The Athletic Football Show: A show about the NFL - Week 4 Reaction: Josh Allen’s arrival, Dallas’ lack of defense, Brady’s back & Buy or Sell?

Episode Date: October 5, 2020

Has there ever been a QB improve more from year 1 to year 2 than Josh Allen? What the hell is going on with the Cowboys' defense? And are we buying the Cardinals' offense, even with Kyler? Join The Athletic's Robert Mays and Nate Tice for a full week 4 reaction as they dig into Brady vs. Herbert, DeForest Buckner's impact on the Colts and much more.Buy or Sell? - :00Who Won the Week? - 35:14What Just Happened?- 42:06Nate's QB Corner - 54:19Secret Sauce - 1:01:24Get access to The Athletic for $1 at theathletic.com/footballshow Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

This is the athletic football show. Welcome. The athletic football show. I'm Robert Mays. Joining me tonight, like he does every Sunday. It's Nate Tyson. Nate, how are you? I'm doing great.

We're at the quarter pole. We're a quarter way through the season. So that weird Sunday, though, I mean, a really, really strange, odd Sunday of these games today. So they took out two of the best games of the day with Titan Steelers and Chiefs Patriots. We were left with a fairly underwhelming slate. I think you probably could watch paint dry and have it be as exciting as the afternoon games were.

But I'm glad you mentioned in the quarter poll because it seems like a quarter of the way into the season is a good time to kind of play the what's real, what's not game. Because usually there are things that happen four weeks into the year where it's completely misleading. There's no way it's going to continue. I remember a couple years ago when the Broncos were four and O, they were not a good team. There are some things that can be an illusion. but there are some things that really are real.

So I want to take four or five things that happen today and ask you if you're buying or selling them four weeks into this season, whether or not you think this is here to stay or whether you think that you're not quite ready to make that sort of determination quite yet. And I want to start with a conversation that's been pretty prevalent on the football internet over the first month or so and something I got into today that I probably shouldn't have. And that's Josh Allen and the Buffalo Bill. So I want to ask you just to start this conversation.

Are you buying or selling that Josh Allen's ascension in his third season has made the Bill's legitimate Super Bowl contenders? No one knows how to circle tweet like the Bill's Mafia. It's so true. I'm buying Josh Allen. I'm buying the bills. I think it's real. We're four weeks in.

He still has his craps roll moments where you're just like, what are you doing? And he kind of did it a couple times today. and might have gotten a banged up a little bit today because of it. But it's an obvious improvement. I think even the people that are hedging and hedging and, you know, don't want to, all these outliers that Josh Allen's kind of doing, he's doing it a lot. And he's doing it against different defenses and doing it in different situations.

So I'm buying. I'm buying that whole team and I'm buying Josh Allen especially. So if you look at the numbers, it's hard to argue with any of them at this point. He's been top three in dropback, expected points added in three of his four games. He was number two today. The only reason he was number two is because of what Teddy Bridgewater did on scrambles. He had the best passing EPA again today. And all the other numbers align with that.

I mean, he's, I think, 3.7% completion percentage over expectation, which is a really good measure that next gen stats does of how open guys are, depth of target, things like that. So he's above what they're asking him to do, even though his expected completion percentage is 67.3, which is very high for someone with an average depth of target of eight yards. which really speaks to how open guys are. We'll get to that later.

But none of the numbers are misleading. Everything that he's done, even if the players are pretty good around him and the scheme is very well designed, he's playing well and he's making the most of it. So I want to get into the Josh Allen improvement conversation. And I don't want this to be too through the looking glass about what people are saying

and having receipts about what you said about Josh Allen and all this other stuff. Because I said some stuff about Josh Allen around the draft that I'm completely fine with having said. Josh Allen, everything we've known about how quarterback succeed and which quarterback succeed in the NFL, the evidence that was laid out plain when Josh Allen was drafted indicated that he was not likely to be a good NFL quarterback. Typically, guys with low completion percentage that have accuracy issues don't tend to get better in those areas. After his rookie year, he was terrible.

He had an awful rookie year. I'm not saying he was terrible. He had an awful rookie season. Similar to what other guys have had. Jared golf was really, really bad as a rookie, historically bad. That happens every once in a while. I didn't write him off after that happened. Last year, he looked better.

There were tangible improvements in areas of his game. His ball placement in intermediate areas of the field was so much better last season. I went to Buffalo to ask him about it and to talk about how quarterbacks improve because so often they don't. And they don't improve in the most important areas. Even if you have some progress from a guy over the course of his career, inaccurate. quarterbacks don't tend to get accurate. So I thought that there was a chance he got better with Stefan Diggs, everything else, year three, but this is even beyond what the most optimistic Josh Allen supporters probably

could have thought. So I want to ask you, just as you take that entire arc into account, have you ever seen a quarterback improve this much, go from being as inaccurate as Josh Allen has been at times of his career to where he is right now? The obvious, obvious answer is Peyton. And everyone wants to talk about that. I'm not comparing Josh Allen to Peyton, but the improvement from year one to year two. But the thing with Peyton, he had the pedigree.

Josh Allen was such a question mark coming in. Peyton was kind of the no-brainer because another one that comes up. It's also such a different era. Such a different era. Throwing all those picks in 1998, it's almost like you're comparing two different sports. We treat it so different. But that's a great point too is that. So another one that kind of, once you kind of prompted this question, I started kicking

And a round two is Big Ben was another one. Big Ben won rookie of the year. But that was such a crazy thing. And statistically, it was just because he was on a great team. He was starting. We weren't used to quarterback starting as rookies. Our expectations have really changed this past decade. I mean, even if you look at the rookies of the year over the last for since

time since NFL started, like QB, Big Ben was, I think, the first quarterback to win rookie of the year. And then Matt Ryan. And then we had the huge shift with Cam. Russ, RG3, Andrew Luck. These guys came in as rookies, and now we expect these guys to be plug and play. Hey, you're drafting the first round. You're coming in.

You're our guy and you're going to be good. You better be pushing for a Pro Bowl right away. I mean, even how we look at Burrow, who's on an awful team, we're like, oh, man, you know, if he has one bad play, it's like, oh, can you not make it? Our timeline has completely shifted watching these guys. That used to be for the receivers. It used to always be the third break. The third year was the breakout year.

That's kind of how it was for quarterbacks, too. It was you came in. You're usually on an awful team. The first year we kind of lead you. You might have a couple spot starts at the end of year when we suck again. Year two, you might take over. And then year three, okay, you better be a bona fide quarterback. And so Josh Allen might have just gone on the old timeline.

He had the natural year three improvement. And I think that's just what it is, is that it's one of these guys. Like the one I've been around was Cole Pepper. And he had an outstanding first year starting. That was the second year as a pro. He regressed years three and four. And then like year five. he or 2004 he had just a phenomenal year and took like and just totally shifted as a quarterback and then injuries happen and you know you know kind of sad that pep kind of fell off but like that's what our expectations used to be it used to not be that a rookie steps in and looks good i mean it used to look like how pey used to look or just i'm not i'm not even concerned about that i think that you absolutely see progress and i think that that's your point is well taken we expect so much of these guys so quickly and i think that's a product of a lot of different things yeah

I'm talking about the type of bad he was at times over his first two years. People, their decision making gets better. Their grasp of the offense gets better, all this stuff. Very, very rarely do we see somebody who is bad at throwing a football where he wants to throw it get better at that exact skill? Even if you have issues with processing or understanding where you're supposed to go with the ball, things like that. Like Baker Mayfield last year was not very good, but he had been an accurate quarterback. even in moments where he wasn't very good. The accuracy on throws were he had a clean pocket, all that other stuff.

