The Athletic Football Show: A show about the NFL - Football GM: Eagles trade for Robert Quinn, Russell Wilson says ready to return, the Brian Daboll effect & more

Episode Date: October 27, 2022

Robert Quinn is headed to Philadelphia. Mike Sando and former GM Randy Mueller break down the Eagles’ trade with the Bears. Then, they share their thoughts on the Colts’ decision to bench Matt Ryan, Russell Wilson’s plane workout and the Jets’ deal for James Robinson. They also discuss what worked for Justin Fields against the Patriots and the big questions the Giants face with Daniel Jones. They close out the show by talking about what the Packers will do at the deadline, Tom Brady’s future and their Week 8 picks.Follow Mike on Twitter: @SandoNFLFollow Randy on Twitter: @RandyMueller_Subscribe to The Athletic Football Show...AppleSpotifyYouTube1:54- Eagles trade for Robert Quinn7:48- Colts bench Matt Ryan18:50- Russell Wilson says he’s ready to play24:34- Andy Dalton starting over Jameis Winston28:28- James Robinson traded to Jets31:14- Justin Fields finally looks comfortable in Bears’ offense37:34- Giants 6-1 & big questions about Daniel Jones’ future46:15- How active will the Packers be before the trade deadline?53:38- Aaron Rodgers’ comments on Packers mental mistakes59:38- Tom Brady’s future1:07:16- Week 8 Picks Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

This is the athletic football show. Welcome everybody. Mike Sandow here from The Athletic, along with the GM, Randy Mueller, with the football GM podcast. How you doing, Randy? Coming into what do we got? What week is this? We're going into week seven, week eight, week eight? I think it's week eight.

Yeah, it's getting away from us already. I get sad when we, when I start to get into teens, college is already wound down. And the NFL now is on its on its downhill course soon as well. also. I always love later in the season, though, because then you've started to look at some of the college players. You know, we start hearing about this guy or that guy. That's always fun for me because I'm totally in the NFL world. So I look forward to that as the season goes along.

We got a ton of stuff this week. Some stuff breaking even as, you know, not that long before we came on. We're going to hit some of the new stuff early with Robert Quinn trade, Matt Ryan being bench, Rosa Wilson dancing in the aisles of flights to London. We've got, you know, the Saints sticking with Andy Dalton, even though James Winston's healthy. The Jets made a trade for a running back. Those are some of the kind of quick-hitting things that we've had happen here. We have a few other topics we want to sink our teeth into today.

The Giants with the Brian Dayball effect. What we think the future might be for Daniel Jones. The Bears crushing the Patriots, certainly some interesting follow-out from that on Monday night. Packers this, Packers-that. Matt Lefleur is talking about what Aaron Rogers said, rinse and repeat. every week. We'll hit on that. We get the GM notebook, a couple things in there on some big time, big name quarterbacks and what's going on. We got our picks too, Randy, which by the way, we were three and out last year, last week, so we're probably destined for a correction, I would

imagine this week. No doubt. Eagles acquire Robert Quinn, pass rusher. Off the top, Randy, you like this for the Eagles? I do. I think it's a good depth get for them. Obviously, they are without Barnett, the other rusher that they had. I think it makes sense. I guess the most interesting part of these kind of deals to me are the new element in that teams now reduce players' contracts so that another team can have them. So really the compensation is how much are you buying down? So it's kind of like when you get a house loan, right, you're buying down the interest rate.

Well, these guys are buying down their cap number. So, you know, I think that's part of it now. And we saw it last year with Vaughn Miller and in his trade from the Broncos to the Rams. Now we're seeing it this time around. We saw a little bit with McCaffrey last week when he got traded for a low cap number this year. So that's the enticing thing. The Eagles do pick up another pass rusher, another good player when engaged. I think the downside of Quinn is sometimes you don't know what you're getting.

The production really hasn't been consistent all the time, but there's no reason to think he won't be productive for the Eagles down the stretch. And I do like it for him. I think the bears are, I mean, we know. The bears are cleaning how. house on some old deals that a prior regime kind of stamped. And really it's going to take them a while to flush everything out of their system from the last regime in Chicago.

Yeah, this totally makes sense to me because I think a player like Quinn, you put him in the right environment, right, a winning team. Like he's not going to necessarily, it's just hard at that age with those accomplishments to just be all the way in and excited about what's going on if you're in a crappy situation or you don't fit because you know you're not winning. The team, the Bears team is in a different stage of its life cycle than Robert Quinn is. So it's just a bad fit at this point. I remember when they traded up, this is previous regime Bears, but when they had to trade up to get Leonard Floyd.

Remember they had to move up two spots because we can't miss out on him. Then Floyd becomes a free agent. They let him leave for the Rams. They get Robert Quinn, give him a ton of money. He's older. They ended up spending more for Quinn than they did, would have spent for Floyd, or then the Rams certainly spent for Floyd. just a mismatch of things.

And now their regime timing is off on Floyd. So I like the deal for both themes. I think it's good. And if you're the Eagles, you weren't going to get Brian Burns, right? Randy, people were talking about that type of a trade. We were maybe,

we weren't even sure the McCaffrey trade was going to happen, little on a burn trade. They couldn't move Burns from Carolina, could they? I would think so. I mean, it's hard to get good players to start with. Now you're talking about moving them for whatever reason, just because the timing isn't right with a rebuild, like you mentioned with the Bears.

I just don't see that with Burns. He's a really good player and should be a good player for many years to come. So there's no reason to bail on him. But I'm with you. I think it's days, it's times, it's regimes. It's all about, you know, options. And I don't think the Bears really are looking for anything big in this regard, but they get a mid-round pick and they can maybe do something with it next year.

One of the things that was interesting, just on a personal note, was, you know, the news of the Quinn trade came down. And for us at 30,000 feet or people that aren't in the locker room, we're just assessing it totally on salary and picks and how it helps the Eagles. I thought it was interesting that Roquan Smith, the young linebacker for the Bears, found out about this trade during his media availability and actually was really taken aback, you know, and kind of covered his face and looked like he had some tears. It's a side of it that certainly as someone who analyzes, I don't really think about that much.

But for you being in the building, Randy, when you make a tree, Like this to me is just such a no-brainer for Ryan Poles and their regime from where they're at. But there is a human element to this too, right? I mean, it's their locker room. Yep, it's their locker room. It's also personal for all of them. And these guys have become a family at this point. So being the messenger is not the easiest thing.

Even if everybody makes sense of the move and why it's being made, I remember one time early in my days in Seattle. And we had a former first round pick that played with the Seahawks. And I was just a young guy in his scouting department. and we actually traded him to the Pittsburgh Steelers. This was late 80s. And Chuck Knox sent me out to the guy's house. This is before cell phones, before anything. He said, you need to go out there and find him and tell him that he needs to come see me in my office and I'll explain everything to him.

I remember going out to this, I'll leave the name out of it, to this player's house. He was on his deck, staining his deck, overlooking Redmond, Washington at a beautiful view. I mean, this house was awesome. and he was out there doing this work on a Tuesday on a day off. And I had to go tell this poor guy, hey, Chuck wants to see you, you know, you're going to get traded probably to the Steelers, you know? Oh, my goodness. Yeah, you're going to go from here to there overnight and you need to bring this with you

to come see Chuck. And I mean, so yes, the messenger, the message, the personal aspects of it are hard. But it was kind of a blessing for me in that early on I learned because I felt terrible doing this. I mean, I'm a 25-year-old kid. I ride out of college. But I got it. I mean, this guy's whole life was this home and his family and everything there.

And guess what? He's on a plane probably that night headed to another city and their world just got turned upside down. So I feel for these players that do get moved and it is personal. Somewhere there was a half-stained deck that, you know, you had to buy this property as is. I'll get back to that. Yeah, next spring. Yeah. When I get back.

That's the human component of this. You're just going about your business. business and your world really is in someone's hands, which it is for anyone who goes to any job. You could be let go at any time, but you're not going to normally be traded. You're not going to normally be traded to some random city and just have to do it. Across the country. Yeah. And be there that night.

Be there. There's no period of adjustment. Yeah. Yeah. So interesting. You can definitely see the human side of that. Let's get to the cult situation with benching Matt Ryan, which was very interesting to me because I certainly watched Frank Reich the night before standing up for his quarterback, probably a little bit too much.

