The Fumblerooski Podcast - Then There Were Two -Ep 156 The Fumblerooski Podcast

Episode Date: February 1, 2023

Was officiating to blame for the Bengals' loss in the AFC Championship? What's next for the 49ers at QB after Brock Purdy's UCL tear? Adam Wright, CJ Medeiros, and Justin Tucker host special guests Kevin Valentin and Kyle Dabrow of The Neighborhood Podcast to help debate these topics as well as give their most surprising and disappointing NBA teams halfway through the basketball season.

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! Sein caught! It's a catch! It's not a hide! Touchdown! Unbelievable! Swings it way down the field to Watkins!

Sammy Watkins for the touchdown! Touchdown! Your Super Bowl 57 matchup is set with the Kansas City Chiefs and the Philadelphia Eagles set to travel to Phoenix two weeks from now. You are listening to the Fumble Rooski podcast by Power 88 and Secret Weapon Consulting. Adam Wright with Justin Tucker and CJ Medeiros. Guys, we have a great show in store for you guys. So we're going to recap a little bit on the AFC Championship.

Plenty of stories there. And we're going to start on our Super Bowl coverage. And joining us to cover all of this, we have the boys from the Neighborhood Podcast. We have Kevin Valentin and Kyle Dabrow. So, guys, welcome to the show. Why don't you guys introduce yourselves? Okay, go ahead. What's going on, everybody?

Kevin Valentin here. Appreciate you guys for having us. And, you know, we're looking forward to the content. Yeah. My name is Kyle. And I just want to, you know, extend my thanks and appreciation for letting us be on your podcast for this episode. It's definitely appreciated. Of course, man.

Yeah. We've been following your stuff for a while. And I think you guys have a really good social media presence, and you post constantly, which is, I mean, we understand that's no easy task, being able to publish episodes each and every week despite a tough work schedule. But without further ado, we're going to get into it. So as I mentioned, the Super Bowl 57 matchup will be Chiefs versus Eagles in Phoenix. If you guys know your Super Bowl history, you know that there have been some memorable games in that area for Super Bowls. But I'm going to go around the table.'ll get each give our initial thoughts on this matchup and we're going to continue our coverage more in depth um depth um over these next two weeks until the big game but kev why don't you start us off what are your thoughts

uh i think this is going to be an incredible game man philadelphia's pass rush is one of the best pass rushes we've seen in quite some time. And then we all know the electric offense of the Chiefs is going to make it the battle of an incredible pass rush in defense. And then, of course, Patrick Mahomes and that offense are going to make it a duel for the ages, in my opinion. All right, Kyle. Yeah, the way that Kevin outlined it was pretty was pretty good i mean the way that i see it you know you got patrick mahomes look it's been to multiple super bowls and is pretty much undeniably the best quarterback of this new generation that's coming into the fold and

he's going up against a newcomer in that super bowl environment or stage with jalen hertz who's had a phenomenal year this year. And I guess just something just to kind of keep our eyes on as we get closer to the game for Super Bowl 57 is how healthy are the Chiefs going to be? Because they definitely got dinged up in that AFC championship game. Pat wasn't healthy. They had a couple wide receivers go down. And yet, despite that, they were able to overcome that and advance to the Super bowl and when you look at the eagles the eagles are relatively healthy across the board and i mean as far as i see it had they played the super bowl this week instead of the afc and

nfc championship games respectively i think just looking at it the eagles would have the advantage as far as i see it but with two weeks ahead of us I think the Chiefs are definitely going to be in prime position to make this Super Bowl 57 competitive against the Eagles so it's gonna be a good one all right CJ I don't know what to make the Super Bowls anymore I really don't you see last year we thought we'd get this high flying offenses, spectacular, you know, with the Rams and the Bengals. And that did not happen. And look, the Superbowl is like the wild west. You don't know what's going to happen. All cards are on the table. All bets are off. And you know what? There's this nagging feeling in the back of my head that this is going to be like a defensive slugfest. I don't want it to be, but I feel like it is because, you know,

Philly's got an elite defense. Kansas City's defense is good and it's really underrated. But I mean, I'm a little concerned. I mean, very slightly with Jalen Hurts because, well, the Eagles did stomp the Niners. Jalen Hurts at best had a pedestrian game. And who knows where Patrick Mahomes is with that injury so like I said I just I mean everyone expects one thing but the Super Bowl will always give you another all right talk you're up I'm not gonna lie the Super Bowl name I came up with was the Kelsey the Kelsey Bowl because Jason and Travis Kelsey are going to be at the Super Bowl this year congrats to those two two brothers that made it to the Super Bowl.

That's pretty impressive. That's one hell of a family, in my opinion. But overall, I'm not expecting much. I think this will be a pretty intriguing game because I want to see how that offense of the Kansas City Chiefs will do against that Eagles defense, especially since they're a little bit banged up. I want to see what Patrick Mahomes does when four legitimate guys pass rush him consistently all day long. I want to see if he's

still, I want to see if he's better on his leg now that he has two weeks of rest to prepare for the game. I want to see how his offense prepares for the Eagles defense and what they do well. I kind of want to see what Jalen Hurts is able to do in the Super Bowl. It's his first time in the biggest game of his career when everybody wrote him off a season ago. I kind of want to see what Jalen Hurts is able to do in the Super Bowl. It's his first time in the biggest game of his career when everybody wrote him off a season ago. I kind of want to know what he's made of, and I'm very intrigued by this game. I don't think it's going to be high scoring, but I think it's going to be very nip and tuck throughout the whole game. All right. So not only is this going to be the Kelsey Bowl, but a matchup of the one seeds. And with that, this is going to be the first ever, not first ever.

This will be the first Super Bowl since 2017 to 18 season, which was Super Bowl 52, where the one seed has won the Super Bowl. That was the Eagles back in Super Bowl 52. We're not going to talk about that as a Patriots fan. Why not? There's some pain. There's some pain with that one. back in Super Bowl 52. We're not going to talk about that as a Patriots fan. Why not? There's some pain with that one, but it's what it is. We're just – exactly. Tom threw for 500 yards in that game.

I can live with that one. 500 yards, three touchdowns. It didn't matter because they didn't get the win. But the next year when they did win and his stats were bad, Brady still didn't get the credit. But I digress. All right. Now to my takeaway on this Super Bowl. Listen, you have Patrick Mahomes,

who is the quarterback to beat in all of football. He is probably the league MVP, and he has now been to two Super Bowls. Now this will be a third. So this is the standard I always held with Brady, who was the previous quarterback of his time, is that he was able to do more with less, which is exactly what Mahomes was able to do this year. And I gave him credit for it. What a year for him. 41 touchdown passes with his best receiver being Juju Smith-Schuster, who's not a bad receiver, but he's not a wide receiver one.

And now Juju is banged up, and so is Kadarius Toney. So the way I look at this, going up against a team that top to bottom, the Eagles probably better than the Chiefs, is the quarterback able to overshadow some of the imperfections and win this game? That is going to be very telling of how great Patrick Mahomes is and how great he will be going down the stretch. Because that's the way it is in the NFL.

You're not going to have the perfect team. It's going to come down to leadership and how you are able to overcome these deficiencies. And that is the standard I'm going to hold towards Patrick Mahomes because he is lauded as the best quarterback in the game right now and perhaps the greatest going forward in the future. So this is going to be a test of that because he's been surrounded by more weapons than you can count over the course of his career. Exit Tyreek Hill and here we are. Let's see how you do with Juju Smith-Schuster as your top wide receiver.

Tom Brady did it with Julian Edelman twice as his top receiver. Pretty good. He's a big time performer. He's not a wide receiver one. But yeah, that's my takeaway. If you guys have anything else, I did want to change gears.

