Good Omens, Jalen Carter and Commanders-Packers Preview

Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:04):
Welcome to NFL Daily, where we always kicked the ball
out of the end zone. I'm Greg Rosenthal here in
the Chris Westling podcast studio with my friend Jordan rod Reeg.
It's another Tuesday together. We hope to welcome Colleen Wolf
back next week.

Speaker 2 (00:21):
We'll see.

Speaker 1 (00:22):
But yes, we have omens galore to talk about, including
one in Minnesota.

Speaker 2 (00:28):
It is the final day of omens season. I don't
know if you know that.

Speaker 3 (00:32):
I love it.

Speaker 4 (00:33):
You've been kind of on the omens beat the entire
off season, from the spring all the way into the summer.
You've been tracking first plays all across the.

Speaker 2 (00:41):
Lead into first place, big tone setters.

Speaker 3 (00:43):
Symbols and signs.

Speaker 4 (00:45):
You know, you're you're kind of like tracking ruins at
this point. You know, the stars, all of that. So you're,
you know, you're really in it.

Speaker 1 (00:51):
Omens are are my corner of this football, you know, Cognizanti.
So we're going to do some news off the top
of the show, and we just got some interesting news
about Jalen Carter. We're going to talk about some omens
that we believe in. So basically, after week one, you
know which omens good, mostly or bad that we think

(01:14):
will have some staying power. Patrick Claybon is going to
contribute something to this show that I have no idea
what it is, but I think it's going to blow
my mind. And we're going to preview Commanders Packers coming up.
But yeah, we'll start with the news and Jalen Carter
of the Eagles will be eligible to play in Week two.
The NFL announced on Tuesday that he will forfeit an

(01:38):
entire game. Check They were actually calling it a one
game suspension. The press release says Jalen Carter suspended one game,
but that one game was Game one, the opener, where
he was actually on the field. So I feel like
they're being a little fast and loose, but who am
I to be pedantic with the NFL suspension rules. Essentially,

(02:01):
they're saying spitting is a suspensionable event.

Speaker 4 (02:05):
Yes, and it is a at least a one game
suspension here into the future. It sort of sets this precedent.
They're saying this because he missed the.

Speaker 3 (02:14):
Entire game, you didn't play. It is a little bit
of a loophole in my opinion.

Speaker 2 (02:18):
So that's the best.

Speaker 1 (02:19):
If you're gonna spit, just get your money, do it
at the beginning, Because are they saying that if you
spit five minutes into the game, you're kicked out of
that game, but you weren't suspended for that game.

Speaker 2 (02:31):
It's a little.

Speaker 4 (02:32):
Yeah, I think you know. We'll see how it goes.
Hopefully this doesn't happen a lot in the future.

Speaker 2 (02:37):
No, they were very cool, a.

Speaker 3 (02:39):
Lot of money. That's a whole game check for Jalen Carter.

Speaker 1 (02:41):
Sometimes you don't need to be a media insider or
media literate to notice that every single insider out there
said this is supposed to warn people in the future
how serious it is about spitting.

Speaker 2 (02:54):
And I get it.

Speaker 1 (02:55):
I like having an unofficial rule that spitting gets you suspended.

Speaker 4 (02:59):
One game noted spitting is bad. Spitting on people is bad.

Speaker 1 (03:04):
It is bad. But also it wasn't a suspension. He
got kick kicked out of the game. If it was
a suspension, he wouldn't have been there in the first place.
So good news for the Eagles. They're heading to play
the Chiefs this week. I'm looking forward to previewing that.
On our show Wednesday, some other items we mentioned George
Kittle who had that injury on the Monday Night show

(03:26):
and if you're looking for all the news recaps. Nick
Shook and I hit a lot of the news and
on Mondays a lot of news drop. So we hit
that at the end of the Monday night recap. But
we didn't know that George Kittle was officially going to
injured reserve, and we didn't know at all that Jake
Moody is off the island.

Speaker 4 (03:43):
In fact, we were told something completely different earlier this
week when Kyle Shanahan said after Sunday's game that Jake
Moody would still be their kicker. And then you know,
one day you're in the other day, next day you're out,
and Eddie Pinero is on his way after a workout
to San Francisco for a new era.

Speaker 1 (04:03):
I just think you should stop drafting kickers. It just
it always, it just doesn't seem like it works. It
puts so much pressure on the young men who get drafted.
It's such an unpredictable position, and we've seen it time
after time that really good kickers who have good careers

(04:23):
struggle so badly with the team that drafts them. Young Wayku,
who is in some trouble now. Actually the Falcons signed
another kicker meanwhile, John Parker Romo to their practice squad
to give young Wayku some competition. But you remember how
he flamed out with the Chargers. The Patriots have had
Chad Ryland, who's now good with the Cardinals, flamed out

(04:43):
as a draftic. I think they should have kept John
Parker Romo, who out kicked their rookie kicker now and
missed an easy kick in Week one, But they drafted him,
so they feel like they have to keep him.

Speaker 2 (04:53):
This keeps happening over and over.

Speaker 1 (04:54):
But man, Jake Moody had a rough Has it been
a couple of years now with the forty nine ers?

Speaker 2 (04:58):
It has been rough?

Speaker 4 (04:59):
Yeah, And I you know what, I hate it for
him just on a personal level.

Speaker 3 (05:02):
I think that it's just such a hard job.

Speaker 4 (05:04):
It's such a fickle job, and there's so much mental
stuff that goes into it. And then when you're sort
of dealing with the heaviness of Kyle Shanahan's expectations of you.
Even though they were the ones that drafted him with
that high of a pick, I think it was what
a third round pick that they drafted him with. Yes,
And so it's a tough job. It's made tougher when
there are expectations on you. They did give him a

(05:26):
pretty long leash here.

Speaker 2 (05:28):
They did.

Speaker 1 (05:28):
I was surprised they didn't replace some this offseason. I
think there were a lot of people that watched the
first game they're like, well, oh, Jake Moody's still the kicker.
Poor He'll probably get another chance. As you mentioned, Eddie
Panero goes to the forty nine ers. I think it
was like a land grab for these kickers. And you know,
we mentioned it on the show on Monday night. But

(05:48):
four weeks is a long time to be without George Kittle,
and a hamstring injury is the last thing you want
to see with a thirty one year old, and so
much of the offense is based around George Kittle can do.
Not that the other Titans in there in the room
can't do some of the things that he does. But
there's definitely no receiving threat the next four games at

(06:10):
New Orleans home for the Cardinals, home for the Jaguars,
and then a big game against the Rams on Thursday
night that he will miss, and so that's the earliest
that you could get back.

Speaker 4 (06:19):
Juwan Jennings is also banged up after missing the entirety
of training camp, So then they predicated a lot of
their offense in their passing game through George Kittle, who
had a healthy training camp. Christian McCaffrey popped up on
the injury report late late last week, giving a lot
of people a little bit of a scare, and then they.

Speaker 2 (06:34):
Gave him thirty one touchdown.

Speaker 4 (06:36):
Then yeah, and then he was fine and and so
this group continues to be The passing game in general
continues to be of I think a significant concern. The
only healthy players. Ricky Piersoll went over one hundred this weekend.

Speaker 1 (06:48):
Your boy, and it could have been like one hundred
and thirty with a touchdown if not for a great
play by Rik will And to break one touchdown up.
But they will count on Jake Tongjis who had a
big time touchdown, big time catch, and Luke Fair actually
led the team in snaps, so those are their tight ends.

Speaker 2 (07:04):
We'll preview their game.

