The Athletic Football Show: A show about the NFL - Football GM: Cleveland’s creativity on offense, teams with worries heading into Week 3, Sean Payton’s future & more

Episode Date: September 23, 2022

Is it time for the Steelers to turn to Kenny Pickett? Mike Sando and former GM Randy Mueller weigh in on the quarterback situation in Pittsburgh before diving into the Browns creativity on offense following their win on Thursday Night Football. Then, they examine which teams they are most worried about heading into Week 3, including the winless Colts, Titans and Raiders. Finally, they talk about a potential return to coaching for Sean Payton and Randy shares his thoughts from the GM’s notebook.  Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

This is the Athletic Football Show. Welcome to the Football GM podcast. Mike Sandow here, senior writer for The Athletic, along with the GM, Randy Mueller, three-time GM. How you doing this morning, Randy? Doing great, Mike. Fired up to talk about some things this week. We've been kind of holding back on some stuff, so I'm anxious to dig in with some detail on some topics today that we've talked about.

It'll be awesome. It's funny how this comes together, Randy. Sometimes we're sitting there in the middle of the week. I don't know. What do we got? And then by the end, we're like, shoot, how do we get this all into an hour? So we got three hours, yeah. Yeah, yeah, yeah, we got three hours of stuff.

So we are going to talk about the Thursday night game, not just the game, Browns, 29, Steelers, 17. We're going to talk about both of these franchises and teams and some issues around them that are really interesting. We're going to talk about some teams that you might be worried about. And rightfully so, Colts, Titans, Raiders, Broncos, maybe a little bit of the Ravens on defense. We'll see if we'll get to all of those.

We got, last week, we did. Hey, Randy, are you buying this or that? And we'll revisit that at times throughout the season. But we got a little section of the GM's notebook. Randy's got some stuff left over, bears, 49ers, Houston. We might get to Cincinnati. We might get to Seattle. Might even have a, might even get to Sean Peyton in this thing.

We got lots of things to talk about. More notes than we can even get into a show. We've got a few games we're interested in maybe not as interested in picking for the pick segment, but we like the games. we're going to talk about some of those, certainly 49ers, Denver, Buffalo, Miami, Kansas City, Indy. There are some that we really like. But Randy, Thursday night to football, Browns 29, Steeler's 17. It was closer than that.

The end of the game, weird play, score by the Browns to make it look like it was wider for a minute. Were you nervous at all, by the way, for the Browns after that? I've been there to where they were a year, a week ago. So I would assume there were a lot of nervous people in the stands after what they witnessed the prior week against the jet. So you never know in this business. And we found that out last week for sure. There were multiple blunders that caused teams to,

where they say, grab the jaws of defeat from a victory, you know? Well, our illustrious producer, Marissa, you know, her husband, Michael Dunn, is on the brands. She didn't have a single gray hair last week. She's completely gray. I mean, her entire head of hair is gray this week. Clearly, that was related to the trauma of last

week as the rounds blew a 14 or 13 point lead in the final two minutes. We're going to talk about them. But let's, and really, I think the more interesting team in this mix is probably them. But let's clear the decks a little bit of the Steelers here to, Randy, because we're two games in and people are like, hey, Kenny Pickett, shall we change quarterbacks? What the hell? Yeah, I hear you. I have felt this coming for about a year and a half now, it seems like, whenever really since

Matt Canada took over. running their offense. I had questions last year about it. I didn't think you could throw it all on Ben Rathusberger. They seemed to have fewer answers, more questions as the season goal went along. And obviously, that team made the playoffs. So I'm still struggling with it. I'm not ready to throw Mitch Trubisky out the door. I can't see putting all the blame on him. And I know fans will. That's that's completely their prerogative. But I'm lacking a system here. I'm lacking a philosophical. what are we identity with this offense yet. The other thing that you've got to factor in,

and we'll get to the opposites of these topics when we talk about the Browns, the Steelers made a bunch more changes on their offensive line and they had to, and they are not coming together. It's not happening for them. They are not on the same page. The communication level is not there. And you see people get knocked around

and Mitch having to run for his life more often than not. And I just feel like the sum of all the parts isn't there yet and the parts have to be a well-loyaled machine and they're far from it. I don't really know what the Steelers are. I come out of the game wondering, is this running back good? How are we going to use him? What's the standard week-to-week? What does the defense want to take away from the Steelers?

I can't answer that. I don't know how they put fear in anybody right now doing what they're doing. And I can't put that all on Mitch. Absolutely not. No, I think that's just the tip of the iceberg. Matt Canada is an interesting one because usually when, people a game or two in start criticizing a coach here, you know, here or there. Sometimes it's an overreaction, but I think I think that is a fair question in terms of

what has their vision been at that spot? Because if you go back to when Tomlin got there, before Tom, Mike Tomon got there in 07, Ken Wisenup was the offensive coordinator. And then he was in the running for the Steelers job. It went to Tomlin and Wisnup left, went to Arizona. But they had Bruce Ariens for five years. they had Todd Haley for six years. I think those are strong individuals with probably somewhat clear visions, right?

Wouldn't you say, Randy? I mean, those are alphas, right? And then we had three years of Randy Fickner, now a year plus of Matt Canada. One of the things I think that needs to be brought up is, especially if you have a coach on one side of the ball, you better be, you need to be kind of more elite on the other side of the ball in terms of your coaching. And so here you have Mike Tomlin is defensive coach, but he's kind of a CEO coach. He's kind of over the whole thing. But you can't say that on pedigree, on resume, they're elite in that realm at all. And maybe we're seeing that come to fruition.

And I'm concerned, we want to go to Kenny Pickett. You better have that side squared away with somebody who can really make him look good, right? No doubt about it. I think we got Matt Canada. really through a collegiate background. And he had spent very few years or time in the NFL. I know he was Ben Rathesburg was quarterback coach before they made him the coordinator. So he was in the building.

And I think Mike Tomlin probably thought, let's keep some continuity together and kind of move him up the food chain. I don't know. If you go back and look at the history of Matt, and I don't know Matt personally, but I don't know that there was a ton of success at these collegiate stops prior to getting there. So I'm just looking for something to hang my hat on. And, you know, it's easy to criticize.

