The Athletic Football Show: A show about the NFL - Patrick Mahomes and Rashan Gary takes, state of the Raiders, and Are You Buying This? with Jeff Howe; Plus, QB therapy with comedian and Colts fan Megan Gailey

Episode Date: October 6, 2022

The Athletic NFL insider Jeff Howe joins Robert Mays to go over the biggest news and stories across the league heading into Week 5. The guys discuss the latest on Tua Tagovailoa, take stock of the Raiders, and revisit some takes they wouldn't mind having back on Patrick Mahomes and Rashan Gary. Then, comedian and Colts fan Megan Gailey joines Robert to plead for an exorcism—and perhaps the lifting of a curse?— for her favorite team.Follow Robert on Twitter: @robertmaysFollow Jeff on Twitter: @jeffphoweFollow Megan on Twitter: @megangaileySubscribe to The Athletic Football Show...AppleSpotifyYouTube1:05 The latest news — Tua Tagovailoa, more issues for the Broncos, and more OL injuries19:15 Where and what are the Raiders?34:42 Take Two: Patrick Mahomes and Rashan Gary46:51 Are you Buying This?54:28 Colts QB therapy with comedian Megan Gailey Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

This is the Athletic Football Show. Welcome to the Athletic Football Show. Today's Thursday, October 6th. I'm Robert Mays. Fun show for you guys today. Comedian and Colts fan, sad Colts fan. Megan Galey is going to be joining us a little bit later for a little QB therapy about what is going on with Matt Ryan and the state of the Indianapolis Colts.

Before we do that, though, I am thrilled to welcome from the Athletic. our NFL insider Jeff how Jeff how you doing man fantastic fantastic let's see if we can get through this without an interruption from one of one of the kids upstairs this is the joys of in-home podcast production I don't have kids and I still have to worry about a million different things happening for you it'll be the kids for me it'll be the doorbell ringing in my dog barking so if we can get there by the end of this podcast we'll feel pretty good about it so on these Thursday shows we've been starting with the news I think it's a good time during the week we record these on Wednesday afternoon

to gather a lot of what has happened over the last few days, kind of take stock of who's in, who's out, what's happening, just the overall movements and machinations around the leak. And I think we have to start with the latest update on Tua, and what is going on with him, the investigation into the handling of his concussion against the bills. We really haven't revisited this since last Thursday. I feel like this was the right time to do it.

I know that you've been writing about this a little bit, poking around about it a little bit, Jeff. what is the latest on where things are at with Tua and this investigation going out with the NFLPA and the league? It seems like it's been at a standstill for a few days at this point. I think the most notable thing that's really come out of this week is Mike McDaniel ruling him out of week five against the Jets almost immediately and putting no timeline on his return. So that's from a football perspective. In terms of the investigation, that really hasn't been any, nobody's really putting anything out there, which is understandable. You've got to try to collect the entire picture from both sides.

The PA wants to know, and the PA has already exercised their right to terminate the concussion spotter from earlier in this whole situation. So I'm just curious to see what comes of it, because there's a lot, there's a lot of people from different sides pushing for improved, just an improvement in the process, which is entirely understandable, given the way. way everything looked in week three and then when he was concussed for sure in week four, just four days later, of course. And, you know, just what are the improvements in the process going to look like? Because I think, you know, one thing that I've been trying to consider a lot is, let's say, 10 years ago, it was still prevalent for guys to almost laugh off a concussion or to say that they knew how to game the system.

They'd memorize whatever cool questions they were going to get asked by the concussion spot or the medical team if they got pulled off the field and they'd be able to somehow talk their way back in. That stuff was supposed to be all but eradicated over the last couple of years. You didn't hear those stories nearly as much. So how are they going to, you know, whether or not that was something that happened in the two a case in week three, we don't know. But how are they all going to be able to improve the process? And I think the one thing that I think seems to be a really good idea is if you are the concussion spotter and you're watching something like this happen in week three when Tua, you know, his knees, his legs buckled and everybody watching on TV thought or assumed that that was a concussion. And then he comes back and he says that that was a back injury. I don't know.

I guess you can kind of, you can wrap your brain around that. like if your back seizes up, all of a sudden you can't walk. And that all sounds like a good story. But maybe they say, you know what, we're going to remove that part of the process. If you can't walk, if it looks like from however many feet away that you've been concussed, we're taking you out your days over. And I think that is the step in the right direction. And it sounds like the league and the PA have agreed to updated protocols that will make gross motor instability,

which was some language that had been in the rules, one of those automatic no-go. type of situations, one of those automatic no-go type of observations. At least outwardly, you know, steps are being taken here. Obviously, like you said, they terminated the independent neuroconsultant that was involved with the situation against the bills. My hope was that that wouldn't be the end of this, that that wouldn't be kind of the sacrificial lamb, the person who would have to kind of fall on the sword here and that we would move on and no one else would be at fault.

They're still moving forward with the investigation. And it sounds like the findings of that investigation will be public is what the league and the PA have said when this is all said and done. Tom Palisero reported that it's probably going to be concluding this week. So we'll see what this ultimately leads to. Is it going to lead to more changes? Is it going to lead to more vigilance around the league? I think that, you know, you had some moments this week where guys were pulled out pretty quickly, but you also had moments like with Cameron Brayt where he wasn't pulled out as quickly as he probably should have been. So I'm wondering just how hyper aware the league is going to be of what they need to do in

response to this and what that response ultimately looks like. I think they've been aware of this really since the concussion lawsuits came down hard several years back. And they know that this is something they need to do a better job of. And then when you fast forward to this season and you've got a quarterback who is in the middle of this, I guess, quote unquote, controversy, all eyes are on it because of how dangerous it all looked in week three and then of course compounded by the week four concussion they the league knows that something has to be done they can't just let something like this fly under the radar and you know handle an investigation and not have all sides be happy with the

outcome so for now we know that he will not be playing teddy bridgewater will be starting for the dolphins which is a fairly big deal on a football sense we saw what the dolphins could be with two they were one of the best offenses the most explosive offenses in the league for the first few weeks of this season. So in terms of actual on-field impact, this is going to matter potentially. I mean, this Dolphins team who was really jumping on some people and had surprised some people early in the season. Now they could be working with their backup quarterback for at least one week, potentially

longer than that, depending on what ultimately happens with two-ed-one when he can get back. All right, let's get to some other injury news from this week. A few Thursday night football injuries to take into account. Jonathan Taylor ruled out for the Colts. with a high ankle sprain. Been a hell of a couple weeks for the Colts here, Jeff. What's one thing after the other? Their offense can't move the ball.