But, hey, on one of those interceptions, I should have got the call in earlier. Clearly, the coach quarterback connection, especially the veteran quarterback, the coach who's been a quarterback can be pretty tight. Yeah. This didn't feel like a, I mean, it wasn't clearly a Frank Reich move. I thought that dynamic of Jimmer, say the owner meeting with Chris Ballard and Frank Reich, like after the game, That type of thing's different with every team, isn't it? Randy, with like, you know, what are the owners even in town? What are the owners in the building? What are the owners watching the game? What are the owner expresses opinions about the game? What do you think of just the optics of that, that decision? Your experiences with this is what strikes you? It's a hard one because I've never been a part of a decision that was made like this. I feel for all the participants, but obviously it's the owner's prerogative. And you're, right, everybody's different. Some places, the owner's engaged all day every day. I've been

other places where the owner you might see once every couple weeks. And you definitely don't see him after a game. It's not like that's the ideal time to review what we're going to do. So when I saw this, it was clear to me, too, that Frank didn't really make this decision. I don't think Chris did either. Somebody did. And if it was Jim or whoever, what I thought about was what happens now when you make a decision like this, this is the third quarterback in three years. Am I missing somebody? I mean, this has been swings and misses for a while now. I felt bad for Chris, mainly because I've been in that chair.

Now how do you go sell the next move to the owner? Or can you even do that? Because this one is hard. They're benching the guy because they don't want to guarantee him any more money the next year or subsequent year in 23 in this case. So they're starting a Sam Ellinger, the quarterback from Texas who's in his second year. I don't know that he's ready for this, but does it make sense at all? Because then you've got to go to your locker room. You've got to explain it to your guys in your locker room that this is the right thing to do for us football-wise when they might look at you

and say, well, this might be the right thing financially for you to do, but we want to win games. And Matt Ryan might give us a better chance than this young guy. They don't want to hear rebuild. They don't want to hear a step back. They're grinding, giving you everything they got. So there's a lot of different elements in play here. And I'm not sure how it ends at the end of the season because obviously Ursa is going to have lost faith in his evaluators and the decisions that they've made. Maybe he made this all along and he acquired him and now he's really dismissive of Matt Ryan.

I don't know. But the dynamics are messed up. That's for sure. Well, what's unique about this to me, Randy, is that we all, I can. can't think of another time when you had a top-tier quarterback who's your franchise guy in his prime from an age standpoint retired. So I feel like with most teams, it's fairly clear how you're going to rebuild. If you are going into a place that's kind of ground floor, you may look to find a patch, a veteran to patch you, you know, a Matt Ryan type, but you're going to be identifying in

the draft somebody you're going to take and you're going to build your franchise from that standpoint. Likewise, but if you have a team like the Colts where they were kind of in the middle of this build around Luck, right? And so they felt like they weren't that far away. Shoot, the one thing they thought they could take for granted was Andrew Luck. He's going to be there. So let's get him a line. He's been a little shell shock from the hits and there's been some injuries. Let's get the line.

So we fix that. Hey, let's get the defense just squared away. It had been pretty bad. Now, in retrospect, so then they end up patching kind of with a Philip Rivers. They patch, they took a little bit of a in-between guy with Wentz who maybe has upside, but has played a little bit. And then you get an end-of-the-line guy in Matt Ryan. What do you think, is there really a blueprint for that situation?

I mean, what do you think in retrospect, should they have been more in the market of maneuvering for a highly drafted quarterback? or, right? What would be the critique of what they should have done for the situation they were in, which is unique? I can't think of another one like it. It's definitely unique. And I think we're all in the business as GMs and head coach now of figuring stuff out. And you get dealt hands often, maybe not to the extent of Andrew Luck retiring, but you get dealt hands that you, let's face it, it's a shit sandwich. I mean, you just don't know.

Some days are like that. And you can have the best laid plans of mice and men and it goes haywire. So you just don't know. Whether they should have drafted one, I don't know. But the point is they evaluated Philip Rivers and thought, hey, we're good here. Then we evaluated Carson Wince and gave up a bunch to get him and said, oh, we're good here. Then that didn't work out. Now we're giving up whatever they gave up to get Matt Ryan, and that hasn't worked out.

So I guess going forward, if I had to return on my investment, I would check the punch card that, What are we looking for in a quarterback? Maybe the criteria we've set here just isn't working because we've been, we're O for three now. We haven't solved it yet. I understand we have a playoff team and that we wanted to do it with a veteran. Most people don't get four swings at the quarterback. You know what I mean? We talk about swings on hire and head coaches.

Nobody gets three. Suffice a guy or two that I've ever been around. But now we're talking about a fourth quarterback. At some point, your credibility is a hard sell. And you've gone to that owner three different times. Now, he may have been involved in it, and it may be partially his fault. I don't know. Well, certainly giving up on Wentz after one year was all about the owner, just like giving up

once it's situation where once it goes bad, the owner comes in and blows it up. That's what's happened. They blew up Wentz, which, look, Wens wasn't great, but he's better than what they've had this year. I mean, I don't think they would have been worse if they came back with Wence. Then you might be moving on to your third quarterback instead of your second. I see a GM who has been trying to get a guys that his head coach likes. I think there's a line there, Randy, probably somewhere that you. understand where because you are trying to do what your coach wants to I mean you can't you can't

get somebody your coach doesn't like and have that work out but you're also as a GM you got to do what's best for the organization long term you got to be able to tell the coach hey Frank we're not doing X Y or look I know you like the veteran and Matt Ryan or hey I know that you think you can make it work with Carson Wentz there's a certain point where you have to come in maybe and say easier said than done but no we're not doing this and here's the plan we're doing this do you buy Do you agree with that? Do you think there's been a little bit of too much of, hey, you're comfortable with Phillips.

Hey, you're comfortable with Wens. You've been with them. Hey, you're going to connect with the old guy, Ryan, which really wasn't part of a plan, by the way. Ryan fell to them. Their plan was to just get rid of Wence. That's all they did. They didn't have it.

Well, I think the plan might be flawed. And I'm not saying that in any disrespect. But yes, I mean, I've been with Frank Reich. I was with him with the Chargers for several years. I know him. There's no better man. He clearly cares about his guys. But yes, I think at some point you have to put out your hand and say, okay, that's enough.

It's not the friends and family plan. We're not going that route. We're going to do this. And I think Chris has to do that and probably should have done it a while ago. But I don't know how he solves it now other than just have to go draft one because I don't think they could ever sell to anybody. Here's another mid-level veteran free agent that's going to get us over the hump. And now your team's declining. in other ways their lines not as good.

Their window has kind of closed or at least gotten smaller for them. The team needs more help elsewhere. They're not as good as they were. Not at all. I think it's a hard one to sell in your locker room as well because those guys want to win right now. And I just find it hard to believe

that they are going to buy Sam Ellinger as the best option. That's a business deal made by, if you say it's the owner, I don't know. If that's the case, I don't think it's the best competitive environment. You think Ryan Kelly wants to go this route, the center that they paid all this money to that gives his heart and soul every weekend? You know, I don't think so. So it's just a hard sell for everybody in the building. My read is that Matt Ryan was kind of the latest quarterback this team that signed primarily because the head coach wanted to coach this player.

Whatever was Rivers, whatever was Wentz, what was Ryan. And I would imagine that there's people in that building, personnel people, Ballard, Ursa, whoever's in the scouting department, who really liked Sam, young guy or they wanted to at least see him already. And so now they're going to get their wish and get to see him. But the problem is it's hard to just drop in without having started a game when those offensive line issues they have aren't going away. They better hope the running game comes back, right? I mean, this could be a less than ideal situation for Sam to come into too.

It is. And I don't know if you remember, Mike, back on our podcast, who it was last year or the year before, Sam Allinger was kind of our guy. And he was a guy that I had dove into and really liked. So I see what they see and what they like in him. I just don't know at this point in the season to turn it over to him so abruptly all of a sudden. It's a tough, tough ask, I think so. So I would guess my read on it from afar, though, is that Ursa and Ballard have kind of been itching to want to go this route.

But it's hard to sell that on your coach to your coach. It's hard to just force a guy in your coach. But now it got bad enough with Matt Ryan that it was easier for owner, maybe GM, to say, This is what we're doing. Okay, we've had our chance. We're not letting Pat Ryan Thorke to get her team twice like that and pick sixes and fumbling 10 times and there's 11 times. We're done.

