The Athletic Football Show: A show about the NFL - Week 17 Recap: Ravens and 49ers clinch 1-seeds, Lamar locks up (most likely) the MVP, crazy Cowboys-Lions finish, playoff races coming down to the wire, and more

Episode Date: January 1, 2024

Okay, NOW the playoff picture is starting to come into focus. And it all starts with the Ravens and 49ers, the respective 1-seeds in the AFC and NFC. But it was the Lions and Cowboys who played the game of the week in Week 17. That's where Robert Mays and Nate Tice start the Week 17 recap edition of The Athletic Football Show. The guys also discuss the Ravens, Lamar Jackson's likely second MVP, the great seasons in Houston and Indianapolis—regardless of what happens in Week 18—the massive letdown for the Eagles, and much more.Follow Robert on Twitter: @robertmaysFollow Nate on Twitter: @Nate_TiceSubscribe to The Athletic Football Show...AppleSpotifyYouTube Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

This is the athletic football show. Welcome to the athletic football show. I'm Robert Mays. Join me today. It's my good friend Nate Tyson. How you doing, buddy? I'm doing very well. The blue light glasses are on, which means I probably had a long night, which I did.

But a long night more in that it was, obviously it was New Year's Eve, but just that it was, you know, when you have a son, when you have a newborn, not a newborn, not a newborn, a one year old, you only get until about 5 a.m. to sleep in, 5.30. So it's a it was, but it was great because I had to get ready for the show. So kind of like I knew I had an alarm clock, which is also a nice thing about having a child now. But had a great New Year's party, hosted a bunch of friends. We had a murder mystery party. I did not get the murderer, pick the murderer. Oh, that's a tough scene for you, man. Oh, for four on those that I have not picked the murder.

I'm just, I focused on the wrong stuff. And then we also did, we did a great game of Jackbox, which was a lot of fun. I don't know if you played Jackbox games. I have not. No, that sounds great. Oh, you haven't? Oh, they're fantastic. Yeah, there's 10 of them.

them now. But yeah, we played, we had a really good round of Jackbox, which was always, always a good way to kind of cap the night. But happy New Year to you. Happy New Year's to everyone listening right now as well. Yeah, if I sound a little off, uh, we were doing Chinatown karaoke last night after the Packers Vikings game. So, uh, you can blame the creed and Enrique Anglesias moments. I had at like, which won't, like midnight higher. We all, we all, it was, I love, I like doing group karaoke rooms because singing them as a group is fun and a little less stressful and a little less scary. So that's what we did. We just all like singing songs for like two hours and then this went home.

I was great. I know. I've never done the group one. I've only done public one. But I always just think about the greatest karaoke performance I've ever seen in my life. Not because of the singing performance, but because of the energy. Sure. There was this big guy who was built like Preston Lacey from Jackass.

He's built like that. And he sang Sissuio by Phil Collins. And he was doing cartwheels and stuff. It was in Pittsburgh. It was at this place called the bicycle bar. And it was just like, it was the greatest carrier. Ten years later, I'd still vivid in my memory of like the greatest karaoke performance I've ever seen brought the house down with Sissudio by Phil Collins.

I took you to the den in L.A., right? When we were there for the Super Bowl. So there's a bar on sunset that was right by my old place in West Hollywood. It's changed a lot over the last 10 years. But when I used to be a regular there when I was younger, they used to have karaoke on Wednesdays, every single Wednesday. And the place would be packed, like truly packed to the gills. And because it was Los Angeles, you had so many people who were good at karaoke.

Actually had time of it. So, yes. So every single Wednesday, karaoke, it was fascinating because on a Wednesday, it was like a normal bar. It was pretty chill. Just like me and four of the five of the regulars with the bartender, our buddy Travis, it was always there. And then at like 10 p.m., it would just be slammed. And you would just see these incredible karaoke performances, including from the bartender. I remember him getting on the bar and like doing raspberry beret by Prince.

So I've enjoyed being a spectator to karaoke very often, but I don't have the confidence or the lack of sobriety anymore to do karaoke alone. I used to need the, yeah, the liquid courage. And now it's more just I have no shame anymore. It's like that 30, now I'm in my 30s and a dad. So it's like, yeah, I haven't had carried him forever. I'm fine with it. I'm not like someone that seeks it out, but I'm also a person that I'm not going to be

the first one up there, the second, third, fourth, you know. but I'll go up. Like I will contribute if I feel like it's needed or if I feel like it's a good setting. But yeah, karaoke, karaoke can hit. I always just take a loss in translation with Bill Murray and special. Sorry, we're just rambling now. All right, let's get into this. We have a big weekend games, a pivotal weekend of games.

And let's start with the first game of the weekend and easily the craziest game of the weekend. That is the Cowboys knocking off the Lions, Dallas moving into the two seed, get into all the playoff implications and how this game actually affects the outcome of all of that in a second. Let's start with the ending because that's the only place that we can start. This feels like a low point for NFL officiating. It feels like a potential tipping point for NFL officiating because this is a different sort of conversation. I know people were joking with us after that happened on Saturday night saying,

are you going to be able to convince Mays to talk about the refs? This is different, okay? This is not a judgment call where you feel like, ah, this is. that hold or there should have been more holdings. I can't believe they missed that flag. That stuff happens within the rhythm of the game. We've discussed this. When it's process-oriented, that's when it's really frustrating.

And this is the worst process-oriented mistake. I can remember. And the indignance afterwards, the idea that Brad Allen is essentially saying that three lions lied about who was reporting and how this all went on top of Dan Campbell clearly having explained to everyone that this is something they were going to do pregame, he told them what the play was, et cetera. So I assume everyone has seen the replay

as everyone knows the situation at this point. Lions score, final minute of the game, they go for two, they throw the ball to Taylor Decker for the two-point conversion and get it. About 35 seconds later, the flag comes in, which is weird in and of itself, the fact that it was that much later. And no initial flag.

No initial flag. It was a long time. Decker gets flagged for illegal touching because he did not report as eligible. You saw that three linemen for the Lions, Decker, Sewell, and Dan Skipper, our guy, Dan Skipper, head over there before the play. And in order to confuse the Cowboys about who was reporting, because Skippers is the six offensive linemen, et cetera. It's just one more layer of confusion complexity to fuck with them on that play. The refs also get confused. They tag the wrong guy as having reported.

and now it swings an entire game and an entire game that ultimately could decide whether the Cowboys or the Lions host a second round playoff game between these two teams. So it is the biggest fuck-up I can remember from the refs in this sort of moment. I think since I've probably been doing this outside of the NFC championship game

with the Rams and the Saints. But even that was a judgment call, right? Even that is what we're talking about. It's the worst version of what we're talking about. But the process-oriented stuff, this is as bad as it gets. man. It felt this entire season was going to culminate in a moment like this, this entire season. I joke, people have tagged me now and people are starting to go like, hey, you're kind of on to

something with these ref crews. It's the game operation. I've never seen it more poor in the NFL. And it's not, it's not hyperbolic. Like, I'm not trying to like just go, everyone says everything's better back in the day and the refs use, oh man, all this, all these types of things. But it's just that this is truly, truly the worst game operation stuff. I've seen from NFL refs. And it's so bad. It's just like, there's no much to add. I mean, I can't wait to rant about this.

It's, it's autopilot from Brad Allen. And autopilot because like you said, Dan Skipper is always a six offense alignment. And that is why the lions are doing this. Exactly. Because they're trying to get the Cowboys to be an autopilot. Dan Skipper is always the sixth offense alignment. Bump.

Why did they have Penny Sewell go over there with Decker? Have you, everyone see what numbers they were? 58, 68. So in a stadium like Jerry World where it's loud and super loud there, it goes, R. Oh, I was bowl. So, like, that's another layer. The Lions thought everything through here.

Everything. They started themselves. They did. And I, it's not their fault. But the idea that they had to add all of these layers of nonsense is part of the reason this happened. It was, I know, Ben Johnson. It was like, it was like, great job Ben Johnson. I'm sorry.

You did too good of a job. The, the, what was it on top of? Oh, my God. there's a million things here. So like, okay, so the, the eight number thing. Oh, the, oh, the, who's the guy that does ESPN? He's the ref analyst. John Perry.

I was annoyed that he kept harping on the three penalties thing with the illegal formation stuff because it's like, yeah, in that, in that timeline, this fake timeline that we're on right now, yes, it is an illegal formation penalty. But in a real timeline, what actually happened that Taylor Decker is, is, is the eligible guy, it's not an illegal formation. The fact that these guys. not multiple penalties. The only reason it's multiple because you guys screwed up.

Oh, my God. And then Dean Blanino goes on and he's kind of doing, he's both sidesing it. And he's like, hey, you know, of course it's on the officials, but it's on the players to make sure they communicate. I was like, are you kidding me? And then he goes, and on top of it, there's an illegal formation penalty because of this. I was like, oh my God. You guys are just saying the company line.

That's what ticks me off. The players and coaches get fined if you say anything about the refs, anything. My dad got fined five figures for just an. offhand comment when he was a head coach. That was 20 years ago. And on top of it, he had what this, I'm going to bring that up, but a personal, personal story about this too. But so Dan Campbell did a great job of just kind of going like, like you can tell.

They all did. And Skipper was so careful afterwards because he said, I don't want to get fined. How much does Dan Skipper make? He probably makes a million bucks a year. He can't afford to $10,000. No, you can't. And that, and the fact that Allen comes out and I get it, that's what the rest are going to do. They're going to say, yeah, I'm, I'm infallible.

and but just to go out and in his story basically contradict himself. Yeah, you know, uh, you know, you know, Skipper 70 who's always the eligible guy and he's lined up at right tackle on the play. So that, that was one of the funniest parts. Are you listening to yourself right now? Exactly. Exactly. It's like it was so crazy that the guy who reported as eligible was ineligible and the guy who did report his eligible was eligible. I have no idea why they would possibly do that.

This is one of those cases where I believe the lion. every single time over the refs because of how much trust I have an alliance handling this operation. And all the linemen knew what happened because they go, they, this is the thing. Teams practices, Decker even said this, even if without me telling you in my experience, teams practices probably one live rep or one like full speed rep and they probably walk through two times because there's goal line, goal line emphasis and stuff like that. Let's walk it through again. Everybody knows through all the, okay, everyone knows.