It's easy when you're outside the building. But I'm just looking for something, whether it was in college, at a program, whether it was at LSU, NC State, Wisconsin, whatever. I just looking for something to grasp onto that says, hey, this is good. This is what we want to be. And I have yet to find it. So I don't, I'm asking questions and I have no answers for them. And you're talking about elevating on game day, right? And you can see that with some of these coaches for sure on the office.

offense, you know, whether it's Brian Dayball or some of these other guys, they really do make a difference in putting their personnel in the right spot. We've seen Mike McDaniel early on. We'll see what happens. Well, and what happens is the players, just like us, as fans, lose faith as well. They've got to see, hey, what are you going to bring to the table this week that's going to make me look good if I'm Mitch Tribisky? What can you tell me that I haven't been doing that I can do this week to make me better? And I just don't see progress. And that's a concern when you don't see steps forward. We're kind of bogged down a little bit now and what are we doing on offense? We're the Steelers. The answer for everybody is all just put Kenny Pickett in. Yeah. We saw

what Kenny Pickett did in preseason, but you and I both know, Mike, that's apples and oranges to what they're facing now in the regular season. From a speed of play standpoint, from a schematic standpoint, from an intensity standpoint, totally different. So I'm not ready to say Kenny Pickett's the answer. But right now in week three, I think at some point you're going to probably see him in there. And I fear for his development as well if this offense is playing like it is as a whole. With a new GM also in Omar Khan. Yeah, who's not a football guy who came up on the on the business side per se. So yeah, there's a lot of, hey, they might drag Kevin Colbert out of retirement sooner than later, you know. But they need to have a clear vision for that going forward. And we can

both see that that's going to be critical after the season probably to make sure they're right on that as they go with their quarterback. I would still like, I'd probably like to see Kenny picket this year, but maybe down the stretch. I don't disagree. Yeah. Okay, we want to talk about the Browns, which hasn't actually been something we've really wanted to do because of the Deshaun Watson situation, which, by the way, you never would have even known was a situation listening to the broadcast. You would have thought maybe he had a couple speeding tickets. I don't think you'd really get to mention of any of the details on that. But there's so much about Cleveland this off season and their handling of that and their pursuit of him that sometimes it's just been,

easier to not even talk about them. But there's also a lot of good people there too. And they are one of the 32 teams. And we are going to talk about them. And they were impressive last night. Cleveland, Nick Chubb, 23 carries, 113 rushing yards, a touchdown. We've seen Amari Cooper come to life a little bit here. Even Jacoby Brissette, I think, is, you could say he's just getting them through. But shoot, with your backup quarterback, it could look worse than it has. I was good. I was good. going to ask you kind of watching the game. I'm actually working on a piece next week about all-time great running backs and kind of the production of those guys. Is Nick Chubb the best back in the league? Who's your best? Well, I think it was a great question to really start a thought

process in my own P-Brain as to the answer to that, Mike. And it sent me down a rabbit hole. And I watched a little bit of film on the Browns to find out for myself, what am I missing here? Because I would have never thought that Nick Chubb would be mentioned as the best back in the league. But I think it's warranted. I think there are skills that he possesses that others you can coach for years and they don't get. But it's maybe not as dynamic of a, you know, skill set as some guys have. I think Jonathan Taylor's the best back in the league right now, but look at him struggle with the Colts and we'll talk about him later. But what I found when I peaked at Nick Chub and this goes a little bit with what they did in the Thursday night game and what they did at least in the first half against the Jets last

week. I think what you get with Nick Chubb is you get patience, you get vision, you get natural running instincts that are really hard to coach. This guy gets the most out of most plays and it's he's a very efficient runner. And then oh by the way, after I get what you've blocked me up front to get, I'm going to get a couple more because my pads are going to be lower than the defenders. You're going to have a hard time getting me on the ground. So I'm going to get two or three more yards after contact, whether it's between the tackles or outside when I break an arm tackle. I saw a lot of maybe not dynamic traits from Nick, but I saw a guy that I would definitely want to have. And what it also told me was, and let me just backtrack one second. I'm with you. I haven't wanted to talk about the

Browns because of everything that transpired in the offseason. But what I saw on tape now, I don't think we can be quiet anymore about the football side. The other stuff, that's for another podcast. I get it. I'm totally with the fans and people that have kind of turned their back. But I think what we've done is we forgot how good Bill Callahan is, how good Kevin Stefansky is, how good this offense is. And I think the difference that they've been able to show is Kevin Stafansky is just not about call and plays. He's about a system, a schematic, a design that I was impressed with when I watch the tape. So to answer your question, Nick Chubb is in the conversation. I think in this, this scheme for them, he may be as good as they can get or want because he does all the things

that this scheme asked for. I could go on and on about their front and I will, but the way they've employed really an offensive line and the way they've used it has been really impressive and not to ramble, but we know Jack Conklin's out, so they've got a replacement at right tackle. They signed Ethan Posick, a center from Seattle who was a high draft pick for Seattle, but really I would say failed a little bit. Yeah. You know. In Seattle.

In Seattle. So the fit was questioned. And now they're starting to get players back, you know, with Conklin being back now. He wasn't there against the Jets. And they've been able to move some parts around that have really been good, in my opinion. And POSIC's what you're saying about POSC is he's been fine, right? He's been actually really good because they're not asking him to knock somebody back at the point of attack. They're not asking him to wall people off to the point where he needs to get movement.

That's not what he is. He's a tall guy. He's never going to play with great leverage. But they don't ask him to play with great leverage. And so the scheme fits with what Ethan Posick's doing or his skill set better in Cleveland. They've moved some parts around and they do some great things strategically to put people in position that really make defenses have to think how they defend them. Yeah. Yeah.

is impressive. It is impressive by Cleveland. I was also, like, Stefansky's always kind of impressed me. Like, I just thought his handling of, you know, that's probably even as grotesque as the loss was last week. It's a little underrated, you know, what effect that can have on you.

And we see some of these coaches have a hard time overcoming. Just a horrific, you know, loss that can be defining and snowball. And I thought that they didn't, you can kind of see Stefanski's comments after the game, you know. I don't know if it was relief, but it was like he was proud of the fact that, you know, on a short week, they'd come back against a team in the division that can play him tough. Yeah, and played well. And I think the Bill Callahan thing is a huge point.

You know, when you talk about, you know, years ago, the Steelers had Mike Munchack. I think that's a big deal. We talked about Denver having Munchak and Vic Fangio leave the building, right? Yep. These guys like that, there's a handful of them. Yep. And there's some guys who are in a league, like Denver still has Bill Kohlow. There's just some guys that are great position coaches or really make a difference,

not only on game day, but during the week. And I think Bill Callahan has that track record and fits so well with Stefanski. And then they've done probably a pretty good job with their personnel there too. The level of detail that this group plays with, especially the front, is unmatched, I think. And we've said for the last couple years that Cleveland has a really good offensive line, I get it. But in one particular, this is just one example, not to bore us to death, but one example. but one example last week in the Jets game where they brought in Michael Dunn as the extra tight end.

Michael is the backup center guard, right? They brought him in as the third tight end. It would have been easy just to line him up as a tight end. Michael came in and gets set at left guard. And then the command is given where he shifts over to be the third tight end. But it poses a whole different set of problems for the defense when your proposed third tight end lines up at left guard initially before you shift to that. So I'm just saying these. are little things that all add up. And it's the, it's, you ask about Jacobi Brissette. They're not asking

Jacobi Brissette to stand in the pocket and process information and go from read one to two to three. They're not doing that at all. He's defining his throws for him. He's a big strong guy, Brissette is. He can stand in there and make the play action throws to a pre-determined receiver, for the most part, whether that's Amari Cooper, which is a whole other story, or David Nizoku, who doesn't get enough credit for being a excellent, blocker now and I would have said that's crazy to think of Nujoku as a blocker. He did an excellent job the last few weeks in sealing the edge, letting backs get outside him. Just little detail things like that that we would have never guessed that was the case. So I'm just applauding them and going

on and on. But the little details, whether it's a flip to the weak side on a toss play or a screen where all the motion takes you one way and they throw back screen to the other side, all these little details, and that's just an extension of the running game, frankly. So their passing game hasn't changed. It's what they did last couple years with Baker, too. They just expanded it in that they're more efficient up front doing it than I've ever seen in a long time. And from a football standpoint, it will be interesting to see what they do when they get Deshaun Watson in there as a quarterback who can do more than obviously the backups that you're going to have in there. They really should be 3 and 0.

