The Ringer NFL Show - The Seahawks Spoil Russell Wilson’s Homecoming and Big Takeaways from Week 1

Episode Date: September 13, 2022

Sheil and Ben get together to share their reactions to the Seahawks’ big win over the Broncos on ‘Monday Night Football.’ Next, they debate whether Justin Jefferson is really as good as he looked during the Vikings’ win over the Packers or if Green Bay just has a horrible defense (20:07). They then statistically dissect both Josh Allen’s and Patrick Mahomes’s Week 1 performances to show how their respective teams’ offensive schemes have improved since last season (33:25). Conversely, Ben is seeing deficiencies in Justin Herbert and the Chargers offense, (44:45) while Sheil predicts a dismal future for the Cowboys after Dak Prescott’s injury (56:51). They end the pod by delivering their weekly Extra Points (1:02:44). Hosts: Ben Solak and Sheil Kapadia Production Supervision: Arjuna Ramgopal and Conor Nevins Production Assistance: Chris Sutton Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Hey everyone. This is Chris Ryan from The Ringer. As many of you have heard by now, we lost a treasured colleague and friend over the weekend. Jonathan Charks passed away on Saturday. John was 34. He leaves behind a wife and a son, and we are obviously mourning his loss and sending all of our love to his family right now. If you go to the ringer.com slash Jonathan Charks, that's J-O-N-A-T-H-A-N-T-J-A-R-K-S. You will find a memorial page for John, which has links to his GoFundMe that benefits his family. family and the amazing writing he did throughout his experience. I encourage you to go there, and if you can, please support the Charks family. Briefly, I will just say that John was among

the first people that we hired to work for the ringer. So he was instrumental in defining the voice and perspective of the site. He has as much to do with what this place is as anyone else. And throughout his experience with cancer, John communicated eloquently about the challenges he was facing, both through his writing and his podcasting. You could never stop John from talking about his passions. It's one of the things I loved about him. Over the last few months, you know, whenever we would talk, whenever I would reach out to see how he was doing, I would try to keep it very John focused. And the next thing I knew we would be talking about James Hardin or Better Call Saul. He really loved this stuff. He loved talking about it, celebrating it, debating it,

illuminating it. We're going to keep putting out our pods and writing while we grieve. But we wanted to let folks know that John was in our hearts and that his family was in our thoughts. Thanks for listening. the ringer NFL show, Shield Capadia, joined by Ben Solac, the adrenaline is flowing. We just watched the Seattle Seahawks

pull off the upset. 17 to 16. This show is not just going to be about that game, but we are absolutely going to lead off with that game. Ben, we could do like

two hours on just that I mean, Bucks Cowboys was such a dud on Sunday night, and then Seahawks Broncos comes back and just delivers an absolute gem. Unbelievable. I tried to tell the people, man.

Listen, Gino's going to let them run the sort of offense they want to run. They got weapons, defense a little bit better than people realize. Russ not necessarily set yet in his first game, in his first offense in Denver. With that Seattle crowd, man, it just smelled upset. It smelled bad, ugly, gross game.

Now, Denver should have won this game. They should have won it nine different times and 11 different. ways, but I will still take the, the W on the overall prediction. This was Seattle Super Bowl the season, baby. You go, you go one in 16, go get you the first overall pick and the one team you beat was the Denver Bronco Russell Wilson team. Yeah, that's a good season right there, man. That's good work. So the format of this show is going to be very simple. We're going to be doing it every Monday night all season long. It's going to be awesome. And we're each just going to come into this with three takes we have on the week that was with an eye towards the future. And that's

it. We're coming in blind. I don't know Ben's takes. He doesn't know my takes. We're going to fire them at each other back and forth, three each and then we'll do an extra point at the end. Either one of us will give the final take or we'll both do it. We'll figure that part out. But if there's a big Monday night game, then we start with the Monday night game. My take is very simple. Nathaniel Hackett, my guy. Yeah, my guy. You trade the entire franchise for Russell, hustle, Wilson. I mean, you're out of QB purgatory.

You're building the offense around him all summer. You sign him to a $245 million contract. And then with everything on the line, Nathaniel Hackett, fourth and five from the 46, you pull him off the field and you're trying to 64-yard field goal? No, no, you cannot do that. That was killing me everything you gave up for Russell Wilson. The salad, it's a 64-yard field goal. There's not a 52-yard field goal. It's fourth and five. It's not fourth and 17. That will be the talking point in Denver. I imagine there are 30 talking points, but that's got to irk you if you're a Broncos fan. I didn't even think it was a

possibility. I'm going, okay, they're calling time out. They want to get the right play. Nobody was thing. We're not in Denver. If you're in Denver, you start to do maybe the 60 yard field goal because there's no oxygen in Denver. So balls just like flying to the stratosphere. I don't really get the science. I'll just know if the balls go further. You're in Seattle. There's no, there's no reason at any time to be like, well, let's just kick the 64 yarder. There are sometimes you're like, all right, we're kicking the 64 yarder. Like Justin Tucker ended the game against the Lions last year. It's like, this is all we got. One second. No time. This is everything.

This is the only thing we have. There was over a minute on the clock when fourth down started. They burned 40 seconds to take a timeout to take a 64-yard field goal. Have you been on a sideline before? I mean, how do you even review the film of this game if you're the Broncos? So that is my big takeaway. I mean, that is like number one. That is such a rough decision to make in your head coaching debut there with so much on the line.

Listen, the Broncos are playing in the AFC West. You can't just be giving away games where you're, what, six and a half point favorites against the Seattle Seahawks. These games are going to matter when it comes down to it. And if you're going to go down, go down swinging with the guy you traded for, with the guy you paid. You didn't do it. So that to me is the big takeaway from Bronco Seahawks. But honestly, Ben, we could have 10 other topics on Broncos. I mean, this Broncos offense was moving the football, baby.

433 yards. They were going up and down the field. if they could just punch it in from the one yard line, one of those two times, so many failures, so many opportunities for Denver. And really, this could be a game where we're like on here, week 17, and we're going, man, if the Broncos would have just come through in that week one game,

they'd be sitting here with the wild card spot. That one has to hurt for them. Four drives inside of the Seattle 20 that end up not scoring touchdowns. You have the opening drive, which is a field goal. They had a first and 10 from the 18. They ended up not picking up any yardage, they kicked it out. They kicked from the 12. They had the field goal to in the second half.

They had a field goal. They got to, yeah, they got to the three, first and three from the three. And then that went all the way to the eight. They lost yardage. That was when it was still 17, 13, right, late in the fourth quarter. So they had the ability to go for it there. Those two field goals magnify the mistake of those two. This is why it's like when you get into the low red zone, you have to get seven, not three.

Because sometimes you get to low red zone and the ball pops out, right? Like Melvin Gordon on fourth and goal is reaching for the goal line, whatever. The Javante Williams one is like he gets collision on his arm and the ball. It goes flying. You know what I'm saying? Like football is a game of coin flips. It's a game of a lot of randomness and chance. So when you have first and 10 from the 18, when you have first and goal from the three,

you need to be able to score touchdowns there because the next time you're here, something wonky might happen. The Broncos' offense looked good. The Broncos situational football was horrendous. Oh my gosh. Red zone play in terms of third down play, right? Like they put up the stat like Ross Wilson, eight third downs. He's seven for eight. Yeah, with four conversions, they're thrown behind the sticks. Right. The sin on fourth and five of going for the 64th year field goal after a 40 second runoff and a timeout is horrible. Equally as egregious is third and 16 checkdown to Giovante Williams relative to that decision. You're the way your quarterback behaves on third and 16 is informed by what he expects to

happen on fourth down like all right. Yes. You know, if we get if we get fourth and one, are we definitely going for it? If we get fourth and five, are we definitely going for it? If we get like fourth and ten, obviously we have to because we're, that's a 71 yard field goal. But what about fourth and five? Like, well, in that range, what are we doing?

