The Fumblerooski Podcast - Getting Spooked -Ep 215 The Fumblerooski Podcast

Episode Date: October 31, 2023

Where do the Vikings stand with Kirk Cousins this offseason? Bengals back from the dead? Why are offensive stats down this season? Who is the MVP so far this year? Adan Wright and Chris Costich host special guest Lucas Feriera of the Rufus Rundown 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 caught! It's a side-line touchdown! Unbelievable! This is what makes Sideline touchdown unbelievable! Swings it way down the field to Watkins! Sammy Watkins for the touchdown! Happy Halloween and welcome to week 9 of the regular season in 2023. I'm Adam Wright with Chris Kostic. This is the Fumble Rooski Podcast by Power 88 and Secret Weapon Consulting.

So we have a great episode for you guys tonight. So we are going to end up recapping the first half of this season. We're not quite halfway through, but we're doing it a week early to align with Halloween. This is a Halloween themed episode, recapping the first half of this season and joining us to cover all of these topics. We have special guests and host of the Rufus Rundown podcast. We have Lucas Ferreira. Lucas, welcome to the show. Appreciate you guys having me. Really looking forward to getting into this.

And I think this is kind of almost long overdue being able to join. Kind of funny how you guys have Chris on here too, work with Chris over the summer. So this is probably a collaboration that should have happened. Three? Three. We got three Brockckton rocks guys right here yeah i feel like yeah considering the small world connection between all of us i feel

like this is like it has been talked about like building up to a long period of time but like realistically when we look at all the parameters it probably should happen sooner rather than later yeah and you know finally finally able to join up and uh make some content together which is nice absolutely it's great to have you on, a great sports mind, and to help us cover some of these topics. So we're going to start off with a Halloween-themed segment. Call it Jump Scares. So from the first half of this season,

we are giving you some of the biggest surprises of, you know, things that have just come out of left field from this season. And, um, I can start us off and give you guys this one, Zach Wilson, not just Zach Wilson this season, but Zach Wilson in October. So the second half of the first half of this season, three and one, and the one game that he lost that's the game that you could argue was his best statistical game so he does have a three to one touchdown interception ratio but he's also three and one on the season and they've been beating some good teams um so this is so this I mean, this Jets team, what if, what if Zach Wilson actually works

out? He has been getting a little better as the season has gone on in some quarterbacks, you know, some quarterbacks, they take a little, a little more time than others. You don't always have the CJ Strouds and Kurt and Justin Herberts of the world who are just, who light it up right when they get in the league. Sometimes it takes some time. Yeah, and potentially Jets could, I mean, if the science works out, we could even get Rodgers coming back late in the season for a potential playoff run if Zach Wilson can get them to that spot too. He didn't have a great game against the giants,

but that this past week, but that was kind of just one of those slug fests. He went, he went 17 for 36. That's sub 50%. But in general, yeah, he's at a great month of October.

It's the headband to be honest. Once he took it off. Yeah. He took it off and he's been playing a lot better with it. Or without it, excuse me. In this month alone, 62% completion percentage. Excuse me, 870 yards. Like I said, three touchdowns, one interception.

85.1 QBR. I'll take that any day. Yeah. I think there's two sides of the coin though right because you look at him as a first round pick right so it's like is he living up to the hype first round pick no but you don't need him to you you got aaron rogers there you're literally just looking for him to be serviceable enough to get you to where you need to go where you thought you belonged and i realistically did i see the jets as a division winner at the beginning of the season probably

not you're one of the best divisions probably in football this season between the bills and dolphins and the talent there so if he doesn't turn the ball over that is his only thing is not turning the football over you mentioned only one pick and those stats you're just reading off like if he doesn't turn the football over that defense is good enough that running game is good enough i think they're more than capable than you know being able to sneak into the playoffs and if that's when aaron rogers makes the triumphant miraculous like return then then, yeah, I'm all for it. But he's certainly been serviceable. And whether you're going to keep him around long term or not, I'm not sure.

But I think you can certainly get some form. If you're getting six and seven round picks for Josh Dobbs, then I think you very well could, you know, get something for a guy like Zach Wilson, especially considering the offensive minds in this league. It's a possibility. All right. And sorry. like Zach Wilson, especially considering the offensive minds in this league. It's a possibility. All right. And sorry, another thing I want to say too, that the Jets are relying him to throw the ball a lot too. The three of the four games in October, he's thrown over 33 times against the Chiefs, 28 for 39,

against the Eagles, 19 for 33 this past week, against the Giants, 17 for 36. And, you know, that's huge to be able to rely on your young backup quarterback to throw the ball so many times, especially when you have a really good back in Brees Hall. Yeah, and he did it dancing with Patrick Mahomes of all quarterbacks. Like, imagine just getting into a shootout against the best quarterback in football, being one of the worst in football and actually holding your own whole thing was just insane. Um, but I have my next one, uh, the disappearance of

vertical passing offenses this year. Um, in case you haven't noticed, passing numbers and offensive numbers in general are down across the league. Only two quarterbacks around all of football are projected to throw for more than 30 touchdown passes. You know, you have over this offseason, we thought that offenses were going to take a massive jump. The Jacksonville Jaguars, the Detroit Lions, right? These were the, even the, I mean, the Cincinnati Bengals were supposed to be continuing to do what they've been doing the past couple of years. None of that has really happened. I mean, Trevor Lawrence probably won't even,

may not even eclipse 20 touchdown passes. Jared Goff, he's up there in yards, but the touchdown passes are way down. And they are much more of a dink and dunk team than we previously thought. Defenses have been doing a pretty good job of containing these high-level offenses and making them have to compromise and play more in the flats. Yeah, I think that just comes with defensive strategy just evolving i mean one of the things that us pats fans saw was how they was their defensive game plan against the dolphins they

with the three high safety look the entire game or at least the first game i wasn't able to really watch a ton of the second game but that's another defensive strategy that teams are doing to take care of some of the high-flying offenses and take away the deep routes is forcing you to have to go short and beating you in the short game rather than having Tyreek just go for a 50-yard bomb every single time. Right, and I completely forgot about Tua. I believe he's supposed to get 30 as well. And if he doesn't, then that's a massive letdown yet again for that kid. But, Lucas, what are your thoughts?

I didn't mean to cut in there, but you have to think, too, with like there's a couple of different factors, too, because obviously like the calls, I think referees and the way the league's set up, it kind of supports more of a high-powered offensive league in in that being the case like adapting a defense to all of this high-powered offense is tough like how you're gonna you know call plays and what's like more designed as a defense there's drafting too like you draft more speed defenders you draft second make more secondary backs your roster is made up differently of course it took a while for the offenses to get to this point.

Remember, the Wildcat offense was a thing for a while back in the mid-2000s and late-2000s and how that had gone on. There was different adjustments in the offense. Obviously, there's checks and balances to it with how you build up a defense, how you put more speed on the field to defend speed, or if you put guys deep, just don't get beat behind. It also creates a discipline factor. There's a lot of young quarterbacks, a lot of young, talented quarterbacks in this league. Josh Allen of one to mention that doesn't really have the patience to go on drives. They want to take, they make the big play.

They want to take the shots. Mahomes as well. I mean, we've seen it for a couple of years now where these guys are super, super aggressive, super over the top and it works. And like, they're super aggressive, but it's a double-edged sword. If you start turning the ball over and if you, uh, you know, can't make those big plays, you're in big third down and longs. Now you're giving, you know, you can pin your ears back and you're just rushing the passer. You don't have to send simulated pressure. See more teams getting pressure with four defenders or at least the good teams that do. So I think it's, you know, obviously it's taking time for defenses to adapt and offenses are going to find ways to adapt too.

