The Athletic Football Show: A show about the NFL - Wild Card Monday Recap: Buccaneers continue unlikely season with win over Eagles, and Bills take care of business

Episode Date: January 16, 2024

And with that, the Wild Card Round has reached its end. Robert Mays and Nate Tice break down the Buccaneers' win over the Eagles, the Bills' win over the Steelers, and a crossroads offseason on both sides of Pennsylvania on this episode of The Athletic Football Show.Follow Robert on Twitter: @robertmaysFollow Nate on Twitter: @Nate_TiceSubscribe to The Athletic Football Show...AppleSpotifyYouTube Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

This is the Athletic Football Show. The Athletic Football Show. I'm Robert Mays. Joining me tonight. It's my good friend Nate. Nate, how you doing, buddy? Doing well. Got a nice wild card two pack on a Monday.

Unique timing of today. The ebbs and flows of today was how to get used to it. Sunday, it's totally fine. Afternoon game, night game. That's how the timing usually is. Monday having that same timing kind of threw me off a little bit through watching these games. But it was great to watch a couple blowouts.

one kind of expected. Actually, both kind of. I would say both. One was expected. One maybe is not, shouldn't be surprising as we probably dive into it. Yes. One was probably expected. One shouldn't be surprising.

Yes. The rhythms of today were fascinating. One, for me, I'm on the East Coast doing the podcast last night. So we're doing it until like 2 a.m. or whatever. I get up and drive home. My four and a half hour drive home turns into a six hour drive home and change because of the highway is going home. So I do that.

I get home, our pipes are frozen. So I haven't been able to shower. So if I, the way that I look and the way that I'm composed right now, I'm apologizing to everybody. And then in my grimy, kind of unwashed whatever, the feeling of sitting on the couch in a sick day is kind of what that afternoon game felt like. Where you're watching something you're not supposed to be watching. There's that kind of 2 p.m. prices right when you're drinking a gatorate and eating saltines feel to that. game. So everything about today was just a little bit strange as we sorted through it. But I liked the two games for three straight days. I enjoyed it even though it was a lot. And even though none of

the games were compelling in the fourth quarter except last night's. I know at the end of everything, you know, even though there's some sad moments for some of the Eagles players at the end, it felt like Bob Barker was going to walk out and tell you to spay and new to your animals. You know, that's really did what it really did feel like that. But I, I, I, it was unusual. But I agree with you almost like the two two two like kind of the the kind of the timing of it ended up working out okay it's just the fill of the weekend that's for me who doesn't have a nine to five job the normal nine to five job yeah yeah yeah yeah that's just maybe me and i'm the perfect market for that it is a holiday today so the 430 pm eastern is maybe not as big of a deal for people but if they did

two triple headers on saturday and sunday i would be just fine with that moving forward now that we've added the extra game but it's fun to have more football it almost had the COVID season vibe where there's just a game happening at a random time that it doesn't fit within your schedule or how you understand watching football whatsoever. But it's okay. There's football. So we all had a good time. Let's start with the game that we just watch recording this on Monday night between the Eagles and the Bucks. The Eagles get boat raced by the Tampa Bay Buccaneers. And I don't want to start with Eagle's sadness because that's not how we've done these playoff recaps. And I want to give the bucks some credit for how tonight went and how this season went. This is a year where they

took all that dead money on the chin with the Tom Brady retirement. You have this roster where you've committed some of these expensive pieces and how does that square with a stopgap quarterback that you're paying $4 million. You needed to replace an offensive coordinator for a potential lame duck staff. How many quality candidates are you going to get for that job? They hire Dave Canellas who probably wasn't having his door beat down for these sorts of opportunities around the league. And they did a lot with it. They had some young defensive pieces. The Offense is actually pretty enjoyable to watch with Baker sitting back. They're ripping these throws to Mike Evans and Chris Godwin, but not only those guys.

Trey Palmer, giving this offense a little bit of juice. Kate Otten's had some moments. So the Bucks deserve a lot of credit for navigating this intermediate space in the way that they have. It hasn't been as spectacular as what the Rams and the Packers did in a somewhat similar situation where they're kind of in a transition year. But I do think the Bucks did a very good job of navigating what was kind of a strange season in their overall arc. And when that includes a playoff win, it's pretty good.

Yeah. Hosting a playoff game and then winning it against the defending NFC champions. The, uh, it was, I think there are, our preview, we've made several jokes about it before the season. It was like one of the shorter previews of the box. It was like 12 minutes long. Yeah.

And others were getting 20, 25 minutes. And I think a lot of, you wish they were getting 25 minutes. The other one's like 38 minutes long. Depend to who it was. Uh, but the summary, a lot of it was, and I, I, I looked back at my notes, it was like, man, they have a lot of good players. And that's what to do with it. Didn't know what to do with that thought.

It was, I don't know. I know Dave Canales says, but I don't, he's never called plays. So, okay. I know what Todd Bulls does. That defense has some ups and downs to it. It's unique. It can be a junk ball pitcher. And we saw that tonight what it can do to an offense that's not operating at full,

a full function. But, you know, there's kind of some guys are getting older. You know, what is Devin White? Like, what are this? Okay. What is Levante? David? Mike Evans is entering the last year of his contract.

We got Tristan Wirfs bumping over to the left side. Who knows who the other four starters along the offensive line are going to be? And people, somebody asked me on Twitter tonight about why I think maybe we were wrong about the Bucks or didn't give them enough credit coming into the season. And it's a simple answer. But the thing I turn to first is you have a quarterback in Baker Mayfield who had consistently struggled behind the leaky offensive line and against pressure over the last several years. This was a consistent thing for Baker, even behind a very good offensive line for stretches in Cleveland. And you're dropping that guy behind a line that had so many question marks. Your best players flip in sides.

Luke Decky moves from guard to tackle. It didn't play well at guard last year. You've got two potential new starters on the interior with Ryan Jensen still hurt. And I think the simplest explanation for why this Bucks team, you know, they're not a top 10 offense, but has been competitive and is capable of doing this, is that the offensive line played much better than I think anybody could have anticipated, especially in past protection, even with some of that youth. Dave Canales did a very solid job, and I think that he has Baker playing very confident and assured.

