The Herd with Colin Cowherd - 3 and Out - Good Camp Vibes, Cutdown Insight

Episode Date: August 21, 2023

John explains which team vibes he’s liking coming out of training camp, the slow philosophy shift from not playing any starters in the preseason to starters seeing some action, and what factors NFL front offices are considering during final camp cutdowns. Follow John onTwitter, Instagram and YouTube for the latest. Check out Gametime - the fastest growing ticketing app in the US, and the official ticketing app of 3 & Out and GoLow -  for tickets to all of your favorite NFL, NBA, NHL, NCAA teams. Concert and comedy show tickets, too. Go to Gametime now to create an account, download the app and use code JOHN for $20 off your first purchase. #volume #herdSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

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Amp is a new live radio app that lets you call in and chat with me in person while recording. Get the app on Apple's App Store and make sure you follow me at John Middlecough to get notified when I go live. What is going on, everybody, John Middlecop, three and out podcast. how are we doing my people? Recording this on Sunday night. It's almost 6 o'clock. I'm going to dive into a couple teams that I think I have a chance to kind of break out this year. One, definitely.

I'm going to pick them to win the division. Another one that I've changed my tune a little bit this preseason. And then just some kind of nerdy preseason philosophical, big picture talk on how different teams have operated. And just how to look at some of these preseason games. I did it for a couple years. Evaluate all the preseason games as a pro scout. I think sometimes you're just watching it in the second half, and a guy can be awesome,

and then he gets cut, and you don't really realize why he got cut, or vice versa. You're like, this guy didn't do anything, and he made the team. So kind of what to keep an eye on for these last, really it's the last game. Now there's only three preseason games

with the 17 regular season games. So let's enjoy it. And then we're almost here, not that far away from the regular season. Thank you, Jesus. other than that, if you're listening on Collins feed, make sure you subscribe to three and out. Appreciate everyone that listens through three and out. Keep hammering that. Three and out, subscribe to that, uh, or to that. All of our stuff's on YouTube, the volumes YouTube. And I'm,

sporting right now, three and out hat, a nice flex fit hat. I can wear golfing because it protects my bald head. Go to the volume.com. Get yourself one of those hats. Here's the plan this week. Podcast today. I'll do a big podcast tomorrow with a mailbag. So at John Middle Knoff at John Middlecoff is the Instagram. Fire into those DMs. Fire into those DMs. And I will answer your question here on the podcast after we do some football talk.

And that will be the plan for Tuesday's show. And then I think Wednesday's show, I'm going to go on Collins Pod. And then we'll have a couple more pods later in the week. So we're going to keep pumping them out. Because that's what I do. I'm a podcaster. So what else would I do?

And yeah. So let's just hammer home. Keep swinging these last couple weeks before the regular season. And then football's officially back. This week, I think we got college football games this weekend. USC and Notre Dame are playing. So a couple top 10 teams, that's better nothing.

But first, grab your smartphone and do me a favor. Download the game time. They're the official ticketing app of this podcast and the fastest growing ticketing app in America. I've used them. I've gone to games. Hockey game. Went to my first one ever.

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For those of you that haven't, take your son, take your wife, go to a game or go to a concert with your dad or a friend, and enjoy yourself and do it on me. Promocode John, J-O-H-N, GameTime. do it and do it now. Okay. Before I dive into the two teams that have really jumped out to me, let me just say this. Every team in training camp takes it very, very seriously. Obviously, there are certain teams that training camp is a lot different than others, right?

If you're in Alabama, LSU, the Kansas City Chiefs, the 49ers, like, you have aspirations to do big things. if you're one of the crappy teams in college or pro, Houston, right, you are just trying to build the foundation, especially new coaches, Arizona. So every training camp is a little differently, but everyone takes it very, very seriously. It's all football 24-7. I've been a part of ones in college. I've been a part of ones in pros. It's long days.

