The Pat McAfee Show - PMS 2.0 269 - OVERREACTION MONDAY, Week 5 NFL Recap, Chase Claypool, Dan Orlovsky, Field Yates, & AJ Hawk
Episode Date: October 12, 2020On today's show, Pat and the boys run through everything that happened in week 5 of the NFL including Dak Prescott's gruesome injury, whether or not the Chiefs are dead, Phil Rivers rough day against ...Cleveland, and everything else around the NFL. Joining the program is 12 year NFL veteran at QB and co-host of NFL Live on ESPN, friend of the show, Dan Orlovsky. Pat and Dan chat about everything going on in the NFL this week including the Chiefs, Matt Ryan in Atlanta, Russell Wilson with another great performance, and everything else (14:57-26:59). Also joining the show, is rookie WR for the Pittsburgh Steelers, former Notre Dame great, and a man coming off 4 TD's on Sunday, Chase Claypool joins the show. Pat, AJ Hawk, and Chase discuss what the start of his season has been like, how much different the NFL is than college, what playing with next to no fans is like, and what it's like playing with Ben Roethlisberger (28:17-43:43). Later, ESPN NFL Insider Field Yates joins the program to chat about the Dak Prescott situation, the NFL moving games around, Dewey Haskins and Sam Darnold being traded, and much more (45:17-1:09:33). To close out the show is another segment of McAfee & Hawk Sports Talk where Pat and AJ recap week 5 in the NFL and briefly look ahead to tonight's Monday Night Football Game (1:09:35-1:26:24). Make sure you subscribe to youtube.com/thepatmcafeeshow as we have reached 1 million subscribers and are giving away $100,000, and listen every day on Mad Dog Radio, Sirius XM Channel 82. We appreciate you all for listening, come and laugh with us, cheers. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
Transcript
Discussion (0)
Hello, it is Monday, October 12th, 2020.
Overreaction Monday is coming to you in beautiful fashion.
There's a lot of things to talk about in the NFL world,
and we have Dan Orlovsky, Field Yates,
and the Notre Dame rookie, fresh out of Canada,
they call him Mapletron, Chase Claypool.
After scoring four touchdowns yesterday
for the Pittsburgh Steelers he'll be
joining us today for conversation today our show is brought to you by the good people at Thursday
Boot Company a bootstrap startup that makes the best handcrafted boots and sells them direct to
consumer at some of the lowest markups in the history of the footwear industry Thursday Boots
tagline is highest quality, honest prices.
Because they use some of the best materials like full grain leather.
Ever heard of it?
Supple glove leather lining.
Wow.
And gold standard Goodyear welt construction. Just like the legacy brands that charge $400 plus for similar styles.
But Thursday Boot Company sells their boots at prices starting at just $149.
With free shipping and free return.
Wow.
One of the reasons Thursday Boots has over 20,000 five-star reviews.
Yes, 20,000 five-star.
Oh, just choked there over it because I can't believe it.
20,000 five-star reviews from real customers is that they're just so damn comfortable. They're made with a cork bed midsole that forms to your feet and gets better with each wear wow gotta love
that cork bed midsole that forms to your feet and gets better with each wear when you first put them
on you're like damn these are very comfortable and look good just wait it's only going to get
better with thursday boots handcrafted with the highest quality materials to be comfortable, versatile, and durable,
Thursday boots are perfect for people who understand quality
and don't want to pay a high retail markup for a great-looking pair of boots that are built to last.
With prices starting at just $149 in free shipping and returns,
Thursday boots are the best buy this season.
And with their clean, timeless design and durability,
Thursday boots will keep you standing confident for years to come.
Head on over to ThursdayBoots.com and try a pair today with free shipping and free returns.
If for any reason you don't love the size or the fit, Thursday Boots has you covered.
So go to ThursdayBoots.com, that's T-H-U-R-S-D-A-Y, boots.com, and get a pair of high-quality boots you'll be wearing for years.
Oh, and use their survey after checkout to let them know that we sent you there.
Sounds good.
Shout-out to Thursday Boots.
Shout-out to you for listening to the show.
If you like this show, please be a friend, tell a friend.
If you don't like this show, just act like it never happened.
Let's get to it.
Yesterday was a massive day in the NFL.
We lost a quarterback, a franchise quarterback,
a man who didn't get a long-term deal to secure his family's long-term wealth.
He got franchise tagged instead.
Had one of the most gruesome injuries we've seen in some time on the field.
That man I'm referring to is Dak Prescott.
Dak Prescott, Dallas Cowboys franchise tagged quarterback.
Broke his ankle, dislocated his ankle in one of the most
gruesome injuries we've seen in a long time then got carted off the field in one of the most
touching scenes I have ever seen on a football field the entire Giants team was waving at him
and saluting him his entire Cowboys team came over and said what's up and as he was rolling
off the field his fist up triumph as the entire stadium that was filled, I think, with 25,000 people basically chanting his name, rolling off the field.
And he couldn't help but wonder,
is that the last time we will see Dak Prescott in a Dallas Cowboys jersey
in Jerry World?
And is that how this whole thing, this saga,
ends between Dak and the Dallas Cowboys?
That's TBD.
But what we do know is that he's already out of the hospital
after having emergency surgery last night on his ankle.
There was a photo posted by his brother
right before he went into surgery
where he was smiling in high spirits,
feeling good going into the surgery.
There were some people on the television
that questioned why he was smiling.
Those people just need to shut the fuck up
and relax, okay?
The guy's about to go into a career-changing, a life-altering surgery.
They said it went successfully, it went smoothly.
He's out of the hospital, and everybody's saying it's four to six months recovery time.
Connor Barwin, former basketball player for the University of Cincinnati
and football player for the University of Cincinnati
and of the Houston Texans and the Eagles, and I think somewhere else.
He tweeted, hey, had the same exact injury happen to his foot
where his ankle was going in an opposite direction of his leg.
I'm not sure if he had the bone go through his skin,
but he said you'll be back better than ever.
Connor Barwin was always a very explosive edge rusher.
If he says you'll be back better than ever,
we have to assume that Dak will be back better than ever.
And that leads to the question of this will the Dallas Cowboys who now have the red rifle at quarterback at Andy Dalton
will they be the team that steps up and pays Dak Prescott long term after this franchise tag
expires at the end of the year or will they franchise tag him again to the tune of I think like 37 million dollars
guaranteed next year or will they let him test free agency what team you know hopefully uh COVID-19
will be done doing what it does uh by the time next offseason comes so people can work him out
it's like what is the future of Jack Prescott right now nobody knows all we all know is that
for the next six months he's going to have an incredibly difficult rehab that is no fun at all. You always hear about the numbers like, oh, he'll be back in
six months. He'll be better than ever. But the process of doing that is a nightmare. I think
we got a chance to see a little bit of an inside scoop on how difficult rehab is for an injury that
was maybe a little bit harsher, I guess, with Alex Smith. After he had like 17 surgeries, he almost died.
His shin is now a hamstring and he got back.
But the inside look at what rehab is.
Reteaching your body how to walk every single day going through pain.
Knowing that your body, if you don't put in the work, will never be what it once was.
And just yesterday, we saw Alex Smith get back on an NFL field.
It made no sense to me when he walked out there.
Absolutely no sense at all.
He comes jogging on the field because Kyle Allen takes a head-to-head shot
from Jalen Ramsey while trying to pick up a first down.
He goes out there.
We know that Dwayne Haskins is potentially now on the trading block.
They want to get rid of him out of the Washington football team.
He is not in the future plans for Ron Rivera and that squad over there.
Nobody knows why.
There are stories lingering that behind the scenes he's not as great of a leader as they would hope.
Maybe he just doesn't fit the playing style that Ron Rivera and the new Washington football team have going forward.
Whatever the case, Dwayne Haskins was not the backup quarterback.
He was third string.
So Alex Smith comes on the field.
Rainy day against the Los Angeles Rams.
Taking on Aaron Donald, one of the most fierce defensive linemen
in the history of the game,
and within his first two plays of being on the field,
after his family gives a standing ovation
and claps for him,
Aaron Donald,
the man who we've seen shirtless,
flexing,
the man we've seen pick up other humans
and dump them on their head,
gives him a piggyback ride,
and Alex Smith on this leg that he can't run normally
but is obviously rehabbed
to the nines here,
carries him for three steps, and
then he goes down. And I would assume
that much like his family, the entire
world that was watching at the moment
had a moment where their heart dropped,
their stomach got a little bit full, they
might have even puked, they were very worried.
Every single step Alex Smith took on that field was worrisome for everybody watching.
He got up after that.
He moved around the pocket.
He ran a couple times.
He connected on some passes.
They lost ultimately, but now they have the New York Giants.
Is Alex Smith back being a starting quarterback?
And what can we compare from Alex Smith to Dak Prescott?
Is that although it looks terrible right now for Dak and business-wise,
it hasn't been figured out for him long-term. It is a story of redemption that can happen.
Alex Smith proved that with an incredibly gruesome injury. Now it took him some time.
Will Dak be able to do the same? We all hope so. We're all pulling hard for him. Let's hope the
doctors did their jobs and made it all good. There's a lot more to overreact to from yesterday's game. Patrick Mahomes and the Chiefs, are they dead?
Have they been figured out?
That's what a lot of people are going to say today.
I'm not 100% sure that's true, but it did feel as if the Raiders out-Chiefs the Chiefs.
And that is with Henry Ruggs running the deep ball and Patrick Mahomes.
They scored points, but they just couldn't stop the Raiders.
Is this going to be problematic for them going forward?
The Chargers in their, played them tough.
Now the Raiders, in their division, have beat them.
Are the Chiefs on the ropes as this dynasty is just starting to begin,
as this dynasty is just starting to really gather some steam?
Are they in trouble in their own division?
Let's remember the last dynasty, a dynasty that's still going.
Now their game has been moved like 15 times.
The Patriots, they had trouble in their division as well on plenty of occasion it's the dynasty that's still going and now their game has been moved like 15 times the patriots
they had trouble in their division as well on plenty of occasion because the teams in their
division are directly drafting just to beat them think about that what the dolphins have done to
the patriots for a long time that is a game at boston connor if i'm not mistaken every single
year that the patriots had to play in miami was something that when the whole world was like
miami stinks patriots fans were like nope they always give us trouble, right? Every single year, no matter what in Miami,
I think Brady's lost there four or five times. And the Buffalo Bills also in their division have
given them trouble. And that's because in the division there, you are drafting strictly to
beat the top dog. This goes all the way back to the beginning of football. Basically, you're trying
to be the top dog in your division so you can get into the playoffs because once you get in a dance,
hey, anything is possible.
Think about when, down the Houston Texans, who got a massive win under Romeo Cornell,
which we all kind of knew was going to happen.
That was the lock of the century.
If you're a player and you get your coach, GM, lead counsel, and play caller fucking fired,
you have to put your best foot forward or the whole world is going to dump on you.
