The Ringer NFL Show - Five Burning Questions About the Jets’ Firing of Robert Saleh. Plus, Drake Maye Gets His Shot.

Episode Date: October 8, 2024

In a breaking news episode of the show, Sheil Kapadia and Nora Princiotti react moments after finding out that the Jets fired Robert Saleh as their head coach. To do so, they answer five burning questions about the firing (00:00). Then, the two react in real time as they find out that the Patriots are replacing Jacoby Brissett with first-round draft pick Drake Maye. After that, Steven Ruiz offers his opinion on Maye before taking Sheil through the four quarterbacks who stood out to him in Week 5 (43:43). For more, check out Nora’s article on Saleh’s firing here. The Ringer is committed to responsible gaming. Please visit www.rg-help.com to learn more about the resources and helplines available. Hosts: Sheil Kapadia, Nora Princiotti, and Steven Ruiz Producer: Troy Farkas Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Hey, y'all. Sirot Sohi from The Ringer here, and I wanted to let you guys know about a new show that I'm hosting. The Ringer WNBA show. We're going to be talking about all the biggest personalities, breaking down and analyzing the latest happenings that make the W so fascinating, featuring some of the best guests and experts from around the league. Tap in with us on the brand new Ringer WNBA show feed on Spotify or wherever you get your podcasts. Welcome to the Ringer NFL show. Shield Capadia here. joined by my friend Nora Prince Yadhi. We were discussing what should we talk about this week? Maybe there will be a Devante Adams trade.

Maybe there will be some breaking news. As of this recording, Nora, we didn't get up Devante Adams trade, but we did get some breaking news as I am in the dentist chair, getting a cleaning, and then I come out and I look at my phone, what's going on? Robert Sala of the Jets has been fired after just five games. of the 2024 season. So we're going to talk about that in the first segment.

And then Stephen Ruiz will join, as always, in the second segment talking quarterbacks. Nor are you, I don't assume you were not in a dentist chair getting your teeth cleaned when this happened. I was not. Did you come out and say to the first person you saw, well, we're just fine, what we saw? Like, that's what I'm imagining here.

That's good stuff, Shil. Luckily, it was just the annual cleaning, no Novakay, nothing like that. So I was, I was only in there for like 25 minutes. I didn't think that this was going to happen. But it did. We've got five questions we want to get into because there are so many different angles

with this. It's the Jets. It's Sala. It's Aaron Rogers. It's ownership. It's GM. All that. But my first question, this was the first question I had as I looked at my phone

there waiting for them to give me, you know, call me up to make my next appointment six months from now. I thought, why did this happen now? So why do we think this happen now? They had all off season. The team is two and three. They just lost like a coin flip game to an undefeated Vikings team. It's not like they got embarrassed in that game.

They're one game back in the AFC East. It's not like a juggernaut of a team, but it's not necessarily an awful team. So why do you think this happened now after five games? So great podcasting here. I don't know. Like there isn't a good answer to this question. You know, I'm not going to. I'm not going to come on here and sit here and go Robert Sala, who, I mean, who's 20 and 36 through, you know, three and change seasons.

Like, he's been scapegoated. This is awful. He didn't deserve to be fired. The Jets have been really bad. And if you're the head coach of a really bad team, you usually get fired. So in that sense, sure. But the timing is, I think, really weird. And I struggle to come up with a good reason for doing it now.

the theory that's really silly that I sort of can't shake is like, did Woody Johnson go to London and have to watch Sam Darnold beat his team and like just couldn't handle it? Wow, Darnold got Sala fired. I like it. I just like really wonder if there was something about that experience of like having one of the many quarterbacks that have been left in the Jets graveyard like have this sort of renaissance and have it come at their expense. You know, Woody Johnson was ambassador to the UK.

He's certainly like, he's got to have friends that he's watching the game with. There's just something so embarrassing about it. Like, if we're making lists of things that can push men over the edge, Sam Darnold potentially among them. Yeah, it's as good of a theory as I've heard. Now, Woody Johnson did speak to some media as we have recorded this. And this is per Mike Garifolo of NFL network, Woody Johnson said that this is, quote, one of the most talented teams that has ever been assembled by the New York Jets, end quote,

and then says the move will result in new energy and positivity that will lead to more wins starting now. So that is the Woody Johnson explanation for why he's doing this right now. You know, he said he spoke to Aaron Rogers on Monday night, but said Rogers had no input into the decision. Okay. Interesting coincidence there. They speak to Aaron Rogers Monday night and then you fire the head coach on Tuesday. And then there's this reporting, Nora from the athletic from Diana Rossini and Zach Rosenblatt. They say that he did not fire Sala last season because they didn't think they'd be able to find someone better. And Aaron Rogers wanted Robert Sala back and that Woody Johnson views the team as ready to compete.

right now and wanted to make a move to get things on the right track before it was too late. Jay Glazer reporting that Robert Sala was blindsided by the move. He showed up for work. Woody Johnson came into his office, fired him. He was escorted out of the building by security. So it's just that's dramatic. It's pretty dramatic. And Yassala seems like a nice, like at the very least, he seems like a pretty just like, I don't know, well-liked guy.

Like he doesn't seem like a jerk, you know. So that part is surprising. It's just give me a break, Woody Johnson. Like, nothing happened in these five games that should change your opinion of what you thought about Robertsal. You couldn't find anyone better. It was like one of the best markets to hire a head coach in recent NFL history. You had Mike Rabel out there.

He had Bill Belichick out there. You could have made a godfather offer to Ben Johnson. I mean, there were a lot of candidates out there last offseason. And so to me, it just doesn't pass the sniff test. I mean, Woody Johnson has been the owner. He's the constant in all this. He's been the owner since 2000 during that run. They're 26th in winning percentage.

They've missed the playoffs 13 straight seasons. Like, that's hard to do in the modern NFL. Usually you luck into a season where you get some turnover luck or you get some injury luck or your bad quarterback goes on a heater for a month. Like 13 straight seasons to not make the playoffs. And so to be, the guy's a joke. He's a terrible owner. You can't be an owner for that long.

You can't be making all these impulsive moves. And to your point, This isn't like Robert Sala was done wrong. That's not what I'm doing. I understand. Robert Sala, you look at the record. I'm not saying he did a great job. They would have been well within their rights to fire him last off season,

which is if you don't think he's the guy, then you should have done it then to do it at two and three now. And you have a defensive coordinator who's never been a head coach. Now he's your head coach. The only good thing about the team is the defense. And now the defensive coordinator can't coach the defense and you lost your defensive head coach. It's like, what do you actually think this is going to?

lead to. So to me, like so many of these conversations comes down to an incompetent owner, once again, making an impulsive move that probably is not going to work out for this football team. And also, like, they made a really high risk, high reward choice when they went all in on Rogers, you know, a year and a half ago at this point. And it seems like that's not working out. But I don't like, it was justifiable at the time. Yeah. But he went out for the season. He went out for the season four snaps into the first year. This year, it seems like we're watching a quarterback where age and injuries have really started to take a toll.

Now, I will say, there's a world in which he's still shaking some rust off. And actually, if I try to come up with decisions Robert Sala seemed involved in the center of that have maybe contributed to Jets losing, I wonder if we will look back and think that Rogers should have played some in the preseason. I mean, that was something where it seemed like Rogers wanted to do it. You know, you can go either way, right? Like he goes out on Sunday and bangs up his ankle and you're thinking, geez, like, let's not expose this 40-year-old quarterback to any more hits than he has to take.