If there's not clarity, head coach, down to play, call it down to quarterback, you're going to get third and 14th, you know, little checkdown route to Javante Williams. He picks up nine and then you burn 40 seconds because nobody really knows what you're supposed to be doing. The regular delay of game penalties. I'm sorry, did Russell Wilson not tell you what Lumen Field is like?

Did he fail to inform you how the crowd in Seattle generally works? He was there for a decade. Oh, you're running hurry up, no huddle. Like, oh, Russell Wilson wants to run tempo. He never done this before in his career. So the easy stuff, the little stuff, the details that, like,

Like, all right, it's a first time head coach, but it's a decade-long starter. This should have been handled. When you were spending time gas bagging up how cool your new offense was, maybe you should have been working on your situational ball. Oh, my gosh. It's so far. I've never seen a up-tempo, no huddle where every play, the play clock got down the three to one. I mean, I understand wanting to see what the defense is and making some checks at the line of scrimmage.

But my gosh, it was snap after snap after snap. And yeah, you're right. There are points in this game where I'm going, wow, they're scheming up a lot of easy throws. Like, they're picking, they're taking the gimmies. They have a lot of yards here. They had eight drives. Is that right yet? Eight drives.

And they were in Seattle territory on seven of them. Yeah. They had one punt. They punted one time. They scored 60 points. And 60 points and lost the game on a missed 64-yard field goal. This drive chart is unbelievable. In the second half, you know, it tells you the last.

line of scrimmage you were at. They were at the Seattle one, the Seattle one, and the Seattle eight, those three drives netted three points. I mean, that has to be some kind of record. I'm not going to look it up. Someone will look it up. That is unbelievable. But you made the great point, which is that in the AFC West, this is a problem. The Denver offense was good. It was working. And like, the fact that it was working through the backs and tight end targets and like underneath stuff and screens, I think it's a really good sign. They were able to get some of the Green Bay stuff into the building. I think

that you're going to get Cortland Sutton winning on more reps. You're going to get like they have the Jerry Judy isolation route. I think this thing came together nicely in terms of the pieces that they pulled from different places. I think you have proof of concept that your passing game works. However, if you're going to total over 400 yards of offense, put a

win on the board because you're going to need 12 of them to win this division. And that's the frustrating thing, right? Is that like you got the big strokes. You got the broad strokes right on offense. This This looks like it can work. And then like 17 points on defense, like I don't think the Seattle offense is going to be a weekly powerhouse. But like a 17 point output by your defense is a good game.

You wasted one. You wasted a good offensive performance and a good defensive performance with poor situational football. And in doing so, you're now 0 and 1 in the loss column. And like, oh, it's week one. Like the Russell will something, everything. Yeah. But oh and one is already a whole year to dig yourself out of one of Chargers chiefs is going to be 2 and 0 by Thursday night. Yeah.

This thing, this AFC West is moving. This are four very good playoff caliber teams. You can't be dropping silly games that you should have won because generally, you outplay the other team. By EPA per play, like this is an amazing game from Russ. You would not know looking at the scoreboard and feeling the flow of the game that that was the case. And I want to give the Seahawks credit in a minute, but I do want to talk about Russ a little more because I know we'll say,

okay, it's always the Russell Wilson offense regardless of the coordinator. I did think this style is different though. I mean, Russell Wilson's mobility, I did not, you know, if that was a big concern coming into the season, which it was for a lot of people and it was for the Seahawks, as they've said. I did not think he looked especially mobile in this game when he was trying to escape when he had the quarterback draw. He was not making a lot of those plays outside of the structure of the offense. Like the plays he was making outside of the structure of the offense were the ones where, you know, he stays in the pocket, kind of his eyes drop.

He's like, okay, I'm not getting hit. I'll take a couple more steps back. I'll buy some time that way and make a play. But I felt like there was a lot of sort of structure in this game plan with the bootlegs, with the play actions, with the screen game. I mean, what did they run? Like 17 running back screens, which the Seahawks, any Seahawks fan will tell you for 10 years, they could not execute a running back screen.

I mean, it was a disaster every single time. And so he was almost like an executor in this game more so than a playmaker, which is not what we're used to seeing with Russell Wilson. Again, it's only one game. There's that caveat. But that to me was my big takeaway. You're cracking up. You're always so, you know, you're always checking Twitter when I'm potting with you.

The Gen Z. Always checking Twitter. Gen Z. Completely disrespectful, you know, the co-host. You young, you guys can't spend two minutes off of Twitter. All right, what do you got? I am justified because Richard Sherman and Doug Ballwer out here to be in wild messy in the immediate wake of a Russell Wilson loss in Seattle.

So yes. All right, that's worth it. Yes, exactly. we have Richard Sherman quote tweeting his own podcast quote can't fool the city boy they know what's up from Drake. He tweeted the Jack Nicholson slow nodding yes thing earlier in this game. Will Blackwin said I need to see Hackett's red zone call sheet and Richard Sherman quote tweeted and said he's adjusting to his personnel. Oh my God. Come on.

He handed the ball off that. That cannot be Russell Wilson's fault. Richard Sherman would know what happens if Russell Wilson throws at the goal line. What happens when Russ was at the goal line? Richard Sherman's very aware of the result of that play. He had one of those tweets also. Yeah, during the game. Brian Baldinger?

I never know it's a hard year. Baldi. Baldy, uh, tweeted the halftime stat right down of Russ versus Gino's when Gita was 17 for 18 at the half and said, who would have thought? And Sherman quote tuned and said, I don't know, dot, dot, dot, but I can't wait until my next podcast. Oh my gosh.

And then Doug Baldwin just tweeted the gift of the sassy cheerleader looking at somebody being like a sassy cheerleader. I don't even know what emotion that is convinced. all I know is I love mess. I love Slop. I disparage every person in my life who watches reality TV. And then the moment NFL games get into reality TV, I'm all the way in on it. We should have the Seahawks and the Broncos play each other every single week.

And we should have Richard Sherman and Doug Baldwin as the commentators. Well, listen, if you love mess and you love Slop, then Gino Smith's performance was not for you tonight. Because the, you know, I feel like we're cheating. Like Stephen Ruiz should be hosting this podcast. So shout out to Stephen Ruiz. And Greg Rosenthal of NFL network, the two biggest Gino Smith, truthers, I don't even know what we want to say, you could find. I imagine they're somewhere just smoking a cigar with like a robin just celebrating and basking

in this. Listen, there have been games, there were games last year or there are games where the football hipsters will try to convince you someone played well and they didn't play well. That was not this game. Gino was on fire. 13 for 13. 17 for 18. At halftime.

I mean, stepping up. in the pocket on that first touchdown. Escaping pressure, accurate, not making big mistakes. D.K. Metcalf had the fumble. Gino Smith did not have any interceptions. He did not turn the football over. He was sacked two times. He was making plays with his legs.

I mean, the quarterback draw with Gino Smith. I did not see coming. I don't know if it's going to last all season, but all the Gino Smith truthers out there, enjoy this. Pete Carroll enjoy this. I mean, you're right. This was like probably Pete Carroll's perfect game. The chaos.

The fumbles inside the one. anything if they could have just run the ball a little bit more, maybe pinned a punt inside the five. This is his ideal football game. He gets to basking it. The Seahawks were entertaining. Let's see if they're entertaining all season long. Let's see if they're a feisty competitive team. I'm not sure if they're going to be.

