September 8, 2026 • 29 mins
On today’s episode, Jason discusses the brewing quarterback controversy at the University of Michigan involving incumbent starter Bryce Underwood, why the Atlanta Falcons felt compelled to name Tua Tagovailoa as their QB1 ahead of Michael Penix Jr ahead of the start of the regular season, the general dearth of franchise quarterbacks across the NFL, and why the idea of the Los Angeles Rams getting off to a slow start this season isn't far-fetched at all.
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Speaker 1 (00:05):
This is Straight Fire with Jason McIntyre.
Speaker 2 (00:11):
What is up, Straight Fire fam? It's me, Jason McIntyre,
Straight Fire. For Tuesday, September the 8th, it's week one
of the NFL season, nearly upon us. I had to
look back in my notes. This will be year one.
five of the NFL season for the straight fire podcast. Listen,
(00:31):
a lot of podcasts start and go out in a
year or two. I'm so happy that I heart has
been a driving force behind keeping this bad boy up
the six years, five NFL seasons. Let's try to make
it a memorable one. Obviously college football week one, just finished.
You've got some bad, crazy injury news for the Cowboys.
(00:52):
You've got a new star surprise starting quarterback in week one.
I do want to welcome in Rob G. We've been
missing him for a little while. He's obviously got his podcast.
He talks a lot about the NBA on there.
Speaker 1 (01:03):
Rob, you know what?
Speaker 2 (01:05):
It's NFL season, so we're not going to do it,
but the Clippers thing happened last week. We had a
couple days off. I went to Vegas, signed up for
the gambling contest. You have the Clippers getting their punishment.
You have people outing Lakers reporters as flipping to the
Clippers because they were getting money under the table. It
is a crazy time to be alive. I'm just happy
(01:26):
you're healthy again, man. Rob G was down bad with
some sickness.
Speaker 3 (01:29):
Yeah, man.
Speaker 4 (01:30):
I mean, when you are in the business like we are,
where you talk for a living and even though I'm
not on air like you, I'm not the full on
all caps talent, but I do have to speak to
talent like you and Rob Parker, Calvin Washington, day-to-day basis
and help them, you know, conjure up some takes when
you can't speak to It really makes the job pretty difficult.
So that's part of it. And then the other thing
(01:50):
is the other fallout from the Kawhi situation. The one
thing that I thought was most interesting, you know, outside
of the story itself was you mentioned, you know, Ramona
Shelburne getting caught for changing teams and flipping sides or whatever.
Speaker 3 (02:02):
I listened to one of the.
Speaker 4 (02:03):
Latest edition, might be the latest edition actually, of the
Brian Windhorst Who Collective podcast.
Speaker 3 (02:08):
Brian Windhorst, friend of the show, of course.
Speaker 4 (02:10):
And him, Chris Mannix, Tim McMahon, who's been on the
pod before, all to a man basically ripping the clippers,
not just for the act itself, but because, hey, we
have sources within the building and the sources were telling us,
this is crazy. This has never happened. I can't believe
you would believe that. And it makes you question everything.
(02:33):
If you're in the business, you're in the news reporting business,
you're an analyst, you're an insider. Like if I ask you, J-Mac,
what's going on at FS1? And you tell me, oh,
nothing's going on, Rob G. I don't know what you're
talking about. That's crazy for you to even suggest that.
And I find out you were lying to my face
for the last two years.
Speaker 3 (02:50):
Like that's ridiculous.
Speaker 4 (02:52):
And so to hear Wendy and Mannix and McMahon going
off on their sources in the Clippers locker room and
the front office, that was kind of interesting.
Speaker 2 (03:00):
Yeah, no, the NBA has gotten a little wacky. I
think college football is trending toward the NBA folks. When
Lane Kiffin is openly trolling and rage baiting America, knowing
that I don't give a crap. I'm going to be
public enemy number one. The guy's up a billion to
three at halftime against lowly Clemson. And he goes, imagine
(03:21):
if we had pro players. Like he's openly like, oh, yeah,
we good. I can't, I'm praying that Ole Miss shows up, Robin,
two weeks ago, two weeks from now and beats down LSU.
Although I don't know if the defense is going to,
he's good enough. I mean, Louisville moved the ball crazy
on them. Let's actually quickly start in college before we
get to the NFL. obviously we're not going to get
(03:41):
into the Michigan clock thing, which is a mess, but that's,
that's a few days old. I did think Kyle winning
him coming out on Monday morning and basically saying, yeah,
our $ 10 million guy, Bryce Underwood is our starter for now.
I mean, this is crazy. He just turned 19 in August.
You look around college football, all the good quarterbacks are
(04:03):
like 21, 22, 23. And it's like, You know, it's
tough to win with a young guy. And the pressure's on.
I mean, Michigan last year, Sharon Moore, that disaster. They're
trying to move on. They got Whittingham. They should have
lost to Western Michigan. I think it was pro football
focus tracked Underwood in his first game against Western Michigan.
And they credit him with five turnover-worthy plays. He had
(04:25):
15 all of last season. And the line robbed for Michigan.
Oklahoma was Michigan favored by one and a half. They're
basically saying it was a pick-em, but they were at home,
so we'll give them a one and a half. It's
now Oklahoma favored by six on the road. That is
a colossal swing. And I'd be like, oh, you got
to take Michigan there. But Michigan looks so bad. They
(04:48):
ran zero plays in the second and third quarter in
Western Michigan territory. The scripted drive was great. Then they
did literally nothing. And Bryce Underwood was just a disaster.
And it's like, well, what do you do? You gave
the guy a multi-year NIL deal for $ 10 million. I
can't imagine... And again, I know, Jay, he's got 10 mil.
(05:09):
What are you worried about? But like when you got
$ 10 million, yeah, you didn't get 10 mil. It's a
multi-year deal. But you're walking around campus and everybody knows
you're a multimillionaire. And these are college kids. And the
pressure's got to be big. Somebody compared it to DJ
Ungulele from Clemson, how he was like this big guy.
(05:29):
He was supposed to be awesome and just kind of flopped.
And he ended up playing for, I think, FSU and
like Oregon State. And these guys just bounce around. Nobody
stays at the team that they started out at. It's
just not how it works anymore. And I don't know, Rob.
I think they could be in some trouble against Oklahoma.
And I wouldn't be shocked if at some point Bryce
(05:51):
Underwood got benched. The backup, by the way, is Tommy Carr,
who is CJ Carr, the Notre Dame quarterback, his younger brother.
And this isn't just message board yahoos yelling about this.
This is the coach openly saying... Basically, he's got to
get better, Rob. And after one game, to me, that
is majorly alarming.
Speaker 3 (06:12):
Oh, absolutely.
Speaker 4 (06:13):
And again, you never want to overreact to one game,
especially in college football.
Speaker 3 (06:16):
These are, you know, kids.
Speaker 4 (06:19):
But I'm going to overreact to one game because with
the six and a half you mentioned, like you could
have made it 12, 13, and I would have took Oklahoma.
Like the Michigan offense looked so bad and Underwood looked
so bad and so– He didn't look like he belonged
on that field, even against a quote-unquote lesser opponent. And
I was watching that game while I'm on the little staycation.
(06:41):
I have it on the phone and I have it
on the TV there in the background. And I see
Eric Weddle was trending for some reason.
Speaker 3 (06:49):
Like, Eric, what are the safety from the charge? Like,
did he die? I hope not because he seemed like
a good guy.
Speaker 4 (06:54):
And no, because apparently back in May, he was doing
a Big Ten, I guess, training camp tour, if you
want to call it that. He visited all the schools
there in that area. And he came away, his big
talking point was, quote, I don't think he, talking about Underwood,
can throw or play quarterback.
Speaker 3 (07:15):
It's like, oh, okay.
