The Athletic Football Show: A show about the NFL - Week 5 Reaction: Dallas loses Dak Prescott; the Falcons clean house, Myles Garrett, Chase Claypool & more

Episode Date: October 12, 2020

Week 5 in the NFL was one that could define franchises for the foreseeable future, with Cowboys QB Dak Precott going down with a gruesome ankle injury, the Falcons moving on from Dan Quinn and Thomas Dimitroff, and the 49ers benching Jimmy Garoppolo. The Athletic's Robert Mays & Nate Tice dig into the biggest headlines of the weekend including Chase Claypool's huge game, the Raiders win over the Chiefs, Myles Garrett's insane impact on the Browns' defense and much more.Get 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 to the athletic football show. I'm Robert Mays, and joining me tonight, my good buddy, Nate Tyson, Nate, how are you? I'm doing well, you know, that was a pretty fun Sunday night game after a pretty boring first half, but I mean, eventful, eventful Sunday, fun games, and a lot of stuff happened, though, other than the games. It seems like there's been some wild finishes over the first four weeks of the season, but today it felt like a lot of the things that went down. were about more than just this week. Long-term impact from a lot of the stuff that happened this Sunday. And I would argue that there were three potentially franchise-altering events that happened

during Sunday afternoon. The Dak Prescott injury, which we will talk about, obviously, the Jimmy Garoppolo benching and the Falcons decision tonight that came down to fire both Thomas Tremedroff and Dan Quinn. So let's start with the DAC Prescott injury because, I mean, that's the biggest news of the day. I think that kind of made the football world stop this afternoon when it happened. Just your first reaction. I mean, when you saw it, I'm sure beyond, oh, shit, you had some initial thoughts. Yeah. I mean, first thought was just like, ah, damn. You know, I was hoping it was just the

cramp and his shoe was just falling off. But it was, that wasn't the shoe falling off. It was just the brutal injury. But it was just, it was just heartbreaking. The fact that he didn't react is why I was kind of confused. He was just kind of sitting there. Just a soft point. Just a soft point. You know. And I was, yeah. And I kind of knew going in, something happened because it was, you know, I was on delay watching the game. And all of a sudden it was like, Dak, Dak, Dak.

I was like, oh, no. So I knew it was more serious. So I kind of was desensitized when it even happened. But it just brutal, man. It's just like literal breaks of the game just going the wrong way. It's just heartbreaking, man. I just love Dak so much. Love him as a player.

And he just like a great dude and great leader for that franchise. And it just sucks. There's a lot of big picture stuff that we can talk about. But my reaction, just first and foremost, especially when you saw him get carded off. I said this early in the day when Coletio Semley was getting carded off. I mean, like Vita Vaya on Thursday night, these guys work so incredibly hard. And when you love to do something and the chance to do that thing is taken away from you, it's difficult. It's always going to be difficult.

And when you think about just everything DAC has been through over the last year, a lot of it has been in the news as of late because of him coming out and saying that he sought help for the English. anxiety that he was dealing with. You think about what's happened with his brother and his suicide earlier this year. And I don't want to conflate football and stuff that happens in the real world. But I had a conversation with someone about the Kirk Cousin situation when Kirk was getting franchised. And how much that can weigh on a player just because everyone's asking you about it. Every single person you talk to is what's going on with the contract, what's going on

with this. And it feels like that's probably what Dak Prescott was dealing with for the last year as he was trying to figure out what his long-term solution would be with the Cowboys. just so much had happened to him in the past 12, even six months. And now to work as hard as he has to get back here and to try to show everybody that he deserves to be extended and everything else and have an end like this. It's awful. Your heart just breaks for the guy. And I think there's a reason that everyone responded in the way that he did because he is somebody that's pretty easy to root for.

He is. Yeah. I mean, it's just like all, everything about it. Like just even the fact that like you said, everybody roots for him. He's so likable. And it's just that's like it's, you see this. And like you said, everybody, all these guys work extremely hard. But then, you know, even like the little memes that we see with Dak, like in the pregame opening up his hip, everything these guys do is to build to be the best player possible in whatever way they can.

And it's like all of a sudden it's just no, that's it all now his whole life is rehab and focus on the contract. And like you said, when a contract is up, every little aspect of your life goes into, okay, how is this going to affect the potential contract? Am I going to get hurt doing that drill? Am I going to get hurt during this team period during training camp? How many reps should I take? Should I really risk another extra plays? Or should I, you know, do I want to be a team player? Do I want to be looking out for myself?

And so not only is it affecting the team, I mean, how much that weighs. Every rep you take is about it. So, I mean, he's had all, like you said, all that weighing on him, not only including his personal life, it just, it just sucks. I mean, I just can't stop saying it. It's just like really blows for him. And it's just like, he's just a lovable, likable player, just a tough player. And if you don't think he's one of the best players in the NFL, I don't know what else to tell you.

Yeah, I don't want this to be a referendum on should the Cowboys have paid DAC, but the Cowboys should have paid DAC. No matter how you spin this, like let's say you're somebody who thinks that winning should be rewarded as a quarterback. The guy won 40 games in his first four years as a starter. Let's say that dependability should be rewarded as a quarterback. He didn't miss a start. He was pretty much unbreakable for his first four years in the league. He was taking huge shots. I mean, this wasn't somebody that was a quarterback that was avoiding contact and not doing everything.

I mean, he was somebody that did everything you could ask of him just from an availability and dependability standpoint. Let's go the other way. He was fifth in EPA per drop back last season. So any way you want to spin it, if you want to go old school, like we need somebody we can rely on. If you want to go new school, show me the numbers, show me what he really is as a quarterback. From both of those directions, he is the type of guy that you should be willing to spend a top-of-market deal on. everything about the way he has played over the last two seasons and even early this year is an indicator that he was worth the type of long-term deal that we've seen other quarterbacks get

and for whatever reason he didn't get one yeah i mean and it's like some of these things are eye of the beholder like when they pay a guy it's like like you just said any way you look at this guy he is the top quarterback he can play in any area and and not only that he can play in any kind scheme because you know he's smart enough to sit in any scheme so whatever you put him in he's going to be able to adapt because not only is he smart, we all know how athletic and like what's just a quarterback he is. He can throw all three levels, whatever. I mean, it's just, there's no blemishes really on him. He's good to very good at every aspect of the game.

He's the ideal 2020 quarterback. So now I think that you have to kind of play the what happens next game because there's no way not to do it. And that's the problem with wanting that deal and wanting that security. Because let's talk about the cousins thing because it's the only real comparison you can make to the situation. Two teams in recent years have played. tag essentially with their quarterback when their quarterback has played at a decently high level. Washington and the Cowboys. And I don't think you want to be like the Washington franchise in pretty much any way. So the fact that the Cowboys did this is probably not a good sign for the way that they handled it.

