The Kevin Sheehan Show - RFK & F-16s!

Episode Date: December 4, 2024

Kevin opened talking about the story the Washington Post broke yesterday that Maryland's two senators wants a DC Air National Guard Squadron in exchange for a YES vote on the RFK site plan. Kevin then welcomed PFF's Nick Akridge onto the show. They talked about several Commanders' player performance grades against Tennessee and why Jayden Daniels' grade wasn't as high as some thought it should be. VSIN's Tim Murray jumped on to talk College Football Playoff Rankings and more.  Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

You don't want it. You don't need it. But you're going to get it anyway. The Kevin Cheehan Show. Here's Kevin. Show's presenting sponsor, as always, is Window Nation. Give them a call if you're thinking about new windows. That's all I ask.

86690 Nation. Go to Window Nation. Go to Window Nation. Let them come out and give you a free, no-risk estimate. 8669Nation, Windonation.com, if you need new windows. Two guests on the show today. Nick Ackridge from Pro Football Focus will join me in the next segment. We'll talk a lot about player grades from Sunday's game against Tennessee per PFF. And look at the season as a whole as we sit here in the by week and maybe get Nick to sort of project some performances down the stretch.

Tim Murray will join me in the final segment. We'll talk about those college football rankings that came out last night. look ahead to championship weekend. How about this story from yesterday that broke right after I finished recording the podcast yesterday with Tommy? The title being Maryland Seeks D.C.'s Air National Guard Squadron in RFK deal. The title coming from the Washington Post and a story written by Sam 48, Aaron Cox, Megan Flynn, and Paul Kane. Now, let me just do something here just to make sure that one Tom Levero doesn't get upset with me. Tommy was the absolute first to report nearly two months ago that the RFK site plan faced a bigger challenge than just Senator Steve Daines from Montana as it related to the logo.

and Walter Blackie Wetzel and the Wetzel family, et cetera. And that was Senator Chris Van Hollen from Maryland and really Maryland's pushback in the Senate to the RFK site plan. Tommy, from my knowledge, was the first to have that. It was two months ago. So Tommy was on it before anybody else was. Now, this story included a nugget in Maryland's pushback. back to the RFK site plan.

That was crazy. I mean, cray, cray, crazy town. Like, I'm going to read to you the first couple of paragraphs from the story, if you aren't familiar with it. It starts with Maryland's leaders have proposed a set of conditions that could greatly affect the Washington commanders football teams' stadium search. Among them, if D.C. gives their state, meaning Maryland, one of its Air National Guard squadrons, they may support a bill

allowing the district to redevelop the RFK Stadium site, according to three people with knowledge of the negotiations. The conditions at a new high-stakes layer to negotiations in Congress over the future of the aging stadium site on the banks of the Anacostia River. If D.C. can redevelop the site, that would offer it an advantage in convincing the team to leave Maryland and play once again in its namesake city. The Flight Squadron is one of three requests that two Maryland senators made. By the way, those senators would be Ben Cardin, who is an outgoing senator, but still the senator as of now, and Chris Van Hollen. They would prefer to keep the commanders in suburban Landover, and they've made in exchange for backing the bill that would give DC control of the federally owned RFK site, according to the

people who spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss sensitive private negotiations. The flight squadron. Again, a flight squadron associated with the Air National Guard in D.C. Now, there are other things they have asked for. They've also requested a public statement from the commanders about their preferred location for the next stadium and assurances about what the team would build in place of Northwest Stadium in Landover, the outdated facility where the team plays. Senator Ben Cardin has emphasized the importance of the flight squadron in the deal, people said. Senate Majority Leader, for the time being, Chuck Schumer has told the parties that they must hammer out an agreement with Maryland officials before the RFK bill can proceed.

And then in this story, the team's executives, in terms of Josh Harris and others, and Maryland senators met for about an hour Tuesday in Ben Cardin's Foreign Relations Committee office in the Capitol. Team and league officials declined to address specifics of the discussion, but two people familiar with the talk said, one of the biggest stumbling blocks remains securing some commitment from the team to redevelop the stadium land in PG County if the team moves to a new location. Delegate Eleanor Holmes Norton from D.C. called the proposed transfer of the National Guard squadron, quote, troubling, saying it would require D.C. to be reliant on the goodwill of other national, National Guards for common aviation matters, closed quote.

All right. So let me just kind of summarize where we are in this process, okay? The RFK site plan process. If you recall, the RFK site plan passed in the house way back at the beginning of this year, in February of this year. A few weeks ago, it passed in. the Senate subcommittee. And that just cleared the way for the Senate to vote on it as a whole, and then it would be passed by Congress, and then D.C. would get the land. However, it has to pass in the Senate overall for that to happen. And as most of you know, because we've talked about this

previously, but for those that don't, there's a holdup in the Senate overall vote. First of all, more likely than not because we are in a lame duck session with just a few weeks left in the lame duck session before a new Congress takes over in January of 2025. There are just a few more opportunities to get this vote in. And what's been made clear by almost everybody covering this story, there is no room for a stand-alone vote on the RFK site plan and bill. It has to be attached to another bill. It has to be a rider to another bill. Well, for it to become a rider to another bill, they still have to get buy-in from key senators. And Chuck Schumer, being the majority Senate leader, believes that his two Maryland senators are important to get a buy-in.

And that's why he sent the team to negotiate with Van Hollen and Cardin. Now, the bill that they want to attach the RFK site plan to is called the National Defense Authorization Act or the NDAA. It will pass as one of the last acts of this Congress here in the next few weeks. That's the bill that they need to attach it to. If it doesn't get attached to that bill, then they start all over in January of 2025 when the new Congress comes in. And when I say start all over, they literally will have to start with the House and somebody like James Comer, you know, sponsoring this thing and pushing it through the House and then getting it through a Senate subcommittee and the Senate as a whole. And that could take, as we've seen, over a year to get done. We're almost a year to get done.

And that puts all of the DC plan, the RFK site plan, in jeopardy. So, you know, I've walked you up to the point where this story came out yesterday, right? It's got to be attached to a bill. It's most likely the National Defense Authorization Act. And the senators have to approve it getting attached to a bill that will be passed. And then we're good to go. I mean, there's still more steps after that. However, Ben Cardin and Chris Van Hollen are saying, uh-uh, we're not going to let.

let this get attached to this bill until we get something back in exchange. All right. So that's where we are. And what they want back in exchange is they want three things. They want these F-16 fighter jets as part of one of D.C.'s air fighting National Guard squadron. All right. Maryland, and I learned this in the story, I had no idea, Maryland lost its air fighting squadron. Apparently it's the only state in the country that does not have a National Guard Air Squadron, you know, air squadron.

And yes, you know, the fighter jets that protect D.C. and the federal government and all of the big things that we know are targets. We remember 9-11 and for days and weeks on end, you know, we had fighter jets flying in our skies. by the way, not just over D.C., but in Maryland, in Virginia. They are based at Andrews Air Force Base, which is in Maryland. But Maryland doesn't have an actual fighting force, air squadron fighting force, fighting squadron. D.C., I don't know the answer to this, but I'm assuming D.C. protects the DMV from any sort of, you know,

attacks or threats. But anyway, they want one of D.C.'s Air Squadron units. They also want the team to declare its intentions on where it wants to be. And thirdly, they want the team to tell them and comfort them, give them comfort with respect to what they're going to do with FedEx Field, Northwest Stadium, and the landover site in which that stadium exists right now. because they own that land and they own that stadium. So what will happen with this new wrinkle? I have no idea. I had Sam Fortier, who was a part of writing this story on the radio show this morning.

And he's like, have no idea what this means. Personally, I feel like the announcement of their intentions seems like a bit of a reach. wouldn't they lose some of their leverage in negotiations with D.C., Maryland, potentially Virginia, by stating their intentions? I do think it seems reasonable that the team share with Maryland what they plan to do with the Landover FedEx Field Northwest Stadium site. In terms of the F-16 National Airfighting National Guard Squadron, I have no idea whether or not D.C. would be willing to give me.