But absolutely, if you're a Seahawks fan, you deserve to enjoy this game tonight. There are far more offensive things in the NFL than good pocket managing, accurate, risk-averse quarterback and a Sean McVeigh-style offense keeping the boat afloat, right? Like, it's when that offense would make it to the playoffs, like Jared golf with the Rams, Jimmy Graspo with the Niners, and we all had to get like talk ourselves into them as a playoff offense. It's like, right, this is ridiculous. Like, this is not a playoff caliber offense. But for the Seahawks right now in terms of what they want to be, like they have Shane Waldron in the building. They can run this system. They've drafted some guys with the intent

of making this system work. Your de-eskriges of the world, Rashad Penny and Outside Zone stuff. And then they have Gino who, is absolutely of the caliber of one of these wide zone automaton quarterbacks where you just kind of point and shoot, point shoot, point, and shoot, right? He can absolutely be a Jared Gough for you. It's not long term. It can keep you respectable and win you a couple games, whether or not they should be winning those games

and not playing for draft position, different conversation. But Gino is going to keep this boat floating, baby. And on days where your defense can get awesome stops inside the five-yard line, you can generate a couple turnovers. That can spell a win, even against a better opponent. Joe Buck with 1215 left in the fourth quarter. Gino Smith has outplayed Russell Wilson.

And Troy Aikman was the Gino chance. He was loving them from the get-go. These are things I would not have. If you would have told me two years ago, this is what life is going to look like when I host, you know, a ringer NFL podcast after week one. This was going to be the storyline.

I would not have believed it. But that's why we watch. That's why it's fun. Of the tickets that I had on Seattle covering or winning this game. The oldest one I had was from like May. This is, there was no way the Seahawks fans were letting Russell Wilson into their building with a win. There was no chance. Get in on the Monday night football action with FanDule, America's number one sportsbook. Join today to get started with $150 in free bets guaranteed when you place your first $5 bet. Just sign up with the promo code

ringer NFL to get in on the action. Then you can turn game day into payday all season long. For this upcoming doubleheader on Monday night football, you get the Titans hanging nine and a half against the bills. Tennessee looked rough against the Giants. I'll take the bills on the spread. And Vikings Eagles, two of the higher scoring teams of week one, that total open to like 48 and a half. It's already up to 52 and a half. I think we're going to see a ton of points. Give me the over.

So play your way and bet on more than just the final score. Wager on everything from touchdowns to total yards and to catches as well. You can even combine your bets for a chance of a bigger payout with a same game parlay. Don't fumble your chance to get $150 in free bets win or lose with promo code Ringer NFL. Make every moment more with Fandle, the official sportsbook partner of the NFL. 21 plus in select states, free online real money wager only, $10 first deposit required. Bonus issued as non-withdrawable free bets that expire 14 days after receipt. Restrictions apply.

See terms at sportsbook.Fandle.com. Gambling problem? Call 100 gambler or visit fandle.com slash RG in Colorado, Iowa, Michigan, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Illinois, and Virginia. 1-800 next step or text next step to 533442 in Arizona. 1-88-78-8-9-7-777 or visit CCPpG.org slash chat in Connecticut. 1-8009 with it in Indiana. Visit KSgamblinghelp.com in Kansas.

1-8777-770 stop in Louisiana. 1-8-78-Hope-N-Y or text Hope N. That's 467-369 in New York. Tennessee Red Line 1-800-889-9-9-7. 789 in Tennessee, 1,800 522470470 in Wyoming, or visit www.1-800 gambler.net in West Virginia. Now we're going to ping pong back and forth, get to some of the other action. We've both been spending all day, I think, looking at the rest of the league, seeing what we missed on Sunday. And Ben, why don't you lead us off with what is one of your big takeaways from week one as we head into week two? Yeah, so I know I have a Vikings one. I know you have a Vikings one.

And I'm worried about this because I thought my Vikings one was going to piss you off even before I knew you had a Vikings one. Okay, good. So here we go. Justin Jefferson's game was not that good. There were, okay. So Justin Jefferson had a very, very, very productive day against the Green Bay Packers. The Vikings with a statement win 23 to 7. First game with Kevin O'Connell's, the head coach, and kind of the new offense and a commitment to making Justin Jefferson into this Cooper Cup caliber target.

He had nine receptions on 11 targets, 184 yards, and two touchdowns. That's obviously a very productive game. There's no two ways about that. Turn on the film. Of Jefferson's nine catches, two came against man coverage. One of them was a quick, it was on the first drive. It was a banging eight against Eric Stokes. Lovely route.

Gorgeous route, exactly what we expect. from Jefferson. Super slippery, great hands. Very nice. The other was a hurry-up play in which the Packers were kind of scrambling. It's pretty hard to tell what coverage they were in. They may have even been in zone, but they have two crossers. This is the one that Kirk threw really, really poorly.

Jefferson had to wait for and kind of elevate for it. Great catch explosive play. The other seven came against zone. There's nothing wrong with catching balls against zone. It's not that the receiver is worse because he caught footballs against zone. However, as Jagger Alexander very, you know, concisely put it after this game, they did not have this sort of game plan that assumed the opposing team. had a star wide receiver one that was going to get 11 targets, right?

If you have that guy, you tend to try to man him up with your best corner. Instead, they elected to play a lot of zone. And when you go and you watch Jefferson's explosives, you don't see unbelievable route running and contested catches and the skills of an elite wide receiver, even though Jefferson certainly has them. The Packers just busted coverage for four straight quarters. It was such bad defense.

So the first Justin Jefferson touchdown is a play with multiple motion, right? It's a very common play. Davao Day Adam just to do a bunch of the Packers, freaking like the Chargers scored on it with like a fullback in week one as well. You send Devon to Adam, or excuse me, you send Justin Jefferson flying across the field at the snap. The Packers miscommunicate who's supposed to run with him. He's wide open to the pylon walks in. His second touchdown, which was the huge deep crosser, catch the ball with nobody within 20 yards of him. everybody on the Packers defense is playing zone,

except for Rasul Douglas, who's positive it's man coverage. Jaya Alexander goes to pass Jefferson's route off to the side of the field. There's nobody there to receive it. It's miscommunication. This is all like great. Oh, I forgot the worst ones. Justin Jefferson caught an out route because Preston Smith was the quarter's zone cover guy underneath him.

Preston Smith, who phase outside linebacker and is 275 pounds, was the closest defender. There was another one where Quay Walker, first year rookie middle linebacker at 245. was the closest defender, Justin Jefferson. When you're playing this zone and when you're the Packers trying to keep these linebackers on the field, you're going to end up with linebackers near Justin Jefferson. Linebackers generally don't cover receivers well independent of the talent of the wide receiver,

let alone receivers of Justin Jefferson's caliber. All of this is like great news. It's not bad news at all. Like the fact that Jefferson has had more impressive games or he's like beaten tighter coverage and had more impressive catches is sick because Jefferson is extremely good receiver. But this is awesome news because it shows that unlike Vikings' offensive, of the past, the Kevin O'Connell Vikings has now said, hey, if you're just going to give us free Justin Jefferson yardage, we're going to throw that all of the time. Like, how many games

is it like Justin Jefferson's seven targets? Adam Thielen nine targets. You're like, what is the point of this? Who is this helping? This is not good for anybody. Kirk just was willing to throw it to Justin Jefferson, like on the bang eight, on the speed out with Preston Smith next to him. The easy stuff that like should be effortless was effortless. And so when you get, games in which Jefferson is matched by an actual Star Corner and like they try to send extra resources to him. Jefferson's going to have impressive reps

and he's going to win those. But the whole like Jefferson's the MVP talk. Who's saying that? Who is doing a Jefferson is MVP after one week talk? Who is doing this? Who do you hang out with? Every single NFL social media account was doing it. Oh my gosh. All right. Okay.