Speaker 4 (07:17):
And this was coming off a season where everyone was
optimistic about Underwood. Then he elaborates later. He says, Michigan
was one of the most impressive teams that I saw,
but the quarterback play wasn't what I expected. Don't be
surprised if he gets benched. When I say he can't
throw or play quarterback, It means he's not accurate and
doesn't play the position well. So Eric Weddle, one of
(07:38):
the few times we see on Twitter on Elon Musk
is X, trending for all the right reasons. Because if
you watch that game, you would come away thinking, how
on earth is this guy a power five quarterback, much
less the quarterback at Michigan? And I know that, you know,
we're kind of getting off topic here real quick, but
you mentioned, you know, he's a big NIL court player.
(08:00):
And that's part of the reason why it seems like
Whittingham didn't want to bench him in that game or
even after that first game is because they committed so
much to him.
Speaker 3 (08:09):
They're almost pot committed.
Speaker 4 (08:11):
And I said on my last episode of my podcast,
you know, while my voice was still coming back into
shape there, that I've just have not enjoyed much of
anything from the CFP era of college football. I feel
like everything that we've seen, whether it's going from the
BCS where it's two teams and it's four teams, they
want to go to expanded playoff. They might get to
(08:31):
24 teams.
Speaker 3 (08:32):
I don't like that.
Speaker 4 (08:33):
But as far as NIL, you're in a situation now
where Kyle Whittingham, so clearly, if you watched his news
conference or even just saw the clip, wants to bench
this kid. He does not see anything about him, and
it doesn't seem like he saw anything about him through
camp that leads him to believe that he can win
with this guy at quarterback running that system. However, the
(08:55):
collective invested, you mentioned $ 10 million. The boosters say we
invested this much money. We are gonna roll with this
kid no matter what you say because we're the ones
footing the bill you're just a visitor here and that's
something that i'm not really cool with i feel like
if you are the head coach you should kind of
be able to decide who your starting quarterback is going
(09:15):
to be and you can tell in michigan that this
time next week assuming it goes the way we all
think it's going to go that underwood's going to be
riding the bench kyle winningham's going to coast his way
to a four and seven season everybody's gonna be pissed
off there in.
Speaker 1 (09:29):
Ann arbor Fox Sports Radio has the best sports talk
lineup in the nation. Catch all of our shows at FoxSportsRadio.com.
And within the iHeartRadio app, search FSR to listen live.
Speaker 2 (09:43):
Yeah, it's weird. Every time we think we know something
about football, I'll never forget Spencer Rattler started the season
at Oklahoma with Lincoln Riley as the Heisman favorite. He's
going to go number one. And I think within the
first month, he was benched for Caleb Williams. And then
he had to transfer. And Caleb Williams becomes a star.
Caleb Williams goes to USC. And everything you think you
know about these stars. I mean, remember Arch Manning last year.
(10:06):
So bad in that Ohio State game. Now he rebounded
in the second half of the season. I think he's
going to be good. But again, this Ohio State game
coming up this week is huge for him. I mean,
this weekend, Rob. I kind of soft-pedaled it with the family.
I'm like, guys, let's load up on Friday night activities
because if we're keeping it real, Saturday's going to be
a big one. Michigan, Oklahoma's must-see TV. I think that
(10:29):
game is at, let me see, I think it's at noon? No,
9 a.m. So yeah, noon. So early start for Oklahoma, Michigan.
And then in the afternoon, I guess you can maybe
hang out with your family if you want to. And
then Ohio State, 4.30 p.m. Pacific, 7.30 at night on
the East Coast, Ohio State, Texas. And it's weird because, Rob,
(10:52):
the whole narrative all summer has been the Big Tens
pass the SEC. Last three champions, Indiana, Michigan, Ohio State,
are from the Big Ten. You know, SEC's fading. SEC
has a chance with Texas and Oklahoma to go 2-0
and kind of flip the narrative a little bit. I'm
definitely going to be on Texas in that game. And
(11:14):
I was going to be on Michigan, but after seeing
how bad they looked, I don't think I could take
it at five and a half. It gets a seven.
I think we'll change things up. By the way, it's
college football, Rob. We didn't touch on this. You know,
you guys know.
Speaker 3 (11:30):
Got to be careful here.
Speaker 2 (11:31):
Mike Lombardi went to UNC and was the GM for Belichick.
He was with him in New England. Lombardi has been
on this podcast. I work with him at FS1. I mean, Rob,
did you read about how he resigned there in, in UNC?
Have you followed that story?
Speaker 3 (11:48):
I absolutely follow that story.
Speaker 2 (11:51):
Oh my gosh. College football. Listen, it is a cesspool.
Reports of the, and again, you gotta look, you gotta
read the story. This is not me reporting anything, but
there are reports that, you know, there's a recruiting team
of females at North Carolina, you know, and, they're there
to show the players around, show recruits around, and you
(12:12):
could go look at the story about what was going
on there, and Belichick's son now, under some scrutiny, people
were like, oh, he's taking a health leave.
Speaker 4 (12:19):
Oh, really?
Speaker 2 (12:20):
Go read the story and tell me if it's a
health leave. I mean, Rob, it is, college football is
getting a little crazy.
Speaker 4 (12:27):
And just to our listeners, if they have not read
the article, yeah, I suggest you read it, but if
you haven't, if you've seen the movie, He Got Game,
and the things that happen on those recruiting trips with
Ray Allen, you know, with the- Oh, yeah. the women
at big tech and all those different things. That's basically
what they're alleging happened there at UNC.
Speaker 2 (12:45):
I mean, it's all right.
Speaker 3 (12:46):
Let's go to the NFL.
Speaker 2 (12:47):
Listen again. I love these crazy stories because you guys
eat them up. People can't get enough of them. I
think this is a crazy story, but so the Atlanta Falcons,
you know, Kevin Stefanski says no to Rob G's Raiders.
Remember he was interviewing, pulls his name out, says I'm
taking that Falcons job. I saw enough bad quarterbacks in Cleveland.
Dylan Gabriel should do her. washed Deshaun Watson. You can
(13:11):
only rehab Joe Flacco so many times. I'm going to Atlanta.
I like this Penix guy. He got hurt, but he's
going to be fine. And then we'll grab Tua, and
I'll have two left-handed quarterbacks because I love me a
lefty quarterback. As you know, Dylan Gabriel started last season
for Cleveland. And then Tua shows up in camp, looks
totally rattled in and over his head. Listen, Tua seems
(13:34):
like a great guy. I mean, you guys see the
interviews he gives. He's a guy to root for. Seems
like a nice guy, good family. He got paid, obviously,
so you're happy for that. But he was so bad
in the preseason that there were reports like, are we
sure this guy's going to make the team? Like Cooper
Rush is a pro backup. Like Tua's still out here thinking, okay,
you know, I'm a top 10 pick. And Tua was bad.
(13:58):
And then so they're trying to rush Penix back. He
didn't throw a pass in the preseason. He's barely done
11 on 11. And there were reports last week, oh yeah,
Penix will be the starter, almost certainly. So then Monday morning,
Stefanski comes out, and again, if you want to be
body language guy, watch Stefanski. He's like, yeah, Tua's going
to be our starter. Cooper rushed to back up, Penix inactive.
(14:18):
And it was one of those exasperated, like, here we
go again. It's Groundhog Day in Atlanta. I mean, I
think Schefter put the tweet out, but if you look
historically at the Atlanta quarterbacks over the last, I don't know,
five or six years, It's just been a revolving door.
It's like, can they ever get this right? So they
(14:39):
had 2021 Matty Ice. That was near the end. Then
Marcus Mariota. We'll give him another shot. Desmond Ritter. Remember
that guy, Cincinnati. Kirk Cousins. Pennix last year, and now
two a week this year. Six years, six different starters,
and week one at quarterback. Cousins came on for Pennix
(15:01):
last year. Couldn't throw a 15-yard out. if you guys
remember that. But the Raiders somehow think he's our guy. Again,
32 teams, and there's maybe 15 franchise quarterbacks. Maybe. And
you know what they say, if you have two left-handed quarterbacks,
you don't have any quarterbacks. So I cannot imagine what
Stefanski's going through. And by the way, Rob, if you
(15:23):
listen to Panics closely, I don't think he's that, he's
like on the doorstep of returning. He's essentially saying, yeah,
I'll let the coaching staff know when I'm ready. I mean,
you can't have him not take any hits and then
go out there again off an ACL. The guy's had
a massive injury history. I know the Atlanta Falcons are
one of these teams that nobody cares about. They're perpetually
(15:45):
8-9 or 9-8, but Rob, this is bad.
