NFL Network Insiders Tom Pelissero, Ian Rapoport, Judy Battista, and Mike Garafolo discuss the immediate and long term ramifications of Daniel Jones's Achilles injury.
Then they dissect the Texans dominant defensive performances against the Chiefs on SNF, before Judy gives her read of Matt LaFleur’s terse postgame handshake with Ben Johnson.
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Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:01):
Happy Monday everyone, and welcome inside with the Insiders alongside
Mike Garifullo, Judy Mattista and Ian Rappaport.
Speaker 2 (00:10):
I am Tom Pelicero.
Speaker 3 (00:12):
Whether you are.
Speaker 1 (00:12):
Catching us on the podcast, on YouTube, on the NFL channel,
on fast streaming platforms, wherever you are, we appreciate you
being with us. As we do every Monday, we will
get into all the results, all the fallout from Sunday's games,
and in a week like this, there's really nothing that
could possibly be bigger than a starting quarterback who, at
(00:35):
times this season we have seen play at a borderline
MVP level on a team in the thick of the
playoff chase being lost for the season. Ian, I'll start
with you. Daniel Jones goes down. It was one of
those situations. As much as people were trying to find
on the tape and exactly where the injury occurred, his
reaction alone, pounding his helmet into the turf made abundantly
(00:58):
clear how serious this was. Daniel Jones knew it, The
team knew it. Everyone in the stadium ever watching it
home knew it. Daniel Jones out for the season with
a torn achilles, which raises all kinds of questions now
about where he and the Colts go.
Speaker 4 (01:13):
For me, yeah, it's basically everything bad. I mean, you
know there there certainly are some injuries this late in
the season where you know, even if you see a
player who's you know, an important player go down, you
could say like, oh, okay, well, you know it's it's
an unfortunate injury.
Speaker 3 (01:28):
His offseason is going to be bad.
Speaker 4 (01:29):
But you know, the team's five and whatever, they'll probably
be okay.
Speaker 3 (01:34):
This is not that.
Speaker 4 (01:34):
This is like one of the best players on one
of the best teams, who's been one of the best stories.
He's a great dude, and he is out for the
season with a torn achilles You're right, I mean it
was obvious from when it happened. You could literally see it.
He grabs his achilles and slams his helmet and you know,
had an mrid this morning that confirmed. But by then,
I mean everyone had known for hours what the reality is,
(01:56):
and he knew. I was texted with him this morning.
He was very clear about what happened, what his future holds,
and all that the Colts now will go forward.
Speaker 3 (02:06):
What's that that's good?
Speaker 5 (02:07):
What else you say?
Speaker 4 (02:09):
I mean, some stuff is for public, some stuff is
for private. But I would say he very much knew
the reality of his season being over, that this is
part of life in the NFL, and there's basically nothing
he can do about it but try to look forward
to the future, which I do think he now is
a bright future with the Indianapolis Colts. But they go
forward with Riley Leonard who is a third stringer and
(02:33):
hasn't has looked okay, sunder but hasn't done very much.
And you know, Daniel Jones just speaking specifically, and you
guys can get into, you know, the macro of the Colts,
but Daniel Jones is someone of the Colts want to
bring back. They would have to do it, probably on
the franchise tag, and then try to work out a
long term deal. Achilles tears can be nine to twelve
(02:53):
months recovery. If you go nine months from yesterday, that's
like September seventh, so right up against the start of
the season and assuming everything goes perfectly, so you do
face the possibility of him not being ready for the
twenty twenty sixth season.
Speaker 3 (03:07):
It's all I.
Speaker 1 (03:07):
Would have to tag him ian Not to get you
off the trade of thought here, But realistically, I mean,
we've seen it quarterbacks coming off. Achille Staars, Aaron Rodgers
wasn't the same early on, Kirk Cousins was plainly not
the same guy. Daniel Jones is younger than either of
those players, But would the Colts need to franchise tag him,
especially if we're talking about whether or not this guy's
(03:28):
even going to be able to play football next September.
Speaker 3 (03:30):
Great question, And what I will bring up is.
Speaker 4 (03:36):
The Minnesota Vikings, right like the Minnesota Vikings last year
had a couple of quarterbacks who you know they.
Speaker 3 (03:43):
Probably probably could have kept.
Speaker 4 (03:46):
I mean, obviously, Sam Darnold went to the Seahawks, Daniel
Jones went to the Indianapolis Colts, and you say like, well,
you know, look, let one go, you probably negotiate with
the other. You'll probably get one back. They got back neither.
If they could do it again, I have no doubt
they would have just franchised Sam Darnold and dealt with
the fall up.
Speaker 3 (04:04):
But they would have had a guy.
Speaker 4 (04:06):
And I think when in doubt, if you're an NFL
team in need of a starting quarterback, if you have
to get a guy, make sure you get a guy.
And so like Daniel Jones going to make more than
forty million dollars next year, I would say, based in
this performance, probably, so make sure above all else you.
Speaker 3 (04:25):
Get a guy and to me, like nothing else matters.
That is what I say.
Speaker 6 (04:31):
Judy, Well, first of all, I feel terrible for him.
The timing could hardly be. I mean, I can't imagine
anything worse than suffering an Achilles tair of all injuries,
going into free agency the worst. And there's so many
questions about the Colts too, if I mean, you know,
not to be a Debbie downer here, but it seems
(04:51):
it's hard to imagine them getting into the playoffs now.
They've been sliding anyway, and obviously losing your starting quarterback
is devastating. So if they missed the playoffs, does everybody survive?
Does the front office survive? Don't forget we have Carly Orsa.
Gordon is going into her first full off season as
(05:14):
the owner, so you don't know how she's going to
approach this, right, you know, I think we had a
pretty good handle on how Jim Orsey approached off seasons,
but you don't know how she's going to approach this.
So those are all questions she's going to have to
answer and make decisions on does the general manager return,
(05:37):
does the head coach return, how does she want to
handle the Daniel Jones situation. All of that's unknown. We
don't have a track record to look back on. It's
just it's devastating. I feel so terrible for him. I
feel terrible for the team. But just man, he's he's
a good guy. In his career, has obviously had some
ups and downs, and he had resurrected it. It's really
(05:59):
fun to watch Jim be successful with the culture and
it just, man, it's stunt to watch that. Yesterday, Mike,
let's talk.
Speaker 5 (06:07):
About Riley Leonard.
Speaker 7 (06:08):
Uh and Tom. You put out your your scouting report
yesterday on him, and it seemed like it was a
you know, a long term project kind of a guy
development So developmental gets thrown into a situation like that
and you go, Okay, well this is not gonna be
Riley Leonard played really well yesterday and didn't catch a break.
There were a couple of penalties that negated I think
one thing in the gate is a touchdown if I'm
(06:30):
recalling correctly. Another one maybe a first down that they
needed a key first down and like a third and
six that he threw when he had picked up and
a penalty brought it back a legal shift or legal
formation or something like that. He had a drop ball
to a key drop ball that I remember, So I
know how it can be when this kind of injury
happens in game, especially to a guy who's so beloved
like Daniel Jones is. You're licking your wounds. You're kind
(06:54):
of down in the moment.
Speaker 5 (06:56):
Guy, get out of that.
Speaker 7 (06:57):
Got to now step up and realize that your guy
played well and you're going to have to pick him
up because now other teams are going to get a
chance to sort of game plan against them and scout
him up a bit and throw things at him, and
now he's going to have to adjust with and if
he makes plays and he makes throws, you're still it's
not looking great, especially with how good the Texans and
Jaguars are looking right now. But you're still in the
(07:18):
thinking of this. And dude made plays yesterday and you
didn't deliver for him. So got to pick up Riley
Leonard the rest of the way.
