The Fumblerooski Podcast - An Honorable Effort -Ep 159 The Fumblerooski Podcast

Episode Date: February 10, 2023

Listen to our recap of the AP NFL Honors ceremony as Adam Wright and CJ Medeiros compare their preseason awards predictions to who actually won each trophy during the ceremony.

Wonderful. with a football. They're saying it's a catch. It's in. Oh! Takes! Sideline! Touchdown! Unbelievable! Swings it way down the field to Watkins! Sammy Watkins for the touchdown! Touchdown! The NFL honors ceremony has concluded with plenty of surprises and well-deserves as well.

This is the Fumble Rooski Podcast by Power 88 and Secret Weapon Consulting. Adam Wright with CJ Medeiros. CJ, how are you doing today? You know what? I'm fine. I can't complain. Let's do this. All right. Well, guys, we're almost there. The end of the 2022-23 NFL season is upon us, just two days away. And you guys will be hearing this. Well, you'll be hearing it tonight. We're pre-recording our Super Bowl special, which is coming up soon. You guys will be hearing that one on Saturday night where you can get the full preview of the Super Bowl and get our third annual

Super Bowl special, if you can believe it. The game will be going on at 6.30 p.m. Eastern time on Fox in Glendale, Arizona, University of Phoenix Stadium. There's been some legendary games played in that stadium, and hopefully it lives going to be a little different than the norm. So in, so in honor, in honor of the NFL honors, we are going to compare our preseason predictions for, uh, all of these honors awards to what actually happened last night. So I figured this would be a fun one and you could all, we could also flex whenever we got a prediction, right?

Which I believe you and I got a few. I know I got a couple. No, you got two. I think I only got one, but Hey, it's better than someone else who's not here. And you also can't predict injuries. So yeah, like there's, there's that, but hey, it's better than someone else who's not here. And you also can't predict injuries. So, yeah, like there's there's that, you know. All right.

So we're going to start things off and go on to the first award we're going to cover, which is the rookies of the year in this segment, at least. That's what we're going to do. So we're going to start with defensive defensive rookie of the year which was sauce gardener so well deserved i mean this guy had a great year and i would like to point out i got this one right but cj what was yours what'd you get uh for me i think my original pick was like kyle hamilton yeah you had kyle hamilton and i guess he had a decent year he's all right i i really loved him coming out of notre dame i i really did uh i mean he was all right you know i think uh he'll take a bit i guess for him to you know really reach his full potential but i mean he he didn't have a bad year not

playing stretch the imagination i mean he's a physical freak you know 6 4 2 20 basically like a big wine backer uh right he didn't really get like any picks but he did fly around the field with 62 total sackles and two sacks and five pass breakups and a fumble recovery as well so you know he can uh you know i think he's got a bright future i would argue right um and sauce gardner has that guy has, I mean, the, the sky is the limit for that guy. Unbelievable. You, we talk about one of those corners who is a shutdown, true shutdown corner. He is one of them. And there aren't many left at, uh, in today's day and age, although we are getting, we are

getting a few nowadays. Uh, Tariq Wolin is another one who is a rookie who could have gotten it himself. So bright future for the corners in the NFL. Should we mention Tucks? Yeah, yeah, let's. All right, Justin Tucker, our buddy, who wasn't able to make it tonight, he picked Jordan Davis. Now he's an Eagle.

And I think it's just hard to win defense. It's hard to win defensive rookie of the year when you're, when you're an interior lineman, because it's hard to, it's hard to make that kind of an impact unless you're, unless you're Aaron Donald and he's racking up sacks. I mean, that's the reason why people notice him so much. All right. So going on to our next one, we have Offensive Rookie of the Year,

which was Garrett Wilson. Two for two, baby. Two for two. I got that one too. And if you guys don't believe us, we have our episode available from our preseason predictions. Episode 104, I believe it was Integrity Rules. That was the episode name.

If you guys want to scroll down. I remember that one. Somewhere. Yeah, we had Sean Howe on it. Yeah, I like that one. It was a long episode. It was. There were a million things that happened.