All right. Yep. Okay, Dan, you're going to come on late. Okay, you act like you're going to do it, but you're not doing it. It's all about what you say as well. This is why he's been told to me, if you're going to declare as a six offense alignment and you're going to be eligible is that it doesn't matter what you signal. And I think there is some gray area here.

You have to go right to that ref and say and confirm it with him. And he did. You could see the video. He did not say anything. He wasn't even close enough to say anything verbally. That's just, it's just the video is so damning. I'm so glad they showed that video because he's just looking right at tunnel vision, autopilot.

Oh, my God. So my personal story with this is in 2002, the Mike Vic game where he had the crazy scramble, the all-time scramble up the sideline. That play would have never happened because Vikings at the time when my dad was coaching him, drove down, ran a trick play, a throwback from Randy Moss, a jet suite, back to Dante Culpepper. And went for a touchdown. They called a legal formation.

And this is why I know that head coaches have meetings with their officials before the game because my dad went, you told me this was legal. This is the exact same thing that happened. That formation was a little bit different. Other things happened, but that play would have been the same thing. The left tackle Bryant McKinney would have had declare like Decker. But my dad before the game, this is why I'm like, I'd never trust refs. He went, you told me I don't have to do anything.

I asked if we have to declare Brian McKinney eligible. You said, nope, good to go. And then they threw the flag. So that 21 years later and it happens again, I was like, oh my God. It's just, it's so, so bad. And it has so much implications. It's not some throwaway Bucks Falcons game. week six that I'm ranting about for laughs.

It's like, this is implications, and it's so bad because it's game operation. This is literally their job. They get paid six figures to do this. And hopefully this becomes a moment where it leads the league to step back, think about, okay, what do we need to do to handle this? It's a tipping point moment because of how high profile it is. And that's a conversation that we can have as we get into the offseason, we figure out what has to happen.

Two related kind of things to this. One, be remiss to not say that the tripping penalty on the Cowboys that had a huge, huge bit of influence on this game on Peter Henderson shots and send it to first and 25 at the two minute warning that was bullshit that should not have been a penalty they saw a guy white pants stick his leg out and they called the tripping penalty so that had a huge swing so the cowboys had their moment also even when this happened lion should have kicked the extra point when when that happened they should have kicked the extra point right we talk about emotional blitzers oh my gosh emotional fourth down decision I have ever seen from an

admittedly emotional man in Dan Campbell. I don't want to crush them too bad for that, but at the same time, you just kick the extra point and try to go to overtime, even after the penalty, because they get half of that back when there's an off-sides. Even after that, I still think you kick the extra point. So just a lot of stuff to dig into there.

And then if we want to stick in that final two minutes, just run the ball, Mike McCarthy. Oh, my God, I know. Just run the ball. The Lions should have gotten that ball with a minute left, maybe, with needing to go down and score a touchdown. A minute left, maybe. Because on second and 14,

deck throws the ball out of bounds. And there's no reason to leave another 45 to 50 seconds on that clock in that sort of moment. And even in a game where the Cowboys won, even in a game where the Cowboys had some really encouraging elements to how they played, which we can dig into, even in a season where Mike McCarthy has shown a lot more as an offensive play caller and designer than I think a lot of people expected,

that kind of shit. When you're the two seed in the NFC and you're trying to win Super Bowls, that is going to be hard to get out of our minds as we think about how far this Dallas team can go. Always those alarm bells. And, I mean, shoot, just the last drive that the Cowboys defense gave up. Like, you're not even just talking about offense and clock management and everything, too. Yeah. So it's just always that.

It's just always that with the Cowboys. It's like, they still have that part of their DNA. No, but the, yeah, we haven't had a Mike McCarthy game management mishap or clock management mishap in a while. So that was a nice little cold water going into weekend. 18 and going into this playoff rod. The last thing, sorry, it's, fucking refs, sorry, guys.

Why don't know what pisses me off more than anything? I'm sorry, I was off of this, but then I remember I had one more note on this. Okay, do you remember in 2015, the Patriots played the Ravens in the playoffs, and the Patriots kept running an unbalance formation, and the Harbaal was losing his frickin mind. Yeah, I do.

Middle of the game, middle of drives. The Patriots were subbing in four offense alignment and having Shaden Verene be a fifth offense alignment, and declaring ineligible, middle of a drive. And the refs had no problem with that. No problem with that. Oh, yeah. Oh, yeah.

We can sort this out. Bill Belichick. Hey, I got you, buddy. Got you, Bill. We're good. We're good, right? We got this rule. And then eight years later, they can't handle a freaking six offense alignment

declaring, which is the most common version of this. Sorry. It's just like, God, dang it. It's so bad. It's so bad. Getting to the football part of this, that last drive, two things stuck out. A nails drive from Jared Gough. They deserve to win that game based the way he played on that drive.

A fantastic drive from Sam Leporta. Pena Soule, the job he did against Micah Parsons on that drive, just stellar, was phenomenal, one-on-one lined up against arguably the most impactful defensive player in the league consistently. With the game on the line, with the two-seat potentially on the line, he was unbelievable. And this was a very good matchup of two really good teams. And I think my biggest takeaway from this game, if I'm trying to pull back a little bit from the ref stuff and all the other things that we can untangle. The Cowboys defense,

kind of the model that they trotted out in this game, where it's a gash-or-b-gash kind of life, I think that's the best way for them to live moving forward. So they gave up 18 plays of 10-plus yards. The Lions moved the ball because the Lions are really good offense and they're going to move the ball. But they also had eight TFLs. And that's the way that this game felt for Dallas,

is that, okay, we're not going to be big enough to hold up against the run. and our past defense is not good enough right now to consistently be a down-in-and-down-out great unit. We need to create splash plays and creating penetration both pass-rushing and against the run. DeMarcus Lawrence had a couple big moments. Michael Parsons had a couple big moments. So even in a game where they probably should have lost and the Lions moved the ball efficiently for a decent chunk of this game, I still was encouraged by the way the Cowboys defense played because I thought this is the type of game.

And this is the type of approach we need to see from them against good teams. Yep, especially how the offense can play. They can't control and they can be explosive. So again, it's team game. It's team ball that you want to play in the playoffs. So no, that's a great point. I think a high variance style, just embrace the speed. You guys are undersized and fast.

You know, it's like a-just get after it. It's a true undersized basketball team pressing. Hey, you're going to get us once in a while, whatever, but we're going to create four turnovers and Dax's going to get a short field and we're going to guarantee ourselves a touchdown. Like, that's just how I agree. I think that's exactly how they play. They're not going to hold up and be stalwart and be bend, but don't break. It's more, like you said, it's going to be gash.

It would be gash. I think that's a great point. And turnovers. You need splash plays in the backfield and you need turnovers. And that's exactly what they got in this game. And there shouldn't even been a final drive because that Donald Wilson interception. So the pressure created and the turnovers and the volatility because of that, I think that is the thing they have to lead on here moving forward.

Absolutely. On the other side, it's funny. The slant flat is just having a renaissance, man. We're really slant-slant-flat, which is the 3-by-1 version. It's called Dragon, by the way. If anyone wants to know with the common term for slant flat, it's dragon. So, yeah, that is always check that out. But they run it 500 million times because Citi is a phenomenal slant runner.

I don't know what it is about it. He messes up with corners. Corners, like, cannot handle it. Like, they just, they freeze. Because he kind of has that funky running style, like where it's kind of like, I'm looking, kind of like, not Jefferson like the same, but they kind of had that where they make guys uneasy. funky running styles.

I think that's absolutely right. It makes guys uneasy. Yeah, you can tell. But I thought they were fantastic. Brandon Cook's touchdown was the design. They've run several times. Watch DAC operated in that place. The throw out to Brandon Cooks on that drive before the touchdown

is one of the best throws of the season from Dak Prescott. Like an unbelievable throw. And then you have him creating his plays out structure. I mean, the huge touchdown CD was an extended play. The, you know, the 90-something, was 90-some yards? Yeah, he's 94 yards. Here's my thing about this. this, though, I was a little bit worried that they needed some of those out of structure and third

down plays in this game against the Lions defense. So that was going to be my last question for this. The Lions, before we get into the sort of playoff implications, that Lions defensive performance and what they did on early downs and how much trouble the Cowboys were having moving the ball before we got to those two slants you talked about, third and 10, third and 11, and then the Outer Structure CD play. Those are three of the biggest plays of the entire game. Is that a commentary on the Lions defense maybe being a little bit better and a little bit more formidable as we get into the playoffs than we might have thought or is that we're a little bit worried about the Cowboys offense especially what they look like up front right now.

I'm okay with the Cowboys offense because even the last two weeks, the Red Zone turnovers, you know, at the one yard line. So that makes, that changes the picture of the game. I think this is more of a feathering the cap of the Lions defense. I do have some concerns with the Lions or Cowboys offense. Don't get me wrong. I think the run game is very inconsistent. It is.

And that that always scares me. I, again, Steele is still working back from his injury. And he has moments of Hutch had a huge game. Aidan Hutchison had a huge game. And, you know, Tyler Smith is now hurt. He's got torn plant fasciated or what was it? Oh, my God. Platter fashion.

Torpillar fashion probably, yeah. Oh, can you feel that? Have we heard about what the prognosis is for him? I believe that it's actually better that he completely tore it. And I think he actually can keep playing with that. I think if he partially tore it, it's worse. That's how I understood it anyway. Now we have Tyrone Smith banged up.

We have Tyler Smith banged up. We have Terrence Steel playing at the level that he's playing at. Zach Martin's been dealing with injuries over the last couple weeks. So this stuff starts to cascade a little bit, and it becomes a pretty big concern. There is a real chance now that if these two teams were to win in the wildcard round and get to the divisional round, they would play against each other. And it's a game I want to see. I think they're evenly matched teams. I think that the Lions have shown us over the last month as all the other teams maybe have taken sort of a step back.

