Purple Insider - a Minnesota Vikings and NFL podcast - It's time to put 2021 on Kirk Cousins's shoulders

Episode Date: October 6, 2021

Matthew Coller and former Minnesota Viking Jeremiah Sirles talk about why things went so badly for the Vikings' offensive line against the Cleveland Browns and what it says about how they were built and how they'll hold up going forward. As we look for solutions to the Vikings getting back into the race, all roads point to Kirk Cousins taking command and leading an offensive explosion. Plus what Jeremiah thinks about Mike Zimmer's message at 1-3. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

What's that sound you hear coming from the trenches? It's former Minnesota Viking offensive lineman Jeremiah Searles. It's time for the Tuesday Morning Left Guard show on Purple Insider. They're too strong, my dog! You're too strong! Hello, welcome to another episode of Tuesday Morning Left Guard, which is being recorded on a Wednesday because of a mild scheduling conflict from our friend, former Minnesota Viking Jeremiah Searles. But it gave you an extra day, Jeremiah, to reflect and to think about what you've done, which is which is last week on the show. You said that the Vikings had a good offensive line.

Good to average. Okay, do not try to backpedal on this. Now, they did play perhaps the best defensive line in the NFL. This is a defensive line who also destroyed the Chicago Bears the week before and so forth. But what do you have to say for yourself i'd like to take this moment to apologize to all the purple insider subscribers and all vikings fans everywhere my lying eyes lied to me and i don't know what to say because i i'm

watching first of all nfl get your together and get the all 22 put out because I was watching the TV copy and makes me want to just put bleach in my eyes. But you can count how many times the purple helmets are on the side of the Vikings line of scrimmage. And you can count how many times the offensive linemen are facing back towards your quarterback from the TV copy, all of which not good. So I don't care if that is the best defensive line or not. You can't have games like that. I mean, Kirk Cousins, I don't know if he can walk right now with how many hits that man took. Yeah. And by the pressure numbers, Kirk Cousins was

pressured more than Patrick Mahomes was in the Super Bowl by the Tampa Bay Buccaneers. So I think that gives you some context to exactly what that type of implosion does to your offense. And this is the thing that where I sort of get frustrated at times is when every game has to become some sort of referendum about Kirk Cousins. This one is really about the team that you have, the bets that you made, the things that you sold yourself and everyone on, including that a swing tackle who is a guy with a heart of gold, Rashad Hill, and a good story to be in the NFL. But when your left tackle is a good story to even have a job here, that's not going to work against miles garrett the werewolfiest of the werewolves um and i i think it's i think it's time to end that experiment jeremiah because it doesn't get easier as it goes forward after the lions in

terms of pass rushers it's time to end the experiment but then the variable in the experiment is where is number 71 his development level is he is he better than Rashad Hill right now or are we going to put him out there and be like nope 69 needs to come back in the game 69 back in the game please because Rashad is serviceable at times I think we all can agree this is not your 17 game starter at left tackle like you just said but we also don't know if derisaw is as well is is he the guy or do we need to find someone else that we can bump out there or we need to fix that position and i think that riley reef was a tad underappreciated um when he was here because he was not he was not tyrant smith and he wasn't trent Trent Williams, but he was a very solid left tackle that made the Pro Bowl roster a couple times.

But you never really had to worry about him having a game like Rashad Hill just had. You never worried about Riley getting just picked up and throwing down on the ground four or five times in a row, giving up pressure after pressure, sack after sack, getting so out of whack that I couldn't even recognize. It looked like he was in a DB backpedal at times you didn't have to worry about that and so now the question that becomes where do we go from here obviously the first choice is derisaw your first or second round pick i think right first round pick second round something first round pick first round pick that's what i thought the fact checkers also say riley reef was not a

pro bowler but he voted to the pro bowl alternate one year but he turned it down okay turned it down sources tell you fact i know it's for fact um anyways but yeah you got the first round pick out there and see what happens because his college tape shows he can be a legitimate i mean career starter left tackle from what i remember watching him when he came out of college but now it's just with all his road bumps in the way where is he developmentally wise is he ready to go or is he just not quite there yet and even if he's not quite there yet though i mean you gotta try he's even if he struggles is he a road cone i mean this is sort of the conversation that we were having like with the v sign Jake Long in 2016 because TJ Clemmings was out there. And it was like, is Jake Long's body like together?