As in some of the teams that are more dink and dunk style. I mean, Tom Brady did it for years. James White, Shane Vereen, like receiving backs backs like they were dynastic and they really never had an over-the-top playmaker so it is doable um but i'd like to see how the defenses have responded like the checks and balances of uh the nfl in its own way have been you know cool to watch this year yeah and see and also seeing these these offensive offenses adapt and still put up numbers. I mean, Trevor Lawrence, I mean, there's a lot of other quarterbacks

who might still be trying to pound it down the field. I mean, he's been going to more of the shorter passes and playing more of a dink and dunk offense. So seeing the adapting is, I mean, it's working. So we're, we're seeing the league grow before our eyes. Um, I have one more two was revenge tour. Now we saw what two was like last year around this time, right? He was very good. they went eight and three right um we have some breaking news but we'll get to that in a minute no no what's the break oh wow yeah

yeah you might as well just tell the breaking news now dude oh my lord yeah commanders chase young is being traded to the 49ers uh for mid-round, likely a mid-round pick. We don't know the compensation just yet, but we'll get that to you as this information is developing. Listen, so we'll just continue until we know what the full deal is. If it's a mid-round pick, that's insane. Yeah, that's wild. We all know what Tua's been capable of in the past couple of years. I mean, with the weapons that he has, the defense that team has,

this whole Miami team has the potential to be really, really good. Like one of the best seat, one of the top seeds in the league problem is Tua needs to stay healthy. And that comes down to the offensive line. The line has been okay. And they also Tua hasn't really needed much time to throw at all. So, you know, all of that is kind of working out. So if, if it stands, then I'll, I'll admit that I was wrong about the dolphins in this, you know all of that is kind of working out so if if it stands then i'll i'll admit that i was wrong about the the dolphins in this you know during the preseason i had the bills winning this division they could still do it but uh i gotta say good start again for the dolphins um so it's yeah sorry to cut in real. Third round pick for the commanders is going to them for chase young.

I mean, that's better than a mid round pick. It's still a day to pick. So it's, it's, it's better, but you have chase young and he's going to the 49ers. Holy crap. Yeah. That's with Nick Bosa on the other side. Forget about it. But, um, yeah, I mean that, that. But yeah, I mean, that goes to show,

I mean, that's also game planning for the Dolphins. They also have so many weapons around them, including the running game. They do a lot of RPO, which has to be quick passes. So that definitely helps in the case of protecting 2-0-0 and getting that ball out. And that's a huge goal for a lot of teams, is that the quicker

you can get the ball to your best guys, the better chance you have to win these games. And you want to get the ball out to these guys quick. Yeah. It's, um, and it helps that Tyreek Hill has that ability to play in, to do intermediate routes. If you guys remember when, when Hill was first, when he first entered the league, he kind of, he had a very limited route tree. It was either, it was either the long bomb for the touchdown or, or it was nothing at all. Very boom or bust type of player. Now he can kind of go underneath with those routes and use his speed to his advantage. So the fact that he's been able to develop and help Tua in that way has been huge. All right. So we do need to move on. Next, we have

our Back from the Dead segment. So what this will be is anything that we thought in the beginning of the season was not going to not gonna work out turns out it will that's next this is the fumble ruski podcast 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. Oh! It's a catch!

Skyline! Touchdown! Unbelievable! Slings it way down the field to Watkins! Sammy Watkins for the touchdown! All right, guys. Welcome back to the Fumble Rooski podcast by Power 88 Secret Weapon Consulting. Adam Wright, Chris Kostic, special guest Lucas Ferreira. All right, so we are now on to this next segment,

Back from the Dead. So as I teased when we were going out of the last segment, this is about things that looked like were falling apart, but turns out it actually worked out. So most notably, our first first one back from the dead, Joe Burrow's calf. And so this guy, so this guy suffered a preseason injury to his calf early on and early on in, you know, in pre in training camp. And it looked catastrophic at first guy was carted off the field. Turns out they actually dodged a bullet.

Just a strained calf. They didn't know the severity yet, but he was going to miss most of preseason, if not all of it. So he did end up being ready for the regular season. Kid did not look right. The team started, what was it one in three yes they started one in three on the season and it looked like they were a massive bust

um then you see his um you see that the uh uh his the health started to improve. Good win over the Cardinals. Another win over the Seahawks. And then this past weekend, against the 49ers, Burrow threw three touchdowns in, I believe it was over 300 yards. If not, it was close to it. But, I mean, they look like they are getting better as time has gone on, especially with Joe Burrow's health. Now that he's healthy, we can, we now see that, um, this Bengals team can beat anybody when they are at their absolute best. And if they

continue this, I mean, it's still relatively early in the season. They're four and three. They could lose one or two games down the stretch and you have a top two three seed in the league perhaps the the top seed so the Bengals are the Bengals are getting there I'll let you take this one Lucas I mean I would pump the brakes on a little bit too but also you look at the rest of the division right they haven't won a division game yet this year um but only having really they lost the Browns early you lose the Ravenvens in a close one the rams won uh not a super talented ram scene they really haven't beaten anyone yet per se because the 40 i mean the seahawks they did they did beat which is a legit i think a legit win for

them the 49ers are a little banged up but when you look at the rest of that division as well to do like they have joe burrow and if he is healthy he's a legit threat and he's one of the probably the most monumental it factor in the league if not one of the top three i think in terms of the quarterback position and what he possesses to control not only a locker room but just any game that he walks into with enough health to produce so do the steelers the steelers have kenny pickett and i like kenny pickett but do i think he's in any way shape or form going to go take that Steelers team to the next level? Like Burrow can take this Bengals team. No, uh, you know, Deshaun Watson, even if he is healthy, certainly, you know what they have now, if he's not healthy,

their defense is good, but it's not sustainable, sustainable in these games, uh, especially late too. I mean, they're hanging around, but I don't see that the two quarterback play in front of him, uh, to be able to make it sustainable. So I think when you have a top five player at that quarterback position, it totally changed everything. Now, obviously health included is a big conversation to have, but if they can protect him just enough and they have a tough schedule coming up with, you know, the bills, Texans and Ravens. But overall, if they can get this bills game,

it's certainly going to not just back from the dead, like they're back on top again. So I think it's certainly something to watch for, but overall, yeah, I can see they have certainly, I didn't think they were recovering from where they were at and now they're showing that they can certainly do it. Yeah. And they also had a group, obviously they had a great week against the 49ers,

but they also be a very beat up 49ers team to say the least as well. But at the same time, this kind of has happened the last two seasons right the Bengals go off on a slow start and then they turn it up around this point of the season to the point where they can go on a playoff run and get themselves into the divisional in the championship round so yeah I mean I was definitely on the bandwagon that they were not going to be that great this season, but I, at this point, now that there seem like they're kind of moving into the right direction,

it doesn't seem that surprising now. Cause if you look back at the last two seasons. Yeah. Listen, I, so it's not really for me, the, the team that they beat.