Anything? I'm good. I'm ready for the next segment i think i hit the nail on the head on that one all right well this is going to be a great matchup and as i mentioned we are going to get into some more super bowl coverage as this time goes on you guys are probably going to want plenty of it it's always the weight in the pro bowl i'm sorry it doesn't it just doesn't hold you over it doesn't do anything um but we will be here for you we're going to have four episodes including this one to to cover it we have this friday next tuesday and next friday and we have our third annual super

bowl special coming up so plenty of coverage coming But with that, we are going to move on to recap some of these conference championships. We're going to start with the AFC championship and more specifically, the officiating in it. They have faced some blowback and we are going to talk about just how much water that holds. That's next. You're listening to the Fumble Rooski podcast. is no sign yet. Hamilton comes down with a football and they're saying it's a catch. It's caught! To Gates! Sideline!

Touchdown! Unbelievable! Slings it way down the field to Watkins! Sammy Watkins for the touchdown! You are listening to the Fumble Rooski podcast by Power 88 and Secret Weapon Consulting. Adam Wright, CJ Medeiros, Justin Tucker, special guests Kevin Vallotton and Kyle Dabrow. So we are on to the AFC championship. And as I mentioned, in specific, the officiating. So the referees are under fire from that 23 to 20 outcome. Chiefs who were hosting the game, they came out victorious and they're going to be super bowl champ uh excuse me uh representing for the super bowl and there were several

calls that are under question and just to i jotted down a few there were the chiefs and their seemingly extra third and nine play. There was also what looked like a possible missed Trey Hendrickson, who was possibly being held. There was an intentional grounding on Joe Burrow and Samahi Pirine seemed to be in the area. There was also a missed block in the back on special teams. And, of course, there was also the unnecessary roughness called for Patrick Mahomes, which put the team in field goal position for the Chiefs to win it. So, guys, we'll go around the table. Is it or is it not an overreaction to possibly blame the referees for the outcome of the AFC Championship?

So, I mean, quite honestly, I think it's a bit of an overreaction. I mean, we're talking about Joe Burrow having to make those two definitive mistakes in terms of the interceptions, right? The refs had nothing to do with him throwing the ball and making a bad read. Then you have the Bengals ineptitude in the first quarter to be able to put points on the board. That has nothing to do with the referees. You're talking about the offensive line performance of the Bengals allowing Joe Burrow to be hit 12 times and sacked five. That has nothing to do with the referees. You know, sure, when you go and you magnify some of the things, I mean, missed calls are a part of the game. It happens in all sports. I mean, look at LeBron James the other day in the NBA,

clearly a foul on his wrist against the Celtics. There was no call there. I know the NFL in terms of the playoffs, it's a lot more of a magnitude, but in reality, the Bengals sealed their own fate. They did not perform in the first half. They waited too long to turn on the offense. And yes, there were some questionable instances with the referees, but again, Joe Burrow was solely responsible for those interceptions. And that offensive line played poorly pretty much every single game except the Buffalo game the week before.

Yeah, to solely blame the refs for what happened in that game with the Bengals losing that AFC Championship game. To me, that's a bit of a reach. Like Kev already alluded to, the Bengals offensive line did not win the battle on the line of scrimmage. They got absolutely dominated by that Chiefs front four. And I'm going to be honest with you. I think when it came to the Bengals play calling and just their playbook in general in that game, they didn't make any adjustments. They should have been more heavily focused on protecting Joe and giving more time with him to work with like kev said he got sacked five times got hit a dozen times on top of that and in some of the most critical elements of

the game they just weren't able to execute and some of the play calls and just some of the play design i think could have been improved you know when you look at the referee aspect yeah there were definitely some missed calls um to me the the block in the back uh there were two of them on that punt return that I saw that weren't called uh the intentional grounding I thought was a bad one as well because like you said Samachi Piran was in the area or in the vicinity and even though though that I thought the Joseph Asai one where he pushed Patrick Mahomes out of bounds and set the Chiefs up for a game-winning field goal, even though I thought that one was a good call, it just seems as if from an outside perspective, looking at this game, it did seem like the refs were tilted in a little bit of a favor

towards the chiefs but i do not believe that that indication or just that general sense uh outweighs the bangles mistakes in that game like you said kev they had turnovers joe wasn't his best their offensive line lost the battle on the line of scrimmage and as far as i see it they weren't able to really bring a consistent pass rush against Patrick Mahomes, who was limited with that ankle injury. So to me, as far as I see it, the Bengals had way too many opportunities in that game to take advantage of. They missed those opportunities.

And that's why they're going home and the Chiefs are advancing to the Super Bowl. That's just plainly how I see it. Yeah. CJ? So I had to think about this. And if I'm being honest, I think saying the game was rigged is a reach, a huge reach, in fact.

And look, I mean, yeah, the refs are going to make mistakes but we've said this before you know the patriots you know in the big hunter henry no call how we've said it sucks but you can't you should never be in a point where a blown call can decide the game you know i mean you never should let it get there and when you really think about it uh everybody says oh samajai piran was in the area yeah a lot of people seem to miss the intentional portion of intentional grounding you know plain and simple it didn't you know it didn't get past the line it wasn't a catchable ball. So, yeah, that's grounding. Furthermore, a lot of Bengals fans that I actually know have taken to their keyboards to say this game was rigged because the league wanted a Kelsey Brothers Super Bowl.

I'm like, well, actually, most fans, the vast majority of NFL fans, wanted a Bengals Niners Super Bowl. So wouldn't it make more sense for the league to rig it for the Bengals and Niners? I'm just saying. I'm just asking questions here. And look, I know we all want to blame the refs, but I just can't agree with it. I really can't agree with it. I really can't. And like Kevin and Kyle mentioned before, certainly doesn't help when Joe Burrow gets sacked five times

and throws two picks. If you want to blame anyone, I would say you blame the Bengals on. You're muted. I thought you were going to say my name first before i go yeah he was it looks like you were going to go on a tangent so i just i was like let he was rubbing his hands together he was ready to go just like the typical bangles just like the of you who don't know, it's like the typical Bengals. Just like the typical Bengals. Don't blame yourselves for causing those penalties.

Don't blame yourselves for throwing two picks. Don't blame yourself for doing a roughing the passer. Don't blame yourself for the intentional grounding. Noah, we were robbed by the refs. It's the refs' fault. Maybe if you didn't leave it up to the refs, you wouldn't be in this situation. But it's neither here nor there.

It's not the ref's fault. In the beginning of the first half, you had an opportunity to stop the Chiefs from scoring a touchdown. It was fourth down. If you stop them, you get the ball back. And okay, field position, not the best. But, again, they get no points. Guess what happens? Touchdown, Kansas City. Immediately when that happened,

I looked at CJ, I looked at Adam, I said, let's go, because I needed that touchdown. And I knew from that point on, I had no faith in the Bengals winning this game. I knew the Chiefs were going to win it because they couldn't stop Patrick Mahomes when it mattered the most. When they needed to stop him to get the momentum back, they just couldn't, whether it was self-inflicted or Patrick Mahomes just making better plays. That second touchdown that he threw between the defender having tipped it or whatever, that was an amazing throw by him. But again, it just results in Patrick Mahomes making a better play. I'm not sympathetic towards the Bengals, but I will admit if the refs cost them, but they didn't cost them this game. I believe it was all down to the Bengals ineptitude, if anything, but it's the Bengals. So there's nothing new there.

I'm not surprised by it. I'm not shocked by it. I expected it. And I'm so happy they're out. They were so obnoxious the entire time they were in the playoffs. So I'm glad that they're gone. But no, I don't blame the refs for what happened. It was 100% the Bengals' fault that these things happened, not the refs.

