The Ringer NFL Show - The Biggest Questions Heading Into the 2022 Season

Episode Date: August 29, 2022

Sheil and Ben ask the biggest questions that need to be answered for the upcoming season. Hosts: Sheil Kapadia and Ben Solak Associate Producer: Stefan Anderson Additional Production Supervision: Arjuna Ramgopal and Conor Nevins Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

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If you want to hit them straight out there, please check out Fairway Rowland every week. Available on Spotify. Welcome to the Ringer NFL show. I am Shield Capadia, joined by Ben Solact. We're continuing our preseason series looking ahead to the 2022 NFL season. The preseason is over, the regular season. We're waiting for it. We are going to get to what questions do we want to answer?

You know, we've done all the little stuff. What are the big questions we want answers to this season? Ben, when I last saw you, I think there were photos on Twitter circulating by a great athletic Rams reporter Jordan Rodrigue of I believe you were locked, locked in a parking lot in Cincinnati. It looks like you're not recording from a parking lot, so you escape, so that's good. Have you ever had that thought where you drive up to the parking lot garage gate? And there's like, there's only room for one car.

There's three cars behind you. And you're like, all right, if this doesn't work, I'm the worst person ever. Hello. I'm the worst person ever. Yeah, I went to get in the parking lot in the morning with Bengals Camp. And I went to use the card reader to get in and it wasn't working. And then a man came to help me. And then eventually it worked and it was like, oh, I guess it works.

And then when you leave, you're supposed to use the same card. And so I left like at like seven. Like everybody's gone. There's nobody in the booth anymore. And I go to put the card in and the car's just not working. The gate's not coming open. I was like, all right, sick, we're doing this now. And I don't know if you've ever had to try to break out of a parking garage with a whole car.

It's not easy. You can't just drive around the gate. They make sure there's not room for that. So yeah, it was a bit of an ordeal. But eventually a very nice person came. And like, the other thing is nobody was coming into the parking garage because it was the night. And then eventually somebody came and I was like, hello, would you like to leave this parking garage that you just came into and drive very fast out of it. So I can also leave it behind you.

And he was like, yep. And I was like, cool. I like that you've asked no questions. That's awesome for me. And then I got out. It's a football writer, right of passage to get stuck in random parking lots across America. Is it?

I don't know. Yeah, yeah. So do you have a parking lot that once captured a young, bright-eyed, bushy-tailed Chiokopatia? I mean, I just honestly remember being in so many, like, after games where I'm going, how am I going to get out of it here? There's no one here. And eventually, you find a way to figure it out.

You might have to jump a curb with the rental car, whatever, but, you know, there are... I was lined up on a curb twice, and I was looking at it. I was like, if I even do it, it's time. You have to. Yeah. So I thought I petered out. I was too scared. Maybe next time I'll just,

I'll just, you know, grip my teeth and go for it. Okay, well, you're safe, you're ready to pod, you're ready to get to these big questions. I want to start with you. What is one question that you're just like, I need this answered during the 2020 season. I can't wait to see what happens. I want to see what Derek Henry looks like.

To me this is one of the most underreported. Name one clip we've seen of Derek Henry. I've barely seen it. Like the Titans B is a good beat. There's people on it. But Derek Henry is coming off of a Jones fracture on his foot as the most used running back of the last two years in a stretch of usage that we just simply haven't seen.

nobody was using Bell Cowbacks anymore, let alone were they using it in the way that Henry was being used. Before the injury last year, Henry was averaging, do you know how many carries per game he was averaging? I mean, they were using him more than ever, right? 27.4 carries per game during the 2020-one regular season. That's unbelievable.

Every other team was going away from Belcow back. We have Zeke, we need Tony Pollard. We have Aaron Jones. We need A.J. Dillon. And the Titans were just going further towards it, further towards it. To a back, it's got a very unique build in Derek Henry, who is a unique running style. And Derek Henry, like, everything about Henry is singular in this modern NFL. And then he has a Jones fracture, which I don't know if Jones faction in the fifth metatarsal,

I don't know how much people know about foot injuries. But if there's an injury, you don't want to get as like an athlete as a football player, it's a foot injury. And it's like Liz Frank fractures and Jones fractures. Like when I see these words, my skin crawl, it's come like, that dude is not going to be back to what he was. A, Henry came back for the playoffs. He came back months faster than anybody expected him to. But B, he looked really bad in that playoff game.