Yeah, was that about like the dolphins owner too dolphins owner okay yeah because i remember that yep dolphins owner got suspended they had to they surrendered a first and third round pick and there was also deshaun watson who was suspended six games so you can see why we call this integrity rules yeah and i'm also pretty sure that that was the same episode we covered Calvin Ridley being suspended a year. So, wow. You know, you gotta, you gotta have integrity. You talk about a random day in August, all of that happened in that one day. And which is usually known as a kind of a dead spot in, uh, in the NFL. and we just had all of those things to cover it was

unbelievable but that also happened to be the scheduled episode for our nfl honors predictions and what better day to recap that um than the day after it where we can see how wrong we were on some of these picks don't you don't need to remind me man um and also on so cj you picked jameson williams correct yeah i really thought he was gonna come back sooner than he did i that's why i picked him but oh my god he i think he's gonna be a beast next year and i'll stand by the fact that i think he's gonna be really good i mean he only had one catch because he was hurt like almost the entire year. He had like one catch for 41 yards and a touchdown. But I'm saying like once he gets more targets,

that guy is going to be darn near impossible to stop, especially lining up opposite of Amon Ross St. Brown. Absolutely. And honestly, like I was listening to the episode this morning to get our answers. Like I still believe that this that this guy jameson williams is the best wide receiver coming out of that draft just he's hurt so there's not really much you can do about it um and i that was kind of why i didn't have

him and i had garrett wilson and i got her right so happy about that one. What's that? Who did Tucker have? Tuck's pick was Drake London. I think I knew that. I mean, London himself actually had a pretty good year. He had 72 catches for 866 yards and four touchdowns. Yeah, he had a good year. There's not much of the quarterback position, so there's not much he can do.

But I just think garrett wilson had the better he has a better situation around him um so what else what's up i said somehow yeah because neither one of them really have anything at quarterback they don't i but between between new york and um and atlanta i the Jets had the lesser dumpster fire. Yeah, you could argue that, absolutely. Mainly because of the other guy, the backup for Zach Wilson. I'm completely blanking on his name. Mike White?

Yeah, Mike White. Mike White really helped Garrett Wilson on that because he's just a better passer it doesn't it doesn't translate to his statistics or his uh what's it called uh it doesn't translate to wins oh yeah or statistics but he just helps out his wide receivers a lot and that's what helps garrett wilson and zach will zach he did have some he showed some flashes early on some, and then he decided to completely fall apart. Oh yeah. All right. So there are our rookie of the year predictions versus what actually happened next. We are going to give you the defensive player and offensive player of the year. That was an interesting one.

And our predictions weren't as on the money this time. That's just a little sneak peek. That's next. This is the Fumble Rooski podcast. here's edelman broken up and the pass is no sign yet edelman comes down with a football they're saying it's a catch it's his cross to Yates! side-hide! touchdown!

unbelievable! swings it way down the field to Watkins! Sammy Watkins for the touchdown! This is the Fumbled Ruski Podcast by Power 88 and Secret Weapon Consulting. Adam Wright and CJ Medeiros with you tonight. All right, so Defensive Player of the Year, Offensive Player of the Year. It was pretty predictable who won it, but it wasn't so much going into that season. And I think you'll see that with our picks.

So we're going to start off with Defensive Player of the Year. It was Nick Bosa, but I picked TJ Watt, and I thought he was going to win back-to-back. He was robbed a couple of years ago, and then he went into the year, and the whole league expected him to be able to make an impact. So I thought with defense's game planning for him and still winning defensive player of the year, I thought he'd do it again. But unfortunately, you can't predict injuries.

Yeah, it's not your fault. So I don't take responsibility for this one. I don't. Shocker. And CJ, what was yours? I think I had Myles Garrett. Yeah, you had Myles Garrett. Yeah. Once again, miles garrett's another one that you really just can't bet against and he had a good year you know just

not as good as uh boses obviously hold i'm gonna pull up his stats right now so yeah you pull up his stats and i'll keep talking so yeah he had 60 i'm sorry i'm just gonna say he had 60 tackles and 16 sacks it's still very very good yeah i mean he he was i believe he was one of the runners up what runner-ups right i i don't have it in front of me i don't he was he was i thought i believe he was one of the candidates jones was also Chris Jones and Micah Parsons, but I think, yeah. Yeah, there were them too. And Tuck had Aaron Donald. Yeah, Donald had a down year this year.