We're not doing that. That plan's over. Here you go. Make it work. And so. So are you saying it's Frank Reich's done at the end of the year? Well, let's see how the rest of the season goes. But I think he's certainly imperiled.

I mean, I think I don't see how if the, now look, look, it's not like they're, they're three, three and one. So they're in a bad division. it's not over. I mean, they could, but I think that it's improbable that they're going to, if they do make the playoffs win in the playoffs, right? I think it's, I think it's a tough situation to return the status quo for the owner to do that, don't you? Well, yeah, I don't, I think something has to change. But I think you're right. The next eight weeks will determine how much change they see as an organization. But I think the key point you made early on is this team's not where we thought it was. It's not as good as we thought it was. They're not the only. They're not the only thing. team like this. Everything is built on paper and then we get to see exactly what unfolds during the season. This was a team that ended last season disappointing, started this season disappointing. So change probably is in the future at some point, but how much I don't know. Yep. All right. So talking about change in the future, more news this week. Russell Wilson declares himself

ready to play. And Randy, I got to tell you, we say LOL. Let me correct you. There's no change. This is the same. There's nothing. changed. Go ahead, sorry. I laughed so hard because I don't know if you followed Darius. Do you follow Darius Butler on Twitter? This is where I saw it. No, I don't think so. Somebody put together a video of like a

plane. And by the way, Russell Wilson came out and told the media that hey, after missing the game with the hamstring, I worked out and trained for four hours on the flight to London and I'm ready to go, right? So, picturing him in the aisle while the rest of the teammate tried to sleep.

And by the way, KJ. Hamler, their receiver there, retweeted over this, said, no BS, L.O.L., which I think is like that he's not lying. He was doing this in the aisle, which reminded me of Russell Wilson going through the fake workout and pregame when he wasn't going to play last year. But Darius Butler had this very funny video. Everyone should find it on Twitter. It's a picture of a cockpit, like a – it could be like a stock video of a cockpit. So you see all the backs of heads, you know, looking up the aisles. And it's just people going on a flight.

It's not like someone on a team. But it's just a flight you can hear it cruising along. Then somebody took that commercial of Russell Wilson where he's in his jersey. And it's like outtakes for a commercial where he's like, let's ride. Let's ride. Let's ride with different insinations. And they have Russell Wilson in the aisles of the plane. It's superimposed in there of this video.

So it's a plane cruising. along and you can see Russell Wilson in the front going, let's ride, Bronco Country, let's ride, and no one's reacting in the planes. I thought it perfectly captured the disconnect here. I noticed you wrote in our notes here, Randy, please, can we stop? Are you just trying to get me fired up? And now you're shaking your head. What do you got here, Randy? If you're the GM on the plane and your quarterback's been through, I want to put you on the plane in George Dayton's chair, I'm doing this. And you know all this stuff that's ruined. Maybe you're even thinking on this flight, shoot, I've never wanted to get out of the country more than I have right now. Let's just get out of here.

We're going overseas. Maybe I won't come back. Maybe I'll just disappear into the streets of London and they can have this team. But in all seriousness, now your quarterback gets up and for four hours in the aisles doing stretches under the circumstances. You're shaking your head. What do you got? Well, I don't care if you stretch for 15 hours. Why do we have to feel like we need to tell the media this and go step by step with them? I just have never seen an ego at work where there's lack of awareness of how this might turn out. If I'm just sharing everything I can, it's all self-agenda-driven, in my opinion. So it's really hard to take it serious when it's always about him, always makes it about him. I don't doubt his work ethic. That's great.

I want a guy that's going to work. I just don't want to talk about him working harder than everybody else. I don't care who's sleeping, who's not. I mean, you know, that part of it just gets old. I mean, all the way from the Wolverine blood to all the other gibberish things we've heard from him that's, in my opinion, self-serving. Hey, if I'm George Payton, I'm not asleep because I just gave this guy $200 million and I'm trying to figure out what I'm going to do now. So there's no way George is sleeping on that plane. What do you do?

If he plays bad this year and all of these types of things just keep going and intensifying things that are going to alienate you from the team and just make it hard. to be about the team. But you're stuck with this contract. I mean, can you come? I mean, this sounds really premature after six games. Can you come back next year like this? I don't know how you can. I mean, someone's going to pay the price,

whether it's the coach or somebody. It just doesn't. Can the team come back? How do you? Yeah. I can't believe I'm saying this after seven games, but seven weeks or whatever. But I'm just having a hard time seeing this be the way it's going to be forever.

Well, it's, it's, we saw it unfold in Seattle. So this is not surprising to us. It's been like this for the last couple of years. Everybody walking on edge eggshells around the building. I found it funny that Schfter's tweet a week ago. If you just break that down as to where do you think that information came from, it was almost to the point where Russell Wilson did everything he could to play, but the Nathaniel Hackett held him back with both hands.

He had to grab him around the waist. You know, I'm paraphrasing. This guy's such a gamer. Yeah. I mean, it's come on. I mean, it's crazy. So I just, I don't know. I just tire of it.

And it's a team sport. It really is. But when someone is always bringing attention to themselves, it really makes it hard. And maybe I'm too old school. And everybody's, you know, does their own thing now. I get it. There is branding. There's business interests and everything else.

But I just find that the messenger in this case is deaf to the, to the listener. You got to play good, though, if you're going to do that stuff. All that stuff is tolerated if you're playing really well. And people still may roll their eyes at you or, you know, whatever. The stuff in Seattle where the teammates always sort of had, you know, didn't, there was always those rumors or reports that it wasn't eye to eye. I think that stuff can all work if you're really playing well. But when you're playing poorly, I don't know how long you can go with it. And that was kind of my point in seeing this is he better start playing well for this thing or it's going to get crazy there.

All right. Well, he won't like my, he won't like my pick section when we get. get to the end of the show then because I don't know. I'm not drinking what they're with they're selling for Kool-Aid. I can tell you that. No. Two more news items here off the top. So Andy Dalton's going to start even though James Winston is healthy. And I don't know, Randy. I've had a problem with the Saints this whole time of trading away future picks, trying to make a run now. I thought that was predicated on, hey, Winston started the turn of corner last season. Took away the interceptions. Maybe we feel like we can do this. I didn't buy that. But now we're going to stick with Andy Dalton.

I don't know if you saw Andy Dalton against Arizona. It wasn't like that was a clinic in how to play quarterback position. What's going on? Well, I tried to take what Dennis Allen was saying, literally, when he announced this, and he made it clear that this was an offensive staff decision. I think they're going to give Andy another shot, obviously, but probably with a shorter rope, he was no different than James in that the turnover is compounded and really with a reason for the loss. What it tells me is they're kind of done with James, whether that's good, bad, indifferent, whatever.

If you're not going to play him and he's healthy, tells me they're done with James. So that relationship may be frayed at minimum. The sad part is if you're part of the Saints and you know you need a quarterback for the future, you don't have a first round pick. You gave that to the Eagles last year to move up for Chris Olavi, which I, love the player. Yeah, your number one receiver. Yeah, he's a really good player. But maybe your, maybe your goal is now to get a first round pick for Sean Payton. Maybe you can get well in that regard. Or you're going to have to pick a quarterback probably in the second round, which isn't

out of the question. We know we can find them. So, so that's, it's just a little different. I think personnel guys think that without a first round pick, we're screwed, we're screwed. Well, I don't know if that's the case with, with this Saints team. I'll give, them credit, they're going to do everything they can to spend every dime they have to make this run last as long as they can. And I don't think there's anything wrong with that. I commend them for doing that. I want to have expectations that we're there every year, not that we're rebuilding. So I commend them for that. I just think it's a tough spot for the quarterback. You know, obviously with no Sean Payton, you've got a new play caller, Dennis Allen, you've got a new head coach. I don't think it's

all on the quarterback play. I don't think that's the reason that they are where they're at. But there's a combination of a lot of things that aren't working right now. So hopefully they, like you mentioned earlier, with regard to the Colts, it's a long season. They're in a division. That is winnable. We all know that Tampa's not, you know, running away with it. Carolina already fired their coach. Atlanta's just average. So it's, it's not out of question that the Saints could come back and win four or five in a row and be on top again. So time will tell. What if the Falcons won that division? I just hadn't really thought of that. that would shock me, but I give Arthur Smith credit.

