The Ringer NFL Show - Russell Wilson's and Deshaun Watson’s MVP Runs, Sam Darnold is BACK, and the 49ers Are Good | The Ringer NFL Show

Episode Date: October 14, 2019

Deshaun Watson and Russell Wilson are currently leading the MVP sweepstakes (2:00), the 49ers, Kyle Allen, and the Browns offense lead this week's Stock Up (18:00), and the Cowboys, Rams, and Eagles secondary lead Stock Down (31:45). Then we throw our challenge flags and predict tomorrow’s headlines (47:15). Hosts: Robert Mays and Kevin Clark Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Today's episode of The Ringer NFL show is brought to you by State Farm. When you need a game plan for protection, State Farm agents are here to help. With personalized service, agents are available to talk in person, over phone, or through the State Farm app. So go with the one with coverage and agents you can count on. Find an agent in your neighborhood today. State Farm. Talk to an agent today. Zorro.com is where you'll find everything you need for businesses of any size and almost any industry. They have tools, equipment, and supplies for everything you need.

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Robert, one of the hallmarks of this season has been that every single week sort of negates the narrative of the week before. And I haven't been comfortable saying, okay, Kirk Cousins is done because we saw what Kirk Cousins did this week. We keep seeing those sort of things. So to take one week and extrapolate it is way too big of a thing to do. Okay? That's the story of this season.

However, Greg Williams is back. Greg Williams is back. What a weird, weird. weird game. Sam Darnold is back. Adam Gase is back. Well, we can talk about Sam Darnold. I think the Sam Darnold part of that is very interesting.

But we're going to get into the Cowboys a little bit later. I think that's one result where it's not just taken for a single week. I mean, this is something that's been going on for a couple weeks. And I feel like that's why it's a little bit concerning. We're going to get to that, though. We're going to get to the Cowboys. We're going to get to a couple other supposed contenders that have been struggling, whether it's Philly or the Rams, the Niners looking great.

All the stock ups, all the stock down. Before we do that, though, I want to talk about two specific quarterbacks and how they have really pumped up their MVP candidacy now that Patrick Mahomes has kind of taken a slight step back. And those quarterbacks are Deshawn Watson and Russell Wilson. We talked about Russell Wilson on last week's show. I believe that he has been the best player in the NFL period this season, independent of position. I think that every year the MVP is a quarterback just based on how the league works. But for the last couple of years, I think if you would have looked at every player at every position,

you wouldn't say so-and-so quarterback is the best player necessarily. Mahomes probably had a case last year, but I think Aaron Donald was probably the best player in the NFL. I think this season, Russell Wilson has been the best player, no matter which position you want to throw out there. And he was phenomenal again today for Seattle in a game where they needed him to be pretty much everything for that offense. It's amazing to see how much we're coming to respect Russell Wilson. you know, Patrick Mahomes is coming back down to Earth a little bit. I still think Patrick Mahomes is the most talented player in football,

but there have been a couple. That we can conceive, yes. And that will probably be true until Patrick Mahomes is, you know, in his mid-30s. I don't know. I don't know who's kind of what 12-year-old is coming up right now is going to look great, you know, and been more talented than I can't project that far. What I can say is that Patrick Mahomes, last three weeks, his deep passing numbers have gone way down.

today he had 41 yards in the second half and that was the worst he'd ever had in a half ever and so he's starting to look a little bit like a super great quarterback instead of a guy who can do no wrong we knew that that kind of couldn't last you know the first three weeks were just incredible i i i still think he's in the MVP race and that's that's that's why i'm qualifying all of this is that i still think patrick mohomes next sunday or next thursday could have a a totally healed ankle and all of a sudden he's just back in the conversation. So I don't want to completely dismiss Patrick Wilms with the MVP conversation.

Having said that. He's still on pace to throw more than 30 touchdowns and three interceptions. I mean, a couple of monster weeks from him and this, again, the narrative gets flipped on its head. So it's hard, it's far from over. I just think he's drifted back a little bit with these other two guys kind of gaining

some crap. I just wanted to preface before we get into the Wilson-Watson thing that Mahomes is still very much in it. But Russell Wilson, what he's doing right now. This is MVP type stuff. You know, it was funny. The Darnold thing is tongue in cheek, obviously. But when Sam

Donald was out, the Jets had the worst offense in 43 years. They were averaging 3.16 yards per play. And then Sam Darnold comes in. Sam Darnold might be the MVP. Yeah, no, no, really. I mean, like, Sam Darnold comes in and they beat the Cowboys, and obviously, the Cowboys have their own problems. But what I'm saying is that that's the kind of situation

where it's like, this guy is valuable. And Russell Wilson and Deshawn Watson are that type of without those guys that both of those teams would would not be anywhere close to where they are. And I don't think you can say that about a lot of quote unquote good quarterbacks around the league. We'll talk about the Rams a little bit later. But what Russell Wilson is doing out right now, 72.5% completion percentage, nine yards per attempt, no interceptions. I mean, this is, you know, I feel like because Mahomes and some of the throws today, because Mahomes, and this year, because Mahomes has, has, has, has, has,

sort of cornered the market on viral throws. We act like Russell Wilson hasn't been doing this stuff for a long time. And he can make some off-balance throws are just incredible. He can get out of the pocket and it's just incredible. And I think in a weird way, the disservice the Seahawks have done to him from an offensive line standpoint, from a coaching standpoint, I think that has actually helped him maybe become a little bit more of an adaptable player, even though he's always had it. But I think that we're seeing right now probably the best version of the Seahawks that they've have around him in a couple of years. And he is now a complete quarterback.

And right now he's running with the MVP. Watching him today was so fun because I think what made him so great over the first, let's say, month of the season is that he's just making, he's dropping dimes left and right, just placing the ball, down the field especially, you know, really just putting it wherever he wants. And some of those are a little bit off balance. But for the most part, he was playing quarterback. in a way that I'd never seen him do it.

Today, he was Russell Wilson in the most impressive way possible, just extending plays, making stuff happen when it wasn't there. I think it was the second touchdown he had to Geron Brown, right there in the front of the end zone where he just had to run around for like 10 seconds and then make the throw. I tweeted right after that happened, I was like, this guy is special. And those moments are a reminder of that. And I think that today combined with what he's done over the remainder of the rest of the season so far,

The combination of it is what truly is startling about how great he is. Because you have those moments where he's just creating something out of nothing, and you have those moments where he's just incredibly accurate and able to place these throws that very few other quarterbacks in the league can't. When you put those together, I just think that's what really sets him apart from really every other quarterback in the NFC right now, especially. And I believe every other quarterback in the league through six weeks. So Will Disley is out for the season what looks like.

