The Ringer NFL Show - 'GM Street': Friday Focus: Divisional Round (Ep. 219)

Episode Date: January 12, 2018

The Ringer's Michael Lombardi and Tate Frazier kick off your weekend with a look at the Jon Gruden press conference (00:30) and the coaching shake-ups in Buffalo (08:00), Seattle (09:00), and Carolina (11:00) before previewing the four playoff matchups this weekend (15:15). Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Welcome to GM Street, part of the Ringer Podcast Network. It is Friday morning. We're going to call this the Friday Focus. We're heading into the divisional round this weekend, and I am joined by Mr. Michael Lombardi. Lombardi, how are you doing? I'm great, Tate Frazier. How are you? I'm doing all right.

Some claim this is the best weekend in football, right? I mean, we got all these games this weekend. Four huge games, divisional games. We're going to see what these teams are made of. We're going to map out the championship games, obviously, next couple of weeks and figure out who's going to go to the Super Bowl. But first of before we get into the games themselves, I just want to talk about around the league. Got a lot of firing, got a lot of hirings going on.

Quickly, we touched on this, the John Gruden press conference. Did you watch that? I did. I did. What did you think about that? I mean, I have this weird theory. A lot of people think that, you know, Michael Jackson back in the day, he wanted to look like Diana Ross.

He wanted to change his look to look like her. I think that John Gruden has had the same thing happen with Mark Davis. I think Mark Davis wants to look like John Gruden. When they were sitting next to each other, it was like doppelgangers at the podium. It was an entertaining thing. It was fun to watch. It was entertaining. It was entertaining. I mean, that's John's moment right there. I mean, he's good at that.

You know, he can get right into it. And I love the fact that Mark Davis came out and said that the contract was signed on December 31st. So that's nothing to jump into. So now we have this whole thing. He says that it was signed so much earlier. John Gruden doesn't talk about it in his last game. In the broadcast, he tells Sean McDonough that. He says it's still not a done deal.

Apparently he had already signed. So they already have a problem with that. And now they have to worry about the Rooney Rule. So the other thing, the NFL is investigating if they went and abided by the Rooney Rule. Which they're interviewing T. Martin today for an actual job. Okay. So they're bringing T. Martin in. They interviewed him as a head coaching candidate.

Now they're going to interview him as a position coach, which tells me they're probably going to hire him. I mean, if he's qualified to interview for a head coaching job, you would think he'd be certainly qualified to be hired as an assistant. Look, the Raiders have always been, I mean, look, going back to Al's time, they have been very, about minority hirings. I mean, to hire Tom Flores, the first Hispanic, Arch Shell,

the first African-American, the first woman in the front office. Hugh Jackson is a head coach. I mean, so, like, I think there's a, there's a point here where there's no way

you could accuse the Raiders of not being in terms of, progressive, progressive with the minority hiring. Thank you for that valid Victorian answer. It helps a Hofstra graduate when he's trying to be politically correct

with his answer. Anyway, so, but I do think that, you know, this was like, it's circumvented the rules. I mean, there's no doubt. I mean, they went ahead. And what I find fascinating

is that John Gruden represents the fired football coaches association. Yeah, he has a hat, the FFCA. And he's taking a job before a guy gets fired. Like, you know, like that. I think that means that he can't be the president of that club anymore, right? I think he's got to throw away all his hats. I think there's no way. All those visors.

There's poor visors. If you need some visors for golf, hit up John Gruden. The funny thing about this story, too, we get the big announcement that Rich Gannon is going to be the quarterbacks coach with the Raiders. And I don't know if T. Martin's interviewing for that job or not. Right. No, no, I think Rich was going to always, Rich was never taking it. There was always

speculation that he was going to take it. But I think in Rich's mind, he was never, he was going to examine it, right? And so Rich has got a pretty good lifestyle. He's got two girls, you're girls in college, he's home in Minneapolis, he lives down the street from me in Ocean City. He knows Paul Gunther really

well. He and John are close. And I think Rich has always had that feeling like a lot of players have. Do I go down this road here, and go into coaching, or do I just stay in my lane and keep doing TV? And the coaching's really appealing because he's really good. He could be it. Like I told him, I said, I told somebody that I was talking to that also works at CBS.

