The Ringer NFL Show - Week 17 NFL Power Rankings: The 49ers Are Super Bowl Contenders, the Packers Rise, and the Colts Are the NFL’s Worst Team | Power Rankers

Episode Date: December 28, 2022

Austin and Jason discuss how the NFL power rankings have changed after Week 16. First, they highlight who needs to be put out to pasture, including Nathaniel Hackett, Nick Foles, and Zach Wilson (00:53). Then, they discuss the teams of the week, the 49ers and the Chargers, and the reasons for their recent success (13:28). After, they discuss the Packers and Titans, this week’s biggest movers (26:06), before delving into everything that’s gone wrong for the Colts and Cardinals (37:04). Finally, Steven Ruiz joins the show to talk Jared Goff, Sam Darnold, and the Titans’ QB situation (52:11). Hosts: Austin Gayle and Jason Goff Guest: Steven Ruiz Producer: Eduardo Ocampo Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Hey, my name is Kevin Clark. I'm the host of a new football podcast called Slow Newsday. I want to tell you about it. On Mondays, Lindsay Jones and I will recap the weekend in football that was, as well as look ahead to what's next. On Wednesday, the normal Slow Newsday, the thing you've been watching for years, current players, current coaches, current analysts talking about the football world. And on Friday, it's a wild card.

Could be some college football. Could be more pro stuff. It's a video podcast so you can watch it on Spotify or listen to it wherever you get your podcasts. Follow on Spotify. It's Slow Newsday. Welcome into Power Rancers. Austin Gale here with Jason Doff following the holiday. A really fun weekend of football here.

I have an intro that I think you're going to love. I call it the old Yeller intro where I highlight things that we just need to put out the pasture. We got to let him go. You know, you got to let him go at the end of this movie. Three of those things, Nathaniel Hackett finally relieved of his services after what was an absolutely embarrassing loss to Baker Mayfield's Rams. One of the worst teams in football this year. No Cooper Cup, no Matthew Stafford, no Aaron Donald, no Alan Robinson. It is one of the most banged up losing football teams in the NFL,

and they get absolutely blown out, run off the field. That was insane. Old Yeller, in addition to that, is Nick Foles. I cannot believe that Jeff Saturday is putting Nick Foles through this. That looks like one of the most difficult tasks a player has been asked to do in a long time the Indianapolis Colts losing, I think it was ultimately 20 to 3. to Los Angeles Chargers on Monday night football. Jeff Saturday, the coach, the interim head coach for the Indianapolis coach,

we'll talk about him a little bit later, already said he's going to start Nick Foles again. Why? Don't do that to him. Don't let him go out there like that. Guy can't move. Guy can't throw, getting hit every single play. I can't believe it. And then the last old yeller, Zach Wilson.

Put it away. Just let him go. When you get benched for Winnipeg Blue Bomber legend, Chris Stevler, who in his best season, I think through 14 touchdowns and like 13 picks in the CFL, when you get benched for Tatum-Hill, you need to let go. It's time. It's time to let it go.

I know Robert Saul, the head coach of New York Jets, wants to say his future is not over, blah, blah, to keep the trade value up. His era or error, if you will, in New York is over. No more time for that. So Hackett, Foles, Wilson. I'm putting him out to pasture. It's the old yellow intro.

You know, the Denver Broncos thing is so intriguing because obviously Sean Payton's going to be able to name any number that he wants when he comes back to coach and maybe next year or the year after that. But if you're looking at something, think about the most disappointing franchise, not just in football, but like in team sports in the last calendar year in terms of what you expected and what actually became of it, there was a lot of, you know, oh, the Broncos got a wide receiver core. They've got a couple of running backs. They've got a young, decent offensive line.

They've got a defense before they traded jump to Miami. Like all those things were set in gear and set in motion and you think it is something. They just need a quarterback. And who knew Russell Wilson would have fallen off this much? And if Nathaniel Hackett, I got to say this too, I'm done believing anybody's an offensive genius or an offensive guru just because they're around great quarterbacks or a former offensive guru who is just disseminating talent across the league. Like Sean McVeigh, you know, there was a while. There was a run there. If you had lunch for Sean McVeigh, you were going to get a job.

Same thing with Andy Reid. Now we're looking at, okay. How close are you to greatness when it comes to a quarterback and how much should we believe? Like Luke Getsy, who was Aaron Rogers' quarterback coach, who was the offensive coordinator now in Chicago. There's question marks. There's a lot of question marks when it comes to his play calling. Nathaniel Hackett, when he goes to Denver. You're like, all right, you got Russell Wilson, got a receiving core.

Let's see you cook. And they never quite could get it going. This is the worst scoring offense in Denver Broncos' organizational history since 1971, dog. Like, they're scoring two touchdowns a game in the league that is begging you to score points. And as far as the Mike White, Zach Wilson, New York, Jet thing goes, I mean, they're a year ahead of schedule, right, but having this big

a blunder at the talent evaluation part, on the talent evaluation part of this when it comes to a quarterback position, that can set you back years. So what do they do? Do they cut bait and go back into the lab, or do they keep trying to run this thing back, like, you know, the remix of a song

that you never liked in the first place? You feel me? Like, this is, this is interesting times. Of course, we got JJ Watt, retiring, all the things that we mentioned. And, you know, the Indianapolis coach, why aren't you starting your young dude? I mean, get a couple looks. Hey, Sam Ellinger ain't going to be anybody's answer, but at the same time putting Nick Foals out there to, I don't say ruin his legacy, but to not play offensive football. Like, what's my man's name? The interim offensive coordinator for the coach right now. Parks Frazier. Parks Frazier. Ladies and gentlemen,

the creative player, O.C. in Madden is out here calling plays against the charges. Brad and the boys did not have an easier go of it. And of course, I love Monday night football now because Troy Eggman, all he does is shit on how average the league is. And I can't agree with him more. Straight up and down. Troy Eggman does not pull any punches. There's so many times where Joe Buck's like,

oh, tell me how you really feel like, you really do hate this. Going back to the Nathaniel Hackett firing, obviously, I think Field Gates from ESBA tweeted this out. First, first year head coach ever fired before the season ends. Fired after week 16. There's two weeks left. and, you know, Benjamin Solek had said this on Extra Point Taken on the episode before on this podcast feed, that the NFL no longer is letting teams interview assistant coaches that are currently coaching for other teams after week 16.

They tried that for a little bit. They're not doing that anymore. This was not to get an advantage or a start on the new hiring process. This was, Greg Penner, the owner of the Denver Broncos said this. We weren't going to fire him after this week until we got blown out by Baker, Maple, and the Rams. and you have Randy Gregory and fighting, you know, fighting after the game. You have Dalton Reisner pushing Brett Rippin. It was a shit show, as it has been all season long.

You have the corneous quarterback in the NFL who's hiding what he's saying with the football while he's down like 40 points. It is not a good look from start to finish. I think it was right to let Nathaniel Hackett go after all of this. And where my mind goes, and Greg Pedder said the new head coach is going to report to me, not going to report to the general manager, George Patton, which that is the, right decision. George Patton was the one who went and traded for Russell Wilson. George Patton is the one who signed him to this monster contract

extension before he played a snap in Denver. He is, in a lot of ways, more at fault than what has happened in Denver than Nathaniel Hackett was. Russell Wilson, I think, is probably the biggest fault for how much he's regressed and his consistent interest in playing in an offense that he's struggling with as he gets older.

I don't know. Where I want to go with this is the number one thing you can find in a head coach. And I don't know. I have never been in a part of hiring a new head coach, but my opinion is the skill set you look for when you go and get a head coach. Number one is can you do a semblance of what Kyle Shanahan does in propping up bad quarterbacks? Like can you create an offense?

Are you this quote-unquote offensive genius, offensive play caller that could take a bad quarterback or a flawed quarterback or a limited quarterback and put together a capable, productive offense? Kyle Shanahan is the best in the league at it. Mike McDaniel is up there. You have Andy Reid who's been there at times. That's the number one thing I look for. This guy did not call offensive plays in Green Bay.

