The Right Time with Bomani Jones - Lamar Jackson injury concerns, Cowboys' predictable problem, Eagles skepticism | 10.01

Episode Date: October 1, 2025

The Ringer's Diante Lee joins Bomani Jones to break down everything happening in the first month of the NFL. First, they discuss the resurgence of the disgruntled wide receiver all over the league. Next, they speculate about the future of George Pickens with the Dallas Cowboys and break down the issues facing Lamar Jackson and the Baltimore Ravens after a 1-3 start to the season. Later, they break down their trust in Sam Darnold and Daniel Jones, what's next for Anthony Richardson, and if the Philadelphia Eagles are this year's version of the 2024 Kansas City Chiefs. 00:00 - Introduction 05:00 - The return of the diva WR 16:00 - Concerns about Lamar Jackson & Baltimore Ravens 25:00 - Do you believe in Sam Darnold and Daniel Jones 34:00 - Buying the Eagles changes to repeat as Super Bowl champs. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Ladies and gentlemen, welcome to the right time, a wave original. My name is Beaumani Jones. Thanks for listening wherever you get your podcast. Thanks for watching us on YouTube. Subscribe, like, rate us, review us, give us five stars. You only give us four stars. I'm inclined to believe you are a hater. It is that time of week where we have a guest join us coming to us from the Rangor.

He covers the NFL over there. His name is Deontay Lee. First time guest. What's going on, brother? I'm doing well, man. It's been a while. I've been hoping that I would get this call. Paul eventually. Glad to be on with you. You might not know this. I have been in the Beaumani

realm for a little while. I was a long time Evening Jones watcher. Used to talk music of several iterations of my social media ago that does not exist anymore. So I'm glad to finally be on and be able to talk to sports with you. Now, Don, I appreciate good to have you. For folks that don't know, I told you Deontay, comes the NFL for the Ringer. He also coaches high school football out there in California. So you're like, you're an authority figure. that's what they like to call me on my job i will say on fridays it doesn't feel so much that way all the time we're usually just riding with whatever these teenagers decide to do on a day-to-day basis yeah i you know it's i always talk about this with college football that like i just can't

imagine my livelihood depending on the actions of the worst decision makers on earth um i had never really given a lot of thought to like whittling that down to high school now high school perhaps they are worse decision makers, but they have fewer decisions. So it kind of balances itself out, but it's still the same principle. 1,000% the same principle. And I would say the difficulty isn't just the kids. It's the dynamic between the kids and the adults, right? And what I mean is you have these guys who are former college players,

might have had a cup of coffee in the NFL. They've got big ideas of what they want to get accomplished. And they're losing their mind on the sideline about what's not happening on Friday nights. And I have to bring everybody together and remind them, that 15-year-old, before they got to practice, today was probably catching mono sharing drinks with their classmates. You know, so you got to have to temper your expectations in that respect. I try to be relatively chill.

People tell me that I'm not always that way, but you spend enough time in coaching, man. You realize all you can do is draw this stuff up. It's out of your hands very quickly in this progression. Well, the thing I feel like, too, that people lose sight of with every level you go down in football. I mean, I think people lose sight of this in the NFL, and we'll talk about some of this in the show, is I really think that we underestimate the difficulty of throwing 10 pounds of air wrapped in leather down the field with any measure of precision while also out here

trying to do rocket size with whatever to play is. Like I just, the reason they didn't throw the ball that much back in the day is not just simply these people weren't that smart. It was a full on understanding, man. That shit is hard, dog. Think about how many rules they've had to change to make it such that you can actually throw the ball. Listen, I was watching Brian Thomas Jr.

here a couple weeks ago when people were talking about him having the yips, not wanting to catch a ball over the middle of the field. And I got to have to take a beat before I started criticizing him and think, if I knew that there was a safety coming from the opposite side that I could not see and the ball is such that I have to jump and reach outside my frame, I would probably take a beat to wonder how much this conclusion is worth it. Yeah, me neither. No, that's the whole going over the middle thing. We've talked about this on the show, that the game has changed to the point where there are no guys like Michael Irvin where Michael Irvin's claim to fame was I will go into the danger zone and I will take whatever comes. Like that's not part of the game anymore because there also are not safeties who purely exist to destroy people.

Right. Like the 12th man on the field is the boogeyman. It's just the fear that you have going over the middle. But that's the Ricky Waters for who for what. When you look back, by the way, at that play and at the score, at the time that Ricky Water short-armed that ball. He had the right idea. You can't do it at your first game in Philadelphia.

You can't say it out loud in front of people. But he really was got a right. And for what reason would I do this? Exactly. I want to play football for a much longer time than just this week, right? I didn't come in here with the idea that any one catch would be worth it for the entirety of my career. You want me to play on third down and the next down after that, right?

You know, give me a chance to figure out what's worth it and what's not. So I'm not mad at it at all. That play might have kept Ricky Waters out of the Hall of Fame because I think he is a borderline case. He has a Super Bowl ring. But the defining moment of his career is for who? He said it so confidently. Why would I do this?

Right, right. That's an expectation over here? Why would you ask me to do this thing? You don't know who I am? That's one of those. You must not be familiar with who I am as a person. He thought that this is what I was going to do. They're like, this costs a lot of money, right?

