September 9, 2025 • 50 mins
What a Week 1! Gregg Rosenthal and Nick Shook round out Kickoff Week with a recap of Monday Night Football between the Chicago Bears and Minnesota Vikings. The duo talks an incredibly determined debut from J.J. McCarthy, Caleb Williams' potential, as well as both the Bears' and Vikings' defensive schemes. Later, Gregg and Nick cover the most pressing news topics and injury updates as of Monday, September 8.
NFL Daily YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/nflpodcasts
See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
It is a run pass option. McCarthy takes off to
the right days.
Speaker 2 (00:05):
Stunner stuff sick.
Speaker 1 (00:06):
A five toupeez JJ McCarthy.
Speaker 3 (00:16):
He is JJ McCarthy, and that is Paul Allen of
k FA and great to have his voice back on
NFL Daily. I am Greg Rosenthal. I am joined as
always on Primetime Games by Nick Shook to talk about
another big time comeback in a primetime games. Not all
(00:37):
comebacks are equal, but this one, the Vikings trailing seventeen
to six going into the fourth quarter, is an example,
unlike that Bill's Ravens one the other night, that sometimes
the restorative power of a great defense can lead you
to a comeback. And the Vikings defense just kept stopping
(00:58):
the Bears over and over and over again until finally
JJ McCarthy suddenly got religion. On offense, everything slowed down
for him and he scored three touchdowns in successive drives,
usually off good field position, and the Minnesota Vikings go
into Chicago and steal won twenty seven to twenty four. Nick,
(01:22):
to me, this was more improbable than the Bills come
back because the Bills have Josh Allen at quarterback and
JJ McCarthy for three quarters of this game look completely lost.
But that's why we watched this, That's why we love this.
Speaker 1 (01:37):
Yeah, JJ McCarthy found God, and what Kevin O'Connell did
was found simplification of the offense. I mean, the operation
of the Vikings offense for the first three quarters was
too complex. They were having a hard time getting snaps
off before the expiration of the play clock. And then
suddenly in the fourth quarter it seems just pretty elementary
roll out. Brought boots to the right, passes to the flat,
(01:58):
Jordan Mason gets going on the ground, start to build momentum.
You get a nice convenient pass interference call that extends
the drive and you immediately capitalize. McCarthy shows off the
arm by finding Justin Jefferson in a pretty tight window
along the goal line for their first score. That gives
them hope, much like we talked about last night, you
need one play to give you hope. Then they get
that stop, they get the ball right back, they go
(02:18):
down the field again, McCarthy puts a dot on Aaron
Jones and suddenly they're in the lead and we're all shocked.
And it all started with I think the defense, like
you said, in the simplification of the offense, taking away
the complexities of it and just letting JJ McCarthy do
what he does best, which is play football and make
plays a quarterback.
Speaker 3 (02:34):
Yes, welcome to the YouTube audience who is watching this live.
We are going to do this live every single Monday night.
Appreciate you all being here. And I thought it was
going to be like a bloss or to show and
we're going to have some of these primetime games where
you got to spice it up, You're gonna have to
like find fun angles to it. But this one so
(02:55):
much happened. And I really do go back to the
defense to start nick, because it's going to get lost
in this game. Because the Bears ended up with twenty
four points. It's hard to forget about the first impression.
People like you who are writing about this game on
NFL dot com, like you have one story written and
then it is rewritten, and you have this idea that
(03:16):
the Bears offense played well and Caleb Williams makes these
great passes early in the game. But until that final
drive by the Bears where they did score a touchdown,
they needed to score it quick. They did a good
job to make it closer. They had only had ten
points on offense in ten drives. That would be the
worst offense in decades on a points per drive basis.
(03:38):
They end up with a touchdown at the end, so
that's seventeen points because I'm not counting the pick six
that doesn't count towards your offense in eleven drives. That
is actually worse per drive than the twenty twenty four Bears.
That inspired a hit piece on Caleb Williams's professionalism on
golong dot com over the weekend. Maybe we'll talk about
that a little bit, because I thought that was an
(03:59):
interesting back to this game. And what I would say
about Brian Flores and this Vikings defense is, even though
though they gave up that first drive in another field
goal early, I thought they got much more aggressive and
ultimately Caleb williams Is only good plays were ones that
he was creating on his own, and for the most part,
when he was just dropping back to pass or when
they were trying a traditional run game, the Vikings defense
(04:21):
had it stopped. And sometimes you do that enough over
and over and over, even if your offense is playing terribly,
eventually you could give them a chance to make a comeback,
and that's what JJ McCarthy did tonight.
Speaker 1 (04:31):
Yeah, yeah, they definitely did. And I think if you
examine this game, you go watch this in condensed to
replay tomorrow and it's just played by play by play,
you're gonna think something changed here. And the first thing
you'll notice is the play in the trenches because early
in this game, Caleb is making plays, but he's also
got a little bit more time to throw. Yes, he
has some magic. He has that throw to Romo Dunes
down the sideline that made my heart flutter in real time.
(04:52):
That ends up on that drive, a touchdown is scored
and they're up seven to nothing. But from there it
gradually and this is the beauty of I think of football,
the in game adjustments, Because at one point he was
either in the second or the third quarter. The Vikings
started to win that trench battle convincingly, and at the
same time, the Bears started to lose their trench battle
(05:14):
on the defensive side of the ball, and that's when
everything really started to shift. It was the precursor to
then what we saw the explosion of points in the
fourth quarter, and that really told the entire story because
for three quarters. JJ McCarthy was constantly being harassed the game.
The speed was too much for him, everything was too
much for him. And then suddenly he just finds it. No,
he finds it because they start to win upfront, and
they won up front on both sides of the ball
(05:35):
in that fourth quarter, and the signs were there a
couple quarters earlier, and that's really what shut down the
Bears offense. You're absolutely right, for as great as that
opening drive was, they needed a pick six just to
put another touchdown on the board, and it wasn't until
that final score in the final minute and a half
that they were able to get back in the en
zone offensively, Like this is I hate to say it,
because there's a lot of things to like from the
Bears offensive showing under Ben Johnson, creativity and everything else,
(05:58):
but there's a lot of things to fix here, right.
Speaker 3 (06:00):
So Caleb starts ten for ten and you mention that
throw that he have in the first drive to roam
a duneza. My god, when you see Caleb Williams make
a throw like that, you just feel like everything is possible.
Let's actually listen to that first quarter toss.
Speaker 1 (06:18):
Come met on his left tip swift the split to
the numbers left along with Dunjay fact for throwing a
tight pocket dodging now rolling.
Speaker 3 (06:24):
To the right, trying to white race the bike and
grows to the.
Speaker 1 (06:27):
Syard line inside the fifteen yard line. Is the catchmade?
It is by Robert Dunjay.
Speaker 3 (06:34):
Bears.
Speaker 1 (06:35):
Get it done, Caleb, as he's always known.
Speaker 3 (06:38):
To do, running out of real estate.
Speaker 1 (06:41):
Catch prime time real estate for him.
Speaker 3 (06:43):
Oh, that is an incredible throw and catch. It makes
you believe in everything that he can do. But when
you look back in that drive and really his best
moments of the game, it was him using his athleticism,
which is great. I think you need to see more
of that. And I was really impressed by how many
times early in this game the Vikings won cleanly with
(07:05):
four I don't think the Bears offensive line played well
overall in this game, certainly not in the second half,
but not really in the first half either. And how
Caleb Williams made those guys miss before either just scrambling
or making a throw was really positive and I think
was at a more efficient, decisive level than he did
(07:26):
it a year ago. It was really As the game
wore on and I thought Flores showed a lot more
looks to him in the second half, and you could
almost see like his brain starting to slow. And that's
happened to a lot of quarterbacks you know who have
played against Brian Flores's defense last couple of years. Yeah.
Speaker 1 (07:43):
One of the first things I noted early in this
game was Caleb is not because he has a tendency
as he's in the pocket to stop his feet and
just kind of survey. Sometimes it looks like he's freezing
and then he'll rip a pass and who knows if
it's going to be completed or not. He wasn't doing
that early in this game. He was constantly moving like
that pocket right there on that play. It's a tight pocket,
but it's stout. It's stout enough for him to be
able to break it, extend to play and find the
(08:04):
receiver downfield. And he was doing a lot of that
on that drive when he runs to the left later
in that drive. And it all looked positive, like, oh,
these are all signs of growth. But the Bears ran
out of gas, like as a team, they ran out
of gas because in the third quarter, Caleb's still trying
to make magic, but it just ends up being like
basically watching a car crash because he's trying to make
(08:26):
these plays and just chaos is unfolding around him. There's
the one play late in the game where he tries
to like flip the ball towards the sideline out of desperation,
gets a penalty for that. That was an example of
your protection breaking down late in the game because they're
running out of gas. The Bears won the feel out
portion of a Week one game. They lost the adjustment
portion of this game.
Speaker 3 (08:44):
Yeah, this Week one is so strange, and I really
caution against taking huge, you know, takeaways, and for most
of this game, my mine was going to be like
I'm not really sure about the Bears offense. My bigger
takeaway is just, man, the Vikings offense has a long
way to go, and I think attrition and good coaching
and also culture, Like you think about what Minnesota has
(09:07):
done over the last three or four years.
Speaker 1 (09:09):
Yeah, it's a.
Speaker 3 (09:10):
Lot of winning, like especially last year, but in general,
it's a lot of winning, and the Bears have done
a lot of losing, and there's a lot of cohesion
and answers from that coaching staff and players that they
are used to getting to finally getting the weaknesses, because
there were weaknesses. I can I can see some of
the Bears fans in the comments and we love you
(09:31):
that you're you know, going through this right now and
actually watching a recap. I don't know if I could
do pointing out the injuries. Yeah, Jalen Johnson was not
in this game in the end. Kyler Gordon was inactive
for this game. So two of their very best players
in the secondary, Nashan Wright, who had the pick six,
left this game. Who was, you know, their fourth or
(09:52):
fifth cornerback. I don't think he returned at least as
he did.
Speaker 1 (09:55):
He did, but it was pretty brief because it was
it was that touchdown drive.
Speaker 3 (10:00):
So you know, that's a guy who is a journeyman
at this point bouncing around, and so he leaves the
game at one point. They're also without their linebacker TJ. Edwards.
Now there's gonna be injuries, but I'm just trying to
provide some context to the situation. I do give McCarthy
credit though, because I was starting to take notes for
the show and everything. I'm thinking, well, this is a
good test for JJ McCarthy's leadership, because we hear how
(10:24):
beyond his years. He is as a leader, right, and
you can kind of see it, and I think they
really like JJ McCarthy, but he's got to go prove it.
And coming off a game like this where everything is
so slow and you look completely lost for three quarters,
you can't get lined up, as he said, like your
eyes are slow. I thought he, you know, it was
going through his progression slow. Literally some of his out routes,
(10:44):
like the ball just looked a little slow, and that
that's a little bit of a concern too, to be
able to rally, like, oh, you actually showed me your
leadership in the middle of that game, Like some of
the throws were pretty good. I know there were open receivers,
but that, to Aaron Jones was a fantastic moment. Let's
let's listen if we can get Paul Allen into the
(11:05):
show another time. Let's do it there.
Speaker 2 (11:08):
First and ten from the twenty seven it was the
Bears McCarthy out of a shot gun.
Speaker 3 (11:12):
Let's have gone and picked.
Speaker 1 (11:13):
Up McCarthy looks at a Jones touch showtime and the
Minnesota Vikings have taken on one point lead.
Speaker 3 (11:28):
Oh that's a great call there, and a great moment
for Jones, who was really quiet in this game, but
their running game him really as a receiver, a couple
runs late, but mostly him in that specific play. And
then Jordan Mason as a runner was a big difference
between them and the Bears, who really were not able
to run the ball at all. Tonight, sixty six percent,
by the way of the YouTube viewers voted that JJ
(11:51):
McCarthy is him, which I mean, this just shows you
that we've got a very young producer coming up with
these questions. Shout out to Chris twenty two years old.
JJ McCarthy. The nick is the first player since Cam
Newton with two passing touchdowns and a rushing touchdown in
his NFL debut, and all of those touchdowns, of course
came in the third quarter, so pretty cool. Like I
(12:13):
was thinking about, like, oh, he's not really a rookie.
