September 22, 2025 • 21 mins
NFL Network Insiders Tom Pelissero and Ian Rapoport run through a wild Week 3 across the NFL including a dominant win by the Vikings over the Bengals and the Panthers shutting out the Falcons. Plus, the Eagles beat the Rams and the Buccaneers beat the Jets with some special special teams play along the way. Tom and Ian wrap things up with their thoughts on the Lions and Ravens facing off on Monday Night Football.
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Speaker 1 (00:01):
Welcome back to The Insiders, Tom Telisero, Ian Rappaport, Part
two of our Monday podcast edition of the show. If
you were looking for part one, or you can listen
to part two first. Just if you want the news
updates plass on the injuries, go over to part.
Speaker 2 (00:16):
One right here.
Speaker 1 (00:17):
We're going to go rapid fire through a bunch of
the wild games and wild finishes that we saw throughout
the NFL on Sunday. Let's start ab out with one
ian that was not, frankly all that competitive, the Vikings
and Bengals. The first start for Carson Wentz Isaiah Rodgers,
who to this point in his career was probably best
(00:38):
known as one of the players who had served a
year long suspension for gambling. He had been on Vikings roster.
They've had a lot of moving parts, but kept doing
through the offseason. They were excited about him because like
the first player ever to score a fumber turn touchdown
a pick six and.
Speaker 2 (00:54):
Create a third turnover.
Speaker 1 (00:55):
And oh yeah, Carson Wentz, who was on the couch
like three weeks ago.
Speaker 2 (00:58):
Went out and played pretty well.
Speaker 3 (01:00):
Yeah, first of all, on the Isaiah Rodgers thing, He's
only making like six or something million dollars this year,
like gets a pretty cheap deal, and I have so
many questions about it, and not just that it's such
an amazing value for the Minnesota Vikings.
Speaker 4 (01:15):
The Eagles.
Speaker 3 (01:17):
Hit almost everything. The Eagles are on it almost all
the time, and to not re sign him seems like
a very rare miss for the champs. He is a
really good, opportunistic, fun player, and you're right, Like, you know,
when I hear or see the name Isaiah Rodgers, I
immediately go back to the year's suspension and then he
ended up getting signed. I'm like, that's weird. I thought
(01:38):
he was probably done, but must be a pretty good player.
He is a pretty good player. I think Brian Flores
has kind of unlocked him and that is a great
value fined for the Minnesota Vikings. And you know, PFF,
I think does a really nice job. Their rankings are
not for everyone. They are not one hundred percent, but
generally you get a good feel for how good a
player is, right like, usually it's on it or relatively close.
(02:02):
They ranked him as their highest performing player ever, which
is whatever.
Speaker 4 (02:08):
It is pretty amazing. I think that's pretty cool.
Speaker 1 (02:12):
The flip side of this course, is this was the
first Bengals game without Joe Burrow. It's a complete and
total disaster. The question that becomes is this a aberration
or is this a sign of the direction the season goes.
I remember a player one time, and I always think
about this quote with games like this, which was I
asked him after the game, like, what happened?
Speaker 2 (02:30):
It was just a blow loss.
Speaker 1 (02:31):
He's like, sometimes games just go to bleep immediately and
there's nothing you can do about it. That was one
of those games for the Bengals. Everything that could go
wrong did go wrong. Vikings went right down the field.
The Bengals defense actually rose up for several possessions after that,
but then they didn't even have to you know, you
didn't even have to see the Vikings offense because they
were scoring defensive touchdowns. Here.
Speaker 2 (02:51):
I don't I don't come away from.
Speaker 1 (02:53):
That going they got to blow up the whole plan
and make a trade for a quarterback or anything else.
There's clearly things that they've got to they've got to
clean up, and they've got to you know, the bar
for what they have to do without Burrow is just
that much higher, and that game kind of emphasizes Yeah.
Speaker 3 (03:07):
I'm sort of with you a little bit, like sometimes
when the game just goes completely haywire right off the jump,
like I don't know how much we can take of it.
Like sometimes crushing losses are worse than like you just
got beat by million.
Speaker 4 (03:21):
I'm like, all right, just forget that.
Speaker 3 (03:22):
You know, it's like the whole Bury the tape thing,
which has sort of become a cliche, like there is
something behind that, because it's like sometimes if it's that bad,
it's like, dude, just onto the next. I personally think
the Bengals are going to be okay. The Bengals think
they're going to be okay when you have a backup quarterback,
(03:42):
like it's got to go perfect to win, and when
it doesn't.
Speaker 4 (03:45):
Go perfect, you're probably gonna lose.
