The Athletic Football Show: A show about the NFL - NFL Week 9 recap — Chiefs-Titans thriller; Packers, Rams are done; Justin Fields, Jets impress; Seahawks, Vikings win again

Episode Date: November 7, 2022

We know that every NFL season is going to surprise us in its own unique way. Still, not many of us had the Packers and Rams being done halfway through the season on the 2022 surprises bingo card. And yet, that's exactly what it looks like after Week 9. Robert Mays and Nate Tice break down the biggest stories of the week on this episode of The Athletic Football Show.The guys also get into the Chiefs-Titans SNF thriller, Justin Fields' big day, the Jets grabbing our attention, the Seahawks' and Vikings' rosy outlooks, and more.Follow Robert on Twitter: @robertmaysFollow Nate on Twitter: @Nate_TiceSubscribe to The Athletic Football Show...AppleSpotifyYouTube5:06 Chiefs-Titans15:41 The Packers are done28:21 What does a competitive 2023 Rams team look like?36:31 What's going on in Vegas?46:01 A Trevor Lawrence tangent50:41 The Jets have our attention65:01 Holy cow, Justin Fields77:21 The good and bad for the Dolphins87:11 More likely to make a playoff run: Vikings or Seahawks? 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. Join me tonight. It's my good friend Nate Tyson. How you doing, buddy? Doing well. I knew that Titans team would be a little more frisky than I think some people were

giving them credit for it. I didn't think it would be that frisky. Didn't think it would be an overtime pushing us an hour later than our usual Sunday show. But it was entertaining. That was a very entertaining day of games. It really was. Like, there's a lot to talk about.

I know it's going to be a good day for the show is when we have our pre-meeting. And we're talking for 30, 40 minutes because it's like, oh, we got to hit that. We got to hit that. We got to hit that. So I knew it was a good Sunday of NFL action. A lot of stuff we got to dig into. We're going to talk about the Packers, not just what happened today, but now what happens moving forward.

A couple teams in the NFC, they're just kind of cooked and done, which is wild. The Raiders blow another game. Big day for the Jets. I'm going to talk about that. we're going to slowly wait into a Justin Fields conversation that makes me uncomfortable. So we're going to do that a little bit later. But we are going to start with the Sunday night game because we have to talk about that. I think at a couple different levels.

How close the Titans kept it, the craziness that Mahomes had at the end of that game. So your biggest takeaway from what we just watched between the Chiefs and the Titans? That there's a million ways to skin the cat in football. And the Titans and the Chiefs are like two perfect. I would say mirror images, yin and yang to one another on how to play the game of football, and it's really fun. I mean,

just the chiefs ran 91 plays compared to the Titans, 48 in total. Mahomes had most, I think the rushing stats were hilarious. We do this Titans rush defense is the best in the league, like bar not. It's statistically, I test,

it is impossible around this team. The Chiefs going into the fourth quarter, their running backs had, I think, 11 run plays for 10 yards. And on a related note, note, Patrick Mahomes had the most times drop back by a quarterback on record, had 78 dropbacks tonight, which is, I believe, beats Josh Allen against the dolphins earlier this year. And I think it's only the fourth time a quarterback on record from True Media's data that a

quarterback has had over 70 or more dropbacks in a single game. He had 78 tonight, which is just incredibly, it's insane. It's insane. And he also had the highest percentage of true dropbacks. So no play action, no screens. He was dropping back. And they just said, hey, Patrick, go win us this game. And boy, did he ever for the Chiefs tonight.

Not surprising that they couldn't run the ball on that Titans defense. We talked about their run defense coming into the game. And my biggest takeaway outside of Patrick Mahomes is just absolutely incredible, which we can talk about, is that the Titans stay impressive in what they're able to do with their defensive personnel, right? The Titans roll out here with, I have to even look up the names. The names are hilarious. Joshua Kalu, right? Joshua Kalu is playing tons of snaps for them because Amani Hooker's hurt.

You can make a pass to these and I would just go say sure. Yeah. People, they would never know. So Joshua Kalu comes in, I don't know exactly how many snaps he played, but he was their third safety in this game because Armani Hooker wasn't playing. Amani Hooker, like a baseline player who's really good for the Titans defense. Mario Edwards comes in, signed off the practice squad of the Jaguars in September and he's just beaten the shit out of people in this game.

Oh, my God. Right away. And that's what they are. Like, they just grab these guys from out of nowhere all the time. I joked about it during the actual game. But watching the Titans front four, Edwards is kind of a hybrid defensive tackle defensive end. Autry is the same way. Yep.

So the way they're built right now, they just have, and Bud Dupree is not a small man. So when he's on the edge, they have all these guys who are like 280 and are just crushing the pocket the entire game trying to keep Mahomes in there. And that was their game. game plan. It's just we're going to beat the hell out of you up front. And then on the back end, we're going to play a bunch of man and essentially just turn this into a street fight. That's what they did. This entire game felt like the scene in Anchorman, where everyone's just bringing out more ridiculous weaponry every single moment. That's what the Titans defense felt like in this game. And it almost allowed them to steal one from Mahomes on the road.

I guess Mahomes is brick because he has a grenade. He has a hand grenade in that. But that's the thing with those hybrid types, like De Nico Autry and Mario, who were. both with us with the Raiders, which is funnily enough, but had both of them, they can, they bump up on the outside. So naturally, they're just better playing against the run. Because like you said, when you don't need those bendy guys, they just push the pocket. And I believe, I want to say the Titans only blitzed once tonight. And it might be, it's somewhere between zero one, two three.

Like, so small amount. It was 2% the last time I had looked, which was like two thirds of the way through the third quarter. So maybe one time tonight. And then they blitz later. So I would, I would guess twice if I just had to like throw a guess out there. put once or twice as my guess as well. So, but that's what their plan was, was put as many bodies as we can in coverage, beat the crap out of them down the field. And that's why they got so many

holdings and illegal contacts. But they were saying they're ridiculous. They were just daring to play. That's how you have to play. That's how you have to do it. You said perfect. Get him into a street fight. Make them, make them wrestle. Make them wrestle with the entire game. The chiefs aren't built I think it was pretty funny like that as soon as the Titans took away the chiefs run game, it's like, it's like, Andy Reed just couldn't wait to just chuck the ball. He's like, yes, this is my dream. No one's going to get mad at me right now. And boy, did he. But that's what the Titans are just, they were planning to wear out the offensive line, wear out the receivers and make Mahomes throw from tight pockets and tight spaces down the field until Mahomes just went to screw this mode at the

second half of the fourth quarter and overtime. He just went to screw this. I'm extending every play and let's go. But that's, there's only a couple guys that can do that. So it's a great plan for of the Titans and this is what they do. They make it really tough on you for their offense and also against opposing offenses. They just ran out of gas. They just ran out of gas against Mahomes and their offense just ran out of gas. I mean, there's just nobody on that team right now that can make a play. And it's hard to watch that game and I think about what this team would look like with AJ Brown. I understand overall the plan and why it's like, okay, we're going to reset a little bit. We didn't want to pay him and all the considerations that go into that. But I don't know what the

Titans are going to look like a year from now. I don't know what they're going to look like by the end of this season. If they have Ryan Tannahill in this game, do they win? Maybe. I mean, just so many different questions. But my takeaway from this game is that they're going to be in these sorts of games all the time. They are going to do what they have to do to make these things ugly and close and stay

competitive no matter who's out there, no matter who they're playing against. And Mike Vrable and his staff deserves a ton of credit for that. They play team football. Yes. They know they have a rookie quarterback, a third round rookie. starting. So what the defense do? Okay, we got to tighten it up. We got to like, I actually didn't mean to use their phrase there. But yes, that's actually what they did. Tighten down, tighten up, whatever they do. The last stat real quick, I have to throw in Mahomes. There's the most

passing first down, passing first downs he's ever had in the game as well, which, which is just insane. And the most impressive place he made down the stretcher with his legs. With his legs. What he had to do as a scrambler is ultimately what won that in that game. He's absolutely incredible. But the Titans made him go into Superstar mode, which is a, joy for us to watch. But it's, yeah, they beat them up for the whole game, but then talent won out in the end. I'm wondering, again, kind of what the next phase of this looks like for Tennessee. Right.

Like, I think they're going to be competitive when Tannaho gets back. They're not going to upgrade a wide receiver, obviously, over the rest of the season. Their offensive line is still a huge question in past protection. It just feels like they're going to win the division. They're going to make the playoffs. They're probably going to have an early playoff exit. And even if that is the case, and this kind of feels like a strange year, where they took a step back but still managed to win the AFC South and their

playoff team, but what are they really? This is just another entry in a lot of seasons where I just feel a lot better about the people in charge of that team and what they're able to do and like what the next phase of this and the next era of them will look like when they kind of figure out how to reset after this strange season when they kind of intentionally took a step forward. They're such a strange team, but then they continue to do all this stuff that you, it's impossible not to respect the way that they play and the way that they're coached on an individual level every single game. So you just have these, I think in the long run, on a broader level,

like the broad strokes of the Titans just aren't interesting to people. Like they don't have a lot of stars. They don't have a lot of big names outside of like Derek Henry. They traded one of them away. They don't play a super entertaining version of football. So when you're looking at it just on a big picture level, it's like, well, the Titans are easy to look over. But then you get to the granularity of it. And that's really interesting and really impressive. And so that's why I think they're just a hard team to figure out, a hard team to talk about sometimes.

But then you watch a game like this and it's like, they're, it's well done. Like they're constantly put in the right spots and they almost did it again. They almost did. I know. I actually thought they were going to pull it off for a long time in that game. I mean, they were the number one seed last year. And they hung up with the Bengals the whole game until the very end, Tanna Hill, through a couple bad picks in the playoffs against the Bengals.