And like, no, of course not. But I mean, look at what is happening at left tackle. And they really, to me, have no other choice. And I know that they like to slow play with rookies and they prefer veterans usually and try to develop guys and they talk about you know well you've got to know all the different techniques and everything else that we want you got to do it exactly how we say and I get all that but one guy is a first round talent and the other guy is an undrafted talent and that's just the reality of the thing it's just the reality of what's going on here and like you, Rashad Hill is okay when you play the Seattle Seahawks or when you got to fill in. I feel this

way about Dakota Dozier where it's like, well, if somebody gets hurt, Dakota Dozier goes in there for a game or two, it's okay. But it gets exposed week after week and expecting him to block Miles Garrett for any portion of time is just totally unfair. And that's where you have to, I think, just throw Christian Derrissaw into the fire because this position cannot be just left to hang out there. I mean, ask people who the most, what the most important position is. Look at who gets paid in the NFL. Left tackles still get paid almost like quarterbacks. They're making so much money. And your left tackle is a guy who signed back here for, I think, $2 million. And you thought, oh, this will be okay. We'll just

draft a guy and it'll work out fine to replace Riley Reif. That is where it ties back to cousins, by the way. Riley Reif is probably here if they don't have a very expensive quarterback contract, just for those who like to say that oh they'll just manipulate the cap around that well there's only so much of that you can do uh so i i think that's i think that's the only option to improve the offensive line but rashad wasn't the only one i was just about i was just about to go there like we can sit here and harp on rashad but everybody took their turn everybody there was no single person on that offensive line that after that game went i feel pretty good about myself like no everyone took their turn whether it's

the run game the pass game the screen game nothing was working and it all started because that is an attack defensive line that is an attack disrupt defensive line and too many times i saw us coming off our double teams trying to get to linebackers and getting split defensive line. And too many times I saw us coming off our double teams trying to get to linebackers and getting split in the run game. Too many times I watched us in our pass protection not set firm up front, and they do. They let those two edge guys come screaming off the edge. They push the front of the pocket, and then Kirk has nowhere to go.

And I will say this. Kirk made some pretty dang good throws for being under duress as much as he was. But also, when you can't run the ball you just allow these dudes to pin their ears back which is what we did against them too i mean our dns i haven't seen everson live inside a left tackles head in a long time like he did for willis's yeah he lived rent free in willis's head and i mean you saw it it's been a long time since i've seen that from him but But I can say the same thing about Miles Garrett.

I can say the same thing about Clowney on the other. Like those dudes did whatever they wanted to whoever they wanted. And we were playing catch up the whole game. So here's a question for you. Ezra Cleveland moves over to left guard from right guard. Yep. Never plays tackle ever. I don't have to stay. I think we're past that point now.

I agree. Yeah. They've decided that this man is a guard, but the results after two years, well, after a year and four games are not good. They, they haven't been good either.

Like the, the Arizona game was graded decently by pro football focus but aside from that here are his other grades outside of the arizona game 60 49 39 he didn't even have a good game against seattle um boy like if this was the plan to spend a second round pick on a guy who you clearly saw as a guard after we're almost a full season's worth of games in here, about 900 snaps. And the results have just not been good at all. And this was one of the biggest question marks coming into the season was, can Ezra Cleveland go over to his natural side, the left side, and then, you know, sort of flourish as a left guard. We have not seen that. We have not seen that. And the only grace, the only grace

that I will give him is he is playing next to not a true starting left tackle. And so when you have that, obviously things are going to be harder when it far as switching off stunts in the past protection game, your double teams in the run blocking game, like those things become harder when you're playing. It's kind of like we talked about Garrett Bradbury last year, right? He was next to two pretty tough guards to play with. And so he struggled. I think he's playing a little bit better this year,

