Purple Insider - a Minnesota Vikings and NFL podcast - TMLG: Breaking down Justin Fields, trade deadline speculation and love it/hate it

Episode Date: October 27, 2020

Matthew Coller and former Viking lineman Jeremiah Sirles break down Justin Fields's incredible debut for Ohio State and talk about QB scouting. What you're looking for in a player's skill and character. Jeremiah argues that the Vikings should draft an offensive lineman before worrying about QB becuase he's a crazy person and they talk about loving to see Teddy Bridgewater's return and more. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

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If the foundation isn't right, then the rest of it's going to go wrong from there. And more. Subscribe to Front and Center today. Welcome to another episode of Purple Insider. It is Tuesday morning, Left Guard. There are no bye weeks on Tuesday morning, Left Guard. Matthew Collar, former Minnesota Viking, Jeremiah Searles. Jeremiah, you spent the summer complaining about the Big Ten.

Why can't they just bring back football? I want it so bad. I want my Cornhuskers out there husking. And then you got destroyed when you finally played a football game. Well, what happened? I mean, a lot of things happened. First of all, Ohio State's the top five team in the country, and you can't convince me otherwise.

Secondly, I think that Nebraska still is just not where we think or want them to be. We want advanced Nebraska fans. We drink the Kool-Aid every year. We think about it every year. We're going to be back this year. We're still a long ways back, but we're making strides in the right direction. I think that the score was what it was. I think it was a little bit more competitive as I've rewatched it now a couple times. Big things. It's things like turnovers and penalties that you can't get out of your own way. And you can't beat yourself when you're playing Ohio State

because it just doesn't work that way. So I think competitively we're getting back to where we want to be Nebraska-wise physically, but we still have a lot of, like, glaring issues in big-time positions. Well, and Minnesota fans can't exactly talk either the way that – True. That rowboat sank. That rowboat sank real quick. It most certainly did. You know, maybe last year was a little bit, I'm not saying an aberration entirely,

because I think the program is better. But, you know, maybe a situation where everything came together for them last year, and they might have been better than they'll be from a year to year basis. And, you know, they kind of had their shot last year. But I did want to get your opinion on Justin Fields because I'm doing a new thing here with Vikings fans called Skull Searching. If you have seen where we share different highlights from potential top draft pick quarterbacks, and Justin Fields had one incompletion, and it was dropped.

If anyone wondered if he is good at football, yes, he remains very good at football. Yeah, he was as good as advertised. I mean, he's so poised. I mean, he looks like Russell Wilson out there. And as you're looking at the trends in the NFL, that type of quarterback is becoming what everyone wants. I mean, everyone watched that Monday night game last night, or Sunday night game, right?

Seattle, Arizona, Russell, Kyler, back and forth, athletic, making like, oh, they dropped into man coverage, 20-yard gain, right? I mean, that is what people are the age old, 6'6", 195-pound stand-in-the-pocket-and-sling-it-type quarterback has died. And everyone wants the new thing. Justin Fields is as good as advertised because he's great with his legs, but he's also incredibly accurate on the deep ball. I think a lot of times guys think that those guys just can zip it,

the short game, the RPO game. But his deep ball is so good, and it is such on the money all the time. I'm excited to see him go out through this entire year and put his resume together. And, I mean, obviously it's going to be a Trevor Lawrence or him situation of which quarterback do you think fits your system best, which one do you love. I mean, it's going to be the age of, like, Carson Wentz, Jared Goff, right,

that all the way up until the first pick is taken. Like, that's what's going to be the question. But I do think it'll be one of those two quarterbacks because those are the two best in the country right now. I was wondering about your opinion on the Ohio State system makes life easy for quarterbacks thing because I have a feeling that I will be like a tennis player with criticisms of these young guys. Those are the balls coming at me, and I'm swatting them away and uh look i mean duane haskins and justin fields breaking news two

different people i don't know that like you realize that everyone very different quarterback prospects haskins i don't think was in the stratosphere of justin fields for a lot of the things he could do especially the mobility a lot of people compare he could do, especially the mobility. A lot of people compared Dwayne Haskins to Kirk Cousins because the guy doesn't run and he doesn't really move. And even subtle movements in the pocket from Justin Fields in that game were really impressive. And then, like you said, the ability to take off is top notch. Yeah. So, I mean, I think anytime you're at one of those big time schools, Ohio State, Clemson,

Alabama, I mean, you're going to be like as easy as a quarterback because if you throw it within a six-foot catch radius of a D1 or a first-round draft pick wide receiver, it makes you look pretty damn good. So obviously that helps. So Chris Olave, the receiver for Ohio State, incredible athlete. I mean, he'll probably be a first-round pick this year as well. And then, like, you look down there at Trevor Lawrence. He's got, oh, who's that kid from number eight, Omaha or whatever?

