The Ringer NFL Show - 'GM Street’ — Week 7 Rapid Reactions (Ep. 166)

Episode Date: October 23, 2017

The Ringer's Michael Lombardi and Tate Frazier discuss Steve Sarkisian’s bizarre play calling for the Falcons (01:45), how pathetic the Panthers looked in Chicago (05:00), the resurgence of the Steelers and the Bills (10:00), Chuck Pagano's future with Indianapolis (16:00), what losing Carson Palmer means to the Arizona Cardinals (20:15), and the Cowboys' impressive win in San Francisco (22:45). They close by giving out some awards (32:30). Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

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Use promo code ringer NFL to activate the offer. Visit MyBooky.agee.ag today. You play, you win, you get paid. Welcome to GM Street, part of the Ringer podcast Network. I am Tate Frazier and sitting across from me on this lovely week seven Sunday night. Mr. Michael Lombardi, how you doing? I'm good, Tate Frasier. Another Sunday night with Tate Frasier and pretzels.

I mean, what could be better? It's pretty nice. We've got the crew here, you know, it's all good. Yeah, we're just all hanging out watching football. Eat pretzels of his food. Maybe one day we'll get some real food. Maybe one day. And maybe one day we'll get some cameras before.

For people that didn't see, Lombardi was actually doing the Juju Smith's Shoester celebration before. We were playing hide-and-seek against each other. A lot of people missed that on that. I actually picked up on that one. Like, I got that one before Romo told me what they were doing. The best thing about it is they sold it by running like a kid, you know? That's what you want to do. You got to really sell the whole thing.

There's nothing wrong with good celebrations. I mean, I don't need somebody peeing, but I mean, that's a good celebration, right? Yeah, that's a whole different thing. Come on, Odell. Yeah, well, his helmet was there. That's important. Save Odell. Save Odell.

Didn't help the G-Men today. Did not help them. Absolutely not. We're going to a lot to talk about this week, Week 7. a lot of big storylines. We're going to talk about, of course, the five performances that jumped out to you. And we're going to start with our boy,

Steve Sarkisian, the new offensive coordinator for the Atlanta Falcons, calling some odd plays tonight, and it was a tough game for that offense. I mean, if you took the over in this game, you know, you weren't even, like I would have said, yeah, there's a good chance. I mean, for the Patriots to hold any team

to seven points as bad as they played, with two of their corners, Gilmore and Roe not playing. Johnson, Batimosi, this is a kid that was in Cleveland when I was there, It was a great special teams player in Cleveland, always tried to trade for him. Cleveland wouldn't trade him to us when I was in New England.

Then when he became a free agent, we tried to sign him in New England, but he took a better deal to go to Jacksonville. His agent went to Detroit, and then finally Belichick was able to trade for him. But the kid has played really well. I've always thought he could play a little better corner than actually people think he's just a fifth corner,

but he tackles really good. He's helped this Patriot defense. But Sarkeesian's play call him was bizarre. Like Matt Ryan has come back. to normal and their offensive line. I guess the question I have is, how good do we really think Atlanta is? Like, are they really that good? I mean, or was it really good coaching last year? Like, everybody's talking about how good they are, but at some point, they're an inch away from losing to Detroit. Mike Lennon's got three shots at them in the end zone. Those are two of

the wins. I mean, how good are, how good is, do we really know, what's that Simmons line he always talks about? Are we sure they're good? Are we sure they're good? Yes, thank you, Tay Frazier. Are we sure? Atlanta's good? I am not so sure. And I think the thing about this team is we talk about the JetSuite, but even before the half, they do this weird thing where they give Tom Brady the football back and plus territory and get more points on the board.

It's just simple decisions like that, clock manager, play call, whatever it is. It just doesn't seem like it's lining up right for this team. Like at some point, will somebody understand? And know it's hard because we don't talk about it on television. The last four minutes of both halves usually determine the outcome of the game. It happens in college, although, you know, our man Mack hasn't discussed it yet, but I mean, it happens in college. He likes, you know, and so, like, I get, when Quinn went for it on fourth and five or fourth and six, when he had it like, I think it was like around the 45.

I mean, it was midway in the first quarter, I get it. Like, he's saying this defense isn't really good. We can move the ball on. Let's test them. Let's see what happens. We're going to go right after him, right? But at the end of the half, you got to weigh your, like Brady on a long field I'm still nervous about. Not that he played particularly over the top tonight,

but you're just really giving yourself, it's the old line. You first have to avoid losing before you can win. And to me, Quinn with that decision was really not avoiding losing. And we had another situation where we're literally on the goal line. It's fourth and goal. You got Devante Freeman. You got maybe a QB sneak. You got maybe a Sunu or a Julio Jones fade or drag.

And instead we run a jet sweep to Taylor Gabriel, the smallest guy on the field. We had two of them, okay? So you ran the boot the first time to, boot to Matt Ryan's right. Yeah. Great play by Malcolm Butler. Great play by Malcolm Butler. I mean, I know that the ball should have, but it's a hard throw on the run. Look, Matt Ryan was great last year. He was over nine yards per pass attempt. He was incredible with what he did with the ball, but he wasn't sharp tonight. And I keep asking,

how good is Atlanta? Like, I'm telling you, and we're not going to talk about it, but the Saints are the best team in the South. Now, I thought I would never say that based on the way the Saints play defense in the first two games of the season. But the Saints are on a nice little win streak. they got some momentum going. They don't have to worry about who they're going to feature it running back. They know it's going to be Ingram. They know it's going to be Camaro. They got their receivers going.

And their defense is not giving up just free access touchdowns. I mean, I think right now, based on what I've seen from Tampa, what I've seen from Atlanta, what I've seen from your Carolina Panthers. And if you ever, ever, if I ever pick them in a game, I want you to beat me over the head with a two by four, please. Let's just be honest. They're going to beat the Buccaneers next weekend and everyone's going to be back on the bandway. I'm never getting on that bandwagon. They're wishy-washy.

