The Athletic Football Show: A show about the NFL - What we learned from our 2021 NFL take mistakes with Lindsay Jones

Episode Date: January 20, 2022

What take mistakes did we learn the most about during this NFL season? Robert Mays and Lindsay Jones look back on their takes from 2021, what has changed and why. They discuss Kyler Murray, defenses across the league, Browns’ hype, the concept of “saving” QBs and much more. Plus, they also talk about the Raiders’ GM and head coach search, where Dan Quinn will land and other news from the interview process.  Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

This is the Athletic Football Show. The athletic football show is presented by State Farm. Because like a good neighbor, State Farm is there. Get a quote today. Welcome to the Athletic Football Show. Today's Thursday, January 20th. I'm Robert Mays. Joining me today is my good friend Lindsay Jones.

Lindsay, how you doing? I'm great. Happy to be back with you this week. Glad you were feeling better. We're ready to do this. I am happy to be back. I'm happy to be back with you. Thank you very much for holding down the fort.

Speaking of that, If you guys have not listened to yesterday's episode with Dean Bruegler and Lance Dirline, the first of their draft podcast that's going to be coming to you guys weekly, at least through the draft every single Wednesday. Please go check that out. They did such a great job. I'm so thrilled to have them just as part of our overall coverage. We're trying to give you guys different voices, different perspectives, and really make this kind of a well-rounded look at the NFL at every single time in the calendar. And half the league is looking forward to the draft now.

So if you're one of those teams, you're one of those fans, please go check out the work that Lance and Dane are doing. They kind of laid out what the 2022 class looks like. How diluted is it at the top? What does the quarterback landscape look like? What sort of teams are really going to define the first round? So please go listen to that if you have not. Today, we're going to do a couple different things.

We're planning on more news having happened before the show today. It's been a really slow process with some of the coaching and GM hires. We can talk about that in a second, but because there's not a ton to dig into there, what we're going to do today is look back a little bit. We're going to look at, we're going to do some take forensics, I guess is what you can call it. We're going to look at some of the opinions or thoughts we had either coming into the season or early in the season that we learn from, that are going to be informative as we think about the league moving forward, some stuff that maybe didn't, doesn't look as great in retrospect, but we're not afraid of that. We're not shy in away here.

isn't a fear-based podcast, Lindsay. Absolutely not. So this will be admitting our mistakes and finding ways that we can all be better with our takes moving forward. First of all, let's dig into some of this news. I guess first things first, just on a general level. Why do you think it's been a little bit slower this year? Why do you think it hasn't been that gold rush to find the guy and be the quickest to the

trigger in the way that it sometimes is with these searches? Yeah, well, I want to think it's because teams are smartening up. And they're realizing that. I hope so. That's how I'm rationalizing it. Because a lot of times the first hire isn't the right hire, is not the best hire. Who was the first hire last year? Urban Meyer.

It was Urban Meyer. It was Urban Meyer. So this process has been longer. It seems like a lot of teams are being more deliberate in the process. I think one of the factors to consider as well is that a number of these teams also have general manager openings. And they're trying to kind of take it as a two-step process. The Giants, for example, who got a little bit later start to their coaching search, as we talked to Dan Duggan about last week, they're very clearly hiring their general manager first.

The Vikings are in the process of me doing both. The Bears are doing both. The Raiders doing both. And then the Broncos, who have just a coaching opening, are interviewing basically every viable candidate on the planet. George Payton is, I'm actually surprised he hasn't called you or I yet to interview because he literally, I mean, he's interviewing. Oh, I've got thoughts. I mean, I can send him six months worth of a podcast with my thoughts with my thoughts about the state of his team. And then the Texans started a little bit later. So I just think there are teams that are doing more due diligence here, are interviewing a wider range of candidates are going through second rounds of interviews. And that's very much the point we're at for a lot of these teams right now where they're into the second wave. Maybe they interviewed eight guys the first time and now they're bringing in two or three to be their finalists. So. I hope it's because they're doing a better job and they're going to get better results. I'm not sure if that's exactly the reason. I mean, I want to think it's because they're doing a better job, but it might just be because there are, you know, so many openings and so many candidates that they have to get through.

I don't know what the results will look like, but I think the process here is improved by having this amount of, these amount of discussions, looking at different types of candidates, looking at candidates from all these different places. You know, Kevin O'Connell is getting a couple of these interviews, and Kevin O'Connell isn't to play calling. He doesn't call plays for the Rams, but I don't know. I'd want to talk to him. Who knows where you're going to find some of these candidates? Nick Siriani didn't call plays for the cold slot before he came to Philadelphia. I mean, he's somebody that was probably down some lists. I just think these conversations are always worth it. You're always going to learn something

and not being driven by this fear in the back of your mind that we're going to lose out on the guy. If we don't get this guy right now, then what are we going to do? That's nonsense. There's not two coaching candidates in every single round in every single year. That's not how this works at all. So I do think kicking the tires on a lot of different people, trying to get different perspectives, all of that is going to be valuable to you, not only for understanding the candidates, but just to get a sense of the league, the landscape, what sort of thought processes are out there. I support this as a general pace of how this should go. Absolutely. And I think there's a lot of evidence, especially in recent years, that, you know, there's this rush to get, like,

the hot candidate who was available to interview immediately after the season. And you're seeing time after time that it's, we're seeing stuff in the postseason that happens where you get to the end of the postseason. And last year we were saying, why the hell were people not interviewing Todd Bowles and Byron Lefich? Why was nobody interviewing Frank Reich a couple of years ago where the Colts kind of lucked into being able to get Frank Reich who showed through the post. season run with the Eagles, why he was going to be a really good head coach. So, you know, let's see what happens here in the postseason. Some of the really good candidates weren't allowed to interview last week because their

teams are currently, you know, in the playoffs. You know, and some of these guys, I think also are focusing on their teams in the playoffs at this point. So just some particulars with some of these jobs. Rich Pesachia interviewed for the Raiders job today. So there have been some voices, not surprisingly, right? It seemed like there were some warm feelings from a lot of people in the building toward him. Max Crosby came out today and said he should be the guy for the job.

