3 & Out - Raiders get ROUTED by Justin Herbert and the Chargers + Baker Mayfield, Bucs edge Texans - The Colin Cowherd Podcast

Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:01):
The volume. What is going on, everybody? How are we doing?
It is late, It is really late because the NFL

(00:22):
did a doubleheader, and for those of you on the
West or the East coast, the Chargers won. They beat
the Raiders. They kind of dominated that game. The final
score looks a little closer than it actually was. The
Bucks win a thriller. I would imagine everyone saw the
end of that. Baker Mayfield leads the game winning drive.
So we'll dive into the Chargers Herbert Harbaugh, Geno Smith,

(00:46):
Baker Mayfield, CJ. Stroud. I'm not quite sure what's going
on there. Obviously, the offensive line, the running game. The
Texas got some issues. They're rowing to They were my
lock of the year. I liked them as much as
like the Bills and the Ravens to win their divisions.
But it doesn't look good right now. It doesn't look good,

(01:07):
so we'll dive into that. We got some backup quarterbacks
starting because JJ McCarthy's hurt, Jaden Daniels is hurt. Buckle
Up obviously burrows out for potentially the entire season. We
got Tom Brady tonight in the coaching box, which I
don't think was a great strategic move to repiss off

(01:28):
the teams that it felt like it kind of let
that story die, kind of feels like they're rubbing it
back in their face. I just I would have advised
against that. We'll dive into that as well and talk
a couple other football things, but subscribe. We went live
right after the games on YouTube. We react to the
to the primetime games. We'll do a mailbag as well

(01:50):
in this podcast. I recorded one actually before the first
game started, like early afternoon, so we'll have a long
mail bag at John Middlecoff. I know a lot of
you guys have fired in my dms. I'm trying. I'm
gonna try to get to them all week. So I'm
gonna bang out a bunch of dms throughout the mailbag
over the next couple days. So keep firing in those dms.

(02:11):
And if you listen on Collins Pod, make sure you
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guarantee late, a little rusty. I was thinking this today.
I've been to a lot of Raider Charger games, and
typically they're pretty entertaining. That game, not so much. I

(03:38):
would say it was mostly one sided. It felt like
the Raiders kind of got their ass kick, which isn't
that crazy. The Chargers should be the better team. Last
year they were in the playoffs. This year I might
have to take the l on them that they look
even better. But I was thinking about, you know, Jim
Harbaugh to Jim tom Sula is one of the worst

(04:00):
coaching transitions in the history of the league. Honestly, it
might be the worst. But you could argue going from
Brandon Staley to Jim Harbaugh would be like one day
not being able to pay your rent, to the next
looking in your bank account seen one hundred million dollars.
I can't even imagine being a Charger fan, and hell,
just being someone that likes football seeing this franchise that

(04:22):
always underachieved because they never had a real coach, and
then the last coach that they literally had, Brandon Staley,
was like the laughingstock of the league. To go to
Jim Harbaugh, who has been winning now for multiple decades.
It just it's awesome to watch. And I undervalue the
Chargers like they're really good, and it clearly starts with

(04:45):
their quarterback, who is one of the best players in
the league. We're gonna talk about Josh Allen Lamar Jackson
all year long. I would argue right now they are
the two best players in the league, and two guys.
If not now, then when right there, this is kind
of their time, especially if the Chiefs are going to
be down. But you could argue Herbert, you know, a
year into this system, like people have been shitting on

(05:07):
Greg Roman for years, like google Greg Roman's resume coaching
a lot of big games. Obviously, Jim Harbaugh's won a
lot of big games. The Chargers defense is really good now.
The one red flag tonight if Khalil Mack and I'm
recording this right after the game, I just hope it's
like not a season ender, because if that's a sie
season ending injury, that's pretty devastating. There's no replacing that

(05:31):
human being who still has arms that look like Arnold
Schwarzenegger in the mid eighties when he was on the
set of commandough Khalil Mack's biceps are fucking huge, and
I would love to get his curl routine. But he's
a badass and even in his what is he thirty
three to thirty four years old? Still playing at an

(05:52):
elite level, So hopefully he's okay. But the physicality of
their defense welcome to a Jim Harbaugh operation. But to me,
it starts it ends with Justin Herbert, who to me
has thrown his hat like early, like based on this season, like,
I don't expect him to not play at a high
level all year long to be an MVP candidate. Right,

(06:12):
we saw how good Lad McConkey is was last year.
He's clearly a stud. They add Keenan Allen, who is
just the consummate pro you know all who we saw
today that Harball was telling the broadcast crew, it's like, yeah,
he was excellent as a rookie, and we think he's
the most improved guy on our team this year. It's like,
that's not a bad guy to replace your star left tackle.

(06:33):
So you know the Herbert Quinn Johnson who I give
This is where Harbaugh deserves a lot of credit. It's
so easy to have a negative perception of guys and
let's say, let's just be real. Universally, that guy was like, Oh,
this guy's a huge bust. He can't catch Harbob kind
of hyped him up. And you know Jim does that
and he can be hyperbolic, and it's like Jim like

(06:55):
when he says, you know, my goal is to make
sure Justin Herbert is a Hall of And I think
a lot of people kind of smirk can go, that's
just Jim being Jim, but he's kind of serious because
Justin Herbert can be a Hall of Famer, Like Justin
Herbert is a Hall of Fame talent. And when you
get a coach like this where you're gonna win a
lot of games, you're gonna get the opportunity every year

(07:16):
to be in huge games in December and obviously in
the playoffs, to put yourself in the Hall of Fame. Conversation,
and Jim Harbaugh hires great coaches. He has a physical presence.
You saw to night like one thing with Gino Smith,
like different from Justin Herbert, Like I would take Justin
Herbert and Jim Harbaugh in this team like they could
play with anybody Now, it doesn't mean they will win

(07:37):
every game, But if you told me they're going on
the road to Baltimore in the first week of January,
I'd be like, yeah, I like their chances, assuming they're healthy.
Like their game translates. Gino Smith is kind of the opposite.
He is a great story. Right resurrected his career when
they beat Russell Wilson. He said, you know, the haters
wrote me off. I didn't right back. Easy guy to

(07:58):
root for. He is a little you know, Jacko and Hyde.
He can be a little fickle when he's playing average opponents.
And maybe there are some stats that push back against this,
but and listen, I'm using a large sample size in
Niner games. I think the Niners played him five times
in a two year span in that would have been
twenty two and twenty three when he was on the Seahawks,

(08:20):
and they kind of worked him. And you watch him
the night playing a real playoff level team doesn't look great. Right.
He's got a huge arm, he can move. He's a
solid player. But I do think the better competition he plays,
the more average he is. You saw last week he
plays the Pats pretty average defense, and he lights him
up like a Christmas tree. Now, in fairness, like you

(08:42):
look at the Chargers that Lad McConkie and Keenan Allen
are better than whatever the Raiders are rolling out, even
though I like Jacobe Myers and brock Bauers clearly tonight
like I didn't understand Orlosky kept saying in the booth
like they gotta get him the ball. They got a
good guys. He has a big knee brace on, he's
clearly banged up, and he's out there more as a

(09:04):
decoy than typically what you would see out of brock Bauers,
who can get a lot of yards. Now, I also
think this that if the Chargers are healthy on defense,
their shit's gonna work and they are going to be
a major factor the rest of the season, not just
to win this division, which now they're favored to do,

(09:26):
but like the way that they play in the AFC,
like Jim Harbaughs, teams are going to translate going on
the road. Najee Harris now battled through that firework accident.
You know, the rookie from North Carolina is a big,
physical back. Doesn't look great to me, still looks a
little slow, is running hard, but how I thought Naje
came in here. Now you could argue that he has

(09:46):
fresh legs. He'sn't really doing anything in training camp. But
they got a couple of running backs, they got multiple
wide receivers, They tackle incredibly well. From a scheme perspective.
They basically have Mike McDonald two point zero. That's what
Jesse Mentor was. He was in Baltimore with McDonald, then
McDonald went to Baltimore, came back, and then he took
Mentor from Baltimore to replace McDonald. These guys are just geniuses.

