The Athletic Football Show: A show about the NFL - Championship Sunday Recap — Chiefs outlast Bengals, Eagles knock off 49ers, Super Bowl LVII is set

Episode Date: January 30, 2023

The Eagles and Chiefs have been the two best teams in the league all season. After both took care of business on Sunday, they'll meet in Super Bowl LVII. Robert Mays and Nate Tice recap the NFC and AFC Championship Games on this episode of The Athletic Football Show.Follow Robert on Twitter: @robertmaysFollow Nate on Twitter: @Nate_TiceSubscribe to The Athletic Football Show...AppleSpotifyYouTubeToday's episode is brought to you by...Atlassian: For projects impossible alone, visit www.atlassian.comHoney: Get PayPal Honey for FREE at joinhoney.com/mays2:31 Chiefs beat Bengals in AFC Championship Game27:16 What's next for the Bengals?37:40 Eagles beat 49ers, win NFC57:47 Big questions ahead for San Francisco 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 good friend Nate Tyson. How you doing, buddy? I'm doing very well. I think we will not have to like take too much time to figure out if we have any John

Wick revenge scale games for the Super Bowl because I think Andy Reid might get up there, might break the scale or it might be up there on the scale. But wow, that was a weird championship Sunday. unbelievably weird. I mean, the first game we'll get to. That, I mean, one of the weirdest games I've ever seen. Yeah. We were like barely through the first quarter and it was like this, that NFC championship game was like, okay, this is, this is going to be a strange one.

Anytime you got Josh Johnson appearance, you know, you're in for a strange one. That was like the fourth weirdest thing that happened in the first quarter. And then we got into, yeah, an awesome, awesome night game. And what I think is becoming one of the best robberies in the NFL. It's fantastic. It's not. a grandiose statement saying that and the players are acting like that. And I think that's awesome. And that's what happens when they both, both teams win divisions. You get these repeat matchups and

we're in for a couple more next year. So what a great, great AFC championship game to cap it off with a lot happening to that game too. We'll talk about the bizarre ass and FC championship game a little bit later. But let's start with the game we just watched. And let's start with the final play. The first thing I want to say, I feel awful for Joseph Assai. I feel awful for him. I understand that you can't do that. You just, you cannot do that. But he knows that. He knows he can't do that.

And I was at the 2014 NFC championship game in Seattle. Okay. That was the game where the Seahawks came back and won. And Brendan Bostic dropped the onside kick that allowed the Seahawks to come back and win. And I will never forget being in that locker room after the game. And the Seahawks, they're visiting lockerers, are huge.

They're really big. They're gigantic. he had crawled inside his locker. He was trying to disappear. The only thing you could see with the tips of his shoes coming out of the locker, he was trying to just go away. And obviously, that shapes his entire career. It shapes the way that people talk about him.

It's the first thing that comes up when his name is mentioned. He's talked about this. I mean, it was a life-altering event for him. And I know that in the moment, it's got to be incredibly painful for Bengals, for Bengals fans, for everyone who loves this team. But that's a really, really tough moment, even if it's one that you brought upon yourself. Right. And considering what he did in their first matchup and other plays.

He played great today. And he played amazing today. We're probably the best game of his life today. And you've got to think, even though he's not a rookie this year, I believe, yeah, he got heard his first year. It's that that's the biggest game of his life. He didn't play much at all last season. Yeah.

Yeah. He, I mean, this is like the biggest moment of his life. And it's just emotions. and that it just happens like just stuff happens that's that's sports that's the human element of this game um but on top of it that's what's i don't know if it's irony is the right word but you could have the best game and if people remember that negative moment and it can be the opposite you could have a terrible game and people remember the the highlight that you have at the end of the game so but that's just that's sports and i mean honestly you do feel bad for him because that's just it's not it's a lot of eyeballs

and like you said that's what people remember your name as until you have another moment that takes that way. Where do you want to start outside of that final play? I think the other element of talking about that final play is Mahomes even scrambling pulling off that scramble on one foot. Clearly he's hampered the entire second half of the game. I mean, he tries to throw that one throw moving to his left coming back to his right off his right foot.

He clearly tweaked it when he did that. He had trouble moving around throughout the entire second half. They're down to three receivers on that side. I mean, they were really just trying to get this thing. over the finish line the best way that they could. And they ultimately did it. They did. It was,

that's the thing with those injuries is the adrenaline wears off, even though, yes, it's a tense game. It's just your human body, like reacting and then, you know, probably the shots he got wore off as the game went on and it was cold.

But you could see it hampering him. He had a bootleg. I think he had a little flick pass to Sky Moore. And I tweeted this. He looked like Big Ben last year when Big Ben had to do a bootleg where he's just shuffling out there. And it's like, yeah.

But that's what has. happens. It's cold, but the fact that he could scramble and get that play, it was just, it was tremendous. I mean, the cat and mouse game, we knew would be pretty awesome between the Chiefs offense and the Bengals defense. And it was. There was a lot of cool little twists that these teams were doing. Bengals doing a lot of robber coverage, taking away that stuff over the middle, especially with Kelsey. And then seeing how Andy Reed and the chief staff kind of adapted to that using Travis Kelsey as a decoy. They ran a, they were in a play with him on the backside blocking to who Bengals defenders are like, who are supposed to be guarding Kelsey.

Like, well, what do we do now? Like Logan Wilson's like, well, I guess I got a blitz now. He like blitz is late. That was the MBS little sail route. And that went for like it was the third and eight. It was right before the, the fumble where the Mahomes weird play. And I was having a feeling of deja vu that it was right then and there. The chiefs again, just like a week 13 driving to maybe go up two scores.

And then they have another wonky turnover. And I was like, I hear it. This is the Bengals. They hang in there. They do enough twists to make it hard. And they pull out these games, but the chiefs came out with it. It was just Chris Jones overcame a lot. Chris Jones dominated at times.

That's why you voted from a defensive player of the year. It was just moments like that. No one cranks it up more than Chris Jones. And that's why he is the closer in this league. But it was just, it was stars making place on both sides of the ball. Chase and Higgins, Mahomes scrambling, Chris Jones. Burroughs had some tremendous scrambles and other throws. I was just thrown on the money as well.

But it was just, that's what the playoffs are, is the stars start taking over. And that's what that game felt like, especially in the second half. Chris Jones, it's third down. The game is on the line. And they put him over the right tackle. He absolutely ross him, comes up with the sack. But he made a dozen plays in this game. Even the stat sheet, I think you only had like six pressures, which seems low.

He was double-teamed consistently throughout the game. The final play of the first half, when they were trying to go to Higgins, the right pile on, he was double-teamed and still blew up the play. several times when he was left one-on-one, he either got a pressure or got home for a sack. He had at least two run stops in the game. I mean, he was the best player on the field, in my opinion,

over the course of the game, and he finishes off with that huge play on that final drive. A final drive that only happens because Andy Reid elects to punt on fourth and eight with like two minutes left. And he was getting roasted on Twitter for doing this. I think it was a 99.8th percentile cowardly punt since they started tracking them or whatever.

index, whatever it is. And I, as soon as they hit the fourth down, first of all, very good choice in my opinion by Zach Taylor to decline the penalty. The fact that they thought, when he initially took it, I was like, have we watched the illegal contacts or that would be a past their parents penalty as them happened in this game? There's no way I've given him more plays. It's not yardage. It's plays to Patrick Mahomes.

