The Athletic Football Show: A show about the NFL - Saquon Barkley's back, Panic Time Meter, and more inside the post-Week 1 narrative with Bo Wulf

Episode Date: September 15, 2022

Week 1 may not be everything, but it certainly isn't nothing, either. Bo Wulf joins Robert Mays on this episode of The Athletic Football Show to take stock of what we saw in Week 1 now that we've had a few days to let it all simmer. Are the Bills the best team in the NFL? Is Saquon Barkley all the way back? Is it time for the Packers, Rams or Cardinals to panic? The guys answer those questions, and a whole lot more.Follow Robert on Twitter: @robertmaysFollow Bo on Twitter: @Bo_WulfSubscribe to The Athletic Football Show...AppleSpotifyYouTube Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

This is the Athletic Football Show. To the Athletic Football Show. Today's Thursday, September 15th. I'm Robert Mays. Joining me today, the Athletics Zone, Bull Wolf. Well, how are you doing, man? I'm doing good. How are you?

I'm doing very well. We really appreciate you joining us for the first edition of our newly revamped Thursday show. You and I both had podcast partners stolen away from us, so we're both kind of figuring out with what new look shows happen to be. this season. So this year on Thursdays, we're going to do a similar sort of show to what we did last year with Lindsay, just kind of talking through some of the headlines, some of the bigger storylines throughout the league. But we're going to have a rotating group of guests, and I'm very happy to have you be the first person sitting in that chair. Well, thank you. You've still got Nate. I've still got Zach. So, you know, we're better off. That's

what we've got to keep telling ourselves, right? That's the story I'll tell myself. I'll feel a little bit better that way. We're going to start all of these shows on Thursday, just running through some of the headlines. A lot of news creeps up throughout the week that can't necessarily hit on the Monday night show or on the Sunday night show or on the Wednesday show. So let's start with the Dak Prescott injury. News came out earlier today, I think yesterday that he is not going on injured reserve, which means he could miss fewer than four games. Seems like potentially some wishful thinking on the part of the Cowboys. Again, try to tell themselves a story about where Dak Prescott is right now. But I think semi-good news that this might not be the season torpedoing injury that it might have seemed like at first glance.

Yeah, I mean, it's weird, right? You get that like if there's some kind of like rhino bone marrow or something that Jerry Jones can access that's going to help heal Jack Prescott sooner, he will make sure that he can find it. But it's a little bit weird. It also sounds like J. Ron Curse's injury is not as bad as they originally thought. So maybe it's just all good news or maybe, you know, Jerry has just deep enough pockets to fix people's body parts like that. But yeah, I think when the injury initially happened, you're thinking, okay, the Cowboy season's over. like Dan Bruegler is tweeting about how Cowboys fans are already asking him about draft prospects for next year. If he's only going to be out, even if it is only four or five games, maybe they're still a chance. So their next five games, Bengals, which is a pretty big game with Cooper Rush. I think that's going to be a tough sliding with him. They get the Giants, Washington. After that, Rams and Eagles. So IR would mean at least four games, which would include that Rams game.

If they think he could be back in four weeks and be back for the Rams and potentially the Eagles, That could be huge because if he's out any longer than that and they keep skitting and they end up losing that game to the Eagles, the season gets away from them pretty quickly. Yeah, I would say so. And I mean, like, Cooper Rush was, I thought, like, not quite as bad as I was expecting when he came in Sunday night. Now, I guess the conditions of the game were pretty beneficial to him. Like, the Bucks did not care at that point. Not going to read a ton into that. We've seen back of quarterbacks be okay.

Listen, I have been through the Benny Danucci era. So I have had lower expectations. But, yeah, I mean, I think the Cowboys told you what they thought of Cooper. rush when they released him during roster cutdowns and then resigned him, right? The fact that they just rolled into this season with that, I mean, I thought they were a Jimmy G team potentially if they were looking for a higher end backup, a breaking case for emergency type guy if he were to be released for this exact sort of situation because now they're staring down this Cooper Rush reality for the next month.

And the Eagles are pretty good. I don't know if you know this as somebody who covers that team every single day, but I think the Eagles have a chance to be pretty good. Yeah. And I think they have a chance now to potentially run away with the division. if things get really south. Can I pitch you my crazy three-way trade idea that I had in the power rankings after? You certainly can.

Aaron Rogers, Iowaska. Let's say that like the Ravens have come to a decision that Lamar, the contract's not going to happen. And the Niners have come to the idea that, okay, you know what? It's not going so well with Trey Lance. How about Trey Lance to the Ravens so he can just run the same offense? Lamar Jackson to the Cowboys with a handshake deal that they're going to let him go to the open market next year. This would be if Dak Prescott's out for the year.

And then like a bunch of picks and, I don't know, a running back to the Niners. Letting you do the power rankings was a mistake. Well, the ayahuasca was a mistake too. All right, next one here. And I guess in semi-good injury news, T.J. Watt only expected to miss about six weeks with that peck injury. When it happened, and he pointed to his arm immediately,

my first thought was, that's it. I mean, he tore a pack. He's out for the season. What does that mean for the Steelers? But it sounds like he's only going to miss six weeks. Steelers traded for Malik Reid right before the season started to give themselves a little bit more edge depth. That now becomes very prescient because he's going to step into a starting role most likely. Alex Hithsmith looked like an all-pro pass record on Sunday.

And six pressures. I mean, he was dominating Jonah Williams for stretches of that game. So it seems like they might be able to survive. Obviously, when you lose arguably the most impactful defensive play. in the league. It's a huge deal. But the fact that this is only six weeks and not season ending, there's a chance that their defense hangs on for dear life until he gets back. Well, and this is a team building thing that, like, you just talked about, like, they planned for this possibility, and the Cowboys didn't, right? Like, the Cowboys didn't have a good backup

plan. It's not like there is a great backup plan for T.J. Watt, but at least the Steelers thought this through. Yeah. I mean, obviously, he really tilts what the defense is when he's in there. That's the nature of being the defensive player of the year. But it seems like they might be able to get by just enough. Their defense can need to carry them. We're going to talk about the Steelers defense or offense a little bit on tomorrow's show. They are not in a good place. So this defense needs to be very, very good.

And doing that without T.J. Watt, degree of difficulty gets risen just a little bit. Well, the other thing that occurred to me is, is like maybe T.J. Watt, if he's out for six weeks and the defense can still be, you know, close to the same level, maybe that gives the shine on Mink of Fitzpatrick that he deserves. I mean, he was a star in that, that we, week one game, maybe he gets a little bit of defensive player of the year. A couple more injuries here.

