The Ringer NFL Show - Week 14 NFL Power Rankings: The Steelers and Niners Are on the Rise, Plus Who Are the Real Super Bowl Contenders? | Power Rankers

Episode Date: December 7, 2022

Austin and Jason discuss how the NFL power rankings have changed after Week 13. First, Jason wants to sort through how many teams have a chance to win the Super Bowl (0:54). Then, they discuss the team of the week, the Bengals, and whether they are a true contender (7:38). After that, they get into the two biggest movers on this week’s rankings, the Niners and the Steelers (14:48), before discussing some teams that Austin doesn’t know what to do with (28:12). Later, Steven Ruiz joins the pod to talk Tua Tagovailoa, Joe Burrow, and Geno Smith (56:42). Hosts: Austin Gayle and Jason Goff Guest: Steven Ruiz Production Supervision: Arjuna Ramgopal and Conor Nevins Associate Producer: Carlos Chiriboga Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Mac Jones is ripped. Matt Patricia's calling plays. The Celtics are title favorites. And The Ringer has a new Boston show. I'm Brian Barrett, host of Off the Pike, the show covering all things Boston sports. I'll have shows multiple times a week covering your favorite teams and with your favorite ringer and local guests. Plus, maybe Bill will stop by to rant about the socks. Follow off the pike with me, Brian Barrett, now on Spotify.

Welcome into Power Rankers. Austin Gale here with Jason Gough and Steve Louise to talk the Power Rankings heading into week 14. Golf comes out hot. Missed the last couple shows. He is fired up. Bengals, Titans, got to talk, Jimmy G. Should be quite the treat. Let's get into it. Honestly, honestly.

Look me in my zoom eyes right now, Austin, Gale, and tell me, in your honest assessment, how many teams actually can win the Super Bowl right now? And then, look me in my eyes and tell me if the teams that you add at the end there, you don't really want to watch play playoff football.

Because if it's more than four teams, then I don't know what to say right now. Like the NFC East has decided that one of their two, you know, participants in the Cowboys and the Eagles will be in this thing. And the AMC can't stop tripping over itself, the leaky defenses, quarterbacks that you don't believe in. So I need to know from Mr. Power rankings himself, how many teams you truly believe can win this year's Super Bowl, my friend. Jason Goff coming back with Ventures.

Great to have you. Austin Gil here on the Power Rangers show, getting thrown into the fire. This is actually exactly where I wanted to start. This is exactly where I wanted to start. We're talking about every single year this time of year, every single year this time of the season, every broadcast team is talking about teams that are in the hunt,

who can sneak in and all this stuff. It's a crazy AFC playoff picture. It's a crazy NFC playoff picture. There's only a handful of teams that win the big dance, right? It's the Bills, Chiefs, Bengals, in the AFC. If you want to put the Ravens in there, go ahead. Lamar Jackson injury scares me. And even when he's healthy,

the supporting cast is awful. Like, Greg Roman is, we've talked about it every single week. You're not a saying. Greg Roman is putting this guy in a band, in a bind. And that doesn't even factor in the receiving injuries, the running back injuries, now Lamar Jackson dealing with injury. I worry about the Ravens. This Ravens team is not beating the Chiefs, the Bills, the Dolphins.

I don't think the Ravens are in that conversation. It's hard to put the dolphins in that conversation right now after what was, I won't call it a blueprint loss for Miami, but a concerning one, a concerning one. I have a lot to say about Tuoticaa and Mike McDaniel in this offense after that game. But in the AFC, Bill's Chiefs, Bengals, that's who I feel confident in. If you want to talk about, are the jets getting in or the charts, stop, stop. Those guys aren't winning the Super Bowl.

I don't see it. I think it's the Bills, Chiefs, Bengals. Dolphins are flirty. I don't know. They've been so good this season. I really worry about this Niners game. For the NFC, it's the Eagles and the Cowboys now. No Jimmy Garoppel for the San Francisco 49ers as much as you want to throw praise at Brock Purdy

and what Kyle Shanhan is able to do with any quarterback he wants. Brock Purdy is not winning the Super Bowl, folks. It's not. It's not going to happen. And even if they signed Baker Mayfield, it's not going to happen. The 49ers without Jimmy Garoppel are not a team that can win three games in the postseason to get to the Super Bowl and then win the Super Bowl. I like the Eagles and the Cowboys in the NFC. Bills, Chiefs, Bengals, and the AFC. Dolphins are the only team I'm like honestly flirting with.

I don't see it with the Vikings. I obviously don't see it with the Bucks. I don't see it with the Giants, the Seahawks, the commanders. It's an Eagles Cowboys in the NFC. Bill's Chiefs, Bengals, dolphins are, I think, that one fringe team. I'm not back on the Ravens at this point. But your boy, Kyle Shannan, right?

He is the magical wizard of offense. Brock Purdy got into that game pretty early and looked a lot better than people thought he would look. And I'm not, trust me, I am not about to sit here and tell you that the last pick in the NFL draft is going to lead this team to some Super Bowl greatness. But the real measure of a coach, I think we're getting ready to see here.

Because if Kyle Shanahan, can ask him to do what he asked him to do for three and a half quarters, three quarters of that football game. And Christian McCaffrey, who was brought over to be the versatile back that he has been. I worry about them and their deep threat situation. Like, I worry about, you know, having Debo Samuel as the guy that you can only count on for plays in big moments in terms of splash plays. Also, Christian McCaffrey, don't get me wrong. But I worry about their big play capability without Jimmy Garoppelow, without a mobile quarterback who knows what he's doing back there. Man, if the 49ers match up against a team like the Seahawks or, you know, a team like,

because I'm sorry, man, everybody can gush all they want about what they saw on Monday night, those last two drives. Talk to me about the first three quarters of that listless, lifeless, ass offense that Tom Brady and them are running out there. I don't know if Byron Lefwich and Todd Bowles ain't bringing the same kind of, you know, go get them attitude to Bruce Arians did. But to me, the more shocking and more galling part was the fact that they had three points against that same's defense for three quarters.

So if the 49ers can mess around and beat them, I wouldn't be surprised. If 49ers can mess around and beat the Seahawks, wouldn't be surprised. Hell, if the 49 is mess around and beat the Vikings, I wouldn't be surprised. To me, it's two and two. It's Bill's Chiefs and it's Cowboys Eagles for right now.

And the Cowboys thing. You're throwing the Bengals out? You're counting the Bengals out? I don't know how you feel about, I know your love affair with Joe Burrow. I know you could, I know, damn it. I know. I know it should hurt you right now that I'm saying,

And until I see, until I see Zach Taylor do what he's supposed to do with that offense, right? I mean, even in the, even in the Chiefs game, that leaky bend, but don't break and sometimes break Chiefs defense, Samaji Piron was the most effective player on the field for a couple of few possessions. And I thought it took them long enough to notice that. And like to attack some of these linebacks to attack those safeties the way they did. Like there's still some things that are holding me back from that. And also, it's the brand. on the can for me too. Like, I still got to get used to seeing Joe Burrow and that Bengals team

do what they do. I still do. I know. I know. And I know I'm coming out this like an old head. I trust me, I do. But I understand also what I've seen early on in this season. They won four games in a row, right? What happened early on in this season that wasn't clicking that all of a sudden has started to click over these last month or so? Like December football, we get to stop talking about the Raiders and all these other teams that we don't really give a shit about. We get to start talking about the big boys. So I'm glad you, I'm glad you stated your five for me, because I thought you were going to get wild and throw them

dolphins in there like you tried to do for C.C. Thought you was going to get wild and start talking this Ryan Tannanahill nonsense to me and with the Tennessee Titans, they just fired their GM. I'm just making sure. It's just a little bit of temperature check. I ain't seen you in a while. I missed you. We're going to get the dolphins.

A lot of takes on both those teams. I think the dolphins are the team I'm most scared of not putting in my five teams to win the Super Bowl. They're the team I'm most scared of. I know I have so much faith in Tyrie Kill, Jalen Waddle, and Mike McDaniel. I do. Those guys are good every single week. They wake up good. They wake up open.

Like Tyra Kiel and Jalen Waddle wake up open. That is a problem. That's a problem in the AFC that I don't think there's, no, the San Francisco 0.9 is obviously a phenomenal job of getting to two at Tongue Vail. There aren't cornerbacks in this league that can legitimately close the separation on a Waddle on a Tyrakeel. Even in that game according to next-gen stats, Typer kill was running wide open, over three yards of separation on most of his targets.

To a tongue-in-by-low is the reason they lost that game. We'll get into that a little bit later. But Cincinnati Bengals, you're leaving out to Cincinnati Bengals. That's my team of the week. My team of the week is the Cincinnati Bengals. And you want to talk about how this offense has changed and brand on the can. That was my favorite argument of this podcast this year. I can't get behind the brand on the can, Cincinnati, Houda?

