September 17, 2025 • 37 mins
Doug reacts to comments made by the Bengals Offensive Coordinator about protecting Joe Burrow in the scheme as Doug thinks the Bengals failed Burrow. Doug welcomes NFL Analyst Daniel Jeremiah onto the show to talk about the Chargers, Caleb Williams and the other major headlines around the NFL. Plus, Dan Beyer takes Doug through a game of "For Better or Worse?".
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Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:01):
Thanks for listening to The Doug Gottlieb Show podcast. Be
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Fox Sports Radio. I hope you're having a great day.
(00:30):
The Doug Gottlieb Show broadcast live every single day from
two places, sunny southern California and sunny beautiful, absolutely stunning,
Green Bay, Wisconsin. Eh, welcome in. So. Uh, there's a
lot of I don't want to if say, little stories,
(00:52):
but interesting stories. You know, we run into this on
many Wednesdays here right where you know, Monday is like
kind of story overload. Right, we had week two Tuesdays.
Generally we get to college football some on Tuesdays. Uh,
but because there was two Monday night football games, because
the Tom Brady story, it felt like Tuesdays were more
(01:15):
kind of NFL focused. Wednesdays kind of the lull day. Right,
you got Thursday night football, you get baseball. I did
find myself watching some w NBA playoffs a little bit
as I got stuck on on watching Indiana. Part of
it is stylistically offensively, they kind of play the way
I'm trying to get my team to play. So there
(01:36):
there's some interesting stuff there, right. I know that Dan
I mean assumed me that Jay Stu has his feelings
about his Dodgers and as Dodgers' bullpen for the second
night in a row. But I thought the topic of
Joe Burrow was an interesting one and I'd love Dan
and Jay your your input a little bit. I'll give
you my thoughts and the the the question is always
(01:58):
with the Bengals' so focused on building for Joe Burrow
with skill position players that they didn't build well enough
with the offensive line, They not do enough with scheme
and with personnel to protect him. Dan Pitcher is their
offensive coordinator with the Bengals. He said, quote, we have
(02:19):
special skill players. This is what he said to the
Cincinnati Enquirer. We want to accentuate those skilled players. We
want to try and do things. How do we accentuate
their skill set? How do we do it in a
way in which we're limiting the amount of the times that
Joe's potentially gonna get hit. There's no one decision that
solves it. Everything costs something. So we constantly think about
(02:40):
these things, and again, I hate that we're in the
spot that we're in. You always evaluate and reevaluate and
do it over and over again, but we can only
make the decisions in the moment that give us a
chance to win. So, you know, this is the old Hey,
skill position players, we'd like to get you paid, but
(03:02):
if we pay all of you, we don't have the
money left over. We don't have the money left over
to build a top level offensive line. Now, if you
look back three years or so ago, right that year
or how many was it four years ago that they
went to the Super Bowl, that was a year in
which that this coaching staff, front office called in the
question and they rebuilt the offensive line. And I kind
(03:23):
of told people they did, but it wasn't a good
enough answer for people. And then you know, they started
slow and end up closing hot and getting to a
super Bowl. They went back and got to an AFC
Championship game. And only now it's like a reoccurring theme
that Joe Burrow is getting hit so much, he's the
new Andrew Luck. I would tell you this that I
(03:48):
don't know enough about what they did financially, what they
did with their offensive line. I know that we have
a tendency to over react some because it's a turf
toe injury. And there was also the video against the
Cincinnati Bengals where he just got obliterated as he released
(04:08):
the football, and that one's a hard, a jarring one,
hard one to get out of your brain when you're
thinking about Joe Burrow and then you think about the
injuries and now they've stacked up over the years and
how many injuries he's had, and you're like, man, this
guy's always hurt. But I think there's there's three different factors. One,
there's the ownership of Joe Burrow holds the ball a
(04:29):
long time, that's his style. He's he's got some Ben
Roethlisberger to him where he has brass brass cajones and
he'll stand in there and take a hit because he
wants to deliver the football. So some of that is
your quarterback holds the ball a little bit longer. Some
of it is probably in their scheme. How is it
that he's getting hit that much? And you're talking about
(04:52):
accentuating the positives, right, You're putting guys out into routes
and not leaving enough guys in to have max protect.
And maybe that's also the bravado of Joe Burrow, like
I don't care, just get get guys open. I'll find
it open. I don't care if I get hit now
and again, even though those hits seem to be crushing
in terms of the ferocity of blows. But the last
(05:15):
part is probably the most important thing, which is how
you're building a team. You're gonna have to sacrifice something something,
especially when you have either a salary cap or limitations
on funds. And I can draw the direct parallel to
(05:36):
my team to college football teams to college basketball teams
because they're dealing with Hey, at some point, we just
don't have any money, so you gotta be judicious with it.
I said this about Alabama football, right, Alabama football, Like
they're starting quarterback. He's played well since you know, playing
(05:57):
okay against Florida State. He was under a lot of
pressure against floor STATEE. But my guess is they didn't
go out and pay a couple million dollars. You had
a guy in house it's his third year. He's super
happy to be the quarterback at Alabama. I don't think
he's making a million dollars now, he's probably making I
don't know, five hundred seven fifty or whatever. And then
(06:18):
they'll keep as if he's good enough, they'll keep in
to stay. And he wants to be there, wants to
be the quarterback of the Tide, unless you know he
wants to go elsewhere in cash in. Who knows if
he can cash in. But you do that because you know,
if you have let's say conservatively Alabama has twenty million dollars,
if you spend five million dollars in a quarterback, well
there's going to be a shortfall somewhere. Our scale is different,
(06:41):
but there's going to be a short fall somewhere. Talk
about this in the NBA. How the NBA has gone
from three stars to two stars, because if you have
three stars, you can't really have a team around him.
If you have two stars, you can do pretty well.
If you have one start, you can have an ensemble cast,
which is really, really, really good. But you got to
manage those salaries. NFL's no different. You have a salary cap.
(07:03):
There's a limit to what you can spend, and if
you spend more money than anybody on a wide receiver,
you spend a ton of money on a quarterback, you
spend a lot of money on a secondary wide receiver.
You spend a ton of money even for a one
year deal on on your best pass rusher. Something's got
to give, and there's things that you can go cheap on.
You could even use the home building analogy. Right, you're
(07:27):
on a budget. You know you're going to go over
that budget, but how much you're gonna go over that budget?
You know? With flooring, Like there's a floor that I
put into a couple of different houses and it's man made,
like man made wood, Like how's it man made? Would
I don't know, I don't know how it works, but
I know that generally you go back fifteen years ago
(07:49):
and I never would have either bought a house or
in a house put in anything other than traditional hardwood floors.
But one kind of like the field too, like how
it how much it costs, and I like how it looks.
But when am I giving up? I'm giving up saying
(08:09):
these are hard real hardwood floors. Something's got to give.
You get a budget on you're redoing your kitchen, you know,
do you use courts for countertops? Do you use marble
for contrabs? Marble is great, it's really expensive and make
that much difference in the courts because if you do,
then all right, what is something's got to give? Right?
(08:30):
How big is the hood on the on the at
the stove and what level of appliance you use? You
only have a set budget, and that's where the Bengals are.
Bengals forever been told that they're cheap, and maybe they
have been on some ancillary things, but they've paid their players,
especially their star players, to stay. They like to keep
(08:50):
their own But in terms of building an offensive line
and building a system that protects their most prized asset,
it seems like they failed. But there's also some accountability
there for Joe Burrow. And my guess is that the
reason that there's a shortfall there is because they spent
money not just on elite wide receiver, but the secondary
(09:13):
wide receiver and something's got to give. Dan, what do
you think?
Speaker 2 (09:17):
Gosh, it's such an interesting situation because I think a
lot of what you said is true, and I think
that there's some faults that you laid out correctly on
Joe Burrow of maybe holding the football a little too long.
I think Doug that everything that we would say about
Joe Burrow is what we would say about the Bengals
front office. It's what we say about Zach Taylor. The
(09:39):
team has tried to address their offensive line, used a
first round pick on a tackle in twenty twenty four.
A couple of years ago, they signed to Orlando Brown.