If you remember, he had like 20 carries for 62 yards. Was it, was it Cardi Blasen game? I think it was one of the backups. It might have been, no, it was Donald Hilliard. Hilliard was looking much better than he was. And then he has an offseason of rehab, and every Titans report that you read, everything out of camp is like, wow, Derek Henry looks exactly the same as he always has forever,

and he's going to be amazing. Also, AJ Brown's not here anymore, so he's going to be more of the offense. What? He's 29. We don't do this with running backs, right? Like, we, an important thing to understand about age and mileage and players tailing off is that while, like, it's a common thing to say is like, oh, as he gets older, he's going to get worse. And that's true on a group scale, right? When you look at running backs as a group who were 28 and they turn 29.

In general, they're a little bit worse. But that's not because they all got a little bit worse. What that statistical sensation you're discovering is, a lot of them go from 28 to 29 and stay the same. Some of them go from 28 to 29 and hit the cliff. And that's how AIDS works and mileage works and running out of athleticism works in the league. You go from having it, like remember Andrew Whitworth at 38,

it was like, oh my gosh, he's still one of the best left tackles. Jason Peters at 37, so one of the best left tackles. To all of a sudden, Whitworth at 40, Peters at 39. they can't play. We do not see gradual declines, especially in positions like running back. We see sudden sharp declines. If you're telling me a back,

there's almost 30 coming off of a foot injury, there's nobody for whom I should feel more strongly about expecting a strong decline. But it's Derek Henry, who's got like this, he's unbelievable athletes, great building, everything out of Titans camper. And I was like, yeah, it's all hunky dory.

Why would anybody be concerned about Derek Henry? He's Derek Henry. So I'm fascinated, especially with no Aegee Brown. They're going to need to rely on Henry even more. he needs to be even more special than he was. I'm so, so interested to see what he looks like.

I've looked at his rushing yards prop 10,000 times, and I'm like, well, just take you over. Like, he's going to get enough carries. He's going to get the ball, yeah. Do it. Yeah, and then I can't do it because it's just too scary. So my number one question coming into the season, I want to see what Derek Henry looks like, man.

It's so funny. I feel like I fired off like 7,000 takes in the last month as you just do podcasts and interviews. I honestly don't even remember the Titans coming up in any of them. So I'm glad you chose Derek Henry. and the Titans, they're just flying under the radar. You know, the Colter, the favorite, you know, gambling-wise in that division.

We've talked about the Jaguars as a potential sleeper. I mean, the Titans have won. They've been over 500 every year with Mike Brable. You don't need to tell me about the Titans winning games they should, without explanation. You were not here on our shows last year, but every single weekly recap was me and Kevin yelling by the Titans. Because Kevin was like, yeah, they win football games.

I was like, but they don't deserve to, and it drove me nuts. But this is what this team is. They're a contradiction. And Henry is the biggest contradiction of them all. Yeah, I think their defense could be really interesting. They've got a bunch of young corners. So if a couple of those guys play well, I like their defensive line. Offensively, it's just such a big question mark. O line is not great.

Like you mentioned, they don't have A.J. Brown. We don't know what we're going to see from Trailing Berks. They trade for Robert Woods. And so you're just like, they're not exciting. But you're right. I mean, we could be sitting here doing a podcast in December going, wow, you know, here the Titans are back again competing for the AFC South. So that is a good one. I could have come up with 50 and the Titans probably would not

have made my list. So I'm glad you did that because it's good to have a good mix. All right. Mine is more mainstream. But I just am so excited for this. My big question that I want to answer is who is going to be right Russell Wilson or the Seahawks. I mean, that's a good framework. I like that framework a lot. Because usually to these questions, we don't, we don't get a definitive who was right. But Russell Wilson's only 34. He should have three more years. of high-level quarterback play. And like, we know what the stakes are. We know Russell Wilson was not happy

with how the Seahawks used him. We know he felt like he could do more. We know he cares about his legacy. And he thinks he should be mentioned with the all-time grades. And he didn't get that opportunity year-in and you're out with the Seahawks. We also know what?