Holy crap. Big time. Did he get hurt or did he not? I can't speak on that. I don't believe he did, but I could be wrong. All right. Yeah, he had five sacks this year, is a career low three sacks but no five five five see that that's that's so crazy to think about because he's an interior defensive lineman

if we were talking about anybody else then we would be extremely impressed because it's an interior d lineman they're not supposed to rack up sacks. They're supposed to be run stoppers and then, you know, tackles for loss sometimes, but that's where the defensive ends and the outside linebackers to get the sacks. Yeah. And that's, that's just something else.

Cause I'm sorry. I didn't want to step on your toes there, but I mentioned five is actually a career low for him. Cause when he came to league in 2014 these are the amount of sacks he had he had nine then 11 then eight then 11 then 20 and a half 12 and a half 13 and a half 12 and a half and then five unbelievable that's just a down year by his standards is still a pro bowler for anybody else who's an interior D lineman.

All right. Well, offensive player of the year. Hold on. He did only play 12 games. I do want to point out he did only play 11 games. I'm on pro football reference. It says he only started 11 games. So, yeah, he did get hurt.

Right. on pro football reference it says he only started 11 games so yeah he did get hurt right so then he he could have gotten it but it's hard to look past uh it's hard to look past uh nick bosa's year yeah he had an incredible year and a big part of that 49ers defense and why they almost won the super bowl with a third string quarterback well almost Well, almost won. I mean, they almost made the Super Bowl. NFC Championship. And I would have favored them over the Chiefs, I would say. If they were healthy. And it's nothing

against the Chiefs, but we're getting off topic. Alright. Offensive player of the year was Justin Jefferson. And let me tell you, well-deserved. Unbelievable year. What I did predict, when we were doing our top fives, I had him as our number one wide receiver. They called me a madman.

Who's they? I was even on the episode, I don't think. Yeah, well, Tuck was chewing me out. And I told you, I listened to the episode, and i agreed with you i thought he was yeah um and i think and tuck had cooper cup no tuck i have it here tuck had jamar chase he had jamar chase as number one yeah for offense no i meant no i meant i meant for the number one wide receivers going into this. Oh, okay. But yeah, Tuck did have Jamar Chase. I was way off. I had Jonathan Taylor.

Oh. Once again, he's the number one that got hurt. This is where we make fun of ourselves when we go, damn, we predicted that guy? And it was, oh. I mean, so we reflected on our preseason predictions last year and for coach of the year i had joe judge last year yeah and i i posted it and i'm like yeah obviously i'm way off on this one because joe judge at this point doesn't even have a job anymore

he does now but at the point at that time he had just been freshly been fired. All right. Talk had Jamar chase and you CJ. You got Justin Jefferson. Yeah. It's the only one I got right, but I'll take it. Cause he's a monster.

Let me tell you. Pat yourself on the back my friend you got that one right um not much else to go off of here so what just happened oh so i'm just going to move on and we're going to go on to so our next segment here is going to be Coach of the Year, Comeback Player of the Year, and MVP. And that's going to be our final segment. That's next. This is the Fumble Rooski Podcast. Fumble Rooski Podcast.

Here's Edelman broken up and the pass is no sign yet edelman comes down with a football they're saying it's a catch it's a catch Touchdown! Unbelievable! Swings it way down the field to Watkins! Sammy Watkins for the touchdown! Welcome back to the Fumble Rooski podcast by Power 88 and Secret Weapon Consulting. Adam Wright with CJ Medeiros recapping this NFL honors and looking back on our preseason predictions for this ceremony. So the coach of the year was Brian Dabal.

