The Ringer NFL Show - The Making of an NFL Conference Champion (Ep. 226)

Episode Date: January 23, 2018

The Ringer’s Robert Mays and Kevin Clark break down Championship Sunday, including how close the Jaguars came to shocking the world (00:30), why this Patriots team is the greatest of all time (03:30), how the Eagles proved they have the best roster in the league (22:00), and who didn’t show up for the Vikings on Sunday (23:30). Then, the guys discuss how hiring Steve Wilks as head coach should lead to a bright future for the Cardinals (34:45), why Baker Mayfield is making this the most fun quarterback draft class in a long time (36:00), and how new Titans head coach Mike Vrabel has a great plan to help Marcus Mariota thrive (39:00). Finally, Danny Kelly joins the show to discuss how Kirk Cousins could be wearing purple in Minnesota next season (41:30), but why this year might have been the Vikings' best chance to win it all (46:00). Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

It's the Ringer NFL show. I'm Robert Mays. Ckeek is the best app for buying and selling tickets to sporting events, concerts, and more for $20 off your first CKeekeek purchase on any gamer sporting event. All you have to do is use promo code Ringer NFL. Dial on the CKeekeek app or go right to Ckeek.com. To the Ringer NFL show, part of the Ringer podcast network. I'm Robert Maze, joined as always by Kevin Clark. Kevin, we almost had two upsets on Championship Sunday.

Yeah, almost. I mean, you were. in Philadelphia. I was in New England. I think they were the perfect games for in the context of what they were. I think the page, I think we all thought the Patriots were going to win. It was nice to see the Jaguars get a nice little run there and put the Patriots in position to do Patriot things. We'll get to that. And then in Philadelphia, I mean, I just kind of liked the idea this was a celebration of the Eagles and a celebration of the city of Philadelphia. It was kind of fun. I mean, I haven't, the last time I remember the championship game being kind of a coronation like that,

where everyone just partied for three quarters, was, I think it was at the Vikings expense as well, that the Giants Vikings 41 and nothing game. I mean, it was a different game than we're used to in championship games, but I thought it was kind of fun to see Philadelphia like that. It was great. I mean, just for them to take it to the Vikings,

it was enjoyable being there. It was funny, in 2013, when Foles had that run with Chip Kelly, I would text Chris Ryan, and I would just text Foles in all capitals. And I'm sad that I've had a couple different phones since then, and it didn't do Foles in all capitals because that was what that was. That was Foles volume turned all the way up. I mean, you can't play a better game.

You got auto corrected out of Foles in all caps. Yeah. Yeah. You know what happened? You know, it's a new phone. I've, you know, had a couple different iPhones since then. So four years is a long time, man. We've upgraded the technology over that span.

Well, four years is a long time, but we're just back for Foles and Brady to be the highest rated quarterbacks in the NFL. which was the case four years ago. We'll dig into the Fools game, everything about those Eagles. We'll also get to some of the coaching higher news and other non-playoff NFL chatter because this is a weird week. We don't have a football game next week. So we got a lot of stuff to talk about, a lot of stuff to catch up on.

Plus, Danny Kelly will join us for his year in review for the Jags and Vikings, both of whom had obviously fantastic seasons. There's incredible stuff, interesting stuff to talk about in regards to team building and their futures, all that stuff. So before we get to any of that, though, let's really dig into what happened on Championship Sunday. And we're going to start in the AFC championship game where Jacksonville almost did the unthinkable and then Tom Brady happened.

About to slide under three minutes to play in the AFC championship. Brady will go under center, white the single back. Brady turns, play action, has all day throwing back of the end zone leaping up, Amandolp. Kevin, you were there for Jack's Patriots in Foxborough. did you actually believe in any point in the first half that Brady was not going to pull this off? When it was 20 to 10,

I mean, specifically after the Dionne Lewis fumble, yeah, of course I did. I mean, at some point, so here's the big number. There are four instances in Brady and Belichick history in which they've erased a double-digit deficit in the fourth quarter.

No other quarterback has done that more than once. No other franchise has done that. more than twice. So there's two sort of contradictory things that make sense only in the context of you watching Brady and Belichick for the last 18 years, which is the completely impossible seems routine. Do not take for granted what we saw on Sunday. And I get a little bit worried when, I mean, worried is the wrong word, but I feel like we sort of gloss over games like that. What we saw on Sunday was remarkable. And because it was the Jaguars, because it was the Patriots, we see, we feel like it was sort of the expected result. But that was a remote.

I'm numb to it at this point. I mean, not just the 12 stitches on his hand. The situational football, the discipline, and we'll get to the penalty stuff in a second. But the discipline, just the execution. I know it sounds boring, but this was Patriots football. And did I expect it? Probably not at one point. But does it make sense that this happened?

Of course it does. This is what the Patriots do. When it was 2010, I was calling Ben Glickman and telling him, what Jaguar stories I wanted to write just in case. I mean, I didn't know, I wasn't sure they were going to win, but it was like,

I would need to start thinking about this. That's a reverse jinx. I mean, it's just one of those things. I just wanted to, you know, throw it out there early so we could get ahead of planning, but it didn't really matter.

I'm, I glaze over at this point. It just, it happened. I was like, okay, the Patriots won again. Like,

I know that it's not boring. I read what you wrote today and you're 100% correct. It's just one of those things that I've gotten to a point where it's difficult for me to appreciate it. And, And that's probably my own fault as both a football analyst and a football fan. It's just like, okay, we're doing this again. I'll land in Minneapolis on Monday and the Patriots will be at media night.

Like, I don't know. It's not boring. It's not at all. It's endlessly fascinating. It's just to a certain degree. New blood is fun. And I would have liked to have seen the Jags in the Super Bowl. Yeah.

I mean, when Barcelona last year, if you're not a soccer fan, they were raised hitting a five goal deficit in a matter of a couple of minutes against Paris. St. Germain. And I talked then about the comparison between Barcelona and the Patriots and that they do historic, unbelievable things that we just take for granted.

And, you know, this idea that if, and I said this in my column this week, if the Eagles had done what the Patriots did and it wasn't the Jaguars, but it was the Vikings, HBO would be making a documentary about it already. They would have greenlit it. And everybody in the press box would have gotten a book deal. But because it's the Patriots, we just sort of say, eh, whatever. I mean, it's incredible. I mean, I remember talking to Rodney Harrison earlier this year. And he said something I didn't believe

at the time. He said, the Patriots were the first people, the first group early, you know, 18, 20 years ago to practice situational football. They were the first people to say, okay, you know, we're just, just going to practice third and eight when they've got four receivers. Let's go after it. And you know, they put time on the clock as well. And you start to see how well the Patriots have mastered the art of situational football. And the longer you go in this game, the more you watch the Patriots, you realize that not only did Belichick probably invent a practicing situational football, but he's reinvented it over and over again. I mean, watch do your job. Watch the Malcolm Butler stuff, that they knew that Malcolm Butler was going to be in position, or at least that

defensive package was going to be in position to stop the Seahawks at the one-yard line. I mean, they know what's coming. I know there's a, there's a spy gate joke in here somewhere, but it's not bad anymore. They know what's coming because they know the situations. If you watch the first half, you know, it was a lot of what we expected from Jacksonville as far as play action goes. They did spread it out to run a little bit, which I thought was a good idea because they hadn't for much of the year.