(10:10):
I was thinking a night watching you know, Mentor become
this star. And Deanton Lynn, who is Anthony Lynn's son,
who coached in Baltimore and is now the USC defensive coordinator.
Like Belichick for so long, could never develop assistant coaches
to go on and just coach other places just as coordinators,
let alone as head coaches get some organizations, just pump

(10:33):
dudes out whatever they're doing. However, John Harbaugh teaches his
guys there's got to be some sort of culture of
you know, information just disseminating throughout the building and throughout
the meeting rooms, and everyone gets to learn and improve.
But these guys come from Baltimore and it's been like

(10:54):
this even before John Harbaugh got there back in the
day with you know, Rex Ryan and Pegano and Mike Nolan.
This is like back in the Brian Billick days. They
just produced so many high level defensive guys and you
saw it tonight. They were crushing people. They hit so
freaking hard their linebackers and DB's all tackle and all

(11:16):
make plays on the It was on full display tonight.
Chargers are good and big big game coming up this
week now, Chargers coming off a short week, especially a
late week because they got a fly back, Denver's had
an extra day to prepare. But that's a big, big
game for Denver. There's a lot of pressure on Denver,
especially coming off that pretty devastating loss in Indy, to
win that game and listen the Raiders. I've been saying

(11:39):
this for a long time. A lot of respect for Pete.
His energy and his just infectious. I think, as Gino said,
his soul right. I don't even judge him from an
age perspective. It's just his energy and the aura that
he gives off is pretty unique. You know, he does
not feel like a seventy four year old. He feels
like he's, you know, a forty eight year old just

(12:00):
with gray hair, and they just don't have the talent.
They try their ass off Max every single snap he's
out there, and he's been like this his entire career.
Is playing like his team's going to the super Bowl,
even though more than likely they're gonna win six games, right,
you know, as Ashton Genty, I said this, like I
like the guy. People think I'm a hater. I'm a

(12:21):
huge fan, but like, this isn't Adrian Peterson. He's not
Walter Payton, and you put him on a bad team.
The offensive line is okay, like it's hard. Now he
makes some runs, but it's not like he just jumps
off the screen. Where this guy's a camp miss, all
time great running back prospect. And I do think and
I like Spy Tech. Obviously I'm rooting for him. He's

(12:44):
fan of the podcast. We root for all these guys
that come on the podcast. That was just a pick
that philosophically, I just I would have entertained other things.
Now I understand you want that type guy in the building.
What he represents, you know, the draft a little iffy
relative some previous drafts in terms of the crop of
players at that spot, it's just gonna be hard for

(13:05):
him to live up to that spot. I'd say the
same thing with Hampton at North Carolina, Like, is that
guy gonna live up to being a first round pick? Now?
There's less pressure when you're drafted in the twenties than
when you're drafted six. Overall that being said, big picture,
I think the Raiders are gonna be fine, but they're
a little bit away. I mean, you saw the Chargers,
who I would say don't have like a top five
roster in the NFL, and the gap looked pretty wide tonight.

(13:28):
And the one thing the Raiders, like I mentioned earlier
with Harbaugh and the Chargers enormous coaching upgrade to go
from what they had last year and really what they've
had for years, to go to Pete Carroll running their operation.
Is like they're gonna be okay. And Gino gives them
just some stability even if he is you like more

(13:51):
like ideally when you're spy tech or when you're any
general manager just building a team and becoming a GM,
you're looking for Justin Herbert and the Chargers got lucky
and as te Leasco said years ago, like they would
have taken Tua if Tua had been there, but he
got picked before and Justin Herbert fell into their lap.
And it's the best thing that has happened to the

(14:11):
franchise in a long time, right Justin Herbert and Jim Harbaugh.
Now you could argue the Chargers for really the last
twenty five years have gone Drew Brees, Philip Rivers, Justin Herbert.
You know, we talk a lot, and it's hard to
beat far of Rogers. I mean, that's pretty untoppable. That's
like Montana Steve Young. I mean, it doesn't get any
better than those combinations. But Breeze, Rivers, Herbert, that's a

(14:35):
pretty incredible, you know, back to back to back quarterback run.
But yeah, I mean I entertaining game a little slow.
I'll bet little defense about it. The big story that's
gonna come out tonight, and I personally don't care, like
it doesn't bother me. And I'm more of an NFC guy,

(14:56):
I would say that an AFC guy, But I can
imagine some of the people in Kansas City, and you know,
and Andy always has background. What any sporting event going on,
and obviously during football season, Monday Night football would be
going on, same thing with Sean Payton, who obviously they'd
be watching this game because they play, you know, one
of the teams in this game. Looking up and seeing

(15:17):
Tom Brady, who is calling these games for Fox, which
I've given him some flowers. I think he's vastly improved
through two games. Then he sounded last year, but he
was sitting in the coaching box tonight, and I think
it was pretty bad optics from the simple standpoint of
the teams in your division gotta be like, no fucking

(15:40):
way you're telling me this guy is gonna get to
go into different locker rooms and teams, which we know
he's doing. But then also when he can be sitting
in the coaching box and on the headset with Chip Kelly,
it's one thing for Schreger to say, hey, Chip Kelly
and Spytech and these guys talk on the phone all
the time. Of course, on the phone in the NFL,

(16:01):
like it's like it's high school people text messaging or dming.
No one cares about that. You can talk to whoever
you want, whenever you want. But when you're in a
situation where you're sitting in the coaching box like he was.
I was like, Damn, I think that's a pretty bad
idea because I know if I was on the Chiefs,
or if I was on the Broncos, or I was

(16:22):
on the Chargers, I would have a huge issue with that.
And to me, if you're like the Eagles are the Packers,
you're less bothered and threatened by tom different conference. But
to me, the teams in your division, this guy owns
the team, but he's not your typical owner. This isn't
one of the Ursay dodters down there taking notes or
she has no clue what's going on. No different than

(16:43):
me or you. We'd have no clue if we just
put on a headset what the conversation is. That guy knows.
So this guy understands football because he's been around football
at the quarterback position at the highest level for decades.
He gets incredible access to be able to talk to
other coaches and gms about players just from a simple

(17:04):
fact of talking about guys that are potential free agents
or could get cut. He's getting this insight that no
other teams can sniff. When it comes to the access,
I just thought, I was like, damn, I don't think
Tom if he could do that over he even if
he has a headset on, he would have been kind

(17:25):
of hidden. I think being out front like that was
and I don't think he meant to do it. I
don't even think he thought that far. But that was
kind of a double middle fingers to the teams in
your division, like, yeah, we might not be as good
as you guys now, but like the insight and the
access I'm getting is stuff you guys are not allowed
to do, and that's just not the way the NFL works.

(17:46):
I mean, we've seen for a long time teams freak
out about stuff like this, and teams originally freaked out
about it, then they kind of, I would say, relented
and just was like it's not worth our energy. That
was pretty out front, and I think sometimes when you
make a big scene in a primetime game like this,

(18:06):
I do think this conversation in this story kind of
bubbles back to the surface where it felt like it
had kind of gone away. And I think specifically with
the Chiefs, the Broncos and the Chargers are gonna by
far have the biggest issue. But I'd even argue any
team in the AFC would be like, we can't have
this because if Pete Carroll and these guys do get

(18:27):
it turned around, they got like this. You know, Jason
Born figure that like has access, doesn't even need to
break into these facilities, just like, oh, come on in,
talk to our guys, talk to our GM like, no,
that's not gonna fly. I was stunned, honestly, it was
jarring to see he's got all these coaches. The dude

(18:47):
sitting next to him looks like a twenty three, twenty
four year old quality control guy gets his big breaks
in the NFL is on national TV. Maybe his girlfriend's watching,
his parents are at home, like that's little Jimmy, and
sit right next to Tom and he's trying to act cool.
I know this. If I was that kid, I would
frame that picture and put it up in my house immediately.

