The Fumblerooski Podcast - Almost There -Ep 375 The Fumblerooski Podcast

Episode Date: August 12, 2025

On tonight's episode, takeaways from Week 1 of the Preseason. Taking a chill pill on Shedeur Sanders, the oddity of the Bengals playing their starters, loving football and more! Along with this, injuries. Injuries suck, and we have to talk about how teams will be affected by them. Chris Costich, CJ Medeiros, and Adam Wright talk all this and more, along with a debate about Matthew Stafford.

we're almost there we're almost there boys and girls or whoever's listening i don't care we're almost there football football's basically back preseason is well underway we're just under a month left till the regular season golly am i excited i love football this is the fumble rusky podcast. Sorry, I forgot that I was in charge now of doing the... Yeah, I got it. It may not have always showed it in the staff sheet, but you can see him making throws when he needs to make the throws.

Back-to-back games where he has three touchdowns. Someone's got to get that six or seven spot. He's an elite wide receiver as a rookie. Truly a lose-lose scenario for both sides. Welcome to the Fumbaruski podcast by Power 8018 Radio in Secret up in consulting. As you can see, Adam Wright is out from behind the scenes and back and front of the camera for this episode. C.J. Medeiros with us as always, and I'm Chris Kostich. Oh, preseason week one is now out of the way. Today's Tuesday, August 12th, and we're

actually recording on the same day that we're posting now, so don't have to put up any more disclaimers. This is great. It's great. According currently at 2.25 p.m., so don't yell at us if we miss any updates of any sort, but, boy, it just feels great that football is back. I think, you know, today we're going to be talking about takeaways and some other preseason storylines, but just to start real quick, before we really get into this roundtable discussion, I'm just happy football is back. Would you guys agree? I would hope so.

It can't come any sooner, man. I love baseball, but we can't do just baseball. We got to get some football mixed in as well. And I'm excited for, I'm excited the fact that it's right around the corner. Same. C.J., would you agree? Absolutely. Football's been away for too long.

Yeah, we've been in the doldrums of the offseason for forever. And it's nice. It really is. Football is basically America and we're so back. That's what it is. Let the nation rejoice. Yeah, quick, quick football story real quick. Not really football, but it relates to Drake May.

It's telling you guys before we started the show. This morning I got a random sales recruiting text at 1137 a.m. I sat on it for like an hour or so. Obviously, I'm not going to type in yes or whatever to accept the job. But I said, let's fuck around. threw in a Drake May meme. Drake May, fuck with you, boy. Chris, who made that again?

You, CJ, you CJ, shout out, Mr. Medeiros. And a man from San Diego responded with this saying, type shit. That was a good start to my Tuesday, but let's get back into the show. So takeaways from preseason week one. So real quick, just around the table. CJ, we'll start with you. What is your takeaway from week one? Honestly, my biggest takeaway is that appearances can be deceiving.

You know, every offseason it seems like there's some big darling, right? Say, oh, this guy is going to be really good. This rookie is going to be great. And then I feel like I've got to remind the world to just say, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, pump the brakes, okay? Let's all just pump the brakes here, you know, because nothing really can be known until the regular season starts. And what do they say, you know, what does the NFL mean? Not for long. That's really what it is.

And that goes both ways. You know, players that look good might not be good come regular season. and especially like some players that might suck in the preseason might turn out to be really great. An example, of course, you remember a Jamar Chase, how we literally couldn't hold on to an NFL-style ball, Bengals fans are wringing their hands saying, oh, my God, it's so over, nothing ever happens. And they went to the Super Bowl that year. So, come on, let's just quiet down. And also remember, Zach Wilson lit it up during the preseason, only for him to be a complete flameout with the Jets.

Anything like that happened? Do you have any examples from this preseason, though? Well, no, shit, I don't because it's the, it's the preseason. Take away from preseason week one. Did you have anything? Yes, I literally just went there. I'm just saying, well, that's my takeaway. How about how about this?

But we just, basically here's my takeaway. Let's just keep our application with us with us. No, I, how about, how about, how about, how about? That forbid a man make a point. I'm just saying like, here's my takeaway. Let's not fall into the same traps we have before because a lot of people do. And some people on this call do. And I'm just saying maybe we chill out.

CJ, how about this? If you have a performance off the top of your head, I'm not going to ask you to look one up right now. But if you have a performance at the top of your head, they could be like, oh, let's not like look too deeply into this. What would one be? like that happened from this past week you want to know what it is I'm going to be honest I know we're going to talk about him later but like Shador Sanders

okay I don't talk about him more now so that's we'll save that then also Joe Milton from the Cowboys everybody's like oh my God he's slinging the rock look at that and I'm like okay cool he also has that big problem where he just overthrows everyone and everything that moves

so and he also he's not going to start like we ogle these quarterbacks like they're going to start week one and they're not for example i don't know if you saw quin yuers on the miami dolphins but he was terrible man what five for 18 yeah but but he's also not starting so it's all just calm down nice adam what you give me a takeaway i'm going to go off of what cj said when he started his take and he brought up that preseason really doesn't you don't want to put too much stock into it and it's another reason why preseason really doesn't matter i there was one there was one kid who we work with for a minor

