The Athletic Football Show: A show about the NFL - NFL Week 10 recap — Vikings stun Bills, Packers upend Cowboys, Dolphins keep rolling, and more

Episode Date: November 14, 2022

A couple of NFC North teams picked up huge wins in overtime to highlight Week 10 Sunday. First, the Vikings proved that we all might need to take them a little more seriously with a 33-30 win over the Bills. Then, the Packers kept their fledgling playoff hopes alive by erasing a 14-point deficit to beat the Cowboys, 31-28. Robert Mays and Mitch Schwartz dig into both of those games on this episode of The Athletic Football Show.The guys also discuss the relentless Dolphins offense, the prospects of the Buccaneers doing damage in the playoffs, the AFC West, and more.Follow Robert on Twitter: @robertmaysFollow Mitch on Twitter: @MitchSchwartz71Subscribe to The Athletic Football Show...AppleSpotifyYouTube5:02 Vikings-Bills23:25 Packers-Cowboys48:20 Dolphins offense keeps rolling68:18 Can the Bucs be good by time the playoffs arrive?81:14 Things get uglier for the Raiders89:53 The Broncos appear to be in long-term trouble94:20 State of the Chiefs Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

This is the Athletic Football Show. Welcome to the Athletic Football Show. I'm Robert Mays. Joining me tonight is my good friend Mitchell Schwartz. Mitch, how you doing, buddy? I'm doing really good. How are you? I sincerely appreciate you helping us out with this.

Nate is out again. Obviously, for personal reasons, we've talked about. He will be back next week. Everyone's doing great on that front. If you're worried or curious, everyone's doing very, very well. So excited to get Nate back. But very happy that you are here to do this with us tonight. We're going to dig into a lot of stuff from week 10.

We'll talk about the Bucks win, chat about what the hell is going on with the bad teams in the AFC West. Chat a little chiefs because you're here and it would seem silly to do this entire show without talking about the chiefs for at least a bit. Let's start, though, with the game of the day, probably one of the games of the season when it's all said and done. The Vikings beat the bills, 33 to 30 at absolutely wild one. I'm going to start this conversation with a question that I've posted. several times to several different people on this podcast so far this season. The Vikings are 8 and 1. Are the Vikings good?

You know, they might be above the equator in DVOA after this week. They might be above 18th overall. And it's kind of wild because you watch them and you see like a lot of good things that they do and you're like, yeah, I really believe in it. But they also do some stuff they don't believe in and they just have that inherent like Vikings history and unfortunately what we think of cousins the quarterback and kind of his ability to do it in the playoffs and on the bigger stages. And it feels like they're a good team. They're obviously don't feel like an eight and one team. I think that's kind of where the disconnect lies is we don't know

how to kind of properly evaluate them and properly place them in amongst the NFL elite. So I have two or three different elements of this game that have caused me to think a little bit differently about the Vikings now than I did when I woke up this morning. The first involves Justin Jefferson. Today was a reminder that Justin Jefferson is truly one of the five, ten elite players in the NFL, the plays that he made in this game. I want to say that eight of his catches in this game, according to next gen stats, Beller can pull up the tweet in the stat, but I want to say eight catches that he had in

this game, excuse me, nine receptions that he had in this game according to next gen stats had a sub 50% completion probability, which when you watch that game, that's what it felt like. Every single time he went up to make a play, it was a 50-50 ball, it was a contested catch. I mean, obviously, we'll talk about the fourth and 18 catch. Maybe the best catch I've ever seen in terms of stakes, what it was like in the moment, when it came in the game, everything about the mechanics of it. Was that the best catch you've ever seen? I think so when you put all those things together. I mean, again, it's fourth and 18.

You're making an Odell like catch except the other guy kind of caught it too. And then you have the physical strength to like snatch it from him, which my shoulder, one, I wouldn't have had the ability to do it because I have aligned shoulders. And two, the strength to just like reach from behind your head and pull within a force to yank the ball from a guy who has two hands on it. Again, fourth down. Having his hand on it coming down, the fact that he kept it in one hand through contact and through hitting the ground. It was absolutely insane. So we all know Justin Jefferson is good.

My concern over the first, let's say eight weeks of the season with Justin Jefferson, Kirk Cousins, and the composition of this offense, is that they weren't pushing the ball down the field at all. Kirk Cousins through eight weeks was 33rd of 35 quarterbacks in air yards per target. It's about six air yards per throw. Justin Jefferson had seven targets of 20 plus air yards over the first eight weeks. he's had seven over the last two games. Over the last two games,

Kirk Cousins is averaging 9.2 area yards per target, which is sixth among all 32 quarterbacks. So if I'm going to see the offense in a different way, them willing to push the ball down the field and them willing to be more aggressive with some of these 50-50 tight window, however you want to describe them, throws to Jefferson,

that is a very good starting point. Because if you're going to allow him to make these sorts of plays, then who you are as an offense changes in my mind. And I think that's an important step and kind of reconfiguring what we think about whether this team is actually good at football. Yeah, it's a really good point. And you have to wonder,

obviously teams are going to go into the ear and say, all right, we can't let this guy beat us. We can't let him beat us deep. You know, we've got a new offensive coach and you're kind of wondering, you know, what part of it is scheme, what part of it is what the Vikings are choosing to do and what the defense is dictating to them.

And then there's games like today where you just realize like, dude, just throw it to him. Just throw it up to him. Yeah. And it's like what we've seen with Burrow and Chase, like Burrow just throws it up to him and he does it to all his receivers. But he kind of just empowers his big guys and his good players to go get it and to have fun and to like the challenge of coming down with it in two-on-one situations.

And so whether the Vikings are doing something different structurally the last couple weeks or whether they told Kirk, like, dude, just throw it to him. Like even if it's not, you know, quote unquote, classically open, And you've got to trust your guy or whether something sparked and he realized today he just had to do it to have a chance. I think it's awesome for the offense. And like you said, you know, you can't dink and dunk and have a guy that good and that explosive and not utilize his full toolbag. And so if they're able to do that more consistently and kind of, you know, defenses are saying, all right, we're going to play too high. We're going to play whatever and take away Jefferson Deep.

And you're still shredding them and you're still throwing it to him. When he's double covered, he's coming down with it. That changes your offense drastically. And this offense is built on run game play action under center stuff. And if you're forced now to stay back there because they're pushing the ball down the field, it drastically changes that run game and what they can do up front. The other element of their offense that I was really encouraged by today, the thing I was most worried about, beyond the air yard stuff,

beyond their inability to push the ball down the field over the first eight weeks or so, the interior of the offensive line was a disaster. Like the way that the right guard was playing and at times the center end the left guard, I was consistently worried about their ability to hold up. And in this game, I thought they played much, much better. There were a couple of moments, I think it was the third and nine late in the second quarter, where cousins held out it for a long time before finding Hockison over the middle of the field. And he just didn't have that sort of time in those sorts of moments for long stretches of this season.

And so if they can play better up front on offense and they're willing to push the ball down the field, which those things can happen in concert with each other, that makes me a lot more. more bullish on the offensive side of the ball, and then extending kind of this trenches conversation, I thought they outplayed the bills up front on both sides of the ball in this game. I thought that Harrison Phillips had some really nice moments. Z had some really big, not sacks, but pressures on third down that sped Allen up. And if they can outplay people on offense and defense up front, then we're really talking here

because they have not been able to do that so far this year. On defense, they have, like their pass rush is good, but on offense, they have it. So that was the other kernel of like, okay, if this is going to be different, then I can talk and think about you differently than I have been so far this season. Right. And first off, thank you for not using the offensive lineman's names when you were saying that they weren't playing so well. I appreciate you just pointing out positions. It doesn't really matter. No, it does.

No, it does. Because, you know, we get talked about like worst case scenario typically. So I appreciate you're just kind of pointing out positions and people don't have in their head like, oh, that guy sucks. So I do actually appreciate that. But yeah, to your point, I think the interior of the offensive line, so there's, you know, quarterbacks kind of fall into buckets of would they rather have their outside feel more protected, would they rather have the inside? You know, Cousins isn't a guy who's necessarily going to break the pocket and look to run and throw on the run. And so you're talking about a guy

who's a little bit more of a true pocket passer when he does throw it. And those guys tend to like feeling secure up the middle because that's where they need to step into the throw. That's where they're going to drive the throw from. If they do move in the pocket, it's going to be very minimal, kind of laterally just to avoid things. But that middle of the pocket being solidified, feeling good about things is absolutely a huge thing. And, you know, you see other teams and they put a lot of money. They put a lot of emphasis on securing those inside three because that's what makes a

quarterback feel comfortable. And so kind of regardless of, you know, what their specific scheme is, what their thoughts are, you know, that inside being able to do that now allows you, like you said, those third and lungs where the offense isn't necessarily at its greatest ability to, you know, push the ball down the field, maybe that extra half second that does allow Jefferson to beat double coverage, that does allow someone else to get open when they're shifting to Jefferson. Maybe on second and eight, they run the ball and they get that little bit more push, and now it's third and three instead of third and five, and that can change what you're doing offensively.

It makes a really big difference. And to have that kind of test against the Buffalo front that we've seen all season cause havoc and not just the edge guys, we've seen, you know, Ed Oliver and Jordan Phillips and really the whole kind of front eight or front ten of what Buffalo is. bringing on the defensive side, just completely shred teams and really take over games. And for the Vikings O-line to, you know, match that test. And like you said, outplay them on both sides of the ball, as you mentioned, especially on the inside of the offensive line.

It really is a good stepping stone for them. And you just have to build on that. And yeah, I think, you know, we expected their defense-aligned Minnesota's to be good and to be able to rush the passer. Obviously, the guys on the edge kind of leading that charge a little bit. but Buffalo was kind of playing a little bit, you know, less Josh Allen throwing the ball down the field early on. It did feel like they were, you know, trying to take a few throws off his plate, lean a little bit more on the run, a little bit more in physicality, see if they can play that style of game. And Minnesota responded well.

