The Ryen Russillo Podcast - Andy Benoit | The Ryen Russillo Podcast

Episode Date: September 11, 2019

Russillo discusses the Antonio Brown allegations (3:42) before he is joined by SI's Andy Benoit to discuss Lamar Jackson's performance against the Dolphins, the Browns' disastrous start to the season, the Patriots' supercharged offense, Packers-Bears, Jaguars backup QB Gardner Minshew II's impressive display, Kyler Murray, Deshaun Watson, and more (11:50). Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Hey, it's the Ryan Rosillo podcast. Every Monday, Wednesday, and Friday, every Monday is with Chris Long. And by the way, we got all the nice messages from everybody all over the place talking about how much you loved the first one. And I thought it was good while we were taping it. I went back and listened, and it really is good. So very proud of that. And Chris is a superstar.

Guy's going to be able to do whatever he wants if he wants to do this long term. And thank you so much for downloading, subscribing, rating, reviewing, again, the Ryan Russolo podcast. But you already know that. And you also know that Belvedere is a presenting sponsor in partnership with our friends at Belvedere Vodka. Join us for a live dual threat podcast in Atlantic city for Monday night

football at the new money line bar and book at the Borgata on Monday, September 16th at seven. I think I'm going to be there all day prior to, so look out. You know, I want to check out the rounders poker table where Maddie D when he comes back, he'd been off the grid.

He hadn't played in a while. It's like, hey, Matty D's here. Totoro comes over, says something creepy. Totoro, if you were to say in Rounders, Totoro was actually dead six cent style at the end of the movie, that would have been plausible. Like if at the end, it was like Totoro was dead the whole time. I mean, seriously, I think he only talks to Matty D in that. I mean, other than when, oh, no, wait a minute. I mean, that's not entirely true because Worm tells him off a couple times.

Like, all right, Kanish, you keep hammering away. There's a lot of stuff in TV. So anyway, the reason I bring this up is that David Levine and Brian Koppelman, who both wrote Rounders and obviously co-created Billions. Levine sitting at the poker table in one of those scenes, he has the big bushy mustache and the slicked back black hair. I mean, it's a huge mustache, so it just stands out. So he's looking around. So he's at that table.

So hopefully maybe I'll be able to hit up that table a little bit earlier. It also reminds me, too, like Worm. You have to do that in the script to make it. Why did Worm? Worm took the rap for Matty D. So that's why Matt Damon always feels like he has to owe him. But as much as I love Succession, I just feel like that group wouldn't really hang out with Greg. I just don't think Greg would get to roll with him that long, even though I love Greg a lot.

My new favorite line ever from the show is Tom. Tom's my favorite character. I like Shiv a lot too. And apparently that's cool if I like Shiv and still like Tom. But I just think when they're in the helicopter and Tom says, that's a weird family or like, what a weird family. It's unbelievable. It's such a beautifully written, delivered line.

Anyway, we'll be enjoying cocktails made with Belvedere Vodka, the first super premium, all natural vodka, watching the Browns and Jets and talking football. And also, hey, Ryan, are you going to talk about M&M's Hazelnut? Hell yeah, I am. Take your game day treats to the next level with the new M&M's Hazelnut Spread chocolate

candies. Hazelnut Spread is covered in smooth M&M's milk chocolate, delivering a mouth-watering blend of chocolate and hazelnut in every bite-sized piece. Enjoy them on their own or use them to spruce up your favorite desserts. I think I'd like now to say something fun or silly about the extreme lengths that I've gone to in order to get my hands on M&M's hazelnut spread chocolate candies. Man, let me tell you, I would do something perhaps both fun and silly.

So go hazelnutty and try the new M&M's hazelnut spread chocolate candies today. I promise to the M&M's people, I will improv more on my M&M hazelnut experience on the next podcast. This week's opening rant is about Antonio Brown. Now, normally in the past with radio shows and all this stuff, when it's legal stuff, when it's accusations,

I never felt really comfortable and I don't feel really comfortable right now. I've read everything that you've read. I've gone through the court documents. The civil case is what this is and what a civil case versus a criminal case means and what the NFL can and can't do, but then again, what they could do.

And if the Patriots are going to have him out there, does that mean that they're ready to go ahead and back him until they can no longer back him? And by the way, the Patriots are going to do whatever they want. Like, as great as this organization is, Bill Belichick actually made you feel bad for asking about potentially having a multi-murderer on the team which i'm not saying belichick knew about aaron hernandez i doubt that he knew any of that i mean give me a break but you know belichick's not going to give you an inch on anything on this so with brown his former trainer that is accusing him of rape uh i'm always in favor of basically telling you that I don't know, and I'm not going to take anybody's side. I mean, how could you ever sit here and go, all right, well, this is what I know for a fact. Well, you don't know for a fact. I mean, hell, I'll have some trade rumors. And

then three months later, like maybe I'd mentioned something and then I'll run into a GM at something and he'll be like, hey, can I just pull you aside or I'll get a text or I'll get a call. And he'll say, hey, you know, you said something a few months ago and I meant to help you out with that. That's actually not why we didn't do this trade or that's actually why we did do this trade. OK, that's a trade. This is real life stuff. Laws could have been broken. OK, somebody may have been sexually assaulted.

