see the video clip of kelsey and taylor swift walking out of the stadium oh yeah kelsey's side eyeing the guy with the camera. So hard. Like, Oh, what did I just get into? So I like your point a lot better.

That's actually a much more of a, what matters, what matters most from this game that the bears are the worst. I mean, I like your suit to be fair. Taylor Swift. You think Taylor Swift shows up in east rutherford sunday night football jets chiefs showdown in the century oh is your tour done like i don't i would think so like i

feel like i feel like a couple weeks ago i was just seeing people yeah i mean she toured really hard over the summer uh from sources i've talked to i don't know this i'm not a swifty i'm not going to pretend to be if you you are, good for you. I have no hate. Yeah, it looks like she's on a little break right now. She's not back on tour until October 18th. So I wonder what the odds makers are setting it at Taylor Swift being in a suite at MetLife.

Wow. Could bet on it. Might be a DraftKings promo that we read here on this very show about that later. But all right. So that was our takeaway from that one. What game do you want to hit next? Texans.

Okay. I mean, I got to start in the last one. I'd like you to start on this one, but I think you know where I'm going anyway. Okay. So I have two different ones because I had a what matters most for Houston and I have a what matters most for the Jags. Are you going to CJ Stroud angle? Hell yeah.

Okay. So that's good. I'm glad that you are because I'll probably echo a lot of the points that you make. I'll be the negative Nelly and start with the Jags on this one. I'm really worried about the Jags pass rush. Really worried about it. You have the right to be. They're a year removed from having the number one overall pick that they used on an edge rusher

and ain't nobody getting after the quarterback in Jacksonville. Some stats for them for three weeks into the season. They've only got four sacks in the year. That's tied for 24th in the NFL. Their pass rush win rate as a team is just 29.3%. That's 31st, so second to last. Their pass rush grade is 56.7, which is 29. Trayvon Walker has the most pass rush reps of anybody on the team, 85, and he's only got six pressures and a pass rush win rate of 11.8. Josh Allen has more pressures than Walker does, but his pass rush win rate isn't better. He's only got a 10.1 pass rush win rate. So I am very worried about how this defense is going to be able to hold up

if they cannot get after the passer. Because there's nobody that's on that roster who you're like, okay, this person is coming. They're playing all their dudes. Like, they're playing their dogs. This has to get better immediately for the Jags. Or unfortunately, their margin for error is going to be so thin, like we saw this past weekend, where even if Trevor Lawrence plays well,

you get a couple of big drops in there, which unfortunately we saw this past weekend. Receivers did not help him out nearly as much as they needed to. You get a game like that, offense like Houston, man, putting up, what did they put, 37? Didn't they have 37 points? Yeah. Crazy.

A team like Houston, for as much as we are going to salute and applaud what C.J. Stroud is doing on that team, Houston should not be putting up 30-something points on you, especially when they're the road team. That cannot happen, and I think the reason why it happens is because the Jags cannot get after the quarterback up front. And it is a major problem that they have to get fixed in a big way. And I don't know how they do.

Because the guys that they need to play well are already playing and they're not playing well. So it's a long season. They can figure it out. But man, you got to figure it out quick if you're the Jags. You do. You can figure it out. But man, you got to figure it out quick if you're the Jags. You do. You're 100% right. There's a lot of disappointing angles from the Jags in this game.

And I think the pass rush is something that is... Like when you look at the offense, right? You're like, eh, they'll probably figure it out. Lawrence might just be a slow starter at this point of his life because he wasn't very good in the beginning of each of his first two NFL seasons. And Calvin Ridley, they're still getting him involved and getting on page. And I think the Texans defense is pretty scrappy under D'Amico,

but the pass rush, I don't, I don't see the turning point for it. Like I'm not a believer in Trayvon Walker to be that dude. I'm not a, you know what I mean? Cause this would have been, this would have been the game,

right? Right. You're playing a backup offensive line. Houston's down four of their projected starting offensive linemen that we had during the summer. Four out of their five were not playing in this game. Jags, as a team, this past week, 61.5 pass rush grade and only a 45.2 pass rush win rate, which is better,

but no sacks in this game. Man, it's just this was supposed to be the get right game for them and it absolutely was not and that's worrisome to me so obviously on the texans side of the story is cj stroud everything just looked better in this game everything looked better he had his lowest time to throw he was getting getting the ball out at two, six, eight. And to be fair, the other two games, he was two, seven and two,

six, nine. So he's been consistently right around that. But two, six, eight, I thought he looked calm under pressure. He took 11 sacks in the first two games.

He took no sacks in this game. He's accurate. He's seeing the field. His adjusted completion percentage was at a high through the first three games. This one was at 78.6. It's over four points higher than any of the other games. He only had one turnover-worthy play. I just thought Stroud looked like a guy that whenever you got him in rhythm at Ohio State,

he'd carve you up. And the Texans under Bobby Slowik from the 49ers look like they're learning very quickly how to get stroud comfortable in rhythm and he's a dude that'll do the rest tank dell is very involved in this offense they the tech i have said for a long time about the texans they are a team that lines up on offense and you go who scares me right now to hit a big play? And the answer was often nobody. Tank Dell, baby. And now it is Tank Dell. Pierce kind of had a grinded out game, but he's still Damian Pierce.

Stroud just did all the little things right. And he's hitting the intermediate throws. So CJ Stroud is just, what matters most is he's passing the test quickly. That it matters most he's passing the test quickly that's it he's passing the test quickly cj stroud looks better than most young quarterbacks around the nfl right now yeah yeah and i went back and i watched a lot of his his play from this past weekend and of course it's it's not perfect there are moments where you go like okay could have stepped into this one a little bit more had a little bit more time than you thought you did here,

a little bit off when it comes to ball placement. But there's so much to be encouraged about. You know, you and I went into draft season, and the big question around C.J. Stroud is, what was the Georgia College football playoff game? Was that the new C.J. Stroud, or was it truly an outlier from what we had seen the past two years with him? Because Ohio State, very soft schedule for the two years that he was a starter, really didn't face a lot of pressure. And when he did, he did not play well against Georgia.