He got to learn at the NFL level, but he
is essentially a rookie his first game, and you saw
him kind of go through the whole process tonight.
Speaker 1 (12:23):
Yeah, that brain can be filled with knowledge from a
year spent on the sideline and that's all fine and dandy,
but until you're thrown to the fire, you don't really
know how you're going to react, and we saw both
sides of that coin tonight with him being slow early.
But I love the point that you made about culture
and about JJ McCarthy's leadership because once he just got
to playing football, he has this endless sense of confidence
that came from being a successful high school quarterback, from
(12:45):
going to Michigan and winning a ton of football games
and being the leader of that program for multiple years.
They win a national championship in his final game. He
knows nothing but success and how to battle through adversity.
Remember this is a quarterback who had to play a
few games with that as head coach on the way
to a national champion when everybody was criticizing them. He
leads them through that fire. And this pays me because
look at the shirtom. We're in an Ohio state national championship.
(13:06):
This pains me to say this, but I'm being completely
honest right now. He was forged in that fire. This
is a different fire, and by the fourth quarter he
had settled in enough, he'd adjusted to the temperature to
be able to deliver. And I think that that's a
big reason why Kevin O'Connell felt so confident in making
him his franchise quarterback and moving on from San Darnold
because he saw that in him. But that the Aaron
(13:26):
Jones involvement. I like the way you broke down those
running backs too, because I thought that was a really
interesting part of their offense, especially in the second half.
Aaron Jones is essentially an exclusive third down back. He's
a pass catching back. Jordan Mason is the ball carrier
between the tackles for most of this game, and it
worked out well because it balanced their offense when they
really needed it in those late moment in those later
moments in the fourth quarter, which allowed them to spark
(13:48):
this whole comeback. But the culture thing is what's most
important to me, because, like you said, they've done a
lot of winning. How many teams in the NFL would
be in that situation. Offense is going nowhere, quarterback looks overwhelmed,
your star receiver's got one catch, nothing's going right. You're
on the road, hostile environment, primetime week one, and they
would have folded. Not the Minnesota Vikings, because they've been there,
(14:10):
They've done that, and even with a new quarterback, they
had the perfect quarterback, at least with the mental makeup
and the physical abilities to deliver in that in that spot.
Speaker 3 (14:17):
Yeah, because you know he's young. Jay Justin Jefferson's not young.
Javon Hargrave, who I thought had a great game, great
game in his first game for the Vikings, is not young.
Two sacks for him. Josh Mattellus was all over the place.
Andrew van Ginkel, you know, almost picked off that Caleb
passed for a screen. One of the most exciting plays
(14:38):
in all of football is a screen pass to Andrew
Van Ginkel's side of the field, and it was one
of the reasons I thought Caleb was getting spooked. You know,
we have a comment here that Caleb was missing deep
shots from the first quarter onwards, and I do think
his accuracy is something to talk about here because they
were ten for He was ten for ten on the game.
A lot of them were checked downs. I thought that
(14:59):
was good process, like he was making the right decisions.
I thought he was decisive when he was in that
early script. But if you remember it shook. His first
miss of the game was to a wide open I
want to say it was DJ Moore, it was him
or Adunze on a fourth down. Either in the red
zone or close to the red zone while they're going
(15:19):
in for a potential scoring and that was his first miss.
They had gone for a fourth down earlier on that drive.
And I didn't blame Ben Johnson for feeling it. I
think that was the best home crowd we saw in
any game all weekend long. Like it was an incredible
atmosphere there, Like it was just rocking and you're feeling
the flow and the receiver was open and Caleb just
missed him. And there was about three or four throws
(15:42):
tonight where the receiver was open and he missed him.
And I think it was more timing than anything, like
him deciding to make the throw late and then trying
to hurry it or whatever it was. But it was
some of the issues that you saw a year ago
out of Caleb Williams. I don't I don't want to
bury him. I don't. I don't think this was an
awful performance by him, But ultimately it was a disappointing
one the way that it started in the way that
(16:04):
it finished.
Speaker 1 (16:05):
Yeah, I agree. His accuracy did wane in the latter
portions of this game, for sure, and even on that
last desperate drive he had DJ Moore open down the
sideline and missed him there too, and that was a
timing thing too, because his eyes were in the flats earlier.
But I think, you know, things that the Bears need
to correct going forward. I was very concerned by their
inability to really push the ball even beyond ten yards.
(16:27):
Like that first drive works out so well, it makes
a lot of good decisions with checkdowns and everything else,
but a lot of his attempts for swing passes. By
the second half, Brian Flores's defense had adjusted and we're like,
we're taking that away. Van Ginkel obviously being the shining
example of that almost picking one off and we know
how good he isn't doing that from his previous years
in the NFL, and it felt like they had no
real other options, and even when he had guys open,
(16:47):
Caleb would miss them. And those are the things that
you can work on. Those are the kinks that you're
going to have to work through under a new coach
and a new scheme and everything else. But I also
think that it points to a big part of Caleb's
growth this season is going to be less reliance on
your arm talent, more reliance on the way that this
scheme is designed to work, which comes down to timing
because he has a howitzer for an arm and I
(17:09):
hate that people use that term so much, but it's true.
With him, he's got a freaking cannon less reliance on
using that arm. Strength, more on delivering on time in
the scheme will help this offense get to the next stage.
Speaker 3 (17:21):
Yeah, while we're at it, you know this this go
long piece and I recommend everyone go read it themselves.
Tyler Dunn, who's a good journalist and you know, had
that article about Sean McDermott using nine to eleven as
a rallying cry a couple of years ago and which
(17:42):
spurred on a Bill's like winning streak, right, you know,
he dropped it right in the middle of like the
lowest moment of their season, and then they went on
a winning streak. And while this game started, I thought like, oh,
is it another effect here of like the second he
drops some incredibly negative article about someone, like they take
off after that first drive. But man, it really got
after Caleb Williams using scouts coaches people that were in
(18:05):
the building about how he reacted to coaching, and I
think it was almost a direct response to the reporting
that happened in Seth Wickersham's book, which really put all
the blame on the coaching. And I don't have a
take other than you should read it and that it
was interesting and that that situation to me is still lingering,
(18:27):
and I thought it'd be really interesting to hear. Ben
Johnson asked about that specific piece because it took on
Caleb Williams's work, ethic and his personality and his leadership
ability in a really personal way from direct sources. Let's
not focus on that too much. A couple other little
things tonight. So of all the Week one games, like
(18:48):
this one was about the Week oneiest. You know, it's
like I don't know, like I want to see what
these teams are like in week four, you know what
I mean, Like they're just figuring stuff out. It's really
great for Minnesota to get the way and I think
we know this defense is going to be really good.
I think we know Dennis Allen can coach up some defense.
And I was really impressed with what the Bears did
for two or three quarters, and so there's some good
(19:08):
things to feel about. It's like, let's revisit in week four,
Like I think we're just like getting out the kinks there.
But some of the big questions that I had about
the Vikings going into this game. One, do they have
enough receiver depth behind Justin Jefferson, you know, like I'm
still a little worried about that. How is this new
offensive line look? Christian Darisa did not play in this game,
so he is still not healthy. And then would the
interior line that they brought over from Indianapolis look? Okay?
(19:31):
Mixed results, I would say most, you know, not amazing
most of the game. And then the Bears, like how
would their new additions look, especially on the offensive line,
not amazing? Like to me, it's just it was a
feeling out game where the culture kind of won over
everything else.
Speaker 1 (19:50):
Yeah, I thought there was some mental errors made by
the Bears offensive line. Now, there was a holding call
that was terrible, but there were false starts. There were
issues in the operation that are to of a team
under a new coach, but also like they're they're lingering
issues from previous Bears regimes that like, you got to
move past that, and I think you will over time.
Speaker 3 (20:08):
They had just twelve penalties shook for one hundred and
twenty seven yards. I mean that's when I said this
was the Week oneiest game. I mean, the Vikings had
eight penalties for fifty yards, which is not great either,
but twelve for one to twenty seven is crazy. That's
gonna make Ben Johnson crazy.
Speaker 1 (20:22):
Yeah, of course. And these turnarounds don't happen overnight. I mean,
anytime that I've been asked about what do you think
about the Bears this season, I think Caush's optimism. It
didn't happen overnight with the Lions when Ben Johnson was
on that staff as the OC, it took him a
while and they finally turned the corner. So I definitely
recommend patience. You see some things to like, yes, but
it's gonna be a work that you know, a work
(20:42):
in progress is gonna take multiple weeks or months and
everything else. And you're gonna look back on this game. Dang,
we lost to the Vikings in Week one. We shouldn't
have lost that game. You're gonna move past this at
some point and hopefully it's gonna be produce better results.
Speaker 3 (20:56):
Yeah. So I should have mentioned at the top of
the show. I'm just so excited to be on with you,
Nick and talk about this game that you know, Monday
Nights are not just about the game. We are gonna
hit some news from around the league. In just a
little bit, we had a trade including the Eagles. We
had some big time news in terms of injuries, in
(21:16):
terms of the forty nine ers. I think you know,
before we move on from this game, is there is
there anything else that you want to get out there,
Because like Jordan took the Vikings as a survivor pick,
and I thought that was extremely bold and it just
shows that she's a she's a ball knower, and she
(21:37):
was she was honking on text tonight too about how
good like she was talking up Jordan Mason, and I
like how you pointed that out too. I'm curious if
you have any other major takeaways before we.
Speaker 1 (21:48):
Move I like the team that Ryan Poles has constructed,
Like Tonal Passno makes a big play and I'm like,
he's in Chicago, Oh, just elevated from the practice squad.
Like that's a deep dive on a former relattively a
high pick that played in Kansas City that suddenly you're like,
you know what, let's give him a shot, Let's give
him some money. Makes a play, And I do trust
the process with this team, I'd like their receiving corps
(22:10):
more than I did last year. I worry about the
Vikings receiving core for the next three weeks, But overall,
this is gonna be one of those games. Like I said,
it's week one, We're gonna look back and it's it's
probably not gonna indicate all that much to us other
than that. The discourse on JJ McCarthy this week, it's
gonna be real annoying because they're gonna get a lot
of oh he's a gamer.
Speaker 3 (22:31):
The Ohio State thing because it was going poorly. You
thought you were gonna the football.
Speaker 1 (22:35):
I put this on. I put this on five minutes
before we did the show.
Speaker 3 (22:40):
Okay, well that was a bad choice. I mean, what
were you wearing.
Speaker 1 (22:42):
Before, like the cutoff T shirt? I'm at home.
Speaker 3 (22:44):
Fine, give the give the viewers what they want.
Speaker 1 (22:48):
You know, I gotta have some I gotta have sleeves
for professionalism.
Speaker 3 (22:51):
We're I mean, you want to see.
Speaker 1 (22:53):
This all show.
Speaker 3 (22:53):
I don't know you're you're you're an athlete showed off. Yeah.
There were good performances by the Bears defensive line, especially
die A Dengbo, who was a pickup in the offseason.
Had a nice night with the Sacarbon Dexter, who's been
a slowly improving player on the interior, was better. But yeah,
it's it's gonna take a minute here. I think for
Ben Johnson to get this offense in sync. A lot
(23:15):
of those penalties were on the offense, and it will
be a test of him as well, like how much
patience can he have as a coach, because you can
tell he he like grips that play sheet pretty tight.
I also think JJ McCarthy has to like almost figure
out maybe how to do less. I wonder if Kevin
O'Connell got in his ear about that because because that
(23:36):
pick six came after you know, he was checking. He
was changing the place way too much, way too much, right, Yeah,
I got to that point.
Speaker 1 (23:45):
The first four plays he's like checking and I'm watching
the play they break the huddle with nine seconds He's
out there trying to check to a different play. I'm
like snap the.
Speaker 3 (23:51):
Ball right and and like they were having trouble like
getting the snap off and everything. But it also was like, man,
this is your first start, and I get what you're
trying to do and everything, but it's almost like he
was trying to show too much that he's ready and
all the things that he learned, because it felt like
almost every play he was changing. And that would be
fine if, like I saw him changing into good plays,
(24:13):
but he kept changing into bad plays like that pick six.
But man, all that matters is how it ends. And uh,
you know, I hate I hate like, oh he's a
gamer analysis but a little like Michael Pennox, I thought
at the end of that Falcons game, I know they
didn't win it, man, I just thought JJ McCarthy made
(24:35):
a ton of winning plays when it really mattered, and
that matters, Like he ended up with one hundred and
forty yards, the whole team only ended up with two fifty.