Coming from the unbiased Ravens fan. Yeah, no bias whatsoever. No bias whatsoever. All right. Listen, it is so – because the officiating, there's no two ways about it. Very, very questionable. But you got to control what you can control. And when you go from allowing one sack and flexing it to the entire league

that your backups can do all of this to the very next week, allowing five and allowing your quarterback to get hit 12 times, that's a bit of a problem especially when their interior defensive lineman chris jones got eight of them that is that is that really is something and i i kind of alluded to this before the game and i was so close to picking the chiefs to win i was so close and and I didn't. And you go from facing Bill's defensive line that was very middling when it comes to pass rush to the number two pass rushing team in the Chiefs, then it's going to come off as a little bit of fool's gold. And that's kind of the issue you had here. Joe Burrow was not able to get the ball out. He had a defender in his face every other play.

And he also made some mistakes of his own with two picks. And when you keep the game close like this, then you leave it in the hands of the officials and then they're going to make a call that you don't like because they ultimately are human i've stressed this for years now for every single questionable play that one play in 2018 where the saints were robbed of a super bowl where the 2017 afc championship the jaguars always say they were robbed of a they were robbed of a super bowl appearance you can't leave it that close for that to happen you just can't because this is going to happen. Control what you can control. That's kind of, that's my basic two cents on that.

You need, you can't, I mean, there were a lot of mistakes that you made, that you made Bengals, that you could have reversed, that you could have fixed. Also, I'm sorry, but that one play where, and I'm completely blanking on his name right now – where Mahomes got shoved when he was out of bounds. Oh, Joseph Osai. Joseph Osai. Yeah.

Yeah. That was – while it wasn't the hardest push, he still did it. Can't happen. Like, you can't do that. You can't do that. He may or may not have been frustrated but this is like it would have gone to overtime no one of adam i do want to say one thing though about the whole thing with joseph osai even if it was a terrible call you as a defender have to know the state of the game you have to know this is an offensive friendly

league and the quarterbacks especially the superstars are going to get every questionable call you even if they're not quite out of bounds, even if they have like a foot in still, you can't touch them. Even if they're right there, you can't touch them. You kind of just have to like body them out of bounds. You don't put your hands on them. Like I said, bad call or not, you as a defender, you have to know this. I agree. And what I'm trying to say is you need to understand the context of the game when that when you do something like that

because he because if he just didn't touch him then they would have been out of field goal range they would have been they wouldn't they would not have been in field goal range and there would have been a chance they stopped them you get the ball back you run the clock out and you're playing in overtime. And then it's anyone's game at that point. But they didn't. He, that's a careless mistake. You can't blame the refs on that one. It may have been an iffy one, but you can't leave it. You can't, you can't leave it up to the, up to the officials to decide your fate. When it gets that close. You control what you can control, and you can control whether or not

your offensive line allows five sacks. That's just... I just want to make one final point. Yeah. If Bengals fans are going at it this way where they're going to blame the officials for how this game transpired i mean guys we could look back at the tape a couple weeks ago when the bangles were

playing the ravens oh when tyler huntley fumbled the ball and sam hubbard is running it back the other way are we just going to completely forget that mark andrews who was chasing him down the entire time got legitimately pushed in the back and there was no blocking the back call there? I imagine – I know this for a fact. Bengals fans definitely knew that they got away with one there because everybody knew that that was a blocking the back because Mark Andrews was going to catch him. But in that case, okay, we'll just kind of turn the cheek and we won't say anything about that but even though that i'm of the mindset that there were some questionable calls by the referees here uh there were some missed calls there's no doubt about that but to solely blame

the rest for the bangles losing this game if the bangles fans are going at it in that type of if they're just saying that for the rhetoric, that's not, that's not the right way. You know, that you got away with one in the wild card round against the Ravens. It happens. Sometimes the calls just don't go your way. And like Kev said,

like pretty much everybody else has said here, you got to control what you can control, limit your mistakes. And the Bengals had opportunities to take advantage of. They didn't. And that's why they opportunities to take advantage of. They didn't. And that's why they're going home. It's honestly that simple. Yeah.

I mean, you couldn't have said it any better there. But to change gears, we're going to go to the NFC Championship. So where the AFC Championship, the Bengals left it too close to win the game. The 49ers, a different story story we'll get to that next and also their quarterback situation now that Brock Purdy is going to be out six months that's next this is the Fumble Rooski podcast Here's Edelman broken up and the pass is no sign yet. Edelman comes down with a football. They're saying it's a catch.

It's a catch. It's a catch. It's a catch. Side-line. Touchdown. Unbelievable. It seems to pass, to Gates, skyline, touchdown, unbelievable! Swings it way down the field to Watkins, Sammy Watkins for the touchdown! This is the Fumble Rooski podcast by Power 88 and Secret Weapon Consulting. Adam Wright, Justin Tucker, CJ Medeiros, special guests Kevin Valentin and Kyle Dabrow. So, the 49ers are not going to the Super Bowl, like many of us predicted.

So the final score, the Philadelphia Eagles won 31-7. But in the loss, quarterback Brock Purdy went out with a UCL tear, and he is expected to be out six months. He played through the tear, but the entire first half, he was not, he was not playing. But with Purdy out and Trey Lance also rehabbing from a second ankle, ankle surgery and Jimmy Garoppolo recovering from a broken foot and set to hit free agency. This situation for the 49ers is kind of up in the air.

So what is next for the Niners in their quarterback room? Kev, I'll start with you. So, I mean, you can really look at this one of two ways, right? Obviously, Trey Lance has got the inexperience here, right? So that was your golden child. You drafted him. You traded up to get him. He unfortunately gets hurt within the second game of the season. You roll the dice with Jimmy Garoppolo in the offseason to get him back on a minimum deal or somewhat minimum deal with incentives. He ends up getting hurt. And then you're stuck with your third string, right? Moving forward, Jimmy's probably going to chase a bag somewhere else.

If I'm the 49ers, I'm trying to get in on that because the only consistency in the 49ers quarterback room is injury at this point. Unfortunately, that's just, it is what it is over the last couple of seasons. Trey Lance is still on that rookie deal. You try to bring Jimmy back. If Brock is still going to be out this long, I mean, we talked about six months. That could be even longer whether you add rehab or any complications. So we don't know what's going to happen with Brock. That's a baseball injury with that elbow, with that ligament. So I don't know what's going to happen. But with this upcoming quarterback draft, there are a lot of good prospects in this. But the issue is San Francisco

doesn't have a first or second round pick, but they have multiple thirds. So do you package some of those to trade up to get somebody, whoever's left in that first round? Do you trade up to get somebody on the second day in the second round? I don't necessarily know, but if I'm John Lynch, I'm 100% looking at at least entertaining the thought of bringing back Jimmy to say, listen, you see what we have here. You got to be able to either compete for Trey or with the job for Trey, or you accept, you know, you're going to be a backup or they chase somebody out there in the draft, because I don't think free agency is an option, quite frankly, with whatever's happening with Lamar Jackson and that

free agency, Baltimore's already committed to at least giving him everything that he wants. It's just a matter of how much will be guaranteed. And then you got Derek Carr out there on the other side. No one knows what's going to happen with him. Vegas is probably going to cut him. Do you take a gamble on him, an experienced quarterback, but he's already been proven with talent that he can't get it done, but he's never had a good defense. So it's not like John Lynch and that front office don't have options. It's just a matter of which route they want to go on. Kyle already knows I'm a big Jimmy Garoppolo supporter. I know that he gets injured a little bit more frequently than most people would like to admit, but he's a winner and statistics prove it. Winning percentage proves it. His career record proves it.