He's got some – he had Higgins last year too. I mean, the top quarterbacks have top weapons. And the reason people are like, oh, well, guess what? If you go to the NFL, you usually have top weapons on every team. So it's not that big of a jump. So if you're throwing it and you're hitting the deep ball against a guy that can run 4-4 in college, you're going to be able to throw it to a guy that runs 4-4 in the NFL. I don't think it's that big of a difference.

I agree, though. I mean, Dwayne Haskins' adjustment field is apples and oranges. It can't get more different. I mean, it really can't. There's maybe a better comparison, Dwayne Haskins, to Trevor Lawrence. But even then, I mean, Trevor Lawrence's mobility is pretty crazy, too, the way he can run in such a good athlete. So I think this is probably one of the better quarterbacks to ever come out of Ohio State. I think he'll break its own records. The other thing with Dwayne Haskins is he had,

what, one real year? Yeah. I mean, he did it one time for 14 games or 13 games or whatever it was. Justin Fields is now going to prove it again for his second year. And if you can consistently, kind of like I said about Jefferson, our boy, he's flirting with the orange, but if you can prove it consistently year after year, you get a little bit more credit than you do for a guy like Dwight Haskins or even a Trubisky that you're like, well, he did it once, so maybe he can do it again. Well, I think of it too as just a skill set i mean if you just sort of go down and check off the different boxes like what can he do um this is the same as someone made a kirk cousin zach wilson uh you know comparison i was thinking like are you just

looking at white guys who are kind of saying that you know um but blue eyes right right uh because the the arm talent of zach Zach Wilson is just much higher. It's like, just look at, and this is sort of a fun exercise to, you know, talk about what to look for in quarterbacks when you're trying to figure out, can they play at the next level? But, I mean, one of them is just how much effort does it take for the ball to travel 25 yards, 30 yards. And with Justin Fields, the deep ball he threw against Nebraska,

not a ton of effort. And the one that Wilson threw where he was rolling to his right and threw all the way back across his body, it's like arm talent is the combination of how fast you can throw it, how accurately you can throw it, how it travels, how it comes out of your arm. Like Cousins needs a lot of windup for him to get the ball deep down the field. And I think that's one of the reasons he doesn't trust himself on tight window throws, because

he needs that extra time to get the ball out, as opposed to even like a Jimmy G, where it's just out really quickly. And I think that could be the difference sometimes. So I think when you look for arm talent, it's not just, hey, does the ball travel really, really fast, but it's how much effort does it take to get it to travel that way? Yeah, I mean, you look at a guy like Aaron Rodgers, who just literally flicks his wrist, and the thing rockets out of there, right? I mean, I've watched it firsthand multiple times. You're just like, how does he do that? Or you watch a guy like Mahomes, same thing, right? There's certain quarterbacks that you watch, and it literally just looks like it zips out of their hand effortlessly.

Kyler Murray. And a lot of those guys are the baseball guys, if you've noticed. The baseball guys seem to be able to just zip that thing out of there versus, I mean, Josh Allen, incredible arm talent, but he does kind of the same thing to Kirk Cousins. He's got to wind that baby up, and then it's a howitzer. But, I mean, it takes some time to load it up. So I think you're right.

I think the release of Justin Fields is impeccable. Tell me about when you look at quarterbacks, having played with a bunch of good ones, what do you look for from them as not just arm talent and not just can they run and mobility, but the other stuff? Like can you pick up by just watching kind of how teammates feel about a quarterback and things like that from your experience? Yeah, the one thing I always look to is these spread quarterbacks,

especially like Justin Fields, Kyler Murray, is how much are they actually checking during the game versus the whole fake clap hands, look at sideline, everyone spell it out nicely for you, and then get up to the line of scrimmage because that can't happen in the NFL. So I think that that's something I always look for. And I think you saw a little bit of why Kyler Murray struggled so much last year and is having so much success this year. It's because he had to grow from that Oklahoma check with me system. A little bit the same Justin Fields,

but I think that I even from last year, that first game this year, I'm watching him walk up to the line, make checks. I always kind of look of how much is the quarterback actually commanding the field versus just relaying from the head coach or the offensive coordinator. I think that's a big piece in evaluation of a quarterback because like you move to the NFL, you're going to be weekend, we get out having to do that for different guys, different looks, different blitzes.