Speaker 3 (15:49):
Oh, it's really bad.
Speaker 4 (15:50):
It's terrible because their entire plan this offseason was Michael
Penix is going to be our starter.
Speaker 3 (15:59):
You mentioned it.
Speaker 4 (15:59):
That's why Stefanski made the move and pulled his name
out because he wanted to coach Penix. He thought with him, Bijan, Drake, London,
Kyle Pitts, all those guys, he could make sweet, sweet music.
They knew he was coming off the injury, so the
plan all offseason was Tua is going to be our
starter throughout the offseason, training camp, potentially for the first three,
(16:20):
four weeks.
Speaker 3 (16:20):
While Penix is up to speed.
Speaker 4 (16:22):
And then all of a sudden, like on a random Wednesday,
Schefter reports, Rappaport reports, Pellicero reports, hey, remember that plan
we had all offseason for the last six months about
Tua starting the first month of the season? Yeah, he's
been so bad in camp and in preseason that we
literally cannot do that anymore. That we might have to
rush this guy back from yet another season-ending injury. I
(16:46):
think he's had three in his football career already since
he got to college. We're going to have to rush
him back that quickly because Tua has been dogshit throughout
this entire run. And thankfully, I guess, if you are
a football fan, but unthankfully, if you're a Falcons fan,
they came to their senses and they said, hey, we
invested way too much in Pennix. You recall, I think
(17:06):
that they signed Kirk Cousins and then drafted Pennix. So
they basically ate like $ 80 million on one season to
make that move. And then their plan was we got
to get this young guy ready to go. And the
last thing you want to do is to have him
not be 100%. So instead, what they're going to do,
(17:26):
and this is smart long term, but it's going to
be rough in the short term, is they are bringing
in a quarterback in Tua who they've already decided is
not any good, that they were sold a false bill
of goods, that they thought maybe they could resuscitate his career,
that the guy we saw last season is not the
real Tua. We're going to get the guy from 2024,
2023 when he's putting up 70 burgers.
Speaker 3 (17:48):
But no, Tua's going to be the starter.
Speaker 4 (17:51):
He threw a league-high 15 picks in 14 games last season.
He's fumbling the ball in the preseason. And now you're
going to see Kevin Stefanski once again having a very
talented offense, scheming up all these great plays, but with
a quarterback who can't get it done just like he
had in Cleveland for all those years.
Speaker 1 (18:12):
Fox Sports Radio has the best sports talk lineup in
the nation. Catch all of our shows at FoxSportsRadio.com. And
within the iHeartRadio app, search FSR to listen live.
Speaker 2 (18:24):
So, Rob, if we're doing the game of name me
the franchise quarterbacks, first, what would be your definition of
franchise quarterback? Someone you're willing to sign to, not a
max deal, but close to a max deal.
Speaker 4 (18:34):
Franchise quarterback means there is no question this is our
guy moving forward.
Speaker 3 (18:38):
What's moving forward? The next three to five years.
Speaker 2 (18:42):
Okay, so Josh Allen.
Speaker 3 (18:44):
Yes.
Speaker 2 (18:45):
Drake May.
Speaker 3 (18:46):
Yes.
Speaker 4 (18:47):
Burrow.
Speaker 2 (18:48):
Yep.
Speaker 1 (18:50):
Lamar.
Speaker 3 (18:50):
You just go down. I'll tell you no when you're wrong.
Go ahead. Keep going.
Speaker 2 (18:53):
Okay. Daniel Jones? No.
Speaker 3 (18:57):
No, I do agree.
Speaker 2 (18:59):
Trevor Lawrence, yes.
Speaker 3 (19:01):
Mm-hmm.
Speaker 2 (19:03):
This is a tough one. I'm going to put C.J.
Stroud in there. You could push back.
Speaker 3 (19:07):
Yeah, no, I don't think C.J.
Speaker 2 (19:08):
Stroud.
Speaker 3 (19:08):
I don't think they're sold on C.J.
Speaker 2 (19:09):
Stroud. Okay, so I have six. You have five. Bo Nix?
It's only been two years.
Speaker 3 (19:15):
I think they think he is. I would disagree, but
I think they think he is. I'm okay. So, seven.
Speaker 2 (19:22):
Mahomes, eight. We don't know on Mendoza. I think he
will be, but we don't. Come on, we can't put
him there. Herbert, obviously. Dak, yes.
Speaker 1 (19:31):
Dart?
Speaker 3 (19:32):
Can't say that. No, can't say that.
Speaker 2 (19:34):
Hertz? I think so. I mean, you guys won a
Super Bowl MVP, but.
Speaker 4 (19:41):
Yeah, to me, it's the opposite of CJ Stroud. I
don't think they think he is. And like I said,
you think that he is. Just like I think they
think CJ Stroud or, you know, an actor.
Speaker 3 (19:50):
Think he's not.
Speaker 2 (19:51):
Okay, Jaden Daniels.
Speaker 1 (19:53):
Yes.
Speaker 2 (19:55):
So, 11. Caleb Yitt, 12. Goff, 13. Jordan Love, 14.
Can't say Kyler. I mean, Tyler Shuck?
Speaker 4 (20:05):
No.
Speaker 2 (20:06):
He played like half a season.
Speaker 3 (20:07):
Yes, too soon.
Speaker 2 (20:09):
Baker, clearly not.
Speaker 3 (20:10):
They won't pay him.
Speaker 2 (20:12):
Bryce Young, no. Stafford, yes.
Speaker 4 (20:19):
15.
Speaker 2 (20:19):
Purdy, 16. And then Sam Darnold, the interesting one, 17.
Is Sam Darnold yes or no?
Speaker 4 (20:24):
Well, it's interesting if you read the reporting coming out
of Seattle, they're still not sold on him.
Speaker 2 (20:29):
Yeah, I would agree with that.
Speaker 3 (20:30):
Which is crazy.
Speaker 2 (20:31):
So we're basically about 16 or 17. So you're looking
at like 13 teams, 13 to 15 teams that need
a quarterback.
Speaker 3 (20:37):
Like half the league, yeah.
Speaker 2 (20:40):
That's bad. I mean, that's awful. And I know there's
potential classes loaded. But here's the biggest issue, Rob, is
all these teams that need a quarterback, they don't know
how to build one. They don't know how to put
the infrastructure around them. You know, like the Ravens, historically,
going back to Joe Flacco and Lamar, and I think
(21:00):
there was someone before that, who they're able to just say,
you know what? We can build around this guy and
make something happen. They're smart. A lot of these teams,
like the Colts, if they don't have Peyton Manning, give
me their other quarterback history. It's like total, like, crapshoot,
you know? Titans, they can never do it. It's really
hard to get one. And, you know, Falcons, that division,
(21:20):
they just don't have them. And I'm looking around the
league now, and I'm like, this is not great. And
I'm sure you saw this news that the Cowboys have
offensive line injuries. The Ravens just named some young, unproven
guy to be the starting center for Lamar Jackson. The
league is in a weird place right now. Let me
(21:41):
ask a couple other quick, just quick hitters as we
head into week one, Rob. Rams Niners. I was hosting
the herd and Teron Armstead came on and said, oh,
Rams are going 17-0. I'll say this. Will they have
a winning record after the first five games? Because you're
not going to fall for the 17-0. So Australia against
(22:02):
the Niners. They should win, but Shanahan has had his number.
Not lately, given the Stafford versus injured Niners. Giants should
come back. I think that's the one win. Then you've
got to go to Denver on a short week. Remember,
you were in Australia two weeks ago. Now you've got
to go to Denver at altitude. And yeah, the Rams
(22:25):
are better than Denver, but in a short week altitude,
after playing Monday night football, they play Sunday night football.