league baseball team he's a baseball guy and it makes sense that he works for baseball but a lot of us are also football fans so when we're texting in the group chat he gets a little annoyed and he goes i i hate preseason he sent one text and what this text read was uh preseason doesn't matter and arguably it shouldn't happen. And I hated that text at first. I thought, and it probably was, it probably was just a jealousy thing that football is starting off

and baseball isn't the only thing going on right now. But the more I thought about it, the more I kind of agreed with them. Could not help but agree with them. How often do we see early on in seasons where teams start off really, really poorly? and how often do we see our preseason during preseason the starters don't even actually play right the whole idea behind preseason is that you're supposed to knock all the

shake off all the rust and get started you know be in full swing by the by the time that week one starts i can't help but notice that that's not the case and the few reps that they do play players get hurt and i look over here to the Cincinnati Bengals who started like most of their starters in week one. And I couldn't help but feel like, yeah, they might be ready soon. But at the same time, they might get hurt. So what are we doing here? Are we going to start our players? Probably still be rusty and run the risk of potentially getting your best players hurt. I mean, a lot of players on that Bengals team have an injury history, they could have easily messed around and ruined their season in

week one of preseason. I'm not saying I want to trot out the argument that preseason shouldn't exist anymore, but maybe somewhere in between something where you have less weeks because... I mean, we already have less weeks. Even more, even less. Let's go with two. Yeah. How many preseason games do you really?

really need in a sport where your shelf life, on average, is like two seasons for players. I think that's even, it's even less like one season you're in the league. I'll go a step further on that, too, not to cut you off from finishing off your point, but like, how many preseason games, because preseason is the time for like the rookies and all these other guys that want to make a roster spot to shine, right? How many weeks do we need for these guys to do that? yeah that's another point that you could throw out there as well i mean i'd be like i slightly think that like the starters should play at some point but let it be like a drive or something

don't let it be like a full court but like obviously i say that but like anything can happen in one play as i so obviously there is has to be that recognition but i i still think that the starters should play at least like a drive or at most a drive. And football is a weird sport where between training camp and actual games, there is a little bit. I'm not saying that there isn't rust when you just do training camp, but if you notice that players who, the quarterbacks specifically who don't start their first two seasons in the league,

they start and then they just hit the ground running. And I just wonder if maybe you're getting enough in preseason so that you don't actually need that much time in training camp that you don't need that much time in preseason game. I'm not saying that you don't need it. I'm sure you do, but how much do you need? Because football is a really rough sport. It's extremely punishing. I don't know if you need four, I don't know if you need three or four games of preseason game. of preseason gameplay in order to be ready.

I don't think you need that. It's a little too much. Yeah. I think like to play just to get the game feel back, just to get back until like, all right, it's like in an NFL like big game, like not big game, but now I'm in an actual NFL game environment type of thing.

Instead of like, oh, we're going full, we're going game speed and practice right now. da-da-da-da-da like actually getting into the NFL game feel yeah but that's my take yeah i mean i hear you guys i do but a lot of it i mean isn't necessarily to shake off the rust i mean a lot of it is but a lot of it what you need to realize is i'm not coming out for or against it because in reality i just don't care all that much my point is it's a lot of it is for evaluation purposes you know, because these guys that you have on these rosters, you know, obviously they're not all going to be draft, not all going to be starters. And this is a lot of them is just a showcase to these

coaches, hey, I belong here. And the less time you have in preseason, the less time, you know, they have to show themselves. And the coaches, they like to know what they have. They like to know their reserves are set. And a lot of these people, you know, who were cheering, oh, hey, we have a less we have one less preseason game. Oh, we need to go more. It's like, all right, well, you're obviously not a coach. I mean, I'm obviously not one either, but I mean, it's really from an evaluation standpoint that the coaches hate it. And remember when the, see, the coaches, they hated it when they went from four to three. They also hated it when we used to have staggered cutdowns and now we don't. I'm just saying from an analytics standpoint, there's more to consider.

Yeah. Look, all I'm saying is maybe there could be, there could be, you could lean more into just the training camp practices, that's all. But we're just trying to do, we're not trying to do too much. discussion for this segment more of a round round table. Chris, do you have a takeaway here? Yeah, I guess I love football and sometimes preseason can be fun too.

Just a lot of funny clips come out of training camp in the preseason like take Patriots and commanders join practice. There was a fight that happened and Mike Brable is right in the middle of it and he comes out with blood coming down the side of his face.

Like that, like that's fun. CD Lamb getting run over by an official trying to track down a deep. That's fun. That's funny. That's fun. I'm trying to think some other ones right now. But, you know, just at the end of the day, we love football. That's basically the main thing.