When Mike Mack is out there, we talked about that a little bit on a show earlier this week with Nate. When you're looking at that Raiders job, I mean, this is a division you've thought about, paid a lot of attention to over the years. How would you characterize what they should be looking for, who they might be looking for, just that job as it kind of stacks up to the others? Yeah, it's an interesting job because I think there's a lot of things about it that make it really attractive. They're one of the few openings right now that, yes, we could talk about what Derek Carr's future is like and whoever ends up with that job, both as a general manager and the head coach, we'll have to make a decision about Derek Carr's future. But this is a team that as we stand today has a very good starting quarterback. Maybe not a tier one quarterback, maybe not the elite of the elite, but they have a quarterback there that you can win with. And a guy that you could, you know, you'll be the ones to be able to make the decision about what Derek Carr is.

future is going to be. I think that makes it attractive. I think there are some nice young pieces there on both offensive defense. You know, Max Crosby obviously is a great player. I think they've, I mean, I was very critical of a lot of the offensive line decisions they made over the last year, but I think that you can, that you can work with there now that they shifted some things around. So I think that's a place that you can win. I think you need to be encouraged by the fact that they even made the playoffs last year and were arguably. some bad officiating away from winning a playoff game last weekend. So, you know, this is like good facilities, beautiful stadium, brand new practice facility, a Arden fan base. So I think there's

a lot of things to like about it. It is tricky because Mark Davis to me is kind of a wild card. He will spend. He's very involved. Is he too involved? Maybe he's too involved. Maybe he's not involved enough. Maybe he chases the shiny object a little too much. Again. Again, which is what he tends to do. So I'm not sure in that case, our colleague Mike Sando, I think views ownership with the Raiders as more of an asset. I seem to look at it as a little bit more of a question mark there. But I think compared to some of the other openings, Houston, Jacksonville, for example, I think there's a lot to like about the Raiders job. You look at it, and there are some pieces to build with, right?

I mean, they've found some guys later in drafts over the last few years, like Renfro and Max Crosby. I mean, I'm still worried. The car part of this is really important. And you have guys like Duren Waller and Renfro and Colton Miller. There's some building blocks, but there's a long way for this roster to go. I mean, how empty the early parts of their drafts have been for the last few years, that's how you get to a place three years from now.

you're like, holy shit, we don't have any players. That's how that happens. And that's kind of the conversation we had against about the Cardinals earlier this week, where you look at the underlying young talent that you have on the roster and it's non-existent because you missed out on years worth of drafts. And the Raiders are right in line with Arizona in terms of how poorly they've drafted. A team like the Bengals is also in that conversation. They've been able to overcome it because they found a quarterback, which is the most

important part of this thing. And they've patched together a defense with money. But that's really difficult to do. And you look at the Raiders drafts over the last five years. Holy shit. Yeah, it's bad. 2017, Gary and Connolly in the first round, traded away almost immediately for not that much to Houston.

Colt Miller hit. Huge success story. Good for them. Other guys they drafted early. Arden Key, now playing very well for the Niners, but not for the Raiders. PJ Hall, also somebody who was shipped out of town. Cleland Farrell can't play on his own team after being drafted in the top five two years ago.

Jonathan Abram, first round pick. Trayvon Mullen, can't get on the field. Henry Ruggs, there's entirely different conversation about that. Damon Arnett, gone. This is a problem. This is one of those things where you're going to look at this and say, oh, man, they have Carr and they have Max Crosby, and they have Hunter Renfro and Darren Waller,

man, could this team be pretty good? And I just did that like three days ago. But I think it's also important to kind of step back and be like, all right, Hunter Redfro, it seems like he's 38, but I think he's probably in his 20s. But some of these other guys are getting up there. Some of the other guys are not necessarily young building blocks. So just something to keep an eye on and something to take into consideration. It just makes the car decision that much more important.

They could be an attractive destination for a veteran quarterback. He wants to live in Las Vegas and you're going to get a lot of prime time games and there's no state income tax and all of those kind of exciting things. Maybe, you know, you want to wear silver and black, all those sorts of things. but you could do a lot worse than Derek Carr. And those of us who have spent a lot of time covering teams that spend years and years and years looking for a quarterback you can win with, I think the Raiders might regret if they, you know, decide to move on. But I'm curious to see if Baskatchia is getting a real shot here.

And if he is, what would his plan be to further this organization? Because it's one thing to be an interim coach and to do a great job at it, which he, questionably did, aced that interview for three months in terms of the way he kept that team together, the leadership, the way he interacted with the players, the way that he empowered his assistant coaches, whether it was Gus Bradley or Greg Olson to really kind of take ownership of those sides of the ball. But if you become the head coach, you have to have a long-term vision for how you're going to build your staff, run that locker room, what schemes you want every part of the ball. And he's never had a chance to do that. You know, he, he stepped into a situation that was

unwinnable, almost with everything that the Raiders had to deal with this year and did a remarkable job. But I still think it's probably a long shot that he gets that job. I think, I think Mark Davis is shooting for like a big name superstar type of coaching candidate. I don't know who that is. There's been a lot of smoke about the Harbaugh stuff. I don't know if that's just Harbaugh leveraging the Michigan contract. But I think that's, you know, but I think that's, you think Davis is probably going to want to take a big swing here. Even if it's not a big name, even if it's the most under the radar candidate that's been interviewed as part of this process.

I don't even know who that would be as an example. If the Raiders hired Mike McDaniel to be their head coach, I still feel like it's the right move to move on and start over to no fault of Rich Passage is. I love Mike McDaniel. No Mike McDaniels slander here. Listen, I'm just saying, I don't think Mike McDaniel is like the hottest candidate on the market, even if I'm a Mike McDaniels. annual fan. I think you look at it and think about how many stories we've heard over the last

couple weeks in places like Chicago or in places like New York, where you have these franchises holding on to the vestiges of the previous regime in ways that create an incongruency with whoever they bring in. If it's a head coach that you're holding on to and you bring in a GM, that marriage is arranged. If it's a GM you're holding out to and you bring in a head coach, that marriage is arranged. Those are hard to pull off. It's difficult to do that well. We've have examples of it happening, but it's rare. You know, Sean McVeigh doesn't grow on trees. It's going to be hard to have that sort of pairing that they've had with less need work for you. In Tampa Bay, you have Bruce Ariens, who is only available as a head coach because he retired, and you have

the greatest quarterback of all time. When you talk about culture setting, you just did it. You did it with Tom Brady. Those are tough needles to thread. So I wouldn't necessarily look at jobs like that where you have some carryover and say, we can make this work as success stories. I would look at them as exceptions. And I feel like that teams are well served to be doing that. What the Giants did, what the Bears are doing, even what the Vikings are doing, I think falls in line with that sort of thinking. All right. A couple guys here.

Matt Iberfluse getting second interviews in Jacksonville and Chicago. Kind of crazy that Matt Iberflus might be an NFL head coach. He's the guy in the NFL world that I've talked to. over the most amount of years, he was the Missouri defensive coordinator when I was at Missouri. And then he was the Cowboys linebackers coach when I did a story on Sean Lee once.

And now he's the Colts defensive coordinator. I've talked to him various times in that capacity. So that's fun. I mean, somebody whose career I've watched pretty closely for kind of random reasons, I've always, I've appreciated the way he thinks about things. You talk up to him about defensive approach and why they build their defense a certain way.

way and how you attack certain quarterbacks. I think he's a really smart defensive coach. I don't know what it'll be if he gets hired one of these jobs is, again, like a culture setter and what he'll have as a vision for as a head coach. But, you know, obviously he's done a very good job in Indianapolis. And it's not surprising to me talking to him a few times that he did well in the room with some of these teams. Yeah.

