The Athletic Football Show: A show about the NFL - The playoffs are set, the Browns end the drought, Washington stumbles in, Titans, Rams, Cardinals concerns & more in our week 17 reaction

Episode Date: January 4, 2021

After a tumultuous 2020 (to put it lightly) we got through the NFL regular season, the playoffs are set, and we're looking to the postseason. The Athletic's Robert Mays and Nate Tice put a bow on week 17 by celebrating the Browns' playoff drought coming to an end, the Washington Football Team backing their way in, what we should expect from the Titans and Rams, whether or not to believe in Kliff Kingsbury, Coach of the Year candidates and more.Get full access to The Athletic over at theathletic.com/footballshow Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

This is the athletic football show. Welcome to the athletic football show. I'm Robert Mays. Joining me tonight is my good friend Nate Tyson. How are you? Week 17 in the books, playoff time. It's like, it's finally, it's like, oh, yes, stuff coming to the light. And it's like, I'm starting to get a great feel for these teams.

And it's like, okay, regular season is over. Here comes the playoffs. Now it's just throw that all out the window because it's so week to week now. And it's awesome. It's the best time. It's so much fun. I love, even expanding this to seven teams in each side, it's, I still got excited about the extra game. It's like, I'm a sucker for it.

Oh, yeah. It's like, I know. At first I'm like, oh, we don't want that. It dilutes it. And as soon as it came, it's just like, oh, I love it. Extra game. Here we go. The fact that there are six games next weekend is crazy.

I mean, it's unlike any other playoff weekend we've ever had. Typically, I'd always said the divisional round was my favorite weekend of the year because the quality of the games is so high. But now Wildcard weekend has six games. So it has a little bit of a different edge than it used to have. So we're going to get into the playoff field. Some of the things that happened today, including some, the NFC East having to have a winner. The Brown's making the playoffs for the first time in a very long time.

A surprising outing from John Wolford and the Rams. Few other things, some teams that did not show up when they needed to. Before we do that, though, let's talk about what just happened in the Sunday night game. I don't have a ton to say. I'm pretty sure the Eagles were actively trying to lose the game. Yeah. I don't. Hey, I think they end up with pick number six, I think.

So hey, good job by them. Win, win. If that's an organizational dictum that they're telling Doug Peterson, do what you can to lose this game. If you got to throw Nate Sutfeld in there, if it's going to a little dicey, then go ahead and do it. I'm pretty sure you have to keep Doug Peterson, which does seem like from everything that came out this week,

it feels like they are going to bring it back, which likely means that Carson went to, we no longer be in Philadelphia. We'll see what happens with that quarterback situation. We've had a lot of time to talk about the Eagles, though, when we're going to have even more time in the offseason to talk about the Eagles. Let's talk about Washington.

They finish 7 and 9. They win the NFC East. In a lot of ways, it's not as an impressive season compared to other division winners, even that we've seen this year that we've seen in the past. Only the third team to make the playoffs with a losing record since 2010. Ron Rivera coached one of the other ones, funnily enough, in Carolina.

But for a Washington team that desperately needed, a reset and a reboot. This is everything they could have asked for. They were seven and nine. They fought hard every single week. They were one of the best defenses in the NFL from start to finish. Early in the season, I feel like some of the success they had on that side of the ball. There was a question, and it was a worthy question of if it was real and how long they could sustain it.

And they did all year. They finished the, it came into this game third in the NFL and EPA per play on defense. I assume that won't change very much. Second and defensive DVOA. Lost Landon Collins, who should have been their best defense. defensive player coming into the season when you look at the way they've paid guys. So I feel like a resounding success from a team that really needed to turn around. They brought Ron Rivera in for this express purpose.

Yeah, it's what you bring Ron Rivera is to bring respectability and just organizational skills, like a true leader of a team, like a true leader of men and just what it entails with an NFL franchise because everyone, even myself, even being in it, you're always like, oh, the leader, it's just you watch film all day. that's like, no, it's not. You are truly a leader and organizer. And, you know, coaching is just one aspect of that. But that kind of reflects on their defense because their defense isn't, they don't do anything

schematically. That's crazy. That's like, oh, wow, we're going to be, you know, studying what they're doing. No, they just have really good players. They put them in good positions to succeed. And then they just play fast. We, every time we've touched about, talked about Washington this year, because it's only been a couple times.

We're just like, man, they just hit hard. And every, there's a bunch of guys near the ball. and their players are just whacking people. And that's what they do. Offensively, they get what they can. I mean, they got Alex Smith doing what he can back there. And, you know, they got a couple okay pieces. But, I mean, they're relying on J.D.

McKissick and Logan Thomas and they're doing what they can on the offense. But at least we get to see that defensive unit in this playoffs against a team that's going to be really fun. They're going to play the Bucks round one. That's going to be fun. Seeing that Bucks offense that really puts a lot on their players to make plays and comes at you against a team. the defense that doesn't do a lot much schematically, but has their players go and make plays.

So it's going to be just a lot of good matchups. I'm really excited to see that week one. That's just even though it's a 7-9 team, they at least look respectable and they look like of that group in the NFC East. It's like, okay, at least this team is just they, they're going to put together a game plan that looks respectful. They do at least one thing well. Yes. They do at least one thing very well. And that's hard to say about the other teams in the NFC East. I think that their defense is the best unit among all four teams that could have made the playoffs in that division. So I feel like their defense is the best chance to give us a decent round one game. I'll be curious to see what they do.

I don't want to talk too much about what's going to happen in round one. We're going to have a lot of time between now and then to discuss those games specifically. But I wonder if they're going to bring a little bit more pressure than they have over the course of the season just because the bucks have struggled in that area at times this year. They want to kind of dictate the action in a way that they could to Tampa Bay. Maybe they haven't because they've been able to rely on their front four for most of this year. But for the most part, like you said, respectability was the word here. I think that Ron Rivera, everything he's been through this year,

along with Alex Smith. I mean, two guys that have been through so much to get to this point. And it's great for them. It's not an easy franchise to root for, but I think that was the point of bringing him in was to kind of change the direction that they were headed. And we'll see what happens moving forward. And this is a team with $47 million in cap space going into next season.

So they resigned chase really at their center. The brand sheriff is going to be free agent. they have the money to bring him back potentially. That's a decent offensive line that needs a left tackle. That's a piece that they could chase. I'll be curious to see who plays quarterback on that team next year. Alex Smith is a $23 million cap hit, I want to say. I don't know how smart it is to bring him back.

I think that culture-wise, they probably could talk themselves into it, and that would be the reasoning for it. But a quarterback upgrade for this team, I think kind of makes them interesting. They have some decent pieces. I think that McCorn is a budding star that let's see what they do in the draft. Again, they could maybe add a receiver in free agency. I know they looked at Amari Cooper last spring. It just didn't make a lot of sense for them when they considered what their trajectory was.

So just a lot of questions to be asked. I'm honestly, though, I think the more pressing question is not who should play quarterback for this team next year, but who should play quarterback for this team next week? Because when you watch them with Smith right now, he's clearly limited. And I'm kind of serious when I say what Taylor Heineke gave them for that little stretch a couple weeks ago, I feel like has more juice than what Alex Smith is giving them right now. And that's, I know that's actually kind of so sad to say too because it's just, I know, it is sad to say, but if they're really trying to win this game,

if they're really trying to win this game against Tampa Bay, I honestly feel like he might give them a better chance to win right now than Alex Smith does. He can't move. Yeah, I know. And part of what made Alex Smith kind of almost said charming, but, you know, redeemable was that he can just do enough with his legs. Like that was part of what it was. He was safe with his arm and then he was going to make some place with his legs.

So he generated a couple more first downs for you throughout the game. And now that that element's gone, you're just stuck with safe Alex Smith. How much can you get without a ton of weapons around you? I love scary Terry and everything. But it's funny you said that with Amari because, yeah, that wouldn't be a great matchup with them. Like as far as I think just with their skill sets because I think they already have that with 17 there. but it's like it's interesting what they'll do this offseason two even though they made the playoffs their pick will be in the 20s it's they can go a lot of different paths because their defense is kind of pretty good they can really go best player available and they have the cap room to kind of do some fun stuff but i'm really excited to watch that matchup because the washington defense they can rush for what does brady have issues with when he gets pressured so that's that's going to be something that's going to be really interesting to watch so o-line d-line matchup um as far as the quarterback situation though i think with amari oh i think with amari it was they honestly, I didn't think they wanted to spend a lot in free agency this year

because they were in a mini rebuild. But when they were looking at the landscape, they just thought he was the type of player that doesn't hit free agency, which I think is true. I think he wouldn't have even been available if it weren't for the DAC situation. You probably would have gotten franchised in pretty much any other spot. If the transition tag had been there with the way the CBA played out, I assume they would have transitioned him so he wouldn't even hit free agency.

But they looked at that and said, he's a $20 million player that typically wouldn't be on the market, but where we are right now as a franchise, should we be spending $20 million in a wide receiver? I think they made the right decision. They probably didn't think that they would be on the verge of winning a division title in their first year. So it's always funny how those timelines,

yeah, some of those timelines don't always align. Yeah. So that's interesting. What were you going to say about the quarterback though? Oh, no, but with the quarterback stuff, it's, no, I'm just kind of kick it around too in my head with what they're doing as a whole team. It's just on offense.

they just need so much just talent ejected anywhere. They just need people. They just need players. They need what the bills did the last couple of years and just they need solid. Great comparison. Solid players. And then you can get the stars, but they just need players that can actually like good NFL starters, which every team wants. But they really, that's what they're going to be going for.