I am never getting on that bandwagon. It's like Cam's fast and sense, you know. It goes in and out. Sometimes it's going to be good. I'm telling you, I thought when I saw that hat coming in the game, I thought he looked like a young Vito Annalini when he was coming over to Ellis Island. Remember he was the little kid before he became Vito Corleone? Yeah.

Do you remember this? Yes, yes. That's the hat. On the train, yeah. Well, it was a boat, but it's okay, close. It's a means of transportation. It's a lot of, I remember the smokestacks in the background. That's Jersey.

That's New York Jersey. So, anyway. But Cam, to me, that was atrocious. I mean, you lose a game today to a guy who threw seven passes. And I was dumb enough to think Carolina was going to win the game. Just a winner. Mitchell Trubisky, just strictly a winner. That's what he is.

I love it. You can't slow him down now. The Trubisky train is rolling. How do you stop it? I'm an idiot. That's one of the things that jump out to me is I'm an idiot for thinking that the Carolina Panthers could win. I was good in every other game except that one. Campbell looked like a guy if you didn't see the post game, He has a full outfit on from the 70s.

Looks like he should be on good times. And he basically like a Jackson 5 reject at some point. Like he just auditioned. That's a good line. It really is. I mean, he did, because he played like a reject at the game. I mean, like he did, like it was like he didn't care. And let's just get this out there.

Okay. Everybody wanted to give Christian McCaffrey the rookie of the year and all this crap. Okay. Not I. I know. But neither did I. But I'm just telling you, all these guys you have to run plays for, you can't run an offense. And I can't watch the Carolina Panthers anymore because if they throw it on first down, they run it on second.

So they're in third and ten. If they throw it, if they run it on first down, they throw it on second. I mean, like they just make a living in it being in third. Like you can't run trick plays. Like we're in week seven of the season. It's no more trick plays. They're over. Everybody knows what everybody else does.

You know, so to me, they have problems with their offensive line. To me, they deserve what they got tonight. And if you're going to run those plays dedicated to someone, you can look at, Tariq Cohen on the Bears. And that's something that like they're running plays for him, but it's working out. Like the guy's throwing touchdowns. They ran one play. They're a little deep pass down the field to him today. But when he's in the backfield, they can't do anything with them because he's too small to really make a living doing that. Anyway, but that didn't jump out to me, although Cam's hat did jump out to me. Yeah, it jumped out to a lot of people. Let's keep it going.

The Denver Broncos. They need a quarterback, Tate Frazier. They put up a donut today. Trevor Simeon, not a good performance. You know, I wrote an article for the ringer back in May about how I thought Denver was in trouble because they really don't have a quarterback and how they've really blown it with their quarterbacks. Okay, they got the biggest break of all time in the history of breaks, okay, is when the heist didn't take the money from them.

Could you imagine where they would be if the heist took the money from them? They would have cap trouble. They probably have zero points like they did today. Exactly. So now they don't have a quarterback. They take Paxton Lynch. Nobody has a nice thing to say about Paxton Lynch

in or out of their building in Denver. And now my man, Trevor Simeon, God bless him. He's trying, but they have no one. and the offensive line, which they rebuilt this offseason, okay? They drafted Garrett Bowles. They signed Watson. They signed Ronald Leary, and they give him a huge amount of money. They give Watson a lot of money.

I mean, so they've tried to repair the offensive line. They can't block anybody. They're back to the same spot they were last year. I think Leary is a good player, but they had Alan Barbary playing right tackle today against the two of the best rushers in football. They need a quarterback badly. They can't win with just their defense. I mean, they just can't win.

And it's not Mike McCoy's fault. They don't have a quarterback. I mean, look, Trevor Simeon, he can win a game or two for you. He's a backup quarterback. Paxton Lynch isn't going to be the starter. The heist is ready to go if you want them. He can come in and play. You want to go through that again?

I think they should just for fun, just for entertainment. If we're going to put up zero points anyway, we might as well be able to laugh at someone when it's happening. I mean, it's really bad. I mean, you know, like Denver, like Denver is sitting there and the Chargers, I don't have enough courage to say the Chargers were going to win because you can never predict with the Chargers, especially in close games. but just the, if you read my notes, well, you have read, I sent them to you. But the Chargers were playing better than the Broncos.

We said the Chargers last week. That's a sneaky AFC West. They really are. They're playing better. They're playing better. They're playing better. They beat the Raiders. They had two games they easily could have won.

But Denver to me, if you're John Elway and you're flying home from L.A. tonight, you've got to say to yourself, we got problems in our line, and we need a quarterback bad. That jumped out to me clearly. And let's talk about a team that really seemed to figure it out. Three weeks ago, everyone was trying to jump off ship, saying the three stars aren't going to be able to figure it out. But the Pittsburgh Steelers are like a team that's a legitimate Super Bowl continue at this point. Best thing ever happened to him was getting spacked. Best thing ever happened to him was cold reality.

I mean, you know, it's the best thing because now they know who they are. They have to feature Levi-on-Bel. There's no more hide-knit. They're not going to be the spread attack. They're back to be in Steelers football. Vance McDonald actually looks like he can play a role for them and what they want to do. So, like, and they're playing really good on defense. And I think the one thing they do really well is they break –

They're a little bit like Seattle when Seattle plays their zone. They break on the shoulder throw with the quarterback. They can accelerate to the ball and they tackle really well. Yeah, Shazir is something serious. They tackle really good. So you've got to really be disciplined to beat them. And obviously, Andy Dalton, he threw two picks today. But I mean, one of them wasn't his fault.

Green dropped it. Another one he kind of threw behind. But, I mean, to me, Pittsburgh looks like the class of the north. I mean, Pittsburgh right now looks like the best team in the AFC, the way I see it just after seven weeks. The Patriots tonight look. a lot better than they have all season. What do you think about that little cheeky fake punt that they did?

Mike Tomlin was winking on the sideline, getting everyone high-fifes. I thought it was great. I thought it was great. I think people would say, well, why would they do that? They were in the lead. They had it. Well, it's a look. So you go in the game plan.