Like I'm not gonna pretend.
Speaker 1 (24:44):
We had eighty five yards after three quarters, Like I'm
not gonna pretend it was some great put but but
it matters, like it mattered to me watching that pen
X game.
Speaker 3 (24:52):
That man, he played his very best on his last
you know, few drives of the game. We have a
question asking do you think JJ's performance in the four
it is more telling of his potential or O'Connell's ability
to develop quarterbacks. Look Kevin O'Connell's ability to develop quarterbacks
at this point is unquestioned. I think he is one
of the best to do it. I don't know what
(25:13):
JJ McCarthy is going to be long term based on
this performance, but uh, I guess my answer then is
more O'Connell.
Speaker 1 (25:23):
He's got moxie like I'm gonna sound like he's a gamer,
but he does have moxie like you know, at the
end of the day.
Speaker 3 (25:28):
I think it could be both. But but O'Connell, I've
seen him do it with you know, Josh Dobbs and
Nick Mullins in some similar spots. So i'll give the
nod to O'Connell for now. But a great a great
first game for the Vikings to get off and running. Unfortunately,
they did lose Blake Cashman there with the hamstring injury
at one point. Okay, let's take a moment here, let's
(25:52):
reset if you're if you're listening to the audio, We're
going to take a break right now. Let's get into
the news. It is time for deliverying results presented by
Uber Eats. Yes, I want to mention that Tank Bigsby
(26:14):
was traded tonight to the Philadelphia Eagles. Nick Shook. I
wouldn't have been surprised if this trade happened a week
before the season started, but I was surprised that it
came out on Monday night, right before this game began.
The Eagles send a fifth and a sixth round pick
(26:35):
to Jacksonville for Tank Bigsby. The Jaguars now have thirteen
picks in next year's track, which is absolutely outrageous. Clearly
a strategy there. It reminds me a lot of what
James Gladstone, their general manager, did when he was in
Los Angeles one year, just loading up on late picks
because they don't even have their first round pick because
(26:55):
of the Travis Hunter trade. But they have thirteen picks
now and Tank Bigsby goes to the Eagles. What did
you think about this?
Speaker 1 (27:03):
This has been a storyline that we've tracked since before
camp started, but it was centered not on Tank Bigsby.
It was centered on Travis Etn. It was such a
buzzworthy topic at the time that Liam Cohen had to
come out and express plenty of confidence and appreciation for
what Travis Etn brought to the Jaguars. So I'm thinking, Okay,
(27:24):
whoever doesn't win this battle in preseason is going to
get traded, but I'm leaning Etn, so I'm a bit
surprised to see that Bigsby gets traded because he led
them in rushing last year. He outperformed Travis Etn. But
what we didn't consider is that they've played a game already,
and in that game, Travis Etn ran the ball sixteen
times for one hundred and forty three yards and suddenly,
(27:44):
guess what, Tank, pack your bags are going somewhere else.
The other end of the trade that I have a
lot of questions about is the fact that he went
to the Eagles, the same team with Saquon Barkley in
the backfield, the same team that went got aj Dillon
as a power back, the same team that has Will
Shipley in the backfield, which is not as soon inspiring player,
but I like him as a player. So the question
I had was, is Shipley hurt? Is Saquon dinged? Or
(28:06):
do they miss what they lost in Kenny Gainwell And
they feel like they needed to add another player in
their backfield and Tank was the perfect guy for it.
So we'll find out. But it's the Eagles accruing talent
because again they're in their title window.
Speaker 3 (28:17):
I think it's so funny that they've become a team
now that is majoring and running backs. Yeah, like that's
not what we thought they were gonna be. And yeah
the comment there that it's root and toot. In time,
we'll get to the Jaguars side of it. But everyone
who bought stock, like me and Basel Tutin, not just
in fantasy but just in reality in the preseason, is
(28:39):
celebrating because I think this trade is absolutely about him
from the Jaguars side. But the Eagles, to me, I
think are more interesting because they're trying to win a
super Bowl. And you said it, I thought AJ Dillon
looked good in that like one or two carries that
they gave him in that game. Will Shipley they like
a lot, so maybe we will hear about an injury.
I don't think of Tank Bigsby's certainly as a Kenny
(29:00):
Gainbell type. They are missing that in theory. I think
that's that's kind of what Will Shipley would be. But
maybe they just want to have depth. Maybe they're not
happy with with aj Dillon, but they gave up some
real capital, like a fifth and the sixth round pick
is is a real trade, and they seriously wanted to
improve that room. So they were thought about nick as
(29:23):
like team analytics, running backs don't matter, don't pay the
running backs, and also the what's the other position that
doesn't matter? Inside linebacker, just like we don't need to
play linebacker team and who they bought literally the best
inside linebacker due now in the NFL.
Speaker 1 (29:41):
Yeah, but they bought low.
Speaker 3 (29:42):
We bought low.
Speaker 1 (29:43):
They bought low on Bond last year and then you know,
made out like Gangbusters. And then they spend a top
pick on Johat Campbell. So it's like, right now, that's a.
Speaker 3 (29:50):
First DROB pick and they just gave a contract to Bond,
And I think it's it's kind of like the Lessons,
if we want to think of them as analytically minded,
moneyball all all that. Like it's just looking for edges,
and at a certain point, after everyone copies what you're doing,
like the edge becomes doing the opposite.
Speaker 1 (30:09):
Of zig you zag, Right, It's.
Speaker 3 (30:13):
Basically like doing stocks. Do you like Bacial Tutan? Do
you have a hot take on him?
Speaker 1 (30:18):
I've already facial Tutan put down a great forty time
with the combine. He like kind of set the running
back to stay on fire in Indianapolis, and he was
the talk of the town that night. He also seemed
to have an issue with ball security, and Camp kind
of faded into the background as they went through the preseason.
I think a lot of that was because of the
trade rumors with Etn and who was going to go
(30:38):
between him and Bigsby. But it felt like he was
running back three in that depth. Right now he's running
back two. I like him as a as a big
play potential guy because of his speed, but we don't
have a lot of proof because he's a rookie and
everything else, and because et N is the lead back,
So as a spell guy with big play potential, yeah,
I do like him. I wouldn't buy as much stock
as you did, but it's aspirational stock anyway, and it's
worth nothing, so why not buy it all.
Speaker 3 (30:59):
It's not he's in the mix, he's he's now going
to be a major factor. Because Travis Etn is a
really good running back, and I thought he had his
best game of his career. It really wasn't just that
long run. Just overall. He looked patient, It looked like
the system fit him. I think he can run with power.
He's obviously got the speed. Like he's not a powerful guy,
but I think he's shown he could run inside the
(31:20):
tackles enough. But he's not a guy you're going to
want to give twenty five thirty touches to in a game.
And when Tutin came in for ETN after he ripped
off that seventy one yarder because he was tired, like
Tutan's first run, his jump cuts are so violent and
he just jumped from one hole laterally but also while
moving forward to get like an eight yard run. You
(31:43):
just you just know what when you see it, I
think he's special like it. You know who he reminds
me of is Joe Mixon as a runner, And Joe
Mixon isn't running a four to three, But I just
mean in the like the violence of the way Joe
Mixon cut coming out, I think like, oh man, that's spicy.
And I get a little vibe from that from Tuton
(32:05):
so fun. We get a nice little Monday night trade
and yes, that was delivering results. I think Touton is
going to be delivering results. And it's presented by Uber Eats,
where you can get the best deals on game Day
Food all season long, the official on demand delivery partner
of the NFL Order. Now, okay, let's go to the
(32:29):
injuries that we found out on Monday evening, our insiders
confirming that George Kittle is going to be out multiple weeks.
Kyle Shanahan ended up talking about it and saying that
injured reserve is at least a possibility for George Kittle
because it's gonna be multiple weeks after leaving on Sunday.
(32:51):
And then the bigger surprise is that Rock Purdy is
uncertain for Week two. I mean, he stayed in that
and I thought he played a lot better than the
highlights would have indicated in terms of the interception, but
he is now uncertain for their Week two game. Yeah.
Speaker 1 (33:10):
I actually went back and watched this game again today
just to get the full play by a play review
of it, and I was trying to spot when I
thought he might have hurt the toe, and I think
it happened when Julian Love came in on the blitz
and sacked him because his foot got planned awkwardly. But
I'm shocked that first off, Kyle said that the toe
injury is more important than the shoulder thing that he's
(33:30):
dealing with. I'm shocked that he finished that game and
was able to make that throw on the run at
the end of tan just for the touchdown. With that injury,
It's maybe one of those things where the adrenaline everything else,
it doesn't start to really hurt until the next day,
and then he realized, oh God, I'm in a tough spot.
I am concerned that. I'm not concerned that they don't
have Kittle because there's ways to make up for that. Granted,
they don't have a lot of receivers healthy, so it's
(33:52):
a loss, but they were able to win that game
without Kittle. He left in the second quarter. I'm more
concerned if you don't have Rock Perdy, how this suddenly
just shrinks your offense as hole and a foot issue
is something that could linger, you know, and you know
how important feed are, especially the guys like quarterbacks. So
it's interesting on the Kittle side, because Kyle said a
few weeks, Ian Rapport reported three to five. Short term
(34:13):
ir makes sense. The extra week might make sense, like
if your windows three weeks and you want to go
four and designate to return that sort of thing. I
think that would make sense. Since it happened in week one,
you have a longer runway. But I wrote this when
I wrote it up today. It wouldn't be a forty
nine Ers season if somebody important didn't get hurt early
like it. It's just a repetitive thing with them, and
(34:34):
it bums me out.
Speaker 3 (34:35):
I'm very concerned. I think they have a few pillars
in their offense. And yeah, Chris points out in the comments,
we love all the comments guys that that CMC is
now the healthiest guy in San Francisco, just as we
all suspected. So they have a few pillars that make
them special. It's Christian McCaffrey, it's Trent Williams, it's George
(34:57):
Kittle and prety. I think think does elevate ultimately the
people around him. A toe injury is very concerning. But
Kittle's thirty two years old, and I know he's coming
off one of his best seasons of his entire career.
But he is thirty two years old and starting the
season with a hamstring injury at that age, and he
is a player that has had injury issues that have
(35:20):
kept him out is concerning because they are just not
the same without him. Juwan Jennings left that game with
an injury. It doesn't sound like that when it is
going to be overly serious. I do think they have
something really good in Ricky Piers. I'm not saying there
without weapons, but Trent Williams had one of the worst
games of his career. I was shocked rewatching that game.
(35:40):
I've never seen Trent Williams struggle that much.
Speaker 1 (35:42):
Yeah, he might just play better than m Colt mckivit's
played better than him.
Speaker 3 (35:46):
On Sunday, speaking of Colton mckivit'z he's signed a contract
extension since we last recorded. Good job by you setting
me up there, Nick Schuck. I thought it was a
very reasonable one, considering he's like an average tackle, and
average tackles get paid, you know, twenty million plus on
the open market. And so I think we criticized the
(36:06):
forty nine ers for waiting till the last second to
get all these contracts done and then everyone gets upset. Well,
this is an example of them maybe changing their ways.
So good job by them there. I am concerned, especially
if Purdy does not play, and I was referring to
how I thought he did better, then you could tell
me if you disagree. There were some groaners like that
(36:27):
the interceptions were really good plays by the Seahawks, but
he threw a few up for grabs. But he had
five or six awesome throws in that game, didn't you think?
And yeah, I agree, and held up under pressure, I
thought pretty well.
Speaker 1 (36:39):
Yeah, on the rewatch. That's the part of why I
went and rewatched, because I'm like, I watched this live,
maybe not on an exact play by a play basis,
because I'm, you know, got like five games up or whatever.
I think there was four in that window, and I
went back because I felt uncertain about how his performance
really went because the one thing that stuck at The
two plays that stuck out in my mind were the
second interception he threw and then the touchdown path he threw,
(37:00):
and the Ernest Jones interception was a great play I
think made by Ernest Jones. So I wanted to run
it back, and I agree. I think that there were
more positive throws than negative throws in that game. He
comes through in the clutch as well, and he did
it without George Kittle out there too, So yeah, I
think that the highlights common example of how the Highlight
package doesn't always do a guy justice. I look at
Dylan Gabriel's Week two preseason game as another example. Watch
(37:21):
every play to truly get an understanding of how a
quarterback played.