Jimmy can get it done. It's just a matter of can he make it to the end of the season to do that? That is a very fair point that Jimmy Garoppolo while he hasn't had the physical abilities this guy has been has proven to be a winner he's won everywhere along the lines but uh Kyle what are your thoughts no I when it comes to Kevin sentiment I share it pretty significantly i mean for me when it comes to jimmy garoppolo and his status with the 49ers i think at best it's like maybe like a five ten percent chance he goes back to the 49ers even with this development with brock purdy in a torn ucl i just see jimmy looking at the landscape of opportunities at a quarterback position

i can tell you right now it's not going to be san francisco especially if he could get a pretty significant contract and it's basically as you guys outlined wherever jimmy has gone success has followed and if he were to find a new team this offseason i think that he could definitely bring that opportunity and bring that success along with him wherever he goes. For me, when it comes to the 49ers and how they're going to handle it this offseason, I think their answer is right inside the building. I think that they have two legitimate quarterbacks that they could potentially utilize next year. And I think what actually is going to take place this offseason is, well, first of all,

Brock's going to recover from his UCL tear. He's to get surgery on that he's got to get that rehab done first and I mean if we go by the six month timeline that would set him up for the end of July which is basically right when training camp starts I imagine the 49ers are going to be a little bit hesitant or they're going to slow roll it with him and kind of ease him back into the swing of things once we get into August and then we get into some preseason games. But as of right now, I think it's going to come down to Kyle Shanahan making a decision between Brock Purdy and Trey Lance as the starting quarterback for the 49ers next year. For me personally, I would tend to side with Brock just because he has the experience there.

The injury component, it's for both of those guys. Both of those guys have been hurt. And with both of these guys actually suffering significant injuries, it's kind of crazy that the 49ers just got a bad roll of the dice. But Brock proved to me that he can run the offense effectively. This is not to say that Trey can't. It's just that Brock has a little bit more of a working resume and has more working experience than Trey does. Trey brings great athleticism to that position,

kind of almost similar to what maybe they had with Colin Kaepernick back five, six years ago. It's just that Trey's still a little bit of an unknown. And coming into this season, Brock was pretty much an unknown because he was the last pick in this past year's draft, yet I thought he played significantly well the way that the 49ers ran their offense. And as we get closer to next season, that's going to be the question that the 49ers are going to have to answer internally.

Who are they going to go with? Is it going to be Trey? Is it going to be Brock? I think Brock proved it to me that he can lead that offense effectively outside of the one NFC Championship game. He never lost them a game. So him being a starter, I thought he was extremely successful. I thought the system that they had in place that Kyle Shanahan created with that offense, I think it's a good formula for them working forward but I wouldn't be surprised if we do see some sort of

quarterback competition between Trey and Brock and we'll just kind of see where it goes from there but the injury component to Brock being out six months you know maybe there's a possibility that Trey can get some refs and I think the 49ers would be smart to do their due diligence on that simply because Trey's an athlete, definitely more than Brock, but Brock definitely proved that he's a competent quarterback despite being the last pick in last year's draft. So that's how I see it. Well, Trey Lance is an athlete and with unbelievable abilities,

and he's also their prized third overall pick, so they kind of have to give him some sort of shot and try to figure out if this guy has it or not. But, CJ, what do you think? I think there's an option you guys haven't touched yet. Now, as you know, Tom Brady will be a free agent. And as you know, he – Oh, my God, Tucker was not like that. Don't do this to me.

Oh, I'm going to do it to you, Tucker. Oh, I'm going to do it. You had to say it like that. Okay, yeah, that sounded wrong. No homo, no homo. Okay, but see, here's the deal. Many people in the NFL are, they believe that he wants to play for another year.

And it's not if he's going to play, it's where he's going to play. I don't expect him to stay in Tampa because I'm not a fan of their head coach. Their offense is falling apart around him. And their defense regressed horrifically and when you see brock purdy's hurt and trey lance thus far has not been good and jimmy g is out the door if i'm tom brady i'm taking every chance to leap at san francisco but let's but that's just conject. Let's say he doesn't go there, or he goes somewhere else or re-signs with Tampa or whatever.

I'd say you go with Brock Purdy because the Niners locker room themselves is not sold on Trey Lance. Trey Lance really never even impressed even last training camp. And you look at Purdy, who got you to the NFC Championship game, and he can only improve. And I know what you're thinking. Oh, he's just a system quarterback. He's up there. You can just plug and play anyone. He can just put anyone in that offense, and it'll be good.

I'm not entirely sure because Joshosh johnson didn't look too good i'm just saying and when you see how brock purdy played how he literally toughed it out trying to play through ucl tear didn't quite work out i i think the starting job is his to lose and i think you have to communicate that with lands and like uh like Kyle brought up, how even though he's going to be out for like five, six months, that's still going to put him right at the beginning of the training camp at the end of July, or more realistically, mid-August. I do think that he's going to be ready, though. You know, probably for the start of the season.

I'd say there's like a 70% chance of that, you know, barring any major complications. But I still think, no matter what, the job is purdy's to lose all right talk okay i'm gonna say this once and i'm gonna just go right past it because i cannot believe we're actually having this conversation tom brady needs to retire go collect AARP checks and don't come back. Thank you, Tuck. I'm done having this conversation. I have a slight objection to that, but continue. I've had... I don't understand why these two

Patriots fans continually talk to me about Tom Brady playing another year. It's like they want him to die on the field. I don't know why. It's the entire NFL him to die on the field. It's not just Patriots fans. It's the entire NFL media, my guy. There's a quote from Rocky IV

where Ross said something. But that's just my personal opinion. Tom Brady, please retire. You've done enough. We all know you're the goat of the quarterbacks. We know you're one of the greatest of all time. Just let it go, please. Stop. Because if you actually do get injured on the field, that's your fault at that point.

But enough about that. It's kind of hard to defend Trey Lance for the position because he's supposed to be the franchise guy and he's been outplayed by two other quarterbacks, which is kind of nerve wracking if you're the front office of the San Francisco 49ers. It makes you hesitant to get rid of Jimmy G, even though you know you're probably going to have to do it. And you don't even know what you got in Brock Purdy to the point where he could actually be your franchise guy right now or the proverbial backup. So the fact that you've seen a lot more franchise potential out of Purdy, but you haven't seen that out of Trey Lance due to injury or inconsistent play, it makes you wonder, did we make a mistake at the number three overall pick last year? And it makes me contemplate whether or not they should pick another quarterback in the draft. I'm still saying the jury's still out on Trey Lance. I think give

him another year to see what he's got. He just came off a horrendous injury and basically missed another season. And I still think you have another shot to do something with him. I believe he still can be the franchise guy. I just think you need to change or tweak the offense a bit more around him. I don't think he'll be a bad quarterback. I'm not sure if he'll be a franchise guy, but I think he'll be a solid quarterback. Will he be better than Brock Purdy is the question. I have no idea. Brock Purdy looked very good under that San Francisco offense. He looked very good to the point where he's actually in the conversation for offensive rookie of the year,

even though he didn't start all of his games. That's how good he looked. And so when I look at it i'm like i know brock birdie did very good and i know brock birdie just came off an nfc championship game but he's injured and he's going to be out for six months anyway so you might as well start off with voluntary otas with trey lance as your starter to see what he's got and if he's looked like a more improved or like start off with trey Lance and see what he's got, because I think he'll be right just in time for, I want to say, a minicamp or like training camp in August. If he looks like the guy now and he's able to do what he was supposed to do as a franchise quarterback,

I say go with Trey Lance. And if Brock Purdy continues to perform despite the injury, I'm like, put Trey Lance as the backup for now. But either or, I don't see Jimmy G's, excuse me, porn star Jimmy staying there for much longer. And Tom Brady, do not, do not go to San Francisco. Stay your ass away from Santa Clara and just retire and go into the booth like we all know you need to. That's all I got. This is going to be the second episode in a row where I point out that that porn star said, everything I touch turns to gold, and then four weeks later he tore his ACL. But, okay. So looking at Brock Purdy and Trey Lance, these guys,

so one of them is the third overall pick. You have to give them a shot. You just have to. And you also have Brock Purdy who, under the limited amount of time he played, looked good. They deserve another shot. Jimmy Garoppolo is probably out the door because, again, he's in to get a starting job.