Speaker 1 (07:05):
As I mentioned on Wednesday, not a ton of huge headlines,
so I think this Tuesday show is kind of just
like talk about some things that we think are fun.
There were a couple other signings. By the way, Jabrill
Peppers goes to the Steelers, who was a really good
player for the Patriots the last couple of years, and
so I think they will find a role for him.
That's because their safety to Shawn Elliott is going to

(07:25):
be out for a little bit. But I wanted to
just throw some sound by you, just some things that
caught our attention in the last day or so. And
maybe it's not like hard news, but I found it interesting.
And I'll start with Liam Cohen talking about why Brian
Thomas Junior, you know, didn't have much production as a receiver.

(07:47):
They threw seven passes to him on Sunday, it was
an easy win against the Panthers, but he only had
one reception. You know, there was a lot of fantasy
points for Brian Thomas Junior. Listen to mister Cohen.

Speaker 5 (08:00):
We try to get him a touch on the first
or second drive of the game, first play of the game, right,
we don't convert it, throw him a screen low doesn't
come down with it. And then the flow of the game.
We missed him on a in breaker which he had
a lot of room to run, missed him on a
corner route where he was fairly open, and then missed

(08:21):
you know, had the one on the out of bounds.
So you're talking about that's five catches right there. That
gets him into the flow of it.

Speaker 4 (08:28):
You know, his voice has changed, Oh it sounds so okay.
So he's got a little bit of a Southern accent
emerging there, but he's still got that Northeastern passive aggression
talking about what actually happened.

Speaker 2 (08:42):
I think he's just so honest.

Speaker 1 (08:44):
He's soest and I if you've been listening all off season,
we love you. But this is maybe the third time
we've noted this that Liam Cohn is so honest. If
he was in a different market, I think it would
get treated differently. And I do wonder if it's going
to catch up to him because it remind I didn't
mean so much of last season where Doug Peterson was

(09:05):
talking about how open the receivers were.

Speaker 2 (09:07):
There is a little bit of a trend here.

Speaker 1 (09:09):
Urban Meyer actually said some similar things in his brief
time in Jacksonville. And you do wonder if Trevor Lawrence
here's that that press conference and is like, that's.

Speaker 3 (09:22):
What I'm saying. Oh, it's a passive aggression.

Speaker 1 (09:24):
I know, but it's like I don't even think he
knows he's doing it. But everyone's listening to that and
being like, so you're saying that Trevor Lawrence really isn't
seeing the field too well.

Speaker 2 (09:32):
Is that what you're saying.

Speaker 4 (09:32):
Yeah, that's the subtext here where I'm like, man, it
sounds it sounds so matter of fact and straightforward and
casual and you know, you know, calm, and there's some
there's an edge to.

Speaker 3 (09:43):
It, though, is there?

Speaker 4 (09:44):
Though?

Speaker 1 (09:44):
Like I think he's just answering the question. Maybe you
know him better than I know you do.

Speaker 4 (09:48):
That's what I'm saying, is like, I don't think he's
meaning for that. You have an edge to it. It
just sounds that way, Like I don't think he means it.

Speaker 1 (09:55):
I think it's a last thing that he would want,
and I do think he will. Something is going to
happen where he learns from it. Where he sounds like
he's being too critical of his own players in a
way that he doesn't. But it's it's very different, for instance,
compared to Kevin o'conne, who we'll get to you later,
who goes out of his way to almost artificially pump
up his quarterbacks to such a degree that they believe

(10:18):
it and they play awesome let's hear from another coach
that I really loved last season out of nowhere, for
some reason, Todd Bowles kind of started to have a
bit in the locker room where he just goes a
little crazy, and I love a good recurring bit.

Speaker 2 (10:32):
That's the hell of a job.

Speaker 5 (10:33):
Keep fighting now.

Speaker 6 (10:35):
I'm going with all the first game and I'm not
usually like this, but that's.

Speaker 2 (10:49):
We got a long way to go.

Speaker 7 (10:51):
We understand that we fight like that, we'll win most
of our ball games.

Speaker 2 (10:55):
Guys.

Speaker 8 (10:55):
I want to see you guys on Monday.

Speaker 1 (11:00):
That's a good uh sound clip from Todd Bowles, who
was just so monotone and so almost boring all the
time that him just suddenly yelping like that and the
locker room is going to get.

Speaker 2 (11:12):
The guys going.

Speaker 4 (11:12):
I just love I mean, you could see in there
why they love playing for him.

Speaker 2 (11:16):
I am.

Speaker 4 (11:16):
I am perennially somebody who really tries to compliment and
talk up Todd Bowles because I hear how offensive coaches
talk about what it feels like to go against his
defense for a full game, and you see it there
he's got He's got his guys behind him, and I
love to have his casual. He didn't give him a
day off guys on Monday.

Speaker 1 (11:34):
I know actually was like, maybe we should have cut
that out because it was like this great, you know,
celebratory moment, and then he's like, wait, we'll actually see
you tomorrow, and everyone's like, oh, well, it is week one,
But come on, Todd, you could have mentioned that another.

Speaker 3 (11:47):
Time, just a little bait and switch, you know.

Speaker 1 (11:50):
I think that wind meant a little extra to him
after losing twice to the Falcons last year, and I
think after rewatching that game, he felt like he stolen
and it feels good to steal one. Let's now listen
to the sound clip from Sunday that caused my son
to do a celebration dance in my kitchen.

Speaker 2 (12:12):
The flag on the back of your helmet today, the
Japanese flag.

Speaker 4 (12:15):
Was that about my great grandmother's Japanese so seawn love
to her.

Speaker 1 (12:20):
So that's that's Jayden Daniels. He's officially on Team Japan.
You can see it on the helmet. And if you're
not aware, the NFL has allowed to you know, players
with international heritage to wear the flags on their helmet.
They've been doing that for a few years and I
think that's really cool. They make them put the American

(12:40):
flag above it, which yeah, to be this kind of
funny that they make like they make that like literally
has to go above. But then you have the Japanese flag,
and yeah, my son, my son was very excited about that.
I think the Japanese community out there is excited. He
called Jayden Daniel Daniels family. My wife is Japanese. I
think that's like a bit of a stretch. But then

(13:00):
when I saw a picture of Jade Daniels's great grandmother
who's still alive, and it's fantastic. I was like, oh, yeah,
she looks great, she looks great. Yeah, she kind of
she looks like their Japanese grandmother.

Speaker 2 (13:12):
So it was outstanding.

Speaker 3 (13:12):
That's so cute.

Speaker 4 (13:13):
And you know, I'm glad for Walker because he must
have been in a little angst watching c. J. Stroud
try to, you know, get something done in that Rams
Texans game. And I know how much he loves c. J. Stroud,
So this was a nice little lift for Walker. I
think little picture.

Speaker 1 (13:27):
Yeah, I think if if you're thinking back to let's
say the Chappelle show in the race draft, I mean,
it's a pretty big win for the Asian American community
to try to claim jayde and Daniels. So congratulations to
everyone involved there. That was the news. We are going
to take a quick break and we will be back

(13:48):
with some omen. Like I said, it's omens season. I
do believe that you can learn certain things as the

(14:09):
season starts. And I do think that first plays in
like playoff games and big games, and obviously how coaches
want to construct their opening series like it all is
telling and I think is the coach telling you more
often with those decisions than they do behind the podium.

(14:30):
So omens can exist, you know, throughout the course of
the season. But really I'm saying omen season ends now
because these are omens for the entire season. So you
can go good, you can go bad, you can go
anywhere you want.

Speaker 2 (14:43):
Jordan, why don't you start?

Speaker 3 (14:44):
I'm really excited about this.

Speaker 4 (14:46):
In fact, I called DIBs on it when you suggested
this segment idea for me and you to do today.
Armand Membu's arrival in the NFL is an omen of
what the Jets can be this season and where their
strengths are. First round pick right tackle lined up against TJ.
Watt for most of the game on Sunday and gave

(15:07):
TJ Watt just about all he could handle.