We've seen the warts with Dallas. We'll talk about Philly in a little while. The Lions absolutely can go to Dallas and win in the divisional round to get to the NFC championship game. Almost just did. They almost just did. So I firmly believe that they have that sort of capability. And I think that that is, again, a testament to what they've built and just how consistent they've been offensively this season. I feel much better about them because of how that defense looked.

I know what this offense is. We know what Jaregolf is. We know what they are. But how the defense played and they could be feisty. and at least do stuff and at least hold up, at least make plays, that's huge. And get after the quarterback, which again is always the big neutralizer.

Even if they can get gash in the past game, it's like if they can get after the quarterback three, four times, that's huge in the playoffs. Top of the NFC now. The 49ers have clinched the one seat after the Eagles loss. The Cowboys are the two seat. They clinched that and the NFC East if they beat Washington next week. The Lions are the three.

They can move up to the two with a win and Cowboys and Eagles losses. So the lions are probably going to be the three seed at this point. And the Eagles are the five seed. They can win the NFC East and move to the two with a win over the Giants and a Cowboys lost to Washington. So the Cowboys probably have the two seed at the end of all of this. That rough nonsense and everything else most likely gave them a home game in the divisional round instead of having to potentially go to Detroit. And that is massive.

The Cowboys, the home away splits more than any other team too. More than any other team this matters for. Gentlemen, you had my curiosity. Now you have my attention. Every week, we like to pick out the performances that stood out to us in a crowded slate of games. And let's start with the MVP and the game that he had against a Miami Dolphins defense that was absolutely rolling coming into this thing, including a really nice performance against the Cowboys last week. Lamar Jackson and the Baltimore Ravens locking up the top seat in the NFC and him winning the MVP against Miami. You have my attention.

Yeah, that was, uh, oh, you want stats? All right, here we go. That's basically what it felt like from Lamar. It was like, all right. You guys want those counting stats? It's exactly right. That's what it felt like. You need some of that sweet, sweet EPA.

I'll give it to you. You want some touchdowns in EPA? Here you go. But really, watching the passing game, it's, that's watching Lamar operate from the pocket and just gash defenses with three talented receivers. It's more of the same, though. It's more of the same. This is the game where the levees broke and they got the five touchdowns. But the process and what it felt like to watch.

to watch him play was the exact same shit we've seen all year, even if the numbers haven't been there. I remember watching them play against the Titans in London. And I don't even remember what the final score was in that game. It was a close game. It was an ugly game at times. And I said something probably two-thirds away through the game about how wonderful it was to watch Lamar operate like this in this offense. And people were like, oh, yeah, another like 20 to 6 win.

What are you talking about? I'm like, guys, just watch him play. Just watch him play right now. I was rewatching it this morning. And I can't help but just smile watching him play quarterback right now. So much fun. Everything about the way that he is operating back there, and has all season, by the way, every single time we've had an MVP discussion on this show, every single time,

whether it was midseason, two-thirds of the way through, every single time I was like, Lamar can do it. The stats aren't there, but Lamar can do it. And I think if you're talking about most valuable player, he's in that conversation. So this just felt like more of the same. They just got the five touchdown passes and a couple big plays that maybe weren't there. earlier in the year. And I think, too, it's like a couple times recently, you know, Lamar's got banged up.

He's gotten hurt. And I really always felt like because he was trying to shoulder the entire team. But the entire team on his back and do everything. And for better, for worse, he would have a brutal turnover. And it's like, okay, next boy, he's trying to scramble three times. And I always, I've always compared Lamar to Wayne Gretzky of how he could avoid hits. And I feel like there's going to be more apt now. But this year, because of his operation from the pocket, even with the extended play stuff,

everything's so in control and also also just like that's also why I'm not really worried about the injury stuff now because he's just like getting rid of the ball operating on time everything's out within three seconds and if he is extending then it is like he's still avoiding the hits it's nothing dumb even if there are some like kind of like aggressive throws I would say but everything the decision making is so good when to hang in the pocket longer when to create it's that give and take with scraming quarterbacks you want them to create but he also like hey we actually designed a pretty damn good play for you can you anyway, can you throw it? And Lamar's doing that over and over. It's awesome. He's just seeing the game well. It's so fun when you see these guys with confidence, and that's what he's playing with right now. Just totally control, totally confident,

and it's fantastic. He's the MVP. I mean, it's just easy to see now. That's why those stats just solidified it with an exclamation point. The command he has. He just has the game in the palm of his hand right now, and it's so fun to watch. He just has that command in the pocket.

And there are a couple specific plays that I think illustrate what we're talking about a little bit. The throw to OBJ. is to me a perfect kind of confluence of all the things that we're discussing with the Ravens offense. He has to step up in the pocket to throw that slot fade 35, 40 yards downfield. He throws a dime while moving up in the pocket. Becca makes a great catch in traffic to make that play as a contested catch inside the five. And, which was a consistent theme in this game, I thought the Ravens did a fantastic job of picking matchups. We're going to pick on Duke Riley. We're going to pick

on Eli Apple now that Davian Howard's out. And we're going to to pick on Kate or Coho. Those are the three guys that we're going to pick on. So you have these three things converging where Lamar's playing the best football of his career. The players he's throwing the ball to are better than they've ever been. It's the most improved position group I can remember maybe in covering 10 years in 10 years of covering the NFL in a single season to go. You didn't like Deshawn Jackson off the street. It's insane. It's truly insane to go from what they had to O'Dell Beckham, this version of Rashad Bateman, who is one bad play a game, but otherwise is a very positive influence and then what's a flowers is.

So all of that and then the offense being well designed, thoughtful. I'm like, okay, these are our matchups, these are the designs we can win with today. All of that combined, that's what you're seeing. That's what the Ravens offense is. And that has unearthed this version of Lamar Jackson, who looks like one of the best players in the NFL. That's what I'll say. Oh, yeah. Yes.

Oh, yeah. The top five player. I mean, easily. This is, this is. I mean, I've always kind of pounded the table. It's like I think several of us have. about how much of a better pocket passer with Marius than he's gotten credit for. And now it's like, this is all proof.

It's like, have you just watched the game and watch how he's playing right now? He is, it's fantastic stuff. I love watching these guys add layers to their games or just polish certain parts of their games or learn from lessons, learn from bad plays. And that's what Lamar is doing right now. Watching him throw, he can throw every throw. I mean, that's the thing. We think of Lamar is a scrambler, but he legit can make every throw.

There's the staffer comparisons, but there's also, he can change the arm slot. fires in deep digs over the middle of the field while he's getting hit he launches deep balls he throws quick game as well as anybody and watching him rip a slan in like those are so hard to defend it's it's awesome it's like this guy right now is yeah top five player at the very least maybe even better than that because just the control he plays with how he is truly making his team better within the confines of the offense and then breaking glass when he needs to he could do it all it's a perfect combination of stuff and then you go to the other side of the ball defense plays well again I mean, that's stretch where they score, and then Roquan has that insane freelancing one-handed interception.

Awesome. Again, just another example of like, okay, like we have put our guys structurally in really good positions all season. This is probably, if not the best coach defense in the league this year, then certainly in the conversation. But at the same time, every once in a while, you need one of your superstar players to just go make a play like that. And him reading to his eyes the way that he did coming all the way from the three receivers, side drifting over that way to make the interception one-handed. It's just like, goddamn, man. I mean, they have those sorts of guys.

And for the defense to play this way with no Kyle Hamilton, no Brandon Stevens, this is to me why Mike McDonnell is the assistant coach of the year and why Eric Acosta is the executive of the year. The guys that showed up in this game for the Ravens in the secondary. Arthur Millette, Rocky, Rakhine, and Ronald Darby, all guys who were required this offseason for Baltimore. all of them. You combine that with what they've gotten from Clowny,

what they've gotten from Kyle Van Nuoy. I said it yesterday, this team is a wagon. This team is so, so dominant right now. And they feel that way. And that is a testament to the way they're coached, the way that they're built,

and to the ascension that we have seen from their most vital players. It's, you got an elite unit on both sides, and they can do everything. Hey, we're going to blitz. No, we're not going to blitz. We're going to run soft coverage.

We're going to run man coverage. And then on offense, we can run the ball with a runback. Gus Edwards. You like that? Oh, now Lamar's going to run. Okay, now we're going to throw the ball to one of our receivers that beats man coverage. Now Isaiah likely is playing well.

It's just this is what an elite team. This is what a contender looks like. They can pivot. This is what we want. You want to pivot to any point and you also want to have that quarterback in the back pocket that when stuff goes to skew, hey, Lamar, go do something. This is it. I mean, it felt like last week, I know it ended up being a blowout, but Ravens of 49ers. It just still feels like they're the class.

And Ravens, obviously so. But 49ers as well. Like that felt like a preview to me, especially how these other teams are looking. And the problem now with Miami's place in that conversation is that they're so banged up that I don't know what they're going to look like come playoff. Maybe they beat Buffalo next week. You know, the bills are uneven right now to say the least, the way that they've played over the last couple weeks. I think there's fair concerns about what their offense looks like down to down. But now Miami, Waddle banged up.

We know about the offensive line. Even if they get hump back, you know, we know they've lost a couple guys for the season along the offensive line. Austin Jackson's dealing with an injury. There's a lot of concerns there. And now Bradley Chubb is done for the year. So now you've lost Bradley Chubb and Jalen Phillips, two guys that are true difference makers at those past rushing spots. Pro Bowl caliber players. At a certain point, it's hard to endure that.

Even if you're a team that has a ton of talent like this one does, it's hard to endure that. So this is more than just a loss in the loss column and more than just a hit to their playoff seating losing this game against Baltimore. a real ding to what they could potentially be come playoff time. Yeah, I know. It stinks because when they're fully powered, they're so scary and they're so talented and so much fun. But it's just, yeah, it's just one after another. As soon as they get short up, it was like, man, that defense looks awesome. Their top three unit chubs out now.

Okay. All right. So, yeah, we'll see exactly what they kind of reconfigure. I still trust, of course, both sides of the ball there as far as coaches. But it's just, again, when you lose horses like that, significant Clydesdales of your team, yeah, it's hard to kind of keep dragging their wagon. That's the word that I come back. It's going to be harder.