but Ezra needs to take the next jump in his game physically. I no longer think it's really mentally for him. I think physically he needs to have that more aggressive get after guys type attitude where in the past game, it looks like he catches guys a lot. He doesn't snap guys off with his hands. And in the run game, he gets stalemated quite a bit. And then he doesn't quite have that extra gear of like drop the hips, roll them through, lift the guy up and get two yards and so i think just physically he still looks like he's thinking a lot instead of just playing and again he is young but it's time to

not be young anymore you've got almost like you said almost a full season under your belts of snaps it's time to just cut it loose go play free because when you think you stink and you play slow and i think that's more of what i'm seeing from him versus just kind of out there in space looking around. Just looks like he's overthinking things too much. Yeah. And we talked before the season about the odds that all the things click right when they only have a 50-50 chance of clicking right. And by the math, the odds aren't great. And if we're talking about the quarter mark of the season, the center is not tracking toward getting another contract. No Garrett Bradbury has been the same exact Garrett Bradbury.

And so now we're talking about a team that has spent a lot of draft capital and they have landed themselves one hell of a right tackle. And that's it. At least so far, at least so far. least so far now this could change like if they're saw comes in and plays very well and if Ezra Cleveland improves but I'm done talking about the next step for Garrett Bradbury I think that that's over with if you are two full seasons and four games in and you are still getting lifted up and driven back

into the quarterback you are just not at least to my eyes, just not a starter. Like I think that if other teams were, if the Vikings cut him right now, another team probably that's good does not say you are our starter based on what he's put on tape. And so you've spent a second, a first, another first, another second second and you still have that happen against Cleveland and that's where when we talk about changes that need to be made and you know the failures that they've had there's been a lot of them but you know spending this much draft capital and still having that offensive line is among the top of the list yeah I mean it's got to be incredibly frustrating for everyone involved.

I mean, everyone tried to copy the Dallas Cowboys model, right? Everyone was like, look, they spent first round on Travis Frederick, and then they went Zach Martin, and then they went Lyle Collins. They had all these pieces. But just because you draft someone in the first round doesn't mean they're going to be an All-Pro. But at the same time, what did Dallas have have they had the best offensive line coach in all football I mean Bill Callahan is undoubtedly the best offensive line coach in all of the NFL I mean

look what he's still in Cleveland if I if I'm correct right he's still the all-line coach in Cleveland yes yep yeah and look at their offensive line best in the NFL. Right. And so coaching has a lot to do with it. And I'm not saying that the Vikings don't have, but they've had how many O-line coaches when you don't have consistent O-line coaching, it's really hard for young talent to develop because now, instead of coming in after year one and going back to OTAs and just kind of reviewing it's reinstalling hey this is how we step this is how we set this is how we do this and then two years later it's like oh by the way now we do it this way and we do it that way and there's just no consistency it's really hard to develop consistent

offensive line play with the same five guys I mean that's the other thing Dallas had the same five guys played together for a long time we're mixing and matching and piece part and band-aid over open heart surgery at some spots. And other guys are flourishing. Other guys are struggling. And there's no consistency. And with no consistency, you can't have that growth that you want to see, especially from your young guys. So I'm looking at right now the pass blocking grades and numbers.

And in terms of pass blocking efficiency, which basically means how often you allow pressures versus snaps. The guy who's right next to Garrett Bradbury's Billy Price, who, if you recall, got traded and was also a first round draft pick. Garrett Bradbury's eighth worst in terms of pass blocking efficiency. In terms of pass blocking grade, he is fifth worst. And this is a story that we've been telling over and over and over again. And you are right that they clearly said, well, the only way to get a good offensive lineman is at the top of the draft. And that's where we've got to get them. And that is true. But the other place to get them is free agency, which again, you have no money, but also you have no money if you spent all your

