The Athletic Football Show: A show about the NFL - Derrick Henry goes beast mode, Packers potent offense & Bucs dominant D + Sheil Kapadia’s Week 7 picks

Episode Date: October 22, 2021

Robert Mays and Nate Tice dive into their weekly 'Friday Five'. Derrick Henry is on pace for another 2000 yard season with the Titans. The Packers have made some offensive tweaks in 2021 to help Aaron Rodgers. The Bucs defense continues to dominate against the run. Bengals WR Ja'Marr Chase has lived up to the hype in Cincinnati. Mac Jones is playing like a veteran in New England's offense. Plus, Sheil Kapadia joins the show for his weekly picks segment. This week he likes the Patriots, Seahawks & Colts. Nate(dog) has his eye on the Bears, Ravens & Chiefs. Week 7 is here! Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

This is the Athletic Football Show. The Athletic Football Show is presented by State Farm. Because like a good neighbor, State Farm is there. Get a quote today. To The Athletic Football Show. Today's Friday, October 22nd. I'm Robert Mays. Fun show for you guys today.

Shookapati is going to be joining us a little bit later for our weekly pick segment. That includes Nate wearing rubber dog mask the entire time, which never a sentence I thought I would utter. When you agreed to do this show with me, last year in like August of 2020, did you ever think that this would be your fate? No. I didn't even think. I was like, the fact that it was like, oh, we're doing more than one show, like doing a weekly show. And then all top of that, it's like, oh, we're doing picks now.

Oh, great. Shields hopping in great. And then it was like, oh, yeah, what can happen? I hit my first lukewarm lock. It's like, what's the worst that can happen? I'm going to hit all these. Like, this is my lock. That's why I'm giving it to you.

And it's like second one, just a first quarter in. I was already like, oh, no. If the people in charge of this company ever start. listening to this podcast. We are seriously screwed. Seeing the spirit tape on it. That was amazing. Seeing the box, it's a spirit. I didn't tell you it was coming. So as soon as they were losing, I bought the mask. The dog. So the Browns were your lukewarm walk. People who are not on this here. So obviously the Browns famously have a group of fans that wear dog masks. So I was

like, all right, this is easy. This one's right in front of me. So I bought, I was searching the internet, found one from the spirit. Halloween store and like overnighted it to you and did not tell you it was coming. So you got a package on Wednesday for me and that's what it was. It was just a rubber dog mask that you did not know was hitting your mail. First thing I saw was Spirit Halloween tape and I was like, oh, did my wife order as like Halloween outfits? Like that I don't remember we were talking about.

And then I saw it, I was like, oh, you got to be kidding me. I appreciate you. All right. As we do every single Friday, we are doing the Friday five. We pick five players, matchups. games that we wanted to dig into. Not a great week, if we're being honest with each other. I mean, obviously, some of the biggest lines that you're going to see in week seven,

we talked about that a little bit during the pick segment. We got two touchdown favorites this week. I mean, there are a lot of lopsided games, decent amount of teams on by. You know, Buffalo's not playing. Cowboys aren't playing. And it's left us with a lot to be desired when it comes to the schedule. So we're going to dig more into some individual players and units today. than more big-picture games like we might on a typical Sunday.

We're going to start with Derek Henry, playing against the Kansas City Chiefs. Again, we get to in our pick segment. But we talked about Derek Henry a tiny bit with Lindsay yesterday, more just from a spectacle perspective. The fact that this guy is doing what he's doing on this sort of volume is pretty crazy. But we wanted to dig into that a little bit deeper. Just look at some of the raw numbers.

In a 16-game season, he'd be on pace for 2008. yards. I don't know what we're going to do with that. Like, if he rushes for 2,200 yards and 17 games, I feel like that's a complication that we haven't wrestled with yet. Are we going to do the Roger Maris Asterix thing? Like, you know, the 61 and 61. So for purposes of context here, I'm still leaning into 16 games. Looking at the numbers right now, and a 16 game season, he would be on pace for 2008 rushing yards. So 2,000 yards again, and 28 rushing touchdowns. That's ridiculous. That is insane. insane. And that's just rushing. That's what's even crazier. It's like you hear those old

LT numbers, the, you know, Thomason numbers. And it's like those were total touchdown. It's just 20-8 rushing's ridiculous. We'll talk a little bit just about some of the ways they're using him, the nuts and bolts of their running game, some of the concepts that they're using, just to get an idea of why he's been effective outside of Derek Henry is an alien, which might be the answer, but it seems like it's worth exploring. So when you went back and you watched either the Bill's game or some of the other more recent games that they've played, what a their running game jumped out to you. Yeah, it really is a little bit of, oh, Henry.

And then the thing about Derek Henry is it's kind of an all or nothing running back. It's either to get the maximum effectiveness out of them, it's kind of like you have to build the whole offense around them and for better for worse. And you kind of just do, but you get more out of it if you do build more around them. But then it's, why do you say that? Because like one, we've noted is that, oh, no, it was pre-show we talked about, but they're running more out of the gun. He's limited out of gun runs.

He's just a long-legged guy. So there's only certain run concepts that he's really good at. Like, you know, it's an all-or-nothing kind of thing. That's why the zone stuff and the duo stuff works because he can get his long legs going. And also it's just so if you can't take away the gun runs, okay, that limits makes us very telling or tendencies are high. Okay, we're in the shotgun. We're passing. Oh, we're under center.

We're running. So, okay, that's already one thing. He also is actually limited in past protection as well mentally. I mean, physically he's there. I think I've seen at least two or three busts in just the three games I just watched before the show. And it's like that crops up a lot. So it's like you're scared to run past protection with him. He's not a great route runner.

He catches he's not, his hand eye coordination is really weird. He's like the most limited great athlete I've ever seen. Like he is like unbelievable. He's a freak of nature. But then he like can't catch. And it looks like he's trying to catch a beach ball. It is really, really funny. It's just, ah.

And he'll like trip over himself, like trying to catch stuff. And it's like what? What are you? Like, what are you as a person? Like, it's just so crazy because he's a freak of freak. So it's kind of, you have to build all in on that. But when you do and you can, it kind of stinks that their defense is poor because if they had a good defense, it's like, this would be the way to win football games right here.

Just control the clock and beat you up in the wrong game. But they don't. But having said that, but they play at a super slow pace too, I want to say. I mean, they've run one of, I think they're 30th in the NFL in total plays from scrimmage on offense this year. That sounds about right. They don't use a lot of tempo. They're trying to, you know, they're trying to get you.

They hit the explosive place because Henry has the incredible long speed. But like, okay, so the long TD with Henry's long TD on Monday night. This is kind of like when you lean into it. If you're truly just going to build the offense around Derek Henry, then you can just go, okay, so what are the run concepts that we want to hit? Okay, if those are the run concepts that we want to hit, how do we get the defense in the best look? How do we manipulate them?

so our advantages are greater than what they can do on defense. And the long, long TD, great run by Henry, great blocking by the line and the receivers on that play as well. But just the pre-snap stuff that they did before, it kind of sums up what this Titans' offense does for the run game. They started in a three-by-one. It was under center. Started in a three-by-one with the Titan all the way outside. Motion him inside and it creates a bunch.

They'll bunch set right to the right side. Then they just slow-motion Julio over. So it wasn't a jet motion. Just slow motion to motion. over. So now it's a two by two. And what that did was you're changing the passing strength. So now, Tremaine Edmonds switched sides, the linebacker for the bills. And also the bills rock and rolled, that's the term. It's the official term actually, rock and roll their safeties from one side to the other. And so like the guy that was in the box went to the post,

and the other one went for the post in the box. Which is a quiet, a quiet important part of Jet Motion. It's actually one of the reasons that teams started using it so much because it gives you that information. and you can dictate the game in that way. You can get the guys that you want in the spots you want. As opposed to just those are X's, you're putting the certain Xs that pluses on them or minuses on them to the spots you want them at.

When you think about Jet Motion, right, it's obviously the eye candy of having to deal with it as a linebacker, but at the same time, it's a way to help create explosive runs by putting those guys in the places that you want to. I mean, that's just, and coaches, like the Packers, for example, we'll talk about them in a little bit. They're so good at hunting explosive runs because they understand how to pull those little strings on defenses. If we do this, you're bringing this guy into this space that we want you to.

I want to be explicit about that because that's something when I started seeing the amount of jet motion that was becoming more popular in the league. I didn't understand that aspect of it before coaches explained it to me. It's just that quick number count change. Especially there's all these rules these guys have to fit. A defensive front, there's the gap safety, the A gap, B, Gap, C gap. You'll hear that, you'll hear a guy say, oh, he hit the A gap gap's in between the guards and the centers and then it goes outwards, and then B, C, and you get to D and even E. They have to be a gap sound.

A defense is taught to have a defender in each gap, a basic defense. So if you're manipulating, manipulating all this stuff, you motion these guys, jet motion especially, and one guy's wrong on defense, then that three-yard gain turns into a 30-yard game because especially if you have a fast running back or good blocking and one guy misses the tackle, there's no help. You're putting guys on islands in the run game as opposed to passing attack doing that. And that's zone offenses can really do that. But it's kind of fun watching this Titans offense kind of sprinkling a couple other runs in there.

Like they'll run a little counter. They'll run against the Seahawks. They ran pin pole and then they ran whineback, you know, taking advantage of Jamal Adams knifing in. And that's what they kind of do. They set you up, set you up. And maybe those two-yard runs, one-yard runs for Derek kind of. is tripping over himself or a guy misses a block. As the game goes on, his size and his strength and his speed and what they do,

it's easier for an offensive line to go forward than backwards. So the whole team has like more stamina in the fourth quarter. And also he said it's not a perfect block on these zone blocks. The guy's edgy. Maybe the guard's not winning all the way getting his head across. Derek Henry's so big. He just runs through defender's arm taxes. And that's the advantage that he brings.