It's obviously different now than the double days, but it is still an intense time of just football. It's probably much more mental now in college and definitely in the pros, but it's just football, football, football, and more football. So I don't think anyone is not taking it seriously. But I do think there are two teams to me that really jump out this preseason. And both of them are on a little bit different trajectories. I've been saying for a while and probably I would imagine the week of the season, I'll do my quote unquote official picks for the division.

I do think I'm going to pick this team to win the division because I'm not just going to pick a random team to pick a random team but I do think this team has the upside to win 13 games and I remember probably two weeks ago a lot of you guys on YouTube the algorithm throws you different things of stuff you might like and there was Daniel Jeremiah tells Rich Eisen

what he saw at Pittsburgh Steelers training camp and for those of you that don't know, I used to work with DJ with the Eagles. When he took the NFL network job, he went to Howie, because I was like, I want to move back to the West Coast. He got my back. He put my name in the hat. I mean, I was already working for the team. I begged for it, and I ended up getting it. And I've known him now well over a decade.

And he's a big reason that I made my way back to the West Coast and honestly influenced me in the quote unquote media game talking about football. And so once I saw that Heather, line, I watched it, him do a call into Rich, and then I started texting with him about training camp. He's like, bro, they look really good. They look like they got a chance to be a big time team. Obviously, they have an excellent defense. Their offensive skill people are, you know, they're always really good with the Steelers, right? I've loved Najee Harris since he was in high school. We've seen what Pickens is doing. But he said the key was, what he saw is Kenny Pickin, Kenny Pickett is dramatically better. He thinks he's taking a big step. And if you've been listening to

me for a while. You know, I wasn't the biggest fan. I would not have drafted him because I don't tend to like guys like that. To me, if you're upside is like a better Jimmy Garapolo, Kirk Cousins, like I don't, those aren't the people I gravitate to in the draft, but I have been fooled before. I would have told you Kirk Cousins, never would have been Kirk Cousins, right? Brock Purdy, wait, you're going to start this guy and we'll see how that becomes. But my point is, Derek Carr, I even thought, like, is he ever going to become a high-end NFL starter? And he's definitely had years. So when you get a quarterback whose ceiling might not be as high, but the football character is there,

he's obviously talented relative to NFL players, and you surround them with that operation. The urgency with this team is clearly pretty high, the way they talked in the offseason and the way they've treated training camp. Now, Tomlin, like Belichick and Andy, has never been one of those guys like McVeigh, nobody's playing. He plays his dudes. He sets the tone in training camp.

But I also think they haven't won a playoff game since the 2016 season. Their last playoff win was against the Alex Smith led Kansas City Chiefs, which I remember watching was a fantastic win. That was one they had. Big Ben was still pretty damn good. And A.B. And Levyon Bell, that team was awesome. They ended up losing to the New England Patriots in the AFC championship game.

If you remember, Levion got hurt early in that game. And it was a weird situation, the Patriots beat him. but I do think there's a sense of urgency with the Steelers. Just not like they've been a disaster, but relative to their standards, hasn't been great. And here's the other thing. They've had a front row seat. The Bengals get Joe Burrow, boom, go to a Super Bowl, boom, go back to the AFC championship.

The Ravens, while they haven't probably got as far as they would have liked with Lamar, have been very, very successful for the bass, you know, since Lamar started playing. And listen, I don't know what quite to think of the Browns, but they are a formidable opponent who actually. actually beat the Steelers a couple years ago in the COVID season in the playoffs with Baker Mayfield. And clearly now in theory, they should have a much better quarterback. But I just like the field that's coming from the Steelers. And I believed in them in the offseason, just like, this to me feels like a better team, assuming the quarterback could take a step. We know how good

their defense is. If their offensive line can just improve a little bit, they're off, they're running back to stud. And they've been taking the shit seriously. I mean, Kenny Pick, it take it for what it is, is 9 of 11 in the preseason for two touchdowns. He just looks pretty good. And I was not the biggest fan. But I'm not dumb enough to go like, I didn't like this guy. And then he becomes good. I'll admit he's good.