Maryland one of those, you know, one of those groups. I don't know. It certainly doesn't sound like they'd want to. You know, I read to you the Eleanor Holmes Norton quote. A spokesperson with Muriel Bowser declined to comment, but it certainly doesn't sound like this would be. Here's another quote from Norton. DC rightly deserves to benefit from the land where RFK Stadium site sits, which is falling into disrepair, and the exchange for the transfer of administrative jurisdiction over the campus to D.C. should not come at the expense of D.C.'s National Guards' aviation resources. D.C. would still retain one of its two squadrons under Maryland's proposal, but would lose access to fighter jets. I don't see that happening. Do you guys?

I have no idea on that front. But that's where it is. Yes, Tom was the first to report that Maryland's senators were the biggest impediment to the Senate passing this deal, more so than Steve Daines in the logo issue. But the Air National Guard Squadron as part of the quid pro quo, that's crazy. That is wild. I texted with somebody who used to work on this from the team standpoint, and his comment was, it's wild. My head is spinning after learning of this.

All right, real quickly, before we get to Nick Ackridge, I wanted to read two quick emails. This from Daniel. Daniel wrote, Kevin, I've been listening to you for a long time. I've never called or written, but I've been surprised by your reluctance to talk name and logo recently, what gives. And then this from our good friend Sabah, Sabah DM'd me. Kevin, us longtime fans don't care about winning or a star quarterback. It's not our team right now. Keep pushing the name narrative.

It's better to fail than quit. So I'm being accused of sort of quitting on the name issue. Well, let me just be real frank. I have given up on the idea that Redskins is ever coming back. And I would wager a lot of money. Even in a, you know, pendulum swinging back the other way from all of the silliness of 2020, 2021, and the loss of brands and, you know, Redskins getting swept up and a lot of that. It's not coming back, all right?

The league doesn't want it to come back. The league would then have to deal with its big corporate sponsors and their shareholders. You know, if it still existed, they wouldn't push back and wouldn't, you know, advocate for the team to drop it. But it's gone. You know, somebody else did the dirty one. and it's not coming back. Now, as far as the logo goes, first of all, I do understand that I have not talked a lot of name or logo.

You know, I've often been accused of talking too much about the name and the branding, which has never been true in terms of a percentage of the overall content delivered. But, and I know that a significant percentage of you, think about this all the time. And it's not that I have stopped thinking about it at all. I have been very, very upfront as to how I feel about this team now compared to the way I used to feel. There has been an emotional detachment from it because of a lot of things, the name and the branding and the uniforms is a part of that. So I'm with you on all of that. Look, I feel it. I, this is an emotional thing for me like it is for many of you. That's why I don't like talking to

anybody that doesn't have an emotional connection to this because they have no clue as to how we feel. And sometimes it's annoying when you get lectured by those people. You know, legit long-time fans feel this. Most of you do. I know that. I hear that all the time. And I know that when Steve Danes went on Fox News recently and talked about the logo and it made people believe that it's coming back not just, you know, in the form of displays and, you know, making sure that it's a part of the heritage and, you know, a Daryl Green retirement ceremony, which it was not on that helmet, et cetera. It's going to be a part of all those things. I don't believe it's coming back and being put on the helmet.

So I know many of you have gotten swept up in, into that and think, oh my God, this is a sign and it's going to come back. And if we can just get our uniforms back and put the logo on the helmet, look, I'm with you. I'd love that. But I don't know that that's going to happen. And let me just make sure I'm clear on this. The name and the logo are two totally different subjects. You know, the logo was never resisted by anybody. There was never any, you know, activism with respect to getting rid of the logo. The logo was a logo was a not defined as insensitive at all. It was, as we all know, designed by Walter Blackie Wetzel and was a big part of, you know, the Native American love for the team. And so we understand that. And the logo

should be completely separate from the name. If they created, if a new name had Native American imagery, I would absolutely advocate for the old logo to be a part. of the new name. Like if they came back with Warriors or something with Native American ties as a new name, I'd love it. Old uniforms, logo, the whole thing, let's go. I'm down for that, 100%. I just don't know that that logo fits with commanders or a new name that they might

select that may not have Native American imagery or ties or association. That's where, for me, it would be a bit of a disconnect, right? You're not going to use that logo for a name that doesn't have any kind of Native American association in it. Yeah. But really, the big reason I'm not spending a lot of time talking about the name or the logo is because the team's winning. I mean, they've got a star quarterback. Sabad doesn't care, but there's no doubt that a lot of people that feel the way that I feel have certainly paid attention to the team.

And it's star young quarterback. Sure, they'd like it like I would to come with a playoff season, a playoff win, and then maybe the announcement in the off season that they're going to redo the name and the brand and that they're going to go back to uniforms that look like the old uniforms. And they've, you know, I'd love all of that. But once the games start, man, I mean, that's the story. You know, it just is, even for people like me. The majority, it's the story.

Sabah, I think that 100% you're in the majority of the way people, longtime fans feel about the team and the new name and the associated branding. I get it. And I'm not quitting that at all. But once the games start, and then by the way, this unexpected 8-and-5 season with a superstar potentially at quarterback. Finally, we found a quarterback. That's, winning's always been number one. Even when I've passionately, you know, talked about the name, I haven't said this is top priority. Winning for ownership is top priority. And not only are they

winning, they're doing it with an answer at quarterback. It would appear. So I don't know. I'm Sure, we've certainly spent time talking on this, never, you know, as much as people have suggested. It certainly seems like Daniel would like us to talk about it more. Sabah, the same thing. I'm not quitting the name issue. When you say reluctance, I have no reluctance ever to talk about the name or logo. You should know me better than that by now. It's just we've had football to talk about.

Good football to talk about. that's actually a lot more fun and the story changes every week and so you've got lots of new things to talk about every week right now we are stuck on we hate the commanders we hate the uniforms we'd like both things to change i think i recognize the old name's not coming back i think there's still a desire with ownership to change the name i definitely think there's a desire to bring the uniforms back to something resembling the old uniforms, if not exactly the old uniforms, maybe not with the old logo, maybe with the W on the helmet, who knows. But we'll have plenty of time to talk about that.

And if certainly there are legitimate new developments, and I don't think Steve Daines' appearance on Fox last week was an indication that the name and the logo are coming back. I don't, anyway. Some of you do. but we will get to it when we get to it. Meantime, enjoy the bye week and let's go beat the Saints a week from Sunday. All right, Nick Ackridge next after these words from a few of our sponsors. Is there anything better when you're a football fan than this time of year? It seems like there are games on around the clock.

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All right, joining me right now is Nick Ackerman. We haven't had Nick on since, I don't know, maybe early in the season, I think, at PFF underscore Nick Ackridge. He is a data analyst, senior data analyst for pro football focus. And more importantly, he is a huge Washington fan and has been his whole life because he lives in the area. And occasionally gets the responsibility for PFF of breaking down and grading down and grading the performances. of the home team. So Nick's with us and you and I were just talking before we started to record here just about, you know, the position you're in, and I get it, you know, and I've said this many times and I've said it to your face. PFF for me is just another data point. Like if you live and die by just

one of these things without having context and understanding what you're watching with your own eyes, it can be infuriating. You, you know, as a grader, you know, where there is this finite kind of grade score on a performance, you really, you really hear it from the fans, don't you? Oh, yeah. You know, in years past, when they were bad, sometimes I would kind of get all the negativity. But, you know, now that they're good, we're just kind of, we're kind of nitpicking at this point. But I've, even when you said that, like, I've always kind of agreed that PFF grade is a tool as long, like, as well with, you know, EPA per play. Even just your traditional box score, like, everything is a part of the tool. And if you rely on just one of them, you're going to be missing some context. Like, for someone who's been doing these grades for six, seven years now, I understand why a grade is the way it is. But for people that are not doing that, it can come across as weird and it doesn't look right. And in order to kind of explain that, I have to,

go through kind of play by play with people and understand what we're doing. But I don't have time for that. Nobody really has time for that. And that's kind of where some of the context is really lost. And I think everyone can kind of do a better job of, you know, understanding that context, including PFF. So, yeah, I just think it's a lot of misunderstanding going on. So what was the biggest complaint about PFF grading from the Tennessee game?

