The Ringer NFL Show - Week 9 Separated the Haves and Have-Nots (Ep. 177)

Episode Date: November 7, 2017

The Ringer’s Robert Mays and Kevin Clark recap Week 9 in the NFL by discussing how much Packers coach Mike McCarthy owes Aaron Rodgers for keeping his job this long (02:00), why Carson Wentz is the story of the NFL (07:45), and what Rams coach Sean McVay has done to lead the race for Coach of the Year (15:00). Then the guys talk about how A.J. Green's and Mike Evans’s aggressive actions are proof that the Bengals and Bucs have given up (19:00), why the Saints are a more realistic contender than the Jaguars (27:30), and how the Colts are ruining their franchise by mishandling Andrew Luck’s injury (36:00). Plus, Danny Kelly joins the show to explain how Kirk Cousins took down the Seahawks (43:30), and the guys offer their lasting impressions from Week 9 (54:00). Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

It's the Ringer NFL show. Robert Mays here with Kevin Clark. Kevin, I'm not sure if you know this, but Gamefly is the best way to buy and rent all your favorite games. I do know that about Gamefly.com. You can pick up your favorite games, have them mailed directly to your door. I love it. I can't get enough for these games, Robert. I don't leave the house for anything anymore, so that's good to know. That would definitely increase the chance that I would go out and get some video games.

Go to Gamefly.com slash ringer and start your free premium 30-day trial today. The premium trial allows you to check out two. games and or movies at a time, you can only get this offer by visiting Gamefly.com slash Ringer. Go sign up and start playing all your favorite games absolutely free for 30 days. Thanks to GameFly for sponsoring today's episode. Welcome to the Ringer NFL show, part of the Ringer podcast network. I'm Robert Mays, joined as always by Kevin Clark.

Kevin, what a week nine it was in the NFL. I really enjoyed watching Brett Humley on Monday night football last night. It's what everyone in the nation apparently wanted. We have to reshape this every week because I had a bit about how Earl Thomas is the most valuable player in the NFL because of how the Seahawks play without him. We learned again what that looks like on Sunday when Earl Thomas was injured. But Aaron Rogers, MVP as well. I tweeted this last night. I really want to know your answer to it.

If you're Mike McCarthy, what level of gift should you get Aaron Rogers on a yearly basis? Now that we have a clearer picture of exactly what he is to that football team, I think we all knew. But again, there's really no way to appreciate him until he's out of the picture. So if you're Mike McCarthy and you know that you've had a job for 12 years because of this man, what do you buy him? Is there anything you can do? So Mike McCarthy, Google tells me, makes around $6 million a year. Let's say after this season, the Packers move on.

I'm not saying they will, but I'll just hypothetically the Packers move on. and the Packers say to the next coach, Aaron Rogers is going to be your quarterback, but you're going to make like $70,000 a year. Or they just give that offer to Mike McCarthy. Does he take it? I don't think Mike McCarthy takes it. I think there are humans in the world that would take him,

Mike McCarthy would not. I think there are good coaches who would take the $70,000 offer for Aaron Rogers. It really is incredible. There's no way to know just how. bad the Packers would have been over the last decade if they hadn't found Rogers. I think they would probably have been fine, but geez, they just don't look any good.

What evidence do you have that they'd be fine? I guess it's just the Packers are always fine, but again, that's because of their Rogers. There's no way to know. They've had a quarterback every year of our lot. Do you remember, this is serious question, because I don't. Do you remember the Packers before Brett Farf?

No. No. We were too young for that. I would have been four years old, which speaks to my constant hell. Of course I don't remember the Packers before Brett Farf. The Magic Man.

All I remember is them being good. Don Medchkowski. I don't remember that. One of the first, I mean, Brett Farf playoff game was one of the first games I remember watching. So that's sort of where I'm at on that. So I don't remember the Packers with the exception of like the Ray Roads year

and then the year that the bottom fell out. Then they get Rayble to get AJ Hawk. There aren't really there aren't really times where I'm like, oh, the Packers suck. That hasn't happened in my life. It doesn't happen very often. Yeah, one of my first games was Bears, Packers, Halloween.

I think that was 1994. Yeah, in Chicago, week nine. I'm looking at it right now. So that was on my first game. So, yeah, my earliest football memories

involved the Packers and they involved Brett Farf. Unfortunately, they also involve the Bears. Yeah, you got far too many Bears memories, buddy.

Trust me. You got an dark, dark life. Eternal sunshine and spotless mind some of that stuff. All right,

let's move on. I really don't want to talk about anything specific from that game. No. We'll talk through everything. I want to talk about this. Oh, all right.

You go nuts, bud. The lions need a separate red zone offensive coordinator. Just like they take, I like the running backs coach. And they're like, you are the guy who calls plays inside the red zone. Come up with some packages. Because it's clearly not working. Are you surprised that there aren't more situational elements to coaching and play calling like that? We've talked about Andy Reid and a two-minute or just coach or clock management specialist for a year.

Do you think this is something that will actually happen one day or no? Just like situational coaches? Yeah. I think that if it was effective, someone would have tried to do it by now. I mean, I think that, you know, they had this stuff. They're guys, sort of clock management guys in the booth now for some teams, calling timeouts, situation, saying you should go forward on fourth down, whatever, and some of them have worked and some of them have not worked.

Yeah, that's fair. I mean, I think that, like, if you look at the Rams, the fact that Fossil kind of takes over some duties when McVeigh gets to, you know, up to his neck and play calling stuff where he's looking at pictures or whatever. I think it's interesting, just like how you pass that stuff off and which coaches do and which coaches don't. I'm not sure the Giants actually do. I understand that you're making a joke, but it makes sense. Like in some cases, I think that it's something to consider.

Do you think through the Giants should have a separate coach for giving halftime speeches? Or just a separate coach? Just a new coach who does everything. Ben McAdoe does and Ben McAdo is unemployed? That's your suggestion. What was your read on that situation? So if you hadn't seen it, there's a clip of Ben McAdoe being asked what he said to the team at halftime, and he just

doesn't respond. So here's my working theory on this. You know that nothing actually happens in the locker rooms? Of course. They sit there. They sit there. It's not any given Sunday. A lot of times, some locker rooms, like, you can't even see each other. You know what I'm saying? Like, it's not

some, like, the Packers locker room is like sort of a circle. But there are some places where it's... That's unique, though. None of the other ones are. I'm saying. A lot of them, there's like nooks and crannies and stuff. So if you want to give sort of Al Pacino on a given Sunday speech,

you have to sort of make everyone move towards you. So my thought generally is he, nothing happened at halftime because nothing ever happens at halftime. And he sort of just short-circuited instead of explaining that. Ben McAdoo's short-circuited is pretty much the storyline behind this entire giant season for the most part. All of the motivational speeches and stuff, if there are any of them, happened the night before. Yeah, exactly.