So it's totally justifiable. But on the other hand, maybe he's having a slower road back into, you know, getting his feet under him and getting into the rhythm of the offense and finding some flow within that offense than he might have if he'd gotten some more snaps in the preseason. But that's grasping for straws a little bit. Like, we know what's wrong with this team. The offense is bad. The quarterback is resistant to any of the sort of easy button things with play action

and motion that, you know, take the ability to control everything at the line out of his hands, but would potentially mitigate some of the problems they have on the offensive line, would make them a better first and second down offense, which again would really help the offensive line and would also just like stop putting them in third and long situations against a defensive coordinator like Flores, where they were on Sunday, where it's just like, he's going to tee off on you at that point. And even when that happens, like, if that's supposed to be the situation that Rogers is playing for, right, where, you know, I'm so experienced and I know how to,

I have the answers to the test. He's not playing well against the Blitz. He's not performing in that like supercomputer veteran quarterback way. So it's like you're not even getting the supposed benefits of that. And like that's why this team isn't good. And I don't know why that would be any different without Robert Sala. Like everyone who's involved in those problems is still there. Yeah.

No, it's, uh, I agree with everything you said there. So we don't have a great answer. like you said, we don't know why this happened right now other than it just feels like the owner thought the bottom was about to fall out. Maybe he's right. Maybe stuff will come out and there were stuff with the players and all that. We'll find out more as the story goes on at the same time for me right now, my immediate reaction is it's hard to justify that you learn something new after five games when you had all off season to make this decision where you could have set yourself up with a new head coach, a new staff and said, let's give this a two-year run. And your point of, Rod, Rogers is a good one. I still think at the time, I said it's a worthwhile swing to take. They didn't have other options at quarterback. You're moving on from Zach Wilson. Go ahead and give it a try. It's not like they gave up three first round picks. You knew there was a chance this fails. Quarterbacks at this age generally don't play at a very high level. And so far it hasn't worked out for them. So it's a good lead in to the next question, which is did solid deserve to get fired.

And we touched on this a little bit, but 20 and 36 in three plus seasons. Now, if I'm Robert, Robert Sala's agent, Nora, I could make a pretty strong case that give me a break, that Robert Sala was the problem with this team. His quarterbacks over the stretch, Zach Wilson, 33 starts, Mike White, seven starts, Aaron Rogers, six starts, Joe Flacco, five starts, Trevor Simeon, three starts, and Tim Boyle, two starts. So out of those 56 games, he got six starts from a guy who is a team starter in the NFL right now this season. Like, it's hard, really hard for me to imagine a scenario where a team is winning with those quarterbacks.

And they weren't like, you know, two and 15 teams. They went seven and ten. I don't know. No one's put hanging up the banner for seven and ten. But when I tell you those quarterbacks, that's not the worst outcome. The team was seventh on defense in EPA per drive and 32nd on offense in EPI. a per drive during Robert Salah's tenure. And then so you say, well, he's the head coach of the team.

He's not the defensive coordinator. I understand that. But to your point, did Robert Salah want to hire Nathaniel Hackett? Or is that the quarterback who you, you know, you're going all in on is saying, hey, this is the guy I'm comfortable with as my offensive coordinator. So I do think, I don't think he's a great coach. I don't think he's an amazing coach. I think there's a pretty good chance that he's sort of an average replacement level

coach that in the right situation could be fine and that he's not a complete train wreck like the 20 and 36 record would indicate. What do you think? Yeah. I mean, in some ways, I think we probably have sort of no idea. Like, it is the incredibly rare coach. I'm not going to say no coach, but it is the incredibly rare coach who's going to overcome a decision like drafting Zach Wilson and having to, you know, try to salvage an offense with that slew of quarterbacks, then to get into the Rogers situation, or again, like, he's not really in control in the way that most head coaches are in control. I'm not, as we've said a couple times, like, that sympathetic to it just because, like, you know, and Robert Salon knows this better

than you or I do. Like, this is how the NFL works. And he's, he's, you know, and he's, you. He's probably under no illusions about how someone like Woody Johnson is going to operate. Woody Johnson actually didn't hire him. Christopher Johnson did while Woody was acting as ambassador during the Trump administration. So you know that the current acting owner is not someone who like really personally feels like they put their stamp on the organization by hiring you. the quarterback, maybe, you know, as Johnson's saying, and some of those reports have indicated Rogers was still in on Sala as of last off season and was part of the decision to stick with him when there were so many candidates available. But, you know, we know who Rogers' best buds are. And it doesn't seem like Robert Sala has ever really been on that list.

So he just didn't have a lot of friends. But he knows how that goes. in the NFL. So I don't really feel like, you know, this is so, so unjust. It's just sort of like they had an intractable problem. They made this big swing. It doesn't seem to be working out. That's going to lead to a couple lean years. And it's going to lead to a couple lean years if you fire Robert Sala or you don't

fire Robert Sala. I guess my question is just sort of like, so like deserve. Deserve is the word I don't know what to do with, right? Because it's just sort of how it works. but was he the problem? Like, I don't know if he was the solution, but he definitely wasn't problem number one, two, three, and like probably four or five.

Yeah, I mean, his job was to, you know, help coach the defense and then kind of the culture stuff, which is impossible to measure. But I don't know, when Zach Wilson is starting 33 games for you, good luck going better than seven and ten in those seasons. I mean, I just, we can need, like, I don't, Kyle Shanahan, Andy Reed, Sean Payton, take your pick of Sean McVeigh, whoever you think, Matt LaFleur, the best coaches, the best offensive coaches, I just don't think they could have done a great job with Zach Wilson. And then to your point, then you bring in Rogers and then it's the Rogers show.

I mean, you've got to give in to what he wants to do. I don't know. How would Rogers have reacted? And maybe they had these conversations. If you said, no, not Nathaniel Hackett, we want to bring in offensive coordinator X, who we think is going to do a good job. And Aaron Rogers at 40 years old, do you. really think he's going to say, okay, sounds good. Yeah, I think this guy can help me. I mean, give me a break. We all know how that would have gone. So I'm proud of both of us for not doing

the thing where we say, I hate how people talk about these head coaches, you know, getting fired. They've got family. CTC, my man's going on a vacation. He's still getting paid, you know, handsome, bald man. Listen, life is good. Go hang out with the kids. It's all good. You'll be back in the NFL next year. if you want to be, enjoy this time off. And listen, that was a very stressful situation, I'm sure. I'm sure, you know, he's competitive, but it doesn't seem like the end of the world to not have to go, you know, watch Aaron Rogers and Athenial Hackett at practice on Wednesday of this week.

You know, go Turks and Kikos, wherever you want to go, Robert Sal, pull the kids out of school, go enjoy it. You'll be okay. All right. I'm so on board. All right. That was question number two. All right.

Let's take a quick break. then we got three more questions to hit on in regards to this jet situation. Pick up a win this NFL game day on Fandul America's number one sports book right now. All customers get a profit boost every single NFL game day. That means you can pump up your gridiron winnings multiple times a week. Fandul has tons of ways you can get in on the NFL action. You can bet on money lines, player props, game day specials, and more. You know what I'm doing after this podcast?

