The Athletic Football Show: A show about the NFL - Week 6: Le'Veon Bell released, Aaron Rodgers vs. Tom Brady and an intriguing test for the Steelers’ defensive line

Episode Date: October 15, 2020

In a surprising move this week, the Jets parted ways with Le'Veon Bell. The Athletic’s Robert Mays and Lindsay Jones discuss what went wrong for the running back in New York. Also, Lindsay explains the latest news involving the NFL’s schedule changes.Later in the show, they preview the Chiefs-Bills showdown as they both look to bounce back from their first loss of the season as well as the battle between Brady and Rodgers. Finally, hear what quarterbacks they think have the most at stake in Week 6.  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. I'm joined today by Lindsay Jones. Lindsay, how are you? I am hanging in there recovering from a crazy week where we had Tuesday night football. I feel super discombobulated about what time of the week it is, what week of the year it is. I don't know.

All I know is that I watched football last night. And you could tell me that it was Tuesday morning, Friday morning, Wednesday. morning, Wednesday afternoon, I have no idea. That's the problem is that we need football to tell us what day of the week it is now, because there's no other difference. I don't leave my house. I don't really do anything. So there's no way to know from me.

There's no way for me to know what day is Saturday, what day is Friday. So I need the regimentation of the football schedule and having a game on Tuesday. I'm completely screwed up. I was also recording today's podcast last night during the games. I have no idea what time it is, what time zone I'm in, any of that stuff. It's going to great over here. There's going to be a major meltdown in my house this evening because my daughter has decided that evening football is really fun because it's something that she likes to do with mommy. And she had Sunday night, Monday night, Tuesday night.

And now she's not going to have football on Wednesday night to watch. So it's going to be a really hard adjustment. So but I think if she, you know, just waits a little bit, the NFL will probably find a way to give us some Wednesday night football. Oh, yeah. We're going to have a game every single day of the week at some point very soon. We're going to have a Monday night double headers here pretty much every single. a week. All right, let's get to some of the news.

Along with the Tuesday night football game last night, I think in part was overshadowed by the Tuesday night football game, the news that Levion Bell has been released by the Jets, which there are things that were sometimes the collective football watching public is wrong about. It happens, it's panned. Josh Allen, perfect example. There are some things, though, that even in the moment, you know it's a terrible idea and you know it's not going to work out.

I remember when the free agency period was starting when Levyon Bell was a free agent. And I was like, where's Levyon Bell going to sign? Everyone knows you shouldn't give running backs a contract. I said, well, there's always the Jets, and that's where he wound up. So it lasted about a year and a half. And it didn't work out. It didn't work out in any way. Levyon Bell was not even close to the player that he'd been in previous seasons with the Steelers.

The Jets' offense is essentially unwatchable. So I don't know even where to start with this. I mean, again, it's one of those things that looked like a mistake in the moment. clearly was a mistake. Every single thing the Jets have done systematically over the last year or so has been wrong. And this is probably the crown jewel in that entire situation. Yeah.

And we can't even get into like, it's not even worth getting into like the football discussions about it, about what does it mean for the offense and all of this stuff. It's just fundamentally. Yeah, exactly. It's just how flawed this complete organization is and the decision making. And, you know, this was a Mike McCagnan signing, which is. which is wild. You know, Mike McCagnan was the one who signed him

and then he was fired two months later. You know, Adam Gase never wanted him. I wasn't working here when this happened. So I haven't been able to ask you about this. What is the possible rationalization behind allowing Mike McCagnan to throw all that money around in free agency only to fire him two months later? This is even worse than the Bill O'Brien thing.

Because when Bill O'Brien was spending all that money and trading away to Andre Hopkins, and all of that, you had kind of spun it in your mind that he would be there for a while. He was in charge of the organization. If they already had designs on firing Mike McCagden, why in God's name would you let him shape the future of your franchise by handing out an absurd amount of guaranteed money in free agency? And they let him draft that year too. So, I mean, the decisions that were made in the 2019 off season, dating back to when they hired

Adam Gase back in January. are going to set the Jets organization back for years. It feels like it's been 20 years that Adam Gase has been the coach there. He was hired in January of 2019. If we ever need to know what's going to make Robert just lose his mind, it's recounting. Every single time I think about it, it becomes harder to believe.

I cannot believe he's only been the coach there for a year and a half. It seems interminable, maybe just because all the Jets. fans I know are just so, so sad, just as people and over the last several years of their lives. Oh, God. All right. Do we want to talk about where Levi-on-Bel could land? Is that interesting? We're so far removed from him being Levian-Bel for being a valuable running back, right?

I mean, he must still have that in him, right? Somewhere inside of him, if he gets into the right, you know, the right locker room, the right coaching staff. Where do you think he could land? Well, I mean, this isn't even just because it's coming from me. I think the most logical landing spot for him is Chicago. If you think about what Tyree Cohen is out for the season. David Montgomery is really they're only running back.

They're using quarterback Patterson in that secondary running back role. Lamar Miller is on the practice squad in Chicago now, so that may be kind of a roadblock to allowing this to happen. I don't think it should be because if you think Levian, first of all, Levin'Bell is healthy. So Lamar Miller is coming off an injury. If you think Levian Bell is still a useful player, I think Chicago is the most logical landing spot for him.

And as a Bears fan, I support them trying to do this. The Bears' offensive line is not good. The running game hasn't been good. But that is absolutely a team that would have a need for him and could probably squeeze him in at a pretty steep discount right now. Is it crazy to wonder if the Chiefs should look at him? Is that an insane fit or spot? That doesn't make it much sense to me.

I know some people have mentioned it. Barnwell wrote about the teams that could possibly fit him in last night, or maybe this morning. Who knows he's up at all hours of the night all the time writing? I don't, that even if you think that the guys they have have not been effective, you still have Lachon McCoy there. There are a couple running backs that are getting snaps on that team. So I'm just not sure how they would be the most logical fit.

But again, a lot of these teams, when it comes to running backs, guys end up places we don't necessarily expect. them to end up just because you can play a lot of them. You don't necessarily need a glaring need at that position to sign a guy. So he could wind up at a place that doesn't even make sense to us right now. Well, in the back when he was going to sign, you know, when he hit free agency, the Colts were one of the teams that got thrown out there a lot because they had a need at running back.

They had a gazillion dollars to spend and they never wanted to spend that sort of money on a running back. I can promise you that Chris Boward was. never going to sign Leveon Bell. Yeah, it wasn't like a personality fit maybe. You know, I think they could maybe use some running back help now. They could use some assistance to their running game. But yeah, it's just so crazy how fortunes can change where, you know, I wrote last weekend

about how much I hate the franchise tag. And it doesn't benefit that many people. And it didn't benefit Levyon Bell because he thought he was going to be able to turn those tags into a massive payday that never happened. his free agency decision failed. Obviously, he picked the wrong spot. The wrong spot picked him. It was kind of a mutual decision there.