Even if they can do it because of how well-coach they are and how much talent they still have, it's going to be harder. What does what do they want to make it easy? Yeah, good players make it a lot easier. That's the nature of their offense. So I think that that is going to continue to be the conversation. Absolutely. A decisive, conclusive message sending win from the Ravens and from Lamar Jackson,

who deservedly is going to be the NFL MVP this year. Two-time MVP. Everything. and so different. That to me is what's so impressive and so cool about this, is that he's going to be the MVP twice by the time he turns like 27 years old

and he has done it being asked to do such different things and such different types of offenses. And that growth from him and from the organization and what they've asked of him, it has allowed them to step into this new era of who they are.

This season is an organizational victory for the Baltimore Ravens. no matter what happens from here on out. The pivot to McDonald last year and understanding we need a different style of defense, we can't keep living this life anymore with what Wink brings. It was fine for a while, but that's not where the league is anymore. We need to pivot from this. What they've got for McDonald is a result of that.

The way that they've built the offense with the pivoting and saying, we just need to play more traditionally. We need three receivers. We need to be able to have playmaking talent and then bringing in Munkin to oversee that transition to a more quote unquote traditional sort of offense and Lamar's taking to it. I didn't know if it was going to happen this fast. I thought I was very optimistic about what they would look like. I thought maybe it'd take a year.

You know, they'd be the 12th best offense in the league. Lamar would have flashes, but then next year they would really settle into this and we would kind of see it in its full form. Didn't take that long. And again, that's a testament to how fucking good the quarterback is. When they were banged up early in the year and they're still kind of performing, I also have like, you know, the red zones. Remember, we were kind of like, hey, the ravers are pretty good guys.

And their losses were wonky, like they're moving the ball. And that's when they were banged up. And that's what made me so encouraged. I had it as top 10 offense, but it's like this, like you said, they hit the ground running. And I was going to laugh. It was like, they don't use Patrick Ricard on screenplays. But then Patrick Ricard had a touch on reception designed for him. So it's like that totally just ruined my example completely.

You got to get your playmakers involved in the game. You got to. Hey, but that's what mocking will do, though. It's like he still has that in them. But multi-time MVP's in the NFL. You got Peyton Manning, Aaron Rogers, Jim Brown, Johnny United, Brett Far, Tom Brady, Joe Montana, Steve Young, Kurt Warner, Patrick Mahomes.

I don't know if you guys know those names, but those are pretty good names. That's awesome to be, and soon to be Lamar. And he deserves it. Deserves it. I love how you just said it. Think of the difference between that offense in 2019 and then this offense and how Lamar feels, rather than just heavy play action, shot play, and then Lamar scrambling, this is.

He just looks like a freaking quarterback dicing teams up. And then on top of it, he can just dunk on you with his legs. It's just phenomenal. Next one here. The Indianapolis Colts and Houston Texans. You guys have our attention. Come on here, guys. They both take care of business.

They win in week 17, both move to 9 and 7, sets up a win and you're in game between two teams, first year of new regimes, first year of new quarterbacks. I know Anthony Richardson's not playing. But I just wanted to kind of take a step back and acknowledge them having this sort of week 18 game with this much at stake, them winning potentially double digit games with all of the questions we had about their futures. Think about the conversations we were having at this time last year about the Texans and the Colts. The Texans were an afterthought. They were not worth paying attention to. They were the most forgettable, irrelevant franchise in the NFL at this time last year. and really over the last two years,

the Colts were a disaster. The Colts bottomed out harder than you could possibly bottom out last season. They did not function on offense last year. They had one of the least functional offenses I can remember watching. Remember that Broncos Colts Thursday night game? And that was indicted about the season.

Yes. That was thinking about the season. Yes. And now how different does it feel with first year coaches, with a revamp of personnel? These teams are just in such better shape. than I think even the most optimistic fans, analysts, whatever, could have predicted if we were talking

about these two teams in August. If you told me that the Colts would be battling for a playoff spot and Anthony Richardson's not playing, it hasn't been a part most of the season. I would have been like, what happened? Like, Jonathan Taylor's missed most of the games. It's been that Colts team is extremely well coached. I think some of the young players have really stepped up. It's really impressive with some of these rookie defensive players have been doing, the improvement just on the entire team.

I mean, the offensive line going from last year to this year, it's been remarkable watching that. With no changes. No changes. That's why it, again, if you told me that they're outlying is at the very least above average with the exact same guys. I would even venture maybe good. But no changes at all. It's okay from like the worst unit, like last one of the most disappointing units in full. football last year was the Colts offensive line.

And now they're above, which also gets into the Frank Reich stuff, but we can talk about that a whole another time. And it's not an accident, I think, that we watched. We watched units that were a certain level before and after him in Carolina, Indianapolis, falter when he was the one overseeing the offense. The Carolina Panthers offensive line was at least decent last year. Yeah. They brought back also the same guys bringing in Frank Reich.

They're one of the worst units in the NFL. The Indianapolis Colts had one of the worst offensive lines in the league last Reich leaves. Now they have one of the top 10-ish unit. I would have a ball to average offensive line. So I think that, again, is something to take note of. But you have to feel so good about where the Colts are moving forward. They've got some decisions to make about who they're going to retain,

Michael Pittman's a free agent, etc. But for the most part, this is a fairly young unit, especially on defense. You're dropping Anthony Richardson back into this. It's hard not to feel good about where they are. On the Texan side of this, I forgot how much I liked watching C.J. Stroud, even not getting him for two weeks. weeks and then seeing all the the arm angle stuff and the release point stuff off play action, just how creative of a throwery is.

It's like, oh yeah, this guy. I really like this guy. I miss this guy. That is the same feeling I had. My parents were over yesterday during the day where that game was on. And my dad's quarterback assessments are always over the place. I've never figured out what he likes. That's so funny.

Yeah, I never really know. And he loves Stroud. He thinks he's the truth. And he, I mean, we all do. I do too. I do too, yeah. But he was just raving. And it was just so funny to me.

I was like, oh, really? Okay, that's the guy you like. Okay. But I wasn't sure. But man, how I forget, like you said, two weeks and you can I forget how quickly that ball comes out? It's just every, the quick game stuff is unbelievable. The ball's so out so early and his motion's so quick. And he's got zip on it.

And it's just boom. The ball's in the receiver's hands perfectly every single time. You guys knows that too. every ball goes chest level out where the guy can move into the throw. He's getting to where I'm saying he has rare accuracy, which is like, I don't like saying the rare term that you're not supposed to in the scouting sense, but it's like that accuracy is like, it's remarkable. It's a perfect spiral every freaking time.

The ball comes out perfectly quick every single time. His footwork is great every single time. And it's just right on the money every single time. He's awesome. This Texas team's going to be so frisky because of this freaking dude. And the defense can get after the quarterback a little bit. It's, ugh, they're feisty. I still think the Colts, it's a little smoke and mirrors.

The offense isn't crazy down to down. They had a couple big third down conversions in this game. Gardnery Mitch used their quarterback. They don't have any high level. They do all they can. Yeah, they don't have high level weapons. I think they're still figuring out who they're going to be on that side of the ball when Richardson gets back.

Correct. The defense has been opportunistic. You know, they, there's. I'll credit grass by the way. They're playing better than I thought they would. They're probably playing better than their talent is. Yeah, which is so crazy because it's the same defense coordinator. It's like, okay, sure.

Well, I honestly think he's done a decent job for them. They've always been okay. Actually, let me, I'm going to change it. Actually, not. I think, yeah, because they were in middle of the pack last year, I think. Yeah, you know, the defense has been fine. It has not been great. They've gotten more socks than their pressure rate would tell you, et cetera.

But I still think that you just have to be excited about the direction this is going under Stuyken and what they look like and just the general vibes around them. But I think the Texans, I would be more excited about the Texans just because of how Stroud is playing and because of some of the pieces on defense, like what Will Anderson is and just the general way they play defensively. Even in that game against Tennessee yesterday, you're watching the way the defensive line plays. And I think with a little bit more time within the system, a little bit more maturation from

some of those young defensive pieces, I think they can be a contending team very, very quickly. Again, mostly rooted in what the offense is, but I think that there are some flashes from the defense that are easy to get excited about. They have one of the harder things to build, which is a pass rush, which is that's huge. Exactly. And again, that's going to be, that's a pass rush is a neutralizer. And when you have a quarterback, it's like, that's a fun formula to build around and it's young pieces. And I think for them is the explosive place through the spine. But I think what your comment right there was great was that the, as they get used to this system, the communication level, the guys are more,

solidified, I'm in this spot, I'm in this spot, I'm in this spot. That's all communication, because they require it. That's how this defense plays. That's why the 49ers play like how they play. Exactly. You have to build on the layers of complexity. And I talked to Temecoe-Rions about this at the combine. We had a really quick conversation. I never met him before. I'm just kind of discussing, okay, what are the things that maybe you could do last year that you can't do now? And it was the example that I pointed to was, remember when they played the Seahawks last year? And they had Fred Warner lined up over the number one receiver. Like they were in man coverage and they just dropped into play cover two and him in the

flat. Just those little things where it's like, okay, we're not going to do that with this group. You know, this certain elements of who you can be, the disguises. You know, you're watching the Ravens. It's like, do the Roquant Smith play. Yeah, exactly. Run from the line of skirmage and beeline to a backside dig and pick it off. Yeah, just do that.

It's such a young defense. It's such a new defense. But you can't replicate and you can't teach. the attitude they play with. And so as long as you have that baseline level to it, then you can build the layers of schematic complexity on top of it over the next couple of years. So both of these teams, man,

congratulations to them. Congratulations to their fan bases who I think have a justified, renewed excitement that maybe you wouldn't have had. Even early in the year, even before the season started, even with new quarterbacks, I still think this is better and has a more rosy outlook than anyone probably could have predicted.

It's already been a win for them. No matter how these seasons end up for them, it's been a win for the Colts and win for us because hopefully Richardson comes back and it's like, yes, two awesome quarterbacks that we get to see go at in the division twice a year for a long time. Let's real quick check in with the AFC playoffs here on the heels of that. AFC East, AFC South, and two wild cardverts are still up for grabs. The AFC East, Bill's Dolphins winner clinches the division and the two C.