But it's just one of those. And then last year, that was a surprise. And then this year it's like, oh, yeah, these other, we're trying to, like, me, I know I was looking at the Colts and Jaguars going like, well, yeah, now it's their time to kind of like maybe take a half step forward. And it's like, there's the Titans. They just muck up every game because they don't, they don't really beat themselves. Like, they have that way of not being themselves and they punish other team's mistakes. They're just well coached.

You see how just energetic that team plays with. And I think that's where it is is, you know, Jeffrey Simmons has become. is a star and like he's going to get more recognition as the season goes along. But the other guys, it's like, oh yeah, that guy. Yeah, he's pretty good too. Like, you get a lot of like, it's good that like Chris Collinsworth is talking about David Long. You know, he's talking about archery. He's giving those guys some shine because those guys are good players, like legitimately good players,

not just like a athletic football show All Star. You know, it's not like one of these guys that we just like tab like, oh, no, they're legit good players. So it's good that like people get to see out what this team's all about because they make it tough on every team. They're going to be in every game as long as they don't play the bills. But they're going to be in every single type of game because that's what they can do. They're going to be well coach. They're not going to beat themselves and they're going to make it hard on you. It's a good formula.

The guys who were supposed to be out there for the Titans, think about how many weren't. Harold Landry, Elijah Molden, Amani Hooker. They drafted a cornerback in the first round last year who doesn't play for them. Their tackle from two years ago didn't last through training camp that they drafted him to first round. Yeah. Carol Luan's hurt. I mean, the offense doesn't look very good, but the defense is just the fact that they can

cycle through all these guys and remain competitive is incredibly impressive. Shane Bowen, who's their defense coordinator and has been for the last couple years, I think deserved a shout out. It's just, again, and they make the most of what they have all the time. They have a type of personnel. They go for big, big, strong fast dudes. Like, that's what they're going to beat the shit out of you on defense. That is absolutely what they're going to do.

And that's what they do. And it works out sometimes. It's kind of, it's fun to watch. It really is, even though some people want to paint it as ugly. All right. It's time to get to you. We're not mad. Just disappointed.

Cool, man. I'm not mad. I'm just disappointed. Nathan, Packers are done. I think they are, my friend. I think they are. They're three and six. They scored nine points against the Lions today.

They scored nine points against the team who was so bad defensively against the Dolphins last week. They fired their defensive backs coach. It couldn't cover anyone. And the Packer scored nine points today. They scored nine points because they threw two red zone interceptions. There's a lot of reasons behind it. And we can dig into some of this. We can dig into the specifics of why they've fallen as far as they have.

What's the cause of all of this? In the end, though, it doesn't really matter. Like they're three and six and the season is probably over. So let's dig into why this is rock bottom for this Green Bay team this season because of what they put on the field today against the back against tight lines. Excuse me. Man, I, when we did the top 10 offenses show, I had them outside the top 10 and I got yelled at. So I'm kind of like, wish I went back to those initial thoughts to my gut, got feelings on that.

But it's, you watch this team. They were eighth in offensive DVOA coming into this game. I looked at all their numbers and I was just like, really? Really? Like, I mean, they're like 11th that's success rate after this game. Like, yeah. But this team will, going into this season, they had a little bit of brain. brain as far as coaching staff.

They lose Getsy, they lose Hackett, they lose your tight end coach who also went to the Broncos as well. That's tough for any team to lose that type of just brain and just chemistry as you have as a staff. So that's where I just want to start with. But then we also, of course, this is we've endlessly is talking about what the receiving options are for Rogers and everything. But some of this is also on Rogers play as well. But I think this offense, I'm going to focus on the offense for now.

But I think this offense, and I brought up the staff. last time we talked about them because I feel like weekly we're just like, holy shit, this is really happening. This is every week. We have to look at this team going like, this is what this offense is. There's so many throws at her behind the line of scrimmage, but at 30 second and yards or percentage of yards are coming throws past the line of scrimmage for Rogers. There's nobody making defenders mistackles down the field. So if you're going to do this nickel and dime type offense underneath, then guys have to make guys miss. You have to, who's watching them throw like RPO smokes and screens to Sammy Watkins in this game.

To Watkins on third downs. Incredibly frustrating. It is. Like, who's their yak guy? Aaron Jones? Like, where they have to be in the only person? Yeah. So they have a plotting offense.

Their run game is good. Legitimately good. Like, it is any way you shake it, EPA per play. They're tied seventh and designed rushes per play. Ninth in DVOA, 11th success rate. But the problem is their passing game is, it's almost like an old air raid offense where

They're doing all these short passes to supplement the run game. But when you have a good run game, you don't need to do that. That's just, you're just running it more with worse players, really, rather than Aaron Jones or A.G. Dillon get the ball in their hands. And all these throws are just, over time, if you're not getting the explosives, their 20th and explosive play rate in the NFL right now, it's a hard way to live, especially with a defense that I actually think kind of it's, the defense is pretty good. But the defense themselves don't make explosive plays. They had a nice turnover today, Jire Alexander, but they also just don't get those sacks, those TFLs.

They don't get those field shifting plays to create these turnovers that makes it a short field field for the offense. And the offense is just a nickel and dime fest. So they don't, you know, they don't create those chunk plays. So it's an offense trying to do things very hard and just nickel and dime defenses, but they just can't do it. They don't have the horses to do it. And they don't have a quarterback that Rogers is trying to do some of those trick shot throws that he's always done.

And it's just the ball comes up short. The ball's sailing. Even some of his good throw throw, stale, he's sailing over. Like he's just off a little bit, but they don't have any room for error with this offense because they don't create the explosive place. It's, you know, the discussion we had this summer about Jimmy G. and Trey Lance and you talked to Juice Check, right? And he said, what's nice about this was all just the. already back in August, so don't hang me for this. But he's like, what's nice about it is that we're trying to create one explosive play

rather than chain together five good plays in a row, which is pretty hard to do. That's what the Packers are going through right now. They have nothing to create those chunks on offense or defense. And the Adams part of this is obviously a huge issue, right? Like losing him and just the easy buttons they had with him. I would look at the stat recently. And I think, I can't remember exactly what it was. But I want to say that they threw to him on like,

40% of his slot snaps last season. I think, yeah, there was some ridiculous. It was something in that range. And when they put him in certain positions, the offense flowed through him, the passing game did. And when you remove that, that's obviously a huge issue. But the personnel questions go beyond that. What is going on with Bakhtiari?

What is happening? Zach Tom comes in for stretches of the game today. He's riding the bike on the side, but they try to throw a touchdown pass to him at one point. Play, yeah. All of the different combinations they've had to cycle through up front certainly hasn't helped this. The receiving core hasn't helped this. Again, how we got here, whether we could have seen it coming, those are worthwhile questions, but ultimately they don't matter. This team is three and six.

When you look at the rest of the NFC, this is probably over. The Packers, a lot of the question over the last few weeks was, are the Packers going to figure this out? And when they get to the playoffs, are they going to be dangerous? That's over for the most part. They're not making the playoffs. The Giants have six wins. The Seahawks have six wins. The Cowboys have six wins.

All of these teams are multiple games ahead of them in any sort of wild card race. And they're not going to make it. Their playoffs chances are low enough where you feel pretty comfortable saying that. So now what happens? Right. Is there a version of this team in 2023 when Rogers comes back? If Rogers comes back that you feel like can be competitive? And what happens if he doesn't come back?

because I already started looking at some of their contingencies if they decide to move on from him. And it's not as ugly as it might seem based on his contract extension. We can get into some of that. But the idea that we're here already and it's November 5th is absolutely wild to me. Right. If it was one of those things too that where it's like, okay, I'm seeing the glimpses. I kind of with Brady. I know we're going to talk about him in a sec.

But with Rogers where it's like, okay, I'm seeing this. They're doing a lot of good plays. They're hitting these chunk plays. There's just no consistency with the offense. The problem is there is consistency with the offense, and this is what it looks like. You look at every metric, and it's shocking how low Rogers is in everything. EPA per dropback, EPA per this, EPA versus pressure, QBR, DYAR, DVOA, every metric you look at with Rogers. All this is showing that's like, yeah, he's kind of not doing it.

He's not playing well. He's not. And that's what outside of the receiving town. He's also not playing well. Correct. He is not, it's not like he is hitting every single throw and all the guys are dropping it. It's like, no, he's making mistakes too. All of his, the most telling thing, and I'll probably tweet this tomorrow once I get a little cleaner on it, was third and fourth down heat maps against man coverage.

And this is all you have to look at with Devante Adams or without it. Because with Devante Adams, you see all these underneath throws at like five to seven yards and go balls. Without Devante Adams this year, it's all slot fades. it looks like Russell Wilson's heat map against man coverage, which I mean that derogatory. I don't mean that as a compliment. Like that is not a good thing. Because there's no more varied plan. There's no more complex plan than that.

He is going to, it's what I talk about sometimes with matchups and X's on the chalkboard, where sometimes it aligns and it's great. And that's what Devante Adams and this Packers offense that was last year. Now they run these schemes and they're like, it's a slot fade to insert player here, Lizard or Dobbs, you know, or Randall Cobb or Walkins. Okay, we're going to run that. Not the best matchup always. But, okay, that's the best answer we have against this coverage.

