The Ringer NFL Show - Week 16 NFL Power Rankings: Eagles Still on Top, Jets and Titans Fall, and Why Mac Jones Should Stop Screaming | Power Rankers

Episode Date: December 21, 2022

Austin and Jason discuss how the NFL power rankings have changed after Week 15. First, they talk about why the Commanders shouldn’t be blaming the officials and why Mac Jones needs to stop screaming on the sidelines (0:49). Then, they discuss some teams that are on the rise, the Jags and the Lions (11:08). After that, they get into the two biggest movers on this week’s rankings, the Titans and the Jets (26:15), before discussing where the Eagles and Cowboys should be (38:47). Later, Steven Ruiz joins the pod to talk Gardner Minshew, Joe Burrow, and Geno Smith (51:54). 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

Hey everyone, it's Ariel Hawani. And I'm Chuck Mindenhall. And I'm Pizzie Carroll and together we are three-pack. Join us on the brand-new Spotify Live app immediately after all of the biggest fights in combat sports. And also during the way-ins because that's when the real drama happens. So what are you waiting for? Follow the Ringer M-M-A show right now on our exclusive Spotify podcast feed.

And come join the best community in M-M-A. Peace. We're out of here. Welcome into the Ringer NFL show. I'ma here with Jason Gaw. He's back. is thriving, I heard. And I'm excited to have you time for this introduction, because I want to talk about screaming. It's something that I do. It's something that a lot of people

do. Babies do it. Hell, you start screaming, right? There's two instances of screaming this past week that have me interested in your perspective. One, people, people, fans of the commanders, coaches of the commanders, players of the commanders, screaming at the referees for how the end of that game against the New York Giants, where they lost 20 to 12, I believe, was the final score in a must-win game, a game that if they win, they were likely making the playoffs, whatever, whatever.

Screaming at the refs because that weird, bogus, illegal formation call, where Terry McClure and the receiver on the right side, asking the ref if he's on the line of scrimmage, the ref really wasn't saying anything, he gets fucked. Then a couple of plays later, or maybe even the play later, there's a clear DPI on fourth and goal. You know, he's hugging the receiver. And yeah, that should have been called DPI.

Even like, you know, some of the officials after the game, we're saying, yeah, that should have been DPI. Right. Brother, brother, that's the first screaming instance. We'll get to the second one. Brother, if you are a commander's fan, are you wearing commander's uniform and you're upset about the rest, you're an idiot. You had three weeks to prepare for this game.

They played the Giants in week 14 or week 13. They had the buy in week 14 and then they had the Giants again at home in a night game in prime time again in week. And you score 12 fucking points. That's on you. That's on you. The refs are bad every single week. There's a bad call every single week. It's part of the game.

It's part of why people turn it on. It's part of why me and you have jobs. The rest are bad every single week. You have three weeks to prepare for the same team. and you scored 12 points. 12 points. That's on you. I think if a commander's fan is upset

that they're not making the playoffs because the bogus refs, you're an idiot. Two games do not, two plays do not decide that game. You score 12 points when you play the same team for three weeks, essentially. That's a problem.

That's the bigger problem. And at home, and at home. There are no excuses. There are no excuses. If you're screaming at the refs, yes, I agree there are bad calls. That's on you. You need to win the game

before those calls can happen and affect the end of the game. Oh, they got out-coached. And all you have to look at in that second game is what number five did. Number five was the best player on the field in Kavon Tibido. I mean, the stuff that he was doing and dropbacks, I mean, in that one play where I thought, you know, Taylor Heinecke, just go ahead and cut it back in. He slipped, right? And that's all about, you know, athleticism and agility in the moment.

But cut it back in. And I think Jahan Dotson, who was looking for someone to block, you just waltzed in right behind him. But Kavon Tibdo, who dropped back on that play to cover a tight end. breaks in to then make the tackle at the goal line on Taylor-Hanigan. There was some things that happened before the penalties where you're like, okay, even with the 12 points that they scored, they had moments. They got our coach. They got our coach and they got beat by what, you know,

the fact that we're talking about the commanders and giants being a big game at the end of the season is something that I did not foresee coming into this year. And I did not foresee a whole bunch of things. And in fact, one of you, we're going to get to movers and shakers and one of the major movers, which I think need to take another leap, is the NFC North team that I'm sure we'll talk about it sometime. Oh, two of them that we'll talk about it sometime during this pod. But yeah, man, you're blaming the refs is losers' lament.

You know, sometimes it's obvious, and it was obvious in those two plays. But like you said, you got to put more points up during the course of that game against a Giants team who, you know, I won't say it's on the ropes, but the NFL is finding out what they are. And it's only so much that Brian Dayball can overcoach or out-coach talent-wise on that team. Yeah, you had a chance at the crib to, you know, cement your playoff hopes and futures in terms of that wild card round and you didn't get it done.

So blaming it on the reps is just losers limit. Even though they were too, even though they were egregious errors. They're back home. Yeah, I'm not arguing, I'm not arguing that they were bad calls. I agree. No, no, for sure. I've just, there's a lot of me, you've got to point the finger inward, man. Like, it's so easy to blame all these different excuses.

every single time, not even in just football, but in life, when shit hits the fan and when things don't go your way, you need to look inward, man. You scored 12 points with the edge in rest, the edge in preparation, and you got outright bullied by Sequin Barclay. Richie James and a guy named Isaiah Hodgins that most people that watch the NFL closely don't even know exists. Beat you up in the past game. Daniel Jones running the football on you. That's on you. Kavon Tippino just chewing you alive. I don't know. I think the commanders deserve to not be in the postseason for how they played, not because of the referees calls. The second part of the screaming introduction. I am sick and I am tired of Mac Jones screaming.

I don't want to see it anymore. Mac Jones, I get you're frustrated. Mac Jones, I get that Matt Patricia and Joe Judge don't call a good offense. I get that it's conservative. I get that you want less quick game. I get that you want a lot of things. Brother, you're not playing that well either. And the team isn't that good.

At a certain point, it doesn't look like you're motivating the team. It looks like you're complaining and whining. When Tom Brady throws a Microsoft surface before anyone says, anything like, wait, that guy has seven rings. Mac Jones, you don't have shit. Like, every single player complaining and yelling at a different person, eventually it just looks childish. And that I understand he's frustrated, but you got to stop, in my opinion.

It doesn't look good. And, you know, Benjamin Solac on this feed, on the extra point taking with Joe Capadia, I think had a really good point in that there is an edge that doesn't get talked about amongst nerds like me and amongst film guys or whatever. And just the players on the team liking you as a quarterback. And the more you scream at these guys, guys. And the more it look, the more foolish you look complaining about an offense that yes, is conservative, yes, could be called better, but you're still not like playing above it in any way,

shape, or form. I just don't know. Like you're not saying Matt Jones is losing the locker room or anything like that. I'm just tired of seeing him scream too, right? I'm just done with people screaming at refs and screaming like Mac Jones. Yeah. And at first times, you get a chance to see the true character of guys, right? And in these timing, coming into this season, when we talked about the entry and the cloud that was around that. And then in the middle of the season with the Bailey zappy adventure that everybody went on. I think Mac Jones has been trying to make sure that everybody knows that, hey, there's

one big difference in this thing from last year to this year, and it ain't me. It's Matt Patricia, it's this offense. It's the lack of wide receivers. And like you mentioned, nobody wants to hear that from a second year quarterback, even if it may be true, right? Like, even, but he's also got some stuff that he's got to work, his

time management, his clock management, his burning timeouts. Like, if it's all on Matt Patricia, then fine. But I don't think all of those things are on Matt Patricia, some obviously weird-ass throws that he has made in losses. I mean, the fact that he hasn't taken that next step, you know, he put a lot of pressure on himself. I think everybody put a lot of pressure on him because he is the guy after, well, one of the

guys after Tom Brady. And it's like, oh, look at this rookie season. Look what this rookie is done. Oh, how much better he or pro-prepared he is than the other people in the class. Now we look at it in year two with that offensive play con with those lack of perimeter weapons and also his own foibles. Jones and the Patriots this year, they got nobody to blame but themselves for whatever to hell this offense has looked like all year long.

I hate to dive into, and this is the last kind of anecdotal, weird introduction I'm going to do, but I hate to dive into Bill Belichick's psyche, but it just doesn't look fun for him anymore, man. It looks like, you're losing to Josh McDaniels while one of your best players throws a stupid lateral to like Chandler Jones's chest. And then you're watching a bad first round graphic. It's stiff-armed into the ground as you lose. And you're not making the playoffs.

This team is nowhere near Super Bowl contention like he's used to. The defense is regret. I just don't think Bill Belichick needs to go through this. I don't want to see him go out like this, Jason. I don't want to see him go out. This is a Hall of Famer. This is the best to ever do it. This is the G-O-A-T.