Like you don't do that with the expensive things. Right. You do that with the other things. But you mentioned Brian Thomas Jr. And I had this thought about the NFL right now. On Monday night, Jamar Chase looked incredibly frustrated. And I think it's like to me it's a little bit endearing considering the fact that like your starting quarterback isn't out there, but you still think that you should be getting

the ball like you a dog in in a sense, right? I think there's something to be said for that. But I also feel like, and I'm curious. if you watched if you've noticed this i was reading some of your um NFL power rankings on the ranger before we got started here but um this feels like we are returning to the old days of receivers now you're a little bit younger than me i believe but right the disgruntled receiver was an archetype of the NFL that honestly i feel like in the last however many years like you had like an odel beckham who was a character of a receiver of sorts,

but you never had him really just that mad because he wasn't getting the ball. Back when passing the ball was a little bit more difficult, we had a lot, and I feel like we saw all of our favorite receivers or every good receiver, even Jerry Rice, have the give me the damn ball. I mean, Kishon Johnson had a whole book called Give Me the Damn Ball. The dudes is coming back, in part because we're now approaching that part of the year

where we're figuring out who's bad and we're seeing quarterback injuries. But we saw A.J. Brown getting salty. You mentioned that Michael Pinnock's in Atlanta, thank goodness, is now throwing the ball to open people because Drake London was going to be reaching that place. I was thinking about Brian Thomas because he down there playing with Trevor Lawrence, who ain't even necessarily that good. But it feels like, and you tell me if I'm wrong here, we got a lot of receivers that's in jail right now,

just the Jefferson in jail a little bit right now. 100%. I mean, and just speaking to that archetype, it's not just those guys you mentioned, right? You had the Ben Johnson press conference where he was talking about guys having to play hard, even when they don't get the ball. And everybody's immediate inference was DJ Moore. You start pulling up clips. And it's like that actually does look like a guy who's not that interested in playing football

if he's not touching the ball. You think about Marvin Harrison Jr. on just this past Thursday night where it looks like he's disconnected until he starts getting a couple catches. And then he looks like a different football player. I think that the rarity that you spoke to is exactly the truth. Because if it wasn't so rare, we wouldn't have. had his bigger reaction in the receiver special on Netflix when DeVante Adams is on the sideline like,

I will never play with this Jimmy Garoppolo guy again. He's going to get me killed. Oh, I did not see that. He had like a whole meltdown on the sideline. I forget what game it was in. I think he had the press conference after the fact because I might have been after Antonio Pierce got fired where he was like, yeah, we got to make some changes around here. But he's on the sideline talking about, dude, Jimmy trying to get me killed. I'm going to lose my life over the middle of the field here. I got to get away from this stuff. Oh, not the hospital balls. Like, imagine.

I am glad that DeVante Adams has wound up somewhere that's okay for him, right? Because he went from playing with Aaron Rogers. And look, Derek Carr, starting caliber NFL quarterback, on top of being his man's, right? But he was a capable starting quarterback. And then he got what was left of Jimmy Garoppolo. Right. I cannot imagine what it was like for him to go to work

every day. And now you're telling me that he was like, no more hospital balls. No more hospital balls for me. You want to talk about some Eddie Murphy trade in places penthouse to project shit. You go from Aaron Rogers feeding you touches all throughout the game to Jimmy Garapolo basically looking at you and saying, hey, if I say you're open, that's wrong throwing the ball. You just go have to deal with whatever safety or whatever linebacker is coming your way, I wouldn't want to make that type of change in my life either. My league neighbors, by the way, now he's hurt. He tore his. ACL, but, you know, he was down bad.

And it wasn't going to get no better for him because I did not, I did not come out from what I saw from that Jackson Dart game, feeling like they found the solution, right? I just think they feel better about what form of mediocrity they're going to wind up existing in. You mentioned DJ Moore. There was somebody else that I was looking at that I was like, damn, homie in jail.

Dak Prescott, on the other hand, is out here freeing cats, right? He out here breaking people out of jail. Those dudes he throwing the ball to should be inmates. That and I mean you see George Pickens and all of a sudden you're on your best behavior right when it's not Russell Wilson just laying the ball out there you know I got somebody I can trust now nothing is more predictable than the season that George Pickens is going to have nothing is more variant than the season that George Pickens will have next year after he gets something like $60 million guarantee one 100% worst case scenario that

This dude's going to end up in like 1,000 yards and 13 touchdowns, and he's going to go into Jerry's office and be like, wide receiver 1, baby. They traded for me, right? Got him on an expiring contract. What are you going to do to keep me, buddy? No, Jerry's going to give him that money because, look, the idea that you could have him and CD Lamb, and if Dak performs, you know, we'll see how it goes down the line,

but that's been really good this year. But if you've got the two of them, or perhaps most importantly, you have George Pickens in a sense where it's good to have them, but you don't have to depend on him, that might. be best case scenario. Don't disagree. You also have to have that meeting with your coaching staff where you say you've got to get George Pickens to practice every day once he's earning 20 to $25 million. Best to luck to you, buddy. Look, if he doesn't practice every day, I'm not even really tripping on that because he doesn't seem to need that much, right? My problem, again, is

when George Pickens forgets what we're doing right now, whatever right now and what we're doing happened to me. He doesn't always remember, like the interception, and now you're still messing with the dude that was covering you, as opposed to the guy that made the interception. I would say even worse, you get those moments of George Pickens where he decides that what the other 21 people on the field are doing

really doesn't apply to him at all. I might be thinking about some water right now. You know what? I needed a couple snaps off three plays ago. I think I'm going to go ahead and take that. now. I'm a heal on company time, as Shaq would say, right? You've got to worry about that. And if you emboldened him with a payday, I can't imagine that that kind of behavior gets any better. Hey, man, let me tell you a little subtle thing that I don't know how many people

think about, but I don't follow college sports at recruiting as much as I used to, right? But that one thing that you can tell a lot about is not just who does offer somebody. it's who doesn't offer somebody, right? So if you had, it used to be like this, if there was a great player in the state of Texas, and for whatever reason, Oklahoma offered him, but Texas did not, there was a story there. 100%.