He played very, very well under pressure. It was the most recent game that we had to judge him by. It was the one where he had the most on the line and it was the best defense that he faced and he played very well. And so that was the huge question. And three games into his nfo career uh it really looks like what we saw versus georgia last year was a indicator of where he was going it was that next step it wasn't an outlier that was just a one-off game and so that's uh it is really great to see there's no question that cj stroud and tomiko ryan's man tomiko ryan's those two the head coach quarterback combination for houston they got it right they got it right man they got and we said that right we put tomiko was the guy

when we did fixing the franchises like you just want to pick tomiko every time right yep so good for them good for them all right where you going next what are we doing cardinals dallas all right i mean this is the game that knocked me out of my survivor pool because i thought i thought there is no way in hell the arizona cardinals are gonna look competitive two weeks in a row this time time against the Dallas freaking Cowboys, who looked like an unstoppable machine. Yeah, against the New York teams. I'm voting for Trayvon Diggs for most valuable player in the NFL

at the end of the season, and there is nothing you can do to stop me. Man, what matters most from this one to me is, okay, I think certainly on Dallas' side side of things being down digs is really something that you can't just shrug off when you're looking at dallas getting to where they want to go as an nfc contender and as a super bowl contender but of course with this being a draft show my real what matters most is is jonathan gannon gonna have this cardinals team too competitive to get not just caleb williams but are we talking maybe not drake may either so maybe the quarterback conversation stops with arizona because i think that we were in a place

where we said yeah look at this team they have kyler murray they don't have much else why would they draft the quarterback why wouldn't you just take those two first round picks that they have Kyler Murray, they don't have much else. Why would they draft the quarterback? Why wouldn't you just take those two first round picks that they have in a nice draft class that's loaded at a lot of other premium positions and not build the rest of the roster around them? You say, well, sure, you would hear that argument, but you'd say, it's Caleb Williams, right? And you go, man, if you could end up trading Kyler Murray, getting a couple first round picks for him, getting that contract off your books, restarting that that timer, that roster timer, if you will, with a quarterback on a rookie contract, that part was very tempting. But if you don't have the chance to take Caleb. Arizona could have a very nice opportunity to really strengthen both sides of their team with two good first round picks in this draft class.

For sure. I mean, I wrote I was thinking a similar mold as you. I'm not going to overreact to Dallas here is a bad game. You know, if they have another bad game and the what matters most becomes more about Dallas to me. But I wrote down with the Cardinals. It was almost like my brain splitting in half. I wrote down two things. First, I wrote, did we jump the gun on the end of the Kyler era? Like, is this team not as bad as we thought? And Kyler Murray is going to be their quarterback for the long-term future. They won't have to draft a guy because the team is playing, you know, well under this coaching staff and maybe they're not as bad as we thought. And then I wrote down after that on the other side

of my brain, is Josh Dobbs better than we all thought? Like, is there a story here with Josh Dobbs? Dude, Dobbs has, to me, even back to the Tennessee days, has always just been that gutsy quarterback who wasn't quite consistent enough to actually get some draft hype. But when you look at the highs of what jobs jobs was able to do, he put out some NFL. This can get it done.

Highs throws plays decisions, whether it was with his arm or his legs. So like he had that in the toolbox. He just wasn't as consistent as he needed to be with it to be an ad, to be a legitimate NFL draft prospect. But man man it certainly seems like we've got the best version of Josh Jobs over these last two games and it is pretty cool to see all right so where do you want to go next wait can I shout out Michael Wilson please

all right shout out Michael Wilson there we go my boy Stanford receiver, led the team in receiving yards this past week. Only two receptions, but 86 receiving yards. I think it was my wide receiver six by the end of it. I got to pump the chest a little bit. The guy's getting playing time. He's already showing out. You love to see it. All right.

Which game are we going to next? You want to do Saints-Packers next? I certainly can. Oh, man. Packers. Big win in this one. Come back win for Jordan Love. Yeah.

I mean, this is a surface level one, but I just wrote Jordan Love passed an early adversity test, which is really big to see. I think that's what matters most to me. I mean, what we know about Green Bay, they still have a lot of talent on this defense they've been dealing with injuries to the defense as well which definitely hurts them they've been doing a lot of injuries to the offense I mean no Aaron Jordan Love has not been working with Christian Watson which there might be a bigger story there like this Christian Watson injury is lingering after a rookie season filled with injuries after a cross being a prospect that had had injuries in his past. Yeah. But I'll keep this positive that that injury,

it's just starting to have a big trend there. Aaron, no Aaron Jones, who matters so much to this offense because he's so much better than A.J. Dillon. It's insane. The Packers looked like they kind of got took a left hook in the first half of this game. And you're like, damn, they didn't even show up. Nothing looked right. Nothing looked organized. At the end of the day, Jordan Love showed to kind of be a guy that the advanced stats, or normal stats might not always look pretty, but it feels like he is getting results when they need it the most with him, which says a lot about his mental makeup in my eyes.

Yeah. with him which says a lot about his mental makeup in my eyes yeah the what matters most for me in this one is and i wrote this down when we talk about jordan love i think unfairly to the kid he gets lumped in with farve and rogers right just because you look at this team with so few quarterbacks over the last what is it 30 years 30 years, whatever it is, 25, 30 years. And the thing that I wrote down is Jordan love does not have to be Aaron Rogers or Brett Favre in order for this draft pick to be a good pick. And I think that it's just, it is, it is looking like he is the guy you are allowed to call Jordan love good. Even if you don't think he's going to be Brett Favre caliber or Aaron

Rogers caliber. And Hey, who knows? Maybe he will be, but that's an insane bar. So I wanted to make sure I said, Jordan, love is he's, he's allowed to be good without you bringing those two names up. And this past game, man, I saw what felt like major steps in the right direction to him. Emphatically saying I'm a good quarterback and I'm a starting quarterback in this league. After a long, a long, man, it just feels like so long since he was drafted

and so many back and forths of, is he the guy? Give him the reins. When's the time? Is it too long? How has he not won the job? All this kinds of stuff. Has he not pushed Rodgers? Oh, just a ton of different conversations.

But now that he is starting, I was really pleased with what I saw against New Orleans. Now I will say this. He's, he needs to be more consistent with the deep ball, but I had originally wrote down. It feels like he's not taking enough deep shots. That certainly was not the case against the saints. He had 11 passes of 20 or more yards. So he was not afraid to let it rip, but he was not as consistent as he needed to be with those. He only completed two of those 11 passes of 20 yards or more. So you definitely want to see that go up.

But the fearlessness, and I would just even say the willingness to push the ball down the field is exactly what you need. Because I wrote this down about midway through the game I was like you don't want the offense to be so dink and dunk or devoid of these long shots to where the defense that you face really then starts to cave in especially over the middle and on that short stuff right think of what Bryce Young what think of what the Atlanta Falcons did to Bryce Young they knew that he was not going to challenge them deep and because of that jesse bates who's one of the best in the game was able

to be more and more aggressive over the middle and you and you were able to force some interceptions because of that i didn't want that to be the case with jordan love but it doesn't seem like that will be he seems like he is willing to push the ball down the field you mentioned no christian watson in this one and he would be a major deep threat for them um no David Bakhtiari no Aaron Jones no Jair Alexander like they were down some heavy hitters in this game they were also down 17 to nothing before Derek Carr got hurt and I do think the Saints win that game if Carr never gets hurt right not to say that Jameis played terribly because Jameis actually put the Saints in a position to kick a field goal to win the game anyways,

but Carr doesn't get hurt. I think they've moved the ball a little bit more. I think they at least get a field goal in between when he got hurt and the end of the game. So they probably don't win this one if Carr doesn't get hurt, but I'm not letting that take away from what did happen and what could be a big catapult of confidence for Jordan Love as

this season goes on. I really liked what I saw from him, even though it's not perfect yet. All right, should we move to the biggest throttling of the week, Miami over the Broncos, 70 to 20? Well, you talked about this last week that McDaniel needs to be a coach of the year favorite. And he absolutely does. So yes, go ahead, go off King. I mean, I actually need to look up the updated coach of the year odds when he's the

favorite, he's now the favorite. So when I talked about it last week, he was at plus 13 to 1400 right around there. I mean, man, he was like 700 when I checked yesterday. If they beat Buffalo, he'll go to even.