And now the guy who broke the league last year as a running back and helped push the Colts to being one of the most efficient, dynamic, explosive running games in the league. Now he's out. So it's been a nice little stretch here for Indianapolis. Yeah, things are going splendidly. It's just, they're in a rough way. And, you know, reading our Colts coverage.

of the start to their season is really alarming because it seems like, you know, people, the patience is wearing very thin. Understandably so, because this is a roster that a lot of people, myself included, thought had a really good chance to make a run in the AFC playoffs, you know, maybe not necessarily on the level of a Kansas City or a Buffalo, but a team that should be playing a whole lot better than they are. And to lose your, you know, you're probably your best player with a high ankle sprain, that, you know, depending on the nature of this, this isn't, this might not necessarily be just a Thursday night injury.

This could be something that lingers for quite a while. You know, one part that kind of hits me, though, like, and this doesn't necessarily make a lot of sense. It's not a tangible type of deal. But when you've got a team that's got its back against the wall, and then all of a sudden, you know, you lose a player and you go into a game and it's like, all right, the season is kind of slipping away. You're kind of running out of things to say to be optimistic about. to think that they can come out of this game with a victory. And then it turns into like a rallying point. So we'll see.

I mean, maybe I could just be throwing stuff against the wall with this one. But this is going to be a really good character test for a Colts team that is off to a really bad start relative to where they think they should be. Yeah. It just seems like one thing after another. We'll get to plenty of Colts melancholy later in the show today. So I don't want to linger on that. But the Broncos pretty similar spot going.

into this game. Javante Williams, torn ACL. He's going to miss the remainder of the season, and Randy Gregory is also out for at least a few weeks for the Broncos. So another team heading in the wrong direction or kind of facing what's been a frustrating start to this season is now losing what has been a pretty damn important player for them on offense, considering the target share that he has garnered and what their running game has meant for them. And now you're leaning on Melvin Gordon and you lose one half of what has been a pretty terrifying, really impactful pass rush. a person at basis, Randy Greger has been one of the most impactful, disruptive pass rushers in the league for the first few games of the year. And now you miss him for a chunk of time.

So again, a little bit more frustration in Denver when it seemed like they needed anything they could to start heading in the right direction here. Yeah. And what's interesting to me, just beyond those injuries is, and they're significant. But like, I think it's really interesting that what happened in the Monday night opener and the clock management that ultimately cost the Broncos the game. And then to bring in a game management coach, which I thought was a smart move, albeit one that shows that, you know, there's still some rawness with Nathaniel Hackett and his first go-around as head coach. Now all of a sudden, you know, you had that primetime game against the Niners, which the Broncos won, though they didn't look good. they won the game and the offense was still, you know, scratching and clawing for every single yard they get,

which was not many of them. And now you're back on prime time against the Colts. And then next week, you're back on prime time against the Chargers. And this is a team that has a lot of pressure. And Russell Wilson has a lot of pressure. Nathaniel Hackett has a lot of pressure. And when Twitter smells blood, you know, and you got these guys on prime time in back-to-back weeks,

you know, this is going to be a fascinating stretch. which, you know, it was also weird, you know, the trends that they were at. Like the offense was abysmal. Again, relative to where they should be through the first three weeks, the offense clearly wasn't there. Then they score a season high 23 points, which is still modest by again, where they should be. But then the defense for the first time actually let them down and gave up nearly as many points as they allowed in the first three games.

So where is this team? What is their identity and how long is it going to take for, you know, the chemistry between Hackett and Wilson is there off the field. How long is it going to take for the production on the field to match the off-field chemistry? Yeah, I thought it was going to take a while, and I didn't think this was going to be guns blazing right away, and it certainly hasn't been. But when you're removing pieces like a Giovante Williams who's been so central to what they've been on offense, the degree of difficulty just continues to get higher. And you're right. I mean, this team is on full display. All those primetime games to me are an indication that people,

excited about this group coming in. The expectations were very high. And now you see what they've been so far. And it seems like it still might take even a little bit longer for them to get going. I'll just throw something again real quick at you. You've got a new ownership group that just spent what, you know, like a quarter billion dollars on the quarterback. They just spent $4.6 billion on the organization. And this is the product they're seeing. And we're going to learn a lot about their ownership group. Like, look, I'm not trying to say that this is so drastic that all of a sudden hack its job is in general. through four games, five or six games or anything like that.

But you are going to start to learn more about what the ownership group's expectations are. Because when you are, like you said, on full display for the whole league, the whole country, the whole world to see in these prime time games, if it is not where they want it to be, you know, we're going to learn more things about the owners and the guys and the people who are cutting the checks. All right. A couple quarterback injury update here. Daniel Jones is practicing.

The Giants did not sign any of the quarterbacks they worked out. so it sounds like he will play. You also were tweeting about this earlier this week. I'm curious what you think. What do you make of the Odell Beckham rumors here? Because it feels like he's really enjoying this. It's almost like a guy going on a college tour, just going on a visit like every other week,

getting to stand on the sideline, get wind and dined a little bit, have everyone been reaching out to you, be like, man, we'd love if you came here. It's been a kind of bizarre situation. I can't remember a free agent like this who's been so front and center and so mobile

and so well traveled in October just because there's really no reason for him to sign with anyone at this stage. And someone of his notoriety and presence, it just feels like such a bizarre situation. He does love the spotlight. So he is absolutely soaking it all up and taking advantage of that opportunity. This, from what I understand, has not really changed. This was, you know, kind of going into training camp and kind of progressing through training. training camp. There were a couple important factors here. Number one is the recovery from the torn ACL. At the earliest, teams were not expecting that he would be cleared until at least November,

more likely December. And then what does that clearance look like? Are you cleared for practice or you cleared for games? What are you going to look like in weeks, let's say, 16, 17, and 18, or even just, you know, the playoffs. And then from Odell's side of it, he wants to make another run at the Super Bowl. it doesn't make a lot of sense for him to sign with a team right now when that team could fall off dramatically over the next four to six to eight weeks. So you're going to have teams like the Rams and the Packers. Maybe the Giants, I don't know. I mean, they don't have a whole lot of cap space, but you're going to have those contenders. The Giants are three and one, Jeff Howe.

The Giants absolutely can be making a Super Bowl run here in the next couple months. Don't you discount the Giants? Never say never. They're one of the best stories in the league right now through four games. However, the cap space isn't necessarily there. So look, he was in town visiting with some of his friends. This was not an official visit and speaking with the team about trying to sign a contract right now, which, again, adds up to everything that he's wanted to do and let this process play out.

Once he's cleared or close to being cleared, he wants to make sure that these contending teams are still, in fact, in contention. what's the most fun place he could land? I think it's probably Green Bay. Just because we haven't seen them make a move like this. If he got to the bills, like the bills have Stefan Diggs. Gabe Davis is a good number two.

I guess that would be enjoyable and entertaining just because him with Josh Allen, I would love to watch that. But just dropping him onto a Packers team that I think might need that sort of pop in their passing game. I think that's the best possible outcome. But I don't know. What do you think?