Think of Russell Wilson. And they thought, you know what? You got to protect him a little bit. You got to play a certain way with Russell Wilson if we're going to win games. You know what? Now's the time where he might be on the decline a little bit. Let's turn the page,

even though, you know, we have a veteran coach. And we probably, you know, if Russell Wilson's still there, we're probably talking about the Seahawks as a playoff team this year. And so we're going to get an answer in the next two years, who was right? Because, you know, Nathaniel Hackett is not going to tell Russell Wilson how to play. I mean, by all accounts, Russell Wilson is going to get to do whatever he wants. Yeah. I mean, he's going to get to do whatever he wants. He's going to have control. Some questions on the O line, but the O line should at least be competent. The receivers, you would have felt better if they still had Tim Patrick.

they don't, but still enough there. And he's playing in the AFC West. Like, is he going to deliver a top tier MVP level quarterback season and Seahawks fans? I mean, the next, whatever the Russell Wilson conversation is for the next, whatever, 20 years, it's going to be shaped in a large part what happens these next two years. It's going to be, oh, my gosh, look at what he did in Denver. He tore it up. If they would have just let him do more when he was in Seattle, maybe they have another Super Bowl

ring or they're just going to be the other side of it. Look, you know, everyone made fun of Pete Carroll. Maybe he knew what he was doing. Maybe they should have run the ball. Maybe they needed the play action. I'll tell you what, those former Seahawks teammates, the Richard Sherman's of the world, they're not going to be afraid to chime in if things don't go well for Russell Wilson in Denver. So it's just, it's just real.

I know it's a mainstream one. I know it's one everyone's talked about. But I'm just really excited to see how it plays out because this year and the following year, we're going to get an answer one way or the other. Yeah, talk about, you know, like, oh, players that depreciate this way and then the cliff hits and whatever. quarterback can be a different beast than that because it's a position where you don't take it nearly as many hits. And that's what we're seeing with Russ.

Where like for years, it was Russ is underrated. Russ is underappreciated. The way Russ plays is so impressive. Russ deserves MVP votes. Russ deserves to throw the ball more. And it's because in terms of like deep accuracy, I'm just going to place the ball on a spot 50 yards down the field. Nobody could do it like Russ.

And in order to play that way, I'm going to throw the ball downfield all the time. You have to stay back in the pocket a lot. And if you have to stay back in the pocket a lot, you're going to have to make players Mitch. You're going to have to be able to solve pressure problems that you yourself created. And Russ could do that too, right? He had this perfect marriage of skills.

We're like, incredible scrambler, incredible escaper. And then also at any time, could just launch a moon ball 60 yards down the field. And it was viable. It worked. Like it was not just like, oh, he's heaving up a prayer. Like, no, this is a legit, smart thing to be doing. He's really good at this.

Over the last two years, the scrambling, the escaping, the athleticism is starting to wane. You go and you look at like stats of like, you know, first downs per scramble, like how often they're getting to the sticks. Oh, buddy, like it is,

it is tailing off tremendously for Russ in that regard. So you started to run into a question now of how much can he still justify this play style? If instead of like, you know, 66% of the time, he's forced outside of the clock and he's got to tuck in and run,

he's got to throw it, check down really quick. But 33% of the time, he makes that player miss and he can launch it down the field. To all of a sudden, it's 17% of the time and 83% of the time he's got to like check it down or just like scamper out of back.

What are the margins here that works? Because still having that unbelievable deep shot is incredible. It's one of one in the league. But how much can we deal with some of the crazy stuff around it that has long justified that play style? Seattle kind of ran out of patience there. At Denver, you get a clean slate. And so, like, you know, Russ could play the same way that he was playing last year,

which is still pretty good. And Denver would be like, yeah, cool, this is the bottom. This is awesome. This is the best quarterback play we've seen since man. So the clean slate really, really helps. I think it gives Russ a longer leash there. But the idea of like Seattle being right, like Seattle getting out in the correct window is really, really interesting.

So I think we're going to continue to see Russ not be able to scramble as much. And we're going to continue to see Russ struggle in terms of creating his downfield shots late in the down. Like he'll do them early in the down, but late in the down, I won't be able to get to them. And accordingly, just the quality of play you get from Russell Wilson is inherently going to lower. I don't think Seattle's going to be like, And now Gino Smith is better, but I do think they kind of had an understanding of who this player was,

what limited him, what made him tick, and they felt like the trap door was opening and they got out from that. And so I think they'll be, like, right in the framework of the question, but it is tricky, right?

It's not a super easy question to answer. Yeah, the Seahawks aspect of it is also fascinating where it's just like, what is this going, are they just going to be in Cuba purgatory for the next 10 years? I mean, it's hard to find somebody or maybe things go south

and they end up with Bryce Young next year. And it was like, all right, that was a one year. You know, we had a bad quarterback for one year, but guess what? Life is good. If you can window it, baby, I mean, like, the ability to jump from franchise quarterback to franchise quarterback, like when teams can do that is unbelievable, right? Like, the chargers aside, most teams, it spells like championship wins. Los Angeles slash San Diego, God be with you, your curse forever.