We all knew the Texans were going to be able to do that.
But back in the day, Charlie Casserly was the general manager of the Texans.
He drafted Mario Williams over Reggie Bush
strictly because he wanted to sack Peyton Manning.
He gets fired for that decision, but that was a perfect tale of
that's what every division does.
So although the Chiefs lost to the Raiders yesterday
and everybody wants to declare maybe the Chiefs are beatable and all that shit,
know that the division is always going to be tough
because they only get their eye on one thing,
and that's beating Patrick Mahomes.
There's a lot of other stuff that happened.
Is Phillip Rivers done being a quarterback?
Is Phillip Rivers absolutely dead?
Maybe.
Is Drew Brees dead tonight?
Maybe.
I mean, that's what overreaction Mondays are for.
We'll be joined by Dan Orlovsky here in a few moments.
We'll be joined by Field Yates.
And in the third hour hour having four tutters yesterday
he goes by the name of maple tron chase claypool of the pittsburgh steelers will be joining us
today cannot wait to chat with him about that ass beating they give to the eagles that could
have been more by the way they kind of let them in at the end they have to figure that out but
that was also an easy call that steelers are going to win especially after a guarantee or
a forced bye week a week before that. We'll talk about all
that and to you, 1-888-
MADDOG6.
We are here on channel
82, Sirius XM, Mad Dog Sports Radio.
It's great to be here. Adam Schein just had a great
show. Chris Mad Dog Russo on the other side
of this will be fantastic. And as always,
this is home to JT
the Brick. Well, one of his homes. He also
shows elsewhere. JT the Brick. one of his homes he also shows elsewhere JT the Brick
can't thank you all enough for joining us
at Tone Diggs is here you got to feel good about
the Pittsburgh Steelers and Chase Claypool and
Ben Roethlisberger getting along very very
well yeah them being up what was it 31-14
or whatever them letting back the Eagles back in the game
is just something that they do every single
game which is frustrating as a fan but
ended up covering in the end Chase Claypool
could have went to a lot of other places that need wide receivers and stuff like
that but hey steelers are the best wide receiver drafting football team probably of all time haven't
had a first rounder at wide receiver in a long long time he took antonio brown in like the ninth
round or whatever he becomes the guy and then once out of town uh heinz ward same situation
antoine randall same situation he was a quarterback uh
Plexico Burris Michigan he was a first rounder I believe him and Santonio I believe were first
rounders way back in the day though but now is the time where hey we just kind of it it seems
like a carousel wide receivers out there in Pittsburgh yeah and like because like Deontay
Johnson was the young stud last year who had a great rookie season and he was hurt yesterday he
was out but now it's kind of like it's nice because juju moves back in the slot you could have claypool
and johnson on the outside washington comes in and does his thing it's a nice little uh
nice little core wide receivers that ben's got over yeah the steelers look damn good
they're in the afc are they up there in the hunt of who's the favorite in the afc because
the chiefs took a stumble nobody could have expected it this early but i guess the chiefs still got a lot to figure out every team does but when you look at the chiefs took a stumble. Nobody could have expected it this early.
But I guess the Chiefs still got a lot to figure out.
Every team does.
But when you look at the Chiefs, the Ravens, you look at the Patriots are still going to be able to play football.
And the Buffalo Bills still playing great football.
And the Pittsburgh Steelers, the AFC, are going to be problematic.
What's going to happen in the NFC?
Nobody knows.
At Boston Corner, the Patriots game was moved to today or tomorrow then next week and
this and that the patriots and cam newton stefan gilmore's positive covid tests seem to be a little
bit of a problem for the nfl but they're figuring it all out yeah they did the right thing i mean
you got to push the game back if gilmore and cam newton can't go i mean what's the point of even
playing you know so i think that everything that they did was the right thing to do well bill said
uh well tom curran friend of the show who's the nbc sports network uh representative for the patriots in boston he actually said that this will not be
a unilateral decision by the nfl anymore if they just think we're going to be able to play without
practicing and all that stuff i guess the patriots are at the point where they're like
you're not just going to fucking force us to go out there okay we haven't practiced it we don't
have a quarterback we don't have our best defense and you're just by the way we had to travel day of the game last time which by the way was their
fault not chief's fault so the nfl is probably telling them that's on you but it feels like a
lot of the teams are at the point now where they're like we haven't been able to practice
for a week and a half and now you're gonna put us out on the field do you know how dangerous that is
i would assume that's going to be the angle they take but there's a lot of games moving
but seeing the chiefs go down if you're a patriots fan you got to be like hey everybody's got a shot at this yeah well us and the Chargers I mean we showed the Raiders how to
beat them and luckily you know they did uh but also you got to move the games for the past just
because you need the whole team out there you need Cam they don't care about competitive fairness
the NFL said and I would think that you said the Raiders and you guys showed or the Chargers showed
the Raiders how to do it against the Chiefs or whatever.
I think the Raiders-Patriots are a very different game if that Ruggs kid is playing.
Because the way that Raiders team played yesterday, they were taking away the checkdowns, a la what the Patriots are doing.
And they just opened that thing up.
And Derek Carr was connecting on the long ball.
He looked like a guy, like a dude yesterday. He was playing.
And it's crazy what happens whenever you get a weapon.
Josh Allen got digs and that happened.
You know what I mean?
At Ty Schmidt, Green Bay Packers still undefeated.
Had nothing go wrong this weekend.
That has to be a happy feeling.
No, yeah, it's great.
I mean, a little earlier than I would have liked the bye week,
but as we've seen, I don't think that really means shit anyway.
But, you know.
Well, I mean.
They're all getting moved around.
That's what I mean.
You know what I mean?
So it doesn't really matter.
But, yeah, they're doing what they have to do.
No one's getting sick.
No one's breaking protocols.
Rodgers looks great still.
It was a nice, relaxing Sunday.
It was a nice, relaxing Sunday when you don't have to worry about your team losing.
The Colts, Jesus Christ.
Happy Velozito is here with his poll.
We'll get to that on the other side of Dan Orlovsky.
Joining us right now from a car, he is being ushered around in a Rolls Royce
because he is ESPN loyalty.
Ladies and gentlemen, Dan Orlovsky.
What's up, buddy?
Look at you living your best life, just getting ushered around from one TV set to another
wearing glasses that are massive.
How's your Monday going, brother?
It's awesome.
The weather stinks, but other than that, it's great, bud.
Let's talk about football yesterday and i can't thank
you enough for joining us i know you're a very busy man on monday he literally goes
get up first take over to nfl live for his show he does everything wow we appreciate your
super tv guy let's talk about the colts team that i started to talk about there before we
transition into this conversation philip rivers is beloved by the teams that he played for fans
when he came to the indianapolis colts from Chargers, Chargers fans were like, you're lucky.
You're getting a great one.
We can never protect him properly.
We're so thankful he's still playing.
Good luck out there.
We love this guy.
In the first game against the Jacksonville Jaguars, he went out there.
He threw an interception.
He jogged right back out on the field and tried to do it again and again and again and again.
Just classic gunslinger. And in his press conference, whenever he left the chargers he was like i might throw
some picks but i'll get out there and i'm still going yesterday against the browns he was not
scared to throw that ball into a defensive meeting room one bit and that is it's either alarming or
awesome what are your thoughts on that well it's alarming for the colts i mean it's holding them
back they're they should be a top four team in the conference,
top three team in the conference.
And the way they're built, you know, Pat, it's play great defense.
I think they're one of the best defenses in football.
I think they showed that yesterday.
Run the football, which they're doing better than they did to start this year,
and then just value the ball.
Like, at the quarterback, Phillip, you don't need to be a gunslinger.
You don't need to have the mentality of, I'm just going to go out there and throw it value the ball. Like at the quarterback, Philip, you don't need to be a gunslinger. You don't need to have the mentality of,
I'm just going to go out there
and throw it around the lot.
Like it needs to be the opposite.
Value the football.
Don't give it to the other team.
Play a boring style of ball right now
because that's the only way
that they're going to lose games is,
you know, if the defense is put on the field
too much or whatnot.
Especially like he's got two games this year
when he's thrown interceptions twice on his side of the field and so um you know i think that
just taking a treetop view you got to ask yourself if you're frank right like
listen jacoby persett threw i think eight games last year at three interceptions
and i know that sounds simplified but if jacoby's going to value the football
he should be the one playing, not Phillip right now.
So you said he threw a couple picks in his own end.
That doesn't even count for the safety that he took yesterday, which is a pick.
It's even worse than a pick, by the way.
It's giving them points and giving them the ball back.
I mean, it's just those decisions.
Yeah, I think we need to go and qualify safeties as that bad's a place.
You know, sometimes they just happen, Pat.
I've never got one.
I feel like I took a lot of snaps in the nfl i
never got one because of you know and and sometimes you can get lost out there i guess a little bit
especially whenever there's a rancher coming after you you know hog tie guy a cow tie guy coming
after you yeah if you're not comfortable with those settings you never know you just kind of
react and sometimes it doesn't work out all right anyway safety another By the way, if safety was just described as another interception,
I think that's better for you and for Phillip Rivers, by the way.
That's a valid point.
I think Phillip's hurting that team right now.
Anyone who watches the game's got to be willing to say that.
And you weren't the only one that told me that, by the way.
I got a lot of text messages yesterday as this game was unfolding from former teammates of mine that were like, what the hell's got to be willing to say that. And you weren't the only one that told me that, by the way. I got a lot of text messages yesterday as this game was unfolding
from former teammates of mine that were like,
what the hell's going on?
I thought this guy was supposed to be a guy.
They paid him $25 million, and they allegedly selected him over Tom Brady.
Now, was Tom Brady trying to do a business move by saying the Colts are interested
and going to end it up at Tampa anyways?
They definitely took him over Nick Foles, though, right?
Could have gotten Nick Foles.
They definitely took him over an opportunity to get Cam Newton.
Everybody knew Cam Newton was on him.
So this is a big-time decision that Chris Ballard made to invest in Phillip Rivers.
We've seen some great.
We've seen some terrible.
I don't know.
I don't know how.
I don't know.
Like, have you seen that much great?
Like, I haven't seen great, you know, this year.
He's mic'd up.
He is great.
He's mic'd up.
The thing he's doing.
Turn the corner on you.
You know what I mean?
Fair enough.
There's that type of thing.
Are the Chiefs dead because of what the Raiders did
and what the Chargers have done?
Is this dynasty over before it even starts?
Have people figured out the Kansas City Chiefs, Dan Orlovsky?
No, no, no, no, no.
Slow down.
Pump the brakes.
I think, like, they haven't looked great this year outside of the Baltimore game,
which is fair.
You know, I think their offensive line got beat up a little bit,
and O'Semaly going out hurt them.
I just think, like, this was more about the Raiders for me than anything yesterday, Pat.