In the team meetings, because that's when people are sort of prepared for that. Whereas right before a game, coaches mostly just talking about, like, making adjustments. It's usually players, and we saw how well that can go this Sunday when James Winston did whatever the hell it was he was doing. This is not good. This is not a good season. Yeah, we will get into that. We'll talk about the rest of the stuff that happened this weekend. Do you think they shut him down when they did?

saw the celebration, Winston. How much more hurt was he by the halftime of that game than he was before that game? They saw the celebration. They said this, we're stopping. We're stopping this.

I'm not saying that is what happened. I'm not saying it's not what happened. Danny's going to join us. We're going to talk about Kirk Cousins somehow being the Seahawks. Before we get to any of that, though, let's get things going with our four downs. And we start in Philadelphia. Wentz-under center.

Wentz, fakes, rolls, locks, fires. touchdown, Elshon Jeffrey. The fourth touchdown pass by Carson Wentz today. The second one to Jeffrey. First down, you heard that call with Carson Wentz and the Eagles, putting out 51 on the once excellent Broncos defense. The Rams in a nice bit of symmetry dropped the same point total on the hapless Giants. So as season and a half into their careers, you have the number one and number two overall picks from last year, both exploding for four touchdown passes on Sunday.

both of them having their team's pointed toward the playoffs. Kevin, I wrote about this yesterday. It just seems like these teams that we kind of fell in love with and were cute stories at the beginning of the season, they're trying to prove they're here to stay as we get going in the second half. I think that

Carson Wentz is the story of the season so far. I just think the fact that he looks like he is staying power. The fact he's doing all these things. He's making Doug Peterson look like a really good coach and a really smart guy. I just, I love the whole thing. I think that he has the right personality for it.

I think that team, I mean, I think that Wence is sort of an avatar for how good and stacked that Eagles team is. I mean, the Eagles have the best defensive line in football. The Eagles defense is really freaking good. Some of the moves that Holly Roseman made in the offseason were really good. I mean, they didn't have Zach Ertz on Sunday. And so, and Jason Peters on Sunday. And Trey Burton, you know, I mean, and Burton stepped up. And so I think that's a really stacked team.

I think Wence is a good symbol of that. that. And I just, I love the Eagles. I came into the season thinking they were going to win the division. They could be a contender. I didn't think they'd be the best team in the league, but I put them at 10 before the season started, which I assume, I think, yeah, 10, which is higher than most people did. I guarantee you that. And I'd like the roster. And I, that's exactly what I said coming into the year. I think in my, in my power rankings, I said, this could be the most complete roster in the league top to bottom when you could consider the 22 starters on the field.

And they've looked like that. But there are elements of this team that I did not. really predict coming into the year to this degree. Wentz has been better than I thought he was going to be, I have no problem admitting that. He's gotten so much better, just making plays left and right. And I think your point about Peterson is interesting. He's a better coach than I thought he was, and I think he's put Wentz in really good spots.

Kind of, you know, six and a half dozen of the other. They've done a really good job of making each other look good. I was reading something earlier today, I believe, was on Pro Football Focus about Wentz. And I think the Eagles have run 98, and run-pass options by their estimate. Those are sometimes hard to define when you're watching tape. But just kind of those plays that it seems like there's a lot of stuff packaged together.

The next team in the league, they had at 65. It's a huge discrepancy. They're doing so much stuff to simplify decision-making to give Wence options. And that first Al-Shan Jeffrey touchdown, not the one that we played you the clip of, but they did RPO with J. Ajai in the backfield. Ajai went to the left on a kind of shotgun fake. run. Jeffrey fakes a screen on the right side, manages to trick a keep to leave just enough, and then break down field. And then Wence rolls out and just puts the ball in a perfect spot on

the run. And his moving, I think, helped influence that play in like very subtle ways. So there's so much going on there. But that's how every single Eagles play is. There's six in the league, I believe, in play action rate, Wence is 29.5% of his dropbacks. They're doing so many things. to help the players on their team and the players on their team are really good. So when you combine those two things, you have a team that they're sitting at 8 and 1. Defensively is the same way.

I mean, just the coaching and the personnel have melded to make them a very good football team. This is not smoking mirrors. So I don't know if you saw Chris Harris and his comments after the game. There were a couple of things that stood out to be. Number one, he kind of called it a college offense, but that wasn't in a pejorative sense.

Exactly. That's kind of what I said about Andy Reid at the beginning of the season. We also said they stole Kansas City's offense, which is kind of funny when you consider where Doug Pearson came from and all the connections between obviously those two franchises. I don't know if they stole the offense or they're just running it. They're not running exactly Kansas City's offense. They don't have Cream Hunt. That's a big difference.

And they have Carson Wentz. They have Jay Jai now, then. They're Jai Jai now, though. Jai is not Cream Hunt. He's pretty damn good, though. The fact that they stole him is nice. Yeah. I'll wait and see on the JAAJIA thing.

I've rather have Cream Hunt right now. And they also obviously don't have a tire kill. That's the other thing. But I think generally speaking, the Eagles have done an incredible job on offense. They're a genuinely fun team to watch. But the commonality between Kansas City and Philadelphia is that I love watching both those teams because you can do interesting things. And as you said, they have the talent to me.

make it look good. Yeah, they absolutely do. And I feel like another key difference while watching the Eagles game again yesterday was just that Wence does do a good job of decision making, you know, putting the ball in the right places, the same way that kind of Alex Smith does. But you watch Wence rip in some of those throws. I mean, he uses his arm strength and not to push the ball 70 yards downfield because who gives a shit about that.

But to fit balls into windows, he wouldn't be able to if he didn't have that canon. And I think that's a huge difference as well. So I think that right now, they're really doing a good job of using every single bit of meat on the bone with that offense. And we talk about coaches helping quarterbacks and everything else. That's not to take away from what the quarterbacks are doing. You still need a quarterback to make that whole thing go. And that's exactly what Carson Wentz is right now. That touchdown to Jeffrey is a perfect example.

I mean, that is him making that play within the confines of that offense. and none of those two parties should be taken down for either of those. You shouldn't take away from the coaches or take away from the players because they're both helping each other. Hey, real quick, how bad is the Denver defense? How bad is Denver? I don't think the Denver defense is that bad. I just think that the Eagles, again, are very difficult to defend. It was the first time Denver gave up 30 points and a half since 2010.

But think about where they were starting on those drives. I mean, a couple different turnovers. I mean, just the fact that the offense could move the bull. a lot of short fields. I'm not going to take away much from the Denver defense here. I'm going to put it on the Denver offense and the fact that the Eagles are really good. Yeah, I mean, it's interesting to me. The Eagles, I mean, the Eagles have all the advantages of having great defense.