Speaker 3 (15:09):
Looked really, really impressive.

Speaker 4 (15:10):
Overall, he gave up one pressure on twenty six pass
blocking snaps. According to next Gen Sixteen of those snaps
were specifically against TJ Watt, where he only gave up
again that one pressure. The Jets offensive line generally gave
justin Field's good time, clean space. We're forcing the run
game against a really talented Steelers front Breeze hollran for

(15:30):
five point six yards per carry in a fifty two
percent success rate. This is all about armand me. Membu's
performance specifically, really was an omen for what this Jets
team wants to be this year, even in the loss,
and what they want to be made of.

Speaker 3 (15:45):
They want to be physical upfront.

Speaker 4 (15:46):
They want to give the quarterback time to unferl some
really gorgeous throws, and they want to run through your
face and they did that.

Speaker 1 (15:54):
Their young tackle duo, yeah, you know, including Olu Fashanu
who's now a second year left tackle and missed a
lot of last year but looked really good when he
came in at the end and looked really good in
this game. Is the n via the NFL right now,
Like that's exactly what you want. I know it's one game,

(16:15):
but that's enough for me to shut down TJY. That
caliber to have, it's kind of like, yeah, like maybe
he will have bad games this year. Maybe he won't
have that many bad games because he's that talented. But
to have that high of a high right off the
bat and show the level of athleticism and movement and
I know, you know some of the O line tape

(16:36):
heads out there are just going crazy for some of
the strength and the nastiness that he's shown against what
but also the technique to be able to do that
right away is like the tackle version of like what
we saw of Odell Beckham in his first games. Like,
once you show you can do that, that level is
there to be used now for that entire rookie contract.
It's amazing.

Speaker 4 (16:55):
It's incredible, and it's also I mean, it was a
really good investment pick for them.

Speaker 3 (17:01):
There are other ways they could have gone.

Speaker 4 (17:02):
There are other directions they could have gone, and this
is someone who, like this guy could be a franchise
player for you for a decade if it keeps going well,
even if it doesn't go this well as well as
it did Sunday for him. Even if he dips her
and has like adversity, it could still be this cornerstone player.
And this exactly fits Aaron Glenn's ethos of what he

(17:23):
wants this team to be.

Speaker 1 (17:25):
Our friend, Allie Connelly, I remember him and John Ledyard
on their podcast Readoptional in the preseason after his first
Presecon game saying some of the things he's doing, it
just pops off in a way that like, not to
compare a guy to Trent Williams, because I think their
play style is different, but just that there are only
so many individuals who can move like that. And if

(17:46):
you don't think that I'm going to be tracking all
of armand Membu's career. When I was publicly stumping on
this podcast for the Patriots to take him at number
four and forty FO free agents instead of Will Campbell,
you're wrong worried about this, but I do like that
the Jets offense could be so much.

Speaker 4 (18:06):
Everybody wanted, and everybody wanted them to take one of
these tight ends, right, That's what everybody was sort of
stumping for, and they took the tackle, and my god,
can he play.

Speaker 1 (18:15):
Okay, well, let's just slide right into it. How about
Tyler Warren's first drive in the NFL. So yeah, they
wanted him to take Tyler Warren. It was probably a
spot where they weren't going to get it wrong his
very first play in the NFL. And this to me
is Shane Steiken, you know, making a decision of who

(18:37):
we want to be. The very first play that the
Colts ran this year was a first down to Tyler
Warren or later in that drive, they throw it on
the sideline and he makes a great catch there as well,
And that to me was a statement of intent by

(18:57):
what Shane Stiken wanted to do. He reminds me of
brock Bowers in the sense that look like, I know,
they're completely different players and they're going to win in
completely different ways. But you could see immediately that brock
Bauers was a different sort of mover, and that once
you saw it against NFL competition, you're like, oh, this is.

Speaker 2 (19:15):
Going to work.

Speaker 1 (19:15):
And I already we've seen enough. It's gonna work. Tyler
Warren's gonna work. You could see it in the preseason,
you can see it now.

Speaker 4 (19:20):
It's interesting because before the draft and talking to a
couple of different evaluators and scouts and all that, it
was like very clear. It's like, if you are going
to draft Tyler Warren, which a lot of teams wanted to,
you are then committing to designing most of your offensive
game plan to go through Tyler Warren, specifically as a
mismatch player. You're not going to be asking him to
do some of the traditionalists more inline tight end stuff

(19:43):
all the time. You're going to get him in space,
You're going to get him the ball, and you're going
to flow in funnel that passing game through this sort
of unicorn type of player.

Speaker 3 (19:53):
That's what Penn State did.

Speaker 4 (19:54):
That's how he emerged in his last season there, and
that is what makes made him so covetable by Shane
Stikeen because Shane Steichen has really been wanting that player.
He has had a lot of experience coaching and scheming
for tight ends. This is exactly who he wanted. And
he's also I think Shane Steikin wanted to flex a
little bit. To your point on omens no pun intended.

(20:14):
He really a flex player. Yeah, and he wanted to
boo boo.

Speaker 2 (20:21):
He wanted I mean if you're gonna go root and
tooton all week long trying to help you out.

Speaker 4 (20:25):
So I just think that this is like it was him.
I always love I love what you said about play
callers doing this. All of these guys do this. They
basically tell you who they think they are with their
opening scripts. And that's exactly what Shane Steiken did with
Tyler Warren.

Speaker 1 (20:39):
So just to recap, literally first play from scrimmage of
the season, fourteen yard pass to Tyler Warren where he
makes a defender miss and goes up the silent Sailand.
Second completion of the season was the third pass Tyler
Warren over the middle for eight yards, then a nice
throat to Michael Pittman, then a deep pass up the
sideline to Tyler Warren for twenty one yards in between

(21:04):
the cornerback and Minka Fitzpatrick who was in zone covered.
So that is three of your first five attempts and
six plays overall that are going to this guy, and
they're all at different parts of the field. I know
the opposition was forgiving I guess on Sunday, but look,

(21:26):
Patrick picked the.

Speaker 2 (21:27):
Dolphins to win.

Speaker 1 (21:27):
I thought the Dolphins were gonna win and so I
think that was a statement play calling series and game
by Tyler Warren. I am so excited to see what's next,
give me another OMEN.

Speaker 4 (21:38):
I'm going Los Angeles Chargers on this one. So there
was a moment. It came at the very very end
of the game, after a pretty strong Chargers performance against
that Chiefs defense, when Justin Herbert keeps the ball, runs
for the conversion and then slides down. That in itself
maybe not an OMEN, but it's the little flourish and

(21:59):
you'll see it if you're watching on YouTube.

Speaker 3 (22:00):
As soon as he slides down.

Speaker 4 (22:02):
It's the little flourish where he sort of flexes one
arm and he sort of points with the other and
he's got this this face. See he's sliding with a
lot of flourish here with the flex.

Speaker 2 (22:11):
Oh, he held it. He held it first, and he.

Speaker 4 (22:14):
Held the pose right. This was magazine cover style posing.
Now Justin Herbert, for people who don't who aren't as familiar,
he is a very quiet, very like media shy, more
introverted type of person. And in fact, you hear more
from Jim Harbaugh about Justin Herbert when you talk about
gassing up your quarterbacks to an.

Speaker 3 (22:35):
A great excessive level.

Speaker 4 (22:37):
You know, this is who you hear from most of
the time talking about Justin Herbert. But I think that
that in itself not only was an omen that they're
going to use him more on the ground, which he
did that game. He ran ran a couple times. I
was at one of their training camp practices. They were
installing more design runs for him. It's also he's healthy
this season versus the start of last season when he's
dealing with the foot injury, and they're going to him

(23:00):
to be a weapon in that way against defenses. But
also an omen of Justin Herbert maybe emerging into the
spotlight a little bit more this season, maybe taking the
mantle of being this more maybe public facing guy who's
going to put a flourish and a little edge at
the end of some of these plays versus quietly, you know,
kind of going.