Keenan Allen is out on Thursday. Sounds like with that hamstring injury, it doesn't sound like they're going to rush him back. I think that makes a lot of sense. Josh Palmer is a guy that we've seen in limited action be pretty good. Obviously, they still have Mike Williams. Donald Parham is also a little bit dinged up. So they're losing past catching options and the fact that they have to keep pace with

the chiefs a little bit later tonight, probably not a good thing. But hopefully Keenan Allen is back sooner rather than later. Jamal Adams sounds like he is out for the year with a knee. injury, pretty brutal blow for the Seahawks. And then Elijah Mitchell went on IR. He's going to be out for at least a month with a knee injury. It's always not fun when we get to week one and you realize that this is how football works and that all of these guys are going to be gone for stretches of time.

My Elijah Mitchell reaction was like good for Debo for standing firm on his contract demands because like now they're just going to make him a running back again. Right. So at least he made sure that he got what he deserved. All right. Each week on this show, we're going to roll out some notable quotes from the week in the NFL. We're calling this segment read between the lines, kind of digging a little bit, one layer under the surface of what these quotes might seem like. Roll our first one here.

Yeah, that's not validation to me. That's, I just didn't take that word. You're right about everything you just said. What is the word? Well, that didn't, I didn't need the validation. I just wanted it. I just wanted to win. I wanted to win for all of the reasons that come along with this one.

maybe as much as anything is representing the guys that had played before. It meant a lot to those guys. And I was so thrilled to be able to hug those guys up and see them and look them in the eye. Why did it mean so much to them? You figure that out. But it was really meaningful and they really wanted it. And I knew we were playing for a lot more than just the regular stuff. That is Seattle Seahawks coach Pete Carroll earlier this week on Seattle 710 AM with Mike Salk and Brock Heward,

talking about what this game meant to some former Seahawks that happened to be in attendance in their win over the Broncos on Monday. The shit that Pete Carroll has said over the past week is absolutely wild. I knew that this game was big on that level, whether it meant a lot to Russell Wilson or it meant a lot to Pete Carroll in this organization. But the fact that every single guy who played for the Seahawks between like 2012 and 2020 took great delight in Russell Wilson losing that game, I don't think I was ready for it to rise to this level.

They all had their, they all had their tweets like pre-planned what they were going to have, like the Doug Baldwin one I saw. You know, it's kind of refreshing, though, right? It's awesome. You don't have to pretend that there's no ill will here. Like, you know, Doug Peterson and Carson Wentz, it's not quite as acrimonious of a split, but like those guys are going up against each other. And it's like, okay, yeah, it's going to be nice.

We're going to not really talk about our own past. This is great. Like, be honest, lean into it. I'm like, do you think that if the Seahawks like lose the rest of their games, they go one in 16? Pete Carroll would still take that if you asked them honestly. Probably. Not validation. This isn't validation for Pete.

It's so good. I really just wasn't ready for it to be this level of enmity. I don't know why. I mean, I should have probably should have. Like the story that Seth McIrasham wrote way back when, you know, Greg Bishop has written about this subject a couple different times and just what, especially those guys on the defense, how they looked at Russell Will. and KJ. Wright came out this morning and on his radio show in Seattle was talking about how early on during Russell Wilson's tenure, he just didn't feel like there was the same level of accountability for Russ that there was for guys on the defense. And this push in the poll when you have a lot of success is always fascinating. And if I'm one of those guys on those Legion of Boom defenses and I look at what Russell Wilson was in that equation and what that defense was and how it drove their success, I can understand being a little bit pissed off that this guy takes up so much. so much oxygen and so much space within the conversation. Yeah, totally.

And it's, you know, these people dynamics of things in the locker room are something that it's hard to account for from the outside. So it's nice for it to be so aggressive that it bubbles to the surface for everybody to see. And anyway, I mean, it was, it was fascinating. And, like, it is also part of why, like, the Nathaniel Hackett decision to not go for it was so crazy because think about how much this game meant to Russell, Wilson. He was thinking about this game all offseason, and you're not going to give him that chance to go get that first down? Come on. All right, Bauer. Let's get our next one here. We've got a lot of

really top football players, and we've got an outstanding group that's coaching them up, in my view. And in no way when you play the amount of football that we play that you can think negatively, and everybody does, and that's normal. But, boy, we've got a lot of positive things we can do. I have seen it just look hopeless and walk out there and David's slave, the giant, I've seen it done. That is Dallas Cowboys owner, Jerry Jones. The reason that I wanted to do this one,

we don't have to spend a ton of time on this, the Cowboys trying in any way to frame themselves as David in a David and Goliath battle, is incredible. The Cowboys are a $7 billion football franchise. Have you ever been to the star? It's the most ridiculous building I've ever seen in my entire life, combined with the stadium.

Jerry, you didn't have to not spend any money on players this offseason or have Cooper Rush as your backup quarterback. You have built yourself into this David, even though you are the most valuable franchise in professional sports in America. Maybe that was there. Maybe that was their galaxy brain plan of not spending any money in the offseason. It was a rebranding to be David, yeah. I just, I love that.

I love that Jerry Jones, of all people, can kind of frame himself as the little guy in this moment. It's amazing. The knots that some of these guys can twist themselves into. All right, last one of, I think, lead into the next one, too. Last one here, Beller. You guys wrote our obituary back in May, and you'll continue to write our obituary, who cares? Because we got 16 games, and we don't learn from this and get better. And we got to go play L.A. They got a three-day jump on us. So we'll watch the tape. We'll

look for corrections, and then we've got to get going on the Rams. That's Falcons head coach Arthur Smith. You wanted to chat about this one. Yeah, I think this is, I mean, this is so rich. You know, listen, I know that Arthur Smith has had a tough draw in life. He's been through a lot. You know, the odds have been stacked against him at every step of the way. But for him to come out after that game and put it on like, you guys didn't believe in us, you know who didn't believe in the Falcons? Arthur Smith, fourth and one, fourth and one from the 42 to win the game. The Saints are out of timeouts.

Get one yard in a game when you have rushed for over 200 yards, like 5.8 yards per carry. The Ben Baldwin, fourth down bot, I think, has it as a plus 15. and a half win percentage, win probability. It's like, it's not even a lean yes. It's a, you better do this or you should be fired, basically. And he punts, he doesn't believe in his team to get it. And then he comes out and puts it on the media. Give me a break.