And they have the room to do it. Quarterback wise, either way, I just think either one's going to get you something different. If your defense, if you can rely on your defense, pitching their fastball and throwing 102 every snap. Yeah, Alex Smith is going to keep you, get you through the game, but you're in the playoffs. You're going to have to generate plays. Stuff happens in the playoffs.

So either direction they go with the quarterback, they're going to, there's a pros and cons. So I can talk out both sides of my mouth that either. I don't want to, I don't want to read too much into like seven throws from Taylor Hanakey last week. But I was impressed with when he was in the game. He made some good decisions and actually made some not high level quarterbacking, but medium level quarterbacking choices with the ball.

So I'll be curious. what they think is their best path to win that game. If they really do believe it's Alex. He's actually been in that offense longer than Alex Smith has, you know, because he's been with Scott Turner for forever. So with Carolina and Minnesota before that. So it's one of those things where it's like he might, he's going to be fine knowing that scheme and knowing what to get out of it.

Yeah, he can do some more stuff off script. He can kind of do what Alex Smith used to be able to do a little bit in his early days. But, you know, he can do it now. And it's now as 2021 now in the playoffs. So maybe that's what you need, especially to win a playoff game. Maybe upset some people. So an impressive season for Washington. If this is where it ends, this is where it ends.

Congratulations to them, even if they get beaten the first round of the playoffs, a success by any measure. So they finished off the playoff field. We have it set now. I think the AFC playoffs is right. I think the correct seven teams are in the field with Miami losing and the Colts getting in, the Browns getting in. In my opinion, the seven best AFC teams are in the playoffs. I think are going to give us a very entertaining few rounds.

And the NFC, you can necessarily say that. Obviously, the NFC East winner was never going to be one of the top seven teams. And then the wild card, I guess the Bears are the seventh best team? I really don't know. So obviously what happened today,

the Cardinals, we're going to get into all this specifically, but the Cardinals lose to the Rams, that gets the Bears in, even losing to the Packers. Green Bay gets the number one seed. You guys know all this stuff. I mean, the field is set. Nothing truly shocking happened today, but there was some shuffling.

And I do think the AFC field is exactly what we would want for the perfect competitive balance, the right product. The NFC, not quite, but I still think by divisional weekend, we're going to have a really nice field of four teams. Yeah, it's the AFC. Well, how the dolphins kind of finish the season, I feel a lot more better about that field in the AFC. We'll get there. Yeah. And I've enjoyed watching the Colts this year. We both have.

We've talked about it endlessly. on this podcast. But it's, these are a teams I really want to see. It's, I want to see Phil Rivers in a playoff game. I want to see that whole Colts team

in a playoff game because they do a lot of fun stuff. So I'm happy they're there. I'm happy the Titans are there. And it's going to be a fun matchup with the Ravens. Like who would expect the Tennessee Baltimore rivalry at this time, you know, this period of time. So those are cool things that happen with playoff games.

And these are what down the road is, are the stories that get told because this might be a Lamar redemption game. This might be Tennessee making a statement. that they can do this. Like those are the fun things. This might do bills and the Colts. There's a lot of stuff that happens there. It's great.

I love it. It's, I'm so excited for this playoff matchup. We actually have Jeff's Rebeck on our Ravens writer to do a Baltimore team visit this week. It's a team that I just haven't really watched that much because they've been playing bad teams and just rolling them. It feels like that Browns game is the last time I watched them closely. So I'd like to get a little bit more familiar with them before they play that Titans team.

I'm going to try to wheezele my way to that Brent Ravens Titans game. I love it in wildcard round. I think it's a seven-hour. drive. I'd love to go to a game. I haven't seen an NFL game this year. So we'll see if I can make that happen. That is the 105 Eastern Sunday game. Sunday is kicking off with that and we get Browns Steelers as the night game on Sunday, which is going to be awesome. So speaking of that Brown Steelers game, let's get to who won the week. Just win, baby.

The Cleveland Browns are headed to the playoffs for the first time in 18 years. They beat the Steelers back. backups, which, you know, it's, we can get into how impressive that is or how impressive it's not. But that's a huge moment for Kevin Stefansky, for Andrew Barry, for everyone there. I don't think we should overlook how long that franchise has been downtrodden, how hard it's been, how terrible they've truly been over the last couple decades. And for Stefanski to go in there in year one, win 11 games, get this team to the postseason. It's a great moment.

It's a great moment for everyone there. Everyone was clearly enjoying it. congratulations to them. I think they absolutely are the winners of the week. That is a frame base and a franchise that has been waiting for this day for a really, really long time. And they got it. As a Seattle Mariners and Minnesota Timberwolves fan,

whenever they would have the longest droughts, we were the big three for a while. It was Seattle Mariners, Minnesota Timberwolves, Cleveland Browns. We were the big three for when they would rank the North American professional leagues. So when the wolves made it a couple years ago, when they sold their soul for

Tim Thibodeau and the Jimmy Butler for a year for a year and a half they I was there. Yeah, I was there for that playing game that they had. I went there. I was never for the ringer. Yeah, okay. I was the playing game.

Yeah. They, because they needed to win to get in. Yep. Yep. And I was there. It was a great, it was a fun night.

Oh, yeah, I was there. I know. It was like month I moved here in Vegas. But anyways, but it's, that was such a fun feeling just like, just making the playoffs,

even though we just got blown out of the water. We, but blown out of the water by the Houston Rockets that year. But that's what the Browns aren't going to get blown on the water. It's NFL. Once you make the dance in NFL, anyone can win. And it's just awesome. It's just so cool for a whole franchise and a fan base that's been through a lot.

And they've been in the laughing stock of a lot. But guess what? When sometimes you're doing part of the bad teams, you learn to enjoy the game in different ways. I know as a Mariners fan and a Wolf fan, I've done that. And when you make the playoffs, it's just that much sweeter because now you enjoy the game more in different ways. And now you get to enjoy it for the simple ways, which is winning. And it's cool to see. I'm really happy for the city of Cleveland.

but what a fun game for them just in the fact that like seeing a player like Nick Chubb like do what he did today and seeing the offensive line like really kind of come into their own even more. And it's like this team, they play with a lot of fire. It's it's a real fun team that really their defense has a little some question marks, but they have some fun players with Miles Garrett and stuff. But it's a good team that that touchdown run was everything. I mean, I'm sure we're going to talk about it in the sack. But that that long touchdown run was just stupid. It was stupid. It's the way he makes the guy miss on the cut. He almost just teleports through the hole. And the burst was unbelievable. Teller's like eight yards deep into the defensive backfield, climbing up onto the second level. That's one of my favorite parts of watching Wyatt Teller, who is the right guard for the Browns.

I'm trying to be more intentional about how we describe offensive linemen on this show, who is the right guard for the bounds. He's been fantastic all season. He's the second team, all pro guard, even though we'd only play 10 games. That's how good I thought he had been when he was on the field this year. He is such an easy mover for a man that big. He's about six, four and a half.

He was 318 at the combine. I bet he's bigger now. I bet he's put on a little bit more weight. He looks like the mountain from Game of Thrones. And the way a guy with that strength can move onto the second level is a huge weapon for this team because he's a really good puller and he can climb on those zone runs. They use him as a weapon in the run game. It's, I honestly, I think that this was a, In a way, today was an organizational moment for the Browns.

You're like, without Sashi Brown, do they get here? Without some of the stuff John Dorsey did, do they get here? I know that a lot of what those regimes did was lamb-based in the interim. But they set this team up with a lot of talent, and they got the right guy in Stefansky to get the most out of that talent. I think if you looked at all the moves that John Dorsey made, trading for Wyatt Teller might have been the most impressive one. Yeah.

Because they traded nothing for him. It was a peanut. And if you look at his mock draftable like spider chart, two of his biggest comps, it just physically were Cam Irving and Quentin Nelson. Two guys that went in the first round as interior offensive linemen. That is, and to go get a guy for nothing that has that physical profile and allowing him to come along slowly into that role.

Also, him developing the way that he has makes the Kevin Zitler for Olivier Vernon trade much more palatable because you now have a starter on the defensive. line and you put in a starter at right guard that's even better than the guy you traded and you didn't have to give up anything to get him. So I feel like they got better in two positions by making those deals. So just little stuff like that. All of this stuff has kind of piled up over time to make this roster of very good collection of players. Yeah. And it's it's so cool. We had a play a couple weeks ago where we talked about it was the fake toss that Baker found the extra offense alignment late in the end zone. And you just saw how everyone kind of sold out for each other on that play.

sold out in a good way, not sold out like a band or an actor or something, but it was, it was just awesome to see on that play, do that. And the last play of the game today, the last real offensive play when the Browns were trying to burn the clock, they were in a little cuby sweep with Baker. And what was awesome with it was Austin Hooper, their multi-million dollar man who, what, top three paid tight end in the league, blocking his ass off on the play. And then Conklin, who was another big signing, pulling out, getting enough on the DB, J.C. Tredder climbs.

And then of all people, there's Kareem Hunt on the lead block just like shot out of a cannon just because he brings it, he doesn't get like a real straight up piece that like where it's just a straight up block because he brings so much power and goes full out on this play. He knocks the linebacker back and Baker has all the room he needs to just slide down and get the first. And it was just like, again, it was this whole team, this whole unit just playing for each other.

And there's something to be said with that, especially there's a few teams you can see that where their teams are peaking as far as chemistry. of course winning, you know, heals all wounds. So, of course, winning really helps. It's amazing when you, because I've had so many, I've covered the league for long enough now. And I've been doing a decent amount of reporting over the last couple of weeks. And when you're talking to people that are involved in winning situations around this time of year, it's always the same feeling. There's just some.