Honestly, it'll be that big of a swing. If they beat Buffalo, all the value will be sucked out of it. Here's the thing with this game. This is very simple. I wrote down the only thing that could stop the Dolphins is injuries. That's how I feel about this team right now. And you can make the argument that, you know, it's already happened a little bit.

They lost Jalen Ramsey early and they got to get him back. They were dealing with Teron Armstead, who's always kind of dealing with something week to week. A-Chain and Waddle came out of the preseason dealing with, you know, a shoulder and Waddle a midsection, and Waddle's now dealing with a concussion. And they're still putting up a million points. McDaniel is creating more spacing in the NFL than we've seen,

I don't know, ever. Tua is just playing point guard. They have so much speed in the backfield with A-Chain and Mostert. Jeff Wilson's still on IR. The Dolphins, the only thing that could stop their offense is literally a Tyreek or to a injury one of those two or multiple injuries to their mid-tier guys yeah I'm not saying they're winning the Super Bowl but they're gonna win a ton of games if they scored 70 points without Jalen Waddell it's a very sustainable what they're

doing didn't even play you know so I I do agree with you obviously I think that Tyree Kill is a more valuable wide receiver than Jalen Waddell is but even if Tyree Kill went down okay certainly your Super Bowl odds go down but when it comes to winning in the regular season they get enough speed everywhere to where they can figure it out. This roster building is so beautiful. It is just vindicating for everybody that's played the game of Madden since 2002, where when you are drafting in a fantasy draft, you just go to wide receiver, you sort speed, and anybody who's wide receiver three and beyond or RB two and beyond, you're just getting the fastest players possible. You're coming up with your own play packages to where when they get in the game, you're getting

the ball in their hands, they're creating space, and McDaniel's taking that and actually making that a real-life strategy. And you know what the result is? Scoring 70 points against a defense that was top 10 in the NFL in EPA per play allowed last year. Now certainly, the

Denver Broncos are not in that same place with the zero ever. I'm not calling the defense anymore, but man, what Miami is doing feels unstoppable right now. It just feels like they have built the personnel to create some sort of massive mismatch against every single team they play no matter what and that is something that you mentioned it feels like only injuries can derail and i certainly hope that this team stays fully healthy throughout the year because they are fun as hell to watch the only thing that i mentioned or that i wanted to mention is they almost have an 80% red zone percentage success rate, which is wild. Okay. So it's not just between the twenties when there's a lot of

green grass to operate with. We're talking about when there is much less space afforded guys like McDaniel and what he's doing with Tua, Tyreek, all those players, they're creating space when it is at its most premium in the red zone. And that's the part of the game that to me is, is what the big difference is between this offense, just being good and being great, potentially historically great. So Miami is incredible before we move off from this one. I didn't know if he had a Broncos point,

but I did want to shout out since this is a draft show. Marvin Mims is going off, man. 7.22 yards per route run is just an insane stat. Tyreek Hill was like leading the NFL last year with like a 3.2. And right now Marvin Mims has 7.22. It's because whenever he's targeted, whenever he's running a route, they're basically just using him as a deep, deep threat player, but he's rewarding them every single time.

He's got a 33.3% threat percentage, which is wide receiver usage and a 95.2 PFF grade on passes beyond 20 yards. That's third best, sorry, fourth best in the NFL behind only Tyreek Hill himself, Mike Evans, and Justin Jefferson. So it goes Tyreek, Mike Evans, Justin Jefferson, Marvin Mims, and what he is doing with the Denver Broncos. So they got a great deep threat there.

I'd love to see them utilize him even more, diversify the route tree a little bit, get the ball in his hands in a little bit more creative ways than just deep down the field. My Broncos take is, and i'm glad you brought up mims because that is a good one we were laughing on fantasy happy hour last week before this game that he you know he had like two really long catches but he ran five routes is one of those situations like five routes in the game i just look at sean payton being in there and sean

payton being the way he is and this is just the beginning to me of an off season where they're going to turn over this roster. They're going to get all the players out that Sean Peyton doesn't like. George Peyton's probably going to go down with the ship. Russell Wilson might go down with the ship as well. This is the beginning of a complete overhaul in Denver for me. We're going to, we're going to have some interesting conversations when we get to our quarter

of the year mock draft episode, which is coming up soon, because we're obviously going to talk about the Denver Broncos with them sitting at number two in the draft order right now. So we're going to have plenty of conversations about that, and we'll dig into the Russell Wilson situation and where we think they can go from there, what the 2024 NFL draft can look for them. So if you're looking for maybe some more rebuilding conversations

about the Broncos, that's definitely coming. Hey, before we get to our next pick or next game that we want to break down, this time of year is all about the back to school, the back to work. You're getting into your routine. You've got your routine checklist. And the most important task on that list should be securing your family's financial future, starting with life insurance. insurance fabric by gerber life makes it quick easy and affordable to protect your family so you can get back to enjoying life fabric was designed by parents

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lions. Yeah. Let's rock and roll. Falcons lions for me, you know, kind of a boring game lines when 26, I'm sure lines fans didn't think it was boring, but yeah,

Brian branch heard you, heard you talk about B. John Robinson as best running back and best running back in the league. And he said, sir. What about me? My what matters most is that the Lions, it's week three, and they were already right about their draft. Oh, yeah. All those reaches, all those takes, all of those.

Do these guys know what they're doing? They took him where? Like, shut the hell up. The Lions crushed this draft. Jameer Gibbs is awesome. Obviously, Sam Laporta is freaking awesome. Sam Laporta, I believe, is tight in two in fantasy right now, by the way. There's your fun fact of the day.

Brian Branch took over this game. Yep. I love what I've seen from Jack Campbell this season. The Lions murdered this draft. It's unfathomable that it was even one of the most scrutinized draft classes. Unfathomable to me. And I hope they literally, you know, kind of shove it in everyone's face at some point because they took so much shit about this draft and they got four true impact players instantly.

Instantly. Yeah, they're a better football team because of who they drafted in April. And a lot of these guys are playing right away. And you can't really say that that would be the case for almost any other team in the league with that going all the way through their second round pick. So the Lions clearly identified football players that are good football players and ones that are going to fit on their team and be able to play and contribute. And that's really what drafting is all about, right? I think that we, you and I certainly have these conversations too of like, Hey, you know, how

early do you typically take these positions? What's the return on investment? And the reason why we do that, and I think those are important conversations to have, is because at the end of the day, the draft is a guess. There's a lot of things at play that go into whether or not a player is going to be good for you. So when you are speaking in general terms, you're a lot of times going to lean into those positions that have a much higher return on investment and more of those premium labels of where you're selecting them in the draft. But that's always a general term. And I think that we're getting, the NFL is getting better.

