NFL Stock Exchange: An NFL Draft Podcast - 199. "What Matters Most" From Each Game in NFL from Week 5 (2023)

Episode Date: October 10, 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 5 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 telling you what matters most from every game in the Sunday slate from week five in the NFL. We'll go down the list. We'll talk long-term, short-term outlook. Maybe it's a rookie standout, coaches, whole situation, whatever it is, you know we're

going to give it to you. I'm Trevor Sykema. 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 Sykema. That is Connor Rogers joining you once again for what matters most in the NFL. From week five, we're going to go through every single one of the games that we saw in the Sunday slate, including the early London game. We're throwing that bad boy in there. And we're going to tell you what our main takeaways were, whether it was the team that won, lost, whether it was rookie performance, somebody else who was standing out, coaches, long-term, short-term, whatever.

You guys know the drill. It is what matters most from every single game in week five. Took a little bit of a hiatus last week for that mock draft episode, but hopefully you guys were okay with that and we're back to it. Connor, how are you feeling today, my man? I'm good. Listen, dude, we got a lot of ground to cover on this show. We do the draft.

We still do the NFL. Yeah. We still do nonsense. we still do college with stock up so unfortunately i'm sure some favorites at times will be missed on some off weeks but i think this is one of our staples that we we try to do as much as we can and um and we have a lot of fun with it so i'm happy it's a what matters most day here on stock exchange dude speaking of shenanigans i know you and i have a lot of fun with it. So I'm happy it's a what matters most day here on Stock Exchange. Dude, speaking of shenanigans, I know you and I had a lot of fun on last Wednesday's episode with the new format. You know, if anybody missed it, we had a blast.

It was something that was totally new that kind of came out of nowhere where Connor and I just held up a notepad asking a question to the other person that neither of us have ever seen before about the NFL or about the draft and it yielded some pretty great conversation not just among us in that episode but more importantly with you guys we had over 200 comments on our YouTube video which y'all are so awesome for that I was scrolling reading all the different responses to the football topics that we talked about and then Connor of course it course, it got pretty heated with the two are defending you

and the rest are coming to kill you question about different animals, which again, the only way that I can explain it is to tell you to go listen to the episodes because the listeners got heated about it. And it was awesome to go read all those comments. We love you guys so much for how engaging you are on this show. I like when we experiment with an idea and within 12 hours of the episode being out, you're like, yeah, we're going to be able to do this again.

People are going to want the no notes. It's just a, honestly, it's a way for you and I to do topical stuff in the cleanest format and then also have a little fun at the end. so that show format will absolutely be back we're so glad everybody got involved and really enjoyed it and

so we continue to try more stuff on this show it's those ones that always give me a smile when i read the comments and read the dms and it's always good for a laugh yeah we you guys you guys are the best for that you guys obviously make the show a lot of fun for us to do so hopefully we make it a lot of fun for you guys to listen as well. Well, let's dig into these games. Let's get into it. What matters most from week five in the NFL? You want to just start with the London game and then we can kind of rapid fire from there

if you want to. But all right. So Jags 2-0 overseas. Not exactly helping the narrative of people who think the Jags are eventually going to be based out of London at some point in time. You're not helping your cause here. You're helping your regular season record, but two and over the last two weeks, they beat the Falcons the week previous, and then they stayed in England for that extended 10 day trip. And they cap it off with another win this time

against the Buffalo Bills, 25 to 20. Connor, what'd you think about this game? What mattered most? Well, first off, I'd like to apologize. I left Trevor Lawrence off the list of quarterbacks. I would still take over Caleb Williams. I wasn't going to bring it up. And he goes out and has one of the best games I've seen from him as a pro.

It's just funny how these things work. He listens to the pod. He listens to the pod. He takes notes. When people were just like notes when, when people talk about like, Hey, what kind of music do you listen to to get you pumped up? Lawrence is in the corner with his headphones on,

just listening to stock exchange and kind of Rogers just off every quarterback that he would take over Caleb Williams. And then the name isn't there. Well, it's working. He looked awesome. He had a great game. The Jags.

There's a lot of fun stuff about them. I've done the Jags on what matters most this year, notably about Tyson Campbell. But my actual takeaway from this game, Trevor, is Bills related. And it's that I have a question about the Bills, two questions about the Bills that, in my opinion, matter most for their short and long-term future right now i wrote down can the bills survive the matt milano injury after losing trey white and the piggyback or the follow-up is can kairi elam a guy you drafted a guy you traded up for in the first round can he step up in his absence and right now the answer looks like no, but he deserves a much larger sample size than that.

But Matt Milano is obviously one of the most important defenders to his team in the NFL. I have seen Matt Milano. I mean, I cover real closely on Sundays, the jets. I've seen Milano play against the jets and I've also seen Milano miss games against the jets and the drastic difference in that defense is insane.

So my question for the Bills right now is, and everybody's got insane injuries in the NFL, so you shrug and go, like, tough luck. That's the sport right now. But the Bills, who have had, it feels like, extra bad luck, I just wonder if this defense can be what it's supposed to be, Trevor, while missing those kinds of guys and not getting what they were supposed to from a first former first rounder. Yeah, it's this is the worst part of the game, right? Injuries that you have to deal

with where you look at the bills and you look at the bills over the last couple of years, and they've been one of the most talented teams in the NFL. And I don't think that this year was any different. You and I chatted before the season. I picked the bills and over the last couple of years and they've been one of the most talented teams in the NFL and I don't think that this year was any different you and I chatted before the season I picked the Bills and win the Super Bowl because I still felt like they were a team that had a roster to get them to that point and I felt like the ball just had not bounced their way over the last couple of years and because of that people were getting Bills fatigue but this team was still really good led by a really good quarterback and a guy who can take you to super bowl ceiling but when you start talking about injuries to guys that are as crucial for your success as matt milano as trey white when he's playing really well i mean the list is very short of players that the bills could afford to lose that would be worse than Milano.

I mean, what's the list? Josh Allen and Stefan Diggs, maybe? That's it? I think that's it. Is that it? I really think that's it. I mean, they've already been missing Vaughn this year, and he got some snaps in this game.

And Vaughn's coming back, so at least they get that, and that's nice. But, man, it felt like when we were watching that game, Rich Eisen just kept having to say, like, all right, we got another Buffalo Bills player down. And I agree with you. I think a big part of what matters most, I'm glad that you brought up the Bills angle, is the fact that they're going through all of these injuries. And the Kyrie Ewing part is really crucial because he was a healthy scratch, right, In the first four weeks of the season. And then he plays this past week against Jacksonville,

basically just because he had to, because of injury. It wasn't really because it was like, all right, well, you've elevated your play. Now we're going to start you. Now it's almost like desperation. And I guess there are worse things than desperately playing a former first-round pick at corner who could still work out for you. But I agree with you completely. This is huge huge moment for kairi elam uh and he needs to step up for this team he does and the bills need to step up you know their their defense

needs to come together and they need to cover up for the deficiencies without milano and that's on the staff and the reality is as unfair as this may be this team is going to need a little bit more of Josh Allen being Superman than we even expected because I don't know if this defense will go out and win you as many games as they typically can when they're missing that much upper echelon talent while also trying to get their star pass rusher back into form and that's going to take a little bit so i'm not writing the bills off i just think much like a lot of bills fans i know i saw the reactions in game i just hate that i'm writing down more questions for them already at

this point of the season yeah my what matters most i'll go to the jag side it's it's very simple just trevor lawrence is that dude man i mean just an encapsulation of you've got the right guy is that fade pass to the sideline to calvin ridley with everything on the line it's just you go through an entire scouting process and you you you vet a player as much as possible when you you try to put them through all sorts of mental situations and you look at all sorts of different categories of statistics simply to answer the question does can this player make the throw to calvin ridley over the shoulder at the sideline with the game on the line. And the answer is just 100% yes. They have the right guy in Trevor Lawrence.

I know Jacksonville fans are frustrated for some other reasons, right? We talked about the pass rush here before on this show. The overall defensive talent still needs to take a step forward. There have been some really tough drops, I think, from this entire receiving room for, I'll say the entire start to this season. I mean, it's gotta be better from Jacksonville's receivers. They can't keep letting the offense down this way. I don't know where they rank and drop passes for the league.