I don't want to see him go out like this. The legacy is the suffering, baby. Give it to Steve. Hand the keys off to Steve Belly, let Patricia and Jojo's take over. Stop. Just stop this. I don't want to see this anymore, Bill. You deserve better.

Go take this fairy tale job that Bruce Ariens took in Tampa Bay where he's no longer the head coach. He's just like this weird consultant up top. Do something else, man. I'm not saying step away from the game. I know that keeps people young. Whatever Pete Carroll's been doing it until he's like 90. But man, this is hard to watch.

This is getting hard to watch, Bill. Go to New Orleans and run that thing, right? You don't even have the coach. Like, go to New Orleans and just go retire and do it. Although I don't see Bill Belichick being a Louisiana kind of guy. I feel like he's an upper northeast corner of the country kind of dude. But, no, I mean, this is a, This is what happens.

We see it with great athletes. Sometimes we see it with great coaches. But he's the kind of dude that wants to work himself out of the rut. And then three or four years later, you're like, wait a minute, the rut's still here, fam. You got to, you got to move right. He's never, I mean, let's face it. He's never been the greatest talent evaluator either. Like, you know, we used to marvel at, oh, the Patriots let guys go a year before they're supposed

to. And then when that talent pool kind of dissipated of, like, constant streams of Hall of Famers on both sides of the football. and in this last five, six years of so of drafting, like you show me the wide receiver or the offensive target that he's been a part of in the talent evaluation of the development that has actually made place, right? Like we keep talking about Tom Brady

in the time that he was there, but one of the things we like to staple to Tom's chess is, well, he only had Randy Moss. And then after that there's a whole bunch of, you know, Dion branches and, you know, Givens, and a whole bunch of guys who were above average wide receivers. Well, he hadn't been able to pick an above average wide receiver and to belie, you know, the talent evaluations are that he got, you know, that title that he got years ago.

So now you just, you run it through the muck with a good coach with poor talent to an average talent. And now you don't have Tom Brady. So this is what it's going to look like. It's not that it's not, I think that I don't want to throw shame on Bill Belichick. The guys don't know. I still think Bill is putting in. You know, some people, you know, I brought up Shill and Ben in a positive way. Shield's like, I'm done giving the Patriots the benefit of the doubt.

This is the worst coach team in the FACC. I'm not there yet. I'm saying Bill's trying. Bill's fighting. He's surrounded himself with some interesting choices. There's a guy with the same last name being his D.C. There's Matt Patricia and Joe Judge, you've never called offensive play. That's part of the talent evaluation too, though, right?

It's a weird situation for Bill. I think he's made some questionable decisions. I still think he's fighting his ass off and I respect him, but there's got to be more fun ways to spend your weeks right now for Bill. Bill's got to find something else to do. Go coach someone else. Go mentor Steve on the side. I don't know. Find a way. Go find a way. All right. The Patriot Way needs to go find a way. All right. Team of the week this week.

That was a fun introduction. Team of the week. Team of the week. I got the Jags, man. It's a two-parter. I got the Jags and I got the lions. The Jags, coming off a monster win over the Dallas Cowboys. 40 to 34 in OT where Trevor Lawrence had his mistakes. There was that fumble where I thought he lost the game. He was trying to do too much, trying to be a hero. Fumbles the ball. I think in the final two minutes of the fourth quarter, they somehow get the ball back with enough time for him to go down there and push this game to OT. And then, Jack Prescott, his second interception of the day, bounces off Noah Brown's chest, and into Rayshon Jenkins' hands, he takes it for a pick six, Jags win, to keep their playoff hopes alive. Now, depending on how these next three weeks go,

that week 18 game against the Tennessee Titans, a fading Tennessee Titans team that we'll get to later could be a win-in-your-in situation for the Jacksonal Jaguars. I think so much of this, to me, I think the biggest takeaway from this Jags game is we cannot overstate how bad Irvin Meyer was, man.

You can't. Like, this Jacksonville Jaggers team is like legitimately competitive now. And Trevor Lawrence has had to climb out of a hole like no other with the coaching that he was getting from Urban Meyer and all those things. And I think that this supporting cast and all the money that they spent on receivers and Evan Ingram and Zay Jones and Marvin Jones, all this. I don't think that they significantly elevated their roster to where they should be improved. What's getting better pretty much by itself is Trevor Lawrence. And I think that to me is so encouraging for Jags fan. I think they way above the Tennessee Titans, I want to see in the playoffs.

When I talk about want to see, it's like I think they'll be competitive. I think they'll be competitive. I think they've earned it. I think they deserve it. They're a hot team at the end of the season. Hot team in December. I want to see them in January. I think that this Jags team, one of the two teams of the week, I got Detroit next.

We'll talk about them later. Is competitive because Trevor Lawrence has climbed out of an Urban Meyer hole that he was kicked into, pun intended, or coincidence intended, and now he's climbing out. I'm with it. You know, I've been the, not the wait-and-seat guy when it comes to Trevor Lawrence, but I'm like, I know how special he's supposed to be and how special I see him in little bursts and bites, but now it's starting to be more consistent.

It's starting to not only be for a couple of quarters or a game, like the last three weeks, the dude's been humming. And he's looked like the guy that you drafted number one overall. He's looked like the generational talent that everybody compared to, you know, Elway and Andrew Luck, like, in terms of can't miss prospects. And let's face it, the good teams take advantage of matchups. And they saw the Cowboys. without two of their top three corners.

And like you mentioned in your ringer piece, benching another guy. Like, you've only got Trayvon Diggs out there. They went out there and slaughtered that secondary. And he did it in a way where it was pre-snap stuff. Because I watched a little bit of the game. He did it not only in the drop-back pre-snap stuff, the fact that he can make any throw on the field

and doesn't feel he has to, like I think that's the difference in his game of the last few weeks, is he's making the throws not only that he knows he can make, but the throws that, you know, all right, we could dial it back. I don't have to go big every single time. I don't have to force a ball in a precarious position. And he did it against a poor secondary for the Dallas Cowboys. And, you know, there was no doubt about it. He was the best quarterback on the field.

And Dak Prescott is worth a lot of money. And the Dallas Cowboys still have these high playoff hopes. Like, these are the games that going into next season, we can talk about the Jacksonville Jaguars being a legitimate playoff, not playoff contend, but trying to make it to the playoffs. You know, they're doing that now. They're doing that now. So I'm with the Trevor Lawrence hype.

I just wanted to see it happen for a consistent amount of time, over a month or the time, and he's done that over this last three, four weeks. It's unfortunate that, you know, if he, so, okay, he fumbles that ball. And say the Cowboys pick him an extra first time, they lose that game. We're not even talking about the Jags, man. It sucks. I mean, the wins matter so much in the quarterback this course.

It's not even funny. Unfortunately. The Trevor Lawrence and Justin Herbert conversation is very similar, in my opinion. Two really good quarterbacks. If you watch the film, if you're grinding the All 22, both these guys are talented. But no one gives a shit. And I went from F to S. Who cares?

You downgraded your swear just now, mid-sensor. No one gives a hoot if they don't win these games, right? No one gives a hoot if they don't win these games. It only matters if you win, which I think is fair. It's a black and white league, whatever. I think that in the gray area is that Trevor Lawrence, even if he lost that game, is freaking fantastic and playing a game. really good season. Justin Herbert, even if he lost against Tennessee, is having a really good

season and exceeding a lot of expectations. It sucks that we can't talk about how good some of these guys until they win, but it's fortunate that they are, and I hope both Herbert and Trevor Lawrence are playing in the playoffs. A couple more things on the Jags. We'll get to the Lions. I just wanted to also shout out. Dwayne Smoot, number 91 for the Jags, stepped up in a big way in this game. Trayvon Walker was out with an injury, so it was Josh Allen, Dwayne Smooh, Arden Key mixed in on passing downs. They were stepping up, man. Dwayne Smoot. Dwayne Smoved. who's explosive off the edge, get pressure on the quarterback, playing good against Ron.

Roy Robinson Harris, they have some, Devon Hamilton, they have some talent, man. It's a bad defense in terms of points allowed over the last four weeks. I think they're 31st and points allowed per game of the last four weeks. But I don't know. Ray Sean Jenkins, I think, joined like an elite list of players who had 18 tackles and two picks in the same game. He was awesome, obviously.

I don't know. I think there's talent on this defense. I still want to see it improve. I think the points allowed per game is a kind of ugly stat right now over the last four weeks. But there's some talent there. I wanted to shout out to Wade's move. It lends more to the Urban Meyer point from last year where, you know, a year of not developing young players, it looks like this.