Laws could have been broken. Okay. Somebody may have been sexually assaulted. So to ever sit there and be like, well, you know, I was looking at her Instagram and all this stuff. Or, hey, his track record has shown that he's not. You know, I don't know. I wouldn't feel comfortable with any of that stuff. And I don't want to say that I'm less appalled than the next person. Okay. Because I also think that there's a really easy thing to do when you're a voice on television or radio where you just go, okay, Antonio Brown

needs to be suspended right now. He should never play football again and all these different things. And I'd be like, well, okay. But if I were to argue with you on a TV show that you're wrong, does that make me seem insensitive? Like, of course not. Like, I am in favor of innocent until proven guilty, okay? I am in favor of everybody trying to figure out the truth and take as long as they need to. The other thing that happens, too, is that with the NFL, post-Ray Rice, so much criticism in how they handle every single thing. And even if we think they handle something like 75% right,

we get more mad about the 25% after the fact of saying all the things the NFL should have done differently. As far as I can tell, the NFL is trying to appease everyone in all of these different camps and making sure that the players are still respected, but at the same time, the way the world has changed post-Ray Rice, that all voices are being listened to. But I'm still in favor of, until the NFL knows or is comfortable about it, that if Brown's going to be in pads for a game in a civil case pending against him,

I don't know that I would go on TV feeling comfortable enough to saying that he shouldn't be on the field. And that's a really tough argument to have with somebody else because if the other person is saying, suspend him immediately, zero tolerance, it's like, well, what are you actually saying? Are you saying that any accusation could lead to somebody not playing?

So, again, I feel like I've gone a little too deep on this because I think we also do this really predictable thing where we kind of fall into our camps. Where if you're a guy and maybe there's a time that you heard a story that actually ended up not being a true story. It's something back at college or whatever. And then you think, okay, well, I don't believe anybody now. I don't believe any accuser. Well, that's ridiculous. Because if you're a guy that has sisters or you're a guy like, look, I'm in the friend zone with a ton of women that are on television. And I mean that because I'm friends with them and the stuff that they tell me and I believe them. And some of it's just so awful, but it would never make me feel

like I'm a hundred percent in favor of this side or I'm a hundred percent in favor of this side. Every single time an incident like this comes up, I think it happens with race a lot. Like if you're a white guy and you think black guys haven't dealt with stuff, and I'm talking about multiple times, and I don't know what degree it is, but if you're a white guy that never thinks anything is ever racist, then you're missing the point. But then again, I could point out, I remember there was a lawsuit at a place that I worked at years ago, and a bunch of us had worked there. We'd all gotten along, and there was this lawsuit, and race was an element to it. And a bunch of us sat around going like, this isn't even close to being true. So does that mean because that one case wasn't true? And I knew that this is a hundred percent certainty. Some of the things that were said about a place that I worked at, it just weren't true. Does that mean from that point on, I would never, ever believe anyone

accusing someone else of a racist act? Well, of course not. I mean, that'd be ridiculous. I mean, I have a Cuban friend who defends Angel Hernandez, the MLB umpire who's suing MLB based on discrimination. And there's plenty of other people just tell you, hey, he's a bad up. But like, that's a tough conversation for me to have when my Cuban friend has had a different life experience than I have as a white guy. And that's where it always just gets a little dicey for me.

And that's why I sit here today saying, if he plays this week, I'm not going to yell and scream that he shouldn't be. But I never want to be the guy that's dismissive of these allegations just because I'm a guy. Now, on a much less serious note, the Antonio Brown contract is worded in a way where they could get out of this deal immediately. And we'll see. We'll see what ends up happening with the way the money's paid out. For a lot of people that kept talking about this master plan for AB to get out of $30 million to lose guaranteed money just to get to the Patriots,

and it just keeps getting repeated and repeated over and over again. It's really dumb, and it doesn't make any sense because I don't think he went to the Raiders going, I want to get all this guaranteed money and then piss it all away so that I can then get to New England. But I did to get all this guaranteed money and then piss it all away so that I can then get to New England. But I did see that language this morning that there's some stuff like, and essentially I'm paraphrasing here, embarrassment to the team, embarrassment of the league, you know, conduct unbecoming. I mean, and again, I'm not quoting word for word. And I know

Drew Rosenhaus is going on SportsCenter. He's back in his guy. That to me is completely irrelevant. The idea that Brown has daughters, that's irrelevant. Harvey Weinstein has daughters. So I'm just going to wait back here and try not to make any mistakes on a thing that is really delicate. All right, let's talk some football with Andy Benoit of SI.com. Have you ever had to miss a football game because you couldn't get somewhere to watch it? Just the other day, I was watching my man Van Pelt and Brian Windhorst was on. And Windhorst was in China trying to watch his Cleveland Browns week one 2019 opener. That wasn't a great time if you're a Browns fan, but he was in China.

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including all of the Ringer and ESPN podcasts. And for a limited time, go to tunein.com slash dualthreat, D-U-A-L threat, to get TuneIn Premium for 50% off. That's tunein.com slash dualthreat. Take live sports, music, news, and podcasts wherever you go with TuneIn. Okay, let's do it. One of my favorite guys on the previews and his film breakdown and the poor guy's mad that he hasn't watched every snap of every single game before this podcast, but that

is not necessary. I promised him that. From SI.com, it's Andy Benoit. What's up, man? How was your first week? Yeah, so far, so good. How are you doing, Ryan? I'm great. That was a lot of fun. I have a million things that I want to get to, and feel free to take this in any direction that you think we need to hear what you have to say, but we've been going back and forth on the notes. I need to start with Lamar Jackson, because I think you and I were aligned early on watching him in college where I watched him a lot.

And in that second year, I feel like Louisville was always on early. He was so much fun to watch in college. I interviewed him twice. He's probably one of my favorite college personalities, which is pretty rare, just how genuine of a dude he seemed like. But like Eric Weddle, when he came in as a rookie into camp, Weddle admitted like, man, it was rough. And I think you and I both thought, based on some of his intermediate throws, some of his clean throws, he was still very inaccurate.

