The Ringer NFL Show - Super Bowl LIX Recap

Episode Date: February 10, 2025

Sheil, Steven, and Diante emerge from the green confetti and champagne to share their instant reactions to the Philadelphia Eagles dominating win over the Kansas City Chiefs in Super Bowl LIX, and discuss the moves each team should make going into the offseason. The Ringer is committed to responsible gaming. Please visit www.rg-help.com to learn more about the resources and helplines available. Hosts: Sheil Kapadia, Steven Ruiz, and Diante Lee Producer: Chris Sutton Production Supervision: Conor Nevins and Arjuna Ramgopal Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

What's up everybody? Chris Vernon here and welcome to a new season of the NBA and the mismatch. And huge welcome as well to my new co-host, Dave Jacoby. I can't wait to link with you twice a week every Tuesday and Friday right here on the mismatch to break down everything that's happening in the league. Who's playing well, who we loved, who we loathed, trade rumors, team dysfunction. We've got you covered right here. So follow us, subscribe, and hit us with those five-star ratings on Spotify or wherever you get you. your podcast. And also don't forget to follow us on social media. That's at Ringer NBA and check out the full mismatch episodes with the two handsomest podcasters in the history of podcasting right in

the Ringer NBA YouTube channel. Welcome to the Ringer NFL show. One final Sunday post game pod. I'm Sheila Kapati here with Deonté Lee and Stephen Ruiz. We are sitting in a random announcer's booth at the Caesar Superdome looking down on. on the field, confetti on the field, people taking photos on the field after the Eagles decisive, surprising, unprecedented, dare I say, 40-22 victory over the Kansas City Chiefs in Super Bowl, 59 Eagles, just from start to finish, really dominated this football game. We're going to talk about every aspect of it. I just spent an hour in the Eagles locker room, getting beer sprayed at me and cigar smoke.

It's like, no, those days are over where my clothes are supposed to smell. like this. Deontay, we're going to get into all of it tonight. 1,000% I just want to say before we even get to any analysis, we always remark on how strong your welcomes are for every show. That was a Lombardi level welcome. I got chills. I got chills. There was a night of getting chills at the Super Bowl between the Kendrick Lamar performance, but I think you may have just topped them. There you go. You know, I got to save the best for lash. I got to bring the energy for the live pot. Like, it's hard to even know where to begin. You know, we're talking just for seconds before this.

Where do we start? And let's talk about how and why. the Eagles won this game, Deontes? I think you can point to some different things, but like I said, they're up 24-0 at halftime. We're thinking, all right, does Mahomes have a run in him in the second half? Can they get something going? It never happens. It never gets close in the second half. When you look back on this win five, ten years from now, whatever, what's like the thing you're going to remember about why the Eagles won this one? I would say Philadelphia exposed all the things that we just continued to assume would not matter that were issues for Kansas City. throughout the year. Offensive line issues,

their inability to run the football, their inability to push the ball downfield and generate explosive plays. I thought that Philadelphia just put on a clinic in taking away everything that Kansas City wanted to do to win this football game and control the game flow. And by the time you looked up, because they got some great breaks in the first half in terms of turnovers, the game was already out of hand. And we kind of knew once it was a 24 point margin that Philadelphia will probably be able to sit on the ball and win this football game.

Yeah. What about you, Ruiz? It felt like a game that the defense won. Like if you look at Philadelphia's offense, just looking at it from Kansas City's perspective, it was the second best game for Kansas City's defense by success rate in this game. The only one that was better than it was the 17 went over the Chargers back in September. By EPA, it was around an average performance for the Kansas City defense. I thought this game was won not only by the defense, but by special teams. A field position battle that Philadelphia overwhelmingly won.

I thought they won in the third phase. They won in every phase, really. You have to give them credit even on the offensive side because you saw Kansas City was able to take away Sequan Barkley, but it didn't matter because they have so much talent, including Jalen Hertz, who became the most productive runner for the team tonight. And I thought he played a big role in the second half being able to put this game away and never really give Kansas City a chance to recover. Yeah, for me, I'm looking at the defense. I mean, I had a moment, you know, there was a moment. right now, the Eagles locker room was crazy. I mean, it was almost like a baseball locker room where

they're all celebrating in there the entire time. And out of the corner on my eye, who do I see? He was already changed and showered, but one Vic Fangio, you know, he, everybody else is dancing and smoking cigars and drinking and he kind of walks in, takes it all in, walks over to like the Eagles pass rush, which we got to get to that in a second because I didn't see that coming, a performance like that from the Eagles pass rush. But, you know, Jail and Krook. Carter's standing up and I'm thinking, you know, I'm trying to put my reporter hat on. All right. We're going to get a warm embrace or something.

Kind of sticks his hand out. Handshake. Fis pound goes over to Josh Smith. Handshake. Fis pound. Takes it all in. He was out of there. I mean, he was out of that locker room, you know, in a few minutes.

But, man, this guy's career we've talked about where goes back to the McVeigh, that I feel like it still goes back to that ESPN article in 2019, where McVe, uh, Shanahan, LaFloor, all separately say, no, this is the defensive coordinator that like the world doesn't know enough about. This is the guy who's the hardest to go against. And we know he had those years with the Niners and with the Bears. But it was like, oh, that's interesting that this trend offensively that's coming to the league. All the masters of that are pointing to the same guy on defense. And the one thing Fangio had never had was the Super Bowl. He had never won a ring. And so we talked about it, I think, two weeks ago when we first started talking about this game,

what's most interesting? And to me, it was, what is the is Vic Fangio going to be able to cook up against the best quarterback, the best coach quarterback combination we've seen? And they play tight zone coverage. They rush with four. They don't blitz. I thought they were pretty disciplined when Mahomes was trying to create. And he just had nowhere to go with the football. I mean, he was back there looking and there was no one open. And Fangio really put them in a blender. I mean, this is the second worst game in Patrick Mahomes' career when you look at EPA per play. And so this was an Eagles defense that finished. the season first in DVOA.