We think of these athletic freaks as being juky or setting up the blocks and stuff. He just runs through him. It's just like battering out. He's the juggernaut. And he just goes through it. And that's the advantage that he brings. It's kind of cool watching a team in 2021 just build around a running back. And then also just have the explosive stuff in the past game with it.

And it's funny because in that game against Buffalo, early in the game, I think even their first run play, they were in the gun. And they ran a little pitch to him outside to approximate a wide zone type of run. It went for nothing. thing, and they tried to run a couple zone plays wide to get him on the edge during that game. It just wasn't working. Buffalo plays so fast defensively, and they play with more light boxes than most teams in the NFL. Do you think they have the second lightest box in the lead consistently right now? And so over the course of that game, the Titans essentially said, well, fine, if you're going to play like this, we're going to just run downhill with you.

Yeah, here comes duo. The long touchdown that they scored was just duo. It was just downhill. And I think them hitting more quick hitting downhill runs against that team was the right move. And I think that takes me to a larger conversation I want to have about the Titans offense right now. Because like you said, Derek Henry is your best player, especially with the time that Julio Jones and AJ Brown have missed. We have seen a version of this offense that is ultra efficient when they are running the ball downhill with Derek Henry and they are running play action off of it. It seems like they came into this season being like, you know what?

We need to be more than that. And they've made some tweaks to it, which I think as a general philosophy is smart. You don't want to do the same things you always done. So what have we seen for them in that vein? They've gone to way more shotgun, especially on early downs. So last year, they were 31.5% shotgun on first and second down. This year, it's 40%.

Which is a big jump. It's almost 9 percentage points over the first six games of the year. Last season, they ran 48 running plays to Derek Henry out of shotgun. This year, they've run 26 already. So they're trying to keep teams off balance and to say, all right, well, even if we're in the gun, we're not throwing the ball all the time. And I think that is, as a result of that, you've seen a downtick in their play action percentage. Because if you're playing out of the shotgun as often as they are,

they're just running more dropback stuff than they would typical play action stuff, which is not the strength of this offense. So I feel like they've kind of made these tweaks to find a new version of themselves and not all of them are catching. And I just, every time I see something that looks like the version we saw last year, whether it's all right, you know, in breaking routes, I'll play action, downhill runs under center. It's like, just spam the good stuff.

Yeah. Just spam the good stuff. Yeah. And it was kind of funny too because I get especially against the bills. It was like, oh, I see what they're doing. They're trying to do some gun runs. I'm sure they're trying to tendency break and sprinkle some stuff with that in there. And then it was like as soon as they went under center again, they started running the ball.

It was like, ah, there it is. There it is. It's like seeing a band, man. They played the new album. And you're like, okay. Yeah, okay. It's exactly how I feel about it. It's exactly how I feel about it.

And then they play the hit. And you're like, yeah, there we go. It's like, I understand that you want to grow creatively here. That's not why I'm here. Like, that's not why I spent the money. That's exactly it. It was like, no, you got a great guitarist. Let him go.

Just let them play. I know you want to be a complete band, but just let the guitarist shred. The other notable stat that I saw that I thought was interesting, they are much, much better this year running out of 11 personnel than they are in heavy personnel. I'm glad you said. Okay. So there, and last year, they, and they've mixed it up. And we'll talk about this with the Packers, too, just kind of the difference of running out of 21 versus 12. So they run a lot of heavy personnel.

We know that about the Titans. But so far this year, Derek Henry is averaging 2.86 yards per carry out of 21. And when they were running just lead zone early in that Bill's game, it just doesn't look good. It's not helping yourself. It's tight. Yes, yes. It's wedged up. And then with two tight ends on the field this year, it's negative.

0.018 EPA per rush. with out of 11 personnel, it's positive. 0.087. Point one is like very good. So if we're running plays. So when they've spread teams out, they've actually been more successful this year. So we talked about this with Doug Peterson on Thursday or Wednesday show. This is the time of you're figuring out what you're good at. Yes.

Like, hopefully you just get to this place. And that's why I'm kind of bullish on this Titans offense overall is that they can get healthy and kind of be like, all right, we've tried this stuff and we've seen if we could evolve a little bit, but this is just the best version of what we are. And we get maybe into some, in a world where they're running more 11 personnel, because with Julio and AJ and not having John Hsu Smith and all of that stuff, they're not built like the teams they were the last couple years. You just want to throw like swam out there with the three receivers

and run more downhill under center runs and use play action off of it. That feels like the type of recipe that might work. for the way that this team is constructed in 2021. When you go that spread to run, too, it's just they have to honor Julio and AJ Brown. You just have to. You have to be defense coordiners just won't. They can't sleep at night if they go like, we're going to load the box and single them up. So if you spread to run, they had a great rep of, I'm so glad you said that stat because I had

some, I said, said more, I said more mix of personnel, especially 11 personnel and I had a couple of runs and they were both 11 personnel. They had a outside zone one, second and long. And it was just like, you could tell the Bill's defense was like, oh, pass. 11 personnel. They're second and long, extra long, second than 10. Oh, man, they're passing here. Orr's screen.

Soft box, 11 personnel, boom. Derek Henry had a huge gap for the outside zone playing his foot and got north. And then they also, they were running power out of 11 personnel. And actually, tight end was doing a good job blocking out. I was actually shocked. Explain power. Power is just pulling the guard towards the tight end. It is your classic football play.

If usually old school, you'd see it with a full back. now you see power more out of single back power. We'll talk about it here in a second with the greenback. And more, and duo, what's funny is duo is power without the puller. And so you'll see more NFL offense go with that as a substitute to get that type of run and at you run. But I think what the bills were trying to do with the offball linebackers is really like influence the linebackers, get them pulling. And it was funny, the last play of the first half, they went to the gun, ran power out of it, went for like a six or seven yard game, get the ball in the second half, first play.

Under center, 11 personnel, same look, but it was under center as opposed to the gun. Same formation, same motion, everything. Flash the power, hit it in breaker right over the top of it. And you can see both of the bills linebackers just bury themselves on it. But it's like that's pulling the guard is what influences linebackers more than anything. I mean, it's just like they can't help themselves. Just shut up and play the hits. Just shut up and play the hits.

Right? Just right. Play them. Just play it. So how do you think this? I mean, again, a run game that even if we feel like they could make a couple tweaks and just improve even on what they've done. Their fifth, they're rushing DVOA. I mean, they're still going to be a good running team with how they've committed to it and with Derek Henry back there.

How does that translate to this week against Kansas City? I think pretty well. Yeah. Yeah, I think they're going to hit a couple. I think a team that wants to blitz you and run light boxes and light personnel, I think this is the perfect matchup for a Titans offense that wants to do the exact opposite and everything at you and make you bury yourself. So I think that's the advantage that they're going to have. And I know we're going to get into in the pick segment with this. But also with the passing game from the Titans,

if you want to do the play action stuff and you do catch them in a protection, that is a gash or be gash situation. So it's really going to be can Tana Hill hit a couple of those against the Chiefs? I mean, that's how it is every week. But they are going to get after them in the run game. I think it's that perfect matchup for them. All right. Speaking of a team with a varied effective run game,

I want to talk about the Packers offense because we have not talked about them almost at all over the first five or six weeks of this season, just because they're a team we're used to. You know, this is a group with Matt LaFleur, with Rogers, not a ton of personnel changes for the most part. They've been dinged up on the offensive line, but usual suspects. And I feel like we've kind of-

Including Randall Cobb. That's what's so funny about, right? The personal changes is Randall Cobb coming back. But I think still we're discussing because there's still a really good offense and still a very interesting offense. And some of the tweaks that they've made for this version of it, I wanted to dig into. Just overarching stats here before we dig into that. Fifth and offensive DVOA, which just mindlessly good.

Always. Continue to be mindlessly good. They have played. So they're seventh in EPA per play. According to football outsiders, though, they have played the toughest schedule of opposing defenses in the NFL so far. So the fact that they have been not spectacular, but still very good, I think, is indicative of which direction. this arrow was pointed for them. Yeah, very good with O-line woes, too, like understated O-line woes.

Like, no, that's whatever. Like, just, it's just like, we can take a three-fourths clean sacks and it doesn't matter also put up points on you. And, but just surviving with having to play your third left tackle at times, a bunch of rookies on the interior, and rookie guards. Rookie guards, yes, yeah. Their ability to kind of maintain and sustain through this is just an indication of how good they are, how well coach they are. One of the things I wanted to dig into, just in big picture changes that they've made.

Lefleur said this this week. Not a surprise. They've gone to much more empty this year. And one of the reasons that they had gone to a little bit more empty is something we talked about kind of indirectly as it relates to the Rams earlier this year. and just a lot of other teams. When you go with some of those empty sets and you have a slot receiver or a tight end right next to the line, it allows you to influence or chip opposing pass rushers.