But yeah, I mean, it's crazy that he went from being one of the most valuable players in the NFL for everything that he could do as a receiver and a running back. And now we're trying to figure out if we could even place him onto a roster. I'll be honest with you. I'll be completely honest with you. It has been a long time since I watched Libya and Bell Play football. He had six carries this year. I have not watched a lot of the Jets offense over the last two years in terms of studying their running game. I have no idea what he still has left in the tank and what he could offer a team.

I'm more than willing to admit that. And that's totally fair. I think it's okay. I don't mind it. I want to go back and watch Sam Darn it a little bit soon, things like that. But I am not up to date on the status of the Jets running game. I'm totally fine throwing that out there. All right.

Another bit of running back news in your neck of the woods here. Melvin Gordon arrested yesterday on suspicion of DUI. He was not allowed to practice on Wednesday. Lindsay, we're about a month removed here from a lot of excitement about the Broncos. Now it just seems like that team is really just filled with questions about their quarterbacks' health, about where they're going direction-wise. What's just kind of the feeling around the Broncos right now is they've sifted through a pretty tumultuous early part of the season.

Yeah, I mean, it very much seems like one of those, everything that can go wrong has gone wrong this year. I mean, you take all of the worst case scenarios and largely they've happened. I mean, they're starting to get a couple little silver linings here that Drew Locke was a full participant in practice on Wednesday, which makes it, you know, barring a setback on Thursday or Friday means he's going to get to return, you know, for the first time since injuring himself. I guess it was week two. So he'll get to play against the Patriots this week.

A.J. Bouye was just activated off of IR. But largely, I mean, it's just been a season of like one. misstep after another. And some of these things are things that you can't control a non-contact injury to Von Miller, you know, the week before, you know, right before week one, all of these other injuries. But this Melvin Gordon thing is just like a, what are we doing here, right? I mean, we heard Vic Fangio was some of those strongest comments I've heard from him and

really from any coach talking about kind of how teams have to respond to COVID this weekend after their game against the Patriots got, you know, got moved from Sunday to Monday. and then Monday to this week, and then there were other dominoes that had to fall. You know, they found out on, you know, I guess it was what Saturday that their by week, or Sunday morning that their by week had been changed after having worked through their entire biweek. And so, you know, he talked, Vic Fiangio talked about how this was the year that you're going to find out who can handle things the best, find out who the bitters and the whiners are. And that was his message, not just to the media, but that was what he gathered.

Was that an exact quote? What? That was his exact quote. That was his direct quote. Yeah. Yep. And he was like, we're going to find out. And I'm going to make damn sure that it's not the Denver Broncos in two days later.

One of their high priced free agents, key piece of their offense coming off the best game of his best game in the season so far gets arrested for a DUI. So right now we don't know if he's going to play against the Patriots. Philip Lindsay should be back. So when we talk about their running game, you know, at least they'll have Philip Lindsay. But this is just a thing of like making stupid decisions at a time. where you cannot make stupid decisions. And it was their byweek. Can't go out of town.

Probably shouldn't be going out with friends and having drinks. I know players aren't supposed to be taking Ubers right now, but also shouldn't be drinking and driving and reckless, you know, reckless driving and all of those sorts of things. So, you know, now the Broncos have a lot of questions, right? They have to figure out, well, could he have contracted COVID while he was out? He went to jail, right? I mean, that's not, if you're going to make these virtual bubbles and you try to be safe within your homes.

That's not the sort of situation that's going to help anybody out here. So, you know, I don't want to say they're a mess, but they're a team that we're starting to, you know, you just got to start thinking about 2021 right now. And that's unfortunate that it's week six. Especially when you consider what they were supposed to do coming into the year and what some of the expectations were after the stretch that Drew Locke had at the end of last season. I think that there were people that were tempering those expectations because he was very uneven at the end of last year.

but I still think there were higher hopes for that team coming into 2020 than there had been in a couple of years. So sticking to the COVID side of things here, a very eventful weekend. I mean, you wake up on Sunday morning and it's just another shitstorm of news about games going to move and what's this going to happen and everything else. They had to do a ton of tetracing with the schedule again. I can't even imagine what it's like when you wake up and you're the schedule maker and you see that this has happened again. It just has to be absolutely miserable, although it's kind of self-inflicted. me think about what the league probably could have done. Is there anything you feel like we need to know or anything that's kind of arisen in the past few days

that's a change from the information that we've had in the past? Yeah, I mean, I think the important thing and my big takeaway from all of the scheduling gymnastics that the league has gone through right now is that we're starting to see what their contingency plans are. And they never talked about their contingency plans all off season. They kind of just said, we're moving forward. We're going to be able to play all our games. And right now they're doing everything possible.

And that's meaning moving lots of games. And that means you could be a team who has not had any COVID positive COVID test or, you know, an isolated incident here and there in training camp. And you could have your entire schedule blown up. The Los Angeles Chargers who were traveling to New Orleans on Sunday when all of this happened have four games moved and their byweek. They're the most impacted team of anybody in this just in terms of all of the the logistics and stuff and all the movement that they have to go through.

And they're not even part of, you know, they haven't had positive tests. They haven't had to close their facility, anything like this. The Broncos who also haven't had positive tests going on. They've had, they had three games moved and their by week. And there's, there's a lot of teams right now. And we're at the point now that 11 AFC teams have had at least one of their games impacted by COVID. So the takeaway is that this is going to keep happening.

We're going to have more Tuesday games. We're going to have more Monday doublehead. they're going to find any chances that they can to keep to keep rescheduling games within this 17 week framework. People that I've talked to inside the league, around the league, people who know what's going on in these conversations, they know that they're going to have to pull that week 18 option at some point. They're just delaying it as long as possible because at some point they're going to run out

of these options where they can keep moving by weeks and, you know, right now it's actually my question about this. Why? Why are they so beholden to the 17 weeks format? Why is it so important that they do this? I mean, there's probably an answer that I'm not thinking of, but I just, I don't understand the league's insistence on just plowing through everything and just saying, we are going to stick by our schedule no matter what. I just don't understand that. And I, you know, I have a lot of questions about just the dynamics that are going on in those discussions too because I think there is, you know, I think there's a couple different things at play here that are in direct conflict with each other. It's the reality that COVID infections are rising

across the country. A lot of these communities where these teams are seeing COVID cases spike. I mean, here in Denver, where I live, you know, we're going through kind of a third wave or whatever it is right now. And the medical people, the league's medical people, the NFL's PA's medical people, I think are urging some caution when it comes to all of this. But then the football side, the business side, the broadcasting side, they're really, really focused on getting this schedule in within their framework. So they don't have to pull those emergency options where you have to start pushing games around. There is one more bit of flexibility there now because they have not quite canceled the Pro Bowl,

but reimagining the Pro Bowl, which would open up that extra week in January. which is normally a buy week before the Super Bowl. You know, they do have flexibility there. They're just not willing to commit to any of that stuff now because I think they're a little bit afraid that if they start putting games, here we are, you know, October 14th, October 15th, October 15th, they start putting games in January right now. They're going to come to a situation where they're going to have to keep pushing it further and further out.