He's doing more with less. I don't think they have a talented team. They're definitely not a playoff talented team. But hey, what did Yogi say? You only can beat the teams you play. And if you play every game to win that game, good coaching really comes to the forefront. So we'll see.

Yeah, I've been impressed with them too, just for how they play. And they could have been a team to me that was just a disaster to watch every week. And they're feisty. They're playing. I think the key to him and the Falcon, for me, Mike, is they have structured an offense around a quarterback skill set. And we take that for granted. But when you look around this league, it is littered with square pegs trying to be fit in

round holes when it comes to offensive schemes with quarterback skill set. And so I give Arthur credit. He knew what he was getting in Marriota. It fits with what he was going to do with him. And there's no doubt that they're running a scheme that Marcus Mariotta is a depth of doing. So there's no bad. fit with regard to that. I think that gives them a heads up. It really does. Gets them ahead of a lot of teams in the NFL. And we're going to talk about that in a bit here as we get to Chicago.

Last news item is James Robinson running back traded to the Jets from the Jaguars after the Jets lost Brees Hall, who was really their explosive play threat. I don't know if you've watched the Jets offense. I feel sorry for you if you have, but Hall had a 60-plus yard run last week against a really good Denver defense. They lose them. Add James Robinson. What do you think? Well, I think it's another good move. I like these trades that are being made now because they've serve a purpose on both sides. Obviously, the jets are in the mix in the AFC East. They think that. They lose a running back. They're able to get one for little or no fee. It's a rental. It's an eight-week rental. Obviously, Robinson has a history of being a productive back. He was going to be a restricted

free agent for the Jaguars in the offseason. They clear. weren't going to tender him up because he was a free agent as he entered the after the draft they would have had to tender him at a fairly high level to get any compensatory pickback or any compensation back for him signing elsewhere they didn't want to do that so I think it's a good move for them obvious Travis Ittyen played well last week he's a running back that they spent a first round pick on a year ago right wrong and different he's going to be their guy so it kind of makes sense for me again on both ends and it could end up being a good get for the Jets for sure yeah and he's

These are sort of, you know, we always think about the big trades like McCaffrey, but there's a ton of these that happen that just kind of a little bit under the radar, but make sense for both teams. And if you really know the rosters and look at the contracts, you can almost probably predict some of these, hey, this would make sense. Yeah, I agree with you. The only thing is, and this used to always make me nervous, when you're the team that's giving away a player or trading away a player, you're trading away depth as well. And heaven forbid something happens to Aetian, but let's say he sprains an ankle and misses four or five weeks. Now where we're. at. And the Jaguars are kind of in the mix right now. So if they have another back, hopefully they feel good about a third back that would allow you to move this guy. That's all I'm saying is you're eating up some of your own depth when you give these guys away as well. I would never do that with an offensive lineman per se, because you're going to always need them. You know, so it kind of depends positionally where you're at. Is running back one where you feel like you can, even if off the street, if you had to get a guy or not really? Well, I think you can. I think that's a position that, yes, can be more plug-in-play. I know one year with the Saints,

we went through three guys. We signed Terry Allen, who was kind of at the end of his, end of his rope, but he came on and rushed for 100 yards two or three times, and he'd only been with us a week. So I do think you can plug and play those running backs just by teaching him a little bit of the offense, and it's on a week-to-week basis, so they don't have to know the whole scheme. Yep. All right, let's hit some of these other topics that we really like. The Bears crushing the Patriots. I did not have that down. as likely to happen on Monday night. But there was a ton of interest coming out of that game

surrounding Bill Belichick's handling of Mack Jones, Bailey, how the Patriots are going to proceed at the quarterback position. But that's probably just going to work itself out over time. The bigger takeaways here from this game, Randy, were what for you? Well, the big takeaway for me is it's the first time since Justin Field has been a bear that I have felt anything was done game plan wise scheme wise to really suit his skill set and i thought the bears finally acquiesced i don't know how they came to this conclusion some of us have been saying it for weeks some of us been saying it for over a

year that they need to do something to use this kid's skill set we know he's big we know he's athletic we know he's got a big arm we know all the good things he can do why are we making him drop back stand in the pocket process coverage and then choose a target let's do all of this stuff for him let him build some confidence. He'll get to that at some point, but they just never would tailor an offense that he could have confidence with and be productive and effective. And they did that on Monday night. You saw his running skills. He saw his big arm. You saw the play action, RPO stuff that all of this stuff should have figured in. I thought it was the best game plan and therefore the best performance of Justin Fields career. Yep. And you can see what that type of approach has done for Philadelphia with

Jaylon Hertz. Exactly. And that are kind of like Fields. a good runner, a guy who seems to have his head square in his shoulders. Someone who seems to work at it, seems to be smart, but really needs some fine tuning in the, and time to develop as a passer, as a dropback passer, which is hard for everybody. I think you saw it in the body language of Justin Fields as importantly as anything, because we saw him a couple weeks prior, the pounding he was taken from dropback passes in the pocket and getting killed. he had wanted no part of that. He knew it wasn't going to work. He knew it didn't fit with what he wanted to do or could do. And this was a total different field. Did you see him dancing in the locker room afterwards? I mean, this kid was genuinely giddy about the results of, hey, this is what I can do. Finally, someone gave me a chance. And I just felt his whole vibe and really the vibe, I'm guessing, for Chicago as a city, changed in one night. I did hear a little bit of how this came about. And I don't know if this is true or not. You probably know more about this than I did.

than I do. The front office got together with Matt Eberfuss and kind of brainstormed a little bit as to how this plan was going to evolve and what they were going to do with his usage. And it actually came together pretty good. So I commend them for working together and finding the, in my opinion, the correct solution. They had a mini buy there. Okay. So they played the Thursday night game Chicago did. Remember, after that Thursday night game, we talked about it last week on the show. after the game, Richard Sherman and these guys on the Amazon broadcast, they went all in on Luke Getsy and those guys. I mean, they ripped them for the plan for Justin Fields.

And then after the game, that to me helped make it more topical. It's sort of sometimes when you're covering the team, you're a little bit, when you get in those situations and those press conferences, it's not always easy to just ask the really, pointed hard question in a blunt way on certain topics. It can be. And yet for me, when Sherman brought that up, it like broke the ice. And now in the post game, and I don't know if this is true, if this is how it happened. It could have just happened anyway. But I felt like that line of questioning suddenly got a lot more aggressive after that game. And so then they go on, then they go on

a mini by week. So they play Thursday. They've got that weekend now where the staff's probably off until Sunday, right? They're probably off a couple days. And that gives you a a chance to get together and say, what are we doing? And the other people in the building are asking those questions, too. Hey, what are we doing? You've got an offense you want to run. We got to retool this thing. I thought that was very encouraging.

And you talk about Justin Fields as a runner. There were two plays in that game as I went back and watched it that were really interesting to me. One, on the goal line run where Justin Fields goes and runs over to the left side for touchdown. Watch the DB for New England number 13, Jack Jones. He's had a nice season for them. or plays Chacey Jackson. He wants nothing to do with the context of the goal line.

Business decision. Nothing to do. I mean, this was the Mattador defense. The Bull's coming and you got out of the way and you would, how did he not get gored by the Bull? Yeah. I mean, this is, and this has happened forever in football. I'm not saying guys that's different now or whatever.

I don't know. 235. This is not Jim McMahon running in for the Bears. If I'm a little DB there, normally the football watching me like, I can't believe this corner doesn't want to take the quarterback on, right? Well, you take him on. This guy is weighs as much as Eric Dickerson Wade. You want to meet that at the goal line when he's probably going to score anyway?

Same thing on the sideline. Sideline run. And I know the officiating has come into this two of whether you can hit a guy when he's going out. Same guy, number 13, for the Patriots. He wasn't going to hit him. Wanted no part of it. You wanted no part of Fields on the sideline. And to me, that shows you, I'm not just really saying anything about the guy for the Patriots as much as I'm showing you, this is the, this is how formidable he has as a runner when you're running him on offense, not reacting in the dropback game and having three guys hitting in your legs. Because anyone's going to lose that battle.

