The Ringer NFL Show - Broncos Offense Sputters, Parity Isn’t Fun, the Bucs Need a Software Update, and More Big Takeaways from Week 6 | Extra Point Taken

Episode Date: October 18, 2022

Ben and Sheil kick off the pod by sharing their reactions to the Chargers’ clunky win over the Broncos on 'Monday Night Football.' Next, they break down the mismanagement of the Arizona Cardinals—from coaching decisions, on-field performance, to the front office—and how the team as presently constructed cannot be run back (12:00). They then examine Tampa Bay’s offensive philosophy (19:21), tip their caps to the OG coaches of the league (27:35), and raise concerns regarding the Browns defense (35:04). They end the pod by discussing the Jets’ potential QB decision in the offseason (44:32), and the weekly extra point by Ben (51:07). Hosts: Sheil Kapadia and Ben Solak Production Supervision: Arjuna Ramgopal and Conor Nevins Producer: Eduardo Ocampo Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Mac Jones is ripped. Matt Patricia's calling plays. The Celtics are title favorites. And The Ringer has a new Boston show. I'm Brian Barrett, host of Off the Pike, the show covering all things Boston Sports. I'll have shows multiple times a week covering your favorite teams and with your favorite ringer and local guests. Plus, maybe Bill will stop by to rant about the socks. Follow off the pike with me, Brian Barrett, now on Spotify.

Welcome to Extra Point Taken. I'm Sheila Kapadia. As always, joined by Ben Solac after Monday night. football where I have no idea what I just watched. I have no idea what just happened in the last three and a half hours. Watch a little football, baby. Watched a little football. That's right. The scoreboard says Chargers 19, Bronco 16. I can't imagine either fan base is thrilled with the way that game played out, but we'll talk about it. If you are a new listener, the format simple. We each offer three takes from the week that was. And then one of us ends it with an extra point. That'll be

Benny Souls today. Ben, you're on the clock. You got Monday night's football. Lead us off. What was your take from what you just watched? When I said I do Monday night football this week. I, okay, it's a hard game to have one take off of. So in the spirit of this show where we come with three takes, I have three mini takes off of this game. Dealers choice. Mini take number one. Us analytics defenders of whom you and I are like chief card carrying members need a new poster child. Because Staley's just clock management for the Chargers is, is increasingly falling down the wayside. He had the fourth and one field goal attempt with like a gimpy kicker. They're playing for the kick at the end of the game, which I guess like he's hit enough in

the 30s range that you feel okay with it, but they still have like getting a heroic, doesn't Herbert throat even get in the 30s range. And like the camera cuts to Dustin Hopkins like trying to warm up and he like not even get off his foot. It's horrible. So number one, I, my defensive analytics as a decision made. model. That can incorporate wind speed, by the way, remains as fervent as ever. I just think we need a new poster trials.

That's take one. One A. Do I respond to the mini takes or do I wait? I'll give you three. Wait for all the mini takes. Okay. Got one B. I, Melvin Gordon taking a page out of the Robbie Anderson book, perhaps a little bit. Let's, that's cause a ruckus. Let's cause some issues. Let's be upset visibly on the sideline. Melvin Gordon is, I think kind of we, we, we know.

know the at this point kind of football discourse that once you're like not an elite back, you're kind of a replaceable level back, you can kind of cycle guys in and be good. And Melvin Gordon certainly squarely within that range. But I'm, I struggle to believe that there's a back currently on the roster of the Kansas City Chiefs, Buffalo Bills or Philadelphia Eagles, which are the three teams that you'll find at the top of any Super Bowl odds. I don't know if there's back on any of those three rosters that's emphatically better than Melvin Gordon.

I think Miles Sanders, Devin Singletary, to me, those guys are a tier below. And Gordon has his limits as a pass catcher, but there's already good pass catching backs on those teams. What they need is an actual first down runner. And so Gordon out of Denver, if they're not going to play him, and they want to do this Latavius Murray and Mike Boone thing, more power to you.

I think contenders should be lining up straight from Melbourne Gordon. He's not like an elevator, but he's going to, I think, check a box for teams like the Chiefs, Bills and Eagles who have had holes at the run. running back position. That's take 1B. Take 1C. This tweet from the great Shil Capadia, he writes for the ringer. He has a podcast.

I don't know if you've heard of him. You should follow him. Handsome guy. Yeah, Hansi would describe him as a handsome bald Indian man is how I usually describe him. When I think of his journalistic skill, the first three assets that come to mind are handsome bald Indian. Broncos offense, 29th in EPA per drive, 30th and success rate, 31st and points per game, 31st and points per drive. Six weeks in

Russ offense temperature check-in, this is exactly what it looks like at the end of Seattle, man. There's running the ball constantly on early downs. You get to like a third and four and he has to drop back for more than two seconds and he's running around back there. The failed completion of KJ. Hamler in overtime,

he had the back out of the backfield right away for a first down and then Greg Dulcich underneath right away for a first down. And he pats and he dances and he lets pressure come in and then he attempts to double coverage toward Kaja Hamler. And you're like, yep, I've seen this play before. So it's fully devolving now. The run heaviness is the final piece of the puzzle where it's like, oh, yeah, we're just kind of back to our Seattle blueprint.

We're going to run the ball a lot. We're going to take deep shots. We can take our deep shots. And if Russ ever holds the ball for more than two and a half seconds, either something spectacular is going to happen, giant KJ Hamler throw or something horrible is going to happen. KJ. Hamler completion in overtime. There are my three mini takes from Monday Night Football dealer's choice.

I don't even know where to begin. Well, I'll just get this daily thing out of the way. I'm with you. I feel like it's been that way since really from week one to me. You know, he really, last year was defending all his takes and I was defending him a lot. He's been all over the map this year.

They haven't been consistent with their decision making. You know, at this point, like I'm kind of wondering what is it what's his differentiating factor as a head coach? I don't think this defense is very good. I don't think his game management is very good. I'm not sure what he's, you know, hiring a staff.

I'm sure that was something that was probably on your list, but you're probably like, we've already talked about this Chargers offense before. So I'm with you there. Yeah, absolutely. I don't know who the new poster child would be, but that's something we can brainstorm maybe for another episode. To Melvin Gordon, that's an interesting one. I'm with you.

He's not a difference making back to me. Yeah, if you're looking for sort of a complimentary depth type guy, I think he's someone that those teams would look at. So I was thinking the same thing as I watched him on the sideline there, just kind of, you know, standing in there with his arms crossed. He wasn't quite Robbie Anderson, right? He didn't get kicked out, did he?