That's the place you're trying to avoid. There's no way I'm giving him another one. So they decline it. And it's fourth and eight from, I believe, what was the 38 yard? line and re-elects the punt. I get my first thought as soon as they were trying

the punts about there was like, why don't you go for this? It's fourth and eight. You can't gain that much from a punt. But if you don't get it, it's a tie game and they have to kick a field goal to win it. Typically, I wouldn't think that way. Their offense could not move the ball.

Mahomes is totally banged up. They're down to however many receivers that they had. I can understand in that moment. just thinking our defense is playing really well, even if I'm giving Joe Burrow the ball back one more time and I don't want to leave the game in his hands, if we don't get this, we're essentially giving them the ball with 10 yards to go until field goal range. So I didn't love it, but I can understand it in that moment more when you consider some of the contextual elements of the game than what happens in a vacuum, which I don't think a lot of those models are taking into account in that moment. I think Healthy Mahomes, it's a no-brainer. Then now it's like, ah, like that he saved that scramble for the very last try.

He was last thing he had to take. He was like, oh, God, you could see him even on the sideline. He was talking to Matt Nagy, and you could tell he's just like, you can tell me. He's like, please make this. I don't know if I have an overtime in me, especially with this weather getting called. He would, but obviously it's going to be a drag, pun intended. But it's the, but with the Bengals, like, I understand like that was the best, this chief's defense or I would say in the previous matchups, the Bengals offense would have like a light bulb go off or and that they would figure out, oh, they're doing this against this. okay, and they started to do that, hey, we're going to do the splitbacks with the seven-man

protection. Yeah. But I feel like the Chiefs had a counterpunches to the counterpunches in the second half. And that's like this was the first time in their four matchups in two years where I actually felt like the Chief's defense was kind of, I would say in control, but like was throwing punches as well as opposed. I think they were dictating that side of the ball more than they have in previous matchups. Absolutely.

Especially in the second half. Like they've come out in the first half and then the Bengals adjust and then they don't adjust to the adjustment. And I think this game, they're like, oh, okay. this is what you want to do, we're going to do this. And so I think that's what I'm kind of agreeing with you and saying that this was maybe, I don't say I'm agreeing, but it's that this was a time where you would trust the Chief's defense if they did have to make a stand.

Like this would have been the one time I would as opposed to the three previous matchups. I think I go for it. I did not like the decision. But I still, again, I'm trying to go through what he may have been thinking when he made that choice. So talking about- There's a lot of people that don't remember early career, Andy Reid. And this was a lot of flat, a lot of PTSD flashbacks for a lot of,

lot of people that watch some of those old Eagles teams in the early 2000s. It was like, here we go again. The more things changed the more they stay the same. I thought that talking about guys again that stood out and I think kind of shaped the game, what those receivers did for Cincinnati, I think just a consistent reminder of give your guys a chance to make plays. And when you have those types of guys, they're going to be able to make plays. Like Hagan's going up and getting that ball, Chase going up and getting that ball.

the play that they called and the design for him to run through that double team in that exact situation, going forward on fourth down. I mean, that was a huge. I think that today was one of the biggest takeaways of the entire game is that teams were rewarded when they were aggressive. The Bengals have no shot in that game if they decide to punt on that fourth and six and not go for. Going for it gives them a chance. And I think that today was one of those moments where consistently we were reminded that if you were going to push it in those spots, typically it's going to work out for you over long stretches of time. We'll talk about it with the Eagles,

but that decision by Cincinnati actually put them in a position to potentially win this game. Fortune favors the bull, I mean, especially in a game like this, and when your players go make plays, the T. Higgins touchdown where you just picked the ball off. It was like pretty. Wasn't it like that touchdown? That is your ideal version of football is what that play looked like.

As soon as that happened, I was like, oh my God, ball winning bullshit. Nate absolutely loves this. Ball out right on time. perfect spot ball winners. It doesn't even matter if you actually guarded. Like the corner had no chance. Even if he did look like it was still no chance on it. But it was just perfect.

But that was, again, it's that play was the chiefs had a good answer for what the Bengals wanted to do. So every time that this is how the double move happened on fourth and six two. When he was the lone receiver, they were bracketing him. They were in quarters like the whole game. There was a couple blitzes. But it was that bracket quarters at Spaggs loves the whole game. So when he was the lone receiver, they're double teaming him.

them. Then they're bracketing Irwin in the slot because Boyd went out. They manned up and they kept doing this. They would mug up the linebackers, but they would man cover the running back and the tight end, but they're hug rushing where they, the bucks love to do this, where you act like you're, you just stand there at the line scrimmage and when he leaks to the flat, you just cover a man coverage. But what they're doing is, hey, you have one one on one here, true one on one. It's to the field and it's only to the outside with a corner playing heavy inside leverage. So really it's go balls, comebacks, and stops. Like that's what you're reduced to on the outside, to the field too.

And that's kind of like a players break shit. That like good players break your rules. And even if you have the perfect call, the hardest coverage for what you want to do, Burrow puts a ball perfectly and Higgins makes a play. And that's why the players matter, even if the scheme is perfect. But I just thought that was awesome. It was a great call defensively. And I thought Spaggs did an awesome job all game.

I love their game playing this whole game with all those quarters coverages. we can talk about that in a sec. But I thought that was a perfect example of, yes, even if you have the perfect call and at the perfect time, good players can still make plays. But when you're reducing them to making those plays, that's not a bad thing for the defense. That's a long rambling way for good call, good play. I thought there were a couple individual guys on the KC defense that came up in big moments as well. I mean, that Brian Cook tip on the interception, they try to go to the exact same play to T. Higgins on the other side.

And he responds. He obviously plays it better than he did the first time. with Chase, he gets the tip, gets the pick. I thought that Dana had a couple great moments in this game left to one-on-one.

He's really kind of come on. He's a nice little situational guy. I mean, if it's going to be third and eight, and you know Chris Jones is getting double-teamed, he's somebody that can take advantage of some of those. He got the big holding. That was the third and seven slant to chase. He draws the hold,

forces a punt, and he had a couple other past rush moments in this game. I thought overall, I mean, you probably would hope this, because the Bengals have three backup offensive linemen in. I thought that, Chief's front affected the game more than Cincinnati's front date. I know that if you look at the box score, like the advanced box score after the game is over,

that Bengals got a lot of pressures, but I think that's because Mahomes was hanging out to the ball for a really long time. He was able to hang out of the ball because there weren't a lot of quick wins from the Bengals' defensive line in this game. So overall, I thought the KC's offensive line over the course of the entire game played pretty well in this one. And it was also Andy Reid understanding like, hey, yes, Orlando Brown was our big ticket guy, but they chipped help for him with Hendricks. Hendrickson, sometimes pass rushers just have one of your tackles or one of your linemen's

numbers. Like, they just have moves against them. They have counters. Guys like Mitch could probably speak to this where it's like, I just don't have it for them. It's like a pitcher and a batter sometimes. And I think the chiefs were very intelligent about this was how many times you see Jerich McKinnon chip helping, chip helping, chip helping.