He was one of the top free agents at that point,
Brown manning the left tackle spot, so it's not like
they were completely negligent about it. However, for some reason,
the players aren't developing. They're in here. Your line continues
(10:01):
to be weak. Zach Taylor continues to be criticized. No
matter how good the offense is, it's still about protecting Burrow,
doing things that could maybe make the defense react in
a certain way that could allow him time. There's blame
to go all around, but I think at the surface,
when you just invest the amount of money, specifically with
(10:23):
t Higgins because he had thought to be on the
move for so long, there's just no way to get
out from under it. And it's also why your team
has to score thirty eight points a game because you
don't even have the resources to build a solid defense,
let alone an offensive line to protect Joe Burrow. So
it is. It is a the Bengals made the move
(10:44):
that we all thought, I think were the easiest move,
and sometimes those easiest moves aren't the right moves.
Speaker 1 (10:50):
That's totally fair. And then you get to the whole
discussion about how how the NFL protects quarterbacks. You know,
we will do this every year, and I'm sure it'll
happen this year. I don't recall it happening yet where
there's a really really soft personal foul call for roughing
the passer and you know everyone that's not football. He
(11:13):
not even hurt. Okay, but I don't think in the moment,
we're considering how big a drop off it is, how
big a buzz kill it is when you lose these
starting quarterbacks. It's like, do you want guys to be
called for these little penalties? And you know it's real
(11:35):
when they slide, you gotta let up and you can't
hit him in the head with your hand, even when
you're trying to deflect the football and your hand naturally
comes down. I get it, But the flip side to
it is flip side to it is when those guys
do get hit in the head and get concussed, it
becomes a house of cards. Very few teams can afford
(11:56):
a backup quarterback. The backup quarterback generally hurts the quality
of play, the watchability of a game. And yeah, we're
all kind of beholden to these starting quarterbacks. Teams are
as well, and that's why the game is probably overficiated
as such.
Speaker 2 (12:13):
You know, Doug in their Super Bowl run. We look
at Joe Burrow and the contract that that he was on,
and Jamar Chase Ye in the rookie deal that he
was on, and the same thing with t Higgins. You
also had a secondary there was thought to be one
of the best, if not the best, in the NFL
at that time, and nobody's left. Everybody is gone for
(12:36):
one reason or another. Like you know, Jesse Bates left
the Goat to Atlanta, got paid there. But this is
the that's the trickle down effect of these contracts as well.
It's the same thing as a Seahawks fan that you
had to make a decision on and I thought John
Schneider did a great job in getting guys on lesser
deals than others, but there are decisions that you have
to make and sometimes it just kind of starts to
(12:59):
trickle down. And I think that's what we're seeing here
with the Bengals. Like their secondary in that Super Bowl
year was magnificent. They had a lot of pieces on defense.
Now most of those pieces are gone, let alone the
problems with the offensive line protecting Joe Burrow, which has
been an issue throughout his career.
Speaker 3 (13:16):
Be sure to catch the live edition of The Doug
Gottlieb Show weekdays at three pm Eastern noon Pacific on
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Speaker 1 (13:27):
I want to talk about this quote and have a
true discussion about it. Tua and the Dolphins obviously struggling,
they take on the Buffalo Bills. Now again, they've played
Buffalo at various times of the year. If there's a
time of year where he can be successful in Orchard Park,
this is the time. By the way, He's going to
(13:48):
have the pressure of playing in front of Dan Byer
and Jason Stewart, Right, that's a lot of pressure for
a young.
Speaker 2 (13:55):
Que big time pressure. Yes, a lot of.
Speaker 1 (13:57):
Pressure are thanks by the way to the Buffalo Bills.
They listened to the show. They came through with the
tickets for the guys. I believe that Jason Stewart has
committed to jumping off of a chair or a platform
onto one of those tables for Bill's Mafia. Jason, can
(14:18):
you confirm or deny?
Speaker 2 (14:20):
I can neither confirm nor deny. Okay, depends on the
how much beer I drink?
Speaker 1 (14:28):
Is beer is excessive amounts of beer, copious amounts of
beer in the pregame, in the pregame itinerary Dan bar
because I know Dan Bier is a big itinerary guy.
Speaker 2 (14:40):
Well, here's the good thing. I can drive, and since
I don't drink, Jason has carte blanche to do what
he needs to do so we can get there. We
land tomorrow at like eleven am local time, so maybe
we'll get a good nap in quick before the game.
Speaker 1 (14:56):
You guys doing Red Eye? Yes, red Eye to where Chicago?
Speaker 2 (15:00):
Yeah, Chicago to then Buffalo, so we will. We will
get a little pregame nap. Game doesn't kick off till
eight fifteen Eastern, so that gives us a little time.
So we'll have plenty of time. But I can be
the d D designated driver if Jason wants to go
all out on Thursday night.
Speaker 1 (15:21):
You know the thing you've and I've only been to
Buffalo once in my life is during the NCAA tournament.
Probably we won both NCAA Tournament games there, and so
we proceeded to drink Canadian beer. And you know what's interesting,
there's a reason that nobody goes like when you go
to I get a beer, like, hey, do you have
anything Canadian? They just don't. Canadian whiskey, baby, Canadian beer,
(15:42):
not so much Mexican beer. Yes, Canadian beer, yeah no,
yeah no.
Speaker 2 (15:51):
And I'm only doing carry on, So I don't know
how much I could bring back on Buffalo or Canadian things.
Speaker 1 (15:56):
Yeah, well, let's up. Let's do this. Let me bring
in Daniel Jeremiah NFL analysts. Of course, he's the color
voice color analyst for the LA Chargers radio network. To
see him on the NFL network as well. DJ, I'm
gonna play something for you. This is too a tongue
of Bayelo. I believe it was earlier today and he
(16:16):
said this about comparing himself to Josh Allen.
Speaker 4 (16:20):
Dude, he's he's top tier, you know, if it's not
with his arm it's with his legs. You know, that
dude can do nearly anything he wants, So definitely different
skill set for me. I can't do half of what
he does when it comes to running the ball and
any of that. And then with how he can just
chuck a ball down the field, you know, with how
far and the arm strength that he has, you know,
(16:42):
he's supreme when it comes to that.
Speaker 1 (16:44):
Okay, so these are all compliments to Josh Allen. But
what what you will have is people saying, oh, you
can't run like him, you can't throw like him. How
can we possibly consider you a you know, an elite
level or even top level reasonable quarterback if you can't
do half of the things that he can do. What
(17:06):
did you hear when you when you heard that from Tua.
Speaker 5 (17:09):
No, Look, there's the stuff about to it that you
can criticize in terms of, you know, some of the decisions,
or you talk about cold weather, or you can talk
about some of the physical limitations. But like I think
we would all agree too, has always been a first
class kid and now a man. I think he's just
saying nice things about a guy in his division and
(17:31):
acknowledging how gifted and how talented he is, but I
don't think that's you know, he's also humble where he's
not gonna say what his strength is and his his
style of play and his strength is all in processing
and and you know, accuracy and quick decision making when
he's when he's going well, which he hasn't been. When
(17:51):
he's he when he is going really well, that's his strength.
And we've seen numerous times, you know, over the years
where guys who had that strength you go back to,
you know, like Joe Montana's that was his strength, Drew Brees,
that was his strength, and New of those guys were
the most athletic of their era or the biggest or
the strongest of their era, but their you know, their
brand of football could work. So now two is a
(18:13):
much much lower version of that. But I wouldn't read
too much into that. I think he's just a classy
dude who's trying to say some really nice things about
Josh Allen Well.
Speaker 1 (18:21):
Stut Gottlieb Show here on Fox Sports Radio. Okay, now
we have two weeks of tape. How fixable are the
Dolphins problems?
Speaker 5 (18:34):
Well, I mean, I don't know. To me, it's it's
not even just you know, what is it in terms
of player you know, the personnel that you're rolling out
there and those things. It's almost just watching it from
an energy standpoint and a body language standpoint and all
those things, it just isn't. It isn't a great vibe
watching that group right now. So I don't know how
(18:57):
that gets turned around or how that changes. And I
think that's probably where you see some criticism, you know,
coming towards the head coach from that. From that standpoint,
but their offensive line from a physical standpoint is not good.
I don't really think they can run the football like
you need to run the ball to be balanced. I
think in the passing game they still do some good things,
(19:19):
but my biggest takeaways are just the energy, the body language,
the lack of physicality, the struggling offensive line like those
are those are definitely worrisome.
