The Ringer NFL Show - Offseason Acquisition Check-In | The Scramble

Episode Date: October 13, 2022

Sheil is joined by The Ringer’s Nora Princiotti to follow up on the biggest offseason trades and coaching hires and rank how the teams are feeling five weeks into the season. They discuss the quarterbacks (4:00) and wide receivers (14:00) who changed teams and choose the best and worst new head coaches (25:00). Finally, they close the show by answering some mailbag questions (40:00). Do you have a question for Sheil? Email [e-mail] for a chance to have your question answered on the show. Host: Sheil Kapadia Guest: Nora Princiotti Associate Producer: Mike Wargon Additional Production Supervision: Conor Nevins and Arjuna Ramgopal Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Hey, my name is Kevin Clark. I'm the host of a new football podcast called Slow Newsday. I want to tell you about it. On Mondays, Lindsay Jones and I will recap the weekend in football that was, as well as look ahead to what's next. On Wednesday, the normal Slow Newsday, the thing you've been watching for years, current players, current coaches, current analysts talking about the football world. And on Friday, it's a wild card.

Could be some college football. Could be more pro stuff. It's a video podcast so you can watch it on Spotify or listen to it wherever you get your podcasts. Follow on Spotify. It's Slow Newsday. Welcome to the Scramble. I'm Shield Capadia coming to you on the Ringer NFL feed every Thursday with a guest. And today, thrilled to have my friend, my colleague, the Ringer's own, Nora Princiotti.

Nora, how are we doing with your first time on the Scramble? There's only been like three or four episodes, but still, you should feel kind of special about it, I think. I do feel special. I feel very good. Can I tell you a story that you doing the intro just reminded me of that I think I've told on some Ringer NFL show. Let's hear it. Before in history, but I'm going to repeat it. When Tom Brady was in the, when I cover the Patriots,

during the training camp, that was ahead of his deflate gate suspension. Jimmy Garoppolo was a little bit of a sensitive topic. And there was all this, oh, Jimmy looks pretty good. I wonder what might happen with Jimmy in the future. Like, Jimmy looks pretty feisty out there. He might be a little more athletic than Tom. He's certainly younger. Wow, look at that, look at that big head of hair.

And it became, it was definitely a sensitive subject. And there was one day, and this is just like one of the, the most precious moments of beat writing ever for me, even though it was totally random and didn't matter. But somebody asked Gronk after a practice if it was different and fun to play with a more athletic quarterback who could scramble a little bit, which was like a very funny thing to think of how we felt about. Jimmy Garoppolo in that specific moment because that was the big deal. Like, oh, Jimmy can move back there a little bit. And Gronk gets, like, totally stunned and is sort of trying to weasel his way out of like stoking any sort of controversy. And he just pauses.

And then all of a sudden this grin spreads across his face. And he just goes, I make the best scrambled eggs out of anyone. And then just like leaves the field. And it was one of the funniest moments of my interest. entire beat writing career. So as soon as you're like, welcome to the scramble, that moment just popped back into my head. So I'm very excited to be here. It's bringing back all sorts of memories. That's outstanding. We should we should bring gronk on next time and bring up that memory and see and see if he remembers anything about it. Well, that's how we would have to get him is tell him that it's

actually like a scrambled egg making competition. Listen, I'd be in on that. I love a good scrammy. All right. Low and slow. Well, yeah, there's a listen. I've done a lot of research. There's a lot of different methods. We could, you know, maybe for the mailbag next time you're on, I've actually done a lot of research on this, trying to find the perfect way. I don't make them great. Today's theme is not scrambled eggs. It is the check-in.

We've had five weeks, five weeks of the season. It's funny because at the end of the season, when you look back on it, you're like, oh, the first five weeks, like, who cares? Nothing mattered at all. But when we're in it, we're drawing these big conclusions. So what I wanted to do today is look at some of the big off-season storylines. We had the quarterback trades. We had the wide receiver trades.

We had like 14, 15 million. It felt like different head coaching hires. Which of those are working out? And we're going to go through three questions here about those three topics and talk about how do we feel? We're checking in after five weeks. What takes should we go strong with right now? Which should we kind of hold off on and say, hey, it's still early in the season.

And then, of course, we will end with the listener mailbag as we do every Thursday. All right. Let's start with the first question, Nora. which team feels best and which team feels worst about its off-season quarterback trade. And I'll run through the three quarterback trades right now. And then we'll get your answer on this one. The Colts traded Carson Wentz to the commanders for a 2022 third and a 2023 third that can turn into a second if Wenz plays 70% of the snap.

So that's 70% number is one worth monitoring here the rest of the way. Trade number two, the Seahawks trade Russell Wilson to the Broncos. for two first, two seconds, a fifth, Drew Locke, Noah Fant, and Shelby Harris also included in... Shelby Harris also included in that was a fourth to the Denver Broncos. And then the third one was the Falcons trade Matt Ryan to the Colts for a third round pick. What do you think? Which team feels best?

Which teams feel worse? It could be the team that acquired the quarterback or the team that traded the quarterback away. Yeah. So this one goes in a pair for me. I think the team that's got to feel the best right now is the Seahawks and the team that's got to feel worse right now is the Broncos. I actually don't like to be part of the Russell Wilson Pylon in this moment, but it's sort of undeniable, both because of how good Gino Smith has looked running that offense, which is less to me about is Gino Smith necessarily your long-term answer than just getting proof of concept that the ways in which they tried and tried and tried to bring different offensive coordinators in there and change that offense into something. that looks like what we're seeing now, it's hard to see the Seahawks this year

and not feel like they've pretty much proven that, well, it was the quarterback. And that can be for better or worse, right? They never had a bad offense with Russell Wilson. Yeah. But he runs his own offense. And the thing that they were trying to do, one, it looks like they can do it pretty successfully.

