The Ringer NFL Show - Week 6 NFL Power Rankings: Packers Fall, Giants Rise, and What to Do With the Dolphins | Power Rankers

Episode Date: October 11, 2022

Jason and Austin discuss how the NFL power rankings have shifted following Week 5. First, they discuss the Jets and Giants and if their impressive wins should change how we view them (3:01). Then, Jason tells Austin why he’s too high on the Dolphins and the Bengals (15:40), before discussing the Panthers and what went wrong for Matt Rhule (27:49). Next, they break down why the Packers are the biggest fallers in this week’s rankings (34:03). Finally, they are joined by Steven Ruiz to discuss some of the movement on this week’s QB rankings, and who would he rather have, Zach Wilson or Daniel Jones (45:13)? Hosts: Jason Goff and Austin Gayle Guest: Steven Ruiz Production Supervision: Arjuna Ramgopal and Conor Nevins Associate Producer: Carlos Chiriboga Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Bill finally gave the ringers Philly crew a podcast. I'm Ben Solac. And I'm Shiel Capadia. That's right, just a couple of Philly guys with a new space to fire off some Eagles takes get caught up in the Sixers, chaos, and more. We'll be coming to you twice a week on Sundays and Thursdays, plus bonus episodes whenever we get breaking news or Philly drama. Plus when Hardin and Embed somehow convince you suckers that this year's going to be different, our fellow Philly stands at the Ringer will have you covered on the Sixers and all your other favorite teams in town. It's Philly Sports, Shield. What could possibly go wrong? Join the fun and follow the ringers Philly special now on Spotify. Welcome into Power Rankers. Austin Gail here with Jason Goff, ready to rip it up following week five in the NFL.

I am so excited to get into it this week. Everyone hates my power rankings every single week. But guess what? I'm going to keep bringing them. I'm going to keep bringing the heat. And I'm doing it for the first time for my new downtown L.A. apartment, specifically in the arts district. It's about a five-minute walk from the office.

I'm a grinder. I'm a green grinder, lunch pale, you know, hard hat type. I'm going to be in the office every single. day, first in, last out. One anecdote for you is I was in a coffee shop in the art district here in L.A. And I've been living in Cincinnati for a while. So this is, this is, this

was an experience. And I will say this comfortably. I was the ugliest, least worst dressed person in this coffee shop, dude. L.A.'s built different. L.A. There was someone in there with orange corduroy overalls, one button down and a mint like cotton sweater. Everyone has tattoos

I'm jealous of. Some guy had a gap t-shirt that was like, perfectly vintage, like he got it from 1985 in a time travel situation. This was an insane experience. I'm wearing a freaking shitty hat and a fucking PFF t-shirt. I'm changing my look, okay? I went no hat for the first time on this

podcast. I went shaved down the mustache. I'm trying to be better. L.A. is going to make me better one step out of time. You got to bring your own sauce to L.A. though, Austin. Like, you got to bring that Skylight Chili wardrobe that you're coming with. You know, you got to make sure that the hair is kind of disheveled in a falling down

kind of way. And then slowly with surely morph into the futuristic player that I know by the end of this run you're going to be. So don't, don't, don't push the sauce. Don't squeeze the sauce. Just allow the sauce to come, you know, allow for the game to take over. Don't worry. I believe in you. I believe in you. If they catch me bringing the Skyline chili sauce to L.A., I might get arrested. So I don't know. Like, I think the cops would be banging on my door if they found that I brought that back with me on the plane. All right, let's get into powering about sauce. Don't worry. We got, we got, we got Jets football to talk about at some point here.

We definitely have Jets football to talk about. So as always, we're going to go through our team of the week, got the biggest movers, who am I too high on, who am I too low on? And at the back end, we'll do Game of the Week, shame of the week, and bring in Stephen Ruiz to talk some quarterbacks. Team of the week, I got a twofer. I got a little double action.

I got everyone in here. New York, New York. I want Giants and I want Jets in Team of the Week, baby. Both these teams are thriving of late. Now, I don't have the Jets catapulting up my rankings just yet. I still have doubts. I still don't know if they're legit, legit. Three and two on the year, though, 26 in my power rankings bound to go up if they continue this with Zach Wilson under center.

And the New York Giants, the New York football giants are four in one. Just beat the Packers, 27, 22. Let's start with the Jets, though. Back-to-back wins with Zach Wilson. Second year quarterback that got hurt in the preseason. We had to watch Joe Flacco play football. It was ugly. They got a comeback win over the Pittsburgh Steelers in week four. He led two fourth quarter, fourth quarter touchdown scoring drives to secure that W. Then, against what can be a very frustrating Dolphins team on defense at times. They play a lot of main coverage.

They blitz. It's very opposite to what the general NFL does. Yeah, they were out Tua. No Toron-Armstead. No Xavier. Teddy Bridgewater also left the game after the first play. But still, I wrote my notes here,

this Jets team, for there to be positivity in the Big Apple, just can't shit the bed. And he did it. Zach Wilson did it. This team didn't, and they actually beat the Miami Dolphins at home.

I thought that was a phenomenal performance from Zach Wilson. Again, not a phenomenal performance, but like a solid performance, a solid performance from the Jets who were in desperate need of positivity. What were your initial reaction? Oh, he's got the air factor, right? And the fact that he extends plays and does a lot of things off schedule. I want to see him get back to what this league has promised us that quarterbacks who traditionally win and have sustained success have to do, which is back foot in the ground, fire that ball, get it out, like a little bit more timing and

rhythm. He'll get that, obviously, but he's got he's got the wild out, you know, young gun slinger kind of vibes. And on top of it, the defense. Like, Quinn and Williams very quietly is turning into the player that everybody thought he might be in Sauce Garden and coming out of Cincinnati. You know, it's always, you know, the first blush of a young corner, first few games. What are they doing to you? What do you remember?

What can you replicate in terms of technique and fundamentals? We're seeing Stingley Jr. do it in Houston making big plays. We're seeing Sauce Gardner do it as well. So the Jets just got a lot of nice little building blocks, nice pieces, especially on offense. And if you look at that defense, I mean, hell, most of that defense is from other places. Like not a lot of it is homegrown outside of the last few drafts.

So a couple of drafts, I should say, with Jermaine Johnson, Quentin Williams, of course, Soss Gardner. So if you're a Jets fan right now, you should be feeling good about yourself. And you may have the offensive rookie of the year on your side as well in Brees Hall. So Jets football is feeling as they should this early season. I don't think there anything to write home about just as yet, but the fact that they're fighting and they got a quarterback to keep

not only keeps them in games, but also can win a game for you at the end, as we've seen, with a few big drives here in the last couple of weeks. I like what I'm seeing out of the Jets so far. Yeah, I think I said phenomenal, and I think that's a bit hyperbolic, but it feels phenomenal for these Jets fans, right? It's a Jets team that has not been good for a long time, and there was a lot of reason for negativity. I mean, on my power rankings, I think after week one,

they were the 32nd ranked team. Robert Sala was asking for receipts and all those things. I did not see this team coming back. And now three and two with a big comeback win over the Browns, big comeback win over the Steelers. And then they handle a very injury-plagued Dolphins team. Remember, who it's hung up by Lola out, Teddy Bridgewater out after the first play. And no Toronto Armstead, no Xavier Howard. But still, like, this, you know, people will always bring, oh, the dolphins were all that stuff.