Their average starting field position is seventh in the NFL. You know, the defense gets off the field pretty quickly, gets a ball back. I mean, it's, it is, they're truly working in concert right now. And that's why I think, I mean, I don't know, who's better than the NFC right now? Nobody. Nobody. I mean, they look like the best team. And I think that, you know, with Seattle kind of faltering a little bit.

And I know Seattle's going to be there. We've talked about this. But this is one of the things where the Eagles, you're trying to wonder, how real is this? Are they as good as they look? And every week, they seem to be showing that they are. And similar to that, I mean, the Rams come out again. And I know it's the Giants. It's not the Broncos defense.

I mean, this is a team that's just giving up points left and right. but the Rams do what they should. And that's what teams that are going to stick around until the end. It's what you want to see them do. You want to see them beat teams worse than them. And the Rams just came out and beat the heck out of the Giants. And again, I don't think top to bottom the Rams roster is nearly as good as the Eagles. But I do think it's kind of a similar story, just that you have a talent influx.

You have a coaching staff that's done a great job getting all it can out of that. I think about the Walkins touchdown. It's similar to the Jeffrey play. You're putting guys in good situations, but golf checks into that play. You can see it clearly. They do a great job of setting that up just in terms of execution. He changes the launch point. Watkins runs a great route, and it's a touchdown.

You need both the call, the understanding of the coverage and the players to make that happen. And we're seeing that constantly with the ramps. The Giants looked like they were playing to get their coach fired mid-quarter. Yeah. Black puns are always a good side. And third and 30 screen pass touchdowns. Yeah, the third and 34 was a nice touch. Robert Woods making plays.

That's again, though. This entire team is new and it helps when you have much better players that are actual NFL guys, even if we laughed at the Robert Woods contract in a way, that's going to go a long way. Guys like John Sullivan. I mean, the Rams are a new football team in every single fashion. There was, we've seen it. There was no in a way about us laughing at Robert Woods' contract. that was like a what the hell

that was the I think among sort of the ringer NFL people that was the contract you pointed to non-Kalil division yes I was gonna say how dare you where we were like well I didn't know

that was a thing I didn't know that was going to happen during the frequency explosion so yeah I mean they've they've dunked on us here's my question if you're casting in a imaginary vote for coach of the year I was going to ask you this is it Peterson to McVeigh.

I'm going to say McVeigh just because of how terrible they looked last season. Yeah. I agree with that because Carson Wentz we saw, first of all,

obviously, Peterson was there last year. So it's not, that's a big deal. It's not a miracle work per se. It's not an overnight success like it is with McVeigh. We know that Carson Wentz

has a lot of talent. And by the way, obviously the Rams have a lot of talent. They have Aaron Donald. they have the second highest-paid cornerback in the league in Tremaine Johnson, even if you can debate his merits. But I mean, they've got, it's not like,

you know, they both have a lot of roster talent. But to take golf from literally historically bad quarterback play to top half quarterback, I don't know. I don't want to really put a number on it right now, but if you were to rank the quarterbacks, you wouldn't go very far before getting into Jared golf. I mean, that's a legitimate football miracle. Yeah, I totally agree.

And it's smaller stuff too. It's the idea that, and I know, know, I don't think we'll ever know how hires are exactly made in the league, like, who gets credit for them, who doesn't. I think sometimes it's the front office and the coaching staff in concert. But being able to convince Wade Phillips to come work for you as a 31-year-old head coach when the football team was terrible last season, that matters. Like, you should get credit for doing that. And in assembling that staff, the way that they have, that goes into it in my mind. And I know that with the Rams again, he doesn't pick the players necessarily,

Swipping out Andrew Whitworth for Greg Robinson matters. But I still think in one season to have done what McVeigh has. It's incredible. I mean, he deserves all the credit in the world. I'm shocked. I'm shocked. And I think that in like we're three weeks away from me actually seeing a Rams fan out in the streets, Los Angeles.

I know. Also, Todd Gurley, Beck. I love the Todd Gurley resurgence. I think we should just celebrate Sean McVeigh for that reason alone. I love it. I love everything. I'm in. Seconds clock rolls flags down and a fist fight at the 40 yard line.

Punch is thrown. Players tumbling. Now Jaguar spear in. Multiple bodies tumbling and falling. Whistles, Blares. They try to second down. Kevin,

we wanted to hit some of the frustrations that are boiling over for some stars on pretty bad teams right now. You know, the fight between AJ Green and J. And Ramsey, you guys just heard. Then Mike Evans runs over and hits Marshawn Latimore in the back after James Winston. I don't know,

pokes him. It was a bizarre day for two really good wide receivers. in the league. But in a way, I think each of them are channeling the feelings of their team right now. I want to commend Jalen Ramsey a little bit because A.J. Green is the most reserved player. Yeah. I've met maybe. And certainly among star players. I don't know a guy who's less likely to do that. If you were to take the top 50 guys in the NFL and say who's least likely to freak out in the game, AJ Green is pretty low on the list, if not the lowest. So Jalen Ramsey is, uh, is,

is in AJ Green's head. I don't want to dig into this too much. There is a chance I have a story about Jalen Ramsey coming out here soon. So maybe maybe that's hypothetical. We will, we're going to float it out there. So I can say that this is a guy who has a reputation. You can me like a football coach.

Don't want to give away too much. Don't want to give away too much. Jalen certainly has a reputation for being a guy who talks a lot. That's not a secret. He's gotten into it with a few receivers since he's gotten into the league. And it's only been a year and a half. So seeing that yesterday or seeing that on Sunday, excuse me, it wasn't the most shocking thing in the world to me. But for AJ Green, that is surprising to see.

And Mike Evans isn't exactly this boisterous, like, huge asshole. I mean, the fact that he was getting into it with other guys too, it just seems like these two are not in a good way. They are not having a good time right now. And it's hard to blame them. I'm going to take Mike Evans over AJ Green and the who's going to freak out pool. Correct. But still watching his. do that, I think is indicative

of a larger problem. Which is that the bucks quit? Yes. The bucks are quitting. The Bengals are not happy. This is not going well. Would it be easier to list the teams that haven't quit? Yeah. It seems like the list is getting smaller and smaller every single week. The Rams and

the Eagles have not quit. No, they have not quit. The Saints haven't quit. The Browns quit. Yeah. Browns quit a while ago. Colts quit. I mean, yeah, understandably so. again, can you blame any of these teams? Did the Niners unquit because of the Garoppolo trade? And can you unquit?

One of my favorite jokes, I know there were easy ones, but I really like seeing them all day on Sunday was the Niners beatwriters talking about how good Garapola looked on the sideline. Like, they know what's going on and I really appreciate that. The Niners season does not matter anymore. It's the amount of just covering fire they've given themselves. Like, hey, not our fault. Look at the quarterback.