Probably should have looked that up before I brought up this point, but I just feel as though it's gotta be much better from them. And if it is, Lawrence is gonna get you where you wanna go. He's number five right now in PFF passing grade on the season.

So once again, he's in that top 10, he's in that top group. And I just wanted to remind everybody that progress is not linear, right? It's not like it's, it's just always going to go up. You're going to go through your ups and downs, even as the arrow is pointing up. Trembalky has made some questionable roster building moves, and I understand how that's frustrating. But Doug Peterson's still the head but doug peterson still the

head coach trevor lawrence is still the quarterback and the rest of the stuff is just a matter of figuring it out around them so they are still going in the right direction and to me that is absolutely what matters most to come out of london and that 10-day stretch two and oh well done by the jags and they should be pumped about it moving forward. No doubt. I'm with you all the way. Awesome game for the Jags. Awesome London trip for the Jags. Momentum that they can build on in a division

that looks a little tougher than we expected. I'll say that. You want to move to the 1PMs? Yes. Which one do you want to start with? Saints-Patriots? Okay. Maybe.

All right. We're starting with Heat. We're starting with heat we're starting with heat 34 to nothing heat in in the name of the new orleans saints oh brother i'll let you take this one because um i've got a patriots take i don't know if you got a patriots take or a saints take but uh i'll let you i'll let you battle it off i have a patriots take okay all right we're probably just gonna both talk about the same thing but my patriots take is off. I have a Patriots take. Okay. All right. We're probably just going to both talk about the same thing, but my Patriots take is the Patriots have a lot of problems right now that have been kind of mounting since Tom left. But Mac Jones is a major part of those problems.

I constantly see the conversation as well. Yeah, but they don't have a lot of good receivers or well. Yeah. The offense was so bad last year, it set him back, and he's trying to swim upstream now. And, well, yeah, but no. Mac Jones is a massive part of this entire problem.

He's a massive part of this entire problem. I'm pretty sure he leads the league in turnover-worthy plays with 12. What was he up to 12 man bone soul crushing turnovers game altering turn up bone crushing that was the wrong phrase i mean it look it could still be it can feel that way and here's the thing too we constantly do this well they're you know instruct he has to play in structure and they don't have enough talent to constantly win in structure. That is part of the problem. He is not one of the quarterbacks in the league that can make a play when things go wrong and things go wrong in the NFL a lot.

That is the league right now. The athletes in the front seven are insane. Your offensive line is going to get beat a lot. He is a very limited quarterback yeah and that is part of all of new england's issues and i wish people would just accept that for what it is that new england has a lot of work to do to get better and they can do it it's the patriots it's bill belichick Like they will probably have a pretty high draft pick this year, but getting more out of the quarterback position is the biggest step to move forward of that. And I think a lot of people just need to accept that. It blows my mind.

The pretzel people are twisting themselves in to say that they need to make it better around Mac and then it'll go better. No, they need to make the quarterback position better on top of all of those things. Yeah, no, I could not agree with you more. One of the main points I was going to hammer home is New England's drafting a quarterback in the first round. They all have to, you know, we went through a mock draft last week. I wrote one over at pff.com and a lot of the responses that I got were based around. I had Bo Nix going to the Patriots in my written mock and there were a decent amount of

people who responded that were they were like there's no way Bo Nix is better than Mac Jones now whatever you think of Bo Nix that part might end up being true we'll see but certainly right now you got to take a swing at a quarterback who at least has a lot more arm talent than Mac Jones does and Bo Nix absolutely does a lot more athleticism than mac jones does bo nicks absolutely does and so that's why i had him be the pick because i'm with you 100 you can win games in this league with mac jones if he plays on a team where everything else is like completely superior like if you put mac jones on the eagles in jalen hurt spot okay sure he's gonna win you football games san francisco right i think it's easy to to say san

francisco because a lot of people say san francisco it's tough to find yourself a san francisco right right and and you draft a quarterback in the first round because you know that odds are you're not going to have an offense like we see in miami you're not going to have an offense like you see in philadelphia or in san francisco chances are because you live in the salary cap era you're going to have little deficiencies here and there the team is so rarely going to be as perfect as fans might want it to be say oh what what's he supposed to do because the offensive line oh what's he supposed to do he's got no run game oh what's he supposed to do he's got no receiver he's supposed to be better than what mac jones is right now that's what he's supposed to be and you draft a quarterback in

the first round to elevate not just a ceiling but to elevate a floor so that when the rest of the scheme might be breaking down when the run game doesn't have it this week and when the receivers aren't separating as well you still have a player that can get it done right i mean that that argument is why i have i have faith in justin herbert in los ang Angeles because there's a lot of times where like, whether it's the lack of the run game or maybe the receivers weren't playing super well, or maybe the defense was letting him down, whatever. Herbert basically gets whatever he can possibly get out of the unit almost on a

weekly basis. And that's why I think he's one of the best in the NFL. And that's why we talked about when we did what matters most a couple of weeks ago, you choose Justin Herbert over Brandon Staley at this point, because he is that type of first round quarterback. He is that type of elevator. So I would agree with you a hundred percent on, on Mac Jones and, you know, just kind of expanding it and getting a little bit more into Belichick.

I think a lot of people are, are souring on Belichick. And I think we've got to have a level-headed conversation about this here. Bill's not a good roster builder. No. He's not. He never really has been. I think that when you nail it as good as you did with Brady, which, remember, remember sixth round pick entirely

Bill was a defensive genius and guru and I still think that he is so a lot of his defenses were just been elite over the last 20 years that knowledge and that genius that forward thinking that elevation I mean remember when Sean McVay was just absolutely taken over the league nobody could stop him early on in his tenure he He was running so many different plays out of 11 personnel. Nobody knew it was coming next. They ran through the league. Then Belichick held him three points in the Super Bowl. It's just who he is as a coach. So it's not even like you got to point to 2007 numbers to get good Belichick stats. You don't have to go back very far. Now, it's been tough since Brady,

because when you lose the greatest quarterback of all time, yeah, you're probably going to expose some other parts of the roster. But I just think that people need to, when they criticize the Patriots, I think criticizing them is very fair. You have to be able to delegate between the two of Belichick, the general manager, Belichick, the team builder, and then Belichick, the coach. Because I still believe that Belichick, the head coach, is one of the best and not the best head coaches in the NFL. The team builder has always been bad.

Their run game is terrible right now. It is without question the worst in the NFL in terms of EPA per rush. They have the lowest yards before contact in the NFL, and I think they have the lowest yards after contact in the NFL. They don't have guys in the backfield. They don't have the guys up front. They don't have receivers that can separate. And now that the defense is kind of banged up,

Matthew Judon's not there. It's tough, man. Christian Gonzalez is out. Yeah, right. And so it's not going to look good in New England. And one other point I wanted to make is people like to do this Brady versus Belichick thing. And I think it's really unfair to Bill when you do that. Because people look at the last three years, three or four years since Brady

left, and they look at what the Patriots have become, an exposed roster, not really much forward movement, and in fact, clearly, very clearly going in the wrong direction. And then they look at Brady and they say, well, Brady won a Super Bowl without Bill. Okay, Bill loses the greatest quarterback of all time to his roster, and Brady simply drops into one of the best rosters in the NFL with one of the best coaching staffs in the NFL in Tampa, and guess what? They won the Super Bowl because of that. Brady's situation to success was a whole hell of a lot easier

than Belichick's was. And I know that I'm rambling at this point, but my what matters most is definitely in sync with yours about the quarterback position. But it is also when you're calling for Belichick's head here, if you want to call for his head as a general manager, OK, we can talk about that y'all gotta remember that he put on the greatest decade the greatest dynasty we've seen in nfl history over the last 20 years and i just want to make sure that that part gets remembered yeah i think like most things it always goes too far each way right i think that sometimes man the game i'm not saying the game is passed by bill belichick but the construction of an nfl roster absolutely has yeah because they look like a team that wants to play football 12 years ago and it just doesn't fit today's game yeah so all right where do you want to go next

um shout out to new orleans winning 37 to 30 34 to nothing yeah sorry saints fans i mean that's just this this the patriots of the story here because your team their ass that bad um houston atlanta you want to talk a little bit about houston atlanta yes all right so atlanta wins this game 21 to 19 thriller at the end once again falcons just will not die in the second half, but specifically in the fourth quarter. They come away 3-2 on the year. Texans drop to 2-3. But, Connor, what was your what matters most from this one? I think that when Desmond Ritter's back was against the wall,