(19:07):
So I promise you this that Tom Brady being involved
and having this special access is a story that's gonna
come back to the light, I guarantee, just not even
just this week, but I do think we're gonna hear
more about it, a little bit like the Tush push.
The more the Toush push becomes a little more controversial,
the more teams are gonna opine and be like, we

(19:28):
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(21:01):
other game that happened earlier today. Two big takeaways. One
a lot like Herbert Baker's one of the best quarterbacks
in the NFL. Like to me with bro Out, Herbert's
clearly right there right now with Josh Allen and Lamar Jackson,
is one of the best two or three quarterbacks in
the league. And I listen. You can nitpick mahomes stats
all you want. Like I watched that game, I still
think the guy's a stud. I would take him on

(21:22):
my team tomorrow. I know this. I feel good if
Patrick Mahomes is my quarterback. But I put Herbert right
there the way he's playing right now. I don't know
if I put Baker quite at their level, but he's
clearly a top seven to eight guy in the league
and his performance in a game on the road against
an elite defense. I mean that defense has three or

(21:43):
four sweet defensive backs. They have two dominant edge rushers
in Hunter and will Anderson, who play especially Will Anderson
play their ass off. He's missing his star tackle, so
he's got a backup. He's getting peppered all night. He's
getting throttled, he's getting twisted. He's clearly little banged up.
And that little fucking guy just made play after play

(22:05):
after play and led him on a game winning drive
on the road and let him on a game winning
drive where he was in complete control. They weren't panicking,
they weren't freaking out about calling timeouts. It was a clinic.
I think he went six to seven on that final drive.
He had an incredible scramble. When they showed the replay
at halftime of the Raider Charger game, it really put

(22:26):
into perspective like he should have been done. But he
did like this Alan iverson juke crossover move right as
like a blitzing linebacker was about to take him out,
makes a miss, and then he ran for like sixteen yards.
It was fourth and ten. Now they had three timeouts,
so who knows, maybe they could have got some stops
and got the ball back, but that was the play

(22:47):
of the game. And a little bit like the Bills
once they got Cook and he just changed their offense,
like they were good on offense before with Josh Allen,
but once number four became just one of the better
players at his position in the league. You're like the
Bills offense is dominant and they can play on any
given game, they can light you up like a Christmas tree,

(23:09):
and a big catalyst for them was finding that running back.
I would say the same thing for the Buccaneers, Like
Mike Evans is a Hall of Famer. You know, godwins
banged up right now, But when they have those two guys,
that's one of the best one to two combinations. They
add a Mecca Aboku from Ohio State who is just
a stud right now. He had a drop tonight. But

(23:30):
that guy could play for my team any day of
the week, and he's going to have a long career
in this league catching eighty to ninety balls, I promise
you that. So their wide receiver rooms never in question.
Remember a couple of years ago, it was like they're
the worst running team and like the history of the league,
I think that was Tom Brady's last season. Well, this
dude from Moregan, Bucky Irving, It's like that guy is

(23:52):
a badass. And White as well, who had the game
winning touchdown. Their physicality, they can run inside, they speed
to get on the outside, the tackles. Both of them,
especially Irving, can catch the ball. They're great in space.
To me, their offense is just so complete. And Baker
he has like this Farvan quality to him, where ITA's

(24:13):
just now. Farv was more talented, bigger arm. Obviously, I
mean far As one of the great players of all time.
But there's just something magical about watching this version of
Baker on Tampa. He's clearly over the last couple of years,
slimmed down, he's quicker, he just makes some big time
throws when he has to. He's a really really fun

(24:33):
player to watch. And that team's really good. I mean
to go on the road and they were winning that
game pretty like. I felt they were in complete control.
If it wasn't for their special teams unit. They got
the Houston Texans right back in the game. But they're
good on defense. You know, Todd Bowle is a really
aggressive defensive coordinator. They draft as well, if not better
than any team in the league. I mean, the majority

(24:56):
of their star players are all drafted guys. Honestly, like
Baker's the outlier of and think about that. I mean
Baker to be able to go from Tom to Baker
incredible transition to two free agent guys. Right, It's not
like they had in house. It's not like they had
some guy coming up the pike that was a third

(25:17):
rounder that learned behind Brady. It was like they signed
Brady one kicked ass, moved off, Brady signed Baker, winning
and kicking ass. And I listened. Obviously, a Landa probably
a little bit better this year on defense, especially after
that draft and adding Leonard Floyd, but Tampa's clearly still
the team to beat. And that was a big time win.

(25:38):
And what a gutsy performance. I mean, Baker's just getting crushed.
I mean, how many times did they hit him hard?
A couple of times he goes down, I like freaked out.
I'm like, oh my god, it's me and then he
kind of shake it off and he was good. But
that was that final drive is why we love football.
And on the flip side, listen, I got the Texans

(26:02):
in a couple you know, big time division winning parlays,
and they were my anchor. I do not feel great.
I'm not writing them off, but if I was a
betting man right now, I would like a little redode
to be able to insert the Indianapolis Colts. I think
there are two major problems because defensively is not their issue.
I know they gave up a game winning drive, but

(26:23):
they are going to be and they are one of
the more physical, faster defenses in the league, and those
two edge rushers are awesome. But offensively they got two
major problems. First and foremost, when your quarterback is a
little off and he's young, the easiest way to settle
anything down is running the football, running the ball, and

(26:44):
up until that Nick Chubb run, they cannot run the ball.
I would say, what's glaring is they have his defensive
coach in Demiko Ryans. Now, he's a younger guy, so
he doesn't feel like this archaic, older, you know, defensive
guy because he's like early forties. But typically defensive guys
like to run the ball. Yet you look at their

(27:06):
running back room and forever when the Texans now, they
never had playoff success, but they were a really good
team early on with Kubiak, and then when they transitioned
to Bill O'Brien. With Kubiak, I mean, they were one
of the best. I think they led the league in
rushing several times with Arian Foster and running that Shanahan's
zone running scheme. They were incredible. And then to Bill O'Brien,

(27:27):
they always had good running backs like Alfred Blue and
other guys that they could run the ball. I'm watching
this team and I go, you're depending on Nick Chubb
that like two years ago had his leg bent in
two different directions. Like that's who you're and we're all
rooting for him, but like, that's what you're depending on,
And I think part of that manifested itself into your

(27:48):
offensive lines. Not great at pass blocking, obviously got some injuries,
but your quarterbacks really off right like tonight, like Gino
just presses a little bit. They don't have great talent,
and sometimes he can just look a little weird against
better competition, but he always kind of looks like Geno Smith.
A couple of years ago, I thought c J. Stroud,
this guy's gonna be a top five quarterback in the
league and you watch him tonight and there's no other

(28:11):
takeaway that comes away of like what's going on? And
I hate this term, but like I think it gets
thrown around a little too liberally at times. But the
regression term, like, I don't think he's getting worse, but
I think regression in the NFL is not like taking
the next step. You look at Baker, it's like from
the last couple of years, it just feels like he

(28:32):
keeps getting better. You look at Herbert, he just keeps
getting better, right, Josh Allen Lamar, they just keep getting better.
And you're watching CJ. Stroud, It's like, what's going on here?
He's missing open guys, he just has It's just off.
I just wrote down, like, is CJ. Stroud a really
good player right now? And the answer is no. Is

(28:54):
c J. Stroud a dependable player right now? And sometimes
it's it's intermixed with the scheme, the coordinator, the offensive line,
but there is no disputing this thing is off. And
they drafted them number two overall and after the first year,
you would have bet the house that this guy was
gonna be a dominant franchise quarterback. And now we're a
year and a half later or a year and two

(29:16):
games later, and we got concerns. I mean, there's no
other way around it. Thank god this defense is as
good as they are, because this offense is shitty right now.
It's just not good. And to me, it starts no
running game. You can't take any of the pressure off
the quarterback, and then he feels like he's got to
play hero ball a little bit like Gino tonight, and
it just looks bad. He's missing guys behind him, he's

(29:38):
overthrowing guys. You just something's just off, and I don't
know how to pinpoint it. They switched offensive coordinators, they
tweaked the scheme. I know people around Houston were bullish
on this move, but I would say as of a
couple games, they got to be concerned. And I don't
know exactly what the answer is. Like, you don't just

(30:00):
find sweet offensive linemen who are sitting at home or
on practice squads, so you got to try to make
this work. But when you're running back room, it's not
like Saquon Barkley ain't walking through that door, or you
can't just pick up the phone and like find some
Barry Sanders around like this kind of is what it is.
So I don't think it's really going to improve, which
could cost him because Indy now's already got a two

(30:22):
game lead and they just look good, right, I mean
that's if you just put like Jonathan Taylor on the
Texans got news for you, it would help a lot. Now,
maybe Casario coming from New England, they don't value that
position as much because for a long time, especially that
second iteration of like the Gronk Edelman mccordy, you know,
teams around Tom they kind of piece mailed the running
back position from the Deon Lewis's, the Shane Verens, they

(30:44):
just had a lot of different body types and Lea
Garrett Blunt. But I do think just getting a bellcow
running back to go with CJ. Stroud, Like, I don't
know if these guys are ever gonna live up to
the billing genty and and O'marion Hampton for the Chargers,
but like I like the logic, just get a guy
we can depend on and give the ball to twenty