Speaker 3 (03:47):
So I think the Bengals can be good enough to
where they can stay alive for Borough to come back
in December, but to do it, they have to be
absolutely perfect. I just want to go back quickly. Carson
wentz Is that was awesome and then footballiyes whatever. Like
he grew up rooting for the Vikings. The whole family
was all excited abou him signing. He had chances to
(04:09):
sign other places. But basically, and this is like a
little bit paraphrasing, but was like, I only want to
go to the Vikings, like that's.
Speaker 4 (04:17):
The spot, and I mean, they're so good there.
Speaker 3 (04:22):
They're just so good that like, he better watch out
or he's going to end up with another opportunity to
start next year.
Speaker 1 (04:28):
I don't know what the total is for quarterbacks now
off the top of my head that Kevin O'Connell has
won a game with, but it's a bunch. He's used
a lot of different quarterbacks and had to win. Carson Wentz,
you talked about the guys who were with Kyle Shanahan
or Sean McVay for yere the Vikings are becoming that
place where hey, come in, Sam Darnold, Yeah, spend a
little bit of time here and you're going to go
out and get paid later. Another game that was just
(04:49):
non competitive was the Panthers Falcons game. The Falcons beat
the Vikings in Minnesota the previous week to get shut
out thirty to nothing. You never want to make too
much a single game, and certainly not an early season game,
but that was probably the worst we've seen. Michael Pennock's
play through the course of his young career. Here, they've
(05:09):
got way too much talent to get shut out by anybody.
Kudos to Adrio o'vero and the Panthers defense. They're starting
young guys. Nick Scorton made his first start. I mean,
they balled out in that game. But if you're Atlanta,
the bar has to be higher than this, and clearly
there's some things that they're going to need to change
up here moving forward.
Speaker 3 (05:26):
Yeah, I would also say, like we you spend the
first little part of the season establishing who's good and
who's not. At least my brain does, right, Like, all right,
this team, we sort of thought they'd be not that great.
All Right, they're not that great, you know. Like it's
a good reminder, like, all right, maybe we don't know everything.
Like I would say for the I would say for
(05:48):
the Carolina Panthers, let's hold off on what they are
because like they made a lot of upgrades in the offseason.
Their defensive coordinator is still really good. They should be
better upfront on both sides. Like maybe they're going to
be okay. And I think that if Bryce Young is okay,
(06:09):
then the whole organization should be okay.
Speaker 4 (06:12):
And let's hold off on what they are.
Speaker 3 (06:13):
The Falcons like, I sort of think that was more
like the Bengals, Like, They're not this bad at all.
They just have a terrible day and lost to someone.
I mean, I'm sure they hated everything yesterday. Losing to
those guys like that's awful, but that's the way it
goes sometimes.
Speaker 1 (06:30):
Commanders one going away against the Raiders without their starting quarterback.
We would need a whole other podcast to talk about
the Las Vegas offense and what's happened since Week one
against New England. I was there. They looked pretty competent.
They don't have big name guys, but Gino has not
played well over the past couple of weeks. I'm struck
by how Washington seems to kind of be finding their way.
(06:51):
They've got such a veteran roster. It's an older roster.
Marcus Mariota went out and played pretty good football. He
almost killed dan Quinn accidentally sideline here and now as
we're recording this, dan Quinn at the podium saying Jayden
is still day to day. They've not yet come up
with what the practice plan is going to be. It's
early in the week, it's Monday Ian, But do you
anticipate we see Jayden Daniels next week?
Speaker 3 (07:14):
Yeah, that's what it's sounding like to me that they
went into last week believing that Jayden Daniels would play
this week, that his injury was pretty minor, and then
he would probably be okay, and that just have him
sit out a week and then come back okay.
Speaker 4 (07:28):
So I do believe that's the plan.
Speaker 3 (07:29):
I would also say, and you know this sort of
I mean, I think mac Jones was going to start
with the forty nine ers anyway, but you see him
do that and you're like, all right, Brock can rest
another week. Like I would say the same thing for Mariota,
like he look good. If Jaane's not perfect, like no
big deal, like they bought them some time. The win
(07:50):
is nice, like start the backup quarterback, let your starter heel,
Like that's you know, it's like not to go back
to the forty nine ers, but like the good the
organization that are perennially good and the commanders haven't been,
but they look like they're gonna get there. They are
good enough and sounds enough structurally to be like, all right,
we can withstand if our best players don't play a game,
(08:12):
and I think that's a very good sign for.
Speaker 2 (08:14):
Washington or for the insiders.
Speaker 1 (08:16):
After this, the other theme of the third Sunday of
the NFL season.
