The Athletic Football Show: A show about the NFL - In The Pocket: Justin Fields' struggles, Tua Tagovailoa's ascent, Sam Howell's flashes, and more

Episode Date: September 21, 2023

On the Week 2 edition of In The Pocket, Robert Mays and Chase Daniel dig deep into Justin Fields' struggles, trying to find a path forward for the Bears' quarterback. They also heap praise on Tua Tagovailoa and Mike McDaniel, revel in their enjoyment of Sam Howell and Eric Bieniemy, and also discuss the play through two weeks of Bryce Young and Josh Allen.Follow Robert on Twitter: @robertmaysFollow Chase on Twitter: @ChaseDanielSubscribe to The Athletic Football Show...AppleSpotifyYouTubeThis episode is sponsored by Sleep Number®: Save $400 on the New Sleep Number® c4 smart bed. Plus, special financing for a limited time. Only at Sleep Number® stores or sleepnumber.com. Sleep Number. The Official Sleep and Wellness Partner of the National Football League. See store for details.This episode is sponsored by Duer: Don't miss out - for 15% off, go now to shopduer.com and use my promo code: maysThis episode is sponsored by BetterHelp. Give online therapy a try at betterhelp.com/MAYS and get on your way to being your best self.This episode is sponsored by Burrow: Show Burrow you’re listening to The Athletic Football Show by shopping at Burrow.com/mays and get 10 percent off your first order. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

This is the Athletic Football Show. This is the Athletic Football Show. I'm Robert Mays. Joining me today for our second episode of In the Pocket. It's Chase Daniel. Chase, how you doing, man? What's going on? What's going on?

Busy week. Busy week. A lot to talk about, but I'm glad to be here. I can't believe it's already our second episode. It seems like it's like the fourth or fifth, but only number two, baby. Number two, for people unfamiliar with the show, this is our chance on the athletic football show for you to chat all things. NFL quarterbacks. Chase played in league for 14 years, bunch of different coordinators,

bunch of different teams, tons of perspective. And we've got a lot to get to and a lot of perspective to share today because it was a action-packed week in the quarterback world. And let's start with a little bit of news kind of coming off of the week that was. We started recording shortly after Justin Fields finished up his press conference today at Hallis Hall. And he came out and said, I'm going to be playing more free, playing like me. I'm playing way too robust. robotic. And when asked why he thought some of that robotic elements of his play kind of creeped in really during his career in Chicago, but specifically last week, he hesitated and then just said, coaching. And after that said, you know, I understand they have jobs to do and they're supposed to tell me where to look. But at the end of the day, I just got to play. So I want to dig into that and dig into everything that is currently happening with the Chicago Bears offense. So first and foremost, your reaction to hearing that and his response when asked that question today. Truthful, to say the least.

It was something that when I saw it, obviously, it went viral on Twitter. We're recording this on a Tuesday. It's going to be talked about for the rest of the week because, or sorry, recruiting this on, yeah, what day is Wednesday? Recording Wednesday. Yeah, we're recording Wednesday. So it's the first media. See, I'm everywhere.

Sorry, guys. First media availability for them. And honestly, it sounded like it was something he needed to get off his chest. almost like, hey, and listen, I get it. But those conversations when you're one of 32 people in the world that does what you do, and that means quarterbacking a franchise, it's the hardest position in all of sports. I don't care who anyone says. It's not even close.

There's a lot of pressure on guys to perform a certain way. A lot of weightiness that makes sense to carry cities. Especially in that town, man. Franchises, especially for. for that town. I mean, you know, you know, you're a fan. You love the, you love the team. And and it's something to me that I just feel like he, he needed to say. And when he said it, I was, I was watching. I was like, oh, all right. Like, but I also sort of applaud, like, like, maybe it is coaching because I've had, I've had coaching at some stops before where

it's been over coaching. And there's a fine line when you're, especially when you're talking to a quarterback where you want him to be himself, but you also want them to play within the offense, but you also want them to do what you're telling them to on this play against cover two or cover four or man. And we can get into the game and just watching the game, just watching the game, I watched it a few times because I just, I wanted to get through it

because it looked like he said. He was like it looked like he was being robotic. and that's, you can't play the, you can't play the game like that in this league right now at all. Because for a few reasons, the main reason is that you got to be who you are. Like that was something Andy Reid always used to tell the team in team meetings and he was short, sweet to the point. And it's something that I really appreciated about him was he was always honest. And he said, listen, you know, there's going to be lines drawn on paper. And there's going to be some guys that got to run the line.

lines on routes on paper. And there's going to be some guys that Travis Kelsey, Tyree Kill when he was there, like, hey, here's a line. Here's what we think you should do. But like, just do what you think because that's what makes you the player you are. And it seems to me, when I talk about this all the time, as quarterback, you have to live in the gray. You can't, everything on Sunday isn't black and white, meaning the coaches and Luke Gatsy and the quarterback coach and whoever's running that offense over there, everyone, you can't say, hey, on this play, we're going to throw it here because this guy is for sure going to be open. It's not like that. It's not like that. You've got to use your ability, your playmaking skills, just understanding when the pocket's breaking down to get

out. Like, you got to be yourself. And that is what Andy Reid always says. It's like, be you. That was his message. Be you. That's all you got to do. And Justin Fields for the first two games, obviously he told it yourself. He wasn't being himself. Let's try to do some diagnostics here after you went back and rewatch the game a few times. And this is difficult to do. It's difficult to extricate whose fault is this, whose fault is this, especially when things are going as poorly as they are.

But if you're trying to divvy this up, where would you start with what's wrong with the bear's offense right now? Um, well, okay, this is all, this is all Justin Fields notes because I, I did this for you more than anything. And I got a good feel for it. But like where I would start with it being wrong is it just looks like they're, they're in an offense that doesn't fit Justin Fields. If I'm being completely honest, they're in an offense that doesn't fit Justin Fields at the end of the day. You know, there's a lot of different pockets we can go into. but I was watching the game. Okay, they only got 55 plays on offense, the entire game, which is way below league average. League average is 65 plays. So they got, you know,

12% less plays than normal. Only 22 plays in the first half. 22, I've had a 22 play drive in college, one drive. Okay, they got seven plays. I broke this down because I'm like, just follow him here. plays in the first quarter and it was a seven play touchdown drive. They got one drive in the first quarter. Like, first of all, how in the world do you get into a rhythm as a quarterback? And let me tell you,

you don't. Because I'm always one like, hey, let me get hit. Let me throw a couple completions. Let me have some plays. Let me get on the field for a 10, 12 play drive. Obviously, you know, big plays are, you know, can cut those drives in half. But man, he looked great. Like, he looked awesome on the first drive. You go down. And the first play of the game, heavy play action, dagger route to DJ Moore and to cover to like perfect play call, perfect placement. It looked like they had been thrown to each other for five years. Perfect. He spends out of it.