And Baker's handling of the pocket and his comfort in the pocket and the confidence that he's playing with, that combined with the offensive line play, is enough to kind of answer some of those preseason questions we had about this team. What are they? Well, they're all the good players that we talked about with this version of Baker Mayfield and a passing game, and that's kind of what this team feels like. Yeah, I thought Baker was kind of broken. Going into LA last year, those games with McVeigh were kind of fun because it felt

like the two of them kind of needed each other in that moment. You know, McVeigh's the season from hell and then Baker's kind of... Down on their luck. They were. And they, I want to say what was it, the Christmas game against the Broncos maybe something around there, but it was, there's some late season game where you could just, the vibes were good just for that one moment with those two. And I was like, okay, if Baker ends up becoming this journeyman, stop gap guy, back

up, all right, whatever, he could have some moments of fun. But seeing him gripping it and ripping it again. And again, he is a very, he thrives on confidence. That's what he's going to be. He doesn't have the greatest traits that his biggest thing was, he's competitive, he's tough, and he's going to chuck it in there. He's going to feel it sometimes. He's going to go on a heat check.

But when you have good players around him, that can work. And honestly, they do a nice job of how they use him. You talked about the scheme. I thought that, you know, Todd Bowles has his iffy moments in game management. but he actually has some better moments this year, especially on fourth down. I think he's doing much better at some of those aggressive choices in those moments. I would say a half dozen bucks games I watched this year. I had no qualms with fourth down decision making.

I thought their aggressiveness was fine. But even though officer coordinator higher, being totally outside of Bulls's kind of tree, you know, he's part of an, he's an Aryan's guy. Okay, we got this kind of new blood in there. And that's what it feel like. That felt reinvigorated. They had new eyeballs on the guys where there's a lot of staff members. That's what happens sometimes when same guys get promoted. We keep going all with it.

It's the same eyes on the same players over and over, same evaluations. We think of this guy this way. He should be used this way. Sometimes you just need new blood to just go, why not this? Or why don't we try this on third down? Why don't we try this? And it's worked out nicely. I mean, they've used the players really well.

And they hit on some picks this year. And they're draft and they got some real juice from their young players, especially on defense as a defense has started aging out. That's nice for the timeline. So this Bucks team, this is kind of a house money year, but it's kind of nice that they hit a lot of bets that they made, even if they were smaller ones. I'm curious about what the offseason will look like, but we have a lot of time for that. We'll have that conversation potentially if they lose to the Lions next week, which who knows. But they post-mortem and the looking forward conversations for the Bucks are going to be interesting.

I want to stay in that confidence thought for a second because I think that's kind of been a consistent theme with these playoffs and reclamation projects. the way that Jared Goff has played with an organization that really showed that they believed in him. And even what Dan Campbell said to him last night in the locker room, I don't know if you saw that, but he gave him the game ball. And he said, you're good enough for Detroit. You're good enough for us. And I thought that that was really, that was a really cool moment. And Baker, again, somebody that was written off. And Dave Connell is showing the belief he has in him and the confidence that's instilled is really important.

And you can rewind a year and apply the same thinking to what Dave Connells did with Gino Smith in Seattle. You have these guys who clearly are talented, and when you have coaching staffs that are having them play with a certain modicum of confidence and assuredness, I think you get these sorts of results at the quarterback position from guys that had been completely dismissed. And it's various levels, right? Jared Goff is playing with the top five offense. Baker Mayfield is playing with an above average passing game. But we mentioned this term a lot over the last day, the best versions of guys. Are you getting the best versions of guys? And I think the right voices in their ears in those three specific situations, two of them being.

the same guy, it's leading to the best versions of these guys. And honestly, it's kind of a bet they made. And the set I've brought up a lot is that this is the most Baker is truly straight, use straight dropbacks, no play action, no screens. I think that part of that, though, is the is the Brown's part of that. The fact that he played in Cleveland for most of his career. Well, right. But I just thought it was interesting because it's a good observation. I just think that those numbers are balloons because of where he was for the good chunk of his time. But I mean, it's like a, it's a high rate. Like, it's a top. seven, six, or eight in the NFL.

I get what you're saying. But the fact that they thought that we have to go straight drop back, play action, play action, play action, put training wheels on them because we don't want to make the mistake. And the bucks went, screw it, let it rip. When I'm being an air raid quarterback, what I was going to get to is that I think it's interesting that he's getting to a place where usually you should put less on his plate and instead the bucks went, no, have at it.

We're going to go downfield with it. And it's just, I was going to say, leaning into the punch. I don't know if that's the right idiom I want to use there. kind of one of those like, I mean, you don't have much to lose on that side of the ball. It's kind of, it's kind of a gamble just going to like, hey,

we're going to just let you have it, but it makes sense when you just look at the makeup of the buck's offense. The best players are Mike Evans and Chris Godwin. Those are their two best players. Let's get them the ball. So let's just drop back. Hey, let's live with it.

Sometimes we have some turnover. Sometimes we'll have some sacks, but at least we can get these chunk plays. If our defense could be funky, we can get into some of these games. That's what they did. Oh, boy. It felt like just played out exactly.

like this is deja vu all over again. I mean, two years ago, the exact same thing that happened two years ago. This could have been even worse. It was 32 to 9 and the bucks dropped a bunch of passes in this game. Kada dropped a couple. There were a couple throws to Mike Evans that probably could have been complete down the field. So this could have been even worse than it was and it was bad. So let's get to it.

And let's get to what has been an epic, epic collapse for the Philadelphia Eagles over the last month and a half. I don't even know where to start with this. It has happened so quickly. And we talked near the end of the season about teams that wasted their 2022 vibes and who has wasted them the most. And the Eagles have roared back in that conversation. They have asserted themselves to take back this throne from the 2023 Jacksonville Jaguars. And you got to give them credit for never giving up. The idea coming into the year that any single set of outcomes for this season,

would lead to people seriously speculating at the end of the year that Nick Siriani would lose his job. I couldn't even imagine what that series of events would look like, but it feels like we just watched them unfold for the last month and a half. You have zero answers on offense, zero. Your quarterback has taken a serious step back. You're getting panced by teams that are doing things against you that defenses have done against you for two years and you haven't had an answer. your defense is collapsing in real time. You make a panic move to demote the defensive coordinator you hired coming into the season and promote a guy who really has no basis in the type of defense that you wanted to run coming into the year

and seems like a very strange hire and lays bare the lack of defensive personnel or talent that you have at every single level. So you're just grasping for straws all over the place. And you said something today that I think is really worth sitting in. it looks like they didn't even want to be there. And for a team that prided themselves on a certain attitude, a certain confidence, a certain vibe about them last year to arrive in this moment, which is the way that this feels is so, so striking. Yeah.