Speaker 4 (07:24):
And just Tom and I'm sure you want to get
into this, but it doesn't seem like Anthony Richardson as
unless I'm crazy, doesn't seem like he's close or on
the cusp of returning well.
Speaker 2 (07:34):
And even if he is, he hasn't had reps in months.
Speaker 3 (07:38):
Yeah, and he is a player who.
Speaker 1 (07:41):
I mean, go down the short list here, and no
comparisons are perfect, But when I think Trey Lance, Anthony Richardson,
JJ McCarthy right now, they all fall into the same category,
which is guys with a ton of talent who have
been hurt so much or had so many different things
happened in their career that they've never actually been able
to work on the things that they need to work on.
Speaker 2 (08:00):
I saw quotes.
Speaker 1 (08:01):
Today from Riley Leonard talking about how valuable the scout
team reps were.
Speaker 2 (08:05):
I think it was from Steven Holder.
Speaker 1 (08:07):
About how he's going up against the first team defense
every day in practice and so all of a sudden,
you're finding out all these things.
Speaker 2 (08:14):
But what you can and.
Speaker 1 (08:15):
Can't do at the NFL level. I mean, I'll pull
up just a couple of the quotes from anonymous people
about Riley Leonard pre draft.
Speaker 2 (08:23):
He's the day three developmental guy that you want to get.
He's very raw.
Speaker 1 (08:26):
Coming from a place like Duke and Notre Dame, you'd
think he'd be more polished. He's like a big athlete
that is still physically developing, and this is the first
time he's ever played in an offense where there are
reads and progressions. There was another quote that said, let
me find the correct one here. He sees it decent.
He has physical ability, he can throw it, he can run,
he's big. He just can't throw a ball in the
(08:48):
fie notion. So there are things that he needed to
work out. But when you think about the way that
they built that offense, one of Anthony Richardson and Daniel
Jones have in common. They're both big athletes. Richardson's bigger,
but dno Jones is a big guys, big who you
were willing to expose as a runner. Maybe there's things
that Shane Steiken has cooked up, even from the Anthony
(09:08):
Richardson playbook, in terms of designed runs, options, keepers and
things like that that you weren't running recently, especially with
Daniel Jones playing with a fracture in his other leg,
that now maybe you can apply more. With Riley Leonard,
we had a number of other injuries. We got a
top of other things to get to in this show.
But you had several quarterbacks come out yesterday. You had
Gino Smith who had a cut on his hand and
(09:30):
then a minute or two later he suffered a right
shoulder injury.
Speaker 2 (09:34):
The Raiders are bad.
Speaker 1 (09:35):
They actually put on a pretty competent performance yesterday against
the team in the mix for the number one seed
with Denver. I don't know that it matters much, but
we'll see what direction they decided to go. Tyrod Taylor
gets knocked out of that game once again. Tyrod is
his snake bit and as any quarterback, every time he
has his opportunity, he gets banged up. And then you
had what I would only describe Mike as an unqualified
(09:56):
disaster for the Commanders in Minnesota. You put Jayden Daniels
out there, like a month after he dislocates his left elbow.
He gets, in almost cartoonish fashion, up ended and dropped
directly onto the elbow on a pick six because he
gets blocked and flies and hits it. I know dan
(10:17):
Quin said he could have gone back in, but this
is exactly the stuff you're talking about.
Speaker 2 (10:20):
Do you just bubble wrap him now?
Speaker 1 (10:21):
Do you put him back in, and then zach Ertz,
after Daniels is out in a meaningless game, suffers what
looks to be not just the torn acl but it
looks like a major knee injury. That if zach Ertz
wants to continue a really good career in twenty twenty six,
he's got a long road ahead.
Speaker 7 (10:37):
Yeah, for all the good vibes of last year for
the Washington Commanders, they are now back to even par
and they're going to have to take a hard look
at a lot of positions on the roster, maybe even
positions on the coaching staff as well. You saw Dan
Quinn takeover play calling a couple of weeks ago from
Joe Witt. This is going to be a transformative year
for the Commanders.
Speaker 5 (10:56):
Which is not what you want, Like you want the
build to be like that.
Speaker 7 (11:00):
It's not a it's not always a clean one. There
will be a little bit of but this is like
up and then back down and then like where do
we go from here? Especially for a guy who we
talked about it coming in with slight and was going
to take some pounding in the NFL and did a
good job of getting the football out quickly. Moving away
from from hits last year, and playing on an offense
that was humming last year as well, that helps you
not take hits as well.
Speaker 5 (11:21):
This is yeah, and they've they've.
Speaker 7 (11:24):
Got RG three, okay, in the middle of the game,
putting out a video saying this guy shouldn't play anymore.
And it's like, Okay, that's a little too on the
nose right now for what the commanders need.
Speaker 5 (11:35):
So yeah, it's Uhlan.
Speaker 2 (11:39):
By the way, it's not coming for I was thinking
that was just very clear. That's not a sound effect.
Judy just lives on a busy street.
Speaker 5 (11:49):
You all know.
Speaker 7 (11:51):
I was going to make that transition, and then I said, Noah,
maybe I should.
Speaker 5 (11:53):
Just not joke about injuries anyway.
Speaker 3 (11:56):
I don't funny about it.
Speaker 1 (11:57):
But it's I mean, it just it's felt like that
type year. You got one of the oldest, if not
the oldest roster in the NFL, and you've got a
quarterback who's naturally like one hundred and eighty pound dude.
For everything that went right last year, it feels like
everything Mike has just gone wrong.
Speaker 7 (12:10):
Yeah, and it's going to be They were busy two
years ago when it came to free agency and trades
and everything they were doing.
Speaker 5 (12:15):
I think we're going to see that kind of an
off season again. There's going to be a big makeover
in Washington.
Speaker 6 (12:19):
You better get much younger. That would be my first thought,
Like time to get ma huch younger on that team. Listen,
everything broke their way last year at these things have
a way of sort of getting back to the middle somehow.
This has been a dramatic recalibration for the Commanders, and
an unfortunate one. I am very curious to see. I mean,
(12:42):
he is apparently on the media schedule for this week,
so that certainly suggests he is going to play this
week if we're reading the tea leaves correctly. I don't
know what the right decision is. He's a young player
who needs to play. But man, I agree, when you
saw him land directly on the you're like, I mean,
I imagine that he's.
Speaker 1 (13:03):
Five ft off horizontal and comes down on his elbow.
I mean, everybody saw the Looney Tunes highlight reel of
the hits he took in college, like that that felt
like it.
Speaker 2 (13:14):
I mean, it's just again worst case scenario.
Speaker 1 (13:17):
I don't I don't buy necessarily in like the comparisons
like you, Mike brought up RG three where it was
you know, you go back in time and should RG
three have been playing?
Speaker 2 (13:26):
He wanted to play.
Speaker 1 (13:27):
He always remember that with guys when they're on the field. Here,
this just felt like one of the odds that exact
thing is going to happen. I mean, it's as likely
as Aaron Rodgers falling on his left wrist. You hope
it doesn't happen, but if it does, the outcomes gonna
be bad.
Speaker 3 (13:40):
Yeah, But I would say also at some.
Speaker 4 (13:42):
Point, and it's not a Jayden Daniel's problem, but it
does seem to be a young quarterback problem in general.
Speaker 3 (13:47):
Like what is he doing he throws an interception? You
know you're injured. You got to get out of the way.
Like what's he gonna do?
Speaker 4 (13:54):
Track him down and dive like you know what I mean,
Like at some point some of these guys got to
protect them and so maybe this will do it.