They were playing with tendencies, and I think that's what you have to do when you're playing a team that's one better than you and two coached by Bill Belichick. The problem was when we got into the second half, the unpredictable things that they did in the first half were the same things they did in the second half, and that makes them predictable. When they're sitting there on first down, lining up in shotgun with four wide receivers and running it, at that point, you know that's why they're doing that. And then when they went heavy, they did that to throw play action. A run from shotgun than a deep pass on every first and second down. That's ridiculous. You go to shock, you go to heavy, and then you use heavy to run play action because they hadn't done that for most of the year. You can put a lot of that on the offensive staff, and I think that's fair.

I also think it's very difficult to come up with varied and complex game plans when Blake Bortle is your quarterback. That's the issue, as I think at a certain point, you run out of tricks because there are only so many that you can pull off when he's under center because you can't just line up and throw it. And that has to be a wrinkle if you're going to have a difficult to predict offense. So that's what they had. They only had two punches. And when you know the exact situation in which those will come, you're going to have an easy time stopping them as the game goes on. That's the problem. The other thing outside of Brady and Amandola, which, I mean, now that Amindola is just etched on to that list of Patriots who've done ridiculous shit in the biggest moments.

Like, now he's there. But the pass rush really slowed down when New England went. tempo. And that was a huge thing. I mean, it changed the game when they couldn't get any pressure. And then when they couldn't get pressure just rushing the passers as they normally would, they started trying to get cute. And that became an issue. On that 3rd and 18, they ran twists on each side, which theoretically would tend to work, but they're slower developing. So now Brady has time on 3rd and 18 to get a ball 20 yards down field and Amandola. Again, it's the Patriots. It's every single tiny detail starts to matter by the end of the game.

And we saw it show up over and over again. I mean, I don't know what to say about Tom Brady. So I'll just talk about Danny Amandola because we've said about Brady yesterday. When I reviewed the weekend, it was like, what am I going to say? Like, he's just Tom Brady. I don't the comparison I made in my column on Friday. I wrote about how the impressive thing about Brady is how many eras he's done it over. You know, I think that people don't realize when he came into the league.

I mean, obviously people realize what Brady was in 2001 when he was just sort of a game manager. Bob Ryan, after the tuck rule game, said that Tom Brady paper cuts you to death. He's a game manager who just does enough to win, that sort of thing. And it's not just that he grew as a passer because everybody grows as a passer. It's that he redefined his style over and over again. He ran vertical offenses and horizontal offenses. He threw outside, he threw inside. He threw to tight ends.

and he threw it. Now he, you know, he had three running backs in the top 15 of past catching DVA this year. The comparison I made was not to Joe Montana or John L.A. or anything. The comparison I made was was to John Glenn, who was a fighter pilot, then a test pilot, then an astronaut. And the reason I made that comparison is because he took what the era gave him and he dominated it. And that's what Brady was. John Glenn started out in an era where there weren't space shuttle, so he just did the best he could, and then he ended up an astronaut. That's what happened.

Tom Brady is a freaking astronaut right now. He is on any planet Tom Brady wants to go to, he can go to right now. Danny Amandola, PFF, put this number out, 145 pass the rating when targeted on Sunday. I saw coming into the game, he had the most receptions in the NFL playoffs without a drop. I think that people had been sort of forgetting about Amandola.

There were a lot of questions. There had been some roster bubble questions. You know, he's injured a lot. But we get into Belichick makes decisions, and they usually turn out correct. Belichick trying to feature Danny Amindola in this game. And I know that they've been banged up, and they certainly didn't have Gronk in the second half.

And that shifts a lot of things. But Danny Amandola as second half hero is not something I saw coming. The most impressive thing about the Patriots, and you just alluded to it with Brady, is just how many different Patriots teams there have been, how many different versions of the Patriots have existed over the 17-year period? And one of the reasons that they are allowed to do that, and they're able to do that, is their stable of players is so deep and so varied that when Grantt goes down and Julian Edelman's already on the sideline for the entire season, you have a middle of the field receiving option. You can go to Danny Amendoa. Remember how good we thought Danny Amendoza was going to be on the Patriots? when he signed that deal. I loved Danny Amindole in St. Louis.

And I watched him a decent amount because I had an affinity for the Rams around that time period because I was in college in Missouri. And the year he had 85 catches as my senior year. So, or my junior year, excuse me. No, the year after I left. Whatever. It doesn't matter. To 2010. It's when I graduated from college.

When he signed with the Patriots, it's like, oh, man, that makes total sense. God, he's going to be good. And the problem was, not that Danny Amadol was bad at football. It's that Danny Amadol's body does not like him. him. He's never played. I mean, he's played 16 games one time since arriving in New England and twice in a nine-year NFL career. He can play. He played 15 times this year. It wasn't a disaster year for him. Agreed. It wasn't a disaster year. It's just that now because they've never played with him, they've moved on. The Patriots do not need Danny Amendoa except when they needed him most,

which that's the Patriots. It's like, okay, this isn't working or I don't have this available to me. I'll do this instead and it will be fine. Without a doubt, I mean, Danny Amandola went from, so opening night he gets 100 yards against the Chiefs in that disaster game. He goes the rest of the year without a hundred yard game. And of course, went 112 yards in the playoffs and then 84 yards and two touchdowns in the AFC championship game. Of course, it was only one option here.

And it was Danny Amendoza breaking out in the playoffs because that's what happens to the Patriots. Here's my question to you. I wrote a column. You know, I had someone recently, I was Roger Sherman, who joked that you can't say anything nice about the Patriots of the ringer

without people thinking that you're trying to suck up to Bill. I actually just had someone, I wrote something nice about the Patriots and someone accused me or compared me to Stephen Miller writing for an audience of one. That's when we did Patriots Week

and everyone was like, oh, we clearly see who. Yeah. We clearly see who programs the material with the ringer. Bill wasn't in that meeting. It's had nothing to do with him.