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Gambling problem, call 1-800 gambler or visit RG-Help.com. All right, we're back on the Ringer NFL show. All right. So the Jets now. Two and three, Jeff Ulbrick, their defense. coordinator is now their head coach. They go forward, presumably, with everything else other than Robert Sala. The same. This is also from the athletic. I thought this was interesting, maybe a good lead into this discussion about what does the rest of the jet season look like.

Per the athletic, multiple players and coaches told the athletic after Sunday's loss that the vibes were off, that Sala was losing support, and that some, especially players on defense, were frustrated with the lack of accountability taking place as the offense kept making the same mistakes they've been making for the last few years and wasting another stellar defensive effort. Offensive coordinator Nathaniel Hackett doesn't have a lot of support on the Jets roster or coaching staff either, according to sources. And many were frustrated with his play calling dating back to last year. So that's from the athletic.

And then Rich Simini of ESPN says, I don't think it's a fade accompli that Hackett will remain in his current role as OC play caller. It's All Brick's decision now. I think everything is on the table. Where does this season go from here, Nora Prince. Wouldn't it be incredible if Jeff Ulbrick, who by all accounts is genuinely well-liked and whose coaching resonates with players, wouldn't it be incredible if he totally asserts himself, fires hack it, or at least removes him from play-calling duties, completely

takes control because as you're saying that, one thing that it did sort of spark in me is that whether it was Salah's fault that he was a lame duck or not, it's not good for the team if the head coach is a little bit of a lame duck. And whether that's because you're waiting for him to be fired and it feels inevitable or because you kind of know that the quarterback is actually the one calling the shots. Like it does make it hard for the rest of the locker room to go into battle every week on the field and take everything that guy says super, super seriously when you sort of know that the guy throwing the passes doesn't necessarily do that. So wouldn't it be funny if Jeff Ulbrick just like takes those reins and asserts himself

and he ends up being the one who can sort of boss Rogers around and it all comes together? Like I don't think so, but it would be a wild story. Barring that scenario, the thing that I worry about for the thing that I worry about for the the Jets is that over the next month, they've got the bills, the Steelers, the Patriots, and the Texans. Rogers is now dealing with this low ankle spray and, like, it seems like he's okay, but, you know, the bumps and bruises are starting to pile on. He's the oldest quarterback in the NFL, as we've all said a billion times. And so you're going into this stretch where you're supposed to be sort of galvanized, but this offense, that they're 22nd in EPA per play, um,

They are 23rd by DVOA. They're about to hit a stretch of defenses that are 8th, 9th, 23rd, and 16th by EPA. And similarly ranked by DVOA just by like any measure you choose, better on the whole than the Jets offense. Yeah. What happens if you go through that stretch and the issues that are issues right now are still issues? And then the move didn't really do anything. Some of that dysfunction starts to set in a little bit.

And then maybe other than Ulbrick, some of these people who have really been empowered, like Rogers, like Hackett, you know, start looking around and the list of people who you can sort of point the finger at is starting to dwindle. I don't know what happens then. You said what if? And in my head, I'm like, that's the most likely outcome of this thing.

Yeah. No, totally. I think that's what's going to happen. Right. That is the most likely outcome of what's going to happen. You still have, this is one of the worst schemed offenses in the NFL. You watch that game on Sunday morning. It's just like Rogers wants to do Rogers things, which that should be a part of the offense, but that can't be the whole offense. They don't have answers to scheme up against the Brian Flores coach defense. I mean, they're trying to throw back shoulders. It's all about the chemistry between Rogers and a wide receiver. And can they make these very difficult, low percentage throws. I mean, anyone who watched that and then you watch like, and it was such a contrast to your point about watching Sam Darnold, you watch the, the throat that Sam Darnold has sometimes in these games. And it's like, all right, you know, he's playing fast and decisive, knows where to go with the ball. They scheme something up for Justin Jefferson, all those things. And it's just completely different. And so I don't see how this goes well with Hackett still as the

offensive coordinator. And again, we can't separate that decision from Rogers because, you know, there were reports in the offseason. They wanted to hire somebody else to run the offense or help hack it. I mean, the whole thing just sounded like a complete mess. And another, hello, Woody Johnson. What were you doing in the off season? Like, that could have been a very easy fix for this organization that, hey, Aaron, we know you like Nathaniel Hackett.

We know you like what he does. But come on, man. Look at the resume. It hasn't been working. We want to get you a cutting edge offensive coordinator with good people skills who's going to work with you and let's create an offense like you had in Green Bay when you won back-to-back MVP's because the ultimate goal is to have an efficient explosive offense and go compete for a Super Bowl and we can't do that with Nathaniel Hackett. Maybe they had those conversations

and Roger said, I don't think so. I like, we won't know unless there's some really great reporting on it from what it looks like on the field. That seems like a really reasonable explanation just because first of all, when Rogers was in Green Bay and he was winning back-to-back MVP's and that offense did end up being such a good melding of his skills as a quarterback with the hybrid of the

Shanahan McVeigh style under Matt LaFleur produced beautiful results, but it's not like we never heard Rogers sort of, you know, taking jabs that, man, all this play action, it's kind of training wheels for a quarterback of my stature. Like he doesn't like doing it.

Yeah. And this offense, I mean, I actually kind of like, look, I don't think Hackett is doing them any favors. But it's not that I think Hackett is like scheming up bad plays or designing a bad offense. He's just, he doesn't have a role. Like, it's not even that it's bad scheme. It's that there is no scheme. He doesn't, like, there's no, they don't use motion. They barely use play action.

Rogers just wants to get up there. and he wants to read out the defense and decide where he wants to go with the ball. There's like really nothing where a coordinator gets an opportunity to say like, let me try to put some players in advantageous matchups.

Like they're just not doing that. So I can't even say that Nathaniel Hackett is doing a bad job. He just isn't really doing a job. Like he just doesn't really have a function. He's doing what Rogers wants. He's doing what Rogers wants. Yeah, you're right. I mean, that's why he's there.

And he knows why he's there. So, you know, credit to him for knowing what his role is. So I don't see how this goes well. Listen, I don't, I'm not someone who's always picking on the Jets fans and LOL Jets. I feel bad. I, you know, I have Jets fans in my life. I feel bad for them. You know, this is, when you have bad ownership, you can't shake it.

And I pick the Jets to make the playoffs before the season because I thought, you know what? I think the defense is going to be really good. And if the offense can just be mediocre, they have a chance to go nine and eight, 10, and seven, and maybe that's good enough to make the playoffs. And I, you know, I don't think that that was, I didn't think their head coach was going to get fired five games in, but now you look at it and it's just like this reeks of desperation, this reeks of incompetence, your offense is going to remain a problem. Again, the defense is probably going to get worse.

We don't know anything about Albrecht in terms of game management and timeouts and going for it on fourth down. And now he's got to meet with the media more. And now he's got other player issues that he can't just coach the defense. so you would think the defense isn't going to be as good. And to me, this just has train wreck written all over. I will be shocked. Yeah.

CBS Sports reporting that Sala was considering firing Hackett and was ready to fire Hackett possibly as early as today if he himself had not been fired, which if you read between the lines, if we're looking for a fissure that this maybe came down to and it was either someone or someone else, seems like maybe we might have our answer there. That's interesting.

So Sala, according to CBS Sports, was considering firing Hackett. Woody Johnson meets with Aaron Rogers Monday night and Tuesday morning Woody Johnson fire Sala and Hackett, presumably, as of this recording, keeps his job. It doesn't seem that hard to connect the dots here for me.