And you start to think that it's, well, you start to think it's causal. And then you realize it's just because they're a good team. They're in your mind, it's like, all this team is, they're really into it. man, like these are the types of teams that usually win. It's like those, because they're types of teams that are usually winning. That's the reason that everyone is talking like this. But it's always so funny when you start talking to people in these situations. I was talking to a couple people in Buffalo last week.

And they're just over the moon right now. And it just becomes this tone that they all kind of take on at this point in the year. Yeah, it's like a cult of winning. But yeah, it's like no one cares about the college football coaches with, you know, the losing culture. It's like, you know, no, no, it's only. Yeah, winning teams have great culture. Yeah, no kidding. It's like, yeah, of course they have great culture.

they're winning. Of course, there's aspects of that. But it's, it is cool to see an NFL team do that and play this type of way. And like you, you brought up a great point too with using a guy that can pull as a weapon. It's not like the Browns are just running, you know, zone, zone or doing what they can do. But it's, they'll run stuff like full blown lead power, you know, a heavy personnel and it looks great. And then they'll run a bootleg off a zone action. And this stuff just looks all just nice and smooth. And you can tell that the, they're built inside out and that that line is really carrying them and baker's doing just enough with on the offense side i think he is what we thought he is the entire year you know he does just

enough in offense but he is doing great he did great things with his legs that is the one thing that he's really helping with this team um again i'll mention it again the defense whatever but who cares i think getting the corners back will be big for that yeah i think that not having ward today you saw that prop up a couple different times 34 was alone on dionte johnson down the right sideline. I don't even know his name. I'm sorry about that, but he is a back-up cornerback, and they've really missed those guys. And Greedy Williams tweeted today that he was going to try to play, which I don't know if that's even possible, what the rules are, but that's what he tweeted today. So we'll see about that. So I think they've been a little injured on the back end all

season. They did get Ronnie Harrison back recently, though, which should help them going forward. So when you watch Baker today, I have a question for you, do you think that guys that play as emotionally as he does. Do you, are you worried about that when it comes to quarterback sometimes? Absolutely. You could tell that he was geeked up today. Yep. And the way that he was letting some of those throws rip,

Austin Hooper, when he caught the touchdown, was joking, he was shaking his hand like it hurt, but he was doing that all game. And I was talking to a former player recently. We were talking about Baker and he's like, I just wouldn't trust it. Guys that are that emotionally volatile at that position, I would be concerned about it. I know that's kind of hot takey, but. watching that game today and watching just how his volume was turned to 11 the entire game. And he was a little bit off sometimes and was mentally a little bit slow at times.

I wonder where the give and take is with that at that position. That's a great point. I think especially I think the more than any position is quarterback that you don't want to be as geeked up. Yeah. A lot of these guys are psycho competitors. So it's like you made this far. So I only could tell you so much to chill out. But no, I agree with that.

because sometimes when a guy comes in, you know who actually is like this a lot too? Derek Carr can come out real geeked up in games. And sometimes you had to worry about what passes you gave him early on because you're like, it's getting something safe and not something where he's going to try and jam it down the defense's throat because, yeah,

it might work out. But sometimes the guy's trying to just be, you know, Superman and it's just like, oh, no, no, it's not what we wanted. Just check it down.

It's fine. It's first quarter. You know, it's funny you mentioned that because that. And early on, they were near the end zone. I want to say it was early in the second quarter. they ran like a little crossing pattern,

the heavy personnel, and Baker tried to fire one into Nojoku, and make a fetch Patrick made a nice play, knocks it down. And on that play, he had a backside cross at Austin Hooper that popped wide open. And on this play, that'd be like your third read,

hard to get to, but down there you can expect it. And I think on that, Baker was really wishing it open. You can even say how he threw it. He almost threw like a guy throwing a dart, like, just kind of like just trying to jam it right in there. And then it got knocked down.

Okay, coming out of the second half, next time they get near the end zone again, I think there was about the four yard line, give or take. They run another pattern. This one was more like heavy set mesh, like crosser pattern.

Bigger looks front side. Right as he hits the top of his drop, he looks backside, hits Hooper for the touchdown on the backside crosser. So I think at a half time, they looked over that and go, hey, next time we get one of these things.

It wasn't the exact same play concept, but it's the exact same premise. It was crossers that he was like, they calmed him down. They're like, hey, I know you want that. You want the FU touchdown. But like, hey,

read it out. And guess what? They did. That's good coaching. And that's why they won the game. They're going to playoffs. Just a couple of moments. I mean, it's going to be like that with him.

There was that throw. He kind of short hopped to Hodge on the left sideline where he didn't throw it immediately like you should have, weighted, and then kind of had to short arm it, almost underthru it. It was complete. But it's just like those little tiny things with him. He took a sack that I can't remember exactly the moment in the game that had happened. It was 11 yards deep. And Wills was clearly frustrated after the play because he pushed Highsmith past

what he thought was past the quarterback. Yeah. But Betonio had gotten beat. And so Baker ran right back into it. And Hunt was sitting there. And it was only, it was second in 10. And I couldn't make out whether or not Hunt was going somewhere in a double move because he turned and ran after initially sitting down.

So I couldn't tell if Baker was supposed to hit him or if he was just relocating for some reason because Baker hadn't thrown it to him initially. That's something where I wouldn't know without knowing the play. But again, just a couple of moments. moments where it's just like, God, he just, I wish he would sometimes just pull the trigger on some of these where just like a half second later, he hesitates for a half second because he doesn't trust windows all the time because when he's in traffic, he's a smaller guy that occasionally just doesn't like it when he can't see it. Yeah, I, I've, I've joked about it, but I've,

compared him to unathletic Russell Wilson. It's quick game sometimes gives him issues, sometimes taking the safe plays, gives him issues. He's always going to try and do the big play. And sometimes that's awesome and don't get me wrong you want that in a quarterback you you do not want to have to coax it out of a guy and go like please throw it deep please try and make a play on third down please but sometimes you got to rain it back in uh there's the joke uh i think i've said before on this podcast but charles sparkly shooting a three-pointer it's sometimes yeah it was great you you love the balls of him shooting it but sometimes it's like hey hey rain it in rain it in and i think with baker that is a little bit of that aspect to it um he's going to have those struggles and but

there was a fourth down he had I think they took a sack and it was like a fourth and seven they went for it again I think Brown's like one of the top teams going for it on fourth down which is awesome too yeah he's gone he's done it consistently all season oh my god it's not shocking to me that the guy who went to pen is a pretty involved in the analytics and the guy who the guy who was chosen in part as the head coach because he had embraced that side of things the guy that's coached every single role on offensive side the ball like is very well aware of offensive situations The Ivy League educated smart guy is probably going to be the guy going

for a four down decent amount. Oh man, Jason Garrett was there for a while. So don't bug that one. But no, no, but it was Stefansky, though, but they went for a fourth and seven. And Baker on that plate, he had, it was like an inside, oh my God,

it's so backwards, but like an inside curl route, the guy's bringing out, though. I don't know what else to call it without getting the technicalities. But he throws it, and he's trying to be so perfect on the throw

because he knows he's going to have it. And he tries to miss down the way. And it's the irony of, life is sometimes when you're throwing the ball, when you try to aim small, when you're throwing something, you miss worse because you're trying to be too perfect. It's all fluidity. That's why Mahomes and Josh Allen's of the world are freaks of nature that don't make sense because they know, they're just blacking out when they throw those crazy balls. And I think that's what's happening with Baker sometimes is that's where that amped upness is coming into effect. The Holmes and the

Josh Allen's of the world. Did you just hear that comparison? That was where my brain went to. What a point we have. It's totally fair, but what a point we have reached in the world. I know. I actually that shocked me. You should have seen my face after it came out of my mouth. It looked like the screen poster. Let's get to someone else in that same range of quarterbacks. And that is John Wolfer, another candidate for who won the week here. So the Rams win.

The Rams beat the Cardinals to get into the playoffs. They do it with a backup quarterback. They do it with a very impressive performance in Brandy Staley's defense. Thankfully, against another backup quarterback, which we'll get to in a little bit here. But great moment for John Wolford. The guy, after the game, he said he had like 350 text messages, as he should. Like, who knows how long this guy who was just in the AAF, who had never played in the league before. He looks like, I said to somebody earlier today.

And I don't, I'm saying this like kind of kidding because he's an NFL quarterback. He just won an NFL game. But watching him on the field, it's like if you drop the most talented guy from your intramural league into an NFL game. because he just looks like a person. He literally is built like a person. He's like a very athletic guy. But sometimes when the pocket was collapsing around him and he was just trying to scurry around,

he looked like just a dude that had been dropped into an NFL game. And guess what? He averaged six yards in attempts and they won. He did have like a QB sweep because they ran a bunch of them for him. Oh, we're going to get to the QB sweep. Oh, yeah.