I think his overall performance is a bit overrated because they won a lot of games and they went to the playoffs, and then I thought that Chargers playoff game was pretty disappointing, but not a huge surprise. So, having said all of that, because Lamar Jackson has become sort of this social experiment on top of everything else, he comes out, lights up the Dolphins in record fashion. He doesn't even have to run the football. So now that I've set that whole thing up, I think it's a real question of what do you see, what kind of work has he put in, and how much do we put into

this because it was the Dolphins? Well, I do think you need to factor in the Dolphins thing a little bit because there was a lot of miscommunication in their secondary, some of the matchup concepts that they had, the way they deployed safety, they were vulnerable. And Jackson, to his credit, obviously took more than full advantage of that. And what I really like, Ryan, is he has a very clear identity as a passer. We're talking as a physical thrower of the ball right now. He's got this short little motion, kind of a wrist-flicking type of thrower. Mahomes is like that. Mahomes obviously is much more talented in this sense.

Carr is kind of like that. And last year, you know, you could see that in him. I didn't get the sense that he was clearly defined as what kind of passer he is. That appears to be the motion that he's comfortable with, and that, I think, is a pretty flexible motion. He's a real natural athlete when he throws the ball. And we know that the Ravens talked about how they were going to kind of change this offense around him, but based on the big plays

that they were hitting on, I mean, even Lamar had said, hey, these are plays we had installed last year, and we still haven't seen the full arsenal from them. I mean, did you see something different conceptually from them at all with what they were doing? I don't know if I'd say it's different. I think what we'll see is a more honed and specified offense. Really, it starts with their running game, obviously, and what Greg Roman does so well, their offensive coordinator. Remember, he had Kaepernick when they went to the Super Bowl in San Francisco with them. He presents a lot of moving pieces in your run game. So a ball goes one way, blockers might pull or flow the other way. Sometimes they'll flow with

the direction of the ball. Sometimes you'll have multiple guys going in both directions. And all in the center of it is Lamar and the threat of him keeping the ball. And that's their foundation. That's their starting place. you can theoretically lamar jackson can run the ball three times for six yards and still have a commanding influence on the running game week after week i do think yes we will see him obviously run the ball more than he did against miami but you don't have to actually be running him to capitalize on his mobility and at some point ryan what we'll'll see, and I think we're going to start touching on this maybe sooner than expected, is the integration of passing concepts into these run concepts. And I'm sure they have a starting place now.

Play action is obviously a big part of that. But when you can start throwing out of your run formation, that's where you're very dangerous. And a lot of those throws inherently become downfield throws because your run formations, they leave extra blockers in there. They look like you're going to be smash-mouthing the ball. Those smash-mouth blockers just become pass protectors. And that's why a guy with speed is so critical in a run-based offense and wide receiver.

So Hollywood Brown, that's a great fit stylistically for that kind of offense. Okay, Cleveland. We started with the great. This was not great. I think we look at Baker and go, okay, I see all the things that we like about it. I mean, we can get caught up in the personality, but none of that matters. If they win, it's going to be because of his personality. If they lose, it's going to be because of his personality. I mean, it's just the way the media works and what everybody does. He's a leader, he's cocky, he's brash, he's aggressive, he's immature. And you know, you can't win with this guy, but it was collectively a disaster from this team.

And I imagine that starts up on the offensive line. So how bad was it based on what you saw from the Cleveland game? Well, you know, honestly, right. I think it started with Mayfield to be Frank. And that surprised me a little bit. I don't, I don't know if I've seen a quarterback in any NFL game. Sure. I have one doesn't come've seen a quarterback in any NFL game. I'm sure I have. One doesn't come to mind. It's certainly not one that I think as highly of as Baker Mayfield. I don't know if I've seen a QB so befuddled by what he saw from a defense as Mayfield was. He was absolutely lost with Tennessee. And what the Titans did is they played a lot of zone coverage, pretty traditional zones, cover two and cover three, but they got to them

in very, very untraditional ways. And they also blitzed out of those zone looks, which is highly unusual, especially blitzing out of cover two. You almost never see that. They brought quarterback blitzes out of cover two. And the Browns, quite frankly, they had simply no idea what was going on out there. And it started with Mayfield. He wasn't the only one though. And I wouldn't, I mean, this isn't something I would write an article about at this point, but when I go to the combine or the senior bowl, I visit teams. I usually go in with a list of questions from watching film. And one of the questions I would ask if I got to sit down with someone from the Browns would be, did you guys have a staple set of plays that you could go to when, Hey, we're getting coverage rotations that we're not expecting,

but here are some routes and ideas that we know can beat most zone coverages. Here's what we do when we need to get comfortable. I didn't get the sense they had that. They didn't look like they had a whole lot to fall back on. They were totally out-schemed and out-matched tactically in that game. So is this a long-term deal here? You know, it was awful. I mean, I wonder if you just go, okay, whatever, you know, the excitement week one.

I mean, again, it was Tennessee, but Tennessee never gets enough credit, and I'm the first to admit that I don't give them enough credit. They were physical. I think they kept it really simple. Mario was never that impressive. And look, they obviously don't think Mario is that impressive if they let him do the one-year option and didn't want to do extension because there's, they're still not sure. But if you're Cleveland, I mean, forget the Superbowl and all that kind of

stuff. Is this, does this team still have a chance to be a good team this year? Yeah, I think this stuff is certainly fixable in Tennessee and they'll tie it in a few, uh, some time with the Titans it's off season and to a man that starting secondary, they go out of their way to tell you, hey, you know, we do more coverages than anyone in the NFL. We do a lot. We've counted it out. We have more in our playbook than anybody. They take a lot of pride in that.