Dabal? Do I even have it spelled right? No, you do. It's pronounced Dable.able dable there we go um all right so i had kevin o'connell who had a good year but amongst all the other coaching season there were a lot of candidates for this award he just doesn't probably doesn't make the top three because there's brian dable there's Pete Carroll, and there's Kyle Shanahan. And Nick Sirianni, I'd argue.

And Nick Sirianni as well. But Brian Dable, I would say, I mean, that's well-deserved. A team that he had and still managed to not only make it to the playoffs but win a game over my kevin o'connell led vikings that's pretty impressive but cj you had uh i know i want to talk about it i i'm looking at it right now uh i had you want to say it or do i had brandon staley in defense, I didn't realize how badly he sucked. And frankly, he should have been fired after what happened in the playoffs. That's all I'm going to say about that.

Just, ugh. I still... That's a tough one. Oh. See, that's almost as bad as my Joe Judge prediction from last year. I thought Joe Judge was going to win Coach of the Year last year for the Giants, and he was out of a job right after.

All right. Here's one that I disagree with. Comeback Player of the Year was Geno Smith. Now, don't get me wrong. Geno Smith had a great year, at least by his standards. The word great is used way too much in sports, but he had a very good year by his standards. A career backup. Managed to replace Russell Wilson once he was traded. No Russ,uss no problem he replaced his production pretty well 30 touchdowns touchdown passes to just about what 11 10 11 i don't have his stats in front of me

um but he had a great year by his standards um and if there was a most improved award he would be the slam dunk favorite to get it because it was 11 interceptions by the way 30 touchdowns 11 picks and 4282 yards as well that's a i mean that's a russell wilson type year and it's also a part of why i believe that pete carroll could have been nominated for coach of the year because he replaced russell wilson with a career backup and got the exact same production Russell would have in this offense. Unbelievable. Now, they had a lot of good players who worked out around him. Kenneth Walker III was really good.

Who else? Their offensive line played probably the best it did in years. But Geno Smith, listen, I don't disagree that Geno Smith had a very good year. I disagree that he just doesn't match the comeback player of the year because what did he come back from? He came back from sucking. That's what he came back from. I mean, this is typically for players who have been out of the game

for a while. They don't, you know, they don't – they usually have an injury. They were suspended or something like that. He had neither of those. He just plain old wasn't good enough to start. And he did have Russell Wilson behind him. But if he's as good as he was this year, then he would have beaten out the lazy quarterback that we have this year,

at least the lazy version of Russell Wilson. Would have beaten him out, but he didn't. He had a great year, don't get me wrong, but you have a player like Saquon Barkley, who has not been his true self since the beginning of his career back in 2017, 2018, and has managed to come back from all these injuries. You also have Christian McCaffrey, who hasn't managed to stay healthy since 2019. Those guys would have been better candidates for comeback player of the year than Geno Smith. Now, to get down to our predictions, I had Travis Etienne.

Now, he had a good year, and I guess he made a good comeback because to have over 1,000 yards, what, seven, eight touchdowns, he had a good year, very good year. Doesn't compare to Saquon Barkley or Christian McCaffrey. I'll say that outright. That's not debatable. But I think he's a better candidate than Geno Smith. Yeah, yeah, I would argue that.

It just matches what the award would represent because Geno Smith didn't come back from anything. He just stepped in for a pro bowl caliber quarterback and duplicated that production that Russell Wilson had been doing in years past. So that's the only problem I have with that. Geno Smith had a great year. Just if there's a most improved, they need to come out with a most improved player award

because he would match that. That would be a slam dunk for gino smith i just don't believe he deserves comeback player of the year that's all um and then cj you had i just don't want to mention your tape your picks for you yeah i had derrick henry but uh yeah yeah i had derrick henry and let me tell you something saquon barkley had 1312 rushing yards and 4.4 yards of carry and 10 rushing touchdowns yep and i'm just gonna mention derrick henry had 1538 yards 4.4 yards of carry and 13 touchdowns i'm just saying same yards per carry more yards more touchdowns and he was hurt last year and i'm just saying. Same yards per carry, more yards, more touchdowns.

