The Fumblerooski Podcast - Familiar Trends -Ep 209 The Fumblerooski Podcast

Episode Date: September 27, 2023

Are the Dolphins contenders? Are the Texans ahead of schedule in their rebuild? What is wrong with the Patriots offense? Which teams were the best and worst performers from week 2? Adam Wright and Chris Costich host special guest Kyle Finamore to discuss these topics and more!

Here's Edelman broken up and the pass is no sign yet. Edelman comes down with a football and they're saying it's a catch. It's a catch! It's a catch! Sideline! Touchdown! Unbelievable! Plenty of ups and downs. It was an absolute roller coaster for week three of the nfl

this is the fumble ruski podcast by power 88 and secret weapon consulting i'm adam right with chris kostich as i mentioned guys we have a great episode planned for you tonight uh the dolphins most notably had a wild wild win over the Broncos in a historic blowout. We're going to talk about some upsets. A lot of them happened this week. Chris is going to kick off some new segments. And joining us to cover all of this, we have special guest for the first time, Kyle Finnamore. So, Kyle, thanks for joining the show, dude.

Why don't you introduce yourself to our listeners? Yeah, I appreciate you having me on. I'm really excited to be here. I've gotten to know you pretty well. It's fun and I've talked a lot of football together. So, to be able to do it here is going to be fun. Ooh. It was working before the show started.

It was working before the show. Your connection is a little off. You sounded a little bit like a robot there. That was – holy crap. Can you hear us right now? Can you – Yeah. On my end. Oh end oh no try it again

all right can you hear me that's that's better right now right now yeah i don't know what happened but in the beginning it was um yeah i don't know it was like still kind of loading for me so i don't know if it just was lagging behind i don't know you're good now i everything's synced up now do you want to start again just real quick just quick introduction quick rundown of your life yeah yeah let's uh let's try that again we can edit that out um cool yeah so uh thanks for having me on adam i uh i've gotten to know you pretty well over the last few months and talked a lot of football together. So definitely excited to be on here and talk about it.

You know, I played football growing up all throughout my youth in high school. So, you know, just loved playing and now talking about the game, trying to watch as many nfl games as possible especially the patriots as we'll get to later so uh yeah appreciate you having me on absolutely man uh and uh from my understanding big patriots fan as well three of us all three yeah patriots fans yeah usually you would think there'd be a little bit of debate between fans of different teams, but I guess it's all right to get one team's perspective for now. Yeah, we'll get our resident Ravens fan in his bias soon, in a couple of weeks.

All right, guys. Well, we're going to kick off the show so the dolphins um so they blew the doors off of the visiting broncos in a historic victory how historic they dropped 70 points on them and won in a 50 point victory to a tongue of iloa is off to an another incredible start to the season, just like he did last year. It's my dog over there. Over 300 yards, four touchdown passes. He lit it up. So, all right.

We talked about this around this time last year with CJ on the show more often. He's been, he's still in school, but Chris, I'll start with you. How are we feeling so far about this Dolphins team, about possibly being contenders again? I'm feeling pretty confident, honestly. I mean, this team is built for speed and everyone knew it, speed kills. But man, I mean, then again, you also are talking about a Broncos team that has a really bad D coordinator and Vance Joseph. It seems like it's really a coaching thing now for the Broncos to start to

get away from the dolphins for a moment, but you know, you got Russell Wilson actually performing. It's two straight weeks where he's either over 300 yards or under 300 yards so that's definitely a coaching thing over there uh for the Dolphins like geez they I mean to go on top of the 70 points they also set the record for most total yards in a game as well it's 726 They had 350 yards on the ground. It's not like we're talking about Tyreek Hill having a career game. He's had seven catches, 150 yards.

That's just another Sunday to him. That's the even crazier part. And Jalen Waddell wasn't even in the game for I think half the game. I forget when he actually came out. And the run game was just dominant the entire way a team is built for success and looking at the rest of their schedule too and this might sound a little bit funny but warm weather teams don't normally do well in the cold weather and i'll bring up this stat from the bucks who bull run in o2 they had never won a playoff game in cold weather up until they beat philly in the nfc championship that year and it was like

below freezing whatever it was it was below 32 any temperature that was below 32 they had not won it and looking at the rest of the miami schedule the coldest games they really have to deal with is the jets in november and baltimore on new year's eve and maybe we'll say washington december 3rd there's not a ton of games that they'll have to really deal with the cold weather especially the division games because they already got done with the pats game the pats home game they're dealing with the bills this week so i think that they could definitely run amok on this on the rest of this schedule especially those colder away games are very beatable teams yeah i i wonder if it's it's i wonder if this is

the doing of the um of the schedule makers because you'll notice that most of their games this late in the season against cold-weather teams, they're at home. The cold-weather teams are visiting them, which actually helps them as well. And if this team finishes with a high seed, right? If they finish with a high too yeah then they're going to they're going to end up hosting some playoff games which is the cold weather is not even going to be a problem then you're going to vegas then you're going to vegas it can't get much easier it's man it's i have my reservations for the, for the Dolphins, but Kyle, what are your thoughts?

Yeah, definitely. I think one thing I mentioned to you earlier was, you know, my thoughts on the Dolphins being a little, little overhyped in a way. I think, you know, they, they've obviously been just scorching teams on offense. But, you know, you kind of look back to some of their earlier performances. I think, you know, week one, the Chargers are typically a team that you see give up a lot of points on defense. And then even, you know, week two against the Patriots, I think the Patriots actually played them pretty well considering, you know, how dominant that offense has been. So I think, you know, the key to everything they've done is

to just being able to get the ball out as quick as possible, get it to guys like Tyreek, get it to guys like Waddle, even those running backs who have been pretty solid. And, you know, we'll see how long that can be sustained. You know, eventually I feel like kind of similar to what happened last year. I think they started something similar to this, obviously not 70 points, but I think they got off to a hot start and then, you know, came back down to earth a little bit and were a little bit streaky. So I'm just, you know, and I know Tua's injury was a part of that as well.

But I don't know. I think, you know, I think they're definitely one of the top teams in the league right now. But, you know, I'll just slow the roll a little bit from my end personally. I think, you know, putting up 70 points is impressive in any NFL game. Obviously, it doesn't happen every, every week, but you know, I do think the Broncos were a little complicit in that being, you know, just kind of given up on like every time you saw them on the screen, it was, you know, touchdown, touchdown. They just, they just Broncos were letting them run all over the field. So it was, it was, you know, I almost think the 70 was a little more because of the Broncos.

Obviously, I think the Dolphins would have won that game pretty easily. But even when they put the backups in, it was like one play, 75 yards, touchdown. So it was crazy to watch, even without Jalen Waddell on the field, who's obviously one of their most dynamic players. And, you know, historic for them. I do think they're going to be a good team moving forward. And I think the health of Tua is a big factor in that. And I think they've purposely tried to make him get rid of the ball quickly, which has

definitely been working for him. But, you know, I do think there's a chance, you know, they could not continue as this hot as the season goes down and teams start to, you know, get a little more film, see this offense in action and come up with different ways to defend them. to address your point on kind of pumping the brakes on the dolphins because they have gotten a lot of hype in the in the early going of this season and they granted they have been explosive but they were explosive last year what sunk them their offensive line that allowed to a tongue of their quarterback to get to sustain not one but two concussions during the span of last year. So what did they do to address it? Really nothing this year.

So out with Austin Jackson, who only started eight games last year, in with Isaiah Wynn, and then on top of that, Teron Armstead, their prized free agent left tackle they added, he hasn't even started a game this year yet. So that's a little bit of a problem that their offensive line is kind of in shambles right now. So yeah, they're blowing out some teams right now. They're doing really well, but I want to see how this offensive line holds up through the, through the duration of the year.