So he's in that group of guys that's starting to get second interviews or has been kind of in in demand candidates. It is interesting this, this cycle. It's not just like all offensive candidates. There certainly are, you know, offensive play callers or offensive minded head coaches who are popular and are getting to interview in a lot of places. But there's a lot of defensive coaches in this mix. Rahim Morris is the latest now to be getting requested for interviews, the defensive coordinator with the Rams, who really smart guy has, it's probably way overdue, right, for him to get. Agreed.

Well, the problem is that they're defensive. duration for another head coaching job. The defenses in Atlanta were bad. And I think that's part of the reason. He was on the offensive coaching staff for a chunk of his time there. And the personnel was not good on Atlanta's defense. So that's not necessarily surprising. But I agree with you.

I mean, his background and everything about his profile as a coach, I think, makes him interesting. So I think he should be getting another look at this. But it's not necessarily surprising because if you were stacking up coaching candidates over the last three or four years, the Falcons defensive coordinator wouldn't necessarily have been on your list, which is probably a fault of imagination, but at the same time, it's not shocking to me. But speaking of those Falcons, the head coach of those teams, Dan Quinn, is the other super hot name in this mix.

He's gotten a lot of interviews. He seems to be the frontrunner in Denver. I mean, I don't know if, you know, when you're interviewing 10 plus candidates, if, you know, how easily you can say somebody is the front runner, but he certainly is a very serious candidate here in Denver. But yeah, Dan Quinn getting a ton of love and looks like he could potentially have his pick. I mean, he is that serious of a candidate. Other places, especially places like Denver who are looking for like a leader, you know, a guy who is going to just have a really good vision for the organization and hire good coaches underneath him. And, you know, for the

Broncos, it's about keeping their defense on track as well. Are you surprised at all? I mean, do you feel like that's a good fit. I mean, it seems like that marriage has been talked about since the moment this process started. Yeah, a little bit. And we're going to get into this shortly. So I don't know if I should, you know, I think I wasn't excited about the Dan Quinn hire in Dallas last year in terms of like being an inspired hire to be their defensive coordinator. It is a little odd to me that you would maybe go from Vic Fangio to Dan Quinn. You know, a lot of, usually what we see is if you're going to fire a coach, you go the completely opposite direction, different side of the ball, different sort of reputation.

Even if the side of the ball is different or is the same. I think a lot of elements of who Dan Quinn and Vic Fangio are very, very different personality wise. Yes, they're absolutely different. They're very different personalities for sure. But they're both great teachers, really good defensive minds. Also, their defenses are very different. So, and it was this one of these situations where their defense isn't broken in Denver.

So would Dan Quinn want to kind of keep it more in line of what they've been doing or bring kind of what he's done here? So I'm not sure exactly what that would look like. Well, they played a lot more man this year in Denver than they had in years past. And in previous years, the Vigfangio has coordinated defenses. So, I mean, there might be more overlap than it could seem at first glance with what VigFangio did this year and what Dan Quinn wants to do. do there. So. Yeah.

And I think Dan, maybe Dan Quinn is a little more open to evolution. Yeah. He certainly is. And we saw that out of him in Dallas this year than maybe we were assuming might, might happen when he first took that job. But look, the Broncos have interviewed, as I said, a lot of different guys.

I mean, they've offensive-minded guys, defensive-minded guys. You know, Kellynne Moore, I think also just interviewed. They're going to interview Eric B. Enemy later this week. So they're really conducting a wide search here to try to, look at as many different candidates, guys who have head coaching experience, non-head coaching experience, hot coordinators. They're really trying to look at everything here.

And I think it's an attractive job, minus the quarterback question. That's a pretty big question. Just that one thing. So a couple of guys that have gotten second interviews with the Giants, Joe Shane of the Bills, Ryan Poles from the chiefs and Adam Peters from the Niners, seems like the right group of candidates. When it comes to GM jobs like this, I mean, just. We don't know.

You don't know. I mean, you just don't know. I mean, I feel like those names make a lot of sense when you think about which teams have been good. I mean, the reputations that those guys have, but we'll see what happens. The one other bit of news that I think just worth mentioning, Ken Norton and who's the Deavits coordinator and Andre Curtis, who's the passing game coordinator in Seattle, both out. So when you were looking at the Seahawks and kind of speculating about what sort of changes would happen there and how much shuffling would go on this offseason,

Pete Carroll and John Schneider, it seems like they're going to be. be back. Russell Wilson's there for now. They're going to change over the defensive staff. So somebody probably had to go and now we have the answer as to who that was. Yeah, and it'll be interesting. And I've been kind of following our beat writer Michael Sean Dugar, his coverage and, you know, what he thinks, you know, kind of trying to read between the lines there, especially defensively, what might be coming next because this is still a Pete Carroll defense. And are you going to be bringing it, is he going to be bringing in somebody else who now is going to take over defensive play calling we'll get to build the defense or are we kind of bringing in a defensive coordinator

in name only and this will still be a Carroll defense so I'm curious about that moving forward they also just need a lot better players yeah it's interesting watching them this year defensively I mean it's not the Pete Carroll defenses of old right where you're lining up and cover three all the time and that's how they live you know this isn't the Raiders under Gus Bradley there's actually more evolution from them defensively than you might expect based on Pete Carroll history and how we think about him schematically. So what do they want to be? I think that's a broader answer than you might think with a guy who is famous for running

a specific type of system that ended up taking over the league. So the direction they go there, not only with the coordinator, but like you said, what do they think they need? I mean, talent-wise, where does this team go on that side of the ball and on offense? You know, do is the upteenth year. It feels like they've needed more offensive line help. I mean, all of that stuff. they're facing a pretty pivotal off season, especially with Pete Carroll coming back,

because how many more years does that group with Carol and Schneider and Russell Wilson have together, especially if the results don't start getting a little bit better than they were to this year? One. I mean, you could have made a really strong argument that some of those changes should have happened at this point, at this season. And now they're going to try to keep that band back together, although with the quarterback stuff, I'll believe it if Russell Wilson.

or when Russell Wilson is their starting quarterback when training camp starts late July. Yeah. I mean, again, that's going to be a, we're going to have a lot of fodder about that all spring. We love it. I'd have to do it on. Bring it on for us. All right. So let's get to this.

Let's get to some of the takes that takes not necessarily that you want back because you can't live in the past, Lindsay. I mean, you can't look at things that happened and live in regret or think about what you'd want to do differently. because that doesn't serve you in any way. Those things are passed and all you can do is learn from the mistakes that you've made. And that's where we are now. It's about learning from those mistakes, not about regretting them. So I want to look back at some of the missteps we had takewise over the last six, 12 months and think about how we can learn from those moving forward.