That's the Mike Rabel influence, Dean Pease influence, their defensive coordinator, and they're right. They do. That's the most expansive coverage defense in football. So the Browns probably won't see a barrage like that again. They might see it this week, but they have the Jets coming up on Monday night and Greg Williams plays a similar style, not quite as expansive as the Titans, but a lot of cover to disguise it just like Tennessee does. So I don't, it'll be interesting to see. In fact, the more I think about it, right,

I think this will be a telling game already in week two because there was such an obvious blueprint for how to befuddle the Browns last week. They know they're going to get similar stuff this week because that team does it. The Jets do it. How do they look this week? That'll be pretty revealing to me.

Okay, let's talk Pat Steelers. If you were devising a defense, because I mean, look, I've watched this Brady guy his entire career. And, you know, I always think about like, OK, of all the times you say like nothing drives me more crazy than when a guy's on TV being like, you're gonna get pressure right up the middle. You're gonna get in his face until somebody tells me the quarterback that loves pressure coming right up the middle and moves him off of his spot. That does well with that. Then I'll think that that's actually a unique thing. I mean, no quarterback likes that. It's actually a unique thing i mean no quarterback

likes that it's like a pitcher going you know if you just paint the corners against this guy like well no shit right um what do you do here because like i can really expand all this stuff i guess what i'm doing before we talk about how the steelers and tomlin's predictability against brady what would you devise like if you had to i mean if anybody was actually good at stopping brady we wouldn't be in a podcast right now but what would you devise if you had to? I mean, if anybody was actually good at stopping Brady, we wouldn't be in a podcast right now. But what would you say you would think, like, hey, these are the things you have to do, these are the things you can't do when you're going up against Brady?

Well, obviously it's going to depend on your personnel a little bit, but I would not blitz Tom Brady because so much of his reads come before the snap, which gets to getting the ball out quickly. That's how he's able to do that. The teams that have rushed three and dropped eight into coverage have had, I think, the best fighter's chance against Tom Brady. It's a good answer for some of the empty formations that New England does because if Brady's getting the ball out,

he hurts when he gets the ball out quickly. Now, we say that, but I also remember back in 2017, Brady's season was really built on downfield passing by extending plays from within the pocket so it's not like there's one idea maybe you just get to that at work but you need to be physical with new england's receivers because it's a timing offense a lot of those routes are intertwined together so jam one route throw it off schedule, and you can throw all three routes, for example, off their schedule, physical press coverage, and then extra bodies back into coverage. But again, it gets into your personnel a little bit. And what's tough, this gets lost, but New England is one of the best running teams in the NFL. And they'll just condense the formation and pound the ball right down your throat. We saw that at the end of the season last year.

I don't know if I, I don't know how you stop this offense. You see, that's the first thing you said that obviously I know you know yourself, but me being minimally, I guess the way to say it, I understand there's still things in film and motion and pre-snap reads that I just don't understand because I didn't play. Okay get those things but i do know that blitzing brady's stupid because if you blitz him he's going to figure it out and now all of these little routes underneath are wide open but what is it about tomlin and their man coverage because i've seen you know baltimore with harbaugh with a really good staff, that playoff win where they came back from 14-zip in 28-14.

They played this soft off coverage on the outside, and Brady's like, all right, fine. You're going to give me these seven-yard gainers on the outside every time? Okay, done. And that's how they got back into that game. I remember that Pittsburgh playoff game a couple years ago with New England against the Steelers, and the Steelers never did anything.

They didn't do anything to change. And I think Collinsworth was hitting on that on the Sunday night broadcast where he goes, if you're just going to sit here and, and play these underneath routes the same way over and over again with these linebackers having to chase these guys, you're toast. So why is it that it seems that Tomlin and the Steelers,

I'm sure their answer would be, Hey, we changed all sorts of things because it just sounds better as a coach, but it seems like they are fairly predictable and it doesn't work despite keeping them down points-wise at the end of the regular season last year. Yeah, and you know, that playoff game you mentioned with Pittsburgh, the 2016 AFC Championship, and I know walking off the field after that game, Tomlin and defensive coordinator Keith Butler had a quick conversation

basically saying yeah we need to play less zone and more man-to-man because these Patriot guys spread out they bring their receivers inside our zones are already set and those receivers face our linebackers and it's end of story so they've made some investments in Pittsburgh and going to man coverage they tried to play it Sunday night that's why they signed Mark Barron from the Rams, a former safety. They drafted Devin Bush. They traded up a lot to go get Bush. They need linebackers who can cover and match up. They did that. Those guys weren't good enough still Sunday night. And one thing is James White's the problem, but when you put Burkhead and White on the field together, basically you need, now you need two linebackers who can match up

unless you're willing to commit a safety on one of those guys. The teams that have had success with James White, and this idea came from Belichick originally in the 2001 Super Bowl against Marshall Falk, jamming him out on the backfield, contacting White any time he leaves the formation, because that's really where he hurts you. They get these mismatches inside. So if you can compromise the timing inside somehow, which is kind of back to what we

just talked about, instead of blitzing Brady, investing guys into jamming his inside receivers. The Rams did that in the Super Bowl this past year. They had a lot of success with it. That's the formula, though. It comes back to, instead of trying to get to Brady, break down the timing around Brady. I'm glad you brought up 16 because that's right. I remember sitting in the studio with some of the guys that used to play and they were like, it was all zone. So I think what happens is, is we fall into this and I'm guilty of this at least Sunday night. I'm like,

