The Athletic Football Show: A show about the NFL - NFL Week 8 recap — Unlikely NFC division leaders, huge stat lines, Cowboys offense shines, and more

Episode Date: October 31, 2022

Hey, there's all the scoring we've been waiting for! Week 8 was the biggest offensive week of this NFL season, something you could see in both team scores and individual stat lines across the league. Robert Mays and Nate Tice recap all the excitement on this episode of The Athletic Football Show. The guys discuss unlikely NFC division leaders—and the chances that they actually win their divisions—the Cowboys' offense, massive impacts made by players who were traded, and more.Follow Robert on Twitter: @robertmaysFollow Nate on Twitter: @Nate_TiceSubscribe to The Athletic Football Show...AppleSpotifyYouTube4:17 Will the Vikings win the NFC North?15:17 Will the Seahawks win the NFC West?24:47 Can the Falcons win the NFC South?36:17 You Have Our Attention: Cowboys offense52:13 You Have Our Attention: Tyreek Hill62:17 You Have Our Attention: Christian McCaffrey67:47 You Have Our Attention: A.J. Brown78:37 I'm Not Mad, Just Disappointed: Trevor Lawrence90:39 I'm Not Mad, Just Disappointed: Zach Wilson97:52 I'm Not Mad, Just Disappointed: Mac Jones105:57 We See You, Terry McLaurin and Derrick Henry 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. It's my good friend Nate Tice. Nate, how you doing, buddy? Well, I feel so far away now. Like, when I see myself in the camera, feel so far away. You look great, though.

I appreciate it. I probably get to show off some of my posters, which I've been in storage for years and years and years because I'm a hoarder. I'm glad if people can just feel how weird you are. Just more than more people see of you, the more people see of you, the more they understand that you're really just a true weirdo. True weirdo. My wife even like she gets me all the way of like just trying to appease me.

She's like, and you could show off your board games now? Like that's how she talked me into this IKEA trip, this impromptu IKEA trip turned into buying like shelves and stuff. But she knows, she knows me. She's like, we can hang your posters. You can show off your board games. It's like, yeah. She talked me right into that.

So day before Halloween, a lot of weird stuff on broadcasts with guys with Frankenstein's heads and lots of costumes and a lot of weirdness with the week. And I think with this season in general, we're going to talk about some of that. We're going to dig into the Cowboys offense a little bit today, talk about some veterans that got traded that had monster days. We talk about the 2021, 2021 quarterback class having a pretty rough morning. Before we do any of that, though, I want to start with some unlikely NFC division leaders. And we were talking about what we wanted to dig into today.

we were looking at the standing as in the NFC. And we've got three teams that I think are kind of surprisingly at the top of their respective divisions. The Vikings win today. They're now up three and a half games on the Packers in the NFC North. The Seahawks win today. They are up one game on the Niners in the NFC West. They're five and three, a team that I think a lot of people believe might be the worst team in the NFL. The Falcons, after winning that insane game against the Panthers today, are now four and four.

leading the NFC South. So I want to talk about all of those games individually, but I want to talk about it through a lens of which teams we think of those three can actually win their division. At the end of the season, can they be standing at the top of this thing? And I want to start with the Minnesota Vikings. It's in a weird way, like the ones that I feel kind of almost less like kind of middling about is the ones that are probably most easily going to win their division, which I just, It's just the craziest thing.

We were doing our Thursday show because we cut part of it, but I got this little stat in if anybody stays for the, when we make our picks and you get to hear our degeneracy out loud and dragging Robert into the muck and making picks every week. But going into this week, the Vikings, the stat that I listed, I don't know what the updated numbers are now. I could have looked it up. I'll look it up tomorrow. But the first half, this is the Vikings first half offense. They were eighth and EPA per drive, seventh and EPA per play versus success rate. And the second half, they're 28th in EPA per drive, 28th at EPA per play, and 20th in success rate. So once they got outside that opening script, they kind of fell apart.

And it really felt like the Red Zone plays were really cool. I wrote about it on the athletic. But weekend, week out, they had some cool designs for Justin Jefferson and popping other guys open off of those looks of Justin Jefferson. Today, you even got to see some of their designery stuff. The short yardage pitch play to Dalvin Cook was really cool. I tweeted about that. A lot of the run game stuff they did today was really nice. The short yardage pitch play, some of the gun run stuff.

I was like, oh, man, like four or five times a game, I'm like, that's really nice. But overall, the experience just leaves me kind of cold. It's how I feel about that team. It's like, once in a while, I'm like, I get really excited. I see some Justin Jefferson play. I see Kirk Cousins scrambling for a touchdown. And it's like, oh, wow, look at this. Oh, my God, look at this.

But the down-to-down consistency and the series-to-series. consistency. It just feels very inconsistent. It's just that you don't know what you're going to get. It feels like they try a lot of things. And then over time, some of it hits and some of it doesn't. And I think sometimes when it hits, it's great. I think their week-to-week designer stuff is awesome, but their bare-bone stuff is just like, it just leaves you wanting more. And I have no idea what to make it their defense. This is just talking about their offense. I have no idea what to make it their defense. Sometimes it looks great. They get a great pass rush with Zedarius Smith moving him around. And then sometimes I'm like, oh my God, these guys are running wide open on you guys.

Like, how do you guys even passing this off? You got Patrick Peterson running with the number ones on every single team. So it's a team that, like, they do a lot of things that's exciting and it's cool. But then there's a lot, there's stretches of leave you wanting more, even though their record is just outstanding. So I guess the bounces are going their way as they're trying to figure this out. But it's, I have no idea what to make this team, even that they just keep winning games. sitting there, rewatching their game today. They are six and one.

They are going to win most likely the NFC North. I still have no idea if they're good. I have no idea if they're good. Same. I have zero idea, okay? So the Minnesota Vikings, as it currently stands, are 12th in EPA per play on offense. Sounds right.

Okay. Yeah, that does sound right. That does sound right. So look at that. It makes sense. They're 18th in EPA per play on defense. Sounds right. I get that because I have the exact same

feeling on defense. I really like some of the past rough stuff they can do when they move to Daria Smith around. One of the sacks he had today, he's lined up over the center as that spinner. He used to wreak havoc doing that stuff in Green Bay. And he gets a sack in that situation. I like that. And they've gotten some really opportune interceptions this year, which happened again today, where I'm not sure that's great play on their part or Kyler made some pretty rough decisions.

They lack a lot of speed on the back end, which isn't necessarily surprising. because they're getting pretty old on the back end. Like that injection of youth they were supposed to get with Andrew Booth, Lewis, seen that just didn't happen for multiple reasons. So you have Patrick Peterson and Harrison Smith and these guys that are kind of on the back end and, you know, Chandon Sullivan is playing slot corner for them. It's like, okay. I just, they're sort of underwhelming on that side of the ball.

And the offense, while the moments you can talk yourself into it, I think my biggest issue with it is that the offense lacks explosiveness in the passing game. And you look at it. and the stats totally line up with that. Kirk Cousins has thrown 12% of his past attempts this season more than 15 yards in the air. 12th. That is 39th of 40 quarterbacks in the NFL. 39th of 40 quarterbacks in the NFL.

He is averaging like six. I wish I had the stat in front of me. I don't have his actual air yards per target. But it's like, air yards per target, he's like 36 or 37th. But he's throwing nothing past 15 or 20 yards. And so Justin Jefferson coming into this game had four targets of 20 plus air yards. Four. And that's how it feels watching.

Yeah. And that's how it feels like they lack explosiveness. I do like some of this stuff they're doing in the run game. And I think the run game to me is the most interesting kind of twist on what they did a year ago. Looking at some of these numbers, they are second in rushing success in the NFL right now. they're also running into a ton of light boxes because of all the 11 personnel they play out of. So I think they're like fifth or sixth

and 11th personnel usage in the league, like 76% of snaps, which is right up there. They're 27th in the total runs they've had. Makes sort of sense because they had their buy already. They are ninth in the amount of times they've run the ball into light boxes. So think about that disconnect.

That's just how often they're running into light boxes. Only 30% of their runs this year have come into eight or more guys in the box. that's 25th in the NFL. Last year it was 45% and they were ninth. And I think them spreading it out has really led to a lot more consistent success on the ground. And today I liked a lot of stuff they were doing in their gun run game where down near the red zone, they did some interesting stuff.

So there are elements to the offense that I like, but I really do think that the ceiling of it is capped right now just because they don't seem to have an ability to push the ball down the field or willingness to push the ball down the field. And I think that's kind of why when I watch them, it's like, this isn't exciting. Like, even when they do good stuff, it's like, oh, this, the bones of this makes sense. But it's hard to get overly enthusiastic about it because there's really no other level that the offense is going to during these games. It's, I know. And that's the thing is you don't want to be mad at them because it's like, it's everything they do is sound. Nothing's gimmicky.

It's just very, but it's just, like you said, it's not, it's lacking that explosive element. When I went to that practice in training camp, and I saw them practicing. every combination of play action that you could think of. I was like, oh, my God, they're going to be launching this thing. They're going to be just going down and heavy play action and bombs over the top and getting guys in intermediate. We're starting to talk about who's, is a KJ Osborne going to be the one on intermediate? We're trying to figure out who's the best guy for each spot.

And they just don't do it. Like going into this week, I think some of it is and why the run game has been successful, even with those light boxes. And this ties into the coverage stuff I'm about to say is they're facing the highest percentage of two man. snaps on first and second down, which makes sense for a couple of reasons because Cousins doesn't scramble, but also it's they have this guy named Justin Jefferson. Every other, every defense is terrified of them.

So on top of that, they also face the second least, second fewest amount of snaps of man on first and second down. And I think it's third and fourth down as well. They've faced 12 total snaps going into this week of cover one on first and second down. Total. That's it. So it's light boxes. And on top of it, they're zoning it off.

They're clouding. The Lions game is the one that always stands out to me. I've mentioned it before. But just clouding whatever side Jefferson's on. And I think this Vikings team, this Viking staff is going like, oh, this is how teams are going to play us. Like this is how teams are going to play us. So we have to figure out what makes this work. We're getting into 11 percent.

Like Jefferson's a totally different animal than Cooper Cup. We've talked about the Cooper Cup role and where Kevin O'Call came from with the Rams. But Jefferson's an X. Like he can move around, but he's an X. And that's how they use them. You don't see Cooper Cup lined up as an X on. first and second down. He's the point manned bunch. He's the Z. So it's a different usage of him, which means the looks that defenses are playing are different. And so I think because all these defenses

are clouding them, they're like, oh, we got to do. So that's why you'll start seeing him running weak side zone because that's a good run against cover two. So I think they're like, oh, shoot, we have to lean into different types of runs. And I think they're figuring that out, but I don't think the passing is caught up for them. And on top of it, like on third down, Kirk Cousins isn't really pushing the ball. Like he's even he's become a huge checkdown Charlie on third down. He's 31st in Alex, which is a great football outsider stat. It's a stat that measures how far you're throwing the ball past the six on third down. Thank you. I'm trying to remember what it stands for air yards less expected. They try to really rope it in for Alex Smith. It was so yeah. They did it way back

wet in like 2015 when Alex Smith was the king of the checkdowns. King of it. King of it. So he's 31st going into this week he was. And so that that is something because on third down, he's not really pushing the ball. So teams are really playing these soft coverages and he's forced to check it down. He's not that type of guy to gun one in there. That's why we talk about this. Coaches love Kirk Cousins because he does everything out of this on the board. He takes what's there.

