The Ringer NFL Show - Is It Time to Panic About the Ravens, Packers, and Bills?

Episode Date: September 17, 2021

Nora and Mal dive into the Baltimore Ravens and discuss their important matchup against the Kansas City Chiefs. They provide an assessment of their level of panic about the Ravens and four other teams that struggled in Week 1. They wrap up by answering a few listener questions. Hosts: Nora Princiotti and Mallory Rubin Production Assistant: Isaiah Blakely Additional Production Supervision: Arjuna Ramgopal Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Hello, I'm Mallory Rubin. And I'm Van Leithen. Check out the Ringerverse podcast from The Ringer for all things, superhero movies, nerd culture, and fandom entertainment. We have instant reviews and fun takes on all the latest news and more available now on Spotify. Hello and welcome to the Ringer NFL show. I'm Nora Pintziotti. I am here with Birthday girl, Mallory Rubin.

Mallory, happy birthday. Thanks, Val. Appreciate it. It's kind. Birthday salutation is making a job. to air. I feel old. I feel it in my soul. I feel it in my bones. But it's great to be here with you. This is an invigorating exercise. So thank you. This allegation you've made about your own age, I think is a little bit silly. Mallory, both factually and also just, you know, it is incongruent

with your spirit. I'm going to lean to zoom so you can see all of these gray hairs and then you get back to I see nothing. I see nothing. First of all, this is an audio format. Okay. All right. Mallory is leaning into the Zoom. We are off the rails. What I do feel a little bit guilty of is that we are making you, no, she's still doing it. We are making you pod about the possible demise of the Baltimore Ravens on your birthday.

It's not the best birthday gift that I've ever received. I'll say that. But maybe we'll find some hope, some hope to cling to as we look ahead. I'm in a hopeful mood. I hope for the sake of your birthday, Mallory, that that we do that. So, yeah, we're going to talk about the Ravens for a bunch of this show. Also go through some other teams that didn't have the best starts to the season and kind of assess where they are. See what the panic meter's doing.

But first, I want to remind everybody what's coming up on the ringer NFL feed after Mallory and I are done here. So on Friday, we're going to have Ben Solac, Stephen Ruiz, Kaelin Jones. they're going to preview the week two slate. And then on Sunday, I will be back with Kevin Clark and then Solac and Ruiz as well. We're going to be breaking down everything that we see in week two and spinning it forward and looking at the week ahead. But what we're going to do here first is we've got a panic meter grading rubric that we've come up with. And we're first going to use it to assess the state of the Baltimore Ravens. But then we're going to move on to some other teams and players too.

But let's break down the grading scale here. It's got five levels. I'm excited to explain the grading scale. This will be great. Yeah. It's going to be fun. We're going to have a little bit of fun with this. So level one to level five is least panic to most panic.

And each level gets a quote from an NFL luminary that kind of matches the level. So level one is R-E-L-A-X. Relax assigned to none another than Aaron Rogers. The historical context of this quote for any listeners who may not be aware is an absolutely iconic Aaron Rogers moment in 2014 when he said, five letters here just for everybody out there in Packerland. R-E-L-A-X, relax, we're going to be okay. And this is important context for why this is level one. lowest level of panic.

He was right. When he said this, the Packers had started one and two. Led to that quote, but they finished 12 and 4. They made the playoffs. They made the NFC championship game. It was sage wisdom. And we will keep that in mind as we assess the panic for all of the teams we're talking about today. What's level two?

Level two is we're on to Cincinnati, an all-timer. An all-timer, attributable to one Bill Belichick, spoken after a blowout loss to the Kansas City Chiefs. Of course, the Patriots also okay under those circumstances. Went on to win the Super Bowl, actually. But they had still gotten blown out. So I think this is level two because it does establish that, you know, clearly something bad has happened.

That's right. You could argue that there's a case for flipping these and that because the Patriots went on to finish 12 and 4 and then beat Seattle in the Super Bowl that season, maybe this should be level one because of the result that it led to. But that 4114 lost to Kansas City, put the paths to 2 and 2. And whether it ended up being justified does not in any way reflect the tenor of the moment and the number of questions. about that game and about the state of the Pats that led to Bill Belichick famously saying multiple times in a row some version of were on to Cincinnati.

That's one of the best pressers in NFL history. Remarkable. It was really spectacular. Remarkable. All right. We're going to have to work together to explain level three because I do not have a good Jim Mora impression. But level three is... What else?

Playoffs. You're talking about playoffs. This is a great one. Don't have a good Mora. Another all-timer. This is a fabled NFL quote and NFL presser from Mora in 2001. This was following the Colts 40-21 loss to the Niners, dropped up to 4 and 6 on the season.

The full quote is, of course, playoffs. Don't talk about playoffs. You kidding me, playoffs. I just hope we can win a game, another game. Playoffs is the part that we always quote and that everybody always recalls. But quietly, I just hope we win a game, another game is the most savage element of that moment. He also said in that sequence of his own team, we threw that game. Now, he did not mean that literally, but that is how poorly he thought his squad played.

So all of this is part of the consideration set. They finished six and ten and in fact did not make the play. They did win more games. They won two more games, but still, very rough. So this is level three stuff. This is level three. I do think that a piece of the logic in this being level three, which is obviously not all-out disaster, is that at the time, the question was still, do you think you can make the playoffs? Right.

So levels three sort of exists within that, that milieu. There's still a reason to look ahead at level three. Right. which I think is important to distinguish it from level four, which we move on to, which is, that's some seven and nine bullshit. Wonderful. The iconic Jeff Fisher, shout out Slow Newsday quote. That's right. Friend of Slow Newsday, Jeff Fisher.

So iconic, in fact, that we were willing to bend the parameters of the new math of the 17 game season. That's right. Because 7 and 9 bullshit is actually no longer something that a team can attain. That's an antiquated type of bullshit. That really got me. Vintage 7 and 9 bullshit. But 7 and 9 bullshit is a state of mind. That's right.

And therefore it can be carried forward into 2021 and beyond. Not only is it a state of mind. I think this is a crucial element of it. It is a highly self-aware state of mind. it is meta. Because of course Fisher said this in 2016 on hard knocks when he said to his

ram squad for all of us to watch on hard knocks I'm not fucking going seven and nine or eight and eight or nine and seven, okay? Or 10 and six for that matter. This seems too talented. I'm not going to settle for that.

Okay, I know what I'm doing. It's my favorite part. We had some seven and nine bullshit this morning. the Rams for anyone listening at home who may be wondering had gone 7 and 9 the year before in 2015. They had gone 7 and 9 in 2013. They had gone 7 and 1 in 2012.

A lot of 8 and 8 records for Jeff Fisher prior to that. This was a big, big, big thing. And they did not go 7 and 9 in 2016. That's the good news. The bad news is that they went 4 and 9. And Jeff Fisher was fired. So level four stuff here because it foretells doom. And I think that specific doom is, yeah, so jobs are on the line here.

And we've moved beyond the, you're talking about playoffs area. We're wondering if the playoffs are kind of out of the picture here. That's the level of panic I think of when I think of level four, some seven and nine bullshit panic. It is not, however, the level of existential dread that we get when we move on to level five. Level five is I can't guarantee that anybody will be alive on Sunday, which is what Kyle Shanahan said. Yeah. When asked if he could guarantee that Jimmy Garoppolo would be with the 49ers as the starting quarterback moving forward after selecting Trailands. Now, on the one hand, Jimmy is the starter at present.