I mean, just look at the defensive effort. Defense is about effort in any sport. That's basketball, football, everything. And just look at the tackling from the vets that we saw at the Tray Palmer touchdown. Of course, is the highlight. but then we had dbs running into each other. And that's just the defense. And that is just how they played through this whole year.

And it was a lot of waving a way of, oh, they'll figure out the spine. They don't invest in that position. They don't invest. They don't focus on that. And it's kind of one, I don't know, it's a lot of hubris that you're kind of just saying. Like, it's not, I typed out all the names like an hour ago. I typed them all out. It's like, turns out losing CJ Gardner Johnson, Marcus Epps, T.J. Edwards, and Kaiser

White ended up mattering for the equal. season. And T.J. Edwards and Kaiser White played really well with their new teams. And that was kind of interesting to me to see. That was, uh, huh. Okay, maybe they're actually worked at Ben getting kind of dogged in Philly and was unjustified. But you watch Kate Otten, who, like you said, had some drops, but he's getting targeted specifically. The Bucks and Baker were going, we're going to Kate Otton. I just mentioned Mike Evans and Chris Godwin. No, we're going to our former fourth round pick that doesn't wear gloves. And we're going to him. And we're going to him because they knew that's a they have an advantage. The NFL is all about matchup advantages.

So the, you know, the bucks have shown, Dave Canales has shown that like, hey, I know enough about these matchups. And the fact that he kept going to that, that shows this glaring weakness that they have. And this has been week after week. The Cardinals put them, I mean, the Cardinals put them on a fricking pedestal, not pedestal, opposite of pestle, put them in the torture chamber. Every time they they went empty, they were just getting them manipulating them. But this is week after week. This was even before Matt Patricia was the defense coordinator. This has been a personnel thing. I asked multiple times, what do you think the adjustments could be?

It was strictly personnel. They do not have the horses to play this way. And this is just what it looks like, especially when you play better offenses or even average offenses. I asked an offensive coordinator who played against him last week. Just tell me what's wrong. Tell me what's going on. Tell me why they're so easy to dice up.

The personnel in the town is the first thing he went to. They just don't have the guys on the back end. And when their front isn't consistently winning, you can just see the lack of talent on the back end. Even tonight. The only time they could do anything defensively is when they're getting sacks on third down. It's the only time they could stop them tonight is when their guys were winning consistently one-on-one on front. And when you defang that front a little bit compared to the version that we saw in 2022, you felt how talent-free the back seven was.

And even when they got their guys back, how old and creaky it feels. Yes. Very slow. Very, yes. Just there's a lack of speed. A 44 and 56 yard catch and run touchdown in this game. The angles, the tackling. And so you have these guys, James Bradbury is over 30, Darius Slay is over 30, Kevin Byard's over 30. Darius Slay and James Bradbury, this moment, this soft season, is fascinating to me.

Remember in March when both those guys are going to be gone? Yeah. They were going to cut Darius Slay. They were going to release Darius Slay. It was reported that they were going to be going to be gone. release him, but they never did. And they just assumed in the building that James Bradbury would be gone. He would have such a robust market after the season he had last year that they wouldn't be able to afford him. Instead, they bring both of them back, and they're tied financially

to both of them, and things are headed in the wrong direction. So it leads me to my next question here. How does this get fixed on the defensive side of the ball if this staff, and I mean, by this staff, I mean, Nick Siriani, stays in place. What are the steps you're taking to take? To take them out of this. I mean, they need juice up front. I mean, they're losing that already because of some the guys aging out and just figuring out, getting nothing really from Jordan Davis. That doesn't help it either. Yeah, that's a tough one. But I mean, they need horses. And when I say horses, they just need to inject it with talent. That is a early draft pick that is in the trenches or at the corner position. Luckily, where they're going to be selecting, there's actually some decent quarters that they can

maybe drop in. He can work in and you get a succession plan at everything. That's one spot, though. We've talked about. They need four or five starters. I was going to say, spying is the spy. That's safety's linebackers and nickel that I'm talking about. Avanti Max, of course, has been hurt throughout the year. But it's just this, that was the whole glaring weakness. You need something.

You need some playmaker that can solidify something. A guy I'm just going to throw out of here, bro, like a Cooper dejean from Iowa can play the slot, safety, or outside corner. But that gives you answers and succession plans on somewhere on the back end. I know that Howie Roseman, especially in the first round, usually goes trenches or receiver and all that or quarterback. So I would just be curious if they would maybe go into that direction because they need it. You just look at that team. They need youth.

And they not only need youth, they need pedigree. They need guys that have pedigree that are actual blue blood picks as opposed to, oh, this is interesting fourth rounder or this interesting six rounder, this interesting retread that we got on the market somewhere. Yeah, I'm curious what they do at linebacker as well, because you just said it. This has been the approach they've taken to the position for years where, oh, we just don't spend on that position. And there's no linebackers in the draft this year either. And drafting linebackers is always a crapshoot. And I think linebacker is a position.

We'll talk about this a lot in the off season as we think about team building. But I think that drafting linebackers, there's a difference between a position being devalued in terms of what it does for you on a football field and a position being devalued with where you should look forward in the draft. First round linebackers, spin the wheel. I mean, there is not a good track. track record of that working out. But if you can find linebackers later in the draft, and if you find linebackers later in the draft, those guys are consistently impactful right now as you're looking around the league. And the difference, and one of the reasons that, again, it's not a quote unquote premium position maybe. You can find linebackers in free agency. If you look around

the league, there are a lot of linebackers who are playing good football and some of the highest paid in the entire league are not on the team that drafted them. So it's a position that you could find later in the draft and in free agency, but you still have to throw some resources at it. Yes. And this team hasn't thrown any resources at it whatsoever. So it's complicated conversation with it's not devalued in the sense it doesn't matter on the field, but it is devaluing that you don't need to spend a first round pick on it. And a lot of teams that have spent first round picks on it have regretted it. But that doesn't mean that you should just hand-wave it entirely. Right. Yeah. So it's investment into the position room as opposed to maybe one particular player.

that makes sense. Maybe, yeah, having several answers, oh, this fourth rounder, this guy we drafted last year, this guy we signed a free agency, okay, all right, we got at least three viable guys that can play on all three downs because that, at first, there's just, it's just been such a thing for the last 10, 12 years is the old linebackers, those guys with the neck rolls, you know, they get played off the field. Those guys are defensive tackles now. Those guys are four eyes now, five techniques now.