Like, I think Derek Carr sat there last week and said, you know,
I'm sick and tired of losing.
I think the third down, the first third down of the game,
they take a deep shot downfield.
And it was like a sign, like, we're just going to throw the ball downfield a bunch today and so you know the chiefs flirted with you know kind of playing
aggressively on defense a bunch early on in this season and uh they didn't get burned by it and
they got burnt by it yesterday so you know it was a little bit of a eye-opener that the raiders were
just so aggressive downfield but like i think this man i think the chiefs you could say have become drunk with um
watching patrick holmes do the inexplainable you know patrick makes these just ridiculous throws
and the chiefs are like ah patrick abale is out you know he'll make another crazy throw or
something and i think they've kind of become infatuated with that and they're really bad
right now offensively on first down because i don't think they're disciplined right now and um you know yesterday they averaged two yards on first down their third
downs were third and ten that was the average yesterday eventually that's going to get caught
up you're going to get caught up in that and so they'll be fine they're still the best team in
football sometimes losses like this make you reshape your mind as you know so i don't have
huge concerns about the chiefs i i've made
some drunk investments in my life never to 503 million dollars worth like the chiefs have but
it does feel like they're gonna go as patrick mahomes goes hopefully they'll be able to figure
that out last night mr unlimited had a tough first half i flip over to the nba championship
where bron bron's winning his fourth i come back it. It's 14-13. Here we go. Now with under two minutes left, they go for it. The Minnesota Vikings go for
it on a fourth and an inch basically to seal the game, to win the game. Here we go. Instead of
kicking the field goal to put themselves up eight, they ultimately get a stop. Russell Wilson does
what Russell Wilson does, comes back down the field and gets the win. What did you see out of
Mr. Unlimited last night? Because there was a lot of conversation in the first half amongst the group text that I
may or may not have been a part of saying the fact that they're saying he's better than Aaron
Rogers is fucking out of control what did you see from uh the Seattle Seahawks in Russell Wilson
last night and that fourth quarter drive was awesome to watch him kind of piece together
all right so let's let's go to the first first. First of all, they only had three drives in the first half.
The expectation has to be off that.
Minnesota owned the football. Second of all,
Minnesota had a very clear plan defensively.
They were going to try to beat Russell's offensive
line more than beat Russell.
They played coverage and forced
the ball to the middle of the field, and the pass
rush won a little bit.
I didn't make that big a deal over the first half then all second second half comes out in that like to your point that lead
goes away away real quickly in the fourth and one conversation i actually thought the vikings made
the mistake when they went up by five or when that when they went up by four on the drive before
of kicking the extra point like what's the point of going up by five
in that moment you should kick go for two six to go up for six or go up by six so then if you kick
a field goal you get up by nine it was 100 the right call on fourth down to go for it i agree
like if i'm playing russell wilson and i'm up by seven or up by eight it's the same thing i know
the end result he's gonna get the ball he's I know the end result. He's going to get the ball. He's going to go score a touchdown,
and then he's going to get the two-point conversion.
So I did not mind the fourth down call.
I actually just thought it was a bad run.
The hole is there.
It's just a bad run.
The running back just closes his eyes and runs forward.
So, you know, Russell on that.
Here's the thing, dude.
It was really fascinating.
The fourth down throw to Metcalf, like the deep ball heave,
that was the
sixth deep ball that they threw at dancer number 27 and it was just like they were just gonna
continue to take shots at him it was a great adjustment by dk um i just think him and russell
have become that combo in fourth quarters that no one wants to see so russell's amazing um really
great performance he's certainly in the conversation of the MVP with Josh Allen and Aaron.
Yeah, yeah.
No, no, we agree.
Yeah, yeah, yeah.
Josh Allen, for sure.
You know, Josh Allen has that Sue Bird type gene, too.
Yeah, he really does.
Whenever he needs it, he'll come through and just bury somebody.
Just can go get his own bucket when he needs to.
Bring vision as a passer.
Make his own plays.
Much like you said about Russell Wilson last night
because he was wearing that jersey backwards while he walked into the stadium.
You said that.
Those jerseys are hideous.
Whoa.
Well, they're bad, but I think you saying on Get Up this morning
that since he wore the backwards Sue Bird jersey into the stadium,
you knew that when he got the ball back under two minutes,
he was going to go down the field because that's what Sue Bird would do. It's like I think Russell Wilson, although he's paying tribute to Sue Bird jersey into the stadium, you knew that when he got the ball back under two minutes, he was going to go down the field because that's what Sue Bird would do.
It's like, I think Russell Wilson,
although he's paying tribute to Sue Bird, would be like,
yeah, what about just Russell Wilson doing that?
Like, you know, that's where I kind of was like.
You don't think wearing one of the best point guards ever's jersey to a game
has impact on a player on the field?
Come on, Dan.
This guy.
Dan, I can't.
Dan, I don't know what car you're in,
but you need to get a better headspace. What do you got going on?
Hey, Danny, looking good.
Question about the Raiders and the Chiefs. What's the
difference between Derek Carr last year and this
year? Is it rugs? Is it the run game?
Or is it just kind of another year being in Gruden's
system? Yeah, it's probably a lot
of it. First of all, rugs.
When rugs on the field, they average like eight yards of play you know he's just he's their speed difference maker not only
just literal aspect of throwing the ball but how coaches plan like when he's on the field
you know how are we going to put one safety to him are we going to put two safeties to him so
that's a huge part of it i think waller has taken a huge jump and developed like what people don't
talk about with the raiders is their pieces are
very specific to what you
ask them to do. Again, Ruggs is
flat out juiced downfield.
Waller is a passing
nightmare when it comes to how you match
up with them.
Aguilar's become a pretty good possession player.
Renfro's really, really good
when it comes to working the slot.
Josh Jacobs has become a dual threat impactful back. They've got, really good when it comes to working the slot. Josh Jacobs has become a dual-threat, impactful back.
So, like, they got some really good pieces.
And I think that, like, Derek Carr finally has a little bit of, like,
a willingness to throw the ball downfield.
But I think it's all those pieces kind of being very specific
with what they're asked to do.
Dan, we can't thank you enough for being hospitable with Connor there.
I know you guys had a little bit of a beef.
Great answer.
You only have a couple minutes left.
Ty has a question for you, though.
Dan, considering what's going on in Atlanta with, like,
the new head coach coming in or the interim coach,
do you think that's going to light a fire under Matt Ryan's ass,
or do you think he's kind of over the hill?
Is he done?
He stinks, huh?
I don't think he's done at all as a player.
I just think he's sick and tired of playing for that team
and that organization.
Like, I mean, how many wins do they have this or how many losses do they have this
year when they score like 30 plus points true he's just got to be super frustrated with stuff so
that's a really good job you know if you think about really young offensive line and uh ridley
and julio and matt ryan and some pieces on the defense i think matt ryan's just sick and tired
of what's going on there you think you think Ryan survives this with new GM, new head coach?
Yeah, Pat, I think it depends on where the pick is, right?
Right now, they look to be a top-five pick.
If they have a top-five pick, no,
because that's how they're going to be Justin Fields or Trey Lance.
But if they somehow win a couple games
and they got the 12th pick of the draft or something like that,
I think Matt Ryan survives it, yeah.
All right.
Can't thank you enough, Dan.
Your brain is awesome, dude.
It really is.
We appreciate you, man.
You're the best, bud.
Thanks, dude.
You are too.
Ladies and gentlemen.
Yeah, Dano!
That a boy, Dano.
Trey Lance.
I completely forgot about him.
He plays for North Dakota.
They had that one game.
He didn't play that game.
Did not look great in his showcase game.
But it's tough to have one game.
It's a showcase game.
He'll probably have combine meetings, workouts, everything like that.
But maybe he's the next Carson Wentz.
Ooh.
You know what I mean?
Do you want to be the next Carson Wentz, though?
I don't know, dude.
He looked pretty good yesterday.
He did.
I was checking out his Steelers defense, too.
Very, very good defense. They came back on him almost. You know was checking out his Steelers defense, too. Very, very good defense.
They came back on him almost.
You know what I mean?
Steelers, everybody knew.
I mean, that was an easy cover.
Oh, yeah.
The issue with me is I'm picking too many, you know,
because I need to just stick with the ones that I know.
Houston Texans, I knew.
Rock.
Stone cold.
Very, very heavy on them.
Didn't even watch the game really until about halftime.
Let me check in see
what's going on appreciate you guys doing what i thought you were going to do you cannot run a
coach general manager lead counsel and play caller out of the building okay and everybody knows that
the players did this and then go shit the bed the next week because your life is going to be
very uncomfortable for a long time so i i figured they were going to come out and play well
and jj watt tweeted, finally fun or whatever.
Hashtag H-Time.
Yeah.
A little typo.
I didn't know what that meant.
H-Time?
I thought he meant town.
It's the H-Time, baby, and you know what it is.
Joining us is a man who scored four totters just yesterday.
Has one of the greatest nicknames in the history of the NFL already.
Mapletron comes by way of Notre Dame.
Ladies and gentlemen, wide receiver for the Pittsburgh Steelers,
number 11, Chase Claypool.
Yeah!
That a boy, Chase. What's going on, bud?
How we doing, guys? Not as good as you, dude. What's going on, bud? How we doing, guys?
Not as good as you, dude.
Let's talk about this real quick.
Number 11, awesome, awesome number.
7-11 always open, you and Ben Roethlisberger.
At what point did you know that you and Ben were going to be this tandem
that was just a beautiful thing to watch?
You got Steelers fans super excited.
Juju can go back into the slot role
we got a guy that can take the top off a defense and loves making plays at what point did you know
you and Ben were going to be a good connection I honestly thought that as soon as I got drafted
but as a young brook you can't really go ahead and say that until you start producing on the
field so I had to wait for my time, and finally it came.
So I was thinking that the whole time.
Jeez, I love that.
Hey, when was the first time you actually got to interact with Ben in person?
That must have been in June.
We had some PRPs going on, and that's the first time I met him,
first time I got to throw with him.
And as soon as I was able to catch one of his passes, I knew right away
it was going to be a good year
PRP
player
player
player ran practice
player ran practice
player ran practice
okay we feel pretty good you're much smarter
than us you went to Notre Dame obviously you go to
Canada I mean that whole thing I believe
today is Canadian Thanksgiving so happy Canadian Thanksgiving to you, sir.
Thank you, thank you, thank you.
How does it feel to represent Canada, though, in the NFL in a big fashion?
Now, I know that Canada has always had players that have been in the NFL,
but the name Mapletron, obviously Canada.
For you to have four touchdowns in a game in your first season,
I mean, Canada has to be on
your shoulders at this moment how big does it know how big is it to know that an entire country is
potentially on your back in this world of the football yeah it's huge it's a it's a big part
of my motivation for sure you know I see all the love after every game uh that people show me so
you know it drives me forward and it allows me to have the success that I have but uh
you know I'm happy I can represent the way that I have so far, for sure.