He's so handsome. It reminds me when I was really young. I was in college and I was covering the 07 dolphins and Bill Parcells got hired right at the end of the season and they still had one or two games to play I think and Parcells gave one press comments and then barely talked for the rest of it but everything we asked like there'd be some injury or whatever

the quarterback we'd talk and all of it would just be like so what do you think about Parcells? Like that was it. That's all anybody cared about and that's what the Niners season has become is like Gropolo may not even play and they're just like going up to Carlos Hyde and do you know who Jimmy Garbo is? Care to give us a quote on them?

This kind of has been the perfect season for San Francisco. They didn't need to win any games. They haven't been embarrassing. You know, they had that stretch for a while where they were losing by three or six every week. They were in these games. They got blown out a couple times recently. But for the most part, they haven't been to walk over.

It's not the Browns. And then you have this quarterback halfway through the year where it's like, well, this is the guy we need going forward. You know, we're going to have the number two pick. we got a quarterback, we got all this cap space, things are going great. They really have sold being a winless team in the most effective way possible. Are they the best winless team? Just from a franchise situation standpoint, are they the best like awful O and 16, 1 and 15, 2 and 14 type team that we've seen in recent memory?

I think they're the best set up team, yes. I love it. Because obviously the Lions went 0 and 16 and we knew they decided to clean house. The Lions went 116, they had Calvin Johnson, but that was really it? I mean, what are the players that Owen 16 Lions team have? Didn't that Lions team have a bunch of players who ended up playing in the Broncos Seahawks Super Bowl? I remember that being a thing. I remember that being like a 2008 Lions.

I don't know. Did Dan Erlowski, John Kent, or Jontay Culpeper playing in those games? Manny Ramirez was okay. Okay. Mike Feree. I had no idea that Danty. I had no idea that Dante Culpepper was on that team. You could say that about a lot of teams.

This is unbelievable. A little bit later. You know, Dante Culpeper? Yeah. Cliff Averill. Cliff Averall. There you go. So there were a couple guys.

Dominic Riola was, yeah, he was still there. Cliff Aver. Not a lot of guys, Sean Cody. I think you said a lot of guys that played in that Seahawks. No,

it was like it's two. I thought it was five. Shows that I know. There are probably a couple guys down that list, but I don't think this was the makings of a future roster. Again, the Giants are the Niners don't exactly have that either. You know, they have

a couple guys they drafted very high. I think you should be excited about the defensive line moving forward. They have no linebackers, so it's not as if their run defense is going to be stellar. The guys they picked in the secondary site, you know, Eric Reed's a pretty decent player. He's relatively young. I think

they have some pieces, but I mean, this is a team that is still very far away. They have to get guys at like 17 different spots. The answer, by the way, was three. Paris, Lennon, Cliff Averill and Manny Ramirez. So three. Yeah.

You know. So they had NFL players. And Calvin Johnson. Yeah. There you go. So I think they are well set up. I mean, to have a quarterback to, you know, presumably, the quarterback you chose, I mean, you don't have to draft the one.

So you can go get a guy in the top five, which is who knows what sort of position I'll be after. They could trade down. I mean, I think they are in a pretty decent spot. But where are we out with the Bengals? It just feels like they're a team that the bucks were supposed to be the up and coming team. They weren't. I feel like there's some evaluation that has to go on there.

The Bengals are the opposite of that. They're the team that's trying to just revamp every single year and remain in contention. And it doesn't seem like they're there right now. If you're the Bengals, what has to happen in the off season? I mean, you fix the line first and foremost. Yeah. We knew that. I remember Joe Banner saying that in August on Twitter.

And it was something I thought about because I think we both picked the Bengals to be okay this year, not a tire fire, but not a playoff team. And I remember Banner saying, you know, when you build up skill position players and build up units like wide receiver running back, but you don't have a line, that's the recipe for an overrated team. And that's what we had with the Bengals. I mean, no one was really looking at it. So right now, the-Bangles are 32nd in the NFL in yards. 32nd and first first downs. I mean, I don't

I don't know what to tell you. That's the problem. I think the Bengals are a good example. 27th in the NFL and drive time. We talked about this last week, you know, in the thing I wrote about offensive line play in the sense that it's really hard to rely

on developing young players. And the Bengals were the perfect team, right? They let Whitworth and Zaitler walk. They said, we have guys in house. We've planned for this. And the guys in house never developed into real players. I watched that game again this morning and just the amount of ridiculous errors by some of those guys. And Andre Smith, too, not necessarily veterans, but not understanding where guys are supposed to come from and defensively.

They just look lost. And it's a problem. I mean, there's no way to function offensively you're going to be like that. So when you look at the statistics, I love this. There's 31st, the Bengals and plays per drive with five. Their defense is 30th, which means essentially the Bengals average game is the defense on the field all the time allowing a lot of plays and then the offense giving them no help and just basically going three and out more than any team in the league. It's good, good situation.

Yeah, that's exactly what you want. All right, buddy, on third down, let's get to the flip side of those games on Sunday. The Saints and Jags both look good again, leaving no doubt against these dysfunctional teams. Between those two, which of them do you feel has a more legitimate shot to make a run if they get into the playoffs? Jacksonville or no one. Well, I, I think we're probably going to have the same answer because we've had the discussion about Jackson for a couple weeks now. At some point, and this has been said by every quarterback and coach in the history of the world, I remember one specific guy saying, but I can't remember who it is. I'm sorry. But, you know, it's third and ten and you got to make a play. And that's going to be Blake Bordles in December or even if it's in the wild card game or whatever.

I think these teams both have a legitimate shot of making the playoffs, but which one has a better shot in making a conference championship game, it's absolutely going to be New Orleans because you just, it comes down, certain games just happen to come down to the quarterback. I agree. And I feel like what was impressive about Jacksonville's approach offensively on Sunday was that even without Fernette, they were finding a little ways to create offense. And Portals numbers are pretty good. He was saved by a couple great plays.

I mean, the play that Coleman came up the seam, reaching back over his head for a terrible pass is pretty much what you need to know about the state of the Jaguars pass. game even when it's clicking. But they had one play. There was a deep pass to Mercedes-Luise, like a 55-yard game that I love. They sent Marquisley, excuse me, in a little zip motion from right to left, and he went out into the flat, and they made the corner choose. It was a kind of a little levels concept, and Lewis is right there, and Bortle's made

a throw in the run, just helping their quarterback make easy decisions and throws. But again, that's not going to be available at certain times in big games. So I feel like you do have to give the tie record to the quarterback. And we've talked about this with the Saints all the time. Just that when Breeze and Peyton are there, their offense is going to be good enough. Can the defense be all right? But this offense is different. Just in the sense that they haven't put as much on Breeze.