I said, you know, I told Rich Gannon, if he went and did this job with the Raiders in five years, he'd be a head coaching candidate. And the guy corrected me and said, no, probably be about three years. So, but I think that, I think more than anything, I think Rich really wanted to go out and examine it, take a look. But I think at the end of the day, it was like, wait a minute, I can't put my toe in. I got to jump all the way in and I'm not ready to do that. Yeah, and he said his quote was pretty interesting. He said he couldn't and wouldn't be able to match the intensity that John Gruden would expect from the job. Basically, he would have to go 100% in and invest his entire life to this and he wasn't ready for that,

which says something about what Gruden wants to do with the Raiders. We saw Charles Woodson and all these former players come to his press conference. He was obviously moved by having them all in the room and said that, you know, they were welcome to be around the program whenever they want to be, you know, this is Raiders football. I mean, if you're a Raiders fan, you have to enjoy hearing that. Look, the Raiders are always about their alumni. I mean, that's why I don't think you can be really hard on the Raiders about the minority hiring. They've always been good in that area.

And they're really a college team. They're very much about the – that's the one thing Al Davis has always been able to do is brand – he branded the team. And it was important that the alumni come around. And he was always about promoting the Raiders. I mean, look, if you went down in the equipment room – I've been at some organizations, take Frasier where you get one T-shirt, that's it, right? At the Raiders, you go down there, yes, for 50, they'll give you – like, Al was always always. always like as many things I can. And I think that's kind of his way. And Mark has adopted that, obviously. And there's a great alumni there. And you've got to play to the alumni. The alumni are

important part of the Raider history. And they love John. And that's part of the reason why John's there. You know, nobody looked at these only three games over 500. And nobody's looked at his personnel track record. Everybody sees what he did at the Raiders. And the alumni loved them. And this is more about Mark Davis hiring and the alumni hiring. Absolutely. Let's talk about some more hiring and firing around the NFL. You know, the one thing people keep asking us online is the Green Bay hiring of Goudicest, you know, is the general manager. And people have asked me on Twitter about what I thought about that. I'm not a fan of what Mark Murphy did, right? Like, I think the Packers have always had a really good system a way to do things. I thought the Packers have always done this

since the only time they've made changes has been twice is when Lombardi came over in 59. They gave him all the authority. And then Mike Sherman got all the authority and then he got fired. I think the Packers have always been successful with the GM head coach model, each guy having their own authority. And I think he split this up into three different areas. And as you know, I've never believed you could dedicate a monument to a committee. I don't like this committee approach. I know Goodicus is a good guy. I know he's a good scout. I know he's a good evaluator. He'll do a good job. I think it's hard to blend three personalities together. I'm not really that excited about the staff

Mike's putting together. You know, Mike Petton, the defense coordinator. Look, to me, if I were going to hire the Rex Ryan scheme, I'd hire Jim Leonard. Like, I think Jim Leonard, the defense coordinator at University of Wisconsin, is an up-and-coming star. I think that, if you look at Wisconsin's team,

I was talking about this to somebody in the league yesterday, you talk about Wisconsin, what they have athletically and what they're able to do. Like, I don't know how Paul Chris is in a head coaching candidate for a lot of teams. Like, he's done a tremendous job there. And Leonard runs that ski.

and he doesn't have the best players on the field, and yet they do a good job. So I'm not against Mike Patton, not at all. I'm just saying if I was going to do that, I would have gone with somebody like Jim Leonard. And when you look at Petton, too, and you look at that Rex Ryan defense, it puts a lot of pressure on those corners.

I mean, you're going to have a lot of guys on islands. I mean, that's how Revis Island came to be. Yeah. And you're going to be a lot of blitzing, and you're basically, it's not going to be a bin, but don't break. It's going to be, we're going to try to break you. And if we don't, then you're going to probably score a touchdown.

And I mean, look, you know, they're going to make mistakes, too. You're going to have a lot of free access touchdowns too because there's going to be a lot of guys looking at each other and saying, I thought you had them. No, I thought you had them. You know, to me, I think what Rex did was good. I think you got to try to move it forward and see what you can do. I don't know. That one wasn't, to me, I'm not in love with what. I like some of the players in the Green Bay thing.