And two, it looks like you get another quarterback in there. And all of a sudden, Shane Waldron's able to do, to run the scheme that he wants to run. Also, you've got all of that draft capital, either, you know, some of it you've spent. Charles Cross already looks like he could be a franchise left tackle down the line. You still have a first, a second, a fifth coming. So you feel pretty good about the decision to move on what you got in return on all levels there. Then you get to the Broncos and you have to add in the amount of money that you've committed to the guy, right?

Yes. So 254 million. He's under contract through 2028. The first reasonable out is after 2025. And just the fact that I'm bringing that up tells you things aren't going very well. Because he's 34. He's putting up career worst numbers. And the skill guys around him are not bad.

It's really hard to blame all elements of the situation. The coaching obviously has left a lot to be desired so far. But it's not like he's, you know, doing this with scrubs. So the fact that there's no easy out and that you have a quarterback who's getting older who looks like he's lost a step, that athleticism was always such a big part of his game. That I think is really scary. I think you nailed it.

I had the same two teams at the same time. I'm trying to take a deep breath on this and what I said at the beginning. Like is this one of those moments where we're going to look back at two months and go, okay, maybe we overreacted a little bit to the first five games. And I'll start with the Broncos side of it. I mean, we have a decades worth of evidence that Russell Wilson can lead top 10 offenses with varying parts around him, offensive coordinators, wide receivers, offensive linemen.

You know, the head coach was the same, but, you know, his philosophy there. And so I'm looking at these first five games, and I'm seeing what everyone else has seen. I mean, he's looked terrible. The numbers are not lying. It's not deceptive. It's not like, oh, well, yeah, he's, you know, they've got some unlucky turns. or you've played great defenses. It's nothing like that.

We all watched that game last Thursday night against the Colts and our eyes did not lie to us. I mean, that scene of KJ. Hamler just chucking his helmet after the last play just like told you the story of the Broncos through the first five weeks. At the same time, I know he's getting made fun up for like, oh, he had a bad game and now all of a sudden he has an injury. Like maybe the injury explains some of it. Honestly, I know it's only the last two games, but like, again, we've been.

We had a 2012 to 2021, a version of Russell Wilson who never looked as bad, maybe in small stretches as he had during this stretch we've seen so far this season. So I'm not going all in on this take, but I'm leaning towards it's not over for Russell Wilson. This isn't going to be the version of Russell Wilson, the Bronco C for like you mentioned, the next three seasons. I think he's going to have a moment at some point. I don't know if it's going to be this year. Maybe it'll be this year. You know, their season is not over. Maybe he'll have a little stretch where it's like,

okay, things are starting to come together a little bit. He's getting more comfortable. They're figuring things out. It might not be this year at all. This year might be a wash. He might stink. And we might be reading or writing stories next July and August about why 2023 is going to be different for Russell Wilson. But I just refuse to believe that all of a sudden he's just falling off this cliff. I know he's older. That makes sense to me. But I refuse to believe that this is the version we're going to see and it's over and he's going to retire. And the last chapter of his career is going to be a complete disaster. And my nuts for leaning towards that side.

I like the optimism. And your point about the injury, I think, is worthwhile because I agree that overall, you know, the numbers are not lying to us. What we what we see matches what's being borne out statistically. However, you could add a little bit of a caveat in the first two games. based on how bad their red zone offense was. And look, the red zone is a part of the game. The red zone is a part of your offense.

You devote specific practice periods to working on that stuff. But they were getting a lot of threes instead of sevens for the first chunk. And then, you know, you factor in the injury. And maybe you can start to build a case. It just requires a lot of massaging the narrative to turn this into something that looks like it could be on the upswing. I know. And especially now he's lost Garrett Bowles, the left. tackle for the year.

They already lost Giovante Williams for the year. So listen, it might look really dumb, but that's sort of where I fall with the Broncos. With the Seahawks, I mean, I just, they should be throwing a party every afternoon. I was totally wrong. I think they are. I think they are too. Yeah. I mean, Pete Carroll has never seemed happier really than he is right now.

I mean, listen, I went all in on that being a mistake. I thought they were going to look bad. I thought they should have held on to Wilson for a couple more years. and added some veterans and really taking a shot at it. If you looked at it statistically last year, their offense was kind of better than it looked with the eye test. But after five weeks, it just feels like, man, they, even if, like you said, we don't know what Gino Smith could regress.

By the end of the year, you know, it's probably more likely that he's middle of the pack than he is a top five quarterback like he is right now, statistically. But even having said that, it looks like they sold at the perfect time on Russell, Wilson, and it's not like they just gave him away. They got significant draft capital for him. They can use that to rebuild other parts of the roster. You can decide what to do at quarterback after the season. And, hey, through five weeks, they've got the number one offense in the NFL per DVOA.

I mean, talk about the most unlikely thing. The thing I would have bet all kinds of money on was not going to happen going into the season. That's what we've seen through five games. So, again, regard, Gino Smith aside, they just have. have to feel like, yeah, we made the absolute right decision at the absolute right time. They've got to be feeling great. There's a point in there that I think is super important because I could already feel the narrative shift of Russ was washed, Pete knew, time to move on, easy call.