And I think that the line is better. They're running the ball. What Kamara has given them is really nice. So just this like calibration and like where the sliders are on the Saints team is kind of bizarre. But it's definitely turned them into a really dangerous. group. They're still fun. And the offense makes big plays. They make stuff happen. But the defense just has so many pieces

now. They're a fun group. And I totally agree. I think that they're not as fun as Jacksonville, like, because Jacksonville's new. We're never going to ascribe the same excitement to that. But this version of them is new enough or it's like, okay, I like this team. Let's make this happen. Drew Breeze

is averaging 50 yards per game less than he was last year. It's a good thing. Let's not I mean, there's no real causation here. I mean, when Drew Brie's averaged 342 yards a game, the Saints went 13 and 3 in 2011. Okay, so let's not act like, you know, him passing less automatically makes them a better team.

Having said that, I mean, obviously we know why he's passing less. They're not behind in games all the time. They have a running game. I mean, this is, I think we all expected kind of a classic 5,000 yard, Drew Brie's season, but they're a balance. man, they're balanced. I love this. Yeah, it's fun. I'd like to see what happens with their

offensive line by the end of the season. Yeah. Because you were healthy at one point. Healthyish, because Ramchak, it just moves in for Streep after Street gets hurt, and then Taran Armstead comes back. Then as soon as he does, you lose Laurie Warford, and now Armstead's back as brothered him again. So hopefully that lie can kind of be healthy by the end of the year. I really like that group. But overall, I agree

with you. I do think Jacksonville is sneaky frightening, though. I think in the right matchup, they can bother some people in the NFC, or the AFC, excuse. me. I don't know if they can go to the AAC championship game. I don't know if they're like a legit threat just because I'm still worried about the quarterback. But I do think that they're going to be an annoying group to play. They can go in and cause four turnovers and absolutely wallop a team. I mean, they could be a low grade version of the 2002 bucks where they're just going to get

two defensive touchdowns in a playoff game and pull. I mean, obviously the bucks weren't upsetting these teams, but this would be an upset bid for the Jaguars that they went in. on the road if they don't win the division and beat Kansas City, something like that. I could just see, I could see that kind of game in the wild card round. Yeah, I 100% agree. And what I liked from the Jags the other day, and this is one of the things they had to correct over the second half, needed to stop the run. That was the biggest issue.

They couldn't do it in the first half of the season. That's why you make the Darius trade. Bengals, 17 carries 29 yards. It's the type of stuff you need to see from teams getting better over the second half. What do they do poorly? can they fix it? And that's one step in the right direction for the Jets. All right, Kevin, Fort down. One look back at just how important this offseason has been.

We've mentioned a couple of these names over the show so far. Marsha Lattimore, Leonard Fernette, the Eagles have a ton of first year guys helping them. Campbell, Boye, the Rams entire offense. Can you remember a season when this many first year moves have had this big of an impact on the playoff race? No, I can. And I think that speaks to how the league is built right now. I mean, the parody is pretty much unprecedented.

I know we've talked about parity for the last 30 years, but in a lot of cases, it hasn't really existed. And so what we have now is we don't have the sort of super elite teams we normally have. And instead, we have a bunch of teams mixed together to where one player, especially a new face, is going to make a lot of difference. Leonard Fournette is making a big difference paired with that great Jacksonville defense. And the same community said we talked about it all offseason about some of the Saints guys. Marchion Lattimore is a great example.

We knew all they needed was one or two pieces on defense to turn the corner and all of a sudden they're a contender. And so the fact that all of these teams, DVOA still spells us out that what teams 2 through 30 are a bunch tighter than they've ever been. So I think that all it takes is one player making the leap or showing up or getting drafted, whatever it is. And that's the difference between a 3 and 5 team and a 5 and 3 team. I mean, it's not as simple as two wins, but in some cases it kind of is. Yeah, and I've wanted to write about this a little bit. I think that's a factor as well. And something that we've talked about and that you've written about in the past is that young players,

the fact that young players are getting chances to play, I mean, the idea that all these rookies are just getting slotted in because they're the best options. And with all these teams grouped together, with these rookies getting a shot, it just feels like if you hit on a rookie that is a high-impact guy, it can affect the trajectory of your entire season. It can't make or break it, but it can set you on a different path. the fact that T.J. Watt is playing in Pittsburgh. That is a team that never used to throw those guys in the game. So I feel like all of these teams are relying on quick influxes of talent. And with the teams that are the best in the league right now, they're the ones that hit.

Boya and Campbell have been everything the Jags wanted them to be. And you think about the Rams, it's the exact same thing. I mean, Andrew Whitworth has made that team in a lot of ways offensively be able to go. So it's kind of crazy. I mean, we always talk about, it's free agency overrated, does this stuff matter, how much can rookies actually do? And this is the year in my mind where it has showed up in the biggest way I can remember. The thing about the young players and the fact that I think on offense at least, the average age of a player has gone down, I think almost two years. In the last since the CBA was enacted in 2011 and this defense is a little less, but it's still on a downward trajectory as far as the average age.

that's a net loss for the league because, you know, offensive line play, all the things he spelled out. I wrote 4,000 words on it last year and you guys can go back and read that. But the flip side of it is, as we're saying, which is some players who maybe would have sat on the bench for two years are getting really exciting opportunities and teams are relying on them. I mean, I think if you're a high pick like Jalen Ramsey, yeah, teams are always going to throw you out there. But I mean, nowadays they realize you have to be an absolute instant. contributor or else you're a bust. And I think that that has put guys in some interesting positions, but it's also gotten some new exciting faces to thrive. And it's made the draft maybe more important than ever, just year to year. Not only hitting on guys long term and

building your team, but if you hit a guy in this draft, what can do for you right now? And I just can't remember it being like that. All right, Kevin, it's time for your craziest headline from the weekend. Go for it. Yeah. So this is more about me being upset at something. And it's the Andrew luck situation. And, a couple of the headlines. So there's a couple of reports now. Let's start with Bob Kravitz, who is the Indianapolis longtime columnist. He had a column today that basically said that there's evidence of a growing rift between Jim Rese and Andrew Luck.

There's some reports that of Indianapolis. I don't know how credible they are. This is separate from the Kravitz column that Andrew Luck is facing a career-threatening injury. Chris Ballard denied that last week. But I just don't know, Robert, how you have a commodity like Andrew Locke. In a league where we talk about how there are no good young quarterbacks and you screw this up this badly. It's almost, obviously, it's a tragedy for Andrew and it's offensive to the sport of football to screw this up this badly. You know, Kravitz was talking about, I guess Dan Patrick had Tony Dungey on his radio show yesterday.