I don't know. Maybe I'm wrong. This man survived Mike White and Tim Boyle and Zagwil and he couldn't survive Nathaniel Hackett. It's, yeah. The Jets are a soap opera. Yeah, it really, I mean, I think this is going to be a train wreck.

And it just, I don't think they're making the playoffs. I think this is going to go badly. And I think, yeah, they're going to kind of be a laughing stock as the season goes on this season, which is a shame for Jets fans. I was with you, though. Like the 95th percent outcome for this. this Jets team was like winning the Super Bowl. There were things that they, that they, and like maybe they still are, in theory,

with every possible thing breaking right are capable of that even some of the really good teams in the NFL, like sort of aren't capable of. They don't quite have that ceiling. And I don't think that's necessarily gone. It's just it was always so high risk and so high reward. And it seems like probably this is more likely going to, you know, come down on the bad side of the curve there. Yeah.

And some of that's just sort of how it goes, but it's like, you know, we can sort of talk through the possibilities. The vast likelihood here is that this is going to be a mess. Right. Yeah. There is a chance that,

you know, you get that new interim coach bump at least. You figured like to your point earlier, maybe Rogers gets more acclimated as the season goes on, but I don't see it. I don't think it's going to go well. So then we go to Nora, the fourth question, what is the plan beyond 2024? I mean, you look at this.

What comes to mind is Joe Douglas gone? Is there a new head coach? Is Aaron Rogers back? What does this look like beyond this season, assuming that this season doesn't go great? I guess I think it's total rebuild. I feel like I feel like Rogers. will retire. When he, I mean, the last season he played in Green Bay, you know, there was some sort of

questions about how healthy he was, but it, he didn't look great. But before that, he had been so good. And obviously, it's starting to be a number of years since then. But, you know, there hadn't been that many snaps of actual football since this guy had been like the MVP. So, you know, you feel like maybe that's still there somewhere so you can get back to it. But it just doesn't seem like he's that guy anymore. It seems like the, again, the significant likelihood is that he's just not that guy anymore. He is, you know, about to turn 41 years old or seeing he doesn't, doesn't want to throw a deep ball very often.

Some of that is the constraints of the offense and the situations that he's putting himself in. It doesn't seem like he wants to throw across the field very much. Like, it just seems like we're seeing the signs. And maybe he'll feel like he's got to try to prove everybody wrong and want to do another year. But I don't know. If I had to guess, I would say that he would retire after this year. And then that just, I mean, they just, they're in total rebuild. But they're in total rebuild missing some valuable draft picks.

And, you know, that's not the end of the world, but it's not ideal. I mean, the truth is they're potentially going to be looking for a head coach, a GM, and a quarterback after the season. Clean slate. It's like, I don't know how you term that as anything other than a rebuild. Paint with all the colors. Yeah, or a reset. And, you know, you look at it, the path to being good in the NFL is to build an efficient offense. And it seems unlikely that that's.

going to happen with Aaron Rogers and Nathaniel Hackett. You mentioned it. I think Aaron Rogers is probably finished after the season, not guaranteed, but probably. And then Robert Sala's already gone. And then Joe Douglas, I mean, it seems just very unlikely that he would be the guy in charge of another rebuild here. So after the season, it's looking like your 14 straight seasons without making the playoffs. And again, I'll repeat what I said when we first started talking. the worst thing as a sports fan is when you have bad ownership. You can always get a new GM, a new coach, new players, a new quarterback. There was a clip that I can't get out of my head whenever Woody Johnson comes up. It was during that hard knocks season, I think it was last summer they were on. And he's going out on the field talking to Robert Sala. And Robert Sala's pointing to Quinn and Williams like, yeah, you know, he's doing a great job. This is why we advocated for signing him. And all Woody Johnson said was it was a lot, it's a lot of money. And it's like, this is the dream is to draft a player who's like top five at his position and develop him and seems to be well liked in the locker room and can be a cornerstone guy for you. And you extend him because that's, you know, you need to do that.

This is how you build a good team. And all Woody Johnson could say was it's a lot of money. So that is what I thought of today when, you know, I saw the news and thought about the state of this franchise. That's so lame. I will say not to be the defender of Woody Johnson. There's a thing going around where, I guess on the Jets website, one of the releases about the firing and the official statement and blah, blah, blah, blah, blah. It refers to Woody Johnson as Ambassador Johnson.

And everybody's clouting on this online because it's just like really cheesy and like you're making all of your employees call you Ambassador Johnson. I'm just going to say what I feel. I tweeted this. If I were an ambassador, I'd make everybody call me that. I'd want to be called ambassador all the time. I would want people to say it as much as possible. I would like, if I went to my coffee shop and the barista said, what's your name?

I would say it's Ambassador Princeati. Like, I would just be doing it left and right. I'm sorry. There are a lot of things we can make fun of Woody Johnson for, but this is not a good one. Listen, we can make that a bit on the Rigger NFL show, Ambassador Prenciati. No, I want to earn it. You want to earn it? All right.

You let me know how that's going. And when you actually do earn it, I will be happy to refer to you as Ambassador. Prince Iotti on this show. So listen, the Jets has a good young players. I like Garrett Wilson. I like Quinn and Williams. I like Sauce Gardner. They've got some good players at some premium positions.

Will McDonald coming on this season. But, you know, what's that defense going to look like with a different coach, different scheme? And again, offensively, just what is your plan there? What's your plan at quarterback after the season? So a lot of questions to be answered if this thing doesn't go well for the rest of 2024. And then the last question, any ripple effects from this? Any owners looking around going, hey, we're not going to be clowned about this.

Yeah, we're not going to be clown as the first team firing our coach. The Jets just did it. What do you think? Next week, you know, maybe beyond this season, what do, are the Jets looking at Belichick? Are they looking at Vrabel? Can you imagine? Johnson an offer. I mean, just what are your thoughts?

Is Doug Peterson looking around going, uh-oh, Antonio Pierce to see? I mean, there's other guys around the NFL. Any ripple effects from this move? I do wonder if there's a little bit of a first domino effect where, I mean, the Jaguars looked a little better last week. Looked a lot better last week. But if you're Doug Peterson, are you a little bit like, oh, you know, wondering if Shad Khan was sitting there being like, oh, so embarrassing to be the first one, like the first one to admit defeat. I don't want to do it, but now maybe it's a little bit easier.

If the Jets somehow could hire Bill Belichick, it would be the greatest thing that's up. I mean, it would just be so funny. It would be an incredible story. I think everybody involved probably has too much pride. But, like, as far as I can tell, Bill Belichick is, like, hanging around, like, Nantuck and maybe, like, Croatia or something with his very young girlfriend. Like, he's not, I mean, he's doing a lot of media. but like he's available.

Make the call. Do it for team content. That's right. That would be absolutely a win for team content. So we'll see if any other coaches, you know, things aren't going great in Cleveland. Things aren't going going great in Miami. Things aren't going great in Philadelphia, Dallas. We'll see.

I mean, there's a lot of intrigue with all these coaches. Also, I was thinking the normally by this point, we have some like, oh, this coordinator looks amazing and it's going to get a head coaching job. not a lot of those around. I was trying to make the list before this podcast. And yeah, you have the veteran guys, Belichick and Braybel. Ben Johnson is still there. But, I mean, he looks like he's going to be kind of picky.