And we don't have to say, oh, preseason, we could say all that, but we could still enjoy watching the game that we love. I mean, football in the summer I love. But all I'm saying is Joe Burrow, 9 for 10, 123 yards, two touchdowns. Jamar Chase, four receptions, 77 yards and a touchdown. Those are regular season numbers. Like, why are they here? Why are they there? Probably because the Bengals are notorious for starting out like the entire month of September

really terribly and having to dig themselves out of a hole. I mean, we saw it last year. We saw it the year before. We even made jokes about the preseason Bengals. This is probably why your question. itself. I just have another fun clip right out the top of my head. Sam Darnold in the preseason. He, or not Sam Darnold, Andy Dalton, got a lot of preseason burn in week one against the Browns. There was a clip of him trying to throw a pass to the left or he pump faked her

or whatever. And his feet like went up from under him and he ended up falling over and having to take a sack, had a good laugh about it. But that's another funny clip that just came up to mind. right and joe burrow and jemar chase both have had major injury issues during the course of their of their careers so that is also another answer to the question there so it's look i'm not saying no preseason i'm just saying less and make it so that your players are playing in the in the little time that you get another fun preseason thing travion henderson taking the kickoff the opening kickoff back for six that's fun it really is yeah any other fun things that you guys can think of from this past week i have just one more i have efton chisholm this kid looks i love it when undrafted free agents the guys with no expectations it's fun it's fun you have no expectations for the players it's all upside and there's a little pressure because if you have a first round pick who is who's effed and chism okay well now it's like all right we need him to do well we need will can't

to do well because he's our fourth overall pick. We need Drake May to do well. Any first round wide receivers, but if he's an undrafted free agent and he's bawling out, it's just fun. It's fun. Worst case scenario gets cut and he's another undrafted free agent who gets forgotten. Just like go back a couple of years further. Danny Etling, the one time the Patriots ever run zone option, Danny Etling takes it for six

from 50 plus. That was sick. Yeah. And then they let him go soon after. It doesn't matter anymore. You know what I mean? Oh, man. But, all right.

It's a solid segment. When we come back, now we'll get into the Shudor Sandter's segment, where we'll talk about his preseason debut, this Fumbler'sky podcast. It may not have always showed it in the stat sheet, but you can see him making throws when he needs to make the throws. Back-to-back games where he has three touchdowns.

Someone's got to get done. that six or seven spot. He's an elite wide receiver as a rookie. Truly a lose-lose scenario for both sides. Welcome back to the Fulboroski podcast. Chris Costage, C.J. Medeiros, Adam Wright. Shardara Sanders made his preseason debut this past week against the Carolina Panthers. Browns ended up winning 30 to 10. That wasn't the only thing from that game. Real quick before we get into Shudery, Xavier Leggett, getting into a nice little scuffle. Forget who he was in it with, but some solid punches being thrown. I think Xavier Liget didn't look all that great in the,

didn't look all that great in the fight, to be honest. But that's just another fun thing, fun preseason thing I'll throw in there. But Shadar Sanders ended up going 14 for 23, 138 yards, two touchdowns in the first half. It was just him and Tyler Huntley to end up playing the only two quarterbacks, by the way, that were dressed. I think that Joe Flacco's been dealing with some sort of injury concern. Kenny Pickett has been something's going on over there. I think Dylan Gabriel had something as well, I forget. But anyways, this kind of goes into CJ's point that he was trying to make earlier when I asked him if there was a performance in mind

that was don't overreact was basically the main message so CJL let you take this one away first look as you know I'm rooting for Shador Sanders I am I think the media has been

a little unfair to him especially the people in Cleveland keep trying to make the foot that keep trying to make Dylan Gabriel thing for some reason I don't know why But, yeah, he, well, he had a hundred thirty-eight, I think. Wait, no, no, no, no.

138 yards. I'm looking at her right now. 138, 14 for 233. Oh, okay, because I was looking at, you know, the official stats posted by JPA football, but, you know, fair enough. Oh, at one point. But, yeah, regardless, two touchdowns. So that's still good.

138 total yards 1423 passing and on top of that he got to confront this reporter that like hates his guts after the game I feel like more athletes should start doing that you go to these reporters that just talk Alice mounts a trash on their name just say why why why why do you like this but regardless but yeah no I don't want to overreap but he did he did look really he looked promising and when we heard all this stuff about oh you know he's just a nepo baby he was is just never really that good, you know, to actually look competent in the preseason, I just don't think is anything to sneeze at. Does it mean anything? Ultimately not.

Or maybe it does, that's a decision for the Cleveland Browns to make. Yeah, that's a terrifying decision for them to make, but whatever. But, hey, all in all, I just, you got to take it for what it's worth it. Maybe there is a spot for him in this league, and maybe sometimes, you know, we just got to stop drinking the Shador hate Kool-Aid. and once again I'll withhold judgment until I see Dylan Gabriel play as well because I was never fan Dylan Gabriel he was obviously you know in college someone who was a blatant product of the Oregon system and I know Cleveland likes Gabriel better they

keep trying to make him a thing but hey until we actually see him in the preseason or at least until he can stay healthy then we'll just never know because that's something else that's been happening with the Browns. All their quarterbacks are injured, except for like Sanders and the guy they just signed Tyler Huntley. Yeah. You brought up the 2021 preseason last segment, and that's one that I look at when I look at any preseason football at all. Sanders looked good in this game, but you know who else looks good in their first preseason starts? Zach Wilson. You know who else? Trey Lance.

You know who else? Justin Fields. But you know who else? Dak Prescott. And then he won the starting job. Well, he was thrust into the starting job week one after Tony Romo got hurt. And then, you know, they lost that game, but they went on to go 13 and 3. And Dak Prescott's a pretty solid quarterback.