Speaker 2 (08:37):
Was block kicks.
Speaker 1 (08:39):
We had three of them in a like a real
time span of like eight minutes.
Speaker 2 (08:46):
Honestly, like the early games were not super compelling, they
just weren't.
Speaker 4 (08:51):
It was they went haywire, low scoring games.
Speaker 2 (08:54):
But they went wild.
Speaker 1 (08:55):
If you go to part one of the podcasts, you
can hear we talked with Stacy Dales, who was in
Cleveland where the Packers seem to be completely in control
and then they have a bad interception and they have
a blocked kick that sets that up. This is in
the same span where the Eagles win on a walk off,
big guy touchdown that didn't even need to be a touch.
Speaker 3 (09:16):
There's no name for it, right, Like I know, fix
sticks is a thing that we don't have a name for.
Speaker 2 (09:21):
This this is beyond it. Jordan Davis.
Speaker 1 (09:23):
I think our research people said he was like the
fourth heaviest player to ever have a touchdown of over
seventy yards in a game. I'm surprised he's not number one. Frankly,
this is great athleticism.
Speaker 2 (09:34):
Are our boy.
Speaker 1 (09:35):
Mike Er blocked that team right that he's never never
had to run like that since he ran his forty.
Speaker 2 (09:39):
He's moving, man, get him a goal line package. Pretty good.
Speaker 4 (09:44):
He really Jordan Davis.
Speaker 3 (09:46):
I know this isn't what we're talking about, but like
I sort of wondered whether Jordan Davis would make He's
such a big guy, and they have such great talent
around them, and you're sort of like Jalen Carr. I mean,
they drafted Jalen Card who obviously is a huge talent
in himself. You're sort of like, all right, maybe they
don't think Jordan Davis is working out. He has gotten
very good shape and remounted very nicely, and I think
(10:07):
is going to probably make himself some real money. You must,
first of all, you must have been happy with the
Special teams chaos. You love special teams in a way
that I certainly do not. That was a absolutely bonkers segment.
I also it's kind of nice too, because like kickers
have gotten so good. We're like, guy lineup from fifty
(10:27):
four and you're like, all right, obviously he's gonna make this,
and so like, you know whatever, Like this was a
pushback against kickers just getting to do whatever they want,
and I was here for all of it.
Speaker 1 (10:39):
The other part of that game, too, was the Eagles
are getting booed. The offense did not look good, it
seemed to me. And he never want to make too
much of like momentum or specific points in the game,
but it seemed like AJ Brown getting into the end
zone and then AJ Brown having that play where he
catches the ball and starts breaking tackles. He's always been,
(10:59):
in my mind, one of the greatest tone setters in
the NFL, going all the way back to Tennessee where
they didn't throw the ball much, but when he would
get it and he would start punishing people, it had
this way of juicing up the sideline and opening up
everything else for Derrick Henry at the time, that to
me was kind of a turning point in that game
where you're like, what's their answer going to be? How
does aj Brown once again have like one catch for
(11:21):
seven yards and then all of a sudden, on a
day where Saquon Barkho was held under three yards per carry,
the passing game kind of came alive for Philly.
Speaker 3 (11:29):
Yeah, I kind of agree with you on that, and
it really does make you think that if you're an
offensive cordon and there's a lot of different ways that
they're really good ones can think about it and Kevin
Batulo might absolutely be a great one. But it's just
sort of getting started on that journey. Just get your
really good players to football, Like because of all the
different things. One like a j Brown's awesome, So if
(11:50):
you want to get a lot of yards, get the
ball to your awesome player. But also like players really
do feed off of it, like they really do. When
your dude is getting the ball and being the one
that's productive, like everyone kind of feels it. And I
could sort of see that too. I also think it
eliminates like a little bit of the weirdness of it,
like when he has, you know, one catch for seven yards,
(12:12):
like you can live, you can win, you know, there's death,
it's you can be okay, but it's everyone feels it
and he's on the sideline and he's not happy, and
you know the next week in the locker room is
going to be like you know what, the questions. It's
just like if you get your good players the football,
everything gets a little bit easier.
Speaker 4 (12:30):
I also anyway, if you can deal with.
Speaker 3 (12:33):
Philly as like a coach or a player or anything,
you can deal with anything, because they are the champs
and they are still really good, and it's totally fine
that they're just getting booed like crazy and everyone's like, oh,
that's Philly. It's like, yeah, that's that's Philly. But you
got to you gotta be able to handle it to
thrive there.
Speaker 1 (12:51):
You know, I believe we are now down to six
undefeated teams in the NFL. The Eagles are one of them.