So it's counterintuitive. Some teams, when they spread you out, it's harder to protect it empty. The Packers, because of how condensed things can get, when they go empty, it's actually to help their pass protection. So so far this year, they've used empty on like 13% of all. of their snaps. Last year, it was only 91 snaps the entire season. So they've been going to it more often as a way to protect themselves and as a little wrinkle for their offense, which when you can be accomplishing two things at once, that's always a good thing. We've talked

about the spread to pass for Lamar, like showing, it shows the blitzes. And that's out two by two, not even empty. When you're going empty, it just, even now just for the quarterback, Rogers is getting the Packers O line right. Like he communicates with him a lot. But it just like cleans up stuff for them. If you're playing these mugged up defenses that want to have a guy, a linebacker cover number three sprinting out to the flat from the A gap, like just standing up there. But if I go empty, then it's like, you're really going to do that? Okay. And then you got Rogers, who's a freaking football genius. So he's going to just look at it. It's like he can take a gimmie, but those gimmies turn into 20-yard gains because it's just wide open guys. It's not, it's, when we say

gash or be gash, he is like fully gash. He's not, he's not just taking hot throws and doing it. And it was kind of funny a couple times even because the Bears, Bears D line was, was getting after him a little bit. They were an empty on one. And he just brought Aaron Jones back into chip. It was just a slant to Devante Adams. But he was like, I love this matchup I have right now. He's like, just get back in here. Just get back in here.

I just need you to chip real quick. And you can see Aaron Jones looking back on like, really? Like this, you actually want me to help here? And he's like, yeah, yeah, just chip him. Just chip him. Like, you can just see him talk. Just do it. Like, just do it.

And then he snaps a ball and throws a slant Devante Adams first down. You know, it's like, when you have seven. 17 and 12. When you have Aaron, Aaron Rogers and Devante Adams cooking like that, it's just, if he gets a ball out in time, it's just,

it's so hard to stop for a full game. I would say the one thing that they hit without those old line woes, because the run game is still getting after it a little bit, is some of those play action shot plays, some of those movement stuff where they move the pocket, it's getting a little edgy. So Rogers isn't feeling comfortable,

like launching into them. So I think some of those explosive plays haven't happened how they have before when everything was coming up, coming up, coming up, and then they just hit you over the top. So he actually has one of the lowest catchable catchable ball percentages on deep throws in the league this season. I think he's like bottom two or three in the NFL.

They're throwing the ball deep still, but they have not been hitting them. So I completely, I think that's exactly right. Like that element of their offense is not in sync right now. And that's so, it's so talking about not counterintuitive, but it kind of makes sense. It's like, okay, if the O line gets healthy, then they can hit those shots. And then it's like, if they're doing the, this what are they what did you say they were in EPA top top top 10 EPA with this old line seventh with this O line against that schedule okay now that they can start hitting explosive plays like the

quote unquote easier explosive plays that are actually like you know half real half field reads for for Rogers it's like holy crap like they're going to take a whole other leap and that's that's what we expect out of this offense have you seen anything from their passing game that is drastically different from what we've kind of come to expect from them under leffler outside of some of the empty stuff. I think it's just that because of that empty, they cranked up the quick game, which is fine, which is totally fine. It's the greatest quick game quarterback in the history of football.

When you have a trigger man that can do what he does, it's like, yeah, you're fine with it. That's what's so funny. We knock some offenses. Oh, they're in empty all the time, blah, blah, blah. They're put it on it. But it's like when you have a trigger man like a DAC or an Aaron Rogers, it's like, yeah, do it because they're going to make you right all the time.

It's great. So I want to talk about the run game a little bit because their run game is so fun to watch because we talked about how they use motion at times to kind of set up these explosive runs but this is a staff you can just it's it's beyond the staff watching their run game it is such a reminder of what it looks like when you have a run game with buy-in from every single person every single guy on the staff is sitting there just hunting out runs it's like all right if we did this and if we pull this guy and we actually do it from this formation and Maybe we bring Wazard in and we insert him here.

You can just tell they are just coming up with as many ideas in the run game as they possibly can, and it's really cool to watch, and it translates to the players. El Nizard wants to block. Everybody on that offense wants to block. There is total organizational buy-in in what our running game wants to look like, and you can see that translated in every aspect of how they run the ball. And it's fun watching Mercedes. Lewis Barry guys on the end. He's the perfect example. It's like when your role players are doing

that when they're actively affecting plays, not just one play where it's like, oh, cool, he was the hero there, but like 15 plays a game. You're positively affecting the game. That just unlock so much. Not just Mercedes Lewis, just every type of player. But I do you think, Alan Lazard, where is he on the podium or top five for blocking receivers? Because I, I think he's, he's climbed up there for me. Like, you know, it's like, you know, he's, he's, he's, he's up there with Godwin, Zach Pascal. He's climbing up there as far as blocking receivers.

Well, what I loved is during that game against the Bears, he inserted on a couple duo runs the same way we see Godwin do all the time. And then they rewarded him by doing pretty much exact same sort of look, but they threw a shovel pass to him. So he inserts and he catches a shovel pass for a touchdown. He also, there was one play during that game where they sliced him across the formation and they had him seal the back side of the play action pass. He's like a tight end.

Like he was a tight end. Yep. It's great. Hey, we've seen the Rams use their guys. Like use their two receivers. Hey, trust me.

Like the bucks can get away with so much because they can just use Godwin like that. It's like, hey, hey, go run every route in the route route, route tree. And it also blocks safeties and linebackers. Like,

not just, not just get in the way, but like effectively move them and go to the right guy. Really, it's just going, more than half the battle is just going to the right guy. Because a lot of receivers. And it's just their job.

I get it. they're wide receivers. They're receiving the ball. It's they're worried about the passing game so much. Then the run game, they're like, yeah, yeah, I got it. I got it. Block the safety. Block the safety.

How many times now you see linebackers with single digit numbers or like teen numbers now? And the receiver starts blocking them because they're like, oh, that's a safety. They just turn their brains off. Look for it more. Like it happens more than more often than not now. It's pretty funny to watch, especially against the Patriots who have the single digit linebackers. But I noticed that. But it's this run game, especially how varied they are.

It's almost like a cowboys a little bit where they're. their 12 personnel. Yes. And they just run everything. They just run every type of run concept you could think of. Well, it's interesting because last year, they ran more 21 than they have this year.

This year they've been more 12. They have the third highest number of 12 personnel snaps in the entire NFL. And it's really second because Miami shouldn't count. Because Miami's 12 personnel staff, because Sikki's a receiver. So it's really just the Cowboys are ahead of them. And then the Green Bayes, the Packers are number two.

So what the run they've been, It's the best types of offenses. Run 12 and run hip. It's the best. I'm telling you. So what they've done is, so last year, my buddy Bobby Peters, who, if you don't follow him on Twitter, he does a great job. He writes a manual or two about offenses every single season.

Last year he did the Packers manual. So I texted him today and I was like, how much counter in power did the Packers run last year? Because for the most part, their running game was comprised last season of duo and inside outside zone. And the duo stuff they had done for years, you know, back to the McCarthy era, and I think that they were comfortable with it.

So they folded more of that in than you would typically think from Shanahan-Tree type of offense. So last year, though, they only ran power or counter, I think 19 times over the course of the entire season. And a lot of their power was out of 21. They would have a full-back in the game. They'd run 21, two-back power. Yeah.

This year, especially against the Bears last week, they were in 12, and they would run power with a speed motion from Dagura, number 81. And he'd come and lead up. So it's just a little tweak, right? You're playing against an even front team, or excuse me, an odd front team where you want to get those angles. Yes. And you are running a power play. You run with two backs with two tight ends. And so they ran it several times, but I think four or five times in that game, AJ, or AJ Dylan's big run.

run that he had was on that exact type of play. Later in the game, they run a keeper of bootleg off of it and they pitch it to Mercedes-Luiz for a nice chunk game. The Rogers holds the fake for about 15 minutes. But that's, when we talk about offenses that are fun to watch or interesting, you have an offense that is folding in a new type of run play that they didn't use a lot last year. They're adding one more wrinkle off of it by running out of a different personnel grouping than they did last year.

And then they're taking it one step further by time. in a play action concept to that new run play that they're using. That's why the Packers are good. And that's why the Packers are interesting. Combine with them having better players than everything is. And a quarterback that knows where to go with the ball. That always helps too. But that's exactly what it is.

When you wrinkle the wrinkles, that's when it's like, oh, now we're cooking, baby. Because you just keep defense is guessing. When you put the wrinkles on the wrinkles, you just keep those defenses just guessing. And that's the thing is when you already have an advantage with personnel and now you have an advantage mental-wise or just game plan-wise,

It's just like there's one percent advantages turned to five percent advantages that you could just spam over and over and over. Guess what? David Bakhtiar is back. Yes. Yes, he is. So now, and the best part about this is that some teams, when they get their all pro left tackle back, they get better at one position. Packers get better at two positions. Because now you get your all pro left tackle and you move your all pro left guard back to left guard. So this is a team that's been one of the most efficient offenses in the NFL and is now,

solidifying the weakest part of what their offense has been. Yeah, good luck. Could be pretty good. Could be pretty good. I think Aaron Rogers still has his arm too. Washington's offense or defense looked better last week than it has. They gave the chiefs a harder time than you might have guessed, considering how much they had struggled over the first month of the season, but they still have not been great this year.

And I still think it could be a big day for Green Bay. So something to keep an eye on. All right. Let's move on here. I want to talk about the Bucson. run defense. Not whether they're good. We know they're good.

I think it's fascinating that teams have just given up. Teams have just given up running against them. So heading into week five, or excuse me, five weeks into the season, teams were passing on 74% of early downs in neutral game scripts against the Buccaneers. They've just given up running the ball. Miles Sanders had nine carries last week against the Bucks, and I think only two in the first half. Yeah, there are a lot of them for second half.

The bucks have given up 329 rushing yards this season. That is about a third of what the Chargers have given up. That's insane. That's absolutely insane. And that's what it looks like, too. It's just like, it's not only is that nobody's trying, but that it's just that's what's hilarious too, is that like when they do try, it can just get so ugly that you can tell offense coaches are like, oh.