Then they go home after that game, and then they
go cross country to the Eagles. That travel early for
the Rams is really tough. And then, oh, by the way,
they go home to Josh Allen on the Bills. And
I don't know if I mentioned, but all of those
games are in primetime. I'm sorry, the Eagles games at
(22:47):
1 p.m., but it's East Coast. So that's another body
clock game. I think there's a world where they're two
and three after the first five games, Rob.
Speaker 4 (22:55):
That is not a crazy thing to say. And even
though I am one of the people who picked the
Rams to win the Super Bowl, I picked them to
win the division.
Speaker 3 (23:01):
I'm very high on the Rams.
Speaker 4 (23:02):
I think you're high on the Rams as well. But
the reality of the NFL is, number one, no one
goes 17-0.
Speaker 1 (23:06):
No.
Speaker 2 (23:06):
Right?
Speaker 4 (23:07):
And number two, those kind of things matter. The body
clock game you mentioned. The time change. The having a
grueling three, four game schedule where you play two or
three Super Bowl caliber teams. Oh, and a team that
just always happens to have your number. That kind of
stuff happens all the time. If it was that easy
to predict, then we would just know coming into every
(23:29):
season what team's going to be great and who's not.
I mean, if you would have told me week one
last season, the Seattle Seahawks, who look like the best
team in football for the last two and a half
months of the season, would have, what, three turnovers from
Sam Darnold at home against San Francisco?
Speaker 2 (23:46):
That's right.
Speaker 3 (23:46):
You know what I mean?
Speaker 4 (23:47):
Like, that's where they were. That's how they started. Everybody
was already questioning the Sam Darnold contract 30 minutes into
the season. So the idea of the Rams getting off
to a slow start is not crazy at all, especially
when you consider, I mean, that Australia trip is just ridiculous.
You have two competing lines of thinking between San Francisco
and LA. San Francisco getting there a week early. The
(24:09):
Rams getting there a day early. They both have medical
professionals saying this is the way to do it to
ensure that you're at optimum health. Only one of them
can be proven right. Because I promise you, one of
these teams is going to look really bad. whether it's
San Francisco because they're sluggish for a week or the
Rams because they've only got there off the plane 30
minutes ago.
Speaker 3 (24:28):
One of these teams is going to look terrible.
Speaker 4 (24:29):
I don't think it's going to be indicative of how
good either team is, to.
Speaker 3 (24:32):
Be quite honest with you.
Speaker 4 (24:33):
So yeah, the idea of them starting off slow two
and three is absolutely within the realm of possibility.
Speaker 2 (24:39):
And again, remember, everything we think we know, I can't
believe people are picking Seahawks to go to the Super
Bowl again. I just saw the injury report for the Seahawks. Remember,
they play Wednesday. And Nick Amanwari, the great secondary guy,
Just unbelievable player. It doesn't sound like he's going to
play in the opener. He's a limited participant in practice.
(25:01):
And remember, this is a secondary that lost Tyreek Wolin.
They lost Kobe Bryant, their cornerback. So Drake May adds
a receiver in A.J.
Speaker 3 (25:09):
Brown.
Speaker 2 (25:10):
Meanwhile, you've got the Seahawks losing three of their four
guys in the secondary. Patriots could come out and easily
win that game. I mean, nothing's easy in Seattle. But
I wouldn't be shocked if that happened. And then it's like, well, well, Sam,
the narrative start. Well, is Sam Darnold really a deluxe Dilfer?
You know, is he a guy who just wrote a
(25:30):
great defense and special team to the top?
Speaker 4 (25:32):
Maybe.
Speaker 2 (25:33):
And that's why this is so hard betting on the NFL,
Rob G. Um, it is, I mean, it's why I'm
so into it because it's so hard to beat. And
I just, I mean, again, I like the chargers a lot. I,
Are they definitely 100% beating the Cardinals in week one?
Speaker 1 (25:53):
I mean, it's a big spread.
Speaker 2 (25:55):
I got to ask it, Rob.
Speaker 3 (25:56):
I don't know.
Speaker 4 (25:57):
I'm in a survivor league, and I got the Raiders
in week one against the Dolphins.
Speaker 3 (26:01):
Stop it. How many teams do you have?
Speaker 2 (26:05):
Or how many entries?
Speaker 3 (26:06):
Oh, it's a company one. So everybody has one.
Speaker 2 (26:09):
Is this a Fox Sports one I did not get
invited to?
Speaker 3 (26:11):
This is an iHeart one that you did not get
invited in. Damn.
Speaker 4 (26:14):
But just imagine, when else can I confidently use the Raiders?
Speaker 3 (26:17):
Probably never.
Speaker 2 (26:20):
You could be done in week one, bro.
Speaker 4 (26:22):
I saw 55% of the ballots so far have the
Chargers in week one.
Speaker 2 (26:27):
Yeah, usually you want to fade the biggest spread. I
kind of want to go against Cleveland. Take the Jags,
who are big favorites. I mean, I think Deshaun Watson's
bad enough that you're going to look at the Browns
and be like, every week, do I just pick whoever
the Browns are playing? I think he's that bad. I
think the Steelers are in play now that Tua's starting.
(26:47):
Tua Outdoors, healthy Aaron Rodgers. The vibes are good for Pittsburgh.
The vibes are not good for Atlanta. By the way,
I'm so pissed. Bijan Robinson in one of my big
money fantasy leagues. And like now, I think teams are
going to load the box and be like, yeah, Tua's
going to be trigger happy, get the ball out quickly.
Speaker 4 (27:06):
If you look at it that way, Bijan could have
one of those games where he has 12 carries for
37 yards, but nine catches for 77, and that saves
your fantasy day.
Speaker 3 (27:18):
Cause everything's a dump off. That's what you're kind of
hoping for.
Speaker 2 (27:20):
In space against those linebackers. Um, yeah, that's not, that's not,
not terrible. Um, so Rob, I will say, uh, NFL Sunday,
have you talked to the family about like your game plan?
I will say lioness. Um, they drop episodes on Sunday.
I'm probably going to wake up early Sunday just to
get that episode out of the way. Have you been
(27:41):
watching the season by the way?
Speaker 3 (27:42):
I have not.
Speaker 4 (27:43):
You told me to watch it. You, someone else has
told me to watch it and it's in the queue
on the, TV. The wife's not going to really love
it in this season. Like, I mean, I don't want
to do any spoilers, but it's like season three. First
two seasons are great. I think this season is just incredible.
Speaker 3 (27:56):
I don't know.
Speaker 2 (27:57):
Usually shows Peter out. I tried that friends and neighbors
on Apple TV. First season was great. Second season. It's
like kind of not as good. So I'm not as
into it, but plus football starting. So now you're just
much less time to watch these shows. I'm still watching Reacher.
Are you watching that?
Speaker 3 (28:15):
No, I actually was watching, um, house of the dragon.
Speaker 2 (28:19):
And then I was like, Oh, is that the spinoff
of a.
Speaker 3 (28:21):
Game of Thrones? Right.
Speaker 4 (28:23):
And they're like, Oh, the season's over already. I'm like, Oh,
I got like three episodes left and I just stopped
watching it.
Speaker 1 (28:27):
Yeah.
Speaker 3 (28:27):
And it's like, Oh, okay. I'm good.
Speaker 1 (28:30):
By the way.
Speaker 2 (28:30):
Um, I know nobody outside of LA cares about this, Rob,
but my wife told me that the weather it's going
to be 88 degrees here this week. And, um, I'm
just despondent at this. I thought the rain things off
88 degrees.
Speaker 3 (28:44):
Oh my gosh.
Speaker 4 (28:44):
If you were outside on Monday or even Sunday, it
felt like Florida weather.
Speaker 3 (28:49):
He's just so muggy is terrible. First world problems, right?
Speaker 2 (28:54):
Yeah, seriously. But, uh, we'll be inside watching football.
Speaker 3 (28:56):
All right.