This week they face another one of them, the three
and ohero Tampa Bay Buccaneers. That was the third block
kick in that very short period of time by the.
Speaker 2 (13:06):
Team that lost the game. It was by the Jets.
Speaker 1 (13:09):
We got to see Will McDonald, who the big story
when he was at the Senior Bowl a couple of
years ago, was and I found it cause I talked
about it on TV. Down there on the sideline, great
great graphics right there. Will McDonald would jump over cars
for fun. He would There were all these videos of
him like, not over like the hood, over the car,
he would like jump over SUVs. I've never seen anything
(13:32):
like it. He then announced, after getting drafted he had
retired from jumping over cars, jumping over offensive lineman not
even that impressive in context, but this was still you know,
this is one of the presents that Joe Douglas in
the prior regime left behind was one of the freakiest
athletes we've ever seen. You love him on defense, but
when he does stuff like that on kick block, it's
(13:52):
a pretty cool thing to happen in your pocket.
Speaker 3 (13:56):
Yeah, I keep thinking about, like, so that's illegal, Well,
that's not illegal, but it's illegal to launch yourself over
to use another player to launch yourself that.
Speaker 2 (14:05):
Can't use leverage.
Speaker 1 (14:06):
You can't push off the guy, you can't push down
on him, and you can't land on people. But if
you can just slot out jump over him, that is permitted.
Speaker 3 (14:13):
Right, which applies to basically no one but not actually
no one. And so I was just thinking throughout the time,
like I wonder, you know, how people are going to
stop this, because like I don't understand why he wouldn't
be able to do that all the time. I guess
theoretically you could do is have somebody stand up would
be the way to do it, but like.
Speaker 1 (14:32):
Well, no, the the way that you stop it with
him specifically. Yes, it's gonna be hard. The way the
most teams stop it is these guys don't know what
they're doing. They're not going to have athletes. They're going
to land on somebody. They're going to get a penalty,
which we've seen a bunch of those, you know, even
recently in the NFL. It's just yeah, go ahead and
try it. It's not gonna work. With Will McDonald. I
have to imagine that the Buck special teams coordinat will
(14:54):
be looking at that, uh through the or see me
whoever the Jets are playing this week, their special teams
coordina will be looking at that through the course of
this coming week. But that also set up the third
consecutive Baker Mayfield led comeback drive to win, and I
talked about it on game day morning yesterday about like
the way that they do it. So basically every Thursday,
(15:16):
their wide receivers coach Brian mcclennan will present They spend
like upwards of fifteen minutes on it, which doesn't seem
like a lot of time, but in the course of
like the very regimented game planning week, it's a good
chunk they'll go through all the two minute stuff with
the entire skill group go over like here's the main
coverages that the opponent plays, all this stuff, and they
go in the quarterback room they talk about, you know, exactly, like,
(15:38):
all right, what are the best plays? They come with
a really small menu and as Josh Grizzard in the
ear of Baker Mayfield talking about, Hey, not just what's
the next play call, but hey, this one we got
to get out of bounds. Hey, here's what we're going
to do after this snap. The way they've got the
communication down seems like it's really really good. You don't
want to live in too many situations, but if you
have to, it's better to be.
Speaker 2 (15:59):
Really good at them.
Speaker 1 (16:00):
And oh yeah, sometimes you just got bake being bake
out there. And he continues every week the show. How
how cool and calm for a guy who gets as
fired up as Baker Mayfield does. He is so at
home make a big time throws like that to a
Mecca Buca with the game on the line. I mean,
it's it's remarkable when you watch how Baker operates in
those those high pressure types of situations.
Speaker 3 (16:20):
Yeah, and it really is so perfect for someone like
you know, he obviously is pretty fiery. Now he's chill
in other ways, but he's pretty fiery. It actually lends
itself to his skill set because he can just be quick, decisive,
uh you know, find the read. He likes hit it
knowing that in two minutes. The defense also can't be
as complicated, as they have to go fast as well.
(16:41):
They get to get the call and it's all fast.
He seems to be like sort of perfect for that situation.
A Mecca Buca. By the way, that catch on the
side and there's a juggling catch on that juggling catch
that did they get that too? I can't even remember that.
Speaker 4 (16:57):
They not even review it.
Speaker 3 (16:58):
And then I went looked at it this morning and
like probably should have been a catch just based on
my eyeballs.
Speaker 1 (17:05):
I mean that wild part about it a Mecca book
is like you talk to people in the draft process
like I do, and just kind of the scouting the
plus's minuses, Like the downside of a Mecca Buka in
part was just like the explosiveness. Is he going to be,
you know, able to do those special things? Like he
was the good, solid, really smart guy comes from a
(17:25):
great program, but like you know, the the upside of
like a Ted Roll McMillan, who I would fully anticipate
it is going to make plays as this season goes on.