Jefferson Offensive Player of the Air. Jefferson's going to win the Triple Crown like Cooper Cup did. only if every team tries to pass off every route and zone and busts 95 times a game like the Packers' defense. This was an atrocious defensive performance by the Packers. Jefferson produced a lot. But if you're looking to impress people with Jefferson's wide receiver talent, pick a different game. Because this was just like layup stuff. I'm in awe.

I feel like I just need to go take a walk outside for 20 minutes to wrap my. I'm just very confused by your framing of your, you know, we're debuting this Monday Night Show. and your framing of your first one. Like, why didn't you say you should have come out and said the Packers were a disaster on defense? Like, why, what does this have to do with Justin Jefferson? He doesn't get to the line of scrimmage and say, you know, all right, you have to play cover one here. Okay, you've got, you know, hey, put Jaya Alexander on me. He's doing the plays.

I don't think your take is crazy. If the take is arguing against this was the greatest wide receiver performance we've ever seen or even the greatest wide receiver performance we've ever seen from Justin Jefferson, I think that's reasonable. Yeah, last year he was just taking over games, I think, in a similar way. And if you told me some of those games were more impressive because what the defenses were doing, I would say, all right, yeah, that's totally reasonable. I don't think that's nuts.

But either you could have said, hey, my take is that it's a new day. You know, I'll tell you my take. Because we're talking about the Vikings anyway. My take is that the Vikings overreaction this week is justified. And that's because they were just taking advantage of every screw up that the Packers had. And they were finding ways to make the Packers bus covers. Now, we can debate is that more the Packers playing bad defense or the Vikings doing things schematically. I think it's always a little bit of both.

But there are a lot of people who thought this Packers defense was going to be pretty good going into this season. And they just absolutely picked them apart the entire game. How about this number from ESPN stats and information? Jefferson gained 138 yards on plays where there was not a Packers defender within three yards of him. So that backs up what you're saying, but also good job Vikings for doing that. Yes, but the framework is, I'm trying to get the clicks, man, the headlines, right? Like a podcast, Jefferson, not that good. And then you reason bring him in. No, but it's, it's, the hang up is when you ask me who's calling Jefferson the MVP.

Because to me, like, I was watching that game and I was like, geez, the Packers are a mess. And they just, right, like, you know, let's name to names and names. PFF social in every sports book in the world. Wow. Just like, name and names now. But I'm just like, Justin Jefferson,

offensive player of the year locked up, question mark. It's white, week one. And there are no defenders near him. Like, it's, that sort of stuff where it's like, okay, usually when a guy has a 184-yard performance,

at some point somewhere in that, some other player, royally effed up to us to lead to like massive gain, right? Like we just watched Jerry Judy huge 67-yard touchdown catch. We all know that should have been

either a pass breakup or a tackle because the corner had the ability to play on that ball. And so Jefferson's awesome. He's going to have a great season. The Vikings arrow is up because everything around Jefferson, you know, was putting him in a position

to have this game. But a very large piece of this pie was the Packers being a messed defensively. And I did think about having one of my takes be like, hey, Matt LaFleur, the preseason might be an interesting thing to investigate in terms of getting your team ready for week one, because this is two consecutive seasons now that you have walked down in week one and nobody on your team has known which way is North, man. I mean, it's just been ugly, ugly performances for the Packers early in the season the last few years. Yeah, I don't have a,

I don't have a strong, the preseason thing is interesting to me because there's just evidence on both sides. I mean, the Vikings, O'Connell was getting criticized for not doing enough at camp and not playing his guys enough. And they came out and looked like one of the best coach teams in week one. So yeah, I think your Packers take is an interesting one specifically on defense. You know, they have a lot of continuity there in the secondary. You know, Jaya Alexander comes back healthy, but everybody else, they were all there last year. So it was confusing to see them come in and play that way here. So let me give you the rest of my Vikings take here. and then we can move on to another team.

But I just looked at it and, you know, this is a fan base that has learned to embrace pain, I think, the Vikings fan base. I realized when I started writing in a national role a few years ago, like there were certain fan bases where they didn't really like it when you said nice things about their team. They were like, what are you talking about? And the Vikings were one of those. They're uncomfortable when the national media types say nice things about them. But I thought there was just so much to like in this game.

I mean, I don't want to, you know, I'm not the resident ringer body. language doctor, but it looked like they were just playing with a joy, like a weight had been lifted. The people smiling on the sideline, like I just saw that Kevin O'Connell and Justin Jefferson smiling. And I'm like, I don't even remember seeing this during the Mike Zimmer era at all. And then, you know, the Jefferson stuff is legit to be able to scheme up. And if the Packers aren't coming into this game thinking they need to stop Justin Jefferson, then again, what, you know, that should at least be among the top two or three things you need to do. And they weren't doing that. And they didn't have players near him. And they were just going.

to him over and over and over again on explosive plays. And so to me, coaching comes down to putting your players in positions to succeed. They absolutely did that with Jefferson. They did that with cousins. And then defensively, I'm bullish on their defense if they can just keep, you know, Zadaria Smith and DeNeil Hunter. They can keep those two guys healthy. And I know that's a big if. But man, that is a fun defense with those two guys. And Zadarius Smith was everywhere, lining up on the interior, beating a guard. He lined up as kind of like a joker where he's sort of mugging the A gap and then just blitzing there. Daniel Hunter had a play where they rushed three and then he came on kind of a delayed blitz.

Yeah, that was where he hit the spin move on Robert Tunyon like four yards away from the line of crew. He decided to spin move was the move. And then it ended up working. It ended up working. So they were doing different things creatively at Donatel. The defensive coordinator there has been in the league a long time. And so I just like, they looked like a well-coached team that had a good game plan.

and the players were executing it. And then I just love the first drive, fourth and one from the five, and they go for it. And you can say it's not that big of a deal. I mean, they were, I know the in-game decision making people probably get tired of it. I love paying attention to it. And I love it when you're a first time head coach and a first year head coach. And you put faith in your offense in that spot. And they come through and they get it and they score a touchdown.

So I was just very encouraged by this Vikings performance. I know we'll say this 20 times during the podcast. It's only week one. But to me, among the fan bases who came into the season with big questions, the Vikings should feel pretty good about what they saw there from their new head coach and new Rashid. Yeah. I love Mike Zimmer.

I think Mike Zimmer is a good coach. Me too. The Mike Zimmer has gone bump is a real bump in terms of vibes. And vibes don't win a season over 18 games. And I think that the Vikings defensive personnel, so leaves me a little worried without Zimmer kind of filling in a lot of those cracks. Um, but yeah, we've won not surprising it. It was kind of like, hey, this is fun.

This is a pretty good time now. We can play some football. I'm having fun of my guys. Yeah, I like Zimmer too. You know, I like him a lot. I defended him a lot. But yes, just the mentality of this Vikings team where it seems like it's going to be, hey, let's go out and score a lot of points and put the defense in a bind

versus sort of the mentality under Zimmer. And hey, sometimes the guy's just in the same place for a long time and, uh, change is needed. This definitely could have been a closer game, you know, it was 23, Christian Watson has the drop there early on. The Packers got stopped on a fourth in goal. The Packers got stopped on a fourth and one. So I'm not acting like, you know, if you play this game 10 times,

the Vikings are always going to beat them by 16 points. But I was encouraged by that. So all right, I'm already out of two of my takes. What do you have for number two, Ben? So I can't pretend to have actually seen the movie Jurassic Park. But there's some moment in that movie. I'm surprised you've heard of it even. Yeah.

but they're making new ones with Chris Pratt he kind of reverse engineer it from there there's some point in the movie where the dinosaurs like get out or they do something and they're kind of all like they're figuring it out like they're evolving or whatever I forget what the quote is Patrick Wilhelms and Josh Allen baby

they've unlocked the we are quick game passers achievement and it's like if we gave the Velociraptors guns man like I don't know this is not this is not safe for anybody else in the league right now.