Yeah, he'd be, I mean, let's say the knee looks good. He would probably, I mean, unless Dobbs or Watson really just explode over the next couple months, O'Dell drops in there and he's their number one right away. Kansas City could be interesting, too, just because it walks the way. No, that's not okay. It would be fun just because of the way that, you know, Mahomes can freelance and do some really fun things.

He's a unique quarterback, obviously. And then if you throw O'Dell out there, I mean, just imagine like the scrambling plays when Mahomes is improvising. and Odell's improvising, and there could be some fun stuff happening in Kansas City. One more bit of quarterback news here. Mack Jones still limping pretty noticeably. There's some instability in that ankle when you're looking at him right now, but he is back at practice.

It doesn't look like he's going to play. I know you know that team extremely well, obviously. What have you heard? What do you think? What's the outlook for Mac Jones right now? The team doesn't think they are going to have an answer for who their starting quarterback is going to be, whether it's Mack Jones or Brian Hoyer, who's in the concussion protocol or Bailey Zappy until at least Thursday.

So you saw Mack Jones out there on Wednesday at practice. We'll see what that designation looks like. He wasn't, you know, just looking at the video from practice. He's not able to step into throws yet. It looks better than it did on Friday when he couldn't even like, couldn't even like move the left leg. So, but again, I think the fact that it is such an unknown across the board with every single quarterback. It shows that even if it's a long shot, Mac Jones might be at play, but, man,

he's going to have to improve a whole lot from Wednesday to Sunday. All right. A couple more things to hit here. Offensive line injuries is continuing to pile up. Sam Cosmy, Washington's right tackle underwent thumb surgery. He's going to miss some time. So he's going to be out. Chase Rui, was name I can never pronounce correctly, is already on IR. So that's another offensive line that they're missing. They yanked their right tackle in the middle of the game, or right guard in the middle of the game last week. So just a lot of offensive line questions and concerns for Washington. Cornelius Lucas is probably going to step in at right tackle.

He's going to step in at right tackle for Cosby. He's been a starter there before of all the swing tackle options they could have. I think that he's one that you feel pretty decent about, but still just a lot of uncertainty with that group. When you consider Carson Wentz's inability to protect himself right now, cause for concern to me with the state of Washington's offense and their offensive line. Oh, no doubt. And because I think you hit the nail on the head with the last point that you made,

Carson Wentz needs everything to be on schedule. There can't be sacks. There can't be penalties. You know, this needs to be a team that goes from second and six to third and short consistently for Carson Wentz to be able to move the ball with any success. So losing the offensive lineman is not ideal in any way, shape, or form for him. Jordan Maillata also in danger of missing Sunday's game. Andre Dillard has been designated to return from injured reserve,

so he could potentially step in. Jack Driscoll played pretty well. for them last week. I don't know if you want to mess with what that group looked like, but nice to have options. And then Colton McKivitz, who is replacing Trent Williams already for the Niners at left tackle, he will miss time with a sprained knee. So Jalen Moore, who is a fifth round pick in 2021 and came in for McIvitts last week on Monday, we'll be stepping in for the Niners there most likely. So just more concerns for another offensive line that has had some issues so far. I already have some moving pieces. Daniel Brunskills back at Red Guard.

A lot of moving parts there. All right. Last week when we talked to Mike Jones on here, after we did the news, we kind of stepped back and had a longer considered conversation about where the Patriots were at. And I enjoyed that so much that I decided we're going to keep doing that on these shows.

I think it's a good time in the week to kind of take a step with some perspective and look at one of these teams and kind of give a state of the union about the franchise. And I wanted to do that with you and the Raiders for a bunch of different readers reasons. We haven't really talked about the Raiders that much in-depth on the show. And this is a team where you cover Josh McDaniels for years.

You know Dave Ziegler. You went there during training camp, wrote a long piece about their mindset and where they were at. So the first thing I wanted to ask you, after rereading that piece this morning, what the Raiders have looked like so far and what their preseason expectations were and what they wanted to be in 2022.

How would you square those two things? Well, the preseason expectations were that they were, they should contend to get back into the playoffs. And that's, I know, I'm sitting on the fence with that one. But, you know, the talents there, they were a playoff team a year ago, but they're in such a good division that there's just so little room for error in the AFC West. So it's like, you know, a couple things could go wrong. And you go from a team that has huge expectations to, you know, the couple things went wrong right away for the Raiders. And then all of a sudden they're 0 and 3. But I'll start from the beginning.

I really like Josh McDaniel's plan. I like where he's at in terms of his career growth. And his, he's just in a much better spot now than he was when he went to Denver. And I kind of just, I got a kick out of the, I guess the paranoia of, all right, is this all of a sudden going to be Denver 2.0 with McDaniels just because they were 0 and 3. And I wholeheartedly disagree with that notion just because, you know, back in Denver, he wasn't as comfortable delegating to his staff. He thought that if there were things that were going wrong, he was going to have to be

the sole voice who would step in and fix everything. He wasn't as comfortable with his voice. So it went from being, you know, there was like this, there's this big perception. There's some truth to it that when Belichick assistance goes somewhere else, they try to be too much like Belichick. And that's not necessarily the case. McDaniels basically said, it's not that I was trying to be Belichick. It's just like when I was facing adversity, I deferred to what I knew.

So I would give the answers that I'd been hearing for the last nine years in New England. Whereas now I'm more comfortable in saying, all right, well, let's try things a different way. Or let's do this or that or whatever. There's also the part of, you know, I don't have it in me to tell these guys, we're going to do this today. Just shut up and do it. Like that's not what he's going to do. It's if you're going to practice and it's 115 degrees outside and they have this beautiful bubble. No, you're going to practice outside, but we're going to tell you why.

If we're changing up a drill and practice, it's not just, hey, this is what's on the sheet today. No, we're going to go through the why for all of this. So I really, again, I like the plan. It's just you start off in a really tough spot and you play a Chargers team and Derek Carr was too sloppy with the ball. I can't remember how many turnovers he had or how many missed passes he had. but the Raiders had a lot of opportunities to win that game. And Derrick Carr just didn't play well enough to do it. Then you go to week two against Arizona and you blew, what was it,

a 20-point lead in the second half and just a team that couldn't close out a game. They made too many mistakes. And then that seemed to carry over into the Tennessee game because they started so slow. But then they showed a little resilience. They tried to make a game of it at the end before they just fell a little bit short. But when you make all those mistakes early, you basically have to play. perfect. So you're 0 and 3, the sky's falling, everybody's rushing the judgment, Denver 2.0. I was telling, I was saying, look, pump the brakes on that stuff. I think that you've got to be

patient with this team. And they showed a lot of resilience in that Denver game too, because, you know, you think of how hard it was for them to close out that Arizona game and they couldn't do it. You had a chance in the Chargers game and the Titans game to make a late run. And, you know, they just couldn't put it all together. Denver was trying to come back. and the Raiders didn't let them. And that was an important win for this team. So again, I think it's a lot to ask any team, no matter how much talent you have to come back from 0 and 3

and try to make the playoffs. Then you look at the division they're in again. But I do have confidence that this is a coach and our GM who are going to work with this organization. Yeah, I'm confident about what it could look like by the end of the season. I think they'll be consistently competitive. Obviously, you can trust the weapons. getting Renfro back, it will be helpful.