They were awesome. After that Bucks game early in the season, they really came along. And first 11 possessions of this game, six punts, three turnovers, one touchdown, one turnover on downs. I mean, we really have never seen Deonté Patrick Mahomes look like that. I mean, when you filter out garbage time, this game was only behind the giants getting beat down by the Ravens in 2000 in terms of defensive pass success rate. Wow.

So we were talking about like maybe the best Super Bowl performance. Since 2000, and arguably in Super Bowl history, when you think about the quality of quarterback that you're facing off against, and I want to come back to the point that you started this speech with, which is a pass rush. To me, this year, this defense, the fact that they're able to contend for a championship and win a championship ultimately comes down to the development of their young guys in terms of being past rushers, Nolan Smith being a contributor at different points. Josh Sweat, who we were kind of talking about earlier in the week, like what kind of effect are you going to get out of him? up against Jawan Taylor and moving him around. You saw him flash.

He was available for trade, by the way. He took a pay cut. I mean, there were questions about whether or not he was going to be able to reach the heights that he had in 2022 as a pass rusher because this 2020 season was so disappointing and he was kind of riddled with injuries down the stretch as well. So obviously a big game for him. I mean, everybody in national media kind of identified that the Mike Kellyando versus Milton Williams matchup was going to be a big one.

Not a huge pressure game for Milton Williams, but the ones he got, he made count with two sacks, one of them being a strip sack, that basically punctuated this win for Philadelphia. I mean, everybody up front contributed. I mean, we were sitting next to each other in the press box, and I was tapping you saying, hey, is that moral, Ojima? Yeah. On a pressure? Is that Jalick's hunt with the sack?

Like, wait, why is Nolan Smith not on the field? Brandon Graham's on the field, getting run stops and getting pressures. I mean, everybody contributed up front. And this is exactly what we were talking about in terms of ideal game script for Philadelphia, the fact that they won up front so consistently, so often, and so well meant. they didn't have to blitz. They didn't really even have to use any simulated pressures or anything exotic. They were able to just line up and play.

It was very reminiscent of those San Francisco defenses where you knew who the bodies were and where they were going to be and they were just going to be meaner, bigger, faster, stronger than you on a snap-by-snap basis. And you just saw the discomfort that Mahomes was dealing with. Basically from that first third down where he kind of circles out of the pocket, throws a ball in a double coverage that's an incompletion. Walking off the field there, I just had that feeling of like, man, that play looked a lot like Tampa Bay.

He hasn't been that quarterback in a long, long time, but I'm interested to see how he's going to deal with that pass rush, and we just saw one possession after another in the first half. His eyes kept dropping. He was missing open guys in the middle of the field in the first half. Obviously, you get the turnover trying to do too much pressing. The second one gets hit, isn't able to deliver the ball well. But this is just a stamp for Clint Hurt as a defensive line coach,

for Vic Fangio in terms of defensive scheme, and obviously these players for working hard to develop themselves, because these are all guys who had a lot of questions outside of Jalen Carter about what kind of player they would be this year. Even Fandio himself had a lot of questions coming into this season. Like his tenure with Miami did not end well. The players were not happy.

And Jalen Ramsey. But this was the prototypical Fangio game plan. Like you said, there was nothing really exotic. And I think you said you put it best, they didn't just play zone coverage. They played tight zone coverage. And they played a lot of quarters, which typically you think of

like as a coverage meant to, take away the deep ball. And it's usually described as a soft zone coverage, but there was nothing soft about this coverage. They were clamping down on those underneath routes. It was designed to attack what Kansas City specifically thrives at. And that's been the quick passing game all season long. And you've been saying that throughout the week, throughout the last two weeks, really, this is one of the best teams. It is the best team against short passes. And it played out exactly like that today. So if there was one thing that we could have seen coming with this mismatch between these two units, it was that.

What really surprised me about it, like I could see the tight coverage, I could see Mahomes holding on to the football. This Eagles defense has not been a, like from front to back defense. You know what I mean? Like their pass rush hasn't been good. It hasn't been. I mean, not even close to anything like what we saw on. I don't think we've seen a game like this from them all season long where you say, man,

they just dominated up front. It's been like, oh, Quinion Mitchell is blanketing this guy, Cooper DeGines, and they're giving the pass rush time to get home. And there was some of that in this game. I haven't looked at all the, you know, time to throw numbers and all that. But there were times where they were just winning fast. I mean, Josh Sweat against Joe Tunney and Josh Swett moving to the left side. He never lines up on the left side.

So now he's given Joanne Taylor's, uh, John Taylor trouble there. So six sacks against Patrick Malve, that's the most by any defense against him in his entire career. One off the Super Bowl record, which was seven. That's crazy. It's wild. I would, if we played some game last week where you said outcomes, I would have been like, no. And then the Holmes doesn't take sacks. I mean, he is a master at not taking.

sacks and I just didn't think this Eagles pass rush was at that level where they could dominate the game. But man, they did. And just, again, you look at Fangio's career now and this is kind of the cherry on top and the Eagles are hoping they had themselves that kind of defensive coordinator that just until you want to retire, man, just yeah, like a lifetime contract. Now it doesn't mean it's going to look like this every year. But the rookies they had to contribute in Cooper DeGine with the pick six. Jalick's Hunt, you mentioned it. I mean, before the season, Jelix Hunt was playing what? Safety for Cornell two years ago? It's crazy.

