October 13, 2025 • 30 mins
NFL Network Insiders Ian Rapoport and Judy Battista react to the Titans firing HC Brian Callahan with Steve Wyche and Marc Ross joining the conversation to talk about what's next for the Titans. Ian and Judy also update you on the injuries to Fred Warner, Puka Nacua, talk about Baker Mayfield's latest heroic performace and discuss what the league could do in response to the fight between the Chiefs and Lions after the Sunday Night Football matchup.
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:01):
Welcome inside with the Insiders. I am I and Rappaport.
This is Judy Battista right over there joining us. Welcome
to a podcast version of what is usually a television
show and a bunch of other platforms. But today is Monday.
That means you get the podcast and it is a
busy day. It's going to be a busy show. We've
got Steve Weis joining us, we got Mark Ross joining us,
(00:24):
if Sarah Walsh joining us, who is just in London
for what was a game? As far as games go,
that was for sure one of them. But first we
want to start with the breaking news that we had
just minutes before this showing on the Tennessee Titans have
fired coach Brian Callahan. One in five start, four and
(00:46):
nineteen under Callahan. I think that size says it all.
Speaker 2 (00:53):
Judy yikes, Well, let's start with every in Tennessee has
to be about cam Ward's development, and I think the
last few weeks in particular have been yesterday it was
hard to watch. I mean, the offense is the worst
in the league. I think they're second to last and
(01:14):
scoring and you're not seeing progress. And so you know,
if you're if you're the Tennessee Titans, brass. You have
to you have to be thinking like do we have
confidence that this is the person we want to develop,
you know, the number one overall pick. It's everything has
to be about cam Ward and his future and his development.
(01:35):
Having said that, you know, I mean Brian Callahan, the
quarterbacks he's had to work with were Will Levis, Mason
Rudolphin now a rookie who's just getting his feet wet
in the NFL.
Speaker 3 (01:45):
It's it's hard to win a lot of games under
those conditions.
Speaker 2 (01:49):
And they have had a ton of turnover in Tennessee
as far as the brain trust.
Speaker 3 (01:55):
In less than two years.
Speaker 2 (01:57):
I mean, they have fired to general managers, fired two
head coaches. It's pretty ironic that Mike Rabel is the
next head coach they're going to be facing coming up here.
Speaker 1 (02:08):
So I guess, just well, actually, do you think do
you think the timing I've been trying to understand the time. Look,
I mean, the timing is bad. It's always bad. Hearing
Jeff Simmons come out and say it was a bad
week of practice. I was that put my intent up
this morning and be like all right, Like that's a
guy that ownership listens to. Do you think the Rabel
(02:28):
timing affected the Callahan timing?
Speaker 3 (02:32):
You know, I don't know.
Speaker 2 (02:32):
I mean, if you are concerned that you're going to
get embarrassed by the coach you fired, which is entirely
possible because the Patriots are on this kind of trajectory
right now, and so is Drake May going like this rapidly.
I mean, it's entirely possible they get embarrassed. Does that
prompt the action and you're hoping that the switch head
(02:54):
coach gives your team a little spark and lights a fire?
Speaker 3 (02:57):
I mean, maybe it's just.
Speaker 2 (03:00):
I mean, poor cam Ward, you know, like I just
keep remembering like Peyton Manning talking about how important continuity
in the offense and the offensive play caller was to
his development into.
Speaker 3 (03:12):
His entire career.
Speaker 2 (03:14):
And cam Ward's like, you know, like less than two
months into his NFL career and he's already going to
be on his second play caller, his second offensive guru.
It's it's rough for him. There's no good time for
any of this. But again, if the feeling in the
building among the brass was do we trust him to
develop cam Ward? Then you've got to make the change,
(03:36):
and I would agree with you when Jeffrey Simmons comes
out and basically says, you know, we're not.
Speaker 3 (03:41):
Prepared for the game. Woof.
Speaker 2 (03:44):
That's that is something that will catch ownership's attention quickly.
Speaker 1 (03:48):
That's alarming, you know. And I wouldn't be surprised there
are more changed. I mean, Bill Callahan is still on
the staff. Sure, hard to imagine he remains. Nicholes the
offensive coordinator is childhood for kind of Brian Callahan. Hard
to imagine he stays. So like, you know, wholesale changes
I think would make sense. Look, the reality is with
(04:10):
with Mike Borganzi and with Chad Brinker, the two respected
personnel guys, cam Ward as the former number one overall pick.
You know, look, they're going to be building. They need
better talent. This is a desirable job. They get first
crack at it. You know, we'll see at the end
of it, but this is a desirable job. But you know,
(04:31):
and there is precedent for a former top quarterback to
struggle mightily his first year and come in with a
really good coaches second year and hit the ground running
and do well. I know this because the Patriots are
playing the Titans next week and they are literally doing
the same thing. So we'll see which way this goes.
But you know, certainly for Tennessee, it was a matter
of when and not if, and the when decided to
(04:57):
be now, which is, you.
Speaker 3 (04:59):
Know, we've talked about this before.
Speaker 2 (05:00):
When coaches get fired in season in the NFL, We're like,
it's such a short season, does it really make a difference.
It's not like firing a coach in baseball, where you
have one hundred and sixty two games, and so firing
the manager maybe.
Speaker 3 (05:11):
Changes the course of the season.
Speaker 2 (05:14):
Except there's also the counter argument in the NFL is
once you've lost confidence in the coach, and once you're
not sure he's the guy who can take you into
the future, then just end it. It's better the country
losses now and get a start on evaluating everything, evaluating
the staff, evaluating the roster, and evaluating the field of
(05:35):
candidates you're going to have, Like, there's just.
Speaker 3 (05:39):
No point in continuing.
Speaker 2 (05:40):
If you know you're going to fire him at some
point after the season, then just save everybody the trouble,
end it now and get started on your search.
Speaker 1 (05:51):
I also hate to say like this because this is
not you know, not what you want at all, But
you know, if you look at some of the good teams. Now,
I mean, I don't know how good the Texans are,
but I think they will eventually be good. They actually
had a they actually had a similar trajectory. I mean
they were bad, fired a coach, drafted quarterback early, bad again,
(06:14):
loaded up on draft picks. You never want to be bad,
but you know, if you're gonna be bad, then you
might as well load up on draft picks. And that's
exactly what the Titans are looking at, being bad. Gonna
probably get another top draft pick this year, and this
is how you eventually be not bad. I see some
friends pop into the screen, so I guess it's time
(06:35):
to bring in Steve Wis and Mark Ross. You guys
have been listening to our expert analysis on this. I
don't know, maybe not so surprising firing Mark. I want
to start with you. You've been in these buildings before,
You've been part of these decisions. I assume you're not surprised.
What was your take on today's move?
Speaker 4 (06:54):
Yeah, not surprised at all. It was just a matter
of when, not if. With you know you're gonna if
you struggle, but at least show signs of life. And
I think you y'all have laid it out like the
team just looked terrible. You know, there was no hope.
That didn't look like Cam was getting better, looked like
he was getting work worse. When you have a veteran
like Jeffrey Simmons publicly saying that, I mean I always
(07:16):
joked about what all his teams losing, like we had
a great week of practice, but we lost. I've never
heard of player it say, actually our week of practice was.
Speaker 1 (07:24):
Bad, and especially that player who like they really listened.
Speaker 4 (07:28):
To Yeah, correct, you're correct, not some rookie or something.
I mean, this is your guy. So all that was
leading to the owners of course and those oders in Tennessee.