Yes, Nickillies. That's a bummer. That's a huge, huge bummer. But again, I still think that the C-Ox have done a little better job. I think that I don't want to jinx this. I think that Brian Chott-Mmer has improved. I think that's fair. I still think the balance is not nearly where it should be.

Of course not. But I think he's gotten a little bit better. Yeah, I just, he is, Russell Wilson is awesome. He has been awesome for a long time. And I'm just glad that he's in a position now where he can get the shy and he really deserves. I mean, he's hugely famous. He's one of the most famous players in football, one of the most famous athletes in the world. But, like, I just don't think something we talked about last week,

something Richard Sherman said, where, you know, these guys, the entire Seattle team did not get the attention they deserved because they were on a stacked roster. And that goes for Bobby Wagner. That goes for probably Richard Sherman. That goes for Earl Thomas. That goes for Russell on the office side of the ball. So it's really nice to see Wilson get the credit he deserves as a quarterback, even though he's been, obviously, he usually, famous for what seven years yeah i'm going to read about this for tomorrow i think that outside of being the MVP of the NFL i think that russell wilson explains the NFL right now in a lot of

interesting ways because you think about how many different versions of russell wilson there have been and we've talked about this on this show and i think one of the reasons he hasn't been given the credit he probably deserves is that early in his career he wasn't a superstar right away he was kind of a cog in this machine and i feel like that narrative and that kind of designate nation followed him longer than it should have. So people were slower to catch up. And then you think about that. And then the other idea that, you remember, I mean, there was a conversation going

in this off season, there was a debate happening about whether Russell Wilson was worth $35 million a year. Do you remember that? That really happened. Remember last summer when people were saying whether or not they should trade him? Yes. That really happened. There were people that thought, man, you know, do you want to really pay Russell Wilson $35 million?

Can you win if you do that? Yes. you can win because Russell Wilson is your quarterback if you give him $35 million. Do you remember who I compared Russell Wilson to in our first ever quarterback podcast three years ago? I certainly do not. I don't remember what happened yesterday. I compared him and this is, I'm only repeating this because it's the last time I made a good point three and a half years ago. I compared him to Dave Grohl because. Yeah, that's a really, yep, that's great. Because he was just a, he reinvented himself. And we kind of, again, it's exactly what you said.

We knew he was winner guy. was from, you know, he played well at NC State, had some big games at Wisconsin. He wins the job over Matt Flynn, which, you know, looks like less and less of an accomplishment each year, but I promise he was a surprise at the time. And, and then he comes in and he seems to just manage everything effectively. And the narrative around him, even though it wasn't fair, the narrative around him, as you said, was he was just a cog in the machine. And then he starts, I think, 2015, 2016 in that era, that sort of roster starts to cycle out. And that's when we realized, oh my God, this guy can actually do

everything we thought he couldn't do. And this from a narrative perspective. And ever since then, he's been the quarterback that, you know, he's been a great quarterback full stop. He has been a cog in a machine. He can make every throw you want to make. He could run the Andy Reid offense.

He could run the Bull Belichick offense. He doesn't need a run game. Apparently doesn't need an offensive line. Doesn't need any of this stuff. He is Russell Wilson. And that's awesome. To do what he did today to put up 32 points, and they were upped a little bit by short fields and turnovers.

we're going to talk about the Browns in a bit. To do what they did against that Brown's front that clearly was giving that offensive line trouble, to score 32 points and to do it in the fashion he did, I mean, the guy is just unbelievable right now. I think both of us would say that Russell Wilson doesn't get a ton of help. But right now or this season, he's certainly gotten more help than Deshawn Watson.

Or I guess over the last couple of years. I've written about this, the Watson stuff and how much he holds the ball. He doesn't help his offensive line. But I think there are a lot of elements of that Texans' offense that make life difficult on Deshawn Watson. What was cool today is even though there are a few really bad drops by Will Fuller that kind of could have swung this game even further than it did,

to see some of the other elements of this offense allow Deshawn Watson to succeed. The fact that they had a bunch of quick hot route throws to DeAndre Hopkins, getting rid of the ball quickly, the fact that they used their running backs as a weapon in the passing game. There were so many things that was like, oh, man, that's new. and when you give this guy a little bit of help, you can see just how dynamic he truly is. Yeah, I mean,

one of the most talented players in football. And look, he did not have the perfect game today. But to go on the road in Kansas City, I would say at any point before last week, you know, starting in training camp, we would thought there was no way they would win this game. No way.

And obviously, Mahom is a different guy. Last week changed a little bit as far as the ankle entry goes. We just don't know what's going on there right now. But that was a win where, okay, we knew the Texans went all in on this season. They trade two first-down picks for Lambertonsol, all that stuff. The Texans looked like an absolute disaster a month ago. They looked like maybe they were headed for a lost season. And the ability to go into Arrowhead and beat Patrick Mahomes and beat that Chief's defense,

which obviously has improved a little bit over last year, that was really, that was one of the most impressive wins I've seen this season from a fringe contender like the Texas. Yeah, and they didn't play a perfect game. A little bad injury look, again, a couple drops that, Will Flora catches one of those balls, and this game looks a lot different, and so does the Sean Watson's stat line. I mean, he had one, you know, 280, a touchdown two interceptions. It doesn't look great, but he played really well,

and that offense was moving the ball. A ton of penalties. I think that was part of it, too. I think that, you know, Hopkins drew at least three or four defensive holding slash pass interference calls. So that doesn't show up in his staff. line, the offense was moving the ball, and they were very difficult to stop. And Deshawn Watson is at the heart of that. If they're playing like this, and they're giving him some help, and I understand

it's against the Chief's defense, and the Chief's defense isn't great. But they become really scary. When they just kind of prop him up a tiny bit, you know, we talked about it on Thursday's show, I think that those two guys, I know Fuller had a bad day, but those two guys with Watson and Fuller are so dangerous and so scary that if everything is clicking and they're providing, and they're fighting him just the minimal amount of help, this team becomes interesting in a hurry in the AFC. Yeah, I'm curious what you think about the AFC race in general. I don't want to go on a huge tangent here, but is there any beating the Patriots if you're

not named the Chiefs? Probably not, but who knows? Things change so much. The Patriots are, I mean, injury. I mean, injury can happen. Yeah, I mean, one thing here, one thing there. I also think that, you know, the Patriots defense has been phenomenal. phenomenal, but they've also played some terrible offenses.

You know, two things can be true at once. I said today that, but they're playing so-and-so adds nothing to the conversation, which doesn't. But it's about understanding context and the fact that two things can be true at the same time. The Patriots can be a great defense, but they don't have to be a defense. It's going to score 25 fantasy points a game when they start playing real offenses. It's probably somewhere closer to the middle. So we'll see.