Speaker 3 (14:03):
But I would make two points one.
Speaker 4 (14:06):
He was fully cleared. He's not at risk of re injuring.
He actually the worst thing happened and he didn't seem
to reinjure it. That is a good sign players play.
He needs to get better the team needs to get better.
For all the talk of defensive coordinator, which it sounds
like they'll have a new one next year. Probably their
offense isn't bad also, so like I don't know if
(14:28):
they're going to take a look at Cliff Kingsbury, but
like the offense is bad, and a lot of the players,
the older players you brought into kind of be the
final pieces look unfortunately like a lot of older players,
or they're injured, like Austin Eckler, And you know, it was.
Speaker 3 (14:44):
A lot that they did this past year. Everything seems
to have gone wrong.
Speaker 4 (14:48):
They also, you know, and I don't know, this needs
to be like a full deep dive into the Commanders
brought in a lot of guys who other locker rooms
were kind of like, eh, we're good without like debo,
like Lara mc tunsel, you know, a couple other examples.
You know, it's just I don't know that they thought
(15:08):
about all the different parts when you put together a team.
And so I would say reimagining where they're going as
a team will be important for twenty twenty six, because
twenty twenty five is pretty much over.
Speaker 2 (15:21):
More from the insiders.
Speaker 1 (15:22):
After this, we ended up talking a lot more about
the Commanders than I was planning on off the top
of the show. But I was thinking about this last night,
and when you look at the standings now we've got
essentially three weeks to go, and think about the teams
that are currently not in the playoff pictures start on
the NFC side. The Commanders have the second worst record
(15:45):
in the entire conference.
Speaker 2 (15:46):
They are in the mix.
Speaker 1 (15:47):
We'll talk more about a liber They're literally in the
mix to get the number one pick a year after
they were in the NFC Championship game. You have the
Vikings won fourteen games last year. They are five and
eight and need the miracle of all mirrors for things
to fall in place, even after they shut out the
Commanders yesterday. The Lions, who have been a sexy team
for a couple of years and have been in the playoffs,
(16:08):
would be out if the playoffs began today. Then you
get to the AFC side of things.
Speaker 2 (16:14):
The Bengals.
Speaker 1 (16:15):
There's a lot of different explanations for it, but I
don't think anybody coming into the season would have had
them at four to nine, especially after the way that
they finished. You've got the Ravens would be out today.
The Colts, who now don't have their quarterback, would be
out if the playoffs began today. And then, Judy, you
have the case of the Kansas City Chiefs, who right
now are six and seven. Don't say it, Ian, they
(16:35):
are six and seven. Their team that had won I believe,
eight consecutive AFC West titles.
Speaker 2 (16:42):
They've been to the conference championship.
Speaker 1 (16:44):
Game almost every every year with Patrick Malmes, and had
been to the playoffs, been to the Super Bowl five
times and won three of them. This is as close
to a dynasty as you get in the NFL. And
last night watching them against the Texans, Judy, it is
as if the wheels.
Speaker 2 (17:01):
Have come off the whole thing.
Speaker 1 (17:02):
How many times have we talked about the Chiefs and
the biggest moments they just make the place. They didn't
make any of them in that game. And that's precisely
why now they're in this wild position of they would
need to not just win out, but get help just
to sneak into the field. And right now, as much
as we always say keep the Chiefs out, you don't
want to face them, I don't know that anybody fears
(17:24):
the team that we saw last night.
Speaker 6 (17:25):
You no, last night I thought was a microcosm of
everything that has happened this season, including like Harrison Buker
who never used to miss and now this season has
been missing and he missed right, They were dropping passes.
That's something we've seen the last two seasons. That was
happening last year too, But all season, from the very beginning,
(17:46):
we kept saying, well, when the offense gets whole, you know,
when people come back from injury, when they come back
from suspension in some cases, like when they get hole,
it'll be fine. And it was never fine. And then
you know, the play, the decision to go for it
on fourth down in the tie game, deep in their
own territory as just a disaster. And Andy said it
(18:08):
almost immediately that that was a mistake. I should have
done it, like everything went wrong, and you're right. You
still think like, all right, they got Patrick Mahomes right,
like he's going to cover up everything, Like he can't
cover up everything, he can't come over. Actually, when you
really knew things were about to go completely off the
rails was one step into the game, when an offensive
(18:28):
line that is already decimated by injuries. Then that was
just so like you've got to be kidding. I believe
Mike Tarico actually said that out loud, Are you kidding?
Like it was he had just gotten done summarizing the
injuries to the offensive line, and then there's another, a
terrible injury in front of us. It was, I mean,
that is that is the fall this year that I
(18:49):
certainly did not see coming. And I certainly, even if
you thought maybe they were starting to decline, I never
thought it would be this dramatic. And they'd missed the playoffs,
but wow, last night was a dumpster fire.
Speaker 2 (19:01):
Yeah.
Speaker 3 (19:03):
So I think a couple of things.
Speaker 4 (19:04):
One like the offensive line was so beat up, but
like actually played okay, they really did.
Speaker 2 (19:10):
Like the guy who stepped in was good. You didn't
see him the whole time.
Speaker 4 (19:14):
Right, there were so yeah, I mean, and they dicterally
did a nice the broadcast obviously very good, but they
did a nice thing on the broadcast of.
Speaker 3 (19:22):
Being like, all right, here's who this guy is. He
was an undrafted free agent. He went to like this school.
Speaker 5 (19:28):
You know.
Speaker 4 (19:28):
It was funny because I was like, you know, we
cover a lot of players, and I was like, I'm
not quite familiar with his work.
Speaker 1 (19:35):
Never a good sign when to read the Wikipedia page
on the broadcast to just be like, right, so this
guy played at this college. That's usually a sign that
was not someone you were you were counting on, right.
Speaker 5 (19:45):
It was I.
Speaker 3 (19:46):
I enjoyed that. I enjoyed that greatly.
Speaker 4 (19:48):
One thing about the Chiefs is all of their best
players struggled. Mahomes had like eight, like eight passes in
a row incomplete, Rashi Rice.
Speaker 3 (19:57):
Had at least two drops that were key.
Speaker 4 (20:00):
Kelsey had a bad drop although honestly it should have
had it but like a tough pass kind of behind
him with the defender on Imke.
Speaker 3 (20:07):
But the failings weren't offensive line. It was literally all
of their best players dropping passes.
Speaker 4 (20:12):
And the other thing I would say is, yes, like
the Chiefs are probably gonna miss the playoffs and just
had a bad season and practice, especially with all your
best players, matters.
Speaker 3 (20:23):
But the Texans are so overwhelmingly.
Speaker 4 (20:26):
Oppressive and physical, and like I just I don't know
how absolutely good they like can they win the Super Bowl?
Like I have no idea, But that is the best
defense I've seen in a number of years. Like, they
are awesome and we'll see how far they can go.
Speaker 5 (20:43):
Mike, I think this year's Super Bowl winner.
Speaker 7 (20:47):
I don't know who it's gonna be, but it's gonna
be somebody where you look back and you go, Okay,
that defense wins champions types thing. I guess it started
a little bit with the Eagles last year, but that
was an offensive jugger, not that team for the entire season.
I think you're gonna have a super It could be
the Broncos, could be the Texans.
Speaker 5 (21:04):
Yeah, he Go's got a really good defense. If they
somehow get there, it will be because of the defense.
I just I think this is the year that.
Speaker 7 (21:12):
And I haven't seen anything about scoring or or whatnot,
because I'm guessing scoring is down.
Speaker 5 (21:20):
I haven't looked at the numbers. Judy. Maybe you're on
top of that, haven't.