And it's just too many times where Rogers would make that right or Devante Adams would make that right. And now you're seeing that just get taken away. And it's like, okay, now else, what else you got? You got to hit those overthrows sometimes. You got to hit those harder throws in rhythm. Otherwise, teams are just going to do this over and over against you. So now when you just look like, like, and I know we're going to talk about like just what this looks like next year, it is crazy just to look at that. It's like, you know, maybe they should be looking into trade them.

just how the rest of this roster looks and how he's playing right now. It's not where it's like he's so positive and the rest of the roster will build him up because they're young. It's just this weird. They're trying to do three different things as once as far as team building and then they just have to deal with the elephant room. That's Aaron Rogers. The way that I've looked at it and I was reading Jason Fitzgerald from over the cap today,

he has a cap charge of 31 million next year, in part because he has an option bonus that they can choose to exercise right before the season starts. It's $59 million. So that decision comes right before the start of next season. So if he retires, he has no rights to that $59 million. And most likely they can talk to him about doing something with this contract that brings his cap number down to $16 million next year and about $24.5 million in 2024, which that's not ideal. But if it drops to $16 million next year, they're looking at like $20 million in cap space. And the thing about this is they have a quarterback on the roster.

Right. how we feel about him is an entirely different conversation. But it's not like, well, if they moved on from him, what would they possibly do? They have a cheap quarterback on the roster. So all of these other extensions they've handed out how much they've committed to this version of this team, 20 million for Aaron Jones, 20 million for Jaya Alexander, 24 million for Kenny Clark, 29 million for David Bactiari. This is it. Like they have committed to this team. but if they did choose to trade Rogers or they did he chose to retire,

there is like enough wiggle room. It's like, okay, I understand what the team would still be next year if they were to say, you know what, we're good. Like it's just it's time to move on for whatever reason or he decides that it's time to move on. I just didn't think that we would be having this conversation in November. I thought that we would have having it again in March. Oh, my God. I know.

And the fact, and that's the thing. They only have one year of cheap Jordan Love. on that deal right now. Only one year of it. So it's like if they, that's a big band-aid to be ripping off or decision to make, a pivot point to make as a franchise to be doing it. Obviously,

you're going away from a former MVP and a Hall of Fame quarterback. But I'm just, I just got one more play breakdown that like just kind of like sums up where they're at right now. The interception, not the one of the one of Bakhtiari, which I think is one the funniest plays of the entire year, but the last one to Tanya in the right outside the red zone,

but he threw it as he's supposed to cross his face. He throws it. Tanya does what he's supposed to do. It's a bender, crosses the defender's face. Rogers on the play hitches back and then crow hops into it. He's late on the throw. And this is, when you get near that red zone and throwing that pass, throwing those plays, watch Dak Prescott throw to CD Lamb last week on that touchdown, which I broke down on wind the clock if anyone wants to check that out.

But watch him throw on that play because as soon as he hits the drop, he's throwing it. You have no room for error down there. And he's doing like trick shots with it. He's like, he's like gearing up into it. Like, here we go. And then he throws it. And then he's yelling at Tanya. He's like, cross his face.

It's like, Aaron, he did cross his face. You're late, bud. Like, you're a whole step late. That's why I got picked. But the fact that that's, that's what he's doing right now. It's never, you know, it's Aaron Rogers. We get a whole discussion with his personality. But it's like, that's what it's never, he's never just going, oh, man, my bad.

It's like, no, it's someone else messed up. And I think, you know, when you're not really doing the ace plays like he used to, that wears on teammates, too. So that's a whole other component of it. this that it's like, well, is he worth the headache like that he might be bringing in that situation. So that's just another thing with this. And it's just, it's ridiculous. I cannot believe. I thought worst case with this team would be a nine and eight-ish year, maybe 10 and seven. And it's like, okay, and they're trying to find their way on offense and they get better. But it's like,

it gets worse almost on offense, especially this is just kind of like the nadir of it, it felt like. Yeah. And you talk about the red zone. I thought the stat that I pulled that was absolutely ridiculous. They were 17th in EPA per play in the red zone coming into this game. They're 31st now. Oh, my God. That's how bad those interceptions were. That's how devastating they were and just how much of an effect it had in that area of the field. So, hackers are probably done. That's where they are right now. Speaking of NFC contenders that are probably done, let's talk about the Los Angeles Rams, who somehow inexplicably lose that game to the Bucks today. And I think find themselves in a somewhat similar position just in the sense that when you look at the Rams right now, who are three and five, and you look at the NFC standings, the Rams season as contenders or a potential playoff team in the NFC is probably over.

So now what happens? Because the Rams are in a slightly different position than the Packers, right? I mean, the Packers can potentially, if they move on from Rogers, bring everybody back. There's all their picks. Yeah. Yes. And there are some ways to pivot for the Rams. But here's what I want to ask you, because we talked about the Rams future a little bit on Thursday. What do you think a path to being relevant and being a contender in the NFC potentially looks like for the Rams over the next 12 months?

Oh, my goodness. I went through this contract stuff and I was like, I don't see one. I mean, you better hope their stars be stars because if you just even look at their defense, Like, honestly, who they retain next year is like Aaron Donald, Joan Ramsey, like Leonard Floyd and Ernest Jones. And that's like, that's it. Like they're, they don't return a single DB outside of Jaylon Ramsey next year. They don't return a single interior defense alignment outside Aaron Donald next year. So that's all those pieces just to get replaceable players at those positions with, they have a second round pick, which is finally. But it's also like they have to hit on that. But they, I mean, they have a second and two extra fifths. fits, right? That's where he picks. That's, it's not still, they don't have like an arsenal draft capital. No, they don't. It's not like they have a bunch of third comps, you know, you can make, you know, figure this out. But it's, it's, they're spending 52 million dollars next year on receivers. Like, Cooper Cups worth it, but Alan Robinson, they can't get out the Allen Robinson contract.

They can get out Bobby Wagner's contract. I think they save seven and a half million. But I'm looking at this, this next 12 months and it's like, holy shit, hold onto your pants. It's like, I think Sean McBay is going to be making sure, you know, like, what is, what is media deals are that you might have lined up because it's it's rough it's a little more desolate than even i grasped and like especially with this makeshift of this team like their offensive line which is their biggest blemish right now david ever's is a free agent but they still have question marks hey havinstein's getting older you know we don't know what joan do boom is i think he's going to be okay but you don't know he's now he's banged up like that's a

blemish they have no running backs like so it's their receiver room's probably going to be the same unless they invest another second rounder on, I don't think there's any five, eight, 150 pound guys they can draft in the second round. But it's just like, this is desolate. It's pretty, it's bad. And so it's a long answer to shrug my shoulders at, but it's like,

it's pretty rough right now. So they have about $5.7 million in cap spaces it currently stands. And they've spent a lot of cash over the last year. So whatever sort of bonuses they want to shell out or any sort of finagling they want to do, they're already in a pretty deep hole as far as spending goes. They have their second round pick and they have two extra fifths, whatever they want to do with that. The offensive line, two guys jump out.

Edwards and Evans are both free agents next year. They drafted Logan Bruston the third round. He's been hurt this entire season. They still have Coleman Shelton. In theory, you have five starting offensive linemen on their roster with no boom coming back, Brust and Shelton, Brian Allen, and Havanastein. It's not a better group of personnel than you have right now or that you started this season with before everyone started getting hurt. but if you're a little healthier along the offensive line, maybe we can build an optimistic case for why that group can be better.

You're bringing back the same receiving core that you're talking about most likely. You've invested in that. Van Jefferson's still on the roster. So those are your three guys unless you want to spend more capital or more assets in that position group than you already have, which I think will be difficult considering all the holes you have elsewhere. When I look at the Brian Burns offer and the trickling out that it was this year's second and multiple, first round picks. It seems insane, but part of me also thinks it actually makes some sense because what you're careening towards, you just might as well.

Right. You don't have cap space. So the only real way to add an impact player like that is to make a trade like that. So if you're going to have this thing, we're like, all right, we need to make sure we're maximizing the next year or two. they have $7.5 million right now slated in 2024 cap space. This group that they've committed to, they've committed to hard for the next two years. So just going all the way in on those two years makes sense.

But even doing that, I still don't know what the ceiling of this particular core looks like in 20203 just because of how little wiggle room exists outside of it. That's what it is. It's where is the injection of talent coming from. And that's where you use your. resources. And here, that's why it's so tough. And it's also, okay, the obvious one is running backs and receivers. Just, okay, say the offensive line, like you paint that picture of what they're going to come back to next year. Average issue align. Okay, so we have an average old line. Stafford's another

year older who knows what he is right now. He's 35 years old next year and he already is on a throwing program. And he's, he looks beat up. As games go on, you can see him kind of get wear down as games go on. That's what it is. It's endurance of your arm. And Then you look at the skill guys. It's like, oh, my God, they can't bring back acres. Like, that relationship seems just done. Kiron Williams from Notre Dame is a third downback. You know, it's okay.

So, runoffack's desolate. Okay, now you look at the receivers. Okay, where's the injection there? Tide ends, Higby's under your deal. And they don't use tight ends anyway. So it's just, they have no injection anywhere. So, you know, like they have those, you get a calendar. And then like, so, like, say I got a calendar for year 2022.

And it goes like 2023, like those old calendars would kind of go. Like, less. need and Sean McVease like goes to like February of 2024. And it's like that's that's pretty much it for their ram. They have the Rams logo at the top. And like that's all they have to schedule out to because that's what it seems like this, this roster is built towards because everyone's turning 30 or in their early 30s. They have no kind of wiggle roomless to get super creative.

