The Fumblerooski Podcast - The Last Gasp -Ep 233 The Fumblerooski Podcast

Episode Date: January 3, 2024

Have the Eagles fallen out of the Super Bowl conversation? How can the Cowboys win a road playoff game? Which teams in the AFC and NFC Hunt will make the postseason? What do the Bears do with the no.1 pick? Adam Wright, Chris Costich, and CJ Medeiros host special guest Mike Whartenby of the Squawking Eagles Podcast to discuss these topics and more!

eagles and cowboys switch spots in the nfc east in a turn of events the afc and nfc playoff picture still has some teams to iron out we have a new number one overall pick that has just been clinched yet again this is the fumble ruski podcast Here's Edelman broken up and the pass is no sign yet. Edelman comes down with a football, they're saying it's a catch it's his shot to Yates side line touchdown unbelievable

swings it way down the field to Watkins Sammy Watkins for the touchdown welcome to the Fumble Rooski podcast by Power 88 and Secret Weapon Consulting. I'm Adam Wright with CJ Medeiros and Christian. Christian? I don't know where I got that. Christian?

Jeez. One of your guests. That was not from one episode, man. Come on. He's very knowledgeable. He picked the Bills when everyone else picked the Cowboys. Chris Kostic, jeez, I have no idea where that came from. Adam Wright, CJ Medeiros, Chris Kostic. All right, we have a great episode planned for you guys tonight. Cowboys and Eagles are battling it out for that

last NFC playoff spot for the division. We have a total, guys, we have a total of 11 teams still alive in the playoff race combined between the AFC and NFC. And the Bears have clinched the number one overall pick for the second year in a row. And we don't even know what they're going to do with it for the second year in a row. Joining us to talk about all of these topics, we have Mike Whartonby of the Squawking Eagles podcast. Mike, welcome to the show. Why don't you introduce yourself to some of our listeners and tell us a little bit about your podcast? Hey, guys. It's great to be here. Thanks for inviting me on. It's been a fun season as an Eagles fan. The last six games, not so much, but it's been a fun season.

I started my podcast last year. Didn't expect the Eagles to have a run to go to the Super Bowl, and so we kept on going and having a great year, and we've kind of had a a bit of a downward spiral i would say um kind of they went through a gauntlet and they've the gauntlet that has really hurt them is the end of the season which we thought was going to be an easy easy go but yeah i'm a i host the squawking those podcasts with two buddies of mine I've known for a long time. I've just been growing my Instagram page.

We're at the Squawking Eagles podcast. We've got a good page over there. We just started a product line on T-Republic. So if you can go over there to T-Republic. We have a shirt over there that says run the ball because that's all Eagles fans want is for the Eagles to run the ball. And so I have that out there. And then we have a small channel on YouTube that we're growing to. It's just takes time.

There's a lot of things, a lot of moving parts. And I enjoy football. I enjoy the Eagles. And so I figure we build a podcast. And now that's what we do. We talk about Eagles. Absolutely. And you love keeping the ball in, pushing it a yard as well,

from my understanding. That has been, you know, everybody hates it. And I guess you hate it if you can't run it, right? And so, honestly, in Philly, we do love that brotherly shove. Yep, brotherly shove, tush push. Either way, I mean, I won't touch on it for too long, but if you have an offensive line as elite as it is, and a quarterback who's an absolute tank,

who has some legs of his own, then that's not about luck. That's just having a bulldozer of a front line. So, I mean, it's about as effective as it comes. Yeah, and there's teams out there. I think the guy in Buffalo, he said that Kelsey's chop-blocking people's knees. If you watch the videos, the replays, nobody's getting after anyone's knees. It's just one offensive line is stronger than the other and the defensive line that's all that's happening low man wins exactly that's what you're

supposed to do all right well we're going to jump right into it so we're going to lead off with talking a little bit about the eagles as well with the cowboys so i'll start with the eagles because that's the freshest thing that has happened. So the Eagles did lose to the Arizona Cardinals in an, in a shocking upset, 35 to 31. Uh, the Eagles had a 20, a 21 to six lead going into the, uh, the, the second half of action and the Cardinals came back. It was a back and forth game after that. But ultimately, James Conner with the two yard run with 32 seconds remaining. That ended up being the deciding factor. Cardinals win 35-31.

Not only did this knock the Cardinals out of a top pick, but it also took the Eagles out of their division lead. And the Cowboys, on their end, they come out with a pretty eventful victory. So if you guys as NFL fans, if you don't, uh, the Cowboys won off of a little bit of controversy. So the, so the lions managed to, uh, it seemed that they would tie the game with a touchdown. It was 20 to 13 touchdown makes it 20 to 19. All right, we're going to get the extra point. Nope. Dan Campbell's's going for two and on the first try they did manage to get it however the player who went is who they they said was in as eligible was not and they put the wrong guy in as eligible number seven i'm i'm blanking on the names here. Number 70 was eligible. 68 was not.

What the Lions intended was 68 to be eligible and 70 not. And it was never, nothing was announced on PA. Usually it is. Nothing was announced. So even the Lions did not know that 68 was not eligible. 68, the lineman caught the pass and it was assumed a successful two point try was not the case. It was taken off the board. They got a couple more tries with some flags, but ultimately they fell short. It was a 20 to 19 victory for the Cowboys and they take back

the NFC East lead. And if they win this game, this next game over Washington, they automatically take the division title and they are going to be hosting a playoff game, at least one for this, for this 2023 post-season run. But Michael, start with you. What are your thoughts? Well, if we, in our podcast, we usually do a even in-game reaction podcast so myself and my two co-hosts we record our voice messages over the course of the game um and if you listen to it i just finished uh i just finished editing it and it is a roll it's not even a roller coaster i would say it's a just a downward dive into the ground because I'm so excited as soon as it starts. And then by the end, there's swearing.

There's giving up. There's nothing but just sadness. It's just a pile of sadness at the end of that podcast. I was very frustrated. I feel like I was more frustrated after this game than I was against the Seahawks game. This game showed to me that this Eagles team doesn't really know how to play football anymore.

They look broken. They're broken because they have yet to play a full quarter, four quarters for a game. And they just let the Cardinals run the ball, pass the ball. They did whatever they wanted. And this is a 3-12 team. And they just did exactly what they wanted to the Eagles. And the Eagles had no answers.

They had no adjustments. They haven't adjusted all season to anything um you know changing your defensive coordinator towards the end of the year to to matt patricia now you guys know matt patricia right you guys are patriots fans all too well how do you feel about matt patricia well that's that's the thing that i was saying what uh last week or on sunday was that this is a – Matt Patricia with the Patriots was coaching like a top five, top ten defense pretty much every single year besides one, I think CJ pointed out. 2017, yeah. 2017.

And now it's just he's not the same coach anymore. I honestly don't really know how else to explain it. It's like he switched. Once he went to the Lions, all his coaching power kind of or all his coaching greatness kind of went out the window. My question is that after he left the Lions, he went back to New England and became the offensive coordinator? He did.