Speaker 6 (21:24):
Since we haven't heard of scoring is up, I'm assuming
that means it's down.
Speaker 5 (21:27):
And yes, just like you never hear when the ratings
are down, right, it's alwayshen the ratings are great, that
we hear about it.
Speaker 2 (21:35):
We just came out fifteen.
Speaker 7 (21:40):
Go Insiders podcast has to be up to by the way,
I'm sure gotta be everything, everything sky high, more people
in the world, more eyeballs, got to be it.
Speaker 5 (21:49):
People like football, people like that could you not like
us wasting their time.
Speaker 4 (22:01):
No, if you're listening to this podcast, you're obviously not
doing anything else.
Speaker 3 (22:04):
It's not like you're like, I gotta get this is
an hour podcast. You're in it for the long Well,
you can deal with a little bit of rape.
Speaker 5 (22:09):
We're talking to you, guy or gal. But no, I
looked at it. So the Texans have I look this day, Uh,
the Cardinals and the Raiders at home. The next two weeks,
the Jaguars have the Jets and somebody. It's a tough game.
Maybe Seattle. They play Seattle, yet I think they played Seattleyway.
It's a tough game.
Speaker 7 (22:27):
So I'm looking at the Texans being in first place
in the AFC South for a team that started what
zero to three, they really have. Demico Right's done a
great job of getting that team to buy in to
believe they're playing great defense and they're built Like the
way they're built on defense makes sense too.
Speaker 5 (22:42):
They got a lot of veterans up front.
Speaker 7 (22:43):
They lost one in Tim Settle who was playing well,
but they've got a lot of guys both up to them.
Like Mahomes likes to escape in the front of the pocket,
couldn't do that on a number of occasions.
Speaker 5 (22:51):
Last night they did a great job of just collapsing in.
Speaker 2 (22:53):
They're really really.
Speaker 3 (22:54):
Why Josh Allen struggled against them.
Speaker 4 (22:56):
I was just thinking that because like the Bengals, it
was like every it was like basically between the garden
tackle that was all of his runs and like.
Speaker 7 (23:04):
A can not do it.
Speaker 1 (23:06):
The mark of the best teams, certainly, but also coaches
is always in my mind, it's are you getting better
down the stretch? You know, September is great, winning game
September is fine, but it's are you peaking at the
right time. The Texans are doing that. We've seen it
before with Demico Ryans, and the Packers are doing that
as well. We came into the season with sky high
expectations because they went so far out of character Mike
(23:29):
and made the Micah Parsons trade and gave up the
draft capital that they did, it's looked as the missing piece.
They went through a two game losing streak, not three
or four, a two game losing streak, and there was
a week where the conversation and the questions to Matt
Leafleur were about coaching for his job, and you know,
(23:49):
is he in trouble and his contrasts up in a year,
they're four and oh since, which I would say, tongue
in cheek like I say, I guess he should have
been coaching for his job sooner. They were gunn by
injuries at that time. Then you watch them, Mike in
the game yesterday against the Bears, all of a sudden,
Christian Watson's back, it looks phenomenal.
Speaker 2 (24:07):
Jayden Reid's back out there. Guess what when you.
Speaker 1 (24:10):
Cover all the five guys you know their names, Bow
Melton gets open on a post.
Speaker 2 (24:14):
You know there's no other Tucker Craft in that group.
Speaker 6 (24:16):
But what do you know?
Speaker 2 (24:17):
The offense is getting better, the defense is really good.
Speaker 1 (24:20):
I know you can make argument for some of these
other teams, but I don't want to face the Packers
in January, Mike.
Speaker 5 (24:26):
I don't, and I especially don't want to have to
go there.
Speaker 7 (24:28):
I mean, you saw the conditions yesterday, you saw how
cold it was, and look, maybe we're maybe we're talking
a different tune to day if Keishawn Nixon didn't adjust
and the understanding is that it was not his guy
on that game winning touchdown, and that his guy was
DJ Moore.
Speaker 5 (24:45):
I know people said it's the same look.
Speaker 7 (24:48):
That the Bears ran against the Eagles for a touchdown
late in that game.
Speaker 5 (24:52):
It was a similar look.
Speaker 7 (24:54):
It was not Dj Moore this time curled back into
the backfield. I don't know it was a blown assignment
by him or whatever, but he kind of sort of
doubled back.
Speaker 5 (25:03):
And if he had come across and maybe kept.
Speaker 7 (25:05):
Nixon honest, he wouldn't have peeled off to cover Comet,
who was supposed to be covered by I forget who,
but that person went to the flat to cover DeAndre Swift,
so he may have been wide open. We may be
talking about this a completely different conversation right here. Point being,
I give the Bears credit for hanging in there. They
could have rolled over and played dead when it was
fourteen three.
Speaker 5 (25:24):
They hung in there.
Speaker 7 (25:26):
I cannot wait for what this rivalry still has to come.
I don't read too much into the handshake. I mean,
I hope a lot of people thought, but it was,
you know whatever, It's not the worst I've ever seen.
Jim Harbo and Jim Schwartz is the worst I've ever seen.
Speaker 2 (25:38):
Its best.
Speaker 6 (25:39):
To me, I was impressed by the Bears. I mean,
not taking any Packers looked great. I was impressed by
that the Bears hung in there and that they were
I mean, in it at the very end and could
have won the game despite you know, the tailor pad moments.
He certainly had moments when he would be rolling to
(25:59):
his right and throwing Darty. Those look run that play
all the time. That looked awesome. So I actually came
away thinking like, Oh, the Bears are going to be something,
and they're clearly a team on the rise, and this
is just the first year they're going to I assume
they are not going to collapse. I assume they will
be in the playoffs. I liked what I saw from
the Bears. I read a lot into handshakes. I love
(26:22):
handshake analysis. It was so cursory.
Speaker 5 (26:28):
It was like a.
Speaker 6 (26:29):
Belichick Mangenie handshake where they barely look at each other,
they barely make contact. Was great. I cannot wait for
the remation, however many weeks.
Speaker 4 (26:39):
It is so our buddy Albert Breer did a little
bit of a breakdown kind of on the Packers Bears game,
and in there he quotes what Ben Johnson says to
Matt Lafleur leaving like the handshakes.
Speaker 3 (26:55):
So the angle we saw on TV was Lafleur basically.
Speaker 4 (27:00):
Saying like all right, like a good game, or like
all right, and then apparently Ben Johnson says see you
in two weeks, which.
Speaker 5 (27:08):
Like, yeah, well that's that's the schedule.
Speaker 3 (27:11):
No, but but also like all right, like I'll see
it in No. I'm just saying like I don't know.
Speaker 5 (27:18):
I uh.
Speaker 4 (27:20):
My takeaway from this one is I think the Packers
are really good, which is not much of a takeaway.
And Jordan Love I think should probably get some MVP conversation.
He is playing at an exceptionally high level in one
of the NFL's best teams. I don't know why he
doesn't get as much love. But my main takeaway from
this is the Packers added to their defense in the
offseason and that all seems like money well spent. They
(27:44):
are awesome, and the fact that they made the biggest.
Speaker 8 (27:46):
Play with the game on the line for a player
who needed to be coached very well to become very
good at his position in Keishawn Nixon, I thought it
was all perfect and they are going to be a
force going down the stretched out all right.
Speaker 2 (28:00):
If you're watching on the NFL channel on YouTube.
Speaker 1 (28:03):
Stay right here. More of the show coming up. If
you're on the podcast, Hey, there's a part two of
the podcast. We'll get into the Rams and Seahawks, both
with blowout type of wins yesterday. We'll talk Josh Allen,
we'll talk about Shudor Sanders. Also Judy's winners and losers
from the weekend. So for Mike, Ian and Judy, we'll
see you over there.