That typically tends to be pretty consistent over time. And Josh Allen's problems on deep balls last year and his inability to put the ball where he wanted to certain areas of the field and how different that is right now, I can't remember something where that specific of a skill had translated so much from one year to the other. And I don't know why it's happening. Yeah, but usually footwork and mental, but usually the show. shift is like below average to average, not below average to good. Like accuracy is like hands or maybe run back vision. It's like one of those things you can slightly improve, but you don't see usually a two tier or even three tier improvement from a guy. I agree with you. It's ridiculous.

It's such an outlier. And usually the improvement, like I said, is it comes from footwork and mental processing, making it easier on him. He's studying more, gets it a little more. But again, that's usually only because the guy had a baseline of being pretty accurate before. And then he just becomes more consistently accurate. He wasn't consistently accurate. Some of the balls he's delivering, the footwork is not good. No, it's not. He's throwing balls off balance and just, I mean, and I'm not, it's not a criticism at all.

It's impressive that he's delivering balls. Exactly. And he had a check down. It was so minor. And I got to find out of film because it was just, I think it was only like a three or four yard gain. He has a rush in his face. And rather than start scrambling around, he threw a little ball sidearm to

a runnerback who was covered. It was a really nice throw. And it was only like a four yard gain. But I was like, that was actually an incredible throw. He was totally squared to the line of scrimmage, threw it sidearm to his right, and he just checked it down to the running back. And I got to find this play because it was one of these things

where it was like, that's really good. Even though it was such a minor play, those are improvements that the consistency is not just, like you said, the deep balls, it's those little minor throws that he's improving on too. His first completion to Diggs today, I made a note of it because the ball was right on and his feet weren't set.

It was just a casual little wrist flip. And I was like, man, it's, you'd think, because that's, I'm watching this stuff. It's like, man, is his feet more set? You know, does he feel more comfortable? Things like that. And it's so hard to pinpoint why this change has happened. And I think it's because it's happened in so many different ways. What you've said, I think, is very, very astute in the sense that it's not all mechanical.

Because sometimes when guys are processing quicker, they're not overstepping. They're playing a little bit more within themselves. There's a confidence in the way the directions are going with the ball. And I think that. part of it and the throws being given to him and how confident he is in those throws is important. There is a mental side of this beyond the actual throwing mechanics. But that's the thing is I watch it.

It's like, oh, man, he's not, it's not like he looks like Tom Brady back there or Drew Breeze when it comes to playing the position in this textbook way. The ball is just getting where he wants it to go. And I don't want to overstate, I said on Twitter today, I was said that, you know, what they've put around him is really important. And I'm not saying that he's playing with the 2007 Patriots supporting. past or anything like that. It's the system and the players.

I'm watching that offense today. And we're going to talk about Brian Daebel a little bit more, but I think that Brian Dable has created the NFL offense that I would want somebody to run. Where would you say the influences are coming from everywhere? They scored a touchdown on leak today to Gabriel Davis. So they're running like Shanahan nonsense play action plays. They used an absurd amount of jet motion today. I mean, just constant.

And I think they were doing it because they weren't running while doing it a lot. They was mostly throwing and throwing it. To get to flat control. They're again to flat controller with the jet sweep and it's tying in. Yeah, it's great stuff. There's so many things happening. And the play action and the crossers were going to get to it. But there's no one thing they're leaning on where it's like, oh man, if somebody takes this away,

the vision of the offense is so complete and so varied. It's like, again, there are so many factors of compound. that that's why you start to believe it's real because there isn't just one little blip here. So many things are contributing to this. And they know what they are. It's the whole organization. Like they do such a good job.

They just know what they are. No matter what, they're putting their guys in a position to succeed. And that's good coaching. And that's just, you've got to commend them. It's really good stuff, not just offensively,

the whole team, every unit, they just, they know what their strengths are and they try to lean into them as much as possible. And it's cool to watch that they do it every week.

If you were taking, you had a fantasy draft of wide receivers for like life, not like fantasy points, but on your team right now. And I'm talking right now. So take into account, guys that are dinged up, you know, situation, all that stuff. How many guys are you taking before Stefan Dix? Six to eight to ten, somewhere around there. He would be just, he'd be in that eight to 12 range for me, actually. I'm a sucker more for bigger receivers.

Oh, see, you're, you have, you lack imagination. I know. It's just what I like. I don't know. I like big ball winners. I mean, so you got what? Julio. Did you see the play he made down the field today? I know. That's right after I said it. I was just like, oh, shoot, that's right. He just kind of moss the guy today. That is the thing. I honestly, it's so, it's so telling that you said that, though, because that's what people always think about him. I know. He's kind of slight. And he has been dinged up in his career. I think that's fair. The fact, that's always the issue with bigger, it was smaller receivers. Some guys. these guys play big, but they get hurt a little bit more, and he has had some issues with that. But he plays so big, he can go get balls. That little sting around he ran on that sudden change play. He does that stuff so well. That's kind of, I've always been a huge fan, and I've always thought that he was up there with some of the most elite guys in the league.

If you look at the numbers last year, everything. And the way he's playing right now, I don't know, man. The list is really short for me. And I'm not a prisoner of the moment when I'm saying that because I've thought that since the spring that when they got him he was a true number one guy i wanted to ask you this also do you think bringing in a guy like he was talking from the jump today the first time he caught a pass today he's just talking so much shit and he did the entire game do you think having a guy like that and bringing in a guy like that matters i think it does for a team like the bills that has such a good foundation like

as far as personalities and locker room and all that it's like you need that little spark you know it's the 10% rule you don't want more than 10% of your guys like that but you need three four five guys to kind of set the tone either physically verbally or kind of going to get into spiritually but more like philosophically when we know those big moments when also the guy he's not scared because usually those guys every game they're bringing it so sometimes it might be where they're playing a shit team and it's great to have that guy all of a sudden maybe get hit well man we're tied up in the middle of the third quarter we should be blown his team out and all And they get a ball, take it, run, get a yak for 20 yards and also, you know, fire up everybody.

Sometimes you need that guy to kind of spruce it up. And he is a true ace. That's the thing. It's like, I love John Brown. But John Brown's a super role player. Yes. John Brown is a supercharged number two receiver. Yes.

That's exactly what his role should be. Speaking of John Brown, the ball placement on that throw to John Brown that was almost a touchdown was insane. It was absolutely insane. Those are the types of throws we're talking about. And it's fun. And those guys, I know. But that's the thing, too.

It's like, okay, so Diggs has that great route too underthrown. Oh, my God, I'm just becoming a hypocrite. He won the ball. He's a ball winner. He does everything you want a number one receiver to do. He just doesn't look like one. You want a guy to turn a 50-50 ball into a 70-30 ball, you know, what DeAndre Hopkins does every week.

You know, that's to me, and he does it. I'm actually talking more into myself into it. But it's, yeah, they didn't have that before. They had John Brown. They have Cole Beasley. These are nice little pieces. You know, Dawson Knox is okay too. even with those drops, but this guy can, he's matchup proof.

He can go in every week and he's a plus matchup or even, which is huge in the NFL. It's a matchup league. And having a guy that can every week you can count on being a plus matchup, it's huge. He also changes the pecking order for the receiving core for him to come in and knock John Brown to number two and knock Beasley down to number three. Like that full force multiplier and what it does for everybody else that also has such a huge thing. Great point. We've had several guys and we'll talk about.

more of them on this show that have just been so important as offseason additions. And I want to talk about a couple more of this as we keep on. I actually have a question for you. Would you put A-Rob over Diggs or did you take Dix over A-Rob? I'd rather have Diggs. It's close. It's close. I have really come to love Stefan Diggs. I wrote about him this spring. And again, I'm not, this isn't recency. I wrote about him this spring when the trade happened. I, because I talked to a couple people there about the thinking and why they wanted to do it and what they think it would do. And I wrote about it for the ringer. And I just thought, this really could unlock them.