She's very involved and like this this is bad. We
have to do something different. And then also when I
saw some of his interviews with the media over the
past few weeks and how he was just so combative.
(07:50):
You've seen that kind of story play out before with
the Joe Judge. Let's just say, you ys go with
the Giants like it looked like things are going well,
then all of a sudden you start getting combative with yeah,
you know that. Oh boy, this is about it. Well, Mark, let's.
Speaker 5 (08:06):
Look at the bigger picture for the Titans. Right what's
happening next year. They're opening up this brand new stadium.
They're hoping, they were hoping that this first round quarterback,
this number is going to generate some positive momentum and
positive energy going into what happens when you do that,
and it's been a train wreck.
Speaker 1 (08:21):
It's been an absolute disaster.
Speaker 5 (08:24):
Now, let's look at a place like Washington, right which
was even more of an organizational disaster to what Tennessee is.
Right now, they get the right head coach, the right
front office, a rookie quarterback.
Speaker 3 (08:36):
Boom.
Speaker 5 (08:37):
Look at how good things have gone, Judy, you mentioned
Drake May and Mike Frabel, their former head coach goes
up to an organization that.
Speaker 4 (08:45):
Was a disaster last year.
Speaker 5 (08:47):
Their quarterback's playing great, they're in playoff contention, they're seeing
all of this stuff happen around them, and right now
they're stuck in quicksand they are awful.
Speaker 1 (08:57):
Ian.
Speaker 5 (08:58):
I think everything you said about Jeffrey Simmons coming out
and then we had a terrible week of practice isn't good.
Cam Ward A rookie talks about excuse my friends, and
I don't if we can say on the pocket.
Speaker 4 (09:07):
We asked what are we doing?
Speaker 5 (09:10):
I mean, it's terrible when you've got a rookie saying this,
this is all he knows of the NFL, and it's terrible.
This is a guy who came from Incarnate word right,
worked his way up to Miami. So he's been through
all the steps of what's good and bad, and so
he's seen this. So nothing is working in this organization.
I think they need to take a step back.
Speaker 3 (09:30):
And really.
Speaker 5 (09:32):
Again, maybe just blow the whole thing up and bringing
a GM and head coach at the same time. Because again,
Ian here, it's a desirable job, it's a great market,
they're opening a new stadium. The owner, Amy Adams Trunk,
seems like she's she's someone you'd want to work for.
But the roster, what is it? I mean, where's there's
(09:54):
no youth development, there's no veteran lead like, what is
it like? There's a whole lot of steps that need
to be conquered before they turn this thing around.
Speaker 4 (10:03):
Was going to back and jump in just on the
point you talked about you you never want to see
biple get fired. But you blowing it up and having
a GM and the head coach with the same vision
coming in together like Washington did. Washington had new ownership,
a new GM, and a new head coach, like, all right,
we're doing this together the vision, whether it's going to
be right or wrong, we're doing it together. What you've
seen in Tennessee is what first first shooter drop was
(10:26):
John Robinson? Okay? Then the head coach gets fired Vrabel okay.
Now Ran Carthon gets fired, and now head coach gets
fired again. So if this pick is wrong again, is
the GM going to get fired now? And then the
so where they going to get off this hamster wheel
of Okay, one or the other is going to get
fired as opposed to, Hey, we're all in this together.
This is our shared vision. Whether it works or not,
(10:49):
I think at some point you have to do that. Yeah.
Speaker 2 (10:53):
And this though, if I could just send this, if
you look at the New England example, right, they did
not really change the front office. They they kept the
front office intact. They hired the right coach right now.
Last year they had the wrong coach and things were bad.
They got the right coach, and you're seeing the development
of the quarterback. Like, so, if you are the Tennessee
(11:13):
Titans brass, you're looking at the Patriots and saying, do
you see how one right decision can turn the entire
thing and turn it quickly?
Speaker 3 (11:21):
Right? I mean, Drake Maye, we saw glimmers of this,
but I mean now, I mean.
Speaker 2 (11:25):
He's yeah, he's high. He's a top ten quarterback already.
Because you got you hired the right head coach.
Speaker 3 (11:32):
That is the key. I mean, they they got to
get it right, that's I mean, yeah, they have to
make it right. Can they get it right?
Speaker 4 (11:40):
Right? I think that's unique with the Rabel situation because
although they didn't come in with la Well, he's a Patriot,
so he came into you know, that's really they were
almost tied because he was that and he had proven
he look, I'm a winner, I can go do this.
I've proven how I'm one of the top coaches in
the league, and I'm a Patriot as well. So to me,
that almost felt like it was, hey, this is the
(12:02):
right fit for everyone.
Speaker 1 (12:04):
Yeah, Steve, I know you got to leave final thoughts
on where the Tennessee Titans go from here before we
say goodbout to you, well, I mean.
Speaker 5 (12:11):
Look, I think they need to find somebody who's accomplished,
you know, with with some skins on the wall. I
don't know any names right now, I could necessarily pull
out of a hat.
Speaker 1 (12:21):
You're probably gonna hear some crazy random ones.
Speaker 5 (12:25):
You might hear like con Eddie George right, who's at
Bowling Green, who played there.
Speaker 4 (12:28):
He'll probably get an interview.
Speaker 5 (12:29):
I would think maybe they bring him in just to
get his opinion because he knows organizationally. But I think
they've got to get somebody accomplished. Again, you're walking into
a new building, so there's going to be tremendous distraction
when you open up a new stadium and you've got
all this going, and you've got to have somebody who
can absorb it, right while also having a coach who
can get some good coordinators. I mean, Vrabel got Josh
(12:52):
McDaniels to go there, right, You've got to get good coordinators,
you know. Dan Quinn got Cliff Kingsbury to go there.
Cliff Kingsbury's going to be a name that I would
think that they would absolutely look at to see what
he did with Jayden Daniels, to see if maybe he
can do it with cam Ward, So I would think
he's somebody just kind of off the cuff who would
immediately be on the short list. I would think it'd
be an offensive minded head coach as well.
Speaker 1 (13:15):
How about Arthur Smith in the Tennessee Building, former head coach,
been through it didn't have a quarterback, I mean the
quarterback he had now is I think he's out of
the league.
Speaker 4 (13:24):
I don't know, but I.
Speaker 1 (13:25):
Mean that would be one to consider. All right, Steve
go away, Mark good night. We'll talk to you in
a little bit. Guys, thank you very much for breaking
this down.
Speaker 4 (13:34):
Good stuff. I like this.
Speaker 1 (13:36):
They just pop right out of there, all right. So yeah,
so Arthur Smith will be the first name I would match, Judy.
I want to get to some of the injuries. We
had a couple of big ones this week. Fred Warner,
the All Pro, the superstar linebacker for the forty nine ers,
ankle dislocated and fractured. They've been through a lot, they
(13:57):
really have. This one hurts.
Speaker 3 (14:00):
Uh.
Speaker 2 (14:01):
So I was watching that game yesterday when it happened,
and I just thought, like, how much more can this
team bear like they? Kyle Shanahan is a wizard that
he can keep things going and piece things together when
you're losing these but you've now lost your two best
not even two best defensive players.
Speaker 3 (14:18):
Your two best players are done for the year. And
this guy is.
Speaker 2 (14:25):
The heart of the team, right, I mean, he's he's
just one of the best players in the entire league.
Speaker 3 (14:32):
And to lose him and Nick.
Speaker 2 (14:34):
Bosa, I just wonder how much more that team can bear.