And it's just, it's a weird situation. And it just, the end came quicker than I was expecting with this team. That's exactly what I was going to say is that sometimes you have a Super Bowl hangover. Sometimes you have a huge drop off from one of these teams. that had that one season. But when it's okay to have a Super Bowl hangover if you're the Bengals, you know, you went, you have this young core,

Jamar Chase and Joe Burr are going to be together for the next 10 years. The Rams weren't like that. They did everything they could to maximize this year and potentially next year and to just lose one of those years really pulls out a huge pillar of that plan. And that's what it feels like right now.

So now you have the greatest defensive player of his generation is now getting deeper into his 30s. Jalen Ramsey, who when you traded for him as a foundational player was in his mid-20s, now, now, four years, five years now? Four years. Four years. So now he's creeping up closer to 30. All of those core pieces are getting up there. And you have a quarterback that you've committed to that's going to be in his mid-30s. So now if that core dissolves, what does that mean for McVeigh? Does he eventually, maybe in the next year after next season, if he's tied to this group like has been reported,

Does he move on? And then what do you do? So the questions are going to keep coming. I would assume that this group will be together next year, like the core guys that we're talking about. And they'll see what they can add with the little resources they have. But beyond that, it's hard to imagine what the future for this team looks like. Absolutely. And yeah, the other thing, too, is just like even with their defense, I know the stack got shared.

But like just how they have Ramsey and Aaron Donald. They don't play like they have Ramsey and Aaron Donald sometimes. But you know what I mean? They don't feel aggressive on defense. It's like that has to be the strong. strength of this team this year. And it's like those those guys kind of just get lost in the shuffle. And that shouldn't happen when you have two true stars like that. Just a side note. Side side, uh, side schematic analysis of the Rams defense. If we want that breakdown too.

All right. One more team I want to talk about here. I'm a little disappointed in the Raiders. I'm very disappointed in the Raiders. The Raiders are two and six. They blew another 17 point lead today. What is happening with the Raiders? Like, halfway through the, the first season of this new regime. What are your general feelings about the Josh McDaniels era, the Josh McDaniels version of the Las Vegas Raiders? I gave my one word kind of preview on each AFC West team like back in August. The word came across was incomplete with the Raiders.

That's just what they feel like. It's just that the offense, they paid all this money to Devante Adams, and they don't play like they have Devante Adams at all the time. So first half today they did. but it felt like they can get gamed out of stuff or which should be the strengths of their team. I think the defense is just, defense is pretty rough actually.

There's 30th in success rate, 31st and EP per play, 29th and DVOA entering today. They signed Chandler Jones, and Chandler Jones is just, you haven't heard from them, like at all this season. He hasn't stepped up.

Max Crosby's been playing wonderful for them, but no one really else is. They just feel like it's an incomplete team. That's what this team feels like. It feels like Derrick Carr is just there. Like this offense, like the best things they do is kind of getting an under center run game. And but they're paying Derek Carr and Devante Adams.

And they also, Darren Waller's been banged up. So it's kind of just like a personification of this team just doesn't make sense. Like the puzzle pieces don't fit. They, trading for Devante Adams is like a push us over the top move. And this feels more like a team like that's revamping their entire image, which is just a very, very weird situation. And just they don't play like a. a good team right now. They feel like a team that just struggles to do things consistently to either

hold someone to less points on defense or to like sustain drive after drive on offense unless they're playing the Texans. I mean, that seems like the only good game that seemed like they had on offense. The misalignment of what they did this offseason and who they actually were, that's the thing that comes back to me the most is that this team made the playoffs last year, but they really could have gone either way. Like they could have rebuilt a little bit more than they did with the new regime. they are on defense. That's why this is so strange. They're not spending a ton on defense.

They didn't have a core of defensive players. The only big move they made on that side of the ball was signing Chandler Jones, who's like my age, which has been in the league for over a decade. And then you go trade for Devante Adams. So it's like I just don't, I didn't understand what the priorities or the ambitions were. Right. In the short term, if you were going to make those moves, but those were the only moves you made with the core of.

roster you had last year that barely snuck into the playoffs. So I just didn't know what they thought they were supposed to be or what they were going to be this year. And now the fact that they're two and six, it's like, all right, like, obviously you guys wanted more out of this, but how does this get fixed? Like, what is the next stage of this looks like? Like, when you made a lot of your push it all in moves last off season. Right. It's, I think it's Josh McDaniels making sure he still has Tom Brady's phone number. But it's like, it's still, but you're in the same spot. It's not where Tom Brady got blopped in with the bucks. But this was the thing when previewing this team, they signed Jacob Johnson and they play

like they play like they're the 2020 Patriots where they, or last year's. They have Devante Adams. But they have Devante Adams and probably Darren Waller's been banged up. But their second best player in offense, well, Josh Shavers was playing well, God, I just gave two caveats to my own tangent here. Second best player, Hunter Renfro, though. Like I thought this would be a spread to run type team and spread, you know, spread it out with Hunter Renfro work his magic in the slot, go one by three.

You know, Moro's not a bad player at tight end either. And it also just get Devante Adams at the third spot and Hunter Renfro at the two spot let them just work magic with each other. And like I said, it's just how they play football doesn't match to their personnel. It does at times, like the best times, the most you see Devante Adams used is on those play action passes or on a third down when he's used as a traditional X. but you're not getting to sprinkle in all the other stuff. Like we talked about with the Packers, how they used them.

That, like, that just is not matching up. He is still a dynamic, incredible player, but they just, he gets gamed out of a lot of games. Like, he just, it seems like they, he gets double covered or, you know, a lot of teams have plans for your best receiver. And they just kind of waved their hands and go, well, we'll just get an eye formation or run it. We'll throw to Mack Hollins, you know, on dig routes. And it's like, again, the scheme, yes, that makes sense scheme-wise, but NFL is a matchup leak and you want to get those to match together and mix together as much as possible. And it just seems like they're missing a whole huge factor of this equation, especially on

offense. When I, that trade happened. One of the reasons I was disappointed in that trade is that the mind meld that Adams and Rogers had was so incredibly special that whatever the secret sauce was that drove their mutual success, you're now removing it. So even if we like them both as individual. pieces, there's no way they can be anywhere close to as good without each other as they were with each other.

And even if Derek Carr has familiarity with Devante Adams, there was one specific play today where Adams was lined up in the slot and Dwayne Smoot was lined up over Devante Adams in the slot. And Carr just misses it. It just like throws a little bit off and it would believe it was a third down and they end up punting. And afterwards, they're just. chatting. It's just like, well, why this?

Like, which is miscommunication. And just so you have that where it's like, Devante was in this perfect situation where he was more than whatever the X's on the chalkboard looked like. And with the Raiders, he's never more than what the X's on the chalkboard look like. And when you have a player like that, that's why it's disappointing. So I wanted to ask you this, if the Raiders and Packers could go back and both of them could annul the Devante Adams trade, do you think?

each team would do that. I really do think so. I do. I don't know why wouldn't you. Especially McDaniels trying to revamp the Raiders in his image, even though he has the owner yelling at him after like the third game in the locker room. And I just think how this Packers offense has been. It's like there's a huge Devante Adams size hole in that offense. So I know the contract stuff's a whole other story with it, but I really do think they would because it just would have been better for both parties. And I think just not this year, but the next year as well. I think that for the Raiders, it's not just the assets that you've given up and the contract that you've handed out. Those are all real things. And it obviously put some constraints on you.

Devante Adams has a $15 million cap hit next year. And in 2024, it's $25 million. He's probably, they're probably going to move on from him by the time his, do you know what Devante Adams' cap hit is in 2025? Oh, in 2025? Oh, my God. Probably some reason. It's 40, it's 40. It's 40. It's $44 million. So when they signed that deal, I think that was always kind of the idea is that he would never see that, right? So they would take on $15 million in Dead Bunny that year if they moved on from him when he's 33. So obviously you've given him that deal and taken up whatever opportunity costs is involved in that. You've used multiple picks on Devante Adams to bring him here.

So them kind of resetting a little bit is maybe good for their roster health, but also good for the timeline if you're Josh McDaniels. Because when you make a move like that, the hourglass is. instantly tips over. Exactly. Instantly. So now when you're Dave Ziegler and Josh McDaniels and you've made that sort of kind of overrature before your regime even starts, people are paying attention.

People have expectations. And for it to land like this, I think that's the reason they would go back on it. With the Packers, it's interesting because we're talking about that little bit of wiggle room they have. Like if they were to move on from Rogers and he only has a $16 million cap next year and you have Jordan Love, if they would have given Devante that extension, there, the that wiggle room starts to go away. So you're even more committed to this version of the roster.

But if you're more committed to this version of the roster, is it okay because you're getting a different version of Rogers? Like the butterfly effect of this is impossible to understand. But I think that ultimately both teams would be better off. I did too. And also just like seeing what the NFC is this year, it's like, oh, this might have been the year to strike. As opposed to the other years where you face the bucks and the Rams, you know, they're all in moves as well in the NFC.

It's like, I don't know. It's just timing is everything. But no, I think deep down they would do it. But like you said, it's just so many sliding doors with this, with that kind of and butterfly effect as well. And by the way, I know we're talking about Packers or Raiders, but Trevor Lawrence looked decent today. Just side note this. He really did.

That throw he had from his own end zone, the one where he avoided the sack and made that play, looked absolutely ridiculous. The Trevor Lawrence discourse over the last couple of weeks has been immensely frustrating. It's, I'm done. I, this idea that, and I think that when we talked about it earlier this week, I think it was framed in terms that are useful, where, okay, even if Trevor Lawrence is not this generational type quarterback prospect where he's ever going to be the best quarterback in the league, like we should still be able to talk about a guy that was drafted first overall and remove ourselves from this black and white conversation where he's either a huge disappointment. or he's the greatest thing that's ever lit. It's the Netflix, thumbs up, thumbs down, and that's it. It is very possible for Trevor Lawrence to just be an above average quarterback that puts his team in really good situations that has a lot of useful tools.