So that's worked out okay so far. He's also still alive, feels worth mentioning. But Kyle Shanahan was calling into question, you know, not just the future of his football team, but the future of human life in his spheres. And I think therefore it had to be level five. Yes, agreed. this is not necessarily about what it led to immediately in its wake, but about the, as you noted, existential crisis that it points to,

the absolutely unmooring quality that life in the NFL can sometimes bring for coaching staffs, for players, certainly for fan bases. So when we're talking about that quote, when we're talking about level five, We are not necessarily going one to one with quote and outcome as we are with some of these other levels, but we are tapping in to what can only be described as dread. Absolute dread. No bearings. No sense of where the safe harbor is or whether we'll be able to sail into it.

Mallory, I'm so sorry to do this to you. But speaking of feeling unmoored. Let's move into our conversation about the Baltimore Ravens. Time to talk about the Ravens. Can I just start with one quick aside before we talk about the Ravens about another Baltimore team very quickly? Absolutely. Because this is what I'm going to try to hold on to throughout this discussion. And I want to share this with you and request as my colleague, my co-host, and my friend that you will help me.

I'm here for you, Mal. Let me tell you about a little team. called Baltimore Orioles. Oh, boy. Here we go. Nora, currently, my beloved Baltimore Orioles are 46 and 99. They are well on their way to losing well north of 100 games. They are in last place, and they are not a good baseball team.

However, the purpose of me telling you this is not to point out that they are bad, nor is it to indicate that I think the Ravens will be equivalently bad because I do not. Genuinely do not. It is to share with you that yesterday, we're recording this on Thursday morning. So on Wednesday, in the midst of this Orioles season, Cedric Mullins made an incredible catch. Robbed a home run to straightaway center. He's on his way to a 30-30 season. And when I saw that highlight on Twitter, I was not thinking about how the Oriental

are in last place or how they're going to lose more than 100 games. I was thinking about how the great gift of being a sports fan is that there's always, always hope to cling to. There's always a brighter day ahead. And the Ravens are still a contender and a hopeful, a playoff hopeful. And so that is what I am going to try to hold on to. Anyone who joined us live on Green Room on Monday night after the overtime loss to the Raiders knows that that was not the headspace I was in immediately following that loss.

But that's where I'm trying to work my way back to. This is going to be the one of all the teams we talk about today that I need the most help locking in a panic meter grading scale score for because I'm too close to it. So I'm excited to walk down this road with you just as I am excited to watch this. the Ravens try to work their way back into a winning record and contention after they lose to the chiefs in week two. Carry on. Wow.

That took a real turn there at the end. But you heard it here first. Mallory Rubin says the Ravens will not lose 100 games this season. That is something we can all use to hold on to hope. Oh, God. All right. So here we go. Is it time to panic on the Ravens?

Let's start, as we always must when we talk about the Baltimore Ravens, with a quick conversation about one Lamar Jackson. And I want to start here because you have asked me to help you be hopeful. And I want to say, as the Ravens have started, oh and one, going into a game against the Kansas City Chiefs, who, you know, in the, in the Lamar, Baltimore, Mahomes, Kansas City era, the Ravens have never won, their own three. I think Lamar is fine, at least fine, if not actually, more than fine.

I thought when he had at least a little bit of time to work in week one, I thought Lamar looked good. I thought the ball came out of his hand nicely. He had a 9.1 average depth of target, which is middle of the pack for the NFL. Right. But that's kind of what they're going for with him moving from last season to this season. They would like a little bit more downfield passing. And I think within the context of a game

where he was under just an insane amount of pressure, he was pressured on 54.5% of his dropbacks, according to next gen stats. Not what you want, as the kids say. And that's about as good as you can hope for in terms of being able to manufacture a downfield passing game as the Ravens set out to do this offseason. So because I want to start on a hopeful note here,

and also because Lamar tends to sort of take over any of the narrative stuff and the storylines that have to do with the Ravens, this I think is an important thing to note is that this is not a Lamar Jackson issue. I think Lamar looked pretty good in week one. Agreed. The biggest source of trouble, I would say,

was the offensive line, which did not seem to have gelled whatsoever, has a number of new pieces. One of the issues was that Ronnie Stanley did not look totally healthy, recovering from that injury last season, gave up nine pressures, which was one fewer than he gave up in 15 games altogether in 2019. Yeah. Jarring. Unfortunately, there was some news this morning. Stanley will reportedly undergo additional medical tests and will be out for an unknown amount of time. So Alejandro Villanueva, who had switched from playing left tackle to right tackle,

which actually had been another source of issues, Villanueva will move back to left tackle and Patrick McCari will slide in and play right tackle. That's not great news. you now have Villanueva back at his more natural spot, but you're missing at least when healthy, your best lineman. And then you have Kevin Zitler, free agent signing.

So he's new there. You still have Bradley Bozeman, who's making the shift from left guard to center. And then now you have Makaria backup coming in to start. What is your level of concern for where this offensive line is factoring in the scheme Baltimore plays, which can be a help for those guys, but then also the amount of continuity problems

that they're dealing with. Well, that's a lot to chew on right off the bat here. You know, let's talk about that in some of the related issues in terms of team flow and overall team health because I think the line quandary connects to the running back and receiving depth and how all of that connects to inform what the offense is capable of doing, right?

And how comfortable Lamar and everybody is or can be inside of the offense. Well, we'll look ahead to, you know, week two and the Kansas City matchup. And as crucially, the strength of schedule the rest of the way, because the Ravens have one of the hardest slates this season. But in terms of what we saw on week one, the week one was, the loss was excruciating. The overtime nature or the bizarre nature. of it. But I think that, again, as a sports fan, when there's a sequence like what we saw in overtime where you've got balls bouncing off helmets for interceptions and, you know, the fumble obviously was very costly. Really weird sequence of events. Just a weird football game

on the road in front of an energized home Vegas crowd getting together in that building for the first time. the heat, cramping, everything that's in the mix there, you can say, okay, it's week one and you can almost hand-wave it. That's what's hard to do, though, and why you're raising the offensive line as kind of the key area of concern or one of the key areas of concern, because you can't really hand-wave or, hey, it's just week one, actually anything that we saw on the line. Like the questions that have already arisen on the line feel like they could be season long areas of concern or at least could linger deep enough that maybe the hole is too deep to dig out of given the strength of the division and the road the rest of the way with the schedule. Yeah.

So let's point out a couple of plays that I think were interesting because I went back and looked at some of it again just to try to figure out, okay, are these guys just getting beaten because they're not as good as they used to be? and this is a talent issue, or is this a coordination issue? And there was a third and seven where Lamar handed off to Murray, who got just totally taken down by Darius Phelan in the backfield. And what had happened was that both Bozeman and Zytler had miscommunicated, and they'd both gone to the second level to block a linebacker. Phelan just had a totally clear path, tackle for a loss, drive is over. Both of them after the fact, it was really interesting.

They both looked at each other and Bozeman, you know, did the thing. We've all seen players do this. He kind of taps himself on the chest and goes like, my bad, my bad. I screwed up. That stuff will get better. You know, offensive line is one of those, one of those areas of football where continuity really, really, really matters. A similar thing happened on Carl Nassib's, you know, basically game, game changing strip sack at the end. Nassib had had shifted out to the edge before the snap and nobody really adjusted.