Even though you know they're going to get rock Birdie back.
You know you're you're you have offensive talent, but man,
they this feels like year after year that they just
absorbed body blow after body blow on the injury front,
and this just feels like it's it's going to be
(14:54):
hard to recover from this one.
Speaker 1 (14:56):
Yeah, and I don't you know, I don't know why.
I assume they're looking at it, but that's just just randomness.
But I mean, they got a lot of good players,
and a lot of them have been injured. Puka Naku
is another one. Sprained ankle. Sounds like his status is
in doubt for this Sunday against the Jaguars. Then they
have the buys. He's not going to miss I wouldn't
expect him to miss time after the bye, but at
(15:17):
least I would say, potentially one game for the Rams.
How big of a deal is this?
Speaker 2 (15:25):
Oh, I mean, look, he's one of the best receivers
in the league, first of all. I would just say
that when I saw this and I saw him grimacing
and grabbing the ankle, I thought it was going to
be much worse than sort of like a day to
day kind of thing. I thought, Oh, God, listen. I mean,
they have other weapons, and they obviously have a superior
quarterback and a very smart offensive mind running the team,
(15:46):
so they can piece it together. But I mean, there's
no reason to rush him back. As important as he is.
This is a team that has very real postseason aspirations,
deep postseason as inspirations. You've got to have Poka Nakua
ready to go for the long.
Speaker 1 (16:03):
Haul, all right. A couple other quick ones. Marvin Harrison
Junior suffered a concussion so potentially he could miss this week,
and then a Mecca Buka, one of the best young
receivers in the NFL hamstring injury probably going to miss
some time. Doesn't seem to me to be so serious,
but more information on that Tuesday. Meanwhile, the Bucks just
keep winning.
Speaker 2 (16:24):
I feel like it's Jason Lake just that rolling out though.
Let me just find another wide receiver.
Speaker 3 (16:29):
I mean they were down their four top pass catch
catchers yesterday.
Speaker 2 (16:34):
I know we're going to talk more about this game later,
but like it's just insane and they're completing, you know,
long passes to rookies. At some point this offense will
be intact and all of the receivers will be together
on the field at the same time for Baker Mayfield
and then watch out because Baker is an MVP candidate,
maybe the leading MVP candidate, and he still hasn't had
(16:56):
a wide receiver for intact.
Speaker 1 (17:15):
Welcome back to the Insiders podcast and said goodbye to
Steve bounced him. Mark Rossco's still with us. We saw
a good one on Sunday night, Lions Chiefs, and you know,
I would say if we were all wondering whether or
not the Chiefs were done, which I don't know that
anybody really thought the Chiefs were done, but if we
were wondering, I think we got a pretty resounding statement
(17:36):
last night. Travis Kelcey's not done. He had a great game.
As Apachecko's not done. He's running dudes over As you're
seeing right there he had a big game, and neither
is Mahomes a pretty strong defense of where the Chiefs are.
And look, from my understanding, guys, the Chiefs wanted to
just be swimming, be level, be fine until Rashi Rice
(17:58):
came back. They're three and three and they are currently fine.
So they beat the lines thirty seventeen. That a lot
to get to here, especially what happened after. But I'll
start with you, Judy. Main takeaways from the Chiefs pretty
dominating win over the Lions.
Speaker 2 (18:14):
Well, actually, I thought Dan Campbell summed it up well
like that they had to watch. I mean, the Chiefs
were taken a knee right like they were in victory formation.
Could you ever have imagined that game sort of being
out of reach? That's how good the Chiefs were.
Speaker 3 (18:30):
I don't think.
Speaker 2 (18:31):
I mean, you would have been foolish to write the
Chiefs off, even the way they were struggling early in
the season, because you knew that players were missing and
that as those players would come back, they would be
whole again. Well, as you said, all they cared about
was that their head was above water until they were intact. Well,
their head is above water, They're going to be intact,
(18:52):
and you saw they are healthy.
Speaker 3 (18:56):
Mahomes is Mahomes.
Speaker 2 (18:58):
Mahomes was playing great anyway, even with diminished weapons, and
now he's gonna have weapons, and Kelsey's healthy, He's doing okay.
So they are in an awfully good spot.
Speaker 3 (19:11):
I mean, I look at this and think, like, I
think they're.
Speaker 2 (19:14):
Gonna win the division again, right like after I saw
what they did last night to the Lions, who until
that point, I thought mavel Lions might be the best
team in the league right now, and he just you know,
they sort of blew the Lions off the field at
the end of the game there, and I'm like, yeah,
it's the Chiefs.
Speaker 3 (19:30):
Yeah.
Speaker 4 (19:34):
Yeah. It's almost as if, you know, they played that
Baltimore and it unlocked everything for him, Like he just
pulled it all out against Baltimore, blew them out, and
now they're at like, Okay, we were just messing around
for a couple of weeks, and now let's just go
play and start calling, you know, getting it getting all
our playmakers evolved, and Mahomes is mixing it up and
(19:54):
he's not running. You know, Kareem Hunt looks better, but
Checko looks better. Now I haven't seen Hollywood Brown play
this good in forever. So it's almost as if their
whole level got raised after that Baltimore game, and and
they're just cooking now. And as you mentioned, they'll get
even better with with Rashid Rice coming back and of
course Bags and the d You know, I think they
kind of got lost in last night how well they played,
(20:18):
especially with Detroit kind of started out and you know
Spags is always going to be there, so yeah, I
didn't count them out. There were certain flaws that you
could see. But again, he looked like a completely different
team now than they did pre Baltimore, especially on offense.
And they'll be right in the mix once again. And
you're looking like, well, who can actually beat them if
(20:38):
they play the way they played last night, And you're
gonna say nobody.
Speaker 1 (20:43):
Yeah. I mean I also wonder, like having gone through
what they went through, which is, you know, nothing catastrophic,
but I mean they had no Savior Worthy, they had
no Resie Rice. They had to make two with a
bunch of you know, random receivers who got cut by
other teams are on practice squads, and to like by
being forced to do that, you wonder if they end
(21:04):
up better because of it. I would say the same
for the forty nine ers if they can somehow come
out of this. You know, losing Fred Warner's bad, but like,
if they can somehow come out of this offensively and
be okay, they will be better off having gone through it,
and then you know, emerge from the other end with
a pretty strong team. I want to go back to
what happened late in the game, at the end of
(21:26):
the game. Actually, Brian Branch, I don't know if it
was a punch or an open handed slap, but it
was a wallap. I think you would say, this is
it right here? See Mahomes is trying to say what's up?
Then Juju comes in? Who Juju hit him from behind
a couple of plays before, and then he says, I
would say, please, don't do that to me. Right there.
(21:49):
He's gonna go reviewed by the league for a possible
five I would say, likely fine, possible suspension. This seems
pretty serious, Judy. How hard do you think the league
will come down, Brian Branch? Did you think Juju could
face it as well?
Speaker 2 (22:04):
I don't think the league will look kindly to a
melee happening on national television and you know, one player
just snacking another player in the face and instigating an
all out bawl, with Mike Turrico having to do play
by play of the brawl, right.
Speaker 3 (22:19):
He's like, oh, we've got something going on on the
field here.
Speaker 2 (22:22):
It's like, yeah, yeah, I don't know how many players
last week?
Speaker 1 (22:29):
Who was it that Elstirico did the play by play
of the fan grabbing the football and running out of
the stadium, right, yes, right.