If you get Dak Prescott out of Shador Sanders, that level of play, then I'd say that's a pretty big win. For everything that they've been saying, about it. For all the talk that he has been giving, I'm still shocked that he fell to round five. I know that Tony Pauline, when he had him on the show, he wasn't surprised. He was reporting on it months prior that he was going to fall like a rock in drafts. I'm still shocked. I'm sorry. You have this type of talent fall five rounds, a guy who is once considered one of the top prospects, one of the guys who would be taken top five overall in the draft falling to the fifth round, that's unbelievable.

So I still believe, even if he ends up being, let's say he ends up being not what he was supposed to be. With that kind of talent, I feel like you should have at least taken a, someone should have at least taken a flyer on him earlier on. That's another conversation to be had. But I still think we shouldn't put any stock into this, really at all. It's a preseason game. We see a lot of players play really well in the preseason, and then they turn out to be absolute pumpkins. So I still feel the same way about Shador as I did before this preseason game. I'll really bring you guys back down to Earth with Shadurr Sanders real quick. I also, Like, I think the stats be for themselves, like, when he was, like, completed passes, everything was pretty smooth for the most part.

But I think that there's still a lot of, like, the low lights of his game. I feel like still have to probably speak just as highly, but they're not really getting as much views, I guess, is really the right way to say it. I mean, there's two plays where he scrambles, like, 20 yards backwards. one of them he loses two yards another one's just a throwaway a couple times where he was just holding onto the ball a little too long had a couple wide open misses on some receivers one of them i will say was a scramble out of the pocket was kind of turning his body weird but like when you're in the NFL you got to be able to make those passes especially with a guy

that's bare ass by 10 yards you know um so i guess that's my main concern is like a lot is doing things like obviously a lot of stuff that you do in college can translate to the game but when you're scrambling 20 yards backwards that doesn't really train i'm pretty sure that's the type of shit cable Caleb Williams was doing early on last year like can't be doing that just got to be able to make smarter decisions and i think the accuracy probably could have been better um but i mean 14 to 20 14 for 23 still isn't that terrible who knows yeah i mean his passer rating was 106 yeah something around there so look if that if this is how

he looks in the regular season then he's it means he panned out and it means everyone was wrong about chador sanders about um where they saw him on draft day or just in the draft in general because they he fell not just in the first but he fell five rounds not out of the top five into the fifth round that's have we ever seen anything like that before we've seen players fall but usually it's like okay

they were a day two pick or they were later in the first round than they were supposed to be there's a player who was drafted in 83 I'm forgetting the which quarterback out of that out of that group fell I believe it was Dan Marino is that the guy

I don't sound right but well dan one of them was drafted 30 second overall and nearly fell out of the first round so let me see ken o'brien was 24 the last i mean last quarterback drafted in the first round yeah no dan merino and uh it was dan marino there you go Dan Marino fell nearly out of the first round, and that was considered a lot. Yeah. Deshawn Watson fell. He was supposed to be drafted really high, and he fell a little bit.

But Will Levis fell far. But five rounds. I don't think I've ever seen this before. For this level of quarterback, with the level of height that surrounded, Shador Sanders, and for everyone to pass on him, five times, more than that, for many of them. I've never seen anything like it. Yeah. And if this kid pans out, it's going to be really interesting for us to talk about throughout the season.

I know, like, I'm shitting on him, like, running backwards 20 yards and what, like, the scrambling ability is there. He, like, you can look at the low lights and laugh at him on, like the scrambling ability is there. He just has to, I think, just be smarter. That's all it really is. Just be smarter with what you're doing with the football and be able to make the throw. Like, he's got the scramble. He's just got the abilities.

He's just got to get them all to mesh together now to be. I want to say, yeah. To be an NFL quarterback. I want to take one more angle on this. Shador Sanders, we saw the viral clip of him jawing at. a reporter saying that he never has anything nice to say about him, say something positive once. Look, I get that.

I really do. But it seems like he's celebrating this way, way too much for a guy who seems to be really sure about his abilities. If he is so sure of himself, of who he is as a player, about the quality of play that he believes that he'll be able to perform once the NFL regular season begins, If he's so sure of that, why does he have to celebrate a preseason game? Shouldn't he be like, yeah, this is what I am, this is it?

He's celebrating way too much over this. At the end, like at the end of the day, he fell a fifth rounder. He is a fifth rounder, but he did fall a lot. I will grant him, he fell a lot. But all I am saying is to everyone, not just the people celebrating Shador Sanders, but not just the people who are saying, you see, see, also to Shador Sanders himself let's pump the brakes there's you really shouldn't be putting much stock into preseason at all so let's wait for the regular season and see how he plays if he

even wins the starting job let's pump the brakes let's see how he does then we'll have our answer but i think there's there's you're seeing way too much of the extremes on Sanders there's a lot of people saying, well, it doesn't really, you know, he's still going to suck. There's a lot of people saying that, who are taking victory laps right now, like I just said. Let's just wait and see. Because, again, I feel like, I feel for him the same way I felt for him before this preseason game happened. Let's pump the brakes. I can concur with that. That's for sure. I mean, I think at the end, of the day like you also have to like you know he's a fifth rounder like obviously you know

you can talk about him sliding but he's a fifth rounder for a reason you know the same reason why tom brady at one like at the time was a sixth rounder for a reason you know like just give it some time who knows maybe maybe turns out his next tom brie i don't know but move on to our next segment but first we'll take a quick break when we come back we'll get into the sad part of the NFL injuries. This is the Fulm-Beriski podcast. It may not have always showed it in the stat sheet, but you can see him making throws when he needs to make the throws.