And I think that media as a whole is getting better at talking about the draft when it comes to what positional value is and why it's important. But at the end of the day, you're still building a singular team. And if one player is going to be highly impactful for you, pick them. You know, we're going to see there's a lot of people that are going to sit there and wow you know the odds are that's not gonna work out for you but if you are super confident which i would assume that all scouting staffs and front offices and coaching staffs are going to be that that player is going to be a maybe a defy the odds or defy the premium positional value type of player for you then you're probably going to see teams pick that

player. And that is to me what happened with the Detroit Lions in certainly the order. And they brought those players in, but there's no doubt about it. They're making a major difference. My what matters most was to piggyback off of what you were saying. Brian Branch is putting together a defensive rookie of the year candidacy on tape, man. week 84.1 overall grade 87.4 run defense grade 89.0 pass rush grade 11 tackles to lead the team eight solo stops to lead the team and two forced incompletions the man was everywhere he's one of the smartest most physical players that we had in the secondary in this past trap lions got a damn good. And so I wanted to definitely shout him out there because we've talked, I think, a lot about Atlanta.

You know, we could talk about Ritter. Ritter's still inconsistent. They still need more from that position. They need more from him. But from the Lions side of things, I agree with you on what mattered most there. Those rookies are standing out and it's going to mean a lot to a team

that's got playoff aspirations. All right. Want to go to Jets-Pats, the grossest game maybe of the day? I don't know if you're going to like my take. So you want to start? I'm sure. OK. No, actually, no. With that tease, I want you to start. I so I watched your SNY clip last night and you were, you were, you were pleading the organization.

Essentially. I don't want to put your words in your mouth, so please correct me. No, no, no. It sounded like you were pleading the organization to essentially stop drinking the Kool-Aid of Zach Wilson.

Like you drafted him second overall, but if you want this season to be something for you, you have to make a move. You cannot stand on this anymore. Yeah, I think it's unfair to the team. Am I right about that? You're 100% right. I think it's unfair to the team.

I think it's unfair to the people in the stands. I think it's unfair to just about everybody. I mean, this is a profession. So my what matters most is I'm getting really close because I agree with you, but I'm getting really close because I agree with you, but I'm getting really close to saying, just play Zach Wilson and get the better draft pick. You already know that next year is all in for Rogers.

Anyways, get the better draft pick, go get yourself Joe wall. I mean, I don't think that the event's going to be good enough for them to go up and get a little bit shot, but like go get a Joe wall, go get somebody on the offensive line who could help you next year.

They've got a couple of free agents that I wrote down, like Bryce Huff's free agent. Carl loss is a free agent, uh, Dwayne Brown, but you're, you're hoping to probably get a different offensive tackle in there. Anyways, Jordan Whitehead, Chuck Clark, Quentin Jefferson, you could probably bring a handful of those guys back, but maybe not all of them them but i'm at the point where it's like i'm i'm kind of caught in between because i do believe that setting up a winning culture matters yes that's the key teaching your team how to be winners matters but if you bring bring Matt Ryan or Carson Wentz in, to me, it doesn't matter.

The team's not going to finish where they wanted to finish. The only way it matters is if you are not dog shit enough on offense to where the defense can actually carry you to a potential playoff spot to where you're actually making the playoffs, so that a year from now, Rogers comes back, you were a playoff team before, you've got that fire underneath you, you've got that playoff berth, and now you're going for the whole shebang. So I'm kind of caught in between, but I'm not going to lie,

part of me does entertain, just stick with Wilson and get the better draft pick, because you want to go get an offensive lineman that can compete for you next year when Rodgers comes back I get it but I just don't think you could you could do that to these guys I just think with Garrett Wilson Quinton Williams who has just endured losing season after losing season with this organization sure I just think that it's so unfair all the work they put in the players the staff the fans buying in to put out a quarterback on the field that you know isn't the best who i mean seriously we can sit here and play a game we won't of naming quarterbacks that win that game against the Patriots yesterday. The list is over 50. In my opinion,

it's over 50. Wow. I fully believe that in my heart. They had the ball at the 49 with two minutes to two and a half minutes left. Yeah. And they couldn't gain a yard. Yeah.

A yard. Yeah. He threw a check down to a tight end on fourth down in a gotta have it play. The old Kirk Cousins. This is now on the Jets. Zach Wilson keeps showing them who he is. And it's starting to feel like it's a powder keg in there where those guys are holding in a lot of emotions

and I give them credit for that i don't i don't see how you could have belief when you trot them out there was there a move that you wanted them to make i mean yeah i thought they should have signed a capable backup in the molds of jacoby brissett or gardner minshu in the offseason and they did but okay okay but okay but that didn't happen so that didn't so that didn't happen. So that didn't happen. That spilled milk. Rodgers goes down. Because, I mean, could you get Jacoby now? I don't think a team will trade their backup at this point in the season because it sends a bad message to their locker room.

I don't think they will either because, one, I mean, that's a great point. Two, Gardner's literally starting right now. And the commanders might need Jacoby to start. Right. And they might need. So and Jameis is now probably going to have to start. So, like, if you wanted the potential ceiling of Jameis, like now you can't go get him because Derek Carr is probably going to miss a little bit of time here. I think I agree with you. I just had that thought on Sunday of, man, is it worth just tanking for an O-lineman that you know you can play and you can start next year? Here's the thing, though.

One of the bright spots of that horrific game was that Becton and AVT looked like a good tackle duo. It's the first time they've started them this season as a tackle. AVT can play tackle. We knew that. And, and I'm not saying bet the house on my guy Becton, but he's been their most consistent lineman through three weeks.

That's good. That's good, man. It's I get where you're at, but it's just, and I think this is the lifetime of Jets and me speaking. At some point, you got to give guys a chance. And starting Zach Wilson is not giving. Because I think what this team does this year matters so much for 2024.

Like if they never learn how to win, then Aaron Rodgers comes back next year. They still don't know how to win because they sucked again. We teleported back to 2022 of, hey, the defense is really good. Hey, we can run the ball if we had a quarterback that has any threat of throwing the ball, but he doesn't. So we don't even know how to run the ball because teams just sell out against the run, forcing him to the team hey you don't gotta tell me man i i covered and followed so many bucks teams where it was like they lost games before the coin flip mentally they knew they weren't gonna win the game and i'm worried about that with the jets right now

winning culture is absolutely real and so that's the only counter that I can have in my head to where I'm not saying just play Zach Wilson. Who cares? But that's a little back and forth. I'm very curious if people are on one side or the other, whether or not they believe the winning culture thing is real, whether they think the Jets should just tank and get the better pick. I hope that people comment on that because I'm very curious. I want to throw that out. Can we do Chargers Vikings next? Yes.