like we're talking he has a bad game. They should bench him. That level of back against the wall, he did everything he could to keep a hold of the starting job and led the offense to be efficient functioning through the air he obviously had the touchdown on the ground as well that was massive gets it done at the end when it matters most i think that that was this takeaway from this game for me is that a passing offense that has had a lot of low points this year

and a team that has a highly paid backup and Taylor Heineke that can play to an extent Ritter's a young guy but he really really needed this kind of game to regain the confidence of his coaching staff of his team of everyone involved both they got both kyle pitts and johnny smith involved it wasn't just johnny smith's show wow on that front i know kyle kyle pitts led the team in targets and receptions by the way and receiving yards he went he got the triple crown enjoy it yeah we haven't seen much of that so yeah that that's what stands out to me the most because Atlanta has a good defense, in my opinion. They have a lot of talent on defense. Atlanta has a rushing attack

that should be the bulk of their offense because of the talent they have and because of the coach they have and how they built this team. But Desmond Ritter still needs to be adequate enough as a passer for all of those things to even matter. And in this game game he absolutely was and now he needs to string together performances like this to hold on to this job yeah i i thought

that ritter had his best game right and i think that that was very very important for him not that not that i really think they're gonna bench him i feel like they're just kind of like you kind of got a ride with ritter at this point, right? I don't know. You think they would? I think it was getting scary because you have a lot of veterans on this team. You have a coach that really needs to start winning. You have a division that is ripe for the taking. You can't have an anchor under center. Otherwise, why did you pay Taylor Heineke to come be your backup like my whole thought with heineke was that he was always an insurance if ritter absolutely as we say on the show turned into a pumpkin and for many games this year he has been but the team's been

good enough and this was the game where he was good enough to go win them the game i thought that he he certainly was not the he did not end up being the reason why they lost. And I agree with you back against the wall played very well. I think C.J. Stroud on the other side, it's not obvious at this point, but this is such a what matters most to me. I figured that we would talk about the quarterback positions in this matchup because they were the most important. But Stroud, man, it was another phenomenal showing for him. And when I say phenomenal, i want to make sure people know like i'm not calling him a top five quarterback in the league but for a rookie and certainly for a rookie that i had concerns about with how he was going to play under pressure this is a big

deal to me this start for stroud is a big deal to me he's playing so well that like parts of me is even like okay wait wait hold on are we too good now like is this even sustainable like is this his identity when is it right we're gonna fall out yeah I get it gonna take a step back now look he hasn't thrown an interception this year he has had three turnover worthy plays that come from passing and they've been sporadic it's really been I think it was there was one in the baltimore game there was one in the jags game and then there was one this past weekend and so there there have been three that you could say okay those could have been intercepted because i really don't care about

the interception stat certainly when you compare it to having data like we do where we categorize them as turnover worthy plays like that's what I want to see further down, but still for a rookie quarterback to be three weeks into the season, hasn't thrown an interception yet and only has three turnover worthy type throws to me. That's really, really impressive. So Stroud continues to impress. And I know it wasn't a officially a game winning drive from him, but it kind of was right he did everything possible

that was within his power to win that game so when you look at it in the grand scheme of things that was about his game winning drive type of a moment as he was going to get and he absolutely performed very very well um getting into the end zone there so great to see again from stroud but um yeah i i think that i would agree with you the ritter point is is a massive one about uh him keeping that job for sure all right titans colts you want to kick this one off i've kind of gotten a steal the shine instantly right away each time so you know my big takeaway from this one is honestly i'm pretty pretty damn impressed with the Indianapolis Colts defense with what Gus Bradley is doing with that unit. And I looked at the numbers afterwards and I thought that they would be better from Indianapolis. Honestly, from watching them over the last couple of weeks, the way that it feels like they have really put a stress on their opponents, whether it was the Ravens or certainly this past weekend with the Titans how they stepped up big time it's not perfect but I looked it up overall EPA per play

allowed 17th EPA per rush allowed 15th EPA per pass allowed 18th so they're right in the middle of the NFL in terms of all those numbers but man it just feels like when they need to show up they do and they're really not afraid of any opponent that they're facing. I think that Zaire Franklin, their linebacker, I'm giving a big shout out to him, a big salute to him. He had the fourth and one stop against Derrick Henry. I mean, holy cow. To have a situation where you are going, it wouldn't quite one-onon-one but essentially one-on-one with derrick henry fourth and one gotta have it he knows that you know that and you absolutely stop the man cold

i think afterwards in the game unless this quote was fabricated i think that he said like yeah henry's the king and i stopped the king so what does that make me well it makes you king slayer that's what it does and i saw that nickname thrown around there. So I want to give Zaire Franklin his flowers. He is one of like five linebackers in NFL history who have started the season with five straight double digit tackle games. So the man's all over the place. He's forcing fumbles, tackles for loss, ton of tackles, just right at the line of scrimmage as well. A lot of solo stops and obviously the raw tackle stats too. So whether it's Zaire, Franklin, or a lot of other players on that defense,

I feel like the Colts are playing well. Or at least I feel like we're on the cusp of them taking that next step. I mocked them a corner in our mock draft, and I still think that that's probably an area they need more talent in. But I'm impressed with what I've seen from Indianapolis defense so far early on this season. I was thinking with the Colts as well. And the good thing is I'm going on the offensive side of the ball.

The Colts offensive depth has kept their season alive and well. And what I mean by that is like all the storylines and fun has been around Anthony Richardson's big plays and now Jonathan Taylor is back and that's all great I know Richardson's hurt now that's not so great but Gardner Minshew and Zach Moss have basically been unsung heroes of this team and true I mean my what matters most is that while Richardson's out and while Taylor is not Jonathan Taylor, because it's going to take a while.

It's going to take a while. He has not played a lot of football recently. They have enough guys under center and Gardner, a quarterback, and, of course, Zach Moss in the backfield, that they'll be fine. The Colts will be fine. And I think that's a credit to two guys that have been basically written off, cast offs. It's kind of cool to me. It's a storyline in the NFL I don't think a lot of people care about.

Zach Moss was drafted in the third round by the Bills. The Bills is a team that seems like they're always looking for that running back to be the real threat of the offense. And it didn't work out in Buffalo. He gets dumped in the Naheem Hines trade. Like, dumped. And the dude is unbelievable this year. I mean, truly, he's unbelievable this year.

This past game was nuts. Against a front that's really good. Tennessee's front is really, really good. A lot of guys don't run on them. And when you look at Gardner, he's the prototypical backup backup that comes in and can do more than enough to just play point card so what matters most is that in a division that has been devoured by injuries plenty the Colts under Chris Ballard actually have some depth here that can keep them afloat. And I think that's, I know they're plus 400 to win the division. Jacksonville is obviously the well-earned expected team to take this one away.

But I don't think the Colts, even with their injuries and their delay of getting Jonathan Taylor back to being himself or going away. Yeah. Josh Downs, big, big, big step up game for him too. He plays well with Gardner. There's a drastic difference. Six for six, six targets, six receptions, team leading 97 yards in the passing game.

So, I mean, it just feels like it's coming along for Indianapolis in a lot of different ways. They're not that perfect team yet, but we've talked about, I've certainly talked about how much I love what Shane Steichen's got going on there. And they're another team, just like the Jags. I feel like they're going in the right direction. Maybe they're not quite on the Jags plane yet, but I think that both of those teams are going in the right direction. And we wondered if this division would just straight up suck. And it's not. It's really not.

Tennessee's going to be competitive every single week because Rabel's going to have his guys competitive every week um culture clearly playing better than i thought they were going to cj stroud's got the texans playing very very well and then you got the jags at the top so very quietly and surprisingly a intriguing division here in the early nfl season all right where we go next ra Ravens Steelers. Jeez. I mean, Ravens Steelers' peak form of just this rivalry stays true to its reputation. I got to look up Brad Spielberger's tweet because this was a stat that I was going to look up at some point.

I wonder if it's the one I have. Is it a Ravens-related stat? Is it the drop stat? Yeah. All right, go ahead. Seven. Yes, but like the history of it? Oh, please go on.

