The Athletic Football Show: A show about the NFL - Aaron Rodgers’ MVP chances, the Steelers & Seahawks clinch, the Colts, Rams & Browns are in trouble, the Bears keep winning & more in our week 16 reaction

Episode Date: December 28, 2020

The 2020 NFL Playoff seedings look a little more clear following week 16. Join The Athletic's Robert Mays and Nate Tice for full reaction to the biggest stories, including why Aaron Rodgers should be seriously considered for MVP, the Steelers and Seahawks winning their divisions, what the Rams, Colts, and Browns need to do to make the postseason, the possibility of the Bears making minimal changes in the offseason and much more.Remember to sign up for The Athletic with our discount at theathletic.com/footballshow Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

This is the athletic football show. Welcome to the athletic football show. I'm Robert Mays. Joining me tonight. It's my buddy Nate. Tice Nate, how are you? Doing great.

Hope you had a great Christmas. Hopefully you got everything you wanted besides an easy fantasy championship win. I definitely did not get that. I have been going since Friday and I will be going into tomorrow night. It has been an excruciating weekend of fantasy football. I'm sure everyone wants to hear about. I did have a very nice Christmas. That was very nice to see my family.

I hope you enjoyed it as well. I did. I got a couple of nice gifts. You know, it is funny. It is a meme at this point where you say you get the new socks and you're happy about it. But it is true. Absolutely.

I knew a couple button downs, new couple pair of socks and like a couple board games for me. And I was set. That's like, that's all. I'm 31 years old. I am set. You, so you were tweeting about this this weekend. It is a side of you that I'm excited for people to learn about as we do the show more often.

You are like an epic board game weirdo. You play very strange esoteric board games that no one has ever heard about. And it is a part of your life that I do not understand, but I fully appreciate. I'm just, I'm early on the trend. I, you know, like it's, I think more people are going to appreciate like kind of these modern board games. But it's a way for me to like, as I become more of a home body, it also just be competitive, like put my brain to work with because my brain's, 100% firing,

100 or hovering different directions. It's a way to be competitive. And it turns out my wife is a lot more competitive than I realized. So we started playing these board games. And I was like, oh, okay. Yeah, I'm with the right one because she- Yeah, you've opened up the Pandora's box here. You're going down a road that might be a little bit dangerous for you at some point.

I keep poking the bear, though. So week 16, not only is the fantasy championship weekend, it is a massive weekend for playoff implications. We're going to be getting into a lot of that. We had some shocking results that are going to set some dominoes into motion for who's going to make the playoffs and who's not. We're going to talk about. the Steelers beating the Colts in a massive comeback that was probably the game of the week.

We're going to get to the Cardinals laying an egg a ridiculous finish between the dolphins and the Raiders. A five-minute stretch that I still don't fully understand. Seahawks defense really bringing it, a ton of other stuff. Before we do any of that, though, let's talk about the Sunday night game we just watched. We don't have to linger on this. But I thought it was a really impressive performance by the Packers solely because this is the type of game that coming into what we pump it up as a game between two really good offenses to potential contenders. And then when one team smokes the other, it's like, oh, well, the good team won. Is it really that surprising?

But this is a lopsided game. This was a definitive statement-making win for the Packers. And I think it did a couple things. One, it wrapped up the number one seat in the NFC for them most likely. If they beat the Bears next week, the Seahawks can still get it. But the Bears need to, if they beat the Bears next week, they get it. So we'll get into all of that. Packers are now 12 and 3. I think this was the MVP for Aaron Rogers. I honestly do.

I think the game he had tonight in prime time with Mahomes having a down week, I feel like this is the week where the narrative could shift and Rogers could really get a stranglehold on that award and on the dialogue around that award. You could feel the narrative swirling a little bit, especially they blitzkrieged right out of the gate. they just came after the Titans. I'm still under the belief that it is, all roads go through Kansas City and Patrick Mahomes,

but it is if you were to cast a vote and you said, yeah, I'm voting for Aaron Rogers for MVP, I wouldn't bat an eye. I wouldn't be like, are you kidding me? Like, what are you looking at? You can't just go with the narrative.

I think it's an either or at this situation. I think both of those players are out of their minds. And I really just looking at the stats because now, as we're entering these last couple of weeks, you know, the stats are definitive and we can actually look and compare and kind of start. are tangible numbers.

It's so funny what football is. You know, baseball has so many played appearances, so many have bats until you see stable numbers. Like football is right as we get to the stable numbers, the season ends. So now it's like, oh, okay. So, you know, right as we get to these narratives, it's week 14, it's like, oh, okay, well, that was all for not. But I went bat night.

But watching what the Packers do on offense is just so much fun because they're just so varied. Like, their touchdowns night. It was a package play smoke throw because apparently just a corner being five yards off as an advantage for Devante Adams and Aaron Rogers, just like the 300 touchdown that happened a couple of weeks ago. The next ball was a rise off a play action off a duo to St. Brown to an over.

And the next one was a fade on another package play. That was a run play. Then the next one was a duo to Dylan. Then another touchdown to Dylan off a zone run. That made it look like duo. And it's just like, holy crap. And those are just a touchdowns. Because then it's, you know, Rogers ad-libbing.

He's had the Seneca Wallace play where he's running around for 75 yards. And he gains like four yards. He has the go balls to Adams late. in the game. It's like, holy crap, they are just coming at you. I'm glad last week when we did the Would You Rather, I went with the Packers because that performance they had tonight was like, that's what I was picturing when I said, how hard it is the game plan for this team. I totally agree. I think that the package plays is exactly what I was referring to when Rogers just is able to bake in answers with the decisions he makes with box counts and what

you're giving him and everything else. So if you look at the numbers, he was 21 to 25 for 231 yards and four touchdowns tonight. On the season, now he's thrown for 4,000 yards, 44 touchdowns, five interceptions. He's now over 70% completions, and he's averaging 8.1 yards per time. So like those numbers, they just like, they sound like, this is a throwback name. If you remember, Omar Jacobs from Bowling Green. So he was Urban Myers, like first quarterback before. I definitely don't.

Okay. So Omar Jacobs, he had like a stat line his like senior year or junior senior year. That was like 45 touchdowns, three picks and ran for like 12 touchdowns. And it was just like, I think that's at Bowling Green. This is the NFL. this is the NFL. That's what I mean. It's like, holy crap, he's putting up 2006 Bowling Green in the Mac number. And that's why I think that it's, you don't have to squint to see him as the MVP. Yeah. It's not, it's not one of those things where, ah, he's a little bit behind Mahomes, but it's because we're going to get on to the narrative part of this.

After tonight, I assume he will be leading the NFL among quarterbacks and EPA per play. He has all of those numbers. He's probably going to throw for around 4, 250, 4,000, 400 yards, close to the 50 touchdowns while completing 70% of his passes. You don't need to fudge it. He is doing it fully and he's Aaron Rogers and it's easy to get behind the narrative of this. So I think that's why it happened because it's not as if you have to take a leap to get to him being the MVP.

It's a stepping stone way and all of the narrative aspects get behind it. We knew this though. We knew Aaron Rogers, is Aaron Rogers. Obviously it's a change from what we've seen in the last couple years. I think the biggest change in narrative with players on that team is the way we should talk about Devante Adams because right now he is the best receiver in the league. I thought that that was going to be the case possibly this year.

You could see the stars aligning a little bit. After week one, when we weren't sure what was going to happen with DeAndre in Arizona, Julio was hurt, Odo Beckham, guys that had dominated that position over the last five years were no longer sure-fire superstars this season. And this is the first time in my mind where I was looking at the landscape of the league that I thought, Devonza could be first team all pro.