Big play. And then later in the drive, they're facing a third and three. And Tampa blitz the crap out of them. Like, in Tampa doesn't necessarily blitz that much, but they were bringing it. And they brought a pressure that I really hadn't seen in a long time. And so you know they weren't ready for it, but Justin just knew where to go with the ball, threw a little flat route to DJ Moore,

and he turned it up. I'm like, just throw that guy every single time. And they ended up scoring, and he ended up carrying the ball and having a rushing touchdown, I think, on the first drive, like seven plays. They didn't get the ball back till like, I mean, literally 14 minutes left in the second quarter.

And so you can't get into a rhythm. And I say that because it comes back to, like, they're in personnel groupings that I'm just like, why aren't you in shotguns? spread it out, like run, run Miami Dolphins offense, which we'll get to later. Run the Chief's offense,

because that is who Justin Fields is. That's who he probably wants to be. And honestly, like this press conference this morning that we were listened to, like, now I'm sort of excited to see how he plays because he's like, all right, listen, if it's coaching that I think is ruined in my career, like I ain't going to have that no more.

Like, I'm going to go play and play free. And that's what makes a scary quarterback in my opinion. Yeah, they, I think 16 of their 45 runs this year, like running back runs have been under center, which doesn't make a ton of sense when you look at the quarterback skill set and what he can give you in the quarterback run game.

He's only had four or five design runs the entire season after what they did last year in the quarterback run game, which I'm curious how much of this is them saying, we want to see if he can sink or swim in a quote unquote more normal traditional offense. Why would you say that? But why? I have,

I don't think there's any validity to that, but that's what it feels like because they're going so far away from what was working for them in the second half of last year and seemingly clicking back into what they did over the first four or five games when things looked like a disaster. And beyond the quarterback run game, I'm curious when you watch them, it's difficult for me to pin down, but just the way progressions work in that offense and all of like the pure progression stuff he needs to do. They're asking him to do so much above the neck in that offense when in reality it just feels like they should be, tightening and narrowing the scope that he has to play in instead of widening it. But at the same time, they've thrown the ball short of the sticks more than any team in the NFL this year.

So they're asking him to not do a lot in some circumstances, but then asking him to do everything. You ask high-level quarterbacks to do in other circumstances. I just don't know how all the pieces are supposed to fit together when you watch the offense as one cohesive thing. Yeah, I mean, I would agree a little bit that they're, they're probably having them do some stuff, but I'm watching the game. And it's not, it's not from an NFL quarterback perspective who's been in multiple offenses through 14 years. It's not, it doesn't look like a difficult offense and one that he's not making, he's not making, he's not controlling all the protections. He's not doing it. Like, I feel like they're almost

trying to make it a little bit easier on them actually. Okay. In terms of just, and the biggest thing to me was like he's just, he's, he's, he's not getting through progressions. And anytime that you just look at one and then hold the ball and rarely get to two, like you're going to have a lot of sacks. And he's got the most sacks since not even close since 2021 that he's held the ball for four plus seconds. Okay, four seconds to throw a football as an NFL quarterback is an eternity.

And I thought, you know, he took four, he took six sacks in 55 plays and maybe one of those sacks was on the O line. I mean, I thought the O line actually played pretty well. You know, run game was struggling getting going because of stuff they were doing up front with Tampa. But I thought that they played played really well at front. And so that's just me like, hey, like, bro, if you're only going to get through one progression, if you're, don't just stand back there in the pocket and run around. Like, just take off. And it's much easier said here than on the field because you don't know what's being coached

and you don't know what's being told to that young man. And so I sort of feel him and I sort of feel like he's going to, I mean, it reminds me, I mean, you hit it right on. Like it reminds me of early in the year last year of their offense. Like trying to be somebody they're not. And then they finally open it up. And yeah, everyone knows the QE run game. But I feel like he just played better overall in the gun, moving faster.

quick hitters. And it comes down to me that game against New England, because I was on Monday night, final, game day final on NFL network. And I'm sitting there watching the game, and I'm thinking, just like probably everyone in America, like, oh, man, the Patriots are going to smack them. You know, and then he comes out,

and it's completely different offense in terms of, like, running the ball, screen, draw. He's running around. Like, to me, that was the big, like, hey, this is what the offense is going to be moving forward. Like, my question, and who knows, why didn't they start it off this year and that?

Because he's been in that often. It just, it doesn't look like they're clicking at all right now. When you watch somebody who's not trusting the things that he's seen, he's not letting things loose, he's not playing free in the way that you'd want him to. If you're in that quarterback room, if you're a quarterback coach, what advice is there for somebody that's in that state right now?

Because you watch some of those stretches. The play everyone's seen a bunch of times right now, I'm sure on the football internet. He has Roshan Johnson coming up to see. he has two guys wide open. He doesn't throw it to either of them. He eats a terrible sack. Two plays later, he eats arguably an even worse sack to potentially push them out of

field goal range, where he's just frozen in the pocket. So is that what, how does that get fixed? How does that get better? Because it almost feels like if you're doing more coaching, potentially you're making it worse based on what Justin Fields just said and everything that we've seen so far. Yeah, the sequence you're talking about, and I have it written down, play 19. Play 20, play 21 and play 22. Might have been the worst four stretch plays I've seen in a while from a quarterback

where on play 19, there's a wide open dagger, just didn't get through it. He doesn't get through his progression. It's number two in his progression doesn't get through it. Play 20, obviously the seam. It's like a little all go special. That's wide open. And I will come to his defense there because I've been in that situation on the exact same play is he saw the receiver get hemmed up, get bumped by the nickel,

and then free releases. he was on him right away, which I have. And as soon as you see him get like that, you're like, oh, I have no idea if he's going to get through clear. I would just say, hey, you just probably need to take a deeper drop to let the play, you know, come to length. And yeah, 21, he was sped up. Play 21, it was like a little out route to the left and then spacing. He had a guy over the ball, you know, wide open. And then play 22 was obviously the strip sack.

But yeah, if I'm a quarterback coach in that room, I would just go back to like fundamentals and just be like, dude, like, just be yourself. Like, here's what we're going to tell you. Like, I would even try on some of these things. Like, don't even worry about getting to number three. Like, like just you got to be able to see. It's almost like the, was it Sam Darnold on Monday Night Football that said, man, I'm seeing ghosts. Right?