Okay, all right. Hold on. Now I got to find it. My whole point was that... He's tweeting about Cole Komet. Sorry, I got to scroll past all these Cole Komets. So much good content. And he got Cole Komet. And now he got cold combat oh man i listen as somebody that has probably tweeted about tyler conklin before i i can't even say anything god damn he's

getting these tweets off what are we all right what were you gonna say all right i found it but what were you gonna say i mean my whole thing of what matters most is the Ravens. I initially, when I watched this game, I wrote down, why can't this Ravens offense find rhythm under Todd Munkin and MVP quarterback? And then I answered my own question. Like, until somebody helps out Lamar Jackson, this offense won't find rhythm. That's the answer. It's not that they don't have the quarterback. It's not that they can't throw.

It's not that they don't have the play caller. It's not that they're not a good team because they're a really good team help them out four big time throws seven drops and not just drops where it's like okay ran a curl on second and eight and i dropped it like damn third down just got tougher it's back breaking touchdown Backbreaking touchdown drops. Backbreaking touchdowns, explosive plays. Yeah, dude. It's all there. It is all there. And until these guys help out Lamar Jackson and Todd Munkin, they won't find rhythm.

So the good thing is it's pretty easy. Catch the ball. Catch the football. And you'll be an explosive offense with an MVP quarterback playing at a high level. Yeah. The problem is Trevor. I don't trust this group of pass catchers at all, at all. They don't look like anything of what they were supposed to be.

Yeah. And I was going to say, how, how shitty is that? Because we have for so long, just been begging the Ravens to get some sort of passing weapon around Lamar really since his MVP season when it felt like he was kind of like doing it alone and for a little bit there it was Mark

Andrews Mark Andrews was a big uh part of why they were having success in the past game over the last couple of years he was he I think led the team in drops this this past week if I am not mistaken he had the drop in the end zone for sure. But Connor, Odell Beckham. Now, okay, journeyman, I get it. Former first-round pick. Ton of talent. If you want to say, hey, he's not the Odell of old, he should at least be able to catch the football.

Former first-round pick, he's letting him down. Rashad Bateman, former first-round pick. Can't catch right now. Zay Flowers. Zay got hurt, right? Zay, I think, did get hurt. But still, Zay had drops. Zay Flowers.

That was a problem for Zay. They have invested a first-round pick in Zay Flowers, a first-round pick in Rashad Bateman, a third-round pick in Mark Andrews. And then going out to get another guy who they were just hoping was like the icing on the cake with Odell Beckham Jr. Yeah. Like like we got a problem let's triple down on fixing all of these guys let him down yep lamar had a 93.4 passing rate at the end of the at the oh yeah this is lamar's performance is why pff exists to to make sure that you know that he was phenomenal in this game. He had an adjusted completion percentage of, I think it was 78.

I think on the season, it's like 78.5. I mean, Lamar is dialed in this year. He has so much control of this offense. I think he is already in really good sync with what Todd Munkin wants to do. Just catch the freaking football. That's it. All right, so Brad's tweet. All right, so here it is.

Cole Komet, wait, no, sorry. Lamar Jackson with an all-time letdown from his receiving group. Ravens were credited with seven drops, which is the third most of any singular week of any team in the nfl since 2017 including two in the end zone and two more on throws that would have been categorized as big time throws 20 or more yards down the field catch the ball people just catch the football and they know that um my what matters most, I mean, that was definitely going to be one of them.

The Steelers. Brother, Mike Tomlin is a magician. I don't understand. I don't understand. How does he keep doing this? He is almost challenging himself, keeping Matt Canada around his offensive coordinator to see just how close he can get to not finishing 500 on the season to feel alive that's where we are with the steelers so tay seth who uh used to work at PFF, now he works for Summer Sports, he tweeted this

out. Here are the Steelers' offensive success rates in their three wins this season, okay? Versus the Browns, first percentile. So you guys know how it works on this show. 99th percentile is good. First percentile is bad. So their win versus the Browns, success rate of their offense, first percentile. Versus the Raiders, 18th percentile. Versus the Ravens, 10th percentile. How is this happening? It's an insane way to live. An insane way to live.

How is this happening? I mean, look, their defensive line is absolutely ferocious tj watts having a defensive mvp type of season i just combined defensive player of the year and mvp trophies into one he'd give them both at this point i don't care he's been unreal alex heisman's been unreal the corners all right here's my actual what matters most uh the Steelers need to draft the corner in the first round this upcoming draft they're bad uh Joey Porter Jr. has been great so far but it's corner so we know that it's gonna have its ups and downs especially as a rookie so like we can expect him to regress a little bit and that's gonna be fine but he is graded very

highly for this team so far when he has played um levi wallace and patrick peterson both of them have coverage grades below 60 like these guys it's we can't keep throwing them out there especially next year you invested a decently high pick in joey porter jr last year do not let that be the all right we're good to go we're good to go here i think you got to draft the corner with one of your first two picks this upcoming draft depending on where you end up picking finally but that's my that's another what matters most ahead for pitch i'm with you they've had a problem at that position for a long long time and you know where patrick peterson is at in his career is not going to be a fix for it all right how about lions panthers all right wait okay i this one's gonna this one's

gonna be long-winded for your boy so i feel like we got to get an ad read-in for that can we do that yeah all right you guys can't can we do that it's we got to get paid our families imagine i said no yeah no all, so Bryce. Absolutely not. Look, this time of year, it's all about the routine, right? Back to school, back to work. You know, fall time, you're getting into your routines. You're figuring things out.

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not available in certain states prices subject to underwriting and health questions all right kick us off uh lions panthers do you have a lion's take or do you have a panther state i have a lion's take that's probably not very fun right like you probably have a lion's take i mean it's a lot of fun but you and i are going to collaborate on the panthers what matters most i already know that so go ahead go off on on lions let's hear it okay i wrote down two things one is like a no duh so i'm not gonna expand on it aiden hutchinson is just a star and is a star a star player so now you have you look at that draft right which is kind of a weird draft to look back at in hindsight. The 2022 draft.

Like overall or just alliance? The top 10 of it. Let's say, I need a refresher here. Let's get a refresher. I got it up for you. I want to read it to you. Okay, go ahead. Because really, in the top eight,

there are only two star players right now. Okay. Sauce Gardner and Aiden Hutchinson. Trayvon Walker went one to Jacksonville. Aiden Hutchinson went to Detroit. Okay. Cool. Derek Stingley went three to the Texans.

All right. Not great. He's been hurt, but also not as good as what we've wanted. Okay. Sauce went fourth. Kayvon Thibodeau went fifth. Icky went sixth to Carolina. Evan Neal has been as big of a disaster

on and off the field with his mouth for the Giants that you could ever find in a draft at seven. And Drake London went eighth to the Falcons. Whoa, whoa, whoa. Hold on. Whoa, whoa, whoa. What?

What? What? We're not calling Drake London a hit? We're not calling him a star. I think he's a nice player. All right, I might take offense to that. I like Drake London. But I haven't decided yet.

I just, I just, I like Drake London a lot. I just don't know because until this week, Desmond Ritter was trying to do a marcus mariotta impression in a falcons uniform i'm so mad i'm so mad that for my final big board my final rankings i put jameson williams at one over drake london i'm so mad con London I'm so mad Connor I'm so mad the whole draft cycle I was just standing on the chair and I was like Drake London wide receiver one and look Jameson Williams hasn't played for a variety of different reasons he's back now but I think that he could still be a fantastic pro but it still makes me mad because I felt like I cheated myself I felt like I went

against myself just because it was i i listened you were mr drake london i know and i ended up having him he was he was still top 15 for me but the funny thing is i did something similar so i had garrett wilson one that year and i i always i had never moved him but i moved jameson up to two god i did the same thing we're bad We're bad. All right. We got to hold each other accountable. I know.

We're here for. I know. I love Drake London that entire fall, that entire winter. I don't I don't know. Then I made Jameson two after Garrett Wilson. So, yeah, this, by the way, isn't even my take. But I just want to aid in Hutchinson to get love for being a star. Yeah.