He had one in the Red Zone. Oh my God. Sorry, you just made me laugh so hard. He had one near the Red Zone or near the the end zone they're in a QB sweep and he had the hero ball moment in his head at about the two yard line he's like I'm going I'm I'm going for this and then he saw how fast a defender closed and he just turtled up and I'm John Welford is a tough dude you can tell he's a tough dude and he's a competitor but you he had that second thought he goes never mind and he just got down and like they went down at the

one and it was I mean but there's a couple of cuby sweeps he actually looked pretty good on but it was just that was one of those plays that as soon as he said he looked human out of there just like a normal dude like the emergency beer league goalie that has to play in the nchel sometimes that's exactly what it felt like that's what it looked like sometimes but like he can move a little bit they're not trying to kill you when you're the beer league golly there isn't a dude who outweighs you by 50 pounds chasing you at full speed trying to rip your head off it's a slightly different proposition so i let's talk about the rushing because he had six carries for 56 yards yeah and sometimes scramble numbers can be misleading in how they affected

the game and how they happened. His rushing in this game swung the game for the ramps. It was really important to what they did offensively. Some of it was third down, pick it up with your legs, did that once or twice, very impressive. He had one that was a QB sweep on third down. Third and five. Third and five, it was essentially like the action of a screen pass.

Like that's what it felt like where the alignment. get out in front. Yeah. And you just have, in a numbers advantage, it looked like a screen, which on third and five makes sense. It's a reasonable call. They had Malcolm Brown going in jet motion to that side to pull somebody that way. They had numbers coming back and they picked it up.

And then I think on that same drive, they had a first and 10 zone re-design run, which all of those things we expected coming into this game. The Rams understood they needed to pick up a couple explosive plays with his legs. They needed to play great defense and they could win this game. And that's exactly what happened. It helped that it was against the backup quarterback. But I still think the plan they had offensively for this guy was dead on. And it wasn't the, okay, how many times you see an NFL coach, they get the backup in there and they get the quote unquote scrambling quarterback and then they just run the basic ass zone read.

And it's just boring static and everything. Of course, Sean McVeigh and the offensive line coach there, they know how to design this stuff up and actually throw a couple of wrinkles in that ties into stuff they like to do. they used to run that sweep play with Gurley all the time, especially on like third and threes, third and fours, they would run that sweep off of it, but they would run it with Gurley, girl,

who's a little better at it than Malcolm Brown and those offensive was a little better at it overall. And a little better than John Wolford. Yeah, a little bit of Joe Woffel. But, but no, it's a great point with the screens

is because on that play, they swept it to Malcolm Brown, the entire Cardinals defense just was over, like past the hash. Like they were midfield and then, you know, he got up the sideline and they had a nice pull on it and everything. And on that,

but it's just a good way to tie it in. And you'll see like Oklahoma does it all time. It's going to pick up over over the league. Trust me next year, we'll see it all time. It's this crosser, uh, QB draw play they like to run. And they ran it with Kyler, Bunch. They ran a lot with Jalen Hertz. And so they run the crosser and it's just basically an RPO draw with a crosser on it.

And on that, this, this kind of plays out the same way as a sweep as opposed to the crosser and him keeping it. He's not reading anything on this, but I'm saying that's how it kind of played out. So it's kind of interesting to see that run with it. And, you know, he made a nice couple of throws. And where that run element really becomes valuable, though, is you brought up the point, how many times they got in high leverage situations, they got a first down of them with his legs, either him scrambling.

And it wasn't like he was scrambling because he was scared. You'll see a lot of young quarterbacks look to run. That's what I mean, where the scrambling could be a little bit misleading. Yeah. He's scrambling out of desperation instead of actually weaponizing it the way that he did. Correct. I think that's an important distinction. He did that all game.

He had three first downs. A couple of nice throws, too. Yeah. Yeah. a corner pocket, pocket throw over Patrick Peterson to a tight end. Like it was like, oh, crap, okay, that's, that's pretty good. That's not, that's good backup stuff. Like, you know, again, we're not saying that this guy's going to be like a starting

quarterback anywhere, but that's good backup stuff. That's a guy that can stick around the league because he can Sean Hillett. He can make it look like, you know, he can just get through because he knows what to do with it. And he's athletic enough to make a couple of plays. But, you know, he had three first downs rushing in that first quarter. Goff had five rushing first downs all of last year. That's a big difference in using your.

legs. Gough, of course, you can see the difference in throwing the ball, like how tight golf is throwing and the timing on some of those stuff because Wilford was late. And I get it. It's going to be hard for him. But he was late on some throws. He just barely got by because it's the Cardinals defense. But you can see the differences in the man. He got his head around a few times though, man. He was moving through progressions. He's moving receiver to receiver. I was impressed by how he played. The one, the most impressive throw of the day for me was the one he had to Robert Woods on their second drive down the right side line. It was really smart. They had a three by one set when they had Everett as the single receiver on the left side.

They had trips to the right side. They had Woods in the slot. So by lining up that way, they knew they were getting man because it's Cardinals, essentially. And they had Jordan Hicks on Woods because he was the third receiver and the tight end was split out the other way. So they had one on one against a linebacker from the slot, ran a little bit, ran a little fade, and he hit him right near the goal line. All you have to do, if your job, Wolford in the situation is we're going to scheme up four

or five throws for you today. you make those four or five throws, he made three of them. And the defense played out of its mind against the back quarterback and the Rams are in the playoffs. Aaron Donald did some stupid shit today. Like just some, the one, you, we both tweeted it out before the show. There was a play, there was a play where they was it should have worked. It was on the first, the Cardinals first drive, second and ten.

Yeah. So Aaron Donald was in the backside A gap and the run was to the right side. It was a power. And the center has the angle. on that. Yeah. The center is essentially blocking back on him. And that is an easy block.

Yep. Right? That is a block that when you draw that up on the board, like, all right, that center's got that. Yep. Away from the play. The center did not got that. Donald blows him back into the backfield and two yards deep.

He lifts his left leg in this, like, cartoonish way where he's like running through the center to make the tackle four yards deep in the backfield. It looked like a superhero movie. And he did that like four times today. And I honestly, I say it jokingly, but when you watch that defense today, that is a defense that understood it needed to dominate that game for them to win. The moment that Troy Hill picked that ball off, Leonard Floyd started doing the third base coach with his arms.

He was literally waving him home. And he returned at 80 yards for a touchdown, 90 yards for a touchdown. And the game was essentially over after that. It was like that was like a dagger, whenever that quarter that was. It was like done. Like you could just feel everything changed right then. That was a defense that knew exactly what it needed to do to win that game. They knew that they're, them making the playoffs rested on their shoulders and they played like a Jalen Ramsey shut out DeAndre Hopkins.

It helps when you're playing its back quarterback again. But still, that defense I thought played a lights out game and was the best defense in the NFL the same way they had been for most of this season. Yeah. The next gen stats had it. It was the DeAndre Hopkins got two catches, had two catches when. and Jamon Ramsey was the guy closest defending him. And one of those was on the last drive on some like little, you know, fire screen at the end of the game.

Ramsey was out of his mind today. Even though Hopkins did, even though Hopkins got the offensive PI, that catch that he made on the offensive PI was insane. Yeah, he quote tweeted me on it. I was just like, hey, dude, I didn't say it was offensive PI. I just said that they called offensive PI. DeAndre Hopkins quote tweeted that one. But.

Oh, did he? Yeah, he quote tweeted and he was like a point in and tagged the NFL in it, said, you know, I was just trying to go get the. ball. The defender wasn't trying to get it. And nothing at me. So I'm good. We're good, right? That's really funny. He's not a guy you want to piss off. I promise you that. Hey, I'm an offensive guy. Hey, I did not see anything. He's trying to go get the ball. He made a hell of a play. That's what that's the thing is that he's the ultimate ball winner is that every ball he thinks is his. So it was kind of, but seeing Jaylon Ramsey take him out of a whole game is pretty, pretty ridiculous.

And what's crazy about that Aaron Donald play that you were, you were just talking about. is on that it was power and the center was blocking down, Donald beat him front side. Like on his inner shoulder on a power play, which is like, and he beat him deep. Yeah, like you said, two, three yards in the backfield. It's like, that's impossible, I think. I want to talk about that because very quickly before we move on. So I wrote about Brandon Staley this week. I talked to him for a long time.

It was a really fun thing to kind of dig into. I asked him a lot of the questions you and I had wanted to know about their defense. Yeah. And really the paradigm shifting thing that they have done defensively is they line up in light boxes more than anybody in the NFL. And they dare teams to run the ball into those light boxes and have been somehow, even with that distribution of resources, the most efficient run defense in the NFL. You might ask how you do that. So Donald was lined up in the backside agap and played both agaps. And it's not too gaping.

He's not sitting there and reading the guy, but the way their front structures work and the way they teach guys to attack leverages of offensive linemen, they steal gaps back that way. It helps to have Aaron Donald, but you still have to know how to unleash him. And by stealing gaps back, that's how you get a four-yard TFL when you only have six guys in the box

against six blockers. It's stuff like that. They do such a good job of understanding. If we line up this way and we really let our best players loose in these ways, we can gain math advantages consistently against both the run and the pass. and that is why Brandon Staley has done the best job of any defensive coordinator in the league this year.

And that's why the Rams, even with the questions about golf, even with the questions about their offense heading into the playoffs, it's not fun. You are not going to enjoy playing against this team, even if their offense has question marks. Well, that's such a good point, though, because that power play, it was at 11 personnel, of course, with Cardinals. And that a light box, you could say that's safe to run that play. You're like, hey, we can block this schematically. We have the numbers. So that's what's so cool about that. It's like, no, they know that and they're still going to win.

And they're going to get TFLs and to create negative plays for you. One more guy here is candidate for who won the week. We just got to mention it. Derek Henry, man. 34 carries 250 yards. And they needed every yard. It's not as if he was just piling it on in a game where they were blowing a team out. Nope.

They needed him to do that. Guy breaks 2,000 yards, eighth player in NFL history. It's hard to even describe what doing that in this era of the NFL is like. And it's not cheap. Again, we talked about it. We talked about on our all pro podcasts. They're third in the NFL and Russian DVOA coming into this game. I guarantee you that's not going to drop off after the game he just had.