They got to Allen in the past game, but they also did some good things up front defending the run. There was a third and two, like little tiny moments in this game. There was a third and two in the third quarter. Singletary was stuffed. Harrison Phillips was playing on the other side of the lawn of scrimmage. There are a lot of those moments in this game where you just notice those guys up front from Minnesota in ways that, especially on the interior on both sides of the ball I hadn't previously this season. So you talk about the interior, the defensive line for Buffalo.

The one guy I think they really missed in this game was Greg Rousseau. And then Jordan Hoyer also didn't play. So I'm wondering, is this sort of a letdown from the bills? Are you concerned about them? Do you feel like there are a couple guys like when they get back and they get right? It'll be smooth sailing. where are you on Buffalo after today and after some of the missed-ups they've had really over the last couple weeks? I do think you have to cool down just a little bit on them.

I think as of two weeks ago, we saw them as up there with the Eagles. But I think realistically, we probably like their playoff chances the best of anybody in terms of the most complete team, kind of trust the quarterback in the playoffs a little bit more than what we've seen historically the last couple years from Philly. And so this changes things. And I think, you know, as much as we've talked about O-line-D-line, you know, guys who are missing injuries, I think some of the Josh Allen decisions, some of the past plays, the turnovers are really concerning. That's a big part of his game that he's cleaned up in the last year and a half or so and that he's kind of catapulted himself into that upper echelon of quarterbacks with. Like the cool plays are cool and he can hurdle guys, he can throw it 70 yards downfield with the sprained UCL.

He can do all these sorts of crazy things. but it was that consistency, the not being reckless, the throwing to your check down, the picking up the third and 12 with your feet and then sliding and getting down. And now he's reverted a little bit, and I don't know if it's pressing. I don't know if he's gotten a little too confident and things he can kind of get away with whatever. But that would be my biggest worry about them. My second biggest worry would be the injuries. And like you said, there's a couple guys missing.

They've had a couple guys missing in a lot of these games lately. And it does seem to be stacking up a little bit. You know, they got hide out for the season. And this is a team that, you know, they're going to go as the quarterback goes, obviously. It was great to see them not have to miss a week. But those minor injuries, like they start to pile up and it really tests your depth. And then you got guys playing who don't usually play. And maybe now, you know, your third or fourth defensive tackle isn't used to playing 50 plus snaps.

And he gets a little beat up. And then it puts more stress on another guy. And maybe, you know, your starter has to come back a week early because you just don't have the depth. And now he gets, you know, re-injured. And so these things can kind of get out of control that can spiral a little bit. we've seen disaster injury seasons from Baltimore from San Francisco where things just seem like they're going crazy. Baltimore's, or Buffalo's not there yet, but I am a little bit worried about their injury situation. For me, it's just get to the playoffs as healthy as you can be,

and we'll see what happens. You know, there's only one bi-week now, and we kind of thought Buffalo had the inside track after beating Kansas City, and now that's completely shifted to Kansas City. And so, you know, if this is a Buffalo team that's a little bit more beat up than some of the other teams, and now they don't have, you know, that one seed and that buy once they reach the playoffs, that could be a pretty big deal. Yeah, you'd hope that when Rousseau comes back, Poir comes back, Trey White should be back fairly soon. Kairilin missed this game, that their defense can be a little bit better than what we've seen. The Allen decision-making stuff, it's just kind of strange to me just because that was why he felt so scary in the early part of the season, is that it just seemed like, he was pushing all the right buttons beyond like the physical tools that we always see.

The decision making was on point consistently, him taking what's there and just, you know, I'll think and dunk you underneath. That's what you're going to give to me. Just understanding exactly how he needed to play in these given moments. And I mean, now the amount of red zone turnovers, I know one was on fourth down, who cares. But the one at the end of the game, if that doesn't happen, do they win this game? The last couple red zone turnovers he had last week, I mean, that's the part that is a little bit worrying. It's like he seems like he's losing his mind in some of these moments where it didn't seem like that for the first half of the season.

But I do think they'll be better when they get healthier. And listen, if Justin Jefferson doesn't make that insane play on fourth and 18, if they don't fumble on their own goal line and allow the Bills or the Vikings to score a touchdown in a way that, I don't know, I can't remember the last time I saw that if I ever have. And there are a couple bounces of the ball here from them beating this Minnesota team. They were up two scores for most of the game. So I'm not doing any victory laps about how great the Vikings are after that game. They're better than I thought they were. And I'm not panicking about the bills. But I do think this is a really good moment for us to kind of step back and reconsider the way that we're talking about both of these teams.

Yeah, I agree. And getting back to your first question is, are the Vikings any good? Where do you rank them? I did not think this would be a game where you get into the fourth quarter, you get into the two-minute drill. and both sides are kind of trading shots and trading blows, and it felt like one of those big-time games where both offenses, whenever they have the ball, they're going to go down and score.

I just didn't have that feeling about this Vikings team, and I do think that's one thing that they showed that they can do that against a team that theoretically has the best defense. I know we just talked about them missing a few guys, but I think that was maybe the more surprising thing coming out of it is that it felt like kind of that big-time playoff game, that when things get down to it, there's the flurry of points at the end because score, score, score, and they go back and forth and they trade and then you end up in overtime and, you know,

kind of fizzled out just a little bit in overtime. But it was just a little bit more impressive from the Vikings than I would have expected. And I was curious what you thought in terms of, you know, kind of what they showed on the offensive side at the end of the game and whether you think that's, you know, truly who they are or who they could be or is that more just one crazy receiver taken over the game? I think it's a little bit of both. I do think the one crazy receiver can make that sort of difference, and he is that good. But you look at the entire picture of this game from Kirk Cousins.

He threw two bad interceptions. T.J. Hawkinson got an offensive pass interference penalty in the end zone for breaking up a throw. When's the last time you saw that? When an offensive player was called for pass interference in the same way we would call a defensive player for pass interference because the throw was right to the defender? Like that happened in this game. So, and Devin Singletary fumbles on the 25-yard line. Like, it's the same way these games are with a lot of two good teams, right? Five different bounces of the ball in the game go a hundred different ways.

So I am a little bit more optimistic about the Vikings' offense simply because they're willing to push the ball down the field. But I do think that there are enough underlying concerns about this team's ceiling based on who its quarterback is. And I think he's fine. But I don't think this game was without its blemishes. Well, you did just subconsciously call them a good team. say that it was two good teams playing each other. So you kind of put them pretty close to each other in terms of the matchup. Does this count as a Kirk Cousin's primetime game or is this in that 1 p.m. Eastern slot and

we can't properly evaluate him? Well, just because it's getting dark at 4 p.m. on the East Coast and the Midwest. I still don't think this counts as a prime time game. So he's going to play a prime time. So this is the best version of him then. This team is going to be playing in the playoffs. And I do think that, again, I feel better about them now than I did this morning because of some of the stuff that I saw.

but we'll see what ultimately their ceiling is in the NFC when they have to play against the Niners when they have to play against the Eagles and all. I mean, the one time we saw them play against the Eagles this year, it was a disaster. But again, I do think they're a better team than I did 24 hours ago. All right, we're going to take a quick break. After that, we're going to talk about the other game of the day. Packers to Cowboys. Here are the categories in the Jeopardy Round. Well done, better.

All right. Packers Cowboys, another great game. The game goes to overtime, nice little prime time national TV. spot. Packers win this game, they go to four and six. Kind of feels like maybe too little too late. Niners winning tonight. They still have like a 15% chance to make the playoffs. According to 538, you guys can look at other playoff odds.

I'm sure they're not too optimistic about what Green Bay can do from here. It's kind of how it feels to me. This is a good version of the Packers. I think that the offensive mix that they had is what I'd want to see from them. But again, still feels like it's going to be too much of an uphill battle for them to do much from here. Did you look at the box score? Do you know Aaron Rogers stateline? He was 14 to 20.

20 passes. That's nuts in an overtime game. Talking about the balance, they were basically two to one rush to pass, which is nuts. And Rogers had those deep passes to Watson that they finally connect on and everyone's all excited about.

That's what they should be, though. It's strange. Yeah, I know. It's strange to think that this is the way they have to play football with Aaron Rogers, a quarterback in that scheme. Against this.

team specifically, I think that's exactly what you have to do. And, well, we can talk about that. I think that against the best version of the Cowboys offense, or defense, this is what you'd want to do. I don't think that version existed today, where we can get into that a little bit. But Rogers making four, five, six throws that are just insane, combined with them running the ball really efficiently, which they've done all year. Even if you've been concerned about the state of their passing game, they've run the

ball well, especially with Jones. And then him making the throw he made to Watson down the right side. line for the touchdown. The throw he made to Watson, it should have been another touchdown on the right sideline, but Watson slowed down. The one he made to Watkins that he essentially put in his face mask on the right sideline. I mean, there's, and then the RPO to Lazzard. Like, you just need him to make that handful of throws each game, play well in defense and run the ball. I think that's exactly what they need to do based on the personnel that they have. He also played better today. Like, it's just, that's the frustrating part about talking about the Packers this year is that you're like,

man, what's wrong? And the receiving talent just isn't there. And they look so disjointed on offense. And a lot of it comes down to the quarterback just wasn't playing very well. And he played better today. It's not any more complicated than that sometimes. Yeah. And it's hard.

I mean, clearly his thumbs affecting him. Like there are some passes that are very atypical from him. I don't think physically he would have dropped off enough from back-to-back MVP seasons to be making some of the really, really, really strange throws that we've just not seen from him, really in his entire career. Like, he has the best TD interception ratio in NFL history. Now, a lot of that is by choice because he chooses not to, you know, kind of force the ball into spots.