My take is that ben johnson will pick his job this offseason he will pick his job yeah the lions are fun to watch they're creative they're great at using their personnel they're great at managing volume all around spreading the ball around they understand how to draft and use a tight end and sam laporta which feels like three teams in the nfl know how to draft and use a tight end and sam laporta which feels like three teams in the nfl know how to draft and use a tight end maybe that's being too much ben johnson will pick his job i hope ben johnson goes wherever well this is tricky obviously you hope he goes where either caleb goes but assuming that maybe whoever gets caleb if it's like the bears don't know if

it'll be a new head coach i want ben johnson to be with drake may is my whole kind of thing do we do we think what's the person what's what's what's the percent chance that you think lincoln riley would follow caleb oh wow what's the percent at this point i should have saved this question for the notepad what am i doing eight percent eight i think i think he i think he loves usc i also think it's like 12 because let's what is lincoln but if you're ever gonna make the jump this is when you make the jump this is when you make the jump you go with with him 100%. So Lincoln Riley is on a smooth 10-year, $110 million contract. Very smooth. Here's the thing, folks. You've got to blow that out of the water to get him to come to the NFL.

And I still don't even think Lincoln's personality, I don't really think he's really jumping at the NFL. But you make an interesting point yeah but man i whoever like whoever is in position to draft caleb or drake i'd love ben johnson can get ben johnson you'd think unless you're a colossal disaster all right hold on we're pulling a tank lion's fans are probably sitting here like wow thanks you're talking about our team's going to lose its best coach. Well, they are. Enjoy it now.

They should have lost Ben Johnson last offseason. He should be coaching Bryce Young right now. But I think Lions fans know that. Lions fans know that. God, if only. Oh, man, that's a great transition into Bryce. But, yeah, where? I don't i feel like the only place where ben johnson could realistically

get with drake may at this point is vegas that's the thing right isn't it it's kind of weird because all the teams that are expected to pick in the top 10 now and yes it's already they're gonna lose their head coaches it's right isn. Isn't it very strange? It's really strange. I don't. Maybe Chicago fires. He reflues. I'm not really that convinced of that, but who knows? Sean Payton's not getting fired,

although he's been a complete disaster. Oh, we'll get an O'Connell's not getting fired. No, he's not the problem. Bill's not getting Bella. Check's not getting fired. No,

Gannon's not getting fired. Dable's not getting fired. It's Vegas. So I was not getting fired. Dable's not getting fired. It's Vegas. Sala's not getting fired. No. Rodgers is going to go to bed. I mean, Ron Rivera? Yeah, he could be fired. So it's basically like Vegas and Washington.

Washington's not. I still don't think Washington's a bad team, though. No, I don't either. But Washington won't be in conversation. If you told me that Washington's going to finish the year, I don't know their schedule. 8-9? You know what I'm saying?

If you told me Washington's going to finish the year 9-8, I'd be like, all right. If you told me Washington's going to finish the year 4-13, I'd be like, yeah, all right. I wouldn't. I think they're better than that. You just think they're better than that you just think they're better than that i think they are such a classic treadwater my situation all right all right yeah right exactly my response to everything exactly all right my what matters most god i gotta stop saying that word now i'm

just gonna hear it in my head uh i gotta start saying it like saving so my what matters most is about bryce young and the carolina panthers i tweeted this out on sunday never tweet never tweet bryce is so far in his own head right now this is not the player that we saw at alabama and i don't think this is going to be the player that we're going to see throughout his nfl career but you are beginning to flirt with disaster because connor you and i had this conversation i think it was a i think it was a fan question about like when to start rookie quarterbacks and things like that. And my answer is always, when you know that that quarterback is not going to be rattled

and that their confidence is not going to be shot for the long term, start them as early as you can. But until you hit that moment, you better not ruin. You better not throw them out there before they're ready because where you want to get live reps if you kill somebody's confidence it can kill a career for Bryce he's making mistakes that we never even saw him make at Alabama even in his first couple of games as a starter like he is just so far in his own head with the protection and the pass rush and the receivers not getting open and the play calls and everything that he does he

doesn't trust what's going on in carolina so much right now that this past week you could see he doesn't even trust himself it's it is it is to the point where he is really doubting everything he sees around him. Now, I think that that's also context to explain some things. There are people who are, it feels like, already kind of taking victory laps on Bryce Young. Oh, yeah. I had Bryce Young number one overall. As did I. This show's never been wrong. had Bryce Young number one overall. As did I.

This show's never been wrong. I am not trying to say this as a Bryce Young. This show's never been wrong. I'm not trying to say this as a Bryce Young apologist. I'm trying to bring context to it. Bryce does not have the physical gifts to overcome the deficiencies on his team right now. He doesn't. So if you were expecting to see that from him, that is an unfair curve that you are judging him on. He's not. Anthony Richardson right now is able to stand out in the NFL because his physical gifts allow him

to stand out right now in the NFL. Anthony Richardson is still figuring it out. It's not perfect for him. His processing isn't completely perfect, but he'll give you those handful of really great throws. Why? Because he has the physical ability to do it. So throughout his struggles, he will still show you flashes because that is a part of his scouting report that we absolutely love. It is a good thing that we see that. The same can be said for Stroud. Stroud has a massive arm.

He's got big arm talent. So as Stroud has not looked perfect, he has been able to put out there some really great throws because it doesn't need to be perfect for you to show that you were athlete enough to play at the NFL position. And when there are deficiencies, when you have that athletic baseline or even ceiling, it allows you to stand out more.

The reason why Bryce Young was seen as the guy who was the number one overall pick is not because of his physical gifts. So if you expect him to show physical gifts outside of his current situation in his rookie season, I don't know what to tell you. You weren't looking at the right thing. In all honesty, Bryce Young's scouting report was always going to be justified or not, and who he was as a prospect was always going to be justified or not, and who he was as a prospect was always going to be justified or not based on year two and probably year three. To

expect him to come out there in week one and dazzle at the NFL level when we knew that he was going to have athletic deficiencies that he was going to have to get over is a ridiculous notion. It's a ridiculous starting point for him, and it's unfair to judge him that way so to me as long as Bryce Young still believes in himself at the end of this year I don't really care what it looks like I don't the receivers in Carolina are going to be better than they are this year it was one of the if not the worst receiving groups in the NFL going into the season yeah this is one of the worst offensive lines in the nfl they're basically bottom five in every single pff category that we have judging offensive line the pass blocking is horrible the time to throw is horrible they're not clicking as a unit there have been guys in

and out of that lineup it's not good and then i also think the play calling just has not been what it's needed to be so to sit here and be like oh well bryce isn't looking as good as these other guys of course he's not he doesn't have the physical gifts those players do. And if you want to say, okay, well, that's why I would have taken them. That's why I would have taken these other guys over Bryce Young. I'm not drafting Bryce Young to look the best as a rookie. I'm drafting Bryce Young to have the longest NFL career to win me a Super Bowl. And he showed at Alabama, to me the mental fortitude the adaptation to pressure

that clutch gene all of those things are why I had him number one overall and you're not going to see you you are not going to see those things right now currently in Carolina so there's no reason I don't think to overreact to how he's playing. If you want to be right about Bryce Young, guess what? If you're right about him now, you're going to be right about him in year two. You're going to be right about him in year three. But I'm not anywhere close to writing the book on who Bryce Young is. And I think year two and year three were always the timeline for when you would see that player manifest and actually get to that elite level of a player

who you think could be a, bring you the ceiling of a franchise quarterback mentally in how he processes the game. His struggles illuminated how much work Carolina needs as a roster on offense. And it's not that he's guilt-free. He's making mistakes. He's not getting caught. He's not comfortable. He's not seeing the's guilt-free he's making mistakes he's not getting out he's

not comfortable he's not seeing the field all those things are a problem but they are so far away offensively bigger than him for a what 21 22 year old it's yeah it's the victory lapping needs to be a little careful and i i just i again like i don't mean to be a it's the victory lapping needs to be a little careful. And I, I just, I, again, like, I don't mean to be a, it's the world we live in though. I, I don't mean to like defend the guy beyond what you need to,

but Bryce was never going to stand out physically in his rookie year. So why are we shocked that he's on one of the worst rosters in the NFL and he's not standing out physically? You could, you could have read that scouting report before the draft even happened so um yeah anyways I I know that that kind of people might say like hey that kind of contrasts what you said about Mac Jones because you got to be able to have I had a feeling some people would say it but it's not the same I just don't think it's exactly the same and I'm not sure I'm not trying to be a hypocrite about it I'm really not Carolina's situation is different because Bryce was never going to be able to stand out physically. He was always going to be a long-term investment, but I have always felt like the long-term

investment was going to pay off. If I'm wrong about it, I'll absolutely eat it. But I'm telling you, I'm probably not going to eat it for another two to three years until we really know that this guy's physical abilities were that much of a deficiency that he can't hang in the NFL. I'm just not ready to say that yet. It reminds me of two of being written off after two seasons. Imagine that's what how what I look at, especially when you look at some of their shortcomings, but also some of their strengths. That's that's what we got next. We got Giants Dolphins. OK. of their strengths that's that's what we got next we got giants dolphins okay i mean for me and this this thing's because he's it came down today that he's hurt he's dealing with a knee injury that we

don't have a lot of information on but devon h and just adds an entirely new dimension to miami's offense that it's great you have all the speed on the outside with tyreek and Waddle and how you can use them in motion. Most of it's always been the running back where it's like, okay, now we have speed in the backfield. But A-Chan is a totally different level. It's like having Tyreek in the backfield, almost, is how I would say it. I mean, it is, basically. Now, hopefully he's okay.