And I think that led to Mahomes be able to sit in the pocket and find those spots. It was a But like the oh I want to talk about too was the the chief's defense had a really cool play It was a second and eight and I think it was either first and ten went for two yards or second eight and went for two yards So the bangles were in kind of a two by two formation They put chase on a huge orbit motion Yeah But they're they're doing the kind of zone bubble stuff just to affect the the chiefs kind of overhangs and their rules

Chiefs are in man coverage McDuffie's on Irwin He's near in the slot. He's near the offensive line, the left tackle. And he's running a windback where he's kind of lead blocking and comes around the side. But what it was so cool on this play was I saw that the chiefs had an understanding what the Bengals were trying to do them. Both of the linebackers, Bolton and Gay, bumped over into the box tighter. And then on top of it, McDuffie runs into the box into the line.

I'm going to tweet this play tomorrow because it was so funny. He just sprints right back into the box as soon as he sees Irwin start wrapping around. Like they knew what the bang. Bengals were throwing out there. So it just really spoke to me that these Chiefs players were dialed in on what the Bengals wanted to do to them. That's why they got those double moves the Bengals did because that was the counter to how aggressive this Chief's defense was playing.

Early on, you saw all those digs to chase because they're high-lowing. It was quarters. Hey, it's high-low it. And then you saw the bracket on the quarters and then you saw the double moves off of that. But it was kind of a cool, a lot of change-ups to change-ups and counters to counters. And that's what happens when you get repeat matchups and it happened on both sides of the ball.

I was trying to look up what the yak numbers were for the Bengals in this game, because I thought the Chiefs did a very good job in this game of tackling in space. Tackling. And against the run, against the run. Key to the game. A little quick completions to chase. So a decent amount of yak from the Bengals overall in this game, but I think part of that is driven by Borough checking the ball down a lot. They had zero plays with more than 15 yards after catch in this game. So there was no explosive plays after the catch.

Compare that to last year? Compare that to last time these two teams played. So I thought the way that they tackled was big. And I think Dana was really the last guy I wanted to mention. So I think we have to talk about this, obviously, is the refereeing in this game and some of the moments that happened. Them allowing another third down to happen when they stopped them on third down is truly bizarre. I mean, that's one of those plays where if I were a Bengals fan, I'd be absolutely livid. We see the replay.

He is coming on. But I can understand. You watch that unfold. It's like, wait a second. They're getting another play on third down. So that's its own situation. And then the miss block in the back on the punt return by Skymore, I would also be livid about that.

Other than that, I don't want to get too far down the conspiracy theory rabbit hole here. The Chiefs had a touchdown waved off from an Andrew Wiley holding call. The Bengals had an interception waived off because of a defensive pass interference. If you look at most of the penalties, the Bengals incurred in this game, the P.I. on Hilton is a little bit weak, but the defense of holding on him early in the game is absolutely a penalty against MVS. So I think most of the calls in this game were probably warranted. The redo third down and the block in the back are obviously huge. But I don't think this is some grand conspiracy by the league to try to get the chiefs in the playoffs based on the way the entire game was called.

We've talked about this. I always think the call is kind of evened out. Well, we might talk about that in the next game. but it was also it's one of those things where it just I didn't feel like any of those were like truly the ones I was like oh my god that that really cost them the game it's like yeah they're more annoyances as opposed to like those truly altering terrible plays it wasn't the ram saints PI yes you know that a few years ago that it didn't feel to me as a neutral observer of this game that's that's what it felt to me anyways also just want to talk about like putting it how the more how miraculous this performance was from homes because how how no run game was going on really for the chiefs. Yeah. Like they had a couple plays. Yes, we talked about this. Being in the gun is not, they don't, they're way less effective running from the gun that you felt that today.

And also just that they were like finding those throws, scrambling for all the stuff. The, the touchdown that he had to NBS where he's throwing off his bad foot in the red zone was just like a laser off his bad leg. That's like like, like, just so many amazing plays that's like, oh yeah, you're Patrick Mahomes and you're really, really good at football. even with a hobbled leg like this. I want to talk about the throw to MVS as well, the one that Romo, I think,

construed as a bad throw because it was behind him. He sits him down there. Yeah, he's an anchor ball. MVS is crossing, he's running a crosser from right to left. There's a single high safety that if he puts more air under that ball and leads him can probably get to it. So he sits him down between the corner and the safety.

It's probably not exactly where he wanted to put that ball. No. But he gives him a chance to make a play. And by the way, MVS made a bunch of plays in this game. He had that one, a couple other plays from the slot where he had another fake over return for a big completion, and then he drew the hold. So, I mean, without him being a downfield threat and then he had the huge yak play,

I mean, he was a key part of what they had to do offensively today after losing everybody else. He had a yak. You said the key yak play. Yeah, I'm not known as VS as a yak guy. So that's remarkable. They use him on like an orbit motion guy, and I have to assume that's a, Tony play that they could not run because Tony was out. So MVS is like running the orbit motion and catching the swing in the flat.

I was like, what the hell is going on here? Not his game. But hey, he got vertical. And on top of it, early in the game before the receiver's injuries happened was the chiefs were using all their tight ends in really fun ways. They kept motion Kelsey into the slot and do all the hip stuff. That's what the hook and ladder came on. So they did that.

They did the same formation like four times on this drive. It was the, yeah, it was the drive that came on the hook. hook and ladder was they would have three tight ends to one side, one receiver to the other side. They would motion Kelsey into the slot. So you have two tight ends to one side, Kelsey and the receiver on the other side. Hip slot is what I call it, Y, Y, Y Wing. And they did it a couple times. They did it a couple times on the drive. They ran out of it. They threw out of it. And all of a sudden, they had Kelsey with his hand in the dirt. And then Fortson was the guy in motion. Even for me, watching that drive, I was like, that's weird. Something's weird here. They did that for a reason.

Sure enough, it was a freaking hook and ladder, which would have been a making. And then on a couple of plays later on the third and forever, you can see Kelsey getting ready to pitch it. And you can hear the whole all of Arrowhead go, no, no, please stop. So I thought that was great. But the fourth and one sprint out of TD was out of 13. So it was kind of good that they like had that in their bag that because they needed it with all the receivers dropping like flies that they had to go to those tight end looks. So luckily they had that kind of part of their game plan already established throughout this whole season. There was another, the Burrow back across his body play that ultimately was not intercepted,

what they called the penalty. That was another no, no, no play. I mean, the moment he starts throwing that, I'm like, especially with Burrow. Joe, please no. That's not your game, man. I thought that he did a very good job settling in over the final two-thirds of the game. Because early on, I was concerned about the way that their offense was looking, not just because they couldn't protect up front, but I thought that he was getting a little skittish in the pocket.

The interception that he threw, he double-clutched. on that play. It was a really nice play by Watson getting physical with T. Higgins from the slot. But he double clutches on that. He looks totally out of sorts. I was like, this could be bad if he's starting to really have that internal clock get sped up because he's worried about what's happening in front of him. It's been so long since he's had to play like that. And eventually, they really settled in, which I did not think was a guarantee, but still was not enough. And like you alluded to, the chiefs are back in the Super Bowl. Yep. This is a team that, that even when it's not perfect, even when they're banged up, even when they sometimes

have to win ugly, they have been around and in these moments, essentially since Mahomes became their starting quarterback. And it's important to kind of step back with stuff like this and just appreciate how hard it is to consistently be in these positions. And a couple of bounces of the ball when they lose this game. But a couple of bounces of the ball in the 2018 AFC championship game of D. Ford's on off sides, they're in that Super Bowl. Like there are so many different ways that we can construe this.