It was him. And that was like a, and I'm not saying that that's what Justin is. I'm just saying whatever they're doing in the offense, it just doesn't look like there's a, it doesn't look like there's a knowledge of the offense there that maybe should be or maybe it's not getting coached right. It's like one of two things. Like what is it? And so I think with a guy like that who is, you know, maybe just wants to play free. Like if you have 50 play 50 pass plays in the offense on any given game, which it's a lot more than that, I would shrink it to 30 and be like, here's a 30. You're going to master it. We're going to work on these.

concepts. We're going to, instead of changing concepts every game, which I don't think they're doing, like, hey, we're going to, we're going to formate these, these concepts differently. We're going to personnel out these concepts differently. Like, those are all things that they're obviously working on because, listen, they see the tape and they know it. And that's probably what they're working on. And I mean, the test honestly doesn't get an easier against Casey coming up, because in my opinion, Casey's got top three, four defense right now in the league. Have you been in situations like this on offense where you can just kind of feel the mistrust on both sides? The quarterback doesn't trust the play caller.

Clay caller doesn't trust the quarterback and you kind of feel it unraveling like that. No, never, never. And I've been lucky because I've been, you know, 14 years of that. I mean, there was a few years that we just got started. We had arguably the best offense in the history of offenses in terms of yards, points per game, all these stats. I don't know, in 2011 Saints. Like, it was one of the best offenses of all time. Just pure yardage standpoint and point standpoint.

And we started, I think we started two and two that year. And we were still trying to figure out, I say this all the time. We still trying to figure out who we are as an offense. What are we doing? Yada, yada. And that was a year Sean Payton got hurt, broke his leg on the sideline against Tampa. We lost that game. We're two and two.

I think we scored 19 points or 18 points. And it was just like, oh, man, like, what are we doing? Like, this is awful. because we're like, we're the saints. Like we've been won a Super Bowl in 2009. We got upset in Beast Quake mode in 2010. And then 2011 we're like huge. I mean, we got the best defense we've had, we think.

And just wasn't going off right. And then we played Indianapolis on Sunday night football or Monday night football. Pete Carmichael first time play caller. We put up a 60 burger on the Colts. And we're like, oh, this is who we are. And we reeled off like 12 straight, bro, like or 13 straight. Like it was nuts. It was crazy. So you never know when it's going to click, but they just got to find stuff he's comfortable with. And I don't know if they're letting them like speak up in the quarterback room or if they say, hey, Justin, what do you like? Because in situations like this, I would tend to just go, hey, Justin, what do you feel comfortable with? And let's just build it completely around you because you're the guy. Like there's no, you're not going to bench him. There's no way you're benching this guy. Like he's got, he showed the,

progression that he had last year and how he played. And everyone thought he was going to take a Jalen Hertz type progression this year. And, and I mean, listen, it's early sample size. We could be talking week 10, like, oh my gosh, look at Justin Fields. But it's too early in the season to tell. So you think there is a potential path out of this. Oh, yeah. Yeah. I mean, there's a path out of everything. You just got to have a good plan for it, right? Like, that's what my dad told me in life. Like, there's a path out of everything. And no bigger than football. Like, it's going to be difficult. It's going to be tough. It's going to be not an easy road and it's not just going to come overnight without working at it. You got to work at it. You got to figure out ways. You got to have everyone on board with

brainstorming ideas. This is what we think we should do. And that's, I mean, listen, they're one of 32 teams. They're doing that right now. They are absolutely doing that. So for fans out there that think, oh, we're just like tanking and we stink and we do all this. Like, shut up. Like, no, the dudes are trying so hard in the building right now. Like, believe me, the effort. is there, they just got to put the results on the field. So you think shrinking the overall menu and just making sure that everything you're putting in is stuff that he feels good about and is driven by his taste, his preferences, his strengths. That's the way to kind of get this going back in the right direction.

I think you'll see his play Skyrocket if that happens. Yeah. Let's move on another struggling offense here. We wanted to spend at least some time on our first couple shows breaking down one of the rookie quarterbacks because there are several big name ones. And we want to chat about Bryce Young. They just played in national TV. Their offense is struggling right now.

They're 29th in EPA per play, 29th in success rate. They just have not been very good on that side of the ball so far this year in his first couple starts. I'm curious, first impressions just after watching him and rewatching that game for Monday night. Yeah. Well, I mean, listen, it's not an easy task against New Orleans

because they are all over the place. They look ridiculous right now. They're playing with one brain on the back end. of that defense. It's crazy. It just how they're in rhythm and just like timing and different. I mean, they threw a lot. They threw a lot of Bryce Young and they usually aren't that heavy post snap, pre-snap, but you saw it, right? There was a bunch of this. Showing a single high, go to two eye, two invert, some pressure. The patented Dennis Allen, like, it's called shake silver. You're bringing two from one side, two to another. And so the game plan, I mean, I watched it with

a grain of salt because I'm like, listen, the Saints haven't allowed 20 or more points. in like 12 games. It's like some crazy record, right? Like, it's nuts. So, but I did think he played, I mean, he played fine. It's so hard to tell. Like, I go back and like, I can break down the stuff and, and I will. But like, I just go back and think about like me as a rookie and me as a rookie quarterback.

And what I knew, even in my second or third year than I did my rookie year, like, you can only do so much coaching. Like, it's got to come from experience. It's got to come from failure. And so that's how I sort of watched the game. he looks small out there. He looks, he looks smaller than what he weighed in at the combine.

You know, my first impression was like, why is there so much pistol and gun? Um, they put him under center a little bit. They even brought Andy Dalton in for two plays, one fall start, one play on third one because he's too short,

too thin to, uh, you know, sneak it. Like, so all that stuff. Like I get it. And,

and, um, it just, it just seems like, you know, he made some throws now. He made, he made some throws.

But I just think that, you don't really have a number one receiver. Right. Like you have Adam feeling. When you watch them play, you watch the Bears game, they're guys open. You know,

they're guys open in that Bears box game that Justin Fields just misses. In the Saints Panthers game, you go back and rewatch that thing. It's not like he's turning down open throws left and right. There is nobody open. And whether that's a problem of the team you're playing against in the competition, the receiving talent on your team,

or offensive design and structure we can talk about. But in the end, there were not a lot of people with a lot of space in that game for Bryce Young. No, and honestly, I think a lot of it has to deal with, like, New Orleans, just how they pattern match and how it's taught in that defense. But yeah, I mean, you saw, at least in the game, you saw a bunch of three-step, quick game, five-step, just trying to get the ball out, move, some run game stuff.