Cause as you mentioned, um, the, the dolphins last year were really good. Um, I have the exact numbers, um, the, in the games where Tua started for the first half of the season, eight and oh, the only three games they lost in the first half of the year, Tua wasn't even in the game. And then he sustained another concussion. Then they started losing more games because the kid wasn't right. Then they shut him down for the rest of the year, barely made the playoffs.

And what looked like an explosive year for the Dolphins ended up going to waste. So what they need to do is work on this offensive line, which they didn't do this off season. So I'm a little worried about that, but if they hold up, if it ends, if it turns out that they can actually keep two on his feet and not get him killed, then the sky's the limit for this Dolphins team. And we've had a reservation. Chris, you and I have had our reservations about the Bills the past couple of years. If there is a team to rise up to the occasion

and challenge this Bills team, it's going to be the Dolphins if they can stay healthy. Yeah, and I think that the main thing, too, with the Dolphins is probably a little bit inexperiency. I mean, granted, you've got Tyree kill Superbowl champion. Can't take that away from them, but you got guys like Tua and Jalen Waddle that make up other guys like those two that are on the dolphins team that can't make up for the playoff,

at least playoff experience matters well. So I think that might also end up tying in maybe at some point. That's why I would probably like the Bills more in a playoff run type of scenario potentially, but that also depends on the way that the Dolphins play from here on out. Well, yeah. And well, also another thing to add onto that is if the dolphins win the division, they're hosting a series between series, a matchup between the bills and the dolphins.

And at that point, if, if the dolphins, again, this is a big, if, if they're healthy, then it's advantage dolphins. If the bills have to travel, um, if the bills Bills have to travel into Miami. We've seen how the Patriots were during their prime Super Bowl contending years, a cold weather team going into Miami. It was always late in the season. They also always lost. So that's going to be a problem that the Bills have. And also not a very good cold weather team either, I might add. No. For a team in Buffalo, you'd think they'd be a little more equipped for it.

Yeah. And I can tell you exactly why that they have the issues here, not to go too far off topic. They're a vertical offense that doesn't have a very good running game. So when the weather gets cold and the wind starts swirling all over the place, you can't just throw the ball all over the place because you're not going to be as accurate. The wind's going to take that ball.

Especially with a guy like Josh Allen that loves to go for the deep ball. I mean, we talk about the reason for his turnovers. That's a reason for it right there is he loves the deep ball. He loves the big shots. So, yeah, that doesn't fare well for cold-weather play. Yeah, so we wanted to use this segment to segue kind of into Chris's trivia segment that he just started last week. So you wanted to go off of the, this dolphins matchup.

What do you got? So I'm going to have you to guess. So obviously, as I mentioned, the dolphins set the record for most or for total yards in a single game at 726. And I wanted to have you guys name the last four teams to crack the last four teams in this decade to crack over 600 yards. So I'll give you some hints. I'll give you some hints. Okay. One is from 2012.

One is from 2014. One is from 2016. And one is from 2014 one is from 2016 and one is from 2013 okay 2013 i'm gonna go the broncos what was that 2013 i'm gonna go either the broncos or the saints you are right about the saints i'll give you more points to say the matchup. Oh, man. I'm going to say it was against the Broncos. I don't know if they face each other, but no. It was not the Broncos. They played the Dallas Cowboys.

Saints put up 625 yards of total offense. 49-17 was the final score. Okay. In 2014, you said, right? Yep. I'm going to go with the Steelers. You're on a roll, dude. Wait a second.

Was it against the Colts? Yes, it was. I remember this matchup. Let's go. 31-34, final score, 639 total yards yards rothlisberger at 522 in the air all right all right there we go what other years do we have here you got 2019 and 2012 2012 is a funny one in my opinion 2019 2012 okay 2012 think of a quarterback that was disgusting from, like, 2010 to 2012. Like, this was his last year of being – or maybe 2010, 2013.

Ooh. A quarterback who was – so you said a quarterback who was disgusting from those years okay wasn't good before but those were his prime years basically wasn't good before okay my mind wants to go to rg3 i don't know why it's not rg3 you got drafted 2012 oh you got drafted okay i'm thinking you know i have a couple quarterbacks in mind um and before that you said he wasn't good right no he was back up prior to that he was a backup oh he was a backup is Is this? Oh, no. I want.

Oh, no, no, no. Aaron Rodgers. Nope. Aaron Rodgers' prime was past that, man. Come on. Rodgers was a backup for three years under Brett Favre. So I was thinking, okay. And then the one year that he started, the first year he started,

he was absolute dog water yeah all right i'll i'll slim it down for you the backup he backed up um he was a backup for the falcons backup for the backup for the falcons Falcons. Would it be Matt Schaub? Yes, it is. The game in question, they beat the Jaguars in 2012. This was when Schaub threw for 527 yards

and five touchdowns. Jesus. I never would guess him to be on this list. That was a good one. One more. Yeah. That was a good one. That was a good one. One more. Man.

All right. One more. 2019. So my mind goes right to, I don't know if it was the right year, but it was the Chiefs in L.A. versus the Rams where it was like 54 to 51. Was that the right year? That's the right year, just wrong game. Great guess, though, because that would come to mind as well.

Wasn't that an 18? Actually, yeah, that was an 18. So, yeah, right idea, just wrong game. Okay, I'm trying to think about the teams that had some high-flying offenses that year. My mind goes to, let's say, they were a ground attack, but let's say the Ravens. Yep.

Man, you guys really killed this one. Let's go ahead. That was a good one. I like this one. So this was the season, obviously, that the Dolphins tanked for two a year. So the Ravens beat them 59-10. Lamar had 379. Ravens got 643 passing yards.

It doesn't say if Lamar had 379. I'm not going to look that far into it. But 265 on the ground in total for the team. I forgot about that game. Yeah, and marquise brown showed out too yeah that was that was week one that was his breakout game yeah and then remember they started they went they went and started starting um uh uh jesus uh ryan fitzpatrick and they were winning games at that point and it's like the dolphins fans were all like stop winning games we want to uh yeah turns out cincinnati didn't even want to anymore they wanted joe burrow who's who just came out of nowhere at lsu

yeah and you know also to have felt in number which also – I was just about to say, Tua did fall in that draft too. Yeah. It was the hip injury, and then on top of that, Burrow just turned out to outperform him that year. Yeah. A kid who is – We want to – Sorry, you can finish.

What were you going to say? I was just saying, like, a kid in Tua who was being followed as a draft prospect since his freshman year, kind of like Trevor Lawrence. But we do want to move on. All right. So a couple of upsets were made this past week. We're going to cover them all.

This is the Fumble Rooski podcast. Hamilton comes down with a football, and they're saying it's a catch. This is close! To Gates! Sideline! Touchdown! Unbelievable! Slings it way down the field to Watkins! Sammy Watkins for the touchdown! welcome back to the fumble ruski podcast by power 88 secret weapon consulting adam right chris kostich special guest kyle finnamore all right so this was a week for upsets it really was and so most notably we had in the one o'clock slate colt the visiting colts beat

the baltimore ravens 22 to 19 then we also had the visiting texans beating the jaguars 37 to 17 and also the Cowboys were, uh, the visiting Cowboys beat 16 to 28 by the Arizona Cardinals who are basically in the tank of Palooza for, uh, Mr. Caleb Williams over there in USC. Um, any takeaways from these upsets, Chris, what do you got? CJ Stroud. Dude, kid's a dog. I mean, it's not like he's going stupid, right? I mean, week two was a really good game for him. I don't even remember who they played for some reason.