I'm not in love with the way they set the model up. To me, it puts Murphy more in control, and I don't think that's what you really want. And definitely keep your eye out because, I mean, that defense predicates themselves. on bringing veteran defensive players in to come in that are stars. Yeah, you got to know what to do. And to me, like Jim Leonard had a career in the NFL because he knew what to do in that scheme. Like, I don't know what they'll do. They'll probably bring some of those guys that was in Cleveland with them and he'll try to bring them.

And we'll go from there. Next up we got the Bills. Rick Denison was just let go after one season with Buffalo Bills. Came out GM. He said he's trying to find a franchise quarterback. They're basically just trying to do something on the offensive side of the football. We saw them put up three points against Jaguars. do you think this is a good decision for the bills?

Well, look, I think Rick's a really good offensive line coach. I think Rick's a really good offensive line coach. However, I don't think Rick has any expertise in terms of really a dropback pass game. And I think Buffalo realizes, and I think Sean McDermen and Brandon B, they realize for them to win, they need a drop-back passing game. And it's hard for a guy who's been a line coach who was a linebacker in the league. He's a really good coach, but he's not, that role was a little bit too much for him. And I think they need to find somebody who can develop a quarterback, somebody who can help him in that area. go from there. I think this is a smart move. Even though they made the playoffs, don't look at the

score, but look about who you have to beat. And I think for them to be a better team, they've got to get a better passing game. And let's go to Seattle. Let's talk about a guy that helped develop Russell Wilson, but they want him to do even more now. Darrell Bevel's been there for seven seasons. He didn't quite get the best out of Russell Wilson this year, or at least out of the offensive line itself. And their cleaning house, Tom Cable is also out in Seattle. Yeah, I think, though, Seattle needs a change. I think Seattle needs... I think sometimes what people see as people getting fired is sometimes it's the reinvigoration of fresh faces. I think they need some fresh faces up there.

I think they need a fresher draft. They're talking about hiring Brian Schottenheimer, who was with. The connection there is Brian Schottenheimer's father, Marty, was the head coach at Washington. He hired John Schneider as his general manager. So the Schottenheimer-Schneider connection is pretty strong. I think that's why you see Brian Schottenheimer's name mentioned as a candidate for job there. But look, they need to figure out how they can move the ball with a passing game.

Russell Wilson just can't make these loose plays, crazy plays and run all over the field. They need a better system of offense. And Cable, you know, has had a reputation from being a really good line coach, which he is, but I think what's happened is they never really worked together, the passing game in the line. And I think that that's been a problem. They got

three number ones in the offensive line, two number twos. They couldn't block anybody. I think for Cable, he got caught in a crossfire. They needed a change, and the only way you could really change is to change everything. Cable land on his feet. I'm sure Beville will too. I think it's probably the right thing for everybody involved. They need a change and it wasn't going to happen. And I think Pete needs to do that. And Schenheimer, for people that forget, he was the one with the Jets to help Mark Sanchez,

you know, figure that whole thing out back when they made those AFC championship runs and was a guy. I mean, like Kyle Shanahan that you thought would always end up being a head coach, so who knows, and maybe he can... You know, I mean, look, whoever gets, I think whoever gets the Seattle job could be an asleep giant, because I think you could, because you got a great quarterback, and if you tailor the right things around Russell Wilson, I think it could be tremendous. And you've just got to get the offense line to play better, and you've got to be able to run the football more effectively.

And when J.D. McKissick is your best running back and the kid they signed from San Francisco, you need some backs. And I think – and Eddie Lacey wasn't the fit. We talked about that from the beginning of the year. Yeah, we hoped Eddie would get in shape and make it happen. But it didn't quite happen this year. Good luck. Last one, North Turner, Mike Shula, and Ken Dorsey are both out,

the quarterback's coach and the offensive coordinator for the Panthers. They go out and hire North Turner, a guy that's been around for a long time. Obviously, people probably remember him from the Chargers. Not quite the name that I expected to be brought in. This is a Marty Henry. Remember, Norve was the head coach, and he hired Ron Rivera when he got fired from Chicago. And so there's the connection. And Scott Turner's, Norv's son, is going to be the quarterback coach.

I actually kind of was surprised by this. I thought Mike Shula did a really good job. I think Mike Shula had a bad hand, to be honest with you. Like, we talk about you got to run plays for McCaffrey. You got to run plays for Cam. You got to run play. Like, to me, like, I think this is a hard job for Norr. Nor is going to come in and run his system.