That happened, right? I think there was one spot. It happened. new england and became the offensive coordinator and like that happened right i'm not i think it happened i think there was one spot in between there may have been one stop in between there but okay yeah matt patricia matt something tells me now that the the play calling during that time from 2014 to 2016 where the where new england's defense was top notch something tells me it was more belichick than it is than it is patricia because patricia doing play calls on any end has been bad belichick even after belichick even after brady left their defense has still been pretty good their their defensive i haven't had many complaints with them. But it seems like more of the credit needs to go to Belichick on defense than Patricia.

And this Eagles defense was really good to start the year. Now with Patricia. I just want to say the Eagles offense. The Eagles offense is pretty much the same offense as last year with Shane Steichen. And he leaves and they bring in brian johnson who it was supposed to be seamless like brian johnson has known jalen hurt since he was 15 years old this was the big talk right he's known jalen hurt since he was 15 he's coached him

he knows how and it looks like like brian johnson i know brian johnson was a quarterback in college he was on we all know he was on a video game cover, blah, blah, blah. The dude doesn't have a play call. It's plain and simple. And we're finding out that the success with the Eagles last season was Shane Steichen and not Nick Sirianni. And this is supposed to be Nick Sirianni's offense. And it's really a bad offense. You don't call two quarterback draws and a bubble screen on third and 20

and have Devontae Smith as your lead blocker to Kenny Gainwell. You just don't do that. And Devontae Smith is 170 pounds. He's not a lead blocker. He's not. I saw another thing, too, it it's also the way that teams are playing or defending against the eagles offense now right so last year was a lot of man this year it's a lot of zone and the eagles haven't or the eagles offense hasn't really

um i guess adapted to that new switch, I guess. I totally agree. You can see it with the routes that A.J. Brown is running. He's running around in circles because no one's really, like you said, they took the man off and they're doing zones. So he's like running around in a zone and Jalen can't find him. And all he's just doing is he's just taking off the ball or he's dumping it off on a screen. And's just not finding those soft spots and sitting in those

soft spots no no he whatever he whatever he did last year it didn't it wasn't it's not the same this year it's just it's not at all um and we you know we blame that he was possibly hurt his knee here and just and i think he's been i think it's a lot of it got to do with the fact that I was told and I heard that Jalen Hurts has been given more of a say in what the offensive play calling is, and I think that might have been a mistake. Just tell him to play call, let him make the call, and do it. It's micromanaging is what I see it as

it's very interesting since hertz is what only a third year guy and we're we're already giving him some sort of power and what exactly that's yeah that's kind of wild yeah and uh another issue that i've noticed for philly is uh the actually the defensive side of the ball. And when Jonathan Gannon left, we didn't assume it was that much of the end of the world because at least on paper, it looked fine. But here's the thing. In the defensive backfield, there is a turnstile by the name of James Bradbury. His name is Trashberry. His name is Trashberry.

You're not lying. And here's the thing uh Trashberry as he is now known teams are going out of their way to pick on him teams are targeting him quarterbacks are looking at the field they are finding Bradbury and they are going to target him and we saw uh, not this game, but their previous one, where you lost, Bradbury gave up every catch on that drive. He gave up 90 yards. He gave up 90 yards. Because they continued to go after him. And one thing against the Cardinals was, look,

we can debate about the offense. We can debate about Jalen Hurts. That's great. But here's the thing. Jalen Hurts isn't playing defense. An anemic Cardinals offense led by the eternal enigma Kyler Murray uh had 232 yards three touchdowns and James Connor looking like the second coming of Adrian Peterson yeah I just for me it's like it's the defense like I don't know what happened I mean if you go back look at the stats from that game it's like the philly defense's greatest strength which is the pass rush i couldn't touch kyler i

know kyler's a mobile guy but hassan reddick didn't do anything futcher cox didn't do anything like the only sack of the game came from jaylen carter and that was his only tackle I just I was shocked and you were shocked you were shocked oh I mean just watching the game because yeah I mean I guess if I were an Eagles fan and I knew more of the ins and outs I wouldn't have been as surprised or maybe I would have I but it's just it was just truly weird to see. And I think a big takeaway is that at the end of the day, coordinators really do matter. Because when you are a really, really, really good team, and as Adam and Chris and I are Pats fans, we all know,

the better you are, teams are going to poach your defensive and offensive coordinators, and sometimes special team coordinators, ain't that right, Joe Judge, left and right like it keeps happening and when some teams aren't used to it like you lost uh steiken and gannon that can have a definite effect uh you know a lot of people just look past that that's all i'm saying if if you asked me last year when jonathan gannon left i was happy you know i think most of most of Philadelphia was happy that Jonathan Gannon was gone. We definitely were not happy how it happened because we turned out that it might have been a bit of a problem

during the Super Bowl when he didn't really care. He didn't really care what the Super Bowl was going to be like because he already had a job. So we were happy that he was gone. Apparently the grass is not greener on the other side when we got Sean Desai, which I thought he was going to be a good coordinator. You know, he's coming from Seattle and Chicago defenses, and I thought he was going to be a good fit. He doesn't blitz as much as I thought he was going to blitz.

You know, he has no command over the defense, and it showed. Like I said at the beginning of the season, the Eagles' defense on paper is amazing. If you look at it, they have a fresh defensive line every set of downs you could possibly do, and they're just not doing that. They're not rotating. They're not having fresh legs out there.

And you can see it. The defense is gassed by the middle of the third quarter. They're done. They're done. Yeah. It is good that you met. It is interesting that you mentioned their personnel because as many pieces that they lost,

they gained them back just as quick over the offseason. And they managed to retain Darius Slay and Bradbury. pieces that they lost they gained them back just as quick over the offseason and they still they managed to retain darius slay and j and uh bradbury and i know we're calling him trashberry now but it wasn't so long ago when he was actually a really good corner and a solid number two to darius slay and it's all gone now like it's it's he's just a completely different player. It just shows not only how much coordinators matter, but it also shows how quickly that corners can fall off. They don't have as long as a shelf life because you have to really stick around with some of the quickest wide receivers in the game. And if you're not able to do that on a consistent basis, then you're going to go from one of the best corners in the game

to one of the worst lightning fast. Yeah, we've talked on the podcast that there's going to be a huge cleaning of the defensive side of the ball next year. I don't see a lot of those players being on the team next year. We'll see Jordan Davis and Jalen Carter, but I think most of those guys are going to be gone next year. Bradbury and Slay showed their age this year. It was quick. It was a big drop-off from last year to this year. Their age kind of showed this year.

Slay just turned 33 years old. 33 is not old, but it's old if you're running around trying to chase Justin Jefferson or Brandy Nayuk or CeeDee Lamb. Those guys are young, and they're fast, and it's hard to keep up with those kind of guys. Yeah, yeah. Well, at least the Eagles are're in contention and they are in the playoffs so um i wanted to briefly because we we have we've spent a lot of time on this

segment i wanted to briefly touch on the cowboys uh in their their possible their chances to make a deep playoff run which would be the first time they would ever make the NFC championship since the 90s. I believe, what was it, 96? I think it was 95 or 96, yeah. Somewhere around there. Yeah. They are hosting a playoff game, so they will have, and they are perfect at home right now. Yeah.