It was Jane Daniels grade. He finished with a 68.0 overall grade. And when you kind of look at that and you think, okay, four touchdowns, 80% completion percentage, that doesn't make much sense. But for us, we're kind of isolating throws. So the big thing there with his grade is the low kind of average up the target. And, you know, their game plan was to kind of attack underneath quick game stuff.

And he executed that well. And so that's one of those situations where PFF grade might not really kind of show that to the best extent, and that's where something like EPA per play will kind of really come in and do a better job of showing what they were trying to attack and what they were trying to do. And so, yeah, it's not going to look great. And then when you compare it to everyone else around the league and you see that he was the 23rd high, it doesn't really kind of make sense when you're just looking off box score stuff, especially when a guy like Anthony Richardson is top four.

But, you know, he had a 50% completion percentage in two picks. but what you're not seeing in there is the three big-time throws and the drops and all the other stuff. So there's a lot of contact missing, and that one grade, I kind of knew we would get some pushback, but I think as people kind of really look at some of the throws, I think it's definitely more understandable. I actually want to get into this a little bit more because I think it's interesting that, so if I understand what you said correctly, the depth of throw was a big knockdown, of his grade. They definitely went with a ton of quick game. I think I counted, you know, in my recap, like 11 of the first, you know, 15 or 16 called pass plays were quick game or

screen, which means that your big time throw number is going to be low when you're going primarily quick game, I'm assuming. Is that kind of where it stems from? By the way, real quickly, a 68 for Jaden Daniels is an above-average PFF grade. That's not like an A to F grade. That's not a high D grade. That's a better 60 is the average score. That's average. Yeah, that's another kind of area that there's some kind of misunderstanding there

where, you know, everyone thinks of it as a school grade, like you said, and 60s is a deep. It's above average, and I think when you look at it as above average, I think that's kind of how he played. Like you said, there was a lot of quick game stuff. And for our sort of system, like, it's going to be tough to earn a high grade when you're only completing three passes over 10 yards. That's kind of where it really boils down to.

He was really good in the quick game. And I think people think of it more as, like, you know, you're negatively, he's getting a negative effect because he's throwing quick passes and short passes. But it's more so that he's not earning a positive, if that makes sense. Yeah. He's kind of, he's doing what's asked of him, and that's what we're kind of doing. And a PFF grade is doing, is seeing, are you doing more than kind of what's asked to do, to a sense? So some of those farther downfield throws, you know, even sometimes these short throws can be graded positively.

You know, if it's kind of perfect accuracy and in a short-yard situation, like the touchdown at the three-yard line, usually three-yard throws aren't going to get a positive grade, but, you know, he's throwing it with a free pass-rrrrrrisser in his face into tight coverage for a touch. them, that's going to be positively great. It won't be positively graded the same as, you know, a 50-yard perfectly accurate throw, but it still will be positively graded. And I think that's kind of a big misconception is people think that we are sort of downplaying their performance just because it was underthrows, but it's more so like he's not really getting fully, I guess, rewarded for playing within the system, essentially.

Yeah, and I think that what we both agreed to, here at the beginning, which is it's a tool, it's a piece of information, there's context, et cetera. The thing about that play that is so spectacular is, and makes it, for me, more than just a three-yard touchdown pass, is he recognized that there's an unblocked free rusher, not necessarily in zero coverage, because I think they had a spy on him in the middle of the field, but he had to change it. He had to identify that. He had to get it out quickly, and then he had to change the arm angle and throw it sidearm from a low platform arm position, and it was super accurate and super quick and super on time, and it was the only way that that pass gets completed. And I'm assuming, and I don't know this for sure, that that was the first read based on what was coming. So it was man coverage to that side.

You get the playing around to Terry. And yeah, again, usually three-yard throws aren't going to be getting positively graded. But there's a special part to that play, and that's why it is positively graded. It won't be the same as, you know, what we consider big-time throws are plus one throws in our system. So this one was just a plus point five. But again, he's still getting a positive grade for a short throw. And that's the kind of context that I think is missing because every single throw, it's going to be graded differently, and there's no, you know, there's no AI thing that we're just kind of,

if a six-yard throws, and he gets to zero or stuff like that. There's, there's everything that we're doing is, we kind of, honestly, over-analyze some things at times, and that sometimes can be a problem, but yeah, every single throw, there needs to be some sort of context with it. I mean, the way I described it, don't you think the team would probably on that play grade it higher than you guys would? Yeah, probably. some of the stuff with the quick game stuff. You know, when they're only run to four routes,

like all four routes are going four or five yards. Right. So they might grade it as a positive where in our system it's just going to be a zero. Because for them, you know, he's executing the game plan. That's exactly where they want to go with the ball. But we can't kind of change our entire system to kind of, you know, mold into what the game plan is. So that's where these kind of grades get a little bit misinterpreted.

And that's why, you know, it's a part of the tool. And it's not everything. and, you know, sometimes with individual game grades, there's a lot that can kind of be missed. And I think usually our season-long grades, when you get more kind of samples, when the sample size larger, that's when you kind of get a much better picture of what a player is. And Jayden's our third-highest grade in the NFL right now. So I think that paints a much better picture of how he's playing this entire season. And then just one game, obviously, it might not look great if the box scores is much better.

One quick play. Was he downgraded for the interception? That was not a drop, right? It's a zero-graded throw. So those are one of those throws that are kind of in between. He had a chance to earn a positive if it was a little bit lower. But Erch is still going to be slightly downgraded because it's slightly overthrown, but it is still a drop.

He's got to catch it. So for Jaden, it's just a zero. Urch gets a small downgrade, and that's one of those interceptions that kind of, you would look at the box score and think, oh, interception is bad, but for us it's just a zero. And the turnover worthy play that he had actually came later. On the tip. Well, he had a fumble.

Oh, yeah, yeah. Yeah, which by the way, which by the way, I think actually, I mean, you know what he was trying to do. He's trying to throw an incomplete pass, push it to McNichols, so he didn't get sacked out of field goal range. I actually thought he accomplished that. Yeah, it's one of those ones that's tough because when the NFL gives it a fumble, we have to kind of match that. So it wasn't downgraded to the full extent of a fumble. Usually our fumbles are minus 1.5.

But sometimes, you know, there can be fumbles that are just going to be zero graded. Kind of a good example that is a quarterback getting hit from the blind side, you know, and he's got no idea that this guy's coming. We usually just grade that as a zero because he doesn't have any control of that. And I think that's kind of the big thing with these grades is that we're kind of isolating individual players. So for fumbles, sometimes you're not going to get that full downgrade. but other times on fumbles, even if your team recovers it, there's nothing you can do once that ball hits the ground other than recover it yourself.

So once that ball hits the ground, you're getting a fumble, a turnover worthy play most times. And I think that's another thing that's kind of lost. Did you do the grading Sunday? I did the offensive side. Okay. So when I'm done, there's four or five people that come in and review it afterwards. So it never really does me.

So it's perfect timing. then to talk to you. And this wasn't the intention to have you on and talk just about this. But I am interested about that fumble. I think that there, I understand what you're saying. If it's great at a fumble, you got to go with the fumble. I actually think there was a, you know, a case to be made that it was an incomplete pass. But there was on that stunt, a complete unblocked in his face almost immediately pass rush. So, I mean, he actually actually. He actually, actually extricated himself a little bit from that and had a change. The fumble actually saved field goal range.

It didn't matter because the field goal was missed. Yeah. But the incomplete pass attempt was a really hard thing to get to for most quarterbacks given that rush. Yeah. And so that's why it's not going to be one of those full downgrades. We downgraded the left tackle and the running back on that one because they didn't exchange a stunt in the right way.