Like, you weren't getting that, period. He did not call offensive plays in Green Bay. The number two skill set you look for, in my opinion, is can you be this, quote, unquote, leader of men? Do you have proven leadership qualities where people want to coach for you? People want to play for you. He had no record of that in what he was doing with Green Bay. He brought over coaches that had never called plays before, that were looking for their first opportunity. I don't understand how Nathaniel Hackett got this gig in the first place.

I think there's significant, significant flaws with how. teams currently look for head coaches. Hello, Jeff Saturday. You hire your friends that look like you. That's all it's ever been. And I think that's the core problem here. With the Nathaniel Hackett hiring, with the Jeff Saturday interim head coach, now you have Jerry Roseberg who was retired for three years,

came back because Hackett couldn't call a game at the end of the game, and now he's the interim head coach. The NFL has a bad process for hiring head coaches. They hire people that are friends, they hire friends that look like them, and they do not, in my opinion, prioritize qualities correctly. and for whatever reason, that's why the Denver Broncos are in this situation. I think that this next head coach, and Penner has said this already, it's not about fixing Russell Wilson. As much as you want it to be, that's a short-term outlook of this team.

It is not about fixing Russell Wilson. Russell Wilson is not, yes, you're going to have to have him on this team next year to do the dead money, maybe even the year or following, but you need someone to come in there and completely change the culture, completely change the long-term trajectory of this team because they are in a dark, dark place, man. And it is sad to see how the mighty have fallen for the Denver Broncos. You know, changing culture, like, it's not just a buzz phrase or a couple of keywords that everybody throws out there. Because in the end, like, what is culture? But to me, you haven't won shit if you're the Denver Broncos.

This is not a team who has risen to some level of prominence. And all of a sudden, they were a quarterback away. And they just missed their winning ticket of the lotto. No, this team hasn't gone to the playoffs since six or seven years. Right. So anybody that's running around an NFL football locker room, an NFL team locker room like the Denver Broncos, you know, getting mad at each other and screaming and talking about, you know, culture, guess what? You have no culture. So in the end, just bring in someone.

This is the thing, too, because you mentioned the first skill set or the most attractive skill set to you in hiring coaches these days is being that quarterback whisper. to me is being a talent evaluator of the rest of the staff that you're going to put together as well because you're a defensive head coach. You know what I'm saying? Say, Damico Ryan's my man from Denver gets a head coaching job, right?

Look to your quarterback in the eyes and go, okay, I know this person's weaknesses and I know this person's strengths. This is the quarterback coach that I'm bringing with me. This is the offensive play caller that I'm bringing with me. Far too often, we look at these coaching staff and you see the running backs coach gets moved out

or the tight-ins coach becomes the offensive line coach. No, designating who this is. young hot coaches are. If you are a young hot coach, you should be swimming in those waters, right? You should know who those people are. You should be able to scout on your own team. All right, this is the guy that I'm taking with me. I know he's coaching tight ends now, but I think this guy's going to be a terrific play caller one day.

So I don't think we give enough credit to coaches who actually put staffs together to kind of mask some of those weaknesses. If I'm a defensive head coach, you damn right. I'm going out and trying to get the person that I've seen take an average quarterback to above average or good quarterback, right? So I think we're going to see that in this coaching cycle, too. I think we're going to see a couple of defensive guys get hired and try to figure out the Belichickian way to go about offense, which is, okay, give it to one person and say, hey, do you have a great quarterback? If you have a great quarterback, then you don't have to totally put it on one play caller.

But if you don't have a great quarterback, how can you make this offense pop? And like you said, Kyle Shanahan's in the world out there. There's somebody else out there that is Kyle Shanahan, who is some quality control guy right now or some quarterback. quarterback's coach right now. So you have to find that person. It just doesn't stop at the hiring. It starts to me as your head coach being able to evaluate talent and also have the proper relationships to put people in a place to make average players above average players.

And that's how you raise your floor. And I bring up that quarterback whisper quality as number one because quarterback is the most important position in the sport. And it's not a buzzword, right? There's no buzzword that's going to get you there. Can you win with any quarterback? Can you put together a productive offense with any quarterback? That is on the football field.

We've seen it with San Francisco 49ers. Who are my next team? They are my team of the week this week. We'll get to them soon. One more point on Nathaniel Hackett firing and just like my perception of how the league is hiring coaches. That number two thing is a fucking buzzword. Culture, buy-in, blah, blah, blah. Everyone says it.

Leadership of man. I hate it. Here are specific ways you impact that because I think culture exists far outside the NFL. Exists here at the ringer. Exists at every company. Exists in families, all that stuff. It is authenticity. Authenticity is where you start.

Authentic passion, genuine, genuine interest in leading men and creating this buying. You know what they don't have in Russell Wilson? And what everyone has talked about is any semblance of authenticity. Number two is legitimate likeability. Like likeability within the organization, likeability from the players, likeability from the other coaching staff. And three, I honestly think that it is legitimate experience leading men, experience leading, you know, players and coaches. And I think Nathaniel Hackett had that. And he got cast in a situation with one of the most inauthentic quarterbacks in the NFL, inauthentic leaders in the NFL.

And with no experience calling plays, no experience hiring other coaches, hired a bunch of other coaches who have never called plays and just got, you know, just legitimately too much dip on his chip. He was over his skis. Any metaphor you want to use, he was just way past what he was capable of. He got handed the keys to the, not the keys to the Titanic, but he got handed a heavyweight belt that he had to defend right out of the gate. And I don't think it was that easy for him. He was cast in an unwinnable situation with the skills and the experience that he just. did not have to rally this team out of it. Going back to Kyle Shanahan and my team of the week,

it's the San Francisco 49ers. And my power rankings, they didn't move up significantly. There's still the fifth ranked team behind the Philadelphia Eagles, Buffalo Bills, Kansas Chiefs, and Cincinnati Bengals. But it's just, it's insane how much, and it goes back to what I'm saying about Kyle Shanahan

and this quarterback whispering stuff, it's insane how much we just take for granted the Niners are still good. That they've taken literally the last drafted player, the last drafted player in the 22 NFL drafts. he's taken over the offense. He's the quarterback of the offense and they haven't like skipped a beat, dude.

Like they are still just as good as they were with Jimmy and Garoppolo, if not in some ways better with the mobility and the aggressiveness from Brock Purdy. This is, if this happens to any other team in the NFL, in my opinion, I think they go kaput.

I don't even think any reach chiefs handle this. I don't think Miami Dolphins handle this. I don't think Cincinnati Bengals handle this. Brock Purdy, mystery relevant, going, being inserted into the offense and now being tasked with leading this team into the postseason and the 49ers haven't skipped to beat, that in my opinion is insane. And it again goes back to this idea that Kyle Shanahan, what he's able to do to puppet

master of the offense, whether it's Jimmy G, Trey Lance, Nick Mullins, C.J. Bithaard, any of these guys, yes, his win-loss record without Jimmy G is different, but what he's been able to do to keep one of the most unhealthy teams in football afloat, not just a float, but leading the charge in the NFC. I think they're as good as the Eagles. They're as good as the Dallas Cowboys. I think legitimately will be competing for the NFC crown. I am really. impressed with San Francisco 49ers, and we cannot take for granted how easy it is, how easy it looks

for Kyle Shanahan to operate this offense at a high level with anyone. Legitimately anyone. Yeah, hey, I'm with you, man. It's the last three weeks or so, and this week especially locked up three things, right?

For me, it locked up the fact that I think the San Francisco 49ers in this week that we're talking, right? Maybe next week might be different. The week after that might be different. but for this week, I think they're the number one football team in the NFL. And a lot of that has to do, and I know we're not in too high, too low yet, but a lot of that has to do, obviously, with some of the injuries that we'll get to with the Philadelphia Eagles, not just with Jalen Hertz, but their offensive line as well with Lane Johnson.