Speaker 1 (19:30):
Yeah, I mean it does not feel like a well,
it feels like the ship is taking on a lot
of water and it's at some point we're going to
declare it's sunk. Right, it just does.
Speaker 5 (19:42):
Yeah, Well, it's not the team you want to be
playing when you're zero and two, and it's not where
you want to be playing them either.
Speaker 1 (19:47):
Nope, nope, let's get to the Chargers one a Monday night.
Khalil Mack looks like a dislocated elbow. I don't know
what the other damage is. First, when you see this
Charger to win both of those games, both away from home,
you know you've seen them for years. Why is this
team different?
Speaker 5 (20:09):
Well, I think they're building off what they were last year,
and you know, let's start first of all, I mean,
the news that just came out on Khalil was, you know,
he's going to go on the short term. I r
so four weeks, but thankfully the season's not over. It's
you know, dislocated elbow. He can brace it up and play.
So you know that was big news, not losing him
for the season because it did not look good live
when it happened. But you know, why is this team different?
(20:31):
I think when you're you know, the foundation was last year,
which was a really good foundation. And let's start defensively.
This team was the number one defense in the NFL
and yards allowed last year, So you come back, they've
gotten some some more personnel to throw into that mix,
with some the defensive line depth with a lot of
size now you can build off of the uh, you know,
(20:52):
off the the baseline that you had last year with
some really really smart players in the back end like
Derwin James and tar Heeb still Lowie Gilman's really really
you know, Elijah Moulden's out right now, but he's another
incredibly intelligent guy. So you've got a stud defensive coordinator.
Enjoy him while you got him, because I can't imagine
Jesse Minner isn't a head coach this time next year.
(21:12):
But you've got that foundation now you're building on that.
You've got incredibly smart team. They're not going to beat themselves.
They're going to make you methodically drive the ball. And
you know, you've seen it already with two good quarterbacks
who get frustrated trying to play that way against them.
And you know, so defensively they're in a great spot
with a lot more depth than they had last year.
(21:33):
And then offensively, you know, you get more weapons for
Justin with Keenan Allen coming in there, Conklin's and upgrade
at the tight end position. You've got two backs who
I would argue were better than what they had last year,
and and bring a physicality to it. Joe Waltz just
taken the left tackle and it's hard for me to
see a better left tackle in the NFL right now
(21:54):
than the way he's playing. So yeah, there's a lot
of things going right. But I think it's a very
smart discipline team. And the smart thing is what I'd
love to get your thoughts on, because I was talking
to one of the coaches before the game and I said, yeah,
I take a chance to visit with all these players,
and I've done this for eight years with this team.
I said, this is the smartest collection of players. That's
going to mean something.
Speaker 1 (22:15):
I think it absolutely does mean something, you know, I
you know, we have some guys that are a little
bit slower learners or whatever. And you know, smart does win.
It's easier to coach, it's easier to retain, you know.
It's just all things are easier. And sometimes they're too smart,
too smart for their own good. But and they're questioning
everything you do. But yeah, I smart, smart definitely wins
(22:38):
in sports, Chiefs Chiefs now they don't have their top
two wide receivers, right, but Kelsey dropping that ball around
the end zone, it it felt like kind of looked
old on that play. It just did. But when they
get Rice back, when they get Worthy back, how good
(23:00):
is this team?
Speaker 5 (23:00):
What does the team look like that I think they're
dangerous once they get those guys back. And one of
the reasons I'll say that is I do think the
left side of their offensive line with Josh Simmons, I
already think he's a really good player in his rookie year,
and I think he's only going to get better as
he plays more and gets more comfortable. Sue Mattia playing
next to him is you know, he's bad at tackle,
(23:23):
but he's been better inside at guard, and I think
you'll see that left side get better as the year
goes along. I think eventually they're going to come to
the realization that, you know, Joan Taylor is not good
enough at right tackle and they're going to have to
get him out of there. But adding those receivers to
the mix will make a big, big difference. You know.
I think this division is very vulnerable and and could
(23:44):
slip out of their drafts for the first time in forever.
But it could be one of those things where this
is a team that you know, they just need to
get into the tournament and have all their guys available.
If they do that, if they make the move that
I think is necessary at right tackle. I think the
defense is very well coached. They've got good pieces there.
It's just going to be as dangerous a team as
anybody if they get into the tournament. I know it
(24:05):
sounds it's a seventeen game season. We're only two games in,
and I'm talking like they don't they aren't going to
win the division, but I think when you've been where
they've been, they're just worried about trying to get at
Lombardi and they need to get into the tournament. And
if they're healthy and get into the tournament, that's still
a very very dangerous team.
Speaker 1 (24:23):
No question about it. Okay, you've seen the Raiders up
close calling the game this week. I just end of
the day. I think sometimes we fall in love with
the Geno story, right because he was so maligned, especially
the early years in New York. He's had this resurgence,
but just he's not in the league quarterback. He's never
been in the league quarterback, and yet we act like
(24:46):
because he's been doing it so long, he should be
better than he is. I thought the turnovers were just
a sign of that's you know, Smith's just okay.
Speaker 5 (24:55):
Yeah, I think there's you know, I think there's a
book that's out there now and you just you know,
not everybody reads it, I guess, but the you know,
if you want to blitz Gino, Gino is incredibly smart,
and Gino is a very gifted thrower. So what happens
when you send extra guys to go get him is
you clear up the picture on the back end, and
(25:16):
he's going to find your vulnerability and he's going to
be able to process it quickly and he's going to
be able to cut you up. And that's what he
did against the Patriots the week before. The Patriots tried
to blitz him, and he destroyed him on the blitz.
The Chargers didn't do that. The Chargers were creative with
some of their four man pressures where they have some
sim pressure where they're dropping guys out and maybe bring
Derwin from depth or maybe bring someone off the nickel.
(25:39):
But they made him have to throw the ball through
the forest, you know, with a lot of bodies back there.
He nicked quite a few branches. There were fifteen path
breakups in that game. So to me, that's kind of
the book on him and how you play him. But
you know, inevitably some coaches, Hey, we're an aggressive team.
We're at blitzing team. This is what we do. Well,
good luck, that's not the it's not the formula against Gino.
Speaker 1 (26:02):
The Bengals, well, we talked about this to start the show.
They have. It's not for lack of trying, right, They've
they've invested resources like draft picks in lineman. But now
in this offseason they put so much of their resources
into their skill positions. How much of this is Joe
Burrow holding the ball too long? How much of this
(26:22):
is the scheme that leaves him unprotected, and how much
of it is hey, they didn't do enough in terms
of giving the offense the resources to protect him.
Speaker 5 (26:33):
Yeah. I would probably start first of all with just
the ye. I mean we could say they've they've they've
put resources there, they've taken some guys high in the draft,
and some of them haven't necessarily panned out. I think
you just have to keep doubling down and going back
until you get that right, and that needs to be
your focus. So I think that's a that's a big
part of the problem. You know, Joe holding the ball.
(26:56):
You know, I see some of that, But me, I
would put it more on the personnel that's in front
of him and just how they chose to invest their dollars.
I get what they were doing in the offseason because
the defense was historically bad last year. You lose all
these games where you're scoring over thirty points, it stands
to reason that, hey, we need to we need to
take some guys on the defensive side of the ball.
(27:18):
But man, it's to me, I'd just much rather err
on the side of having way too many offensive lineman,
way too many good offensive lineman and trying to plug
some holes on the other side than to put him
in jeopardy. And he's proven that he's he's not super durable,
so even all the more reason to double down and
invest even more on that issue.
Speaker 1 (27:40):
Stut Gottlieb Show here on Fox Sports Radio. Okay, let's now,
what do we do with Russell Wilson where he plays
unbelievably well but did have a leg turn up.
Speaker 5 (27:52):
Yeah, I mean, I didn't know that was still in him,
to be honest, And I don't know what that says
about Russ or what that says about the Cowboys. Guys
we'll find out as we go through a few more weeks,
but I think that's you know, for whatever his limitations
have been over the last few years, that's still a
guy who's had a lot of success in this league,
who has a lot of pride, and I think you
(28:13):
absolutely saw his best. So I'm not as optimistic that
that's who he is now and you're going to see
a lot more of that going forward. But at least
he bought himself a little more time here with Jackson
Dart kind of inpenditive his heels. So I'm hopeful for
him and for their team that there's more of that.
