January 7, 2025 • 34 mins
It's Fox Sports Radio's official fantasy football podcast! Dan Beyer and Mike Harmon open the show looking back on another incredible regular season of NFL football. Who were the most (and least) impressive teams of the year? Who exceeded expectations and why? Who fell short of expectations? The guys get into all of that and more before taking a look at some interesting quarterback stats to help paint a clearer picture of certain guys moving forward.
*New episode tomorrow morning to preview the NFL playoffs and dive into the head coaching carousel!
Hosts: Dan Beyer, Mike Harmon
Producer: Ian Roddy
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Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:00):
Ladies.
Speaker 2 (00:00):
And you want experience during your football season, Well, buckle up,
sweet cheeks. We've got all the experience in the world.
Speaker 3 (00:12):
This is I want your flex with Dan Bayer and
Mike Harmon.
Speaker 2 (00:17):
Mike and Dan break down everything you need to set
your lineups, from position rankings to starts and sits. The
guys help you make those hard decisions. And now let's
get your flex sod. Here's Dan Bayer and Mike Harmon.
Speaker 1 (00:33):
Well, that's a wrap on the regular season. Mike Harmon
will grade the overall two seventy two is at Mike Many. Yeah,
it's gonna ask all in the books. We'll take a
look back at what happened in week eighteen, plus take
a look at the wild Karpuken. Get Mike on X
at Swollen Dome. You can find me at Dan Byer
on Fox both on Blue Sky as well. He's at
Mike Harmon. I'm at Dan Bayer beat Yere and our
(00:55):
executive producer is Ian Roddy, who is both on X
and now on Blue Sky new for twenty twenty five.
Ian Roddy Underscore and on X and what is the
It's Ian dash Roddy on Blue Sky Correct I have
to get those cymbals correctly. We couldn't get Ian in
on the ground floor enough to just get Ian roddy.
So it's Ian dash Roddy on blue sky. That's where
(01:16):
you can reach us via social butt Mike. As a
whole of the two seventy two, are we giving this
regular season a grade? Fewest interceptions thrown in a season
since nineteen eighty two? As we look back at this
thing as a whole, how do we look back at
the twenty twenty four NFL regular.
Speaker 3 (01:33):
I'd grabbed the meme for quarterbacks first, it would just
be Malkovich from rounders check check check. That's all we
did in Chicago. I mean that was Caleb Williams. And
how far downfield was that? Three yards behind the line
of scrimmage? Okay, cool? So you know, when you have
few interceptions, see, I'm going glass half empty when it
(01:55):
comes to that, it means we're not taking shots downfield. Sure,
right that we're doing a lot of at the line
of scrimmage, quick screens, quick outs, effective plays, don't get
me wrong, But we're also not pushing for explosive plays.
We're playing cautiously and part of that goes back to
the conversation we had all year about the fifty yard
let's bomb it in kickers, right, it's not Sebastian Janakowski
(02:17):
Stephen Goskowski anymore. Seemingly everybody could, including at the end
of the year Justin Tucker. After costing Lamar Jackson the MVP,
he suddenly got his range back. But all of that
to say, you know, I give it a nice B
minus maybe C plus for a season as a whole,
because we do have just such a disparate path here.
(02:40):
He've got a couple of really good teams, or we
think are really good, and then everybody, how many teams
do we still in week sixteen, Week seventeen, Week eighteens,
just that astisk thing Dan and Ian. But week sixteen,
week seventeen, I think, all right, how would you how
would you call out the identity of this team? I
don't know, they're not very good? No, no, what's the identity
(03:01):
of the team beyond not being very good? And there
were plenty of those teams that we had, and then
you have obviously a race to the bottom where one
win changed just six or seven draft slots. I mean,
that's how bad it got. It and crowded at the bottom.
So for me that disappointment. As much as everybody's bemoaning
the product of the NBA NFL, I've got my hand
(03:23):
up as well. Bad management, bad ownership, constantly cycling through
front office people. The Chickens came home to roost a
bid here in twenty twenty four.
Speaker 1 (03:33):
I believe the Chiefs a little bit for the down
year just because of how good they were. Of course
they mail in week eighteen, and we'll get to some
of that in a second, but also they had the
best record in the NFL. They were in a conference
where honestly, we knew the playoff teams were a good
month before the playoffs actually wrapped out wrapped actually the
(03:54):
field was actually set because the Broncos and the Chargers
had such a lead over everybody else, and a couple
of losses at the end of the year made it
close for the Broncos, So there was something to play
for in Week eighteam, but in the end it obviously
didn't matter. But also when you have the league's best team,
or at least via record wise, they're playing close games,
but not much as changing. You didn't have a lot
of voluing for server back and forth in the AFC
(04:18):
and in the NFC. Sure, it went down to the
wire with the Lions and Vikings, and it was a
bit exciting there, but I'm not even sure if we
get a full sense of the NFC considering some of
Detroit's injuries, Jalen Hurts ends up getting digged up the
three and four seed, end up flipping on the on
the last week. It was just kind of kind of
(04:39):
weird with the NFC, even there was even though there
was a lot to play for in Week eighteen, in
that final game of the year between the Vikings and Lions,
I would I would give you the C plus. I
think that you're pretty fair in that assessment. Saquon. Great
year and whatnot, but there just wasn't a lot of
drama week in and week out about what could be
at stake, and I think that was disappointing.
Speaker 3 (05:00):
Still mildly disappointed he'd ended up not playing. I was
kind of hoping there'd be the last minute. You know what,
there's enough ground swell of love and support and positivity
and everybody wants to get this record, so we go
get it instead. No, to your point about the injuries.
I mean ad Jordan Love's injury coming forward z A
Flowers for Baltimore on the other side of the equation
(05:20):
there in the AFC, but you know, the Rams pretty
much sid everybody was good to see Jimmy Garoppolo out
there slinging it once again. That's all fine and good.
You lost an offensive coordinator on Monday, Maybe you're okay
with that.
Speaker 1 (05:36):
Yeah, yeah, I don't want to be too negative on it,
but I just felt like a change probably needed to
be made and there was just no consistency in the
Seattle offense. The the the naysayers will will point to that,
those that say Grubs should have stuck around for another year,
point to like jsn's numbers and what Gino did in
(05:57):
the last game, but they're just there was never a
constant flow of anything, and some of that may be
due to personnel. But not shocked that Ryan Grub's gone.
Speaker 3 (06:06):
The fact that Walker wasn't available for a good stretch
of things, but you know, hey, what are you gonna do?
And he may have wanted out right, we don't know
all the details and whatever else maybe and I am
going back to college or something. I don't know, but
all of that to say, you know, on the AFC
side of things, you know, the Chiefs won, but they
didn't do anything that was sexy right as a workman,
(06:31):
like fifteen to two, marveling that they were able to
win all those games close, Conspiracy theories abound, all of
those things. Buffalo, Baltimore. We had Derrick Henry, We talked
about him for a while, but it was about the quarterbacks, right,
Even Josh Allen putting up huge numbers, wasn't anybody in
particular that you're like, wow, you know, you know that
(06:52):
was his number one guy. We're nerds, we're going fantasy wise.
So Shakir's efficiency in some of the big games, maybe
James cad here and there makes sense, But it was
all about the quarterbacks, maybe more so this year. And
it's always about the quarterbacks, but it always it seemed
like the majority of conversation go all the way down
to the sixth seed, the Steelers, other than mocking whatever
(07:15):
George Pickens was shouting at windmills or fighting with fans
about next, we celebrated Bo Nicks. The Chargers, I guess
was about about the coach instead of the team itself.
So yeah, just an interest to end Houston wins because
everybody else in the division sucked.
Speaker 1 (07:33):
Yeah, well, yeah, you mentioned just and what we've seen there.
Buffalo clinched on December first. They clinched the AFC East
on December first. We had an entire month of football
and there was really little drama in what they had
to deal with. The drama, like you mentioned Baltimore, the
drama was more about the Pittsburgh Steelers falling flat on
their face.
Speaker 3 (07:53):
Yeah, the final month of the season, step up in class, and.
Speaker 1 (07:57):
Yeah, Houston hasn't really been good. The US win the
AFC South by default, but we don't expect much from them.
There just wasn't a lot of greatness that we could follow.