Or vice versa. I love this guy. And then he sucks. I'll tell you he sucks. I don't care that much. I don't get paid to be right or wrong on players. I actually get paid now to entertain. But I'm a believer in the Steelers.

And I think Steelers have to be very, very excited. I think week one, I mean, there might be bigger headlines and storylines for different games in week one. There might not be a better football nerd game when it comes to old school physicality, just talent on the field, then Steelers 49ers in Pittsburgh Sunday. I think the game's at 10 a.m. for us on the West Coast. But I love everything that's come out of the Steelers. And they have a lot of momentum coming off last season, though every year's a new year, you don't start with that momentum from the previous season.

But all those guys are back. And it's hard to not believe in Tomlin. If Kenny Pickett to me is just a top 15 quarterback, just has like his Jimmy Garoppolo, Kurt Cousins, kind of breakout year to be that upper echelon, right, not like a below average player in the top half of quarterbacks. They got to be a chance to be really good. And the other team, now I don't think this team by any means high end is like,

competing for a conference championship game. But I have come around a little bit to go, I wonder if this team could compete for the playoffs. And part of it is like not the biggest believer in Denver. I don't think they're going to be that good this year. And then the Chargers ultimately have Brandon Staley, who I think is easily one of the worst coaches in the NFL and a guy that I thought should have been fired last season

because they have too much talent and they're underachieving. But one of the reasons that, and if you've listened to me now for several months, I thought like a month ago when Jimmy Garoppel, we didn't know if he was going to pass a physical or not. I'm like, the Raiders are flirting with disaster here. Because if Jimmy gets hurt and they have to go to Brian Freakin' Hoyer, they're not going to win a game.

They have more talent than like the Cardinals or the Texans and some of these bad teams. But with the teams they play and Brian Hoyer, they will lose every week. And then I've watched them play two preseason games. And this guy, Aiden O'Connell. And we have now recent history, of some of these mid-round picks coming into offenses that have talent around and having success.

I'll be completely honest. I don't watch Purdue football. I really don't watch that much Big Ten football beside like Michigan. I don't really watch Ohio State during the season beside the Michigan game for sure and maybe another game if it's tight. Because they can beat the shit out everybody. It kind of bores me. I say the same thing about Clemson. I'm not watching a team in the peak of their powers in a conference that they dominate every team,

except like one or two. It's not that entertaining to me. Say what you want about Alabama, but I would say throughout the last seven or eight years, they just find themselves in more tightly contested conference games. I don't know if the stats back that up, but it sure feels like that as just a college football consumer on Saturdays, my entire adult life.

And so I think the Raiders got a lot of talent. They really do. And Jimmy Garoppolo has proven that if he's your starting quarterback, your offense can be solid if your offensive coordinator knows what he's doing, i.e. Kyle. Now, Josh McDaniels, I don't know if he's a good head coach, but he has proven in his career to be an excellent offensive coordinator. I thought what he did with Mac Jones a couple years ago was phenomenal. So to me, offensively, they got DeBonte Adams, they got Hunter Renfro, they drafted the tight end from Notre Dame.

Their offensive line, in theory should be improved. Colton Miller is a really good left tackle. And Josh Jacobs is easily, I mean, based on last year, one of the best running backs in the NFL, and ultimately he's going to come back because what's going to do, not play for $11 million. So the Raiders offense, but here's a thing that jumped. out to me the most. This guy that they drafted in the fourth round, Aden O'Connell, is fucking good. At least based on the preseason,