So they would have to win. Technically, they lost that game. The Lions won that game. They are perfect at home right now. So they would have to win. They lost that game. The Lions won that game. They would have to win one game, one game, in order to reach the NFC Championship, which they have not done in a quarter century. How are we feeling about our thoughts on it?

We'd want to touch on it just pretty quickly since we are 20 minutes into the show. You want to hear my thoughts on the Dallas Cowboys? I don't know if you want to hear my thoughts on the Dallas Cowboys. Let's hear it. I've grown up an Eagles fan my entire life. The Cowboys have been taught to me to hate. You hate the Cowboys if you're an Eagles fan. So it was really, the root for the Cowboys last week, I couldn't do it. It was a debate. Root for the Lions or the Cowboys? Can't do it. I had the root for the Lions. The Cowboys, I think, they're mediocre.

They don't have a running back. Pollard is not John Dre Swift. He's just a regular guy that you figure out that was great to spell Ezekiel Elliott once in a while. The Cowboys aren't going to make it. They'll win their division game because they can win at home. They won't win on the road. They'll lose. They'll lose whoever they're going to play against. If it's the Eagles, so be it. But we'll see.

I don't think – That would be so much fun. I really don't think that the Eagles – It would be a great thing. It would be a great thing. I just don't see the – I don't see them making it to the NFC Championship game yet. Okay.

My prediction at the beginning of the year was that their fate would be sealed once again by the 49ers in san francisco yeah 100 they would they might have to meet that if they hold because the the cowboys have the two seed so if they lose to the the 49ers it would have to be in the afc champion the nfc championship yeah so that would mean that these Cowboys finally make it to that spot that they have been trying to get to for a quarter century. Only problem is that's not the end goal. We're trying to make a Super Bowl here. I went through, you know, I'm probably a little older than probably you guys. I've witnessed Cowboys back to back to back championships.

I don't need to see them in the championship game anymore. It's good. We're good. I've seen enough of it already. Yeah. to see them in the championship game anymore. It's good. We're good. I've seen enough of it already. I've seen enough of it. And another thing is just plain and simple. I am not sold on them on the road. All of their losses this season have come on the road.

And here's the thing. If more likely than not, you're going to have to play the NFC championship game on the road, then I'm sorry. You're not going to win. And let's just say somehow you do get bailed out by the refs again. Then you're going to have to go to the Super Bowl, which guess what? Also on the road, the Cowboys seem to have no power outside of Dallas. And that is just ripe with fraudulence.

Yeah, Adam, I see. But I mean, I'm just saying. All right. Yeah. Well, we'll see how it all goes. This is going to be an interesting round of the playoffs. Um, but I want to move on. We're going to get to the AFC playoff picture, all of the teams left, which one is more equipped to make a playoff run. If any that's next, this is the Fumble Rooski Podcast. No sign yet. Hamilton comes down with a football. They're saying it's a catch. It's a catch. Oh, it's a catch.

Sideline. Touchdown. Unbelievable. Slings 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. I'm Adam Wright along with CJ Medeiros, Chris Kostic, and mark whartonby all right so we have reached the afc playoff picture so it's it's gotten very interesting so out of all of the teams there are there just a couple left who are still trying to make it in um so right now we have the jaguars the colts texans steelers and technically the bills

have not yet clinched so guys i'll leave this up to i'll leave this up to you guys which of these teams is the best equipped for a playoff run, if any? It's tough because they all have their own little faults, right? I can't say the Steelers. I can barely say the Jaguars. I feel like I want to say the Colts, but the only thing really that they got going for them is the defense. Now the offense has been pretty solid with Minshew, but Texans is like the only one of the four here that I really like just

because of the way like CJ Stroud on the Texans is just night and day compared to when he's not playing on the field. So I like the Texans out of the four, but if we're going to include the bills in the conversation, then I like, I like the Texans out of the four, but if we're going to include the Bills in the conversation, then I even like the Bills more than I do the Texans, just based on the way that they've been playing defensively has been a lot better. But even the last two weeks for the Bills hasn't really been great,

but I feel like that's just more on the offensive side of things that they're starting to kind of struggle again with but the bills are starting to find a run game again james cook is kind of starting to be that number one back that the bills wanted him to be um man it because the jackpots are just a mess too it. All five of these, well, four, if we want to count the Steelers out, the four of these teams could really just be a toss-up. I'm not really sure, honestly. But if I were to choose two, though, for sure it would be Bills-Texans. You know, Chris, I am in the same mind.

I would argue Bills more so the texans it's not anything because because of their roster i would say it's a i just think they're getting hot at the right time you know i mean they're putting together a little win streak especially when their playoff when they were at one point they weren't even in the playoff picture and their playoff chances were uncertain and i mean but then again they're winning but a lot of their wins aren't convincing like you look at new england they couldn't beat new england by two scores that i'm sorry that's sad the bills forced four turnovers in the past they only won by six exactly and the texans i like the texans i. You mentioned it's night and day of C.J. Stroud, but they're too young. Plain and simple, they are too young, and they don't have that high-end talent that's really going to separate it. Maybe when C.J. Stroud develops, perhaps, and I would probably look upon them more favorably if Tank Dell was still healthy, but he is not, so it's a moot point and the Steelers oh but but Mike Tomlin has his winning record that that's

nice well let me tell you something we're actually no I have requests show me the trophy that gets him and then we'll maybe we'll talk but either way as long as your offense is still mired in misery and you still have Kenny Pixicks or the scourge of Chicago and Mitch Trubisky as your quarterback. I'm sorry, I don't see it. And the Jaguars, they just need to punt the year. They need to. Trevor Lawrence is playing hurt. Your team is falling apart at the seams. It's over. And then there's just the Colts that have Gardner Minshew in an elite defense. So yeah, by default, it's Buffalo. And I'm not even saying I like Buffalo, but it's literally Buffalo by default. I agree with what you guys are saying.

I like what you're saying. The Steelers, you got to just throw them out. They're going to have their winning season, and that's pretty much what they care about. Texans, you know, Texans are a good team. I think, you know, they're going to be better next year and down the road. But playoffs, I don't know. I think, like you said, it's really going down to the Jaguars and Bills.

But I think, if anything, the Bills are the team that's going to probably do a little bit more damage in the playoffs. And the Colts, you know, defense does win championships. I don't know if, you know, the Ravens won a Super Bowl with Trent Dilfer. Stranger things have happened. It's true. If it weren't for the injury bug with this Texans team, not only would they be better than 9-7 right now, but they would be, not only would they be better than eight and seven, right. Uh, than a nine and

seven right now, but they would also probably, I think they would have the division and they, they would probably be the best geared team to make a suit, uh, to make a playoff run. I mean, uh, CJ Stroud has shown that he's a real deal, not only in the future, but right now. And you lost Nico Collins. You lost Tank Dell. Their offensive line has not been healthy all season long. They've had pieces in and out of their starting lineup all season. But as for right now, I got to go to Bills because I truly believe that this week they're going to win the division

i think they they blew the doors off of the dolphins the last time they faced them so why wouldn't they do that again especially since they've won four straight uh yeah the bills i think i think the bills have a legitimate shot to make a deep deep playoff run they've been written off way too early in the play in the playoffs this season i think this team um they have the most elite quarterback the most polished one at least because stroud is still too young but the bills they've been to an afc championship they've done it before they can do it again give me the bills i like it yeah yeah i mean it that's the too, is that the bills are going to be playing for essentially their lives here

because they could either get the two seat or they could be completely knocked out of the playoffs. And that's if they lose and all these other teams went. So they don't want to have other teams decide their fate. They want to let themselves decide their fate at this point. And isn't it perfect that the NFL has us talking about week 18 like this, like how important week 18 is. Everyone was, you know, in the beginning of the season,