And with Kirk Cousins, it worked out, obviously. Kirk Cousins has made an astonishing amount of money by betting on himself and playing it this way. But you're always one play away. Always. And the fact that we watched Alex Smith come out and have it be a miracle that he was on the field earlier today, is all the evidence we should need that you're always one play away. So yes, does Dak playing it the way that he did make sense in the sense that, yeah, you know, he's probably going to be healthy. And by the end of this year, he was going to throw for a million yards. And he was going to get the contract and everything else.

Sure. But in this game, you're always one play away. And that's why he wanted to get paid. Because now, here's where we find ourselves. Who knows what's going to happen? Because there's no guarantee. He has, Adam Schaefter reported tonight that there's a compound fracture and a dislocated ankle. That sounds horrendous.

And there's no way to know what his timeline is going to be like. There's no way to know if by March of next year he's ready to get tagged again or sign a contract. You're hoping that he is, but there's so much uncertainty when you have a serious injury like this, even for a proven young quarterback. So I don't even know how he would speculate on how the next year is going to go. Because there's absolutely no way to know what his health status is going to look like by the time a decision on this has to be made. It's like breeze when he was leaving the chargers with the shoulder. I mean, that's what it basically comes down to. It's like, okay, how are teams going to see the medical?

Not that it's an arm, you know, it's an ankle, but still, I mean, you don't know how teams are going to weigh that. I don't know how it's going to go. I mean, I saw some people today kind of kicking around ideas. You would hope that we get to a place where he can get tagged again and they can figure this out in a long-term solution because it does seem like they want him to be there. And I'm not saying that if the Cowboys were evil by not giving him. Dak Prescott a contract or anything like that.

Obviously, you have to have both sides agree to this. And he wanted a few were years and he wanted to get paid again. And there were stalemates, as there are in situations like this. It seems like they do want him to be their quarterback in the future. And I would hope that they treat him the right way when it all comes down to it. We're trying to figure all this stuff out. But there's no way to know that. And I just think that when the guys want to get paid and when guys are trying to get what they're worth, we should hear that.

Because, again, it's always one playaway in this sport. and it was brutally apparent today. And there's just no way to know how this is going to go for DAC moving forward. For the Cowboys, it feels like this year is probably over, right? For as good as Andy Dalton is compared to other backup quarterbacks, the way that the rest of this roster had been playing, they needed the offense to play at an extremely high level to be a force in the NFC.

They could absolutely still win the division, but I just don't think they're the same team or the same sort of force by the end of the season if they figured some of their other stuff, out with Andy Dalton, the quarterback versus Dak Prescott. They have nothing to lean into at this point. Anyone wants to talk about the run game? That run game is so lifted by the fact that tack was around to chuck it

against the pack boxes and everything. So it's, yeah, they seem like a rudder with ship. They just lost their rudder. Yeah, I mean, then you have both your tackles are out for the season now. Tyrone Smith is gone. Lylel Collins is gone. They could be fine in that division, but it doesn't seem like they're going anywhere.

What a year for the Cowboys. When you consider what they were supposed to be coming. I mean, so many smart people thought this offense was just going to be great from the get-go. They were going to score a ton of points. And they have done that for the most part. Their efficiency numbers are not that impressive. Their offense is not as good as the raw numbers would suggest. But the talent they had on that side of the ball, moving away from Jason Garrett,

hopefully becoming a little bit more modern on offense, the sky was the limit for this team. I think if you asked a lot of people coming into the year. Absolutely. Now where are we? There's just no way to know what this team looks like a year from today. That's the game you're playing when you tag your quarterback. There is no long-term plan. And that uncertainty kind of hovers around the rest of the franchise.

It's just, I don't know. It's kind of crazy that we're in this point with Dallas when you consider where they could have been with some of the other moves they could have made. All right. Let's get to the next one here. So the Falcons officially have fired Dan Quinn. They announced it from their team Twitter account, which is just the weirdest thing. I will never get used to that. The fact that they had a picture of Thomas Dimitrov and Dan Quinn on the team account that they tweeted out is just so strange to me.

Anyway, the Dan Quinn thing is not surprised. Yeah, it's just weird. I will never get used to that. So the Dan Quinn thing could have seen that coming, right? We figured that they lost this game. He was probably on the hot seat. The Dimitrov thing, I was shocked. When I saw that I was taken aback by it, this is a guy that's been there.

This is his 13th season. he's overseen a lot of success there. I mean, they've won at least 10 games in six of his 12 years as the GM. He was there to draft Matt Ryan. They've been a really stable franchise under him. And now we're hitting the full reset button. Were you surprised that with Quinn, they also decided to move on from Dimitro?

Okay, yeah, I actually kind of not surprised that they went together kind of thing, because like you said, it's the hard reset. I maybe thought that he would go through the draft or something of that sort because that's usual timing with the GM. The timing of it is what's surprising to me. I can't remember a GM getting fired for games into the season, especially somebody who's been there for that long. Yeah.

And that's what, here's great point. It's just like that he's been there that long. You think, okay, we'll let you see through the draft and whatever. But yeah, it's just,

I think they're signaling, hey, you know, already Texans are doing what they're doing. You know, if you even have to worry about it. That's a little bit of a different thing, though. Their GM got fired a month into the season,

but he was also their coach. that was just a one swoop but like okay but they're saying they're signaling hey i think it's a big kind of optics kind of thing hey we're going in this together we're wide open to any head coaches that have some maybe like personnel kind of sayings on this you don't have to worry about the GM that we might have had looking over final 53 uh you know who's who's active on game day all those types of things you know this is signaling that hey it's wide open to whatever head coach that wants to come here whether that's college or pro so i think it's more of an optics thing in that aspect.

But it's just that franchise is just kind of like, they're a huge crossroads. I mean, like you said, it's a hard reset going from, and they have nice pieces, both veteran and, you know, a couple of younger guys. So, but it's whoever is going to go there, if they're going to get personnel duties, if they're the head coach, they're going to have a lot of say, I think, and whatever direction that they want to, want to go, kind of like what Carolina's done with Matt Rule a little bit. But the Carolina thing, that team was a much different position than the Falcons are right now. The Falcons are all in, man. I mean, you look at the spending for next year. They have the

fifth most expensive offense in football next season in 2021. They have four guys on their roster making at least $20 million next year with Matt Ryan, Julio Jones, Jake Matthews, and Grady Jared. And Dion Jones is on a contract extension. They're set to be, I think, at $203 million in total liabilities. We'll see where the cap ends up falling, but the floor is $175 million. So there's a chance they're over and already, and this is a team that's 0-15 and just fired their head coach. Typically, teams that are in this spot when they're hitting the hard reset button, they're ready for a rebuild. The Falcons were not positioned for a rebuild. So I'm really curious what this is going to look like.