money on the defensive side. And so I think that, you know, when we talk about sort of indictments of people after one and three, one of the things that you look at is they went and signed everybody that they could on the defensive side to completely revamp that unit. And they didn't look at the guard position in free agency. Now, I'm sure that I'm sure that they wanted to sign joe tooney like everybody else did but aside from that they didn't look at veteran guards they didn't bring anybody in they brought dakota dozier back and that was about it in terms of mason cole mason cole mason cole who by the way might be better than garrett bradbury at this moment it's hard to say and we might see a mason cole sighting i don't know it's doubt it it's hard to say and we might see a Mason Cole sighting I don't

know it's doubt it it's isn't it remarkable though isn't it remarkable though how much they stick with guys when it comes to this like last year they just stuck with the same sort of thing until they were finally forced to be like okay Drew Samia after like three games though and then already the damage is done and this is the thing that you would be concerned about with Rashad Hill, where they're just going to keep doing this. And then Brian Burns is going to get 10 pressures. And then he's going to face two Bosa's if he gets that far. And it just that's where a complete turnaround.

That's where it makes it tough. And I don't know how you feel about this. Give me a give me like football player perspective. If you're on a one in three team uh if your coach is saying to you guys were better than our record like how does that how does that feel like this is not a leading question I just want to know how how that feels when someone says when your head coach says guys were better than our record when you're one in three so to be honest with you i've never been on a team that's had that happen like when i was in buffalo and we went and we went six and ten like coach couldn't come in and say

that because we just weren't a very good team right um but the only thing i can kind of equivalent it to is 2016 when we started five and oh and then we finished the year what was it three and eight or something crazy like that uh three and five three and five yes they've severely changed three and five i remember last 2018 game season whatever um these monday weddings man these monday evening weddings throw my brain off you do this every week but uh go go ahead leave me alone but you know when you when you start having slips like that it's really hard to almost stop the slide right and i thought that they stopped the slide with se, right?

You thought, okay, snowballs hit the ground, everything's done, we'll continue to work our way forward. But when you come in and go, hey, we're better than our record, it's like, okay, but we can't prove it. Like, nobody cares if we're the best one-in-three team in the entire NFL. And as a player, you understand that too. Like, no one cares. We're the only ones that can fix

this but then the question you have to start asking yourself from not just a player's perspective but from a coach perspective is how do we fix it how do we not be the best how do we come become the best three in one team and not the best one in three and when you talk about the NFL the margin for error is so small I mean you saw it this week where Philly almost beat Kansas City, right? They're one of the best teams, but they didn't because Kansas City was just a tad bit better than them in certain areas. But when you look at the Vikings, you say, OK, what is it keeping us from winning? Well, it's an offensive line and it's sometimes at the secondary position.

And I would say that with those two positions, if you can find different combinations, but it's hard to do at this point in the season, you kind of stuck with what you got at this point. And so as a player, when you hear someone say that to you, all you can really think is, well, I better just keep elevating my game because it's not like college where you got two or three juniors behind you that you can try like this team is 53 guys and the 53 guys have to make it happen you can't just sign guys off the street and hope that they're better than the guys you have and so you kind of just got to wear it and you got to ride with it and push through it but as a player it's tough to hear because you don't care like that's coach trying to keep morale up but you as a player you've played football long enough when you've got to the NFL that you don't want to hear that because you know, it's just a load. It's just a line. It's just a line because you can have the best stats in the world,

but the only stat that matters is W's and L's. Yeah. And by the way, I've seen some people hawking the stat that, Oh, they have a positive point differential by two points. Congratulations. Yeah. Let me, let me go check the championship teams that have there i there i believe there i think the giants actually had a negative the one year that they did that crazy run where eli got uh wildly hot went on the road and all that i think they actually had a negative point differential were they like getting into the playoffs or something like that something ridiculous yeah and then it was just you know but that that's uh a completely random total out that's the only hope that's really the

only hope the huskers the vikings can hold on to right now like is the huskers not i got two bad football teams okay we had a good football team win this week for the huskers and i got my truck stolen and then the bike what yeah excuse me i got yeah i got my truck stolen stolen stolen well i mean it really helps if you don't leave your keys in it oh my god but i parked in front of my house after the husker game and uh came out the next morning and my truck was gone so we got it back though found it oh you did okay we got it back we got it back was it a joyride situation yeah and then they i think it was just a couple punk kids i got them on my cameras but they have the the old covid masks on so you can't really see them um and yeah they just drove off and then they cut like so you know my i have an f-150 and like