So they're going to exhaust every single regular season option that they can, which means teams are going to be playing on a lot of short weeks, probably. They're going to lose bye weeks. It's not going to be great. None of these options are great. They're just trying to hold off on the hardest options, the most logistically challenging options until the very last minute. All right.

Let's get to some games that are happening on the days that they're supposed to here. Well, sort of. You say that now. It's wishful thinking. It's Wednesday. All right. Let's get to the games of the week. And let's start with the Packers in the Box.

Obviously, this is a late afternoon game on Sunday. The headline here is Brady and Rogers, and understandably so. And I think that both of them playing well makes this game even more enticing. The matchup itself is obviously fascinating just because it's those two guys. And you consider the history, you know, the way that they've been compared to each other in the past. Remember Brady saying that if Rogers played in his offense, he threw for like 6,000 yards, stuff like that. I think they've always been compared to one another. The point of comparison that interests me the most this season, though, is that we're watching two guys,

two all-time great quarterbacks who've had to drastically alter the way they play and the system they play in in the twilight of their careers. And I think that's really informative when you consider some of the ways that other legendary older quarterbacks have finished out their careers. Drew Breeze has never really had to change what he does offensively because he's gone with Sean Peyton. Peyton Manning essentially brought a lot of his offense to Denver. He was allowed to do the things that made him comfortable. So watching Rogers really kind of get used to this offense that Matt LeFleur wants to wrong with a ton of motion, a lot more play action, thinks he wasn't necessarily doing under Mike McCarthy. And Brady going and pretty much just running the Bruce Ariens offense in Tampa Bay.

I think it speaks to the flexibility these guys have and just how truly talented they are that they can be speaking this new language after doing the same thing for over a decade. Yeah, I mean, Aaron Rogers maybe didn't go willingly into it. at first. But now he's all in on it. And it is so much fun to watch. And, you know, I, I love to see it from the player side. I also like to see just organizationally, like when there's coaches that are willing to adapt, when players are willing to adapt. And, you know, you're right, though, that this is the kind of the quarterback headline. And it was one of those things about, you know, the way that the NFL schedule works, right? That they had only played a

couple of times previously. And it was always kind of this big deal where it was so rare that we could see Brady and Rogers playing. It was once every four years. And I think even in one or one of those years, Rogers was hurt. So they didn't actually get to play each other. So, you know, this is just, it's a really nice kind of special treat where we're going to get to see. I think some really fun offense. We're going to get to see, you know, probably some pissed off Tom Brady after the way that the Chicago game, that Thursday night game ended last week. I am all in on all the conspiracy theories, though, about like the fourth down and was he trying to pull one over on the refs? I'm all aboard with those theories.

But hopefully this will be a shootout. Or do you think that these defenses are good enough that maybe it'll be more like a, you know, 24, 21 type of deal? I'll be curious to see how that matchup is. I think that the Packers' offense against the Bucks defense is really good. Or it's just a really good match. But it's a really interesting one. Going back to the quarterback thing, though,

I don't think really people appreciate the process that quarterbacks especially have to go through when it comes to stuff like this. I actually was talking to Randy Fickner this morning, who's the office coordinator for the Steelers. We were having a discussion about something else. And we got on to a lot of the motions that the Steelers were incorporating this year. They brought in Matt Canada from college and they're doing a lot more jet motion, especially in the running game. And he was just kind of describing to me the way that that conversation has to happen with Rothlisberger when you're trying to put stuff in. You have to figure out a way he can still be comfortable while making your offense as hard to defend as possible.

And like you said, Rogers, that was kind of a rocky process at times last year. And it's going to be. Think about it like this. I've changed jobs. I essentially had the same job for 10 years. I worked at the same bosses. I did a lot of the same stuff. The language that you use is similar.

And you just get used to it. It's a way to kind of streamline communication. I come to the athletic about a month and a half ago. And it's just little stuff. It's what my health care login is. It's the way you file your expenses. who you talk to. And that kind of stuff may seem small, but over time it adds up.

So if you're Brady and you have a certain type of route combination or a certain check or certain this that you've called the same way for 15 years and now you have to change it, that's more of a challenge than I think people understand. And to watch these guys, it took Rogers a full year to do it. Brady's done it very quickly. To watch them adapt so quickly and adapt, I guess so well, adapt so fully. It really speaks to their football minds. And I just think it's such an underrated part of what we're seeing from a lot of these aging quarterbacks this season.

And it goes the other way, right? If you look at the Chargers, for example, they didn't do a lot of things because Philip Rivers didn't want to. Their play action rate has been down to the bottom of the league pretty much every single year under Rivers. They were 27th in the NFL last year. They're ninth in the NFL this year with Justin Herbert. So it's just so interesting the ways that quarterbacks kind of shape the way their offenses play. and how much momentum and how much experience goes into why offenses look the way that they do. All right.

So I wanted to finish that thought, but let's get to that idea of these offenses against those defenses because I think the Packers' offense against the Bucks defense is probably the best matchup of the weekend. You have the number one offense by DVOA going against number two defense. And really at every single level here, you've got stuff to watch. I mean, the Packers running backs as receivers just diced up the Falcons. The Packers are doing so much cool stuff with getting their running backs out on vertical routes out of the backfield, using motion with Tyler Irvin, really trying to design plays to put linebackers in bad spots. And now you're playing against Levante David and Devin White, which is a much different challenge than some of those backups of Falcons are having to play. You think about Devonte Adams coming back this week playing against Carlton Davis.

The offensive line for the Packers playing against a blitzing pretty good bucks front, even without Vitavia. On every single level, there's something to watch here. Is there one particular part of that matchup that you feel like you're going to be most interested in? Yeah. I mean, it's those running backs against the linebackers. I mean, is this the best inside linebacking duo in the NFL? I mean, I would say so, especially just in terms of the ground they can cover. It's amazing watching them play in space.

And so, I mean, that's really the matchup that I want to focus on. And I know we're going to get into some other like individual matchups later in the show here and some other games. But I just think this is, you know, and it's not just the. this classic, like, can they stop the run, line them up between the tackles? The Packers are using them in so many different ways. They're, you know, they're top receivers, right? I mean, although with Devante Adams coming back, hopefully they won't have to be. But that's really, that's really the fun matchup here for me.