But it was like, well, that's that's just in a
different category. Ebuk is like the safe guy. He doesn't
look like the safe guy right now.
Speaker 2 (17:39):
He looks like one of the best players in the
league at the position.
Speaker 1 (17:43):
He's been unbelievable and by the way, probably isn't even
playing one hundred percent because he's been dealing with that
that roin issue that he had over the last couple
of weeks too.
Speaker 3 (17:51):
Yeah, I mean, it's I'm really curious to see what
he becomes.
Speaker 4 (17:55):
The pre draft process is the best.
Speaker 3 (17:57):
I mean, I know you love it like I love it,
But guys just sort of get painted into sort of
what people think they are. And like, you know, is
he like the fastest guy on earth? Is he a
game breaker?
Speaker 4 (18:10):
Like? I don't know, but certainly productive enough.
Speaker 3 (18:15):
And you know, however long Mike Evans ends up playing
for the Bucks, maybe this is last year. Like he
sort of as intimated they got some they got some
weapons to take his place.
Speaker 1 (18:25):
Mike Evans will see MRI on Tuesday. Sounds like Corey
to toa bowles. They're thinking it's a lower grade hamstring,
not as bad as some of the ones in the past.
Would be good news. They still have Chris god Went
out there. They still have Jeling McMillan out there. There
are guys come back and Tristan WARF's they're left tackle.
They're getting those guys back. Yeah, sometime over the next
four to six weeks here, so some boosts coming real quick.
(18:46):
Monday Night Football. We got Lions and Ravens tonight. Ian
two of the teams that the last couple of years
have been looked at as among the favorites in their
respective conferences. Both went through some bumps. In the Ravens
case is shootout loss to the Bills. In the Lions case,
just kind of a flat performance Week one against the Packers.
Speaker 2 (19:03):
What are you looking for tonight?
Speaker 3 (19:05):
I'm looking for about thirty five Fantasy points from Derrick Henry.
Speaker 4 (19:09):
It's not asking for that money.
Speaker 2 (19:11):
Say I need the same thing.
Speaker 1 (19:12):
I need Derek Henry to outscore Jared Goff in a
non PPR league, which if you look at the estimates,
that's pretty close. It's very outscore. Just I think I'm
down one point. We need like one and a half
more than Jared Goff.
Speaker 4 (19:26):
I think that my opponent's done. I need thirty five
from Henry, which he's done before.
Speaker 3 (19:32):
Ins aggressives aggressive, But like you know, all we need
to do is just break three like sixty yard touchdown
runs cerly Derek Henry is capable of that. I would
say my sense on the Lions has been there going
to be a work in progress till probably like mid year.
Like they had, you know, for a team that kept
(19:53):
its head coach, obviously, they had almost unprecedented staff turnover
and teaching wise, that's really hard, and then they lost
a lot of their great offensive linemen.
Speaker 4 (20:05):
And so.
Speaker 3 (20:07):
You know, I would say it's probably gonna take a
minute for them, but I expect them to be good eventually,
which is why tonight you sort of wonder how it
could go because the Ravens are not like that.
Speaker 4 (20:18):
Ravengs are just just really good.
Speaker 3 (20:22):
So I think it's gonna be a real challenge for
the Lions, but I'm for sure looking forward to it.
Speaker 1 (20:26):
Lions, by the way, just put Marcus Davenport on injured reserve,
so some continued pass rush issues. There a lot to
come here on NFL Network over the next seven days.
We're the Dublin well not us, Judy's there, We're not.
So Steelers are going to be there. That game live
exclusive on NFL Network next Sunday, bright and early, nine
(20:49):
thirty am Eastern Time. And again you can catch the
Insiders everywhere, five days a week on the podcast and
on YouTube Tuesday, Wednesday, Friday to mem Eastern Time on
NFL Network.
Speaker 2 (21:00):
For Ian, I'm Tom. We'll see you next.
Speaker 1 (21:02):
Jome
Welcome back to The Insiders, Tom Telisero, Ian Rappaport, Part
two of our Monday podcast edition of the show. If
you were looking for part one, or you can listen
to part two first. Just if you want the news
updates plass on the injuries, go over to part.
Speaker 2 (00:16):
One right here.