Matt Collins has actually looked pretty good for them, which is a little bit surprising. Would you consider how much he's bounced around? I was so concerned about the offensive line coming into the season, just because, I mean, you look at it. There's such a little proven talent outside of Colton Miller. They've shuffled through, I believe, a different starting combination every single game on purpose

in order to try to fright something. They're 31st in offensive line spending. Only the Steelers are spending less on their offensive line. the line has been okay. It hasn't been so bad that it's torpedoed them offensively. They're 20th and offensive BVOA and 20th in defensive BVOA and 20th in defensive BVOA. They're just kind of a mediocre team right now on both sides of the ball. I do think the offense will be solid over the course of the rest of this season.

I guess my biggest question about them is kind of an existential one. It's like, what did this team want to be coming into this year? And how do their decisions align with what their expectations and what reality actually looked? like. Right now, the Raiders have $41.7 million in dead money coming into this season because of some of the moves that they made, some of the guys they moved on from. Yannick and Gacue is a big dead money hit. A lot of the other free agent signings from the previous regime. Corey Littleton is going to cost them an obscene amount of money over the next couple of years. Just those ghosts of mistakes past are lingering for this team. Here are the teams with more dead money on their cap in

2022 than the Raiders. The Texans, the Falcons, the Bears, top three. Big time rebuild mode. Like, tear it down to the studs mode. The Eagles are fourth, the Seahawks are fifth, the Giants are sixth. So we got a lot of rebuilding teams there.

The Seahawks are kind of in a soft rebuild. The Eagles have a quarterback that costs them absolutely nothing, which is part of the reason that they can navigate this in a way that a team like the Raiders, who have a quarterback on a veteran contract, even though he's only making $20 million, it a little bit more difficult.

So you have this team that is hamstrung a little bit financially, also doesn't have a ton of talent on it because they haven't drafted very well, and then you go out and you make two really splashy moves by going to make trade for Devante Adams and you sign Chandler Jones. And this isn't necessarily a criticism of that plan. I'm just wondering how they viewed it all working, how they viewed it all fitting together and whether or not it's a multi-year outlook. Because Devante Adams is still on the team next year. He's only 30 years old.

But these are guys in their 30s. These are pretty aggressive moves. You've got $30 million in cap space next year to maybe bulk up some areas of your roster like the secondary where you need some help to go out and spend a little bit on your offensive line maybe. I just would love to hear them articulate what the team building strategy is

and what the expectations are over like a two-year window. because I just don't necessarily understand it when you look at it at first glance. Well, and I talked to Ziegler about this, and it was, I think the first question I asked was something about the nature of their aggressive offseason. And he kind of flipped it. And he said, well, all right, I can see why it would look aggressive because you've got the Devante Adams trade and you've got the Chandler Jones signing. And then, of course, you know, you those were, you send a message to the. locker room after that because then you secure Derek Carr and Max Crosby and Hunter Renfro and then eventually Darren Waller. So it's not just coming in and saying, we're the new guys

in town and now all of a sudden like there were issues with the roster. We're going to sign all these big price outside guys. They rewarded the guys who were there and who helped them get to the playoffs in probably last season. But beyond that, the rest of their signings, I think there was one other who was making a few million a year. But the rest of their signings were basically one-year deals for close to the minimum. And because they knew all the dead money that you speak of, they still have to rework the books. That's going to be a process. So when you look at a quote unquote aggressive approach, they were also saying, well, it's also going to look aggressive because when you have a brand new GM coach regime stepping in, usually there is quite a

of a rebuild happening. They inherited a team that went to the playoffs and still has a lot of good pieces. But, you know, again, there has to be some balance. It's about being aggressive but not reckless. And that's a phrase that I heard in a couple of different places this summer. And I think they were aggressive, but they weren't reckless. They weren't handing out contracts that are going to hamstring them several years down the line. Because, again, they have to come back from the fact that,

The string of first round busts at the end of the Mayock Gruden era, those guys, it's hard to make up for mistakes like that when you're trying to bring in these big exterior contracts. Yeah, there's no doubt. You have to thread a really tough needle when you don't have that underlying cheap talent on the roster. And even the hits are guys they've had to extend. Like Renfro and Max Crosby are the success stories, but those guys are no longer cheap rookie fines. They're on contract extensions that are pretty expensive, are going to be moving forward. Obviously, those kick in really next year.

But it's still something to look at because now you have no underlying cheap talent, really, from the last few seasons, and that makes things difficult. Just a couple things to consider. It's like, the Chandler Jones thing, he's 32. He's making a lot of money over the next couple years. He just hasn't been very productive so far this season. If you look at it, 117 edge rushers, according to PFF, have played at least 20% of their team's.

pass rush snaps. Chandler Jones ranks 104th in pass rush productivity among that group. He has eight pressures in three games, despite playing over 100 pass rush snaps. When you're making swings on 32-year-old pass rushers at that price point, and you're not that close, that's where I have questions. Just like, what are we trying to do? Is that something we needed to do? Is that an amount of cash you needed to throw around when you are 31st in offensive line

spending or you do have some of these other holes. I know you want to send a message right away, and there has been benefit in the past with teams that are doing some of these kind of soft resets. The Rams come to mind in 2017, the bills when McDermott and Brandon Bean got there and you give out a Mikeah Hyde contractor or Jordan Poyer contractor, one to Andrew Whitworth. You don't necessarily have to tear it all down and then start over, but I'm just wondering the bets that they made, were they the right bets in the short term and eventually for the long term, and I'm just not sure about that.

well yeah i mean chanler jones is one guy that they absolutely need more from and i think part of that was to make sure you know they know that max crosbie is a franchise caliber defensive player and putting chanler jones on the other side of him you know one of those guys theoretically is going to get you know uh single teams and you got to count on that guy to win more often than not and chanler jones clearly has not by those metrics uh and there's i think that's been pointed out in recent weeks too that they need to get more out of him. You know, the Devante Adams thing was they have an opportunity. It's a unique one where a guy who is almost universally believed to be the best wide receiver in the NFL wants to play for you. Let's go make it

work is what they were kind of thinking. So, you know, they have the pieces there to be a team that could contend for a playoff spot. You put in Devante Adams. You've got to assume that Derek Carr is going to take his game to a higher level, not necessarily a top five quarterback or anything like that. But if he can eradicate the mistakes that cost them the Chargers game, you know, maybe play a little better than he did against Tennessee, then all of a sudden you've got a team that might be able to make a run in the last couple months of the season. Yeah, I think the Devontz Adams thing I can understand is a multi-year gambit, right?