I need to talk about this for a second. The Patriots, Bill Belichick and Tom Brady just made their eighth Super Bowl, which is as many as any other franchise. Tom Brady has made the Super Bowl in 50% of the seasons that he started. I read you the stat earlier about fourth quarter comebacks in the playoffs. The Patriots are not being written about or praised on either of our ends because of of a vast corporate conspiracy to make the Patriots look good. They are objectively the greatest team of all time.

And if you say anything other than that, you should not be taken seriously. End of my point. It's funny that, like, I was on the internet because I were, I spent a lot of my time during the, during the game at the end. And maybe it was right when it seemed like the Patriots had it locked up. And somebody was just like, I'm over it.

When I was talking about the Patriots, It's like, yeah, I don't get to say that. That's not an option for me. We still have to write things on the website next week. There's no like, I'm sorry, I'm done with the Patriots. I've moved on. Let's write about like the Jags off season, the Thursday before the Super Bowl. Like this, there still is a ton to be interested in and it has nothing to do with who our boss happens to be.

It has to do with the fact that, again, like you said, this is the greatest football team of all time. There's probably a couple things we can say about them. I mean, it's, it's just ridiculous. And I got all these people coming at me saying, I'm not going to watch the Super Bowl because of the Patriots. First of all, there's no evidence that people tune out because of the Patriots. That's, in fact, quite the opposite. People would have turned out of those Jaguar Eagles.

Yeah, you want to watch. I love the Jaguars as a team and as a story. The ratings for the Super Bowl were not going to be higher with the freaking Jaguars, guys. beyond that, I mean, I just do you remember the Broncos Panthers Super Bowl? Yeah, I was there.

I mean, yeah, I know. We went to a Metallica concert together that week. The night before. The night before. I kind of think that you can have a Super Bowl week where there's not a lot of buzz. And that was a good example. You know, I think that the Ravens and Niners

that weekend, that week, the actual story, storylines of the week was saved by Ray Lewis in a deer antler spray scandal and like a weird Harbaugh brothers thing and also Ray Lewis retiring. But like, it's really possible. Obviously, the game is going to get 100 million people no matter what. You and I could quarterback these teams and 100 million people would watch. But the week, you know, the buzz, all that stuff. we need the Patriots for that kind of stuff.

And I don't think people realize, and this is what I wrote this week, I don't think people realize how good they have it in that regard. When the Patriots are gone, and they're just another team, and they're vulnerable to the peaks and valleys, like every other team in the NFL,

we're going to wish we had this sort of team to be the sort of the yearly, the perennial team to try to knock off because I don't know who's next after this. All right, moving a little bit southwest of Foxborough, let's get to Philly, I was on Sunday, where I literally feared for my personal safety because I assumed that the Eagles fans were going to try to tear the city down. And they really did. I mean, they did their best. It's also where Nick Foles stunned pretty much every person who doubted him and his team.

First and 10. They got the ball with Foles under center from the 41-yard line of four-man front. The snap to spin. It's a free flicker. Clement tosses it back to Foles who winds up long-arching spiraled on the far side. Over the shoulder. Catch of the pylon. It's a touchdown. It's a touchdown. It's a touchdown. Touchdown. It's grabbed by Smith. Double teamed over the shoulder. With defenders. Touchdown, Philadelphia. I want to talk about that throw and kind of what it represents in a second. But I want to start with the scene after the game. Just kind of pulled the curtain back a little bit. In years past, you've been able to be on the field post-N-FC championship games.

They didn't let writers on this year in the NFC, but I'd somehow managed to get there. And I was standing right next to Nick Foles and Carson Wentz when they hugged after the game. and, you know, Foles introduced, who was just, like, the happiest person in the world as she should have been. And there was something so incredibly surreal. I wrote this, but about Carson Wentz,

or the cane, and a huge knee brace on the field in an NFC Champions t-shirt. It was so weird. I mean, the fact that he was the player of the season in a lot of ways, especially in a post-de-Shon Watson world, and we figured that when he went down,

the Eagles went with him. and we figured it was over. And the fact that Nick Foles was hugging him as an NFC champion and the Eagles were going to the Super Bowl was just kind of hard to reconcile. And it was an amazing thing. And I think it speaks overall to a conversation we had about the Eagles the entire season. This is the best roster in football. It is the most complete team there is.

And they ran rough shot over this league for 14 straight weeks. And they did it again to the Vikings, the best defense of the league. they just happened to do it with Nick Foles at quarterback. I mean, some of those throws, the throw to Smith, I think, matters because they took that shot when they were already up and they needed to keep their foot on the gas. I think that speaks to Doug Peterson. But the throw that sticks with me wasn't a touchdown. It was the throw to Nelson Aguilar in the third quarter when he rolled to his right and escaped from the pocket and on the run just ripped a laser beam to Nelson Aguilar like 35 yards down the sideline. I was like, who the hell is this guy?

There was nothing that showed he was going to be this person at any point over the last month and a half. And against a team that really was the best defense, he absolutely lit it on fire. I was at the game where Carson Wentz was rolled out for the year. Yeah, against Los Angeles. And Doug Peterson put on this happy face and said,

we're jubilant. And the players did not have any sort of happy face. And there was sort of a doom that, was over them, which is only natural when you lose, not only a starting quarterback, but a guy you really liked who's not going to be able to finish the journey with you. And it would seem, especially after playing a Rams team,

looked pretty good at that point, it would seem like their playoff hopes were dashed. I remember not only me, but a lot of people laughing at Doug Peterson, when he took on that happy face and said, we're ready to move forward with Nick Foles. Nick Foles is not Kurt Warner, but it almost reminds me of people,

laughing in Dick for Meal when Trent Green went down and him saying we're going to rally around Kurt Warner. Obviously, that probably happens in every press conference and it only seems prescient when we look back on it when a team gets to the Super Bowl. But I think in general, credit to Doug

Peterson, but more than that, credit to Howie Roseman. I mean, this roster is awesome. I think we need to have a bigger conversation about how good of a general manager, Holly Roseman is. You know, when did that salary cap piece a couple weeks ago, everybody I talked to said, Hallie Roseman figured out the modern salary cap.