wait a minute. That's right. And I'm glad you brought that up because it was zone and they were trying more man on Sunday and that didn't work. I mean,, wait a minute. That's right. And I'm glad you brought that up because it was zone and they were trying more man on Sunday and that didn't work. I mean, in that game in 16, Brady was 32 of 42 for 384, three touchdowns, no picks. Sacked only twice. My favorite stat

and behind the scenes stories running into Teddy Bruschi before that game. And I'm like, what do you think? And I don't think Bruschi's ever picked against the Pats, first of all. But he goes, you know,

it'll be interesting how they control Le'Veon Bell. I go, one of the things I always thought was interesting was how a Belichick defense plays against running quarterbacks where it's all contained in Le'Veon. And Teddy's sitting there, and he's grabbing my arms and showing me what we do is we hold the blocks up and we wait, and we want Le'Veon to get stopped line of scrimmage one two maybe even three yard gainers but that's it and that Bill would tell us never get up field

like if we were to stop he goes say I got outside and tackled Le'Veon Bell for a loss at like three or four yards great play but that's bad conceptually that's bad what we're trying to do and Le'Veon Bell in that game had six carries for 20 yards. Okay. So on top of all those other things here, and I did touch on Antonio Brown a little bit earlier, if he ends up playing for this team this season and he's at practice as of the taping of this podcast, what does that add to what already looked like a scary offense on Sunday?

Well, it gives them an answer outside. So we've just kind of talked and said, well, your only chance against the Patriots to take away their inside timing. Well, what happens when they have Josh Gordon and Antonio Brown outside? Guys that can really win one-on-one. In fact, they're so dangerous, you probably need to roll safeties over the top of them or linebackers underneath them, which means now you're not really taking away the inside because those defenders are going over there to help. So just the embarrassment of riches.

What else I like about it, Ryan, we're just talking football. Antonio Brown's personality is a separate conversation, but stylistically, Gordon's the X receiver, the big body up on the line of scrimmage, downfield vertical threat, big tall guy. Brown can be the Z receiver. He's been more of an X throughout his career, but Z, think of the movable guy coming across the formation, kind of like what Larry Fitzgerald has done over the years

and recent years with Arizona. And of course, Edelman's the slot receiver. Stylistically, that's the perfect wide receiving core. Those guys fit together masterfully, and none of them are one-dimensional. They can all line up and do anything, anywhere. Plus, we've got to factor back in those running backs. So Brown is a big tipping point for them. Well, tipping point's the wrong term, because I guess if they don't have them,

it's not like they're still the best team in the AFC. Yeah, you're right. I mean, that's what we saw and they they just find a way I mean here's a here's an offense that's been rolling with tight ends and always investing in tight ends and two of the guys are probably at the top of the depth chart aren't even available for him right now the other guy retired and they go okay fine we'll just we'll just do something else every year I still can't believe that they're this rarity that is able to change who they are as quickly as they do and it's just simple hey on tuesday all right what are they bad at okay let's attack that i don't understand why more teams can't do that or maybe it's just that's part of the whole process for the patriots and that they have

smart enough players that they trust them to change who they are, whether it's on offense or defense, every single week. And it just feels like other guys bring in systems. I mean, we're talking about pro NFL head coaches that aren't, I don't want to say aren't smart enough because plenty of these guys are really smart, Andy, but I don't know why it continues to be such this unique thing where New England can adapt to whatever the opponent is. Ed, I had one coach this offseason tell me, we were talking about some of the free agent page signs. Yeah, well, you know, the big thing around the league

is everyone's looking at talent, and the Patriots, they say, all right, well, you dumbasses can go look at talent. Just give us smart guys, and we'll scheme with them. And they go out of their way to prioritize player intelligence. And a lot of times those guys are not the most talented. So you get them at a better rate. You get them at a better bargain. The other story I heard, somebody said to one of the Patriot coaches, well, boy, you

do so many different things. Like you just said, Ryan, especially defensively. And the coach said, well, you should see our practices during the week. It looks awful. We do not look anything like a Super Bowl team, but we trust that by Friday, once we've done it a few times through, because we have these smart guys, we'll be just good enough at it. And when you watch them, especially just get into their defense a little bit,

when they do stuff that they don't normally do, like in the Super Bowl against the Rams, where they started playing quarters coverage instead of their straight man-to-man that they played much of this season, they weren't particularly buttoned up in it. They weren't totally refined. You could tell that's not something they do often,

but they were just good enough, and the looks are just blurry enough, and they believe that, hey, we can get away with this until you punish us for doing that. We're going to get away with this, and we can be someone we're not because you're not going to be prepared for that. More film breakdown with Andy here in a second, but here's an insider travel secret from Hotel

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All right, let's do something different here. Let's go back to last Thursday. I'm not surprised the Bears struggled on offense. Maybe I'm a little surprised they were so one-dimensional. And I know when you look back at Green Bay's, some of the analytics for them defensively, they were pretty bad. A lot of teams had injuries. They had about as many as anybody. But then you look at Zedaria Smith, Alexander outside. What do we make of this Packers defense week one that always feels

like it's something that Aaron Rodgers, for the most part, has to carry every year? Yeah, it was really interesting. Mike Pettin's in year two as their defensive coordinator there in Green Bay. And something, what he believes in, they don't do a lot, and Pettin comes from the Rex Ryan school. And that philosophy, they don't do a lot of different things schematically, but they do things with a lot of different things schematically, but they do things with a lot of different players. So we run the same blitzes, but different guys will be in different spots executing those blitzes. And to a quarterback, it creates this illusion of complexity. You think you're seeing more than you really are. You start thinking differently. The other thing is