That was a hard call, right? Like, one reason I think they've got to feel really good right now is that he'd like never run, as you said, never run less than a top 10 offense with them. There is a reason they got so much back in return for Russell Wilson. obviously right now in this moment, it looks like Pete Carroll had his finger on the pulse. John Schneider kind of sensed that something was coming. Maybe that's true.

They obviously know more than we do. But Russell Wilson, even when that team hadn't performed very well, Russell Wilson had never been anything less than a good quarterback for the Seattle Seattle Seattle Cs right up until the very moment. So I think that's part of the reason they've got to feel better because that was not a move that came without significant risk. Yeah, and also I was thinking, I mean, he had the no trade clause. So like, that's a harder trade to make.

It's not just like, hey, we're sending you wherever we want to send you. You have to send him somewhere where he approves of going and still get that draft capital back. And they did, they did all of that. I mean, I was making, we were all making fun of. I definitely was of the quarterback competition in August. It felt so sad. Five weeks in, it's like the most unlikely story in the entire NFL. All right.

Well, although Pete, Pete just said something. something like Drew Locke is nipping at his heels. I love that. He's he's so in on fostering that culture of competition. I remember he used to tell the story like when he was at USC that when they would get signing day and they would get their new recruiting class, he would show the existing players film of the new guys and being like, hey, these freshmen are coming in to take your job next year. So just get ready. Oh my gosh, look at this guy. He's amazing from whatever high school in Los Angeles. So he's still on that. Decades. later. I respect that. I actually do like that. He does that and treats everyone like a grown-up,

like, hey, the best guys are going to play. And we'll see what happens, even if it feels very disingenuous with Drew Locke there. Question number two, let's get to the wide receivers. I think the teams that traded for the quarterbacks are all pretty sad right now. The teams that traded for the wide receivers, it's kind of a different story. So which team feels best, which team feels worst about its offseason wide receiver trade? We've got the Titans trading A.J. Brown to the Eagles for a first and a third. We've got the chiefs trading Tyree Kill to the dolphins for five picks, a first, a second, two fourths and a sixth. And we've got the Packers trading Devante Adams to the Raiders for a first and a second. What do you got? All right. So for who

feels the best right now, I made it a Dolphins and Eagles tie. If you want to force me to pick one, I'll take the Eagles and A.J. Brown just because Tyree Kill is dealing with that injury right now. But I think there's a similarity in how both of those moves have worked out, which is that both players through five weeks have changed the dimensions of the field for the offense that they're in. The dolphins were on their way to doing that with Waddle a little bit, but with Waddle and Tilled together, they have proven, I think, and obviously so many things right now with the dolphins are kind of topsy-turvy, but in the beginning part of the season, we saw that they could create just an automatic verticality in that offense with two-up quarterback,

with all the questions that we had about, you know, how does his limited arm strength limit what they're going to be able to do? How much does the fact that we had seen that offense get, you know, progressively condensed in past iterations of it? All of that went away with those two guys just streaking down the field. So I think that really changed how I look at the Dolphins offense, and I don't think that they would be able to do it to the same degree just with Jalen Wattle, even though he does offer something similar.

And then A.J. Brown, just keeping the middle of the field and play for the Eagles, I think, has been so, so critical. And it seems like he's fit in so seamlessly. Seems like he and Hertz already have, like, this very good trust, which is essential for someone who's sort of a ball winner like that. I just think both of them have been successful moves, one, just because they've been productive, but two, because they have opened up, they have forced defenses dealing with those offense to defend every blade of grass in a way that I don't think that those offenses are doing

if they don't make those moves. And then worst. So the worst one, I'm saying the Packers, the funny thing is, I'd say the second worst is probably the Raiders. I don't think anybody on either side of that Devonday-Adams trade is thrilled right now. But the Packers, has to be the worst one to me because this is a team that thinks that it's in a Super Bowl window and now you're dealing with an offense that looks totally disjointed. Rogers looks worse than he has in years. And in particular, he's suffering on throws past the line of scrimmage and outside the numbers. So you think of those as some Devante Adams throws, right? So in 2020, he completed 71.3% of those passes. In 2021, it was 67.5. So far this year, it's been 50.

53.4%. That's from true media. So maybe you're happy you have Quay Walker and Christian Watson. Cool. But first of all, it's not like you have additional picks coming down the pipeline to feel good about. And second of all, they are really suffering in this way that you would think Devante Adams would make a big difference in. And it's in a year that I think they thought was a big year for them, a window wide open year. So I think they're the most upset about the decision. Yeah, I had the, I'll start with the worst.

I had the Packers as well. I mean, you laid it out well right there. I mean, I just felt like the Packers should be in Rams mode at this point with Aaron Rogers, the age he is, what they have at stake, what they're trying to accomplish. And I know it was a lot. I know Devante Adams wanted out, but either you have to get something back that helps the passing game immediately or you have to have a plan B for how you're going to replaced Devante Adams, and they really didn't.

I mean, you mentioned it, Christian Watson. That was your backup plan. I mean, he's got seven catches for 52 yards so far this season. And we all remember that deep ball that Aaron Rogers threw to him on the first pass that he didn't come down with. And so they can't be feeling good about this. I mean, you may, Quay Walker, you know, yeah, absolutely could be a very good linebacker. That's not going to be a difference making move right away.