Two offensive linemen in the first round last year. I mean, that's a pretty hard signal. like we're all in baby like this is what we're doing but the best thing they did in the last couple years was they traded away so new for a second round pick that's like the only kind of quote unquote rebuilding move that it seems like so i'm just agreeing with i'm just going off what you're saying it's like they just like this was their window this was the window that they created and it's self-inflicted for whoever comes in next at dimitraf i mean i remember talking to him last year just we were just about a separate story that i was working on and he just mentioned Yeah, it's so nice that the owner lets us spend to the cap essentially every single year here, which is not normal.

You need an owner that supports your vision as a team builder. If you want to spend a lot of money and you want to push it, you need an owner who's willing to spend the cash. And Blank has been willing to spend the cash. So this is a team that really has tried to maximize their window every single year, which makes sense when you have a 35-year-old quarterback. So when you think about the Falcons, I mean, this comes to mind. immediately. If Dante High Tower gets blocked by Devante Freeman, everything about this regime, whether it's Dan Quinn, Thomas Dimitrov, Matt Ryan, feels different. And Dimitrov has been someone who's been there for so long and has been so successful and I think is very well respected

in football circles. And as somebody I know I've talked to several times in my career, I've always thought he was a really smart guy. I wouldn't be surprised if he gets another opportunity. You worked for him for a long time. What just kind of? kind of jumped out to you about the way that he approached team building, his job, the way he saw the franchise, everything else. Because this is somebody who was a very good general manager for a long time. And I feel like we should talk about that. Yeah. And you brought up a great point. He is extremely, extremely smart. And he tries to always be forward thinking and be on the edge of whatever it is out there in football. That was, it's so funny to me. I was reading Michael Holly's

book that he wrote about the Patriots. And one of the books is about essentially, Dimitrov, Scott Pioly, and Belichick, when those guys left in their first jobs. And Thomas is like an old school football guy. His dad was like the oldest school football guy. But Thomas kind of culturally doesn't fit in that old school mode. He's a very forward-thinking person. We all know about, like, you know, he was a vegetarian and cycling and everything else. But he has those old-school roots.

So he's able to balance that in a way. I always thought was impressive. But I cut you off. Go ahead. Oh, no, you're good. And that's the thing. It was like tying into like what you say. old school. And what comes from that too is when I got there, it was a big emphasis on

competing and toughness. And like, we can't have guys that are soft or guys that are, don't have that edge to them every single day. We want true professionals and true guys that come every, they attack every day of practice like they would a game. And, you know, that always just spoke to me about his ability to self-evaluate. Like he was willing to go, okay, we suck at this. What's, what's get better at it. And I mean, I'm, whatever it is, I'm going to, my processes are going to change. I'm going to look at myself and where is the kink in the hose for what we're doing. And it's one of those things like you said, too. He has that old school sensibilities to him, which I always appreciate it too. It's like he could, you know, I drop of a hat, reference

somebody from the 70s, 80s or 90s. And also he had that. He was around it. When you're around the game so much, you kind of just see these things of life or things with the game, these ebbs and flows that happen. It's just like, you know, just keeps echoing on each other. And like he appreciated those types of things. So I think he's a guy that, always do what kind of moments he was in because he was a historian of the game. And that just spoke to his intelligence as well. And like I said, it's, I learned a lot from him. I really just from an organizational standpoint and also these things like looking at what

your blemishes are and not being afraid to address them. And I just always, that always spoke to me. And I, you know, it kind of sucks, you know, a guy that you really looked at and learned from a lot, you know, losing their job. But it is a tough business. It really is. And but that's, it's exciting a lot of times, but it sucks all. also.

One of the things that I would appreciate about him, and I think exactly like you were talking about, there's a humility to the way that he approached stuff and there was an openness to the way that he approached things. I think he was always open to, all right, what's new, what's working, what's not. And the way they even built this team, I think, is indicative of the way that some analytics work in the modern NFL. They said, we're going to build an offense. That if you look at the way they've spent their resources over the last five years,

especially, they've said, we're going to build an offense. They've been near the top of the league in offensive spending pretty much every single year. And they had that nucleus of Julio and Matt Ryan. And then they had Matthews was the left tackle. So that's how you build an offense, right? Quarterback, left tackle receiver, that's the crux of it. That's build around it.

They go get Alex Mack. There's one of those other pieces. They draft two offensive linemen in the first round. They draft Calvin Ridley in the first round. So you have all of these. resources. I mean, every single starting member of their offense was a first round pick at the beginning of this year. That's not an

accident. Some of it is kind of cheap when you consider Hayden Hurst and Todd Gurley and everything else. But still, but it's still a ton of their own homegrown first round picks and high level free agents that they spent money on in those spots. And I think that is the way to

build. I support that as a team building strategy. When you say, all right, what do we want to do? Let's build a top five offense every single year and figure the rest out. The problem was they didn't consistently get the most out of that offense. There were a lot of problems with what the Falcons were over the last few years. But after Shanahan left, they didn't consistently get the most out of that team. So now you have that nucleus and the question is what you do with it. And I think that,

we'll talk in a bit about whether they can trade Matt Ryan and the logistics of that. But that's probably going to happen in the off season, you know, when you think about the history that Matt Ryan has there. Julio Jones is on the wrong side of 30. And I think even with his health issues right now, if he gets healthy in the next couple weeks, that's the type of guy some contenders could possibly use. Would you see a scenario where a team might be willing to trade for Julio before the end of the year here?

Yeah. I mean, that would make a lot of sense. And I think the Falcons would be comfortable because you see the emergence or the continued emergence of Calvin Ridley. And yeah, you know, I was just thinking, too. is like, like, they get rid of, if they did get rid of Julio, and that would just make sense too, is what if they do go a direction out away from Matt Ryan as well is, you know,

this is actually a pretty good place for a young quarterback to come in. If they keep the line how it is, other than Mac, probably who would go on as well. But it's just, yeah, I mean, I guess, they have their Mac replacement, like, set up. Yeah, exactly. You know, but I'm saying, like, also with every other piece that they have,

like, overall, like, I'm just saying, like, it's almost like how Matt Ryan came into the Falcons in 2008 because of the whole the VIX scenario. But he came in with a veteran old line of veteran pieces around. And Calvin Ridley is his Roddy White or whoever the rookie quarterback might be if they do go down that path. I just had that thought as you asked the Julio question. But I think it makes more sense to get rid of Julio because that's also not as a big. I mean, Julio is a huge piece of the Falcons.

But like trading a quarterback is so much different to trade and receiver. I just think of the optics in that sense as well. Absolutely. Yeah. So I think that's why it's more of a viable thing. But you're saying before even the season ends, correct? Yeah, I mean, if you're a team that really thinks, all right, one receiver would put us over the top. Every single time a receiver comes up, the Packers get brought up.