I didn't have a New England take. Did you have a New England take? I only had a Jets take. No, I didn't. I love what I've seen from Christian Gonzalez this year. He's been speaking a defensive rookie of the year. Christian Gonzalez has been amazing. Yeah, I think New England's offense is in a bad place a bad place like I don't think Ramondre looks right I thought Zeke

looked better than Ramondre I mean Bill O'Brien's an upgrade of what they had last year calling plays but it's just crazy to me the Jets almost won that game on a Hail Mary like Randall Cobb drops a tip a tip tail Mary the Jets had zero business even being competitive in that game with what Zach Wilson gave them. And I thought that spoke volumes about this New England team. It really, I don't know. That was a horrible football game. It was horrible.

It is wild that that 21 draft is going to go Trevor Lawrence, Zach Wilson, Trey Lance, Justin Fields, Mac Jones, all in the top 15. I know. All right.

Yeah. Chargers. Yes. Do you have a take on this one? I mean, so Mike Williams is out for the year, which is really unfortunate yeah we know keenan allen's a superstar there's no denying that i have more of a question than a take okay

is first rounder quentin johnson ready for this because i don't think he is i haven't seen at least i haven't seen them tell me they think he is i hope he is is. Or is it going to be Josh Palmer's time? It's probably Palmer's time, which is a little concerning. Isn't that problematic? I mean, I'm watching Jordan Addison on the Vikings, right? I'm watching Zay Flowers on the Ravens. I'm watching Puka Nakua on the Rams.

Well, when you put it that way. Tank Dell! Quentin's only, I mean, Quinton's played the seventh most receiving snaps on the team already. Has he missed a game due to injury? They're just not playing him. I think they just don't play him. Okay, Miami game week one.

Week two against Tennessee. Week three three now he's played in all three games yeah he's damn when he's okay okay his wide receiver usage is 21.1 so when he's on the field they do target him what's the yards per out run? Where are we on that one? Ooh,.68. Not great. Yeah. It was a question, not a statement. No, I understand the conversation that you're bringing up, though.

He needs to be. Yeah. Because this is the time, right? This is absolutely the time. this is why you drafted him keenan allen and mike williams get bet they don't get hurt like this but they get banged up every year every single year unfortunately yeah man yeah i i agree i didn't realize that quentin had played that little snaps it's time it's it is time and this this passing offense is awesome. It's awesome. But they're going to need, you know,

somebody to be ready to answer the call. Austin Eckler's still out. They can't get anything going with Josh Kelly. Keenan Allen's a superhero, but can he do that every week? That's a lot to ask. It's interesting. This is a storyline I have my eyes on. Here's one I want to throw your way.

And this is so hard to answer. The Vikings, right? The Vikings are 0-3. Despite Kirk Cousins probably going to lead the league in passing yards, it feels like. The Vikings are in a fascinating situation right now, right? They're not going to trade Kirk Cousins to the Jets. That's not what I'm saying here.

But are the Vikings in a dangerous place where we both think, you and I, and many think the Vikings are not bringing back Kirk Cousins after this year? No. It almost feels certain. No. So say you know that. Say this season is probably not going how you had hoped, but you can't forfeit at this point. Do you wait too long where Kirk Cousins trade value at the deadline might not have what it does in the next two weeks? You know what I'm saying? Like Kirk Cousins is really valuable right now in my eyes. Like first round pick valuable right now's my thing can they even do that right we just had the conversation with the new york jets about like winning culture winning that's the question i don't think they can i don't i don't know if they can't eat because

imagine telling justin jefferson hey um nick mullins is gonna get you to 2,000 yards now, buddy. Who's their QB2? Is it Nick? Yeah, right? I don't know. It's not Kellen Mond anymore. Lord knows it's not Kellen Mond. Who do we got here? We got Kirk Cousins.

It's Nick Mullins and Jaron Hall. Jaron Hall. No, no, no. Here's what you do. You say we got to get a good look at what we got in Jaron Hall. That's what we need. No, I do agree with you, though. I think I threw out on this show a couple weeks ago

the prospect of Kirk Cousins going to the Jets, right? Like, if you already were not planning on having your first-round pick, trade the first-round pick to the Vikings, get Cousins for one year, Set up that winning culture window, whatever. Go make it. Everybody understands what's going on here. He's a mercenary. They're trading him to a team to go maybe win a Super Bowl,

but they know that it's Rodgers' team's the next year. Obviously, there's a lot of things that would have to go into that. But on the Viking side of things, I agree with you. I don't know if they can do that. That's why I raise, I think it's the most fascinating question yeah i don't think you could do it but you can't but like if you are playing gm hiding in your office you know like madden gm oh hey madden he's asked to be gone like that's the move you're going to stink oh i'm putting a lot more assets 100 i know everybody's going to

respond to this oh the jets can't move that pick yet because they have to rework the deal with the packers let's just put that away right now let's say it's even a 2025 also you can get around that there's a lot i know a lot of packers fans said that like you could you could like back door sign a piece of paper hey we're trading you our first round pick when it comes back to us and if we don't we owe you five first round picks in the future and it's like you basically lock it into the fact that that's gonna happen you write it on a napkin and you saw you sign it or something like either way i just the vikings are in a such a weird spot because what like if they get to the deadline and the jets have won what one or two games you're not going all in for kirk cousins you're like damn we really screwed this up

on the next year when aaron rogers comes back and you're the vikings you're sitting there you know kind of with your you know what in your hand like well now we get a third round compensatory pick i think that I think they're just, I think they're kind of prisoner to that anyways. I don't think they really, I don't actually think it's realistic that they can. I don't either, but I had to bring up the question because that's what we do on this show.

I mean, that's a funny one. Yeah, I agree. I had is what matters most for Minnesota kind of talking about team needs. I think they desperately need more talent in their secondary, even though they've invested a couple of draft picks there they still need help their interior offensive line is bad and then of course quarterback i think it all starts at quarterback but um just

like the broncos we'll get in a lot more team needs talk for the vikings when we go over our next mock draft the actual what matters most here is just a statement that i kind of wanted to say justin herbert is the biggest reason why brand Brandon Staley will keep his job and also the biggest reason why he won't. He is both of those two things at the same time. Justin Herbert is going to play well enough this year to be the reason why the Chargers might win enough games for Brandon Staley to keep his job. But on the flip side, if they continue to lose these one-score games, and let's face it, they almost Chargered again this past week, and it was a Kenneth Murray interception that ended up having to save them.

After a, how many yards did Justin Herbert throw for? Hold on, I had it up here a second ago. 407? 405. He had three touchdowns, no interceptions. The man was an absolute flamethrower out there. Okay. He is going to be the reason he's going to be the biggest reason why Staley

either keeps his job or the biggest reason why he loses it. And when I say that second part, I don't mean because he's going to play bad. I mean, because he's played going to play so well that the organization's going to go. We got to get you out of here buddy we cannot waste another year justin herbert it's a good point it's a really good point he is he herbert is both of those things to brandon staley at the exact same time so yeah that was my management no it's it's a really good point um we'll be on staley watch all right you want to go to the ravens uh yeah we do ravens cults that brutal loss for the ravens in this one cool yeah um you know shout out to garner minshu real

quick i didn't have a colts take but there is something to say about this guy just finding ways i i think his teammates really believe in him the way he carries himself and you know the colts get it done I know there was some questionable things in this game I get it but you're still in that spot if you're the Ravens I thought the Ravens shouldn't have been in a spot where a call or two

can change this game the Ravens to me Trevor every time I watch them for the last how many years it just always feels like they don't have that alpha skill guy, right? Like Lamar can, this was a big Lamar running game.