Speaker 3 (22:37):
Dimensional very good broadcaster.
Speaker 2 (22:40):
Anyway, Certainly, I would think the league will not look
kindly on this, at least a fine I have no
idea how much further they will want to go, and
I don't know how many players will be brought into this.
Speaker 3 (22:54):
Will Juju get in trouble as well? I thought? I
thought Dan Hampill handled it as well as he could have.
Speaker 2 (23:01):
He said he got to the podium and said he
I mean, he apologized to Andy Read immediately and said, like,
we can't do this.
Speaker 3 (23:06):
I love the guy, but like that just is unacceptable.
Speaker 1 (23:09):
So that was that was amazing. You never quite know
how coaches are going to handle it. I kind of
thought that was amazing, And you know that the other
players were kind of like okay, right.
Speaker 3 (23:19):
Well he sends the signal right like that's that's not okay?
Speaker 4 (23:25):
Yeah, definitely guess what the jail and Carter situation. Spitting
on someone got him one game or just that game?
So is this is a lot bigger than that? It
almost I turned the game off. I didn't even know
what happened. I turned it off and then started getting
text like do you see this? Like what they're fighting?
What are you talking about? The game is over? But
(23:46):
I thought it was good restraint by the rest of
the team. Is that didn't get out of hand? Even
more that more people didn't start jumping in on it,
like it really just was contained to those two. And yeah,
I do think you know, Brian Brands cannot do that.
That's absolutely absurd. But you have the clips that came
up of him getting hit in the back and the
miss calls and now this whole chief conspiracy thing again.
So will the NFL actually start looking at footage of
(24:08):
the game of him getting illegally hit which led to that?
But yeah, all in all, Brian Branson and I love that,
Like you said that, Dan Campbell just came out like
I love this guy, but he cannot do this. And
that's what you want from your head coach to look,
first of all, I have his back, but he can't
do this, and all players respect that when you know
where your coach is coming from.
Speaker 3 (24:28):
Like that.
Speaker 4 (24:29):
All right?
Speaker 1 (24:30):
That was That was a crazy one last night. Good
game except for the end, which was bad. Great game
last night, Bucks, forty nine Ers. We talked about the
and the first part of this the forty nine ers injuries.
Let's talk about the big part of this one, which
was just bigger. I mean, so so just goun on
a loop that play that yeah fourteen scramble that just
(24:52):
that play. I mean I was in a house with
a couple of friends last night and one of them
had gotten up and I'm literally sitting on the it's
yelling like you guys got to see this because yes,
I mean Bakers, you know, and listening to Teses Johnson, who,
by the way, amazing catch right there, think that the
MVP chance for him only to have a teammate remind
him that it was actually for Bakastic is a good
(25:13):
reminder for all of us. The Baker is a real
MVP candidate. I don't know if he's going to get it,
because we're going to get like a Josh Allen does
crazy thing on national TV, or we're going to get
like a Lamar leads the Ravens back to the playoffs
type of deal. But while we're enjoying this, Judy, what
do you think of the Baker kind of star turn
(25:34):
slash MVP candidacy? Oh?
Speaker 3 (25:37):
I love it.
Speaker 2 (25:38):
I love it because, first of all, we still after
all of these years, nobody really thinks of the Bucks
as a dominant team.
Speaker 3 (25:46):
They've won the division every right, so they won the super.
Speaker 2 (25:50):
Bowl in the twenty twenty season Tom Brady, and then
they've won the division every year since then, so they're
the dominant team in the NFC South.
Speaker 3 (26:00):
Nobody sort of takes that seriously.
Speaker 2 (26:01):
Everybody's sort of like it's the NFC South and Baker
had like the hardest job imaginable here, you're going to
take the place of Tom Brady.
Speaker 3 (26:10):
Now, I mean go ask the other quarterbacks.
Speaker 2 (26:12):
You've had to do that? How much fun? That is
not an easy assignment. He's been great, he's gotten better.
It's clear that Todd Bowles and the Bucks have complete
confidence and faith in him, and he has brought his
energy to that team and his bite to that team
like he's got an edge.
Speaker 3 (26:31):
He's always had an edge, He's brought.
Speaker 2 (26:33):
It to the Bucks and when you pair, I feel
like his play has elevated.
Speaker 3 (26:38):
Though, when you pair.
Speaker 2 (26:40):
His play with Todd Bowles defense, they've got the playmakers
they've got if they could just get all the wide
receivers healthy at the same time. Listen, he is the
MVP candidate until proven otherwise. And yes, I agree with you.
Bigger names and more primetime games are probably going to
elevate other quarterbacks over him.
Speaker 3 (27:01):
But remember this performance.
Speaker 2 (27:02):
Because this game with his wide receiver court just like
wiped out. He ain't put the Bucks on his back.
That third or fourteen run was justin bonkers.
Speaker 3 (27:16):
Yeah.
Speaker 4 (27:16):
I always go back to my scouting days when I
look at players and how I scouted them. And this
is why Baker Mayfield was the first pick in the draft.
What you're seeing of him this year is why he
was taking number one because of his ultimate confidence. He's
a surgeon with the ball when he's on time, but
he has this playmaking ability. The toughness is rare where
(27:36):
that the team feeds off of that, and that's what
he looked like in Oklahoma and you just see him.
Of course he's going through the trials and tribulations, but
now the comfort level there of you're good, but you're
great in your MVP. When oh yeah, three receivers are out,
my starting running back's going, okay, it's all good. We're
(27:57):
still going to put thirty up on the board and
we're going to put on your That's the true sign
right there. So yeah, of course the Josh Allens of
the world had the bigger names. And if Lamar comes
back and they made the playoffs, just hand them the MVP.
I don't care. Just hand them the MVP because you
see how atrocious the Ravens are without him. But yeah,
if Baker continues on this path, it almost would be undeniable.
(28:17):
And the and the Bucks are legit. I gave Todd
Bowles as flowers last week on The Insiders with Jefshzia.
We had a segment and they why when is anyone
going to actually talk about that this guy is a
great head coach. I think Judy as you know the
Jets situation, still, people can't let go of that would
happened with the Jets. But even if you look at
what he did there, it was impressive. So yeah, Na,
(28:38):
Ryan Fitzpatrick, Yeah you.
Speaker 2 (28:40):
Would, you would take They would take those seasons right
now that they have retun.
Speaker 4 (28:44):
Balls, no doubt. Yeah, So they're legit. They are legit.
Speaker 1 (28:50):
So I got this text from someone in the Bucks
building early this morning on the final drive for the Bucks.
On the field were third off defensive tackle, fifth guard,
fifth receiver, sixth receiver, seventh receiver, and RB two. It
really forces us to not use injuries as an excuse
(29:10):
for literally anyone which sucks for all the other day.
Speaker 2 (29:13):
Do you think I would say about like I would
just say this also about giving respect and giving flowers,
Like do we ever talk about Jason Lightes, like one
of the best general managers in the NFL.
Speaker 3 (29:22):
One of the best roster builders in the NFL.
Speaker 2 (29:24):
No, you don't really hear his name thrown out there
like that, Like it should be in that mix, It
should be in that conversation.
Speaker 1 (29:30):
All right, great stuff, guys, we got a lot more
to come. That's every you can see the screen if
you're not watching, it's all the places you can watch
The Insiders or consume The Insiders seven pm Tuesday, Wednesday Friday,
six pm Thursday on Fast you got a bunch of podcasts,
you got YouTube every day. Just look at the screen.