No, but I'm saying if he needs to pull Robbie Anderson and then get treated to the Cardinals 24 hours later, maybe not the Cardinals, but like Gordon, I think, even though the camera's not catching him the same way, Robbie is, like there have been moments where you can say he's visibly upset with what's going on. And I think that that's going to spur a change. It's worth noting that, like, Gordon's benching,

from what I understand, we haven't really heard comments post-game, but Gordon's benching throughout the season so far, and fumbling issues, which certainly you don't want to bring to your team, but fumbling is really just like a luck thing. Fumbling is kind of like a chaos thing. In terms of like quality of running, like he's getting what's blocked for him.

He's breaking a tackle. Like he's not, he's not washed. This is a quality player. Yeah, I think, I think he's fine. I would agree with you there. And the Broncos offense, man,

you read out the stats. I just looked up. Honestly, I've been just like last week, I was sort of hesitant, right? They play that horrible game against the Colts on Thursday night.

Russ is just getting crushed from every angle. I mean, people are just coming out. It was like people were waiting for it. And I was like, you know what? This is a five-game sample. We have a 10-year history with this guy being able to lead efficient offenses. Like, are we sure that this isn't just maybe it's an injury? Maybe it's getting used to a new system, new players, whatever, that kind of thing.

And so I was kind of like, I'm not going to go all in on Russ things, this offense thinks. I'm going to wait a little bit. And then you watch the first quarter today. And, you know, when you're watching these games like we do with our jobs, sometimes you're like, oh, I had this take during the week and this is happening. And you start getting, okay, all right, maybe I get a lot wrong, but maybe I kind of got one right. He completes his first 10 passes. And you're thinking, okay, maybe there's something to it.

And that's it. I mean, that's it. The rest of the game, absolute disaster. Greg Rosenwald just tweeted they had negative 13 passing yards after a half time as a team. Oh, my gosh. It felt like a yardage. So sack yardage gets calculated into that. but they were not completing passes that gained yardage.

No, it was, I mean, zero. You said it. It's like when he was in Seattle and he felt pressure and his eyes would drop and he does like the thing you would teach no quarterback to ever do, but he made it work over and over again. And this game, I just felt like he was dropping back. And I mean, you said two seconds. It honestly felt like one second, one and a half second. All of a sudden, he's scrambling around.

And it's like, what's going on here? And he doesn't have the athleticism. It's obvious. I mean, he's running around there. He made the one play in the first half right before half time. And you thought, okay, he's moving around a little bit. But for the most part, if that's consistently what you're doing, he just looks like he does not have the athleticism to do that. And to me, honestly, it's a little puzzling to watch because I know that's his reputation. I covered the Seahawks in 2015 and 2016. And if you go back, and I know this is a long time ago now, But if you watch the second half of 2015, it felt like Russell Wilson had turned a corner.

I mean, he was operating from the pocket. The teams were zero blitzing him. And he was just dropping dimes to Tyler Lockett, to Doug Baldwin. And I keep thinking back to that. Like that version of Russell Wilson is kind of the guy he needs to be now. And it doesn't feel like he hasn't inside of him. And you mentioned it. I mean, I was going nuts at them just running into the, you know, I don't know if it was inside zone or duo, just inside run, inside run, first and second

down over and over and over and over again. Because Murray was just brought in, right? They're in the gun. Murray is like a yard and a half back, which is like a run tell. And they're basically just running zone because they can't run much else with them. They have a lot in their menu. But they don't necessarily have it all like installed the way they wanted to with Murray. So yeah, they ran they ran zone and duo.

But they're not going to run anything clever with him. He's only been in the building for eight days. Yeah, it's the old thing that like, you know, the great offenses, they're trying to avoid third down. They're trying to pick up a first down on first and second down. The Broncos, it felt like their whole goal was like, can we get to like a third and five and then who knows, maybe we'll see what happened. Their running backs ran 19 times for 75 yards on first and second down today.

That's 3.9 yards per carry. Honestly, that's like better than it felt like watching live. I guess he had the one 14-yard run there towards the end. So I don't have a solution. I mean, I don't know. He looks lost. Their offensive players look so frustrated. There was that shot of Jerry Judy going to the sideline and like joining Melvin Gordon there on the sideline.

I don't know if you saw that one where it felt like he just needed someone to vent to, you know? He was like, hey, you know how they force you to stay on the sidelines? I would love to get forced to stay on the sidelines right now. That's so great for me if they just wouldn't let me out on the field. Yeah, if you ever, like, I'm trying to think of a good analogy. If you're at like a social outing, maybe it's like a work dinner or, you know, I don't know. It's a party and you don't really want to go. And you're like, and you can tell someone who's like definitely not having a good time and you kind of go up.

Yeah, I kind of think this sucks also. That sort of felt like what Jerry Judy. was doing there. So, now, I don't know. I don't know how you can feel worse about this team. If you're a Broncos fan than you do right now. The defense, hey, they've got players. Patrick Sertan, baller, go buy his jersey for your kids, put all your stock into Patrick Sertan. He was amazing tonight. But some of their other defensive players, honestly, their defense played well tonight. Their defense has played well all season, but you just can't get over how lost that offense looks, especially compared to what your expectations were.

Yeah, you, the worst feeling you have. as a Broncos fan is that you can't take the Russell Wilson contract and just give it to a Giro Evereaux really quick. Because I tell you, please watching that young man's out the building next year. No chance he's a, hitching his horse to this wagon, or hitching his wagon to this horse, excuse me, for another year if he can choose it.

And secondly, what he's doing with, like, you got to remember, like they didn't have Justin Simmons the first few weeks. Derby's down. Randy Gregory's down. Like, it ain't even pretty either. No Joe Alex Singleton's in there. And they're just trucking along. It's really awesome to see. Yeah, they played

well, no doubt about it. All right. My first take, the Arizona Cardinals cannot run this back with Kyler Murray, Cliff Kingsbury, and Steve Kine in 2020. I see you read the piece I get to write that will be published on Friday. Is that right? Okay. Well, let's, that is correct. I look when that happens. Let's talk it out here. I mean, listen, this has been a topic of conversation really since early in the offseason when we all saw what was happening with that organization. But the way it's played out, and I forgive you, if you did not watch their game on Sunday. day, this game was a disaster. The Cardinals' offense failed to score a touchdown against the Seattle Seahawks. They kicked the field goal on their first drive and they failed to produce any

points on their next nine possessions. This was against a defense that was a complete mess through the first five weeks of the season, ranked 31st in EPA per drive. They couldn't do anything. I thought there was a stretch in the fourth quarter that really told the story of those three guys that I just mentioned, Kyler Murray, Cliff Kingsbury, and Steve Kyn, the GM, all whom, by the way, got extensions in the off season. Third down, Kyler Murray throws a pass behind Zacharts. Listen, I would like, I see Kyler Murray's talent like everyone else. Kyler Murray has not played well.