And I am a little curious about, you know, how is it going to change with Devante Adams? We've seen that Packers offense play so well in a couple weeks without him. But he's so good and he commands so many targets that I just want to see if that's going to free things up a little bit for Aaron Jones, for these running backs, or if they're going to keep just, let's just keep feeding stuff through these running backs and trying to do as much creative and fun shit as we can to, you know, really, really try to test that inside of that Buccaneers defense. Watching the Packers right now, it's hard not to smile when you're watching some of the stuff

they're doing offensively. I was going back and watching the Falcons game today. And they ran a play where Tyler Irvin came in jet motion. and I think Jamal Adams was lined up in the slot and Aaron Jones was lined up next to Rogers in shotgun. And Irvin runs the flat to keep the corner up there. And then both of the other running backs run vertical routes coming from the slot and the backfield.

And it's just the way they're getting to some of these concepts is so incredibly creative. And I think that a lot of really good offenses right now are making defenses think and communicate by virtue of motion, who's number one, who's number one, who's number two, who's number three, that sort of stuff. And the Packers are doing a better job of it than anyone. So how does that mix with the amount of pressure that the bucks use?

Are they going to be able to kind of disrupt some of that stuff because they're bringing guys off the slot, things like that? There's just a lot of cat and mouth stuff that goes along with that matchup that I'm really excited to watch. All right, let's get to the other big game of the week. Chiefs Bills, Josh Allen and Patrick Mahomes, two early season MVP candidates, just like we envisioned. We've reached the point in the season.

where I think defenses are starting to react to what offenses are doing. We have enough tape on guys where you're like, okay, this is the right plan against this sort of offense. You saw it last night. Titans came out, played zone on 75% of dropbacks, according to Matt Bowen from ESPN, doing a lot of late rotation stuff, making Josh Allen think. That's the kind of stuff that we're seeing now. You have ways you want to play against certain offenses. Are you buying into this idea at all that people have figured out a way to play

against Patrick Mahomes. You play a soft zone, you rush four, or do you feel like that's going to last for about two weeks and then he's going to blow up in the way that we expect him to? Yeah, I mean, I, you know, I think we've seen little bits of that along, you know, along the way. I mean, we saw, you know, Belichick coached pretty well against him a couple years ago. You know, the Chargers have put out a bit of a blueprint of how to play against him. I was, I was stunned that the Raiders were able to, like, be disciplined enough to kind of stick to that and that their past rushers were able to, without like a ton of creative blitzing and stuff, that they were able to get consistent pressure on him. I mean, Max Crosby, like, I know you

guys talked about him a ton on the Sunday night show, but, you know, I was, I was just surprised that the Raiders were the team to kind of follow through on the blueprint. You know, the danger there is that as long as these games remain close, Mahomes is going to more often than not find a way. and he almost did after they played their worst offensive game of the year the other day. I mean, it came, they made it real interesting there at the end. So I think the danger is thinking that there's just, there's like a complete blueprint and there's one way to beat the chiefs. But there is enough tape out there to know that this is the one thing that might work if you're

completely disciplined and you can do it for 60 full minutes. Because if you have a lapse, if you do it for, you know, 57 minutes, he's, going to get you. And he's shown that time and time again. But that's kind of where I'm at right now. I mean, I was really disappointed by what we saw to the Bill's defense last night. I know Allen didn't necessarily help them. They, you know, the Titans had a lot of really short drives, but, you know, short fields and stuff that they were able to capitalize on. But, you know, this has to be a rebound game for the Bill's defense. If they're going to be the, you know, a Super Bowl contender, which they looked like for the first month of the season, they can't get run over. Josh Norman. Josh Norr,

is meaned forever now, right? Literally getting run over. Yeah, I mean, he was like shot out of the atmosphere. I mean, it was insane. And that cannot be like the image for this Bill's defense for the rest of the year. This has to be a massive bounceback game for them. And it's now going to be on Monday night or Monday afternoon, depending on where you live. I believe it's a 5 o'clock Eastern.

It's going to be 3 o'clock here in Denver. It's going to be beautiful and super weird. I prefer that to the doubleheader the other way. I'd much rather have there be a 4 o'clock game and a 7 o'clock game rather than a 7 o'clock game and a 10 o'clock game. I do not enjoy that. We're all working from home anyways, right? You know, it's not like we're stuck in traffic.

I have to be in bed by about 10.30 these days. So any game that kicks off after about 8 o'clock p.m. central time, I'm going to have a hard time finishing. The bill's defense, the point you bring up about them is a good one. And that's been something, I think, because of how well, well, Josh Allen has played, has been a little bit overlooked this year. They're not playing very well. They're 23rd in the NFL in EPA per dropback.

This is a defense that finished in the top five consistently under Sean McDermott in the past. And they started out a little bit slow last year, too. They came along in the back half of the season really kind of became the defense we expected them to be. This year, they've dealt with injuries. You know, Trey White did not play last night. Levi Wallace is on IR. To Ron Johnson, who's getting snaps for them now as a nickel corner, who's a fourth-round

in 2018, teams are taking advantage of him. And it's not a surprise. When you have backups in the game, offensive coordinators are smart. They're going to know how to attack those guys. So if you're coming into this game with the bill's defense and you don't have Matt Milano again, you don't have Turedavius White again, and you're playing with backups against Patrick Mahomes, it doesn't matter what sort of blueprint you have.

He's probably going to be fine. But as far as that blueprint idea goes, I think that's how I'd rather lose or rather, I'd rather die slowly against Mahomes and make him make throws and get completions and march the ball down the field, then burn me down all at once. And the Raiders did a good job of mixing stuff up. It's not like they sat back in soft zones all the time. They did a good job of keeping him off balance. But having those soft zones be the baseline of what you do, similar to the way the Chargers have played him, I think is really important. Another part of this, though, you need to get pressure with four. The bills are actually down to the bottom of the league and pressure rate. And they've been

blitzing more than they typically do under Leslie Frazier and Sean McDermott. So they've had a hard time kind of creating a pass-dress. Jerry Hughes, I think, has 18 pressures on the season. He's been pretty good. But for the most part, that group has failed to get going and really affect the game. And if you're not going to go after Mahomes, if you're going to sit back, you need that front four to really control things. And I'm not sure if they're playing well enough to do that right now.

So I think this could be a game where against the defense, we expect to be pretty good coming into the season. Mahomes can have kind of a get-right day. So similar to that idea, if there's going to be a blueprint for the chiefs, it seemed like the Titans had a pretty good idea about how to attack Josh Allen last night. And that seemed to be making him process post-snap. They were doing a lot of stuff where they're rotating to two high safeties right after the snap, giving him one look, doing something different.

It's not the craziest idea in the world, but we saw teams over the first month of the year playing a lot of man coverage against the bills. They had a lot of man-coverage beaters dialed up. So again, making Josh Allen make things. throws consistently, not giving them those big plays. It seems to be a smart approach. And that's probably the way that I would attack him right now. But this is always the back and forth, right?