So some numbers for you. Obviously, Josh Allen played the Rams on Thursday night. And then Patrick Mahomes and his offense, the new look offense without Tyreek Hill, scored, I think it was 96 points against the Cardinals on Sunday. Josh Allen,

2.22 seconds time to throw, which was the second fastest in the league for one. Mahomes right behind him at 2.33, 6th fastest. In terms of depth of target, Josh Allen, 7.32, which was 17th, and Patrick Mahomes, 7.38,

which is 19. So what we're seeing is two quick game passers with average depth of targets. That's not typically what you want your offense to be. You would like for your offense to be, you know, low time to throw, but like far down the field. That's what these Tom Brady, Tampa Bay offenses have been, hey, the ball's coming out quick, but we're still pushing the ball downfield. We're still generating explosives. Historically, Mahomes and Allen have not been low time to throw high a dot. They've been high time to throw high a dot.

So we're going to push the ball down the field, but we're going to hold onto the ball to do it. We're going to let routes develop really far down the field. We're going to scramble around a little bit, which increases our time to throw. So typically the relationship between time to throw and depth of target are going to be correlated, right? You're going to, the longer you hold onto the ball, the more you should be able to throw the ball down the field. And that's what Mahomes and Allen have kind of invited into the league in terms of play style. Like, hey, we're going to make it worth it to hold on the ball for like three and a half seconds because we're going to launch it 60 yards down the field. Get a completion is going to be awesome.

But in their respective games in week one, they were both low time to throw with low depth of target. it. Why? Well, the entire story of last year for the, the handling of both the Bills and the Chiefs offense, it was a little bit more prominent with the Chiefs offense. What was happening to the Bills too, was teams are just sitting in too high. And we like always say too high and kind of it's like catch all phrase. It's just, you know, play too high. But for the Bills and Chief specifically, it was we're going to play corners off. We are going to play safeties with depth. We are going to push linebackers deep in their zones, right? Linebackers aren't going to like go get connected to a curl route. They're going to sink underneath. They're going to expect

that you're running intermediate digs, intermediate crossers, they're going to get underneath those routes. We're going to put a blanket over your intermediate to deep routes, and we're going to dare these incredible scrambling, plan-making quarterbacks

to just dink and dunk us down the field. And both teams and both quarterbacks found ways to do that for stretches of time and in tricky ways across the course of the season, but then they also ran into their problems. When the Jags beat the bills,

Allen just could not get comfortable with playing quick game. When the Chiefs imploded against the Bengals, the AFC championship game, drop eight coverage, eight dudes in coverage. You have to throw underneath, and Mahomes was double clutching and he didn't like it. These incredible playmakers don't want to play the game this way. We'll give them an off season. And the two of them come out. And it turns out that they have figured out ways in terms of their offense and in terms of their personnel and how they like to get to their routes to at the very least show this card. And it's not where your offense wants to be for 18 weeks.

Again, you want to be throwing the ball further down the field. You want to be creating plays with these unbelievable athletes. But if you are showing teams that, hey, in Allen's case, if you're not blitzing and you're dropping seven or in Mahomes case against the Cardinals, hey, you're blitzing. You're trying to confuse me. I'm just going to get rid of the ball quickly. I'm going to let playmakers work for me. And I can do this.

I can be this if I want to be. You've now shown the full gamut of quarterbacking. And the entire spectrum of play style is achievable to you. And that makes you extremely difficult to beat. The most important stat to kind of encapsulate that that is this. Throws that came out in less than 2.5 seconds, which 2.5 seconds is generally they are cut off for you're within the progression to after 2.5 seconds, you're kind of in scramble drill mode.

You're kind of creating stuff, right? Throws in less than 2.5 seconds. Josh Allen had 75% of his throws against the Rams in less than 2.5 seconds. It was the highest number in the league. Mahomes was 6th at 64%. Those guys respectively last year across the course of the season, Josh Allen was at 46%. That was 25th in the league.

So he was 46% last year and he was 75% of his throws in week one. Mahomes, who was 64% in week one, was 53.5 last year. Both of these guys decided to get rid of the ball early in the down instead of risk a bad play by holding onto it. And for as long as they are able to make those decisions, It's a velociraptor with a machine gun man. It's every weapon. It's a killing machine.

It is not a problem that is solvable. So exactly what Alan and Mahomes were challenged to show the league, they showed them. And I'm really interested to see if anybody figures out what to do about that. Because this might be final form for both of them and it's just super saying for the next four months. Yeah, it sort of reminds me of the conversations that a lot of people have had about defense over the last whatever three to five years. You know, it's not that, hey, you can't play like those old Seahawks Legion of Boom teams where you just line up and cover three and you tell the offense, hey, we know what we're

doing and we can, you know, we know every route concept that's coming our way. Now I feel like you hear more defensive coordinators talk about we need answers to different problems. We need solutions to different problems because, and it makes sense because facing, you know, Lamar Jackson and the Ravens one week. facing Kurt Cousins and the Vikings the next week. Like there are so many different quarterbacks, so many different offenses in the NFL that you really cannot just play that one way.

The more flexibility you have, the better. Now, the challenge comes in, well, all right, how can you coach that? How can you make everyone comfortable? How can you avoid coverage bus when you're trying different things? That to me relates to what these quarterbacks are trying to do. You know, it's not like that was probably not Josh Allen's preferred way to play a football game on Thursday night. Exactly. That's the critical thing is that it's not as fun.

It sucks relative to what you can do when you are a walking cannon. But if you can swallow the pill and be it for four quarters, all of a sudden, you're scoring 31 points of the bills, 47 points for the chiefs. And guess what? Winning is fun, even when it's not the play style that you thought it was going to be. I go back to the, I preference this before, but the Steelers practice you and I were at where Deontay Johnson was telling the defense

to get the bleak. out of that, you know, weak, week, two high coverages. And I just said, that's my slogan for the 2022 season. I'm with him. We don't need to see this from every defense. Everyone doesn't need to do this where we're having Josh Allen checking it down. Now, Josh Allen was very entertaining on Thursday night.

Obviously, his legs were a part of that also. But yeah, it does feel like, and this is a three-game stretch now, I know stuff doesn't carry over year to year. But, man, the bill's last three games on offense, 24 offensive possessions, 16 touchdowns, and 4. punts. And I think that Rams defense is going to be pretty good, by the way. That's not a defense that's just going to stink this year. So I agree with you. It feels like they unlocked something. Let's talk about the Chiefs a little bit more because statistically, this was the second best

offensive performance of the Patrick Mahomes era in terms of EPA per drive. He's played 70, started 75 games for the Chiefs. This was the second best offensive performance. I mean, they were doing whatever they wanted. I would really describe that performance as surgical. You know, he, had, what, 360 yards passing and five touchdowns. They had nine possessions. They scored six touchdowns there. And you're right now. To me, the whole offseason were saying, all right, the chiefs traded Tyree Kill, the Packers traded Devante Adams. I always thought those were two very different situations because I thought the chiefs had a plan B in place. They still had Travis Kelsey. They signed MBS. They signed Juju Smith-Schuster. They had Nicole Hornman. He looked great.