I think it's going to be hard for Norv to get the quarterback to make the reeds and run the things that he wants to do and be effective. I just think it's going to be really difficult. It's going to be a challenge to run the Norve system with Cam. I think you've got to run Cam system. How that develops. I thought

Shula was doing that. I really did. I mean, that offensive line wasn't very good. I know they don't have a great passing game. I get that, but I think it was limited by what they had, right? Yeah, definitely. I mean, if you look at Matt Khalil blocking on that blind side for Cam. I mean, that was a tough signing. They obviously hoped that Ryan, his brother was the center, would help, you know, make Matt maybe take it up to another level. Didn't quite

work out this year. And then you can just got to think that Norff is going to go from a guy that's a true pocket passer in Phillip Rivers, a guy that he helped develop, a system that worked for a Phil Rivers is not going to work for a Cam Newton. And I could see there being some problems there with just Cam and Norv getting along early. So if there's any, that's going to be some drama. That's going to be something to watch. Yeah, I don't, I think, look, we got to stop this Troy Aikman, this whole stuff, because that's, that's, that's not pro football anymore. Like, to me, you know, it's, it's, it's not, like, I think you got to do some of that, but I think the game's got to go in a little different direction. It's going to be to see how Cam adapts to it.

That's the wild card. I thought Mike Shula, to be honest, I think Mike Shula did a hell of a job. I really did. Yeah, and if, if they can get someone on the outside to help Cam, and I think the biggest problem for Panthers fans that I always heard with Shula is just that there were these long lags and they seem to come out really slow in a lot of games. And then once they get their backs push against the wall, then they seem to run the offense and this thing started going. They need tempo. Cam's a guy that needs tempo and he's to hurry up.

And I think that some of that is because they're playing battleship football. They're trying to figure out what they can run this week that'll work because they really don't have an offense, right? I agree with that. Like I think Mike Shula would agree we don't have an offense. But I don't think that's Mike Shula's fault. I think that's the product of the player that you're coaching. Like, it's hard to have a structured offense with Cam because there's really no structure.

So is it, you know. And Cam thrives in chaos. Exactly. So, like, yeah, I agree with the criticism on Shula, but I'm not sure you can actually do that. I don't know. It's a similar thing with Russell Wilson, too. It's sort of the same hand. I mean, Russell is a little bit more of a pocket passer.

But he also is a guy that his big moments and his magical moments do come when things break down. That's when he can make himself really well known and make a scene. So it'll be interesting to see what happens with that North Turner's. I know a lot of people were shocked would be an understatement when that was announced. Me too. I was. All right, Lombardi, we're going to get into the games this weekend, but first, quick break. You may have missed it, but the NFL playoffs are finally here. And I want to tell you about my bookie.ag, the number one rated online sportsbook.

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And we're back. We, uh, divisional round football. I'm very excited for this week in LaBardi. I know you are too. Oh, I am. Yeah, no doubt. First game, we got, the parade was planned a long time ago. And then Carson Wentz went down.

Amazon's out of, out of confetti. Yeah, they've already celebrated. But we're in Philadelphia this weekend. The defendant in NFC champs, the Atlanta Falcons are going up to Philadelphia. They are favored as a three-point spread for the Falcons this weekend, which, you know, there's some things to be said about that. I will tell you this, every game that the Eagles have played at home, and they were a dog, an underdog at home in the playoffs.

Three times it's happened in history. They've won every single game. The last time it happened, I think, was 2001 with McNabb. So that's one thing if you're an Eagles fans to be excited about. Falcons coming in town, what's the main thing to watch out for this weekend? You know, I think this is going to be a game where the Falcons have to prove that they can block the Eagle front. They struggled blocking out of the Rams front in Los Angeles last week early in the game, even though, I mean, the Rams did everything in their power to give them the game early

with the fumbles and turnovers and stuff like that. They struggled. And then when Brockers got hurt, they kind of were able to block it a little bit better. But I think this game's going to come down to, like all playoffs games come down to, is the ability for the Eagle offense to be consistent on third down. What people don't realize is Carson Wentz was remarkable. So he's on third down this year, he had 124 attempts. 81 completions. That's a 65% completion rate. That was 9.5 yards per attempt on third down.