I mean, it was a project. I mean, the expectation listening to you, listening to Philly reporters like Bull Wolf, Zach Berman, not that the guy was going to be on a glorified registrate year, but Vic Fangio and Clint Hurt and the rest of that defensive staff had no expectations that he was going to be a contributor in a playoff game in the season, let alone making a sack in a Super Bowl. Yeah.

But we were joking about it in the press box. I mean, MVP could have gone to Harry Roseman for this game, because this was a game about, one team was more talented. That's what it came down to. Mahomes was the best player in the game, but it didn't look like it, not only because of the pass rush,

because I think if you look at the time to throw numbers, it was his second highest time to throw, at least when you take out garbage time. The other one was the loss to Buffalo. He was looking downfield and he couldn't find anyone open. The coverage was good. The linebackers were good in coverage.

I think that was a concern, especially going up against Kelsey, but any time they threw passes over the middle, whether it was a crossing route or one of those sit routes against zone coverage, they were clamping down on those routes. And I think Mahomes' inaccuracy on some of those throws did help. But this was a total team effort from the defense.

Very impressive performance. I mean, even with the inaccuracy, you know, we're watching some of these snaps from the press box. And you could kind of tell, one of the things that has made Kansas City's offense so unique and so hard to stop is that they can anticipate the holes in your zone better than you can anticipate how to cover them. And you could see Travis Kelsey sitting in his own and the ball is off target.

And I think that both guys are to blame because they're just knocked off their rhythm. You can see them running in motion and trying to get guys out into the flat to try to add stress to this quarter shell, which is going to have less guys underneath. And they still weren't able to peel guys open quickly enough to get the ball out of Patrick Mahomes' hands. And then when we get to what you were saying in terms of quick pressure, now you have a quarterback that's clearly flustered. He feels like he has to extend. He's trying to extend. We really didn't see him be an effective scrambler at all, at least not when the game was still within balance.

Yeah. So that just speaks to how. complete of an effort it was for this defense. They clearly took these two weeks and came out of it feeling like they had an expert level understanding of how to handle this offense, that they weren't going to have to break out of what they wanted to do in order to take it away. I mean, until garbage time, you get those deep throws, one of which is up against backup safeties and Zion McCollum, and, you know, so you don't hold that against the defense.

But for the most part, when they were playing tuned in first three quarters, there was just nothing there for Mahomes, you know? And he does bear some of the brunt of criticism in this game because he kind of made some of their problems worse. But for the most part, if you're looking to get the ball out in the first two and a half seconds, you can turn it on the tape and have fun trying to find me how many options he was really working with there. Yeah, I think it was a combination of the two.

Like you mentioned, you didn't have the easy throws. The pressure was getting to him. Sometimes those time to throw numbers, I think, was because the pressure came quickly and now he's buying time before he actually throws it. But incredible defensive. I mean, the Eagles were what, 28th, 29th in defensive efficiency last year, from one year to the next to then be. first and then, I mean, they faced Joe Burrow, Lamar Jackson, Matthew Stafford.

Like, they faced good quarterbacks this year. Not to say they shut all of them down, but this was kind of their crowning achievement. On this stage, in this spot, they carried the Eagles. There's no doubt about it. They did a phenomenal job. This Eagles defense. Other side of the ball, like you mentioned, Ruiz, the Eagles success rate's not going to look good because Sequin Barkley, I said, you know, in all the previews,

I can't picture a game where Sacon Barkley gets bottled out. Well, 25 for 57, 2.3 yards per carry, and a long of 10 yards. So they had to pass the football. They had to take shots downfield. And Jalen Hertz on the biggest stage sets a season high for EPA per pass play and a season high for success rate. I thought he was in control. I thought he was firing the ball downfield.

It wasn't like the offense had to carry them. But, you know, when you're running games, not doing anything. if the past game looked like it's looked like sometimes this year, this would have been a much closer game. So Jalen Hertz is two best games of the season based on by any statistical metric, NFC championship game last week and the Super Bowl this week. So for all the ups and downs this year, Deonté comes through in a big spot in this game.

Big time. I would say, I mean, in the conference championship game, you know, no disrespect to Washington's defense, but obviously the degree of difficulty isn't nearly as high as preparing to go up against spags in this defense. I think from a game planning perspective, D. Spagnolos sought out to and accomplished the thing that was most important this week, which is loading up the line of scrimmage,

taking away the run game, not allowing for explosive runs, and making this game be won or loss with Jalen Hertz in the pocket in the dropback game. I thought that not only was he under control, not only was he accurate for the most part outside of that interception, had a couple misses to A.J. Brown against the Blitz. I think that we can get to that at a certain point, whether it's in this conversation or down the line. But I thought for the most part,

especially in the second half, when they needed to convert to make sure that they kept Kansas City's offense off the field, you saw what Jalen Hurst does best, and we've talked about it on this show. If the look is there, take it quickly. If the look is not there quickly, put your foot in the ground and scramble. And I thought that all of his scrambles were timely. They were very damaging for Kansas City's defense. I thought that the way that they picked up blitzes tonight was about as good as you can ever

hope for against the Spag's defense. This was a great game for Sequan Barkley in that regard. Even if he wasn't popping big runs, he was picking up a lot of those. blitzes when they were getting into condensed sets. And for Kelham Moore as an offensive coordinator in the passing game, I would say, for all my frustrations, this might have been the best play sheet that he had put together. I thought the crossers to get the ball to his best playmakers were all great to beat man coverage. Obviously, you gave him some opportunities to push a wall downfield to AJ Brown.