Obviously, they should be 3 and 0 if they were. I mean, man, they would be in great shape to, you know, maybe make a playoff run late. We'll see if maybe they still are. Yeah, I've just been impressed. I think it's something that they not only have built the last couple years there, but you're right. I think Stefanski's personality to bounce back from a defeat like the Jets is actually perfect. It's the level-headed, you know, we're not up and down. We're not rah-rah and raw-ra in a whole bunch anyway.

So he is prepared and built to withstand a 17 game season. I want that in my head coach. Yep. And he can explain it in, you know, not intellectual terms, but logical terms. Guys, here's exactly what happened. Right. Here's why it happened. This isn't some jinx or curse, you know, won't happen again.

I can do better. Here's what, you know, that sort of the thing. I think you're right. He's very kind of systematic that way. Let's, it's interesting, we're talking about the, the, Browns because, you know, the Colts are supposed to be a team that was good on the offensive line. And they were supposed to, they didn't get to Sean Watson, but they got, they certainly, they had Jacoby Burset. So obviously they'd rather have Matt Ryan than him.

And they can't do anything. Now, I think in this, we're going to talk about them and some these head are teams about how worried we should be. Colts feel like they're 0.10. They're only oh one in one. But, you know, the last two years, years since the NFL went to the seven playoff teams per conference. No team has gone winless through two games and made the postseason. If you go back 10 years, I think it's eight of the 81 teams that were winless through two weeks reached the playoffs. And that's the CUCs twice and the Texans twice. So there's not even that many organizations. How worried should we be, Randy, on the Colts at 0.1 and the one. Not only that, but down 20 to three had to tie Houston, just got shellacked

by Jacksonville last week. Yeah, I think it's more than the record. I agree with you. The 0-1-1 seems a lot worse. Seems like their own five, especially when you consider the opponents that they played. I mean, last week in particular, nine first downs,

218 total yards, two out of 10 on third downs, totally dominated by a Jaguar team that, really, if you were going to be motivated for a particular game and have your A game, wouldn't it have been the Colts against Jacksonville after how they finished the season last year in Jackson's go getting embarrassed.

Randy, I feel like there's something missing there because, you know, I think they over-blamed Carson Wentz. Over-blamed? That's something I would say, Mike. Yeah. Over-blame. They over-blame. So they disproportionately focused the source of their problems on him.

Yes. Which I don't think, which, look, you know, we all had our issues with Carson Wentz and you would, you know, you probably wouldn't want to go to have him be your guy for the next five years but you can't fool everybody into thinking just because he reacted that way jim mersey and the team doesn't mean it's true it doesn't mean that that's what everybody feels on the team i think there is something missing to go out there and just get blanked 24-0 really they just played jacksonville at the end of last year isn't it wasn't this a big game oh should have a giant yeah what is missing are they do they have bad personnel is well for

One thing, yeah, you can't convince me that Philip Rivers three years ago wasn't as good as what they're getting now for Matt Ryan. Oh, better. So we've kind of wasted two or three years on the quarterback, and you can blame that on Wince if you want. Like, I'm with you. I don't think it was all Wins. I think there's some intangible things that affected their judgment on Wins as much as anything. And maybe Washington will be the beneficiary of that. I'm with you.

I don't think Wins is the guy to solve any of your long-term issues, but I can't believe that he couldn't have done what Matt Ryan's done. to this point. He's looked better than that so far this year. To answer your question, I don't know either. I have a hard time figuring out this team. I don't know if it's Frank Reich. I don't know if it's the scheme, the system. They're just disjointed right now.

And maybe some of it's on defense, but they are just, I will say this, the Matt Ryan long syrupy delivery, the kind of slower mentality that comes with that right now that Atlanta said, we've got to move on from is kind of permeating now the offense for me in Indianapolis. I don't see any tempo. I don't see any fear. I don't see any quick hitting. Obviously, the athleticism that Matt Ryan doesn't have makes defenses lick their chops about coming after him.

So there's no really speed on the outside that's making a difference. That's the thing. Yeah, we've got to defend him different. That's the thing. Randy, look at these teams. So let's turn our focus to Chris Ballard as a GM there because he has not been the go out and make the big splash in free agency. You know, they traded for divorce bucking, but he has not been a B into Tyreek Hill mix. Certainly he was in Kansas City when he had Tyree Kill. And there's real reasons why you wouldn't go after Tyree Kill. Right.

You can really defend anytime a team doesn't go make an expensive move in free agency for a star, you can defend that because a lot of times that doesn't work out. But when you look at who they have at the wide receiver position, this was a sensitive topic there in Indy this summer when I went to visit. Like the media was talking about it and they were just like, they weren't that worried about it because they thought, Matt Ryan, they'll distribute the ball. We'll get our guys. And I realized they missed Michael Pittman last week. But do they have enough juice, Randy? As somebody, you know, you're all about the speed and drafting that and understanding.

You want your back to be explosive. Obviously, they have that. But you wanted Ted Gin because he was fast. or you wanted fast guys. Joey Galloway was somebody that you drafted, I believe, in Seattle. I don't see any guys like that on them. Is that a fatal flaw of them? Is that something that the media was right and the Colts were just wrong?

Or is it too early to say? Well, I think it's all that both can be right. I do think it can be fixed. I don't see it, like has been pointed out. I don't see any element on the perimeter for the Colts offense that says they have to defend us different because of this. I feel a lot of grinded out electric football type drives where nobody breaks out of the pack. With all due respect to their offensive line and Jonathan Taylor, it's not the same running 10 plays to score as if we could score from any time anywhere. I prefer to

have a bigger strike ability and they don't have that right now. Even when Michael Pittman comes back, Mike, he's a he's the fail safe, right? He's the fallback. He's not a speed guy. He's not going to run by people you know, where he's going to have to get open deep with double moves and some deception, you know, and that's missing at this point. So I agree with you. I think there's something, there's a disconnect with the roster construction right now as to what the parts really are summing to do. And Frank's got to find a way to work with what he has. And maybe Chris finds a way to redefine what we're looking for on the perimeter. I will say this in all my years of scouting and evaluating.

It seems easy to find fast guys. I'm going to tell you it's not for some people. Finding speed, identifying speed, identifying suddenness and explosiveness is not always easy for some. Some people can sit on the couch and say, that's what I want right there. And probably not be far from the truth. So they've got to find a way to redistribute or redefine their criteria for what they're looking for, in my opinion, especially on offense. Can you contend, Randy, seriously contend?

Because that's what they, Jim, or so you tell you, we want to contend for a Super Bowl. Can you seriously contend for a Super Bowl? And let's just assume you don't have the all-time great Ravens defense. Because if you're so amazing in some area, then you can do it. but can you really realistically contend with a quarterback who never makes a wow play? Do you think that Matt Ryan is ever going to make a wow play again in his life? No, no. But I don't.

I agree with exactly what you're saying. I think what they're hoping to get is an even keel. We know what we're getting every week. The performance out of our quarterback. I get it. I understand it. But what that gives you is very little margin of error. You can't screw up one thing or two things or things are over because you're never going to have the wow plays to bring you back in the game.