And is Matt Ryan for the next 10 years? Or is a slightly less version of Matt Ryan, whatever he ends up being. If Trevor Lawrence is the 12th best quarterback in the league for the next decade, If he's Ryan Tannahill, that's okay. Like, maybe that's a little bit disappointing. And I think he can probably be better than that. But if that ends up happening, like, we can live in that world. That is an eventuality that we should all be comfortable talking about and dissecting.

He's already there right now. That's what I'm trying to get across to people. He's already fine. Like, just we're figuring out if he could be MVP caliber or probo caliber. That's where figure out what his ceiling is. That's what it is. He's eighth in EPA per dropback. with Gino Smith. Everyone's, you know, hero this year. He had positive EPA on 74% of his dropbacks,

which is the highest since Mahomes game last year. Like, he, he has those games in him. It's just that we're figuring out what, what else can he do? Like, he can do this hard stuff. What else can he do? It's going to get better once he gets more talent around him. It just, I love, what's his face going there? Calvin Ridley going there. Like, that's going to be awesome, a legit outside receiver. We're also forgetting how good Calvin Ridley was before the whole suspension happened. He's a legit number one, which is awesome. So he's going to get some more juice and he's just going to get better with that. I think his trajectory is great right now. And it's just one of those. We forget the NFL season is such, we get into the micro so much, even my, even myself.

Yes, it's a week to week business. It's a week to week game. But sometimes when you take a step back and look at the broad swaths of this and looking at three games, four games, a half season, and you start seeing the, you know, the improvement some of these guys have, another quarterback from that draft class we'll talk about. But also, you know, for the, stuff's going bad. And also you see who was actually, like, week one, Jaguars and commanders played. And it was just like, okay, the commanders beat the Jaguars. And it's like, oh, wow, that was actually an entertaining game.

You don't know what these games are going to be. The Jaguars dominated the Colts. And we had no idea what the Chargers were ultimately going to be. Right. We don't know this until after the season. So that's what, that's why we all get caught up in this hurricane every week that develops after every Sunday every week. And sometimes, you know, you just got to stay dry and look at it all and go like,

oh, wow, that's pretty crazy right there. But I do think this is why I'm a fan of Trevor. He just does all that stuff. I think he's going to be a very good quarterback. I really do. I'm just keeping my stock. I'm hoarding it all. I'll push everyone away.

I'm hoarding all stock that I can have Trevor Lawrence because he's a good player. Just want to see how good he can be. I also just think we really struggle to talk about what a pretty good quarterback who plays for a long time, the way that we have discourse about that person. Like Matthew Stafford. Matt Ryan. Right. It's just, it's hard to talk about those guys because it always has to be all or nothing. And for the most part, that's just never how it's going to be.

There's always going to be those guys who land somewhere in the middle. We're like, okay, we can do enough with this guy if we do this and this and this right. And again, maybe Trevor Lawrence can be more than that. We're a year and a half into his career where the first season is worth just completely writing off. But I still, like, even if he ultimately becomes that, we have to be better. about talking about what those sorts of guys are. And I'm almost talking to myself as much as anything there because I struggle to talk about those guys sometimes.

But I think Trevor Lawrence might be one of them. So we better get used to it right now. All right. We're going to take one more quick break and then we're going to get back with you, you have my attention. Gentlemen, you have my curiosity. Now you have my attention. All right.

The New York Jets. You have my attention. Jets are six and three. And they gave Josh Allen one hell. of a time today. So going back and digging through that game, what jumped out to you about the Jets defense? Man,

they made it just hard on Mr. Josh Allen and just the whole Bill's offense as a whole. I think what's been cool about this Jets defense is that they have players at all three levels. Quentin Williams, Carl Lawson, Quincy Williams has played well for them at the lineback position. And of course,

Soss Garner is for sure, I think, should be the rookie of the year. So far on the defense's side. But they didn't blitz Josh Allen that much. They had the third lowest blitz rate going into this week. They didn't blitz a single time on third and fourth down today. This was the highest percentage of throws that Josh Allen had this year that took three seconds or more. It was just a lot.

Actually, there's some similarities to kind of what the Titans did in the sense, hey, when you can rush with four, defense is pretty fun. Like this is, it's pretty fun to play defense when you just drop seven into coverage. And I just saw it was a lowest amount, lowest percentage that Josh Allen scrambled. I think they changed up the coverages that they ran. against Allen. And I think that's what made him double clutch a lot of throws. The Quinn and Williams sack. So after Zach Wilson's strip sack, the Quinn and Williams got a sack.

And it was Josh Allen double clutched the ball. And on this, they ran cover six, I believe, on first and ten here. And on this first and ten, on this cover six, so it was clouded, the cover two side was to the boundary. And Josh Allen looks that way. And it's like a stick concept. But what happens is, Stefan Dix doesn't, when you run a, a stick route or an out route, a quick game, a hitch or an out route on the outside. If the defense is playing cover two, you adjust it and you run a go or a fate and you get outside

because otherwise it's worthless. You're just running right at the defender. Diggs is not expecting cloud coverage on first and ten. So he's just like, okay, yeah, it's man. All right, I'm going to run my stick route. The whole play gets convoluted. And Josh Allen tries to do Josh Allen things. He looks around.

He comes off of that and he tries to find another throw and he ends up taking a sec because Quinn and Williams wins. But that's that tying it together of without pressuring the quarterback. or blitzing the quarterback, changing up the coverages, making them hold on to that ball an extra half second. And then when you have a great pass rush, like the Jets do, the Jets have, Quentin Williams is an ass kicker. If you have some dudes up front, it is so hard for a quarterback to win that way throughout four

quarters, especially if he's making a couple of mistakes, a little bit more. Those Professor Chaos moments of Josh Allen were good sometimes today and also weren't good. They also kicked ass in the run game, the Jets defense. This was the most designed rushes Josh Allen had all year. I think he had six of them today. There's a reason they had to get back to the design rushes. I know you can tell this Bill's offense and Ken Dorsey is trying to limit that use.

That is a break glass in case of emergency part of their game playing. It's okay, time to run Josh Allen. Like the design rushes, this is what we have to do because they're run game. The woes that we have worried about or the blemish of the Bill's offense has been their offense aligned and a little bit of their run game. And it kind of reared its ugly. head today. That's why they had to go to Josh Allen's legs to get something done. That play you were talking about, Sauce Gardner stuns.

Stefan Diggs on that play. Stuns him. Just jams him in the chest and throws off whatever timing they're supposed to be on that route. That's awesome. That play happened the play before sauce's pick. It was a play immediately before the interception. On the interception, they're also playing cover six, but it's flipped. Gardner's on the other side. So, and I think the intercept was a weird decision. I don't know if he thought that that sauce was going to clear out. He was trying to hit a whole shot,

but sauce was underneath it the entire time. He like aimed it right to almost like bend the tight. It was weird. It was a weird location. I had no idea what he was looking at. Yeah. But I do think that Josh Allen didn't play well today. Josh Allen said as much after this game.

The Jets defense had a lot to say about why Josh Allen didn't play well. I think that that little bit of confusion is a really good example. Yep. I wrote down the name of. eight different jets in terms of who made plays in this game. Like early on, Sheldon Rankins is just beaten the hell out of the interior of the offensive line for the bills in the run game. Quinn and Williams made multiple plays in this game.

Quincy Williams had an incredible tackle in space and multiple great plays in coverage. He's been awesome. C.J. Mosley looked really good in coverage multiple different times today. Jermaine Johnson had a couple huge plays in this game. Michael Clemens had a huge run. run stop that ultimately led to just an extinguishing of a set of downs for this team. There were so many different guys. Jordan Whitehead came flying in.

It was a first and 10 on the drive that started the fourth quarter. Whitehead comes flying in on a run. They have to kick it out and sauce makes the play on the sideline. Second and nine, Germain Johnson flushes Josh Allen out of the pocket. Third and nine, he tries to throw a wheeled in Hines incomplete. Like it just every single guy, there was a guy on every single level making plays, exactly what you said today. Even there was one moment early in the game.

I can't remember exactly the situation. The bills motioned like a stack with, I think Gabe Davis and Dawson Knox on the left side. And they were trying to just fuck with the number count and make the bills, make the Jets communicate. And you see DJ Reed and Joyner, Lamarce Joyner being like,

all right, we're going to switch this. Like you don't worry about this. Like I'll take the outside. You take the inside. and they just pass it off beautifully. And just those little tiny moments where it's like, they are clearly just clicking right now. They have dudes at every level.

They're playing confidently. They're playing with an attitude. And they're just playing as a cohesive unit extremely well right now. It helps with the quarterback loses his mind a couple different times during the game. But I think that that happened in part because of how well that's just defense is playing. From week three to right now, the New York Jets are second in EPA per play on defense. Yeah. God.

And that needed to happen. Based on the way they built this thing, all the draft picks they sunk into this, all the guys they signed in free agency, Reed, Whitehead, this needed to happen. You have Robert Saul as a defensive-minded head coach. Like the jump they needed to take

from being the worst defense in the league last year to a really good defense based on what they spent and where they were in their trajectory and their timeline, this needed to take place. And it has. Like they got the results on the defensive side of the ball that they needed to based on what they pumped into this thing. Just looking at their blitz rates from last year to this year just shows they have dudes

and they're playing well. I think they're first or second in blitz rates last year, top three in some way. And now they're one of the bottom teams in blitzing. And it's because they're just like, we're going to run man coverage and change up the looks on and we're going to run them well. And we're going to have some dudes with her. It looks like Salas defense is last year with the 49ers. His last couple years with the 49ers.