Even if you're not going to be a Super Bowl contender this year, he's going to be 31 next season. is arguably the best receiver in the league. That is a multi-year team-building dice role, even if you're losing a first and second round pick in the process. The Chandler-Jones thinks feels a little bit more microwave to me, and that's why that one's harder for me to get on board with. But we'll see what happens. The last lingering question I think there is to be answered

and when I wanted to ask you, they can move on from Derek Carr after this season if they want to. If they decide to move on from him before February 15th, They owe him $5 million in dead money. That is the date where his 2023 salary and about $7 million of his 2024 salary becomes guaranteed. What do you think the percentage chances that Derek Carr will be the starting quarterback for the Raiders on August 1st of next year? 85%. I think it is.

Yeah, I think, you know, he's a guy that they clearly have faith in. They wouldn't have given him a new contract if they didn't. but, you know, if, let's say things just don't work out. Let's just say the fit isn't what everybody expected it to be, and they do go that route. And you could look at somebody like Jimmy Garoppolo to get you through another year. And I'm not saying that Garoppolo is an upgrade or whatever. I don't know. We'll let the next three months play out and figure it all out then.

But he's somebody that McDaniels and Ziegler have a history with and would probably, I'm guessing here because I'm not familiar with the interwar. workings of the remainder of Carr's contract. But I would guess Garoppola would probably be cheaper if that's a route you want to go to. And then, you know, again, let's say, let's say things really don't get better. Let's say he plateaus or gets worse. And then all of a sudden you're picking in the top 12 in the draft. You know, it's a really good quarterback class coming out too. I don't, my thought is that you're right.

I think he's good enough to stick with. I think he's good enough to commit to. I think that they can be really competitive with him as their quarterback. I just thought that little, the structure of that was interesting. The idea that they had a little trapdoor wrap to this season after year one when those two were together when those two parties were together. So I think they'll be fine. I think they'll be a competitive team this year. I think they're an interesting spot because they are a team that made such aggressive kind of headline grabbing moves this off season.

All right. Let's move on here. We're going to go with take two this week. Every week, we're going to revisit some takes that we made, maybe a week ago, maybe a couple years ago. ones that we'd like back, ones that we'd like a little bit of a redo on. Jeff, I'm going to let you start here. What would you like to take two on this week? Oh, you're throwing me into the fire right away.

Okay, all right. I see how it is. Look, I thought there was a chance that Patrick Mahomes was going to plateau in his first season without Tyree Kill. And this is about looking at last year. There was so much made about really forcing the chiefs to methodically work their way down the fields. And once they got beyond that opening drive or opening quarter script, when things look really good, you know, Mahomes look down and feel a little too often.

And that's when you see some blown late leads like in the playoffs or just some struggles overall. And now all of a sudden you take this big play threat off the team. All right, how is this all going to look? Now, I was also trying to tell myself, and I told anybody who would listen, which is not many people sitting there out there talking to my neighbors, cat, and we're having this in-depth Mahomes discussion. But no, I thought if Mahomes could get to a point where the corny cliche, I love it. C cliches are terrible largely. You don't go broke making a profit.

I can't say that enough. But if he can just take the easy stuff, I think he could take his game to such a higher level. You know, everything is great. You got like the touchdown on Sunday night football where he's spinning away from, you know, the best linebacker in Tampa and, you know, making that throw to the end of the – like, he does that stuff. That's great. It's awesome for highlights. We know what he's capable of doing. His downfield accuracy.

His arm strength is phenomenal. Like he can – he's – there's a reason why he's so aggressive down the field because he's had so much success with it. But if he gets to the point where, you know, Tom Brady has been at for so long, where you can consistently hit those eight to 12-yard passes, and you force the defense to really try to defend all three layers of the field, he's going to get to a point where he's so unstoppable, it's going to be almost impossible. And the clinic that he ran against the Buccaneers on Sunday night,

I think was partly emblematic of that. So I was wrong to think that he could potentially plateau without Tyree Kill, but I'm really, really fascinated to see if he continues to play not just in the Tampa game, but that was the one that was kind of out in front for everybody to see. If he continues to play like that, he is going to go from, like, what a lot of people believe is already the best quarterback in the NFL

to just such an unstoppable level that he could put up just absolutely absurdly monstrous numbers. I already think he's there. And I think he's there for a very specific reason. Obviously, the arm and pushing the ball down, is what jumps out. But I think that he's almost perfectly built for the modern era of football and the way the defenses are playing because he's so good at navigating tight spaces and he's so creative

as a thrower in those tight spaces. And he's so accurate. And that's why it's just incredible to me is he can get these throws off in any single way in a condensed version of football. And that's what he does consistently. And the other thing is, and I've been thinking about this a lot, I think there's a huge gap right now with now that explosive plays are kind of being taken off the table by the way that teams are playing. I think they're the one of the biggest gaps in football is the gap between

quarterbacks who have negative plays and quarterbacks who don't. If you can avoid negative plays, if you have no second and 16s, if you're not giving defenses free yards, it's such a huge advantage. And I think Patrick Mahomes arguably does that better than any one. one in the league right now. He doesn't take sacks. He just doesn't. So the idea that there are no negatives, he's otherworldly talented, and he can operate in this condensed world that we now live in, there are no weaknesses to who he is as

a quarterback anymore. And I think that's remarkable. And I think that's the version of Patrick Mahomes that we're seeing right now. Yeah, I mean, I'm not saying he's incapable of doing that. I think he's absolutely, it's far more probable than. not that he will get to that point on a more consistent basis. You know, when he started in his early seasons as a starter, or I guess he's still in his early seasons as a starter,

but like right at the beginning, he really took over for Alex Smith. You know, the offense was very horizontal. And then they were so good at that that it was like, okay, let's make this a more vertical offense. And they got really good at that too. And then it was like, okay, they got a little too reliant, I guess, on the vertical stuff. Or maybe it was just, again, just over eager.

overaggressiveness down the field, kind of ignored some of the easier stuff underneath. But once he start, when you get, when you're able to combine the horizontal with the vertical stuff, again, that's when I think you're going to see him. And Andy Reed, uh, in particular, you know, those guys just reach such an unstoppable level that again, it's just, it's going to reach a point where good luck trying to defend him. He's created 23 first downs while under pressure this season. second in the league to Josh Al.

And just there are tons of stats. He's a 103.6 quarterback rating when pressured this year. He's completing 73.7% of his passes when pressured this year. I mean, that's just absolutely ridiculous to be playing like that

when you're supposed to be bad. And that to me is what's so crazy about him is that the bad is just very rarely that bad and the good is better than anyone else is good. And that's just why it makes him such a special, special player. All right.