And like you mentioned, there's some talented dudes on the defensive side of the football, but you had a year where everybody was in neutral or going backwards in terms of development because you had no leadership at the very top. So now you're starting to see what probably should have been happening at the end of last year, happening at the end of this year with an actual coaching staff and a head coach who isn't an ass. Yeah, man. poor urban Meyer i can't believe he just like got right back in the food time poor urban my ass poor urban my ass there are very few people in this business who deserve more what they've gotten than urban

myer and he still is getting jobs and he's still probably going to get a a college job once he's tired of hanging out with his peeps at home like it is what it is with that dude carlos and edwardo are producers on the show i i want it to be known that i i don't want you to cut it out but it should be poor urban mire was ridiculous that man got paid and a buyout he's got whatever he wants. He's back on TV already, big new kick. I wish he leaned into it more, though. I wish he leaned into being the worst NFL coach ever more. Like Rex Ryan does with the feet picks. You're like Rex Ryan, like everyone has, like there's once a year maybe, or even like once every, you know, twice a year where someone will make a feet joke. Yeah, and Rex Ryan will lean into it, which I love. I think you have to do that. Why isn't Urban Meyer just a couple times? I feel a lot better about Irmaier. Just a couple times like, yeah, I was dog shit in the league. Like just someone needs to bring it up.

Irmaier, you were the worst coach ever probably in the NFL. Yeah, but that would take away from the mystique that he would then have to lord over 17 and 18 year olds when he jumps into their living rooms and tell him how awesome he is. You know, that kind of self-awareness and self-inventory, I don't think come with the Urban Meyer menu. I think it's more of an al-a-cart thing. True. True. True. Detroit lines real quick, and then we'll get into my biggest movers and some too high, too low, the biggest and shakers, whatever it is. Detroit lines, man, six and one over their last seven games. A legitimate track to the postseason now. And they only have their remaining schedule. Panthers, Bears,

Packers. Winnable games, man. Packers still have Aaron Rogers. They're still fighting for a playoff spot technically. I think 538 gives the Packers an 8% chance of making the postseason. But the Panthers, yes, they technically could still win the NFC South. I think they're ultimately on the outside looking in. The Bears, well out of the playoffs. They probably want to

lose games. Justin Fields is banged up. This Lions team could be playing in the postseason. And so much of it is the offense and Jared Gough, operating within offense coordinator Ben Johnson's offense. They beat a really good Jets defense. That fourth and inches call to, I think it was Brock Wright, the tight end on the opposite end. He goes for the touchdown.

Like, this is fight, man. This is what Dan Campbell was preaching from the jump, is that we are going to be gutsy, gritty, and fight to the tooth and nail to be a competitive football team. And competitive losses, I take this from Jack Del Rio, actually. I've been a longtime Raiders fan. Jack Del Rio, I remember after, I think, the 2015 season, or one of these seasons for the Raiders, was like, we need to turn competitive losses into last second win. That's what the Lions are doing.

The last year were the competitive losses, and even at the start of this year with some competitive losses, now they're turning them into wins. I think that's a huge credit to the office coordinator of Ben Johnson. It's a huge credit to Dan Campbell, Jared Goff.

They are, in my opinion, a red-hot team in December. And you talk about red-hot teams in December wanting to see them in January and playing some playoff football. I want the Lions in the playoffs. I want them in the playoffs more than I want some of these other NFC teams

battling for a wildcard spot, way more than I want the commanders after what they did on Sunday night. I'm in on the Detroit lines as a playoff team. You know why I'm in? Because it furthers my point that the NFL this year has been a big bag of shake. And these are the sticks and the stems at the bottom of that thing. That's a great reference.

No, it's not, Doc, the NFL this year. And I was so happy when Troy Ackman actually said it a couple of weeks ago during the national telecast. He's like, you know, the league this year hasn't been up to snuff for what people think would be good play. And I'm like, ah, I'm not crazy. But this is one of the good things that happens. when you have a team that authentically knows that they have to do everything in their power to win football games,

rather than just rolling the helmet's out. Like Dan Campbell understands, he's got a coaching staff that's a bunch of ex-players, right? He knows people don't take him seriously. So what? Be your authentic self. Go out there and just play football. And what they've been doing, by the way, because this is my segue into the biggest movies and Shakers. I'm sorry, man.

I look at your top 10 and they're right on the outside, right? at 11. Last week you had them at number 17. Right now, you can't tell me that the Detroit Lions aren't better than the Chargers. You can't tell me that I'm, be honest with you too, because of what I've seen on both sides of the football and how shaky that confidence is getting in Miami. And also some of the things that Mike McDaniels is doing in terms of trying to be cute all the time. Like when you're an offensive genius, sometimes you just got a regular football it up every once in a while. And guess what? I take the Lions right now. If we're talking Lions' dolphins, I'm taking the Lions. I'm taking the Lions defense over the Dolphins. defense right now. You go to eight. You got the Baltimore Ravens with Lamar Jackson up and, you know, questionable because of the injury. Tyler Huntley, he's not, it's not a starting quarterback. So right now in this here NFL, the way the Detroit Lions are playing over the last five, six weeks, like it's not just two weeks, not back-to-back weeks where they're like, oh, look at the Lions. This six and won their last seven, right there. Jared Golf is playing a capable quarterback. DJ Chark all of a sudden has become a weapon. They got Jameson Williams back. Like all the

things that you not only mentioned in your piece, but actually watching them, the Detroit Lions might be like one of the seven, eight best teams in the NFL right now. If we're looking at right now, right? Like, I don't know what they're going to be in two weeks. They might get their heads kicked in in the playoffs, right? But right now, the way that defense has been playing in terms of not being the worst in the league and actually, you know, actually making some plays out there. Then offensively, they do enough.

They do exactly what they need to do. and they've got explosive players now. Like Jameson Williams, I mean, you can say what you want about the first catch being a touchdown. Maybe it's a flute. Maybe that dude's an explosive-ass player. There's a reason why he's a high draft pick. You know, in the backfield, if D. Andre Swift ever could put it together, that's an explosive player. Then you get DJ-chard.

Now you've got a situation where Jared Goff isn't being asked to be the number one pick, but every once in a while he'll have number one-pick type of drives, where he's not asked to do it consistently enough. they're not reliant upon their quarterback. I think it's a fun team to watch. And they're catching an NFL right now where you call it parity, you call it bad play.

I don't think there's only a handful of teams that are playing better football than the Detroit lines right now. Nobody would have guessed that coming into the season. Some consistencies I like with Detroit that you know you're going to get every single time they play. The offensive line is top three in the NFL,

not like top two, right? They are a physical, beat you in the face, offensive line. They're coached that way, their physical, all those things. You're going to get that same physical approach that they have in the trenches across the board. Receiver blocking, defense, cornerbacks.

They play a lot of bank coverage. Like the bullet at the line of scrimmage, it's a well-coached physical team. And in a league with a ton of shake, like you said, if you don't get that reference, when you buy like shitty weed, it's like a big bag of shake. And you buy like a big,

you'll buy like a pound of shake for a cheap, cheap money. I love you wideboarding this for the people who don't buy the weed, by those. A lot of the times, a lot of the times if you sift through it, can get some quality content out of there. But most of it is sticks and stems. And most of the league this year has been sticks and stems. That's why the parity is there. The Detroit Lions, you know, are physical well-coached every single week.

The other thing I'll mention is the defense is not necessarily. I wouldn't say like turn things around. They're not just like a complete disaster anymore. They're okay. Their fifth in pressure rate over the last four weeks, Aidan Hutchinson playing better. They're rotating different pass-waters in. Passing downs are having good success.

The other thing I'll mention is their 14th in points per game. out of the last four weeks, which is really, really good for a Detroit Lions team that was 32nd for most of the year. So last at Jared Gap, who I don't think you should build the entire thing around Jared Gough. I think he's succeeding within the system. I think that the addition of DJ chart coming off the injury, Jameson Williams coming back from injury, Amon Wright-St. Brown, finally healthy. That has helped things. He, of any quarterback in the league, his totaled more EPA, more extra points added, of on past. one to nine yards down the field.

So like that short intermediate area of the field, yards after the catch, he's getting the ball out accurately, all that stuff. He's just doing and facilitated on the offense out has to be. That's all that they need right now. That's all that they need and they're thriving because I like the Detroit Lions.

I think you're right. Maybe they're too low at 11. They're a dangerous team that's red hot in December. Would you take them over the charges right now? I don't know if I would just because of the Herbert factor. Because if it's a one possession game, if it's a one possession game and I got Herbert on the opposite sideline, I'm taking Herbert.

We saw that against Tennessee. He can do things Jared Gough can't do. And when it becomes one possession games in the playoffs, that's what matters more than anything. What if it's a one possession game and the Chargers defense is on the field now? Yeah, now I worry, right? Now, I'm worried.