He's never going to give you something that's not there. And that's why it's been really frustrating to watch him this year. Just because it's all tied together. You watch it. It's like, all right, I understand why this is the way that it is, but it's hard to get excited about it. All of that being said, and by the way, I think Justin Jefferson's two biggest plays in this game.

he ran a corner out from the slot. It was a contested catch on the left side line. Oh, that was sweet. Simmons was on him from inside in the first half. Those were his two biggest plays of the game today is when he was inside. So they're trying to move him around, but I agree because the ways that he is getting used in the way that teams can account for him, I think that they're limiting his impact on the game. And you're seeing that consistently.

So all of this being said. Sorry, real quick. There's not many guys that get treated like this receiver-wise. And it's like in a tradition, it's a traditional X how he's getting treated. And that's what's really cool. But it's almost like you have to go back to 10, 15 years ago to go like, all right, how do you open up a guy like this other than moving him from the slot or into the slot?

But it's kind of fun like to see like this old school treatment of how defenses are treating him and this old school player kind of in a way how Jefferson is. All of this being said about how we're not super excited about the Vikings. I do think the Vikings are going to win the NFC North because the gap that they have right now, There's no one catching them. The Packers just aren't playing very well. And even if we're not overly excited about what the Vikings are in this moment or what their ceiling is in the NFC,

they're good enough to win this terrible division where everything stands right now. Let's get to the next one here. Seattle Seahawks, five and three after today. They beat the Giants by two scores. Do we think that the Seahawks can actually win the NFC West? Kind of, yeah. I have, I mean, kind of.

Like, I have them just below the 49ers. I mean, the 49ers look pretty sweet today. But, I mean, they, they, I feel better about them than the three teams we're talking about this segment. This is the team I feel almost the best about because I think they're out. And is that crazy for me to say? It is kind of wild to think that. But I don't know why that would be wrong.

Because if I'm trying to, my answer to this is the reason I why I think that's justified. Which unit, the six units of the three teams we're talking about, are you most enthusiastic about right now? I think it's probably the Seahawks offense. Seahawks offense. Seahawks offense. I test and numbers. Yes.

They're checking every box. So that that's who I think. And they're facing the 29th rank schedule current a DVOA offensively. For the rest of the way. Okay. I was curious about that. Interesting.

Okay. And 25th overall offense and defense and special teams combined. So their rest of their schedule isn't like some bloodbath. But no, I, I like, I like. This offense, Gino's operating, of course, exceptional level, but they do everything really well. They try, they wrote, they kind of mishmash what they do every week. Sometimes they're in a lot of empties. Sometimes they're doing play action, but they can do everything.

We talk about tools in the toolbox. The Seahawks offense kind of has everything. They have tight end weapons. They have receiver weapons. Kenneth Walker's playing well. The offense aligned is very sound. The rookies are playing way, way above a normal rookie level, especially at offense of tackle. Yeah, I feel good about this offense

And I feel that they're able to carry them through these games He is still making like four or five throws a game That kind of make you sit up a little bit in your chair Nothing crazy today Yeah, but just playing quarterback at a really solid level I mean, he's eighth in EPA per dropback That's a little bit lower than he was a couple weeks ago But today that number got dragged down a little bit

Because he took some sacks But if Lockett catches that touchdown And Lockett doesn't fumble inside the five yard line They win this game going away it wouldn't have even been close. And I'm penciling in their offense as just like a good unit. I don't know where they end up on this season. Like if you told me by the end of this, the Seahawks finished 11th in passing DVOA

or like right in the top 12 in passing efficiency, I guess that wouldn't shock me. But I also wouldn't be surprised if they stayed in the top 10 and continued to do the things that they're doing because I don't think there's anything gimmicky or weird about why they've been successful. But the encouraging part about what their ceiling might look like and why they could stay competitive in this division is that their defense has started to play functional and of football. So over the past three weeks, the Seahawks are fifth in EPA per dropback on defense. They were absolutely awful for the first part of the season.

You go watch the Detroit game, even the New Orleans game. It's like, what is happening right now? But their defense has started to play better. And if their defense can just get back to a middling level, like if they can be the 20th best defense in the league with this offense, their defense is. going to be competitive in this division. I still, I still think that the Niners with all the guys they have and with what they can do on defense, their defense has dipped over the last few weeks a little bit. I thought they played really well in the second half today.

I still think the Niners are probably a better team top to bottom, and I think they probably win it out in the end. But I'm pretty comfortable saying that the Seahawks are going to be right there fighting for a wild card spot all the way until the end of the season. I got a reason not to think that. That's it. That's how I feel. I feel like their offense will keep them in every game. I'm glad you brought up the defense because they are playing well. That's how I felt about them a few weeks ago was like, oh, it's a fun team.

Gino's playing well, a lot of shootouts. And, you know, sometimes they'll go 50-50 on those shootouts. But now they're putting together complete games. And talk about playing quarterback and all the aspects of being a quarterback, not just making the cool throws, but the down-to-down sustainability, but also the off-field stuff. And it was really cool. drops that touchdown. And Gene, they had the clip, they showed Gina on the sideline, going to locket and, hey, it's all good, bud. You know, it's all good. And then it's being a leader. And he, and they run a double move for him. It wasn't a mirror double move. They were in a double

move just with him running it. So they were just going like, hey, get it back. And Gina went right to him. I mean, it was beautiful, great throw, throw and catch. But that was, I thought that was really cool. They have good vibes about them, which, which matters. I mean, we, every year, every year, every there's NFL teams, there's sports teams. and every, every type of sport where it's like, oh, this is the vibes team of this year. That's how the Seahawks team feels. Like, they know they're playing with House's money, but it doesn't feel always lucky. Like, that's why I want to emphasize with people.

It's like, Gino's playing well, but this whole offense is playing well. And now the defense is playing better. It's like, that's a, they're playing very complete. Like, they're pretty good. Like, I just, I'm trying to figure out how to, like, phrase it. But it's a pretty good team. It's a surprisingly pretty good team. And I'm enjoying watching them.

There's no way. I could have predicted that Gino would play this well. I don't think Greg Rosenthal or Stephen Ruiz predicted that Gino would play this well. The captains of the Gino fan club never could have anticipated this. No. But I still thought they'd be competitive. Because when I looked at the roster, I was like, this is not. And it's funny because the Giants were the team I would put down there and the Falcons,

the team were about to talk about and the Bears, like these teams that are truly tearing it down. If you look at cash spending and some of the guys they've gotten rid of, really the only thing the Seahawks did is they let Bobby Wagner walk and they traded Russell Wilson. Other than that, it's not like they purged the roster full of veterans. They let some other guys walk in free agency, DJ Reed and whoever, but they still had D.K. McCaff and Tyler Walker, they still made some investments on the defensive side of the ball in free agency and they had all those draft picks. I'm sitting there looking at it like, Gino played fine last year. I think they're going to be a competitive team in the NFC.

He's played better than I thought. and the rest of the NFC's bottom has fallen out. So even if you don't think they're going to win the NFC West, if the Niners will eventually catch them being one game back, who's going to beat them out for a wild card spot? They're five and three right now. The only teams ahead of them in the NFC standings outside of Minnesota who we think is going to win the NFC North,

are the Cowboys and the Giants. They now have the tiebreaker over the Giants. I think the Seahawks are probably going to the playoffs. They have to go, what, five? and four the rest of the way? Four and five, maybe, if they have tiebreakers? Probably. They have a two-game lead.

It's very feasible. On the box, they have a two-game lead on the Saints. They have a two-game lead on the PATH. They lost the Saints. They lost the Saints. Yeah, so I'm just, those games, this crazy shootout games, it's hard to pin down. So, you know, that's only a one game lead. Because no one felt we all won those games.

That's exactly right. We got to enjoy as a viewer. So I just, I still think that they have a, they have an inside track to probably be a playoff team. And even if they don't win the division, because the Niners are all all in. The Seahawks are like two years away from where we think they're going to be a really competitive team in the NFC. So we've talked about this before. I think it's still house money, but I really do think that even if they don't win the NFC West, they're probably going to be a playoff team. And that's crazy considering what the conversation was heading in the season.

I went on a gambling show in August. And I, like, we were talking. He was like, who are some surprise, you know, win total games that you like, who, like overs that you like. And I gave the Seahawks. And I was like, you know, I could see them squeezing in seven wins, you know, a sneaky seven wins. Like a competitor. And that was being an optimist. What was there over under?

It was either five and a half or six and a half. And I'm trying to remember which one it was. But it was low. And I remember being like, oh, I think they could get seven and get, you know, maybe sneak to eight. The NFC is wide open. But I didn't think like playoffs. I was just saying that they hit the win, the win over.

And I thought I was being like a super optimist. But no, that's how they're playing. It's, I'm, I'm pleasantly surprised. how much I enjoy watching the Seahawks play, especially that offense. I watched that Chargers game, and it was just watching the scheme they're running. Gino making the throws he has to make. The run game looks good. It's just very sound.

And it's not, there are some Shanahan McVeigh stuff in it and some of the run game, but it's kind of a greatest hits type of offense, which is fun to watch when it's run well, because they're just doing a little bit of everything and different types of concepts. Gino's willing to push the ball. Gino's willing to stand the pocket and pushing. You could say that again, man. He's ripping that thing. It's awesome.

But it's not in a dumb way. It's not like he's a gun. It's not a gun sling away. He leads the league in completion percentage, Nate. He's awesome. That's insane. And it's not like he's some checkdown Charlie doing that. He's pushing the ball and he's been one of the most efficient passers in the league.

It's absolutely crazy. All right. I know. Let's move on Atlanta Falcons. You see him give a shout out to Ben McAdoo, by the way. So Gino did. That's really funny after the game. I'm so mad that we forgot.

to do the Gino Revenge game. I'm so mad that we forgot to do it on the Thursday show. There's been a few. I forgot. It just because we were so deep into like the breaking it down of the game and talking about the giants that it just totally slipped my mind. And I'm really upset about it. We also missed the Patrick Peterson revenge game.

We got to be better about this. I'm putting this on me. We got to be better about this. And guys, remind us of the Wicks during the week. Like if you want, we all want more of this. So remind us of the revenge game from like Monday through Friday because we got to feed the content beast here. All right.

Last game. Atlanta Falcons are now four and four winning the NFC South, which is just absolutely beautiful. Amazing. Let's talk about this game for a second. This is one of those this had everything games. PJ Walker threw a ball 62 yards in the air to DJ Moore. By the way,

the funniest part about this was we were talking on the slack. And I took the Falcons. So the Falcons got that cheap field goal to be covering. And I was like, ooh, the Falcons might cover after that field goal 30 seconds after I said, that PJ Walker on corks a 62-yard throw to DJ Moore. He almost got him earlier in the game, by the way. PJ Walker's got a fucking hose.

That guy can throw the football. It's crazy. So he hits DJ Moore and then DJ Moore pops his helmet off controversially and the whole game goes off the rails. My thought about this. The Dwayne Rudd. That's like a 1999 Browns reference right there. Maybe it was 2000.

God, Dwayne Rudd. You remember that name? Yes, I do remember that name. All right. So the Falcons are four and four. My thought about this, and I'm curious what you think, is that none of this really matters. No. That's kind of right.