But for everybody else it does. And so it's huge. I'm actually happy because, like, one of the ones I wanted to get in, but then it was Seahawks' defense and kind of, what does it mean when the one team that was the bastion of like single high cover three guys in line of scrimmage elects to change the way they do defense? Because the Seahawks promoted Clint Hurt,

who's a Vic Fangio guy who's been on their staff with their defensive line coach, two defensive coordinator. They had another big fanjo guy and Sean Desai, ex-defendant of the Bears, to be their senior defensive assistant and assistant head coach. And then they brought on Carl Scott, who's an Alabama, Dave Iranda, sort of college product.

He spent a year with the Vikings previously. to be their defense of backs coach. They are telling you they're running split field stuff. We've seen it in training camp we've seen it in practice. It's not like, I wonder what that's going to look like

because I kind of understand what it will. I'm curious to see how good it works, curious to see what they do with Jamal and stuff like that. But what I am curious about is it's kind of like just how well can a guy like Pete Carroll change? Like just how fast can a guy who's been like doing one thing for a decade?

Obviously he's done a lot of things. He ran quarters at USC. He's like he has never heard of quarters before. But I'm so curious to see. like, you know, there's that video of Pete throwing the ball a couple of days ago on Twitter. Pete Silicon Spry. I want to see just how spry he is. Like, how much can

you switch your your approach to football? So Seahawks are very interesting team. Yeah, I like that. Yeah, I mean, I'm just going to use that as one of mine since you got into it. You know, I'm going to scrap one because I think that is interesting what that defense looks like. Because for a coach at that stage in his career, and I remember I asked him at the combine

and he goes, we've been arrogant on defense here for a while. I was like, what? I covered this guy for two years and never heard him speak like this at all. And so, yeah, you know, later, you know, better late than never, I guess, them changing what they want to do. I just look at their talent on defense and wonder, you know, is it really going to matter what scheme they run? Because I think they've got a lot of holes. They really need some younger players to be really good right away. But I do think that that is a very interesting subplot to kind of see what that defense looks like. And now, for Gus Bradley, it's just alone on an island, on a cover three island by himself somewhere.

playing the same way that those teams did. So that's a good one. Somewhere. He's in Indianapolis. The only other place that was running four down zone. The only place. Yeah, this is going to work. We have Stefan Gilmore.

Don't worry about it. It's not like we've seen this defense with elite quarters get absolutely diced up before. We have Stefan Gilmore. It's fine. It's fine. All right. What do you have for your next one?

Yes. Okay. My actual next one is staying kind of in the defensive family. The question is what is Brandon Staley's second punch? What is the response? What is the 2.0? right? I think

I'll put it to you this way. Like this probably falls on me and like my ilk of scheme writers and like, you know, football nerds. First and foremost. But when we talk about the Brandon Staley 2020 Rams defense, the conversation was always like,

oh, it's bringing fronts from college. How cool is it? A tight front. It's crazy. You've never seen the NFL. Oh, but that's not real. It's Aaron Donovan and Jalen Ramsey. It's just because he has star players. No, no, no, look at this. He's doing like, you know, it gets into like the weeds of this like, He's playing a four-eye. Wow, crazy.

I feel like if Aziz Ansari was doing a football scheme podcast, that would have been what he sounds like. Oh, wow, and nuts. Like, oh, Jaylor Ramsey's in the slot. It's crazy. It's like we got into the minutia of it. What was critical about Staley, what is the fundamental most important thing about Staley

that must be said at the top of every Staley discussion is nothing to do with scheme. Coaches have been putting dudes at four eyes and putting big guys in the slot for, ages. Nothing interesting. It is that philosophically, not scheme, philosophically, the guys in the NFL who coached defense, who were willing to say, I will give up a five-yard run to stop the potential of a 20-yard pass, we're extremely few and far between. And then Staley, who like was brought up in the D3 college world is not like a big macho. My braveble used to play linebacker. Like he just

has a different vibe to him, was willing to say, I'm going to dare a team to run the ball for four yards on me all the way down the field. And I bet they can't avoid making mistakes. I bet they can't avoid calling a big shot play, but they can't avoid calling a long dropback. And when they do, I'm going to get them. And that means I have to let my manhood be violated when, you know, they move me off the ball in the trenches,

but that's how I'm going to play defense. It was a philosophical shift. And then that trickled down and led to like scheme changes and stuff that we notice as film watchers, but it is the philosophy. It is the decision to say, I'm going to stop the explosive pass at the expense of being able to stop the gradual run. 2021 Chargers.