But he had a great game last week, just a little under 300 yards, but right now he's averaging 302 yards, four touchdowns, no interceptions, a 98 rating. All of the first three games that he's played in above a 90 rating, 64.5% completion percentage, seven and a half yards per completion. This kid's making the right plays, not turning the ball over, and that's what you want out of a rookie quarterback. And we were talking about it as well. The GM, I can't think of his name for the life of me at the moment. Nick Casario.

Yeah. Nick Casario. Wait, Casaro? Nick Casario. So Nick Casario. Nick Casario. I was blanking on it for some reason. We were talking about it earlier, but Nick Casario, obviously, Adam,

I'm going to steal this point from you, but yeah, he's done an amazing job. There's a reason why he was in the Pats organization for a while. And they've built a great team. DeMario, DeMario Ryan for some reason. D'Amico Ryan? D'Amico Ryan. Dude, I am. There's something wrong with me today. D'Amico Ryan's head coach of the Texas. Everyone was saying he was going to be like a bottom three head coach. I mean, obviously he had some other people sitting otherwise, but he's turned out to be a pretty solid coach.

Definitely the right guy for CJ Stroud. And this is what you want a first round your first round draft pick to be the type of situation that you want them to be in is a team that is actually built for a pretty solid long run they also got some pretty good picks coming up as well next year's draft i think Adam was talking about that earlier. But I think this is definitely a great statement win for the Texans. Yeah. Well, like, I mean, what I was alluding to with the Patriots hanging on to Casario for so long is that the Texans already had him a year before they actually got him.

But they filed tampering charges to the league in order to keep him. And Casario did not want to be in New England anymore. He did not like the conservative approach that Bill was making. A year later, Casario's out of there. And now, I mean, the stuff that he has done over there, you know, you had the absolute crapshoot situation with Deshaun Watson. The kid, because of his off-field issues, became untradeable borderline. And you still eventually, at some point, got three first-round picks out of him. And you turned them all into studs.

C.J. Stroud and Will Anderson already, right out of the gates, turned them all into studs cj stroud and will anderson already right out of the gates has turned into a stud and you've really you've really made that offensive line a safe spot for stroud as well with titus howard and laramie tonsil on your bookends and you address the you address the interior in the past couple of drafts as well. I mean, all they need right now is a wide receiver one. This team may not be ready for contention, but the fact is Nick Casario was clearly the right guy for the job, and the Texans are a team that is on the up and up right now.

They may not be contenders this year, but with this upset over the jaguars they've at least shown that they they have something to look forward to in the in the next couple of years and they may have found the next guy in cj stroud i would say that this could be very similar to like what the bills were going through in the early years of josh allen i would say too was you know you had a new coach in sha coach in Sean McDermott and you had this new rookie quarterback and Josh Allen, your team's not ready yet, but you got the pieces in place to build for the long run. And that's where the bills finally got to.

So potentially we could see the same thing from the Texans. Kyle, you got anything to add? Yeah. Yeah. I'm not sure where Adam went, but yeah, no, definitely. I agree. I think they've, they've definitely made strides in addressing a lot of the needs that, that they've had. They've seems like they've, you know, put some, put some good things around CJ Stroud, you know, obviously when good things around C.J. Stroud. You know, obviously when you get a young quarterback, a young prospect,

you know, not all the time is it going to be easy for him to just kind of step in and, you know, be incredible. So I think, you know, some of the additions I like, you know, they drafted a running back and damian pierce who's been very good over the past few seasons um some of the wide receivers that they've drafted over the past few years have been good i know nico collins uh tank dell has been showing some some promise there um you know could one of them jump into that wide receiver one position like adam was saying? Maybe.

You know, who knows with them? They're still young. But I think, you know, just to be, you know, a lot of people were picking the Texans to be bottom of the league, bottom feeders again, and that might still be true. It's only week three. But, you know, they've shown that they can compete. They can compete in their division at least. And, you know,

I think they, they have shown that there's, there's something to build off of especially offensively. And, and, you know, like you said, D'Amico Ryan's, he's seems like, seems like he could be a coach that could, could bring him to, you know, bring him to some good places. And I think,, obviously, I think the Jaguars are the favorite to win this division going into the season. But I do think they exposed some holes that they have. They haven't performed as well as we thought.

The Colts have Anthony Richardson, who's younger, and we don't know much about him, how he's going to develop. And then you got the Titans who, you know, they've always been around competing, but, you know, it seems like they've fallen off a little bit from what they normally are. this year if the Texans can kind of continue on off of this performance um continue building around uh CJ Stroud and and you know putting up performances like this you know maybe they could be in contention for the division as early as this year Adam you're muted whoops i'm not completely sold on this year um for the division just based off i'm just not i'm still in on the jaguars for this year so far mean, I know that they haven't been great early on, but there's still a lot to like on this Jaguars team. I think maybe they need a little bit of time to gel. But they're still just, they're one and two. They just need a little bit of time to work things out.

But what this Texans team has done has been,'s it's been encouraging I think that's one way to put it um and maybe they could be maybe they could be competitive if they know what's best for them they may want to at least um work on more their development than winning right now I'm not saying like go into that locker room and say like we don don't need to win yet, but I mean, like don't kill yourself trying to do it, you know, because they have a good offensive line. They have a good, they have a good quarterback who looks like he,

they looks like they might have something there. I mean, don't rush it. Don't rush players back who are hurt. Work on development. I can agree with that. Yeah. And like, I mean, yeah, they're not going to make a huge run at it. I mean, their ceiling at the start of the year was fourth, their floor was fourth and with this win now you could confidently even go

into next year and say, well, maybe their ceiling could be second. Or maybe even this year, if they string a couple more wins in the next few weeks, which I kind of doubt that they will. But I mean, just looking real quick at their schedule coming up, they got Pittsburgh this week, Atlanta next week, Saints in three weeks, and then the bye week, you could easily potentially at least get a pretty solid game out of Pittsburgh. You could potentially be Atlanta. And seeing that Derek Carr's out for New Orleans, you could potentially even beat the Saints. I wouldn't say that they will,

but I think that they could potentially make these next three weeks pretty competitive. They could. I'm buying all the stock on the Texans for next year. They could be a trap game for some contending teams this year. I think that's the nicest way to state things for the Texans, but they look better than they look better than they, than they have in the, in years past, which is good, you know? All right. So looking at the other upsets, this for the Colts, it would be more encouraging if it was Anthony Richardson at the helm, it was Gardner Minshew. So it's like

you didn't really show too much for the future because we know it's not going to be Gardner Minshew. It's going to be Anthony Richardson, who in his own right has looked pretty good. It's kind of the same deal with the Cardinals. You beat them with Joshua Dobbs. Are you actually going to contend with Joshua Dobbs? No, you're either going to get Kyler Murray back and you trade the number one overall pick or you trade Kyler Murray and you use the number one overall pick for Caleb Williams, right? There's no future where Joshua Dobbs is, and even some of their pass catchers are going to do anything for you. So it's it like it's more those those losses are or those just those matchups say more about the teams that lost more than the teams that won unlike the texans where it's like okay you showed

something here the cardinals it just took advantage of the the cowboy stupidity yeah that's the best way to describe that yeah absolutely yeah i agree with that i think i think it it tells you way more about the cowboys and just kind of what they've been over the time that dak prescott's been there i mean i know it's not all on him but during his time they just they always you know they always have so much promise their defense looked great um the the first two weeks uh the offense was looking pretty solid as well and it it's just kind of been the story of of the cowboys they you know they always have these letdown games um where you know they're big favorites they should easily take care of business against these teams that kind of have no business winning.