So all of a sudden, he's just getting clean off the edge and he has a totally clear path. I don't know. It's impossible to know without knowing more about their offense and what those linemen are asked to do. Right. If whose responsibility it would have been what type of adjustment they're supposed to make in that situation. But those are the things. that get better as guys spend a little bit more time playing together. Now, the injuries in particular to Stanley is still being behind in that recovery,

that's really troubling because that's your best player on the line by a fairly significant margin. And if he's not good, that's a different conversation. I do think that if we're looking for hope here, the communication, the coordination, can get better as long as they're not consistently shuffling guys in and out because of health, which does not feel like a given at this point. The only thing that's worrying in that is that it is a bit of a race against the clock because the Ravens had to be hoping that they would come out early this season and collect some wins

because they have a brutal final stretch to the season. Their last seven games are Browns, Steelers, Browns, Packers, Bengals, OK, Rams Steelers. Yep. So maybe you say the Bengals game, who knows what the Bengals look like at that point. I don't know that that's totally, totally a gimmy, but I don't think the Bengals defense is particularly scary. Pretty much everybody else in there, that's a tough one.

So they're looking at a potential 0 and 2 start, and then towards the end of the year in a really tough division, you know, wins are going to be hard to come by. So I think that's where you go, okay, in a vacuum, it's okay if the offensive line needs some time to gel. I'm just not sure that they're going to have the luxury of that given the schedule and given where they are. Yeah. I mean, you mentioned continuity and that's kind of the key word because there are a lot of factors that influence that on the line, but also across the offense and across the team.

Like to the point about the O and two start and how daunting that feels, like we look at the history of O&2 starts, like roughly 12% of teams who make the playoffs. Now, the math of that has changed a little bit because there's an extra game, there's an extra wildcard team. But the takeaway is pretty clear. Like, that's a difficult position to recover from. Then when you assess something like the continuity on the line to your point, like you go back even beyond what we saw in week one and look at the Orlando Brown trade in the off season. It's not just the way people played who were active in week one. It's who was not active. like Ben Cleveland was not active for the game.

That's that's a factor, a huge factor. Tyree Phillips, who had won starting guard job, ended up getting carted off and is now on IR. The Ravens have 14 players currently on IR. And that doesn't include the total of injuries that have not netted out in an IR label, but are still factors like if we go to the defense, Jimmy Smith and Derek Wolf were not active. for the first game.

So when you talk about something like that 54.5% rate for pressures on Lamar's dropbacks, you know, per next-gen stats against the Raiders and what Max Crosby did and how dominant he was against Villanueva and then say, okay, well, maybe Villanueva will feel more comfortable sliding back into his natural position, this is kind of emblematic. think of the state of the team right now because that's like a positive. Maybe he will be more comfortable and the offensive line will start to gel as he is more comfortable because of where he's playing. But as you noted, why is he shifting?

Because their best offensive lineman by far, Ronnie Stanley, like a cornerstone in this franchise, did not look healthy in the opener and is not healthy. And it's not clear when he will be playing in. None of that is good. Now, Lamar Jackson can do more as a runner and as an innovator and a creator than almost any quarterback in football, but every quarterback, every quarterback needs a steady line, no matter what. And you made a key point earlier about the way the scheme helps the line, but the inverse is also true. The scheme also relies on the line and the harmony across the offense. So then if we move from the

line to the running back health quandary, which we don't need to, you know, go beat by beat on, but very quickly, like, this has been an absolute nightmare on the injury front. J.K. Dobbins, Gus Edwards, and Justice Hill, the three running backs who were supposed to lead in addition to Lamar Jackson, of course, this league best ground game are all out for the season. Knee injuries for Dobbins and Edwards and Achilles for Hill. The lack of running back experience for the current running back core on the team compounds the past protection issues because teams also need to rely on running backs to block

and that's again where just the number of reps that these players have gotten together the harmony or lack thereof that they have together I completely agree that that's something that will be solvable like Devonta Freeman activated today will be active for Sunday When will Levin'Abel come off the practice squad still unclear?

I thought Latvius Murray was only okay in the opener, but certainly can be a valuable contributor on the team. I thought Tyson Williams was actually really good, and I wish he had gotten more carries and stayed more involved in the second half. Those players will get up to speed. Are any of them, J.K. Dobbins, right now, are they on their career? Absolutely not. Are any of them guess Edwards, Gus Bus?

No. Can they get there? Yes. But that's again, all of these variables are connected because will it be too late? Then you look at the receiving core and it's kind of the same just calculus of how much time is there and is there enough? Because I don't have any doubt that the roster is strong enough ultimately. This is simply a question of health and comfort and flow. First round draft pin.

Rashad Bateman on the short term IR. Now, hopefully he will be back soon. But he's going to miss the first month of the season. That's a problem. Mous Boykin is also on a short-term I-R. Nick Boyle, part of the tight end group, who Lamar really has a good connection with and actually relies on quite actively as a safety net

in the passing game, still not healthy, still not back. I thought Sammy Watkins looked good and he and Lamar seemed in sync. I was really encouraged by that. I thought Hollywood Brown played really well, and that is obviously one of the single most important factors in terms of how the offense can evolve. And I agree that overall I thought Lamar actually looked

pretty crisp, particularly in the first half. And I'm not concerned about how he'll play. The fumbles were obviously not good. And he owned that as much as anyone, right? Just to interject here, I think to your point, overall, the passing game looked encouraging. There was at least something there. Yes. I thought that the Lamar Hollywood and Lamar Watkins connections in particular looked really

promising for the rest of the season. Obviously, Mark Andrews just got the big contract. I think that he is capable of being one of the five best tight ends as a pass catcher in football. But once again, this was a game where he dropped a crucial pass. And you just can't have it. Like to be a pass catcher, you got to catch the pass. Exactly. I mean, it obviously felt, and I don't think the loss was on any, you know, any one player.

So I don't want to imply that here. But, you know, three receptions and 20 yards and that the drop factor again, that's, A, not good enough, but B stands out in really stark contrast when you're going up against Waller and his 19 targets. Now, Waller's at a different level, right, than all but a couple players right now.

Lamar has to be able to rely on Mark Andrews, while the rest of the offense is getting healthy and everybody else is hopefully on their way to returning. Has to. So I'm really hopeful that that immediately Andrews production improves

in week two, because what's the key to week two? And this is where we can talk about the Ravens defense for a minute. Marcus Peters out for the year. That was a problem in week one. Like Marlon Humphrey took a lot of heat, as you noted on Green Room,

because of the non-pick and the Zey Jones decisive touchdown. That I thought was unfair. He actually played incredibly well over the course of the game and had a pretty challenging set of varying size-speed matchups and is exceptional.

But overall, in the second, in half and in overtime, the defense was, of course, tired. Now, you're not going to stop Patrick Mahomes. There's almost like a weird cold comfort in that. You aren't. The question is going to be, can the Ravens keep pace? And they have consistently, as they will be the first to say, have not been able to do that against the Chiefs. They're 0 and 3 against the Chiefs since Lamar Jackson took over as the Ravens starting quarterback. Lamar, Marlin, pretty much everyone on the team will be completely candid, you know, calling KC their kryptonite.

So they know that this is a hurdle that they have not been able to cross and they know that because of the chiefs, who the chiefs are, their stature in the league, it takes on that additional consequence. That's the part in addition to the health that I'm just dreading. I think that the panic meter comes down to two things.

One, health and when the health improves enough to lead to flow, and function and pace and crispness on the offense. And two, narrative. Because it's exhausting for all of that to creep back in right away. Not everybody is going to say, hey, actually, Lamarley looked pretty crisp and played pretty well for the bulk of that game.