Here's mine. We're going a little bit back further in time. I've got some Rishon Gary takes in my skeleton closet that I'm not super happy about. And when the Packers drafted him in 2019, I saw it with a really narrow view and a really short-term view. They already had Preston and Adairius Smith on the roster. Roshan Gary had three and a half sacks his final year at Michigan. It was extremely raw. The production did not line up with the physical traits that he brought to the table. I know he was a five-star recruit.

He ran a 4-5-8-40 at like 260 pounds. It was an athletic marvel. But as somebody who often roots for the Packers' demise, not really, but somebody who nominally roots for the Packers' demise, it's like, oh, man, all right, you're going to draft a fourth pass rusher here rather than something else. Sounds great. Like, this is Aaron Rogers' last stand, and you're going to draft a guy who played 23% of the defensive snaps as a rookie.

Sign me up for that. Well, the joke's not. me because three years later, Rishon Gary is one of the best defensive players in football. And he kind of has been for the last two years. He led the NFL in Pass Rush productivity last year, which is a PFF stat that measures production over snap counts. So it's on a per snap basis. He finished tied for third in the NFL in pressures last season.

This year, right back to it. Fourth in past rush productivity this year, second in sacks. And I think the lesson here is that it's a lesson I learned all the time at a lot of different positions. I've talked about it with quarterbacks already this year. It doesn't have to happen right away. It just doesn't. This is a guy who was 21 when he was drafted. And now that we've gotten to this place where rookie contracts, not just rookie quarterback contracts,

are so valuable at these high leverage positions, they can create so much surplus value. In my mind, it's like you've got to get the most out of this guy right away. In order to get the most out of that deal, this guy's got to be producing for you instantly. And that's not how it was with Rishan Gary, but it's a five-year deal. Last year when he led the league in Pass Rush productivity, he was making $4 million. This year, he's making $5 million. Next year, he's making $10.8 million. So over the last three years of his deal, he's going to make a combined $19 million,

combined $20 million. bucks. Joey Bosa will cost the Chargers $28 million this year. Miles Garrett will cost the Browns $29 million next year. So there's still a ton of surplus value created on this deal, even though he really didn't click in until the third year of that contract. And I think that this is just a reminder that development, team building processes, all of that stuff, it doesn't have to be this microwave thing that comes instantly. You can put it on the pack burner.

You can have this guy that you bring along slowly. It doesn't matter that you have two starters at that position already. And some of these teams who've done a really good job developing guys at positions like this over time probably deserve the benefit of the doubt. Devante Adams wasn't a star when he was drafted. It was a long time before Devante Adams before it became Devante Adams. And sometimes that's okay. And Rishon Gary is a pretty stark lesson in that for me.

And one I feel genuinely shitty about. Yeah, he's a good football player. I don't know if you want me to wax poetic about Rishon Gary. You certainly can. I mean, I just did. I think you've used all the words on that one. You know, there's some cases that I covered in New England. I mean, maybe I'll start off with a string of them.

You know, Shane Verene, James White were guys who, there's one more running back in the mix there. You know, running backs who basically redshirted their rookie seasons. and then flourished and had tremendous careers, particularly with Tom Brady. But Julian Edelman is probably the best example of that. His first four years, he was basically a punt returner, kind of filled in for West Welker and the occasions that he was hurt but didn't really do a whole lot. Every time that Edelman had a chance to get onto the field in a larger role because Welker was down or whatever, he wound up getting injured in some capacity,

and then go his first free agent. year. The Patriots allowed him to, I can't remember if this was the year that he went to San Francisco or the Giants for a visit. It might even be both eventually re-signed for like a million dollars and caught 105 balls for over a thousand yards and became a really good player. And then the Patriots let him go elsewhere for another visit. And maybe this was the San Francisco trip, his hometown team. And the Patriots were like, hey, you know what? We've got a contract for you. but if you can find something better elsewhere, go for it.

So even the Patriots were kind of daring him to go somewhere else. And he came back for what was his sixth season in 2014, and the second part of the Patriots Super Bowl Dynasty kicked off that season. So, you know, there are guys who sometimes the team doesn't even necessarily believe in you, in the sense, to the extent that you believe in yourself. So there are a lot of really cool long-term development. projects that you see across the board. And sometimes it comes from some of the best managed teams in the NFL. I should have known this. The Packers did the exact same thing with Kenny Clark.

He played 32% of the snaps as a rookie at like 20 or 21 years old and is now one of the most dynamic interior defensive linemen in the league. Rishon Gary is 24. He is 24 years old. And he's already playing like this. And they have him under contract for this year and next year. And it is an undeniable success story. And I just want to make myself pump the brakes a little bit more often when it comes to this type of stuff. Because I think that I have been guilty of getting ahead of myself and pouring dirt on guys who are one or two years into their careers. And that's just not how this should work. All right.

One more thing we're going to run through here with Jeff. We did this with Boa a couple weeks ago. We're bringing it back. Are you buying this? A couple of things I want to talk about after the first four weeks of the season. first thing, I know you wanted to talk about the Jags a little bit. So here we go. Oh, yeah.

Are you buying Doug Peterson as the frontrunner for the coach of the year? I am buying. Buying it like it was cheap apple stock in 2004 whenever they came around. They are already a year ahead, at least, of where I thought they would be. And Peterson going to Jacksonville was one of the most fascinating off-season storylines, not from a media perspective, but for people with teams across the league. They were so excited to see Trevor Lawrence get coached by a grown-up that it was, there were a lot of eyes on Jacksonville.

And even with all of that being said, they still said, all right, well, you know what, they're going to be better. but look at how deep the AFC is. There's like 13 teams that could make a run for the playoffs. And those 13 did not include the Jaguars. The Jaguars are a legitimate two and two right now. And the most surprising thing about their start is just in hindsight, how did they lose to Washington in that opener?

Because they, you know, Trevor Lawrence fumbled the ball like 482 times against Philly. But like that was in the middle of a monsoon. And they still had a chance at the end of that game. So the seeing Trevor Lawrence's growth happen as quickly as it has is really cool because of where he was supposed to be coming out of college and then having his rookie season completely wiped away by the Urban Meyer disaster. And then the other part is they've allowed the fourth fewest points in the league already. You know, their defense is playing really well. So this is not like a, I just, this is not a fluke, I don't. think. I really believe, we just had a take two segment. I mean, we might need like a take two for a

take two in December or something like that if Jacksonville falls flat. But I really think Jacksonville, you know, they might not be there like in the end, like this might be division title or bust from a playoff perspective. But I think they have a really good chance to contend with the Titans for the AFC so title. I totally agree. And you're looking at the odds right now. Nick Siriani is the convincing favorite right now for coach of the year, which I know the Eagles are really good. I don't know if I agree with that. Mike McDaniel and Doug Peterson are tied for second. And that sounds right.