I'm talking about when you run him on a design run, shoot. Not everybody wants to tackle him. especially in the fourth quarter because guess what he is still 235 in the fourth quarter same yeah yeah and those guys are tired and they've been through it and and you're right they start to make business decisions and yeah it's not easy it is awesome for Justin Fields I think if you've been sort of feeling for him this whole time you felt like woo vindication some some chance yeah yeah you see a guy you're just getting beat down and you're like happy for him almost that this was able to work out that way another team we're happy about the new york giants

Six and one, going to Seattle this week, chance to get a road win, maybe get to seven and one. Pretty interesting there. And it's a great segue out of the Chicago game because we're lauding the bears for finally adjusting this offense. We didn't really have to wait for Brian Dayball to do that. Did it be week one? Did they play Tennessee in week one? Was that the first game? Using the mobility of Daniel Jones and Saquan Barclay in the two-point play that won the game.

pretty cool. A dayball effect to you is what, and what are the implications here? Because this is a team with some decisions to make. No doubt. And we should not be surprised. It's only, you know, look up the road to Buffalo. And he did the same thing with Josh Allen. I mean, everybody was ready to can Josh Allen after two years too.

But guess what? He went back to what Josh Allen can do. They ran the ball. They ran some RPO's. You're talking about a big dude. He play action passed. He ran some predetermined target throws. which he didn't have to sit in the pocket and read and look what he's become.

So I'm not comparing Daniel Jones to Josh Allen, but I think the teaching techniques and the learning curve that Brian Dayball went through with Josh Allen is going to be effective with Daniel Jones. And he's done some of the same things. Daniel Jones has struggled with three different head coaches, three different OCs, and he's in year four. We talk about the jet screwing up their quarterbacks in the past, whether it was Sam Darnold or whoever.

Yeah. The Giants have been no better, okay? Even John Mara admitted last week that we've done about everything we can to screw up Daniel Jones. So the best thing they did was hire Brian Dayball so that that process can start. Now, it's a shame that it's taken four years to start, but it is now in play, where his skill set is being utilized in an offense that exactly fits what he's doing. He is a great athlete. He can run. He can play action pass with the best of him. He's really a good ball handler. He fakes, he runs RPO's, he uses hand and I fakes, very deceptive with the ball in his hands. That's a whole other story. He's also got a really good arm when his feet are under him. So when play action passes are presented to him, he can zip the ball in the tight windows. What he's not good at is the same thing we talked about with Justin Fields. Sitting in the pocket, reading coverages that are combination, hard to sort out, you know,

struggling to find a target and throw the ball on time. That's when he struggles. I was impressed last week in particular in a couple plays where they faced man-to-man or it was really man-free coverages in the secondary. Yeah. He tucked the ball and ran right away. There's nobody that's responsible for the quarterback when they're playing man-to-man defense unless you have a spy. They did not in the case of the Giants game last week. And he ran for big yards because of it.

So I just loved what Brian's doing with him. I think eventually Daniel Jones, if this year continues like it is, I think there's a good chance that, you're going to find that the Giants are going to try to pay him and keep him as their quarterback of the future, just because he fits exactly with what Dayball wants to do now. And I think it can evolve into another offense once he masters this task. Now, he's a year or another year probably away from catching up to where the passing game needs to be for them to be really good. But I love the fit right now. And again, it's not easy around the league.

We see places that don't fit the quarterbacks that they have. This one is fitting, and I credit Brian Dayball for really constructing an offense that works with the skill set of his quarterback. Absolutely, you know, and I'm going to do a Giants podcast later today, and I'm going to have the depth chart ready so I don't get stumped when they start asking me about who these guys he's throwing the ball to because it's not like he's got. But we're not talking about that. And that could be an easy excuse for this team. Oh, we don't have any weapons. Yeah, that's why he looks bad. Yep, we're a year away.

We're taking it on the chin. And this is a team now that is going to win enough games. They're not going to be drafting in the top five, top ten. They're not going to be in the draft for a quarterback. That's why, yeah. Go ahead, yeah. I was going to say, that's why I love the upside of Daniel Jones because they don't have him surrounded with anybody.

It's neighbor kids running around for the most part. But they're doing a really good job. Steve Slayton is doing his thing. Robinson, the young kids doing his thing. What's that? Oh, you just make me laugh sometimes. Like you come up with the great things. Neighbor kids is a great one.

You just threw in neighbor kids. You had another one last year that used to say you said you called somebody a slow blinker last year like they don't process that quickly. So slow blinker neighbor kids are going on my list of things that I can use now and sound like I've been an executive 30 years. The point is we need to upgrade that, but I think we can do that. We can definitely upgrade. And that's why I think there's upside with Daniel Jones. Yeah. I think we might be burying the lead here, though, a little bit.

And I wrote this for a column on Mueller football this week. Oh, look at the plug. MuellerFutball.com, everybody. Get over there. the lead might be that Sequin Barclays is as good as there is in the league right now. Oh, yeah. And he may be the most dynamic player I've seen so far through seven weeks. He's back and he is big time.

And some of the moves that he's making gave me goosebumps watching the tape last week. Really an oppressive dude. And you love a great back, Randy. You love him. Always love the great back. Yeah. No, I love the ones that give me the feeling they might score anytime they touch the ball. And he's to that point now where he might score anytime he touches the ball.

So that is another factor. that Giants fans should be excited about. How they pay him, I don't know. I don't even know if they can. But I know this. He's a difference maker, especially when he catches the ball. And Daniel Jones is using him in that regard to.

Their scheme is working right now. Daniel is fitting in and so is Barkley. So what I want to ask you about is the evolution of him as a passer. Because I did watch their game last week, and he shoot, he had four zone reads for 40 plus yards. You mentioned the time's taken up off field when he had to and certainly hit some passes.

There's limited weaponry. Do you feel, what was your read on him as a pastor coming out? Do you feel like he's just going to be fine there? That's a thing that will develop for him as you get some weapons, or do you have concerns? I don't really have concerns because of where he's come this year. I have had concerns, Mike, for six years on Daniel Jones. Because I don't think he's before this season, I said it, and I'm sure we talked about it on the podcast, I saw the same quarterback I saw as a sophomore at Duke. I don't think he got any better. And his last two years in college and his first three years in the NFL, I just never saw improvement. But I've never seen a scheme matched with

him like it is now. I think what's going to happen is he's going to master this scheme and eventually become a pretty dang good dropback passer. Okay. In the eyes of, you know, Eli Manning or something like that, not special, but a pretty good drop back passer. That's just what I think. I think there's enough skill set that we've seen all along. It just never developed. And now we're seeing it develop. So I don't have a ton of concerns with where they're going. I think this offense is probably good enough to win as a scheme, they can upgrade the personnel around it still, especially like we said on the perimeter, but I think his passing skills are going to be good enough. I really do. He still struggles with certain coverages, and I think I mentioned that, where he'll take some unneeded risks and you just

want to say, whoa, whoa, Dan, wait a second now. He has really improved from a number standpoint in reducing interceptions, reducing fumbles and increasing his completion percentage. And I think that's even going to go higher when we get some good players around him, much like it happened with Josh Allen. His completion percentage went up, and it's not always on the quarterback. He's got to be comfortable with the people on the perimeter that he's throwing the ball to. I said that about Josh Allen at Wyoming. He was throwing the neighbor kids at Wyoming. So everybody said, oh, he can't throw.

He's not accurate. His percentage of completions is way down. Well, I'm not sure John Elways would have been any better thrown to the guys he was throwing to it in certain times. Yeah, yeah, yeah. So, you know, obviously we think Kenny Galladay is come and gone. I mean, that's not coming back with what he can do. They did take Cadarius Tony. He hasn't played.

What do you want for him? Is what you want for him, just what you want for any team, a big, tall, fast receiver, a tight end or somebody? Or is there something in particular that you think would be great to add for Daniel Jones? Well, I don't think he has a one, and I'm not sure he has a two. So a crystal lavee, who's the guy the Jets got, the other kid from Ohio State this year? Oh, yeah, Wilson. Wilson, somebody like that, a front line guy.

can really use that. And then I think they'll mix and match a little slot guy to get separation. They've got some things they can do to that wide receiver room that I think will make Daniel Jones still better. But I don't think they have the quality right now to be a top level offense per se that has any dynamic ability at all. Great. So if we want to talk about a team that does have great weapons, perfect transition again, Randy, to go into the Packers. I mean, because who would you rather have the Packers receivers or the or the or the Giants? We get the Packers next on our list and man. Be careful. I don't know, man. Be careful. I don't have the same love for these giant or the Packers receivers as others do. I don't see how. Who does, but who loves them?