I'm just you know, I wouldn't say that I'm confident
(28:35):
we're going to see that. And if you carry that
over to Pittsburgh. You know, we saw Aaron Aaron have
a great week one and it was like he's you know, oh,
it's all there. It's just gonna expect that each and
every week, and then you fast forward a week and
it doesn't quite look the same. So we'll see what
happens with some of these older quarterbacks.
Speaker 1 (28:53):
Update me on Kayla Williams, what's going wrong there?
Speaker 5 (28:57):
Well, actually, you know, and I know a lot of
people have said this this week, but I went back
and went through it again today, just as I wanted to,
you know, just watch it one more time and see
what I'm seeing. I thought for the first first half,
it wasn't just that first drive. The first half of
that game, there was a lot of really good there
where he was playing within the pocket, he was connecting
his feet and his eyes, he was throwing the ball accurately.
(29:18):
There was a lot of good for a decent sample
size there. And then, uh, in the second half, it
just kind of started to get away from him a
little bit, you know where you know, he saw some
kit balls where he couldn't find a throwing lane. You know,
that was that was concerning. He had a couple other
times where there's guys around his feet now keeping them
(29:38):
and they're they're tackle stinkd ug. I mean that's their
offensive tackles are terrible. So he got hit and then
once he got hit, had a lot of bodies around
his feet. Then you started seeing the disconnect between his
eyes and his feet, and the accuracy took took off
on him. But I do get some optimism from that, knowing,
you know, what he looked like for half of that
game and maybe a little bit into that third quarter,
(30:01):
and he didn't his first impulse wasn't just to take off.
He didn't just drop his eyes and look to get
the heck out of there, which he did numerous times
the first week. So yeah, I will say progress, progress made.
You know, still overall not not where it needs to be,
but you know, we'll see if it continues trending in
the right direction.
Speaker 1 (30:19):
He's Daniel Jeremiah. You can catch DJ on the Move
the Sticks podcast. That's the best. Of course, you hear
him called Chargers Games and you see him on the
NFL Network. DJ thanks so much for joining us. Appreciate
you being our guest.
Speaker 5 (30:31):
Thanks Doug.
Speaker 3 (30:31):
Be sure to catch the live edition of The Doug
Gottlieb Show weekdays at three pm Eastern noon Pacific.
Speaker 1 (30:39):
It's the Doug Gottlieb Show. You're listening to Fox Sports Radio.
Why are you not watching us on our YouTube channel?
Just go to YouTube dot com slash at Doug Gottlieb Show.
If you're already within YouTube, just search Doug Gottlieb Show.
Be sure to hit the subscribe button and don't stop there.
Hit the thumbs up icon. Sure and comment away. Let
(30:59):
me know how credible my takes are, and check out
our brand new channel on YouTube. Just search Doug Gottlieb
Show and subscrab. Let's get to a game with Dan Buyer.
Speaker 3 (31:12):
This is game time on the Doug Gottlieb Show.
Speaker 2 (31:20):
All right, Doug, the game today.
Speaker 3 (31:22):
Is for better or worse?
Speaker 1 (31:26):
For better or worse?
Speaker 2 (31:27):
For better or worse? Backup quarterback Tarrod Taylor or Marcus Mariota.
We're gonna see Taylor this week, and there seems to
be a pretty good chance we're gonna see Mariota as well.
For better or worse? Backup quarterback to Rod Taylor or
Marcus Mariota.
Speaker 1 (31:46):
Okay, I know this is gonna annoy Jason Stewart. Okay,
Jason's probably gonna put me on Tomorrow's You're annoying on
the in the Bonus Podcast, But I'm gonna say Tarrod Taylor.
But I'm a context wi it. Okay, Okay, if I
have a whole season, i'd probably hear rather have Mariota.
(32:06):
But in a short hey, I'm just filling in Toarrod Taylor.
Remember Torod Taylor was the one who's the starting quarterback
of the Bills when they broke their I think it
was thirteen season street playoff drought streak. And yes, he
was the quarterback who got what the injection in his
lung or something. Yes, that kept him out of the
opening game, and suddenly Justin Herbert took his spot, which
(32:28):
was inevitability. But he is the consummate backup, unbelievable guy.
He's mobile, he's tough, he can win. What happens is
after a couple of weeks, everybody's got the book on him.
He kind of tops out. But in a short one game,
two games starting, I'd take Torod Taylor over at Marcus Mariota.
Speaker 2 (32:48):
I will also say this that against the Buccaneers on
a short week, things are advantageous for the Jets in
this scenario. I don't think that it's necessarily an awful
thing that Trod Taylor gets this start and this one off.
Speaker 1 (33:02):
I agree.
Speaker 2 (33:03):
We shall see for better or worse, Doug Monday night
football double header schedule. We're gonna get a staggered start
in Week four. Jets Dolphins will play at seven to
fifteen Eastern. Then it's the Bengals and Broncos from Denver
an hour later, at eight to fifteen. That's the staggered
start or the true Monday night doubleheader that we had
this past weekend with one game right after the other.
(33:24):
What's better or worse?
Speaker 1 (33:27):
Umm? I think that the two games are better. The
two games are better. The only thing about this one
is that do I really want to watch the whole
Jets Dolphins game? Like that? Does not feel now? Back
when we were kids, right, for whatever reason, Jets Dolphins
was always a shootout? Do you guys remember what was it?
(33:47):
Ken O'Brien was that who the quarterback was?
Speaker 2 (33:50):
I remember Richard Todd? Yes, Jets quarterbacks? Yes, right?
Speaker 1 (33:57):
But for whatever reason, like my my brain always remembers
those games being shootouts between the two teams. I could
be wrong, that's my That's what my memory is.
Speaker 2 (34:07):
The fake game for Dan Marine, I was against those Jets, yes.
Speaker 1 (34:12):
But the two games back to back is great. It was.
It was good and and part of why it was
really good was the Houston Buccaneers game was not a
particularly entertaining game until the fourth quarter, right where all
of a sudden, Houston seemed to have in the bag
and then no excuse me, the Buccaneers seemed to have
the bag. Then Houston takes the lead and then Baker
Mayfield leads him down the it leads him down the
(34:33):
field and they score and they win. You know, and
there was six seconds left. So I didn't really understand
the going for two thing. But whatever point being uh,
if that those games were staggered, you would have lost
a good portion of the audience who would have flipped
over to the next game, whereas the two games it worked.
(34:56):
And really what's important is that fourth quarter of the
first game.
Speaker 2 (34:59):
All right, for better or worse, we're talking about the
Alabama Crimson tie. I don't know how Keith Joshell would
say it, but that's how I say pre Saban versus
post Saban, pre Saban versus post a Saban.
Speaker 1 (35:17):
Post seven Okay, post Saban. I visited Alabama. Dave Hopps
was the coach, and I think Mike Shula was that
was the coach then. But they tried everything right. Dennis
Franconi was there, I mean, he had won everything until
he got to Alabama. He left Alabama for a and
m Either worked. But post Saban, like again, I don't
think they're great in terms of like not one of
(35:38):
the top two teams I think they'll be in the playoff.
I think they're still really good.
Speaker 2 (35:42):
All right. For better or worse? Eighty degree day April
versus September.
Speaker 1 (35:47):
April April better, April better, And I'll tell you why,
because you've been just beaten up by winter. Now we're
talking about in the Midwest, right, Yeah, about Los Angeles. Yeah,
I mean, I don't think people understand what that's like.
When it's cold into April and you're just like, is
spring ever gonna get here? And then you get eighty
(36:07):
and all of a sudden you're like, hey, you know,
summer is not that far away. Whereas when it's hot
like it is today in September, you're still like the
second it's cold, you're like, oh boy, I know it's coming.
Speaker 2 (36:18):
Final one, Doug for better or worse? Body of water
lake versus ocean?
Speaker 1 (36:24):
You know lake.
Speaker 2 (36:28):
Lake?
Speaker 1 (36:28):
This, Yes, I live on a lake, but also like
an ocean looks better. And unless you're a surfer, what
else is there? What else is there? Oh? Lake gives
you fro We'll talk about this. That's the game time.
Speaker 3 (36:47):
This is game time on the Doug Gottlieb Show.