Do you think the Falcons are going to win the NFC South? No, I don't. So what do you think is going to win the NFC South? I'm going to just, you guys will pull this up at the end of the year. I still think it's going to be the Bucks, but it's just, I have no idea. I really don't. The Saints are playing better, but I'm still going to say the Bucks, but I don't know. I really don't know.

Andy Dalton had that nightmare game against the Cardinals. Other than that, Andy Dalton has played well this year. He played well today. It was, yeah, I know. It's very functional. I watched their, I think it was their Carolina game. Yeah, I was at Carolina. And like, he was actually doing some okay things.

It was like, okay, when he came into relief. But it's, I don't know what this Falcon team, this defense is very not good. They're just, their truck. But that's okay. Awful. That's okay. They were expected to be. They are dead last in defensive spending.

The Falcons were not every, this entire thing about the Falcons, we might as well on quirk this now. All of this frustration about Kyle Pitts's usage and how much the Falcons are throwing the ball. The Falcons were ninth in offensive DVOA coming into this game. The Atlanta Falcons should be the worst team in the NFL. Based on the players that they have and the investments that they have. that they have made.

I think the Falcons should be the worst team in the league. They are dead last in defensive spending. They haven't spent anything on their offense. They signed Jake Matthews to a contract. Other than that, they've spent some draft picks on players. Marcus Marietta is not a starting quarterback in the NFL. Like, whatever you think of him and whatever his skill set is, Marcus Mariotta is not a starting quarterback in the NFL.

So any frustrations about the Falcons not throwing the ball enough or the Falcons kind of falling short in some of these games. The Falcons being four and four and being an above average offense is a freaking miracle. Like, I just, I can't believe what we're talking about it

in these terms. The Falcons were already, I think, probably the worst defense in the league personnel wise coming into the season. And now, AJ Terrell and Casey Hayward

are both hurt. So if you walked down the street and asked a random person to name a starter on the Atlanta Falcons defense, they couldn't do it. They couldn't. They couldn't.

We love Grady Jarrett. No one knows the Great Jared. That's probably it. Maybe someone can say Grady Jarrett. But maybe. Other than Grady Jared, I don't think someone, a random NFL fan could name you a starter on today's Falcons defense. No. Without AJ Terrell out there.

No. That's where this team is. And this idea that, oh, they have Kyle Pitts and Drake London. Kyle Pitts and Drake London were drafted for whoever the next quarterback of the Atlanta Falcons is going to be. And I think it's. important to remember that at every single stage of this. This is about building up the infrastructure so they can drop the quarterback into it when it's all said and done.

And when Kyle Pitts looked a little healthier today, he had an impact on the game. So I don't think the Falcons are going to win the division. I think the Bucks still probably will. But I just want to reframe and re-contextualize the types of conversations we're having about the 2022 Atlanta Falcons. Well, and that's the thing, too, is that's why I got, we've been so excited about watching his falcons offense is just because the fact that they're able to do this with Marcus Marriota and Caleb McGarry who looked like he should have been cut last year and

insert it helps when you're never dropping back baby oh I know doesn't it just bootlegs and run the ball it's great and motioning and shifting out every single snap and tons of personnel they ran a 23 personnel play so two fullback three tight ends that are running back there split out Kyle Pitts just had him run a little inbreaker on there that was awesome that That's the thing, too. And that's why I got, I even wrote about it. But this is why I laugh when people are like, oh, man, they don't design plays for Kyle Pitts.

It's like, no, they do. The quarterback just doesn't get him the ball. And so that's, and he's also been a little banged up. But he had, they had a sale route to him, a 12 person out, which was awesome. They hit him as a like a little wingtide end. They did the lay pop route for the touchdown, the red zone. They had to swing to him where he was the third in progression. And someone that even tweeted it was like, man, you know, they're finally down.

up some plays for Kyle Pitts. He was like, he's third into progression there that wasn't dialing it up for him, but you guys just only focus on results so you don't realize the process of these plays. They had a third down where they had him as the number three spot run a little outbreaker. He's wide open. Marriota throws it inside and late, so it gets batted down. But it's like, no, they're trying to dial up plays. Even in this limited past game offense as far as attempts wise, they are trying, they know who their best players are. But that's the thing. It still works. Even the fact that they came and get their best, most talented player, the ball, and it's still working and they're still a very effective and explosive offense. Wow.

Wait until they do get them the ball. Like, that's what's amazing about this offense. That's why I go Gaga over it because it's so well coached. They have insert name. They have 20, you know, created Madden generated name from 2032 at receiver and tight end. And those guys are making plays for them and doing it well. It's like, that's why this is exciting. The bones are good.

That's the phrase I'm going to keep using. But the bones are good of what they're trying to do. They're just building the infrastructure until they actually get players. So that's why I'm optimistic about the Falcons, even if this year is kind of like they're punching above their weight. That's exactly what they're doing. They're punching above their weight. This is not about this year. So I don't think they're going to win the division.

I don't think that really matters. I think this is about, all right, you've built a solid, functional offense out of the pieces that you have now. maybe you're not the production from the guys that you're throwing out there that you drafted in the top 10 is out of this world. But you're not built that way. Like they threw the ball last year all around the yard because they couldn't run the ball. They were in their inability to run the ball is why they threw as much as they did last year. They were the worst offensive football last year. When Kyle Pitts had a thousand yards last season, Atlanta Falcons finished dead last in offensive deviations.

OA. Like it's, you can, these things don't have to be aligned. So I just think that we should pump the brakes on what we expect out of this team now and what they could be in the long term when all of this stuff starts actually falling into place. So all of that said, I do not think the Falcons are going to win the AFC South. And I think that's okay. No, they're, they're a fun team. They got guys like Zichias, Zichias, Zichias, Zichias. Lillimidae Zichias.

Oh, wow. Can I buy a vow? I got you, buddy. Yeah, thank you. He, like, he's one of the most efficient players, if you just look at, like, some of the metrics because they don't throw the ball a lot. But it's one of the most effective and efficient players in the entire NFL. Like, he's top 10 and first downs per route, all that type of stuff. I was looking at EPA per target and stuff today because of Tyree.

Is he like off the charts? Yeah, he's up there at the top of the league. Yeah. It's like, so it's like they got this random dude, again, insert player name for 2032 Madden, playing receiver for him. And they're using him well. And he's like standing out. But that's the thing is when they get reinforcements, those guys drop down the depth chart. And also in your receiver threes and receiver fours are good players.

That's where good teams are based out of. They're building and they're doing it effectively. That's the kind of disconnected. Sometimes it's, you know, a bad team can like be well coached and do everything really well. And that's why they win games. So that's kind of what's going on in Atlanta right now. Marcus Mariotto is using play action on 47% of his dropbacks this season, which is not a real NFL. offense. He is 23rd in EPA per drop back on third down. When they have to drop back,

that's not who they want to be. And that's not who they're going to be. So I think it's totally fine to look at the Falcons as kind of an oddity right now and hope that as they continue to rebuild, because they are rebuilding, they can be a little bit better. But long story short, I do think the bucks are still probably going to win that division just because I just have to think the talent ultimately wins out in that conversation. I'm going to keep saying it until I turn into a piece of corn cob. That's, I'm just going to keep saying. I will find out a few weeks, but I still think it's going to be the bucks, but who knows? Who really knows with the FC?

All right. We're going to take a quick break, and then we're going to talk about who grabbed our attention today. Gentlemen, you have my curiosity, but now you have my attention. Nate, I think we're here. I think the Dallas Cowboys are running the offense that I have always wanted the Dallas Cowboys to run with Dak Proscow as their quarterback. The Dallas Cowboys, you have my attention. I, it was tough to watch because they were playing the Bears. I will say, though, this is an ideal sort of 2022 Chicago Bears game.

Justin Fields, I thought, played pretty well and continues to show a lot of really encouraging signs. And they lost. That's great. I'm into it. I mean, that is exactly what I want right now. You're looking at Dane Brugler's receiver rankings. I've been doing it like twice a day and I'm watching that TCU guy now.

We're really starting to get the gears going. Anyway, I want to talk about the Cowboys because going back and watching. watching that game today. I think there are a few different things I want to dig into, but just stats-wise, over the last two weeks, since he came back, Dak Prescott leads the NFL in EPA per dropback. He was 21 of 27 today for 252 yards and two scores and had five carries for 34 yards, including a touchdown. Tony Pollard carried the ball 14 times for 131 yards today and had three touchdowns, added a 16-yard catch to go along with that. So we're looking at almost 150 yards from scrimmage for Tony Pollard.

And they were marching the ball up and down the field. I mean, Dak threw a pick, but for the most part, play in, play out against a defense that pretty solid. Like the bears aren't great, but they've been a middle of the pack defense for most of the season. And the Cowboys torched them today. This is what I want. This is what I want from them.

Yes. I wanted to see because Dak can do it was, remember, last. last year when he was just shredding the blitz. And we're like, why do defenses keep blitzing him? Because he was like one of the most blitz, like quarterbacks in the league. He still is. He still is. I don't get why.

I don't get why. He's like, do they not watch it for that 30? Because his Cowboys plays, especially on third down when you're watching him all 22, takes so long because they get lined up and then Dax pointing everyone out. And he's just like, oh my God, snap it, Dack. But it was, but it's, that's why I watch. watching this Bears game because the Bears aren't really two blitz heavy of team. Last week, the Patriots they were a little bit. They sprinkled some stuff in, but generally they are not under Iber Flues. And he was just torching him because he, I mean, all this under center stuff. That's why I love Dak. And anyone's listening to show knows. It's just that his all aroundness is why I love him because he's so accurate. He has such a great mind for the game. But then he's able to go under center and do the turn his back to the defense. He's able to go into shotgun and run quick game. He's able to

launch some balls deep, kind of a selective, aggressive type of deep ball thrower. But he's able to do everything well. That's why I like him. But today, 32 of their 57 snaps were under center. They're doing quick game out of it, deep play action concepts out of it. That was awesome. The designs in the red zone were so cool from this cowboy's offense. That CD touchdown was nifty.

It was, and I wish it went motion. It was the number one receiver down the left side. Yeah, it was beautiful. They motioned like he was, they're going to do switch verticals. So usually when you motion a guy, like a speed motion, they do switch verticals. So two vertical routes is the guy in the motion is doing the wheel route. So he ends up being outside vertical. Instead, they had him sell the outside vertical because the bears catch it.

The corner is ready to catch it because he's his own defender. And he ends up running a post route. So they vertical towards the sideline, act like he's running a wheel route towards the sideline and then breaks back in. And Brisker was responsible for him. And Brisker was on the sideline. So he was 10 yards of outside leverage. She had no shot.

He was, yeah, he was like, oh, I got C.D. Lamb running right at me. Okay, let's make this nice and safe and make sure I can catch him. But it gets maximized because Dak, Dak's timing and this is why I love him. It's just, it's exquisite. That ball, his foot hit the back of his drop and that ball was out. And that's what red zone, throwing the ball in the red zone, that's what matters is that timing and that accuracy. His time to throw today was 2.33. I think he only had two games last year that he had a shorter time to throw. And that's amazing with the amount of play action that they're using. That's incredible with the amount of play action that they're using because play action, just by definition, increases your time to throw because you're having to fake. So the under center numbers. They're going to tempo with him, which was awesome. They're doing, and they're missing all of these different stuff. Every aspect of it is making the game easier on their players. Everything. Everything they're doing are all these easy buttons that we've wanted them to span for years.