I think that the Chargers, because they have Justin Hover, I'm willing to put ahead of them. And the same way... I got you. I got you. I think that there's better conversation with Miami and Detroit. I think that should the Lions be ahead of the dolphins in my rankings? Maybe, right?

I think that I worry about the Dolphins defense in the same ways I've worried about the Detroit Lions defense at times. Tootung-up at low on the offense, I think looked a lot better against the Buffalo Bills. I banged up Buffalo Bills defense. They ran the football more effectively. But I still have concerns. I still have concerns because fifth and pressure rate over the last four weeks. Lions played Miami. I know that wouldn't happen until the Super Bowl.

I don't think that's going to happen. Lions play Miami. You get two a little rattled. We know what happens. All right. To my biggest movers here, I got two teams in the biggest mover category. Looking at Tennessee Titans and the New York Jets. I move the Tennessee Titans down significantly.

I also move the Jets down significantly. I think the Titans are fading, man. Ryan Dan Hill now is doubtful to play this week in what I think is a must-win game for Tennessee. Every game down the stretch is a must-win game for them. The offense, even when Ryan Tannenhill has been healthy, has really struggled defensively. What was what Mike Rable hung his hat on?

They've been awful the last four weeks. 26 and points allowed per game. 32nd passing yards allowed per game. 28th and pressure rate. They're getting hurt across the board. Yes, Roger McCurry had that insane interception against the Chargers. I just worry that this team is not fit for the playoffs. Two and five in their last seven games,

and their only wins over the last seven games to come against the Broncos and Packers. The Titans have only beat one team with a winning record this season, and it's the commanders. They have a negative 38 point differential. This is fraud alert. This is fraudulent. It's not a good enough offense,

and the defense, what they hung their hat on in the early parts of the season is specifically struggling against the past. I don't want to see this Titans team in the playoffs. I said it. I don't. I think the Jags are better fit. You know, I look at these things like this.

If your defense and your special teams falls out, can your offense when you a shootout? And the Titans over the last four weeks or so, the most points they've scored is 22. And that was against the Jaguars who beat them 36 to 22. Before that, the week before that, the Eagles beat them 35 to 10. Like, if they're going up against offenses who can put up points, they're going to be in trouble. And I think we've been waiting for that for like three years now, and they got the number one seed. And, you know, we've seen this team be well coached and play to their limitations. Like, they've hit their ceiling.

And they continue to hit their ceiling, I think because of coaching and because of Mike Vrable and that staff. And of course, you know, when you've got a bell cow running back, like they're one of the last teams to have that. And when that goes out of the window, you know, what are you relying on? Right. And at some point, your defense is going to get leaking. like you mentioned, the injuries that that defense has succumbed to. So, yeah, the Titans have always been that team for me is like the 90s Blazers, right? Where it's like, ah, look at that.

There's Clyde Drexler. There's a whole bunch of really good players. But you know that there's a certain ceiling. I think the Titans have hit their ceiling. And now it's time to bottom out. And you go on now and figure out what your quarterback position is looking like. You go on and try to draft well again. But I think the Titans did everything over these last three years or so.

They did everything that they possibly could do. and now it's time to take it back to the lab. And I think we're seeing that at the end of this season here. They're going to have to change something. Obviously, they fired general manager John Robinson, which is rarely ever done with GMs in season, especially for teams that are technically at the time he was fired, near guaranteed to make the playoffs, right?

They were in a really good spot when he was fired now, less likely. And I think a lot of that firing is because of the fact that they moved on from A.J. Brown is something that Mike Bable didn't want to do, and that came right after the game where AJ Brown like bowled him to a pole. Now, I don't know what's the first. the reset button looks like for Tennessee. You're still pot committed to Derek Henry that contract. Ryan Tannenhill, do you move on from Tannahill? Do you keep him? It's a weird, it's a, it's a weird roster in terms of where the strengths are and where the weaknesses are. And I don't know necessarily

with a new GM now, who they're going to bring in, how they're necessarily going to, like, write the ship. And what is a bad, a bad division, Colts are bad. I don't know the way out for them. The Texans are obviously the worst team in the NFL and the Jags, though playing better this week, haven't been good historically. I think they'll lose this division to the Jags and they don't make significant changes, both offensively and defensively. You'll see what Brable has in his dad.

Ryan Tannahill seems like his career arc and trajectory after Miami seemed like it was going to be bridge quarterback. And then he had this revitalization in Tennessee. Do you think now that Ryan Tannahill is a bridge quarterback that you already have in the fold and you wait from Malik Willis and if he's not good, you go back to the pond?

I mean, you know, they're not going to, to be a Super Bowl contender as long as Ryan Tannenhill is their quarterback. It's as simple as that. I think I'm with you. I think I'm with you. Now, I think I've offered you this take on this podcast. It's something that I've drummed up over the last few years. I'm interested in your perspective.

I think the worst quarterback in the NFL. The worst quarterback in the NFL is a bridge quarterback. The worst quarterback in the NFL is a good quarterback. You need a great one or you need a shitty one. You know, you need a great one to get to the Super Bowl or make you Super Bowl competitive. The goal in this league is not to win a Super Bowl. It is to consistently compete for Super Bowls.

And that's with great quarterbacks. And if you don't have a great quarterback, you better have a shitty one, so you have a better chance of getting a great one. And I think obviously it's not that black and white. There's gray areas in trading for a Matthew Staffer or trading for a Russell Wilson trying to go get a quarterback even if you don't have that shitty one. I just don't think that teams ever need to go into an offseason and think who could be our bridge guy, who could be a guy that can't, you know, just play the worst quarterback you have. If you don't have them, play a bad one. Or Malik Willis, a guy on a rookie contract or whatever. What if you don't think that guys, I mean, obviously it's the conversation.

to the British quarterback. What if you don't think that guy's ready? And if you throw them to the wolves, you're going to damage him irreparably. Or when you look at clocks and you're like, I don't have too many more of these guys I'm able to draft before my asses out of here as a talent evaluator. Like, that's, I mean, that's the only reason that these guys exist.

And sometimes these guys up and surprise you, right? You get a Brad Johnson, you get a Rich Gannon. You get guys like, you get a Trent, deal for whatever the case may be. But I don't think, you know, I don't think Ryan Tannenhill, but like this, career rebounded in a way that he should be happy about and

I don't think a lot of this saw after Miami, right? So now you're at the point where Matt Schaub and Andy Dalton for the Cincinnati Bengals and the Houston, Texans used to be my example back in the day where the limiting factor is your quarterback and you understand that even though you have a lot of talent around him. Now you get

into the point where that talent is starting to dissipate around Brian Tannenhill and he's still the limiting factor so it's even more glaring. I will say that the wrench in my whole, the worst quarterback in the NFL is a one, you don't need a bridge quarterback, is that I'm on the outside looking at. I'm on the outside. I'm not the GM that has to convince the owner that, like, no, we're going to be terrible this year. I don't need a good quarterback. And like, there's other parts of it too. Like, having a really

bad quarterback makes it difficult to evaluate the other players on your team, specifically on offense, obviously, even on defense, right, if your defense is constantly playing on short fields, all that stuff. Like, there's other parts of this that aren't as simple as what I've tried to make it, right? But what I will say is, GMs, we understate how, you know, I say, the goal of a GM, every year be Super Bowl competitive. Be Super Bowl competitive for a one kind. The GM for the Colts is like just be good enough to where they keep me around, right, and be a good hang. You look at what Chris Ballard has done and he literally said in that press conference when they moved on from Frank Reck and Brideon Saturday. It's like, I know if I pick a bad quarterback, I'm out of here. And like he hasn't,

right? They brought in Phillip Rivers. They brought in Matt Ryan. They brought in Carson West. They're just going to keep doing these like stopgap bridge quarterback solutions until the roster declines. Quint Nelson isn't as good as he was. Darius Leonard's getting more banged up. You're relying on older players and guys that were good maybe three years ago, but aren't there now? Now you're going to have to, you know, the rubber meets the road in terms of you got to go get somebody. You got to go get somebody that can be great. A little bit of a tangent there. But no, you're good.

Other team I wanted to bring up in the biggest mover is the Jets. I'm out. I'm out on, I'm out on Zach Wilson. I know he's moving for over 300 yards. I know he has some crazy plays in that game where he's like, you know, creating outside of structure, bailing out of the pocket and heaving it deep. This offense is objectively worse with. Zach Wilson compared to Mike White. And the reason for it is the offense loses all of its rhythm, all of its in structure capabilities when Zach Wilson's in there. And like, you go watch that

game, there are so many times where he's bailing out of clean pockets or inaccurate with the throws. And you have multiple receivers on the jets, like legitimately fraught. It just, I don't even know if that's the right word I'm using here, but like really frustrated with the accuracy and the execution of Zach Wilson from Zach Wilson. I think that the comp I make is, is, and I'm, I'm still in this from tour. It's like kind of like a virgin Johnny Mansell. You know, obviously coming from BYU. It's like Johnny Mansell asked.