Yes. But it's also because he has exceptional accuracy. And he can throw it exactly where he wants it most of the time. And we've just seen these kind of squirly passes that come out funky and that are, you know, off by five, eight yards. And they're just not typical, like that pass to Bactiari, you know, from the weekend. before. It's just, it's a casual flick of the wrist that he probably completes every single time. And I guarantee in practice, you know, that ball is placed in the back half of the end zone.

And it's very easy and it's catchable. And the thumb just doesn't seem fully there. It did seem like it took a step in the right direction. Like you said, he played better today. And part of that is he made Aaron Rogers throws and he zipped it in there and he put it, you know, exactly like you said, into guys' faces where they were forced to catch the ball. So that's a really positive development. But it just, it seems strange that this is the version that they need to, you know, kind of produce. And like you said, against Dallas, but this is essentially the way the NFC is going to go.

This is what they're going to need in the playoffs to be successful. The counterpoint is they just prove that they can go up against one of, you know, the better teams in that conference, rather, and play the kind of football that is successful once you get into the winter months and, you know, the physicality of prone on both sides of the ball, being able to control things, pick and choose your spots to throw it down the field, throw it accurately, and then the crazy Aaron Rogers plays. So a bit of a positive development.

and, you know, still not super excited about this team for the long term? How do you feel about it? Well, I think about the short term, about 2022, I still feel like they're way too far to go. They probably won't make the playoffs. And I think that's why losing to Detroit last week, losing that game, they lost to the Giants, all those close ones, that's why they're heartbreakers, because you didn't give yourself a chance to write the ship. We're going to talk about the bucks here in a bit.

It's exactly what happened. Just based on the state of the division, they were allowed to have some shitty moments over the first half of the season and it didn't really matter because they're still going to make the playoffs. The Packers just didn't get that sort of break because of how well the Vikings are playing or what the Vikings record is, I guess. So that's the frustrating part. I will say if they continue to play well down the stretch, maybe it changes the complexion of stuff for 2023 rather than saying, do we need to move on from him? Is that the best plan? We can, based on the way that contract is structured, if you get to the end of the season, you say our best chance

to do something over the next year with this core is to keep him, and that that gives us our best shot, maybe this trajectory and more games like this will lead you to that conclusion by the end of the year. Yeah, and we'll see. I mean, I think the most encouraging part, you know, we've talked about kind of the balance on the offensive side of the ball and what they needed to do. They got down 24 or 28 to 14 in the third quarter. You know, the game was tied. They come out of the half. Dallas scores, I think in the middle of the third quarter and then towards the end of the third quarter,

order and it felt like all right you know green bay they stayed with them in the first half alice is starting to pull away the offense is good the defense is doing what they need to do and green bay came back and they fought back and they tied it and they got the game to overtime and they won and uh you know i was i'm going to have my cool setup so i don't have to turn any game off physically but like that was a game i was ready to you know take my attention away from and just all right this one's over and you know green bay is kind of who we thought they were based on the first couple months of the season and so I think that ability to fight back, you know, despite a couple testy moments from Rogers on the sideline. And I completely agree with him. I mean, that end-of-game scenario where Green Bay basically

just runs the ball, runs the ball, chooses a play on third down that Aaron Rogers is clearly not, not too happy about, you know, comes to the sideline, cusses out LaFleur, and they basically just give up and go to overtime. I thought that was really strange. And I couldn't quite tell if that was, like, hey, I don't actually trust my offense. I don't really think these guys. guys can, you know, go down the field and not need to punt with a minute and a half left for Dallas and to give them the ball right back. I thought that was kind of one of those odd situations that even in this victory, you could kind of look at that as a, all right, things are still pretty messed up there and there's still, you know, this huge disconnect between

quarterback and head coach. His just general demeanor, the body language, some of the reactions, if you were on that team, how do you think you would see that? How would you process the way he's acted this year. Man, that's a tough one because, you know, from the exterior view, it kind of looks like, you know, he puts himself on a certain level and he has seen that a lot of guys are beneath him and not up to his level and doing things that, you know, he doesn't approve of. And then, you know, really the worst thing you can do is become that guy who kind of so's disconnect between the coaches and the players. And when your leader and the guy who just got the biggest contract and, you know, quarterback in NFL history, uh, you know, you know, he's going to be able to, uh, you know,

on an annual average salary basis is openly, you know, defiant of the head coach when he, you know, gets in his moods and pouts and looks very disconnected from everything. Like that has a big effect on the rest of the locker room. And, you know, when you hear about cancer in the locker room, essentially that's what that looks like. It's a guy who looks disconnected, uninterested, you know, openly criticizes the coaches, openly, you know, kind of says, oh, we should be doing this. We could be doing that.

You know, the past few weeks, it's actually kind of led me to this little thought in my head that, you know, Rogers, obviously, thinks highly of himself. He's talked about, you know, he called that, yeah, he called what the Matt Flynn game, that Flynn had like six touchdowns. I forget which, you know, random Green Bay quarterback that was to put up six TDs and got a big contract and flamed at. Yeah. So, like, he called that game. Of course he did. It's interesting to me that the play comes into Rogers' ear and he doesn't switch it. Like he seems really okay with just calling the play, knowing it's going to fail and kind of spiting

a little floor over it. And like he seems like the kind of guy that the play would come in and he would just choose a different one because he trusts it better and he thinks that's the better chance to win. So it's just like little thought that's been in my head of kind of how to parse that out between this guy who is, you know, happy enough to just like have this play that fails and be able to yell at his coach. But also a guy who thinks he's this brilliant, you know, kind of thoughtful guy and can call a great game and understands everything about folk.

and it seems exactly like someone who would defy his coach and just call a better, quote, unquote, play in his head at the line of scrimmage. And I don't know quite how to parse that, but I figured you'd be the guy to talk about that too. Because it seems like he would just get a call and be like, nah, this isn't going to work. I'm just going to call my thing. But every time it's third and short, he just runs the play and then he goes back to the sidelines and cusses his coach at. It's so hard as someone who just wants to analyze this stuff from what scheme are they running. Are they doing things the right way? Is this the right offense to be running for your players?

Oh, that was the right play call in that situation. And in talking about the Packers, you have to consistently psychoanalyze the motivations and emotions of the quarterback. And it's just like, I don't know how to do it. I don't know how to properly say, like, well, the Packers are struggling because their quarterback is in this sort of mood. But in order to actually talk about them and evaluate them properly, you probably have to take that into consideration.

And you shouldn't have to do that after he, you know, held the team hostage in the office season and forced them to give him this awesome contract. Yeah, I mean, I was trying to be nice there. But he finally got that crazy contract that, you know, kind of hamstrung them to do other things. And then he'll get upset because they don't bring in certain guys or they don't draft certain players. And it's like, well, you're the biggest cap hit in NFL history. And we have to kind of figure this out because you're choosing to be the highest paid guy over taking a lot. taking a little bit less money or not being the absolute highest paid so we can spend a little more on receivers or do this. And, you know, the narrative of Devante wanting to go play with

Carr, you know, the more we kind of see things, the more it might just be he kind of needed a break from Rogers too. And, you know, his old friend from college looked like the right guy to get back with. So, yeah, it's kind of crappy that we're at this place, that we have to analyze his mood and what he's thinking, how he's acting on the sidelines. This looks a lot like, you know, the end of the McCarthy area and why they moved on for McCarthy. It looks a little bit like that first year with LaFleur where even though they went 13 and three, they still hadn't quite figured each other out and there was still a little bit of back and forth.

Yeah, and obviously they figured it out the last couple years and now it seems like the power has shifted a bit back to Rogers and maybe he's got a bit too much influence, like you said, when you're looking at the schematics and what fits the players, what fits the team. It seems like the pendulum has definitely swung back towards catering more to Rogers than it is to kind of stick to the LaFleur offense. Let's talk about the Cowboys a little bit. After watching this game, I'm a little bit concerned about the defense. And when you take out a couple specific pieces, I think you saw the impact of that today.

Losing Anthony Barr feels huge because it moves Micah Parsons away from rushing the passer all the time. And I do think that really matters when you're talking about this team's ceiling on defense and how scary they can be playing and play out. I also think that losing Jordan Lewis to IR replacing him with Bland with Bland, his nests him as Bland, which I feel is unfortunate. I think it's number 26. And he's now their nickel.

And I think that that showed up in a couple big moments today when, I mean, I think that the Watson completion on that crosser was, Bland was on him. And then having Calvin Joseph come in because Anthony Brown got hurt in this game, you're down two starting corners. You're down a starting linebacker who moves your best player out of position for, at least some situational stuff. So now we're starting to chip away at the idea of what the Cowboys defense is.

And that leaves me a little bit worried about their standing in this entire NFC conversation. Yeah, I'd probably leave the best defensive player in football at the position he can wreck games the most easily. I tend to agree with you. That should force him to play off the ball linebacker. And if you want to say, well, he can't stay in coverage or whoever would be. that backup to bar can't, you know, do the things that Parsons can do in coverage, whatever. Like, obviously that's the case.

I mean, he's Parsons. But also, maybe Parsons getting after the quarterback means he doesn't have to cover as long. And, you know, maybe you're able to combo all these pass rushers. And now it's not just one or two good pass rushers every play. Now it's three of them and one of them is Micah Parsons. It does look like maybe he's a little bit hurt. You know, he's got the ankle thing. And there are a couple times he came out.

Yeah, that's also another consideration. It looked like it was pretty heavily taped and a little bit, you know, kind of thicker. down there in terms of whatever a rap or tape he's doing and kind of comes off and gets checked out. So I think there's this combination of, like you said, now he's not playing the position that he wrecks games the most easily and the quickest. He is a little bit banged up. The overall depth is starting to struggle a bit. And we've seen all these great defenses. It's exceptionally hard in today's NFL to be good on the back end and to have your defense run because coverage is that exceptional that you shut guys down every single week. And that's really the driving forward.