You know, we'll see how this happens. We said at the beginning of the podcast that narratives get flipped on their head weekly in this league. We're six games in. We got 10 to go. Right now, it looks like the Patriots definitely are in, they have the inside track and the AFC because of how well that defense is playing. But who knows? And I think that the arrow is definitely trending up for a Texan team that many of us had written off earlier in the season. For sure.

Wilson is my MVP. Is yours? Yeah, no doubt. I think it's close right now. Yeah. I mean, it was really funny. you saw that his communication system and his helmet went dark. That was great.

Yeah. I mean, that was... Sorry for not mentioning that. Yeah, no. I mean, that was amazing. I saw a stat earlier today. I thought was really interesting. So Wilson's pass rating was 117.

And he has a pass rating of over 100 in each of his six games from the stats from the NFL. The only two players to do that in the Super Bowl era to start six games over 100 passing yard, passing rating, excuse me. Tom Brady. and Aaron Rogers. Both won the MVP. That's obvious. He's rolling, man.

If he keeps going like this, I'm not sure there's anybody that can wrestle it away from him. I think it depends on just how good the Seahawks end up being. They could have lost this game today easily. They could have easily lost to the Rams. But if they ended up being 10 and 6, 11 and 5,

12 and 4 even, there's no reason he shouldn't win if this continues. Yep, totally agree. And I also, I mean, the NFC West is going to be a very, very, very strange division. Because it looks like the Seahawks and the Niners are going to have a nice, advantage over the Rams, but the Rams are still the ramp.

So I'm curious to see where that goes. And then if the Seahawks sneak in at 10 and 6, we're 9 and 7, I'm not saying that's going to happen. They're 5 and 1 right now. I particularly, they'd be 6 and 1, and you'd be in a cable than this video, but that's not important right now.

If they come back down to Earth a little bit and the Niners run away with that division and the Seahawks steal a wild card, do they give them the MVP? You know, even if he doesn't have the 13 and 3, 14 and 2 type season. I'm intrigued by that because it's a narrative award.

It is a narrative award. Yeah, historically it doesn't happen that way. You know, most of the time you have to have a first round by. Your stats have to be pretty gaudy. But who knows? It could be a strange season. I feel like right now we can't even throw out that many other candidates outside of Mahomes. Russell Wilson, I mean, maybe you can put Watson in there.

His numbers today weren't great, but he has them overall. So, again, things are going to kind of clear up as we move here. But right now, I think that Russell Wilson has. a very comfortable lead. I think Christian McCaffrey is going to get some run as a we need to vote for a non-quarterback. Well, the problem was he had 31 yards. No, I know. But I'm just, we did the Christian McCaffrey MVP debate last week and I could see that coming back up.

You know, I think he'll be like sixth in voting. I think he'll get some votes. I think he's going to have a monster season by the time it's all said and done. And today was kind of a blip. The buck's run in defense is actually very good. But McCaffrey still had that really nice reception for a touchdown, made an impact on the game, all of that. So his numbers by the end of the season will definitely be considerable enough for him to get some looks. All right, let's actually stick with that NFC West though as we start stock up and stock down.

San Francisco 49ers, man, are pretty damn good. The most impressive thing about them after knocking off the Rams this week is that they seem to have different ways to win. You know, last week, the running game just destroyed Cleveland. but the week before that, I think it was the week before that. They played the Steelers, or maybe it was two weeks ago. Anyway, they played the Steelers at some point. They turned the ball over five times and still managed to win.

Today, the offense didn't do much. Running game was pretty stagnant. The Rams defensive front actually played very well, but the 49ers defense was absolutely incredible again. D. Ford was the one that had a huge game. I just love that they have different ways to do this right now. I think that's really the sign of a good team. Tim Kawakami asked Nick Bosa

if this was the changing of the guard. in the NFC West. Guess what he said? Yes. He just said yes. That's all he said. That's interesting to me. Do you think that's true?

I don't know if that's necessarily true just because it feels like the Seahawks are still there. The Rams had that division for a couple years. They were the best team in that division, but it's not as if the Pete Carroll, Russell Wilson, Seahawks are some new quantity. They've been around for a little while. So I think that if we're talking about the Rams, then you could possibly say that.

But I think for the most part, the Seahawks have been relevant for a very very long time. a long time. I think, I mean, it's, if the Rams have struggled, I think that this is real in terms of the Rams really not understanding exactly who they are right now on offense and them having a hard

time as a result. So I probably should have applied this theory more, but I've been around Carolina and I've been around Atlanta. You have two. Super Bowl losses take a massive toll. And the only team that

really is ever able to over Super Bowl loss and have an elite season the next year have been the New England Patriots. And there's probably something to that. I think that, you know, it is kind of a Sisyphus thing, right? You get to the top of the mountain and you don't quite get there and then you have to go back up. And I think that's, that's draining to people. And we probably should have thought about that more. You know, obviously Sean McVeigh was giving those interviews saying, I got out coached, all this stuff. You know, the blueprint, I think, is quote unquote blueprint, I think is there, but I think that this is more than that. I just also think the Niners are really freaking good.

And I just think that, you know, you look at their schedule, they've got the Redskins next week. They've got the Panthers, which, you know, I would favor the Niners in that situation. Then they have the Cardinals. So their real first tough matchup is November 11th against the Seahawks. Yeah, I mean, I think the Panthers are a decent team. I think that is necessarily a gimmie game. It's fine. But the first team that I think is as good as the Niners in the same stratosphere is the C-Ox,

and that's the month from now. Yeah. I mean, who says they're not sitting there at 8-0 when that happens? It absolutely could. And yeah, I mean, we know how I feel about Kyle Shanahan. I think I believe the entire time, I thought they were going to be better than other people did coming into the season. I did not expect the defense to look like this.

I thought the defensive front could be dominant just based on all the time. talent that they brought in. I mean, when you spend the second overall pick on a guy and when you give a guy what D. Ford, I don't know, probably was a $100 million contract, right? Something in that range. I mean, there was a market setting deal after trading, five years, 85, so 17.1 a year, which is a really big deal. When you do that, when you make that kind of investment, you assume that it's going to

transform at least one of your position groups. I did not expect the secondary to play like this. And I think that bringing in Joe Woods and having him be their defense backs coach in the passing game coordinator on defense has made a huge, huge difference. This is a guy that had coordinator experience in Denver, and he really has helped transform that position group and the defense as a whole. I did not expect them to be able to really control games outside of the pass rush, and they've been able to.

One race I didn't expect to be calling in week six is the best defensive coordinator gift race. It's over? It's not even close. He's having a great. time, man. And I don't blame him. Robert Sala is definitely the, uh, the most energetic sideline presence we've had from a coordinator in a while. I saw a couple tweets that, that I sort of completely agreed with, actually, which is that it looked like Fox was showing the same celebration on a loop. Yes.