I'm like, who cares about week 18? Nobody's going to want it. It's going to be all sealed up. But everyone's talking about week 18. It's really, really well scripted. Let me tell you. It's great just the last two weeks in general there was like there's so many teams that were still up for a playoff picture too it was insane yeah let me tell you something i want to push to

week 19 i want to have another and i'll tell you why if you if you do that you move all of the playoffs up one week. What is one week after the Super Bowl? President's Day on Monday. You get a Super Bowl hangover day. Give me the extra football in January and give me the extra football in February and the day off afterwards because everyone needs their Super Bowl hangover day. I'm with that. I'm good with that. Absolutely. the super hangover day super bowl hangover day i'm i'm with that i'm good with that absolutely the monday after the super bowl should be a federal holiday make it so congress i believe

in you i'm kidding no i don't i don't no but it should be all jokes aside all right well as we talked about the afc playoff teams left there's even more in the NFC. Six, to be precise. Packers, Seahawks, Vikings, three quarters of the NFC South. Which team is better geared for a playoff run? That's next. This is the Fumbled Ruski Podcast. Here's Edelman broken up And the pass is no sign yet Edelman comes down with a football They're saying it's a catch It's a pass

To Yates Side line Touchdown Unbelievable Swings it way down the field The walk-in Welcome back to the Fumble Rooski podcast. I'm Adam Wright, CJ Medeiros, Chris Kostic, special guest Mike Whartonby. All right. So the NFC playoff picture, the teams alive are as follows. The Tampa Bay Buccaneers, the Green Bay Packers, the Seattle Seahawks, the New Orleans Saints, the Minnesota Vikings, the Atlanta Falcons. Yeah. So it is a crapshoot right now. The amount of

teams that are left and only a few playoff spots to satisfy all of these teams. The thing with all of the NFC South teams that I've mentioned, all of them have so bad records that if they don't win the NFC, they will have most likely a top 15 pick in this draft. So it's either you're in the playoffs, hosting a playoff game, by the way, or you're not at all such an all or nothing thing. That is one of those rare scenarios in the NFL playoff picture where a sub 500 team could barely squeak into the playoffs and you're at home for a game. How insane is that? And sometimes they actually win playoff games. I am old enough to remember 2014 when Cam Newton and company snuck in the playoffs with a sub 500 record and actually won a playoff game.

So it has happened before. Yeah. All right. So out of these teams, what do you guys think? Which one's the most playoff ready? Nobody. I don't know. It's like, it's really tough to choose.

The Packers are just, the Packers are one of those teams you don't know which team you're going to get. I like the Seahawks. Vikings are just all over the place. They can't figure out who's their quarterback. I just hate the NFC South because you think that the Buccaneers are probably going to win it

and then they lose badly to the Saints, and then, oh, maybe the Saints are going to win it. But Derek Harsh sucks. The Falcons, oh, they got enough talent, but – How the hell are they even in the race either? They have enough talent, but their coach doesn't know how to use his weapons and puts guys in the doghouse when they don't need to be in the doghouse. There's – I don't even know where to even start i'd have to say i'd have to say maybe the seahawks just because you got pete carroll be carroll still a pretty solid coach and i gina like gino

smith hasn't played well but he's also had to deal with some nagging injuries here and there. And he's definitely played a lot better than he did in the prior years with the Jets and the Giants and whoever else he was on. So I like the Seahawks in that matter. I like the Buccaneers just from the way that Baker Mayfield has been playing. He's basically had the same season as Tom Brady did last year and they're with essentially the same record, right? It's the same record. I like the Buccaneers in that sense.

So Baker Mayfield is just as good as Tom Brady is what you're saying? No, no, no, no. We're comparing a 45-year-old Tom Brady. You can't open that door, Chris. You cannot open that door. I'll go Packers, Seahawks, Bucs as my three. I mean. Huh. Yeah. I mean... That's tough.

It is tough. So, sorry, I was just gonna... No, you're good. You can go. Yeah. So, as it sits now, as we all know,

there are seven teams on either side that can make the playoffs. Niners, Cowboys, Lions, Eagles, and Rams have already punched their ticket to the dance. And as it sits now, this is according to NFL.com, the Buccaneers and the Packers have the best odds to make the playoffs. Bucs at 69%, and the Packers at a less nice percent at 60%.

And then you have Seattle, the Vikings, and the rest of tank division there with the Saints and the Falcons, you know, just being on the bubble. I'm not going to lie to you. None of these teams, especially the Saints, Vikings, and Falcons, enthrall me. Because if you're from the NFC South, I'm automatically going to raise my eyebrow at you personally though i would have to lean tampa i know they lost but baker mayfield's been playing like a man possessed just slinging around the rock running around leading them i like that i do but the saints as long as you have derrick carr you will be nothing more than mediocre the falcons how stop me if i've said this before but you can't even use your best players correctly.

So I don't even know what you're going to do against a real contender. Then there's the Vikings, who lost Nick Foles. I mean, wow, Nick Foles, wow, I don't know. Kirk Cousins, and I was thinking about Nick Mullins. Then you went through Nick Mullins, you went through Josh Dobbs, and now you're on Jaron Hall. Just the cycle merrily continues for them. And there's the Seahawks. I mean, they're probably the least offensive out of the bottom four, but if I had

to hedge my bets, I would think it's probably going to be the Packers and the Buccaneers. I really do. And when it comes to which of the two can probably strike out and make a run, I'm going to regret saying this, but the Bucs, solely because they're at home. And Adam disagrees, and he's allowed to, but I just, the Packers are just wildly inconsistent, and Baker Mayfield is actually a man who actually has something to play for. He's literally playing for his job. Whereas the Packers, they are free to just say, hey, we all have Aaron Rodgers. This is a rebuilding year. I just think the attitude surrounding the two is different. Also, I'm not entirely sold on Matt LaFleur as a coach without Rodgers yet, but I'm leaning Tampa. I'm not making it definite, but I'm leaning Tampa. I also think Green Bay is going to sneak in because the other four teams,

maybe not Seattle, they have no business being there. And Seattle, they just, I'm disappointed. Jordan Love is the next guy. He is their third straight future Hall of Fame quarterback. I think the fact, and they are still technically, they still technically have a few things to prove. They're not an established team yet. Yes, they have shown that they have a bright future, but they still need, they still need to make a little bit of noise.

They've lost to some questionable teams this year, but I still think Jordan Love is the guy. And I think because of that, they are the most, they have the most potency to actually make a playoff run. Will they? Probably not. They'll win a wild card game. That's what I would give them if they actually sneak into the playoffs. But, I mean, the Buccaneers, yes, they're going to be hosting a playoff game, but I would have to look real quick, double check who they would be facing. It would be the Eagles.