You mentioned the play action. DAC has been under center at the second highest rate in the league over the last two weeks. That's not what they used to do. It used to be a shotgun, sit back, let him do everything offense. He has used so far over the last two games, 48.2% of his dropbacks have been play action. That leads the NFL. That is the highest rate in the league over the last two weeks.

Last year he was 18th. The gap is immense. And you watch what they're doing out of it, and it all makes sense. He's ripping the ball and some of the deep overs that they were running are a way to create explosive plays, which if they're, one thing I'm worried about with this offense. Still, where are they going to get explosive passing plays from? Similar to what we talked about last year.

But a way to create some of those explosive passing plays is to use a little bit more play action. And that's what they're doing under center. There was a stretch. And I absolutely loved. By the way, the keeper that he had in the red zone, I also want them to do more of that. Use his legs as you get down in the red zone. Three designed runs today.

They only have one game last year of three designed runs. They only had two games last year with more than one. They had one game of two, one game of three, and about like five or six games of one. You don't have to do it all the time? No, just selectively. In the red zone is a perfect way to do it. It's short yardage. Red zone and short yards.

High leverage situations. That's when you use it. And you can do it. That's why he's great. So second and two, I think about 730 in the first or second quarter. I didn't write down in my notes. It doesn't matter. They ran a little plea action slide screen.

They threw it to Dalton Schultz first down. Really easy completion. Okay? Just make it simple. Next play, bears Blitz. He hits Schultz immediately for an eight-yard game. Immediately. Okay.

Second and two, they're in a three-by-one. He rips a slant to Michael Gallup as the singled-up receiver. Just sees it, takes it money. And then that drive ends with that touchdown to Cee Lam. And you just see all of it. You see all of those different things because he is really good against the Blitz. And he is a really good dropback posture when you ask him to do that. But why not make everything else?

easier on the way to those moments. And that's what they've done over the last two weeks. It's like, this is it. Like this combined with the way that their defense can play when it's really rolling makes them a really dangerous team. And that is before we even get to the Tony Pollard side of this. Right. But it's just, I appreciate it always with the Cowboys offense and with Dack was like

they could do the hard shit. And that's why I liked it. And that's why I liked the Bucks offense with Ariens and everything. or now left which was they could do the hard stuff. But even the Bucks offense, how much they would throw screens. I mean, we saw it on Thursday night. Receiver screen. That's hitting easy buttons.

You can't run the ball. It's the only way you can do it. Yeah, right. Exactly. When you want to keep giving carriers to Laird for that. But it's also like with this offense, this is having every tool available is so hard to defend. When you can do everything well, it is so hard to defend for a defense.

you can lean as an offense, you can start leaning into what works that day. It's, oh my God, wow, they have no check for this. They have no check for the zone. They have no check for this under center gap scheme we're running. But we can't run that gap scheme if we're in shotgun, but we could do it under center. And guess what? We have a play action off of it. Like, just those little things that they can add on to it. Like, it's, that's what's cool. And I know you're about to talk about the run game too. But that ties in with a run game because I think this type of offense is so much better with under center runs. But they can't. do the shotgun runs as well.

Like, so they're just, they just sprinkle in everything. And when you can do it well and when you have a DAC who I had somebody replied to me last year and it's like, yeah, they call him Dakota Breeze. He's so accurate and he's such a smart player. That's how he plays. And it's a weird disconnect with how people view DAC and how he actually plays. But watching him today when he's on, like he's missing low on slants in a good way. I mean that in a good way.

Yeah. He's aiming, saving guys hits. Oh my God. It's like they can do anything they want. It's been awesome. And after the injury, I was a little bit worried. How is he going to throw the ball? Right.

And the fact that he's like so good physically is really encouraging. There was a drive in the third quarter where they got him on the move multiple times. Like big fake pitch, big boot, getting him just, I like him on the move. He's athletic. It's an exaggerated. It's mostly exaggerated fake boot move in several too. And I love it. I love that kind of stuff from him.

And I just want to see more of it. He ripped a ball to CD on that same drive on the move. and the fact that he looks that good throwing the ball is I really like it. The Pollard stuff. He's using cadence. Like the free play to Dalton Schultz over the middle. So he's using cadence to get a guy jump off sides. He's getting free plays off that.

Sorry, I know he keeps cutting you off before you get the power. But the fact that he's hit the ground running like this with all the little things after being hurt is really encouraging. I was so impressed by the way that they play today. And then you fold the Tony Pollard side of this thing in. We got to take Jerry's hand off the button. him coming out after that game and saying that we're going to go as Zico's and when he gets back, the roles aren't going to change. We got to let this go.

I don't know if he's just saying that to say it because he's trying to save face with a player that he has supported a lot in the past. We can't do this anymore because you have a quarterback who is one of the best quarterbacks in the league at mitigating and opposing pass rush because of stuff he can do mentally. So I think that a lot of these teams, you need the best past, you need the best past protecting running back. in there right now because your quarterback or your center aren't equipped to deal with the problems that somebody's going to present. Dak can do a lot of that himself. So if Zieg is a better pass protector, that list is, that doesn't really matter as much to me as some of this other stuff.

Okay. Right. Right now. Tony Pollard leads the NFL in EPA per rush. He is number one in the NFL. Zeeq is 31st. Tony Pollard is third in success rate. among running backs.

Zeke is 27th. And when I see those numbers, that's the most damning one. Correct. Because it's not just big place. If Zeke's not going to be explosive, he better be freaking efficient. Exactly.

So now we're running out of reasons. And so when I see numbers like that, my curiosity starts to get kicked up. I'm like, oh, well, you know, they play on the same team, but let's control for some other factors.

Maybe the situations that Pollard is used in, He's running into heavier boxes or lighter boxes. The game's easier on him. Tony Pollard right now is fourth in the NFL in the percentage of his runs that go into eight or boxes or eight or more guys. Fourth. Real. In the league.

And he's first in EPA per rush and fourth in success rate. This is over. Yeah. There's no argument now. This is over. Like he is, he has been one of the best running backs in the league. Because that's the one given opportunity. That's the one thing ZEC had was that, oh,

Power can't run between the tackles. So, you know, we're done. You can't pass pretend. Done. If he could show it and he's proven it. I mean, all these short yards runs are going for home runs because he's bouncing. He's hit the whole right and now he has the explosive ability to take it the distance.

So yeah. No, I mean, the argument's over. I don't, he doesn't need to carry the ball 30 times a game. If you want to spell him and you want to make sure that he's getting enough rest and you're not putting him in harm's way,

they gave David. this eight carries today. C.D. was lined up in the backfield a ton, which was kind of weird, but I don't, whatever. So I got to look at this. Somebody said they were using some funky personality. Yeah, he was he lied him in the backfield relatively often. They'll do some weird stuff. But if they want to give Zeke one out of every third carry in order to give Pollard a little bit of a break, that's totally fine with me. But we're in a place where you're committing malpractice if you're not making Tony Pollard the centerpiece of your backfield and the guy that gets

the majority of the carries by a lot based on what he has been so far. He's not just like pretty good. He's not just one of the backup running back, then the guy that gets these five, seven carries a game. Every once in a while, it's like, oh, man, that guy seems to have a lot of juice. Like we should get him more touches. And then as the volume goes up, the efficiency goes down. Yeah.

The exact opposite thing happened today. Yeah. So what are we doing here? And flip, it's just basically the two thirds, one thirds. Like how many touches they get? Flip it. Just flip it. If it used to be, you know, whatever, I'm just making up numbers.

15 and 9, you know, like that Zik got 15 and Powerd got 8 or 9, flip it. Yes. Now it's Powerd gets 15 and Zek gets eight or nine, whatever it is. I do want to mention also the other stat I came across was DAC had first down on his attempts, 55% of his attempts went for a first down today. He only broke 50% once last year. And that was 53% against the Eagles early on the season. So like, he was guns blazing today. You're like this is this was last year he was like after six, seven weeks.

We're like, oh, and even looking at the odds, he was MVP candidate. The fact that today he torched that, like had a better performance than he did all the first half of last year is saying something. It's pretty cool watching him play and them sorting out this run game. It's like it's a pretty dynamic offense going on right now. And it's so different. The different buttons they're pushing, these are the things that I've wanted them to do forever with him. And that them running what was the Cooper Rush offense. with Dak, look at what happens.

Look at what the results are when you run an easier offense for your better quarterback. That's what we're seeing right now. So I'm excited to watch them potentially keep rolling like this because he is fun to watch when he's playing this. I want to watch that last guy is the Cavante Terping guy, the USFL guy. He's got something to him. Yeah. Dude's got some juice. They got him the ball in space.

But that's, I want that. Even the touch that he got, that was something I filed away where it's like, ooh, I like that. Like if we're trying to find juice within this offense because it is the concern that you have, find a guy who can provide that for you and get the ball in his hands every once in a while. Yes. And it's not theory. It's not like, oh, this is a good design for our gadget guy. Sometimes guys have your team has a gadget guy, quote unquote. I'm doing air quotes right now in the sense that it's like, oh, this guy's a little shifties, this little five, six, 180 guy. The guy sucks. But it's great when you have a gadget play for a guy that's actually good. Like that's when you actually make these gadget touches for a guy that actually can create some play. It's fun. It's fun. So, like, this is like a legit gadget guy that I want to see them use once or twice. All right.

Next one here. Veterans that were traded for a lot this offseason or recently. This is the convoluted way of saying, A.J. Brown, Tyree Kill, and Christian McCaffrey, you guys have my attention. Wow. Some monster games today from these guys. Obviously, AJ Brown scored all the touchdowns, but, you know, Tyreek had another huge game. We'll get into some of the numbers here.

These guys, I think, personify this, but a really fun fantasy football day for the first time all season. I'm just guys going off. It was enjoyable in a way that we haven't really gotten for offensive football this year. And I think a lot of these guys were at the center of it. I want to start with Tyreek, 12 catches for 188 yards. As things currently stand, Tyreek Hill is on pace for 2,042 yards receiving this season. It's insane. Okay?

some of these other numbers. He is number one in the NFL and the EPA generated on his receptions, which is not surprising. He is fourth in the total EPA created on his targets. He is sixth in the NFL in yards per target. That is very hard to do when you're getting this volume of targets. Typically, efficiency goes down when volume increases because you're inevitably going to be put in less efficient situations. That has not been the case with him. what they are doing with him in the passing game right now is absolutely insane.

It's insane. Going into last week, he was, or into this week, I should say, he was the highest yards per route run since 2012 and the second highest yards, second and highest, second and highest first downs per route since 2012. That might be better after today. I mean, he might have topped Devante Adams from a few years ago. But watching it, God, this game was like the epitome of it, like all three levels that this guy is just like everything he does.

The short stuff that he would maybe do with the Chiefs, like on their RPO stuff or maybe the flats and the bubbles, and then he'd make a one-yard gain turn into an eight-yard gain. And we would talk about how those are like the hidden yards that like a guy like Tyree creates. He creates those yards out of nothing. The intermediate stuff is where it's like, wow. Like that is something. I knew Tyreek had it, but seeing because the Shanahan offenses, especially that they're running with the dolphins right now, all those inbreakers that happen over the middle of the field. and watching Tyreek and Waddle on those is like, it's magic. It's so, because he is pushing guys deep and all the defenders have to get depth.