He threw 14 touchdowns and three interceptions on third down. And we said that the whole year, as we kept watching these games. All year. All year. Right. So let's go to Nick Foles. Nick Foles. Nick Foles is 12 for 28 on third down this year. Okay. He's 43.9%. He averages 3.25 yards per attempt on third down. So when the game matters, right? When the game matters and the game becomes, a fast game becomes faster, which is third down, is can your player make those plays? And I think for the Eagles,

Foles is going to have to be able to make a few third down plays. The last time they played this team, the Eagles only got, the Eagles held the Falcons with Kyle Shan has the offensive coordinator. They held them to 11 first downs. They really played them well defensively. So if that's the case, if the Eagles defense plays like they did a year ago in November when the Falcons were the Super Bowl team and they hold them down,

and this game's in the teens, the Eagles have a chance to win. This isn't going to be a blowout. I think this is going to be a game where it's going to come down to who executes on third down, who can make those plays. I'm not in love with foals in that area. I think Matt Ryan will make those plays. I think if I'm the Falcons, I want to tire the Eagle front out, I want to go fast, get them tired. And once I get that defensive front tired, I'll be able to throw the ball. and I've got to run some things.

I like Philly here a little bit because I think Philly's like the sleeping team here. Can they do it? To me, Atlanta's playing better. I have a hard time picking against Atlanta. I know I said I like Philly here, but I don't think Atlanta is – Atlanta's playing too good right now. I'm going quarterback and the defense that's playing well. I think Atlanta's the better team.

And they do this Madden simulation of all these games. I don't know if you've seen this. No, I love this. They did like a full Madden simulation of this game. I think the Falcons, they ended up winning like 41 to 3 or something. And that made me just think, I mean, I don't think Madden is the best answer for this game. But I mean, look, I think the Eagles will show up. The Eagles will show up.

But the reality of it is, is you lost the most valuable player in the league. I mean, I just gave you stats. He's 9-5 on third down. Who does that? Nobody does that. I mean, that's the whole Eagle offense. The Eagles are seventh in the National Football League in third and six or more. Like Atlanta's the 31st team.

Atlanta's never in third or six, right? So one offense is consistently moving the ball. the other one wasn't. And that's with Wince. But then Wince bails them out. I just, I think Atlanta's defense is fast horizontally. And that's going to be a problem for the Falcons, for the Eagles, too, because the Eagles want to go sideways a lot, right, with all those bubble screens and

make it easier for Foles because he really don't want to throw the ball up the field. And so that speed is going to be a problem. And look, they play really good against the Rams. I mean, they shut down the Rams, which is a better offense than the Eagles. And let's talk about the weather. Do you think that has any factor there? I mean, because we have a Done team Atlanta. They come out to Los Angeles, beautiful weather.

They win this game, but it's going to be in the teens. There's going to be a wind chill. I mean, is there anything? I mean, will the run game help the Philadelphia Eagles? I don't think run games matter in the playoffs. I think the playoffs is about converting third downs, throwing the football effectively, and getting the lead. I think the weather won't be a problem for them. I think the Falcons probably, I think they're actually a better team away from the Mercedes-Benz Arena.

I mean, what's the Falcons Road record? The Falcons at home were five and three, you know, and they were five and three on the road. So they're just as good on the road. They won out there. So I think it. Atlanta's the better team. I think there's no doubt. And who would have thought that Atlanta being the six-seat and drawing that six-seat? They got the best route to, you know, possibly the NFL championship team.

And Matt Ryan's hometown. He's coming home. I mean, look, Matt Ryan's playing really well. The last six games, he's been over 100 quarterback rating. You know, he can make those throws. And look, the Eagles defense hasn't played to a level. Look, just go back to watch that giant tape that they struggle to stop Eli Manning. The one that Eli Manning is going to come back on because Gettelman says he watched that Eagle tape, right? So, you know, I mean, that was a game where, you know, they block them like the, like the, like the, front, like the Giants offensive line blocked them, then that 41 to 3 score will matter. Absolutely. Next up, we have the Tennessee Titans going into the New England Patriots.