This could be the year where he really kind of takes over. Right now, he has 109 catches, 1,328 yards, and 17 touchdowns. He missed a couple games. It's absolutely ridiculous. And when you're watching him, he feels that dominant. Yeah. It's, you know what they talk about NBA players every year, especially the stars. They add to their toolbox every summer.

That's what it feels like with Adams every year. It's like every year when he, because, you know, he barely got playing time row in his career and he worked his slowly worked his way up to more reps. He was their number three, then their number two, and then slowly transitions to the number one role. And he's always been a touchdown machine. So it's cool seeing them put stuff together in between the 20s and translating that stuff that was working in the end zone or near the end zone.

now more out to the field. I can't believe how good he is with the ball in his hands. That is something I didn't credit it with him enough until this really this season. I thought he was more just really good body control kind of guy with great hand eye coordination. You know, best releaseer in the NFL. Best guy in the half second after the play in the league. Yep, use his hands, generate stuff. Get a nice like four or five yards. I just didn't realize like he's like untackable. He'll catch these smokeball smoke throws like that should just be four or five yards games. But usually with these package plays when an offense teaches him, offense coordinator says if you throw this bubble, if you throw the smoke, if we get four yards,

we're good. Like you got an efficient run play. Hey, we're good to go. They're making these explosives and touchdowns on these supposed to be simple, efficient four yard plays. So it's crazy what they are doing. That offense is tremendous. The fun mashing of parts, like they'll run zone one play, split zone, they'll run duo,

they run naked, they'll run play action. They'll run drop back with Aaron Rogers. They'll have Aaron Rogers doing the signal stuff. And it's a lot better. Aaron Rogers doing the signal stuff to add on. like the cherry on top when the offensive play calls aren't just slant flats. Like they were for years and years and years. So Adams catches 11 of 12 targets for 142 yards and three touchdowns today.

And we don't even blink an eye. It's like this is just normal for him at this point, which is crazy. What is not normal though, A.J. Dillon had 21 carries in this game for 124 yards. And this is just something to drop into their offense here at the end of the year. Clearly it is just one more guy that has some juice to it. And the thing that I was excited about, or I would be. excited about if I were a Packer fan is the way that the defense has played over the last month and especially tonight. I always had more faith in their defense to put it together by

the end of the year than some of these other lagging defenses of contenders simply because of the talent that they had up front for the most part. And you saw that tonight where Sean Gary has given them something. You still have Zadaria Smith, Kenny Clark making a couple plays. This is a really, really dangerous team. But I don't think that that. that's news to anybody at this point. Yeah, the defensive blemishes are kind of what we already knew. They're, you know, because they get so blitz happy and creative with those packages. They can be give up some gashes in the run game.

We saw one with the zone read to Tannehill on the third and one. They're let to a touchdown. But the thing is they're generating. They're going to be giving up gashes on zone reads for the next 25 years of my life. I was at the Kaepernick game. It's still happening. Different coordinator, different guys. It doesn't seem to matter.

It just, it doesn't matter. It's just green and yellow. That's what they're going to give up zone reads. that is fine as long as they generate what they did tonight they generated 35.7% pressures on dropbacks tonight. And three or their four highest ones. This is all from next gen stats is three of their four highest have come since week 13. So they are really getting after the quarterback in these last few weeks. And it's a really good time to do that. So if they can generate these quick leads, yeah, that's always the point. You want to race out. Andy Reed, they script the first 15 points just for the reason. But the Packers can actually do it. Okay. So then you're going to have to pass the ball against them. So they don't have to worry about you running the ball on them.

And they can just generate pressures. They can generate turnovers and just get that full court press going. And they have AJ Dillon now who so now they have a hammer along with Aaron Jones where they can do what the Cleveland Browns do. And they just rotate these two stud running backs and get, you know, they just stay fresh throughout the game. And with the weather turning cold, they just have a multitude of options. It's, yeah, Packers are like really good today. And especially for a team like the Titans that needs a not a positive game script necessarily, but for the game. game script to go in their favor because they are so much better when they can play the style

of offense they want to play. I think tonight you saw what happens when they get behind. They're just a different team. And the Packers right now, exactly. And the Packers right now are built to play from in front. All right. Let's get to who won the week. And I think we have to start with the Pittsburgh Steelers. When it was 24 to 7, it looked over. Understandably, I think that the general discourse about the Steelers in that moment was they're done. This is over. They're going to get run out of the building today by a Colts team that's hitting its stride at the right moment.

Their offense looked broken the same way it has all year. And then all of a sudden, things shift. And it's, it was like a switch turn on the middle of the third quarter. It was just like, yeah, we could do offense again. I was shocked at some of the things they were able to do. They ended up coming back to win that game 28 to 24. And I think the number one thing they tapped into for me that was important. They kept going to these vertical routes down the right sideline.

And it was against a lot of cover three, I would assume, and I think some cover six or quarters based on what I was looking at. But they really were having those guys just inside release and take the corner vertical. And Rathesberger was either hitting those throws, he hit one to Claypool, he hit the touchdown to Johnson. and they got a pass interference on one of those, and then they started getting comebacks to that side because guys were having to play off.

So just having that little vertical aspect of their offense, the threat of it and those plays actually hitting changed the entire dynamic of what they could do offensively. You could tell before the Johnson, the go ball of the Johnson, which was a great catch. And Rathlisberger threw it so in rhythm. Like he knew right away that's where he was going with the ball. And that was the play that you said.

It was cover six. And so that was the quarter side. So it basically turns, it plays out like man. And with the safety sting on the inside, Rutherlisberger just did three out of the gun, hitched and threw it right away. It was like a pat and go ball like somebody warming up. I mean, that's literally what it looked like. So you know that he predetermined either before that series or at halftime.

The coaches were like, hey, we got to get some shots going. Because in back-to-back drives, he hit a glance ball that was like, oh, shoot, you're hitting 18 yards, like, timing routes now. Like, where that comes from? And then he's throwing go balls. So it's like something got into his here or in his head where he's like, oh, man, I got to shake some rest off and get these mortar balls starting to, you know, start aligning a little higher with somebody's throws because we can't.

They run, the slant screens that they love and the pick routes that they run 30 times a game. They actually worked a little bit in the second half. The Colts were bringing pressures a little bit and actually getting out of their game a little bit. They looked frazzled in the fourth quarter. So yeah, I mean, you know, Seth Myers will be happy with how the performance for this game because it is,

this is what they need to do. They have to play like this. Their run game is not good enough. and just what they do with all this pick stuff and screen stuff, they have to be unbelievably efficient, and they have to generate an explosive, like once a quarter, twice a quarter,

because they, otherwise they're just going to be a snagged team, like we've seen in the last couple of weeks. It was just nice to see them do this, to see that these plays were available to them. The Juju Touchdown, I think it was kind of like a Yankee play, where it was like a deep in and then the over behind it,

and they high load the safety on that side. Rathus Berger pumps it hard, steps down, and then he hits it right over to juju, And even the fact that they're running those, that's not a vertical down the field play, but that's a long developing route. intermediate.