Like bad football teams have to beat bad teams first, right? Like, you have to beat the Steelers. You have to beat the injury-plag dolphins. Like, you have to do that before you start to write this ship fully and become that, quote-unquote, phenomenal team in the league. I wanted to add a little bit more on Zach Wilson. You said he has a hit factor. I think he's got that dog in him. Jason, I know Steve Ruiz is the one who handles the badges on the quarterback rankings on the ringer.com.

I include you to check those out. I don't know if he's adding that dog in him badge, but maybe he should. 14th an EPA per dropback over the past two weeks. But he's the number seven quarterback in PFF grade. Also leader, an EPA per dropback in the fourth quarters of games over the last two weeks. Small sample size, I think it's only like 16 dropbacks. But that's that dog, baby. That's that dog.

Dives in the end zone. scored that touchdown in the second quarter. There's still some ugly to his game. I think he took two bad sacks in this game more recently. There's a throw. I think it's around like halfway through the first quarter that he just turfs in front of Elijah Moore. Like there's still some of that stuff, which is fine. It's fine. When you turn on the fourth quarter early in it, down the field, Cory Davis over a defender, like that is the stuff that they drafted him to be. He's top five in EPA per dropback wing kept clean over the last two weeks. He is maximizing clean pockets. Yes, it's a small sample size, but he's playing well and he's showing fight. He's gritting on people. I mean,

love that. We love that from Jack Wilson. Reason for positivity. And I want to mention quickly, because I mentioned Zach Wilson, I think that's where a lot of the praise Robert Saul deserves some praise. Amad Garner, Soss Garner, if you will, playing out of his gourd, first career interception this past week. Breece Hall tied for first an offensive rookie the year odds, and I think for very good reason, he's playing well. Michael Carter in this game did the Jalen Wattle celebration. I have a take here. The Waddle celebration sucks. I hate what Jail Waddle does that little dumbass penguin thing in the end zone. I'm glad Michael Carter made fun of it. But this Jets team, man.

a lot of reason for positivity. And I'm glad you mentioned the Giants heading into this because we were talking about the state of New York football, no pun intended. I mean, outside of the quarterback MVPs that we have right now in the league, and Lamar Jackson, Patrick Mahomes, Josh Allen, those type of dudes, Jalen Hurts, you could throw in there first five weeks of the season. I'm not mad if somebody says, say Juan Barclay's name.

The way that this team is kind of just, not just rejuvenated itself, but they're playing kind of fundamental football, making sure they're not making mistakes in the kicking game. Daniel Jones isn't being asked to win games. And Brian Daibold is coaching his ass off right now. So the Jets and the Giants right now, the state of New York football, is sitting pretty right now.

Yeah, that gets into my next team here. My next team of the week, I told you it's a two-for-the-New York Giants 4-1 coming off the Packers win, 27-22 in London with a hobble, Daniel Jones. Like his ankles hurt. You know, the reporters are asking Dave, he's like, is he not running because he's hurt? And he's like, he's fine, he's fine,

but no, banged up a little bit. Sterling Shepard has been out the last two games. He's out for the season with an injury. Rookie Evan Neal has been a literal turnstile at offensive tackle. And they're four in one. They're four and one. This is my take. This is my headline.

This is a bad football team. I want to hear you. I want to hear your wins don't matters comment. That's what I want. This is a bad football team. Yeah, they are. For all the reasons I said, it's one of the worst offensive lines in the NFL.

Evan Neal couldn't have had a worst start to his career. The receiving corps, especially without Sterling Shepard, is absolutely trashed. They're starting Richie James, David Sills, and I don't even know who after that. They, they're, you know, Wondell Robinson's been hurt. Cadarious Tony has been hurt. Kidney's Tony has been hurt or he's bench. Like, there is no reason to have optimism for this supporting cast,

and Daniel Jones and Brian Dable are still finding ways to get it done. Jones, the fact that he's 18th in EPA per dropback this season, which isn't great. Middle of the pack among starters is absolutely insane. Not only has he been hurt, but he's the most pressured quarterback, more pressure than Justin Fields than any player in the NFL. The receiving core is bad, as I've noted. And he still is playing really good football.

And I think that's a massive tip of the cap to Jones and how much he's handled this situation where they didn't pick up his fifth year option. Everyone says the writing's on the wall that he's not going to play in New York next year. They bring in this new head coach. He's top five in Clean Pocket EPA over the last two weeks. That is special, man.

That is absolutely special. I really do think that Daniel Jones in what he's done and what is in objectively a terrible situation is super fantastic to see. And same with Brian Dayball. I've been in that building a lot over the last week. Fun fact, maybe I'm the curse. The only game they've lost this year I was at was the Dallas Cowboys game

on Monday Night Football, so maybe I'm a part of it. And Daniel Jones played well in that game, I thought, too. I agree. And we talked about that a little bit last week. I think Daniel Jones played a lot better than maybe what the box score would suggest in those things. So Daniel Jones, I think, is exceeding expectations. The other part of this offense that has to be mentioned is Sequan Barkley.

Soquan Barkley, I think, is either number one or number two in rushing guards on the year. He's minus 200 on Fandle to win comeback player of the year, very rightfully so. He finally looks like what they drafted him to be or what he looked like a few years ago. And yeah, he's talented. Yeah, he's playing well. But like, this is a product of coaching. This is such a product of coaching, right? This offense last year under Joe Judge was dead last in EPA per drive.

They did not get that much better in terms of personnel this year. If anything, they got worse. They were hurt. Sterling Shepard is hurt. Evan Ingraham is not on this football team. Like, they are playing better football with arguably a worth supporting cast than last year, objectively better football, and so much of that is coaching. When you have bad football teams, like, especially on offense, struggling in terms of talent, winning games like this against the Green Bay Packers and against teams that they've been over the last few weeks, this is a sign of Dayball being that dude. And that is something that is super exciting.

Talk about positivity in New York. The Giants should be super stoked. Yeah, Brian Dayball has looked at this thing and said, Dave Jones is not going to win football game. for me. So why should I ask him to or make him win football games for me? And last year, last two years, Sequan Barkley has been hurt. So the fact that Seekwant has gotten back to some semblance of his whole self. And they're playing good situational football. And they're finding guys to make plays on that defense that you're not used to hearing about, right? Like, Leonard Williams has been hurt for most of this season. But Kavon Tivado has had his, his little

spells here and there is a high draft pick. And Taye Crowder at the middle linebacker position. We talk a lot about inside linebackers. And we got a lot of of names, especially in the NFC, Roquan Smith and Devin Smith and a whole bunch of guys running around. Tay Crowder has played as well, I think, in the last three weeks, as any middle linebacker, especially in that division. So it's kind of the same formula that I think was going on with Mike McCarthy and Dallas. Well, if Cooper Rush is not Dak Prescott, let's not treat Cooper Rush like Dak Prescott. And what do you know?

You start to dumb it down a little bit and no disrespect to him, but you give the ball to Tony Powell, as much as you give the ball to Ezekiel Elliott, guys make a few plays and the defense wins a game for you. So not asking guys to be something that they're not. I think that's what I think that's what's paying off offensively, especially for Brian Dayball. And then defensively, they got a couple of guys stepping up where injured players are not on the field.

So it shows you that in the NFL right now, there's probably about five, six really, really good teams. And then the middle is so vast. We're talking about a good 18 teams that are pretty much the same squad. And then like you mentioned in your power rankings, that the bottom six or seven, those are the teams that you eat off of. Right now, the Giants should be one of those teams that you're eating off of, but they're playing smart football.