Speaker 1 (36:52):
Stug Gottleeb Show. Here on Fox Sports Radio. We'll get
the midway talk. Some dabbos swingey in the midway next
to Doug Gotlieb Show, Fox Sports It Now, whoa Nelly
Thanks for listening to The Doug Gottlieb Show podcast. Be
sure to catch us live every weekday three to five,
twelve two Pacific on Fox Sports Radio. Find your local
station for The Doug Gottlieb Show at Foxsports Radio dot com,
or stream us live every day on the iHeartRadio app
by searching APPSPR. I'm going up America, Doug Gottlieb Show,
Fox Sports Radio. I hope you're having a great day.
(00:30):
The Doug Gottlieb Show broadcast live every single day from
two places, sunny southern California and sunny beautiful, absolutely stunning,
Green Bay, Wisconsin. Eh, welcome in. So. Uh, there's a
lot of I don't want to if say, little stories,
(00:52):
but interesting stories. You know, we run into this on
many Wednesdays here right where you know, Monday is like
kind of story overload. Right, we had week two Tuesdays.
Generally we get to college football some on Tuesdays. Uh,
but because there was two Monday night football games, because
the Tom Brady story, it felt like Tuesdays were more
(01:15):
kind of NFL focused. Wednesdays kind of the lull day. Right,
you got Thursday night football, you get baseball. I did
find myself watching some w NBA playoffs a little bit
as I got stuck on on watching Indiana. Part of
it is stylistically offensively, they kind of play the way
I'm trying to get my team to play. So there
(01:36):
there's some interesting stuff there, right. I know that Dan
I mean assumed me that Jay Stu has his feelings
about his Dodgers and as Dodgers' bullpen for the second
night in a row. But I thought the topic of
Joe Burrow was an interesting one and I'd love Dan
and Jay your your input a little bit. I'll give
you my thoughts and the the the question is always
(01:58):
with the Bengals' so focused on building for Joe Burrow
with skill position players that they didn't build well enough
with the offensive line, They not do enough with scheme
and with personnel to protect him. Dan Pitcher is their
offensive coordinator with the Bengals. He said, quote, we have
(02:19):
special skill players. This is what he said to the
Cincinnati Enquirer. We want to accentuate those skilled players. We
want to try and do things. How do we accentuate
their skill set? How do we do it in a
way in which we're limiting the amount of the times that
Joe's potentially gonna get hit. There's no one decision that
solves it. Everything costs something. So we constantly think about
(02:40):
these things, and again, I hate that we're in the
spot that we're in. You always evaluate and reevaluate and
do it over and over again, but we can only
make the decisions in the moment that give us a
chance to win. So, you know, this is the old Hey,
skill position players, we'd like to get you paid, but
(03:02):
if we pay all of you, we don't have the
money left over. We don't have the money left over
to build a top level offensive line. Now, if you
look back three years or so ago, right that year
or how many was it four years ago that they
went to the Super Bowl, that was a year in
which that this coaching staff, front office called in the
question and they rebuilt the offensive line. And I kind
(03:23):
of told people they did, but it wasn't a good
enough answer for people. And then you know, they started
slow and end up closing hot and getting to a
super Bowl. They went back and got to an AFC
Championship game. And only now it's like a reoccurring theme
that Joe Burrow is getting hit so much, he's the
new Andrew Luck. I would tell you this that I
(03:48):
don't know enough about what they did financially, what they
did with their offensive line. I know that we have
a tendency to over react some because it's a turf
toe injury. And there was also the video against the
Cincinnati Bengals where he just got obliterated as he released
(04:08):
the football, and that one's a hard, a jarring one,
hard one to get out of your brain when you're
thinking about Joe Burrow and then you think about the
injuries and now they've stacked up over the years and
how many injuries he's had, and you're like, man, this
guy's always hurt. But I think there's there's three different factors. One,
there's the ownership of Joe Burrow holds the ball a
(04:29):
long time, that's his style. He's he's got some Ben
Roethlisberger to him where he has brass brass cajones and
he'll stand in there and take a hit because he
wants to deliver the football. So some of that is
your quarterback holds the ball a little bit longer. Some
of it is probably in their scheme. How is it
that he's getting hit that much? And you're talking about
(04:52):
accentuating the positives, right, You're putting guys out into routes
and not leaving enough guys in to have max protect.
And maybe that's also the bravado of Joe Burrow, like
I don't care, just get get guys open. I'll find
it open. I don't care if I get hit now
and again, even though those hits seem to be crushing
in terms of the ferocity of blows. But the last
(05:15):
part is probably the most important thing, which is how
you're building a team. You're gonna have to sacrifice something something,
especially when you have either a salary cap or limitations
on funds. And I can draw the direct parallel to
(05:36):
my team to college football teams to college basketball teams
because they're dealing with Hey, at some point, we just
don't have any money, so you gotta be judicious with it.
I said this about Alabama football, right, Alabama football, Like
they're starting quarterback. He's played well since you know, playing
(05:57):
okay against Florida State. He was under a lot of
pressure against floor STATEE. But my guess is they didn't
go out and pay a couple million dollars. You had
a guy in house it's his third year. He's super
happy to be the quarterback at Alabama. I don't think
he's making a million dollars now, he's probably making I
don't know, five hundred seven fifty or whatever. And then
(06:18):
they'll keep as if he's good enough, they'll keep in
to stay. And he wants to be there, wants to
be the quarterback of the Tide, unless you know he
wants to go elsewhere in cash in. Who knows if
he can cash in. But you do that because you know,
if you have let's say conservatively Alabama has twenty million dollars,
if you spend five million dollars in a quarterback, well
there's going to be a shortfall somewhere. Our scale is different,
(06:41):
but there's going to be a short fall somewhere. Talk
about this in the NBA. How the NBA has gone
from three stars to two stars, because if you have
three stars, you can't really have a team around him.
If you have two stars, you can do pretty well.
If you have one start, you can have an ensemble cast,
which is really, really, really good. But you got to
manage those salaries. NFL's no different. You have a salary cap.
(07:03):
There's a limit to what you can spend, and if
you spend more money than anybody on a wide receiver,
you spend a ton of money on a quarterback, you
spend a lot of money on a secondary wide receiver.
You spend a ton of money even for a one
year deal on on your best pass rusher. Something's got
to give, and there's things that you can go cheap on.
You could even use the home building analogy. Right, you're
(07:27):
on a budget. You know you're going to go over
that budget, but how much you're gonna go over that budget?
You know? With flooring, Like there's a floor that I
put into a couple of different houses and it's man made,
like man made wood, Like how's it man made? Would
I don't know, I don't know how it works, but
I know that generally you go back fifteen years ago
(07:49):
and I never would have either bought a house or
in a house put in anything other than traditional hardwood floors.
But one kind of like the field too, like how
it how much it costs, and I like how it looks.
But when am I giving up? I'm giving up saying
(08:09):
these are hard real hardwood floors. Something's got to give.
You get a budget on you're redoing your kitchen, you know,
do you use courts for countertops? Do you use marble
for contrabs? Marble is great, it's really expensive and make
that much difference in the courts because if you do,
then all right, what is something's got to give? Right?
(08:30):
How big is the hood on the on the at
the stove and what level of appliance you use? You
only have a set budget, and that's where the Bengals are.
Bengals forever been told that they're cheap, and maybe they
have been on some ancillary things, but they've paid their players,
especially their star players, to stay. They like to keep
(08:50):
their own But in terms of building an offensive line
and building a system that protects their most prized asset,
it seems like they failed. But there's also some accountability
there for Joe Burrow. And my guess is that the
reason that there's a shortfall there is because they spent
money not just on elite wide receiver, but the secondary
(09:13):
wide receiver and something's got to give. Dan, what do
you think?
Speaker 2 (09:17):
Gosh, it's such an interesting situation because I think a
lot of what you said is true, and I think
that there's some faults that you laid out correctly on
Joe Burrow of maybe holding the football a little too long.
I think Doug that everything that we would say about
Joe Burrow is what we would say about the Bengals
front office. It's what we say about Zach Taylor. The
(09:39):
team has tried to address their offensive line, used a
first round pick on a tackle in twenty twenty four.
A couple of years ago, they signed to Orlando Brown.