And a lot of it does start with the Andy Reed Joe Banner teams, which Roseman came out. And, you know, signing guys to extensions as early as you can, getting them on discounts, getting guys like Zach Ertz away from the free market as much as he possibly can. But this roster, there's two things that impress me. Number one, third down play design from Doug Peterson, who has Nick Foles looking like Carson Wentz and just the general roster construction. That's what I think of when I think of the Eagles. I thought they'd be really good based on the 22 players and a couple guys behind that that

they had. I turned out to be right. I rarely am. I mean, this team just has very few weaknesses. And the ways that they attacked the weaknesses they did have a year ago were fantastic. Trades, I feel, and I wrote this before the year, that I think trades were going to have an impact on the way the season went because teams are finding out that, giving away draft capital for one or two years of a proven player on a rookie deal is worth

the risk. And you saw that with Ronald Darby. You saw that with Timmy Jernigan. And then the one-year deal is the guys like Jeffrey. They hammered their relative weaknesses from a very strong core. And it filled out the margins of a roster that turned out to be the best in the league. Let's, for one second, talk about what happened in the Vikings. What the hell happened in the Vikings? I think that the third down designs is a really smart idea. And, okay, there are a couple of things. First of all, I think we underrated the Eagles coaching staff. Even though I said they were probably like the third best staff in the league or the fourth after the Rams. Like the Eagles coaching staff is fantastic. But the way they prepared those guys, I thought was super impressive. Lane Johnson

was talking about this after the game. He said that, you know, we know that whoever you point to in that double A gap blitz, they're going to send that guy or they're going to send the opposite guy. So we pointed to the opposite. We pointed to the guy that we knew we wanted to drop out. And that's just really smart coaching. He said that when the defensive ends kind of shrunk down to five technique, which is straight up over the tackle, we knew Harrison Smith was coming off the edge. And you saw that when they picked up

a Corey Comet picked up that blitz on the outside once, and they got a huge third down. The designs on third down are fantastic. And they really do center on earths in those situations. There was one play. It was third and one in the second quarter, and he was lined up in the slot.

Matt Collins was on the right, and they ran a little rubber out just for three yards to get earths that first down. The double move for the field goal speaks to situational football really well. You have 23 seconds, I believe, at the end of the half. You have one time out. What kind of play and what kind of design can you get in that situation to maybe get you into field goal range? And the answer, knowing they're going to be in man coverage most likely based on that alignment is to put Earths in the slot and have them run a little double move. That's not just, it's a perfect confluence of the talents of your players, play design, and knowing situationally when to run them.

And that's everything you saw from the Eagles. It was a perfect game. And in some ways, they've been a perfect team. The only thing that wasn't was their quarterback. And he played like Carson Wentz on Sunday. Without a doubt, I was watching this game in Foxborough in the press box with Aaron shots. And neither of us really could understand exactly how. how it was happening this quickly for the Vikings.

Because, I mean, I think both of us, obviously the home field in Philadelphia does give them a little bit of an edge. But we both expected that Vikings defense to travel. And what happened? I know, okay, Zavi Rhodes is out for one play, and I think that was the Jeffrey touchdown, and that's understandable.

But this was a breakdown on all sides, and I just expected more from the Vikings. And I think the other advantage that the Eagles had the entire game and really what to find the game was what happened up front. They stonewalled the Vikings. I mean, there was no pass rush whatsoever for Minnesota. At Jeffrey touchdown, it was just an example. I mean, Vaitai did just enough. He got driven back by Everson Griffin about seven yards right into Foles's lap, but he didn't.

He stayed between him and the quarterback. He managed to stick in front of him just long enough to give Foles a chance. And then on the other side, you really saw the offensive line injuries show up for Minnesota. I mean, on that first play, Chris Long, on the interception on the pick six, Chris Long wins. He beats Rashad Hill, gets to Keenham's shoulder, and forces a bad throw. You have some kind of complex protection packages because you're trying to be a little creative with some backup line and some guys out of position. David Morgan comes across to try to pick up Barnett on the backside so they can slide protection to the right.

Barnett gets by him. Stripzac pretty much swings the entire game. That defensive line is so good and so deep that they can control games all on their own. The fact that Fletcher Cox is like the third or fourth guy we're going to mention from that game and he played incredibly well, that's who they are.

That in their bones is who the Eagles are, is that front four. And where the Jags got tired when filled up when the Patriots went tempo, guess who ain't getting tired? The seven guys that the Eagles can try it out there whenever they want to. Again, it is a brilliantly constructed football team. Since 2004 quarterbacks have more than 300 passing yards,

three passing touchdowns, and no interceptions in a conference championship game. Tom Brady is one. Pay Manning is the other. Matt Ryan is the third. Nick Foles is the fourth. I understand people are going to think this is a fluke. And in some ways,

it has fluke yellum. to it. Nick Foles, by the way, I believe still holds the record for touchdown passes in a game, so he's known to spike in this scenario. But if you can do that, you're a pretty good quarterback. There's no fluke about that against that Vikings defense. You're at least a decent quarterback deserving of a starting job in the National Football League, and especially this National Football League. It's really easy to say when teams get to this point that, oh, it's a great locker room. Guys love each other. You know when that's true when you're around teams as often as we are.

The Eagles are special. I had not been around that team this year, and I was for three days last week. This is a group that is incredibly close, and just what has been created there is really unique. I mean, it is. It is a unique scenario, and that starts with Doug Peterson. And it really permeated throughout the entire team, both this season and on Sunday. Nick Folle said something really interesting after the game. He said that you know when people doubt you.

They can say the right things, but you know deep down when people believe in you and when they don't. And he said this group did. And it's not only with the treatment in the locker room, it's the way that Doug Peterson called that game. The fact that they came out in the second half and didn't let up whatsoever, came out with a flea flicker to put the game away, that is how you make your quarterback play well. that's how you show him that you believe in him and that they were able to execute that game plan and even try it against this team

I think is the first step in Nick Foles pulling this off. I totally agree. I mean, I think that there's it's hard to say and it kind of gets criticized when you do say it, but I do think there's at this point in the season, especially when it's just marginal differences between the NFC teams, I think confidence and intangibles can go a long way. I agree with you.

I've been around that Philadelphia team. There's an energy to it. I was there the week, you know, it was funny. Doug Peterson had Philadelphia out in Anaheim for a week. And he's busing them to different events and all that stuff. And he said yesterday that that was in preparation for the Super Bowl. That one of the things he wanted to do is get them used to sort of a remote area where they're going. It's not their normal routine or whatever.

So I was with them that week that they were doing a quote unquote dress rehearsal for a Super Bowl. And they seemed completely at ease. They seemed completely normal with the media in the locker room on the practice field. They obviously won that week despite Carson Wentz's injury. And so I'm impressed. I was impressed then. And I'm impressed to see how they handle or interested to see how they handle that going forward. Yeah, it's going to be how that shows up in Minneapolis.

We're going to spend a lot of time at them all, A Mall of America, Kevin. We're essentially going to be at the Mall of America for four straight days, which I feel like is a recipe for going insane. Jason Gallagher wants to do a bit where I walk around the Mall of America and try on every jacket in the Mall of America for video. Very slow news day. The slowest of all news days. That's fantastic. Is there anything else you want to chat about?