Hey, what's Mike Tomlin like?
Pat and I were speaking earlier in the show.
Like when they talk about the big-time coaches in the NFL,
Tomlin for some reason doesn't get the pub he deserves.
Like what's he like now that you've been in there for a little bit
and you've got to be around him?
Yeah, I think the best thing about Coach T is that he tries to develop us off the field.
He doesn't just look at us as football players.
He cares about what we do off the field
almost as much as what we do on the field.
So I appreciate him for that.
Have you been treated like a rookie by anybody in there?
Or is it New Year, can't really do that, it's 2020,
we don't have much time to kind of mess around
with maybe the rookie
uh you got to earn your stripes type thing no no i uh as soon as i walked in the building uh
ebron was giving me a uh give me a tough time he his nickname for me was a broke-ass rook so
he said that to me every time he saw me uh for the whole train camp. And then, obviously, I had a rookie dinner,
which hurt the bank account a little bit.
How much?
How much?
It was north of $10,000.
Woo!
Keep catching the ball, brother.
Keep catching the ball, Chase.
Yeah.
What do you got, AJ?
Yeah, so what's it like with Ben Roethlisberger?
He's been doing it in the league forever.
This is a comeback year on multiple fronts for Ben, coming off an injury.
I'm just wondering how you have such a good rapport with him so early on.
Yeah, I think he, this year especially,
he's really specific in what he wants from his receivers.
And after any play that he didn't feel right about,
he'll go ahead and tell
you hey you gotta um release this way you have to break out of your uh route this way this is
where i'm gonna put the ball so i think that really helps um kind of knowing what to expect
on each big drive like in the middle of a drive will he come up and tell you how he wants to route
run like in between plays um right out either right after a player
right before a play so if he calls a play in the huddle he'll be like all right if you have this
coverage this is how i want you to run it if it's this coverage i might not even be going to you so
you should run it this way to free someone else up so he's always thinking and it's it's crazy to
think um that someone's been around for that long and they know you know they know what to what's
going to happen before it happens i think the interesting thing about you the amount of success you've had is how young you are
because football iq only grows and grows especially at wide receiver where you have to get crafty out
there against dbs that are incredible so the thought that he's already telling you like hey
on this coverage you're doing this and this means he's got a lot of trust in you who are some guys
that you looked up to because you're this fast fast, go-and-get-it wide receiver,
but you also run great routes.
I mean, who are some wide receivers that you've looked up to
coming through Notre Dame, and now that you're in the league,
you watch film of potentially?
Yeah, so obviously I watch Julio Jones.
I watch Megatron for sure.
And then I like to watch smaller receivers who are a little shiftier
because I figured if I was a bigger receiver who could move like those guys i would only help so i watched like keenan allen uh michael
thomas and then like adam deal and stuff like that don't fight your teammates jace patches talked
about you being young but like the whole wide receiver room is young like deontay and james
are only 24 juju's been this is his fourth season's only 23. Like, who's the leader in the wide receiver room?
And, like, who do you guys go to maybe for some advice?
I think Juju's definitely the most vocal guy in the room.
He's very, very goofy, which helps lighten things up.
You know, he's never too serious,
which I think is good for a young group like us.
But the thing I kept telling the receivers is we're so deep.
So everyone has a voice, and, you know, everyone trusts everyone pretty closely.
So I think that's a big part of our success.
Are your gloves okay?
I saw the ball was stuck there.
Yeah, yeah.
It was a tough little moment for me, but I got the gloves back there getting stitched up.
Yeah, smart.
I would hang on to those four touchdowns no big deal uh the off week that you were forced into there
because of the tennessee titans how did you guys treat that in practice where was it still as if
you were playing the titans all the way up until then or did you turn your focus to the eagles or
did you turn that on working on the steelers getting better there for like the day and a
half two days that you had knowing you weren't going to play?
Yeah, so until we found out if we were playing or not, we were preparing to play the Titans.
And then as soon as we found out, we actually found out heading onto the field.
So our practice was technically structured to play like the Tennessee scout defense.
So we just went on with that practice and we practiced one more time, just stuff and then we waited the next week to actually prepare for eagles but that week was
definitely big um for us but now we got 13 straight so it's gonna be it's gonna be tough
for sure now you rook ass rook you can't worry about that one game at a time so i'm what is it
like after games now like obviously you're a rookie so it's
your first time experiencing like post-game nfl but you have plenty of post games at notre dame
you know you get to see your family hang out go out have some fun now what do you do after a game
bro four touchdowns too can't do anything oh man go home play video games it was it was actually
kind of sad because i mean't follow through the game,
but I couldn't really do anything.
I couldn't really show them a good time.
We did go out to dinner, but that's not what you want to do
when you just score four touchdowns.
You want to black out.
By the way, Pittsburgh is a good city to do that in.
I think you would not be alone in that case,
especially if they saw you out and about at that particular time.
But are there certain rules that you're allowed to do?
You said you went and got dinner or whatever,
but I would assume as a rookie they're potentially talking to you more,
maybe less than everybody else about how,
especially with you guys seeing what happened with the Tennessee Titans,
if there's any little outbreak of COVID,
it's potentially detrimental to your entire season.
How has that been?
Like what are the rules whenever you get out of practice, when you get out of the game,
everything like that? Yeah, no doubt. We have to keep our social gatherings very limited. And
it's pretty strict on who we can and cannot see. So it is a tough adjustment because you want
people to be able to come to the game. You want people to visit you, but you have to ask yourself,
want people to be able to come to the game you want people to visit you but you have to ask yourself is it worth the risk um so you know i haven't seen too many people this year uh this
past game was the first uh friend i saw all year which was it was nice to see a friendly face but
it is also a little risky uh bringing people in so you just gotta be careful what's the biggest
difference between college football and the nfl i watch a lot of college football now because because I get a chance to do college game day every weekend and I obviously have to
know what I'm talking about but whenever you talk about college defenses you're talking about
elementary defenses and they have to be because everybody runs so fast but I would assume in a
lot of games I didn't watch all your games you had to be the fastest biggest toughest guy on the
field for everybody now that you're in the NFL what is is there been any there it doesn't seem
like you've slowed down at all.
What is the biggest difference in your eyes between college football and the NFL?
Yeah, honestly, I think the biggest difference is throughout the week,
how NFL teams prepare.
I think it is a lot more professional in terms of making sure you're ready to play the game at 100%.
I remember in college, like, I'd be killing myself in practice.
And then come game time, you know, I'm sore, which should never happen.
But I think that's how it is for most college programs.
And then it's a complete 180 when you get to the NFL.
When it – come game time, you're 110%.
You're feeling good.
And that's just based off the week preparation.
What was training camp like i know pittsburgh mike tomlin is known to run a tough camp usually
a very physical camp i don't know if covet changed that but how was i guess compared to what you
thought it would be uh camp was definitely um it wasn't it wasn't too much of a challenge in my
opinion but i think you could you could tell that people were keeping a close eye on you for sure.
Every rep mattered.
And since it was such a short camp,
everything you did translated directly into what would happen in the season.
So if you played well in camp, you'd probably be playing in the season.
And if you had a bad camp, you're probably not playing.
So it was a lot on the line
every practice for sure hey you're a physical specimen huh you're just you always have been
just a freak yeah yeah i mean yeah uh i've been i've been blessed with good genetics for sure
well camp was nothing for me man i mean maybe others might be tired or whatever but it wasn't
shit to me what up nick chase i know you got a basketball background but as a canadian i have to ask you are you a hockey guy yeah i actually grew up playing
hockey um yeah i was i was a goalie until my knees started hurting at a young age that's not for me
anymore but uh i grew up playing hockey i was a big hockey fan uh family canucks and then um i guess i got too tall
and and i just moved on to other things but um yeah i grew up playing hockey yeah you went on
to a relevant sport that was a smart move the uh in in pittsburgh though penguins are going to
treat you very nicely that city first first class operation obviously and i'm kind of bummed you
haven't got to experience pittsburgh at all really right because you've been locked down you haven't even got a chance to experience the city
whenever you see that stadium and it's empty and they had what 7 500 people in there or whatever
you haven't even really got to experience pittsburgh yet and i think that is what i'm
most excited for you is that place is going to go bonkers for chase claypool i think it's nuts
because we just had fans for the first time this season. There was only 5,000 fans, and I was getting some insane adrenaline.
So I can only imagine 65,000, 70,000 people watching you and cheering you on.
So Pittsburgh is a great city, great sports town,
and I'm hyped to get this thing started.
Hey, man, what do you got there?
Chase, have you talked to Coach Tomlin and Coach Smith,
who does the special teams?
Like, hey, how many touchdowns do I have to score
to maybe stop covering kicks and punts?
No, no, keep doing that.
Yeah, I was actually trying to be in the Pro Bowl
for special teams.
There we go.
I haven't had a conversation
in a while, but in the
game, if I do come off a long
drive, Coach Smith will show some love
and he'll take me out for a play.
Need you out there. You know what i mean like for all special teams across nfl we need a guy
scoring four touchdowns then playing gunner on the dug like that is what we need out there chase i
mean granted not smart at all you could get hurt doing something that anybody else on the team
could potentially do and all that stuff but boy, boy, for the special teams unit, we need you out there, Chase.
Yeah, it's good for the brand, no doubt.
Bingo!
My guy!
Let's go.
Yeah, Chase, there were 10 wide receivers taken before you.
Is that something you think about and does it motivate you at all?
Yeah, it was definitely a deep class this year.
And seeing those guys' names get called before you,
me knowing what I was capable of,
you know, it's not frustrating because you know no matter where you get picked,
you're going to make an impact and you're going to do well.
So it's only a matter of time before these other teams who pass up on you start shaking their head.
And I'm just happy I was able to do it sooner than later.
Have you all?
Yeah, I'm sorry, AJ.
Go ahead.
No, I got my last thing.
I just want to ask about Notre Dame quickly and Brian Kelly.
A lot of people from the outside that watch Brian Kelly,
we get to see him get pretty upset at referees.
His face may get a little bit red.
The guy seems to be pretty fiery.
I'm curious what it was like playing for him
and I guess how much you pay attention to them still.
You think they got a shot this year?
Yeah, I think Notre Dame is a really good team put together.
Coach Kelly's a great coach.
I had a great relationship with him.
So I have nothing but great things to say about him.
You know, the things are coming together fully but surely.
I think as soon as we hit Clemson, we're going to be ready for that challenge.
So I'm excited for that.
Well, you better be because that team is –
they're like nine deep at every position right now at this particular point.
And Dabo doesn't look like he's slowing down at all.
Let's talk about you off the field.
What are some of your hobbies?
You a gamer?
You a collector?
You chill?
You work?
What do you do off the field?