Yeah. Or last year. It's, you have one or two different plays. One or two plays go the other way and the outcome changes. It's all about putting yourself in these spots as often as you possibly can. And that's exactly what they've done. And now you have the MVP of the league, the best player in the league, has two weeks to hopefully get right along with their receiving core. And you would hope that we see a much better, healthier, put together version of this team.

against the Eagles in two weeks. Yeah. It would not. Kelsey has a back injury coming out from Jay Glazer. Oh my God. The game. I was getting groceries. I was like, what?

Somebody texted me that. And I was like, Kelsey's hurt? What did I miss that? We did all put it in the slack? And I had the exact same response. I was like, what do you?

What? Yeah. For some reason, I was so discombobulated. You sent it in the slack and I was like, did I miss the start? No, that's not the first game. I was like, did I miss the start of the game?

I was totally thrown off. Oh, I know. I looked through my notes. I was like, Did we just gloss over this on Thursday? Like, oh, man. But no, talking about the bounces of the ball and something I've really have kind of liking football to is a lot of like comparisons to poker. And, you know, there's chess and stuff.

But poker sometimes, especially in Hold'em, you put yourself in position to win, sometimes the cards just don't go your way. But it's all about putting yourselves in those positions to win. And yes, sometimes I keep betting 70% or 78% I'm going to get the cards right here. And you get bad run of cards, cold cards on that. that. But I think that's chiefs or having Patrick Mahomes is like always having ACEs where it's like, yeah, sometimes we lose on this, but we're always going to have a chance. We're always going to have a really good chance going to this game. But that's what, I mean, the Bengals were a really good team this year and that's why this game was like this game

where it felt like, oh, bounce this way or bounce that way. It's two really good teams going at it. That's how football breaks down sometimes. It's not fair. It's not fair that sometimes it comes down to a couple of ref calls or one guy slipping or a penalty or a guy, you know, or throwing interception at the worst moment possible. Like, that's kind of how football breaks down, especially with two really good teams. But the fact that Mahomes is what, this is five in a row and this is going to be the third Super Bowl in five years.

I mean, that's remarkable. The NFL is ridiculously hard to make playoff runs, to win one game into playoffs, much less going to the AFC championship game and much less going to the Super Bowl. It's truly, truly remarkable what they're doing. And on top of that, looking back at that the Eagles are going to the championship as well

or to the Super Bowl as well, makes you think of Andy Reid in his Eagles days. And how many championship games he made with the Eagles. Like, God, he's just the king of this weekend. So it's really good coaches and really good players. And that's why this game felt that way. We were just like a couple of the plays going either way and a couple stars making huge plays when it matters.

As a Bengals fan, it's a tough moment. We've talked about this all season, especially over the final three quarters of the season. They were a better team than they were last year. This team was more dangerous. They were better top to bottom. I know they had obviously endured some offensive line injuries down the stretch here, but this was a better team, a better roster, just better position than they were a year ago. And this year they don't get there, but it's still hard to not be enthusiastic or optimistic about where they sit. The Bengals have $44 million in gap space heading into next season.

I was just looking at it. And that's obviously a product, as Brandon Bean will tell you, of the rookie contracts that they're working off of. Joe Burrow next year has an $11.5 million cap hit. Joe Burrow this off season is going to get an astronomical amount of money. I mean, I'm happy for him. It's going to be. Deserves. We'll see what the number is.

I have to assume it'll creep up near $60 million a year, but that doesn't kick in next year. Next year, he's still on the fourth and final cheap year of his rookie deal. And the Bengals don't have a single guy on their roster next year slated to make more than $15.5 million. DJ Reeder and Trey Hendrickson are both sitting right there. So they have a chance to kind of keep pushing here with those guys still on those deals. A couple key free agents. Von Bell is going to be a free agent. Jesse Bates is going to be a free agent.

Jermaine Pratt's going to be a free agent. So they have some tweaks to do, but they have the resources to do it. This team can make a couple big moves if they want to to put themselves right back in position to get here again. They are actually like more position to make a Von Miller type move than, like, you know, They can make a Von Moines type move without overextending themselves. Without. Exactly. Well, it's crazy.

I mean, do you just look at the deals and just see what the 2020 three deals we do on some of these websites? And it's just, it's really nice when you have Tyler Boyd, Jamar Chase and T. Higgins as well as Joe makes an all under contract along with your quarterback. Like that's pretty fun where it's not like, man, we need you. We have 100 catches to replace here, 120 targets. Nope. They're all bring it back. So you just some of the question marks are still going to be there.

Of course, the offensive line stuff. But again, I think that unit is extremely well coached. So if they inject some talent to there, they can maybe get to this next phase of the borough kind of, you know, arc as a bangle. And I think we've talked about this. This is what the good teams go through sometimes. It's really fun to see them kind of remodel and retweak. But a lot of this core is going to stay the same.

The difference makers, the guys making the big place tonight are coming back. And that really, really matters. And that leaves you in a good spot with not a terrible taste in your mouth that maybe you might have with some of these other teams. I wonder how different the offense will look personnel-wise. Because obviously, Lyle Collins is signed to a deal last off season, but they can move on from him if they want to. He does not have a lot of guaranteed money left in the second year of that deal.

So I thought he played much better down the stretch than he did early in the season after being heard for most of the training camp. He got some bad PR. I mean, he wasn't great early, but people just remember those initial weeks where he was looking rough. He played more than fine at the end. So do they say, all right, we feel. okay about our tackles. We have Jonah Williams and Collins under contract. Kappa was obviously

signed last off season. So was Ted Karras. Do you feel like, all right, if we get a slight upgrade at left guard, we can roll with the other four stars that we had and feel good about it. I don't know if that's how they'll approach it, but that's certainly an option. You have to feel good about your past catching options. Maybe you're cycling through a tight end every year, it seems like with Uzama and then Hirst, do you try to go get a real guy that gives you some pop at that spot? or do you say Hurst played well for us, bring them back on a reasonable deal, and you use some of that money on defense. They have some younger players in the pipeline from this draft specifically to hopefully replace some of these guys. Dex Hill is under contract, or Dex Hill is a rookie.

He didn't play a lot this year because they have Von Bell and Jesse Bates. Camp Taylor Britt played a ton this year because Ousier was hurt. Owoosier will be back next year. So hopefully Camp Taylor, Britt and Ousier would be your corners. You still have Mike Hilton. and then what do you do with safety? And then I wouldn't be surprised that they just try to go out and get another piece or two up front

just to kind of make that group a little bit deeper. Osai gave them a lot, especially in this game and down the stretch. And I thought that he was obviously a nice little thing to just drop in that you didn't have last year because he was hurt. But just a little bit more juice in those spots. And then what happens at that other linebacker spot with Pratt as a free agent? I feel like compared to last year when it was like they need O line help and everything, they're sitting in such a better position as far as like, there's nothing that's like,

yeah, they have needs, but it's nothing like glaring where it's like they have to address this. It's more like, oh, they can take a lot of paths. And that's, you're just breaking down like Dax Hill didn't have to play too much and,

you know, but they have them in the pipeline. That's what good team building does. That's when you just, you don't have to play these guys. You can use them how you need to and you don't have huge glaring weaknesses that you have to address. You can kind of go choose your adventure in the off season.