Yes. Mix a couple coverages. Rush with four, play with their hair on fire. squeeze everything. It's been great. Like even they had eight QB hits today. The two, this is the first game of the year that Josh Allen had a negative EPA passing the ball. And also like the two games that he's been below 50% success rate has been against the Packers

and now against the Jets who both kind of play. There's some DNA that's similar as far as coverage-wise. I'll cover six, you know, kind of mix it up. So I thought that was interesting that those have been his two low success. rate games have been against those two types of defenses that make them play patient and rush with four. But it's been, I thought it was interesting too, was that another thing was the bills started leaning into a six offense alignment looks using jumbo personnel more.

They had 19 snaps where they either had a six offense alignment or ran 21 personnel today. Well, I thought it was interesting why I'm bringing this up is the Jets matched with nickel on nine of those snaps. Like they, there was good opponent scouting because actually the bills go. heavy to pass it. Like their best stuff out of heavy when they go into jumbo personnel or 21 is to run play action stuff.

And they diced the chiefs with this. And now they went, the Jets saw that, went, we're going to go nickel and we're going to run it. We'll make you run it. Show us you can run it. Yes. And they can't do that based on what the Jets are built like. This is the same way the bills play against people.

We're going to play nickel to everything because we know you can't run it on us. And that's what the Jets are right now. Somebody else who, speaking of nickel and the Jets. Michael Carter is making plays for them. Like every single dude, it feels like, has a couple moments during these games. He's like manned up with, like, Isaiah McKenzie in a couple situations where they're trying to take advantage of him specifically. And he's making plays in man coverage. He was on Stefan Diggs on a vertical route from the number three spot at one point.

They were literally putting Diggs in the slot to take advantage of him, stuck with him all the way down the field. It's like, all right. Like when you have all of your guys making plays, like not just the guys you drafted in the top five. but dudes near the bottom of the roster, that's when you know you're really cooking and that's what this team feels like right now. And I also want to give some credit, speaking of Michael Carter's,

to the running game and what they did near the end of this game on offense. Because bills are without Jordan Poir today, bills without Matt Milano today. That stuff matters, but that's not an excuse because the Jets are on whatever offensive line combination they're dealing with right now.

And when it came time for them to make plays near the end of the game. They were able to. They were running the ball consistently, some beautiful different run combinations. They ran power at one point. They ran pin pull at one point on that final drive. And then Zach Wilson makes that one crucial third and five throw,

and that's enough to put the game away. Yeah. I mean, they're a varied run game. It's been really cool to watch this here. You know, LaFour's a Shane Han outside zone guy, but like all these guys, he's changed it up. Their drive that you were just referred to that went on to win the game, they kicked the game winning field goal.

They had two counter-runner. runs to James Robinson, which were really nice. One was all James Robinson made a nice play, but the other one was beautifully blocked. He cut it, got north. Then they had a split zone with motion, a jet motion, which has been like a very popular play this year, which is jet motion. And then you run the split zone to the same side like that. That's really been messing with a lot of two high teams linebackers.

I've been wanting to study that one. Michael Carter bounced it for a big gain. And then they run a trap run to Michael Carter who hits it up. That was beautiful. I was so nice. The trap was gorgeous. I had the same grade as Michael Carter. the running back, as I did as Travis E.TN last year. I think he had some health stuff, some medical stuff. That's why he dropped a little bit. He's a good ass player, man. Him and Javante Williams at North Carolina were so much fun to watch in that scheme because he was really, even though he's a little smaller, that's why he kind of gets banged up, great vision and balance. So it's kind of cool to see him, you know, even though Bruce Hall is a star as well. It's like kind of cool to see him kind of take the lead today. They give James Robinson some some innings to eat as well. But no, it's the run game is fun to watch weekend, weekend.

out even now that Bruce Hall's gone. And even when they have injuries up front because they do a good job. And then you see Denzel Mims, who's been, you know, the sixth receiver on the bench inactive every week now is playing. And he's blocking his ass off and like pinning guys. He had a block on Von Miller today on an outside pinpole that they ran to the weak side. He had two big blocks on that final draft that were important. And the fact that you're getting buy in from guys who wanted to be traded a little while ago,

that is when you have good vibes. Those are those moments where like, That team has good vibes right now. They just swapped one pissed off receiver for another. They're like, okay, Elijah Moore. They gave him a super mushroom, grew him up, and then the Tenzo Mims came back. That's exactly what they did. Last guy I wanted to mention, Gary Wilson seems like he's legit.

Yeah. He had a couple of moments today. Saran Neil, I think is 33 for the bills. It's a second and 10 late in the second quarter, and Wilson was lined up in the slot and just cooked him up the scene for like a chunk game. Just absolutely cooked him. So the fact that all of these guys that they've invested all the stuff in, Sauce, Garrett Wilson, Jermaine Johnson, you're getting returns on all of these.

That's what this is supposed to look like. We'll see what happens with Zach Wilson over time. He made enough plays today, but we're a week removed from that game against the Patriots. But everything else starting to fall into place in the ways that the Jets and Joe Douglas and Robert Sala clearly hoped they would when they started putting this thing together. How I kind of summed it up was their defense special teams are run game are all playoff caliber. And then we're figuring out what their dropback game is. That's what it is. Because shout out to Brand Boyer, their special teams coach.

Like this is the second, maybe third fake punt. They run this year successfully. I know for sure it's the second one. He was also, so these are special teams coach. But they make plays every week. That's how you have a good team, even without a consistent dropback games. Every other unit plays well. He was also the assistant.

special teams coach on the the terrible Colts fake punt against the Patriots on that one game. He was the assistant special teams coach there. So he's been redeemed on those fake ponds, especially this year. But no, the Jet Special Teams unit's been really, really good this year and actually pretty fun to watch. All right. One more here. Justin Fields.

You have my attention. I didn't want to. I had to drag you into this. It's not that I didn't want to do this. It's that I want to make sure that we're talking about this in the right terms. You're trying to temper it. I get it. I get it.

You're putting a governor on it. Put this cruise control on. It is hard to watch that game today and not just have a big smile on your face. And it's not just the rushing. We can discuss that. And the 61-yard touchdown that he scored was it was insane. Like it's one of the most athletic plays I've ever seen a quarterback make it. I'm not exaggerating.

And when he He goes to pump fake And turns his shoulders to pump fake And after he does that He leaves his feet for a quick split second Yeah And then lands And then somehow turns on the jets while making

Like shaking off a tackle And outrunning everyone for 61 yards to the end zone That like turn Pump fake twist in midair Hit the ground and start running again that was the insane part of that play. It's not that he ran for 61 yards. It's that he was able to accelerate like that and have the body control and the balance to be able to do that.

He's a quarterback. Yeah. Like body control, athleticism, that kind of stuff. When I watch this play, it reminds me of like shit Jamar Chase does. And this guy plays quarterback. It was just insane. Like watching, processing this play in real time, I was like, oh my God. And that wasn't even the most encouraging part of the game.

The rushing is fine. And what he's doing on design runs is fine. But that first drive where he takes the shot to Claypool when it's there, he takes the shot to Mooney when it's there. He changed the – I was watching with Casey because she was down there at the beginning of the games because we had just watched an episode of British Bakeoff. So she watched like the first drive of the Bears game today. And I think it was the Mooney missed.

to the end zone. He changes the protection. He brings somebody back in, I think move the back over. They pick it up and he goes to Mooney down the right sideline misses. But on time, great decision, very good process. The ball handling on the play action touchdown to commit was beautiful. That is a play when he's doing that and the decision making and how fast everything is happening. He is playing with so much confidence right now. And that is. is to me the most encouraging part of this is you watch the Washington game. When you go back and listen to me after that Washington game, I'm more concerned about the way the line is pointed.

Because the way the line is pointed in that game is horrifying. If it kept going like that, any sort of confidence gets shot. If he's going to keep getting the shit kicked out of him the way he did that night, the ways they've tweaked the offense and some of the things they're doing to put him in good spots, I think has allowed some of that confidence to start building. and you're seeing him playing faster, and you're seeing all of those skills and those moments and those attributes that you want to shine,

start to shine. I mean, they lost this game, it doesn't matter. All it matters is the way that he looks right now. Yeah, you said that's a win-win. They lose the game and Justin Fields looks good.

Like, that's a victory for you this year. No, it's that half by that they had, the mini-by they had after that Washington Thursday night game, it's done wonders for them. It's kind of tying in, and everything you just said, you kind of nailed it.

But it's, yes, they're designing rushes more for him. His three highest design rushes in a game, having the Patriots Monday night game, the Dolphins game today, and the Cowboys game last week. So, okay, that's one way they did it. But like you're saying, he's playing with confidence and he's playing just quicker. He, I could, this is what my blemish in going into that Washington game with him was, I could tell he's trying to do the right thing. But you could tell they was going through a mental checklist every time he was in the

pocket. You could feel the gears moving. You could feel them cranking when you were watching. He's like, and you could see where, and I remember on the Washington pod too, was that all this stuff he's trying to do right. He wasn't having the situations to do it right. So that's where it's like, you're trying to talk. No, do the right thing.