He was one of the top free agents at that point,
Brown manning the left tackle spot, so it's not like
they were completely negligent about it. However, for some reason,
the players aren't developing. They're in here. Your line continues
(10:01):
to be weak. Zach Taylor continues to be criticized. No
matter how good the offense is, it's still about protecting Burrow,
doing things that could maybe make the defense react in
a certain way that could allow him time. There's blame
to go all around, but I think at the surface,
when you just invest the amount of money, specifically with
(10:23):
t Higgins because he had thought to be on the
move for so long, there's just no way to get
out from under it. And it's also why your team
has to score thirty eight points a game because you
don't even have the resources to build a solid defense,
let alone an offensive line to protect Joe Burrow. So
it is. It is a the Bengals made the move
(10:44):
that we all thought, I think were the easiest move,
and sometimes those easiest moves aren't the right moves.
Speaker 1 (10:50):
That's totally fair. And then you get to the whole
discussion about how how the NFL protects quarterbacks. You know,
we will do this every year, and I'm sure it'll
happen this year. I don't recall it happening yet where
there's a really really soft personal foul call for roughing
the passer and you know everyone that's not football. He
(11:13):
not even hurt. Okay, but I don't think in the moment,
we're considering how big a drop off it is, how
big a buzz kill it is when you lose these
starting quarterbacks. It's like, do you want guys to be
called for these little penalties? And you know it's real
(11:35):
when they slide, you gotta let up and you can't
hit him in the head with your hand, even when
you're trying to deflect the football and your hand naturally
comes down. I get it, But the flip side to
it is flip side to it is when those guys
do get hit in the head and get concussed, it
becomes a house of cards. Very few teams can afford
(11:56):
a backup quarterback. The backup quarterback generally hurts the quality
of play, the watchability of a game. And yeah, we're
all kind of beholden to these starting quarterbacks. Teams are
as well, and that's why the game is probably overficiated
as such.
Speaker 2 (12:13):
You know, Doug in their Super Bowl run. We look
at Joe Burrow and the contract that that he was on,
and Jamar Chase Ye in the rookie deal that he
was on, and the same thing with t Higgins. You
also had a secondary there was thought to be one
of the best, if not the best, in the NFL
at that time, and nobody's left. Everybody is gone for
(12:36):
one reason or another. Like you know, Jesse Bates left
the Goat to Atlanta, got paid there. But this is
the that's the trickle down effect of these contracts as well.
It's the same thing as a Seahawks fan that you
had to make a decision on and I thought John
Schneider did a great job in getting guys on lesser
deals than others, but there are decisions that you have
to make and sometimes it just kind of starts to
(12:59):
trickle down. And I think that's what we're seeing here
with the Bengals. Like their secondary in that Super Bowl
year was magnificent. They had a lot of pieces on defense.
Now most of those pieces are gone, let alone the
problems with the offensive line protecting Joe Burrow, which has
been an issue throughout his career.
Speaker 3 (13:16):
Be sure to catch the live edition of The Doug
Gottlieb Show weekdays at three pm Eastern noon Pacific on
Fox Sports Radio and the iHeartRadio app.
Speaker 1 (13:27):
I want to talk about this quote and have a
true discussion about it. Tua and the Dolphins obviously struggling,
they take on the Buffalo Bills. Now again, they've played
Buffalo at various times of the year. If there's a
time of year where he can be successful in Orchard Park,
this is the time. By the way, He's going to
(13:48):
have the pressure of playing in front of Dan Byer
and Jason Stewart, Right, that's a lot of pressure for
a young.
Speaker 2 (13:55):
Que big time pressure. Yes, a lot of.
Speaker 1 (13:57):
Pressure are thanks by the way to the Buffalo Bills.
They listened to the show. They came through with the
tickets for the guys. I believe that Jason Stewart has
committed to jumping off of a chair or a platform
onto one of those tables for Bill's Mafia. Jason, can
(14:18):
you confirm or deny?
Speaker 2 (14:20):
I can neither confirm nor deny. Okay, depends on the
how much beer I drink?
Speaker 1 (14:28):
Is beer is excessive amounts of beer, copious amounts of
beer in the pregame, in the pregame itinerary Dan bar
because I know Dan Bier is a big itinerary guy.
Speaker 2 (14:40):
Well, here's the good thing. I can drive, and since
I don't drink, Jason has carte blanche to do what
he needs to do so we can get there. We
land tomorrow at like eleven am local time, so maybe
we'll get a good nap in quick before the game.
Speaker 1 (14:56):
You guys doing Red Eye? Yes, red Eye to where Chicago?
Speaker 2 (15:00):
Yeah, Chicago to then Buffalo, so we will. We will
get a little pregame nap. Game doesn't kick off till
eight fifteen Eastern, so that gives us a little time.
So we'll have plenty of time. But I can be
the d D designated driver if Jason wants to go
all out on Thursday night.
Speaker 1 (15:21):
You know the thing you've and I've only been to
Buffalo once in my life is during the NCAA tournament.
Probably we won both NCAA Tournament games there, and so
we proceeded to drink Canadian beer. And you know what's interesting,
there's a reason that nobody goes like when you go
to I get a beer, like, hey, do you have
anything Canadian? They just don't. Canadian whiskey, baby, Canadian beer,
(15:42):
not so much Mexican beer. Yes, Canadian beer, yeah no,
yeah no.
Speaker 2 (15:51):
And I'm only doing carry on, So I don't know
how much I could bring back on Buffalo or Canadian things.
Speaker 1 (15:56):
Yeah, well, let's up. Let's do this. Let me bring
in Daniel Jeremiah NFL analysts. Of course, he's the color
voice color analyst for the LA Chargers radio network. To
see him on the NFL network as well. DJ, I'm
gonna play something for you. This is too a tongue
of Bayelo. I believe it was earlier today and he
(16:16):
said this about comparing himself to Josh Allen.
Speaker 4 (16:20):
Dude, he's he's top tier, you know, if it's not
with his arm it's with his legs. You know, that
dude can do nearly anything he wants, So definitely different
skill set for me. I can't do half of what
he does when it comes to running the ball and
any of that. And then with how he can just
chuck a ball down the field, you know, with how
far and the arm strength that he has, you know,
(16:42):
he's supreme when it comes to that.
Speaker 1 (16:44):
Okay, so these are all compliments to Josh Allen. But
what what you will have is people saying, oh, you
can't run like him, you can't throw like him. How
can we possibly consider you a you know, an elite
level or even top level reasonable quarterback if you can't
do half of the things that he can do. What
(17:06):
did you hear when you when you heard that from Tua.
Speaker 5 (17:09):
No, Look, there's the stuff about to it that you
can criticize in terms of, you know, some of the decisions,
or you talk about cold weather, or you can talk
about some of the physical limitations. But like I think
we would all agree too, has always been a first
class kid and now a man. I think he's just
saying nice things about a guy in his division and
(17:31):
acknowledging how gifted and how talented he is, but I
don't think that's you know, he's also humble where he's
not gonna say what his strength is and his his
style of play and his strength is all in processing
and and you know, accuracy and quick decision making when
he's when he's going well, which he hasn't been. When
(17:51):
he's he when he is going really well, that's his strength.
And we've seen numerous times, you know, over the years
where guys who had that strength you go back to,
you know, like Joe Montana's that was his strength, Drew Brees,
that was his strength, and New of those guys were
the most athletic of their era or the biggest or
the strongest of their era, but their you know, their
brand of football could work. So now two is a
(18:13):
much much lower version of that. But I wouldn't read
too much into that. I think he's just a classy
dude who's trying to say some really nice things about
Josh Allen Well.
Speaker 1 (18:21):
Stut Gottlieb Show here on Fox Sports Radio. Okay, now
we have two weeks of tape. How fixable are the
Dolphins problems?
Speaker 5 (18:34):
Well, I mean, I don't know. To me, it's it's
not even just you know, what is it in terms
of player you know, the personnel that you're rolling out
there and those things. It's almost just watching it from
an energy standpoint and a body language standpoint and all
those things, it just isn't. It isn't a great vibe
watching that group right now. So I don't know how
(18:57):
that gets turned around or how that changes. And I
think that's probably where you see some criticism, you know,
coming towards the head coach from that. From that standpoint,
but their offensive line from a physical standpoint is not good.
I don't really think they can run the football like
you need to run the ball to be balanced. I
think in the passing game they still do some good things,
(19:19):
but my biggest takeaways are just the energy, the body language,
the lack of physicality, the struggling offensive line like those
are those are definitely worrisome.
Speaker 1 (19:30):
Yeah, I mean it does not feel like a well,
it feels like the ship is taking on a lot
of water and it's at some point we're going to
declare it's sunk. Right, it just does.