That will be the Sunday night game. Can't ask for anything more. than that. Dolphins have clinched a playoff berth. They would be the sixth seed if they lose to the bills. AFC South, Jags clinch it with a win. Colts and Texans winner clenches the division with a win and a Jags loss. Wild cards, the Pittsburgh Steelers, the zombie Pittsburgh Steelers are in if they beat a Ravens team with nothing to play for and the bills lose to the dolphins.

Which. Not that hard to imagine, man. No, it's not. Not that hard to imagine. The dolphins end up as the sixth seed if they lose to the bills. If the bills lose to the dolphins, they can still get in with a wild card loss, still get into the wild card with a Ravens loss or a Jaguars loss.

But if they lose and the Steelers beat the Ravens and the Jags beat the Titans, the bills are out of the playoffs. Again, it's not that far off of a remote possibility. Colts, Texas winner is in. The Jags, if they lose to the Titans, can still get in as a wild card if the Steelers lose to the Ravens. So those are the scenarios that we are looking at.

There's going to be a lot on the line in week 18. And again, you can't really ask for much more when you're trying to create some intrigue around the final week of the season. Last one here very quickly for you have my attention. This was not in the original conversation, but after the way they played last night, had to be. Jordan Love and the Green Bay Packers offense, you have my attention. This feels similar to me.

me to the conversation we just had about the Colts and Texas. You're coming into the season. We have all of these huge big picture questions about love and about the future of the Packers. They're moving on from one of the greatest quarterbacks of all time. One of the things you could set your watch to in the NFL in terms of what sort of quarterback play they were going to be getting for the last 30 years, essentially. We've never seen this guy play outside of one start. And there are some questions the Packers have to answer about their expensive veterans,

this offseason, what they're going to do defensively, et cetera. But the young offense that they have built with this guy at the center of it, he was excellent again yesterday, making real big-time throws against a defense that gave him a very hard time the first time he saw them this season. So I think it's hard to look at him, the Packers infrastructure, the young playmakers, and what Matt LaFleur has done with them, and not feel very excited about what the immediate future looks like for this unit. watching them so early in the year, I remember just being like,

I started losing games. I was like, I maybe got a year, year ahead on the Packers because they're so young. It's like, and you can see every game, every series. There's a guy running a wrong route, a guy lined up wrong. Guy's not running an RPO and there's Jordan Love looking for him. And they're like, they're all blocking and he has to take a sack. Just all these random botches. And it's just, we're so used to maybe just having one young guy out there or like, you know,

just like messing up. not the entire passing cat past catching unit doing this um so i was like oh man maybe i got ahead of myself here but the whole time i'm like man i got more respect for lefleur and that coaching staff because i knew he was a good game designer play designer some of it was the rogers kind of merging of his ideals and what rogers wanted to do which i think is good coaching but watching them this year it's like dude can dial up a game plan like the play action stuff handling the pressures draw how confident Jordan Love looked in the plan is, I think it was actually notable for me, and that's why I want to bring it up. The first third down in the game, maybe it was the first series, but it was one of

the first third downs of the game, which I've seen other quarterbacks go against this Vikings defense and go, they're just looking around, okay, moving a guy, and you can see they're getting frantic, they're looking up at the clock, and then I watched Love back there, and he looked bored. He was like, looking around, he looked at the pressure look. He sends the guy in motion. He takes another look and then he snaps the ball and makes it throw him completely for a first down. And I was like, this dude is in control. And I'm just going to keep using that term, but that's how

Love plays. Those trick shots like are hilarious because they work most of the time, but even the possibilities that he opens up. And again, the guy that's playing with control of what he wants to do, understanding of what he wants to do. Watching Love early in the season, it was a lot of big plays, but not a lot of sustainability. Some of that was the run game. Offitz a line. Well, it was Aaron Jones out. Young pass catchers like I brought up. But the

that he could dial in some of these explosive plays and really open them up because of his arm talent, it's like, okay, all right, this guy kind of gets it. He's aggressive. His eyes are always going to the right spot. So I was like, okay, there's something here. But now seeing this down to down sustainability, the quick game stuff, throws on the move, lack of mistakes, it's awesome with love. And then the young players, Luke Musgrave goes out, and here comes Tucker Kraft. And it's like, I like both of those tight ends. And I'm sure they do too. They just Watson's been hurt all year and what they're getting from Jane Reed stepping up into that spot. Bow Melton.

Bowelton was like I graded as like a special teamer coming out of Rutgers, I believe. Like I had him as like a freaky, yeah, maybe fourth receiver. And now he's like, they're drawn up plays for him, fourth downs for him and stuff. Like, and he's like answering and performing. Just an outstanding coaching staff doing an outstanding job with these young players. And you can feel it. After Melton could drop that fourth down. It was, you know, love had a little trick shot going.

on to the left, kind of went off his chest. Watch after that and watch the three young Packers players run up to him and go, hey, it's all good. The vibes are immaculate with this young team. It is probably just a fountain of youth in literal sense, but also just how this probably entire team feels because these young guys have energy and they play like they have energy. And it starts with the quarterback. So that was the bet that they made this off season. And talking to people there when I was there at camp, it was kind of a thought of we have

these young guys who they feel like they have to earn everything because you had this kind of aging, these aging elements of the roster previously, whether it was guys attached to Rogers or just what the building felt like, what the locker room felt like. And there was nothing that these guys could hang their hat on. There was none of that. It was all, we're just getting started. They didn't know what they didn't know in a very good way. And you felt some of that energy. And it's interesting to me that some of the bad vibes have come from the expensive veterans. It's what the Bactiari question. It's what's happening with Jaira Alexander.

So you have these kind of two competing versions of who the Packers have been, and it seems like the young good vibes are consistently winning out here in some of the important moments. And again, that unevenness and that misalignment is something they're going to have to answer this off season in terms of how they want to spend their resources, how they want to build the roster, who they want to retain. The number you brought up, the explosives compared to the down-to-down sustainability. Jordan Love is fifth in EPA per dropback this season. Fifth, he is 17th in passing success rate. And to me, that is a perfect expression of who the Packers' offense has been.

Because that is Lefleur dialing up shots. Because, again, EPA is a team stat, health of the passing game stat. So a lot of that is Lefleur dialing up shots. They don't have the down-down consistency because Love's a little erratic. He can spray some throws. We talk about some of the inconsistencies with route depths and guys being on their details, et cetera, but at the same time, he's also a walking, talking big play. That second and eight fade away he hit against the Blitz in that game last night,

not that many guys make that play. So it's just this combination of a well-designed offense, a somewhat erratic passing game at times, but one that can be dangerous in any given moment. That's what they feel like, and that's what the stats will tell you they are. Yep. No, no, it is perfect, like how they kind of encapsulate exactly what they look like. The run game is where they get their sustainability. And now getting their Jones.

Helps to have 33 back, man. Oh, man. Oh, zone after zone after zone. Oh, it looks so good. But that's where they want to get their sustainability. I love that guy. I love watching that guy play football. Having him back into it is such, it's a great point.

It's more stark when, uh, you see AJ Dillon get a carry right after. And you're like, oh, there is a big speed difference here. But he, God, man, like those, you have to make these plays. these explosive plays because that's what just the meta of NFL is anyways like always explosive plays are the most valuable thing you can create especially in the passing game and you just brought up the example every week love makes two to three S tier throws that are hey that's what the elite guys do and that I think is an effect that his eyes are so good the mental side is so good and that is what his ceiling is and we're just seeing glimpses of it and with all

these young guys, it's like, wow, if they just get even more sustainable, they don't have to be top five and success rate because of how explosive they are, but if they're 12th or 10th, it's like, geez, this offense could just go boom, bo, boom, boom, boom, and not just this year, but next year as well. All the offensive line guys that they work in, they're rotating tackles and they're both playing, they were both playing well. But, oh man, just all this team building, franchise building this Packers team's done on offense has been just really, really good. Similar to the Colts and the Texans, winning your end for the Packers in Week 18 against the Bears, just one more opportunity for me to be disappointed and hurt by what the Packers are going to do to the Bears in a big time moment.

But that game, we'll talk about it this week. Such a stark contrast to what it felt like in week one when the Bears defense was a mess. And again, a lot of good vibes in Chicago as well that we're going to dig into. But very much looking forward to that one. And I think there were a lot of people who didn't necessarily believe the Packers could be in this sort of position heading into Week 18. Both of us picked them to make the playoffs. So I think we thought that this kind of seems. season from them was potentially there.

But even with that sort of optimism, there are elements of who they've been that make me even more excited about their future than I probably was coming into the year. I'm not mad. I'm just disappointed. This segment was created for performances like the Philadelphia Eagle said yesterday. I was looking up, let's start with a simple number. there were five games this season with a worst defensive success rate than the Eagles had against the lowly Arizona Cardinals last year.

The Broncos hanging 70 on the Dolphins, the Dolphins hanging 70 on the Broncos, the Dolphins play in the Giants, the Cowboys Niners beat down, and the Cards Niners beat down from earlier in the year. So the Eagles in this game... Oh, the ball touched the ground on that... Yes, and the ball did not touch the ground. It was like 21 of 22. So the Eagles in this game turned the Arizona Cardinals into some hybrid of the dolphins and the Niners.

And honestly, that's how it felt. Oh, yeah. This is one of the most disappointing, frustrating, maddening defensive performances I can remember from a team that fancies itself a contender this deep into a season. And they're flailing. They're trying everything. And there's just no answers to be found. None. No personnel answers.

They've already tried. They've already emptied that gun. They've made the DC switch to an uninspiring choice of being honest. And Patricia, which is also a totally different scheme family, which is also just a whole other conversation as well. But, I mean, the Cardals had more explosive plays than the Philadelphia Eagles yesterday. And the Eagles had seven. The Cardinals had eight. They had six explosive runs.

EPA per dropback over point. Point two. That's Mahomes level. E paper design run over point two. So every time is point two four. It was right between where the giant or right between where the Cowboys and the Niners are this season. The runs. The runs were that effective in this game.