Happy Monday everyone, and welcome inside with the Insiders alongside
Mike Garifullo, Judy Mattista and Ian Rappaport.
Speaker 2 (00:10):
I am Tom Pelicero.
Speaker 3 (00:12):
Whether you are.
Speaker 1 (00:12):
Catching us on the podcast, on YouTube, on the NFL channel,
on fast streaming platforms, wherever you are, we appreciate you
being with us. As we do every Monday, we will
get into all the results, all the fallout from Sunday's games,
and in a week like this, there's really nothing that
could possibly be bigger than a starting quarterback who, at
(00:35):
times this season we have seen play at a borderline
MVP level on a team in the thick of the
playoff chase being lost for the season. Ian, I'll start
with you. Daniel Jones goes down. It was one of
those situations. As much as people were trying to find
on the tape and exactly where the injury occurred, his
reaction alone, pounding his helmet into the turf made abundantly
(00:58):
clear how serious this was. Daniel Jones knew it, The
team knew it. Everyone in the stadium ever watching it
home knew it. Daniel Jones out for the season with
a torn achilles, which raises all kinds of questions now
about where he and the Colts go.
Speaker 4 (01:13):
For me, yeah, it's basically everything bad. I mean, you
know there there certainly are some injuries this late in
the season where you know, even if you see a
player who's you know, an important player go down, you
could say like, oh, okay, well, you know it's it's
an unfortunate injury.
Speaker 3 (01:28):
His offseason is going to be bad.
Speaker 4 (01:29):
But you know, the team's five and whatever, they'll probably
be okay.
Speaker 3 (01:34):
This is not that.
Speaker 4 (01:34):
This is like one of the best players on one
of the best teams, who's been one of the best stories.
He's a great dude, and he is out for the
season with a torn achilles You're right, I mean it
was obvious from when it happened. You could literally see it.
He grabs his achilles and slams his helmet and you know,
had an mrid this morning that confirmed. But by then,
I mean everyone had known for hours what the reality is,
(01:56):
and he knew. I was texted with him this morning.
He was very clear about what happened, what his future holds,
and all that the Colts now will go forward.
Speaker 3 (02:06):
What's that that's good?
Speaker 5 (02:07):
What else you say?
Speaker 4 (02:09):
I mean, some stuff is for public, some stuff is
for private. But I would say he very much knew
the reality of his season being over, that this is
part of life in the NFL, and there's basically nothing
he can do about it but try to look forward
to the future, which I do think he now is
a bright future with the Indianapolis Colts. But they go
forward with Riley Leonard who is a third stringer and
(02:33):
hasn't has looked okay, sunder but hasn't done very much.
And you know, Daniel Jones just speaking specifically, and you
guys can get into, you know, the macro of the Colts,
but Daniel Jones is someone of the Colts want to
bring back. They would have to do it, probably on
the franchise tag, and then try to work out a
long term deal. Achilles tears can be nine to twelve
(02:53):
months recovery. If you go nine months from yesterday, that's
like September seventh, so right up against the start of
the season and assuming everything goes perfectly, so you do
face the possibility of him not being ready for the
twenty twenty sixth season.
Speaker 3 (03:07):
It's all I.
Speaker 1 (03:07):
Would have to tag him ian Not to get you
off the trade of thought here, But realistically, I mean,
we've seen it quarterbacks coming off. Achille Staars, Aaron Rodgers
wasn't the same early on, Kirk Cousins was plainly not
the same guy. Daniel Jones is younger than either of
those players, But would the Colts need to franchise tag him,
especially if we're talking about whether or not this guy's
(03:28):
even going to be able to play football next September.
Speaker 3 (03:30):
Great question, And what I will bring up is.
Speaker 4 (03:36):
The Minnesota Vikings, right like the Minnesota Vikings last year
had a couple of quarterbacks who you know they.
Speaker 3 (03:43):
Probably probably could have kept.
Speaker 4 (03:46):
I mean, obviously, Sam Darnold went to the Seahawks, Daniel
Jones went to the Indianapolis Colts, and you say like, well,
you know, look, let one go, you probably negotiate with
the other. You'll probably get one back. They got back neither.
If they could do it again, I have no doubt
they would have just franchised Sam Darnold and dealt with
the fall up.
Speaker 3 (04:04):
But they would have had a guy.
Speaker 4 (04:06):
And I think when in doubt, if you're an NFL
team in need of a starting quarterback, if you have
to get a guy, make sure you get a guy.
And so like Daniel Jones going to make more than
forty million dollars next year, I would say, based in
this performance, probably, so make sure above all else you.
Speaker 3 (04:25):
Get a guy and to me, like nothing else matters.
That is what I say.
Speaker 6 (04:31):
Judy, Well, first of all, I feel terrible for him.
The timing could hardly be. I mean, I can't imagine
anything worse than suffering an Achilles tair of all injuries,
going into free agency the worst. And there's so many
questions about the Colts too, if I mean, you know,
not to be a Debbie downer here, but it seems
(04:51):
it's hard to imagine them getting into the playoffs now.
They've been sliding anyway, and obviously losing your starting quarterback
is devastating. So if they missed the playoffs, does everybody survive?
Does the front office survive? Don't forget we have Carly Orsa.
Gordon is going into her first full off season as
(05:14):
the owner, so you don't know how she's going to
approach this, right, you know, I think we had a
pretty good handle on how Jim Orsey approached off seasons,
but you don't know how she's going to approach this.
So those are all questions she's going to have to
answer and make decisions on does the general manager return,
(05:37):
does the head coach return, how does she want to
handle the Daniel Jones situation. All of that's unknown. We
don't have a track record to look back on. It's
just it's devastating. I feel so terrible for him. I
feel terrible for the team. But just man, he's he's
a good guy. In his career, has obviously had some
ups and downs, and he had resurrected it. It's really
(05:59):
fun to watch Jim be successful with the culture and
it just, man, it's stunt to watch that. Yesterday, Mike,
let's talk.
Speaker 5 (06:07):
About Riley Leonard.
Speaker 7 (06:08):
Uh and Tom. You put out your your scouting report
yesterday on him, and it seemed like it was a
you know, a long term project kind of a guy
development So developmental gets thrown into a situation like that
and you go, Okay, well this is not gonna be
Riley Leonard played really well yesterday and didn't catch a break.
There were a couple of penalties that negated I think
one thing in the gate is a touchdown if I'm
(06:30):
recalling correctly. Another one maybe a first down that they
needed a key first down and like a third and
six that he threw when he had picked up and
a penalty brought it back a legal shift or legal
formation or something like that. He had a drop ball
to a key drop ball that I remember, So I
know how it can be when this kind of injury
happens in game, especially to a guy who's so beloved
like Daniel Jones is. You're licking your wounds. You're kind
(06:54):
of down in the moment.
Speaker 5 (06:56):
Guy, get out of that.
Speaker 7 (06:57):
Got to now step up and realize that your guy
played well and you're going to have to pick him
up because now other teams are going to get a
chance to sort of game plan against them and scout
him up a bit and throw things at him, and
now he's going to have to adjust with and if
he makes plays and he makes throws, you're still it's
not looking great, especially with how good the Texans and
Jaguars are looking right now. But you're still in the
(07:18):
thinking of this. And dude made plays yesterday and you
didn't deliver for him. So got to pick up Riley
Leonard the rest of the way.
Speaker 4 (07:24):
And just Tom and I'm sure you want to get
into this, but it doesn't seem like Anthony Richardson as
unless I'm crazy, doesn't seem like he's close or on
the cusp of returning well.