Now that if Peems are going to start putting that stuff on film, Brian Dable is a smart guy, he's going to have something to combat that. So we're in that point in the season where we're going to have reactions, adjustments, reactions, adjustments. And kind of seeing how these teams power through that stage of the year is going to be really important for finding out what their offense is, really are. Well, and I think we also saw last week the way that the Raiders really attacked that Chief's defense was just Josh Jacobs over and over and over. I mean, I know they did a lot

of other stuff, but holy cow, I mean, they couldn't stop. And we talked a lot in our preview pod back, you know, a month ago or whatever about is the Chiefs run defense going to be a liability here? I'm not sure if it'll be as much of a liability against the bills as it was against the Raiders, but I still have those huge questions, even more than I did, probably a month ago now, after watching the way that Josh Jacobs was just able to carry defenders. And the Raiders did a great job of pushing the ball down the field. And can the bills do that? You have Stefan Diggs.

Is John Brown going to be back? They seem to miss him last night. Yeah. And even you think about the play that Andre Roberts dropped. I mean, it was slightly behind him. That first drive that was intercepted by Malcolm Butler, you know, that sort of stuff. So we're seeing that. You know, as these offenses kind of hit not a roadblock, but the first bit of resistance for,

okay, this is what you put on film, this is what we're going to do in response to that. It's going to be an interesting kind of important process for a lot of these offenses. All right. Let's get to our favorite matchups of the league. Lindsay, why don't you start us off? Well, I think we kind of just led into this really well because I'm really interested. I wasn't, I'm not super excited as a sexy game. with the Titans versus the Texans, given that the Texans just won their first game and

they're one in three. But after what we saw last night in that Tuesday night game, I'm really intrigued now about who the Titans are. And I really want to know who they are on defense. And I was really impressed with the type of game plan that Shane Bowen, who missed their last game two weeks ago when they played because of he was kind of the first COVID positive. But just in terms of like the plan they had. And you just addressed it a little bit about how small. their coverage schemes were and how disguised they were and how diverse they were. And they were trying so many different things that really messed with Josh Allen. And what we know about the AFC is that if you want to be a legit contender in the AFC

is you're going to have to be able to beat quarterbacks that play the style that Josh Allen does. And now they get another test with Deshaun Watson this weekend. And I'm really curious, it's a short week. They only have four days to prepare heading into this game. You know, they're going to be getting more guys back. was this like an emotional high of, you know, us against the world and all of this, you know, not having practice time and it's going to be another short week. Will there be a kind of a drop off, an emotional drop off coming into this game against

the Texans who played better last week? I mean, they weren't great. You know, I really appreciated how Aaron Reese, our Houston Texans beat writer, kind of framed it. He asked the question, is the offense better now or were they just better because they played the Jags? The answer is both, probably. right? The answer is yes. Yeah. So yeah, I mean, I think the answer is like they did play better.

You know, I think maybe it helped, you know, maybe they simplified things a little bit. You know, Deshaun Watson was pushing the ball down the field a little bit more. They handled pressure better than they had been. But he's still, he's still turnover prone. He threw two interceptions last week against the Jacksonville defense. So I want to see what, what's this next kind of layer for the Titans defense? Because that was my takeaway from that game last night. It was not just, you know, that Derek Henry is good and Ryan Tannahill's kind of career renaissance is continuing. It was what the Titans defense did to that Buffalo offense and the Buffalo offense who was really good. I mean, we've talked a lot on this podcast. And I know you on the other days of the week have talked a lot about how good Josh Allen has been.

And they really just dominated that game. So that's a matchup that I want to watch. There's like some coaching elements there, you know, what Mike Rable is going to dial up now, Shane Bowen. Are they getting more coaches back? they should be getting some more players back. Jeffrey Simmons, you know, their interior defensive lineman has been on the COVID list. You know, he was their best player for the couple weeks in the season on defense. And if they get him back, if they get Jadaevian Clowny to like become full Jadavion,

I mean, he was really close on a bunch of plays last night that just didn't quite get all the way there. So, you know, I just think that this Titans team is really interesting. And, you know, it's going to make that game that I, initially wasn't very interested in watching. Now I'm actually pretty excited to watch just because of that sort of matchup. I feel like their defense is going to define their ceiling because I believe in the offense continuing to be really good because I believe in the plan. At a certain point, this is just what their offense is. They've built the plane out of play action and it's working. And the passing efficiency is hard to argue with at this point. So now if the offense is going to be a top

eight-ish unit for the rest of the year. The defense is going to be what defines how far they can go. And what really encouraged me last night, and I don't want to make this comparison, I want to make it with some trepidation here. It reminded me a little bit of what we've seen from the pre-Stefon Gilmore Patriots in a way, where it's not like they're this dominant defense every single week, but they can put together a game plan and have a really good idea for how to attack and approach certain offenses,

and they can just come at you in spurts. One week they can really shut you down because they knew exactly how to attack you. And it seems like that's exactly what happened last night against the bills. And if they can do that consistently, even if their personnel doesn't stack up with a team like the Steelers

or some of these other really good defenses, then they become a really interesting team in the AFC. This is a team that is 10th in EPA per dropback so far this season. They're 11th and past defense DVOA. That's enough. If they're that sort of defense for the rest of the year with the way their offense is playing, there's no reason why they can't push Kansas City, Baltimore,

all of these other teams in the AFC. So that's just the unit I'm going to, I didn't go back and watch all the L-22 after last night. I didn't have time. But I want to go back and watch what they've been doing. And I want to kind of keep my eye on them moving forward because, again, there might be a unit that can really make or break what that season looks like in the AFC. Yeah, and I just think I'm, Mike Rable is a really good coach, is I think one of the things that we're learning here.

And I just, I really liked this quote that he said. I think we should be careful to like let the, I was going to, I was going to, I was going to say. I was wondering where you're going with this. Well, you know, the whole like us against the world, this is our adversity. Everybody like the victim. It was hilarious. Nobody can make the Titans victim, should make the Titans victims. I see that why they're making themselves that.

But, you know, just the way that that game plan was constructed, the way that his guys came together and played. I thought that was, I thought it was good. That his quote after the game was really interesting where he said, I learned a long time ago the definition of a pro is they make the hard look easy. You don't all of a sudden galvanize when things are bad. That's a testament to these players and what we've tried to build here. You don't say there's a shit storm, we better galvanize. You stay tight throughout and then you hope that the fundamentals and your core beliefs and values can take over when things get difficult. And I talked to John Robinson the

week before the COVID outbreak broke. And that was really what he was saying too, is that the way that they won in the first couple weeks of the season just showed that they could, you know, the way that they overcame the disaster of the field goals in week one in Denver, where they'd played really well and Stephen Gaskowski nearly cost them the game and, you know, needing a late stop against Jacksonville in week two, that they were just kind of building something special. So if they can just get past all this COVID stuff, get the penalties, if those are coming behind them, they're going to be a really fun team to watch and like a legit, like a legit contender now, right? in the AFC, they have to be.