The Dallas defense was the Dallas defense in large part because the front four got to quarterbacks at record pace. And they were able to. It's 80% of what made them the Dallas defense. Exactly. And that's what made the Niners, the Niners a few years ago and is making them this year. And even though they've got a few injuries, like basically every great defense, you're talking about Buffalo's defense. It's the front four. Like it's the front four.

It's getting pressure on the quarterback and doing it quickly. That covers up a lot of things on the back end. It's just, it's so difficult to have like one cover corner. let alone three cover corners and the way you need it in today's NFL. And so, yeah, when you're getting injuries in the back end that pull the best defensive player in football away from playing the most important position on the defensive side, I don't agree with moving him,

and that greatly affects the defense. On offense, a couple rough moments for DAC in this game, red zone end zone interception, really no explaining it away. That just can't happen. The second one, interesting defensive structure and scheme by the Cowboys, is they dropped into like a weird version of cover two where the safety dropped down as like the Tampa player. And that screwed up the way that Lamb was supposed to read that

because I think against a single high safety, you want to cross his face against a too high look, you want to actually run between the safeties. It was neither. It was actually cover two, but there was somebody dropping down. So he took it down the middle of the field and DAC throws an interception.

So you take out those couple plays and it looks like a very different game for the Cowboys offense. So I still feel pretty good about them in the long run. I thought Jari Alexander had a couple of really nice moments late in this game in huge situations. But it was a good test against a better defense than the one they've played since Dak got back. So where do you sit with Dallas, their offense, and kind of what they could look like here by the end of the season?

Their offense is so tricky because the top end feels so good, but I just don't feel like they ever really get there and they can maybe do it in one or two game spurs. But it just doesn't seem like they have that consistency. and, you know, really going back, I guess it was early last year maybe before Dak pulled his calf, that they looked the best they looked for like four weeks in a row and everything was clicking. But for the most part, you know, over the last few years, it's been a lot of, oh, well, they could be good, they should be a top five offense and this thing happened, quarterback got hurt, this guy got hurt, Tyron Smith got hurt, yeah, Tyron got hurt.

So there's all these little things that, like, have prevented them from being truly one of the best offenses, you know, kind of over a full season. and it just, it feels like, again, there's just something missing that, like, isn't quite there. I don't know if it's, you know, the true number one receiver that they don't have, you know, the Tyreek guy or, you know, the Jefferson or the Chase that can, you know, truly be the guy that takes over a game. Maybe Odell comes in and, you know, they've been courting him enough that it seems like, I don't know why they keep making it seem like they want to pay him more money than they should in the media. But it seems like, you know, they're willing to do that. So good on them, I guess. I don't know if it's adding that extra piece and now you're just that much more explosive because the best version of the Dallas offense was kind of three top level receivers and DAC being healthy and a really solidified offense align.

And they just kind of downgraded a little bit personnel-wise. And to combat that, they've upgraded a little bit in terms of, you know, DAC's experience and being able to handle different things. So I think, you know, we kind of wish upon what we think and what we hope for their offense. I don't know that, you know, we've really ever seen it consistently enough to think like that. that's the version that's going to show up in the playoffs. Yeah, I think one more receiving option would be absolutely huge for them. I mean, because Gallup is, he's looked fine since he got back, but I don't think he's enough of a difference maker to really move the needle.

Cidland looked excellent today. But if he's kind of your 1A and you also have a 1B, I mean, I do think that that would change things for them and change the complexion of who they are in a way that it might not for some other offenses. Like, I don't know, what, Odell on the Chiefs, Do you think it is like a huge difference maker for them at this stage? I think it is if he's as explosive as he has been in the past because there's an element of like, they used to be able to throw RPO's and Tyreek would catch him on the run and house it.

Or, you know, when Sammy was four years younger, he could catch a ball and he still had the explosion. And, you know, I remember vividly the first game against Jacksonville, he caught a ball over the middle and just exploded through the middle for like a 70-yard touchdown. You know, there's been a couple times where, you know, Pat's actually. clearly thrown a pass to, you know, Juju, kind of on an RPO, one of those kind of middle slants or crossers. And he catches it and it's got all the open room and someone catches him. You know, they have explosion. They have the ability to go deep.

They obviously have MBS. But having a guy that can, you know, kind of catch those, you know, quick hitting passes and get serious yards after catch. I mean, Odell on the Giants is probably the best slant receiver in NFL history. Like, he would just catch them regularly and turn the. them in the touchdowns. He's obviously not that guy anymore, but that in the chiefs offense could be really valuable. And, you know, again, that could be really valuable for Dallas. So it's, I'm sure the teams are kind of trying to figure out exactly how healthy he is and whether you get,

you know, kind of full explosive version of it. Because Odell, the threat, but more of the possession receiver, I don't know if that drastically alters offenses if he's not, you know, fully back. And with ACLs, it's really difficult. And usually you don't get, you know, that full explosion back until the second year. Yeah, I think that with Dallas, he does change who they are offensively. But for me, my biggest question, my biggest concern after this game and after the last couple weeks is, what are they defensively for the rest of the season? Because even if you're optimistic about their offense, which I am, I think DAC is a really good player. I think what they've shown over the last couple weeks before this game, just the overall plan on offense,

we're going to run the ball a lot. A lot of under center play action. We're going to get DAC on the move. I've just enjoyed what I've seen from them more than I have over the last couple years. but I still think for them to truly be a threat in the NFC, their defense needs to be the scariest part of who they are. And right now we're just losing elements of that that were there earlier in the season. And that would worry me if I were a Cowboys fan. Very quick question. How much do you think them forcing Zeke to be the starting running back and they get 15 to 20 touches?

How much do you think that messes with the top end of what they could be or does it mess with that at all? I think it messes with it somewhat. We said this the day after. Pollard had his first big game when Elliot was hurt, which he was again today. Tony Pollard had 22 carries for 115 yards. I don't think Tony Pollard is somebody who should get 25 carries a game. There's a reason that he doesn't. I understand why they don't do that.

Because they overpaid their running back? No, because they're worried about his workload and his ability to hold up and all that stuff, which is fine. If you watch them every day in practice, I'm willing to concede that. But if you're going to hand the ball of the running backs 25 times, they did it at 27, times in this game. Why can't Tony Pollard get 16 carries and Zeeke gets nine instead of the other way around? Like, is there anything preventing you from doing that? Because we've seen his ability to stay explosive and stay efficient with this sort of workload. So if he gets 15 touches a game and Zeek gets 10 touches a game where you're just flipping the ratio, what's wrong with that? That's all I'm

asking for. I just don't want Zique to be the lead back within the offense. I just don't think he should be anymore. Right. And what's stopping that, again, I think is the contract. It's choosing him fourth or fifth overall, whatever it was, and then paying him 15 a year to be the top paid running back. It's that insistence that this is the guy. You can say, oh, they've seen him in practice and they know he can't handle the workload, all that stuff. But we've never gotten indication that that's specifically the reason. It just seems like, we like Zeeke. I know. That's what I'm saying. Like, yeah, it's only two weeks. And, you know, it's a lot more difficult to do that for 17. weeks, but he's had two weeks now where he gets 20 plus, you know, touches and carries, and he's

stayed plenty healthy. And like you said, he's producing the full game. And so it might just be the thing where that kind of guy can't exist. Like, there are plenty of, you know, quote unquote, smaller, faster guys in NFL history who have stayed plenty healthy and have done a really good job and stayed explosive. I'm wondering, you're good, the right person to ask this, okay? Tyron Smith comes back. Your offensive line, especially in the run game, is playing very well. Do you just move Tyler Smith back to left guard and put Tyrone back at left tackle and just say, we'll figure it out? Or are you worried about screwing up the combination that you've had for most of this season? I think if you're fully confident in Tyron being healthy and being

back to where he is and game ready, you put him back at left tackle. He's not a guy you're going to move. I mean, he played right tackle a very long time ago. But if he's fully healthy, like, having him as your sixth lineman and having that guy can only play if Tyler Smith gets hurt, or I guess theoretically if your left guard gets hurt and then Tyler Smith goes back to left guard, I'm not really sure that's the best way to kind of go about it. You know, the best version of the Cowboys O'Line has Tyron Smith at left tackle. And so, you know, I think you'd be willing to move Tyler back to left guard. And, you know, that does kind of hide a few of the things that he doesn't do quite as well at this point.

and kind of playing a little bit more physical, a little bit less with your hands, can kind of body guys up a bit better at the guard position. You feel like that's a big time transition for somebody who's played left tackle for the first half of his rookie season. Do you think that could be smooth if they did end up moving him to left guard?

Would you assume there are going to be some growing pains, some just time spent acclimating to a new spot? I think there's a little bit of growing pains, but he played left guard for most of the training camp. So he has kind of the, has high pressure. He doesn't have game reps per se, but he has high pressure reps there and that was the position he was supposed to play. And now he's got, you know, 10 plus games. It'll be of experience at left tackle, which is a lot more difficult. Like I think

most guys would tell you moving from left tackle down to left guard is going to be a much easier transition than, you know, what he did to start the season, which is moving from left guard to left tackle. So the fact that he's, you know, kind of grown into this role, started playing, you know, some better ball and gotten a little bit more comfortable left tackle. Makes me think he could move there and, you know, after a week or two kind of get things solidified and you might not, you know, see that big of a drop off from, you know, the current left guard to him and, you know, if Tyron's healthy and you're able to kind of get those two guys working together, you know, the double team potentials with, you know, a healthy Tyron and Tyler

Smith and then Zach Martin and Taryn Steal on the right, you know, they could kind of turn into like Philly and just start mashing the ball and really do some cool things. All right. You have my attention. Gentlemen, you have my curiosity, but now you have my attention. Miami and the offense, the Dolphins' offense. You have my attention. All right, another huge game from the Dolphins.

The running game gets going today. We were talking about, do we just want to talk about the running game? But we can't. Like, the way that Tua and the passing game are playing is absolutely ridiculous. Like, he had another monster game today with a couple really impressive moments that I want to dig into. you and I haven't talked about the Dolphins offense at all this season. After today, after the way the first 10 weeks of the year have gone, where are you on the Dolphins offense?