And watching him play, and even today, it's crazy that a 250 pound back that just runs through people can make you pay when you are not sound. The touchdown he had where he bounced it to the left. If you are, if you cheat even a second in that zone running scheme they have, he is going to make you pay. and watching him just blossom in this offense has been very, very cool. We talked about the Ravens Titans game a little bit earlier. I cannot wait to watch it, and he is one of the reasons why. Yeah, and what they're running too is like they're adding these wrinkles each week or every couple weeks because they're so well coached and they adjust so well and they know what they are.

So it's just the outside zone. And then it was a split zone we talked about. Now they're kicking ass in duo, which of course I love. And the long run. Just the kickout block, Swam had on that lead play. He just rocked, rocked. rocked them, rocked him. Hit him so hard, he knocked the corner over.

Yeah, Swain came. All their tight ends are just like washing guys down. Like, so it's just like you'll see the line because their line's just much tough asses. Yeah. So they have a whole bunch of big tough receivers. So they get that edge blocking. And Henry, you know, I've joked about before. He's a finesse back and like he's not soft.

He's just, he can glide past people. So when you're getting that, especially on duo is how it's taught is sometimes when you get these heavy sets. Explain what duo is. Okay, so duo is power without the polar. And it's a joke online kind of football Twitter is what the play can look like zone, though. So to add a little more confusion, I just made it even more confusing. It's two double teams in the middle with the guards.

Duo stands for double teams. Then that's, you're trying to create as main double teams as possible. Usually you for sure get one with the center and, and the left guard or the right guard in some cases. But then on these plays, you really need tight end blocking on it because they'll have to go against a D-end. You have to get some receiver blocking because they'll have to fit up on a lineback or sometimes. So why the Titans are so good at it, they have the personnel for it because they were his own scheme as a team. And now when they're running duo, it's right at you. And with this, they're physical. They get this outside blocking. And what Henry has to do, what the teaching point is

on duo for the running back is to play games with the mic, is to set them up on the block and then you make him wrong, basically. You're making him guess wrong no matter what. If you get good edge blocking, the outside bounce is actually a weapon. Usually it's out there. there you, the corner tackles you for five yard gain. You're saying, hey, good offense, a win, good run play. Here we go. Five yards right there. Second of five. With Henry, those are turning into 20 yard gains because no corner is tackling, first off. Second off, he's fast enough and long enough and a glider enough that he can actually outrun guys. And they don't even get a hand on him. Like the touchdown, you're just saying to the left-hand

side. He just bounced that and no one had a hand on him. He gets first downs all the time where he bounces stuff, but then he'll get the 50-yard touchdown up the shoot because he's reading the game so well right now and they're getting so comfortable. in these blocking schemes. The tight ends, Jeff Swain, washes it down. And rather than Derek Henry try and bounce it or do anything, he plants his foot, gets north and just goes right down to shoot. And no one wants to tackle him because they're already getting ready to run outside

because they're so used to be bouncing some stuff. Now, a sudden, they have to tackle Derek Henry, 260 pounds, full head of steam, running at them. So it's great to see a team like this run duo. And there's other teams that run. It's more of an NFL play. LSU ran the crap out of it last year. If you have a good old line, a physical line, you can get a lot of hay

of it. And if you get a run a back that's going to do what Derek Henry is doing, you're going to get even more hay out of it. I like it as a change up. Yeah. Because I think that you don't, it doesn't create angles for you in the running game for your offensive linemen. So I think that you have to have a really good line to do it. Like the bucks just, that's what they do. Yeah. And I feel like, their, their run game sucks. Yeah. It's just like, because they just do that all the time. They don't run anything else. They don't even run like a toss play to like change it up. Like they just run. And they're just like, yeah, because it's a run at run. No matter the look that you play against, just like outside zone is, just whatever you play against it, you can run

against it theoretically. Is it always great? No. Watching the Titans lean into this, like you said, when you're used to playing against a team that runs a lot of outside zone, you're used to moving side to side. Yes. And a way to gash teams that are accounting for that style of running play is to run more power runs. It's difficult to change that midstream though and fold those in when you are in your bones a zone running team. Last year, you saw this with the Niners. They zone, zone for Shannonhan's entire career against the Steelers last season. This is when it started.

They ran like eight counterplays. Yeah, and trap. And the reason they were doing it is because the Steelers play their outside linebacker so far outside that it didn't make sense to try to get the edge. Let's play downhill at them because they're playing side to side. That transformed the Niners running game. They realized that it worked, and they started folding in a ton more of those gap zone and power runs. We often think about play action passing as a counterpunch to a run.

And I think that when we were considering how the Titans offense would be different this year, I don't think the first thought was more power runs in order to have that be a counterpunch to what we typically do. But it is. The same way it was for the Niners last year. And that is the sign of the creative, innovative, forward-thinking, forward-thinking. Let's push it offensive mind. I think that's what Arthur Smith has proven to be. All right.

Let's move on. Let's get to this week's Would You Rather? I want to get back to the Browns here briefly. I said this today on the internet and some people push back on it. I don't want to use my Twitter interactions as the subject matter for this show, but in this case I am going to do it. I said that I thought Kevin Stefansky should be the coach of the year because they are Browns are 11 and 5.

I mean, last the first time in 18 years. I think this is the rare situation where the guy who outperformed expectations preseason and the guy who did the best coaching job happened to be the same person. Often that coach of the year is given to the person whose team was, whose bad team was better than we thought they were going to be. Right. I don't think Stefansky is that. So if you were stepping back and looking at the landscape of all the coaches

and the guys who did a really good job this season, would you rather see Kevin Stefansky, Sean McDermott or Ron Rivera win coach of the year. And I mean, who do you think should win coach of the year? I use that phrasing because they'll have to put it in. Would you rather? It's such an arbitrary award. But it is, it's one, this is a good year for it.

Let's make it not arbitrary. I know. Let's put some worth into it. Let's put some worth into it. Just like the all pro voting. We got to put some weight into it now. That's exactly right. Yeah.

If you want to have it just be a stupid thing and throw away thing, it can be. But that's not where we're here for. Remember the South Park episode about about the economy and just like the credit levels. and they did the chicken with the head cut off. And it's like, you know, they did a whole play off of it. But it was just saying you have to believe in the economy and believe in everything for it to actually work. And that's how credit cards work is you have to believe in them to work and stuff. But anyways, but I really, if I'm worried to pick this vote, I'd pick Sean McDermott.

And a little bit of that is, God, I hate to sound like this, but there's a little bit of what they've just done overall there since that regime has taken over. And with being in him as well. but it's just what they have built as an entire team, that whole offense, because as a head coach, yeah, he's not the offensive play call or anything. But what they're doing as an entire team right now, and especially after the by week, it's just, it's a reflection of him because that entire team, that entire, every unit looks well coached. Even, and that's, that starts at the top. Some teams you'll see is like, oh, the old line's really well coach. Wow, they're their linebackers play. You know, they're always sound and you appreciate the assistant coach.

but when the entire team, every single unit, you can't really go, yeah, you know, the old line looks good, but their receivers are coached like shit. You know, but it's like, no, this entire team, and that starts at the top because he is dictating those units and dictating the meeting rooms every week. And he's going to have a say in what personnel gets brought there. They have done some good jobs and just bringing in some good culture guys and everything. And what they're getting out of them is just astounding. They know what they are. And he's allowed the offense just to be what they want to be. Aaron shots this week from football outsiders, you know, brought a great point.

point since the by week, not including week 17 here is the bills have had a 40% or more DVOA since their by week every single week, five straight weeks of it. They're crushing people. Crushing people. That is just dominance. That is, that's an SEC team playing out of conference schedule. That is what that looks like in the NFL. And it's, that's good coaching.

That means that during their by week, it probably got a little bit healthier, which always helps too. But probably during that by week, they were just like, hey, what are we good at? What are we bad at? okay, let's just make sure we're focusing on what we're good at. Let's put the bad stuff out of the way. There's other coaches that have been, we've talked to Fancy a bunch on this podcast.

There are some really good coaches right now coming up in this league. But I just think what Sean McDermott's doing with that whole team, it's awesome. I just think I love watching a well coach team and just seeing all the units play well together and just a passionate team and just being aware of situations always. That's what this whole team is. And guys are getting better when they get to Buffalo. No guy just stays the same there,

which is awesome to see guys just truly. get better under the systems on offense and defense. It's a totally fair argument. I think that if we were looking at the body of work over a few years, he would deserve it. What he has built there and the culture that he has developed there is undeniably impressive. And I think that everything you said is right. When guys get there, they have played like the best versions of themselves.

And that is a symbol that you are, you've built something special and that you've built something that is going to be viable for a while here. I still think there are a few arguments in Stefansky's favor. One, I don't think you can overlook the fact that Buffalo's offense has driven their success this year. I know that what you said is right, but that's still Brian Daibald's baby. That is still his universe. He has built that side of the ball. And Sean McDermott deserves credit for hiring Brian Daibald, but he did that two years ago, three years ago.

So what they've built there has happened over time, and I still think the Daibald deserves a ton of credit. I'll be curious how much of it carries over when he leaves because he's gone. I can promise you that. But I still think that they've done a great job, but I do think the offense has been such a dramatic part of what they've done this season that it's hard for me to delineate the credit and divvyate up. You're saying that the identity is purely the offense as opposed that. This year, I think they are 13 and 3 dominant team. This year, the offense has driven that. And I think the table will deserve a ton of credit.