they put extra defensive backs on the field. And usually those guys, and it wasn't the case so much on Thursday night, but it will be moving forward, and we did see it with some of their safeties, those defensive backs become the blisters. Those are faster pass rushers than what QBs are used to seeing. DBs are fast, and Amos off the edge, and then especially Darnell Savage, your first-round rookie safety, they were blitzing, and that was a big factor in the game. And you can really disguise well when you do that, because those guys can

look like they're up in man coverage before they come on the blitz. And just about everything Green Bay does behind this, it's not pure man-to-man, but it plays out like man-to-man. So it can look like zone, but you're basically playing a man-to-man defense. And that's why they're always drafting quarterbacks. Kevin King, second round, 2017. Jari Alexander, you mentioned, first round last year. They're always investing at these positions in the secondary because that's how they want to play. Everything is based on expectations, movies, relationships,

and even quarterbacks sometimes. And Gardner Minshew is a dude that almost was going to be a third stringer at Alabama had he transferred there. He ends up at Washington State. If you watched him throughout the year, he was impressive. but it's always kind of hard sometimes and you go, okay, yeah, but it's Leach's system. The physical part of it wasn't great. I mean, this is why the guy goes in the sixth round, but I just think there's something about the evaluation that no one, I don't care who you are, can ever really feel 100% about until you see a guy out there

with the live bodies flying around. And Minshew looked insanely calm. And you could even tell, I think, a little, Andy, as you pointed out, the comfort level the coaches had as the play calling evolved. I know they lost the game. This is not a Jags-specific podcast,

but what did you like and how rare is that perhaps to see that in that situation for a guy to come in and look that comfortable? Yeah, it was very impressive because John DeFilippo, their offensive coordinator, I might guess that he didn't completely know what he had in Minshew because it was a high school-looking offense the first few plays, very basic concept, which is good coaching. That's what you want to do to get them comfortable. And I think he marched them down for a field goal drive and is like, okay,

we're going to run the offense now. And most young QBs, their issue, especially when they get early to the NFL, if they play too fast, they want to get out of the pocket before they need to. They move in the pocket needlessly. That was another Jags QB, Blaine Gabbert, years ago. That was his downfall. He would get so antsy about the pass rush that he would anticipate pressure that's not there and basically move and stack himself. So Minshew is the opposite of that. He stays in the pocket. He's calm. Yeah, the arm's not great, but he's able to get through all of his progressions

because he's willing to hang in there, and he just plays with this eerie sense of control and comfort. If anything, Ryan, he needs to get a little bit quicker. One issue that he had was staying on bad reads a little too long, which is not uncommon, and it'll be interesting to see how he does this week, because if he can learn to identify what's not going to be open earlier in the progression, that can be a, you know, they can run that full offense as if it were Nick Foles, no problem. I'm not saying they'll be as good as with foals but they're not going to have to adjust the scheme a whole lot what'd you see from kingsbury in what ended up being and i mentioned on monday with chris long ago that's that's the first tie that felt like a win wow you know i shouldn't say that there's other ties that feel like it but one team is clearly more happy just

spit it out rossillo a. Arizona ends up tying that game against Detroit, and Kyler looked terrible for most of the game. And then he figured some things out. So what did you see? Well, when they went into comeback mode, they're down 18 in the fourth quarter. Your playbook inherently shrinks. You're not thinking about integrating your run and pass

game. You're not setting up plays anymore because now you're late into the second half. And they went to a lot of basic three-by-one formations. Your receivers tended to stay in the same spot. Detroit was matching up the same way, snap after snap. And why wouldn't they be? They'd been dominating Arizona all game. So the game inherently got simpler for Murray. The game got a little bit faster in the tempo. They're getting up to the line of scrimmage, and it became more about just playing rather than probably thinking, and here's what we're trying to execute. Now, you're not going to be able to do that every single week, but that got Murray very comfortable.

It was very apparent. The really interesting thing to me, Ryan, that stood out there is Tyler Murray. He could not run away from people in that game. He, Detroit was fast on defense and Murray, you would never have guessed was a, I mean, he, you can tell he's mobile because he's still a good, fast, quick runner, but you would never guess that he was that same guy we saw at Oklahoma. And yet they still were able to come back because Murray's willing to play from within the pocket. He sees the field pretty well. That'll be really interesting to me to see that development there. Murray as a passer first and a runner second. And we have to consider,

his mobility might not translate to the NFL the way we expect. Well, it shouldn't because, you know, if you're expecting to break off these crazy long runs, I mean, he was next to Lamar, but in a way, Kyler had this gear that he got to quicker than Lamar did. Lamar just was not only quick twitch and all this,

but he would make you miss in ways that were just embarrassing. Stuff at the goal line. But Kyler, you get him out there, he was gone, but I'd imagine you don't really want him doing that maybe after this year. So I don't know what they're going to do with that. But I do know this, and I've said this all the time, and it's true. NFL fans can be absolute jerks about anything new and it's this this thing like whenever i run into a guy like i love both i

like college more but that's more of an atmosphere culture smaller city thing where i go you know there's this connection with a city these smaller cities with the university where you to, where you actually feel like you represent it and buy a hat. And you're like, yeah, I went here in the 90s, 70s, whatever. That's just a little different than a connection to a pro team. It's not necessarily better. It's just different. And that's why I always like it. But whenever we have a Kingsbury coming in or obviously going back to Chip Kelly and stuff, who everybody wants to laugh at continuously. It's this protective idea that none of this stuff will ever work.