Oh, like thinking they could rip through the playoffs and very easily get to the Super Bowl if they stay healthy. You know, they're, I wouldn't have wanted to talk about, I know, just the running game because that's a combination of the Brown's running defense. That's also the general defense. It's hard to judge them. But it's also part of Miami figuring out who they are, and now defenses are shitting themselves, trying to figure out how do we stop these guys? And, you know, even though, you know, we can talk about two is downfield passing and the numbers are good.

The accuracy and the ability to hit guys in stride, not quite as good as the numbers would show, but still incredibly efficient. I think he's the best, you know, guy thrown 20 plus yards down the field, which is because Tyreek is, wide open and Waddle is wide open. And so even though he can't drive it downfield like a Herbert or an Allen or Mahomes, he's still super successful. I keep talking about the 2017 version of Alex Smith. You don't have to have a strong arm or the greatest velocity to make that work if you're throwing in rhythm and if your guys are that wide open because your offense is that good. And so teams are now realizing we have to cover 50, 60 yards deep because it's very real that they can push the ball downfield like that. And so now that opens up everything underneath. And this

is an offense, which has so much speed in really every position now. Now the running back room solidified, the offensive line you can tell is starting to figure it out. I think run game-wise, there is a combination of doing a lot of things out of shotgun that the Shanahan tree is used to doing from under center and kind of figuring out the exact angles and timing and relationship of the running back to what you're expecting on the offensive line at the tight end and receiver positions. But you could tell today, man, like the. run game, the receivers on the backside are coming in and sealing off at the right angle.

Like they just, they all understand the offense so much better now and they get those angles and there's so much space to make it work. And McDaniel is, you know, realizing how to maximize every single guy's strength. Like, they're doing a lot more shotgun because two is really good at it and that's what he's used to. And they're incorporating the best versions of what two has done in college and at the pros with the best things from, uh, the Shanahan playbook with the best things you can do with the best receiver and the next

fastest guy in the NFL. And it looks awesome. And it just, it doesn't look like there's really a way to stop it. I hope Miami can stay healthy because I like good offenses. I love watching, you know, good football and they're playing really good football right now, you know, on the offensive side of the ball for sure. It's hard not to watch them and not just smile. Like there are sequences of plays. You're like, oh, that's good shit, man. The first quarter today, it was like 825 left in the first quarter. They had a little play fake from the gun, and they got him on the move just a little bit. And their offensive line is playing much, much better, obviously, they did last year.

But still, is the area of this team you'd be the most concerned about. When Toronto's in there, it's obviously much more solidified. But any time you can get him on the move a little bit, get him out of the pocket, change the launch point, you're going to help yourself. So they just do that in subtle ways. The next play, they ran a run from the gun, like you're talking. about with Ingold coming across to kick out the man in the line of scrimmage and Hunt pulling up. It's beautiful. Timing, angles, everything.

Next play, they do it the opposite way. Ingold coming across another chunk play in the run game. Next play is the Ingold touchdown. He comes across the formation again, sneaks out into the flat, too, it does a great job of making the unblocked edge miss, dumps it off to him touchdown. So you have these three plays in sequence where he's coming across the formation. There is two run designs attached to it. then there's a play action throw off of it that they score a touchdown on and that's sort of stuff where it all fits together and you talk about them understanding the offense understanding what you're trying to accomplish really settling in you see that stuff all the time and then you get to the two of plays oh go ahead i was going to say they probably have four more counters to that those looks like that's the thing playing for janehan like i'm going to do this they're going to react to it and then i'm going to do this and they're going to react to it and then this and then this and then this and then that and there's so many things you're going to do this and then this and then that and there's so many levels of what we can do to mess with guys on like just a tight end or fullback coming across the

formation you can cut the defensive end you can block him up high you can bluff him release to the flat you can hit him get up release to the flat you can miss them all together and sneak out vertically like there's so many things off of one simple guy coming across the formation and now you tie that to you know five skill guys and the quarterback and shotgun under center you know a little bit of pistol stuff sprinkled in putting these guys in the backfield like this is the best version of what the offense could be, and it's cool that we've seen it. And like you're saying, we're going to talk about, like, Tua as a passer, it looks as good as he's ever looked as well. He looks really, really good. And there are moments that, to me, this is a perfect encapsulation

of the conversation that we're having about Tua, where you watch the play, it's like, God, it's underthrown. He just doesn't have that big of an arm. But it makes sense within what they're trying to accomplish. It's 533 left in the second core. It was first in 10. The Browns brought the third safety off the edge on a play action pass. So the pocket is crumbling, and he doesn't have much time after he gets his head around. But he gets the throw off, and it's a Tyreek down the right sideline, and it's underthrown, quote unquote, by probably four or five yards. But him even getting that ball off and knowing where that space is is a testament to him

understanding exactly what he's trying to accomplish and where he's trying to attack a team. So there's an ocean of space out there, but he knows it. He knows all he has to do is get that ball out of his hand, and it's going to be a huge play. It was really similar, and it reminded me of the third and 13 completion they had against Detroit on that cover zero play in the first half, where the ball is underthrown. But the fact that he even gets it off and knows that if he does get it off, it's going to be a huge play, he deserves credit for that. So it all is coming from these different directions where he's doing everything he can do within his skill set to make the offense really good. The design of it all makes sense and I think is even getting better as they learn their personnel. And you have all this heat coming at you all of the time that just makes teams terrified in every single moment of every single game.

So when you're trying to divvy up credit, it's hard to pull one thing apart from the other. but I think the conclusion is it doesn't really matter. The end result is the scariest offense in football right now. Yeah, and it's the type of thing that when you criticize the arm strength or the underthrows, like that doesn't mean that you don't think he's a good player. Like we're just talking about what the best version could look like compared to top guys in the NFL because when you're the fifth overall pick or the sixth overall pick, that's how you're going to be compared.

Like you were one of the best quarterback prospects coming out of high school and then coming out of college. So yeah, you're going to be compared to Mahomes and Allen and, you know, the back-to-back Rogers MVP seasons and say, do you have the same top level as these other guys? Like the stuff that we knew he could do really well is process, get the ball out quickly, be very accurate in 20 yards and under. I think we've seen all that and the best he's been at all of that throughout the season. And, you know, for the most part, not super surprisingly that he's good at that. Like, that is what he's good at.

The question was, can all of that overcome, you know, what is a deficient? compared to the top level of quarterbacks. And so far the answer is yes, because the offense, like you said, is so drastically good that there aren't many off-platform plays. There is so much space that they can afford those underthrows. There are just so many good things happening that he's able to look exceptional in the offense. And, you know, there are a couple throws today that you realize, like, he obviously knows himself and he's a good quarterback and knows how to throw the ball.

but he alters the height of the release in terms of where the ball is going like if it was you know in baseball terms it'd kind of be a launch angle but that's kind of how he buffers the lack of arm strength per se and there's these throws like the the one to the back left corner of the end zone that he just releases it it's beautiful and that throw was so much higher than some of his others and not because he needed to necessarily like throw it super high to drop it in but because like that's the calibration he needed to get it to the that spot in the right, you know, area because, again, Mahomes or Allen, they could have made that throw and they could have thrown it with a little bit more of kind of a driving, you know, pushing

the ball through the wind and still put it up top level where your guy could go up and get it. But for him, he's adjusting the angles of throws kind of based on the velocity he needs. And it shows, like you said, a true mastery of kind of what he's doing, his understanding of himself, what he needs to get to the receivers. but, you know, getting to that kind of top level question, is, you know, to making the offense, like, drastically better or theoretically, you know, are you able to plug someone else in there who can make quick decisions to get the ball out? I'd say the last few weeks, it does seem like he's trending towards being someone who's, you know,

maximizing the offense to what he can do. I don't know if it's maximizing the offense compared to what, again, Mahomes, Alan Herbert could do. And once you truly get a guy who could, like, launch a 70-year-old. yards downfield. And so that's the two of debate and that's the frustrating thing is like it's so close to being the best thing that you could possibly wish. There's just like this one little thing holding it back. But I think for now, just watching him appreciating it and, you know, just seeing this machine that they've turned into on offense, it's really fun. And, you know, they're definitely

on my TV every single week. The touchdown throw to Sherfield was gorgeous. And on that same drive, it was a third down. He changed the protection where he moved the back to the other side. the back picked up a free runner through the left B gap, and that was the third down he hit to Waddle on the right side line. There's like a beautifully placed ball. That was the best drive of the game from him for me. Just those couple throws were just like, okay, that is like high degree of difficulty stuff.

Taking it back to the big picture for a second, or last weekend on Friday, there was some conversation happening online about the amount of man coverage that the dolphins have seen and how they don't see much. And I wanted to make it clear. The dolphins don't see a lot of man coverage because Tyreek Hill is on the Dolphins. If you look at the man coverage rates that the Chiefs saw last year and that the Chiefs see now, they're very different.

And there's only one thing that's different about the Chief's offense. If you look at the man coverage rates that the Dolphins see now compared to last year, they're very different. There's really only one thing that's different about the Dolphins offense. But that doesn't take anything away from Tua. Because what you're saying, how many guys could be doing this, it feels like so perfect. because teams play mostly zone against them, and that's where his skill set really shines. He's moving guys with his eyes. It's ball placement.

It's timing. It's anticipation. It's understanding exactly what the play is trying to accomplish. Okay. If I have this guy here, this guy here, and there's one zone defender I have to worry about, how do I move that guy and on time and accurately throw the ball into this window? He's fantastic and anticipating and finding windows. and that skill is accentuated within an offense that sees almost all zone coverage.