(29:51):
There's a lot of places. Mark, thank you, great stuff.
Judy always awesome, don't go anywhere. Back for more coming
up soon on The Insiders, but for right now, OK.
Speaker 3 (30:00):
The Bara
Welcome inside with the Insiders. I am I and Rappaport.
This is Judy Battista right over there joining us. Welcome
to a podcast version of what is usually a television
show and a bunch of other platforms. But today is Monday.
That means you get the podcast and it is a
busy day. It's going to be a busy show. We've
got Steve Weis joining us, we got Mark Ross joining us,
(00:24):
if Sarah Walsh joining us, who is just in London
for what was a game? As far as games go,
that was for sure one of them. But first we
want to start with the breaking news that we had
just minutes before this showing on the Tennessee Titans have
fired coach Brian Callahan. One in five start, four and
(00:46):
nineteen under Callahan. I think that size says it all.
Speaker 2 (00:53):
Judy yikes, Well, let's start with every in Tennessee has
to be about cam Ward's development, and I think the
last few weeks in particular have been yesterday it was
hard to watch. I mean, the offense is the worst
in the league. I think they're second to last and
(01:14):
scoring and you're not seeing progress. And so you know,
if you're if you're the Tennessee Titans, brass. You have
to you have to be thinking like do we have
confidence that this is the person we want to develop,
you know, the number one overall pick. It's everything has
to be about cam Ward and his future and his development.
(01:35):
Having said that, you know, I mean Brian Callahan, the
quarterbacks he's had to work with were Will Levis, Mason
Rudolphin now a rookie who's just getting his feet wet
in the NFL.
Speaker 3 (01:45):
It's it's hard to win a lot of games under
those conditions.
Speaker 2 (01:49):
And they have had a ton of turnover in Tennessee
as far as the brain trust.
Speaker 3 (01:55):
In less than two years.
Speaker 2 (01:57):
I mean, they have fired to general managers, fired two
head coaches. It's pretty ironic that Mike Rabel is the
next head coach they're going to be facing coming up here.
Speaker 1 (02:08):
So I guess, just well, actually, do you think do
you think the timing I've been trying to understand the time. Look,
I mean, the timing is bad. It's always bad. Hearing
Jeff Simmons come out and say it was a bad
week of practice. I was that put my intent up
this morning and be like all right, Like that's a
guy that ownership listens to. Do you think the Rabel
(02:28):
timing affected the Callahan timing?
Speaker 3 (02:32):
You know, I don't know.
Speaker 2 (02:32):
I mean, if you are concerned that you're going to
get embarrassed by the coach you fired, which is entirely
possible because the Patriots are on this kind of trajectory
right now, and so is Drake May going like this rapidly.
I mean, it's entirely possible they get embarrassed. Does that
prompt the action and you're hoping that the switch head
(02:54):
coach gives your team a little spark and lights a fire?
Speaker 3 (02:57):
I mean, maybe it's just.
Speaker 2 (03:00):
I mean, poor cam Ward, you know, like I just
keep remembering like Peyton Manning talking about how important continuity
in the offense and the offensive play caller was to
his development into.
Speaker 3 (03:12):
His entire career.
Speaker 2 (03:14):
And cam Ward's like, you know, like less than two
months into his NFL career and he's already going to
be on his second play caller, his second offensive guru.
It's it's rough for him. There's no good time for
any of this. But again, if the feeling in the
building among the brass was do we trust him to
develop cam Ward? Then you've got to make the change,
(03:36):
and I would agree with you when Jeffrey Simmons comes
out and basically says, you know, we're not.
Speaker 3 (03:41):
Prepared for the game. Woof.
Speaker 2 (03:44):
That's that is something that will catch ownership's attention quickly.
Speaker 1 (03:48):
That's alarming, you know. And I wouldn't be surprised there
are more changed. I mean, Bill Callahan is still on
the staff. Sure, hard to imagine he remains. Nicholes the
offensive coordinator is childhood for kind of Brian Callahan. Hard
to imagine he stays. So like, you know, wholesale changes
I think would make sense. Look, the reality is with
(04:10):
with Mike Borganzi and with Chad Brinker, the two respected
personnel guys, cam Ward as the former number one overall pick.
You know, look, they're going to be building. They need
better talent. This is a desirable job. They get first
crack at it. You know, we'll see at the end
of it, but this is a desirable job. But you know,
(04:31):
and there is precedent for a former top quarterback to
struggle mightily his first year and come in with a
really good coaches second year and hit the ground running
and do well. I know this because the Patriots are
playing the Titans next week and they are literally doing
the same thing. So we'll see which way this goes.
But you know, certainly for Tennessee, it was a matter
of when and not if, and the when decided to
(04:57):
be now, which is, you.
Speaker 3 (04:59):
Know, we've talked about this before.
Speaker 2 (05:00):
When coaches get fired in season in the NFL, We're like,
it's such a short season, does it really make a difference.
It's not like firing a coach in baseball, where you
have one hundred and sixty two games, and so firing
the manager maybe.
Speaker 3 (05:11):
Changes the course of the season.
Speaker 2 (05:14):
Except there's also the counter argument in the NFL is
once you've lost confidence in the coach, and once you're
not sure he's the guy who can take you into
the future, then just end it. It's better the country
losses now and get a start on evaluating everything, evaluating
the staff, evaluating the roster, and evaluating the field of
(05:35):
candidates you're going to have, Like, there's just.
Speaker 3 (05:39):
No point in continuing.
Speaker 2 (05:40):
If you know you're going to fire him at some
point after the season, then just save everybody the trouble,
end it now and get started on your search.
Speaker 1 (05:51):
I also hate to say like this because this is
not you know, not what you want at all, But
you know, if you look at some of the good teams. Now,
I mean, I don't know how good the Texans are,
but I think they will eventually be good. They actually
had a they actually had a similar trajectory. I mean
they were bad, fired a coach, drafted quarterback early, bad again,
(06:14):
loaded up on draft picks. You never want to be bad,
but you know, if you're gonna be bad, then you
might as well load up on draft picks. And that's
exactly what the Titans are looking at, being bad. Gonna
probably get another top draft pick this year, and this
is how you eventually be not bad. I see some
friends pop into the screen, so I guess it's time
(06:35):
to bring in Steve Wis and Mark Ross. You guys
have been listening to our expert analysis on this. I
don't know, maybe not so surprising firing Mark. I want
to start with you. You've been in these buildings before,
You've been part of these decisions. I assume you're not surprised.
What was your take on today's move?
Speaker 4 (06:54):
Yeah, not surprised at all. It was just a matter
of when, not if. With you know you're gonna if
you struggle, but at least show signs of life. And
I think you y'all have laid it out like the
team just looked terrible. You know, there was no hope.
That didn't look like Cam was getting better, looked like
he was getting work worse. When you have a veteran
like Jeffrey Simmons publicly saying that, I mean I always
(07:16):
joked about what all his teams losing, like we had
a great week of practice, but we lost. I've never
heard of player it say, actually our week of practice was.
Speaker 1 (07:24):
Bad, and especially that player who like they really listened.
Speaker 4 (07:28):
To Yeah, correct, you're correct, not some rookie or something.
I mean, this is your guy. So all that was
leading to the owners of course and those oders in Tennessee.
She's very involved and like this this is bad. We
have to do something different. And then also when I
saw some of his interviews with the media over the
past few weeks and how he was just so combative.