Yeah. So James's not going to get charged for that stack. but he will still get charged with football. It won't be the biggest downgrade. And usually at that point, you know, if you can't get out of that first tackle, you just kind of have to eat it at that point, kind of take the sack, don't try to make a play worse. And he usually hasn't done that the entire year,

which has been what's very, very impressive with him. He's always been really good at protecting the ball. So that was just kind of a smaller thing, but something that definitely gets lost when you're just looking back at the boxwork. At a curiosity, you know, it's Brandon Coleman and Allegretti that clearly get confused on this stunt. Who gets downgraded the most? Isn't that one of those things that you guys may not know for sure?

Yeah, 100%. So on this play, I pulled it up here. They're executing like a half slide to the right. So Allegretti won't get charged on that play at all. So on this play, it's just a poor slide. Essentially, the Titans have a good call, and they end up rushing from the side that their slides. away from. So on this play, it's between the running back and the left tackle to kind of execute

this stunt better. Left tackle, Brandon Coleman's got to pick up on that first guy that's coming in to pick him, and then the running back will need to pick up the looper. It's not really a position you want to be in with your running back having to try to block an edge rusher, but because of the slide and what they call, we won't down Great Allegready on that one because he's doing what he's supposed to. And that kind of comes down to the left tackle and running back. Who was the highest-graded player? I know the answer because Denton told me, but I'm forgetting who was the highest-graded player offensively?

It was. Oh, it was Rodriguez. Yes, that's right. It was Rodriguez. He only had 23-knaps. I usually kind of keep it to 25 above. But yeah, it was Rodriguez. He had an incredible performance in what was essentially garbage time.

Exactly. Almost having 100 yards on 13 carries is pretty good. Below that was Tyler Viotish. he was really, really good, especially in the run game on Sunday. Yeah, I was going to ask you because I think last week after the Dallas game, I really felt like, and I'm not sure if you're grading reflected this or not, because Denton did tell me kind of the grades after the fact, but I thought that the interior of the offensive line in particular really got manhandled by Dallas.

I thought they lost that game at the line of scrimmage more than anywhere else personally. But then I thought Sunday they really almost dominated a good defensive team and a really good player in Jeffrey Simmons at the line of scrimmage. And I thought the interior of the offensive line without being able to identify which of the three had the best game. But you just gave the answer. It was Biotic. So how did Cosme and Allegretti grade out? Yeah, Cosme was 68.6 again, above average from the right guard, left guard, Aligretti, 53.5. not as good.

Okay. But you kind of nailed it last week. That Interior 3 was really, really struggling last week. Dallas did a really good job of, you know, they kind of isolated Micah Parsons on the inside. Yes. And you don't really want to go one-on-one with Micah Parsons with a guard. It's just going to be rough. But they did a really good job of kind of identifying how Washington likes to kind of protect their tackles

and decided to attack the interior instead. And that's, if you ask any off as a coordinator, Interior pressure is far worse than kind of edge pressure because you can't step up. You can't go anywhere. And then you're forced to kind of backpedal, and then now you've got the edge rushers kind of cave it in on you. You were right. The interior three was not as great week 12, but this past weekend they were really, really good. All right.

Two more questions about the team offensively. So, I mean, I know you understand the benefit of the quarterback being involved in the run game and playing 11 on 11 in the run game. And I'm wondering if you think that Brian Robinson, Jr. is so much better than Rodriguez, Echler, McNichols, or not. Because clearly the backs, when they've had big days, are benefiting from Jaden being a run threat on a lot of those plays. I love Brian Robinson, Jr. I think he's their best back. But I'm curious as to what you think, you know, because really we're seeing. what we've seen with a lot of dual threat quarterbacked teams over the years, everybody benefits

from that. And so how do you view the back situation, Robinson Jr., in particular, compared to the others? You know, I think you kind of hit on it perfectly there. I think Brian Robinson is clearly the best back there. And one thing with, again, with PFF grades, is we're trying to isolate that individual and not what is expected. So for running back to earn a really high grade, we're seeing, okay, you've got yards based on what the office of line has given you what the defense has kind of messed up. Can you get more from that?

Can you force mis-tackles? Can you get yards after contact? You get yards during contact. And that's what Brian Robinson has been good at. And that's why Chris Rodriguez graded so highly yesterday because he was constantly turning those five, six-yard runs into 10-15-yard runs. And that's kind of how you earn the larger positive run or positive grades. But yeah, I think right now Brian Robinson is doing kind of exactly what you would expect. I would like to see a little bit more in terms of forcing some mistackles,

but I know he's also been dealing with some injuries. I think one of the biggest things is he's protecting the football. Yeah. You're a humbled on the year. And I think that's massive. Like take what the offensive line is giving you, get a little bit more if you can every now and again, but don't lose the football. And I think that's kind of the biggest thing that he's doing right now.

There's been a noticeable increase in trying to get Diami Brown more. involved in a lot of different ways. Do you think they're doing the right thing by getting him more touches? Yeah, I mean, Deaumie Brown is a speed team. Like, he's very, very fast. He's very good. We've seen him in the stream game with the ball in his hand. He's able to, again, like we just talked about with running backs, get more than what's expected of you. And he's doing a really good job of that. Me personally, I would like to see Louis McCaffrey a little bit more involved in the deep kind of passing concept. I think he's done a great job of getting him. He's doing a great job of getting separation and getting open. He's just been really unlucky at times.

So I would like to see him get involved a little bit more, but I've been kind of pleasantly surprised at what Diomis been able to do, and he's been able to kind of win downfield on some routes, even the ones that are kind of falling complete. He's still gaining separation. Yeah, I've been pleasantly surprised at that. I would like to see McCaffrey a little bit more involved there, but he's doing kind of what you envision when you drafted him. All right, flipping it to the other side of the football, to me it's obvious. that Frankie Louvo is their best defensive player. And not only that, I think he is one of the better defensive players at that position

as a pass rusher, whether it's off the edge, whether it's, you know, schemed up as a secondary. There just seems to be a relentless motor and an anticipatory talent and a lot of other things. This guy, to me, reeks of elite or borderline elite at the position. PFF and you say what? We think that Bobby Wagner has been typical Bobby Wagner. I think some of the things that Bobby Wagner does is not going to ever show up in a box where obviously the tackles will. But some of the stuff that he's doing in the run game in terms of beating blocks and being in a position that he's supposed to be in is one of the best things that we've seen from a linebacker in a long, long time. Frankie Louvre was a special talent, like you said.

Frankie Louvo plays with his hair on fire 110%. But sometimes that 110% he's wrong on some of the plays and sometimes he makes up for it by making fantastic plays

but other times he's wrong and put the defense in bad position. That's not to say that he's bad at his position and you need to put someone else there. You kind of live with that stuff because like you said, some of the splash plays that he makes are game changing

and they put your defense in a much better position overall. But there are definitely some times where you would kind of wish for him to play a little bit slower at times and kind of read things out a little bit. But again, you live with that because of what you get, like you said, as a pass rusher. He's got the most pass rushing snaps of any linebacker in the NFL, the most pressures as a linebacker in the NFL. One of the highest pass rushing craze at the linebacker in the NFL. He does.

I was going to say specific to just his pass rushing ability, is he ranked high for the season? Yes, yes. He's one of the top one. Bobby Wagner boat are at the top when they send Wagner on kind of some of those interior blitzes when they get him one-on-one with the running back. But yeah, Frankie Louvre is, like I said, most pass-rushing snap, most pressures for linebackers, and they're kind of using him the same way that, you know, Quinn and Whit Mike Parsons or they're putting him on the edge.

Sometimes they're using him in stunts and loops and use that athleticism and that kind of 110% effort on every play to his advantage. And it's put him in some really great spots, and you've seen him make him. make a tons of plays around the quarterback in the backfield, and that's what you're asking Frankie Loubu to do, and then you're asking Bobby Wagner to kind of be the more cerebral guy and kind of always be in the right position. That's usually how that linebacker court works. By the way, just off topic a bit, the guy that on opening weekend, the Brazil game, number 53 Bond for Philadelphia, that night I remember saying to my son, we were watching the game,

53 is the best player on the field for Philadelphia tonight. And he's had a monster year. Has he been better or has Wagner been better? Who's been the best kind of middle linebacker in the NFL this year? It's been Zach Bonn. It has been. Yeah. Yeah.