If we get this look, we're going to call it. And you have it in the game plan, unless you tell them to call it off, the player did the right thing and made the call. He did the right thing and made the call. I mean, look, they play hard. They tackle really well. Unlike the Baltimore Ravens who can't tackle it all, the Pittsburgh Steelers can really tackle.

I mean, Baltimore might have been the worst tackling team. No, take that back. The Miami Dolphins are the worst tackling team I've ever seen. The Jets could have run. They ran, I think they ran 10 screens today. They could have run 30 screens, and I don't think Miami would have tacked with them. Anyway, poor dolphins. Poor Dolph.

Yeah, but hey, but they brought it back and they made it happen. Let's talk about the Buffalo Bills. Let's keep it in the AFC South. They come to the, I mean, the Buccaneers is just, it's been a tough time for James. The HBO hangover has been for real. And today, the Buffalo Bills really handed it to him with a nice Tyrod Taylor. They come down and get another win. You know, they're down 27 to 20.

You know, I mean, they were up 17 to 10, and they made it 20 to 17, and Tampa came back. It was really a good game. It was really a good game. But Tampa's problems show up. They can't stop the run. And when they needed to make a big play, my man Tyrault Taylor made a big play. And Buffalo just keeps fighting. They keep making plays, and they create the turnover late in the game to kick the winning field goal to win the game.

I think Buffalo is going to be a hard out for New England. I think New England is still the better. This is the best I've seen New England play all year. But Buffalo, there's something about them there. They're getting more confidence in the run game. Their defense can rush the passer, and they believe they can win. I think it'll be a really hard game next week for the Raiders to go in there thinking they're just going to, hey, hey, man, we're just, we just beat the Chiefs at home on seven extra plays from the goal line. That'll be a hard game.

I really like what the Bills are doing. I think the Bills are really a solid team, and they could be a sneaky wildcar team. I like what Sean McDermen has really brought to that team. He's really embraced. When you go to Buffalo and you think about, they really pride themselves on blue collar if you ever watch. a tailgate before a Buffalo Bill's game. I mean, they go all in. They love that team. And Sean McDermott has embraced that 100%. He's like, we're a tough football team. This is what we do in Buffalo. And the whole team seems to be galvanized by him. And I don't know. I've never

seen the Buffalo Bills play, and it looked like they expect to win the game. No, they did. And today they play with confidence. I mean, they got down 27 to 20 and you're thinking, oh, this is going to be over with. The next thing you know, you look up and they're right there going in, and McCoy scores a touchdown. And then the Bucks are moving the ball back down the field. look, the Bucks have to become more consistent. The Bucks, this is probably one of their best road games they've played offensively and they didn't play great defensively. But the Bucks, to me, again, the South, which I thought was the best division,

has turned out to be not very good. I mean, I miscalculated that one badly because to me, the New Orleans right now looks like the best team. And Atlanta, Tampa Bay, they got a lot of nice players, but they don't have a great team. And let's keep it in South. Let's talk about a team that another donut today, another zero point game. the Indianapolis Colts Jacoby Preset just did not have fun playing

football, the Jacksono Jaguars and Doug Maroon. I just say this, Tate, if Blake Bortles throws for 330 yards on you, whatever he does, I don't know if I would, like I wouldn't start. It's a holiday at that point. I wouldn't, if I was a defense coordinator, Ted Monakino at the Indianapolis Colts, I don't know if I'd start my car. Like, I'd have

somebody else do it because if Blake Bordles just lit your ass up for 300 plus yards, like something's really seriously wrong. Like, to me, these are the kind of game. when you do this poorly. And I'm not taking anything away from Jacksonville, because Jacksonville, 10 sacks, they beat the shit out of Jacoby Brissette,

they played their asses off. They really did a nice job. They recovered from their loss against the Rams the week before. They bounced back. They're playing more tough-minded. They're taking on the personality of their head coach. But this is the kind of game to get your ass fire.

I mean, this is a kind of game that gets you fire. Like, you were never even in this game. Like, how does a quarterback get sacked 10 times? Like, how do you go into the game knowing that this is the best past defense you're going to play against all? year. This is the best pass rush you're probably going to face all year and you let your

quarterback get sacked 10 times. And then you let Blake Bordels light you up on defense at home. There's no way. You've got an owner who's irrational. I mean, like Jim, like, do you tell me and then I'm going to tell you one more, Take Frazier. Why would Andrew, can we stop the Andrew Luck watch? Can we stop

this now, please, right now? He ain't coming back. Yeah. There's no way he's coming back. As soon as they asked in September, Chuck Pagano, if he had seen him throw, and he said he hadn't seen him throw since December of last year. I mean, I mean, I don't. I don't think he's going to come back, if that's the answer. Like, he's not coming back. I'm just telling you, like, let's cut the cat out of the bag.

He's not coming back. Well, Lombardi, how do you know that? I watched their tape. Okay, I watch him play. Like, if you were the general manager of the Colts, it would be malpracticed to let Andrew Luck go back on the field. There's no way. It's sort of like, you know how Tiger Woods, everyone's waiting for him to come back

and you see these videos and he's doing a full swing and it's getting longer and it's getting, he's picking up speed and everyone gets excited. That's like Andrew Luck. I see all these videos where he's like throwing. the ball. They're like, Andrew Luck, looks like that motions, right? It's like, it doesn't matter if the he's not ready to play football at this point. He's not coming back. I mean, because the coach who's coach who's coached him ain't coming back. I can promise you that right now. I mean, you what's, I don't know what tomorrow when you do the odds? I mean, what are the odds on Chuck Pagano

getting fired by Tuesday? Yeah, he's got to be the favorite now, right? I mean, he's the, he's the leader in a clubhouse. I mean, you get shut out at home by the Indian, by the Jacksonville Jagger. And we say all this. They lost to the Jacksonville Jaguars without Leonard Fort Nett. He's inactive today. It's not like they're playing this rookie sensation running back. I mean, the guys haven't out there. Well, T.J. Yelden average over 10 yards of carry. I mean, you don't average it. Like, it's hard to do that against air. Like, if you put like 12,

11 Coke machines out there, you would have a hard time average in 11 yards of carry. Like, come on. Like, at some point, like, you know, like, and I could, exactly, I've been down this road before, right? Everywhere, you know, we don't have Andrew luck. We can't win. You know, poor us. What was me? Like, that's your job

to figure out how to win the game. Like, 10 sacks? Like, it's bad. Like, that's really horrible. You could say the roster's bad. Well, heck, you've been there the whole time. I mean, whose fault is that? I don't know. To me, that's ugly.