Speaker 2 (23:19):
That's a little more comfortable in his skin.

Speaker 1 (23:21):
Yeah, Hey, just a kid having fun out there, Justin Herbert,
like you could, I think you could see it. I
think there was a looseness and a confidence in the
way that he played. And you can look at the
rushing totals and he had thirty one yards on the game.
And think, oh, that's not that crazy. That's actually one
of the higher marks of his career. In a given season,
he'll usually top that once or twice, but in general,

(23:44):
the seven attempts stand out to me more. That's more
again than almost any game that he's had as a pro,
like one or two at most each season.

Speaker 2 (23:52):
He runs more than that.

Speaker 4 (23:53):
And it wasn't all scrambling. Some of it's designed and
then also picking up a couple of crucial downs too.
I mean, it was absolutely a threat, and you could
tell that the Chiefs were a little bit on their
back foot defending that.

Speaker 1 (24:03):
So I didn't mean to have a theme with mine,
but I just went with rookies and specifically wanted to
give some love to the Browns rookies against the Bengals.
I know they lost that game, and it just felt
like the most Brownsie thing ever. But before the season,
all we said, you know, we were focusing on the quarterbacks.
All we said was like, the only thing that matters

(24:24):
is going to be the development of these rookies on
this team this year. And their rookies were awesome in
Week one and that's to me just such an incredible Onoman.
And I'll start with Harold Fannon, who you know as
a great player after the catch had to carry, played
as a full back, and him and Tyler Warren actually

(24:47):
are now the co leaders in the history of the
NFL for receptions by a tight end in their first
ever game, Like, no one's ever caught more than seven
than Fannin and Tyler Warren and the leader of.

Speaker 2 (25:02):
That And I guess this is becoming a trend.

Speaker 1 (25:03):
Was Brock Bauers a year ago set the record And
watching this game and just seeing all the different ways
that they used Harold Fannin was so exciting. And then
looking at the box score, Dylan Sampson I thought played
much better than the box score indicated. It was really
good as a receiver, didn't have much to work with
as a runner, but reminded me of like a Geo Bernard,

(25:24):
but like right off the bat, really was up for everything,
looked like he belonged. And then finally Carson Schwestinger at
inside linebacker. Like I know we've had a joke about
Mason Graham. He just didn't really show much this game.
We'll move on from. We don't know. It wasn't good,
It wasn't bad, but Carson Chwessinger goes out there as
a rookie linebacker and was really running things for the

(25:44):
Browns like run and chase and looking good. And this
is the guy who was a walk on at UCLA
right off the bat, really good signs and that's what
their quarterback sitting on the sideline.

Speaker 4 (25:54):
Yeah, it's interesting a lot of people, and I think
because a lot of us are scratching our heads over this,
but a lot of people were making the headlines about
the quarterbacks that they drafted right in Dylan Gabriel and
Shoot Sanders, But very very subtly, you know, Andrew Barry.

Speaker 3 (26:10):
Had a really really good draft.

Speaker 4 (26:12):
He found multiple starters at key positions that they're gonna need.
And Joe Flacco spoke so glowingly of Harold fannin junior
all throughout training camp to the point where, you know,
reports on the ground out of there early on, we're saying,
this guy is getting moved all over the formation. He's
coming out of the backfield, he's in the slot, he's
out wide, he's in motion like he's doing all of

(26:34):
these different things. As a true mismatch player who not
only can change the looks but also can change the
gaps because if you have a player that big, aligned
out wide and you send him in motion to either
in the stack or on the other side of the stack,
or even in the backfield, you're automatically changing every single
gap for the defense to defend on the field.

Speaker 3 (26:53):
And that is insane.

Speaker 4 (26:54):
If you have Joe Flacco, who's like, oh heck yeah,
you know, having some fun at his old age.

Speaker 1 (26:59):
Plus just the mental anguish and the shame of giving
up that big of a day to someone wearing the
number forty four.

Speaker 4 (27:06):
See he's okay, that's a fullback number. Though god I know,
and I.

Speaker 2 (27:10):
Think he's wearing it for fun. I don't know.

Speaker 1 (27:12):
I actually believe I read that whatever he wanted was
not available, and so he ended up with the forty four.
But they use him as a wildcat, and my favorite
rep for him was as a full back on the
goal line blowing open a hole for their rushing touchdown.
Was that Sampson, I forget who it was, but either way,
like to be able to do that, but also have

(27:34):
great feet, great vertical ability, like really pop as an athlete,
like his feet moved so quickly. And then Schwestinger like
PFF's not perfect, but he was their fifth highest rated
linebacker in all of football. Last week he was the
highest rated player on the Browns. And he is the
classic like see it and just trigger so quickly, kind

(27:55):
of like a Navarro Bowman type of player. If everything
went perfectly well, man, they have a lot to be
excited about. So I think that's a good omen that
Actually the Browns are going to be more fun this
year than people.

Speaker 3 (28:07):
And certainly more fun next year.

Speaker 1 (28:09):
That's it, right, because Andrew Berry might not be around
to enjoy it.

Speaker 6 (28:13):
Yeah.

Speaker 1 (28:13):
I was going to say, you had a really good draft.
I was like, we got to see it on the field,
but now we have.

Speaker 4 (28:17):
Yeah, And I couldn't remember if I said Andrew or
accidentally said Adam, which is his brother who just we
just had a feature.

Speaker 3 (28:23):
On in the athletics.

Speaker 2 (28:24):
So so many bears.

Speaker 3 (28:25):
Yeah, so it works for the Eagles, right, it works
for the Eagles. Yeah.

Speaker 4 (28:29):
Okay, my third one, my omen here, And this might
take a second because I want to get through the
little pieces of this, Greg, But I know that you
have witnessed over text me totally geeking out about this,
and so I appreciate the space.

Speaker 2 (28:40):
Big special teams go Yeah.

Speaker 4 (28:43):
Okay, the Vikings icing Monday Nights win over the Bears
on a situational mastery moment on special teams to me,
is an omen for the season. First, I want to
kind of narrate this clip of actually what happened. So
there's two minutes and five seconds on the clock the
fourth quarter, the Vikings were receiving the kickoff up three points.

(29:03):
Cairo Santos Bears kicker kicks a returnable ball. Ty Chandler looks,
the returner looks right at Kevin O'Connell on the sideline
who's waving him onward.

Speaker 3 (29:12):
And I loved the call by the booth.