He's proven to be a winner. He's convinced the rest of the league. He's proven to be a winner. He's convinced the rest of the league. He's probably out the door. That being said, these guys, those two aren't really ready. Trey Lance, absolutely not. He's not ready yet. And Brock Purdy, he still has to recover from this UCL injury. And after that, perhaps he could use some more development. And you look at this roster around us,

which is absolutely top to bottom besides the quarterback position, stacked. You have a defense that has looked awesome in the past couple of years. You have an offensive line that can protect anybody. You have playmakers everywhere when it comes to the offensive skill positions. So looking at that quarterback position, if there's anything I've learned in sports, it's that your window is almost never as long as you think it's going to be unless you're the new england patriots it's never as long it's it's almost never as long as you think it is so you need to go out and try and get over the hump because don't look now,

but this 49ers team has been to three out of the last four NFC championships and has still failed to get over the hump and win a Super Bowl. So what do I look at? I look at these two players who could potentially be on the move. You have, yes, a Tom Brady. You have an Aaron Rogers who both could very well

be changing teams this offseason. You need to invest in one of those two guys and go out and complete this team which seems to only be missing the quarterback.

That seemed to be their Achilles heel the past few years. Get that quarterback, go win a championship, and you can do that for the next one to two years while you're waiting for one of those two guys to develop in Brock Purdy or Trey Lance. Because you can't keep on floundering back and forth between these guys when you have such a great roster. And I haven't even mentioned the coaching,

which has been brilliant on the offensive side. You've got to go out and get one of those guys because you may miss your chance to contend once they do find their quarterback of the future because maybe it'll be too late players will age i know christian mccaffrey is not going to be healthy forever i mean that was a that was a complete surprise out of left field but he did stay healthy and they have had issues with health on the on that team So who knows how long it's going to last.

Take advantage of it. That's basically, you know. Adam, please, Adam, please tell me you're not saying Tom Brady should go to San Francisco. I understand Aaron Rodgers, and I'll let that one slide, even though I don't think he should go. They have two quarterbacks that could be considered franchise guy. They don't need Tom Brady. Let him retire. Let him go.

The boyhood dream is over. Just let it go. Let him raise his kid. Please let it go. No. I couldn't agree more, Tuck. I actually have a counterpoint to the Aaron Rodgers situation. So Kyle and I actually talked about this earlier in the week as well.

San Fran's got some big issues on this team in general. They have a lot of key free agents that are going to either be leaving or San Fran's going to have to make a definitive decision on who they are going to extend. Not to mention today, D'Amico Ryans just left. He just signed a six-year deal to become the head coach of the Houston Texans. So a lot of those key defensive pieces may not even come back. So in terms of what they have to do in terms of shelling out to re-sign players,

Aaron Rodgers is due somewhere up to $50 million a season for the next two years. How is that going to happen? How is that going to affect the front office in terms of the decision-making? And I'm actually going to disagree with the Trey Lance point as well in terms of he's the third overall pick he he's earned his spot i've said this a multitude of times i don't care if you're drafted number one if you suck or if you're not available it's unfortunate the nfl is a business if you're not there and you're not reporting for your job point blank period i can't continue to pay you i can't continue to give you opportunity after opportunity mr irrelevant 200 andrelevant, 200 and whatever overall pick. He's getting paid pennies compared to Trey Lance.

If he did good, why am I going to continue to ride out? Let me ride that Trey Lance value on the trade market. Oh, he was a number three overall pick. He's athletic. Try to get something for him. Try to acquire something in free agency while dumping him off. There's too many narratives at the quarterback position for San Francisco and like mainly focus on like Rodgers or Brady plus when it comes to Brady he's looking at schools in Miami he already got Giselle taking Rob taking his money out of his pockets for child support he's not going to go across the whole country and go play quarterback in San Francisco it just it's not feasible for those two at least in what I think is not possible.

I think San Fran's got to figure it out draft-wise or somehow convince Jimmy Garoppolo. Get another couple porn stars in there because you can't afford to let him leave, man. I don't know what it is. That boy just found a way to win. From their front office perspective, more than likely their answer is already within the house simply because if you were to bring in somebody like aaron rogers or tom brady i mean i don't know what the specific contracts of trey and brock are but more than likely it would though bringing in somebody like

rogers or brady their contract would dwarf what both of those guys are going to make next year combined anyway and for the foreseeable future if they were to really go out of their way and bring in rogers or brady for an extended period of time i think the way that i see it is look you know tom brady was not tom brady that we know of right now he was that sixth round pick and drew bledsoe when he was the starter for the patriots way back when he was i believe one of the very first quarterbacks that ever had a hundred million dollar contract he was the first and when brady and when brady came in and replaced him and belichick decided to roll with brady instead of belichick we could have kind of a similar

type of situation here obviously the dynamics with what the 49ers have is a little bit different because jimmy g doesn't have the i would say the stature that Drew Bledsoe had at his respective point in his career. But nonetheless, you have Brock Purdy, who's Mr. Irrelevant. Nobody thinks that he's irrelevant anymore after what he just did the last two months, I think if given the opportunity, as long as he recovers from his, from his injury, from his UCL injury, I think that they could use that extra money in having Brock as the

quarterback on that type of rookie deal, instead of really mortgaging your future by potentially letting some free agents go by bringing in a big name quarterback. I think that you could use that extra cap space and that extra money to potentially entice guys that are on their unrestricted free agents list back into the fold. Like Jimmy Ward, he's one of their defensive captains.

If you keep Brock or Trey for the foreseeable future and you stay away from somebody like Aaron Rogers, you're already up in that scenario with cap space so i think their answer is within house it's just whether or not that the front office and kyle shanahan are on the same page there and that's something that's going to kind of work itself out in the offseason all right yeah listen so regarding the regarding whether or not their answer is in-house, yeah, I definitely agree. What I'm just worried about is the fact that this 49ers team,

the team around it is looking to win now. And I'm just worried, especially in the NFL, things can change on a dime. A team could be a 12-win team one year and then be a 4-win team the next. So while they're waiting for these quarterbacks to develop, whether it be Trey Lance, whether it be Brock Purdy being the real deal, once they figure that out, it could be too late and i i just think they're in a similar they could be in a similar in a way position as the rams were at one point they couldn't quite get over the hump with jared goff they brought in matthew stafford and everything clicked and they won a super bowl

something like that it It could work out. The only thing is whether or not the 49ers have a certain type of mindset, and that is we're in win-right-now mode where basically we're only looking at the next one, two to three years out, or are you willing to be a little bit more patient, allow these younger quarterbacks to prosper within your own system to develop them? And as far as I see it, the developmental system that the 49ers have in place with their coaching personnel seems to be pretty competent as far as I see it. Because no matter whatever sort of quarterback they put in, they've been largely successful.

The only thing is injuries have kind of plagued that position but maybe they play the long game instead it's just you're right in the aspect of they have a limited amount of time with the players that they have that are just a part of their core roster but relatively speaking if you look at the star players on this 49ers team, they're all relatively young still. And as far as I see it, I think that defense can rally, you know,

can rally around a younger quarterback. And, you know, the defense has to take a little bit more of the pressure for the first couple of years and allow Brock to kind of go through some of the developmental years of being a quarterback in the NFL, I think it's definitely worth the risk there. There's no scenario where there's no risk whatsoever.