That is an interesting thought right there. What would Johnny Mansell be like if he was a virgin? I don't have that. That's where I'm at. That's where I'm at. I think it's like, no one really likes him. He makes these crazy plays, but like inside a structure, it's just not there. It's just not there.

I also have like four man's Taylor Heineke. But Taylor Heineke is at least likable. Like, Taylor Heinekees is likable. Like, people like Taylor Heineke. I don't know if Zach Wilson even has that. Like, it's a different thing. I don't know, man. I don't think the Jets have it.

I don't think that, and now Mike White on a short week against the Jags and a must-win game, they're one and a half point dogs at home. I don't think that if Zach Wilson plays in that game, which I think he's going to, because no doctor, the 10 that Mike White has spoken to is going to clear him with these broken ribs. I don't know, man. I don't think that the Jets can actually go into this offseason thinking Zach Wilson is their quarterback.

And I think they have to look to move on or upgrade at that position, however they can, whether that's Mike White or another player. You mentioned the rhythm part. It's constant. It's constant backyard football. Like, I like a guy who can improvise, but I also like a guy who, when that fifth step is hitting that drop,

but that third step is hitting that drop, the ball can get out of if you have a clean pocket. And if you have a wide receiver like Garrett Wilson or like Elijah Moore, who's out there winning on one-on-ones, a lot. Like, I want the ball to get out. And he seemingly is still playing the BYU game. And, you know, he's, he's, um,

all the things that we've seen this season lead you to believe that he is who he is on the field, off the field, in terms of in that locker room. Whatever you want to surmise from that, like, you know, guys, I've never, I watched that Mike White game against the Bears

and that was the first game. Guys were ecstatic. Guys were irrationally happy about touchdown passes and about getting the ball out of the, you know, out of the launching pad and messing around and catching it and, and running,

Garrett Wilson, who's running after the catch, the running backs were running with more zeal because seemingly, you know, you had to respect the fact that the ball was coming out. Like, these are the things where you can mess around

and ruin a team or stunt your team's own development or your talent evaluation of an offense because you're trying to, you know, shoehorn in a quarterback because you drafted him second overall, right? Like, I don't know when you cut bait with a guy like that,

too, example, you know, general managers have only so many of these that they could do, right? Only so many times you go back to the well and say, okay, now this is the guy that's going to be our franchise quarterback. So he's going to get as many chances to sink as he possibly can. It's just what is he going to learn from these situations, right? Like, what do you learn from getting bench? What do you learn from losses? And if he's not learning anything, then all you're doing is wasting a year before you find out that you've got yourself a really expensive backup. And then on top of that, you know, backup quarterbacks in his league can't

turn the ball over. So what do you, you know what I mean? Like what's going to be your lot in life as a quarterback going forward? Zach Wilson is a scary backup quarterback to have. He's a guy that's going to come in, a boat chaos, plays a backyard football. Everyone hates him for whatever reason. That's just not the backup quarterback you want, right? That's a concern.

Now, what I will say is I think Joe Douglas is safe, the GM for the New York Jets. I think when you look back at this 2021 quarterback class, we might be saying, you know, Justin Fields is obviously having a lot of success, a lot of that rushing ability. I'm interested to see how he continues to progress as a passer. But, like, Mac Jones isn't playing that well. Tray Lance has played six games. You know, Trevor Lawrence might be the only guy that legitimately is this. And Justin Fields, the jury's still out, and he's having a lot of success.

I think you, I want to see a full season where he's to run the football effectively all those things. But, like, it could be that Trevor Lawrence and Justin Fields are the only two, like, legit franchise caliber players. And I think Phil still needs to earn that. Zach Wilson, Mac Jones, Tray Lance, Davis Mills. It might not be there for those guys. So I don't know if I necessarily discredit what Joe Douglas is doing. I think Robert Tala is safe as well. But I think it's, I think I have to give credit to how quickly they're able to,

move on from him, right? I think that what they did in benching him and making him like the third string quarterback to bring up Mike White. If Mike White doesn't get hurt, I think the Jets win over the Lions. I think the Jets are, you know, not even not even sweating a playoff berth. Instead, Zach Wilson's playing and obviously the offense. It's even that much more glaring too. Like when you got guys who are lesser talented and guys who you didn't have in your plans going out there and moving the offense and you can see that your wide receivers

and your offense is moving with a different tenor, it's, it's that much more galling to to not see that when the predicted starter and predicted franchise quarterback can't get the same outcomes. All right. Two teams in the I don't know what I'm doing segment here, your favorite segment, I know. I have the Philadelphia Eagles in my rankings as the number one team still. Obviously, there's the report from NFL media's Tom Pellasero that Jalen Hertz strained his throwing shoulder in the third quarter of the Eagles win of the Chicago Bears on Sunday.

He is expected to miss week 16. I think the fear is that he could be out in the next two games, but the injury is not considered to be serious and one that shouldn't keep him out of the postseason. Now, the Eagles only need to win one of their next three games to lock up the number one seed in the NFC and earn that first round by. So only need to win one game.

They opened as a one and a half point dog against the Dallas Cowboys on the road. They're now a six-point dog. No faith in Gardner-Mitchie to win that game from the betting markets. But still, I'm not worried. I still have them as the first-ranked team. I'm not worried about the Eagles. unless this Jalen Hertz injury is worse than what they're saying.

And if they lose this first round by, right? If Gardner-Minchu over the next two weeks, or say he plays the rest of the regular season, isn't able to get this one win to help the Eagles get this first round by, and now the Eagles have to play three games to get the Super Bowl instead of two, and Jalen Hertz has to play faster, right? Jalen Hertz, if they get this first round by, Jalen Hurts doesn't have to play until late January,

like a month from now because of the first round by in those things. I think the Eagles are still the first-ranked team as long as, One, the Jalen Hertz injury is as serious as Tom Pelsero and the reports are saying. And two, Gardner-Minshu is able to find a way over these last three weeks to win one game for the Eagles. I don't know. Am I wrong to still have them at one? No, no, I don't think so. I mean, they seem like they're still the most complete team in the NFL.

And nothing that I've seen deterred me from thinking that. I think you will see Gardner-Minshue not only this week, but maybe next week. And then that final week they come in there, do what they got to do for a couple of quarters, hopefully hold on and get themselves that first, round buying that number one overall seed in the NFC. But yeah, there's nothing to make me believe that the San Francisco 49ers or the Dallas Cowboys or the Minnesota Vikings or, you know, my Detroit Lions are right there battling with them in the NFC. I think they have the surest path to the Super Bowl of any of the top two or three

teams that we talk about in the league just because of how multiple they can be. I mean, that defensive line is crazy. There's so many names on that line. In the secondary, there's no slouches back there. I think what happened in the Bears game is they slept walked. They slept walked for about a good quarter and a half, and that offense woke up. The Bears' defense played their asses off for as long as they possibly could.

And then Jalen Hertz took over, right? Jalen Hertz and Miles Sanders had good second half. So I expect to see the same down the stretch. I expect Jalen Hertz maybe to play that last game so they could wrap that number one seat up. The schedule is Dallas on the road in Dallas with Gardner-Mitchu. Gardner-Mitch who's going to play in that game. They're a six-point dog.

Let's just say they lose that one. I don't think they win that one. Gardner-Michu hasn't played all season, whatever. Then they are at home against the Saints. I think that's a winnable game. The Saints haven't been good all year. Yes, Dennis Allen, that defense is good at time. I don't know.

I think the Eagles can win that game. You lean on your running game, yeah. Exactly. If Gardner-Mitchu loses both those games, say you lose against Dallas and you lose at home against New Orleans, then you have the Giants in Week 18 at home. If Jailen Hurts is healthy enough to play that game, he plays, and they win.

I think they beat the Giants at home, and they're going to the first seat. So I guess maybe I do know what I'm doing. I'm right to have the Eagles. They're still from the futures market perspective, obviously the line against Dallas was a big reaction, right? To go from one and a half to six is a massive reaction to losing the Olympics. The futures market has not soured on Eagles' chances to win the Super Bowl.

There's still the favorite of all the NFC teams to win the Super Bowl. There's still the favorite of all the NFC teams to win the conference. So I do think that there's weight to that as well. I still like Philly as the top team winning the Super Bowl this year. Next team on my list. and I think it's a pertinent one. It's the Dallas Cowboys, who I have now, number six behind Brock Purdy's Niners.