All right. In defense of Arthur Smith here, here's what I will say. It was a long one. It was like 1.7 yards. So if that makes any sort of difference, then I would like to point that out. Because when I was watching the replay, I expected to be like fourth and all most inches. And it was like a yard and a half almost two yards. Also,

they had fumbled the snap before. Yeah, I get why you'd want to kick it away because if you don't get that yard, you're essentially losing the game because you're giving the ball back at the 42 yard line. All they have to do is kick a field goal. I absolutely would have gone for it to be clear if I was in that situation. But I understand the rationale. I also think this is very different for me than Jerry Jones trying to make himself into the little guy. Everyone did bury the Falcons. Everyone was tossing dirt on the falcons the entire offseason. If you're going to send the message that we believe in ourselves more than you guys,

it's you like we are the team that nobody believed in, then go get two yards. Yeah, that's fair. That's fair. I will say if I'm in Arthur Smith's position, I think that trying to shape it into like everyone, no one believes in us all of this stuff when you're a team with as little talent as the Falcons. I can understand that messaging if I'm Arthur Smith, even if I think it's a little bit contrived. Well, yeah, I mean, it's definitely contrived, but I don't know.

I just like, I thought that. that that was incredibly rich. The person who mattered who didn't believe in them was you. All right. After week one, I think there's a lot of stuff to sort through about what is real and what's not. We're going to do that on a couple different levels today. I want to go through a few of the good things that happened in a week one, a few of the stars, whether it's teams, players, that really shined and whether or not we're buying this. And let's start with the Buffalo Bills and their performance that they had against the Rams on Thursday night. Are you, buying that the bills right now are the best team in the league pretty clearly?

So I think my answer is yes. I think I do buy that they are the best team in the league. I think they're the only team who you can make a really strong case has maybe the best offense in the league and maybe the best defense in the league, right? It was such a dominant performance. I think it's hard to not buy that. The one thing that I don't like push come to shove, you know, like water gun to my toe, you're telling me right now that they're going to play the AFC championship game tomorrow against the Chiefs, I think I'm still betting on Patrick Mahomes. That's just how I feel. We haven't really had a chance to talk about this game at all, again, just the way the schedule fell, it fell through the cracks a little bit. I do think they're the best team in the league.

And I think it's for a few different reasons. Watching their secondary against the Rams and just what that team looks like in zone coverage, really independent of who's out there, the fact that Trey White is out, you got a couple rookie corners and just how well they play together, the level of communication, they're all playing on a string. It's consistently impressive. And I think their defensive coaching, especially on the back end, has been one of the kind of secret sauce elements of why that team has been really, really good over the last couple years. And that hasn't changed. I mean, this idea that their defensive staff continuity has been intact. Since Sean McDermott got there, I really think is important.

You see that. You see that in the way that they play. And what happened up front? I love the fact that this is a team of finishing number one in defensive BVOA last season. They drafted two pass rushers in the first two rounds. And even before that, AJ Epinessa is a second round pick. There are so many reasons why they could have looked at that group

that they had up front for last season and said, oh, again, and Oliver is a top 10 pick. They've shoved so many resources into that position group. There's so many reasons they could have sat there, looked at the group that they had, and be like, you know what? We can talk ourselves into this. A little bit more development.

Take a couple steps forward. We're already the best defense in the league. We don't necessarily need to revamp this. And I think that they've done such a good job of getting out in front of stagnation and regression, just so many things that can come for your defense over time since Brandon Bean has gotten there. And the fact that not only Von Miller in the huge contract that he got, Jordan Phillips was incredible in that game. The entire defensive line is revamped and they have all of those highly drafted guys. that they've been trotting out over the last couple of years.

And the fact that that group could be absolutely dominant without blitzing, in part because of how intentional they were about retooling that position this offseason, it really points to me why the bills are the example for team building in the NFL right now. Well, and it's one of those, like, very cliche football things that you hear. Like, you know, if you can only get pressure on Tom Brady up the middle, then that's really the way to get to him. But, like, yeah, if you can get home with four, that's like the golden ticket.

Everybody knows that. But for them to actually be able to like rely on being able to do that and they were so dominant in that game, it's like it's the skeleton key, right? Because then you can do whatever you want on the back end. Yeah, absolutely. And when you have the resources on the back end, you saw that. You saw what that looks like in practice on Thursday. And that going to the offensive side of the ball, I'm terrified by what Josh Allen looks

like right now. And you saw it over the second half of last season. And that second Patriots game, the one that was not in a windstorm. how reliant he was on checkdowns, short passes, being able to take what was there, and just how comfortable he was with that kind of play style. I really do think it was kind of a light bulb moment for this team. And you saw that again on Thursday. If we're going to be playing against these teams that put a roof over us the entire game,

don't let us push the ball down the field, and we have to operate in these more constrained areas, what does that look like? And he's just fine playing that way now. the ball placement, the precision, just him reining in his ambition in some of those situations. And then the single moment where he's allowed to take a couple shots, he's able to. This version of him where everything in structure is the way that it's supposed to look, every single opportunity he has to push the ball down the field, he takes it.

And you still have those out of structure improvisational. I need to make my offensive coordinator right when he's not sort of plays. that blend of stuff, I love Justin Herbert, right? Like I am one of the world's biggest Justin Herbert proponents. But this version of Josh Allen, I think, is pretty clearly the second most dangerous quarterback in the league. Now, are you like me that when you're seeing him run, when you're seeing him lower his shoulder, you're wincing a little bit?

No, I don't. And I don't, maybe it's just because he's so big. And the way that he's playing is just slightly different stylistically from some of these other quarterbacks. This is a weird thing for me. I think that there are certain guys who, even if they're playing a little bit more physical, the way that they fall and the way that their body moves and all of that stuff, it doesn't worry me quite as much. Justin Fields is so far on the other end of this. How awkwardly he slides all the time, how many shots he takes. He often puts himself in pretty precarious spots, even with some of the punishment that Josh Allen takes from a collision standpoint,

I just don't feel that way when I watch him. I don't feel that way when I watch Lamar because he's so good at avoiding a lot of that contact. There are just certain quarterbacks that it's in the back of my mind, it's not always he's getting hurt, he's getting hurt. Fields is like that. I think Burrow is like that a little bit where he just takes so many huge shots, but I just don't feel that way about Josh Allen. Maybe that's my own personal thing, but I don't have that feeling when I watch him play.

I sort of think that way about Jalen Hertz too, and I know we'll talk about him. but my thing with Josh Allen on that front is just like end of the season. I'm fine with it. It's just like I'm thinking to myself, it's week one. You're right. Do you need to lead into it? Week one? Like it's a long road we got to get through.