And they, you know, they give the game away. I mean, you know, give credit to the Cardinals. They played well. Josh Dobbs is that playing out of his mind. I can't imagine that's going to keep up the whole season. But, you know, the Cowboys, they just they always have these high expectations and just, you know, never seem to to live up to them. Now, I'm sure, you know, it seems like I still think they can be a playoff team and maybe slip in there, maybe win the division, even if they can somehow catch up to the Eagles. But, you know, you really don't expect that they're going to be able to go in and win a playoff game.

They just don't do it, and these are examples of it because they have these letdown games against bad competition, and I don't know how they're going to get out of it. It seems like kind of the same old story for the Cowboys this year. And I still want to give Josh Dobbs his roses, though. He went 17 for 21 21 it's not like he got completely carried or anything 17 for 21 190 190 189 yards and a touchdown so it's not like he didn't do his job it's granted we're still talking about a quarterback that's

a what we're going to call a transition quarterback, quote unquote, and he's not going to be the starter. It's like, like we said, it's either going to be Kyler Murray or they go to Caleb Williams and trade Kyler Murray, but we never really know what's going to end up happening with that. But yeah, the Cowboys, Cowboys are just going to Cowboy. I said it before, they're just going to lose to the 49ers in San Francisco in the divisional round. That's, that's what their fate has always been lined up from week one. I think Brett stated it best. It's a team that could drop 40 on one of the best teams in football

one week, and then lay an egg against one of the worst teams in football the next like you just don't know what you're going to get from the cowboys year in year out and i think it goes down to ownership and coaching right they they prioritize talent over the execution of the talent if that makes any sense right like you know they you brought in all of these talented pieces over the years but your coaching has been lackluster so if you if there's no execution there it's just all stupidity just running through the motions right you're not going to do anything there there's only so much cd lamb can do without any good coaching this is what amari this is why amari cooper is out the door

right i mean there's there's really just not much you can do there. And it's not like they beat themselves up. It's not even like they beat themselves with turnovers either. The only turnover they had was the interception from Dak. And let alone besides that, he still had a pretty decent day throwing. 25 for 40, touchdown, 270 yards. 270 yards yeah 249 excuse me but regardless it's not like he completely blew it it's not like it's on deck it's it's coaching it's a whole team thing it's the aura of the cowboys cowboys gonna cowboy yeah i think yeah i think mike mccarthy plays into that also you know he's he's kind of been

through his time with the uh packers and now just his teams just whatever it is you know whatever whatever he's doing to to coach um these players up just isn't isn't good enough you know there's you know maybe it's a lack of discipline or something like that. But it seems like, you know, this kind of team that has a lot of promise and doesn't get it done aside from that one year the Packers won it with them, it's always kind of been just falling just short. Yeah. Yeah, Cowboys are going to Cowboy.

Cowboy, their defense is i mean they they their coach it's just their execution is really bad like they've had talent over the years so we'll we'll have to see where where it all goes um and if they get their head screwed on straight in the next decade or two um yeah all right so we got to move on going Going to move on to Chris's new segment. We've got top five, top and bottom five for each week, starting in week three, top five teams and bottom five, who put up the best performances. 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 This is what makes Sideline Touchdown Unbelievable! Slings it way down the field to Watkins!

Sammy Watkins for the touchdown! Welcome to the Fumble Rooski podcast by Power 88 Secret Weapon Consulting. Adam Wright, Chris Kostich, special guest Kyle Finnemore. All right, so Chris is going to give us his top five and bottom five performers for week three. So Chris, what do you got? So I do want to stress before I get into this, this is in power rankings. This is just week three, who I thought was the best from week three. So we'll start with the top, let you guys speak your piece, and then I'll go to the bottom.

Top five, Dolphins, obviously, 70-21. 49ers beat the Giants 30-12 on Thursday Night Football. Bills smoked the Commanders. Chiefs smoked the Bears. Texans, don't need to go into that too much. We were just talking about them. So, I'll leave the floor to you, fellas. You go ahead. Yeah, sure i think uh overall you know pretty pretty much agree with that i think right now the you know from from week three those those performances by those teams um especially you know the bills chiefphins, and 49ers just kind of solidifies themselves

as probably the top four teams in the league if you look at it as a whole. And those performances, you know, really obviously prove that. Now, you know, they didn't play the best competition, but, you know, those are what the good teams are supposed to do. They're supposed to take care of business in a big way against lesser competition. So, so that's what they did. So don't, don't have much of a disagreement there. I think, you know, obviously we talked about the Texans and I liked their performance,

but one team that, you know, I think deserves a shout out, you know, could, could potentially be be be pretty good down the stretches uh the browns i thought they their defense uh has been showing a lot stopping teams um you know not sure what the the text the titans are excuse me uh this year they they won uh they beat the titans 27-3 um you, they seem like they have some struggles, but they totally shut them down. Historically, you know, the Titans have been a pretty good operation. So, you know, they shut them down pretty good.

And, you know, Deshaun Watson, say what you want about him. We could talk about him all day. You know, he's had his ups and downs this year. But I think, you know, if he can somehow get back to, like, you know, he's had his ups and downs this year. But I think, you know, if he can somehow get back to like, you know, a portion of what he was before he got traded there, you know, I think that team could be dangerous. And I thought they had a good performance this week. Kyle, I was definitely thinking of the Browns when I was making this list, too. So I'm very happy to have the Browns as like an honorable mention for this top five. I'd have to agree with you that, you know, Deshaun Watson obviously hasn't been looking great,

but the rest of the Browns team in general has been looking great. You know, you got two guys on the Titans following around, Miles Garrett on either side of the line. It's, you know, when you're putting so much attention on one guy you can you can also allow for more of your team to really prosper as well and with and the Browns have shown they have a pretty stand-up defense especially from week one on and I mean granted last week when they played the Steelers it wasn't great they still looked pretty solid against a pretty bad Steelers offense. But in general, I could agree with you that Browns could definitely make a run

in this division. All right. I have a couple things with this list. So the 49ers, I'm never going to bash a team that beats a team that they should beat, but I'm also not going to give that the best performance of this week. I think teams that I would interchange with the 49ers, Bills or Chiefs, who all kind of beat teams that they should beat i could put in the seattle seahawks over the uh over the uh carolina panthers they also beat a

team they kind of should beat but the seahawks they started off the season oh and one and they're still playing with geno smith which is pretty cool. The fact that that guy is actually now a competitive quarterback and not just a career backup anymore, that really is something. And the fact that this guy is still, he is starting in this two-game winning streak to prove that last year wasn't just a one-off, It's pretty cool. Another team I have, the Pittsburgh Steelers, who have now won two in a row since being blown out by San Francisco in week one. It was against the Raiders, who only have one win so far. But the Steelers weren't really supposed to be much this year.

They have some good pieces, but they're a little bit behind schedule. They're not supposed to really be a contending team yet, and they probably still won't. They could at least be competitive, and Kenny Pickett had himself a pretty good game. He threw for two touchdowns. He had about just over 230 yards, believe i'm trying to pull up his statistics right now can't exactly find it but um he had around those numbers in a passer rating over 100 so kenny pickett's kind of showing me that he could actually be a pretty good quarterback in this league he's starting to settle in after that putrid week one performance. And I think the Steelers are a team who could be competitive and, dare I say, in a couple of years be contenders.

See, I kind of wanted to put the Steelers. I would – the reason why I didn't put the Steelers and the Seahawks was because the Seahawks, I feel like they definitely could have won that game by more. They should have put up the pointsahawks, I feel like they definitely could have won that game by more. They should have put up the points that they did, but they should have put up fewer points is what I thought. That game shouldn't have been a 10-point game in my opinion. The spread probably says otherwise, but the Panthers are not good at all.