Totally understand that. I think that when you look at what the Browns did offensively, and for Stefansky to come in with no offseason, was zero time with those guys, and to build a top 10 offense and make Baker Mayfield, one of the most efficient quarterbacks on a per-throw basis in the NFL this season has been remarkable. We are a year removed from wondering if Baker Mayfield could play in the NFL.

That is not a joke. There were times last year where he was not blocking in in that drifting to the right. I have the yips sort of stuff. And now he has been one of the most efficient quarterbacks in the league. And some people were saying, you know, the Browns have so much talent. The Browns have so much talent. I guess so.

Like, O'Dall Beckham missed most of this season. You know, it's, they've spent a piece of my money. It wasn't like O'Dell Beckham has been carrying the offense. Like, you know, like, yeah, he's a great player. Don't get me wrong. But it wasn't like, oh, my God, it was just a huge shift when he's not on the field. Yeah, I don't. And the idea that they had all these top five picks, Baker Mayfield is one of them.

He's no longer a top five pick anymore. He's just the quarterback of the Browns who, again, is a year removed from us not knowing if he can play. I think that what they constructed around him this year and that system and the way they folded in those different types of run plays and the way that run game was built and just the way that he put his staff together and how that has contributed to what the offense looks like. I just think that in this year, in the year 2020, he has done the best job of any head coach.

I think that Ron Rivera has a strong case because it's the same for the defense. And they have done it without a ton of resources. They've had guys get hurt. So I think Rivera has a case. I think McDermott has a case. I just think that when you consider 2020, and that's it, I believe that Kevin Stefansky did the best job of any head coach in the league. And the fact that he calls offensive plays and the offense is his, I think gives him

a slight edge over some of those other guys. And that's a conversation about how much we should weigh that even. But I really do believe that when you think about the impact he had on his offense and on that team, it's more impressive than what any other head coach did this year and this year alone. So let's talk about one of the other guys that would be in the running for this, but had a rough day today. And we're going to let Vince take us there. So I think Brian Flores would have been in this conversation for most of the season deservedly.

Yeah. And some of the other things that people said today were kind of curious to me, though. They were like, oh, he's done so much, it was so little in, in, Miami. The dolphins were third in offense in defensive spending this season against the cap. The dolphins were built to have a good defense right now. And they did for most of the year, but they laid an egg today against the bills. I'm wondering how you feel about the dolphins right now compared to how you felt about the dolphins six weeks ago. Have your feelings changed significantly about their outlook? Are you less optimistic or significantly less

optimistic than you were at another point this season. No, I would say I'm even more optimistic about their trajectory. Because I think Flores is for real as a coach and as a leader. And as far as game management, he has proven enough that he's making the right decisions. So I trust his decision making. Yeah, again, that's just game management, everything. How he's handled the two of Fitzpatrick stuff, Rosen's stuff in the past. He's handled a lot of personalities, what they're doing with trades.

You know, they bottom out the team like a couple times now. And, you know, just the guys are competing. You can tell a lot by how hard guys are competing. Like we've complimented Kyle Shanahan's teams for that is that San Francisco. The four-in-hires are always fighting, even these injury years they have. And I think that reflects the coach. What they really feel to me is, especially on offense more, more than anything, maybe actually as a whole team, is when Andy Reid first got with the chiefs. And he had Alex Smith as a quarterback.

And they had a whole years where the receiver didn't even catch a touchdown. And that offense was just getting by. And it was just, you know, Alex Smith making a couple plays. And, and, you know, that's really my comparison for Tua, too. So this analogy is pretty apt. But it's, they would create, they would have the safest offense and they would get by with a really good defense. Justin of the world, you know, you know, Barry back there at the time. And they do, they rely on Jamal Charles.

And at the time, this is when Andy Reid was still known as more of a Mickey Mouse offense, you know, dink and dunk. You know, he just does creative college stuff, but no soundness to his game. It's funny how the narrative's changed. I'll all of a sudden you get Patrick Mahomes as a quarterback. But it's, but that's what this reminds me of on offense is they just don't generate those explosiveness. So it's so hard to see how Toa is with what they're doing to him on offense.

First is two high defenses. It's been, he's being forced to check it down. That's their defenses, making them try and take chances. And they, I don't think they have both the scheme to really take chances against this or, and or the personnel at this point in time to take advantage of that.

And Tua is going to just take. take what's given to them for better for worse. But again, two high defenses that they face this year, Denver, last week against, or the Rams especially, of course,

Rams have a great defense. Last week against, against the Raiders, are starting to major more and too high, cover two on their Rod Marinelli. And there's some muddle route distribution. Tua's not trying to check it down.

They've owned all this stuff underneath. He's not taking a corner shot. Ryan Fitzpatrick, when he came in there, he was ready for that corner hole shot. He got facebacked on because they kept showing that look to Tua, and Tua wasn't taking a

advantage of it. So Ryan Fitzpatrick finally gets in there and he's just like, oh, here we go. I'm letting this baby rip. So that's what I'm more worried about. I think they need a revamping of the offense. Just what they're doing on schematically a little bit. It's not inspiring to say to least. And I think also they just need a couple more weapons on offense. But I do think that the dolphins are sitting in a good spot. They have the Texans pick. They have the later pick that's now in the lottery now. It's outside of playoff spots. I think they're in a good spot. I just trust what Flores is doing. I think they still need answers, though, with Tua, and that's going to be a lot of self-evaluation. Is that, was that the coaching that they're putting in them? Was that the personnel they put in them? Or is that just what Tua is? Again, is it a feature or a bug that he plays like Alex Smith has played for a lot of his career?

I feel like everything you said is right. And I also am optimistic about their future. I just think that at one point this season, it felt like the future was now more than it ended up being. And if you really kind of sit back and look at the, this with some perspective. Yes. Like if they had made the playoffs, it would have been house money. They did not expect to make the playoffs. It would have been gravy. So them not making it,

I wouldn't necessarily say I'm disappointed considering what I thought they were going to be at one point this season. I honestly think it might be a good thing because I feel like not making the postseason is going to really give them a chance to step back and take a really sober look at what this could mean. Do they think Tua is the guy? It's fair. to ask that question.

He might be. But I do think that not making the playoffs and kind of having it end on this note is really going to be able to allow them to say, all right, let's take a real hard look at everything and where we need to get better. This was exciting. We're taking steps forward. The defense was so much better than we thought it was going to be. It was a top five unit for most of the year, all of that stuff.

But now we did make the playoffs. These are our faults. This is where we can get better. And they have avenues to do it. But I do think that it's just a. different feeling than one we had midway through the season. Yeah. They felt like they were going to cruise to the playoffs.

And now that hasn't happened. But I totally agree with you. After the Cardinals game, too, I had that sequence where he blacked out. And it was just like, oh, wow, they found a guy here. Like it was just, it's so remarkable how much has changed. And that, you have to discern is that, is that what they're asking for him? Is that just what he has? Can I talk about Bill, Bill's play from today real quick?

Oh, yes, you can. I, I tweeted it out, but it was so, it was the sluggo to John Brown. So it was cool to see John Brown back out there. And what was so cool about that was the dolphins weren't cover zero, of course, because they run it so much and run it so well. I've seen this before, but you don't see it often. But the bills, and on that play motioned Isaiah McKenzie, who went off today. But this is how cool this whole team makeup is. So this guy that scored three touchdowns today, punt return, did all those other stuff today.

They motioned them back into the backfield and had them block and protect and fit up on a DB blitzing with just like a running back, like an extra running back in their protection. And that gave Josh Allen enough time to pump it. Check the safety after he pumped it against cover zero, mind you. So they're bringing seven pumps it, checks the safety, and then just unleashes just a beautiful ball to John Brown. And they beat Byron Jones on it. And why they're able to do that is because they protect it against cover zero. Those corners are getting ready to just knife in on any slant routes or anything underneath.

And they ran a slug. A fake slant, go. Byron Jones is only human. Double moves against cover zero is crazy. shit. It's the best. I mean, you should have time to do it. You shouldn't. And not only just not time to do it, but check the safety after you pump fake. If you ever, if you watch the clip, it's hilarious. Like Josh Allen has that much time. But why they're able to do it is dable is so open to doing these kind of things like motioning a receiver back into protect like an extra

running back or an extra tight end. I've seen like the Patriots do it. They did a couple times like West Welker, but they would like full slide to protection like a tight end. He was fitting it up. Like it was so cool. I don't know. It was just a really cool play and it just shows. He has a based on some conversations I've had, that is one of his gifts, is his understanding of protection. And it is born of... That's huge. And it's honestly, it's not born of anything fancy.

He apparently, you know, I don't want to get too far down in this road, but he apparently will just get down these rabbit holes film-wise, where he'll start watching a first drive for some reason, and then he'll just wake up like six hours later. And I'd be like, oh, I came up with all of these tells they have, protection-wise, and they're often really accurate. If you can just limit the menu in your guys' minds about what could come, if you're giving them three options instead of six, things like that, it changes the game. And especially for protections on offense.

And apparently he just has a really good feel for how to do that. And that's not surprising when you consider the success they've had offensive. There's a reason in basketball, it's taught to be a triple threat and not a quintuple threat. It's because guys can handle three things. You know, that's what it should be. Once you get more than a three, it starts becoming too many options. It's not good if you ever been to any type of restaurant, like a cheesecake factory. It's just too many options can be a bad thing.

But sometimes just three really freaking good ones can really get you through some stuff. Every good restaurant you go to, if it's on one page, every single one. I like that. That is not an accident. All right. It's funny that you mentioned the game between the Cardinals and the Dolphins because I feel like those are two teams. that had real high highs this year and seemed like they were cruising toward the postseason. We're getting very excited about their future and things fell down a little bit at the end.