Right? Like, there was an explanation, but Oklahoma historically would have to take players that Texas did not, right? Right. George Pickens is from Hoover, Alabama. That's the school that was on that school that was on that show. Okay.

Nick Savon did not offer him. And that's at an era where he could have used the George Pickens, right? That's when they were loading up on wide receivers. There's a story there. I don't know what exactly that story is, but the fact that George Pickens was a second round pick. Right. What was the intel of this incredibly talented motherfucker

where they was like, hey, I don't know. You've talked about this in my kind of like in my backyard of Southern California, right? I think about the P. Carroll era and you're talking about a head coach that would go to the PJs and Watts to go get a kid if that's what it took. So if you were from anywhere from Los Angeles County to San Diego County and USC ain't calling, that's probably a message that there's some things that come with you that just ain't worth bringing on campus. Right. Why did Vontes Perfect have to go to Arizona State you may be wondering? Exactly. There's a reason.

By the way, we discovered this on the show the other day. Did you know he's coaching at U and LV? I did see that. I saw that about a week or so ago and I thought, God, I can't imagine what he's like in a meeting room. I would hate to miss an assignment with Vontes Burfick. That's my position coach. He could be a great coach.

Like, he could be a coach like my homeboy that used to steal, didn't got a job, and lost prevention. And he was a beast. Like the, what was that, the DiCaprio movie? Is it Catch Me if you can? The one where he's the com and then he becomes the feds? Right. That's Vontes Burfew.

100%. I've had some. coaches like that too, right? You get your little bounce back, might have gone to a D1 school, didn't last very long, and they come back on the hole. I can play better than you, but I can tell you all the things not to do so you don't end up like me. I can imagine for Vantes Perfect, he can pull up a whole reel of number 54 in Cincinnati alone. You see that guy, and everything he does after the whistle is what you don't do. And that's probably the best coaching he has to offer. Yes, by the way, as we talk about receivers who are in jail, can I offer you a very interesting

in case of one who's in jail? Who's that? I don't know how closely you've looked at Chris Oliva's numbers. Oh, but I saw it this morning. Okay, guys, they are throwing the ball to Chris Oliva a lot because the saints are terrible. And so they're behind all the time. So they have to throw the ball all the time. Chris Alave has 26 catches for 185 yards.

He is averaging seven yards of reception. I have never seen anything like this before in my life. they don't have a single receiver who is averaging 10 yards of reception. That's nasty football. That is nasty football. That's what you would expect from like Brian Westbrook back in the mid-2000s as a receiving running back. You never want to be a receiver with them kind of averages because for all them catches, that means 26 times getting tackled probably by guys much, much bigger than you.

Yo, somebody going to break some shit down there. And I also think it is worth noting. Look, Spencer Rattler, this is impossible. Spencer Rattler's completing 67% of his passes and averaging 5.2 yards in attempt. Again, never seen anything quite like this, which tells me they missed on their second round pick with Tyler Shuck, who's like 47 years old. They missed because there's no way that if he's not playing, they missed. I mean, they may Rattler the starter pretty like definite, right?

With some definitely he's the starter. This is not a competition. This guy is the guy. And he's putting up Ben Rathesberger at the end of his career. numbers right now. So that tells you a lot about what Tyler Shuck might have looked like if you would have thrown him out on the field. And I think that that's been a story for a lot of these young quarterbacks, even with Jackson Dart, right? You look at these guys and some of the plays they do and don't make. And you say, if you could sit for maybe two years, that might actually

be what's in your best interest if you want to make it work in the league. Yeah, man. Now switch gears a little bit. I wondered watching the Ravens game because I ain't going to lie. I turned it off before they took Labar Jackson out. So I didn't realize that we were discussing whatever the injury was, but he looked hurt early in that game. Like I don't, I don't know how much to take from that game. I do know that their defense look a lot like to make a wish foundation that's lining up down there in Dallas. Like, where does this go from here with this team?

So I'm just operating on the assumption that Lamar Jackson is not seriously hurt. Right. We would have heard about that, right? He would have definitely probably been listed out if the hamstring was going to hamper him for weeks beyond maybe what we saw in Kansas City. and what might be to come next week. I do think it's tricky with Baltimore because you're talking about John Harbaugh now.

And if there's one thing that we've seen with John Harbaugh is that he's not going to move on from guys if they're a problem. You look at who they got at right guard, Daniel Falule, was an interesting prospect coming out, six foot eight, was heavily oversized coming into the league, has kind of worked himself in the shape, and bless them for it. But you turn on clips,

and you should never see an offensive lineman facing the quarterback, And there are a lot of clips who are going at Lamar Jackson trying to work through his progression. And they haven't moved on for him in spite of him being a liability over the years. And then that doesn't even touch on the defense. And I think a really thorny situation when you promote a guy who is a raven through and through, had his career ended by injury with the Ravens and Zach Orr, and is clearly struggling to try to find his identity as a defensive coordinator. And if I know anything about John Harbaugh, is that he's not in a rush to let go with that guy.