I mean, there aren't a lot of coordinators. Like, you know, the shine has kind of worn off on a lot of these guys so far this season. So maybe that'll change. It's only through five weeks. But we'll see which names emerge there. So, Nora, we got some more breaking news. What, I mean, what a day for team content. And this is great.

we sign off and get to Stephen Ruiz, the New England Patriots are going to Drake May as their quarterback over Jacoby Berset. I don't even know who to attribute this to because it's all over my timeline. So I don't know if they leaked it or announced it or what, but you go. What a news dub first of all. Yeah. Amazing. Wait till the Jets do that. And then PR is like, no, no, now, now, now. So they're going to Drake May. Obviously, their offense has been Garbanzo beans this season. They have been a tough watch. I can't tell you they were on my rewatch list on Monday when I try to catch up on the games I missed. I did not go over that Dolphins Patriots classic very, you know, with detail. Got to slap a health advisory on that one. Yeah. But now they

become a little interesting because Jaden Daniels has been very fun this season. Caleb Williams is starting to come on. Bonix. This team's won three games. You know, his team has a winning record. they've won three in a row. And now, you know, there's Ferris Bueller references, which I frankly just don't understand, like what even Sean Payton's talking about, but it's the classic like everybody just laughs thing. Did you have the same reaction to me as that?

Yeah. Yeah. No, like he doesn't, like... What did he mean? People liked Ferris Bueller. Ferris Bueller, like, won. Yeah, I didn't get that. I didn't get that.

Maybe a follow this week. But now, Drake May, you've got the Patriots background. What do you think? As you're learning of this on the pod, Drake May going to start for the New England Patriots on Sunday against the Houston Texans. I had hoped that they, and I know the chorus of Start Drake, Start Drake had really been swelling. I had hoped they would wait longer, frankly, just because I think that offense is, as you said, Garbonzo Beans. That's a Shield Capadia classic.

Yeah. The state of the offensive line is so bad. I mean, just in tatters. And they were counting on David Andrews sort of to be the piece that holds it all together. He gets hurt. They just don't have the playmakers outside of that to do a lot of things that help a young quarterback out. So I frankly worry about it a little bit just because I think. you know, May is really promising, but he's not someone who gets into this position without

some real development that he needs. And doing that under pretty non-ideal circumstances is sort of a scary proposition for any young quarterback. So like, not to sort of pour water on the excitement, because it's always so fun to watch, you know, a new rookie get in the mix and how's he going to do? Oh, he's making some plays. Like, let's see how it goes? That's really fun. I worry about this a little. If it works out, the one thing has always been that, like, going into this season, and I always felt like this was sort of the axis on which they were going to have to make the decision about when to start him, the issue was going to be the offensive line.

It was going to be the fact that the protection was going to be very bad. And so you had this kind of two sides to the coin where, you know, on the one hand, Drake May is a much more like mobile athletic guy than Jacoby Brissette. He's in a, he's a much better player, at least on paper, to sort of mitigate some of, some of those issues. And to get away from pressure when it inevitably comes, the flip side of that, and not to treat Jacoby Brissette, who's a really, really nice dude, like a mercenary, but like he is much less valuable to the, you know, long term future of your organization. So if he gets hurt or has a tough time, it's not really as big of a deal in the long run from the perspective of how many games

are the New England Patriots going to win. So I guess you're just hoping that the fact that he's a little bit more mobile back there helps out a lot. From the other side of that, it makes me a little nervous from being honest. Yeah. Yeah, no, I think you nailed it.

I mean, Jacoby Bresset is getting pressured on 50% of his dropbacks this season. That is the high. highest rate in the NFL. Now, I will say sometimes a quarterback, like you can put a different quarterback in the exact same situation, and it looks different. So that has to be the hope for the Patriots that, hey, let's get the ball out of his hands. Let's get these bootlegs going. Like you said, let's get him on the move a little bit. And he has the tools to alleviate some of that pressure. The last thing you want is for him to get beaten up, develop bad habits where his eyes are

dropping. He's a disaster against pressure. And now you have something in the offseason that you have to fix. So you have to keep an eye on that. If that ends up even starting to happen, maybe a, I don't know that there's any going back once you put him in there. But that's something that that's the number one thing that cannot happen. But there is a scenario. I mean, Jaden Daniels with that commander's team, that's not a great offensive line. They have better weapons than the Patriots have, but it's not like a great, you know, great weapons. So there is a scenario where Drake May comes in and you say, hey, the offensive line, you know, Jacoby Brissette was making a little bit worse. Kind of like Deshaun, it's not the same degree, but Deshawn Watson, they've had offensive line

injuries, but he's making that situation worse with the way he's playing. So the quarterback does have a role in that. And like you said, it is exciting for the fan base. I mean, if you're a Patriots fan, this season just as sucked and no one feels bad for them, trust me, with the success they've had. But at least you get a little juice for the season. You get to watch your guy and you just want to see the flashes. He can go 11 for 28.

But if four of those passes, you're going, wow, that was sick. Did you know, those are getting passed around on the group chats and you're saying, oh my gosh, I can't wait for this Drake May era. That's what you want. He's expected to struggle. He should struggle. They should lose games. That's not what it's about.

Reps do matter. And I think I'm generally on the side of, you can't, you know, it helps to play. You learn when you play as long as you're not developing those bad habits. So a little juice injected into the Patriot season. Patriots take on the Texans this weekend. The other thing, by the way, we're talking about ownership. Where did the call come from on Drake May? Is Bobby Kraft saying, come on, I'm not watching this.

I'm not watching Jacoby Brissette anymore. That's always a possibility as well. So we'll talk more about that in our second segment, of course, with Stephen Ruiz, Ambassador to be Nora Principi. Thank you, as always, for joining me. This was a lot of fun. We'll come back after the break. We'll talk QBs with Stephen Ruiz.

Thanks, Jill. Welcome back to the Ringer NFL show weekly QB segment with our friend Stephen Ruiz. Ruiz. We got like multiple breaking news things happening on this wonderful Tuesday. We'll get to Aaron Rogers, I think, in a little bit. But first, Drake May being named the starter for the New England Patriots against the Houston Texans, just talked about this briefly with Nora Prince Yaddi. on Sunday night, I think you had some fears that they should not throw this kid out there.

Do you feel any differently now? Or what are your thoughts on May getting the start this Sunday? No, absolutely not. And I didn't even realize they played Houston the next week. Like, that's one of the most terrifying defensive lines in the league, especially that pair of edge rushers. Oh, man, I feel bad for Drake May. And like I said on Sunday, with the way these other rookie quarterbacks are playing, like even Bo Nix had a decent game on Sunday, he's got a lot to live up to.

And I think he's going to be constantly compared to them. And he's a human being. So I wouldn't be surprised if he's pushing to kind of match those guys. And we know when he likes to push, it's usually out of structure, holding onto the ball, taking chances with the football. And with that supporting cast or lack thereof, I feel like that's a recipe for potential disaster. Now, we see with some quarterbacks, like I just gave the stat that Berset's been pressured on 50% of his dropbacks, the worst mark in the NFL.

I know you watched May leading up to the draft. like, is there a chance that this situation, you're like, all right, the offensive line is bad, but it's not like that bad and that he can help help some of those things. Or do you swear, it's a tough, like you said, it's a tough spot to be in rookie quarterback in this environment. Now you're going up against Will Anderson and Daniel Hunter, but do you see that as like a potential possibility? I mean, I think it's better for the team overall. Like, I get it from Gerard Mayo's perspective. Like, the offense right now isn't viable.