Devante Wyatt, their other first round pick, he's played 28 snaps through five games. He can't, he can't get on the field. He was inactive last week in the London game. And so, you know, their offense hasn't been like a complete disaster. I think you pointed out that the ways in which, yeah, they could really use Devonte Adams and the ways in which not having him changes the offense. Their 14th in EPA per drive. Their eighth in DVOA. So they've been okay. They've had their moments, but you really need that offense to be elite, especially with the way the defense has underachieve. So yeah, I had the Packers too for the team that's feeling the worst about it. You can make a case for the Titans also, I think. You know, AJ Brown is so young. He's,

24, 25 years old. It just seems so avoidable. You know, it was kind of like hurt feelings with the contract negotiation. It felt like at the end there, I mean, he's never been a problem out. Like, he's been a high character guy, a guy who was just such a part of their identity on offense. And they really could have had an opportunity this season. I mean, that AFC South is the next two, three seasons. When really, when you look at that division, the A, the A, the A, F.C South is up for grabs. And I just don't like, when you draft a player and he shows he's awesome and he's 24, 25 years old.

And listen, maybe there's an injury thing or something that scared him off. I don't know. He's looked healthy so far for the Eagles. But when you hit on those players and they kind of do everything right, I just feel like those are the players you reward and you don't want to get in these situations where, well, do we want to pay him? Do we not want to pay him? I mean, the contract the Eagles gave him, like they didn't have to go above and beyond.

they didn't break the wide receiver market. It's perfectly within reason to what other wide receivers are being paid. So if that contract would, you know, he would have agreed to that in Tennessee. It should have been an easy negotiation and a no-brainer and they didn't get it done. I give the Titans a little bit of a pass, I think, because I was happy philosophically that it seemed like they didn't react to a season in which they ended up the number one seed in the AFC, but probably overachieved and say, hey, we should be the Rams. The specific move, though, I think you're right.

I mean, a 24-year-old receiver like that, you're offering him what? I think it was like 16 million a year. It was just a total, total low ball. It doesn't make a lot of sense. So I'm with you that you probably regret the specific move. I do give them, I'm giving them a little bit of a pass because I just think that the number one thing that you were scared about this off season for them is a reaction to some of the high variance successes of last season that you couldn't count on repeating themselves,

overextending themselves financially, burning the future, and then all of a sudden going, oh, wait, we won a lot of one-score games and all of this is falling apart. So give them at least a little bit of credit for that. Yeah, they shouldn't have fooled themselves into thinking they were really, really close to winning a Super Bowl because of what happened last year with Brown, given his age, it's like he could be part of the next era, even if you go with Malik Willis next year. The team, I think, should feel best. I went with either the Eagles or the Chiefs.

So, you know, you spelled out the reasons for the Eagles. We don't have to get, you know, too much into that. Brown has changed the offense. He's been terrific. He's fifth in the NFL with 436 receiving yards. He's just such a problem solver for them. Red zone. Third down.

Throw a slant. Throw a screen to AJ Brown. Somebody you have to count for if you're an opposing defensive coordinator on Monday or Tuesday in your game planning for the Eagles. So that one they've got to feel great about. The Chiefs, I mean, they trade Tyreek Hill and they're first in the NFL and EPA per drive through five games. Patrick Mahomes just looks like he's on a mission. He's been the best or the second best quarterback in the NFL so far this year.

They figured it out. Their situation was so different from the Packers to me because they had a plan and they have a young quarterback. So with Mahomes, it's not like Rogers where you're like, all right, the next two years, we got to win the Super Bowl. It's like, all right, you have an extended window here. You still want to try to win it every year, but then they made moves. They bring in Marquez Valdez Scantling. They bring in Juju Smith Schuster. They draft Sky Moore.

They've already got Travis Kelsey. They like their offensive line. And so it wasn't just like, all right, trade wide receiver and don't do anything. It was like trade wide receiver. What's our plan right now? And their plan looks really good. Listen, there might be games. There easily could be games this year where there's going to be a narrative of, oh, I thought

they didn't miss Tyreek Hill. The offense struggle today. Look, they didn't move the ball. downfield. That's going to happen, but overall, I'm so surprised with how quickly they've kind of figured out this version 2.0 of their offense. And then they've got the draft capital. I mean, you need to build depth. You need to keep, you know, addressing positions of need here as you go forward. You're not going to be able to pay everybody and to get that draft capital in return and kind of replenish the roster. I think they're probably feeling pretty good about that trade.

Yeah, that makes sense. That makes a ton of sense to me, especially because my big thing with the Chiefs is like you have to look at them, especially when we talk about roster building, not in the same way as we tend to look at teams. It's sort of like the mid-Bradie era patriots. The goal is to be in as many AFC championship games as you possibly can be. Because you're going to win some of them and then you're going to win some of those Super Bowls. And that's how you build a dynasty. And it's not the same process as we want the most explosive offense during the regular season. We want the best regular season record. It's just not the same challenge, and a lot of that has to do with not having down years in order to do that.

You need to conserve resources in certain ways that probably meant that Tyreek Hill couldn't be a part of this team going forward. Now, not my pick for the reason you mentioned. I just think there will, first of all, he's looked so good in Miami. Second of all, I still think there will be a game or two where we talk about, huh, why can't the chiefs create as much? any explosive plays. And it's not going to end up mattering, but it is going to be a thing. So, like, they get a slight demerit there. But I agree with you.

They've got to feel pretty good about that. Yeah, that sustained success is such a good point. It's like you always feel like you want to win the Super Bowl this year. But for them, it's, they're going to be years where you're injured and years where you're not injured and years where you win the one score games and years where you don't win the one score games to be in the mix every year, like you said. And, you know, some of those years, the ball's going to bounce your way. And yes, they are going to win Super Bowls those years.