Back-to-back games where he has three touchdowns. Someone's got to get that six or seven spot. He's an elite wide receiver as a rookie. Truly a lose-lose scenario for both sides. Welcome back to the Fulmboroski podcast by Power 818 Radio and Secret Weapon Consulting. C.J. Medeiro, Adam Wright, I'm Chris Kostich. Sad times in the NFL, especially when it happens during preseason.

Injuries. They suck. And they suck even more when they happen in preseason. It's, man, the one that happened from a couple weeks ago was Rashon Slater, tearing his pettler tendon. That one obviously hurts a lot, especially if you're Los Angeles Chargers who had just given them a big contract as well. That's obviously one. But, of course, you got to also look at the ones from this past week. Anthony Richardson. I mean, it's never mind that, you know, injuries suck.

But when you have a team like the Colts that have already put themselves in such a bad spot in terms of the quarterback situation, that then you're, I mean, at least. so Anthony Richardson currently out with now a dislocated finger his pinky was basically bent 90 degrees and this entire off season it was basically all right who's taking the starting job Daniel Jones or Anthony Richardson well reports came out who knows

because both players are playing so terribly that they can't figure it out well at least they just made their decision a little bit easier because of this injury And now they are basically like, well, we kind of have to go with Danny Dines now. So there's one example of an injury. Isaiah likely, broken foot after rolling his end. What they thought was just a rolled ankle, underwent surgery a couple weeks ago or last week.

You're going to miss about six weeks. But the Ravens haven't ruled out likely for returning for week one at the very least. So there's that. Another one, CJ Gardner Johnson. current was the initial reports were that it was a torn ACL now reported that the ligament is intact but the fact that it's not season ending is is pretty good in itself the biggest scare of this week though Landon Dickerson basically just survived tearing everything in his knee looked at an MRI and said well it's just a

partially torn meniscus. That's quite the save right there. That is quite the save. But that's basically the point of this entire segment is that injuries suck. Obviously, I've missed a few, but thoughts from you, fellas. All right. I'll start. Another one that you've, I believe you missed, was Jordan Love.

Yep. I forgot about him. My apologies. Looks like he, it looks like it's a torn ligament in his thumb. He's going to need surgery. And they say he's going to be ready for week one. But even if he is, what kind of player are we going to get for him is another question? I mean, your thumb, I mean, that's pretty crucial when it comes to gripping anything, let alone a football.

And when you look at that, you know, it just shows how the NFL is so low, NFL preseason is so low reward, high risk. And I know that a lot of these things happen during training camp during those practices, but again, it's less time for that risk. So when you look at Jordan Love, I mean, and Roshan Slater and Landon Dickerson, those are all pretty important players on their respected teams. And, I mean, this could be season ending for them. Not for the player specifically, but it could be something where, you know, the season. I mean, this could ruin the team's season, right?

The Chargers' offensive line looked really good before Roshan Slater. They just lost for the season. Hopefully Dickerson is fine, and he's not affected throughout the year, or else that bread and butter that is the Eagles' offensive line is not going to be so reliant for them as it has in years past. Jordan Love for the Packers, another year of banged-up quarterback play from Jordan Love. for the Packers, it's a pretty big problem. And I'm starting to, I mean, I always thought that Jordan Love's turnover issues were something that was going to hinder him.

Turns out it's his injury problems. This guy can't stay healthy. So I am advocating for a little less preseason play because of this, because it's less time where you have the risk of any injuries happening that could hinder your season. Yeah, and you mentioned the Packers. Another thing going on with the Packers right now is that Jayon Reed was in a walking boot during the Packers preseason opener.

Malifleur said that he's going to potentially miss some time early on and could potentially miss week one. So you're probably going to be without your starting quarterback and one of your top receivers as well. so that's not good sticking in the NFC North real quick so Jordan Addison got his three-game suspension for PDs correct yeah yep along with that Rondale Moore could miss the entirety of the 2025 season after suffering a significant knee injury on the first play of their preseason game against the Texans along with that Justin Jefferson dealing with a hamstring injury so

It's kind of a little messy right now in Minnesota, a little bit messy for half of the NFC North teams in general right now. Yeah. Yeah. That is one thing, though, that Adam said that I do think doesn't get talked about enough. Jordan Love has quietly built up a bit of a lengthy injury history. and even more so than that one of those uh you know he said you know oh yeah he tore a ligament in his thumb yeah that sucks it does but packers are like never fear he's going to be ready for week one how how good is that actually because the way i see if you have a torn ligament in your thumb

and you're still going out to suit week one i mean you're still suiting up week one how like Like, is that actually a good thing? Because me personally, I'd argue no. I don't see any world where that works out well for them because he's not going to be completely healed. And I don't personally call me a conspiracy theorist, call me whatever, I don't necessarily believe them when they say he could be good to go by week one. Because to me, when they say good to go, that means able to play and able to play normally. And admittedly, that's just not something that I believe in this scenario. And if that's the case, then why would you have him play and risk damaging your season even more?