And Jacoby percent has never been like a great move. and obviously he's later on in his career. I don't think he's, you can't expect him to create against that type of pressure. Drake May is an athlete. I think he's good at making those like fadeaway throws that we see guys like Jordan Lovemake. And that helps you against pressure.

But he's also a rookie. I don't know. It might be better for the team, but I don't think it's better for his long-term development. And that's what matters here. Who cares what your record is this year? You guys aren't winning anything anyway. Right.

So, well, it gives us a reason to watch the New England Patriots next week. Like you said, injects a little excitement into their fan base, but you don't want that guy to go back there and just get crushed and develop bad habits. And that is a possibility when you make a move like this. So we'll see what happens there. All right, the QB spotlight. QB Corner. Let's start. I was thinking after we recorded last week, why are we not just calling this QB Corner every week? It's right there for us. It's the ringer. You add corner to everything and it works. So we're doing QB Corner.

I decided executive decision going forward. Ruiz comes to the table every midweek with one quarterback who's film was better than maybe it felt like on Sunday. Another quarterback whose film was maybe a little bit worse or a lot worse than it felt like when we got the instant reactions on Sunday. Another quarterback who was just the quarterback of the week, best performance, and then most honorable quarterback performance, which might be the team didn't win, maybe the guy's getting ripped for a couple of turnovers. But hey, ease up.

Basically ease up on this guy a little bit. He tried his best. He tried his best. He tried his best, and whatever morning show segments are dedicated to crushing this guy, he doesn't deserve it. You know, it's a loose interpretation, but that's kind of what it is. So, all right, get us started. What's the first one we got?

I'm going to go with the guy who is better on tape. And this is a guy who's been talked about. I'm sure you and Nora talked about him a bunch in the first segment of the show. And that's Aaron Rogers. Interesting. I watched that Sunday game along with everyone else. I was a little, you know, bleary eyed. It was early.

I woke up for the 9 o'clock. And I was kind of upset at the football I was watching. It wasn't a good football game. I was upset that I woke up for that. So maybe I was holding that against Rogers. But when you watch the film, I think, I mean, he could honestly have gotten the honorable mention award here because he was trying his best and he wasn't getting a lot of support from the structures of the Jets offense.

And I think this is the second week in a row where I started off the segment saying, this team really needs Devante Adams. And I really feel like Devante Adams would solve about 80% of this team's problems, especially on the offensive side. And the reason I say that is the Garrett Wilson, Aaron Rogers connection, you know, you wanted them to kind of develop that same rapport that he had with Adams.

It just isn't there. And like there were like four or five times where you could see Rogers wanted him to do one thing and Wilson was trying to do another thing. And it's hard to say who was right in that situation, but the result was the same. The ball hit the turf. And you can't have the ball hit the turf when you're working with those margin for error. And I think the one thing that stood out to me was Wilson just isn't that like

ISO number one receiver. And I don't think he kind of has that profile, the athletic profile of being that guy. And the stats kind of back this up, like on ISO targets, he's gotten 10 targets when he's been isolated to one side of the field. Nine of those have been deemed catchable by sports info solutions. Of those non-catchable passes that he's thrown to Wilson, only five have turned into receptions and it's turned into 34 receiving yards. Now, you look at Devante Adams, especially during those two years where Rogers was MVP at the

league in Green Bay, and he's the most. dominant iso threat in the NFL for both years. And I think that's what Rogers needs. And you saw it against the blitzes. Like the one thing you have to worry about with the spiking steam is the all-out blitzes, and then when they are pretending to send the all-out blitzes and they drop into the two deep zones. And against those like all-out blitzes, they had no plan.

The Jets ran the same blitz three times in like a short span. And Rogers got hit on the first two by an unblocked Harrison Smith. And he was about to get blocked. or hit by unblocked Harrison Smith on the third one, but he got the throw off around him. The first one was the Andrew Van Ginkle interception. The second one was Harrison Smith sacked. And I just, I don't know. This is an NFL team with a 40-year-old quarterback.

And I know that Nathaniel Hackett is the OC, but how do you not have answers for the one thing that everybody knows Minnesota is going to do? And when they're doing it over and over again during the same game, how do you not come up with an answer eventually, even if you didn't have it in the initial game plan? Yeah, I think it's one of the worst teamed up offenses in the NFL. And to your point, basically the offense is going to look good when Rogers is making sort of a high degree of difficulty throws

with the wide receivers. Like he had that one throw to Lazard in the end zone where it's like in another world, if he makes that catch for going, wow, that was like amazing. He's still able to make those throws, but those throws are like the entire offense, it feels like.

You know, there's nothing sort of easy about it. So to your point, Devante Adams is someone. Now maybe if like, like if this were a different world and he plays with Garrett Wilson this year, because you've mentioned this before, Devante Adams didn't just come in and like, you know, tear it up with Aaron Rogers as a rookie. It takes a lot of reps. When you want to play this type of way, the Jets lead to your point, the Jets lead the NFL in they weren't on the same page comments during a broadcast. And like when they are on the same page, it can work, but, you know, it's not working right now with him and those other receivers. So I could see Devante Adams, you're right, having a pretty significant impact. if he were the team that if he landed on the jet. Yeah, his trust guy right now is Alan Lazzard. And like you, you saw all the chemistry on that touchdown

because that was kind of like a second reaction of broken play out of stretcher. It was really funny if you watch the all 22 of that. Alan Zard has his hand up. Like, he's putting up the mailbox thing and he's like totally covered at the beginning. Like there's a safety in front of him. There's a guy underneath him

and he's just putting it up. And he holds it up like the whole time until Rogers finally throws it to him and he was open by that point. But the other piece of this to me is like I talked about the, all-out blitzes, but the cover two zone, their solution to that was try to have Rogers split the two safeties deep and throw it over like that middle linebacker player.

And that just speaks to his margin for error. Like those throws have to be perfect. Those windows are basically non-existent. And he got picked off on the first one. He completed the second one. And then the third one came in the red zone. And he nearly completed like a miracle pass, like something that looks straight out of like the 2021 film when he was throwing it, Devante.

but a defender broke it up. And he made a couple of high-level throws. As you said, when they move the ball, it's because he's making like a ridiculous throw where you're like, oh, that's the old Rogers. It's just that there's no answers underneath. There's no schemed-up answers. And it's hard to separate the blame,

like how much of that goes on Hackett, how much of it goes on Rogers? Because we know he has ownership of this offense. But, like, I can only evaluate what I'm seeing on tape. And what I'm seen on tape is a quarterback that isn't getting answers provided for him. And when they do have good plays in the past game, it's like almost all him. Yeah, no, I agree with that.