And a lot of people are like, oh, Josh Allen, Josh Allen jokes, whatever. This really can do so much for them because he's that true number one guy and he's good where Allen has been bad. Now that doesn't even matter because Alan's not bad anywhere. But what he has done for that offense, I'm not surprised by it. I'm just surprised about how great Josh Allen has been. Not how good, how great. So let's move on to our next one here.

crazy game in Dallas in a bunch of different ways. We're going to talk about the cowboy side of that a little bit later. I want to ask you about the brown side of it, though. Are you buying or selling that the Browns have found a recipe that can make them a playoff team in the AFC? It's funny. Going into this week, I was totally selling Browns. And I kind of was really low on them.

But now I actually buying them in a sense, what I love what they're doing is they, again, they know what they are and they're leaning into it. And they leaned into it so big that today. they know but they have those nice pieces where they have and they're ideeing them and you know again that's just good that's just good team play that's good coaching that's knowing what you are and also just just as an organizational sense that we could talk about this as much as we want but they drafted like a tackle early I always I think that's a good sign you know drafting will's first round it was like they drafted a premium position early they kind of didn't go into the win now mode we need this we need

this we maybe like a flying db or something like that they were building inside out just thought that was just a nice little nod to, hey, this is what we're building inside out. We know what we're going to be. We have Miles Garrett on defense too, and maybe we can build it. We're going to try and build around him. I don't know. I'm buying them more and more each week. I thought it was a really good performance from them today.

I think they have the best offensive line in the NFL. Well, no. As long as the Saints trot out there, guys, no. I legitimately think they have the best offensive line in the league right now. I think their interior is better than what the Saints are trotting out right now. I don't know. They're through whee's in there for the Saints. Yes, they are very, they're up there though.

Like, I agree with you that they're up there, but I would not say they're number one. So on the past blocking side of it, I guess the Saints probably have an edge because you don't want Conklin in the straight dropback situation. That's a fair point. But in what they're asking them to do. Yeah. I think you absolutely can make the argument because they're not going to be dropping back 35 times a game. It's going to be a ton of play action where you're helping your guys out and they are road grading. people. They rush for 300 yards today and Chubb was out for three quarters of the game. Yeah. And it's not just

zone. So that's what I pigeon hold him. I was like, oh no, but that's right. Stefansi's not a Kubiak guy. Just because they're there a year together. I have to get that on my freaking head. And they were varied. I think I saw a counter or a polar play and I got to, you know, again, I got to watch it. They're running a ton of them. Yeah. And it's nice. It's really fun. It's like, it's, they're hitting them. It's like, it's looking like clinic tape. I mean, going against Cowboys D is kind of every place's clinic tape. But it's, it's, yeah, yeah, it looked really, really good today. I am so impressed at how very the run game is looks. We've talked about it a few different times on this show. What the offensive line looks like just across the board. Wyatt Teller has been awesome for them. They use him as a polar all the time. That guy's built like the mountain from Game of Thrones and he plays as strong. There was a play today where Will's literally just took his right arm and threw Demarchus Lawrence out of the way. on a power play to that side. He's playing extremely well.

I think with that offensive line and with the structure they've created for Baker, they could be feisty. The defense concerns me. I'm fine with the offense. I think they're going to be just fine on offense because Beckham is doing lots of fun stuff. He was excellent today.

He's just making plays. That's the thing is they've given themselves such a high floor with the running game. And just have our guys do some stuff. It reminds me a little bit of, what the Niners were last year when they were at full strength. When you can just gash people on the ground, let's make some plays in the running game or in the passing game

that are more based on the playmakers we have and the structure of the offense than the quarterback. Baker's not playing great, but he's playing well enough, certainly. He's playing like he's playing in a Shanahan offense. He's playing like the quarterback is a secondary piece of what they're trying to do. And I just, I love, and I think it's going to come along even more. They're still early.

There are four games into this. And there's always a concern that when you're doing, when you're living on misdirection, you're living on play action, you're living on yak stuff, that the magic is going to run out every once in a while when things get a little tighter

and you get to the playoffs and all of that. But I just love the formula that they have right now. I'm not sure if it's going to work out for the entire year. I think that there are still much better teams in the AFC, but I do think that they've tapped into the best version of this.

And they're doing what we've asked the Browns to do for the last couple years. They're getting the most out of the talent on the roster. And that is what's been so refreshing is to see a Brown's team that's actually squeezing every drop out of the considerable talent they have offensively. It's nice to see a role player, role players ascend.

Like, that's just what's so nice. Everyone knows stars are going to be stars, but it's nice to see these guys that you're hoping take a leap, take these little mini leaps. And that's pretty cool. And that, like you said, they're squeezing the talent that they have. But the stars weren't stars last year. I know Beckham was dinged up, but just even watching, like, let's just flip it to him. Let's flip it to him on high leverage plays.

Just get the ball in his hands and let him do stuff. I really like the approach that they've taken. And we'll see how it evolves and we'll see if teams catch up as the year goes on because they're really leaning on a couple different things in terms of just trying to grind people to dust. And that's not always the smartest approach. But for them, I definitely think it's working right now. I'll be curious to see what the defense looks like when they get a little healthier. You know, Harrison, hopefully will be back.

I know that Delpit's off of the season, obviously, but maybe get a little healthier on that side. You greedy Williams back. Miles Garris playing fantastic. So they're probably going to be healthier later in the. year than they are right now and hopefully there's a little bit of an improvement on that side. Garrett was great today again though. He's been fantastic all year. He leads the NFL on pressures.

He was a huge force again. So hopefully with just him being the fulcrum of that defense, they can kind of figure it out. All right. Let's stick on the defensive side of the ball and get to a very ugly game from today. Are you buying it or selling the Indianapolis Colts having a top three defense in the NFL? I'm buying. Wow. I originally wrote selling and then I'm flipping it.

to buying. I think, I don't think they're going to be number one, but I think they're going to be that three. And, you know, that's more like, that's what they're kind of are that right outside the top top number one or number two. But they, I mean, Buckner's been phenomenal. And, you know, watching them, they are very bend, but not, don't break defense. You know, it's a lot of corridors, a lot of too high. They barely pressure. So that's where Buckner is so valuable, because they're only bringing four every snap. So when you have a guy that's a plus, you know, I mean, we keep talking about plus matchups, but he, he, he is an advantage every week.

That's huge. I mean, they're running cover two on first and ten. You know, so they're really making me tricky. Why is that, why is that strange? Well, explain why that's weird. So much more, more and more of the modern NFL is more single high defenses with cover three. That became in building a five-man front somehow, some way, whether you're a three-four or four-three. And now just actually going to a traditional four-three kind of stack with guys off the ball, four-down, I should more say, because they're more a nickel.

And then running it too high, which usually teams started doing was just try and pound the rock against cover two on first 10 all the time. And all of a sudden, they're doing it and being able to win just with the four guys up front because you need some ass kickers up front to win when you're only just doing it like with that where you're not doing a lot of movement or you're not doing a lot of blitzing where you're creating edginess. So it is kind of rare to see that where it's also a very kind of defense where they're running one robber. They're running cover four. They're running cover two. So rather than teams right now kind of, I think this is actually more on just football in general, you kind of lean into your one or two coverages. So seeing this variedness is kind of interesting as well. Even if it's more basic quote unquote defenses, they're doing it really, really well.

And that's why that cover two on first and ten really speaks to it because they are going, hey, we know you can run against this, but we're going to run it. We're going to still beat you with it. You're not going to gain a yard. Like you can you can try and run on us, but Buckner's going to beat beat the crap out of the guy across from him and you're only going to get two yards on it. And that's really frustrating for offensive coordinators. They're like, oh, it's such a light box. And then all of a sudden, you're only gaining three yards on the run.