So the Packers have about, I think, $7.8 million in cap space right now, what I'm looking at over the cap right now. I mean, maybe you say they're playing well enough, you don't want to rock the cart, whatever. But if Julio was available and you can use that to put you over the top, I think that is the exact type of piece that some teams might be looking at. And like you said, maybe the Falcons are ready to hit the reset button. That's the biggest question is how much do they want to tear this down? And I don't know the answer to that. They can go in so many different directions. I mean, we keep saying it, but it's just one of those things where it's how, like you said,

how hard do they want to press that reset button? Is it all the way down with their whole fist or is it just a couple fingers? So it's going to be interesting to see what this next regime. Yeah. When you don't have a GM, are you as prone to make a big splash move like that, trade away a franchise icon like Julio Jones is? I don't know the answer to that. But when you make this sort of huge franchise altering decision four weeks into the year, five weeks into the year, these are the questions that inevitably come up.

And I would say the biggest question now, what happens to that 35 year old quarterback? Do the Falcons say with the other pieces that they have, like you said, they have some veteran guys, they are a team that to a certain extent is built to win right now? Do they think, all right, if we bring in a coach, if we spin this, we start over, we bring in a fresh voice, we can write a, this roster or do they say we need to tear it down and if it's the latter what do you think happens to matt ryan i mean what what teams are a step away like what do you think i mean that's what it's actually this is does he go to the old offense coordinator if you look at the numbers so his his cap at next year is forty one million dollars which is yeah hilarious because they were borrowing from the contract because they were so all in so it's 41 million if you cut him or trade him i think his dead cap is about

43 million. But even if it's the same, you save the cash on his actual contract. I think his base salary is $23 million next year. So you save the cash. And I think they'll probably be willing to do that if they hit the reset button. So that dead number, I don't think, is prohibitive for them to move on from him. The question is- Fake anyways.

Well, now that Dimitrov is gone. Because if Dimitrov had stayed, I think it's a slightly different thing. Because when you're a quarterback somewhere for a decade and a half and you have really overseen the most successful period of a franchise history. You get to choose what happens to you, right? And I'm sure to a certain extent with Blank, it'll probably go this way as well. They'll have a sit down and be like, all right, do you want to be here if we start rebuilding? Where would you want to go?

I don't think they'll just cut him and let him kind of flail in the wind. Maybe I'm being naive about that. But I would assume someone with his standing, there's going to be an open dialogue. And if Ryan ends up saying, I don't want to be. part of some rebuild. I don't want to be here after we hit the reset button. Then where does he go?

And the number one thing that jumped out to me when you consider who might need a quarterback, what the money might look like, his base salary is $23 million next year. That is about how much money the San Francisco 49ers would save if they cut Jimmy Garapolo,

which I don't know what you think about this. So Garapolo gets benched today. Kyle Shanahan came out and said it was because he wanted to protect Jimmy Garoppolo the ankle wasn't 100% they knew they'd have to throw a lot and he was getting hit. He just didn't think it was good for him to be out there.

I don't think you pull your starting quarterback if you have a lot of faith in that starting quarterback. So is there a chance next off season that the 49ers are sitting there saying, we need a guy, Matt Ryan might be available. Let's get the band back together and see what the Niners can do with that last little window with this roster.

I think that absolutely could happen. The stars could align if Matt Ryan wants to be there. That would be so much fun, wouldn't it? And I mean, Jimmy had a pick today. That was pretty bad. He threw it late to, he double clutched it to a double pumped it to a running back 20 something 30 yards down the field on the seam. And he's the guy was on a trail technique to on his hip of the linebacker on the running back. And he missed inside.

And it was I thought his arm got hit. The throw was so far inside. And that doesn't look like ankle. Like, you know what I mean? That looked more just like he had no confidence of what he was doing. He was like, this is where I should be going with the ball. But I'm not trusting my throw right here. So I don't know how much, you know.

The ankle is affecting the confidence kind of thing too. But I mean, going back to the Matt Ryan trade, I mean, that would just be pretty fun, wouldn't it? I mean, it would make sense, right? I think it would fit both of their timelines. With Garapolo, are you buying it whatsoever that it could be an injury-related thing? Or do you think that that's just trying to save him more from the public perception than anything else? I think Shanahan is very good about saving his players and saying the right things. So I think he's protecting his player a little bit there.

All right. Let's get to who won the week. We have several candidates this week, and I think the favorite, in my opinion, has to be the Las Vegas Raiders. What an offensive performance by that team today? Really fun team, right? Like, we were texting. They really are. Just fun.

I mean, Josh Jacobs is a fun player overall, and I mean, we both know what the line has and everything, but also just Waller, rugs. I could see the vision now with rugs, especially that third and two. I want to talk about that. Yeah. And that play was just, that was fun. That was really fun. We can talk about that a minute.

But it's fun team. I mean, really fun offense. I mean, the defense is probably going to leak a lot of points. But if they get these shootouts every week, it's wide open. They could, you know, they can make some noise in AFC. Well, they're three and two now. The Patriots have the tiebreaker over them, which is a bummer because the Patriots, you assume are going to be in line for one of those wild card spots.

they play the Raiders do. They play the Colts and the Browns before the end of the year. Those are two other teams that could be in line to get a wild card spot. This offense playing the way that it's playing, I see no reason they can't jostle to get one of those wild card slots in the AFC.

I think the Chiefs still win that division. I think the Chiefs are still the best team in the AFC West, but I definitely feel like the Raiders can go toe to toe with any of these teams. After this game, Derek Carr is fourth in the NFL in EPA per dropback. after essentially all the MVP candidates.

And I think what you said about Ruggs is the most important point. I see the vision now. When they drafted Ruggs, my biggest question was, how does this fit with a quarterback who doesn't like to push the ball down the field? And I think there are two answers to that. One, they did push the ball down the field today. And we can talk about some of the ways they did that. But two, they're using him in other ways to get other guys open.

Not just creating space with him stretching defenses vertically, but think about the wall or touchdown. Ruggs comes in hard jet motion. They run a play action fake. So you have the linebackers kicking over a gap, then stepping up, then waller right behind them. They clearly understand exactly how rugs can open up other elements of their offense. And you just see all of it working in concert. It feels like an offense that the pieces fit together and they know what they want to be. And when you have John Gruden dialing stuff up the right way,

and when you have Derek Carr willing to throw the ball down the field, this is what it can look like. Not only they attack him vertically, like we're going to say with the rugs play and everything, there's other plays where they're attacking the intermediate areas. So it's just, like you said, the puzzle pieces come together. It complements what they do in the run game so much because if you run the ball well and all you do is quick game, it's kind of redundant because quick game was designed to replace the run game. So it's kind of one of those things where now when they're attacking deep on the intermediate areas, and we can talk about the Engold sail route later too, is these kind of plays are just,

they're attacking fire with fire on them too. Now you can't just blitz them and though they throw quick and rally and tackle, you get the rugs play where it's third and two, and that's pretty much an all-out blitz. And how they designed it so well. Carr knew it was coming. Like, Carr's really good with protection stuff

and knowing when blitzes are coming almost too well sometimes. And so they're in that bunch formation, and that's just attacking leverage. So even if Carr didn't want to take that post, which I'm so glad he did though. He stayed in there in the pocket. He was like,

I'm throwing this. He also had the out route too because that bunch formation just attacked. No matter what leverage they were going to play, the defense was going to play in that man, man defense, they had an answer for it. And that's just good play design. And also Carr knew what he was getting.