It'd be the Eagles. Yeah. How are we feeling about that? I, the Eagles already beat them early in the season. I don't, I, I, I, they'd be him again too. I don't, I don't see. That's kind of what I was about to say was that they played once. I feel like it would probably be a similar result.

Maybe the game doesn't go the same way that it did the first time around, but I feel like it ended up being a similar result at the end of the day. I don't see any of these teams winning a playoff game, honestly. I don't see it. And Green Bay would have Dallas.

Yeah. That would be a tougher one, but Dallas in the playoffs, we don't know what we're going to get. Right. That's true. This is basically debating on if we like human waste or throw up.

We're not debating which team is the best team in the league here. Out of the fringe playoff teams, who's going to make it and who has a better chance? I think the Packers just have the best potential because I think they have the best quarterback. That's just my general consensus. Their best days are ahead of them, but if we were talking about today, I still think out of the teams that are trying to sneak in, they have the better shot. That's just my general opinion. I think the Eagles have a better shot of holding their own

in the first round than the Cowboys. I'll say that much. All right. So we're going to move on and move a little bit away from the playoff picture and towards the cellar-dwelling teams that are pushing for a top pick. Three of the four of us are in that conversation on this podcast as Patriots fans. But in Chicago, they are celebrating yet again for back-to-back years, not a Super Bowl victory, but for yet another number one overall pick.

And we still, for the second year in a row, do not know what they are going to do with it. We're going to tell you exactly what they should do with it. 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 and they're saying it's a catch. It's a catch! It's a catch! Side-line! Touchdown! Takes! Side-line!

Touchdown! Unbelievable! Swings it way down the field to Watkins! Sammy Watkins for the touchdown! Welcome back to the Fumble Rooski podcast by PowerD8 and Secret Weapon Consulting. I'm Adam Wright, CJ Medeiros, Chris Kostic, and special guest Mike Whartonby. All right, so the NFL draft update. We haven't been able to talk about this too much this season

because most of the time we're focused on what's happening in the season, not what's going to happen in April. But with one week left, it's pretty notable that the Bears have clinched the number one overall pick. And what's more impressive about this Bears team is the fact that this isn't even their pick. They got this out of the trade from the previous number one pick that they had and were able to draft their guy on the offensive line while keeping Justin Fields. Well, that hasn't exactly worked out for them still because Justin Fields has had a very up-and-down season either way.

He's been hurt, or there was earlier on in the year where he was not playing well at all, and there's now where he's actually kind of lighting it up. So I'm going to bring up Jeremy Fowler put out this tweet of all the possibilities that he could be doing just by just by by the excuse me by league league sources forecast. So the Bears can get a second or third round pick in trading Justin Fields. The Bears can also get more than the Bryce Young trade package, even from the team picking in the top five for number one overall,

just based on the quarterbacks that are around, Caleb Williams, Drake May most notably, and also Marvin Harrison Jr. Excuse me. So there's also Justin Fields, who has been up and down, but recently he's been playing very well. I'm going to give you my two cents right now. If the Bears know what's good for them,

don't fall victim to the recency bias. I get Justin Fields has played very well, and he could be very good on another team. But don't fall victim to this, because why was he playing poorly earlier on in the year? Why has he been up and down all season long with the targets that he has had dj moore has been awesome you still have darnell mooney you have cole comet you have a really really good set of pass catchers and you still we still don't know if you're the guy if you don't know by now by year three then

cut them loose and reset and find a new guy because you have a good team around you now so if you were to find a new quarterback then it would be an easier reset button because you already have the team around you to supplement that so that's that's basically what i feel what they will do. I am very fearful that they're going to keep fields yet again, but I don't know what you guys thought. Mike, I'll let you go first on this one. Um, if you listen to our podcasts, we are not fans of Ohio state quarterbacks. Um, Justin, Justin Fields is an Ohio State quarterback So we would lean against Getting rid of Justin Fields

There's a team out there that could probably use him And think they could save his career And by all means let him try to do it I think the Bears are better off trading Justin Fields And taking their top quarterback Caleb Williams Even though he said he doesn't want to play in Chicago. I think he, you know, I think he's, he wants to play in New York. So I don't know how that's going to work out for him. How much is that him or him saying that, or is it his dad saying that?

I would say more of his dad. I think a lot of his dad talk is about, that's about that. It feels again like when Eli Manning got drafted by the Chargers and he said, we're not playing with the Chargers. It was all his dad saying he's going to play in New York. He's going to play in New York. That's what happened. It's the same thing when John Elway didn't want to play for the Baltimore Colts. I think we're going to see Kayla Williams go to the Chicago Bears

And Justin Fields gets traded to somebody For a second or third round pick And maybe some Other draft picks Alright Chris I don't know This part of football isn't Necessarily my strong suit

So I'm going to defer my time to CJ A draft guy baby uh by the way mike i i am uh i'm a huge fan of the draft that's kind of my suit so i didn't say the thing adam didn't say the thing so don't get mad so so yeah here we go the way i see it for chicago i i just i don't make a field fields has set a career high in passing yards but then again that career high is 2400 yards he has 16 touchdowns and nine picks with a quarterback record of five and seven as we all know he has missed time i just i'm not sold on him because when he was coming out of the draft I was a big fan but not anymore and if I think if you could sell him to a team for a second you absolutely pull the trigger and you go grab Caleb Williams however I do have a word of caution this is

extremely high risk, high reward, because almost like a damned if you do, damned if you don't. Because if you keep Fields and he peters out and you pass up on Caleb Williams, then obviously hindsight's 20-20. But Chicago has a track record of being unable to develop quarterbacks. So if you take what pundits are saying could be a generational talent in caleb williams and you ruin him then you're eating crow either way

however i would say the odds of a franchise turnaround are better if you sell fields and then draft caleb williams but and i know what you're thinking oh but marvin harrison's right there because i know a lot of bears fans want to say keep fields and draft harrison but but you got to remember you're also going to have i believe around another top 10 pick to play with and that you could i don't think harris is going to be there but you could probably get malik neighbors or roma duns or somebody like that. Or you could go any way you want. Like, world's your oyster when you're in the top 10. So all I'm going to say is, Chicago,

you could definitely do a lot worse than trading away fields. That is where I stand. I think he needs to be traded because if the reports are true and you can get a second rounder out of it, then absolutely you pull the trigger. Or that's it. I'm not even going to entertain the other possibilities. This is what needs to be done. And Adam, I think, is 100% correct when he says don't fall victim to the recency bias. I'll give you this follow-up question, Mr. Draft Guy.