Sure. And I would hope that we're not, I don't think we're like a hot takey kind of show. I think we'll have opinions and takes from time to time. but hopefully when we've had opinions or things that we believed were going to happen, they were based in reporting and our own analysis or film study and all those sorts of things. So you want me to go first? I mean, I'll say this. I just like just to put this out there, I have never said something on this show that I do not believe.

Truly. Like I have never, ever said something on this podcast that I do not believe. And I feel pretty good about that. I don't think that's necessarily a guarantee anymore. So no, I do not think we throw stuff out there just to throw stuff. I think we've been right more than we've been wrong. Oh, that's absolutely not true. But if anybody, like, has a scorecard at home and wants to give us, like, a final

tally on it, let me know. But I promise I've been wrong more often than I've been right. But there's an earnestness behind all the things I'll say. That I can guarantee to you. All right. What's your first one here? Okay. So this is not just something that I think I talked about here.

This is also something that I wrote at the athletic. And it was a, it was a bad. It was a bad take. And I thought that Kyler Murray had a job. chance to play his way back into the MVP conversation over the last five weeks of the season. And that proved to be incorrect. And it was that. It was wrong. I'm sorry. It was, it was incorrect. So, you know, I think that was looking at kind of where the Cardinals were at heading into early December. He had missed three games with an ankle injury. But before he had gotten hurt, he was the

most explosive and the most efficient quarterback in the NFL. And he returned, had one kind of game in that ugly, gross weather in Chicago headed into this like really cruiser stretch. It's fine. It was like 28 degrees. It's the type of weather we're having here in Denver today. I would not want to be playing football in it. I barely want to leave my house to go pick up my daughter from daycare in it. But he just, you know, he had this chance to remain in that group where it felt like there was a small group of players that were starting to pull away. It was Tom Brady. Aaron Rogers was starting to get back into it. And if Kyler Murray could play the way that he did before he suffered that ankle injury at the end of October, he would be in that mix and he would

have the Cardinals in that mix. Ultimately, what happened, he was not the reason they lost that first game to the Rams, but he and the entire Cardinals offense just wasn't able to recover over the last month of the season from a lot of injuries all over the field. I don't know if he was ever back to 100% after his ankle injury, but they didn't have an answer after losing DeAndre Hopkins. Again, their running backs were in and out of the lineup with injuries. They had some shuffling on their offensive line. And whether it was Cliff not being able to scheme up answers or Kyler just not being able to be that singular guy who took over games week after week after week. It was unfair to expect him to have to be that guy all the time.

But ultimately what we saw on Monday night, and I know you and Nate talked a lot about this after that game was a guy who was just overwhelmed on that big stage. And we just haven't seen that out of Kyler Murray really ever. This game has never seen. I think a team that was overwhelmed as well. Yeah. And he and that really affected him more than anybody else where, you know, it was the first time I've ever seen it looked like it was too fast for him, right?

I mean, he always is the fastest person on the field. but it was just like everything that the Rams rushers were in the backfield way too fast. Von Miller was in the backfield. I don't know exactly if the Rams kind of assigned Von Miller a little bit to Kyler or what exactly. Because teams have done that with Vaughn before when running quarterbacks. But yeah, it was just he looked flustered the entire game. And his entire life, he's had those moments where he's been able to pull some magic shit out and just make something happen.

and there were no opportunities to do that. And I don't think that should take away from like the season that he had to start the year, the progress that he made, you know, being in the MVP conversation until early December is a significant step forward from him. But it should have the Cardinals asking a lot of really serious questions. And I should have questions about my MVP takes in December as well. Well, I think here's what I would learn from that. And I learned a similar lesson with me thinking.

Dak Prescott could kind of take that MVP vacuum or void that we saw midseason or around the week 12 mark. When things change, listen to it, believe it. Watching that Cowboys offense over the second half of the year, that shift, we didn't really talk about this after the Cowboys game, and that's a mistake by me, watching the shift the defenses went through with the way that they were approaching the Cowboys after that Broncos game, where Dak was one of the most blitzed quarterbacks in football over the first half of the season. He was up there with the Mac Joneses of the world and Justin Fields,

rookies, guys that you felt like that's how you should attack them. And it never made sense to me. You looked at his numbers against the blitz, and he was really dicing it up. I was like, why are teams doing this? And then the Broncos didn't do it. They decided not to send pressure at him. Vic Fangio comes out after the game and says, teams are playing them the wrong way. And you hear something in the moment like that. It's like, oh, whatever. You know, okay, I'm sure, Vic, There was nobody else had figured this out. Nick was feeling himself that day. Understandable.

But then you look at it and that team stopped blitzing him. You look at that game where, I mean, he was miserable against four-man rushes, playing against zone defenses when they played against the Niners last week. And the Cowboys' inability to find big plays when teams weren't handing them big plays ended up becoming a real issue for them in the second half of the year. And I think just as the tide starts to turn, turn. Let's not just describe it to, it's a long season. These are ebbs and flows. Like sometimes there is something at the core of it. There is an actual underlying problem and the symptoms are real.

So being more attuned to that kind of stuff moving forward, I think we could all benefit from. And when we're analyzing like, okay, who should win the MVP award? There's more to it than volume stats. There's even more to it than the advanced stats. and some of the more detailed EPA and those sorts of things. There is that thing about being able to get your team back on track and to come up big in the big moments. And Kyler wasn't able to do that this year where guys like Aaron Rogers and Tom Brady have been. Mine is about Jamar Chase.

And we can go back a long way. And I think that a lot of the thoughts I had about Jamar Chase and just about wide receiver value in general, right, and where you find them. I understood the argument for Jamar Chase as opposed to Panesu. I don't think I ever came down on one side or the other within the debate. I wrote a story around the draft about just where we typically find stars at that position. And for the most part, offensive tackles, the guys that end up being really good are highly drafted players. Those are the guys you find in early parts of the draft or have to pay a lot for. With the receiver, it just wasn't that way.