And especially if you're talking about taking the guy in the first round he's gonna have to do that right away um in most places i mean i think honestly i think the best thing you can do for a quarterback and i'm a little off topic is the mahomes plan yes i agree guy draft a guy in the first round that you know is going to be your future guy have him learn under a guy like alex smith or kirk cousins or an established nfl veteran quarterback and then hand the reins over to them so many times you think I'm a drafts guy in the first round and he's just going to be able to do what Andrew Luck did and take it away and we're all going to be happy that's not super likely but anyway so back to the college quarterback yeah you want to see

how guys react to him is he a teammate guy is? Is he a I'm above you type of guy? Or is he a guy celebrating with his teammates and tell his teammates love him and all that stuff, the intangible piece. And usually that's pretty easy to tell on a college team how guys react to guys. But sometimes, too, it's hard to tell a little bit as well. I remember watching the Gruden QB camps, which I just absolutely loved. And one thing in the Brock Osweiler one, Gruden pointed out that there was a running back who didn't know where he was supposed to block.

And he looked at one point, he slowed it down, of course, and like rewound it a bunch of times. And he looked back at Osweiler with his arms kind of out and Osweiler kind of looked at him with his arms kind of out. And it was and Gruden said something like like do you have control of this team like do you have control are you controlling where everybody's going and what they're doing and Osweiler kind of was like you know I mean look look it's hard to tell who's going to succeed who's not based on a John Gruden QB camp but that made me think that's not what you want to see on tape is where people are looking at the quarterback and shaking their heads

and not sure where they were supposed to go or looking behind them and looking at each other. I think that you really brought this into focus when we were talking over the summer about you playing with Cam Newton and how just in command of absolutely everything he was and the same with Phillip Rivers. I think that if you're going to be a successful NFL quarterback, you have to show in college that you can be in command, not just of, hey,

do you know the offense, but of everyone around you. And you can kind of see that if you look close. Yeah, you can. You can see, like, is it a well-oiled machine, or is it kind of just trying to put the pieces back together? And when it's the well-oiled machine, I mean, that all starts at the top, right? I mean, being a quarterback is a blessing and a curse. You're always going to be the guy that gets the praises,

but if the wheels come off, it's your fault, always. I mean, if there's a delay at game, your fault. If it's a legal formation, your fault. I mean, all of those things. If it's a missed snap count, your fault. So, I mean, it's awesome, but if you can do that in college with really kids, especially if you're an older senior quarterback and you've got some young freshmen and you can kind of get them in line, you're going to be able to do that in the NFL

because you're dealing with professionals. Now, you have to earn the respect to do that when you get the NFL. But if you're the starting quarterback, you've earned that respect in some form, like one shape or form. So I think that's important, too. And then the other piece, too, in college is you look at his off the field stuff. Like, is he, is he getting in trouble? Is he a good student? Like, and obviously we can't see all of that, but the, the scouts, 100%,

like what kind of student is he? Like, what is he like around the facility? What is he like around the schools? How's he on, like when they go to do off the field like charity stuff? Is he like, oh, I have to be here? Or is he involved? Is he actively? Because those are all character types. And if you're investing a first round pick into a quarterback, you're expecting him to be there for four or five years. And that means that he has high character. He's not getting in trouble off the field and he's doing the right things. I think the off the field stuff for a quarterback is probably a 30 percent of why

he gets taken where he gets taken yeah and i think about that all the time with sort of um all the other things that you do when you're not playing as a quarterback that can either bring people together or manipulate people and make them not want to be around you and it's just it's the one position if you're a wide receiver that people get frustrated with some of your personality I think you can deal with that and history shows us that many of teams have and and that goes for a lot of other positions if you're an edge rusher if you're a maybe a tight end like if you've got some bs all right okay well you go over there but if you have good leadership from the quarterback position you can kind of rein all of that in but if you don't it all comes apart around that and I think about just in terms of

top leadership guys Teddy Bridgewater being at the very top even when he's a backup in New Orleans he's becoming a leader and he's galvanizing guys and he's got them all doing some dance he invented or something it's just like certain guys have this magnetic personality to them that bring people together and just have their head on straight. And even with, you know, and there's different combinations of this, like Baker Mayfield, I think has that magnetism to him, but I also think he could be a jackass sometimes. And then he can get himself in trouble when he talked about some other guy's contract at one point. I think that was Duke Johnson. I could just imagine guys in the locker room being like, what are you doing as the quarterback