Everyone's going to say once again right away, oh, can't carry the team and can't beat Mahomes. That's just brutal. I'm just dreading that becoming dominant talking point again because it's not really justified. Right. And there's a lot of teams, you know, I'm going to say something really revelatory here. There's a lot of teams that struggle to beat the Kansas City Chiefs, right? There's not a ton of shame in that.

However, when it leads to an 0 and 2 start in a difficult division with a really tough stretch run, then it starts to be inevitable. I do want to just quickly zero in on your point about you're not going to stop the chiefs, which is true. But you do hope you can slow them down a little bit, right? And I actually was thinking about this. And now they might be close to a little bit of a breaking point with the offensive line and all the injuries there and all the switching that guys are going to have

to do at different positions there where it will start to affect the running game. But watching them in week one and watching the ground game still, you know, be pretty much okay. produced for the most part. It made me think about how just because of the Lamar factor and because of the scheme there, I think they're going to be able to figure it out there. I actually worry because the day that Gus Edwards went down, that was when he and Marcus Peters got hurt on back-to-back snaps and they stopped practice.

That's right. I worry a little bit more about the defensive. depth that might be starting to show up a little bit. And I think it's going to be less obvious because this is still a really good defense, but they know it's a really good defense. And they ask a ton of those guys, particularly the guys in the secondary there, because of the way that they scheme pressure and blitz all the time there, they're asking a ton of the guys on the back end.

They played 13 snaps of zero blitz against. the Raiders. How many snaps of Zero Blitz do you think the Indianapolis Colts played all of last season? 12. The Colts played fewer snaps in that coverage

all of last season than the Ravens did in one game. And for the most part, it works for them. But it's a different conversation. We have Marlon Humphrey and Marcus Peters and Jimmy Smith. and Anthony Abert and Chuck Clark. Yes. Then you take away Peters.

Smith was out. It's unclear how long he'll be out for. It's 100 degrees out. And then you get a situation where in the fourth quarter and overtime, Derek Carr was 7 of 11 for 156 yards and a touchdown against the Blitz. You know who's incredible against the Blitz? Patrick Mahomes. Yeah.

Tough one. Also a ton of young quarterbacks around. league. So that to me, because it's sort of their bread and butter thing, like, I think schematically, they are built to cover up some of the issues with depth in the running game. I think schematically, they are built so that they will be exposed by issues with depth in the secondary. And that's what's really concerning to me, both for the Chiefs game and then moving forward. Because, yes, you're not going to totally, you know, shut down the chief's offense. Yeah.

But you do hope that you can steal a possession or two, right? Yeah. And they just ask so much of those guys that it really starts to worry me because Carr was so much better towards the end of the game. And it really seemed like a combination of maybe him finding a rhythm, but also the Ravens defense, particularly that secondary, just not. being able to hang in there. And those guys, those core guys, they were playing a lot and they were working pretty hard out there and it was hot. And that's not the only time they're going to be in a

similar situation. So that to me actually is the thing that worries me. Yeah. It's a good point. I mean, you mentioned performance against the Blitz too. And if you swing that back the other way, like we know that Casey Blitz Lamar on 35% of his dropbacks in last year's matchup. That's, that's according to ESPN stats and info. So it's reasonable to expect that he can count on that again. And then I think, you know, to your point about the, the run game and grinding clock and trying to keep the ball out of Mahomes' hands, I think that is intuitive and certainly sound. I do then start to worry a bit, and this is kind of always a conundrum with the way the Ravens' offense functions and how Greg Roman runs his scheme. You want to chew clock. It's the best

ground game in the league years running. Do the things. thing that works, but then what happens sometimes is you get these multiple series and possessions in a row where it's just absent some sort of like spark, you know? And I do think that they need to be willing to just cut it loose and open it up a little bit. The risk is pretty clear. If you just start slinging it deep and you're going three and out, you're just handing the ball back to Mahomes without not only putting points on the board, but eating clock. Like, that's not a sound game script for facing the chiefs. And the Ravens actually are built to do so smartly based on the way they're able to bleed the clock

by just inching up the field run after run. Got to find a way to balance those two things, though. Because if there's not that, like, zest in the play calling and it starts to feel predictable, you couple that then with the thinness because of health and the fact that the team, as we noted, is going to need a couple more weeks to get healthy and get that flow going. And it has the potential to be a difficult game to remain competitive and late against Kansas City. I'm anticipating, I hope that they play well, obviously. I hope that they win.

I'm anticipating that they will not beat the Chiefs. I'm looking beyond that already. And so when we assess the panic meter and we look to assign a level here, I genuinely am torn here because I think that there's like, the doom and gloom fan part of me, right, is like, well, the health is just so disastrous right now that you start to wonder if it's just one of those seasons, like a cursed season, terrible injury lock, snake fit, not going to happen, right? Is it like a level five thing?

because it's not a question. Level five. Well, no, no, no, listen. It's not a question of whether anyone will be alive on Sunday. It's a question of whether anyone will not be on IR on Sunday, right? So that's one way you could think about it. Then there's another part of me that says, okay, health questions, a real thing.

Schedule factor, a real thing. However, I believe in Lamar Jackson. I believe in the strength of the roster. And I believe in the analytics department and the coaching staff. And so I think they just need to avoid falling in to a record that puts them too far back in the wild card race. It just becomes a math equation at a certain point, right? And that is like level one stuff. Relax.

This will be fine. This is still a playoff roster. I don't know which of those it is or if it's maybe somewhere in the middle. Right now, I still think that they are going to be in contention for a playoff spot. But it's obviously hard to feel as confident in them contending for division crown as it was heading in, not even to the season,

because by then I was already feeling that way because of the injuries, heading into camp. Yeah, so I'm going to start the bidding here. And maybe this makes sense, given what you just explained. I'm going to start the bidding here at a level three. That's what I would assign to the Ravens right now. And that's the playoffs level. Yeah.

And to me that's right because I do think given the schedule and given the division that they're in, what we're talking about realistically is can this team make the playoffs? Are they in a position where one of the better rosters in the NFL after a week is sort of staring down the season and going, oh, gosh, a lot of things are going to have to break right for the Ravens to be a wildcard team. Right. That said, there's still clearly a competitive team to me. So I think because they seem to be hanging in the balance of making the playoffs or not,

level three feels right to me. It feels very natural. What say you, Mallory? Hearing you say all that, I've decided to go with level two. because I've decided to push for level two because, you know, onto Cincinnati is going to be a big part of this season. Gotta take care of the games you can win.

And that's the real lesson from week one, ultimately. Gotta take care of the games that you should win. If they can do that, and they can take advantage of like the middle season stretch where their home multiple weeks in a row, get healthy. I believe ultimately, if it comes down to the Ravens against the Raiders, right,

dolphins, colts, some of these other teams who are going to be in the wild card mix, I still believe, despite everything, and despite the panic that is setting in, that this is just a better team than those other teams. So I refuse to let Hope die yet. Check back in in in a couple weeks. We'll see how we're feeling then.

All right, we're going to try to reach consensus on these. So in honor of your birthday, and because it must have been difficult, grant me a level two. In victory, compare himself to a cat, your favorite animal. Yeah, that was a tough one. I'm going to grant you a level two for the Ravens. Okay.

I appreciate it. That was a low point, that Gruden quote. I will say that. That was a low point. You think having a 37-year-old. We're on to Cincinnati. It's nothing about the past, nothing about the future. Right now we're preparing for Cincinnati.

Do you feel like the talent you have here is good? We're getting ready for Cincinnati. All right. I think we'll have an easier time reaching consensus on the rest of should we talk about the Packers? Yeah, let's do it. All right. So we're going to go rapid fire through a bunch of other teams and players.