Right. And look at, like, look at how he's played when he's come back in recent years. He hasn't looked the same. So to piggyback off your point, how has he actually looked once he came back? So why should we believe the Packers when they say? say yeah he's going to be ready for week one what do you mean by that what you mean by that like seriously because it doesn't seem like they're very sincere when they say he's going to be ready week one it seems like they're rushing him in they want to believe that they

have their next franchise quarterback so they want to they want to show him off real quickly except he's having some serious injury issues and i'm pretty sure it wasn't just early in the season, too. I believe there was another leg injury, right? Yep. That he had, that he was playing through, and he did not look right at all. Yeah, he ended up missing time with that,

and they had Malik Willis play for him for a couple weeks, and they actually did pretty well with Malik Willis and. So I guess to build off of that, I feel like you just got to have faith that Maliflor is going to coach your team to a win, and that no matter who you have on the field, you're going to be able to get the job. They showed it. They showed it last year.

Do it again. Well, early in the season, they needed him to jump, Malik Willis to, excuse me, earlier in the season they needed Malik Willis to jump in, like the very beginning, and they still played really well. I'm talking about later on in the year, there was some sort of lower leg injury. And they didn't, he didn't end up missing any time, but he didn't look like his normal self. I mean, he's always throwing for some turnovers.

That's just the type of quarterback he is, but it was really bad. Yeah. It's just tough. And also with Isaiah likely, I know you still have Mark Andrews, so it's not the end of the world. But do you really want a player who Lamar Jackson really likes and trusts to potentially be playing on a somewhat unheeled broken foot? And it's like, oh, he could likely, yeah, I get it, be ready for week one. And I'm like, on a broken foot, are you sure? Like, are you sure?

He missed week nine with a groin in 2024. That was what it was. Okay. I'm just trying to find the data. Okay. So he underwent surgery on August 2nd, so miss around six weeks. Still talk about Isaiah likely. So count out six weeks from August 2nd, and really you should be at, it is going to be around week one of the NFL season.

Now I'm second guessing myself. Why am I second guessing myself on what week one of the NFL season is right now? I wouldn't know. However, there is something that both of you haven't mentioned yet, and I've been waiting for it. I've been waiting for, but you haven't said it. Are we going to address Matt Stafford? And what's going on there? Real quick, it would be week two that Isaiah likely would be actually good to go to come back.

We have three minutes left in the show. Let's quickly get to Matt Stafford. Matt Stafford having his back injury, I feel like, especially this going on this long, is a little frightening. A little frightening. A little frightening. No, I'm sorry. if you are the Rams, it is time for a five-alarm panic,

especially because it's a spinal injury. Apparently, their game plan here is just going to be to pump them full of drugs to numb the pain and have him play through it. I mean, hey, if that's what he wants, then I guess you can't stop him, but I don't know, maybe you're not quite the contenders you think you are. Because this is like, I guess this isn't like they're calling it a back injury, but it's worse than that.

It's not a back muscle. It's a spinal problem. and oh my god if he goes down i don't think jimmy g who is also made of glass is really going to bring you to the promised land so you're there you got to go stetson bennett oh yeah georgia legend stetson bennett oh yeah and i just if i had to give my two cents to really like try to predict what's going to happen they're you know they're playing this big will he won't he be ready for week one right i think that he's not going to play week one And on the injury report, they're going to call him week to week.

And then the weeks are just going to start snowballing. And then probably by week seven or eight, they're just going to pull the plug and shut him down. Quickly looking at this article that came out yesterday from Sarah Barship, didn't practice yesterday. I'm looking at a too, yeah. Aggravated disc in his back on Monday. So yesterday, while McVeigh said, while Stafford had a great workout and felt good, It didn't feel good enough to throw. So they're basically just doing this on a day-to-day thing on how Stafford wakes up the next day, basically.

Last week, McVeigh emphasized that while the Rams are being cautious with his back, he would be available to play if it was the regular season. And McVeigh said yesterday, Rams will continue to be flexible and fluid with his return and reiterated that the team play. to take it a day at a time. So basically what I just said. So they're just going to wait, basically wait every day and see how Stafford feels that day. That's Stafford wakes up on the wrong side of the bed. He's not practicing. If he's cured from cancer, he's good to go.

That's basically what it is. It's right. I really do wonder if that's something that Matthew Stafford is behind because he's been known to play through injuries. He did it all the time. during his time with Detroit, I wonder if that's him right now where he's like, I'm playing, I don't care what the doctors say, I don't care what my, our training staff says, I'm going out there, which is what Stafford is known for.

However, it's going to make for a shorter career, which, I mean, what is he like 37 right now? Yeah, I was about to say, he's usually, he's usually allowed to, he's usually, a lot of quarterbacks are able to play around that age in their late 30s and still be fine. Stafford looks like he's in his 40s as a quarterback because of how much he's been playing through injuries. And I wonder if that's catching up with him here. I do. Do you think Tom Brady would be doing this?

Yeah. He tried playing on a torn ACL. What are you saying? MCL. Didn't he really play on a torn MCL in, like, the Super Bowl he won with Tampa? Yep, he played on a torn MCL with that. And then in 08, the week after he tore his, or days after he tore his ACL, he was trying to practice and, like, figure out a way out to play. Yeah.