And I keep watching this film and it keeps looking like the common denominator here is that the defensive play caller does not have it right now. Here's what I think the Ravens have going for them. They have a game against the Rams in two weeks on October 12th. Outside of that, they might be favored in every game they play until December. Like their schedule looks soft. Texans, Rams. Now, they got the Rams at home though, but it's Texans, Rams, bears at home, dolphins, Vikings, Browns on the road, Jets, Bengals, Steelers at home, at the Bengals, home for the Patriots, at the Packers, at the Steelers.

Until this gets late, they've got some cake opponents. Like, they should be able to get their wins up if nothing else. I mean, they'll probably be, by definition, that 12 and 5 team that you know ain't that good, right? because they'll probably go 6 and O in division if they handle their business. They'll probably split some of these games against the NFC North teams, and they'll look good coming down the stretch, but based on the way that this defense goes. And maybe this doesn't hold every year. But usually if a defense starts off poorly, they probably end the season poorly. That's a talent-based type of side of the ball.

You don't usually find yourself midway through and turn into an elite unit. They clearly have some talent problems. They've got guys hurt. A bunch of guys on IR and we don't even know what the status is. of those guys will be coming back. And a lot of those guys look like they're losing steps outside of Kyle Hamilton. So I have some big time concerns about what it's actually going to look like. And that means more conversations about who Lamar Jackson is and isn't as a quarterback,

even if he ends up not being the driving force for why this team disappoints again by January. And so that's interesting to me because I, and I am not, I'm not a scientific observer of this, right? Like there are people who know more than I do. But he seems to me at this point to be a legitimately excellent passer. His hold up is that I always look like he playing darts. You know what I mean? Like I always say, I say John Elway is the ultimate eye test quarterback. And I had people push back on me online and they would talk about, well, Aaron Rogers.

I'm like, if Aaron Rogers don't look like that. And they're like, well, he's an inch shorter and da-da-da, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. I hear you. Air Rodgers is one of the best throwing arms I've ever seen. But when you look at John Elway throw the ball, we're not even, there's no question who's the starter on this team, right? Like, there's never any place. Like, the line was his first time he played football. His dad was late to the game. His dad got there to ask. So what is it? They said either your kids, the best ever are all the rest of the worst, right? Lamar Jackson does not

look like that when he throws the ball. And I always wonder how much of that affects, like, the way that we view him as a passer. But the only thing that seems to be the issue to me is he and the entire team get tight. At the, in a certain type of scenario. It's not all. of them, but some of them, they get tight. I mean, I had a little back and forth with Nick Wright on social media about that, right? Like, and I understand it. And I would say that as the years have gone on, I would say specifically after that AFC championship game against the Chiefs a couple years ago, when it was clear, like,

they were the better team, the more talented team, had the better season coming in. And the second that they saw those red helmets step off the bus, everything changed in that locker room. They were emotional. They were undisciplined. they've had turnover problems. I think that that also has kind of been emblematic of Lamar Jackson's career in the postseason.

So nobody's arguing the other side of that now. I do wonder why that is. And maybe this comes down from the top. I don't think we see John Harbaugh as being an undisciplined, overly emotional guy. But for whatever reason, outside of 2012, basically, every time his team has been in his biggest moments, they have totally come apart at the seams. It doesn't matter who the coordinator is, the quarterback, how they're playing defense, they have always shown up as the worst versions of themselves in big games.

And you've talked about this in the NBA sense with James Harden and some of the guys who have struggled to get over that hill. It's hard to quantify where you're at mentally when you land in those moments against somebody that you know is just as good, if not better than you, and it makes you wilt, right? It makes you go into a shell. I don't know how you fix that. I mean, and the thing that got him last year against Buffalo, obviously, is that Lamar made the plays. Like, and it was Mark Andrews. who, you know, get a booty away, as you would say?

Yeah, he gave up the booty, but like, you know, it used to be a thing we used to say before gambler was legal that it looked like in these moments. But now those feel like strong accusations and I feel like I have to remove, remove that phrasing from my discussion. But it's the blown fourth quarters. It's just over and over again with it.

And with Harbaugh, you're right. 2012, they managed to make it happen. Don't forget 2011, drop touchdown pass, Miss Fieldman. like right at the end. Like all these things run together. And it feels almost like that division has been owned by John Harbaugh and Mike Tomlin, two guys that all of us think are very good coaches and it will consistently give you a chance to win, but not that much.

Right. Right. And I think that's the thing that trips me up because I look at the guy who owns John Harbaugh in this era being Andy Reid. And I'm an Eagles fan. I remember what the conversation was like with that guy before he got to Kansas City. So it just holds me up every time because I'm like, if that guy can get over the hump, and maybe it is just as simple as you get the greatest quarterback who's ever walked the earth, and everything looks better.

You know, that might be the problem. But I look at John Harbaugh, and I'm like, why can't we get over this hump? You guys have all pros up and down this roster, and I continue to see you fumbling the game away, throwing interceptions, playing conservatively when you don't have to, and missing out on these opportunities to take these highly talented teams and get them where they're supposed to be. All right, we're talking to Giante Lee. We're going to come back, got more NFL here on the right time. Football is back and so is your shot at big wins.

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Limited time offer, see terms at pick6.draftings.com slash promos. All right, we are back with Deontay Lee. Sam Darnold, Daniel Jones. You believe in that shit? Sam Darnold more than Daniel Jones. I don't know what that says about Daniel Jones. I honestly don't know what that says about Sam Darnard either, if I'm being honest. Do you have a hard time in these moments detecting if you're being fair?