Yeah. Yeah. And even that is just like, oh, man, that's really nice to see. And then on the other side of the ball, the pass rush took over. I mean,

that is as simple as it gets. Obviously, the Colts were without their two starting tackles in this game. That showed up in a huge way. High Smith took advantage of the left tackle, the back left tackle a couple of different times. On the pick, he got there as Rivers was getting rid of the ball.

that was the deep interception. And then the last incompletion of Pascal, he had a nasty spin to get in there. Watt did a ton of work against the backup right tackle during this game. And guys were cleaning it up. And that's what they have to do. They have to dominate up front and hope that they can get enough explosive plays

in the passing game to carry them. And that's exactly what happened today. Is this enough what they did today against the Colts to shift your thinking about how you consider, are the Steelers and what they could possibly do in the playoffs? No. It's kind of like,

it's something I've already been like what I've thought about them before. It's the, they have to be perfect. And yeah, if they look like this in the second half, how they play today, yeah, okay,

they can make a run because that defense is so good. But they have to do that. And you can see how easily, how thin of a line they're running right now because we've seen the last couple of weeks when that, that stuff was not looking pretty. I want to talk about the defense real quick. Well,

first I want to, I want to just gush over to throw because it's probably my favorite play of the day was Philip Rivers post ball to Pascal. It's kind of upsetting that that play doesn't matter anymore. It didn't end up mattering is really sad because it was beautiful. You said the narrative changed. My first note in this game was Colts just dominated everything early. Steelers early score was only because of the strip sack.

Oh my God, that post, I'm beside myself. Those are my first two notes. But like that play, I just want to show like that's the Steelers in a nutshell. They're creating the five one-on-ones. they're generating pressure and they're saying, hey, you have to make a play to beat us. We are better than you. You have to beat us. And Rivers, which was awesome, moving in the pocket, they had nice protection.

Nelson came and helped. Jonathan Taylor got there late. It was a cross dog that the Steelers brought. And Rivers steps aside, steps up with a guy, green dog and coming right out and throws a post to Pascal. So that is the gash or be gash that the Steelers are living in. And they can generate those runs that they created a little bit today. because what the flip side of that is, Rivers hit a couple of sail routes to Doyle, like twice in the game that were just beautiful.

Perfect. They looked like clinic tape. And then on the two minute drive to like take the lead or at the end of the game, Rivers throws another sale route and the Steelers adjusted. He threw this one to Burton. And the corner after just being hit twice in this game, these deep sail balls that went to about 15, 20 yard gains, he fell off the go ball. And you can actually see Rivers panic a little bit because he's like, oh, shit. And then like he, because he's throwing the ball, even with the funky motion, he's midway three. it. And you can see him, he throws behind Burton, and Burton can't adjust because the corner fell off.

Yeah, on the left side. Yeah. On the left side. Correct. And that's the Steelers though. They're aggressive and they're smart because they are willing that they adjusted because that, that's a little bit of a bet that that corner was doing. But he bet right. And that's what these players do. That's what they are going to do. They're going to always bet. And sometimes they win. And sometimes they play with the house's money for the rest of the game. For the Colts, this is a potentially devastating loss because it looked like they had this game. If they win this game they're in the playoffs. Now they need the Steelers to beat the Browns or the bills to beat the Dolphins next week and they need to beat the Jags. They're playing the Jaguars. So there's a

very good chance they will beat the Jaguars. But now this Colts team that I think both you and I believe is really, really good. And a team that can beat anybody in any given week needs help to make the postseason. And that's kind of a bummer. Like it just doesn't feel right that this. this Colts team and how well they played all year and how good Rivers looked in moments this week, even in a game they lost and when he threw a bad pick, he was running for his life for the entire second half.

This is a really good team. And they absolutely could miss the playoffs if the dolphins and the Browns both win next week. How about we go to seven playoff teams and everybody's worried. Oh, an eight and eight teams going to get in. A seven and nine team gets in. And then the AFC has eight teams this year with 10 wins or more.

11 and five team is it going to get in. It really is. It really would be unfortunate. I mean, it's just a team I would love to see in the postseason. And the reason that they might not be in is because of another team that's a candidate for who won the week here. And that is the Miami Dolphins.

So they're now at 88% to make the playoffs, according to our buddy Steve Kornacki here. Another great week, Steve. Another great week. I love the segment. And they are in this position. because they won an impossible game, 26 to 25 against the Raiders on Saturday. I still don't know how this happened.

So Agilor scores the touchdown. Game seems over. And then they come back with a ridiculous play to Miles Gaskin. Then the game is not over again. Then the Raiders kick a field goal. It's like, all right, you know, Dolphins had a fun year. You know, it's a strange game. They had to put Fitzpatrick in, whatever.

and somehow there's a 70-yard play that involves a face mask and a huge completion. They're in field go range, kick it, game over, they win. That's that. I, it was one of the weirder finishes I can remember. And I mean, for the Raiders, it doesn't really matter. Their season was over. For the Dolphins, it is a season-altering win potentially. Because I think for them, making the playoffs is a huge deal.

For some teams, like, all right, you know, in our trajectory, like for why, Washington this year or something. It would be nice to make it, but if you don't make it, it's not the end of things. For the dolphins, I think that season they've had, the story that they've been, it would be great to make the playoffs. It didn't look like it was going to happen until that very last moment. And now it absolutely can. The Steelers winning is rough for the Miami because now the bills probably have to play

next week and try to win next week in order to keep the number two seat in the AFC. and the dolphins could potentially lose to Buffalo and then all of these things happen. But that win gives them a chance to control what happens to them going forward. We gush about how well coached the scenes the dolphins are. And they like early on, they run the fake punt. And then they go for and fourth down early at near midfield. And they both, they only get field goals out of both of those possessions. But they are creating through aggression their own chances.

You hear in poker, I guess, a poker player is I used to be big in poker until I realized I didn't really like poker other poker players. And they, one of the things that they say, but is that good players kind of generate their own luck. They kind of just by being aggressive and picking your spots and everything that the cards will fall for you because you put yourself in those advantageous positions. I'm sure I'll get like five responses to this that go,

I'm like, oh, you don't know what you're talking about, you know, the Vig and all that. The poker crowd seems like a chill group. Oh, yeah. Oh,

they're so much fun. It's not going to do it. You've been in Vegas for too long. Anyway. I know, right? But then what so with this is that they're generating these chances for themselves. So their offense is they have some nice pieces like dolphins are in a great position. They have the number three pick right now with being a playoff team.

We're going to get into that here in a second. Oh, I'm sure we will. But they're in such a good spot. They have these nice role players. You know, they need a couple of dudes. And, and okay, I'm going to continue with some, some little, my horror movie references. Do you ever see Evil Dead or Evil Dead? Of course.

Come on. Okay. Okay. So you know, Evil Dead and Evil Dead too. It's a sequel, but it's also like a remake at the same time. Like they kind of did the same script for both of them. That's kind of what the dolphins are like with Fitzpatrick and Tua in there is that it's a little higher budget and a little more explosive with Evil Dead 2. That's the Fitzpatrick experience.

And then Tua's like evil dead one. It's like, oh, there's some nice pieces. It's a little cult classic. But he still might be, it's a little dirty in some aspects. But I mean, every playoff contender is going to get a horror movie reference at some point. But that's the one for the dolphins right now. Okay. Here's the problem.

Same but different. Yeah. Do you feel good about the fact that your fifth overall pick is the low budget version of your offense when you have a 38-year-old journeyman quarterback who is supposed to be keeping the seat warm for him coming off the bench and looking drastically more explosive? It's, you look at the numbers in this game. Tool went 17 of 22 for 94 yards. That should be impossible in an NFL game.

And when you watch it, it makes perfect sense. Everything was horizontal. He took some bad sacks in this game. I have so many questions about the way the dolphins are handling this and what it means. Because clearly, the offense is more explosive with Fitzpatrick. The throw he had to Gisicki up the seam is a throw that is not available to this team with two at quarterback right now. And Fitzpatrick, you could see him talking to two on the sideline. And it was, I thought, a really telling moment.