But when you look at A-C what you have as a defense you're really and i know the bills beat them and all that and yes there's there's a lot of takeaways there it's a long nfl season teams are going to lose games but the amount of stress miami is putting at every level at every place because of how a chan can run the right now. The blockers don't have to be perfect. You don't have to sustain your blocks very long because he's so fast. You are creating so much space because of the speed you have outside at wide receiver

that there's a lot of light boxes. Just watching this offense, it's crazy what he can do for this team, assuming he's healthy right now. It is a total game changer for them having him in the backfield. And he's averaging over 12 yards a carry, and it just looks like a joke, some of these runs. Yeah, team speed, man.

Team speed is what matters most, and the Dolphins have it at both skill position groups. 100%. Kyle Krause was tweeting out these clips, and one of them showed how far the offensive linemen were getting upfield on an outside run. And it's like they don't just have athletes at skill positions. They have athletes along the offensive line.

It's team speed everywhere. They're just going to be way faster than you. And what matters most, I'm sorry, Giants fans, i don't have a big take for for you on this one if you're if you're not a tier one team in this league miami is going to destroy you like miami has the ability to just absolutely put embarrass you yeah so if i mean i guess depending on how you want to divide up the teams in the nfl tier one or tier two, but if you're anything beyond that, if you're a tier three, mid-tier, lower-tier team in the NFL, Miami's just going to bow race you.

That's the type of team that they are. You can't have any deficiencies like that, or they're going to absolutely exploit it. So, that was my what matters most. I know that's a shorter one, but dolphins are better than giants, and I feel like we talked about giants a decent amount over the last couple of weeks. So we'll save them for another week. Yeah.

Giants are falling into the draft team bucket. So they are, they are jets Broncos. Speaking of a draft team bucket, you're welcome to the party. Sean Payton. I mean, why?

I saw you having fun on, on, on SNY with the, with the bucket hat and the shades and all. Yeah, I mean, we got our jokes off. You got to have fun when the season's not going very well and the Jets got a really big win for themselves. You know, what mattered most in this game to me, and a game that was pretty sloppy for a lot of it from the Jets

and a lot of emotions, is that their season stays alive because Brees Hall is just a totally different specimen at the position. He's awesome. I mean, there's so much to unpack with what makes Brees a gifted player in this league. Size, speed, feel, vision. It's so effortless. Angle eraser. feed feel vision it's so effortless angle eraser the jets have while zach wilson kind of has to figure this thing out and i thought he had a better game than a lot of people will give him

credit for i did not think the play calling from hackett was very good in this game i thought they put zach in some tough situations i think that breeze is the guy that he almost bails them out a lot. And it's just this is like this is before he got hurt last year. This is what they were doing to win. And now they're back to that formula. And it's scary because if he gets hurt again, I don't know how the Jets win games. But it's also promising because the Jets defense, when they don't sleepwalk into the first quarter, when they figure it out the next three, the Jets can win a lot of games with Brees Hall in their defense. He is that good.

That is not me being a homer. Like he is that good that he has that kind of effect that we've seen from some running backs in the league, whether it's McCaffrey had done it for the Panthers. Derrick Henry has done it for the Titans. Nick chubb has done it for the browns breeze hall healthy no pitch count does that for the jets and this is the type of backs that you draft high exactly it's the difference making we know and and individually difference making right so you look at the force missed or the missed tackles force per attempt you look at yards after contact per attempt and Brees is doing really well in both of those areas and so this is the type of player who yeah okay we both agree playing better up front is the main element

of having a good rushing attack but every now and then there's going to be those runs where maybe it doesn't go perfectly for the offensive line you still need your running back to go be a playmaker he at least is that type of guy so when the blocking is perfect yeah he'll cut it loose and the staffs will be great but even if it's not perfect you still have a player who can really make magic happen for you so i like that one as well the what matters most for me is i think sean payton's about to go on a massive fire sale i think i think everybody i think everybody that can be moved in Denver is going to get moved. I think Cortland Sutton can get moved. I think Jerry Judy can get moved.

People have talked about Frank Clark. I think Justin Simmons can get moved. I don't know exactly who's going to trade a lot for Justin Simmons. It's probably not worth them moving him. But if they're just trying to redo the roster entirely, I wouldn't put it past him i think george payton's probably out at this offseason which is kind of crazy because payton traded to get sean uh sean payton in there but i think that george payton's going to be out

they've already moved on from from randy gregory which was a massive swing and a miss for them i feel like a lot of other free agents that they brought in just have not hit. And that's not good. I think there's too many things that are mounting against George Payton keeping his job, especially if it's going to be in a power struggle for Sean Payton or George Payton. I think those at the very top are going to side with Sean Payton. So I just think a massive fire sale for the Denver Broncos is coming, man.

I think they're, they're, they are absolutely in that top five top three sweepstakes, whether or not they'd take a quarterback, you know, we'll get into those conversations later, but I think they're open for business for every team in the NFL, just looking for those players. So I'm laughing at my a hundred pound dog, just going over and like sticking her nose against my beer fridge in here just at mid-show i'm like what is she

doing and she's i think she sees her reflection it's happy hour brother but it is happy hour when we're recording this she knows it to piggyback off your point he better be right because boy is he making a point salah said after the game that they don't let Russell Wilson play quarterback. Do you know how bad I know there's a lot of bad blood between these teams. So like, it's kind of all bets are off.

You could say whatever you want. Like you could totally shit post after the game, which is pretty rare. Do you know how bad of a look that is? I mean, you're paying Russellson a gazillion dollars a year and the opposing coach gets on the podium after beating you and says man they don't even let that dude play quarterback it's that's the one for me where i don't know what denver's gonna do

because i think this is the one like you can fire you can get the gm fired you could trade courtland sutton you could trade whoever way you want you could say all this huff to the media and what point the finger and this is why it's going to be a bad year you have to make this work with russell wilson and he is clearly not and i don't know what the answer is because denver is going to be bad enough that they're going to be in range for a quarterback but like we always say trevor what like where does this thing go it's why i think you just have to get rid of everybody else. You know? You're moving on from Sutton.

You're moving on from Judy. I mean, everybody's gone. I think you're moving on from everybody that you possibly can at the deadline. You're getting as many 2024 and 2025 draft picks as you can. You're redoing the whole team. And you're basically saying we have untiluss we have until russ drafting what who's drafting sean payton is oh okay he's sean payton's gonna gonna take control this is he is taking control this is a coup by sean payton this is an absolute coup yeah phenomenal word this man's overthrowing the government. He has full Game of Thrones this,

but not even in like the Littlefinger way, kind of just in the hack and slash way. Like he came in with his battle axe and just started swinging it at everyone. Yeah. Yeah. All right. We need to have an episode where we look over

like potential trade targets for teams. Yes, we do. That is very on brand for us. Because Denver's got a lot that we could talk about with potential destination. Oh, we folks, we will be fixing franchises again. Yeah, well, that's yeah, that's absolutely going to happen. What about Cincinnati at Arizona?