I mean, if you watch him, there are plays every week where you look at him and you say, wow, that's unbelievable. There's not a lot of quarterbacks who can do that. If you watch every play, you go, man, he is leaving a lot of plays and a lot of points on the table. He misses a throw. They face a fourth and two. Guess what? Cliff Kingsbury isn't prepared for a play call.

This happens every single week. This team waste timeouts like none other in the entire NFL. So he wastes a timeout, whatever. It's a high leverage situation. If you want to make sure you have the right call, I understand it. If you're doing it once in a while, it's fine. It frustrates me that they do it so often. And this is a close game where you need your timeouts, but whatever.

They come back out onto the field. A receiver falls down. The offensive line gets beat and Murray gets sacked on fourth and two. And so now you're seeing some of the deficiencies in the roster, which Steve Kahn is responsible for. And this team has just been so disorganized the entire season, week in and week out, wasted timeouts, game management errors. Murray is not playing well. They trade a sixth and a seventh for Robbie Anderson today, which it's like, okay, that's fine. I don't really care. It's a sixth and a seven. But did you honestly need to give? I don't even know

that you had to give off even that much for Robbie Anderson, given what we saw on the sidelines there. he's going to replace Markey's Brown. That's really not going to change anything for the Arizona Cardinals. And so as an organization, I just look at it. Cliff Kingsbury is now 26, 28, and 1 as a head coach. This will be their fourth, this is their fourth season together. I don't like to call for people to get fired, but I was thinking back on that homework clause, which we all make fun of.

And I think one thing, great clause, unbelievable content. Please have more of those in your contracts going forward. players, coaches, GM's owners, anyone who is listening. Agents, we really appreciate those. I would accept the homework clause in my next contract with the ringer exclusively for the bit. There you go. But the one thing I was thinking about just today, as I was getting ready for the pot,

is that that clause told us that Cliff Kingsbury doesn't understand what his job is, and the organization doesn't understand what his job is. The job of the head coach is to connect with the players on the roster, maximize their potential of each and everyone. Does Murray have to take responsibility? Yes, absolutely. But you reach him through human interaction, through this thing called coaching,

not through a clause in his freaking contract. So this team just frustrates me to know when. Again, they all got extensions in the offseason so it could get a little bit messy. But I just cannot see a scenario where you bring these three people back in 2023 and expect different results. That might sound crazy to say after week six,

But I couldn't get that out of my head as I watched that game against the Seahawks. No, it's extremely important because your pillars of your team are quarterback, head coach, general manager, right? This is what we build around. These are the three pillars of the team. And when the team starts playing poorly, you say, all right, like, you know, you three are responsible for turning this around. And then after some time, if they don't turn around, you say, okay, somebody's got to go.

We have to make a change somewhere. This isn't working without winning football games. You might feel like it's unfortunate. It sucks. There's a lot of other reasons why, but one of the three of you has to go. This is just how football works. You're going to make a change of head coach,

make a change your head coach, make a change of a change of quarterback. The Cardinals placed themselves in a unique position by extending all three members of that triumvirate this past off season, which is basically a clear message. Like, the only other teams you see do this are teams that win Super Bowls. And the Cardinals got ousted in the first round of the NFC playoffs. Disasterous second half of the season. season, yeah. Yes. You're saying, hey, not a single one of you, not a single one of you three

is in jeopardy of being exposed as the weak pillar in our team building structure. Which makes the Cardinals next step fascinating. Yeah. Because, okay, like, you're not winning because of, you know, you're not winning, but you have these three pillars. You've invested on these three pillars. You've said with your money that these three pillars are the problem solvers. Okay. So you must need to changes elsewhere, right? They also extended everybody else. They sent it to Jalen Thompson. They sent him DJ Humphreys.

They got multiple first round draftings starting on the defensive line. They got J2 Watt in the building. Traded for Dianch Hopkins. Trade it for Marquis Brown. Trade him for Robbie Anders. Zach Kurtz. Yeah. Every dude that, yeah, they extended Zach Hertz.

Every dude on the whole team is a guy that they went and acquired for this coaching staff by this front office with this quarterback at the helm. There is no like, oh, the, the line is left over from the last guy's tenure. No, they're all guys acquired by this triumvirate. This, this thing taken to the Arizona Cardinals. So you can't even be like, oh, like, if we were just better at the line and better at receiver and better at corner. No, those are all the guys that you knew you had when you made these extensions. So now it goes back to, okay, you have to get rid of one of the three, even though you just extended them. It's legitimately fascinating to consider what the Cardinals are going to do next, because no team

has ever painted themselves this clearly into a corner before. And the other thing is the politics of it and how NFL organizations work. I mean, you mentioned one of the three. It feels sort of like a two-verse-one, you know, GM and coach or quarterback. And so if you look at it, you know, you would think the harder thing to find is the quarterback. If you believe in the quarterback's talent, but then you look at it. The owner is the one who signs off on that clause in his contract. and the owner, the GM has the owner's ear.

I mean, Steve Kime has survived several coaches in Arizona. We see this with some organization. So I don't know how it's going to play out. I just know that from what I've seen after six weeks, and hey, listen, maybe DeAndre Hopkins will come back and they'll win some games. I don't think that they're going to win a lot of games, even though I do think he's a difference maker for that offense. I think it's going to end with some major moves for them in the off season.

All right, what do you have for your second take? Second take. The Tampa Bay Buccaneers need a software update. The biggest loss, or excuse me, the largest favorite to lose a game this year is now officially the Tampa Bay Buccaneers, who entered the game against the Pittsburgh Steelers anywhere from a 9 to 10 point favorite, and subsequently lost 2218, I think it was. That's right.

A team that was co-quarterbacked by Kenny Pickett and then Mr. Chubisky. beat the Tom Brady-led buccaneers. And there's a lot of reasons why the bucks are like, you know, not great, shaky injury-wise, been an issue. Obviously, like head coach Bruce Ariens is retired, and they kept kind of the same think tank. Todd Bowles steps up from defense coordinator to head coach, and Byron left, which is still the office coordinator.

So you kind of think everything's still going to be hunky-dory, but it's not. The bucks have struggled on offense. Again, riddled with injuries on the offensive front. But Bowles had a comment in the post game where he was kind of asked about, generallyena of ESPN asked about, like, how they took the Steelers seriously and kind of like what the, the culture's like and whatever.