But Brock Purdy is just doing what he's asked to do. And when you have a player who might be lacking in certain tangible aspects of the game, and he just does what you ask him to do and you win because of it, That speaks to coaching, right? I think Kyle Shanahan is getting ready to lock up the coach of the year. I think what we saw from Nick Bosa wrecking the game the way he did. I think he's getting ready to lock up defensive player of the year. All we talked about this year coming into it was Aaron Donald, of course, because Aaron

is the man, and then we saw what the Rams were, and Michael Parsons. But Nick Bosa running around here with 17 and a half sacks, wrecking the game a way better run defender than people give him credit for. And he's just, he's one of the guys. on that defense, right? Like you see him Fred Warner, I heard my man Dominique Foxworth talk about it the other day. You see Fred Warner motion out

and to designate, obviously the offense pre-snap trying to figure out if you're in man or in zone. He's motioning out with a tight end, motioning out with a running back to the one receiver slot. And all of a sudden, he's dropping back into cover two. Like, they're doing stuff on the defensive

side of the football that is not only complimentary, but it's impactful and attacking. Like Kyle Shannon, they'll talk it once again. talent evaluation of your coaching staff. Kyle Shanahan this year has put on a clinic of going through adversity, not wavering, and just having a certain standard of the way that you're going to play. Like a lot of people talk that shit about the process and the standard is the standard and all that. No, fuck that.

Look at this season for the 49ers. You go through Trey Lance in the beginning of the season with all the hope and promise that his skills bring. A guy gets hurt in the first game of the season. Then you have to throw in a guy that you thought you were, you know, we were going to banish and didn't eventually do so. And Jimmy Garoppolo, that guy then gets hurt after playing decent enough. Like, nobody's played head and shoulders over what you expected them to. And the San Francisco 49ers are still here in the end.

Now, I think it speaks because some Lions fans or people who don't like the Lions actually got after me out about last week's pod because I was like, hey, the Lions should be higher. And it was me speaking to what the NFL isn't this year. And in a league that isn't top heavy and it isn't, I'm sorry, it's top heavy. Like there's one or two teams. but it isn't as dominant as you expect the top of the league to be. What better year than to have the best coaches in the game shine than this year? You're looking at Nick Siriani, right? You're looking at Kyle Shanahan, right?

You're looking at a bunch of teams now who are like, okay, everybody's banged up at this point in the season. Who's your quarterback? Okay, you don't have a franchise quarterback, and you're still doing it? Like, they don't have a franchise quarterback right now, and they're still running rough shot over the league. So shout out to the 49ers. I think that right now may change, like I said, next week, the week after that, but right now for this week, they might be the best team in the NFL.

And overall, overall, like Josh Allen, Patrick Mahomes, stellar talents, obviously, like the two best quarterbacks in the league. But when it comes down to it, you still got to do other things on the field. Special teams, they're solid. Defensively, they're impactful. And offensively, I mean, if you're getting the ball to George Kittle and some of these dudes who are running after the catch guys, the way this offense was designed to, they're hitting shot play.

their run game is still as exotic as anybody else's, although they, you know, they obviously, you got Christian McCaffrey back there. I'm all over this 49th thing. Now, it may crash and burn. They might get beat in the first round of the, second round of the playoffs, whatever. But for right now, this might be the best team in the NFL

just because of the word team, like all around, coaching staff, organizationally. They're doing, they're doing an exemplary job going through adversity and winning. A lot of teams that are still talking to shit about injuries and excuse making, look at the 49. honest. And that's all you got to say is they ain't making no excuse and they got the same amount of time and the same injuries that you have. There is 100% an argument to right now the San Francisco

49ers being the best team in the NFL. There's an argument to them being the best team of the NFC, especially with J.L. Hurt's injury still lingering, Dallis Cowboys up and down. I like the San Francisco 49ers a lot. They're the third ranked scoring offense over the last four weeks with Rock Purdy. With Rock Purdy against good football teams. Right. Miami, Tampa Bay, Seattle, All four of those teams competing for the playoffs, and they have the third-ranked scoring offense with Brock Purdy at quarterback. They won eight straight. This, and I'm glad you brought up the awards.

Nick Bosa is a runaway favorite for defensive player of the year. It is minus 1,000 on Fandler. I look at Coach of the Year, Kyle Shannon at Plus 300, if the Eagles slip up a bit more without Garda Menchu, maybe Nick Seriani doesn't win it this year, and Kyle Shananan takes that. Then I look at offensive rookie the year. You're telling me you're going to give it to Garrett Wilson or Kenneth Walker over Brock Purdy who's coming off the pine and he's leading one of the best teams in the NFL?

I don't know. I don't know. Just let San Francisco clean house. Let San Francisco clean house. I'm just so impressed with what they're doing. I think that what Purdy has come in to do isn't overwhelmingly impressive, right? Like, Kyle Shanahan is not asking him to push the ball downfield consistent. He's not asking him to be Tom Brady or, you know, Aaron Rogers in his prime. What he's asking to do is what he's capable of, and his strengths are shining through and his weaknesses are mitigated. And I think that's a tip of the captain. Kyle Shanahan, that's a tip of the cap to how good this supporting cast is. They didn't even have Debo Samuel against the Washington commanders in a game.

They won 37-220. George Kittles stepped up. Christian McCaffrey stepped up. Brock Purdy stepped up. This is a very talented team, and I think they're being led by one of the, if not the best coach in the NFL right now. Kyle Shanahan, absolutely in his bag. I did a part two to my team of the week. Okay.

The Los Angeles Chargers. They clinched the playoff ber. I think some people thought this is impossible at some points of the season. Like legitimately impossible with how up and down they've been. They've lost two bad football teams. They've narrowly beat bad football teams. But however, regardless, they found a way. Flint's a playoff berth with a convincing winner of the Indianapolis Colts on Monday night football.

They won that game 23. We talked about how bad Nick Bowles looked. Jeff Saturday continues to look like an embarrassment to the NFL. I dropped the Indianapolis Colts to 32 for the first time ever. A team not named the Houston Texans is the worst team in the NFL. Why? Because at least the Houston Texans are an absolute embarrassment to the league. The Indianapolis Colts

and what Jim Mersay has done fired Marcus Brady, fire Frank Reich, hired his friend Jeff Saturday, Jeff Saturday his biggest blowout ever in the fourth quarter, biggest comeback on the other side of it ever, like legitimately awful every single week,

just like hard to watch, an embarrassment to the head coaching profession, embarrassment to the Shield. I think that the Indianapolis Colts are in a bad place. Now the Chargers win, in convincing way. Brandon Staley's defense, it's hard to say like they're trending upward

because the culture is so bad, but still, Brands Daly with the Cat-Cowel stretch beforehand, having his way defensively and offensively. Justin Herbert gives them a chance against any team in the league. When you have a quarterback that is top five in terms of talent, I think Stephen Ruiz would tell you he's top three, top two. You can beat anybody. And I think they're proving that.

And they're a dangerous team in the playoffs. I have them in this tier of dangerous wildcard teams, right? Dangerous because you do not want to go against Justin Herbert if he has the possession in a one-score game with two minutes left. because he could do it, man. And now that Mike Williams is healthy, Kean Allen's healthy, they could get Rayshon Slater back,

they could get Joey Bosa back. This is a team that is getting hot at the right time, December heat. I like the Los Angeles Chargers. They're a top 10 team on my power rankings and part B to my team of the week. Let me ask you this about the charges because obviously I'm a huge Justin Herbert fan

and the start to his career has been historic, right, 4,000 yards, all three years to start a career. I don't know how many guys have done that. The running game, though, Like, how does a running game get 11 touchdowns on the ground from Austin, Eklund, but still only get 84, 85 yards a game consistently? Like, I watched that game against the Indianapolis Colts.