I don't know. And also with Hackett, it's like, would Hackett be the OC if Rogers wasn't like, I want Hackett to be the OC? I mean, probably not. He doesn't have the resume where you would say this is the best person for the job. So we'll see how the rest of the season goes for Aaron Rogers and the Jets. All right. Next category, I believe, is tape was maybe not quite as good as the live performance

showed. Yeah, yeah, and I'm going to say not quite as good, because this was a guy we kind of hyped up on the Sunday show. I'm going to go with Caleb Williams. That might be surprising because I've been hyping him up. I'm obviously like a huge fan of his game. I thought he was the best quarterback in the draft. I think he's going to be a great quarterback. But watching that film, it was a lot about them facing the Panthers defense. Like, this was a terrible defensive performance. And I thought Caleb, with how well he played, I thought he played a decent game. I thought it was a good game. I just didn't think it was a 20 for 29, 304 yards, two touchdown, 84 QBR out of 100 type of game. It wasn't that. And honestly, I would take like the first half against

Houston, I would take last week against L.A. as better examples of him playing at a high level. I thought he held onto the ball a little bit. But my most concerning thing, and like this is, this is the issue with him so far. Like every quarterback has weaknesses when you're rookie. You definitely have weaknesses. And I think his weakness is still the downfield accuracy bit. He's still missing those throws. You just don't notice it as much because he's getting more support around that. And then the deep field vision, like him seeing things and him reading the safeties and making decisions based off that. He did have the great touchdown pass to DJ Moore where he kind of looks. That was nice. The second one. Yeah. Where he kind of looks off the safety and then comes back.

But there are more examples of him having an opening, whether it's like a deep corner route or like a post or like a deep dig. And there's a window there. And he's kind of looking at it. And he just, I don't know, maybe he's just uncomfortable with what he's seen and he doesn't get to throw off. So I think he left a lot of meat on the bone. This performance could have been like a 403 touchdown type of performance. I mean, still, very encouraging. Like, if I'm a bear's fan, I'm not feeling bad about it. But I think it did show those weaknesses that are still in his game. That he needs to iron out over the course of his career. Like, I would compare his deep accuracy to Lamar Jackson, where there are times when he's just like spraying it out there, especially

outside the numbers, that's where Lamar has struggled throughout his career. And you're like, what was he aiming for there? Did he just kind of throw it up and pray that the receiver would catch it and it like goes out of bounds. So like that's my one concern. I think that's the one like obstacle he's going to have to clear before he becomes, you know, a legitimate top 10 talent at the position. This is interesting because you sent me the list of names and I didn't think Caleb Williams was going to be the one to this category. So this is a surprise to me. Yeah, I was rewatching it. And what do you make of like the, the pocket movement and scrambling stuff? Because that was one where I saw it against the Panthers and you're and you're like, ooing and eyeing, like,

ooh, that's nice. But in the back of my head, I was sort of like, man, if that is a better defensive lineman or something, does that turn into a negative play? And I guess that's maybe a little bit connected to what you're saying. If you're turning down some throws and then trying to create that kind of thing, because there were a lot of those in this game where he's sort of dancing around and it's fun to watch. It goes viral on Twitter just in my head.

I was like long term against a better defense. Is that going to look the same or not? Yeah, that was my one. And like you said, it's kind of related. Like, if you zoomed out from the broadcast view, there are open guys when he's kind of scrambling around. Like, when I was watching, I was like, oh, no one must be open. And he's just trying to buy time.

But that wasn't the case most of the time. Not exclusively. Like, there weren't always open guys. But I did think he turned down a couple of opportunities. And yeah, that's like another concern. But I think that's going to always be a part of his game. It's kind of like Rogers and Mahomes. Like, they're not, they don't have the best pocket presence, but they don't get themselves

into trouble. Or they work themselves out of the trouble and still make a good. to play, which he did in this game. But I think he had like a ridiculous time to throw in this one and still didn't face a lot of pressure, which, you know, that just makes it easy to play quarterback. Like every quarterback wants that. They want all the time in the world and no pressure on them. And most of them, like, these are pros. They're going to look good when they do that. And I think that kind of embellished his performance a little bit. Yeah. Listen, they're supposed to be ups and downs for a rookie quarterback. It's at least, it's trending in the right direction with Caleb

Williams the last couple of weeks here. And their next three weeks, they've got the Jaguars defense, which has not looked good. They got the commanders and they've got the Cardinals. So it's, you know, it's nice that you're not going up against elite defense here. They've been able to run the ball finally the last couple weeks here. So that's a good sign. And he's making some plays. So it would be fun to continue to monitor his progress here going forward. All right, next one, what do you got? I'm going to go with performance of the week. I'm going to go Joe Burrow with this one. And I want to give it to Lamar Jackson, but we've talked plenty about Lamar Jackson on his feed. It was, if we were handing in a ballot, I think it has to be Lamar Jackson.

It's Lamar Jackson. But let's talk about Joe Burrow, because I thought he was number two on the list this week. And he would have earned this one easily, like in spite of the one interception he threw, which I thought was a big interception. I don't think we can hand wave away that interception given the situation. And the quarterback, he's supposed to be, supposed to be this, like, great thinker of a quarterback who doesn't lose games, but kind of lost that game for them. But before then, I mean, you talk about high degree of difficulty.

He's another one that had an honorable performance. Like there wasn't a lot of support, not a lot of structural support. He was standing in there, taking hits. And what I was, like, really impressive was how he kind of downloaded information as the game went along. And you could see him. Like in the first quarter, it was kind of shaky. He had a couple shaky moments there where he turned down like a throw. He almost threw an interception.

He missed some throws. He was laid on some reeds. But then second quarter, he was a lot better. Third quarter, he was a lot better. And the fourth quarter, he was almost perfect until that interception. And the stats are just stunning. Like in the second half, 81% complete. rate, 10.4 yards per dropback, 0.89 EPA per dropback, and a 68% success rate, and a 2.25

average depth of target. And it wasn't like he was just dinking and dunking. Like, he was throwing into the second level of the defense a lot of the time. Time to throw, you mean? Or you said 2.25? Yeah, time to throw. Sorry. Time to throw. Okay, I got you. Yeah. Like, you could see, like, in the third and fourth quarter, he really got what this Ravens defense was doing. And he wasn't making mistakes. And like, he couldn't afford to make mistakes with the way they were playing on offense. It was all on him. He was the guy that was kind of leading the show. And this looked like 2021. I think I said that on the Sunday show, but a better version of it. Like, they have a better

offensive line now. I think Burrow is, his process is sharper. It's not his second year anymore. Of course, it's sharper. He has more experience. And I thought he took more chances. Like, it was over the middle of the field. It wasn't all deep balls down the sideline like we saw in 2021. I think this is a a sustainable approach with the way this offensive line is playing, the way T. Higgins and Jabbar Chase are playing, and with the way Joe Burrow is playing right now. So I wanted to honor him because that was a remarkable performance. It was like a throwback, 21 performance, but with like a new edge to it.

Yeah, 30 for 39, 392 yards, five touchdowns, one interception, just one sack, which, you know, in the past, it was like, or actually, I think it might have been more than one sack, but he was first in EPA per pass play for the week. He was third in success rate for the week. Looking at the numbers, it reminded me. Remember that Brady Bucks teams when it was like he's getting rid of the ball quickly, but he's still firing it downfield? Like there were some of that to this performance from Joe Burrough.

So I've been banging the drum. There's second in offensive DVOA that this offense is put together. It might be every statistic you look at is the best offense the Bengals have had. Now, it's only a five-game sample. That might not last the entire season, but they are one in four. despite that. So we'll see. Can they get back in the mix?

I was, you had me convinced after the Sunday night show. I'm like, Ruiz was right. I'm not writing them off. Like, I've come to, I didn't come this far. I only come this far. What's the, whatever that thing is. So I'm just going to stick with them basically until they're mathematically eliminated. No one's running away with the division yet.