Because it was the same thing over and over again. And as it, this can't be the same thing. Yeah. It was really cool to see that fan base on TV. They had about 70% of the crowd, uh, at the L.A. see I'm not unlike the other LA game that we saw during the nighttime. Like the NFL is a better place when the Niners are good. Niners are undoubtedly good. Amen. I would love to see them at full strength. I know no one is.

I thought, I think it's a kind of a shame that we lose McGilinchy, you lose use check. That offense probably is never going to be everything it could be. And I also think that they're a team. Maybe they make a move for a receiver at some point. I mean, they don't have that position group for them is definitely, Who would you look at there?

Muddled. I mean, why not call the Bengals and see what A.G. Green is available for? I mean, that definitely seems like a reasonable destination. Maybe they don't want to throw that into the mix, but I think that would be a huge boon for them, especially because they can't be exactly the offense they want to with use checkout and everything else. I understand he's a fullback, but this is a team that prides itself and really bases its offense on that 21 personnel stuff on being a little bit more unpredictable, everything

else. So they were going to have to find solutions they wouldn't have, they wouldn't have, they wouldn't have to if they were at full strength. So maybe they say, you know, if we're revamping this a little bit, why not try to revamp it with AJ Green? So I'll be curious to see what they look like by the end of the season, but they look extremely well coached on offense and defense. It's been phenomenal. I mean, it's been absolutely phenomenal. I'm so impressed at what Sal and Shannon had been able to do so far this season. Another coach who's done a great, great job in not the best of circumstances this year is Ron Rivera. The Carolina Panthers are three and oh in Cam Newton's absence. Kyle Allen looks like a pretty decent quarterback. And I did not see this coming, man. I wrote about

Cam when he went down. I thought that the best case scenario for them was that he, they go two and one when he was resting. He comes back after the buy and they're still in contention. They have gone three and And I don't think there's any reason they have to rush Cam Newton back right now. I still think Cam Newton is a better quarterback when healthy than Kyle Allen. I don't think that's even up for debate. But right now, this team has more than enough to win in its current iteration. Yeah, you said it. I mean, Kyle Allen's doing enough to win right now.

The important thing is that Cam Newton needs to be, what, 85% healthy to be a better quarterback than Kyle Allen. It's hard to put a percentage on it. And when you have an injury like Cam Newton had, and there's a lot of weirdness around it. Again, I've said this a million times, but we live in a post- Andrew Luck world where if you screw up a franchise quarterback's injury, bad, bad things happen,

and, you know, multiple years can be wrecked, and then somebody retires, right? That's what happened with Andrew Luck or could happen with Cam Newton. So give him another three weeks if he needs it. I mean, if, listen, if Cam Newton is not going to get healthy this year, just shut him down.

Like, it's not, I'd rather have that and Cam Newton return to the NFL fully healthy next year, then Cam Newton at 65% for the rest of his career. So I think that it is a luxury that very few teams have, which is they've got a guy right now where their franchise quarterback can sit for three, four, five weeks, and everything will be generally fine. I totally agree with you. I mean, the defense I love, they had a really nice game today against Winston, who didn't

necessarily help himself out. So we'll talk about that a little bit later. But the defense has been really good all year. I think that they have a ton of talent on that side of the ball. Kikley is just such a, I've talked about this before on shows previously this season. Watching him is just such a delight. I mean, he had one interception today, and then he caused another pretty much by how deep he dropped that actually pushed Winston to throw the ball further outside on the ball that Bradbury

picked. It was the first interception of the game. Just little stuff like that. And when you combine his ability to really take control in the middle with how much sheer talent they have up front right out, even without K-Wan short, that defense is really special to watch. And then the offense, McCaffrey did not have a good game today,

but the receivers played decent. You know, there were a couple drop balls. Jerry's Wright had a couple terrible drops. One, that was on the best throw I've seen Allen make as a pro, down the right sideline, I think it was a third and 12. He just dropped the ball in between the corner

and the safety and right, put it on the ground. But the fact that those throws were even being attempted today was kind of a new wrinkle for this Carolina team with Josh Allen in the fold. Because they've really been ball control, keep the throws short, don't ask him to do a whole lot. But today he was really pushing the ball down field. And it was encouraging because even to think that that's on the table for your offense is a good

sign moving forward. And I'm not sure how it's going to work against teams that aren't past funnels like the Bucks, but I do think him showing that aggressiveness is a very good sign. This is a good team. I thought they'd be good coming in. They're four and two now. And they really have no signs of slowing down, even with Kyle Allen a quarterback. We're going to make fun of James Winston later.

right. Yes, absolutely we are. Don't worry about that. That's coming. Just want to make sure. Carolina plays the 49ers next week, which is a great test. Then they play the Titans,

who we will also get to, and then the Packers. So it's not the easiest run. I think we'll learn a lot about them, but I am definitely impressive with what they've shown so far. All right. This one seems a little counterintuitive

because they're quarterback through three interceptions and they lost. But my last stock up I have for today is actually the Browns offense. they played okay today. They played much better. You know, the three picks, you know, one of them,

Beckham got picked off when Baker was trying to throw a slant. Another was tipped in the end zone. This was stuff that did not go their way. But for the most part, they looked much more in rhythm. Baker looked significantly more comfortable, getting the ball out on time. Even though they lost today, I think this was, in a way, a win for the Browns offense.

Baker Mayfield has 11 interceptions. Yes, he does. The last time that happened for a Browns quarterback was 1984 from a guy named Paul McDonald. I, and you as well, we both get paid to know about football. I've never heard of Paul McDonald. I certainly have not. Sorry to this man. I do not know who that is.

So obviously there's some big problems here. I saw some interesting splits about how Baker is better when he has over 2.5 seconds to throw all that. And obviously the line has been a problem. but I guess I'm in your camp. Just as far as this was a better day than we've seen out of Cleveland, I don't think the problems are fixed. They lost. The officiating was obviously Baker went off on the officials after the game,

so it was pretty bad. I agree with him. But I think generally, there's still a lot of things to fix right there. The Ravens are four and two. I still think that the Browns have a chance to win this division, but I'm going to need to see a little more on both sides of the ball. Yeah. I mean, do you definitely want to see a little bit of the ball?

a little bit more, but I think that things are trending in the right direction. Over the first month of the season, over the first five games, they were a disaster. And I'm not putting that lightly. They were worse than every single offense in the NFL, except for the Redskins, the dolphins and the Jets. They were not that today. They looked like a real NFL offense today. And again, there are moments, it's inconsistent, it's uneven.