Lamar can win you games, but it just doesn't feel like they ever have that dude that they lean on to go make something happen. And I know maybe that was the thought in signing OBJ. And maybe that's a thought in drafting Zay Flowers, who's getting a lot of touches. J.K. Dobbins gets hurt. So the backfield's an absolute mess right now.

Mark Andrews is a really good player. But how many offenses not named the Chiefs run through the tight end? The Ravens are one. But it's not. It's not enough right now. I just watched the Ravens and I just feel like they either need that running back that can take over games or that wide receiver.

And they never have either. And I just don't, I don't under it's you're in an era of it. You have an MVP quarterback under center who's now under an extension and they have tried different things, but that's always my takeaway that I guess what I'm saying is it caps the Ravens ceiling of their offense. This could be one of the best offenses in football, but that always caps it to me.

Yeah, I had a somewhat similar what matters most for the Ravens side of things. They, you know, watching this game, just seeing some of the clips from Red Zone and then going back and watching a little bit of the tape and expanded version after the game was over, it felt like every time they were going over to the Ravens, like something great was happening. Lamar had a great run, was scoring a touchdown. Yeah, it was unbelievable. Like it was, every time they went to this game,

it felt like Baltimore was doing something really nice on offense. And then they lose, you know, and you go, well, hold on. Whoa, what happened here? And I went back to it and yeah, there were a lot of things the Ravens did that was, that was good, but they also had five, three and outs in this game, five, one of which came in the overtime period. So I went back to the two previous weeks and it wasn't nearly as hot and cold as it was this past week. But it is something to monitor because Zay Flowers is leading the team right now

in targets and wide receiver usage at 23%. It's like 10 targets a game. There's nobody else who is above 23% of a wide receiver usage. So you're right. They're spreading the ball around a ton. And I wonder if there's, if it's not, it almost like if it's not concentrated enough, we always love when we go, wow, look at this quarterback. He's completing a pass to eight different receivers in this game. And, you know, being able to do that and really stretch out the defense with a

lot of different skill sets is important. I'm not saying it's not, but you still need that. Like, Hey, got to have a football player, you know, Tyreek Hill, Justin Jefferson, Devante Adams, you know, like those guys that, and of course, those guys are some of the best in the league. So it's not like you just clone them, but in your game plan, you have that go-to player. You have that guy who gets it done for you. And it doesn't feel like Todd Munkin is leaning into anybody like that quite yet. And it's just something to monitor that I wrote down for the Ravens.

They also weren't great when it came to run defense this past week. This year they are last in tackles for loss or tackles for no gain in run defense on the season. So I think their run defense has to get a lot better, especially at really defending that line scrimmage. So that was kind of a side point. But, you know, what matters most to Indianapolis? Dude, Shane Steichen because of how much of a weapon he is as a runner and a passer. You lose Anthony Richardson

and you immediately turn around and have a game plan that works well enough with Gardner Minshew, who's a completely different quarterback, to go into Baltimore and get yourself a win. You know what you're doing as a coach. You know what the hell you're doing. To be able to flip your game plan like that

to a totally different quarterback with different skill sets, maximize it, go to a tough environment and get a W, I'm so impressed with Shane Steichen. I think the Colts, just like the Houston Texans, they got a good one. Yeah, you look at the Eagles still trying to totally figure out their offense

and maybe that changes on Monday Night Football and they'll be fine. I'm not worried about it. I just think Steichen, he clearly did a lot of really good things in Philadelphia and it's carrying over to the Colts and good for the Colts because I know those fans have been through uh they were through one of the more interesting 2022s so good for them all right we're getting through a lot of games here we only have what three left all right so bills it'll smoke the commanders smoked them um sam howell man this is baptism by fire yeah got blitzed on 10 of his 39

dropbacks had an overall passing grade of 41.3 on the day a passer passing grade of 25.5 when pressured he had four interceptions that he threw in this game it was just a big i went back and i watched a lot of his dropbacks i think i watched all of them it was just a big learning day for how it was it was you could you could tell that this game was teaching him a lot of lessons of what you cannot get away with at this level. That his eyes and his feel for the pocket, he got, was it on one of the interceptions? No, I don't think he threw an interception on this play.

Buffalo overloads the right side of the line of scrimmage with a blitz. They blitz, I believe, one of the secondary players, it was either the corner or the safety, and they also blitzed the linebacker. Both of them were coming for the right side of the line of scrimmage with a blitz. They blitz, I believe, one of the secondary players. It was either the corner or the safety, and they also blitzed the linebacker. Both of them were coming for the right side. One of them took an A gap. The other one took the B gap. And you could tell Howell knew it was coming. Ball comes in his hands.

He feels the pressure. Immediately starts to fade to his right, and he starts avoiding where the pressure is coming from. And you could almost tell he's like, all right, the blitz isitz is coming i gotta get rid of the ball now oh god and it's just like he just he did not know the player was going to hit him that fast he knew exactly what was going on he knew where the pressure was coming from he knew that it was going to accelerate what he had to see in the field and so the play itself did not catch him off guard it was going to accelerate what he had to see in the field. And so the play itself did not catch him off guard. It was the speed in which it happened that it did. And you saw that, I think, throughout the entire game,

there were a handful of throws, especially ones over the middle, that Buffalo was just all over like piranhas. It was just like, man, he's not used to the speed of the game being that fast. So major learning game there for Sam Howell. And I think that that was kind of my what matters most. For me with the Bills, it's just that they got one of the best value signings of the offseason when they got Leonard Floyd. This pass rush did not have a good showing the first two weeks.

They were phenomenal. Week three against the Commanders, the pass rush without Von Miller came alive. Everybody got in on the fun. Ed Oliver, Daquan Jones, Epinesa, Russo has been a really good player for them. But Leonard Floyd, man, this was such a smart play with Von being out the beginning of the season. And if they are both healthy together at some point this season, the Bills are going to be able to rush the passer when it matters most to, you know, kind of during that playoff run so leonard floyd for me uh great great move by brandon bean can i just say something before we move on from this game yeah i still hated the josh allen

interception man i i just it bugged me right no i get it it's third and 20 and it's basically an arm punt right and so i think that a lot of people look at that play and they just go ah it's third and 20 he's giving his guy a chance i went back and i watched that play because i saw this live and i went back and i watched the all 22 of it it's third and 20 but you're basically you're you're almost near midfield you had a you had a shallow route going over the middle that if you dumped it off to that player, you probably would have gained 15 yards. So you probably would have gotten right around. That's the thing with him.