If you look at what the Eagles are right now, if this continues, Howie Roseman should be the unanimous selection for executive of the year. It shouldn't even be a conversation based on the moves that they have made and what it has done for them. Look at what happened last week. AJ Brown is good all the time. son Reddick has two strip sacks Jordan Davis is a monster in the middle of their defense against the run James Bradbury has a huge pick

these are all guys that have been added to this team in the last six months like how they have built this thing is insane so I think how he's 100% the front runner for that what Nick Siriani has done is impressive and the ways that they've been able to kind of shape shift that offense over the last couple of years he should probably be in the discussion and obviously Mike McDaniel has done

incredible things with what the dolphins have looked like on offense. But it's impossible to overstate the fact that the Jaguars were not a football team last season. They could not operate as an NFL team last year. They were the worst team in the league. And they made a couple additions, obviously. You know, they have multiple first round picks. They go sign Christian Kirk. But a lot of this roster is the same. Okay? You still have Shaq Griffin and Tyson Campbell and the safety. and a good chunk of the defensive line outside of Trayvon Walker, a lot of this team is the same.

And this goes from being the worst team in the NFL to a team that I legitimately think will compete to be in the playoffs and probably win that division if things stay at their current trajectory. That's the coach of the year. Also, Doug Peterson assembled this staff. He's the one that hired Mike Caldwell and turned this into a top five defense over the first month. So even if things fall off a tiny bit,

he's my pick right now over Nick Siriani over Mike McDaniel just because we have a control group here. We know what the Jags looked like without Doug Peterson last year. The Dolphins have been a competitive team before Mike McDaniel got there, even if the offense looks drastically improved. Night and day doesn't even begin to describe what it is to watch the Jags this year and what it is to watch them last year. So Doug Peterson gets my vote. I am buying that he should be the favorite for Coach of the Year. All right. One more here on the coaching side. Are you buying that Dimeco Ryan's will be the hot head coaching candidate when the cycle starts to ramp up?

I was stunned that he didn't get hired this past year. I thought he was really in position to get a head coaching job this past cycle. So yeah, he's going to be right there in the mix. Another name I hear more often than any of them is Dan Quinn. I think everybody believes that Dan Quinn is ready for another job. But Domingo Ryan is doing a fantastic job. Yet again, he is incredibly highly thought of in San Francisco and across the league. Super smart guy running a tremendous defense.

He's going to be right there. Again, Dan Quinn, Jonathan Gannon is going to be right there. Rahim Morris. So, yeah, those are the early favorites, I think. The Niners are going to Carolina this weekend. I know that there are contracts and that there are rules and all of that. what are the chances that the Panthers and David Tepper after that game finishes? I was like, you know what?

He should just stay here. Just stay in the building. We'll clean everything else out. We make you the head coach in week five. We'll just get ahead of this. No reason to belabor it. No reason to kind of let this thing go for another couple months. I think that both sides may be well served to do that.

Give him a little bit of a jumpstart on this thing. Can you trade for a coordinator in the middle of the season? Is that something? you can do? I mean, their defense is actually okay. I mean, obviously what Phil Snow is doing

is definitely better than what their offenses looked like for the last couple of years, but still feels like a change is coming. And DiMico Ryan's, I do think is going to be at the top of many of those lists. Look,

let's not, let's not stop the weird train here. Let's keep it rolling way off the tracks. Think about the amount of picks that the Niners gave up to move up for Trey Lance. So like, what's the price? that it would take.

Like they're sitting there and and the Panthers are like, we're going to give you three first round, two first round picks for your defensive coordinator to not get on that plane. Are the 49ers like, screw it. We don't, you know, whatever the rules are, let's make this thing happen. If there is one team that was willing to do it, I think it would be the Panthers considering how they've treated some of their draft picks and assets over the last couple years.

There's one owner that's like, yeah, two first for a coach, I'll do it. Whatever. It doesn't really matter. I think it might be David Tupper. All right, Jeff Howe, thank you very much, my friend, for the time. Really appreciate it. We'd love to do it again some time. Always get a chat with you.

Of course, fun time. Thanks for having me. See you. All right. It's time now to welcome stand-up comedian, host of Megan Funn of Sports on the Extra Points Podcast Network, and unfortunately for her right now, Indianapolis Colts fan. Megan, thank you very much for taking the time to be sad with us here. Thank you so much for having me.

I was doing a podcast earlier, and I usually at the end of podcasts say, go horse. And this one, I was like, go horse. And my co-host was like, we really should, we could really track your mental status based on the enthusiasm you can put behind go horse. We've been doing this as quarterback therapy. Well, we've done one of them. We're going to do this as quarterback therapy. This is mostly just a therapy session, I think, for the status of the Indianapolis Colts combined with what Matt Ryan looks like. So I want to take a slight step back.

post Andrew Luck retirement. What do you think the lowest point was as a Colts fan as it relates to the quarterback play with the franchise? I think probably having to give up a first round pick for Carson Wentz. So really? Okay. That's worse than Week 18 last year against the Jags. Well, that's all sort of, no, that was bad.

That was really bad. And having to watch Carson from multiple pick sixes on like the three and four yard line, but to then go, oh, we don't even have a pick in this draft in the first round because of that. Like the consequence felt worse because, you know, you lose to the Jags and you miss the playoffs. What were you really going to be able to do in the playoffs? But we also then, and I say we, I'm one of those fans. missed an important opportunity to be able to make the team better because of Carson wins. That's totally fair. I didn't even think about that. You have to separate the actual event

with the feeling afterward that it can't get better than it just was, which is really unfortunate. And I, so I'm a Chicago Bears fan. I have suffered my own sort of trauma and torment over the last 30 years of my life. But we've had the same quarterback, at least for multiple years, even if that quarterback has not been good. Every single offseason, Colts fans and the organization have gone through this thing the last three years where you're either scrambling for a quarterback, talking yourself into a quarterback you probably don't want to talk yourself into, or you have no idea what is going to happen. What has it been like every March 15th to not know who's going to be the starting quarterback of your team that theoretically has some real expectations

for that year? You know, it's not dissimilar to the pandemic where you're like, well, how long can this last. And then now you say three years, it's been five, really, because it was like once luck retired, then we sort of went in to the Jacoby Berset era, which I honestly think was probably the brightest spot, sadly, the fact that I have been able to talk myself into Philip Rivers and then Carson Wentz, and now what is unfortunately a very aged Matt Rivers. Ryan, it really is, it makes me wonder if I'm a masochist. It makes me wonder, am I well? And now I have a husband. I have a child. And I see just the sadness in my husband's face because I want him to root for the cults with me. And he's like, it's so bad. Like, it's so bleak. And I really,

Naeem Hines had a really interesting, and I think valid quote this week, where he's, He was like, listen, we are bad. I'm not trying to make an excuse. We have a different quarterback every single year. And so we're starting not even from zero, like negative. And then, yeah, we're not good. Like, why do you think we've lost, I think it's now nine game, like season openers, well, we tied this year, because we're set so far behind everyone else that, like,

look at the Broncos. They're struggling. And they have Russell Wilson and a better team around. him. And so it's, it's, it's, it's maddening. It's maddening. Is there part of you who has watched what Jacoby Preset has done for what has been like a top seven offense in Cleveland and wondered what would it, what would it have been like if we just didn't do this scrambling every single year and just rolled with Jacoby percent until we had another solution? You could have saved yourself so much trouble and concerned, it seems like. Um, I fully wonder that. I fully wonder that. I

I was, I still love Jacoby. I think Jacoby's a really great guy, too. People love him. Yeah, the year we let him walk, basically, because he said, I want to be a starting quarterback, and then he went to Miami, and he wasn't, he, he ends up being a fill-in, which I don't necessarily think is fair to him. But he was our Walter Payton Man of the Year nominee that year. And so you go, you think Philip Rivers is better?