And then he just snaps them off and breaks over the middle of the field. And it just creates so much space for two and throwover. And it is a perfect recipe because I never really thought about this, but it's the play action. So the space is only compounded because of the way the offense is structured. So Tui used play action on 57% of his dropbacks today. 57%. Marcus Mario da leads the league at 47, and that's going to be a 10-year high. So I believe two is second in the NFL.

So when you're using play action, what is the effect that we often think of with play action? The linebackers are stepping up. So there's one play from this game that I thought was particularly illuminating. So they use it. It was second in five with about 13. 1443 left in the first half, I think. And they're at midfield and do the first picture, they're at midfield and you see the linebacker step up, right?

After, they're at their balls at midfield. You see the linebacker step up. So the linebackers eventually get to the 47 yard line is where the linebackers are. When the ball is thrown, the post safety is at the 20 yard line. Okay. So think about that. The linebackers have stepped up to the 47. The post safety is at the 20.

That is 27 yards of space. That space is created because the safety is bailing out of there because he's so worried about Tyreek beating him over the top. So now you have all of that space created because the linebackers are stepping up and all of that space created because the safeties are bailing out. So you're pulling the defense in two different directions. So when you're looking at why he has so much. space and separation in these situations, that's why.

So it's a perfect offense for him to dominate the intermediate areas of the field because of how much play action that they're using. And I thought that today was a great example of that. And then on top of it, like, no, that's such a great example because it's just how much that he's able, because he'll catch a ball over the middle and then he's creating five extra yards like before the safeties can even respond. So it's like, oh, God. So it's like everything just duplicates or not duplicate.

it amplifies. It's just an amplify effect on everything, just everything that they do. But even on like third and extra long, you can see that Tyree Hill effect because they had the touchdown against the bills a few weeks ago. Third extra long, it was to waddle. It was, you know, double move, seven up. They go to there. But then I just remember the 2017 chief's offense with Alex Smith.

And remember when Alex Smith was going bombs away? Yeah. That's what this offense does now on third and extra long with Tua. And he caught the one. I wanted to say they ran a double move. It was off the screen. I can't remember what the replay was. It was a little shorter throw, but then Tyreek plants his foot.

It was like a third and 12 goes and catches it right there. But catches over two guys, seriously. So I wanted to talk about that play because it was third and 13. Okay. The lions were in a cover zero look. And Tyreek, or to it clearly sees it before the snap. And he just lets it go. He's like, I did just enough time to let this thing go because I know their cover zero.

as long as I get the ball off, that's all I need to do. And Tyrant goes up over two guys to make that play. Yep. Up over two guys. So, I mean, it's just, and that's what they're doing right now. So you have this third and 13 extra long look. He's like, as long as I get this ball in the air, he's going to go make this play. And that's exactly what's happening right now.

So the ball is under throw. And they would zero bracket on it. Oh, my God. That totally is just, that's my blowing actually what they did. It's not. The ball is underthrown when he throws it. Yeah. But it doesn't matter.

because Ty Ricos makes that play. So it is just this combination of, I think two is playing pretty well. I think there are elements of this game that I thought were pretty impressive. I mean, he had one throw where he's moving the linebacker with his eyes and putting the throw back into a void. Like the ways he's operating in the intermediate areas of the field are very, very good. He is the point guard of this offense. And that's all he needs to be with the way that it's structured and the juice that they have. The Gassiki touchdown was awesome.

They had Waddle lined up in the backfield. and they had hills sit down over the ball, and they had Waddle kind of run a little bit of an angle route out of the backfield. So they high load the linebacker with Waddle. So it's all of this, you talk about splashing the water. It's like, we're going to get our guy who has two touchdowns today. Hey, what's that? And we're going to splash the water with him in the backfield and then run a little high, low,

and get it to the tight end for an easy touchdown. So they have these guys who are just all explosiveness all the time and a quarterback who is doing a really good job of just distributing the ball where he should in these moments. and I think that is the recipe for why they look the way that they look on offense right now. Oh, man. But even that's the thing. It's like Tyraig's been exceptional. And then like what you mentioned with Waddle too. It's that hell of a number two.

Hell of a number two. Oh my God. Waddle's touchdown in the red zone is. So it's a long. Again, talk about Tua having a plan. I think that's what it is with Tua is. Tua always has a pre-snap plan. Whether he can get to a post-snap has been a question mark.

And this year it's, I think McDaniel's just done an awesome job going like, this is your post-net plan too, dude. Like, just go here and use your accuracy and get the ball to that guy. And I actually thought Tua created, this is the most, I felt like he created all season was this game, which is awesome to see. But that touchdown to Waddle in the Red Zone was so cool because, I should say it was so cool. It was just like, wow, these guys are freaking awesome. Is Waddle's in the slot coming all the way opposite of the field.

And on that type of read, you read the boundary side. And what Waddle's route is, which was essentially an over in the red zone, the low red zone, It's just a runaway. Yeah, it's a long over. It's a runaway route that you throw late in your progression because, you know, that's going to be a long developing route. No one's even near Waddle because he's so freaking fast. Like that's usually a contested catch.

You throw like a little tight space. You hit a guy on the shoulder. You know, you line that baby in there. To it even have to because Waddle just has so much speed and he creates so much space and just those little tight areas. And that's what we talk about, especially in the red zone. It's hard to throw it. but creating that much space as a receiver, like is, is exceptional.

And it's just really cool to watch this offense because McDaniel's doing an amazing job week and week out, just using these guys exactly how they should be, how they should be used. And just window dressing, splashing water when he needs to, but just put the guys in the right spots. It's like, he doesn't over gimmick it. He's like, we're going to, this place is really good. It's the perfect amount of gimmick. Right.

It's like, this, hey, this, it's gold dust from WWF. It's like, it's just the perfect amount of gimmick. But it's like, hey, let's just, hey, let's, oh, let's have, okay, we really like this play. We like this high, well. So let's not have our number three receiver do it, insert name here. Let's have our freaking number one or number two do it. That's what helps when you have two dudes because you can kind of, hey, this guy's decoy and this guy's the main on this route.

And he's doing a great job of it. I want to commend him because it's really fun to watch this offense using concepts that I've seen other offenses used, especially in the Shanahan stuff. But he's just doing such a good job of get these awesome players in the right spots. All right. Let's move on here. Christian McCaffrey, big, big day on his first full week with 49ers.

18 carries, 94 yards, eight catches for 55, two scores of his own and a passing touchdown. I think that we got a little bit of a hint of what the 49ers plan is for Christian McCaffrey here moving forward. Only the fourth player since the merger, the NFL NFL merger to have a rushing receiving a passing touchdown in the same game. It's the LTE. It's the Tomlinson. LT and Walter Payton are two of those three names other than him.

So that's a pretty fun bunch. But I mean, I tweeted this. The thing with CMC is now he's a great receiver and he is a great, like, just ball carrier. But every type of run is available to him. When he was at Stanford, this was so cool with him. And when he was in North Turner's offense in Carolina and Scott Turner's offense was he can run power. He's not just a zone runner. He's not just a this type of concept.

runner, everything's available. He can get to the edge. He can run in between the tackles. He's got great vision. He's got great timing and pacing on his runs. But on top of it, he's, of course, an exceptional receiver. He was on the field today for 42 snaps. He had a rush or target on 27 of those snaps. Wow. So yeah, 20 routes today. And he caught a first down on five of those 20 routes. So 25% of his routes, he caught a first down on, which is just, it's outstanding numbers. I think the league leader in those is usually about 14 15%. So just a crazy performance from him. And I could talk about his route running in sec, but just an unbelievable player.

It's really funny because all the stuff we just talked about with Hill and Waddle, that's the kind of stuff that was jumping out to me about McCaffrey today is them using him, decoy isn't really the right word, using his gravity as a receiver to impact the game otherwise. There were two players that I noticed. There was the, it was a big chunk to George Kittle in the first half. and they high load the linebacker with McCaffrey running the angle route. And so, and they hit it to Kittle over the top.

Of the seam, right? Yep. Yep. Yeah. So with that play with McCaffrey running that route, he has a gravity to him that most running backs aren't going to have in that situation. And then the kiddle touchdown, they're running McCaffrey into the flat and rap responds to him.

He's not even the flat defender, but he sees McCaffrey in response to him and then Kittles open in the corner for a touchdown. So on top of all the stuff he did with the ball in his hands, I think that he's impacting the game in some quieter ways as well. And if you're trying to talk yourself into this as a plan, trading for Christian McCaffrey and giving up all that you did for him, his ability to make everything around him better within the offense is the only way to justify it.

And I still think it's probably a little bit of a stretch, but this is the type of stuff and these are the type of impacts, and influence that I think that you need in order to really sell yourself on what they paid to go get him. I mean, and this was the play, it was the first drive for them when you're saying the difference between like a CMC and just a replacement level back. I'll just say that is he runs his own play on the first drive and he runs through Ernest Jones, his arm tackle on the zone play. It's blocked for one yard. It's a, I think it was the second of four. It's blocked for one yard.

Like that's the first line of contacts at one yard. He gets eight on it. He creates seven yards running through that tackle. And on the next second down, so they had the first down play, the next second down, he has a swing route and he's like third in the progression. And this is where CMC comes alive. And this is where having good players throughout your offense come like really open things up. Is he's not the primary on this read.

He's third in the progression. Jimmy G gets to him on the swinger up. He has to outrace Bobby Wagner. outraces Bobby Wagner easily and creates a first down off of that. I think it was like a second and six. Gets a first down there. So he's created first downs for stuff that was supposed to be okay place and he turns them into good place.

Breaking case of emergency stuff turns into positive place. Correct. It's not, oh, wow, this should have gotten us two yards. Okay, that's fine. That's all we got. No, it's a 10-yard play. Okay. That's all right.

Thanks, guys. As a coach, that's really nice when players do that for you. And yeah, and the last play is, Belor, we can call this one out too, is that the plays that are designed for him, he's freaking awesome. Is a choice route here on third down is a choice route you're supposed to release the route outside of the D-end or the edge rusher. And a choice route is you either have to sit an out or an inside angle route.

And this was the third and seven beginning the second quarter. He runs a choice route, the rusher for the Rams gets super wide. So rather in panic, he just inserts inside of him. And then on top of that, he doesn't panic because the safety is the one covering him as opposed to a typical linebacker. He doesn't get, God, I almost said, I'm going to say antsy. So I'm sorry, I used to have a coach. I used to say, he was like, don't get horny here. So I always said that.

But I'll say it anyways. He doesn't get horny and try to break in and go for the big play. He understands that that safety's rotating down to cover him. So he still breaks out on it. And on top of it, he's two yards short of sticks, breaks the tackle because he turns up inside and breaks another. tackle. So he turns a play that could have gone wrong like five different ways and runs it like an exceptional route, catches the ball smoothly and breaks two tackles, creates a first down. That is what a good player does for your offense. It's something that's designed okay and he turns it into a plus

play for him. And that's what, I mean, seeing him today was it was like, oh yeah, I see the light. I see the vision of this because this is really cool. So now, Debo didn't play today. Right. So when Debo gets back, you could probably make an argument that Brandon Ayyuk is the fourth best pass catcher on the Niners. That's pretty scary. Brandon Ayuk is awesome. He's really good at football. And you can absolutely make an argument that he is the fourth best player catching the ball for the Niners. That's awesome.