And it wasn't like, oh, Kyle were doing all this stuff. It was just pounding the freaking rock on them. And I mean, name, I mean, not maybe not you. All right. Dear viewer that's listening to this right now, dear listener, how many offensive linemen can you name on the Cardinals? Okay. I'll give you Paris Johnson.

All right. Okay, exactly. And they were taking it to them. They're running a duel on them. Like, they're just, like, pounding it down the rock. Who's the left guard? That's the only one I can't, I couldn't name off the top of my head right now. Because Will Heronadeus is the right guard.

Right guard. Yelts a furhulled is the center. And then, and then, DJ Johnson is the right tackle on DJ. Elijah Wilkinson, who is, who is, we've all had Elijah Wilkinson on our team. He's been a bearer, he's been a falcon. Elijah Wilkinson has been around. Yes, exactly. But they're so well coached.

we've mentioned it before, but Drew Petsing, their offensive coordinator is one of the best offensive coordinator is one of the best offense coordinators in the league, and I will say that. Not the results aren't always there right now, but the ideas and the thought and the coaching, they're there and it's going to get better. But this Cardinals team, why I really enjoy watching them, I know we're mad at the Eagles too, but why I'm like, like the Cardinals, though, is they try shit. They try stuff. The defense tries stuff.

They do this Buddha Baker three safety. They try everything every week. They run so semi-simulated pressure, so many creepers. They run everything under the sun because they have no horses. They got to try. With zero defensive talent. Like truly one of the least talented defenses I can remember. Yep.

And they play hard. They play sound. I mean, this is a really well-coached team. I think they overall, like Jonathan Gannon is doing a great job. The one play that sticks out to me was it was in a two-minute drill. Antonio Hamilton, someone caught a ball. I want to say it was AJ Brown. But Antonio Hamilton, like, tackled them, but try to push them backwards.

So the clock kept winding. I've been around Antonio Hamilton. He was with the Raiders when I was, when I was with them. He doesn't have that football IQ like that. He pushes him back and it goes, looks at the ref, like wind the clock. That's coaching. That's details. That meant they went over in a meeting and everybody was aware of all this stuff.

But also the offense, too, does all the stuff that's the meta right now, META. They do the duo runs, which I think is the best run right now in football. They do bootleg concepts. All the gas team runs. They run a ton of shit. Everything. They do all the motion with it. to me it's an echo of what the Browns run game was like over the last couple years.

And petting just being open to all of the gap scheme runs that they kind of discovered when Bill Callahan was folding them. And then the Rams obviously and the Packers too, I think are on top of the run game motion stuff as much as anybody. Of course the dolphins. But the dolphins again are always in their own little world about which you can kind of copy and everything. But as far as what the Rams and Packers do, I think other teams can copy. and the Cardinals are doing the same stuff with the tight end motions, with how they use the receivers and blocking. But they do stuff like they do a bootleg concept.

And this is, this is again, the meta. We've talked about how many bootlegs and naked is where the backside D.N crashes down and hits the quarterback. The new way to do bootlegs is you have the tight end block out and then throw the D.N and release late. People have done this before, but that's the best version. You give yourself time and a check there. And the D.N was like, oh, I'm getting blocked as opposed to going like,

oh, it's a bootleg coming at me. I'm going to go tee off on the quarterback. Flood concepts are the meta right now. Flood is the passing game meta right now, which is flood is three outbreakers. Flat corner, deep corner, as opposed to sail, which is a post, corner, and a flat. They do that every week, the Cardinals. And that is the chiefs did it as well. The run game, how they use motion, all this stuff, but it's so thoughtful.

And it's like, I watch that team and I watch this Eagles team. And I watch, they have so many good players and everything. But then I watch that, I'm like, sometimes you feel uninspiring. It's a great contrast, though. It is. It's a great, great contrast, especially between the offenses. And I'm with you, and I said this yesterday, the 2023 Cardinals given you very 2021 Lions vibes with how hard they're playing, with how good you feel about the coaching.

And one of the things that's hardest to replicate with the 20, 21 Lions, even the 2020, even characterizing like that is a little bit off because he wasn't the offensive coordinator to start the season. The Lions model has required them finding Ben Johnson somewhere along the way and him taking over and creating this offensive infrastructure where they're consistently at a schematic advantage. There's a chance the Cardinals found that with Drew Petson as they kind of step into whatever this looks like. So I think that there are a lot of reasons to be optimistic about them. On the flip side of this, it's hard to watch that Eagles team and not be deeply concerned about

what's going to happen in the playoffs because this is a coaching problem. This is a structural problem, but it's also a personnel problem. If you look at the guys they have, have out there on defense, they're just not good players. And at a certain point, you can't fix that. When you watch what Shaq Leonard and Nicholas Morrow are trying to do against the run, when you watch what Eli Ricks and Keely Ringo are having to hold up against. And I know Slay might be back for the playoffs, but there are just deficiencies with the players they have on that side of the ball combined with all of the uncertainty about who's calling

the defensive plays. And the combination of those two things, even if defense is volatile, even if we've seen teams get hot in the right moments and correct course, I still don't have a lot of confidence and not happening with this group because their issues are coming at you from multiple different directions. And usually when you get that like surprise boost maybe late in the season, it's because, oh, yeah, they got players and they're going to figure it out. Or it's the other side, it's like, oh, well, the scheme, they're going to spags it up.

And it's like week to week, you don't do what he did when he didn't have talent. It's like, okay, they can game playing stuff. Matt Patricia's not inspiring me that way. And that's what I just hate. Oh, my God, man. It's some of the stuff they're just telegraphing. I'm like, what was the point of this change? I actually decide stuff was harder to, I don't know.

Whatever. It's just, it's the, that ship is safe. You want to bring it all back around? The Matt Patricia is helping the Arizona Cardinals in 2023 feel like the 2021 Lions. And the only reason the Lions felt that distinct in 2021 is because they were coming off a season where they were coached by Matt Patricia. When he was trying to run, he was supposed to be this details guy. Oh my God. I remember those Lions defenses too.

And there's all these former. Patriots players on it. Like Van Newey was on there, wasn't he? Yeah. Van Dewey's there. And then there's one guy that they signed as well, and I'm blanking on his name right now. But it was a Patriots guy, and they're running the exact same defense they ran in New

England because, you know, Patricia doesn't know anything else. And all the guys that were formerly with New England were boshing. We had mental errors. And I'm like, what's the point of knowing the system? If the guy that's supposed to know the system is botching, like what is the... Was it Jamie College? Is that what you're talking about? It was Jamie Collins.

It was Jamie Collins. Thank you. Yes, that's exactly what I was thinking of up. Yep. But it was like, what's the point of bringing the guy to know the system, quote unquote, know the system? And it's like, you're supposed to be this guru of teaching. Oh, my God. All this stuff.

The other thing, other quirk I knows, um, 40% of Kyler's first and second down snaps were under center in this game. This is the dude that would have like five snaps under center for like an entire season. 40%. Again, they're trying shit. And it's great. It's good ball. This is part of what they were thinking about this offseason is that when in the previous offense, he had no plays off ever. They were putting everything on him on every single play. And

the benefit of occasionally just doing some under center play action stuff is you give your quarterback some mental reps off and some physical reps off. So just all the different ways they thought that they could make the game a little bit easier on him. You're seeing some of that stuff come up now, even if the talent isn't there. And this game sends the Cardinals to number four in the draft. We talked about this a little bit last week. However it plays out, it plays out. If don't get one of these top two picks and you got to roll with Kyler, he's a good quarterback. You can build around this and you can win with this. So I think this is more about just let's keep this going. Let's keep this rolling. If we don't end up getting one of those picks and we pick fourth and we

have to pick Marvin Harrison Jr. or pick Malik neighbors or whoever and drop them into this situation, that's fine. If we end up picking with one of the top two picks, we get a first round pick for Kyler. We move on from him. That timeline is acceptable too. But I, But I think that they came into the season this way, and I think that they're looking at it this way now, whatever. However it ends up, we just want to make sure that we're trending in the right direction. And that's how it feels. So the vibes distinctly different in Arizona and Philadelphia right now, to say the least.

We're gushing about the team that has, how many wins, four, five? Four, four wins. Four wins. And the other team has double-digit wins. And we're like, yeah, we're talking about vibes. Like, that's exactly how that fell. I think the reason we're not spending more time on this with Philadelphia is that I truly don't know if it gets fixed. It really does feel like this is just going to be who they are into the playoffs.

We've done under the hoods. We've done matchups. And I've truly, Philadelphia fans, I'm dead serious here. I've tried to like find, even I wrote about it for Yahoo. I've tried to find ways like what is the answer for you guys. And it's like it's very hard. And that's why they feel like they're grasping out straws because they have to because that's the situation they're in right now. And listen, sometimes this happens.

You have a beautiful season. where everything falls into place, you probably would win a Super Bowl against anyone else than the alien that plays for the Chiefs and what they did in that game. But sometimes you have that season and then your second act to follow that up

comes with a step back. And they, I think, realized the limitations of who they want it to be and how they wanted to play. And I think this offseason will be very important as they go back to the drawing board. I can understand if you're Philadelphia

and saying, okay, structurally, we want a similar sort of defense, right? Schematically, Desai comes from a world that Gannon wants to live in. Even though that's not Gannon's background, Gannon's best friends with Staley, the ideas and kind of the germination of all

that, there's a shared world with the Fangio Dessai world and what Gannon wanted to be defensively. So you try to keep rolling with a similar sort of model with Dessai. On offense, you literally promote the quarterbacks coach and change almost nothing about your identity.

The classic move. The structure of who you are. I get it. In a vacuum, I understand those decisions, but I think that now we have seen what a failure to properly innovate and push things forward has done and where it has left this team as we get to the end of the season. Right. It was the lack of improvement. I mean, even when we broke down to defense, we're like, hey, 70 sacks. It's going to be hard again. That washes up a lot.

I mean, it covers up a lot. So it was just hard to repeat. It's hard to win the NFL, but it's hard to repeat a year. they had last year. No matter why, it was going to somewhat feel disappointing this year, I felt like. One more here.