Speaker 4 (29:13):
They described it as a third base coach waving on
the runner and I love that. So returning this kickoff
taking it out of the end zone burned out a
natural stoppage for the two minute warning, so the Bears
then had to lose their last time out that they
had instead at a minute forty seven seconds left to
go after the Vikings ran a play immediately on the

(29:35):
other side of that, so if the ball would have
been kicked through the back of the end zone, and
Johnson did say after the game that this is what
they had hoped would happen, there would be no runoff, right,
and then they would have that two minute warning as
a natural timeout and extra timeout instead of having to
then just burn their last one. Because obviously the Bears,
who were down three points at the time, really wanted

(29:57):
to get the ball back, and Ben Johnson estimated they
would have gotten it back with about a minute left
if the ball would have gone out of the back
of the end zone. The other thing is they could
have kicked it out of bounds if you did not
if you did not think your kicker, which Bears fans
were really letting me know and my mentions that they
don't think Kyro Santos could kick it out of the
back of the end zone from that distance, so they

(30:20):
were saying, So you could have kicked it out of
bounds at that point situationally, and all that would have
happened was still no time run off. You would have
incurred an a legal penalty in a five yard penalty
for that, So you would have started at the you
would have allowed the Vikings to start at the forty. Yes,
there is no rekick in that situation, right, But Ben
Johnson did not want to give up seemingly did not
want to give up the five yards and instead wanted

(30:42):
the ball to go out of the back of the
end zone. Kevin O'Connell sees this thing floating through the
air and it's going to be short ty Chandler stares
him down as he catches it. It's just an epic moment.
It's such an epic moment of situational awareness. And the
reason why I have it as an omen greg is
because we saw the absolute duality and range of what
the JJ McCarthy experience is going to be for the

(31:04):
Minnesota Vikings this season, where it started out got awful
and then ended really really cool. Right, They're going to
experience that every single game, and they're going to need
every edge and every advantage that they could possibly have
this year and possibly get this year, including their defense,
which really showed up for them, especially in the second
half because of Brian Flores and that group, and then

(31:25):
also every tiny situational edge and advantage. And Kevin O'Connell
really really preaches this internally, has extra meetings for all
of these things, and that factored in in a huge
way on Monday night. I thought that was one of
the plays the game.

Speaker 1 (31:41):
It was great and that was a great job narrating it.
And you think back to the Kirk Cousins, you know,
great year with the Vikings, and then you think about
last year and then this year, and I don't think
it's a mistake that they have been great in these
one score games and great situationally. Now I think it
is fair to point out it was almost a bigger

(32:01):
blunder by the Bears and ultimately execution and not understanding
that that was not an easy thing for Cairo Santos
to do. Then it even was like a great play
by Minnesota because we were going back and forth and
I was curious. I was like, well, if they must
have told them it was obvious he had to take
it out. And Kevin O'Connell did confirm that that, like, yes,

(32:23):
the special teams coach had gone over it with everyone. Yes,
to take it out at the time, But who is
the returner again, ty Chandler, you know he's not their
primary returner?

Speaker 4 (32:34):
His face, yeah, look at his face. He's not the
primary returner.

Speaker 1 (32:37):
They have two back there, and they tried to avoid
the returner who had a great night, and so they
kicked it specifically trying to kick it at him and
make him make a mistakes. So even though they had
gone over it ahead of time, he sort of panics
in the moment and isn't quite sure. And a great
job by O'Connell to be like, come on out, bro.

Speaker 3 (32:52):
Yeah, And that's what I'm saying.

Speaker 4 (32:53):
It's like, I don't want to really get on the
Bears too much about losing the situational advantage.

Speaker 1 (32:58):
I do think I did kick it out of bounce
Peyton Manning's calling for it, Troy Aikman's calling for if
everyone's first guessing you can get on him.

Speaker 2 (33:05):
There was a huge mistake.

Speaker 4 (33:06):
Yes, it was a huge mistake, but it's almost like, Okay,
you have to under you have to understand are you
willing to like you have to be the coach who's
willing to see five yards to make a less ultimately
a less risky play. And that's a big lesson for
Ben Johnson, I think in this case. But that's what
I'm saying about this on the on the Viking side,
it is a simple executionable thing, right, But if they
don't do it right, then you're only up three points

(33:30):
and the Bears defense is coming after you, you know,
and it's I just think that this was it's the
little tiny slivers of moments. Yes, that's an omen for
what the Vikings will need to do to win.

Speaker 3 (33:39):
Games this year.

Speaker 1 (33:39):
It decides so many games in the and the Bears
figure they just got a head coach that's gonna be
better at these sort of situations. But on Night one,
with one decision, he made a mistake and yeah, Peyton
Manning on the Manning Cast, I didn't see this at
the time because I'm prepping for our Monday night show where.

Speaker 2 (33:56):
Fielding on getting ready to go.

Speaker 3 (33:58):
Hinge text for me.

Speaker 1 (33:58):
That I missed until after, but I saw him and yeah,
like he was screaming and yelling before it even happened
that you have to kick it out of bounds. You
have to kick it out of bounds, not even through
the end zone. Just just make sure to do it.
And they did not, and so lesson learned. But great
job and a great moment there.

Speaker 4 (34:17):
Man.

Speaker 1 (34:17):
Kevin O'Connell just seems like he would be a fun
coach to play for it, and they always have great
moments in the locker room. I saw this, and I
just figure, if we're talking O'Connell. Let's get his postgame
locker room into the show.

Speaker 5 (34:28):
Not if this.

Speaker 6 (34:29):
Happens, this feeling that we have right now does not
happen without one other guy, all right, did not go away.
Any of us wanted this guy, all right. I could
tell from the jump he was poised. He was poised.
But this guy didn't quit me. And you always thought
he would figure it out. Two pasting touchdowns and a
Russian touchdown, all this.

Speaker 1 (34:50):
Stuff entered JJ o ocar losing his ever loving mind
and everyone.

Speaker 2 (35:04):
Just so fired up about it.

Speaker 1 (35:05):
I like it though, because Kevin O'Connell is so long winded,
and you know, game recognizes his game.

Speaker 2 (35:10):
It took him like four minutes to even get.

Speaker 1 (35:13):
To the big JJ McCarthy finish, but you could tell
he was saving it all up for JJ McCarthy last.
And you did see the true enjoyment of all the
teammates happy for JJ, and in that.

Speaker 3 (35:24):
Moment, yeah, it was cool.

Speaker 4 (35:26):
And Kevin was like living and dying with every single
play that was happening. And you could see after JJ
McCarthy ran in that touchdown, Kevin O'Connell, I thought a
vein in his neck week and a burst. They zoomed
in on him celebrating on the sideline as if he
had been the one to run in the touchdown. It's

(35:46):
like former quarterback trying to be the guy for this
young quarterback that Kevin never had. He's been open about that,
and I just think, man, we ran through the range
of emotions for each team throughout that game.

Speaker 3 (35:58):
That was a classic.

Speaker 2 (35:59):
In my mind, He's.

Speaker 1 (36:00):
Had so many quarterbacks, but this is the first one
that's like, that's his, Yeah, that's his, it's his long
term and this is there can only be like one
first game, you know, And so I think you're absolutely right.
It was a little extra and he's all about the
quarterbacks and fixing the mistakes that he must believe that
the Patriots and Jets made back in the day with
him when they had total total lack of faith at

(36:22):
him and they cut him pretty quickly after making him
a third round pick behind Tom Brady and Matt Castle.

Speaker 2 (36:28):
I mean, that was a tough situation.

Speaker 1 (36:29):
Let's wrap up very quickly with one that we went
and checked back in the Omen committee decided, actually, bad
omens can happen all the way back in training camp.
It was some sound from Mike McDaniel, that was really
capped off during Week one.

Speaker 2 (36:48):
But this is this is back in training camp. Let's listen.

Speaker 5 (36:50):
Good morning, false, great morning, let's go.

Speaker 2 (36:58):
Because of another day closer to death.

Speaker 1 (37:03):
I don't know why that would make it a great morning,
Mike McDaniel, being one closer to death unless you're like
really into the afterlife. Maybe he's a man of faith,
that's possible. But yeah, that seemed to bounce around your
head when we were thinking about this week one and
what could be kind of a season long death of
the twenty twenty five Miami Dolphins. From a football side

(37:27):
of it, I think it's that first drive. I think
it was the fourth play of the game, or so
to a tongue of Iloa throws an interception over Tyreek
Hill's head and they're miscommunication. This was nothing more than
just missing a pass that Tua just sailed into the
waiting arms of a Colts defender and it just felt

(37:50):
like a bad moment. I mean, it was a great
interception celebration, so I enjoyed that by cam bineam, But yes,
that was a silver line. It was just like, feels
like this whole off season has been a bad omen
for the Dolphins.