So I wanted to explore why teams don't try Because obviously the personnel for Tampa Bay is miserable Like running against Vidaevae sucks And that is part of this Because when teams have run, they have failed They're second in yards per carry out 3.36 Fifth in success rate defensively against the run fifth and rushing DVOA So it's they're not easy to run against

But it's not as if teams are gaining zero yards every time they run the ball So why are teams decided not to run against Tampa Bay. Is it just the reputation of their defenders? Is it something schematically that they're doing? When you went back and you watched, what do you think it is? What do you think is scaring teams off from even considering running the ball against the bucks?

I think a lot of it is that reputation. Like I think it is, especially week one with the Cowboys. I know Zach Martin was out, but it was like, you can tell they're like, well, we can't really run against this front. So it's just thinking don't side to side and get them moving, which, you know, they worked effectively the Cowboys offense has done a lot of good things this year. I think some of that is reputation. I also think some of it is just literally they are that good.

And it is really, really hard when you watch this team. They're not doing anything funky up front. They're actually kind of like so tendency driven. Like, you know, if you go base, they match base. If you go sub, they match sub. They run this front. They run this front. You know, that's what it is to me.

That's what it is to me is that they, whatever you do, you're never going to outnumber them. Nope. So if you're looking at the numbers, they are 12 in average box count in the NFL, 6.55 average defenders in the box scoring next gen stats. That doesn't seem high, but it's because teams spread them out so much. Yeah. If you look at this stat, which I thought was fascinating, they have 53% loaded boxes, which means having more defenders than you have blockers.

That's the third highest rate in the league. And I think if you took it a step further and you looked at how much, many plays, they had at least as many defenders as you had blockers, it would be the highest rate in the NFL. I don't know what it is, but I wouldn't be surprised. No matter what you do, they match with just as many or more bodies in the box than you have. So in this world where we have so many RPO's and choices, nobody's going to choose to

run because the numbers never dictate that you should run on top of the personnel disadvantages that you have. And even like the best, like the best things teams are doing to them is getting them in the base and spreading them out. And so it's like teams see that, especially Cowboys, we're doing it week one. They're like, oh, that works. It's a copycat league. When people say that it's not just a play, it's how to take advantage of another team. Because you're going to look and go, okay, so every time we're in base on first and long, or first and 10, they do this.

Okay. So, well, if we do this old, oh, wow, the Cowboys week one. Do you see that play? The Cowboys play 14. They did that. Okay. And then also that play gets installed on Wednesday. blah, blah, blah.

That's the copycatness of the copycat league. Like it's just literally just, okay, how do we, what do we call this? Okay, okay, that's what we're going to do. That's, that's kind of what happens. And it, I, Taubbles is smart, by the way. When they go in base personnel, if they have the, you know, they will sit, Sue and Vaya for a whole series. Like they let them rest for an entire series.

I think it's like every third or fourth series I've noticed. When they're in base and they're in a three four and they go three four under front, with the backups in there, they'll run single high and they'll load the box with numbers. And then when Sue and they are in there, they'll go three, four, under, and they'll run more cover two out of it. And it's kind of funny because they know, well, those guys are going to play both gaps and you guys can't get up to the second level anyways, blah, blah, blah, blah. So it's actually, even with the personnel, it's dictating their call. So it's just like any good unit. It's really good personnel being used the proper way. It's you got awesome. These guys,

it's so hard with one good nose tackle. And we're going to see this. I think I'm really curious. So we might talk about this more in the draft season is, is with more of this too high defenses being played and the bucks run a little bit of everything, but more too high defense is being played. And we're seeing this maybe with the Chargers defense is that interior line play becomes so much more important. I totally agree with that. Yep. And take those double teams and everything.

So now that's why I'm glad Vita Vaya is kind of getting that pub where Vita VEA is becoming a name everyone knows now. Because I think those types of guys are become more and more important for defenses that won't win this way. And there's this guy named George. Jordan Davis for Georgia, who might be the next one. And he's ridiculous. He's ridiculous that nose tackle. But I think we're going to see more and more of that. When teams went single high and they wanted to play single high, they're like,

we'll win with bodies and speed. And so that's why edge rushers and more kind of the finesse rushers kind of came to be. I mean, you always want those guys. But I think you're just seeing an uptick of these noses having value if you teams want to play like this. I totally agree with that. So one other thing I wanted to touch on is that the linebackers also allow the bucks to play a certain way.

Because they're so fast. So there was a play in week one that I think is very emblematic of this entire conversation. Bucks come out with a drive starter at their own four-yard line. They're in 10 personnel, four receivers on the field. Bucks have, they're two linebackers on the field. As other teams in the league do everything they can to get more defensive backs in the game, the Bucks have no interest in that.

None. When they're healthy, they want David and White in the game. So that's already where they're a little bit different than other teams. Even if you come out with four receivers, they still want both of their off-ball winebackers on the field, which is inherently going to give you a disadvantage to run the ball. Yes. So the Cowboys come out in that 10 personnel set. Levante David is over the number three receiver in the slot.

Cedric Wilson. David is one yard inside the hash mark, even though Wilson is on the hash mark. so he can still play the run even though he's supposed to be over Wilson. It's an RPO, right? The box is not favorable. They have a safety walk down, even though they have four wide receivers in the field. Devin White's in the middle, and David has crept over into the box, even though he's supposed to be covering the slot receiver. So, DAC runs an RPO.

What area of the field is open if they're going to do that? It's the flat. So they spit the ball out into the flat, and Levanti David covers 15 yards in two seconds, it's a three-yard game. Yes. So I looked at some of the numbers because it happened in the Eagles game as well. They came out in a split-black look.

They motion sanders out into the flat. Not a huge reaction from the buck's defense. Minter was the linebacker on that side. He stayed pretty tight to the formation, even as that responsibility that is his, was flying out into the flat. RPO, box count's not favorable because it never is. Flip it out to the flat.

Minter covers the ground, three-yard game. So I was curious, if you're going to play, your linebackers like that. You're almost daring teams to throw the ball into the flat against you. Yep. Teams have attempted 70 passes outside the numbers between negative 5 and 5

air yards against the bucks, 13 more than any other team in the NFL. That's all because of that. They're daring you to do that. They're daring you to do that. By the way that they're cramming their linebackers and players into the box, they want you to do that.

So as teams are running all of these RPO's and throwing the ball and trying to replicate their run game with passes against the bucks, it's not really working. I understand it's probably the right choice, but you're tempting teams into a low efficiency way to throw the ball when you're asking them to do that. They have the second lowest air yards, the average air yards against in the NFL so far this year. Teams have thrown 141 passes less than five air yards against them. It's 56% of the total passes that they faced. That makes a lot of sense. That matches. I mean, that's exactly what it is.

So originally the original RPO is bubbles, just running weak zone with a bubble out there. And a lot I've heard of, a few teams now, I've heard this, the Ronde Barber rules is because when he was the nickel in there, he would bait you into doing what he wanted you to do. He would go, oh, no, I'm in the run fit and you throw the bubble and you knife, just undercut the guy or, or you'd be like, oh, I'm playing the bubble and then knife inside on the weak side zone. So that's what good players can do.

They or a defense that knows what you're trying to accomplish against them. When you're only in a lot of limited number of looks, you're going to know what the offense is looking to beat you with. So then you can just get into the next level. Okay, I know what you know, which I know. And then you go from there. Like we say with the Packers offense, it's the wrinkles on the wrinkles. But this is more of personnel knowing what they can accomplish. It's good players and a good sound scheme.

Best type of stuff. I want to talk about the Bengals Ravens game a little bit. Big game. Obviously, like, it's encouraging season from the Bengals so far. Big game. I wanted to talk about what Jamar Chase has given the Bengals offense because obviously his numbers are excellent so far, and he's given them a new dimension in a lot of ways.

I want to talk about how that's changed what the Bengals can do offensively and also just what it means this week against the Ravens. So watching just the structurally. of the Bengals offense this year with him compared to what it might have looked like last year. What is it given them the chance to do in your mind? Well, I thought it was interesting is now they have made him the true X receiver and traditional. If they're in a three by one set, he's the one. If they're in a two by two set, he is with the slot away.

He's always away from the tight end. So obviously they have trusted them because they're going like, hey, you're going to win those one-on-ones that we line up for you. I think it just what it gives them is someone that can actually finish on these intermediate and deep balls. I think the thing with Chase is, he is explosive, but the thing with Chase that's so incredible is he can give late hands on those fade and go balls that is, it's, it's remarkable.

I mean, that's the best trade he has. He is very strong, but the best trade he has, that ball's in the air, he can track with the best of them and then at the very last second pop his hands out because DBs are taught, hey, look at the eyes, look at the hands, and when those hands come out, they'll try and swipe them. You know, the best ever at it was Randy Moss, but that's what Chase has that ability.

It's kind of really, really cool. That ball comes down. He has no separation. And in that last two yards, he just spurts away. So I think it's just giving them that chunk of the field that they can attack now. I love T. Higgins, but T. Higgins is not the most explosive guy vertically. He's more of that big body. You body him up.

And actually, I think he is more of an ex traditional X, which is kind of funny. But that's what it's done. Now he can be an X. It's a different look. They can get more verticality out of that position than they had before. The late hands is such a good point. And when I was a little bit, Jamar Chase is a super exciting player in college.

I had faith that Jamar Chase would be a good NFL receiver. I didn't think he should get taken in the top five because I thought that he wasn't like a perfect out-of-this-world prospect because I was concerned about what it would look like at the line of scrimmage. Could he create separation at the line of scrimmage? Teams have decided just to give him free releases all the time, consistently, which is a curious choice, but we can get to that later. So he hasn't had any issues with early separation because teams haven't forced him to create it.