You connect on one with the OPI, you get close on some others. You had that big throw earlier in the game. So I think that from a play-by-play perspective, even if the success rate wasn't there, I think that it was good process for the most part and you can walk away from this saying, hey, we gave our quarterback the best opportunity to be successful when you were in obvious passing downs and your quarterback finally for all his inconsistencies

throughout the year in the two biggest moments showed up, protected the ball, avoided pressure for the most part and made the plays that were in front of them and that were available to him. I think his work as a scrambler was definitely the difference, especially in the second quarter. But I would argue that like Steve Spagnolo,

he accomplished what he wanted to accomplish in the game plan, And as you said earlier, sometimes you get dunked on by star receiver. Sometimes you get dunked on by Devante Smith. Sometimes Jalen Hertz takes off on a scramble. Sometimes AJ Brown gets open deep. They shut down Sequin Barkley. We haven't seen anybody really shut him down all season long.

They were getting numbers to the ball every time they ran it. There were maybe one or two, maybe three plays where it looked like Barclay was just like an inch away from breaking one. But outside of that, it wasn't a very threatening run game until they started using Hertz as a, a runner, both in the design run game and the scrambles. But yeah, his two best performances. Like you said, I thought the Washington performance was a little bit better. I do think, like, the Eagles' defensive performance did kind of inflate the Eagles' offense. Like, they scored 40 points, but this wasn't like one of their most dominant performances of the season.

So, yeah, he did what he had to do. And that's been the case for the last couple of weeks. I feel like that's all he has to do with this setup. And to his credit, he was making the deep vertical throws that he had to make it look like 2022 for these last two games. And that's really all Philadelphia needed. That was the missing piece that they hadn't really had all season. They finally discovered it just in a matter of time. I think we have a good idea of who Jalen Hertz is as a quarterback now.

Like strengths, weakness. I would say almost as much as any quarterback in the NFL, the strengths and the weaknesses are just very clearly defined. And so when you look at a good game, it's are the strengths accentuated and are the weakness? is hidden and massed and not leading to front. And that was this game. I mean, he throws a beautiful deep ball. You know, he is not, when he's ready to cut it loose, those go balls down the sideline, he hit Jahan Dotson for a, you know, 27-yard or early in this game.

He hit A.J. Brown on the back shoulder for 22 yards. The post, I think it was to Devante Smith for the 46. That was his best ball of the night, Mike. That was his best ball of the night in a big spot there. And so when he's able to hit those, it's like, all right. You can win, obviously. We just saw it. When he's using his legs, you mentioned it, Deonti, 16-yard scramble, 14-yard scramble, 17-yard scramble. Those were their three biggest runs of the entire game. We're three scrambles by Jalen Hertz there. He had a second reaction played to Saquan Barkley for 22-42 yards. So overall, you look at it, 17 for 22, 22, 22-21 yards, two touchdowns, one interception, two sacks for 11 yards, which has been a big thing for them, taking sacks this year. So it only lose 11 yards on Max, that's a good thing. And then his legs, you can't, you know, discount it.

It's like he has the plays. It really, I think Russell Wilson is probably still the best comp, I think, when you just look at it stylistically. And can you win with this guy? That is the guy here reminds me up where he can create explosive plays downfield. For the most part, he's not going to turn the football over. And he's used more in the design run game than Russell Wilson really ever was. And then you add the scrambles on top of that.

And again, with this infrastructure, with the offensive line, with these wide receivers, with the running back, you're going to get favorable looks when you have Sequin Parkley. I mean, that's why it all fits together. So it's so funny. I mean, there were times this year. I really feel like I lived AJ Brown's life with this Eagles team, you know, where I'm going, you can't win with that. I don't know how you can win with this past game.

I'm giving out 400 stats. There's never been a team with a passing game that's looked like this that's gone. And then they get to the NFC championship. There's never been a T. And then they get to the Super Bowl. And now they're Super Bowl champs and Jalen Hirsch, which is smoking a cigar looking cool in the Eagles locker room and now no one can take it away from him

no one can say anything about him he is good enough to win a Super Bowl we just saw it. One thousand percent not only good enough to win a Super Bowl he's Super Bowl MVP today and obviously there were a lot of people who had to argument for being most impactful on the field but I think that narratively it almost

fits for him because he was able to rise to the occasion in the biggest games of the year. This was huge to me for Hertz and our understanding of them and just how how we talk about quarterbacks going forward. This is not going to catapult him into the top 10 conversation per se. Unless you're already.

Right. But what this does say, what this does confirm is that when the lights are brightest, if you're Philadelphia, you can go into these games feeling like our quarterback is going to rise to the occasion. Again, that's Russell Wilson in a lot of ways. At his peak, this game felt very reminiscent to that Bronco Seahawks game a decade ago, you know. And when the ball was in his hands and the moments that mattered most, like you said, not only was he smart with the football. He knew what his greatest asset was in this game and it was his legs.

And he leaned on that to be able to loosen his defense up. And when you get that final knockout blow, which was that deep post to Devante Smith, he's accurate, he's decisive, he's confident in what he was trying to do. And that just kind of speaks to the fact of what we've been saying in terms of mental fortitude for this guy. He clearly seemed like forever frustrated he was with the kind of directives that were coming down from on high about protecting the football, being safe with it, never put. the ball in harm's way, never putting yourself in harm's way. When it was time to cut him loose, he cut himself loose and he made plays.

And that's a big reason why they were able to dominate this game, even if the offense kind of took a backseat to the defense. I know that you were necessarily wrong about saying you can't win a Super Bowl like this with that type of passing game because that's not what they won the Super Bowl with. Like you said, the last two weeks, this was one of the best passing games we've seen throughout the season. But at that stage, yeah, at that stage and the season sort of thing, you know, from, but you're right.

Yeah, it's elevated in the last two weeks. I mean, this was a 95th percentile quarterback game, EPA per pass, played 90th percentile game by success rate. So you're right. Yeah, they didn't win with like a middling passing game. The passing game was very good in the two weeks. That's a good point. All right.