He was essentially saying to him, they caught the camera being like, you don't have to get to your third read on all these things. You have to push these balls into these tight windows every once in a while. And those are risks that Tua just isn't willing to take right now. And the dolphins understand that Fitzpatrick gives them a better chance to win right now. And it just is so interesting to watch a team handle their quarterback situation like they'd handle every other position. Because for the most part, a team or a franchise wouldn't be willing to do this with a guy they drafted 50s. overall. You wouldn't be willing to yank him twice in close games because you know he's your lesser quarterback. I don't know if it's a good idea and I don't know what it means for this team in the

future. And I don't know if it's a good idea and I don't know what it means. How do you, what are you reading from this? It's such an interesting case study. And it's with the dolphins, it's how much faith did they have on their own self-scouting? Is to a just, you know, Hawaiian left-handed Alex Smith or is he something more? You know, is that we, they have to assess so quickly. The league moves so fast now. There's just year after year. We saw the Cardinals go from Rosen to Kyler, like it's no problem, just threw him away

like tissue paper. So are we with Tua is, is he reading things so quickly? Is that a feature or a bug, basically? Is that a good thing that he's doing that or is that a bad thing that he's doing that? And that's where, that's a whole organization thing because then that's the personal and coaches don't always see eye. They sometimes are in lockstep and they see everything great or at least in unison. But it's all right, well, you have to be in the building to know.

What was so drastic about it was also when Fitzpatrick gets in there and the offense just opened up. Everything just seemed more vertical. Yeah. Like just the, even the concepts they are calling for him. And it's one of those I have to watch every single play to kind of see it. And, you know, game script could dictate some things. But is that because they don't trust Tua to do it?

Or is to, like you said with the example of Fitzpatrick and Tuan talk on the side, hey, you're not going to get to your third read. Is that a good or bad thing? Because that's the exact same thing, too, it was doing in Alabama with, you know, they had some incredible weapons doing it. But you would get to the right guy and he was going there, hell or high water. He thinks he's going to wish that guy open because he trusts his own process so much. But now you have to figure out, okay, is he able to get off of that or is that just what he is?

Because now we've seen it at college and now we're seeing it as rookie year, is that he just locks onto that number one guy or number two guy where he thinks that ball is going to come open and then doesn't come off. And yes, outstanding pocket movement. But again, that's where that self-scouting has to come in because then the coaches have to go, yeah, I don't think he's ever going to get it. Or they go to the personnel guys going to, he's going to be fine, guys. We're just, you know, we're easing them in. But 22 attempts for what, 90-something yards? It's a little.

Four air yards per attempt in this game, which is the lowest in the NFL, against the Raiders. Against the Raiders. Which is the lowest in the NFL this week. The third lowest in the NFL was Chase Daniel at 4.38. It looked like the dolphins were calling this. game for Chase Daniel. It looked like they were calling it for a backup quarterback they needed to protect. And for a guy you drafted in the top five, that is concerning.

So that brings us to a question that I think is worth thinking about. I don't mean to be purposely controversial here. But the Texans losing that game today means that the dolphins currently have the number three overall pick in the draft. Yep. If you're Miami. and if you like one of those guys in the top five, is there any world in which you would draft one of those guys

and let him compete with him to see who the quarterback should be? Because I think theoretically and historically, the reason teams don't do that is because they are concerned about the standing that person has within the building. And it is important to hand the keys of your franchise over to someone. The dolphins are cutting two his legs out from under him by putting Fitzpatrick back into these games.

in the way that they're doing it. So clearly, they're not treating this in the same precious way that other franchises would. So I don't think they will, but I think if there was a team that would consider it, they would probably be the team. Their offseason is truly like a choose your adventure. Like they could do so much with, especially if that pick ends up at number three with what this draft is shaken out to be. And like they can get frisky, you know, go for the QB like you're saying.

They can go O line, even though O lines will kind of. nice the last couple weeks, especially in the run game. You know, they're in the Patriots thinking and that system doesn't prioritize maybe bendy pass rushers, but that's another path they can go on. Or they can trade it for a King's Ransom, you know, the number three pick with quarterback hungry teams trying to jump up. I just brought up the instance of Rosen going to Kyler and that was what was Rosen, the 10th pick.

And then also and then Kyle was the number of pick. It's been done very, very recently. And if there is a no-brainer guy that you're like, that's what we can. can move on to. They're willing to take chances. They're willing to do stuff that whole entire franchise. So I wouldn't put it past them. I wouldn't put it past more like 5%, you know, but it's it is interesting that they could go down that path with a top five pick. And with the draft that it looks like it's going to be, those guys might be a better prospect than Tua was, even though Tua was a good, good prospect. I don't think he's shown anything that makes it a non-starter.

I don't think he has been good enough. It's like, exactly. Like Herbert. It's like, oh, no, no, no, We're good. I just don't think because Tua doesn't have the tools that blow you away where you'd say, this is worth waiting for. His ceiling is so high that it's not even worth having the conversation. I think that his ceiling is actually maxed out. Fairly middling. I mean, he doesn't, the arm is, he does a lot of stuff that's interesting.

And I think that the way he moves and all that other stuff, there's a lot to like. But I also think that if you're being honest with yourself, the ceiling is still fairly defined when you look at just his physical tool set. So that's just something to consider. By the way, two average 4.0 air yards per attempts this week. Brady was at 13.3 for the entire game, for the entire half, because he only played in the first half. The Lions do not give a shit.

It is amazing to watch them right now. I know that their entire coaching staff was done. Oh, my God. Whatever. But those guys, there were teams that we'll get to that had a lot of pride this week. and there were teams that absolutely did not. The Lions game was hard to watch. Brady was trying to hit his shoulder pads off like it was a preseason game.

Like, you know, coming out a half, you know, coming out with a hat and a t-shirt on. Like, yeah, chewing seeds on the side. He probably doesn't chew seeds with his diet stuff, but. Too much salt. All right. Too much salt. Last candidate for who won the week here. Pete Carroll.

The Seahawks win the NFC today with a 20 to 9 win over the Rams. And I'm telling you, man, the Seahawks defense is here. 10th and EPA per play over the second half of the season before this game. Jared Gough finishes 24 or 43 for 234 yards in an interception, sacked three times. And when you watch that defense today, they brought it. They played with a ton of energy. A lot of guys just knocking people around. We'll get to some of the specifics.

But have you seen enough from the Seattle defense here over the last month or so where you feel like all the pieces, coming together with an offense that's a little bit unsteady but still has a lot of talent and this defense playing the way that it is. Do you feel better about Seattle than you would have probably a month ago? Yeah, definitely. It seems that they kind of figured themselves out, maybe a buy week or some self-scouting kind of really. I feel like they were trying to do too much. They got excited about Jamal Adams blitzing ability. They maybe had to and they had to lean into it and figure out what they're, because they were using them like Tomah Hawley for a little bit,

like just basically like an edge rush. I mean, that's what it looks like. But their guys are getting healthy. Maybe they're not all world beaters, but now they look more presentable. And, you know,

they're a lot like a kid, like a middle schooler getting like axed body spray and they got a little too excited. That's how it was with Jamal Adams and Blitzing. Like they got excited about their first cologne and spray and they spray too much of it. And then now they've figured out the proper amount. I'm great with these analogies right now. But this is just what I thought of today because that's what it was.

I'm just going to let that one go. I'm just going to let that one go. But we all did it. But it was one of those where they bring like 15 blitzes in a row. And it's like they're getting gash with Adams. You know, we saw it with the bills games, everything. And now they're like, okay, we're controlling it. They're playing within themselves.

And they're really playing their good old cover three stuff, it looks like. They're going back to the one who brought him there. And it's, it's interesting. I mean, they force a Rams into 19 third downs today. That's a lot of third down attempts. The run defense was fantastic. Fantastic. They were making them work on first and second down.