And I think you look at Jamar Chase and he's not as big as other guys that have been drafted the top five, he wasn't as much of a no-brainer to me as some guys like Julio Jones or Calvin Johnson, players like that. And what I didn't, and, you know, there's an argument about how getting open quickly is one of the reasons that a receiver would help your pass protection, even if you pass an offensive line on an offensive lineman. And I don't think that's it. I don't think that is the value that Jamar Chase is given the Bengals. What I didn't understand is that along with really being one of those true high-level prospects, the rapport he had with Joe Burrow is what would allow them to kind of transcend their issues

along the offensive line at times. I went back and I watched that game against the Raiders last night. And how quickly Joe Burrow is able to get that ball out when he's throwing the ball to Jamar Chase? When he is not open, it's not about getting open faster. It's about Joe Burroughs' willingness to throw the ball, even when he isn't, open and trusting him in all of those different situations. And that rapport, that relationship, that innate trust that existed before they even played a single down together, I think has gone so far in elevating and changing and lifting the

Bengals offense. So I don't think this is going to be about maybe we should draft more receivers in the top 10 because that's not the lesson to me. You look at what happened with Miami, I mean, they are trading up for, J. and Waddle and allowing that offensive line to exist how it does has been an issue for them. They can't block shit and their offense is still bad. So I don't think it's necessarily a thought process you can just graft onto each team and is translatable. But I think being more open to, all right, this is why this specific player works in this scenario,

even if the history doesn't necessarily dictate it. I think I've been just more open to that idea based on what Jamar Chase has been this year. Yeah, I think we're seeing the, what we know about rookie quarterbacks. I think that that growth curve is accelerating. I think we're seeing more rookie quarterbacks able to contribute right away. But it is so much about being the right receiver in the right situation. Totally. And, you know, for every Justin Jefferson, there's, you know, a Jerry Judy, who I think is still a remarkable talent.

But when he comes to a situation where there isn't a clear offensive plan for how you're going to maximize the skills of a really good route running receiver and you're changing quarterbacks and coordinators and all those sorts of things, that's where those picks get wasted. But if you have a clear offensive plan and a quarterback who can get the ball to do that guy, I think it really helps. And it is interesting because it was not just Burrough and Chase. We also saw Jalen Hertz with Devonta Smith and Tua with Jailen Waddle where we're seeing these college quarterback wide receiver teammates. And I wonder if there's going to be a little bit copycat effect where there might not be a ton of examples because of this year's quarterback class isn't great. But, you know, we've got a lot of rookie quarterbacks as we're going to discuss in a minute

who need some help and maybe maybe finding them a receiver who they have some familiar. familiarity with, you know, might help give them a boost in their second year. I think that's part of it. I definitely think that's part of it. But I also think I overlooked what sort of presence Jamar Chase could be for that team and how it could help them. So I think there's a lot of things I would like to go back and reevaluate about that entire conversation.

Well, and I think, you know, what happened to the Bengals in the preseason was real. And it was a real concern for every day. You and I were not the only ones who were concerned about the Bengals. I think the Bengals were concerned about the Bengals in the preseason and what their offense was looking like in training camp in the preseason game. And, you know, did we all probably overblow that Jamar Chase's drops in him saying that the football is a different size in the NFL that is in college football? Yes, that was clearly an overreaction. But, you know, they did have some questions about it. And to their credit, they fixed it and they fixed it quickly. And the Bengals

have been one of the best stories this year. And look, I'm glad we were all wrong. I'm glad for the Bengals fans who call in and write us emails and, you know, our boss, Adam Hansman, who is the biggest Bengals fan on the planet, you know, I'm happy for those folks. They deserve to enjoy, enjoy this, especially heading to this week, which will be a really fun game that you guys will get way into tomorrow. All right. What's your next one? All right. So speaking of the rookie quarterbacks, I think this was a reset year for all of us about what sort of expectations we should have for rookie quarterbacks and just how hard it is to be successful right away. And, recent years have spoiled us.

Joe Burrow, Justin Herbert, last year, most recently spoiled us. And this year was a rude awakening for all of the rookie quarterbacks from Trevor Lawrence, Zach Wilson, Trey Lance, who has been a non-factor at all for the Niners to spend despite how many, you know, hours we all talked about what the Niners were going to do in resetting their quarterback situation. You know, Justin Fields. You know, Mack Jones was the guy that none of us were talking about. about being like the impact starter and he had the best season out of anybody.

And it's just kind of a reminder that situation matters, coaching matters with the rosters, like around you matters. And I think are just expectations were maybe just a little bit too high for all of these guys because this is really rough. When we're talking about like EPA and, you know, some of these quarterback metrics that matter, Zach Wilson, Justin Fields, Trevor Lawrence,

they are all at the very, very bottom of the NFL. I mean, they're basically the only other guys around them. And Davis Mills, who also was a rookie, but wasn't one of the highly drafted rookies. I mean, they're in that mix with they're below, you know, Tyler, Tyler Huntley, Tyrod Taylor, Andy Dalton, Jacoby Brissette, Ben Rothesberger, and Mike Lennon and Sam Darnold. I mean, it's not great company to be in there. And it was all of them. And all the situations, there were differences in all of them. Coaching some of those places.

Major issues, obviously, in Jacksonville, Chicago, they're going to be having a restart there. And then I think with the Jets, I think we just learned of how long it takes to kind of rebuild something. And just bringing in a rookie quarterback is not simply going to be enough to accelerate that process. You look at it. And a lot of those guys have a long way to go, you know, in order. to be elite quarterbacks. It's going to be an uphill battle. That sort of mark and that sort of start to your career

is typically indicative of disappointment overall when you're drafted that high. There are exceptions, right? You look at what Josh Allen was as a rookie, and I feel like a lot of mistakes are going to be made by people looking at Josh Allen's rookie year. 100%. And saying, you know, this can happen.

But I do feel like if you look at what it's like for Trevor Lawrence, what it's like for Justin Fields, how bad those situations are. Josh Allen's rookie year offensive setup in Buffalo is horrendous. I mean, it's so far away from what we see with them now, and you can see it. Like, it's possible to do it, but it is an uphill climb. So, I mean, trust me, I'm hoping that the Justin Fields path follows the Josh Allen path, but it's not necessarily given that these guys are eventually going to be above average

quarterbacks. It's not written in stone. And what's kind of scary about it, too, is that, like, this was supposed to be a potentially, like, historic quarterback class. Yeah. We've talked so much last year. Our draft guys, everybody really liked this class. So many great options. Guys who are going to be able to come in and be starters right away and have these long careers.

And what we're seeing right now is, you know, we might be three years down the line. And only two of these guys, maybe are starting quarterbacks, like long term in the NFL. And, you know, hopefully, hopefully they all will be. hopefully there'll be a better situation for Justin Fields, you know, moving forward. We assume Tray Lance will be the starter in San Francisco next year that that plan is still in process. But that needs to be a lesson for all of us as we look at the future quarterback class and especially the one in 2022, which I don't want to spoil Bruegler's Dane's draft podcast. But this isn't that type of quarterback class.

We're not going to be talking about the 2022 group the way that we were talking about the 2021 group by any means. I still have a lot of faith in what Justin Fields and Trevor Lawrence can be. But again, there is a long way to go from what we saw from them as rookies. All right. My second one here, don't freak out about defenses. Before the season, even during the season, don't freak out about defenses. Don't let concerns about defensive talent and defensive expectations color what you think of a team. The Cowboys are obviously the declaring example, right?