So it's hard to answer how a different quarterback would be doing in these specific circumstances because in a lot of ways, the circumstances are tailored to what he does well. And I think that's why we're seeing the results that we're seeing from them so far. Right. And where my mind goes and thinking about kind of the business side and salary cap and all that, this is awesome when you've got a guy who's a top five pick and can be on a rookie contract. If you now have to pay him market salary and, you know, Burrow, Herbert, Lamar, they're going to jump the quarterback market like crazy.

It's going to get into the low 50s. Let's just assume they get it to 51, 52, 53 and say 2 is in the 48 to 50 range or, you know, above that and he gets the next best contract and he's making 53 million. Now are you able to have the same level of offense once he's. he's taking up 40 million more, 30 million more in cap space, and maybe you can't pay Waddle, or you do pay Waddle and Tua and Tyreek, and now you're skimping somewhere else and realistically offensively that would have to be on the offensive line and now they're not quite as good. He's got to move around a little more.

He's not able to have those rhythm plays. That's the biggest question is, is this the guy that you can pay top dollar and still be able to build a good enough offense because he can lift everybody around him to that degree that the other top quarterbacks have. And that's really the root of the, is he, you know, one of the top quarterback questions? I don't know how to answer that right now. And that's not an indictment of him, right? Like, it just, that's, that's what makes this conversation really, really difficult, is that it's hard to know. These guys that look excellent and excellent circumstances because you can do this with your other resources, what happens when those

surroundings start to erode a little bit? And that's something that we're going to have to figure out. I'm trying to look at it right now. So the way that the dolphins did this, I think, is actually pretty smart. So Tyreek Hill has a $31 million cap hit next year, 2023, when Tua has a $9.6 million cap. It makes total sense. 2024, Tyreeks' cap hit goes down to $25 million. And then in 2005, in 2025, it's $28 million.

So the way they've structured this thing actually seems like it might be palatable. for them to pay both of those guys and pay the quarterback at the same time and maybe skimp in some other areas of the roster. Because I don't know what the answer to that question is. It's impossible to know. And that's why these teams are smart in the way they've built it. It's like, all right, we have the excess capital right now. We have the room. And in the Dolphins case, they had the draft capital because all the trades they had made and the way that they've torn things down.

So let's do everything we can to make sure we're allowing this guy to succeed in the short term. term and we'll figure the rest out later. So I'm in the we'll figure the rest out later stage of this because I don't want to start having the conversation about whether Tua deserves an extension. Fair enough, fair enough. I can go on this for another few minutes, but I think you're right. It's very premature. Let's just appreciate a really good football, really good offense.

They got two more years of this, right? So right now you're looking at his contract. In 2023, he's making 9.6 and then the fifth year option. So the fifth their option will be, I don't know exactly, but. I'm sure like in the $20 million range probably somewhere around there right like that's about what Kyle was making this year I want to say well so where I was going to go if we really want to get into it is does he say I'm not playing without a new contract and then does he force their hand and that kind of accelerates the timeline because if you want to wait until another year like you have

two years essentially from when a guy signs a contract at the quarterback position until his cap hit balloons into like the 50 and 60 range like the first two years are relatively manageable because of the signing bonus and a lower salary so you do have that window it's just can we push that out by another year and make it a three year window instead of a two year window until he's got a top five cap hit or is he just going to keep rolling and be in the MVP discussion and be like nope you're going to pay me Herbert and burrow rates and I'm not going to play if you don't do that and now you're accelerating that timeline and that's where it starts to get a little bit more interesting because Because, again, you've got the Tyreek deal.

You've got Chubb. You just paid a bunch of money, too. They have high-paid defensive guys. Waddle's going to be up. They're just, you know, this is one of the problems when you're a really good team with a lot of really good players. You've got to figure out how to allocate the money. I would probably try to buy as much time as I could because I do think that we've seen with some of these quarterback contracts, there's buyer's remorse fairly fast because it's the exact conversation.

Like, I think he's more central to the dolphin success on offense than like Jared Gough was to the 2019 Rams. But a lot of these quarterback contracts that have been handed out when these guys are on these rookie deals and their success has been in part driven or in part helped by the players around them, we've seen what happens when the picture starts to change. So I'm not saying that's going to happen, but I do think it's something to keep in the back of your mind as you think about when you're going to hand out this sort of deal. I'm with you.

All right. All right. I don't want to do this right now. The last guy I want to mention about the Dolphins, the Jeff Wilson trade looks awesome. Getting him for a pick that you're just throwing in and what he was on the ground today and the pop he's giving them, because you're always a mustard injury away. Like I hate to say it, but when you look at his history, it's hard not to be concerned about it. And the fact that now you have Wilson in there who obviously knows the offense, obviously knows the terminology.

It was good immediately and looks like he's got a lot. of pop when you put them in there. Like that is a, that's very good news for what this offense could look like over the rest of the season, even if most of it were to get banged up. And they just didn't have that previously with Edmonds. Yeah, it looks awesome.

And again, the biggest thing, like you said, he knows the offense he's able to come in, like the understanding of the angles where to get to kind of how to feed off, you know, not just the offense line blocks, but the downfield blocks, the receiver blocking. You know, that's kind of that next level thing that it takes a little bit of time to kind of fully trust

in that Shanahan offense because, you know, we associate that offense, especially on, you know, kind of inside zone plays for running backs winding it all the way back and you get to the backside corner of the backside safety. And that's not, you know, truly the design of the play. You're still reading out properly. But if the defense is playing gap sound, like, well, that gap's closed, that gap's closed, that gap's closed. And you start going backwards and like the open gap is all the way on the backside. And then you get to that backside corner and, you know, the backside receivers now push cracked on the safety and it's a one-on-one with the corner and you know as most people would like to say you know i would expect my running back to win a one-on-one match-up in space with a corner

and he gets that he understands the angles and then he has the juice and the ability to break the tackle when he does get there so yeah you're looking at basically two number one running backs and you still got other guys in that position group that can also run the ball pretty efficiently so you know best case scenario you've got two awesome running backs you can rotate in who have complimentary and really excellent skill sets. And, you know, worst case scenario, one of them gets hurt and you've got insurance for it. So like you said, a really good trade and a good use of draft capital for, you know, those fifth, six round picks.

I mean, you look at the data and it's what, like a 10% chance of being a quality starter when I can just go get a guy that I know is already a quality starter and going to really solidify an important position on the offense. I mean, that's just one of those moves where as soon as they make them the cap of trade, they know Eli Mitchell's coming back. I'm sure you can get him for the right price. And I think that Chris Greer's done a really good job of being smart about how they've added a lot of talent to this team over the last year or so. The Chubb deal is that is we're pushing the chips in.

And if you look at the actual value of it, I'm sure it's going to be hard to get much from that. But I still get why you make that trade. All right. Next one here. The Tampa Bay Buccaneers playoff chances. You have my attention. I was looking at the 538 numbers earlier today. and after that game, the Bucks are 5 and 5.

It says they have an 85% chance to make the playoffs at 5 and 5. 85%. It's wild. Yeah, that's crazy. So with that in mind, this idea that we're going to see the Bucks in the playoffs, better chance than not. Atlanta losing the Carolina, losing the Carolina, the state of that Falcons team, the state of the Panthers team, what the Saints look like right now.

The Bucks are going to win this division. I put a lot of money on it. So I think we always thought that. The question was by the end of the season, by the start of the playoffs, are they going to be scary? Are they going to be a team that lives up to not even preseason expectations, but some version of our expectations for them where they can actually knock off one of these teams in the NFC? The game they played today, does that give you hope that they can get there by the end of the year? not from the game they play today. I think you're just banking on

Tom Brady and the fact that they won the Super Bowl a couple years ago and maybe they've got kind of one last turn on them once you reach the playoffs and that can be the thing that fully motivates you to give your best performance. But you know, you just kind of see a team and, you know, I watched a little bit of the game at the beginning and the first drive, you know,

they plow their head straight down for a zero-yard run. The next play, you know, Brady's off with the receiver a little bit, and the next play, the receivers are, like, looking at each other, trying to figure out the splits, who's on the ball, what they're doing. Ball's snapped. Brady throws it to the other side of the field and overthrows Julio. So, yeah, it's just one drive. They go on, they score three touchdowns, and they beat a pretty good Seattle team who's been playing well lately. And you can kind of forget about those things, but, like, why are they having issues still with a veteran receiver group lining up correctly? Why are Brady and Evans so off on pretty much every single game? They just seem off on what they're supposed to do, where the ball is being placed.

There's just a lot of those things that don't make sense to be 10 weeks in the season and to be having this many kind of like the mental errors. It's hard to parse out mental errors between players when they're both kind of quality veterans and you would think that they know what they're doing. And then, you know, the left-witch press conferences have been a little bit brutal the past few weeks and just a clear lack of understanding of, you know, kind of what drives offenses and what kind of leads to. That's a nice way to say. So this is my, this is my point here, okay, it is brutal. And some of the things he's saying

are objectively not true. But what we saw today is enough to trick him potentially into running this offense in the most efficient way possible. So he said this. week. No. So they had more success running the ball today, which is going to trick him into wanting to run the ball more. That's not the more successful version. So hear me out, okay?

They had more success running the ball. They had a lot more, okay? They were 10th in the NFL and EPA per rush on Sunday. They came in 31st. Rashad White, potentially a driver of that. I typically would be worried about them having more success running the ball and have that lead to running more. But Byron left, which is under the impression, he has seen.

said this, that we need to run the ball well to use play action or it doesn't work. Objectively not true. Tom Brady was eighth in the NFL and EPA per dropback on play action before this game. The problem was because they weren't running the ball well, they weren't using play action. Brady was 37th of 39 quarterbacks in weeks one through nine and the percentage of his dropbacks and involved play action was 15%, even though he was seventh in EPA per dropback on those plays. I said eighth.

That was wrong. Okay? he had 59 play action dropbacks over the first nine weeks of the season. He had nine on Sunday. He was eight of nine for 110 yards. 31% of his dropbacks on Sunday involved play action, twice as much as over the first nine weeks of the season. So if they are running the ball more efficiently, does that mean that they will use more play action and actually accidentally stumble into the best version of who they can be on offense? Because that's what I watched today.