Speaker 4 (38:03):
Yeah, an omen of your in a rumaissance too that
you've been talking up. But I would say that that
clip has stuck in my head because I do know
Mike McDaniel to be sort of a dark humor kind
of guy, a sarcastic guy, a dry humor like sort
of one liner guy as well. But in that one,
he did not look like he was having any fun

(38:24):
with it at all, and a little bit a little
it just has stuck in my head, and I'm like, oh, interesting,
oh man, but why would that be a good day?

Speaker 2 (38:33):
You know, I know it's been.

Speaker 4 (38:34):
The well, it's like a nihilistic sort of sense of humor,
except it's just like ooh.

Speaker 3 (38:40):
But also, you might have a year we will.

Speaker 2 (38:42):
Be released from all this pain that I'm in now
before I'm just back to like calling plays for the
twenty twenty six Green Bay Packers or something.

Speaker 4 (38:53):
Someone my colleague at the athletic Ted Wind goes, wait
hear me out, twenty twenty six Detroit Lions offensive coordinator
might be right.

Speaker 1 (39:00):
Every everyone you know is gonna have their Dolphins jokes
and to start the game that way, for Xavi and
Howard to be in the mix on a lot of
these plays and say he gave some help knowing their
playbook the former Dolphin. It just it's what you just
don't want out of week one, which is all the

(39:22):
negativity that they've had around them the whole offseason. Within
literally a fraction of place, we talked about the first
drive by Tyler Warren and like a new day starting
with Indianapolis, and the total opposite was happening on the
other side, which is like, wait, this is like last
year but totally even worse. Maybe they turn around in
week two and we're wrong and that it's not a

(39:43):
bad omen omen season is now officially over. What a
ride it was, it was, it was great. I want
to take a quick break. I do want to tell
everyone listening. You know, you'll hear some hats. We'll pay
the bills, but right on the other side of the break,
you do not want to miss what Patrick claibon has

(40:05):
cooking for us. I don't know what it is exactly,
but he sent in a two minute long voice memo
that I'm just ready for so that that's going to
come up right after the break.

Speaker 8 (40:28):
A new NFL season means a new chance to see
promos for a new run of episodic crime dramas. Do
we think today's NFL Daily Crew can spot the reel
among the fake? Let's give them some options. Number one
Crime Line features Gerald Hickson, a sarcastic detective with a
keen eye for details, navigating the organized crime scene near

(40:48):
the Port of Seattle, Washington, all while continuing a decade's
old search for a sister that went missing in his childhood.
Number two ten to four features nine one one operator
and beleaguered former officer Shaw Johnson, who, despite efforts to
clear his own name, elects to take matters into his
own hands to provide victims with their chance at his

(41:09):
own brand of justice. Number three Sheriff Country features Mickey Fox,
a straight shooting sheriff in the small rural town of Edgewater, California.
She must balance the demands of law enforcement with the
complexities of motherhood, community politics, and a past that won't
stay buried. Number four FBI New Organs from award winner

(41:33):
Dick Wolf and the team behind FBI and Law and Order.
FBI New Organs is a high stakes drama focusing on
the trainees at Quantico who are thrust into service after
a sleeper cell is revealed the operating within the United
States government. Those are your options. One of them is real?

Speaker 2 (41:50):
Oh, which one is it? Greg?

Speaker 3 (41:53):
Which one?

Speaker 1 (41:56):
My favorite thing about this is he wanted to just
play this game off air the other day and we
didn't have time, and that he got to use his
great voiceover skills. This, This is amazing. It is one
of my favorite parts of the new NFL season seeing
what the new shows are on CBS and Fox and
not quite believing them. Okay, I'm gonna do the process

(42:18):
of elimination. You can try to assist me here however
you want, or you just completely disagree. FBI new origins
with the Quantico sleeper cell that had a little Claybond
flair to it, and that's so I'm eliminating.

Speaker 3 (42:31):
Okay, So because of your knowledge of Patrick.

Speaker 1 (42:34):
It just it almost felt, Yeah, that one felt a
little too tongue in cheek for me. So I'm going
to eliminate that one. That leaves us with three, and honestly,
they all work equally to me. There is something about
Share of Country.

Speaker 3 (42:54):
That just hits a lot of demographics.

Speaker 1 (42:56):
Greg a female shaff balancing work, being a mom and
a pass that won't stay buried. I can just I
can just feel that in the pitch meeting, the nine
to one to one operator going vigilantes is insane, but
just insane that it might be real.

Speaker 3 (43:12):
It is just like one shots of him driving a
van around everywhere.

Speaker 2 (43:16):
For some reason.

Speaker 1 (43:17):
It was the name and crime line which he decided
to use, Gerald Hickson, which I didn't buy. We're gonna
go Gerald Hickson, I don't think so, the detective looking
for his sister, among other things.

Speaker 2 (43:27):
I am going Sheriff Country.

Speaker 4 (43:29):
As guests, So you're guessing sharriff.

Speaker 2 (43:31):
I'm going Sheriff Country.

Speaker 3 (43:32):
I'm gonna go FBI New Origins.

Speaker 2 (43:34):
Oh my, that's insane, you might do you know the answer?

Speaker 3 (43:38):
No, I don't know that.

Speaker 1 (43:38):
There's no way FBI New Origins is the answer. I
don't know who is on a microphone back there. Maybe
it's Quab, maybe it's Eric. Please tell us what is
the answer.

Speaker 7 (43:49):
So we're gonna go with Greg's guest because Claybon sent
me two separate audio files, a right answer and a
wrong answer, so we'll go with We might just play
both just so you can hear more.

Speaker 2 (43:57):
Patrick.

Speaker 7 (43:57):
So we'll go with Sheriff Country. Yes's answer, and here
you go.

Speaker 8 (44:02):
Great job team. You're a crack team of investigators who
not only pay attention to the game on the field,
but the promotional materials that make football so much fun.
Let's go if you see something, watch something, see you
on Wednesday.

Speaker 7 (44:16):
And then, of course I mean again, just to get
some more Patrick Claiborne on the show, Here's the Wrong file.

Speaker 8 (44:21):
Oh no, unfortunately that answer is incorrect. It's important to
remember that despite the fast paced action of NFL football,
as well as the demands of facilitating one of the
top football podcasts on the planet, we still need to
pay attention to the promotional materials to make football so
much fun. Remember if you see something, watch something, see

(44:43):
you on Wednesday.

Speaker 2 (44:45):
I love you, Patrick, You're a beauty.

Speaker 1 (44:48):
And I got to say, after getting just wiped out
in my picks against Cynthia on this show against you
Patrick on game debut, it all doesn't matter because I
nailed this. I feel so good about myself after getting
the Sheriff Country.

Speaker 2 (45:04):
I had no previous.

Speaker 4 (45:05):
Knowledge Sheriff Country. Like the internal struggle of what is
it law? Motherhood and a pass that won't stay buried?

Speaker 2 (45:15):
You thought you thought you could get me Patrick that
that makes me happier than almost anything that's happened to
me today.

Speaker 1 (45:21):
So that says a lot about means. Let's talk about
Thursday Night Football. What a week two? I know, Thursday
Night Football game technically the first Thursday Night football game
because the first game is counted as a kickoff and
they let NBC do it because it's part of the
television practice, you know, package, So it's not the first
Thursday Night football game. And I think that's why they

(45:42):
gave maybe the best, certainly one of the best games
on the TNF schedule to Prime video. Right here, Commanders
at Packers. The Packers are favored by three and a half,
and we will have Al Michaels and Kirk Herbstreet on
the call. Man just start anywhere, but two of the

(46:02):
most dominant teams in week one.