Do the right process. Even though it leads the bad results, it's like, that's really hard to tell a guy when he's getting the crap kicked out of him every single time or a guy's not coming open. And there's a saying coaches have, and usually you're saying it to a freshman that's like just doesn't know what he's doing. It's like if you make a mistake, do it fast. Because then at least you're doing it fast. Exactly right. That is what he's doing. He's doing everything. He hits the back of his drop. He's doing it. He's just doing something. He's throwing. He's scrambling. There's just. And that's all I ever wanted. All I wanted was these decisions to come

quicker. That's it. Yes. And in last week against the Cowboys, I cut up all the clips on his bootlegs. And I would say before he would try to always make something to happen. If a guy, if he had a free runner come at him, he would try to pump fake up. them, juke around them. And sometimes it work, but sometimes it'll lead to like a 15-yard loss and the ball's hitting off his thigh pad and running out of bounds. And it's just like, oh, God, it's just like every play is just like this with you. But now it's like, I guess the Cowboys. He's just changing his arm's side. He goes, oh, that's a free runner. I know I have to throw it flat. I'm hot. So he changes his arm angle. And he's doing that now. He did it four times last week on Naked's. I know he did it. He

had two of those chart. Ain't changing the arm angles today. It's all this is coming to talk about creativity as a thrower. Yeah. That is an aspect of his game that I didn't necessarily anticipate because of how much of a pocket just he was a pocket quarterback in Ohio State who was dropping back and throwing missiles down the field. And for him to be this guy, I think that's part of why it's taking a second to adjust to everything. And even for his coaches, I think it took a second to adjust everything. I talked to a guy I think is a good play caller a couple weeks ago. And we weren't even having a conversation about Justin Fields. But just offhandedly, he's like, well, Justin's not his own read guy.

Just because he wasn't. And it's not that you shouldn't do it with him. It's just that he was never that in college. No. So it is. That's why I liked him. Yes. He was a pocket passer who's a freak, but he didn't want to be a freak.

He wanted to be a pocket passer. That's why I loved him. That's why this stuff coming together the way that it is. Like, that's why I don't need him to be a pocket passer for me to get excited about him. But those moments on that first drive where he gets the PI to Claypool, where he's making these decisions a little bit quicker. The touchdown to Mooney. The touchdown. Yeah.

It's third. It's third and eight. It's a slot fade. It's a beautiful, it's beautiful ball placement. It's fast. It's fast. I want him to be able to do that stuff. But when it comes to breaking case for emergency and you're having to scramble on third and six because they're playing man coverage, go nuts.

When he made Phillips miss in the pocket today and just did that spin, it's just that. that and you all I want on those plays is I want to see the all 22 version I want to see man coverage I want to see everyone covered and I want to see all right I didn't see it I take off yeah I'm holding on the right moments it's third down if I need to hold on to this and then scramble that's worth trying to make a play the process is getting so much better we've talked about the pie chart of disaster and good to shrink the disaster and if the good starts to grow then we're in good shape and that's exactly what's happening and so if we can kind of sprinkle in this.

All right, I'm still able to take shots down the field. The second Claypool throw at the end of the game, he could have been a pass interference.

I mean, like all those. The Mooney shot down the field, he missed one deep ball today. But he's thrown one or two a game

that would beautiful from the pocket. So if we have some of that, if we have the creativity as a thrower, and you have the quarterback run game, we're getting to a place

where I can work with this. And this is with, this is with insert, maybe the word. The first offensive cast in the – Offensive casting cast in the league. Right.

So we'll see what happens. But this is the type of process. This is the type of progress that allows you to get really, really excited. Because the timing mechanism was the problem. That was the problem. When I'm looking at the numbers and I'm as concerned about this as I am, it is the sacks. It's the sack rate. It's the timing in which he plays and it's how fast that process happens.

And the fact that the process is up right now and you're still seeing this ridiculous shit. Yep. That's it. Yeah. We knew you could hit all the home bronze. We didn't want them to strike out 250 times a year. That's what it was. I didn't want him to be Adam done, like a worse version of football Adam done.

Make contact sometimes. He was a baseball player too. But that's what all that scrambling does too. The dolphins blitz them the third most times he's ever faced blitzes today. And the bears went empty 15 times. They're just letting them make these quick decisions. defense blitzing or him being an empty. My favorite scramble was the second.

It was a second and eight near the end of the game, a little 12-yard scramble. They were in empty. He hits the back of his drop, and I think the dolphins weren't quarters. But the intermediate defenders, the linebackers, just sprint out to cover the quick game routes. And so he just goes, oh, screw that. I'm running. And he gets 12 yards on it. But it was just, he did so quick.

He didn't try to. Paul Chris had a great saying I've always loved is don't wish a throw open. Don't you listen to your feet. Your feet hit. Your feet know when you're late. Your feet tell you when to throw the ball on your drop. You hit the back of the drop or your hitch. And he's listening to his feet now.

And it's making. It's a great way to put it. He is. He's listening to himself because he's trusting how he's feeling and what he's seeing. It's confidence. You feel the confidence starting to build. And I think that giving him some layups and incorporating some more of the quarterback run game stuff into it, like,

It's awesome. It's exciting. The plan they've had for him, it's exciting. And we'll see what happens. You know, like I, but now the trajectory after the Washington game was pointed straight down. Now it's at least pointed up. The arrows at least pointed up. And if we continue this, and I know they just tore the defense down and the dolphins

threw for a million yards and the Bears lost this game. But it is hard to watch Justin Fields in that over those four quarters and not be excited about what this could potentially be if he continues on this trajectory. You know, it was a free agent, by the way. Yash Nieman. Yosh Neman? Yosh Neman? I'm very familiar with who the offensive free agents in the NFL are next year.

I came across that today and I was like, oh, oh, Luke Getsy knows him? Hmm. I don't know. That might be an interesting one for him. He had some rough moments late in this game today against Melvin Ingram. He gave up a sack and then Chubb beat him and the play that Fields actually had to scramble on. I think Braxton Jones for a fifth round rookie has been pretty good this year. Dude, it's the Patriots game, he looked like pretty good.

It's worth giving him this opportunity for this exact reason. You see what you have. I'm not, we're very far away from this, but I'm not at a place where they need a new left tackle this year. I would start other places. They just need dudes. Just starters. And so, and again, I don't, I don't think that his play should preclude you from going out and finding one. If you have the fifth pick and this kid from Penn State is apparently awesome and he's to say, okay,

then you figure the rest out later. But I do think the left tackle for the Bears has not been their biggest issue this year. I'm more looking at certain guys who were all pro guards that used to play in Green Bay that were miscast as tackles also hitting free agency this year. Oh, that's right. Oh, man, that's a little pipeline. The reverse Amos. It's going to be hard to outspend the team in Chicago next season if they don't want to be outspent. So unfortunately, good players rarely hit free agency.

And if you look at every position and the guys, offensively that are hitting free agency next year. You know all this. I know. Every week I talk to you, you know, every single one. I've spent a half since the Patriots game. I've spent at least a half hour a day on Spot Track looking at who the free agents were. That's amazing.

That's where we're at right now. All right. We probably should, considering they won this game, talk a little bit about the dolphins. My takeaway here, more of the same. I thought the two had like five or six throws where he did a really good job. One thing we didn't talk about enough on Thursday show. He does a good job manipulating oftentimes a single defender with his eyes. He is very good at, I'm looking here, I'm coming back to open space here.

He did that four or five times today, and he's, but he's driving a Formula One car. Like that's what this thing is. I mean, and just the- He's the jockey on secretariat. That's, that's what he is. He's the jockey on secretariat. I think he deserves a little more credit than that. But what he has been dropped into right now is absolutely insane.

So, I mean, just all of the juice coming at you all the time. The number of times they schemed up Tyree Kill from the slot today on third down where they're hitting the wheels to him against man coverage. I mean, it's just a very well-designed offense with very, very good players and a quarterback who is pushing the right buttons at the right times. He knows when to be aggressive. And it's like, God, man, Dolphins fans took this personal when I was saying that he got to the first read so well. That was just, I was just always figuring out if he was too quick when he would progress through stuff. And I just think now he has that balance of when to kind of sit in the pocket and get to one, two, two, to three or to let it rip. And but the thing is, when you have guys giving you big gigantic swaths of room for error, it's, it's easy to go let it rip on the first read or throw the alert on it.

I mean, they have 64 explosive receptions this year, and no other team has more than 50. They have 14.6 explosive play rate, which is the highest in the NFL. Like, it's, they've generated 198 yards on pass interference this year. The next highest is the Broncos at 151. Only five teams are over 100. They have 198. Only four teams last year finished with over 200. Like, they, they are just, they, his A-DOT's almost 10 yards.

Like, they are just chunk plays after chunk play, after chunk play and the stuff they do throw underneath, Waddle or Hill can get, they could turn each play into 20, 30 yards. It's a fun, fun offense to watch. It's, you know, Tua has some limitations, but he does do a lot of things really well. I still, I love watching him throw on bootlegs.

Like, that's, he throws the hell out of those overrouts. It's so funny that that's your favorite thing about watching him. And he did not have another one today, the one to waddle for the touchdown, same kind of deal. But my favorite. part about watching him is how he manipulates that one defender in the middle of the field and is able to operate in that very condensed space. We talked about this on Thursday.

He understands the motive, the intention behind the play incredibly well. You can tell that the way that things are articulated to him and the way they've built this entire thing. Yes. And I don't mean this in a derogatory way. It's fairly simple in what the foundation. of it is. Seth Galena did a very good job of this on Twitter on, I think, Friday. And you and I talked about this exact play on our preview show. They run a play that is the

foundation of their offense. And it is a post-wheel RPO where they're trying to get the little tiny short post or the wheel or an RPO. So Tua has to like essentially read the hook defender. I'm not sure that that's exactly right. But that guy that's like a linebacker sitting in that space, right? And so he does a very, very good job of understanding how to move that guy and get to his receiver back in space. It's all that short little post in the way that defenses play things. And watching him operate in that space is very cool.