Seattle Seahawks. I'm not mad. I'm just disappointed. Oh, man. The offense is a conversation that we can have. I still have a lot of optimism about the core of what they have offensively. The contract they gave Gino and what they're paying Gino, his production outpaces what he is being paid at the quarterback position.

Yes. I thought he was excellent yesterday in a lot of moments. Pocket manipulation, movement in the pocket. Their past protection has been a concern all year. Cross was dinged up. He has not been even as good as he was as a rookie. Abe Lucas again gets hurt yesterday. They lose Evan Brown at some point during that game. The interior of the offensive line has been a consistent issue.

I have problems with their dropback design. I think that they just, I think that there are elements of the offense that I find quirky and interesting, and that has caused me to overrate what they look like some high leverage moments. So I think the perfect example to me is on the goal line, they throw two goal line fades yesterday from the slot. That's your best option. That's your best option down there is trying to take those one-on-ones.

But that's more nitpicking with things that I think slightly need to improve with the offense. I think they can get there, even with Gino-Smith, a quarterback. And I think that he could potentially be a driver of them getting there. Defensively, moving forward and yesterday, this is where the, huge concerns lie. Oh, yeah. Oh, yeah.

That Jalen Warren's touchdown, again, Duo, just got to give a shout out. Seahawks can't have been able to stop that all year. Every time I look up those stats, I can look at them up on SIS or run defense against this concept. If I look up Duo, Seahawks are like, it's like 60 yards of pop. Like, you can just run it on them.

And you know what, Duo, why you can run down defenses is usually poor linebacker play, poor run fits because Duo can hit anywhere if you're wrong with a run fit or you're sloppy or slow than it could be punished like it was on that touchdown. It also can make guys wrong. Even though good plays with this whole team, we're just talking about the defense, but I'm going to say even on the offense, and this has just been, it's a thing. I don't know if it's the receiver coach.

I don't know if it's just the group of players they have. But like even J.S.N.'s touchdown, I think he ran the wrong route. Him and Noah Fant are right next to each other on opposite sides of the field. And Noah Fance route makes a lot of sense on that concept. The lack of detail there, it's like, it's, D.K. Metcalf is very frustrating in that regard. Kenneth Walker, who, you know, Sonic, who was so boom-busty, he had a direct snap called for him, and he didn't know what the play was. So the ball just went, just got snapped to nobody.

Yeah. And Gino was fake to fumble. There was a fake fumble direct snap play, but it actually was a fumble. Yes. And you can tell Gino looks, I'm like, really? Like, really? Like, you're going to do that? But then I'll watch the defense.

Jamal Adams not playing right now. And I was curious how this defense would look without him, like, okay, it would improve. I do think some aspects have improved. But man, this is several years where they've had this issue. They can't consistently stop the run. They just seems that they're very basic and static as a pass rush unit and as a coverage unit. Talk about lack of inspiration. I watch the Seahawks defense.

It's like, you guys aren't the Legion of Boom anymore. You can't just line up a man and cover three every time and know what you showcase what you're about to run and just dominate you. They can't do that. I think they've tried to change and they've tried to iterate over the last couple years. I mean, it was the whole process of bringing in Desai last year and trying to trot out some new ideas, and they retain Clint Hurd, who's still their defensive coordinator. They've tried to incorporate new elements who they've wanted to be on that side of the ball. It just hasn't taken. They haven't been able to find anything consistent. And what the bigger

concern to me is the players that were supposed to be building blocks for you, now who are they? The way that Wolin has played this year after the way he played as a rookie. Right. How little they've gotten out of the guys that they've spent on, Draymont Jones, Jamal Adams, this has become what made the Seahawks great, right? And I don't even want to do the Legion of Boom thing, but what made the Seahawks great in the best years of the Peacero era is that every single guy who walked into that building as a defensive player became the best version of himself, no matter where he came from,

no matter what his draft pedigree was. Now, when's the last time you felt that? Yeah. Where they've gotten more out of these guys that they got it than their previous stop. Even Weatherspoon, who's banged up now. He played 35 snaps yesterday. There's just so little to feel good about who they are on defense and even the players they have on that sound of the ball. This to me feels like another one of those.

All right, we get to the offseason, anything is on the table. Anything is on the table. New coordinator, new personnel. This just feels like something they need to scrap and start over with. Total reconfiguration. I mean, I mean, just the fact Bobby Wagner's out there right now. It's just a legendary player. But like, watch.

Evan Bush yesterday. Yeah, it's just like, come on. This is what we're working with here. And yeah, it's watching some of these guys. Like, I watch the, I'll just bring one up. I've really improved defense this year, even if we're going to talk about how they got torched. The Falcons defense. They get Jesse Bates.

That unit plays really smart. That unit plays really, they tie down. They have that anaconda field where they just really tighten offenses. Watch them play against the Colts and what they did, the Gardner-Minshoe. And they just teed off on stuff. then I watched that Seahawks unit and there's just space everywhere. There's gaps everywhere. There's a seam route where no one's even near the guy.

And it's just week and week out. It doesn't matter who they're playing. They can play a bad offense or a good offense. It's just like the same results. And that's the thing. They just don't take it to anybody. And this is just a thing. They got to take it to them yesterday.

Yes, they did. For the Steelers to be able to line up and run the ball for 200 yards, they ran the ball for 200 yards without a run of longer than 22 yards. Oh, just an ass kick. That's hard to do. That is an ass. kicking. And it was an ass kicking with the season on the line. It's an ass kicking with a spot on the line at home in a season where you made, we want to win football games right now moves.

And that when you think about it and take a step back is why this is just so disappointing and why I think that there are some real hard questions that need to be asked about what you're going to try to look like here over the next year or two. Because what you tried to do to insert yourself into the conversation to be a potential contending team in what felt, like a watered down NFC, that failed. You did not get there. And now you need to ask some tough questions about why that happened and about how you could potentially correct course. I mean, the Rams team that we had no idea what to make of before this year.

It's a great. It's a great example. It's a great example. They tried stuff. They looked themselves in the mirror. They tried stuff. And it's working right now. But yeah, I think it's a 20.

They had 44 designer rounds. Steelers, they just said 20 of 44 were successful. They had 14 rushing first downs. 14 Russian first downs. And that's what Mason Rudolph. It's not like it's a Lamar running around or Josh Allen or anything. 14. You're never going to win.

It doesn't matter what your offense is playing. It's just, it's truly ball control, but ball control in the sense that it's like you also have getting your teeth kicked in at the same time. Quick NFC playoffs check in on the heels of that Seattle loss. The NFC South and the final wild card spot are the ones that remain up for grabs. NFC South,

Bucks win the division. And the Bucks probably would deserve mention in this conversation. And I'm not mad. if they couldn't win the division next week against the Panthers. The fact that they still have that win in your end game is what has saved them from this discussion. Saints Falcons, the winner gets in if they win and the bucks lose. The Falcons cannot get a wild card spot. Final wild card spot.

Packers are in with a win. They can also get back in with some wins and losses, but if they win, they're in. The Seahawks are in with a win and a Packers loss. So the fact that now they have to rely on the Bears to do, this shouldn't have been the case playing that Steelers team yesterday. Saints win with the falcons with a win over the Falcons and a Packers loss and a Seahawks loss, the Vikings need a bunch of stuff to help them. So the Packers win and you're in and the Rams because of that Seahawks loss are in the playoffs like you just switched. So congratulations to the Rams who again

skated by yesterday but thankfully did enough. They win that game. They are in the postseason. We get to see Matthew Stafford in the postseason. Yay. We are barreling toward that Lions Rams playoff game. I think I may try to go to that. I think I may try to go to that. Yeah, I think so. Why wouldn't you?

And no matter what it might be a dome no matter what, too. I think so. I think it's worth it. Where are we at? Hold on. So if it season ended right now, they would play. Yeah. Hell yeah.

We talked about this. We were talking about the seating. Cowboys Packers is a juicy one too. If the Cowboys win against Washington, the lions are locked into that three seed. And there is, it's hard for the Rams not to get the six seat at the this point. So there's a very good chance that happens. So depending on the timing, I may make that drive. Bucks of Eagles is super interesting too. Remember, remember the Jalen Hertz Todd Bulls game in the playoffs a couple years ago? Yeah. Yeah. Jeez. Wow. Wow. Juicy NFC. We have a lot of time to

talk about that this week. Let's get to the Sunday notebook. A few more things we want to hit before we get out of here. Another very nice day from Justin Fields on a day where the pairs get and lock up the number one pick in the draft. I don't know, man. I don't know. I'm going to spend a lot of time thinking about it over the next few weeks, the next month. I just think it's a fascinating conversation. And I don't want to dig too far into it now because I, again, I want to spend-

We can do a whole show on it. We can do a whole show on it. And I think that we probably will have some real considered discussions about it. My initial kind of knee-jerk thought is, I think the practical, logical, logical, prudent choice is very likely to draft a quarterback with the number one pick. Because even if you bring him back, you're going to have to pick up the fifth year option after this year. And then you probably have to make a decision on him after the 2024 season.

And I just have this far off reality in my mind where you get to the end of next year and you think, all right, now we're locked in. We have to pay him because we don't have another pathway to a quarterback. I just don't want to be in that spot where you feel. like you're painted into a corner and because now you have the 17th pick in the draft, you're in a position like the Giants were last offseason where you think, well, he's in the building. We know we can win with him.

We have to commit to this. That reality is scary to me. And I just think giving yourself the time, the financial flexibility and the leeway that drafting a quarterback with the number one pick would give you, I still think, again, that is the prudent decision. All that being said, emotionality lean, it. plays into this. They were chanting his name in the stadium yesterday.

Every single guy on the team wants him back. And I don't think that you should be intoxicated and swayed by that necessarily. But I also don't think you should ignore it entirely. So there are so many different things to weigh here. And we'll spend a lot of time talking about that. But good on Justin Fields and good on Matt Iberflus for making this hard. Because that's all they could do. All they could do is make this a difficult set of decisions.

for Ryan Poles and for Kevin Warren, the team president, team CEO, whatever his title is. He's the king. Whatever. All they could do is make this hard on those guys. And they have. Justin Fields played some of the best football of his career yesterday in terms of some of the throws that he made. And he did it against the Falcons offense you were just talking about. So we'll see what happens.