Anyway, early down efficiency is the biggest change for the Bengals compared to the first, you know, first four weeks of the season to where they've been now. In weeks one through four to start the season where they have an ugly, lost to Pittsburgh. They got out to a slow start. Cooper Rush, I think, beat them in those first four weeks. They were not a good football team to start. They weren't a good offense to start. And all that came down to bad early down efficiency. They were 32nd, dead last, an EPA per play on early down. So that's first and second down. And they were 31st, second to last, in heap A per rush. They couldn't run the football and they could not get the ball moving

on early down. It's constantly putting an offensive line that was very new, very green, still working on cohesion in long, third down situations. And Joe Burrow, who at the time still took a lot of sacks, reluctant to check the ball down, all those things. Like the offense was struggling for the same reasons that struggled the year before, but they hit kind of the high side of variance in the playoffs and had some success. Since week five,

they are just an improved early down offense. It's the best offense in the NFL on early downs. They are averaging 0.14 EPA per player on early downs. The second place team in weeks 5 to 13 is averaging 0.07. It's the Philadelphia Eagles. They're double the second place team in efficiency on early downs.

Why? Run game has gotten more creative. In weeks 1 through 4, they ran outside zone on 40% of the fucking place. 40% of the time they run an outside zone with a new offensive line. Offensive line that can't bully and displace like you need to on the combo blocks. They start running a lot more gap scheme concepts, power, counter, wham, trap. And that is what working.

You want to watch that Samajapirang game against the Chiefs. So many times you're seeing him have success running into a gap scheme, whether it's wham, trap, counter, power, and this offensive line having more success with that. It forces linebackers to think more when you can be multiple with your rushing philosophy. It's not about one scheme being better than the other. It's not that outside zone is worse than gap scheme. It's about being able to call and run multiple concepts as a run game coordinator, as an offensive play call. Running gap and trap and wham and installing all those different philosophies and being good at them is hard. It's harder to do that.

Zach Taylor's done it. You know, Brian Callahan has done it. The offensive, you know, another offensive coach there. They're now fourth in EPA per rush since week five. Like that's with injuries to Joe Mixed it and San Pee Ryan coming in the backup and having success. That's also, for Joe Burrow, since week five, has improved in a lot of ways. And it's not playing hero ball every down. One of the highest average depth of targets on early downs is the first four weeks.

He was pushing the ball down field and having low completion rates because of it. He's dropped the A-DOT. He's checking the ball down in early downs. If it's not open, he's hitting the underneath stuff. He's also taking way fewer sacks. High sack rate in the first four weeks, lower sack rate in the last eight weeks or so. He has had a lot more success in playing the position when things, break down, right? It's checking the ball down.

It's not playing hero ball. It's not taking sacks. It's not like losing, you know, we had that, he had that podcast in the offseason where he's like, what, I take a sack on third down. What does that matter? It matters. It matters. You know, taking those sacks. And it can be a lot better. The offense can be a lot better specifically on second and third down, checking the ball down and gaining yards

and not losing massive yards. I think that this Bengals offense is way better than it was last year. And it's improved in ways that I think are sustainable by adding, you know, multiple concepts in the run game and Burrell improving and the receiving core, having two legitimate fucking bullies and T. Higgins and Jemar Chase, I think that this Bengals' offense is better than it was last year going into the Super Bowl.

And defensively, Luana Rumo, the defensive coordinator, Big Louis, Solack, and Ruiz Call him, is legit, like legit, like legit in terms of game planning and being a player's coach. I was listening to a lot of, like, mic'd up moments with him, former press conferences, trying to get into his head, trying to understand what makes Luena Romo so great. And a lot of that's understanding scheme and all that stuff. But I also think it's, he said something in a mic'd up moment where he said, the players have to trust me. Trust me that I'm telling them what's going to get us there.

And they do, man. You look at these linebackers, they are trusting him to get them to the promised land in terms of specific assignment and changing things at the second half. That trust, that player's coach in Luan Aromo is why he's going to be talked about as a future head coaching candidate this offseason. He has been phenomenal on that side of the ball. They've maximized the talent that they have there,

even without the star quarterback outside Chidobia. He's got hurt earlier in the year. This team gets it, man. I think on both sides of the ball, I'm right. You're wrong to not have them in their Super Bowl contenders list. No, because I think that if they travel to Buffalo or Kansas City, I know they beat Kansas City three times in this calendar year. I know they have, but who are you picking?

That's as simple as that for me. I'm picking the Buffalo Bills and I'm picking the Kansas City Chiefs if Cincinnati has to travel in a playoff game. And on top of it, you mentioned the injuries that they had, especially on defense, that secondary still worries me a little bit. They count on a couple of young guys who have played some pretty decent ball so far, right? I mean, I'm not going to lie. Like, Dax Hill has played a pretty decent ball. Brick Taylor has played some pretty decent ball. But I do worry about, like, Vaughn Bell early in the

season was a turnover machine. That's kind of slowed down a little bit. He's, I think he's more of a box safety, more so than anything. He's made a lot of plays this year for some reason or another, like you mentioned, trusting the defensive coordinator and trusting the scheme. I just think that there's some holes on that team, like they're on any team. But in the end, I worry that if that team has to go to Buffalo or if that team has to go to Kansas City, I know they've been. I know they've beating Kansas City. I can't say that enough. I know how many times they're beating Kansas City. I'm still picking the Chiefs over them in a home playoff game as well as the Buffalo Bills. I'll say this. I don't think that. I think that's probably the best argument that you've made, right?

I think it's better than the brand of the can. I'll say that because if they go to Kansas City, they're not going to be favored. If they go to Buffalo, they're not going to be favored. That's going to be a game where the market is expecting the Chiefs to win because they're a better football team and they're at home. The Buffalo Bills, better football team, better quarterback and at home. For me, the reason I'm willing to back the bill or the bangles as a Super Bowl contender. It's not necessarily because they're going to be favored in those situations. It's that I trust them to get it to a one possession game, right? Like they did against Kansas City.

If Travis Kelsey doesn't fumble that football and Jermaine Pratt, an underrated linebacker at NTC, a very physical player, Travis Kelsey hasn't fumbled the fucking ball all season. He pulls that one, right? Like, if he doesn't fumble that ball, I think the Chiefs win. But I'm still talking about the Bengals and a Super Bowl contender because they can, they're one of the few teams in the NFL that can actually go toe to toe to with the Chiefs, toe-toe with the bills, the teams with the two best quarterbacks in the league,

and actually get it to one possession. When you look at some of these other teams, I know we threw a lot of them out of there. The Jets, the Chargers, the Raiders, the Browns, those guys are selling to hunt, the Titans. I don't have them as teams that I think can actually get it to one possession. I know the Titans did that earlier in the season. I don't think it would be the same case in the playoffs,

especially now with the Titans really struggling to Zieg, to what other teams are doing. When they slow down Derek Henry, this offense goes kaput. And defensively, I'll talk about the team later, but they really struggled stopping the past. Like, they're a great run defense. I think Solac talked about that defense as one of the best run defenses we've seen in the last 10 years. Past defense, though, really struggling.

We'll talk about them a little bit later off of the Bengals. They're my team of the week. They're a top five team on my power rankings this week. Make sure you check out the power rankings every single week. They drop on Tuesdays on the ringer.com. My biggest mover, and honestly, I think the conversation that's dominating any NFL podcast this week is the San Francisco 49ers no longer have Jimmy Garoppel. Jimmy Groplo suffered a foot injury early in that game against Miami. Right away, Kyle Shanahan said he broke a handful of things in that foot.

He's going to have to have surgery. He's out for the season. So it is a Brock Purdy era in San Francisco now. Brock Purdy, who the fuck is that? Good question. Iowa State quarterback was a four-year starter there, broke a lot of school records, but you never really felt that he consistently improved year over year over year. I think Benjamin Salt called it like a Benjamin Button type of career in college.

He saw it, freshman, saw it to stop for it. And then it kind of just started to regress because he, he's not a quarterback that you're drafting highly for physical tools. He was Mr. Irrelevant, the last pick of this last year's draft in the seventh round, because he doesn't have physical tools that can elevate an offense necessarily. He's not a big quarterback. He's not a long-arm quarterback. He doesn't have big hands, not a super athlete,

doesn't have the armed talent that you want to can elevate an offense. What he does do well, though, a lot of experience and a lot of confidence, right? This guy, when you look at that Miami Dolphins game, why they were able to have success, as soon as Jimmy G went out, The game plan shifted and the Miami Dolphins said, we're going to dial up the bliss, we're going to play man coverage, we're going to play physical and we're going to get after this kid. He's a fucking rookie.

He's Mr. Irrelevant. And he still trusted his release through with confidence and knew that the San Francisco offense, Kyle Shane Hay is going to put him in a position to succeed. George Kittle, Debo Samuel, Juan Jennings, Brandi, Duke, these players are so talented. Chris McCaffrey are so talented that if I could just get the ball on, regardless of what the defense is doing,

good things can happen. And it did. 30 plus points against a Miami defense this week, and they win that game. do I expect, however, Brock Purdy and that confidence, without the physical tools, without the NFL experience, to carry them into a situation where they go into the playoffs and win three games and get two balls. No, I don't. I think they can win games. I think Kyle Shanahan is one of the best coaches, if not the best coach in the NFL at propping up bad backup quarterbacks. He's done it for a long time. Jimmy Caroplo was a backup quarterback going into this season, and he was top five in EPA per play because the offense is so good, because Kyle Shanahan is so good, they get yards out to catch all those things. For me, Brock Purdy is a step. down, a drop off from what Jimmy Garoppolo brings the table. Jimmy Garoppel was operating this offense at a high level and starting to improve as things broke down, things that you did not see him from, see from him in years prior.