talking about somebody else's contract situation? So there's a lot of little careful things that you have to wade through as a quarterback, and it's not easy to do. And speaking of that, if you look at the two guys that were at the head of trying to get college football played this year, you have Trevor Lawrence and Justin Fields. I mean, so you talk about leaders of men. Those dudes took it upon their shoulders to lead thousands of, I mean, if not tens of thousands of athletes across the country and saying, hey, yeah, we'll lead. Well, you can't do that if you're kind of a poop person, right? You can't say I'll be the face for all of you and you all rally behind me

and let's do this thing together. If you're not a good person, I'm going to be like, I don't want you speaking for me. Right. And so I think it speaks leaps and bounds of both those two guys and really all those guys that took upon themselves and be positional leaders of their conferences, of the NCAA, whatever it might be, to fight this fight,

to show what kind of leaders those guys are because everyone was able to rally behind those guys because they have such high character. Go to SodaStick.com to get your original Minnesota sports-inspired goods. If you have not seen this stuff yet and you've been listening to this podcast, what are you doing? Make sure you go check it out. A couple of my favorite designs. They've got new gritty gear after the Vikings' young superstar receiver and the duck-duck, gray duck, and much, much more.

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Code Purple Insider for free shipping. If you're a Twitter person, you can look at the hashtag Skull Searching. Yeah, I've become that person. And I'm including it on the website as well, like different highlights and little write-ups about what's going on with guys, articles. You guys need to draft a left tackle from Oregon and stop the searching right there. You stop the searching right there and you draft a left tackle from Oregon.

And remember, you heard it here first on Purple Insider Tuesday morning left guard. We draft that man from Oregon. I remember, you heard it here first on Purple Insider. Tuesday morning left guard. We draft that man from Oregon. I will play this clip. But you're just being that guy, though. Like, you're being that guy on Twitter. What guy? The guy who says, oh, none of those quarterbacks can do anything unless they

get an offensive lineman. You're being that guy. Which is a fact. That's a factual statement. You think that's not true? You're going to look me in the eyes right here on this Zoom call and tell me that you think that Kirk Cousins is doing the best possibility he can with that offensive line in front of him.

If he had a Dallas top five, not right now, Dallas' offensive line right now, we'll get into that because I'm upset with that. But I'm saying when Dallas' front five is extremely healthy, you don't think you could plug and play 90% of the quarterbacks back there and they'd have more success than they would any other team because of how good that offensive line is. No, I do, and it's been one of my biggest criticisms of the Kirk Cousins era and how it's handled is if you're going to have Kirk Cousins,

then you need to have a great offensive line, not a good offensive line, and absolutely not a bad offensive line, not a good offensive line, and absolutely not a bad offensive line because of the quarterback that you have there. And like we said, that he needs time to get rid of the ball. And when he does have time, if you look at his clean pocket performance over his career, he's absolutely tremendous. It's just that since he's been here, they have not been able to solve the biggest issue that faces him, which is usually interior pressure. So I totally agree. Carson Wentz is another great example.

That 2017 offensive line is as good as it is, and he's an MVP candidate. I don't disagree that having an elite offensive line, or even an average one in this case, would be a huge difference maker to this offense. I just am looking at the bigger perspective from the quarterback position that if you can get a quarterback on a rookie contract who is good, then you can find offensive linemen and pay them money that you have because you're not paying a quarterback that much. So I'm kind of looking at it from the bigger,

like long-term franchise perspective that you have to have a solution at this position, at quarterback, I mean. across the board you won't have an elite offensive line versus if you say we're going to start there like the Dallas Cowboys did hey we're going to draft offensive linemen in the first round for the next three years and then you hope you hit on a quarterback maybe late like a Dak Prescott or I mean or Russell Wilson in the third right I mean I think if you truly sell out and say we're starting up front and you hit on some of those guys in the first round which majority of first round offensive linemen hit right i mean there's a few that take some time to get going i think if i'm a gm and i put my gm hat on here that's where i'm looking for it especially if it's a point of emphasis i've struggled in so left tackle for org so okay um just one more counterpoint on that. This year, specifically, in this particular situation, you have several very, very good prospects, and you can actually get them at quarterback.