He's very good at that. But that is part of the reason is because it is an offense tailored to him doing what he does well. He's an RPO king. And they run this one specific RPO that maximizes the amount of high octane nonsense that they have. and he's very, very good at running it. So I just think that they've really built this thing very well for what he does, but I enjoy watching him operate in it because it specifically is tailored to his skill set. Yeah, I tweeted a play.

He hits one to waddle on a quick hit and play action. Excuse me. And he's so good. Like Jimmy G has made his whole career off these throws. And Tua does it better. Like he hits. Correct. He, because there's no fat.

It's boom, but one, two, three, ball out. And he throws a Tewa. His efficiency and his movement is incredible. It's ridiculous. Oh, there's zero fat. you can tell he's trained his ass off on his footwork. Like that thing is tight because it, but it went one, two, three and that ball is out to waddle.

And it just, everything's maximized. That's the thing is the receiver is maximized in the space because of his speed. And because the safeties are so threatened of somebody, of getting beat over the top. So they have to push back. And the linebackers are stepping up because it's a half play action. Yes. The offense is play action. And then, but yes.

And you can hit those throws get maximized because Tua hits the back of his drop and lets it rip and throws it right to that. spot. That's where his arm strength can be, uh, you know, exemplified, like, or highlighted. That's where his, his placement, that type of ball placement is good for Tua. He is good at leading those guys into those spots. And that's what they do. So they're like, okay, let's just run this a dozen times a game. Oh, wow, that works. Like having your players do their things that they're good at works. And they, like Mike B. It's one wrinkle here. It's one wrinkle there. It's this guy's line up in a different spot. Now it's play action. They do such a good job of getting, building

the entire ship out of that central idea, but when you have the players to do it and the quarterback to run it, this is the sort of offense you have. Last thing about the dolphins, putting a bow on this conversation, I am a little worried about the defense. Because what they've allowed other teams to do to them, and again, what happened today with Justin Fields? If we're trying to build up the dolphins into real contenders in the AFC based on the way their offense is playing, that's easy to do.

But I think that when we have a little bit more time, we can talk about this more in depth, but I am a little bit concerned about the state of the state of the game. the defense and whether that might ultimately hold them back. Yeah. I mean, they're 29th in the past against by DVOA. Also, like just the defense, the one blemish of their offense is short yardage, which does matter when games get tight, you want to get those short yards. And they came up today.

They're 32nd and third. So short yards is third and fourth down, one to two yards. They're 32nd, 47 percent conversion rate. The next closest is the Chargers in 31st at 54%. So they're the only team under 50 percent. There's 7 percent lower than the Chargers. and that came up today. They had that third and short.

They didn't get. They went forward on fourth down, I believe. And then that's when Tua tried to throw to play into the flat and it went to the ground. So that might, you know, over the long term, that's tough because you're going to get a lot more of those situations. So teams are better tackling. You play better opponents. But those are some blemishes with this team. But the rest of that offense is like, wee!

Like, it's just enjoy it because it's fun. It really is fun to watch a high-octane offense like this. All right. We're going to take one more quick break and then get back. with a quick chat about the Seahawks and the Vikings before we get out of here. The Vikings are 7 and 1 after beating Washington today. Seahawks are 6 and 3 after knocking off the Cardinals. Both of these teams are probably going to make the playoffs.

In some way, shape, or form, if you look at the numbers, the Vikings are almost certainly going to make the playoffs and win the NFC North. Seahawks are currently in first place in the NFC West, even if they ultimately lose ground to the Niners in the division. They probably will still get a wild card based on how things are going. I wanted to ask you one question about both of these teams. in the NFC playoff race between the Seahawks and the Vikings, who do you think has a better chance to kind of catch lightning in a bottle and actually do this? Actually beat out the Eagles, actually beat the Cowboys, beat whoever, and end up like making a real surprising run.

Are you saying like win a playoff game or like make the playoffs? Win multiple playoff games. Seahawks, which I am like, I cannot believe I just said those sports came out of my game. I think I feel the same way. I think they're legit good. Like I'm, no caveats. No,

no amendments. Nothing to add to that. No 61 star there. Like, I think they're legit good. Like, this offense, this offense is good.

Like, this offense can do everything. They're balanced. They have two awesome receivers. They have no, a fan. They're, hey,

show on up. Here we go. Noah fan came in. Still learning how to play football. He shows up today. They have a great run game. They have a young talent. The defense has been,

of the best defenses in the past month. Like they, yeah, I think this is just a legit good team. And I, even going to this week, there's six and DVOA, seventh on offense, 11th on defense, ninth in special teams. That's a good team. That's just a good team. And yeah, I think they're the ones that can make more noise than, and I'm not knocking the Vikings or anything.

But yeah, the Seahawks are just a well-rounded team right now. It's so weird to be in a place where I could say confidently that I think the Seahawks have better quarterback play, like definitive. than the Vikings do. Yeah. Like, and that's not like shitting on Kirk Cousins. I just think that's how well Gino Smith has played this year. And we talk about the offenses specifically.

I totally agree with you. And you look at the personnel, like Justin Jefferson is a superstar. Yeah. But the Seahawks have multiple receiving options with Metcalf and Lockett. Yeah, whatever he's going to give them. The offensive line, which is starting two rookies and is mostly piecemeal when you think about the way it was built and how other really good lines were built. I feel better about the Seahawks offensive line right now than I do about the Vikings offensive line. Absolutely.

Because the interior of the Vikings offensive line, the right guard specifically, would give me nightmares. Yeah. Going into a playoff game, it would give me nightmares. And the Seahawks don't have that piece along their offensive line. And I think that puts them at an advantage in that conversation. So quarterback, I think they're better. I think their offensive line is better. I think their past catchers are probably like one small step down because of the ceiling that Jefferson brings you,

but it's still a very good unit and is the one thing that they've invested in. Their running back looks like a superstar. He's awesome. And the construction of the offense is good. It's not just like it's a bunch of pieces and the way that they're being deployed doesn't make sense. And the way this defense is playing, like, I'm just more excited about the pieces the Seahawks have on defense than I am about the pieces that the Vikings have on defense. Right. Right.

You see Tariq Wollen making plays and you're like, oh, yeah. And you got other Kobe Bryant, the other Cincinnati DB making plays. Like they just have these guys making plays, like just stepping up and like just getting better, Nuwosu. Like, you know, he's, I think he was leading the league in pressures or something like that. Shelby Harris had multiple plays today. I mean, it's, yeah, I was joking about this earlier. Shelby Harris and Noah Phant making plays while Russell Wilson's making, what Russell Wilson's making,

they gave up all those draft picks. It's just like a cruel twist of the knife. Yeah. Like that's just running up the score at this point. ways. I know when no fans going for almost on their yards or whatever he went for today. Like, yeah, that's, that's pretty brutal. You're like, oh, don't worry. We'll just play Albert O. And then now he's on the trade block and not even playing for them. But even just, I called this, I told you on the pre-show, I called this the poison pill partnership between the Seahawks and the Vikings because of the Nate Burleson, Steve Hutchison deals years ago.

Also, the little big league connection. Yeah, if you remember that movie. That was a, I do remember that movie. I don't remember the connection. Yeah, the twin, because he takes over the twins. And the team they play in the playoffs was the Mariners. You know, the Seattle Mariners who are just making their first playoff appearance for the bad guys, you know, because they had Ken Griffey Jr. And that, all right. We got to wrap this up. That's another connection.

We're making that. But I want to say that's because Minnesota, what my worries with them, like you said, is the offensive line. I do think they've had a lot of some balls bounce their way. I think the opening, they have a great opening script each week. They have a great opening script each week, but then you don't know what you're going to get the rest of the game. So it's, and it's Kirk Cousins.

They could have lost that game. today if Taylor Hines. He hadn't thrown that pick to Harrison Smith. Well, also a ref was beating up the D.Bs of the Vikings. So worth mentioning, yes. But still, they could have lost this game to Washington today pretty easily without a couple bounces of the ball. I think the Vikings are fine.

I think the Seahawks ceiling is higher because of the way that they can play on offense, the way their quarterback is playing. But I also just think top to bottom like the Seahawks that just might be a better team than the Vikings are right now, which is crazy to think about. The Seahawks offense is so much fun because they do everything well. They can lean into a different punch every week. That's a lot of fun to watch. And underlying metrics, watching Gino and just watching that team play, it's really cool to watch that unit.

And now the whole team's playing well. It's pretty awesome. All right. That's all we got for today. You most likely will not be with us later this week. I won't. So. I wonder why.

For those of you who do not know, Nate is expecting his first child later this week. So we're going to have to have some substitutions, which we are ready for. So congrats to you, buddy. We're going to miss you. But if you're going to miss a show, I think that is the best possible reason for you to miss a show. I think so, too. I appreciate it, man. So we will be without you on Thursday, but please come back and check us out.

We will have a wonderful co-host. And we will be back tomorrow on Monday with me and Mike Sando doing the Monday Hangover. So please come listen to that. Also, please subscribe to the YouTube channel. If you have not, you can. click on that in the description of the podcast, or if you're watching this and haven't subscribed, you absolutely should. Please subscribe to The Athletic.

Theathletics.com slash football show is where you can do that. We will be back tomorrow with Sando, doing the Monday Hangover. Until then, appreciate you guys listening. We'll talk to you soon. This was The Athletic Football Show.