It is so strange to watch them because you don't notice during a regular NFL game how many bodies are around the line of scrimmage until you watch the Colts and you just realize how few are around the line of scrimmage. It's so crazy. I went back and watched every single Bears offensive snap this afternoon after that game. and it's crazy. Yeah. How just how few bodies are around the ball.

You don't see it anymore. They're sitting there. It looks like the freaking 2005 Chicago Bears. I was just going to say you should feel at home watching it. It's so strange to watch that in the modern NFL. And it really, and I want to ask you this as an extension of kind of this point, Buckner allows it to happen. Yeah. Because when he's pushing the pocket and he's creating disruption so often, you don't have to

This is a team coming into this game that was getting pressure on a third of dropbacks, the third highest rate in league, 33.3%. They were blitzing at the second lowest rate in the league. That's nearly impossible. And he is a huge part of that. And I've watched them a little bit here and there. And I've gone back to watch the L-22. But watching the whole game today, you just see what his presence really means.

And I think that because they can come with those four, that they can be so varied on the back end because they have all those bodies. And watching just how slow Nick Foles was today, I didn't see the coverages because you can't see it on the TV tape. But you can just see how indecisive he was. And those first things, it's like, oh,

I expect this to be open against this. Look, it was never there. And beyond just how the, clearly schematically they're putting guys in their right places, that defense plays so fast. Everybody is flying around. I mean,

yeah, Kenny Moore, their corners tackle, which is so important when you're playing that sort of, those sort of zone defenses, they come up, they play downhill. Because they're the first defender. Yeah.

Yes. Julian Blackman made two monster hits today over the middle of the field that jarred balls loose. They legitimately think he's going to be one of the best defensive backs in the NFL. That's how excited they are about him. And when you watch him play, you can see it. That guy already, as a rookie, is just playing on fire. And that's how their entire defense plays. They've got guys at every level they're going to play like that.

And if Buckner can continue to play the way that he does and really be the anchor of what they're trying to do, they're going to be really good. If you were stacking up the acquisitions that were made this offseason for high, like high level draft picks. So Buckner, Diggs, Hopkins, I guess those are the big ones, right? Yeah. Even if you wanted to like throw some big free agent, it's a non-quarterback free agent signings. Do you think that Buckner has been the most valuable addition that a team made this off season? Oh yeah. It's not a quarterback. I think so too. Oh, yeah. Inside out, always, always premium inside out. That's how I'm always going to think, you know, quarterback, offensive line, defense line, and then outwards horizontally.

You know, so yeah, I mean, it's, it made so much sense. And again, I mean, we can praise Chris Bauer as, I mean, every show. It's, but just knowing what he like what they are at this point in time, okay, we got Philip Rivers now trading for, well, getting rivers afterwards, but then getting Buckner and it's like, you know, their timeline. They kind of knew what, okay. So I can, we can get a better player with that draft pick. then we probably could have drafted and take a chance.

And maybe we missed on it. And, okay, that really that's not ideal for the little timeline that we're on. We're getting Phillip Rivers. Okay, we kind of, it kind of shifts your gears a little bit. So I think getting a guy like Buckner was just smart. I mean, he's a great player. And for what they want to do, it matters because he plays a run and the past too. And we even talked about Darius Leonard.

Like, I mean, he's playing. He didn't even play for a good chunk of this game and they were still just dominating. And that's why it lets them do that kind of stuff. It's really good. I think we talk about well-coach. defense is you can just tell the way their guys are playing how fast they're playing and just they're always in the right spot it feels like that is a team that is just on the same page and it shines through and pretty much everything they do i would argue that defores

buckner has been the most valuable defensive player in the NFL to this point in the season i have no qual i'm saying that all right last one here the cardinals offense had another rough day today it has been two rough games in a row if you think about what they did last week against Detroit. Are you buying or selling the Arizona Cardinals offense right now? I'm selling their offense buying Kyler still, but I am selling the Cardinals. All right. So, okay, how do you make that distinction? So we did touch on a little bit a couple weeks ago and we're saying, hey, sometimes their offense comes down to, hey, Kyler, go do something. And that catches up to you. I think Kyler is a guy, just he's such a unique skill set. I think he's can kind of make it work because he can throw those

overrouts, those deep balls that are so prevalent, and he can throw a quick game. He can throw all three level throws, and that's not even talking about how fast he is and incredible dynamic he is with the ball. But with this offense, I just think it's just so static right now. It's not generating these explosive plays that they need because they, I mean, they're trying to run the ball a bunch, and they actually do some creative things. And that's the thing with their offense. It's, you see these fun run plays and a couple little cool gadget plays or a couple little cool pass plays, but it's six, seven times a game as opposed to 30 to 40 times a game. And that's a little scary.

I mean, it's happened last year and it's still happening through four weeks now. Yeah, I'm still selling it. I thought they would adjust maybe a little bit, and they really haven't adjusted how I wanted to see them adjust. They play so horizontal. Yeah. So his area yards per attempt actually isn't too bad. It's about middle of the road because they have thrown some deep shots. It's just their inability to connect on those deep shots.

His yards per completion is the lowest in the NFL. It's 9.28. You look at the numbers today. It was even more drastic. It was 5.54 air yards per completion today, which was the lowest mark in the league. That's horrific. They had four completions today that went for negative yardage. Four in an NFL game.

That's hard to do. I don't even know how that happens in a game. And then you go back and you watch it so many screens. They try to take advantage with numbers on the outside. There was a check to one that had just gained nothing from Hopkins. today. When he sees that, I assume he has the freedom to check into something to try to take advantage of it. And they're just playing so horizontal as a result of trying to do that. It feels like teams are almost baiting them into playing that way because they're just,

they have nothing down the field. Do you feel like the structure of the offense lends to that where they're just playing so much more horizontally than just having natural kind of down the field looks as part of the rhythm of what they're trying to do? You know, funny, they run all these screens. And usually what the air raid did with the screen game was to replace the run game. It was a way to throw the ball and attack horizontally and replace the run game. They have a good run game. They actually do some fun stuff. So it's kind of like you're biting too much from the same apple a little bit. I don't know if that is even a saying. But it's, it works. I get where you're going. Okay. But it's I don't, you know, and with this air raid,

they're like, what I'm not seeing is catch and run stuff. It's, they're running snack and then they hit the little, everything's so stationary. And they're not generating the natural yak that they want to. if you want to attack horizontally, you're trying to create catch and run situations. And in college, that's a little easier. The tackling's worse. And then you also have the college hashes where the field is just so much more spread out. You can attack horizontally. And then it becomes vertical because how much space these guys have.

And the pros, it's you're basically middle of the field the whole time with the left and right hash. And these guys, even though we won't say, oh, that team's a bad tackling team. They're still NFL tacklers. Like they're going to get the job done over time. It's the best tackle for, tackler from every college. team is now on the NFL team. Every single one. Yeah. And also with their lack of vertical attack, they're thrown, like you said, the air raid's not crazy or not as low as you would think because of the go balls. But that's the thing. They're just throwing go balls. And go balls are

considered 50-50 throws. And really in real life, they're more like 30, 70, you know, 25, 75, even with Kyle are throwing them. Defenses want you to try and keep doing that because they're like, okay, most of the time, that's just a throwaway. So what they, I just see the lack of attacking vertically in the structure of the offense. Every time they attack deep, it seems predetermined. Like, okay, it's time. There was a wheel to Andy Isabella today that they threw. It clearly was like exactly the shot they were trying to take out of that look.