And Bowles gave the comment of, we didn't take them lightly, number one. Number two, I think guys that are living off the Super Bowl are living in a fantasy land. You get your hands dirty and go to work with everybody else. We've been working hard and we've got to work harder.

No one's going to give us anything. Yada, y'all. Coach speaks, coach speak. But that idea of like, we're living off the Super Bowl and living in a fantasy land is an interesting one because I don't know who that's about exactly.

Yeah. It doesn't feel like you can, be about Tom? Like, I don't know Brady to be a guy who kind of rests on his laurels. Defensively, like, it's not like Levante David's just chilling. Like, I don't like Jack Barrett's still great. Like, I don't know what to read into that. But what I do know is that the Buccaneers have a style of calling plays that is causing them issues,

particularly their run heaviness on early downs. This from Paul Atwell, from Pewter Report, which is the side of the covers the Buccaneers. To this point in the season, six weeks through. the Bucs are sixth in drop back per a drop back EPA per play and they are 32nd in Rush EPA per play. The sixth best team in the league when they drop back to pass,

32nd team in the league, which is there's only 32 teams. That's the worst you can be when they handed a football off. Yet they are 20th in first down pass rate at 42%. So on first in tens, because it excludes like first and 20,

which obviously a little bit different. On first and tens, the bucks hand the football off, 58% of the time. They are the worst rush offense in the league. And they're doing this, having done this for the past few seasons, if you look at the buck's general neutral down pass rate, like, are you throwing it like second and seven, like third and four,

when you're like kind of like right on where you hope to be as an offense? They're generally pretty pass heavy. But on first and 10, since Byron left, which became the O.C. And when Bruce Arons was the head coach, and now when Todd Bowles the head coach, they have ran the ball on first and 10. religiously. Previously in Tampa Bay, the margins were wide enough

that we were all like, that's dumb, and then we moved forward because their defense was killing dudes. The running game was actually working pretty well, right? Rob Goncowski blocking in the building. And you get Chris Gobind on the duo runs. They had Ali Marpet. They had Ryan Jensen. They had whoever the third one was,

their interior prize name. I can't recall now. Kappa. Kappa. Alex Kappa, yeah. It was okay. They were running the ball well. enough and Brady was excellent. The receivers

were great and everything was fine. The margins are a lot more narrow, right? You endured to head coaching change. Even if you keep the guys in the same building, there's going to be growing pains. Defense isn't as dominant as it was during the Super Bowl run. And now you have Luke Gedeky and Robert Haney's playing along the offensive line, not nearly the talent you previously did. Lenny doesn't look as

rejuvenated as he did when you first got him. And teams are kind of keyed in all the way you like to run the football. It gronks gone. You don't have the pieces you did. So, you escaped with this. You probably sat there and thought to yourself, man, our first and 10 runs,

do such a good job setting up our play action passes. That wasn't true. You convinced yourself it was true because we won a Super Bowl believing it. But you got to update your philosophy now with the new information, which is, man, all we do is run the ball on first downs.

And whenever we run the ball on first downs, we're putting ourselves in horrendous situations offensively in the second half against the Steelers. in a game that was within reach the entire time for them. They had 10 first downs and ran it on eight of them and had a successful run on one of the eight. You're putting yourself in second,

you're essentially wasting a down every single offensive series, which because you're not as explosive throwing the football, you're not only seeing five or six first downs in a drive. You're seeing seven to eight first downs in a drive. Every time you do it, you're setting yourself up to see it again and make the same mistake again. It compounds. So the bucket of your first down,

have health issues, they're going to get healthier, defense's going to get better, I think Tampa's going to be okay. The South is kind of interesting I think the Falcons are cool, but I think Tampa's going to be all right. With that said,

let this moment of like weakness, let this moment of losing to the Steelers in very embarrassing fashion shine light on a fallacy, which is that this first and 10 running approach is excusable. It isn't. You are leaving a ton of meat on the bone

when you do it. It's hurting your team. Yeah, watching that game and what you said is absolutely true. If you look at first and second down, they're still up there. But like you mentioned, on first down. So run heavy. I think maybe that's part of the point.

The other point is just how bad they are running the football in those situations. They're definitely what you brought up. I mean, they're way worse than they were last year. They're averaging 3.37 yards per carry on first and second down. That ranks 31st in the NFL. It stood out clearly in that Steelers game. 21 runs for 62 yards on early downs, versus the Steelers.

2.95 yards per carry. I mean, you're just wasting downs at that point, which is what it felt like as you were watching it. And I'm watching that game going, you know what? Brady's still making some amazing throws. The arm still looks good. Okay, Godwin's back.

Evans is there. They've still got Gage. The left guard, Gedeke. Is that a... Gadecki was having a real tough day. And it was very frustrating. It was some issues. Yeah, the Buc's run menu is so simple.

They run like two things. They kept on trying to run. behind Godeky. And every time the Steelers was like Cam Hayward, all world defensive tackle. Yeah. The only good player

we have healthy right now because T.J. Watts out and Megafist Patrick's out. Yeah. Find the rookie. Line up opposite him. Ruin his day. They did it for four quarters.

And there was no update. There was no adjustment. Frustrating to watch. It's, uh, it's, to, to Ringer, uh, it's, uh,

the vibes are weird in Tampa. There's no doubt about it. Given Brady's off season. given Brady coming back, given boldest comments that you mentioned there. It's all just very strange, and yet I still watch it. And I go, all right, December might roll around and we might say, oh, man, Tampa got it together, and they're playing well. That would not shock me because I still think they have the pieces.

You know, you know, if you wanted a really spicy take for the show, what you could have gone with this, thought has crossed my mind to break out one of these weeks. The Bucks really miss Bruce Ariens. Bruce Ariens got to be sitting there with a cocktail. going, oh, anyone made fun of me, huh? Everyone made fun of me. He said I wasn't doing anything. Made fun of my man purse that I was wearing with my headset there and saying, I'm not a big

reason. And oh, Tom wanted me out. Well, now look at it. Now what does that offense look like? So maybe we'll save that for week nine or ten if they continue to show them. How dare you call the Darth Vader Strav a man purse? That's my favorite piece of coach Accoutremaq wardrobe, you know, accessory that's ever existed. Just every single week, you would come out with a larger mic back.

just expanding over his chest. He's becoming part Android. Love it from Bruce Ariens. That's what Todd Bowles and Byron left, which need. Software update in the physical mic pack. Got to get those back on the sideline. There you go. All right.