That's how I felt about Burrow on Sunday. It's like you do not need to be taken seven sacks in week one against the Steelers. Like just every play does not need to be a make or break of life or death. The season is on the line sort of approach. And too often I think he plays like that. And I'm a little bit worried about his long. turn viability because of it. All right, you mentioned Jalen Hertz.

Are you buying this that Jalen Hertz has finally figured it out, that he is a different quarterback than he was at the end of last season after his performance on Sunday in Detroit? I mean, I would say no. I don't think he's all of a sudden a different quarterback. I think you saw signs that he has improved in some areas. And I think a lot of those things are like A.J. Brown brings them to the team or like hand delivers them to him.

We talked about it over the summer, but, you know, completing passes over the middle of the field. That's what AJ Brown brings. That's what Jalen Hurts delivered in this game. There was her opening touchdown drive. He completes four passes over the middle of the field, three of them to AJ Brown for like 50 yards total. That's great. He was, he only threw one deep in this game. He had the lowest A dot in the league. It was like four yards. It was like four and a half, which is like, it's funny because last year, his lowest was week one also. And then in week two, it was the deepest in the league. So they completely changed the offense. So we'll see what they do this year. But that was a beautiful throw to AJ Brown. It was a dime. He was towards the bottom

of the league in completion percentage on those deep throws last year. So that was good to see. And there were some times when he was moving to his second and third progression. So I think he definitely played a very good game. You know, the Eagles were second in the league and EPA per drive, that offensive performance. But also, like, the Lions sort of played into his hands to some degree in that they blitzed a lot and played heavy man defense. So you're inviting him to be as efficient, Rambler as he was. So, I mean, I think there's still a long way to go. But the conversation in some parts of Eagles fandom where it's like, well, if he plays like this, this is not going to work in the playoffs. Like he has to be a different quarterback. First of all, you don't want to take away what he does

well. And second of all, like the Eagles schedule lines up really well. It's a very easy schedule. The NFC does not look that great. If the question is like, can he play like this on a neutral field and beat, you know, 10 teams with better quarterbacks, probably not. But if he plays like this and they keep winning, like the one seat is not out of the realm of possibility. And can he play like this at home and win two games? Like, yeah, definitely. So I don't know. But is he definitely a different quarterback? I'm not so sure. I'm willing to say that yet. Yeah, I'm not willing to say that yet either. I do think that the circumstances and the overall formula, the fact that they were willing to throw the ball that much, I think is an encouraging step in the

direction, right? The idea that they can be this version of the offense where it's more pass-happy, where you're getting A.J. Brown the ball, all of those things. Jayland-Herts doesn't even necessarily have to be a different version of who he was last year for this version of the offense to work. I just think the fact that they have enough faith in him to throw the ball. How many times do they throw it? 45 times in this game? Something like that. Yeah. Dropbacks at least, yeah. I mean, the idea there were 45 or so dropbacks in this game, I think, is a huge step in the right direction because now you have the past catchers where as long as you're willing to throw the ball, you don't have to ask a ton of him.

So many tunnel screens, so many slants, all of that kind of stuff. So I feel more optimistic about the Eagles passing game, even if I don't feel more optimistic about J.1 Hertz. That should be the case considering they have A.J. Brown, but I liked the recipe and what that ultimately looked like. I've never had a ton of concerns about J.1 Hertz in terms of accuracy. That to me is not the biggest thing. when everything's moving in the same direction, he's letting it rip.

I don't think he's an overly inaccurate quarterback. It's about processing to me. It's about getting from one to the next, and it's about the timing that he plays with all of those elements, that we still need to see. If teams are going to take away this version of their passing game and really make him make decisions, we still haven't seen that yet.

So this is definitely checking the box week one. It's what you want to see from AJ Brown. It's what you want to see game plan-wise. But I think if teams make them play left-handed, when they're throwing the ball. I still want to see what that looks like. Yeah, and I think Devante Smith is a part of that. He had no catches in this game,

and that's something that's, like, very much on the Eagles radar. Did you guys ask about that play where he hit, where Jay and Hertz hit him in the back of the ball? Yeah, exactly. We didn't ask about that specific play, and I had one catch that was called back, but, yeah, I mean, they did not look really on the same page like they did at times last year.

And this is the kind of thing where, like, in the locker room after the game, coaches and players, like if they're asked about AJ Brown, who had 10 catches for 150 yards, 55 yards. You want to gas this guy up? They're like, well, you know, like, we like all of our receivers. It's not just AJ. We like all the weapons that we have.

Like, they are very pre-aware of the fact that they're going to have to balance these targets. So it's going to be interesting to follow that. But I also think in terms of like going through his progressions, I talked to Jason Kelsey about this in the locker room after the game. And he was saying, like, you know, if it's one read, two, read three read, or if it's one read two read go. Like if it's one read two, we'd go. That means we don't have to block as long.

Like, that's fine. We talked about this you and I, I think, during training camp. It's not about him not running. It's about him running quickly. And there was one play, I think, on the second drive where there was a little sit route over the ball. He looked at it. It wasn't there. And he took off.

And he scrambled to his left and he could probably gain like 10 or 15 yards. That's totally fine as an outcome. But there are going to be moments where he needs to get from one to two and actually throw the ball. I mean, those are going to come up over the course of the season. when they do, what does it actually look like, I think is a really big question. Ted wrote something today I thought was fascinating about how receivers, really good receivers, have now become the guys that can carry the load for their offense. If you look at the amount of targets that some of the guys around the league got in week one,

Cooper Cup, A.J. Brown, Devante Adams, Justin Jefferson. I love that. I love the fact that some of these teams that are going out of their way to accrue a receiver of this caliber or to, even when you stumble into one like the Vikings did with Jefferson or in a way like the Rams did with Cup, understanding what you have and understanding that it's totally fine to build the entire passing game plan out of how you get this guy the ball. I think more and more offensive coaches understanding that and leaning into that is only a good thing for their offense. It's only a good thing for us because it's fun of shit to watch.

I think that's exactly right. I was talking about this the other day. There are guys who are good enough that, like, they completely change the ceiling of the offense. And it's like, we might get to the Packers, but like the hubris to think that you're going to be able to just replace Devante Adams with a second round pick, a fourth round pick and a, you know, a journeyman career underachiever like Sammy Watkins. Like, yeah, you might have a good offense, but you're not going to just replace that guy. He totally changes everything. Next one here. Carson Wentz is a functional NFL quarterback.