So they did some great self-scout or opponent scouting this week. I mean, just as a team and Carr just delivered on the potential that they made for him. I just love when you can clearly see play designs and a play caller that are totally dialed into the situation. And my favorite part of that rugs touchdown, did you see how we initially bent it outside before coming back in? And I assume that Sorensen, when he bends it outside, we're talking about the rugs touchdown, by the way. When he bends it outside initially, I assume Sorensen has an alert when that happens.

It's like, all right, that's not me. And that's what he came down on those two other guys inside in the bunch. And then it's essentially one on one with a corner. And it becomes a foot race when he bends it back in. And there's no way anybody's going to catch up with him. So that sort of stuff is beautiful to me. And then there was that one other play where Waller, I think they weren't empty on a third down.

And Waller was lined up essentially a little bit off the formation and ran what was most pretty much an angle route that you would see from a running back, but he ran it from a tight end spot. And they clearly understood the spacing and everything else. They were so locked in today to what they needed to dial up in specific situation. They seemed to have the right play every single time. And Carr was willing to uncork the throws that weren't necessarily. to really make everything work. And that's just, it's fun to see. I came into this,

into this season, I thought they might have the pieces. My biggest question was, do they have the right trigger man to unlock it all? And if he's going to play like he did today, then I think the answer is yes. It's so fun too. It was like not only those pieces like Waller and Josh Jacobs and stuff is they'll be in these heavy personnel settings, because they got nice tight ends, like not just Waller, but Witten and the other guys they have Moreau. And with that, they'll be in heavy personnel and split them all out. Or, or get into these bunch formations and more pro-style or spread formations with heavy personnel. So defenses have to respect them, okay, if you want to match them light, they'll just pound the rock on

you and go into, you know, big turtle formation basically. And but if not, if they want to like line them up or, you know, go heavy against them. Okay, we'll just spread you out. We have guys that can beat you man to man. It's, it's a fun mishmash personnel right now. And a hundred rent froze fun too. I mean, like just a nice mash of pieces. And they almost hit a go route down the sideline to their fullback out of empty. I mean, that, and it was there. That absolutely was on the table. Yeah, it's an actual viable weapon. I mean, they go to him all time in the flat because he can just actually make plays.

And then they hit the sail route to him. And it's just, he's such a weapon, not only just in the wrong game because he's tough enough and he could fit up now. But he's so athletic. They're attacking these intermediate areas with a fullback. And I mean, they're hitting explosive plays to a fullback. And he looks natural doing it. Like, he adjusted on the catch. I mean, he's a great player.

I'm not just saying because of the Badger bias, but I mean, he's a really fun player. And there are some fun fullbacks going on in the league right now. What do you see just in terms of the modernization of what Gruden probably like to do with traditional West Coast stuff? Is it really just how he's dressing it up with, I mean, because they're using motion at a really high rate. I think one of the top 10 rates in the NFL, like the ESPN numbers in motion at the snap. I think they were like the seventh highest rate in the league, about 16% of snaps. And you can see that in this game, especially with Ruggs back.

There's a lot of window dressing. There's a lot of eye discipline stuff. Would you say that's the biggest difference now compared to what the stuff Gruden would have been running 15 years ago? Yeah, it's not static. West Coast guys have always been pretty good at motion, but it's just cranked up to 11. It's just, yeah, like you said, it's modernized. They still are doing the splitback stuff.

They still love using tight ends of fullbacks like we just said. But with that, they're doing, like you said, all the jet motions. So they're just, yeah, cranking up to 11. That's what it is. And they're doing a lot of it. And also just off those moments. motion stuff. They're attacking vertically in far as like switch verticals. And, you know, they're putting a lot of heat on defenses. And it's straining defenses in both ways because they can do either,

either or they're well equipped to go heavy or well equipped to move these guys and attack you vertically. That's one of my favorite things that I've seen this year is using those jet motions to hit vertical routes off of them. The Raiders had that long completion to Robert Woods today on that exact idea where he's going right to left and he's just running full speed and bends it up, which I think that stuff is a little bit new. And you pointed out on Twitter this week was a really cool example of the Packers hitting it with the running back kind of seam

off the jet motion, which again, it's just getting to your routes in different ways. And I think watching a really traditional old school West Coast guy like Gruden fold these concepts into what he's doing and have them unlock his shit even more. It's just awesome to watch.

It is the sign of a coach who's willing to learn, willing to change. Yes. willing to adapt. And now you can clearly see he's on that level as a play call right now. And the weapons they have and the ways that are using them, it's working. It is undeniably working right now.

This is an unabashedly fun team. And I just did not expect that from the Raiders, but they have the personnel to do it. Yeah. It's a fun team. Like you said, and they're young too. Like all these weapons and pieces there are, I mean, their majority of them are real young players too. So we can just watch them probably get even better, which is even cooler. When you draft the guy like Ruggs, there's a chance that you just don't use him in the right way.

He's just this shiny toy that you don't understand. And watching them try to use him in the exact same ways that a team used to highly kill, that's exactly what you should be doing. That is the right way to use a guy with his skill set and to see them do that and see how different their offense looks when he's active compared to what it looked like the last two weeks. This is a team that's going to be around in offensive shootouts from now until the end of the season. All right. Let's move on. Another candidate for who won the week this week. Miles Garrett, man. I mean, we wanted to talk about him over the last couple shows just because of how well he's been playing. He came into this game leading the NFL in pressures. I would, with 27, according to PFF, I assume that is going to stay the same because that dude was everywhere today.

So not only he got pressure on the intentional grounding that was a huge play in the game, he got a sack. But I want to talk about some of the quiet. ways that he affected this game. Just ways that when you're watching a defensive player play in and play out, some of this stuff you don't really notice. So he hit Philip Rivers on the throw to Nihianz that almost got intercepted in the end zone. He fought off a double team to tackle Heinz for a three-yard gain on a second and six that forced a field goal after the third down was missed.

He made a tackle on a one-yard gain by Wilkins that turned a second and five into a third and four. Rivers threw the pick six on the next play. It's just stuff like that. It's when you see, he's always been a good player. He's been a good player. But when he was drafted number one overall, I think they saw him as a game wrecking force

that changed the dynamic of any game he was playing in. This year and today, that's the player that he is. He's literally affecting every single play that he's on the field. And that's what they hoped he would be. And he's become that for them. With a player like that, like what you said, being a game wrecker that is truly keeping an offense coordinator making, making account for him on every single snap.