So I think it made sense from that standpoint. All right. Last one. Question number three, which team feels the best and which team feels worse about its offseason coaching higher? I'll run through them really quickly. Mike McDaniel to the dolphins. Doug Peterson to the Jaguars.

Lovie Smith to the Texans, Nathaniel Hackett, to the Broncos. Josh McDaniels to the Raiders. Brian Daibald to the Giants. Kevin O'Connell to the Vikings. Matt Eber flus to the Bears. Todd Bowles to the Bucks. Dennis Allen to the Saints. How are there so many new coaches?

That, I mean, that was, I felt like I was just talking for 10 straight minutes. All right. Well, you said I'm going to run through them quickly and I kind of chuckled because it's, you went, you got a coffee. Yeah, you came back. It's like, when we do the gambling disclaimers on the ads, it's just like, less than 45 seconds. All right, let's go. You know, I view those as a challenge. Like, though, I never get more motivated than I'm like, I'm going to read this one faster than I ever have in my entire life.

No one's going to understand a word that I'm saying. I'm just going to run through this out. Yeah, that's really. really, you know, as you get old, podcast are 40. Yeah. Like as you get older, you know, the moments where you get that intense competition, uh, they kind of, there aren't as many of those. And so you have to pick your spots and,

uh, it's a race against myself to do those. All right. What do you got for the coaches? So we have this very long list. I don't know if I'm just, you know, I'm sitting here in New York City, maybe drinking the Kool-Aid a little bit, but I, I think the giants feel the best right now. And the Vikings probably feel pretty good. I think, you know, the Jaguars probably still feel pretty good. There's a few solid contenders here. But I think what Brian Dable has been able to do just to get that offense by, particularly now that they're dealing with so many injuries, it's been really, really impressive.

The buy-in there seems totally complete. And I think if you look at the numbers, they're probably going to be rewarded for this start with a playoff for it. statistically, they should have somewhere around an 80% shot at the playoffs. Now, I don't know how to adjust the numbers to factor in the fact that there's an undefeated team in their division. But they're, you know, just based on how they've started, most teams that start that way end up getting into the postseason.

Nobody was expected. Like, this is a free year for the Giants. If you, I think if you really ask people in that building, especially because so many of them came from Buffalo where we talk about the NFL as an all-in league. The bills are kind of the counterweight example to that, where they did when they started things with Josh Allen, they took an entire year to just clear all of that salary cap. And then they've been fairly methodical

about how they spend those resources going forward. I think the Giants are following a fairly similar path. They had to get rid of good players like James Bradbury just to be able to pay their draft class. And they had to do a lot to just get under the salary cap for this year. I think if you give everybody in my building truth serum, that was the objective and anything else is kind of gravy. They've ended up with a lot of gravy, and I think you can trace it mostly back to coaching. Yeah, I'll give you credit. I remember we did

a preseason pod and we're talking about the coaching hires and you were very bullish on Brian Dayball at that time. I was kind of like, let's wait and see that roster stinks. I don't know what What's maybe eventually, but to be four and one, and I thought that game last week was absolutely a coaching win. I mean, if you look at the two sides on paper, if you look at the Giants offense and what they were working with against the Packers defense and you just took like two league, you know, league average coaches, like the Packers defense should win that battle nine out of ten times. And they didn't.

The Giants went up and down the field. They had one of their, I think their best offensive performance. if you look at EPA per drive in the last three years was that game right there. And I just thought that he's willing to try stuff. I mean, I hate coaches who are just like rigid and, well, we don't have the guys. You know, it's easy to make those excuses. But now you're all right, let's try Sequin and the Wildcat. Let's try this Philly special where, you know, Bellinger's going to run it in if he's got no one to throw to it.

You're going to take your lungs. I mean, I think there will be games this year where that offense looks terrible, where they'll score 10 points because they don't have players. And ultimately, like, they're just going to be weeks where one side has the better players. And no coaching, the greatest coaches in the history of the NFL are not going to be able to do anything about it. But there's going to be other weekends like last week where coaching really does matter. And you can try stuff and you put your players in position to succeed. So I'm with you. I mean, the previous five seasons, they had the fewest wins in the NFL.

They were tied with the Jets. Like the Jets were the laughing stock usually. And I would always point out, hey, the Giants have been just as bad here over this five. year stretch and now to be four and one. And it's sort of it's it's it really is house money now. It's like, all right, maybe they'll make the playoffs. Maybe they won't. But you're going to be feeling good about the direction of the team probably at the end of the season. It's a long season. So we'll say maybe January, I'll roll around and we'll go, oh my gosh, I can't believe what happened to the Giants. But so far, it's very encouraging. And then, you know, part of being a head

coach is you got to put together a great staff in Wink Martindale. You know, he's got one way he plays. That way's been pretty successful for many years, except for the year where his defense was the most injured defense and the history of football, basically. And so even them, I mean, you look at who they were playing with last week and just how aggressive he was still in the fourth quarter. He's fun, too. Like, I know everyone loves the, all right, play too high, two deep safeties and force the offense to move the ball down the field. Give me a wink, Martindale. Who just says, nah, this is old school. We're putting the quarterback on his back.