And this team, even in 2021, is projecting to be improved from where they are right now. There won't be that many shots you get to have someone like Justin Fields or someone like Zach Wilson at the very top of the draft. Then you're kind of rolling the dice. Well, can we get a second rounder? Can we get someone with the 20th pick? Do we have to trade our whole future to move up into the top 10 to draft someone? Like, this is kind of their shot at that that they have not had in a very long time, or

really, I mean, as a franchise, almost ever. So you think we're going to have one of the top two picks? Not one of the top two, but I think that they could get, like, let's say they're sixth, and Houston and Cincinnati are ahead of them. Well, you know, those guys aren't drafting quarterbacks, so you could end up with maybe you don't get fields, or maybe someone takes Trey Lance first, and then you can trade up from six to four or something like that and get Justin Fields.

Yeah, I mean, I think they'll be gone by four. I think I'm not – I am so hot and cold on Trey Lance. Sometimes I watch his film and I think he's incredible. Other times I'm like, okay. Like, I don't know if he warrants a first-round pick. I mean, he does not pop off the film like Carson Wentz did to me when Carson Wentz was there. That's interesting because the buzz is sort of growing with him not playing,

it seems. Right. It's weird. Right, yeah. Like, imagining what he could be. Now, I personally think that, you know, if you're going to play at the smaller school, you have to really, really be great in order to be a top prospect,

like what Zach Wilson is doing at BYU. But either way, quarterback scouting is very tricky. I mean, I thought Josh Rosen would be good, and nope. So getting one of those guys, though, is just not something that's really been available to the Vikings in a very long time. They can draft someone. They could sit the guy. They could play him after sitting behind Kirk Cousins.

Like, it really lines up. And so there's nothing against drafting a tackle. I totally agree that offensive line is where it all begins. It's just a rare opportunity, I think, with a very good quarterback draft class. That's fair. If you're a top four pick, yeah, you think, with a very good quarterback draft class. That's fair. If you're a top four pick, yeah, you've probably got to take a quarterback. If you're in the top ten, I don't know. Start with the left tackle.

Okay. Fair enough. Fair enough. So tell me where they're going to be then. Because if they keep Harrison Smith and they keep Adam Thielen, and maybe they trade away Kyle Rudolph, I think they still end up with something like five or six wins. If they trade everyone and they move Harrison Smith away and play Josh Metellus at safety as opposed to Harrison Smith, the drop

off of that is the Grand Canyon. So what do you think happens here over the next couple of days? Yeah, I mean, I think over the next couple of days, we're going to find out if they're truly fire sale and let's just burn it all down and rise from the ashes. Or if they're going to say, let's keep our big building pieces and move from there. I think that if you do want to burn it all down, you have no choice but to move your top players.

To get those draft picks high players to get those draft picks high and to have those draft picks to trade. I mean, so, yeah, Harry's got to go. Thielen probably has to go. Riley Reif probably has to go. I mean, there's a lot of guys that you could just shop. And granted, I think everyone might be thinking, like, well, is everyone going to take those guys?

Because all those guys have pretty high salaries. And so, I mean, you're going to have to find the right fit. But, I mean, you look at like a Cleveland. Okay, Cleveland loses Odell Beckham. Do they want an Adam Thielen? You look at, okay, Dallas is decimated up front. Do they need a Riley Reid? Anyone can use a Harrison Smith.

I don't care. I mean, all 32 teams would go, yeah, yeah, I'll take that guy. up front. Do they need a Riley Reid? Anyone can use a Harrison Smith. I don't care. All 32 teams would go, yeah, yeah, I'll take that guy. But I'm not sure how many all 32 teams look at our roster right now and say, yeah, I'll take him. I think you have to be very strategic in where you shop these guys to. And I think there is a market for

a lot of these guys, but I think those four guys, Reid, Harry, Rudolph, and Thielen are the four that are on the big markets right now that you could really get something for. And it's not as easy as plugging it into Madden and just like, okay, I'm trading the top player for a first round pick, dupe, dupe, dupe, and trade accepted. There's a lot that goes into it and including in terms of Harrison Smith,

I don't know if this actually happens or not, but I think that you would want to know if he wants to be traded or not. Because if he really wants to go to a winner and says, get me to Kansas City somehow, I don't care how you do it, then I think you try to honor that because of what he's done for your franchise. And I think he's a borderline Hall of Fame player and has given you incredible years, all pro performances. Like he deserves that type of right.

But also if he said, please don't, like I don't want to leave, then you would, I think, understand that as well. But he's kind of a swing man to this, and Thielen is to where it gets very hard because if you want to be a bounce back in 2021, you just can't move those guys. Right. Because then you're talking about having nine positions or something like that to have to fill in one offseason. And, you know, maybe your cap is better, but are you just like signing everyone?