And it was working, but, I mean, these, like, stick routes that are usually somewhat open or being contested. And so that's why the numbers don't look great. You know, he made a few great throws. He made it through bonehead throws. I think he had, what, two sacks fumbles or sack fumble. You know, what I wasn't really impressed more so with anything was just his pocket movement. I thought it was really good because that battle line struggled against that pass rush.

And I think that pass rush is really special. Just overall group of the four guys up front, I think they're really special. Jordan still got it, which is super impressive. I mean, Cam Jordan, DeMorrow Davis, are old dudes still rolling, man. Like, it's impressive to watch. And I thought, I thought that he did a really good job just in the pocket, just getting around some stuff and moving up. And even if it's not complete, like throwing, like that's, you can't, like, you can't teach that. Like, when I was in New Orleans with Breeze, the first practice I ever saw him, I was just like, of course, throw it, whatever. But I was just like, man, the dude.

just like has a knack for just barely moving in the pocket moving up just like six inch steps and you see some of these guys like go all these out and you're out of control and the fundamentals get get out of whack but I thought he did a really good job at that um just some rookie mistakes I mean you know he does a good job and this is something I said about him this is something I said about him coming out when I was on doing some stuff on NFL network during draft stuff was like the dude is small, but he doesn't really get hip. And he doesn't really take like head on hits in the pocket. Like he's very slippery with that.

So yeah, I mean, you know, he needs to work on a sliding too. Like I was impressed with this to me, but like that slide, that slide that he had after that big run was really bad. There were a couple throws where the release is so impressive. He had a boot to the left side where he's on the move and he just lets that thing rip. And I was like, oh my goodness. That's my best early game. I literally had it. I'm like, the overrout on the naked was amazing.

It was beautiful. And he had another one too. I can't remember exactly the situation, but where he just kind of lets the ball rip. But there's, again, aren't that many guys open. And I think that's twofold potentially. So I wanted to ask you, this offense is comprised of a coaching staff from very disparate backgrounds.

You know, that Frank Reich wasn't friends with Thomas Brown. He didn't know Josh McCown. They're all coming in here as this all-star coaching staff, but there isn't a lot of shared history between them. And I'm assuming it's going to take a while for them to kind of distill what they want to be offensively when you consider that. Have you ever been in a situation like that where it's early in the season or it's even during training camp? And the staff is from a bunch of different places and kind of filtering it down to the base ideas of what the offense is going to be is kind of a struggle and has some hangups.

Yeah, I mean, I've never been a part of it like the staff difference, but I have been a part of like I could just go back to 2013 and Andy Reed's first year in Kansas City coming from Philly. He takes Matt and Aggie with him to be his quarterback coach who was on the staff, but offensive assistant analyst, and then Doug Peterson, who was quarterback coach. And then he was the offensive coordinator in Casey that you're so different, same staff, but different job positions, if that makes sense, which also honestly makes like a little bit of a difference. And it reminded me a lot of that when I saw the offense because we had like Duane Bo out there at receiver running like a four, eight, like no separation. So it reminds me like a lot of like that.

Was that the season where there was the chiefs did not throw a passing touchdown to a wide receiver? That was that was 14. That was 14. That was 2014. And I, Duane Bo caught a little arrow route on just tangent here real quick. On the last, I played the very last game of the year in 2014 against charge. We had to win to get in and then also like have some help. We didn't have the help, but we ended up winning.

And that stat was like in the back of my mind, we throw a little arrow route to Dwayne Bo. And Dwayne Bo is going into the end zone. And I'm not even excited that I'm throwing a touchdown. I'm excited like, oh my gosh, we were never the first team to go the entire year without a receiver catching a touchdown. And bro, he's falling. And I'm telling you he's this far. And as he's falling, he gets knocked from the back. The ball flies up and Jamal Charles falls on it in the end zone.

I'm like, do I? Does that count as a touch? touchdown to a receiver and they're like, no, you guys suck. No touchdowns to receivers. Like, funny story like that, but no, we didn't end up doing that. But that was actually the first year, we started 9 and 0 in 2013 going back to that, which our offense, I don't know if we averaged 18 points a game during that way. We want some close games because of our defense. And it took like eight or nine games for the whole staff to really get on to like, here's what we're going to do. Here's what we're going to be really good at. Jamal's going to be kind of.

like our number one guy. We can feature Dwayne Bowmore in the slot because it's less man coverage. So I think that's what that staff, I say all this, really long with an answer. But I say all this because that staff's working through it, especially with a all new, like it's brand new. Like everyone's new there, including the quarterback, which makes it even more difficult when it's a rookie quarterback. What does a rookie quarterback do? What can we do?

How much stuff can we put in? All that stuff goes in. I was going to ask you if you bet it, but you have had some experience with this. when you're on a team where there's kind of a lack of receiving talent and a lack of juice on the outside, which when you watch this team, you can feel it immediately. They don't have a lot of speed. They don't have a lot of explosiveness. So it pops off the screen when you watch the offense.

What are the tangible effects for a team and a quarterback when you don't have those sorts of threats on the outside? How does your process as a passer have to change? Well, you're going to get a lot more man coverage and you're going to get a lot more press coverage because of without speed, Everyone's going to come up and test you. You're probably going to get more guys in the box. So the run game is going to struggle if you can't show it to throw it, which there's is. Which there's is.

And so those are the effects. I mean, I think you're going to see press coverage. Receivers are going to have to work on it. And you're going to have a more difficult time running the football. And that's just literally a numbers game. And so Bryce is going to have to. And that's what I sort of saw out of New Orleans.

They were like, man, we dare you to throw the ball. Like even like a bunch of too high, like go ahead and throw it. We got good corners. We got sticky guys. And you almost have to overcome that by getting in bunches, getting in stacks, motioning. I didn't see a lot of pre-stamp motion that game. I don't know if he's not comfortable with it,

which every offense is different. There's some offenses that are really good that don't motion. But I think stuff like that, motioning from stacks and bunches, like all that stuff. So it's, it's a work in progress for sure. typically the offenses that don't motion are the offenses that have a decided talent advantage on the outside. They're last year's Eagles, last year's Bengals, old Peyton Manning and Aaron Rogers teams. When you're at a talent deficiency, not motioning probably isn't the best strategy.

But even in this game, when they tried to use rubrouts and picks, the Saints worked right through them like multiple different times. It was kind of crazy how good they were in either match coverage or man just being so sticky to those receivers throughout the entire game. We knew that, though. we knew that the Panthers were probably going to struggle on the outside with this receiving group. What they were supposed to do is have a decent offensive line. The entire group was coming back. The offensive line coach was coming back. That was a disappointing aspect of this game is that they're just not playing as well at front.