Purdy, just sheerly on experience and physical tools, I do not think has it, has enough. Not to miss the playoffs, they're not going to miss the playoffs. I still think they'll win games with Purdy, but to win the amount of games he's going to need to win in the postseason on the road against a Cowboys team or a Minnesota Vikings team or an Eagles team, whatever. to actually get this team to the Super Bowl. And that, I think, sucks, man. Injuries suck.

It sucks to see a 49ers team that if we went on to this podcast and Jimmy Gropolo played that entire game. I still think they win. I still think they win handedly. We're talking about the 49ers, Cowboys, and Eagles all in the same breath. As a team, as three NFC teams

that can win the Super Bowl now, I'm not with it. And that sucks, man, because that's unfortunate for a 49ers team, a Shanahan-led team that was legitimately in the running for a Super Bowl this year again. I think Mike Shanahan might have

a golden ticket, though, to be honest with you, because when you have this kind of situation, and everybody's looking at you like, well, you're not supposed to win. And if you do win, it's more of the, you know, all the, the kudos that should be given to you as a head coach. This is the other thing, too. Chris McCaffrey has seen, what, you know, eight, nine-man boxes for most of his career because he hasn't had a passing game to speak of, all of a sudden he gets around a guy who's, you know, a stable above average NFL starting quarterback in Jimmy G.

And of course, Kyle Shanahan, he gets that for a few weeks. And then all of a sudden now he's back to seeing, I think, what's going to be that situation where they're going to forced the 49ers to win 10 and in. Like, you don't have to really worry about deep play concepts and all those things because it's a rookie quarterback back there. Not just a rookie quarterback, a guy that they did not expect to see snaps this year. So

I think Kyle Shanahan, if he goes the Tampa Bay Buccaneers route back in the day, right, where you saw Brad Johnson get hurt and all of a sudden Sean King got thrown in there. We used to make jokes about it here in Chicago. We used to call him Sean King's mittens, right? They didn't allow him to do a whole lot besides hand the football off and make sure

that the checkdown game and the tight-in game was taking care of. I think that you saw live bullets against the Miami Dolphins. They're going to allow this dude to throw the football a little bit. So if they don't ask him to do too much, and I don't think Kyle Shanahan will. But if Brock Purdy isn't asked to do too much in that defense, the same way the Tampa Bay Buccaneers did back in the day, because I believe they got to the NFC championship game, if I'm not mistaken, with Sean King.

I heard Booker McFarlane talking about it the other day. Like, you can throw a young quarterback or a quarterback who isn't experienced as others in there if you have the kind of defensive setup that they have. And we talk about coordinators. I mean, D'Amico Rines is one of the hottest names in the NFL right now because of what he's done on that defensive side of the football. So if they can mess around and tell Christian McAfrey, hey, you got to go back to your Carolina days where you're going to be running

into a brick wall until you pop one. And we're going to throw these swing passes. We're going to throw these wheel routes. We're going to throw these zero, zero balls right at the line of scrimmage, kind of simulate a running game with Debo Samuel, take a couple of shots with Brandon Iyuk. the formula is there, I think, if Kyle Shanahan is the guy, and I do believe he's the guy that everybody says he is,

but if he's the guy that everybody says he is, I think the formula is there to eke out a few wins, and maybe because of that defense, lean on them in the special teams, and maybe surprise somebody in the playoffs, especially with this field that we're starting to see materialize here in the month of December, playoff-wise in the end of C. I don't think it can be overstated how good this supporting cast is. You know, that includes Kyle Shanahan.

That includes the weapons that San Francisco has offensively. I think Juan Jennings has an underrated player. Kyle Euse check the fullback. You have George Kittle. You have Brandon I, you, Christian McCaffrey, other backs that win healthy have success within this offense. And then defensively, D'Amico Ryan's in his bag every single week. Fred Warner, one of the best players in the NFL,

the best lineback green in the NFL. This is a legitimately talented football team. But the drop-off from Chimmy-Gee to Brockport is significant. And so significant that it's not going to completely derail the 49ers like it would other teams because of the supporting cast because of Shanahan. But I think significant enough, to where when you have teams like the Eagles, where there's so much margin for error.

I think Dallas Cowboys, since week seven, there's no offensive football averaging more EPA per play than Dallas Cowboys. Like, they're legit. Their points per game is 35. They're averaging 35 points a game

since Dak Prescott's come back. And that defense is playing well. Got that in the fourth quarter on the coach, right? Exactly. In the fourth quarter, they blew it up. And Jeff Saturday, I have, did you know?

So Roger Sherman, another writer here at the ringer, tweeted out that it's tied to the largest deficit or difference in scoring in the fourth quarter in NFL. history with the Milwaukee Badgers in 1925. That was an NFL team in 1925. And it is rumored.

No one really knows because the 20s were a fucking dark age. No one even really knows. But it's rumor that the Milwaukee Badgers fielded high school players in that game. So the last time a team got blown out by 33 points in the fourth quarter, they were high schoolers out out in the football field. And for some reason, some odd coincidence, you know, coincidence. A high school football coach was coaching the Indianapolis coach. So they got blown up by 33 points in that game. Way to land it. Way to land the plane on that one, buddy. I knew it was coming. I knew it was coming. It was an embarrassing moment.

And, of course, the Cowboys, you talk about the brand on a can, what's keeping you from saying that the Cowboys are the number one team in the NFC? Because they got the best lines, right? And if we're talking about December football and playoff football, offensive line, defensive line, I don't know if there's a combo right now playing better than that one in Dallas. Other than what you feel about, you know,

their perimeter weapons and what OBJ might be, and I think his presence is going to, to be overstated if and when he does sign with the Dallas Cowboys. What's keeping you from saying right now that they're not better than the Eagles? I still really like, you mentioned the Cowboys' Defensive Line and Offensive Line. I really like what the Eagles are doing in the trenches as well. Like Jason Kelsey is having one of the better years of his career. And I think people thought he was going to retire prior to this season.

And their offensive tackles when healthy, Lane Johnson, Jordan Milata are legit, movers in the run game and phenomenal pass protectors. I think Jalen Hertz adds an element running the football that Dak Prescott does it right now. that Cowboys, Kellamore, offense coordinator isn't asking him to do. I like the Eagles offense from a talent perspective and how they're being coach and how they're calling games

with Shane Stike in there in Philadelphia than Kellyn Moore is doing with Dak. And I think Dak is a better quarterback than Jalen Hertz. And I think that gives him an edge when you look at those two toe to toe. But I think this offense is playing better football in Philadelphia.

And then defensively, I said the Eagles Devenants of Line is comparable to what the Cowboys are doing. I think Cowboys have really talented players to Marcus Lawrence, Michael Parsons. And that Eagles defensive line signed two players off the street in Linball Joseph and Indama Kong Su. Guys that are out snapping their first round pick in Jordan Davis because of the success

that they're having in the trenches and the success that they had against Derek Henry. Everyone wants to talk about in that Eagles game, Jordan Davis is back. That's how they limited Derek Henry. Jordan Davis played six naps. And his last snap, the left tackle, Dennis Daly, South Carolina player, just threw him on the ground and did not play until the fourth quarter until they put the bench players in. Like they have, that's not a shot at Jordan Davis necessarily, but that's to show that their first round player, that behemoth out of Georgia,

is not even getting snaps behind a high-performing limb-ball Joseph now in Dama Kong Su and Josh Swet. They have some players, man. I think they have some underrated. Brandon Graham is a rotational player for this team now, getting a little bit older. Like, he has talent. He has talent. I like this Eagles team a lot.

I still don't see, I think the Eagles margin for error is larger. I like how the offense is being called more. And defensively, they're mad. Jonathan Gannon is maximizing what he's getting out of this defense. I think the secondary is playing well. Obviously with Darius Slay, they're having a really good season. I like the Eagles a lot. One more biggest mover, and then I'll get into the favorite segment, the I don't know what I'm doing segment, because I don't know what to do a lot of these teams.

It's the Pittsburgh Steelers are another big mover. The Niners move from five to nine. The Steelers, I elevated from 28 to 20. And so much of it is Kenny Pickett. Kenny Pickett, go watch all of his third downs over like the last three weeks. He is processing the game and getting more confident. And you can just see the game slowing down for him. I think Tomlin had a really good quote recently.

we're like, if we win or we lose, it doesn't matter. I'm going to tell you every single week that Kenny Pickett's getting better. And I think that is obviously a tip of the cap, a praise toward Kenny Pickett, the rookie quarterback for them, drafted into the first round, having more success. But I also think, and I will die on this hill. I will absolutely fucking die on this hill. It's a testament to Mike Tomlin. And one of the best coaches in the NFL, I still think one of the most underrated coaches

in the NFL. What Tomlin has done in Pittsburgh is absolutely special with Big Ben, Antonio Brown, the Super Bowl is that he's won. Mike Tomlin is special. seeing that this year. As they continue to claw and fight, I don't think they win the Super Bowl. There's still an off chance that they make the playoffs, but it's a hard one at that. But what he's doing is you help Kenny Pickett improve, put him in a situation to improve with not necessarily high-end playmaking talent. Like Deonté Johnson is dropping balls. They traded away Chase Claypole.