We talked about that before the year. man, if they can get to average on defense, what could they be as a team? And then they finish number one in defensive DVOA. Number one, not average, the best defense in football over the course of the season. And there are reasons for that, right? Brand a new defensive coordinator. Michael Parsons is the sort of defensive player you find once every seven years is kind of how I would describe it, right? So you go back in the 2000, I guess 2011 had a lot of really good defensive player.

So let's say on average once every five years, you find a defensive rookie like Micah Parsons. 2001, we had Michael Parsons. 2014, you had Aaron Donald. 2011, you had Von Miller, JJ Watt. So, like, that's probably an average about five years or so if you get one of those guys. You combine that with smart free agent signings, savvy moves going to get a guy like J. Ron Curse. You have a huge turnover year. It can happen.

you can have that sort of out-of-nowware defensive season. And with the Chiefs, think about how bad and hapless the Chiefs looked over the first month of the year. I mean, we were so worried about their defense ultimately being what cost them a chance at a championship. And other defense is good. It's fine. I mean, that can happen.

So it's such an important reminder. And the Titans are another good one, right? I just never assumed, based on the lack of moves they made in the off-season, that the Titans would end up being an above-average defense. They're a borderline top five defense by way to defensive VBOA right now. And I just think that is something got to remember all the time. In the moment, it's tough. When you're watching a unit like that struggle or you look at a series of moves and are

overwhelmed by it, it's so easy to be like, man, I just can't imagine this group being good. And it doesn't always work that way. It's just you've got to have an open mind with where defenses can go and how much they can outperform expectations and how much they can underperform expectations. Sometimes when we think of these defense, is, oh man, they're absolutely going to be good. Like Washington, it's not how it goes. That's not always going to be the way that it happens on defense.

And I think consistently reminding ourselves of that, even if we know it inherently about how volatile it is, is an important drum to keep banging. I, for the record, I stand by everything I've ever said about Daniel Sorensen. However, those were good takes. And if I see him in third down coverage in the end zone this week against the bills, I'm going to scream and yell at my television and I'm sure Josh Allen will see it too. I'll be there so I'll scream at him from the press box.

I'll yell down at Steve Spagnola. So we'll move to my next take and you kind of hinted at it already. I'm talking about the Tennessee Titans who I have been skeptical about most of the year. I think if you go back and you listen, you and I did the AFC South preview pod

and we had a lot of questions and kind of concerns about where their ceiling would be and like look this is a team that they were in AFC championship game two years ago. They've been in the playoffs a lot. We didn't know offensively what they were going to look like after losing Arthur Smith. Would there be a step back there? Could Ryan Tannehill kind of continue to be the same type of quarterback that he was last year?

I had a lot of defensive questions, particularly about like where they were going to get pass rush. I mean, they took a lot of swings to find pass rushers. Over several years. Yeah, exactly. Yeah, over years. A jadevi and Clowny, Bud Dupree. I mean, and those guys didn't work out. They luckily got a breakout year out of Harold Landry this year.

And now they need to resign. They need to find a way to keep Harold Landry before he becomes a free agent this off season. But they have proven me wrong time and time again by being probably the most resilient team in the NFL. And I think there's a lot of lessons there. I mean, how many times do we want to write him off? I wanted to write him off after week one when they got embarrassed by the Cardinals, when Chandler Jones had five sacks week one, I was like, nope, that Titans aren't going to be,

they're not going to win that division. Here they are, they won that division. Certainly wanted to write them off after Derek Henry got hurt, didn't think there was any chance that they could kind of keep it up, especially, and it wasn't just Derek Henry getting hurt, Julio Jones missed time, A.J. Brown got hurt. So they were just dealing with a lot of injuries offensively, offensive line.

Taylor LeMond missed a lot of time. They just had a lot of issues. They played more players than anybody else. We've talked about that stat a lot. It was, what it was, 86 players, which probably more. It was 86 heading into. You could tell me any number and I would believe it, 180 players. Yeah, I mean, they're probably in the 90 player range right now.

And yet they, they, here they are, number one seed. We're going to see them play their first playoff game this week, say the buy last week. Did they benefit from having a bad division? Probably. Did they still lose a game to the Jets and the Texans? Yes, this thing happened. But they did what they had to do to stay on track. get far enough into the playoffs.

They didn't even have to play a postseason game without Derek Henry. He is now back at practice. He should be playing this week against the Bengals. They need to officially activate him, but he's practicing. So, you know, it just, I don't know exactly if the lesson is to just not write off teams immediately after injuries. But I think it's coaching matters, having the right coach with the right plan, a general manager who knows how to make the right moves to move guys in and out of the on and off of the roster to help, you know, fortify your depth when you need it. But yeah, I apologize to the Titans because I didn't believe in you and here you are. I think the week one point is an important one.

And just on a general level, this is the greatest job in the world. I love it so much. I can't believe I get to do it every day. There are times where it is difficult. And one of those times is the first four weeks of the season because we're doing five shows a week. You have to respond to the games that happen. And it's not interesting to say, well, it's a long season. It probably doesn't matter.

what happened over the first three weeks. But guess what? It's a long season. It probably doesn't matter what happens over the first three weeks. A lot of things. The Broncos were undefeated. You know, the Colts couldn't do anything. Colts looked like a complete and utter mess.

You know, the Colts season took some twists and turns. But it's really difficult to sit there for the first three weeks, first month of the year, especially week one or two, and say, what's real? What's not? What's going to be like this moving forward? What's not going to be like this moving forward? It can be a tough stretch to analyze the things that are happening. So that's another reminder.

You know, that Titans game in week one and a lot of other things that happened in the first month of the season. We can, I could say this to myself every single year and say, well, you know, wait, be patient. But we talk about this stuff every day. You know, you can only be. Five hours of podcast content. You can only be so patient. You know, if I sat here after week one, I'd be like, you know what, none of this shit

really matters. Like the Packers getting blown out. Titans getting blown out. You always have to have that in the back of your mind. And I think that has to be an underlying part of all of those conversations. But at the same time, if teams are 3 and 0 or 4 and 0, at a certain point, you got to talk about it. So that's one of those things. You have to be able to diagnose, like, what are real problems and what teams have the infrastructure and the fortitude to overcome those sorts of things.

And then what things are fake. And I know, you know, I'm staring off course here a little bit. But I remember we talked to Nick Cosminder while the Broncos were 3 and 0 4 right around that. And we were talking about, is this for real? What do they need to do to keep this up? And you could see the cracks there. You could see the ways that it easily would fall apart because their 3 and O start was against the Jags, the Jets, and the Giants. Competition is often a big part of it.