You know, they still got DeForest Buckner, right? They still got Zaire Franklin. There's still some dudes on that side of the football. And it's just seemed like as exotic a running game as you'll see with the Ravens, right? Or you'll see with the 49ers. It seems like you see such a simplistic running game when it comes to Lombardi and that team. like, I'm sitting there like, wait a minute, hold on now. You got Austin Echler, who is, can be a run between the tackles guy.

He's legendary for his squat workout, right? The guy's got leg drive like none other. And he gets inside the 10, right, in the green zone and all the other things like short yardage. They move the football. So why can't they run the football with any kind of consistency other than deciding to throw the ball 35, 40 times a game? I look forward to seeing what they're going to do if they have to try. to a bad weather city, obviously Justin Herbert's got all the physical tools and the talent to

cut through wind and snow and all those other things. He's got the measurables that you look for as the reason why he was a top 10 pick. But I want to see them be a little bit more multiple here in this last couple of weeks, even if they're trying some things out. Yeah, you know, you got slotting in the AFC. Your matchup is still dependent on how you play down the stretch here. But I want to see them kind of build out a playoff game at the end of this season, right? Where it's like, okay, we can do this. We got a lead four minute offense. we can mess around and give the Austin neck with the ball six, seven times on a drive and continue to move the chains. I just don't see them.

Do you think it's a consistency thing? Do you think it's a talent thing without Rishon Slater? Or do you think it's a scheme thing where they just don't know how to scheme it as well as other coaches do? I think it's a combination of all those things. I don't think I have any faith in Joe Lombardi to dial up a quote of, quote, quote, quote, exotic run game. And I also think it's not something that they put a lot of resource into, right? They want to create a short, medium, and downhill drop-pack passing game.

most of it being short and medium. And I think the other part of it, too, is the offensive line without Richon Slater. And I think Zion Johnson kind of coming into his own. Like, they are a team, Jammari Salier, who's a rookie playing left tackle. I think that they are not as good as they want to be along the offensive line. Some of that due to injuries, some of that due to, you know, just legitimate talent acquisition. That, I think, is the biggest hindrance to the run game. And the other parts of this is that they're much more interested in putting the ball on Justin Herbert's hand, which is fine.

Like, I think that I agree with them in a lot of ways that Justin Herbert put you in a better position, him doing 40, 50 dropbacks per game than trying to identify something that you just don't have. You do not have a well-schemed rushing attack, and you do not have an offensive line that's equipped to just move bodies in the trenches. I mean, maybe outside his line on Johnson, but he too is a rookie. It's a very young offensive line. I don't think it's one of the more talented units in the NFL. Next on my list here is the biggest movers.

Okay. First of which, the Green Bay Packers. Moving the Green Bay Packers up. I mean, they were out of it for a long time. I thought they, you know, technically weren't mathematically eliminated, but I thought they were done with the season. It looked like they were done with the season. But a lot has fallen their way in recent weeks.

A lot of NFC teams ahead of them in the playoff race have lost, and they've won games that maybe people didn't expect them to down the stretch. They're now in a position to make the playoffs. It's as simple as this. If the Washington commanders, who I don't know if they're starting Taylor Hineke or Carson Went, both of them are bad. It doesn't matter. lose at home to either the Cleveland Browns this week or the Dallas Cowboys next week,

and the Green Bay Packers went out against Minnesota and Detroit, both of those games at home for the Green Bay Packers, the Green Bay Packers are in. The Green Bay Packers and Aaron Rogers are a playoff team. How dangerous is this Green Bay Packers team if they do make the playoffs, given the experience of Aaron Rogers and LaFleur and whatever, obviously it hasn't been a team that lived up to expectations. It's one that people expected to win the NFC North,

but am I right to call out that? that if Aaron Rogers in the playoffs, I don't know. I think that this is a team to look out for. Well, I'll say this because we've been doing this now for 15, 16 weeks. I had the Minnesota Vikings winning that division because I didn't trust all the youth that Aaron Rogers had to count on. And also that defense, I think there's some names on that defense, but consistently week to week. You know, Rashon Gary, there's a couple of other guys, but pass rush-wise, Kenny Clark gets it done. I just didn't know if they were going to get consistent enough pressure on.

the quarterback. I like the secondary. And as we saw it, you know, the three interceptions in the fourth quarter against Tua. Now, we find out the Tua goes into the concussion protocol afterwards. Maybe some of those throws had a lot of brain fog on them or some hazy decision making, whatever the case may be. How, how threat, how much of a threat are they? How, how scary are they coming down the stretch here to win five games in a row to get into the playoffs? They've won three in a row. Christian Watson's hip. Like, he is legitimately turned into, and a lot of people in NFC North. I'm in the NFC North as a Chicago Bears fan. A lot of people in the NFC North. Look at him as one of those guys for the next six, seven, eight years you're going to have to

worry about it in this division. He goes down with the hip injury. Now all of a sudden, your big play not only through the air, but they do a lot of end-round stuff. They do a lot of jet sweep stuff with him because of his top-end speed and just putting the ball in the playmaker's hands. Tell me what Christian Watson's health is going to be like down the stretch here and into the playoffs. And I'll let you know what defenses are going to try to take away. because if all they have to do is load up for Aaron Jones and A.J. Dillon, yeah, Aaron Rogers can still beat you. Don't get me wrong.

But him having to go 60 yards down the field and do it in 7, 8, 9 plays, a lot different than having a guy in Christian Watson who can cut that in half of the big play capability that he has. So tell me what his hip is looking like. And I'll tell you what the Green Bay Packers playoff fate or, you know, I guess, spoiler fate is looking like down the stretch here. And on top of it, I don't think they play exceedingly. well in these three wins, right?

They've done enough to win these, just like the Vikings, right? So the Vikings are something like 11 and old this year in one score games, right? So it's like, what's happening here? Are there ball bounces? Are there is a great coaching? Are you just doing the things in quote-unquote winning time? Or, you know, is there a market correction that you don't have to worry about until next year, right, where the ball bounces the other way?

So I don't know how confident I would be other than Aaron Rogers is still got some of that Aaron Rogers' magic left in that arm and Christian Watson. If that guy's healthy, then you got two big play dudes in that offense that can kind of, you know, keep your honest because they've already got a running game to boot. So I need to know the help that young man's hip before I put any stake in the Greenway Packers, making any surprise run. Christian Watson fully healthy? I think they need that.

They obviously need Aaron Jones, who's been battling an ankle injury. It's why A.J. Dillon, the other back, has played more snaps of late, him fully healthy. They need A.J. Dillon to stay healthy. The offensive line. It is a team that they're in this position for a reason. Aaron Rogers has not played at the level he has, obviously, in previous seasons, back-to-back MVPs. The receiving corps has been banged up and young, Christian Watson,

coming in his own of late, and the running backs have been banged up. The defense has been way underperforming versus expectations. But I do think that in December and in playoff football experience is big. Is the moment too big for Aaron Rogers? Never. Is the moment too big for Jire Alexander and some of these players that they have on defense? I don't think so. Lefleur, I think that the Green Bay Packers,

when you look at, say they do sneak in as a seven seat. And they got Minnesota. They got Minnesota in the first round. I don't know, right? The Minnesota's been playing. They've played in 11, one-score games. They've won 11 games by eight points or less. You tell me Aaron Rogers in a one-score game can't have it.

I think so. What if they play San Francisco in? Like, Brockport, like, there is a path to the Green Bay Packers who have not been a good football team all season, who have not been up to expectation, not been up to Aaron Rogers level of play. There is a path in an NFC that, Jalen Hertz is hurt.