I mean, we're going to get into the Vikings future, which I feel is fascinating with Danny. you know, we're going to be able to break down the Eagles in pretty much every single way over the next 10 days. But again, I mean, this is just a total victory for an excellently constructed team and a fan base that kind of deserved it. I mean, this is the best day in Ringer or Sunday was the best day in Ringer history. Like every single person that works on our website loves the Eagles. Legerat Blunt has 10 rushing touchdowns. I forget what the time frame is, maybe in the last five years. and no one else has more than six.

Legerick Blunt, obviously there's a lot of situational implications there. He's been in a lot of, it's since 2013, by the way, just looked it up. But he's been in a lot of situations to make plays for really good teams,

but that's impressive. I'm in on Lagart Blunt. Two plays I want to talk about very quickly, now that you mentioned Lagartalant, before we move on here. The first one is the LaGaripaunt touchdown. Really cool design where they brought Tray Burton back

across the formation to trap the nose tackle. And what the Eagles do better than anyone, I'll likely write about this before the game, is that they get their, I wrote about yesterday, but I'll dig in because it really mixes personnel and scheme really well.

They get their guards onto the second level better than any team I've seen all season. And they do it through design and mobility. So by bringing Burton back across the trap Tom Johnson in that situation, you allow Brandon Brooks to not even think about the man standing right next to him and go up and block Eric Hendricks.

it seems simple, but very few teams are able to do that consistently, and the Vikings do it literally all of the time. Excuse me, the Eagles do it literally all of the time. The other play that I really liked didn't result in like a terrible result. It didn't result in like a terrible play for Minnesota. It wasn't a sack. It wasn't an interception.

But they had a play in the third quarter where, or maybe it was the second quarter, excuse me, where they had Malcolm Jenkins lined up similar to where the Vikings put Harrison Smith pretty often. And they had him blitz off the edge and they mixed that blitz. with a Vinnie Curry, Timmy Jernigan twist on that side. So you have the left tackle focus even more on the inside than he would normally. And that just gives Malcolm Jenkins a runway to bother that case, Keenham throw and make him just toss it to the ground on third down.

Again, situational stuff. The Eagles are excellent on third down. And they roasted a team that have the best third down defense in NFL history. I mean, it's there's really, you can't say enough about how complete that victory was. You really, I mean, it was stunning. Yeah. I don't necessarily believe in momentum because I've seen enough games where it doesn't exist.

It was a great, great example of a game if you believed momentum that you would show people and say, this is momentum. Yeah. I mean, it's from the beginning. As soon as that strips that happened,

it's like, or as soon as the pick six happens, it's like, here we go. I mean, here we go. And again, Patrick Robinson,

another guy they got on the scrap heap for nothing when they needed 17 million corners. The Super Bowl teaches you a lot about the salary cap. It is the right mix of rookie contracts, spending where you need to spend, which both of these teams do, and then absolute bargains. Patrick Chung, you know, on a $8 million three-year contract. Belichick says he's one of the best players in league.

Patrick Robbins is not the scrap heap. I mean, it is, these are two of the most perfectly constructed rosters. If you're a GM and you're not learning from the Super Bowl teams, you should be fired. Yeah, I 100% agree. Patrick Robbins is going to make $775,000 this year. he's one of the reasons that the Eagles are the most complete roster in football. I mean, that's all you need to. Yes.

All right, buddy, let's move on from those games. There's a ton that we'll dig into over the next 10 days here. But there's also a lot of NFL things that have unfolded as the playoffs have been going on. So we're going to do the most important thing that wasn't a conference championship game that's happened over the last few days. Kevin, start us off. I have two very briefly. Number one, I like the Arizona hire of Steve Wilkes. I spoke with Ron Rivera last year about Josh Norman.

And Rivera had some very interesting things to say about Josh Norman's development, how he wanted to basically not follow rules for his first two years. And really, they kept him on because of his sheer athleticism and potential. Wilkes was patient, developed him. And I think that you can't, you know, the idea that you can develop players well in today's NFL or any NFL is very important. And if he can do that for multiple guys on the Arizona defense, then that's a good sign.

I like Wilkes. Also, like Mike Frabble saying that he's going to run the Titans offense as a sort of more college spready thing so that Mariotta can thrive. But my number one is, I don't know if you've seen this, Robert. Baker Mayfield is now just taking like draft Nick tweets that are criticizing him and just holding his phone up. and taking a photo of that and then calling those people out, apparently. That's great. I love Baker Mayfield. It's going to be really fun.

The entire quarterback conversation over the next three months is going to be insufferable in every single way. I just want to mute Josh Allen on my Twitter. I don't want to read anything about Josh Allen until like March 15th. But I really enjoy the Baker Mayfield is going to make it worthwhile in even like small ways. Yeah, without a doubt. I mean, I think quarterback, I think the quarterback narrative in this draft is going to get sort of, I mean, there's a lot of them and they're all close together and they're all are different personalities. And so I think it's going to get, as you said, sort of, I don't know, among the draft nick sort of, sort of vicious. And so I'm glad that Baker Mayfield is here to roast everybody.

I also think that, you know, I think it's good to have, I tried to write this last year. I never did. I mean, we're in an era of unprecedented accountability with any evaluations. I mean, we have our friend here who's tweeting at me that I'm Stephen Miller. And I mean, I just think that it's good to have that sort of accountability. I mean, I think Antonio Brown, after one of his games last year, screen grabbed one of his scouting reports from NFL.com or something that said he had a low ceiling or whatever. I mean, I think that stuff is good.

Our feet should be held to the fire. Our job is to be as good as anybody at these sort of things, these proclamations. And if we're wrong, yeah, we deserve to get roasted. It's our job to be right about these things. I just wish that it would be our job to when we are right. You know, it's like it'd be nice. It'd be nice once in a while. Like, oh, yeah, you got this.

Like, good job for you. That like there's one of those for every 25 of you're a moron. So I agree with you. I just think the ratio is whatever. You're a moron tweets are part of the job. No, I agree. 100%. Trust me.

I'm not complaining about their existence. The Mike Frable thing, I was worried about it initially because I just think that what happens with Mario da and that offense is the most important thing. But the fact, it's possible to have an innovative, just forward-thinking offense with a defensive-minded head coach. I mean, look at the New England Patriots. But I think it was the offensive coordinator hire is going to be very important. The idea that that's what he wants to do offensively and that they might bring in like the guy from Ohio State, that's interesting to me.

I think that that makes sense. And if it's something in that vein, I'm going to like the direction that they're headed because what happens with Mario Deut is the most important thing. And you can pull that off even with a guy who is defensive focused. Two years ago, I went to Tennessee and was trying to ask Mike Malarkey a random, just one quote in a story about how the spread is taking off. and I asked him about the spread offense

and he was so I think you can use the word arrogant he was so arrogant about his philosophy being better than the spread I almost couldn't believe it you can read this story if you just Google Mike Malarkey's spread offense and

my name you probably get it but I was stunned at how dismissive he was of the spread offense the spread offense I think you called me that day perfect NFL offense but it can work man It can work.