Speaker 1 (00:17):
We're going to go rapid fire through a bunch of
the wild games and wild finishes that we saw throughout
the NFL on Sunday. Let's start ab out with one
ian that was not, frankly all that competitive, the Vikings
and Bengals. The first start for Carson Wentz Isaiah Rodgers,
who to this point in his career was probably best
(00:38):
known as one of the players who had served a
year long suspension for gambling. He had been on Vikings roster.
They've had a lot of moving parts, but kept doing
through the offseason. They were excited about him because like
the first player ever to score a fumber turn touchdown
a pick six and.
Speaker 2 (00:54):
Create a third turnover.
Speaker 1 (00:55):
And oh yeah, Carson Wentz, who was on the couch
like three weeks ago.
Speaker 2 (00:58):
Went out and played pretty well.
Speaker 3 (01:00):
Yeah, first of all, on the Isaiah Rodgers thing, He's
only making like six or something million dollars this year,
like gets a pretty cheap deal, and I have so
many questions about it, and not just that it's such
an amazing value for the Minnesota Vikings.
Speaker 4 (01:15):
The Eagles.
Speaker 3 (01:17):
Hit almost everything. The Eagles are on it almost all
the time, and to not re sign him seems like
a very rare miss for the champs. He is a
really good, opportunistic, fun player, and you're right, Like, you know,
when I hear or see the name Isaiah Rodgers, I
immediately go back to the year's suspension and then he
ended up getting signed. I'm like, that's weird. I thought
(01:38):
he was probably done, but must be a pretty good player.
He is a pretty good player. I think Brian Flores
has kind of unlocked him and that is a great
value fined for the Minnesota Vikings. And you know, PFF,
I think does a really nice job. Their rankings are
not for everyone. They are not one hundred percent, but
generally you get a good feel for how good a
player is, right like, usually it's on it or relatively close.
(02:02):
They ranked him as their highest performing player ever, which
is whatever.
Speaker 4 (02:08):
It is pretty amazing. I think that's pretty cool.
Speaker 1 (02:12):
The flip side of this course, is this was the
first Bengals game without Joe Burrow. It's a complete and
total disaster. The question that becomes is this a aberration
or is this a sign of the direction the season goes.
I remember a player one time, and I always think
about this quote with games like this, which was I
asked him after the game, like, what happened?
Speaker 2 (02:30):
It was just a blow loss.
Speaker 1 (02:31):
He's like, sometimes games just go to bleep immediately and
there's nothing you can do about it. That was one
of those games for the Bengals. Everything that could go
wrong did go wrong. Vikings went right down the field.
The Bengals defense actually rose up for several possessions after that,
but then they didn't even have to you know, you
didn't even have to see the Vikings offense because they
were scoring defensive touchdowns. Here.
Speaker 2 (02:51):
I don't I don't come away from.
Speaker 1 (02:53):
That going they got to blow up the whole plan
and make a trade for a quarterback or anything else.
There's clearly things that they've got to they've got to
clean up, and they've got to you know, the bar
for what they have to do without Burrow is just
that much higher, and that game kind of emphasizes Yeah.
Speaker 3 (03:07):
I'm sort of with you a little bit, like sometimes
when the game just goes completely haywire right off the jump,
like I don't know how much we can take of it.
Like sometimes crushing losses are worse than like you just
got beat by million.
Speaker 4 (03:21):
I'm like, all right, just forget that.
Speaker 3 (03:22):
You know, it's like the whole Bury the tape thing,
which has sort of become a cliche, like there is
something behind that, because it's like sometimes if it's that bad,
it's like, dude, just onto the next. I personally think
the Bengals are going to be okay. The Bengals think
they're going to be okay when you have a backup quarterback,
(03:42):
like it's got to go perfect to win, and when
it doesn't.
Speaker 4 (03:45):
Go perfect, you're probably gonna lose.
Speaker 3 (03:47):
So I think the Bengals can be good enough to
where they can stay alive for Borough to come back
in December, but to do it, they have to be
absolutely perfect. I just want to go back quickly. Carson
wentz Is that was awesome and then footballiyes whatever. Like
he grew up rooting for the Vikings. The whole family
was all excited abou him signing. He had chances to
(04:09):
sign other places. But basically, and this is like a
little bit paraphrasing, but was like, I only want to
go to the Vikings, like that's.
Speaker 4 (04:17):
The spot, and I mean, they're so good there.
Speaker 3 (04:22):
They're just so good that like, he better watch out
or he's going to end up with another opportunity to
start next year.