The offensive line is concerning. But picket getting better every single week, I think is a testament to picket, but also Tomlin, who? I asked CC, our producer to put this quote, or this quote in. I don't know if you saw this video on Twitter on social media. gave us the quote of the year. There's a fan, you know, approaching Mike Tomlin. Like, I don't know where it was. In the tunnel. And he like says like, Tomlin, what's up?

Or whatever the fuck. And then Toplin's literally like, come on, man. I'm fucking working. CC played the club. I'm fucking working. Yeah, that's it. That's it. I'm fucking working, man.

I love that. I love it. And now I'm going to start using that more in the podcast. When things start to get disruptive or, you know, Bill Simmons comes in here, tries to talk to me. He does it all time. I'll tell you that. I'll tell you that.

I'm just kidding. But we're going to have to go without that. I'm fucking working, man. Because I'm fucking, that's what he's doing every single week. Tomlin is fucking working, man. I'm happy with the Steelers, man. They move from 28 to 20, still in the playoff race, Pickett improving, have to be happy, have to be positive about the Steelers direction right now.

The biggest thing that I've seen from Kenny Pickett over the last few weeks, and it stemmed, I should say, from that late October date against the Dolphins, I think it was when he threw two or three interceptions. If you really look at it, he's been taking care of the football. It's not like just what he's doing on third downs. It's what he's not doing that a lot of young quarterback have the propensity to do, which is trust their arm too much or not throw with anticipation or not be able to read defenses or process, whatever that mechanism is that is inside

that you need a quarterback in terms of timing. He's been actually not just taking care of the football. He's been avoiding mistakes, which is a talent in itself. Like we pat Aaron Rogers and Tom Brady and these guys on the back for their lower interceptions numbers is because they do a masterful job at avoiding the bad throw. The last three weeks, he hasn't turned the football all and over. I think in the last four weeks he hasn't thrown an interception. So when you got a guy who's getting all the snaps and all the expectation is,

you are the starter. Ain't no looking around. Ain't no quarterback controversy. This is your job. Sometimes young quarterbacks have a tendency to rest on their laurels and just throw bad picks over and over and over again. Sometimes we see that every once in a while here in Chicago, even though that's limited itself. What Kenny Pickett has been able to do in terms of taking care of football and actually being back there in the pocket and being forced to win from it, I think it's exceptional.

And of course, you know, the Steelers have a different standard in terms of what's acceptable and what's not acceptable because they've had greatness at a lot of these positions recently. So you can't the drop off into the comparison of the barometer, whatever the case may be, is right there for you. Kenny Pickett knows what he's doing. It's just about now them getting the weapons around him like you mentioned. 100%. And I think you brought it up again. Like it's a different standard in Pittsburgh. And it's set from the top.

Mike Thomas. C.C. hit it again. Play the fucking sound again. Man, I'm fucking working. I love it. I love it. I love it. I'm obsessed. I'm obsessed. I'm obsessed. All right. Speaking of confidence, I guess lack thereof. In my first component of the I don't know what I'm doing segment, I still have the dolphins at six, even though I'm doubting them as a Super Bowl contender after last week. Let me get in my bag here

and talk about two-a-tong-blow in this game. Sack three times, hit another four times. It's one of the games that he's been hit the most when you combine sacks and hits. The only other game where you saw it this kind of degree was against the Patriots in week one, where he did not look that good and there's still trying to iron out some of the kinks with Mike McDaniel. also charted with 24% of his throws were inaccurate. Not all of those under pressure. He was only under pressure on 10 dropbacks in this game. Took three sacks, didn't complete a lot of passes,

had an interception. But when you look at the second interception in this game where it's just a bad overthrow, over Tyree kills head that gets tipped up and intercepted, that was uncharacteristically inaccurate playing, inaccurate throwing of the football from two or time below. He's been inaccurate all season. And what I wanted to do is play a clip from,

Mike McDaniel after the Baltimore, or the Baltimore Ravenscape, where Tua Tua had that insane fourth quarter. They come back and win against a lot of busted coverages. This is what Mike McDaniel said. First he said, he's going to listen to me now and then drops this. It's awesome to be critical of yourself. It is good. You know, he has a high standard for himself.

But, you know, just after the first game, I just wanted to see the guy enjoy playing football and understand that, yes, you want to make the perfect read and the perfect throw every time. But who cares if you just get better at one thing a game you're gonna be pretty good at the end of the season So let's let's just press forward well the absolute worst thing could have happened The beginning of the game for him where he you know you get a contested ball That's not really his fault. I know Tyreek will

say he should catch that the first interception and then he starts pressing and throws it up for a second interception and then he starts pressing and throws it up for a second interception He starts pressing, quoting Mike McDaniel. The worst possible thing could have happened. He threw an interception and he starts pressing. That, to me, is exactly what happened in this game. Worst thing could have happened. Took a bad hit. Now they did have the touchdown pass on the first play of the game,

but after that, took a hit from Nick Bosa, absolutely kissed on an inaccurate throw early in that game, starts to get hit more, throws a bad interception, they start to lose this game, and he starts pressing. It reminds me of a quote from the replacement. It's one of the best football movies of all time. I didn't ask CC to play the clip because I've asked him over, too many things. Instead, I'm going to do my best Keanu Reeves impression. He talks about

QuickSand. He says, you're playing and you think everything's going fine. Then one thing goes wrong. This is Keanu Reeves, by the way, I don't know if you can see it. And then another. And then another. And you try to fight back. But the harder you fight, the deeper you sink until you can't move, you can't breathe because you're in over your head like quicksand. You saw that with two a tongue-by-low in this game. You saw QuickSand. You saw him rattled so early in this one and just rapidly devolved, throwing inaccurate passes, bad throws, not the time of the offense disrupted and he was lost. Now, the good news is at the end of this game,

I think deep end of the third, start of the fourth, you started to see him gain confidence. I think there was a tweet that came out from Joe Shad where Toronto Armstead, Teddy Richwater, Mike McDaniel, the officer coordinator, all came to Tua Tuna Wai Lua on the sideline and was just giving him words of encouragement. This is a guy, according to the CBS report

that came out a few weeks ago, was actively telling himself in the mirror, do I suck? Do I suck? Confidence is so critical in this league, especially at the quarterback position. Kenny Pickett, has it. You see it. He's getting better every single week. That's the standard that Tomlin sets and the innate confidence picket has in himself. with Tua is something that has to be legitimately nurtured.

Going back to the Mike McDaniel quote, the worst possible thing could happen. He threw an interception. That's not the worst possible thing for every quarterback in the NFL. There are quarterbacks that have shorter memories than Tua talking by Lua that can survive hits and survive adversity in games better than Tua. That's where he has to get better. If you want me to buy this Dolphins team as a legitimate playoff contender in this league or this season,

Tua can't let this game be a blueprint. Because guess what? Not every defense has Fred Warner. Not every defense is going to be able to limit. the middle of the field, like Fred Warner can. He is one of one. But other defense can hit him. And other defenses can play press coverage against Tyreek and J.L. Waddle and disrupt the timing of an offense that is reliant on timing and accuracy in those things. That is what I worry about. Because Mike B. Daniel has his hands full and setting that standard so quickly that Tua needs to be

confident and rally through adversity in game. He's done it at times. You saw it late in the fourth quarter. If Mike Keseki catches that ball, maybe this game goes a different way. But man, that is the worrying thing because defense are going to eat that alive when you see. see him pressing like that and you see him really rattled early in games. And honestly, because of that rattle, because of that press, put this game out of reach. You know, every team that we talk about, especially when we talk about the Super Bowl contenders, every team has a unit or a player that if they lose, you know exactly where the blame might go, might be, maybe not even deservedly so, but where the blame will land.

And let's face it, since Tuotanga Vailo has been the starting quarterback for the Miami Dalvatel coming into it in the draft process with the hip and all the things that happened. Like this dude has questioned himself from the moment his career started. And he's been questioned from the moment his career started. Lo and behold, there's a coaching change and all the, the situation that transpired with the Brian Flores, you know, deal. And the NFL, in my estimation, pushing the button on this Miami Dolphins team and saying, hey, by the way, now that you're, it's out here that you were tanking games and telling the coach not to win games, you got to go out and get somebody. So they went out and get Tyree kill. They went out and got to Ron Armstead.

They went out and get, you know, Mike McDaniels, who is one of the greater offensive minds that has blossomed right before our eyes, especially here getting this job. To Otanga Vialo is going to be the blame catcher for this team, no matter what. And I think he understands that. Now, a lot of players understand that. And a lot of players let that stuff fly right off their shoulders, slide right off their back. He's not that dude. And on top of it, when he got hurt, like the fact that he got hurt. And we were talking about, you know, what's going to happen is his career over?

Like all these questions have been swirling around to a tongue of a low. So I'm not surprised. That guy knows his quarterback better than anybody else. He knows what kind of player he has. And we also have watched him not have these weapons and perform, you know, average to below average and start the question, oh, do the dolphins need a quarterback? So anytime there's any kind of adversity for the foreseeable future until he jumps a major hurdle, which is a playoff win or a big win down a stretch in the playoff hunt, you're giving them higher seating, whatever the case may be, until certain questions are answer. about two of Tongue Viola, and a lot of them, I don't think are on the field. I'm talking about, like, macro questions about him.