It's more so how they did it. Right. I, I thought that I thought that the Bengals were about to be back after the Cardinals game, not because they faced the Cardinals. It's because of the way that they did it. Joe Burrow looked like a healthy quarterback. Again, he was stepping into his throes. He was, he was hucking it all over the field. And you know,

the, the week prior against the Titans, they only mustered up three points. So what does that tell you? It's not about the team that they face. It's about the health of the quarterback that they had. So when, so when they won, you know, they strung together a couple of victories in that during that stretch of time, I believe Joe Burrow, so out of his nine touchdown passes, I believe seven of them were in the last three games. So that tells you that it's more about the health of Joe Burrow than anything else. So now that he is healthy, so what I am saying is when the Bengengals are at their best they can beat anyone in the league it's not so much about the fact oh it's against the cardinals it's just they joe

burrow looked right he looks healthy now that is what's important here not just like you know just beating teams that you're supposed to beat of course you want to beat them but it's also the way it looks too and i think that's what is the most important here. I can agree with that. Yeah. I mean, it's at the end of the day, the games that you should be winning are the games that's going to build you a lot of momentum going into the game, into the tough games like the 49ers this week or momentum into your tough divisional games?

I mean, you take a look at the upcoming schedule. I better cut you off there. But like I said, the Bills coming up. Texans with a tough stride. But they're at home against the Texans. So, I mean, if you're looking at games that they should win, they're home against the Bills coming up. I mean, you have the Ravens on the road following that Texans game at home,

then home against the Steelers divisional games. You have back-to-back divisional games there against the Ravens, who are going to be atop of the division. You would have to, you know, you're going to have to take a big win against the Bills and kind of a weird rematch game from last year, the game that obviously never continued on. And then you have that back-to-back division. Then you're on the road to travel to the Jagu you had that back-to-back division then you on the road to travel to the jaguars falling back-to-back division games so so i mean like you

you look at how difficult that schedule is and then they finish out the end of the season with the steelers chiefs and browns so again like i'm not to just jump on like the competition thing like um they're gonna have to keep him healthy in that sense like they have their work cut out for me they're one of the top teams the nfl last season they're gonna have a difficult schedule to follow um i i like the eye test a little bit i need the eye test a little bit more this bill game bills game again being more of that i the true eye test for me but yeah i get i'm on the same path as you adam and how they look like when joe burrow is healthy and right there's little that this team can do wrong they're in they're in every single game they're going to compete in every single game that

Joe Burrow is healthy and 100% agree with the weapons he has around them um so I mean they've been able to bring the run game into it more as well too so any game where he's healthy though I think that they're going to compete but I still would like to see a little bit more certainly and they're going to need a very, very productive second half of the schedule. I don't think any of us can argue with the idea that this team needs to be much better in the second half than they were in the first half. Four and three, you can't repeat that in the second half of the season. They have to go on a run and show that they are the mighty cincinnati bangles led by joe

burrow uh but next we've got um we've got kirk cousins and his whole situation not only did he tear his achilles but he is in a contract year so that's a dicey spot for himself and the vikings that's next this is the Fumble Rooski podcast. This is what takes the touchdown! Unbelievable! Swings it way down the field to Watkins! Sammy Watkins for the touchdown! Touchdown! Welcome back to the Fumble Rooski podcast by Power 88 and Secret Weapon Consulting. Adam Wright, Chris Kostich, special guest Lucas Ferreira. So, the Minnesota Vikings won, but at what cost?

They have finally reached 500. After falling down, they fell down 0-3, and then 1-4, I believe. And they have managed to sneak their way back to 4-4, 500. Only problem is, Kirk Cousins, their Pro Bowl caliber quarterback, is now out for the season with an achilles tear this is catastrophic because who else do they have a quarterback it's all over for them this that is that is going to be the season so not only and not only that but it may be kirk cousins it may be over for him in Minnesota as well because he is now in a contract year.

The Vikings, I'm not sure if they even wanted to pay him when he was healthy. Now what happens? What happens to Kirk Cousins? I'll let you guys discuss. I don't even know what happens. I mean, what a sad injury for Kirk. I mean, having a almost MVP caliber season and then you tear your Achilles after bringing your team back into the playoff picture.

Man, that's just it's tough because now at this point with the injury, Kirk is probably going to this. He's losing millions because of this injury as well, with it being the contract year. And Lord knows who's going to try to pick him up because he's not going to be available until next season unless he uses the Aaron Rodgers treatment. But, man, it's – I don't even know what else to say about it. You end up picking up Josh Dobbs today and.

You Lord knows what's going to happen or how Josh Dobbs is going to lead the team, which I don't know if I don't think Josh Dobbs is going to necessarily bring the Vikings to the playoffs at that rate. I think he'll get them close. He hasn't been terrible for the Cardinals. He's shown a lot of good flashes, but he does great in the first half, but when it comes to the second half, he just kind of falls apart. So I don't know. I don't know what's going to end up happening with Kirk at this rate. Lucas, what do you think?

It's incredibly unfortunate. A couple of stats on Achilles tendon ruptures in the NFL. 2020, there was a total of 17 for the whole year. 2021, there was a total of 16. 2022, there was a total of 18. And as of this season, as of week 18, 18 already. 67% of those on grass, 78% non-contact. So the way I see it is that a couple of things have transpired.

First of all, movement patterns within NFL athletes as a whole are flawed considering the lifting system and other different principles that exist, which is that's unrelated to player safety. But you start to look at the turf grass argument argument like they just have flawed movement patterns in the way that we lift in the way that we move and it's unfortunate but you know considering how the you know strength and conditioning field is and how expensive it is no one's really ever going to be willing to adopt change in it because of how many billions of dollars that industry is worth

but the other thing being too is that we've worried so much about hits to the head on these quarterbacks right we're worried so much about taking the big blows and everything. Now everybody's going low. Everybody's trying to wrap and roll and you get rolled up on the Achilles area. All of a sudden, or in the ankle area, ankles, you get ACLs, you get valgus thing of the, of the, you know, the knee, you have the rolling down of those joints. Now it's, it's a different aspect and getting clocked up top. Now I'm not saying that I think people would rather have CTE or concussions than they would have torn achilles and acls but remember when grock said it

back in the day when he took the helmet to the knee i think it was against the bangles back in the day he said hit me up top i don't care who's the browns browns okay so afc north but uh yeah i remember he said to go high now again you might make the joke that grock really didn't have much up top to protect but that's neither either here nor there um incredibly smart football guy according to Julian Edelman um but at the end of the day like player safety has kind of turned out like these guys are getting rolled up on it's happening more often with a non-contact or injuries like this that happen with these ruptures and these these tears it's incredibly unfortunate for a guy who was having such a great year but I don't know he never won i mean i'm not gonna kick a guy while he's down he's never won anything he's

never won anything big i mean the whole joke for the long time was kirk didn't do much in prime time and i'm not easier for me to say sitting from my college dorm room than it is for him to do on monday football but he hasn't done anything he's never won anything so you're paying a lot of money he's a fantastic player i think that they were you know they were probably on the route to the playoffs to beat that oh and three or that statistical anomaly of being oh and three but at the end of the day like um you kind of look at as the evil you know evil you don't know was he not he probably wasn't doing enough to take that level but at least you knew what you got out of them so i don't know how they move forward i mean you have another guy in division that uh you get a team in the division that's going to have a high draft pick and the bears i don't

know if you can do business with them i mean dobbs is serviceable but they just traded the offensive line too so are you are they going to sell and just you know try to run it out what they have i i'd imagine they're trying to compete because they have a rookie late round draft pick that they could give experience to if they're willing to displace so if it works it works if it doesn't maybe we find something him and if we don't we move on kirk's in a contract here we gotta figure it out um they had i think jaron hall is his name the rookie out of byu the late draft pick so i mean i think they're trying to compete for a playoff spot because they bring in a veteran serviceable guy if they weren't i would think that they would let the rookie ride but i

don't know it's interesting i feel bad for k Kirk considering he's a man of faith and he's an incredibly dedicated guy. Feel bad for him. Yeah. And the other thing you could probably think of too is, you know, the Vikings were in a spot to fight for the playoffs. And now with these recent trades, you wonder if, you know, you have Josh Dobbs,

you make it into a transition year for maybe not so much the rest of this season. You still fight for the plate. You're still at four and four. You're still in the running. But maybe next year we end up seeing it as more of a transition year. And they probably don't do as well next year. They make it into a transition year into 2025. And the issue here is that it's like one other angle is that they've won too many games to tank now.