Let's take a break. We come back. Talk a little about Kansas City Chiefs. Where do they go from here after a loss that I don't think in this fashion anyone saw coming? All right. We're back on the Ringer NFL show. So I don't know. I would like a spreadsheet of every prediction for this game by every member of the media.

I can guarantee you what wasn't on there. It was something like this. I mean, this is, I had a thing in the piece I wrote for the Ringer that I think the odds of beating Mahomes based on history by more than eight points was like three percent, three or four percent. He, that's the number of games. He's lost by more than eight points in his entire career. And Eagles win this game, 40 to 22. Really, I mean, it was worse than that. They get two touchdowns there in the fourth quarter.

So Ruiz, if you are a, you know, life is still good for Chiefs fans. Don't get me wrong. Life is good. But at the same time, organizationally, they'll look at this. We know what happened last time they lost a Super Bowl like this. How do you kind of take this in and suggest, hey, bad matchup, bad time? Is it like Deonté was kind of saying? You had some flaws that were eventually exposed and you got to make some changes in the offseason.

Like, what's the right perspective on this Chiefs loss? I think it's the same perspective they have after that Bucks game where they saw the offensive line cost them a Super Bowl and they said we can't let that happen again. And I think what you have to look at is not only the tackle situation, which to their credit, I think they've been trying to attack. They've been boring resources.

They've been a ton of swaps. 20 million, wasn't it? For John Taylor. They're shocking signing at the time. Orlando Brown Jr. That he'll be able to play left tackle. So they've taken a lot of swing. Yeah, but they've kind of been skimping by

with the receiving court ever since they traded away Tyree Kill and they haven't been burned for it since they've won two Super Bowl since trading away Tyreek Hill, but this was the game where it really felt like they were missing that receiving talent. They could do nothing to stop those zone coverages. They couldn't get anybody open. I think you have to go into this offseason or come away from the off season landing a number one receiver. Not expecting Travis Kelsey to be your number one receiver next year, especially with the season he had, even if he did kind of turn it on down the stretch and in the playoffs.

It's a message. I think I really think so. I think if they had won this game, obviously they wouldn't have minded. They would have gladly taken the third. three Pete, but I think they're going to be better off next season for having gone through this experience. So like the next three to five years will benefit from the way they lost this game. I mean, that's how we have to look back at the Bucks game. And maybe we're going to look back at that Bucks game a little differently, especially in regard to the goat conversation that we know is coming between Mahomes and Brady. He's now three and two in the Super Bowl. Brady mentioned that this week in an interview with Colin Capner. He's like, if he loses this game, he's three and two

in the Super Bowl, which I'm pretty sure he was very eager. Which is funny because Brady was once in this exact same position. Yeah, Brady lost a couple Super Bowls. But yeah, I just think that's the answer. I think it's been obvious all season long. I don't think this is like new information. I just think this game solidified that information and confirmed the information. And now there are no more excuses.

Like, you could excuse them coming out of last offseason without a true number one. And maybe I'm being too harsh on them because like Rashie Rice could have been that number one. That's true. And they tried with Xavier Worthy. It's not like they didn't use any resources. I would have liked a better try than a 5-10-10. Right, but in terms of resources, in terms of like trying. They acquire Hollywood Brown.

So again, this is not about lack of trying. I think that just even not to cut you off, but to kind of punctuate this point, this just paints clearly exactly where the holes are with this offense. In Super Bowl 55 against the bucks, the issue was can't run the ball, didn't have enough of a quick passing game outside of the RPO's to lean on

to keep Mahomes out of creation mode and save us in times of danger mode. This year, the issue was you can't push the ball down the field, and then the run game started to leave as they tried to address their offensive line situation by moving Joe Tuni around. I think that having those two things painted clearly in this game will give Brett Veach that kind of clarity that he needs to know. If you can't fix offensive line with one swoop,

which I don't know if they'll be able to do this offseason, the big goal is you need somebody who can take the top off of a defense that can go win against one-on-one coverage, something that is going to keep a defense from doing what they did to them on Sunday, which is just sitting on the underneath stuff and trying to take away that comfort from Patrick Mahomes. The one thing I will say, though, about their approach to building up the receiving court, they didn't go out of their way to build it up. They kind of let the pieces come to them.

Like no one was clamoring for Hollywood Brown. That's fair. They waited. Yeah, that was a one year, six million or something. Yeah. They trade up a couple of picks to the bottom of the first round to get worthy. Now, look at the Eagles, who traded a bunch of first round picks for AJ Brown. They drafted Devante Smith.

I believe they traded up. to draft Devante Smith in the top 10 or just outside of the top 10. Yeah. That's what they got to do. This is a sport where you have to support your quarterback. I think if anything that was made clear throughout the season, it was that. I feel like

the last couple of years were like the era of the superhuman quarterback, where everyone like the nerds were saying it. If you look at the stats, the stats back it up. If you have the quarterback, you don't really need to sell out to build around him. But we saw this year with Josh

Allen having his great year, they didn't ask him to be Superman as often. We saw Lamar Jackson. He was in a system. It's almost like we saw the more successful teams around the league, at least throughout the regular season, because the Chiefs, I know what their record was, but we were talking about it all year. This doesn't look like a championship team if we didn't know the brand name. You need a build around Patrick Mahomes. His job shouldn't be as hard as it was this season. He shouldn't be as good as he was this season. Like individually, if you just watch and play, that was the best version of Patrick Mahomes I've ever seen throughout the season. but the stats didn't reflect it.

And that's an issue. And that's a poor reflection on the front office and the job they've done building up this team around them. Now, again, they want two Super Bowls doing this. But I think going forward, this sends a clear message that something has to change. Or else you might run into another matchup like this. I'm trying to think if I'm overreacting.