So I feel like from 12 months ago, even though we figured that the. Bengals would progress as a team and get better and more sound. On top of it, I feel like they're in a much better situation than it were even 12 months ago when they went to the Super Bowl. So it's kind of, it's funny how that works. Jesse Bates is on the franchise tag this year. I mean, by all accounts, they were never planning on signing him to a big kind of market

setting free agent deal. I would have to assume he'll be gone. I would like to see Von Bell back. He's just such a good player for the way that they play defense. And just he can be somebody that is such a stabilizing force as they're trying to do all these different things. He's so versatile. I think it would make a lot of sense to bring him back, even if you think that the price tag for Bates might be a little bit too rich for you, because they're going to have to start paying these guys. I mean, beyond the cap hit that Joe Burrow is going to

take up next year, you're going to have to throw a lot of cash at that contract for whatever he's going to get in guarantees. It's going to be an expensive offseason for the Bengals, even if they have a decent amount of cap space. So it's important to think about that, but I still think they have a little bit of wiggle room if they want to do some tweaking here in important spots. And that's the other thing. You don't want to start. I don't know, just talking about both sides of my mouth. Like, yeah, they could do whatever they want. But it's like, you also don't want to stub your toe because then you've got, you know, T. Higgins is coming up, you know, the year. Like, you don't want to, uh, uh, the opportunity cost of all this. That can matter down the road. But that, I think they're going to be fine as far as, because I think they're going to favor. I also, you don't have to sign guys for four year deal just because guarantee. No. The Bengals also don't sign guys with guarantees until like year three and year four in contracts. Yeah,

just like at Hendrickson's deal. Hendrickson has $5 million in guarantees left after this year. It's only been two years in. So I, no deal that they sign is going to put them in a bad spot or two, three years from now. So whatever they're going to do just by definition is going to be something short term that gives them flexibility. But if you want to try to go out and sign one or two guys is one year rentals because you're trying to give yourself a little bit more depth or, you know, just the types of moves that we see from teams that are really trying to put the pedal to the floor and win a Super Bowl, I think that they're in a position to potentially do that based on the core that they have. I think the best way I can sum it up all this is their window hasn't changed.

Like the window, I feel like it's still the same, same size and everything. And they can even prod it open a little bit more this year. All right. That is all we have. On the AFC championship, we are going to take a quick break and get back and talk about a very weird game. in Philadelphia today. All right. What a fucking bummer.

Real quick, though. I did nail the score in the AFC championship game. We won't talk about who I picked. We don't talk about who I picked, but 2320. I did nail the score again. But that's all that matters. I love people being like, you guys should apologize to the chiefs. It's like, it's a coin flip game.

It's a coin flip game. I don't know if you know, the best player in the world is on a high ankle sprayed. I don't hope you guys know that. This is always so funny. All right. Let's talk about the NFC championship game. What a fucking bummer.

Yeah. The first thought I have when Purdy goes out is I cannot believe that we have to deal with fourth string quarterbacks in this NFC championship game that we were so pumped about. And then Josh Johnson gets hurt. And then Purdy comes back in. He can't throw. Can't throw. Everyone who's like, all right, why don't they just run the Wildcat?

You're just going to draw it up in the sand at halftime? Yeah. Maybe they don't even have. have like terms for that. That's what I mean. I don't think you need, if you didn't practice it at all, which why would they? They have the best offense in the league. They don't need to run a bunch of gimmicky wild catch.

They're not planning that. And Purdy needs to be in the game because the offense can function. He can at least hand the ball off and Christian McCaffrey doesn't have to be your quarterback. There is no good plan or good solution when you're down to a quarterback who cannot throw a forward pass against the best team in the NFC. I understand it's tempting to be like, well, why didn't they do this? Why didn't they do that? At a certain point, there's nowhere else you can turn.

No. I saw a few tweets. They were saying stuff like this. That I thought was hilarious. It was like this felt like some high school playoff game or the starter comes down with mono or something like that. And they have to start the freshman quarterback because he's the backup. And so they just run the ball in the entire second half. They ran their same reverse play, the Debo, probably like five times in the second half.

because that's all they got. It's, it's so hard to change midstream. And on top of, like you're saying, to run a functional offense, okay, say CMC is the Wildcat quarterback.

That's to like, that's a break glass of a case of emergency to run through like one series. It's not to run like a dozen plays. You only can run like two or three plays. Zone read. It's going to be really hard to turn to say like, okay,

now we're running like quarterback keep to, to the outside out of nowhere. Like you said, drawing in the sand. It just, it just is a bummer because like, you know, you kind of felt some of like cool stuff happening in this game.

I have plenty of, plenty of schematic notes. I kind of just in the second half. My wife, I'm in the kitchen and I'm like cleaning up in the kitchen. She goes, isn't the game on right now? It's like, yeah, it's second half. Yeah, and stuff happened. And I don't really need to watch this fourth quarter right now because that's how it felt.

The quarterback gets hurt. The backup quarterback goes in. There was a punt that hit a wire at some point, but the reps couldn't decide that it actually hit the wire. There was a penalty on a punt where a player was thrown out of bounds, hit Nick Bosa in the leg, so he was now banged up for the rest of the game. It just so much. It's the Murphy's Law game.

There was a missed call on the fourth down completion to Devante Smith that should have been overturned, but wasn't. That's right. Eagles go down and score a touchdown. It's just so many weird things happened in the first quarter of that game. And ultimately none of them matter because the 49ers didn't have a functional offense by the end of it. Right.

And like, just like even the, no. So, okay, so I was like really excited because I was like, okay, the Niners are still keeping it in it because the defense is playing well. But then, of course, when Josh Johnson gets hurt, it's like, okay, this is, I mean, they had like three delay games. Like, even, even with Josh Johnson in there, they had like all the delay. They could barely get the play calls in. Like, he's saying he can't hear the play call.

It just, it was a nightmare. It was a mess. It was a mess. It really did, even though it was the NFC freaking championship. But I mean, it was not to take away like even like the Eagles offense. It was really cool to watch them find answers. Yes. I do want to talk about that.

And I do want to give them credit because I thought a couple of the tweaks that had were really important. And it's funny because the game was 38 to 7 or 31 to 7, whatever the score ended up being. The last week was 38 to 7. It's a 31 to 7 game. And it sounds silly to be like, oh, man, like, this is kind of why I thought the Eagles were going to win the game. The Eagles won the game because Josh Johnson got hurt and half of Brock Purdy played.

But the tweaks that they had with their run game in the first half, that was why I thought the Eagles would win a close game. So what happened was, Ted did a really good job about it. lighting this, and you can correct me if any of this is wrong. But on the drive where Bosa made the crazy play on where he played both the running back and the quarterback on the keeper to Hertz near the goal line, the Bengals were in, trips looked to the right side and they ran to the trip side. So on their following drive, they come out and they run a little RPO to the trip side

again out of a bunch, and they run to the weak side. And so they have numbers to that side because Fong goes on that side. And that was the first 17-yard Kenny Gainwell run they got a chunk off of. And then later on that same drive, similar kind of look, three receivers to the right side. They run the exact same play back to the weak side for the Miles Sanders touchdown. So clearly they saw something if they lined up that way and ran back weak side, what they could do. And the only real difference with how the plays were blocked is that on the first play, it's a three technique to the left side.