Are you buying this? to find functional. Carson Wens can be the quarterback of an above average passing offense over the course of an entire season. I think I would probably still say no. But I mean, I think that performance against the Jags was eighth in the league in terms of EPA per drive. Like, he was okay. You know, those interceptions were very wenzian. But I think you would give credit to the offensive design.

They've certainly got enough weapons around him. The offensive line is not very good. but I do think that like push come to shove. He's, you know, the bad Carson Wentz is going to show up plenty. But like top half of the league, top 10 passing offense, I think still probably not. But I think I think what you saw in week one was probably about as good as you could expect. I don't think I thought enough about how much better the past catching options were going to be for Washington, even compared to what they were last year. And we joked when I was in Washington talking.

talking to Ben Stand Day during training camp, I think the day after I saw you, well, now Curtis Samuel is healthy. Think about where we were a year ago and how much of a difference that makes. And I kind of said it jokingly. Oh, my God, Curtis Samuel was on the field. What's that going to mean for them? Curtis Samuel was a really important piece of their offense in week one. They were using him in all of these different ways, whether it was as eye candy

or in some of the quads looks that they had. Having him with Jahan Dotson and Terry McLaren and then Antonio Gibson as a past catcher, what J.D. McKissick is. this team has a lot of guys who can do damage as receivers and with the ball in their hands. And I think Scott Turner is very good at this. If you look at what they were doing offensively, especially those first couple drives and just some of those designs, I mean, they had the sale route to Antonio Gibson coming from out of the backfield in like a split-gun look down near the red zone. That shit is really fun.

And when you have somebody who understands how to deploy the amount of juice they have at those past catching spots, all Carson once has to do is not screw this up. You could probably say the same thing about last year's team, but I do feel better after that game than I felt coming into the season because I think this is exactly the formula they were looking for, exactly the reason that they were willing to say, all we need is somebody that can make some of these throws at Taylor Heineke. That's all we need for the offense to take a step forward.

And at least one week into the season, it seems like that's correct. I think that's like the predicament with Carson Wence is that you sort of think that he needs to be a caretaker, but that's not what he is. Like he's going to have negative plays a lot of the time. But if he also has the upside of making those throws that you're talking about that Taylor Hineke could make, it's a different, it's a different formula, right? It's not just let's be safe. It's let's take the high variance on both sides. And there are going to be times when that looks really good and there are going to be times when it looks really good. and there are going to be times where it looks really, really bad.

I think that's exactly right. I don't think it's, Carson Wentz is not a middle of the road option where it's like, all right, he's going to take what's there. But that throw to Gibson, he rips that ball outside the numbers. And that's just not the type of throw you're going to see from what they had a quarterback over the last couple seasons. You're going to have some terrifying, stupefying moments over the course of the year. But even if the average of those two things is a little bit higher than it was last year,

even if it's the 16th best offense in the league, I think they'll take that compared to what they've been getting. Yeah, that makes sense. Also, like, you know, you get one season of Taylor Hineke, that's pretty much all you need to see. That's very true. All right, next one here. Sequin Barclay is back. Are you buying this?

I think I sort of am. I am too. I think you look really juicy in that game. And you know what? You know what really sold me was the two-point conversion? Because the Titans read that. Like, they had two guys right there. They saw what was coming, and he just bounced right off of them.

And I mean, also, like, the jukewarm. juicy he had on that really long run. That was impressive. But I am sort of buying it. I thought he looked really good better than he has at any point since he was a rookie. Yeah, I totally agree. I mean, I went back and I watched and the success rate was like, I think he had a 50% success rate on his carries in that game. There were some negative plays, but it's not like it was, you know, two yards, two yards, 70 yards. He was looked explosive. The vision looked really good. Some nice moments from an offensive line that's kind of been pieced together. Josh Azudu, who's a third round pick of theirs, Shane Lemieux was

going to be there starting left guard this year. He's out for a good chunk of the season. So he had to start a left guard in this game. And I thought he had some decent moments. He wasn't great all the way throughout. I think this offensive line isn't going to be great from day one. They got a rookie starting at right tackle. Now they have a rookie starting at left guard. Got a couple journeymen on the interior. But I do think they might be good enough for Seekwan Barkley to be able to show signs of life. And one game into the season, I am excited to watch Seekoine Barkley week in week out. And that is not something that I have felt over the last couple years. Yeah, I would say I am not buying the Giants.

Like they did not really deserve to win that game. They had no business winning it and credit to Brian Davel for going for it, unlike Arthur Smith. But I am buying, I am buying Sequin Barkley. And I think they'll be good enough that we will be able to see him show that juice as long as he can stay healthy. Last one here. Kevin O'Connell is the next big thing. Are you buying this? Well, I am certainly buying that we're going to get the media narrative that he is.

I mean, he's a Sean McVeigh disciple. So there is like he has no choice. That's like it's like his given birthright as a McVe disciple head coach. So I mean, I thought that the things that he, some of the things he did in that game were very impressive. I want to see a few more games of it before I crown him. But I certainly think he's going to get talked about that way. It's early. It's very, very early.

But the early returns are pretty damn good. And what they looked like on offense is exactly what I hope they would look like on offense. I picked him as my coach of the year before the season. and I thought that Justin Jefferson would be the offensive player of the year. The odds for both of those, Bell are like halved after one week. So it felt pretty good about both of those choices. One week into the year, a long way to go. But I do think that he, we talked about this on the Sunday show a little bit.

There's so many of those McVeigh accovites throughout the league. And I think that it's the same way with any coaching, Trey. Did you learn the good lessons or the bad lessons from the place that you came from? And I think that watching the way they deploy Jefferson, watching just the structure of that offense, even some of the little tweaks personnel-wise or in the run game that they were willing to do, it wasn't just copy-paste from the things that the Rams have done

over the last couple of years. I think it was the right ethos behind some of that decision-making and the way that you build an offense while also tailoring it correctly to your personnel. And that's really all you can ask for. And it's a long, long way to go. And I'm really excited to see what it looks like against Philly on Monday night, the fact that that is a week two game.