He looked great, didn't he? Absolutely. He looked like a person. He looked like they, he looked like they had been playing that offense together for, you know, six, seven seasons in week one. Oh, yeah, we know exactly what we're doing. And so they always, I thought, had that plan, but the execution still was very impressive. And, you know, they were facing a very blitz heavy attack, which I'm not sure why. I mean, the Cardinals don't have a lot of players, so it probably didn't matter what they did. But they were blitzing Patrick Mahomes, which we've learned is something you don't really do. And he just absolutely carved them up. So, yeah, I mean, all the, all the big boy quarterbacks, You know, we can throw Herbert in there.

And, you know, Burrell obviously didn't have the same game. And, you know, it plays a little bit of a different style. But yeah, if you just look at Mahomes and Alan and Herbert as the three guys, very impressive performances by all three of them to get the season started. Yeah. And for Mahomes, like this is purely an aesthetic thing at this point. But for Mahomes to play this way, timing falls out right now, West Coast spacing, get into the first read, whatever.

And to still look like Mahom's. to still be as free and as I'm just going to chuck this thing off my back foot and I'm going to kind of adjust my arm angle because that's what I do is both like silly. Like it's just like dumb and also incredibly revealing because it shows you just how intuitive of a quarterback he is. Mahomes has learned a lot about playing quarterback since Texas Tech days and being with Andy Reed in Kansas City. He's grown a lot.

But there was some neural pathway that's existed in that cat's head since day one in terms of just his ability to understand how to get the ball to a certain space and a certain time on a certain trajectory that you, it's not even that just you don't teach it. You don't understand it until you like see it and you watch the play six times. And you're like, that's not. Nobody does even anything a little bit like that. The upcoming Mahomes and Herbert game, which a Herbert and the charges are part of my third, my third take year is such a cool game for a myriad of reasons. But one of the main ones is that these are the stylistic poles of elite quarterbacking. Herbert is a robot. Herbert is programmed. Herbert is perfectly coated,

you know, oil joints, just flawless, stainless steel machinery. It's not a blemish on him. And Mahomes is music. Mahomes, the perverts are robot. Mahomes is an alien. Mahomes is just is, is art and his beauty and it's just like intuition and and and and and and it's so cool, how different they are and how they're both elite quarterbacks to get the same spot. It's be sick to watch. Let's just get to the Chargers one. Let's get to your third one and then I'll close us out because it seems like that's a natural transition there. By the way,

I thought the Chiefs left some meat on the bone there too. I mean, they missed two deep shots to Muckel Harmon, baby. I mean, Smith-Schuster had the fumble, yeah. You got to have something so that the coach can say, you know, it's week one, it was sloppy. We got to get back to the film room. We've got to work on our mistakes.

You got to leave something there. That's right. Oh, Dwayne McFarlent of fantasy life just tweeted. Last season, Justin saw 24% of his targets against the linebacker or a safety and primary coverage in week one,

that number was 60%. We scheming, baby. Yikes. Yeah, that is not a stat you want to hear if you're a Packers fan. We out here scheming. Justin Herbert and the Chargers. Last season,

I got angry at the Chargers. Joe Lombardi is the offensive coordinator. Justin Herbert is in his second season. There's a lot of reason for hype here. And yet their offense felt at times laborious. Their offense felt at times stuck in the mud, you know, going step by step, incremental. Early down performance felt like it was the culprit. At the by, Brandon Staley said, third downs are part of the NFL, but you don't want to live like that because it puts too much pressure.

There are too many variables in the defense's favor on third down. We don't want to do that. I think over the next few days, we're going to take a hard look at our operation so we can be more prolific on first and second down moving forward. From weeks 1 through 7, they were 26th in EPA per play and 26th in success rate on early downs. After that, they went to 11th in EPA per play and third in success rate, specifically on first downs. They were 28th in eP.A. per play and 24th in success rate. They then went to second in EPA per play and first in success rate after the buy. So they said at the buy, we're going to change the way we do early downs.

It's going to be better. And then it was. It was tough to figure out why they threw it to Keenan Allen more on first downs. They kind of changed the distribution a little bit. But like they weren't running more play action. They weren't running more motion. They weren't kind of like, you know, dropping back in the gun more like changing their pass rates. It was just they decided to be better on first down and they were.

And that goes back to like my Herbert is a robot thing. They kind of like went into his motherboard and they were like more first downs. And then he was like, yep. And he just did it. Right. And it's unbelievable. So like a little bit more Keenan Allen, but whatever. they played the Raiders in week one

and they converted a first down on first and 10 on 8% of their plays the Chiefs were at 31% the Eagles were at 30% the Saints and the Raiders were at 33%. The only other teams remotely in this area were the Cowboys at 5%.

They scored three points just to remind you how that went. The Bears at 10% 10% who didn't start scoring points until the fourth quarter and scored off turnovers in a monsoon. The Cardinals at 12% who didn't score points also until the fourth quarter. Why are we back here? There is no reason for this. And that's the really irritating thing, is that they're really earnestly 100% is no reason for this.

They had two total first downs on first and tens, despite the fact that in terms of yards per play generated on first and 10, they were seventh. How do you do this? I don't understand why this is happening. There's a couple things that I try to figure out. Number one, in terms of EPA per Russian first and ten, they were totally last in the league. They were splitting. Sonny Michelle and Austin Eckler in early down touches.

So I guess they wanted to get the running game going a little bit more again. I don't know why they continue to think that the running game is important, but whatever. I mean, it is. But like not when you have Herbert. Like her, you're trying to throw the ball all the time with Herbert. That's number one. Number two, they were 40% gun snap rate on first and 10. So 60% of the time they were under center.

That was 29th of 34 qualifying quarterback. So on first down, they were primarily an under center team, which means you're not going to get to your quick game stuff because it's really hard to run a quick game from under center. You're going to get to your hand the ball off and you're going to get to your run, play, action passes. And they had downs where they ran a play action pass on first and 10 and they tried to get down the field. The problem is when you're going under center and they're putting like a fullback on the field,

Xander Horvath was way more important to the chargers than I expected him to be in week one, is you're only going to get like two to three guys in the concept. Right. And when Keenan Allen goes down, those two to three guys become like Mike Williams, Josh Palmer and Trey McKitty. And I think if there's a root issue for the chargers

in terms of their early down production and their early down explosiveness, it's this. They are not fast. they're just not a fast team, man. Like D'Andre Carter was getting reps, had a great game. I'd love to see Carter win a couple more reps, little nifty pump returner guy who's got some juice.

But Carter's also short. So he doesn't actually open stride. He doesn't actually like burn over the top. Mike Williams is not fast. Keenan, great receiver. It's not fast. Josh Palmer is not fast. Train to Kitty?

This is Donald Parham. This is not a fast team. they have had so many eggs in the Jalen Guyton basket for so long and never with return on investment. And I don't know why they continue to be comfortable with that. But when you become this, you know, we're going to run quick game and I've Herbert pick a side of the field because he's a robot team. Okay, sure, I kind of get it. Like he's such a good processor. Awesome.