Speaker 2 (07:34):
And even if he is, he hasn't had reps in months.
Speaker 3 (07:38):
Yeah, and he is a player who.
Speaker 1 (07:41):
I mean, go down the short list here, and no
comparisons are perfect, But when I think Trey Lance, Anthony Richardson,
JJ McCarthy right now, they all fall into the same category,
which is guys with a ton of talent who have
been hurt so much or had so many different things
happened in their career that they've never actually been able
to work on the things that they need to work on.
Speaker 2 (08:00):
I saw quotes.
Speaker 1 (08:01):
Today from Riley Leonard talking about how valuable the scout
team reps were.
Speaker 2 (08:05):
I think it was from Steven Holder.
Speaker 1 (08:07):
About how he's going up against the first team defense
every day in practice and so all of a sudden,
you're finding out all these things.
Speaker 2 (08:14):
But what you can and.
Speaker 1 (08:15):
Can't do at the NFL level. I mean, I'll pull
up just a couple of the quotes from anonymous people
about Riley Leonard pre draft.
Speaker 2 (08:23):
He's the day three developmental guy that you want to get.
He's very raw.
Speaker 1 (08:26):
Coming from a place like Duke and Notre Dame, you'd
think he'd be more polished. He's like a big athlete
that is still physically developing, and this is the first
time he's ever played in an offense where there are
reads and progressions. There was another quote that said, let
me find the correct one here. He sees it decent.
He has physical ability, he can throw it, he can run,
he's big. He just can't throw a ball in the
(08:48):
fie notion. So there are things that he needed to
work out. But when you think about the way that
they built that offense, one of Anthony Richardson and Daniel
Jones have in common. They're both big athletes. Richardson's bigger,
but dno Jones is a big guys, big who you
were willing to expose as a runner. Maybe there's things
that Shane Steiken has cooked up, even from the Anthony
(09:08):
Richardson playbook, in terms of designed runs, options, keepers and
things like that that you weren't running recently, especially with
Daniel Jones playing with a fracture in his other leg,
that now maybe you can apply more. With Riley Leonard,
we had a number of other injuries. We got a
top of other things to get to in this show.
But you had several quarterbacks come out yesterday. You had
Gino Smith who had a cut on his hand and
(09:30):
then a minute or two later he suffered a right
shoulder injury.
Speaker 2 (09:34):
The Raiders are bad.
Speaker 1 (09:35):
They actually put on a pretty competent performance yesterday against
the team in the mix for the number one seed
with Denver. I don't know that it matters much, but
we'll see what direction they decided to go. Tyrod Taylor
gets knocked out of that game once again. Tyrod is
his snake bit and as any quarterback, every time he
has his opportunity, he gets banged up. And then you
had what I would only describe Mike as an unqualified
(09:56):
disaster for the Commanders in Minnesota. You put Jayden Daniels
out there, like a month after he dislocates his left elbow.
He gets, in almost cartoonish fashion, up ended and dropped
directly onto the elbow on a pick six because he
gets blocked and flies and hits it. I know dan
(10:17):
Quin said he could have gone back in, but this
is exactly the stuff you're talking about.
Speaker 2 (10:20):
Do you just bubble wrap him now?
Speaker 1 (10:21):
Do you put him back in, and then zach Ertz,
after Daniels is out in a meaningless game, suffers what
looks to be not just the torn acl but it
looks like a major knee injury. That if zach Ertz
wants to continue a really good career in twenty twenty six,
he's got a long road ahead.
Speaker 7 (10:37):
Yeah, for all the good vibes of last year for
the Washington Commanders, they are now back to even par
and they're going to have to take a hard look
at a lot of positions on the roster, maybe even
positions on the coaching staff as well. You saw Dan
Quinn takeover play calling a couple of weeks ago from
Joe Witt. This is going to be a transformative year
for the Commanders.
Speaker 5 (10:56):
Which is not what you want, Like you want the
build to be like that.
Speaker 7 (11:00):
It's not a it's not always a clean one. There
will be a little bit of but this is like
up and then back down and then like where do
we go from here? Especially for a guy who we
talked about it coming in with slight and was going
to take some pounding in the NFL and did a
good job of getting the football out quickly. Moving away
from from hits last year, and playing on an offense
that was humming last year as well, that helps you
not take hits as well.
Speaker 5 (11:21):
This is yeah, and they've they've.
Speaker 7 (11:24):
Got RG three, okay, in the middle of the game,
putting out a video saying this guy shouldn't play anymore.
And it's like, Okay, that's a little too on the
nose right now for what the commanders need.
Speaker 5 (11:35):
So yeah, it's Uhlan.
Speaker 2 (11:39):
By the way, it's not coming for I was thinking
that was just very clear. That's not a sound effect.
Judy just lives on a busy street.
Speaker 5 (11:49):
You all know.
Speaker 7 (11:51):
I was going to make that transition, and then I said, Noah,
maybe I should.
Speaker 5 (11:53):
Just not joke about injuries anyway.
Speaker 3 (11:56):
I don't funny about it.
Speaker 1 (11:57):
But it's I mean, it just it's felt like that
type year. You got one of the oldest, if not
the oldest roster in the NFL, and you've got a
quarterback who's naturally like one hundred and eighty pound dude.
For everything that went right last year, it feels like
everything Mike has just gone wrong.
Speaker 7 (12:10):
Yeah, and it's going to be They were busy two
years ago when it came to free agency and trades
and everything they were doing.
Speaker 5 (12:15):
I think we're going to see that kind of an
off season again. There's going to be a big makeover
in Washington.
Speaker 6 (12:19):
You better get much younger. That would be my first thought,
Like time to get ma huch younger on that team. Listen,
everything broke their way last year at these things have
a way of sort of getting back to the middle somehow.
This has been a dramatic recalibration for the Commanders, and
an unfortunate one. I am very curious to see. I mean,
(12:42):
he is apparently on the media schedule for this week,
so that certainly suggests he is going to play this
week if we're reading the tea leaves correctly. I don't
know what the right decision is. He's a young player
who needs to play. But man, I agree, when you
saw him land directly on the you're like, I mean,
I imagine that he's.
Speaker 1 (13:03):
Five ft off horizontal and comes down on his elbow.
I mean, everybody saw the Looney Tunes highlight reel of
the hits he took in college, like that that felt
like it.
Speaker 2 (13:14):
I mean, it's just again worst case scenario.
Speaker 1 (13:17):
I don't I don't buy necessarily in like the comparisons
like you, Mike brought up RG three where it was
you know, you go back in time and should RG
three have been playing?
Speaker 2 (13:26):
He wanted to play.
Speaker 1 (13:27):
He always remember that with guys when they're on the field. Here,
this just felt like one of the odds that exact
thing is going to happen. I mean, it's as likely
as Aaron Rodgers falling on his left wrist. You hope
it doesn't happen, but if it does, the outcomes gonna
be bad.
Speaker 3 (13:40):
Yeah, But I would say also at some.
Speaker 4 (13:42):
Point, and it's not a Jayden Daniel's problem, but it
does seem to be a young quarterback problem in general.
Speaker 3 (13:47):
Like what is he doing he throws an interception? You
know you're injured. You got to get out of the way.
Like what's he gonna do?
Speaker 4 (13:54):
Track him down and dive like you know what I mean,
Like at some point some of these guys got to
protect them and so maybe this will do it.
Speaker 3 (14:03):
But I would make two points one.
Speaker 4 (14:06):
He was fully cleared. He's not at risk of re injuring.
He actually the worst thing happened and he didn't seem
to reinjure it. That is a good sign players play.