But I mean, I think the Super Bowls are a reflection on Mahomes' greatness and the coaching staff. I don't think they were a reflection of the, like the talent on this roster and again this may sound like they got to the Super Bowl I understand they're living a charmed life the talent on this roster 2 to 53

is it a great roster it's not commensurate with winning Super Bowl no yeah and especially it should stand out when you look at the other side here let's go one by one by the units running back no offensive line Philadelphia well you don't even have to compare them to the two

like would you say above average running back no No. Above average at wide receiver. No. Above average. Offensive line. No. The interior's good. And Trace Smith is a free agent, by the way.

The tackles are such an issue that it does. It bumps them down and mediocre, you know. The endrushers. I would say corners outside of Trent McDuffie are all clearly below average. Yeah, they got cooked. Exactly. We saw the issues today. The linebacker room has been fine, but they do a lot of work to try to hide those guys

so allow them to play more downhill. There are a lot of gaps. And this is not a new conversation. Exactly. This is not a new conversation. We've talked about them not having a bona fide edge rusher. We've talked about them not having a good enough outside corner to keep Trent Meduffly in the slot where he's most valuable.

We've talked about them not having a number one wide receiver to build this thing around. They don't have a clear succession plan for Travis Kelsey right now. These are not things that I am necessarily just like strongly placing at the feet of Brett Beach because to your point and what we've acknowledged is they have tried to try to build around the edges thinking that, hey, our quarterback is so good. We can just make these marginal improvements. and that'll be enough. And they were in the Super Bowl today.

Absolutely. Right? And they have been kings of the AFC for the last few years. So I don't want to take that away from them. I just think even if not every team is as loaded as Philadelphia was this season, it didn't take playing Philadelphia to paint clear what the issues were going to be for this team. It just so happened that finally the magic that Mahomes can create to bail you out of your problems just did not strike today.

And when it didn't strike, this thing got out of hand quickly because it was just so clear that they did not have an answer for everything else an opponent could throw at them. You can't even make the argument that they're like, oh, we're paying this quarterback, so it's hard to build it. Patrick Mahomes is already like a discount at this point. He's already one of the best values in the sport after all these. And it's a 10-year deal, so they get to restructure

and they don't feel the pain of that right now. I mean, almost every team in the playoffs is paying their quarterback that much. Yeah. More than him. More than him. Yeah. So it's, I mean, I don't know. I look at it and it's like McDuffie,

Chris Jones, Mahomes, obviously, interior offensive line. feel good about that. It's a lot of places where I don't feel that good about it. I mean, I just think he has made up for it. There's been the one score game stuff, which maybe that's just because you have Mahomes.

I'm not saying it's complete voodoo or not, but it's not typically how you see it. It's not like they've been a great team statistically in recent years. So if I'm them, if I were a chief saying, I would just be like, can we get back to building the biggest,

baddest offense that allows Patrick Mooms to showcase his talent, because, like you said, Ruiz, this was an impressive year. I'm with you. It was an impressive year from him because I just, you plug in a mediocre quarterback into this team. It's ugly. I think they suck.

They probably miss a terrible. Yeah, I mean, it's a bad team. So you shouldn't like, you know, you should be able to build up that supporting cast so that it looks better. And this guy is like in the prime of his career. I just feel like whether it's cash from ownership or, like you said, an aggressive move. I mean, the guys, the Eagles have got me, AJ Brown, was via trade. Sequin Barclay was free agency. Devante Smith was a draft pick, but it was,

you know, it wasn't like a top five draft pick. So they made moves that benefited them, Jordan, their tackles. I mean, they got to tackle in the seventh round, which is a development story. So all those things you look at and it's like, not a hot, not a first round pick, but they aggressively sought out Cooper DeGine when he was available. This is a team that clearly in every opportunity it was looking to improve their team to stay, to keep that Super Bowl window open. No stone unturned. Yeah. biggest free agent acquisition on defense did not play today. Right.

Rice Huff has been inactive and it's been a non, it's been a total non-factor throughout this season and you don't even feel it. And the reason why you don't feel it is because Howie Roseman is always looking for opportunities to improve this roster. We got a big Jahan Dotson catch in this game. And that's not a trade that I like. I still think that that was bad value on the return. But you understand like they needed a third receiver.

Their GM was not going to allow them to start the season having us, a big a hole as their third receiver as they did. And they went out and sought out a guy who could contribute in a game, even if he's not play-by-play, the most valuable guy you could have gotten. I think the most telling thing about how these teams builder rosters came on Monday when Miles Garrett demands a trade. Everybody made the joke.

Oh, that's Harry Roseman's music. Oh, the Eagles are going to trade for him. Nobody said the chiefs were going to trade for them. That's very true. Not one person. Great point. Fantastic. Yeah, you're absolutely right.

I mean, there's a difference in the way the two teams operate. Yeah, I don't know if we. We spent enough time. Ruiz, you mentioned it. This is a talent team for the, the reason they won the Super Bowl is because they're freaking loaded and their players are all. And that's the best pathway to win a championship.

That's the best pathway. And I feel like in the past, you know, I've gotten annoyed with everyone. Any trade, the Eagles, everyone, how he sees it.

And I'm like, it's Robert Quinn. Like, says Jahan Dotson, settle down. Like everybody, this was how he rose in his masterpiece. He's in my lifetime.

I've never seen an Eagles team with this much talent on it. We just went through all the positions. And so especially offensively, the resources they've poured into ever just make yourself the hardest offense possible to defend. And then defensively, I do think you have to give Fangio credit there. So again, you have Mahomes. You're going to be in the mix for a Super Bowl literally every single year that man is healthy. But that doesn't mean you should lean on, hey, we're going to make the Super Bowl because we have Mahomes. You try to build.