The Steelers, I probably would have put them in if josh mcdaniels was an idiot and kick a field goal instead of go for it on fourth so i that's kind of a reason why i didn't put the steelers in was they kind of got saved by another man's idiocracy um but those are all valid points though i'm not gonna knock you for those points those are all valid points, though. I'm not going to knock you for those points. Those are very valid points, and I can agree with you on that. But for, you know, obviously the Chiefs, that could definitely be interchangeable just because of the team they played. The Bills could be interchangeable as well for who they played as well but i think that was a little bit more impressive because of how that defense played you know they forced a ton of turnovers on sam howell

they they just made his life hell for the entirety of 60 minutes so that's kind of why i ended up keeping the bills in there yeah well like well, they put up good performances. All I'm saying is these are premier teams in this league, right? The Chiefs and Bills are supposed to be in contention, as well as the 49ers. And the Seahawks and Steelers are kind of in that middle tier where we're not sure exactly what they're going to be like, but the more wins they put up, the better their case is to be pushing towards the top which is kind of why i like their performance

is a little more over um the premier teams just blowing out the the cellar dwelling bears right so that's kind of my argument there um i can agree with that yeah Yeah. Anyways, with that being said, we'll go to the bottom five. Broncos, obvious reasons. Kyle, you mentioned this, the Titans. I also put in the Commanders and the Bears, mostly because the Bears just seem lifeless. They don't want to be there anymore. That kind of seems like the general

vibe. Commanders for how well Sam Howell played last week. Prior, I feel like that definitely wasn't great, but like I said, great Bills defensive performance.

And also through the Jets in here because even though Zach Wilson didn't turn the Jets in here, because, you know, even though Zach Wilson didn't turn the ball over at all, he still, that's basically the main reason why he's on here or why the Jets are on here because Zach Wilson didn't play great. You have Jets teammates fighting with each other on the sidelines.

It's all going to hell for them right now. I like how you picked teams who are all just, they had higher expectations than what has actually happened. They weren't just teams that were just supposed to be bad and are bad, right? The Bears, most notably, I mean, they made a ton of additions in this offseason, and they were banking on Justin Fields to be the guy.

He clearly is not. And there are some people in our comment sections who are trying to blame the coaching and the GM. Did you see the smartass from this morning who commented? Somebody got all sarcastic. The other guy was at least respectful. There was some douchebag who was just trying to be a smarty pants, thinks that he's saying something cool or something.

Did you see my response? I'm basically like, we will continue to blame it on the quarterback who misses three guys on every single play. But it's the same thing with the Broncos, with Russell Wilson, the Commanders, with Sam Howell. How do you throw four picks after, after putting up a clinic against, against well, geez, it was against the Broncos last week. And then the Titans, I'm sorry. We keep talking.

I would say pump the brakes. I would say, I would say pump the brakes on the Russell Wilson, but just because like, it's not like it's completely on him. I would say pump the brakes on the Russell Wilson, but just because it's not like it's completely on him. It's definitely a full-team issue. Obviously, there's the problems with Russell Wilson. I won't deny that, but he's at least making up for his lackluster performance from last season to start. It's not like he's what yeah hey yeah you finish your point i i pulled

up the comment right here oh oh oh uh you you can go with your comment so you want me to that was basically all i was gonna say all right this is this is just on the on the bears so it's kind of he said yeah don't blame the front office or the coaching staff crying face emoji crying laughing face emoji just the same results year after year different players different coaches same results but keep keep blaming the players and i said yes we will continue to blame the quarterback who routinely misses three open passes pass catchers per play see here here's the thing though like the like the guy yesterday in the comment section like he was being respectful he like he at least and i was you know it he obviously said that there's definitely a problem with fields but you should

probably look more into the deeper aspects and that's what I was trying to get across to the first guy was that, you know, we can, obviously there's something going on with the front office and coaching. There's, that's always been a thing and we won't ever deny that, but there comes a point where you have to start looking at the players as well. You know, it's especially your third year quarterback who yeah you can blame the coaches for him not developing but you know when you got lazy mechanics that's also on you man like you gotta you don't see lamar jackson taking lazy ass three

step drops and complaining about not having a wide one. He's not having wide receiver one, but he's still trying to do something about it. He's still going through everything at game pace, not college pace, not Ohio state pace. We're talking about the NFL piece. You know, it,

that would be my example. That was an example I did see on Tik TOK, but it's a great example because it proves my point. Tom Brady never took lazy three-step drops. Why should Justin Fields? That's exactly – I mean, you hit the nail right on the head there. But I'll just touch briefly on the other two teams. The Jets, boy, are they missing Aaron Rodgers right now.

But not only that, we're also kind of starting to see why Rodgers, I don't want to blame his injury on anybody, but I'm starting to see that offensive line the issue and potentially how Aaron Rodgers tore his Achilles. They didn't take the offensive line seriously this offseason to try and protect Aaron Rodgers. They couldn't get the tackle they wanted in the draft. So then they just blew it off and they went and got a linebacker

for some stupid reason. And now look where you are. I mean, I don't want to blame it on anybody, on the GM, on the offensive line's piss-poor performance, but you also can't ignore it. The Titans. Derrick Henry, I knew it was going to come at some point. He's fallen off a cliff.

When you have a running back who gets 300 carries per season and just bulldozes through guys routinely, eventually something's going to happen. He's going to give. I mean, that's the way it works with running backs. They age like milk. And Derrick Henry's no exception. I'm sorry.

And maybe he'll be a serviceable starting running back in this league for a few more years, but he sure as hell isn't going to be rushing for 2,000 yards in the next coming years. That's over. And it's hurting the Titans because clearly that whole offense ran through him. So what I like about this list is it's all teams who were supposed to be good and aren't and are the exact opposite seller dwelling teams now which is which is the

the textbook definition of a a bottom five performance so i like it yeah i i uh i like all those points so uh briefly there's one team i wanted to touch on that i think deserves to be in here because that kind of goes with what you were saying, Adam, with teams who had high expectations were supposed to be good. The Vikings, I think they're supposed to be good. They were supposed to – they went, I think, only lost like three games last year. And then all of a sudden, here they are sitting at 0-3. They had a chance to finally get a win this week.

And all of a sudden, you know, Kirk Cousins throws a terrible interception. They can't figure out a way to win. And I feel like the Vikings are, you know, been a huge disappointment. And this week was no exception. You know, it's just a team that, you know, should be, should be competing for their division and competing and going to the Super Bowl. And they, they, they can't come up clutch again. And I love Kirk Cousins. I watched the quarterback series.

He's a good guy, but he just, unfortunately he's not clutch enough to win in this league. He's just not. Yeah. And I like how you bring up Kirk Cousins because that guy in games where it does not matter at all in garbage time, holy crap, is that guy good. But when it matters most, boy, he falls apart. Like if this team ends up winning three games, he could end up throwing for 40 touchdowns and just like eight picks

and like 5,000 yards and be an MVP candidate. I wonder if that's even possible. I don't think – like the problem is there would never be an MVP on a championship – there would never be an MVP on a championship-level team because if you're an MVP, it's usually the quarterback. It's also a quarterback-driven league. So if you're putting up those statistics, chances are your team is winning. But what if the Vikings are an exception?

What if he actually throws for 50 touchdowns in 5,000 yards and he's actually an MVP candidate. Do they give the award to him? He's actually having an amazing season right now. I'm sorry. I'm obviously just jumping in. I had to take care of my dogs. Was Kyle saying that he would also throw in the Vikings into the bottom five,

I'm assuming? Yes. Yeah, that's exactly what I said. That's kind of what I was assuming. But, yeah, no, I can agree with everything that I heard in the last 30 seconds. Sorry that I missed the entire thing that you were saying, Kyle. But, no, I definitely agree. If, you know, Kirk Cousins is also what's holding this Vikings team on its legs still as well.