The turnovers are, they have to be fixed. Baker was a little bit off on something. The throw in the end zone that was picked a cow away and stuff like that. It's just an inch here. it's an inch there. The fact that they actually looked functional today, that's what stuck out to me. And I think that it really bodes well for just this team competing

offensively moving forward after what we saw over the first month. Yeah. I mean, I guess I agree with you. I was not on board with the awarding of the stock up, but I guess it's stockup Cleveland Browns. Stock up the Cleveland Browns' offense looking decent.

Let's be clear about that. The Brown stock up. The Browns stock up. I'm going to send this to the the stock up league office. They're going to review it. All right, before we move on, let's take a quick break. Hiring can be a slow process.

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Dallas Cowboys, man. I just, we can talk about the offense, which struggled again. The passing offense, just having a hard time. The thing that stuck out to me, though, was the fact that Sam Darnold did whatever the hell he wanted to in this game. I mean, the Cowboys defense was supposed to be pretty good this year. And for Donald to come in and just look so, so good, it was shocking.

Even if we thought the Cowboys' offense had some issues that might continue into this game, which neither of us did, I still thought that the defense would put up more of a fight than they did against the Jets, who couldn't do anything earlier in the season, even with Donald on the bench. We could accuse sometimes of overlooking a win when we want to really make fun of a team. So I want to preface this by saying that Sam Darnet looked great. Adam Gay said a game. He looks awesome. I had a game plan that we hadn't seen out of him before.

There were a lot of individual performances. Jamal Adams was one that I was hugely impressed by. He's amazing. So let's get that out of the way and just start making fun of the Cowboys for a little bit. So Calvin Watkins tweeted Jerry Jones looked shaken. And he refused after the game Jerry Jones to go into sort of hypotheticals about what next year could look like or or sort of, you know, whether or not Garrett's job is on the line. How do you go to New York against a team,

as I said, it was averaging 3.1 yards per play, 3.16 yards per play, and just lay an egg, and everything is fine to keep your job. I mean, I just think that you have to be put firmly on the hot seat. I'm not saying you should be fired after this game. I'm not saying he should be fired after the season because of this game. I'm just saying that if you're the Cowboys right now,

you can't act like there's just no, option that Jerry Jones is not your coach next year. His contract is up. You know, Will Kane had a great tweet, I thought. He said the guy who fired Tom Landry day one, Jerry Jones, is sticking with Jason Garrett for a decade now. And that's really interesting to me. And I'm not sure why they're doing it. I think that if they, you know, if Garrett doesn't turn this around and go 12 and 4, I think you have to ask real, real questions. It's just so strange. Warren Sharp tweeted out that basically from week 7 through 16, the Cowboys have the toughest schedule in the NFL. This was the win they had to have, and they didn't get it.

I feel like sometimes, I am definitely guilty of this. We can get caught up in schematics, and we can get caught up in, well, their offense is doing this, and they brought in this play caller, and they're doing, you know, they're running this scheme and da-da-da-da-da. And maybe this will kind of unleash this person. head coaches create culture. And head coaches create the feeling in your building. And that stuff is real sometimes. And even if there was a couple of moments early on where Kellan Moore is doing some things differently.

And I think that the Cowboys didn't have a Murray Cooper for most of this game. Tyron Smith was hurt. Their offensive line did not play well with a couple of battles in games. Yeah, but they might not have Cooper for a while. He was in quote significant pain with that quad injury. All of that stuff, you know, a side. I think that there is a chance that even with a little bit of life into that offense based on some new schematic stuff they were doing everything else,

Jason Garrett is still the head coach there. And if there is malaise that has set in there in any way, that malaise is not going to change because Kellan Moore is running a couple different plays. And I feel like we're starting to see that set in. And I don't know. I haven't been in that locker room since last season. It seemed like a place that wasn't necessarily miserable. you can kind of tell sometimes.

But I do agree in the sense that it's been a decade. And maybe something has said in there where we need something of a change. And Cowboys fans, I'm sure, you know, were not thrilled late last season when they went on that run and saved Garrett's job. And I'm sure some of them, while watching what was going on early in the season, we're not thrilled that this could mean another season of Jason Garrett. But right now, it feels like we're on a collision course with some sort of change in Dallas if this continues.

Yeah, everybody got mad at me last year when I joked. and it was 25% of a joke actually when I said, are you guys happy that Amari Cooper is bawling out and saving everybody's job? I mean, it was great and they won a playoff game and all this stuff.

But at the end of the day, it got Jason Garrett back. It got us to a point where Jerry Jones is not even thinking about firing Jason Garrett. So I think that while the Cooper trade, I guess you do it again because there's some value questions there.

Let's not go into the Cooper trade again. But what I'm saying is that was a setback just as far as the organizational structure of the team. And I think that there's some real questions now about where the Cowboys go from here. Yeah. And I thought that they had turned the corner a little bit in terms of the offense with more. And they haven't. And I have to go back and watch it, to be honest with you. You know, last week, it wasn't, nothing stuck out to me.

I was like, oh, man, this is a huge problem. I thought they got down early. They couldn't really lean on play action, everything else. They clearly didn't use that kind of stuff enough against New Orleans, just period. I watched the game today, but nothing jumped out. I'd have to go back and watch it again to be like, what is actually wrong with the Cowboys' offense. But there's clearly something going on. So first of all, there was no urgency with the clock in the fourth quarter.

None. It was unbelievable. Then it was some weird play calls, some sort of, you know, running on second and 10, that sort of thing. I mean, I just... That kind of stuff is frustrating. Yeah. That started like... I know you paid Zeke and all this stuff, but come on.

Let's just win the game. game here. Let's just get out of here and win the game. So I'm not trying to deflect blame from Jason from telling more, but I do think that kind of stuff is often the decree of a head coach. It's we need to run the ball more. We need to do this. We can do that. And I feel like that was something I was concerned about coming in is how much influence would Jason Garrett have over all this. And he may still have a decent amount. Again, it's hard to say. We're not there. We don't know what those conversations sound like. But this team does not look how I thought they would look offensively after the first couple weeks. Yeah, I'm with you. It's the NFC East is not the division we thought it was. Well, let's stick in the NFC East with our next stock down. The Eagles secondary and that Eagles pass defense in general.

Man, we said last week that the Jets were a good team to play when you really needed to get back on track. It feels like if you want to get your passing game back on track, the team you want to play right now is Philadelphia. I mean, Stefan Diggs and Kirk Cousins just lighting it up. Yeah. So this was a tough one for me. this was the Alonzo morning gift for me because I had the Eagles I had the Eagles in the Super Bowl

but I also had the Vikings win in the division and so I didn't know what result I wanted from my own predictions and for my own narratives and this is sort of how we view these games is just how does this protect our own narratives and obviously it's not

we're actually sitting there rooting but that's just sort of how we view things and from my perspective I think this was okay I think that the Eagles obviously have some problems. They are not a Super Bowl favorite, in my opinion. If we were to sort of do those predictions over,

I would not have them in the Super Bowl. I'd have either the Niners, the Saints, the Packers, somebody like that. But, you know, look, these kind of things happen. This is what we're talking about. Like two weeks ago, Kirk Cousins was the guy who was going to get, you know, kicked off the team. We're going to draft a quarterback.