Speaker 1 (04:28):
I don't know what the total is for quarterbacks now
off the top of my head that Kevin O'Connell has
won a game with, but it's a bunch. He's used
a lot of different quarterbacks and had to win. Carson Wentz,
you talked about the guys who were with Kyle Shanahan
or Sean McVay for yere the Vikings are becoming that
place where hey, come in, Sam Darnold, Yeah, spend a
little bit of time here and you're going to go
out and get paid later. Another game that was just
(04:49):
non competitive was the Panthers Falcons game. The Falcons beat
the Vikings in Minnesota the previous week to get shut
out thirty to nothing. You never want to make too
much a single game, and certainly not an early season game,
but that was probably the worst we've seen. Michael Pennock's
play through the course of his young career. Here, they've
(05:09):
got way too much talent to get shut out by anybody.
Kudos to Adrio o'vero and the Panthers defense. They're starting
young guys. Nick Scorton made his first start. I mean,
they balled out in that game. But if you're Atlanta,
the bar has to be higher than this, and clearly
there's some things that they're going to need to change
up here moving forward.
Speaker 3 (05:26):
Yeah, I would also say, like we you spend the
first little part of the season establishing who's good and
who's not. At least my brain does, right, Like, all right,
this team, we sort of thought they'd be not that great.
All Right, they're not that great, you know. Like it's
a good reminder, like, all right, maybe we don't know everything.
Like I would say for the I would say for
(05:48):
the Carolina Panthers, let's hold off on what they are
because like they made a lot of upgrades in the offseason.
Their defensive coordinator is still really good. They should be
better upfront on both sides. Like maybe they're going to
be okay. And I think that if Bryce Young is okay,
(06:09):
then the whole organization should be okay.
Speaker 4 (06:12):
And let's hold off on what they are.
Speaker 3 (06:13):
The Falcons like, I sort of think that was more
like the Bengals, Like, They're not this bad at all.
They just have a terrible day and lost to someone.
I mean, I'm sure they hated everything yesterday. Losing to
those guys like that's awful, but that's the way it
goes sometimes.
Speaker 1 (06:30):
Commanders one going away against the Raiders without their starting quarterback.
We would need a whole other podcast to talk about
the Las Vegas offense and what's happened since Week one
against New England. I was there. They looked pretty competent.
They don't have big name guys, but Gino has not
played well over the past couple of weeks. I'm struck
by how Washington seems to kind of be finding their way.
(06:51):
They've got such a veteran roster. It's an older roster.
Marcus Mariota went out and played pretty good football. He
almost killed dan Quinn accidentally sideline here and now as
we're recording this, dan Quinn at the podium saying Jayden
is still day to day. They've not yet come up
with what the practice plan is going to be. It's
early in the week, it's Monday Ian, But do you
anticipate we see Jayden Daniels next week?
Speaker 3 (07:14):
Yeah, that's what it's sounding like to me that they
went into last week believing that Jayden Daniels would play
this week, that his injury was pretty minor, and then
he would probably be okay, and that just have him
sit out a week and then come back okay.
Speaker 4 (07:28):
So I do believe that's the plan.
Speaker 3 (07:29):
I would also say, and you know this sort of
I mean, I think mac Jones was going to start
with the forty nine ers anyway, but you see him
do that and you're like, all right, Brock can rest
another week. Like I would say the same thing for Mariota,
like he look good. If Jaane's not perfect, like no
big deal, like they bought them some time. The win
(07:50):
is nice, like start the backup quarterback, let your starter heel,
Like that's you know, it's like not to go back
to the forty nine ers, but like the good the
organization that are perennially good and the commanders haven't been,
but they look like they're gonna get there. They are
good enough and sounds enough structurally to be like, all right,
we can withstand if our best players don't play a game,
(08:12):
and I think that's a very good sign for.
Speaker 2 (08:14):
Washington or for the insiders.
Speaker 1 (08:16):
After this, the other theme of the third Sunday of
the NFL season.
Speaker 2 (08:37):
Was block kicks.
Speaker 1 (08:39):
We had three of them in a like a real
time span of like eight minutes.
Speaker 2 (08:46):
Honestly, like the early games were not super compelling, they
just weren't.
Speaker 4 (08:51):
It was they went haywire, low scoring games.
Speaker 2 (08:54):
But they went wild.
Speaker 1 (08:55):
If you go to part one of the podcasts, you
can hear we talked with Stacy Dales, who was in
Cleveland where the Packers seem to be completely in control
and then they have a bad interception and they have
a blocked kick that sets that up. This is in
the same span where the Eagles win on a walk off,
big guy touchdown that didn't even need to be a touch.
Speaker 3 (09:16):
There's no name for it, right, Like I know, fix
sticks is a thing that we don't have a name for.
Speaker 2 (09:21):
This this is beyond it. Jordan Davis.