And that can go into a whole. thing with what the Rams are doing because that's really what's limiting them is that they're into these third downs and that's not their game and limiting explosives and just you know they're just doing a lot better stuff like they just seem more knowing what they're doing I think before it was like they looked like in the offense I'm talking about their defense though it looked like an offense that saw all these cool plays and they threw it at the wall and hoping a couple of them worked now they're like hey we only like these five plays and let's really get good at them and it's working and I think their guys are playing faster and just more sound and

we haven't even talked about their offense yet, but, you know, it's good to see their defense kind of honing up and really becoming more of a complete team. A couple guys that jumped out today. KJ. Wright was incredible. Yeah. I mean, he was just walked down over the tight end the entire game, making that five-man front. We've seen against the Rams for the last few years trying to make it hard to get to the edge and just beating the shit out of Tyler Higbee this entire game. And just all over the place. I mean, it happened all game where you could just tell he was come hell or high water.

you were not getting around the edge against him. And then the one play that really jumps out is the one on fourth and goal late in the game where he just rocked. He'd be three yards deep into the backfield and then they cleaned it up. Game swinging play. On that exact same set of plays,

Adams tracked Henderson down from behind and dropped him into one yard line to even make that possible. Huge, huge play. And then Adams made the play on second down after that first down. So just the effort they're playing with. And now when you start piling up these guys, KJ. Wright making those plays.

Obviously, Bobby Wagner is a star. Adams playing the way that he is. Dunlap is giving them a lot. Puna Ford was playing in the backfield all day to day. They just, especially in the front seven, they've got some dudes. And it is really starting to come together for them. Yeah. And a lot of the sacks and the pressures they created a day were coverage sacks.

And golf having to hold on to the ball, hold on to the ball. And guess what? Carol's teams in the past. I've had a lot of success with creating tip balls on contested throws or making the quarterback hold onto the ball and running games with the D-line and kind of winning with numbers as opposed to one stud dude getting the sack. I just have to talk about the Rams because of my baby. But, you know, it's it was like magic today watching Ramsey work on McHaff. Like the first, I mean, there's a first down back. McCaff got the first down.

It was like a third and 10, I think it was where he got it by a yard or third nine or something like that. And Ramsey runs them down on the crosser. It's like that's the only guy in the league that could do that. That one has a speed to run down Metcalf and two has the just size and strength and football ability to make the tackle from behind with Metcalf running away. There's other plays where Metcalf's running a double move and Rams is running with them step for step. And the Rams did a great job generating.

You know, that's why I don't want to take too much away from what the Seahawks do in offense because the Rams defense is so freaking good. And, you know, they generate, they run all these games. They create the five one-on-ones like we talk about other teams do. but they do it as well. And they're getting guys late. Like Leonard Floyd, their past rush lanes is really fun to watch because they might be only rushing four or five,

but they're moving these guys around and creating angles and creating edginess in the pocket. And that's where you could see Russell getting a little, a little antsy in the pocket today and starting to do a little hat, like kind of start breaking out and then like Floyd will coming around and get a sack late. And that's good stuff that the Rams are doing. That's why I don't want to really take away from what the Seahawks are doing because they can put up points. hasn't happened the last few weeks, but they still do it. Russell, you saw them in the last

They're playing it's really good defenses. I think that's the thing you have to be encouraged about is that they're playing against Washington, they're playing against the Rams. These are really good defenses and I think the offense will look better. The fact that the defense has looked as good as it does, that's why I think when those

things converge possibly in the playoffs, they're really dangerous out. And we're going to get to that in a second. I want to talk about the Rams offense though. So the Rams lose this game and now the Rams are potentially in trouble because they're sitting here at 9 and 6. If they lose next week to Arizona,

who needs to win to get into the playoffs and the Bears also win, because now the Packers need to win because it's the Cocks and all this other stuff. So that's just something to take into consideration. But the Rams now with a loss could be out of the playoffs. This is a team we thought could potentially win the Super Bowl

and now they're potentially out of the play. playoffs. So Goff heard his thumb in this game. He might not even play next week, but even before the injury, games like this are starting to pile up. And I think it's time to start getting concerned about what the ceiling of this offense is with this version of Jared Goff. Do you think that's fair? I do. It's too much of these games. And I, because now I'm going to talk about both sides of my mouth. Because a little bit of this too with this offense is they're not generating the explosive plays that they had in the past when they were rolling in 2018. Nothing downfield, nothing.

Nothing. And even in the run game, Darrell Henderson had a couple of runs where they did some nice stuff, and he's like a magnet to the safety. And it's like, put a move on the guy. Like, generates something third level where that 12-year gain is a 30-yard gain. Like their longest play today, I think it was 26 yards. And when golf was the one time that KJ. Wright gave up the edge. It was one time.

He was up the right side line. It was the one time that he got beat. Yeah. And Rams hit the receiver-led wineback that I love a couple times. but they're in so much of this empty or the static 3 by 1 formations. When we picture the Rams and them rolling on offense, it's these varied looks that all shape up to be the same with the jet motion. There are the naked, the play actions, the screens, the run game, everything ties in together and just it's a headache for the defense. When you have to run 19 third downs, because that means you probably had some second and longs as well, the Rams have to get stuck in this empty world, this static 3 by 1 world.

and golf can only throw sticks so many times or Cup can only get open with a design play. It does the weekly design play in these situations so many times. The number of times that Cup was straining to get to the marker today on third down, it felt so, so hard for them. That is, that's exactly right because it's like if it's third and eight, they're getting eight yards. It's not third and eight.

And they're getting 40. He tiptoed up the sideline just past the marker, I think at least three times today. And then he had a couple where he was just like, getting tackled. I'm like, oh, fell forward and barely got the yard. But that's, that's it. That's that in a nutshell is like those plays before, how many times we would see them drive down the field, they're getting, defense is just taking these blows and they're running this tempo stuff. They're changing up the cadence. And they run like a play action screen and girly waltz up the sideline for an easy touchdown. There's no those easy plays, it seems like. It seems like you

can see the coaches have to work for these plays to generate just even a five-yard gain. That's like a jet sweep to woods or a stick route. or something or something in the run game. It's just so, so hard. So going back to the original point with golf is it's, he is what he is. He needs the stuff generated for him. He doesn't create anything with his legs. You'll see similar quarterbacks in this type of scheme generate more with his legs.

He is going to be in the pocket and he is not using his legs to generate an explosive play. He'll just get the bare minimum. Today was the big difference between him and Tanhill today. It's exactly the difference is when you saw him today, there were so many. plays where he's booting out. And KJ.R. Right did a good job on those as well. He played a little bit both and made a little bit difficult on some of those boots. But there were so many plays where he has eight yards into the flat if he just wants to run.

That is what a mobile quarterback in this offense gives you. And he just doesn't have that aspect to his game. And defenses know that. That's the improvement that Seahawks I've shown to is last year. And I did a cover of this a couple times because I just thought it was so funny throughout the year. The Seahawks were like someone, I had a friend. look up the stats for me, but it was like versus Naked's, their defense was like basically Patrick Mahomes at quarterback whenever a team ran a naked. It was basically whatever the quarterback

is, whatever the team is that that team ran a naked bootleg. The defense was basically giving up a Patrick Mahomes like quarterback rating to that. That's so interesting because they looked fantastic against them today. Exactly. So you see though just 12 months later or 10, 12 months later and how good they're playing these naked. That's just the improvement that they've shown. What do you think that is? That's discipline. That is, you know, clowny. And Clawney was a little bit of that issue. So that's a little bit of it. And then when Clowny does it, and that's your best rusher, everything, everyone else kind of takes their cues from that.