they have a little antenna on the top for series xm well they thought that was the gps so they cut that out with a knife which is not awesome and then they cut some wires behind my mirror and yeah they left my bows headphones they left my oakley's they they didn't they took my wallet which really sucks but just don't leave those in your car and you'll be fine you left your wallet in your car i got home from the husker game at like 12 15 okay and i was leaving for new york the next morning at 6 a.m so i was like screw it i'm just gonna leave everything in the car i'll just be back in the car in like five hours came out the next morning car was gone wow gone uh that yeah i'm sorry that one's on you yeah i'm not asking for that one is completely

on me just a total idiot uh well i'm sorry that that happened to you though losing your wallet is really tough i would rather them stole my car than my wallet honestly yeah yeah the insurance will pick up the car but the uh maybe not if you leave your keys in it though we'll find out that might be harder i know that's tough break man uh just on the matter of um point differential kansas city last year uh they reached the big game plus 143. So, oh, I'm sorry. That was 2019 when they won the Super Bowl. Let me search by 2020.

Let's see. I'm guessing it wasn't plus two. Plus 111. So, yeah, usually you have to be better than the other teams. So only 108 points to go. By a lot. Only 108 points to go. Tampa Bay, plus 137. So just throwing that out there that you can't really put on a championship ring, plus two-point differential. So give me your – because this has been a week of, well, what happens now, of course.

And it's also been a week of, is there a path back? And the path, of course, starts with Detroit. But I don't know. It's really hard to see. It's really hard to see. Like, this was supposed to be a season of reckoning, of like, are they actually good with these guys in charge, or are they mediocre forever, or are they just not great?

And it's leaning so heavily toward the other two that it's not if a reckoning comes for everyone. It's sort of when, to me, unless there's a real serious bunch of good things that happen to them over the coming weeks. I mean, at one point, Aaron Rodgers did get hurt in 2017, but the 2017 football team was just way better than this. It's just you go position by position way better and and that's to mention also or not to mention that Michael Pierce is hurt and our friend Ben Gessling from the Strib is reporting that it looks serious that sucks because he was playing good ball yeah like he I mean that first half against Cleveland like he was disruptive they were

struggling to keep him in the pass game like they were having to double him in the pass game which is what allowed our tackle our DNs to get after these tackles so well. And so that's a big piece. I would honestly say, I think he's playing at a higher level than Davin Thomason personally, just the way I watched him play. But yeah, you lose some pieces on this defense.

And I mean, to quote Mike Zimmer, we get some guys hurt. We could be in serious trouble and we're kind of starting to see that a little bit. The linebacker core is getting exposed a little bit. I thought Lynch played pretty solid. But, I mean, our MVP of this last game was our punter. Like, he played, pinned him deep, flipped the field.

He's playing good football. Because I think that if he doesn't punt the way he does, Cleveland probably scores a little bit because the defense did bend, but don't break. But if you look at this going forward, and I asked myself that too, after I watched this tape, like, how do you fix this? Like, I don't, there's no magic turnkey. Like there's not.

And that's kind of like I talked to just a second ago. Like, what, where do you turn to? Do you go to the street? Like, do you go to the street? Do you go to the trading block? Like, where do you go to fix this? But there's really nowhere to go. You just have to kind of wear with what the guys you have continue to work to improve every week find what you're good at do what you're good at try and avoid the things you're

not good at which means don't get behind and don't become one-dimensional where you have to pass the football 50 times a game and again you just got to do with the guys you have and as frustrating as that might be to hear for a lot of people, that's the nature of the NFL. That's why the NFL is so more complex than just September. It's about what you do in January, February, March, like how you build your team up until the end of training camp is what you will get through the rest of the season.