Cincinnati, Arizona. My big one here is just that. This is a weird take. It's not really what matters most. It's an observation. Oh, OK. it's not really what matters most it's an observation oh okay all right i almost wonder if joe burrow and t higg and uh jamar chase when their backs are against the wall and all they have is each other are they at their best doesn't it feel what a great movie plot doesn't it feel like when and joe burrow looks healthy in this game that's what matters most like if we really want

that's mine so you don't you don't need it you don't need to talk too much because i'll get into it but i just look at it and jamar had a weird start to the year and was was vocal as he should be like i'm always open you know 7-11 baby yeah i love jamar chase so much i look at them they are just so good together and know each other so well that it felt like when everything was on the line, it's like, let's just get back to what we do. And that is carving defenses by unloading an insane amount of volume on who Joe and Joe Burrow's mind is probably the best wide receiver in the world.

Yeah, and it's simple. It's a simple take, but it almost feels like T being hurt and all these problems and everything going wrong for the Bengals just led to the most simple solution is that nuts no it's it it's it's not sometimes you really do just have to have to simplify things and you know unfortunately I don't I don't know if this is necessarily the case, but this is a tough game for T. Higgins' camp of pay me top 10 wide receiver money. Because we talked about this last week when we went through the No Notes episode. Higher on the priority list of signing T. Higgins is making sure you have the cash to sign Jamar chase.

Cause he's, he, cause he's the better receiver. We talk about it all. We talk about it all the time. Oh, Higgins would be a number one on other teams. You're right.

And that's great praise for, for Higgins. He's a phenomenal wide receiver, but the fact of the matter is that we're still saying that statement and he is on the Bengals and he's not wide receiver one. Why? Cause Jamar chase exists. And so I agree with you, man. I think that sometimes when the back is against the wall, you need that go-to guy. You just need that player that whether it's, hey, we got to start this drive off with a good first down. We got to march down the field. We

got to at least get into field goal range. You're going to Jamar Chase. Hey we need it here we got to make it happen you go to jamar chase hey we're calling a shot play number one you're getting the ball get open 50 yards down the field you're going to jamar chase 100 i mean it's like that simple sometimes that simple i mean to put it in the version of us it's like if we got to hit some some big numbers not rookie numbers you and i are gonna you know back to back we're gonna mock draft horde mode 100 everybody's coming at us and all we got in our pockets is a mock draft a three a three rounder 30 000 views my and we love you all for it, for watching. We do. We really do. My, what matters most is Joe Burrow's healthy, man.

The player that played against the Arizona Cardinals looked absolutely nothing like the player that had played the previous few weeks. Nothing. I mean, there was zip on those passes. There was full confidence. There was velocity. There was distance. There was everything. That guy is way more healthy and a completely different quarterback and we saw it against arizona so i don't know if he did steroids before the week i don't know if they shot him up with the finest painkillers that money can buy i don't know what happened all i know is i do all i know is they need that they need to do whatever they did the previous week

for every week the rest of the season. Because if that version of Joe Burrow is playing, this team gets back to being the division favorites and a team that's going to compete for a deep playoff run again. So that is my what matters most there. Chiefs Vikings. This one. Yeah, go ahead.

Go ahead, please. Well, do you have a do you have a a game specific what matters most because i have a little bit more of a micro no yeah no i don't i have a big picture vikings what matters most and it goes back to my format of really asking a question in bed okay all right let's do yours so chiefs win this game 27 to 20 chiefs they've won four in a row they dropped the first game of the season when they didn't have Chris Jones or Travis Kelsey. And now they're 4-0 with those guys. Wow, shocker.

So they win this game. Minnesota, another one score loss. It's just the story of, you're a Vikings fan. You know, whether you win or you lose, it's just going to be a one score game every time. So that's at least an entertaining ticket. But what is your question that you wanted to pose for this one? So depending on the severity of justin jefferson's injury and kevin o'connell's

like verbiage and body language and it's all not been good not to make assumptions i hope justin jefferson is fine it's just been a lot of weird responses i think he said he had to console him because he's a big competitor what do the vikings want to accomplish this season trevor i mean what do they what do they want to accomplish because right now they they haven't been able to win yes they have the bears and it's not a gimme but after the bears you got the niners maybe a surprise it's hard to see them beating that team green bay always going to be a tough game. The Falcons and Saints look really tough right now. There's winnable games on the Vikings schedule,

but what does it matter if they beat the Bears or they beat the Broncos or they beat the Raiders? It doesn't. It doesn't. Because they still got two against the Lions who are looking like a house. They still got the Niners. Yeah.

They still got the Falcons. They still have the Bengals. What do they want to be this season? What is it? Because we keep thinking Kirk Cousins is not there after this year. Now your best player is probably going to miss some time. They are a one-foot-in, one-foot-out franchise right now. They are, which is the worst place to be.

Worst place to be where I almost think what matters most to the Vikings is backing away. Like, just pick up whatever chips you have left and walk away from the table. You're drunk. You're wasted. You didn't have a good night at the table. Just go back to the room and sleep it off.

Yeah, but how do they do that? How do they do that? Because I wanted to sarcastically say to you, like, oh, what do they want to be this year? I'll tell you what they want to be. They want to be 3-14. That's what they want to be at the end of the season because that gets you the quarterback that you want

to actually move forward as a franchise. So that is my snarky, sarcastic draft head answer. But I don't know if Minnesota is going to let them do that. No, they need to self-scout and they need to have, you know, kind of this revelation of sorts. And I said this weeks ago, like if you wait too long to trade Kirk Cousins, and I get why you can't, but there's nowhere for him to go eventually. And now you're at the point where they are, know it's we're draft guys and people probably get sick

of hearing this from draft guys all the time but they are in my heart truly one of the teams that if they lose a lot this year like drake may lose a lot this year can you imagine the reset the vikings would have you already have justin jefferson you already have jordan addison i like your head coach this is the dream to be really shitty it's the dream this is the year embrace it embrace it and i know it's a lot more complex than just guy on the internet saying that but i man, you tried and it didn't work. Man, look, you know, I agree. It's a lot better to be bad, hit like really bad one year, and then just be really good for the next maybe 10. Because in this league, sometimes that's all it takes.

And in this draft, I feel like that maybe is all it takes. I know the NFL doesn't work like that, but losing shouldn't have too bad of a staying if you're a vikings fan right now my uh my what matters most is more of a kind of a draft observation i looked at how well jordan addison was really playing this past weekend and i was thinking about some of the other receivers and i was thinking about size with wide receivers and we talked about percentiles we talked about that a little bit earlier in the show these wide receivers that i'm about to name are all 10th percentile or less players. Tank Dell, Jordan Addison, Zay Flowers, Tutu Atwell, Devin Tompkins, Josh Downs, Devontae Smith.

All of them. Actually, no, Josh Downs is not a below 10th percentile weight player, but he is a smaller receiver. So he's got to be close. All the rest of the guys are below 10th percentile weight player, but he is a smaller receiver. So he's got to be close. All the rest of the guys are below 10th percentile. You can win at the NFL level if you are very, very small and you're a receiver. I think that matters a lot more for other positions, but, you know, just as a scouting lesson

as I'm kind of going through this, because it always evolves, you know, how you see the league and how you scout, what can work and what doesn't. Small receivers can win in this current league. They can't. If you have an elite enough trait, especially when it comes to separation, whether it's footwork, whether it's just overall quickness, whether it's deep speed, something,'s just overall quickness, whether it's deep speed, something.

I think those are probably the main three. If you can really separate, you can play at this level. And Devin Tompkins and Tank Dell were two players who were monster producers in college that I thought there's no way these guys can play at the NFL level. I mean, they are, they are, is, bantamweight is smaller than, no, featherweight is probably what it should go. Featherweight is what you're looking for. These guys are featherweight fighters,

and you're about to put them in the NFL. At receiver, it's okay. It's really all right. If you can learn how to separate the height and the weight, it doesn't really matter. The best coaches are featherweight. Is bantamweight less than featherweight bantamweight i should know this like i once upon a time i was a huge boxing fan bantamweight is 115 to 118 featherweight's about 126 okay bantamweight man you get bantamweight receivers how do you eat who are what do you eat

who are succeeding at the nfl level and i don't know that was just an observation as i was watching the vikings game and i was watching jordan addison continue to succeed and i was somebody who i was really worried about the size i was getting to the nfl level you're going up against these receivers where whether it's in press coverage or whether it's at the contact window or whether it's at the stem of route whatever you're gonna you're gonna have these corners that are gonna get up into you and are you gonna be able to break away from it are you gonna be able to be able to play when the ball comes to you catch through the catch through contact can you still separate the way that you did at the college level and i was kind of concerned with a lot of these guys and you you know, best coaches are just scheming these guys up, man.