He was getting run out of town. We're going to draft a quarterback in the first round, all this stuff. And now he looks fine. He had an extremely long quote about how he wants to be a CEO quarterback that I didn't really understand. Did you see it? I didn't know. I don't I tried to read. I actually like copy and paste. I'm like, I'm going to read this quote and I just didn't really get it. So I'm just going to allude to it and just sort of move on. These narratives

just sort of write them right over themselves week after week. And you know, I just I'm not sure what I learned. I didn't already know the Eagles have real problems in their secondary. They have slow cornerbacks. You tweeted they needed Jalen Ramsey in the worst way. Unfortunately, I don't think that's going to happen for them. And even if they did, it would be a king. It would be a king's ransom.

And I don't know if, if Howie wants to do that. So I don't know, I don't know what the Eagles do. I don't know either because the secondary is a real problem. I mean, Rasul Douglas just got picked on today. It wasn't all his fault. You know, on the second,

I can't remember which touchdown it was. One of the Diggs touchdowns, McLeod just bit so hard on that deep overroute, the teams run when they used play action and digs just ran right by Douglas, who had no help over the top, little things like that. But that was the fun part of watching this passing offense today is it wasn't just blown coverages by one guy. It was everything really working in concert. And them using those play action fakes and really taking the top off the defense, Kirk Cousins can look really, really good. I mean, there are moments where you watch him throw

a football and it's just, wow, you just kind of sit there and kind of get taken aback by how pretty it looks and how he's able to place throws down the field. And this is one of those games. I think that's why those struggles early in the season were so disheartening if you're a Vikings fan because the way he played last season, he wasn't terrible. You know, it's a lot of empty calories, but there are still moments where you kind of say, all right, I can work with this. And that was, this was one of those games where you watch what happened. You watch how he's getting the ball down the field. You watch what those two receivers can do.

And you're like, okay, this works for me. And the run pass balance was actually pretty good. they were winning the game by a lot. And the fact that they only threw on the ball 35 times. There was only 30 running back carries compared to 29 attempts for Cousins. I think that's the kind of thing you'd like to see. They want to run the ball, but I don't think they've been doing it a little bit too much in terms of how they're leaning on certain parts of their offense. So I was very impressed by pretty much everything I saw from them, even if it was against an Eagle secondary that's been pretty bad all season.

Listen, can you get a better quarterback than Kirk Cousins for less money than the $29 million? He counts against the cap this year. Absolutely. But that's not really what you're paying for. You're paying for certainty. And I think if you can get last year's version of Kirk Cousins and an elite team around him, you can do some nice things. We hadn't seen that thus far this year. This was kind of classic Kirk.

And I know that people might laugh at that. But if Kirk plays like this and the Vikings are the team we think they can be, then yes, they can be kind of in the B-plus range of the NFC, win a playoff game, you know, with some luck, win two playoff games, that sort of team as currently built. Kirk Cousins in Washington succeeded in large part because of what was around him. He had a very quarterback-friendly scheme with Jake Gruden, who we both agree is a really good offensive play caller.

He had excellent receiving talent. There was a stretch there where it was Jordan Reed and Deshaun Jackson, Pierre Garsohn, James and Crowder was there. I was like, all right. And Chris Thompson was there. the receiving backman, they're a lot of past catching talent there. Guess what?

If this scheme is running correctly and they're really leaning on those play action throws, which they did in Washington, it can be a quarterback-frontly scheme. And he has really good receiving talent. There are elements in that offense that we've seen Kirk Cousin succeed within the past. And if those elements are going to creep up here again,

then there's no reason this offense can't be decent. The offensive line still has a lot of problems, but they have more than enough here to succeed with Cousins if he's right. And he certainly looked right today. Did today change your mind on long-term NFC North Outlook? Not especially.

I still think that Green Bay is the best team. Yeah, me too. I'm just trying to pump up in preseason pick. Hey, the Vikings look great today. And I think that the offense being this good, even having this ceiling, says a lot about their long-term outlook. I think they definitely have a shot

that I did not believe in a couple weeks ago. So we'll see. I think Green Bay is the best team. I think the Detroit's actually pretty good, but this was a big week for the Vikings in terms of, okay, what can this team be when everything is working together? And the NFC, by the way, is kind of top heavy. You know, you have the Niners and the Seahawks, you have the Packers, the Saints, but there's a real sort of core of, I wouldn't say mediocrity, but there's a lot of teams we just don't know about.

And I wouldn't be surprised that the Vikings kind of climbed to the top of that particular group. Yeah, whether it's Dallas, Philadelphia, Chicago, Carolina, the Rams, all those teams. Yeah, that makes sense. All right, let's get to one team in that kind of tier, and that is the Los Angeles Rams, which is our last stock down. Jared Gough looked terrible today, man. He sure did. Awful, awful day. I was kind of defending him last week against Seattle because I thought he had some really nice moments, but he's been so uneven this year. I just don't know what to say about him. I feel like he's kind of in that middle tier of quarterbacks where we talk about, maybe this week he looks great, maybe this week he looks bad. The problem is,

he has a $36 million cap at next year. Yeah. It's shades of John Wall where the deal is not kicked in and we're already wondering if they should have signed the deal. That's new in the NFL. So from my perspective,

I think it's very strange. I think that Jared Gough is lucky to have Blake Bortles as his backup because if he had, say, let me ask you a question. If Ryan Tannahill was the Rams backup, does he play today? Does Ryan Tano play in the fourth quarter today?

I'm always curious what coaches believe in that situation if they think their quarterback should come out in those moments. I think there are some coaches that want to keep the guy in just because they don't want to deal with it. Maybe McVeigh is just one of those people, no matter who the backup is. So let me be clear on this. I don't believe that long-term, you know,

Ryan Tanna would ever start over, Jared Gough or anything like that, but I'm just saying that Jared Gough has some really, really bad games to the point that I think if there was a change of page, quarterback who is more competent than say Blake Bortles, he might make an appearance over the course of the season. I don't think that's going to happen

with Bortals. I think Bortle's a long-term McVeigh project. I just think that there's a lot of baggage that goes on there. So I don't think that that would ever happen. But I think if there was more

of a veteran, better player than Blake Bortles, you might view that whole thing differently. See, I just think that with the contract and with the investment they've made in him from both an emotional and financial

perspective, there's no way you can do that. Because it's not like Marcus Mariotta today. It's where you can take Marcus Marriota out because he's in the last year of his deal. You traded for Ryan Tannahill. No one blinks when Marioita comes out. If you were to yank the quarterback, you just made the highest paid quarterback in the NFL. I'm just not sure that's even an option.