(31:05):
four times a game, right. The Texans do not have that,
and it is evident when you watch them in some
of these games, like this is a problem and I
just don't know if it's going to be fixed. So
massive win for Tampa. The Texans got some issues. I mean,
they got some major issues that I don't think you
can fix overnight. Okay, a couple other things before we

(31:27):
get out of here. We have a quarterback situation on
our hands right now. You know, Burrows out for three
months and if they free fall, like we're just gonna
see the Jake Browning Show the rest of the year,
which I actually looked. He's five and three in his
career as a starter, and I mentioned this to Colin

(31:47):
a couple of days ago. He's the most improved player
from college to the pros I've ever seen. In my
entire life. I've been wrong on guys like I didn't
think Jalen Hurts would be a good NFL quarterback. But
like Gay playing at Oklahoma, he's playing at Alabama. He
could run, he did have a strong deep ball. I
just never thought he could be a guy who could

(32:08):
just lead you to Super Bowls. I mean, so I
was wrong on I didn't think Jake brown could make
it through a training camp a try. I thought he'd
be out of the league in a year, like he's
going to play in the league for a decade, but
I'm sorry, Like you lose Joe Burrow when your team
is dependent to even win nine games last year, the
guy had to throw whatever forty five touchdowns, Like, I
just don't think this guy can match it. I think

(32:29):
there's gonna be a drop off, and I'm out on
the Bengals now. They probably won't be as bad as
maybe I initially thought twenty four hours ago, but I'm
out on them now. The other guys you got JJ
McCarthy hurt his ankle. I know they wrapped it during
the game. If I wanted to go a conspiracy middle
cooff here, I'd go, he hurt his ankle, slash, like,

(32:51):
give him a little breather. Feels like he's a little
over his head. But I also, if I wanted to
push back against my conspiracy, like, you'd want to get
this guy wrapped because you got to find out if
he could play or not. So you're going to Carson Wentz,
who I saw a stat that this is his six
years starting for six different teams, which is crazy. It
shows you how long he's been gone from the Eagles.

(33:13):
Does not feel like he's been gone for the Eagles
for six years. Shows you how long Jalen has been
starting now for Philly. But he's played it a lot
of you know, from the Chiefs to the Rams to
now Minnesota. He's made the rounds and is he any good?
I don't know. At this point in time. The Vikis
could have a problem, you know. Dan Quinn came out

(33:34):
today and said that, you know, Jayden Daniels was also
rumored to be out several weeks. He claimed him day
to day, but I think this week is vary in question.
Mac Jones, in his one win on the road, earned
his salary. If your backup has to start a couple games,
if you can win one of them, that is a
major win. You don't get style points, no one judges

(33:57):
you on individual plays or passes. Just win the game
and get out of there with your backup quarterback. That's
a different situation than the Jake Browning Joe Burrow win
the guys out for the year. But in situations where
a guy has a rolled ankle, when a guy has
a banged up knee and he's gonna miss a game,
maybe two games, can you just win a game? Can

(34:17):
you keep the team competitive? The bar is really really low,
and that's where the pressure on the front office on
to sign a guy who is your backup quarterback, who's
more than just a clipboard holder, who is more than
just assistant coach in the meeting room. It's a guy
that's credible, who can take snaps and make some place

(34:39):
and also brings that to the table as well. So
it's gonna be under the microscope now in some of
these different organizations with Mariota, with Carson Wentz, because let's
face it, Minnesota Washington, these teams don't have like we're
hoping to win nine or ten games. The hope of
those two teams was like compete for the NFC Championship Game,
right to compete for our division. Oh, it's gonna be fascinating.

(35:02):
I don't know how all these guys get hurt, but
I yeah, it's just it's crazy. Uh. The other couple
things is the more and more I think about it,
for Josh Allen and Lamar Jackson, if not now, then win.
I think one of those guys this season has to

(35:22):
represent the AFC in the Super Bowl. The Bills or
the Ravens have to win the AFC. If they don't,
it is a major disappointment. Clearly, the Chiefs, they're not
gonna go oh in seventeen. If I had to bet
right now, they'll be nine or ten wins. It's gonna
be a tougher season for them. You know, even a
guy like Worthy comes back, does his shoulder get reinjured?

(35:44):
What is Rashid Rice? He's not just suspended, he was
also injured last year. That it's gonna be a little
We thought the transition year was gonna be last year
and they made the Super Bowl. Maybe it's this year.
But it's like the Chargers. We'll see with Mac the Broncos,
they have a second year quarterback. Still a lot of
question marks. One of these two teams. Then listen, I
give them both credit. The Bills, it would have been easy.
You get a massive win. You're playing the Jets to

(36:05):
just kind of cruise control, boom, they're up twenty to nothing.
The Ravens coming off a big loss. I get it.
You're playing the Browns, but they treated Belta ass forty
one to you know, it should have been like forty
one to ten. But the Ravens or the brown scored
a meaningless touchdown. But both those two teams are so good,
these two quarterbacks are so dominant. But to me, the

(36:28):
theme with these two guys this year, in these two
organizations is its super Bowl bit or bust. If we're
not winning the AFC, it is a major disappointment. Now
there's only I would say two teams. Now I would
throw the Eagles in as well, and you could argue
the Packers just because the trade, but they haven't been

(36:49):
in the Super Bowl in twenty ten. There are two
teams that can be disappointed if they don't win the
Super Bowl. That'd be the Chiefs. They've been to five
or six of them, and the Eagles they've been two
of the last three and they're defending champs. But I
think anything less than winning the AFC when you got
Josh Allen, Lamar Jackson in their prime and the way
this league is kind of kind of playing out, it's

(37:10):
gonna be disappointing. And I would say, on a lesser level,
now that Burrow's out, Mike Tomlin better have like a
rally the troops speech because this defense, which I bought into,
I'm like, I kind of understand why they made some
of these moves getting rid of Minka at these corners.
You got a sweet defensive line. There's gonna be this tough,
physical team one of the you know, even if they're
not top two or three defense, I be like a

(37:31):
top six or seven defense. Rogers will just solidify them
a little bit. Instead, they kind of feel like a joke.
They can't run the ball, they have no physicality on offense,
and defensively they're getting shredded. It's like, what's going on here?
Got you're down twenty four to seventeen. You need to
stop and you can't get it. They go right down
the field score a touchdown. So this is a type
game you got Burrow now out for the season. If

(37:53):
you're Tomlin playing the Patriots this week, Like, if you
can't win this game pretty handily, I might just be
on this team. Now. I wouldn't say they're gonna have
like a Jets type season like last year, but this
thing could get really weird. You know. Part of the
reason you take an older version of Aaron Rodgers, Like
we got Mike Tomlin. He can just handle this situation.

(38:13):
Something is off in that organization. And I bought into
the Kumbaya honeymoon phase that was their training camp and
now you're watching them through two weeks, like, what the
fuck is this? So I listen, there's not pressure on
the Steelers to make it to the super Bowl, but
if they missed the playoffs with the way this AFC
is shaping out, especially in their division, where now now

(38:35):
the Bengals like feel like you can check them off
and the Browns are a joke. Double digit favorites or
underdogs back to back weeks. It's week two and three,
it's the middle of September, and you're already ten eleven,
twelve point underdog. Like that's pretty embarrassing. So it shows
you like the Steelers. Mike Tomlin like this, this is
a pretty big week. And I'll end on this. We

(38:56):
have some recent history of guys resurrecting their career. We
saw it tonight, I mean two or three years ago,
before he got to Tampa. You know, we talked about
Geno Smith. Haters wrote him off. Most people weren't even
haters were just writing Baker off. We didn't think he
was any good. Everyone before last year made fun of
Sam Donald. These guys resurrected their career. I mean, Baker

(39:18):
is one of the best quarterbacks in the NFL, and
Sam Donald is a legitimate starter, right, Daniel Jones. Listen,
the Giant situation, it's just a bizarre place. And ever
since they got rid of Tom or I almost said Tomlin,
Tom Koughlin, they have just been losing year in year out.
They do feel like they're a little bit better this year,

(39:40):
but again they're gonna lose a lot, and they're gonna
be best case scenario like seven and ten and if
you had to bet, probably more like five or six wins.
People just lose there and listen, Daniel Jones was objectively
awful last year. He was terrible, even in the year
where they went whatever nine and eight and beat the Vikings.
Look at a status. It's not like he threw forty touchdowns.