Brock Purdy, obviously, starting from San Francisco 49ers. Kirk Cousins is going to be in the playoffs. There is a world where the Green Bay Packers make the postseason and potentially do some damage. So it's going to be a team to follow for sure. Other team here, biggest mover, and they're going down opposite direction of the Green Bay Packers. And honestly, just, I should have probably included them in the old yellow intro because I don't want to see this team much more is the Tennessee Titans, man. The report is that Ryan Tannenhill is a long shot to return as the team started this season.

obviously suffered injury a few weeks ago. It's forced Malik Willis to play, and it has not looked good. Malik Willis in three starts this year. Rookie out of Liberty. Has not thrown for 100 yards. He's not thrown for 100 yards in three starts. That's a problem. You see some of the athletic ability.

You see some of the arm talent. But holy shit is the game too fast for him. Holy shit. This guy is playing. It's like you got thrown into the middle of like a 60-person dodgeball game, and he's just in it. He's like, whoa. He's like legitimately reacting to everything in real time.

And he's the fact. Henry is. Yes. As good as Derek Henry is, as good as Brable is, I think that this Titans team, for as long as Ryan Tannelhill is a long shot, I don't see them making the playoffs. And right now, it doesn't matter what happens in week 16. The Tennessee Titans and the Jacksonville Jaguars will be, or week 17, sorry,

the Tennessee Titans and Jacksonal Jaguars will be playing for the AFC South Crown in week 18. If Malik Willis is starting that game, good night. Good night. I'll see the Titans next year. I think it's going to be Trevor Lawrence and the Jags than make the playoffs. And I'd rather see them than this Tennessee Titans team. honestly, in terms of the best teams in the NFL making the postseason, I think the Jacks have earned their spot over Tennessee.

I said it last week, right? Five straight losses now coming in this week now, 22 points is the highest they've scored over the last five weeks. It's as simple as that. Offensively, they can't get it done. It's only so long you can count on a running back, and especially a running back who gets the amount of carries that Derek Henry has gotten over the last three or four years.

Ryan Tannenhill has come to that point in his not only career, but his Tennessee Titans era, whereas you're the limiting factor if you can't give the ball to Derek, can't re-in, play with the lead at all times. And now you're throwing a quarterback in there who didn't play high-level college football but made some amazing plays at Liberty. You're throwing them in here at the highest level possible, right? Everybody's the man out there.

And everybody's coming for you and your protection has been shaky. And on top of a lot of quarterback sacks and quarterback pressures are on the quarterback. He's not, he doesn't have the processor right now that other quarterbacks have. So, yeah, this is this thing is DOA. Before this season is over, the season is over for the Tennessee Titans. And now you usher in the new era of AFC South football, the Jacksonville Jaguars and some other teams getting a chance. But I think, like we mentioned last week, they reached their cap, right?

Like being the number one seat in the AFC and, you know, the last three years being a team that was respectable, right? You knew that they weren't going to be a Super Bowl contended, but you knew that they were going to turn out regular season wins because of the style of football they played. The limiting factors just become too overwhelming. and one being in the quarterback position. So it's now time for a new era of Tennessee Titans football, with which we don't have to truly pay a lot of attention to over the next couple of years, to be honest with you.

Right? Like, everyone's, you know what it is, Aegee. Teams go to sleep on you. Like, all right, I'll check back in on the Titans in three years when I have to. You know what I mean? Brayble is going to not just, he's not going to have a hand in how this roster is constructed. He's going to have the whole freaking jar. And he's going to decide every move for this team.

I think it's going to be very similar to what we saw, maybe not from an outcome perspective, but from a process perspective, what Bill O'Brien was for the Houston Texans and that he was the head coach, and I did everything. I don't think Mike Frable is going to be making some boneheaded trades like Bill O'Brien did

when he moved on from DeAndre Hopkins, but I do think that Braybill is going to build this roster how he wants it. That starts a quarterback, that's the offensive line, that's everything. I think the Tennessee Titans team, we'll see, right? We'll see.

It's always been in the NFL when a head coach takes too much on. You often see them not meet expectations. We'll be see how Brable handles those responsibilities, but I am excited to see Jacksonville Jaguars in the AFC playoffs over the Tennessee Titans, and I hope that is ultimately the case. Some more stats from Malik Willis. This is not his fault, by the way. This is the same offensive line and same receiving core that Ryan Tannel is struggling with as well. Like, it was a banged up receiving core. The Tennessee Titans offensive line hasn't been the same since Luan got hurt. But Malik Willis, as I said before, in three starts, does not have 100 passing guards in any of those three starts. In those same three starts, he's thrown three picks, zero touchdowns, and taken 10 sacks. It has been like legitimately one of like the worst three starts for a rookie ever. And goes back to, I think it's the theme of the show, that's a third round quarterback with a ton of talent. And then you look at the last drafted quarterback, the last drafted player with Brock Burdy and the San Francisco 49ers. They're not. They're not. They're not. They're not.

Like if Malik Willis was starting for Taushanahan, I think things are a lot different. I don't even think he's, maybe he's not as effective as Brock 40, but who knows? I think that the theme of it really is, is like, do you have a coach that can, survive a quarterback injury or survive limitations to a quarterback. The Miami Dolphins are finding out, right? I think Mike McDaniel has had a very successful season as a first year head coach. But he's learning that, holy shit, is my quarterback limited in these ways. And obviously you want to see him get healthy.

Three concussions in a 14-week span is awful for two a tongue-a-law. Awful for the longevity of his career. 24-year-old. There's been a lot of shit thrown at Tootungevail Lowe for how he's playing and how he's responded. And some of that criticism on the football field is warranted. But, man, three concussions in 14 weeks sucks. That is awful to see for.

a young player, a young human being in this league. Hopefully, the league continues to adjust their concussion protocols to protect these players. He had to self-report those on the Monday after, I don't know, man. I worry about concussions in this league, and I worry about a player like Tuotong of my Lois suffering three who just finds, not finds ways, but when he goes to the ground just bounces his head consistently, and that is very worsen for a young player in the NFL. Regardless of that tangent, the Tennis of Tentas Titans with Malik Willis, they don't have it. And I think the Jacksonville Jaguars do.

Next segment, I know what's your favorite. the I don't know what I'm doing segment, I changed it. I changed it to that they don't know what they're doing. And it starts with the Arizona Cardinals, Indianapolis cult. Let's go to Arizona for a second. I have a take that this will be one of the, if not the, most fascinating team to follow this offseason. You have general manager, Steve Kime, stepping away for health-related reasons, indefinitely from the team. ESPN's Jeremy Fowler reported that multiple people close to Cliff Kingsbury have wondered whether he just wanted.

walk away after this season. There's a quote in that article from an anonymous source or sources close to Cliff that they're saying he's not, you know, the Arizona Cardinals aren't letting him be great. Are you serious? Is this real? Cliff Kingsbury might walk away. Steve Kime has already walked away. Tyler Murray is going to be recovering from an ACL this offseason that probably will keep,

probably will keep him from the start of next season. I hand the keys over to you, Goff. What do the Arizona Cardinals do? What is the path out here? I don't, I don't see light at the end of this tunnel. It's more darkness. It is more, it is a, obviously, you know, Steve Kime walking away and potentially Kingsbury being fired or walking away himself after the season allows you to reset at general manager

and head coach, despite both of those guys signing seven-year contract extensions this offseason. But you have that question or that problem to solve. And then you also have the problem that is our starting quarterback, our $230 million quarterback, probably isn't going to be healthy enough to start next season. Who is our interim solution? Do we bring in a Jacoby Brissette character? Do we bring in a quarterback that come in as a filling spot? I don't know what the Arizona Cardinals do.

It is one of the, you know, like I said, more fascinating teams to follow because they have so many question marks. But, man, I do not see light at the end of this tunnel. What would you do if you were handed the keys to this sinking chip? Well, shout out to what I think is the curse of Steve Wilkes taking place here over this Arizona Cardinals franchise, you know. Shout out to Josh Rosen and Steve Wilkes. He's going to game one more season.

fell in now um they got a really really weird situation because usually when you're as bad as a team as they are you either searching for your quarterback right or or you know you're trying to develop your quarterback because he isn't on or he's it on the roster right your quarterback is on the roster he's hurt but before he got hurt i'll ask you this because you know you got all the analytics and the numbers i didn't look at calumary as an ascending player before he got hurt Like he had plateaued a little bit. And, you know, obviously no real growth is linear, right? It's going to be jagged.