Because I have a hard time in these moments detecting if I'm being fair. 100%. Especially with the guy like Daniel Jones. Like the last time we saw Daniel Jones, he was told to go home mid-shift. We didn't even have to get to the end of the season before New York said, actually, buddy, whatever you have planned for your winner, you go on and get to it. You want to go skiing? Hit the Alps. We don't need you.

All right. Hand over your key card now. So that's the guy I think I'm most held up by. I do think and focusing on him specifically, and maybe there's a bigger conversation to have, the fact that he looks this competent right now in Indianapolis, in spite of the fact that not a single bit of the Colts roster has changed around him. what does that say about Brian Daibol in New York? And more importantly, what does that say about Anthony Richardson? So, you know, I'm holding out on Richardson. Like I still, and I feel like I'm holding out on him in part because of the examples of guys like Daniel Jones and Sam Donald.

Right. Or in Baker Mayfield, who I do want to get to at some point because I think he's a bit of a tricky case. But the development arc of a quarterback is much longer than it is typically giving credit for being in the nature of the salary structure in the NFL. It now requires teams to make these decisions about quarterbacks in year three, basically, which appears to be too early. Now, I felt like after they put Richardson on punishment last year, that he came back and looked better and that there was a possibility that this year, who knows, I can't say that Richardson couldn't look like that this year in this offense, because I saw Anthony Richardson and Daniel Jones play last year, and I think Anthony Richardson

was better. It was a better player. Yeah. Right. So how can I say that? And I guarantee you, There's somebody who is saying exactly what I'm saying right now for anybody to listen. And that is Anthony Richardson. I assure you that he is making it known. I can do that. And you get, and they're like, why ain't you doing last year? And he's like, why ain't he doing last year? I'm sure at practice, they're going through the exact same route tree as they're warming up.

And he's looking at Daniel Jones make these throws. And he's got to be looking at his offensive coordinator like, really? That dude? You telling me that that dude is the guy. that you put me on the bench for? Are you positive that that's what you want to do? And on the other hand, that offensive coordinator could pull up film and say, hey, man, this is a three-yard completion.

Why is somebody pulling a tooth out their mouth in the third row? I don't know how to square these two things because they're both true. They're both true. And I don't know which one deserves more weight in this scenario. I think that for Richardson, maybe he just needs a change of scenery. I do think not to be morbid about it, I also think the fact that there was a change in ownership, basically, over the offseason, might have changed some things with their timeline because it seems like the newest Ursa,

daughter Ursa, is a lot more involved. And I think that maybe coming in the door, she said, one thing I ain't going to do is watch a guy complete 40% of his passes. Okay? We can't live like that. I can't tell you to Daniel Jones is going to give us a better chance to win. But I know that for my own well-being and mental health, I cannot watch a quarterback throw the ball into the sideline every time he's trying to check it down.

Well, I'll tell you this, and I forget which of these trees stikings off of, but it seems to me that if you're going to make it work with Richardson, you need something Shadahan McVey, which is to say, we throw it far. Right. Like, we do these things because, I mean, you put Richardson in, like, a stretch run game. That's an underrated thing that people don't get is that a quarterback that can move can then stretch out what's possible on the stretch play.

It's why people were excited about the idea of Malik Willis coming into the league in spite of some of his physical limitations is watch what happens on the stretch, right? Right. I feel like there's a place where it could get done, but you're right. If you can't trust the dude to just get the little nickels and dives when they're out there, that's got to be incredibly frustrating when you're a job. How do you call plays? How do you call plays with that in mind?

That if there's a guy wide open five yards away from the quarterback, that you can't count on the fact that he can put it on the guy's chest. That's a difficult thing to call plays around. But I do agree with you. And I think that maybe this, maybe the situation is just kind of, of gone rotten. It doesn't necessarily seem like the Colts are totally out on him as a human, right? I think they were frustrated after his first two years, not being able to stay healthy. Yeah, gas stations, you know, part of the music videos in Indianapolis. People are people who are worried

about where your head is at. You might not be in the film room the way that they need you to be. But since then, it seems like not only to your point has he played better, it seems like he's been more invested in trying to be a better version of himself as a quarterback. It just might be too late. And like you said, these timelines, the trajectory that's expected on quarterbacks, it's unfair for a guy like Richardson, especially when you're picked fourth overall. Yeah. But I think that maybe that toothpaste is just out of the tube. I do think if he is ever on the market, as an Eagles fan, I got to look and say,

I buy low on that. Man, look, if I don't want my starting quarterback doing all that tush push, all the design quarterback run stuff. And just in case he gets dinged up, I can get somebody who can hand the ball off, run some play actions, and give the ball to AJ Brown. I can't imagine a much better option than that. Let me tell you something at some point

and I don't know exactly when that point is somebody going to cash in on Trey Lance. Like he's right now getting remade in that Harbaugh image. Like somebody, let me say this, everybody need to be afraid. They buy low on Trey Lance and then somehow Harbaugh got a spot

for Anthony Richardson to just come in there and learn a little something. That's a great call. That's a great call. Watch watch what I saw what Harbaugh did with Colin Kaepernick. I see what Harbaugh. I see what Harbaugh done with just about everybody you gave Harbaugh. Right.

Right. Yeah. I mean, and for me, I think that with Richardson, the scheme that you laid out is exactly what he needs. I think that he also needs a legitimate veteran in front of him who can tell him what to do from a mental perspective. Because I'm sure, I mean, Daniel Jones, we talked about a little bit earlier. Daniel Jones don't seem like a great example, right? Like what damn Jones film you about to pull up? I was like, hey, man, here's how I identify the blitz.