Brandon Staley walked in with the same philosophy. Schematically, they changed stuff because they had different players. The Chargers led the league by a mile last year in two men, right? Man coverage with two high safeties. Nobody else plays this. When you play man coverage, you play with a single high safety, you play with the robber. You play with the guy in the low hole. You send a blitz, 10 to five-man pressure. Staley said, I haven't played two men.

Did Staley change his entire scheme? Like, not really, because the philosophy is what mattered. I'm going to stop the explosive pass, the expensive stopping the run. This is how I can do it with these guys. As we know, it didn't really work. And the reason it didn't really work is because if you are going to have a philosophical shift, I'm going to stop the pass at the expensive stopping the run, all of a sudden you need to get bodies.

You need to get different dudes at different places than all the other defensive coordinators are trying to do. And with the Rams, that was fine. So it was like, all right, Donald and Ramsey, and then everybody else. Like we're building a Jordan Rodriguez, you mentioned calls it like, you know, two solar systems. There's just two sons and everybody else orbits around them. So it's not that hard of a shift. For the Chargers who previously had the aforementioned

bullied Gus Bradley, four down, cover three, this is how we're going to live. The bodies just didn't make sense. He didn't have the horses up front to play the way he wanted to play. Kyle Van Nuoy. Palliomack. Sebastian Joseph Day. Austin Johnson.

There's definitely a linebacker they out of the. that I'm forgetting, but whatever. J.C. Jackson, they have brought in enormous money, trade, investment on the defensive side of the ball. What does that end up looking like? Because I'm not, I don't think it ends up looking like 2020, 2020 Rams, where it's like, all this tight front stuff and these 5-1 fronts, like that'll be there, but I don't think that'll be the bread and butter.

I don't think it's going to be just like we're living in two man, like the charges were last year. I think it's going to be something different. It's going to be conditional on the guys. They have, like, Mack and Van Nuoy, both are very versatile outside dudes, and you're going to see bear fronts up. You're going to see, like, Bill Belichick stuff. But it's the philosophy that's going to define it.

And that's what's really interesting is if Staley believes in this, I'm going to stop the explosive pass, the expensive stopping the run. Now he's fully built a defense in his image. This is the most, the defense he's had the most influence over in terms of personnel acquired by a mile. He had no influence over who, like, the Rams got. He was there for a year. The Chargers first year. They didn't barely add it anybody.

This is a defense that Staley. sculpt with his own hands. He got these guys. So what does it really look like? When a guy says, I'm going to build a defense to stop the explosive pass, what does that end up looking like? Because it might end up looking like we play man coverage. We got enough good guys to play man. But that's the whole solution. Yeah, Jesse Jackson. Yeah. Exactly. Yeah.

And it's just like, yeah, we have enough guys playing man coverage. Now we can do whatever we want because we can always cover you. And maybe it's that simple schematically. But I want to see the full realization of that philosophy in Los Angeles this year. This is, to me, maybe the story in the NFL is the battle going on between a lot of these coaches and some of them are doing what you, Brandon Staley, Jonathan Gannon in Philadelphia. I mean, we could probably name whatever five to eight who are saying statistically, analytically, if you look at it, you stop explosive plays,

you're a good defense. We are prioritizing that over everything else. Now, I think there's a, I'm not like the most human element guy, but I do think there is a human element to this when you're coaching defensive players. And that's what you're telling them is that prevent the explosive play at all cause. I could not more strongly agree by the human element of it. Okay. Yeah. It's so important.

These guys are wired to be aggressive and go after the quarterback. And so there are a group of coaches who believe that's the right way to play. There's another group of coaches who, when you ask them about these things, about prevent explosive plays at all costs, play more too high. They're going, no, that's not how you play defensive football. Our job, I call it, I call it the armpit test, Ben. I don't know if I've mentioned this to you. I love the armpit.

test. You want the quarterback. There's got to be some perspiration under there when they're playing. You know, first quarter, oh my gosh, what's coming at me? Am I going to get crushed on this play? Are they bringing a simulated pressure? Are they just going to go zero blitz? There has to be some type of perspiration. And too often, and not all of them, I'm not saying you can't play this way and be good, but too often I see these teams trying to do this. And the quarterback, it's like they're going through a training camp practice where they can't be hit. And so there are coaches who are saying, no, forget that. You know, yes, do we want to stop explosive plays?