I know they have a backup guard in there. I think two backup guards, but still is not the performance, not the level of play you want to see from that group that was supposed to be a strength of this team heading into the season. Especially with a rookie quarterback, right? That's one thing. That's why I brought up the pocket movement because I kept getting views of him having to do that.

And it's a good thing. He's not taking a ton of sacks. He's not just like sitting back there just hanging on to the football. He has one of the lowest pressure to sack rates in the NFL so far. So the percentage of his pressures that turn into sacks, he is like the same as Patrick Mahomes right now. He's done a good job of mitigating it. Maybe I'm on to something there. There you go.

All right. We'll turn the page from the offenses that are struggling to offenses that are blowing the doors off of people right now. Let's talk about Tua and the Miami Dolphins. some stats here as we get two games in from Miami. They lead the NFL in success rate on offense. So the percentage of their plays that are successful, they are number one. So they're the most efficient offense in the league. They also have the highest explosive play rate in the league by an insane amount.

17.5% of their plays have been explosive so far. There is a bigger gap between 17.5% of their plays. There's a bigger gap between them at one. and the team at two, then there is between the team at two and the team at 11, an explosive play rate overall. 25.3% of their pass attempts have gained 16 plus yards, which is double the league average. Last year, they led the league at 18%. Right now, they're at 25.3%.

So just some context ends perspective about how ridiculous this passing game has been two games into the season. So what have you seen? What has jumped out to you going back and rewatching those first couple of games about what is really setting them apart right now? Speed. Speed on the outside.

Like you can talk about, I'm sorry, like you can talk about all the different uniqueness of the offense, all the motion, all the inside out, outside it like formationally person. Like, dude, it is speed. It is scaring the crap out of other teams

and you are seeing huge plays. It's not like every, the thing is that separates this offense. It's not like these huge plays. There are some. Jalen Walde on the sideline last game. Tyree had one. But it's not just like drop back and throw deep go balls. That is not the offense at all. And so that's what makes it, that's what makes it so much more impressive because it's speed. I mean, and that's something that that that, I mean, I think is one of the greatest head coaches of all time who in Andy Reed. Like that's that's something that he did. And when he was like after that 13 and 14 season, where we had no speed, they got obsessed. And you can see now, like, Cadarist Tony, Sky Moore, Cheetah was there,

like it is, we can make you into a good receiver, but you can't teach speed. And so that is the underlying factor. Now, what else is going on? Well, it's just, it's honestly so different, the offense and so unique, where, I mean, I haven't even seen some of these concepts because they're doing stuff that,

because it gives you speed and two is taking a three-step drop in the gun and you see Tyree kill on a large or huge angle route and he's already in the angle. So it's like you can run these route concepts that maybe take a little bit more time to develop for other teams. You can run it with the dolphins because that offensive lines playing pretty well

without, you know, arm's set as well, which I thought they played awesome, giving them some time to throw. But it's also just like Darrell Bevel to me is when I was with him in Detroit. He's the quarterback coach for the Dolphins. Yeah. He's a quarterback coach for the Dolphins.

When I was with him in Detroit, I thought he was one of the best teachers of the game and the quarterback position when he was Matthew Stafford. I was only with him for a year. And everyone's seen what Tua does pregame. He goes out there with Bevel and Beville reads him all plays and he's out there going through like whether it's the first 15 or maybe some plays that it was,

just the visualization. To me, Daryl Bevel doesn't get talked about enough. obviously Frank Smith, like I love Frank. Like I was with Frank Smith, the O.C. in, um, the O.C. in Miami. I was with him in 2012 when he was like quality control in New Orleans. So him and I go way back. And then obviously was the, uh, Chargers offensive line coach in 2021 before he took a job last year. So I, like, I, I'm very aware of their staff and everything. And, um, man, like, they are just, they're rolling. Like, not only do you have a mix? of that Darryl Bevel type Seattle type Detroit offense that we saw Matthew Stafford was so good at.

You also have the run game of Frank Smith, which the run game. Mostert went off, you know, last game. And then you have at the top level, you have McDaniel. Like, Mike, like, he's just, he's a boss, man. Like, you see his Shanahan style come out and the 49ers come out. They're using 21 personnel, but it doesn't look like 21 sometimes. So, I mean, all of that makes this. offense unstoppable right now. And the Patriots tried some crazy stuff

like three safeties, like all that jam front five across and none of it worked. It was wild. None of it worked. What would be your favorite part of playing in this offense?

The choices available to you, the concepts, like what is the easiest part as a quarterback in this type of situation? Speed. I'm telling you the speed it makes it. I'm not kidding. Like,

I'm not kidding. So what is the speed give you? In terms of how you get to see things open up. What is it, the way that it changes your process as a quarterback, what would be your favorite part

of the process as a quarterback that is applicable to this offense? Yeah, the speed gets you separation and that's something that, you know, these guys are very open. It's not like these are contested throws. And also, not only that,

but you see this little, and they've actually done it a lot more this year, and they started doing it last year, this inside out speed motion by Tyreek or by Craigcraft or anything like that. And just that, like it's like,

how does a defense react to that? Patriots tried to move the lineback route and they hit a wheel. They tried to move the corner route and they hit a little hits route in between. So it's a little bit of both. It's the speed. It's the concepts. It's everything. And you can tell that it's being taught really well because it's an interesting offense

and it seems like a complicated offense in terms of reads. Because I see some of these concepts. I'm like, I don't know. Like if I'm just sitting there putting myself in a cord break room, I don't know how I'd read this? Like, how would I read this? Would I sweep the board? Would it be a pre-snap read? Would it just be, hey, just work this eye because it's always going to be open? And they're doing more PRO past read options than anything else. Everyone knows they were famous for the flat wheel seam route. Well, this year, it's a flat wheel stop route to Tyree. And so they're getting people off

and just a little stop and letting them get 15 yards. So it's just like stuff like that. Like, it's just ever evolving. Explain PRO really quickly. How is that different than some other ways that you would approach stuff. Well, usually it's an RPO, right? Run pass option. Okay, so RPO is like, hey, if I'm just, you know, Nick Foles really started the whole thing, I think, in Philly, his year that he won the Super Bowl.