So Kelsey just climbs to the linebacker. on the second play. It's one technique to Kelsey's side. So they run a little wipe fold where he comes back around and climbs up to the second level. And so it's a small, small thing. But that's why I have confidence in the Eagles offense because they'll find whatever little sliver of daylight you're going to provide for them and eventually get a lot of

production out of it. Yeah, they made it really hard on Jalen Hertz. The 49ers defense did. Go balls are pretty tough to complete in 18-mile hours wins. And this is the fifth best. rush offense since 2002. This is a historically great running running offense. That's why this Eagles team

is tremendous. They find different answers and they adjust. But no, that breakdown I had it. I said the Eagles started pound the rock and that was it. So the whole game, whole game, whole first half, a whole second half, until game got out of hand, the Eagles were hiding the running back's strength

alignment. So they're putting them in a home position. So pistol, picture of pistol where the quarterback's in the gun with the running back behind them and then shifting them to either strong or weak away strong is when you're towards the tight end the running back strong alignment or normal alignment a weak alignment away from the tight end so they kept hiding it because the linebackers for the 49ers and hafonga they're really freaking smart and they know oh okay so if the back's weak and the gun that's why it's usually it's hard to run from the shotgun

is because the back the backs alignment gives away what type of runs you can run some teams are very good the chiefs can be really good at like running same side runs so you're hiding tendencies. But Eagles were smart, so they kept hiding it, kept hiding it. And then finally, they're saying, well, if we go tripped strong, you know, with the runningback strong towards the bunch, uh, the linebackers are kicking over because Fred Warner's trying to play both. This was exactly what the Cowboys were doing out of their formations last week where they're putting Fred Warner in a bind. We don't have to block him, just make him wrong. And so they just put him in a bind. It was, it's so simple sometimes, but that's exactly what they did. And because the linebackers

Well play, he did not move. He literally did not move on that 17 yards. He was awesome. Because he's like, screw that. I'm not when AJ Brown can't just slam behind me or flat behind me. But he was running bubbles. Goddard was running the little bubble. And so there was no good answer because Hufanga was also on that side.

It's just simple good football. And that's what it is. But it's those run plays. And on the touchdown, especially because they're bumped over, because Greenlaw and Warner are bumped towards the strength of the formation, that creates such. favorable run angles and they're running weak side zone. Like you said, Kelsey did a couple things different. But they are winning right at the snap of the ball just because the lineback,

who's he's climbing to? He already has leverage on. Usually on weak side zone, the center is racing to get his head across. So the running back has to make him right. Here, he's like, all right, I can just, I'm already already all the way across from him. So it's just a clear running lane for the for the running back. So again, they find this always in every game.

They started to do the one by three formations where the tight ends alone guy and they have three receivers to the strength and they were just running the flat stuff and again warner learning his lesson from last week was running out with the flat he was like i'm not letting adja brown catch these flats and so they're just pounding the rock mild sanders got like a little five 70 r gains on that just simple football just making them wrong without even having to block them and then there was a tweak that the niners had later in the game where they actually moved to fanga over to that side even when they had the three the trips to the right the trips to the strong side so they move him over bosa slants inside so like all right we have this now because we have one more guy over to the weak side. And that's when the Eagles ran that RPO quarterback draw with Hertz. And they had numbers to that side and they just had game while block. And so that's just, it's a simple thing. But that's what this Eagles team has done all season. It's like, okay, what are you giving us? Here's where the numbers are. Here's where we can create a number's advantage. And they've always been able to find those consistently throughout the entire season. And when this game was actually in question in the first half, they were slowly tapping into

that stuff. Yep. They always find they poke and proud, poking proud. It's the pick your poison offense and that's what it is. It was you saw the go ball early to Devante Smith, the extended play, I should say.

In the passing game just never got going. The, the foreigner's defense was snuffing it all out. Like they're really, really smart. They were making hurts wrong a lot of times on their reads. They're playing really great rush discipline. Like Bosa was like how crazy Bosa usually plays,

how discipline he played this game was like, it was kind of remarkable. I mean, he did such a great job. And that's, that's what Hertz does damage because the guys get real. Oh my God, I'm going to beat Elaine Johnson on the outside. Then Hertz just calmly steps up and out and it's a nice like first down or he's thrown it deep.

But again, this is why this Eagles offense has been tremendous. This is the best run team in the league this year. They can do this. They don't need those explosive pass plays. Yes, they do it. They have it. It's in their bag. But they could still gash you in the run.

That's why they're the number one team at the end of the sea. And they just did it. This is a fantastic 49ers defense. And they made the 49ers defense. defense wrong. Not a lot of teams do that. You catch them once or twice, but don't make them consistently wrong. And this is the first time it really felt like that. Of course, a foreign air's offense led to this. But how their defense felt, it was like, oh, man, we're catching up. We're catching up, especially when the Eagles started to adjust. And they've done it. Eagles'

offense has done that this entire season. The Niners got destroyed by penalties also in those first couple of drives and is consistently extending drives. Again, none where it was like, ah, that, that seems like it's totally bogus or totally out of bounds. A lot of them, They're getting pretty physical at the line of scrimmage. They were doing that in the entire game, and they were getting dinged for it. And that was really the only way the Eagles could move the ball when they dropped back to pass. But they absolutely found ways to move the ball consistently on the ground over the course of that first half. They did it?

Yeah, a couple of penalties were brutal, but foreigners are, they're a very aggressive team. Yeah, they play with the Arizona. You have to be. Especially with the Goni gets another good team, but the team that has equal talent to you. A lot of these elite units aren't used to that. The Bengals and Chiefs knew what they were getting into. I'm sure the 4-9ers and the Eagles were kind of going like, all right, we're good, right? We're a good team, right?

I just want to make sure. And then they went and that that's why you kind of see some of that aggressiveness. They don't know when to kind of wean back because they'm not sure if that's good enough. But yeah, it kind of lost some luster as the game went along. I'm going to be hot. The last thing I want, the last thing to mention, I think before the game actually gets out of hand is the play that led to Purdy getting hurt, Hassan Redick makes two ridiculous splash plays early in this game for the Eagles defense. And we talk about this coming in the game.

The Eagles were fantastic against play action this year. They were the best team in the league against play action. And I looked it up when he made those two plays because I was like, I wonder how many sacks they got against play action this year and whether that pumped up their numbers. Not really. It wasn't totally skewed because of how many sacks they got, but multiple plays out of, I don't know if the second play was out of 20 or 12 personnel. But heavy personnel packages, they're trying to wad it up in black reddock with either a tight end or a tight end coming across the formation.

And twice it absolutely blows up in their face because he's just annihilating plays. Yeah. That's a that's an easy button training wheels part of the Shan Head offense. That's what makes the Shan Head offense goes is those chunk plays. It's not having to drop back. But taking that, not only you just like, because those plays are generally considered safe, like a play action or a naked. Those are considered safe. a naked, as a quarterback on a bootleg, you are taught, get the ball back to the line of scrimmage.