Like, oh, he's getting his. I'm going to get mine of those. Like screw run discipline or screw the boot lane, pass contain. So I think that's a little bit of it and just maybe just more of emphasis of coaching because that is a very coachable point that teams can do. Just one more thing when KJ. Wright was walked down. He had a play at 12.09, I think in the first quarter, where he stood up. Pigby and turned it back inside for like a two-yard gain. And then on the second and eight, he was on the left side.

Golf was booting back toward him. He managed to kind of play it slow. And then as soon as he saw that he could take two steps and get in the passing lane, he did. And he tipped it. It's just like, those are two play stretches he was putting together today. That's like, all right, this defense, when these guys are playing like this, I can get on board.

And those PbUs, those add up. Like, because you're just, absolutely. Freaked out in the quarterback. It's just like a quarterback hit. A PbU is just the same. But those add up because also it's like, a quarterback's like, oh shit,

I got to start throwing sidearm now. I got to start angling. I got to start pumping a little bit. You know, it can break up rhythm if a defense is consistently doing that. And especially for a quarterback that already seems to be in his own head. Yeah, exactly.

All right. So that game brings us to this week's, would you rather? I didn't tell you we were doing this because I decided to do it last second. So I'm putting you on the spot. All right. So after that Seahawks game and after the way that the Saints played, so the Saints and the Seahawks are likely going to be playing against each other

based on the current setup in that two, three game to play the Packers in the NFC championship game, right? Mm-hmm. If you were Green Bay right now, who would you rather see in the NFC championship game, the Saints of the Seahawks? I think I'd rather see the Seahawks. But, God, that is, that's tough because you don't want to face Russell, Wilson. Now there's a good answer, but they'll probably have to face one of them if they get back.

I say they'd rather have to play a Seahawks because I think they can generate more on offense and have a higher baseline against the Seahawks because there's less worry. I think the Saints that's more of a grind and that's more of a we can have some bad plays that can go against this rather than just, oh, eke out, make it make it work for it and get the field go at the end. It's like, no, we have to worry about getting the ball taken away from us because that's what the Saints are going to try and do. They're going to try and create havoc plays. The Packers played really well against them earlier in the season. But that game was a different world for the Saints defense. And I think that we should

not throw that out, but it matters less than it should when we're considering this. We've had the Taseham Hill experience. You know, that's a, it's a totally different generation. When I watched the Saints last week, I just wanted to see their offense do something. And I know the Vikings defense is a disaster right now. Yeah. But I just wanted to see Breeze look a little bit lively. I want to see them run the ball a little bit, and they obviously did that with the game that I'm in Camara had. They ran it once or twice, yeah. Yeah, they did okay. So this is tough for me. I think I'd rather see the Seahawks as well, because for the reason that you said, I think that the Saints defense at its best is such a dominant group, and they can potentially give the Packers problems. You're just going to

have Latimore one-on-one against Devante Adams for most of that game, I would assume. And when he brings it, he can bring it. And again, they didn't play well the first time those two teams met, but I think this would be a different story. So I would lean toward the Seahawks, but it's really, really close. So the final four we could have in the NFC in the divisional round could theoretically be the Bucks and the Packers at Lambo.

Yeah. And the Seahawks going to the Superdome to play the Saints. No more fun of that. That's pretty good, man. That is pretty darn good. Bucza, Lambo is pretty fond. That, you know, Brady and Rogers at Lambo in a playoff game. I mean, that's what it seems like right now.

So I think the Bucks are locked into the five seed now because they're 10 and 6 and the Cardinals have seven losses. So yeah, the Bucs are locked into the five seed. You know, they looks really good against a terrible Detroit team. But I think that we've seen the Bucks play really well. We've talked about this. It's a high wire act with them. They were fantastic against the Packers the first time these two teams played. I think it would be a good game.

I think it would be a fun game. I think those teams as the final four would be fantastic. So one of the reasons that the Bucks could potentially play the Packers in the divisional round is because they would play the NFC East winner in the first round of the playoffs, and that gets us to Vince for the week. So I want to get this out of the way first. Someone needs to win that NFC East. By the rules, it needs to happen.

We assumed it was going to be Washington. They play awful to, today on offense against the Panthers. Haskins goes 14 to 28 for 154 yards and two picks. He was that bad in this game. Who knows who's going to be playing quarterback for them next week? Tyler Hennikey looked better than Dwayne Haskins did today. Well, Dominion's finest.

It's not what you want if you're the Washington football team. The Cowboys beat the Eagles. Their offense seems to have some life. I don't know what to make of it. Of these teams, who do you think would give us? the best wild card weekend game and does it really matter oh it doesn't matter i actually think the cowboys would be the most fun at least because i can watch their offense a little bit not so much the whole unit but at least they have some fun players i mean that that really did show today their

skill position talent is still there and i mean gallop just looked like he was playing at a different speed than some of those guys today and so did amari cooper that being said every time i looked up galap was making a play it was yeah i don't know how many michael jacettes they're going to be playing playing against in the postseason. And that's, to be fair to Michael Jeket, he has been thrust in a position that is a no-win situation for him. But the level of defensive back on the Philadelphia Eagles right now is concerning. And they are not going to be playing against that caliber of guy when they play against Tampa Bay potentially in the wild card round. A little bit of different defense, like actually stopping the run and like, you know, guarding guys man to man as opposed

like any switch route gives the Eagles issues. It's actually got like C.D. Lambs touchdown on the switch verticals. It was like, I felt bad for the corner because he was just, he got stuck. He was just like flat footed. And C.D. just did like a little like swim move on him. I was like, oh, okay, this is easy. Like wide open touchdown.

I can't believe the Washington, like Washington football team might be that team because, you know, like, Hanky is starting at quarterback like old dominion's finest. Walter Payton winner. Walter Payton Award winner, one double A. We had to play him when I was at pit. I was a GA pit. and they shredded us. They ran like five plays. Like we stole every single one of their signals and they did not matter because they

were so good. I like what they did. But anyways, and it's, I can't believe that team with Logan Thomas starting at tight end. J.D. McKissick at running back. The old line is just a patchwork.

It's the fact that they're even competitive, like it's like actually kind of props to Washington that they're like not, I totally agree. The fact that they're even in this conversation is his feet, but they still aren't a good team. And it's still, I don't want them in my playoff weekend. I don't want them near my playoff weekend.

I don't want any of these teams near it. So here's the situation. If Washington loses, the winner of the Cowboys Giants game gets in. So the Washington essentially has a play-in game, and that game is now on Sunday night against the Eagles. It would have been way more fun if the Eagles just won today, and the Eagles Washington game had been the play-in game for the NSEs title. Now, I don't care about this.

We have to talk about it, but I just don't care about it. I do not think any of these teams, I do not think any of these teams, no matter who makes it, is going to beat Tampa Bay in the wildcar round. I really don't. It's not like it's some good team that's battle injuries or there's something. Exactly. It's just like, it's, I guess you can make that argument about the Cowboys, but. Yeah.

Oh, yeah. Yeah. Yeah, but not in this iteration because with Dak not back there, it's, it's not the same team. No, no matter what you want to say, that Star is missing two points on there. All right. That's our NFCE's conversation for. the week. Check that box.

All right. Our next candidate here, the Arizona Cardinals just with an embarrassing loss against the Niners. They lose 20 to 12 and just come out totally flat. Kyla was 31 to 50 for 247. They couldn't get anything going. It's not a great look to be playing for your playoff lives and have a Niners team come out and just outwork you in every single aspect of that game.