There's a 13 and a half spread on this game for the Patriots. Most people were expecting a blowout would probably be the kindest thing to say about this. But the Titans, we've talked about this on the podcast before. They do have Marcus Marriota. Marriota is a guy that runs the football. I pointed out to you that I thought Mariotta could have one of those weeks like Kaepernick had against the Packers a few years ago where he's not even a threat throwing the ball, but he is just a complete threat on the outside running the football. The Patriots defense is huge. They're big guys.

They don't do well with speed at the quarterback position. We've seen that hurt him a lot. Is there any hope for the Tennessee Titans in this game? I think there is hope. I mean, look, they've got to control the ball. They've got to handle it. I mean, Mariotta, he's only run the ball six times on third down all year. He's going to have to run the ball more on third down.

They're going to have to convert third downs. They've got to keep the ball away from them. And they're going to have to get Brady to the matchup up front favors the tight. in terms of Nate Solder trying to block Brian or Arakpo. Okay, Joe Tuny, who's not played well, and he's going to have to block Dorel Casey over there. And then their right tackle, it'll be Laderio Waddell over at right tackle. He's going to have to handle whomever they put over there, whether it's Derek Morgan, whomever. So that front, those four guys, their four guys, have got to put pressure on Brady,

and they've got to squeeze them and force Brady to throw the ball outside. If they can hold the Brady into the low 20s, they've got a chance to win the game, but they've got to play it a certain way, and they've got to play at a certain stuff. style. You know, I think the one thing about the AFC, Tate Fraser, is I don't think, when we look at the AFC, you don't see an upset coming. I don't think Tennessee can beat New England. I don't think

Jacksonville can beat Pittsburgh. However, that being said, in the NFC, you could see some kind of upset coming. I just think New England's situational football is way better than Tennessee. I know Marriota, they've got to control them in the pocket. That's going to be the key thing. Can they keep them in the pocket? Can they make sure that he doesn't run around with the

football? And the other thing that I did in study in Marioo, this, It's fascinating. Like Mariotta is 10 times a better quarterback when he's under center than he is when he's not. I mean, it's just really remarkable how better he is under center when he can run dropback. And I'll just give you some numbers here. Like he's, he is 73 for 104 when he's under center for 1126 yards. He's thrown 13 touchdown passes all year, Tate Fraser.

Seven of them have come when he's under center. All right. And here's the best part. he's made he's made 18 20 yard plays all season okay 13 is when he's under center like he's a better player under center why is that well because that allows him to separate the defense play action pass when you don't when you can't really read the defense you fake a hand off it separates the defense right so now the defense has been it's it's pulled in one way it's pulled another way and now you just make a throw right when you drop back and you're in shotgun there's no separation so you have to kind of read it

was it cover one, cover three, and they're playing two trap. He's a better player under center. And I think if he's under center more in this game, it'll be a problem for the Patriots. And that's just a mis-evaluation, right? You just expect a guy that came out of Oregon that would be comfortable in a spread system to be in a shotgun situation, but it turns out that's not quite the case for him. It's not even close. Like when I was looking at the numbers, it's not even close. Like I'm putting him under center more.

Like to me, I know you've got to be in shotgun on third down. But for me, with Mariotta is the value that you have is the way they're set up. leave him under center, run play action stuff. If he's under center, it's a problem. The other thing I think fans need to watch and pay attention to this on Saturday night. The Titans are so obvious with their run game, right? So whenever Henry, so when they're in shotgun and the back is even with the quarterback, it's pass. When Henry's at least a yard behind the quarterback, it's run.

And it's every time. It's not like, oh, they can dupe you. No, it's every time. And like the big touchdown run against Kansas City, like if you're on the field, you're screaming, they're going to run it. Like, you can just, they're giving you away. And those are the kind of things that the Patriots will take advantage. And we've seen problems in that backfield before.

I mean, remember the Jaguars game when he and Henry, Marriotto and Henry just ran into each other, led to a fumble that just popped up in the air and led to a touchdown. My big thing to watch out for, and I would love to hear your opinion on this, pressure up the middle on Brady. That's what it's got to happen. That's where it's going to happen. And the two guys that are Jarrell Casey and Sylvester Williams.

Sylvester Williams put on that Broncos team that did that to Brady, that beat him in the AFC championship game a couple years ago. Casey, Williams, those two guys. If they do have big games up to middle and force pressure, there could be some problems in front. They got to pressure them inside. And then you've got to play Gronk a certain way. Like, you can't play Gronk and put a guy over Gronk and go man to man on Gronk. Because you know why?