And teams always have that. Don't get me wrong. But I'm saying they just need more the consistently like in the flow of the progression that one of them's an alert to the post or something like that. It seems like, you know, like writing a movie script or it's like every 10 pages you need an action scene. That's kind of what they're doing with these shots. Like it's like, oh, it's been a. while okay let's do it right now rather than being like wow that's that works let's dial up three in a row or something and also the old line is kind of lacking when they're trying to do all these heavy play

action they're getting really leaky and so that's not helping it matters as well but they have to figure it out you have to figure out how you're going to attack vertically you all teams do it whether it's movement whether it's sweeping motions or jump motions i'm sorry whether it's just a heavy play action and the motion of that you know they figure it out so they you know they're going to have to figure out how to attack vertically without maybe just having that predetermined go-throw. Kyler averaged 4.3 yards per attempt today. DeAndre Hopkins averaged 5.9 yards per catch. That's just not going to get it done, especially against the defense.

A defense that generally is considered one of the worst defenses in the league when it comes to talent. So it's concerning. And I think that we saw this a couple weeks ago. It's like, oh, they're exciting. But is this something where you can really string it together in a legitimate way? and I wasn't sure. And the last couple games have definitely given me pause. So we'll see what they can do.

It's early in the year. But right now, I am concerned just about the approach that they're taking. All right. Let's get into this. Week four, who won the week for you? Tom Brady. Tom is terrific. All right.

I'm okay with this. I think I agree. So this is going to be a very Tom-centric segment here. Let's do it. I mean, the whole office. was about it. So might as well just keep it going. Uh, you know, it was really good more than anything to see this week was him attacking as we just talked about Kyler, him attacking vertically and seeing some, yeah, yeah, he, he launched some balls today. And it was kind of fun. Is the arm strength

there? It's okay. But he, he went for it and he's trusting Mike Evans, which is awesome to see, because they're going to get Godwin pretty soon too. So that's going to be exciting. Uh, but he's trusting Evans with this stuff now. Evans is becoming his new gronk, even with gronk on the team. Like, He's trusting him with these throws now, even when the guy is quote unquote not open. And yeah, I mean, the fact that he's doing that, he's taking a couple of wax, but he's getting right back up from him. He took a real bad one low on a blitz where the running back and right tackle kind of messed up a little bit. Who screwed that up?

Did you? I was trying to figure out who was supposed to take that because McCoy was in the game. I was wondering if that was his last play. But he was in the game a little bit later than that because my first thought was he screwed that up. and that that was actually the miscommunication, but I couldn't really tell. The thing is, especially for a line, it's like, once you're committed to a guy, just go with it. Like, you know, kind of like if you're going to make a mistake, make a mistake fast. Because it's at least give the running back of time to adjust.

What he tried to do was he tried to block both. And yeah, so I would guess it's probably a right tackle. But, you know, you never know. It might have been just a runnerback reacting late to it. But yeah, but he took a whack on that play anyways. And he got right back up and he's still attacking more because he's going to be taking a lot of those seasons. This season playing in a Bruce Ariens offense. I loved it today.

I mean, they were bad in the first half. It was 15 to 29 for 106, including the pick six that I want to ask you about. But 15 of 17 for 260 in the second half. That's pretty ridiculous. Yeah, I mean, he was absolutely crazy in the second half. And delivering some really nice throws. I mean, the one to Scotty Miller down the field was beautiful. The touchdown to O.J. Howard was beautiful.

I'm a little bummed out about the scope position talent. Because coming into the season, we were like, oh, man, think about Brewery. with Evans and Chris Godwin and O.J. Howard. At some point in this game, he was throwing to Scotty Miller and Justin Watson when Mike Evans was. And trust me, I'm the biggest Scotty Miller proponent in the world here as someone who he went to my high school. I love Scotty Miller. But that's not what we thought we were getting into here with the Bucks in Tom Brady. Godwin's out for a while.

Evans clearly dinged up today, even though just fighting through it and making monster catchers to win the game. Literally fighting through it because he gets a number. a fight every freaking week now. Again, I like having a guy like that. What are the Diggs conversation? And then Howard ruptures his Achilles. And I know O.J. Howard is not this huge part of the offense, but that touchdown that they scored is exactly the type of play you want O.J. Howard for.

He's got that he can burn you up the seam. He's an explosive play waiting to happen. It's a nice piece, even if he's not going to be this target monster in an Arian's offense. So I'm excited for God when to get back. I hope that Evans can get right. Because I think tonight was just a reminder that Tom Brady is still really good at playing quarterback. The pick six that he threw, did you understand what was going on there from a decision

perspective and from a route combination perspective? It felt like the inside, the slot guy was sitting down in the seam. He ran like a little stop. And then there was a deep out on the other side of it. And Brady just threw it right to the corner. Yeah. What do you think was going through his head when he threw that ball? So yeah, Ariens loves that where he'll run kind of a, yeah, it looks more like a stop but a slot. It's more like a, it's an out stop, I guess is the best way to call it. And, you know, in a slot out route. So it looked a little tight there. And that's where you get into

when all of a sudden it's the backups in there. They're not going to have that polish that these guys, the ones got so many reps running these plays, even if they practiced it during the week. And it's such a timing route that throw. That's a tough-ass throw of those 12 to 14-yard-out routes because you cannot be late,

especially Brady now with his arm. He's match shopping it on those throws this year. Yeah. Yeah. And the thing is with that, it's almost one of those where, all right, we've had a couple of these and you're going to,

Ariens is fine. He's going to be chucking it. But it's, it's, I actually thought he was in rhythm there. And I actually thought the ball placement wasn't that bad. And he was on time. So that's the thing is I think no matter who threw that ball, it was getting picked off because the corner was just squatting on it. And so really, I think the tight splits by the two receivers is telling. And also the guy that ran a route.

Was it Scotty Miller or was, uh, no, it was 17. I think it was 17, right? Okay. Yeah. And he kind of airplane his arms right when he was breaking. So he gave a huge tell to the corner. corner. So like right as he was about to lower himself to break on us, because you want to make all these routes look the same as you know, the route running king. It's, you know, so like as he was

breaking on it, he airplane his arms. And I think the corner was just like, oh, okay. And started just, he just ran on it. Yeah, broke on it. It was. It was easy pickings. It was. And I think whoever, who threw that, it was going to get picked. It was just one of those plays. But, you know, it's, those are dangerous routes. It's a tough route to throw. If it hadn't happened in week one, I probably wouldn't be noticing it. But the fact that it's happened twice already. And walk in touchdowns. It's just something that jumps out. The other throw I wanted to talk about just really quickly.

The Kishon-Vohen touchdown down near the goal line that he threw. This is a small thing with Brady. Have you ever seen a quarterback that so consistently leads his running backs down near the goal line? He is so good at putting that throw on the outside shoulder and just walking them to the pile on. It's a really small thing. Am I overstating that or is he really good at that? Because I notice it all the time. And not only where he's aiming, no, it's a great point.

how he aims it, but he always misses low on those too. Like he throws them down and away sometimes too, which I've noticed is that sometimes it's because if it does drop or misses, he's not going to get this stupid ass tip balls that go the other way. And I think that's just a little subtly is that these really good quarterbacks that are the 1% of the 1% of the 1% of the 1% like just geniuses in a way. Like that's how he misses. Like, you know, so I think I'm completely agreeing with you.

He throws those short routes, especially for a tall guy. Like even Wentz, I think had one tonight. where you threw an angle route and the tall guys because you have to throw it over the line and you're aiming down, the ball just digs into the ground. It's so funny that you say that because Brady has that really downward motion with the way that he throws. And it's so clear on those balls. I've always just been so impressed about how he just puts it right there to your outstretched hands and you walk onto the pylon. He leads you to the pylon on those plays.

I mean, you think a million Rex Burkhead and James White touchdowns where he does exactly that. It's just a small little thing, but he does a small little thing so well. All right. So from now on, we're going to be doing something a little bit different with what just happened. Rather than me asking it, we're going to have a bit more of an authority ask it. So why don't we kick it to, you know, the guy here? Rather than me awkwardly asking it every week, Nate, I think that Vince Lombardy doing it is just a better way to introduce the segment. So we're going to try to answer Vince's question here.