We're going to blitz. We're playing man coverage. don't care who's out there. Are you going to give up some, there's going to be weeks again. Where they're going to give up 40 points, but there's going to be fun weeks like that where the opposing quarterback, you know,

can't complete a pass over 20 yards. And you're batting the ball up the line of scrimmage in the red zone because you're calling these crazy zero points against the Hall of Fame quarterback. And so, Dayball deserves credit for that too. I don't know how they decided on his staff. But like if you're an offensive minded head coach and you hire a good defensive coordinator,

that's going to go a long way as well. Especially if you're usually operating. at a talent disadvantage, right? Like, you can't try to win the same way everybody else tries to win if you don't have the players. Great point. And the wink defense, like you said, it's going to give up some plays. But you know what?

The Giants defense was always going to give up some plays this season. That's just going to happen. So if you do it in ways where when you get home, when you blitz successfully, when those sort of high value plays, some of them are. are going to work out and they're going to have a greater impact because you went for it. Absolutely. Yeah. And Doug Peterson was the other guy I thought about. You know, I sort of, the games they've lost, I sort of felt like, man, Trevor Lawrence has been in position to succeed. He's got to make some of these plays. You know, I haven't looked at it and gone. They've been

out coached there. O'Connell is an interesting one you brought up. I sort of feel like O'Connell. I'm trying to think of a real-life analogy. Like maybe you meet like a friend's new boyfriend or girlfriend. or maybe I'll meet like, you know, parents of my daughter's friends. And you're, you know, you kind of, the judging in your head comes out after five minutes. And then you go home and you're just like, I don't know, I just want to see a little bit more. You know, let's have like a second outing with them. I'm not going to form a strong opinion right now because there are times I look at them and go, okay, they look very competent.

And then other times I go, what is going on in Minnesota? So I just need to see more. Do you have a strong opinion about the O'Connell Ed Vikings through five games? Well, no, I think that's the thing is they make it almost impossible to form a strong opinion. Yes. Because the results are objectively good, right? Yeah. And yet you're just like, oh, this all feels a little fragile.

You don't trust it. Yeah, you don't trust it. It's very hard to trust them. Yeah. Trust issues, the Minnesota Vikings. Look, they could, if they win that division, that's an objectively good coaching job, right? And I think we've seen certain, even just the decision making, he's more aggressive than they were Zimmer. There's some places where there's obvious improvements. So I do think that I certainly don't

think they feel bad. I think they feel pretty good. I think the, you know, sort of feelings of, oh, we love this guy. We want to fight for this guy that I think exists in New York right now and maybe a little bit with Doug Peterson. We'll see. But overall, feeling good. Okay. And then the feeling worst about their head coaching hire, who do you have? Is this going to be pile on Nathan you'll hack a time or no. So, all right. I think the Broncos probably do feel the worst, basically because of the schedule makers,

basically because they've just had such embarrassing moments in prime time. The Raiders should feel the worst. The Raiders should feel worse than the Broncos. The Raiders, like, I think you and I talked about this. Josh McDaniels is an experienced coach who, yes, it was a long time ago. Yes, it went very badly.

But he's done this before. He's claimed he learned a lot of lessons. from his time in Denver. He had just myriad experiences in New England that in theory should prepare someone to run an organization. He has an experienced quarterback, so to the Broncos. This team has no business being one and four. I cannot believe how badly the Raiders have started

and how unprepared they look and how disorganized. Like the Broncos, at very least, you have a staff that is just so inexperienced, you're kind of shaking your head and going, should these guys really have been hired? Are they really cut out for this? But at least you know that they are on a very, very, very, very steep part of the learning curve.

And it's been a little bit weird. Like, I don't know why Hackett felt the need to go hire an in-game decision-making guy and then just sort of blame everything on him. And that's weird. But at least he's going out and doing stuff and saying, look, I don't totally know what I'm doing here and I need help. It has only been five weeks. This is, you know, it's not just

hack it across the board. That's a really, really, really green coaching staff. The failures have been very public, so they've been embarrassing. But you at least want to give them a little bit more time to get better. Now, being a head coach is different from being an offensive coordinator, particularly when the majority of your career, you've got Bill Belichick and Tom Brady working with you. But man, I just don't think that Josh McDaniels gets the same, you know, gets to be graded on a curve in the same way. And I can't believe how badly they've started. So I think they should feel the worst. I like that. Yeah. I mean, I put down Hackett just for what you mentioned, but you made a convincing argument. I mean, yeah, we talked about it before the season. Like,

I felt like McDaniels just had this great PR campaign where everybody's like, oh, yeah, McDaniels. He's going to be fantastic. And then they go against. Rebuilding and they're like, let's just go. We'll trade for Devante Adams. We'll sign Chandler Jones. Let's win right now. Let's take it to these AFC West teams, which I respect. I mean, if I'm a fan, I'm like excited about that and their fans were excited.

Right. Now you're one and four Devante Adams. It's obviously frustrated after the last game. Like, all right, now all the stuff aside from X's and O's because the offense in stretches has looked pretty good. You know, you watch them and you're like, all right, they're moving the football. They're pushing it down the field. they're doing some things here.

But now it's like that stuff kind of gets pushed to the side. And now it's like you're dealing with a locker room of veterans who are one and four, who are annoyed, who are frustrated. How are you going to manage all of that here going forward? So we'll see with the red day. They've gotten some bad luck. You know, I was not the biggest Josh McDaniels fan, but to his defense, they've lost what, four, one score game.