I think we're mostly following on just the downfall of stuff.
But again, doesn't matter. We've got the field of fourteen.
My Seahawks the only double digit win team to not
(08:18):
make the postseason. As crazy as that is, Ted and seven.
I would have taken it at the beginning of the year,
no doubt, and I would have thought that automatic playoff
birth but did not happen.
Speaker 3 (08:29):
So they're on the outside, which lost you hate most
now that you look back at it.
Speaker 1 (08:35):
The Giants. One is the one that stands out the
most because of how poorly they played, and they still
had an opportunity to maybe escape to maybe because they
were going for that game tying field goal and then
they ended up Isaiah Simmons jumped the line of scrimmage
and ended up getting the block. But that's the that's
the one that kind of sticks. You know, they lost
(08:57):
to the Rams in overtime in their first meeting. That's one,
but it's the you just can't lose to the you
can't lose to the Giants. Giants won three games this year,
so that happened to be one of them, and that
ends up costing them. But it was It's funny, Mike,
because it's the strength of victory tiebreaker that got them right.
So there were probably about five other games that I
(09:19):
wish they would have gone a different way, you know,
that maybe could have set those dominoes in, you know,
in order to make it work. But they're a pretty
even team, the Seahawks this year. There, you know, the
four and against they were plus seven. They scored eight
more points than the Rams and they you know, allowed
about twenty about eighteen points less than them Rams. Actually
(09:42):
they allowed more points than they actually scored this year,
but they turned it on at the end.
Speaker 3 (09:47):
Yeah. I was chuckling on the other side, right, because
the last couple of weeks have been all about everybody
cheerleading Joe Burrow in the in the Bengals forgetting about
how horribly they started the season, especially that loss into
New England.
Speaker 1 (10:01):
Yeah.
Speaker 3 (10:01):
Right, but all in outside of the lost to New England,
every other loss was to a playoff team.
Speaker 1 (10:09):
Yeah. The past interference on Cam Taylor Britain week two. Yeah,
you know, like such a such a big call in
your point, And I heard somebody say, like, you know, Joe,
I think Todd Furman responded to a tweet. I know
you have Todd on with you guys. I think you
know every Friday night, just talking stuff. And somebody made
the point of like Joe Burrow coming from behind. I don't.
(10:31):
I don't remember them like being behind. I just remember
them always having to score like that Commander's game. It
was just back and forth, back and forth. And I
remember that because that's what ousted me in my uh
Survivor pool three weeks in. Everybody was getting you know,
murdered in those in those games, but yeah, one point
loss to the Ravens, you know, touchdown loss to the Chargers. Yeah,
(10:54):
it's it's a tough schedule. They just didn't cash in.
And that Patriots game in Week one is probably the
one that you know kills them the most.
Speaker 3 (11:02):
It gets you. You have a shootout loss to Washington
and you get blown out by Philadelphia, close loss to Baltimore.
All we're high scoring, no question about it.
Speaker 1 (11:14):
The one in Baltimore on the no calls, you know
at the at the goal line, the share player where
you could have called three of them. You're sitting there
scratching your head of what could have been.
Speaker 3 (11:23):
So it's the fun and excitement of refereeing in twenty
twenty four. Ian, anything stand out for you? Yeah?
Speaker 4 (11:30):
Can I read you guys' stat here that I saw
this morning. So the fact that the Bengals have Joe Burrow,
who's leading the league in passing, they have Jamar Chase
who's leading the league in receiving, and they have Trey
Hendrickson who's leading the league in sacks, and they just
barely made the playoffs. It just feels like there's something
wrong there. I don't know if that's like an indicator
that Zach Taylor maybe isn't that great of a coach.
Speaker 3 (11:52):
Or what well you did struggle in late game situations.
But I asked both of you. I mean, that's my
lamentation and frustration watching all football is the final two
to three minutes of halves at certainly end of game
situations where you're just like, what are we doing? Like
just as a as a staff, like in theory, you
(12:13):
practice these situations right time out management, timeout usage. Forget
about the stupidity of Minnesota deciding, you know what, we're
gonna go for it on fourth down in the red
zone in the first quarter because damn it, we have
to no take the point, you mopes. But all that,
all that to say, like that, that's the thing that's
(12:34):
the most frustrating of watching it is like seemingly obvious,
Like I'm an idiot on the couch, and maybe I'm
not there's something in the calculations I'm missing here, but
sometimes it just seems so obvious. And Taylor was victim
of that number of times. To your point, Dan, yeah,
there were some circumstances and some refereeing and and you know,
seemingly obvious calls that were weren't made, but putting those
(12:59):
aside for the moment just in terms of that, and
maybe I'm speaking as the frustrated Bears guy having watched
it week after week of just pulling your hair out,
or go back to some of the end of the
end of season situations by would be playoff teams where
they did it right Atlanta in that very huge spot
(13:20):
and letting clock run in confusion. Look at what Russell
Wilson did in week eighteen, what he tried to run. Yeah,
it's weird how common it is.
Speaker 1 (13:30):
Yeah, well, the timeouts and the Bills Rams game was
sure an exact scenario that we saw with the Browns
and Raiders earlier on the season. In that game, you know,
ends up getting the Raiders of Victoria. I'm sure the
Browns fans are not happy that they messed it up
because they get the second overall, right, But at the time,
you know, it's just of yeah, of what you're using
(13:51):
timeouts for. I do think that Zach Taylor gets this
inordinate amount of snark because I feel that people just
think that Joe Burrow and Jamar Chase could just do
it by themselves. But as we saw Mike if you
don't have players on defense, and they really don't outside
of you know, ian stat of Trey Hendrickson. Like they've
(14:12):
lost a lot from the Super Bowl teams, you know,
from the Super Bowl team from a few years ago,
and it just wasn't there. And Anna Rumo was interviewing
for ad coaching jobs. Now he's looking for a job.
It's crazy. And how how things can change in the
NFL just in a couple of seasons.
Speaker 3 (14:27):
Well always goes back to my favorite story coming out
of that Super Bowl that I've told a million times,
the assumption that the era of dominance was going to
be there, no matter how good Burrow is and Chase
is and Hendrickson's fantastic, doesn't the ball doesn't bounce your way,
the calls don't go your way. And in a division
like that, you're lucky. Cleveland's still a train wreck. Yeah, right,
(14:52):
if they were halfway competent, guess what, you'd have a
fourth team that was a pain in the ass because
Baltimore and Pittsburgh may not win anything substantive, but damn it,
they're gonna be five hundred every year.
Speaker 1 (15:04):
Well in Cleveland may have gotten more good news is
Deshaun Watson then a set back with his Achilles injury,
so who knows the availability it's gonna.
Speaker 3 (15:11):
Be next, So so let's go Yeah, I saw that.
That note just shook my head. Go really yeah, really
this is where this is the Hey, I'm getting all
my money?
Speaker 1 (15:22):
Yeah, just maybe they just did that in the rehab.
They messed something up so it wouldn't be around. I'm
only kidding, I'm only kidds.
Speaker 3 (15:29):
Just insane though. Right the day, let's let's do our
exit interviews about the season that was. Oh, by the way,
DeShawn had a setback.
Speaker 1 (15:38):
Wait what and they said they found it. They found
out this morning or Monday morning. So we're taping this
late Monday into early Tuesday. But Monday morning they found
out about it and they'll find out more information. We
do know that achilles injuries are quicker to return, but
still who knows what's going to happen with one Deshaun Watts. Yeah,
(16:00):
we're going to take a time out. I've got some
quarterbacking numbers that I want to pass along to you guys. Plus,
there are now five vacancies in the NFL, and Mike
your bears apparently maybe are trying to make it six.
I'm not sure what they're trying to do with Mike McCarthy.
We'll talk about it next. He's Mike Carmen. I'm Dan
Byer Ian Roddy hanging out as well. This is I
want your Flex Welcome back. He's Mike Carmen. I'm Dan Bayer.
(16:24):
That's Ian Roddy, our executive producer. I want to run
a couple of numbers by you guys that I saw
in this Twitter thread from a rich Rebar. I believe
that's how you pronounce it. It's Hribar, who does stuff
for Sharp Football and just made a list of a
thread of about twenty or so quarterback stats that were
(16:47):
just amazing, both in good and bad ways. The first
one Anthony Richardson of the Colts, who the cults say
the athletic is saying that team sources are saying Anthony
Richardson is planning to be the starter in twenty twenty five.