It was like very heavy type of RPO. He felt really comfortable in that. And RPO was like, hey, you got five for five on the offensive line. You're handing off. You're reading a second level key, maybe a linebacker or a safety down. And if that key just sort of gives you a, you know, a read that you're not sure, you just hand it off. Like, just, and that's something that was always coached in all the rooms that we ran was like,

hey, you are never wrong on an RPO handing the ball off. Like, that is your safe haven. You're good with it. Like, I don't care because we want to protect the ball. Well, now these teams are going to PRO, like I like to call it. Pass run options, meaning pass first, then run. There's some looks. I'm going to be completely honest in the game.

When Tua pulls a read and throws it, And I'm like, this is, this is covered like a cover two. You got a light box. Like, what are you doing? And it's wide open. Like, he's just like, if there's any indication that I can complete this ball, I'm throwing it. And guess what if I have to throw it away, so what?

And if the run looks good, so what? Like, throw it first and then run it second. The wrinkles they have off of stuff, even after just establishing it for a week, right? So they're doing that quick out motion on the same side of the formation. And last week, it was a lot of getting their fast guys out on the perimeter. Tyreek was the guy going in motion. pretty often. This week, twice on the same side on the right,

they have either Alkengold or another running back around the quick motion. They have Tyreek sit down on a little hitch instead of going vertical. So there's a wrinkle off that. And then at one point, it was Waddle and Tyreek on the same side. And Waddle was the number two receiver. And they threw a screen to him from that exact same look.

That was sweet, bro. It was my, the reaction when I saw that play, I was like, oh, my God. And that's what makes this. a nightmare is that I'm sure it seems complicated, but them being able to put different guys in different positions and run the exact same concepts, but now it's 22 personnel, but it's pony. So how do you treat that? Do you play it in base? Do you not? All the different tiny little tweaks on these concepts where it's the same idea with one tiny little difference. It's what allows them to stay a step ahead consistently. And two weeks into the season, we've already seen them

build on some of those core concepts that they had in week one, which is wild. Yeah, it is wild. And it just shows like just, you mean, the offensive mind and the offensive staff there is like, we know we're good and we're just going to mess with you a little bit. And that breeds confidence in the quarterback too. Totally. And to it, I go back and I watch this game. I really just wanted to see the Patriots because the Patriots have been pretty good,

at least at defending him, keeping him under wraps. And honestly, the second half wasn't great for other than the Mostert run. It wasn't great for the dolphins. But I just go back to it. I'm just thinking, like, to it, it's not like he's making difficult throws. There's some throws he'll fit in. Then I'm like, oh, like a couple. Then I'm like, oh, okay, tight.

But it's not like where you're seeing it and you're seeing these stats and you're seeing these numbers. but if you actually go down and dig deep, it's like by play design, they're getting guys wide open. It goes back to like what I think about the Shanahan tree. It's by play design, by speed. But also, I mean,

two is putting on a master class right now of quarterbacking and it's all his decision making because he has completely, completely mastered the offense. And he is throwing the ball more accurately than, then I've seen him in the short intermediate. He underthrew a couple deep ball. He had that throw to Tyreek where Christian Gonzalez went up in Moss, Tyreek.

It was covered too. Like that's a decision of all the snaps that I did that was like, okay, bonehead move, like move on. But he's just trusting his guy. And he's like, ah, whatever, our defense will be fine. We'll get back. We'll score anyway, which I did. So I just think Tua right now is he's playing quick.

He's playing fast. He's not holding the ball. He has a complete mastery of that offense. And that's what makes these offenses so good. And speed, too, if I haven't mentioned it. If I could sit in on a meeting, just an offensive meeting, quarterback room meeting of any team in the NFL, this would be it without question.

Just because I would want to see how they teach it. I'd want to see what leads from point A to point B, him being so fast and so confident in making those decisions. Because I'm totally with you. There was a play. I couldn't tell if it was actually an RPO if it wasn't, when he threw a backside slant to Jalen Waddle in this game. And how quickly he gets off the front side

and comes back to Waddle on the backside is just, you can tell they've drilled this stuff down so deeply where it becomes almost innate the level of decision making that you're seeing from him. And I would just love to see how the ideas are communicated, not only to the quarterback, but to the players in general, because they just have such a strong grasp of them. And it's so apparent every single time you watch them play.

Yeah, it's impressive. And another thing, too, is, like, Tua has extreme trust in these guys, like from Tyreek to River Craycraft or whatever his name is to like Ingle all these guys. Yeah. Yes. Yeah, I got it. So learn names as we go because now I have to learn 32 teams rather than one team. But just like the trust he has on all those guys is cool to see because he's still throwing.

Like River Craigraft made some amazing plays that game. Like he was like a legit number three guy. And yeah, I mean, I would love to be a fly on that room. Maybe I might have to ask, you know, if they keep winning, I might have to text Frank Smith and be like, yo, give me, give me something. here to talk about on our show because he's usually pretty open, but it's impressive what they're doing down there right now. I wanted to do something about how they teach the ideas of the players. It was because one of the ideas I was really excited about this summer. You might be surprised about this. They're not super keen on sharing that information down there in Miami. I think they're

pretty. Every team. Yeah. It's not super super excited about that idea. Let's go from a team that I think a lot of people expected to be very good on offense to a two and O team that maybe didn't have those sorts of expectations. And that is the Washington football team and what is happening right now with Sam Howell and Eric Bienami. I'm curious, after watching this game, how much of this offense looks familiar to you? Because obviously, you spent a ton of time in Kansas City with Andy Reed. Eric Bienamee was the running backs coach there.

He's now the offensive coordinator in Washington. So how much of this jumped out to you as familiar when you were rewatching the game? Almost all of it, honestly. Like, I mean, listen, I was in the offense in its early days. And so it's evolved tremendously from 13, 14, and 15 because of the speed aspect and because of Patrick Mahomes and because of what he wants to do and the RPO's and all that stuff. And E.B. honestly had a huge part in the building block of that offense because when the chiefs had E.B. as the offensive coordinator in the game plan meetings, it was literally E.B. and Andy Reed. And those are the two guys that were coming up with all these crazy concepts and all these crazy plays. And the run game was handled by Andy Heck, who's the O-line coach.

But like, you know, a good part of it, the RPO was them. So it was a two-man team. And when I watched the game, I was, I was, I mean, listen, and this is how it, this is how it happens sometimes, especially your first year as an OC in a new, at a new team, you're going to bring the exact same offense over. You might call formations different, but you're bringing the exact same offense over and teaching it to them

verbatim verbiage because it's what you know so it's what you can teach. It happened to me twice. I went from I went from Casey to Philly and Doug Peterson, I mean, identical offense the first year to a T

protections, everything because it's what he knew and they won a Super Bowl year too. And then you look at when Nagy got the job in Chicago, I was in New Orleans a year before. When I went up there, I was his first year with him. Exact same offense, okay? When I was, those three times actually, three,

because I was in New Orleans with Joe Lombardi. When Lombardi got the job in L.A. the first year, we changed how he called formations, but everything else was the same. There were some few verbiage changes, but that's what he knows, that's what he feels like. but I was just more impressed with Sam Hal and how he's handling the offense. What jumped out to you about that?