My second take, this is good because it kind of relates to that game. Week six belonged to the OG coaches. Okay, so too often, when we talk about coaching, what do we always talk about? And I do it as much as anybody. I love doing it on the show. Game management, fourth down. clock management, all this stuff. I'm guilty of it. We focus on in-game decision-making,

which I think is very important, which I think is fascinating because we can see it play out and we can have our own opinions. But there are so many other aspects to coaching that are way more important than that. And I looked at week six, and I looked at what Pete Carroll was doing to Cliff Kingsbury. And I look at what Pete Carroll's done this season with Gino Smith, with two rookie offensive tackles, with two starting rookie corner. And I look at a team that's competitive every week that's three and three. You can see the players improving. You can see the player development with a guy like their quarterback to Rick Wollin.

The offense, fourth in EPA per drive with Gino Smith. I mean, think about that with Gino Smith and two rookie tackles. And you have a top five offense through the first six weeks of the season. So have I criticized Pete Carroll about the in-game stuff before? Yeah, absolutely. You go look in my archives and it's going to be in there. But look at what Pete Carroll's doing here as they do. turn the chapter as he's the oldest coach in the NFL. They're three and three. And you just look at it.

Are they maximizing the talent on the roster? Yes. Does the culture look strong? Yes. Is the player development look strong? Yes. Are they exceeding expectations? Yes. Are they winning games his underdogs? Yes. All those things. And so I wanted to give him credit. The other two coaches that stood out to me, Bill Belichick against the Browns. I mean, talk about putting players in position to succeed. That is the very core of coaching. Bailey, Freaking Zappy, man. Play action. Seven for eight, 165 yards. Guys, wide open. Offensive guru, Matt Patricia, as we've been saying on this show many times. Well, listen, that's the other thing. In August September, it was like, is he really going to just hand the keys to Matt Patricia?

Bill Belichick could be the best offensive coordinator in the NFL if he wanted to do that. So it was like, well, what's this control really going to look like? But you look at that, you look at what they do with Zappi, a rookie quarterback, the way he's played the last. two weeks, specifically the way he played last weekend, they've had 10 rookies play at least 10 snaps in that game Sunday. Again, you're getting young players. They're improving under your watch. They have a top five defense right now. I mean, the last two weeks, their defensive performances against the Lions and Browns have been outstanding. And so I think Bill Belichick's another guy stood out to me, Underdog at Cleveland. They win that game. And then the last one,

Mike Tomlin. I mean, you said it. Biggest underdog win for a team all season. I didn't realize who was playing on defense for that football team on Sunday. Holy cow. James Fierre, maybe. Oh, my gosh, Jackson. No T.J. Watt. No Minka Fitzpatrick. They're down four starting defensive backs against Tom freaking Brady.

They lose their quarterback Kenny Pickett in the middle of the game. They got a brig in Trubisky who was benched the previous week. They're getting contributions for. from guys like, you said it, James Pierre, Arthur Millett, Malik Reed, Trey Norwood. These are the guys playing. Blake Reed's a good player. He's a good player. He's a good player.

He's not Minka Fitzpatrick. He's not TJ. You know, that was actually a hard exercise to take notes on because I was like, oh, Miles Jack's having a good game. But, you know, my people know Miles Jack. David. Devin Bush had a big pass break. Holy smokes.

What the freak is this, Devin Bush been? Connor Hayward with the 45. yard catch-a-one when they used tempo. Yeah, the bucks were trying to call time out. They thought they got it. So they all just stood up. Yeah, Connor Hayward, baby. That's how he scripted it.

So, I mean, the Steelers coming off a blowout loss against the bills. They looked like one of the worst teams in the league. It looked like this might be the season where they completely go in the tank. That win to me is Mike Tomlin. That win to me is built up over years in spring practices, in training camp practices, in meeting rooms, in the building. in Pittsburgh, all of that leading to the culture that says, nope, this thing is not going to go down the tube so quickly. Yes, we can come out despite not having any of our best players and going up

against Tom Brady and the Bucks, and we can win this game. So there are all these things that are hard to quantify with coaching culture, player development is the whole greater than the sum of the parts, all these things that matter, relationships, leadership, game planning. And I just think, I'm probably speaking to myself. I should be looking in the mirror here. I should have a mirror. You have to weigh those things more so than you do watching a game on a Sunday and saying they botched the clock. Don't get me wrong. I'm still going to make fun of that. I'm still going to criticize him for that. I'm sure we'll talk about those instances here. But that week six with those three coaches really served as a good reminder to myself about the big picture stuff that really matters more than kind of that little stuff. Yeah, I think the paradigm I always go back to is there are things that are evident, right?

there is a availability bias in how we evaluate coaches. Yes. I watch the Broncos play the Chargers. I see the Broncos take a timeout to get a third down play call in with 2.30 left. And I go, that's bad. It's a very bad time to waste the timeout. I know it is. I've watched enough football.

I know how timeouts might be used. That was bad. That was a coaching error. And then on Tuesday, in the office at 4 p.m., Nate Hackett tells, you know, like give some tough love to a sixth round rookie who made a mistake on special teams. And he, that six round rookie ends up working really hard, makes a great special teams play the next week. And I go, oh, go play that guy. And at no point do I think about Nate Hackett at all because that coaching process wasn't

evident to me. It wasn't available. So there's an availability heuristic, right? There's a, we're biased to the things we can see. And so for a lot of these culture coaches, it's like, okay, you aren't calling plays. You know, you don't see you on the headstake and drop your schemes, this, that, and the other thing. And the same words that, you say in press conferences or the words that other coaches say, because they just kind of copy it and all coach speak as coach speak, Mike Talman, notwithstanding because Mike Tomlin just says, Mike Tomlin, like, sometimes you got red paint the bar in red.

I don't even know what that means, but I trust you Mike Tomlin. But generally, like, it's just kind of like everything is the same. It's difficult to discern what these guys do well. And that's why whenever you, you know, every offseason, we'll do it this off season. We'll do like, oh, rank your top 10 coaches. Tenure really matters, man. If you've been there for a long time and you have a sustained history of success,

Carol, Belichick, Tomlin, Reed, that just puts a hardball in Baltimore. That just puts you in a different tier because there's clearly things you're doing that I might not be able to measure but the proof of the put is in the eating. You're winning a lot of games and your job's not in jeopardy. That means you're coaching well.

Yeah, well said. I think I shared it on, I think another show, but not on extra point taken. My Tomlinism was I went to my daughters, like, you know, go back to school night where you meet with the, you're in the teacher's classroom and her teacher was very nice saying,

you know, I want every student here to be comfortable regardless of what's going on in my home. And I'm just thinking I had just listened to Tomlin. I think it was after we had gotten back from our Steelers' escape. But I'm going, we do not seek comfort. But I'm just saying that in my head, I'm like whispering it to my wife afterwards. She's like, shut up. What are you doing?