I think the argument you could make is that, all right, let's say you make Ryan Tannahill a dropback passer. Easier said than done. But if you get out in front, if this is a team that has to come back from two touchdowns down, if you look at the stats so far this season, the three worst quarterbacks in the NFL, the four worst, it's a four worst in yards per attempt on non-play action passes. At the bottom, Samuel Darnold, 5.5 yards per attempt. Mitchell Trubisky, 5.5 yards per attempt.

Daniel Jones, 5.6 yards per attempt, and Ryan Tannehill, 5.7 yards per attempt. That is not a good group. But they should get a lot of credit for building an offense that puts him in positions to succeed. But at the same time, if they have to fight left-handed, if they have to do something outside of their comfort zone offensively, then I don't know what that's going to look like. And it's not hard. Think about what happened last night. You get one tipped ball interception, you're down by a touchdown.

This is going to happen for them at some point. They're going to be in a spot where they're down 14 points in the second half and they have to come back. Can they do that? That is a question for another time, but that's the only real pressing issue I have about the offense is if they get taken out of their game plan and their comfort zone, what does it look like? All right. My matchup for this week, this is as good as it gets on the nerd side of things. The Steelers' defensive line, I guess front four against the Brown. offensive line. If you look at the numbers here for the Steelers front, they essentially lead

the NFL in every single category, both as pass rushers and run defenders. Adjusted line yards, which is the football outsider's metric that tries to separate a running backs production from the line, the Steelers defense is at 1.97 adjusted line yards average. At second place is the Bucks at 3.17. There is a bigger gap between the Bucks and the team in the game. 17th place than there is between the Steelers and the Bucks in second place. Their run defense right now is unbelievable. I went back and I watched a bunch of plays today because you're trying to figure out how are they doing this?

Or is it schematic? Is it one guy? And that's kind of the beauty of run defense is that it needs to be everyone working in concert. So you have one or two guys just crushing, like Tyson Aluallo was just crushing the center back in the back field and all these plays. They have guys taking on pullers in really smart ways. And guys are just really taking grass the linebackers are and making plays downhill.

It's beautiful to watch as it's all working. And that's the coolest part about this unit right now is that it's everybody. Everybody is making place. Stefan T.O.It is playing out of his mind as a past rusher and a run defender. Cameron Hayward is always great. T.J. Watt is just a superstar. There's no other way around it. They also lead the league in hurry, right?

They lead the league in adjusted sack rate. They lead the league in, or the second in the NFL in quarterback knockdown rate. Toit, Bud Dupree, and T.J. Watt are all in the top eight in the NFL in pressures. It's absolutely ridiculous. I mean, it's every single statistical category they're up there at the top. And going against the Brown's offensive line, even without Wyatt Teller, that has run the ball extremely well and really push people around this season. I mean, this is really, really fun. You can have one-on-one matchups all the way across the board that are.

worth watching in this game. Yeah, I'm excited for this one. And we don't even have to get into the, like, drama of Steelers, Browns. And, you know, the Miles Garrett's first game back against the Steelers and all of that. That's what Mike Tomlin said. Mike Tomlin was like, no, I have no interest in that. We're done with it. It was a great answer.

It was a great answer. So speaking of Miles Garrett, I have a question for you. So I was thinking about this game. And one thing that jumped out to me because of how well that front is playing, and especially T.J. Watt. So really, this season, I think front four guys have kind of dominated the defensive player of the year conversation. Donald is clearly the frontrunner.

He is like six and a half sacks or something crazy already. But then it's, you know, Kilemack's playing great. Forrest Bucks has been playing great. T.J. Watson playing great. Miles Garrett, we talked a lot about him on the Sunday show. If you could have one defensive player in the NFL for the rest of the year, not named Aaron Donald, who would have been? Yeah, so I thought I've been thinking about this.

And the top guys that came to my mind are not front four players despite the focus on this. I mean, I think T.J. Watt would be would be really high up there. The guy that I first thought of and that I'm okay sticking with is Tyron Matthew because of his versatility, the flexibility, the flexibility that he gives a defense on the back end. And then also just all of the intangible stuff. So if there was like one guy that I could just pluck out and like drop him on a. contender drop him into literally any defense in the NFL and he would immediately make them better, that's the guy I'm going with. I just, you know, this is a very pro-Honey-Badger podcast.

You're not going to get much pushback from me on that. I've always loved him. I think that that's exactly right. And I think especially late in the year, you know, we saw when it gets tight in the playoffs or it's playoff time and things really start to clamp down. Having a guy like that in the back end is so important. think we saw that during the playoffs last season. I was going back and forth on this.

Because Khalil Mack has my heart. That's fair. You gave up enough to get him. He's playing so well this year. And I said it before that game against the box. He's playing well enough to just dominate a game soon. And then we saw the game that he dominated. His sack numbers aren't there,

but he's affecting every single game on every single play the way that a great defense player is supposed to. So it's between him and Miles Garrett. to me. Again, we talked a lot about Miles Garrett on the Sunday show. I think I'm still going with Mack, and it's for this reason. Miles Garrett is slowly getting the treatment that Calilomac gets, chips on almost every single play, alignments to affect him, really having the offense shape its approach to make sure they're accounting for him. I just think that Kulomack is already having that. So when you consider that he's still playing that well and Miles Garrett is almost to that

treatment, that's the tiny gap to me. I was talking to a coach this week on the Brown staff, and he said that they're getting, they've gotten to the point where they just expect him to sack the quarterback on every single play, which that's the way you think about a really good high school player. But that's how well Miles Garrett is playing. You just expect him to get a sack on every single snap. And it really speaks to how dominant he's been this year. But I'm still taking clear.

Have you ever watched Miles Garrett high school tape? It's bonkers. Oh, yeah. Oh, it's amazing. Yeah, it's insane. I think the conversation about the best high school highlight film of all time is always a fun one. Derek Henry's are absolutely bonkers. I still think my favorite, and this is probably because I watched it when I was younger and I was more impressionable.

Reggie Bush, I think, is still my favorite high school highlight tape. It's still the most ridiculous one I've ever seen. That's fair. I watched, I mean, this is fresh. It's like a recent because I wrote it last year. But I watched a ton of Kyler Murray high school tape. Which is also... I've heard many things.