I mean, you should want to build a juggernaut. And I know what the record was this year. They were not a juggernaut this year. we're a very good team. Obviously, they got to the Super Bowl, but I do think it's rare for a team that's one, two Super Bowl's gotten back to the Super Bowl for us to be able to have such an easy conversation about how they can improve. You know, normally you're a bad luck injury. And there was some of that with Rishie Rice. But I do think there are a lot of areas for them to.

Let me ask this. When was the last time the Chiefs felt like the best team in the NFL before Super Bowl week? Yeah, I mean, well, yeah. It didn't feel like it against the 49ers. We haven't been saying it. Now they proved us wrong last year and they won the Super Bowl. But you're right. Best team doesn't always win the Super Bowl.

That's true. That's true. No, I agree with that. I don't know that at any point in the last two seasons, there's been a consensus that this is the, maybe past three seasons, that this has been the best team in the NFL at any point during the regular season. We're just like, this is the team. And that shouldn't be the case when Patrick Mahomes is your quarterback. All right.

Take one more break. We come back. We'll do a little superlatives, right? For all times' sake, we'll do a little superlatives from this. game. We'll close things out. I fear I'm going to have to give Ruiz a congratulations. Sienti on the season long contest and we'll call it a night. All right, we're back on the Ringer NFL show.

So the congratulations is to Ruiz. He wins the season long picks contest. Thought I had a shot here. I got two out of three. Ruiz, what did you end up getting? Did you go? Zero out of three. Did you?

Oh, Sankron. You were within one pick. No. So if SACON had a run, Oh my gosh. So if Sequin had a run over 23 and a half yards, I would have had the greatest comeback in Ringer NFL history. I'm just saying then.

I don't know if there was one like eight years ago. You really were the Bengals. You embodied the Bengals in every way this season. Thank you. So Ruiz, Champ. Thank you. Champ Ruiz wins the picks contest for the season. I don't know.

We never settled on a punishment. So maybe we don't have to do anything, Deontay. I don't know. I mean, now that I'm going to losing into this, I'm definitely on that side. You guys can finish my article tonight. No, that's not happening. Next.

Next. All right. We're going to do awards, like I said. And today's awards and superlatives are presented by State Farm. When it comes to football season, some things are just better together. Like chips and dip or your favorite jersey and your lucky pregame ritual, you know what else is better together? Bundling your home and auto insurance with the personal price plan from State Farm. Like a good neighbor, State Farm is.

there. All right, Deonté, you want to get us started? You got any award superlative? It can be anything. It can be from the experience in New Orleans. It can be from the game. It can be season long. Whatever you want to do, what do you got? I mean, after a long week of working, I'm sure my eyes are probably crossing a little bit as I'm trying to think of a superlative. So I'll just go with something light and say, the guaranteed team t-shirt next season is going to have the mantra of inner excellence on it. So I'm going with the best personal mantra, the best motivational mantra his inner excellence this year. Obviously, you know the AJ Brown thing coming up throughout the season in terms of him

reading the book on the sideline. I think that he had the book on the sideline after his little spat with Nick Seriani. He's thumbing through it. He was looking for the passage. Exactly. Exactly. And I think that it's corny for it and for as corny as it is. It does embody so much of the success of this team.

Josh Sweat, we mentioned taking the pay cut on the trade block. We weren't sure if he was going to be on this roster going to the. the 2024 season shows up, makes big plays when they need them to. We've talked a lot about the young guys throughout the year that have developed and become a big piece of the Eagles having the number one defense in the league. Obviously, the two draft picks at defensive back and Quignal-Mintral and Cooper DeGine. But just guys like Nicopi Dean who wasn't playing in this game, but was a major piece and why this defense even got to the point that it did this year, Zach Bonn, you take a position

change, different role, different kind of scheme. You play like the best linebacker in football this year. year. I think that for as cheesy as inter excellence is, I think that they'll look back. And when we're telling the story of the 2024 Eagles, that's going to be a big piece of it, is that those guys found a way to improve, get through adversity, and get the job done. So funny. Reading a book on the sideline, and here he is in the locker room celebrating the championship. All right, that's a good one. Ruiz, what do you got? I'm going to give my award to the most relieved man in America who had nothing to do with this game. And that's Giants General Manager.

Joe Shane. 1,000%. He is, I'm thanking Spags for maintaining my championship in the picks contest. I'm sure that man is thanking Spags for avoiding national embarrassment. Because if Seekwon ripped off one runner had a monster game in this one, you know Fox would have been showing those clips from Hard Knocks. Everyone would have been talking about it. The clips would have been passed around on Twitter.

I'm sure the Eagles would have had fun with it, their social media account. But SAC sold out to, Spax sold out to stop them. And Seekwon couldn't break that one run. and Shane was spared national embarrassment. One more good deed for the Giants from Steve Spagnolo. There you go. For one night, anyway. Yeah.

The season. The rest of the season. Yeah, one of the greatest seasons by a running back I've ever seen in my lifetime. But yes, for this one night, he was absolutely spared. All right, I'm going to give a little Team CTC award to Milton Williams. Oh, my gosh. Zach Bond, Josh Sweat. I mean, the three biggest free agents on the Eagles.

defense, who, you know, very well could be elsewhere next season and get paid, had big time games today. Milton Williams, I feel like every fan base is looking at free agent lists going, we want Milton Williams. He's kind of the hipsters defensive tackle. Very good player. Don't get, don't get me wrong, but everybody wants a piece of him. Two sacks today had the big sack fumble on Patrick Mahomes. Josh Sweat, honestly, this was his best game of the year. I mean, I can't remember all of his other games, but I feel confident saying, yeah, this was his big, best game of the year, two and a half sacks, three quarterback hits, six tackles. Again, he's a free agent.