I'm not trying to act like he's the next coming of Tom Brady, Patrick Mahomes, or Josh Allen. But like, I've watched enough preseason. I used to get paid to do it for a living. Like, he's a high-end drafted in the mid-round's quarterback based on the preseason. Very, very

impressive. He's 26 and 36 for over 300 yards and three touchdowns. And you just watch the ball come out of his hands, how comfortable he is. I said this last week when I thought, like, I didn't love what I saw out of Trey Lance. Now, he was much better at least, you know, Saturday night

against the third stringers for Denver. But he did look more comfortable. Like, there's something about watching a quarterback in the preseason, whether you know he's going against starters or it's the second half and he's going against a bunch of practice squad guys slash guys that won't be in the NFL. Comfort to him. Comfort to him. And this guy looks comfortable. And the thing I've always said about like the Shanahan

crew, I'm a big. believer of what you look for in players is based on the people you've been around, coach with, and had success with. The whole Shanahan crew, right? Kyle McVeigh, LaFleur, Sala, D'Amico now have seen, I would say middle of the road quarterbacks have success from cousins to Jimmy, even Matt Ryan. Like Matt Ryan was like a fringe pro ball guy. I know he had made one before, but they,

turn the fucking guy into an MVP, right? And all those guys had a front row seat to what you could do with Jimmy Garoppel. So the way they look at it like Brock Purdy, who did McVeigh draft this year? Stetson Bennett, who'd LaFleur and the Packers get? Sean Clifford last year with the Jets. Who did they have success with? Mike White. Even CJ Stroud, beside the game against Georgia was just like, ah, this is more of a typical, you know, pocket quarterback. Honestly, his game translated more to like Mac Jones at Alabama than it did to like Trevor Lawrence. Now, clearly he's more athletic than that based on the Georgia game, but he was not like some Andrew Luck level freak. And they believe like we can just build the team around that guy,

whether it's true or not, you know, I think a lot of people would push back. But they're not Andy Reed. Andy was around Farf. Then McNabb, Nalma Holmes. He likes freak shows. Now he liked Alex Smith. But for the most part, he likes the high end, high ceiling guys. And Josh McDaniels is much more, I know he's not a Shanahan guy, he's a Belichick guy, but think of the guys Belichick's drafted, right? Even Tom Brady was a six-round pick. The Jimmy Garapolos, the Jacoby Brissettes, the Brian Hoyers, the Matt Castles, like those are the type players that they like and can have success with if your team's good enough.

Now, major question mark over the years with the Raiders, their defense has been a fucking abomination. I mean, it's been a complete embarrassment. I was going to the games for years. Beside Khalil Mack, their defense was so terrible. And last year, defense, not great. So their defense has to improve. Now, Max Crosby is a top five pass rusher.

Chandler Jones, I don't know if he can be counted on because he gets banged up a lot. They've invested a lot through draft picks and free agent signings. But a lot of people really believe in their coordinator, Patrick. I forget his last name, but he's a New England guy. He went with Joe Judge. Dayball tried to keep him there. He went with Josh. People rave about the guy. But if their defense is just solid and offensively, I've look at them a little different now because, yeah, I think Jimmy Garoppel will get hurt. He gets hurt a lot. But no longer am I viewing them, their backup quarterback is Brian Hoyer. Honestly, you could cut

Brian Hoyer and make them like a practice squad slash assistant coach and just have them around Aidan O'Connell because Aidan O'Connell is your backup quarterback. And Colin and I talked about this last week, some of these guys that have had a ton of reps in big time conferences for teams that aren't as good. It is not normal. I'm not saying you can't go from Clemson kicking everyone's ass to the NFL and have success. Trevor Lawrence is doing it, right? But for the most part, some of these guys from these big time programs, Ohio State, Alabama historically, have not gone to the NFL and just kicked everyone's ass. To Otanga Viloa was unreal in college. And then he goes, he's easily the third best quarterback in his draft.

Right. So when you look at this, you get some of these guys that went into games for years. Every time Purdue stepped on the field, obviously, Ohio State, Michigan, but like Wisconsin, Iowa, they're not, they're probably the underdog, the majority of these games. Pretty same thing at Iowa State. So you get used to having to find ways to win. And I just think you become a better player that way. I really do.