That's ugly. That's bad ball right there. That's bad ball. And, you know, unfortunately, the narratives, they usually, you know, for the week, they usually are dealing with bad football. And let's get some narratives. Can you just, the first one we pretty much just touched on it, is that Chuck Pagano, I mean, they're going to be calling for his head right at this point.

Oh, yeah. I mean, by the time I drive home tonight, you know, he could happen. I mean, it could happen at any time. It could happen this week, next week. I mean, it's going to happen. I mean, there's no doubt about it. It's going to happen. I mean, they're going to get another coach.

I mean, there'll be a lot of people want that job, too, because for everything that Chuck thinks wrong with the job, a lot of people think they can fix it. First of all, defensively, you know, Chuck's a defensive coach by trade. This defense has been horrible. Like, they're not stopping anybody. And he brought in Monaquino from Baltimore so they could play the Baltimore style of defense.

Well, how is that working out? Not so great. Not so good. Well, Baltimore's defense didn't work out so good either today. I mean, let's be honest. But Baltimore has other problems. I mean, Baltimore, this was one of my narratives, this was jumping off the subject, but Baltimore, until they come and have an intervention and admit that Joe Flacco stinks,

you can just forget about Baltimore. I know we have them on Thursday night and they'll pump up Joe Flacco and all that. But at some point, Joe Flacco's got to take the heat for it. I think he will, right? I mean, I think he already has from the fans. I mean, it's more of just we've invested in this guy. But he doesn't really care. Like, money spoiled him.

Like, he got beat today. Eli Manning effect. He got beat today with a blitz that Mike Zimmer, like this is Mike Zimmer standard. Like, you know it's coming. Like, you know it's coming. It's what he calls all the time. It's like, it would be like you, me watching a movie that I know and I forget the line. Like, that's not putting the effort in.

You know what I'm saying? You've got to put some effort into it. I'm sorry I messed up that Godfather thing. You're just trying to, you know. Yeah, you know, well, you don't, you know. I'm sure I can mess up all your movies too. It's all right. Not even sure what you would guess my movies to be, but I would love to play.

but I would love to play that game. One of the other ones, we talked about the Falcons offense, right? I mean, Sarkeesian, we mentioned this before we were watching the game with the whole crew here. And we talked about if Lane Kiffons, the offensive coordinator of the Atlanta Falcons, we don't hear the end of this this whole week. We did not see a picture of Sarkesian today. Now, of course, the fog was in, so we couldn't really get. But typically, if that would have been Lane within the first eight minutes of the game,

we would have had a lane. Even Kyle Shanahan, you know, when he first started, they would have, they railed him like, you know, Mike's kid, are we sure he's the guy to be calling this? Or if it was Brian Schenheimer, you know, they'd be all over him. But for whatever reason, Sark, they just seem to avoid him. And all the SC people know, Sark knows the West Coast

offense. You know, people are like, why aren't they throwing the ball of the back? Well, that's because that's kind of what Sark is. Sark has a reputation for being this great offensive play caller and being this great offense. But yet, you know, there's no documentation to support it. Yeah, when you're at USC, you can usually beat people. But then all

the SC people, like Jackson, you like all the guys at no SC, they're like, well, we've seen this act before, right? That's why this offseason, like, there was no way Matt Ryan was going to duplicate or come close to duplicating what he did for Kyle Shanahan. Now, Kyle Shanahan's got his own problems being a head coach and not taking DeSharm Watson and passing on the quarterback and all those things. We can go down that road if you want. But the reality of it is, is he's a really good offense coordinator and he's way better

than Steve Sarkeesian. Atlanta took a step back. Yeah. What's your narrative? I think mine's going to have to go to air. So Arizona, Carson Palmer breaks his arm. Eight weeks, they're saying, but it might be eight weeks and counting for the rest of his whole career. It's over, right?

The career's over. It's over. Tony Romo even said that, which is, you know, a little bit ironic because if you had to guess who would last longer in the NFL, you'd probably say Tony Romo longer than Carson Palmer probably two years ago. And he's like, this guy's already contemplating retirement. It's probably, he's probably done at this point. But my whole thing is with the Cardinals, did they just hit reset at this point? I mean, Arrian is a great coach.

He's an offensive mind. Everyone loves him. You know, players love him. It just seems like that that whole run, that whole Super Bowl contending run is coming to an end right before every eyes. Everybody loves them. But the last two home games, they've been behind, the last two road games, when they've put on their dress grays and gone on the road, they've been behind 44 to 7 at halftime. In those last Philadelphia, I think it was 24 to 7, and this week it was 21 to nothing or something like that. I mean, it's like a joke. I mean, they're out of the game. Like, I don't even know why they would travel.

Like, if you were a member of the card, it was like, I'm no, I'm not getting on that plane. We're going to be behind at halftime, the game's going to be over. That was embarrassing. I mean, the Rams, look, the Rams are way better than I thought they would be. I grant you that. And Todd Gurley's been sensational, and he's been really good. It's the best back in football. Sean McVay's done a good job of, I think Sean McBay's done a good job of managing the game maturely.

He's done a great creative job of featuring things. He's kept golf from beating them, really. I mean, he's done some nice things with golf. He has some throws. Golf threw a pick today. but he's found a way to win the game and defensively. Defensively, they just don't get enough credit for how good. The Rams defense has been, like, that talent that they have with all those guys.