So they can't just commit to losing games and then let's go in for Drake May or someone like that. They can't do that anymore because they're now four and four right there i don't i don't believe that's going to be good enough for for you know a four win season where you're a top five top five pick um so you'd have to give up too many assets to get to trade up for drake may or bonex or someone like that. They have to probably get rid of Jordan Addison or a huge part of the defense like Daniel Hunter to get to that spot. Probably. Right.

Well, there's a lot of teams that are worse off than them too. Like it's the Patriots conversation where I still think that like people with the Patriots want to take, I still think that there's teams worse off. So there's a lot of teams that are worse off than the Vikings, even considering how poor their situation is. um they've drafted this is a team that's drafted well though so if you give them the tools like the draft picks to do it i mean

they drafted addison they got justin jefferson with the whole uh digs ordeal they you know derisaw obviously been really good so they they have enough o-line to protect they moved on from dalvin cook like they've been able to draft well they have a good offense in place but how like again you can't take a bridge year this is not a team in that division to all things considered the packers no longer have rogers the bears are just a disaster no matter who they have or who they draft you have to take advantage of the fact you're in a weaker division and but the quarterback considering how deep the nfc is not deep in quarterbacks the afc is incredibly deep in quarterbacks so like i think you haven't like considering how much the NFC is not deep in quarterbacks. The AFC is incredibly deep in quarterbacks. So like, I think you have an, like,

considering how much of an offense they put around like Kirk Cousins, how good he looked. I feel like they're in a position where they are a quarterback away, whether Kirk was hurt or not, they were still a quarterback away above Kirk. So I don't know. I feel like a bridge year would destroy what they have going, especially as good as O'Connell's been for them. I mean,

I feel like they have to act proactively and not take the bridge idea. I think it's like, you know, Dobbs, I don't know why they would try to compete either. Like, it's tough. I don't know. It's, again, easier for me to say from here, like why you would or what you're going to do. I'm playing armchair GM here from Dean College, but I don't know. I don't know. It totally destroys what they had going for them in terms of competitiveness

and how their future was going forward. I just, I just think you have to say you've got, you've got to move on from Kirk cousins at this point. I understand, like he's done a lot for this organization. He's a great guy. He's a, he's still a good quarterback as much as I like to jump on him trying to say he's not top 10. He's still, I still think he's a very good quarterback in this league, top half of the league, but this is an Achilles tear and it's going to take some time

for them to, for him to, to recover from. And I don't, they have, they have, especially on offense, a roster that's, that needs to compete now. So they may have to move on from, from Kirk Cousins and find somebody else, whether that be in the draft free agency or through trades, because they, they really cannot afford to, to work with, you know, to work with Kirk cousins and say, let's just transition, transition into 2025, because that's way too many years off. That means Justin Jefferson's going to become a free agent at some time during that stretch of time.

Jordan Addison's not getting any younger. He's going to start asking for money. So you got to go in on this now. You have two elite wide receivers over here. You can't just go and say, you know what? Nah, let's just go on to the next couple of years. The clock's ticking on these guys. I mean, that being said, oh, Chris, I don't know if you're going to jump in.

No, no, you can go. They have the young pieces in place, and if you draft a young guy, you have to get it right. But think of all these other young quarterbacks, the two of the world that haven't been yet to get their big contract. What do they have around them that's been able to allow them to be so successful? Tyree Kill and Jalen Waddle. Like Mac Jones is really the only quarterback that's young and had success in his first season that they didn't instantly put weapons around knowing that they weren't paying the quarterback. So if you're in a position where you're not going to pay Kirk Cousins and you're going to try to find a young guy, you have the weapons in place around him and you're going to have even more money to spend not paying Kirk to put weapons around on both sides of the ball.

So you have Flores who's been putting their defense together. It looks like it's been getting better more and more as the season's gone on. You're in a position to have a young quarterback with weapons around him within a year or two before you have to start really paying everybody. So it's a small window and they have to find a way to get it right but i agree that kirk cousins healthy or not wasn't the answer moving forward for this team but also like you don't want to make the decision that starts to make you 2 and 14 with all that cap spent so that's the that's the only word you run into but again this is i think this is an offense that he made kirk look that much better.

And you can't tell me that if you can't find the right young guy in the first round, like you make a draft, like they've drafted very well with Addison and like Jefferson, like I said, Daris, I like they've drafted well recently. I mean,

reasonably you could, I'm not saying you're going to win it with a rookie, but you should, as they just say that Jaron Hall is going to get the nods, nod to start and not Dobbs to get the alert now. But again, I think this is where a young quarterback could begin to thrive in this system in a year or two. You could have expensive weapons all around him.

You still haven't won the rookie deal for a while. You have to find a way to make a move for a first-round draft like one of these top guys in the Drake maze or the Jaden Daniels or the Caleb Williams of the world. Yeah, and this is a deep quarterback draft. So they could end up, they could end up having somebody fall to them. But it'll be,

it'll be a matter of what they want to do. If they decide to pay Kirk cousins, then forget everything we've said about them going in the draft. But I just don't think they should, even if he was healthy, I didn't think they should pay him, but it looks like they do like the kid. They do like him. And I like him too. He's a good person. He has a good personality. But ultimately they need to move on from him, especially with

the Achilles tear. But we do want to move on. We have Chris's weekly top three, bottom three. So week eight's best and worst performances. 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 seems to pass. To Gates! 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 Secret Weapon Consulting. Adam Wright with Chris Kostich and special guest Lucas Ferreira. All right. Before we get to top three, bottom three, more breaking news um so another trade in the nfl donovan peoples jones has now been traded from the browns to the detroit lions so they are continuing to go all in on the position in this uh this season i mean the lions they they feel this is their year.

And they feel like Goff, and me too, he's growing on me. They feel like they can win a Super Bowl with this kid. And he has been to a Super Bowl already. And one can argue if they had Cooper Cup in 2018, maybe they'd generate more offense and they'd win that Super Bowl. But I digress, Chris. If you guys want to give any thoughts, if we want to continue to move on with our top three, bottom three.

I will say one thing about the Lions. That's a great pickup considering that they just got rid of Marvin Jones out of nowhere. And, well, he left the team and then they caught him. But that's still a good pickup to kind of replace him but uh Lucas do you have anything to add to that before we get into it uh he's a speedy guy he goes back home he's from Detroit Michigan he played ball at Michigan in college I know one of my teammates here uh Zion when he played here I'd seen him play in high school and like that's

like kind of his moment where he realized like holy hell like there's a different level of like like I think I'm good and like watching that guy play in high school and like that's like kind of his moment where he realized like holy hell like there's a different level of like like i think i'm good and like watching that guy play in high school he was ridiculous he played some quarterback in high school too as most of these incredible athletes did um you're your return guy they have khalif raymond too it's kind of like their slot speedy guy holy cross represent um but you know i think it's a good ad i think it's an element that they don't really have right i mean i Amin Rahim is a really good route runner. Kalief Raymond, Sam Laporta, they have a lot of guys that run routes very well, do a lot of things well.