Yes, but we're not going to do it at all cost because we need the quarterback to be under duress. John Harbaugh, he coached under Jim Johnson. Jim Johnson thing, he told me was force a quick outcome. We want a quick outcome for the quarterback. We do not want them to be comfortable. And so to me, there are coaches who, you know, you ask them about and they said, well, we want to balance. I'm not all the way.

One way. I'm not all the way the other way. There are coaches who say, no, that's what we believe. We want to stop explosive plays at all costs. And there are others who say, no, number one is making the quarterback. feel uncomfortable. This to me is going to be part of the story we're talking about all season long in the NFL about how different defenses, how different coaches approach this. Do they change? Are they flexible enough with what they do? And so that's a great one. That chargeers defense

on paper, talent, that should be a top 10 defense. Like if that's not a top 10 defense, then, you know, Brandon Staley is not doing a good enough job as a defensive coach. Exactly. And that's what is. It's like Staley has not doing a good enough job. Staley heralded in this era of, we're going to like, you know, we want to live in this world. We're going to be able to live in a too high world. We can play a quarter quarter half. We can rotate safety. Like, this is a schematic thing that can work and it can take away the middle of the field play action.

It, we have to remember, was brought in to be a response to the Shanahan-McVey offense. This is the best answer defenses have had for that offense in years, right? It is better than the Belichick answer in the Super Bowl. That was kind of like a knife mugging in an alley, right? It worked with a surprise. You can't really do that every single week. There's ways to get around this.

This is a consummate. This is a full answer. but you got to be able to get star dudes in the building. I get Khalil Mack in the building and be like, hey, you know how you've always had a lot of sacks? What if you have less sacks? Because we have to ask you to play slower on the outside.

And you're going to do this for the good of the team. We're going to win a championship. But that's a choice you have to do. That's tough. That is a tough. Defensive players do not like to hear that, especially guys with, you know, Hall of Fame resumes.

Right? Yeah. Listen, listen, the tight front stuff is one edge rusher. It's why the NFL hates it. There's one edge. You've got a nose over the center. Then you have two more defensive ends inside the tackles.

And then you have one pass rusher. That's why the defense coordinators will never run tight stuff. Like even Staley kind of runs it, but not really. It's all barefront stuff because barefront is tight. But with a second edge rusher, because we need two guys. We need the armpit test. We need to be able to put pressure on the passer. Well, if Staley wants to run some of that cheesy front stuff on first down, one pass rusher,

Joey Boser, Cleo Mac. Somebody's got to line up where they are not. game to the quarterback. It is hard to get dudes in on this defense. Who lost rock, paper, scissors that week. Yeah, it is, it is, it is, it is, it is, it is tough, man. And so that's, that's where, yeah, I think makes the, the staley defense just really interesting and illustrate it.

All right, is it your turn or my turn? I don't really know. You know what? I think this has been good. We've just been going with what I'm, I'm much more excited about yours than I am mine, but I will throw another one. No, no, I really want to actually hear yours. I'm very excited to hear what your next one is.

All right, mine are, you know, again, a little more boilerplate, but I want to know, is Josh McDaniels a good head coach. I mean, I feel like I'm on an island here with my skepticism. You know, I feel like everyone's convinced that McDaniels is going to be great and that he's a great offensive mind and sort of all the history we have of Patriots assistants going outside the Belichick bubble and failing. You know, even McDaniels the first time again. That was a long time ago.

So I'm open to the possibility that he's a good coach, that he's a very good offensive coach, that this is going to work out. But I'm not going to give him the benefit of the doubt. And I look at that Raiders team and we get very excited about DeVante. Adams and Hunter Renfro and you know Derek Carr maybe being able to show us the best version of Derek Carr this year but I also have a lot of questions I have questions about that offensive line which Brandon Thorne offensive line guru ranked I think 27th in the NFL and they're still shuffling stuff here as we might be straight cut in Alex Leatherwood that's a first round peg

from a couple years ago baby as bad news bears that's a concern Darren Waller is not practicing and I know I saw Victor four of the athletic uh you know on Twitter one wondering, is this a hamstring or is this a contract situation? And so some of this stuff that head coaches have to deal with that go beyond the X's and O's, the, hey, players not happy with this contract. Hey, you know, a player from a previous regime, how are we going to get? Like, we're seeing it with Mike McDaniel, with Mike Gisicki in, you know, Miami. Like, that's a big concern to me, where you have a player who you think might be talented, but you're trying to force him to do something he's not good at. And now you're talking about moving him all of a sudden, like, these

are some red flags to me. The Raiders have the third toughest schedule in the, NFL. And so I'm just wondering how this Josh McDaniels experiment is going to go. Is he going to be the exception? Is he going to be really good? Or are some of these red flags, maybe we've seen with Patriots assistants and with McDaniels specifically over the last 10, 15 years or whatever it is, are they going to show them? We're going to go, why weren't more people wondering, you know, about Josh McDaniels going here? So I don't think we've talked about the Raiders. What do you think about McDaniels and the Raiders this year? Yeah, I agree that there should be pause and a question about that. I think that something I think about a lot when I think about the lions and