But Anthony Richardson completed sixty point three percent of his
passes on throws under ten yards downfield. It's the lowest
(17:09):
rate since twenty seventeen by a quarterback, but it passes
under ten yards only six of ten for Anthony Richardson.
That's not the total, but sixty percent. Basically, that's not good. Wow, yeah,
that's not good at all. How about how about this one?
Jared Goff had a league high twenty two passing touchdowns
(17:30):
on throws that were not thrown into the end zone
and run in by the pass catcher.
Speaker 3 (17:35):
Wow, yack for days? Yes, how about that?
Speaker 1 (17:39):
Thank you very much, Jamiir Gibbs and everyone else JMO
and yeah yeah. Tyler Murray had seven passing conversions on
third and long needing seven or more.
Speaker 3 (17:51):
They only kept seven.
Speaker 1 (17:53):
Seven first downs on third and seven or more?
Speaker 3 (17:57):
Holy? What was that sample size they get?
Speaker 1 (18:00):
Well, seventeen games entire season.
Speaker 3 (18:02):
Oh, I meant just in terms of actual throws all
that would be sure.
Speaker 1 (18:07):
We'll put it this may be put it in perspective
from the tweet. Michael Pennix also had seven in his
three starts. Dak Prescott also had seven in his eight
and it was one more than Deshaun Watson, who we
were just talking about it had in his seven starts.
Speaker 3 (18:24):
That makes my head hurt.
Speaker 1 (18:26):
Right. Baker Mayfield through a league high twenty seven passing
touchdowns within two and a half seconds of the snap
when he threw it within two and a half seconds.
Twenty seven touchdowns, three interceptions, seventy seven point eight percent
completion right, so when he gets it out, he's getting
it out in its open. It's there. And my final,
(18:49):
my final favorite stat, Will Levis through a league high
fifteen passes that traveled forty or more air yards. He
completed two of them with three interceptions.
Speaker 3 (19:01):
So so three completions, yeah, and harmlessly to the ground.
I knew.
Speaker 4 (19:09):
I knew the Will Webbs one just wasn't going to
be a positive.
Speaker 3 (19:13):
I kinda sat up in my chair here going, oh boy,
where are we going with this man? They were traveling
back the other way for touchdowns.
Speaker 1 (19:21):
I retweeted this thread, so if you go to Dan
Byer on Fox you can see it. But great draw
a job by rich here to track all those numbers down,
because they do tell some great stories on what was
what in the National Football League this past year. But
the Kyler Murray one, I'll tell you know, Colin Coward
(19:42):
last year last week floated the idea of Murray maybe
being out of Arizona. I'd been thinking in my head
as well over the last couple of weeks is is
this team capped out with Kyler Murray? Like how much
how better can they be? And if they did get better,
Mike like, would Kyler Murray be the quarterback to be
able to navigate he gate a team that maybe doesn't
(20:02):
need the quarterback to do everything. I don't know, just's
just kind of entered my mind, and not after the
just after the throw against the Rams that went off
Trey McBride's helmet, But I just I don't know, I'm
still jury still out with me and Kyler Murray.
Speaker 3 (20:17):
Wondering some of it. He got McBride right, one hundred catches,
Connor still doing his thing. In terms of the rest
of that receiving corps man Marvin Harrison Junior coming out
saying he was dealing with this massive injury and just
played through it the whole year, Like, Okay, that makes
a little more sense as to why he never looked
(20:39):
comfortable on the field, and you know you'd go series
without him seeing a target. Okay, quasi decoy at times,
but not really someone that they were going to be
able to depend on to go after the ball ten
times a game. So maybe there's a little bit of
something there. Maybe I'm a Kyler Murray apologist. I don't know,
(21:00):
but certainly yeah, for that coaching staff, you wonder if
you've hit a point, right, twenty nineteen year seven, Yeah.
Speaker 1 (21:11):
Yeah, if it's twenty nineteen season, yeah, twenty twenty one,
twenty three, twenty four entering year seven.
Speaker 3 (21:18):
So I mean you've got this long track record. I mean,
I guess it goes back to like we talk about
with coaches, which we'll get to in earnest here in
a minute, is what are you going into the marketplace
to get? I guess is the larger thing? Right when
we talk about the rookie class, you've got Sanders and
you've got Ward at the top, and then we can
fight about everybody else. But there's such a divisive stance
(21:42):
on pretty much all of them. Right is this guy? Now?
That doesn't mean that they won't be drafted high. Right,
The two are not necessarily together here, but the idea
of all right, am I gonna find my next guy
in the twenty twenty five draft? Probably not free agency?
Your three quote unquote best options as it stands right now,
(22:05):
one guy who's probably not getting out of town, and
that's Sam Darnold, Aaron Rodgers, Kirk Cousins, Justin Fields, Justin
Field or Russell Wilson. Like, those are your options in
terms of guys that are gonna be made available. Maybe
Jimmy Garoppolo gets another bite in an apple. I don't know.
(22:26):
There might be one or two others. Milton, you're right,
Joe Milton, Well, Robert Kraft, we may suck. We may
have fired our coach. Man. I'm really sad I had
to fire our coach. But but we got two quarterbacks
look at us. And Milton was interesting. He was a
guy we actually talked about quite a bit. Smith and
I heading into the season, wondering what he might be
because he liked him and maybe show hyperbole, but talked
(22:49):
about him a lot more than he loved Drake May
just from an overall overwhelmed over a ceiling kind of
thing of there's a.
Speaker 1 (22:56):
Lot of hype in the preseason.
Speaker 4 (22:58):
Yeah, people which people fall for Joe Milton at every
level he's been at though, like in high school it
was exactly like this. In college it was exactly like this,
Like he was going to be the next guy at Michigan.
He transferred to Tennessee, he was going to be this
insane talent. I just want to see it first, because
I mean, obviously, I guess we kind of did see it,
but I don't know.
Speaker 3 (23:17):
Week eighteen. Well, but that's the thing. You're not going
to get along sample size right, and you have to
either trust what you had on tape, or trust whoever
you're believing in the building that's doing the sales job
to you, or the independent scout and analyst or whatever
that that they're going to come through and decide that
(23:37):
that could be a guy you put a future on.
I guess all of that was to say, what are
you finding that's better than Kyler Murray? Necessarily in the marketplace.
Speaker 1 (23:47):
You're not going to But it's just the the I
think the conversation is worth having.
Speaker 3 (23:55):
No, I agree, yeah, it's just the you know, trying
to process it and look at the dominoes that have
to fall this.
Speaker 1 (24:03):
This is gonna be Ian. I'm gonna put you on
the spot. I'm sorry. This is this is meant not
meant to be dirty cool, It's not meant to make
you look silly or anything. I'm just trying to gauge
my own thing because I have Kyler Murray stats sitting
in front of me, and I was surprised when I
saw this. How many What's the most number of touchdowns
(24:23):
you think Kyler Murray is thrown for in this season
in his career, like in one season the most amount
of touchdowns?
Speaker 4 (24:30):
Oh man, I'd probably guess, like he's been an MVP
candidate for stretches, but never a full season, So I
don't know. I'd guess like twenty five.
Speaker 1 (24:41):
Okay, it was twenty six, and I would have thought
there would have been like a thirty five or thirty
three season, Russell Wilson had those types of seasons.
Speaker 4 (24:52):
Had you not led me there, you know, I probably
would have guessed higher. I just assumed the reason you
were asking me the question, it was going to be low.
Speaker 1 (24:59):
Yeah in the maybe, so what about yardage wise?
Speaker 3 (25:03):
Now, to be fair, he did run for eleven touchdowns
then yeah.
Speaker 1 (25:06):
Yeah. And by the way, passing touchdowns the least impressive
stat on or I think the stat that least translates
to how you actually play, right, you know, Like I mean,
it's just again, we just had this Jared goffstat of
the twenty two touchdown passes that he didn't even sure
they weren't even thrown into the end zone. But yardage wise,
(25:28):
most passing yards that he's had in the season, Joe Burrow,
by the way, had forty six is it forty nine
hundred this year? Yeah, Baker Mayfield forty five hundred, Jared
Goff forty six hundred. What's the highest do you think
Kyler Murray's had? Is it me again?