It's accountability, it's process, it's a commitment to the process, and its consistency. You know, in the time, though, I think two weeks ago now, I spent with New York and talked to Dayball, talked to defense coordinator, Wink Martnell, who deserves some love. Giants are 11th and yards per play allowed, ninth and total points allowed on defense. That is coaching, man. This is not an uber talented defense. Dexter Lawrence is, yeah, probably one of the best nose tackles in the NFL, and I really like Xavier McKinney. I like Julian Love, but this is a defense that really struggled last year.

That is playing far above expectation under Wink Martindale. I think that's a huge tip of cap of him. But across the board, like, I don't think I'm good at a lot of things, Jason Gough. I don't even think I'm good at what I'm about to say. But going there last week and talking to Dexter Lawrence, talking to, you know, wink Martindale and Dayball and hearing them just talk so consistently about process and accountability. And you go back to week one. Now, Daniel Jones threw that Red Zone interception and was legitimately berated on the sideline.

And after Kenny Galdi was jogging in week one, he was benched. And for David Sills in week two, like there was accountability that this team did not have last year that teams, the team and the players are responding to. You know why? Because day ball is consistent when they lose or when they win. They haven't lost a lot. And they're winning freaking football games. There's so much buy-in for this football team right now.

But what I was going to say, what I'm not good at. Or maybe I'm what I was saying, I'm not good at a lot of things. I might not be good at this. Being around those guys, I think you can just tell when guys get it. You know, when coaches get it and when players get it and when there's buy-in in a locker room where everyone's like, no, this is how we're going to change this football team. This is, you know, when Daveo, Dave was talking to me, he's like, he's not saying we don't, I'm not focused on winning games.

I don't care if we win games. I just want people to show up to meetings on time. I want players to be excited to be at practice. Like that is how you get, yeah, that is how you get out of this, you know, this, you know, objectively has been a slump for this New York Giants team. I mean, they're coming off a really bad season. They're coming off firing head coach, getting out of a GM with Dave Gettleman. Like, this is how you get out of a slump.

I think there's a lot of reason for positive. They didn't move into the top 10 of my rankings. I know they're 4 and 1, but they did reach the top half of the league 16th in my power rankings. All right. Too high, too low. There we go. My favorite part, baby. Let's get it.

Every single week, the ringer sends out on Twitter, my top 10, you know, they'll send out a link. And every single week, I'm getting death threats in the DMs. Okay, it's not easy. It's not easy. I'll be sure to change my username next time, by the way. Oh, that's perfect. But the first team I wanted to bring up that I think I am probably too high on. is the Miami Dolphins.

They're number six in my rankings, but I just don't know what to do with them. All right, they didn't have two and Tonya Laia. Teddy Bridgewater got hurt in the first play of the game last week. No Xavier Howard, no Toronto Armstead.

They lose on the road against the Jets, a bad Jets football team. They blew it in the fourth quarter. Skyler Thompson really struggled. They lost 4017 in week five. They now lost back-to-back games, largely without Tua in week four, and then completely without Tudge-Wrude in week six.

I don't know what to do with them because they've been hurt so much. I'm still buying Mike McDaniel and I'm still buying this off. when they're healthy, but it's six too high. Yeah, it is too high. If these are week to week power rankings, Mr. If I was to tell you to go to the store and give me a good football team and you came

back with six of them and one of them was the Miami Dolphins, I tell you take your ass back to the store. So let's be real about it. If it's week to week power rankings, there's nowhere in hell the Miami Dolphins should be in there. They got some dude named Skyler that's throwing footballs for them right now. Okay. And I love Mike McDaniel.

You know, shout out the black Mike, but he's two quarterbacks down right now. And shout out to Teddy Bridgewater because he, you know, you never know where you're going to get that next opportunity. But if it wasn't coming off the Tuotunga Viala, a serious head trauma, I don't know if Teddy Bridgewater would be ruled out of that football game. So right now, and C.C., I apologize. I'm talking about your dolphins right now,

but right now there's no way in hell. And I argued for the dolphins to be higher and higher, especially after the first couple of weeks, but there's no way in hell right now that they're the sixth best team. Austin Gale, you know better than that. Man, you already know how I feel about, you know, your buccaneers love still. Yeah.

And, and finally, you learned your lessons with that Packers shenanigans. They went out to London. They had to teach you. They had to learn your right. And fly eagles fly. That's all I'm going to say. Too high, too low. You can get to this dolphins, man.

That's all you want. The Eagles need to be bumped up a little bit. And after that Monday night football game, I think I might slide the Chiefs down a little bit, especially what's happening in that secondary. I might slide them down a little bit. You bite your tongue. Hey, right now you're going to tell me if you's lined up the Eagles and the Kansas City Chiefs, right now, football teams, not the quarterback position, not edge rusher.

I'm talking about everything. That Chiefs right side of that line, that Chiefs secondary. Patrick Mahomes has to be Houdini out there far too often for me. I don't know if I got the Chiefs ahead of the Eagles right now, player. Wow. Wow. Jalen Hertz, Nick Siriani, the city of Philadelphia, maybe even the state of Pennsylvania, is going to have to move heaven and earth before I move the Eagles.

ahead of Patrick Holmes and the Kansas State Chiefs. We will see. We will see. We will see. Especially because we got a game of the week coming up. Bill's, I'm sure we'll talk about that later. We're also going to talk some Packers. We'll get to the Packers. I wanted to make one more note on the Dolphins and like really why I think I have to stop being an idiot and move them down from six. But like the offense is hurt and I get that. Like I still really like Jalen Waddle.

I still really like two a ton of low and healthy, Tyree Kill, all that stuff. They played well. There was three and O to start the season because of that offense. The defense, though it's fun, and Josh Boyer, the defense coordinator has gotten some praise here and there, is bad. The defense is bad. They blitz a lot, right? And they're like, oh, yeah, they like the blitz. They're 23rd in pressure rate when they blitz. They're 32nd in yards per attempt allowed. The quarterback throwing the ball when they blitz a lot. It's cool. It's fun. It's not working. When they don't blitz, they make bottom 10 in yards per attempt allowed. Yeah, the adjustments against Buffalo were good. Like they played a little more zone coverage in the second half. I think that sold them down. They need to do that more. They didn't even bring up the man coverage, right? They run man coverage more than any team in the NFL. They went 30. and yards per attempt allowed when they run man coverage. Like, it's not working. Like, this Boyer-led defense is not working.

And then when you, we have any, only the Texans and Seahawks have a worse past defense than the Miami Dolphins right now. And that's just their passing game. Going into the run game where we saw Breast Hall and Michael Carter, you know, really have a day against the Miami Dolphins in Week 5 where, yeah, they were hurt Xavier Howard, but a lot of that defense was healthy.

Michael Carter doing the waddle on his second TD in that game. They rank 32nd in defensive success rate against the run. They're getting bullied up front. They're allowing a lot in the past. Like this defense, Throw the two injury, the teddy injury, all that offensive injuries out the window. Like, this defense is bad. It's the third worst defense in EPA, or I think it's bottom five in EPA per play allowed so far this season.

That's the reason, right? Not the injuries and all that stuff. I think Tua comes back healthy. Eventually, this offense is built to last. But the defense is not going to turn it around. I don't think anytime soon. I mean, that back six, that back seven, however you want to look at it, because I know they run a 34 front. But no Xavier and Howard really takes out one side of the field that you know that is going to be manned.