And so they get played off the field. And then now all these guys, now it's this transitioning guys moving from safety. Okay, the big guys that can move a little bit, they usually can't see the game that well. And so it's just you get, it's a hard position to fill right now. So I really think one to evaluate is another problem with this, especially coming from the college level. It's just a nightmare. And that's why you see so many swings and misses with these guys who are drafted high. Because it's just so difficult to evaluate those guys coming to the next level.

It's almost like a, and I usually say it's about corners, but I want to say it's about linebackers, too. It's like pitchers in baseball or relievers in baseball. You just got, you got to just throw numbers at it. Just, all right, we got three of them. Right. Good. Done. Done.

Okay, okay. All right. Cool. We're good. But that's just kind of what you have to do. It's not maybe the ace resource, the top 10 pick. But again, it's like, okay, a day two big, a couple day three picks, just enough or as free agent signing just to fill it up.

The defense, we could have seen this coming, potentially. Even if you weren't optimistic about the Eagles defense, there were a lot of moving pieces. You're replacing your coordinator. Neither of us thought they had 70 sacks last year. Neither of us thought they would be one of the best 10 defenses in the league. The offense, that's where just complete de-evolution, the complete disintegration is surprising. And you're looking at this team,

and you see all the things they did last year where it's really static. They have pretty simple answers. It's an offense that's unique and unlike almost any other in the league. And those things could be construed, if not as positives, then just as features of who they were and who their personnel were. We got these receivers. We don't need to do it a whole bunch. Our running game is just mindlessly efficient.

We can throw the ball up to these guys. Our answer against pressure is just to throw go balls and hope that A.J. Brown and Devante Smith come up with it. And for long stretches, they were talented enough for that to work. But you remove the offensive play caller from that equation and an important voice in the building in terms of how that offense was shaped. and you take no steps forward in figuring out the holes in what your scheme were or taking that scheme in a new direction and building on it. So those are the things you've removed and that teams have figured you out.

And it seems like that's exactly where we got to by the end of this season. I'll tell you what. I appreciate them because it's made my job easier because it's just my notes never have to change when I watched the Seagull's offense from last year to this year. And for the bad reasons, I just say. But if I can do that, imagine opposing coaches. That's exactly what's happened. Everyone gets solved. It happens.

Everybody. Every scheme, every concept gets distilled down to either the version that works or it just gets thrown out or used in specific ways. Or players. Okay. They don't like this. We always just think about like a baseball, like a pitcher and a catcher. Okay.

Or a pitcher and a hitter. Okay, the hiter can't hit the curveball to the outside or heat up and in. Same thing with football players. He can't handle a jam. He can't handle cover two because he can't make a throw against this particular thing. Or we see tonight, hey, if we blitz the quarterback over and over, this offense just gets off the rails. And they just can't be consistent. No answers.

No consistent answers. And I've been, it's hard because how they want to live is very spready. They don't use the tight end and attached to the formation. So that in a way, I've complimented this offense before and it complimented some offenses before. There's a difference between being simple and being predictable. And they are unbelievably predictable, especially if you blitz them because of the answers they want to do. They don't throw hots, but they do, they want to protect it, which I'm fine with is that they build in, they want to protect it. But if you're running backs are terrible in protection and your quarterback does not find reeds that are not in between the numbers consistently, that's going to look like this against this defense or a wink Martindale defense or anyone else to blitz you more than a dozen times a game.

And this has happened now for three-ish years, three-ish seasons, and the fact that they haven't found something other than spamming screens or tossing up to AJ Brown or Devante Smith, which can be answers. But again, you're living in a vault world. But it's just, I mean, there's times, and I get it. There's people are saying, oh, they're not giving great answers because every time they go empty, the bucks were blitzing. They're making them throw hot. So which means because it's just by the rules. But even when they're faking the blitzes, I didn't think Hertz was finding the answers that were presented to them. safety is the best example of that.

Yeah. There was a four-man rush on the safety, and they still didn't have any answers. And I don't know if they were blitzing because they were an empty or they were in empty because they knew they were going to be blitzing. Right, which one was like coming first? They were checking into it because there was the same one every single time. So it was usually defenses, again, this is just my basic knowledge on the offense aside is like they'll have like two or three empty checks.

Sure. A coverage one or two coverage ones or one or two bullets ones. But the safety one, this is why this is what my frustration. with Hertz has been when I've been evaluating him, even when he was going through his MVP run last year, and I'm getting yelled at being called a hater because I'm saying he doesn't do these particular things. It's like the ads, the spam ads at the bottom of the articles, like these three things that they hate, this particular thing that works. But when he gets sacked on his safety, he's looking to Devante Smith and Dowell's Goddard's side, the two-man side. It's single high read. That is the

single high side he goes to, which is exactly right. He stares right at Devante Smith on the outside. And then it's a four-man rush, pockets clean, and he just looks at the rush and starts to try and make a play. That is the answer. It's single high. Take your one-on-one to your best player. Take that all day. Take it all day. Take it all day. That is not Carlton Davis over there. Take it. And that's, when I watch Hertz, that's been this entire year. It's been zone read concepts or any RPO-type concepts. He's not taking a lot of the simple answers that are laid right in front of him. And we talk about confidence. He is not oozing confidence when I watch him right now. And this was hints and flashes of this last year. I thought he did improve on this. But this is exactly what

he looked like in 2021. And especially at the end of season, especially against the bucks in a wildcard round. And again, he's just not getting to those answers. And it's just, it's a curious case. I don't know how much is him. How much is his confidence in the scheme? How much is confidence in players? But it's all a mess. And I think everyone's trying to figure out where it starts and where it ends. And I don't know the answers to that. And I don't know where you turn. I don't know if this is something where, okay, this offensive staff is currently constructed, goes into a room this off season, it's like, okay, here are the weaknesses.

Here's what we need to paper over. Or if the concerns and the questions are bigger than that. Again, it just seems unfathomable. We get to a place where people are talking about whether Nick Siriani is going to keep his job. But they looked so uninspired, schematically, attitude, everything that I can understand if you're Jeffrey Lurie saying, this isn't what I signed up for. Right. And it's fascinating because it's so tempting and I think almost necessary to respond to these things in real time.