So, Zach Bonn is first, 89.6. Fred Warner is second 88.4 and then Bobby Wagner, third, 83.3. Was Bonn anywhere near this good in New Orleans? No. He was an edge rusher in years past, where he was kind of a rotational edge rusher. And for whatever reason, Philly saw something in him and thought he could play middle linebacker, and he's playing hit at an absolutely elite rate. And it's pretty incredible what he's doing.

But yeah, no, he is the highest grade of linebacker right now in the NFL. I mean, that defense, right now it might be the best in the NFL if Minnesota's isn't, right? I mean, do you have the defenses in the NFL ranked? Yeah, so I would agree with you that the Eagles right now are the highest grade of defense, and it's really not even close. They're at an 88.2 team, and then the lines are 80.8 below that. The Vikings are out there as well. There's is a lot more kind of scheme-related, and Flores just does a great job

at just causing absolute chaos at the line of scrimmage. But yeah, right now the Eagles are far away, the best defense in the NFL. It's amazing, Detroit, without Aden Hutchinson. Yeah. Yeah, I mean, he was having a special, special season before. And it really, really sucks for him because he was by far the best past freshman in the NFL at that time. Yeah. But they're still performing well.

And then right below that is the Steelers. So Washington got to see the number one and number three ranked defense in back to that weeks. All right. Tell me how PFF and you have sort of. viewed the cornerback situation. Hopefully it's Latimore after the bye week, but Sanra Still and Noah Igben Ogeny and St. Juice has any, I mean, I think Sanra Still has certainly proven himself to be worthy of where he got picked. There have been some down moments for sure, but do you see that as the big problem that we both knew was an issue going into the season? Just overall, your

opinion of those three? Yeah, no, I think, I think, again, you kind of nailed it. And like you said, that was an area that everyone kind of saw as the biggest, you know, the biggest red flag on this defense is how can that secondary hold up. And in terms of our grade, Santer still is the only one with an above-average grade. The rest of them are below 55. St. Juice is the next highest at 51. So Latimore and Santer still are going to be the highest-rated ones. and that matches.

I think what they've done with Sanders still has been really impressive. You know, they drafted him to be a slot corner, and then they put him outside, and he's been really damn good there. I think that's kind of been one of the brightest spots of this rookie class, obviously, after Jayden. But his ability to kind of go outside and match up one-on-one out there has been really, really good,

and they still ask him to play a lot of man coverage, and he's been able to perform very well there. So I don't know what you do, you know, year. If you move him back to the slot, I think this year you keep them outside. Whenever Latimore comes back, he obviously takes the other one. And I think Igbenogany, while it hasn't been

great, I think he's done enough to kind of still stay in the slot there. But yeah, I think Santer still has been very, very impressive. Has Chin had a good season? Because I think there have been some games where it's been really pleasant

to watch them. And in other games, not so much, but I actually think their safety situation in general is pretty solid. What do you guys think? Yeah, no, I think I think the safety was, as a pleasant surprise. Like I said, we talked to all the secondary being an issue, but I think in terms of safety playing, it's been pretty good. Like you said, with Jeremy Chen, I think one of the biggest things was early on in the season, just some mistackles. He had four mistackles in the first two games, and then since then he's only had four total mistackles. That's the biggest thing for his game right now.

You like him in the box more, right? Yeah, he's really good in the box. You don't really want him to play as a deep safety. That's kind of more what you want Juan Martin to do, but there will be some times where he's going to have to play as one of those two high safeties. And I think he's done just enough there. But yet, really, his biggest thing is kind of playing in the box

and making tackles. And like I said, it started off not so great, but recently only four missed tackles in 10 games. is very, very impressive. So they called up Carl Davis on Sunday and Phil Mathis was a healthy scratch

and to me in listening to Quinn afterwards to explain it and you talked about competition during practice and all these different things to me this is like the next one that's going to fall. We already had Jamon. We already had

Forbes. When you get a healthy scratch and he didn't play well last week. I mean, you can tell me if he did or didn't. But I actually thought there were moments early in the season and maybe in the middle part of the season for Phil Mathis. I think there are some other issues there. I think he's not necessarily in shape, in the kind of shape they want. But, you know, do you agree? Like, Sheldon Day, Carl Davis, like, that's it for Phil Mathis? Yeah, it's been rough. He's our lowest-graded interior defensive line.

Really? Yeah, and it really isn't close. The interior of the defensive line has been a bit of a letdown overall, but his play is right now we have a 32.3 overall. Wow. Hasn't been great. He's getting in the backfield. Pass rush-wise.

He's been okay. Pass-rush-wise, yeah, that's a much better one, 55.17, still a little bit below average, but the run defense at 29.0. has been a problem. Usually when you're kind of looking at that low of grade, you're looking at guys getting moved out of their gap too often, playing in the wrong gap, stuff like that. So that's kind of been the biggest issue for that interior line.

And that's why Bobby Wagner's great, Bobby Wagner's great because he's kind of making up for some of that stuff. And yet, it hasn't been great, like you said, once you kind of see that healthy scratch, I think we all kind of know what is eventually coming. How has one of my favorites over the years, just because of his talent more than anything else, because I think he's a physical freak. And look, the year that he was in a contract year, he had the best year of his career.

But how's Duran played this year overall from a PFF perspective? It's been a little bit down. He's had games where it's graded really well. And he was one of the highest grade of defenders last week. but he's also had some pretty poor games. So this year we have got him with a 59.5 overall, which is just a little bit below average. The biggest thing with him and his grades,

it isn't block destruction, and he's beating blocks, it's finishing plays. He's got, in 2022, he had 12 miss tackles, 2023, 11 mistackles, and 224-8 mistackles. So that's kind of the biggest thing right now with Duran Payne is he's getting into the back, though he's just got a finish place, and that's why you don't see some of these kind of

massive grades from him. And that's really the biggest thing. The pass rushing had been fine. It's been, you know, obviously you don't see as many sacks as you would like, but we've got him with 28 total pressures right now. In that kind of career year, he had 12 sacks, but with 49 pressures. So he's getting a little bit close to that. So really, right now, it's kind of the run defense and then finishing plays with a tackle.

Do you see the promise in Johnny Newton that they do? I did on the college tape. I was a huge, huge fan of him coming out. I think what he was able to do at Illinois, where they like him up, was really, really impressive. I haven't seen it as much this time again. He's shown flashes and as a rookie, you know, you're going to be a little bit slower with what you want to see. Chicago game, he was fantastic, 89.2, but he's also had some games where he's grading in the 30s. So right now it's not 100% there, but there's been some flashes.

so I kind of like what I see, and I would like to see more of it, essentially, especially in the past rushing department. Who's been the biggest surprise performer for you through 13 games, and who's been the biggest disappointment through 13 games? Well, start with the biggest disappointment. I would have to put that on St. Juice. I think, you know, we kind of knew what we were going to expect from St. Juice, and I don't think he's ever really was supposed to be the number one corner,

and especially in a defense that's going to ask you to play a lot of man coverage. He was going to struggle, but there's just been times that he's really, really struggling. And it's been a huge, obviously a huge problem for this defense that you can't play man covers the way they want to. And that's kind of been a huge issue. I would say one of the biggest surprises is Sandersville, if we're talking defense. I've already kind of touched on that, but he's been really, really good.