But adding a genuine speed threat like that over the top, that's definitely an added piece to the offense. And he's a return specialist too, so he adds in that department. So I think it's a minor pickup, but at the end of the day, adding a little over-the-top speed never hurts an offense, especially in that vertical passing that a lot of these teams have lacked yeah over 800 yards of uh receiving did he got in 2022 so he may have been underutilized here in uh in cleveland in seven games 97 yards um but the potential is there and this is a team that is currently looking to contend.

They're going all in clearly. Their wide receiver position is loaded, but all right. I digress. We gave top three, bottom three. So start, you got our top three Panthers. They got their first win. Round of applause. Round of applause. That's, you know, getting that first win as a team that's as bad as the Panthers. And it sucks that they won't be able to actually have that first overall pick. Well, they're not even projected to have the first overall pick now because the Cardinals are in there. But in general, it's a great morale booster for any bad team to get that first win.

Bengals. They're on a roll right now. Another good win. And you beat a really good 49ers team. Granted, a little beat up, but I'll still give them the benefit of the doubt. Broncos. They finally ended the streak. little beat up but i'll still give them the benefit of the doubt broncos they finally

they finally ended the streak 15 straight game or excuse me 13 straight games where um or no it was excuse me not 13 17 straight games where the chiefs have beaten the broncos last time that the broncos beat the chiefs was back in 2015 when Peyton Manning was still around. Unreal. Honorable mention, Chargers. Good beat-up win on a bad Bears team. Granted, you could probably substitute the Chargers out of there. And the Seahawks getting a nice little NFC West win against the Cardinals.

Any thoughts from you two? I like the top three. I think two of them are teams that have not had the best luck lately, but they finally figured it out. The Bengals, we discussed them earlier on in the show. This is a team that is on the up and up, and it looks like that this is the time to buy in on them. And they're a team that I believe is going to have a very, very good second half.

So the sky's the limit for the Bengals right now. But I agree with this list I think it's good I do want to uh correct myself real quick Seahawks beat the Browns not they beat the Cardinals last week my apologies but um regardless still good back-to-back wins especially against a good Browns defense Lucas what you got no I like these especially considering the Broncos and their slow start and everything and I know everybody was on sean payne myself included considering he said it was the worst coaching job in nfl history that he walked into and then proceeded to start off and get 50 piece 70 to 20 like it just you know it was a tough start but i i like how they brought it around and there's a lot

of pressure on russell wilson too and you look at his stats and like again you don't want to just be a statue washer but i mean realistically russ really hasn't been uh a complete part of the problem there it's been deeper than the quarterback position and there's been a lot of turmoil there and stuff but obviously when you have such a fundamental failure uh overall as an organization and you have quarterbacks getting their own personal offices and stuff it can take a while to turn that around so i think it's nice to see the broncos being able to do that and russell wilson kind of relieving uh some of the pressure on himself i would say um maybe add to the list of honorable mentions um i i kind of i mean the rams have been quite terrible but the cowboys being able to do i mean i think everybody kind of recognizes them um as a contending team but

then again dak prescott's gonna hold them back but you know uh the Cowboys have not especially a part of this Dak era have not typically been known as playing like up every game like a lot of times that they've been guilty of playing down to their competition they had that Cardinals game earlier so you know it's a Rams team that they should beat they beat them and beat them handedly everybody showed up Dak threw for over 300 yards CeeDee Lamb had a big game I think that's like you know that's a perfect picture perfect game for the yards. CeeDee Lamb had a big game. I think that's a picture-perfect game for the Cowboys. CeeDee Lamb looks like a true receiver one. Dak only has one turnover, but the ratio was good there. And overall, their defense plays well too, even with Trevon Diggs lacking.

So overall, I would say that that one kind of stood out for me. Maybe you throw the Titans in there with Will Levis, but then you kind of want that to kind of marinate a little more. But overall, big fan of the list, considering Panthers getting their first victory finally for Bryce Young. Yeah, I was thinking about the Titans too because the Will Levis thing and four touchdowns off the bench. Or was it four touchdowns?

Four, yeah. Well, I mean not off the bench, but off the couch. Been watching games for quite a little while. Exactly. Another thing about the Broncos, too, is that Russ is in the top five for a lot of passing categories, too. So, like you said, Lucas, it's definitely deeper than the quarterback position. But moving on to the bottom three, Packers.

They have yet to score in 10 straight first half quarters. And I'll just leave it at that. Chiefs, their receivers got exposed and the Broncos defense finally showed what they are capable of. And they showed that last year that they could be a good defense, and it was just a matter of actually producing that. And Vance Joseph hasn't done that great of a job with – hasn't done a good job at all, but this was definitely a great win. I mean, granted, you still have Travis Kelsey getting six catches, but Rasheed Weiss, Justin Johnson, Marquise Valdez-Scantling, they're not going to do it for you.

They're really not. Maybe Valdez-Scantling, but the receivers in general got exposed in this game. Raiders. Jeez, get Devontae out of there. Oh, my Lord. Three balls. Three balls. Two of them horrible overthrows from Jimmy G.

One of them was a touchdown ball. That was a in double coverage and be under thrown. And on top of that, Josh McDaniels can't seem to get Hunter Renfro involved in any part of the offense. When he was able to get Amend, Edelman, Chris Hogan, all involved in the offense as a slot receiver for the Pats. And for some reason, he can't do it for Hunter Runfro. Oh, man. I just can't believe Jocelyn Daniels is even a head coach or just got hired as a head coach to begin with.

49ers. I'm kind of debating if I even still want to have the 49ers on here because they're still dealing with Trent Williams being out, Debo out, defense a little beat up. But now they got Chase Young, so that's a little different. Steelers. I said this a couple weeks ago. They still have yet to put up a 400-yard game since 2020. And that showed and on top of that you lose kenny pickett mitch trubisky does what he can but all in all

that offense is still just in shambles fire canada even with even with deontay johnson coming back let me give you my my initial thoughts right out of the gates i think this is more i think this is a lot more on the 49ers than we might think i get it they're banged up um but what has been the one knock that we have always had on brock purdy since he's joined the league for his six hours he has all this talent around him it's once he loses some of this talent then he's not going to be that good i and i wanted to start that conversation about him being an elite quarterback i made a reel about it earlier or a couple of weeks ago i said you know what let's start that conversation two things can be true at once maybe he actually can play and he does have happen to have a lot of talent around him now we're seeing what it looks like when he doesn't have as much talent around him.

Trent Williams was out, right? Debo Samuel has been, has been absent, right? And you know, you can, you can understand a slight drop off, but the way that he has played lately, a one to three touchdown interception ratio, that's not good. He has not been a very good quarterback the past three games and the teams that they have lost to outside of interception ratio. That's not good. He has not been a very good quarterback the past three games and the teams that they have lost to outside of the Bengals. You lost to the Browns and the Vikings. That's not acceptable. So like, yeah, like maybe we can, maybe let's give them some more time, but this is not a good sign for Brock Purdy, who's now working with a little more adversity. What I believe about elite quarterbacks, about the best of the best, is they are the guys who can make up for some of the weaknesses on your team.