What the hell is going on out here? I'm like locked in now. What the hell is going on out here with the Cowboys defense? So Dallas gave up, I mean, less than you. list off the stats here today. The 300 yards rushing and they gave up more than 38 points with a fourth time this year. It's the worst start by the Cowboys and Franchise history in every single defensive metric. Essentially you can imagine when it comes to normal counting stats.

Is there anything about what they've done over the first four games that jumps out to you as a shortcoming of this defense? Is there one thing you can pinpoint or is just an organizational failure? Well, the injuries doesn't help, but tackling has been not very good as we saw today with 300. us yards rushing. I mean, just as a team, though, like guys that you're expecting to, like, be making these plays that should be pretty obvious or pretty easy. I'm saying that for my chair right now. But it's like just like, yeah. And it looks like guys are lost sometimes too. You see a lot of kind of like the glances at each other where it's like, but also that might be into a personnel where you're playing backups now. But it's not good when you kind of keep seeing that after

every big play where guys look at each other like, was that you or is that me? I mean, last week I was actually a little higher on it because on their defense because I thought they were great and getting great pass rush like Allen Smith played pretty well last week and so I was like Alden Smith. So I was like, oh, cool. Okay, maybe they're grown a little bit. But yeah, oh my God, huge step back this week. Literally lack of tackling, lack of angles. I mean, the Odell runs were just embarrassing when you're embarrassing.

The dots from just up top. Obviously, we don't have the L-22 yet. When you just look at some of the angles, just they were all over the place. I want to throw out some of these numbers just because if you're looking for reasons to be optimistic, I think you can be. So coming into this game, despite all the points they had given up, they were 17th in defensive DVOA, and you might ask how does a team that's giving up almost 40 points a game rank in the middle of the league by defense?

And the reason is this. The Cowboys offense is playing at the fastest pace in the NFL by a lot. So if you look at it, they're running a play every 19.88 seconds coming into this week. That's the number one mark in the league. It's almost a four-second gap between them and Atlanta at number two. There's as big a gap between them and the Falcons from one and two as there is from two to 17 when you look at the actual rankings of the teams. It's nuts how fast they're playing on offense.

Their turnover rate on offense is one of the highest in the NFL. They're 28th in turnovers per drive coming into this game. You saw it again today, that Zeke fumble, giving a ton of teams the ball at midfield. They came in their defense with a third worst starting field position in the NFL. So the numbers are horrendous. But if you dig a little bit deeper, I think. some of it is the problem of circumstance. So if you're the Dallas offense,

and if you're Mike McCarthy right now, first of all, it's clearly not working with Mike Nolan. You have to make some tweaks to the approach that you're taking. I want to go back and watch the All 22 and see what they're doing in some ways before I make any definitive kind of statements on that and what's going wrong, but clearly what they're doing is not working. On offense, if you're the offensive staff and Mike McCarthy, is there anything you can do structurally and just in terms of approach and philosophy

to protect your defense a little bit more? or do you think trying to go tempo, trying to score as many points as possible is the only way that you have a chance? Yeah, it's interesting you say that. I mean, I think that's what they're even trying to do when Zeke fumbled. Like, because I just recall, like, you know, maybe they were trying to pound the rock right there too to kind of slow the game down. Maybe, okay, what's, you know, what's control the tempo again and get it. And then the fumble happens and that just goes way out the window. I don't know.

I'm always a huge, huge believer in leaning into it. and the Cowboys are basically a big 12 team right now. You know, it's like matriculated upwards where it went from Texas high school offenses to Texas colleges to now to the Cowboys that looks like. But it's just, I think they just lean into it and go with the tempo. I don't know.

I'm an offensive guy, so that's maybe not fair. I tend to agree with you. I think if they don't stop turning the ball over, then this isn't even a conversation. Correct. So that's the problem to me is that they're giving teams the ball at midfield, asking a bad defense to have to defend short fields. And every lost possession for this team right now is a huge deal

because of how poorly their defense is playing. So if they can just work, and it's not DAC making terrible decisions. He's not a couple picks this year, but they're putting the ball on the ground and not getting it back. That's been the biggest thing is every time this team loses a fumble, it almost feels like the game is over. Barnwell had the stat, right?

It was six fumbles. Or they've had seven fumbles and they've lost six of them. And not only that, they're losing them on their own, like where the drive started is a huge. telling stat is that they are doing it on their own side of the 50. So it's not like they're driving and they're having some long drive, six minute drive, 50 yards and they fumble at the 12 yard line. It's like no, they're doing it.

They're the minus 30 where all of a sudden it's like the other team is already in field goal range right then and there. And they're doing so early in the drive. It's just the double whammy because the defense probably just gave up a long drive. And then boom, all of a sudden you're fumbling it two plays in and they have to come right back on the field. And the Brown's offense is an offense that that was probably exhausting to against for if you have to be on the field for that many plays.

I mean, that's just taking a lot. I mean, that takes a lot out of the defense. And that's where the positives of having a good run game come in. That's a discussion for another time. But it's, yeah,

I mean, it was just a, it's just a recipe for disaster. As soon as they, they can't do it. Like, they just can't. As we talked about before with the Saints,

how they have to be perfect on offense as well, Cowboys kind of have to do the same thing. And they're going to be an aggressive, explosive offense that's playing fast. It's just going to be turned up to 11 always. Do you think it's silly that, I just am not, I'm still not worried about them. I mean, when you think about the NFC East and how well their,

and how well their offense can play in stretches, I'm not worried yet. I know that sounds crazy, but it's just, they're one and three, they're not playing, their defense is a disaster in a lot of ways, but just thinking about the outline of that division and how well their offense is playing in spurts, like, I don't know. I think they'll probably be okay. This is a weird observation. It feels like DAC throws a beautiful second level ball. Yeah, he throws everything really nice.

It's just like some of those throws he makes on like some deep like deep outs or just balls over the linebackers in between the safeties. I noticed that a couple times there. It's like, man, that ball just looks really good coming out of his hand. I don't know if that's just me seeing things that aren't there, but that's just something that jumped out to me today. I just love watching him play and what better for him at this point, I think. I know. He throw, I know he's kind of going down the Matt Ryan timeline right now. But it's he, where he's just always going to have to carry the defense.

But he, I mean, he throws every ball just. like he can throw short throws all three levels like he can run he's like the perfect 20 20 quarterback to me I mean he's great with protections he's outstanding with that and yet but the intermediate throws too it's not just like those he throws the timing routes really well too like I mean because they still run stop routes more than most other teams that thing's coming out on time and he's putting them on the money it's he can make every throw it's awesome and cd lambs a great synergy with him just all those routes that were probably the ones that used to go to witten now they're going to cd and seven 12 year again those are becoming 24

your gains. So that's so much fun. I want them to be better. There's so much fun happening on that offense. I just, I really want that team to be better. It's frustrating me. All right.

Let's get to a team that does not deserve to be better. And that is the Detroit Lions. So the Lions won a prediction, correct? I'm not concerned about the Lions blowing leads. Like that, that part's funny. But I want to get into something you tweeted about that I just think is worth exploring.

The Lions defense, I need you to walk. me through the philosophy behind the Lions defense. So the Lions play man more than most other teams in the NFL. I think it was a top three rate last year. The numbers, I don't have them for this season yet because that sort of charting hasn't happened in a lot of places. But when you look at it anecdotally, it seems like they're playing a ton of man.

They came in with the lowest pressure rate in the NFL, 13.8% of their dropbacks they got pressure on. They pressured Breeze five times on 25 dropbacks today. So status quo. what are the benefits of being a man-heavy team that can't create pressure with its front and doesn't blitz? Why are you steadfast in this approach? What are the benefits of playing like this if it's clearly not working? It's just because they're just stuck in their waist.