He needs to get better the team needs to get better.
For all the talk of defensive coordinator, which it sounds
like they'll have a new one next year. Probably their
offense isn't bad also, so like I don't know if
(14:28):
they're going to take a look at Cliff Kingsbury, but
like the offense is bad, and a lot of the players,
the older players you brought into kind of be the
final pieces look unfortunately like a lot of older players,
or they're injured, like Austin Eckler, And you know, it was.
Speaker 3 (14:44):
A lot that they did this past year. Everything seems
to have gone wrong.
Speaker 4 (14:48):
They also, you know, and I don't know, this needs
to be like a full deep dive into the Commanders
brought in a lot of guys who other locker rooms
were kind of like, eh, we're good without like debo,
like Lara mc tunsel, you know, a couple other examples.
You know, it's just I don't know that they thought
(15:08):
about all the different parts when you put together a team.
And so I would say reimagining where they're going as
a team will be important for twenty twenty six, because
twenty twenty five is pretty much over.
Speaker 2 (15:21):
More from the insiders.
Speaker 1 (15:22):
After this, we ended up talking a lot more about
the Commanders than I was planning on off the top
of the show. But I was thinking about this last night,
and when you look at the standings now we've got
essentially three weeks to go, and think about the teams
that are currently not in the playoff pictures start on
the NFC side. The Commanders have the second worst record
(15:45):
in the entire conference.
Speaker 2 (15:46):
They are in the mix.
Speaker 1 (15:47):
We'll talk more about a liber They're literally in the
mix to get the number one pick a year after
they were in the NFC Championship game. You have the
Vikings won fourteen games last year. They are five and
eight and need the miracle of all mirrors for things
to fall in place, even after they shut out the
Commanders yesterday. The Lions, who have been a sexy team
for a couple of years and have been in the playoffs,
(16:08):
would be out if the playoffs began today. Then you
get to the AFC side of things.
Speaker 2 (16:14):
The Bengals.
Speaker 1 (16:15):
There's a lot of different explanations for it, but I
don't think anybody coming into the season would have had
them at four to nine, especially after the way that
they finished. You've got the Ravens would be out today.
The Colts, who now don't have their quarterback, would be
out if the playoffs began today. And then, Judy, you
have the case of the Kansas City Chiefs, who right
now are six and seven. Don't say it, Ian, they
(16:35):
are six and seven. Their team that had won I believe,
eight consecutive AFC West titles.
Speaker 2 (16:42):
They've been to the conference championship.
Speaker 1 (16:44):
Game almost every every year with Patrick Malmes, and had
been to the playoffs, been to the Super Bowl five
times and won three of them. This is as close
to a dynasty as you get in the NFL. And
last night watching them against the Texans, Judy, it is
as if the wheels.
Speaker 2 (17:01):
Have come off the whole thing.
Speaker 1 (17:02):
How many times have we talked about the Chiefs and
the biggest moments they just make the place. They didn't
make any of them in that game. And that's precisely
why now they're in this wild position of they would
need to not just win out, but get help just
to sneak into the field. And right now, as much
as we always say keep the Chiefs out, you don't
want to face them, I don't know that anybody fears
(17:24):
the team that we saw last night.
Speaker 6 (17:25):
You no, last night I thought was a microcosm of
everything that has happened this season, including like Harrison Buker
who never used to miss and now this season has
been missing and he missed right, They were dropping passes.
That's something we've seen the last two seasons. That was
happening last year too, But all season, from the very beginning,
(17:46):
we kept saying, well, when the offense gets whole, you know,
when people come back from injury, when they come back
from suspension in some cases, like when they get hole,
it'll be fine. And it was never fine. And then
you know, the play, the decision to go for it
on fourth down in the tie game, deep in their
own territory as just a disaster. And Andy said it
(18:08):
almost immediately that that was a mistake. I should have
done it, like everything went wrong, and you're right. You
still think like, all right, they got Patrick Mahomes right,
like he's going to cover up everything, Like he can't
cover up everything, he can't come over. Actually, when you
really knew things were about to go completely off the
rails was one step into the game, when an offensive
(18:28):
line that is already decimated by injuries. Then that was
just so like you've got to be kidding. I believe
Mike Tarico actually said that out loud, Are you kidding?
Like it was he had just gotten done summarizing the
injuries to the offensive line, and then there's another, a
terrible injury in front of us. It was, I mean,
that is that is the fall this year that I
(18:49):
certainly did not see coming. And I certainly, even if
you thought maybe they were starting to decline, I never
thought it would be this dramatic. And they'd missed the playoffs,
but wow, last night was a dumpster fire.
Speaker 2 (19:01):
Yeah.
Speaker 3 (19:03):
So I think a couple of things.
Speaker 4 (19:04):
One like the offensive line was so beat up, but
like actually played okay, they really did.
Speaker 2 (19:10):
Like the guy who stepped in was good. You didn't
see him the whole time.
Speaker 4 (19:14):
Right, there were so yeah, I mean, and they dicterally
did a nice the broadcast obviously very good, but they
did a nice thing on the broadcast of.
Speaker 3 (19:22):
Being like, all right, here's who this guy is. He
was an undrafted free agent. He went to like this school.
Speaker 5 (19:28):
You know.
Speaker 4 (19:28):
It was funny because I was like, you know, we
cover a lot of players, and I was like, I'm
not quite familiar with his work.
Speaker 1 (19:35):
Never a good sign when to read the Wikipedia page
on the broadcast to just be like, right, so this
guy played at this college. That's usually a sign that
was not someone you were you were counting on, right.
Speaker 5 (19:45):
It was I.
Speaker 3 (19:46):
I enjoyed that. I enjoyed that greatly.
Speaker 4 (19:48):
One thing about the Chiefs is all of their best
players struggled. Mahomes had like eight, like eight passes in
a row incomplete, Rashi Rice.
Speaker 3 (19:57):
Had at least two drops that were key.
Speaker 4 (20:00):
Kelsey had a bad drop although honestly it should have
had it but like a tough pass kind of behind
him with the defender on Imke.
Speaker 3 (20:07):
But the failings weren't offensive line. It was literally all
of their best players dropping passes.
Speaker 4 (20:12):
And the other thing I would say is, yes, like
the Chiefs are probably gonna miss the playoffs and just
had a bad season and practice, especially with all your
best players, matters.
Speaker 3 (20:23):
But the Texans are so overwhelmingly.
Speaker 4 (20:26):
Oppressive and physical, and like I just I don't know
how absolutely good they like can they win the Super Bowl?
Like I have no idea, But that is the best
defense I've seen in a number of years. Like, they
are awesome and we'll see how far they can go.
Speaker 5 (20:43):
Mike, I think this year's Super Bowl winner.
Speaker 7 (20:47):
I don't know who it's gonna be, but it's gonna
be somebody where you look back and you go, Okay,
that defense wins champions types thing. I guess it started
a little bit with the Eagles last year, but that
was an offensive jugger, not that team for the entire season.
I think you're gonna have a super It could be
the Broncos, could be the Texans.
Speaker 5 (21:04):
Yeah, he Go's got a really good defense. If they
somehow get there, it will be because of the defense.
I just I think this is the year that.
Speaker 7 (21:12):
And I haven't seen anything about scoring or or whatnot,
because I'm guessing scoring is down.
Speaker 5 (21:20):
I haven't looked at the numbers. Judy. Maybe you're on
top of that, haven't.
Speaker 6 (21:24):
Since we haven't heard of scoring is up, I'm assuming
that means it's down.
Speaker 5 (21:27):
And yes, just like you never hear when the ratings
are down, right, it's alwayshen the ratings are great, that
we hear about it.