But, you know, so that's one of the things that you have to take into account. But with the Titans, I think there were a lot of those inflection points where you, those things felt real, right? Those moments of like this could be a team that or could be a moment that weaker teams, teams with lesser leadership would crumble. After losing to the Jets. Exactly. And they took those moments as times to grow. And they took advantage of the opportunities that other teams gave them, the chiefs losing some pivotal moments,

you know, the way that they blew out the chiefs, right? It wasn't that back in October 27 to 3. they took advantage of those moments that they needed to get themselves into position to get the number one seed. My next one is not necessarily a wrong take or opinion, but something that listen to yourself, Robert, trust yourself. Before the season, when an offensive line looks like it's going to be really bad, believe it. Trust that it's going to be really bad and trust that it's ultimately going to come back and hurt the team that is in question. You look at a team like the Panthers. I remember going to Carolina.

It's actually in Spartanburg in South Carolina, their training camp and being there, talking to someone with the team, and having them kind of lay out to me what the plan was for Sam Darnold and why. And we'll get to that in a minute. And I was sitting there like, are you a little bit worried about the offensive line moves

you guys made and just not fortifying those spots? And the explanation was kind of, you know, we feel like we get rid of the ball quickly. You know, our playmakers are much better than he played with the Jets. and we'll be able to kind of mitigate that just by virtue of the decision making and the scheme. It's like, all right, I guess that makes sense. And then I stopped thinking about it for a couple of days, and then you go back to it and it's like,

what? There's no way that's going to happen. And that's kind of the problem is that that's always how it is with offensive lines. It's almost the opposite of defenses, where defenses are so volatile and it's so hard to predict in so many ways. but oftentimes if you look at an offensive line before the year and you think that's not good by the end of the year guess what it is not good if you look at the worst offensive lines in the league this year the bottom five bottom seven it is the groups we thought we're going to be the worst offensive lines in the league this year the panthers the giants the dolphins the steelers

and i just it's funny for me to say this because i feel like i pay more attention to it and care more about it than a lot of people do. And at the same time, we don't talk enough about it. When you have that group and it's going to be a minus, like no doubt about it, it is going to be a bottom five to seven group by personnel. That has to be like the first thing we mentioned with these teams because it can sabotage you before you get started with anything else. You and I were at the Dolphins Camp together on a stormy day in July, early August.

And we did a whole show where we were kind of trying to. trying to talk ourselves into the dolphins. And ultimately some of those things that we were excited about and the things that we liked ultimately came to fruition during that seven game winning streak that they went on, things about their way their defense was constructed, some of their young defensive playmakers, you know, Jalen Waddle, you know, maybe Tua could have a strong stretch of games in him. But it always came back to this offensive line is going to kill them.

And it did. Ultimately it did. Yeah. And again, just believe it. Like listen to them when they're telling you, that they did not do anything to help that offensive line in all of these different places. When the Giants came into the season and they drafted Cadarious Tony in the first round, and they were just like, you know what?

We're just going to roll with some combination of Matt Perton, Nate Soulder. And you think, all right, I guess. But we were so excited that Dave Gettleman was, like, not doing the Gettelman thing, you know? He was like trading and he was like trying something new. And ultimately, like, he should have just been Dave Gettleman and drafted all the line when he could find. I sometimes I just am too trusting of people. I remember sitting, and this isn't Dan's fault, but I remember sitting out outside the Giants,

outside the Browns facility with Dan Duggan. And they were there for joint practices. And we did our training camp visit about the Giants with him sitting on that bench as a truck was rolling by. And I remember asking him, you know, why didn't they address the offensive line? Why did they just leave that situation or right tackle? And he explained it to me. And then I'm like, okay, I guess so, if that's their reasoning. And then you spend more than 10 seconds thinking about it.

It's like, no, that's not a good. good idea. And so I feel like just that listen to yourself. Listen to yourself when it comes to those offensive line moves and the way some of these groups are constructed. All right. You got one more. Okay. Yeah. So I've got one more. And I don't know if it's less like an apology for this season, but or maybe more so a reminder to myself. Like I probably should like put it on a sticky note and put it right here on the top corner of my monitor to like consider as we move forward to 2022. And that is to not buy into Brown's hype at any point. Because. I am always disappointed.

Oh, I'm ready to get hurt again, baby. I'm ready to get hurt again. I get so excited when the Browns play well. And because when you see it, when it clicks, it's like, because you just have all these years of the Brown's angst. And it's like, oh, it just gets so exciting to see them like pulling it together. And there were times this season where there was that game against the Chargers that they lost, but you were like, you know, I was jacked up out of my mind after watching that

game. I mean, that was like inject that shit into me. I loved it every single second. Like I'll go back and watch that game on game pass. Just the broadcast version because we're not all 22. That's a whole other discussion. Yeah, that's not available anywhere. So that game, I was like, oh, this offense that can get into a shootout with anybody.

Like, Baker's ready to go, like, toe to toe with Justin Herbert. This is amazing. And then there were times early in the season two where, like, their defense looked legitimately scary. Like they had spent all this money and effort and draft capital to address their defense this offseason, whether it was their cornerbacks, you know, signing these pieces to their defensive line, you know, Janavian Clowney and Malik Jackson and, you know, drafting Greg Newsom and all these guys that I was like, all right, like they've put this together. They spent all this time in the offense and then the defense and I was ready. I was like all in and then and we're not, we're

not here again. So it's the reverse maybe of the Titans, the team that I slept on and slept on and slept on. But I just, I'm going to, I'm going to defer any sort of Brown type until the 2020 postseason when Baker made me let me start it up already okay it's it's January Robert don't do this to me it's January okay the Browns are one of the youngest teams in the league it's not something you think about with the team that we had playoff expectations for coming into the season they're one of the five youngest teams in the league based on their jan August 31st cutdowns okay they have a lot of young players that I feel like are going to take a step forward next year especially on defense I think that defense has a chance to be a really good unit next year that

maybe was not necessarily ready this year, but has a lot of players on it. We'll see what happens with guys like Clowny. But I think the foundation and just the underlying talent level on that side of the ball, I have a lot of faith in. They got really hurt this year. Yeah. They lost more games, you know, A.V., whatever, to injury than a lot of other teams in the league. They got, had bad injury luck after having pretty good injury luck last year.

They are a, we'll see what happens with Baker. Right. I mean, that's obviously a huge question what's going to happen to quarterback. But overall, I think they are a team that is very. well, and guess what? They have money. You know, for a team that we, again, thought was a really good roster, maybe one of the best rosters in the league,

this isn't a team that's capped out. They don't have anywhere, nowhere to go in a way that's a team like the Bills does. And justifiably so, right? The Bills are trying to finish off a contender. Like, that's where they are in their development. Yes, and that's important to understand. It's not a knock on the bills, but I think we tried to lump the Browns in with some of those other teams

that were looking for their last few. bits of cap space under the seats in their car. And that's not where the Browns are. So I have faith in the Browns moving forward. And I don't know what the hype will look like in August. I'm sure it'll be more than I probably should be giving them. But I do think there are reasons for optimism about the 2022 Cleveland Browns. Yeah.