Yeah, no, I'm a gamer.
So when I come back, especially in this season, when I come back from the facility, I'm probably gaming.
So I got to set up a Twitch.
I've got to follow Juju's footsteps there.
But I would say that's my main hobby.
What do you play?
What game?
Call of Duty is my main game.
Oh, you're a sniper, a killer, huh?
Chase, we can't thank you enough for joining us, man.
Continued success in the rookie season.
You're going to hit a rookie wall at some point i think aj and i can tell you that week's about 9 to 14 potentially
just know that there is a light at the end of the tunnel especially in this incredibly long
season you're about to have i'll keep that in mind i appreciate you hey you're the man keep
ladies and gentlemen chase
so sorry to interrupt i just want to let you know that life is all about
convenience and right now cut water spirits help bring real alcohol drinks with you into the real
world with their award-winning canned cocktails these are not all these weird seltzers you see
everywhere right now where you don't know if you're drinking rubbing alcohol or not oh no no no
these are actual vodka sodas actual gin and tonics actual long island iced teas actual
tequila drinks actual bloody marys we're talking about actual alcohol drinks without having to go
to the bar probably because you can't or see your favorite mixologist probably because you can't
at your house in the convenience of a can that you can get at a store near you yeah well said
i mean they really are delicious drinks and right now um if you try a cut water spirit
award-winning canned cocktail we think you'll feel the same exact way the boys feel in this office
says damn that convenience in a can is making me feel good this evening if you go to drizzly.com
and use promo code cut water clutch you'll get five dollars off your first. That's D-R-I-Z-L-Y.com
and use promo code CUTWATERCLUTCH.
C-U-T-W-A-T-E-R-C-L-U-T-C-H.
No space in between.
You'll get $5 off your first order.
That's not found in California, Arizona,
but everybody else it does.
Real convenience, real alcohol.
Grab some CUT some Cutwater today.
Award-winning canned cocktails that you didn't know you needed
until you tried them.
Shout-out to Cutwater.
Shout-out to you.
Shout-out to the show beginning again right now.
Tonight, the Chargers and the Saints play the football,
and tomorrow night, the Bills and Titans play the football in
this COVID season of
2020 NFL. Joining
us now is a man who hopefully knows
everything about the stuff that we need
to know stuff about. Ladies and gentlemen,
a man who is properly manscaped
on a regular occasion from
ESPN NFL Insider,
Field Yates.
Yeah!
Good to be back. I appreciate you guys having me on. From ESPN, NFL insider, Field Yates. Yeah! Field! Hi, boy, Field.
It's good to be back.
I appreciate you guys having me on.
No, it's great to have you, man.
Just don't do any IG stories without ESPN knowing,
because we can't lose you for two weeks like we already did.
The wrap-up haul.
The wrap-up haul.
I will stay in the clear there.
Field, I have a question, and you don't have to answer, obviously,
because you're at a different network.
But when one NFL insider goes down, it feels like it is a great time to be an NFL insider
because now the stories that are potentially going to somebody who's gone for two weeks
could potentially reign over me and I could be the one that breaks it is that an accurate
statement in the insider world or no well one thing I'll say is that when your teammates with
Schefter as you as you well know,
pretty much every story is going to funnel through him as it is.
So I sort of feel like I'm already, he's got pretty much the entire league on lockdown.
So I always feel like I'm in a good position with Adam Schefter on my side.
Well, great answer there.
And without doing anything else, and Schefter very much is that dude in that particular profession.
But losing one person in your job for two weeks
obviously helps you out competitively happy you didn't say it i will say it though field let's
talk about the nfl right now last night there was rumbles and this morning i believe it was made
official dan quinn and dimitrov completely out in atlanta now they raheem morris i believe
raheem morris is now interim head coach they They have a contract with Matt Ryan that owes him $40-some million next year,
maybe another $40 the year after that, and then $20 after that.
They now enter a rebuilding phase with an older quarterback that they owe a lot of money to.
What are you hearing? Is there a plan down there?
Are they going to hire somebody that likes Matt Ryan, or what are they going to do?
Yeah, I suspect that whoever is hired as the Falcons coach
will be someone that believes that Matt Ryan still has a lot of good football left in him
because there are moments as recent as last season that you would have said
Matt Ryan has plenty of good football left in him.
Now, he is in the middle of a nasty streak right now.
I believe it's 31 straight drives that the Atlanta Falcons have gone
without a passing touchdown.
straight drives that the Atlanta Falcons have gone without a passing touchdown. That dates all the way back to week three. 9.43 left in the first quarter was the last time that Matt Ryan threw
a touchdown pass. So they have been brutal offensively since that time, and it's not lack
of talent, right? I mean, they have Calvin Ridley, a first-round pick from a couple of seasons ago.
Although Julio Jones has missed the past six quarters, Julio is certainly a big part of their offense. They traded for Hayden Hurst this offseason. So
my guess is that a coach that is hired by the Falcons, the preference will be to find someone
that can win with Matt Ryan. Because as we know, not only has Matt Ryan played well recently,
the quarterbacks are aging better than I think we've ever seen them age before. Being 33 years old is not necessarily a quarterback who's on the final year or two of his NFL career.
Matt Ryan still has a football lesson.
Who's aging well?
Tom Brady?
Aaron Rodgers?
Yeah, well, I'd say Aaron Rodgers, Tom Brady.
Russell Wilson looks like he's playing the prime football of his career.
He's 30 years old!
In his prime.
He's 30 years old.
You're acting like, because I would say Phillip Rivers,
but what happened yesterday, what happened opening week,
it's like, oh, this guy looks dead out there.
Totally fair.
Totally fair.
But, like, you know, you are at least seeing quarterbacks make it to 35, 36, 37.
It might get a little bit trickier when you get to 40,
where we are with Phillip Rivers and Drew Brees.
But Big Ben Roethlisberger is playing well for the Pittsburgh Steelers
coming off of major elbow surgery.
I just think the teams are sort of wired to believe in the possibility
of a quarterback aging well.
And Matt Ryan, for whatever limitations he's shown over the past few weeks,
for the most part has been a very durable quarterback in his career.
And I also want to remind people that when you are going through the coach hiring process,
typically you're going to look for a coach that not only are you selling that candidate on the job,
but he's also selling you as to why he should be the selected candidate.
And if you're going to go in there and tell Arthur Blank, the owner of this Atlanta Falcons franchise,
who was just a few years ago playing in the Super Bowl, that it's time to endure a full teardown and rebuild.
If he's not prepared to handle that right now, if he's not prepared mentally to go into a full rebuild,
that's going to be a tough sell for a candidate.
They still have Matt Ryan.
Obviously, Julio Jones makes a ton of money and got an extension just a couple of off-seasons ago.
They pay a guy like Dante F fowler three years and 48 million
dollars this off season this is a team that wanted to win as soon as this year and if they are going
to go into a full-on rebuild rebuild that's a huge hard pivot from where they were just two months
ago going into this season yeah completely and all you need though is in those interviews is you need
what two hours of charm and you can become the face of a program i mean you've seen a lot of bad general managers get hired i think it kind of get exposed over time
but who knows is going to take that place over they won't be able to move on matt ryan strictly
business-wise excited to see who gets there now let's talk business-wise dac prescott franchise
tag quarterback for the dallas cowboys and anytime you talk about the franchise tag you see a lot of
guaranteed money 31.5 or whatever it was million this year. And I said, listen, if you haven't been able to work out a full deal instead of sitting out a season, which a lot of people wanted them to do, which by the way, those particular people are probably if there's a career ender or a career-altering injury,
like we could have seen yesterday, now everybody's saying he's on the road
to recovery, he already had surgery, he'll be back in six months.
But if it's not the Dallas Cowboys, are you hearing they're going to invest
in him after this, or is he potentially going to go to the market,
and what team will pay him 30 some million
especially coming off for this injury i business wise i'm not 100 sure if that happens or not
i think it'll be a cowboy and i think probably the franchise tag is the first step in that journey
and i know it's the second tag and that would inflate his 2021 base salary to 37 plus million
dollars which obviously is a ton of money and it's a huge
cap it for a team that already has a bunch of players under contract but the way that you heard
the organization speak about him yesterday after the game suggests to me that they are planning on
a reinvestment in Dak Prescott and the Jones family despite the fact that the deal has not
gotten done up to this point,
has almost always spoken of Dak Prescott as a lifelong cowboy.
He feels like he's a part of their family, at least in their words.
So I think the first step is getting an extension done, excuse me, getting a franchise tag placed on Dak Prescott, which is a placeholder until an extension is done.
The reason why I say that is because, yes, Dak Prescott had leverage this past year with the franchise tag,
but next year he's got even more leverage.
I think he's even better positioned, just from a leverage standpoint,
even with this major injury, that he could command a multi-year extension
because the Cowboys can't afford to have a $37 million cap hit on their books
in a year where, as we know, the NFL,
and we'll see how things shake out for the remaining 12 weeks of the regular season, but the salary cap is going
to be predicated upon how much money the NFL makes during the rest of this already unique
year.
And if the NFL's revenue is not robust, they're going to end up having a potentially flat
cap.
And the less salary cap space available for all NFL teams
might actually be for the better for Dak Prescott.
I know that sounds odd to say, but it limits the Cowboys' ability to keep him on a one-year,
$37 million cap hit that they might be more inclined and motivated to get a multi-year
extension done, understanding they might be conceding something.
And I know that this injury is very scary and daunting, and it's not like there are a bunch
of obvious quarterbacks that have recently dealt with the situation and come out fine on the other
side. But the early indications that I've seen and heard have been that this is an injury that
Dak Prescott can overcome and come back and be the same player he was prior to yesterday's gruesome injury.
And I know this is one of those things that sounds almost anecdotal,
but doesn't it feel like there are a few people you would want to bet against
less than Dak Prescott?
I mean, the guy has seemingly overcome a ton in his life on the field
and off of it and continued to produce at a high level.
I agree completely.
And Connor Barwin had the same surgery, I guess. I don't know if his bones were protruding through his skin but
he came back and said you'll be all right the rehab is going to be terrible for dak prescott
rehab is going to suck completely but watching him come back will be amazing much like it was
for alex smith yesterday watching him come back but whenever you say like if you listen to what
jerry was saying afterwards and the jones family saying after we you and i both know that means jack shit that means that means that means absolutely
nothing so maybe with the cap coming down or whatever they'll be able to work out like a
patrick mahomes deal where it's less money this year this year until we know the money's back
i hope so i just fear that the business side of the nfl an ugly one, and hopefully in Dak's situation, it is not.
Let's move on now, shall we?
The big conversation this morning is Phillip Rivers is dead.
I'm a Colts fan.
Will you tell me what the hell's going on over there?
Are they thinking about Jacoby Brissett at all,
or is this Phil Rivers' time to go?
Yeah, I think this remains Phil Rivers' time.
Come on!