Speaker 3 (25:46):
Yes?
Speaker 4 (25:47):
Oh, all right, I'll guess. Man, four thousand, I feel
like is the benchmark. So I'm thinking it's lower than that.
Speaker 1 (25:55):
I'll say, like eight lower thirty nine seventy one. In
his second ear he only one year as he had
a passer rating over one hundred, and this year is
coming off of a season way three twenty one touchdowns
and eleven interceptions and at a passer rating of ninety
three and a half. And so yeah there, So you know,
(26:17):
to Mike's point about the rushing, it's not always going
to be there. And I actually think that we've seen
a little bit of a regression over the last couple
of years, maybe of from what we've seen, not what
he was the first he had five hundred and seventy
two yards this past year seventy eight carries. He ran
it ninety three times and one hundred and thirty three
times in his first two years. I don't know, I
(26:41):
just I guess. You know, the passing numbers aren't great,
and Mike, it's totally fair to be like his rushing numbers.
You know, will will make up for that. But at
some point those rushing numbers aren't going to be there.
He's an undersized quarterback. And so I don't know. I
just think Arizona's interesting. And and by the way, it
doesn't mean that Kyler Murray can't all of a sudden
(27:01):
become that quarterback either. It's just going to be up
to him and his track record of the quarterback that
he is in preparation hasn't always been on his side,
so he has an opportunity to at least change that narrative.
Speaker 3 (27:13):
That's tough, right, because we're having the conversation on the
larger scale on Sam Darnold and what do we keep
coming back to. He's only twenty seven, yeah, right, all
the many weary miles, all the stops, yep, and there's
Kyler Murray twenty seven was a dual sport athlete for
the longest time here you've had coaching changes, some curiosity
(27:35):
along the way. To your point about the rushing stuff,
I mean, this was also the most games he'd played
by a mile in years right, eight and twenty twenty three,
eleven and twenty twenty two, fourteen, Going back to twenty
twenty one. In twenty twenty he played in sixteen, and
his rookie year he played in sixteen.
Speaker 1 (27:54):
So the ACL in twenty twenty two which cost him
the end, and then the beginning of twenty twenty.
Speaker 3 (27:59):
Three, right, so to that end, right, a full year
removed from the injury, Like, trying to do all that
math as we're going forward, Is it the best ahead
as much as we can get back to a form
of Kyler Murray that looks like the rookie and second
year guy in twenty twenty five. Don't know, again, maybe wishing, wanting, hoping,
(28:20):
because I'm always hopeful for one more quarterback to crack
that list of guys that we feel confident in. And again,
some of that goes back to Marvin Harrison Junior being healthy.
He still put up big numbers. Right for the year,
I mean, the aggregate was was pretty solid, Yeah, but
you didn't feel like it was one that made you know,
(28:41):
big explosive plays to the point where he was at
the forefront of things and if you were banking on him,
and certainly for fantasy purposes, we stopped talking about him
pretty much altogether after a while.
Speaker 1 (28:51):
Yeah, eight eighty five and eight touchdowns for Marvin Harrison
Junior and year number one, there wasn't, at least off
the top of my head the late game, you know
scenario in a lot of places where when you need catches,
you're going to Marvin Harrison Jinior. My mind may have
slipped me in if I apologize Cardinals fans, but eight
(29:12):
eighty five was a little under what I thought, considering
I took him second in my holdover league where we
only hold over two guys in a ten team league,
so was hoping for a little bit more.
Speaker 3 (29:21):
He did best Dad's numbers. It is six, sixty four,
eight thirty six and eight.
Speaker 1 (29:27):
All right, okay, fair enough there.
Speaker 3 (29:30):
And dad second year, yep, seventy three, eight sixty six
and six.
Speaker 1 (29:35):
And then after that did he take off.
Speaker 3 (29:36):
And then his third year he only played in twelve
games though fifty nine catches, seven to seventy six, seven
touchdowns and it was year four, nineteen ninety nine where
things went insane. One hundred and fifteen had four straight
years of one hundred catches after.
Speaker 1 (29:49):
That ninety eight draft Peyton Manning yep yep.
Speaker 3 (29:53):
Ninety eight season, everybody hated each other. Peyton Manning's throwing
a ton of interceptions. People forget that. They conveniently forget
how bad Manning was at time.
Speaker 1 (30:03):
I don't think people do. I hear people talk about
that year a lot and how bad that he was.
Speaker 4 (30:08):
I remember it was brought up all the time when
when Sam Darnold and Zach Wilson were young, it was
always like a cat show.
Speaker 3 (30:14):
Yeah, well, I know it can't with Trevor Lawrence right
when you were talking the generational guy kind of expectation
with Peyton. And maybe it's my own bias of fixating
on what they did in the playoffs. Sure, after all
those great regular seasons with an all star cast, because
they had an all star cast, and then they do
(30:36):
the operation shutdown in Week sixteen, You're like, nah, I
don't know that that works for you.
Speaker 1 (30:42):
It shows, yeah, that there's no right way to do things.
And that's my biggest takeaway from Week eighteen. Because the
Rams end up dropping a spot, but at least they're healthy.
Green Bay is not healthy, and they still dropped the
spot when it came to their wild card position. And
in losing to your Bears, and now the Commanders ended
up getting that sixth seed. There's just so many different
(31:03):
ways of handling things. And Packers lose Christian Watson now
to a torn acl so he's done for not only
the playoffs, but who knows at the start of next season.
It's always curious to see how these teams end up
handling Week eighteen. Heck of Kansas City team just completely
laid down, don't I don't think they did it to
(31:25):
keep the Bengals out of it? No, no, I agree.
I don't think that. I think that they're only thinking
about themselves and dealing with that. I think that they
would feel confident that they could beat Cincinnati if Cincinnati
pulled an upset against Buffalo and ended up having to
go to Kansas City. I don't think that there's anything
(31:47):
I don't think the Chiefs are even thinking that far ahead.
I think they're just thinking of let's get all our
ducks in a row and we'll be there when the
divisional playoffs kick off.
Speaker 3 (31:55):
Yeah, just on the larger scale, right. We talked about
it for the fantasy purposes and kind of the year
and review and whatever the Chiefs, and as we're doing
this with the Chiefs fifteen and two and maybe not
being as sexy like they had the potential of it,
and then Rashi Rice gets hurt and then Pi Jacko
gets her like all these things you thought Mark he's brown,
(32:15):
never sees the field, like all of these things that
they did to in theory augment and get this offense
looking like it once did. None of it actually got
to come to fruition except the arrival of Noah Gray
on a bigger scale. And somehow Matt Naggie is getting
a head coaching job interviews anybody? Why, hey, you riddle
(32:35):
me that there Ian your team doesn't make any sense.
Speaker 4 (32:39):
Mahomes has the worst year in a while, like for
the worst year of his career, and Naggy gets gets looks.
Speaker 1 (32:44):
Now, I don't get it. But as I said, if
Rex Ryan and we've talked about Rex getting the interview,
which is gonna happen on what Tuesday said, why don't
the Bears just interview Mike did Gutz basically the same thing, right, yeah,
I mean, jeez, hey, let's.
Speaker 3 (33:02):
Let me entertained. But by the way, if you if
my my worst year was thirty nine hundred and twenty
six and eleven, sign me up. But legitimately that's that's
where Patrick Mahomes is.
Speaker 1 (33:15):
Sure.
Speaker 3 (33:16):
Yeah, it's pretty categorically dismissed of what a miserable season
it was.
Speaker 1 (33:21):
Yeah, just crazy.
Speaker 4 (33:23):
But still people are looking for nakey like, of course
I don't understand that.
Speaker 3 (33:26):
But yeah, well no, no, I have no clue.
Speaker 4 (33:29):
But about the Rex Ryan thing, Dan really quick, I'm
fully expecting them to hire him. Well, I'm just I'm
mentally prepared for that to happen, and it's going to
be miserable.
Speaker 1 (33:38):
Well, well, i'll tell you that. What We're going to
get into some coaching on the next episode of I
Want Your Flex. Because the vacancies are there, there could
be more vacancies as well. We'll dive into that. And
plus we're going to do a wild card preview. So
for Ian Roddy and Mike Harmon, we are now in
our playoff editions of I Want Your Flex. I'm Dan Byer.