Shut up. We're listening to the teacher. But yeah, Tomlin's in my head. He's a little bit different. All right. Number three, what do you got, Betty Soles? Cleveland Brown's fans. Deshawn Watson is not going to save this season.

there's a lot of narratives and through lines and arcs and trying to figure out what's going on in Cleveland. But lay of the land, Cleveland has lost games now to the Jets. You're like, okay, maybe the Jets are like a little better than we thought. The Falcons, okay, maybe the Falcons like a little bit better than we thought. The Chargers are good. 23 points to the Bailey Zappy led Patriots.

Are we officially now in the area where the Browns are losing games to bad teams? Right, they had the winner of the Steelers in prime time, and then a week one, two-point win against the Panthers, who we now know to be abysmal in the Baker-Mayfield revenge games. They're two and four with wins over the Panthers and the Steelers. Really concerning outlook. Even more worrisome is if you're telling me that the guy you're paying a massive contract to,

your starting quarterback you went out and acquired, isn't playing yet, that I'm assuming the issue with your team is the offense. It isn't. No. Kobe Bressett's playing just fine. You're running the football well. David and Joku's become what you wanted him to become.

Amari Cooper has not been great, but he's been pretty much what you acquired. You got your support as you were one. This defense is really bad. This defense is really, really bad. Right now, Rush EPA per play allowed. The Browns are last with a bullet. 1.162.

There's not, there's like three passing games in the league that are more effective every down. Passing offenses, than the rushing offense facing the Browns is effective. It's unbelievable. And the crazy thing is success rate, success rate, they're pretty good. It's just when they give up runs,

they give up massive, huge, explosive runs. Yes. Their point 162, 30th, so they're 32nd, 30th is the Packers at 0.08, half of their number. Wow. This is a astoundingly, shockingly, unacceptably poor running defense.

Overall, defense-wise, they are second worst by EPA for play, only to the Detroit Lions. By DVOA, they are second worst, only to the Detroit Lions. By points for play, they are second worst, only to the Detroit Lions. So congratulations to the brows for avoiding 32nd because Detroit is somehow even worse, but this is a woeful, dreadful defense. There's a few reasons for that. And there's, you know, there's injuries.

I understand that. No Miles Garrett for a game. No, David and Clowney for a couple of games. They've had issues in the secondary. I get it. I know it's tough. Bron and Joe Woods coordinated defense. Spent time in San Francisco,

spent time with Denver Broncos on Advanced Joseph. We're going to run the quarter stuff. We're going to run the Brandon Staley stuff. Let's get Troy Hill in here. We're going to do it. We're going to do the new thing. That requires specific players. We've now seen this defense for long enough.

We've seen the issues with it, Joe Barry and Green Bay, seeing the issues with it with Brandon's Daly when he went to the Chargers, having left the Rams, that you can't run this unless you are very serious about your interior front. You cannot run this unless you are gobbling up space with highly talented dudes in the inside, right?

The Eagles who have like Vic Fangio working with their defense drafted Jordan Davis in top 15 with this theory in mind. Like we need a nose tackle, two for one in the interior. So this defense, this philosophy, paired with a front office that is so analytically oriented that they are going to get penetration sack TFL players at the edge. They're going to get stark corners

because those are premier positions on defense, and then everywhere else they're just going to go for height weight speed. They do not gel. This defensive interior is starting on a weekly basis. Jordan Elliott, third round pick out of Missouri, penetration player, Taven Brian, first round bust,

Florida to Jacksonville, three technique, penetration player, Perry on Winfrey, third round pick, Oklahoma, bowling ball frame, penetration player, and then Tommy Tonguey, fourth round pick out of Ohio State, who is kind of the model that you need, but also was a fourth round pick as a second year played of Ohio State.

That's the entire defensive interior. There's not a single impact player there, notwithstanding the fact that they don't even have a nose. There's not even a guy that plays the role that you need to run this defense. It's just all penetration. So it doesn't jive with what Joe Woods needs. There's a disconnect there.

And then the guy, that they got to get this thing done, right? Jeremiah Osukoramo, we bring him in, you know, okay, we drafted Greg Newsom, we extended Denzo Ward, you know, we have John Johnson. They don't tackle them. Yes. We're all small.

That's what stood out to me. We're all explosive. We're going to play zone. We're going to have eyes on guys. We're going to match dudes. They're all too small. Denzel Ward's a great corner. Greg Newsom's a really good corner, too.

Like, they should be better than they are. The reason is they can't tackle because you, if you're going to put this many defensive backs on the field, teams are going to get big on. you, watch that Patriots film, watch that Falcons film. It's a bloodbath. They're going to get big on you, and they're going to tell you to play pro-man football for 60 minutes. They're too small.

Like, J.O.K's a good player. He's too small. They do not have the size to run this style of defense. They've over analytics. They have jumped on the shark there. But this is what it is when you go analytics. It's high-weight speed, highway speed. We don't invest in linebacker, right?

We don't invest in interior defense of line. Those guys are runstoppers. The rundowns aren't valuable. We're going to be fast. We're going to be explosive. We're going to be a little blitz. We're going to defend the pass. Yeah.

The Falcons are just bigger than you. The Patriots just walked on the field and we're larger than the Browns for four quarters. And then, yeah, Bailey Zappy goes eight for nine for 117 yards, two touchdowns, I'll play action. Because eventually at some point, it's just free because you're so worried about the way you're getting Big Boyd up front. So the Brown's defense is a huge issue.

This is the second worst defense in the league, but it's really bad numbers wise. It's dreadful. That's not going away. nobody on the way here. Anthony Walker ain't coming back and solving this problem for everybody. It's not going to happen. So, okay, Deshawn comes back after 11 weeks.

The AFC North isn't winning that many games. Maybe you're still within range. He's not solving your problems. I was about to say, like, I wish you would, but I don't wish you would because I don't wish Ash would solve their problems. But he isn't. This defense is going to be extra for you no matter who's playing quarterback if you're trying to make playoffs.

Yeah, it's, I totally agree with the point. and it's been uncomfortable to talk about this team, really, at least for my, I'll just speak for myself personally, to talk about what's going on on the field, really since the preseason to now. It just felt like, you know, you kind of get that feeling like, all right, do I really want to be breaking it down? But you're, it's going unsaid. But honestly, Kevin Stefansky has done an outstanding job with that offense.