But, you know, coming off of the contract situation and people talking about the terms of that contract and then leaving, the stuff being written in that deal was nowhere near as glaring and as shocking as I thought actually getting out and is saying to people publicly what you thought about your quarterback. And now the holes that can be poked and prodded and the windows that could be exploited in terms of,

describing what he is or isn't as a quarterback. And we saw that throughout the year. And if he does have an issue or if he does have a leadership problem, then like you just mentioned, you got a $200 million issue, right? Because if you're not an ascending player, but you've got the crazy talent to pull off, you know, miraculous feats game to game,

then you're going to be hooked on a drug that's not going to sustain you any success. Because in the end, if he's that good, but you can't, you know, you don't want to move on from where is it kept? and how do you have to kind of collarproof your team? The clip Kingsbury hire from Jump Street was a fucking disgrace, a disaster. A guy who didn't even go 500 on a college level, a guy who was getting ready to be the offensive play caller for the U.S.C. Trojans,

all of a sudden skips the line and gets ahead of all the head coaches, head coaching candidates that were out there. So I think they're getting exactly what they deserve. They tried to band-aided up with throwing a few veterans on there when there was a bigger problem, right? They tried to put a band-aid on a shotgun wound. JJ Watt and DeAndre Hopkins. I know you got to go out there and get your quarterback and number one wide receiver,

but there were bigger holes on this football team. So I think they're in a precarious position where it's like you're not bad enough that you have to mess around and go get your new quarterback. But at the same time, how do you fill these holes and address the problems that are going to be on this roster coming into next year? I'm sorry.

The Kylo-Murie thing is as interesting a storyline as I think there is, there is in the NFL at that position. Because not only was he not ascending, now you got an ACL that you got to worry about going forward for a mobile quarterback who's small, right? So, yeah, this is, what do you think the Arizona Cardinals' ceiling can be? And what are some of the fixes that have to happen?

Because I still, you know, with a healthy calumary, I don't put them as one of the top four, five, six teams in the NFC going into next year. I mean, I think teams like the Seahawks and some other squires that should be behind them in Vars. jumped them. And now they're going into it with healthy quarterback play and you're not. What I'll say is, I think that we haven't seen, you know, that same quote about whoever said it about Cliff Kingsbury and saying they're not allowing him to be great.

I think there's some of that is more true for Kyla Murray. And that Kyler Murray has not been put in a position to succeed in what is objectively a very collegey, horizontal air raid offense that obviously hasn't worked, right? It has not worked in the NFL. No matter how many receivers they trade for, how many receivers they draft, it's not going to, it has not worked. And I don't think it's going to. I think that's why Cliff Kingsbury is not going to be coaching this football team,

whether it's his decision or the Cardinals in 2023. If I had a guiding principle, and we talked about hiring head coaches a ton, if I had a guiding principle on what this offseason looks like for Arizona, the guiding principle will be fucking different. Like, it's got to be different. Like, what we've been doing from a roster construction perspective and what we've been doing to build this offense around Kyle Murray has not worked. We need to zig to whatever this zag was from Kahn and Kingsbury.

And I think what that looks like is some permanence, some experience, right? Some experience coach, like a Doug Peterson type, to come in and take control of this locker room, take control of this offense, and start to put in NFL principles for Kyla Murray when he's able to come back healthy and from a GM perspective,

bringing in talent at high-value positions consistently and hitting on more picks, right? That's the biggest elephant in the room of the Arizona Cardinals. Steve Kime has been with the Arizona Cardinals since like the early 90s and has been the GM for, I want to say, five, 10 plus years.

And in that timeframe, he has not hit on a lot of picks. Isaiah Simmons, Zavin Collins, Kyla Murray was the number one overall pick, but that was gifted to you. Andy Isabella, that second round pick,

literally barely played for the football team. They have not found ways to maximize their draft capital, and they have not found ways to maximize the talent they even have with Kyle and Murray, et cetera, DeAndre Hawkins, et cetera,

given the style of the offense. So getting into this offseason and being different in finding sustainable, experienced NFL coaches to come in and also experience GMs to evaluate talent.

I think is, the start of what's going to be a rebuild kind of for Arizona. I think they need to rebuild what the Arizona Cardinals are, rebuild the identity, and rebuild what this team will look like, not even in just 2023, but in 2024, when you hopefully have your star quarterback, your $230 million quarterback, healthy and recovered from his ACL. Other team, and they don't know what they're doing.

We hinted on them. But it's the Indianapolis Colts, right? The Indianapolis Colts have a negative 58 point differential since Jeff Saturday took over. It's the third worst in the NFL. It doesn't even fully capture how bad this Colts team has been. They have been record-breaking levels of bad. And this carousel of quarterbacks, Matt Ryan, Sam Ellinger, Nick Falls is a nightmare ride no one wants to be on. And Jim Mersey, the owner of the Indianapolis Colts, obviously very fond of just Saturday, has to put this to an end.

Has to put this to an end as soon as the regular season is over for the Indianapolis Colts and get professional with assessing who should come in here. And obviously, Chris Ballard in his press conference when Saturday was brought in, said, I know as best as anybody. And when I bring in a quarterback and it doesn't work, that's when I get like, oh, it's time. It's time for the rubber to meet the road for Ballard. Like, you have to go get not a Band-Aid solution,

not a veteran that's going to get you halfway. You have to, I think, reset at quarterback and identify one of the future. And if that requires you to move up in the draft or that requires you to go attack a young player and go trade for a younger player, that I think is what the Indianapolis Colts have to do because it's not hire your friend

and see what we can find out because what we found out is very, very bad for the Indianapolis Coles. I don't know what they necessarily do in addressing the quarterback position, but it cannot be another veteran band-aid solution. This team isn't good enough anymore, right? Quentin Nelson isn't in the peak of his career.

The defense with Darius Leonard isn't the peak of his career. Injuries are stacking up. The receiving core is young. This team isn't good enough to be the quote-unquote quarterback the way they thought they were when they got Philip Rivers or when they got Carson-W.

when they got out, that Ryan. It's not that team anymore. You need to rebuild this team. Reset this roster. I think that starts with moving on from Jeff Saturday, as much as they likes him, and actually bring in some professionals that have experience with this gig

to legitimately rebuild a team. Yeah, I don't have too much more to add to it. You said it all. I do find interesting, though, that a lot of people thought this might be like a dark horse, scary, decent team, right? Somewhere around nine wins, something like that. And for it to fall off to,

Cliff the way that it has. I mean, Matt Ryan is a guy that I've always appreciated probably more than anybody else around me. I got a chance to work in Atlanta for a couple of years and cover him and saw, you know, a city that was still so in love with Mike Vic and he was the guy after and it really never wrapped its arms around him, even though he's, you know, arguably, if not the greatest quarterback in their franchise's history. But, I mean, he had diminishing arm talent at the end of his Atlanta run. So putting him in a situation where he was going to have bigger wide receivers like Michael Pittman and Alec Pierce and some of these other guys, you thought would be go up and get a dudes and maybe a Paris Campbell has stretched to field.

None of that has come to fruition in their passing game and their offense and their attack. And on top of it, you got one of the better running backs who's been banged up this year and Jonathan Taylor. So, yeah, you take the season back to the lab. You go out here and you get Bryce Young. You get C.J. Stroud. You make a trade with whoever's going to have the first or second pick, whether it would be the Bears or somebody like that. I mean, the Texans started winning football games again now. So they might not be the first pick overall.