Speaker 3 (37:24):
Wait, that was the good Dylan Gabriel.
Speaker 1 (37:26):
Wonder that was the Dylan Gabriel game, his first one
where he threw a really bad pick six. Yes, and
the rest of the game was pretty good. Yes.
Speaker 3 (37:33):
That I lost track of my Dylan Gabriel games as
one does good context. I had a whole segment plan
for brock Party tomorrow. If you watch our show on Tuesday,
me and Jordan rod Rieg are gonna do good omens
bad omens. For the twenty twenty five NFL season, the
forty nine ers first drive of the season to me,
(37:54):
was going to be a good omen. They got the
ball in the five yard line. Brock Party was under
heat over in in that drive, and he kept finding
receivers that weren't really open. And I've become a rock
Pretty defender lately. I don't think he's amazing, but I
think he's I think he's a plus quarterback who makes
(38:14):
a lot of difficult throws that aren't really there, And
I think he elevates actually the people around him, and
even if he makes some mistakes that prevent him from
being a top eight quarterback, like he's a value add
It was better than I think people think, and that
is no longer going to be my good omen, Chuck,
you got to be able to audible Sometimes wouldn't really
(38:34):
make sense for tomorrow's show. So I'm glad we got
him in here. You know what I'm also glad to
get in the rest of the news is actually sponsored.
It's time for our Kickoff Week recap, presented by Nationwide.
I predicted on Sunday night's show, Nick, you might remember
that Brian Dable is going to make the change at
(38:57):
quarterback because they asked him after the game if he's
considering a change, and he said yeah, and then he
didn't answer the question. And when coaches are noncommittal, I've
learned over the years they're gonna make a change. Now.
I should have been a little more careful. That's always
the case when that happens on Monday. It's mostly the
(39:18):
case when it happens right after the game and they're emotional,
and in the end, I was wrong. I'll wear it
when I'm wrong Brian Dabele, you proved me wrong.
Speaker 2 (39:28):
Do you intend to start Russell Wilson this week? Yes? Yep? Okay,
I mean and after a game. You know, it's an
emotional game, it's tough game. You know, didn't play particularly well,
I would say collectively. But in terms of making any
of those decisions really at any position or schematic changes,
(39:48):
I'd like to, you know, do it with a clear
head and watch watch the tape. And again, like I
said yesterday, that that game wasn't just doesn't fall on
Russell Wilson.
Speaker 1 (40:01):
Oh okay. First off, I have your back because I
got a similar vibe from his response the window in
which he delivered it. You're right, after the game, can't
take it, you know, completely, one hundred percent at face value.
You got to take it with a grain of salt.
I don't think you were wrong here because I think
that eventually he's going to make this decision. And I
think Jordan explained it perfectly on the show yesterday, which
is that in that goal line scenario when they failed
(40:24):
to get a touchdown, they had like seven plays down
there and they end up settling for three. He made
that decision. As if I can't watch this anymore because
I ran this game back today and I had the
same conclusion where I was like, I cannot believe that
you couldn't punch the ball into the end zone from there.
And it's not a running game thing. It's the fact
that Russell Wilson in this game. I know he already
broke it down yesterday, but there were multiple times where
(40:47):
pocket's pretty clean, and if his first read's not there,
he's looking to take off as if it's twenty fourteen,
not forgetting that it's twenty twenty five. That's a bad
sign to me. So I could have seen him making
this change, and he's gonna make this change because these
things are not going to go away against different opponents.
This is going to be a consistent issue. Malik Neighbors
bailed him out a lot in that game, and I
think over the course of the next month, if not sooner,
(41:09):
Brian Dabel's patience is going to run out, just not
this week.
Speaker 3 (41:13):
You mentioning that got me thinking, I thought you were
maybe going to go conspiracy theory here. The Giants are
an organization where ownership has gotten involved with quarterback decisions
in the past, famously making Ben McAdoo bench Gino Smith
for Eli Manning. We've seen how their you know, influence,
(41:37):
I guess in the Saquon Barkley situation was more or
less ignored. But we've heard whispers that Daniel Jones was
essentially given that big contract because ownership believed in him
and wanted him so much, when maybe the front office
and especially the coaching staff had mixed feelings about him.
And that's given them, in a sense, a longer leash,
(41:59):
Like they know in that building that Daniel Jones wasn't
really all on the decision makers there, and ultimately it's
all going to be about Jackson Dark. But you just
never know who's getting involved, whether it's the general manager
or ownership. These are decisions that are bigger than just
the head coach, especially I think in New York, and
(42:20):
I don't think Russell Wilson played well at all, but
they might feel like, for whatever reason, it'd be unfair
to bench now that Dark has another week or two,
whatever it is, and so Russell Wilson will get at
least one more chance, and we'll see who do they
have on the schedule this week. I should know this.
(42:40):
I'm putting on the spot.
Speaker 1 (42:42):
Well, Luckily I have Jesus in front of me. So
they're playing the Cowboys in Dallas.
Speaker 3 (42:46):
Oh, that's a spicy second. I don't think it's a
bad matchup to have to have.
Speaker 1 (42:53):
If it's a disastrous game, I think because I think
that public perception plays a factor in them sticking with
Russell Wilson, especially if ownership wants him to stick with
Russell Wilson. Brian Ables coaching for his job. He does
not have total patience to let it play out like
Mike Tomlin did last year with Russell Wilson. I'm sure
he wants to make that change, and if ownership is involved,
it's a perception thing. We can't look like a chaotic
(43:13):
organization after one week. We have to stick with them
for another week. But if they go to Dallas and
get smoked and Russell Wilson's terrible, that change is going
to happen.
Speaker 3 (43:20):
Fair. I should have mentioned, by the way, with San Francisco,
if perty does not play this week, they are in
New Orleans. So if you were ever on the fence
to play or sit him for one week, sit in
New Orleans and then they're home for the Cardinals and
the Jaguars, who I think are competitive, fun maybe even
playoff teams if everything breaks right. But it is one
(43:43):
of the softer portions of a pretty soft forty nine
ers schedule, So I guess if this was going to happen,
it happened at a pretty good point. Just some other
real quick items of news as we wind down here.
Nick Ammon Warri is a candidate for injured reserve for
the Seahawks. Tarvarius Ward, who had a good first game
(44:05):
for the Colts in concussion protocol, the Panthers defensive tackle
they picked up to Shawn Wharton is out two to
four weeks. Any of those stand out to you as
particularly important? Shook em and worry happened about four plays
into that Seahawks game.
Speaker 1 (44:20):
Yeah, that was a big bummer for them, and I
think he would have made a difference, especially in the
way that this game unfolded with pretty leading them down
the field and throwing that touchdown pass, especially with the
game that Rik Woollen had. The help over the top
from a safety, with the athleticism that even Warri brings
to the field would have been a pretty big boost
for them. So that one probably sticks out to me
the most Scharvarius Ward, veteran cornerback concussion protocol. You hope
(44:43):
that's a pretty quick turn for him. Panthers. I mean
they need every they need their bodies, They need everybody
available right now to bounce back after the game that
they just had. So but yeah, I think that Emon
Warri is probably the one that sticks out the most.
I'm also looking through the players right now because watching
the game back, it was DeMarcus Lawrence. Oh my god,
he had a few plays there where I'm like, who
is zero Lawrenson? A zero all over the field like
(45:08):
he would.
Speaker 3 (45:09):
He's one of those players I should I if I
still wrote, maybe we'll make it into a podcast. It'd
be a good offseason podcast. It's not the Hall of
very Good, but I just think it's like great, like
all time great players that I have like no chance
for the Hall of Fame, Like DeMarcus Lawrence is one
of my all time favorite players. That it's not at
that level, but he's just He's just a dude. A
(45:31):
couple other little items I'll just run through. Julian Blackman,
who is a starting safety for the Saints, could be
out for the season. Denzel Perryman for the Chargers or
Linebacker out two to four weeks, Texansight and Cook keid
Stover out a few weeks, and Kendrick Bourne signed with
the San Francisco forty nine Ers. That was Kickoff Week
recap presented by Nationwide. Nationwide is so much more than
(45:54):
a great insurance company. They're one of America's largest financial
services companies too. For your insurance and financial needs, Nationwide
is on your side. Just a couple other quick things here.
TMZ reported that Tyreek Hill, his estranged wife Keita Vaccaro,
has accused him of abuse on filings related to their divorce,
(46:17):
and she accused in this report which was from TMZ,
but had the documents reported that he had an argument
that escalated to physical violence last week. There were eight
different times that that happened, according to the allegations, including
punching her in the stomach while she was pregnant. Also
alleged to punch in the face and choked. He does
(46:39):
not face criminal charges, but Tyreek Hill has a history
going back to college and in the NFL for abuse incidents,
and the NFL has a wide berth of what they
want to look at that could go under the Personal
Conduct Policy so that is something just to keep an
(47:00):
eye on. I didn't want to end the show on
that news, but I did think it was, you know,
good for people to know. So I do want to
ask you something. Putting you on the spot shook. You know,
we got you on all these primetime games. This is it.
You know, we're going to be back on Thursday night.
We got a double header and that's pretty exciting.
Speaker 1 (47:18):
Welcome back.
Speaker 3 (47:19):
They're actually good games. I I'm gonna put you on
the spot because you're not in like the Tuesday Wednesday
shows where we kind of take a step back and
do some analysis like that. Give me one team or
player that after one week changed your mind that you
feel a little differently about after one week.
Speaker 1 (47:37):
Okay, it's not a primetime game, despite me being on
all the primetime shows.
Speaker 3 (47:41):
It should be anything.
Speaker 1 (47:42):
Yeah, it's not a player, and it's not a team.
It's a it's a position group. It is the Colts
offensive line. We spent so much time this offseason lamenting
how they mismanaged the you know, depending free agents that
ended up going elsewhere and how it was gonna set
them back offensively. And you're gonna put Daniel Jones behind
(48:03):
an offensive line that's not gonna be as strong as
it was last year, and it already wasn't very strong.
They held up pretty damn well Week one against the
against the Dolphins, that Dolphins front that we know they've
invested heavily in, that was ready to pin their ears
back and get after Daniel Jones wasn't really able to
do it, we know the day that he had. But
running that game back today, I was just very impressed
(48:23):
by how stout they were up front, and so they
changed my mind in just one week. We'll see if
it holds up over the course of the season, but
in one week I was very impressed by them.
Speaker 3 (48:32):
Of course we're gonna end the show. It's like, oh yeah,
it's a big time ratings grab. We're just gonna go
for the easy like low hanging fruit, cowboy sock shook
goes Colts offensive line. If my over under Win Totals
podcast with Nick Wright that we put up a couple
of weeks ago where I'm trying to keep my undefeated
record of the last three years going. Well, First of all,
(48:54):
we did eight picks this year, so I'm not staying undefeated,
but some of them after one week I already have
regret about the Colts might be on top of that
list under seven and a half. I don't think Daniel
Jones is gonna play like this all year, man that
they have some winnable games on the schedule. There are
actually some really talented players on that roster. And one
(49:16):
thing Shane Stikeen's gonna do. He's gonna like win eight
or nine games. You know, that's all I got to do.
Speaker 1 (49:21):
That's true, That is true. I will say I Dale
Jones had a great game. I'm not going to take
that away from him. He also had some turnover worthy
throws that weren't picked.
Speaker 3 (49:29):
So he also took two massive hits during the game.
So yeah, we could be right back to Anthony richardson
land if it goes wrong. Shook appreciate you. This will
be the only time I think we go Thursday, Friday, Monday.
So we appreciate everyone who joined us on the YouTube
live stream. We appreciate everyone who has made this first
(49:49):
full week of the NFL Daily Schedule a treat and
a success, and we love how that the numbers are
growing and all the feedback that you guys have given
to We're looking forward to a good week. I will
be back in the studio on Tuesday with George and Rodrigue.
I mentioned good omens, bad omens. We'll get into the
(50:10):
news Monday. Man, these comebacks. If it stays this good
all year, like this might be the highest rated YouTube
live show there is. We'll see it Tuesday
It is a run pass option. McCarthy takes off to
the right days.
Speaker 2 (00:05):
Stunner stuff sick.