We're hopeful about the Brian Flores era in Miami. I think everyone should be. He has proven to be a very good coach. I think they're headed in the right direction. The Cardinals lost today does not fall solely on Cliff Kingsbury because his quarterback was hurt. But I do think that it's fair to wonder where the Cardinals are going as currently constructed. So Chris Streveller had to come into this game for the Cardinals. I don't know if I'm pronouncing that right.

I watched this entire game on mute and I had no idea he was a person before that game started. No, I'm not going to lie on this. I, he, earlier this year, the Cardinals were running like this like QB sneak package with him. I swore the entire season. I thought he was just another receiver that was wearing 15 because that's just how he's built. So you had, you were the, you ran personnel for an AAF team. I did. A couple years ago.

Do you have any idea who that person is? No idea. No, no. And he was at Minnesota too. It's even worse. I think he's from Illinois. Went to Minnesota. He's from Krista Lake. So I felt bad about not knowing who he was, but then I saw that he went to

Marion Catholic, which is a private school. So that's why I don't know who he is. It's the same reason that even though Cole Komet is from Lake Barrington, which is literally my hometown, I do not recognize him because he went to Viter and not to Barrington. So he's just, he's dead to me now. I love you. You're just specific. You're a specific band of Illinois.

Listen, man. There could have been multiple years of Cole Comet and Scotty Miller in the same offense. And I'm still mad at Cole Comet for not allowing that to happen. Anyway. So a rough day for the Cardinals, obviously Kyle Murray getting hurt, you know, puts a damper on things. But where do you sit on Cliff Kingsbury and the overall outlook for this team right now? Because it was a rough season for them offensively at times. I think that, and this is, here's in my.

opinion the perfect way to encapsulate it. Okay. Early in the year, when they were using Hopkins on the backside of those three-by-ones and they were playing that two-man pick and roll game, we praise them for it because it felt like a really smart way to fold in a new guy into your offense, to get them to hit the ground running. It was a simple way to create matchups. I think in our minds, it would eventually expand beyond that when they had more time.

and then you look at the way they used the Hunter Hopkins today, it did not expand beyond that. Spoiler alert. The narrator is here. And I don't know how much faith we should have in what their offense can look like

with a full offseason with these guys because now two years in, I think it's a lot of throwing shit against the wall and seeing what sticks, not having offensive identity is a term that's used way too often. I think it's more about when we need something here, we have five things we can go to. Yep.

They have nothing like that. You talk about a small menu. There's this non-existent for the stuff that I feel great about this sort of action or this sort of concept or this sort of series of plays in high leverage moments. That does not exist for the Cardinals right now outside of, all right, Kyler, good luck. All these great offenses we talk about, you close your eyes. You're like, okay, what do you picture when they call play? picture when they call. So right. A lot of your picture. Okay, Titans, Rams, everybody, you know, just these, these good

schemes, I shouldn't say the Rams have a good offenses here, but it just a repeatable scheme. And these offenses that struggle or something, it's, okay, even with the Cardinals, it's like, what do they do well other than Kyle are being awesome or Diage Hopkins being awesome? And I can tell you, the best stuff they do is the run game. And a lot of times, that's the old line coach that takes the lead on the run game. Wasn't that good this year, though. The run game was, it's all. Kyler's running. I should just say, Kyle. Where's run game.

Yes. But last year, their run game was explosive. And it was fun. Last year, they were getting gashes in the ground. They did not have that this year. As a Kenyon Drake fantasy manager who watched him all season, I can promise you that the run game left a lot to be desired for the Cardinals this season. I'm a chase Edmunds fan.

But with that, what they're trying to run, they, it just seemed like narrow thinking. I think that's a great what we talk about what Cliff is doing with DeAndre Hawkins. Narrow thinking because the thinking was so wide. He was trying to take stuff from everywhere and then it became narrow. Like you said, when you're seeing everything to see nothing, that's what it felt like for them on offense this year. What they're trying to do so many times, like this fun stuff. Oh, this cool play I saw because that was the, that was the MO coming in.

Oh, so the air raid offense where we're coming. This looks nothing like the air raid offense other than like mesh every once in a while. This run game is completely different. And a million wide receiver screens that go nowhere. Go nowhere. And that's his narrow band of thinking is keeping DeAnd DeAndre Hopkins on one side. okay, hey, that's what we're going to have. But guess what, NFL is about matchups and adjustments.

And we've just talked about the bills that the bills are just after the buy week and they changed what they were doing, not really schematically, but focused on what they were doing a little bit more. The Browns today, just talk about that Baker Mayfield play. I'm joking about it a little bit. But guess what? That means because a coach was in his ear and they knew to come back to that play to hit the backside crosser.

It just seems like the Cardinals never repeat any play other than like stick draw RPO because it's a safe play that everyone runs in college. And then you're putting it on the quarterback again to make you right. And with all that, it's everything just looks hard. And the narrow band of thinking comes in applies to is they're beat up on O line. Larry Fitzgerald's out, Christian Kirk's out. They, his thinking is, let's get the ball quick. Let's run screens.

That way the rush can't get to us. Sometimes how you shore up and let your offense work with a poor O line and poor receivers and everything is heavy PA is moving the pocket. It's naked shot. you know pull-up naked it's sprint-out pull-ups you know those are ways to generate offense and it's so funny a person that tries to run every freaking thing under the sun this is cheesecake factory they are cheesecake factory that that's what cook kinks were here is he's cheesecake factory he does everything oh yeah just runs one of everything but you have no idea what you want to get

and that's what it looks like all the time it's just like i go make a play and it makes it look good it's exciting when it's like rolling but it just looks like different shit thrown against the wall every single week and it's the same issues that i had with it last week same issues when they were getting hyped up. I was a part of it because they looked good and was like, okay, they're showing some stuff up. They were exciting.

They were never good. And we talked about that early in the season. There's a difference between being exciting and being efficient. And they were never efficient. And I thought that them working through that growing pain stage and winning games the way they were just by talent alone and by Kyler taking over in some of these situations, like, okay, they're working through this kind of middle ground phase.

they don't necessarily know who they are. And if you're winning while you're in that process, good for you. But as we got toward the end of the season, they never figured anything out. They never rode the excitement into efficiency. And I think that that's really important. The bills are undeniably exciting, but that guy is in control. Yes. That dude is locked in.

And so they rode the exciting into the efficient. The Cardinals have not made that step. And I think it's really important to acknowledge that and understand why it hasn't happened. That's a good way. Yeah, it's they wrote the excitement into the efficient. Because, yeah, with the bills, it was, even in today is Josh Allen draws a guy off size on third and four, hangs in a pocket, knows exactly. Isaiah McKenzie is working. It's the entire team knows what they're trying to do on that play.

No one jumped off size, nothing like that. How many times do we see the Cardinals have cadence issues or burn a timeout late and they're supposed to be a no huddle team? It's just not what you want when you see an NFL offense. And it's just, it's, yeah, it's the same issues that keep going to repeat it. They're doing stuff like sliding seven guys against a three or four man rush and just wasting guys. and protection and getting no easy plays with checkdowns that can work underneath. And yeah, and it's just the continued problems. And it's what's the definition of insanity is, you know, doing the same thing over and over,

expecting different results. And that's what keeps seeming to happen with them. I think it's really fitting that both them and the dolphins had winning, get in games and lost because I think that their seasons in a lot of ways did mirror each other. I think the dolphins defense was always better than anything the Cardinals were doing. I think the Cardinals defense was actually the most impressive part of what they did this season, was the way that Vance Joseph unlocked some of those guys. So a lot of questions for the Cardinals.

I think the Dolphins, this is the plan. This was always the plan. I think the Cardinals plan has stalled out, and they need to try to find some answers. All right, before we get out of here, let's get to Secret Sauce really quickly. Not today, my good man, I'm feeling saucy. So I just wanted to talk about some of the ways

the Packers exploited matchups against the Bears linebackers today. I don't really want to get into the Bears stuff. I mean, they made the playoffs. Congratulations. I think that, you know, they're, who knows what they are. I don't know what this means for the future. I do think that today was, you and I were talking about this a little bit before the show. I don't know what this team is because the defense isn't dominant.

I know they're played against the Packers and in Rochester and they were missing some corners. I know that Roquant Smith got hurt, but the defense is not dominant. It is a fine defense. It's like a top 10-ish unit. That plus, I don't know, the 20th best offense in the league. Let's say if they bring Mitchell-Tribisky back and they do this sort of stuff, that's a 9 and 7 team. That's what this team is, and that's fine.

But so I thought that some of the things the Packers did today, exploiting linebackers in coverage via a few different avenues were really impressive. So why don't you lay out some of the ways the Packers did that? And again, just some of the ways that that really shows the feel that LaFleur has for how to get his guys in spots right now. Yeah, the Packers overall, we've joked about it, is they are almost like a greatest hit span right now. They just run so many cool, just simple. Now, cool concepts, not in the sense that it's like, oh, man, this is crazy. They reinvent the wheel more than that they do, like I said, greatest hits.

Fun other schemes, they just do them really freaking well because they have Aaron Rogers and Aaron Jones and Devante Adams and just everybody. But anyways, this play I want to talk about is it was an empty third and four. It was to MVS on the deep touchdown. And he just ran up the scene. He had a lineback and lined up against him. And on that play, it was empty formation. And typically if you close your eyes and you picture an empty formation or a three by one formation, I should really originally say, the tight end is at the number three spot. And what the number three spot is, you're working from outside in.