Gronk just goes over the top of you. So what do you do with Gronk? You got a bracket Gronk. You play them in and out. So if Gronk goes left, I got him. He goes right. Because what you don't want to do is put a guy on him because then he's open. Whenever Gronk is...

It's 1-101. It's basically, you know, O'1. If Brady sees a little guy on him, he's going to throw it. But if he sees a guy to his right and a guy to his left and he's got to fit it in there, that can't happen. That becomes hard. That's the thing where people make the mistake. It's like playing Randy Moss. When you used to play Randy Moss, in and out coverage didn't work on Randy Moss because he used to just run right through it.

Just a straight vert. Just straight right vertical. So you got to jam them with help on top and hope you can survive. There's certain ways to double people that are just not, oh, we're going to double them. You've got to handle that. And I think that's the way they got to play. Gronkin, you're right. Pressure inside is going a problem.

Next up, we're going to go to the Sunday game. games. Blake Bortles, the Blake Bordle show is going to go up to Pittsburgh this weekend, Sunday at 105 Eastern, the Jacksonville Jaguars, Pittsburgh Steelers. We saw the Jaguars get a big win against the Steelers earlier in the season that shocked a lot of people. And people were hoping that it may happen again. Let me ask you this question, Tate Frazier. How many times did Blake Bortles throw the ball the last time they played them? Let's say less than 10. No, he threw it 14 times. Oh, okay. All right, they gained 260 yards. That was an exaggeration, and I can't believe I was close. You were close. I mean, that's the thing that's amazing. I mean,

threw it 14 times last time they played them. I mean, it's unbelievable. Like, do I think that's going to happen again? No chance. Like, I think it's, and the thing that's underlying is the Steelers could run the ball the first time they played them. They just didn't do it enough. And then they got into that turnover frenzy.

I think you can run the ball a little bit out of some spread stuff with the, what the Steelers try to do in the first game, and I think it'll work in this game, is get into base formations. Okay, so get your two tight ends in there with Levi-on-Bel. That forces, that forces, that forces, uh, Jackson. Jacksonville to play base because they're not going to be able to match up against any good team and nickel out of those. And then what they were doing was spreading them out of that formation, which created some, which spread the defense horizontally to create some lanes. I think that's the approach you have to take. So you can be balanced and you can run and throw and you have a lot of seam, a lot of areas to throw the ball down the field.

The Steelers just didn't play well that day. I think the Steelers will play much better. I think the Steelers will get their momentum. And I think this will be a hard game for Blake Bortles. Yeah, and I think the matchup to watch this one, Antonio Brown comes back. He says he's 100% healthy and ready to go. He's been running drills, doing everything. Funny enough, he actually worked out with Ocho Cinco during his time off. So that'll be interesting to see if that paid off in any way. I'm sure it did.

He's got to go against Jalen Ramsey, a guy who had the game-winning pick against the bills last week, a guy that we know he's a very talented corner. Could be one of the best in the game. Well, early in the game, I think the first series of the game, they threw a deep ball to Brown, Brown beat him on. For me, this game's about Levi-on Bell. Like Levy on Bell's ability in space and Brown's ability to make plays, I think this is going to be a hard game for Jacksonville to match up consistently.

What about Fournet? I mean, Fournet is a guy that- He gained 260 yards against him, I think. Something like that. A ridiculous game. That was earlier in the season. He's even made comments about being worn down. He didn't know how long the season would be, even though everyone said the NFL was easy. Yeah, exactly.

But do we think we see a rejuvenated Fournet in this game? I mean, let's just talk about the backs that they have. They do have three good backs that they can all. Ivory can go in there, Yelden can go in there. there and Fourneck and go in there. Yeah. I think, and what's going to happen is it's a prove me game. I mean, I think if I'm Mike Tomlin, I'm going to say, prove it to me, Blake Bortles, that you can beat me. I would play. I would never get out of my base.

Eight or nine guys in the box. I would never get out of my base. I would have the edge set constantly. I would be in an under. I would be in a bare front. I'd cover up both the guards and the centers. And I would say, okay, you're going to have to beat me throwing the football today, Blake, can you do it? And you know, and I know that Jacksonville scared to death every time they call a pass. You know, and I mean, they're scared of holding their breath, right? Yep. So, like, you're going to have to, and can you do that?