Speaker 1 (00:06):
A five toupeez JJ McCarthy.
Speaker 3 (00:16):
He is JJ McCarthy, and that is Paul Allen of
k FA and great to have his voice back on
NFL Daily. I am Greg Rosenthal. I am joined as
always on Primetime Games by Nick Shook to talk about
another big time comeback in a primetime games. Not all
(00:37):
comebacks are equal, but this one, the Vikings trailing seventeen
to six going into the fourth quarter, is an example,
unlike that Bill's Ravens one the other night, that sometimes
the restorative power of a great defense can lead you
to a comeback. And the Vikings defense just kept stopping
(00:58):
the Bears over and over and over again until finally
JJ McCarthy suddenly got religion. On offense, everything slowed down
for him and he scored three touchdowns in successive drives,
usually off good field position, and the Minnesota Vikings go
into Chicago and steal won twenty seven to twenty four. Nick,
(01:22):
to me, this was more improbable than the Bills come
back because the Bills have Josh Allen at quarterback and
JJ McCarthy for three quarters of this game look completely lost.
But that's why we watched this, That's why we love this.
Speaker 1 (01:37):
Yeah, JJ McCarthy found God, and what Kevin O'Connell did
was found simplification of the offense. I mean, the operation
of the Vikings offense for the first three quarters was
too complex. They were having a hard time getting snaps
off before the expiration of the play clock. And then
suddenly in the fourth quarter it seems just pretty elementary
roll out. Brought boots to the right, passes to the flat,
(01:58):
Jordan Mason gets going on the ground, start to build momentum.
You get a nice convenient pass interference call that extends
the drive and you immediately capitalize. McCarthy shows off the
arm by finding Justin Jefferson in a pretty tight window
along the goal line for their first score. That gives
them hope, much like we talked about last night, you
need one play to give you hope. Then they get
that stop, they get the ball right back, they go
(02:18):
down the field again, McCarthy puts a dot on Aaron
Jones and suddenly they're in the lead and we're all shocked.
And it all started with I think the defense, like
you said, in the simplification of the offense, taking away
the complexities of it and just letting JJ McCarthy do
what he does best, which is play football and make
plays a quarterback.
Speaker 3 (02:34):
Yes, welcome to the YouTube audience who is watching this live.
We are going to do this live every single Monday night.
Appreciate you all being here. And I thought it was
going to be like a bloss or to show and
we're going to have some of these primetime games where
you got to spice it up, You're gonna have to
like find fun angles to it. But this one so
(02:55):
much happened. And I really do go back to the
defense to start nick, because it's going to get lost
in this game. Because the Bears ended up with twenty
four points. It's hard to forget about the first impression.
People like you who are writing about this game on
NFL dot com, like you have one story written and
then it is rewritten, and you have this idea that
(03:16):
the Bears offense played well and Caleb Williams makes these
great passes early in the game. But until that final
drive by the Bears where they did score a touchdown,
they needed to score it quick. They did a good
job to make it closer. They had only had ten
points on offense in ten drives. That would be the
worst offense in decades on a points per drive basis.
(03:38):
They end up with a touchdown at the end, so
that's seventeen points because I'm not counting the pick six
that doesn't count towards your offense in eleven drives. That
is actually worse per drive than the twenty twenty four Bears.
That inspired a hit piece on Caleb Williams's professionalism on
golong dot com over the weekend. Maybe we'll talk about
that a little bit, because I thought that was an
(03:59):
interesting back to this game. And what I would say
about Brian Flores and this Vikings defense is, even though
though they gave up that first drive in another field
goal early, I thought they got much more aggressive and
ultimately Caleb williams Is only good plays were ones that
he was creating on his own, and for the most part,
when he was just dropping back to pass or when
they were trying a traditional run game, the Vikings defense
(04:21):
had it stopped. And sometimes you do that enough over
and over and over, even if your offense is playing terribly,
eventually you could give them a chance to make a comeback,
and that's what JJ McCarthy did tonight.
Speaker 1 (04:31):
Yeah, yeah, they definitely did. And I think if you
examine this game, you go watch this in condensed to
replay tomorrow and it's just played by play by play,
you're gonna think something changed here. And the first thing
you'll notice is the play in the trenches because early
in this game, Caleb is making plays, but he's also
got a little bit more time to throw. Yes, he
has some magic. He has that throw to Romo Dunes
down the sideline that made my heart flutter in real time.
(04:52):
That ends up on that drive, a touchdown is scored
and they're up seven to nothing. But from there it
gradually and this is the beauty of I think of football,
the in game adjustments, Because at one point he was
either in the second or the third quarter. The Vikings
started to win that trench battle convincingly, and at the
same time, the Bears started to lose their trench battle
(05:14):
on the defensive side of the ball, and that's when
everything really started to shift. It was the precursor to
then what we saw the explosion of points in the
fourth quarter, and that really told the entire story because
for three quarters. JJ McCarthy was constantly being harassed the game.
The speed was too much for him, everything was too
much for him. And then suddenly he just finds it. No,
he finds it because they start to win upfront, and
they won up front on both sides of the ball
(05:35):
in that fourth quarter, and the signs were there a
couple quarters earlier, and that's really what shut down the
Bears offense. You're absolutely right, for as great as that
opening drive was, they needed a pick six just to
put another touchdown on the board, and it wasn't until
that final score in the final minute and a half
that they were able to get back in the en
zone offensively, Like this is I hate to say it,
because there's a lot of things to like from the
Bears offensive showing under Ben Johnson, creativity and everything else,
(05:58):
but there's a lot of things to fix here, right.
Speaker 3 (06:00):
So Caleb starts ten for ten and you mention that
throw that he have in the first drive to roam
a duneza. My god, when you see Caleb Williams make
a throw like that, you just feel like everything is possible.
Let's actually listen to that first quarter toss.
Speaker 1 (06:18):
Come met on his left tip swift the split to
the numbers left along with Dunjay fact for throwing a
tight pocket dodging now rolling.
Speaker 3 (06:24):
To the right, trying to white race the bike and
grows to the.
Speaker 1 (06:27):
Syard line inside the fifteen yard line. Is the catchmade?
It is by Robert Dunjay.
Speaker 3 (06:34):
Bears.
Speaker 1 (06:35):
Get it done, Caleb, as he's always known.
Speaker 3 (06:38):
To do, running out of real estate.
Speaker 1 (06:41):
Catch prime time real estate for him.
Speaker 3 (06:43):
Oh, that is an incredible throw and catch. It makes
you believe in everything that he can do. But when
you look back in that drive and really his best
moments of the game, it was him using his athleticism,
which is great. I think you need to see more
of that. And I was really impressed by how many
times early in this game the Vikings won cleanly with
(07:05):
four I don't think the Bears offensive line played well
overall in this game, certainly not in the second half,
but not really in the first half either. And how
Caleb Williams made those guys miss before either just scrambling
or making a throw was really positive and I think
was at a more efficient, decisive level than he did
(07:26):
it a year ago. It was really As the game
wore on and I thought Flores showed a lot more
looks to him in the second half, and you could
almost see like his brain starting to slow. And that's
happened to a lot of quarterbacks you know who have
played against Brian Flores's defense last couple of years. Yeah.
Speaker 1 (07:43):
One of the first things I noted early in this
game was Caleb is not because he has a tendency
as he's in the pocket to stop his feet and
just kind of survey. Sometimes it looks like he's freezing
and then he'll rip a pass and who knows if
it's going to be completed or not. He wasn't doing
that early in this game. He was constantly moving like
that pocket right there on that play. It's a tight pocket,
but it's stout. It's stout enough for him to be
able to break it, extend to play and find the
(08:04):
receiver downfield. And he was doing a lot of that
on that drive when he runs to the left later
in that drive. And it all looked positive, like, oh,
these are all signs of growth. But the Bears ran
out of gas, like as a team, they ran out
of gas because in the third quarter, Caleb's still trying
to make magic, but it just ends up being like
basically watching a car crash because he's trying to make
(08:26):
these plays and just chaos is unfolding around him. There's
the one play late in the game where he tries
to like flip the ball towards the sideline out of desperation,
gets a penalty for that. That was an example of
your protection breaking down late in the game because they're
running out of gas. The Bears won the feel out
portion of a Week one game. They lost the adjustment
portion of this game.
Speaker 3 (08:44):
Yeah, this Week one is so strange, and I really
caution against taking huge, you know, takeaways, and for most
of this game, my mine was going to be like
I'm not really sure about the Bears offense. My bigger
takeaway is just, man, the Vikings offense has a long
way to go, and I think attrition and good coaching
and also culture, Like you think about what Minnesota has
(09:07):
done over the last three or four years.
Speaker 1 (09:09):
Yeah, it's a.
Speaker 3 (09:10):
Lot of winning, like especially last year, but in general,
it's a lot of winning, and the Bears have done
a lot of losing, and there's a lot of cohesion
and answers from that coaching staff and players that they
are used to getting to finally getting the weaknesses, because
there were weaknesses. I can I can see some of
the Bears fans in the comments and we love you
(09:31):
that you're you know, going through this right now and
actually watching a recap. I don't know if I could
do pointing out the injuries. Yeah, Jalen Johnson was not
in this game in the end. Kyler Gordon was inactive
for this game. So two of their very best players
in the secondary, Nashan Wright, who had the pick six,
left this game. Who was, you know, their fourth or
(09:52):
fifth cornerback. I don't think he returned at least as
he did.
Speaker 1 (09:55):
He did, but it was pretty brief because it was
it was that touchdown drive.
Speaker 3 (10:00):
So you know, that's a guy who is a journeyman
at this point bouncing around, and so he leaves the
game at one point. They're also without their linebacker TJ. Edwards.
Now there's gonna be injuries, but I'm just trying to
provide some context to the situation. I do give McCarthy
credit though, because I was starting to take notes for
the show and everything. I'm thinking, well, this is a
good test for JJ McCarthy's leadership, because we hear how
(10:24):
beyond his years. He is as a leader, right, and
you can kind of see it, and I think they
really like JJ McCarthy, but he's got to go prove it.
And coming off a game like this where everything is
so slow and you look completely lost for three quarters,
you can't get lined up, as he said, like your
eyes are slow. I thought he, you know, it was
going through his progression slow. Literally some of his out routes,
(10:44):
like the ball just looked a little slow, and that
that's a little bit of a concern too, to be
able to rally, like, oh, you actually showed me your
leadership in the middle of that game, Like some of
the throws were pretty good. I know there were open receivers,
but that, to Aaron Jones was a fantastic moment. Let's
let's listen if we can get Paul Allen into the
(11:05):
show another time. Let's do it there.
Speaker 2 (11:08):
First and ten from the twenty seven it was the
Bears McCarthy out of a shot gun.
Speaker 3 (11:12):
Let's have gone and picked.
Speaker 1 (11:13):
Up McCarthy looks at a Jones touch showtime and the
Minnesota Vikings have taken on one point lead.
Speaker 3 (11:28):
Oh that's a great call there, and a great moment
for Jones, who was really quiet in this game, but
their running game him really as a receiver, a couple
runs late, but mostly him in that specific play. And
then Jordan Mason as a runner was a big difference
between them and the Bears, who really were not able
to run the ball at all. Tonight, sixty six percent,
by the way of the YouTube viewers voted that JJ
(11:51):
McCarthy is him, which I mean, this just shows you
that we've got a very young producer coming up with
these questions. Shout out to Chris twenty two years old.
JJ McCarthy. The nick is the first player since Cam
Newton with two passing touchdowns and a rushing touchdown in
his NFL debut, and all of those touchdowns, of course
came in the third quarter, so pretty cool. Like I
(12:13):
was thinking about, like, oh, he's not really a rookie.
He got to learn at the NFL level, but he
is essentially a rookie his first game, and you saw
him kind of go through the whole process tonight.
Speaker 1 (12:23):
Yeah, that brain can be filled with knowledge from a
year spent on the sideline and that's all fine and dandy,
but until you're thrown to the fire, you don't really
know how you're going to react, and we saw both
sides of that coin tonight with him being slow early.
But I love the point that you made about culture
and about JJ McCarthy's leadership because once he just got
to playing football, he has this endless sense of confidence
that came from being a successful high school quarterback, from
(12:45):
going to Michigan and winning a ton of football games
and being the leader of that program for multiple years.
They win a national championship in his final game. He
knows nothing but success and how to battle through adversity.