Like we saw against the Cowboys last week was as soon as he was one-on-one with the backup right tackle because he was in because of injuries, like they, he abused him. And that's what a true game record is. As soon as he does advantage plays, it's not like, oh, we got to worry about him. It's like, oh, no, we actually have to chip him or do something or run some motion at him, something to account for him. otherwise he's going to truly wreck our game. And that's what he is.

That's what he's doing now. He's abusing any matchup advantage that he has every sap, not just twice a game. It's anytime he has an advantage where they're not accounting for him, but like you said, too, even when they are accounting for him, he's wrecking the game. I mean, these are a type of guys. And it's like almost like a Barry Bonds kind of thing. It's like where it's if you don't pitch him, like if you make one mistake, he's going to ruin your day and hit a home run. And he's affecting the offenses with these. pressures not just get he has the sack numbers already he has five i think already but six he leaves six

six right oh my goodness and and he so he has six already and those pressures add up and they're not cheap though it's he's the the pressure the pressure numbers align with them and that's what you like to see it's not like he's getting latent down sacks he's consistently being a force and a factor he's hitting home runs and getting on base like yes you know i mean that's that's what it is it's he's doing both it's like he's just you have to account for him every single play and then all these two Like, I mean, even sometimes in a run game, he's like, whatever, but he's still getting TFLs. And like you said, awesome, the second of five is just third and four. They're efficient tackles.

It's not a tackle six yard down the field and turns out, you know, first and ten to a second and two. You know, second and three, it's second and five becomes a third and four. And it's third and inches. Yeah. If it was third and inches, which it would have been on that play if he hadn't made the tackle, they don't throw that ball that gets to that pick six. It's just those little things that start to add up over the course of the game. And it's a great point. about the backup right tackle for the Cowboys because La Raven Clark was playing left tackle for

the Colts today because Anthony Casano was out and he'd say oh well he's he's beaten up a backup left tackle no don't do that he should beat up a backup left tackle correct there are so many instances where you have backup linemen in the game and you don't have a guy take over that's what you want if it's not making an excuse and not explaining away the performance it's saying this is what he should do yes this is what he should do and this is what he did and that's the type of of player he's been. If you give him an inch, he's taking a mile this season. And that's what they needed out of him. And that's where I think it speaks to kind of a larger theme with what the Browns were today. They were uneven. Baker had a rough second half. I think he was a little bit dinged up. But you had so many great,

you made a joke about how they must have had pint hour in their hands in the first half. They're making crazy catches. And that's even in games where they're uneven and even in games where they're not dominant. Seeing the talent shine through is the difference between this Browns team and last year's Browns team. They're putting their best players in position to make those plays. And even in games where you don't have it at play in and play out, the talent is shining through.

Garrett was great today. Becca made a couple catches. Landry made a couple of catches. Let's get a couple turnovers from Ronnie Harrison just got back and let's go home. That's exactly what happened even if they didn't play their best game. And that is a difference between this Brown's team and other ones that we've seen. Yeah, and I, you know, I made the joke, you know, a little bit last week where I was like, oh, you know, Baker is basically becoming a Shanahan quarterback, which is fine. But the thing was today when they were going blow for blow and, you know, starting throw haymakers against the Colts was he was dynamite on third down.

Like he made a play with his legs. He had a really nice ball to Austin Hooper on a contested play over the middle. That was really nice against like a Tampa 2, I think it was. But those are the throws he was making. And if he can do that, and I mean, he's not going to be as hot as he was on third down as he was today. I think at one point he was eight for 10. And, you know, and I think they ended up like 10 for something. You're playing with fire there.

That's not something you want to do. Correct. Let's not get to third down with Baker. No, that's what I mean. But if he's going to have 50-50 where he can actually look competent on those plays, they're going to look good. But that's the thing is that if they play a defense like the Colts did today that really limited their run game for the most part, Baker has to make these plays.

He has to step up and he can't have the plays like he did in the second half because that's what some of these games will look like when they don't get the turnovers. So I'm kind of hedging a little bit on the Browns, but they did look really good today, even like you said, when they didn't have a perfect game. And it makes me buy their stock a little bit more. I'm impressed that they won when they weren't playing great. When they didn't necessarily get to play the game they wanted to offensively, when you can kind of work through those games and still win, that's what I like to see. So, you know, we'll see what happens for them the rest of the year. I will say, before we move on, I'm very bitter about not getting my Wyatt Teller DeForest Buckner matchup today.

Of course, I'm looking forward to it all week seeing the Intent. the Colts line play against the interior of the Browns line. And then the best guy in the Browns offensive line this season gets hurt in the first quarter and doesn't play again. Just us offensive line and defensive line nerds. We can never have nice things. All right. Let's get to one more candidate for who won the week here. We had to add this late as we were watching the Sunday night game.

I think we have to throw Russell Wilson in there. I mean, it's not his best game. But that's kind of the point is that this is one of those games and this is one of those weeks for Russell Wilson and the Seahawks. when you just kind of start feeling like it might be your year. Maybe I'm reading too much into it. That's that final drive, that was my reaction to it. It's like, oh, man, they just won this game and they should not have won this game. And that's what happens when you just might have it.

They made the stop. And I think, you know, there's nobody in the stadium. But, like, I think everybody at home was like, oh, they're going to win this game. Like, that's what I felt. As soon as they made the stop, it was like, oh, Russell's going to march down. There was zero doubt. And that's how, like, going up when you said, that's how you know it's your year. And that's the second time he's there right now.

Yeah. It's that, oh, we know what's going to happen. Like, we just, like, everybody. And that's why I'm okay with going for it. That's why I'm totally okay with going for it in that situation because you have that, oh, he's just going to score mentality about Russell Wilson right now. So if you kick the field goal and they're down eight, you absolutely think he can get down there in two minutes and win the game.

So that's why 100% on the road against a quarterback that has been red hot all season, even if he's not playing his best in the rain. I think you just try to put that game away. I want 100% to support the decision. Unfortunately for Vikings fans, it will be the last time in his head coaching tenure that Mike Zimmer ever goes for a four-down. That's it.

You know, it's funny. As the other week, we kind of crushed Anthony Wendt for not going for it against Mahomes. And so here we go. But this was a more beneficial situation where it was really, truly icing the game

as opposed to just extending a drive. So I loved it. I'm fine with him going for a fourth town. But like you said, I think that is it. He's just like, no, I'm Mr. Safe. We're punting every time we're past the 50. It might be fourth of a while.