But then you go into your play action passing game and you just don't have juice down the field. And it becomes hard to find separation. It becomes hard for Herbert to feel like he can throw those, those. downfield shots, instead he goes and looks for checkdowns, he scrambles it, he makes sure he stays ahead of the six. The charges offense was generally very solid. Once again, they played the chiefs in week two. The take is officially this. The Chargers lose to the Chiefs because they're just not fast enough. They are just not a fast enough team in their offensive arsenal. And I worry that as opposing teams realize that they'll just stick their own selves into a dink and dunk,

world, yeah, they're just going to live with players over the top and dare you to stretch them out vertically. And the Chargers just don't have that pitch right now. And I think it's going to keep their offense stunted early in the season. Wow. There's a lot to unpack there. Certainly, I was trying to think of as you were as you were saying things. I was trying to think it through. One is their neutral pass rate was pretty high in week one. This is courtesy of Hayden Winks. They were fourth in a neutral situation pass rate. So they were still putting the ball in. Herbert's hands. You know, I think they had those final four possessions where Joe Lombardi said, yeah, you know, we probably did get a little conservative. Those are obviously going to hurt their

numbers. I would think, you know, they had, and that is a factor. I mean, that is a fair criticism. They had the game in hand, and then they had three, three and outs down the stretch, three, three punts. They couldn't run the ball at all. I mean, 31 carries overall for 76 yards. So I'm looking at all those factors and saying maybe it's not that big, you know, this could be a big deal, but I'm not willing, you know, I don't know that it's a big deal yet off of just this one game. So that will be interesting to watch on Thursday. That's going to be a fantastic game. I thought Herbert in this game, you know, you were mentioning the robot thing. I thought he helped his offensive line so much in this game. Like if this, if this were a quarterback with less feel, less mobility,

less instincts, they would have given up a lot of sacks. And he was just getting out out of the way and making unbelievable throws downfield. I thought they missed some opportunities. You know, they missed a field goal. They punted from midfield. They failed on a fourth and one. Like I think there's a scenario where they put up a lot more points here. And, you know, you're not as concerned, although you look very concerned.

You look very stressed out over there. Because here's the thing. Why are you in fourth and one? It's because you're constantly in third down. Why are you constantly in third down? It's the same thing with like the game management we talked about with Nate Hacken and Russell Wilson at the end of the game of the Seahawks. Your early down decisions can be like reverse engineered. They're going to be informed by how are we going to behave on late downs?

Like one of the coolest things about Brandon Staley is that he wants to go for it on fourth down. One of the worst things about Brandon Staley is that that reality has made him very comfortable with not playing to get first down early in the series. Right? Like on first and 10, why would we buy? throwing beyond the sticks, we're going to go for it on fourth and two. Because it's better to have first down. It's better to just go get it instead of being like, ha-ha, look at us. We go for it. Like, on their first drive of the kick to field goal, third and seven, drop from Mike Williams. Tough catch, right of the sticks, but he missed it. He dropped it. Though, like, it's the fumbles for

the Denver offense. Things happen. You can't be perfect. Like, Herbert is a machine, but the entire offense can't be a machine. There's going to be grains of sand in between the cogs and the wheels. And so when you are not aggressive on early downs, you are inviting more plays into your drive. The more plays you invite into your drive, the more coin flips opportunities for chaos, you invite into your drive. And now all of a sudden, your offense looks great. And then you look at the scoreboard like, oh, we're only up by a possession. This is a little bit of a mess. What it, what it is is, it's like, I just praised Herbert. I just praised Allen and Mahomes for like, West Coast offense. They're throwing the ball quickly. And it's like, okay, Herbert is

doing that right now. What's the difference? And the difference is the first down behavior. Mahomes and the Chiefs, 31% of their first and tens became first and tens. Alan and the Bills, 29% of their first and tens became first and tens. For the Chargers, it's eight. Like, the Allen and Mahomes that offenses are becoming more like the Herbert offenses, but they are not sacrificing their aggressiveness early in the series. The Chargers fixed this. They fixed it last season, Sheal. And they're right back here. again in week one and it's knucklehead stuff one game let's say let's say in a month if they're still i'm with you on the overall that that is a great concept for people who don't understand it is

you know so many people and even coaches they're looking at their third down conversions but the best offense is you don't get to third down you avoid it you're being aggressive you're picking up first downs uh on on first down and second down and so i agree with you there i was not overly concerned after watching that one game but you you know maybe in a month you'll say remember i was telling you after that ridiculous Seahawks Broncos game and it's still happening. By the way. Listen, I am praying that I got head faked

and this was all the plans because we too, they're going to come out and shoot. Ah, I got wanted so bad. Please. They come out and we're aggressive. I will be so happy. Talk to me on Thursday night because I'm so worried that we get the same Herbert performances we got against the Chiefs last year and we're in the

same spot where they're going for it on fourth and eight in the red zone when they could have actually like grabbed a game by the throat and dominated it for 60 minutes. My only knit to pick here is that did the, I don't know, the jocks, the analyst, did they get to Staley this offseason? They had a fourth and one from midfield and he's running the pun unit out there. Who did, did somebody kid that Brandon Staley and make that call?

What was going on there? I did not like that. I did not like his explanation for it afterwards. I don't like, I don't want to hear an explanation of, oh, well, our defense is better this year. No, you have, you have Justin Herbert at quarterback. You did nothing wrong, Brandon Staley. Don't, you know, don't give in to the peer pressure and start punting in those situations. So that was the only thing that got on my radar. All I know, all I know is they hit that punt. It was downed at the two. They forced a three and out, got the ball back and scored a touchdown on the very next drive.

Process over results. On that next touchdown drive, first and 10, negative five yard run. Next first and 10, three yard run. Please somebody. Please. It all comes together. They do rely on it. There are times when you watch the Chargers where you say, man,

if they just had a league average quarterback, what would this look like? Because they're just relying on. If they had a league average quarterback? Yeah. Like if you replaced, yeah, like if you replaced Justin Herbert,

like it's to what you're saying. Like you're relying on Justin Herbert to bail you out of too many situations. I thought you were saying if only they had a league average quarterback. I was like, I was right. It's happening on this podcast. I was ready to put him in the Hall of Fame after his second game there in his rookie season.

Last time Herbert played week two against the Chiefs was the Tyrod Taylor game. My third and final take. The Dak Prescott injury news is the absolute worst case scenario for the Dallas Cowboys. Now you would say, well, that's obvious, Sheal. Yeah, the quarterback got injured. But let me explain a little more. And for those who don't know, he's expected to be out six to eight weeks. per ESPN, I think their report said November 13th after their buy might be the date that they're

identifying as the one where he could potentially return. So here's why this is their worst case scenario. Because if Dak Prescott suffered a season ending injury, well, you know, you could make a move for a quarterback. You could think about trading for Jimmy G if you wanted to. If you didn't want to do that, you know what? You're just going to take it on the chin this year. You're going to suck. You're going to get a high draft pick. You can maybe trade down. You can add some pieces to the offense. You can come back in 23, maybe with Sean Peyton as the head coach, Dak Prescott

healthy, a better supporting cast. All right, it stinks for this year, but it's okay. That's not happening here. Obviously, the best case scenario would be, Dak Prescott stays healthy, but you're not getting that either. So now it's six to eight weeks. This is an offense that already lost Tyrant Smith.

They lost starting guard Connor McGovern to a high ankle sprain in that game Sunday night. They look terrible with Dak Prescott Scott, as is, as you guys talked about on the Sunday night show, Noah Brown, Dennis Houston, and Simi Fahoko combined for 17 targets. Stanford great, Simi Fahoko, baby. Now those guys are going to be catching passes from Cooper Rush for the next two months.

And so if you're a Cowboys fan, here's why this is really terrible, because you were probably already fed up with Mike McCarthy. Guess who has a little bit of a built-in excuse now about why he should be back. as the head coach for 2023, Mike McCarthy. Jerry Jones, you know, everyone thinks of Jerry Jones as this impulsive guy and, you know, he's like George Steinbrenner. That's not what Jerry Jones has been. Jason Garrett kept his job for nine and a half years.