Forced the interception. Force the interception. Yeah, his pressure, forced the interception, no doubt. So he's there. And then Zach Bonn with one of the most unlikely seasons, honestly, for a player, I can even remember in recent NFL history. When you talk about the Eagle signing him as kind of a special team piece here, he never did much with the New Orleans Saints.

You thought, are they going to move him to? to an edge rusher. His opening press conference in Philly was like, yeah, I'm excited. I get to be, you know, an edge rusher more. Nope. Vic Fangio had other ideas. Offball linebacker position that's just been such an issue for the Eagles in recent years. And the guy just every, like, I don't remember a game where you're like, oh, you know,

what did Zach Bond do? Was he out there today just an unbelievable playmaker for this Eagles defense was one of the nominees for defensive player of the year and had a phenomenal game again tonight, leads the team with seven tackles. had a pass breakup, had a quarterback hit, and of course, had that leaping interception that led to a touchdown. So Zach Bonn, also a free agent. So Team CTC, cash them checks and have good off seasons once you turn the page on celebrating this Super Bowl. I'll throw another superlative out there for the best Super Bowl city to New Orleans.

Every Super Bowl should be in New Orleans. The walkability, the food, the offsetting nature of those two. Like, I didn't feel like I gained too much weight because I was walking everywhere, even though I was eating like a slob all week long. So it was like 12, 13 years since they had been in New Orleans before. That's way too long, every five years at least. Yeah, I've only been to four Super Bowls, but I agree. It was awesome, just the fact that you can walk everywhere.

The first breakfast I had here, I'm like, I just keep it simple, you know, do some eggs and potatoes. It's never simple here. Two giant hash browns show up on my plate. I'm like, can't waste them. I don't be rude. The chef made him. What am I going to do? I don't know. I did walk a lot, Ruiz. I don't know. I haven't stepped on a scale. I certainly feel like, you know, some salads and some smoothies when I get back to a... I need a vegetable. I need a vegetable. Here's what happens. Here's what happens. I don't know if this happens to you guys. After every Super Bowl, you go into

every football season, you go into the off season. You're like, I'm here, I'm going to make these changes. You know, here's here. I'm going to get if there's any weird fad diet that's coming up on my Instagram. Oh, yeah, you know, only drink water until 2.30. Yeah, that sounds great. I'm going to try that. Next week, my wife starts rolling her eye. You're not going to be doing this. Hey, I'm going to try it. Oh, this workout plan. 40, but you know, don't want to, okay, hey, this guy's 40. He's doing it. I can do it. So I do that. Hey, you know, I got all these books on the bookshelf. I wanted to read them for a long time. I'm going to knock these out. Oh, you know what? I haven't watched a movie in the long time. Oscars are coming up. none of it happens.

This is a two week thing. Two weeks are now. Two weeks where we get to lie to ourselves. Doing the same thing. But yes, the agent rankings to do, buddy. Oh my gosh. She.

No, bo, but bleep that out. Cut that out of the pod. I don't want to think about it. All right. So there's that. Deont, any other superlatives before we sign off here. No, man.

Without getting cheesy, I'm just very grateful that I get to do this with you guys. Stepping in, trying to find my own lane in podcast and being able to work with you guys. She'll one of, if not the best host in NFL podcasting. Obviously, Stephen, you and I have been friends and now colleagues for a little while now. It's definitely, it's been a blessing.

It's been something I'm very gratified by being able to sit in that press box with you guys and enjoy the game together. First time, we've been able to do that as a team and then get here and be able to talk about the game and enjoy arguably one of the best cities in the country in New Orleans. This is a dream come true for me, at least. The ante speaks for all of us. Everybody, thanks to everyone for listening all season long as we were knocking out these late nights, Sunday night pods. No, it was a lot of fun. We had a lot of laughs. The season took a lot of twists and turns.

In the end, it's like, oh, it's still the Eagles and Chiefs. But the path to get there took a lot of twists and turns. So it was a lot of fun doing that with you guys. Today's awards and superlatives were presented by State Farm. The Personal Price Plan lets you call the place so you can choose the right coverage at a that's right for you. Talk to a State Farm agent today to learn how you can bundle and save with the personal price plan. Like a good neighbor, State Farm is there. Prices are based on rating plans that vary by state. Coverage options are selected by the customer, availability,

amount of discounts and savings, and eligibility vary by state. So there you go. Also, let's give a thank you to our man, Christopher Sutton, our producer, all season long, the best in the game. late night, early morning, Sunday, whenever you need. He's like State Farm. Whenever you need him, Christopher Sutton's there. Finding us a space to record because, you know, the three of us have no idea. We're like, all right, do we bring a microphone? How do we do it?

We forget stuff all the time. We have issues when we're doing our remote. And you know what? The man fixes it all and makes us sound presentable. So shout out to Christopher Sutton as well. All right. Last one's in the books. Yes, sir.

Gentlemen, last post game pod of the. this season in the books. Of course, as Ruiz mentioned, you know, I didn't want to mention it. But yes, free agency will be here before you know it. Trades will be here. Just give us a little break NFL. Like do Cancun, Cabo, wherever you go. Just give a little little break. Then you get back and you resume business. So we'll get into all of that. Of course, the NFL draft, all that stuff. In the off season, we will have it covered. The NFL never sleep. Sorry. From Norlands. Thank you to Deontelay. Thank you to Stephen Ruiz.

Thank you to Christopher Sutton. Additional production supervision from Connor Nevins and Arjuna Ram. Gofal. I'm Sheila Capadio. We'll talk to you next time on the Ringer NFL show. Must be 21 plus and present in select states for Kansas in affiliation with Kansas Star Casino or 18 plus and present in D.C. Gambling problem. Call 1-800-G-Help.com or visit RG-HELP.com.

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