And then after that, we're talking about who, Nick Needham and Keon Crossing and dudes like that. I mean, they got the young boy playing Nickelback right now. And of course, you know, Byron Jones is a damn good player. So when those guys get banged up and you don't adjust and you think you just plugging in pieces, especially their roster, this is why they weren't a very good team. This is why when you throw out a whole bunch of money of your free agency, you're not really addressing depth. You're putting something in a piece, a piece in place, I should say. And if that piece goes down, you're still the same. six and 11, five and 12 type of roster that you were the year before. And I think you're seeing

that right now in the war of attrition, especially when your quarterback goes down. You have to have, you have to be tight and solid across the board. And that defense just isn't ready for the amount of injuries that have hit it so far, which is another reason why, you know, they might be dropping a little bit until Tewa or Teddy Bridgewater gets back. Our producer, Carlos Chorboga, CC, as we call them, is a big Miami Dolphins fan. I'm sure this segment was tough to hear. I still have them six. C, C. That's for you. I did that for you. People don't don't know it, but I did that for you. They might be coming crashing down here. They need to have a two in front of their name, CC, and you know it as well as I do. All right. The other team I'm too

high on, I want to get to them quickly, and then I only have one team or, yeah, two teams I want to get to that. It might be too low on. Cincinnati Bengals. They're number nine, man. And I'm still, I'm still right in the Super Bowl hangover, man. I'm still a little drunk off wait. No, that last postseason run. But the Bengals were three, three and a half point dogs on the road against Baltimore. Sunday night football. My former co-worker Chris Collinsworth on the call. You love to see it. And they covered the spread. This game was closer than I think what, but the game was closer. Like, they lost 1917 on the road. The game

was closer than I think what you actually saw on the football field. And I think a lot of that is Zach Taylor and Joe Burrow, this offense is broken. To go off on a tangent here a little bit. Go do you think. Bengals rank 22nd in EPA per drive through five weeks. It's a

bottom 10 offense or, you know, right on there at 11 in efficiency through five weeks. And I know it's bad. The offensive line, I get it. And people keep bringing up the offensive line. He's under pressure all the time. It didn't get better. That's not the only reason.

I don't even think that's the biggest reason, right? Joe Burrow has only been under pressure at a bottom, he ranks top 10 and pressure rate allowed. So he's not under pressure even near what Daniel Jones is seeing, even near what Justin Fields is seeing, what other quarterbacks are seeing right now. He's not under constant pressure.

They're getting the ball out quick and they're trying to get the ball out so they avoid some of that offensive line stuff. But the offensive line is not the biggest problem or the sole problem. The real problem is that they can't run the ball. They try to run the ball from the gun. did not work against the Baltimore Ravens. They try and run the ball from the center. It's not really working. Their running backs are getting hit at or behind the line of scrimmage at the

at the highest rate in the NFL. They're 32nd in yards before first contact per attempt, which I know is a offensive line, but a lot of that is also the run game and how they're trying to run the football with Joe Mixon and company. They're also running the ball too much. They have the ninth most runs on first downs of any team in the NFL. And they rank dead last in turning those first downs into other first downs. So first down conversion rate on first down. And they make dead last an explosive play rate on first round. This offense is too explosive and too good with Joe Burrow, T. Higgins Win Healthy, Timar Chase, you know, went healthy. Tyler Boyd, it's too good to be that bad, to be the worst defense or the worst offense on first downs. They also rank 29th in air yards per attempt and bottom

five at EPAP play allowed on early downs. Very low A-DOT in this game against Baltimore Ravens. Ruiz on the Monday show on this feed was playing guest the A-DOT. It's bad. It was bad. They can't get the ball down field. The offensive line is struggling. Zach Taylor's not dialing up enough passes on early Downs. This is a disaster on so many front side. I don't think it gets fixed. Like Joe Burrow is throwing interceptions that we don't normally see. They're conservative on early downs. T. Higgins is, you know, seemingly every single week. The offensive line is not meeting expectation. There is so much fault. You know, there's so many cracks in the foundation for the offense specifically. I think Lou Aniromo and the Bengals defense is playing

really well this year. But offensively, there's too many cracks in this foundation for them to be a top 10 team. I have them at number nine. I think that might be fairied us. I think there is a disconnect that it has to be addressed not only between Zach Taylor and Joe Burrow in this offense, but Joe Burrow and the passing game period. Joe Burrow got beat up a lot, right? And he's already going through, you know, a pretty, pretty catastrophic knee injury, right? It seems to me like Joe Burroughs letting go to that thing a lot earlier and a lot sooner than we saw before he got his line fixed. So if the line is fixed and he's got time to pass the ball and also there's other thing too. to me it's the Justin Jefferson and last night the Devante Adams rule until they find somebody to stop that, keep going to it. What I'm seeing in the last couple of Bengals games that I've watched, especially that Ravens game,

Jamar Chase is getting the football at the line of scrimmage or maybe six or seven yards away from the line of scrimmage where it's like you got that dude built like a running back who can run routes and who has deep speed. You got to stretch the field every once in a while. I'm not talking about just running go routes. I'm talking about, you know, skinny post. posts, like things that take a little while to develop but will pay off the risk reward. We saw Devante Adams in the first half of that game against the Kansas City Chiefs and a young secondary get 48 penalty yards on consecutive drives, right? So you got to put your best players in position.

And if Zach Taylor and Joe Burrow, no Jamar Chase is who he is, you got to force the football to them and not just these bubble screens. I just, I see an unplugged and uncoordinated offense right now. And there's a lot of little things that are, that are, jumping off the page right now for the Cincinnati Bengals, who obviously were a couple of years probably ahead of schedule. So now where we're grading them is a little different. If they missed the playoffs by a couple of games last year

and we see the slow progression, we probably wouldn't have these expectations, but obviously it's a different game. I think unplugged and uncoordinated is great way to describe how this offense has been. And I think the key frustration for me, right, especially doing these power rankings every single week where I'm reviewing the tape and trying to actually tell you

who's a good fucking football team and who's not, which is very difficult to do, watching all 32 teams every single week and trying to make a good distinction. What I've learned is every single team has excuses. Every single team.

Giants have excuses. They're four one. Every team, all the offensive line is not playing well. This player's hurt. Every single team has excuses. I know the Bengals' offensive line is not meeting expectation.

I know Lail Collins is one of the worst pass protecting offensive tackles in the NFL. I know T. Higgins has been hurt. But shut the F up. Good teams don't make excuses. Good teams find a way.

And well-coached teams, right? and coordinated teams, plugged in teams, find a way through these excuses, right? I just don't, like, the Miami Dolman's offense has struggled a bit, but, like, still looked competent going down to their third-string quarterback. Even the New England Patriots, who we were making fun of, Matt Patricia calling plays, is down to Bailey, and they just beat the Lions 26-0.

Like, well-coached teams find a way. Well-coached teams make adjustments and find a way. The Cincinnati Bengals, I know, you can pull any excuse out of your ass if you want. Like, the offensive line's not playing well. Joe Burroughs, like, not trusting his team. Zach Taylor's calling conservative plays, you got to find a way. And if it's not Zach Taylor,

you need to make a move, right? And Zach Taylor, I know they're committed to. So do you think they're talented? And I think they have one of the best quarterbacks in the NFL. Do you think they're a good team? I don't know, man. I think I got to drop them.