This is going to continue to happen. So if Mike McDaniel has to nurture that and has to nurse that through, it's, you know, it's the game, right? It's the vulnerable side of football that the tough guys don't like to really mention, but the real strength is knowing that weakness. And if Tuatunga Vialoa is aware of that, then all you got to do is measure it and keep it in the middle some way somehow, and I get too high and not get too low. if a first quarter interception or a first half interception throws a guy off the rails,

well, then he's going to have to see a certain amount of success. And apparently he hasn't seen enough success to throw all that shit out the window anytime it happens. You see these other quarterbacks hell. Aaron Rogers has terrible halves. And it's like, all right, you know, whatever is somebody else's fault, his way that he moves around, to a tongue of violo is still absorbing all of that criticism and absorbing all of that doubt where there be self or outsider external forces. So until Mike McDaniel feels that, like,

He's saying that and talking to the media, knowing his quarterback is hearing this, too. Like, he's talking directly to his guy saying, if you don't believe me, I'm going to say it out loud so everybody can hear so you can believe it as well. So that's going to be, you know, I won't say the limiting factor, but every team's got a unit or a player. And with the Miami Dolphins, we ain't going to blame the defense if they don't win. When Damsharee Hill and Jaylon Wilde because they're going to be running free all day all game long. We don't give a shit really about the running game as long as it's complimentary. It's about number one. And it's as simple as that.

I've been talking a lot with ringer staffers, ringer writers, kind of like before we start recording podcasts or like in Slack or whatever and about like this like underrated or under discussed conversation around like player confidence. Right. And I talk about it with specifically like draft prospects, right? And it's like when you get drafted number two overall, you've got to be the guy. When you get drafted highly, you have to beat the guy. And you can be overdrafted versus maybe the talent level that you have.

And that overdrafted leads to higher expectations and those higher expectations. You can crumble from those. And then I think too often we, and I think nerds are to blame for this. I think other times maybe everyone's to blame for this. Too often we look at these guys as robots and just like legitimate, freaky athletes, big, big fast players that are the same guys every single day. Imposter syndrome's real. Confidence having it and not having it is fucking real.

Like when you are looking yourself in the mirror and asking if you suck, that is real. That is real. Like compared to a quarterback that I think is interesting in comparison is Taylor Heineke. Taylor He doesn't give a fuck. Like Taylor Heineke every single week thinks he's the best quarterback on the field. And he shows that. Now, is he? No.

That's why he throws picks. That's why he makes a lot of boneheaded decisions and puts the, the commanders in harm's way at times. They just tied to the New York Giants. But there's no doubting this guy's a confident player. There's no doubting that every single week, he can throw six picks the next time he's like I'm still going. And you don't have that right now, at least,

in Tua Tua Tuna by Lua without Mike McDaniel. And credit to Mike McDaniel for what he's done this season in getting that out of Tua Tula Tisi, who's dropped a couple notes in the chat. I think he's a great point in that Tua didn't look like he trusted the offensive line without arm's yet. I don't think Tua, even more than that, though, didn't trust himself. Like, look at the play where he's, throws that second interception,

clean pocket, easy feet, Taury Kill, one of the best catch radius is in the NFL, just miss it, it's a pick. Like, that is not necessarily not trusting the offensive line. That's just legitimately the jitters, man. That's the quick stand. And then you mentioned, uh, CC, the producer, Gino Smith. Like, Gino Smith is another guy that plays with insane confidence

and has a lot of confidence in himself and does not, you know, has never at any point, you talk about that quote early in the season, didn't write back, has never doubted himself. And that shows up, right? I'm not saying one is good of the other or whatever. And like, I'm not like, like, Tua's like, you know, mental, needs to be better mentally and all that stuff, but it does factor into the reality of the

situation. And McDaniel knows it. Like, I played that press conference clip for a reason. He's like the worst thing happening through a pick. And I know he devolves in that. He, he, Mike McDaniel knows him better than anyone like you said. And, you know, it's an interesting conversation. I'm interested to see how this goes. I don't think it's a blueprint to how to stop the dolphins. I don't think it's a blueprint to how to stop like McDaniel. But like, Tua can't let this snowball, right? It can't snowball. And you did, I think the good news is, is later in that game, you started to see him dial in. you just can't have slow starts like he did. You can't, you can't.

And on top of you finish this up, you know, that could be the book on them now. Like opposing defenses, no, hey, man, we get a tip drill out here. We get one. Even if it ain't his fault, he going to feel like it's his fault. And he's going to cocoon. He's going to go into his shell. He's going to figure out a way to run away from us. Like, those are the things that you want to steer clear of giving the defense any kind of, you know, edge on you.

When you know something isn't your fault, and you immediately, you know, douse yourself in flames and set yourself on fire out there, you know, figuratively, of course. You don't want to do it doing that because the, not only the weapons that he has, but that offense is going to, like, the way I'm looking at football right now, especially in this month and the playoffs to come, if your special teams has a fumble or a miss kick or a block kick or you have some kind of gath that you're not supposed to have and you don't plan for weekly on special teams, or you have a defender that goes down in the middle of the game that you count on, desperately. If those things happen or your defense just doesn't show up for the day, which one of these offenses can say, I got you? Which one of these quarterbacks can say, I got you ride with me? Tootaka-a-L-L-O is right there on the fence because of the weapons he has around him, but there's also that cave-in potential that we see every once in a while they can stay in the back of our minds to make us say, you know what? I'm going to wait to see for it to

happen consistently before I bet on it happening in this moment. And it's an interesting topic, so I want to continue on it. People will bring up that they didn't have their two starting tackles in this game. And that was a factor. And of course, he was only under pressure on, he was only under pressure on 10 dropbacks. The problem was is when he was under pressure, he fucking collapsed. Like, legitimately. And here's a cold take probably. And opposite to what a lot of people think. I don't think he's not a tough player. I don't think it's like, oh, he doesn't like to get hit. I think he's a tough player and a physical player. And like, it's not the hits that get to him. It's the, It's the mental hits.

It's the, oh, no, I just threw a pick. Oh, no, I just, like, took a bad sack. It's not necessarily- In my opinion, in my opinion. Like, yeah, it's, it's, he's more upset and more frustrated when he lets people down necessarily than, like, getting just, like, absolutely ruined. And now maybe that's, like, speculating too much. And I'm not in the locker room.

Maybe he is just, like, a guy that doesn't like to get hit, whatever. But, like, I really don't think that's the case. I think it's more that, holy shit, I'm letting the team down. And just, like, thanks, dude, just like, legitimately just collapses into his, you know, into his show. He knows that he's, he's, he's taking inventory. He knows he's looking around. He knows he's got the best wide receiver combo in the NFL right now.

He knows he's got the wonder kin as the play caller. He knows it's the team that everybody's looking at for a reason. And they're also looking at him to be the reason why they don't win. So he's very aware. Like sometimes being aware is great and sometimes being too aware can hinder you. We'll see how it works out for him. I'd love to know last thing I'm mentioning on this. I'm sorry, we're going along.

Maybe it's because Carlos Choravogas is our producer and he loves the dolphins. But who knows. But last thing I'd love to know in that like when McDaniel, Toronto Armstead, Teddy Bridgewater, you know, all these players like kind of come to him and are talking to him on the sideline when they're down by multiple possessions and he's thrown a couple picks, what they're saying. Because my guess is more speculation is they're not saying you got to look at your first read here.

They're playing this kind of defense. They're saying, brother, you got this. I think they're like, yeah, it's like, dude, you have it. We have a really talented offense. I'm going to put you in a position to succeed. There's a clip where I think Chris Long sends it out on Twitter. Twitter or Mike McDaniel, you can see him out of the words, no, that's on me. I fucked up. I could tell, you can tell that Mike McDaniel is willing and able to do that a lot, not a lot of

the coaches do. There's a reason that Chris Long, who played in this league for a long time and played under multiple head coaches said, this is rare words from a head coach. You don't see that a lot. And I think Tel Availa needs that kind of coach. Needs to say, like, dude, I fuck this up. Whereas, like, you know that the tongue of I low of Brian Flores relationship wasn't great. He said, did you talk to Flores after that game? I think he made like a sign remark, whatever. I don't think Flores was like coddling him. Like, he kind of needs to be coddled. That's not a slight at Flores. It's just like, he needs

this kind of coach. He did it. Exactly. All right, the Bucks. You said three quarters, they looked like shit. I'll say this. 56 minutes, they looked like shit. 56 minutes, this team sucked. This team was terrible for 56 minutes. I was questioning You didn't like the target secade Atten?

No. Or co-keefed? There's many motherfuckers up in Tampa Bay right now. It's just creative players. That's all they're doing. So I write the power rankings every single night. Like I finish the power rankings during Monday night football because obviously I'm writing about the two teams playing in Monday night football and Lindsay Jones edits. And I had like the Bucks blurb typed up.

I was like firing left which is too conservative and painfully, you know, predictable. Todd Bowles punted twice down two possessions, two of the most conservative puns I've ever seen. This coaching staff is not playing well. Tom Brady is, yes, playing well but doesn't have the dogs to do it. This offense is slow, all these things. And then they win. Why do they win? I wrote and hear my notes, the goat.

Brady's still Brady. Brady is still Brady. And so when you put this offense in the hurry up, when you put this offense in the hurry up, guess who's calling plays? That's Brady. That's Brady. Brady's calling plays.