And he was hurt last year, and I'm just going to leave it at that. And mark my words, if the Titans weren't a dumpster fire, he probably would have gotten it too. And yeah, I'm just saying he got shafted because the team around him is terrible. I'm just going to put all the cards on the table.

I mean, that's a good argument. That's a good argument to state. Because he did, you know, he did like – I mean, he wasn't healthy. But it might be just relative to what he did last year because while he did make a comeback after missing half of the season, the stats that he put up during that half that he played in were so good that people forget that he missed half the season. He still finished top 10 in rushing yards that year.

Yeah, that's just because he's that good, but he still came back and he was still a top three running back. He quite literally had a better season than Saquon. I agree with you. I'm just saying. I'm not going to say I was shafted, but yes, I am. I was shafted. So I agree with you see I agree I'm just saying I I'm not gonna say I was shafted but yes I am I was shafted I so I agree with you like he relative but it's I think it's just people just look at what he did relative to last year he had 600 more rushing yards than he did

last year that just doesn't sound as much of a comeback as it was when in reality, those, those, those few games that he played in, he was just that dominant. Yeah. Kind of the same thing as Jamar chase this past year. He missed what? Six games. And he still finished as among the, the,

the Bengals lead receivers. Right. I don't think he was number one. That was T Higgins, but it was barely like higgins barely beat him out yeah for the lead receiver for the cheat for uh the bengals um so it's kind of like that and jamar chase derrick henry explosive best among the best at their positions um but tuck also had derrick henry so we kind of already covered it um but for mvp

this didn't seem as much of a slam dunk as it is right now cj you and i both had patrick mahomes about a couple weeks ago throughout this season winning uh winning league mvp however our pre-season predictions were very different oh ain't that the truth i oh this was a bad one i had matthew stafford oh oh i am sorry like mine wasn't that much better either i had tom brady yeah so that was better but i just want to say as far as brady goes that in my defense can you blame me for saying that after like the season he had you know like last season so this season obviously wasn't as good by his standards but last season i think he should have been mvp you know we had 5,316 yards and 43 touchdowns i'm just saying i am just saying no i i agree he he had i did not see this season coming

for the for the tampa bay buccaneers all around their offense just imploded now tom brady statistically he had a down year but relative to the rest of the league he did have a decent season like statistically 25 touchdowns and nine interceptions he had a shot of it at a thousand at 5 000 yards had he played the second the um that whole Week 18 game against the Texans, it made sense that they pulled him because they were in the postseason already. But if they just wanted to play for pride or just a confidence booster, he was hitting 5,000. He was hitting 5K, which is impressive given the down year he had.

But Matthew Stafford. Now, look, I'm not going to try and defend my pick. Not at all. But I will defend my logic at the time because they were among the preseason power rankings. It was the Buccaneers and Rams, and then there was everybody else. Oh, and Buffalo. No, no, there was everybody else oh and the fact that no no there was buffalo come on now in the well in the nfc i mean oh okay i thought you're talking about

overall because i know buffalo was number one everybody was oh crown them now and i knew they wouldn't in the nfc and both of them both of them, along with their quarterbacks. Absolutely Matthew Stafford, too. And my logic was that, you know, on the offensive line, they lost Andrew Whitworth, but they still have Joe Noteboom, who's one of the better backup left tackles in all of football. So he steps into an expanded role. Then you also have an upgraded wide receiving core, not just Cooper Cup, but you also have, to replace Robert Woods,

you've got Allen Robinson, who has always put up good numbers with some of the worst quarterbacks you could ever see an elite wide receiver play with. And then he upgrades to Matthew Stafford. I was thinking, this team is going to be electric. And Matthew Stafford is going to have a much better year than he had last year. Did not wind up being the case he had. He had as bad a year as you could see.

Oh, man. That was just tough for Matthew Stafford. And part of it had to do with their offensive line. It fell apart. And what I failed to mention actually is Joe Noteboom actually got hurt. And even before he got hurt, he wasn't very good. Yes, Stafford got hurt too. Yikes. And I believe a couple people on that offensive line um also

on the interior also got hurt and cooper cup got hurt and cam acres is nowhere near what he should be um but also so we'll mention tux pick as well and he he was the closest of all of us he had josh allen which doesn't say too much, number one, because Tom Brady and Matthew Stafford were nowhere close, but number two, Josh Allen, as good a year he's had, there were plenty of other players who are better than him who weren't named Patrick Mahomes. Jalen Hurts was the runner-up.