That don't seem like the kind of guy that's going to get you any closer to be in the quarterback you need to be. I would say, honestly, even in Baltimore, you can go look at Lamar Jackson, who was not as inaccurate as Anthony Richardson coming into the league, but certainly had some mechanical stuff he needed to clean up. You get with the guy like that, he might get you right. Honestly, you get with a guy like Sam Darnold, who, for whatever reason, has gone from a little too ambitious in New York to not ambitious enough in Carolina and then gets to Minnesota. and now you're letting it loose again, you might be able to go back up a guy like that and get some training and be ready. I do not think that we have seen the last of that guy,

and I don't think we've seen the last of him being a viable starter in the league. All right, you mentioned Donald right quick, and this is the thing that I think is worth saying. I did not feel like the Sam Donald of last year looked that much different than the Sam Donald of previous. The results look different. I wasn't as so, and plus he had the best wide receiver in the league.

Exactly. And maybe the best play caller in the league too. Yeah, yeah. Like it was a lot going on. But in the end, he reverted in a way that would terrify me, right? He reverted in a way that this isn't about how good you are. This is about what we were talking about before. This is about you losing your shit out here in front of everybody. And nobody knows how to fix that. There's not an answer. And look, some guys do at points get past it or you just are able to get past it for the one post season or whatever it is, right? But he never, he never, that part he hasn't fixed. hasn't gotten right. Seattle looks a lot better than expected. Keep it in mind, DJ McCaff, I mean, D.K. McCath does not play for them anymore, right? He's out there making it happen. But I think that nothing matters, and this is unfair to him, but I think you'll feel

me. Nothing matters until it matters. Oh, by the way, they have the second best point differential in the NFC over there behind America's team, the Detroit lines. I mean, nothing about Seattle success right now really has a lot of my shit do with Sam Donald. And I will say that is best case scenario. if you are Sam Donald.

You want to play for a team where no matter what version of me shows up, you got everything else teed up, right? Their run game has been better. Their defense might be the best in the NFL right now. You're playing in that wide zone scheme you're talking about, having one of the Kubiak kids calling all the outside zone for you. All he's got to do is just get the ball to Jackson Smith and Jigba. That seems simple enough.

And as long as you can find that guy in the middle of the field, you will probably be just fine. But I'm with you. Until it's a rematch against San Francisco, right, for the NFC West title. Until we're in that wild card round and you're in Philadelphia on that key third down and you know that Blitz is coming

or they're playing man coverage and you got to sit in that pocket and deliver the ball accurately, there's nothing the San Donald can do to convince me. I just think that right now he might be a little bit better option than what happened that is pre,

what's happening at his previous stop in Minnesota. By the way, 2025, we're still using names like Shanahan and Kubiak, John Elway, job creator. John Elway has put those created an economy where they, They are for 40-something years. They have been eating off of the legacy of John Elway.

But right fast, you mentioned the Eagles or your squad. We talked about the Eagles on here. I feel like their last year's chiefs. It feels like this is they're getting it done, but something don't quite feel right. And what I want to ask you about specifically, and I think people lost sight of this, 2,000 yards and 2,000 yards worth of carries,

especially at that age. I think that people lose sight of the fact that this is year nine, or year eight for, say, Barclay. I don't know how good they're going to be as the year goes on. And that is before we start talking about A.J. Brown, you know, feeling like he in jail. Right. I would say, not only to Saquan Barkley right now look like a running back who had over 500 touches in a calendar year, right? You're talking about a 35-year-old Lane Johnson who has had to leave two games so far this year. And when he's not in the game, their run game is not the same. And they've

They've lost Mackay Beckton, who was their body mover on the interior. Landon Dickerson has always hurt. They look like a team that just played in the February and had to turn right back around and they're dealing with one of the toughest schedules in the NFL right now. I think that they're okay because they do remind me so much of Kansas City last year, where they seem to kind of have a certain wit about them. They don't necessarily lose their composure in these key moments. If you're asking me, though, if they've got to see the Rams again, do I trust it?

no, right? Because that means Jalen Hertz versus Matthew Stafford, and I don't trust that in a key situation. So it's so interesting that you say that because I do, I'm a Hertz skeptic, I'm a Hertz and Siriani skeptic. They've won a Super Bowl and I'm like, yeah, well, you know, like am I being wrong? Am I being a hater? That's okay. I am fascinated by the Stafford career art where we talk about the long, we, this dude seems to get better every year and we're in year 17, but I have always compared him to Carson Palmer and not necessarily in a bad way, right? Like they are very prototypically talented quarterbacks who to this day will still give you a chance to win it. If you can hold on to that heater that he's going to throw directly into your chest that you're

not expecting because you can't believe that he's throwing that ball directly into your chest. However, free at last, free at last, Devante Adams is free at last down there catching balls for Matthew Stafford. and he's not their best receiver. Right. I think that, and this is a big reminder for me and all the preseason stuff where everybody's so hot on the Rams, right? They're going to be the next contender out of the NFC.

I think it's very easy to lose side of the fact. To your point, December was so bad for them going into the playoffs that Matthew Stafford basically had to take week 18 off, right? Sean McBaea had to sit this guy down and be like, hey, old man, I think you need to get your mind and your body right before you show back up to work. All right? Because you're tripping right now. We're tripping right now.