Brady's putting people in a position to succeed and Brady's winning this game for the bucks. And as long as the bucks have Brady, I move the bucks to 10th. 10th in my power rankings, the top 10 team this year. Why? Why are they head of the Titans,

the Seahawks, some of these other teams that have maybe more wins than them or have had more success in them? Because they got Brady. And Brady is going to be that dude when you need him to. if you just give him a chance.

And he only needed four minutes. Dennis Allen gave him that when he called a pass on third and one and it felt incomplete. Like he only needed four minutes to get it done. That, in my opinion, when you look at an NSD playoff picture that could include quarterbacks like Brock Purdy, you have, you know, had a lot of success in season. I wouldn't put him in the name category of that. Like Kirk Cousins, like I like Brady in those matchups a lot of the times. I think Lefwich and Bowles and the supporting cast aren't doing enough to maximize the talent

around him. But Brady's Brady, man. And sometimes all he needs is four minutes. I think this Bucks team is legit. Not legit, but I think this Bucs team is a top 10 team in the NFL as long as they have Brady. And I don't think anyone can doubt that. Yeah, they're a top team in the NFL. They're a top 10 team in the NFL, I should say, because the NFL this year is a little mid.

I will say this. You know what Tom Brady is? Tom Brady is the dude who shows up on the beach, you know, the beach invite where everybody's hanging out nighttime. Everybody's looking around, having a good time. And Brady's like, this ain't as cool as it should be. Tom Brady is the guy who lights the bonfire and starts the guitar. After three hours, everybody's been putting in work, you know, trying to woo, who they've been trying to woo.

Tom Brady sits down with the guitar and now all of a sudden, all the ladies are around him. And he's like, hey, it's cool again. The motherfucker has looked lifeless for this last month. And don't get it twisted. Doing what you got to do at home and figuring out your home life and figuring out your single life after your home life is ruined and all the other stuff. That weighs on a dude. Don't get me wrong. I'm sure he is having a tough time of it.

But whether it be Byron Lefich or the lack of Bruce Ariens in his ears and maybe push back, I do think Brady needs a dude to push back on him every once in a while to keep him sharp and keep him on that. I hate everything. I'm the go, let's go kind of vibe. We haven't seen that out of him. And I know his offensive line has been riddled with injury and retirement and all the other things. And now Tristan Worf's gets leg whipped and he's out for a long time. that those two drives where I'm sitting there like

nah he ain't going to do this shit again is he and then the first drive happens you're like and as I never mentioned Cade Otton is out here getting targets and I'm like nah he's not going to do this again and the New Orleans Saints bless their hearts they did everything like Cam George did everything he possibly could to be the best player on the field that entire game like he was out there bawling

and all you need is a little sliver of hope and like you mentioned two minute drives are just hey what do you like here what do you like here after we go out on the field here's your four or five plays you do whatever you want to do with them then you start calling your own game this is why fans always want people to be in hurry up in two minutes because it looks so fluid and it looks so artful when it's being executed not many people can execute it like tom brady can and with that pop gun arm and and not wanting to be hit and losing some of that mobility in the pocket that made him you know the

greatest of all time a few years ago he can he can still power up every once in a while it's kind like when you see, you know, a basketball player who you know is washed. But every, you know, he's got two, three minutes of scoring in him. You're like, ah, look at that. There's a glimpse of it. He can't do these things for weeks on end anymore. You look at the touchdown numbers. I think coming into the game is 14 touchdowns and two interceptions. Best touchdown interception ratio in the game, if I'm not mistaken. So he's, he's stayed away from the mistakes, but he's also stayed away from taking some big hits because, you know, it's self-preservation out there. In a moment like that, last night, that cements once again, that he is the great

of all time. All he did was light the bonfire and start playing a guitar and got back to being the cool kid out there on the beach. I don't think that is going to be sustainable in a playoff push. But then again, this is the NFC where we just mentioned the commanders are in the hunt. The Seahawks are out here. Hell, this is a middling 500 team that we're talking about. There still has a chance to win the Super Bowl because of Tom Brady. And of course, Chris Godwin and Mike Evans, whenever Mike Evans returns to being Mike Evans, I just, I'm not surprised by it anymore, but at the same time, it stands out to me, like you mentioned,

the 55 minutes before and what this team represents, this team just seems lifeless, man. This team seems out of it. And every once in a while, the magician can make magic happen, but is that a sustainable diet that you can count on for a long Super Bowl-type run? I want to move quickly. Carlos is getting mad at us because of running a little long. We've got to get Steve Louise in here.

is always a guy. We got to get Steve Ruiz in here and talk some quarterbacks. He wants to talk some Jalen Hurd, some Jopor, all that stuff. But like, Bowles and Leftwich get a lot of the flack. I think Bowles, his late game management when he's using timeouts, why he's using timeouts when he's using timeouts is bad. Like, he's a great defensive mind. I think Bill Barnwell of ESPN called out, like,

one of the best defensive minds. I don't know how long he's going to be a head coach, though, because this game management stuff sucks. Like, essentially, I'm paraphrasing, but that's where he's at. With Lefwich, conservative, predictable play calling, Bucks fans have been talking about it all year, doesn't run play action as much as he probably should. should. He blames out on not having a good run game, which they don't have. The

blockings been bad. They haven't been able to create anything on the ground, but like still play action is still efficient, even if you don't have a run game, all the analytics community has called on that. But I think what doesn't get it talked about enough, and I think because Bowles and Leftwich, I think, are the scapegoats in a lot of situations, is that this box offense, in addition not to be able to run the football is slow, man. Mike Evans, slow. Julio Jones does not have the speed that he had before. You could say that Scotty Miller, Yeah, Leonard Fornett, slow, KDOT and K-Kee, those guys aren't winning any races here soon.

Like, it's a slow offense that, yes, you have Scottie Miller, who is a speedster, obviously, he got behind the defense once. But Brie doesn't have that gun either. You saw him underthrow that ball? Like, Scottie Miller and Jalen Darden, two of their younger receivers or faster receivers are tiny, no catch radius, not a lot of physicality. Run blocking is that great. Like, they need these bigger guys to be in the game,

Mike Evans, Chris Godwin, obviously Julio Jones, but they do not have the juice. And that's what this offense lacks every single week, in my opinion. Yes, it's conservative. Yes, it's predictable. But they do not have juice. This offense needs explosiveness that they got with Antonio Brown. They have that with Antonio Brown.

They do not have that this year. A lot of these receivers. It's not that dissimilar, in my opinion, to the Chargers, right? We talk about the Chargers and them having a conservative early down offense. A lot of underneath passing concepts, all that stuff, some of that's Lombardi. But a lot of that's also that those receivers are slow. Mike Williams, Keenan Allen, not a lot of speed. There's no jailing Guyton now.

It's like there is, in my opinion, a correlation to not having juice in your receiving core and how conservative you are throwing the ball down field or how effective you are throwing the ball down field. I think that's obvious. And I think you see that with this Bucks team. Tennessee Titans. Last one here. And I don't know what I'm doing because I got to talk about obviously them firing the general manager John Robinson today. They just signed him to an extension this offseason.

They fire him a couple days after the Tennessee Titans. Titans lose in a bad way against A.J. Brown, obviously, their former receiver that they traded on draft night. Their number 11th in my power rankings, but could be falling further. And I have concerns about the offense when defenses are able to slow Derek Henry, which multiple defenses now have been proven that they can. And I have issues about their secondary. And you look at this game specifically against the Philadelphia Eagles. So that Benjamin Solac probably knows more about football than I'll ever know more than I'll ever forget. He has talked about the talent that they have at corner and how successful Roger Creery and Christian Fulton have been. I haven't seen it necessarily.

And I worry that McCreary, Fulton, and they have a rookie undrafted free agent, Trey Avery, who Frable at times is called maybe the best quarterback of that group. Those three guys, while well coached, while talented, and I believe so like in that, are small, dude. All of them are under six foot. All of them are under 200 pounds. Fulton has the longest arms of the bunch and they're not even 31 inches. And arm length matters at corner when you're going against an AJ Brown. And you saw in this game specifically, Trey Avery getting the A.J. Brown treatment. Roger McCreery get toasted by Devante Smith, Kez Watkins. You see Christian Bolton on that double move, literally get run through on the football field,

like literally bullied into a pole. I worry about the secondary. The team this year is 31st in passing yards allowed per game. 16th in pressure rate, 22nd and percent of targets contested. That's according to PFF's charting. 28th in pass rating loud. It's a past defense that I think against bigger receivers is going to get bullied. And when you look about who they'll have to play in the playoffs,

I know they're winning the AFC South, Chiefs, Bills, dolphins, bangles, hell, even the chargers, if Keenan and Mike Williams are healthy, I just don't know if they have the dogs to do it. One, to have an offense that can survive a team selling out to stop Derek Henry. And two, a quarterback group that is objectively small that could go toe to toe with some of these receivers they're going to play.

Yeah, you make great points. And I know we get to talk to Stephen Ruiz right here, so I'll wrap it up quickly. You make great points about their secondary and the lack of tangible materials in terms of, you know, arm length and actual size. My issue is always going to be how much can you count on Ryan Tannahill? And can Ryan Tannahill play over these things?