There's always going to be some sort of risk that you take for whatever sort of strategy you want for the future. But as far as I see it, the one that makes the most sense based on a cap space situation, I think you go with the younger that makes the most sense based on a cap space situation, I think you go with the younger prospects at the quarterback position. I think going, you know, going into the free agent market or looking at somebody like Tom Brady or Aaron Rodgers, I think that would just be, I think that would stunt the development and the growth of the team. And I think that there's a chance where they could potentially be in competition for multiple

Super Bowls in five to six years, instead of maybe really only being competitive for one or two for the next two years. And then you go through some sort of rebuild after it's, you know, you're going to have to weigh those decisions in the off season, but I guess time will tell in that regard with what the 49ers do. Yeah. And I think think what this segment proved because we have a lot of different viewpoints here is that this 49ers quarterback situation really is up in the air i mean there you could come up with five or six different answers just sitting here thinking off the top of your head. But I do want to change gears here and move into you guys' guest segment. So the Neighborhood Podcasts are coming together to talk about –

so we're at the All-Star break for the NBA, and every year you guys go through some surprising and disappointing teams you guys are going to get a taste of that uh coming up next so don't go anywhere this is the fumble ruski podcast here gentlemen broken up in the pass is no sign yet. Edelman comes down with a football and they're saying it's a catch. It's his cross. To Gates!

Side-line! Touchdown! Unbelievable! Swings it way down the field to Watkins! Sammy Watkins for the touchdown! This is the Fumble Rooski Podcast by Power88 and Secret Weapon Consulting, Adam Wright, Justin Tucker, CJ Madero, special guests, Kevin Valentin, and Kyle Dabrow. All right. So we have officially reached the guest segment of our show sponsored by Secret Weapon Consulting for business plans,

secret shoppers, bar spotting, server and manager training, and so much more, visit www.secretweaponconsulting.com. And without further ado, your boys from the Neighborhood Podcast have the most surprising and disappointing teams for the NBA so far this season. Guys, what do you got? Well, I mean, specifically we always cover, like we talked about at the beginning, the most surprising team thus far the first half of the year and our most disappointing. I know Kyle and I normally have a couple different aspects, but I feel like everybody

here can agree. The most surprising team in the NBA has to be the Sacramento Kings. I mean, they have not made the playoffs in almost 20 years. They have been the epitome of ineptitudes between free agency, drafting, I think, with six or seven consecutive power forward centers over the last, I don't even know, like five or six years. I mean, obviously, you trade Tyrese Halliburton. You signed Harrison Barnes a few years ago that would seem to be a little bit past his prime. And then, of course, at the end of the day,

De'Aaron Fox is just absolutely killing it with De'Amanis Savonis. And they are third in the Western Conference. I can guarantee you, nobody in the world thought that this team would be as good as they are right now. And Mike Brown is 100% coaching those guys up perfectly for what that system seems to be working with. And then for me, most disappointing players, I can kind of chop it up to two. It would be either the Phoenix Suns or the Portland Trailblazers. The only reason I say the Suns

is because obviously we know that they were a consistent team that was constantly the last two or three years competing for an NBA championship, falling short against Milwaukee. And then of course, losing in game seven to my Dallas Mavericks. But I think I'm going to go with Portland.

Damian Lillard was out majority of the year last year. Anthony Simons gets re-signed. You trade for Jeremy Grant to add a little bit of depth on the offensive side to go and get rebounds, get you a little bit more of a third option. And then, of course, you have Josh Hart and a couple of other role players. Dame is basically averaging, over the last 10 games, 35-plus points per game. He is just logo Lillard, Dame time, the epitome of a superstar who's committed to loyalty, but it looks like Portland's front office just can't seem to get it right and finding him some help. So, I mean, at a 24 and 26 record right now, Kyle had said it before we started recording, there's kind of like a backlog between the 12th and fifth seed in terms of like

within three or four games of each other. So there's still time for them to turn it around, but I definitely thought Portland would be a lot more competitive thus far in this season yeah and then for me I'm gonna basically piggyback off of what Kev said with the most surprising team uh in the NBA is and that's definitely the Sacramento Kings as far as I see it and I mean guys I'm gonna just ask you guys straight up. Did any of you ever think that the Kings would be in a situation where they wouldn't be not only competitive in the Western conference, that they'd be top three in the Western conference? Not, not top three.

I think not in my lifetime guys, like, you know, like put this in perspective. The last time that they were competitive in my memory was like oh two that was the chris weber vladi divak mike bibby era i mean that was a good team but they just wouldn't get they couldn't get over the hump against shack and kobe i mean look if you lose to a duo like that i mean mean, there's nothing to be ashamed of. You're talking about two of the greatest players that ever played in NBA history in Kobe and Shaq.

But their last playoff appearance was in 2005, 2006. And Kevin and I have like this running joke when it comes to really bad teams in the NBA. We basically consider them a black hole. It's where basically careers in the NBA go to die. Because, I mean, there was a long stretch where basically careers in the nba go to die because i mean there was a long stretch where why would you want to go to sacramento there's no reason for that you're just there for basically a check and all right once my contract goes out all right we'll see what we can do or you know if he doesn't want to stay there that long all right we'll request a trade and we'll get you out of here. But now that the Kings are actually in a competitive space in the Western

conference, they have a really good young core around De'Aaron Fox, DeMontis Sabonis. You got Kevin Herter. You got some vets in there like Harrison Barnes, like Kevin just alluded to. They have a good system to work with. And you,

we have a coach like Mike Brown at the helm who is a veteran coach in the NBA. I think that's a good dynamic. I think that's think that's a good dynamic i think that's that's a good formula for the kings moving forward do i think they're going to the nba finals this year no but the fact that they're competitive and they're in a top three situation right now in the nba it's something to be commended of and i mean to me it was an easy pick you know with the most surprising theme being the kings they've definitely earned it as far as i've seen it and when it comes to the more disappointing teams in the NBA,

guys, I'm going to check my bias here. Look, I am a Lakers fan. The fact that they are the third worst team in the Western Conference, I'm actually going to select them as my most disappointing team in the NBA. Now, I fully understand that coming into this season, there wasn't much of an expectation with the Lakers being a championship caliber team. Maybe at the far end, you can maybe say that they'd be somewhat of a competitive team for the playoffs. They're not at that.

And that's despite the fact that you have LeBron James, who just turned 38, and he is playing like a man possessed. Guys, he has put up multiple 40-point performances. He is single-handedly carrying the team on his back, and yet he has no help around him whatsoever. Anthony Davis can't stay healthy. Their next best options on that roster are Dennis Schroeder, Patrick Beverly, Russell Westbrook,

who's actually having a pretty decent year coming off the bench. He's definitely somebody that should be considered for sixth man of the year as far as I see it. I don't know if he'll win it, but he definitely deserves to be in that conversation. But it's just two hit or miss for me. LeBron, I know what I'm going to get from him, despite the fact that he's 38 and he's basically at the tail end of his career. It's just they're not playing consistent basketball.