So I just think it sets you back and gives you New Orleans is facing it a little bit as well with James. I've said from day one, as long as James doesn't, you know, isn't awful. They have a chance. Well, we found out last week that his performance, he made a couple critical errors in the fourth quarter of that game and it cost him the game. because your level of being able to make mistakes is gone. You can't make mistakes with that kind of play at quarterback. So I don't know if that answers your question. Yeah, he's not going to, all he's going to do is have a steady hand on the wheel.

Yes, that's right. And when you watch, I'm not a car racing expert, but if you watch a Formula One race or something, it's more than just putting the Tesla on autopilot. You've got to zoom in and out of traffic and make up. time. And it feels to me like there's the only thing you have to prepare for, really prepare for, is Jonathan Taylor there. There's no other component. There's respect for Matt Ryan. There's no fear for Matt Ryan. There's respect for some of the receivers. There's no fear. Yeah, they don't have to

defend anybody differently because of the perimeter players. I'll say that. Yeah. So, okay. So we agree then that I think their ceiling is limited as a result. They may be able to get a level of consistency and improvement, but I don't think they're going to be a push-deep team. Fortunately, they're mired in a division that might be set in mediocrity this year. We've seen what happened with the Titans. Jaguars are off to a decent start. You know, Houston, not very good. So it's not a great division.

They may be there in the end because of that. Let's talk about the Titans. They're oh and two. Time up on them. They lost AJ Brown. They shoot. They lost, you know, they lost their best pass rusher coming in. of the season, which is bad.

What do you think? Are they done? And not just done this year, but are they sort of like, have we seen the end of the Titans? Yeah, I don't know about the end of the Titans, but we talked about Kevin Stefanski's personality and how he can deal with the ups and downs of the long season. Now we, let's put Mike Rable in that same time capsule. I see a little more volatility. I see maybe someone who doesn't take the criticism.

him as well. And again, he has pluses too, but just a different personality leading the ship, a different captain. So I don't know what's in store for the Titans. I know this. They, I don't think they've drafted great the last three or four years. I think that's- I wondered how they could win so many games, Randy. That's exactly right. And I'm wondering how it took this long for that to be evident. And even though I think the rookie receiver, Burks that they picked this year may indeed be a good player, he's not going to be a step in, plug-and- play replacement for AJ Brown. It's just not going to happen.

These receivers that people count on to play early in their season a rookie year, good luck to you. They're a few and far between. They have a learning curve and a long time to get up to every aspect of their particular part of the trade to get good. And you're not going to find that from Birx right now. He'll show flashes. And they've drafted some guys of them prior years.

in the first round that just haven't, you know, they've been swings and misses. So I'm not surprised. Offensive line is, you know, an issue. A corner, the Farley kid from Virginia Tech. He's struggled with health, struggled with what is he? I get nervous when guys say, well, he sees a safety. No, he's really a corner. What that really tells me is he might not be either.

It's like those outside linebackers that they say, well, is he, is he an end? Do you put his hand on the ground? Does he play up? Well, he's probably not either. So I get nervous when the discussion about a particular player doesn't find, find a home for him when you can tell me what is he really. We're picking him in the first round. We've got to know really what he is. It's a great test for Mike Vrable, who I think has them a really good job there. And it does infuse that team with a personality. But you're right, maybe a little bit

of a volatility. But I think he's a tough guy. I think they've won a lot of close games there and they've been in the mix. And that's reflected well on him. But with the moves they made this offseason deciding to get rid of AJ Brown, you know, the margin for error was coming down. you have Harold Landry go out, you know, coming off of a 12-sac season last year. That's the sort of thing. No team, you know, you have a hard time replacing that. But I think their margin for error was already low. So we'll see.

Yeah. And I would say this. And the fix is going to require some patience. Yeah. I don't know that that's one of Mike's strong suits either. It's going to require some patience. What I hope doesn't happen is that everybody blames Tanny Hill. They bench him.

They bring the kid in. Yeah. Willis. And he fails. You know, that's the worst thing that can happen. Yeah. He's not turning it around. Not at all.

But that's an environment for him. Patience is needed, that's for sure. All right. Randy, are you worried about the Raiders or O and 2? I don't think I would have, you know, it wasn't a big shock. They lost a fairly close game to the Chargers in the first week. But blown a 20-point lead to the Cardinals is a little bit alarming. They're an O and 2 team that I thought Josh McDaniels was going to make a difference on game day.

To quote your phrase. I mean, you worried? What do we got? I'll tell you where I am a little worried. two takes on where they're at now. One is with Josh and his offense. I think Josh is a really good coach, obviously a great offensive mind.

I think a problem he has now is one that he didn't have in New England, and that is incorporating star power, whether it's the tight end or whether it's Devante Adams, incorporating star power to distribute the ball versus running an offense that is scheme-based, that you take what you get. it's it's uh we're building rhythm that's what he did in new england he wasn't worried about getting the ball to certain star players i think he's got to reach yes he's going to face now a little bit different

of a challenge is different and he's got to do that but my big concern comes on defense and and i've been a patrick graham supporter to this point i just felt like he had no answers in the second half against the cardinals um in when they lost the 20 point lead but to his credit The structure, let me say this right, the defense that he rolled out in the second half that Kyler Murray tore up wasn't because of the scheme or necessarily the play design of Cliff Kingsbury. That wasn't what brought out the weakness of the Raiders defense. It was what Kyler Murray did above and beyond the scheme. You see why Cliff Kingsbury loves Kyler Murray because he can make him look good in a heartbeat.

When he doesn't have answers, when his scheme doesn't have answers, guess what? Kyler Murray is going to take off and run a play that takes 20 seconds to defend and come up with great plays outside the scheme. That's what he's all about. That's what he does. So I really, I can blame Patrick Graham a little bit in that they just sat back and kind of took this. They didn't aggressively go after Kyler Murray. But I understand why he didn't because the end result could be big. And he just decided, hey, we're going to die by slow death of paper cuts, you know, and not give up giant big plays.

but Kyler Murray got him. And you're up by 20. Yeah. Brutal, and they probably do win without the fumble in the ball late and it's scooped up and all of that. So I'm not as concerned, I guess, to answer your story, with the Raiders. I think they can pull it together still and have a chance to be a playoff team as we get further into the seas. Yep. How worried are you about the Ravens on defense?

Has that era closed? I was appalled at what the Ravens did on defense. The first thing I thought of is, where's Wink Martindale? Holy mackerel, we didn't see this ever in my time in watching Week Martindale coach their defense for year after year. They had miscommunication. This is in the game against the Dolphins, they had bad miscommunication. They had busted coverages. There was people running free all over the place.

It looked like the opening day of pheasant season. The pheasants were just flying everywhere with no idea where the hunters were. That's what it was. It was crazy. So I don't know. The types of Idaho references we get here on the As we know, as we know, they made a change at coordinator.