I mean, they have been a good defensive team, and now they've taken it to another level. Yeah, now I think Wade's kind of got them going a little bit, and they're playing much better. And they're not, their ego isn't getting in the way. Like, I don't think what I really admire about what McVeigh is doing, which I mis-evaluated. I think McVeigh is doing a good job and not letting his ego get in a way. Like, they're moving the ball, but they're moving it with. Gurley, they're controlling the pace of the game. They're not trying to throw for 500 yards to prove a point that they're smart and everybody. They were just winning the games and you got to, and they are

one of the better teams. I mean, I think today they prove that. I mean, they come out, they beat them, they beat Jacksonville and they're undefeated on the road, the Rams. Can you believe that? Yeah, it's insane. I mean, it's insane. I mean, I don't even, and now they have a buy week. So look, I think the Cardinals should, if I'm the Cardinals, if I'm Steve Kime, I'm holding, I'm going to start, I'm going to start, I'm going to start selling shit. My last one, my last narrative that I expected this week, the Dallas Cowboys are going to be back. They're going to be... You clapped it.

Every single headline, it's going to be talking about the Cowboys are back. They're full on, Zeke Elliott, everything. Obviously, all the legal stuff is going on with Zeke. The guy's been suspended however many games and he seems to play. I don't understand. He caught a screen today and he went down the sideline. It might have been one of the best runs I've seen in a long time. He tiptoed down the sidelines.

It's like Marcus Dupree or something. I mean, it was unbelievable. And his balance, he never... He was like inches from being out, but he had the pink shoes on so you could really see. I mean, it's remarkable what he did. And San Francisco, look, I think San Francisco's had a really bad offseason. I mean, I think Kyle's a really good coach. I don't know about John Lynch as a general manager because Kyle controls all the personnel.

Really, Kyle's running the whole operation. But to pass on the quarterback, and here's the line, I think it's ridiculous. Well, they know they're going to get Kirk Cousins next year. No, you don't. You have no idea going to get Kirk Cousins. You took C.J. Bethard because you thought he was going to be like Kirk Cousins. I mean, that's the fact, okay? And like, C.J. Bethard is not going to be Kirk Cousins.

I'm going to break that news to you today. Yeah, I love Iowa football more than the next guy, but George Kitto and C.J. Bethard are not going to be the answer. Yeah, they're not winning to the Big Ten. I can tell you that right now. Like, if you put Deshawn Watson on that team. Yeah. Then we're talking about a whole different. I mean, and Carlos Hyde is a very competent running back. He's a guy.

I think they should trade Carlos Hyde. He got rumored to be on the trading block, right? They should trade them. I mean, they're going to spend money in the free agency. They might as well get a pick for him because whatever he gets in free agency, they're going to give it a – they're going to lose it in a compensatory pool anyway. So you might as well try to get something for him right now because you're not going anywhere. I mean, San Francisco, they were all those close games.

They finally showed who they really were today. They're just not very good. I'm disappointed because I thought they would be a lot better than they were. I thought they could coach him up a little bit better, but their talent levels bad and they just don't have a quarterback. I mean, that's the other thing that's pretty obvious today. The teams that just, I mean, Denver doesn't have a, I mean, you can just start, it's starting to click here now. Arizona, Denver, San Francisco.

I mean, now, Green Bay. I mean, you could talk about Brett Hunley all you want. I mean, he threw for 87 yards today. I mean, okay, Aaron Jones, who we said was going to be the sleeper of the draft. He has 137 yards Russian. But the reality of it is, is you can't run the ball in this league and win unless you're the Chicago Bears. You're playing. You're playing.

You're Cam Newton. And, you know, you throw the ball seven times. I mean, it's a remark. It is really remarkable. And it's one of those weird things with that team. It seemed like they were competitive every week, and this was the week that it broke the camera's back basically. I think at the end of the day, they just couldn't really, they got home.

It's hard to get yourself up when you're 0 and 6 and facing 0.7 and you get down early. And then you hold the Cowboys on the first drive of the game, and they punt, and then you fumble the punt. And next thing you know, you put them in field position. And the Cowboys had a good, you know, just rolled it on. Look, the Niners aren't very good up front. I mean, David Irving back for the Cowboys makes a huge difference with their defensive front. and then Sean Lee makes a bigger difference.

I mean, when they have those two guys in the game at the same time, Lawrence is playing at a really, really high level. They're a way better team. But, I mean, San Francisco has a long, long way to go. Oh, I got to wait to talk about. How about those Tennessee Titans today? What do you think of them, Tate Fraser? I just think that has got to be a lot of pressure

to know that you would be the team to first lose to Cleveland Brown. So I'm really happy that they fought through it and got it got a handled in overtime. Well, why do you think my man, Hugh Jackson, didn't just start Cody Kessler? I mean, he saw last year that he almost beat. him when he had Cody Kessler in the game. Cody threw for over 300 yards when they played them last year. Right? I mean, to me, I would have picked Cleveland to win the game if Cody started. He ended up coming in the second half, and they covered the spread.

But they had a chance to send the game to overtime. And they easily could have won, and this was a game that you called. You said that Tennessee always had trouble with the Cleveland Browns? They're always going to. Tennessee's not any good. I mean, Tennessee's not a good team. I mean, look, they went up there. They barely beat them in overtime. I mean, they got a lot of problems in Tennessee.

They're not the best team in the South. Jacksonville is going to beat Tennessee. I mean, I know Tennessee went down there and beat them, but Jacksonville's playing better than they are right now. Yeah, I'm happy for the Jagger. I'm happy for Blake Bortles. Me too. They don't need a quarterback.

Blake Bord. Look, if you give up 300 yards passing, you should resign your job today. Well, a lot of teams need to make a wish to get a quarterback. And speaking of wishes, want to say big, over 300 million smart and thrifty shoppers have discovered Wish, the mobile mall app that connects you to thousands of merchants. Wish makes it easy to shop fashion shoes, electronics, kitchen gadgets, and more directly from the makers.

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All right, let's talk about some GM moves. All right, Lombardi. This is one of my favorite segments to do because, you know, I get to nitpick your brain and see what's going on from a GM perspective. And I just want to play a game called What's the Move? We've done this a couple times. We mentioned the Arizona Cardinals earlier. Carson Palmer is done.