Who loves them? Well, I'm just saying. I'm not sure I wouldn't rather have the Giants guys to be honest with it. No, I know. I think the Packers are terrible. I think the Packers receivers are absolutely terrible. And we do want to talk about them today. We're going to save for the GM notebook, I think, who will transition from Packers into the GM notebook where we get more into Rogers and his nonsense or sense, whatever you think. But Packers issues. This was probably a team. I don't have it in front of me, but I bet you their win total, Vegas win total before the season was high. They're a team that was favored to be in the mix. And yet here they are three and four. And I don't know, if there's a way out,

I'm not getting confidence from Matt Lefleur to listen to him talk that he knows what it is. I hear you on that. What's your, what way, go ahead. You put down four or five bullet points here. What do you think on the Packers? And let's, you know, keep obviously the GM chair sort of, you know, if what do you think needs to be prioritized those types of things? Right. Well, I think if the dike is leaking and you start to put your fingers in the holes, I don't know if you have enough holes.

I don't think I can realize that this is not just about young, inexperienced receivers. It's really not, in my opinion. Okay. I think it's about going away from the run game. I think it's 12 rushes for 30. yards last week. I think it's an offensive line that's struggling to stay connected on defenders. They're flopping around getting penalties, getting pushed back, getting dominated sometimes at the point of attack like they did against the jets. I don't see that changing. I see an underachieving

defense that giving up 470 rushing yards the last three weeks. That's 150 some per game. I mean, I don't know what you're going to win giving up that kind of rushing yardage. And then you're talking about special themes that I know they brought in Rich Basacci. It hasn't been fixed yet. I mean, they got a punt block a couple weeks back. They're still not playing there. And I'm not ready to dismiss Aaron Rogers as being part of the, you know, solution, but not part of the problem either. I saw him miss easy throws last week. I think there's plenty of blame to go around. You mentioned Matt Lafleur. So my point is there's a lot of stuff, right? There's a lot of stuff. If I was the GM, Brian Gutikist, I would find a way to make a deal not only for one receipts.

I'd probably find a way to make one for two. And I'd also be trying to find a way to get another offensive lineman somehow, some way. Even if you have to mortgage and overpay, Mike, I think the message has to be sent to that locker room that we can't go on like this. We're going to bring in some guys and we're going to do everything we can to improve our roster and in turn, you know, make us, make us accountable because we're going to start replacing guys. And some of that, Aaron Rogers has said, that's a whole other topic is.

him controlling the narrative on his McAfee's show every week, which I want nothing to do with. But when you give a player like that, a seat at the table, you're going to have to deal with that. But that's something different. I just think on the field, you're talking about multiple levels of issues that they've got to try to solve. And we're not talking about for better or worse, an indie situation where the owner, Jim Ursay, sitting there gets pissed and says, we're doing this and that. There's no one there to say, we're trading for two receivers. There's kind of a collective of people from the GM to the coach.

Obviously, the quarterback now has a seat at the table. But there's not, but is there, you know, how, if you're good accruist in that situation where there's not an owner you're talking to, is it harder to make that type of a move in the season? Who makes it? Well, I don't think there's a, he has, Brian has to make it in my opinion. I don't. You think it's easy?

He just does it and says we're giving up. It's, yeah, it's harder to find the right fit. But I think if I was him, I'd be grinding and have been grinding all along trying to find some way somehow. I probably would have already signed OBJ, okay, and got him in the rehab and got him going as to where we're going to be Thanksgiving-wise. Obviously, we'd know where he is physical-wise, be teaching him the system already so that if he does get healthy for the last four or five weeks, we're ready to roll. Yeah. Do you think he's any good, though, still? OBJ?

Yeah. He finished the season. Awesome. Like in Super Bowl, he was really good. The playoff run, he was really good. Now, where he is with this knee injury, I don't know. But that's as good a guy as talent-wise, you're going to find on the street. But I would still try to be making another deal or two to upgrade the system.

I think that Romeo Dobbs, Christian Watson, those guys are projects that may be good players at some point. I just couldn't wait any longer for it. Watson's been hurt. He's not going to develop this year because he hasn't got the chemistry and he hasn't got the reps because he's been hurt all the time. Dobbs is suspect catching the ball no matter what. So he was that way when he got there. His inconsistency's got to be ironed out.

That's just not acceptable at the NFL level. So you've got to find different options for your offense. I don't know that Randall Cobb is an option. It's horrific. Yeah. After the game, whether Rogers had said or not, you know, there were seven or eight balls should have been caught. I watched it. I count it seven.

I mean, there's just seven plays that you're not going to make all of them, but you should make five of them. I mean, those are drives. Those are four downs. Those are, this doesn't have to be that hard. But something you said earlier caught my attention about the offensive line, because that has always been kind of a strength. They've had Bactiari, they've had Elton Jenkins. They've had guys before.

They had Corey Lindley. You know, they've had guys that were pretty good. Found some guys in the draft. And so what struck me about that was in the last couple weeks, they played the Jets, Quinn and Williams, tough up front. They played Washington, who hasn't always played good up front, but they got an all-star list of first-round picks. They're going to play Buffalo this week with Von Miller.

Then they're going to get a little bit of a respite with Detroit. It doesn't have that type of a front. But then they're going to play Dallas. You think Michael Parsons is pretty good? Then they're going to play Tennessee, which doesn't have anyone that really, you know, on paper, but just watch them play. Watch those guys play up front. They're a problem up front for people. They took Washington apart a couple weeks ago.

Then they're going to play Philly, which now has Robert Quinn. And then you're going to play Chicago. Well, then you're going to have a buy. then you're going to play Aaron Donald and the Rams. They're going to play Miami. Do you see Miami's front against defensive front against Minnesota? Look pretty good. No, I hear you.

So that's a lot of games with strain on your offensive line to come this season. When we're all talking about weapons and rightfully so, but you've got to be able to run it and do that type of stuff. And against those fronts, I don't know. It's going to be hard. But you've also got to want to run it too. I don't consider 12 carries for 38 yards as even trying to run it. And that's what they had last week. So I think there's a lot of struggling parts.

So I don't know that it can all get fixed. But if I were the GM and just keeping it at that, I would be trying to make some additions to my team like crazy, probably there more than ever. And I would not sleep at night. I would be grinding and trying to find a way to get better and give our guys a chance. And send the message to the locker room that we're not giving up either. We're going to do everything we can to hold us all accountable, including me. Perfect segue into the GM notebook where we are going to talk a little bit about Rogers. Today, Matt, as we record, Matt LaFleur sort of rationalized, tried to justify, play along with what Aaron Rogers had said on the McAfee show, which was basically this. Hey, I'm playing great. Got my highest grade of the season from Tom. You know, Tom is Tom, Tom's, Tom Clements, their quarterback coach. I got my highest grade, but man, we sure have a ton of errors on this team. We are mental errors. Guys should probably be benched, more or less. But, man, I had my highest grade, just so you know. I was really good. Important for me.

everyone to know that. And Matt Lefleur said, I think that we have to be truthful with one another and sometimes the truth. Randy, is that the truth? Is that the truth here? You speak some truth on this. What do you may? I mean, we've talked about this before, but this is sort of new level here. Well, it's definitely a peculiar way to lead. I'll give you that. I would not want my leader doing this. I would not want him saying this. I would not want him putting himself above the others and trying to hold everybody accountable. I would like a little more humility. Again, I, I, I, saw the film last week too, okay? Tom might have given him a high grade. I'm not going to give him a high grade because I saw a lot of throws or several throws that weren't on target that I think he could

have thrown better. I would like to see him emphasize that as well instead of throwing everybody on his team under the bus. So I just think it's a hard situation to solve because you've paid this guy 50 million a year now and now he feels like he has a chair at the table and he's he gets to set the narrative for the team every week. I just, I don't know if I could do that. You know what I mean? I mean, I know he's Aaron Rogers. I get it.

We want to win. But there's a lot of stuff that's coming with this now that I don't know if they, if the Packers knew they were signing up for it. I don't know. But this is a whole new part of this GM game is, is the McAfee show and in Instagram and the Twitter. And you don't have the coach can't. I mean, what's the coach doesn't even have Snapface or as,

as Belich. calls it, right? There's all these other ways. Remember he said, what did he say something, book and snap face and snap book? He was making fun of it. But these are, this is a whole new realm. This is a whole thing that exists for Aaron Rogers that, shoot, you know, you were, so let's just say, you were with Ricky Williams or somebody like that who was in the media or his story was big. If he had his own show where he was talking about, you know, the, this or that, you know, that's a whole, it's a whole nother level.