And let me start. Let me start. And I know that's a little crazy. The Dallas Cowboys, in my opinion, starting with defense, are banged up, man. They are hurt, their injury plague. Jonathan Hankins on the Indier Reserve, the Interior Defensive Lyman. They're already down two starting quarterbacks,

Jordan Lewis, and Anthony Brown. Anthony Brown are both going to miss the rest of the season. They're on the injured reserve. Kelvin Joseph, who I think is a second-year player out of Kentucky, was just outright awful. They had to bench his ass. Like, he was getting torched by Zay Jones and others in Jacksonville. They had to bench him for Nashon Wright,

and they're still trying to figure out solutions at Outside Corner. Safety, they've had injuries at a handful of times. I know Donovan Wilson went down for a couple plays, but was able to finish that game. Leighton Banderesh already ruled out for this game, the linebacker for the Gals. They are hurt on defense. Michael Parsons is still a superstar.

DeMarcus Lawrence is still very good. There's some other players there that are having success. I think Trayvon Diggs obviously at the other outside corner, but there's too many injuries on defense for me to feel really, really good about what was a star-studded unit three, four weeks ago. Offensively, I'm not blaming Dack for this loss. The first pick was a disaster, ugly, pressure situation, you know, sails it over the receiver's head,

picked by Ray Sean Jenkins. The second pick was in his fault, and in this game still had a lot of success. I blame more how Mike McCarthy handled clock management and game management when they had that lead. And two, I blame this receiving court. After CD Lamb, it's just a bunch of guys. man. Michael Gallup, not creating a lot of separation. Noah Brown, literally dropping a pass that

gets picked and they lose that game in overtime because of that drop. And I've been on this podcast before calling out Kellyn Moore. The office coordinator in Dallas is not creating anything easy for Dak. And you could say, well, Dak doesn't need anything easy. He's a good quarterback. He's a good processor. He's smart. You have a quarterback that's that good. Why not let him cook and be this computer QV? They need to create more easy shit. They need to run more play action. They need to run more pre-snap motion. You need to find ways to get some of these guys that's that can't create separation by themselves after CD Lamb and get them open.

Because this offense, in my opinion, because of the skill players, Dak Prescott's still very good, needs more training rules on it, honestly. And sorry, I'm calling out Kellynne Moore, I'm calling out these receivers after CD Lam. Offensive line's been banged up all year. And then defensively, there's too many,

I don't know. I don't know if this Dallas Cowboys defense has enough pieces in place to fumble, to put together enough to win in the postseason where they're going to have to win three games to get to the big dance and beat a 49ers team, specifically they're behind the four.

Niners in this rankings that I think is more put together even with Brock Purdy Undercenter. We get to this point of the year every single year when it comes to the Dallas Cowboys and we try to figure out, ah, what's going to stop the Dallas Cowboys from making it to the Super Bowl this year? And for me, all those things that you mentioned, but that one thing at the end that is glaring to me is that they're not going to be counting on Tyrone Smith on the right side of that line. Tyler Smith over on the left side has had a really fine season this year as a rookie. but Jason Peters hasn't played right tackle. I think one game in the last 10 years, whatever the case may be. Like 11 weeks on injured reserve for a guy who was already banged up and slowing down a Hall of Famer.

No doubt about it. But I'm looking at that right side of that line for the Dallas Cowboys because if you can't protect it, and they had some protection issues. They had some protection issues against the Jaguars and against the Texans as well. If you can't protect it, you know, Dak Prescott, for whatever reason, this is the other thing too. Kellan Moore believes that Dak Prescott is one of these 35 plus throws guys and you can win a game with him. I don't believe that.

I don't think you have to put the handcuffs on him, but I don't think that Dak Prescott, the more the throws that he gets, the more I think you not only leave him susceptible to injury, but, you know, sometimes he can turn the football over. I think they got to make it a lot more simple. I got Ezekiel Elliott, Tony Powell, this is the reason why, you know, you wanted to be the lead guy. head of Zeke, well, let's see these last couple of weeks are sold. Dial it back. And as you mentioned, the perimeter options, any team going out to sign Ty White Hilton, you're already telling me what the vibes are. You know, now we're talking, hearing this stuff about the O'Dell signing is fading.

Like, if anybody wanted to sign O'Dell, they've had all season to do it, is a reason why he isn't on a roster. The Cowboys right now are grasping his straws because it feels like a house of cars is ready to fall. The progress of the O'Dell signing has gone from like, oh man, Like this team could really use Odell. You get him for a playoff run to like, is this team going to save the Cowboys? I just don't know if I just don't know if that's going to be the case. I think Odell's a great player and I love O'Dowell.

Anybody could have signed him by now. There's a reason he isn't signed. I don't think Billingham as the third, fourth coming of Christ for these teams is the right way to do it. I don't think he's going to be outright saving a passing offense in the postseason. For Dallas, I think that there's bigger. concerns defensively with the injuries that they have. And I want to be specific with the criticism I have for the Dallas Cowboys offense, I think Kellan Moore needs to find more easy, no, cheats in the offense, like running more play action, like running more pre-snap motion, and creating

more open throws for Dak Prescott, not because Dak Prescott needs the training wheels. It's because the supporting cast needs training wheels. The offensive line needs training wheels. The receiving court needs training wheels. It's just not that good of an offense to be running it, you know, at 400, 500 levels of college courses, which I think is what they're trying to do because they have such a good quarterback. All right. Game of the week real quick. I got forward for you. I don't know which one you're going to choose. Okay. I rarely bring, I rarely bring up Thursday night football, but I think this one's going to be a treat. You have the number one overall pick. First, the number two overall pick. It's Trevor Lawrence for Zach Wilson. Jets need this win more than they need air to breathe.

They're one and a half point dogs at home. Now, you're probably going to pick this one. Eagles at Cowboys. Big game. Gardner Minshu. Cowboys. They need it, whatever. Then you have Giants Vikings are three and a half point favorite home. Vikings are in the playoffs. It doesn't really matter. But I think it, seeing how they play against the Giants, I think will be interesting as they, as they go into the postseason, and then Bengals pass. Bangles don't need win, but I think it's still going to be tight in terms of they win the AFC North, and the Patriots are flailing on their back. If they don't win this game, you know, Bill Belichick might be handing the keys over to Steve. I don't know what's your game of the week, but those are the four

that I thought. No, I do like Eagles at Dallas because it's, you know, old rivalry stuff takes me back to the early 90s, you know, watching Reggie White and all them board. running around chasing Troy Eggman. I do like Washington at San Francisco. And here's the reason why. Here's the reason why, because I want to see Brock Purdy, the training wheels are going to stay on,

I think, for the rest of this season, and rightfully so. It's the last picking of draft in Kyle Shanahan and his good coach. He's not going to expose his quarterback to a whole bunch of trials and tribulations next the you know, he's out there throwing a ball 40 times. That's not going to happen. But I do want to see one, a commander's team that has to get a win.

They got to get a win. I want to see that defense go up against that offense. And I want to see what Brock Purdy looks like another week. Like this is just him stacking his resume, like good game. All right, another good game. You know, you only got one throw where you're like, oh, my God, what was that throw last week? Right. I want to see him continue to do that because this, again, the bottom of the bag, the shake,

this NFL should be eating up this offense because there's a rookie quarterback back there. And Kyle Shanahan is like, nope, I'm better than y'all. Like, I'm Luke Skywalker. I'm the last airbender. I'm the final Highlander, whatever the hell you want to call him. He is out here making magic with a rookie quarterback in an offense that, you know, did I see a double fake screen tied in pop, you know, to the seam situation?

Like old school Bill Walsh shit is being ran out there. So I'm, I want to see Washington versus San Francisco because I want to see that defense against Kyle Shanahan's brain pretty much. I think that's a great pick for game of the week. Niners are seven and a half point favorites, and every part of me wants to take the commanders at PlusSend. Hell yeah. The defense is very good.

I like Washington's defense a lot, and they still haven't had Chase Young back. He's still battling from the torn ACL last season. I think this Washington commander's defense could give Kyle Shanahan. I don't even say Purdy. Purdy's just a puppet out there. He's just getting played with whatever. I think he can give Kyle Shanahan problems,

this offense problem. But we'll see. What I will say about Purdy, And I think this is my favorite my favorite sad about the Niners, honestly. Since he's taken over, he's averaged just 5.5 air yards per target. That's the second lowest mark of any QB in the NFL.

He's not asking him. They're not asking him to throw the ball down field. He's also only thrown three passes more than 20 yards down field, which is the lowest of any quarterback. Kyle Shanhan's like, dude, don't throw the ball downfield. I'm going to get in my bag. We're going to run the double fake screen, tight end seam.

I'm going to give you some easy shit. Talk about training wheels. This offense has got training wheels. Glossy ones, too. There's spikes. There's spikes on that shit. There's some light-up shit on there. I like what Kyle Shannon is doing with Brock Pretty.