Because I was also very impressed with Sam Howe and how he was handling the offense. I mean, Ron Rivera is a wizard, a genius. Like you were able to see that Sam Hal, and it's only two games. I get it. Lower the expectation. But I mean, you saw what Sam Hal had last year against Dallas, and you were like, he's a starter. It was not a competition.

Like don't, don't give me that. It wasn't a competition. It was like, hey, you're going to be the guy. And I almost like how he did it because nowadays people want to be like, hey, it's a competition. It would almost like let him build the confidence, build what he had with the ones and with the first offense and get that camaraderie down. It's paying dividends for him. And it's just, I mean, he just looks calm. Like, he just looked calm.

He looked for a first year in the offense. I mean, they're doing some stuff now. That offense can become complicated. Um, and obviously, you know, the big story in this game is just how many, how well they screened him to death. And that's just E.B.'s genius. But I thought Sam just really, he just looked comfortable. And that, that might not seem like a lot to the outsider. But I promise you in that locker room and in that huddle and in everything, it just seems like he's a chill dude. Like he just like, nothing's too big for him. Like, oh, who cares? That's sack fumble and whatever. We'll move on and go. And those type of attitudes at quarterback,

when I've been a part of some stuff like that, like those are the best type of attitudes to have. His biggest strength at this point also seems to be his biggest weakness and that he's just going to stand in there and let it rip. And that's part of the problem is that he's taking a ton of sack so far and he's gotten a hit a lot. So he's taking 10 sacks so far this season. That's sad I mentioned about Bryce Young,

that pressure to sack percentage. Bryce Young's down near the bottom of the list. Sam Howell's number one in the NFL. About 36% of his pressures are turning into sacks right now. And some of them are worse than others. Like he took a bad sack on the, edge of field goal range in this game, et cetera,

but he also is standing in there and making some really tough throws as the pocket closes in. So as a quarterback coach, as an offensive coordinator, you probably don't want to coach too much of that out of him because his willingness to stand in there

and let some of these throws rip on some of these more vertical concepts is part of what's making this offense hump. I mean, he's standing in there until the last second, almost to his detriment. Like you said, I have three or four times in here. I was like, I literally wrote down, wow, stood in the pocket, got smashed.

Next note, he got harassed early in the game, no time. Like all these, and I'm like, okay, I'm seeing it like that. And it never seemed to bug them. And that is like probably for a young starter learning still how to play a game because he's only started, what, three games? This is the third start. Which is wild to me. Like, that can't be like taught.

Like it can be taught like, bro. don't get hit, we need you. It can't get taught, like, just standing in the pocket and the courage it takes with these massive, massive human beings chasing you down and trying to legitimately kill you. Like, that can't be taught. And so that, that to me just showed, and it shows the team like, dude, this guy will stand in there. Shows the old line like, yeah, man, I got a dog in front of me. Like, even if I lose, like, he made a little throw, not a little.

He made a throw on the right side line. it was going left to right on a little cell corner route. And when I tell you, like, when he let the ball go, first, he took three steps. It was like off a play action. He took three steps. And the dude, as he's throwing, I'm pretty sure they were touching face masks. Like, I'm pretty, like, oh, if not, like, really close. And he's throwing and he can't release it.

And the ball doesn't come above five yards above the ground and just zip perfectly. I'm like, okay, that's impressive. and like the touchdown throw. Like I wrote. Which one? Because both of them were impressive. Yeah, but the, yeah. The ones of McCorn, especially.

The first one to Logan Thomas was like, it was exactly what the chiefs run. If you watch them to this day, it's exactly what the chiefs run against single high coverage down the red zone. It's two little nod routes. Logan Thomas was a nod, took it across. That was good. Like timing. The post route versus quarters that he threw. Like it was it was not only like a quarters, but it was almost like a quarter quarter half where the field safety was moving back a little bit.

And I wrote like, okay, TD throw on post first quarter. Here's my notes. Lucky or great. And honestly, it doesn't matter because it was complete. Like it doesn't matter. Like the ball, like he was on the 30 yard line. The ball, I mean, on a post route, he almost drove it like a bang eight like a glance route. Like it just had enough to get over the front safety and then barely got through from that drop kicking safety.

And I just said, I had to re because I was like dealing with my daughter and trying to watch. And I was like, oh, as soon as you let it go, I'm like, oh, it's incomplete, he threw it away. And then I go to the next play. And then the next play is like a new drive. I'm like, hold on. What? And he completed it because I didn't see it live. And I was just like, oh, man, like that was impressive.

Even the willingness to throw that ball is what jumps out to me. Like the conviction and the aggressiveness that he's playing in within that offense is really cool to see for a guy in his third start. And what's also awesome is that the playmakers within that offense justify the aggressiveness. When you're watching them play right now, they have so much heat coming at you in the passing game with Dotson, Samuel, McCorren. And then you combine that, the vertical element of it, which they have a ton of and I think is going to be really fun to watch, which is a really well-designed screen game. And those two components in concert with one another makes for an offense that at least on Sunday was truly a pleasure to watch. Going back through that, I was like, holy shit, this is good stuff. The out and up to the tight end with 20 seconds left and the two minutes roll was a beautiful throw.

And even the big plays are great. And I love that he's willing to stand in there and let it rip. What I was really impressed by in this game, they got behind the chains a decent amount. A couple holding calls, a couple early sacks, couple negative runs. And how calmly they were getting half of it back, a third of it back, being able to still function offensively. There was a hold in the third quarter, made it first and 20. He comes back. It's three by one.

McCoran's on the backside. Comes off the front side immediately and throws the little dig to McCorn to make it second and 10. It's not the biggest play in the world. It's not the most important thing in the world. But to go from first and 20 to second and 10 and see that sort of decision making in that situation from a quarterback in his third start. it's hard not to get excited about little stuff like that. Well, and it just tells me that it's being taught really well too, right?

Like, like E.B.'s teaching it like he wants it. And, you know, all this storyline came out in E.B., oh, they're too hard on us. He's too this and that. Like, man, like, just trust them. Because I've been with them. I've been one of the three years.