Wink Martindale is now with the Giants, and they hired a young guy who had a couple years in his pocket with the Ravens, but was recently at University of Michigan. And Harbaugh brought him back off of his brother's staff, and now he runs the defense. And the old saying that I find that probably more true than ever before, he's getting a baptism by fire, and I would say education is expensive. And the idea of when you hire your guys, your friends, or you're doing it,

it's not always the best way to do it. In fact, that was one of the things I admired about Mike Rabel when he built his staff. He had, he talked about this once about there were friends, good friends of his. And he's like, no, not a good fit. You know, I think that's really important in putting together staff. And I don't look, I don't know the dynamics of, you know, that specific hiring. of the Ravens, but so far not so good. Do you think their personnel is problematic too? I don't really do. I don't think it is. I think it's fine. I think this team is a good team.

I mean, shoot, they wasted maybe Lamar Jackson's best game ever in the first half. I mean, he was awesome. No question. He's an MVP candidate still. So I'm not ready to push the panic button. I'm concerned that they can break so many coverages. And what it tells me is they don't know what they're doing. They just don't. So their errors might come in the classroom. They are not on the same page in the secondary. And you just don't see that in the NFL, Mike, people running free like that. You just don't. So it takes me back to what are we teaching? How are we teaching it? And what's the disconnect when we get out here that we don't know what we're doing? You'll never get better as a player if you don't know what you're doing. And while you tipped your cap to Tua last week after the six

touchdown, I could tell that your commentary was also like, hey, that defense was really, bad too so let's not anoint too much let's give them so let's give to us some credit yeah but um that defense was off was awful and that was a big part of the equation too no doubt 100% agree yeah our last team that to be worried about we've talked about a bunch but the broncos are only one-on-one it feels like they're oh and five i got laid down on the couch mike for this one i don't know this is yeah yeah yeah i just i don't know how it gets a lot better um so i'm gonna i'm gonna I'm going to say this. I think we all know that Nathaniel Hackett's in over his head right now, and that hasn't looked good. So there's no new ground to break there. Well, I'm curious. Just think of

that statement. Just think of that statement you just made. A NFL franchise went out of their way to hire him and said, this is the best guy in the whole world to lead our group. And two games in, you're saying matter of factly that we can all agree that he's in way over his head. Yes. Yeah, but yeah, I am saying that. Yeah, I know. I'm not disagreeing. I'm just. saying that that's a pretty big statement. It is, but I'm not, it is. It's a huge statement, but, you know, and it doesn't mean that I don't think he'll ever, you know, who knows?

I mean, in the future, he may not be in over his head, but clearly right now, I mean, all signs are to that. And I think the bigger issue for them is, or the bigger question for us to answer is, how good is Russell Wilson? Is Nathaniel Hackett holding him back now? Because remember Pete Carroll supposedly held back him, is Hackett, it's legitimate question, holding them back. I think I had a note last week.

They had 22 plays in the red zone. 18 of them are passes, and they're not doing anything. It's like they're trying to get touchdowns for the quarterback. The coach Hackett's sitting in his press conference. It's all about Russ. It's all about Russ, making him comfortable. That's not what it's all about. So can Russell Wilson save him?

Does Hackett need to do more to elevate Russell Wilson? Are you at all worried about him? because we, you know, he fell into tier two in the quarterback tiers this last year. How do you assess him and his abilities and whether he can get him out of this? I think the answer to the question is so deep that it takes a full podcast. I'm with you. And I don't disagree with anything that you said with regard to Hackett. I don't know him.

But the vibe is that it's a lot for him. And I guess first off with him, you're making a leap of faith. at about three levels when you hire him from the Packers to be your head coach. You're talking about a guy who's never had the final decision on an offense, because let's face it, Matt LaFleur runs the offense in Green Bay. We all know that. And Rogers to run the office. And Rogers, yes.

He had never been the primary play caller in Green Bay. So we're making that jump leap of faith. And obviously now, oh, by the way, you're the head coach of the whole team now, too, which we know you've never done. So it's almost like he moved up three chairs. So it was a risky proposition, a risky hire when it happened. And I think people have said all offseason that we like the Broncos on paper, but I can't assume this guy is going to be a great head coach.

He's going to be coaching his first game, you know. And sure enough, we found the results to that to be crazy. Yep. To answer your question on Russell Wilson, it's kind of unfair. We live in Seattle. We've seen it. We know what transpired there. We understand the shelf life expired.

We kind of had in the back of our. mind this is what they might be getting. I don't think the Denver people understood, one, that the game might not be where it was in his skill set, and two, the type of animosity that was held and contempt held in the locker room for him by some of his former teammates. So there's a whole bag of toys there that really the Denver people didn't want to unpack, but now they have to. And I think you could probably include George Payton in that group of, not really wanting to face the facts with Russell either. He saw a pursuit of a quarterback that was going to be game-changing for us after

swinging and missing, even though it was a prior regime four or five times. Yeah, and certainly he is going to be an upgrade from what they've had there. But to me, some of the mobility and ability to create, there was a play where he just flat fell on his face, like tripped over the lineman and couldn't study himself, you know, and just, I don't know, maybe I'm reading too much into it. He just hasn't looked as electric to me. Well, and we've said this, Mike, you and I for the last year. It's his legs that aren't evident.

You know, he was the best at keeping plays alive, at scrambling to buy time, running at the right time, never getting hit, never getting caught, always being able to at the last second dodge this or dodge that and through a completion. We've seen none of that so far in Denver. So I haven't seen him make any plays with the legs. quick ability to improvise and make something special. He had such a feel for the game in that realm. I don't know about the feel for the game if he's just standing there, being the same. I agree. He becomes an easier target for defenders because he's 5'10 to start with.

And now you've got a less mobile 510, which I don't know how that works out. I saw on our notes that the next question with regard to Denver is, and I'll just jump ahead, is you said, how do we fix it? Yeah. I don't know how we fix it, but one way to fix it, and I'm speaking with my GM hat on now, one thing that I would probably have to think about is maybe taking some of the weight off Nathaniel Hackett's shoulders, maybe somebody else calls the plays. Maybe somebody else is the primary, he can still be involved in all the offensive stuff for sure, but maybe somebody else actually calls the plays from play to play so I can manage the game, so I can manage the clock, so I can manage all these other things that

I've never had to manage before. So there's just a lot on his plate right now. Let's see if that makes a difference in the overall, you know, production, non-production. It just seems very chaotic right now, both on the sidelines for the Broncos and on their offense. And I just think if you take some of the weight off, hack it, maybe it can get better. Other than that, I don't know how you fix it, especially during the season. And who on the staff, on the offensive staff, are you going to have called a plays that

would be, you know, it's not like they're sitting there with Mike Shanahan as a senior advisor, you know. Yeah, I hear you. I mean, you're going to have to find somebody for sure, but can it get any worse? All right. Especially if they lose this game. We're about to find out. We're going to talk about that.

I like the 49ers all day in that game. All right. Before this podcast, when we put in our incredible 90 seconds or 90 minutes, I'm sorry, of preparation. No. You had some stuff fell in your notebook that you wanted to get to, Randy. I'm going to turn it over to you. What do you got? Well, they're just things that popped into my mind, and I don't know that I have an explanation for some of them.