Right. Drew Stanton stinks. Drew Stanton is not your quarterback. What do you do if you're the Cardinals' front office at this point? I mean, look, he just traded for Adrian Peterson. He's back down under two yards of carry. That AP's back is over with there. I thought it was fun that we got one game to remind ourselves what all day looks like. But now it's nighttime.

It's over. I mean, well, behind that line, it's hard to run. I mean, I feel bad for the guy. I mean, the guys was a great player. But to me, I think this is a perfect example of mis-evaluating your team. I really do. And I think if I was Steve Kime, I would try to, assuming I was going to be the GM, I was going to lose my job.

He's very close with Michael Bidwell, so I don't think he's going to lose his job. You know, I would just start trying to do as much as I could to prepare the team for the draft because it's over. I mean, we're not beating anybody with this team. I mean, we go on the road. We're behind 45 to 7. at that half time, who we kidding? You know, and so if I could trade Larry Fitzgerald. That's what I'm saying.

There has to be a trade for one of those guys. You know, you would want to make it to a team that really thought that they could use the player. What about Peterson? I'm just saying, do you take those big all-star guys and you try to find a fit for him? I mean, Peterson, look, I mean, I don't think Arizona is going to do this because, look, they wanted to draft a quarterback. I mean, they lost out on getting the homes. They lost out on the quarterbacks. they obviously didn't like the other ones.

So now it's going to be a tough sled with Drew Stanton in there. You're telling me, CJ Bethard didn't stand out to him? No, I don't think he did. Or Cody Kessler the year before. I don't think he did either. I think it's going to be hard. I think it's hard. When you're a GM at this point, it's unlike baseball.

You don't have a lot of options with these trades because people are just going to steal your players from you, you know? And the only players you really want to trade are the ones that you know you're going to lose next year in free agency. So they're the ones you're going to go. Like Jeremy Hill at Cincinnati, they should. trade him. I mean, they should try to get something. I mean, really, Seattle should take him. I've seen enough of Eddie Lacey. On the plane ride home from New York, I would drop Eddie Lacey off

in Green Bay. Wherever he's from, I just, let's land the plane here, leave Eddie here. Give him some cheese, it'll be fine. The best back on their team is J.D. McKissick. He's their best back on their team. I mean, he gives him some juice. He can't play them all the time, but he's the best back. Because if Seattle doesn't fix his offense, that's the other thing that jumped out of me this weekend was that Seattle's offense is like, I thought Spagnola went crazy with the zero blitzes and he really gave Seattle a chance because

if Seattle has to work the ball down the field, they're just too inconsistent offensively. I mean, Darrell Beville used to get a lot of heat. Now he's not getting any, but I'm just really wondered who they are on offense. Like they have no identity and then they try to throw the ball to Jimmy Graham. And Jimmy Graham's got like, he can't catch anymore. He had a terrible drop in the end zone.

And then he had a wide open down the field, 15 yards. It would have kept running. He still be running. And he dropped that one. too. And they finally caught one at the end of the game in the end zone, which I guess makes everything okay. But to me, Seattle's offense, they got to get a running back. They need somebody that they can buy into that's going to pound them, whether it's Jeremy Hill, whether it ain't Eddie Lacey. I'm just telling you that. And Thomas Rawls fumble today. This whole idea that we have a lot of running backs, you don't have any running backs. You got McKissick, and that's it.

Can we talk about the catch with the Paul Richardson? There was a, it was a flea-half-flipker. Yeah. When they threw it back to Wilson, he throws a deep ball to Richardson. Lannin Collins comes in with the football. Yeah, Ty goes to the offensive player. I've never, but I don't even think he even had the ball at any point. He did it one time. I thought he caught it and then I thought Landon took it out of his hand. It was tough.

If you see that clip again, the pride I have in New Jersey came out here. There's a state trooper looking at the fans, okay? This place is going on. And there's a state trooper looking at all the fans making sure nobody. And he never, it's like what do they call the guy at the, protected a palace over in England? Yeah. I don't know what it's technical? term is, but he doesn't get faced by anything.

This guy, this guy was like, whoa, nothing was going to buy. I'm like, I just, if I could figure out how to, like, capture the picture from TV and tweeted, I would have done it, but I have no idea how to do that, so I couldn't do it. I can teach you. Yeah, that would be helpful. That would be helpful. That was good. Good for New Jersey, you know, they're locking in. I was very proud of that, yeah. Let's do some awards in Barney's how you feel about that.

First up, we have time to go on the lamb. Who's winning that this week? I mean, if Flacco don't go on the lamb, I don't know who's going to go on the lamb. Baltimore's offense is atrocious. I mean, it's just painful to watch. we have them Thursday night against Miami. I mean, like at some point, Baltimore, how many more coordinators are going to die for this pen man's death? I mean, really?

At some point, he needs to go on the lamb. Like, I know they hate Ryan Mallet, but you can't, how do you not hate Joe? He's like, I want the highest pay players in the league. Yeah. You know, I mean, that was like a give-me putt. For them to think that they were going to have a chance to beat Minnesota, they can't block anybody.

Minnesota killed Flacco today. They almost killed him. Jeremy Macklin's going to turn on it. This is going to be a mutiny at some point. I think there's going to be a mutiny on the. head coach because if the head coach doesn't stand up and really take on the quarterback, because everybody on the team knows the quarterback sucks, except for the head coach. He won't,

he keeps defending him because nobody wants to go in and tell the owner. No one's tell Ozzy that yeah. Well, Ozzy's smart. He sees it. Ozzy knows the quarterback sucks. I mean, he's watching the tape. It's, you know, I mean, you don't have to be a genius to figure out the Flacco steaks, okay? Like, you know, that was pretty odd. Like, nobody wants

to tell the owner. You know, we got to get him going. You know, get him going. Can I throw this at you? Why don't the rabble? Why doesn't, if Ozzy knows that He's like, Joe Flacco, thank you for 2013. I'm glad that worked out for us. We're past the point of no return with you. I'm sad that I see Tyrod Taylor with the Buffalo Bills,

our backup quarterback, be good and win games. Can I call someone up and say, hey, do you have any interest in Joe Flacco and you can give me something back? Trade him to Arizona. You're not going anywhere at Joe Flacco. Yeah. Trade him. Maybe Arizona will take him throw deep balls all the time.