(07:50):
You've seen that kind of story play out before with
the Joe Judge. Let's just say, you ys go with
the Giants like it looked like things are going well,
then all of a sudden you start getting combative with yeah,
you know that. Oh boy, this is about it. Well, Mark, let's.
Speaker 5 (08:06):
Look at the bigger picture for the Titans. Right what's
happening next year. They're opening up this brand new stadium.
They're hoping, they were hoping that this first round quarterback,
this number is going to generate some positive momentum and
positive energy going into what happens when you do that,
and it's been a train wreck.
Speaker 1 (08:21):
It's been an absolute disaster.
Speaker 5 (08:24):
Now, let's look at a place like Washington, right which
was even more of an organizational disaster to what Tennessee is.
Right now, they get the right head coach, the right
front office, a rookie quarterback.
Speaker 3 (08:36):
Boom.
Speaker 5 (08:37):
Look at how good things have gone, Judy, you mentioned
Drake May and Mike Frabel, their former head coach goes
up to an organization that.
Speaker 4 (08:45):
Was a disaster last year.
Speaker 5 (08:47):
Their quarterback's playing great, they're in playoff contention, they're seeing
all of this stuff happen around them, and right now
they're stuck in quicksand they are awful.
Speaker 1 (08:57):
Ian.
Speaker 5 (08:58):
I think everything you said about Jeffrey Simmons coming out
and then we had a terrible week of practice isn't good.
Cam Ward A rookie talks about excuse my friends, and
I don't if we can say on the pocket.
Speaker 4 (09:07):
We asked what are we doing?
Speaker 5 (09:10):
I mean, it's terrible when you've got a rookie saying this,
this is all he knows of the NFL, and it's terrible.
This is a guy who came from Incarnate word right,
worked his way up to Miami. So he's been through
all the steps of what's good and bad, and so
he's seen this. So nothing is working in this organization.
I think they need to take a step back.
Speaker 3 (09:30):
And really.
Speaker 5 (09:32):
Again, maybe just blow the whole thing up and bringing
a GM and head coach at the same time. Because again,
Ian here, it's a desirable job, it's a great market,
they're opening a new stadium. The owner, Amy Adams Trunk,
seems like she's she's someone you'd want to work for.
But the roster, what is it? I mean, where's there's
(09:54):
no youth development, there's no veteran lead like, what is
it like? There's a whole lot of steps that need
to be conquered before they turn this thing around.
Speaker 4 (10:03):
Was going to back and jump in just on the
point you talked about you you never want to see
biple get fired. But you blowing it up and having
a GM and the head coach with the same vision
coming in together like Washington did. Washington had new ownership,
a new GM, and a new head coach, like, all right,
we're doing this together the vision, whether it's going to
be right or wrong, we're doing it together. What you've
seen in Tennessee is what first first shooter drop was
(10:26):
John Robinson? Okay? Then the head coach gets fired Vrabel okay.
Now Ran Carthon gets fired, and now head coach gets
fired again. So if this pick is wrong again, is
the GM going to get fired now? And then the
so where they going to get off this hamster wheel
of Okay, one or the other is going to get
fired as opposed to, Hey, we're all in this together.
This is our shared vision. Whether it works or not,
(10:49):
I think at some point you have to do that. Yeah.
Speaker 2 (10:53):
And this though, if I could just send this, if
you look at the New England example, right, they did
not really change the front office. They they kept the
front office intact. They hired the right coach right now.
Last year they had the wrong coach and things were bad.
They got the right coach, and you're seeing the development
of the quarterback. Like, so, if you are the Tennessee
(11:13):
Titans brass, you're looking at the Patriots and saying, do
you see how one right decision can turn the entire
thing and turn it quickly?
Speaker 3 (11:21):
Right? I mean, Drake Maye, we saw glimmers of this,
but I mean now, I mean.
Speaker 2 (11:25):
He's yeah, he's high. He's a top ten quarterback already.
Because you got you hired the right head coach.
Speaker 3 (11:32):
That is the key. I mean, they they got to
get it right, that's I mean, yeah, they have to
make it right. Can they get it right?
Speaker 4 (11:40):
Right? I think that's unique with the Rabel situation because
although they didn't come in with la Well, he's a Patriot,
so he came into you know, that's really they were
almost tied because he was that and he had proven
he look, I'm a winner, I can go do this.
I've proven how I'm one of the top coaches in
the league, and I'm a Patriot as well. So to me,
that almost felt like it was, hey, this is the
(12:02):
right fit for everyone.
Speaker 1 (12:04):
Yeah, Steve, I know you got to leave final thoughts
on where the Tennessee Titans go from here before we
say goodbout to you, well, I mean.
Speaker 5 (12:11):
Look, I think they need to find somebody who's accomplished,
you know, with with some skins on the wall. I
don't know any names right now, I could necessarily pull
out of a hat.
Speaker 1 (12:21):
You're probably gonna hear some crazy random ones.
Speaker 5 (12:25):
You might hear like con Eddie George right, who's at
Bowling Green, who played there.
Speaker 4 (12:28):
He'll probably get an interview.
Speaker 5 (12:29):
I would think maybe they bring him in just to
get his opinion because he knows organizationally. But I think
they've got to get somebody accomplished. Again, you're walking into
a new building, so there's going to be tremendous distraction
when you open up a new stadium and you've got
all this going, and you've got to have somebody who
can absorb it, right while also having a coach who
can get some good coordinators. I mean, Vrabel got Josh
(12:52):
McDaniels to go there, right, You've got to get good coordinators,
you know. Dan Quinn got Cliff Kingsbury to go there.
Cliff Kingsbury's going to be a name that I would
think that they would absolutely look at to see what
he did with Jayden Daniels, to see if maybe he
can do it with cam Ward, So I would think
he's somebody just kind of off the cuff who would
immediately be on the short list. I would think it'd
be an offensive minded head coach as well.
Speaker 1 (13:15):
How about Arthur Smith in the Tennessee Building, former head coach,
been through it didn't have a quarterback, I mean the
quarterback he had now is I think he's out of
the league.
Speaker 4 (13:24):
I don't know, but I.
Speaker 1 (13:25):
Mean that would be one to consider. All right, Steve
go away, Mark good night. We'll talk to you in
a little bit. Guys, thank you very much for breaking
this down.
Speaker 4 (13:34):
Good stuff. I like this.
Speaker 1 (13:36):
They just pop right out of there, all right. So yeah,
so Arthur Smith will be the first name I would match, Judy.
I want to get to some of the injuries. We
had a couple of big ones this week. Fred Warner,
the All Pro, the superstar linebacker for the forty nine ers,
ankle dislocated and fractured. They've been through a lot, they
(13:57):
really have. This one hurts.
Speaker 3 (14:00):
Uh.
Speaker 2 (14:01):
So I was watching that game yesterday when it happened,
and I just thought, like, how much more can this
team bear like they? Kyle Shanahan is a wizard that
he can keep things going and piece things together when
you're losing these but you've now lost your two best
not even two best defensive players.
Speaker 3 (14:18):
Your two best players are done for the year. And
this guy is.
Speaker 2 (14:25):
The heart of the team, right, I mean, he's he's
just one of the best players in the entire league.
Speaker 3 (14:32):
And to lose him and Nick.
Speaker 2 (14:34):
Bosa, I just wonder how much more that team can bear.
Even though you know they're going to get rock Birdie back.
You know you're you're you have offensive talent, but man,
they this feels like year after year that they just
absorbed body blow after body blow on the injury front,
and this just feels like it's it's going to be
(14:54):
hard to recover from this one.