Run routes for you. on when you're on offense, like basically just know what you're going to do every single one of those plays. Like the Niners caught the Cardinals, their protection, like at least three times. I mean, there's probably more, but three significant times where Cardinals would full slide and the Fournierers are just having a free runner. And like the Cardinals are keeping in like seven guys to protect. Four and Nair's are rushing four or five and like three guys are blocking one guy. And then there's just one-on-ones created on the edge. And poor Kyler has no checkdown.

underneath. Nothing working for him underneath. It's just all deep balls and then him having to scramble or it's all quick game. So defense is just, it's the same issues we've talked about with the Cardinals. So that's all this past year. It's, it's, it's, their protection stuff is archaic. They are too fascinated with getting the ball out quick. Is that maybe because of the line? I don't think so. I think that's just their preference. The run game stuff is fun. But Kyle got banged up and we saw what happens when Kyle can't just lift that whole team. But the fact that they're still with these protection issues where the runoffbacks are locked in on protection and not getting out on a late checkdown or something underneath to tie the defenders down,

that's really worrisome. I mean, that is just, that's just not good offense. And the fact that this is something that we talked about week one, week two, this is something that happened last year. I've talked to the offseason on other, on other podcasts and just random tweets.

It's just, that's not good. It's not good to see. But what was good to see was like first play of the game for the 40-9ers is Kyle Shannon had put George Kittle. on a full-blown jet motion and then running counter with him just wiping out the team. Yeah. And first play out the game.

So you knew that they planned at the whole week like, all right, Georgie boy. Like we're going to get you, we're going to get those juices fall on play one. So that that was fun to see. But Cardinals, man, it's like these teams played like they had different records today. Like if you had your eyes closed, didn't see the records, you would guess that the 49ers are on the custom of playoff birth, not not the Cardinals. If I were a Niners fan, I would be incredibly proud of the way my team played in that game. Just the overall effort from every single player.

Jason Verrett was awesome. Unbelievable. I mean, just making so many really nice plays against Hopkins in high leverage moments. The touchdown that he broke up, that's a touchdown 99 times out of 100 to DeAndre Hopkins. He gets his hands on the ball. It's over.

We saw it last week when we joked about it. he made the football look like a little toy ball, like a Nerf ball. He was just like, and for Rhett to break that up, like not even just make it hard and you push him out of bounds. He knocked the ball of those massive hands. That is a hell of a play. Stuck with him in man coverage several times, played downhill on a couple balls. I mean, that guy playing at the level he's playing at is really fun to watch. It's good for everybody.

Yes. Yeah. And he's just so talented. And him staying healthy and playing this way is great. Warner had a couple really nice plays. that scene ball he broke up to Dan Arnold that was another perfect throw from Kyler they were making plays on defense and I just think it says so much. They blew the one guy up in the end zone. They had the back of the end zone like a little. Oh, Christian Kirk. Yeah, yeah. Oh my God. He blew in the safety just rattled them. And it was like, oh, shoot, that was early on. They said that was a tone where the, that stadium was so quiet. And I think that was part of it. You could hear every hit just. echo through the stadium. But I also think the Niners were hitting in that game. And the fact that they had nothing to play for, and guys like George Kittle are coming back and

playing when they don't need to. And Kyle Shanahan essentially saying, if he can play, what am I supposed to say to everybody else that we're shutting him down? I think it's a really impressive statement about your overall culture and the job that Kyle Shanahan and Robert Saul have done with that organization. I completely agree. A few years ago, when they were rough, you know, Shanahan first year. That was always something that stood out was how hard the teams played. It was like, okay, they got good energy to them. They don't got a lot of talent, but they got some good energy to them. And that's something I've always appreciated with Kyle Shanan's teams is even when they're playing some of the scrubs, the guys always know where to go. Like, you could tell they're well coached.

Like even when they have these practice squad backups in, there's none of the palms up. There's no delay games. There's no bad cadence stuff. Guides receivers who most time, you know, Most receivers are just, you know, they pick and choose when they want to block. And they like, you know, seem to casually forget who to go to in the blocking game. So, but also in the Kyle Shannon's offense, it's they know exactly in their B line for those blocking assignments. Do they always get the job at them? No, but that's how much buy-in he gets that he's getting receivers to block their ass off. And, you know, Robert Salo, he was getting so much love as a head coach candidate last year.

And even I was a little, you know, pessimistic about that. I'm like, hey, he just runs one coverage. He's got great working up front. The job he's done this year It's more impressive Much more impressive Than a Super Bowl run Much more impressive

The variability that they've thrown in With the defense How hard the guys are playing You can tell that they short up What they like to do They're running more too high this year And the Blitz game that they're bringing They caught them a bunch today

It's not just this game that they're doing it But really really impressive job What they've done on defense there Yeah, I totally agree I think that if you're making a case For him as a head coach this year Is just a better body have worked than what he did last year.

I mean, the talent that they have of franchise is nearly the same. They're doing so many different sorts of things. I totally agree. So the Cardinals losing this game means that the Bears can win out and make the playoffs. So the Bears destroy the Jags today. They take care of business. Now, with Seattle winning, the Packers have something to play for one week 17. So it's a tougher road for the Bears.

It feels like the Bears probably lose to the Packers next week if the Packers. players play. So if the Bears lose to Green Bay, then the Rams have to beat the Cardinals for the Bears to make the playoffs. The Rams without Jared Goff against a Cardinals team that is playing for their lives is a difficult proposition. Adam Schaeffer reported this morning that this late season surge for the Bears means that the Bears coaching staff is probably safe and that they potentially could bring back Mitchell Trubisky for next year based on the way that they've played. It was a rough morning for me, if I'm being completely honest.

But I think that you have to step back and look at this in a level-headed way. Mitchell Trubisky is probably not as bad as the guy we saw at times over the last couple years because the offense was set up for him to fail the same way it was set up for Nick Foles to fail when he was playing. The version of the offense that we have seen over the last month, the sheer amount of of play action and bootlegs and motion to help the running game. It's a system that would allow a lot of quarterbacks to function. That's probably an argument against Mitchell Tribesky,

but it's also an argument saying that he's one of those quarterbacks that when given the right amount of help can create a functional offense. And I don't know how many other options this Bears team that's probably going to go eight and eight and eight and be picking in the middle of the first round and not have any money in free agency is going to have to upgrade the quarterback position next year, especially if they're bringing this coaching staff back,

which it seems like they're going to. Ideally, do they blow this up and start over? Absolutely. You start over, you try to say, all right, what is our best route to winning a championship? It's probably just starting over from scratch. That's not how a lot of teams think. They don't operate in that sort of vacuum.

And I think that if we're being honest with ourselves, the most likely situation is that this entire group runs it back. And if they do that, then it would possibly make sense to bring Trubisky back for a year on the right sort of deal if you don't think you have a clear upgrade available to you. Those are 25 caveats that I have given there. But that is, that's where I'm at, though. I'm just trying to be realistic about the whole thing.

Yeah. And they played the Jags today. So it's like, you know, if you don't want to read too much than any of it. But that offense, it's, it looks so much like what the Saints were doing with Taysom Hill that it's like scary because it's like that's the cap you're putting on yourself. You're saying, yeah, we have a nice athletic. And he's still throwing that pick in the end zone, the terrible interception. I mean, that stuff is going to happen. It's like every time.

It's, you're going to raise your bar, but that ceiling is, it's a hard ceiling. It's not a glass ceiling. You can break through some new scheme or some new. That's exactly right. The floor is a lot higher, but the ceiling is defined. Yeah, yep. You are betting that your defense is going to carry you. That is, but that's what you're building your team to do.