Right. When you look at the NBA, like LeBron somewhat of an. outlier. Think about who most of the best players are. Steph Curry, Davidson, had to figure it out. Yonich, second round pick. Had to figure it out. Yonis, nobody from middle of nowhere in Greece gets to a shitty team. Has to just kind of figure it out. Obviously, they have blue chip skills, but it's not like they all, how many guys from just Duke are just dominating the NBA right now, right? It's not the way it works. Going through some adversity in your young college career, especially in football. And I'm not saying you need to.

Like Nick Bosa went to Ohio State kicked ass coming to the NFL kicked ass. Trent Williams, Oklahoma gets the NFL kicks ass. But I think with quarterbacks now, we're seeing it around the NFL. Think about a lot of the mid-round quarterbacks who have made it in the NFL and become really good players. Dak Prescott. He didn't go to Alabama or Georgia. He went to Mississippi State. And he helped them become a top five program, I think, his senior year, right?

Well, most of those games, and they had talent, right? Mississippi State has definitely had high-end guys, but they were not the most talented team relative to LSU or Alabama, right? And he played them every year because of the side of the division. Kurt Cousins went to Michigan State, not Michigan, not Ohio State, not even Wisconsin. So now, his teams were good at Michigan State, but historically they have not been some power. Derek Carr, Fresno State, Jimmy Garoppolo, I always get it wrong, but Southern Illinois or Northern Illinois, or whatever Illinois school he went to.

And I do think for some of these mid-tier guys, and I know Carr and Jimmy were second-round picks, but Aidan O'Connell, if I'm a Raider fan, I feel much better about our ability to be competitive if Jimmy goes down. Because part of the reason, they lost a bunch of close games,

and Derek and Josh clearly didn't mesh, right? It didn't work out. But I'm just a little more bullish based on, you know, I could see the division not, we thought last year was going to be the best division of all time. And then it clearly was not. So I just think they have more firepower at quarterback now, having this guy as the backup.

And we have just seen so many guys in recent memory have success as mid-round picks very, very earlier in their career, which makes sense. It's a passing league. A lot of these guys come from passing programs. They're used to it. Obviously, the speed of the game. And there are nuances in the NFL that are different than college. But I don't think anyone could argue.

I don't think it's debatable. it's never been easier to make the transition. It's why when guys fail, we go, God, something must be missing. And sometimes just guy lacks touch. The guy lacks composure. Maybe he's just not mature enough. I mean, there are all sorts of variables here, but it's never been easier to play quarterback.

So the Steelers and Raiders, I think if I'm a fan of either of those teams, I'm pretty excited going into the season, and I wouldn't blame anymore. Imagine an Olympics where doping is not only legal, encouraged. It's the enhanced games. Some call it grotesque. Others say it's unleashing human potential. Either way, the podcast Superhuman documented it all,

embedded in the games and with the athletes for a full year. Within probably 10 days, I'd put on 10 pounds. I was having trouble stopping the muscle growth. Listen to Superhuman on the I-Hard radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts.

A win is a win. A win is a win. I don't care what you're saying. Yep, that's me, Cliver Taylor the 4th. You might have seen the skits, the reactions, my journey from basketball to college football, or my career in sports media. Well, somewhere along the way, this platform became bigger than I ever imagined. And now I'm bringing all of that excitement to my brand new podcast, The Clifford Show. This is a place for raw, unfiltered conversations with some of your favorite athletes,

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Listen to the Clifford show on the IHeart Radio app, Apple Podcast, or wherever you get your podcast. And for more behind the scenes, follow at Clifford and at TikTok Podcast Network on TikTok. There was an article on the athletic. It's a paid for subscription service. Go read their articles. I really enjoy it. I look at it most days.

Now, I don't pay. I used to write for a couple years for them, and they've never blocked my subscription. So I just keep signing on and keep getting it. But you used to be able to get deals for like a buck for the year. I think those days are gone since the New York Times. But there was an article on Andy Reese's training camp. It was fantastic.