That's pretty good. That's so cool. And I mean, they spent a lot to get it, but you'd hope that you'd have this sort of impact that you would. watch today. All right. Hey, last one here. I just get to cheer it. That's exactly right. AJ Brown, you have my attention.

Holy shit. Wow. I mean, the first one, the first touchdown he catches, that's one of those moments where, and there are some of these from Tyreek today too, where he's just going up and making plays over two guys in traffic. And that's why you go get these guys. Yep. And you have a quarterback that you're not sure about or, and you want to leave no doubt,

that's why you go get these guys. guys. We have a quarterback on a rookie contract. We are going to leave no doubt by the end of the season whether or not this guy can do it because we've given him every opportunity. And that first touchdown today, that's that play because he's just going up and making that play. And the fact that J1 Hertz is ready to let that thing rip and comfortable doing it, I mean, that's pretty damn awesome.

And then the second two today, those are just beautiful throws. I mean, he just- The second two. I mean, he catches three touchdowns. And the second and third are just go balls down the right side line, which that's not what AJ Brown was supposed to be. No. So him just dropping this little wrinkle into his game and into the Eagles passing game,

pretty pretty good. AJ Brown ball winner was not what I was expecting to talk about him. He was the yak monster. That's what I love calling him. He's the yak monster. And all of a sudden he's just dunking on guys. The first one was amazing because AJ Brown, I'll kind of slow down on his routes, double coverage.

Doesn't even matter. Doesn't matter. Like just the score. And then they're scoring this, I think it was the second touchdown was, because he had three today, was a pump bubble wheel go route, which is usually a window dressing designer play that you run once a game to kind of like control for your bubbles. They ran that like three times today and they scored two touchdowns off of it. So just you just pass the bubble one too. Yeah. It's a, oh, God.

Yeah. out shout out the pascal and rather than just catching you know or just like it's a it's a feign the blocking and it's basically a double move i mean that's basically what you're doing on that there's going two touchdowns and this is what i've said about the seagulls offense it's nothing they run the most simple stuff you could think of but they have such awesome players that why overthink it like this is what they're good at what's let them be good at it so it's really fun to watch i mean it's just that was their advantage that they had against that stealers offense today or defense today was their corners aren't very good

all right. Let's attack them vertically. Yeah. Let's make them defend it. That's awesome. Why overthink this? That's what's so great about this offense. And it was just the one stat came across was the Eagles had the highest percentage of their targets going to three players, which, but it's also, again, it makes sense when you're three freaking players or AJ Brown, Devante Smith and Dallas got her.

Like that makes sense. That's how your offense should be if you have those three players. So, yeah, just fly eagles fly because this looks awesome when it's clicking like this. The fact that he's doing this sort of damage is a vertical threat outside the numbers. And we didn't necessarily think that was going to be how they used him is fantastic news. Also, incredible touchdown celebrations from AJ Brown today. Catches the first one, does the too small, right? As he's running away, which.

Classic, classic, classic. A modern classic. A classic because it works, right? Yeah. So he does the too small, which I have. absolutely love. And then the third one, both defenders fell down and he pointed at each one of them. He got flagged for it.

But worth it. What is it? Mighty Ducks 2, 2 minutes, well worth it. Yeah, 15 yards. Well worth it. That's exactly how I felt about the AJ Brown celebration today. So, fantastic. He's 10th in the NFL on yards per target.

Similar to what we're talking about with Tyree Kill. I mean, if you're going to get that many targets and you're still going to be that efficient on them, and he is fifth in the league and EPA created on his target. against this season. It's why you make a move like this. He's the underneath route. He took for 30 yards. Like it's just like everything, get the ball in his hands and good things happen when you get the ball in his hands. I really do think that this is instructive. If we're looking at this and we're trying to gather team building lessons from it, the Tyree kill trade, the J-1 Hertz trade. It hasn't worked out as well with Devonthe,

but I think that's a different situation, right? Yeah. I mean, because with this, the money and And all of that is not that prohibitive. It obviously is. There's opportunity costs whenever you make a decision like this. But when you're operating with these rookie quarterback contracts and you have these two teams that have excess capital in the draft and you go out and make a move like this as a way again to leave no doubt about where your quarterback is. And let's say we got to the end and Jalen Hurts and two weren't the guys, which I think they're slowly proving that they might be guys worth investing in for next year. No. You've built it for the next guy.

whoever it happens to be. So if you're a team next year that has all of your draft picks and $105 million in cap space, I don't know who that would be. But if you're a team that has $105 million in cap space at all of your draft picks next year and there is a veteran receiver that you think might be available that could jumpstart the development of your young quarterback that you're not sure about, I don't know, consider it. Just give it a thought.

I don't know. Do you have a close proximity to that team? I'm watching that. I'm watching those plays. I'm watching the first time. The first AJ Brown touchdown. I'm watching both Tyreek plays where he's going up and making a jumping, leaping catch over two guys.

It's like, I want some of that. Like I want somebody to go make a play for the quarterback that I want to develop. I just want somebody to go make a play. It's a lot of fun. Also, by the way, there's some great celebrations today because there's actually some scoring. And like,

there's some good ones. Like J-Waddles Waddle touchdown might be my favorite. It's adorable. It's awesome. It's just, it's so great. Because he leaned into it. He just, he embraced it. So hard into it.

And I'm a huge fan of that. Big fan of that. Don't always have to look cool. Like you embrace the celebration. That's, it's awesome, as I know with my movie posters and board games behind me. Frank Ragdow reeled in Jamal Williams like a fish. That one was pretty good. That, Jamal Williams just seems like a, like a treat.

Like he just seems like a peach. He certainly is. Yes. Yeah. And then we had the Jake Ferguson Hocktie celebration. Then, and you could tell the tight end room. On a day where Jared Allen was was honored by the Vikings. Yeah.

Coincidence, but great. That's nice. I was, that one was hilarious because you always tell which rooms planned the celebrations. Because all three tight ends looked at each other like, and then Dalton Schultz was like, okay, I'll go down. I'll go down. I got you. I got you. I thought that was so funny.

I think it was the Jags had a sit and sip tea celebration. The defensive lineman did. Yes. So they clearly had one that was also done. I love it. Great fantasy day for a lot of people, I'm sure. Finally a good fantasy day. I went up against Jalen Hertz, Derek Henry, and Tony Pollard today.

So not a super great thing for me. But I hope you guys had a good thing. It was like 130 at a non-PPR league. It was 135. I mean, I still have a shot with Burrow tomorrow, but we're not going to talk about that. Nobody cares about our fantasy teams. All right. We're going to take one more quick break.

And then we're going to talk about the absolute train wreck that the 2021 quarterback class was today. Can't wait. I'm not mad. I'm just disappointed. We could have done this a bunch of different ways. Originally, it was just going to be Trevor Lawrence and Zach Wilson after the way that they played. They were like, well, we might as well throw Mack Jones in there.

I mean, of the first round quarterbacks from the 2021 draft class, the only one who played well today was Justin Fields. And we're not going to talk about it. No one say anything about how the last two weeks have gone. Sit exactly where you're sitting and shut up. okay we'll handle this later okay I wrote about the run game and I was like all hearty jakeston he had one shot out one good game

this is not happening everyone be quiet about it all right let's start with Trevor Lawrence because I think that I want to talk about the way that Trevor Lawrence played today but I want to use it as a way to have a larger conversation about the Jags and Trevor Lawrence specifically fully ready to admit we got a little excited about the Jaguars

after that Chargers game we got a little bit excited. And there's a lot of stuff happening with the Jags right now. It's very important to point out that the Jags were a borderline top 10 team at offensive and defensive EPA heading into this game, right? The Jaggs are 0 and 6 in one score games this season. Oh and 6. The Jaguars are probably closer to a 500 team. What is happening right now? It's not like the sky has fallen. They're not awful. They're not terrible. And neither is Trevor Lawrence. So I want to dig into some of the nuances here of what he's doing well, what he's doing poorly, what Trevor Lawrence really is right now, and what that says about where Trevor Lawrence can eventually go.

So let's start with the downsides and the kind of the deficiencies that you've seen today and recently. They have an electric fence, electrical fence at the 20 yards past the line of scrimmage when they throw the ball. I made the joke that it's like one of those germads where. filter ads when you see all the germs hitting the filter and it's like 99.9.9% but that's how it looks. When you look at their heat charts and their target maps past 20 yards, you only see like three or four balls going through each game. And why that is, and I will, I'll say, I'll start

with a negative with Trevor Lawrence. And this is why my original comparison with him and I actually feel better about today is like a supercharged Matt Ryan. He's not the greatest deep ball thrower. He's just not. That's not his game. He has a fine deep throw. throwing arm, that's not his game. He is a guy that thrives in the intermediate areas. He has the arm strength to push or to drive the ball, but not throw the deep ball. That's that two different types of arm strengths. And that's what he is, I think, very good at driving the ball.

There's a play against the Colts where he is, it's a third down play. And on this play, it should have been the game winning drive for the Jaguar. So this was last week or a couple weeks ago. It's all come concluded now. two weeks ago. And he's driving this corner route into basically essentially triple coverage. It's his own coverage. The corner is falling underneath this throw.

It's a corner route out of empty formation. So he knows that he only is five man protecting, even with the chip help. He looks at the low route. It's a high low, gets the corner to hold, drives his throw and puts it on the freaking money on time. And it's like, it's awesome. It's a very good arm strength. It's very good timing. very good footwork. Everything is perfect. Exceptional read. And he does this all the time. And that's what's

the thing with him. He's a long twos. I've said this is a long twos offense. He's a long two shooter. He almost thrives in this type of hard throw area. And he could do this consistently. He is top five in sack rate, which he was. He was up there last year as well. The other guys that are up there in sack rate are some guys you might have heard of. It's Patrick Mahomes. It's Tom Brady. It's Justin Herbert. It's Josh Allen and it's Trevor Lawrence. Those are the names that are top five and sack rate because he is really freaking good at avoiding sacks. He's really good at his pocket movement.

He's really good at finding throws. He's a really good processor. I say all that. And then I want to yell at him and call him a freaking hippie for throwing that interception at the one yard line on a throw late over the middle in the red zone, which is like four layers of no-no there. And he already made this mistake against the Texans to Derek Stingling. Same mistake.

And that's why I want to ring his neck. And it was on first down. So that's where the negatives with him is, is that, yes, I appreciate all these great things. His process is so good. And this is why the difference between there's process and results with these players. Trevor's process typically, 95% of time is very good. And that's why I'm a fan of him. It's just that once in a while he does some boneheaded mistake, the intentional grounding,

which I understood he was trying to do the right thing in the two-minute drill to not take a sack and knock him out of field. range, but he wasn't outside the pocket when he threw that ball away. So it's just like he's trying to do these right things, but then he just messes up. And it's, it can be annoying to watch. And you got to remember that progress isn't always on a linear path with a guy like this. But, ah, just there's so much. He's 20 games in his career and his rookie year is a nightmare. Yes.