And maybe that's the problem. It's the fact that we're even talking about him deserving to get pulled. And we're talking about the guy who just made, what was it, $110 million? dollars guaranteed. I mean, it's kind of brutal. I don't, I'm not saying that the contract is a mistake. I'm not saying that this is going downhill for Jared golf and the Rams. I'm just saying that right now, it's gone about as poorly as you could possibly want it to after giving him that contract. I believe two things. I believe it's too early to say whether the contract was a mistake. I also believe at the end of this season, you and I will both be saying the contract was a mistake.

All right. Speaking of mistakes, let's get to the challenge flags for this week. I want to continue on the Ryan Tannanhill Marcus Mariotta conversation. Mariota was 7 of 18 for 63 yards today. I don't, what else is there to say?

I just want to say that I just want to just very quickly address the fact, I've had extremely bad cough. And what just happened there was I started to cough and then I started to laugh at the same time. And it kind of came out in the same way that, like, their careers have. Like, it was the perfect, like, I wasn't just laughing.

I was coughing at the same. It was like the Joker a little bit. And that is sort of the perfect encapsulation of a 2015 quarterback nugget is just the cough laugh. This is over, right? In both places? And we'll talk about Tampa Bay, but in Tennessee, this is over. It seems like it. it seems like it.

I mean, I don't know. Give me a reason that Ryan Tannanhill should not be the starter moving forward in Tennessee or at least have a shot to prove he is the right guy. First of all, Ryan Tana Hill. What reason is there for Marcus?

He did not exactly like Dan Marino once he was in. He had a bad, bad, bad pick the end of the game. He took some weird sacks. I'm, you know, I tweeted this. I think the Titans quarterback position.

It's becoming a bit like Batman where everyone just kind of assumes the role and they just do the same stuff. Like the Titans, you could put Tom, Brady in a Titans uniform, put him behind center. And all of a sudden, Tom Brady's rating is like a 72. And every three weeks, he beats the best team in the NFL.

One week, you know, one week out of the month, he has a 45 rating. He takes weird sacks on third down all the time. He's sort of mobile, but not. Like, it's the whole thing. And also for some reason, even though he has mobility, his coaching staff has wanted him to run. Like every single Titans quarterback is the same. I don't understand it. It just seems like there's no reason to see what Ryan Tannahill is.

I don't think either of them is the long-term answer, but I also think that we've probably seen enough of Marcus Mariotta as the starting quarterback for the Titans. What would you say? I strangely still believe. I think I'm an idiot. You strangely still believe in Marcus Mariotta? I strangely still believe in Marks Marietta's ability to be the quarterback for the Tennessee

Titans. I believe in his ability to be an NFL quarterback. I do not think that is going to be in Tennessee. I would be curious to see what he'd look like. like in different circumstances. Let's handicap this. What is the percentage chance that Marcus Mario does back

with the Titans next year in your estimation? I would say even 50. Oh, I think it's way less than that. Okay. I just think that there's, first of all,

there's a lot of good sentiment towards him to do a maybe a one or two year deal if you can't get anybody else in the draft. And then I also, I also think that there's still 10 weeks left,

10 games left where he's going to get the benefit of the doubt to start. That's always going to happen with the first round pick a guy like that. I mean, they love him as a person there. I mean, he's like one of the best people in the history of football. Like, that's not an exaggeration. That's a good point. And they're going to give him the benefit of the doubt. Like, I'm sure Ryan Tanhill is a good guy. I met Ryan Tanahill. He seems like a decent guy. But he hasn't been there for four years. He hasn't, you know, he's not like the most popular guy with, with children in the entire Tennessee area. Okay. So that's just not. I just think that we've talked a lot about how this sort of franchise quarterback stuff is. part of it is emotional. That's why Eli Manning got so many years

after he stopped being elite is everybody really liked Eli Manning and there's a lot of sentimentality towards there. I'm not comparing those two because obviously Eli won two Super Bowls. What I am saying is that... That's a good comparison. What I am saying is... It's the right idea. What I am saying is that, you know, if you're a good guy and you've been there for a while, you will get every chance

to come back. You're probably right. And maybe it is a one year kind of just Band-Aid deal. They try to figure this out as they move forward. I just think that there is no chance he succeeds there. That offensive infrastructure is terrible. None of them, none of what they're doing offensively seems to make sense to me. I would like to see him somewhere else, but you're probably right. There's a chance he's back there. I'm sorry, it's got a great idea. What if we

switched Marioita and Winston? I would love to see that. I would love to see Marcus Mario to play with Mike Evans and Chris Godwin. And Bruce and Bruce Ariens. And Bruce Ariens. Yeah. That would be an interesting experiment. Let's do this. God, James Winston would be such a disaster in Tennessee. I don't care about that. I don't care about that. I just think it would be really fun if they got traded for each other and they wouldn't have to be traded, right? No, they still have their fifth year option, right? No, this is it. This is it. Okay. So they both signed in the other's place and they both play for the coaching staff that they currently play under and we see what happens. That's essentially what, I mean, they didn't swap teams, but it's more or less

what happened with Sue and Gerald McCoy. And they were picked one after the other. they're in the same draft. Wow. Sue just assumed Gerald McCoy's role in Tampa Bay. Maybe that's what the Bucks front office is doing. Let's make this happen. I would love that.

Let's start a fake rumor this week. So Winston, just kind of staying on the same topic, just a disaster game. I mean, this is just the type of game where you're going to have several of these from him a season. And he had some really nice moments earlier in the year.

That offense looked like it was actually functioning. And today was just utterly terrible. I mean, just inexplicable decisions. Absolutely no ball security whatsoever. On top of the interceptions, he's putting the ball on the ground left and right. There was one play where they got it back on the very next play, he fumbled again. It's, I don't even know what to say anymore at this point. It's his lack of regard for holding onto the ball, whether it's throwing it to players on his team or just holding onto it, period.

I just cannot remember a quarterback not giving a shit the way that he does. It is truly Cutler-esque. It's just unbelievable to watch. Greg Alman asked, he's a Bucks writer. He asked James Winston, was this the worst game of your career? Winston said, quote, oh, no, I've had a lot of bad games.

But hopefully, keeps going, keeps going. But hopefully I play more good games. That's great. I wish I had that kind of optimism, you know? God. Godwin and Evans are so good. and just to watch this team with Winston just throwing it all away

and the offensive line played poorly today they had some backups in the game, all of that stuff. But even with that in mind, I cannot remember a quarterback just giving the ball away to the degree that he did today. It was really something to behold.