I mean, I rearranged my bridal shower to be the weekend that Dwight Freeney's jersey was retired. And I had to go to a home Colts game and watch Brian Hoyer play for us. And it was so embarrassing. And all of our greats were there because of the Jersey retirement. So Peyton was there. Bob Sanders and his big old arms. They're all walking in, Reggie Wing. And they're having to watch Brian Hoyer.

and we got our ass kicked. And it was so embarrassing. And Hoosiers, like, they have other options. Purdue football is huge. IU football is, like, not great. And then once basketball season comes, it's all about that. So there is part of me that worries, is this, can the franchise even sustain being this underwhelming and bad year after year?

Matt Ryan looking old, like you said, As someone who's also barreling into his mid-30s, there's a sense of dread that comes from watching Matt Ryan in the last few weeks that makes me a little bit worried. But what were your Matt Ryan expectations compared to what Matt Ryan reality has looked like? So Carson Wentz was so chaotic. And for a man seemingly so boring to even be able to create that amount of chaos is kind of incredible. Because it's not, like he doesn't say or do anything. He's just such a a fuddy dutty and it's just like assonite and it honestly feels like clown music should be playing over every single one of his highlights and i mean that with love i like truly want the best for him and his red-headed

children and i think he's like a fine person i don't know if i would elect him president but honestly i probably would so when matt ryan came in i equated it to i go this is like if your mom had gotten and divorced or your dad died a tragic death. And then she just had a series of some of the worst boyfriends on earth. And then finally, she gets this new boyfriend. Is he the hottest? No, is he rich? Not at all. But he manages a grocery store and he brings home bread that's about to go stale. And he seems like a good guy and he tucks you in and he treats your mom nice. And that's what I felt with Matt Ryan. I go, we're not going to win the Super Bowl with him, but it's going to at least be calm. And there's going to be food on the table and the lights are going to be on. And now it's

like, you know, maybe, maybe some demons are seeping back into this character that my mom is seeing. The best part about this, I think that's exactly what they thought. I think it was just going to be like a reliable guy who had a solid nine to five. He wasn't going to do anything. crazy and everything was probably going to be okay, even if it wasn't going to be great. And by a lot of advanced metrics, they've been the worst offense in the NFL. Yeah, with the best offensive player by a lot of other metrics who is now injured because of their terrible play. In Matt Ryan's defense, I do think the offensive line is so bad.

And they are the highest paid offensive line in the NFL. I think they got a lot of credit last year with Jonathan Taylor's success. He bought them all Louis Vuitton luggage. And I tweeted this weekend, pack up your Louis Vuitton luggage and get the hell out of this town. Because I don't want to see anyone. Quentin Nelson, give the money back. Everyone says you're so great. I would like to have your money back.

And I would like to invest it into a quarterback. I'm wondering, the tragic death of the father in your analogy led me to believe that there might be some lingering feelings. about what happened with Andrew Luck. Do you feel like you have moved past it? Do you feel like Colts fans or as a fan base will ever move past it? Like what is the lingering emotion about the Andrew Luck retirement and how it impacts you all at this moment? So I tend to be a little different than other Colts fans. When he announced his retirement, I honestly was sad and then also heard his reasoning and said, he is right, good for him. And I think what we have seen over the last week and a half happen to quarterbacks in this league only drives home the fact of

Andrew Luck was coming from a really difficult but probably very educated place and said, listen, I went to Stanford. My dad's rich. I got a book club. I got kids. I'm not going to open a car dealership that has bikini models dry you off. I probably have a business and a brain to really be able to squeak out a wonderful life after football. And this team whose GM was basically a mean Shrek was not able to put anything in front of me. That's Ryan Grigsson. Okay. Was not able to put any defense in front of me to help me at all.

So I still question the timing of it. Like I don't think we'll ever know the timeline of why did it happen two weeks before the season started? That seems spotty. I wonder if he was saying like, hey, I'm going to see if I don't think I'm in this and they talked him into it. And then he said, nah, I'm really not in this. Colts fans, when they booed him as he was leaving that preseason game, I think that put a curse on us. I think that put a curse, much like the Billy Goat.

And we are now having to suffer the consequences of these fucking idiots that booed this wonderful man. And I just don't know, there's no justification for going from Philip Rivers to Carson Wentz, unless some sort of witch has put a curse on your team. It's the best possible explanation that I've heard, that I've heard so far. I love this. My brother, who I find to be an educated, lovely man, he's like, Andrew Luck can burn in hell for all he cares.

And I'm like, no, no, no. Like, there are Colts fans that will never forgive him and are truly so angry and do not understand why he did what he did. It's got to be some sort of like seance or ritual that has to happen if that continues to be the case. And I don't even think luck put the curse on us. I think it's far too sweet of a soul. But I watched hocus pocus too last night. And I, a virgin lit a candle somewhere. And it is, we got to undo it. And I know Frank Greck used to be a pastor. It's like, can he come in, spray some holy water on us? We truly need a. an exorcism.

This is the ultimate, like, way that this segment could go. And that's an exorcism is exactly how I want all of these to end. Just calling for an exorcism. So, Megan, thank you very, very much for the time. I thoroughly enjoyed this. And hopefully we can do it again some time. Thank you. I mean, I hope so too.

I guess go horse. All right. That's all we got. Thank you so much to Megan. That was wonderful. Thank you to Jeff Howe. really appreciate the time from both of them. We will be back Thursday afternoon, 3.30 p.m. Eastern, me, Nate, Deonte, Week 5.

Preview. A lot of fun stuff to dig into. Talk about some stuff that we just can't really figure out, like the Giants or why the Seahawks offense is good. A lot of exciting things on tap for Week 5. Bengals Ravens game of the week. Please come back and check that out live on YouTube. If you have not subscribed to the YouTube channel, you can do that by clicking in the link in the description of this podcast.

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