It was an absolute nightmare. And that's important. I have to tell myself that with these guys. Like, he's not going to be a finished product right away. And the process over results thing is exactly. exactly right. And he's kind of a hard player to categorize right now because there's a lot of good and a really a decent amount of bad. Right. So there was a play today. It was, I can't remember when I was first and 10 and with 323 left in the first quarter. And it's just a

simple play. Three technique gets some pretty quick pressure. He steps up in the pocket, steps up and out, finds a tight end for an eight yard gain on first and ten. It's a doesn't look crazy. He does this all the time. His pocket mechanics and pocket movement and awareness are excellent for a quarterback of really any experience level, let alone somebody who's only played for a year. And so that's the biggest gap between where he is and where someone like Zach Wilson is. Zach Wilson's is horrendous. Zach Wilson has absolutely no feel for where he should be in the pocket and how to navigate that space. Trevor Lawrence is excellent at that.

The problem is that good stuff is mixed with a decent amount of bad stuff. So he is a long-to's thrower right now. That's where he's throwing the ball. He's very good when it looks good. It's way too inconsistent. Like way too inconsistent. Right now, this season, he is 33rd of 35 quarterbacks in on-target percentage on intermediate throws between 10 and 20 air yards.

The only two guys worse than him are Joe Flacco and Davis Mills. And it's rough because so on the first drive of the game, he has a corner out to Evan Ingram on the right sideline. Air mails it. Air mails it. And then he comes back and throws it a corner out to Evan Ingram with a left pile on that's gorgeous for a touchdown like five minutes later. And that's what's maddening is that the accuracy is all over the place.

He's just spraying random throws for no reason. There was a comeback to Marvin Jones in this game, wide open on third down. And he just sails it four yards outside. And it's like, Jesus, man. So the scattershot accuracy is a concern and the decision making every once in a while. Every once in a while his brain just breaks the way that it did on that throw to Justice Simmons today on the one to Derek Stingley. So you can't, it's not all black and white.

Like guys aren't good or bad, right? That's not how it works, especially with young quarterbacks. So I think we have to step back and go. What does this mean and where can this go? I was telling you this this morning. I'm having a hard time thinking about who he reminds me of at this stage of the proceedings. Because the other guy who was doing some good stuff and then there'd be scattershot accuracy issues, which was Josh Allen. right that's how Josh Allen was early in his career but Josh Allen had this overwhelming physical

ability that Trevor Lawrence just doesn't have we talked about it with the arm like his arm is good but not great it's not like a top top tier arm like Josh Allen's is so if you're going to have that good but not great arm if you're a very good processor if you handle the pocket well and we can work on some of the accuracy issues what does that make you and Matt Ryan's a pretty good best case scenario. But the accuracy stuff has to get fixed. Like that, the scatter shot throws are,

that cannot continue if you're not going to have that upper, upper tier ceiling with the physical gifts. And that's what is, and it's what's so hard for me as anyone that follows me on Twitter and they know I'll break down the Jaguar stuff or heard me on the show. It's like, I'm a fan of him because all that hard stuff he does. And that's what's frustrating with him and this offense and just the skill players

around him is, I'm like starting now when I were two years into this. I'm like, okay, is that you? Or is that because Zay Jones is short five yards on a route? Because there's times I know the receiver is short and he'll line a throw, hit a guy basically right in the face, perfect throw, perfect timing. I'm like, okay, so that receiver is short. And I know they're short.

When you watch enough this based on the dropbacks, based on how long the dropback is, you can tell route depth. It's five, 10 to 12 yards, 16, 18 yards, et cetera, et cetera. Zay Jones is short. on his inbreakers every freaking time. But does Trevor adapt to that? And now he knows that. And now it's like one of those things where it's that outbreaker that he brought to Marvin

Jones. I actually wrote that one down, the short comeback. I wrote that down because I'm like, I need to watch this. I wrote, I need to watch this on all 22. Because I'm like, are you, is the route short? Why are you missing this so badly? Like it's because it's not just like, oh, he hit his knee. You know, it's like he's trying the hard, like it's rather just pin a ball right on a guy's

body, he's like, I'm going to go for the extreme hard throw. I'm going to go for the 10 out of 10 difficulty. I'm going to put it right outside. It's like sometimes you just got pinned on the guy. Yes. And it's like I'm, it's almost like that he has to learn to take layups and learn to make it easy on himself because he wants to just do all the hard stuff, not trick shots, but all the hard stuff.

And I think sometimes that's the thing with Trevor Lawrence is when he has these bad games, the Eagles game this week is that his game doesn't speak to the red zone channel. You're not going to see the trick shot throws on the Red Zone channel because he's a doubles hitter. And he does all those doubles and it's great. And when you, that's every time I watch him, it's so funny. I'll watch.

I'm like, man, this guy threw for 210 yards. Like, what the hell? And I like, and I watched all 22 of them. And I'm like, this guy's freaking awesome because he does all these like middle middle ground. The process stuff is very, is very good. It's awesome. And that's what it's so hard. And I understand that I am a fan of him.

But I just want to say that that's why it's a difficult eval sometimes. But then that's the eye test stuff. And then you look at the underlying numbers and all of it back it up. That this guy's a good player. It's just that some of those stuff isn't good. But like, I mean, he has a same EPA per dropback as Justin Herbert. He has a same D.YAR from football outsiders as Joe Burrow. He has, I think EPA, EPA per dropback.

He's better than Kyler, better than Lamar, better than Kirk Cousins, better than Aaron Rogers. Like he is he's 16th right now. He is tied with Justin Herbert. He is 16th in the NFL, which that's why. That's important. That's why, well, this is why it pisses me off. I'm sorry. And I know it's like two people on Twitter and I shouldn't hang up about this.

But it's why I get annoyed with this is that he's already fine. It's just that we're figuring out what his ceiling is. That's exactly right. Don't call him a freaking bus because he's not. He's already a fine above average to good quarterback. It's for figuring out what his ceiling is. So that's what I want to get across. He's already fine.

It's just now, can he now do this all the exceptional stuff that we want to see when we talk about these elite guys. And that's what I think he can get to it, but he has to become more consistent to get there. So that's what I just want to get across. This guy does a lot of things well, and he's already a fine starter. I think that's exactly right. And it's, can you clean up the accuracy and consistencies and those one or two decisions? Because the underlying process is fine.

The underlying process is good. The underlying process with Zach Wilson is a massive concern. Okay. Let's get to Zach Wilson. today. The number that I thought was just absolutely stunning. And this is with 50-yard completion that he had to Garrett Wilson on the move in this game, that kind of highlight throw you're talking about to Garrett Wilson.

This season, Zach Wilson, is 9 of 47 for 141 yards and 5 interceptions when pressured. He's completing 19% of his passes. and averaging three yards per attempt, and he is dead last pretty comfortably in EPA per dropback when pressured. Oh, my goodness. And it looks like that. When you watch that game today, it looks like that. I would love a stat about where quarterbacks release the ball from.

The amount of times he's making throws from 14 yards deep in the backfield because he's bailing and drifting, that when people are going to look at this conversation, and think, well, you're giving Trevor Lawrence a pass and you're shitting all over Zach Wilson. That is the difference. Look at the ways they navigate and operate in that space. It couldn't be more different. And that is why I'm really, really worried about what Zach Wilson is going to eventually be. And I think that even if Trevor Lawrence is ceiling probably has some questions about it, the floor I'm not nearly as concerned about.

Zach Wilson's floor is six feet under the ground right now based on the way that he's handling some of the these situations. It's it's the process and the results and that that's why we have to reiterate that because his process is just it's scatterbrained like the pressure stuff is very telling. Like it's not just statistically. You watch him and it's as soon as someone, soon as one, it feels like if one of his tackles moves into his line of vision, just a maneuver, he panics. That guy bails even his best throw today in the first drive or is the first or second drive. his first quarter to Garrett Wilson. He bales, it was out of structure, of course, all of his best throws are out of structure.

He bells out of pocket, clean pocket. He hits the back of his drop and he's already bailing out of the pocket. And it was the right tackle is so used to it. He got already ready to, it wasn't planned. He already got ready to seal the D-Ed inside because he was like, ah, I know my guy's going to bail out of his pocket anyways. And he makes that. And his interception that he had, the first one that he had on, it was a crossing

we're out on third down. This actually ties into our conversation, by the way, about maybe offense is stagnated a little bit because it's a Shanahan offense that the Jets run and they have a hot built in and they don't adjust to protection. So there's a free runner, which is fine because in their theory is that they have a hot built in. He knows that. He drifts in the pocket for no reason.

The pocket's clean, even though there's a free runner. And he has a crosser right over the middle. He just has to stand there. These aren't the easiest throws because it's a weird thing where you have to. to get it over the line and then drop it in on a crosser or something underneath. But he has time in a clean enough pocket to make that throw easily. If he knows what's going on with this offense, he would drop this in before the receiver would even hit the hash.

And the guy gets to the linebacker even gets to the light of scrimmage. The linebacker even knows what's going on. Like before anything happens, before the play even gets started, this ball should be completed, first down, done. And instead, he drifts and he feels pressure. He feels it so quickly and not in a good way, in a bad way. Lawrence feels it in a good way. He maneuvers in the pocket and gets away from it.

And so that's where those accuracy issues come in. And it seems so many times his footwork is so noisy. He has a very noisy footwork because he's so off balance. He's trying to feel himself. Sometimes he looks scatter shut with his eyes. He's guessing on which side to go to. That's why some of his best throws are when he can just go one and down with a reed on the outside. his touchdown to Conklin was this way

and you don't have to show the play Belvoir but touchdown to Conklin was this way. He knows he's going there so his footwork is nice and clean. One, two, three, balls out and he can place it there. That's where you see his arm talent. But just the process that lead up to that point is just so, so, so all over the place.

And now it's getting to the scary point where it's like, oh boy, can you ever do this? Because now he's spinning in the pocket every single time. He's like trying to break away and he's spinning not to create a throat. He's spinning just a spin. and it's just to find it. He's trying to twirl towards freedom. And that's what, and it's just not a good thing.

Like, that's why you want to see him just play his foot and rip a throw. And you don't see that often enough with him. The interceptions are what are going to make headlines. They're going to be highlights that you watch on TV for the next 24 hours. They're going to be jokes on Twitter. It's the plays that didn't end up being interceptions for me today. It's the throws that the one down the right sideline went from his own end zone, where he's just drifting and just float in the ball.

up the side line. There was one down near the goal line that it was second and eight in the first quarter. It was 828 left. They started at the 10. It was from the 10. He threw the ball from the 23 yard line for no reason. Just for no reason. He's just drifting back and just throwing the ball off balance.

It contested throw. A difficult throw becomes even more difficult and it falls incomplete. It's not some embarrassing highlight. It's not some. abnormality or some like scatterbrain decision. It's just the process that he's playing with. And that is the most frustrating part of it. And that's the most concerning part of it.

Because that's what you see all over the place when you watch him right now. And you saw it in the Broncos game. This isn't something that's been a one week thing. When he gets any sort of heat around him, this is what has been happening. And I'd be pretty worried about it. Yeah. As soon as he sees the pocket move out of his peripheral, he panics. And not in a good way, not in a way to create its way to like, oh, shoot, I got to find something now.