What that means is me as a scrambler get to the line of scrimmage or I throw the ball away and don't take a sack. Bootlegs, okay, we have heavier protection. It's either shot or check it down. Okay, a sack can happen, but really we're hoping that it doesn't. The fact that they were just nuking, like what's supposed to be a safe play, and that's not the 49ers and Shanahan offices are always about being ahead of the chains. And so as soon as you put them behind the chains, it's like, ooh, they're playing uphill. It doesn't matter how talented the receivers are, how talented of a play card, Kyle Shanahan it could be. This Eagles team, this is just a plan coming together, man.

You look at what they were last year and they kind of stumble into the playoffs. They have this really weird team where they were super run heavy and they make this midseason transition to this version of the offense. And Stuyken takes over play calling. And, you know, they have to really operate one specific way because they don't really have any other way to move the ball because their passing game just isn't that elevated. Devante Smith is a rookie. Dollar Scott is a nice player. But J.1 Hertz is not a fully formed quarterback at all at that point. They get to the offseason and say, okay, we have a rookie quarterback contract and we have a lot of assets.

What are we going to do with this? They go out and they make the A.J. Brown trade. They use some of that excess money that they have to go sign us on Redick. They signed James Bradbury off the street. They go make the CJ Gardner Johnson trade. They use every available asset to build the best roster in the NFL top to bottom. I don't think it's even a conversation for 22 starters, 25 guys with a little bit of depth with the best team in the league looks like. It was absolutely the Eagles all year.

And it was the Eagles, I think, coming into the season. The biggest question was, what sort of step could their offense take? And they made a bet by saying, if we go out and get some crazy pass catchers, and we have a guy who really wants to get better. We have an offensive staff that we feel fantastic about that's going to put him in the right positions. With these bets, we can potentially get where we want to go. And now they're in the Super Bowl. Yeah.

That was the hangup. How much are they going to get out of this passing game? Or is it going to be gimmicky? Is it going to be RPO heavy? And as soon as they don't have a lead, it helps that they generally are playing from ahead in a lot of games. this season, but that speaks to how Dom of this roster was. But this was the mainline, streamlined offense,

and Hertz was a great trigger man for it. He knew how to get the job done. Seeing him learn, like really just being a quarterback and understanding, like, I feel like he's so much more at control. Like, even when he's huddling, he's kind of telling guys what to do, it just seems like he's more.

It's confidence, man. I mean, it's just confidence. Being a pro bowl, second team all pro will kind of do that a little bit. Like that will really boost your confidence. But also speaks, Yes, they bet on him and he's been remarkable this year. Just like I said, he came second of MVP, I believe, and second team all pro, yada, yada, yada. MVP voting hasn't happened, but all pro and all that. He will be up there.

He'll be up there. He was a finalist. But is that he was more or less a non-factor in this game and the rest of the roster is so freaking good that it didn't really matter. I'm not trying to knock hurts. I'm speaking to he won them games earlier in this year by his talents and what he can do. But the fact that he didn't have to be a factor. during this game that still was a blowout is kind of just speaks to how awesome this roster is.

I mean, how great this offensive line is in this run game and this defense can make it tough on a lot of offenses. There's not many offenses that really tested this defense either. So it just speaks to how good this Eagles team is and just the position that hurts has helped put him in this year. The fact that he, even when he's not moving the ball through the air consistently, it can change the numbers in the run game and always give them an advantage there is a huge part of just what this team is. The Niners had a key on him. Every time they did his own play, like three Niers defenders are like, uh, like making sure, I mean, in a good way, but that means they spent all week focusing on him.

That means he is a tangibly good effect of a game changing type player. That's what he is this year. And the last thing about the Eagles, Jason Kelsey has several like highlight plays for an offensive lineman, which how often does that happen with him? It seems to happen very often. It's awesome. The guy just continues to kind of run up the score on a Hall of Fame career. I mean, just an unbelievable player.

And Lane Johnson doing what he did today banged up. And just those guys, you cannot say enough about those guys. Hopefully, Landon Dickerson is not too hurt and ultimately can play in the Super Bowl. I'd love to see that unit at full strength because they have been remarkable all season. All right. How about Michael Parsons saying like getting well or that's awesome what Lane Johnson's doing? I thought that was pretty cool. Like I love when really like elite guys.

Hard not to respect him. I have to assume when you play against the man when you're watching him, do what he's doing at how he's feeling physically against a guy like Nick Bosa. But we just talked about we want Kelsey and Mahomes to be healthy in the Super Bowl. Same with the Eagles. Again, these guys hurts another week that he can rest his shoulder. All these guys, like that's, that's what you want, especially that's kind of the story a little bit with this playoffs, how it kind of hasn't felt like a lot of 100% or even near 100%

for some of these teams, 49ers being one of them, obviously. It's kind of like, okay, this is hopefully we get this week or these two weeks to really get these guys near full strength because that's what you want. especially in the Super Bowl. You want the best of the best. Typically, when we do these post-mortems about teams that lost in the conference championship game, they sound like the one that we just did for the Bengals 10 minutes ago. Oh, you know, you know, they obviously have a superstar quarterback,

and they've got a good young core, and you make two or three little moves, and hopefully you're back in the same situation. They're so set up. I mean, it's just rock solid. Niners are slightly different story because I have no idea who's going to be playing quarterback Week 1 for the San Francisco 49ers. We are going to have a lot of discourse about it, I'm sure, over the next however long. If you had to just gut feel, what do you think they do in assembling that room and figuring out that position this offseason?

I say they still go with Lance because they're kind of going like, this was our guy and this is who we tabbed as the guy. But I'm not willing to bet on that. We're going to see so many trade, like, possibilities with Packers and 49ers. and 49ers and jets. Everybody. Oh, my God. We're going to see so many of the next month or two. It's going to be so obnoxious.

If you're a team that needs an answer a quarterback and you had a high grade on Tray Lance coming into the draft, wouldn't you at least call? Oh, absolutely. And see what they would give him up for because they may be looking for an answer to make this decision a little bit easier on themselves. And I don't know if today shouldn't change what they're thinking was going to be. The fact that Brock Purdy didn't really play in this game, him playing well or poorly in one game shouldn't dictate what the Niners are going to do at quarterback in the offseason. But I do think it probably colors their decision making in some way.

The fact that he didn't play great and they're not playing in the Super Bowl, I could see it go in a bunch of different ways. But really, no matter which way it goes, this team is still set up pretty well. No, they have $17 million in cap space because their quarterback is going to, to be cheap no matter who their quarterback ends up being. And they've got a couple guys sitting free agency. Mike McGlunchy is a free agent. Ebukam is a free agent. Charles Menahue is a free agent.

But it's really a lot of depth guys. You know, for the most part, the most important players on this team are going to be back next year. And you have to feel pretty good. Let's say it is Brock Purdy, again, about the machine that they have created on offense and what they can do. And this entire league best defense is essentially coming back. intact. We'll see what happens with D'Amico Rines. I think that, honestly, outside of the

quarterback question becomes the single biggest question about their offseason because none of these spots outside of Carolina have been filled yet. So I have to assume that he's going to get long, long looks at every single one of these jobs, especially now that their season is over. Yeah. And there's already plenty of smoke with the Houston stuff. And then that makes probably Denver a little antsy. So we'll see. what happens with those two spots especially. The, you know, the death lineup is all coming back. The defense, like you said, is all the players are coming back, too.