And maybe they did that a year late. But, you know, they run this two and three man stuff and it looks so much better than what they're, whatever they're trying to do with foals. They put themselves in this situation, though. That's the thing is like you, these teams do this. These teams leave themselves to make these tough decisions that, that aren't fun. It was always going to be this way. I, I wrote it before the year. I wrote it in June.

They were probably going to end up a middle of the road team, and middle of the road teams don't have obvious paths to getting quarterbacks if they need to change. And that's where we are. None of this should be surprising. The most likely outcome for this Bears team probably involved them being something around 8 and 8. And here we are.

And 8 and 8 teams don't have an easy road to finding a new quarterback. None of this is going to be easy. These are hard questions. They're unfortunate questions, but they don't have good answers. There isn't some magical solution out there now that you're picking in the middle of the draft again. It would be much easier if they were in the top 10 and potentially they could draft somebody and they could blow it up.

That's not going to happen. If you're on the verge of making the playoffs, even if, let's say the Cardinals will lose next week and the Bears win. The Cardinals losing to the Rams next week should have nothing to do with whether or not the Bears run this back. And that's what I tried to say the other day. That shouldn't matter. Whether you make the playoffs based on some other team rising or falling should not impact

the decisions you make moving forward. But for a lot of franchises, it does, and I assume it's going to. And that's why I'm not rooting against them right now. Because that's just silly. I'm just, let's enjoy it for what it is. I have no bearing on what is going to happen with the franchise.

Like me rooting for them to lose, does, and nothing for anyone. You're like, I don't care what my passion level is now. You're just like, whatever. It's going to, yeah, at the ship's sail,

the bear ship has sailed. Let's enjoy it. Let's enjoy this weird, Chibisky moment. And then that's fine. And that's kind of where I'm at right now. They're the king of the jobbers. Like in wrestling, they had the hardcore championship that they just like try to give to guys to like, do.

That's what the bears are right now. It's like, hey, you're the king of the jobbers. You can beat up the bad teams. You can be relevant in that aspect. Okay. Oh, you're about to play somebody good. Okay, you lose. You know, that's just kind of seems like their situation right now.

Maybe they want to, they want to go for another 12 months of that. I mean, if they want to make the playoffs and get destroyed by the Saints in the wild card round, that's their business. That's totally fine. All right. Let's get to one more team here before we get out of here. The Cleveland Browns crashed hard today. And it means a lot for the playoff picture.

They're now 10 and 5 after losing to the Jets, which we'll get to. They need to beat the Steelers or they need the Colts to lose to Jacksonville, essentially for them to get in. Neither of those is an easy proposition because the Steelers are motivated to win this game because they can still get the two-seat in the AFC. I'm tempted to chalk this game up as just a disaster. outing for the Browns. You lose your left tackle on the eve of the game to a sickness. Wyatt Teller misses this game. Their entire receiving core is out because of COVID.

And you could see it. Their offense had nothing going in part because they couldn't move the ball on the ground because they are having issues up front. And they're throwing the ball to practice squad guys. So it's tempting to say, man, the Browns lost to the Jets. What is the say about them? I think this is just a terrible day where they had absolutely nothing going for them. Yeah, they especially early on, they looked like a team playing with practice squad receivers and backup alignment. Like it's they looked like they were struggling. The pass rush was getting home. Baker was running, scrambling for his life.

It looked that way. Jets early on took advantage of it. They said, screw it. We have nothing to play for it because they brought five time after time. They had zero concern about getting caught man coverage. They were just like, whatever. We'll let, you know, random user generated name, you know, number 82 out there.

Like, like, well, Jamarcus Bradley was his name. Thank you. Thank you. Okay, Jamarcus Bradley. Yeah,

that's, you know, Madden draft, 2024 when you play in franchise mode. That's what the receiver name was. But even just offensively, the run game couldn't get going because the just load in the box. They averaged 2.5 yards to carry.

I mean, they were just, the Jets were playing on the other side of the line of scrimmage the entire game. The entire game. They load the box and brought pressure so much. And it's, it's tough to live with that. I think.

just because of box count numbers, they're like, hey, we can't run the ball against what they're showing against us. So they browns through 53 passes today, four sacks. They live off the run game. This is one of those teams. They live off the run game. We've talked about this. Baker can only do so much. Baker with these kind of receivers that are working for them can only do so, so much.

But, you know, it's, I think, I think what you just said, too, is what it is. It's just one of those any given Sunday games where, especially in a freaky 20-20 year, just that's what happened. That's what just happened in week 16. If this happened in week five, been different. I just think this is just the timing of this and it is what it is. Just a weird game. The Jets knock off the Rams in freaking Cleveland and the back to back in the Browns and back to back weeks because yeah, why not?

Screw Trevor Lawrence. If you lose your entire receiving core, you'd hope that you can dominate the game on the ground and dominate it up front. But losing their offensive linemen too. Yes. That just sabotaged that entire plan. If you watch this game, I mean, it was pretty rough for Nick Harris, who was their back up right guard. There were several plays in this game where he was literally turned around

facing Baker Mayfield chasing somebody. True lookout block. True, true lookout block. It happened three or four times in this game. And Kendall Lamb had a hard time on the edge in certain moments. And that's enough. If you don't have any starting receivers and you can't block people, it's going to be a long day for you. And I don't think this is an indictment of Baker Mayfield or indictment of the Browns and things just a really bad day. The problem is it's a really bad day that comes at a pivotal time. Because now, they can be out of this.

They need to beat the Steelers now. Right now, at this very moment, the Browns are in. They are the seventh seed in the AFC, with Baltimore being the six seed, Miami being the five seed. They need some help, or they need to beat Pittsburgh to get in.

And considering where this team was a couple weeks ago after that win against Tennessee and what they've looked like at times, it would be heartbreaking for Browns fans to miss the playoffs this season. Like absolutely heartbreaking and there seems, it seems like it might happen. Oh, hey, Browns fans, you're going 10 and 6 this year and you guys actually look pretty good. But guess what?

You don't make the playoffs. It's a reprise of 2007. It's the exact same situation. The year that everyone thinks they made the playoffs when they went 10 and 6 with Derek Anderson, but they didn't make the playoffs. It's the exact same thing. The Anderson Pro Bowl year. That's an anomaly at NFL timeline.

that's just always going to hang there. I mean, it would be absolutely brutal. So I think that's the situation right now. They need to beat the Steelers, because if they beat the Steelers and the Dolphins win and the Colts win, then they would be it. But they essentially need to beat the Steelers. If they lose to the Steelers,

then they would need the bills to beat the Dolphins. now I'm losing my mind here. So if they lose to the Steelers and the bills beat the dolphins, the Browns still don't get it at 10 and 6, which is brutal. That is brutal. So they essentially need to beat the Steelers to get in, which, I mean, it looked like that was going to be possible,

and I think it still is possible, but that is a very different situation to the one that we would have anticipated a couple weeks ago. Even 12 hours ago, shoot. I'll be honest with you. I'm going to be really excited when all the playoffs situations are figured out and we don't have to spend half the show talking about who needs to beat who and everything else. We just talk about the games again. But let's just quietly click tabs just going, I have the playoff. The playoff machine and the playoff picture and the standings are open constantly this time of year. And it's not my favorite. But that's okay. All right. Nate, we'll be back on

Wednesday show, you will be joining us for a very special show. We are going to be doing an all pro roundtable. It's going to be me and several guests. We're going to be putting together our all pro team for Wednesday. Please come back and check that out. I think you guys will really enjoy it. Please rate and review the show on your favorite podcast platform choice. I would sincerely appreciate it.

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We'll be back on Wednesday. Talk to you later. This was the Athletic Football Show.