I mean, it really was. and it was basically based on he runs the hardest training camp in the NFL for like 20 plus years. When he first got to Philly, it was before my time, obviously, in the 99, but through the 2000s, it was just a bloodbath. I mean, double days, intensity, Italy high, the heat, the humidity. It was not easy. I wouldn't say Junction Boys, Alabama, like 1950s. But just read the article, the quotes from former players, former coaches.

it was clearly pretty hard. And now with the new rules, there's only so much you can do, right? You're not allowed to have double days. There are mandatory player days off every fourth or fifth day. There's some stuff out of your control. But based on the rules that he can function in, I think it's universally known. It's the hardest training camp in practice. If you go to most of these practices, and I didn't quite know this, it didn't really

register, like when I used to go to his practices, but I go to all these other practices over the last, whatever, seven, eight years. If you go to a Kyle Shanahan practice, the ones, the twos and the threes, the three sometimes as training camp goes on, take unequal amount of reps, but the ones in the twos typically take the same amount of reps. So it's like four and four.

But if you go to Andy Reid's practice, the ones take 80% of the reps. So they're taking like seven or eight, and the twos are then taken two or three. So if you are a starter, the intensity of practice is just, it's relentless. And his big thing, which clearly works.

I'm a believer in this, like in the fight game. There's a reason I'm not a big UFC guy. I actually just found out the Sugar Sean guy trains. I've only gone there once to this CrossFit gym that I went to. And so I was watching the UFC and he killed the dude. So that was cool. But obviously when you spar, whether you're UFC, whether you're a wrestler, whether you're a boxer, you're building your calluses, you're making your body tougher to handle the punishment for the actual fight.

Football is no different, right? There's a reason you wear pads to hit for the speed of the game. Historically, before like the last decade, tackling in practice was normal because you're going to tackle in the games. But we no longer do that. And I don't even think Andy Reid is tackling every day to the ground. But in terms of physicality consistently, it's really physical. right? The 49ers are easily one of the more physical teams in the NFL. Their practices are not. Now, they just benefit from having kind of crazy, talented, physical, I don't know, I mean, badasses.

But if you go to their practices, it is not guys getting lit up. It's a lot of like Trent Williams, Nick Bosa, and Kittle standing on the sideline, right? So everyone, there's not a right or wrong way to do it. But I do think that a couple years ago, McVeigh didn't play anybody. And it set the tone. I remember Coward had a big thing like that. That changed preseason. And it did for a long period of time. And then they yanked one of the preseason games. Now we got 17 games, right? Regular season games. So you only got three preseason games. I think a bunch of teams now joint practice, which are physical, which kind of weird right now. Some of these joint practices last week, the Jets canceled theirs. The Patriots just canceled theirs with the Titans. Now part of that has to do with Bolden.

But I think a lot of teams, if you don't have it buttoned up, enough and there's too much fighting. It's hard to get stuff done. But if you know what you're doing and the guys buy in, you get a lot of work done. So you don't have to necessarily play those guys in the preseason. But I turned on the 49er Bronco game. All the starters are in. I look at the Packer Patriot game. Staters are playing. I look up the Chiefs Cardinal game. Mahomes is in for a couple series. Right. So, and I just saw headline Aaron Rogers plans on playing in the last preseason game. Kyle Shanahan said his starters will play again.

I do wonder if teams, because the only way to get ready for week one, it is really difficult. You can go, yeah, our guy's a veteran player, he knows what he's doing. He doesn't need any reps. And I understand with older players, like Trent Williams,

ain't going to play a snap in the preseason. George Kittle, I can just speak for the diners. I'm not watching every preseason game, but like, I'm sorry, Mack Jones, Jordan Love, the offensive line, ahead of them, Jimmy Garoppolo, like, fuck it, let it play. So I completely understand it. And I do think it's shifting a little bit.

It just shows you how kind of cyclical things can be in sports in general, but especially in football, because I think too many teams, not everyone before when Belichick had Brady, they always treated September as like an extension of training camp to feel out their team. They didn't need to start. They didn't need to go four and O. They just kind of figured out their way, go three and one, two and two. evaluate their team and then they get hotter as the season goes along. Well, most teams don't have Belichick and Brady.