Speaker 2 (28:57):
Um, get ready folks. We will, I gotta find a
gambler to come on. Um, this week we'll say Brad
powers for, for bigger ones for college football down the road.
Speaker 3 (29:05):
But, um, Lock in folks. I'm excited. We'll see you tomorrow.
This is Straight Fire with Jason McIntyre.
Speaker 2 (00:11):
What is up, Straight Fire fam? It's me, Jason McIntyre,
Straight Fire. For Tuesday, September the 8th, it's week one
of the NFL season, nearly upon us. I had to
look back in my notes. This will be year one.
five of the NFL season for the straight fire podcast. Listen,
(00:31):
a lot of podcasts start and go out in a
year or two. I'm so happy that I heart has
been a driving force behind keeping this bad boy up
the six years, five NFL seasons. Let's try to make
it a memorable one. Obviously college football week one, just finished.
You've got some bad, crazy injury news for the Cowboys.
(00:52):
You've got a new star surprise starting quarterback in week one.
I do want to welcome in Rob G. We've been
missing him for a little while. He's obviously got his podcast.
He talks a lot about the NBA on there.
Speaker 1 (01:03):
Rob, you know what?
Speaker 2 (01:05):
It's NFL season, so we're not going to do it,
but the Clippers thing happened last week. We had a
couple days off. I went to Vegas, signed up for
the gambling contest. You have the Clippers getting their punishment.
You have people outing Lakers reporters as flipping to the
Clippers because they were getting money under the table. It
is a crazy time to be alive. I'm just happy
(01:26):
you're healthy again, man. Rob G was down bad with
some sickness.
Speaker 3 (01:29):
Yeah, man.
Speaker 4 (01:30):
I mean, when you are in the business like we are,
where you talk for a living and even though I'm
not on air like you, I'm not the full on
all caps talent, but I do have to speak to
talent like you and Rob Parker, Calvin Washington, day-to-day basis
and help them, you know, conjure up some takes when
you can't speak to It really makes the job pretty difficult.
So that's part of it. And then the other thing
(01:50):
is the other fallout from the Kawhi situation. The one
thing that I thought was most interesting, you know, outside
of the story itself was you mentioned, you know, Ramona
Shelburne getting caught for changing teams and flipping sides or whatever.
Speaker 3 (02:02):
I listened to one of the.
Speaker 4 (02:03):
Latest edition, might be the latest edition actually, of the
Brian Windhorst Who Collective podcast.
Speaker 3 (02:08):
Brian Windhorst, friend of the show, of course.
Speaker 4 (02:10):
And him, Chris Mannix, Tim McMahon, who's been on the
pod before, all to a man basically ripping the clippers,
not just for the act itself, but because, hey, we
have sources within the building and the sources were telling us,
this is crazy. This has never happened. I can't believe
you would believe that. And it makes you question everything.
(02:33):
If you're in the business, you're in the news reporting business,
you're an analyst, you're an insider. Like if I ask you, J-Mac,
what's going on at FS1? And you tell me, oh,
nothing's going on, Rob G. I don't know what you're
talking about. That's crazy for you to even suggest that.
And I find out you were lying to my face
for the last two years.
Speaker 3 (02:50):
Like that's ridiculous.
Speaker 4 (02:52):
And so to hear Wendy and Mannix and McMahon going
off on their sources in the Clippers locker room and
the front office, that was kind of interesting.
Speaker 2 (03:00):
Yeah, no, the NBA has gotten a little wacky. I
think college football is trending toward the NBA folks. When
Lane Kiffin is openly trolling and rage baiting America, knowing
that I don't give a crap. I'm going to be
public enemy number one. The guy's up a billion to
three at halftime against lowly Clemson. And he goes, imagine
(03:21):
if we had pro players. Like he's openly like, oh, yeah,
we good. I can't, I'm praying that Ole Miss shows up, Robin,
two weeks ago, two weeks from now and beats down LSU.
Although I don't know if the defense is going to,
he's good enough. I mean, Louisville moved the ball crazy
on them. Let's actually quickly start in college before we
get to the NFL. obviously we're not going to get
(03:41):
into the Michigan clock thing, which is a mess, but that's,
that's a few days old. I did think Kyle winning
him coming out on Monday morning and basically saying, yeah,
our $ 10 million guy, Bryce Underwood is our starter for now.
I mean, this is crazy. He just turned 19 in August.
You look around college football, all the good quarterbacks are
(04:03):
like 21, 22, 23. And it's like, You know, it's
tough to win with a young guy. And the pressure's on.
I mean, Michigan last year, Sharon Moore, that disaster. They're
trying to move on. They got Whittingham. They should have
lost to Western Michigan. I think it was pro football
focus tracked Underwood in his first game against Western Michigan.
And they credit him with five turnover-worthy plays. He had
(04:25):
15 all of last season. And the line robbed for Michigan.
Oklahoma was Michigan favored by one and a half. They're
basically saying it was a pick-em, but they were at home,
so we'll give them a one and a half. It's
now Oklahoma favored by six on the road. That is
a colossal swing. And I'd be like, oh, you got
to take Michigan there. But Michigan looks so bad. They
(04:48):
ran zero plays in the second and third quarter in
Western Michigan territory. The scripted drive was great. Then they
did literally nothing. And Bryce Underwood was just a disaster.
And it's like, well, what do you do? You gave
the guy a multi-year NIL deal for $ 10 million. I
can't imagine... And again, I know, Jay, he's got 10 mil.
(05:09):
What are you worried about? But like when you got
$ 10 million, yeah, you didn't get 10 mil. It's a
multi-year deal. But you're walking around campus and everybody knows
you're a multimillionaire. And these are college kids. And the
pressure's got to be big. Somebody compared it to DJ
Ungulele from Clemson, how he was like this big guy.
(05:29):
He was supposed to be awesome and just kind of flopped.
And he ended up playing for, I think, FSU and
like Oregon State. And these guys just bounce around. Nobody
stays at the team that they started out at. It's
just not how it works anymore. And I don't know, Rob.
I think they could be in some trouble against Oklahoma.
And I wouldn't be shocked if at some point Bryce
(05:51):
Underwood got benched. The backup, by the way, is Tommy Carr,
who is CJ Carr, the Notre Dame quarterback, his younger brother.
And this isn't just message board yahoos yelling about this.
This is the coach openly saying... Basically, he's got to
get better, Rob. And after one game, to me, that
is majorly alarming.
Speaker 3 (06:12):
Oh, absolutely.
Speaker 4 (06:13):
And again, you never want to overreact to one game,
especially in college football.
Speaker 3 (06:16):
These are, you know, kids.
Speaker 4 (06:19):
But I'm going to overreact to one game because with
the six and a half you mentioned, like you could
have made it 12, 13, and I would have took Oklahoma.
Like the Michigan offense looked so bad and Underwood looked
so bad and so– He didn't look like he belonged
on that field, even against a quote-unquote lesser opponent. And
I was watching that game while I'm on the little staycation.
(06:41):
I have it on the phone and I have it
on the TV there in the background. And I see
Eric Weddle was trending for some reason.
Speaker 3 (06:49):
Like, Eric, what are the safety from the charge? Like,
did he die? I hope not because he seemed like
a good guy.
Speaker 4 (06:54):
And no, because apparently back in May, he was doing
a Big Ten, I guess, training camp tour, if you
want to call it that. He visited all the schools
there in that area. And he came away, his big
talking point was, quote, I don't think he, talking about Underwood,
can throw or play quarterback.
Speaker 3 (07:15):
It's like, oh, okay.
Speaker 4 (07:17):
And this was coming off a season where everyone was
optimistic about Underwood. Then he elaborates later. He says, Michigan
was one of the most impressive teams that I saw,
but the quarterback play wasn't what I expected. Don't be
surprised if he gets benched. When I say he can't
throw or play quarterback, It means he's not accurate and
doesn't play the position well. So Eric Weddle, one of
(07:38):
the few times we see on Twitter on Elon Musk
is X, trending for all the right reasons. Because if
you watch that game, you would come away thinking, how
on earth is this guy a power five quarterback, much
less the quarterback at Michigan? And I know that, you know,
we're kind of getting off topic here real quick, but
you mentioned, you know, he's a big NIL court player.