I want to be clear about this. I am open to all the discussions. I'm open to all of the arguments because I think there is credence to every single one of them. and we will dig into them more as we get a little bit further into the off season. Oh, no, it's naughty, but in a fun way. And Fields is, man, and I know you just brought the Danieli Jones example and stuff like that, but you just watch Fields and it's just like, holy crap. He has the best player on the fielditis.

Like when you watch it, that touchdown throw to DJ Moore, the first touchdown? One of the best throws I've ever seen in Mick. It was unreal ball placement. That is truly a corner of the end zone one by one area, one foot by one foot area he could throw it. He did on a line with Jesse Bates tightly guarding DJ Moore. I mean, the improvement he's shown mechanically, just the good footwork on the drops, you see it getting better every week. He stays ready to throw now. He's not truly just looking at the rush and trying to make a big play.

He will do it, but now it's like he's no, he'll stand in there with the past rush coming at him. He has good eyes. There's a third and seven. he hit the DJ Moore over the middle of the field. That was like that, that was a quarterback play right there. Stood in, the barrel, past Richard coming down the barrel, stands in, throws over the middle into a tight zone because he throws away anticipation, it beats the zone. I mean, moving left, the beautiful deep balls, all the improvement he's shown. I'm like torn.

Like, this is, I love fields. And he is playing exactly what I always hoped to you look like. And it's crazy. But the thing is, I love like Drake May in this draft and stuff. So like, I get where you're at your initial assessment, like, hey, reset. at the quarterback clock and all that. That's been my answer right now too, but I just still am torn on all these possibilities

that they can go down. I think it's crazy the growth he's shown since that injury, the creative throwing he's throwing. The creative throwing is really encouraging. And obviously, when I mentioned Daniel Jones before, just to be clear about this, it's the timeline of how the decision to pay a guy. It's not about their games.

The way he can impact the game and some of those plays that he can make, I mean, that Houdini act he pulled on that third down scramble, yesterday. There are very few guys who can make these plays. All that being said, if you really, if you crack it open and take a look at it with a microscope, the down-in to down-out consistency is there's still something. Oh, yeah. There are still, there are timing issues. He never throws over the middle usually. He, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, sac rate has improved dramatically. There have been far fewer negative plays. But the, the clock he plays with to me still is

too slow in too many moments. So I think even if you're talking yourself into him, you're still talking yourself into flashes at the end of the day. And I just don't know how smart that is, even if the flashes are incredible. And that's the conversation that the bears are going to have to have with themselves. Are they saying, hey, we can keep honing in this in? It's, yeah, it's very, it's not a bad place to be, though. It's not.

Having the number one pick and potentially being able to sell it again for a king's ransom and having this guy who has shown these sorts of flashes and will very likely, if you decide to go the other way, net you something in a trade. He's probably going to get you a second round pick and change. And that's the other part. And again, I don't want to get too far down the road on this.

This idea of, well, what if we can get two more first round picks for Justin Fields or for that number one pick and continue to build around Justin Fields? Well, I don't want a year from now or 18 months from now for you to be sitting there thinking, how are we going to go get a quarterback and you need to spend those first round picks to move up in the draft and get a guy when it's already ready made for you to pick one.

So I, or to move on and drafts and trade for another event or another guy that's on the move. I know, right? There's a push in the pool in every single way here. And you know how I feel about May. And I'm not even saying Caleb Williams is a fine prospect as well. But you know how I feel about May. And that's what's made it so much harder for me because I have,

I had Fields has a very highly rated prospect. I think anyone's listening to show, heard me on any Chicago Bears podcast. I really liked Fields. I like May as a prospect better. And that's why it's been, I'm a Fields defender to the bone. But it's like watching May, it's like, I don't know if you want to pass that up like that. Because he just all the stuff he does, you're talking about the down and downout stuff. I think he already has.

Also, I want to throw this thought at you. Maybe just a spoiler for award show. DJ Moore, second team all pro. He's like, I mean, it's been such a game changer. man. He's had one of the best receiving seasons in the history of the franchise. He's a real, really good player. And that's again, just an example of a guy who played with terrible quarterback play for most of his career. And now that you see him in slightly different circumstances, we see a slightly different player. And he's been so impressive. And that trade that polls made,

I loved it in the moment. I thought that the more part of it was inspired because you get answers on your quarterback as part of this. You wield the cap space that you have in the smart way. And He's not a baby either. Or it's some rookie contract guy that's learning the ropes at the same time. It's a true good vet. If they do this again, if they trade the number one pick again, I want a player like that as part of the deal. Because you have so much cap space, you can't use it. So if you have all these draft picks that you're getting as part of this, eventually the cap space has to go somewhere.

Using on a guy like DJ Moore was very, very smart. So I think that that sort of process should be a part of the discussion again if they ultimately do try to trade it. And I think there will probably be a much. market for it. So a lot of conversations to be had about this. On the flip side, it Fields is going to get moved. I don't know how if you're Terry Fondano and Arthur Smith and you watch what that guy just did to you yesterday, and he is potentially available for like a second and a fourth round pick and two years and $24 million with the last cheap year and the fifth year option combined, I think you do that every single time. You want that over, you don't want to kick the camera

Tana Hill again. Come on. Let's just, yeah. Let's get someone that can actually be a difference, but you're a needle mover for you. Yeah. Especially, yeah, like you said, doing it in person in the windy snow of Chicago, that first quarter of that first quarter and a half of Falcons Bears was like, what is going on? I thought this was going to be like a 1310 game. This is back and forth, back and forth.

Snow isn't always like that, though. It's no, you can throw the ball in the snow. I throw better to snow, because it's humid. Yeah. Because it's humid. So you throw, it's stickier on the hands. The rain is where it's bad. The rain is where it's bad.

But in the snow, you can throw the full. The worst weather to throw in is like, you know, obviously cold. But when, you know, anyone that's grown up in the Midwest, when there's no clouds in the sky, is that sunny cold. Yeah. Because it's dry. Oh, that ball's so slick. If you get any wind, it's like, oh, no. I used to hate throwing that weather.

But again, my thing was always my fingers in the cold. Just like every single thing that happens to you in the cold. Like you get a finger caught in a helmet in the cold. Like every single thing. And it was worse in practice. can my finger getting caught in a face mask, it sucked in a game. I could snap a finger off in a game and you wouldn't notice.

The adrenaline is the best thing that could possibly happen to you. But when you practice in the cold, every single little thing hurts so much. It was absolutely miserable. Inside drill. No. Neither here nor there. All right.

The bears get the number one pick because the Panthers gave them the number one pick. Speaking of the Panthers. Oh, my God. You get the scott. One of the lowest moments I've, I can remember seeing from a franchise and an owner, they get shut out yesterday by the Jags at a backup quarterback. And now there is video of David Tepper throwing his drink on a fan in the stands. Yep.

Things are going well. One of the craziest things I've ever seen. This man is worth like $15 billion. Like, you can't handle somebody talking shit to you. Go in the back of the room and just look at your bank account. If somebody, like the moment somebody does that to you, I said this yesterday, somebody who is a friend of this man, he may not have friends. Somebody who is a friend of this man has to take him aside and be like, Dave, you're losing your mind. Just sell the team.

If you're going to be like this, just sell the team. Is this worth it? Is it worth it? If I had that much money, again, I've said this a bunch of times, you'd never see me again. You would never, ever see me again. And I understand that it comes with a certain mindset and a certain wiring. There's a reason he's made $20 billion. If that's the case, go get really good at golf.

Go just become a scratch golfer. There are healthier ways for you to channel all of this pent-up bullshit masculine energy that you have rather than being a miserable football owner who is assaulting people in stadiums. Oh, my God. You can be the smartest guy in the room at anything else. It doesn't have to be in this world. You don't have to prove anything here. I was looking at some of their stats, too. Like, they had one explosive play the entire day.

They had three and outs on 70% of their drives. It was, it was, yeah. We talked about inspiring. It was the opposite. It was extremely uninspiring. That was everything with Tepper Tail, the facility debacle. Like, obviously the S2 stuff that we were talking about, stuff. It's just like, it's a gift that keeps on giving as far as a neutral fan. I'm sorry,

Panthers. And I'm thinking about John Lovitz right now. I'm the wedding singer. And I'm reaping all the benefits. They had, where is it? Oh, yeah. So that, okay, it's not the worst of the season. I was trying to find the opposite success rate, puts explosive play rate, who'd had the worst of the year. It is one of the worst of the years. It is not the worst of the year. Several Jets games are the worst of the year. So, but not a great performance, not a great performance for the Panthers as a franchise as a whole. Is this true? It literally is the John Lovitz moment from the wedding singer.

He's losing his mind and I'm reaping all the benefits. That's exactly what's happening with David Teper and me in this moment right now. So I'm very happy that it's going this way. But man, it's hard to picture a season going worse than this Carolina Panthers season has gone. You trade all of that for Bryce Young. You don't have a first round pick. You're the worst team in the league.

You have a new coach that you're going to have to hire. you have a situation now there that isn't appealing to a new coach. So if you're willing to spend. Yeah, words gotten out. That's the thing. Even if you want to offer the guy $15 million a year, there are still so many downsides to that job. It's a brutal situation.

Okay. A couple notable games yesterday from the Bills and Chiefs, I thought. The Bills offense struggled a little bit. They don't feel as scary. The Chiefs clinched the AFC West by beating the Bengals. But we'll have plenty of time this week to talk about both of those teams. We've already gone pretty long here. So we'll save that conversation for a little.

little bit later in the week. A reminder, Kiefer in the Beats is going to be in your guys' podcast feed tomorrow. We got Zach Jackson talking about the Browns, Jeff Zerebeck, and that Rolling Ravens team, and Nick Cosmite are discussing an eventful week, an eventful week for the Denver Broncos and their future. So be sure to check that out for now. That is all we've got. Sincerely appreciate you guys listening. We'll talk to you soon.

This was the Athletic Football Show.