He is incredible at creating late separation. He is such a good feel for it, and just not something I really saw on his college tape, but it's something that has shown up all the time so far in the NFL. The play that you're talking about from the Bengals or from the Lions game, he's not open. No. It's a go ball down the right sideline. He is not open. It is decent coverage from an undrafted cornerback.

It's a beautiful ball by Joe Burrow. His arm strength is not crazy in terms of driving the ball, but he throws a pretty deep ball down the field in terms of accuracy. Drops it right in the bucket. Chase goes late hands, 35-yard reception. He had a couple other plays where he was open late, just creating separation at the top of routes.

He has a very good understanding of how to settle into voids and kind of get away from people with subtle movements at the top of stuff. and then his other long reception in this game, and this is the other way he creates Let's play at separation. His acceleration is bonkers. Yeah. He, it was very cool play.

I don't know. Lions were in cover three. Post safety was sitting like 12 yards off the line of scrimmage, just covering no one. I have no idea what he was doing. No idea what he was doing. So it looked like a quarter's beater because it was a post with a little sit-down from Higgins on the other side,

but they were in cover three and it still worked, which it probably shouldn't have, but what are you going to do? So all of this comes with a grain of salt. So the corner on that side is outside leverage. And Chase had been kind of running these like comebacks all day, like threading vertically coming back underneath. So he's taking it down the field. He turns his head to his right,

just giving a slight indication that he's going to throttle down and come back inside. after the slight head turn and a slight slowdown, just the slightest slowdown, he just hits the gas. And it's that, that might not look like a really nuanced, impressive play by a young guy. That little head turn is what allows that 50-yard reception to happen.

And that is what he does. He has these little tiny subtleties to his game in those moments late in downs that have allowed him to create some of these plays. And you've seen it show up. Last year, Burrow was 28th of 31 qualified quarterbacks in EPA per dropback on passes of 20 plus air yards. The only guys in the league who were worse than him were Jimmy Garapola, Chad Henney, and Mitchell Trubisky. Got big bed?

I thought we're getting better there. I know. This year, Burrow is fourth in EPA per play on passes of 20 plus air yards. The only guys who are better are Kyler Murray. Yeah. Carson Wentz and Russell Wilson. Okay. So it's completely transformed. Okay. Carson Wentz has pushed the ball down the field very well this year. Hold on. I know those names. I was like, okay, okay. Wait, wait, hold on one second.

Carson Wentz. Okay. So you've gone from having one of the least efficient downfield passing games in the league to one of the most efficient downfield passing games in the league. And Jemar Chase is a huge reason for that. Absolutely. And it's created space for them in other ways. Teams are already accounting for him. when you watch teams run cover two against the Bengals, those corners that are supposed to be in the flat are getting a ton of depth with him as he's going down on the sideline for that whole shot, and it's creating a lot of space for them to attack underneath. It really is working.

All of the pieces fit together. Seth Galena wrote something really interesting for PFF a couple weeks ago, just about how stagnant some aspects of the Bengals offense are. When they run empty, it's not a lot of bunches. They don't really help their guys. Their running game is pretty predictable. I think there's still a ways for this offense to go, but I think the gear he's given them

and just what he's allowed them to do in that aspect has been really important for what we've seen from that. Because their offense is not efficient, but it has been explosive at times this year. Yeah, and he's the main reason for it. And that speaks to, we talked about quarterbacks creating. And you could talk about a running back creating in the run game when the hole's not there. This is what receivers can do. It's like, oh, they only created one yard of separation on this past concept.

and it's like he made it happen. You know, it was a 20% go ball probability. He makes it a 60% chance. That's what a good receiver can do in theory. And that's what he does. I'm very excited to watch this matchup because if he, speaking of predictability, now that they wind up at the X,

I can tell you with my eyes closed, whatever formation they're in, I can tell you exactly where he's lined up. One by three, he's in a slot. Which is a problem, right? Exactly, because they're going against a defense that is very good with tendencies and very good, a heating quarterback's up and very good.

Oh, I should say very good, but they are very good. running man coverage that presses a lot. So I, this is going to be a very, very telling matchup for not only Jemar Chase, but this whole Bengals team. I mean,

obviously. How do you think they defend him? Ravens do not change what they are for better for worse. I think they still run man. I think Marlon Humphrey travels with him. And we talk, I'll talk about in the gambling segment. That's why I think Howard Boyd.

I'll cue that thing up. I know. And I, and that's why I'm speaking to why him being the true X and where he lines up, they're going to know. So Marlon Humphrey all week goes, okay, three by one over here, two by two, I'm over here. They can know when game playing stuff up. I'm very, very excited for that matchup.

I really am. Yeah, he's been, again, just aspects to his game I didn't anticipate because it just, he was a bulletball guy. I mean, like, he just was winning with, like, physicality and contested catches. And now they're not contested because he's just been so good at creating late separation. And that explosive. He still has to work on curl routes, by the way. I'm not going to let him off all the way easy.

I have one thing he can work on is curl routes. He is too eager to come back. He can get very loose on them. And so if you notice, the two of them went high. And like at first I was like, oh, Burroughs sailed them. It's because he's working back so hard chases that Burroughs like,

oh shit. And he throws it to it because a crow routes are actually an anticipation throw. We don't think of them that way. But you're throwing to a spot because as they're breaking, that's where you're expecting them to be at the certain spot. So if they're loose on the break, like two rounded on the break or they come back too hard, they could throw it off a little bit. But if I have one criticism, but he has been very impressive so far.

Well, that's where there are aspects to their partnership, their trust is obvious. The way their chemistry is really, it's very cool to watch. That absolutely matters. The one aspect, though, with his skill set and with his explosiveness down the field, theoretically, he should be able to work underneath eventually. Like, that should be the next step of this. Those, like, deep at the sticks plays that we see from, like, Justin Herbert, where if it's third and 12, I can throw it to the sticks and I can just fire that thing in there.

Those aren't going to be available to the bagels. It's just like that is one aspect of their offense. When you see the way he's working, those curls, those like deep curl routes, that could be a monster for them. But those windows are going to be tight for Burroughs. That's when the arm shows up. It's all got to be movement stuff where he can anticipate. That's such a good point. So it's like I saw that.

Those two exact plays that you're talking about, it's like, ah, that's good thing. I know you see him too. That's going to be meat on the bone for them. I know. All right. Last thing here, we have not talked much about him in comparison to some of the other rookie quarterbacks. I just wanted to do a very quick Mac Jones check-in because I hadn't studied him really

in-depth and I didn't even talk to you about it. So when you went back and you watched Mac Jones here over the last few weeks, what stood out to you? He is so accurate. I can tell you that. He is a, I can see why coaches, you heard a, all the rumors of the, and you know, you hear one rumor, you're like, whatever, but when there's smoke, there's fire, when you start hearing like five, seven, eight, ten people report it is that he was

such an impressive interview in the offseason process and the draft process. Because one, you can tell he's tough. I mean, the shots he's taken are like they look like they're out wrestling reels. Like, I mean, he's taking clothes lines. He's taking spears. He, I think he took a rock bottom. Like, I mean, he gets the bucks. But he's psycho competitive. And I can, this past week, he had to play where he's coming off the field, and he's like, MFing somebody, they had to burn a timeout. You can see the shot clock running. He's trying to fix the shifts of motions that they had,

and they put a lot on them. I'll talk about it in a sack. But he's trying to fix it. It gets set, but he looks at the sideline, and I think the coaches were like, hey, we're going to call a time out. They burned the time out. He walks, they show him walking off the field.

And he is MFing somebody. And I think it was him. I think it was himself or the coach. And Josh McDaniels had to go like, hey, hey, hey, hey, we're good, man. Hey, hey, we're good. And then you could see him go like, yeah, I'm okay. I'm okay. I just had to get it out.

And he jogs back out on the field. And it was like, okay, I can see why people like kind of grew on this guy as they interviewed him because it was like that that does, that shit does matter. Because it is that that carries over to other guys. Like, go to or bad. You see the guys living in fear. Like, you know, you see, you know, people that played with Peyton Manning lived in fear. I'm sure of getting yelled at by a psycho competitive quarterback.

But then you also get the guys that just want perfection out of their guys. And it gross when you're expecting that stuff. But that's, it's cool to see out of a rookie. because even in preseason and then now throughout the week, seeing that whole pre-snap process and his control of it, they throw a lot at them. They shift emotion a whole time, especially in the run game.

He's pointing the mic. He'll do protection stuff. He's hand signaling guys. They're throwing a lot at them. So that's really impressive. So it's like those are all the positive, super accurate, all this. The downside is, yeah,

he is limited athletically. He can throw off platform, but he can't create. It is what it is. Like he, that is what he is at this point. This is the most athletic we'll ever see him as a rookie. Unless you're Tom Brady. You usually are the most athletic when you're really young.

So like I think that's what, what you got to take what he is. He is Chad Pennington. I mean, that is what he is. He is so supremely accurate. And it's so smart, so tough, so competitive that it's going to like, you see the path to his success, even if the upside, the super high upside isn't there.

But it's kind of, it's fun to watch him. his the way he processes is very impressive he gets off stuff so quickly for a young quarterback i mean it's this is not first read stuff i mean he's coming from one to two i mean it the touchdown to jacobie meyers i'm pretty sure he came back to that the one that was called back and it's just like okay yeah i know all right so here but so i think that brings me to this question if this is what he looks like now how far can he go like if if If that is what you are as you're a quarterback profile, you're a guy that processes quickly,

you're extremely accurate, but you're limited in terms of tools. His arm is not very good, and he's not athletic. Where do those limits start to show up? Where can teams start to just overall put a cap on what you can provide if that's the profile of quarterback that you are? They can run more man on you.