You might do it in the first quarter, you might do it in a quarter and a half. You might do it for 30 minutes. Can you do it for 60 minutes? I don't think you can, and that's why I like Pittsburgh. Are we worried about Blake Bortles rushing again? 88 yards in the first playoff game. He looked like he couldn't throw in the first half. I wouldn't be worried about Blake Bordles rushing if I was Jacksonville because

if he gets hurt, it's $19 million. That is a big problem. That is something to watch out for. $19 million on the line. We'll see if he can survive. Final game of the weekend. We had the New Orleans Saints going up to the Minnesota Vikings. This is probably the prime time game of the weekend.

Another rematch game. Yep, two teams that, I mean, either one could be the class of the NFC and it would make sense if all things work out. Minnesota has kind of been slept on now the whole playoffs have come out and people want to see if Case Kingdom can handle this. New Orleans is a hot team coming up to Minnesota. In a dome, this should be a fun game. What are you looking out for in this one?

I think Sean Payton does a great job. I think this is going to be a tremendous chess match because what Sean Payton wants to do is when you watch the Saints play, what they do is they line up in a formation, they motion a guy across, they stop, and then Breeze puts them in the right play. So when they do that, they're really tough. And Zimmer knows how this goes. So Zimmer can do it.

I think the first series of the game, they'll feel each other out. Zimmer will make adjustments. Sean will make adjustments. Look, Bradford threw 75% completions, but the first game, Breeze was sensational. They couldn't run the ball. New Orleans couldn't run the ball. So it's going to fall on Breeze again to make it happen for him. And can they hold up in the offensive line?

I like New Orleans here a little bit. I think New Orleans is playing. Breeze is playing really good. I think their defense is good enough. And whether Case Keenham, if you're asking me to pick a quarterback in the game, I think Case Keenom's been a great story. I'm going to pick Drew Breeze in the game. That's the only reason.

I think both teams are even. But I do think the Saints have an ability to attack. And the way they do it with their Check With Me system at the line can create problems for the Vikings. And when you have a guy like Michael Thomas or a guy like Ted Ginn that you can throw it over the top, just to keep the defense honest, to keep the Vikings honest, that is always tough to deal with. I mean, the Panthers did a great job shutting down that run game,

but then they had two or three big plays down the field and it just makes up for it all. And so what they try to do is they get you in formations and they get Camara where they're going to get Camaro on a wheel route. Like I just think there's too many weapons in New Orleans. If this gets to a track meet, I think New Orleans wins. If it plays in the 20s, I think New Orleans wins too. So for me, I like New Orleans here.

The funny thing, too, is Cam Jordan Saints' Defense event that's been great in this whole playoff run. You know, he's been talking about their destiny to go to the Super Bowl. this is their year, blah, blah, yada yada. His dad played for the Minnesota Vikings, Cam Jordan. He's going back to Minnesota. He says he's got a lot to leave on the field, plans to destroy the Vikings. The guy's amazing.

The guy never comes off the field. He plays hard constantly. He's unbelievable. I mean, the kid's an amazing player. He never tires. He's in great shape. He doesn't look anything like a defense alignment. He's lean looks like a power ford in basketball.

Yeah, he does. He really does. That's something to watch out for. That game, I think, is going to be the biggest game of the weekend. We're going to see if Kay's Kingdom can really step up in that one. The Vikings fans and the Vikings in general have had such a great season. Mike Zimmer is basically the Sean Peyton of defense. I mean, that head-to-head chess match will be fun to watch.

It'll be back and forth all day. Final thought, before we get out of here, I just want to ask you about something. There's a lot of rumors going around that Kirk Cousins is potentially going to be the future quarterback of the Denver Broncos. It's a team that's trying to target Kirk Cousins. I think there's no doubt. Yeah, is that a good fit, do you think? Yeah, I think so. I think there's no doubt about that.

I think Kirk Cousins either going to be Buffalo, Jacksonville. I mean, yeah, I think it definitely is. Any open team Cardinals, maybe. Maybe. Possibly the Titans. All right, well, this has been another episode of GM Street, part of the Winger Podcast Network. Friday at Focus.

Thank you, Michael, buddy. Thanks, Dave Brazier.