You probably would have gotten right around the 50 yard line. It would have been fourth and five, but you would have pinned the other team back really far, at least to their own 20, maybe even within the 20, within the 10, if you would have just dumped it off and made the completion. But instead you do an arm punt and the team gets it back at what, like the 30, 35? Sure, you're up 16 to nothing in that game in the third quarter at that point, but that's not the mindset I want Josh Allen to have. I agree.

Josh Allen, I want him to have the mindset of taking those margins in the game because it's going to matter more when you play those teams at the very top when you're playing the chiefs in the playoffs when you're playing the dolphins in the playoffs that's the stuff that you need to do and so yeah it was a harmless interception that happened in a game that was never close that they were always dominating and it was a third and 20 and it was essentially a punt anyways but when you look at it situationally i said this live and i said it even more so after i looked at it i did not like the fact that he even threw that ball that is something that is still the root of an issue for him that happens in a grander more general and more important josh allen conversation that we

have had so many times over the last couple of years. So I want to get that off my chest. I'm with you. I mean, you look at, you know, the bills lost to the jets. They're only lost in the season right now. He threw away that game and you just don't want to, you know, make that a habit. And it feels like it's a habit for him. As good as Buffalo's looked the last two weeks, it's definitely something to, uh, to keep an eye on. All right, Seattle, Carolina. For me, great game from Devin Witherspoon. And Seattle used the top five pick on this guy. This mattered the most to me because you need your top five picks

to make a huge impact on your season. Witherspoon had his best showing. He was targeted 13 times. He gave up five catches for only 31 yards. Only one of those went for a first down. He forced two incompletions. Passer rating against him was 46.6. I thought he played really well against the run.

You see the kind of energy he plays with. I mean, Witherspoon's a stud. He brings a different energy to the field. I think guys feed off of it. This is why they took Witherspoon in the top five. He was lights out for Seattle in this game. Yeah, I really liked Witherspoon. Seattle's just going to be tough all year long, I think, man.

They're going to be the same team that they were last year. They're going to be able to punch with, I think, some of the best teams, certainly in the NFC. And they got a chance to win every single game that's on their schedule. I really do believe that. It's going to maybe look a little bit different every week, but Gino Smith is so rock solid for them. Seattle is going to be a force throughout this entire season. Love that backfield.

Yeah, man. Charbonnet, really nice game. And of course, like Kenneth Walker had another fantastic game that he's had multiple of those over the last two years already. My real what matters most was do not tell me the Carolina Panthers are better off playing Andy Dalton. Do not pick up pennies by stepping over $100 bills. Stop. Stop. I like that. Does Andy Dalton give you the best chance to win right now, given where Bryce Young is in his NFL career and his NFL journey.

Sure, he does. That's not what matters. Stop. I think the Panthers fans are hurting right now. They're watching Stroud. They're watching Richardson. And they're like, what the hell? Those guys are absolutely balling out.

And Bryce Young's really struggling. Bryce Young's game was always about being calculated. And until he can calibrate himself to NFL speed, NFL defenses, NFL defensive coordinators, and even his own wide receivers, he's not going to be that player that you saw at Alabama. The reason why he was able to succeed so early at Alabama is because Alabama is more talented than everyone else. So it gave him the time to acclimate while also looking good, padding the stats, gaining the confidence, and Alabama gets wins.

It's not like that at the NFL level, certainly for a team whose offense is currently constructed like the Carolina Panthers. So I just wanted to make that very, very clear. Yes, Andy Dalton played better than Bryce Young did over the last couple of weeks. It doesn't matter. When Bryce Young is healthy, he's a starting starting quarterback do not sit here and try to convince yourself that you want a couple more regular season wins this year and give up on what is actually the future of this franchise andy dalton you are a new york jet that's where i landed out from that conversation um tennessee cleveland

that's all we got left brother well we got sunday night i lied we got sunday night football yeah yeah yeah yeah but um from the day slate what do you got we got tennessee cleveland with jim schwartz the browns defense is championship level holy shit man championship level i mean it's everyone it's not did you see the miles garrett play where he went from when he where he went from side to side and both tight ends tried to rotate to where he was going that was maybe the low-key most hilarious moment of sunday yes miles garrett dominant in this game just absolutely dominant owusu koromoa looks really good plays fast Anthony Walker good

game I mean they got Sedarius Smith it's all working here it's all working here Denzel Ward is he's that dude as a cover corner just Jim Schwartz man he's a wild dude feels like he kind of fuse burns out everywhere he goes but when things are going right with jim schwartz it's a lot of fun if you're rooting for that team and right now it's going right for the cleveland browns defense first in epa per play allowed on defense second in overall defensive pff grade second in pass rush grade second in epa per rush allowed third in defensive grade and then second as well in pass rush win percentage by a team they are basically dominating in every single category dominating in every single

category and the biggest difference maker in this one was Deshaun Watson Watson actually played well which is hilarious given the fact that he put out on tape maybe the worst play I've ever seen from a quarterback when he tried to like throw it backwards to Elijah Moore and it fumbles for an extra 15 yards behind him. That was one of the craziest plays I've ever seen. And I was like, here we go, Deshaun again. But he actually had, I think, probably his best game as a Cleveland Brown. And if Deshaun Watson plays like that, and obviously if the defense plays the way that they did, Cleveland is a team that can compete with anybody. They're good.

They're going to keep the scoreboard low enough to where they can compete with anybody. There's no doubt about it. Did you know, I didn't know this until I was reading about Jim Schwartz today. He actually got his start in the NFL doing research while Bill Belichick was on the Browns staff in the mid-90s. So it's been like a real full circle for Jim Schwartz now. Wow. Who was with the Browns starting in 93. He's bounced all around the NFL since, and now he's the Browns defense coordinator, and this could end up being the best defense he's ever had.

We'll see. That is pretty crazy. By the way, I don't want to lose sight of this because i feel like people always will want to ask us this because it came out while we're recording did you see the video diana russini released while we're recording of mac jones like basically nut tapping sauce gardner i didn't okay so is that what he's doing i say saw Sauce shove him. Oh. So Diana Rossini. And then Mac like flops hard.

Which is the most Mac thing in the world. He looks like a pool float, basically, after Sauce. It's wild. So he nut taps him? That's what started it? A lot of people, when Sauce released the All-22, they were like, I don't really see it. I didn't see anything.

But Sauce is the type of dude to not react to things. So when he was that pissed, I knew something happened. I figured Mac just said something dumb. That's what I thought. Diana released a video, I guess, from the NFL that is like the angle of all angles. And it is the talk of Twitter right now. Oh, my gosh.

I'm looking at it whole what it so steven steven ruiz who works for the ringer does an incredible job covering the league good follow him if you don't already he tweeted that the most incredible part of mac jones college career is that he never played basketball at duke because of that clip. I mean, it's an elite tweet. It's an elite tweet. It's a bold move doing that to NFL defenders.

Now we've seen the kick. Now we see the punch. I know, man. What are you doing? Like, yeah. Every time I watch Mac do,

do stuff like that. I'm like, what are you doing? What are you doing? Do, do Patriots fans like him? I do. Do Patriots players? What are you doing? Do Patriots fans like him? Do Patriots players like him? Do the Patriots players like him? I mean,

it felt like the Patriots coaches this off season didn't. They had to bring in Bill O'Brien to make that all work out. I don't know, man. That's just, that's really weak. And you have, he has a reputation.