Speaker 2 (21:35):
We just came out fifteen.
Speaker 7 (21:40):
Go Insiders podcast has to be up to by the way,
I'm sure gotta be everything, everything sky high, more people
in the world, more eyeballs, got to be it.
Speaker 5 (21:49):
People like football, people like that could you not like
us wasting their time.
Speaker 4 (22:01):
No, if you're listening to this podcast, you're obviously not
doing anything else.
Speaker 3 (22:04):
It's not like you're like, I gotta get this is
an hour podcast. You're in it for the long Well,
you can deal with a little bit of rape.
Speaker 5 (22:09):
We're talking to you, guy or gal. But no, I
looked at it. So the Texans have I look this day, Uh,
the Cardinals and the Raiders at home. The next two weeks,
the Jaguars have the Jets and somebody. It's a tough game.
Maybe Seattle. They play Seattle, yet I think they played Seattleyway.
It's a tough game.
Speaker 7 (22:27):
So I'm looking at the Texans being in first place
in the AFC South for a team that started what
zero to three, they really have. Demico Right's done a
great job of getting that team to buy in to
believe they're playing great defense and they're built Like the
way they're built on defense makes sense too.
Speaker 5 (22:42):
They got a lot of veterans up front.
Speaker 7 (22:43):
They lost one in Tim Settle who was playing well,
but they've got a lot of guys both up to them.
Like Mahomes likes to escape in the front of the pocket,
couldn't do that on a number of occasions.
Speaker 5 (22:51):
Last night they did a great job of just collapsing in.
Speaker 2 (22:53):
They're really really.
Speaker 3 (22:54):
Why Josh Allen struggled against them.
Speaker 4 (22:56):
I was just thinking that because like the Bengals, it
was like every it was like basically between the garden
tackle that was all of his runs and like.
Speaker 7 (23:04):
A can not do it.
Speaker 1 (23:06):
The mark of the best teams, certainly, but also coaches
is always in my mind, it's are you getting better
down the stretch? You know, September is great, winning game
September is fine, but it's are you peaking at the
right time. The Texans are doing that. We've seen it
before with Demico Ryans, and the Packers are doing that
as well. We came into the season with sky high
expectations because they went so far out of character Mike
(23:29):
and made the Micah Parsons trade and gave up the
draft capital that they did, it's looked as the missing piece.
They went through a two game losing streak, not three
or four, a two game losing streak, and there was
a week where the conversation and the questions to Matt
Leafleur were about coaching for his job, and you know,
(23:49):
is he in trouble and his contrasts up in a year,
they're four and oh since, which I would say, tongue
in cheek like I say, I guess he should have
been coaching for his job sooner. They were gunn by
injuries at that time. Then you watch them, Mike in
the game yesterday against the Bears, all of a sudden,
Christian Watson's back, it looks phenomenal.
Speaker 2 (24:07):
Jayden Reid's back out there. Guess what when you.
Speaker 1 (24:10):
Cover all the five guys you know their names, Bow
Melton gets open on a post.
Speaker 2 (24:14):
You know there's no other Tucker Craft in that group.
Speaker 6 (24:16):
But what do you know?
Speaker 2 (24:17):
The offense is getting better, the defense is really good.
Speaker 1 (24:20):
I know you can make argument for some of these
other teams, but I don't want to face the Packers
in January, Mike.
Speaker 5 (24:26):
I don't, and I especially don't want to have to
go there.
Speaker 7 (24:28):
I mean, you saw the conditions yesterday, you saw how
cold it was, and look, maybe we're maybe we're talking
a different tune to day if Keishawn Nixon didn't adjust
and the understanding is that it was not his guy
on that game winning touchdown, and that his guy was
DJ Moore.
Speaker 5 (24:45):
I know people said it's the same look.
Speaker 7 (24:48):
That the Bears ran against the Eagles for a touchdown
late in that game.
Speaker 5 (24:52):
It was a similar look.
Speaker 7 (24:54):
It was not Dj Moore this time curled back into
the backfield. I don't know it was a blown assignment
by him or whatever, but he kind of sort of
doubled back.
Speaker 5 (25:03):
And if he had come across and maybe kept.
Speaker 7 (25:05):
Nixon honest, he wouldn't have peeled off to cover Comet,
who was supposed to be covered by I forget who,
but that person went to the flat to cover DeAndre Swift,
so he may have been wide open. We may be
talking about this a completely different conversation right here. Point being,
I give the Bears credit for hanging in there. They
could have rolled over and played dead when it was
fourteen three.
Speaker 5 (25:24):
They hung in there.
Speaker 7 (25:26):
I cannot wait for what this rivalry still has to come.
I don't read too much into the handshake. I mean,
I hope a lot of people thought, but it was,
you know whatever, It's not the worst I've ever seen.
Jim Harbo and Jim Schwartz is the worst I've ever seen.
Speaker 2 (25:38):
Its best.
Speaker 6 (25:39):
To me, I was impressed by the Bears. I mean,
not taking any Packers looked great. I was impressed by
that the Bears hung in there and that they were
I mean, in it at the very end and could
have won the game despite you know, the tailor pad moments.
He certainly had moments when he would be rolling to
(25:59):
his right and throwing Darty. Those look run that play
all the time. That looked awesome. So I actually came
away thinking like, Oh, the Bears are going to be something,
and they're clearly a team on the rise, and this
is just the first year they're going to I assume
they are not going to collapse. I assume they will
be in the playoffs. I liked what I saw from
the Bears. I read a lot into handshakes. I love
(26:22):
handshake analysis. It was so cursory.
Speaker 5 (26:28):
It was like a.
Speaker 6 (26:29):
Belichick Mangenie handshake where they barely look at each other,
they barely make contact. Was great. I cannot wait for
the remation, however many weeks.
Speaker 4 (26:39):
It is so our buddy Albert Breer did a little
bit of a breakdown kind of on the Packers Bears game,
and in there he quotes what Ben Johnson says to
Matt Lafleur leaving like the handshakes.
Speaker 3 (26:55):
So the angle we saw on TV was Lafleur basically.
Speaker 4 (27:00):
Saying like all right, like a good game, or like
all right, and then apparently Ben Johnson says see you
in two weeks, which.
Speaker 5 (27:08):
Like, yeah, well that's that's the schedule.
Speaker 3 (27:11):
No, but but also like all right, like I'll see
it in No. I'm just saying like I don't know.
Speaker 5 (27:18):
I uh.
Speaker 4 (27:20):
My takeaway from this one is I think the Packers
are really good, which is not much of a takeaway.
And Jordan Love I think should probably get some MVP conversation.
He is playing at an exceptionally high level in one
of the NFL's best teams. I don't know why he
doesn't get as much love. But my main takeaway from
this is the Packers added to their defense in the
offseason and that all seems like money well spent. They
(27:44):
are awesome, and the fact that they made the biggest.
Speaker 8 (27:46):
Play with the game on the line for a player
who needed to be coached very well to become very
good at his position in Keishawn Nixon, I thought it
was all perfect and they are going to be a
force going down the stretched out all right.
Speaker 2 (28:00):
If you're watching on the NFL channel on YouTube.
Speaker 1 (28:03):
Stay right here. More of the show coming up. If
you're on the podcast, Hey, there's a part two of
the podcast. We'll get into the Rams and Seahawks, both
with blowout type of wins yesterday. We'll talk Josh Allen,
we'll talk about Shudor Sanders. Also Judy's winners and losers
from the weekend. So for Mike, Ian and Judy, we'll
see you over there.
Hosts And Creators
Judy Battista
Tom Pelissero
Ian Rapaport
Mike Garafolo
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