Nick Siriani does a fantastic job with that team last year. They go to the Super Bowl. They feel like a team. They could have won the Super Bowl. They absolutely could have. They went step for step with the Chiefs in that game. They were very close to winning the Super Bowl. But these things, head coaching tenures, head coaching regimes, these are multiselyely.

your things. They can change on a dime. And I think it's important to remember that. And I often forget that. And the two guys I would go to as part of that conversation are Nick Siriani and Brian David. Brian Daibald did a good job last year as the coach of the Giants. They got a lot out of that roster, especially on offense with how they built that thing. But the story is this week about Wink Martindale and about their relationship. When that was going well, it was going well.

When it wasn't going well, the temperaments in that building became an issue. And when Nick Sirianni's team is winning, it's cool to watch him yell at opposing players and getting people's faces and talk shit to fans. When it's going the other way, maybe that temperament isn't so desirable. And that's why these are multi-year considerations. But that's how quickly it can all change. These things that are somewhat endearing, if a little bit annoying, are excusable when you're winning. And when you're losing, they're the things that people immediately start pointing to. And it feels like we've arrived in that place with the Eagles.

And it's funny It's because they still won 11 games And it was just still It's just the nastiest The paper bags in the stands is hilarious It was funny I was angry and funny I was angry and laughed at the same exact time

Because that was hilarious 11 win team Battling for the division up until the last week No I I I agree that nodding Notting into the camera And I There's a lot

I've learned about about coaches And I learned from smart people That have been around the league And been around football a lot and they always just say it's like just don't tempt it. Do not tempt the football gods. It's like when, because things are,

you can be riding high so quick and it's great. And that thing can crash so fast and so quickly. And no one cares when you're at the bottom. No one cares. And it's a really, really, really good piece of advice. It is.

And it's just. And it's funny for me when you, there are coaches that believe that and there are coaches that operate that way. And there are coaches who don't. And there is a pretty big divide between those two types of guys when you're talking to them. And I'm terrified of it always. It's like that.

Every single time I'm like, maybe, oh, they're wrong. Live a little. It's like, nope. You see it. It's heat-seeking missile, man. And that's how you just never do it. You just have to be humble in this league because it'll humble you quicker than anything.

So now the question becomes what happens. And I still think the most likely scenario is those guys are back, and at least Siriani and the offensive staff. And it's okay, what sort of answers do we have? The defensive personnel needs a top. of adjusting. They have resources. The team actually has $30 million in cap space. A lot of the contracts that they've handed out, A.J. Brown, J. Wood Hertz, these monster deals, they've packed so much in the back end of those contracts that they have some financial flexibility, but they are tied into

some of these guys that we're talking about. Darius Slay, James Bradbury, they signed on Monta Maddox to an extension. So how they maneuver around that and how aggressive and creative they are and adding talent to the back seven, I think is going to be a major question. On offense, most of these guys are coming back. The big, big question, you have a Hall of Fame center that may have played his last game as an eagle. And you watch him on the sideline

hugging Jeff Stoutland and the look he had on his face. People thought it might have been his last game last season. And going out like this, I don't know if it makes him more or less likely to walk away. My hunch is more. Is that he, Bellar just told us in the chat,

he declined to speak to reporters after the game, which is not like him. Yeah. So it feels like that very, it very much could be the end. And that's a bummer. Somebody who loved watching him play. He was a fantastic figure in the NFL if this is it. But he was a central piece of their success.

So you just one more thing that kind of gets removed from what that 2022 Eagles team felt like as we get further and further away from it. And I'm not trying to be Mr. analytic brain right in the middle of this because it's stonk watching because he has a very, very emotional face too. His sad face is pretty brutal. And so it was like, you could just read it on him. He's one of those faces. It's like, you can just read his emotions.

When you got mad at Travis last week, you could just read it right there. So it was like, it just stinks with that. But for me, of course, I'm just even getting into football sense and just the trickle-down effect of that. Because he is a quarterback playing center. That is how Jason Kelsey plays. He is an incredibly unique talent and so exceptional at what he does mentally and physically, of course, with all the movement stuff. But how much he controls in that offense, now they need a succession plan there. And we just saw what that offense looked like with Kelsey in there.

Now imagine him removed against a blitzing defense and everything. So, you know, it's going to be really interesting to see how this defense and everything unfolds, but how the offense finds answers, especially giving hurts his next step and like, you know, hey, it's truly your team now. That leader might be leaving. So it's like truly your offense right now hurts. And I'm really curious to see those next steps are. Gut feeling.

You think Sirian is back? Yeah, but no, my head is saying yes, and my heart, my like kind of like deep down gut is actually saying no. So that's like, because I can't believe like he would be, or he would get fired. Like that just is like so unfathable to me. But it's just like there's so much smoke that it's like that and I've been around this a lot that you believe the smoke. Once you start seeing all various reports like that. Especially because some of the guys who were out there. And we just heard the report today about Belichick interviewing with the Ravens, Belichick interviewing with too many bird teams, Belichick interviewing with the Falcons.

And I think that is a connection that made sense. We talked about that last night, but there's still some big fish out there in the coaching world. McRabble got fired. And so we'll see what ends up happening. But some questions hovering around this team that I did not expect them to have to be answering here on January 15th. Let's get to our next one here. The bills take care of business against the Steelers. But at what cost, Nathan?

That's the whole Bill's season, man. What are they in all the injuries? I mean, it's hard to even list them. Darryl Bernard went down today. So he had a sprained ankle. I believe he had a in Rapport reported that, even though we got carted off, having MRIs tomorrow, but x-rays are negative,

which that's good news. But Christian Benford went down in this game. Taran Johnson went down in this game. Rasul Douglas said afterwards that he could have played. So that is good news, at least, that he'll probably be back in the lineup next week. Torral Dodson is hurt. He wasn't playing.

I think a linebacker today, you had AJ Klein and Dorian Williams. So AJ Klein, who has signed off the practice squad, I want to say like last week. AJ Klein is a, is a season two character from this Buffalo Bill's experience. And Dorian Williams is a third round rookie. So that's just not a good situation. You could feel that for stretches of this game, where the Steelers were consistently moving the ball. And it felt like the bills were holding on for dear life. So if that's how it felt against the Steelers, how is it going to feel against the Chiefs next week, even a diminished Chiefs offense if a lot of these guys are still out?