But you go and make a trade up and you try to jump ahead of, you know, teams like Carolina, you know, some of these other squads who might be there, and you go get your quarterback of the future. These last two games don't really mean nothing. Ever since that, that ridiculous 33 to nothing comeback, the writing was on the wall. The writing was probably on the wall the moment Jeff Saturday was hired, right? And now, I think it's a dereliction of duty to not throw people out there that you need to actually evaluate for the upcoming season. Like, this is what happens when you have a guy fresh out of a locker room or fresh out of a TV studio who's not worried about wins, but he's looking at 53

guys and saying that I have to invest in you guys, you guys have to trust me, so I have to go out there and put every best foot forward to try to win. Instead of now, it being the talent evaluation part. You mentioned Quentin Nelson. Hey, we know where Quentin Nelson is. We know what he has been. Go ahead, shut him down, throw somebody else in there

and try to figure out what you have in the offensive line of the future. Go ahead and try to figure out what you have in Sam Ellinger. Maybe he might catch lightning in the bottle and know that you got your backup for next year. Like there are still positions up for grabs, and the Colts are still going at this thing like they need to win football games. And I think that's the real departure from, I think, the organizations who have foresight

and the organizations who are just winging it like the Indianapolis Colts seem to be doing with this hire of Jeff Saturday. It's a tidal wave of short-term decision-making that has put the Colts in this, right? And I think short-term decision-making from bringing in Jeff Saturday, short-term decision-making and how they've attacked quarterback position has forced them into what is now, like, a legitimate rebuild situation. And right now, if the season ended today, they'd have the fifth overall pick in the 2023 NFL draft. If they continue to lose out and other teams win, that could be a fourth overall, third overall pick, whatever it may be.

Go get a quarterback. Just go get a quarterback and start trying to rebuild this thing. Start trying to move on from what this roster has become since obviously Andrew Luck retired. And that is an unfortunate situation. I think you saw the broadcast, ESPN's broadcast, bringing it up multiple times. Man, this Colts team hasn't been the same since Andrew Luck retired. What an unfortunate event. brother, unfortunate events happen all the time in the NFL. It's a random league.

And I know, I don't think we'll see another quarterback of Andrew Luck's stature retiring his prime. But who knows? I mean, who knows? And I think the Indianapolis Colts, it's wrong to just say like, yeah, man, if that didn't happen, we'd be better. Man, you got to, I think, in my opinion, be a lot better than that. You got to be a lot better than that what the Indianapolis have been of late. All right. We're going to go game of the week.

And then we're going to bring in Ruiz stock his quarterback rankings. Is there a better game this week than Monday night football, ESPN, Bals, Bengals at home, one and a half point dog, Josh Allen, Joe, Burrow, to the high. teams in the NFL. I mean, you could go Panthers' box. To all of them's Patriots, I think it's Bill's Bengals. It's not even close. Yeah, no, it's Bill's Bengals. You got two of the best quarterbacks in the league.

You've got two teams that are trying to figure out what their running games are looking like. One, got 200 yards on the ground against my Chicago Bears. And the other one, for whatever reason, Bengals haven't been able to run the ball the last couple of weeks. And obviously, when you got Joe Burrow and you got the weapons that you don't really focus on that. But I know that Joe Burrow takes hits.

He likes to, you know, stay in the pocket and develop plays. So you don't want to expose him to all the hits that he's going to take by trying to round out and refine his running game. So I'm looking forward to him, man. I'm looking forward to obviously Josh Allen. You know, he's getting back to some of those second year Josh Allen things, though. You know, he should have had four picks against the Bears. He had two.

Yeah. He had two. And going, hey, December football, going into the playoffs. I don't know if this is the time where you want to be the best double agent you could be out here and just sharing the rock with everybody. So I'm looking forward to seeing if the sense. Cincinnati Bengals defense could be opportunistic. And of course, they can get some kind of running game going.

But that's easily the game of the week. There's a play in the Chicago Bears game. There's probably a ton of these. But I think the one most evident of Josh Allen, just like, I do what I want when I want, is play action, rolls out. Yeah, close across his body. There's a guy like open, I guess,

throws across his body and like legitimately like bounces off a bear's, you know, bear's defenders like two hands. And I think you don't want to, you can't be making those mistakes against Joe Burrow. I have a brewing list. It's a trademark list. It's called A.G's dialed December list. Who's the most dialed? Joe Burrow might be the most dialed in of any quarterback in the league right now. He is dialed in. Brandon Staley dialed in. I think Trevor Lawrence dialed in. I am scared of what Lou Aniromo could do if Josh Allen wants to come in and fuck around. You know what you mean? It's that it's that meme of fuck around find out.

You fuck around, you find out against Lou Aniromo. The Cincinnati Bengals, Cincinnati Bengals are no joke. And you're going to Cincinnati. Sincey. You're going to Sincie. You're going to Sincy playing against Joe Burrow, who he's looking at his chops, I think, with an opportunity to get compared to Josh Allen all week on ESPN. And then finally, have Joe Buck and Troy Aip been ripped through it. I think that this is going to be an absolute treat of a game, a cap off to a 2022 calendar year that I am very much looking forward to. All right, let's bring in Steve Ruiz, talk some QBs.

Welcome to the show, Steve Ruiz, joining myself and Jason Gough to talk Jared Gough, Sam Darnold, and then I want to get to our oldies but goodies. for goodies but oldies, Tom Brady and Aaron Rodgers, two of which, both of which, could be making the playoffs. But let's start with Jared Gough.

You're tweeting up a storm. I think you sent out a meme with wings being eaten poorly. Jared Gough, I think in a lot of ways, got exposed against Carolina. You kind of saw if a team wants to sell out to stop the run

and force you in to make a lot of accurate throw those man coverage and against coverage, I think it's going to be tough, right? It's going to be tough for Jared Gough to exceed those expectations. The box score a lot better

than what I think we saw. off from him. It's a big reason why the Detroit Lions lost, right? It's a big reason why Detroit Lions lose to a Carolina Panthers team. They were favored by seven by. I don't know, man. I think that Jared Goff got exposed pretty poorly, and now the Lions could be the outside looking at the playoffs. What was your opinion of the Goff performance against Carolina? And what exactly does this tell us about the Detroit Lions move forward? Yeah, I felt like that game was like the test. If you're watching the games or if you're just looking at the box score, because his box score numbers and these like advanced metrics were very good. I think even like his PFF grade was very good. But like

you said, the Panthers were basically playing cover zero the whole game. I mean, they had like a safety in the middle of the field. They're playing a lot of man coverage. They were daring him to throw down field and he didn't do it often enough. I agree with you. You look at the box score and you're going to take, you're going to say, oh, he did his part. The running game didn't work. The defense didn't do their part. That's why they lost the game. But I really agree with you. It was golf. Like, he's at the heart of this. And I think they need a quarterback that's willing to stand in the pocket and make better throws downfield. And that's not what they're going to get from Jared Gough. He's a good fit for the offense.

I think there are better fits out there that are going to be freely available in the off season. I'm not confident in golf at all. And I would say he's the reason why they're going to miss the playoffs. It doesn't sound like Ruiz not said that before or thought that before. And I'm taking it as a shot personally.

I'm anti-all golf. I know. Hey, get in line, brother. Get in line. So with the Jared Gough question that the Detroit Lions have going into next season. One, everybody thought this would be a team that maybe will be in the running for a young quarterback. So is he at this point now where he's the guy,

like we talk about limiting factors, you know, and Ryan Tanna Hill, after a while, was a limiting factor in the Tennessee Titan situation. Going back in the yesteryear, Andy Dalton used to be that guy when the Bengals had seemingly enough talent around him. Has Jared Goff become the quintessential limiting factor guy? Like, you're going to have a certain amount, of success with them, but it's capped and the ceiling isn't very high.