Another one is Tyler Biotish. I think coming over from Dallas, you know, your kind of first year, you got a new quarterback, new offensive line that he's playing with. You know, a lot of times with offensive linemen, their grades and performance start to get better as they get more reps with the people next to them. Because it's just very important to kind of have that kind of communication understanding of what the guy next to he was going to do. but he's kind of stepped in right away and has played really, really well. He's been one of our highest-graded centers on the year. So he has definitely kind of pleasantly surprised me. Is there a player over the final four games and perhaps a playoff game

that you think has the ability and the potential to have like a surprising performance or run of performances that you're kind of just waiting on to see, you know, kind of come to PFF fruition on the positive. side? Yeah, I think Luke McCaffer's one. Anyone that's been following me on Twitter knows that I've been kind of pumping this for weeks now, so at this point it might

never come. But he has been a guy, like I kind of mentioned earlier, that when he's kind of guarded man to man he's against man coverage, he is consistently separating. And there's just been things that have happened either there's pressure that gets home to Jaden and he can't get to that, or he's a second or third option in the concept and the first one's open.

Stuff like that. that has just kind of not gone his way. But I think he's due. I keep saying this, and again, I don't know if it's ever going to happen, but I think he is eventually due when, like you said, we're going to kind of look up and see, whoa, 100 yards from Luke McAfrey, where that comes from. But, you know, we're grading and we're tracking separation on every single route,

and he's consistently one of the, he's got one of the best separation percentages in the NFL. So it's coming. I think it is. And hopefully I don't look like an idiot. Who is the best separating wide receiver in the NFL? Is it Jefferson? Jefferson's definitely up there. I got to look at it again.

But a surprising one was Chris Olive before he kind of went down. Yeah, I'd have to look at it again. But your typical guys are going to be up there, the Justin Jefferson, the, you know, the Jamar Chases and all those sort of guys. But there's definitely some surprises there that you don't really, sort of expect a lot of time. I've actually got it pulled up now. Like Don Tavian Wicks at Green Bay. He's one of them. Rashad Bateman, Malik neighbors, Mike Evans. So you've got your mix of some guys you don't really expect as much. And there's also obviously some of the top

guys there. Yeah. Neighbors. You know, we saw that in week two. Yeah. You know, not necessarily the best defenders. Is Terry one of the elite contested catch guys in the NFL? Yeah, hands down. I think he's one of the best. We've seen that for years now, and that's mostly because he's had bad quarterback play, and it had to be contested. It's never made sense to me with Terry on how he's such a great contested catch guy, because the way he catches the ball is so unconvention. I agree. He doesn't really ever catch you with his hand. No. He's a chest catcher. He's a chest catcher. He's more of like a forearm catcher. He kind of like pinned it with his forms. It's a very, you know, he's a very, you know. unique thing. And usually you see guys like that and they're going to have drop problems. But Terry's never had drop problems. And so it's fascinating that it works as well as it does, especially in some of those contested cats. But it also kind of makes sense that if you're not

kind of exposing your hands as much, it's harder for them to kind of bat that ball away. And he's kind of shielding it with his body more. But yeah, he's always been one of the best contested catch guys in the NFL that's continued this year, even with the unique catching style. He's not an elite separator, though, right? No, he's not. He's got, he's an elite deep separator, if that makes sense, because he's got that speed that can just straight up, just straight line speed that can beat you. He's never going to be the shifty guy that's going to win on those quick in-breaking rounds. Like the slant that he called for a touchdown this past week, there was no separation on that play. None.

But he still missed his catch because he's a great contested catch guy. So that's where Terry's going to win. That's where he's always won and will continue to come out to win. Great job. I always enjoy this with you. Nick Ackridge, everybody, at PFF underscore Nick Ackridge. Let's talk soon. Yep, thanks, man. Up next, Tim Murray will jump on with me.

We'll talk about last night's unveiling of the college football rankings and preview a bit the upcoming conference championship games this weekend. We'll get to that right after these words from a few of our sponsors. Euro step around that hot take and make a play. today with Robin Hood. With a 3% boost on your annual IRA contributions with Robin Hood gold, your money starts working for you. That's an easy assist without the flagrant fouls. Official brokerage in Jersey patch partner of the Washington Wizards. Investing involves risk. 3% match requires gold for one year from first match must keep IRA for five years.

Robin Hood Financial LLC, member SIPC. For more information, go to robin hood.com slash retirement. Gold membership is offered by Robin Hood Gold LLC. If you're interested in betting on sports, I recommend MyBooky. Go to MyBooky.orgie. Use my promo code, Kevin, D.C., and MyBooky will double your first deposit. That's right, a 100% cash bonus on your initial deposit when you use my promo code, Kevin D.C. at MyBooky.org. AG. They've got everything you need for championship weekend in college football, everything you need for week 13 in the NFL. The college lines, they're all up. Oregon, by the way, is the favorite to win the championship at plus 350, followed by Texas at plus 420. Ohio State at plus 450, even after they're lost to Michigan. Georgia is plus 480. Those are the four favorites to win the national.

championship. Then there's a drop-off to Notre Dame at plus 9-10. But they've got everything you need for football betting, for the basketball, in-season championship cup tournament that's going on, all of your hockey betting. Go to mybooky.orgie.org. Use my promo code, Kevin D.C. They'll take good care of you. All right. Joining me right now is a good friend, Tim Murray. Tim is the host of Wieson's College Football Tailgate Show, which you can see on Masson, Saturdays from 10 a.m. to 1 p.m. Eastern. He is the host of the Vizen College Football Betting podcast. It's been in Vegas now for several years. He calls Vegas home. And he's with me right now on the day after we got the next to last college football rankings show without it being real. We'll get the real. We'll get the real. one on Sunday morning. Before we get to that, what did you make of Ohio State losing to Michigan for the fourth straight year? I thought it was hilarious. I mean, you think about Ryan Day, this tough guy, and I was there at the Notre Dame Ohio State game when he tried to cut his

promo, calling out Lou Holtz and saying that they're not tough enough. Well, guess what, Kevin, they're not tough enough because they got bullied by a six and five football team. They were 19-20-point favorites. They lose the game. They have a $20 million roster. And oh, by the way, people have not been mentioning this enough. Michigan's already had a bad year. Their two best pro prospects did not play in the game.

Colston Loveland in the tight end and Will Johnson the corner didn't play. And they didn't lost the game. Johnson's was hurt, right? Yeah, they're both hurt. Yeah, okay. They're both hurt. The way you said it, it was almost like they decided not to play the game. No, no.

Yeah, they're both hurt. They're legitimately hurt and they hit play. And, you know, we've talked about it, and you kind of disagreed with me. I've not been a big Will Howard fan. I was surprised at that. That's who they decided to, you know, kind of hits their wagon to. And the irony of Saturday was that the guy, guy that kind of was the scapegoat for this Ohio State football team a year ago, Kyle McCord,

he goes out and he balls and they beat Miami, Syracuse does, and he's the leading pastor in the country right now at Syracuse. So it's kind of ironic the way that Saturday played out, but I found it comical because let's be honest, I think many of us may or may not have had some Indiana or an under in that game, which I did. And he goes out. knee formation and instead tries to jamming into the end zone, not once but twice. So a little karmic justice there. Ohio State's still going to make the playoffs. And they honestly, Kevin, they still could win the damn thing.

I mean, it's wide open this year. But I find it, I found it hilarious that in a year where Michigan is down, they're almost a three touchdown favorite. They go out and lay that turd in the punch bowl at home in the game that all Ohio State fans can talk about. It was hysterical. By the way, you're right. I liked Will Howard.

I thought he was going to be a major upgrade over Kyle McCord, in part because of his mobility. But McCord's had an incredible year at Syracuse. I was not on Syracuse Saturday. I was hoping to see, it's funny because I think I said on the air to Denton, watch Miami will be like a six-point favorite, five-point favorite. They will lose to Syracuse. But then, as you know, they were a big favorite. So I just figured they'd win and they were up 21-0, you know, terrible loss for them. And McCord's been awesome for Syracuse.

I mean, they're nine and three for people that don't know. So real quickly, before we get to the rankings, you know, you're a college football guy. I love this sport. I actually had Bobby Carpenter on the radio show today. And I would urge people to listen to that. If you're into the whole college football discussion, especially the Ryan Day, Ohio State conversation. Bobby Carpenter played at Ohio State, played for the Cowboys in the NFL.