There's no real way to change that. And we watched the preseason. We all sat and you, Matt and I sat here and talked and said, this could be bad or it could be okay. And we're starting to see that the could be bad rollercoaster is starting to take off. Fans are going back to stadium. So you have to be ready with the best Minnesota football gear. That's why you have to check out soda stick.ick. I saw a ton of SodaStick gear around training camp. I expect to see it in the stadium as well. There are so many cool designs on hats, T-shirts, and hoodies for the fall weather,

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Again, that's Sastick.com, Minnesota Sports Inspired Goods, and keep your eye out for our soda stick giveaways. Yeah, and when you live on the edge of could be bad and could be okay, if your kicker misses a field goal, it can just derail your season. And that's where you live as an NFL team. It's like if if buffalo's kicker misses a field goal and they're winning by three scores what does it matter right and i know that this is another thing that i i know that they've had a tough schedule but it's not like

it's an easy schedule going forward so that argument to me doesn't really hold a lot of water either. And that's the tough spot to be in here as us talking about this team. Because for so long, we have been sort of in a space where we talk about how it can come together, how it can improve, what buttons to push to make it work and then when it feels like i've got nothing for buttons to push aside from playing christian derisaw there's a little bit of me that says like well kirk cousins this is your last shot because here's the only and the one and only thing that can take you to a different level is spectacular quarterback play. And if it just went through your mind, well, how's it going to do it with the offensive line? Well, that's the point. Storm, Storm Norton started for the Chargers the other night. They just put up touchdowns.

Blows my mind. You remember Storm Norton? Yeah. He has a giant tattoo of Halle Berry on his back. He does what? You remember Storm? Storm? X-Men Storm Halle Berry?

He has a giant Halle Berry Storm tattoo that is the size of his back starting in the nfl for the la chargers i i'm without words that guy starts that guy starts the size of his back it's he it's huge it's storm from x-men hally berry storm yeah yeah i know the character i will work on finding a picture for you oh my gosh he starts he plays yeah he that's what i'm saying is that if you were to say that buffalo had a poor offensive line now they've had good offensive lines or Kansas city, as we saw last year, they made it to the super bowl with a poor offensive line. The only way to do it is for your quarterback to just go crazy.

And let's, let's talk. Those are mobile quarterbacks. Both those teams that you just mentioned, Josh Allen can run. Patrick Mahomes can run i mean even aaron rogers is more mobile like not i'm not knocking kirk he's just not those guys right kirk needs an offensive line like tom brady's where he can stand in the pocket he can move up in the pocket and deliver the football like that's just how it works and so these teams that have had struggling offensive lines but athletic quarterbacks have been able to kind of make up the difference. We can't make up that difference because Kirk's not going to run away from these guys.

Not because I mean, he just that's not who he is. Again, that's not me knocking Kirk. I think Kirk is playing at a high level with what he's got. But when you've got to be able to be running for your life a little bit, it's really kind of how your quarterback's built. And he's not built for that but but not only that though not only just the mobility but to throw off platform and to make spectacular plays you have to have arm strength and i think that that throw to theland that gets picked off is i think it kind of tells a story there. I mean, it's just like he really wound up and let that thing loose and it sort of floated up there.

Like he has an accurate arm, but he does not have a strong arm. So when you're rolling out and you need to fling it across your body, like these are plays that NFL quarterbacks all over the league are making and Rodgers has made for a long time and Mahomes is now making, has made for several years now. And everybody coming into the league is making these throws. Kyler Murray is making these throws

because nobody's offensive line is good outside of like five teams. Miles Garrett's going to eat everyone all year long. And it's who can make the plays when that happens that's going to win. And so that's kind of how it all circles back to, well, you've got this obvious thing that can be broken by a good defense and a good

defensive line. And, but I would say this, that the door is open for, for cousins. If he wants to be aggressive, if he wants to push the ball down the field, if he wants to do everything he can to try and get this team back, it really comes down to him. Your defense is not changing. It's probably going to just be okay. Some games some bad games your offensive line is not changing there's no one to sign but your receivers are spectacular go make it happen that's it that's all i got i mean that's the only solution is it sort of rests on his shoulders no yeah i agree with you i think that he has to take more of a charge and he has to be the one to say hey we're gonna go do this but we've talked about before how much control does mike zimmer allow kirk cousins to have yeah how much control does can can kirk walk in to