Along with the running, they're running downhill play action and getting chunks off of it. And that's what they need to do to actually be scary. So somehow with Rashad White, some better play up front, which I do think they got today, Brady was pressured on looking at it five of his 29 dropbacks in this game. Might say something about Seattle's front, which we can get into in a second. But if they're playing a little bit better up front, if they're running the ball a little bit better with White, do they use a little bit more play action? and do we see some of those gashes in the play action game that they're doing when this offense is really rolling?

Because that is what would make me a little bit more optimistic. So I can see where your mind's going with that. When I was listening to you, it sounded a lot like when I was in school and it's like if X leads to Y and if Y leads to Z, then does Z equal A? And like sometimes it should work that way, but it doesn't always work that way. saying that they're going to accidentally stumble into a better version of the offense does not assure me and does not make me feel better about things. So my answer is still going to be no. They've still got fundamental issues.

They've got a just severe misunderstanding of what drives NFL offenses and which things are complementary, which things are not, which things are more efficient, which things aren't. They've got too many veteran players who don't seem to be on the same page and don't seem to fully kind of understand where things are at. You know, all that being said, again, the NSC South is abysmal. They're going to make the playoffs, and they've got enough built up equity to, you know, do something in the playoffs. I don't know what that something is, but, you know, they're going to have a home game

against one of these other teams that is going to have a good record, but DVOA is going to say they're the 14th best team. And, yeah, if Tampa is the 19th best team, like, they can very easily have a good game, especially at home. So I don't like love them long term. And today's game doesn't really drastically change things for me. But I think it's a really good step for them to at least win a game and feel like, yeah, we did things better.

We put a relatively full game together. And, you know, now we can kind of get things back on track and just have a little bit of that confidence that, you know, I'm sure that they were kind of doubting themselves and feeling a little down and just that frustration of what's going wrong. How do we fix it? Now maybe they have the confidence that like, all right, we've done it. We pulled out this gritty, gutsy game against the Rams, and then now we go to Germany. We have this more complete game against the Seattle team that's playing really well.

You know, we're going to get back to being the Tampa Bay Buccaneers. I can't quit them. I just can't. Like, the way they look today, it's Brady. How can you? I can't quit them. Some of the downhill play action stuff and some of the windows that, again, I want to see this team playing downhill at you. And they were more like that today than they have been for huge chunks of this season.

And there are also a couple of plays in this game. On the first drive, Evans just snatches the ball away on a contested catch. Godwin made a ridiculous play up the left sideline. At a certain point, if they just somehow find a combination of we're running the ball this well, we're using this much play action, and they have the talent, like, I still think they're going to be a little bit dangerous. And they're getting healthier on the defensive side. Getting Winfield back, having some guys back on the back end. I think the Seattle offense is playing really well.

They gave them a bunch of problems. So I'm not all the way back there. I'm not all the way back yet, but I do feel better now than I did this morning. I will readily admit that. On the Seattle side of this, one of five on third and short in this game, which is brutal. And then I'm concerned about their ability to get after the quarterback. The fact that Brady was not pressure at all today in some of those really big moments, he had absolutely all day to throw.

I think that is where the Seattle team is going to be undone over the rest of the season. I do think that's probably the weakest part of who they are, interior pass rush, secondary edge guys, all that kind of stuff. I think that showed up in a big way today. Yeah, it was kind of strange that their defense became the third best defense in football over a five-week window because we just didn't think they had the personnel to pull that off. And a lot of that is kind of rookies on the outside being really good players and also being

named after other famous athletes. And also having Leonard Furnett throw passes to you that are intended for Tom Brady, that also helps your interception total over the course of the season. That is also correct, but I don't know that, you know, this game is going to, you know, bear out their top three DVOA status. But this, like you said, they didn't seem like they had the kind of personnel that could turn into a clear top of the league defense. And that's how they had been playing, you know, for the last month or so.

And so this game, like you said, as much as I just said, like this one game doesn't change much about Tampa and my outlook on them. Like, I think it kind of re-solidifies the fact that Seattle is a bit deficient. And they've been playing really good football on the defensive side, and everything's kind of come together. And they're playing, you know, one of those, some of the parts is better than the individual parts types of things. I don't know if I said that correctly, but, you know, it's midnight where I am. And so I'm allowed to say some crazy things.

But they're just playing really good team defense. And when you go up against those better offenses and the teams that can get the ball out quick and or, you know, have a better offense align, especially when you look to the playoffs, you're thinking about, you know, the Eagles offensive line-wise, you're thinking about Stan Fran, you know, just pounding the ball. It gets a little bit scary that, like you said, the defense line isn't quite there personnel-wise with, you know, a Dallas defensive front or what the Vikings can do getting after the passer.

It's just not quite there and gives you a little bit of worry about how this team can do in the, you know, last half of the season and especially if they do make it to the playoffs. Yeah, I think that the version of the Vikings team I saw today is definitely scary than Seattle. and I'm willing to correct that based on some conversations we've had on the show recently. The hole was greater than the sum of the parts, I think, is what you're after there. And I do think the Vikings, I do think the Seahawks have that kind of feel this year. All right, we're going to take one more quick break, and then we're going to get to Not Mad, just disappointed. Oh, man, we're still cool.

I'm not mad. I'm just disappointed. All right. Let's talk about the AFC West, which you know a lot about. The Raiders and the Chargers, or excuse me, the Raiders and the Broncos. We talk about the Chargers at a different time. The Raiders and the Broncos had playoff hopes coming into this season, right? Broncos trade for Russell Wilson.

What can they do? You know, were they a quarterback away? The Raiders go out and get Devante Adams. They signed Chandler Jones. They made the playoffs last year. Well, the Raiders are 2 and 7. They lost to a team today that hired a coach who had never coached an NFL game or a game at the college level or a football game of any real consequence.

The Broncos today scored 10 points against a Titans team. team that was missing, Jeffrey Simmons, Christian Fulton, Amani Hooker, among other pieces. Disaster seasons from both of these teams. Let's start with the Raiders, okay? Are we being too drastic or too reactionary saying that this could be a one and done thing for Josh McDaniels based on how bad the Raiders look? Because coming into this game, and I think for most of the season, any of those rumblings, I kind of thought were silly. You know, one and done, you have to be so, so bad to justify that. Do you think the Raiders have been bad, enough that they have to consider any possible decisions after the season's over.

They're on the trajectory that gets coach is fired, where you play a little bit better at the beginning of the year, you kind of figure things out a bit, and then you start going downhill. And what owners hate to see is teams who look like they're losing steam late in the year. They don't look like they're getting better. You know, Carr had that really emotional press conference where it seemed like he was kind of saying that a lot of guys on the team don't care as much as they sit. should and they don't prepare the way they should. He said he loves Josh and the rest of the coaching staff.

I couldn't tell if he was trying to put them in that pile at all. But they're just going in a direction that seems obvious that they're getting worse or not getting better. They're not showing signs of improvement. They're not really like an older team, but they do seem like they have the higher paid guys that they should be winning right now. It's not like a grow into success timeline for them. And so, yeah, it seems.

plausible that that could be the case. Now, this whole New England power structure and bringing in a GM and a coach who are kind of tied together, I don't know if you fire both of them at once. That seems a little drastic. But then if you fire a, you know, a Belichick, you know, head coach and you keep the Belichick GM, have we really seen what that looks like outside of it? And I don't really know there. But they're not on a good trajectory. And like, dude, three weeks ago, I was telling people, I think the Raiders are the second best team in the ASE West. And I think they're going to make the playoffs.

No joke. I thought they were better than Chargers. They were losing all these close games. They were absolutely better than their record indicated. They knew what they were good at. They were successful with it. Their O-line was playing great. Car was looking good.

They were driving the ball down the field. They're running well. They're play actioning. They knew who they were and they were playing well within that system. And now they're not playing quite as well overall and they're losing close games and they're losing games to bad teams. It's just really bad. It's turned like really quickly and that's kind of the weird thing.

Right now at this moment, the Raiders have the second pick in the draft. Okay. Derek Carr, in the way his contract is structured, they can move on from him for no penalty whatsoever. It was really just a one year deal where the guarantees kicked in, I think, on February 15th. I think it's all of his 2023 base salary, which is like $31 million, and $7 million of his 2024 salary. But that doesn't become guaranteed until the day after Valentine's Day. So they could theoretically move off from him.

He has a no-trade clause. But let's play out this hypothetical. There is a place where he'd want to go. And I'm sure a lot of teams that need a quarterback would be interested in Derek Carr this offseason. Because it's $31 million next year. I think it's $42 and $42. Those are base salaries. You could play with those.