(33:59):
We'll talk to you next time. I'm talking playoffs here,
and I want your flex mm hmm
Ladies.
Speaker 2 (00:00):
And you want experience during your football season, Well, buckle up,
sweet cheeks. We've got all the experience in the world.
Speaker 3 (00:12):
This is I want your flex with Dan Bayer and
Mike Harmon.
Speaker 2 (00:17):
Mike and Dan break down everything you need to set
your lineups, from position rankings to starts and sits. The
guys help you make those hard decisions. And now let's
get your flex sod. Here's Dan Bayer and Mike Harmon.
Speaker 1 (00:33):
Well, that's a wrap on the regular season. Mike Harmon
will grade the overall two seventy two is at Mike Many. Yeah,
it's gonna ask all in the books. We'll take a
look back at what happened in week eighteen, plus take
a look at the wild Karpuken. Get Mike on X
at Swollen Dome. You can find me at Dan Byer
on Fox both on Blue Sky as well. He's at
Mike Harmon. I'm at Dan Bayer beat Yere and our
(00:55):
executive producer is Ian Roddy, who is both on X
and now on Blue Sky new for twenty twenty five.
Ian Roddy Underscore and on X and what is the
It's Ian dash Roddy on Blue Sky Correct I have
to get those cymbals correctly. We couldn't get Ian in
on the ground floor enough to just get Ian roddy.
So it's Ian dash Roddy on blue sky. That's where
(01:16):
you can reach us via social butt Mike. As a
whole of the two seventy two, are we giving this
regular season a grade? Fewest interceptions thrown in a season
since nineteen eighty two? As we look back at this
thing as a whole, how do we look back at
the twenty twenty four NFL regular.
Speaker 3 (01:33):
I'd grabbed the meme for quarterbacks first, it would just
be Malkovich from rounders check check check. That's all we
did in Chicago. I mean that was Caleb Williams. And
how far downfield was that? Three yards behind the line
of scrimmage? Okay, cool? So you know, when you have
few interceptions, see, I'm going glass half empty when it
(01:55):
comes to that, it means we're not taking shots downfield. Sure,
right that we're doing a lot of at the line
of scrimmage, quick screens, quick outs, effective plays, don't get
me wrong, But we're also not pushing for explosive plays.
We're playing cautiously and part of that goes back to
the conversation we had all year about the fifty yard
let's bomb it in kickers, right, it's not Sebastian Janakowski
(02:17):
Stephen Goskowski anymore. Seemingly everybody could, including at the end
of the year Justin Tucker. After costing Lamar Jackson the MVP,
he suddenly got his range back. But all of that
to say, you know, I give it a nice B
minus maybe C plus for a season as a whole,
because we do have just such a disparate path here.
(02:40):
He've got a couple of really good teams, or we
think are really good, and then everybody, how many teams
do we still in week sixteen, Week seventeen, Week eighteens,
just that astisk thing Dan and Ian. But week sixteen,
week seventeen, I think, all right, how would you how
would you call out the identity of this team? I
don't know, they're not very good? No, no, what's the identity
(03:01):
of the team beyond not being very good? And there
were plenty of those teams that we had, and then
you have obviously a race to the bottom where one
win changed just six or seven draft slots. I mean,
that's how bad it got. It and crowded at the bottom.
So for me that disappointment. As much as everybody's bemoaning
the product of the NBA NFL, I've got my hand
(03:23):
up as well. Bad management, bad ownership, constantly cycling through
front office people. The Chickens came home to roost a
bid here in twenty twenty four.
Speaker 1 (03:33):
I believe the Chiefs a little bit for the down
year just because of how good they were. Of course
they mail in week eighteen, and we'll get to some
of that in a second, but also they had the
best record in the NFL. They were in a conference
where honestly, we knew the playoff teams were a good
month before the playoffs actually wrapped out wrapped actually the
(03:54):
field was actually set because the Broncos and the Chargers
had such a lead over everybody else, and a couple
of losses at the end of the year made it
close for the Broncos, So there was something to play
for in Week eighteam, but in the end it obviously
didn't matter. But also when you have the league's best team,
or at least via record wise, they're playing close games,
but not much as changing. You didn't have a lot
of voluing for server back and forth in the AFC
(04:18):
and in the NFC. Sure, it went down to the
wire with the Lions and Vikings, and it was a
bit exciting there, but I'm not even sure if we
get a full sense of the NFC considering some of
Detroit's injuries, Jalen Hurts ends up getting digged up the
three and four seed, end up flipping on the on
the last week. It was just kind of kind of
(04:39):
weird with the NFC, even there was even though there
was a lot to play for in Week eighteen, in
that final game of the year between the Vikings and Lions,
I would I would give you the C plus. I
think that you're pretty fair in that assessment. Saquon. Great
year and whatnot, but there just wasn't a lot of
drama week in and week out about what could be
at stake, and I think that was disappointing.
Speaker 3 (05:00):
Still mildly disappointed he'd ended up not playing. I was
kind of hoping there'd be the last minute. You know what,
there's enough ground swell of love and support and positivity
and everybody wants to get this record, so we go
get it instead. No, to your point about the injuries.
I mean ad Jordan Love's injury coming forward z A
Flowers for Baltimore on the other side of the equation
(05:20):
there in the AFC, but you know, the Rams pretty
much sid everybody was good to see Jimmy Garoppolo out
there slinging it once again. That's all fine and good.
You lost an offensive coordinator on Monday, Maybe you're okay
with that.
Speaker 1 (05:36):
Yeah, yeah, I don't want to be too negative on it,
but I just felt like a change probably needed to
be made and there was just no consistency in the
Seattle offense. The the the naysayers will will point to that,
those that say Grubs should have stuck around for another year,
point to like jsn's numbers and what Gino did in
(05:57):
the last game, but they're just there was never a
constant flow of anything, and some of that may be
due to personnel. But not shocked that Ryan Grub's gone.
Speaker 3 (06:06):
The fact that Walker wasn't available for a good stretch
of things, but you know, hey, what are you gonna do?
And he may have wanted out right, we don't know
all the details and whatever else maybe and I am
going back to college or something. I don't know, but
all of that to say, you know, on the AFC
side of things, you know, the Chiefs won, but they
didn't do anything that was sexy right as a workman,
(06:31):
like fifteen to two, marveling that they were able to
win all those games close, Conspiracy theories abound, all of
those things. Buffalo, Baltimore. We had Derrick Henry, We talked
about him for a while, but it was about the quarterbacks, right,
Even Josh Allen putting up huge numbers, wasn't anybody in
particular that you're like, wow, you know, you know that
(06:52):
was his number one guy. We're nerds, we're going fantasy wise.
So Shakir's efficiency in some of the big games, maybe
James cad here and there makes sense, But it was
all about the quarterbacks, maybe more so this year. And
it's always about the quarterbacks, but it always it seemed
like the majority of conversation go all the way down
to the sixth seed, the Steelers, other than mocking whatever
(07:15):
George Pickens was shouting at windmills or fighting with fans
about next, we celebrated Bo Nicks. The Chargers, I guess
was about about the coach instead of the team itself.
So yeah, just an interest to end Houston wins because
everybody else in the division sucked.
Speaker 1 (07:33):
Yeah, well, yeah, you mentioned just and what we've seen there.
Buffalo clinched on December first. They clinched the AFC East
on December first. We had an entire month of football
and there was really little drama in what they had
to deal with. The drama, like you mentioned Baltimore, the
drama was more about the Pittsburgh Steelers falling flat on
their face.
Speaker 3 (07:53):
Yeah, the final month of the season, step up in class, and.
Speaker 1 (07:57):
Yeah, Houston hasn't really been good. The US win the
AFC South by default, but we don't expect much from them.
There just wasn't a lot of greatness that we could follow.
I think we're mostly following on just the downfall of stuff.
But again, doesn't matter. We've got the field of fourteen.
My Seahawks the only double digit win team to not
(08:18):
make the postseason. As crazy as that is, Ted and seven.
I would have taken it at the beginning of the year,
no doubt, and I would have thought that automatic playoff
birth but did not happen.