(08:00):
And that's part of the reason why it seems like
Whittingham didn't want to bench him in that game or
even after that first game is because they committed so
much to him.
Speaker 3 (08:09):
They're almost pot committed.
Speaker 4 (08:11):
And I said on my last episode of my podcast,
you know, while my voice was still coming back into
shape there, that I've just have not enjoyed much of
anything from the CFP era of college football. I feel
like everything that we've seen, whether it's going from the
BCS where it's two teams and it's four teams, they
want to go to expanded playoff. They might get to
(08:31):
24 teams.
Speaker 3 (08:32):
I don't like that.
Speaker 4 (08:33):
But as far as NIL, you're in a situation now
where Kyle Whittingham, so clearly, if you watched his news
conference or even just saw the clip, wants to bench
this kid. He does not see anything about him, and
it doesn't seem like he saw anything about him through
camp that leads him to believe that he can win
with this guy at quarterback running that system. However, the
(08:55):
collective invested, you mentioned $ 10 million. The boosters say we
invested this much money. We are gonna roll with this
kid no matter what you say because we're the ones
footing the bill you're just a visitor here and that's
something that i'm not really cool with i feel like
if you are the head coach you should kind of
be able to decide who your starting quarterback is going
(09:15):
to be and you can tell in michigan that this
time next week assuming it goes the way we all
think it's going to go that underwood's going to be
riding the bench kyle winningham's going to coast his way
to a four and seven season everybody's gonna be pissed
off there in.
Speaker 1 (09:29):
Ann arbor Fox Sports Radio has the best sports talk
lineup in the nation. Catch all of our shows at FoxSportsRadio.com.
And within the iHeartRadio app, search FSR to listen live.
Speaker 2 (09:43):
Yeah, it's weird. Every time we think we know something
about football, I'll never forget Spencer Rattler started the season
at Oklahoma with Lincoln Riley as the Heisman favorite. He's
going to go number one. And I think within the
first month, he was benched for Caleb Williams. And then
he had to transfer. And Caleb Williams becomes a star.
Caleb Williams goes to USC. And everything you think you
know about these stars. I mean, remember Arch Manning last year.
(10:06):
So bad in that Ohio State game. Now he rebounded
in the second half of the season. I think he's
going to be good. But again, this Ohio State game
coming up this week is huge for him. I mean,
this weekend, Rob. I kind of soft-pedaled it with the family.
I'm like, guys, let's load up on Friday night activities
because if we're keeping it real, Saturday's going to be
a big one. Michigan, Oklahoma's must-see TV. I think that
(10:29):
game is at, let me see, I think it's at noon? No,
9 a.m. So yeah, noon. So early start for Oklahoma, Michigan.
And then in the afternoon, I guess you can maybe
hang out with your family if you want to. And
then Ohio State, 4.30 p.m. Pacific, 7.30 at night on
the East Coast, Ohio State, Texas. And it's weird because, Rob,
(10:52):
the whole narrative all summer has been the Big Tens
pass the SEC. Last three champions, Indiana, Michigan, Ohio State,
are from the Big Ten. You know, SEC's fading. SEC
has a chance with Texas and Oklahoma to go 2-0
and kind of flip the narrative a little bit. I'm
definitely going to be on Texas in that game. And
(11:14):
I was going to be on Michigan, but after seeing
how bad they looked, I don't think I could take
it at five and a half. It gets a seven.
I think we'll change things up. By the way, it's
college football, Rob. We didn't touch on this. You know,
you guys know.
Speaker 3 (11:30):
Got to be careful here.
Speaker 2 (11:31):
Mike Lombardi went to UNC and was the GM for Belichick.
He was with him in New England. Lombardi has been
on this podcast. I work with him at FS1. I mean, Rob,
did you read about how he resigned there in, in UNC?
Have you followed that story?
Speaker 3 (11:48):
I absolutely follow that story.
Speaker 2 (11:51):
Oh my gosh. College football. Listen, it is a cesspool.
Reports of the, and again, you gotta look, you gotta
read the story. This is not me reporting anything, but
there are reports that, you know, there's a recruiting team
of females at North Carolina, you know, and, they're there
to show the players around, show recruits around, and you
(12:12):
could go look at the story about what was going
on there, and Belichick's son now, under some scrutiny, people
were like, oh, he's taking a health leave.
Speaker 4 (12:19):
Oh, really?
Speaker 2 (12:20):
Go read the story and tell me if it's a
health leave. I mean, Rob, it is, college football is
getting a little crazy.
Speaker 4 (12:27):
And just to our listeners, if they have not read
the article, yeah, I suggest you read it, but if
you haven't, if you've seen the movie, He Got Game,
and the things that happen on those recruiting trips with
Ray Allen, you know, with the- Oh, yeah. the women
at big tech and all those different things. That's basically
what they're alleging happened there at UNC.
Speaker 2 (12:45):
I mean, it's all right.
Speaker 3 (12:46):
Let's go to the NFL.
Speaker 2 (12:47):
Listen again. I love these crazy stories because you guys
eat them up. People can't get enough of them. I
think this is a crazy story, but so the Atlanta Falcons,
you know, Kevin Stefanski says no to Rob G's Raiders.
Remember he was interviewing, pulls his name out, says I'm
taking that Falcons job. I saw enough bad quarterbacks in Cleveland.
Dylan Gabriel should do her. washed Deshaun Watson. You can
(13:11):
only rehab Joe Flacco so many times. I'm going to Atlanta.
I like this Penix guy. He got hurt, but he's
going to be fine. And then we'll grab Tua, and
I'll have two left-handed quarterbacks because I love me a
lefty quarterback. As you know, Dylan Gabriel started last season
for Cleveland. And then Tua shows up in camp, looks
totally rattled in and over his head. Listen, Tua seems
(13:34):
like a great guy. I mean, you guys see the
interviews he gives. He's a guy to root for. Seems
like a nice guy, good family. He got paid, obviously,
so you're happy for that. But he was so bad
in the preseason that there were reports like, are we
sure this guy's going to make the team? Like Cooper
Rush is a pro backup. Like Tua's still out here thinking, okay,
you know, I'm a top 10 pick. And Tua was bad.
(13:58):
And then so they're trying to rush Penix back. He
didn't throw a pass in the preseason. He's barely done
11 on 11. And there were reports last week, oh yeah,
Penix will be the starter, almost certainly. So then Monday morning,
Stefanski comes out, and again, if you want to be
body language guy, watch Stefanski. He's like, yeah, Tua's going
to be our starter. Cooper rushed to back up, Penix inactive.
(14:18):
And it was one of those exasperated, like, here we
go again. It's Groundhog Day in Atlanta. I mean, I
think Schefter put the tweet out, but if you look
historically at the Atlanta quarterbacks over the last, I don't know,
five or six years, It's just been a revolving door.
It's like, can they ever get this right? So they
(14:39):
had 2021 Matty Ice. That was near the end. Then
Marcus Mariota. We'll give him another shot. Desmond Ritter. Remember
that guy, Cincinnati. Kirk Cousins. Pennix last year, and now
two a week this year. Six years, six different starters,
and week one at quarterback. Cousins came on for Pennix
(15:01):
last year. Couldn't throw a 15-yard out. if you guys
remember that. But the Raiders somehow think he's our guy. Again,
32 teams, and there's maybe 15 franchise quarterbacks. Maybe. And
you know what they say, if you have two left-handed quarterbacks,
you don't have any quarterbacks. So I cannot imagine what
Stefanski's going through. And by the way, Rob, if you
(15:23):
listen to Panics closely, I don't think he's that, he's
like on the doorstep of returning. He's essentially saying, yeah,
I'll let the coaching staff know when I'm ready. I mean,
you can't have him not take any hits and then
go out there again off an ACL. The guy's had
a massive injury history. I know the Atlanta Falcons are
one of these teams that nobody cares about. They're perpetually
(15:45):
8-9 or 9-8, but Rob, this is bad.