I mean, just like who they signed, they just want to be the Patriots so bad. And the thing is with the Patriots philosophy too. Even beyond that, beyond that, why does it work? Why would you want to be this? Okay, so why, what the philosophy of it is, okay, man, they're going to double whoever your best player is, your number one weapon, and then they're going to push the pocket and make it uncomfortable on the quarterback and force mistakes.

That is like the overall philosophy. So they don't draft the bendy guys or sign them. They go for these big more plugger types that can just push, push, push, make the pocket uncomfortable and do it with only three or four guys. But the thing is, when you're not getting that pressure and you're running man coverage every single snap against a quarterback that knows you're doing that and knows exactly where to go and a play caller that knows exactly how to beat man, it turns out to a game like this.

And the thing is, like you said, they're not pressuring, like bringing blitzes. So that's stubbornness to me. That's purely going like, no, this is what we're going in. This was our game plan. That's a lack of adjustment. That's a lack of knowing what your personnel is, even though they recruit and draft

and sign their guys to what they want. It's telling that they kind of just don't know really with a, no pun intended is, but what the secret sauce is. they are just copy and pasting what they think it is and they're not doing it like that is what it is that's why you have to recruit bendy guys to win or athletic pass rushers and they're more going no we're going to push the pocket but the thing is you're not going to pass rush so you're just going to get shredded every week if you keep doing this i just don't understand it like on a purely theoretical level teams love cover one because it you protect the middle of the field and you force teams to throw outside and when you're set up to run it it can work the patriots do a great job of doing it because they have a deep, versatile collection of defensive backs, and they're extremely well coached. They play with their rules for different things, and you can play that sort of man coverage because you're so good at knowing exactly what you're supposed to do and how

the rules work and where the ball is on the field and how it's going to change your techniques. They can do it in a varied enough way that doesn't make it feel static. The Lions can't do that. They're not creating any pressure, and they don't have the personnel to do it, but they seem completely committed to playing this way. That's when you deserve to lose. And that's when you deserve to say, do we need a change in the coaching staff? When you clearly have come to understand that the way that you're doing this isn't working, but you refuse to change. Flat out refuse.

It's really frustrating. You watch it happen. It's like, how can you justify playing like this? At least with the Ravens, when you come out and you're blitzing a ton, you're playing man, you lose to Patrick Mahomes. It's worked in the past. There's a reason that you're like, all right, it didn't work this time. At least we have a track record. And the Ravens adapted.

The last week, they got out of it. They got out of blitzing and running a band. So that goes to show you the differences. They went, okay, we can't do that tonight. So let's change it up and try to get something different. That just shows the difference right then and there between Wink Martindale and whatever the Lions are doing. It's almost one of those things where you go back and when I was talking about the Lions before the season. It's like, oh, could they really be that much worse on defense and they added some guys and everything else?

they're so poorly coached on that side of the ball. And if they're going to be so poorly coached on that side of the ball, then what is Matt Patricia doing here? Yeah. Did you ever, I think Chuck McDowell, Charles McDonald, I had one. Matt, what would you say that you do here? I just don't understand it. I really just don't understand it.

All right, let's move on. I want to do a new segment tonight. And we talked about this a little bit today, and I want to talk about quarterbacks with you. We're going to call this Nate's quarterback corner. Today I want to talk about Justin Herbert because he had an excellent game for the most part against the bucks. So just walk me through what you saw from Justin Herbert today because when I, we were talking earlier today and I was talking about how well he was playing. You walked me back a little bit.

So just give me your kind of scouting report breakdown of what you've seen from Justin Herbert both today and in the limited time that he's been a start. He's exceeded every expectation I had for him. And I'm starting to think it has kind of the. theory that some guys have with with basketball sometimes where guys go from college basketball to the NBA. It's a little it's a different game. You know, it's the same sport, but how it's played is so different. And I think Herbert was kind of limited what they ran at Oregon a little bit. Like, yeah, like they say the offense was good, but it was really built around the run game, a little bit of play action out of pistol and naked's getting on the move. But it wasn't like it was a great dropback game

that they had. And actually it kind of limited what you could see with all you could see was these three man routes or, you know, designed shot place. And they had a great screen game. I will give him credit for that. So what has been phenomenal C2 out of him is consistent accuracy, which is what my biggest blemish with was him is. And still was and still is. But he's not having the bad misses that I thought he would have in the NFL. And I think it's because he's confident what he is and with the throws that he has to make. And he gets to make more of them. So when he only has to throw a ball 20 times in college, it stood out a little more. And I actually think, too, would, so phenomenal about him.

His skill set of being a big athletic guy with a big arm that could throw a pretty nice deep ball. On those third down touchdowns when he had the pressure in his face, especially the last one, which was gorgeous when he had he leaned back. He got away from, he bought himself an extra half yard, half second. He is athletic enough to do that where he can throw off platform and also has the arm strength to do that, but also shows his aggressiveness. It's showing that he's keeping his eyes down field.

He's not playing scared. The game is not too big for him. He is on third down, staring down the barrel of a gun and launching it deep. That is awesome. Most guys, especially with rookies when they're not really comfortable, especially with third down plays that are very designery each week. Sometimes you don't have a lot of carryover with those situational type plays.

Some teams do or sometimes you do. But seeing that out of a rookie on a play that maybe he just learned that week or has only run a few times and making a big throw, I mean, that is such good stuff against a really. an aggressive defense with Todd Bulls as a coordinator. What I do want to see out of them is can you do it against a team maybe that's more like the Colts, you know, where it's soft, letting them matriculate down the field. Is he patient enough to do that?

Is he not going to get frustrated? And is he going to get too aggressive and play right into their hands where he keeps trying to make those throws and they're just tipping it, knocking it down? He does some smart things too. It's you know, he didn't have the Josh Allen things where it's like, oh my God, you big dummy, don't take a hit. He slid and took a sack on one of the plays. Actually, he was kind of proud of him.

I was kind of like, hey, that's actually pretty good. Like, you know, actually, that was good to see. He didn't try to do something stupid and a situation that didn't call for it. He got down. I was like, okay, all right. That's a good sign. I know it's taking a sack, but I was like, okay, at least he knows. I'm not going to wait because he was about to get smoked.

And it was like, okay, that's, that was pretty cool. That was pretty good to see. I'm so much higher on him than I was. was going in. I wouldn't say I was low on him in the draft, but I was lower. I mean, I barely even gave him a first round grade. But it's, yeah, yeah, it's really fun to watch him. He's a fun, fun player.

I'm comfortable saying this. He is the most functionally mobile six foot six quarterback I've ever seen in my entire life in the NFL. If you go through the list of six six guys, you will quickly see that that's probably true because it's not long. I wrote about this before the draft, six six and taller. is not been good. The track record is very poor in the league.

You get to 6'5 and there are guys. Cam, you know, Ben, Van Rathesberger guys that can move. You get to 6-6, it's been the cutoff point historically. You know, Joe Flacco is not moving around. It's just, it's not how guys that big typically do it. And it's one of the weaknesses of quarterbacks that tall is that some of those guys have, you know, Brock Oswald was athletic, but he wasn't quick twitch. He didn't move well.

He didn't move off his spot and get back on. They ooze. They ooze out of it. Yep. And that's watching him. There was a play in this game where I think it was Whitehead came untouched off the right side. And he just skirted a little bit. Yep.

Steped up in the pocket and hit Keenan Allen. Those functional mobility plays where he can skirt pressure in the pocket and move around functionally and get back on spots and things like that. Typically doesn't happen with a quarterback that big. That's been very impressive to me. Giving guys chances that throw to Allen down the right sideline. Is it a 50-50 ball that could have gotten intercepted? Absolutely. but I want to see aggressive young quarterbacks.