Speaker 1 (14:56):
Yeah, and I don't you know, I don't know why.
I assume they're looking at it, but that's just just randomness.
But I mean, they got a lot of good players,
and a lot of them have been injured. Puka Naku
is another one. Sprained ankle. Sounds like his status is
in doubt for this Sunday against the Jaguars. Then they
have the buys. He's not going to miss I wouldn't
expect him to miss time after the bye, but at
(15:17):
least I would say, potentially one game for the Rams.
How big of a deal is this?
Speaker 2 (15:25):
Oh, I mean, look, he's one of the best receivers
in the league, first of all. I would just say
that when I saw this and I saw him grimacing
and grabbing the ankle, I thought it was going to
be much worse than sort of like a day to
day kind of thing. I thought, Oh, God, listen. I mean,
they have other weapons, and they obviously have a superior
quarterback and a very smart offensive mind running the team,
(15:46):
so they can piece it together. But I mean, there's
no reason to rush him back. As important as he is.
This is a team that has very real postseason aspirations,
deep postseason as inspirations. You've got to have Poka Nakua
ready to go for the long.
Speaker 1 (16:03):
Haul, all right. A couple other quick ones. Marvin Harrison
Junior suffered a concussion so potentially he could miss this week,
and then a Mecca Buka, one of the best young
receivers in the NFL hamstring injury probably going to miss
some time. Doesn't seem to me to be so serious,
but more information on that Tuesday. Meanwhile, the Bucks just
keep winning.
Speaker 2 (16:24):
I feel like it's Jason Lake just that rolling out though.
Let me just find another wide receiver.
Speaker 3 (16:29):
I mean they were down their four top pass catch
catchers yesterday.
Speaker 2 (16:34):
I know we're going to talk more about this game later,
but like it's just insane and they're completing, you know,
long passes to rookies. At some point this offense will
be intact and all of the receivers will be together
on the field at the same time for Baker Mayfield
and then watch out because Baker is an MVP candidate,
maybe the leading MVP candidate, and he still hasn't had
(16:56):
a wide receiver for intact.
Speaker 1 (17:15):
Welcome back to the Insiders podcast and said goodbye to
Steve bounced him. Mark Rossco's still with us. We saw
a good one on Sunday night, Lions Chiefs, and you know,
I would say if we were all wondering whether or
not the Chiefs were done, which I don't know that
anybody really thought the Chiefs were done, but if we
were wondering, I think we got a pretty resounding statement
(17:36):
last night. Travis Kelcey's not done. He had a great game.
As Apachecko's not done. He's running dudes over As you're
seeing right there he had a big game, and neither
is Mahomes a pretty strong defense of where the Chiefs are.
And look, from my understanding, guys, the Chiefs wanted to
just be swimming, be level, be fine until Rashi Rice
(17:58):
came back. They're three and three and they are currently fine.
So they beat the lines thirty seventeen. That a lot
to get to here, especially what happened after. But I'll
start with you, Judy. Main takeaways from the Chiefs pretty
dominating win over the Lions.
Speaker 2 (18:14):
Well, actually, I thought Dan Campbell summed it up well
like that they had to watch. I mean, the Chiefs
were taken a knee right like they were in victory formation.
Could you ever have imagined that game sort of being
out of reach? That's how good the Chiefs were.
Speaker 3 (18:30):
I don't think.
Speaker 2 (18:31):
I mean, you would have been foolish to write the
Chiefs off, even the way they were struggling early in
the season, because you knew that players were missing and
that as those players would come back, they would be
whole again. Well, as you said, all they cared about
was that their head was above water until they were intact. Well,
their head is above water, They're going to be intact,
(18:52):
and you saw they are healthy.
Speaker 3 (18:56):
Mahomes is Mahomes.
Speaker 2 (18:58):
Mahomes was playing great anyway, even with diminished weapons, and
now he's gonna have weapons, and Kelsey's healthy, He's doing okay.
So they are in an awfully good spot.
Speaker 3 (19:11):
I mean, I look at this and think, like, I
think they're.
Speaker 2 (19:14):
Gonna win the division again, right like after I saw
what they did last night to the Lions, who until
that point, I thought mavel Lions might be the best
team in the league right now, and he just you know,
they sort of blew the Lions off the field at
the end of the game there, and I'm like, yeah,
it's the Chiefs.
Speaker 3 (19:30):
Yeah.
Speaker 4 (19:34):
Yeah. It's almost as if, you know, they played that
Baltimore and it unlocked everything for him, Like he just
pulled it all out against Baltimore, blew them out, and
now they're at like, Okay, we were just messing around
for a couple of weeks, and now let's just go
play and start calling, you know, getting it getting all
our playmakers evolved, and Mahomes is mixing it up and
(19:54):
he's not running. You know, Kareem Hunt looks better, but
Checko looks better. Now I haven't seen Hollywood Brown play
this good in forever. So it's almost as if their
whole level got raised after that Baltimore game, and and
they're just cooking now. And as you mentioned, they'll get
even better with with Rashid Rice coming back and of
course Bags and the d You know, I think they
kind of got lost in last night how well they played,
(20:18):
especially with Detroit kind of started out and you know
Spags is always going to be there, so yeah, I
didn't count them out. There were certain flaws that you
could see. But again, he looked like a completely different
team now than they did pre Baltimore, especially on offense.
And they'll be right in the mix once again. And
you're looking like, well, who can actually beat them if
(20:38):
they play the way they played last night, And you're
gonna say nobody.
Speaker 1 (20:43):
Yeah. I mean I also wonder, like having gone through
what they went through, which is, you know, nothing catastrophic,
but I mean they had no Savior Worthy, they had
no Resie Rice. They had to make two with a
bunch of you know, random receivers who got cut by
other teams are on practice squads, and to like by
being forced to do that, you wonder if they end
(21:04):
up better because of it. I would say the same
for the forty nine ers if they can somehow come
out of this. You know, losing Fred Warner's bad, but like,
if they can somehow come out of this offensively and
be okay, they will be better off having gone through it,
and then you know, emerge from the other end with
a pretty strong team. I want to go back to
what happened late in the game, at the end of
(21:26):
the game. Actually, Brian Branch, I don't know if it
was a punch or an open handed slap, but it
was a wallap. I think you would say, this is
it right here? See Mahomes is trying to say what's up?
Then Juju comes in? Who Juju hit him from behind
a couple of plays before, and then he says, I
would say, please, don't do that to me. Right there.
(21:49):
He's gonna go reviewed by the league for a possible
five I would say, likely fine, possible suspension. This seems
pretty serious, Judy. How hard do you think the league
will come down, Brian Branch? Did you think Juju could
face it as well?
Speaker 2 (22:04):
I don't think the league will look kindly to a
melee happening on national television and you know, one player
just snacking another player in the face and instigating an
all out bawl, with Mike Turrico having to do play
by play of the brawl, right.
Speaker 3 (22:19):
He's like, oh, we've got something going on on the
field here.
Speaker 2 (22:22):
It's like, yeah, yeah, I don't know how many players
last week?
Speaker 1 (22:29):
Who was it that Elstirico did the play by play
of the fan grabbing the football and running out of
the stadium, right, yes, right.
Speaker 3 (22:37):
Dimensional very good broadcaster.
Speaker 2 (22:40):
Anyway, Certainly, I would think the league will not look
kindly on this, at least a fine I have no
idea how much further they will want to go, and
I don't know how many players will be brought into this.