LeBron is. But at a certain point, like he's going to run out of gas. And, you know, unfortunately, you're seeing these great performances from LeBron end up in losses. You know, I don't know the stats specifically, but whenever the Lakers are playing and he gets 40 plus points, I think they have a sub 500 record. And that's unfortunate because LeBron is still playing at a peak level,

even though I think a lot of people would consider 38 years old being out of a player's prime. And with them really only being a couple positions back from teams like the Rockets and the Spurs that's not a situation that you want to be in moving forward and I don't really see it improving anytime soon so the Lakers they're still a competitive team but they just can't get over the

hump to win games consistently and unfortunately I do see them as the most disappointing team in the nba despite they're not even being that great of an expectation coming in it's just unfortunate to see them in this situation where if you have lebron who's playing out of his mind and it's just ending in an unfortunate situation where they're just losing games consistently so yeah my most surprising team definitely the kings and my most disappointing is the Lakers. Hmm. You guys have the floor. If you guys want to chime in, go right ahead.

Can I give you one for surprising? Sure. This is your show, so go right ahead. Yeah. Hey, this is your segment. We treat it as such. So the Brooklyn Nets. So, yeah, they have the talent but they also age is not on

their side both kyrie irving and and uh kevin durant are on the wrong side of 30 uh kevin durant is currently hurt with a knee injury he's on pace to be back in a few weeks, but yet the team is still up there in the standings. And this is a team that barely made the playoffs this past season. And they've been able to look past all of that and be able to still win games. And they are among, right now they are 31-19. They're third in their division. But 31-19 is nothing to sneeze at, especially given the expectations that they had. I mean, they're better than they were last year. And they're playing with some old players. And they're still able to win games. That's pretty impressive, especially with a douchebag like Kyrie Irving leading the charge.

So I will say I'm surprised. And I also wouldn't, as a Celtics fan, I wouldn't mind a conference championship between, a series between those two teams if the Nets actually can make it there a lot of storylines there be a lot of fun to watch a rematch of last year's first round and the fourth round of the the year before now that I think of it and also the history with Kyrie Irving that would be fun but that's a surprising team to me. I think that's that Brooklyn is Brooklyn has played beyond expectations. I thought they'd turtle and their age would take a toll this year.

Fair enough. Yeah. Fair enough. I mean, Kev, I mean, I think we were even talking to talking about it earlier in the day. And I think you were thinking about the nets as well. I was, it was it was weird for me because I thought once KD went down I mean he was averaging 30 points a game and obviously Kyrie is in and out of the lineup with injuries as well they started the season off pretty pretty rough and Kevin Durant kind of came at the media and was like how am I supposed to win with Royce O'Neal like it was kind of messed up that he shouted out this teammate in in that light in the media and was like, how am I supposed to win with Royce O'Neal? Like, it was kind of messed up that he shouted out his teammate

in that light in the media to basically say, like, I don't have anybody to play with. And it was like a cop-out. Obviously, KD requested a trade in the offseason and Kyrie too. But, I mean, I'm definitely surprised they're playing as well as they have, especially with the injuries between their two superstars. They're really finding a way. And it's pretty impressive for sure.

Yeah. Can I just throw in a disappointing team maybe before we change gears? Yeah. A lot of people, you know, had high hopes for this team. You know, because if you just look at their roster when healthy, it's a pretty damn good roster. But the Chicago Bulls. Oh. I mean, think about it. Look at their roster when healthy. It's a pretty damn good roster. But the Chicago Bulls. I mean, think about it.

Look at their roster. When completely healthy. I know they're not healthy, so let's just take an inventory check of their starting five. When healthy. Can I stress that enough? Lonzo Ball, Zach Levine, DeMar DeRozan, Patrick Williams, and Nikola Vucevic. Well, Lonzo's hurt. Vucevic has become a black hole, basically.

And you're starting Caruso, Alex Caruso at point guard? I mean, he's good, but I don't know. And I mean, there's all kinds of trade rumors about how Zach Levine may want out. Drummond and Vucevic are probably gone. Like, what happened to this team? You know, they got DeRozan. They got Ball. They got Vucevic.

They were going all in. And now they are at the 10th seed, sitting at a woeful 23-6. You know that? And they're 5-5 in their last ten i just i don't know what was happening this was a team that i was like oh careful they were dark horse they could make some serious noise and half of that's injuries and the other half i just i guess maybe they just didn't live up to their billing or maybe it's that case where you read their own press. What do you guys think? I think DeMar DeRozan isn't playing as good as he did last year.

No, he's really not. His efficiency has plummeted. He's just taking these awful shots left and right. He used to be good at hunting his shot, and now just not anymore. He's taking too many poorly timed threes, and he's just everything about him is just getting worse, which is weird because at his peak, he's arguably a top five small forward. You know, at his peak. I cannot stress that enough.

Like last season or a season ago or whatever that was. You are stretching that. No, I said at his peak, at very best. Remember when he first went to the Bulls and everyone was like, oh my God, this guy's amazing. That's his peak. DeMar had a good start. And he has not.

Huh? DeMar had a good start with the Bulls. Exactly. He had a great start. Huge. And he has not been that since. And frankly, you hate to say this for the Bulls. You really do.

But it didn't work. The Lonzo, Levine, DeMar experiment with Vucevic and whatever didn't work. It flopped. Yeah, it flopped. It's not going to work. It's a Frankenstein's monster of names just cobbled together. And it's like, all right, go win. Well, they're not going to win.

Hate to say it. It's time to blow it up. I'm sorry. I'm sorry. I can't let this go. He's not top blow it up. I'm sorry. I'm sorry. I can't let this go. He's not top five at peak. There is five. I did not.

No, wait. What? Are you kidding me? Remember when you started out with the Bulls? Yes. At peak. Last season, bro, last season, he hit like two or three game winners, averaged over 25, was shooting over 50% from the field.

Like, he was their go-getter when Zach would be there. Exactly. And the ongoing narrative when he went into Chicago was that he was washed. Nobody was expecting him to blow up the way that he did. Now, this season's been a little bit different. He's definitely regressed. Oh, no, that's sad.

He's definitely regressed, but he had a good stretch last year. So I'm not going to criticize him on that one. Look, I'm not saying that he is. I'm just saying he has the potential. He has shown that he can, or at least mid-top 10. Listen, because of time, I'm willing to move on to the next one, but after this show

is over, I will tell you five guys at peak, and we can discuss at peak, that are better than this guy. You clearly forgot how he was when he started. I'm just saying, if he plays like that, they have a winning record, but he's not, so when he started. I'm just saying, if he plays like that, they have a winning record. But he's not, so they don't. I'm going to let it go until we're after the show.

We are talking about this. I'll pass. The Atlanta Hawks are a disappointing team. Oh, yeah. Also, Trey's overrated. Trey Young. I mean, look at his shooting stats this year. Good God. Efficiency- efficiency wise he's not he's

having an off year but i mean a lot of the hype behind it was dejounte murray was supposed to take that off of him and i feel like trey's trying to overcompensate to say this is my team you're not going to come here and take away my shots but trey's also been hurt this year as well so the rhythm of his shots probably thrown off dejounte Murray's playing exceptionally well love him as a two-way player loved him in San Antonio but I agree completely efficiency wise and field goal percentage Trey Young has definitely hit a pretty decent slump right now all right well there you have it. That is the Neighborhood Podcast's official surprising and disappointing NBA teams at the halfway point in the NBA season. But we are going to change gears and touch on our Fumble Rooski fan box. So the weekly fan box and ask,

who was the MVP of championship weekend? I had high expectations for this one and it did not disappoint. That's next. This is the Fumble Rooski podcast. 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! Giggs! Side-line! Touchdown! Unbelievable!