I agree. If you have Marcus Marriota, you need to incorporate a number of things from that offense. You either called me or texted me immediately after that happened. Like, you were kind of taken aback by the entire situation. I remember that really well, actually. I couldn't believe it was not supposed to be its own story. No, I know. He made it his own story by being so anti-spread.

All right. Coming up, Danny Kelly will be here to tackle the biggest question for the Jackson Vikings, including who the heck the Vikings quarterback will be next season. It's the Ringer NFL show on the Ringer podcast network. Hey guys, it's Mal and Jason from Bidge Mode. We wanted to tell you about the Ringer's upcoming binge mode rewatchables mashup live event. On Wednesday, January 24th, at Largo at the Coronet right here in Los Angeles. It'll be me, Jason Concepcion, Mallory Rubin, Che Serrano, and Bill Simmons for a high school football spectacular covering Friday night lights and varsity blues.

So put on your shoulder pads. or your whipped cream bikini. Let's go, god damn it! Head to Largo-Dash-L-A.com to purchase your tickets now. Clear eyes. Clear eyes. Full hearts.

Full hearts. Don't snooze. Buy your tickets now for Wednesday, January 24th at Largo at the Coronet in Los Angeles. Yeah. They have the ball at their own 43. In the gun, the quarterback Keenham wiping his hands on that white towel. Leaning over, looks into the nickel.

Now backs up a step, yells out another protection to his line, arms out stretched from his own 40. three gets the shotgun. Stap throws a pass line, drive, near side. It's picked off on the near side by Robinson. 40 down the near side, 40, 35, 30. He cuts and breaks its ankle, runs laterally on the 30. Looking for a block and he gets it.

Across the hash mark. Far side 20. Far side on. Interception return. Touchdown. Philadelphia. Hi, Danny. There's the Patrick Robinson pick six thrown by Case Keenum.

So let's start our year in review for the Minnesota Vikings there with the very unlikely quarter pack conversation. If you would have considered how we'd approach this starting in August. what happens here? I mean, you have three guys that are free agents. Keenham takes a team to the NFC championship game. He looked really good in that system with those players. I mean, what is there to unpack here with that quarterback spot?

Yeah, I mean, I think that's the story of their season, really, is what they were able to do, you know, at the quarterback position, offensively after so many guys went down and they were able to just keep going. And they were still a really, really good offense all year. So, you know, obviously the biggest question. moving forward is who are they going to keep at quarterback? Are they going to keep more than one of those guys too? I think right now it sounds like Keenham is the guy.

And based on what he did all year, I think that's probably the smart move. But, you know, with the different offensive coordinator going forward, how has that changed things? I think that's a big question they have to answer. And, you know, are they looking at what happened in the playoffs? You know, obviously Keenom hit that big throw to win the game against the Saints, but didn't have a great game this weekend and overall just wasn't that sharp kind of down the stretch. And I guess the question is how much does that change things for them going forward

and looking at what they're going to do next year? So I kind of wrote about this when I wrote about the Vikings offense a couple weeks ago in the idea that one of the reasons they were able to succeed without Cook and Bradford is that the stability elsewhere on offense was so strong. You could move those two pieces because all the other pieces were in place. place. The problem now is that with Shermer leaving, you're starting to change some of those pieces. All the requisite players will be back. But if you change the offensive coordinator and you remove a system that made Kay's Keenum so comfortable that allowed him to function, then it's just,

you know, you're starting to pull the Djanga blocks out of the, you know? It's just like you keep going. That's one. All right. What's another one? Say a couple guys get hurt. And the margin for error in the NFL is such that you want quarterbacks who are able to sustain when that situation is not perfect. And it just feels like Case Keenam may be one of those guys that needs an ideal situation. Yeah, I think that's true. And I mean,

from the outsider's point of view, I think, you know, the thing they have to keep in mind when you change coordinators is, is you can try and keep the same system. But like, number one, the play calling changes, like, we've seen so many times over the last couple years. Like, the play caller is

so key just because it's based on like finding mismatches, you know, getting quarterbacks into the flow of the game, which obviously I think Shermer did a really good job over this year with Keenham. And, you know, obviously the language of the offense and all these things. And like you said, the margin for error is so small that, you know, you could kind of make the argument that they'd be just as good kind of burning it all down and trying something new because trying to recreate what they did this year is going to be very, very difficult.

100%. If you had to bet on it, who do you think would be the guy there next year. I think Keenum. I think that they'll probably, I think he earned that chance. And I mean, yeah, but there's so many caveats involved. And that's like what we just talked about. But there's so many caveats that I don't really know. But I think obviously right now, I think the odds on favorites got to be Keenum. Bridgewater, sorry, Bradford's knee is still a big question mark. I don't know what's going to happen with Bridgewater. So yeah, it's, that's one of the most interesting. I mean, we talk about cousins all the time, but this is another really, really interesting situation in terms of what happens with a quarterback situation,

because this is a really good, good team still. Obviously, the defense is elite, so big deal. The quarterback market is interesting to me. It's fascinating. It's unlike any other year in recent memory. The Garoppolo trade removed the Niners, who had 100 million dollars of cap space and also removed Garoppolo from trade talks, obviously.

But you look at cousins, you look at whoever shakes off as a, available from Minnesota. Whoever shakes off is available from, obviously, it's going to be Nick Foles. If the team wants to make a move there. And all of a sudden, I think we were looking at it as cousins or bust, you know, as cousins going to, and we're Alex Smith or bust. Right. And now there's just a lot of ways you can construct your roster. And then beyond that, not that quarterbacks have been diminished at all, but what we've learned this season is you can win with a good defense, a good supporting gas and a decent quarterback. And so not only is it there are a lot of options of

quarterback, there's a lot of options on how to build your team. This isn't 2012. You don't need an elite quarterback to reach Final Four anymore. We learned that list last this year. Obviously, the injuries have changed a lot of things. When Aaron Rogers comes back, when Deshawn Watson comes back, we're going to see a different football, but we know what we saw this year. And so I think GMs have a lot more decisions to make than we anticipated from all aspects. The teams that need quarterbacks. It's an intriguing group because it's not necessarily the worst teams in the league

are the teams at the top of the draft. So we usually have, okay, they're in the top five, they'll pick a quarterback. This is how they'll try to build their franchise. But the teams don't need quarterbacks next year include Denver, Jacksonville, Arizona. I mean, those are teams that

have some flexibility and some rosters that have some pieces like, okay, I can work with this. So now you're considering the draft class that's coming out with all those quarterbacks and a free agent class that includes more viable quarterback options than any I can remember over the last 10 years. So if you're Denver, what do you do? Which of those guys do you want?