All right. bias uh i'll give you i'll give you this follow-up question mr draft guy all right um between drake may and caleb williams two quarterbacks who are most likely going to go top three which one do you take if you are you're chicago you're on the clock or marvin harrison jr which you should trade back for if you do that yeah if you want Marvin if you keep if you're saying you keep fields I would actually have no qualms with them taking Marvin Harrison Jr. number one you know I really don't because I think in my humble opinion he is the best player in the draft and I'm not I I've I don't know I think I've told you this off camera I'm not, I've, I don't know. I think I've told you this off camera. I'm not entirely sold on Caleb Williams. I'm not entirely sold on Drake May. I go back and forth, but when it comes to a

pure scheme fit, I would say you're probably safer going with Williams just because he's been, look, I know it's been rough, but he's at least playing higher level competition than Drake May there. I think May has slightly a better arm and his mobility is a little better, but I would just say from an NFL readiness standpoint, Williams is more polished and there's a slightly less chance you'll screw up because let's face it, you're Chicago and you can't draft quarterbacksbacks let me give you another piece of information there uh guess who's at number two who really wants caleb williams the commanders i believe washington so do you draft marvin harrison jr at one or do you trade back get more assets you get marvin harrison jr

and you get more pieces on top of it, you get Marvin Harrison Jr., and you get more pieces on top of it, and you get to keep Justin Fields like you plan. If you can do a pick swap with the commanders, and you know they're going to take Caleb Williams, and if you want to keep Fields, then I say there's no reason why you shouldn't. Because, like I said, I'm a big fan of Marvin Harrison Jr.

I think he's the best player in the draft for your Chicago. You should go out and get him if you want to keep fields. But then again, it all depends on what they want to do. And there's little pathways that branch off from that. But if this were the reality that they're keeping fields and the commanders want Caleb Williams, then of course you move to two and get all the assets you can. Now it's also not set in stone. Washington is at two, but if New England, no matter what happens in the game between Washington and the Cowboys, if New England

loses their last game, they move up to two and Washington is down to three. And there's no guarantee that New England won't take Marvin Harrison Jr. Maybe that's my bias, my recency, not recency. Maybe that's just my bias speaking because I want Marvin Harrison Jr. with the number two overall pick as a Patriots fan. But we don't know what New England's going to do. They have not said a word about what they want. And both of these.

Yep, exactly. And New England, as we all know, is a team that keeps its cards very close to its vest. However, I will tell you one thing. And I believe this. I truly believe that what they do in the draft almost entirely hinges on whether or not Bill Belichick stays or goes. Whether you think he should go or think he should stay, that's not my prerogative. That's not what we're talking about. I truly believe that what they do entirely hinges on Bill.

Because if Bill's still there, you can – I'm sorry. I just want to say if Bill is still there there then you can completely rule out them trading up that will not happen craft will lock belichick in a room before he lets him trade back in that draft if you have the number two overall pick it's going to be like this past draft remember remember cj they oh i remember at 19 wanted to draft keon white ownership stepped in and said no take christian gonzalez that is the better player take him and we still got white in the second so exactly christian gonzalez is a good player he got hurt oh yeah he is he's gonna be he's gonna be on track to be defensive rookie of the year and i love is for those who don't like nice.

I just want to say one thing for those that aren't fans of Bill Belichick. I'm not defending him. I'm not hating him. I just want to say he has only ever had a top 10 pick in his career twice. And with those picks, he drafted future Hall of Famer Richard Seymour and elite linebacker who unfortunately had his career cut short due to injuries, Gerard Mayo, who's also a pretty good defensive coach. So I'll just leave it there. But when it comes to offense, well, you draw your own conclusions.

I thought Bill Belichick wasn't even going to be a coach of the Patriots next year. I thought that was the whole thing. He's going to leave. I don't know year i thought that was the whole thing he's gonna leave i don't know well that's the other thing i really believe what they do in this draft hinges on whether or not he's still the gm we have no idea what new england is going to do they they've they're very secretive on what they do and i could i i don't see belichick back but i also there's also people who do see him possibly being back because he's Bill Belichick and they might want to give him another chance. Because that's the thing.

He signed a contract extension into next year, and then all of a sudden you got the word that because of the Colts game or the Colts game was going to basically decide the future of Bill Belichick. And then a month or two later, oh, the Colts game actually did decide the future of Belichick, and then he's probably going to leave. Oh, here's all these other trade talks. And the trade talks didn't really even start until Mike Florio gave out a hypothetical. And yeah, he's given out the hypothetical just just on based on uh

things that he's hearing from outside sources but it you don't know what you're it's the pats you don't know what's true you don't know what's not true everything could be a fugazi a fugazi everything could everything could be just down the line. I don't know. Even as a Pats fan, you don't know what the hell is about to happen. Yeah, no, you don't. I just want to say it's 50-50 whether or not they keep him. That is truly what I believe. It can go either way.

Marvin Harrison Jr. at number two overall. Whatever quarterback is left on day two, that is all. Deep QB class, smart decision. I like it. All right. Do we have any other thoughts i know mike you wanted to it looks i just wanted to say do you guys believe in bill belichick because the last time i remember bill belichick as a head coach he was was with the browns and that wasn't too successful i think he's a better coach than people give him credit for but um the gm the gm part of him hurts the coach part of him there's it's um but how good he is as a head coach i i still think he's okay um but he

needs the personnel around him clearly in order to do in order to to succeed when he had the elite quarterback he was winning super bowls uh when he didn't he wasn't able to find the next guy and the guys who he did have he wasn't able to find the next guy. And the guys who he did have, he wasn't able to make do. Let's say that Belichick wasn't a good GM. He still built some very good teams. It's just one of those things that maybe the times have gone by him at this point. I'd plead the fifth. I'm not getting into it. We're going to move on.

We have week 17, our weekly top three, bottom three, your best and worst performances from week 17 by Chris Kostich. That's next. You're listening to the Fumble Risky 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! It's a catch! Sideline! Touchdown! Unbelievable! Welcome back to the Fumble Rooski podcast by Power 88. In secret weapon consulting, I'm Adam Wright. CJ Medeiros, Chris Kostic, special guest Mike Whartonby. All right, so we are on to week 17, top three, bottom three with Chris Kostic. Chris, take it away.

We'll start out with the top three. First one on the board is the Ravens. You all would probably assume that the Ravens would be on here and your assumptions would be right. I mean, if you couldn't have any more of a convincing win against San Francisco, this just was the cherry on top. And Lamar Jackson,

I believe is quarterbacky enough to win mvp perfect passer rating five touchdowns i'm not even looking at the yards right now i don't even need to he was ridiculous he should be mvp if if it if it doesn't end up being christian mccaffrey i can't believe someone actually said quarterbacky. Like actually said that word. Not even the context it was used in, just using the word quarterbacky. I know.

What does that mean? Next team on the board is the Cowboys. Yeah, say what you want. The Cowboys should not have won that game. And there's a lot of things at the end of the game that really, like, never mind the blown penalty that at the end of the game, but just the way that the Cowboys leader in the Lions and set yourself back up into that two spot. You keep yourself into that two spot and give yourself a better chance at winning the division. And then final team on the top three is the Chiefs. You had a bad little stretch and you finally were able to kind of bring that all together,

get a little bit of momentum into the last week of the season. You clinched the division, and you beat a Bengals team that was also very hungry in trying to get their own playoff spot. Thoughts from you, fine gentlemen? The 49ers, I think, deserve a top spot as well yeah um because the 49 the niners what's most most important is no team when this when this 49ers team has been healthy no team in the nfc has been able to to solve solve this team, especially at home. So you look at this, uh, they just clinched the number one, the number one seed that is going to be big for them. And unless they run into Baltimore in the super bowl, which we don't know if they will, they, they still Lamar Jackson

has not proven to be able to make it even to an AFC championship just yet. I say yet. I'm not saying you won't. I'm saying yet. This is kind of the team to beat in the NFC. Sadly, yeah, the 49ers are the team to beat in the NFC. I'm pretty good with that top three. Cowboys, Ravens, Chiefs Maybe not the Chiefs Maybe not the Chiefs

I think the Chiefs seem Kind of questionable right now But yeah, that's a solid top three CJ, any thoughts? Yeah, I agree with you I would give the Niners an honorable mention I mean, just because if you watch the game, it took a bit for them to get warmed up against arguably the league's,

actually statistically the league's worst defense. I mean, you know, you didn't end up hanging 27 on them, so they got it figured out better late than never. If it was a top five, I'd put them number four. Yeah, and that's the thing with the 49ers, that that's just your classic get-right game against a really bad Commanders team, and that's a thing with the 49ers, that that's just your classic get right game against a really bad commanders team. And that's a game that they should win.