Does that ever really work for anyone? Look at the Jets. They signed like seven offensive linemen. Did that work of just throwing a bunch of mixed mash of, you know, mediocre free agents together? Like that's not really a good plan. So if you're going to do that, if you're going to move Thielen or Harrison Smith, you've got to be committed to it's not going to be 2021,

and then you're kind of wasting away the second Kirk Cousins contract. So I just have a really tough time seeing that happen. Yeah. Yeah. It depends on what their long-term goals are. I mean, if their long-term goals would be contenders in 2021, then you move none of those guys and you let Reeve play out his contract

and you either sign him to another deal or you let him hit the road. You allow those guys to have a restructure or, I mean, I mean, I think back to and what makes me think that a lot of these guys don't want to leave minnesota is you look at all of them kyle rudolph is such an established presence off the field i think he loves the city of minneapolis and the city of the state of minnesota loves him you look at a guy like

phelan homegrown he's got his there. They all have houses and career here, like lives. They have lives there. And then you look at, I mean, all across the board, and I can remember back two years ago when Anthony Barr was a free agent and he turned down more money to go play with the New York Jets to stay with the Minnesota Vikings. That means a lot to the culture of what that team has built. And that doesn't go lightly, especially if you talk about that defensive i know bar and kendrick's and harry and all those guys are super

close friends and so i think that this could bar i mean kind of bring them all together like no we'll stick through this together as a group and we'll help pull this team in the right direction versus i really don't think there's anyone on that team especially out of those guys that we just named that's banging down rick spielman's door saying get me out of here i don't think i don't think there's anyone on that team, especially out of those guys that we just named, that's banging down Rick Spielman's door saying, get me out of here. I don't think that's happening at all, personally. They're all getting together and singing, it's the end of the road. Right. Because that's kind of how I am looking at this situation, that if you're in the front office and you're truly living in reality of like

how long this might take to get back to where you want to go which is a Super Bowl contender not the seventh seed like seventh seed sixth seed in the past good for you congratulations you get to put up that you played in a playoff game but I mean even the win last year like you beat New Orleans okay great but like does anyone remember that? I mean, anyone outside of you, like that's not what you play for is a six seed or a seven seed. So if you really want to go for, we're going to be in the NFC championship again, I don't think trying to just bounce back quickly is the best way to do that. It's kind of taking the more painful road, but I can see where the people in charge would not want to take that road and would want to be back into contention for 2021 to then argue,

hey, we're almost there, we're one step away, we're one player away, and so forth. So I think there's going to be some really hard decisions to make here. I want to play a game with you before we wrap up, and I want to call it Love to See It, Hate to See It. And that is a Twitter thing. And usually hate to see it is sarcastic, so I may use it in the sarcastic form. But in terms of things that have just happened so far in the NFL, because we're at kind of a stop here for the Vikings,

and we don't have film to break down this week, just go through some things that we have observed from this season so far. And I'm going to start it out. You'll love to see it, Teddy Bridgewaterwater the way that he has played in Carolina if he has a defense he might be five and two at this point or how many other games they've played might have four four wins at this point they could have beat New Orleans with the way he played and he's moving they're the from what I've seen of him he's running he's moving around From what I've seen of him, he's running, he's moving around, he looks good. I mean, that is one of the coolest stories in the NFL this year for Teddy Bridgewater looking like a legit franchise quarterback again.

Yeah, absolutely. I'm so happy for Teddy. Couldn't be happier for him. I think that he's such a great guy and super pumped for him. So my love to see it is kind of a twofold. You love to see Tom Brady down there in Tampa slinging the rock, doing his thing. Since week three, he's number one in almost every category for receiving yards,

touchdowns, interceptions, all of that. Got Antonio Brown now just living life down in the sunshine, right? And you kind of love to see Bill Belichick and the Patriots flounding a little bit. It's the Alabama effect, right? You see them and you're just like, I just wanted to lose. I have no reason to want to lose. I just wanted to lose. And so you kind of love to see that, like, you know what?

Maybe it was Tom and not as much Bill or whatever it might be. But you love to see that that separation is going good for Tom Brady because I think a lot of people are Tom Brady fans. I know I am. And I also think that, I'm not saying that Belichick is not a genius coach, but the reason you want Super Bowls is number 12. That's why you won. I will play off of that.