You can't afford to start slow, go one and three, and you can't dig yourself out of the hole. Think last year with the Lions, right? They dug themselves a hole and then it was too late by the last game of the season. They couldn't even play their way in. Same with the Steelers, started slow and it fucked them. Now, part of that was when they went with Mitch Trubisky and not, you know, a guy that had been starting for years in college in Kenny Pickett,

but I do think Tomlin kind of learned from that mistake. It cost them, and I think that goes back to like the extra urgency in training camp this year. But I do wonder, highly recommend this article, Andy Reid in training camps. But things are all relative to because I remember the first camp after the CBA, Deuce Staley was standing next to me. And he's like, this is a country club compared to what we went through. Because I remember my first training camp in Philly, live goal line. I'm talking like tackling to the ground, guys flying over the pile.

I would imagine if you went to potentially every practice, I don't exactly know like what a Sabin would do or a Kirby Smart. They're definitely running goal line, but I'm talking like tackling to the ground. Now, you could argue it's hard to practice goal line without tackling, but this goal line looked like bodies were flying. And I just went, Jesus, welcome to the NFL. And I do wonder if we're going to see a little bit of a shift back. back to preseason games, at least with the starters for a series or two, because before,

with the four preseason games, everyone did the same thing. First preseason game, starters got a series. Second preseason game, starters got two, three, maybe a quarter. Third preseason game, depending on how you did, like if you scored a couple touchdowns in the first quarter, maybe I'd yank you, but for the most part, you got a half. And some teams did a half with a series after the half to kind of mentally prepare. And then the fourth preseason game was irrelevant. your backups and your practice squad guys and your fringe guys.

I'd keep an eye on that. I do wonder if the preseason is going to get back to its roots over the next decade a little bit. Last but not least, I think a lot of you guys, if you're watching your team playing the preseason, once it gets to the second half, if you're still watching, I don't blame me if you turn it off,

but what else you're going to do? What am I really watching? Because you see guys make plays, you see guys like this guy had four catches in a preseason game, or this guy had a sack. And it's hard. When I first got to the NFL, I kind of had to be taught.

From a scouting perspective, the way teams evaluate these players, it's not really based on stats, right? This guy ran for 100 yards in the third preseason game. It's more based on physical characteristics. Like,

would this translate? Because you don't know. You're kind of guessing if it's an undrafted free agent or a practice squad guy or seventh round pick. But you can see traits. Now, sometimes like, oh, this guy had three sacks in the preseason.

And then you go back and look, two of them were untouched because the offensive tackle is going to be, you know, selling insurance here in a month. Right. So everything is put into somewhat context in the scouting rule. Now, with quarterbacks, for example, like Trey Lance yesterday, was playing in the fourth quarter of the game against the Broncos. I have no clue most of the guys he's playing against. but it didn't necessarily matter from an evaluation standpoint because he looked pretty good. He was just much calmer. He just made some of the better passes of his career, to be honest with you.

And it's like what you like to see, just some improvement. But also just because you make a good throw. For example, and this goes to the preseason in general, especially with guys that haven't done anything in the NFL. Jordan Love had a really, really nice touchdown pass. I guess this would have been Saturday night against the Patriots. And if I was a Packer fan, I'd be excited. Like, that's what you want to see.

But for Jordan Love to be a good player in the NFL, it's not going to be about one pass. He's got a good arm. He's pretty athletic. It's going to be about, can he do it over the course of a game? Over the course of a month, over the course of playing all the division opponents the second time. Those are the unknowns you don't know, right? How does it look when there's a true game plan? Because once you get into the second half of these games, there is 100% no game plan.

you are just running the plays if you're an offense or you're running the place, the defense that you just run in practice throughout. There's no, this was schemed against this look. It's very, very basic. Now, with my Jordan Love example, they might have put some emphasis on some game plan stuff for some of these preseason games to start that kind of mindset because he's going to be the starter. And it's very positive.