Joe Burrow can do that. Patrick Mahomes is shown to do that. Tom Brady used to do that. We can even talk about Peyton Manning and Aaron Rodgers being able to make up for some deficiencies. Right? Brock Purdy has not done that yet. He's been able to excel in good situations, but when the situation doesn't look that good, he hasn't played that well. Let's not forget that he was just on concussion protocol last week he probably shouldn't even have been playing in this game right but he was cleared still anyone else on concussion protocol they're

done for that week and he threw two more interceptions granted he still had 365 yards so probably that didn't matter but regardless he probably shouldn't even have been playing to begin with sure but he played poorly before the concussion too so like i mean three three straight losses straight losses well the two interceptions in the last five minutes of the vikings game you could say that he was his head was still fuzzy yeah you could say that it's possible but i mean like if you look at three straight games and the two games that the two games before this game that you lost they weren't again they weren't against a bengals caliber team the vikings aren't even supposed to make the playoffs and this and they lost to them and it was the same thing with the Browns. How did they dance with you with P.J. Walker?

How did that happen? I mean, I understand you're going through injuries, but if you have a truly elite quarterback, a quarterback who is the guy, he can make up for some of those deficiencies. That's why I've always hated the argument that he just needs all of this. He just needs that. I say this about Mac Jones. I say this about Kirk Cousins.

If you need all of these different things in order to succeed, then you're not an elite quarterback. You might be a solid quarterback, but you're not a guy who's going to win you a Super Bowl. That's the way I look at it. I kind of see both sides of it there with brock purdy because like you can start the conversation of like is it what's around him or whatever and again people it's the bias of like especially here in the northeast too like and i mean overall

in the world everybody knows tom brady went 196 and he was missing them brock purdy's mr irrelevant and you know tom brady did a whole lot with nothing his entire career taking pay cuts they could build around him but that's just like when are you ever going to see a guy go 196 become the greatest quarterback ever win seven super like again like i think maybe we're projecting a little too much of what we've seen out of him and trying to think like oh party's not the guy it's all right it's like quick to do it but at the same time everybody's too quick to also hype up like it's too way too high and too low with him like maybe we should meet somewhere in the middle everybody was like oh mr relevant's gonna go and do the amazing thing he's

doing in san francisco tom brady was a bay area kid and they're trying to make the comparisons but then at the same time the other end of it is now is like oh he's nothing with nobody around him like maybe somewhere in between he was definitely under drafted but certainly has certain talents but i think at this point in his career yes, a lot of that system that surrounds him and what he does is obviously based off the talent he has around him. Not to his fault, but also at the same time, if you want to start being considered, you want to sit at the big boys table,

you got to wear the big boy pants and take on those, take those hits from people like us too, saying like, hey, you haven't really done anything without those guys either. So I can see it there. I mean, they're a missed field goal against the Browns away from winning that game, even in the game where he struggled. So that's worth noting too, where they could very easily be six and two at this point and not the five and three, that could be a difference. But again, we're not going to play. What if you're like at the end of

the day, get it done. If you're going to be one of those guys and you're a true contending team, you will find a way to get it done more often than you don't. And right now they've been slipping. The chief's kind of trying to do the Tom Brady system, right? Where you pay the quarterback, you pay one big weapon and you put together a young drafted defense. And then you just take a bunch of used parts and you put them at the receiver position and you hope to figure it out. Sometimes it works. Sometimes it doesn't. I wouldn't, I don't know if I'd have the Chiefs listed here just yet, but it's clear that the wide receiver position has certainly been a miss for them. I mean, even though the Jets won, and we've said a lot of nice things about the Jets and

Zach Wilson, 24 total punts. Can we put the Jets and the Giants, 24 total punts between two teams? Did anybody try to watch that game on red zone? No, you didn't. It didn't show up on red zone. Nobody scored. Nobody did anything. I think football should be banned from the after performance

banned football in new york no more you guys if we had like give me two xfl teams for a year you guys go play in the xfl for a year we're gonna relegate you like it's european soccer after i couldn't you can watch it because i was watching red zone i'd say i i couldn't watch it because how disgusting it was but i didn't have to because it was never on red zone until the overtime period hit which by the way had the jets minus two and a half. Love it. Love it. Won my pool this week. Guys covered for me. Absolutely outstanding, but band football in New York, dumpster fire, total and complete dumpster fire that I witnessed in the city of New York where the jets and giants game and almost deserving of their own separate segment of how bad that football game was.

But, you know, I've seen the rest of the list. Totally agree. McDaniels, I didn't put Denver completely on McDaniels because they drafted Tim Tebow. That never worked out. But now that McDaniels has brought in his guy in Jimmy G and has still continued to not only not put together a winning team, but a poor culture. This one's on McDaniels. There's not really a job waiting for him back in New England, at least as far as i'm as long as i know um i don't know who's going to be there to

hire him at the rate that they're going um so that door is not going to like you know you don't burn any bridges but over 20 years the dynasty doesn't stay around forever you can't just go back to bill and things don't work out as a head coach especially because things aren't really working out for him as a head coach himself right now so uh yeah i, I agree. I think the Chiefs, it's a little hot there, but everybody else pretty much is urban to be at this bottom three. A lot of good candidates, honestly. Like, I think you underscored the fact that there were so many bad teams from this, two of them in one matchup.

And it's crazy to think that the Giants actually have four Super Bowl victories and are still playing football right now. I kept the Giants off just solely based off that they ended up having to go down to the third-string quarterback. Negative one passing yards. Yeah, negative one passing yards. It's just insane. I mean, I'm not going to fault a team for sucking

because they have their third-string quarterback. That is a fair point that's a reason why i pro i would have had the the 49ers over the over the raiders on the actual top three just because i kind of expected the raiders to be bad especially against a really good lions team the 49ers should be a lot better than how they played the other night. Yeah. The other night. So that's just, that's just kind of my opinion. I digress though, but we are going to need to move on and we have, excuse me. We have Chris's guests. Jesus, we have Chris's all over the place place today it's been a long day um we we've got chris's trivia segment that's next this is the fumble ruski podcast 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 cross. Takes. Side-eyed. Touchdown. Unbelievable. Slings it way down the field to Watkins. Welcome back to the Fumble Ruski podcast by Powerade in secret weapon consulting. Adam Wright, Chris Kostrich, special guest Lucas Ferreira.

Chris, take it away with your trivia. Darren Bland, corner for the Cowboys, picked up his third pick six of the season on Sunday. And 20 receivers, well, 20 players in general. It's not just receivers. There's a good mix of tight ends and running back two in here as well. But in general, 20 players have exactly three receiving touchdowns this year. Adam and Lucas, I will give you two strikes to name two strikes each to name as many of these guys as possible. And it's not like it's just a bunch of wide receiver twos and threes.

It's good mix of like wide receiver ones, some good tight ends here and there. And one running back Deandre Hopkins. No, he just, he had one more before last week. That was about me. I was going to be,

that was going to be my first for this week. No, I mean before this week, because Deandre Hopkins had three touchdowns this week yeah but he had he had one before this like he had one before he caught the three this week oh so okay i'll get i'll give you that one then because i uh it's not on this list i'm looking at so i'll give you that one yeah i was gonna say because he had none leading up to this week where he caught three so that would have been my yeah okay i'll give you that one because this list bonus i think yeah i think this list was this list is based off a sunday night football uh on nbc's instagram page

so i think this was made uh right after darren bland had gotten the three his third pick six oh oh before they actually tallied up the day? Yeah, so I'll give you that one, Adam, the DeHop one. Appreciate it. All right, Lucas, since I jumped the gun, I think we usually do the guess first. Yeah, we do. Does Brees Hall have three receiving touchdowns?