Speaker 3 (08:29):
So they're on the outside, which lost you hate most
now that you look back at it.
Speaker 1 (08:35):
The Giants. One is the one that stands out the
most because of how poorly they played, and they still
had an opportunity to maybe escape to maybe because they
were going for that game tying field goal and then
they ended up Isaiah Simmons jumped the line of scrimmage
and ended up getting the block. But that's the that's
the one that kind of sticks. You know, they lost
(08:57):
to the Rams in overtime in their first meeting. That's one,
but it's the you just can't lose to the you
can't lose to the Giants. Giants won three games this year,
so that happened to be one of them, and that
ends up costing them. But it was It's funny, Mike,
because it's the strength of victory tiebreaker that got them right.
So there were probably about five other games that I
(09:19):
wish they would have gone a different way, you know,
that maybe could have set those dominoes in, you know,
in order to make it work. But they're a pretty
even team, the Seahawks this year. There, you know, the
four and against they were plus seven. They scored eight
more points than the Rams and they you know, allowed
about twenty about eighteen points less than them Rams. Actually
(09:42):
they allowed more points than they actually scored this year,
but they turned it on at the end.
Speaker 3 (09:47):
Yeah. I was chuckling on the other side, right, because
the last couple of weeks have been all about everybody
cheerleading Joe Burrow in the in the Bengals forgetting about
how horribly they started the season, especially that loss into
New England.
Speaker 1 (10:01):
Yeah.
Speaker 3 (10:01):
Right, but all in outside of the lost to New England,
every other loss was to a playoff team.
Speaker 1 (10:09):
Yeah. The past interference on Cam Taylor Britain week two. Yeah,
you know, like such a such a big call in
your point, And I heard somebody say, like, you know, Joe,
I think Todd Furman responded to a tweet. I know
you have Todd on with you guys. I think you
know every Friday night, just talking stuff. And somebody made
the point of like Joe Burrow coming from behind. I don't.
(10:31):
I don't remember them like being behind. I just remember
them always having to score like that Commander's game. It
was just back and forth, back and forth. And I
remember that because that's what ousted me in my uh
Survivor pool three weeks in. Everybody was getting you know,
murdered in those in those games, but yeah, one point
loss to the Ravens, you know, touchdown loss to the Chargers. Yeah,
(10:54):
it's it's a tough schedule. They just didn't cash in.
And that Patriots game in Week one is probably the
one that you know kills them the most.
Speaker 3 (11:02):
It gets you. You have a shootout loss to Washington
and you get blown out by Philadelphia, close loss to Baltimore.
All we're high scoring, no question about it.
Speaker 1 (11:14):
The one in Baltimore on the no calls, you know
at the at the goal line, the share player where
you could have called three of them. You're sitting there
scratching your head of what could have been.
Speaker 3 (11:23):
So it's the fun and excitement of refereeing in twenty
twenty four. Ian, anything stand out for you? Yeah?
Speaker 4 (11:30):
Can I read you guys' stat here that I saw
this morning. So the fact that the Bengals have Joe Burrow,
who's leading the league in passing, they have Jamar Chase
who's leading the league in receiving, and they have Trey
Hendrickson who's leading the league in sacks, and they just
barely made the playoffs. It just feels like there's something
wrong there. I don't know if that's like an indicator
that Zach Taylor maybe isn't that great of a coach.
Speaker 3 (11:52):
Or what well you did struggle in late game situations.
But I asked both of you. I mean, that's my
lamentation and frustration watching all football is the final two
to three minutes of halves at certainly end of game
situations where you're just like, what are we doing? Like
just as a as a staff, like in theory, you
(12:13):
practice these situations right time out management, timeout usage. Forget
about the stupidity of Minnesota deciding, you know what, we're
gonna go for it on fourth down in the red
zone in the first quarter because damn it, we have
to no take the point, you mopes. But all that,
all that to say, like that, that's the thing that's
(12:34):
the most frustrating of watching it is like seemingly obvious,
Like I'm an idiot on the couch, and maybe I'm
not there's something in the calculations I'm missing here, but
sometimes it just seems so obvious. And Taylor was victim
of that number of times. To your point, Dan, yeah,
there were some circumstances and some refereeing and and you know,
seemingly obvious calls that were weren't made, but putting those
(12:59):
aside for the moment just in terms of that, and
maybe I'm speaking as the frustrated Bears guy having watched
it week after week of just pulling your hair out,
or go back to some of the end of the
end of season situations by would be playoff teams where
they did it right Atlanta in that very huge spot
(13:20):
and letting clock run in confusion. Look at what Russell
Wilson did in week eighteen, what he tried to run. Yeah,
it's weird how common it is.
Speaker 1 (13:30):
Yeah, well, the timeouts and the Bills Rams game was
sure an exact scenario that we saw with the Browns
and Raiders earlier on the season. In that game, you know,
ends up getting the Raiders of Victoria. I'm sure the
Browns fans are not happy that they messed it up
because they get the second overall, right, But at the time,
you know, it's just of yeah, of what you're using
(13:51):
timeouts for. I do think that Zach Taylor gets this
inordinate amount of snark because I feel that people just
think that Joe Burrow and Jamar Chase could just do
it by themselves. But as we saw Mike if you
don't have players on defense, and they really don't outside
of you know, ian stat of Trey Hendrickson. Like they've
(14:12):
lost a lot from the Super Bowl teams, you know,
from the Super Bowl team from a few years ago,
and it just wasn't there. And Anna Rumo was interviewing
for ad coaching jobs. Now he's looking for a job.
It's crazy. And how how things can change in the
NFL just in a couple of seasons.
Speaker 3 (14:27):
Well always goes back to my favorite story coming out
of that Super Bowl that I've told a million times,
the assumption that the era of dominance was going to
be there, no matter how good Burrow is and Chase
is and Hendrickson's fantastic, doesn't the ball doesn't bounce your way,
the calls don't go your way. And in a division
like that, you're lucky. Cleveland's still a train wreck. Yeah, right,
(14:52):
if they were halfway competent, guess what, you'd have a
fourth team that was a pain in the ass because
Baltimore and Pittsburgh may not win anything substantive, but damn it,
they're gonna be five hundred every year.
Speaker 1 (15:04):
Well in Cleveland may have gotten more good news is
Deshaun Watson then a set back with his Achilles injury,
so who knows the availability it's gonna.
Speaker 3 (15:11):
Be next, So so let's go Yeah, I saw that.
That note just shook my head. Go really yeah, really
this is where this is the Hey, I'm getting all
my money?
Speaker 1 (15:22):
Yeah, just maybe they just did that in the rehab.
They messed something up so it wouldn't be around. I'm
only kidding, I'm only kidds.
Speaker 3 (15:29):
Just insane though. Right the day, let's let's do our
exit interviews about the season that was. Oh, by the way,
DeShawn had a setback.
Speaker 1 (15:38):
Wait what and they said they found it. They found
out this morning or Monday morning. So we're taping this
late Monday into early Tuesday. But Monday morning they found
out about it and they'll find out more information. We
do know that achilles injuries are quicker to return, but
still who knows what's going to happen with one Deshaun Watts. Yeah,
(16:00):
we're going to take a time out. I've got some
quarterbacking numbers that I want to pass along to you guys. Plus,
there are now five vacancies in the NFL, and Mike
your bears apparently maybe are trying to make it six.
I'm not sure what they're trying to do with Mike McCarthy.
We'll talk about it next. He's Mike Carmen. I'm Dan
Byer Ian Roddy hanging out as well. This is I
want your Flex Welcome back. He's Mike Carmen. I'm Dan Bayer.
(16:24):
That's Ian Roddy, our executive producer. I want to run
a couple of numbers by you guys that I saw
in this Twitter thread from a rich Rebar. I believe
that's how you pronounce it. It's Hribar, who does stuff
for Sharp Football and just made a list of a
thread of about twenty or so quarterback stats that were
(16:47):
just amazing, both in good and bad ways. The first
one Anthony Richardson of the Colts, who the cults say
the athletic is saying that team sources are saying Anthony
Richardson is planning to be the starter in twenty twenty five.
But Anthony Richardson completed sixty point three percent of his
passes on throws under ten yards downfield. It's the lowest
(17:09):
rate since twenty seventeen by a quarterback, but it passes
under ten yards only six of ten for Anthony Richardson.