I think the Browns are part of this kind of needing to be cautious about, you know, trying to figure out what the tiers are, right? We talk about tears all the time and who are the tiers and the AFC. And we spent all this time stressing about the chiefs and the bills had their big mid-season slump. And, you know, we're kind of back to like the teams that are really good or kind of the teams that we expected were going to be really good. And we just, maybe the Browns just weren't quite, weren't just quite ready to be there. And I'd like them to be there. They're really fun to watch.

I respect so many of the people inside that building and the way that they've gone about changing things there. I just, I don't know. Let's circle back January, 2023. And then I'll get. I don't want to get. then I'll get jacked about it. But the idea of like, all right, let's, wide receiver talent, do they go get somebody? I mean, how does that?

Oh, we got time for that. We'll spend a lot of time for that down the road. A lot of time for that. My last one, again, not necessarily a huge mistake about a take, but something that I spent a lot of time thinking about and talking about before the season. I think is really important to remember moving forward. Quarterbacks can't be saved. If you think you can save a quarterback, it's like a problematic boyfriend or something, right?

You can't save somebody that doesn't want to be saved. And when you look at some of these quarterbacks, the Wences and the Darnolds, and you have these teams on these reclamation projects and saying, you know, it'll be better now. It'll be better this time. It can be for a while. You know, Carson Wents looked a lot better this year with the Colts than he did last year with Philadelphia. At times, Sam Darnold looked better with the Panthers. For about three weeks.

For about three or four weeks. Again, getting back to that first month of the season. eventually guys become who they are. And you can make tweaks, right? I mean, you can put better players around them. You can change the structure of the offense. I feel like what the Ryan Tannhill to me is the one that people are going to hold up as the example of a guy that can change. I would argue that the things around Ryan Tanna Hill changed.

What he was asked to do changed. And that's why we're getting a different version of Ryan Tana. Yeah, but he wasn't fundamentally, he didn't fundamentally change. He still loves taking sacks, man. He's still, at his core, is the same guy he was in Miami in a lot of ways. And that guy can be a really good NFL quarterback in the right circumstances. But ultimately, I think these quarterbacks are going to become eventually. They are going to fall back into the guys that they are.

And the faster you can admit that as an evaluator, as somebody thinking about what type of quarterback you want, which guys are available, why they're available, all of those things, I think are really, really important, especially as we get into the quarterback carousel as we step into the off season. Don't forget this. And I'm telling myself more than anybody else. No, I'm literally like, I'm going to write these like down on sticky notes and put them right here on the side of my computer monitor. Is there anything we need to take back about the chargers?

No, process over results. Me and Brands Taylor on the same page. I'll be watching Justin Herbert highlights all off season. That's what I do every day. That's how I start for morning. I'll be that meme with the, I'll be laying in bed watching Justin Herbert highlights on my, on my phone. I, uh, I'm just fine. I, you know what?

I think that it's tough. And there's a larger conversation to be had about, you know, where they are and where they're going and, you know, what Brandon Staley is going to be as a coach. I have a lot of faith in that. I think they have a chance to be to be to be good. I have a thing. I think they have a chance to really improve that defense with the amount of resources they have. They have a ton of cap space heading into next year again for a team we thought was a playoff contender. they have places to go with this roster.

I want to see them with an offseason to spend some of those resources on defense when they had to spend all of them on the offensive line last year. Things like that. I feel like they are definitely headed in the right direction. And, you know, Brandon Staley has, by no fault of his own or just kind of on accident, I think he's put sort of a target on his back with the choices that he's made and, you know, kind of the limbs he's been willing to walk out onto. And I think that some people have gleefully enjoyed.

their failings in some of those ways. But I've appreciated some of the choices that they've made and some of the things that they have done. And I'm excited to see what the next stage of it looks like. Well, I hope that in this hiring cycle, there'll be one or two guys that will delight us by winning the press conferences the way that Brandon Staley does. I hope that there's teams that,

well, look, the ultimate results of Brandon Staley's first year maybe weren't there. I hope there's some maybe forward-thinking general managers or ownership. I'm skeptical on the latter part there that see value in hiring a guy who maybe approaches the job a little bit differently, has a little bit of a different world view and football view. Because I don't want it to just have to be Brandon Staley being our Ted Lassow. I don't want that.

Every week. I would love a couple more guys where we can appreciate the things they have to say and how they look at the game, all that kind of stuff. All right. That's all we got. If we had any other bad takes, let us know. I'm sure I had plenty of them. All right.

So tomorrow, Friday, we will. will have two shows again we will have a saturday wild card preview that breaking down the first two games very excited to do that with nate and then we'll also have a sunday wild card preview with a pick segment uh still not sure exactly what that's going to look like unfortunately uh she'll is sick so you know that's a little bit up in the air we'll see what that ultimately ends up being like but i've got somebody who's willing to sub in for the pick segment if you'd like she's five and i'll have to see if i can work around her kindergarten schedule but you just let me know We are recording very early.

So the Saturday show will be out for you guys immediately. It'll be out in the same cadence that it typically is. Put it out overnight. You'll wake up to it. The Sunday Wild Card Preview will be out early in the morning still, but on the East Coast. So you may not see it immediately, but be on the lookout for it because it's going to be up before noon, certainly, on the East Coast. Just to have a couple days to listen to that. For now, please rate and review the podcast on your podcast platform of choice.

please subscribe to the athletic. I'm telling you, I tweeted about it today. I was looking at the front page of the athletic today. Just looking at the NFL page. Dane's mock draft was right there front and center. And there was a profile by Dan Pompeii of A.J. Brown. And you scroll down a little bit. And Vic Tafor was writing about the John Harbaugh situation with the Raiders.

And. Dan Duggan's story about the Maras and the Giants' dissection is a must read. Fantastic piece. And then Dan also wrote a follow up today. about where the GM search is at. Michael Sean Dugar was writing about why the Seahawks might have moved on from Ken Norton. It's amazing. I mean, just all of the coverage and all of the insight that's available in one place, literally every day.

It is unbelievable. I couldn't do this job without, I couldn't do it right without the work that's done at the athletic. It is the right time if you're a huge football fan to subscribe if you have not subscribed. Nobody's asking me to do this, by the way. This isn't like, Robert, you need to try to push some subscriptions. Again, I genuinely believe. We just got sold. It's fine.

Yeah, I really do think that if you want to follow the lead properly, you should go get yourself one. So theathletic.com slash football show, highly recommend it to everybody. And if you have it, go listen to Dane and Lance's show about the draft. I'm super excited to have them. It's going to be great to have that insight all the way through draft season. So highly encourage you guys to check that out. We'll be back tomorrow with me and Nate. and hopefully she'll.

Until then, appreciate you guys listening. We'll talk to you soon. This was the Athletic Football Show.