Do you draft a guy? There are just so many different ways this can go. The Broncos have $30 million in cap space. Arizona will have 25 with Carson Palmer retiring. Minnesota will have 60, but the Vikings also have a couple of offense alignment to bring back. So just the Tetris of all of this includes way more layers than even like think about last year. My team signed Mike fucking Glennon for $18 million because they had to.

This is not that. And I just think there are so many questions that are going to be answered here over the next two months. Is the Glennon signing the weirdest thing that's happened in like the last decade? God, I hope not. There's a weird sign. Please don't pin me on that. The Seahawks just hired Brian Schottenheimer, Danny. That's the most thing you've ever said on this podcast, Kevin,

and that is a long list of things to choose for. That's actually not true. That's not true. There's a long list of mean things that said on this podcast. Let's pivot back to the Vikings here, because obviously that's what we're trying to hone in. So in Minnesota outside of Keenham, I think the guys that they're going to have to look at

is, again, that offensive line stability that they had this year didn't have last year. So when Nick Easton got hurt, it really changed the complexion of that offense because they had to move Remmers over to guard and they put in Rashad Hill. And we saw Rashad Hill show up over and over again on Sunday in two different ways.

One, he's getting roasted by Chris Long for game-changing interceptions. And two, they had to max protect a lot with Rudolph in order to bother him and that kept only a couple guys out in routes and you can't do that against a really good defense. So what are they going to do? Easton's a free agent.

Joe Berger's a free agent. So now, again, one more Django block comes out. And it's just, it really seemed like with this offense, considering how expensive it's going to be to retain a bunch of those defensive players, this might have been the year. This might have been the year where they had their best shot because now you're looking at Anthony Barr on his fifth year option. You're probably going to want to resign Anthony Barr, right?

I mean, the good news is the salary cap is going to keep going up, right? Like there's going to be another like huge explosion in the salary cap. So in theory, they should be able to keep some of the like main guys that they want to keep. Sure, Danny. But we, the salary cap's been going over the last several years. And guess what team no longer can pay any offensive players because all their defensive players are expensive? And now they're going to have to start losing them. Yours.

Also, also the salary cap is going up for everybody. Yes. So spending is going up also. Yeah. So everybody can afford to just say, okay, I'm going to give Anthony Bar. or $5 million more than I normally would. That's the problem, is that when you have this complete of a defense, eventually you have to pay that defense.

And it's going to be really difficult to kind of have the flexibility and free agency that they did say this year when they were able to go out overpay Reef and Remmers because they needed those spots. They have $57 million, and that's a lot to work with. But they have $57 million without a quarterback. That is a huge bite that's getting to get taken out of that if they choose to bring one of these guys back. And then it's like, okay, where do we go? Also, if you're the Vikings, okay, theoretically here, why not call Kirk Cousins? Why does it have to be Keenum?

Yeah. Well, I, your bid, your, the problem, the problem is, Robert, is if he reaches the open market and he doesn't want to sign with the Redskins, he's bidding, you're bidding against teams with over $100 million in cap space. Totally fair. So I think, I think you end up losing I think you end up losing that and then it gets into do you want to, do you really want to waste a couple of weeks going back and forth or a couple of days going back and forth when you could be looking at other priorities? I think from a roster construction standpoint, it makes a lot of sense. But, I mean, the Browns or even the Jets could just give him an absolute godfather offer.

Yeah, but here's the deal. I was actually just looking at this this morning. I saw a good article on NFL.com about what Scott. McCloughan was kind of reading into what was going to happen with Cousins. And he, I'll just read you the quote. He says, I can promise you this. Cousins has done his homework, probably too much about each roster, who his receivers are, who his backs are, who is, who is O. Lyman are, who the coach is, not just the head coach,

the coordinator position coach system they run. I promise you he has a notebook after notebook for each team. Ding, ding, ding. He's very intellectual about knowing what's going best for him or what's best for him. He understands he's getting older. He's been in the league a little bit. He wants to win. I know that.

So doesn't that kind of take a lot? A lot of teams out. Stefan Diggs and Adam Thiele are pretty good. I mean, the Vikings would look really good because they have two number one receivers, first of all, obviously, an elite defense that's going to give him, you know, low scoring games. He's not going to have to throw the ball 50 times a game. So I don't know. The Vikings look pretty damn good.

Obviously, the Jags do also, which we'll talk about. By the way, Cousins has said many times that he doesn't want money to dictate this. Having said that, the Browns have $52 million more caps base. and we, I have said many times in my career, money, when I dictate where I go, but if someone wants to offer me like $15 million more than I currently make, I'm going to accept that. That is fair.

All right, buddy, let's dig into the Jags here a little bit. I mean, obviously just one of the more crazy, one of the crazier stories of the year. I mean, just how they built this team, everything else. What's going to stick with you most about this Jaguar season? Well, I think number one is they, finally, to me, the narrative of the season is they finally kind of lived up to their potential and did what everyone expected them to do. I think early in, like, you know, last off season,

all of us were like, okay, I'm not going to pick the Jaguars again because we've been talking about how they have all this talent for the last like two or three years. And they finally put it together. I think obviously Campbell was, you know, a huge addition for that defense. Obviously, AJ Bouillet, too. And they totally changed their identity on offense. which kind of put it around Leonard Fournett, you know, took Blake Bordell's out of the equation as much as possible for most of the year, and they really just kind of changed their identity.

So, you know, to me, the big story is them finally kind of taking that big jump that we've all been expecting for the last couple of years. I mean, they've always had some talent, but they finally put it all together this year, and, I mean, they almost made the Super Bowl. They were so damn close to making the Super Bowl. It's kind of crazy. What happens with this quarterback?

situation. Yeah. And that's a big question. Way more interesting than to me than what happens with the Vikings just because the flexibility isn't there. You don't have the options because we talk about the Vikings defense getting paid eventually. There's no eventually when it comes to the Jags defense. Those dudes are paid. I mean, there is so much money in that group that it becomes difficult to figure out what exactly the Jaguars are going to do. People talk about how there's no way they lose Alan Robinson. How do you figure, man? I mean, even if they cut Bortals, which I assume they will. You're at $36 million and you don't have a quarterback.

And this isn't a situation where you would say, okay, they'll trade up and draft one. Because if you're Jacksonville right now, it's now. You are right there right now. Are you really going to spend two years getting there with a rookie quarterback? This isn't even the Eagles when they traded for Wednesday two seasons ago. The Jags, the rest of the Jacks roster for the most part is where the Eagles roster is now, not where it was in the spring of 2017. So, or excuse me, the spring of 2016. So you have $36 million to work with, and you need a quarterback that's going to help you win a Super Bowl tomorrow. And that is a really difficult needle to thread.