When you think about it, that's you could make a huge case that he's the reason why they're they've been in a lot of these games. And granted, he crump, great. He kind of crumbled on the last play of the game. You know, especially as a veteran quarterback, you kind of expect more. And those types of lapses, especially as a veteran quarterback is the reason why the Vikings aren't going to win a Superbowl with Kirk. I don't think he wins MVP if they're a losing team.

I don't think that would give it to him. That too. Not often. if they're a losing team. I don't think that would give it to them. That too. Listen. Not often. Not often do you see someone get awarded MVP and their team isn't the number one seed. You can even look at the NBA. James Harden and the Rockets, they weren't one seed.

They were like fifth or whatever, fifth or sixth or something like that. And James Harden wasvp candidate he lost yeah listen uh but hasn't hasn't james harden actually won an mvp he has won an mvp but that was when the rockets were like a top three seed but if he's putting up those numbers and they're not a top three seed do you think they can still win it because they're like are you saying the vikings like because i feel like if if kurt cousins like this is all wishful thinking like this is all like a hypothetical because i don't think he's throwing for 50 touchdowns but if that were to happen and he throws for 5k yards and it's all garbage time

points he at least has to be the runner-up for mvp right like there have been so few quarterbacks in the league's history who have thrown for 50 50 plus touchdowns only three you have to at least be looked at right yeah i mean technically you definitely could but i think that also comes down to if who's the casual viewer and who's actually watching the games too. Right. He wouldn't have our vote, but the general public. The general public, yeah. That's sometimes what matters is the general public,

not the guys that watch the game like you and me and Joe Buck and those guys, Donny SPN whatnot you know those guys would obviously say otherwise if they had the chance yeah otherwise rogers would not have won mvp in 21 it would have been the rightful winner which is tom brady all right i want to move on because we are getting way up there in time um to uh kyle's guest segment where he's going to talk about the patriots offense and their faults that's next this is the fumble ruski podcast here's edelman broken up in the past

is no sign yet. Edelman comes down with a football and they're saying it's a catch. This is hot. Takes. Sideline. 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 Sequel Weapon Consulting. Adam Wright, Chris Kostic, special guest, Kyle Finnamore. So for Kyle's guest segment this week, he is going to talk about the Patriots offense and exactly what is wrong with them. So, Kyle, what the hell is wrong with this Patriots team? Yeah, as I was saying earlier, I think the defense has shown that it's definitely a solid unit.

They've held some good teams the first two weeks in the Eagles and Dolphins to a lot less scoring than they've put up in their next two games. So I think with that defense, they're definitely good enough to win. I think they have some good young players in Christian Gonzalez, Keon White, some other guys that have proved that they can play in this league, and I think they have some good stuff to build on there. So the defense, not too worried about it. I think they'll be able to figure it out and play well enough

to hopefully keep them in games, and that's where the offense comes in. I think, you know, one of the biggest concerns heading into the season, most of the concerns that we kind of already had heading into the season are showing up on a weekly basis. It's kind of a lot of the same that we've seen over the last couple of years with, you know, the offensive line has been good and bad at times. They've had their moments where they've been okay. And they've had their moments where they've been bad. They've given up some pretty easy blitzes and stuff like that, that I think,

you know, over time, I think they can improve on. I'd still like to see them bring in maybe someone like a Lael Collins. I've heard some rumors about who, you know, has some talent. He's had some issues, but you know, any, any sort of talent they can get there to help out this offensive line would be great. But I, I, that's not even the biggest of my concerns. I think, you know, and they do need to work on running the ball. That's for sure. I think they have not run the ball nearly as well as we thought they would. That's always kind of been a strength of their offense.

And, you know, Stevenson's getting blown up in the backfield on a consistent basis. I will say Zeke Elliott's been looking okay. He has some burst, which I'm a little surprised about. I thought he was a little too big and old to have the kind of juice that he has now. So besides that, I think the number one concern and the number one issue with the offense is the receiving core. I think they have a couple guys who can maybe make some plays. Kendrick Bourne has shown some flashes. I think they have a couple guys who can maybe make some plays. Kendrick Bourne has shown some flashes. I think Demario Douglas, I like a lot. I think he could be – maybe he won't be Edelman,

but he could turn into that type of role where he can catch those short passes over the middle. And then even Hunter Henry, I've seen some good things from maybe they can get the tight ends involved more, but I think, you know, guys like Devante Parker, guys like even Kendrick Bourne to an extent, Juju Smith-Schuster I've been very disappointed with. I think the receivers have just, they just don't create enough separation.

They don't get off the ball. You don't see a ton of plays where they're wide open, getting separation from their defenders. And I think that's kind of held them back a little bit. And, you know, Mack Jones, everyone has an opinion on him. I think my kind of official take on Mack is, you know, he's not, you know, I think if you put him on the Dolphins, if you put him on the 49ers and an offense like that where he can kind of just take the ball, get rid of it quick, you know, I think he could put up similar numbers to guys like Tua, to guys like Brock Purdy.

I really think he could if he could just get the ball, get rid of it quick, easy reads, all that. Now, you know, we've seen in the first couple weeks he hasn't been able to go out and just win those games like we consistently saw with Brady over those years where, you know, they're always in it and he's able to kind of just put them over the top with a couple clutch plays, a couple clutch drives. I don't think he'll be that guy. And I think, you know, to be successful with him as the quarterback, you need playmaking receivers, playmaking running backs that he can just get the ball too quick. They make a move. They, you know, they make their defenders miss and get yards after the catch. And they just don't have that right now.

They didn't do enough to address that. I think there's been obviously opportunities in the draft to do that. And they've missed on guys like George Pickens and A.J. Brown even earlier than that. And I think one of the things i wish they had done is is bring in deandre hopkins i know you know everyone was talking about you know maybe we don't need him whatever people are saying we we definitely did need him i'm on the camp that we we could use a guy like that we could use a guy who you know he's maybe not going to create a ton of separation he's a little bit older now but i think you throw the ball to him he'll make the catch even, he's maybe not going to create a ton of separation. He's a little bit older now. But I think you throw the ball to him, he'll make the catch even when he's covered. And, you know, I just wish this offense had a little more, you know,

a little more speed and a little more reliability. I think, you know, there's not a ton of receivers that you can rely on besides, you know, maybe Kendrick Bourne on occasion and Hunter Henry that you know every time you call their number, they're going to make a play. So that's my number one concern for sure. I've always been in the camp of people who believes that they should try to address the wide receiver one position. I understand that Nikhil Harry didn't work out, but that doesn't mean you don't keep trying because how else are you going to get that number one target?

You're not always going to find the diamond in the rough in Rob Gronkowski or Julian Edelman or Wes Welker. Edelman still wasn't even a wide receiver one. He was always at his best when Rob Gronkowski was lined up opposite him. And he also had Tom Brady, who makes everyone look better. My issue is I think we need to stop addressing the defensive side of the ball so early in drafts because we have seen routinely Belichick finding these absolute gems of defensive backs in the late rounds. Asante Samuel and Jack Jones and Marcus Jones Jr. were all fourth round picks,

all very good corners in this league. You also had JC Jackson and Malcolm Butler, undrafted free agents, very good corners in this league and then like listen i love christian gonzalez as much as the next guy i i he's i'm i'm putting in an order for a jersey in it for him uh very soon and he's my pick for defensive rookie of the year great i still don't think they needed to pick him at number at number 17 overall another Another example, too. Or it was 19. It was 19, but still. But Jabril Peppers is another guy. We didn't even draft him.