You love to see it, the AFC East standings. You just, and you can agree with this, you've got the jersey in the background. You do love to see it uh the afce standings you just and you can agree with this you've got the jersey in the background you do love to see it the buffalo bills five and two miami's right and and oh where is new england i gotta squint to find new england and four that's a shame and uh the new york jets boy the best coach in the league adam gaze at oh and seven what, four yards in the second half of their game against the Buffalo Bills. You love to see those AFC East standings. I mean, you love to see an AFC East game of a Buffalo Bills team

that doesn't score a touchdown but also doesn't punt and yet wins the football game. So you love to see that. Yes, yes, you do. Do you want – you got another one? I'll go first. Oh, you love to see it? got another one oh i'd love to see it yeah i got one more love to see it okay you love to see that the denver broncos beat the patriots and they're going to the super bowl as of last week because they're back and they're looking great and then

kansas city comes into town and just dirt stomps them and now they're the worst team ever the denver sports market is hilarious. It really is. My dad calls me all the time talking about their sports talk radio. He's like, literally, they just ride the roller coaster. If it's good, they sell it. If they're bad, they sell it. And so he literally called me last week and was like, son,

we're going to the Super Bowl. Drew Locke's back. No offense, back. We're just Melvin Gordon's just going to pound the rock. We're just going. And then you turn it on this week, and, mean, they looked like it looked like Ohio state beating Nebraska. And it's just, it's so funny to watch the Denver sports market. I love to watch it.

Yeah. My joke on Twitter was that Elvis Gerback or Steve DeBerg or Steve Bono could have won that game. They didn't even need Mahomes. Imagine not even needing Mahomes to beat a team because you're running back pick sixes and kickoff returns. You can go first on you hate to see it. You hate to see it. All five of those Dallas Cowboys offensive linemen should be left in the desert

of Texas to fend for themselves for not coming and dirt stomping that linebacker that hit their Andy Dalton. Yes, yes. I'm sorry. You should have a five-man brigade stomping that man's life out for what he did to your starting quarterback. I don't care if it's not Dak Prescott. I don't care if it's Andy Dalton. I don't care if it's Uncle Rico.

If it's your starting quarterback and a guy cheap shots him that late, that bad, that blatant, you beat the living out of him. There's no exception, no excuse. And McCarthy even came out and said it. He was really upset with the way that his team responded. But if I'm a veteran in that room, I'm losing my mind on those guys that were on that team and did nothing to stand up for their quarterback.

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your online sportsbook experts. Yeah, that was truly embarrassing, and a cheap shot that is not going to come along with a suspension, I'm really surprised by that. That blows my mind. Yeah, I mean, left his feet. It just, you know, maybe they are arguing that Dalton slid late.

But every time you hear that one, you're like, right. But, I mean, he just kept coming. And he could have easily avoided him and decided that he was going to take that head shot. And I have a, from, you know, this is one of the funny things. You know this when you watch a lot of tape that some things just sort of stick in your brain. I have it stuck in my brain of Sam Bradford getting sacked and a fellow offensive lineman of yours not helping him up and you smacking him on the shoulder.

Like, why aren't you helping up Sam Bradford? You just got him sacked. And I think you know what I'm talking about and who I'm talking about. And so those those things do matter and i always thought they must not hate sam if uh somebody's upset that uh somebody else didn't help him up i hate to see divisions that's what i hate to see this is ridiculous that someone is going to get in from the NFC East and they get to say, we went to the playoffs.

The leader is two, four, and one. They all have negative point differentials. And you look at the NFC West, the team in last place is the good San Francisco 49ers at four and three. The Los Angeles Rams at five and two are a third place team with three more wins than the first place team in the NFC East. Abolish divisions. We have planes

now. We don't have to worry about that. You can fly anywhere and play anyone anytime. Get rid of this nonsense. Or at very least, get rid of winning your division, guaranteeing you a playoff spot. Absolutely, dude. I completely agree. We need to go to records.

We got to do something here because it's getting out of hand. It always seems like it's that division, too. It's always like, God, here we are, like just a dumpster fire that is that division. It's like, isn't that how the Giants won the Super Bowl? Every time they did, they kind of backdoored their way into the playoffs at like 9-7, 8-8 backdoored their way into the playoffs at like nine and seven eight and eight and like didn't get hot at the end so i mean that's the argument that gets made but i agree you need to earn that playoff spot not because you won the worst division in football

so my hate to see it and this one sucks for me is i'm hating to see all these damn injuries to all the superstars in the league yeah i mean i mean, Odell Beckham goes down with a freaking ACL. Taylor LeJuan goes down with an ACL. Saquon, Christian, at least is coming back now. But it just seems like all the superstars in our league are getting beat up. I mean, Landon Collins, I heard, just blew his Achilles out. So it's just sad to see because you hate seeing anyone get hurt. I mean, the superstars are so couldn't watch now that I'm a fan.