And Dunjy sort of alluded to the fact that, and apparently, you know, Dunjee didn't know he was on air when he was saying this. Classic, classic mix-up. But he, Dungey alluded to the fact that basically Jim R.S. thought that some of it was in Andrew's head, which I think is insane. I just, I don't know how, I mean, what the hell is going on with the Colts, Robert? What is this? It doesn't matter where it is.

Whatever Andrew Luck feels about when Andrew Luck should play, that's what Andrew Luck gets to play. Sorry. Yeah. Is there any confusion about this? And also is Andrew Luck? We all have interacted with Andrew Luck. We've seen Andrew Luck.

We know the guy who literally said he likes getting hit early in the game to get his juices flow and that sort of thing. Is there something going on right now where we're questioning Andrew freaking Luck's toughness? We're a year removed from who's the GM for the Colts last year? I forgot his name. Grigson. Yeah, there you go. Him saying, were you removed from Ryan Grickson? saying that one of the reasons the defense was bad

is because the quarterback was expensive. How many different people in this organization are going to shit on the guy who is going to make or break their future? It's probably a good move, right? You know, we don't have to wait and see what the Colts would like with Andrew Luck because we see it all the time and it's terrible.

And it's T.Y. Hilton's and the offensive line sucks. It's T. Y. Hilton is just not getting the ball. It's Jacobi Priset. It's Scott Tolzeon in an August practice field being able unable to take a snap from under center, despite having played in the NFL for years. I mean,

how can you not view the Colts as a Colts employee and say, everything we do, let's just shut down the team with the exception of the people who are supposed to get Andrew Luck healthy and worry about that because that is all the matters. Can you imagine anybody from the Packers

speaking a word about when Aaron Rogers should or should not play? last week Aaron Rogers came out and said yeah if the bone's not healed I'm not playing and guess who said anything nobody and they never will if Aaron Rogers took just the entire year off next year Packard

would the pack when did the Packers be like Hey no one would speak Hey Aaron no one no one would say a single thing Well you know we're when Aaron gets back We'll be happy to have them you know we just When did they say when does Ted make the call like next December like you are you gonna come back to work ever. Yeah, he's going to call him.

He's going to say not a word to anyone else. He's not going to say it publicly like Jim Mersey did. And then God. Yeah. All right, Kevin. It's time for my ringer of the week. Someone who impacted the game in a big way, but you may not have noticed. We're going to go with an offensive lineman, which I feel like the spirit

of this award. And it's Brandon Brooks from the Eagles who had a really fun game. I think that you watch that Eagles game and talk a lot about Wents, a lot about play design. All that stuff matters. But one of the reasons they're able to be so dangerous is because of their offensive line and not only the quality of the players, but the style they play with. If you watch the J. Ajai touchdown, which was a really cool play, you see that the left guard, Stefan Wozniuski blocks back and then Jason Kelsey pulls around,

which is not how every team would block that inside zone play, but Kelsey's so mobile that he's able to get out in front of the play, go up and lead and create angles to everybody else. And one of the reasons that they're able to do that, is because Brandon Brooks and Lane Johnson on the other side don't need help. So Brandon Brooks literally just sprints toward the inside linebacker and managed to, with one hand, launch him into Bradley Roby or Bradley Roby and cause a touchdown. It's remarkable. It's in my Sunday recap. Please go check it out.

That's the type of stuff that makes the Eagles so dangerous is that at every level they have this kind of talent. And again, the front office deserves credit. Brooks was a guy they signed last year as a free agent. And when you have quality players like that, you're able to sustain injury. And that's really the only thing between the Eagles and being the favor of the NFC right now. You lose Jason Peters, but you're still able to run the ball because you have Brooks making plays like that. You have Lane Johnson being able to cut a guy off on the backside with no help because he's excellent. And then if you go watch the Corey Clement screen pass touchdown, Brooks manages to get 10 yards down field and get a hand on a guy and just end the point.

play. Touchdown on the third and 10 screen pass that seems like a throwaway. These are the type of guys that Philly has all over their roster and they're the type of guys that are quietly making them maybe the best team in the NFL. Brian Blago is ACO. Awesome. Jesus. What a year this has been. We just cannot have nice things. This is really fun. I don't know what to tell you. Yeah. I don't know what you should tell me, buddy. All right. Coming up, Danny Kelly is going to join us to explain how Kirk Cousins tore out his

Seahawks loving heart on Sunday afternoon. Plus, we'll tell you with sticking with us with our lasting impressions from week nine. First, Kevin, Seatgeek makes buying tickets to concerts and sporting events super easy. With the NFL season heating up, now is the time to start checking out some live games.

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So if you love concerts like Robert does, this is the app for you. Hey man, I'm not apologizing for that. Since we are such huge Seekek fans, our listeners get a $20 rebate off their first Seatkeek purchase. To get a $20 rebate on tickets, download the Seatkeek app, go to the Settings tab and click add a promo code, enter promo code, Ringer NFL, one word. Seatkeek will send you $20 after you've made your first purchase. download the Seatkeek app and enter promo code Ringer NFL today. I passed from Kirk Cousins at Josh Doxon early in the fourth quarter,

set up the game winning touchdown for the Redskins over the Seahawks and managed to finally break Danny Kelly's heart. Danny, how you doing, buddy? I'm doing okay. I'm doing okay. That was a rough one. The Seahawks had played them pretty dang well that whole game and put themselves in a good position to win that game

and the defense kind of gave it up. Though I will say Cousins, and I wanted to ask you guys about this, like Cousins really, I mean, he came up huge on that drive. It wasn't just that throw to Doxon, which was great, but a couple, I think the play before even, he hit Brian Quick right in the face of two Seattle pass rushers down the right side line. It was an amazing throw.

He got hit hard right as he threw it. I don't know, he didn't have a great game before that, but he really came up big for them late in the game. And I don't know, I guess I was going to ask you guys, How much stock do you put in kind of that late game, you know, clutch factor in terms of like what, how well cousins played in that one? I think he played,

I put in some, but I also liked how he played for big chunks of the game. You know, I tweeted about it at one point, that one drive, Danny in the first half near the end, he just made some good choices. You know,

putting the ball in the right spots and just making really smart decisions. I think that there is a good reason for teams to be excited to make this guy their quarterback this offseason. Yeah, I know that he has his issues and that for the most part he's played in a nice, cushy situation. He didn't have that last week. I mean,

all of his offensive line were gone. He didn't have anybody to throw the ball to. And he still looked okay. When we're looking at a league where Tom Savage and Brock Oswald are playing quarterback for people, I absolutely get why teams want to give this guy $25 million. Oh, yeah, absolutely. I think he's going to get paid.