We're still punting. Last point here about Russell Wilson and the Seahawks. I loved what Collins were said about that last touchdown in McHaff, how hard he went across the field with just no regard for who might be coming on the other side. When you're doing that and you're going just full speed over the middle of the field, some guys are going to have a little bit alligator arms, a little bit of just hesitance, laying out for that ball, nothing. He was going 110 miles an hour,

lay out, full go for that touchdown. And like, that's just the way that guy plays right now. They hit a speed bump today and still won. And that's when you know teams are getting real scary. It, like you said, it's their year. It's just every feeling when they stopped Cam a couple of weeks ago, that was that was one kind of like, oh, this is really it. Last week when they maybe not getting it done all the time.

It's like they just still are finding away. And they found a new way to win this to not. and Russell shined when he always shines when the lights are the brightest. All right, let's move on. Let's get to Nate's quarterback corner. I have maybe a surprising question for you this week because they won and I'm sure that a lot of people aren't going to be focused on this when you consider all the other stuff that happened on Sunday.

Are you worried about Lamar Jackson? This is his second stinker in three weeks. He did not play well today. So I'm just wondering if you've seen anything from him over the last few games. that concerns you at all. No, I think this is what he is. I mean, he had a historical year last year, but I don't think he regressed at all. I think it's more just this is what he is.

He's going to have games that look like this. He's not going to be like a tight seam ball thrower. He anticipates okay, but he does better when he can kind of see guys coming open. That's why they do so many like high, low, like overs and crossers because it comes open in front of him. He's not going to really anticipate, you know, deep out and comebacks. He can make those throws. That's which makes Lamar Lamar. he can make pretty much all the throws.

And but with him, he kind of has to see them coming out of the routes. He can't just go throw to a spot, you know, the classic quarterback that everyone wants to do, not a ton of quarterbacks can do. But, you know, that's not just what he is.

But the run game is still fine. But as far as like, you know, a Greg Roman harbaugh offense, like you're never going to, they're not going to reinvent the wheel. The craziest thing they did now is like they're doing a four by one empty stuff, which is pretty interesting.

Actually, it's funny because it was against borough today you know so that's what if you watched a lot of lSU last year that's what lose you're empty off yeah and yeah an empty off so yeah they're doing the four by one stuff and what they're doing there is you can isolate one guy the one and then on the four they can overload a zone and if you want to run ban against that Lamar is his own checkdown so it's okay pick your poison so it's Lamar's going to find some crosser over route with a guy and I see what they're doing with the receiver cord that they try to draft they're they're these four two four three guys uh who's a guy from a, uh, uh, du René had it. Yeah. Devereux today. Yeah. And, and I can see they're trying to

design some stuff for him. I'm not worried about it. It's just that's what they are. It's their dropout game is never going to be really sexy. They're designed to run the ball really well. Put Lamar on the move. And a lot of it is now is what they like to do is go empty. That's the dropout game is go empty. Put strain on you. And then Lamar is his own checkdown. So if you want to go zone, they'll try to overload your zone. If they want to go man, then it's okay, we have a guy running four three away from you. or Mark Andrews, who's super athletic, or Lamar's own checkdown is running and punishing any pressures you bring or any man coverages you bring. So it's just, I'm not worried. This is just what they are.

They're going to have weeks that look like this and they still are going to find a way to win, especially a team like the Bengals. I'll be curious to see what teams do to them moving forward. While going back and watching that game today, I thought the Bengals did a lot of cool stuff with pressure. Yeah. Either bringing guys or having guys drop back. The pick that he threw, they showed a pressure look, Wilson dropped back. He threw it right to him. It clearly had made that decision to throw to Sneed.

So on consecutive plays today, they brought Darius Phillips, who I think plays a little bit of a hybrid role for the Bengals off the slot. So one play, they had him come and he was unblocked. And typically against a guy with a little bit of less athleticism, Lamar would pump, just go around and be able to escape. But it was a corner who did a great job of rushing in control, jumped but still got back down so Lamar couldn't escape. On the next play, he came again, and I think got him.

And so they were bringing slot pressure, which I think was doing a really good job, and they were bringing pressure looks and dropping back. And Lamar has not been as good against the Blitz this year. So I'm wondering if more teams are going to do that. They're going to say, all right, we want to bring some slot pressure, which is really good against play action offenses for the most part because it really disrupts some timing. And I'm curious whether a lot of teams are going to say, all right, that's a good blueprint

because we can make him move off his spot, but still kind of keep him in control. Speed up his timing, but don't let him escape. I think that's what you want to do. And it's much easier said than done. But I think the Bengals did a really good job of doing that today. Yeah, they varied it up too. At first I was like, oh, they put a lot of soft zone and were trying to be patient. But then all of a sudden as the game unfolded, they're starting run man. And like you said, like they're bringing those pressures and doing a good job with pressures and mixing it up. It looked like some of the games they ran defensively caused some confusion with the Ravens Offensive line where they didn't pass it off, like as really as fissionally as they usually do.

And also what we saw really the Titans, maybe this, maybe put the blueprint. And might it came before. But when I first noticed with the Titans in a playoff around last year was they stacked their linebackers and had so many guys off ball, just like we talked about with the Colts defense that they do overall. But that's what the Bengals were doing against their run game today, too. It's just to get their second level defenders or intermediate defenders,

whether it's a safety or a linebacker, more time to kind of read and react at what's going on. So I think that's really picked up too. I think the Chiefs ran out a little bit a couple weeks ago is really just when their guys read and react, hopefully slow and limit the explosive plays in the run game and force them run to this dropback stuff. But, you know, like you said, the Bengals ran a little bit of everything today and a lot of it was good. It was good stuff. They dropped eight on a couple times. And you can see Lamar start pumping. You know, like I said, he likes to read over the middle of the field when he sees something unfold.

But also now it's like a two, three zone in there. Everyone's arms are up. And all of a sudden he can't make those easy throws to the runners that he likes to do. And when he's his own checkdown, and also that pockets crushing in on him, not making him feel comfortable. So we'll see if other teams are patient enough to do that against the Ravens. All right. Let's get to this week's secret sauce. Every week we try to find one or two things that really fuel the teams win in a subtle way.

This week it wasn't quite as subtle. But I want to talk about some of the ways that the Steelers schemed up Chase Claypool. So what does you see from them today to kind of get him involved in the offense? I mean, it was fun. the first one where the sweet play, they really wanted to do it because they're probably, hey, a lot of straight line stuff. So overall, it was a lot of stuff where he can truly use his straight line speed because he might turn like a tugboat a little bit. So it's, it's one of those things, but he can just open up and go. So that's what they did is it's perfect.

They're not square per hour holding it. What they're really doing is utilizing his strength. So sweet play where it's really just a foot race. You want one seal block on the edge. And the Steelers, and this is a side note, did a great job. of blocking down the field as well on some of these plays they had the one where okay so the sweet played on the run then they had one that they attacked Tampa two and they put him at the number three spot so basically we're tied in when normally aligned that's where they put claypool and he ran

what a four four flat at whatever what his weight is they just had him run he ran a four four two at 238 pounds I looked it up exactly so they put him at the number three spot and they have him running just straight down the field unimpeded there's no one collisioning number or anything. So he just got to go against a Tampa 2 linebacker. So again, utilizing his strength, putting strain. And you can see Big Ben-U. He did a nice little shoulder fake, though, to kind of sell that.