He hosts a radio show in Columbus, which, I mean, can you imagine what that was like this week? And he kind of talked about that. But I asked him a question, and I'll ask you, how many games in the upcoming, how far does Ryan Day need to go to avoid getting fired? I think he has to go to the championship game. And I don't know if that's fair or not. And I'm curious what Bobby Carpenter said. But I think, and I do, you know, one of the episodes I do every week is with a Ohio State fan.

And I, to be honest, Kevin, up until this game, I'm like, all right, relax Ohio State fans. Like, you guys have this coach, you have a loaded roster. yes, he was a bit born on third base, but let's, you know, let's pump the brakes a little bit. That loss is just inexcusable. And I don't know what they do next, but I think in order, I think realistically, if they make it to the semifinal, he's safe, but I wouldn't be surprised if they need him to get to the championship game. But if they were to lose in the first round to Tennessee, you know, I think he's definitely gone.

I really do. I think he's on the way out. I don't know who would be the first call. Obviously, Ohio State would have their pick of many coaches out there. But, yeah, I think they've got to make a little bit of a run for him to be safe. This is the crazy thing about sports. Ryan Day is 66 and 10 at Ohio State. He's got five total losses in the Big 10, four of them to Michigan.

He's 46 or 45 and 1 in his other big. 10 games. He's a really good coach. No one would disagree with that. But when you are in that rivalry on either side and you lose four in a row and especially the way they lost on Saturday, you're in big trouble because there's just too much pressure. I think it'd be great if that athletic department said, yeah, to hell with all of you crazies. This guy can coach. No, we're going to, we can't do much better. And oh, by the way, do you know how costly it would be for us to try to do better? With that said, Bobby Carpenter's answer was, you know, if they really laid a stinker of a playoff game at home in the shoe to say Tennessee or Georgia or somebody like that and got

beat 35 to 10, that might, you know, be that might be it. But he felt like if they played well and won a game or, you know, or two that he'd probably be back. We'll see. All right. The big news out of the rankings show last night was Alabama jumping Miami. Did you expect it, A, B, do you think that Alabama should be in front of Miami? I expected it, and we can get into a scenario that I don't think enough people are talking about

and people are calling me crazy that could unfold this weekend. That would bounce Alabama out. Yeah, Clemson beating SMU. Yeah, it's pretty simple, but people think I'm not in bringing it up. Yeah, but we'll discuss that in a moment. Do I think they deserve to be in? To be honest, I'm not trying to give a wishy-washy answer, but like I think South Carolina deserves to be in.

You know, maybe that's a hot take, and I know they lost to Alabama. and they got blown out by Old Miss, but like Alabama, people aren't giving them enough crap for losing by three touchdowns to Oklahoma. Oklahoma stinks, and they lost by three touchdowns, and the committee knocked Miami for losing at Syracuse, and then everybody in the SEC, Kevin wants to bring up, well, what would the point spread be on a neutral field? Okay, well, let's use the point spread. Oklahoma was a 14-point underdog and one by three touchdowns. Syracuse was an 11-point underdog and one by four over Miami. Miami dropped six spots, and Alabama, I believe, dropped five spots for losing it to Oklahoma.

Now, on the flip side, it's, you know, your guy, SVP uses this all the time. How good is your good? And the best of Alabama is as good as anything we've seen in the country. They beat Georgia. a very, very good win. They dismantled LSU on the road. But let's not pretend like Alabama didn't lose to a pair of six and 16. They lost the Vanderbilt as a 24-point favorite. They ended up six and six. I know they got into the top 25 at one point in time. And they got their ass kicked by Oklahoma. So I don't know if there was an easy answer to who should be in,

who should be out because Miami lost to Georgia Tech and lost to Syracuse and doesn't really have a great win on its ledger. They beat Florida early on in the year. They beat Louisville, but they've been a team flirting with disaster. And when you go up to Syracuse as a double-digit favorite and you blow a three-touchdown lead, I'm not really going to feel all that sorry for you, especially because you haven't played SMU and you haven't played Clemson. And I think that's what kind of boils down to when it comes to Miami. I thought it was interesting in the inconsistencies of the committee kind of reared its head where it was, I don't see why Miami dropped just below Alabama.

If they were going to drop below the FDC, drop them below Old Miss South Carolina, too. So I think that was the one where I'm like, really, it's kind of ironically throw them at 12 as opposed to not putting them behind the three lost South Carolina team that just be Clemson that also has some really nice wins on their ledger. It has a six-game winning streak. You didn't put them behind Ole Miss who's got a very nice win over Georgia. So I thought it was very convenient that they were like, yeah, we'll just put them at number 12.

And that's where they dropped to. You know, in talking about South Carolina, couldn't you make the case that really Ole Miss out of the three would have the best case? they're the ones that went into Columbia and smoked South Carolina. You know, their loss to Florida was with Florida back healthy the week after they got absolutely annihilated by Texas. You know, when they had all those players out in Florida, by the way, finished the season very impressively.

You know, beating LSU will miss and then obviously they beat the back. You can't lose the Kentucky, Kevin. You can't lose the Kentucky. At that point, though, when they lost it, Kentucky. Remember, Kentucky, was it the week before had almost beaten Georgia, and their defense was playing at a high level? The week before they, yeah, they, hold on, I'm trying to do that map in my head. Two weeks prior, they had beaten Georgia. Lost to Georgia. They lost to Georgia. 13 to 12 and had a chance to win that game, legit chance to win that game.

They were a better team when they beat Ole Miss than they were at the end of the year. That's my only point. All of these teams have themselves the blame. And they had many opportunities. Ole Miss is in if they just beat Florida on the road. They didn't beat Florida on the road. Alabama has no issues getting in, and they got their ass kicked by a mediocre football team in Oklahoma. We both were on Oklahoma.

Let's just make sure that everybody understands how much we need. knew Oklahoma would play that game closely. Yeah. Let me come on now. I mean, we've been doing this long enough to know that. But Oklahoma all season long was an excellent defensive team. It was what the quarterback did against Bama that was shocking. And Bama was able to do nothing.

So, you know, we're at the point two now where, you know, we do this and we've done this for years with the NCAA tournament where I'd much rather have these discussions than we do at the top 14th. Look, I have been, since the moment this bracket came out, I've been all in on it, is it going to be a little funky that Clemson, who just lost the South Carolina could get a buy, or Arizona State and Iowa State could get a buy, or Boise State could be the three-seed? Yeah, it is, but I just think this is, I think this is great for the sport that I love and cover so much. And, you know, at the end of the day, I'd rather be having these conversations than, you know,

who should be the fourth seed or, you know, however, that's going to play out. So, you know, Alabama, Ole Miss, South Carolina, Miami, you all had opportunities in the end of the season to solidify yourself. I guess South Carolina didn't. They won their last six games. But Ole Miss, Alabama and Miami, Kevin, all could be in if they just took care of business as a double-digit favorite in the past two or three weeks. Yeah.

What needs to happen in the ACC championship game to knock Alabama out? Because it sounds to me like you understand or believe that Alabama is not a lock to be in this playoff. Oh, they're far from a lock. And I know people want to continue to remind me of what the current odds are at Draft Kings and Sandal. for Alabama to make the playoff. Folks, those numbers are wrong.

Like, Alabama shouldn't be a minus 370 favorite to make the college football playoff because SMU is only, you know, SMU is a two and a, only a two and a half point favorite. So what I'm trying to get to is that Clemson very well could win this game, very easily could win this game. There is a two and a half point underdog

on a neutral field. And I am under the belief. and this is what I was alluding to, that SMU with a single-digit loss, one through nine, maybe even 10-point loss, I think they're in because of the buffer that is out there between number eight to number 11. And, you know, you can bring up last year. Last year is a different case. Alabama played on championship weekend.

they beat the then number one team in the country, Georgia, to earn their spot into the college football playoff and eliminate Florida State, who, as we remember, had lost their quarterback, Jordan Travis, to a leg injury for the year. Alabama's not playing. Indiana is not playing. Tennessee's not playing. Ohio State's not playing.