(40:01):
He has never been like even when he's good, that good.
But the way he's playing early on in this season
is pretty impressive. And sometimes his comp coming out of
college was Alex Smith. That's what he was. He was
gonna be like Alex Smith. Now. Should Alex Smith looking back,
have been drafted number one overall, probably not. This guy
named Aaron Rodgers should have gone. Should Daniel Jones have

(40:23):
been drafted six overall? Probably not. But when you watch
him play, you go he's tall, he's really athletic, he's
got a solid arm. And right now, here's what the
Colts got a lot of skill guys. They have several
wide receivers, they have a tight end who looks fantastic.
And here's where you gotta be careful in the draft.

(40:44):
Everyone's like Loveland out of Michigan. He's twitchier, he's faster,
he's more explosive, he's the better ceiling. It's like Tyler
Warren's just he's he's not as good of an athlete.
Will his skills translate to the open field, to the
NFL speed, It's like, yeah, actually, he's just a really
good football player. Instincts, his just natural feel for space. Obviously,

(41:06):
his ball skills are elite. Like, the guy's gonna make
Pro Bowls. Is he ever gonna be Gronkowski or Kittle?
Maybe not, but I'll promise you this, he's gonna be
really good player for a long period of time. And
Jonathan Taylor is clearly one of the best running backs
in the NFL. So for a guy that had a
lot of question marks that everyone rode off, went to
a really, really good spot and looks pretty good. So

(41:28):
I do think there is a chance, like long way
to go. I wouldn't just put this team at like
eleven or twelve wins now, but clearly they're gonna be
pretty good. They can move the football and defensively, it's
just it's hard to be as horrendous as they were
the last couple of years with Gus Bradley. Loui Amruno
was viewed as a really good coach a couple of
years ago when he had good players in Cincinnati. He's

(41:50):
a good defensive coordinator. So they upgraded their coaching staff.
They have good offensive pieces, and they got a guy
like why couldn't he have like a Sam Dormold type moment,
a Gino Smith type moment, And if he does, if
this continues, he is gonna save their jobs. So while
the owner is on the sideline with the earpiece on
taking notes at the end of the day, whether she

(42:10):
knows what they're saying or not, whether it's all performative
and it's just she just wants to be seen on
the sideline, or it's real, she's like doing some serious
judgment judgments of what everyone's saying. The only thing at
the end of the day. That's going to matter is
like you go eleven and six and you win the division.
That's gonna trump everything that she's writing down in her
stupid little notebook. So, if I'm Chris Ballard and I'm

(42:34):
Shane Steiken, my job was on the line. My seat
was scolding hot. It felt like the organization was about
to fall apart because of the whiff of our draft
pick on Anthony Richardson. Who would have thought Daniel Jones
might be their lifeline? Okay, Middlecoff mailbag at John Middlecoff

(43:07):
is the Instagram fire in those dms, get your questions
answered here on the show. I have a lot of
mailbag questions, so I will I'll try to bank them
out over the next couple of days. Jonah. In this
last week's game between the Eagles and Chiefs, the start
of the end when it comes to the tush push.
The Eagles game highlighted what's broken about the toush push

(43:30):
with players from both sides jumping off sides. Ignoring all
of that and focusing on what tush push supporters have
said is that other teams could do it if they
wanted to. The NBA changed how free throws were taken
because Wilt Chamberlain was dunking his free throws. I don't
remember that. I might need to google that he was

(43:51):
dunking his free throws, might need to get caught up
here on basketball history. But I'm gonna take I'm gonna
believe you. I think that press for the NFL to
ban it, even if Jalen Hurts is the only player
capable of doing I think it's pretty simple. There was
a groundswell of support to get rid of it last year.
The Eagles did a good job of campaigning and fending

(44:13):
it off, but I don't think that's gonna go anywhere,
and watching that one of the best and most I
don't know. The beauty of football is the unknown. On
a given play, you don't know what's coming, and even
if you have some idea, it is not inevitable. It's like, hey,
it's fourth and one, they're gonna give it to Derrick Henry,

(44:36):
or they're gonna have Patrick Mahomes rollout or whatever. You
don't know if they're gonna get the first down, right,
I don't care if Tom Brady Patrick Mahomes your quarterback
or Bryce Young's your quarterback. Anything can happen on any
given play, and that's not the case with a toushbush.
If several teams could pull it off, which clearly they cannot,
but even if the number and I'm stealing this from

(44:57):
somewhere because I heard someone mention this in the last
twenty four hours, this play would have been gone if
it was something that everyone was doing, even if a
quarter of the league was doing it, because it's the
most boring play we've ever seen. Because even with a
quarterback sneak, you don't know if they're gonna get it,
and they get denied all the time. This play they

(45:18):
always get it. They always get it, and if it's
even close, they're third and one, they're rolling it out there,
so they basically get two plays to always get a
first down. And it just sucks. Now I get if
you're an Eagle fan, like, screw you guys, right, it's
a legal play, and technically it is legal, but it's
really boring and it's not consumer friendly. And the one

(45:38):
thing the NFL is good about when it's anti consumer
they will pivot. So this play, the Eagles better take
advantage of this because they are going to ban this play.
My guess would be this offseason, but it's gonna live
throughout the season. The Niners were getting a lot of
heat for the amount of injuries that they have, but
look what's happening around the league, injuries mounting all over

(46:00):
the place. Do you think that perhaps the NFL should
allow teams to go full pads in training camp and
allow them to hit more often two a days, etc.
Seems like these soft training camps could be a problem.
Two days are never coming back. Ever, that's never happening.
They got in the twenty eleven CBA. I got into
the NFL in twenty ten, Andy Reid had a couple

(46:21):
weeks of two days. It was intense. That next year
the lockout happened, hold out, strike, whatever the hell it was.
I guess it was a lockout. And one thing the
players were adamant about doing was more time off and
that has not changed in fifteen years and that is
not going to change. So to me, two a days
is never coming back. But when you have a practice

(46:42):
you can't hit, you can tackle to the ground like
nothing is holding these teams back from being really physical.
Andy Reid's practices are still really physical. If you went
to one of their training camps and their players talk
about this. A lot of players that come in free
agency are stunned by how intense it is because when
you do practice, even though you only get one true

(47:04):
padded practice a day, and then I think it's like
every four days during training camp you have to give
them an off day, but you could tackle to the ground.
No one's holding that back from you. Now, I understand
for a lot of people are like, hey, I got
ten plus guys on my team making over fifteen million dollars.
If one of them gets injured in a tackle a practice,

(47:27):
that's hard to stomach. So I think the finances of
the sport has dramatically shifted the mindset. And I don't
know if there's any way of putting the toothpaste back
in the tube on this one. So are these guys
rolling ankles and hurting knees and getting turf toe because
of practice? I'm the wrong guy to answer this question.

(47:48):
I have a couple, you know, an undergraduate and a
graduate degrees that are completely worthless, and I learned nothing
in the classroom. So I can't tell you I don't know,
but through my experience I can say there's no perfect
way to do this. Clearly, there's a reason you spar
before a boxing match or UFC before you get in

(48:10):
the octagon, right, you want to build up the calluses.
And there's got to be something to it that back
in the day. I've had people tell me, and I
do think there's some validity to this. Is in the seventies,
the eighties and nineties, these guys did not train three
hundred and sixty five days a year like they do now,
Like a huge part of rest in recovery is just

(48:33):
that not doing anything. And let's use McCaffrey as an example.
I admire his work ethic, but does training basically all
year round is that good for your body? Now, there's
got to be a balance, right, what these guys do
now and the information they have and the way they
eat is surely better than a dude in like the eighties.
But like did Barry Sanders and Walter Payton and some

(48:56):
of these guys back in the day, we miss a
lot of time. It doesn't feel like it, So I
don't know. I don't have a great answer to this.
There are things that I think we laugh at about
the old timers that like, yeah, smoking cigarettes, you know,
during training camp, probably not a great idea, but come
into training camp a little out of shape and then
getting after it for a month. If you look at

(49:18):
some of these guys' game logs, maybe it was better now.
Maybe if you see some of them walk around and
move now. I don't know, I don't, I don't know,
but whatever's happening, guys dropping like flies. This is not
a sustainable model. The way we're at right now. I mean,
speaking to this with Cincinnati, it's looking like it won't
ever change anytime soon. Who do you think will be

(49:38):
the bigger what if athlete when it's all said and done,
Burrow or Andrew Luck. It's a great question. I do
think Andrew Luck was a better player. Again, I'm nitpicking here.
I mean Burrow's excellent as well. But Burrow does have
the Super Bowl berth and beating Patrick Mahomes. Andrew never