Am I nuts? Does Brees Hall have three? He is not on this list. Boyle. All right. Jamar Chase. Jamar Chase is on this list. I don't think Terry McCorn has a reception touchdown.

I don't think he even has one this season, so I'm not going to go with him. There's got to be... I'm trying to think here. Definitely not. I'm not going to go with him. There's got to be – I'm trying to think here. Definitely not. I'm not going to go to Vontae Adams. Kendrick Bourne, no. Gasicki, no. I'm not – why am I thinking of bad offenses?

Why is my instant thought to go to bad offenses? Go back to that first name. Go back to that name that you just had. You literally just had him. Gasicki? Is that what I said before that, or is it after – I can't remember that you just had. You literally just had him. Is that what I said before that? Or is it after? I can't remember what I just said.

What did I just say? What is it? I'll give you this one because you said Devontae Adams. He is on. He has three? Okay. Stephon Diggs. Diggs is not on here

i would love to see how many we're talking we're talking exactly three receiving like three in a game or three no oh exactly three yeah he has way more than three yeah i'm trying to um i can't think of my saints there's not anybody that's actually done enough like for them like overall that i could actually bet on i'm not gonna go packers my mind instantly is drawn to bad offenses i don't know why i'm like i'm guessing low touchdown catches for bad offenses i would think of like a wide receiver like two would be more uh realistic It's the downside of being a Patriots fan. I'm not thinking CeeDee Lamb. I shouldn't think CeeDee Lamb, although, no, I'm not thinking CeeDee Lamb.

Chargers, Keenan Allen, no. I wouldn't think. The other kids, Young. Chiefs, no. Broncos, good Lord knows. Cortland Sutton has three. I don't even know how much he's actually. Go back to the Chiefs. Go back to the Chiefs, no. Broncos, good Lord knows. Cortland Sutton has three. I don't even know how much he's actually – Go back to the Chiefs.

Go back to the Chiefs. Chiefs. Kelsey has more than – does Kelsey have more than three? Not Kelsey. I'm thinking of – it wouldn't be Tony. Would it be the running back? Would it be McKinn? Not Kadarius, Tony.

How many strikes is this? Yeah, no, I'm just rambling i haven't he's just he's going i'm thinking i'm just thinking out loud so at least i don't it's not just dead air it's just the dead air silence that i'm trying to at least give people like a train of thought of like where my brain is at um reception touchdowns for the. I'm trying to think not. Oof. I'm trying to think Titans.

No, that wouldn't be a bright decision. What about the rest of the AFC? So tank, does tank Dell have three? Exactly. It is not. What?

You're on the right track. Rasheed Rice. Rasheed Rice, yep. So, Adam's now up three to one. Lucas is at two strikes now. Adam's at one strike, but. I thought we went with two strikes to begin with, right? Yeah, about three.

About two to one. Let's just do the three strikes three strikes okay another shot lucas tank till had two that's upsetting um three receiving touchdowns um laporta caught another one last night i don't know if that yeah that's great are you only caught one last night unless that doesn't count because well no sunday night they should have counted it up i don't know maybe he has more than three now actually considering the list i'm going to take it up yeah i'll take it i'll take it i'll take sam laporta all right now i now i actually have to step it up because now it's 3-2. All right.

Let's think. Okay. You were thinking you said right track when you said Tank Dell. Yep. So I'm going to go with the other guy, Nico Collins. Nico Collins. He has three. 4-2.

Adam with the lead. Oof. Back to Lucas. That's a big play right there that's a monumental play i'm trying to think of who i've seen making toe tap grabs i mean there's guys who have plenty more i don't think davante smith's been in the end zone three times so i'm not gonna go with davante smith like they have like there's so many guys who like come to my mind, but like, it's like more than that number. So I'm like, I'm trying to adjust my brain. I can't believe there's 20 that have exactly three. That's a, it's a wild,

wild thing. I don't know why I can't like mentally process who the Cardinals would have, but they're pretty terrible. Cardinals don't have anyone. Mark and my Mark. Oh, but they're pretty terrible. Cardinals don't have anyone. Mark Andrews. That's actually a lie. The Cardinals actually do have one. They do have one of them.

Mark Andrews, I think, has more than three. I'm not going to stick with them. Does George Pickens have three exactly? He does not. Oh, my God. Three strikes. Andrew. Jalen Waddle. Jalen Waddle's not on here. Oh, my God. Three strikes. And you're out.

Jalen Waddle. No. Jalen Waddle's not on here. But so some other notable names. So Adam picks up the win. Yeah. Wait a goddamn second. George Pickens does have three exactly. Does he have three?

Jeez. This list is just lying to me. Whoever was on graphics for this game that you were seeing, man. Dude, it's like the whole TV production thing where it's like, hey, if it looks good, no one's going to question it. I am now the guy questioning. All right. So Lucas still had two strikes then.

All right. So it's four to three. I'm only looking it up after the fact, too. I'm not cheating. I'm only fact-checking myself. No, I to three. I'm only looking it up after the fact, too. I'm not cheating. I'm only fact-checking myself. No, I hear you. I hear you. I'm going to have to fact-check myself now.

All right, Adam, we go to you. Jalen Waddell. Jalen Waddell. Hold on. Does he have exactly three? Jalen Waddell has exactly three. Oh, my goodness. There we go. we go all right we gotta end this game man let's let's keep going though oh man definitely not kyle pitts because he doesn't catch anything

couldn't catch a cold because they don't play a call to him whatsoever though oh the former patriot he could have three oh what's his name johnny johnny smith does he have exactly three that'd be my last strike i'll go with johnny smith probably has two he has one only well you know what though that guy the fact that he has turned things around in Atlanta after a stint with the Patriots, who supposedly have the greatest coaching of all time, oh, man, that's a bad look, especially with Belichick's history with tight ends.

It's not a good look. Yeah, it is. Well, that's the list. Adam picks up his first win in trivia finally geez you're a thank thank you yeah thank you for mentioning it in the group chat i'm glad yeah i'm glad you could call me out on that god i was i was just i was having a nice sunday morning i was i was enjoying some coffee and i get a buzz from my phone it's yeah's, yeah, just, just want to let all of you know, in this group chat,

all five of you that Adam's Owen three in trivia. Oh, and two. Now you're wanting to, don't worry. All right. All right. All right.

We it's salvageable. Then we have all season. It's going to be, we'll see how this goes. All right. It's the fan box. Yeah. Let's finish up this show.

All right. Next we've got the fumble ruski fan box so at the half point of the season we go every quarter who is so far the league mvp that's next this is the fumble ruski podcast 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 in. What? Diggs!

Side-eyed! Touchdown! Unbelievable! Swings it way down the field to Watkins! Welcome back to the Fumble Rooski podcast by Power 88 and Secret Weapon Consulting. I'm Adam Wright with Chris Kostic and special guest Lucas Ferreira. We welcome you to the fan box portion of our show. We post a question filter on our Instagram every Monday, and you can respond with hot takes, questions, and more. And we will discuss it and give you a shout out on our podcast.

Respond to next week's fan box question to be featured on our show as uh and as uh rasul douglas has now become a buffalo bill just this uh right this second so they are working on their secondary desperately after losing tre'davious white. They need it. Oh, God, did they. And Russell Douglas is a pretty good defensive back. He's pretty solid. If there's any upside to this Packers team in the past few years, their secondaries have been pretty good. Pretty well put together.