I'm not taking anything away from, but you just don't know. Like Brock Purdy, if he had not. never played before. In his drive he had against the Denver Broncos, I go, yeah, it's a positive thing, but I don't know what it's going to look like. But he had the seven, eight games last year where he just looks like that.

Look. Now, there are some guys, like, I never had a problem with Aaron Rogers, not playing for the Packers in the preseason. It's like 37, 38 years old, what's the point? I do understand with the Jets, a lot of moving pieces.

I just watched Hard Knocks the other night. It's definitely concerning their offensive lines. It really is. Right. They have no chance to win the Super Bowl if their offensive lines like bottom 10 in the NFL. Now, based on the way they look and based on the talent they have on their team, it's obviously not easy to improve. But it's 100% of red flag. I'm still just going to try to give them the benefit of the doubt.

But I was going to pick them to win the division before training camp started. I definitely hesitate. Now, where I do think that I probably underestimated their defensive line. with the Jets is could be fucking dominant. Quina Williams looks like a bigger version of Warren Sapp. He is a monster. Now, we know he was good because we saw him play last year and he was a badass. But you watch him right now, his mindset,

that guy looks like a poise for a season like Chris Jones just had. And then they draft the guy last year, Johnson from Florida State, the Georgia transfer. They draft Will McDonald this year in the top 20 or what pick was that, 15, 17, or whatever it was from I think I was. state. So they got edge pressure. They got interior pressure. Soss Gardner is probably the best corner in the NFL. One of them, him or Patrick's retained. So their defense has a chance to be unreal. But their past game is a problem if they just can't block people. But this is the time to figure

it out. And I would like to get some live reps because I know that Aaron, if he sees a guy, go unblock, can just hit the ground. He's like Peyton or Brady. He's not, not proven anything. Last night, I saw Zach Wilson. I didn't watch much of the game. I didn't watch any of the game, besides the highlight, just took off like he was like Lamar Jackson. It was sweet. Like Aaron ain't doing that. Not he probably even couldn't. But, you know, some guys like, what do I got to lose?

And I think it also can be concerning the other way when like ultimately I don't need you to go whatever. Let's say 12 or 14 if you're my backup quarterback. But if you look terrible, like Marcus Mariotta with the Eagles, I watched some of that game the other night. It just looked terrible. I mean, he looked awful. Now he's been bad, it feels like, for a couple years. and I root for him. I remember meeting him a couple years ago,

watched him in college. I want him to just succeed, but he just looks bad. And it's weird. Just because you're bad as a backup. Look at Matt Barclay. Matt Barclay's awful. His TD the interception ratio is like 11 of 22 in his career.

He's played for a decade. People like it. And we talked about this for a while. To be a good backup isn't just about like, I think I can win with you. It's like, do I like you? There's a small percentage of backups. Like, just look around the league that you feel like,

We could win some games, right? The Cowboys had one last year when DAC went down. Cooper Rush just won him some games. I think the 49ers think with Sam Darnold, they could just win some games. Now, could they maintain winning? It's very, very hard. Most backups come in, you immediately suck.

But when you have a backup who you know is not good, like Matt Barkley or Chase Daniels for years, because you like them, but is not a good player, if your quarterback has a major injury, you are in major trouble. So that's something to keep a big time eye on now. Now it makes it a little bit easier now with the third quarterback. I don't even know it's third quarterback rule or you're allowed to have three quarterbacks up on game day.

I do think that will influence the league and have an impact on guys being claimed and teams keep it three quarterbacks on their roster. But just because you can't keep three quarterbacks on your roster, you've got to find three quarterbacks on your roster that are worth keeping. You're like, I'd be cool with this guy playing in a game. and it's I mean do the math right we always say there's not 64 quarterbacks let alone what's the math there 64 96 am I doing that correctly I think I am so yeah I mean let's enjoy this last week of the preseason the volume another podcast from some SNL late night comedy guy not quite unhumor me with Robert Smygel and friends me and hilarious guests from Bob Odenkirk to David Letterman help make you funnier.

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