Speaker 3 (22:54):
Will Juju get in trouble as well? I thought? I
thought Dan Hampill handled it as well as he could have.
Speaker 2 (23:01):
He said he got to the podium and said he
I mean, he apologized to Andy Read immediately and said, like,
we can't do this.
Speaker 3 (23:06):
I love the guy, but like that just is unacceptable.
Speaker 1 (23:09):
So that was that was amazing. You never quite know
how coaches are going to handle it. I kind of
thought that was amazing, And you know that the other
players were kind of like okay, right.
Speaker 3 (23:19):
Well he sends the signal right like that's that's not okay?
Speaker 4 (23:25):
Yeah, definitely guess what the jail and Carter situation. Spitting
on someone got him one game or just that game?
So is this is a lot bigger than that? It
almost I turned the game off. I didn't even know
what happened. I turned it off and then started getting
text like do you see this? Like what they're fighting?
What are you talking about? The game is over? But
(23:46):
I thought it was good restraint by the rest of
the team. Is that didn't get out of hand? Even
more that more people didn't start jumping in on it,
like it really just was contained to those two. And yeah,
I do think you know, Brian Brands cannot do that.
That's absolutely absurd. But you have the clips that came
up of him getting hit in the back and the
miss calls and now this whole chief conspiracy thing again.
So will the NFL actually start looking at footage of
(24:08):
the game of him getting illegally hit which led to that?
But yeah, all in all, Brian Branson and I love that,
Like you said that, Dan Campbell just came out like
I love this guy, but he cannot do this. And
that's what you want from your head coach to look,
first of all, I have his back, but he can't
do this, and all players respect that when you know
where your coach is coming from.
Speaker 3 (24:28):
Like that.
Speaker 4 (24:29):
All right?
Speaker 1 (24:30):
That was That was a crazy one last night. Good
game except for the end, which was bad. Great game
last night, Bucks, forty nine Ers. We talked about the
and the first part of this the forty nine ers injuries.
Let's talk about the big part of this one, which
was just bigger. I mean, so so just goun on
a loop that play that yeah fourteen scramble that just
(24:52):
that play. I mean I was in a house with
a couple of friends last night and one of them
had gotten up and I'm literally sitting on the it's
yelling like you guys got to see this because yes,
I mean Bakers, you know, and listening to Teses Johnson, who,
by the way, amazing catch right there, think that the
MVP chance for him only to have a teammate remind
him that it was actually for Bakastic is a good
(25:13):
reminder for all of us. The Baker is a real
MVP candidate. I don't know if he's going to get it,
because we're going to get like a Josh Allen does
crazy thing on national TV, or we're going to get
like a Lamar leads the Ravens back to the playoffs
type of deal. But while we're enjoying this, Judy, what
do you think of the Baker kind of star turn
(25:34):
slash MVP candidacy? Oh?
Speaker 3 (25:37):
I love it.
Speaker 2 (25:38):
I love it because, first of all, we still after
all of these years, nobody really thinks of the Bucks
as a dominant team.
Speaker 3 (25:46):
They've won the division every right, so they won the super.
Speaker 2 (25:50):
Bowl in the twenty twenty season Tom Brady, and then
they've won the division every year since then, so they're
the dominant team in the NFC South.
Speaker 3 (26:00):
Nobody sort of takes that seriously.
Speaker 2 (26:01):
Everybody's sort of like it's the NFC South and Baker
had like the hardest job imaginable here, you're going to
take the place of Tom Brady.
Speaker 3 (26:10):
Now, I mean go ask the other quarterbacks.
Speaker 2 (26:12):
You've had to do that? How much fun? That is
not an easy assignment. He's been great, he's gotten better.
It's clear that Todd Bowles and the Bucks have complete
confidence and faith in him, and he has brought his
energy to that team and his bite to that team
like he's got an edge.
Speaker 3 (26:31):
He's always had an edge, He's brought.
Speaker 2 (26:33):
It to the Bucks and when you pair, I feel
like his play has elevated.
Speaker 3 (26:38):
Though, when you pair.
Speaker 2 (26:40):
His play with Todd Bowles defense, they've got the playmakers
they've got if they could just get all the wide
receivers healthy at the same time. Listen, he is the
MVP candidate until proven otherwise. And yes, I agree with you.
Bigger names and more primetime games are probably going to
elevate other quarterbacks over him.
Speaker 3 (27:01):
But remember this performance.
Speaker 2 (27:02):
Because this game with his wide receiver court just like
wiped out. He ain't put the Bucks on his back.
That third or fourteen run was justin bonkers.
Speaker 3 (27:16):
Yeah.
Speaker 4 (27:16):
I always go back to my scouting days when I
look at players and how I scouted them. And this
is why Baker Mayfield was the first pick in the draft.
What you're seeing of him this year is why he
was taking number one because of his ultimate confidence. He's
a surgeon with the ball when he's on time, but
he has this playmaking ability. The toughness is rare where
(27:36):
that the team feeds off of that, and that's what
he looked like in Oklahoma and you just see him.
Of course he's going through the trials and tribulations, but
now the comfort level there of you're good, but you're
great in your MVP. When oh yeah, three receivers are out,
my starting running back's going, okay, it's all good. We're
(27:57):
still going to put thirty up on the board and
we're going to put on your That's the true sign
right there. So yeah, of course the Josh Allens of
the world had the bigger names. And if Lamar comes
back and they made the playoffs, just hand them the MVP.
I don't care. Just hand them the MVP because you
see how atrocious the Ravens are without him. But yeah,
if Baker continues on this path, it almost would be undeniable.
(28:17):
And the and the Bucks are legit. I gave Todd
Bowles as flowers last week on The Insiders with Jefshzia.
We had a segment and they why when is anyone
going to actually talk about that this guy is a
great head coach. I think Judy as you know the
Jets situation, still, people can't let go of that would
happened with the Jets. But even if you look at
what he did there, it was impressive. So yeah, Na,
(28:38):
Ryan Fitzpatrick, Yeah you.
Speaker 2 (28:40):
Would, you would take They would take those seasons right
now that they have retun.
Speaker 4 (28:44):
Balls, no doubt. Yeah, So they're legit. They are legit.
Speaker 1 (28:50):
So I got this text from someone in the Bucks
building early this morning on the final drive for the Bucks.
On the field were third off defensive tackle, fifth guard,
fifth receiver, sixth receiver, seventh receiver, and RB two. It
really forces us to not use injuries as an excuse
(29:10):
for literally anyone which sucks for all the other day.
Speaker 2 (29:13):
Do you think I would say about like I would
just say this also about giving respect and giving flowers,
Like do we ever talk about Jason Lightes, like one
of the best general managers in the NFL.
Speaker 3 (29:22):
One of the best roster builders in the NFL.
Speaker 2 (29:24):
No, you don't really hear his name thrown out there
like that, Like it should be in that mix, It
should be in that conversation.
Speaker 1 (29:30):
All right, great stuff, guys, we got a lot more
to come. That's every you can see the screen if
you're not watching, it's all the places you can watch
The Insiders or consume The Insiders seven pm Tuesday, Wednesday Friday,
six pm Thursday on Fast you got a bunch of podcasts,
you got YouTube every day. Just look at the screen.
(29:51):
There's a lot of places. Mark, thank you, great stuff.
Judy always awesome, don't go anywhere. Back for more coming
up soon on The Insiders, but for right now, OK.
Speaker 3 (30:00):
The Bara
Hosts And Creators
Judy Battista
Tom Pelissero
Ian Rapaport
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