Like the quarterbacks that we mentioned in that upper echelon can play over certain things. And I don't think, you know, the GM getting fired today is news. But if you really look at it, the pieces that have been placed around Ryan Tannahill to supplement some of his misgivings, you know, Traylon Burks has had some really good moments this year, but he's hurt right now. And he got Robert Woods, who, you know, after his, you know, knee injury coming off that knee injury with the Rams. He's never really been to Robert Woods who we saw before that.

And then you got Westbrook and some other guys that they throw on the mix there, CJ Board. They don't have dynamic playmakers on the perimeter. And I know they gave one away to, and AJ Brown to the Philadelphia Eagles who is looking like a stud. And the stud we thought he would be coming out of Mississippi, they just don't have enough perimeter playmakers. And in a league that asks you to be able to have pop plays,

20 plus yard boom plays, they don't make enough of them in the air. And when you can shut down Derek Camry, as teams have done two out of the last three weeks, what are you really asking Ryan Tannahill to do? If you don't have guys with catch radius, if you don't have guys who can get in and out of cuts because they're older and Robert Woods, I don't know. There's a certain ceiling for this team. This team for the last three years have exceeded my expectation. So them sitting where they're sitting right now, I think this might be the end of a ride,

in which Mike Vrable has done a terrific coaching job and they've developed as much as they possibly can develop, but you get to a certain point where your quarterback can't be your limiting factor. He has to override some of these inadequacies on the defensive side and on the perimeter offensively, and he just can't do that on a week-to-week basis. So I think long story less long, Ryan Tannenhill isn't a guy that can play over some of these things

that they have on this roster. And you saw the offense, you talk about the explosive plays. It's a team that does not create a lot of explosive plays, whether it's through the air or on the ground, right? It's one of the, you know, a bottom 10 team and explosive play rate. And Trayland Berks caught a touchdown pass in this game to tie the game 7-7 early, got knocked, hit really hard. Yes, he did suffered a concussion in that game, did not play in the rest of the game, but still

caught the ball. You saw the office just die after that. Like, you don't, like, Trilin-Berx is a big, fast, explosive receiver. That's why they draft them as high as they drafts him, losing him to this offense and relying on Nick Westbrook-Kekina and the tied-in-chigger Kwankwo, like, it's not going to get it done, especially if Derek Henry's being limited on the ground against a very physical Eagles front seven. One last thing I'll say on the Titans because they fire GM John Robinson today,

signed him to an extension, a game after A.J. Brown bullies him to a pulp. We know. We know for a fact. Head coach Mike Brable, who there are reports now that saying Brable has a very, very strong hand and who this next GM will be. They're giving the keys to Brable essentially. Brable was not happy when he traded John Robinson specifically traded A.J. Brown on draft night. He wasn't.

There's a video out. I tweeted it visibly upset when John Robinson traded A.J. Brown. There's a quote from Mike Grable in the earlier parts of the offseason. Before the draft, he said, A.J. Brown will not be on the trade block as long as I'm the head coach. A couple months later or a couple weeks later, guys gone. And I think after losing to A.J. Brown like they did, it's an emotional game. And it feels crazy to make a business decision this big, firing a general manager 10 months after signing to an extension, maybe just because A.J. Brown just beating a real pulp.

But I wouldn't be surprised. What else is there? What else is the reasoning? Like you mentioned, it's an emotional game. Exactly. What other decision did he make to fire him at midway through the season? GM should not get fired midway through the season, period. Point blank. It does not happen. To do it right after AJ Brown bullies into a pulp, that is correlated, my friends. I think that's a correlation. I think that Brebel and other Titans brass are upset that they do not have AJ Brown this year.

And the guy that traded him away is no longer with the team, John Robinson. All right, let's bring in Steve Ruiz. He wants to talk to Steve Ruiz. He wants to talk to talk to Tuggo by Loa. Herbert Hertz. Let's bring in Steve Ruiz. I guess we're here with Steve Ruiz. We were talking just before we started recording. Jason's always going off. Jason's going off. Steve Ruiz,

apparently his name is coming up in all of golf circles. What the fuck is this? Steve Ruiz, are you better than us? Are you better than us? Talk to me. I'll let the people say that. I'm not going to say it myself.

I'll let the people say. That's what the humble brag is right there, ladies and gentlemen. This guy gets it. He's different. He's different. All right, let's talk quarterbacks and not Steve Ruiz. I want to talk about the 2020 class specifically. You know, the four quarterbacks

or the three quarterbacks I sent you were Joe Burrow, Tung of Iloa, Herbert, all three. Burrow playing the best ball of his career, in my opinion. Tung Wai Lolo is just coming off an absolute crumble of her performance. Herbert could be on the outside looking in at the playoffs again. And Jalen Hertz, arguably the best game of this season last week. You wanted to bring him up as well. Where do you want to start here?

Burro, Tug. I call him Tug. Tung of Iloa. Herbert Hertz. Where do you want to go? Let's start with my man Tug. New Nicknard. All right. Tug. Tug. Go ahead.

I mean, I'm not going to spike the football on this one, but I do think we saw, against the 49ers, we saw the questions that people do have, the skeptics of Tua. We saw why those questions exist. The performance under pressure, and I know there are a bunch of stats that say, O Tua has actually been really good under pressure.

But like, watch the games, man. Watch the games. If he has to hold the ball for more than a second and a half, his feet start pitter-pattering. he starts, his head starts moving back and forth. He's not going through his progressions really quick. He just doesn't know what to do with the football. The 49ers were able to create that environment.

And we saw what happened to him. And I think, what I wanted to bring up was like, I really think the stats community, I'm blaming it on the nerds. The stats community ruined talk about pressure, play under pressure. And I think they ruined it because we put pressure into one of two boxes. Either there was pressure or there wasn't pressure. And if you watch a football game, pressure is not created equally.

Some quarterbacks create their own pressure. Some quarterbacks have no chance of escaping the pressure because it's instant. Some pressure comes after two and a half seconds. Some pressure comes after three and a half seconds. No more pressure stats. I'm over them. And the two is the reason. Okay.

Okay. Every single week you're looking to just say that comment. I blame the nerds. I blame the nerds. Everyone wants to blame the freaking nerds. Okay. I am a nerd. It's their fault.

And I'm standing up for the nerd community here. If you look at, what's your reaction to this? because I think this is probably the biggest reach I took when I was talking about Tua Tung of I low earlier in this podcast. I think a lot of people, I think Solac specifically has brought up this. I think maybe you have as well is that when he starts to get hit,

it's a quarterback that does not like to get hit and you start to see him struggle because of like the hits necessarily and the physicality of the game, even like some of the toughness and some of that stuff. My opinion is it's less, I think it's less about the hits and more about disrupting the timing of the offense and disrupting his like mental framework

by like, you know, making some plays deep. defensively and getting an interception early. And we talked about how Mike McDaniel has like, not this. Coddled him is a very aggressive kind of rude word to say around Tungavala and a professional human being. But like coddled him in terms of building this offense to support his skill set and all that stuff. Is it the hit specifically?

Is it how often you hit him and he starts to devolve that? Maybe some of the physicality, some of the toughness. Or am I right to kind of say it's more of, dude, if you disrupt the timing of this offense and Tua starts to doubt himself, that's when it crumbles. Not necessarily the amount of hits you get on him. No, I honestly don't think it's the hits. I don't consider, like, Tua not a tough player. I definitely don't consider him a soft player.

I just think that he's a smaller quarterback who needs more space in the pocket to operate. And he is a quarterback who is at his best when he can point and shoot when he doesn't have to think. And we've seen that in the offense. That's what the offense has been built around. Tua takes the snap. He either does a play action fake or not or he takes a drop and then the ball gets out right when he hits the back of his drop. When you disrupt that, I agree. And there are different ways to disrupt that, right?

there's coverage. Or you can have, I think it's more of a tighter pocket rather than him getting hits as long as like the pocket is constricted. I think he tends to have trouble and you start to see the bad Tua.

You start to see the panic decisions. You start to see the bad footwork. That's when the inaccuracy happens. Like the people were saying, oh, too, it was just missing throws. Like it's not going to happen again. The 49ers were causing those misses. They were causing him.

I think one big thing that they did that doesn't like jump off the screen is instead of getting him, what he usually does is he throws through the second level defenders. Like he finds a window and throws through them. The 49ers made him throw over them the second level. It'd go up and over the second level and then get it down before the safety.

That's when the arm talent stuff comes in. That's when you start talking about arm talent. And that's why he was missing those throws. It wasn't bad accuracy. He was bad arm talent. And then he was missing other reads because of the poor pocket presence. Those are two big issues that he has to improve if he's ever going to be a top 10 quarterback. And he hasn't proven that yet this season,

with all that production, with all those big games, those are two things he hasn't proven, and the first time he had a chance to do it, he shit his pants. So it's hard for me to transition from shitting your pants to this now. But Tom Brady, that lifeless offense that we saw,

as AG put it for 56 minutes, what were you more, I won't say impressed by, but what raised your eyebrows more? How they didn't score against the New Orleans Saints for all that time, or those last two drives? and what do you think,

Tampa Bay Buccaneers fans and people who watch Tom Brady and that offense can realistically count on as they are an NFC contender, apparently. I think that it just shows that Brady still has it. Like, I don't know if he's Tom Brady's Super Bowl winner.

I can drag a team, any team I go on to the Super Bowl anymore, but he's still a very good quarterback and still a top 10 quarterback. He's one of the people that I've gotten a lot of complaints about about him being in the top 10 all year because of the stats.