(49:58):
won the af Championship, though he got there one time
and then got his teeth kicked in by the Patriots.
If I remember correctly, I think both are heading that way.
The difference is Andrew just kind of disappeared. He was
just gone. You know, Burrow, we see him play. I
feel like we see Burrow play more and then he
gets injured. I'd have to do like a thorough breakdown

(50:22):
and compare year to year. Yeah, I mean, I would
say it's not good. Now. Luck had a bad shoulder injury,
which has a huge impact on how you throw the ball.
Where Burrow you know this turf toe injury, which, let's

(50:43):
face it ruins a season. If you tell me three
month injury, it's like, well, do the math. Mid October,
mid November, mid December, Like it's over. You'd bet on
he's gonna rehab to come back with three games left,
especially if they're losing no chance. So I think sometimes
there are franchises that just feel doomed. And that's kind

(51:04):
of what Mike Brown the Cincinnati Bengals feel like. Yeah,
I don't really know. I would say they're both in
a category that is shitty for us. The more good quarterbacks,
the more great players, the better the sport is. Right,
The less Joe Burrows and Andrew lux that are playing
on Sundays, the worse it is. And I'm in the

(51:25):
business to have this sport be as well received and
watched by as many people as humanly possible. So I
think it sucks. When Joe Burrow gets injured, it has
a negative impact on the product. There's no way around it.

(51:46):
I feel like baseball and basketball franchises like the Rockies
and Hornets that I sometimes forget are even still around.
Does the NFL have any franchises that could be considered irrelevant?
I feel like there are franchises that are off, but
also that football is so popular that there is a
rising tide lift all boats situation that will keep any

(52:07):
NFL franchise from becoming irrelevant. You know, if the Rockies
are good, let's use the example. If the Rockies are
good or the Hornets are good, which they're not very often,
but let's just say they are a playoff team, they
still don't really matter. And that's where I think it
dramatically is different in the NFL, like right now the Panthers.
Like when I look over and I see a Panthers
game like playing the Cardinals, I know that game does

(52:30):
not matter for what I do. I'm not going to
talk about it. It's just not going to be something
relevant yet. If the Eagles, the Cowboys, the Packers, the
forty nine ers were in that situation, it would be
something that I would pay closer attention to right, because
their brands, their fan bases are dramatically bigger. But we've

(52:50):
seen the Panthers be really good with Cam Newton and
they they're playing primetime games and they rate and they matter, right.
So I think the difference in the NFL than the
NBA is they have franchises. When they suck, we just
kind of whatever, who cares? Don't You don't even need
to talk or think about them right where It's like
in the NBA, if the Lakers suck, they're still getting

(53:10):
talked about all the time. If the Warriors suck, they're
still getting talked about all the time. The Knicks as well. Baseball,
if the Yankees or Red Sox or Dodgers are down,
like there's still a major talking point. But the difference
is if the Rockies are good, still no one's paying attention.
Where if these other teams that aren't quote unquote huge
brands and nationally relevant are good, we're all watching and

(53:33):
they will get big numbers on Sunday Night football, on
Monday night football, Thursday night football, big games on Sunday afternoon.
I mean, I see it in my own YouTube numbers
with like the Atlanta Falcons like their brand like relative
to other NFL teams, is not as big. But if
they have back to back years of winning like eleven

(53:53):
or twelve games, like with Matty Ice and Julio Jones,
they will become a team that people are accustomed to
watching on big games. But it did feel, you know,
even Week two Atlanta Minnesota, Atlanta felt a little out
of place, and in fairness, they won the game. Question
for the bag. Thoughts on Spencer Rattler and the improvements

(54:14):
he's made to start this season. He's looked better than
Caleb Williams despite being in a worse situation. Hot take.
Not sure how much worse his situation is. I think
the Saints Actually, I was texting a buddy, was like,
you know what, I think the Saints have good offensive personnel.
They have Chris Lave, they have Shaheen. I mean, those
two wide receivers are good. They traded for I might

(54:37):
screw up his name, val Vala from Denver, who had
a touchdown against the Niners. Who's a big bodied guy.
They're tight end eighty three, good player, Alvin Kamara one
of the better running backs. I mean, I don't know
if he's Saquon Barkley or Derrick Henry, but he's a
really good NFL player. They got good personnel on offense.

(54:57):
They have an offensive head coach. I was impressed with
Ratler in that game. As the game went on, I
was like, this guy's not bad. Like I understand, of course,
Tyler Shuck can't beat this guy up there. There's no
chance on God's Green Earth that Tyler Shuck's as good
as that guy. So my take was like, yeah, the
Saints offense is not terrible. Defensively, they probably suck, but
offensively they definitely have some pieces and they have team speed.

(55:23):
These have some explosive playmakers. I was kind of impressed.
I mean, people probably make fun of the Cardinals and
Niners like, oh, that's not a great win. I don't
think the Saints are just some like watching them, they
feel and I've bet on the Titans two weeks in
a row. The Saints are better. One thing about you know,
hype and how you come in right. Rattler was what

(55:46):
a fifth round pick and Caleb was the greatest thing
since slice spread. Once you start playing, none of that matters, right,
None of it matters, and hype just becomes that white
noise Internet talk. Right, can you make players you can't?
Can you block someone or you can't. What do you
do with the ball in your hands? Can you break

(56:07):
tackles or you can't? Like, no one cares about any
of that once the game starts or during the week
when you're preparing and getting ready for practice. So I'll
be honest, I wrote Spencer Rattler off years ago, and
he went to South Carolina resurrect his career. Clearly the
last couple of years, it feels like the Saints like him.

(56:29):
Hat tip to him because right now I'm with you.
It feels like it's he's just a better player than
Caleb Williams. Happens all the time, right, I mean, it
happens all the time. The guys become better players than
guys that they shouldn't be better players, man, But that's
the way the NFL works. It's like, eventually you just

(56:49):
got to make some place you either can function or
you can't. You either can consistently complete routes against certain
pressures and defenses or you can't. You either can play
from within the pocket or you can't. And it's not
like Rattler or some bad athlete. He was running around
making plays with his legs. With Mac Jones' performance with

(57:10):
Kyle calling plays, is it fair to say that Josh
McDaniels is overrated. He didn't get much out of Mac
and hasn't done much without Brady. I would say Josh
McDaniels stock is definitely has not been a bye over
the last couple of years, and right now, at best

(57:31):
it's like a hold and keep track of now. I listen,
Mac Jones has his limitations and he's playing the Saints,
which isn't great now. Granted he's throwing to you know,
banged up Juwan Jennings, Ricky Piersoll. You know, the Irish
personnel is actually not bad. Ricky Pearsoll is a good player,
and McCaffrey's healthy and is a good player. But a

(57:52):
lot of Kendrick Bourne who just signed. Comparing Kyle to
Josh McDaniels, if you just remove Tom Brady, which I
think Kyle Shanahan, Matt Lafleur, Kevin O'Connell, Sean McVay, Andy Reid,
Sean Payton, every decent coordinator let alone, the good guys
would have dominated with Tom. But can you coach with

(58:12):
Mac Jones. Can you coach with Jimmy Garoppolo? Can you
coach with Alex Smith? Can you coach with all these?
Because it's been proven Josh McDaniels cannot now can he
coach with Drake May? Like I put zero stock into
any performance against the Miami Dolphins. So we will see
as the season goes on. Like Steelers defense isn't great,
how does it look there? So I would say as

(58:33):
someone who supported Josh McDaniels as a great offensive coordinator,
I've definitely pulled back on that. Take a little bit.
Chiefs fan from South Africa, I've always wanted to go there.
What a crazy first two weeks, great shows and I'm
a big fan. Rex Ryan believes the Chief's inability to
commit to the run will remain an Achilles heel on Sunday,
big runs and then when you think it's starting to work,

(58:55):
they throw and it goes off Kelsey's hands. Can the
Chiefs beat the Eagles without being able to read the
temperature in the room and commit to the run when
they have the champs on the ropes? Barkley ended up
with a sneaky eighty eight yards but more effective second
half and a pedestrian first half. Let me just what
were their final rush attempts, because I felt like they

(59:17):
ran the ball a lot. I would say this when
it comes to Kansas City is they have one of
the greatest quarterbacks of all time. Who I understand that
they're missing offensive personnel, but when you look at the
box score against the Eagles, the Chiefs ran the ball
twenty six times, the Eagles thirty four. Now that's really

(59:40):
not that big of a gap, given that Jalen Hurts
threw for I mean a pedestrian hundred yards. It's not
like Mahomes threw it fifty times. He threw it twenty
nine times. He threw it only seven more times than
Jalen Hurts. Now, some of these runs were Mahomes scrambling around,
but I mean it's I just think that's part of Mahomes.