He's earned in that. I mean, it's going to be one of the biggest off-season storylines, I think, probably. That of doubt. Yeah, that we can look forward to. He's going to get paid. So, Danny, were you asking you, so how much we put into, like, the sort of clutch factor late in games, whether it's sustainable? I just think, I'm just curious, like, in terms of your guys, in the way that you evaluate quarterbacks, like, how much stock do you put in?

Because there were two, he did make, you know, he probably should have had two picks in this game. It could have completely changed the outcome of the game, right? Like, Richard Sherman dropped a really easy pick at one point, and I can't remember who else had one. You can't have one of the first drive, man. Oh, yeah, that's right. And so... I can't believe you dropped that. I put probably more stocked than some people in the ability to kind of, you know, put those things behind you and come up big in those big situations late in game.

And I was super impressed with cousins in that one. Yeah. You know, it's interesting to me, Bill Walsh wrote in the book The Score Takes Care of Itself about the idea of Clutch Play. And he basically says that if you're amped up for a play, you're going to screw it up. That's basically the gist of it. And the real clutch is just being completely calm and executing exactly as you would on a Tuesday afternoon on a practice field. And I think that's interesting. So I think there's a calmness you need.

And so I almost feel like clutch is not necessarily the existence of some sort of gene. It's the absence of panic. Right. That's a good way of putting it. I don't know. I can't tell with cousins. You know, he's not Joe Montana at this point. It's hard to say.

Right. Until you play in, you know, conference championship game, I have no, you know, we know Tom Brady is quote unquote clutch. This is, this is my conclusion. I agree with you. I think that's a good point, Kevin. I just think that he's a guy probably because he's had to that has come back from making those weird decisions in the past.

He's able to keep playing, you know, kind of unabashedly after throwing a bad pick, whatever. That's because he's thrown too many of them. But I do think there's something to that. Can a guy just continue to play pretty much no matter what? It's kind of what impress me most about Deshaun Watson. Just it doesn't seem to matter what happened on the previous throw or drive. It's just like, I don't care. I'm just going to come out and make another one.

And I do really appreciate that. And I just think that that combined with what we've seen from cousins all year, I've been impressed even if his numbers haven't been nearly as good as they've been in years past. I just think that watching him game after game is just like he can play quarterback. And apparently and especially compared to everybody else, he can really play quarterback. I think it took me a long time to get on the cousin's bandwagon in terms of picturing him as like, you know, I don't know what it is, top 10 quarterback or whatever. But I'm kind of there now. I'm starting to sort of believe in him and he's changed my opinion of late.

And I think maybe that's just because there's been some bad quarterback play, you know, relative this year. and some bad quarterback. I think that has to play into it in a way, right? You can't just ignore the state of the position around the league when evaluating these guys. It doesn't happen in a vacuum. It's about opportunity cause. It's about what else is available. I mean,

that matters when you're deciding on who should play quarterback and how much he should get paid to do it. Absolutely. So, yeah, I'm starting to buy in. And like we talked about earlier, like, I think he's just going to get a huge contract this year. And I don't even think it's going to be a bad thing for whatever team ends up with him.

I think it's going to be, you know, he's the kind of guy that you can build an offense around. I think he's starting to prove that. All right, Danny, moving on. We've talked about a lot this season, young running backs around the league. But you wanted to hit some vintage guys putting up vintage performances this week. What helped these two dudes get into the time machine on Sunday? My God, it was crazy. It was like a flashback to, I don't know, like 2012, 2013 watching Adrian Peterson and Marshaun Lynch just power their offenses kind of to victories.

obviously we talked about Peterson on Friday in one of the in the D.K. Dark Night segment and he actually had a I think it was 37 carries which is one most in history for a 32 year old ever. So that was awesome and you know I really loved the quote from his offensive coordinator before the game was I think Harold Goodwin said he's like an old stove the more wood you put in it the hotter it gets. It was just kind of I really liked that a lot actually. I've never heard that before but I really liked it. And it just goes to I mean he just got better as the game went on And this was this is his game

Like he just wears you down Wares you down wears you down And and then you know finally just you just get sick At tackling him kind of thing So it was really fun to watch him I think I saw this he's he's leading the NFL And I want to say yards since he Since he went to the Cardinals just because

They were just feeding him so so much And he's just like the he's become the foundation of our offense So yeah it's been really fun watch that and then if you go to the Marshawn lynch he didn't he wasn't quite as prolific obviously but there was a few vintage lynch sort of carries in that game including his touchdown um i don't remember how many yards it was but he had a really nice touchdown on a power power run where they kind of let sue run by them and and you know he made a couple of jukes in the in the secondary to get get free and it was it was just a lot of fun to watch him kind of do his thing again we

hadn't really seen that version at lynch this year what do you think happens with peterson just because with David Johnson coming back next year, Peterson's contract is up. It just feels like he can be effective if given the right situation, but we saw this in free agency last year. We saw this with what happened in the beginning of the season. There aren't that many right situations for him.

Arizona is pretty much the perfect team, but they have a running back that's going to be back next year. It just doesn't feel like he's going to be able to have anything close to this wherever he lands. Yeah, because I do think he needs to be the guy. You know, they need him to give him 25 carries a game or whatever the number is. And I don't know what offense you can do that in. I think, I mean, this would never have him.

I don't know if he's necessarily fit, but like Seattle needs a guy like him, but they can freaking rely on because they're running backs. They've just been terrible this year. There might, I could see a couple teams emerging where, you know, they haven't had much success with some of their draft picks, there's injuries and all that stuff and, you know, kind of bringing him in to just be that foundation. I could see it happen if he wants to keep playing,

which it seems like he does. There could be a landing place for him. Seattle would be really interesting. It's not as if they're shy about taking flyers on guys like that either. I know, right? You know, like just Seattle's offense, or their run game, I'm sorry, has just been incredibly disappointing.

And, you know, Rawls looked good at times in this last game. I saw a stat from Warren Sharp that said, On first and 10, Eddie Lacey has been like 32 out of, like 32nd ranked out of 32 running backs or something like that. Like success rate and stuff. Who could have seen this coming? How do you react to every Eddie Lacey, Kerry? Do you say something? Is there an audible reaction?

Or do you just kind of fall back into your chair? What happens? Walk me through this. It's honestly like, oh, God. Like my biggest reaction to Seattle's offense this year has been they just absolutely love playing for third and long. Like, let's run into the back of our linemen two times on first and second down and then, like, have a really difficult third long situation. Like, that's their strategy. And it's been working really well.

Have you gotten into this camp where you're torch and pitch forking Darrell Belli yet? Or are you far away from that? No, I'm not really there. I just think the interesting part of that, the Seattle sort of the fan reaction this year is when there's like this really big discussion of whether the Seahawks should even, like, be running ball at all. Like they're throwing the ball more than they have ever thrown it in the Pete Carroll era. Like Russell Wilson's on pace for like 4,500 yards or something like that. And like there's still a major discussion. Like we need to be passing more.