Yeah, it's not what you want. All right, what's yours? I mean, I got like 20 candidates for this. Matt Ryan. Yeah, there's a lot. We've already done them twice this year, though. That's the problem.

the step. Matt Ryan basically was the first player to put up the numbers he put up on Sunday and lose a game. So, congrats to the Falcons. The Falcons defense is embarrassing. I mean, just embarrassing. How can you have your

offensive, your head coach, be your defensive coordinator and get this much worse? Yeah, well, also, there's a little matter of they forgot who David Johnson was and left him open by about 30 yards. And just so many times where they just look like they're completely lost. I mean, to give what you did to the Texans last week and then come back and do this.

Jesus. I mean, it's beyond explanation at this point. Okay, so I want to praise the dolphins for looking around the landscape of the NFL, finding out that there's a team that was considered perhaps as bad as them, and then doing everything you could to out-tank that team. So the Dolphins decide on Sunday morning to sit All-Pro cornerback Xavier and Howard who practiced all week.

He's just not going to play due to quote-unquote knee-sornness. That's where we're at. That's where we're at with Xavier Howard. So he sits. Josh Rosen has a nightmare game. Ryan Fitzpatrick comes in. Almost ties the game. Brian Flores goes for two.

And he calls, I'm not even sure we'd call it. He calls perhaps. It's like that little picket fence play where you're running that screen with emotion, Except it's so easy to tell you're doing it now. Extremely designed to fail. That was the 2019 dolphins of play calls. I guess it was...

As Ben Glickman deemed it today, as we were talking about the games, he called it the two-point aversion, which I thought was fantastic. It was just so funny to me. A perfect situation for Ryan Fitzpatrick, who gets to prove he still belongs to the league with his little mini drives there.

He still maintains the first overall pick. Little mini drives. The bar is so... low for the dolphins. Yeah, but the dolphins keep the first overall pick. Fitz shows he belongs. He can go play for so like I think his destiny is he stays

one more year. He blocks Tua for like three more games. And then three games to start the season next year in September. He did get a two year deal. Yeah. And then 2021 he goes to Cincinnati where he blocks Trevor Lawrence for three games. And that's it.

That's it. The only thing I care about in regard to the dolphins and the Redskins at this point is what happens to Josh Rosen and is he salvageable? What can he be gotten for this offseason? And two, we must save Terry McLaurin. Yeah. Terry McClure is legitimately great player. I'm getting worried about that.

I'm getting worried. He's a legitimately great player. I'm very worried. The guy is so good. He runs a four three and that route, I understand it was against a backup corner, but that dude just knows how to get open. He's a nasty route runner to be as athletically gifted as he is and have as much nuance at the position as he does.

does for a rookie. It's just a rare combination. And I do not want to watch his career toil away in Washington. We must do something to help that guy. I will say this. I'm glad he went to Ohio State because he might end up being an Alan Robinson type where he just plays for just some awful quarterbacks as pro career for his entire life. Makes me so sad. This could be bad. But the thing is, the funny part is his college quarterback is on his team. Oh, yeah. So it's the, it's the same guy. It's just in one situation it worked out very well. In another situation, it might not work out at all. Case Keenham, by the way, is the

starter going forward. That's fine with me. Their passing offenses look decent in moments with Case Keenum. I don't have as much faith in it now that Jay Gruden is not calling the plays. But with Keenom and Gruden, it was like, okay, this isn't great, but it's not the worst thing I've ever watched. I have much

less faith in it now with the current coaching staff. But I do think Case Keenom is the best NFL quarterback on that roster. I agree. I mean, I would to see Haskins at some point. Yeah, there's no reason Haskins shouldn't play. But I do think if you're trying to be the best team possible, Case Keenham is the best quarterback.

If you're trying to be the best organization possible for 10 years, Haskin should be getting his chance. And it speaks to just the utter dysfunction there. We've talked about this. They're going all in on 2019. Yeah, as you should, if you're the Redskins. You got to make sure you get that number two pick. All right.

Tomorrow's headlines, what you got? Jeez, I think there's going to be a lot of Cowboys Panic. A lot of Cowboys and Rams Panic is where I'm going. Both of those teams. I think that I will say I want to tread lightly on this. I think those are two very different media markets. I think that one of those teams went to the Super Bowl last year

and, you know, obviously there's some, there was some huge expectations there this year, but you know, it's been nine months since they proved they belonged. Jason Garrett has really never proved he's belonged. He's over, he's well over 500 for his career, really only

because he's only had, what, three, four seasons where he just won a lot. And, you know, congrats to him on doing that. But it's not like he's been a consistently great coach. And I think that you go up to New York in a season where your roster is pretty good, man. Your roster is really good. Brian Curtis keeps talking about this. That roster is stacked. And there's no excuse.

They have a ton of talent. There's no excuse for going into New York and losing that game. And it's, listen, man, I'm usually last. to panic on these things. If I was in Dallas right now, I'd be hitting the panic button. Yeah, I would too. I think this is the game.

For the last two weeks, I was not willing to go there. I thought, again, the offense was uneven, but there's still some moments that were like, okay, I can work with this. But with what they look like today

on both sides of the ball, I think it's time to start getting worried. I believe they have enough talent to come out of this on the other side. We've seen that. We've seen what the offense can do when it's clicking this year, but I'm starting to get a little bit concerned.

Yeah, I think I'm, I'm real concerned. Yeah. I don't know what real concern means. I mean, they're still, aren't they tied for the lead in the division or one game back?

Yeah, but I mean, that's, I don't know. I mean, like, sneaking in, first of all,

first of all, I just want to say this. If they play like they played today, for the rest of the season, they're going to win a game. They were awful today. Like, I mean,

that was really bad. So, like, that's my level of concern. It's like, if they give. I think Smith comes back, everything.

I think, sure, but like, I'm concerned, but I'm not full-blown. The Amar Cooper report was not encouraging from what I read. And, you know, they might be without him for a couple weeks.

So if he was really the engine of their offense, that's a problem. So who do they play over the next little stretch here? They have a really hard schedule. They play the, they play the Eagles next week. Geez. Well,

I'm sure everyone will approach that game. That's on Sunday night, right? It's on Sunday night. I'm sure everyone would be super chill about that game. In Dallas. They have the Eagles and then they have a buy. So I cannot wait. Then they have Danny Dimes.

That's an L. So that's a loss. Yep. A Danny Dimes inspired loss. And then they host the Vikings on another Sunday night. They have three straight primetime games. The life of the Dallas Cowboys. All right.

That's all we got, guys. We'll be back on Thursday, previewing week seven. Until then, as always, thank you so much for listening to the Ringer NFL show on the Ringer podcast network. We'll talk to you later.