I love him, but come on!
I mean, the Ronnie Harrison pick-six was just one of those plays that you saw it coming a mile away, right? Come on! I love him, but come on! And it's like Ronnie Harrison was in the huddle with the Colts prior to that play. Like, I know exactly where this ball is going to be thrown.
And it's really tough for Phillip Rivers because the Colts have a formula this year that they want to win with, right?
They're going to be really good on defense.
And not having Darius Leonard obviously made a major mark yesterday,
but they still were fine for portions of that game defensively.
And they want to be able to run the football a ton.
That sounds good on paper for a lot of teams, but when you play teams with an excellent offense, and I mean offense is even
better than what we saw from Cleveland yesterday. You think about the Chiefs or maybe the Ravens or
maybe the Steelers with the way that they're playing right now. That formula, you got to be
playing, you have to be basically throwing perfect games on back-to-back-to-back Sundays just to make
it to the Super Bowl this year
coming out of the AFC playoff picture.
So Phillip Rivers will remain the guy for Indianapolis.
They didn't bring him here to give him a short leash.
They paid him $25 million, obviously, as you know.
And Jacoby Brissett, part of the reason why Phillip Rivers was alluring to the Colts
was that Jacoby Brissett last year was simply not good enough after signing that two-year extension just prior to the season.
Quentin Nelson dumped on his leg!
Jeez!
All right, Phil, let's move on, shall we?
Enough hearing about this.
I thought you were going to give me better information there.
I love Phil.
I hope he figures it out.
That guy will throw an interception and not even blink and come out and do it again.
Not even a thought of potentially not doing it, which I love.
Hey, gunslinging. Let's go ahead and do it.
But in this AFC, like you said,
it's going to be very difficult to make to where you want to go.
Hopefully, he'll be able to figure it out.
Before the boys have some questions for you,
I just want to ask you one thing. How long do you think
the NFL feels like they can just reshuffle
games and not add
an extra week? The amount of game changes
is insane. Week 11 to week 6,
week 6 to week 7, week 7 to week 12.
Oh, we got this going on. You're playing this
team now. Boom. Bingo. You're bye weeks
now at this time instead of this time. They're doing
an incredible job of being able to juggle the ball
here, but at some point, when you keep
adding in balls to juggle, the clown drops
something. I feel like the NFL
is going to have to add an extra week or two at some
point. Do you see that happening in the
near future, in the very near future,
or in the soon-to-be future?
Yeah, it's a great way of putting it, those three options there.
Because you're right.
I mean, it feels like we're bound for at least one additional regular season week.
But the answer as to how long it will be will be until the NFL literally has zero options left.
I mean, all of us were scrambling yesterday morning trying to
figure out how the NFL could move things around because it's not just matching up bye weeks and
rearranging bye weeks for teams in the future. It's also that you have to be mindful of, you
don't want teams, for example, going back-to-back-to-back weeks on the road or having a team
on the West Coast playing back-to-back-to-back weeks on the road, or having a team on the West Coast playing back-to-back-to-back
games on the East Coast, or vice versa. There are other considerations besides just making the
bi-weeks align. So I think the NFL will exhaust every option to keep this a 16-game and 17-week
arrangement, but one extra week, two extra weeks feels to me like a pretty reasonable concession to make in the grand scheme to get all 16 games played.
We know the Super Bowl has sort of a sliding scale date to it.
We know it's scheduled for the beginning of February, but sounds like there are options to move it back later in February.
Not like Tampa's got a lot of other events on the books at Raymond James Stadium.
I believe not until May when they have their next public event.
So we're not going to linger that long, but it just makes sense, right?
I mean, while the NFL will tell you that technically playoff seeding
can be determined by winning percentage, it just wouldn't feel right
if you had a team make the playoffs going 10-4 while another team goes,
I don't know, 10-6 and doesn't make the playoffs.
It feels odd to not have all teams play 16 games.
Field, was tonight's Pats-Broncos game moved strictly because of positive tests
out of the Patriots, or was there truth to some reports that the Patriots organization
didn't feel comfortable playing tonight because of health reasons?
Or practice.
Yeah, I was going to say, I think those those two things were sort of tied together right so i think that you know
the patriots went through an interesting experience this past week that trip to kansas city uh getting
moved back a day and uh you know during a time that was a little bit uncertain right i mean it
felt a little bit strange that a team could have uh you test Saturday morning and then still be prepared to
fly on Monday. You're flying the day of the game. You're going to Kansas City to play a game like
four hours after you landed. Certainly an unconventional week for the Patriots. But from
what I understand, these decisions have been motivated by the positive COVID tests that have
popped up. And that has been sort of the dictating force behind whether a game is moved, rescheduled, postponed by a week, delayed by a week. But certainly you
can sense from players around the NFL right now that although they all knew or certainly felt
like they knew what they were signing up for when they decided to not opt out of the season,
that it takes on new life when you're actually in it.
So some of the concerns that players maybe would have felt comfortable with in August
or at the beginning of training camp, feels like some of those bubbling up
or making players have to have some extra conversations with, you know,
not just their loved ones, but their teammates and their coaches.
And this has been a unique year, that's for sure.
And I think the guys and how they feel about the season,
it's sort of an hour-by-hour evaluation.
COVID is a dictator, by the way.
COVID is a dictator.
I mean, it will go down as one of the worst dictators of all time,
shut down the entire world, old COVID did.
The interesting thing about players,
what they might have been okay with back in August, aren't okay with now,
I wonder if one of those is not being able to practice, work out, or do anything for three days and then being asked to play in a game the
next day whenever you could just get your head blown off your shoulders at any given moment I
mean there's a lot of very interesting things like oh these guys aren't allowed to work out
anywhere because there's COVID in their building so you got to run stairs at your house or do a
bench press and then on Sunday by the way you're playing against professional athletes that have
worked out all I mean it is just a is a very interesting time to be alive.
What do you got, Boston College?
Vanderfield, the Browns are 4-1. Is it safe to say that Baker is the guy going forward
and that they'll offer him a contract extension? Or are they going to go to the market as well
and see what's available?
Yeah, I think Baker's the guy through at least next year. And what's going to be interesting
for the Browns, and this applies to all all teams is that starting after this season players drafted in the first round when they have that fifth year option
exercise it's guaranteed fully so if the browns exercise baker mayfield make a maker maple fifth
year option it is fully guaranteed in previous years we had seen teams exercise those options
but it was only guaranteed for injuries you think think about like the RG3 year,
Washington exercised his fifth year option. And then after he had gotten benched, he became the third string quarterback and was like the practice squad safety, basically, or the scout team safety.
They put him in bubble wrap for most practices because they wanted to protect themselves in the
event that he got injured and they owed him whatever it was that fifth year option was worth.
So I think Baker Mayfield has shown enough already and i think the browns feel
good about the overall trajectory there and you know guys it's refreshing uh i don't want to make
the browns uh into something they're not yet which i don't think that they're part of the
very top tier of the afc
but but you know what?
I always wonder, why does it have to be that the Browns are either the Browns of the past 20 years
or ready to dethrone the Chiefs, right?
Can it be somewhere in between?
No, that's fan baseball.
They couldn't drink beer for like 15 weeks two years ago.
Remember, they had all the butt lighters locked up in the city.
I mean, right now at 4-1, if I'm a member of the Dog Pound, rightfully so,
we're better than the Chiefs are.
You saw what the Raiders did to the Chiefs.
Look what we just did to the Colts, number one defense.
If I'm a Dog Pound member, I'm very excited.
But it is interesting to say that you think that they'll stick with Baker
because that offense has become a very big run offense.
They invest in the offensive line. They invest in the running back they've obviously have their system we'll have good
defense Miles Garrett will be a game disruptor we'll run and then we need a quarterback to spread
it I don't know if they're going to be in the business of paying Baker Mayfield instead of
spending that money elsewhere I'll be intrigued to see how that whole thing works out yeah but
I'll be interested to this is like so if the Browns keep up with what's been a really promising
start let's say they finish somewhere nine and seven to eleven and five somewhere in that range which seems like
that that would be a very successful season possible it's going to be really hard to move
off of baker mayfield if you have that kind of run of success i just think that would be the
cut it'd be a hard sell in the locker room and what's the opportunity cost too like who are
we going to go get now if the free agent class winds up being stronger than we anticipate
and guys become available, maybe players are available via trade,
that changes things.
But if you finish 9-7 or better, you're probably picking, what,
17th or later in the draft order.
So it's not like there's going to be a surefire option available.
And at some point, you have to be able to show the players in the
building that you're in the business of drafting, developing, and rewarding players who do everything
they can. And I think that if Baker Mayfield stays on the path that we've seen right now,
hard for me to envision the Browns not sticking with him going into 2021.
Fields, you just mentioned a trade possibly. Last weekend, there were some reports that Dwayne Haskins and Sam Darnold
are both potentially on the trading block.
Do you see any situation where either one of those guys gets moved this year?
I don't think either one gets moved.
And so we can go through each of them individually.
But with Dwayne Haskins, Kyle Allen just got hurt this past week.
Now he's going to probably play in week six.
But Alex Smith is incredible as yesterday was, and yesterday was incredible.
Still, you have to be mindful of his health.
And I just don't think you can possibly not have three quarterbacks on the active roster
given their depth chart right now.
Do I think that Dwayne Haskins is ever going to emerge as the long-term starting quarterback
in Washington?
I don't at this point.
But I think for one, for at least this year,
you have to pad your depth at that position enough to keep him.
Field, before you get to Darnold,
what is it about Dwayne Haskins that Ron Rivera doesn't like?
He put a C on his chest, so that made me assume
that everything off the field was good.
Playing-wise, you've got a very bad team.
I don't know what expectations are of it.
What is it? Is it the play?
Why did they put the C on him if it's something off the field with Dwayne Haskins?
That's a good question because I think the play has not been great, obviously.
He hasn't been lighting the world on fire.
But he also hasn't been the worst starting quarterback in the NFL, statistically at least.
And so I think one of the things that happens in our business is we can try to dot connect, right?
And logically, you would think if the play has been okay,
it's not like Kyle Allen was much better in the one half that he filled in.
It's not like they have a great group of pass catchers.
That offensive line, average running game,
it makes you wonder, is something happening Monday through Saturday
during the preparation period that is not at the standard
that Ron Rivera and his staff
has in mind?
I don't know that.
I don't know that for a fact.
It's just when a guy gets benched under those circumstances, that's one of the questions
that I myself would love to ask Ron Rivera with some truth serum inside of him or anybody
who's part of the Washington football team right now.
What is it that led to Dwayne Haskins being benched?
Because it was a little bit curious in the sense that he's coming off of a game,
and I understand that some of these stats can be hollow,
but he threw for over 300 yards against the Baltimore Ravens.
Now they lost 31-17, but still, it's atypical for a quarterback to be benched
after 300 passing yards in a game.