Speaker 3 (15:49):
Oh, it's really bad.
Speaker 4 (15:50):
It's terrible because their entire plan this offseason was Michael
Penix is going to be our starter.
Speaker 3 (15:59):
You mentioned it.
Speaker 4 (15:59):
That's why Stefanski made the move and pulled his name
out because he wanted to coach Penix. He thought with him, Bijan, Drake, London,
Kyle Pitts, all those guys, he could make sweet, sweet music.
They knew he was coming off the injury, so the
plan all offseason was Tua is going to be our
starter throughout the offseason, training camp, potentially for the first three,
(16:20):
four weeks.
Speaker 3 (16:20):
While Penix is up to speed.
Speaker 4 (16:22):
And then all of a sudden, like on a random Wednesday,
Schefter reports, Rappaport reports, Pellicero reports, hey, remember that plan
we had all offseason for the last six months about
Tua starting the first month of the season? Yeah, he's
been so bad in camp and in preseason that we
literally cannot do that anymore. That we might have to
rush this guy back from yet another season-ending injury. I
(16:46):
think he's had three in his football career already since
he got to college. We're going to have to rush
him back that quickly because Tua has been dogshit throughout
this entire run. And thankfully, I guess, if you are
a football fan, but unthankfully, if you're a Falcons fan,
they came to their senses and they said, hey, we
invested way too much in Pennix. You recall, I think
(17:06):
that they signed Kirk Cousins and then drafted Pennix. So
they basically ate like $ 80 million on one season to
make that move. And then their plan was we got
to get this young guy ready to go. And the
last thing you want to do is to have him
not be 100%. So instead, what they're going to do,
(17:26):
and this is smart long term, but it's going to
be rough in the short term, is they are bringing
in a quarterback in Tua who they've already decided is
not any good, that they were sold a false bill
of goods, that they thought maybe they could resuscitate his career,
that the guy we saw last season is not the
real Tua. We're going to get the guy from 2024,
2023 when he's putting up 70 burgers.
Speaker 3 (17:48):
But no, Tua's going to be the starter.
Speaker 4 (17:51):
He threw a league-high 15 picks in 14 games last season.
He's fumbling the ball in the preseason. And now you're
going to see Kevin Stefanski once again having a very
talented offense, scheming up all these great plays, but with
a quarterback who can't get it done just like he
had in Cleveland for all those years.
Speaker 1 (18:12):
Fox Sports Radio has the best sports talk lineup in
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Speaker 2 (18:24):
So, Rob, if we're doing the game of name me
the franchise quarterbacks, first, what would be your definition of
franchise quarterback? Someone you're willing to sign to, not a
max deal, but close to a max deal.
Speaker 4 (18:34):
Franchise quarterback means there is no question this is our
guy moving forward.
Speaker 3 (18:38):
What's moving forward? The next three to five years.
Speaker 2 (18:42):
Okay, so Josh Allen.
Speaker 3 (18:44):
Yes.
Speaker 2 (18:45):
Drake May.
Speaker 3 (18:46):
Yes.
Speaker 4 (18:47):
Burrow.
Speaker 2 (18:48):
Yep.
Speaker 1 (18:50):
Lamar.
Speaker 3 (18:50):
You just go down. I'll tell you no when you're wrong.
Go ahead. Keep going.
Speaker 2 (18:53):
Okay. Daniel Jones? No.
Speaker 3 (18:57):
No, I do agree.
Speaker 2 (18:59):
Trevor Lawrence, yes.
Speaker 3 (19:01):
Mm-hmm.
Speaker 2 (19:03):
This is a tough one. I'm going to put C.J.
Stroud in there. You could push back.
Speaker 3 (19:07):
Yeah, no, I don't think C.J.
Speaker 2 (19:08):
Stroud.
Speaker 3 (19:08):
I don't think they're sold on C.J.
Speaker 2 (19:09):
Stroud. Okay, so I have six. You have five. Bo Nix?
It's only been two years.
Speaker 3 (19:15):
I think they think he is. I would disagree, but
I think they think he is. I'm okay. So, seven.
Speaker 2 (19:22):
Mahomes, eight. We don't know on Mendoza. I think he
will be, but we don't. Come on, we can't put
him there. Herbert, obviously. Dak, yes.
Speaker 1 (19:31):
Dart?
Speaker 3 (19:32):
Can't say that. No, can't say that.
Speaker 2 (19:34):
Hertz? I think so. I mean, you guys won a
Super Bowl MVP, but.
Speaker 4 (19:41):
Yeah, to me, it's the opposite of CJ Stroud. I
don't think they think he is. And like I said,
you think that he is. Just like I think they
think CJ Stroud or, you know, an actor.
Speaker 3 (19:50):
Think he's not.
Speaker 2 (19:51):
Okay, Jaden Daniels.
Speaker 1 (19:53):
Yes.
Speaker 2 (19:55):
So, 11. Caleb Yitt, 12. Goff, 13. Jordan Love, 14.
Can't say Kyler. I mean, Tyler Shuck?
Speaker 4 (20:05):
No.
Speaker 2 (20:06):
He played like half a season.
Speaker 3 (20:07):
Yes, too soon.
Speaker 2 (20:09):
Baker, clearly not.
Speaker 3 (20:10):
They won't pay him.
Speaker 2 (20:12):
Bryce Young, no. Stafford, yes.
Speaker 4 (20:19):
15.
Speaker 2 (20:19):
Purdy, 16. And then Sam Darnold, the interesting one, 17.
Is Sam Darnold yes or no?
Speaker 4 (20:24):
Well, it's interesting if you read the reporting coming out
of Seattle, they're still not sold on him.
Speaker 2 (20:29):
Yeah, I would agree with that.
Speaker 3 (20:30):
Which is crazy.
Speaker 2 (20:31):
So we're basically about 16 or 17. So you're looking
at like 13 teams, 13 to 15 teams that need
a quarterback.
Speaker 3 (20:37):
Like half the league, yeah.
Speaker 2 (20:40):
That's bad. I mean, that's awful. And I know there's
potential classes loaded. But here's the biggest issue, Rob, is
all these teams that need a quarterback, they don't know
how to build one. They don't know how to put
the infrastructure around them. You know, like the Ravens, historically,
going back to Joe Flacco and Lamar, and I think
(21:00):
there was someone before that, who they're able to just say,
you know what? We can build around this guy and
make something happen. They're smart. A lot of these teams,
like the Colts, if they don't have Peyton Manning, give
me their other quarterback history. It's like total, like, crapshoot,
you know? Titans, they can never do it. It's really
hard to get one. And, you know, Falcons, that division,
(21:20):
they just don't have them. And I'm looking around the
league now, and I'm like, this is not great. And
I'm sure you saw this news that the Cowboys have
offensive line injuries. The Ravens just named some young, unproven
guy to be the starting center for Lamar Jackson. The
league is in a weird place right now. Let me
(21:41):
ask a couple other quick, just quick hitters as we
head into week one, Rob. Rams Niners. I was hosting
the herd and Teron Armstead came on and said, oh,
Rams are going 17-0. I'll say this. Will they have
a winning record after the first five games? Because you're
not going to fall for the 17-0. So Australia against
(22:02):
the Niners. They should win, but Shanahan has had his number.
Not lately, given the Stafford versus injured Niners. Giants should
come back. I think that's the one win. Then you've
got to go to Denver on a short week. Remember,
you were in Australia two weeks ago. Now you've got
to go to Denver at altitude. And yeah, the Rams
(22:25):
are better than Denver, but in a short week altitude,
after playing Monday night football, they play Sunday night football.
Then they go home after that game, and then they
go cross country to the Eagles. That travel early for
the Rams is really tough. And then, oh, by the way,
they go home to Josh Allen on the Bills. And
I don't know if I mentioned, but all of those
games are in primetime. I'm sorry, the Eagles games at
(22:47):
1 p.m., but it's East Coast. So that's another body
clock game. I think there's a world where they're two
and three after the first five games, Rob.