That's not the total, but sixty percent. Basically, that's not good. Wow, yeah,
that's not good at all. How about how about this one?
Jared Goff had a league high twenty two passing touchdowns
(17:30):
on throws that were not thrown into the end zone
and run in by the pass catcher.
Speaker 3 (17:35):
Wow, yack for days? Yes, how about that?
Speaker 1 (17:39):
Thank you very much, Jamiir Gibbs and everyone else JMO
and yeah yeah. Tyler Murray had seven passing conversions on
third and long needing seven or more.
Speaker 3 (17:51):
They only kept seven.
Speaker 1 (17:53):
Seven first downs on third and seven or more?
Speaker 3 (17:57):
Holy? What was that sample size they get?
Speaker 1 (18:00):
Well, seventeen games entire season.
Speaker 3 (18:02):
Oh, I meant just in terms of actual throws all
that would be sure.
Speaker 1 (18:07):
We'll put it this may be put it in perspective
from the tweet. Michael Pennix also had seven in his
three starts. Dak Prescott also had seven in his eight
and it was one more than Deshaun Watson, who we
were just talking about it had in his seven starts.
Speaker 3 (18:24):
That makes my head hurt.
Speaker 1 (18:26):
Right. Baker Mayfield through a league high twenty seven passing
touchdowns within two and a half seconds of the snap
when he threw it within two and a half seconds.
Twenty seven touchdowns, three interceptions, seventy seven point eight percent
completion right, so when he gets it out, he's getting
it out in its open. It's there. And my final,
(18:49):
my final favorite stat, Will Levis through a league high
fifteen passes that traveled forty or more air yards. He
completed two of them with three interceptions.
Speaker 3 (19:01):
So so three completions, yeah, and harmlessly to the ground.
I knew.
Speaker 4 (19:09):
I knew the Will Webbs one just wasn't going to
be a positive.
Speaker 3 (19:13):
I kinda sat up in my chair here going, oh boy,
where are we going with this man? They were traveling
back the other way for touchdowns.
Speaker 1 (19:21):
I retweeted this thread, so if you go to Dan
Byer on Fox you can see it. But great draw
a job by rich here to track all those numbers down,
because they do tell some great stories on what was
what in the National Football League this past year. But
the Kyler Murray one, I'll tell you know, Colin Coward
(19:42):
last year last week floated the idea of Murray maybe
being out of Arizona. I'd been thinking in my head
as well over the last couple of weeks is is
this team capped out with Kyler Murray? Like how much
how better can they be? And if they did get better,
Mike like, would Kyler Murray be the quarterback to be
able to navigate he gate a team that maybe doesn't
(20:02):
need the quarterback to do everything. I don't know, just's
just kind of entered my mind, and not after the
just after the throw against the Rams that went off
Trey McBride's helmet, But I just I don't know, I'm
still jury still out with me and Kyler Murray.
Speaker 3 (20:17):
Wondering some of it. He got McBride right, one hundred catches,
Connor still doing his thing. In terms of the rest
of that receiving corps man Marvin Harrison Junior coming out
saying he was dealing with this massive injury and just
played through it the whole year, Like, Okay, that makes
a little more sense as to why he never looked
(20:39):
comfortable on the field, and you know you'd go series
without him seeing a target. Okay, quasi decoy at times,
but not really someone that they were going to be
able to depend on to go after the ball ten
times a game. So maybe there's a little bit of
something there. Maybe I'm a Kyler Murray apologist. I don't know,
(21:00):
but certainly yeah, for that coaching staff, you wonder if
you've hit a point, right, twenty nineteen year seven, Yeah.
Speaker 1 (21:11):
Yeah, if it's twenty nineteen season, yeah, twenty twenty one,
twenty three, twenty four entering year seven.
Speaker 3 (21:18):
So I mean you've got this long track record. I mean,
I guess it goes back to like we talk about
with coaches, which we'll get to in earnest here in
a minute, is what are you going into the marketplace
to get? I guess is the larger thing? Right when
we talk about the rookie class, you've got Sanders and
you've got Ward at the top, and then we can
fight about everybody else. But there's such a divisive stance
(21:42):
on pretty much all of them. Right is this guy? Now?
That doesn't mean that they won't be drafted high. Right,
The two are not necessarily together here, but the idea
of all right, am I gonna find my next guy
in the twenty twenty five draft? Probably not free agency?
Your three quote unquote best options as it stands right now,
(22:05):
one guy who's probably not getting out of town, and
that's Sam Darnold, Aaron Rodgers, Kirk Cousins, Justin Fields, Justin
Field or Russell Wilson. Like, those are your options in
terms of guys that are gonna be made available. Maybe
Jimmy Garoppolo gets another bite in an apple. I don't know.
(22:26):
There might be one or two others. Milton, you're right,
Joe Milton, Well, Robert Kraft, we may suck. We may
have fired our coach. Man. I'm really sad I had
to fire our coach. But but we got two quarterbacks
look at us. And Milton was interesting. He was a
guy we actually talked about quite a bit. Smith and
I heading into the season, wondering what he might be
because he liked him and maybe show hyperbole, but talked
(22:49):
about him a lot more than he loved Drake May
just from an overall overwhelmed over a ceiling kind of
thing of there's a.
Speaker 1 (22:56):
Lot of hype in the preseason.
Speaker 4 (22:58):
Yeah, people which people fall for Joe Milton at every
level he's been at though, like in high school it
was exactly like this. In college it was exactly like this,
Like he was going to be the next guy at Michigan.
He transferred to Tennessee, he was going to be this
insane talent. I just want to see it first, because
I mean, obviously, I guess we kind of did see it,
but I don't know.
Speaker 3 (23:17):
Week eighteen. Well, but that's the thing. You're not going
to get along sample size right, and you have to
either trust what you had on tape, or trust whoever
you're believing in the building that's doing the sales job
to you, or the independent scout and analyst or whatever
that that they're going to come through and decide that
(23:37):
that could be a guy you put a future on.
I guess all of that was to say, what are
you finding that's better than Kyler Murray? Necessarily in the marketplace.
Speaker 1 (23:47):
You're not going to But it's just the the I
think the conversation is worth having.
Speaker 3 (23:55):
No, I agree, yeah, it's just the you know, trying
to process it and look at the dominoes that have
to fall this.
Speaker 1 (24:03):
This is gonna be Ian. I'm gonna put you on
the spot. I'm sorry. This is this is meant not
meant to be dirty cool, It's not meant to make
you look silly or anything. I'm just trying to gauge
my own thing because I have Kyler Murray stats sitting
in front of me, and I was surprised when I
saw this. How many What's the most number of touchdowns
(24:23):
you think Kyler Murray is thrown for in this season
in his career, like in one season the most amount
of touchdowns?
Speaker 4 (24:30):
Oh man, I'd probably guess, like he's been an MVP
candidate for stretches, but never a full season, So I
don't know. I'd guess like twenty five.
Speaker 1 (24:41):
Okay, it was twenty six, and I would have thought
there would have been like a thirty five or thirty
three season, Russell Wilson had those types of seasons.
Speaker 4 (24:52):
Had you not led me there, you know, I probably
would have guessed higher. I just assumed the reason you
were asking me the question, it was going to be low.
Speaker 1 (24:59):
Yeah in the maybe, so what about yardage wise?
Speaker 3 (25:03):
Now, to be fair, he did run for eleven touchdowns
then yeah.
Speaker 1 (25:06):
Yeah. And by the way, passing touchdowns the least impressive
stat on or I think the stat that least translates
to how you actually play, right, you know, Like I mean,
it's just again, we just had this Jared goffstat of
the twenty two touchdown passes that he didn't even sure
they weren't even thrown into the end zone. But yardage wise,
(25:28):
most passing yards that he's had in the season, Joe Burrow,
by the way, had forty six is it forty nine
hundred this year? Yeah, Baker Mayfield forty five hundred, Jared
Goff forty six hundred. What's the highest do you think
Kyler Murray's had? Is it me again?
Speaker 3 (25:46):
Yes?
Speaker 4 (25:47):
Oh, all right, I'll guess. Man, four thousand, I feel
like is the benchmark. So I'm thinking it's lower than that.