Ridiculous. I'm going to share that story again that I wrote... I made the case for his Kyler Murray, the best high school player in Texas state history last year. And he's played... The Cardinals are playing in Dallas this week. So it's his first game as a pro at AT&T Stadium where he is 6 and 0,

including winning three, the largest school division state championships while he was in high school. The fact that even played six games in an NFL stadium speaks to how incredible his high school career was. Who plays six games in an NFL? stadium. Yeah, bonkers. It's probably the state championship game, I'm sure, but to get to six, I don't even know how

you would do that. Yeah, I think one of those was a, I think one of a, a couple of those were at Oklahoma. Oh, okay, okay. So, heading in there, he's six and oh, but I think he was five and oh in high school. So he was, I mean, and they played in front of like 50,000 fans. I mean, it was ridiculous. So, yeah, stay tuned. I'll reshare that story this week because it was really fun.

And I think I embedded some of the YouTube clips from his high school because it was ridiculous. All right, let's get to who has the most stake this week. Lindsay, who are you really watching? Who do you think has a lot to prove going into week six? All right. Well, so I've done this guy here before. I feel like I keep going to the same well here. But, God, Philip Rivers, man.

Last week was a really bad week for him. It's been such an up and down start to the season. And it hasn't gotten better for Rivers, the more that we've gone back and watched the game against the Browns. You know, it wasn't like you could just write it off. off is like, you know, a tipped ball interception here or whatever. He's making poor decisions. And you have to just wonder, is this kind of who he is?

Is this just in his DNA and that changing teams, changing coaching staffs, changing offensive lines, all of that stuff, it's not changing who he is fundamentally, where he's just prone to make those sort of gaffs where you shouldn't be doing that as a 38-year-old quarterback. And the Colt signed him to not make those mistakes. And the problem is right now is that when they've played well, they weren't winning games because of Philip Rivers. They were kind of winning games when he was along for the ride.

And now they have lost games because of him. I think you could, you know, the Browns did a lot of things well the other day to win that game against Indy. But I think you could make the argument that they lost. The Colts lost that game and, you know, are now a couple of games back in the AFC South because of Philip Rivers. And that's not why they paid him all that money. That's not why they brought him in here instead of Jacoby,

I mean, they could be losing games because of Jacoby percent for a lot less money. So a lot of pressure on Philip Rivers. And I just don't know how he change it. Because, like, he is who he is, right? I mean, when he's not going to just all of a sudden, like, not go yolo, right? I mean, that's just what he does late in games. And, you know, I appreciate that Frank Reich kind of came out and said it was a really bad play call that led to that, the safety where he had the intention. grounding in the end zone. It was this like really slow developing play action pass, you know,

from the four yard line or whatever. Like you can't, you can't do that to your quarterback. But, you know, he was thrown off his back foot. He was just a little bit late on some throws and huge, huge pressure now on Philip Brothers because look, the Titans are on, they're on the verge of running away with this division if Rivers can't get his stuff together. And I'm not saying a curse word there because I'm talking about Philip Rivers. But he really needs to get his stuff together. Golly Gini Wills. He really. He really. needs to get a sh- yeah god-dammit jolly he wouldn't even say god-dame god dang not that i um yeah i think that as a ardent philip rivers defender it's it's getting tough yeah i'm really running out of

arguments and so if you look at the numbers and i'm really just going to lean on the math here he's still 12th in EPA per dropback and i think that the The interceptions are horrible, but they're sticking out over all the other plays. I think for the most part, coming into last week, he'd played okay. You know, those really bad picks, the one against Jacksonville sticks in your mind, there are a couple moments where's like, man, it seems to be losing his mind. But I think on a play-to-play basis before last week, he was actually playing okay. I'm really curious what they're going to do to fix this when it comes to their offense in general.

because even if Rivers was not playing well, if he was playing uneven, you assumed that this team was going to be able to lean on their offensive line and their running game, and they haven't been able to do that. And Evan Sov asked me yesterday, what are you seeing from Jonathan Taylor? I want to go back and really watch it because it just doesn't make any sense that this team wouldn't be able to push people around and really run the ball. I know Anthony Costanza was out last week, stuff like that, but you consider how good their interior has been, how good that offensive line,

has been what Jonathan Taylor was supposed to be coming into this season. And they're 27th in rushing DVOA. So I'll be curious to see what happens over the course of the year. Can they really get right on the ground, minimize the role Philip Rivers has to play in that offense, and is that an answer to maybe him having to carry a little bit less over the load? I'm sticking with another quarterback here. Jimmy Garapolo, Kyle Shanahan could say anything he wants about how he was, it was the ankle, and the way the game was going, he didn't want him in there.

I think Jimmy Garapolo has got to show us something here pretty soon because the Niners, the way they built their roster and the way that they've kind of divvied up their resources, it was very smart. And the way they spend money is always very smart because Parag Maratho kind of does their cap, does a good job of giving them flexibility, even if they're making big swing.

So if you look at the roster, they can cut Garapolo, Juan Alexander, D. Ford, they can move a lot of on from a lot of guys next year and kind of reshape this roster on the fly. They are not tied to Jimmy Garoppolo beyond this season. And I know that he took them to the Super Bowl last year, but if you look at what they've gotten out of other quarterbacks

and stretches and how poorly Jim McGropolo is playing right now, I think that he's going to need to prove something here over the final 10 games of the season if he wants to be the quarterback there moving forward. And I think it has to start pretty soon because a few more games like the one he had last week, even if he's dinged up. And I feel like the doubts are really going to start to creep in about what his role there is in the future and whether or not he's even going to be there.

Yeah, I mean, I think this even goes back to the Super Bowl, I think, where, you know, Shanahan has always said the right things about his confidence that he has in Garoppolo. But the actions that he took, the play calls that he made in the Super Bowl showed that he didn't have confidence in Jimmy Garapolo. and everything that they're doing right now. So, yeah, huge, huge, huge pressure now on on Garoppolo in a situation that is not great for him, right? I mean, he's coming back to a team that looks nothing like the team that went to the Super Bowl last year. The roster is completely different. The defense is completely different. They're, you know, they're not going to be able to just win games by just running the ball anymore

because their defense isn't going to be able to kind of hold up in those type of games. So I have big questions. And it makes it really fun for like for us, right? Because anytime you talk about a quarterback scenario of a guy who could get free, who could hit free agency, who could get traded, draft picks moving around, you're going to include the Niners and all of those conversations just because of that lack of kind of institutional commitment, the things that you talked about, the financial, financial ways that they can get out from that deal.

And that just makes it really fun to just speculate about, what could, what this future could be. And if there's a different quarterback that you could get in there, that might be a better fit for what Kyle Shanahan wants to do. And that's kind of, that's why it's interesting because they have so much else in place. And even as it's just Kyle Shanahan, but the line is pretty good. Yeah. They have a decent group of players there.

The young receivers, when they're healthy, are an intriguing group. You have George Kittle. So they're going to have a lot of flexibility. I think Jimmy was set to make about $25 million next year. They would save that. I think he only has $2 million in dead money left on his deal. So they would be able to go get a real quarterback. It's not as if they would have to go get somebody that's cheap.