And they took care of business, right? Bottom three, the Dolphins. There's really not much you can say. We've known that this is a team that has struggled against teams above 500 just in general. And their one game that they won that was against a team that was over 500 was against the Cowboys. And they barely squeaked out of that one. And now you're going up against the top team in the league at this point. And this is essentially for the first round by two,

this is for the first round by, and you get blown out of the building. And now there is a point about the dolphins that I will make once you guys give your reactions to everything, but I'll save it for that. Sadly, the Eagles, sorry,

Mike, but you guys gave up a, what was it, Adam? sadly the Eagles sorry Mike not sad at all you guys gave up a what was it Adam that you said 21-6 lead yeah gave up a 21-6 lead and now your fate will be decided

by how the Cowboys play next week and the Vikings you lose to your NFC North rival on primetime television. It wasn't even close. And you made it that much more difficult for you to clinch a playoff spot. I would replace. I'm sorry. No, you can go.

I would replace the Vikings with the Bengals. Actually, no, not the Bengals. I would replace them with the Buccaneers because the Buccaneers against a team that they are better than had a chance to clinch the division and they didn't. That's pretty big for me. And the Vikings, I give them the pass because they have been hammered with the injury bug this season. They lost Kirk Cousins, their quarterback, to an Achilles tear. They were without Justin Jefferson for virtually half the season. Jordan Addison's been in and out of their starting lineup. They lost Hawkinson for the year.

I mean, they had a really, really good offensive attack going. If you have that starting lineup, and I haven't even mentioned KJ Osborne yet, that's pretty good. And it's not really their fault that they fell victim to the injury bug. So I kind of give them a pass for that. But the Buccaneers, for all that they have done this year, they've surpassed everyone's expectations. Baker Mayfield has looked the best he has ever looked in his whole career and uh the rest of that all the rest of that team looks as good as it did before tom brady's last year in new uh last year uh last year where he was throwing 40 touchdown passes um so yeah i i say the buccaneers are the most disappointing yeah i would agree with that the Buccaneers are the most disappointing. Yeah, I would agree with that.

The Buccaneers kind of had it in their hands, and they just gave it away. So I would actually just replace the Dolphins with the Eagles defense because they're the ones that are the bottom of the season right now for the Eagles. Their defense just let up 35 points to the 3-12 Cardinals. So I would just put the Eagles' defense at the bottom of everything. Specifically the defense. Specifically.

Never mind the team in general, the defense. No, just the defense. Or just single out two pieces of personnel from that defense, Matt Patricia and James Bradbury. Yeah. That'll do it. Yeah, yeah. I mean mean darius slay ain't doing nothing wrong he didn't play that's true yeah so he didn't he's not doing anything wrong

if you don't play exactly all right cj your thoughts i'll make this quick that's why i do you hear that that's the sound of the any claim of credibility and non-fraudulent slipping away from miami i do not take them seriously and and before they cry about the injury bug it's like but we didn't have jaylen waddle my response is dang i didn't realize jaylen waddle played defense i mean you still got 56 hung on you cry about it and for And for the other two, yeah, although I would also put Tampa on there because I thought they were going to beat the Saints. I'm just disappointed. It makes the Cowboys loss to them even worse because that is a team.

Like, I know that the Cowboys are going on the road. They're significantly worse on the road. But the Dolphins are so bad against teams above 500. And this is supposedly the best built Cowboys team in recent memory. At least that's what we've been saying on this show. And you lose in the final seconds to this Dolphins team that can't beat competitive teams. That looks bad. I know we're talking about last week but uh

this week makes last week look yeah and one one more thing i do want to point out for the dolphins so i don't know if you guys remember this earlier this year when the dolphins got hot i said that this is a team that they don't want to be playing on the road come January because warm weather, typically warm weather teams and cold weather areas do not play very good. And I pointed out the Buccaneers team that won the Superbowl back in oh two going into the NFC championship game against the Eagles. Sorry, Mike,

but they had never won a game that was below freezing or below 40 whatever the stat was and now it was cold it was cold it was regardless it was cold it was cold so I gave that as an example and now here we are the Dolphins going into Baltimore in in cold weather and they get smoked and now they set themselves up with the AFC East title game next week against the Bills. Granted, this is at home, but they lose this game. Oh boy. Now they're going to be on the road for the rest of the way,

potentially against other cold weather teams. And that was the big thing for this last half of the season was that they didn't really have to travel to many cold weather places they had a lot of home games their only cold weather games that they really had to deal with prior to Baltimore was New York and Washington and they granted they were able to handle those games but those are some really bad teams. Yeah. All right. Well, we're going to move on to our final segment, which is the Fumble Rooski Fan Box New Year's Resolutions for your favorite NFL team.

We got some interesting answers, and we can't wait to share them. 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 takes the game! 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 right cj medeiros chris kostich special guest mike wharton b welcome to the fumble ruski 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 discuss it and give you a shout out on our podcast response to next week's fan box question to be featured on our show. And for our question of the week, we have your favorite team's new year's resolutions. So I haven't mentioned this yet, but happy new year guys. Uh. Let's hope 2024 is a good year. So our first response was Owen Van Slack, who is a very, very common responder to our fan box questions. He said, beat a good team and not have an outside linebacker tear something in their lower body. He is a Dolphins fan.

I was about to say, is he talking about the Dolphins? Yes. he is a he is a dolphins fan i was about to say is he asking is he talking about the dolphins yes uh yeah their past rush has had some blows to their uh given to their uh their personnel and uh again it's been there this past a couple weeks ago against the cowboys was their first win against a team above 500 in over a calendar year that's not good for the amount of talent this team has for i mean for how good tua has looked against bad teams you would think that they would at least be able to hold their own against non-compet against some competitive teams they have not all right colin ray said re-sign Captain Kirk, and he's a Vikings fan. I know Vikings fans love them some Kirk Cousins. He seems like a great guy.