Because this is why DAC's a machine against pressure, all the best quarterbacks are. It's because when they get blitz, they go, oh, I'm about to gash you because I'm going to sit in here, lean into the punch, and I'm going to find a throw. He's looking to find a throw outside the pocket because it's nice and clean for him. You can just go, oh, okay, where's this guy? Okay, I can see everything now. But that's not a, you can't live that way. No, you can find plays that way, but you can't live that way down to down. The last stat I had with him is that he no quarterback has had more of the yards come after the catch at a higher percentage.

throws past the line of scrimmage than Zach Wilson. So not just screens and everything, but actual throws down the road. So he's getting a ton of help from his team. Think about those wheels to Brice Hall that turned into 75-yard touchdowns that were actually 15-yard throws. Correct. I mean, you can imagine all of them. That's exactly what I'm thinking of. I even thought the one that he had Conklin on the sideline.

I was the third down. Conklin breaks like four tackles, like a elephant getting taken down by Lions. Like just running through everybody. And it's just, but that's, he's getting help from his teammates. So you came and just go, well, you know, no one's breaking a tackle for him. It's like, no, there's, they got some dudes doing some stuff. Like, you can't just use that argument. So it's just, you know, the signs are getting worrisome.

I mean, they really are. So the guy right ahead of him in EPA per dropback wind pressure this year, down here at the bottom of the league is McCorkle Jones. Flewwood McCorkel. He was. I tweeted this during the first half of the game. He was painting like a masterpiece of spectacularly bad in the first half of the game.

The pick six that got called back only gets called back because of a rough end the passer. Right. Just an unbelievable. Not a defense of holding or anything like that. It was a decision where I'm just like, what is he doing? The amount of sacks he ate in this game where he didn't even move.

I'm just like, what is happening? Like, are, is he not healthy enough to protect himself, but then he's scrambling every once in a while. It seemed like his brain broke on like six or seven different plays today. The fourth down, they had a fourth and one in the first half where they ran just a little slide kind of RPO into the flat. And he has Hunter Henry wide open in the flat, like wide open. And he just doesn't throw it to him.

And we've seen this play a million times. The Eagles run this play all the time. The Cowboys ran this play for a first down. We talked about earlier on the show. This is an easy first down. And he just doesn't throw the ball to Hunter Henry. And by the end of this first half, so the next time the Patriots got the ball off it for turnover,

they just ran the ball a couple of times and kicked a field goal. Like, they weren't even going to put it in his hands. So I just, I don't really know what to say about the way that he's playing right now because you could say like, oh, well, it's Matt Patricia and Joe Judge and, you know, shit on just what the offensive plan and structure looks like. Bailey Zappy's been fine for the most part. He's been better than this. So I just don't really know what to say about why Mack Jones looks the way he does right now.

Yeah. And that's the thing with Jones was that we knew his ceiling wouldn't be that high, even though some people tried to argue it last year. His ceiling wouldn't be that high. He's not overwhelming athlete. He's not overwhelming. arm strength. He wins with his accuracy and his decision making. So the thing when you have to win with your accuracy and decision making, he is a good scramble. We have established this. We talked about this last week. He's actually a very good scramble, very efficient scrambler, but he's

not a runner, a true, I'm going to create plays out structure and throw a ball sidearm, which you kind of have to do with these days. But the thing is, you can't be his, his, like you're saying, he's eating those sacks. That's what it really felt like. It felt like he had a few times where he just said, eh, whatever. And he just tucked it. Like, he just came to, he held the ball and he was like, uh, I'm good. I actually rewatch this game. I wasn't, I wasn't happy with how he played, like where I was like, oh, wow, that

was astounding. I actually wasn't as disappointed, like, as I thought it would be, maybe like on some the throw. So, like he had a great, uh, anchor ball sale. The, the problem. The sacks. The, the, the Henry play. He can't be a guy that looks that way.

The sacks, the Henry play and the pick six. those are the ones where I was like, the sacks were the thing where I was like, what are you doing? But that's the thing. He can't get away with that. No. Like he can never be a mistake guy. He can never, when Patriots lose a game, I know they won this game. They lose a game.

They'd ever go like, oh, Mac Jones, you know, at five shit plays. It's like, no, he should be a zero. His denominator should always be zero. And then it's about how many good plays did he have? Because he should always, his bar should always be so high. That's a difference between it's, Trevor was the midline between these guys. Zach Wilson was pure creation, pure results, not processed. Mack Jones was pure process.

Trevor was a better athlete than you give him credit for. He is a good athlete. Oh, I think he's a good athlete. I just don't think his arm is overwhelming. Oh, okay, okay. You said, okay, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, no, he's a good athlete. But that's the thing. It's like, Mac was decision-making, like, amazing, accuracy, amazing, creation, eh.

And the fact you don't want to see him tucking. You want to see him finding a throw, even if it's digging a throw. That's the Tom Brady special. I know I'm about to get sacked. Oh, shoot, I just dig a throw at a guy's feet. And boom, just live to play another day. So that is where it's iffy to see a guy that he was doing this as a rookie, not doing it in his second year. And it just seems like there's a lot of those throws that maybe he would try last year.

He took a sack on a third down. And they went, they like to run like an all cralls type concept on third down where everyone gets to the sticks. Last year, I saw him rip that throw. And I would compliment him because, like, man, this guy's got no arm strength, but he makes it happen. because it's so early and so accurate and he knows where to go. They ran that same concept today and he took a sack on it. The ball, I could see on the TV copy, there's a guy on the hash that he could throw it to. And he was like, I don't want to make that throw out.

And he just takes a sack. And it's like, that's not what you want to see how this guy. He's progressing. Yes. He should be building on what he was doing last year, building on that stuff that he was doing last year. And really, it's not that terrible of a situation. And yeah, it's just not what you want to see out of this guy. who I thought would just have such a high floor overall.

The one other thing I wanted to say before we wrapped up here about Trevor Lawrence is that somebody in the chat asked a very good question. Like, where do we get this wrong? And like, you know, maybe where did we not see the ceiling for him that we had for other big time prospects in the top five or top ten? This is something I thought coming into this season. And I still think this. He's not a creative thrower.

Like when he, the throws that he makes those like lasers in the intermediate area that we like, that's when everything is moving in the right direction when he's stepping into throws. His mechanics are very good, but he can be very robotic when he's playing the position. And I think that's the gap between him. When I'm talking about why I don't think he can be Josh Allen when we're talking about the Josh Allen improvements and the accuracy getting right, Josh Allen's an immensely creative thrower. And I just don't think Trevor's ever going to be a creative thrower.

He is a good athlete. And in the immediate area, he has a, again, the laser show can happen. but he's not a creative thrower. And I think that to me is one of the biggest things ultimately limiting his ceiling is that those guys who are truly the best quarterbacks in the league are creative throwers or on top of that they have like insane arms. Like Justin Herbert isn't maybe the most creative thrower off platform and things like that. He has an insane arm in a way that Trevor Lawrence just doesn't.

And so I just think there are several different things kind of tamping down. what his ceiling can eventually be, even if we're still fairly optimistic about the floor. No, I get what you mean. It's not, we talked about this with Russ a little bit too. He's not, he's not a trick shot. He's not a trick shot guy. It's not, some guys just aren't. It's just not in there.

He can create throws like off platform, like he can get out of the pocket and throw on the move with the best of them. I mean, Trevor's got like a dozen throws to the left this year that some guys would never throw on their whole career. It's just that like you're saying, it's not that getting tackled. throwing side arm, but that's what the best ones do nowadays. That's got what you kind of have to have in your bag a little bit. That's just not what he is.

He reminds me a little bit of Andrew Luck in that way with some of the pocket mobility stuff, but luck was more consistently accurate. And luck had a, luck could push the ball down the field. Yes. And I think those are, those are to me the biggest differences with that. So these names are tumbling through my head because when I was sitting there,

think about today, I was like, who does he remind me of? Like, what, what, at this stage, like, who does he remind me of? And I think there is a little bit of that like pocket movement mechanics, robotic stuff with luck, but the ceiling is in as high. Like, it's, I'm trying to figure out what it is. And I haven't landed on one that I really like. So, all right, we're going to do we see you and then we're going to get out here. All right.

A couple guys I wanted to mention. One of my favorite moments of the day that was a fucking awesome. Terry McLaren making that play down near the goal line in his hometown and setting up a game winning touchdown and then screaming, this is my motherfucking city was awesome. Awesome. That's awesome. Has anyone ever said that about Indianapolis? You know what?

It could have been anything. It could have been any city. Him being from there and winning two state championships in that stadium and winning multiple Big Ten championship games in that stadium. And then winning that game and going over 100 and making that play over Stefan Gilmore, that was the most badass moment of the day, in my opinion. That was amazing. That was cool. I always laugh when you see games in Florida, because or Miami especially,

and you could tell which players are really geeked up to be playing in Miami and like back in their home. They have like 30 family and friends sitting in there. So I wonder, I wonder how many family friends Terry had to that game. I guess India is or Indiana is not that bad to DC. But, uh, but I'm curious like how many family friends he did because that he dunked on him. And it was awesome. Like he really, he really brought it today. And like, and just showed his whole. He was like, I was worth his. 20 plus million dollars. Watch what I could do.

No, it was awesome. I agree. That was one of the coolest moments of the whole year. The fact that someone would say that and just kind of not a game or a player that you're expecting to see that. He was correct and saying it. He was like in that moment, it was a totally acceptable and appropriate thing to say. Which if you can get away with saying that on ironically, that's pretty fucking cool.

So we're going to talk about that game on the Monday hangover with Sando tomorrow. Another game we're going to talk about Titans. Derek Henry ran for 200 yards today. The Titans won a football game where their quarterback attempted one pass in the second half. I kept looking to see if it'll update and see because I'm like, okay, I'm going to watch Willis tomorrow. And I'm like, well, never mind. I don't have to watch Willis at all because that'll be easy to go through. No, but yeah, that's Titans ball, baby.

That's bully ball all the way. Talking about on Thursday's show, they're doing the stuff we need, they need to do to win. Right, like the situational stuff. Like they handed the ball to Derek Henry 32 times today. He rushed for 220 yards and they won the football game. And they do that in a decent amount. So we're going to talk about that game and the horrendous Texans defense tomorrow. But also like the Titans defense, just insert name here, like player number 40 here.

And then like they just are like playing their asses off. And again, that speaks to like just for able and the coaching staff. Just every guy comes to play. Everybody, everybody, they have a type of guy they like. They like the big freaky athletes. not only just physically, but just mentally. They're just like tough dudes, and they coach them up well, and it works for them. That's why they're able to do this week and week out.

All right. Other games are talking about tomorrow, Raiders Saints, talk about Colton, Washington, Packers, Bills, Titans, Texans. Those are going to be the games on the Monday Hangover tomorrow with Mike Sando. So please come back and check that out. If you could, please subscribe to our YouTube channel. If you're watching this, hopefully you're already subscribed. If you're listening to it, the link to the YouTube channel is in the description. We do our Thursday recap shows exclusively on YouTube, so that's where you can check those out.

If you have not, please rate and review the podcast. If you want to go to Apple Podcasts and just leave us a five-star review, tell us why you like the show. It would mean a lot to us. I would sincerely appreciate that. So thank you very, very much. If you have done that, if you haven't, please do. We will be back tomorrow night with Mike Sando and the Monday Hangover. You guys should be able to listen to that on the Tuesday podcast feed.

Until then, I appreciate you listening. We'll talk to you soon. was the Athletic Football Show.