The man had two playoff wins and that's been. They couldn't fire him. They finally fired him after nine and a half years. Meanwhile, you have Mike McCarthy who had the best PR campaign. The NFL has ever seen. when he was out of coaching. He was going to PFF. He was an analytics guru.

He comes out. Binders. A lot of binders. He bought three rings on those bad boys. He watched all of Dack Prescott's throws. Then he admits he didn't even bother to do that, like the bare minimum to interview for this job. He did all that.

He gets himself the job. It's been a disaster. And guess what? In the off season, when Jerry Jones says, hey, Mike, you know, we're not happy the way. you can't fire me, Jerry. I didn't have Dak Prescott for two months. And so in this situation, you very well could have McCarthy back. You're probably not going to have that high of a pick because Prescott's coming back in

November at the same time. You're not going to make the playoffs. You're going to be stuck in this middle ground and run it back next year with the same head coach. So that is my explanation of why this is the absolute worst case scenario. If you are a Dallas Cowboys fan, Ben Solected, I convinced you. I loved it. That was a tremendous take. counter argument.

Okay. In the lead up to week one, I tuned in to Fandual TV just so I wanted to see what the heck was going on there. Wow. And the moment I-company man. The time I happened to tune in, I, K. Adams was interviewing retired head coach Sean Payton, who now in the days following, I've learned, Sean Payne is going to do a lot of TV this year. Sean Payton is pretty psyched by giving his opinion on a microphone. And Kay Adams is asking Sean Payton, who is your Super Bowl sleeper?

And then Sean Payton for a minute and a half just talked about how good the Cowboys roster is. It was just with excruciating detail. It was just like, listen, they got a great quarterback, Dak Prescott, they got a good stable of backs. Zico Elliott and Tony Pollitt. They got some good receivers. C.D. Lamb, Simi Fahoko out of Stanford.

He's good player. Michael Gallup. Jalen Tolbert. I liked him. Good tight ends. And Dalton Schultz. Whoever backs up Dalton Schultz. I can love those guys. And just went and just every,

every position you can think of that's not head coach, the cafeteria, Fass killing it. Janitoris is a beautiful stadium. Just everybody that you could think of, Sean Payton's a huge fan of them in Dallas, except for one critical guy, Mike McCarthy.

I have never seen such thinly-availed propaganda in my life. And like, I don't know who's watching this, but it's very clear that Sean Payton is a big fan of the Dallas Cowboys roster. I do think this is a very good take in the sense that like, yeah, the Cowboys just become a total afterthought with Cooper Rush, and then DAC comes back and then they win a few games. And it's like, you know, oh, like they, you know, they beat the Eagles in week 13 and like, you know, spoil their postseason run.

And it's like, good vibes. Like this is, this could work. We, we're healthy now. This is great. I can see that happening. I also do think the Sean Payton dominoes are well lined up. And it's going to take a lot to, uh, to sort of those dominoes. The Sean Payton storyline is like the most exciting thing in the NFL.

I mean, he could land anywhere. Like you said, he's not going to be vague about it. I mean, he'll be dropping hints. There will be sourced reports about like Sean Payton, you know, really likes the country club in this city. Just a, you know, a source said he's a big fan of, you know, maybe it's like a wah-wah. I don't know whatever chains are out there in certain regions of the country. These breadcrumbs are going to be dropped in like every local newspaper over the next three months. You mentioned it.

He's going to be on paper. He's not going to be on TV. I mean, he's not going to be afraid to criticize any of these teams. so that's going to be a lot of fun. All right, that was my last one. Ben, do you have an extra point to cap us off tonight? My extra point is just thinking more silly Sean Payton things. That's all I've thought about now.

No, okay. I can give you a quick one. I can give you something that annoyed me. Okay, go for it. These coaches that don't have, shouldn't have anything to lose like an Arthur Smith and a lovey Smith, come on. I mean, really. What are we doing here, punting on fourth and one

and giving the Saints the ball back there, Arthur Smith after the Marcus Mario to fumble, Lovie Smith punting, trying to preserve the tie. I actually understand trying to preserve the tie if you're a team that has playoff aspirations. And I know you're saying, She'll, well, you don't think they're making the playoffs, but they probably think they're making the playoffs fine. But come on, just the, you know, the players, I think the players want to be aggressive. I think the players feed off being aggressive.

I think players understand if you go forward to those situations and you don't get it. I have not heard many players then come out and rip the coach after that. Like most of the time they come out and they say, all right, well, the coach had faith in us. We let him down, but we love the mentality. Like, I think the payoff there is so much higher than this sort of risk-averse downside that coaches always perceive. I mean, if you get it there, if you get the fourth and one there, think about the Falcons right now. They're going, oh, man, Arthur Smith had faith in us. We pulled off the upset.

No one believed in us. And if you don't get it, like you lost the game anyway by punting. And again, I know it's, you know, process over results, but just some of those things. And I'm probably going to be annoying. I might already be annoying you with this, certainly by week three or four when I'm, when I'm railing on all these in-game coaching decisions, you're going to be like, Sheel, all right, we get it. We know what's your preferences.

But those were the two that really irked me a little bit here in week one. My extra point is this, because I'm still on the Sean Payton thing. The lesson we can all learn from the lesson we can all, I thought I was going to do extra point champagne. You're like, I have something. and it was actually good football analysis. I looked at your face. See, this is week one,

and I didn't have a good read. I thought your face said, Sheal, I didn't think I was going to do it. You do it. You do it. Miscommunicating on the Johnson Jefferson touchdown. Okay.

Go ahead. Extra point on Sean Payton is this. Arrive, make a mess, leave. We all can learn a beautiful lesson from Sean Payton's tenure as the Saints head coach.

Show up, do good work, justify investment. And then when stuff fits the fan. Just leave. Just be gone. Just, uh, you can't pay anybody anymore. Our entire defense is leaving. We're going to basically lose to the Falcons now, which the Falcons not winning that game was so atrocious, but whatever. We're going to basically lose to the Falcons of week one now. It's a shame that

I'm retired. And then in my retirement, I'll be extremely active around the NFL field and make myself very prevalent for future coaching jobs. Uh, if things in your life are looking down, retire and then just come back a year later and nobody will question it. Wisdom of Sean Payton. I think that's good life advice. I think quitting is underrated. You know, sometimes you just have to get out of a situation.

And if you gave you, I think the key there is if you gave your all and did a good job while you were there, you have nothing to feel guilty about. You can, as we say in the Capadia household, Ben, you can adopt this. You know,

I'm sure your family will eventually grow. There are some things you just say, NMP, Not my problem. You can't, you know, you can't, you can't be responsible for what everyone else does. It's time to pay the Piper? Wow. Sounds like a great job for Mickey Loomis. I'm out. Here we go. See ya. All right. On that note, I think that's a great note to end it on. Thank you to Ben's start leaving podcasts. Yeah, you can leave right now. The Falcons are going to win the NFC South. Then I should hang up the Zoom. Practice it. I like it. I wouldn't actually do that to you.

Okay. You could. All right. Thank you to Ben Solai. We're going to be doing this. Every Monday night, if you're saying, hey, they didn't talk about the Eagles at all. Well, we have our own Philly Eagles podcast called Philly Special that you should go download and subscribe to. You can hear our takes on the Eagles there, but we're going to be going league-wide. Every Monday night, it's going to be a lot of fun. Make sure you stay tuned to the Ringer NFL feed all week. We will have Jason Gough and Austin Gale doing a power ranking show.

And then, of course, Nora Princeati with the Island later this week. Thank you to Chris Sutton for producing additional production supervision. by Connor Nevins and Arjuna Ramgopal. We will be back with the Ringer NFL show tomorrow.