Joe Burrow had a better year. That he did. I'm forgetting the other guys that they had as finalists, but I know Josh Allen was among them. He was among them, but he wasn't that close. Yeah. I'm forgetting. I believe Justin Jefferson was just listed there just to be there,

but no one actually believed he was going to make it. Yeah, wide receivers never do, unfortunately. Quarterback-driven league, what can you do about it? Should I probably just be called the most valuable quarterback? But whatever, they don't listen to me. All right. Well, that's all of our predictions for awards. We didn't predict Walter Payton Man of the Year

because it's not really a statistical thing. It's off the field achievements. But shout out to Dak Prescott who got the award. That's a good thing. He was very charitable giving other teams the ball, I tell you what. Jesus. Although all jokes aside, congrats to Dak. Yeah, that's a very good thing to, you know.

It's not anything on the field, but it's, you know, it's a great award to get. Exactly. It's like, you could argue that, like, it's, like, huge. It's like, what, it's like, trying to think of it's like, you're, I mean, not like being a great player, but being, like, a great person, which is, like, a lot of people forget is also huge, because you see, like, football players acting horrifically off the field. Then you got someone like Dak who actually does good work exactly he's a good guy he's a good guy absolutely absolutely and also we we get on Dak Prescott a lot for the down year that he had but he is

generally a pretty good quarterback yeah he's not he may's borderline, may not even be top 10, but he was still – people forget he threw 40 touchdown passes last year. Not this past year, but the year before that. And this year he wasn't bad either. For missing, what was it, five, six games, he still had a – he had 25 touchdown passes to 14 interceptions. That's high. And over 4,000 yards. That's still like, by his standards, that's a down year,

but that's still a good year. That's not bad. Just everybody gets on the Cowboys just because they're the Cowboys. Well, to be fair, the fans do bring it upon the team. Exactly. That's kind of why I almost feel bad for the Cow fans do bring it upon the team. Exactly. That's kind of why I almost feel bad for the Cowboys in general. And the players.

Then again, Jerry Jones doesn't do much to help either, if I'm being honest. Oh, he doesn't at all. Absolutely not. And he's always been kind of a villain in the NFL's eyes because he didn't do much to help their dynasty back in the nineties. Who was their, who was their quarter? Who was their head coach? They had, who was it? They fired.

Was it Tom Landry or Jimmy Johnson? One of the two, one of the two or both. I mean, how do you fire one of those guys? Either of them. That just, that just makes no sense to me, but that was, that's a, that's a bygone era by far. I mean, 25 years ago, quarter of a century. All right, we're getting off topic, but do you have any other thoughts before we end the show tonight?

No, I have decided I do not. All right, guys, tune in tomorrow to our Super Bowl special. We have favorite game foods. We have game picks. We have a full preview to our Super Bowl special. We have favorite game foods. We have game picks. We have a full preview of the Super Bowl. We've got favorite Super Bowl memories, prop bets, all of that fun stuff in our third annual Super Bowl special in a collaboration with Down to the Wire.

Make sure you guys go check that out. That will be coming out soon. We saw you guys' fan box responses with all of your Super Bowl memories. They're all great ones, and we can't wait to preview them and give you guys a nice good old shout-out. But anyways, that will do it for us tonight. Thank you for listening to us. We have new episodes out on Tuesdays and Fridays at 7.30 p.m.

Eastern Standard Time. Be sure to subscribe to our YouTube channel. We also have all our episodes available on Spotify, Spreaker, Apple Podcasts, iHeartRadio, Google Podcasts, and so much more. Also be sure to follow our Instagram at FumbleRooski underscore podcast to keep up with our podcasts and the latest coverage on the NFL. Otherwise, we'll see you next week. Over and out.