You're the research guy. You're way more analytical than I am. But the first thing when I saw a couple of these games last week is the Bears ran 41 offensive plays. Wait a second. Can that be? Can you run 41 plays? I think Arizona ran 51 or 52 in the second half in that comeback against the Raiders. But the Bears ran 41 offensive plays.

never heard of such a thing. You can't develop anybody on that side of the ball doing anything if that's the amount of reps you're going to get on a Sunday afternoon. Does that strike you as crazy as it did me? It felt like to me of, holy macro 41 plays. That's crazy. Oklahoma wouldn't even watch the tape after the game. They would throw it away and say that was the first quarter, so much for that. Yeah. So basically this season, the fewest plays. Wow, this is interesting, Randy. So the fewest play is not counting penalty plays. Just run past plays, okay, in a game.

The fewest is going to be, she has Chicago's 41 as the fewest. And the next one is 47. So 41 is. By far the fewest. My Idaho math is correct. Yep. And then if we go to last year, the fewest was 40 by Denver in a game. So remember how bad Denver was on offense?

True lock. Yeah. So now let's just keep adding seasons. We add in 2019, you can't get worse than that. You have another 41 by Washington. In 2019. Yeah, they did it twice. So you know what's amazing.

If you go since 2019 and you look at the games with the fewest amount of plays on offense, of the top nine, three of them are Chicago. So. I apologize to the Bears fans. They've had to endure a lot of crap over the last few years, and that's not good. I just don't know how you could ever effectively be in a game or win a game running 41 play. Yeah. No, that's a bad one.

Yeah. That's a bad one. What else you got? My other thing was the Trey Lance stuff, and we haven't hit on the 49ers much to this point in this podcast. But obviously him going down changes the whole reflection of where Kyle Shanahan's play calling goes, how they run their offense. It's a different deal now with Jimmy Gropolo in play. But I happen to, you know, think there. maybe better equipped now to make a deep run into playoffs and that has no disrespect to

Trey Lans. But the biggest thing for me now in Trey Lance's development is he's going to be an idle for three years. We're going to be sitting here in 2003 with the same questions we have about Trey Lance now because he won't have played. You know, the COVID year, they played one game at North Dakota State. He played one or two games last year and I wouldn't consider that as a development. He plays one game this year. So really, it'll be four years when Trey Lance starts enough NFL game. Four years since any type of meaningful game, it would have been 2019 in North Dakota State. So I just, I don't know how you get better. They're going to say, well, he's a lot more mature now. He's developed in the offseason. It's not the same, guys. It's not. It's facing live bullets and going

week to week and playing up and down and dealing with the emotions and the physicality of it. He won't have had that. So it's hard to develop your skills when you take three years off. You know, so I just think there's going to be an enormous amount of rust. I don't know where this leads Tray Lance in the long run, but it's definitely has long ranging effect in my mind on his development. Well, and yeah, you can't, you can only hold up the rest of your franchise so long for some, for some one person, right? No doubt.

And you do it if that person is Andrew Locke and they've shown you that they can show up. Yeah, there's a body of work that I can sell in my locker room too. Yeah. I can sell that in my locker room. But really, there's a little bit of a parallel here with Jordan Love and Trey Lance are going to be two guys that are going to go three years, right? They're going to go three years without showing anything. All they've shown is limited play that makes you question. Right.

They didn't show a dazzle. Right. And what does that mean for the long-term future for, the Packers, it's simple, as long as Rogers plays. I mean, he's your guy because he's going to probably be really good. But for the 49ers who just have, it's not like they've got three more years of Jimmy to, they're not going to do, resign Jimmy. Yeah, he's not coming back there.

I don't care what they pay him. Yeah. So they're going to be in the exact same situation a year from now. Maybe they have to find their next Jimmy, a backup that fits Kyle Shanahan's. system well. But they didn't even want Jimmy, Mike. They didn't even want Jimmy in the equation. He kind of fell in their lap at the end. So I don't know. What it tells me is that hope has a shelf life, whether it's Jordan Love three years, whether it's Trey Lance for three years. It gives your franchise hope. But there's a shelf life and it's nearing expiration for both of those guys here

at some point. Yep. All right. What else you got? The other thing for me was I saw a little bit of the Houston game and especially the finishing part. on tape with Davis Mills and I've been a Davis Mills supporter. I want to get all the information I can if I'm Houston last year this year as him as a starter. I just felt for the first time at the end of their game last week that the game was a little too big for Davis Mills and that bothered me. That's when the game is too big and too fast and you're watching the rush and it's just enormous. That's different for me as an evaluator than evaluating a skill set physically that you think can improve or not improve. When the game is too big, that's almost like a fatal flaw. And I kind of

saw some of that with Davis Mills last week. I saw a game where I didn't think they had a chance to score a point at the end. And they were in the game. Could have, you know, could have come back and made a statement. I just felt no confidence in David Mills being that guy, Davis Mills being that guy. And that's the first time I felt that way with him. I don't know. Did you see any of the Houston game at all? I did. And, you know, I think Davis Mills has been classically evaluated in relation to where he was drafted. Yeah. And I think that's one of the reasons Tua's had a hard time because he went ahead of Herbert, right? So he gets even worse coverage. And I feel like someone like Davis Mills, people like, oh, yeah, I kind of like Davis Mills, you know. But if he'd been picked 10th overall, people would be like, wow, Davis Mills, there's a bad pick, right? So I think that frames a lot of it. Yes. I did go through. I watched a little bit of them in their first two weeks yesterday.

I think he had a near pick in the two-minute at the end of the, maybe at the end of the half or maybe it was the end of the game. It was the end of the game against the Colts through the ball, but had a outbreaking route maybe to his left and put it right on the DB. He could have had it. And in this game, you're right, you felt like he was sinking. And they were getting after him. I think he got hit a couple times late in this game too.

But I think that's just one to have in our radar. Because it's a long season, right? It is. And this is above and beyond any numbers or analytical analysis you can do on the kid. I get it. It's just a feeling. And those of us who've built teams and GMs and sometimes scouts, you just have a feeling. I just walked away with not a great feeling about Davis Mills in that situation.

That's all. Yep. You got a couple more on you. Yeah, the next one for me was easy. I think it's low-hanging fruit. But we've all seen what's happened to Joe Burrow this year already. Sacked another six times last week. I think people get in our fantasy football world this in their mind that we can just get two or three new offensive alignment and plug them in and we'll be fine.

We'll have shored up the sack issue with the Bengals. That's not the case. It's not the way it works, especially with that group. In fact, my goal from year to year was that once I assumed we were competent enough up there, I want to minimize change. I want to minimize as much change as possible because those guys have to work together more than any group on the football field. Those five guys have to communicate. They've got to verbally, non-verbally communicate. And I just think that is really hard to get them.

That's why I'm so impressed with what Cleveland is doing now. They're communicating, I think, as good as any team in the league right now with that group up front, they're not in Cincinnati. The protections are a little bit at fault. The communication of the protections are at fault. There's a lot of things that I don't like in Cincinnati that just can't be fixed like people do with their fantasy lineups on Sunday, they just plug and play different parts. The offensive line is not like that. So I think the change, although it may work out later in the season, may be good.

There is a period of adjustment for these teams who have changed multiple parts up front. And I think that's a problem in Cincinnati that won't be solved overnight. And without a track record of, you know, we don't, they may not improve. There's not a track record to show that. In fact, history says they won't improve quickly enough. They won't improve quickly enough. So I think they're going to be a very interesting team because everyone's seen what Joe Burrow can be. No one's really coming off their eval and Burrow, right?