They can run more to man, especially, and man coverage just straight. man and not worry about you beating them with their legs. So what that would make Mac Jones and guys can win like this, trust me, I'm not saying this is impossible. It just makes it harder is that he has to be perfect on every read. He just has to be. And I trust that he can do that.

That's where the limitations have come. So every time you watch it too. It's like every snap of the ball, he knows exactly where to go. And you can tell he knows exactly where to go. It's like the snap of the ball. He is like, I mean, I'm watching. I'm like, he's right. That's the right read.

I don't have to doubt that. He gets to two. Good. He always gets to two. It's always getting to three or always shortcutting to three because he can never use his legs as number three. And that matters in the long run because you're not always going to get the perfect look. You're not always going to be right on your first read.

You're not always going to have the right call. You're going to have to get to that. And so it's just that that's where the upside or the limitations come in. So like his path is to basically be like late career Drew Brees. I mean, that's what it is. It's just perfect on every single snap. And he can get there. I do trust.

I think where the growth is going to be right now, he's better out of the gun than he is under center, which is not what you would think of a quarterback coming out of Alabama. But that's what their system was. It was heavy RPO's, those heavy gun play action. I think he's still getting comfortable with the under center stuff. And that's where he'll see his first step of growth.

But it is, it just, he just has to be perfect mentally. And I do think that has to be there. But that's the thing is that he has to be perfect mentally. And it's hard when you don't have arm strength to maybe give you more room for error. Even the negative plays last Sunday were mostly not his fault. I mean, he took a couple sacks. Instant sacks. The sphere was not his fault.

He's just getting ready to set up. I mean, it's less than two and a half seconds where guys were in the backfield. Both of those Randy Gregory sacks, I mean, that's not on the quarterback. I think the quarterbacks do have some responsibility for their own protection, not there. They've had offensive line issues, which I think, again, speaks to just how the fact that he's been able to function and operate in the way that he has is impressive. and then two drops. I mean, balls that just hit guys in the hands multiple times led to an interception. That ball was not perfect.

Totally on target. It wasn't perfect. But there was another third down drop from Aguilar that was a perfect ball. And so, yeah, I mean, it's what he is right now is impressive for a young quarterback. But it will always come down to it. And this is a conversation for way later, because we're going to get to chill here in a second. How far can it go? Yeah.

Like how far is he from? the end. How much left does he have in the tank? If he's reached his potential or is like 87% of the quarterback that he's eventually going to become, how does that compare to the other young guys? He's clearly ahead of them. But this isn't about 2021. When you draft the guy in the first round, it's not who's going to be the best quarterback right away. It's where can we go three, four years from now. You know, Kyler Murray was not this guy in 2019. And that matters. So I, I think that's just what to keep in mind. That's something to keep in mind.

But for what he is right now, I don't think you could ask for anything more. And that speaks to it. When we talk about, hey, that's why you go with the quarterback and you set your path. Now you kind of know which guys to put with him. Like as far as skill guys. Yeah. And they have Kendrick Bourne and Aglar and all that Hunter Henry and Johnny Smith. But now it looks like, hey, we need guys that can create yak because he's going to get the ball in their hands right away,

the perfect spot where they can get up field right away. Okay. So now maybe we need some more guys that are yak guys. they can create after the catch as opposed to maybe route technicians that they have right now. So that's, but that talks about, we have talked about a million times when you plant your foot with a quarterback, now the rest of the organizational decisions kind of come into light. Now it's like, okay, we got to go with this, we got with this. Why do you think the chiefs go with speed, speed, speed, speed, speed.

That's because they have this guy named Patrick Mahomes that could launch the ball 80 yards and do all the stuff and get the ball in their hands. It's like now that I think the Patriots are going to go, okay, maybe if Belichick can adjust his receiver scouting is maybe we can get some guys I can create after the catch. So that's another thing, the upside of knowing you have a guy early on. All right. That's all we got. It's time to get to Sheel.

It's time to get to this week's picks. All right. It's time now for this week's pick segment. I'm thrilled to welcome our good buddy, Shooka Pottie. You have walked into something that you were not expecting. I was not. I wasn't sure quite what was going on.

I did not know what Nate had to do this week. But now I am finding it out. I will say, well, why don't you take the honors and then I'll offer my observations. So for everyone that missed last week's show, we've put two lukewarm locks thrown forward by our two warriors here in this year-long picks participation. Sheel picked the Vikings, he got that right, giving him three points. He missed his other two games, but getting that huge boost goes to 12.5 points on the year. Nate gets two of his three picks correct, but loses his lukewarm lock of the

the week going to eight and a half points of the year. So, Sheal is a commanding four-point lead. But more importantly, Nate misses his lukewarm walk, meaning that he has to endure a punishment this week. And because it was the Browns, about two-thirds of the way through that game, when it seemed like the Browns were not only not going to win by more than three, but lose, I started perusing the internet for some options. Obviously, the Browns, famous for the dog pound in their stadium, whatever you want to

call it its first energy stadium, I think it is now. Whatever you want to call that stadium by the lake. So I was looking for some dog masks on the internet, and thankfully, I found one. Those of you listening right now can't see it. We will be putting it on some sort of video platform here over the next few hours. Nate is wearing a ridiculous German Shepherd mask with his silver bow's headphones, and it's going to be really hard for me to keep it together with this entire show. Nate, how are you feeling over there?

I'm regretting the lukewarm lock because this is a hot mask. and I'm looking at you guys out of one eyehole and then I have to look through the other eyehole to look at what my picks are and everything so this is gonna be a this is gonna be an interesting 20 odd minutes right now but yeah totally regretting the Browns I love how you said two thirds of the game through I think it was more like one third of the game through

like quarter and a half I think you were you could have looked up this mask what was the update on the injury report that made you feel the worst beforehand Like who had to be out for you to be like, this was probably a mistake. I actually was feeling okay when I heard Rodney Hudson was out too. I was like,

okay, that'll negate some of it, you know, didn't matter. Kyler Murray just, just stomping all over me, just those little steps, just 50 little steps onto my heart.

But no, I think it was the offensive tackles being out. Once I saw Conklin out as well, it was like, oh boy, and then Chub out. It was like, oh, boy.

He's like, Cliff's gone. That's kind of a neutral effect. But then it was like, all right, but then I just went on from there. Kyler just took over, and that's why he's doing what he's doing this year.

I can't even see how you guys are reacting right now. I just like, I can see the top corner of my window. Well, when I first logged on, you had the mask in your lap, and I actually thought that you got a dog or were dog sitting. I know you have a cat. I didn't think you had a dog, but I'm going, all right, that's good. That's interesting. He's just petting a dog there.

But I will say this. I know you're not feeling great, Nate. I will say this. You took that mask off to readjust your headphones and your mic. I got to say your hair looked like immaculate. even when the mask was on and then the mask was off. So as a bald man, you know, to somebody who's probably not feeling great at this time, you've got that to hang your hat on that.

The hair was looking fantastic. I appreciate it. I got a 50, 50 shot of balding because it just look at my dad. And so I'm trying to appreciate the hair I have it. Like, I have no idea if I get to keep it. But I just got a haircut for the first time of three months this week. So my wife's going to be really happy to hear that. She finally got me to go.

She'll, your hair envy is one of my favorite parts of your entire person. personality, but it's really the only edge that Nate has on you right now as you continue to stomp him in this competition that we have going. So again, because Sheal won this week, we're going to let him tee off first. Week 7, what's your first one for us here, buddy? All right, I am going to go to Gillette. It's still called Gillette, right? I'm with you. It is still Gillette, yes. Still Gillette, okay. The New England Patriots are seven-point favorites over the New York Jets. I feel like I, you know, generally most of my commentary and analysis on the Patriots is that people are overrating them.

And, you know, this week I was critical of Bill Belichick for his game management last week against the Cowboys. I really do, you know, I don't know what he was doing there at the end of the first half against that Cowboys offense to just waste a possession like that. I thought that deserved as much criticism as everything Mike McCarthy did. However, in this game, only seven points kind of surprised me. You know, the Jets offense is 30 second in DVOA, 30 second in EPA per drive, 30 second in point scored.

And like we saw this matchup earlier this season, not too long ago. Week 2, the Patriots win that game 25 to 6. And since that game, I feel like the Patriots have gotten better. You know, I'm not buying them as like a legit contender or anything, but they're certainly a competent team that was competitive against the Cowboys, competitive against Tampa. And I don't know that the Jets are better since that game.

I mean, they're more injured since that game. And maybe there's been like a flash or two here and there. They did win a game. But I feel like the Patriots are. Patriots are going to be able to handle them pretty well. I like the matchup, of course, of Bill Belichick coming up with a game plan against Zach Wilson. So I'm going with the Patriots minus 7 over the Jets. I'm curious.

I mean, that does seem a little bit low to me when you consider how bad the Jets have been. It's not like the Patriots offense is lighting it up. So if you're going to bet the Jets in this game, just to play Devil's Advocate, what kind of game do you think it would be to keep this within seven? I'm just trying to imagine what that type of outcome would look like. Yeah, I think you can count, you know, you could say, well, maybe the Jets' defense can hold them in check a little bit. You know, they've had some moments where they've looked good this year. And then kind of what I just mentioned, I mean, the Patriots are not a step on your throat kind of team.