Speaker 2 (46:04):
I was just curious.

Speaker 1 (46:05):
I know, DVOA means absolutely almost nothing after week one,
but I was like, I bet they'll be two of
the hiring teams. They got to be, and they were.
They were number one and number three. The Commanders were
tops and the Packers were number three.

Speaker 2 (46:18):
I was surprised.

Speaker 1 (46:18):
The Commanders were so good, and then I realized, like
that offense was incredibly efficient last week, and the defense
did whatever they wanted.

Speaker 4 (46:25):
Well, it was incredibly efficient. They were a little loose
at times. I'm really curious to see what this is
going to look like against this Jeff Hafley Green Bay
Packers defense that looked really, really good against the Detroit
Lions to open the season this past week. Like you know,
Jayde and Daniels, I have no doubt that this is
just week one, getting you know, getting to the line
of scrimmage, getting the you know, all the timing right,

(46:47):
a couple of penalties, a couple overthrows especially, you know,
he and Terry McLaurin are still kind of getting their
feet under them as a connection, you know, after Terry
missed so much a training camp. Deebo Samuel was used
a lot, but this offense at times just a little bit.
And yeah, Giants defense, the defensive front was was stout
and all of that, but just looked a little bit
just loose, and I don't expect we'll see that moving forward.

(47:10):
I think this is when they really start to turn
it on. This is when you start to see the
commanders as the Commanders that we know them to be.
But I am very curious to see what the strategy
and what the plan is going to be for this
Packers defense now featuring Micah Parsons. I don't know if
you guys have heard the name recently.

Speaker 1 (47:27):
Right, I mean, it's a great test for the Commanders.
But you know, watching that game back, I thought the
Giants line played really well, and that just to me
gives great credit to the Commanders, who ultimately, like were
one of the most efficient running teams in the NFL.
They had a million penalties and that's yeah.

Speaker 3 (47:49):
That's what I'm talking about. Just a little loose at times,
but on.

Speaker 1 (47:52):
A per play basis, they just kept getting out of,
you know, problematic situations. And Laramie Tunsel was awesome in
that game. He really did a good job. Like it's
the reason you sign him. Josh Connelly I thought was solid.
I actually thought he competed really well, like in tough
matchups like you're going against Dexter Lawrence. For the most part,

(48:12):
they ran the ball, like how they ended up with
over two hundred rushing yards, Like what more do you
want there? And then for the most part, I thought
Jayden Daniels was protected well, like the couple times that
he got sacked, it felt like it was a little
bit more of him, like being too far back in
the pocket and said holding onto the ball. And he
said that after the game, he said, two of the
three sacks were on me and.

Speaker 3 (48:32):
Some of that it's Brian Burns.

Speaker 4 (48:33):
They were sort of in this like one on one
battle at certain times during the you know, during a
couple of these quarters where Brian Burns would get to
him and then Jade and Daniels would flush out and
then run by Brian Burns. And at one point he
stared him down as he was running by him, after
Brian Burns had gotten two sacks on him. And so
I just think that this is like you know that
was week one. It's sort of a flush out. Yes,

(48:54):
this is when we're going to actually see the full
powers of the commanders because, like I said again, Terry
mcl was not super involved.

Speaker 3 (49:01):
He will be moving forward Deebo.

Speaker 4 (49:02):
The plan for Deebo, I think stays like this was
a really solid, versatile, multiple plan for him. And then
their run game looked great. Bill who was getting like
Bill Ny the science guy. Chance you could hear over
the broadcast, you know, and has like massive media scrumbs
around his locker every day because the legend of Bill grows.
It's a fun group. They're still doing everything that they

(49:25):
did last year with the tight ends zach Ertz and
John Baits, Zackertz being the red zone threat, John Bates
being that sort of backside blocker and the run blocker
that they need, you know, Greg, I actually also think though,
so I thought Jordan Love played amazing. I thought he
had an incredible game for the Packers against Detroit, and
I am really interested to see what the Commander's defense

(49:47):
looks like against a competent offense, because the Commander's defense
looked really improved in every phase. Linebackers were already good,
but in every phase upfront they looked bigger. They were
stopping the run well. Giants could not move the.

Speaker 3 (50:01):
Ball at all.

Speaker 4 (50:02):
All pressure points of Russell Wilson's pocket were being affected,
whether it's the interior, the exterior. They couldn't do anything.
And yes, that's part of it. They were missing Andrew
Thomas and it's the Giants and they just are struggling
to be cohesive on offense.

Speaker 3 (50:16):
That's part of it.

Speaker 4 (50:17):
But this Commander's defense, like legitimately and truly looked like
an improved group.

Speaker 1 (50:23):
I totally agree, and I think that is the bigger test,
Like is the Washington defense that improved or was it
just about the opposition because they just could not have
had a better week one in terms of their offseason moves,
which I questioned, like Javon Kinla had one of the
best games I think of his entire career. Marshawn Lattimore,
you know, he's going up against Malik Neighbors for a
lot of that game, had a couple penalties, but he

(50:43):
looked faster, he looked healthier.

Speaker 2 (50:45):
They've been talking about Jeremy Reeves.

Speaker 1 (50:47):
He's always been this great special teamer, now actually playing
at safety. And you mentioned like the pass rush as
a group I think was effective overall. But now they're
going up against the Packers offensive line, which normally is great.
But Zach Tom got hurt in that game. Aaron Banks,
their big free agent signing, got hurt in that game
when Tom was knocked out. They actually brought in Darien Canard,

(51:09):
who they just signed or just traded for rather from
Philadelphia instead of one of their young players, Anthony Belton,
who got a couple snaps, but basically, you know, if
you're counting on potentially two backups there for the Packers starting,
that's at least on the table against this improved group.
Von Miller was really the only one who was pretty quiet.

(51:29):
But I think you made a great point that as
a group, they really worked well and looked disciplined. And
I think it's going to be a really big test
because we just saw Dan Quinn coach up one of
the most consistent defenses in the league three straight years
before coaching up one of the worst defense in the
league last year. So there is a lot of reason
to believe that with this talent that they could be

(51:49):
a lot better this year.

Speaker 4 (51:50):
Yeah, it looked like a part to whole defense like
last year. I think where we got really excited, and
I think rightfully so, is with the play of Bobby
Wagner and Frankie Luvu. Those guys pop, and they were
had to be by nature of how the defense was,
but also they were all over the field and they
really flashed, and Frankie Luvu was getting sent on every
kind of pressure you could ever imagine and having to cover,

(52:11):
and Bobby Wagner was getting sent on pressure and having
to help stop the run because they couldn't do it
up front. And so but this this looks more like
like a functional, full picture of what it's supposed to
look like when it's not necessarily like you have one
position group that has to do everything. It's everybody has
to do a piece of something. That's what this group

(52:33):
looked way more like. And yes, again caveat week one,
caveat Giants offense, but in terms of being where they
needed to be, being, you know, rushing as one group,
rushing as a part to hole, like I said, and
playing the run as a part to hole, to me
it looked really positive.

Speaker 1 (52:48):
Yeah, and obviously this will be a much bigger challenge
than you mentioned. Jordan Love, and to me, we're kind
of seeing the old Jordan Love in that game. And
by old I mean like when you first came into
the league.

Speaker 3 (52:57):
Well, on's back on quarterback Island.

Speaker 2 (52:59):
Yeah, where it's just a lot of great throws.