Swings it way down the field to Watkins! Sammy Watkins for the touchdown! Welcome back to the Fumble Brewski podcast by Power 88 and Secret Weapon Consulting. Adam Wright, Justin Tucker, CJ Medeiros, special guests Kevin Valentin and Kyle Dabrow. All right. So we have reached the Fumble Rooski fan box. So 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. All right. response next week's fan boss question to be featured on our show all right so the question of the week was who was the mvp of championship weekend we got a lot of votes for the refs in the afc championship um but isaac zonana said hassan reddick so that's a good i think that's a good one. He was a beast this year, and he proved he is worth every penny of that deal. It was three years, 45 mil for Hasan Redik for the Eagles, and he helped punch their ticket to Super Bowl 57. But Grayson Mortimer said referees you were it was expected to get a few votes for that so refer look listen the refs were not good

they had a bad night but again we we alluded to this earlier in the show. They left it in the hands of the officials, the Bengals did, on whether or not they win this game. And, yeah, if their officiating is better, maybe the outcome is different. But that doesn't matter. It doesn't change the fact that they made mistakes that dug their own grave, especially on that offensive line. Good Lord. Can they get a healthy and functioning offensive line for more than six games?

So Mallory Kleppel said Chiefs defensive line. So, I mean, that segues perfectly from what I just said. But, I mean, listen. So the Bengals went from facing a middling passing pass rush this year in the Buffalo bills. And then they go on and they had, they go to the number two pass rush, according to stats and press, uh, uh, sacks and pressures. So the, the chief's defensive line, I mean i mean absolutely especially on the interior with chris jones having a career year and don't forget about frank clark um owen vanslack said

eagles offensive line so i guess you could say they were the unsung heroes because when you face nick bosa and when you face that whole 49ers defense, that's going to be a tall task. And they did fine. They did well. Nick Bosa was not as big a factor as he could have been. Shout out Lane Johnson. Oh, yeah.

And, yeah, and coming back from the injury as well, what a job. Diego Huertas said, the refs, obviously. We're going to get a few of these. Again, I'm going to stick with what I said earlier. You have to control what you can control. And it's so easy to blame the refs. I feel bad for them a lot of the time.

Ian Mulhern said Hasan Reddick without a shadow of a doubt. Again, worth every penny of that deal, and he has been arguably their best defensive player on that line. And that says a lot considering how well that defense has played not just on the on the front seven but in their secondary you can name three players who are who are just magnificent uh in the secondary um daniel blaziak said eli apple wow kev's got some thoughts about eli want to elaborate kev's got some thoughts i listen listen i have said since eli apple came out of ohio state that he was a scrub i'm standing on that hill i'm

gonna die on that hill he was horrible with the giants he was exposed in multiple coverages he sucked on the saints and he kind of played a little bit better. Listen, he's the biggest trash talker on social media when it comes to him doing absolutely nothing relevant in-game. So for him to start coming at specific receivers and teams and then have a massive pass interference call on him because he couldn't stay in front of a wide receiver, he sucks. He's the last person I ever want to see on social media again. Yeah, you know his mom even talks trash

on social media too and I remember his mom was talking so much trash when he got to the league it's like wow she could probably play a better corner than her son however did you hear she deactivated her twitter because she got bullied wow

you know what they say what goes around comes around. Ain't that the truth? All right. Well, Kev, you said you're going to live on that hill and die on that hill. You're thriving because you're not dying. You're going to beat anyone who tries to fight you on that. I'm doing what I can.

Yeah. I mean, God, you talk about the textbook definition of riding someone's coattails. I mean, what this Bengals team has achieved has been nothing short of extraordinary in the past couple of years, especially with their issues at offensive line. But then Eli Apple has to ruin it all by talking all this garbage. Everyone knows he's not very good, except maybe a few Bengals fans who might be delusional. And his mom. Apparently. Yeah. It's just, all right. We could talk about this forever. Patrick Wilber said Ron Torvert.

And for those of you who don't know who that is, that was their chief. That was the crew chief for the officials. So another vote for the refs. And Eli Turner also said the refs. And I didn't bother to get around to researching who this is. So Kaylee Morton said James Win winchester he's the long snapper for kansas city well clutch james winchester don't you know geez your own yeah i i know nothing

about the nfl i shouldn't have a nfl podcast you know james winchester five touchdowns leading over the bangles absolutely greatest long snapper of all time exactly all right and i think we got one more so it was floodster sports zone it was it's grant floods uh sports page he said jaguars legend gardner minchu and his two quarterback meals. He's a Jaguars fan, but he was very happy earlier in this postseason. And bright future for that Jaguars team. But Gardner Minshew, one of the better backup quarterbacks, I would say, in all of football. He's a guy where if you miss it, depending on

the matchup, of course, if you are missing your starting quarterback for a game or two, depending on the matchups, you could not even miss a beat. You could be fine. But obviously you want Jalen Hurts in there for most of the time. We learned that from the few matchups that we got towards the end of the season where gardner minchu had to start he played well against the cowboys but the cowboys they're the cowboys just the cowboys all right so dangerous in the regular season dangerous in the regular season different story in the postseason and when the when will they ever win a super bowl it it'll be it'll be a while not in our lifetime i'll be i'll be it'll come one year it'll come

one year they they have to do it eventually but um all right do you guys have any other thoughts before we end the show tonight nope it was a short one so it was great it was great getting you guys all together um i guess in other news we could touch on real quick i could just give the news um sean payton is now the head coach of the denver broncos so a big upgrade from Nathaniel Hackett to possibly a future Hall of Fame head coach. And he has the track record of very strong offenses. This guy now working with Russell Wilson. He's got Cortland Sutton, Jerry Judy. Running back, Javante Williams.

He'll have his work cut out for him in order to turn things around. But, yeah, we'll probably touch on that more in depth on Thursday. We had a loaded up episode, so there wasn't much that we could do. But for our Friday episode, that is what will come out. And as I mentioned, plenty of Super Bowl coverage to come. So don't you guys worry about that. But Kev, Kyle, thank you so much for joining our show. I'll give you guys the opportunity to plug your podcasts and, you know, promote.

Kev, go right ahead. Sincerely, can you guys hear me? One of my AirPods died. I can hear you. I can hear you. You're good. Perfect. Just wanted to make sure. First and foremost, we want to thank you guys. Adam, Justin, CJ, we wouldn't be here without you guys. Sincerely love the podcast and what you guys are doing.

The dynamic between the three of you has been great. Kyle and I are very, very grateful for the opportunity. And then Kyle, I don't know if you wanted to say anything because I think this one's about to die too. If you want to plug that in, I think this is literally about to kick the boot. Yeah, I mean, you know,

Kevin and I were a part of the Neighborhood Podcast. You guys can find us on our YouTube page at the Neighborhood Podcast, our Twitter page. I guess the username associated with that isn't the neighborhood podcast it's kevin underscore kyle underscore pod that was the only username that i can find available available to us so we stuck with that one so that's our twitter handle uh then you guys can also find us on instagram tiktok at the neighborhood podcast uh we post content pretty much on a daily basis

on those platforms. The same goes with YouTube and Twitter. But outside of that, just to piggyback off of what Kev said, we definitely appreciate you guys for allowing us into your podcast here at Fumble Rooski.

Maybe at some point in the future maybe we can get you guys on an episode and you know maybe try to cross paths once again because i i think i could speak for kev here on this one i i genuinely enjoyed the time uh just talking sports with you guys and maybe we should do it again sometime in the future absolutely man of course yeah yeah thanks for joining us and we had we had a great time too. We ran a little bit long, but when you have five people on one episode, that's going to happen. I told you guys before the show that we try to shoot for 48 minutes and we overshot a little bit today by probably about double.

But all right. So that'll do it for us tonight. Thank you for listening to us we have new episodes out on tuesdays and fridays at 7 30 p.m eastern standard time be sure to subscribe to our youtube channel we also have all our episodes available on spotify speaker apple podcast iheart radio google podcast and so much more also be sure to follow our instagram at fumble ruski underscore podcast to keep up with our podcast and the latest coverage on the NFL. Otherwise we'll see you next week over and out.