No, not unless he gets sacked 100 times this year. That's what pace he's on right now. And then I'm not betting on the future of that at all. Right. But when you have a player like that, it's up to the organization, then to make it be functional around them. And that is question mark with that offensive line. No doubt. For sure.

Your last team's in your notebook. I'm peeking in your notebook. in Seattle. Well, I think we all know what's happening in Seattle. You're talking about a really a rebuild without anybody saying it's a rebuild. You're talking about a group last week that was kind of out over their skis and never in the game, 10 penalties, three turnovers. More importantly for me, 21 minutes time of possession. And then you run the message that this play sent to me was we are desperate. We really have no idea when we put four running backs in the game, try a halfback pass. on the 10 or 12 yard line, the halfback throws it right into the hands of the defender.

And I think I said it at the time, it's all fun in games and tell somebody has to wear an eye patch. That probably looked great and sounded fun. And we skipped around about it in practice. But in the game, it totally was demoralizing to me. It showed everybody that, what do we doing? That's crazy. It's comical to put four backs in a game like that and try that play. But just the thought of, why would you do this? Who said this was a good idea? You know, it probably wasn't as far reaching of a decision as I'm making it, but it adds to the fact of 10 penalties, three turnovers. We really don't have a quarterback for the future. I didn't like it.

I didn't like it. And maybe that's just me, but hey, it's the GM notebook, Mike. So what the hell? No, I think that's a fascinating situation because when I looked at them, you know, when they made the trade of Russell Wilson, my thought was they've got a two-year window to find the next quarterback. but, you know, we'll sort of see how it goes there. The season, they're one-on-one. It's not like it's out. That's probably better than people thought they would be.

But that was a little bit of a concerning game. We'll see if Pete Carroll can kind of turn it around. Well, I think that begets another question, and we'll get into that maybe in the future weeks. But if they haven't solved their quarterback problem, they've got to solve it at some point. I mean, we know Pete's going to be 71, right? is he part of solving the quarterback problem for the next 10 years? I don't know. It just brings up some questions that we're going to have to discuss at some point.

Yeah, should he be part of finding that next guy or whoever that is? And he's certainly got a great winning record there overall. But when you throw in that age and where they could be, you do wonder a little bit. We'll see. I have a theory of the great coach that, you know, they raise. rarely have horrific records. And I do think Pete Carroll's been a great coach. No doubt.

He went seven to nine twice when they didn't have a quarterback really before. And we'll see if he can sort of have that happen this year. They're going to have to develop in the run game, in the defense and all those supporting areas. So we'll see what happens there. Randy, Sean Payton mentioned, oh, by the way, he could be interested in working again. shocking. I had to sit down when I heard that. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Some guys just need their name out there, don't they? Well, I don't know why we would have to interject that. I really don't. I'm with you. Yes, I think Sean's gone from everybody in the building on edge to what he's going to do or say in a 24-hour period for the last 10 years or however long he's been the head coach to now not really that many people carrying at times. It's kind of like working in the dark, you know, like you were up.

Nobody cares what we say most of the time, you know. That's just the way. Certainly in our own household. Yeah, that's the way the world works. You know, I got news for you. And now sometimes I feel like we just create things to talk about. And, you know, I guess some people didn't know that Sean would take a coaching job next year, which is great in its own right.

But before they call Sean, they need to call Mickey Loomis in St. In New Orleans because they own his rights. And something has to be worked out there before he becomes the coach anywhere else. So it'll be interesting. Yeah, yeah. Do you have any thoughts on where he could land or is it too early for that? Well, I think everybody predicts he's going to be in Dallas, but I actually think that would be a terrible spot for him unless he just wants limelight

and bright lights and he'll get that. I think we all know what Jerry is. Jerry really indirectly undermines everything a coach does. Just ask Bill Parcells how that went, you know, how that relationship was. I'm going to interject. I'm so disappointed in Jerry Jones because he's got that gold jacket, so nothing can, there's nothing, he has nothing to lose. There's nothing to do it for, but like, they're going to have not want anything of significance

for 30 years by the time he's done with it or 25 years or whatever. And that is, for a team that has all the resources, that is horrific. That's bad ownership. So anyway, that's my little. It just increasingly bothers me. It just increasingly bothers me with him. So Dallas, I agree, would be a terrible spot for Sean Pays. And beyond that, I don't know that we have the information yet to where Sean could end up.

But you have to consider this as part of the criteria. Someone's going to have to pay him 10 million plus. There are 25 teams that won't do that. He's going to have to go somewhere probably where he either names his own GM or acts as the GM. 25 teams aren't going to do that. So you all of a sudden start to limit the landing spots when the criteria gets set that the other part is, yeah, are we willing to give up a first round pick to New Orleans to even get him? So there's three parts to the criteria right there. Who's going to do that? I guess we can figure that out as the season goes on, but that's the stuff that has to be answered before we even get to, hey, yeah, that makes sense.

Yeah, absolutely. All right. Let's get into our pick segment, Randy, which gives us a chance to talk about some of these games as. as we wrap up this heading into week three edition of the football GM podcast. Last week, Sanda was 0 and 2 on the picks. Now, I feel a disclaimer coming. I feel a disclaimer coming. You know, we all have excuses, right? I took Seattle on the 10 points because I thought Tray Lance was going to play quarterback the whole game.

I didn't think he'd score enough points to win by 10, but maybe he would have anyway. So the 49ers are leading three to nothing here, whatever. He goes into the game. Well, they score 27 with Jimmy. Guess what? They average 26 a game on office. offense with Jimmy starting. So I think that was a factor in the game.

But who knows if it would have been the spread? I also lost getting two and a half of Pittsburgh. Patriots beat the Steelers 17 to 14. I don't know that I was really impressed by anyone in that game. But I'd probably do it again. I'd probably take Pittsburgh and the two and a half. They played again. Randy, you were one and one.

You won with giving two and a half picking Detroit. They won by nine. You also lost on the Pittsburgh one. This week there's fun games. I don't know. Being the host of, of our own podcast. And sometimes when you go on someone else's radio show, they ask you if they make you make a pick.

No one can make us make a pick. I feel like I feel like I like a few of these games, but I don't love to pick them. No, I'm with you 100%. I don't love the schedule this week. And I always feel like the mark of a good gambling person is to know when not to bet. And I just don't see any that I really love that I would say, hey, I'm just going to pass this week. I'm going to lick my wounds and I don't have to make a pick. I'm with you.

I lost by half a point with Pittsburgh last week. And the week before I had lost a game, whatever we picked by half a point as well. So these half points are killing us right now. They figured something out there. I think Vegas knows more than us. But I will take one pick. I will take the 49ers and give a point against Denver

because I don't think Denver is going to suddenly solve everything. I think it's brutal for them to have the Sunday night game against a pretty good team. By the way, they can rush the pass or and Russell Wilson's not mobile anymore or doesn't seem to be. And by the way, it's the 49ers. They got the book on Russell Wilson, right? They've been playing him every year.

And they've been losing to him a lot of those years. But if you look at the nature of Seattle's victories over the 49ers in the last couple years, it was huge special teams, wild stuff. It wasn't the fundamentals necessarily of how you normally win the football game. So I feel fairly good about the 49ers with Jimmy Garoppolo starting. If it was Trey Lance, I would stay away from it. But to me, the 49ers are more of unknown, aren't they, Randy? The 49ers are a B, a solid B team, aren't they?