I got to drop them. They're going to fall outside the top. See what happens? They're going to fall outside the top team. All right. Let's get to my too low team here. And I put them as too low because I really just wanted to bring them up. And I'm trying to fit the structure.

I'm trying to be a good host on this podcast. But like, you know, I don't. I just want to talk to you a little bit about the Carolina Panthers. Let's talk. The Carolina Panthers have fallen all the way down to 32 for my power record. They should be 33. They should be 33. If you didn't know the news, the team announced.

A lot of Premier League team in there or something. Matt Rule has been fired, the head coach of the Carolina Panthers after I think it was an 11 and 27 record over two years plus. I think the funnier stat is that the team did not have a win. I think it was 24 consecutive losses when the defense allowed more than 7. 17 points. 17. That is one of the most insane stats I've ever heard. Like that is banana land.

That is just ineptitude offensively. But they also filed Phil Snow, which has been like a long time, you know, Matt Rule guy. That was a defense coordinator. They fired the special team's assistant at Coley. Like they're cleaning house. So like anyone that knows Matt Rule, get the hell out of here. We're not ready for this. Steve Wilkes is going to replace him as the interim head coach.

I think Baker Mayfield, who suffered an ankle injury at the end of last week's game, probably isn't going to play. and they're going to start PJ Walker. Not that it matters. Like this team is in a pit of despair, desperate for a restart, desperate for a refresh. What's your reaction to the matroning?

Am I right to say they're the worst team in the NFL? I think the stat that you left out that was more galling was the $42 million that he's going to get down, just shit at the crib and fucking chill. I think that's the best stat of all of them. And by the way, shout out to Steve Wilkes, who has now become the designated brother to run your franchise

that you will never give a chance to run your franchise. Lovie Smith had that title for a little bit, you know, and with Houston Texans now Steve Wilkes takes that over. Yeah, I mean, just top to bottom, when you hear an owner come out and talk about the enthusiasm and the energy not being there, and that was pretty, this thing has been in the making for weeks now. And this team knew it and the players knew it.

And when the players come out and spit the bit the way they have, that's a team that doesn't want that coach to be there anymore. It's as simple as that. you talk about Brian Dable, you know, I see these things as first date faces, right? You put your representative on when it's time to really, you know, earn that love and that attention. Well, if you're in the second and third year of a regime and you're still getting the same results, like, where was this thing really ever going?

You brought back Cam Newton. Baker Mayfield now becomes a guy. This dude did it at Temple and he did it at Baylor. And shout out to those two fine institutions, but we're not talking about the highest bastion of college football success. So Cliff Kingsbury, you next up, fam, like all these dudes who have been tabbed as the next good thing or the next big thing offensively or have some name in college football, it's a different game when you got 35-year-olds with families to feed and they're not listening to you. So I don't know where the Carolina Panthers thing is going right now. There's rumors about Christian McCaffrey being up for grabs if the Los Angeles Rams want them.

Like that franchise, where they are right now, they better just hope that Bryce Young or Will Levis or one of these guys. are available. And like you mentioned, they have to tank now so they can start this thing all over again and have another four or five years to tell their fan base that we're actually building something here in Carolina. Desperate for a fire sale, I want to get to that and some of the contracts are on the books for in 2023, but really quickly on something that you mentioned about Matt Ruhl and about how different of a game it is, this college to NFL pipeline, going from a college head coach to the NFL. I think Benjamin Solac, recently in a meeting was talking about maybe doing an article on just that pipeline and how failed it's been. I'm interested to see if he does that.

but my initial reaction to it is like, it is a different game. You know, Matt Ruhl, when he's head coach of Baylor or head coach in the college program, he is in the rooms of 17-year-olds trying to convince him to go to the school and slipping NIL deals from like chick-fil-a to him. You know, like, it's a different game. Like, how you're convincing talent to play for your football team in college. And, like, that's the key difference, right? It's how you build a roster and how you motivate players on your team is 1,000% different than what from college to the NFL, right? It's a different ball game.

You know, like you are talking to adults. You're talking to people who are paid to be there. And you're talking to people with high, high expectations every single year. Whereas when you're rebuilding a program at Baylor or you're rebuilding a program at Temple, you can slow burn it. You're given a length of your leash. You just need to convince kids to show up, fired up. And it's just a totally different energy.

That is hard to do. Right. And we've seen it with Matt Rule and other college coaches, Urban Meyer, really struggle to figure out like the player management piece. Like, I think that's the problem. When you can't hold shelter over children's heads. It's a little bit. the different, the buy-in?

I don't think that, like, Matt, I'm not going to come on here as an idiot and say, like, Matt Rule doesn't know ball or Matt Rule doesn't know football and can't, like, scheme up things or whatever the fuck. I am going to say, though, he is going, he is struggling managing adults. Like, he struggles managing adults. And that's a lot of what head coaching is. That's literally hiring other assistants to do the same thing as you. That's, you know, bring in and hiring, essentially hiring players and all that stuff.

Like, that is just the biggest chain. The full power part, too, part. That part fucked them. I mean, not having any experience of the gig, and then all of a sudden having to hire all the scouts and know who, like, that's a tall, tall task for even the best NFL coach, not to mention a guy coming straight from college football.

Exclamation point on the fire sale, and then we'll move to our biggest mover, which is Green Bay Packers going down from 3 to 11. But these are the people on the books for more than $19.5 million next year for the Carolina Panthers. They're one of six teams that are already, projected to be over the cap in 2023. And they're the worst team in the NFL.

That's DJ Moore, Taylor Moton, Shaq Thompson, Robbie Anderson, and Christian McCaffrey. And then the last player is Matt Rule. He's got 20 million coming his way as well. That's not on the cap, but he's got another 20 mil too. That is massively concerning. This is a team that should not have five players, you know, taking up more than $100 million of their cap space.

It shouldn't. Like, they need to be in full rebuild mode. They are far, far away from being competitive. Are there some players on rookie contracts that I think you still want to keep there? sure, but guys like Brian Burns, DJ Moore, Robbie Anderson, Christian McCaffrey, these guys that are on second contracts, like you, but Brian Burns isn't on his second contract yet, but he's coming up. Yeah.

These are players that you might need to move. And he's going to get paid. And he's going to get paid by somebody. These are players that you might want to move, Carolina in a dark place. Speaking of dark places, wherever the Green Bay Packers are, it's dark. Green Bay Packers go from 3 to 11 in my power rankings. I had people really upset that they were three last week, and they were right. I went on this podcast, and I said they're probably right.

They go down from 3 to 11 after a disastrous loss in London against New York Giants. We talked up to Giants are the early parts of the podcast. They're 3 and 2, but things look awful. Things do not look good. And it all revolves around Aaron Rogers, Matt LaFleur, in this offense. Solac called it last week saying that we should be worried. Ruiz said, I think he might be washed. He's adding the washed watch badge to his quarterback rankings this week for Aaron Rogers.

The rally in Rogers, the haircut getting better, the relationship life getting better, all that stuff getting better just might not be there this year, man. it might not be there. And the Green Bay Packers might just be in this sea of mid in the NFC or even in the NFL that just doesn't have that deep postseason contention in them. They go from 3 to 11. Your reaction. As much credit as we give to young up-and-coming quarterbacks who stand in there and take

a hit and deliver the football, why is it that we never have the inverse when it comes to older quarterbacks? They're playing the same position. The same things are expected of them in terms of results and productivity. and when it doesn't happen in that manner, then we start to talk about the wide receivers, we talk about the offensive line. Hell, in Tampa Bay,

like in the years that we've seen Tom Brady not beat time, or even games or quarters or possessions, where Tom Brady's not Tom Brady, we know exactly what's happening. He's getting rid of that football and he's ducking because he doesn't want to take a hit. I think some of the playoff things that we've seen from Aaron Rogers over the last few years

in terms of him being mistake or risk averse, I think that is now extending to anytime he gets, touched, he is letting go that thing. And if they have a short passing game with the lack of explosive plays that they have in the passing game now, all you're doing is setting up shot for A.J.