Maybe Flacco can't get out of his own way. Like he sees the rush coming and he goes down. Like at some point, you just say to yourself, enough is enough. Like, go on the land, man. Like, just go. Take all your money and go. Like, he's heist, too. Like, if we did a sequel to the heist, it would be Flacco.

I mean, at least Flacco won a Super Bowl. And I used to defend Flacco. But now this Flacco with the bad back and... He can do like Fletch. We'll do like Fletch remake and it'll do with Flackow. That's a good idea. Yeah. It'll be Austin Powers 4.

Yeah, let's send it out. All right. Next up, we got the Fred Palermo Award. It's not the Tony Palermo Award. No, no, Tony Pilarmo award. No, no. Tony Pils won't sponsor. Palermo. Who's winning that this week?

I'm going to give it to New Orleans. I thought New Orleans did a really good job. I mean, Drew Breeze had two turnovers early in the game. They didn't panic. You know, they hung in there. I think defensively they had a really good game plan against Hunley. Hunley threw for 87 yards. Really couldn't do anything in the past game. His feet moved around. I was impressed with New Orleans. They kind of hung in there. They kept battle and they showed some mental toughness playing on the road. They slipped like crazy on that field in Green Bay. But they hung in there. I thought they did a nice job. and they kept, you know, they showed mental toughness to win the game,

something I didn't think they've had since they've won the Super Bowl. I was impressed with them. And the Saints are a team that were kind of known as not being a good road team. They were a dome team sort of, and they've gone into Carolina, they've gone into Green Bay. They've gone into the road. Last four weeks, they've been really good. I mean, last four weeks, they've been really good on defense.

Now, I know I was, if Green Bay would have had to play with Aaron Rogers, they probably a different story, of course. But, you know, they didn't give up, they didn't, they didn't give the game away. They didn't drop a coverage. They didn't blow anything. and their offense kept moving the football, and eventually they took control of the game. So I think New Orleans, I take my hat off to New Orleans.

I thought the Chargers did a nice job, too, in terms of what they had to do. They moved the ball. Denver's a tough team to move the ball on because their corners are so good. They're tough to block by. But I thought the Chargers did a nice job, too. I just thought New Orleans was better. Next up, we have the KGB Award, the game that snuck up on you.

Well, that's two teams. I mean, your Panthers and your Cardinals. I mean, look, they were horrible. I mean, that's really embarrassing. I mean, look, you're way too young for this, but there was a time in what Oklahoma and Nebraska, they ran the wishbone. There was seven passes by each team maybe in a game, you know? Like, I can't imagine losing a game when the opponent only threw seven times. Well, if there's no turnovers in this game without the two touchdowns, I mean, it's a 3-3 ball game.

And that's what they were playing today. And if Cam doesn't have those two big mistakes, that's what it is. Benjamin's playing volleyball. I mean, he's just to alley-oping them up there. I mean, it's ridiculous. And the Cardinals, I mean, to me, the Cardinals are just like, I have no idea why the Cardinals think they're any good. I have no idea.

Yeah, I think we've decided that they're not very good. They're not very good. Next up, can't tell my courage from my desperation. I like Miami. I thought Miami did a good job today of fighting back from 14 point down. I mean, Matt Miller did a really good job of kind of coming through. Matt Moore. Matt Moore, I'm sorry.

Matt Moore did a nice job with that. And I thought that Jarvis Landry made some big plays for him. Congrats to Jarvis. I think he was doing it for Odette. You know, feel better O'Dell, we're thinking of you. Yeah, let's make sure. Light the candle. Yeah.

Save OVJ. We should have O'Dell's helmet here, too. I think we should. They had Justin Puse helmet there. Eric Weinberger, big giant fan. He can get us something. You know, we could have Justin Puse. They had, like, what is this?

Is this the Giants now the seals, they put helmets in the quad when they lose players or what? I love it. I feel bad for O'Dell. I'm thinking about them every day. I mean, you know. Poor one out for O'Dell. Anyway, I thought Miami did a hell of a job because they were, they were tough. They fought back.

I thought, you know, they're down 14 points at home. They look like crap. Jay Cutler gets hurt. Matt Moore comes in. He does, he throws a pick. I mean, you know, they're battling the through. That was a gutsy win. I mean, you know, they're ugly, but they're four and two.

What does that say about Cutler, though? He comes out of this game. I mean, Matt Moore has been in Miami. He's been a competent backup. He's a guy that we've seen win games. Maybe not going to take you to the Super Bowl. What it shows to me is, I think, that if you don't really train for the season in the NFL, it's hard to come in.

I mean, I actually thought they would be better with Cutler, but then I didn't think it through because really when you don't prepare yourself for the season, it's hard to be ready for the season. Yeah. And I think Cutler looks like that. Cutler's like, and he's getting a shit kicked out of him. I mean, the offensive line didn't protect very well down there, Miami.

But when the Jets got tired and at the fourth quarter, when the Jets were exhausted, they took advantage of Buster Scrine, they took advantage of Darren Lee in coverage, and things started to fall apart. Miami did a good job of what, you know, And, of course, the Jets, they kind of gave them. This is two weeks in a run now. The Jets have given their opponents the game.

I mean, it's still 28-28. McCowan throws the interception right into coverage. So that's a hard one. The last two weeks of Jets could have easily won. I mean, the Jets are a tough out. They're not going to go away easy. You're going to have to beat them, but sometimes they beat themselves. Final one.