And then he ultimately, he ultimately decided he can't play. Yeah, ultimately. Yes. Point still stands. He'd be making smarter decisions to not be in this position to begin with. with. Tom Brady doesn't have that long of an injury history. He had that one season in in, in, in 2020, where he was able to play through an MCL tear, but that's really it. Out of 23 seasons, he was very smart with his body. Matt Stafford, he's much more like

run through everyone's faces, get, you know, play through any sort of injury he has. I feel like he's, there's, there's an old saying, work smarter, not harder. Feels like Stafford is working harder. Sometimes in Brady's case, it was always, it was work smarter, which means working harder. But some stuff, you just need to give yourself a reality check. And I don't think Stafford has done that at any point throughout his entire career. He's played through things too much. yeah i agree i agree i just my big takeaway for stafford though was literally just for rams fans

just be really wary of when a team or really any team any fan just be wary of the week to week status because those snowball fast yeah it appears that is his his career is on the downside at this point. And I just wonder if his shelf life is already out. Yeah. I mean, I mean, make the point that I feel like you kind of overexasperated the line of a lot of quarterbacks still tend to play well up until this age. I don't really think it's actually as many as you're making it seem. Like Tom Brady obviously broke the clock, right?

he broke the clock but well yeah well brady well brady's an obvious example drew breeze did it um Aaron Rogers did it well I do Ben Rufflesberger did it Steve Young did it Johnny Unitas did it Joe Montana did it but this is like did you do it well though but I'm saying like this is like this is based like what do we say Stafford's ages again? 37. This is supposed to be the start or at least when, like, the age where quarterbacks have their downfall at this point. And Brady has basically made it seem like that has been impossible or that that just isn't true.

But this is supposed to be the age when quarterbacks fall off anyways. So really, like, not many quarterbacks came. and play effectively past the age of 35. So I feel like that we're starting to get back into reality of, like, what the quarterback life shelf is actually supposed to be. Yeah, well, generally, like I said, quarterbacks have a longer shelf life than any other position in football. For sure.

It's Matthew Stafford, it seems like it's a little shorter than any other quarterback. I think this just goes back to what I think it's just we're seeing a reset again. And it's like this is where it's supposed to end for luck, a lot. How old is Kirk Cousins? 34, 35, I think. I mean, these issues, well, these issues have been hit this. Let's not act like he's playing really well at age 30.

though. He's been going through these issues ever since his 2021 season when he was like 34. Yeah. So it's it's not like this is like age 37. He's still playing really well. When all of the quarterbacks I've previously stated were age 34, they were still playing at a high level. Every single one of them. Aaron Rogers was still winning league MVP's. Patrick, Tom Brady, we weren't even thinking about the end of his career. Peyton Manning was still at a high point in his career. Drew Brees, we weren't thinking about anything at all. You're never thinking about the end of players careers. We are with Matthew Stafford.

We have been for a few years. So there is a decline with Matthew Stafford at this age where we really haven't seen it with other quarterbacks when they're around this time from age 34 to 37. You don't see it like this. You just don't. No, you don't. You don't. No, you don't. But like I said, I use Kirk Cousins right now because he's 36 and he just lost the starting job in Atlanta. Like, we're, like, we're just seeing, I just think we're seeing a reset right now and that Matthew Stafford could just be another victim of that, of that reset.

Like, I'm not saying Kirk Cousins is full on a victim right now who say you can't win the starting job back in Atlanta. But that's what I'm saying. I do obviously agree that Stafford has still been and a lot of other quarterbacks have played at a high level from 34 to 37 not saying that but I think that we're starting to see that just the reset that that's all I like I like to say that like guys like Tom Brady and Aaron Rogers have given a lot of people a very dystopian mind of how far the quarterback can really go like the like these guys are just unicorns that's that's all it is but yeah i mean i mean joe montana age 37 he made a pro bowl

in 1993 he went nine and five the following year i believe that following year was the year that uh he made the n fc championship with kansas city johnny unitas johnny unitas won a super bowl age 37 and he's a unicorn well you can only have so many unicorns before it turns out that well i'm saying a unicorn in the case of like these are debate like in the case of top 10 quarterbacks of all time like that's what i mean john elway age 38 won a super bowl john unitas yeah so do you ever see it You eventually get to that point where they're not all unicorns. It's just typically some of the better quarterbacks in football, they last longer.

Yeah. But all those guys that you also just said, that was basically their point right there. How far after 30, you said Joe Montana 38? How far after did he retire after that? Joe Montana 38? 38 that was his last year yeah we didn't see it we didn't see anything like this that we saw from oh yeah yeah no for sure yeah i i think we have both have understandings of the coin here i think yeah sure yeah cj you want to chip in on on any of this before we had the show

you're not going to like what i have to say either you or adam's just going to bite my head off but you know what screw it i also feel like you know you're i i don't necessarily i do agree with chris about how we are seeing a reset quarterbacks are coming back down to earth and adam's like well actually some of these quarterbacks did it and you got to realize like as soon as you mentioned that these accolades they ran into a wall when we talk about older drew breeze do you would I remember? I remember Drew Brees with a bum shoulder who literally couldn't throw past five yards. I remember old Ben Rathlisberger looking like a statue in the pocket. And to be perfectly frank, where, you know, with all due respect, you're making a very bad faith comparison. When

Chris says unicorns, he's right in the sense that these are all all-time grades. I don't think we can say, well, would you include Matt Stafford? No, no, we're not including Matt, Matt Stafford in this conversation. It is, first of all, don't get all smug and shake your head. You know what you're doing. You know that it's like, you can't compare Matt Stafford to like, oh, well, Joe Montana did it. Don't you think that there's, I don't know, a bit of a gap? I do. How about Ben Rothlisberger? He's somewhere in the middle, age 38, 12 and 3. What's that? I said, yeah, yeah, but that's still an in-between. That's, you're, you're acting like there's two extremes.