Dylan and Aaron Jones in that offense now. And as good as Aaron Rogers is, he cannot beat you by himself. He is not one of those dudes who can beat you by himself anymore. He needs somebody to make a play for him. If you don't trust them and you're letting go to football a little bit earlier than you probably would, then this

is what you get. You don't get the explosive offense. And on top of it, that defense is decent. They're good, right? But they can't hold it. That's not a Super Bowl. I'll win it because of this defense type of team. So what I saw in London is exactly what I thought would be happening throughout this season. It's why I picked the Minnesota Vikings to win the NFC North at the outset of this thing. I thought Aaron Rogers would not only have issues, but at some point, you know, like not getting hit becomes more important than getting hit and completing a pass for a completion on a big third down or a touchdown. I think that's, I think that's where they

right now in Green Bay. On Fandall, in the NFC North, the Minnesota of Vikings actually are the favorite now. They weren't the favorite. Obviously, preseason, good for you getting, if you bet that. They're now the favorite. You've got some closing line value.

If the Green Bay Packers, man, I think it's pretty simple. And I wrote this on the article. You should check it out on the ringer.com. The ball has to come out quick. And players need to, and players need to make plays after the catch if anything's going to work offensively.

Like when you looked at this Giants game, very quick time to throw. He has the second fastest average average time to throw in the NFL, 2.3 seconds, and 62% of his passing yards have come after the catch this year. That's the highest of any player in the NFL. 67% of his passing yards have come on throws made within 2.5 seconds of the snap. That's not downfield shots. That's quick, shallow concepts, and that's not going to get it done. You know, defenses are going to catch on something we didn't bring about dayball. I don't always pay attention to when like the reporter at halftime goes up to the coach.

He's like, what do you guys got to do in the second half? Because like, most of the time, they're like, play good defense or something stupid. But Dayball's like, they're throwing a lot of quick passes. We've got to get our hands up. The last two plays of the Green Bay Packers' offense, hands up, batted balls. Like, that's Dayball, baby.

Dayball's just the man. I don't know. I'm ready to get a brand of dayball tattoo at this point. But like, defenses are catching on, right? Like in the second half of games, the Green Bay Packers are slowed down. In the second half, Aaron Rogers and the Green Bay Packers didn't score a point.

Like, that is Wink Martindale. That's Brian Dayball legitimately calling out, like, this is what this offense is doing. This is how we see. stop them. That, in my opinion, is really, really bad for a team that you're trying to bet on being a deep postseason contender, even with a Hall of Fame caliber quarterback. Maybe he's not that anymore, but he's still a future Hall of Fame talent. This offense is too easy to defend. Too easy to defend. And I think that's the biggest concern in Green Bay. The defense isn't like,

I think a lot of people are like, this could be the best defense in the NFL. Jaya Alexander, Darnel Savage. I like what they have. Rashon Gary's reaching this next level. They've been middle of the pack. Middle of the pack with an offense that makes outside the top. top 10 and EPA per rush and outside the top 10 and EPA per dropback. This isn't a deep postseason team. They're no longer number three. I was probably a week late, but still, give me credit where credits do. You get no credit for me, sir.

I've been telling you to get their ass up out of the top seven for a minute now. And shout out to, hey, shout out to Dory Jackson and Holmes for the giants. Because when you have corners, they trust their jam, no matter how small or big they are, and they disrupt timing. And all you're doing is throwing short concepts routes that, you know, timing offense, all it needs is a couple of corners that don't give a shit that trust their jams and know that they got help

and that's exactly what they played to and they came back and won the football game because of it. Game of the week and shame of the week. This is where you give me the best game next week and I give you the worst game. I didn't know what you were going to pick here. I think it's either be Bill's Chiefs or Cowboys Eagles. Cowboys Eagles, I think could be really fun in Philly, but Bill's Chiefs

is probably the one you're leaning. Where are you going? All right, I'll give you Bill's Chiefs, right? Because that's the one that everybody should be pointing to, but I sneakily like Ravens Giants, man. Oh, shit. Two MVP candidates on the field at the same time, Lamar Jackson, Sequin Barkley. But let's stay Bill's Chiefs because that's what the money is going to be made.

You got Pat Mahomes. You got, of course, Josh Allen. You got Gabe Davis catching 98-yard touchdowns. Like, I think it's going to be a star-studded affair. And, of course, you know, these are kind of matchups you look forward to on the week's schedule. So I'm going game of the week, Bill's Chiefs, even though Ravens Giants might have a little bit more on my heart.

right now bills are favored by three on the road in Arrowhead. And if you watch that Monday night football game, oh my gosh, Arrowhead Stadium looks relentless. COVID kind of got me forgetting. You know, it had me forgetting just like how loud that stadium can be. When it's at capacity in an island game and a big game, who that was, that was impressive. I think that's a very loud stadium, very hard stadium to play on, play in. Bills are favored by three. I'm back in the Chiefs, dude.

I like the Chiefs at plus three. I probably even sprinkle a half unit on the money line. That's not because I have the bills as the best team in the NFL. I think Josh Allen is arguably playing better football and more alien-like football than Patrick Mahomes. Patrick Mahomes is still an alien and still doing insane, insane things with the football. I think it's 1A and 1B, but Allen is bawling out. And this defense for Buffalo is one of the top defenses in the NFL. I think it's number two behind the San Francisco 49ers in any efficiency metric you look at.

Chief defense is worse. The offense hasn't been as successful. Like, I like the Chiefs because they're at home and because you're getting three, because Patrick Holmes is a superhuman and the Chiefs, but this is going to be the game of the week, man, because Buffalo is playing out of their mind. Josh Allen is playing out of their mind, both these quarterbacks. This is what you wake up for week six, man. This is going to be probably the best game of the season so far.

Bill's defensive line, as we've talked about on this pod, you know, the rotation that they've got with Rousseau and Basham and, of course, AJ Epinessa and Ed Oliver. happening right now with the Chief's tackles. It's being covered up by Patrick Mahomes's greatness because Brown and Wiley struggled a little bit with the Las Vegas Rangers. Max Crosby got a lot of pressure, especially in the second half of that ball game. And I am worried about the Chief Secondary a little bit. There's a couple of young players back there who I think will be good players down the line in Watson and Cook. But those dudes are thrown in the mix right now in a rotation where you got Gabe Davis and Diggs and all the people that they bring in the aerial

attack for the Buffalo Bills, I think the bills are going to go on the road and win this football game. Man, it's going to be a good one. I'm looking forward to it. Really quickly, the shame of the week, and then we're going to bring in Steve Ruiz for his quarterback rankings. I got a fun, I got a fun conversation plan for Steve Ruiz when he gets in. But shame of the week, this is going to be disgusting. Thursday night football, Washington commanders and the Chicago Bears. Bears are favored by I don't even think odds makers know what to do with this game. They're like, okay, the home team gets a point. Who knows?