None of these teams are playing this weekend. SMU is. And I don't know how you can knock a team four spots, Kevin, for losing a game against a ranked team that the team there in theory

going up against Alabama is not playing a football game. So in theory, the data points, and I think you know, Manuel brought this up on his call with Reese Davis where he kind of looked like a buffoon. That guy's not a good communicator.

My God. No, it was that. And it tends to be bad. And they tie themselves in these knots. And it's actually been interesting a lot of people on social media are like, FMU should just say like, oh, we got COVID, we can't play the game. And then they're in, you know? It's kind of ironic that they concluded the season.

And now because they earned a bit in the ACC championship game, now they are, in theory, kind of teetering whether or not they'll get in. Now, all this could be moot. If SMU goes out and beats Clemson, if SMU beats Clemson, Alabama's in, SMU gets the three seed, and it's all neat and tidy. If SMU loses by, let's say, a touchdown,

I don't see how you knock them out and allow Alabama to get in over SMU when Alabama didn't do anything over the weekend. Alabama's 11th. SMU is eight currently, and you're going to potentially knock SMU for playing another football. of football game against the top 25 team in Clemson on a neutral field.

Oh, by the way, we're going to call it neutral, but let's be real. That's going to be 75%, 80% Clemson fans in that stadium, a stadium where that program is won seven championships at Bank of America Stadium. So, look, I think if you're to make a little fun bet, I think Bama to miss the playoff is an interesting bet. If you believe Clemson can beat them, which I tend to do, I think, Bama to miss the playoff at plus 270s, kind of an interesting angle to look at, because I think SMU would still get in.

And I thought Brett McMurphy, who is, you know, one of the many college football insiders out there, he was on my show on D.C. And he was pretty adamant that if SMU loses close, there is. And he said, I'm paraphrasing, Kevin, but he essentially said there's no way in hell for a second straight year, a undefeated ACC team is going to get knocked out of the playoffs. That's what happened last year, and that's what in theory would happen here.

And I know everybody's going to tell me, Kevin, it's a TV show, and Alabama Notre Dame is far more sexy than, and then, you know, SMU Notre Dame. I understand that. But at the end of the day, I think the committee is going to try to say, they only lost two games,

they won 11, and Alabama lost three games. So I believe if Clemson wins, that Alabama's out. So Alabama fans, get your pony express shirt because your SMU fans this weekend. Yeah, for sure they're SMU fans. But if Clemson starts to look like they are the better team, I think at that point they become Big Clemson blow SMU the blank out. Make it look like their first legit game against a,

a legitimate team because SMU has not played a schedule this year, that they're not in that league. Because if Clemson were to win the game 38 to 10, 38 to 7, then Alabama is in and SMU's out. But I'm with you. If Clemson wins a close game, I'd say if anything under 70, anything that's competitive, which in college football could mean 38 to 28 or 41 to 28. You know, if they're in the game and they've got a chance, they stay even if Clemson wins and BAM is out. I'm with you on that. So I want to ask you if you agree with the following. I think there are two flaws that we are working with, and I think some of these were anticipated with this new playoff system. Number one is that your conference championship game actually can hurt you. Now, those that don't recognize, why SMU would want to play in this game, it would be for a buy, people. If they win,

they're going to be probably a top three seed in this thing. And they don't have to play against, you know, a Tennessee or a Georgia or somebody like that to get to the quarterfinals. So there is benefit in these championship games of playing to get the buy. But I think overall, the biggest issue that I have is, and by the way, I totally agree with you, this is enhanced college football in the regular season and this upcoming weekend. I think you have to use the current criteria for determining the 12 teams, but once you have the 12 teams, you seed them 1 to 12th. I agree.

Yeah, and I don't mean to jump in there, the only issue I've always had is the auto bids. But I'll say this. The auto bids makes Arizona State, Iowa State, worth watching, right? Under normal circumstances, we wouldn't even really care about the Big 12 championship outside of it being a football game. This go-round, one of those teams is getting in on Friday night. UNLV-Boise State on the Smurfker is for a birth to the college football playoff because UNLV is the second-highest rank group of five teams.

So to your initial point, which I completely agree with, which is, So many games mean more. And these morons that were out there telling us of the devaluing of the regular season, you're a complete and utter buffoon. Because these games have been so much more important as the year has gone on. A game like Kansas, BYU on a Saturday night,

that's massive importance to all this. So that's my little diatribe to the side. But I do not like the auto bids, or if you're going to auto bid, maybe don't have the top four teams, All right, full disclosure, I'm a Notre Dame fan. I don't need them to get a buy. All right, ladies and gentlemen, it's not to get Notre Dame a top four seed.

I just think we don't, I'm good with Arizona State, Iowa State winner getting in. I'm good with Boise State, UNLV winter getting in. But the likelihood of us seeing a top four seeds of Oregon, Texas, SMU, and Boise State is real. And that's kind of odd. Yeah, and I think it actually ends up hurting. You know, in Oregon or a Texas, who was going to have a much more difficult quarterfinal game potentially than they should, I would keep the current structure for determining the 12 teams, the four conference champions, the highest ranked non-power four, and the rest of them at large is.

But once you have the field determined, then you seed them one through seven based on strength. so that you get a competitive layout of the bracket. That would be what I would suggest. So let's talk about what, you know, based on where it is right now, and it'll look different on Sunday morning, more likely than not. But those four first-round games that were projected last night, I mean, Alabama, Notre Dame, obviously in South Bend, becomes that Friday night primetime game, right?

Either that or Saturday night. Saturday. Ohio State, Tennessee will be one prime time in Alabama, Notre Dame, the other. ESPN gets two of these games, and it's TNT, right, that gets the other two. Yeah, so from my understanding, it's going to be ESPN Cruz, but TNT essentially bought those games for noon and four o'clock on Saturday at the 21st. But ESPN, to your point, will have the Friday night prime time, and the Saturday night prime time. and the Saturday night prime time, because remember, there's two NFL games on the 21st, and they're pretty good ones.

It's Houston, Kansas City, and Pittsburgh, Baltimore, 1 o'clock, and 430. So that is going to be a phenomenal day of football. And, yeah, Notre Dame, Alabama, and Ohio State, Tennessee. It seems likely that we're going to get Ohio State Tennessee. It seems like that's going to happen. I don't think there's a ton that can alter that. I guess if Texas and Oregon lose, then you might drop down a little bit. So that is a possibility there.

But I think Notre Dame is hosting a playoff game, and that's going to be phenomenal. It seems like Ohio State's got a pretty decent shot hosting a playoff game. Georgia, very well could host a playoff game. So, you know, I want to give you credit because you've been talking about this. think for as long as I've known you of the possibility of campus sites hosting playoff games and it's happening. And I wish it was honestly more games. But the fact that the third week of December in the elements of weather, which we don't

get all that often, you know, in college football, we have this and we've got southern teams headed to the north. I think there's just, it's really making up to be just picture perfect. Yeah. Yeah, for those that didn't see it, the projected first round sites are Happy Valley, Penn State, Columbus, South Bend, and Athens. And, you know, Arizona State, Penn State, Tennessee, Ohio State, Alabama at Notre Dame and Indiana at Georgia. You know, things will change. You're right.

I think the Tennessee, Ohio State is probably locked in. And here's something that Bobby Carpenter mentioned to me this morning. He said, you know, the doubleheader in the NFL includes the Steelers at Ravens in Penn States, likely not going to have a prime time game. And it could go head to head with the Steelers. And those are crossover, major crossover fan bases. So imagine, you know, what the dilemma that some of those people will have. All right.

Thanks for doing this. We'll talk to you soon. Like it's in later on tonight. All right. I'll talk to you. Tim Murray, everybody. buddy. We're done for the day back tomorrow with Tommy.