So, you know, they could be up by 14 and it's not really a game and they're up 217 in the fourth quarter. But the Jets have the ball with three minutes left and get like a garbage time touchdown. Yeah. And maybe all of a sudden you get a push or you lose. there. I do have, you know, I have a hard time coming up with the scenario where the Jets win this game, but at seven, you know, the stats, the history tells us, if you're a seven point dog, I think you have like a 25% chance to win the game outright. So the markets are telling us, you know, not to count them out. I think it would be a situation where the Patriots offense plays

really poorly. Maybe you get something on special teams and you're able to navigate it that way. Like a 20 to 14 type of game. Right. An ugly game that stays closer than it should. I guess I can understand that. But when I saw that line originally, I was like, yeah, that does look pretty good, because I do think the Patriots office is playing better, and the Jets have been kind of a disaster. So I completely get that. All right. And I mean, just dog man, what do you got over there? What's your first one? Nate Dogg. Honestly, it's like, Nate Dogg was right there. It was right there. The, like, actually even seen what the ringer that, that Belichick put Dack through last week. Now imagine I'm doing it with Zach Wilson.

Yeah, exactly. Candy's going to do with that. I mean, because they're, tweaking stuff. It's pretty cool watching that Patriot defense right now. But all right, there is a lot of stupid lines this week in the sense that there's double digit lines, like big, big lines. And I'm actually going to take one of them. I'm going to go with the Bears plus 12 and a half at the Bucks. And this is more of a, I do think the Bucks are clearly the better team, probably the best team right now. But I'm betting that this Bears defense is going to be able to muck it up just enough to kind of keep it close, keep it a 10 point game, an 11 point game. I think this, yeah, this bear's offense, the run game has been improving the last couple of weeks.

We've talked about it, Robert, and Justin Fields has improved in this last couple weeks. They're figuring out they are still, but I'm hoping that this game is like a 2414 ugly battle, something like that or a sneak. 2717 is what I was thinking of. Yeah, exactly. I think something like that. Or it's, you know, something like that where it's like 31, 17, and then they score a touchdown way, boom. It's like, okay, oh, wow, they only lost by seven, but it was the bucks dominated the whole game. but I do believe in this Bears defense.

I've come away impressed, watching them against this Packers' offense this past week. It's like, okay, I'm like buying more and more stock of what they're doing. So I do think they can kind of keep up, but this Bucks team is going to overwhelm them in the long run. I'm just hoping for an ugly game in Tampa Bay, so Bears plus 12 and a half. Those double-digit lines creeping up towards two touchdowns, those are usually saved for true mismatch blowout type games. Like the Bears aren't a good team, but 12-and-half is a ton of. points in week seven for a team that has shown some competence defensively.

Like what's the Rams Lions line? 15 and a half, I believe. There's three that are over 12. Cardinals, where the Cardinals playing. Cardinals Texans was 17 and a half when I wrote my column. So there are three monstrous lines this week. I was actually trying to look up sort of double-digit favorites and, you know, in the past kind of what's happened. And, you know, it's obviously near, like, 50, 50.

Brady's, you know, Brady totally, like, distorts it because his teams have typically cover. But, I mean, those, you know, those were great teams. And, yeah, I'm with you guys. I feel like the Bears have at least been competent. They can do some things defensively. They can generate a pass rush with four if they need to, which, you know, as we know, the one way if you're getting.

And the bucks do do some stupid stuff. I mean, they're not, you know, masters in terms of game management or they'll have some penalties. They'll have some negative plays. So it's not like, you know, you don't. there are stretches where you watch them and are like this is a well-oiled machine, but usually there's like a quarter in there throughout one of those games where you're like, all right,

they don't look as great here. So that's not one of my picks, but I did pick that in my column too, going with the bears there. I was surprised the line was that high. Yeah, I'm totally with both of you guys on that. All right,

Sheila, what's your second one here? So I had a strategy that, you know, after I'll probably lose this Patriot Jets ones early in the day. And then rather than ruin my entire afternoon, let's just, you know, wait until, the nighttime to screw up these picks. So you can ruin two days. But it's after dark, you know,

like, you know, people aren't looking through my window here at my right going, why does this guy look so sad? He just sits in that office all day, making terrible football takes and terrible pick. So I'm going to go nighttime here. And let's start with Sunday night. And that is the Colts at the 49ers. The Colts are four-point underdogs here. I feel like I've been going against the Colts a lot this year, but I'm going to flip that a little bit and take Indy to beat that spread of four points. You know, you look at the 49ers. They've got Jimmy G. It sounds like as of this pod, he's going to be coming back, but he's coming off a calf injury.

You know, I don't know that he's going to be 100% there. If you're looking for a mismatch, certainly DeForest Buckner against the interior of that 49ers offensive line. That could be an issue for San Francisco. Also, in terms of the run game, you know, the 49ers run game, statistically, has been pretty mediocre this year. Colts have ranked first in rushing DVOA defensively. So if they don't have that to lean on, I notice they still got the play action and they can

scheme some things up. But I feel like that's just going to be sort of a low scoring, don't lose the game, conservative type approach from Kyle Shanahan. And so I don't really trust Carson Wentz in that Colts offense against his 49ers defense. But I think Frank Reich has been, I don't want to say conservative, but certainly leaned on that run game quite a bit. And I think Jonathan Taylor has probably been one of the most maybe underrated performers through the first six weeks of the season. I mean, it feels like he's reeling off a huge game-changing run every week.

And so if he can do that in this game, I think they'll run the ball quite a bit. And if you look at the Colts last three games, you know, they had that tough loss at Baltimore, but they really outplayed them on the road for three quarters. And we saw what the Ravens did last week. I mean, that's a legit team right there. And then the Colts have had a couple blowout wins against bad teams, the dolphins, and the Tex. And so maybe they're finding them. themselves at least a little bit.

You know, they've certainly been better in the last three games than they were in the first three games. So I've got the Colts covering four points there. I think that their offensive line is getting healthier. I want to say Quentin Nelson is going to play this week, or he's been practicing. So he might be back this week. And the Brayton-Smithing is kind of lingering. I think there's some confusion about when he's going to get back on the field.

But hopefully he'll be back sooner rather than later. So you have what has traditionally been a strength for them back almost. and fully intact. And even with those offensive line concerns, you know, the Colts are seventh in EPA per play offensively. Wow. I didn't know that. I mean, their offense has been better than I expect them to be.

They've picked on bad teams. I think their DVOA is closer to the middle of the pack, like 15 or some when you adjust for opponent. But their offense has been better than I anticipated it being, especially when you consider some of the injuries that they've had. So I think that line might be an indication, kind of an example of the public maybe not catch. up with just how competent the Colts have looked here over the last few weeks.

Isn't it kind of funny that I actually would have sided more with the 49ers of Trey Lanes was playing? Just because it's like he throws that extra kind of like chaos in there. Like just like, yeah, there's a volatility to it. I totally get bad. That's the thing. I see exactly what Shield. When bringing up Nelson, the injury coming back, like that's the other thing.

It was like that was in the back of my head. I almost picked the exact same line that Shield did. So it's kind of funny. Exact same points. I see it the same way. Jonathan Taylor's playing great. the Forrest Buckner is like still just a dominant force. I mean, that rushing DVOA is not by mistake.

It is. They have some talented players there. Okay. All right. Nate, what do you got for us? Let's see if I can see it. All right. This is weird giving my picks to a dog.

You look like, you know, when I cover that Eagles team and Chris Long and Lane Johnson put on the, they're in the Super Bowl year, you know, I'm having flashbacks to being in the locker room going up to Lane J. What's the story behind these underdog? That's the type of dog we've got here, Mays, right? So I tried to make it a little bit different than that one. But again, a limited selection of dog masks. I don't know if we said that before the show or earlier in the show. Fewer purchasable dog masks on the internet than you might think.

Not a robust set of options. So I didn't want the exact Eagles underdog mask, but this one was sort of close. But again, we had a limited group to choose from. I love how that we talked about underdogs and then my next two picks are favorites. So we're going to go on this next one. We're going to go a little AFC North Battle. We're going to go with the Ravens minus six and a half hosting the Bengals.

I am happy that this is under a touchdown. I think this is a Ravens defense, Ravens team that's like tweaked what they are. We've talked about a couple times, Robert, but just also really just honing in on what they are. Like especially on offense, the run game isn't what we have seen the last couple years, but it's still dangerous with Lamar back there. I also think this passing game is just with the spread passing, and it's really unlocked so much for them, because now you really take away the blitz opportunities,

and the Bengals aren't a heavy blitz team, but they do throw some in there, and it's going to just open it up for Lamar. I'm just trying to read my notes here. The Bengals defense has played well. Oh, yeah, they're really smart. Okay, this Bengals defense is smart. They're going to try and limit the explosive plays.

We've seen them do it to a couple teams now, but I just think that with Lamar, he has just a little bit too much speed. They have too much explosiveness in that unit. Hollywood Brown. Mark Andrews is catching the ball consistently, and he's like, that's unlocking so much. I don't know which Bengals linebackers would be able to match up with him on the interior. And also just Rashad Bateman coming back. I just think this passing attack will just be able to, you know, just go and go and go

and go with Lamar running and running and I also just think it's the Ravens defense. They're going to play that man coverage. Bengals are really have to rely, I think, on Tyler Boyden this game. game. And then whether they can maintain that through all four quarters, I don't know. I don't know. This being six and a half, I think that's a fair line, but I'm going to take the Ravens under a touchdown. And I'm out of breath. Every time I'm talking to some, I can just, I'm having flashbacks. You know, Halloween as a kid when you say, you know, like the first time you put on the mask and it was a little bit more, I don't know about you guys, but it was a little bit more of like a human night.