They could make a real play for somebody, whether that's Matt Ryan or whoever else might come open next year. So that's the thing is it's not like it's Jimmy and no options. It's Jimmy or flexibility. And that's why that opening, you know, it will be a story here moving forward no matter what happens. All right. So we finish out every Thursday show. by asking the one big question you have going into the weekend.

What is your one big question for week six? So I want to know who the dolphins are. Wow, the dolphins. I didn't think we'd get to the dolphins today, right? But I mean, we'd segue right from the Niners into the Dolphins because right before the games kicked off last week on Sunday, we're doing survivor pools and my husband and I are going through and figuring out who we want to pick and going over the lines.

And I looked at that line that the Niners were a seven point favorite, going to opening against the dolphins last week. And I was like, that feels really high. Like, just that feels really, really high. And sure enough, the dolphins went and just stomped them. And a week ago, though, we were maybe not you and I, but I just think the collective conversation was, you know, it had been one of the dips in the Ryan Fitzpatrick roller coaster and wondering, like, okay, when are you going to see Tua? And it's time for Tua and what are the dolphins doing? And now I'm back to saying, like, I like this rebuild. They're a must watch. really fun. I like a lot about what they're doing. And I just want to know, I just want to keep

watching this plan. Like their offensive line is playing really well. You know, they're, they're getting now their defensive pieces. Byron Jones is back healthy. So it just looks like they're building kind of the right way. And then you throw in Ryan Fitzpatrick where you never know if you're going to get five touchdowns or five interceptions if you're going to get like chest hair out and, you know, sunglasses on or you're going to get, you know, you never know. But all of a sudden I'm really excited about the dolphins. I don't think they're going to. me a playoff team. I don't think they're going to go, you know, compete for the AFC East right now, but I think they've very much become the team that nobody wants to play. And they're going to

make things really difficult and just about everybody that they're facing. And I kind of want to, I just, I just want to watch. I'm excited. I want to know who they are going to be right now and who they're going to be long term. It's really similar, I think, to the conversation I had with Joe Person on the Wednesday show about the Panthers, where, all right, what are you, where are you at in your development as a franchise and is it time to start paying attention? to you. And I think that the dolphins have kind of reached that point. My buddy Brandon Thorne, who does a great job writing about offensive line play and pays attention to this stuff in a way that no one does send me a message yesterday.

Man, the dolphins are kind of sneaky fun. It's like, oh, man, I guess I got to start watching the Dolphins offensive line. And that's the fun part about this. It's like, all right, let's pile up some useful young players. Mike Jaseki looks like a star. I mean, their way they use him is really fun. Robert Hunt, their rookie right tackle. It is just a guy who plays really physical.

Solomon Kinley plays next to him. They're the rookies. They're coming along slowly. They still make a ton of mistakes, but they play hard. And is that the future of the right side of their offensive line? On defense, again, a group that plays extremely hard for Brian Flores. They're clearly well coached. So this is it.

Now it's time. We've turned the boat around. We are post-rebuild, which direction of the dolphins heading. And I think that's a reasonable question. What are the dolphins is a question I want to know the answer to, and that's just not something I cared about a year ago. But we are clearly and firmly in that part, in that part of their trajectory as a franchise

where that question starts becoming important. My biggest one here is can the Ravens' offense get back on track? The Bengals came out last week and had a really nice game plan against them. Ted Nguyen, and we're a really good piece about it today at the Athletic about some of the strategies that the Bengals used. Really just standard four three stacking linebackers playing off the ball, did some really interesting stuff with the way they did

their run fits. And I want to see if the Ravens can get through this kind of rocky period. There's a year of tape on this version of their offense. Their receiving core is pretty thin outside of Marquise Brown. What are they going to do to react and kind of adapt to what defenses are going to try to do to them? Because this was the number one offense in football last year. They were explosive.

They were dynamic. They were really unstoppable for the entire regular season. What is this going to be? What does the second act of Lamar Jackson and this offense look like? Because it's been an uneven year so far. I mean, they did not play well against the Chiefs. They did not play well against the Bengals. So can they get back on track against a Philly team that has not played very well in the back end this season?

Well, and I probably get a question about the Ravens like every week in my live chat that I do on Monday mornings after the game. And the most common question is, is like, what can they add? Like, who can they add? So when you look at what their biggest problem, what do you think their biggest problem is? And is there an answer out there? Is there a trade target or is there some sort of personnel fix out there? Or do you think this is just something schematic that Greg Roman and Lamar Jackson are just going to have to figure out? I think I would like to see them with another receiver.

And I actually had this conversation with Lewis Riddick on our AFC North preview before the season. I asked him, I said, are you surprised that they didn't go out and get a more established outside the numbers type of presence that could make some contested catches? And he said no, just that he thought there's some development from Marquise Brown and the way they wanted to use their receivers didn't really make that quite as useful as it might for another offense. And I think that's showing up. I think them not having an established presence that can make some contested catches that can out physical, some people, again, outside the numbers where teams are pushing

the ball, teams are setting up to not let them throw the ball in the middle of the field. And I think having somebody that can really do some boxing out. out against corners, be more physical. They don't really have that guy. So maybe they do need to add somebody. Maybe they do need a little tweak in personnel. Maybe they need to kind of find ways to attack the middle of the field even as defense are trying to take it away.

So again, I think it's similar to the conversation we had about Josh Allen and Patrick Mahomes and the way that defenses are reacting to offenses and how they kind of power through it at this point in the season. I think the Ravens are firmly there and we'll see what happens. I know Julio Jones's contract is really difficult to trade for the Falcons in terms of dead money and stuff. But I mean, it might be worth a call to Rich McKay, who is now running football operations in Atlanta.

Did you imagine Julio in a Ravens uniform? It would be the coolest thing we've ever seen in football field. Oh, man. It would be ridiculous. Just with the visor, I'd absolutely love it. I was saying this last night, 11 is the coolest receiver number because I was watching AJ Brown play in it. And I think I'm right about that.

But I'm also willing to admit that that opinion is colored by the fact that Julio Jones wears 11. And he would make anything. look good. Even those Falcons jerseys that I still don't know how I feel about them, Julio looks great. When he's on the field, he looks great. Those all whites that they were against the Packers really threw me off, though.

I was not. The only ones I don't like are the gradient ones. The all black and the all white, I'm totally fine. And especially if Julio's wearing it, I mean, he's going to make anything look cool. All right. That's all we got for this week. As always, guys, thank you so much for listening. Please rate and review the show on your podcast platform of choice.

Please subscribe to the athletic. We still have our $1 a month promotion going to athletic.com slash football show. We'll be back on Sunday night, me and Nate, breaking down all the things that happen in week six. Until then, thank you so much for listening. We'll talk to you later. This was the Athletic Football Show.