The thing to me is not getting picked off on that throw. It's not attempting balls more than three or four yards down the field like Dwayne Haskins is doing for the most part. That's more worrying to me than being too aggressive when you're young. I want to see those types of throws made. The touchdown he threw the deep one. You can't even scheme that play for most quarterbacks. It's a slow developing play.

And the only reason it works, there was nothing fancy about it. Essentially, I can't remember what the receiver's name was the guys he was throwing to in this game are hilarious. Essentially, it's a play-action throw, and from the jump, the only thing that receiver is doing on that play is running as fast as he can down the field. And typically you can't do that because the quarterback with that slow developing play can't get it that far. And if you watch, he thought it was going to be underthrown. And then it hits him in the hands. Very few guys.

He was like, he was like, oh, oh. He was shocked that the ball was there. He was absolutely shocked because he was 60 yards down the field. It wasn't like a rainbow Russell Wilson one either. It was like a missile. It's like a looping liner. Like it's at a gap in baseball. It was like,

I mean, it was, yeah, yeah, it was impressive. It's not overstating it that very few guys in the NFL can physically make that throw with that sort of play design. I mean,

it was super impressive. So the physical stuff and how big he is and the can, and that's all obvious. But the way he's moving around and some of the decision making stuff, I've been very impressive. with him. Another rookie, I forgot to mention in the Brady section I wanted to talk about before we move on from that game. Tristan Worf's awesome. Awesome. He, I know, Bosa's not 100%. He's got a triceps issue, but he was one-on-one with Bosa a lot today and had no issues. That guy is going to be

really, really good. He's been fun to watch from the jump. Those rookie tackles, we talked about Will's a little bit earlier. Worf's has been good immediately. Mackay Beckton's been good when he's been healthy. That class as a whole, super good. And Worf's jumped out to me today. I went back and while I was watching Brady's throws was trying to watch him as the ball was getting snapped, and he was doing a fantastic job against Bosa. All right, before we get out of here, each week we're going to try to find, we're calling it the secret sauce. I wanted to talk to you about some of the stuff the bills are doing. We talked about them at the top, but this is a little bit more granular. teams running man coverage against this team are getting crushed because of some of the stuff they're doing schematically.

And I want to talk about the Cole Beasley touchdown that the bill scored today. And some of the stuff they're doing with some switch releases against man coverage where they're playing with teams rules. So walk me through when you're doing a switch release. So the guy on the inside is eventually going outside. The guy on the outside is eventually going inside. You're crossing essentially. So when you're doing that, especially in the red zone, What are you trying to accomplish and why have the bills been so good at it?

You know, it's, yeah, like you said, in the red zone, but actually overall, there's so many more match coverages in the NFL or in just football in general. That's becoming more and more prevalent. And with match and actually kind of, I had someone, I had a friend that put it in my head and it stuck with me. It's, it's blitz rules without the blitzers. And match is, as opposed to I got this guy and man and as opposed to the zone where it's like, I got this area. match is I got this number count. So the final eligible receiver, you know, the number one, the number two, the number three, number four.

And I'm making- So you go inside outside outside when you're making that count. Correct. Correct. So outside. You go outside. Outside it. Outside it.

Number one's the wide X and Z, wide receivers, you know, coming inside. So usually tight end is number three. The running back is not usually number four. And with that, it's what the switch release is doing, it's forcing the defense to communicate or at least be on the same page very quickly. And not only just one switch release, but bunch formations when you got, you know, three guys doing it. And also on top of that, you're seeing it more and more. The chiefs are really the number one team that does it is these four strong, as I like to call it, four by one formations or four by one place.

And it's kind of limited how you can get to them. Teams are getting a lot better with motions and being more creative and creating. The motion is a huge part of it too. That's kind of getting back. We were talking about the bills earlier today. Those jet motions, it's like, why are they doing that? it's to change the one, two, and three immediately before the snap. So you're having teams have to process really quickly.

Correct. It's all of a sudden it's going, oh, okay, I got number two. Okay, number two. Oh, shit, motion. I'm number three. I'm number three. Actually, I'm number four. Oh, my God.

You know, it's, you know, and when you see the Seahawks do it really fast with their linebackers, it's beautiful. It's so cool to watch these guys pass it off and it's awesome. The Patriots have historically done a great job of it too. They're so good at bouncing guys between coverages. And so when all of them, with these switch releases and these motions and these four by one. And that's why you're seeing plays like all go half back seam come up because you're creating four vertical routes all coming

at you, really three vertical routes and then a swing with it. And that's why sometimes you see those plays with a lot of verticalness and creating these switch releases and why the swings are becoming wide open and, you know, catching runs after that. It's because all the guys are, their backs return, they're running with it. And also the guy just that who's the quote unquote checkdown is really more a catch and run situation. It becomes almost like a screen without the, without the blockers. And, you know, it's just because all these, it's offenses and really it's becoming more prevalent because I think we're getting new play colors that are aware of this, as opposed to just going, hey, I'm going to run this concept that I've been running since 1996.

It's going, well, we can run that play like a Hank, but what we're going to do, we're going to put a little more, little window dressing on it just to mess with the rules and cause hesitation and create that space you need in the NFL. You're very rarely going to get guys. wide open unless you know something bad happens or the play caller is just awesome but it's you know you're just trying to create that second hesitation where the guy can make it throw nice and easy as opposed to getting the ball ball batted down and like you said it shows what a good job the bills are doing is that they they're aware of that they are very aware of what defenses are being around the NFL and what the rules are and what to attack them with it's in theory everything should be coverable but you're making

you're straining defenses at a very fast rate and that's where you get these gashes or in touchdowns that happen. The best offensive play callers are completely in tune with defensive rules and how to play with them. And when you watch the bills right now, that touchdown to Beasley is a perfect example. You can see it was Joyner and I don't think it was Littleton. It was another linebacker covering Diggs and Beasley on that play. Diggs starts on the inside. It goes into the flat and then Beasley comes up the scene.

You can see Joyner's gears turning as it's happening. He's trying to figure out who's two, who's three, who's two, who's three. He's like talking to himself. You can see it happening in just the short circuit that goes on when Diggs goes out and then Beasley just goes untouched up the scene for a touchdown. And that's the thing. And doing it right before the snap with motion is what a lot of people are doing. Breaking the brains of defenders right before that, making them count just in a half second.

The bills are doing a better job of that than anybody right now. And that's kind of what I'm talking about. It's beyond the personnel they put around Josh Allen with the receivers. It's the way that the offense is functioning is giving him. him easy decisions, easy throws. He's doing the best with it and he's playing fantastic, but everything is coming together for this team. And I think it's because they're in tune with the players they have and how to put them

in position to succeed and they're in tune with how defenses are trying to defend them. It is so fun to watch a play caller that's just hot. And it's like, all right, I know exactly what they're doing here. And I have the exact route combination to beat this coverage in this moment. And that's what you're seeing with the bills right now. They're completely in a groove. and not only just like, oh, I can do it. I know exactly what the weaknesses are in the coverage.

They're relaying it to the players. And that's just, I mean, that's just, it's, it's a fun team. And they're just, they're clicking on all cylinders right now. All right, buddy. That's all we got. Another week in the books. We have a double header tomorrow night. It's almost like we should record another podcast tomorrow night.

Nobody wants that. I don't think you want it either. We got Chiefs Patriots tomorrow. We got Falcons Packers tomorrow. But that's all we got for now. Guys, as always, thank you so much for listening to The Athletic Football Show. I will be back with a very special guest on Wednesday and the rest of our Wednesday show. Until then, thank you for listening.

We'll talk to you later. This was the Athletic Football Show.