Speaker 5 (19:42):
Yeah, Well, it's not the team you want to be
playing when you're zero and two, and it's not where
you want to be playing them either.
Speaker 1 (19:47):
Nope, nope, let's get to the Chargers one a Monday night.
Khalil Mack looks like a dislocated elbow. I don't know
what the other damage is. First, when you see this
Charger to win both of those games, both away from home,
you know you've seen them for years. Why is this
team different?
Speaker 5 (20:09):
Well, I think they're building off what they were last year,
and you know, let's start first of all, I mean,
the news that just came out on Khalil was, you know,
he's going to go on the short term. I r
so four weeks, but thankfully the season's not over. It's
you know, dislocated elbow. He can brace it up and play.
So you know that was big news, not losing him
for the season because it did not look good live
when it happened. But you know, why is this team different?
(20:31):
I think when you're you know, the foundation was last year,
which was a really good foundation. And let's start defensively.
This team was the number one defense in the NFL
and yards allowed last year, So you come back, they've
gotten some some more personnel to throw into that mix,
with some the defensive line depth with a lot of
size now you can build off of the uh, you know,
(20:52):
off the the baseline that you had last year with
some really really smart players in the back end like
Derwin James and tar Heeb still Lowie Gilman's really really
you know, Elijah Moulden's out right now, but he's another
incredibly intelligent guy. So you've got a stud defensive coordinator.
Enjoy him while you got him, because I can't imagine
Jesse Minner isn't a head coach this time next year.
(21:12):
But you've got that foundation now you're building on that.
You've got incredibly smart team. They're not going to beat themselves.
They're going to make you methodically drive the ball. And
you know, you've seen it already with two good quarterbacks
who get frustrated trying to play that way against them.
And you know, so defensively they're in a great spot
with a lot more depth than they had last year.
(21:33):
And then offensively, you know, you get more weapons for
Justin with Keenan Allen coming in there, Conklin's and upgrade
at the tight end position. You've got two backs who
I would argue were better than what they had last year,
and and bring a physicality to it. Joe Waltz just
taken the left tackle and it's hard for me to
see a better left tackle in the NFL right now
(21:54):
than the way he's playing. So yeah, there's a lot
of things going right. But I think it's a very
smart discipline team. And the smart thing is what I'd
love to get your thoughts on, because I was talking
to one of the coaches before the game and I said, yeah,
I take a chance to visit with all these players,
and I've done this for eight years with this team.
I said, this is the smartest collection of players. That's
going to mean something.
Speaker 1 (22:15):
I think it absolutely does mean something, you know, I
you know, we have some guys that are a little
bit slower learners or whatever. And you know, smart does win.
It's easier to coach, it's easier to retain, you know.
It's just all things are easier. And sometimes they're too smart,
too smart for their own good. But and they're questioning
everything you do. But yeah, I smart, smart definitely wins
(22:38):
in sports, Chiefs Chiefs now they don't have their top
two wide receivers, right, but Kelsey dropping that ball around
the end zone, it it felt like kind of looked
old on that play. It just did. But when they
get Rice back, when they get Worthy back, how good
(23:00):
is this team?
Speaker 5 (23:00):
What does the team look like that I think they're
dangerous once they get those guys back. And one of
the reasons I'll say that is I do think the
left side of their offensive line with Josh Simmons, I
already think he's a really good player in his rookie year,
and I think he's only going to get better as
he plays more and gets more comfortable. Sue Mattia playing
next to him is you know, he's bad at tackle,
(23:23):
but he's been better inside at guard, and I think
you'll see that left side get better as the year
goes along. I think eventually they're going to come to
the realization that, you know, Joan Taylor is not good
enough at right tackle and they're going to have to
get him out of there. But adding those receivers to
the mix will make a big, big difference. You know.
I think this division is very vulnerable and and could
(23:44):
slip out of their drafts for the first time in forever.
But it could be one of those things where this
is a team that you know, they just need to
get into the tournament and have all their guys available.
If they do that, if they make the move that
I think is necessary at right tackle. I think the
defense is very well coached. They've got good pieces there.
It's just going to be as dangerous a team as
anybody if they get into the tournament. I know it
(24:05):
sounds it's a seventeen game season. We're only two games in,
and I'm talking like they don't they aren't going to
win the division, but I think when you've been where
they've been, they're just worried about trying to get at
Lombardi and they need to get into the tournament. And
if they're healthy and get into the tournament, that's still
a very very dangerous team.
Speaker 1 (24:23):
No question about it. Okay, you've seen the Raiders up
close calling the game this week. I just end of
the day. I think sometimes we fall in love with
the Geno story, right because he was so maligned, especially
the early years in New York. He's had this resurgence,
but just he's not in the league quarterback. He's never
been in the league quarterback, and yet we act like
(24:46):
because he's been doing it so long, he should be
better than he is. I thought the turnovers were just
a sign of that's you know, Smith's just okay.
Speaker 5 (24:55):
Yeah, I think there's you know, I think there's a
book that's out there now and you just you know,
not everybody reads it, I guess, but the you know,
if you want to blitz Gino, Gino is incredibly smart,
and Gino is a very gifted thrower. So what happens
when you send extra guys to go get him is
you clear up the picture on the back end, and
(25:16):
he's going to find your vulnerability and he's going to
be able to process it quickly and he's going to
be able to cut you up. And that's what he
did against the Patriots the week before. The Patriots tried
to blitz him, and he destroyed him on the blitz.
The Chargers didn't do that. The Chargers were creative with
some of their four man pressures where they have some
sim pressure where they're dropping guys out and maybe bring
Derwin from depth or maybe bring someone off the nickel.
(25:39):
But they made him have to throw the ball through
the forest, you know, with a lot of bodies back there.
He nicked quite a few branches. There were fifteen path
breakups in that game. So to me, that's kind of
the book on him and how you play him. But
you know, inevitably some coaches, Hey, we're an aggressive team.
We're at blitzing team. This is what we do. Well,
good luck, that's not the it's not the formula against Gino.
Speaker 1 (26:02):
The Bengals, well, we talked about this to start the show.
They have. It's not for lack of trying, right, They've
they've invested resources like draft picks in lineman. But now
in this offseason they put so much of their resources
into their skill positions. How much of this is Joe
Burrow holding the ball too long? How much of this
(26:22):
is the scheme that leaves him unprotected, and how much
of it is hey, they didn't do enough in terms
of giving the offense the resources to protect him.
Speaker 5 (26:33):
Yeah. I would probably start first of all with just
the ye. I mean we could say they've they've they've
put resources there, they've taken some guys high in the draft,
and some of them haven't necessarily panned out. I think
you just have to keep doubling down and going back
until you get that right, and that needs to be
your focus. So I think that's a that's a big
part of the problem. You know, Joe holding the ball.
(26:56):
You know, I see some of that, But me, I
would put it more on the personnel that's in front
of him and just how they chose to invest their dollars.
I get what they were doing in the offseason because
the defense was historically bad last year. You lose all
these games where you're scoring over thirty points, it stands
to reason that, hey, we need to we need to
take some guys on the defensive side of the ball.
(27:18):
But man, it's to me, I'd just much rather err
on the side of having way too many offensive lineman,
way too many good offensive lineman and trying to plug
some holes on the other side than to put him
in jeopardy. And he's proven that he's he's not super durable,
so even all the more reason to double down and
invest even more on that issue.
Speaker 1 (27:40):
Stut Gottlieb Show here on Fox Sports Radio. Okay, let's now,
what do we do with Russell Wilson where he plays
unbelievably well but did have a leg turn up.
Speaker 5 (27:52):
Yeah, I mean, I didn't know that was still in him,
to be honest, And I don't know what that says
about Russ or what that says about the Cowboys. Guys
we'll find out as we go through a few more weeks,
but I think that's you know, for whatever his limitations
have been over the last few years, that's still a
guy who's had a lot of success in this league,
who has a lot of pride, and I think you
(28:13):
absolutely saw his best. So I'm not as optimistic that
that's who he is now and you're going to see
a lot more of that going forward. But at least
he bought himself a little more time here with Jackson
Dart kind of inpenditive his heels. So I'm hopeful for
him and for their team that there's more of that.