He did to dip it a little bit. That's, I was impressed with some of the subtle things he did today. We could talk about that. But even on that play, there was a little bit of a like, a little bit of a cell going across, then take it vertical against the linebacker. And the guy just had absolutely no chance.

Yeah, because you were trying to get that linebacker flat footed. So you're saying, is he crossing my face? and over or is he running past me. So as soon as, like you said, that is great. That's a little subtle. He's a smart dude. I mean, it's cool to see him starting to get a little more polished to his game because

the other touchdown on the slant route. I mean, we can say whatever we want about the Eagles defender that's guarding him, but he turned him around on it. And I didn't know he had that in him to actually have like a little suddenness out of his break. I thought he'd be more of a big oozer out of the break, you know, a big, you know, almost Mike Williams type kind of thing. But no, he had some suddenness coming out of that.

And the last play that was just. really fun was the quad stack touchdown because it's just a fun design. It's a simple design. But as soon as it's a one-on-one, like I was talking about it earlier, what the Ravens are trying to do, basically a four-on-one. With a one-on-one, they had an overhang defender. So Big Ben's off of it right away. And they're in 21 personnel. They have a fullback James Conner and the tight end over there, three blockers. And it's not by mistake that they're having, having Claypool catch this. Because he's just going to run through any side tackles. Like, so it's like the, like, again, it's, know their personality. Okay, he's big, he's fast, and he can break a side tackle. So, okay,

let's get him play where he's just running straight ahead. He doesn't have to turn it all. He can just catch it and get up up field, bounce off a tackle and walk in for a touchdown. I mean, it's sometimes simple football. Football is just the most beautiful type of football. He clearly was flashed in the first couple games of the year. He was not playing very much, but he was making big plays. So you've been on staffs before where you're trying to figure out how to expand roles for young guys. clearly saw, all right, he's probably our most talented past catcher. Even with juju in the mix, he is more physically explosive, everything else. I'm sure he stands out

in practice just because he's got the physical tools. What do you think the conversation is like with a young guy like that? Somebody who didn't have a real off season, there was no preseason. What do you think the dialogue is like on that staff to say, all right, we know we want to bring him along a little slowly, but we have to use this guy more than we're using him right now. We're holding ourselves back if we don't. Yeah. And like you said, we're holding back, holding back at first.

It's, I think so many coaches are always going to hedge. So they're always going to say, well, he looks great in practice in training camp. We'll see how he looks in a preseason game. Then the guy looks good in a preseason game. Well, we know how,

I know that didn't happen this year, but let's say, hey, he looks good in a preseason game. We'll see what happens when it's a real game when he actually has a, you know, it's against the ones. Okay.

And the guy looks good in the limited plays against the ones, you know, in a regular season game. And usually, So many coaches are week to week and they're so focused on their game plan and they don't want to maybe stir the pot too much on what is working, especially at winning team like the Steelers are right now. But when teams get these extra days where they can just look at themselves and self-scout, this is what usually you get a full buy week for sure. A lot of teams get out of it, what they call a mini buy after a Thursday night game. So the Steelers kind of got too with the scheduling stuff.

So what they can self-evaluate? And they go, okay, what is he good at? okay, what do we run that we can fit him in, that it's like very little training or just we get an extra day of training and to like really make sure it works and he knows what it is. And Claypool obviously can take a run with it. So they're going to just keep adding stuff to his play. It's like the tweet we had the other day about Cordero Patterson is his guys get so excited about what they can handle it.

But then Claypool is showing that he can handle it. So they're adding to his repertoire and just going to keep doing it until kind of like he hits a breaking point. And some of these guys don't hit a breaking point. They just keep getting better and better like we see with a guy like DK. Mekaf. And so that was the cool part about Claypools is that obviously when you look at him, it's like, all right, Maccalf is great comp. Height weight speed.

A guy is a physical phenom and let's see what that guy can do. But some of the stuff he was doing today, you mentioned the slant touchdown. He turned Jalen Mills around. He had so much separation. Usually on that play, you have to stick it at the top of the route to create a little bit more. He didn't have to do that. He already had so much space. So I almost, I was expecting him to kind of give one more little shot there to kind of get more separation.

He didn't even need to. He just ran away from for a touchdown. But I thought the most impressive play he had today, I thought the offense pass interference on that should be touchdown was absolutely bullshit. It was just a great play by him. But my favorite play that he made was the slant he hit against Slay because he stacked up Slay and then did a really beautiful little swim move to get inside. of them. And it's like we talked about with Metcalf earlier this year. It's the subtleties of how you get open and route running and all that stuff are good, but hands are an underrated part of young receivers and how they create separation and get open. And for him to do that against a really good corner

in Darius Slay, stack them, use the hands, get inside. It's like, oh, that's pretty good. Like, that is actual wide receiver play. And when you combine that sort of kind of refinement, which is, It's not Keenan Allen stuff, but it's nice. And when you combine the nice with a guy who has that physical skill set, now we're cooking with gas, man. Now we're getting somewhere. I am excited to see what he can do. Yeah. I know, I'm like, guys wanted to move him to tight end?

Like, what were we doing, guys? I mean, but it's, he had another one on the sideline. I think it got ruled out of bounds after review. I might be just misremembering it, but that he had another one where he stacks lay on it on the sideline and adjusted to the ball. And I think he was just barely out of balance because he like went right foot, right foot as he fell out of balance. And that was like a brilliant catch too.

And like you said, hands like not just in the sense of winning against a press or all that says, but hands and adjusting to the ball. You'll see some of these big guys with long arms. They don't like, they just tangled their arms up and they don't know, have that hand eye coordination because they're just so long. He's adjusting and catching the long balls away from them that are easier for a long arm guy. He's catching stuff close to his body.

which is just really, I mean, obviously this is a podcast, so you couldn't just see all the fun things I was doing with my arms. But it was like, he's doing these things that are pretty hard to do for a big man. And yeah, it's cool. It's really cool to see this guy really ascend. And I hope he just keeps putting it together. All right, buddy.

That's all we got. Another crazy week in the NFL. We were going to get to all of the COVID-related stuff with Lindsay Jones later this week. Obviously, that was a big part of everything that happened. But the schedule is still getting figured out. We'll talk about that later this week. But for now, as always, guys, thank you so much for listening to The Athletic Football Show. Please rate and subscribe the show on your podcast provider of choice.

I would sincerely appreciate it. We will be back on Wednesday. Until then, thanks for listening. Talk to you later. This was the Athletic Football Show.