Dan Campbell is like the shtick is awesome. I have seen the stick in person. It is sick. I sit at Dan Campbell Presser and I want to strap on some pads. Everybody has seen the stick now, like hard knocks. We've seen the impact this guy has on his players. That works really well right now on like hungry rookie contract dudes and vets want to prove themselves and six rounders, you know, Malcolm Rodriguez, win a job, great. When you got to get a star in the building, talk about Khalil Mac and Brin Staley, when you got to get a couple of stars in

and make the stars feel good. And the stars, you know, oh, I make $20 million. I make more than you. Like, I, you know, they'll have this provado to them. How much is, is kind of the shit going to work? So when I look at McDaniels in Las Vegas and I go, right, Darren Waller, Max Crosby, Devonthe Adams, we got some stars in this building.

you are coming from a coaching tree, Bill Belichick, that could bring in stars and integrate them so, so, so, so, so, so, so, so, so, so, so, so, so so, so so well. It is, it is one of the most understated things by the Belichick, like, do your job, the Belichick culture, the patrons are a bunch of no-nameers. Yeah, and then they grabbed Randy Moss for a year, and it'd be amazing. Like, Brady was happy there for 18 seasons.

That's absurd that Brady was as cool up there as he was for so long. I'm saying Brady's a little bit unique because they draft him, and he was that late round pick, but still, like, look at how explosive stars make locker rooms and cultures and relationships with head coaches anywhere else. And then look at New England, where, like, they've done an amazing job handling that for two decades.

Did you take notes, Josh McDaniels? Like, do you know how to get that done? Because the stars that you have in the building, you have to keep in the building. Remember, the Raiders are, like, in terms of, like, ownership, Mark Davis, I'm one of the more, forgive me, one of the most cash-for franchises there are.

It is hard for them to sign big deals, big guaranteed money and free agency. So right now, if you have quarterback on an extremely team-friendly deal, Derek Carr, I believe it's like the last year, functionally the last year of his deal, plus Star Devante Adams, plus Star-Dan Waller, this has to work.

It has to work now, right now, or things are going to get really wonky in terms of who stays, who goes, what that looks like over time. And so, yeah, the personnel management, the human resources, the handling of an individual is such an important part

of being a head coach in a world where there's so much visibility on players, so much visibility on interactions and anybody can take to IG Live and air some dirty laundry at any moment. Like, it's such an important part of the job. And that's a huge thing for McDaniels who like, it's not that we think he's bad at. It's just we don't know what he's got in that regard coming from a place like New England where it was such a huge part of their culture there, but like a very quiet

part of their culture. Yeah, I've made the joke before, but I think he had a great PR campaign, you know, the likes of like Mike McCarthy, like there was just kind of, kind of a lot of stuff written and giving good access and really shaping this narrative that he learned under Belichick when he went back and hey maybe that will all be true. I'm not saying it's definitely going to be false, but I just need to see it, you know, see it before. I believe it. And the other thing you mentioned with Carr, yeah, they redid his contract. No guaranteed money beyond this year. So that kind of flew under the radar. I was like, oh, okay, they've got

car. They're committing to him. Nope. No guarantee. So now not all of, not only is that interesting with the Raiders, that's interesting with a league-wide ripple effect when we're looking at who's the veteran who could be moved next off season, if things don't go well this year, he's probably at the top of that list. All right, give me your last one. What do you got? Yeah, so this one, it's like, you know, it's poor grammar, but it's a good question. Aaron Rogers question mark, which is just what Aaron is at this point, right? Like, that's just what, for the last two years, it's been Aaron Rogers question mark.