So number one is Aaron Rogers and the Packers. Obviously get blown out by the Saints in week one. And the narratives, Mallory, they are spinning. The narrative top is spinning rapidly. This was frankly shocking. I mean, we obviously talked about Aaron Rogers at length last week and the last dance hopes for Rogers and this Packers squad. The Packers opened the season by losing 38 to 3 to the New Orleans Saints.

I still can't believe that that's a thing that happened. It was for a, this is how I'll describe it, for all of the folks out there who enjoy watching Succession. This was a Kendall Roy level bedshitting, right? Incredible. Everyone's watching. Everyone's talking about you. A lot of eyes on you.

You're at a fancy house. You're staying over. You've been in a helicopter, enjoying a nice meal. And you wake up and you realize you've soiled the sheets. And you're not even in your own home. Okay?

This is just not what anyone wants. Very bad. This was one of the worst games of Aaron Rogers' career, flat out. 36.8 pass rating. Two picks, no touchdowns. He rated 31st by per P.E. FF in week one among quarterbacks,

43.3 grade. This is just not the kind of thing that Aaron Rogers typically does. 538. Ty Shalter over at 538 said that this was the third least efficient passing game of Rogers' career. If you had said that the most efficient

passer in this game by far was going to be James Winston, starting for the Saints, not a single person alive who has ever watched a football. game would have believed you. Not one. Not one, Nora. The amount of people who would have believed you would have been the post-apocalyptic Kyle Shanahan vision of his roster. Yeah. I mean, maybe the surgeon who performed the LASIC surgery on James. That would have been it. He would have been the one. The defense. Surrounded by cockroaches. Yes. mentioning, mentioning Winston and his

his game, you know, 14 completions, five touchdowns again. That's not typical, but not a good game for the Packers defense either. They surrendered a ton of clock chewing run game success to New Orleans. The Packers play the Lions in week two on Monday night. Now, Shirley, Coach Campbell revved up for the primetime divisional matchup. Ready to go, surely we'll have an astounding press conference one way or another. I do not think that the Packers need to be particularly worried about that game or the rest of the season. But when we're assessing panic here, it's because what we saw was so, so, so severe in week one.

I mean, after that matchup, the scenes are first and total DVOA and the Packers are last. Like, it was that lopsided and that bad. Yeah. So I'm going to make the argument that this is not a big deal. I'm actually, you know, true to Rogers Forum. I am assessing this, an R-E-L-A-X level one. Yes. And here's the deal.

I don't think that that game really, it was too weird. It was too shocking and it got out of hand too quickly to really be all that instructed. So the backers at halftime, they were down 17 to 3. Totally agree. They had run 18 plays. At that point, you are dealing with such a disadvantageous game script that there's almost nothing real about the situation going forward. They didn't really try to run the ball or establish any kind of balance, do anything to try to get the Saints to feel like they actually had to believe that the run might be coming, which Matt LaFleur said that he regretted not doing after the game.

But what was happening was that the Saints, they were playing a ton of two high safety shells, which is a theme in defenses across the league. We're going to see a ton of that. Aaron Rogers is going to see a ton of that until he proves that he can stop it. But then they were having their players in the box just sell out to stop the pass on play action. So basically when the Packers ran play action, which they did a ton of, everyone on the Saints had basically been told ignore the possibility that he might hand the ball off. Just follow Rogers.

Stay. If you're covering, follow your guy. Play the pass. If it's a run, so be it. We'll deal with that later. And then they just didn't run. So they didn't do anything to keep the Saints honest. That defense was really effective against them.

We're going to see defenses across the league try similar styles of defense against Rogers, against all of the other quarterbacks in the systems off the McVeigh, Shanahan, Kubiak. that whole tree. So that's real. But I do believe that Aaron Rogers is too good of a quarterback to not figure it out. This roster is too good to be this bad.

And the Packers, while this was one of the worst games of Aaron Rogers' career, another one of the worst games of Aaron Rogers' career came last season. Right. Similarly, poor performance against the Tampa Bay Buccaneers, and they were fine. Yes. So this to me is a game that got off to a really bad. start and then just snowballed. And I still believe in the Packers.

I believe in the strength of their roster. I believe in their ability to write the ship by the end of the season, certainly. And this is different from the conversation that we just had about Baltimore, right? Where I don't think anybody else in that division is really going to be able to challenge them. So they have the luxury of time. Right. Yes. And in fact, one of their division mates, the Vikings,

are pretty high on the panic meter, I would say, after week one. So I agree with you. We're both at a level one here. R, E, L, A, X, relax. This is fine. I think that the less charitable read that some might have is that all of the things that we commended actually last week, right? This candor, this uncommon level of forthright introspection.

has maybe just led to like a very awkward, strange situation that is not going to ultimately lead to synchronicity for this team this year. You know, it feels less actually like about the play because I agree with you. It was actually just so awful that you almost have to throw it away completely. Like there's almost nothing useful

that you can glean from assessing this game. It's like just move on. And it becomes more about the offseason, the last dance narrative, whether something has kind of creeped into the fabric of the franchise and the season that they're not going to be able to shake off. Ultimately, the reason that I'm not worried is, as you noted, Aaron Rogers bounces back from poor games. He will be fine. He's Aaron Rogers. He's the reigning MVP. I'm not worried about him making any of the necessary adjustments.

He also, you know, was happy to explain what went wrong on first interception that he threw. He told Pat McAfee that it was due to the, quote, double nutshot I took. So as always, Nora, we can count on Aaron Rogers to let us in and tell us what has gone wrong and how he's feeling about it. Roger said after the game, it's just one game. Reminded everyone there are 16 to go. I agree with him. I think he's right.

And so that is why I'm in the Aaron Rogers quote, relax territory. I think the one, gives me a touch of pause thing, is he said it's just one game in response to a question about Matt Lafleur, his coach, saying that the Saints had,

quote, absolutely embarrassed. the Packers, which of course they had, that tension inside of the franchise is just an ever present consideration right now for the team. So that's the only thing that gives me pause. Ultimately, everything we said about the championship caliber roster, still true. Everything we said about Aaron Rogers, still true. He loves to prove people wrong. I think they will handle Detroit with something resembling ease on Monday night and get right back on track. Not worried. one. Five letters here.

Just for everybody out there in Packerland and yourself today. R-E-L-A-X. Relax. All right. Next one is Josh Allen and the Bills. Ah, yes. So Josh Allen, a little bit of a tough start. Bills lose to the Steelers.

That said, they were playing a very, very, very good defense in that. I think that's sort of the focal point or the fulcrum at which this discussion lies. So what did you think of Josh Allen regression watch week one? Oh, another football narrative. We're always talking about narratives here. I love it. Josh Allen was like fine in this game. He was not MVP candidate Josh Allen and he was not 2018, 2019, Josh Allen.

He only threw one touchdown. He had a bad lost fumble. He was firmly middle of the pack. I think that our colleagues, Ben Solac and Warren Sharp, assessed this perfectly on The Ringer Gambling Show, new feed, follow on Spotify. Listen to Wednesday's episode if you haven't yet. This was a wonderful conversation,

a wonderful breakdown of the game. Please also read Solac's piece on the ringer.com breaking down Alan's performance. I think that Solac really zeroed in. on the key factor here, which is, while this was certainly not Josh Allen's best game, you have to just chalk this up to the Steelers executing a flawless defensive strategy that they had an entire offseason to implement and execute and that other teams, including Miami, who Buffalo was playing in week two, are not going to be capable of replicating.