(01:00:01):
The Andy Reid offense, like Andy Reid for twenty five years,
is gonna call more passes than runs. He also throws
the ball to the running back. Pajaco got to catch,
Hunt got a catch. So I don't know, I have
seen way worse in that situation of them not running

(01:00:22):
the ball. Rex Ryan's teams led the league in rushing.
Like the couple teams that he had that were good
with the Jets, they were not passing teams. They led
the league in rushing and they played defense. It's not
the way Andy Reid has gone to five out of
the last six Super Bowls. He honestly runs the ball
now than he ever has. And here's the thing. His

(01:00:42):
running backs were Kareem Hunt, who averaged three point nine
yards to carry eight carries for thirty one yards, and
Pachaco ten rushes for twenty two yards. So it's like,
what are you supposed to keep hammering those guys in
the line of scrimmage. At the end of the day,
they got Saquon Barkley. If Andy had Saquon, I do
think he'd give them the ball more often. But his
two running backs are one's a seventh rounder who I liked,

(01:01:05):
but Jaco and Kareem Hunt was a guy that didn't
have a job. A longtime listener wanted to bring this
question back around to be considered for the Hall of Fame.
What does John Schneider and the Hawks need to do
the rest of his tenure. Also, it's interesting to watch
Seattle build a program with a plant. For so long
after LB it was relying on rust to save him

(01:01:27):
in the fourth quarter. Cool to see them have a
plan like the Lions as a most recent example, create
an identity and start and start to stay true to it.
You know, I John Snyder has got a contract extension,
He's already been to a couple Super Bowls. When's the
last time his team lost? Like, if you look since

(01:01:47):
his tenure as a GM, I mean, have they had
a losing record. I'm trying to think. I'm not sure
they have. They went seven to ten in two thousand
and twenty one. But other than that, I mean, they're
gonna be nine and eight, ten and seven this year.
They were ten and seven last year, nine and eight,
nine and eight. I mean, post Rush, they've been pretty good.

(01:02:11):
To me. If he gets consistent playoff team the next
couple of years, I mean, he's I don't know, he's
pretty freaking good, especially when he was the guy pounding
the table for Russell Wilson. Now, I you know, historically
it's a little harder for gms to get into the
Hall of Fame. I don't know. I don't really think
about it like that. I think about Hall of Fame
more for coaches than for gms. But you know, Brett

(01:02:35):
Beach has three Super Bowls he has, he not gonna
be a Hall of Famer. Howie Roseman has two super
Bowls with two different quarterbacks, two different coaches. He's gonna
be a Hall of Famer. John Schneider's been to two
Super Bowls. He's gonna be in the mix for sure.
He's got still I think if he got to one
more super Bowl with a different quarterback, it'd be hard

(01:02:55):
to keep him out. I have a question for the mailback.
I'm a Chiefs fan, and in a light of the
recent Chiefs Eagles game, how can the tush push continue
to be run with it being so hard to officiate?
It seemed to me that there was two false starts
on the Eagles running play. When they showed the replay,
I don't think it seemed there definitely was, but because
it's such a tight formation, it's almost impossible for the

(01:03:18):
officials to see. Same as the end of the game
where the Chiefs say they recovered the ball, I don't
believe that they did, but it got me thinking it'd
be so hard to see anything live on replay assists
because there are so many guys on the pile. I'm
telling you, guys this thing. This is last year. They

(01:03:39):
gave Jason Kelce the owners meeting, the impassioned speech, he
had Howie Roseman fighting, and they did a good job.
They ran a winning campaign. It looked like they were
going to lose. They campaigned and they flipped the votes.
But that is not going to happen again, especially the
negativity around that play. They're kind of a boring team

(01:03:59):
to watch right now as is. I know, I know
they're winning, but when that's your most effective offensive play call,
I just think people are gonna turn on you. And
the other thing is when you win, people get people
get bored with you as well. Danny Dives is he

(01:04:29):
making an MVP run? Adam Schefter? How about this? The
Colts are the first team in the Super Bowl era
not to punt in either one of their first two games.
What I said about the Saints where I'm like God,
they got a lot of decent, good offensive players, Like
a lot of their guys would start on Super Bowl contenders.

(01:04:53):
I'm watching the Colts. I go, well, Pittman's really good,
Tyler Warren is everyone was like Loveland his attributes, he's
just gonna be Well, I'm watching Tyler Warren, Like, yeah,
he might have been a little slower, he might not
have been as explosive, but that works. Like he's gonna
be playing in the NFL making plays. For a long time,

(01:05:14):
he was the best player and one of the best
teams in college football. Now you put him in the
NFL and he's immediately running around Denver Broncos on defense.
So you got him, you got Pierce Can makes plays. Obviously,
Jonathan Taylor is one of the best running backs. Like,
they got really good offensive personnel. They drafted Mitchell two

(01:05:35):
years ago from Texas, who is just an explosive player.
It's hard not to watch Indian go God. If Daniel
Jones can just kind of be like an Alex Smith
version of which he was always destined to be. If
he was going to hit, it could not be bad.
Now is it going to continue? Are they just gonna
be the best offense in the league. Well, they have

(01:05:55):
an offensive coordinator who's their head coach that a couple
of years ago is viewed as a genius, and then
Anthony Richardson made him look like an idiot. Sometimes You know,
we shit on coaches, and I'm guilty as anybody. I'll
be as aggressive on being negative toward coaches as anyone
that talks about football. But sometimes we need to shed
light on that player is so crappy. He made that

(01:06:18):
coach look bad. And that's what Anthony Richison was doing
to Shane ssyching. It made Shane styke and look bad
and him kind of like having to do things that
he would never do on and off the field, right.
It made him look bad on press conferences, It made
him look bad at the podium, It made him probably
look bad in his locker room. Maybe it's Anthony Richison,
because I've seen Shane Siken removing Anthony Richison and it works.

(01:06:42):
I keep hearing that Caleb is playing well in the
first quarter while he's running Ben Johnson's scripted plays, but
after that everything falls apart. Curious if you could give
some insight on why they can't script more plays. I
understand as the score changes, so does the flow of
the game, but it'd be so much better on script.

(01:07:04):
Why can't he script the first thirty plays instead of
the first ten? You know that would be a great
question for is an offensive coordinator or a head coach,
because I don't know the answer to that. Maybe the
timing throughout the week it would be harder. You know,
you run a lot of plays, and you game plan

(01:07:24):
a lot of plays that quote unquote are are put
into the game plan Wednesday, Thursday, Friday that might not
be in your first ten. So you have practiced those
plays now. I think what they want is against a
specific look. So if you get that look, you have
practiced that play throughout the week, potentially multiple times, and

(01:07:48):
it's just about does the defense give you the look
you want? And if they don't, then it can look bad.
But I think you run a lot of plays during
the week that aren't part of your scripted ten or
scripted first fifteen plays that then get run in the games.
What do you think you're doing in practice? Even red
zone period, third down period. You're gonna run a lot

(01:08:09):
of plays against the defense that you think you're gonna
see from the team in practice them throughout the week.
So a lot of these play calls that they're calling
for Caleb in the second half of these games, they
may not have scripted in a sequence, because how do
I script in a sequence in the third quarter when

(01:08:29):
the game is twenty one to three or vice versa.
We're up twenty one to three, right, So I'm not
gonna keep calling these pass plays. We're gonna call some runs,
but they are run plays that we have run, if
not that week, we hammered throughout training camp or earlier
in the season. So they're typically not calling plays even

(01:08:50):
past the quote unquote script that he's not run a
bunch of times in the offseason in training camp, and
obviously the season goes on potentially countless times. I think
the hardest part about football, it's what makes Brady Rogers,
Peyton Mahomes all these guys, is like as a game

(01:09:12):
goes on, you have to be able to call your plays.
Like when Mahomes goes the line against the Eagles, he's
gonna call a play that Andy calls in that they've
run countless times. They might get the defense they look
they're looking for, they might not, and if they're not,
he has to change on the fly. And if he
changes on the fly, and then he takes the snap

(01:09:33):
and then he realizes I was wrong, can he figure
it out from there? So it's like the test is
constantly changing. It changes when you get up to the
line of scrimmage, you look around, then you make a decision,
and then once the ball is snapped, they might change
what you think they were doing, so then you have