Remember this is a quarterback who had to play a
few games with that as head coach on the way
to a national champion when everybody was criticizing them. He
leads them through that fire. And this pays me because
look at the shirtom. We're in an Ohio state national championship.
(13:06):
This pains me to say this, but I'm being completely
honest right now. He was forged in that fire. This
is a different fire, and by the fourth quarter he
had settled in enough, he'd adjusted to the temperature to
be able to deliver. And I think that that's a
big reason why Kevin O'Connell felt so confident in making
him his franchise quarterback and moving on from San Darnold
because he saw that in him. But that the Aaron
(13:26):
Jones involvement. I like the way you broke down those
running backs too, because I thought that was a really
interesting part of their offense, especially in the second half.
Aaron Jones is essentially an exclusive third down back. He's
a pass catching back. Jordan Mason is the ball carrier
between the tackles for most of this game, and it
worked out well because it balanced their offense when they
really needed it in those late moment in those later
moments in the fourth quarter, which allowed them to spark
(13:48):
this whole comeback. But the culture thing is what's most
important to me, because, like you said, they've done a
lot of winning. How many teams in the NFL would
be in that situation. Offense is going nowhere, quarterback looks overwhelmed,
your star receiver's got one catch, nothing's going right. You're
on the road, hostile environment, primetime week one, and they
would have folded. Not the Minnesota Vikings, because they've been there,
(14:10):
They've done that, and even with a new quarterback, they
had the perfect quarterback, at least with the mental makeup
and the physical abilities to deliver in that in that spot.
Speaker 3 (14:17):
Yeah, because you know he's young. Jay Justin Jefferson's not young.
Javon Hargrave, who I thought had a great game, great
game in his first game for the Vikings, is not young.
Two sacks for him. Josh Mattellus was all over the place.
Andrew van Ginkel, you know, almost picked off that Caleb
passed for a screen. One of the most exciting plays
(14:38):
in all of football is a screen pass to Andrew
Van Ginkel's side of the field, and it was one
of the reasons I thought Caleb was getting spooked. You know,
we have a comment here that Caleb was missing deep
shots from the first quarter onwards, and I do think
his accuracy is something to talk about here because they
were ten for He was ten for ten on the game.
A lot of them were checked downs. I thought that
(14:59):
was good process, like he was making the right decisions.
I thought he was decisive when he was in that
early script. But if you remember it shook. His first
miss of the game was to a wide open I
want to say it was DJ Moore, it was him
or Adunze on a fourth down. Either in the red
zone or close to the red zone while they're going
(15:19):
in for a potential scoring and that was his first miss.
They had gone for a fourth down earlier on that drive.
And I didn't blame Ben Johnson for feeling it. I
think that was the best home crowd we saw in
any game all weekend long. Like it was an incredible
atmosphere there, Like it was just rocking and you're feeling
the flow and the receiver was open and Caleb just
missed him. And there was about three or four throws
(15:42):
tonight where the receiver was open and he missed him.
And I think it was more timing than anything, like
him deciding to make the throw late and then trying
to hurry it or whatever it was. But it was
some of the issues that you saw a year ago
out of Caleb Williams. I don't I don't want to
bury him. I don't. I don't think this was an
awful performance by him, But ultimately it was a disappointing
one the way that it started in the way that
(16:04):
it finished.
Speaker 1 (16:05):
Yeah, I agree. His accuracy did wane in the latter
portions of this game, for sure, and even on that
last desperate drive he had DJ Moore open down the
sideline and missed him there too, and that was a
timing thing too, because his eyes were in the flats earlier.
But I think, you know, things that the Bears need
to correct going forward. I was very concerned by their
inability to really push the ball even beyond ten yards.
(16:27):
Like that first drive works out so well, it makes
a lot of good decisions with checkdowns and everything else,
but a lot of his attempts for swing passes. By
the second half, Brian Flores's defense had adjusted and we're like,
we're taking that away. Van Ginkel obviously being the shining
example of that almost picking one off and we know
how good he isn't doing that from his previous years
in the NFL, and it felt like they had no
real other options, and even when he had guys open,
(16:47):
Caleb would miss them. And those are the things that
you can work on. Those are the kinks that you're
going to have to work through under a new coach
and a new scheme and everything else. But I also
think that it points to a big part of Caleb's
growth this season is going to be less reliance on
your arm talent, more reliance on the way that this
scheme is designed to work, which comes down to timing
because he has a howitzer for an arm and I
(17:09):
hate that people use that term so much, but it's true.
With him, he's got a freaking cannon less reliance on
using that arm. Strength, more on delivering on time in
the scheme will help this offense get to the next stage.
Speaker 3 (17:21):
Yeah, while we're at it, you know this this go
long piece and I recommend everyone go read it themselves.
Tyler Dunn, who's a good journalist and you know, had
that article about Sean McDermott using nine to eleven as
a rallying cry a couple of years ago and which
(17:42):
spurred on a Bill's like winning streak, right, you know,
he dropped it right in the middle of like the
lowest moment of their season, and then they went on
a winning streak. And while this game started, I thought like, oh,
is it another effect here of like the second he
drops some incredibly negative article about someone, like they take
off after that first drive. But man, it really got
after Caleb Williams using scouts coaches people that were in
(18:05):
the building about how he reacted to coaching, and I
think it was almost a direct response to the reporting
that happened in Seth Wickersham's book, which really put all
the blame on the coaching. And I don't have a
take other than you should read it and that it
was interesting and that that situation to me is still lingering,
(18:27):
and I thought it'd be really interesting to hear. Ben
Johnson asked about that specific piece because it took on
Caleb Williams's work, ethic and his personality and his leadership
ability in a really personal way from direct sources. Let's
not focus on that too much. A couple other little
things tonight. So of all the Week one games, like
(18:48):
this one was about the Week oneiest. You know, it's
like I don't know, like I want to see what
these teams are like in week four, you know what
I mean, Like they're just figuring stuff out. It's really
great for Minnesota to get the way and I think
we know this defense is going to be really good.
I think we know Dennis Allen can coach up some defense.
And I was really impressed with what the Bears did
for two or three quarters, and so there's some good
(19:08):
things to feel about. It's like, let's revisit in week four,
Like I think we're just like getting out the kinks there.
But some of the big questions that I had about
the Vikings going into this game. One, do they have
enough receiver depth behind Justin Jefferson, you know, like I'm
still a little worried about that. How is this new
offensive line look? Christian Darisa did not play in this game,
so he is still not healthy. And then would the
interior line that they brought over from Indianapolis look? Okay?
(19:31):
Mixed results, I would say most, you know, not amazing
most of the game. And then the Bears, like how
would their new additions look, especially on the offensive line,
not amazing? Like to me, it's just it was a
feeling out game where the culture kind of won over
everything else.
Speaker 1 (19:50):
Yeah, I thought there was some mental errors made by
the Bears offensive line. Now, there was a holding call
that was terrible, but there were false starts. There were
issues in the operation that are to of a team
under a new coach, but also like they're they're lingering
issues from previous Bears regimes that like, you got to
move past that, and I think you will over time.
Speaker 3 (20:08):
They had just twelve penalties shook for one hundred and
twenty seven yards. I mean that's when I said this
was the Week oneiest game. I mean, the Vikings had
eight penalties for fifty yards, which is not great either,
but twelve for one to twenty seven is crazy. That's
gonna make Ben Johnson crazy.
Speaker 1 (20:22):
Yeah, of course. And these turnarounds don't happen overnight. I mean,
anytime that I've been asked about what do you think
about the Bears this season, I think Caush's optimism. It
didn't happen overnight with the Lions when Ben Johnson was
on that staff as the OC, it took him a
while and they finally turned the corner. So I definitely
recommend patience. You see some things to like, yes, but
it's gonna be a work that you know, a work
(20:42):
in progress is gonna take multiple weeks or months and
everything else. And you're gonna look back on this game. Dang,
we lost to the Vikings in Week one. We shouldn't
have lost that game. You're gonna move past this at
some point and hopefully it's gonna be produce better results.
Speaker 3 (20:56):
Yeah. So I should have mentioned at the top of
the show. I'm just so excited to be on with you,
Nick and talk about this game that you know, Monday
Nights are not just about the game. We are gonna
hit some news from around the league. In just a
little bit, we had a trade including the Eagles. We
had some big time news in terms of injuries, in
(21:16):
terms of the forty nine ers. I think you know,
before we move on from this game, is there is
there anything else that you want to get out there,
Because like Jordan took the Vikings as a survivor pick,
and I thought that was extremely bold and it just
shows that she's a she's a ball knower, and she
(21:37):
was she was honking on text tonight too about how
good like she was talking up Jordan Mason, and I
like how you pointed that out too. I'm curious if
you have any other major takeaways before we.
Speaker 1 (21:48):
Move I like the team that Ryan Poles has constructed,
Like Tonal Passno makes a big play and I'm like,
he's in Chicago, Oh, just elevated from the practice squad.
Like that's a deep dive on a former relattively a
high pick that played in Kansas City that suddenly you're like,
you know what, let's give him a shot, Let's give
him some money. Makes a play, And I do trust
the process with this team, I'd like their receiving corps
(22:10):
more than I did last year. I worry about the
Vikings receiving core for the next three weeks, But overall,
this is gonna be one of those games. Like I said,
it's week one, We're gonna look back and it's it's
probably not gonna indicate all that much to us other
than that. The discourse on JJ McCarthy this week, it's
gonna be real annoying because they're gonna get a lot
of oh he's a gamer.
Speaker 3 (22:31):
The Ohio State thing because it was going poorly. You
thought you were gonna the football.
Speaker 1 (22:35):
I put this on. I put this on five minutes
before we did the show.
Speaker 3 (22:40):
Okay, well that was a bad choice. I mean, what
were you wearing.
Speaker 1 (22:42):
Before, like the cutoff T shirt? I'm at home.
Speaker 3 (22:44):
Fine, give the give the viewers what they want.
Speaker 1 (22:48):
You know, I gotta have some I gotta have sleeves
for professionalism.
Speaker 3 (22:51):
We're I mean, you want to see.
Speaker 1 (22:53):
This all show.
Speaker 3 (22:53):
I don't know you're you're you're an athlete showed off. Yeah.
There were good performances by the Bears defensive line, especially
die A Dengbo, who was a pickup in the offseason.
Had a nice night with the Sacarbon Dexter, who's been
a slowly improving player on the interior, was better. But yeah,
it's it's gonna take a minute here. I think for
Ben Johnson to get this offense in sync. A lot
(23:15):
of those penalties were on the offense, and it will
be a test of him as well, like how much
patience can he have as a coach, because you can
tell he he like grips that play sheet pretty tight.
I also think JJ McCarthy has to like almost figure
out maybe how to do less. I wonder if Kevin
O'Connell got in his ear about that because because that
(23:36):
pick six came after you know, he was checking. He
was changing the place way too much, way too much, right, Yeah,
I got to that point.
Speaker 1 (23:45):
The first four plays he's like checking and I'm watching
the play they break the huddle with nine seconds He's
out there trying to check to a different play. I'm
like snap the.
Speaker 3 (23:51):
Ball right and and like they were having trouble like
getting the snap off and everything. But it also was like, man,
this is your first start, and I get what you're
trying to do and everything, but it's almost like he
was trying to show too much that he's ready and
all the things that he learned, because it felt like
almost every play he was changing. And that would be
fine if, like I saw him changing into good plays,
(24:13):
but he kept changing into bad plays like that pick six.
But man, all that matters is how it ends. And uh,
you know, I hate I hate like, oh he's a
gamer analysis but a little like Michael Pennox, I thought
at the end of that Falcons game, I know they
didn't win it, man, I just thought JJ McCarthy made
(24:35):
a ton of winning plays when it really mattered, and
that matters, Like he ended up with one hundred and
forty yards, the whole team only ended up with two fifty.
Like I'm not gonna pretend.
Speaker 1 (24:44):
We had eighty five yards after three quarters, Like I'm
not gonna pretend it was some great put but but
it matters, like it mattered to me watching that pen
X game.
Speaker 3 (24:52):
That man, he played his very best on his last
you know, few drives of the game. We have a
question asking do you think JJ's performance in the four
it is more telling of his potential or O'Connell's ability
to develop quarterbacks. Look Kevin O'Connell's ability to develop quarterbacks
at this point is unquestioned. I think he is one
of the best to do it. I don't know what
(25:13):
JJ McCarthy is going to be long term based on
this performance, but uh, I guess my answer then is
more O'Connell.