Like the Seahawks don't pass enough. Like stop running almost at all. So I don't know. It's an interesting thing because I think it's driven by Pete Carroll. Like I don't necessarily blame Beville for trying to run the ball because I think it's Bekearroll that wants to do that. You're the exception there because the rest of Seahawks, Twitter is like marching toward Caput. Russell Frankenstein right now. That's been happening for years.

That's probably true. It's been happening for years. I mean, the fire bevel, like, hashtag probably goes back to like 2014 or 2013, you know. He's been around forever. He's actually one of the longest tenured coordinators in the NFL, if not the longest. Well, Danny, I've kind of gotten used to your lifestyle now, as Kevin told me earlier today, my team is favored by five points this week. So I know what it's like to have a good football team.

Holy cow, that's amazing. They're playing Green Bay. The NFL is losing the Danny Kelly lifestyle. He's just real dumb right now. Danny, we really appreciate it as always. We'll talk to you on Friday, buddy. All right, sounds good.

All right, Kevin, before we get out of here, we want us to offer our lasting impressions from week nine. What's going to stick with you? First of all, before we're getting into it, the Vikings may put San Bradford on an injured reserve. That's another one of these. I should have bunched them in with luck.

What the hell is going on with San Bradford right now? Yeah. I mean, at least the Vikings are sustainable without Sam Bradford. Yeah, I know, I know. They're not a disaster. They're not a disaster. It's just, I have no idea. What's even wrong with him?

I mean, his knee is just, I think, eternally screwed up. Teddy Bridgewater might be active this week. Okay. So, lasting impression. Miami Harold reported this. Kind of liked it. The Miami Dolphins since it started the 2015 season are 1 and 8 in primetime games. and they've been outscored in those games

246 to 122. Guess what's coming next week, Robert? No, really? A third straight Miami Dolphins' primetime game when the dolphins on Monday night travel to Charlotte, North Carolina. The NFL has a problem. And number one, the problem is that the Sunday night's Raiders Dolphins game,

which may have looked okay on paper in August, was the lowest rated Sunday night game and the history of the Sunday night football package since it moved to network television in 2006. I'm not going to get into the ratings thing again. We've done too much of that. We've talked about how bad football is too often, quite frankly, this year. All I'm saying is, and this was one of my last year,

impressions a couple, you know, the beginning of the season, and now it's even more dire. The NFL's got to figure out a way to make things more flexible as far as the flex scheduling. They could have gotten out of that game. They did. Next week we have Broncos Patriots. I guess that's a good game. Not really. It's fine.

I mean, it's okay. It's better than, no, but it's relative to the other horseship primetime games we've seen, it's fine. But I mean, we just got to figure this out. I would have rather seen Seattle play. Leaving aside the fact that, okay, let's say Fox says you're not taking Chiefs Cowboys, which they would have done. Just move Seattle, Washington to prime time.

I'd rather see those two teams. They wouldn't have gotten the worst rating in the history of the Sunday night package. I guarantee you that. You cannot put these boring ass check down teams on primetime. Can't do it. that's my lasting impression I have something to admit I did not watch the primetime game live this week

for the first time in years I went back and was reading some stuff I just I'll watch it tomorrow You're part of the problem What did you read? I was just reading up about like I was reading the stats that happened on Sunday I was kind of figuring out what I was going to write

You were reading like No usually I just get It's hard for me to write during that games Because I like watching football And I enjoy being the part of the conversation Everything else That game was just like nope I'll watch it tomorrow

And that's what I did So how is it how is it watching it after the fact? It was not good. It was not enjoyable. I did not like the football game. I mean, I didn't figure that I would. But yeah,

I can't remember the last time I've done that. But yeah, here we are. This is football in 2017. I'm not watching Jay Collar Live. Sorry, guys. They should be able.

So the two things, one of the things they address this year, which is there's no more mandate for how much a team can or cannot be on prime time. They address that this year. but now they need to be able to flex the entire season. They can at this point in the season flex into things, but they just need to do it way more often. Maybe liberalize the rules on how few games Fox and CBS can protect

in order to just get some good matchups on the Sunday night package. I don't know. Figure it out, guys. You're the $14 billion industry. Hey, I'm with you, buddy. Mine is somewhat related to that point. And I think that it starts with the early games from Sunday. I was sitting there watching on two adjacent televisions,

the Broncos game and the Texans game. And just the sheer awfulness of Tom Savage and Brock Oswald while we're right next to each other over the course of a three-hour period was entertaining in some ways, depressing in others. And I just think such a weird commentary on where the league is with and without quarterbacks. we saw it constantly over week nine. It happened with Jacoby Preset, replacing Andrew Luck and Indy,

which Jacoby Percett is watchable. He's not Andrew Luck, having to watch Brett Hunley instead of Aaron Rogers. And then you see what happened with teams like the Rams and the Eagles. It just feels so stark the quarterback have and have knots in the league right now. We've talked about quarterbackless football a little bit. The Jags are this kind of weird exception to the rule. But for the most part,

the teams that have figured out of that position and the teams that have not are the teams that we're talking about in good and bad ways. And it just feels like over the course of the second half, we're just going to see the gap widen and widen and widen. And I just can't believe we're in a position where a Brock Osweiler is the answer to any question that we're asking. And watching those two guys in the same time play two different football games. Again, I wrote this this weekend, just felt like the Texans' worst nightmare

now that we know what Deshawn Watson is, is an entire league populated by guys who used to be their quarterback, which I'm pretty sure you could do. I think every single team could have a former Texans quarterback, and I know that's just like some nightmarish hellscape, but it doesn't feel like we're super far away. It feels like it's slowly starting to creep through the league like a disease.

And it's awful. And it just feels like right now, I can't watch so many of these teams based on who's playing quarterback, and I'm desperate to watch the ones that have found. one. And I know that that always dominates the league, but it feels so stark this season with the injuries, with some of the hits that have happened in recent years. And I think that's going to define the rest of the year. There's just going to be so many teams where we're sitting there saying, how is this an NFL team? And the other guys have quarterbacks and they're the ones are going to

be thrilled to watch. The sensation you had watching Osweiler and Savage on two connected televisions should give you a slight insight into how Texans fans felt when they were on the same fucking team last year. That's what I'm saying. This is their nightmare. It's happening in real time. I feel so bad for them. At least they won the World Series. All right, buddy, that's it for today. Check us out on Thursday for a special Ringer NFL show as we take a midseason look at the state of the game in 2017 with a bunch of special guests. As always, we're back on Friday to get everyone set for week 10. As always, Thanks for listening to The Ringer NFL show on the Ringer Podcast Network.

Thanks, guys.