Speaker 1 (53:02):
That first touchdown to Tucker Craft there was such a
little window there. Oh, it was such a good the
bomb to Romeo Dobbs that Dobbs dropped, but it was
an unreal throw that. The bomb to Jaden Reid was
all fantastic, but ultimately like he didn't throw the ball
that much. And he did almost gift wrap an interception

(53:22):
on a play where he freaked out a little bit
to Alex Angeloni and held onto the ball and he
did literally throw a pick six which was a great
play by Brian Branch and it was called back by penalty,
but the penalty had nothing to do with the play.
And so it's something I've tracked with him on PFF,
especially like when he first came in the league, he
had the highest percentage of big time throws, the highest

(53:44):
percentage of turnover worthy plays. I thought last year he
really rained both back in where we didn't see as
many high highs or as many low lows. And this
game was kind of back to being like gunslinger love
and it'll be interesting to see that against this I
think improved Commander's defense with Amos and Igbinoghany was making
plays Like there's a lot of good players if you
just add them up, they just didn't play well together

(54:06):
last year.

Speaker 4 (54:06):
Yeah, Tom Brady, who could not say Igbinogany's last name.
It's a tough one to save his life. But this
is going to be interesting because I have to think
that we see flashes of this obviously, and we certainly
saw it last year too, But I think Matt Lafleur
gets the tight ends a lot more involved with the
linebackers in conflict, and I think you see more Matthew
Gold in this game too, and some of those gadget
types of things that really again stressed the second layer.

(54:28):
The best players on the field still are those linebackers
for the commanders, and so to put the guys who
they're so you know, basically controlling traffic at any given point,
to put them in conflict with a lot of motions,
a lot of using different players out of their traditional position,
putting them in sort of these hybrid roles. I think
we're going to see a little bit more of that

(54:48):
and we'll see how it goes. And on the other side,
Jeff Haffley is starting to cook a little bit.

Speaker 1 (54:52):
I think, well he's got Edrian Cooper. I want you
to talk about him in a second. But it's really
interesting because I think people looked at that first Jayden
and Daniels game and thought he was like a little off, like,
you know, I missed a few throws by a little bit,
and he.

Speaker 4 (55:06):
Did miss that's fair, but it's two touchdown. I'm not
I'm the biggest Jade Daniels fan there is. He missed
too what would have been touchdowns that he's going to
hit at any other point in the season.

Speaker 1 (55:15):
Right and in one of them's Terry McLaurin, and like,
he missed those throws. But I thought it was a
good game from Jaden Daniels because I think you could
already start to see which is crazy, the year one
to two growth.

Speaker 2 (55:27):
The game just seems so slow for him.

Speaker 1 (55:28):
Yeah, our friend Ali Connelly was funny about like hunting matchups,
and I really see it in the Lamar and Lamar
is the right confer him ultimately in terms of like
the way they're running their offense and the way the
run I think sets up the rest of the running game,
the way the run sets up the past. But when
he is moving around, scrambling, trying to manipulate the defense
to open up holes, the game is so slow for him,

(55:52):
and he just seems so mature beyond his years that
that that's really exciting. And that's the type of thing
Jeff athlete can't really plan for no one can and
that beats like good plans.

Speaker 4 (56:04):
Yeah, and it's gonna be really interesting because you do
have obviously there's Michael Parsons, who we expect his his
workload to increase a little bit. Dan Quinn says his
plan would be if he were coaching Michael Parsons, to.

Speaker 3 (56:14):
Rest him, to sit him.

Speaker 4 (56:15):
So obviously a little you know, mindgate mind warfare there
shooting across the across the country there. But I think
that it's funny because like Jaden Daniels has no fear.
I think Michael Parsons is going is a player. Obviously
you circle on the defensive plan, but like he has
no fear. I gotta I want people to go back
and watch that play again where he racees Brian Burns

(56:37):
around to the edge and then runs by him. He's
staring him in the eyes like it was so like
veteran quarterback, Like it was so I'm not afraid of you,
even though you just took me down twice, Like it
was such a cool play that you know, you have
guys like Micah Parsons, you have Edrin Cooper, who is
one of the best young players on that defense. In fact,

(56:59):
Micah Parsons was telling the reporters in Green Bay that
he drafted him in his IDP fantasy league. WHOA, yeah,
my colleague Mat Schneideman captured some great sound and some
great comments from Micah Parsons today because he said he
edgenern Cooper scored thirty six points for him in IDP Fantasy.

(57:19):
Because Micah Parsons like couldn't draft himself, so he's like
looking for a player to draft and picks up Cooper
And it's true. I mean, he's one of the bright
young players on this defense. He's an outstanding player.

Speaker 3 (57:29):
You watch him.

Speaker 4 (57:30):
There's a play this last game where he sheds, he
reads and sheds emotion like so perfectly to where he's
helping force the play wide. They wanted to cut up
field at a certain point and he helps force the
entire play wide and it's all read and react and
like shedding unnecessary like garbage shoot stuff that he doesn't
that's trying to throw him off his timing and still

(57:52):
making the play like it's he It's incredible. It's going
to be so fun watching those two guys.

Speaker 2 (57:56):
Play together and how they help. You know, the people
around on them.

Speaker 1 (58:00):
I think they can leave kway Walker in a more
just like point and shoot type of role instead of
asking him to do too much because Edrin Cooper is
now doing more that now Lucas Fannas is finally rushing
more from the interior, which which makes more sense in
part because Parsons is there.

Speaker 2 (58:15):
It is all like really setting up.

Speaker 1 (58:16):
I think the matchup in the slot, if there's one
guy to pick on with the Packers, it's probably their
slot defender Jevon Bullard, And so that's the matchup with Deebo,
who played a lot in the slot, or zach Ertz
who still is getting it done. And man, Deebo's first
week just made that look like Wow, as long as
he stays healthy, which is a big if. The way

(58:37):
they used him on like the deep overs and in
real ways that I got to end around. I think
they kind of said stop doing in Kyle, you know,
with in San Francisco a little bit, they'd stopped having
him be a real wide receiver and they used them
both ways. I think Cliff had a couple special running
plays with Daniels and Debo in the red zone that
we're exciting. This is gonna be an awesome game three
and a half points. You picked Thursday night or Friday

(59:00):
night rather really well. Last week you picked the Chargers
to upset the Chiefs. So who do you got this time?

Speaker 3 (59:06):
I got the Packers this time?

Speaker 2 (59:07):
I do as well.

Speaker 1 (59:08):
Although I would, you know, if I was into that
sort of thing, and I can't be because I work
for the NFL, I would what I call thread the needle,
which is I would still take the Commander three and
a half points at this point in the season where
I think these are two good teams and we don't
know that much about either one of them, I would
just take free points, and I would take the free points,
but I would take the Packers to win. Fun see

(59:29):
you next Tuesday show. I know the trick is, though
I won't see you next Tuesday, I'll see you tomorrow Wednesday,
and then i'll see you Sunday.

Speaker 3 (59:38):
And yeah, you haven't gotten sick of me yet, Greg,
just a little.

Speaker 2 (59:42):
Not at all.

Speaker 1 (59:43):
The show is just peaking because we have Jordan Rodrigue
and her Harold fan in season. You know, good omen
for this podcast. She's just dominating in a variety of roles.
Just something to keep an eye on Tomorrow. We love
the previous show, our favor show of the week at
least for me, and we wanted to expand it really

(01:00:05):
and be able to talk about every team even more.
So you'll see that in your feed tomorrow in a
couple shows, but you will get every single team covered,
every single game and even more preview action.

Speaker 2 (01:00:16):
So we are really excited about that.

Speaker 1 (01:00:18):
And you can also check us out of course on
YouTube and the NFL channel, Fast channel, free over whatever
it is television.

Speaker 2 (01:00:28):
That's it. I need to go to sleep, No, we
need to get ready for the previous show.

Speaker 3 (01:00:32):
Omen season is over, Open season.

Speaker 1 (01:00:34):
Is over, but football is back. We were I was
gonna stop saying that, but you said me

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Gregg Rosenthal

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