Yes, losing their play caller, who I can tell the players love and adore never helps. You never really like that. But hopefully you just keep churning that defense-aligned factory to find another guy. They had some young guys step up, Drake Jackson and everything. Like, yeah, the other guy's kind of like refilling that pipeline, talking about that. Yeah, with the death lineup coming back, you know, losing, some offensive lineman, of course, including our guy, Daniel Brown's skill.

But this is also the offense and play caller that is one of the best that kind of nullifying that and making offense-aligned proof type of offense. I know it's very hard to be an offensive-aligned proof offense, but this is one scheme that kind of does it with all that bootlegs and stuff that we've talked about. I do think today was one of those moments, though, where you saw what can happen when you do that. When you have Javon Hargrave going up against Aaron Banks and you see where. those mismatches are created every once in a while. And also you started to drop them back and it's like, Oh, this is a fraud. Yes.

Yep. You're hoping for it always to be a one score game, so you never have to deal with that. But that's how they're built. That's what always been the M.O. about a Shanahan offense is that he would, usually it was just even personnel that they used. It was, oh, they have a whole bunch of 290 pound guards and everything. So they can't drop back just because of the personnel they use. But now it just seems like even resources.

They're like, yeah, fodder. Like, we'll fill it with this guy. They did. They have found some nice players there. I'm blanking on the right guard's name right now, but he came along. Thank you, Burford. Yes, yeah. But he, yes, he had some moments in the playoffs, but like he's a rookie, he came along great

in the second half the year. But it's nice that they find somebody, like, especially a middle, they're not going to draft a lot of these guys high. I know they did in the glitchy, but they're kind of, I don't know who, what the deal is with him, but he's going to go out as a free agent. But that's how they're kind of ammo with this. But long story short is, I feel like they will find an answer and it won't really hinder them as far as next year, as far as offense.

just the sign of the quarterback. This right, they better be happy with this roster because for the most part, these are the guys, they're going to be coming back next year because they don't have very many picks. Obviously, they traded their first round. Their first round pick went to Miami, which is now going to the Broncos. The second round pick is going to Carolina. Their third round pick, the one that is given to them by the league traditionally is also going to Carolina. They have three, they have three supplemental third round picks.

Right. What's a cop? It's like, it's, it's, it's 10.30. It's been a long day. They have three. The sandwich picks. We go baseball draft. Yeah.

Right now I'm looking at it. In the third round of this year's draft, they have the 100th pick, the 100 second pick, and the 103rd pick. So. Because those are the only ones that have been handed out so far. I mean,

the actual compics have not been awarded. So they do have some draft picks. We talk about this in the show at Barnwell. They've consistently, you know, gotten more of them. They have a couple more in the fifth round through various trades.

But they've made a big bet on the McAfre trade. And we've seen what the returns on that back can be and we'll see if how about that touchdown run oh my god i was i was screaming what a fucking run at my tv just like in my basement because it was just such a weird disconcerting game that i just at a certain point i was just yelling at my television oh but yelling speaking of yelling at television my homes now has got me in trouble twice because i've woken up my son because i made a noise i yelled of so today his throw his touchdown throw and then the other one was the forts and throw against the chargers on the wheel route.

So those two throws, I've woken up my sleeping infant sod and got in trouble for doing so. So Mahomes has caused two of those this year. Yeah. I mean, it's, again, just a bummer of a game. The fact that it had to go down that way. I'm so excited about it. But again, it's about putting yourself in that situation. And the Eagles were a fantastic team all season.

And even if it was a strange championship Sunday, Eagles Chiefs is an amazing Super Bowl. I mean, the storylines. The actual game itself. I mean, we have a fantastic matchup awaiting us in Arizona. Well, a full slate of show for you guys this week, a little bit different. Obviously, we're not going to have a Friday preview show, but Nate and I will still be doing a bunch of shows over the course of the week. We're going to do a mailbag with Mitch.

So athletic football show at gmail.com. We're going to do that later in the week. If you want to start sending in your questions now, I will obviously tweet out the phone number for you guys to leave some voicemails. I think we're going to be recording that on Thursday. day and then me and you are going to do something in the middle of the week. We'll be back with Sando tomorrow. So please come check that out.

We got a lot of coordinator coach news to dig through. Kellan Moore eats one for the Cowboys. A lot of stuff to talk about there. So please come back and check that stuff out. And then listen, a week from tonight, I'll be in Arizona. Are you getting there Sunday? I'm getting there Sunday. Okay.

I get there Tuesday morning. I'm getting there Sunday. So I will be there all week, and we will have a ton of fun of fun stuff coming your guys's way from Radio Row. Obviously, one of my favorite weeks of the entire year. The amount of football talk that we're going to have and the amount of tacos that I am going to consume during my six days in Phoenix. It's going to be remarkable. I'm just excited for that. Oh, man, remember last year our preview show, the one we did live as like, as the other, that other show was screaming in the background.

I do remember. I do getting louder and more amped up throughout it. I'm juiced up for that. I love that Super Bowl preview show because that is a, that's like every facet. It's like we're talking about holders and like gunners and everything. That's how you know we're like, we talk about these teams a lot once we get to that level of detail. But I'm so I'm so fired up, get to go to the Super Bowl. So I'm like I haven't, I've been giddy ever since you told me that.

So I'm excited, excited to get to Phoenix, excited for the Super Bowl, excited for this matchup. Last year, I think I had you consume like 10,000 calories over like a, two-day stretch. So I will also, we'll be reprising that as well. You had like this truffle pasta that has been in my brain since then. I was a feel extortarian, less in vets. I don't like truffle. And I actually was, yeah, or it was a, it was the pizza thing or the flabber, whatever it was. But I like don't eat that usually. It was fantastic. I'm not picky or anything, but it's just that I'm not a truffle guy. Been in my brain for a year. So I'm excited to try some, some more new things with you, buddy. I'm already concerned about what I'm going to look like after

that week is over. All right. Guys. Guys, thank you very, very much for hanging out. Thank you for hanging out with us all season. We are here at the Super Bowl. It was in a couple weeks. Really, really had a great time. In the meantime, please rate and review the show in your podcast platform of choice. You guys done an amazing job over the last month or so, leaving us reviews on Apple Podcast.

Keep it up. If you like the show, please just let us know through the course of the year. It helps us. It means a lot to me. I truly considered a personal favor. So thank you very, very much. It means a lot to us. Please subscribe to the YouTube channel.

haven't. We're going to be doing more stuff on the YouTube channel during Super Bowl week. We're going to have our entire video crew down there. So if you were listening to this in podcast form, you can just click on the link to the YouTube channel in the description. Go subscribe now because we're going to be doing a lot of that stuff in the next couple weeks and then into the off season. And if you do not have a subscription to the athletic, you can do that at theathletic.

At theathletic.com slash football show and read all the fantastic work from the guys for covering all four of these teams, but also are eagles and chiefs writers. A great combination of beatwriters for you guys to follow if you do not. We have Zach and Bo obviously covering the Eagles and we have my good buddy Nate Taylor covering the chiefs. We will be talking to all of them over the next couple weeks. But if you do not. The better Nate T. Yes, the much better Nate T.

If you do not follow the word. I'm the warrior. I'm the wario Nate T. You guys should absolutely check it out. But that's all we have for now. I'll be back tomorrow with Sandow. Appreciate you guys listening. We'll talk to you soon.

This was the Athletic Football Show.