Already looks a lot better than it did before the season started. I think that the early returns are good enough that it's trending in the right direction. I guess that's what I would say. Well, and if you see the Eagles defense that showed up in week one, that let the Lions have the third best offensive performance of the week, then I think the Kevin O'Connell stock is your odds on the coach of the year that are going to get even shorter. All right.

end of this. There's a lot of panic that comes with week one, obviously. We haven't seen any of these teams. And if you're a team that's harboring Super Bowl aspirations and you have a pretty devastating week one loss, I think it's easy to overreact. So I want to figure out how much we should be panicking with some of these teams that lost in week one. On a scale of one to 10, we're going to tap into the panic meter here. Packers. It's like a Jody Foster. Panic room. Yeah, that's exactly right. Yes. said the doors are slamming. Packers, one to ten. How much panic are we talking about with Green Bay? Like three? Two or three? I mean, I think, I think realistically, any expectation was that this was going to take a little bit of time, right? When you have Christian Watson and Romeo Dubs

and these guys trying to replace Devante Adams. Like, to me, it matters more that Christian Watson got open than it does that he dropped the ball. Like, that's a better sign in the long run. So, you know, even in terms of their offensive performance, they only scored seven points, but they moved the ball really well. I think if you look at in terms of like the first downs that they got per possession, I think they were like eighth or ninth in the league. I think their offense is going to be fine as long as Aaron Rogers stays healthy. I think the defense is still going to be good. Obviously, the division is not that great. So I expect that like if you were thinking they were going to be a one seed, then maybe your panic meter is higher.

But in terms of is this going to be a team that's in the playoffs? and a part of the conversation in January, I think it's pretty low. Yeah, I feel the same way. I think it's because we know the reinforcements are coming. It's not like they were at full strength in week one. Both of the tackles didn't play. It sounds like they're going to be back at some point. They were practicing today.

Match and Iman reported that right before we started recording this. So hopefully they're back sooner rather than later. If they're back by week four, week five, and this is the team that they're going to be for most of this season, that makes me feel a little bit better. Also, Alan Lazard didn't play in that game. And Alan Lazard isn't Devante Adams, but when you have no receivers that you've ever played with before, having a guy whose name you knew like three weeks ago is probably a good thing. And they didn't even have that on Sunday.

How dare you discount 85-year-old Randall Cobb? That's all they had. Randall Cob is the guy that Aaron Rogers knew the best in that game. So I think that is another thing to take into consideration. I also think their defense is going to be much better in games where they're not playing. against Justin Jefferson in a very well-designed passing offense. Even if we like the individual players, I thought that Minnesota did such a great job of making the guys on the back end communicate.

The individual players on the Packers defense are very, very good. But I do think that when you're playing against an offense that's making you communicate, that's constantly changing the picture on you, that can take a little bit for you to settle in. Jaira Alexander didn't play last season. this group as an entire secondary is playing what their second or third game together. I have a lot of faith in what this unit will look like over the course of the year, but I think in week one they ran into a really big challenge that they may not face again over the rest of the season when it comes to that type of receiver in an offense that understands

how to deploy a receiver like that. And that had like an entire summer to plan for that exact game against that defense. So yeah, I think that's a fair point. All right, Rams. one out of ten how much panic we're feeling about the Rams? You know, I think I would inch it up to like a four because I think the Stafford elbow is definitely on my radar. Like, he didn't look great in that game.

And I think you expect maybe a defending champion to start slow a little bit. You know, I'm not going to discount a team with Aaron Donald and Jill and Ramsey. But I would say, like, if you were expecting this to be some juggernaut championship defense, I would think you would be pretty much a little bit lower on that than you were heading into week one. But it's just the Stafford elbow that has me worry. What about you? I'm kind of worried.

Yeah? I really am kind of worried. It's for this reason. The Stafford elbow, I'm concerned about that. I don't think he looked that different in that game than he looked for a lot of last season, you know, accuracy, all of those things. It's something to keep in the back of your mind. But that's not.

There was that one clip. Did you see where he's like looking at the sideline? It's like, I can't hold the ball? I think the elbow thing, that's not the thing I'm most worried about. The thing I'm most worried about is the state of the offensive line and the way that they were able to play last year because of the past protection. If you look at a lot of the numbers, we talked about this on our NFC West preview that I did with Deonté. My biggest question about them heading into the year is whether they'd be able to protect the same way they did a year ago. I think that he was seventh in the NFL last season and the number of dropbacks he had that lasted more than two and a half seconds.

and he was 19th in pressure rate on those plays. Their ability to hold up on some longer developing down-the-field concepts, even out of empty, not blocked in the way that you traditionally block those was a huge reason they were able to be successful last year throwing the ball. And you take Andrew Whitworth out of that equation, and now you're starting center is out for two to four weeks. I can't even pronounce the names of the guys that they're going to have on the offensive line now that Brian Allen is out.

Coleman Shelton is going to be their starting center now. Tremaine Ancrum Jr. Now steps in as the starting right guard. These are issues. Joe No Boom also hurt. I don't think he's going to miss any time, but he has a strained knee. That to me is how things start to unravel a little bit. Even if you have faith in the skill position talent, even if you have faith in Sean McVay to kind of figure this out.

Also, I don't think Kevin O'Connell was like the secret sauce behind why the Rams were good. But eventually brain drain is a real thing for NFL teams. You can love Sean McVeigh and think that he's one of the best offensive coaches in football. And I do think that that's true. But over time, when you start to lose all of these guys that have been sounding boards for you, that have been problem solvers for you on that side of the ball, the degree of difficulty gets higher. And that's what's happened with the Rams.

So they've got some stuff to sort out, and it's not going to be as easy to sort out as it might have been over the last couple years. And I think to your point, you have faith that they will figure it out to some degree because of the track record. But it's going to be hard. And I also think on the offensive line, that's sort of the fun of like this specific week of the calendar here when the only information we have is one team against another team. Like that's the only context we have. And so if we love what the Bill's defense did, you can also probably think that the Rams offensive line is going to hold up better against the defense that doesn't have as good of a pass rush. but if the Rams offensive line was the problem,

then maybe the Bills pass rush isn't going to be so good against other teams. That's sort of like what I like about this time of year. The bills are perfectly built to give the Rams a hard time on that side of the ball. They do not need to blitz to get pressure. You look at the numbers from last season. The Rams were by far, far and away, the most efficient team in the league when blitzed. Matthew Stafford's EPA per dropback against five or more pass rushers was in a different zip code than everyone else is in the NFL last year.

and teams started blitzing them less over really the final two-thirds of the season. Stafford was below average against four past rushers by EPA per dropback over the final two-thirds of the year last year. Teams are not going to give them the easy ones. So what can they look like? And they played against a team that looks better using that combination of factors, rushing four, playing a lot of zone, than any other defense in the league is going to look this year. So I don't think it's going to be as bad as it was for the Ram. in that game, but I also think that it showed some fundamental issues with where this team is at right now.