All right. So the question of the week for our fan box was, who is the MVP so far this season? So every quarter of the season, we've been doing this the past few years, right? So every quarter, MVP so far this season, starting with Ian Mulhern, he said Joe Burrow will bounce back. So this kind of contradicts where we stand so far on the season rather than in the second half.

Even if he does bounce back, I don't think he's going to break 30 touchdown passes this year. I don't even think he's projected to break 20 at this point in the season. But then again, Patrick Mahomes had 26 in 2019 when he won the Super Bowl. Didn't win MVP, but he won where it matters, which is the Super Bowl. All right. Aaron Wise said Tyreek Hill. And I do want to start the conversation about the first ever wide receiver to win a league

MVP. And if there is one, it might be Tyreek Hill, who's on pace for the most electric season of all time, statistically, and even giving it the eye test. We were just saying before the podcast, this MVP race could potentially, in general, be a non-quarterback MVP because that's how wide open it is. Passing stats are down around the league league and it's a prime position for wide receivers to break out. I mean, you can look at how the offense has put around Tyree kill. If he,

if he breaks the record for 2000 and he does it like even handedly, he gets over, over 2000 and like, does it even with the extra game, all things considered, like I couldn't think of a better resume to like for a guy to do it. Like it's not, you're not just giving it to any receiver.

You're giving it to one of the best we've ever seen statistically and obviously passing the eye. It's electric. And I don't want to get too much into the projections, but on ESPN, he's projected 2,200. It probably won't happen. These projections always get crazy early in the season, but, boy, imagine that.

If Jedis doesn't get hurt or doesn't get hurt then those two would be neck and neck with that too for the 2000 it's unbelievable how the how the wide receiver position has re-emerged in recent years it has been actually electric in a pleasure to watch um grayson mortimerua. So we're taking a quick break from wide receivers. Uh, if any quarterback does it, I think Tua is definitely one of them. And I think he would be a popular pick considering I feel like most of the league is rooting for him to do well. After a tough year last year, um, he's been, you know, he's been working through some things.

Um, you, um, you had the concussion issues last season um and now he's on pace to have enough he's on pace to have an electric season so we'll see i mean if a quarterback does do it i think two will would be on that list i think it also depends on how he ends up performing against teams that are with losing records right now, too, because that's another thing that the Dolphins are dealing with is that all their wins have come against teams that, yeah, sub 500 and the two teams that they've lost to are playoff contending teams. Yeah, yeah. That's a fair point. I think overall, too, like obviously it's going to come from a team that's obviously experiencing a lot of success too and the dolphins being up there

but also like i look at it in terms of the mvp race too with quarterbacks too like i like the burrow idea because to an extent joe burrow has to be the mvp for the bangles to restore the success that they wanted to have so a lot of times when i look at my predictions and stuff that i make in these sports in these spots is that what what is required of steps of that person or what is required like what are you gonna what's it gonna take to get that team to where it belongs or that player to where it belongs and if it takes an mvp performance i don't mind looking at a player like that if it takes an mvp performance to take that team to where it needs to go and i rely on that person to be reliable like he's been reliable in the past it's worth noting that a player like that

certainly like the dolphins need to would have played an mvp level to meet their expectations so therefore like you can almost it's not safer to bet but like it's reasonable to believe that they can continue to do that because that's what they need out of him yeah and um he's so far so good as far as sub 500 teams go. Be nice if they could beat teams that are actually good. But if he's putting up the statistics and they're winning games, then that's automatically going to put him in the MVP conversation. Going back to wide receivers, Chase McGinty said, AJ Brown, another wide receiver who is having an unbelievable year. I believe he has over 900 yards. I don't think he's broken a thousand

like Tyreek yet. He has six straight games with over 125 receiving yards too. He's having a great season. Um, and if it weren't for Tyreek Hill, um, there would be a lot more attention on A.J. Brown. But I will also say this, when you are in a run-first offense, right, like the Eagles, who have brought so much attention to themselves with a brotherly shove with their QB sneak play, then A.J. Brown does become an afterthought. And, I mean, the best feature of this offense has been more so their run game than their passing game. Their passing game is still pretty good, and it's a reason that they are 7-1 right now.

But A.J. Brown is having an unbelievable year. What are his actual statistics right now aj i'm not sure but he um so he broke calvin johnson's record of five straight games with the same amount of receiving yards that was actually going to be a potential trivia question but there was only two guys that did that i couldn't find any stats of like other guys that had done something similar yeah um 939 receiving yards so far for aj brown um and i'm not even going to look at the espn projections because it's we're halfway through the season, but, um, all right, here's another quarterback. John Warren said Lamar, if they went out and I look as a winner, I completely understand the pick

because he is a, he is a guy who is, you know, he's had a lot put on him in the past few years, not just with health, but with winning big games. The stats never jump out to him. The stats never jump out to you when it comes to Lamar Jackson. Outside of 2019, he has not been the quarterback to stuff the stat sheet. He has been the guy to win you games when he's healthy, but the key is, number one, when he's healthy, but the key is number one, when he's healthy and number two, he's, he's, he has to put up the statistics. Unfortunately, it takes a lot more than the eye test to win league MVP. Nowadays, you have to, you've got to put up the statistics.

And if he's not even going to break 20 touchdown passes this year, he's not going to get consideration. People are going to complain and say, isn't lamar jackson on this list he should be on this list but he's like i get it he is a he's a very good competitor he wins games but it's the stat stuffers who are going to who are going to uh actually take this award so i just don't think Lamar is going to do it. I mean, I could still see him doing it. Yeah, but I think, like you said, looking at the stats, it's probably not going to end up happening. I think there's just better candidates at that point for Lamar's sake.

Yeah, I think statistically that's where it's gonna be like where he kind of meets his end but then again like he's been more efficient he's completing a higher percentage of his pass his passes I mean his career percentage is 64.6 he's up to 70.5 this season so his completion percentage is up he's turning the ball over less and he's healthy I don't I don't think I don't think the Ravens care if he wins an mvp i think the ravens care if he's healthy for a playoff run because i think he's proven that when he gets in those moments he's going to be able to get you to some high places like where the ravens are playing right now this is another super bowl bubble team so even if he doesn't win mvp like i don't think you want him to be an mvp for you

i think you want him to be healthy i think in order for him to be an mvp he's probably going to run around and get hurt. So I think that if you can keep him healthy, that's way more important than the individual hardware. I think it keeps them in a Super Bowl conversation if he's around and he's doing that. Yeah. Yeah. All right.

Well, that is all of the content that we have scheduled for today. But do we have any other thoughts before we end the show tonight? I got nothing else. I thought we pretty much hit everything that we needed to hit on.

Yeah, and I'm sorry. No, I totally agree. I was a pleasure to be aboard and good conversation, fellas. Hell yeah. It was great. And a very sneaky active trade deadline during our show, during the hour 15 that we were on, during that little window of time.

Nothing happened before it. Not much happened before it. But then after Chase Young, Rasul Douglas, Donovan Peoples-Jones, it's happening left and right while we're on air, but nothing. There's, there's still 15 minutes left. This,

this ends in 15 minutes. So you never know. Yeah. I'm still checking. I'm still checking the alerts, but so far, so far, nothing. All right.

As I say that, and we go off air and something happens. All right. Well, that'll do it for us tonight. Thank you for listening to us. We have new episodes out on Tuesdays at 7.30 p.m. Eastern Standard Time. Be sure to subscribe to our YouTube channel.

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