So when a quarterback has a game that makes you say, oh, boy, has someone figured something out, the next logical question in a copycat league is always going to be who else can do it too. And listening to Solek run through the way that you know, the Steelers only

blitzed Allen once in this game but pressured him on 20 plus snaps and we're able to consistently disrupt his timing, consistently blow up the pocket and foil the cadence

despite only sending four rushers that's what you can do when you have TJ Y and you have an entire offseason to plan for one game. So I am not worried. Now, I don't think that we should expect Josh Allen to have perfect game next week

or beyond. Like, that's not the kind of quarterback he is, right? That's part of what makes him so fun to watch and talk about. But the reason that I put the panic meter level for Allen and the bills right now at level one, relax, in addition to the, schedule, which I think is navigable for them, you know, getting the Jets twice,

getting the Jags, getting the Panthers, getting the Falcons, is because the good thing about Josh Allen's volatile play is that it goes both ways, right? Just as he's a regression candidate in terms of having a less successful game, we know that the seesaw moves both ways

and that it will swing back up toward the peak. I think this is a playoff team. I think this is a likely division winner. I'm not concerned. Yeah, I'm pretty much with you. Look, there's a reason that T.J. Watt got $112 million last week. Great. The Steelers defense, actually, my biggest takeaway from that game

did not have to do with Josh Allen or the bills. It was that the Steelers, who are a team that I have not been very high on, and I still think that their offense is questionable at best. Yeah. I would not be surprised at this point if we get, to January and we are looking at them as the best defense in football. I mean, they're just really spectacular. So I don't think as Ben detailed so nicely, and as you just pointed out, I don't think

that the bills are going to run into a similar situation, really at all, except for the fact that they are trying to contend with the likes of the Steelers, other AFC contenders, in the playoffs and hopefully beyond. So I would argue that this is a level two for me, just because the bills have set themselves a pretty high bar. And they want to prove that they can make a deep playoff push. And I would say that by their standards, it did take a little bit of a step back to see Allen so affected.

I do not think that he has reverted to, you know, 2018, 2019, Josh Allen by any means. But I'm going to argue for a level two. Will you join me at a level two, Mallory? I'm comfortable with a level two. You know, still confident. But I think it's, it's healthy to inject

just a touch of skepticism here. Why not? Level two, that does make me feel like we probably need to change the Ravens to a level three, though. I don't think we can have the same level of concern for the bills and the Ravens right now. Oh, God. Oh, boy.

We could call it a one and a half maybe. One and a half. Let's do that. Yeah. I'm good with that. Just for everybody out there in Packerland and yourself today. We're getting ready for Cincinnati. All right.

A team that's spoiler alert, I am not going to put it at a one and a half. The Tennessee Titans. Yes. Who lost to the Arizona Cardinals. And I am not sure that I've seen a worst coordinated offense on my television screen in some time. Mallory. This was just a brutal performance I felt from offensive coordinator, Todd Downey, in particular. He's on, sort of on notice and on display here, right, because they are moving from

Arthur Smith to the post Arthur Smith universe. But Ryan Daniels' play action rate, which was 36% in 2020, top of the league, was 11% on Sunday. And boy, could you tell, it was just brutal. Their opening sequence went absolutely nowhere. They were. rarely passed on first downs. Their first downs in the first quarter were a run for a loss of three, a run for a loss of a yard, a run for a gain of two, a sack for a loss of six, and then a run for a loss of a yard. Right. You have A.J. Brown and Julio Jones against a not very good secondary, and it was just so deeply

blah that it made me feel like I lost a massive amount of trust. in an organization that I never had tons and tons and tons of trust in to begin with. But if there was any part of the Titans I really believed in, it was their offense. And seeing that take such a brutal hit. I mean, I'll just tell you right here, I am at, I'm at a level four. I think they are embodying seven and nine bullshit in Tennessee right now. And I'm full blown at a level four right here. What do you think?

Oh, my goodness. goodness, okay. Well, boy, level four. I mean, you know, in some ways, I guess it's fitting, even though Jeff Fisher was with the Rams when he issued the quote, he obviously has deep connections and roots with the Titans. So there's something kind of nice about that. I mean, I agree with pretty much everything you said, you know, this is a team that needs its offense to contend, period. That simple. Like, has to have a humming machine. I think when the acquired Julio Jones

was very natural to look at that offense, Tannahill and Henry and A.J. Brown and say you're adding Julio to that. This is going to be a machine. And instead, we're saying the line was not able to remotely contend with Chandler Jones. and the spark creativity and play action were completely absent.

So we're not talking about who's there and how they're gelling together. We're talking about, as you said, how Arthur Smith is gone. I thought that the Todd Downing game plan and distance from any kind of not only reliance on play action, but consistent incorporation of it was absolutely baffling, like absolutely just confounding. I think also you've got to look at the schedule. You know, this team's playing Seattle in week two. And the defense could not, could not slow Kyler Murray or the Cardinals attack. Why would they be able to contain Russell Wilson in week two?

And it wasn't just like, oh, big game from Hopkins, right, or one receiver beating them. I mean, Murray was distributing the ball quite evenly. I think Wilson will do the same, obviously, in week two. And the Wilson Lockett connection was just a thing of, like, majestic beauty in week one. Incredible. We're going to be talking about that a lot this season. I have no doubt. So the team feels like it's in trouble.

You know, you've got Mike Rable talking about, quote, dumb shit after the game when talking about, like, a Julio Jones. Roughness, penalty, none of this is good. Teller LeWan had to tweet an apology about how. Jones just annihilated him and the line on his way to those sacks. This was all pretty worrying. I think that the only case I would make to consider lowering the level

for the panic meter one degree is the division because two of the worst teams in football, the Jaguars and the Texans, are in the South. So I think the Titans will be 0-2 after the Seattle game. but I think, you know, the Colts are about to play the Rams.

Like these teams might be heading into a maker break week three against each other where the only thing they need to do is ultimately be better than each other to take the division crown. But even if the Titans wind up being the best team in the division, and I think right now I'm feeling I'm more confident in the Colts, there's no reason based on what we saw in week one to think they would be able to win a playoff game. None. None.

Yep. So it's either a level three or a level four. I was going to go with level three. But again, I'm trying to hold on to hope today. If you really want to go with level four, I am happy to stand there with you. I'm going to ask you to go there with me, Mallory. I just do, I think right now, maybe I'm overreacting to week one.

But I don't think this team. is beating the Colts. I don't think this team is beating the Carson Wens Colts. Think about what that means. Tough sentence to say out loud. The worst part by far is clearly what looks like it's befallen this offense, which has legitimate superstars on the roster. But it's worth mentioning too. I mean, this defense, yet again, an offseason where they spend a ton to get a pass rusher who does not seem to be making an impact. Bud Dupree had two pressures. on 29 pass blocking snaps,

not exactly against the most dominant offensive line in the league either. They drafted Caleb Farley, who obviously the jury's still out and will be out for a couple of years, usually it takes to really assess draft picks, but he's not playing. He's not really getting time

and doesn't seem to be ready to really contribute. So the things that they've done to try to improve their defense don't seem to be working either. The one hope of this team, I mean, the high end for this team was that the defense improved and the offense at least, you know, stayed in the same ballpark. It seems like neither of those things is happening to me. And I'm going to be honest, my concern is if neither of those things happened. I mean, this team could have a losing record

is kind of where I feel like I am with the Titans. And I'm downing and Clint Kubiak might be, you know, going head to head and troubled offensive cordial. Ranks. Bleak. Yeah, I don't feel good about the Titans. Okay. Wow. All right.