And I don't want to go there that quickly. But it's hard to ignore that when you think about how this game fell for Buffalo. And I think what you said at the end was like how they're holding off for dear life. That's what it felt like. I mean, the Deontay Johnson touchdown, I think it was. They just attacked that exact central area. It was just like, oh, who's in there? All right, boom, right there.

We're going right there. That's exactly who we're attacking. sorry. But that's... Cam Lewis was the backup nickel. He was getting picked on a lot in that game. And so frustrating because this is this Bill's defense has now found a rhythm and found like an identity of being so funky and having these cool game playing looks.

And it's just like, hey, guess what? You guys just got used to that. You're all hurt now. And guys who are central to that. Yes. I think he, who, especially Bernard. You stepped up for the guys that were central to it before. Yes.

God, dang. That's it. And then you look at the other side and you're just like, oh, yeah, Josh Allen. And oh, yeah, a run game. And it's like, again, the off, good vibes with the Bill's offense. Even if sometimes there were shaky moments, it's like the answers are there. But it stinks to how this defense, because I just really thought they could make some noise how that defense was playing. There are elements of the Bill's offense today that they made me a little bit worried about next week.

Just because the Chief's defense is so talented and capable of throwing some just wonky nonsense at you. The junk ball stuff that is coming their way against Spags next week, there were elements of how they play it today where it's like, ah, is that your best answer? It's like the isolated route to the number three running back, whose name I can't remember right now. It's 11.10 p.m. We're doing our second one of these in two days.

Ty Johnson, this isolation route to Ty Johnson down the left side line, is that your best answer here? A lot of horizontal throws in the passing game behind the line of scrimmage. And I get it. You know, they're bringing a ton of heat. Yeah, I think they blitzed on like 45% of their dropbacks, getting the ball out of his hands and him really avoiding some of that chaos mode against the pressure today I thought was a good sign from the offense.

But one of my lingering thoughts after watching that game is you're going to need to play better next week to beat the Chiefs. Even offensively, you're going to need to play better next week to beat the Chiefs. So we'll see what happens with that consideration and then being banged up on defense. Yeah, no, there is swankiness. I actually thought I was feeling pretty good about the Bill's run game, Bill's offense overall. I thought the run game was cooking.

I thought they were just a bunch of jump more against a ban. I think the first quarter in the first half, especially in how much They were just cooking them in the middle of the field against those linebackers. I just expected that to just continue throughout the game and it didn't. So maybe I just, them running into some issues. There was a big drop by Dalton Kincaid, or excuse me, by Dawson Knox in the first drive of the second half. They had some of those moments. Josh Allen missed a couple throws on one drive.

We sailed the one for digs. He threw the slant behind. I think it was Kincaid on third down. So just like a tiny bit of sloppiness in some of those moments. I don't think it was anything super concerning. But again, I think they'll need to be better than they're. were today to be Kansas City next week. Oh, absolutely. The one thing that's said to me, it was how much jumbo they freaking used. They were in jumbo on a third of their snaps.

They're just six offense alive. You think that's just trying to get as many big bodies in the field for Pittsburgh as they could? Yes. And just, and the 19 of 66. Understandable strategy. Yeah, that's what it was. Yeah. And just what's punished these live backers. I think that's a way to try to do it. There's a 90, a 50 and a teen. Yep, that's, there's a 38, a 93 and a 16 at linebacker for the Steelers today. That's kind of why I come away thinking I wanted more from this offensive performance because of those numbers, a linebacker. I actually, also another thing, and I thought, and I thought, I think a lot of production teams have done a great job of this this year of actually having stats with it was the KM Hayward on-off stuff that they were bringing

it up a bunch of times on the call today. I thought they did a great job of that. But I thought that was significant. I think that's part of it. We're getting into this jumbo stuff. But they were in it 22 times. They ran it 19 times. 10 of those were successful on those 19 runs. And their two best personnel groupings was 12 jumbo and normal 12. Average 7 yards per play on those. So it's like they, they had a good plan. I thought the mixing of personnel's, the mixing of tight ends was really good by them. They used Stefan Diggs at the number three spot the most times he's ever been that spot in this entire career. So there's a slot, which is number two.

Right. Get them away from Joey Porter Jr. I think that makes sense. And then tight ends at number one. So that just, or two. Yeah. Or two.

So it was like him and Kincaid or him and Shakir. That's why Kincai and Shakir is so nice to have. All three can kind of do all three. But yeah, Joyce points for both of those guys today. And again, we're trying to find these auxiliary pieces for this offense combined with the running game. Again,

I think that there is a version of this bill's offense that makes me very excited even for the rest of these playoffs. It's a different sort of proposition when you're playing against that Chiefs team than this Steelers team right now. Oh, yeah, no, I got it. It was just, it's, I was kind of liking what they were trying to get to. They, uh, oh, shoot, the Kincaid touchdown is a great example of just even when Diggs isn't making a lot of noise in the game, like how much gravity he has.

He's in the slot on that play with Cook, James Cook, and they, the Steelers are running covered you to that side. Josh Allen does a fantastic job of holding the safety and just throws that, just hold every straight seamball to Kaked right down the pipe on poor Miles Jack. But again, the Steelers are running that because, well, Diggs is on that side. And he's in the slot. All right, Joey Porter Jr. is not going to go into slot. Okay, so he's in a slot.

All right, cover two over here. Cover two over here. All right. But this is Josh Allen taking advantage of a quote unquote basic, more simple look because of that. So again, it's like, okay, they're pulling some nice strings here, pulling some nice levers. And Josh Allen's kind of executing even if he has his golden retriever moments. I mean, they were good to golden retriever moments today. the Zumi's.

That 50-yard touchdown was the Zumies all the way. I understand getting pretty pissed off about the fake slide and that being somewhat of a fake slide. And I'm getting him getting dinged for the, him getting dinged for a personal foul or him drawing a personal foul later in the game because he got hit late on the slide. I understand where that is frustrating for Steelers fans. But there aren't many quarterbacks even capable of ripping off a 50-yard touchdown run and a scramble like that. So that is an element that he brings to the game.