Just trust them. And another thing, you said, you know, those getting behind the sticks, what I was impressed was they were down 18 points, 20 minutes into the game. Yeah. So on the road, third start. for a new quarterback, like, you could easily go in the tank because I've been there and I'm like, man, this just seems so impossible to climb out of, like, insurmountable. But they scored 11 points the last minute, 47 of the half, and I think that was a turning point of the game. They were somehow

able to make it, it was 213 and at half they made it 2114, 21 to 14. And I think it just continued to compound like that. Like that to me, that to me was probably the most impressive. They were down early, were able to get things going, even when things were. were going bad, a sack turnover, like all this stuff. Like, they just kept at it, which was cool. It was cool to see. The concepts that are just native to this offense, very fun to watch. I'm excited to watch it.

It was also cool. They ran that same little wheel stop that you're talking about to McCoran at some point in this game. And when you have the level of juice they have at receiver, straight up stealing from whatever the dolphins are doing makes a lot of sense when you have this skill set. So I was tepidly optimistic about this offense and about him coming into the year based on the way he played against Dallas last year, what he looked like in

the preseason, the receiving talent that they have, I was very impressed. And really the only thing that kind of leaves me, gives me some pause and makes me a little bit concerned is that he's just getting the shit kicked out of him. He's gotten hit 16 times in the first two games. He got sacked four times in this game. Easily could have been six. He threw the ball away once, did a desperation heave with an inch off the ground. And then there was another sack that was negated because of a face mask.

So his safety within the pocket is really my only concern after rewatching that offense. Every other aspect of it looks pretty darn good right now. Yeah, I agree. I agree 100%. Last one, actually, I wanted to say one more question about this. You mentioned this, and I think it's an important conversation. Okay. So you have Matt Nagy bringing the wholesale chiefs offense to Chicago.

You have Doug Peterson bringing wholesale the chief's offense to Philadelphia. What are the reasons that goes right or wrong? Why do some guys succeed when they're trying to bring certain packages with them and why do some guys fail? Is just a failure to innovate over time when it comes time to tweak it when it comes time to evolve it? Is that where the coach is separate in those situations? Yeah, I think it's a failure to innovate. And I also think it has to do with personnel too. Like not all teams are built the same.

Not all teams are you could have like a new GM and a new head coach at one point. And this head coach is the offensive guy. He's bringing an offense over. And, you know, the old GM built the team completely different than a pass heavy offense. it was almost like a running style off like all that stuff matters but i would say like over time you have to be able to not only innovate but you also have to be able to fit the offense that you're bringing to your skill set like like we always said like kyp okay know your personnel and that's always was told to quarterback like if i got no offense to river craycraft here but if i have

Tyree Kill on the right, and I have River Craycraft on the left, and both are running go-go-rout. It's a mirrored route. And one of the guys, River Craycraft is pressed, and Tyree Kill is pressed. Who am I going to throw to? I assume Tyree Kill. Tyree Kill. And so that is like, I mean, it sounds easy, but you'd be so, so interested to know the amount of quarterbacks that go into a plan that says, like, hey, like, if I have like a little slower

guy, but he might be like pressed versus Tyree kills off and I want to throw a press route versus I want to throw a go ball versus press and I have an off like, okay, even if it's Tyree Kill like I'm still going to Tyree Kill. Like that's how I feel about Chicago's offense with DJ Moore. Like I don't care what he is. Just throw it to that guy. He'll make you a better quarterback. So it's the same with offensive innovation. Like you've got to be able to innovate for the personnel you have currently on the team. So in Philly, obviously they take the next step forward. They lean into the RPO's in year two. They take the league by storm because of the innovation and the tweaks that they made.

In Chicago, where do you think you guys ran out of road in trying to adopt those Kansas City ideas on offense? Yeah, I mean, that's a good question. You know, 18 was really good for us, right? Like Nagy won NFL coach of the year. We were really good. We were 12 and 4. Should have been 14 and 2. could have been 14 and 2 easily that year.

And then you go into 19. And I think for that, the unraveling was Mitch just didn't stay healthy in 19. He messed up his left shoulder. And it just, there's a lot of different things that go into it. I don't think the personnel fit as much as we thought into year two. Didn't have the playmakers like they did in Kansas City when it was innovative and stuff like that. And I mean, I just like I love Mitch. comes down to the quarterback in that offense.

Like you see what Mahomes has done. Even Alex Smith in his last year in that offense. Like it just, you know, there's some struggles there. And it's why it's encouraging to see the way that Sam Howell is playing this early in this offense and the confidence that he's playing with. I can, I'm excited to watch that game against Buffalo on Sunday in a way that I didn't necessarily think I'd be struggling into the season. Speaking of last thing we wanted to hit today, we talked about Josh Allen, some of his

struggles last week in week one. Things looking a little bit better in week. two. It's a lot better from the bills. What do you think biggest difference, biggest thing that encouraged you about their week two performance? Don't have spent a ton of time on this, but after focusing on it so much last week, felt it was important to kind of readdress here in week two. Well, I'm just going to give you the checklist because I wrote it down and it was, I could tell, I could tell, I mean, literally I wrote down, I can tell within 15 snaps the game was going to go different. I watched 15 snaps and I was it. And the reason was Josh Allen, more calm in the pocket,

way more. He scrambled a lot more in the back end. And when I say scramble, he just made stuff work. And he threw the ball away. He was facing a much easier defense. He didn't force things. Here's a stat, which I think is the best stat. And like for this conversation, they ran for 183 yards.

And they ran it 35 times. Okay. The first game they ran for 97 yards. They only ran it 22 times. Now, that defense is a lot better, the Jets than the Raiders. But when you can run it like that, it takes the pressure off Josh Allen. And I literally just said, play design, play calling, et cetera, everything was better. Those were my thoughts.

Yeah, it's nice to see them kind of click into place. And I didn't think that the game against the Jets was going to be the norm. The Jets defense is very good. They're very good at speeding him up. But encouraging nonetheless to see them come back with that sort of performance in week two. All right. Impressive. That is all we got.

As always, guys, thank you so much. much for listening. We will be back next Thursday with another edition of In the Pocket, breaking down all things quarterback play from week three. In the meantime, please check out all the other stuff on the athletic football show. Prospects to Prospects to Prospects is live on Wednesday. Please go check out Nate and Dane. We will be back on Friday with our week three preview. And if you have not checked out the Rusini Report, my weekly show with Diana on our YouTube channel, please go give that a listen, breaking down all the biggest bits of NFL news every single week. We do it live on Tuesdays at 2 p.m.

But it's also available whenever you want to watch on YouTube. So thanks a lot, guys. Appreciate you listening. We'll be back soon. This was the Athletic Football Show.