And I'm still at Aaron Rogers question mark. I know that Rogers has generally done a good job in his career of, like, slapping this thing together with a couple of veteran wide receivers that nobody thought was going to actually be that productive and like, you know, like, I don't mean to like disparage James Jones,

but like James Jones, if we're just throwing him in there and he's going to have eight touchdowns. Sick. Like they just think he can just get it done. Maybe it's the fact that like I wasn't covering the league then and I am covering the league now, but I look at this receiver room and I'm like,

okay, this is like two point out. You know what I'm saying? This is truly like a next level challenge in terms of I'm such a smart cerebral quarterback and I'm so detailed that I can get this to, work with all of these dudes. Like, yeah, just put Sammy, Randall and Alan out there, and I'm fine.

That's bananas to me. So, like, that's question one. Question two. That Jordan Love contracts ticking. We only got a couple years left with Jordan Love on the money. So we, for every year that Rogers decides to continue to hang around, for every game that Rogers continues to look like the back-to-back MVP, he's going to start to force a conversation about love.

And he's going to force conversation about should we trade him now? well, he still has a rookie contract. Should we, you know, we have to let him walk when he hits his extension. And if we do have to let him walk, we do have to trade him, the same logic by which we picked Jordan Love a few years ago, it still applies.

Like, yeah, he's one MVP, but he's also 40. And because he's Aaron Rogers and he's developed this little ayahuasca relationship with the world, he could be gone anytime, baby. Like, Aaron Rogers retiring tomorrow, how surprised would you be scale 1 to 10? I'd think a 6.

Like, it wouldn't be that surprising because he's an extremely erratic person. I don't know what to expect from him next. This puts the Packers in an extremely tricky spot. I puts Rogers in a very weird spot. And I want to know, like, I want to see what they look like this season from an offensive perspective purely because like the football of it is interesting. Back-to-back MVP, really bad receiver core. He's dealing with some injuries on his offensive line.

Kind of how can he account for this? But it's also interesting because like, I know we've said this before and maybe listeners are just jaded and they don't want to hear it. But, like, if there is a season that's going to piss Rogers enough that something happens, man, it feels like this one, right? Devante won it out. He's kind of won back-to-back MVP's and he still hasn't won a championship here in Green Bay. Like, they're investing crazily in the defense. What if they go to the divisional round again and they lose another game?

And, like, you know, it's not the defense's fault, but it's also not Roger's fault. Like, Rogers was not great in that Niners game. But nobody left that game being like, Rogers is the reason they lost. They invested more in defense because they continue to be like, Rogers is fine. Like, it's good, whatever. Eventually, you reach a water's edge there. And I, you know, I continue to think that it's right around the corner because Rogers has made me feel that way.

And so one of my big questions for like the season, but also for the day and for the week and for the year and for the next offseason and for forever is just like, what's the next domino with this dude and this really weird quarterback situation in Green Bay? Yeah, he's definitely always interesting. There's no doubt about that. And I've got them, you know, I, there was a point where I was thinking about having the Vikings. win that division and I just kind of finalized my stuff yesterday and I couldn't get there. So I've still got the Packers winning that division. But I do have them losing in the divisional round. I mean, just for what you said. I do not buy that you just lose Devante Adams, barely do anything to replace him and all of a sudden the offense looks the same. No,

how many times did we just see a third down? All right, back shoulder to Devante Adams. Oh my God, that's uncoverable. That's so unfair for the cornerback. Guess what? That's not in your back pocket anymore. That makes life a lot harder. So even if it's just a little bit of a slip to you're not a top three offense, but you're like the eighth best offense. Well, that matters. And so we will see. I think they'll still be a good team. But, man, I have a hard time seeing their ceiling as a Super Bowl team. And you're absolutely right. I mean, anything is in play with Rogers. His bank account looks good. They kind of have taken the Packers to the cleaners over the last few years with the contract restructure. So he's not hurting there. He seems happy in life with

some of the things you alluded to. But in terms of whether this is a Super Bowl team, and if it's not, What does that mean for the future? That's absolutely a great question. And that's a great one to end on. This was fun. I think that, you know, we've done a few. I feel like this was our best one. I don't want to rate ourselves.

I'm not going to go back and self-scout and like listen to the ones we've done so far. But I like this. There was some mystery. I think you hit me with some wild cards, which I had to think on the fly, which is always fun. So this was really good. The Ringer NFL show will roll on. Thank you, Ben, for joining me today. Thank you to Stefan Anderson.

I mean, this guy just works. all hours of the day and night, All-Star producer. Thank you to him for producing us today. Additional production supervision by Connor Nevins and Arjuna, Ram Gopal. We will be back with the Ringer NFL show tomorrow. Thank you for listening.