The last time I've seen a fake slide was by Steelers quarterback Kenny Pickett when he was at Pitt. the ACC championship game and everyone made a big uproar about it. So yeah. It's not illegal in college, right? You can't do it anymore. They literally changed the rule because of Kenny Pickett. Yeah. It's funny that Kenny Pickett and Josh Allen are the two guys because they definitely both

have the zoomies at the quarterback position. Different levels of it. I think one deploys them a little bit more effectively than the other is what I would say. It's handled it into a very productive way. A couple of guys just to shout out very quickly. We talked about a couple of them. The juice that Khalil Shakir gives them is a different sort of element in this

offenses had in the past when Gabe Davis was definitively their number two receiver. It's been an interesting journey with Dalton Kincaid this year and how they've used him and what he's been within the offense. But again, I think that he does give them a gear that they have missed in years past and the run game, something that they can tap into that is different than the 2022 version, the 21 version, all of that. And then defensively, I thought that Oliver had a really nice day, was consistently impactful. And I thought that Greg Rousseau had some really nice moments in this game.

against a run on the first couple drives. He had a big time sack against Broderick Jones. So that front is the healthiest unit on this bill's defense right now. And I think moving forward, it might have to be the best unit on this bill's defense down the stretch. That's it. Especially if you're looking to next week. I know we're trying to like rain back before getting into it. But it's like, but it's hard not to.

When you think about these teams and their history, too, how many times you've seen it, it's tempting to go there automatically. It's almost kind of fun in a way to see them both kind of as, you know, it's just, And when you have teams that are relevant for this long, you're going to have different versions of them. And I love that. I've always loved that about these teams that are consistently relevant. And I think with these two quarterbacks, that's what these teams are going to be. They're going to be playoff teams every year. They're going to be competitive every year.

They're evolving. So you go through these, not even ups and downs, but just stages of how you're built, the players on your team, who the characters are. Obviously, the easiest one to point to is what the Patriots were in all those different stretches with, Tom Brady, but that's how it happens when you have guys who are going to be in the playoffs seemingly every single season like these guys are. No, no, it's fun. It's just, you think of them usually, I think even our memories do this, like, and I had a moment of like this, I came across a YouTube video, it came on my recommended, so great how many old NFL games are on YouTube now. And I'm sure, I'm sure your YouTube recommendations are absolutely hilarious, by the way.

You got like 1990s NFL games, board games strategy, old wrestling videos. The algorithm just has you in the palm of its hand. You freaking nailed it. Like, that's literally what it is. And then Miss Rachel, which is for my son. Yeah, yeah, yeah. The sing-along stuff. But no, that's literally what my algorithm is.

That's actually it. But I was watching it. And it was a Colts record, I want to say it was. And they were like 10 and 6. And it was one of those where it's like, I don't remember them being like this. And it was like, I don't say it was. That's exactly the comparison.

That's what your brain does. And I like my brain. I like how I can remember. certain things. But even I was like, I don't remember that year. And I'm clicking at some stats. I'm like, that's right. That's, it was this happened that year. But again, that's just what happened. We're in the, we're in the middle of it. So I'm just saying, yeah, memory is a funny thing. But that's just, we got to remember sometimes. It's such a perfect comparison though. Because it's like, oh yeah, remember the Austin Collie year? Remember the year where Anthony

Gonzalez was on the Colts? Yes. That you're always going to have that is these guys cycle in and out. So we have a huge game on top. We have plenty of opportunities to talk about the chiefs and the bills over the next few days here, and I promise you guys we will. Let's turn our focus to the Steelers and where they go from here, because I quietly think that they are a very interesting team this offseason for a bunch of reasons. My takeaway from watching them today is that I was kind of impressed. I don't know if that's a weird conclusion to reach, but when I was watching that team today, the things that I kept coming back to were George Pickens and Deonté Johnson are real players.

Those guys are real players. Pat Fryermouth is a very solid, capable tight end. Darnell Washington's a nice piece within that offense. They've got some guys up front. Their ability to move the ball on the ground has been impressive this year. Project Jones' issues in pass protection, but he's a rookie tackle. He was always going to take a moment. That was the thing with him.

He wasn't even a starter coming into the season. I think that was for a reason. That line is better than it's been in previous iterations of these Steelers teams over the last three or four years. And then on defense, even though you've got, some position groups that are a question. T.J. Watt coming back. Mika Fitzpatrick's still on this team.

Joey Porter Jr. is really, really good as a rookie. Yes. So you have this foundation of talent. And the question that I is going to hover over all of this is, what do you do with it? And I think that that applies to a bunch of different key positions. Who is your offensive coordinator going to be? Who is your quarterback going to be? And then the big one, who is your head coach going to be?

that's the one that'll keep coming up until we have an answer. Brea Pryor, who covers the Steelers, the ESPN, as Mike Thomas press conference was ending today, started a question with, hey, Mike, you have one year left on your contract. He walked off the podium immediately. And typically, from everything that's been reported is that they typically sew this up with a couple years left on his deal. I don't think he's entered into the final year of his contract as a lame duck during his tenure. And he might do that this offseason. So is he maybe ready for a change of scenery? Is one of these jobs that's open?

Is it worth giving the Steelers a call and saying, hey, you like your coach? You want some draft picks? Do we need a little change of scenery for everybody here? So those are some big, big questions. And we'll talk about what those different timelines look like. But that's what's going to hover over the Steelers offseason for at least the time being. And I think what's with Tomlin or if they do, if they do go on a new direction, direction. You bringing up all the players is exactly where my brain has gone with the Steelers team,

maybe in the last two months where maybe just Mason Rudolph starting was going like, hey, hey, don't dismiss that because that he was good enough for you to realize it. And that's an important little light bolt to go off. Mason Rudolph was not good, but he was not bad. I will honestly say that he looked so much more improved than he'd had last time I've seen him on a football field. But watching him and seeing these players and seeing the offense operate like in structure and seeing something. I can see how the block in here. I can see I can see Warren, you know, doing his thing.

I can see, okay, the run game's getting up. And you can see all those. But why I mentioned all this is like there's pieces here. There's stuff to work with. There's a revamp possible here with Tomlin or without Tomlin. So the Steelers to me are more interesting than they've been in a while. I agree. And I think it's kind of fun.

I know. I'm going to be talking about them. through a different lens, no matter what happens with or without Tomlin, because I just think they're just so interesting with some of the players that they have right now. I'm with you. And this is a team that they're $7 million over the cap right now. They could easily free up a bunch of space. They've got some aging veterans on contracts without a lot of guaranteed money.