They're just getting them open. They're using those traits the right way. And it's not necessarily a kiss of death for a lot of these small receivers if they can separate really well. So, yep, I think there's so much to it. The spacing of the game. This is like an old man thing. But back in 2003, playing at that size, you'd be knocked out of the game if you came across the middle no joke it's you can't do that anymore so much has changed and good for these guys that are making plays and making it in the league and are exciting to watch quite frankly

i think we have one game left uh we got two games left really quick we got because we got um eagles rams and then uh cowboys niners so we got two more games left. Yes, yes, yes. The NFL season's going strong. DraftKings Sportsbook hooking up new customers with an offer that gets even stronger. Bet $5 on any game this week to score $200 instantly in bonus bets. And DraftKings is not stopping there. All customers can take advantage of their sweetener offer every single game day this October. Get in on game day greatness.

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Eagles win this game 23-14. Eagles unbeaten on the season are 5-0. My what matters most is I think the Eagles have the highest floor in the NFL. There's only one game where they didn't score at least 20 points over the last two years, and that was – sorry. there's one game in which they haven't scored 20 points in which Jalen Hurts did not play. Because there was another game that they played late in the season that Gardner Minshew played. But other than that, there's only been one contest over the last two years where they have not scored at least 20 points. I think the Eagles' dominance in both trenches, offensive and defensive, not that they're not stacked in other positions as well,

but it makes it so they have the highest floor in so they are they have the highest floor in the league they have the highest floor in the league no matter what team you are you have to at least bring a good effort on both sides of the ball to hang with the philadelphia eagles they're just they are i don't want to jinx them here but like they feel bad game proof you know yeah they wear you out like whether they end up hitting their ceiling every single week is kind of a different question that's a matter of execution and game planning and all that but when's the last time the eagles have had a bad game they don't they never have bad games maybe to their standards they do but certainly they lost the commanders was that a primetime game last year i feel like they had a bad game then it's back to the point to last season

they yeah but whatever it's it's one game you don't know i know i'm not like being smug i'm just saying it's amazing that that's what you have to look back to so that's what i think i think the eagles have the highest floor in the league i didn't really learn much with the rams they're going to be super competitive this year again like rams are another team where if you don't at least be competitive they can sneak up and beat you matthew stafford's playing that well and so um yeah those are my takeaways my quick rams one is is you know what matters most for the long term of this team is that cup and puka nakua can play together it's not like one guy is the guy for sean mcveigh and he's schemed up and he they they can and with tutu atwell is the other guy they can they really

have a lot of balance in this wide receiver core to be highly effective um they just they have a lot of other areas of this roster they need to improve and they're not in the eagles class right now so okay i didn't want Puka to be written out of that offense because Cooper Cup was back and he wasn't. Cowboys Niners was never close. Niners also 5-0, 42-10. What was your what matters most from this one? They're the best team in the NFL.

They are undoubtedly the best team in the NFL. They are undoubtedly the best team in the NFL. They are the best coached. They have the best skill players in terms of depth and top end talent. And even when they have to get away from some of those guys, they have George Kittle. They are well coached in terms of their blocking scheme. They have Nick Bosa, who is an absolute freak up front and can wreck the game they're

and they're well coached on both sides of the ball so and brock purdy is plenty enough for them to win the super bowl i'll say it yep i don't know who the hell this brock purdy is from the guy that started four years at iowa state it makes me question this job at times yeah yeah and i i had him ranked that year it's not that i didn't have him ranked but i mean he's the last pick of the draft so the nfl is sitting there and going what right but it's maybe it's boring to people the niners are there's not this i'm not waiting for some shoe to drop or the rug to be pulled out or I have been for a long time, and it's not coming. It's not happening.

It's not coming. It's not coming. It's not coming. They are unbelievable to watch right now. Unbelievable. I agree. My note for if you didn't give a San Francisco point, I was going to say San Francisco should be Super Bowl favorites right now.

They should. I've been waiting over the last year and a half for Brock Purdy to, as we've said many times before on the show, turn back into a pumpkin. It's just not happening. No, it's not. He's for real. He's here. He's their quarterback.

And Shanahan makes things easier for quarterbacks. And now we could say that now Purdy not only hits the easy throws. Now he's starting to hit the harder throws. I mean, the big time throw rate is almost double this year. I think like he's pushing the ball down the field. He's actually making difficult throws. He's hanging onto the ball. I mean, this team's dangerous.

They're very, very dangerous. As long as they're healthy. I think there are Superbowl favorites. I agree with you. My Cowboys point for what matters most is. I think through the first couple of weeks in the season, we talked about the Cowboys being a potential Super Bowl contender. So I'm not like totally writing them off.

No, we're not writing them off. But they've had blowout wins against the Giants, the Jets, and the Patriots. And then they had like that comeback. Well, no, actually they lost the card. Sorry, I forgot. Yeah, they definitively lost. So they have really beat up on three teams that are all in top 10 draft position at this point.

And then they've lost to another team that is also in a top 10 draft position. So I wasn't as hot on the Cowboys. It seemed like a lot of people were going into the season. And I'm certainly not now. Like, I still think this is a playoff team in the NFC. But those absolute slackings early in the year, I think got to come with some question marks now that they just went to San

Francisco and got their butt whooped. Yeah, I think so. I think they, the, the ugly things are rearing their head with the Cowboys as much as I really like them that Mike McCarthy can shit the bed at any moment in terms of play calling right. Dak in a big spot turns the ball over man yeah i mean that's it and they've dealt with some injuries like everyone else has and unlike some teams i don't know if they have the depth to overcome them that's the

thing with the cowboys they are held back by i think their coach And I'm a huge Dak guy, but games like this drive you nuts. They drive you totally nuts. He's not the same runner that he used to be, which is a big element. I agree. I think the Cowboys are in for still a really good season. The Niners will bring out your warts. That's kind of how I put it.

For sure. Yeah. I'm a big dac guy too we have talked about him very highly on the show and i still think he's a very good quarterback um he's kind of just entering that territory for me of do i believe when it comes to winning a super bowl you've got to win at least three or four games against opponents that only get tougher in the postseason. Do I believe that Dak's going to have a three, four game stretch against some of the best teams in the NFL without having a performance kind of like what we saw last night? I don't know. I'm sort of losing faith in that. I don't think that he lacks the ability to have the ceiling to be an incredible quarterback because we do see that, but can he put it together for those three or four games that you would need in a playoff?

I'm starting to doubt that. So that's kind of why I've, I've always kind of been cooled on the Cowboys overall, but that's an area where now I'm starting to question if Dak's going to be able to have that consistency and And maybe they catch it hot, and maybe they make a big run in the playoffs because I think they have the ability to, but just a little kind of shaky with that.

Those are our What Matters most from Week 5 in the NFL. Let us know what you thought on our takes, on your own takes. Sound off in the YouTube comments, youtube.com backslash NFL Stock Exchange. Best way to do that, if you're audio only, hit us up on Twitter and Instagram at TampaBayTrey at ConnorJRogers. we love hearing from you guys when it comes to these episodes so um

fire them off fire off the comments and and we'll be reading them and responding to them um on that youtube channel connor got anything else before we get out of here no i think that sums it up well fun show i'm excited to see what everybody else thinks about whether it's their team another team um and i'm sure we'll we'll look at some draft stuff in the midweek i was gonna say i think we might have to do a stock up stock i think so too because i've watched a couple of guys one of which i put in my i one of which i would just say i had not watched before the season and i put him in my top 20 whoa hello so you know leave me on hold like that i want to talk i want to talk about him yeah i can't i gotta i gotta leave the teaser for the people so you know you're just you're unfortunately the people it's fine no i absolutely am it's better

content if i don't know i'm with you too there was somebody else that i watched this weekend and then i watched this film and could be around one ish player um so definitely I we're jonesing for some stock watch stuff we'll get into it we'll get back to the roots of the show the NFL draft I'm Trevor Sycamore that is Connor Rogers thank you guys so much for watching the NFL Stock Exchange Podcast we'll see you on Wednesday you