Come on, Lou. Just give one stop. Maybe go high variants. Go study. I love it. Last year, Brian Flores Phil. If you're going to let them score, score fast, but create a couple

turnovers. That's all it's going to come down to. They're not sound enough to just, you know, get stops. That's not going to happen. No. I do think it's funny that now all the Bengals fans are like, oh, man, he's got a bad defense.

And that's why he's losing. Like, he doesn't deserve the blame. Like, they weren't doing that with like Justin Herbert and other guys that deal with similar situations when he was going on that run, which was powered by the defense, by the way. So let's not forget. Like, we shouldn't take away lose flowers

just because he's having a down year, or down two years, I guess, now. Should we add a Ruiz attacks a fan-based segment to QB Corner? Maybe, maybe. See, this is what I do. I soften them up. I don't think I'm on their side. And then I just jam the knife in him.

I did it with Caleb Williams, too. I was hyping him up for the first four weeks. And all of a sudden, I'm like, oh, yeah, he's a fraud. Then you crush him. All right. So that was the best performance, really the second best performance of the beat. I don't think Bengals fans would argue with maybe they would. I don't know.

But Lamar Jackson is just harder to play. It's hard to play better than he played there. but that was maybe the game of the year. Both guys played awesome, no doubt about it. All right, most honorable, what do we got? This is like one of those podcast episodes where you would think I was kidnapping. I'm crying out for help.

My most honorable is going to Kirk Cousins. Wow. I'm celebrating Kirk Couss if I should send someone over. Yeah, I'm going to go with Kirk Cousins for that show he put on Thursday. I mean, I don't know if you've seen his next-gen passing map, but one of the best ones of the season, such a pure next-gen passing map. That might be another segment we had,

the best passing map of the week. How so? So what makes the passing map that you enjoy the most? Just a good spread. You know, like it's all over the field. You're not like concentrating on one area. It's not too much short.

It's like all over the field. You just spread it. I'm easy to please, you know? I just need to see a bunch of colors. A lot of those like little like blue streets they have for the touchdowns. You know, those always give me excited. But no, 8% play action rate for Kirk,

who's been like the play action quarterback. And I know we lamented that like in week one. we're like, oh, this is a sure sign. He's done. They're not getting under center. They're not running play action. They didn't really do it much in this game. But Kirk didn't look done in this one.

He was throwing deep. He was throwing into tight windows. That touchdown throw to Darnell Mooney was basically the same exact throw Darnold made against San Francisco up the hash that everyone was freaking out about. They're like, oh, look at this throw. Sam Darnold made. Kirk wasn't making these throws. And then Kirk does it like three weeks later off of an Achilles injury in the red zone,

like in a tighter window. That wasn't the only one. Like, he was throwing past the second level of the defense. And Todd Bowles was, like, throwing stuff at him. You know, Todd Bulls' defense. They're going to throw curve balls at you. And Kirk was just hitting him out of the park every time. He did throw the interception.

But he had 60 dropbacks in this game. You're going to throw an interception. 60 tough dropbacks, too. It's like the game script was not in their favor, the whole game. And he survived. And you didn't see, like, you threw a couple of checkdowns, but they were honorable checkdowns. Like, he went through his progressions.

Actually, he wasn't the old Kirk Cousins, Hot Potato. I don't want to get hit. I'll let my running back take the hit checkdowns. It's really reminded me of like the Kirk cousins we saw before the Achilles injury, where it was like, oh, man, he's like really getting more ambitious as a passer. And if he plays like this, like the Vikings have a chance to be really good. And then he got hurt. And then you're like, I don't know if we're ever going to see that guy again.

But he showed up on Thursday night. And, you know, I got to honor him for it. Yeah. I mean, if you look at it, I was looking at his numbers for the season here. they are their offense is ninth in DVOA eighth in passing 12th and rushing um on the season kirk cousins here is where did i write this down somewhere on my sheet here okay um just like i'm blacking out here ruys at this point in the week where i'm like okay there we go i felt it was a 16 hour sunday it was no blame you know 16 hour sunday thank you for buying time this is honorable

podcasting you know some people have it easy i just had to come on talk for 15 minutes and you No, check out. You're doing the thing. I mean, look at the beer, Ruiz. This is the beard of a man who thought he was going to be podcasting on a Wednesday morning. And then Robert Sala got fired. And now he's got any social clip. He's going to look like Barack Obama when he left office.

That is what this feels like. But all right, I found it. Kurt Cousins is 8th in EPA per pass play and 14th in success rate. So it's pretty interesting that this is kind of the, if you were like, I don't know if it's best case scenario, but like a good scenario if you're a Falcons fans. a Falcons fan for how Kirk Cousins would look in the first five weeks of the season at this age, coming off in Achilles with a new offensive coordinator. You definitely, I mean, ninth and offensive DVOA, you would take that every single time. And like you said, you would only hope that this would get better.

The Falcons have the easiest remaining schedule in the NFL. They've had the fifth hardest schedule so far. This is from In predictable, which looks at the betting market. So yes, suddenly, I know that was a coin flip game on Thursday night, but all of a sudden, Kurt Cousins throws for 509 yards, and you're looking at the division here, and you're three and two tied with the Tampa Bay Bucks, and you've got the easiest remaining schedule in the NFL.

Maybe you're figuring some things out offensively. It could end up being the season that Falcons fans maybe hoped for. You know, you had some kind of cold water poured on it early, but since then it's kind of looked like what you might have expected. Yeah, our preseason predictions of them winning the division are looking a lot better. I was feeling bad about that a couple weeks ago. Me too. I was like, why didn't we all, we all chose them?

And after week, it might have been week one and week two. I'm like, you couldn't have just like gone? You know, it's the NFC South. You couldn't have just picked someone else? I'm like, God, that's going to look terrible. Maybe not. No, I mean, you were thinking about picking the Panthers a couple weeks ago to win the division. But no, but I think the most underrated part about this performance, considering the Achilles

injury in his age is the turn around. It was three days after they had played. Like, it was a Thursday night game. Good point. And they turned around quickly and he plays the best game of his, of the season. far. And those numbers you just rattled off included the first two games. I think it was in sports info solutions. Bryce Rossler wrote a piece about like how long you expect a quarterback to take before his play level starts to level off after a major injury. And it was about three or four

games. So it makes sense that we're seeing the better side of Kirk Cousins now. And maybe this is the Kirk Cousins we're going to see for the next 12 games. There you go. Maybe there is not only an honorable award. Maybe there's a best performance of the week award and his future. He's got time. He's got time to earn that. So those are the awards for this week. Good stuff from Stephen Ruiz. You can check out his quarterback rankings on the ringer.com. That's going to do it for us. I don't know. I have a weird feel. There could be some more breaking news. But if not, we will be back with you for the preview show later in the week, me, Stephen, and Deonté Lee. Appreciate everyone listening. Thank you to Troy Farkas for producing additional production

supervision by Connor Nevins and Arjuna Ramgopal. I'm Shil Kapady. We'll talk to you next time on the Ringer NFL show. Must be 21 plus and present in select states for Kansas in affiliation with Kansas Star Casino or 18 plus and present in D.C. Gambling problem. Call 1-800 gambler or visit RG-Hallp.com or visit RGASHop.com.combe.combe. Hope is here. Visit Gambling helpline, MA.org, or call 800-32750-50 for 24-7-supported in Massachusetts or call 18778-8, Hope N.Y or text Hope N.Y in New York.