Outside receivers are number one. Slots are usual number two, tight end number three. On this empty play. By the way, similar to what the, similar to the shot that the woods hit down the right sideline against the Cardinals, he was also number three in an empty formation in a three by one set. Similar thinking. And you'll hear defenses say speed at three, speed at three. because they'll be trying to alert it. But sometimes you'll hear a defensive call of that.

So be on a lookout sometimes for that. You'll hear speed of three, speed of three. And on that play, since they put the tie down, why that's a benefit is one, you can get your guys. The tweak, it's a simple tweak, but you can get your guys in more advantageous ways to use their traits. NVS can really fly. I mean, that is, everyone knows that in the league.

He is, that's what he can take the top off. And so let's put him at the number three spot. All the Packers did on this play was just, run stick basically to the front side. It was just a switch stick. It was the two outside routes did what normal stick does. And they just put number three on a go as opposed to number two or number one. And on it, rather than have a tight end trying to run past anyone, even though Tonian's a good

player, they put them on the outside on a shorter route. It's a little different when MVS is running that vertical route, even if Tanian can move a little bit. Yeah. And so what all this does is, it gives Rogers a pre-snap indicator because you'll see teams do this where they flip where the tight end or the running back is if they go into empty. they'll do it a lot against teams like that or like the Seahawks that or the Seahawks defense that run a lot of cover three and man and just major in a couple coverages because what it does is it gets you with just an easy pre-snap indicator, especially for quarterbacks because they can look out there and they see the tight end split out there and they see a safety aligned on them. They're like, okay, it's man.

But if the tight end split all the way out there, number one, there's a corner over the top of them. It's like, okay, something's up. It's zone. It's a pressure. So it gives Rogers all the indicators he needs. And you can see on the play, he directs the, protection to just full slide to the right. He knows he's hot.

And really what he is is more warm in the sense that he knows that guy is unblocked. Because they're in empty again, that nickel has to come all the way from way out in the field, or way out into the boundary. Like it's a long distance for him to get there. So Rogers knows he's warm on the place. So he's like, all right, I'm going to hit this touchdown. And he knew he had it right away because his eyes didn't go anywhere else. He was like, I got this.

I got MVS lined up with a linebacker. This is dead. and it was just great. But the concept had, it's just a total tie-in of everything. It's a simple tweak on a simple concept. So no one has really any new learning. It's lining guys in the best spots possible in a high leverage situation, third and four. And not just getting the first down.

We talked about the Rams last week, barely getting the first down on the third and four. Where the, where the Packers doing, they're hitting touchdowns right up the defense's ass on third downs. And that's what a good offense does. And that's what the Packers are doing. That's what this little simple tweaks, just on simple concepts. But that just, it can, when you have good players that are playing fast and know what the hell they're doing, it just unlocks things like this. And like you get touchdowns like this out of nowhere on a third and four where most offenses are just hoping to get a first down on that play. And it's just cool stuff that they're doing.

This is what offensive ingenuity looks like in the NFL. Yes. Yes. You're not going to have people come in. And so many people have said this to me. And I, because I think that you want to ascribe this genius to these guys. Yeah. And so many, I remember Matt Schaub said it to me once, talking about Kyle Shanan. He's like, you can only draw lines on paper so many ways.

Like most of the plays that you see have existed in some way, shape, or form. You're not having guys scratch stuff on the back of napkins. It's not what this is. It's about running the same stuff you typically run with guys in different spots or out of a different formation or lining up in a way that gives you a matchup indicator. It's small stuff. It's subtle stuff. But Lafleur has done such a great job of finding that subtle stuff consistently all season.

The second touchdown that they had, same sort of deal. They were lined up with the wide receiver at number three. The linebacker was on them, drifted right behind him. Easy touchdown. Yep. I can't remember who the guy's name was. The 40-something. Yeah, I have her in down Dominique something.

Dominique something. Congratulations to Dominique something on the touchdown. Hey, congrats. That kind of stuff. And then several times today, they had receivers coming on crossing routes, shallow crosses that eventually were covered by linebackers just because of the way that the play ended up working out. The linebacker is not covering that guy at the start of the play.

Let's be clear about that. When you're watching Danny Trevathan chase Devante Adams across the field, that is, they're passing off coverages. They're bumping down. I want to say on one of them on a third down, Trevathan was the rat hole player in a cover one and he bumps over to that guy just based on the way that the coverage works. Yeah.

That's just rules and understanding how to exploit rules. And the Packers have done a great job of that all season. When you see guys like Devante Adams and guys like Aaron Rogers with their talent in a system like this, you break records. You win MVP's. That's what happens. It's very, very similar to what happened with Matt Ryan in 2016 with Kyle Shanahan. It's a really similar thing. I was talking to Matt Ryan last week, and we were talking about the process of whittling down the stuff from year one to year two for that 2016 Falcons offense.

And he was talking about Lafleur just locking on to some of it. Because he was, Lafleur was the quarterback's coach on that staff. And he was talking about Lafleur just and him going back and forth on some of those things. It's like, let's do this a little bit more. Let's do that a little bit more. And you see that with the Packers. It's let's merge all of these things that I like and you like and let's shorten the menu.

We've mentioned it so many times in the show today. But let's find the 10 things that we love and let's hit those over and over and over again. And that's what you've seen. You know, it is, this Packers offense has, again, made Aaron Rogers an MVP again. It's given Devante Adams, who's called his 18 touchdown today, one of the greatest seasons of wide receivers ever had in the league. So Rogers apparently told Devonthe after the game, then in 13 and a half games, you just had the greatest season in Packers history for a wide receiver. And I only say that because I love that Aaron Rogers is a sentimental dork like me, who has to like say out loud those things to the people in his life. Yeah.

It's just like, it's like, man, you mean. so much to me and you did so great this year. I just love that Aaron Rogers has reached that point because I also, that is how I am all of the time. So that's awesome. But that just, but it's great. Like what you're saying,

they're like, hey, they honed in. That's why that's the joke I'm saying too is the greatest hits. And you know who else did this is this is what when the Colts and Tom Moore kind took over or Payne Manning was quarterback with the Colts and Tom Moore took over play calling stuff. This is what they did.

They just honed in. They said, what plays do you love? Okay. We're going to get really freaking good at them. We're only going to run. They were the ultimate example. They were the ultimate example.

They didn't even motion because of the shit that they wanted to show. They had the same splits. The receivers had the same splits literally every single snap. They showed nothing. They did the exact same thing every time. But what they did is nothing really tied in that much together. They just ran eight awesome concepts. 989 Y Cross.

They just ran really good concepts. And Peyton was going to put the ball on the freaking money every single time. But with an offense, I always say that too is people throughout the guru, the genius and stuff. Some of these guys are brilliant and stuff. But what we, I've always tried to compare it to, it's like, there's only a certain amount of ways you can run these plays. Like you said, there's only a certain amount of lines you can draw. Once you learn to bucket it, it really helps to learn the game when you only realize there's only a certain amount of run concepts. There's only counter, trap, you know, power, you know, gaps games, zone schemes, you know, there's only a certain amount of stuff.

And you can start to bucket things rather than just individualize everything. And it's a lot like in storytelling or filmmaking, there's only like eight stories to tell or whatever, seven stories to tell. And when you start appreciating movies and stuff, you see how. directors take those stories and change them and put their own little tweaks on it and storywriting stuff. It's a great comparison. And that's what coordinators do. That's what great coordinators do. They take those eight stories, those seven stories you can tell. And they just go, I'm going to just paint the picture a little different. And when you get great actors, like a great quarterback, you win awards. And then that's what you get with the Packers offense like this year. That's,

that's the only comparison I've ever had to it. It's like, yeah, you want to label genius for these guys, but there's only so many things you can do, but it's so cool what guys do with those eight things and what they expand it to. And honestly, I watched The Vastive Night a couple weeks ago. And when I was watching it, it has so many of the beats of like a Super 8 or of an Amblin movie or just like it's Spielberg. Spilbergen. Yeah.

But even if it's familiar, it's still beautiful when you watch it pulled off in the right ways. And that's exactly what the Packers' offense is. Even if we've seen so many of these concepts and this is just another. iteration of that Kubi-X-Shannahan type of system, the little tiny bits of flavor you put on it when you do it the right ways, you're hitting the right notes. It is still, it's gorgeous. It is a beautiful finished product, and that's exactly what the Packers' offense has been. And I think a lot of ways, I mean, they're the NFC team to beat.

I think that's fair to say. And we'll see what happens over the course of the playoffs. But the playoff field is set, my friend. We have made it through 17 weeks of the regular season. some fun news for people who listen to the show. You'll be back this week. You are going to come on the Thursday show. We're going to do some X's and O's previews.

We're still going to have Lindsay on, obviously, but we're going to try to pack some more into those Thursday shows for the playoffs. So that is very exciting. It is. We will be back on Wednesday with a very special guest, a familiar guest that I'm sure you guys will like. We'll also be talking to Jeff Sarubik about the Ravens for our weekly team visit. Until then, please rate and review the podcast on your podcast,

live form of choice. I would sincerely appreciate that. It would be a very nice New Year's gift for me. Also, please subscribe to the Athletic. Our Buy One Get One deal is no longer going, but you can still sign up for the site. I still highly recommend it at athletic.com slash football show. Please do that as well.

We have a ton of great stuff coming for the playoffs. I have a fun piece that will be running later this week that I hope you guys will check out. Until then, we sincerely appreciate guys listening. Thanks so much. We'll talk to you soon. This was the Athletic Football Show.