However, I think a talented defense like Washington could give them some problems. We'll see. I think that's a great game of the weak pick. All right. This has been a fun, man, but you know what's going to make it more fun. I won't said fun or not a word. That's fine. Stephen Ruiz, to talk some quarterback, specifically my guy, the mustache monster.

I was looking for alliteration. Take it easy. Don't put that into your search file, by the way, ladies and gentlemen. The mustache monster. Jesus Christ. we doing here. Steve Ruiz coming up. Let's go ahead and bring in Steve Ruiz.

Stephen, the man, the myth, the legend, Ruiz is here to rip it up, talk some quarterbacks. I'm a big Gardner-Michu guy. Gardner-Michu is probably like an ideal backup. That sentence has never been said before, by the way. It's an ideal backup quarterback in this league. He's in a filling spot now where you could be playing the next two weeks, could be playing the next three weeks. Eagles need to win.

We've talked about that at length already on the show. you've already started to dive into some Gardner Mintry tape, outside of just being so amazed with the poise and the aesthetic. You know, what's your opinion of Gardner and just how much worse is this Eagles office going to be with him starting? First of all, golf is wrong. That statement has been said before. I know, I know.

It's been exclusively said by white guys with mustache. So that record is still intact. Ladies and gentlemen, I'm still gay. I'm cornering the market. I'm cornering the market. I already forgot the question. What was the question? Talk about garden mischief.

What's the drop-off? What's the drop-off, right? I think that's what everyone's asking this week. That the line in the Dallas Cowboys game has moved from Cowboys javisar by one and a half to Cowboys favored by six. You know, the implied movement is that Hertz's five, five-and-a-half spread points more valuable than what Gardner-Mitchu is to the Eagles offense. Where are you at on, you know, the drop-off we're going to see.

Because you've been at the forefront of, Jailen Hertz has played extremely well this season. However, he's also playing in a really, really good offense with a good offense. line, good scheme, good receivers. What can Garner do in this offense? Not necessarily having you pick this game against Dallas, but what is it going to look like for the next two or three weeks? I think it just makes the coaching staffs job harder.

But I think there's like a scenario or a reality where the offense doesn't fall off too much just because I mean, Garner Minchie was a worst quarterback than Jalen Hertz. I don't want to say that he isn't or it's even close. But he does allow them to do different things and to get into different formations that they can do

offensively, and they can really lean into their offensive line now. I think you're going to see more under center. You saw more under center when Minchu played last year. And I think that helps the run game and the play action game in ways that hurts maybe isn't comfortable running. And then I think you're going to see a guy that's going to take advantage of those clean pockets a little more. The problem is Minchew has the same perception of himself that you do, Austin.

He seems to think he's a lot better than he actually is. He's not the scrambler that he thinks he is. He's got a lot of Baker Mayfield in him, where he gets, he's capable of pulling off his successful improvised play, but it doesn't happen as often as it needs to if he's going to be that style of quarterback. But I do think this particular team kind of protects him from his own weaknesses, because he's not going to be dealing with pockets that are breaking down quickly. He's going to have time to stay in that pocket and scan and go through his progressions. And I think that's when you see his weaknesses. and when he has to throw off platform, that's when you see the arm strength issues.

And the Eagles have two receivers that are capable of eliminating bad throws, and they have an offensive line that's capable of protecting the quarterback. So honestly, I don't think it's going to fall off that much. I just think the nature of the offense is going to change, and the coaching staff is just going to have to do a better job of play calling and adjusting.

Because so far, when they've struggled, what they've done is just start hitting the easy buttons. Like last week against Chicago, passing game wasn't working. So what did they do? They start running, Jalen Hertz a little more. They start having them just toss up one-on-one go balls to the outside and hoping the wide receivers

win and they won most of the time. So that's the one thing I think they lose is having that easy button to hit when things aren't going well. Where are you at right now? We talked about it during the podcast. Where are you at right now with the Kellyn Moore, Dack Prescott relationship and what's happening with the Cowboys offense or what should happen with the Cowboys offense? I mean, I thought you saw it on Sunday.

Like the margin for error is just really small. When the offense was going well on Sunday, Dak was just tearing the defense apart. He was making reads quickly. He was making tight window throws. He was throwing it accurately. But you see how hard that offense is to maintain when the defense starts to win a little.

You saw the Jaguars Pass for us start to beat the Cowboys' offensive line a little and everything fell apart because now you're asking Dak to not only go through his progressions really quickly and mitigate a tough pocket, but you're asking him now to get outside the pocket and make plays on the run. And that's what happened when he threw the two interceptions. He was on the move, trying to make a play on the move.

The first one was a bad throw. The second one was a drop pass by Noah Brown. I mean, I thought Dak played well last week. And I thought the offense was called well. But you just see the limitations of this style of offense that just puts so much on the quarterback and asks him to be perfect every play and ask him to make the right decision every play.

It's just tough to live like that. I want to go back to Garner for a second because I think you're throwing some slanderous takes out, I guess. To make the comparison to Baker Mayfield, I think, is ridiculous. He's much more likable than Baker Mayfield. And I think the reason, here's an interesting thing. The reason I like Gardner is not so much as the mustache. I think an underdog story is easy to root for, regardless of facial hair.

The relationship with his dad is something I'm super envious of. I don't have a good relationship with my dad, but you see, like, remember when he filled in spot for the Eagles and, like, just like, his dad's in the stands. I want, I want the video of when they beat Dallas and Garland. Arner Mitchell and his dad, or it's like rejoicing in Dallas. I just need that. I just need that. Sorry.

Sorry. I, sorry I have my heartstrings matter. Sorry. Why are you telling us this? You need to talk to your therapist about this. Hey, guys, we hang on for like 10 minutes after this. I got a couple more things. Maybe I should talk to Jason God's life.

I got some books. Yeah. I got some books for you, man. A little inside joke there, ladies and gentlemen. That's a word back I wanted to bring up. And hopefully I don't continue to dive into my psyche. Gino Smith. Gino Smith, I have the,

the numbers in front of me. I wrote it up. You know, his production has dropped up in recent. He had his first multi-interception game of the season against Carolina in week 14. He had a season low, 5.4 yards per attempt average against San Francisco on Thursday. In weeks 1 through 5, he was the fourth ranked passer in EPA per dropback. In week 6 through 15, he's the 18th ranked drop, you know, pastor and EPA per drop back. The production is dropping on. Dropping, dropped off.

In my opinion, the film is still as good as it was at the start of the season. He's still completing a high percentage of his passes. I think he's still throwing at all levels of the football field and having success at all levels of the football field. I am not saying the book is out on Gino or he's regressing back to the mean or whatever. I still think Gino Smith's playing at high level. Convince me why I'm right and why maybe the advanced production or the statistical production is not painting that story.

I think it's easy to look at the game on Thursday night, look at the final stat line and conclude that he's kind of regressing. But I thought Thursday night was actually a good moment for Gino. because that offensive line couldn't protect. And that offensive environment was just impossible. And what I thought he did do was, one, avoid mistakes, and now the 49ers did drop a couple interceptions.

But that's what happens when you have to anticipate. You have to throw into tight windows that aren't there and you just have to trust the receiver to make the right play. But you saw him have to throw early because the offense of line couldn't protect. So he's put in this situation, and I thought he mitigated those problems well enough to keep Seattle in the game.

It wasn't a disaster in ways we've seen lesser quarterbacks when put in similar situations, just kind of implode. We've seen that from like a quarterback like Baker Mayfield who keeps coming up a lot. When he's been put in those situations and everything around him isn't perfect, it's not usually, oh, he averaged 5.5 yards per attempt and threw a pick and didn't move the ball well enough

against the best defense in the NFL. It's usually, oh, he threw three interceptions and looked like he had never played football again. So I think the offense has gotten worse around him. They don't have a running game anymore. It kind of disappeared after the first couple of, months of the season. I think teams are getting film on this offense that we didn't really see last year. So it was like

this was the first time we've ever seen Waldron's offense. And I just think the environment is harder. I think he's, like you said, the film is still very good. He's still doing the quarterback processing stuff that made him look so good over the first half of the season. It's just the things around and the receivers aren't getting as open as they were. The offensive line isn't protecting as well as it did. The running game isn't putting him in situations where the defense can't lock in on the pass.

I think that's what's going on. But individually, I think the performance is still the same. Maybe he's taking more chances. Maybe he's being a little bit too aggressive over the past month. And he's said that himself. But the good stuff is still all there on film. And I still think Seattle would be dumb to pass up on him and move on from him after this season. I still think he has the potential to be a top 10 quarterback when things are right around him.