I'm just you know, I wouldn't say that I'm confident
(28:35):
we're going to see that. And if you carry that
over to Pittsburgh. You know, we saw Aaron Aaron have
a great week one and it was like he's you know, oh,
it's all there. It's just gonna expect that each and
every week, and then you fast forward a week and
it doesn't quite look the same. So we'll see what
happens with some of these older quarterbacks.
Speaker 1 (28:53):
Update me on Kayla Williams, what's going wrong there?
Speaker 5 (28:57):
Well, actually, you know, and I know a lot of
people have said this this week, but I went back
and went through it again today, just as I wanted to,
you know, just watch it one more time and see
what I'm seeing. I thought for the first first half,
it wasn't just that first drive. The first half of
that game, there was a lot of really good there
where he was playing within the pocket, he was connecting
his feet and his eyes, he was throwing the ball accurately.
(29:18):
There was a lot of good for a decent sample
size there. And then, uh, in the second half, it
just kind of started to get away from him a
little bit, you know where you know, he saw some
kit balls where he couldn't find a throwing lane. You know,
that was that was concerning. He had a couple other
times where there's guys around his feet now keeping them
(29:38):
and they're they're tackle stinkd ug. I mean that's their
offensive tackles are terrible. So he got hit and then
once he got hit, had a lot of bodies around
his feet. Then you started seeing the disconnect between his
eyes and his feet, and the accuracy took took off
on him. But I do get some optimism from that, knowing,
you know, what he looked like for half of that
game and maybe a little bit into that third quarter,
(30:01):
and he didn't his first impulse wasn't just to take off.
He didn't just drop his eyes and look to get
the heck out of there, which he did numerous times
the first week. So yeah, I will say progress, progress made.
You know, still overall not not where it needs to be,
but you know, we'll see if it continues trending in
the right direction.
Speaker 1 (30:19):
He's Daniel Jeremiah. You can catch DJ on the Move
the Sticks podcast. That's the best. Of course, you hear
him called Chargers Games and you see him on the
NFL Network. DJ thanks so much for joining us. Appreciate
you being our guest.
Speaker 5 (30:31):
Thanks Doug.
Speaker 3 (30:31):
Be sure to catch the live edition of The Doug
Gottlieb Show weekdays at three pm Eastern noon Pacific.
Speaker 1 (30:39):
It's the Doug Gottlieb Show. You're listening to Fox Sports Radio.
Why are you not watching us on our YouTube channel?
Just go to YouTube dot com slash at Doug Gottlieb Show.
If you're already within YouTube, just search Doug Gottlieb Show.
Be sure to hit the subscribe button and don't stop there.
Hit the thumbs up icon. Sure and comment away. Let
(30:59):
me know how credible my takes are, and check out
our brand new channel on YouTube. Just search Doug Gottlieb
Show and subscrab. Let's get to a game with Dan Buyer.
Speaker 3 (31:12):
This is game time on the Doug Gottlieb Show.
Speaker 2 (31:20):
All right, Doug, the game today.
Speaker 3 (31:22):
Is for better or worse?
Speaker 1 (31:26):
For better or worse?
Speaker 2 (31:27):
For better or worse? Backup quarterback Tarrod Taylor or Marcus Mariota.
We're gonna see Taylor this week, and there seems to
be a pretty good chance we're gonna see Mariota as well.
For better or worse? Backup quarterback to Rod Taylor or
Marcus Mariota.
Speaker 1 (31:46):
Okay, I know this is gonna annoy Jason Stewart. Okay,
Jason's probably gonna put me on Tomorrow's You're annoying on
the in the Bonus Podcast, But I'm gonna say Tarrod Taylor.
But I'm a context wi it. Okay, Okay, if I
have a whole season, i'd probably hear rather have Mariota.
(32:06):
But in a short hey, I'm just filling in Toarrod Taylor.
Remember Torod Taylor was the one who's the starting quarterback
of the Bills when they broke their I think it
was thirteen season street playoff drought streak. And yes, he
was the quarterback who got what the injection in his
lung or something. Yes, that kept him out of the
opening game, and suddenly Justin Herbert took his spot, which
(32:28):
was inevitability. But he is the consummate backup, unbelievable guy.
He's mobile, he's tough, he can win. What happens is
after a couple of weeks, everybody's got the book on him.
He kind of tops out. But in a short one game,
two games starting, I'd take Torod Taylor over at Marcus Mariota.
Speaker 2 (32:48):
I will also say this that against the Buccaneers on
a short week, things are advantageous for the Jets in
this scenario. I don't think that it's necessarily an awful
thing that Trod Taylor gets this start and this one off.
Speaker 1 (33:02):
I agree.
Speaker 2 (33:03):
We shall see for better or worse, Doug Monday night
football double header schedule. We're gonna get a staggered start
in Week four. Jets Dolphins will play at seven to
fifteen Eastern. Then it's the Bengals and Broncos from Denver
an hour later, at eight to fifteen. That's the staggered
start or the true Monday night doubleheader that we had
this past weekend with one game right after the other.
(33:24):
What's better or worse?
Speaker 1 (33:27):
Umm? I think that the two games are better. The
two games are better. The only thing about this one
is that do I really want to watch the whole
Jets Dolphins game? Like that? Does not feel now? Back
when we were kids, right, for whatever reason, Jets Dolphins
was always a shootout? Do you guys remember what was it?
(33:47):
Ken O'Brien was that who the quarterback was?
Speaker 2 (33:50):
I remember Richard Todd? Yes, Jets quarterbacks? Yes, right?
Speaker 1 (33:57):
But for whatever reason, like my my brain always remembers
those games being shootouts between the two teams. I could
be wrong, that's my That's what my memory is.
Speaker 2 (34:07):
The fake game for Dan Marine, I was against those Jets, yes.
Speaker 1 (34:12):
But the two games back to back is great. It was.
It was good and and part of why it was
really good was the Houston Buccaneers game was not a
particularly entertaining game until the fourth quarter, right where all
of a sudden, Houston seemed to have in the bag
and then no excuse me, the Buccaneers seemed to have
the bag. Then Houston takes the lead and then Baker
Mayfield leads him down the it leads him down the
(34:33):
field and they score and they win. You know, and
there was six seconds left. So I didn't really understand
the going for two thing. But whatever point being uh,
if that those games were staggered, you would have lost
a good portion of the audience who would have flipped
over to the next game, whereas the two games it worked.
(34:56):
And really what's important is that fourth quarter of the
first game.
Speaker 2 (34:59):
All right, for better or worse, we're talking about the
Alabama Crimson tie. I don't know how Keith Joshell would
say it, but that's how I say pre Saban versus
post Saban, pre Saban versus post a Saban.
Speaker 1 (35:17):
Post seven Okay, post Saban. I visited Alabama. Dave Hopps
was the coach, and I think Mike Shula was that
was the coach then. But they tried everything right. Dennis
Franconi was there, I mean, he had won everything until
he got to Alabama. He left Alabama for a and
m Either worked. But post Saban, like again, I don't
think they're great in terms of like not one of
(35:38):
the top two teams I think they'll be in the playoff.
I think they're still really good.
Speaker 2 (35:42):
All right. For better or worse? Eighty degree day April
versus September.
Speaker 1 (35:47):
April April better, April better, And I'll tell you why,
because you've been just beaten up by winter. Now we're
talking about in the Midwest, right, Yeah, about Los Angeles. Yeah,
I mean, I don't think people understand what that's like.
When it's cold into April and you're just like, is
spring ever gonna get here? And then you get eighty
(36:07):
and all of a sudden you're like, hey, you know,
summer is not that far away. Whereas when it's hot
like it is today in September, you're still like the
second it's cold, you're like, oh boy, I know it's coming.
Speaker 2 (36:18):
Final one, Doug for better or worse? Body of water
lake versus ocean?
Speaker 1 (36:24):
You know lake.
Speaker 2 (36:28):
Lake?
Speaker 1 (36:28):
This, Yes, I live on a lake, but also like
an ocean looks better. And unless you're a surfer, what
else is there? What else is there? Oh? Lake gives
you fro We'll talk about this. That's the game time.
Speaker 3 (36:47):
This is game time on the Doug Gottlieb Show.
Speaker 1 (36:52):
Stug Gottleeb Show. Here on Fox Sports Radio. We'll get
the midway talk. Some dabbos swingey in the midway next
to Doug Gotlieb Show, Fox Sports It Now, whoa Nelly
Host
Doug Gottlieb
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