And then you think about the back injury and the fact that he's taking a bunch of pressure, right? Like you look at how often he's been sacked or knocked down. It's in that top 10 rate, right? You're talking about taking a Justin Herbert level beating in the pocket for a guy who is 10 years older than Justin Herbert. And already has a bad back and has had one for what, the last five, six years now. While it's looked great this regular season and while it looked great last postseason, this is a guy similar to Tony Romo at the end of his career. every time he falls down.

I'm holding my breath, thinking about how this excellent quarterback towards the later stages of his career is going to go down and not get back up. And I know Rams fans may not want to hear that. And if they can keep him healthy into the postseason, I do think that they can win because Sean McVeigh seems to know

when to turn Stafford up and when to turn him down. As a quarterback, I just have a hard time trusting a guy that is as old as he is and taking the beating that he has in spite of how good he's looked so far this regular season. Speaking of taking a beat, What week you think Pooka going to get hurt? Oh, man, that can happen on the very next target.

We were talking about guys who go over the middle. I'm like, hey, man, I need you to know that sometimes it's okay to catch the ball and just take the first down. That extra three yards you fighting for ain't always working. Ain't always worth it, buddy. And you haven't gotten your second contract yet. Let's get the guaranteed money up before we start risking our body over the middle of the field. I don't trust him not getting hurt. DeVante Adams is up there in age and he's been banged up before.

and then you got old bad back Stafford. So been good for now. Let's see once we get to like Thanksgiving weekend how this team actually looks. And let me have to see this about the Eagles while I'm thinking about it. And somebody mentioned this in the YouTube comments on Monday where we're talking about like with these cats out here

wearing these expensive chains back in the day, it had been one player whose name would have been the chain snatcher. It had just been some or some bitch, middle linebacker, Jack Lambert, Dick Buckus, Ray Lewis type. That's just going to be snatching chains. and not giving them back either, like keeping them in a bag on the sideline, just got a collection of chains.

How do we get this idea to Jalen Carter? Because I feel like he is your throwback, mean-sum bitch. We ain't really had too many of them out there. He is the chain snatcher. I was just watching a clip of, I think it was Deacon Jones, talking about how he would approach playing football, right? And you talk about somebody being mean but could do it with a smile on their face. That's what I see in Jalen Carter.

And I think that's the scariest guy you can have on the defensive line. It's one thing to be Aaron Donald, right, who is just, if you're at 10, he's at 15. If you're at 15, he's going to be at a 50, right? And you just know he's angry walking in the door. With Jalen Carter, he's one of those guys that you laughing because you think he's joking and you take two steps away from that conversation. You say, hey, wait a minute, motherfucker. You don't get to talk to me like that.

Right? And now, and then we're off from there, right? And the fact that he took, you know, you had Jared versus eight chains. I think that if there were offensive linemen who wore them, tackles and guards will be getting them snatched left and right. I don't think that that's a guy who he clearly don't mind losing an opportunity to play in the game over something that he perceives as a slight, given how he reacted to Dak Prescott spitting.

And that's a guy I think that, you know, you see him picking running backs up in the backfield and playing around. And that's the way that he's been since Georgia, we are definitely going to get one of the moments where a whole game has to stop because Jalen Carter decided that guard, that guard, that tackle, and that center can all get it at the same time. I just love Howie Roseman, like, yeah, we're going to go shopping at Georgia, see what they got that we can pick up.

You guys want anything from Georgia? We're just going to go get all the Georgia guys we can. Then after that, we'll worry about the rest later. Look, top shelf to what's in the well, whatever you got to offer, I'm drinking it. I am brand dedicated. If you come with that sticker on your helmet, I want you. It don't matter what else is going on here. Yeah, like, tell me more.

Tell me more. Like, oh, okay. All right. Yeah, I hear you. I hear you. I mentioned America's team, Detroit Lions. It looked bad week one. And I was just like, okay, there's no push up the middle.

This is terrifying. And then since then they've been the best team in the NFL. And like, I don't, I don't, I don't, it's still the, the, how far you think you can go with Jared golf? And the answer is, I've seen a team go to the Super Bowl with Jared golf. I can't pretend like you can't do that with him. But they look good, Jack. They look great.

And golf is playing as well, if not better than you. And he has not just in his time in Detroit, but since that 2018 year with the Shaw McVeigh and the Rams. And I struggle with trying to figure out what to do with the guy like that because he's another one similar to Darnold, similar to some of those guys that we talk about. You land in the fourth quarter chasing 10 points and you got to put the ball in his hands and say,

hey, dude, it's about to be 15 straight dropbacks. You got to get us back in the football game. At least two or three of them throws is about to land in a cornerback's chest. Right? But I do believe that the infrastructure there is so healthy. I do 100% believe in Dan Campbell. Crazy as it is, being the meathead that he is as a head coach, just seems to have a grip on that team's emotional fortitude, which is not something that I would readily associate with the guy like Dan Campbell. So it's been a trip,

but they are clearly still one of the three best teams in the league. The 2015 version of me, or maybe it was 2014, whatever year it was that he was the interim coach of the Dolphins. The Dolphins has never been more wrong about what somebody actually turned out to be, as I have been about dead cow. I'm which, I mean, I don't know if you saw the hard knocks clip where he was in the middle of the huddle crying, not because something traumatic happened, but because he was trying to explain why tackling at practice was so important. This is a guy brought to tears, I think, just by the thought of playing football, maybe that

is what resonates with guys. And I think that maybe it's been overstated over the last decade or so as we brought in more of the pencil pusher archetypes into sports, right, where we think, oh, you know, the biggest thinkers and the guys who design it best, those are the guys who are going to lead us forward. Sometimes you do need somebody who, with tears in their eyes, will grab you by your shoulder pads, MF you for the next 30 seconds, and then clutch you up to give you the biggest hug you've ever had in your life. It seems to work.