Level four, it is. Level four, it is. You talked me into it. Level three in my heart, but you got me to level four in my head. I'm not fucking going seven and nine. Or eight and eight or nine and seven. Okay.

Or ten and six, for that matter. All right. Let's stay in the AFC South. We're going to talk about the Jacksonville Jaguars. Our final panic assessment. I'm just going to present you with a quote. This is via a source with direct knowledge of daily operations in Jacksonville, as told to Jason LaCanforna.

It is about Urban Meyer. He has everyone looking over their shoulders already, the story said. He becomes unhinged way too easily. And he doesn't know how to handle losing, even in the preseason. He loses it and wants to take over the drills himself. It's not good.

I then present to you the fact that the Jaguars, who are not expected to win a lot of games this season, lost one of the rare games that they kind of were expected to win to the Houston Texans. Texans widely considered the worst team in football entering the season. And now we have a new contender, the Jacksonville Jaguars, which is all the scarier, I think, because when things were, weren't an utter disaster. Trevor Lawrence made some incredible plays. The touchdown he threw to DJ Chark off play action was just right smack dab between

two defenders. It was that is a throw that like 10 quarterbacks in the NFL can make with any regularity. Pinpoint beauty. That is the asset you are trying to protect. And these are the results. I find that very scary. Where are you on the Urban Meyer Jags Panic?

I think we're going to be aligned here. This is going to be the rare entry today where we need to give two separate scores. I am at a level one for Trevor Lawrence and the roster. Relax. I have no concern about the three picks in the week one loss. Like there are always going to be some growing pains for a rookie quarterback. And I thought, as you noted, we saw some of those plays and indicators of why he's like a once-in-a-generation talent, right? I think that for Meyer, it's a level five flat out already.

And I don't think this is going to last very long. Yeah, I'm with you. Well, so I'm with you on Urban Meyer. I think this is a level five. This is the type of situation that makes me question at minimum if it's not an existential threat. If everyone is going to show up on Sunday, Urban in particular there. The only thing that I will quibble with is I don't know that it's a level one for Trevor Lawrence. I have no issues with.

I have no concerns. about Trevor Lawrence's talent, but we have seen time and time again. And Danny Hyfitz wrote a great piece on this, has talked about it on pods. The situation that these top picks enter into has real potential to put them on various trajectories that matter for the rest of their careers.

That's part of why, though, it's a level five with Meyer is because the organization has an obligation to not let things get out of hand with their franchise quarterback and cornerstone. Everything with Meyer right now from the disgraceful hiring in the offseason personnel management

to the fact that it's already having to answer questions about whether he's going to leave for the USC job, nothing is going right here. nothing. And the Jags actually can't let that linger because if Trevor Lawrence is going to be a Hall of Fame caliber quarterback for a decade plus, this can't be the way it starts, or at least it can't be the way that it continues. All right. I will, I will, I will meet you on the level one for Trevor Lawrence himself if we acknowledge that those

factors are built in to the overarching level five that we assess. We're aligned. The appropriate panic setting for the Jacksonville's Jaguars. We are aligned. Wonderful. I can't guarantee that anybody in the world will be alive Sunday. So I can't guarantee who will be on our roster on Sunday. All right.

Just to recap, we have a level one, relax for Aaron Rogers and the Packers. We landed at a level 1.5 for Josh Allen and the Bills. Right. So what is that? Relax Cincinnati? Relax. Yeah, that's good. I like it.

And we'd hit a level two onto Cincinnati for the Ravens. Titans are some seven to nine bullshit. And we finished with the Jacksonville Jaguars where we're not even sure. We can't even guarantee that anyone will be alive on Sunday. We have reached the existential dread phase of Jacksonville, Jaguar's football. And it is only week, too.

All right. We're going to finish up with some mailback questions. And I'm just going to jump right into it. Let's do it. Carson asks us, is the Monday night game an indicator of season success or are the Raiders going to crush my soul yet again? Wow. So we have a question about the Raiders side of that wild Monday night football game.

What do you think? Was your read on that, hey, this is actually a legitimate wild card contender that we need to be taking seriously and can believe in all season long? you know what i i do think that it was weak one aside raven's offensive line aside i think it was really promising for the raiders yeah uh i think the ceiling is still being a wild card team and that's a really tough place to be in because it's at a certain point it's just a math problem right and in that tough of a division wins are hard to come by and it can kind of go either way however yes i was really skeptical of their off season because i i had kind of gone into this year feeling like

okay, there's literally one thing the Raiders do right, which is that they have a pretty well designed and interesting offense. They make ridiculous personnel moves and the defense is terrible. And they spent the off season taking away from the offense to try to help the defense. And if there's really only one thing you're good at, I don't know that I agree with that. Maybe I'm a maybe I was a little bit too worried about that because I do think, look, I don't think that Max Crosby and Yannick and Gokwe are going to play consistently

at the like world beating level that they looked like they were playing at on Monday. I would expect them to tail off a little bit, regress to their career means kind of thing. But if those guys are playing well, it does look like this defense should be better. And if that's the case,

again, I really like their offense. I mean, John Gruden said that Darren Waller is the best player he's ever coached. Now, that might be just sort of like a ridiculous Gruden statement. But like that's the level of talent that they that some guys on this team have, right?

Like, just the fact that he said it, it doesn't really matter if it's true. It's just sort of the ballpark. So I really think they're a legitimate wildcard contender, and they're exciting. Like, there's always these cliches about, especially people say this about the cowboys all the time. Like, the NFL's better if the cowboys are good.

I don't really care. The NFL is better if, like, John Gruden and the Raiders are in the mix. That I firmly believe. So I'm buying a little raiders type. Yeah, I mean, you know, Waller is one of the most exciting players to watch in all of football. If they can keep that pass rush going on D, keep Josh Jacobs healthy and use him the way that a player of his caliber should be used. I personally am like, I'm just a huge rugs fan. I have loved him dating back to Alabama.

I was a huge fan of that draft pick. I'm excited to see how he continues to mature and develop and be incorporated more consistently into the offense. I would love for Marriota to be healthy and for them to run him out more often. I think that that's a really fun wrinkle. I definitely think that they will be in the wildcard mix. I don't know if I would say right now that they will be a wild card team because, again, they are just in such a stacked division and there is so much competition in that wild card grouping. So if you made me pick right now, I would say at this moment,

I would still pick three other teams for the wild card. But if they made the playoffs, it would certainly not surprise me based on the progress that we've seen from them. It's exciting, like you said. I need John Gruden to stop talking about cats after beating my team, though. Can't handle that. That's not going to work for me. That's too tough.

All right, Chloe's Infinite Playlist asks us, how did Brandon Ayyuk fall off so hard and so fast? So this is a weird one. There's kind of no other way to put it. a really strange one. Obviously, San Francisco's first round pick in the 2020 draft, 25th overall receiver out of Arizona State. They traded up to get him. There was so much hype and excitement about how he would fit into Shanahan's system. High ceiling, big play receiver. And that bore fruit immediately at a great rookie season. You know, he graded out as

PFF's 23rd receiver last year, 80.1. That's his grade. Week one of his sophomore campaign, not exactly continue a pace. In fact, he was outsnapped by Trent Sherfield and saw zero targets, which is just actually shocking. It is shocking. And I think that even if Kyle Shanahan is trying to convince all of us that this is not weird or shocking or strange, it was in fact to be expected because the plan was for Cherfield to split time as Ayuk is working back from the hamstring injury, getting back to full health, getting those reps, building up that comfort. Zero targets is astounding, period. And I think that also Shanahan mixed in with that, oh, you know, no, this is how we were planning.