zim's office and say give me the keys of the car yeah can't is that possible i don't i haven't been there in a long time i've been around quarterbacks that have been around with Zim that's not usually how it works with him but granted I have seen their studying film together so maybe that relationship has built and mended and let's be real this is kind of also it's time for Zim to hey it's time to do it now I mean why not allow Kirk to try and go out there and do his thing it might be your last chance and and and this is this is the thing this is why it's reckoning season because if it doesn't work whatever strategy they go with whether they take what i just said and start being really aggressive or whether they stick to the run and every time they

average under four yards carry they just lose uh hey somebody is having it all kind of come together for them in terms of like, we know what you are and that's that. And so that's the interesting part of this season. I think I think that's much more interesting than should they play Dantzler or Breland. But anyway, so how about another episode of you love to see it? You hate to see it. Well, I mean, I think you already started with you hate to see it you hate to see it well um i mean i think you already started with you hate to see it you got your car stolen yeah that sucked that really sucked um hate to see it grand theft auto um but my other hate to see it is just how poorly and how bad ben roethlisberger

oh yes like i mean to the point where the commentators are like buddy like it's it's time like nobody wants to get to that point in their career where everyone just kind of looks at you like hey you're a legend you're a stallion but pasture man get out to pasture and he just he can't move he looks like a statue standing back there He lost some key pieces on his offensive line. And so we talk about a guy's not being able to move. And especially in that division of Ravens, Browns, Bengals, like he just looks bad. And I hate that because I grew up watching big Ben have guys hang on him as

he delivered perfect balls. And it's, it's the end of an era in Pittsburgh because I think Ben's got to go. It is when he threw a swing pass on fourth and 10. I think that was it. That was it. It was over. You can't really play anymore.

If it's fourth and 10, you're throwing a swing pass immediately. You love to see it. The rookie quarterback class with a bounce back week. It was very ugly for many of them. Two weeks ago, Zach Wilson got a win. Mac Jones played very well in a game where Tom Brady was on the other sideline. Justin Fields got his act together last week.

It played pretty well. And Trevor Lawrence, sorry, pal. Sorry. Yeah. That'll change soon though. That'll change soon. Trust me. That's not going to last.

This won't be your only coach, Trevor. I can guarantee you that. But Trevor actually played well for the Jaguars against Cincinnati, despite having an ass clown as his head coach. Yeah, is that a bad to say you love to see Urban Meyer playing incognito? Urban Meyer, like, I'll just wear my Ohio State pullover. They'll never know it's me, Urban Meyer, in here in this bar. Like, you just got to, like, everyone thought that that was going to be a dumpster fire and so i love to see it's just

coming to full fruition yes like because and i was talking to my wife about this it's one thing you you pull some crap like that in college right and you go into your college and you're like hey sorry guys like don't do like me big better choices blah blah blah these are grown ass men in the nfl locker room that are sitting there some of them probably have wives and a family and then you're gonna try and walk in there and be like hey no that is not flying will not happen he that locker room is toast. No respect for him. No respect across the board. The players will run that man out of there. And so it's just kind of like you love to see it like, thought so.

Thought so. Yeah, you love to see it in the way that certain coaches in college sort of scam their way or sell their way. But what's great about the NFLfl is x and o that's what determines it man can you run a professional franchise and can you scheme up some stuff that's going to win football games for those grown men who you employ that's what it's about uh there was a report that they were walking out of the meeting openly laughing at urban meyer and like that's what they'll do man what it was that's exactly how that goes and you can't be like my office 5 a.m running no like you're way more expendable than me right i have a contract yeah

i have a contract and guess what you're out there doing things you shouldn't do at bars and you expect me to show up and respect you if you're going to yell at me because I was laughing at you piss off that's just not that's exactly how it's going to go in that locker room it's not college you see it happen to college coaches all the time like Matt Rule I think has figured it out a little bit but Urban Meyer has no shot in Jacksonville failed experiment