Is that Rogers barking in the background? Yeah, sorry, man. I don't even know what to do about that. No, it's fine. It's good. I think we just leave it in the show because it's perfect. We got dogs barking. We got players barking.

We got the McAfee show. We got the whole thing. So I don't know if there's, here's what I want to know. Is this a problem for the Packers or is it just kind of an annoyance? Well, it's definitely a, ignorance, but I think it's above that because it's something now you have to spend time worried about and monitoring all the time. But we said this last off season, what's he going to say next? What's the narrative going to be this week? So it's something that we almost have to combat. Something tells me he's

not being used as a messenger by the people in the building. That's for sure. He's kind of going rogue every Tuesday and feels like he can say whatever he wants whenever he wants. And really, there's nothing the Packers can do about it. So I don't think he sees it as being harmful at all. I happen to think it is, but that's just my style of leading. I don't think any of us are smarter than all of us. And he obviously does. And that's a hard one for when you build a team around people that need to be working and playing together. But may end up, you know, kind of disassociating himself from his teammates if he keeps hammering him and throwing him under the bus. That's for sure. Yeah, I think he just needs to, there's a way to do this both ways. You don't have to say that everyone sucked and I played good.

I think you can just say, hey, we need some time. We need some time. I'm, you know, look, we obviously need some more time together. I mean, guys are doing their best, and it's my job leading this team to try to get the best out of them. I think one of the issues, though, that I have, I don't know if this is a big deal, but symbolically, it's a big deal for me. When you've got, you sign the huge money deal, you know you've got a bunch of young guys and then you stayed away in the offseason. I think that's one thing that bothers me about trying to get the rapport. Is he doing everything he can? Has he done everything he can to get on the page with these guys, to give them the confidence, to mentor them? I don't know what he's doing behind the scenes.

He could be great on all of his fronts. But from what I can see from afar not being there and then saying these things, I got my questions. No, I agree with you. And here's the other angle. Let me ask you this. Do you think he's going this route because he doesn't think the team is being held accountable by Matt Lafleur? Do you think he's taking some of this coach role to kind of discipline? Because he doesn't feel like they're getting that somewhere else.

I don't know the answer. I'm just throwing that out there. Maybe Matt Lefleur. doesn't feel that he can do that to Rogers team, that he can be the guy to hold accountable because Rogers is such a big figure. Rogers is, hey,

I thought Goody did a great job. You know, Maddie had a nice game called a good game. Hey, Tom graded me this. I mean, he's talking to, hey, you know who Craig is? Craig's Craig Rolstad, the referee that he talks to during the game and then talks about Craig.

So everyone's first name basis for Aaron. He's bigger than the team, through his accomplishments too. I mean, he's bigger than Matt LaFleur. He's got a lot more accomplishments. So I wonder if that is part of this dynamic too. Does he kind of... And then you have this weird dynamic to me too

where there's certainly guys on the team that are there because they're Aaron Rogers' friend. Randall Cobb, Mercedes-Lewis. You can't tell me those are the guys the personnel department wants to have on the team. But you're managing it around Rogers too. There's no doubt. Any way you look at him, it's problematic.

All right. Speaking problematic, we don't have as big of a GM note. this week because we had all those other things we talked about. What's the other thing you got in the GM notebook today? Well, the only thing I thought of was the two quarterbacks that have done the quickest about face that we've talked about Rogers at Nazium, but the other one is Tom Brady. And everybody's wanting to know what's wrong with Tom. What's wrong with Tom? I don't know what's wrong with Tom. When I see Tom, I see a gaunt, disconnected soul that looks lost to me. He looks like he has no energy left. He looks like he's just going through the motions.

But more than anything, I see a guy that has his tight-in stripped from him and has no slot receiver. And those have been his two security blankets for the last 15 years, whether it was Gronk or somebody else, West Welker or Edelman or whoever. They're missing those elements in Tampa. And I think that's really affecting this offense. The other thing is they can't run the ball lick. And they need to find a way to make play action mean something for Tom Brady. It's going to slow down the rush. It's going to do all kinds of things.

and they just haven't been able to do that. So I kind of feel bad for Tom. I always, and I don't know what's going on in his real life. I don't claim to. Yeah. He doesn't sound great though, does it? Yeah, it does not sound good. And thus he doesn't really look good either.

He surely doesn't look energized. And he's affected people positively his whole career. And that's, I don't even think, debatable. I just don't know if he's still affecting people positive right now, whether it's, you know, some of the actions he's had away from there, whether he's missed, you know, a plane here. or a meeting here or whatever for other things. It just doesn't seem like this is the aura of Tom Brady that we're used to.

It's a great point of the football point is a great point about the two staples. Because I think in New England or when he's been good, which is most of the time, he's had at least one of those things, the slot or the tight end at an elite level. He didn't always have both. But for a while there, when Gronk missed, then he really went down his stats in New England. And then after Edelman developed, it was kind of when he, he, you know, when he was out, then, and then if he and Edelman, if Grunk and Edelman were out, you know, that was the issue. So I think that's a great point. The thing I wonder about with

Brady is, let's just take at face value some of the things we've read that, that basically one of the reasons his marriage is reportedly, you know, in jeopardy is that he continued to play, right? The idea that his wife, you know, was just really looking forward to him retiring. And part of that I could certainly sympathize with because I think there's you have to be all in in this profession to do it well. But I think he is, I think he actually is what Russell Wilson's trying to portray. Russell Wilson is trying to portray that he's in the aisles doing stretches and he, and that he's got Wolverine blood in 24 hours. I think Brady lives us 24 hours. I think he's in the oxygen chamber. I think he does all of those things, whether it's pseudoscience or whatever, whether it's part of

TB12 marketing. I bet you that his entire life 24-7 revolves around his ability to play at this age, and that could be difficult for his family. So if he gets divorced and remember when he's sitting during

training camp, look, I'm 45 years old, they got a lot of stuff going on. Remember that? Yeah. Oh, yeah. I think he still loves to play. I think he still can play. When he's protected, I think he can do it. Now, you take away the run game, you take away, the slot, you take away the tight end.

There's no one playing when you take away those things. Okay, Rogers I don't think has slipped at all physically. But you take everything away from him, it doesn't look the same. I wonder if Tom Brady, if let's just say he gets divorced or whatever, let's just say he gets some resolution of these things one way or another. I wonder if he plays a couple more years.

Because we think this is the end and oh, it's winding down. I don't know if that's how Tom Brady goes out. What do you think? No, I think it's a good point. I hadn't really thought. about him continuing to play, but I just, I don't know if he's enjoying it enough now to continue to play. But could circumstances be set in the future to where, look, I've never been through a divorce, but I can only imagine someone who goes through a divorce, that has to be one of the

most traumatic things you could go through in your life. I think it would affect anybody. And he's going through it publicly. He's got kids. He obviously is involved in his kid's life. It could be very messy. I agree that that, that on top of everything else that happened, the Tampa thing with Miami. The offensive lineman retired. The center got injured. Mike Evans is not 100%

Grunk retired. There's a new coach. The whole thing's a mess. I just don't know that all of those things are going to be a mess to the same degree they are now in eight months from now. So I've wondered, maybe this is it. And he goes out like this. I just don't know if that's Tom Brady. And I don't think he's done physically. So that's just my two cents. And you might be right, Mike. I don't know. I just think that I find myself asking, why is he doing this? What does he have to prove? I understand he wants to do this forever, but I got news for you. Father time is undefeated and it's going to get us all eventually. That's just the way it is. So I think at some point, we all go through this. Our mind makes appointments that our body can no longer

keep. And I just think it's... Do you think that's what it is, though, because I don't think that's what's happening right now? Yeah, I know. You're saying you think physically... Do you think physically, like if I were to go through all of their offensive plays this year and just cherry pick ten great throws, I don't think you'd say, you know what I mean? I mean, he still makes some great throws. Now, he's got guys in his lap all the time.

They're rotating their left guard. He got two guards in the game. And they're both, there's guys in his lap the whole time. So that's just my point is I think there's a lot of other things besides how he can play that are making this happen. I don't disagree. I don't know where he's going to find a perfect world for all. that. I don't know. I just think it's hard.