If you don't know, now you know. I think the Seattle Seahawks and the Patriots are back. I think they're pretty good. And by back, you mean, Super Bowl contenders, their defense is back. They look, look, this is the best. Tom Brady's got a smoke machine over. open and that's open in the back. I mean, this is the best they've looked on defense

all year. I mean, Batamosi came out. I think Batamosi's the unsung hero of their defense. I mean, he tackles well. He's going in there and cover. He's playing, he's doing exactly what they're telling them to do. He's not freelancing. You know, they've got, they've played the run much better. Seattle was really good today on defense against

the, Eli Manning. I mean, he had no chance at all today. Yeah. Sad Eli was back. It was fun. It was bad. I think those two are really good teams. You know, I think anybody who wants to do these power poles, you know, throw them out, throw them out because it's hard to do.

But I think the Patriots, that was a big time win for the, to beat Atlanta, which I'm not sure how good Atlanta is, but the Patriots have made every offense, home or away, look really good. And they shut down Atlanta pretty well today.

And that's a game too. If you're Atlanta, after last season, I know it's not the same team or anything, but there's still something that's in the air to go back against that team and try to send a statement. They were kind of cocky tonight.

Like, they were like kind of cocky tonight. They were going to prove a point tonight. You know, they were like going to bury demons. and I think there's more demons have crept up. Yeah. It's a lot of demons, especially up to New England. And then I think Seattle, look, Seattle's defense has played really good this year.

Seattle's, you know, they fly to the football, they play hard, and offensively, if they could just get this offense ever straightened down. And I really think it starts with just committing to a running back and it ain't Eddie Lacey. I think Seattle's got enough things going for them. I love that Seattle's one of those teams. Seattle's one of those teams, they fight on the sideline, they do everything. But they're a true team. I mean, their mental toughness is remarkable.

You know, they can fight with one another, but you can't fight with them. Yeah, there's some games where we've seen them, quote, unquote, fold, or you think they would fold, but then they bounce right back. No, they love playing close games. They love it. They relish a 10-7 game. They look forward to it. They would have it no other way. Yeah.

They'll wear you down. That's how they're built. Perfect for Russell Wilson, the magician himself. Next week, Treyfraiser, there's six teams that have buys, so it's a lot less next week. We got a lot less to cover next week. But I just want to talk about the Monday night football game that's coming up. I mean, it's basically the class of the NFC, in my opinion. The Redskins have looked like a real team.

I mean, what they did at the Rams. That game still sticks with me for whatever reason. It really does. And you got to play this Eagles team that has shown that their front seven is maybe one of the best in the NFL. And we're going to see it on Monday Night Football and see who's real and see who basically is the class of the NFC. It'll be interesting to see what Cousins does. The first game, Washington's offensive line wasn't really ready to block them. And it really showed up.

And Washington's not healthy. and can Carson wins continue this third and long dominance? I don't know if he can, but this is why they've been so good. But the Eagles are winning because their defense is really playing well, and their defensive fronts control. Fletcher Cox is. Fletcher Cox. I mean, Timothy Jernigan.

I mean, all those guys. Chris Long's playing well. All of them are playing good. You know, so Vinnie Kerry. But I think it'll be a great game. I just don't know what the health status is. Is Josh Norman going to play? Is Breeland?

Like, who's all going to play? That's really going to matter. This is a must win. This was rematch weekend a little bit. We saw the Chargers face the Broncos in a rematch. We saw the Jets face Miami in a rematch. Both teams lost on the road. The home team won.

This is reversed, right? So Philly won down in Washington. Now Washington's goes to Philly. But in both times, the team that won the first time didn't win the second time. So it'll be interested to see if the Eagles can double up. And if you, I know we just gave all that credit to the Eagles defense. And that is a slight to Carrigan, Norman, Sweringer, Zach Brown. The Redskins defense is just as explosive.

It can make huge plays, too. No, and they did. The first game, they did. They made some plays. They gave up a lot of third-alongs in that game, too. But they come after you. They play hard. They play with a lot of intensity.

And look, nobody gives them a chance to win because the Eagles are on top of the world right now. And I think the Redskins like that. Like when they went into Kansas City, even though they had a chance to win that game, I think they like that. And we'll see what cousins can do when he handles the pressure. And this Josh Doxon kid who's been hurt so much,

he's starting to come around a little bit. He gives him another dimension. And Pryor gives him down the field. These receivers can challenge these Eagles corners, which have played really well of late. Now we'll see if they can do it. But the rush is going to be the critical component. The thing to watch. John Gruden's coverage of Kirk Cousins.

Oh, that'll be great. It's basically Jay Gruden in the booth. Right. And so right down all, any player that John Gruden rips on, you know Jay doesn't like that guy. Yep. Jameson Crowder, watch out. It might be a rough night. You're going to get it.

Something you'll get it. That'll be tough. Lombardi, one last thing. Your Sixers, O and three. Bad, Tate. It's bad. It's bad. I just had to ask. I just wanted to check in, see how you're doing.

Make sure everything's okay. I want to know all the, you know, the process people. I didn't realize that A Bid is this three-point shooter. I didn't realize. He's a new splash brother, yeah. I didn't realize that. I missed that. Yeah, he's better than Hassan White's in.

You know, when I was young, I used to bitch at Daryl Dawkins because he was the only seven-foot two guy that went away from the basket instead of to it. and now Embed's going away from the basket. Like, what is it? Like, why can't he just go to the basket? He's infatuated with the three-point shot. It's the problem with basketball these days. These kids.

These kids, your kids. Don't respect the layup. Classic bounce pass, you know, the fundamentals of the game. Bobby Knight. I would love, you're a North Carolina guy. I would love you to get Larry Brown on a podcast and find out what he really thinks. I think we should do that.

They're talking about having the Kennedy assassination tapes kind of come out. That would be great. We can get Larry Brown's commentary on what he, really thinks of the Sixers. On the Kennedy tapes? Oh, no. I'll give you what I think on the Kennedy.

I got enough on that. I've done enough research on that. I was like, wow, I don't know what Larry Brown knows. He probably... I want to know what Larry Brown thinks to the Sixers. That's what I really want. That's your homework assignment for me. All right.

We'll figure it out. We'll get Larry on the line. Maybe we'll have him calling at the end of a GM Street. That'd be great. Let's do it. A little Philly talk. Yeah, that'd be fun. This has been another edition of GM Street on the Ringer Podcast Network.

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