And it's like this NFL fan base is waiting around on Sunday rooting for Kingsbury to fail. And I think that's a real thing. And look, it doesn't mean that they're always wrong. It just is oddly protective slash defensive. Yeah. And I mean, some people say, well, he failed upwards. Whatever, you know know he gets a

promotion after he didn't succeed in college i don't look at it quite that way what he's going to you know and it's not the wheel's not getting reinvented by any of these guys the way that we want to believe and all these ideas they have often come from somewhere the main difference with kingsbury's offense so far that we can see, I think you'll see more four wide receiver set, which we could discuss if that's even a difference. Because Arizona, if they had a flexible Evan Ingram type tight end on the roster, they'd probably go three wide with one tight end. So four wide receivers, they'll still run the ball out of that. I'm sure we'll see some other things, but it's never as extreme as you think when it comes to schematic changes and evolution like that. Okay. I want to go rapid fire with you here. You're not prepared for these. So I'm going to put you on the spot. I hope you're ready. Well, you're not really,

I hope you're ready to do it now, but I didn't tell you what these were ahead of time. Okay. Ready? I am ready. I know as a prep guy, you're like, this is going to suck. Cause I don't think you saw this tape yet. I don't run a two minute offense i know i know you don't you slow deliberate replays uh minnesota 28 12 i don't think you actually were able to break this film down which is fine but matt ryan sacked four times they ran it i think if you take out Ryan's 24 yards, I'm doing the math here real quick, 49, that's 15 for 49 yards. And they just put one of their guards on IR, not necessarily for this season, but how real is the Atlanta O-line issue long-term? That's real enough.

They drafted two guys in the first round, Caleb McGarry later in the first round, and then the guy that went on IR is Chris Lindstrom. So they felt they needed to invest significantly at that position. And McGarry has been out with a heart issue. He's back now, but Lindstrom's the guy who's gone. That's a, that's a problem there. The other thing, and I am not at all saying that this was the issue because you're right. I won't see this film till Saturday probably, but Dirk Cutter, their new offensive coordinator, he's not an outside zone running coach that's not been his foundation before and that is Atlanta's foundation now Cutter is a smart coach he's been around he's been around this team before I'm sure they'll adjust and find

the happy medium but this could be a run game that's having to evolve early in the season and I think they and Matt Ryan at this point probably is the kind of QB who, I don't know if he's dependent on the run game, but you certainly get the, he's a very different QB when you're a complete offense versus a one-dimensional offense. Is Flacco shot? If we, if you allow me to take off 20% of the harshness of the wording of the question and just scale it back a little, my answer might be yes. What concerns me in Baltimore, it wasn't just, he hasn't been the same pocket presence guy in the last few years. My guess is that might be injuries that have

piled up one way or the other, but I don't think he reached the field with the same clarity either. And there were cases of that against Oakland. And Oakland, you know, not that they're predictable, but they have a very clear identity. You know what, you're going to be too deep zone coverage in one variation or another

a lot of the time. I didn't think Flacco read the field particularly quickly in some scenarios there. Okay, that was a harsh word. And, you know, I understand. Give me something that you're already worried about, though.

We've gone over a bunch of this stuff. Let's hit on one more thing that you saw from the film this week where you go, you may not write an article on it, you may not even believe it yet, but you are worried about it. It'll be something you'll be checking on in week two. Well, what will defense – here's what's happening around the league, I think. And you're right, I'm not going to write an article about this yet. I think everyone's starting to copy the Rams offensively.

And I thought that would happen a year ago. And it really, it didn't, which surprised me. We're seeing it now. The main thing you're seeing is just in the way teams line up. All these wide receivers are now tight receivers. They're coming in closer to the formation.

Everyone's crowding the middle of the field. So I guess I worry from the defensive standpoint, what does that mean? Because I think that's a hard thing to deal with defensively and offenses are going to be a step ahead there. Now they're not going to do it as well as the Rams because you have to also coach it and teach it and execute the plays after you line up that way. But even storied offenses that have had a lot of success, New England, for example, that we're seeing them line up in these condensed formations a lot more. When you do that, there's a lot of benefits. But long story short, all your wide receivers have a two-way go. The sideline

does not inhibit you if you're in the middle of the field. So effectively, you're creating more field that must be defended. The other team that did it, I thought they had the best looking offense in week one schematically, and maybe even last year was Kansas City. So two of the teams that were in the top four in scoring, the two top AFC teams in scoring last year, both are doing new things schematically because that's how potent this tight formation can be.

Okay, final thought, Andy, you can go ahead here and just touch on something that we haven't touched on yet. Your choice. I was really intrigued with the way that Sean Watson played at New Orleans. And the comeback drive, or I guess it would have been a comeback drive, there would be comeback drive was one thing. But throughout the game, the totality of it,

he was a passer first and a runner second. And he showed signs of that as a rookie. I think every QB, no matter how mobile you are, you have to be that way in the NFL. And he showed signs of that in his first season. He didn't really build on it in year two. Lack of trust in the offensive line was the issue. Also, he's coming off a knee injury. So I don't know if he was completely comfortable hanging in the pocket in year two, but he was more than willing to do that so far in the start of year three. So what will be interesting, Ryan, if their O-line struggles as much as it did, and I don't think it will.

Ernie Tunsell's an outstanding left tackle, but you've still got four other guys that have to block. Let's say they do struggle a little bit or close as much as they did last year. Can Watson maintain his pocket poise? Because that's really the safest way to play still. Even if your own line's bad, hanging within the pocket's the best way to keep yourself safe. Breaking down and moving or extending plays without a plan, that's not going to keep you safe. And Watson had issues with that last year. So how well is he reading the

field? How calmly is he playing within the pocket. So far, I was really, really impressed with that against New Orleans. Awesome stuff. You can check out all of his work on SI.com, constantly updating you with his film breakdowns, and you can check him out on Twitter at Andy underscore Benoit.