Age 39, 9 and 7 made the playoffs. Like Matt Stafford's great, but when we look at the accolades of some of these, yeah, Stafford played for Detroit, da, da, da, da, da. But at the end of day, he only has one Super Bowl rank compared to who you just mentioned. Go back to Rafflesberger. Yeah, 9 and 7, yeah, on the Steelers. Yeah, a perpetually mediocre team. You're literally making my argument for me.

Oh, and what was that year before that when he was 38? What was that one again? 12. Yeah, what year? 38. What year? 8,000 blank. 2021.

Yeah, okay. 2020, 2020, 2020. Yeah. Oh, I remember. They went on a Mickey Mouse, like 11 and 0 start, completely bottomed out and made the play, and missed the, and, you know, like, skid it into the playoffs. That has nothing to do with this playing abilities. Huh? That has nothing to do with this playing ability.

Did he was still there? He was nothing to do with the arm. Like, his throwing abilities were still there. He fell apart. That team was carrying him there. That was a Steelers thing, not a Ben Rutherstberger thing. It was a Steelers thing. You're right.

Exactly. Jesus Christ. We were supposed to end this show like 15 minutes ago. Yeah, I don't care. This is great. All right. Listen, Aaron Rogers was there. He's the top 10 quarterback of all time.

I guess at this point are we considering Matthew Stafford or top 10? Because that's basically been my argument is the unicorn is the top 10, in the conversations of top 10 quarterbacks of all time. We're talking about longevity, though. We keep on talking about talent, like yes. But at age 37, Philip Rivers, went 12 and 4. Okay.

Is he an all-time great quarterback? Is he top 10? Because I don't think he is. I don't think he's top 10, no. But what do you do? So, that, which age season was that? Age 37, 2018. What do you do afterwards?

Afterwards. Give me the years after. Literally nothing. The point is like they keep hitting a wall. Like that's all Chris is trying to say. 4,600 yards the next year, 23 touchdowns, 20 picks, 4,100 yards the next year, 24 touchdowns, 11 picks. Bit of a decline, but he was.

Reset. Corback, age, reset. But my point is, I'm not saying, I'm not pointing out that he's at his, that Matthew Stafford is at his peak in age 37. He's far from it. I'm saying that he peaked at age 34, and there was a decline from there. We're seeing, what I, the players I'm pointing out, They peaked around age 37, 38, and then there was a graceful decline.

With Matthew Stafford, he looks like he shouldn't be on the field anymore. That's the problem is that you're comparing Matthew Stafford to, like, to the greats that have been able to do it. We're not considering Matthew Stafford a top 10 quarterback of all time. Like, that's, that's, that's, like, yeah, Philip Rivers did that at 38. But after that, it was nothing. 39 and on, like 38 has been the cutoff for pretty much every single great quarterback, not named Tom Brady for the entirety of the NFL.

Like, that's been the main cutoff. And even the greats have, that was their cutoff, basically. John Elway won a Super Bowl, retired. Joe Montana, retired right after that AFC birth. championship birthday you were just talking about. A lot of these guys just retire afterwards because they got nothing left in the tank. Right.

Well, maybe not, well, maybe not with Elway. Elway, he ended on a high note. But in general, these players peaked when they were at Stafford's age. Stafford peaked at age 34. He's 37 and he looks like he has nothing in the tank. That's a shorter. I feel like for a lot of these guys. That's a shorter self.

peaked at 38. That's a shorter shelf line. John Elway's career peaked at 38 when he won his rings, then sure. But his crime is not 38. Like you're confusing peaks with crime right now. Well, we're talking about just playing at a high level. Yeah. But he just has.

There's a solid debate, though. I think that's a good way to wrap up the show. Thank you for tuning in for another Tuesday episode of the Fulburwski Pock. I'm pretty sure we're going back to two episodes next week. Yes. Yes, we are. No, I... Not yet.

I'm just looking at the schedule that we put out. Right. We'll just start with one. We'll figure it out. We'll figure it out. Either way, new episode coming out next Tuesday, at the very least at 7.30 p.m. Eastern Standard's time. Be sure to subscribe to our YouTube channel and also have all our episodes.

so it's available on Spotify, Speaker, Apple Podcasts, I Heart Radio, Google Podcast, and so much more. Be sure to follow our Instagram, Fulmaruski underscore podcast, keep up with the pod, and the latest coverage on the NFL. Otherwise, C.J. Medeiros, Adam Wright, I'm Chris Kostitch. We'll see you next Tuesday, over now.