They did not restructure T.J. Watts contract this year, if they wanted to in 2024, that would be a way for them to save $20 million. I think he's 30. I think he's going to be 30. They did it with Mika's contract this. off season. But again, Mick is a little bit younger. So I'm not sure that's a lever they would want to pull, but it is a lever they could pull. TJ will turn 30 during next season. His birthday is in October. So it's his age 30 season. So there are ways for them to free up some money. And why I think that's important is I think this team should be aggressive in going out and getting a new quarterback. And it's about where they end up looking for that guy. Yep. This team with a stopgap veteran starter in the Kirk Cousins mole,

is interesting to me. Me too. They're one of the teams I can actually talk myself into that more than others that are like, where you're like, oh, we can maybe fill it. It aligns with the timeline. It does. Because they have, they have kind of those, the T.J. Watson, the Minkas of the world, and then they have some interesting rookie cap guys or rookie contract guys.

It's that, like you say, this is the team you plop in because you can kind of, kind of have that mid-pivot, I guess is a good way to put it. Watching how exciting those past catchers felt with Mason Rudolph. imagine a quarterback who's two tiers above that. Even if it's not a super elite quarterback, a guy who's capable of playing at a top 10 level, that is worth seeking out if you were this team. I think that they should be quick to take another swing in the draft sooner rather than later. But I also think pairing that with somebody who can come in and elevate that position right away

is something worth considering. Kirk Cousins is the first name that is going to get thrown out because he's a free agent. So you can sign him. If you sign him to a two years, $60 million deal, that actually fits with the rest of your books right now. The other guy that I came to this during the second half and now I can't really start thinking about it, I'll be curious what happens in Seattle. They have a new coach, bringing a new staff.

If I'm Omar Khan and Mike Tomlin comes back and we have that level of urgency where we want to win right now, we have this core of guys, we're not kind of taking a step back and starting over with a new coach, I'm at least calling and seeing what it would cost to get Gino. It's a team in transition. Next two years, he's $30 million against the cap. If you want to sign him to an extension, quote unquote, you throw a couple void years on there, you get his cap number down to $10 million next year.

It's such a creative contract or such an open slate contract. Yeah. He's got two years left $30 million a year. And even at $30 million a year, you're operating at, again, top 10 quarterback play for that amount of money. And if you can get the cap number down. It's more than workable. So that's the type of problem solving that I would be seeing out if I were Pittsburgh.

Yeah. And I don't know if Seattle would do that. But again, teams in transition. If we're trying to figure out of Chicago a call. Just give them a call. Just check. That's another one. Yes.

If you really want to. He's not in the same mode because it's not as quick of an answer and it's not as predictable of an answer as going to getting a Kirk Cousins or a Gino. But it's a, yeah, it's a total franchise payment. It just, yes. And if that's something you want to do, because that gives you a little bit of longer runway, totally understand that as well. But I think that you have to be proactive and aggressive in how you're going to seek out those solutions. That's not just a one deal, obviously, it's a quarterback or one thing deal. It's a 12 move thing with a plan and going, okay, this guy's our coordinator.

This guy's this. We're going to use it like this. If you're making that type of move for fields, because you're saying, you're basically redrafting them if you're doing something like that. So do what you should be doing. Well, we did have Pickett. And so maybe this isn't the team to talk about with that. Talk about the playing with the young guys. So we'll see.

It's a short hook for Kenny Pickett. But I think that with the rest of this team and where it's at, it's justifiable to think that way. Did you know Kenny Pickett's six months older, five months older than Jordan Love? Kenny Pickett is? Yeah. Oh, man. I know. I know.

That's a tough one. I know. I had to double check that about 20 times. but yeah, five months older. The other one, along with the quarterback, that they have to be looking at this offseason, who is your version of Todd Munkin? Yeah. Who is the guy that you're going to say, all right, we're stepping back, we're looking at the

entire landscape of who can call plays for us. Who is available? Why is he available? And where could he take us? Those are the three questions that have to inform that process. And I think that you have to be a little bit more creative. with what that solution is, then the guy's got an office down the hall. You know, like that, you know, like that on the resume?

So you're not going to call Paul Chris. He used to be a pit right next door. Maybe, you know, he might be an OC. But I would say for the Steelers, and this is just OC, this is quarterback playing, and this is a line that I loved always from Breaking Bad with Mike, but he says, no more half measures, no more half measures. That's what the Steelers team has to be. all about. No more half measures. Have a plan for very important spots in your franchise. You can't

mask it over with vibes and chemistry and some good game planning and sticky game planning. You have to have some stuff that's more sustainable. And that's what I mean. No more half measures with these spots. Especially because of the underlying talent you still have on the roster. It's not a perfect roster. They have issues. They have holes. They need another corner or two. They need to think about who the other linebackers are going to be. They need to be, they need to add in certain positions and the talent needs to be better across the entire depth chart. But I think that getting those spots right will make the most of the talent on the depth chart

look a lot better than it has so far. And we've seen that. So I think an offseason that was not dissimilar to the one that the Ravens had where it's like, let's go get a play caller. Let's attack these positions of need. Receiver isn't one for them. But let's go get a couple linebackers. Let's go get a couple more dbs and let's see what we can do with the last couple years of this core.

I think that that is work chasing for them. Absolutely. They're fully off the no-fly list. They're back flying. They're flying into this revamped world and I'm with them. I'm very interested to watch this Pittsburgh Steelers franchise because they are interesting. It's going to be fun to watch. Could you imagine if Bill Belichick, P. Carroll, and Mike Tomlin all changed jobs in a single-off?

season. I don't know. It would be wild. This year's already been wild enough and it's like that would, yeah, this season I should say, but yeah, that would be. It's going to be fascinating 24 to 48 hours in the coaching world. What's going to happen with Siriani? What's going to happen with Mike McCarthy?

Especially some of these losses that just happened. Yeah. What's going to happen with Mike Rayble? We're going to have a lot of dominoes falling here over the next day or so. Speaking of that, tomorrow, we're going to have a quick little recap with some of our beatwriters about some of the coaching news that's happened over the last week or so. A lot of moving pieces. Just important to get some context on why some of these decisions were made, what some candidate lists look like.

We're doing that a decent amount here over the next couple of weeks just because so many things are going to change and really love getting the perspective from those guys about why some of the movement is happening in some of these buildings. So be on the lookout for that tomorrow. A little bonus show for you guys. Other than that, regularly scheduled programming. coming your way on the Athletic Football Show feed over the next week or so. For now, that is all we have. Really appreciate you guys hanging out with us over the last couple days. I know that we've enjoyed it.

So we will talk to you a little bit later. See you. This was the Athletic Football Show.