Speaker 1 (25:55):
I'll say, like eight lower thirty nine seventy one. In
his second ear he only one year as he had
a passer rating over one hundred, and this year is
coming off of a season way three twenty one touchdowns
and eleven interceptions and at a passer rating of ninety
three and a half. And so yeah there, So you know,
(26:17):
to Mike's point about the rushing, it's not always going
to be there. And I actually think that we've seen
a little bit of a regression over the last couple
of years, maybe of from what we've seen, not what
he was the first he had five hundred and seventy
two yards this past year seventy eight carries. He ran
it ninety three times and one hundred and thirty three
times in his first two years. I don't know, I
(26:41):
just I guess. You know, the passing numbers aren't great,
and Mike, it's totally fair to be like his rushing numbers.
You know, will will make up for that. But at
some point those rushing numbers aren't going to be there.
He's an undersized quarterback. And so I don't know. I
just think Arizona's interesting. And and by the way, it
doesn't mean that Kyler Murray can't all of a sudden
(27:01):
become that quarterback either. It's just going to be up
to him and his track record of the quarterback that
he is in preparation hasn't always been on his side,
so he has an opportunity to at least change that narrative.
Speaker 3 (27:13):
That's tough, right, because we're having the conversation on the
larger scale on Sam Darnold and what do we keep
coming back to. He's only twenty seven, yeah, right, all
the many weary miles, all the stops, yep, and there's
Kyler Murray twenty seven was a dual sport athlete for
the longest time here you've had coaching changes, some curiosity
(27:35):
along the way. To your point about the rushing stuff,
I mean, this was also the most games he'd played
by a mile in years right, eight and twenty twenty three,
eleven and twenty twenty two, fourteen, Going back to twenty
twenty one. In twenty twenty he played in sixteen, and
his rookie year he played in sixteen.
Speaker 1 (27:54):
So the ACL in twenty twenty two which cost him
the end, and then the beginning of twenty twenty.
Speaker 3 (27:59):
Three, right, so to that end, right, a full year
removed from the injury, Like, trying to do all that
math as we're going forward, Is it the best ahead
as much as we can get back to a form
of Kyler Murray that looks like the rookie and second
year guy in twenty twenty five. Don't know, again, maybe wishing, wanting, hoping,
(28:20):
because I'm always hopeful for one more quarterback to crack
that list of guys that we feel confident in. And again,
some of that goes back to Marvin Harrison Junior being healthy.
He still put up big numbers. Right for the year,
I mean, the aggregate was was pretty solid, Yeah, but
you didn't feel like it was one that made you know,
(28:41):
big explosive plays to the point where he was at
the forefront of things and if you were banking on him,
and certainly for fantasy purposes, we stopped talking about him
pretty much altogether after a while.
Speaker 1 (28:51):
Yeah, eight eighty five and eight touchdowns for Marvin Harrison
Junior and year number one, there wasn't, at least off
the top of my head the late game, you know
scenario in a lot of places where when you need catches,
you're going to Marvin Harrison Jinior. My mind may have
slipped me in if I apologize Cardinals fans, but eight
(29:12):
eighty five was a little under what I thought, considering
I took him second in my holdover league where we
only hold over two guys in a ten team league,
so was hoping for a little bit more.
Speaker 3 (29:21):
He did best Dad's numbers. It is six, sixty four,
eight thirty six and eight.
Speaker 1 (29:27):
All right, okay, fair enough there.
Speaker 3 (29:30):
And dad second year, yep, seventy three, eight sixty six
and six.
Speaker 1 (29:35):
And then after that did he take off.
Speaker 3 (29:36):
And then his third year he only played in twelve
games though fifty nine catches, seven to seventy six, seven
touchdowns and it was year four, nineteen ninety nine where
things went insane. One hundred and fifteen had four straight
years of one hundred catches after.
Speaker 1 (29:49):
That ninety eight draft Peyton Manning yep yep.
Speaker 3 (29:53):
Ninety eight season, everybody hated each other. Peyton Manning's throwing
a ton of interceptions. People forget that. They conveniently forget
how bad Manning was at time.
Speaker 1 (30:03):
I don't think people do. I hear people talk about
that year a lot and how bad that he was.
Speaker 4 (30:08):
I remember it was brought up all the time when
when Sam Darnold and Zach Wilson were young, it was
always like a cat show.
Speaker 3 (30:14):
Yeah, well, I know it can't with Trevor Lawrence right
when you were talking the generational guy kind of expectation
with Peyton. And maybe it's my own bias of fixating
on what they did in the playoffs. Sure, after all
those great regular seasons with an all star cast, because
they had an all star cast, and then they do
(30:36):
the operation shutdown in Week sixteen, You're like, nah, I
don't know that that works for you.
Speaker 1 (30:42):
It shows, yeah, that there's no right way to do things.
And that's my biggest takeaway from Week eighteen. Because the
Rams end up dropping a spot, but at least they're healthy.
Green Bay is not healthy, and they still dropped the
spot when it came to their wild card position. And
in losing to your Bears, and now the Commanders ended
up getting that sixth seed. There's just so many different
(31:03):
ways of handling things. And Packers lose Christian Watson now
to a torn acl so he's done for not only
the playoffs, but who knows at the start of next season.
It's always curious to see how these teams end up
handling Week eighteen. Heck of Kansas City team just completely
laid down, don't I don't think they did it to
(31:25):
keep the Bengals out of it? No, no, I agree.
I don't think that. I think that they're only thinking
about themselves and dealing with that. I think that they
would feel confident that they could beat Cincinnati if Cincinnati
pulled an upset against Buffalo and ended up having to
go to Kansas City. I don't think that there's anything
(31:47):
I don't think the Chiefs are even thinking that far ahead.
I think they're just thinking of let's get all our
ducks in a row and we'll be there when the
divisional playoffs kick off.
Speaker 3 (31:55):
Yeah, just on the larger scale, right. We talked about
it for the fantasy purposes and kind of the year
and review and whatever the Chiefs, and as we're doing
this with the Chiefs fifteen and two and maybe not
being as sexy like they had the potential of it,
and then Rashi Rice gets hurt and then Pi Jacko
gets her like all these things you thought Mark he's brown,
(32:15):
never sees the field, like all of these things that
they did to in theory augment and get this offense
looking like it once did. None of it actually got
to come to fruition except the arrival of Noah Gray
on a bigger scale. And somehow Matt Naggie is getting
a head coaching job interviews anybody? Why, hey, you riddle
(32:35):
me that there Ian your team doesn't make any sense.
Speaker 4 (32:39):
Mahomes has the worst year in a while, like for
the worst year of his career, and Naggy gets gets looks.
Speaker 1 (32:44):
Now, I don't get it. But as I said, if
Rex Ryan and we've talked about Rex getting the interview,
which is gonna happen on what Tuesday said, why don't
the Bears just interview Mike did Gutz basically the same thing, right, yeah,
I mean, jeez, hey, let's.
Speaker 3 (33:02):
Let me entertained. But by the way, if you if
my my worst year was thirty nine hundred and twenty
six and eleven, sign me up. But legitimately that's that's
where Patrick Mahomes is.
Speaker 1 (33:15):
Sure.
Speaker 3 (33:16):
Yeah, it's pretty categorically dismissed of what a miserable season
it was.
Speaker 1 (33:21):
Yeah, just crazy.
Speaker 4 (33:23):
But still people are looking for nakey like, of course
I don't understand that.
Speaker 3 (33:26):
But yeah, well no, no, I have no clue.
Speaker 4 (33:29):
But about the Rex Ryan thing, Dan really quick, I'm
fully expecting them to hire him. Well, I'm just I'm
mentally prepared for that to happen, and it's going to
be miserable.
Speaker 1 (33:38):
Well, well, i'll tell you that. What We're going to
get into some coaching on the next episode of I
Want Your Flex. Because the vacancies are there, there could
be more vacancies as well. We'll dive into that. And
plus we're going to do a wild card preview. So
for Ian Roddy and Mike Harmon, we are now in
our playoff editions of I Want Your Flex. I'm Dan Byer.
(33:59):
We'll talk to you next time. I'm talking playoffs here,
and I want your flex mm hmm
Host
Mike Harmon
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