I mean, if you would have told me this offense would have performed like this and the games without Deshawn Watson, their third in EPA per drive behind the chiefs and the bills. I know Bressett's had some big errors in big spots, high leverage situations, interceptions. He did not play well last week. But if you look at it on the whole through six weeks, it goes to your point. Because how much better can that, is that offense really going to get? Are they going to be better than the bills or the chiefs? And they're not going to change identity-wise. They're not going to get Deshaun and start being 65% pass. This team runs football. So they're going to be in the same thing. Yeah. We wish they

do a great, great job doing that. So you're right. I mean, there's not like, like, If they were at this same point, but the offense ranked 22nd, then you could say, okay, yeah, there's an easy path. He's going to come in. You're going to get an upgraded quarterback to survive until then, and you're going to be good. But that's not really been the case. The offense has been really, really freaking good. If you look at the first six games, the defense has not been good at all. The tackling thing really stood out to me watching that game against the Patriots when it got to Johnson or Delpit or Emerson or whoever else was in the secondary.

Like, it was over. They had no chance. They were getting run over. And so it goes to that theoretical idea of if you are a defense and the other team, like I would always say against the chiefs, you know, if Patrick Mahomes is handing the ball off and I'm a defensive coordinator, I'm in the booth clapping. And that's true to a degree, to an extent, until you have some of these games like you've had the last two weeks where you're just getting completely gashed.

And oh, by the way, you're also not stopping the past last week against Bailey Zappy. So I'm with you. I don't know what their fix is. I was kind of bullish on their defense coming into the season. I think they were 11th in DVOA last year. And I figured, hey, you have Garrett and Clownie back, even if Clowny's not going to play the whole season, you have two outstanding corners.

I mean, really, if you just look at cover skills, Newsom and Word are probably up there with any duo in the NFL. And I thought, okay, most teams aren't going to just match up and run the ball and push you around and take advantage of how you're soft in the interior. The last two weeks, that's absolutely happened. And we'll see, you know, they'll still have to, do they have the Ravens next week, I think? So, hey, that's a team that, yeah, they will gladly run the football on you. So we'll see what happens there.

And also their schedule, by the way, I think. I was going to say the last note of this all is, okay. At Ravens, home bangles, at Dolphins, at Bills, home buccaneers, at Texans, at Bengals, home Ravens, Saints, Commander, Steelers. Brown's got to play some teams. It's not going to be. This is a long road to hoe for Cleveland. Yeah, that's going to be tough.

Absolutely. All right. My last one, I feel like a jerk for doing this one, but here's how I feel. The Jets are going to face the most interesting offseason quarterback decision in the NFL. Jet fans, the Jets. Don't yell at me, Jets fans. I know you're saying, Shia, why are you doing this? We just won a game.

We're feeling good about ourselves. We got some good vibes going. And now you're bringing up the offseason. We don't care about the off season. We're entertained for the first time. But as I'm watching that game against the Packers last week, I thought, you've got some nice pieces on this roster. I love Sauce Gardner.

My gosh, he looks good. Their cornerbacks look good. DJ Reed looks good. Their defense, Quinn and Williams. Oh, my gosh. Sheldon Rankins coming out. Lawson. They got guys making plays up and down the defensive line.

This was the vision. You know, when I did my ranking, ranking all the defenses in August, I thought this Jets team. They're deep up front. If Gardner's good right away, this can be an interesting defense. It didn't happen right away, but it looks like it's happening now. They were outstanding. They pushed around the Packers for that entire game up front on Sunday with that win.

So I like that. Offensively, I'm looking at it going, they got some pieces. They got some wide receivers, Scoury Davis. They've got Elijah Moore. They've got Garrett Wilson. They've got some pieces on the offensive line. Breeze Hall with an outstanding game and an outstanding Danning Run.

Reese looks awesome. That play was so good. He looked great. And Mike Lafleur, honestly, I thought the last two years, I'm like, is this one of the most underrated offensive coordinators in the NFL? Because I feel like he's working around a lot of problems. And I watch them sometimes. And I go, hey, he's creative.

He's putting players in position to succeed. I mean, that game on Sunday, the end around to Barrios, the trap to Breece Hall. Was that like a wing team? Was that like a wing T play that the Eagles did to Aguilar and the playoffs? It looked like that. I've only seen it live. I had watched El 20, too. I think it's supposed to be a reverse and it gets broken and Breach just turns up field.

Like to me, it looks totally messed up. And then Breeze is like, all right, I'm just going to go get whatever I can get. And then he turns up field. It's like, oh, there's nobody here. And it's like, yeah, that's great. But like on a snap to snap basis, he's running the ball exactly the way you want him to run it. And he's explosive. When he gets to the second level, he makes guys miss.

Breast was really good. So I like a lot of the players around the course. I like the play calling. They had a double move to Corey Davis that Wilson under threw. It gained like 42 yards. It easily could have been a touchdown. And then I just can't get there with Zach Wilson. Now it's been three games.

Listen, it's been three games this season. Maybe he'll improve. If you're a Jets fan and you're still bullish on the guy, there's a scenario where December rolls around. He's getting it. He's improving. And this is looking like a very stupid take. But that's why we do these every week because we want to know how are we feeling in the moment.

And I'm just looking at it going, And if the rest of the season, if they're a frisky team, you know, if they're competitive, if they've got a lot of things you like about them, but you don't love the quarterback and the quarterback doesn't play well and he's healthy the rest of the season, what are you going to do in the off season? Are you just going to run it back with him knowing kind of the pressure that maybe the front office and the coaching staff could be feeling, knowing some of the positive pieces you have around the quarterback offensively, defensively with the coaching staff? And so I feel like they are going to end up being a very interesting team by the time January or February rolls around,

where it's a team we're not thinking about now as a team that could be in the market for a quarterback, but a team that could say, you know what, I know maybe the smart move is to stay patient and give them another year, but we like our roster right now, and we're going to kind of pull the trigger and make a move. The thing for me is, like I've sensed. the BYU days, I've been like, I'm not really it on Zach Wilson. I was like, I like Justin Fields more. And maybe I'm a total idiot for that because like Fields and Chicago is a mess. But I never like fully got it with Zach Wilson.

You were relying a lot on peak plays, right? You were relying on like arm talent and like this one throw against Western Kentucky and kind of whatever, whatever, whatever. If that sort of a player is going to develop into a really quality starter, the typical example that everybody uses is Josh Allen, right? Alan had such incredible beat plays and whatever. Right. You're not going to get that out of Zach because he's not a big, right?