I think what gets lost in the conversation, too, is like obviously so much. much of it has been on Gino. He's still the favorite to be the comeback player of the year. He, you know, no one thought the Seahawks team was going to be competitive this year, myself included, and he's made them more competitive. And I think that a lot of fans, non-Seahawk fans, are just so eager to say they were right on Gino Smith. And oh, there he is. That's Gino we know. I knew it. I knew it. I knew it. And I think that's wrong. I think that turning on the tape and obviously the analysis you do every single week with the quarterback rankings, you know that Juno Smith has still been there, and the Seahawks team that

that was going to be competitive this year is struggling for a lot of the reasons that there weren't supposed to be competitive, right? Not having, you know, having two rookie offensive tackles. Defensively, I still think needing a lot of talent in the trenches and in the secondary as well. So I think that's where more, not the blame necessarily, but more of the reasoning for why

I think what, they're one and four in their last five games. Last quarterback I wanted to bring up. Joe Burrow. I saw Ben Stollack sent out of tweet, man, the Bengals are so good, every phase of the ball, the offense, defense, whatever. Joe Burrow, in my opinion, is entering another level of his development. And I think in the biggest area composure, right?

I think of all the quarterbacks I watch every single week, he withstands a punch in the chin better than anybody. You know, they're losing that game, what, 17-3, 17-0, right before the end of the half, they get a field goal before the end of the half, and just how easy it is for him to not, you know, when you look at a quarterback like Tuotteng Vailoa, who can be rattled so quickly

and struggle under pressure and struggle under not just the pressure on the field, but the pressure of the situation. Joe is just, that Joe cool nickname is so relevant to how he's able to come back against Tampa Bay. And a reason why I have the Bengals right now is the fourth-rate team in the NFL. And a lot of that's Louina-Rumo,

and I think there's a lot of talent. It's a very deep football team. But burrow above everything. And the development that we've seen from him this season, I think is why they're a top four team in this league. And borderline in this tier with the Eagles, Bills, Chiefs, and that they have everything. quarterback that I think gives them a chance in every single game. Yeah, the tape from Tampa Bay,

the Tampa Bay game is kind of interesting because it's not Burrough's best game. I would argue that he didn't even play well in it, but I think that tape speaks to what you were talking about. Todd Bulls kicked his ass. He kicked Zach Taylor's ass. That's how they got out to the 17-0 lead. The only reason I think they blew it is because of all those turnovers in the third quarter, kind of just ruined the game. I don't think it was like a second half you could really learn a lot from. But what Burrow did, you saw, he couldn't pick up on what the Bucks were doing post-snap. They kept rotating coverages. They were sending blitzers from some weird spots, which is like a Todd Bulls stick. And it's not the first time a good quarterback has gotten his ass kicked by

Todd Bulls. So I'm not trying to like throw shade at Joe Burrow. We saw Bowles do this to Aaron Rogers, the year he won MVP two years ago. But like you said, Burrow just kept coming back. And even though Bulls got him a few more times in the second half, you could see him adjust. And he went from, there was like a moment in the third or second quarter at the end where you could kind of see him flip the switch and go from, all right, I'm going to stop trying to figure out what's going on pre-snap and just wait

till post-snap and kind of read things out after that because he's fooling me. And that's when the Bengals started moving the ball a little bit more. Obviously the turnover's helped. And then Bulls also forced him to make those outbreaking throws to test his arm strength, which I would argue is the only weakness you can really find in his game at this point.

And while he made some questionable throws and they weren't pretty at times, he did just enough to get by and win that game. So I have the same takeaway from you from that film. It wasn't a good game. I don't think it helped his MVP chances, even though we threw four touchdowns.

But it just shows you why he's so good and why he's able to overcome these physical limitations that he does have. More fruitful future going forward if you were a betting man, Stephen Ruiz. Mac Jones or Zach Wilson? Oh, man, that's tough. Thank you.

I'm going to put my answer in before you go. Matt Jones is not even fucking close. Mac Jones at least has capable backup in his range of outcomes. I don't even know if Zach Wilson has, we were talking about it earlier in the show. Does Zach Wilson have capable backup in his range of outcomes? I don't know. No, no.

Yeah, I think I'm more confident in Mac Jones having a better career and more fruitful career than I am Zach Wilson. No, but I think Wilson is the only guy, the only one of the two that has a chance to end up being good. and that's only if some coach pulls off a miracle, like, developmental-wise. Like, I don't see it. I've never been high on Zach Wilson. I didn't like them before the draft.

I didn't like either of these quarterbacks before the draft. But, dude, Max stinks, man. I don't know how else to put it. If you watch that film against the Raiders, I mean, he was complaining like a teenager the whole game, but, dude, you stink. Like, you're missing throws by five yards. Like, you can't throw an out-rop to save your life.

He's not a good player. He's really not a good player. So, like, the answer is, neither for me. But we've seen we've seen the route or the, we've seen a team take a path

to making Mac Jones look passable for a half a season. So you almost have to say him by default because he was good last year when the Patriots like set everything up for him to be good. But from what we've seen from like that Colts game last, last year on,

I think it was like week 14. He's just not, he hasn't been a good player. He hasn't been a useful player for them except for maybe like two games since then. Like the Jaguars game last. year where they blew them out, and then a couple games this year where he was fine. Other than that, he's been a bad player, and he's really hurt that offense.

Last thing, and we'll let you go. I think the MVP race is done. Jalen Hooks, obviously going to miss at least the next two weeks. Betting markets have adjusted that. I think Patchman Holmes is minus $350 to win the MVP. The take I have is that for weeks now, it hasn't been a discussion. Patrick Mahomes is the best player in the NFL, the MVP of the NFL, and has been all year. I don't even think other quarterbacks near what the Kansas City Chiefs offense is capable of because of Patrick Holmes.

And what he's done, you talk about Joe Burrow adjusting his game, what he's done to adjust his game in life after Tyree Kill, I think is one of the more impressive piece this season. I think that it was interesting. It was fun to involve other quarterbacks or even other non-quarterbacks in the MVP conversation over the last month. I don't think it's ever been close. Specifically over the back half of the season, I don't know if you agree with that necessarily. Like, if you have another opinion on MVP, that's great, you can take it home because it's not right. It's just false. Like, Patrick Holmes has been a different dude this year.

And the Chief's offense has been different all year because... Yeah, and I would say, like, Andy Reid isn't the advantage he once was, or maybe he isn't this year. Because when I watch him on film, I'm not thinking, like, oh, look at all these layups and look at all these open shots that Patrick Mahomes has. Like, he's making tough, contested mid-range twos, and he's been forced to do it all season long. And he never misses. This is like Damar DeRose in the quarterback version. Those guys aren't supposed to be efficient, and he's still efficient.

I mean, when you watch it on film, you watch those two on film, like Hertz and Mahomes, if that's the argument, that's the debate. It's not even close. Like, that's a game against the Bears. Mahomes doesn't have games like that. He can't afford to have games like that. And if he does, they lose.

He hasn't had a game where he had a negative EPA all season long, and the Chiefs still have three losses. The Eagles are three and one when Hertz has a negative EPA. When he plays poorly by the numbers, the Eagles still win. They still have a better winning percentage than the chiefs do when Mahomes has a positive EPA. And I need to pushback against on Eagles fans saying like, oh, we're discounting them because of his supporting cast. When do we ever do that? Literally every year we discuss MVP.

That is the first thing that gets brought up. Like, who are you playing with? What is your supporting cast? What is the degree of difficulty with which you're playing? And if you include that, like, it's not even close. And even if you ignore it and just look at the stats and include the running stats, include all the running stats you want. Mahomes clears him easily.

He clears the whole league. It's like him and then everyone else, the other 31 quarterbacks. He's in his own league. I put out a chart on Twitter looking at, you know, total EPA garnered or earned or recorded by target depth, scramble sacks, and then adding in design runs for quarterbacks. Because, you know, a lot of people talk about the effect that Jalen Hertz has as a runner. Even if you add what Jalen Hurts. hurts is added to the offense as a runner, and that doesn't include, like, the impact he has

and the extra numbers and those different things, obviously, like how much the rushing offense is better just because of his presence. But just what he's doing, he's not even touching what Patrick Mahomes has done this year from a total cumulative EPA perspective. It's a different game he's playing. The offense is playing a different game. It's different. It's different. And I don't think there's a discussion. Jason, I don't know if you have a different opinion. I'm not letting you have one, I guess, but I hope you don't. No, no. Thank you for not letting me have one, by the way. Yeah, yeah,

Jason, I don't know if you have a different opinion, it's wrong, but you're happy to, you're welcome to drop it on the show.

Well, Steven, it's always a pleasure to have you on the podcast. We're going to continue to have you through obviously the end of the regular season, into the playoffs,

I hope, but this has been a phenomenal show. I hope you all have happy Christmas, happy holidays. Until next time, big shout out to our producers, Carlos and Eduardo.

Jason Doc, Steve Ruiz, Austin Gail, who's the NFL show.