You convert some of it to a signing bonus. You do something funny with it where you can get the cap number down. there's some flexibility built in. Do you think the Raiders should consider starting over with a young quarterback because they're kind of gifted this opportunity to move on from car and hit the reset button? Yeah, you should always be looking to get better, especially at the quarterback position. And if, you know, you identify Bryce Young as the guy who can drastically alter,

it keeps saying drastically, but like dramatically change the face of your franchise. and do something that can make the team that much better. And you think, you know, you've got this little boost and then a short term and then also he can be the real deal long term. Like, yeah, you should do it. And you have the draft ammo for once to be able to actually get that guy without giving up, you know, a Trey Lance package and kind of hamstringing yourself for the future. Yeah, you always are looking to get better at every single position. Like the chiefs should be looking to get better at quarterback. There's just no reasonable scenario where they find edge.

anyone who's better and more easily acquirable than Patrick Mahomes. Like, that's just not going to happen for the next 15 years. But, like, every team is always looking to get better at any position, especially when you can move on from the guy. Like, it's one thing to say, ah, well, we'd, you know, have to pay $25 million and dead money. And, you know, this would be a whole reboot and all these things. But, like, theoretically, you get, again, Bryce Young, and you have, you know, an offense that utilizes his legs,

and now you're able to be a little bit more multiple and he can do these other things. And maybe you don't have to fully reset because, again, you've got two edge rushers who are really good on really large contracts, and you've got a wide receiver who's reaching the end of, you know, kind of peak wide receiver play, and he's making a lot of money, and you've got some offensive line pieces that are getting paid, and, you know, you're not switching too much. So you would potentially want to restart at the position, but not, like, the whole team, because that would be a bit of a, you know, a couple year thing to get rid of some contracts and get, you know, eat some dead money and kind of do it. So you should absolutely be looking

to upgrade at the quarterback position. The question is, can you make that decision that quickly? Because if you have to move on it, move on it, move on from him by the 15th of February, like that's not nearly enough time for these scouts to, you know, fully flesh things out. You're not going to be able to do all the meetings with the guy that you want. You're not going to get to see him at the combine and, you know, get to do the pro days and kind of fully evaluate. So that's going to be the interesting part is whether you feel good enough about one of the

quarterbacks, whether it's Bryce, whether it's Strad, whether it's someone else, that you would move on that early from the quarterback without maybe knowing specifically which one of those two guys it would be. What do we think about the Colts right now? And the fact that if they had just played Matt Ryan over the last couple weeks instead of the owner forcing them to go play Sam Ellinger, they potentially could have beat Washington. They probably would have been in that game against New England. And maybe this would look a little bit different for them. It's hard to, I don't think it really matters. It's just one of those things where it's like, man, what has all of this been for if Matt Ryan's going to be able to play that decent and allow your offense to

actually operate? Well, I mean, he was playing better ball than Ellinger, but that's not a big bar to jump over. No, it's not saying much. No, like they just were a bad football team. And like, the record was different than the way they looked and the way that, you know, the advanced stats said they were. Just because you have a good record, does that mean you should, you know, kind of push for the seven seed if that's theoretically a possibility at the expense of potentially, you know, playing this young guy and seeing if he has something with the future, like he had a really good preseason.

And I know they were excited about him, obviously, you know, or say care enough to, like you said, upend the season and Bench Matt Ryan and all these other things. I just didn't think they were a good team at all. And so I didn't really think that changing the quarter. quarterback made that big of a difference. Like the O-Line was really struggling. The quarterback was struggling. Played better today.

Yeah, they did. You know, you got to get those O-Line head coaches with that experience. You know, call me Raiders after you fire Josh after the end of the season. But, yeah, it's... You would hate that. You would hate that job. Oh, yeah. I'd say no.

But the money would be nice. All right, look, look, give someone else $8 million a year. You were going to give me $10. I'll take $2 million to be an O-Line consultant and we'll hash it out. I'll stay in Kansas City. but I promise I won't, you know, tell the Chiefs what you guys are doing. All right, let's get to the Broncos here very quickly. Just another disastrous game on offense.

I mean, the fact that the Titans won this game with like one flea flicker and three Ryan Tanna Hill throws and the Broncos couldn't muster anything more than that, if you're on that Denver team and you're somebody who's going to be there for like multiple years, like if you're Garrett Bulls, you've signed a contract extension, you know your future, at least for the next couple seasons is probably in Denver. and you know what they did to go get Wilson and you know they gave him that contract. What are you thinking right now?

Very skeptical. Most guys don't have that kind of big picture view. Like, you know it's bad, but you kind of trust the guy. Yeah, I know, but I would have been honed by years in Cleveland. No, so the interesting part is they didn't have to give him the big contract when they gave it to him. They gave it to him, you know, in the offseason after OTAs. there was a really like weird report at the end of OTAs or before training camp that like they're going to tailor the offense to Russell Wilson's

strengths and it's like well obviously you should tailor the offense to your quarterback strengths but he obviously showed enough in the offseason to be like okay let's give this guy 48 million a year and let's guarantee like three years of that and this is for sure the guy that we traded for so I don't know what that disconnect is between the guy they saw in the building who looked that good who was that consistent day today who raised a level of everyone around him and was the leader that we know that he can be. The former Seattle players are, you know, kind of crapping on what we thought he could be as a leader.

That's also a part of this. Right. He clearly did something to show the GM who seems to be well respected in the NFL and got everyone excited like, all right, we finally saw the quarterback position. And then this season's unfolded and he's looked like a totally different quarterback, a much worse quarterback, a guy who hasn't really been able to stay fully healthy on top of that. And all the stories coming out are that he's not really a good leader and he kind of needs to be catered to and all these other things.

So it's difficult. And if I was a veteran player, like, you kind of just got to play ball and, you know, hope what you do is enough and hope you can turn it around and just like you have that wonder in the back of your head. Like, why was it so good in OTAs and why is it so bad now and hopefully we can figure it out? If you were dealing with a quarterback, it was like a superstar quarterback, paid like it at the very least, and didn't seem to have any interest in being a part of the locker room or didn't, was playing poorly enough that the stuff that you would kind of smirk about

was becoming a little bit harder to ignore. How do you think that you would work through that? Because I don't think you've ever had to deal with that. The superstar quarterback that you played with is like a generally likable and beloved human being. Yeah, I would struggle with that. You know, that gets back to, you kind of what you were saying about Rogers earlier. It just, it would get difficult to not, you know, tune it out is one thing. But then when you get to the point where it's just like, do you get the fuck away from me?

Like, that could get to that point really easily with a lot of guys in the locker room who are just tired of the act on the facade. And, you know, he doesn't have the build up equity that he had in Seattle that kept him around for that long. And so now you're just this guy who's, you know, been somewhat exposed. being a little bit of kind of a caricature and just doing what he needs to do. Like, I don't know how I could watch those grueling press conferences and how cheesy and corny he is and just be like, my God, man, I got a block for you every single day. It would be difficult. And, you know, you just have to remember that you want to make a lot of money too and be successful.

And you just got to keep doing what you're doing. And, you know, there isn't that part of you that's like, eh, I'm going to give up the sack. you know, get this guy heard or whatever. Like, no one thinks like that. That's not the way things work. Like those storylines are great for movies, but, you know, you still put yourself first over anything else. And so you just have to kind of compartmentalize the, you know,

personal side of not liking certain things with the professional. And just kind of try your best because, again, you're really important for the other offense alignment, other guys on the offense. Like the defense is always looking towards the offensive line. Like, how are these guys doing up front? Are they being dogs? are they, you know, giving us what we need?

And so it's a lot bigger than, you know, just that one guy. And you kind of have to keep that in perspective. All right, let's stick on the AFC West very quickly. Let's do two minutes of Chiefs talk. How are you feeling about the Chiefs right now? You know, I feel good. Not a great. It just, it doesn't look clean.

Like they have the Tampa Bay game, which, you know, was kind of a revenge game as much as we joke about revenge games, but like very clearly a lot of focus and energy going out there and kicking butt and kind of redeeming the Super Bowl from a couple years ago. And aside from that, it's been kind of up and down football. And even when, you know, a relatively easy win today, all things considered, but first play of the game, actually, before the first play, coin toss, they get the coin toss wrong. This is an Andy Reid team, which means you're supposed to defer and they choose to take the ball. Probably because whoever it was got told, like, hey, once we defer and they choose, like,

now you have to make sure you choose the ball after that, whatever they was, or like if they defer, make sure you choose the ball. Well, they chose the ball. So got it wrong on the coin toss. Then surprise onside kick, don't recover that. There's another special team's turnover. There's an interception that was later in the game. There's a missed extra point. It's just, it's not clean football and it's not consistently, you know, clean football. And Jacksonville is bad enough that the game was relatively easy. So again, it gets back to my overarching theme, which is just get to the play. playoffs healthy and we'll figure it out then. So I'm not super concerned because the team has stayed relatively healthy.

But like it's just, it's not quite as consistent. And outside of Chris Jones, nobody can rush the passer. And that's going to be the biggest thing once the playoffs come. Like can Chris overcome the lack of pass rush of everyone around him? Because if not, then, you know, I don't think the team has the top end of what we thought Buffalo could be. That's the thing you're most worried about, just personnel-wise, is what's going to happen at the other pass-rushing spots.

Yeah, because offensive. I trust coach, I trust Pat, like I trust Travis, like they're going to be good enough that, you know, they're going to score, you know, 20, 24 points on good defenses and they could score, you know, 40 points on a not quite as good defense in the playoffs. But can you affect the other quarterback enough? And especially once you get into those good games against better teams who have better offensive lines and you have only one guy that can, you know, beat someone one-on-one and get to the quarterback more than once or twice a game. that's probably the thing that's limiting them the most. The flip side is the defensive backs look really good, and they do have some young guys who are playing better, so maybe that offsets the pass rush just a little bit.

But as we talked about, you have to get out to the quarterback. That's the number one most important thing on the defensive side, and it has to be more than just one guy. All right, that's all we got. Thank you very, very much for doing this. It is always great to chat with you. Really, really appreciate you filling in. Did us a favor, and it means a lot that you would take the time to do this at midnight

or whatever time we happen to be recording this thing. So thank you very much for doing it, buddy. Well, you're welcome. Good to see you and talk to you as always. All right. Please, if you guys would, subscribe to the YouTube channel. If you're listening to this, there was a link in the description of the podcast. You can click on it.

You can go do that. We will be back this week with Thursday Night Football Recaps. We do this show live on YouTube. We'll do our weekly preview live on YouTube. Got some more YouTube-specific stuff rolling out with Mitch, actually, coming to you hopefully pretty soon. so please subscribe if you have not subscribed to the podcast feed if you haven't if you want to go leave us a rating or review on Spotify, Apple, wherever you listen. It would mean a lot to us. It would be a huge help. So if you like the show, let us know.

We will be back on Monday tomorrow with Mike Sando for the Monday Hangover. Until then, I appreciate you guys listening. We'll talk to you soon. This was the Athletic Football Show.