And there's always going to be deficiencies on your roster. And it's going to be reflective on Sundays. And I don't think he's having a lot of fun on Sundays. That's all I'm saying. I got you. Yep. So maybe, who knows, I was texting with an agent yesterday. We were speculating on like, hey, where would, you know, if he asked for some kind of a trade, you know, where would be the places for Tom Brady? And we were kind of having fun with it, you know, and kind of, oh, yeah, would it be this team or that team? No, it wouldn't be on the West Coast, his family's on the East Coast or whatever, you know, just trying to find a spot.

But it's just kind of in my mind a little bit with him that I don't know if he's going to go out like this. We'll see. So other than the Houston Texans, did you find another place for him? Yeah, I did. Hold on a second here. I wasn't ready to do this, but I'm going to look at my text because I know who I was texting. Hopefully, let me see here. No, this is actually interesting. We did come up with a decent one. Okay, let me go into here. Oh, okay. I said, yeah, in fact, the agent said,

back to the Northeast doubt it because I was joking about go back with the Patriots and finish it up but I was joking and I was joking with Giants and Dayball but the Raiders when you go to Vegas or not Derek Carr you're good for the future there I don't know I just thought yeah 49ers I mean are they putting themselves in such a predicament here where they're giving away everything to do it right now and if Tray Lance is still developmental and Jimmy finishes up they probably regret not showing interest in Brady last time. Would you do that for one year and he comes home to 49ers and finishes? Could it get to that point for them?

It might. I'll be honest. I'm out on it wherever it is, but if somebody might bite and I can totally understand it, I get it. Yeah. If you were Tampa, I'm going to reset, could you, I don't know, it's just really talking out the top of my head, which usually bad things happen when we do that.

Speaking of bad things, let's get into our picks because I'm sure I'm going to blow these. Last week we were 3-0, Randy. You, Nostradamus, took Dallas minus 7 against Detroit. Were you worried at all when it was 10 to 6? Or no, you had it the whole way? I figured Detroit would find a way to come through for me. And he did.

How about the- Completely stopped? The minute it became drop-back pass, it was like sack fumble on every play for Detroit. That was very interesting. Detroit ran the ball in third and seven to start the game because they didn't want any part of this. No. I thought that was an interesting thing of like the bravado of Dan Campbell, and then they walk into this game and they want nothing to do with Dallas. I thought that was interesting.

Other than playing hard, I don't know what Detroit has going. And I love Dan Campbell and they play hard, but I don't know what else they got going. I don't know what we're doing. And the record is going to be terrible. So you also took the Jets plus one against Denver. You got that one. I took Kansas City minus three against San Francisco. Wow.

Came out good on that one. The chiefs are really good offensively. Yeah. This just in. Yes. Yeah. But I mean, you know, we did have some questions on them too. You know, and man, there's not a lot of questions right now.

So hats off to them. What picks you got this week that everyone can run to the bank on? I don't know that I'd run anywhere on these picks. There's some peculiar numbers out there this week with regard to odds. And I'm going back to Denver again, and maybe it's just my unwillingness to drink the Denver Kool-Aid. But they're in London, as you mentioned, they play Jacksonville, who's in London. Jacksonville might be London's team here someday soon, I'll ever know.

But Jacksonville is a three-point favorite, and I'm going to take them. I think they're going to actually get after Denver quite a bit. So I'm with Jacksonville, even though I got to give three points. I think that's the deal. I shot two and a half on mine. So maybe, yeah, you should be really good. We need to settle that. Let's make it two and a half now so you're even in better shape.

All right. I like it. I'll take Jacksonville, giving the two and a half. And the other one, I'm going back to the well on Detroit again. Hey, if it ain't broke, don't fix it, right? Miami's against Detroit in Detroit. Miami's a three point favorite. I think they're too good for Detroit.

Like I said, I just don't know what Detroit can. hang their hat on right now. Oh, man. Other than playing hard, I just, I don't think they have enough talent to, I think Brian is a talented team. So I'm picking a man. I do too. I think Miami, you know, having a, having a week under his belt to come back, you know,

because it was a little, probably, he's probably a little rusty last week. Yeah, he was not sharp. Yeah. Yeah, but I think there's a lot of good there with them offensively. I don't know if Tua can stay in there the whole rest of the season, but with those receivers in a dome on that turf against that deep. defense. I'm taking you over. I'll give you that. There can be some points scored. Yeah. And we'll see, you know, Miami's defense has some issues, you know, two, injury-wise.

But up front, they, now, Detroit's decent up front too. So that's just an interesting game. What's your game? Well, last week I only did one because I've really been Dan Campbell-tailed between my legs on third and seven with some of these picks. You're running the ball on third and seven. I'm going to go big. I'm going to pick three games this week. Oh, wow. Okay. Maybe I don't get one of them running. Yeah, yeah, yeah. So I'm going to take the Bengals minus three and a half at Cleveland. There's been a lot of close games for Cleveland and down to the wire, but maybe we'll talk about the Bengals next week because I know you're not 100% all in on them,

kind of based on who they're playing. But just watching Joe Burrow recently against Atlanta, which is not a great defense, man. And even when they got in his face, I don't know if you saw the one, the linebacker just drilled him in the teeth. And he put that ball out in front of the receiver, who made a great catch. but oh my gosh, Joe Burrow in the pocket. I'm taking him against that Cleveland defense. So it's more about Cleveland's defense than anything else.

Yeah, but Joe Burrow against a bad defense? Yeah, yeah. Yeah, I think they're going to score a lot of points, and I think it looks pretty good for them. So I'm going to do that one. I'm going to take the 49ers and just take my point at the Rams. The Rams have had some time to get ready for this. But, you know, maybe the second week.

Isn't there quite a string there? Don't the 49ers own the Rams? Yeah, I think it's a good matchup for the 49ers. And, you know, the Rams question mark right. History, yeah. Yeah, the Rams question mark right now is defensive, is offensive line. So I think the four diners coming in, you know, have some good pass rush. And I think having some actual time with McCaffrey to get him in, I think it was hard to get him in the middle of the week.

And they got him in for 21 snaps and he was fine. But I bet you now you're going into a featured game in the division. You've had a week. I would be very interested to see, are they using him in the slot? does they have tricks up their sleeve? You know that Calhashanahan's going to want to dial that up. So I like that. I'm going to take Tennessee and give a point, too, at Houston.

I mean, to me, giving a point, giving a point doesn't worry me that much in a game that's probably going to be decided by two or three or four, right? I mean, a point to me, I think Tennessee is just the better team. Now, Tennessee won last week without scoring a touchdown on offense. So that is a little bit concerning for me. I feel I've felt like Tennessee. This is how it's going to be, Randy.

I've doubted Tennessee the whole time. And then the minute you go with them, you realize why you doubted them. This happened last year, too. We did the same thing with Tennessee multiple times. Again, we just got to face it. Tennessee is going to win ugly and they're going to have a stinker every now. And then that's just the way they are. Did you see the thing?

I think you did it. You see that thing on Twitter they showed Rable with his center with a Ben Jones. Absolutely. That'll bring a tear to your eyes watching that thing. Seriously. Is that what the game's all about, Randy? It's unbelievable. that is what the game's all about, and that was two warriors, and nobody knows it like Vrable.

Yeah, I love it. It just gives your heart and soul as to why you play this game and the love of the game. I love it. It sounds corny, but I'm with you. It brought goosebumps to me, and I thought it was outstanding. It's that aspect of the game that really does make it the game, and I thought of that with Roquan Smith crying, you know, during the trade. I mean, the emotion, the investment that goes into this, it's not just draft picks being traded for cap space, you know. It really is people. That's for sure. It really is people and you're reminded of it in those moments, you know, how much it means to the people that are involved in exactly how hard it is to play the game. It's just a physically draining and risky game to play.

So for us, we got the easy part. We just get to talk about it. We do it now every Thursday. It goes out live on Thursday. And we'll do it again next week. Randy, I'm going to tell people where they can find your work at MuellerFootball.com. You can find Randy on Twitter at Randy Bueller underscore. I'm Mike Sandel for The Athletic.

You can find me on The Athletic and at Sandow NFL on Twitter. Thanks for coming along. We'll do it again next week. This was The Athletic Football Show.