We got him from the Giants. Yeah, he was taken in the second round. I think he was taken in the second round. He was taken in the second. And he's a great player for the Pats defense. That's another guy on the defense that they didn't even get from the draft. You know, just to go off of the guys that you named that were undrafted or drafted late, Patrick Chung, another guy.

Patrick Chung. Kyle Duggar. That's another guy. Kyle Duggar. D2 school. Yeah. Well, Kyle Duggar was still a first-round pick. My point in bringing those up is, yes, it was great that they found this elite-level,

number-one corner in this league, arguably the best corner in football in the next couple of years. That's all great, but I would have rather they used that pick on Zay Flowers or Jordan Addison or Jackson Smith and Jigma. That's a bigger need, and it's a need that, I know that Belichick can fill the defensive back or defensive end position in the later rounds. He's really good at that. He's awesome at drafting defense. That's one of the bright spots with him as a GM,

is that he's great at picking out great defensive guys. He's not good at the offense, so you have to make up for it by drafting earlier on in that draft. Maybe have some other minds who are more offensive-oriented to be kind of advisors for him. And then pick out Jordan Addison, who's clearly stuck in the shadow of Justin Jefferson right now in Minnesota. If he was a Patriot right now, he'd be our number one. If Zay Flowers was a Patriot, he'd be really good. Jackson Smith and Jigba, give him some time. He's been hurt and he's shown some flashes, right? Those are guys I would have wanted them to pick over Christian Gonzalez. I know a lot of people think differently because Christian Gonzalez has

been a freaking stud, but it doesn't mean I changed my point on this because there were two other positions that they needed much more than defensive back. No. And I completely agree with you. And that's what I was trying to say, you know, was that you got, they were able to get other really good players, not either from undrafted late in draft or not even drafted on your own team. And you just took them from someone else. We,

Bill definitely has that keen sense. And I totally agree with you that, you know, they definitely could have used it on a target. Granted, you know, I still believe in what we have in our wide receivers, not so much Juju.

I wish we never even got him to begin with. I believe that before the season even started. And also Tyquan Thornton is about to come back too. That's another pretty solid target for Mack to throw to. Another thing too, Matt Cate needs to chill out a little bit. If you look at his numbers next to Jalen Hurts' numbers, the only thing that jalen hertz has to him right now is the completion percentage that's the only thing he has on him

and besides that jalen hertz three touchdowns three interceptions mac jones five touchdowns two interceptions mac also has more yards than jalenrelevant stat. He has a higher rush per or yards per carry stat than Jalen Hurts right now too, which is kind of weird to think about. Yeah. I mean, well, Jalen Hurts is a rushing quarterback, so he kind of – That's kind of what he does is he sort of relies on his legs more, which is not a style of play that I agree with. That's why I said it was an

irrelevant stat that was kind of just like don't tell the lamar jackson fans that though yeah right they will mentally break down um yeah i mean like look i i don't hate their their other targets around them i don't hate them i think that i think they have a lot of twos. They don't have a one. And, like, what Kyle, I like the point that Kyle brought up, that if you put Mac Jones on the Dolphins or any other team that is loaded with talent, then he might look a lot better. And I like that argument because I think they're yet to put him in a situation where he can succeed.

Not a very good offensive line, not very good targets. So even if he is the guy, we don't know that for sure. And I feel like we would have found out by now if he is the guy or not, if they would have just given him some pieces around him their offensive line sucks they don't have a number one receiver like there's there's like even if he like you're giving too you're giving people too much reason to want to keep him and i want to find out for sure i want to prove that argument wrong or right that he is the guy.

And you would find that out if you would just get him some weapons and some actual protection, because you cannot, you cannot be a good quarterback in this league, no matter who you are. You cannot be a good quarterback in this league. If you're on your ass, every other play. I will say though, I will say the old line definitely is moving in the right direction, though. Trent Brown, first game back, no sacks, no pressure, no worries giving up.

That's a step in the right direction. So now I said this with Bill's offense last year. Now they just got to be able to play together. No injuries, no nothing, just those five. Get the chemistry going because O-line chemistry means so much. It means so much. If those five big guys in front can all be on the same page in who they're blocking and what their assignments are,

that's going to make life so much easier. And that was the biggest thing with the Bengals last year was that you had five guys that hadn't really had a ton of time to play together with. And then they started getting on their huge run at the end of the year last year was that you had five guys that hadn't really had a ton of time to play together with. And then they started getting on their huge run at the end of the year last year, because then this front guys were starting to figure it out. Maybe that's what we need out of the pads right now. Yeah.

Even, I mean, I'm not saying that they're the talent is bunch, but we're the most talented bunch, but you know it it's it's also the patriots talking about here they always i mean grand we said this with brady you know they always find a way but maybe this is one of those things that they end up finding way with the talent that they have up front yeah or a line up front i mean Last one I'll make on this is I think Belichick has kind of set up the team to run a lot like it did with Brady for all those years where, you know, I think he has heavily relied on defense. Obviously he didn't do that as much with Brady,

but I think the offense anyway, you know, Brady could make up for some of the deficiencies they would have at receiver or line sometimes even. And, you know, I think with Mack, I think we can all agree he's not Tom Brady. He's not going to be able to kind of make up for some of that stuff. And you have to put the things around him. And, you know, like Adam was saying, he's done enough to, like, kind of keep you intrigued and think he could be that guy. But it's clear he needs a little bit more, and that's the only way to truly find out.

So I just hope this season we can get a little bit more of an answer on that because we do have a pretty big decision um with him coming up in the next few years on if you're gonna you know keep him around uh for the fifth year option or what you're gonna do there um so so you know that needs to be priority number one of this team yeah one name i will drop before we move to our next and final segment. Their new right tackle, Vidarian Lowe, apparently was actually really good in this game. Big part of them allowing zero sacks against arguably the league's

most ferocious front seven in all of football. So if this kid actually, it turns out they found someone, a late-round gem, then God bless them. If it turns out that this guy can actually keep Mac Jones on their feet, then it solves so many problems that have gone unsolved, which they still need a wide receiver one. Jordan Addison should be a Patriot right now, I'm telling you, man. But that's neither here nor there.

Christian Gonzalez for Defensive Rookie of the Year. I'll just stand by that. All right, listen, we got to move on. Next, we have the fan box. Players and teams who are so far exceeding expectations. That's next. This is the Fumble Rooski Podcast. No sign yet. Edelman comes down with a football. They're saying it's a catch.

It's in. Oh! Diggs! Sideline! Touchdown! Unbelievable! Swings it way down the field. The one catch!

Sammy Watt gets for the touchdown! Welcome back to the Fumble Rooski podcast. Adam Wright, Chris Kostrich, special guest Kyle Finnamore. We welcome you to the fan box portion of our show where we post a question filter on our Instagram every Monday and you can respond with hot takes questions and more. And we will give you a shout out on our Instagram every Monday, and you can respond with hot takes questions and more. And we will give you a shout-out on our podcast, respond to next week's Fanbox question to be featured on our show. So the question of the week was, as we asked last week,

who has been a big disappointment so far this year? This week it is who has exceeded expectations. So this could be players this could be teams and our first response was Nathan Sloat who said liking the Bucks with Baker honestly so he kind of gave a player and a team on we're kind of together up until yesterday I would say I agree and I still do I mean they've been better than they were last than they even better than they were last year with brady so far um but clearly what we saw yesterday is that this team does have a cap on them on their potential success they're not contenders they got their doors blown

off by the philadelphia eagles i think that they also could easily been in that game too. There was a lot of plays where there was a lot of drop balls on the offensive end. Grant, defensive end is a different story, but on the offensive end, there was a lot of drop balls, a lot of missed opportunities for them to really close the door and make that into a game. And Baker, I mean, Grant, he didn't have the greatest game in the world, but it wasn't like he was taking his team out of the game. Yeah. And for the season that Baker is having thus far,

after being driven out of Cleveland, it's definitely a step forward for Baker after everything that he's been through. Yeah. Yeah. So, I mean, I've always,

I've been higher on. I just, I'm on the wait and see bandwagon with Baker, you know, I'm we'll, we'll see how things go. I think he's just a solid starting quarterback in this league. He is not a number one overall picked caliber guy where he was taken.