Speaker 1 (25:23):
He's got moxie like I'm gonna sound like he's a gamer,
but he does have moxie like you know, at the
end of the day.
Speaker 3 (25:28):
I think it could be both. But but O'Connell, I've
seen him do it with you know, Josh Dobbs and
Nick Mullins in some similar spots. So i'll give the
nod to O'Connell for now. But a great a great
first game for the Vikings to get off and running. Unfortunately,
they did lose Blake Cashman there with the hamstring injury
at one point. Okay, let's take a moment here, let's
(25:52):
reset if you're if you're listening to the audio, We're
going to take a break right now. Let's get into
the news. It is time for deliverying results presented by
Uber Eats. Yes, I want to mention that Tank Bigsby
(26:14):
was traded tonight to the Philadelphia Eagles. Nick Shook. I
wouldn't have been surprised if this trade happened a week
before the season started, but I was surprised that it
came out on Monday night, right before this game began.
The Eagles send a fifth and a sixth round pick
(26:35):
to Jacksonville for Tank Bigsby. The Jaguars now have thirteen
picks in next year's track, which is absolutely outrageous. Clearly
a strategy there. It reminds me a lot of what
James Gladstone, their general manager, did when he was in
Los Angeles one year, just loading up on late picks
because they don't even have their first round pick because
(26:55):
of the Travis Hunter trade. But they have thirteen picks
now and Tank Bigsby goes to the Eagles. What did
you think about this?
Speaker 1 (27:03):
This has been a storyline that we've tracked since before
camp started, but it was centered not on Tank Bigsby.
It was centered on Travis Etn. It was such a
buzzworthy topic at the time that Liam Cohen had to
come out and express plenty of confidence and appreciation for
what Travis Etn brought to the Jaguars. So I'm thinking, Okay,
(27:24):
whoever doesn't win this battle in preseason is going to
get traded, but I'm leaning Etn, so I'm a bit
surprised to see that Bigsby gets traded because he led
them in rushing last year. He outperformed Travis Etn. But
what we didn't consider is that they've played a game already,
and in that game, Travis Etn ran the ball sixteen
times for one hundred and forty three yards and suddenly,
(27:44):
guess what, Tank, pack your bags are going somewhere else.
The other end of the trade that I have a
lot of questions about is the fact that he went
to the Eagles, the same team with Saquon Barkley in
the backfield, the same team that went got aj Dillon
as a power back, the same team that has Will
Shipley in the backfield, which is not as soon inspiring player,
but I like him as a player. So the question
I had was, is Shipley hurt? Is Saquon dinged? Or
(28:06):
do they miss what they lost in Kenny Gainwell And
they feel like they needed to add another player in
their backfield and Tank was the perfect guy for it.
So we'll find out. But it's the Eagles accruing talent
because again they're in their title window.
Speaker 3 (28:17):
I think it's so funny that they've become a team
now that is majoring and running backs. Yeah, like that's
not what we thought they were gonna be. And yeah
the comment there that it's root and toot. In time,
we'll get to the Jaguars side of it. But everyone
who bought stock, like me and Basel Tutin, not just
in fantasy but just in reality in the preseason, is
(28:39):
celebrating because I think this trade is absolutely about him
from the Jaguars side. But the Eagles, to me, I
think are more interesting because they're trying to win a
super Bowl. And you said it, I thought AJ Dillon
looked good in that like one or two carries that
they gave him in that game. Will Shipley they like
a lot, so maybe we will hear about an injury.
I don't think of Tank Bigsby's certainly as a Kenny
(29:00):
Gainbell type. They are missing that in theory. I think
that's that's kind of what Will Shipley would be. But
maybe they just want to have depth. Maybe they're not
happy with with aj Dillon, but they gave up some
real capital, like a fifth and the sixth round pick
is is a real trade, and they seriously wanted to
improve that room. So they were thought about nick as
(29:23):
like team analytics, running backs don't matter, don't pay the
running backs, and also the what's the other position that
doesn't matter? Inside linebacker, just like we don't need to
play linebacker team and who they bought literally the best
inside linebacker due now in the NFL.
Speaker 1 (29:41):
Yeah, but they bought low.
Speaker 3 (29:42):
We bought low.
Speaker 1 (29:43):
They bought low on Bond last year and then you know,
made out like Gangbusters. And then they spend a top
pick on Johat Campbell. So it's like, right now, that's a.
Speaker 3 (29:50):
First DROB pick and they just gave a contract to Bond,
And I think it's it's kind of like the Lessons,
if we want to think of them as analytically minded,
moneyball all all that. Like it's just looking for edges,
and at a certain point, after everyone copies what you're doing,
like the edge becomes doing the opposite.
Speaker 1 (30:09):
Of zig you zag, Right, It's.
Speaker 3 (30:13):
Basically like doing stocks. Do you like Bacial Tutan? Do
you have a hot take on him?
Speaker 1 (30:18):
I've already facial Tutan put down a great forty time
with the combine. He like kind of set the running
back to stay on fire in Indianapolis, and he was
the talk of the town that night. He also seemed
to have an issue with ball security, and Camp kind
of faded into the background as they went through the preseason.
I think a lot of that was because of the
trade rumors with Etn and who was going to go
(30:38):
between him and Bigsby. But it felt like he was
running back three in that depth. Right now he's running
back two. I like him as a as a big
play potential guy because of his speed, but we don't
have a lot of proof because he's a rookie and
everything else, and because et N is the lead back,
So as a spell guy with big play potential, yeah,
I do like him. I wouldn't buy as much stock
as you did, but it's aspirational stock anyway, and it's
worth nothing, so why not buy it all.
Speaker 3 (30:59):
It's not he's in the mix, he's he's now going
to be a major factor. Because Travis Etn is a
really good running back, and I thought he had his
best game of his career. It really wasn't just that
long run. Just overall. He looked patient, It looked like
the system fit him. I think he can run with power.
He's obviously got the speed. Like he's not a powerful guy,
but I think he's shown he could run inside the
(31:20):
tackles enough. But he's not a guy you're going to
want to give twenty five thirty touches to in a game.
And when Tutin came in for ETN after he ripped
off that seventy one yarder because he was tired, like
Tutan's first run, his jump cuts are so violent and
he just jumped from one hole laterally but also while
moving forward to get like an eight yard run. You
(31:43):
just you just know what when you see it, I
think he's special like it. You know who he reminds
me of is Joe Mixon as a runner, And Joe
Mixon isn't running a four to three, But I just
mean in the like the violence of the way Joe
Mixon cut coming out, I think like, oh man, that's spicy.
And I get a little vibe from that from Tuton
(32:05):
so fun. We get a nice little Monday night trade
and yes, that was delivering results. I think Touton is
going to be delivering results. And it's presented by Uber Eats,
where you can get the best deals on game Day
Food all season long, the official on demand delivery partner
of the NFL Order. Now, okay, let's go to the
(32:29):
injuries that we found out on Monday evening, our insiders
confirming that George Kittle is going to be out multiple weeks.
Kyle Shanahan ended up talking about it and saying that
injured reserve is at least a possibility for George Kittle
because it's gonna be multiple weeks after leaving on Sunday.
(32:51):
And then the bigger surprise is that Rock Purdy is
uncertain for Week two. I mean, he stayed in that
and I thought he played a lot better than the
highlights would have indicated in terms of the interception, but
he is now uncertain for their Week two game. Yeah.
Speaker 1 (33:10):
I actually went back and watched this game again today
just to get the full play by a play review
of it, and I was trying to spot when I
thought he might have hurt the toe, and I think
it happened when Julian Love came in on the blitz
and sacked him because his foot got planned awkwardly. But
I'm shocked that first off, Kyle said that the toe
injury is more important than the shoulder thing that he's
(33:30):
dealing with. I'm shocked that he finished that game and
was able to make that throw on the run at
the end of tan just for the touchdown. With that injury,
It's maybe one of those things where the adrenaline everything else,
it doesn't start to really hurt until the next day,
and then he realized, oh God, I'm in a tough spot.
I am concerned that. I'm not concerned that they don't
have Kittle because there's ways to make up for that. Granted,
they don't have a lot of receivers healthy, so it's
(33:52):
a loss, but they were able to win that game
without Kittle. He left in the second quarter. I'm more
concerned if you don't have Rock Perdy, how this suddenly
just shrinks your offense as hole and a foot issue
is something that could linger, you know, and you know
how important feed are, especially the guys like quarterbacks. So
it's interesting on the Kittle side, because Kyle said a
few weeks, Ian Rapport reported three to five. Short term
(34:13):
ir makes sense. The extra week might make sense, like
if your windows three weeks and you want to go
four and designate to return that sort of thing. I
think that would make sense. Since it happened in week one,
you have a longer runway. But I wrote this when
I wrote it up today. It wouldn't be a forty
nine Ers season if somebody important didn't get hurt early
like it. It's just a repetitive thing with them, and
(34:34):
it bums me out.
Speaker 3 (34:35):
I'm very concerned. I think they have a few pillars
in their offense. And yeah, Chris points out in the comments,
we love all the comments guys that that CMC is
now the healthiest guy in San Francisco, just as we
all suspected. So they have a few pillars that make
them special. It's Christian McCaffrey, it's Trent Williams, it's George
(34:57):
Kittle and prety. I think think does elevate ultimately the
people around him. A toe injury is very concerning. But
Kittle's thirty two years old, and I know he's coming
off one of his best seasons of his entire career.
But he is thirty two years old and starting the
season with a hamstring injury at that age, and he
is a player that has had injury issues that have
(35:20):
kept him out is concerning because they are just not
the same without him. Juwan Jennings left that game with
an injury. It doesn't sound like that when it is
going to be overly serious. I do think they have
something really good in Ricky Piers. I'm not saying there
without weapons, but Trent Williams had one of the worst
games of his career. I was shocked rewatching that game.
(35:40):
I've never seen Trent Williams struggle that much.
Speaker 1 (35:42):
Yeah, he might just play better than m Colt mckivit's
played better than him.
Speaker 3 (35:46):
On Sunday, speaking of Colton mckivit'z he's signed a contract
extension since we last recorded. Good job by you setting
me up there, Nick Schuck. I thought it was a
very reasonable one, considering he's like an average tackle, and
average tackles get paid, you know, twenty million plus on
the open market. And so I think we criticized the
(36:06):
forty nine ers for waiting till the last second to
get all these contracts done and then everyone gets upset. Well,
this is an example of them maybe changing their ways.
So good job by them there. I am concerned, especially
if Purdy does not play, and I was referring to
how I thought he did better, then you could tell
me if you disagree. There were some groaners like that
(36:27):
the interceptions were really good plays by the Seahawks, but
he threw a few up for grabs. But he had
five or six awesome throws in that game, didn't you think?
And yeah, I agree, and held up under pressure, I
thought pretty well.
Speaker 1 (36:39):
Yeah, on the rewatch. That's the part of why I
went and rewatched, because I'm like, I watched this live,
maybe not on an exact play by a play basis,
because I'm, you know, got like five games up or whatever.
I think there was four in that window, and I
went back because I felt uncertain about how his performance
really went because the one thing that stuck at The
two plays that stuck out in my mind were the
second interception he threw and then the touchdown path he threw,
(37:00):
and the Ernest Jones interception was a great play I
think made by Ernest Jones. So I wanted to run
it back, and I agree. I think that there were
more positive throws than negative throws in that game. He
comes through in the clutch as well, and he did
it without George Kittle out there too, So yeah, I
think that the highlights common example of how the Highlight
package doesn't always do a guy justice. I look at
Dylan Gabriel's Week two preseason game as another example. Watch
(37:21):
every play to truly get an understanding of how a
quarterback played.
Speaker 3 (37:24):
Wait, that was the good Dylan Gabriel.
Speaker 1 (37:26):
Wonder that was the Dylan Gabriel game, his first one
where he threw a really bad pick six. Yes, and
the rest of the game was pretty good. Yes.