I love me some Kirk Cousins. But is he a great guy or is he a great quarterback? Because I don't think he's top 10. I still do not believe he is top 10. My brother in Christ christ the only touchdowns they had was from kirk cousins until he got hurt how many playoff appearances does he have for that you have justin jeff you so you have justin jefferson jordan addison you had adam phelan last year you had tj hawkinson and you're among the league leaders and interceptions in three out

of the last four years he is not a quarterback. They don't have a run game. Dalvin Cook! Dalvin Cook! You've had Dalvin Cook your entire career. I understand he's had some injury issues, but he's generally been able to stay on the field more than people give him credit for. And I know Alexander Madison has not been as good this year

as what he was last year. But still, you had Delvin Cook and Alexander Madison, a great one-two punch in the past couple of years. But it's – I'm just saying. All right. Kirk Cousins also keeps his teeth in games, though, too. Yeah. So this last name is going to be hard to pronounce.

Richie Magielnicki. Magielnicki. I apologize for the pronunciation. Let me know in the DMs, in the comments section, wherever you see this, and tell me I'm an idiot for my pronunciation. He said, get a new O- see this. Um, and tell me I'm an idiot for my pronunciation. Um, he said, get a new old line running back and quarterback. He is talking about the giants. Um, I'll say, so the running back part is a little, is a little shocking because I like, I still like Saquon Barkley. Their offensive line.

My problem is if you get a new offensive line, how do you know if that one's going to be good? Because Evan Neal was supposed to be awesome. He sucks. He's out here responding to his criticizers saying that you're flipping burgers. Well, you know what, Evan Neal? You would burn my burger. I like mine medium rare, some pink in the middle, and you would flipping burgers. Well, you know what, Evan Neal, you would burn my burger. I like the mine medium rare, some pink in the middle and you would burn it.

So that that's, that's what I have to say to that. Um, quarterback, that's a little dicey because they just gave Daniel Jones, apologize for my dog. Um, they just gave Daniel Jones a big contract. And after one year, I'm not saying what you should do, because what you should do is very different than what they will do. Because if you get rid of Daniel Jones, you're facing some league blowback. After one year, after one year, I understand he played poorly, but a lot of teams are going to look at the Giants and say, I'm not signing with you because you have no loyalty to the contracts that you give me. He got hurt too. You can't throw that at him too. Daniel Jones getting hurt is an Eagles fan.

Danny Dimes is not a franchise quarterback. He's not. You can speak. You're a co-host on this show i i do want to point out we're seeing a similar situation with russ right now right they're they're benching him because he doesn't want or they're benching him because they want him to restructure his contract and adam said this earlier this year when we were having a very similar conversation about daniel jones and how there's going to be league pushback now there's reports that players might not be so keen to how the broncos are handling the russell situation

the russell wilson situation right now and we're kind of seeing what would happen if the Giants were to do the same thing with Daniel Jones. Yeah. Yeah. Daniel Jones, I apologize again for the dog. There's a repairman here, and my parents do not want him around him. He's a nice dog. Just he's very crazy. And he likes to steal things.

All right. just he's very crazy um and he likes to steal things um all right uh ian mulhern said dave tepper to sell carolina after his incident oh yeah wow yeah what a class act what is with nfl owners being absolute characters like i don't understand all you have to do is just make good decisions about your team and just stay in the background. You're not even that. Just stay in the background in general. Leave everything up to the GM. Technically, he threw his drink from the background.

Which is worse. Adam, before you continue, I got some breaking news here. Yeah, is it the Dalvin Cook news? Yes, Dalvin Cook just got released by the Jets. Yeah. Wow. He has really fallen off a cliff, which is really upsetting because his career in Minnesota with the Vikings was nothing short of spectacular.

So I really hope that he finds a new home and he finds at least some form of his old, of his old form because, uh, what an incredible quarter, uh, running back. Also, I had him in fantasy every year, but still he was all, he was awesome. That, that guy was a stud. Um, you talk about running backs who deserve a ring. Dalvin Cook deserves it. All right. Our next one was Nate Sloat, who said, Start fresh and send Russ off, which I believe is going to end up happening. It's Diane Rossini.

They are going to move on from him in March. That's an $87 million pill you got to swallow. Yeah. That's a lot. That just says, like, think about how much that says about what they think of Russell Wilson, that they're willing to eat up that much money to get his ass out the door. Yeah. You've essentially screwed yourself if you're Denver, if you're to swallow that much dead money.

I mean, this might be like a Saints level cap catastrophe, you know, because the Saints always start in the red every year. But it's it's I don't know. This is going to be a really tough thing for their GM patent to maneuver around. and frankly i'm not uh i'm not entirely sure that the future is especially bright for them now especially since a lot of the players have been rubbed the wrong way by their treatment of russ and i don't know if you saw on espn ryan clark lit into uh sean payton apparently players are in the league don't like sean payton that's going to put a hamper on you morally and free agency, not even financially. Well, yeah, it's also the same guy that paid players to take out other guys. That was messed up.

I will say, like, it's just that Sean Payton had very little to do with what they did with Ross. That's all ownership in the front office. So I just, like, yes, everything you may say about Sean Payton had very little to do with what they did with Ross. That's all ownership in the front office. So I just like, yes, everything you may say about Sean Payton is, is correct, but I wouldn't blame Sean Payton for what's going on with Russell Wilson. Like he was the coach. What's that?

Well, how come the players that left Denver hate him? Because when Ryan Clark was going after him, you had Randy Gregory and Kareem Jackson come out and say, oh yeah, he was terrible. I know. I'm not saying that he's not. I'm just saying that in regards to this situation here, he doesn't really have as much to do with it as you think. He's the head coach. This isn't a Bill Belichick situation where he's also the general manager. He's just the head coach who makes the coaching decisions. And he has defended Russell Wilson in the past couple months,

and they've been working together. They have won some games. I'm not saying that Sean Payton is not a hateable guy. I'm just saying I wouldn't blame him as much as people are right now. I think you're right. I think it's mostly Russ because I think Marshawn Lynch said something about his relationship with Russell Wilson, and it was like he was my quarterback or he handed me the ball.

That's as far as he went to talking to him. Yep. And that was kind of when they had that defense and running the ball scheme. They felt so little about their passing game that they allowed, they, they let golden Tate out the door after 2013. And just so that they could commit more to their running game with their op, with their option offense. Russ is an awesome scrambler, but they were thinking more of, of Marshawn Lynch in that

context. And they were allowed to let, they let, they allowed him to say, you know what? Doug Baldwin's your top receiver. Deal with it. And you went back to a Super Bowl with that. You didn't need Russ's arm as much as they thought. Except when you got to run the ball over the goal line one yard and then let Russell pass it.

Then let Russ pass it. And that ends up being the game-ending interception. Gosh. Oh, man. Um, I have plenty of opinions on that, but, um,

at least the ball was fully inflated. All right. Um, all right. Well, I believe that is all of our scheduled content, but do we have any other thoughts before we end the show tonight? Nope.

I got nothing. Uh, Mike, did you want to plug your podcast one more time? Yeah, if you want to listen to us, we put out two podcasts a week. You can follow us on Spotify, Amazon, Apple, Google Podcasts. We put a podcast out every Thursday, most likely, usually on Fridays. And we also have an in-game reaction podcast comes out on Tuesdays. Yeah.

And then we're just looking for people who want to come on and give us some content. And if you want to come on with the show, just send me some DMS and we'll try to work you on. That sounds awesome. 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 and Fridays at 5 Eastern Time. Be sure to subscribe to our YouTube channel.

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