Agreed. And now Sam Darnold is in a situation where if the Jets trade him,
that means they're saying we're sticking with Gase.
And if the Jets end up getting rid of Gase,
the next GM or head coach is probably not going to want Sam Darnold.
Or maybe, I don't know, maybe they will.
But normally GMs and head coaches have a vision for a team.
And if you don't fit it, you don't fit it.
With Sam Darnold, it feels like this dude's been given
little to no chance at success over there.
Yeah, I mean, the offensive line has been dealing with injuries,
and it wasn't good already. Wide receiver group has been dealing with injuries all over the yard. Jamison Crider
is really the only dependable pass catcher that he has. He's been awesome in the three games he's
played, but he's also missed two more because of injury. I'd be stunned if Sam Darnold was traded
during the season for this reason. Who's going to make you a compelling offer for Sam Darnold
right now? He hasn't shown you a ton this season he's now dealing with a shoulder injury and well we have the dak prescott injury
and some other quarterbacks have dealt with medical situations whether it's cam newton being
on covet 19 or other quarterbacks that have been banged up so far this year like who's going to
pay you a reasonable price for sam darnold and ultimately it doesn't do you much good to just
give him away and it sounds fine if you think you're going to get Trevor Lawrence
with the first overall pick next year,
but what if you stumble into two or three wins this year
with Joe Flacco or anybody playing quarterback
and the Giants or the Washington football team
or the Atlanta Falcons get one win?
You know, like if the plan is to tank for Trevor
and then you don't end up getting Trevor Lawrence
and it costs you Sam Darnold along the way,
that obviously is bad business.
And I think that Sam Darnold stays with the Jets this year.
But it'll be a fascinating dynamic
because the blueprint has been laid by the Arizona Cardinals.
Whether you think it's a carbon copy situation or not,
the fact that the Arizona Cardinals went back-to-back years,
taking a quarterback in the top ten, gives the Jets a blueprint to follow.
I know it's three years between Sam Darnold and 2021's draft,
and I understand that there's a larger sample size on Sam Darnold
than there was on Josh Rosen, but I think it's a logical move
that the Jets could make if they have the first pick.
Trevor Lawrence, the guy's ridiculous right now. I don't think he's earned a single pick this season so far. Every
time I see him throw, it feels like it's exactly where it's supposed to be. He's a highlight reel
waiting to happen, and the kind of guy that strikes me as, you know, 10 to 12 years of success the
moment he walks into your organization. Unless he ends up with an offensive line like Joe Burrow
has. Ladies and gentlemen, ESPN NFL insider and host of the Fantasy Focus Football Podcast,
ladies and gentlemen, Field Yates.
Joining us now, ladies and gentlemen, National Champion, Super Bowl Champion, A.J. Hall.
A.J., big takeaway from yesterday's NFL Sunday.
What are you overreacting to?
Anything that we talked about thus far?
What are your questions, statements, analysis?
Wow, it's a lot to go off of, I guess, from yesterday.
Okay, are the Dolphins a real contender?
That's my first question.
Bingo.
Absolutely.
It's tough because they're in the AFC.
But I'll tell you what, if Ryan Fitzmagic keeps working his magic in making Jimmy G play bad football
and getting benched in lieu of C.J. Bethard,
maybe Ryan Fitzmagic is prancing all over the AFC for the next couple months.
Yeah, I'm sure you've talked about Jimmy G being benched.
We have not.
Actually, Nick is a big hockey guy.
I'm a big hockey guy as well how i took it if you watch a hockey game there could be a guy that's
going to be a first ballot hall of famer and sometimes they just pull him like second period
he gave up three goals all of a sudden like all right man it's not your night is that what happened
to jimmy g to let we know he'll be in next game it's it's a good question on whether or not he's
healthy is he healthy 100 because remember he missed last week and it was an ankle injury and i didn't watch the game close enough to realize if he was
hobbling around or not and maybe it was a hey this is going to be a bad night you look like swiss
cheese goalie operation in the nhl we need you to get out of here putting cj bethard in though
as jimmy g is named the starter this is quite a message to be sent across your locker room right
now everybody the question that you just asked the
entire team's asking now is like was that just a hey jimmy g's having a bad day hey jimmy g's ankle
isn't all the way back hey jimmy g is this or is it like a wait do we know if jimmy g is our guy or
not i think kyle shanahan's a great head coach i think lynch is a great general manager but i think
they have a lot of questions and they still have a lot of injuries over there so maybe they're
saving jimmy g like hey you don't deserve to be with this team right now.
Like, let's save you for whenever we're maybe putting our best foot forward.
Whatever the case, it's going to have to be explained
to the locker room this morning for sure
why you guys did what you did
and how you let Ryan Fitzmagic run all over your face in your house,
which is what happened exactly yesterday.
I mean, the way Fitzpatrick can stand in the pocket and deliver,
like, he's done it his whole career obviously but that dude will stand with 2d lyman baron down on him unblocked and the dude can still deliver and take a shot and gets you know just like his whole
his his patent it gets up so juiced and you know the gun six shooter he does every different
celebration possible and you can just feel how excited the rest of the team is when old man fitpatrick gets going like that and you heard a lot of people potentially asking for Tua to come
in in trash time to maybe get a couple snaps but it was very obvious that B-Flow and Ryan Fitzmagic
were like no no but this is you from beginning to end and if you do recall after their first big
dub over the Jacksonville Jaguars on Thursday night football we talked to Kyle Van Nooy on Friday and I asked him about Tua and he said hey listen oh Fitzmagic you know you never believe
it's not so Fitzmagic he didn't even want to talk about Tua he's like yeah yeah yeah this is
Fitzmagic time though I think they have a real belief in Fitzmagic even want to talk about Tua. He was like, yeah, yeah, yeah, this is Fitz Magic time, though.
I think they have a real belief in Fitz Magic.
I think they love where Tua is, being able to watch Fitz Magic.
And when you get Fitz Swish Magic.
And whenever you get a win like that in San Fran,
I mean, it only builds to the case even more.
Right now, I mean, they're going to have to do some work.
But if this guy gets hot, I mean, tight end Mike Gusecki says
that Ryan Fitzpatrick is his greatest teammate
he's ever played with the thing that makes him special is he makes the guys around him better
if i could play with him for the next 15 years i would the amount of respect that players teams
coaches the nfl has for ryan fitzmagic is obviously very very high but boy if they fuck around and win
some games like they did last year who knows what happens in this afc especially now the chiefs are
dead dead now at this point you know what i mean have you written the chiefs off like some
people have yeah i mean it's overreaction monday so i had to come in swinging that they were dead
completely but i mean that was a tough one yesterday and dan orlovsky says that the chiefs
have gotten drunk over watching patrick mahomes just make ridiculous plays and pull them out of
bad situations,
which is why they paid him a half a billion dollars.
And I think he just started a fire, by the way.
I just saw the red bud there drop down into your lap off your cigar.
Hope you're okay.
But it does feel like much like your lap right now.
The Chiefs are potentially starting to sizzle just a little bit
on what the hell the future is.
I don't think so.
I think they're going to be fine.
The Chiefs, it happens.
Hey, every once in a while you run into a buzzsaw,
and they did yesterday.
So, hey, chalk it up, keep it moving, I think, if you're the Chiefs.
Well, the Chargers also are a very different team
whenever they got that Henry Ruggs cat going deep.
I mean, Darren Waller, Josh Jacobs, Derek Carr, Henry Ruggs.
And I guess that deep ball was on a cover zero, by the way,
so good read by Derek Carr, Henry Ruggs. And I guess that deep ball was on a cover zero, by the way. So good read by Derek Carr.
I think that is obviously a massive credit to Derek Carr's brain.
But if you look at the Chargers, they battled the Chiefs close.
Raiders battled the Chiefs close.
That's a lot of games in their division that they're going to have to battle here
for the next couple of years.
Are we potentially seeing a little bit of a flaw in the Chiefs' being that the division plays them very very difficult every single time yeah I don't
know if we're seeing a flaw I feel like the Chiefs are they've almost reached that point to where
they're so good that they know when they need to turn it on they know when they truly need to play
their best do they want to win yesterday 100 and they were trying to win but there's something
about it when it really matters I think that the Chiefs can get it done. You don't get it, AJ. Okay. Them knowing when to
turn it on and turn it off is their problem. You have to play all four quarters all the time, AJ.
What about the Seahawks? I mean, the Seahawks came back and won that. I mean, I guess it was
back and forth the majority of the game. Okay. how good do you think the Minnesota Vikings are? Or are you worried about the Seahawks because they just barely found a way
through Russell Wilson and DK Metcalf to get a win?
Well, the Minnesota Vikings got Billy O'Brien fired, right?
So let's not talk about how hot they were.
They actually got a GM and a coach fired after one big win.
But that Vikings team, one and four, looks awfully different than two and three.
And they should have won that game last night.
I mean, if Guy Ziggs instead of Zags, they pick up an eighth of a yard there on fourth down,
which some people say should have kicked the field goal, go up eight.
Well, then you're giving the ball to Russell Wilson.
Like you said, you shouldn't give the ball to Russell.
They made the right move, I think, going forward on that fourth and an inch to win the game, seal the game.
Let's take this thing over.
Massive stop. Russell Wilson walks right back down the field now the Vikings are one and four which I do believe stats and odds in the history of the NFL in 101 seasons
say you do not have a great shot at making it at this case but I think that Vikings seems a lot
better than their record is but I think that Seahawks team being able to win a game that
they're not supposed to win yet again is a part of that Seahawks team's charm.
I mean, it feels like they win games they're not supposed to win or games they're going to be out of it in or whatever.
And they just continue to do it.
And that's because they got clear eyes, full hearts, can't lose.
Russell Wilson, here we go, baby.
Here we go, baby.
Here we go now.
DK Metcalf, great weapon.
How's it going?
Greg Olson, great weapon.
Hey, Ty Lockett, great weapon.
Here we go.
And we got Pete Carroll on the side.
Go Hawks.
Now, that is what they are for real, and they're winning games they're not supposed to win,
like last night.
That's just a part of the team that they are, though.
Hey, did you watch that fourth down stop that they had?
Bobby Wagner comes in and gets on the tackle, and they make an amazing stop.
Who made the play?
I think it was number 57.
Is it Barton?
Yeah.
Owen, I believe, is his last name.
Barton.