(01:09:53):
to change your decision based on that, including the wide receivers,
the offensive line. Like, there's just a lot of moving parts,
and no matter how much you script football, you can
never like, this isn't a song, this isn't a movie.
I can only control so much as an offensive play caller, Right,

(01:10:14):
what if my guard slips? What happens when my wide
receiver runs the wrong route? What happens where we knew
the defense they were gonna run, but someone on their
defense fucks up. So it's like, yeah, I thought their
dB was gonna, you know, run with the tight end
down the scene, but he just let the guy go
and he just like ran to the flat which we

(01:10:34):
thought was gonna be wide open, but he couldn't throw
to the scene because the safety had cheated once he
realized the guy had screwed up and he was right there.
So it's like there's constantly moving parts. And that's where
it feels like Kleb and a lot of young quarterbacks
can completely overwhelmed. It's like they don't even know what
they're looking at, and then they freak out and they
look at the ground and they take a lot of sacks,

(01:10:56):
or run into sacks, or just start running around. That's
what it feels like doing. My dad has argued since
I was in middle school, I'm about to turn thirty
three to eliminate preseason polls in college football. I got
on board with him about a decade ago. It influences
the perception of teams, especially among members of the committee,
which is deciding which teams get to compete for the

(01:11:18):
national championship. I understand why we do preseason polls, but
it's time for the committee to come out with a
weekly poll after the results of week one. I want
to see how well or poorly they do when they
don't have an AP or coaches poll to fall back on.
Hopefully this gains some traction. I would say this is

(01:11:38):
I don't even think you should have a poll. I
know they do it like after week seven. You could
do it earlier than that, but I would give it
like three weeks. But I'm completely with you. There is
a We're human beings, so how could there not be
an inherent bias where it's like, hey, this team, you
know clearly they're not as good, but you don't tech

(01:12:00):
It's like, well, yeah, because they started number two overall.
Have you seen arch Manning play football? He looks atrocious.
There is no way they could be a top five
team with that at quarterback. We have seen teams win
the National Championship with a game manager he is. If
his name was John Middlecoff and not arch Manning, he

(01:12:20):
would get benched like it is that atrocious. So I
mean Quinn yours in the middle of a game last
year got pulled. I'm completely with you. It doesn't feel
like we're anywhere near that happening. Though. What happened at
the Denver defense. I know we're only two games in,
but I feel like we were sold as a top
three defense, and if I were a Denver fan, I'm

(01:12:42):
not liking what I'm seeing your thoughts. I felt like
they were way too easy to throw on yesterday, like
every time that you know, we had several games going
on at one time. But I'm pulling up the box score.
How many yards did Daniel Jones throw for? Daniel Jones
threw for three hundred yards, so you know, Jonathan Taylor

(01:13:04):
ran for a buck sixty, but one of them was
the long run at sixty eight yards, So they held
new one hundred yards like they were right in the game,
corralling them beside the one big run. I got no
issue with a great back. Twenty four carries for one
hundred yards. It's like, you know, that's that's whatever. I
can live with. That. To me, it was they were

(01:13:26):
distributing it to every single guy. Warren four for seventy nine,
Pierce four for sixty eight, Down six for fifty, Jonathan
Taylor had a couple catches, Pittman four for forty. It's
like every dude is eating. And I don't know if
it was just that's part of the Colts where it's like, hey,
we're not just playing Jamar Chase or Justin Jefferson, where

(01:13:47):
we can focus on the true not like they got
three or four guys. So maybe that makes it a
little more challenging. But on the road, maybe Indy's just
playing really well. I wouldn't write them off just quite
yet as being not a good defense. They only had
one sack yesterday. I just thought like there were just

(01:14:09):
guys open, guys making plays in the open field. Maybe
the Culture is a unique team that they got a
lot of bodies, and if their quarterback is gonna play
point guard, that even if your defense is really good,
it's gonna be hard to cover all these guys because
you got six DB's. You know, it's kind of difficult.
So I don't have a great answer for you. I'm
gonna say that I'm still a believer in Denver. I

(01:14:33):
would guess that they get their shit together. They get
the Chargers this week. I'm recording this on Monday, so
before the game, so the charge is gonna be coming
off a long week. They get the Bengals with the
backup quarterback. They got to go to Philly. So if
they can handle this little stretch like go to and
win two of those three games, then they will be well,

(01:14:57):
they be three and two. Then they get the Jets,
the Giants, the cow Boys, the Texans, the Raiders. They
got some winnable games that Charger games would be pretty
big for them. Okay, a couple more questions question for

(01:15:25):
the Pod Vikings fan, But I have a question about
the Falcons after the game, do they sneakily have two
guys that could win defensive Rookie of the Year. I
know Minnesota had two good starters on the O line out,
but looking at the Falcons schedule and the fact that
Baker is the only proven quarterback in the division they'll face,
I can't help but think that Pierce and Walker will

(01:15:47):
have great seasons. What do you think I loved Walker
ever since that. I mean that Georgia game last year whatever,
early mid October where he dominated. It was like, this
guy's can't miss guy. I would say he was a
pretty polarizing player in NFL circles. I had some people
that loved him, and I had other people that thought, like,

(01:16:09):
what's his true Like he's not Khalil Mack power, He's
not like because I thought he should have been like
a top ten pick. He's not like a true bender.
I just watch a guy who is, in by all accounts,
elite character, and I don't just I mean elite football
character as well, like Aaron Donald eats football up. I mean,

(01:16:31):
was the heartbeat of the Georgia team. But I watched
a guy that's just kind of just a natural pass rusher.
He might not have the ideal skills relative to some
of these guys, but look at Crosby. One thing Crosby
hangs his hat on is like he is he ben
the edge like Von Miller, you know, is he does
the strongest guy in the league, but his relentless effort.

(01:16:54):
He's obviously a very technically sound guy, and he just
plays so hard. When you play your balls off, you're
just gonna be pretty good now, Pierce, pretty big wild card,
big time talent, major question mark for a lot of
teams on the draft board. Well, those guys I always
just you never know. But I'm betting on Javon Walker

(01:17:15):
being a good player. I would be stunned if he
doesn't have a really solid season, different player, I would say,
But like Jared Verse, just I just think he's just
gonna be good now. How good like consistent All pros,
Pro Bowls, I don't know. But I just don't bet
against guys like that. I just think guys that play

(01:17:36):
that hard, guys that were that good in college, the
guys with that character makeup and off the field kind
of wiring. It works. So I'm with you, and you
bring Leonard Floyd. Their past rush definitely looks a lot
better with those three guys. Okay, last questions, about the
toushbush again. This is It's just I can't believe we

(01:17:59):
talked this much about a quarterback sneak, but I understand
why I wanted to. We'll end on this. I wanted
to ask you about the Toush push we heard about
all off season, how there were several owners who wanted
to play band for various reasons, most of which centered
around it being boring and visually unappealing play. I was
wondering if a rule change is even necessary. From the

(01:18:22):
overhead shots and even some down the line of scrimmage,
it looks as though the center is directly over and
sometimes even ahead of the ball. Wouldn't this mean he's
lined up in the neutral zone? You'd have to get
Blandino or one of those guys, because it definitely feels
like they're all leaning over. I wonder if the way
to quote unquote ban it during the season is to

(01:18:45):
start throwing flags on it. And if they start calling
these guys for neutral zone infractions and jumping off sides early,
then it'll negate it. Because if it's fourth and one
and I throw the flag and you go back five yards,
you're not running that on fourth and five. So, and
I know Siriani and the team's aggressive, but are they
gonna Are they gonna go for it at midfield on

(01:19:07):
fourth and five, especially if Jalen has one of his
classic like one hundred yards through three quarters passing the ball. Now,
they got two guys that can run it in Jalen
and Saquon, I mean shit, if they wanted to institute
like the option with their offensive line and how good
of a runner Jalen is and Saquon they could be.

(01:19:29):
For those of you that are my age or older,
like the Nebraska Tommy Fraser Lawrence Phillip days of the
late nineties, it would be an unstoppable play. You could
argue if they wanted to go old school because the
touch push is I mean somewhat of an old school
play like run the option, it would dominate. I'd be
stunned with everyone talking about them jumping off sides, with

(01:19:52):
them doing it to the Chiefs that they get flagged
here in the next couple weeks trying to run that play.
Their guys are gonna jump like that. Appreciate the questions.
I'll answer questions all week. Keep them coming at John Middlecoff.
Talk to you soon. Say you the volume m

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