And also, I know this is a sore subject for you, but like where was Alan Robinson? All I heard all summer was how great he was going to be. What's the deal? I went back and I watched pretty much every snap that he took. I do think that, I don't think Alan Robinson is like the last time you do before you go to bed. So obviously the all 22 comes out on like Friday. On Saturday morning, I was going for a walk with my fiance and my dog and we were trying to leave the house and someone had tweeted a video of every single Alan Robinson route from that game. And I'm sitting there on my phone just watching it. She's like, what are you doing?

We have to go. And I was like, just give me one minute. And I was watching every single Alan Robinson route from that game. So you're pretty close. It wasn't what I was watching right before I went to bed. But it was what I was watching when I was trying to spend time with my family over the course of the weekend. It was like, it's the literal meme of like, oh, I wonder what he's thinking about. And he's thinking, oh, Alan Robinson doesn't look as cooked as I was worried about.

I do not think that Alan Robinson is dusted. I do think that it was a product of the game plan and everything else. I mean, I don't think Alan Robinson is dust. I don't think he's totally cooked. I do think that there are underlying factors about the Rams that I'm concerned about. That's what I will say. Fair enough. All right.

Next one here. Arizona Cardinals, scale of 1 to 10. How much panic are we talking here? Well, I think if I'm a Cardinals fan and I had high expectations for the year, I'm at like a 9. But if you're someone like me who thought this was going to be a bad team that could really combust, then this is sort of what you expected to see. I do not have high expectations for the Cardinals this year.

And it's not like a bad thing to get dusted by the Chief's offense. I think that will happen to a lot of teams. But I just don't see it with the Cardinals. I was wondering if this was going to be the year where the defense just fell off a cliff, where they weren't able to kind of. hold it together and Vance Joseph wasn't able to just pin this thing together with gum and toothpicks and bullshit in the same way that he has been over the last couple years. That might be the case.

They looked absolutely lost and they just have so few plus players on that side of the ball. You think they need another first round linebacker? It's so few plus players on that side of the ball. All of the resources that they've allocated and the way that they've tried to build this thing has left them with so many holes. And I just don't know how that gets fixed. I just think that this is the year where it might all start to fall apart. You combine that with the fact that they don't have that many plus players on offense.

And they're old. There's this idea that it's like Kyler Murray's still on the up, like on the ascension with this young team. They're one of the oldest offenses in the league. Like I think six of their 11 starters are almost 30. It's crazy. There are these teams where I always like to look at how many young building blocks do we think that they have. how many young ascending players do we think are on this roster? And when you look at the Cardinals, there just aren't that many.

You can't come up with a list of five guys. And when you're built that way, that's when the bottom can fall out. Yes. You are not that far away from disaster. And that's what I was worried about with this team. I was worried that they were going to look like the 2019 Texans if this thing went wrong. And Sunday didn't give me reason to think that, were not trending in that direction.

Yeah, but Greg Dorch, he's the truth. Go Deeks. Yeah, I think this is, I think this could really, could really get ugly. All right. San Francisco 49ers. How worried are we? Where's the panic meter? I just, it's so hard to really like take that game as serious signal.

And so I would say like, no answer. Like, talk to me next week. Because it's just, I mean, obviously you watch the game. but in a monsoon like that, it doesn't change my expectation. I would say my panic meter is still zero or one. I'm the exact same way. I mean, the Elijah Mitchell injury sucks, but I think that they'll be able to overcome that. If you're going to lose one position on offense, think losing and running back,

especially when you've had to do it before, you've had to come up with solutions for what that looks like in the past. I do have faith in their ability to sort through that. I thought the offensive line was okay. You know, the idea that they had this crumbling into your offensive line that is ultimately going to do, them. I don't see that. I think it's going to take a little while for that group to come along just because they're young and inexperienced, but I don't think it's this disaster area that some other people might. But I'm with you. I think this is a wait until we see one, two more games of what they look like in semi-normal conditions before we pass any judgment. Yeah, I think that's right. But, you know, you do,

like, I think the Jimmy G whispers are like already starting to creep up a little bit. And so even though if you, even if you do believe in the long-term plan and you believe that like they'll get this thing working with Trey Lance by week four or five, like by the time you get there, if they're one and three, like those whispers are going to turn into yells. Last one here, Tennessee Titans, scale of one to ten. How worried are we? I think, you know, this is another one where the context is important. I would say my answer here is like a three because they had no business losing that game.

Like they completely outplayed the Giants for most of the game. Kyle Phillips muffs a pun. he drops an easy catch late in the first half that took points off the board. Obviously, Randy Bullock misses a game-winning field goal. As I said before, they read that two-point conversion correctly. They just missed the tackle on Sequin Barclay. But it's the kind of thing where this is a team that lived on winning these close games. They were, I think, 10 and 2, by far away, the best record in the league over the past two seasons in three-point games.

So this is the kind of crazy reversion that was probably coming. you're disappointed that a team that is theoretically built to play from ahead blew a 13 point lead and then a 7.4th quarter lead. But they're still in a division that is there for the taking. They're still going to play these tight games. I thought the offense didn't look that bad. I thought Kyle Phillips, aside from those mistakes, looked pretty good. And I thought Traylon Burks had a little bit of juice more so than we were hearing over the summer.

So I think, and Jeffrey Simmons was, I mean, a game wrecker. I think he has the potential to be a superstar for them. So I would say my panic meter is three, but I also think the odds are that this team is going to lose some of these games more than they did in years past. Yeah, I think it depends on the panic meter is depending on what your expectations for this team are. My expectations for this team weren't very good. One of my favorite bets that we threw out in our preseason shows was them winning like under seven and a half games and the odds you could get on something like that. And that's kind of how I feel. they're 10 point underdogs against the bills this weekend.

10 points. Good teams aren't 10 point underdogs against anyone. And I feel like that's where this team is. They are not one of the good teams. And that's okay. This was always going to be a step back for this team when you trade A.J. Brown and you're in this moment of transition and you draft a quarterback in the third round because you understand that whatever your current plan is at that position is probably not something that can sustain you for the next couple years.

to me this was always going to be a transitional year for Tennessee. The fact that they lost to the Giants in week one doesn't really change the fact that I'm not bullish on where this team is going to be this season. Yeah, I think that's right. You can't just trade your best player and expect to be as good. But I also still think like the AFC South, I mean, nobody won a game in the division.