Thanks, man. Yeah, you got it. Thank you, Ryan. So, today is 9-11. And like almost every one of you listening that are old enough to remember exactly where you are, I always think about it. I was 26. I had just bartended the night before, which meant I was likely sleeping in because I stayed up really late. Because I used to walk home uh

sometimes I'd walk home with like the the register of bag money on me that was always weird like nothing ever happened but you know it's probably not the smartest thing to consistently be walking around at three in the morning although whatever I like I was just I was such an idiot back then that I wouldn't even think about having it wasn't my money by the way either it was uh I was I was such an idiot back then that I wouldn't even think about having. It wasn't my money, by the way, either. I was generally pretty much week-to-week guy. So I'd go home. Maybe I'd eat a sub.

I'd play Madden four or so in the morning. And then I'd probably sleep into 11, sometimes later, depending. And so sometimes, too, this is before I think I had a regular cell phone. I'd had a cell phone before that I got disconnected and then I wasn't eligible to get one again for a little while. Uh, again, that was on me, but I remember getting a call cause sometimes I'd unplug my house phone and I hadn't, and I got a call and I just let it go to voicemail. Again, those are answering machines back then. And I had a buddy named Johnny who calls and goes, Hey, I know you're probably sleeping, but wake up, wake up, like get up right now. And I like, you know, run over, jump out of my loft and answer the phone. I'm like, what the hell's going on? What's what's wrong? He goes, dude, we're like getting attacked right now. Put on the news. Like, what are you doing? I throw on the news and I see everything happening. And the first thing I thought about was, you know, so many of my friends had just graduated school a couple of years prior and every one of them, you know, trying to figure out how to, how to get to them, but you can't get any

calls through to New York city. And then, you know, guys are emailing each other that are outside of New York city going, Hey, does anybody know anything? And hey, we knew this guy was away or, you know, this guy was traveling. I haven't heard from here. And, you know, like a lot of you that had friends in New York City, I mean, half the kids that I went to school with were from Fairfield County or, you know, lower New York City area. You know, parents worked in finance or whatever.

So it was always kind of scary. There was even a rumor once um post that it wasn't the day of but it was a few days later that one of our friends actually had died which was ridiculous because there was some young kids that were still in school that kind of knew everybody and they were like hey did you hear so and so died in one of the towers and i was like oh man that sucks and then i think i thought he was dead for months. And then somebody was like, wait a minute. And I brought it up. They're like, are you kidding me?

I golfed with him last week. So anyway, that was this really uncertain thing because the world still was moving a lot slower back then. But the thing that I'll always forget and really regret, and I'm saying this now as a 44-year-old guy, and maybe this won't mean anything. And maybe it'll even seem, I don't know. And maybe it just sounds like I'm trying to tell the story, but I was dating a girl who was far more mature than me and definitely deserve better. And I was a really unhappy kid because I expected so much of myself. And so I was kind of this combination of like arrogance and jerk. And yet deep down, I knew I was nothing. So I was probably being defensive in an insecure way where I was like, I'm going to put on this facade of, you know, trying to be tough and, you know, be a, be a guy's guy. And I know that I'm still kind of like the guy's guy. I think that I'm a tad more secure than I was at 26. was at 26. And this thing happens and she's a school teacher and she's a sweetheart of a person and, you know, she's calling me and she's like, I'm really upset. And I'm like, okay, you know,

that's fine. And I'm kind of wondering like why she's so upset. She didn't have any friends in New York. She just was upset. Okay. Because it was a weird thing to see. Like you grow up your whole life and we think about all of this military stuff that happens, but it just doesn't happen here, really. It just doesn't. And then it did in a different way than maybe we're used to in a way that doesn't really ever happen. So I was scheduled to bartend that night. And later that day, she was still very upset. And she asked me to take the night off and spend the night at her house. And this is somebody who had lost her father when she was younger. And I didn't get it. I didn't get it.

I just thought, why would I take the night off? They're not going to invade Vermont. This doesn't make any sense to me. And I remember talking to one of my younger buddies, and I'm kind of like being that idiot 26-year-old where I'm going, hey, she wanted me to take the night off tonight. And then he's like, really? And I go, yeah. in my 20s is that you take the night off and you give up the 150 bucks in tips and you go and you give your girlfriend a hug and you stay there with her if she's upset. And that's what being a man is, not being a tough guy and saying, that's stupid. I'm not doing that.

It's going and doing something that maybe you don't understand, but realizing it's going to make the other person feel better. And I'm sure actually some of you guys are listening to me like, hey, I do. Thanks a lot for the tip, Dr. Phil, but we already figured that one out. But I'm just telling you back then, I wasn't even close to having it figured out. And it's not remotely important as far as anything that happened that day, but it's something that I'll always remember and I'll always feel bad about it on top of all the other things that were just atrocious that day. So I'm not trying to compare the two. I'm not putting this in, but it's just something I hope you guys understand why I told that story,

because I'm always trying to help out the younger dudes out there. All right. I got very serious, but today was a serious day as well. Hotel Tonight shows you incredible deals at cool hotels you'll actually want to stay at. Score an extra amazing deal with Hotel Tonight's Daily Drop feature. Unlock a special deal or hotel selected just for you and snag it within 15 minutes. If you want to swipe again, you can unlock a new deal every day. Go to hoteltonight.com or download the app to unlock your Daily Drop. Friday, Trent Dilfer, the Ryan Rosillo podcast, right here on The Ringer. Subscribe, rate, and review. Talk to you Friday. Thank you.