It seems to resonate with guys like that. And the players on their team outside of golf all seem, I think, to be personified by that exact same mentality. But they all got some off about it. But they also execute very specifically, right? Because when you think about somebody like that, we think about that, like, play like your hairs on fire sort of situation. But no, like watching that running game or like week one, that was the thing.

It was like, man, they can't run the ball at all. It looked like Ben Johnson never left, which tells me that the offensive coordinator actually might be Dan Campbell. There's a reason why he picked him out, right? Dan Campbell could have gone after Anthony Lynn got let go. He could have gone in any old direction. he looked at Ben Johnson specifically and said, not only do you know what I'm looking for,

he was probably the guy that he was thinking, if I tell him, we need to go smash a team in the mouth 25 times on Sunday, he's going to do what I ask him to do. And I think the same thing is happening with John Morton, who does not have the most prestigious resume coming into this gig. I think that that's another guy that he identified and said, he's made up some of the same stuff I'm made up with. And what he don't have,

that makes Dan Campbell, Dan Campbell, Dan Campbell can feed it through him. And I think that he is ultimately the visionary that makes this offense go. Let me ask you one more thing while I'm thinking about it. The dolphins won. They are now one and three. Very good for them that they are one and three. Anyway, what week you think it's going to be?

Tyreek Hill ain't got no leg no more. This does not feel like many victories are coming down to pike for them boys down there. Look, when I saw Mike McDaniel looking frozen on the sideline, I think in week two, I was like, like, hey, man, that looks like a guy that if you don't fire him by Tuesday, he just might not show up to work. And you see him at these press conferences and he is totally flummoxed by a very simple line of questioning at times. I think just on Monday, you might have been doing a sideline interview and I'm watching him kind of stammered through an answer. And I don't want to make too much of how he's responding to questions.

But that's just not the guy that we were looking at four years ago. Four years ago, this is a dude who was very bright-eyed. I'm the guy who designed this creative run game for Kyle Shanahan and that offense. I know how to make it work with Tuotong of I Loa. That's not the guy we're seeing on the sideline right now. That looks like a guy who understands I might not have it no more. And now that he don't have the best receiver that you could possibly have for this offense, I expect that this thing is probably going to go careen and off the road pretty quickly.

Well, I guess, and no shade to our brother, Mike McDaniel, he fits in line with the pencil pushing archetype that you discussed. Now, this is a dude that played college football. He's been around the game. Like, I'm not saying that as a slight, but I do think he's a big brain. He's there to be a big brain. And I don't feel like that guy has a second play, right? Like, like, if my excellent strategy isn't working, I don't know what card he's got after that.

We saw that last year, right? In the second half of the season, they were winning games. games, and I think it's easy to forget because of that. And I think the schedule was really light as they were winning games too. But when they were playing Buffalo, I think it was like the first Thursday night game of the season last year. You're looking up and it's like, oh, Buffalo, who also kind of has a defense that struggles with being physical is punching this offense in the mouth.

And Mike McDaniel does not have a counter for that. And it has come up time and time again. The Kansas City game in the playoffs a few years ago was defined by that. And this team, I think, has just been built with that in mind. and they have never addressed it by player. And you look at their style of play, it's beautiful when Devon A-Chane is out there in the flat, you know, making guys miss and getting a bunch of yards after catch.

It's beautiful when Jan La Waddle is running those deep post routes into a wide open middle of the field. But when a defense shows up and says, yeah, all that's beautiful. But you, Mr. Tua, we're going to hit you a whole bunch. I don't think that Mike McDaniel or Tua, for that matter, have had a great response for it. And I think that that's, it shows up in a lot of ways on and off. the field if you look at their demeanor and the way that they react when they're playing

top competition by the way you just mentioned it before we go as good as buffalo has looked you're not winning this whole thing when anybody can run the ball against you like three or four games in january or february when it's you y'all are y'all are burger kangs when it's time to run the ball ooh who I don't see that and it ain't for lack of trying every offseeing to feel like they're bringing in more veteran defensive linemen who were supposed to be these gap plug-in, run-stopping guys, and it has not made a single difference. I was told it was going to be fixed when Matt Milano got healthy last year, didn't get fixed then. I've been told it's going to be better once their defensive backfield gets healthy,

and they can play closer to the line of scrimmage and do more man-coverage stuff, and it hasn't been helped in. The best that any run game has looked this season is still that week one Sunday night game between Buffalo and Baltimore, where it looked like Derek Henry was basically running on air, half the time. And their safeties, Cole Bishop, Taylor Rap, could have taken any angle they wanted and they were not going to be fast enough to catch those guys.

That's 100% going to be what keeps that team from competing for a Super Bowl, the way that they should be able to, given the quarterback that they've got. All right, Deontay Lee, check him out at Durango covering the NFL, check out his power rank is coming out on Tuesdays. My man, I greatly appreciate you.

Looking forward to doing this again. Absolutely. Please have me back. Yes, sir. Ladies and gentlemen, thanks so much for joining us here on the right time. We do this three times a week. Ryan Brumley handles everything behind the scenes. Thank you, sir. Remember, follow the right time. Subscribe, like, rate us, review us, give us five stars. You only give us four stars. I'm inclined to believe you are a hater. We'll talk to you guys in a couple of days. Take it easy.