Whatever his name is, is that dude he hit the
fullback inside out and he squared him up and it was a stalemate is a win if you're a linebacker
meeting in the hole with a fullback like that he hit him outside leverage to where the bat couldn't
get outside forced him right back to Bobby Wagner huge gigantic collision and that won the game I
think for him that's team defense right I'll eat up this block and then you make the play yeah and
it's not like it's hey this is easy I gotta go take on this fullback and find a way to stop all of his momentum
and his monster head coming at me if you watch that guy i met through some great blocks throughout
the whole game to do it in that moment is a giant play is that one of you dread or know it's coming
like did he know that was barton or whatever his name is no did he know before that play started
okay this is what i'm gonna have to do if we if they run to their right side i'm gonna have
to eat this fullback right in the mouth but our game the whole game depends upon it yeah most
likely like they had a safe if he's he's on the left side safety if there's a safety down it was
probably down on the right side so you know all right inside shoulder i gotta send everything
back they call it boxing like you'll box the fullback means you send it back. If you spill it, it means you let it bounce outside.
Well, it looked like there was a chance for him to cut outside, though.
That's all anybody's talking about this morning.
In this still picture, though.
No, that's where you can take a picture out of context.
In the picture, when you freeze it, it does look like, oh, look what he missed.
Alvin Cook would have got it.
First off, like that was right as that gigantic collision happened between the fullback and the linebacker.
I don't think that was enough. So you think that still image is completely fabricated much like the one earlier
this season that was completely fabricated as well i didn't say it was fabricated i say the
gives you an unrealistic view of what could have happened misleading very much so much like zito's
polls normally whoa they're massive zito over overreaction Monday poll of the day is what?
It was who's the best undefeated quarterback right now.
Aaron Rodgers at 47.7%.
Big Ben, 7.2%.
Mr. Unlimited, 33.3%.
And Josh Shannon, 11.8%.
Okay, so our guy's in the lead there, but it does feel like Seattle's waking up,
especially after a massive fourth quarter comeback under two minutes.
What do you need to do? Mr. Unlimited needs to do what he has to do but
Big Ben Roethlisberger by the way with this Chase Claypool character that we're talking to
in about 12 minutes right here that offense looks like it's awesome to watch as well
they got a couple backs that run hard and then this guy can stretch the field while Juju's working
underneath and the Steelers defense is great punters good kick, and the Steelers' defense is great. Punter's good. Kicker's good.
The Steelers are a for-real squad this year,
and I think everybody knows it in the AFC.
13 of 13 on third downs?
Are you kidding me?
That's Ben Roethlisberger, baby, and he's not even going to hold the laces either.
He's just tossing that pigskin however he gets it.
13 of 13 on third downs for 161 yards and two tugs is what we like to call a game-winning strategy.
And that Steelers team yesterday, they should have buried the Eagles.
They let them back in that thing.
But that team, I think, is one that nobody's really talking about.
There's not a lot of conversation about the Steelers right now.
That's a team that could get really hot December, January,
and maybe even into February if they can figure it out.
I was going to ask you that.
Like, okay, I'm not from Pittsburgh.
I don't live in Pittsburgh.
You guys obviously have strong Pittsburgh roots.
Is it me or are they just hugely under the radar?
I feel like the Steelers are playing great football
and no one's really talking about it outside of Pittsburgh.
Well, that's just like Mike Tomlin, too.
Mike Tomlin's a guy that never gets talked about.
Never, ever gets talked about.
Whenever people talk about great coaches, boom, boom, this guy, this guy, this guy,
Mike Tomlin never, ever talked about.
Then the Steelers very rarely talked about.
And it's because the AFC North right now, Baltimore Ravens, Lamar Jackson, hot guy, Mike Tomlin never, ever talked about, than the Steelers very rarely talked about.
And it's because the AFC North right now, Baltimore Ravens,
Lamar Jackson, hot story, right?
Baltimore Ravens, Lamar Jackson, very good.
He's the MVP of last year for good reason.
The guy's unbelievable, and it seems like they're back to being very dominant with what they did to Joe Burrow and his Cincinnati Bengals yesterday.
That team is going to get Joe Burrow killed, AJ, by the way.
They are going to get him absolutely killed.
I looked up, every time I looked up, Joe Burrow killed, AJ, by the way. They are going to get him absolutely killed.
I looked up.
Every time I looked up, Joe Burrow was potentially losing his spinal cord,
getting blasted by Judon and the Ravens or whatever.
They've got to take care of him.
But I think that's why the Steelers kind of get lost in the sauce a little bit because the Ravens are the hot topic team.
But that Steelers team is going to be problematic for a lot of people.
That D-line is stupid.
And I think Chase Claypool, he scores
four touchdowns yesterday. That's a massive day.
But that dude takes the top off of a defense
on a very regular basis.
Oh, he absolutely does. And it also makes
me wonder where the Minnesota Vikings offense
would be if they didn't have Adam Thielen in the lineup.
This dude catches every third down
conversion, it seems like, every time they need a big
catch and they need to continue a drive
or continue to have a chance to win the game,
it's like, oh, here we go. I'm just going to hang out.
Kurt's going to look around. He's going to throw it to Thielen.
He's going to make an amazing catch and we're going to keep the game moving.
It was on his kid's birthday.
Adam Thielen loses on his kid's birthday.
Adam. Adam.
Yikes. Good game. A couple touchdowns
by Big L for the kid.
Yikes.
I doubt he promised his kid he would get a win for his birthday.
He did.
He did, actually.
He did.
On this show, he said it.
I'll score a touchdown.
He did.
He did.
And he said, we'll get a win.
And he didn't.
Wow.
This kid's never going to forget it.
Turn five, I think, or four?
He promises.
That's part of parenting.
You can't trust your dad ever again.
No.
That's what we've been saying.
He wore that shirt.
He had the shoes, the whole thing.
But all the kid's going to remember is,
remember when the Grinch Russell Wilson walked down the field
and stole my birthday.
That's what happened to that kid.
That's a shame, dude.
Let's get to a phone call here before we get to a break,
before Chase Claypool joins us.
Canadian, by the way, Chase Claypool.
Really?
Yeah, big-time Canada guy.
Good for you.
Hour and 45-minute ferry ride from my hometown, Pat. Oh, yeah, up there on the left side. Up there in, big time Canada guy. Good for you. Maple Trunk. Hour and 45 minute ferry ride from my hometown,
Pat. Oh, yeah, up there on the left
side. Up there in Abbotsford, pal. I didn't
know that. Oh, yeah. I'm sure he
knows more and cares more about Canada than you do.
Definitely, for sure.
100%. Let's go to Spencer
in Connecticut. What's going on, Spencer?
What's going on, Pat?
I'm a Jets fan, and
unfortunately, I don't see us winning any games this season.
Well, that's good news then.
You get the number one overall pick.
The thing that would suck is if you win a couple games,
and you kind of fall into the number three or number four pick,
and it's like two clear Trevor Lawrence or Dustin Fields everybody's going to say,
and then the next one's like, oh, there's a great defender here,
there's a great this guy.
That's where you don't want to be.
So if you're a Jets fan, I think right now you're at the point where, hey,
don't throw the ball to Le'Veon Bell.
Don't throw him the ball.
I mean, that's what made him a weapon and made him so high prices in a hot commodity
is because he's not only an elusive running back,
but he's also an incredible wide receiver playing with slot.
He's great.
Adam Gates says, nah, we ain't fucking throwing the ball.
Just keep doing that.
Just keep doing what you're doing.
Maybe get that number one overall pick.
Because the last thing you want to do is fall into suck purgatory,
which some teams do.
And then you're just, go, you're on the carousel,
and it's just going round and round, and we suck again, we suck again.
Yeah, if you're going to suck, you might as well be the worst.
Especially at this point.
Everybody hates a, you know.
Be the best at being the worst.
If you're the Jets, it's just like, yeah, we're staring right in the face.
I don't know if the Browns are.
Do you think Gase gets hired as a coordinator right away if he does get fired?
Like a consultant or something like that, like an offensive consultant.
Atlanta's looking for a coach.
Yeah, so.
Maybe Peyton will give a call down to Atlanta and say,
bring Gase in.
The guy's screwed at the Jets and Miami.
Detroit potentially goes back home.
Oh.
That would be good.
That makes sense.
Bring him home for the Lions.
That makes a lot of sense.
Yeah, it does.
Let's go one more phone call here before we get to a break.
Let's go to Kyle in Chicago.
What's going on, Kyle?
Hey, Pat, AJ, boys.
How we doing?
Not too shabby.
How are you?
Oh, I'm doing swell.
I want to talk about something Greeny said a week or two ago about Trevor Lawrence saying
for his senior year to avoid going to the Jets.
Greeny said that.
That's my guy, Greeny.
If you're going to be the number one overall pick like Trevor Lawrence is going to be,
you're going to go to a shitty team.
That's what happens at the number one overall pick, by the way.
Now, some teams notoriously more shitty than others.
Colts had number one overall pick there for Andrew Luck,
and I don't think people would classify the Indianapolis Colts as New York Jets level of suck
or other teams level of suck at this moment.
But you're going to a bad team if you're the number one overall pick hence why you have the number one overall pick unless you're the miami
dolphins and you trade for the houston texans and get their number one overall pick even though it
looks like that's a whole new team that's how you fall in there you're always going to end up at a
bad squad you're always going to it's just the way it goes that's why people talked about joey
burrow potentially holding out of cincinnati pulling the eli manning say not not doing it
get me out of here if Trevor Lawrence does that I'll be
incredibly impressed and love every single second if he chooses nah I'm not going there actually
don't draft me I don't want it I'd be I think it'd be hard for people to blame him really don't you
you know the interesting thing about the interesting thing about that is
I mean that's a tough precedent to set there for you. You're going to be judged forever
off of that. Everything you do. If you don't
win a Super Bowl with your next team, you're just going to
get, I mean that is. But who talks about
Eli doing it anymore? I know he won two rings
with the Giants, but is that the only reason why?
That's the only reason why. He doesn't win a Super
Bowl there, that thing is still being talked about
to this day I bet. And also
that was pre-social media age.
If the team that you shunned goes on to win a Super Bowl or two,
then it's really talked about.
If Rivers won one, I am so pumped that we are in this position now
to talk about it.
Like, for instance, when it came out that Joey Burrow,
which was a lie, by the way.
We've all learned that it's a lie.
It was a complete lie.
When it came out that he was thinking about telling the Cincinnati Bengals,
nah, I want to go elsewhere, I got so excited.
I was like, oh, yeah, this is awesome.
This is a guy going, yeah, I've never played a single snap in the NFL,
and who knows if I'll be able to do what I did in college
against a bunch of grown men who are making a lot of money
and feeding their family.
But I've decided I don't want to suck with that team.
That just takes massive gut sack there, massive.
Can't thank you enough for choosing to listen to this show.
I know there's a lot of other things that you could allow penetrate your ear holes.
The fact that you let us do it.
I mean, we're forever thankful for.
Oh, yeah.
Without question.
Aaron Rodgers Tuesday is tomorrow.
So be a friend.
Tell a friend.
Say, hey, it's only going to get better and better.
We'll see you manana
more conversation more this more that you get it ty schmidt please play some independent music Thank you. Bye. Thank you. Bye. The way, the way It's so, so easy Thank you. Outro Music