They're a good football team, right? Totally agree 100%. I think my confidence level with the 49ers is way higher than what it would be for Denver. So I have no problem given the one point. And I would jump. Are you going to take that game too? I would. I would jump on there with you in a heartbeat and say San Francisco, you know, is a, is further down

the road and I'm way more confident in them sorting out whatever little things they have, whether it's the Jimmy G factor. The other thing to remember is Jimmy G's going to have a full week of reps this week, too. He had, trust me, he had none the week before. None. Yeah. So that, that factor that in, too. He actually got to practice this week. Last week he got none because Tray Lance is getting every snap. So I like a couple good throws. He made a couple good throws, too. I think it was a nice warm up for him. Shoot, that's more work than guys getting the preseason nowadays. The fact that they're a one point favorite doesn't bother me at all going to Denver at this point.

Because unless something changes, the Broncos are given away a few points of game just in how they manage it. Now, the one thing that could change is if Denver, you know, has success in the red zone. They've had their chances to score. They really should have a lot more points than they have. But I don't know. I had, then she'd be my grandpa. I get it.

Okay. I got it. Yeah, I'm with you. Yeah, yeah, no, I'm with you. The 49ers, we got that one. Now, Buffalo is a five and a half point favorite at Miami. I love the game. I love the game.

I think it's going to be a fascinating game to watch. Go ahead. Sorry. Yeah, well, last year, Buffalo won 35-0-0 there. So anything different for you, Randy, or what fascinates you about it? I just think the fascinated, the part of it is these, and having spent time in that division, these teams all hate each other. It's a knockdown drag out in the heat of Florida.

It is September. I get it. Buffalo won there last year. different Miami team completely. I think Buffalo is the best team in the league, top five offense, top five defense. I think Josh Allen can, they can run the ball for as many yards as they really want to or need to. And therefore, I like Buffalo going down there. I'm just going to be fascinated by, I like Mike McDaniel and what I've seen in two weeks, the mad chemist.

I just want to see what he has in store to keep Von Miller off of Tua's back because I see Tua with the six touchdowns and almost 500 yards. against the recess depleted Baltimore secondary. I think it's going to be different with Buffalo. I really do. So I'm just anxious to watch the game. Yes, this could actually be one of those reality check games where, where, you know, Buffalo is going to score points, wouldn't you agree? Oh, yeah, I think they will, no doubt.

They may score just enough, but they're going to score points, yes. I like the fact they have a lot of options and what Ken Dorsey's doing. And I think he learned from dayball that we play to win the game. And that's the New England thing. They're going to play to win this game. It may be a total different mindset and offense from what they had last week, but they're going to do what they got to do. I was going to say, and if they score,

that's going to put pressure on Tua, a different kind of pressure. But I guess Tua was way down last week and they came back. It just wasn't against the bills. So maybe the lesson here is don't get too over the top excited about Miami and Tua off of last week. But also if it's a reality check this week, don't go in the tank on him either. There's probably a truth is somewhere in between, right?

Always. Always truth in between. And again, I think we've got a credit to it for what he did. Nobody's taking more bashing than two of the last couple years. He did it. You've got to face it. He did make the throws. He executed a great game plan that McDaniel put in. I just think over the long haul, let's see if he can back it up week after week. That's what we really need to see is toa come back from a game like that. And what I loved about that game was he was really good on third down, a lot of those touchdowns on third down. And that is a hard, that is the harder down.

So our last one that we want to talk about is Kansas City. You'd have to give six and a half to take them at the Colts. And I guess the only thing that's stopping me from doing it is this maybe incorrect field at all. Wow, chips are down for the Colts. They're going to get their best effort. I don't I mean maybe we are but wouldn't we have seen that last week or I almost feel like the chiefs could win this game by Mordenet. I would agree. I have I just it's a confidence thing for me. I'm confident Pat Mahomes and Andy Reid are going to put something out there that they've done the last couple weeks and I think they're going to be too I think they're going to score a ton. I don't know if indie India has not shown to me that they can score to keep up in a you know road race with Kansas City. So I'm with you. I'm with you. I. I think Kansas City is the play.

I think the question here is, is there any vulnerability in the chief defense that the Colts personnel can exploit? Because if you go back a number of years, a couple of years, I think they did beat Kansas City in a grinded out, low-scoring game. It might have even been a Joe Kobe Berset type of a game, where they sort of controlled it. It's probably their only chance this time, too. Yeah. You'd think with Jonathan, could Jonathan Taylor just have his breakout game? Is there anything about the chief's defense? They're down at linebacker a little bit.

They had Willie Gay got suspended. Is there anything about their defense that provides an opening or is it not a big enough opening for you? Well, I think it's the only way, like I say, they can win the game is to grind it out and keep the ball out of Pat Mahomes' hands. I could see the Colts, you know, Jim Haslett one year when we were in New Orleans, we went to play Kurt Warner and the Rams in St. Louis. And we started again with an onside kick.

And I remember thinking, what the heck? He said, hey, we need every possession we can get. we got to keep them off the ball off the field. Maybe that's the kind of attitude, Frank Wright has to have. He's got to take some risks. He's got to reduce possessions for Pat Mahomes. Did you guys recover the unside kick? We did and we won the game.

I mean, it was our only chance, but it set the tone for the whole game, you know. That's awesome. Those were, that was good. They just won the Super Bowl, I believe. The year before, yep. So sometimes when you have a team that is a little undermanned, you've got to take more risks. You can't play it close to the vest. And I do think it's beneficial for Frank Reich to realize I've got to steal a possession or two from Pat Mahomes in this game somehow, some way.

Yeah, I just think the contrast of the quarterbacks is going to be so, you know, it's kind of sinking into me what Matt Ryan is at this stage of his career. Even watching Atlanta, like I'm more excited by Mario. 100%. He's able to do. Like you're able to scheme some things around that, right? And you may say, look, Maraerda is a tier three or whatever. He's ideally suited as a backup. You can do some things with him.

He can make something happen. He can give your offense a spark. Yep. I just, with Matt Ryan, I don't want to go too overboard, but like the being unperturbed and unflappable in the huddle only gets you so far. Yeah. You've got to make a difference on Sundays. There's a few of these jobs out there where you do have to make a difference on Sundays.

Yeah, yeah, yeah. So we'll see on that. Hopefully we've made a difference on Friday or Saturday or whenever you're going to listen to this podcast. It's been fun. Randy, we'll watch some games this week and we'll come back and do it again. Where can everybody find you, Randy? Well, you can find me on my blog at Mueller Football. I do a little bit there.

And sometimes it's a fun follow on Twitter as well. And you know the Twitter handle better than I do. But I'm in and around and nowhere more prevalent than right here. GM by asking what his Twitter handle is. It's at Randy Miller underscore. I love it, Randy. You know the old school there. You're a Twitter handle.

I don't know. I don't even know what it is half the time. You're on there. And I'm Mike Sando, of course, at Sando NFL. You can find me there on Twitter. And everybody enjoy week three. We've had a great time talking about week two and where we're at this point in the season.

And we'll talk to you next time. This was the Athletic Football Show. Thank you.