Speaker 4 (22:55):
That is not a crazy thing to say. And even
though I am one of the people who picked the
Rams to win the Super Bowl, I picked them to
win the division.
Speaker 3 (23:01):
I'm very high on the Rams.
Speaker 4 (23:02):
I think you're high on the Rams as well. But
the reality of the NFL is, number one, no one
goes 17-0.
Speaker 1 (23:06):
No.
Speaker 2 (23:06):
Right?
Speaker 4 (23:07):
And number two, those kind of things matter. The body
clock game you mentioned. The time change. The having a
grueling three, four game schedule where you play two or
three Super Bowl caliber teams. Oh, and a team that
just always happens to have your number. That kind of
stuff happens all the time. If it was that easy
to predict, then we would just know coming into every
(23:29):
season what team's going to be great and who's not.
I mean, if you would have told me week one
last season, the Seattle Seahawks, who look like the best
team in football for the last two and a half
months of the season, would have, what, three turnovers from
Sam Darnold at home against San Francisco?
Speaker 2 (23:46):
That's right.
Speaker 3 (23:46):
You know what I mean?
Speaker 4 (23:47):
Like, that's where they were. That's how they started. Everybody
was already questioning the Sam Darnold contract 30 minutes into
the season. So the idea of the Rams getting off
to a slow start is not crazy at all, especially
when you consider, I mean, that Australia trip is just ridiculous.
You have two competing lines of thinking between San Francisco
and LA. San Francisco getting there a week early. The
(24:09):
Rams getting there a day early. They both have medical
professionals saying this is the way to do it to
ensure that you're at optimum health. Only one of them
can be proven right. Because I promise you, one of
these teams is going to look really bad. whether it's
San Francisco because they're sluggish for a week or the
Rams because they've only got there off the plane 30
minutes ago.
Speaker 3 (24:28):
One of these teams is going to look terrible.
Speaker 4 (24:29):
I don't think it's going to be indicative of how
good either team is, to.
Speaker 3 (24:32):
Be quite honest with you.
Speaker 4 (24:33):
So yeah, the idea of them starting off slow two
and three is absolutely within the realm of possibility.
Speaker 2 (24:39):
And again, remember, everything we think we know, I can't
believe people are picking Seahawks to go to the Super
Bowl again. I just saw the injury report for the Seahawks. Remember,
they play Wednesday. And Nick Amanwari, the great secondary guy,
Just unbelievable player. It doesn't sound like he's going to
play in the opener. He's a limited participant in practice.
(25:01):
And remember, this is a secondary that lost Tyreek Wolin.
They lost Kobe Bryant, their cornerback. So Drake May adds
a receiver in A.J.
Speaker 3 (25:09):
Brown.
Speaker 2 (25:10):
Meanwhile, you've got the Seahawks losing three of their four
guys in the secondary. Patriots could come out and easily
win that game. I mean, nothing's easy in Seattle. But
I wouldn't be shocked if that happened. And then it's like, well, well, Sam,
the narrative start. Well, is Sam Darnold really a deluxe Dilfer?
You know, is he a guy who just wrote a
(25:30):
great defense and special team to the top?
Speaker 4 (25:32):
Maybe.
Speaker 2 (25:33):
And that's why this is so hard betting on the NFL,
Rob G. Um, it is, I mean, it's why I'm
so into it because it's so hard to beat. And
I just, I mean, again, I like the chargers a lot. I,
Are they definitely 100% beating the Cardinals in week one?
Speaker 1 (25:53):
I mean, it's a big spread.
Speaker 2 (25:55):
I got to ask it, Rob.
Speaker 3 (25:56):
I don't know.
Speaker 4 (25:57):
I'm in a survivor league, and I got the Raiders
in week one against the Dolphins.
Speaker 3 (26:01):
Stop it. How many teams do you have?
Speaker 2 (26:05):
Or how many entries?
Speaker 3 (26:06):
Oh, it's a company one. So everybody has one.
Speaker 2 (26:09):
Is this a Fox Sports one I did not get
invited to?
Speaker 3 (26:11):
This is an iHeart one that you did not get
invited in. Damn.
Speaker 4 (26:14):
But just imagine, when else can I confidently use the Raiders?
Speaker 3 (26:17):
Probably never.
Speaker 2 (26:20):
You could be done in week one, bro.
Speaker 4 (26:22):
I saw 55% of the ballots so far have the
Chargers in week one.
Speaker 2 (26:27):
Yeah, usually you want to fade the biggest spread. I
kind of want to go against Cleveland. Take the Jags,
who are big favorites. I mean, I think Deshaun Watson's
bad enough that you're going to look at the Browns
and be like, every week, do I just pick whoever
the Browns are playing? I think he's that bad. I
think the Steelers are in play now that Tua's starting.
(26:47):
Tua Outdoors, healthy Aaron Rodgers. The vibes are good for Pittsburgh.
The vibes are not good for Atlanta. By the way,
I'm so pissed. Bijan Robinson in one of my big
money fantasy leagues. And like now, I think teams are
going to load the box and be like, yeah, Tua's
going to be trigger happy, get the ball out quickly.
Speaker 4 (27:06):
If you look at it that way, Bijan could have
one of those games where he has 12 carries for
37 yards, but nine catches for 77, and that saves
your fantasy day.
Speaker 3 (27:18):
Cause everything's a dump off. That's what you're kind of
hoping for.
Speaker 2 (27:20):
In space against those linebackers. Um, yeah, that's not, that's not,
not terrible. Um, so Rob, I will say, uh, NFL Sunday,
have you talked to the family about like your game plan?
I will say lioness. Um, they drop episodes on Sunday.
I'm probably going to wake up early Sunday just to
get that episode out of the way. Have you been
(27:41):
watching the season by the way?
Speaker 3 (27:42):
I have not.
Speaker 4 (27:43):
You told me to watch it. You, someone else has
told me to watch it and it's in the queue
on the, TV. The wife's not going to really love
it in this season. Like, I mean, I don't want
to do any spoilers, but it's like season three. First
two seasons are great. I think this season is just incredible.
Speaker 3 (27:56):
I don't know.
Speaker 2 (27:57):
Usually shows Peter out. I tried that friends and neighbors
on Apple TV. First season was great. Second season. It's
like kind of not as good. So I'm not as
into it, but plus football starting. So now you're just
much less time to watch these shows. I'm still watching Reacher.
Are you watching that?
Speaker 3 (28:15):
No, I actually was watching, um, house of the dragon.
Speaker 2 (28:19):
And then I was like, Oh, is that the spinoff
of a.
Speaker 3 (28:21):
Game of Thrones? Right.
Speaker 4 (28:23):
And they're like, Oh, the season's over already. I'm like, Oh,
I got like three episodes left and I just stopped
watching it.
Speaker 1 (28:27):
Yeah.
Speaker 3 (28:27):
And it's like, Oh, okay. I'm good.
Speaker 1 (28:30):
By the way.
Speaker 2 (28:30):
Um, I know nobody outside of LA cares about this, Rob,
but my wife told me that the weather it's going
to be 88 degrees here this week. And, um, I'm
just despondent at this. I thought the rain things off
88 degrees.
Speaker 3 (28:44):
Oh my gosh.
Speaker 4 (28:44):
If you were outside on Monday or even Sunday, it
felt like Florida weather.
Speaker 3 (28:49):
He's just so muggy is terrible. First world problems, right?
Speaker 2 (28:54):
Yeah, seriously. But, uh, we'll be inside watching football.
Speaker 3 (28:56):
All right.
Speaker 2 (28:57):
Um, get ready folks. We will, I gotta find a
gambler to come on. Um, this week we'll say Brad
powers for, for bigger ones for college football down the road.
Speaker 3 (29:05):
But, um, Lock in folks. I'm excited. We'll see you tomorrow.
Hosts And Creators
kelvin washington
Rob Parker
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