Both these teams stink. The total is 37 and a half. Easily the lowest total on the week. No one's expecting points. I was talking on the ringer gambling show, which you should go check out. Me and Rahim do a Thursday night preview. I previewed the Colts Broncos game. I was like, I don't know if there's going to be a touchdown scored.

And there wasn't. This commander's bears game might be sloppier than that. You might get a pick six on either side, so I don't know. But this game is going to be nasty. The Bears, while there is some positive Justin Fields has played a lot better over the last two weeks. still bad offensive line, bad receiving core, that's massively concerning. And the commanders,

even though Carson Wentz had two nice, deep touchdowns to Diami Brown, the down-to-down consistency in Washington with Carson Wentz under center is vile. He ranks 25th in EPA per dropback and 25th and yards per attempt. The offensive line isn't playing well. Andrew Norwell got,

go back and watch the Andrew Norwell sack when DeNico Atchri just like eat some, it was one of the more embarrassing things I've seen. Like this Washington commanders team is also struggling. This is two of the worst teams in the NFL. there's a reason to total is at 37 and a half. This is going to be hard to watch. The commies are top three most boring teams to watch in the NFL right now.

The commies. Along with the Indianapolis Colts right there. So play calling on the goal line late in that game was very, very questionable. And of course, Carson Wentz is a double agent. He's always good to do some shit that you never saw coming. And the Bears just, I mean, Justin Fields last, I'd say, two and a half, three quarters of football in both, second halves. In the last couple of weeks, you've seen him grow a little bit. You've seen

Luke Getsy actually put some rhythmic play calling together, just like the unplugged and uncontrollable weird nature that we've seen around the league and certain things like the Denver Broncos play calling. Like certain things just seemed disconnected, right? We talked about that early with the Cincinnati Bengals play calling. For whatever reason, Luke Getsy is kind of not, not been as advertised. Or what we thought we'd see is Bears fans coming into this season. So in the second half, the last game, of course, Justin Fields has his best half as a pro, 12 for 13, about a buck 50

through a touchdown. This Bears team is scraping and scrapping for anything that they can get on offense. Not enough playmakers. The offensive line looked good last game in the second half, but I don't expect this game to be any great shakes. I think the Bears win,

but it's not a game that I would watch if I wasn't a Bears fan or had to cover this thing. This is going to be a bad one. I'm with you. I'm cheering on I, Refluse. I'm cheering on Justin Fields. I think the commies, the commies, I'm calling them that the rest of the year. I think the commies are in a bad place. I don't think they win this one on the road.

All right, let's bring in Steve Ruiz to talk some quarterbacks. Steve Ruiz finally joins the show after a lot of talk off the air that I think we can never make the air. But I'm ready to talk some quarterbacks here. And I got a little game for you, Ruiz. Jason and I came up with this. I gave you a little head-to-head. And I want you to compare the quarterbacks and talk about how they're good,

how good they are, how similar they are all those things for different reasons. The first pairing is the game of the week, according to Jason. Bill's at Chiefs. Chiefs are three-point dogs at home with two of the best quarterbacks in the NFL, if not the two best quarterbacks in the NFL, Josh Allen versus Pat Mahomes.

Who's played better this year? Who would you rather have? Maybe not in this game, but for the next five years, where are you at with Josh Allen versus Pat Mahomes? Who's played better this year? I'm going with Josh Allen. Same.

And that's nothing against Patrick Mahomes. Josh Allen has just raised his game to a level that, frankly, I never thought was possible. I don't think a lot of people thought was possible. but he's like doing all it's not just the big throws downfield like we like even two years ago we thought that could be a part of his game but now he's doing like the nerdy quarterback stuff like he's getting rid of the ball quickly he's like moving in the pocket to avoid pressure

it's it's annoying how good he is at football now it's annoying he's like perfect it's getting hard to criticize him for anything he's just i don't know man it's it's he might be the best player in football right now. Now, that's the stuff. Now, that's the conversation right there. So when you break down his tape, the things that you saw early on that obviously have been removed from his game, what is now the ultimate refinement of Josh Allen's skills where you say it's not just the big throws anymore, some of the little stuff that you can see, the nuance to his game? Yeah, I think we saw it in this past game. Honestly, if you go back to week one last year, the Steelers, the Bill's played the Steelers in Buffalo, and they played like

this soft zone defense and Josh Allen didn't know what to do against it. And I think they scored like 17 points and one of the scores was maybe a defensive score. But this year he could do that stuff. So now defenses can't just play soft. And if they do, Alan's going to pick you apart. He's like, he's doing his like Tom Brady impression. Like he's not making enough mistakes to derail a drive even if there aren't like explosives driving it. I don't know, man. It's it's hard to find like a real fault with him. And there are still glimpses of some rawness to his game

that show up on film. It's just that he's able to make smart quarterback plays in that environment, that chaotic environment that he kind of creates on his own. And it also suggests that there's still room to grow. Like there's still room to get better, which is just a scary thought because, I mean, I've never seen a quarterback play like this before.

I've never seen a quarterback play like this where they could threaten a defense in every single way possible that a quarterback can threaten a defense. Last week in the Power Rankings article that I'm writing every single freaking week, I wrote a lead was Josh Allen's the best player in football right now. And people are like, oh my God,

like, you know, Pat from Mahomes ranks ahead of him an EPA for dropback and all the shit. It's like, no, like go watch what Alan is doing with the football right now. He is doing the Mahomes level throws, but like you said, he's also doing the little things that he did not have previously.

Like his game has gotten better. And he's, like you said, I think you summed it up perfectly at the end. He can threaten every part of the field. Like, he can do whatever he freaking wants. And they don't, they have like a non-existent run game. And it's just Allen running the football when they have all this stuff is just insane. Like how much, he is the MVP leader by a mile, maybe not a mile, but by a significant margin for me right now. He is playing otherworldly football.

All right. Next pairing. Next versus. They're not playing each other, but they're both in New York. The Big Apple's buzzing. Daniel Jones versus Zach Wilson. Who's playing better? now. And what is the future for both these guys? Daniel Jones, this is his last year in New York

according to his contract. Zach Wilson, they're thinking about building around him. He's looked good the last two weeks. He's been a fourth quarter monster in EPA for dropback. Where are you at with these two guys? I'm already a villain in the Jets world. So I'm just going to lean into it. I'm taking Daniel Jones. I think Daniel Jones is a better football player right now. I mean, if you want to ask me, if I was like building a team and I could inherit either of their contracts, I would take Zach Wilson, obviously, because you have more team control. You have longer, it's cheaper, you don't have to worry about signing him in the offseason. But if I needed to win a game on Sunday, I'm taking Daniel Jones. Because I think he gives you a, like,

a baseline for offense where you know, even if he's not getting it done through the air, he's going to be able to run the ball. He's going to be able to scramble. You can do some quarterback option stuff. You can do that stuff with Zach Wilson because he's certainly like athletic enough, but I don't think you want to expose a body type like that to hits. As we've seen, Zach Wilson has already had trouble staying healthy through his first two years. And I do think that Daniel Jones does a better job

of pushing the ball downfield in structure from the pocket. Whereas when you see all of Zach Wilson's highlights still, I mean, there's some counter examples from the Steelers game in the fourth quarter of him throwing from the pocket. But those are wide open throws. I'm talking about like tight window throws

from a tight pocket. You just don't see it on his film yet. and you see it with Daniel Jones. He doesn't do all the other stuff that you want a quarterback to do. He makes bad plays. He holds on to the ball too long. He's oblivious to the pass rush at times to a fault. But he does have those high-level throws that we've never seen from Zach Wilson.