And I'm like outside just being the biggest baby to my pain. complaining. It's saying, you know, this mask is hot. Take it on when you go trick, you, you knock, trick-or-treat, keep the mask on, get the candy, take it off as you walk to the next house. So I, you know, like eight-year-old shield is really, you know, feeling your pain. That's the toughest part of Michael Myers. Like, it's not that you can withstand, you know, bullet wounds, the gunshots and explosions, is that he can keep a mask on that entire time, that William Shatner mask the entire time and not complain one bit about it. So, Nate, I know you're like a horror movie buff. I, I don't love horror movies.

There are certain horror movies that I really care about deeply, but they're offshoot horror movies. I think Cabin in the Woods is brilliant. And it's because it's not really a horror movie. It's a meta-horror movie. And I like horror comedies. But real horror movies, I'm a baby. And I just don't love them so much.

I didn't know that that was a William Shatner mask until yesterday. I had no idea that it was like some weird converted William Shatner mask that he wore in the original. And that's been what they've done the entire time. I did not know this is common knowledge. Apparently it is. I know. The first one, the very first Halloween, you can see it more. And, of course, it gets beat up as the years go on. But, like, yeah, I know. And I think they interviewed Shatner about it. I didn't see what his quotes were. But I'm very curious. It's like, oh, yeah, your face is a horror icon.

How do you feel? How does that feel? People are terrified of what you look like in a ghost white mask. But the original mask is terrifying. I saw the original Shatner mask because they widen the eye holes a little bit and they painted it white to make it less recognizable. But the original one is like uncanny valley nonsense. Like who would buy that for themselves and wear it on Halloween? Like it was absolutely disgusting and terrifying. That's what it is. I mean, it's just an added element to it.

You just got to worry about William Chattner's face staring at you as they slit your throat. Oh my God. All right. Giel, let's finish it off here. What do you got for us? Let me get a quick Raven stat since I looked it up and, you know, you know, sometimes you get something good and you're just like, I have to get it out there in every medium. So that's this.

The Ravens, since, that's all I'm doing. I'm just hijacking the show for my own, you know, personal feelings. Listen, you make it better that way. We don't really have much going for us. Since 2019, the Ravens have outscored their opponents by 461 points. No other team is better than plus 298. I thought that was crazy. I mean, like far and away over the last three years,

they're 30 and 8 in the regular season. Sometimes I forget that. All right. You know, I'm putting a moratorium on me picking the fighting Joe judges anymore after, you know, the way last week went, I'm just out, you know, if I pick the Giants or say, if we can set something up where I get like zapped or something when I even think about picking the Giants on this show, that would be helpful.

But this one is in the same neighborhood. And that's the Seattle Seahawks at home against the New Orleans Saints. The Seattle Seahawks are four and a half point underdogs at home. What we learned about last week. You don't bet against Gino Smith in prime time? Come on. I know they didn't win the game, but they covered. And for our purposes, that is all that matters.

And so I look at this game and like Pete Carroll's loving this. No one's going to be yelling at him about let Gino cook. He can just run the ball 35 times in the game. I thought their cornerbacks actually played pretty well in that game. Their defense was a little bit better, you know, a little bit better than we had seen in the first part of the season. I think the Saints, we've seen how Sean Peyton is. He's going to coach with James Winston in a game like this. He's going to do everything in his power to not let James lose the game.

But James is going on the road in Seattle in primetime? I mean, is he going to be able to help himself, you know, to not having at least a couple turnovers in that game? I don't think so. So not only am I taking the Seahawks plus four and a half, but when you get on a streak with these, you know, lukewarm locks of the week, you know, I don't know. There could be some sponsorship opportunities

just for my personal lukewarm locks of the week. I'm so hot on them. I'm taking Gino Smith and the Seahawks as my lock plus four and a half. Seattle, I love you. Bring it home. We've got to have some like furnace company or some like heating company sponsor you. It's just like Williams heating lukewarm lock of the week for Shilkapadia. Listen, in adulthood, that could be very valuable.

You know, it's like now you get socks or something for a present. I mean, that's the equivalent. If somebody wants to give me a free heater, I'm not going to turn it down. My favorite part of this entire setup, though, is now you have a game in the early slate on Sunday. You have the Sunday night game and you have the Monday night game. So you are going to be an irritable worst version of yourself over the course of like 36 straight hours, which your family is going to have to deal with. I absolutely love that. I think they're going to the zoo on Sunday, I believe my daughter told me.

So, yeah, listen, we pre-plan. We're not rookies at this. We know how to operate when dad is ordinary and being a jerk to everybody. Dad's bet my Gino Smith, kid. Please leave the house. They got to learn sometime. Yeah. All right.

Nate Dog, let's ride this out here. What do you got for me? I am also doing my lukewarm lock of the week because old dogs don't learn new tricks. That's what's going on right here. But I am going with maybe the opposite of Gino Smith. I'm going with Patrick Mahomes and the Chiefs. minus five and a half at the Titans. I think this,

I can only scream it to the heaven so many times. This Chief's offense is ridiculous. They're still averaging over, they're averaging 3.14 points per drive, and that's withgoing one-fifth of their drives ending in a turnover. Over 20% of their drives have ended in a turnover, which leads the league,

and they're still averaging over a field goal, a drive. It is ridiculous what they're doing on offense right now. I think they're at 60% on third down. No, offense has finished over 50%. Oh, no, one offense is finished over 50% in the last decade. And it was like the Saints in like 2011. So it's, I just think that they've hit some bad luck with the turnovers. I think that's going to regress. And I'm betting that the regression happens now. And now is when they just roll on people. When now it's not these seven point wins,

eight point wins, nine point wins. It's more of a 17 point win, a 14 point win that we know from the Chiefs. I think this Titans team, I love what the offense is doing. They're getting healthy, the receivers especially. I just, they can't really threaten, I think, passing game wise how the Chiefs need to be threatened. I do think the run game is going to get after them. They're going to have a couple of big plays, but I think just if they have a drive

where they don't get a score and they end with a field goal instead of a touchdown, then Chiefs are just going to pull away because I just don't think this Titans defense can keep up with this Chiefs offense. So going with the Chiefs, minus five and a half on the road in Tennessee and it is my lukewarm lock. I can't wait to figure out what Chief

Skier I'm wearing next week, or Titans gear, either one. I don't know which one it is, probably Chief's gear, but yeah, lukewarm Ships 5.5.5. I need people to take the dog mask and be inspired. That's what I need. If one of these guys

screws this up, we need somebody out there to come up with some good ideas because we need to keep this rolling. So I just be, this is the realm, this is the world, the playground that we want to be playing in. So looking at the Titans, do we know who's playing cornerback for the Titans?

Caleb Farley's on IR, Christian Fulton's on IR, the guy with the long sleeves, who almost had a pick last week, whose name I can't remember, was thrust in there because they ran out of corners. This seems like a dicey situation playing against Patrick Mahomes and the Chiefs offense. Yeah, I think the, you know, yeah, I think the Titans, you know, if you're on the, I actually took the Titans in this one, only because I feel, I get nervous when a team is an underdog like this, and I feel like they can score like 30 plus pretty easy. easily, which I mean, I'm with you. You've had good luck. I think you've taken the chiefs as like road favorites for, you know, I feel like they've been seven or under a couple weeks this season, and you've had them every time, and I think they've won every time. So I think if you're the Titans, you look at it and say, all right, maybe we, maybe the Chiefs only get eight possessions in this game, and one of them, we force a turnover and we just, you know, we're scoring touchdowns,

we're converting in the red zone. Derek Henry's having a monster game. We're doing what we want in the passing game. But yeah, I've been looking at those Chiefs lines because they had that stretch there where I think they were, what, two in like 12 or something against the spread. And it feels like it's maybe evened out a little bit where you're getting some better numbers now or maybe, you know, early in the season, this might have been a bigger line. So it feels, sometimes it feels like you're stealing when you get Mahomes in a game like this and it's under a touchdown.

So I totally can see it. Well, their hope is that if you're betting the Titans in this game, it's like a 35, 31 type game. The Titans are up 31, 28, and the Homes, they score a touchdown in the fourth quarter, they win, but they don't win by more than five and a half. And that's feasible to me. Like, if this is just a back and forth shootout and it ends up being within a touchdown, I wouldn't be surprised. But I think in order to do that, the Titans need to score a bunch of points.

A bunch of points. It's got to be one of those Titans drives where every drive is seven plays, eight plays, six plays, ten, you know, they've got to have that over and over. Or pop, you know, get the touchdowns on the first or second play like they do sometimes. when Henry pops one, but that's the thing. It's a lot of ifs. But we'll see. We'll see one Sunday night when I'm going, that if, that if what didn't happen?

I can't wait until Henry's third 40-yard touchdown when you're just screaming into the abyss in your couch. I liked on that one, how Nate was really using his hands and, you know, speaking very expressively when he got into that chief picks with that combined with the dog mask. I thought that was a nice touch, nice way to end it. We are given our social guys.

a lot to work with here. I realized when you made your lukewarm lock, I put my hand on my heads, and I was trying to figure out where to put them. I was like, I had them on my ears for a second. All right, you could take that thing off. You are like Nike Shield was a couple weeks ago. You are a good sport.

This is sincerely, guys, one of my favorite things we do every single week. I know I always say that, but it's true. It's a blast. I have a great time. It's a great note on which to start the weekend. Appreciate you guys doing it. Appreciate all of you guys for listening.

please rate and review the podcast. If you get some time to do that, it would mean a lot to me. Also, please subscribe to The Athletic. Theathletic.com slash football show. Tomorrow on Saturday, please check out the football GM with Mike Sando and Randy Mueller. It is a great show, tons of great insights. You guys will not regret that. Nate and I will be back on Sunday nights to recap all things week seven.

Until then, enjoy your guys' weekend. Talk to you soon. You know,