He hasn't had the production. But you watch the game, the man can't hold the ball for more than three. seconds are he's getting sacked and his receivers don't necessarily create separation a lot. They're not catching the ball. He doesn't have a lot of good players who can go over the middle, which is an area of the field that he likes to attack. And most quarterbacks in general like to attack, but he's finding a way to keep the offense viable. I don't think it's going to be,

it's ever going to be productive, but at least it's viable. And I would like put what he's doing in the same category as what Justin Herbert is doing with all those injuries in Los Angeles. And what we've seen other quarterback, like even Aaron Rogers to a certain extent, I think, is still playing well individually. He just doesn't have the support he used to have. So that would be my takeaway is we still have a very good quarterback. And as long as you have a very good quarterback, you have a chance to win any game. I made that comparison earlier in the podcast, the Bucks offense, to the Chargers.

And you look at like the lack of fucking speed. Like there's no speed in this offense with Mike Evans and Julio Jones and Chris Godwin not having like cut, you know, really, really good deep speed. Scotty Miller, Jalen, Darden are there. and they're not big receivers, not physical receivers don't have high catch radius. And I think that limits the offense. I think what's keeping the offense viable is Brady is still viable. And I think you're right to talk about Brady and how he's having success.

A couple more notes on this 2020 QB class. Joe Burrow, talk about top 10 QBs. This guy was absolutely dialed. I think after the first drive, I was like, oh, shit, this guy's in it. You know, really accurate with football. Ball placement was there, checking the ball down when he needs to check the ball down. There's so many plays where you just feel like, one, he can't miss. and also just so calm, so poised.

The pocket management, the pocket presence, and how he's handling and managing the game is up there with the best quarterbacks in the league, right? Like up there with the best quarterbacks in the league. I don't know where you have him in your quarterback rankings right now, but man, this guy feels like one of the five best in the league. He was fifth last week. Well, Lamar Jackson's probably going to drop out of him.

I don't know. If we end up keeping him, I think Burrow will stay at fifth, but if not, he'll go to fourth. Yeah, I agree with you. I do think Burrow has taken his game to the next level. And what I think he's done is he sharpened the areas of his game that were already strong, but did need sharpening. Like the pre-snap stuff, he's been better than at that over the past,

I would say a month or so, month and a half, I think deciding when to hit the checkdown and win to scramble. And like that, that has been a big deal for him. He's figured that out. I do think he's figured that out. I mean, the thing that holds me back from putting him in that, upper echelon is the physical ability. And like it's something, it matters, man.

It shows up at times. Like you go back to the Titans game. I haven't like dove into the film of the Kansas City game. I watched it live, but I haven't watched all 22. The Titans game, there are at least like three third down plays where the ball hangs up a little and it allows the cornerback to get back into the area of the receiver. Having said that, he is so good at the other stuff that he is able to overcome that. And I think he's only going to get better at that stuff that he's really strong at where the arm strength or whatever, whatever complaints you could have about his game are going to be mitigated.

I think he's a good quarterback. I think he's a very good quarterback, maybe even a great quarterback. I do think that him playing at an elite level for like a year long stretch is dependent on having two receivers that allow him to get the most out of his skill set. And I would argue that T. Higgins and Jabar Chase do allow him to do that. And I think it's beneficial, like mutually beneficial. I think he's the perfect quarterback for them and they're the perfect receiver for him.

How many more games does Gino Smith have to play like this before everybody says what you've been saying at the outset of the season? Here's my question. And I've had this question this week. Everything that Austin just said about Joe Burrow, does that not apply to Gino Smith? And why is he not getting the same amount of love?

Gino Smith, every time you turn on the tape, they're running multiple concepts. He's hitting every level of the football field, throwing with accuracy, throwing on time. Pre-snap stuff too. navigating the pocket. All of that stuff is there for Gino Smith. And I think you made this comparison on this podcast feed in early parts of the season about how much Gino Smith is going to get paid. And I talked about it a little bit in the power rankings file this week.

Ryan Tannenhill comparison, I think, is there. Ryan Tannanhill signed a one year, $2 million contract with the Tennessee Titans in 2019. He, after that, signed a four-year, $118 million contract extension was top five in EPA per drop back that season. And they obviously like committed long-term resource to him. That contract, in my opinion, is the floor, right? Like $118 million over four years is the floor. And he is in a lot of ways. Like from an EPA for dropback perspective,

I don't necessarily, I mean, from an EPA, not I don't necessarily, from an EPA per dropback perspective, it's not at the same level that Tannahill was, but still, when you turn on the tape and you watch what Gino Smith is doing to elevate this offense behind an offensive line that yes, has had overperforming rookie tackles,

but still has rookie tackles. Injuries to Rashad Penny, now injuries to Kenneth Walker and maintained a high floor for this offense, that is absurd. No one gave the Seahawks team a shadow of a doubt of being competitive and now they're going to be in the playoffs. That, in my opinion, is enough.

Dude, that's enough to look at Gino Smith, who has signed not just a one-year contract with Seahawks this year, but he's been on one-year contract lifelines from like the last four or five seasons. It's time. It's time to give this dude three, four-year contract extension. I'm not saying top of the league, but that kind of contract extension we saw with Ryan Tannahill, where $180 million over four years is the floor.

Yeah, no, I agree. And I think the difference between this situation and the Ryan Tannahill situation is what you were talking about. Like, you watch the film and he's running every concept under the done. Like there's so much on his plate. Whereas Tana Hill, you could look at his splits and find flaws in his game. Like, he was dramatically dependent on play action, which we know helps a lot of quarterbacks and has made a lot of mediocre quarterbacks look good. He was very good under pressure, which we know is like a volatile thing year to year. There are a lot of things that

made you question it. With Gino, there's nothing to question. And the film is even better than the numbers. So, I mean, I'm with you. I think that's the floor. I don't know if the NFL is going to be with you. And I think the point you made about him signing one year deals after one year deal is kind of evidence to that. I don't think that the league is comfortable quite yet describing black quarterbacks and evaluating black quarterbacks with the same lens that they evaluate white quarterbacks. I think they're more readily willing to prescribe those like mental strengths to a white quarterback than they are black quarterback. And I think that's why Gino Smith had to wait this long to get this opportunity. And that's why he's not getting maybe the credit that I think.

think he deserves. I think people are seen as a good story. I don't think they're watching and going, holy shit, this might be like a top 10 quarterback, like legitimately. And that's what he's been. Yeah. I think statistically and from a film perspective, there's no arguing that, you know, Smith has performed like a top 10 quarterback in this league this year. Like there's no, I don't even think if you're arguing a different argument, you're wrong. That's the fact. I think the, with your, I think, appropriate and right opinion that the league is not ready to evaluate black quarterbacks and the same lens that they evaluate white quarterbacks and offer these types of contracts. And it's why Gino Smith, who wasn't the same like first round investment that Ryan Tannahill was.

And I think investment always matters in this league. It's always mattered. Is like, are you a former first round pick? We're going to give you more chances. Gino Smith, the second round pick. Like that is a difference here. But it doesn't have to be the league that believes in them. It has to be Seattle. And I have more, I have a little faith in Seattle, right? The league on average doesn't have to see Gino Smith is a fucking $118 million quarterback. It's just Seattle that has to. And I think Seattle will. How could they not? How, what? What is the excuse? What is the excuse you're going to bring up

when you say, yeah, we're going to give him another one-year flyer. I don't, I don't have it right now. I agree with you. I think Seattle is in the building. They know what he's doing.

They know what he's doing at the line of scrimmage. They know what he's doing before the snap. They know what he's processing. I think they know. But I also think them knowing and the other 31 teams, not knowing, is something they could capitalize and probably should try to as bad as that is,

as morally questionable as that is. Yeah. No, I'm just happy to see him ball. the way he's balling, and especially after the circumstances where you get your jaw broken. Like, things happen to him that happen to no NFL quarterbacks, right? And he still bounced back from it. The only, like the question, the proof is in the pudding, right? Are you going for raw, you know, tangible stuff and measurables and all the arm strength and all that, which I think he does have. Or are you going for production out there? Like, would you rather have Kyle Murray or

Gino Smith going forward? I'm saying Gino Smith. I go off this, and we can close on this. I know we've gone long. Carlos Chirov over is going to kill us. But go back, I don't, how many quarterbacks this year have had as good of a game as Gino Smith had against the Saints? And they lost that game, but go watch that game. That game was one of the best performances I've seen from him

this year and one of the best performances I've seen from a quarterback this year. Running a lot of different concepts, pushing the ball downfield, with actually, with timing, all that stuff. I don't know, man. I think you turn on the tape, I'd be hard pressed to find an excuse not to pay this man. Outside of, like what you're saying, Seahawks financially looking at this like, well, now,

a lot of other people are going to pay them this much. Maybe we can get away with a cheaper contract and all those types of things. We'll be interesting to see. Quarterback conversations always good with Steve Mouise. Appreciate you as always. Jason, great to have you back. Love that. Carlos Eduardo.

Big shoutouts to producers. Connor Nevins. Everyone, Arjuna Ramper Paul. Everyone is contributing to this podcast. We just love to see it. We're on to week 14. Until next time, Asa Gail, Jason Gavis, Steve Ruiz, the power ranking show.