Very different quarterbacks, right? Like, you are, Zach Wilson, you're getting some of the, you know, out-of-structure, bun-level shit where, like, you can do stuff down the football field that Daniel and Jones just can't. But with Jones, I think that his pocket presence is, like, like that level of obliviousness that works sometimes. You know, where you're like, you're so... Ryan Tanehill. Yeah, you so don't care that the pressure is coming that you're

willing to stand in there and take a hit sometimes. And now that's also why I think he leads the league and fumbles since 2019. Like he oftentimes fumbles the football and puts himself in that position, but still, there are things to build up. And like, I think that the biggest takeaway, and I said this at the top of the show, like the biggest takeaway is that dayball knows that. And for the first time,

there's a coach that's like, yeah, I know that. I know you're kind of shit in these areas. I know you're not going to be able to do these types of things. And I'm going to make sure that you don't lose us games. I keep going back to this play. But like, that Red Zone interception targeting Sequin Barkley on like a fade in the week one was awful. Like that is how Daniel Jones loses you games. And like Brian Dayball tore his ass apart on the sideline with cameras and view. Like because he knows like that's how you lose us games. If you don't do that, we can win here. And they are. And I think that's just a big tip of the cap.

Again, Jones I think is improving and like he's playing well in the system, all that stuff. Don't just say like it's all dayball. But like dayball is pulling the right strings there. Last one. Jared Goff versus Matt Stafford. Obviously, this is, you know, the trade. Stafford goes to the Rams. He wins the Super Bowl. Jared Goff goes to Lions and they enter the tanking. But, you know, Dan Campbell's had him playing better than that.

Gough has been really good to start this year, not against Bill Belichick, not against his Patriots defense. They score zero points in that game after leading the league in points scored. And Matthew Stafford, like, is struggling. The offensive line is shit. You know, they don't have receiving talent really outside of Cooper Cup. That's creating consistent separation. Like, there's concerns there.

But, like, Matthew Stafford's also not playing well. I'm not going to say who would you rather take because that's obvious. But I guess talk about how these two have performed and where you are at versus public perception on Stafford and golf. I mean, is it an easy call? We have Richard Sherman tweeting out that, yeah, I'm calling Richard Sherman out. Don't. Don't. We need a Richard Sherman.

We need a Richard Sherman heat check after because like he's feeling himself too much after the Russell thing. After the Russell Wilson game on Thursday. So he needs to be brought down back to Earth a little bit. although I do support that cause. But no, man, it's obvious just watching them all year long, like who the better quarterback is. And it's like you see in Detroit what it's like to play in a system that makes everything easy for a quarterback.

And you could just, all you have to do is look at their splits between passing downs and rundown. So like first and 10, second in five or less, third in one, Derek Gough has very good numbers. Now when you look at the other side of that split, like the obvious passing downs, his numbers are terrible. and it's like the reverse for for Matthew Stafford. Now, Matthew Stafford's numbers aren't good in passing down situations because of the

offensive line, but his numbers are like terrible on the early down stuff. So like McVeigh, he's not getting the McVe boost. He's not getting the play action stuff. He's not getting the easy down in distances because of the run game. He's playing on hard mode. And then we saw what Jared Gough is when he has to play on hard mode against the Patriots because they went up against the one team that is ready to play a throwback style of football. Like I think that was a terrible matchup for the Lions offense,

which is built on just running this like 1990s run game downhill, pulling guards that no defense is built to stop, except for one, the one in New England. And that might be because Bill Belichick is a little wash as a GM and doesn't know how to build a modern team. But we saw when you put, when you drag, to use Dan Campbell's own analogy, when you drag them into those deep waters,

I forget what he said on Hard Knocks. I mean, he folds. He folds and he folds and he folded again. Something about biting kneecaps and fighting in a phone booth and doing everything you got to bowl your neck. Yeah, well, he's a football player, Stephen. You know how that goes. I think Dan Campbell needs to land on like an FBI list or something. We need to look at it.

You just put Dan Campbell on the no-fly list. Stop. That would be the headline that comes from this podcast tonight. His analogies are all violent. I want to see his drawings as a little kid. Let's check those. I have no problem with Dan Campbell's analogies. I have a problem with everyone making a kneecap joke

for the last year and a half. Like it's literally like my least favorite joke. See, see, there it is. Every single person's like, oh, like just literally like, it's like they're like, that's all they have in their back pocket. It's like kneecap joke. That's all he is, though. That's all he is.

If you're known for that, that's what you're known for. Guess what? For the next year, Will Smith will be known as the guy who slapsed. somebody at the housecares. I'm fine if that's all Dan Campbell is. That doesn't have to be all what we are, right? Like, it doesn't have to be all what media is. Like, the lions cover a spread and it's like kneecaps for breakfast. It's like, go kill you. Like, stop. Like, you need to stop.

Oh. Okay, sorry, sorry. We're ruling that in. We're willing that in. I think my favorite take out of all that was that Richard Sherman needs a heat check. And that's true. I worked with him at PFF when he was doing podcasting. That guy's ready to rip off some takes.

He's got some takes off the mic that he's finally getting the platform to drop. And I think you're going to see really Richard Sherman, not unravel, but he's going to unload some takes on Thursday night football, which has been an interesting broadcast all year long. Before, Stephen, before you bounce, your guy, Trevor Lawrence, What happened this week? All right, this is going to sound like cope, but I don't care. The film is way better than the all 22 is way better than the broadcast.

It was fine. Here we go. There's just good defense. Doug Peterson got out coached by Lovey Smith in the year 2022. That's a shame. There it is. I do think that if you go back, I'm not trying to cope too because I'm also a big Lawrence guy. Like, if you go back and watch the tape, there's a handful of like those throws down the seam to Ingram.

Like, oh, man, like this guy still has it. He still has it. But like that Red Zone Interception is Stingley was asked. You can't make that throw. You can't make that throw. And I think that's the boneheadedness. And I think Solek tweeted something like he just still has that, let's go make a play kind of vibe to him where he's like,

I think my guy can go get it and I'm going to go like be aggressive. And I just don't think the, I don't think the Jags have that. Like that gives Zay Jones, Christian Kirk, Marvin Jones, Evan Ingram, all of these, all the praise you want. But that is still not like even like a top 15, top 20 receiving court. Like it's still like not super talented. and he's still trying to give like go balls to these guys and like one-on-one situations and all that stuff.

I just think that's going to catch up to him more. I mean this on the field only, but he's got a little James in him. And there's like a danger. There's a danger if you don't shake off that James thing that it could stick with you for the rest of your career. And I think that's the one thing that's going to, like, that could hold him back from being generational.

You never want to have that Jameson in you on the field. That is brutal. That is brutal. I will text you all the jokes after this pod, by the way. Thanks, Jason, for bite your tongue. That's going to do it for power anchors. Obviously, most of the show is me and Jason Gough. At the end, we bring in Steve Ruiz to rip it up.

On Wednesdays, it's the island with Nora Princeziati. Thursdays, The Scramble with Shield Capadia. And then the ringer preview show, Stephen Ruiz joins back with Danny Hyfitz and Benjamin Solac. Big shout out to our producers, Connor Evans, Arjuna Ramper Paul, and the Miami Dolphin Stan, Carlos Chiroboga. Until next time, Austin Gale, Jason Gaw, Steve Ruiz, the Power Ranker Show.