Kevin, what do you think? I mean, do you think that they've got to go out and get one of these guys that's on the cheaper side? Obviously, they're not in the cousin's conversation just because if you signed him, you wouldn't be able to do anything else. But there are people out there in the Sam Bradford vein, whatever, that you could probably get at a relative discount. that could put you in this position again. Because they went out, they did go all in on this defense for this year in a couple of ways. They're not going to have the $100 million in cap space

that some of these guys are, or even the $50 million. There are $25 million this year, okay? I think it comes down to, does a quarterback want to take a discount to play with that defense? Does Alex Smith say, okay, I made $10 million dollars last couple of years, I'm only going to make, you know,

9 million, 8 million this year or take a two-year deal, whatever, because I want to win a Super Bowl. I think that's what they should do first is see if there's a guy like that who wants to just win now, buy in on, you know, not take up all the cap space

and just figure that out. Bortles is not worth 19 million. Danny, I'm sorry. Our quest to see him sign a Joe Flacco-esque mega contract is going to fall a little bit short. really too bad. How are you coping with that?

I mean, it's devastating. It's completely devastating. Yeah. Is this like the Malcolm Bueller interception for you? Just like the worst thing it's ever happened, Bortle's not getting a $100 million contract. Yeah. So, yeah, I mean, I think that that's where you go from.

I think it's exactly what we said. There are so many decent quarterbacks floating around who likely are probably upgrades on. Bordels. I mean, I think because he played while the last two games, we forget. Remember that Buffalo game? I mean, there were just screens he wasn't hitting. And so I worry a little

bit about that and how that's going to shake out. So, I think that at the very least, they bring in some quality competition next year and have an upgrade. Who that is depends on a million different things. It would be mystifying to me

if they spent literally almost the entire season, apart from like three or four games, designing an offense meant to like take him out of the equation. And then they go and give him $19 million. There's no way. I just can't see that happening. You just can't do it. I mean, when you're paying Marcel Darius 10.2, you can't give Blake Portals $19 million.

Their salary cap is just so strange. Looking at it is just a weird experience. 17 and a half for Campbell, 15 and a half for Jackson, 15 and a half for Boyer, 11.8 for Telvin, 10.2 for Marcel Darius. It's like, oh my God. Like, how is this even possible? And what they do, I cannot wait to see how it all shakes out. The other question for me with them and who's kind of end this here is who's going to

that quarterback is going to throw the ball to because every single one of their major receivers is a question going into next season. Marquisley and Alan Romiton are both free agents. And Alan Hurons is under contract, but it's $7 million and none of it is guaranteed. He was not a big part of this team over in this 2017 season. Paying him $7 million may not be the smartest thing when, again, you have to figure out what you're going to do a quarterback. The other guy that is clearly not going to be there next year is Chris Ivory at 6.9. I'm sorry, Chris.

I'm best of luck to you in your future endeavors. So, yeah, I mean, man, this team over, I mean, it's been a fun team all year to talk about. And the fact that looking at their salary cap situation going into next year and the fact that they don't have a quarterback, it just continues that conversation. Yeah, I think they're going to be one of the more fascinating teams to watch. of the offseason. I think, I mean, your point to Chris Ivy, like, Corey Grant looked pretty exciting.

T.J. Leland looked good. Also a free agent. Oh, is he? Yeah. Okay, well, that, yeah, there you go. They've got some things that they need to address. It's going to be a cool offseason. Absolutely.

It's going to be a Glennon type off season. All right, Danny. Glennon defined off season, yeah. That's all we got for you. We will obviously talk to you a bunch here over the next week and a half or so before the Super Bowl. And we appreciate it, buddy.

All right. Sounds good. All right, Kevin. Before we get out of here, Let's offer our lasting impressions from the championship round. What's going to stick with you? Tom Brady, Tom Brady. Yeah.

I mean, I just don't know what you say about the guy. I said it earlier. He makes the impossible look not only routine, but something we just gloss over. If any other quarterback did that, we would think we would be talking about it all week. And because Tom Brady did it, and Tom Brady gets a lot of credit.

Let's be clear. But because it's Tom Brady, it just seems routine. And I think that's the biggest testament to what he's done over the past 18 years is that he just destroys win probability. By the way,

I got some tweets that the Patriots had a 15% win probability around the time of Lewis. That's when we knew it was over. We had dueling rule of 15%, by the way. I don't know if anybody saw this,

but the Eagles had a 15% chance of winning the Super Bowl. at the beginning of at the beginning of the playoffs that was tweeted at me and then the Vikings had a 15% chance of winning the game at halftime and so those two things can't see each other out

and the better team won. The Rule 15 was not in play of the NFC championship game. What's going to stick with me is that better team. We've talked about this a lot over the course of the podcast, but I felt like the pick six

was a perfect example and they showed up often throughout the game but the fact that Chris Long was the one who created the pressure. The fact that Patrick Robinson was the one who picked it off. The fact that Ronald Darby was the guy who threw the block that got him into the end zone. All guys that the Eagles got this offseason that have been instant contributors for him.

And again, in several different ways. Chris Long, bargain contract because he wanted to play in that system with that defensive line. He's told me that. Patrick Robinson on the scrap heap because he just had been not that great in other stops in a perfect situation as that slot corner in that defense. Darby, trade. You go get him because they really needed to hammer corners. Jordan Matthews was not going to be a part of that team.

You'd much rather have two years of Ronald Darby than four years of a second round pick that you don't know who it's going to be. The Alshan Jeffrey touchdown. Foles, another free agent they signed this offseason. Alshan Jeffrey comes in on a one-year bargain deal, signs an extension. That's a huge play.

Throw to Tori Smith, free agent acquired this offseason. Every single big moment involved players that the Eagles went out and got this spring. Jeffrey Lorry said something really interesting. He said that we were aggressive on the trade deadline because we asked, why not us? And that's exactly what the Eagles did the entire offseason. Even before trading a fourth round pick for Ajai, you clearly, through their roster construction and approach, saw them saying to everyone that would listen, why not us?

And they did, they hit every single one. Smith hasn't been great, but he showed up in the biggest moment of the season. Foles wasn't needed until he was. this is a complete roster top to bottom and it's really impossible to overstate how good a job that front office did over the past year. Without a doubt, I mean, this is Hallie Roseman's team. No other way to put it.

All right, buddy, that's it for today. We'll be back on Thursday with one of my favorite shows or award show. As Kevin knows, I am a big awards guy. As always, thank you for listening to the Ringer NFL show on the Ringer podcast note. Thanks, guys.