He might take a couple teams to some playoffs. He's going to be a journeyman, but that might be just about it. But, I mean, he's been good so far, so we'll see. Logan S, 2021, said Puka Nakua. That is one guy who has filled the Cooper cup role brilliantly so far. Yeah. Yeah. I'd say with him, it's kind of funny cause I think there were no expectations for him going into the season. I think he kind of came out of nowhere,

week one and got a million catches and played really well. So, yeah, I mean, he's far exceeded any expectations. I think a lot of people probably didn't even know his name. I know I didn't. So, yeah, he looks like a real legitimate, you know, I don't know if it's going to be a replacement for Cooper Cup because I know he's scheduled to come back pretty soon um but yeah i everything i've seen from him um in the few games i've watched uh from them he's he's been very solid i think he could be a you know

a true slot corner uh slot receiver for them uh moving forward Yeah, and I think – sorry, Adam. But I think Edelman said this best on Fox Sports during the pregame. Either I think it was pregame or postgame from week two or this past week. But regardless, he said it best was that, you know, a lot of these big-name quarterbacks need to develop trust with receivers. And obviously Edelman knows better than anyone with Tom Brady. Whereas like with Stafford, he kind of is forced to trust Puka Nakua from week one on. And it's not like that's a problem or anything at all.

It's paid off i mean geez kids got more passing or passing more receiving yards than any other guy in any fell history in the first two or three games of the season he's he's making heads turn he's making plays and he's like we said like he said filling that cooper cup role much neededly granted last against the Bengals, they definitely didn't look great, and they were having a tough time getting to Puka. But when they were, doing a job. I have five for 72, so he was all right. And another guy you could even throw in there for the Rams is Tutu Atwell.

Dude's a dog too. He's going to be a great slot guy and wide receiver three for the Rams once Cup comes back. Four for 50 and a touchdown. He at least earned his right to have the opportunity to try and coexist with Cooper Kup. He's not unseating Cooper Kup as the number one anytime soon, but he'll get the chance to at least be behind him as the number two. At least for now.

The next one, there were a couple people. There were a couple by Owen van slack who routinely puts in like five responses a week. But there were, there's a couple who I liked here. First of all, he had,

he said the Broncos, but in a bad way. Because, I mean, first of all, the Broncos, I mean, there is, I don't even know. They're in a worse place this year than they were last year. And they're a team that you would think with the talent they have, you could see them being in contention and also being the worst team in football, and neither of those things would surprise you at all. So I kind of understand what you mean by the Broncos,

but in a bad way because like they're surprising you they're exceeding expectations because they suck even more so than we thought they would um his other one was the cardinals 100 i know they're one and two but their two losses have been well fought uh well fought games and close and they've been they have been kind of close didn't they actually almost beat the the commanders in week one with Joshua Dobbs? Yep. Yeah.

These games are actually getting kind of close. Yeah. They blew two big leads against commanders and then week two against the giants. I believe they were up by like 28, if I'm not mistaken. So they very well could be three and oh yeah all right josh uh josh who'll said a cane so devon a cane rookie running back for the miami dolphins him and raheem mostar

killed it aside from the passing game which was in its own right unbelievable um yeah the ramp though the dolphins rushing attack was equally as good um a cane himself had four touchdowns through the air and through the uh on the ground and just on the ground just rushing yards he had over 200 and there was still plenty of room for most are to eat because he had over he had 83 rushing yards himself and four touchdowns it was actually insane these 70 points they would not take their foot off the gas pedal and a cane I mean it looks like they might have found their guy it really does and that's important for them because they didn't have too much of a running game this so far looking into this year all right um all right let's see some other responses here um this person with a long with a long username i'll try to pronounce it i ran out of ideas

one five two six whoever this is i didn't look at the usernames uh josh dobbs isn't surprisingly isn't horrible that's kind of what i was saying earlier you know he's doing it it's kind of the same thing with cj stroud to a lower extent you know you know that dobbs is going to be a transition quarterback but he's doing enough to make games competitive. Yeah. For me, for me and the Cardinals and him, I feel like they're just kind of playing like they have nothing to lose. I mean, they had zero, zero expectations coming into the season. And I feel like, you know, a little bit of a chip on their shoulder being like, we can, you know,

we can play we're in the league. We deserve to be here. You know, I don't think they'll sustain it, but they'll still be one of the bottom feeders I believe but you know at least at least makes things interesting yeah um i mean like they're one and two like van slack said a couple a couple minutes ago but they're not a team that we could actually see being a contender well like not even a playoff team. Just they're not horrible. They're not exactly seller dwelling, which is kind of bad in their case

because if they want that number one overall pick for Caleb Williams, they better start sucking a little more than they have because they could easily be 3-0 right now if you really think about it. Sharice Maynard said Miami. So we talked a little bit about their running game. Just in general, just their entire operation going on over there.

They're 3-0. They're firing on all cylinders for the second year in a row. It's like we know that they have the talent. It's the health that is the issue. And that offensive line, can they keep Tua alive? If they can do that, then they should be able to beat anybody in this league. And you have one of the most underrated home field advantages

in all of football. So if you can, if you can stay healthy, you're winning 12, 13 games this year. I don't think I'm exaggerating when I say that. Um, all right, we have one more Eli Andrew Rohn. I believe it is. He said Ravens running backs. It's not a bad one because they lost JK Dobbins after that Achilles tear and Gus Edwards we know he's capable of being a very good running back but didn't he he's already torn as a kid his ACL a couple years ago and even when even besides the ACL tear he has had it he's had some trouble staying healthy.

But when he is, he can prove that he's a solid running back. You also have Justice Hill, who is very capable in his own right. So if they can stay healthy, if, huge if, because that Ravens team cannot stay healthy for the life of them. They need to fire their training staff. I'll tell you that much. But, I mean, what they have is actually pretty solid. And I hate to say it, but if they were healthy, if they were healthy,

they'd be one of the better teams in this league. Yeah, and Gus Edwards is looking basically off stats right now. 29 carries, 145 yards. That's five yards per carry right there. And obviously you got Lamar still running the ball very effectively. He's at six yards per carry. So granted, obviously you don't want to kill your quarterback. And Justice Hill, little left to be desired. He's at 2.6 per carry.

And I'm not really going based off of total yards i'm just looking at yards per carry just because of how much the rushing attack is really just spread out so obviously gus edwards definitely going to be a big part of the running game and making sure that lamar doesn't kill himself especially with j JK Dom's out. But I think that there's a lot to be left desired for justice Hill. But I think with more touches as the season goes along, then he'll definitely be a pretty prominent piece in this offense. Yeah. Yeah. Well, I mean, it, it, it'll be a big, it'll be a big thing with health. So we'll just have to see if they can stay healthy. But I think that's about all the content we have left. Do we have any other thoughts before we end the show tonight?

Got nothing. All right. Well, Kyle, thanks a lot for joining the show. It was a long one, but a great one. All right. Well, that'll do it for us tonight. Thank you for listening to us. You can listen to us on Spotify, Spreaker, Apple Podcasts, iHeartRadio, Google Podcasts, and so much more, as well as our YouTube channel. Check out our Instagram as well. So happy week four as we head into this next week of football play,

and we'll see you next week. Over and out.