So a couple of those go another way. But you're right. I mean, his is sort of the disorder. organized aspect of it, the way they, they blew that game against the Cardinals, you know, some of the in game decision making, those things matter in those one score games. So I do think that that's a good one. All right, now is our check-in. I like that. That was good. We hit on a lot teams. I like the check-in. It's nice to check in. It's nice to check in. All right, there you have it. Now in a moment, we will get to the mailback. Start the NFL week off right with a

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Of course, if you have a question, you can email the Scramble Mailbag at gmail.com. That's the scramble mailbag at gmail.com. I appreciate everyone who checks in there during the week. You can also just tweet at me if you like. Let's get through three questions here quickly. We've got Seth asking, can you make me feel better about the Colts? How would you fix the Colts moving forward? Do you have anything for them? Do you want me to start with this one? How are you feeling? Do you have any ideas, Shoe? Well, I got to say, I really want to be an optimist here. I'm a little stumped on this one.

Yeah, there is no quick fix. And I think that's the issue. I mean, their best players are Jonathan Taylor, Quentin Nelson, DeForest Buckner, and Shaquille Leonard. That means you have no long-term answer at quarterback at left tackle, at cornerback at wide receiver other than Michael Pittman, who's a good player, but no depth there at all. I mean, think about that.

The roster just needs so much work. They take a new quarterback every year. They guaranteed part of Matt Ryan's contract for 2020. so they can still get out of it, but they didn't have to do that. And now it's, I think, an $18 million dead cap it if you move on from Matt Ryan after the season. So, like, I don't think it's a case where you have to, oh, we have to fire Chris Ballard and Frank Reich. I mean, if they do that, they would probably be justified if this season goes down the tubes. But if they're patient with that, you know, that might be a smart decision.

I just think they have to scout the 2023 quarterback class and think hard about taking a big swing. I mean, the Colts might stink this year. Their record might probably won't be like top five pick bad, but it'll probably be top 15 pick bad. And so then you think about, all right, is there a trade we can make? Is there something we can do to get some stability at quarterback? Because you can't just be doing what they're doing at quarterback year to year. So I don't even know if I answer the question, but that's kind of what I would look at is, hey, it's time to take a big swing and really think about making a move for a first round pick at quarterback.

And I think they have to figure out if what's happening with. the offensive line is coaching related if those players are just not not what they thought they were and how you try to go about fixing that because if you look in the long term and the sort of short to medium term in 2025 they've got 77 million bucks committed to their total salary cap 45 of that is for offensive linemen right like that is the area of your team you know and it gets more significant in the years between now and then. That is the area of your team where you've got money tied up going several years into the future,

and you thought that that would be a strength of your team this year. It hasn't been. That, I think, is making the decision to not try to improve what they had at wide receiver look much, much worse than it would if the offensive line was playing well. Matt Ryan had a little bit more time. Like, I'm not saying that either one of those, it's a little bit of a chicken and the egg thing, but they made a conscious choice to not go out and get a, get another wide receiver,

whereas I think they thought that they could rely on this being at least a top 10 protection unit. That hasn't worked out. You have so much money tied up into the future in those players. I think you've got to figure out if there's something you can do to help them. Or if some of this is sunk cost and if that's the case, how you're going to try to work your roster around that. The second thing I do think is they're going to need, they just need more receiver depth.

I think that was a huge mistake this offseason is thinking that they could survive with this wide receiver group. But that's something that at least you haven't already spent the funds, right? So you do that. I don't know what the answer is with the offensive line, but I think they have to figure out what they think the answer is. And then obviously the quarterback is always going to be the biggest piece. Yeah, I think you said it well.

It's can the quarterback lift everyone else up? No. Can everyone else lift the quarterback up? No. If both of those are nose, your offense is probably going to stink. And that's kind of where they are right now. All right. Dennis asks, the Chargers defense has been mediocre.

Is Brandon Staley on fraud watch? Oh, Dennis, bring it to bring some spice to the program. I like it. Is Brandon Staley on fraud watch, Nora? how are we feeling about the I feel like the first couple of weeks there was a lot of Chargers talk then they've sort of been forgotten

a little bit. How are we feeling about Brandon Staley and the Chargers after five weeks? Well, not great. Not great. They got a lot of off-season hype. It does, you know,

this seems like, this is, I'm going to borrow from Stephen Ruiz because we're talking about fraud watch. We were talking about this on the Sunday show. The defensive issues, I think, come down to the linebacker group, just not being very, very good, frankly.

And that surprises me, not that those guys aren't the superstars of that defense, but just the fact that their defense still has really struggled particularly against the run. I felt like I spent the entire offseason talking about, oh my gosh,

you know, Brandon Staley, if brought in Joseph Day, they're going to try to really run that offense and it's going to be so much better and they recognize that the number one issue they had was defending the run. And if you can't do that with, you know, less players.

then the whole thing doesn't work and they've fixed it. Doesn't look like they fixed it. And schematically, it's a little bit surprising to me that you can't cover up for some of those linebackers and still have that scheme work a little bit better. But it looks so far like that's the issue. But they really went after it in the offseason. So I don't know if it's Brandon Staley.

I don't know if it's the front office, but a thing that seemed on paper like it was really going to work so far hasn't worked particularly well. I do think part of that, you know, you have to look to coaching if most of us universally agreed that those were good players who would be good schematic fixes. It's not happening so far. Yeah, my, what you said there about the linebackers, I think that's true. That's probably true. But my pet peeve is like NFL coaches who don't understand what their job is and that their job is to coach. It's like the Don Draper meme, you know, that that's what the money's for. Like,

listen, you're not going to have an all pro at every position. I'm sorry, you know, you have Derwin James. You traded for Khalil Mack. You signed J.C. Jackson. You signed Sebastian Joseph Day. You drafted Asante Samuel Jr. You have quite a few of that. Yeah. Yeah.