So it's not impossible that they could still sneak into the playoffs. I think we're going to talk about that for a long time. Remember in 2022 when the AFC South didn't win a game? game in week one and two of the teams played against each other. Last thing I want to do before we get out of here, I want to point people to your power rankings that you were doing every week at the athletic, every week. It's going to be long Sunday, Monday nights. It's okay.

We're almost at the end of the season. Yeah. We're like in week 18. This is fine. We'll be totally fine. That's how I was feeling yesterday. I was like, man, it's good thing we're in like week 12. I'm feeling a little bit tired right now.

Exactly. A couple notable teams that I wanted to talk about from the, power rankings. You have the Vikings and the Eagles at five and six. Those teams play each other this week. Well, just to give context, if you haven't read it, I did do this week's power rankings because I think this week is a fun week where all of the one and no teams are the first 15. Then you've got the two teams who tied and then all the oh and one teams are after that, which I think is kind of like a fun context because who's the best of the teams who lost, who's the worst of the teams who won. But yeah, so I have the Vikings at five and six. But if I was actually ranking,

the best teams in the league, they would not be quite so high. We're going to talk about the game a lot, a little bit later this afternoon with Deontay and Nate. Two things I wanted to ask you from these power rankings that I feel like are not swayed at all by the way that you did this. At the bottom, I'm not asking you to rank who the worst team in the league is, but near the bottom of those power rankings, after one week, who do you think the saddest team in the league is?

I think I would have said the Cowboys if there wasn't a little bit of optimism about Dak coming back sooner because it is funny that like week two, Dan Brugher is getting harassed with Cowboys draft questions. I think it's the Jets. And I know and I know that Robert Sala is like, you know, he says he's taking receipts on everybody who's doubting them. I mean, what, Joe Flackaw 3, what, 50-8 passes? That's your week one plan? I mean, I know Zach Wilson's heard, but come on. It's the Jets because we're a week into the season, and they're already calling for Mike White to supplant Joe Flacco. They're chanting his name.

That's why it's the Jets. And I thought the Jets' defense was much better last week than they had been over all of last season. It's not hard. They were the worst defense in the league last year. I think the Jets will probably be fine and be a functional NFL team over the course of the year. But the state of the Jets quarterback conversation, a week after we started this season,

I think puts them in the conversation for this. I think it's the Cowboys. This is a team that I think they believe. they were a playoff team. I think their fan base believe that they were a playoff team. And now they're one of the worst teams in the league without Dak Prescott. And there's a chance. They emerge from this like 0 and 5

and the Eagles are 4 in 1, 5, and 0 and the season is already over. Like that is absolutely on the table for what the next 4 to 6 weeks will look like for the Dallas Cowboys. I think I'm like semantically parsing it because that's more like heartbreak. Like something

very dramatic happened. Whereas like the jet and the Panthers are like a droopy-faced dog. Like, they didn't really think that there was anything to look forward to this year. And then it was even worse than they thought. Like, that's, I think the Jets are why I would go with the saddest. Because it's like, oh, what are you talking yourself into? Oh, like, maybe, maybe Zach Wilson's going to show enough, like in the middle of the season.

They're not even going to get that. That's going to be, it's the Jets. That's probably always the answer. Last one I have for you here. among those top 15 teams, the ones that are in the top 15 because they won, who has the worst chance to wind up in the top 15 when the season is over? It's a two-horse race, in my opinion. Yeah, I mean, I don't want to look you in the face and say the Bears.

Do you think the Giants or the Bears have a worse chance of ending up in the top half of the league before the end of the year? I think the Bears. I think the Bears, I'm sorry. You don't have to apologize. It's a totally reasonable answer. The problem is, like, you know, I can, I can sort of talk myself into maybe something crazy happens in the NFC East. Sequan has some, like, you know, alien type season where he carries them to, you know, a top 10 offense somehow.

I mean, Daniel Jones in that game was bad, I thought, and so I don't have a lot of faith in them. But, I mean, I think the Bears also have to play the Packers and Vikings twice, whereas the Giants only have to play probably a good team once or twice, rather. I don't know. I don't feel great about either of them. You sell me on the Bears. I can't sell you on the Bears. The same way we talked about the fact that you can't make a judgment on the Niners after one week. I went back and I watched the Bears offense yesterday.

It's not good, man. I mean, obviously the weather was terrible. The conditions are terrible. But there's no way to watch what happened during that game outside of two or three plays that Justin Fields pulled out of his ass and been like, yeah, the Bears are definitely made progress offensively. There are still a lot of questions to be answered. So I don't blame you at all for saying the bears should be there because the bears are not going to be good. It's fun to win a game. It's fun to have that be the first step of the Matt Iberflu's era, but I do think it's still going to be a pretty long year in Chicago.

So I think that's more than fair. Bo Wolf, what else are you writing this week? What else can people go read from you? I had an interview story with Brandon Graham up today, running through all the quarterbacks he's sacked in his career. He has sacked Kirk Cousins more than any other quarterback, and they play on Monday night, so that's good. So Eagles fans will enjoy that. And we'll see what else comes from there. I'm trying to get some sleep at some point here, but I don't know.

I feel bad asking you to do this, knowing that you had to do those power rankings after doing all the other work that you're doing. When is the next episode of Birds with Friends come out? We'll be up on Friday. We had one yesterday talking with Arif, Hassan, who covers the Vikings to talk about the Vikings. and then on Friday we have our game preview and swooper soarcasting for Eagles fans, which is always a lot of thought. If you guys do not listen to Birds with Friends,

if you're an Eagles fan that doesn't listen to Birds with Friends, I don't know what you're doing. Please go correct that. But it is a fantastic podcast, and I really appreciate the time, but you know you got a lot going on. Thanks for having me. All right, a little bit later this afternoon,

3.30 p.m. Eastern on Thursday. Me, Nate, and Deontay, live on YouTube, doing our week two preview. So please come check that out. you want to watch us, it will be available as a podcast afterward. It always is. Anybody that's curious about that. Also, please rate and review the podcast on your podcast platform of choice.

I would sincerely appreciate that. Please go check out the first episode of Prospects to Prosks to Pros with Andy Staples and Dan Brugler that came out on Wednesday afternoon on the feed and will be coming your way every single week this season. They talked about some of the notable rookies from week one, dug into a big week in college football, some of the prospects that you should be watching. Very excited to have them on the feed all season. So please go give that a listen.

We'll be back a little bit later today with Nate and Deontay. Appreciate you guys listening. We'll talk to you soon. This was the Athletic Football Show.