It has offered some cold truth as well. You know, he said to media this week, if he wants to be out there every single play, he's got to be a lot better than the guy behind him. That was surprising to year, I thought, for a player who had emerged the way he had last year. Debo Samuel had a massive week one game. Currently looks like the top wide out there. George Kittle is George Kittle, right? He's going to be the number one factor in that offense.

So going to have to carve out the looks. I think a question of overall across the receiving tight end and running back groups, how things shift now that Rahim Moser is out for the year, which is very upsetting, obviously, and what the Niners game plan looks like, how often they're incorporating Tray Lance moving forward, how many snaps Jimmy G is shedding and when. There's just a lot of questions around the offense overall, but I was really surprised by the lack of involvement that we saw here in week two and don't really have honestly an explanation for it other than the injuries and other players emerging.

I think that is the explanation for it. right? He missed a lot of time in the preseason training camp because of the hamstring and then Sherfield progressed really well and earned the snaps. Just what I think that leads to a shift. Colors that not to zero targets. Zero is, well, that's just, I think the factor that takes us from shift to zero targets. Look, Kyle Shanahan's got a pretty legendary doghouse, right? Like, seen a lot of people throwing around the name Dante Pettis. Yeah. And you don't love to see. it. My take on this is that I just never want Kyle Shanahan to be upset with me. That's a good goal. That's how I approach every day. All right. Our third question from

correct opinion, however. Got it. Wow. Congratulations on all your correct opinions. Sick flex. Yeah. The other sick flex, though, this is a great question. I love this question. So it's build a road trip team. So a group to take a road trip with out of one current player, one current coach, one player, and one mascot. Mallory, you have the floor. All right. Well, I'm just going to guess you're not taking Shanahan with you after you just said you wouldn't want to risk him and being mad at you. Can't have life on the road. Maybe I would take him and just suck up. Just say nice things to him. Okay, here's what I'm going with. Coach Cliff. Cliff. Arizona head coach Cliff Kingsbury just seems like a good hang and, you know, thinking about restaurants that my friends and I would want to go to on a road trip.

the odds of some establishment mistaking him for his doppelganger Ryan Gosseling and upgrading our table, you know? That's something I'm interested in. Oh, interested in exploiting on a road trip. And, of course, don't ever want to lose sight of the 2020 draft, glimpse of the home front that we got on Zoom. Cliff knows how to live in style, okay? Imagine after what we saw in last year's draft.

what we can expect from Cliff on the hotel front. I'm invested in this outcome. My player pick, my guy Marlon Humphrey, fellow cat lover. Oh. Okay? I love Marlon. I love Snowflake. Marlon's cat.

Think that we would have a great time hanging out, talking about our cats and how much we love them. I also really love the analyst Humph personality and persona that Marlon adopts on Twitter when he assesses. He's great. college football games and game tape and everything. It's so funny. I think we'd have a great time listening to podcasts together because of that. And, you know, a revelation this week, this is fresh off the presses over the last couple days, is that Marlon Humphrey is the one who introduced Nick Sabin

to the phrase, these nuts. So I don't really know what more anybody needs to hear. That was a legitimate gas. Wow. My mascot pick is Cleveland's pup, S.J. Jagger Jr. You know, I was going to pick Edgar Allen and Poe, the Ravens' mascots, because it's like a cheat. I get more friends, more people to hang out with because there are three of them. But, you know, as stated, just an animal lover. And who wouldn't want a beautiful pup like SJ along for the for the tourney? I think it would be a blast. You know on the Brown's website what they list SJ's favorite chew toy as they listed as the terrible towel. So we're aligned there. Right. And they list his favorite treats as liver and then bangletail. So even though the. Ravens and the Browns are rivals, I think that S.J. And I would get along swimmingly. That's my pick. What about you? Oh, that's delightful. I think that sounds like a really fun trip.

The only thing I want you to do is just make sure you tell Cliff, he's got to wear socks with his shoes. No, come on. Nora, we've watched enough of The Bachelor to know that the ankle glimpse is just a part of modern day fashion. I support it. No, I support it as a sartorial choice. Totally. Mallory, this is what I'm here's where I'm coming from though. I don't want any man wearing loafers without socks in a potentially hot car for an extended period of time. I hear you. I just don't want the foot odor. Okay. So I want, I want Cliff to, you know, slap on a pair of sneaks. Okay? Whatever. It does, I'm not asking him to wear loafers with socks. I'm just asking him to not do the leather on skin choice that he did for the draft in the comfort of his own home on a, on an extended road trip with,

you, Marlin, and S.J. That's it. I appreciate the note. So my crew, my goal here was to emerge just with as many stories as possible. Yep. And have some opportunities for interesting conversation. Coach, I went with Pete Carroll, who I just find delightful. I almost made this pick. I've always wanted to spend time with Pete Carroll. I just think he would have a lot to say. I think he'd have a lot of stories. I also think he'd have a lot of stories. I also think he would just be game to talk about pretty much anything. Yeah. Which is an important quality in a road trip partner.

Absolutely. That leads to my player choice. Aaron Rogers. Also almost made this pick. I almost picked your squad. This is a tricky pick. Because as we know, if things go badly, they're going to go really badly. If Aaron doesn't think that I'm a good driver or doesn't like Pete's choice in road trip snacks,

then we're going to have a really long tense road trip. But there will be no mystery. You will know. You'll always be on the same page in communicating openly, which is important. Also, critically, we learned this offseason

that Aaron Rogers listens to Taylor Swift. That's right. That's right. So that's very important to me for a road trip. The mascot choice, Carolina Panthers mascot, Sir Per. I also almost made this pick.

So Sir Per, famous. famously misidentified by Robbie Anderson in a viral Twitter video where he was referred to as a bear. It's not a bear. He's a panther. Sir Per and I tweeted each other a lot.

And it's a little bit of like, you know, there's some vibes there. So I want to hang out with Sir Per. And that's it. I love this. I support your selections here and almost picked every single person you picked. And I think you have a great.

hang on your hands. I consider Darren Rogers because of our shared passion for Game of Thrones, you know what we would binge watch on our road trip. Pete Carroll, like, you know he's going to want to go on a surfing trip. You guys can watch 100 foot wave together. Excellent documentary. Check it out if you haven't. Maybe head to Nazaree. Catch an 80-footer

off the coast. Sounds like a great time. What could go wrong? It's going to be great. I wish we could combine cars. All right, Mallory, this has been delightful. Thank you for working through your Raven feelings with us and lending some of your insights to some other troubled franchises across the

league. May you all have hope. See your football fortunes improve in the coming days and weeks. This has been The Ringer NFL show. I'm Nora Prunziotti. I've been here with Mallory Rubin. Ben Solac, Stephen Ruiz, and Kalin Jones will be coming next on this feed. That will be this Friday where they will preview all the week two games. I will be back on Sunday night with Kevin Clark, Solac, and Ruiz to break down all the Sunday NFL action. Check out Mal on the Ring or Verse feed on Friday as she breaks down the latest on What If and the Hawkeye trailer. We will be back next Thursday and every Thursday for the entire NFL season.

We offer our great thanks to production assistant Isaiah Blakely for production on this episode with additional production supervision from Arjuna, Ramble Paul.