Yeah. So what's funny to me is like, we've seen this movie before. This isn't an original movie. This is a sequel. It's playing out just like the last time it did with the Rams. Like when he has a good offensive line, he has time in the pocket and he has open receivers down the field, he's going to hit a lot of the throws. It's what happens when those benefits aren't provided to him.

And I think it's like a skill set thing, too, because I agree with you. he's in that same boat as Dalton was with the Bengals when they were loaded and what Tana Hill was in Tennessee a couple years ago. But I do think like skill set matters. And with Tannahill, even in Tennessee, you saw the ceiling was a little bit higher. Like he didn't have all of the benefits Gough enjoyed in Los Angeles. But the ceiling was still higher because he had more arm talent. He was more willing to hang in the pocket.

Like Tannahill, I think, is a quarterback in a vacuum that isn't much better than Jared Gough. But with his particular skill set and how this offense operates, separates, like with taking shots downfield, I think you would be a much better upgrade or a bigger upgrade over Jared Gaw. For this team in particular, maybe for another team it wouldn't be that big of a gap, but for this team, I think so. Okay.

I'd be interested to see if they, like, attack another kind of, like, bridge solution at quarterback where we're just kind of moving on. And I don't know. I find it, like, especially, I find it interesting if the Detroit Lions are ready to move on from Jared Gough and they go to Ryan's handle. I don't know. Does that make that much more sense? Are they a Super Bowl contender now? I think I'd much rather see them find a way to go get a young quarterback that could have a ceiling higher than what Ryan Tannelhill is capable of.

I'm not saying that Tanna Hill wouldn't be an upgrade over golf in this offense. I just don't think that it's a big enough upgrade to be good enough to be a deep postseason contender when obviously the best of the league has quarterbacks that are better than Ryan Tanniel. Yeah, they would need to load up. And I don't see any reason why they should. And I know like people are like, oh, they're young. They have this young infrastructure in place. The offense has a lot of good young pieces. But Super Bowl windows are fake, man.

Just go for it now. Do what the Rams did. And I know Brad Holmes came from that front office, so he knows that it can work. The offensive line, how long do we expect it to stick together? Like two years tops, maybe. It's hard to keep together five players.

It's hard to keep together a receiving core. I think they should maximize their opportunity next year and just go all in. Trade for a star receiver. Trade for a star edge rusher. Just trade all your picks. And just go for a Super Bowl, man. In that same game, obviously talked Carolina Panthers, Detroit Lions, Panthers win handedly.

Sam Darnold kind of looking like the second coming at Tom Brady in this one. He's the second ranked QB in EPA per dropback since week 12. I know that at times, and Nora Prince Yaddy brought this up on the recap show with you, you've stopped pounding as a Carolina Panthers fan. There's a lot of reason to keep pounding now. If Carolina beats Tampa Bay, they could be on the inside of a playoff race here. I am interested to hear your perspective on how good Donald has been and if you think it's been worthy enough to Carolina,

to think about him next year. I don't know. Is Sam Donald the quarterback of the future in Carolina? Let's hear it. Maybe he's the answer for the Lions. No, no. Please do not fall for this, man. They, no.

He threw like 10 bubble screens. It was like bubble screens and run game. And then he took shots off and play action when Detroit had to load the box up. No, I'm not falling for this. Everything I just said about Jared Gough, it applies. to Sam Darnold, and you can multiply that by like two or three. I'm not falling for Sam Darnold. You can't fool me.

What's the Shack? The Shack meme? I'm familiar with your games. So that meme, I think, brings up a point that over the last couple weeks, the Tigers don't change their stripes, specifically with quarterbacks. And a lot of what are preconceived notions about quarterbacks that they think have rung true as the rubber has met the road in December football when you got to win games. And there's all this tape out.

on a Tuotung by Loa, on a Jared Ghan, on some of these quarterbacks that we feel I have had limitations in previous years or previous games or whatever it may be, I do think that it is very difficult. And you, you know, the reason we bring you on every single week is to talk about quarterback rankings, who's going up, who's going down.

It is not that volatile of a situation, right? This is, like, quarterback talent, quarterback talent is not nearly as volatile as an exercise in the admiration of, like, content. it wants it to be, right? Like, it is not as volatile as that. I think this year, some of the biggest movers, I'm not even saying, like, up or down, but just

have, like, shook up, have been, like, guys, like Tuotanga Vailoa, Jailen Hertz, I think Stafford has moved down considerably. Russell has moved down considerably. But I think when it's all done, and when you finish this, you know, effort out, you're going to see that, like, a lot of these quarterbacks, maybe they move down, a lot of the older

quarterbacks moving down. I don't think quarterbacks have changed too much from what your preconceived notions were. Is there a quarterback that, maybe change the most of what you thought in a positive or negative direction. I'm trying to think of, like, who would, who would fit that bill?

I think, like, I'm going to bring him up again. Ryan Tannahill, honestly, like, watching him every week. I don't think people are watching the Titans, and why would you? But, like, in terms of supporting Cass, he has nothing. The offensive line is terrible. The receiving core is terrible. The play calling is terrible.

Todd Downing is not a good offensive coordinator, as evidence by their weird-ass game plans from Malik Willis. as if they've never seen an option quarterback succeed in the NFL before. I don't get it. But, like, he has nothing around him. And I really think Tannahill has taken a next step this year. Because one thing, one problem I've always had with his skill set is that it's just, like, he plays too slow.

If he played, like, on 1.25 speed, like, people listen to podcast, he'd be a lot better quarterback. He might be a top 10 quarterback. But I do think he took that step this year. I think, like, he took that step and he sped up his process. and it's hard to appreciate just because he has nothing around him. Now, I'm not saying he's like, he is a top 10 quarterback. I think he's like hovers around top 12, top 12, top 15. He's the one that I say, I would say that my appreciation for his skill set crew the most,

even if it's not reflected in the ranges. Stephen, what would you say or what do you have to say about Nathaniel Hackett firing? I mean, obviously Russell Wilson and that offense have been poorest to say the least. and do you think that this is going to change how people look at bringing in guys who haven't had play calling duties or offensive coordinator duties or head coaching duties before? I mean, what does this do to the landscape, if anything?

I would say, I mean, it should have an effect, but I don't think it will just based on the hiring practices we've seen. Like, this isn't the first time we've seen a questionable offensive coordinator who worked with like an all-time great quarterback get a head coaching job. I don't know how Nathaniel Hackett got through the interview process without being disqualified as a candidate.

Based on the miced-up clips and the press conferences, I mean, he's doing Austin Powers or not Austin Powers. He's doing like impressions from movies from like 2002. He's telling bad jokes. He says Tuggalicious instead of touchdown. No. Wait. That stuff should not matter.

Is it Tuggilicious? Yes. There's a clip on Twitter floating around. But that stuff shouldn't matter, but it totally matters. I'm sorry. Like NFL athletes, you start throwing out Borat impressions to NFL athletes.

They're not going to take you seriously. No, okay, we'll end on this because I think you're hitting a great point. We talked a lot about what you should hire and a coach and all that kind of stuff. If there's anyone who's suggesting that leaders and their qualities as people don't matter, you're high.

Does that matter for your right guard? Does that matter for your defensive end? Probably not. Does it matter for non-leaders on your team? No, you can have, quirky guys who say Tuggalicious and play Settlers of Catan at night. Like, you could do whatever you want.

But if you have a coach and a quarterback who are dropping some of the corniest, quirkiest shit in the world who are legitimately installed as leaders, that stuff does matter. Ruiz, you matter as well. Always appreciate you jump on the show. I'm glad that golf brought up the hack and firing. I knew that would get everybody fired up, pun intended.

Make sure tune in the rest of the feed. We obviously have the preview show and others coming out. The holidays do not stop football. It continues. to come. Also, big shout out to Eduardo Ocampo, filling in for Carlos Churaboga, producing this show. Also, a shout out to Arjuna, Rambleau.

Until next time, Jason Goff. Steve Ruiz, Austin Gale, our rancor show.