He's never going to be that much. His arm is good. It's not that good. He's not going to be that good of a runner. Like, you're not going to get that return. However, if you are going to get return on a player who's built on peak plays, he needs what Josh Allen got, which is time. And if you can cheese your way with two running backs

and wide receiver versus Brax and Berrios and this, that, and the other thing, cheese your way to a good offensive season. You get the cover to say, yeah, we're bringing Zach by next year. He was good. He's still developing. You know, we like what we're seeing with him. He's in the building every single day. We like our weapons.

were really good. And that gives you a time to let him keep playing, which if Zach's going to end up good, it's going to be because he got to play a lot. It's going to be because he got in a good environment, with a good offensive coordinator, with all the positives the Jets have going, he got opportunities to develop.

And the Jets have that groundwork laid. All they have to do is win games, who go on defense, get enough cover to, you know, coaching staffs here for another year, and we keep this train running. The other thing is that Zach can stay healthy. Because Zach got missed time last year and he's missed time this year.

He's a thinner dude. So keep Zach upright, stay healthy, continue to be fine on offense. As long as Zach's not shooting you in the foot, you get another year to bring him around. And that to me is that if Zach Wilson is going to end up good, he needs that year. So I think if they're good on offense,

they'll keep them because they know that that development time is necessary for a player like this to become quality. It's a good point on the peak place. I honestly don't see the peak plays yet, but that is you're right. I wrote about Wilson last year. It was after the Saints game. The Jet fans were irate with me.

you draft him for the peaks and you weren't getting the peaks. Like his arm wasn't making the throws, everything like that. Right. His first game back, week four. So who are they playing? Dolphins? No, those week five. Whoever they were playing a week four,

there were some throws where it was like, okay, I'm there. This one we drafted, this game against the Packers. It was just all short stuff, which I think is a little bit like how the Packers played defense. I think that you've seen some peak stuff so far this season.

Okay. All right. Well, so I think that's a good point, though, what to watch? Don't just look at the final numbers. Do you see those flashes every week that get you excited? All right, Ben, close us out with the extra point taken.

Hence the show name. Yes, extra point for this week. We have this discussion. I feel like every few years we're going to have it again. Parity in the NFL isn't fun. I just don't. I go back and forth on it. I convince myself that I like it sometimes and then like wacky stuff.

happens that it's good. And certainly, like, if I were not a analyst whose job is to try to explain what's going on and then predict what's going to happen, uh, I would probably like parody more, but parity makes a job difficult because I'm like, yeah, the, the team with the fourth round rookie from Western Kentucky is not going to be good at throwing the football. And then they are. And it's like, okay, well, that's annoying. So parody is tough for that reason. And then also I bet on the NFL, right? I do gambling content and I bet. And parody is tough or betters because we like it when the good teams are clearly good and the bad teams are clearly bad. And then it's because then you can figure out who's going to win and then you can make money on it.

So if I, you know, there are regular consumers who like parity and like the chaos of it, I don't fall into that bucket. And so for me, like, I don't enjoy parity. What I do like about parity is this. We've talked about this before. We talk about it with like the Kyle Shanahan system specifically and it gets covered in different ways. But the NFL is just simply never, ever, ever been better at raising the floor of quarterback play, at least not in my memory of the last, you know, kind of 20 years of football,

where you had that period. in the post-manning, post-Breeze, post-Bradie era, where everybody in their mama was trying to get themselves a, you know, pocket passing, read the field, dice it up, West Coast offense quarterback. And we realized, okay, those guys don't grow on trees. And then you had the swing to athleticism, right? And you had your, sort of like your, you know, RG3s get selected and whatever.

But then you have your, you know, 2017 draft. And you have Josh Allen, you have Lamar Jackson. And you have this move to more physical quarterbacks. You're able to do stuff with their legs, Marcus Mario dexterson and Carson Wentz and this whole series of quarterbacks. In that process, we found out with more mobile quarterbacks

and with the development of the Shanahan system that there's a lot of ways to win football games with mediocre quarterbacks. You look at what Atlanta's doing right now with Marcus Marioada attempting six passes. You know what I'm saying? Right? And he's not even like bat and good of a runner. You look at what the Giants are doing with Daniel Jones

and just kind of using him as like, hey, you're kind of like a tight end. Do you want to run around a lot? That's pretty cool. You look at what the Jets were able to do with Zach Wilson, right? You look at the way that even the, the, the Panthers, horrible, terrible, disgusting offense with PJ Walker, kept it close with the Rams from three quarters.

Like, we've never been better at raising the floor of quarterback play. Bad quarterbacks can go on the field, and they can put up 38 points against the Cleveland Brown's defense with Matt Patricia's their offensive coordinator. Because we've just figured out how to work around these guys. That's awesome for the league writ large. It means a lot more quarterbacks get the opportunity to develop, a lot more younger quarterbacks get time in the league.

It's just good for quarterback and good for offense period. Even if it makes it inconvenient for Ben to figure out who the good teams are, talk about them and make money off them. And it relates to the offseason point that I always make, which is do not pay up for competent quarterback play. You only pay up if you see the ceiling because competent quarterback play, like you said, has never been easier to achieve. If you have a coach whose team stinks and you say,

oh, it's just the personnel, well, is he at least trying stuff? I think that speaks to what you're saying with the Falcons and Giants. You know what? We all see the personnel limitations. Is the coach going to try stuff to put that player in a position to succeed? Or are they just going to throw them out there? I mean, look at the Giants last year.

You know, they weren't doing any of this. They had pretty much the same personnel on offense, and they weren't doing any of this, and they had the worst offense in the entire league. So I think that that is a good point to end on. All right, Benny Souls, what do you have to plug this week? What are the 30 things you're working on? Oh, man.

I think I'm right about the Giants for Wednesday. Okay. Maybe not. I don't remember. We'll be on the play sheet on Wednesday, SPU, so it will probably something Kansas City bills. I haven't officially decided yet,

but it feels like you got to talk about that game, right? Like I said, Cardinals on Friday, be on the ring NFL show on this feed, be on the Philly Special by week, but we're 6 and 0. So we kind of just, you know, just me,

you're just kind of talk about being 6 and 0, generally being undefeated, not losing a game, win forever, things of that nature. Okay. Sounds good. There you go.

I'll be back on Thursday with the Scramble. Danny Kelly, the great Danny Kelly, will be joining me. If you have a mailbag question, email it to the scrambled mailback at gmail.mail.com. Love hearing from you guys there. Or you can tweet at me if you want to get a question answered on the show. Tuesday on this feed, you'll get the power rankers. And on Wednesday, don't forget, Nora Princiotti on the island. All right. Thank you to Eduardo Ocampo for producing additional production supervision by Connor Nevins and Arjuna Ramgo. We'll talk to you soon.