Speaker 3 (37:33):
That I lost track of my Dylan Gabriel games as
one does good context. I had a whole segment plan
for brock Party tomorrow. If you watch our show on Tuesday,
me and Jordan rod Rieg are gonna do good omens
bad omens. For the twenty twenty five NFL season, the
forty nine ers first drive of the season to me,
(37:54):
was going to be a good omen. They got the
ball in the five yard line. Brock Party was under
heat over in in that drive, and he kept finding
receivers that weren't really open. And I've become a rock
Pretty defender lately. I don't think he's amazing, but I
think he's I think he's a plus quarterback who makes
(38:14):
a lot of difficult throws that aren't really there, And
I think he elevates actually the people around him, and
even if he makes some mistakes that prevent him from
being a top eight quarterback, like he's a value add
It was better than I think people think, and that
is no longer going to be my good omen, Chuck,
you got to be able to audible Sometimes wouldn't really
(38:34):
make sense for tomorrow's show. So I'm glad we got
him in here. You know what I'm also glad to
get in the rest of the news is actually sponsored.
It's time for our Kickoff Week recap, presented by Nationwide.
I predicted on Sunday night's show, Nick, you might remember
that Brian Dable is going to make the change at
(38:57):
quarterback because they asked him after the game if he's
considering a change, and he said yeah, and then he
didn't answer the question. And when coaches are noncommittal, I've
learned over the years they're gonna make a change. Now.
I should have been a little more careful. That's always
the case when that happens on Monday. It's mostly the
(39:18):
case when it happens right after the game and they're emotional,
and in the end, I was wrong. I'll wear it
when I'm wrong Brian Dabele, you proved me wrong.
Speaker 2 (39:28):
Do you intend to start Russell Wilson this week? Yes? Yep? Okay,
I mean and after a game. You know, it's an
emotional game, it's tough game. You know, didn't play particularly well,
I would say collectively. But in terms of making any
of those decisions really at any position or schematic changes,
(39:48):
I'd like to, you know, do it with a clear
head and watch watch the tape. And again, like I
said yesterday, that that game wasn't just doesn't fall on
Russell Wilson.
Speaker 1 (40:01):
Oh okay. First off, I have your back because I
got a similar vibe from his response the window in
which he delivered it. You're right, after the game, can't
take it, you know, completely, one hundred percent at face value.
You got to take it with a grain of salt.
I don't think you were wrong here because I think
that eventually he's going to make this decision. And I
think Jordan explained it perfectly on the show yesterday, which
is that in that goal line scenario when they failed
(40:24):
to get a touchdown, they had like seven plays down
there and they end up settling for three. He made
that decision. As if I can't watch this anymore because
I ran this game back today and I had the
same conclusion where I was like, I cannot believe that
you couldn't punch the ball into the end zone from there.
And it's not a running game thing. It's the fact
that Russell Wilson in this game. I know he already
broke it down yesterday, but there were multiple times where
(40:47):
pocket's pretty clean, and if his first read's not there,
he's looking to take off as if it's twenty fourteen,
not forgetting that it's twenty twenty five. That's a bad
sign to me. So I could have seen him making
this change, and he's gonna make this change because these
things are not going to go away against different opponents.
This is going to be a consistent issue. Malik Neighbors
bailed him out a lot in that game, and I
think over the course of the next month, if not sooner,
(41:09):
Brian Dabel's patience is going to run out, just not
this week.
Speaker 3 (41:13):
You mentioning that got me thinking, I thought you were
maybe going to go conspiracy theory here. The Giants are
an organization where ownership has gotten involved with quarterback decisions
in the past, famously making Ben McAdoo bench Gino Smith
for Eli Manning. We've seen how their you know, influence,
(41:37):
I guess in the Saquon Barkley situation was more or
less ignored. But we've heard whispers that Daniel Jones was
essentially given that big contract because ownership believed in him
and wanted him so much, when maybe the front office
and especially the coaching staff had mixed feelings about him.
And that's given them, in a sense, a longer leash,
(41:59):
Like they know in that building that Daniel Jones wasn't
really all on the decision makers there, and ultimately it's
all going to be about Jackson Dark. But you just
never know who's getting involved, whether it's the general manager
or ownership. These are decisions that are bigger than just
the head coach, especially I think in New York, and
(42:20):
I don't think Russell Wilson played well at all, but
they might feel like, for whatever reason, it'd be unfair
to bench now that Dark has another week or two,
whatever it is, and so Russell Wilson will get at
least one more chance, and we'll see who do they
have on the schedule this week. I should know this.
(42:40):
I'm putting on the spot.
Speaker 1 (42:42):
Well, Luckily I have Jesus in front of me. So
they're playing the Cowboys in Dallas.
Speaker 3 (42:46):
Oh, that's a spicy second. I don't think it's a
bad matchup to have to have.
Speaker 1 (42:53):
If it's a disastrous game, I think because I think
that public perception plays a factor in them sticking with
Russell Wilson, especially if ownership wants him to stick with
Russell Wilson. Brian Ables coaching for his job. He does
not have total patience to let it play out like
Mike Tomlin did last year with Russell Wilson. I'm sure
he wants to make that change, and if ownership is involved,
it's a perception thing. We can't look like a chaotic
(43:13):
organization after one week. We have to stick with them
for another week. But if they go to Dallas and
get smoked and Russell Wilson's terrible, that change is going
to happen.
Speaker 3 (43:20):
Fair. I should have mentioned, by the way, with San Francisco,
if perty does not play this week, they are in
New Orleans. So if you were ever on the fence
to play or sit him for one week, sit in
New Orleans and then they're home for the Cardinals and
the Jaguars, who I think are competitive, fun maybe even
playoff teams if everything breaks right. But it is one
(43:43):
of the softer portions of a pretty soft forty nine
ers schedule, So I guess if this was going to happen,
it happened at a pretty good point. Just some other
real quick items of news as we wind down here.
Nick Ammon Warri is a candidate for injured reserve for
the Seahawks. Tarvarius Ward, who had a good first game
(44:05):
for the Colts in concussion protocol, the Panthers defensive tackle
they picked up to Shawn Wharton is out two to
four weeks. Any of those stand out to you as
particularly important? Shook em and worry happened about four plays
into that Seahawks game.
Speaker 1 (44:20):
Yeah, that was a big bummer for them, and I
think he would have made a difference, especially in the
way that this game unfolded with pretty leading them down
the field and throwing that touchdown pass, especially with the
game that Rik Woollen had. The help over the top
from a safety, with the athleticism that even Warri brings
to the field would have been a pretty big boost
for them. So that one probably sticks out to me
the most Scharvarius Ward, veteran cornerback concussion protocol. You hope
(44:43):
that's a pretty quick turn for him. Panthers. I mean
they need every they need their bodies, They need everybody
available right now to bounce back after the game that
they just had. So but yeah, I think that Emon
Warri is probably the one that sticks out the most.
I'm also looking through the players right now because watching
the game back, it was DeMarcus Lawrence. Oh my god,
he had a few plays there where I'm like, who
is zero Lawrenson? A zero all over the field like
(45:08):
he would.
Speaker 3 (45:09):
He's one of those players I should I if I
still wrote, maybe we'll make it into a podcast. It'd
be a good offseason podcast. It's not the Hall of
very Good, but I just think it's like great, like
all time great players that I have like no chance
for the Hall of Fame, Like DeMarcus Lawrence is one
of my all time favorite players. That it's not at
that level, but he's just He's just a dude. A
(45:31):
couple other little items I'll just run through. Julian Blackman,
who is a starting safety for the Saints, could be
out for the season. Denzel Perryman for the Chargers or
Linebacker out two to four weeks, Texansight and Cook keid
Stover out a few weeks, and Kendrick Bourne signed with
the San Francisco forty nine Ers. That was Kickoff Week
recap presented by Nationwide. Nationwide is so much more than
(45:54):
a great insurance company. They're one of America's largest financial
services companies too. For your insurance and financial needs, Nationwide
is on your side. Just a couple other quick things here.
TMZ reported that Tyreek Hill, his estranged wife Keita Vaccaro,
has accused him of abuse on filings related to their divorce,
(46:17):
and she accused in this report which was from TMZ,
but had the documents reported that he had an argument
that escalated to physical violence last week. There were eight
different times that that happened, according to the allegations, including
punching her in the stomach while she was pregnant. Also
alleged to punch in the face and choked. He does
(46:39):
not face criminal charges, but Tyreek Hill has a history
going back to college and in the NFL for abuse incidents,
and the NFL has a wide berth of what they
want to look at that could go under the Personal
Conduct Policy so that is something just to keep an
(47:00):
eye on. I didn't want to end the show on
that news, but I did think it was, you know,
good for people to know. So I do want to
ask you something. Putting you on the spot shook. You know,
we got you on all these primetime games. This is it.
You know, we're going to be back on Thursday night.
We got a double header and that's pretty exciting.
Speaker 1 (47:18):
Welcome back.
Speaker 3 (47:19):
They're actually good games. I I'm gonna put you on
the spot because you're not in like the Tuesday Wednesday
shows where we kind of take a step back and
do some analysis like that. Give me one team or
player that after one week changed your mind that you
feel a little differently about after one week.
Speaker 1 (47:37):
Okay, it's not a primetime game, despite me being on
all the primetime shows.
Speaker 3 (47:41):
It should be anything.
Speaker 1 (47:42):
Yeah, it's not a player, and it's not a team.
It's a it's a position group. It is the Colts
offensive line. We spent so much time this offseason lamenting
how they mismanaged the you know, depending free agents that
ended up going elsewhere and how it was gonna set
them back offensively. And you're gonna put Daniel Jones behind
(48:03):
an offensive line that's not gonna be as strong as
it was last year, and it already wasn't very strong.
They held up pretty damn well Week one against the
against the Dolphins, that Dolphins front that we know they've
invested heavily in, that was ready to pin their ears
back and get after Daniel Jones wasn't really able to
do it, we know the day that he had. But
running that game back today, I was just very impressed
(48:23):
by how stout they were up front, and so they
changed my mind in just one week. We'll see if
it holds up over the course of the season, but
in one week I was very impressed by them.
Speaker 3 (48:32):
Of course we're gonna end the show. It's like, oh yeah,
it's a big time ratings grab. We're just gonna go
for the easy like low hanging fruit, cowboy sock shook
goes Colts offensive line. If my over under Win Totals
podcast with Nick Wright that we put up a couple
of weeks ago where I'm trying to keep my undefeated
record of the last three years going. Well, First of all,
(48:54):
we did eight picks this year, so I'm not staying undefeated,
but some of them after one week I already have
regret about the Colts might be on top of that
list under seven and a half. I don't think Daniel
Jones is gonna play like this all year, man that
they have some winnable games on the schedule. There are
actually some really talented players on that roster. And one
(49:16):
thing Shane Stikeen's gonna do. He's gonna like win eight
or nine games. You know, that's all I got to do.
Speaker 1 (49:21):
That's true, That is true. I will say I Dale
Jones had a great game. I'm not going to take
that away from him. He also had some turnover worthy
throws that weren't picked.
Speaker 3 (49:29):
So he also took two massive hits during the game.
So yeah, we could be right back to Anthony richardson
land if it goes wrong. Shook appreciate you. This will
be the only time I think we go Thursday, Friday, Monday.
So we appreciate everyone who joined us on the YouTube
live stream. We appreciate everyone who has made this first
(49:49):
full week of the NFL Daily Schedule a treat and
a success, and we love how that the numbers are
growing and all the feedback that you guys have given
to We're looking forward to a good week. I will
be back in the studio on Tuesday with George and Rodrigue.
I mentioned good omens, bad omens. We'll get into the
(50:10):
news Monday. Man, these comebacks. If it stays this good
all year, like this might be the highest rated YouTube
live show there is. We'll see it Tuesday
Host
Gregg Rosenthal
Popular Podcasts
24/7 News: The Latest
The latest news in 4 minutes updated every hour, every day.
Dateline NBC
Current and classic episodes, featuring compelling true-crime mysteries, powerful documentaries and in-depth investigations. Follow now to get the latest episodes of Dateline NBC completely free, or subscribe to Dateline Premium for ad-free listening and exclusive bonus content: DatelinePremium.com
The Clay Travis and Buck Sexton Show
The Clay Travis and Buck Sexton Show. Clay Travis and Buck Sexton tackle the biggest stories in news, politics and current events with intelligence and humor. From the border crisis, to the madness of cancel culture and far-left missteps, Clay and Buck guide listeners through the latest headlines and hot topics with fun and entertaining conversations and opinions.