It's not, he's building a reputation. Like this is incident number four or five. Right good anyway let's close out anyway new england patriots quarterback bo nicks it's happening just get used to it i've already seen it in my head all right we're getting to sunday night football but before we do that we're back with another week this upcoming week and draft king sportsbook is keeping us in on all the nfl action with two great offers for every single game day every every new customer can bet just $5 and get 200 instantly in bonus bets. They get $200 in bonus bets,

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bonus bets expire seven days after issuance eligibility deposit restrictions apply uh last game sunday night football the pittsburgh steelers somehow we waited all day for sunday night we did we we just we just waited all day for sunday night um the josh mcdaniel's experience is over that was quick that's that's that's what matters most here we heard rumblings and, and you called for this last season, that the McDaniels direction is going downward. And it kind of came out that the reason why the Raiders held on to McDaniels is because of their cash flow, right? I mean, like, build the new stadium, relocating the team,

still paying off John Gruden's old contract you're obviously still paying McDaniels contract which wasn't cheap because any new head coaching contract nowadays is going to be really high so the the the idea was that they couldn't move on from McDaniels last offseason because they were cash poor the second they have the cash to do it they're going to move on from McDaniels I mean this past week was bad and the game was actually close it was a five-point game right raiders actually had a chance they were coming back as the game was going on the reason why you move on from mcdaniel's is the decision making fourth and four in the red zone down eight 222 left in the game they kick a field goal to instead be down five instead of down eight. Here was McDaniel's explanation after the game.

You have two choices there, McDaniel said. You try to make it a five-point game where you have an opportunity to win it with a touchdown if you get the ball back, or you try to go for it there, and if you happen to convert, you have to make the two-point conversion, all of the rest of it.

So these are the decisions that you got to make. He said that they needed two possessions anyways. My brother in Christ, no, you didn't bad you just got a two-point conversion earlier in the game you understand how the math works it's literally a fact that you don't need what do you what do you talk and in fact for anybody that might have missed the last the the late night portion of the game they were already set up to kick a field goal, a longer field goal earlier in that drive that would have been a bad decision in and of itself,

but got bailed out because Pittsburgh got a penalty. So they moved the ball even further. They keep the drive going. Now they're within the 10 and then they kick the field goal again. What? Not situational football, time management football, simple math.

Everything was against that entire end of game sequence. If you don't have a head coach that can put you in the most advantageous situations possible, go find a different one. I think the McDaniels experiment is over. Yeah, I think so too. I think Devante Adams essentially has kind of said what everyone's

thinking right davante adams you are in new york yet oh no because aaron rogers is hurt but maybe next year maybe next year that's what i'm saying yeah yeah yeah i could see it i don't got time to wait around it's not my mentality to sit here and try to take all season to figure it out i mean he's saying he's saying the quiet part out loud is that this team sucks under Josh McDaniels, and it's a shame because they do have talent. I really think they do, the Raiders.

But he's proving again that he's not a good NFL head coach. It's a lot of it is decision making. Like you said, Trevor, in-game decision making, personnel decisions. I don't know. I'm with you though that was my big takeaway from this one too I'm glad some of the Steelers young players like Fryermuth and Pickens are you know picking it up right now or getting more from Kenny Pickett but this game I looked at it with the

Raiders and I'm like that that era is just over. It didn't work. You have to try something different. Let us know what you thought mattered most from all the games that you watched this past Sunday in week three of the NFL season. Best way to do that, www.youtube.com backslash at NFL Stock Exchange. That is the YouTube channel. If you're watching on YouTube already,

please smash like and subscribe. We really appreciate it. Appreciate you watching the video as well. You know, a friend of mine walked me through Discord this past weekend. And so, Connor, we might be setting it up. We do for Badlands. It's awesome.

Can you imagine just a hundred Jets maniacs in a Discord? Especially when a game like that happens. Yeah, we, can you imagine just a hundred jets maniacs in a discord, especially when a game like that happens? Yeah. It's been a discord. It's phenomenal. Dude, we could have,

you know what? You know what? I might do it. I might do it. I might do it. I might do it. I'll duck in there. I might set up the discord channel and give you guys some,

some extra space to, to, to get your draft thoughts out there. I feel like setting up the discord channel, like around this time of year would be good because then when full draft season comes around we actually have people who are in it we can discuss prospects and teammates and all this kind of stuff so uh just letting you guys know a couple people have reached out about that i kind of dabbled with discord this past weekend i thought it was really cool uh so i might be setting that up soon we'll let you know where how when to get in on that if we end

up making it but as of right now the best place to do that is the youtube channels please comment on the video let us know what your thoughts are um what you saw from your nfl teams for audio only you get his up on twitter imagine all the comments are like i want back three storylines after the three storylines comments are all i want what matters the most back it's just gonna be a war i'm convinced the addicts are just creating a bit and i respect the hell out of it as a man that enjoys uh shit posting time to time i respect the hell out of it i would too uh wednesday for our second episode of the week uh i watched a lot more wide receivers earlier this week to put on the big board and to put into the mock draft simulator because pff is doing a big uh big board

update coming next week so i watched a ton of receivers some guys that um i'm moving up and down on the big board some guys who had not been on the big board yet and so what connor and i are going to do is we're going to do a stock watch episode but it's going to be wide receiver edition for wednesday so we're going to talk about a ton of different wide receivers that you guys have shouted out to us said like hey you got to get his eyes on this guy this guy's playing really well we're going to bring a lot of those new players to the table as well as take a look at some of the guys that we had in our rankings going into the season saying are they on the rise are they are they not playing as well as we thought they were so we'll give you a whole update it'll be a stock watch wide

receiver centric episode looking forward to that one connor that's gonna be a fun one it's gonna be awesome you and i were talking off air before we started recording you're throwing names at me i'm throwing names at you and you're like what i didn't watch him and i'm like right we're just panicking there's like 40 names we got to get through it see this is why this is why we don't need a discord because the list of wide receivers is gonna be like 65 players stop putting new names in my brain let me catch up in the new year i'm just trying to get through watching zach wilson every sunday oh god it's just a method to survive all right we'll do it we'll do it it'll be awesome can't wait no it's gonna be good it's gonna be good stuff wednesday's gonna be a lot of fun same time by the way we're trying to do

same exact time every single time we we release an episode mondays and wednesdays you can look forward to it 9 30 p.m both of those freaks of the night that's what we're yeah well you know if you're a night owl we give you that little opportunity to watch it before but if you're also in your commute we're making sure we're getting it to you. If you're international, you have to watch it with your coffee. Oh, that's true. Yep. Mr. and Mrs. Worldwide's out there. That's a great point.

It's a great nickname. I'm Trevor Sigma. That's Connor Rogers. Thank you guys so much for watching and listening to the NFL Stock Exchange Podcast. We'll see you on Wednesday. Thank you.