I love watching what Odell Beckham can do with the ball in his hand. It's St. Juan. And not having those guys in Dak Prescott. I mean, not having those guys in football right now, it sucks. Because they're one of the reasons you tune into teams you don't really care about, right? I mean, I'll watch the Cleveland Browns. I could give two craps who wins the game. But I want to watch what Odell Beckham does because he's incredible. It's the same reason, like, why'll watch the Cleveland Browns. I could give two craps who wins the game, but I want to watch what Ola Beckham does because he's incredible.

It's the same reason why I watch the Lakers. I watch LeBron James, the best basketball player ever. And so, you just kind of those type of things. So, I hate to see all these guys. I'll end it. Of course, I agree with you on that and even here with Daniil Hunter not being able to play

all season long. So, I'll just end with I hate to see Deshaun Watson playing football for the most dysfunctional team not named the Giants or Jets, like outside of New York City, the most clueless, messed-up franchise with just brutal roster, brutal coaching. And there's DeAndre Hopkins just being amazing for the Arizona Cardinals because he's incredible, and why would you do that? And then there's a guy that I follow who covers the Texans,

and he did a cut-up of all the times they ran out of the shotgun inside zone with David Johnson, and it went for like three yards every time. It's like, what are you doing with your life? Houston Texans? Why, why are you doing this to one of the great quarterbacks in the NFL? It is sad. And whoever takes that job has so much work to do and not that much cap space to do it. I don't know how they even get out of this hole and they are ruining him.

Yeah, I agree. And I mean, I think that that's goes back to the argument of drafting quarterback over offensive line, just going to say. But anyways, the last thing that I hate, and I'm dipping into the college world, I hate the targeting call of college football. It needs to go away or at least have some type of like intent to it or something. This idea of like, oh, you hit him in the head or the force in that area with a hard hit, kick him out of the game and kick him out for the first half of next week. I hate that rule.

It is literally my least favorite rule in football right now. You see it in the NFL too, but like they don't get ejected unless it's blatantly obvious like that it was intentional. And I'm just so tired of seeing kids get ejected, losing opportunities to play games in front of

their friends and family at a limited basis. That is college football, that that rule has to go. And those plays, it's like the same thing every time. It's a guy catches the ball and he's coming down and somebody's trying to time out their hit and sometimes it is intentional and the guy deserves it, but other times it's very clear that he was trying to lead with his shoulder or he's trying to get lower and the guy ducks his head after he catches the ball and they make contact. And I know that Harrison Smith was very frustrated by his own ejection and fine because he said, I'm not sure how I'm supposed to play it.

Now, I thought that there was a case not to eject Harrison but to give him a penalty for that play. And I feel the same way here like I don't know if uh I've never played college football but if college football coaches are thrilled with 15 yard penalties like you're going to get so you know penalized for that if you do it um but I think unless we're talking about the situation with Andy Dalton where someone looked like they were predatory going after the player's head. That's yeah.

I mean, when you're seeing so many players get ejected for plays that I don't think anyone thinks is dirty, like that's where you have it wrong. And then like they review it and you look at it and everyone goes, oh, okay, well you can see how that happened.

And then they throw the guy out anyway. And it's, yeah. And it's such a, there's no like, there's no rubric to it, right? There's no like – it's such a up and down. You make a decision.

It's so opinionated that that's the problem too is one hit you look at from one game, you're like, wow, that dude targeted the crap out of him and maybe he doesn't get ejected. And then the other game this guy like headbutts him. They're like, ah, kick him out. There's got to be this like standard for why you – like there has to be a laid out, not just like, well, kick him out. There's got to be this standard for why you – there has to be a laid out, not just like, well, he launched himself towards the head or neck area. It's like, yeah, that's called a tackle.

He tackled him or hit him really hard. I don't know what you want to do. Let him catch it on a third and 15 and then be like, oh, I didn't want to hit him. It's got to go. It's got to go. Tuesday morning left guard. I like the bit. I hope we can bring it back.

Love to see it, hate to see it. And we will do this again with film to break down of Vikings and Packers. We will learn if the Vikings have some fight in them, and we'll also find out what players are on the team at that point. So thanks, as always, for your time, Jeremiah. This was great. Absolutely. We'll see you next week.