Guess what? At some point, you're going to have to do more with less than one spot. I'm sorry, you know, you can't have a great player at every position. They go out, they sign all, they make all those moves in the offseason. I know Bosa's injured. They're 26 in EPA per drive. They're 22nd in success rate. I mean, that's unacceptable for a guy who is getting a lot of hype as a very smart,

defensive minded head coach that was kind of changing the trajectory of how defenses were playing around the NFL. So I'm not going full on fraud watch, but is it massively, are the Chargers one of the most disappointing teams in the NFL so far this season? Yes, absolutely. I mean, their defense is not better. And the game management stuff, he's just been very inconsistent. I mean, one week, you're going, shoot, he turned into the most conservative coach in the NFL. And the next week, you're going for it on fourth down, which, like, I don't have a problem with the aggressiveness, but I do think you have to have a sound process with it. And the other thing that's on my radar with some of these in-game decisions is like, how are you communicating it to the

players and are they on board? Because those Keenan Allen tweets, like, you know, sometimes the player tweets something and it's a joke. Like, that is a little different to me. Like if players are going, what is our head coach doing with this decision right here? We saw it with Marcus Peters and John Harbaugh, and especially if you're making non-traditional decisions, which I think is great, which is fine, you should try to make those, but you also need to be able to manage the locker room and tell the players, hey, this is why we're doing it. Listen, I know you might not agree with everyone. I'm telling you, I'll try to explain it to you. If you ever have a question about it, come get me. If you're ever mad at me, that's okay too. Not everyone's going to work out, but like that means of communication. That is a big part of the coaching process.

You know, he sounds like he addressed it with Alan. He said, we're going to be closer because of it. I would like to get Alan's take on that if he agrees. or not, but those are some of the things on my radar with the charges. I do think they're a weird team right now because just watching that game last week, it's like, okay, Justin Herbert looks pretty healthy and you still have that guy, a quarterback. Maybe we shouldn't have written them off completely after the first few games, but I still often find myself having questions about them after every game.

All right. Last question. Joe McDonald says define vibes. Compare and contrast with Ben Solac's definition. Now, me being the intrepid reporter that I am, I followed up with Joe McDonald on Twitter, and I said, well, what was Ben Solex definition? And he said, he doesn't remember. So this starts with a conversation, Ben and I had where I said, listen, I'm too old to be using the word vibes.

You know, I can't do it. And he was like, listen, you're part of the ringer. You're going to have to start incorporating it now. You know, you pot it with Nora. You pot it with Kevin Clark. There's going to be vibes talk. So Joe wanted your definition, Nora. and I don't know whether you have a take or not,

whether someone who's old like me should be using vibes or not. Yeah, so we're all big vibes guys here. First of all, Shil, you are in the vibes guy family here at the ringer. You can use, you are, you are a spring chicken and fully entitled to just throw around vibes. Like, here's the thing. Joe McDonald is trying to trap me here.

He's trying to trap all of us. And I see your game, Joe, because, Do you know what the beauty of vibes is, vibes are whatever you want them to be. Vives, you just, you, you don't quite know how to put your finger on the pulse of something. Vibes. It's a vibes issue. Vibes are off.

Vibes are great. Can't quite tell why, you know, everything suddenly clicked in, in Miami for the first few weeks. Vibes. Good vibes. It's just the vibes. So, Joe, you cannot nail me down on a definition for vibes. Vibes cannot be defined.

Vibes are a feeling. Vibes are a sensation. Vibes are something. thing you just know in your gut. That was so good. That needs to be posted on the YouTube ringer's YouTube channel, social media, whatever. I thought you explained it. Well, I'll see what my comfort level is as I continue to be welcomed here to the Ringer family.

But that is a good definition. If I can't explain something, just go vibes. I'll try that. Maybe I'll try it with my, no, my kids use it. Yeah, they're in fifth grade. Daughters in fifth grade. She has said vibes. My real definition is probably if I feel like I want to hang out with people.

Oh, I like that. If I think that hanging around a team at a particular juncture seems like it would be fun, that's probably what I'll be like, oh, vibes seem good. Seem like they're having a good time. I love it. Perfect. Perfect one to end on Nora Princiata. You can listen to her on the Sunday night show on the Ringer NFL feed on the island during the week

where she had bent Solac on this week to talk about whether NFL teams should hire college coaches. I've been on there previously talking about the Eagles, a very fun show. Anything else to plug here, Nora, before we sign off. Yeah, if we've got any music fans in the mix, every single album is back. We are right now doing a lot of Taylor Swift stuff

because her 10th studio album, Midnights, is coming out on October 21st. So Nathan Hubbard and I are hard at work putting out content about that. But if people aren't Taylor Swift fans, we cover all sorts of stuff on there. So people should subscribe. My wife was going to send in a question to the mailbag to you about Taylor Swift's. How are we feeling about a 2023 tour?

And I was just like, you know what? I can just message. And she's like, well, she already wrote about it and covered it. But, you know, just to get it. Cush. She's like, I already read the, you know, read her thing. But, you know, just in case. So she is a big fan of that podcast for sure and all of Nora's content.

All right. Thanks to Nora for joining me. Thanks to Mike Wargon for producing additional production supervision by Connor Nevins and Arjuna, Ram Gopal. Stay tuned tomorrow for the Ringer NFL preview show on this feed, and I will talk to everyone next week.