Speaker 1 (09:23):
I think our research people said he was like the
fourth heaviest player to ever have a touchdown of over
seventy yards in a game. I'm surprised he's not number one. Frankly,
this is great athleticism.
Speaker 2 (09:34):
Are our boy.
Speaker 1 (09:35):
Mike Er blocked that team right that he's never never
had to run like that since he ran his forty.
Speaker 2 (09:39):
He's moving, man, get him a goal line package. Pretty good.
Speaker 4 (09:44):
He really Jordan Davis.
Speaker 3 (09:46):
I know this isn't what we're talking about, but like
I sort of wondered whether Jordan Davis would make He's
such a big guy, and they have such great talent
around them, and you're sort of like Jalen Carr. I mean,
they drafted Jalen Card who obviously is a huge talent
in himself. You're sort of like, all right, maybe they
don't think Jordan Davis is working out. He has gotten
very good shape and remounted very nicely, and I think
(10:07):
is going to probably make himself some real money. You must,
first of all, you must have been happy with the
Special teams chaos. You love special teams in a way
that I certainly do not. That was a absolutely bonkers segment.
I also it's kind of nice too, because like kickers
have gotten so good. We're like, guy lineup from fifty
(10:27):
four and you're like, all right, obviously he's gonna make this,
and so like, you know whatever, Like this was a
pushback against kickers just getting to do whatever they want,
and I was here for all of it.
Speaker 1 (10:39):
The other part of that game, too, was the Eagles
are getting booed. The offense did not look good, it
seemed to me. And he never want to make too
much of like momentum or specific points in the game,
but it seemed like AJ Brown getting into the end
zone and then AJ Brown having that play where he
catches the ball and starts breaking tackles. He's always been,
(10:59):
in my mind, one of the greatest tone setters in
the NFL, going all the way back to Tennessee where
they didn't throw the ball much, but when he would
get it and he would start punishing people, it had
this way of juicing up the sideline and opening up
everything else for Derrick Henry at the time, that to
me was kind of a turning point in that game
where you're like, what's their answer going to be? How
does aj Brown once again have like one catch for
(11:21):
seven yards and then all of a sudden, on a
day where Saquon Barkho was held under three yards per carry,
the passing game kind of came alive for Philly.
Speaker 3 (11:29):
Yeah, I kind of agree with you on that, and
it really does make you think that if you're an
offensive cordon and there's a lot of different ways that
they're really good ones can think about it and Kevin
Batulo might absolutely be a great one. But it's just
sort of getting started on that journey. Just get your
really good players to football, Like because of all the
different things. One like a j Brown's awesome, So if
(11:50):
you want to get a lot of yards, get the
ball to your awesome player. But also like players really
do feed off of it, like they really do. When
your dude is getting the ball and being the one
that's productive, like everyone kind of feels it. And I
could sort of see that too. I also think it
eliminates like a little bit of the weirdness of it,
like when he has, you know, one catch for seven yards,
(12:12):
like you can live, you can win, you know, there's death,
it's you can be okay, but it's everyone feels it
and he's on the sideline and he's not happy, and
you know the next week in the locker room is
going to be like you know what, the questions. It's
just like if you get your good players the football,
everything gets a little bit easier.
Speaker 4 (12:30):
I also anyway, if you can deal with.
Speaker 3 (12:33):
Philly as like a coach or a player or anything,
you can deal with anything, because they are the champs
and they are still really good, and it's totally fine
that they're just getting booed like crazy and everyone's like, oh,
that's Philly. It's like, yeah, that's that's Philly. But you
got to you gotta be able to handle it to
thrive there.
Speaker 1 (12:51):
You know, I believe we are now down to six
undefeated teams in the NFL. The Eagles are one of them.
This week they face another one of them, the three
and ohero Tampa Bay Buccaneers. That was the third block
kick in that very short period of time by the.
Speaker 2 (13:06):
Team that lost the game. It was by the Jets.
Speaker 1 (13:09):
We got to see Will McDonald, who the big story
when he was at the Senior Bowl a couple of
years ago, was and I found it cause I talked
about it on TV. Down there on the sideline, great
great graphics right there. Will McDonald would jump over cars
for fun. He would There were all these videos of
him like, not over like the hood, over the car,
he would like jump over SUVs. I've never seen anything
(13:32):
like it. He then announced, after getting drafted he had
retired from jumping over cars, jumping over offensive lineman not
even that impressive in context, but this was still you know,
this is one of the presents that Joe Douglas in
the prior regime left behind was one of the freakiest
athletes we've ever seen. You love him on defense, but
when he does stuff like that on kick block, it's
(13:52):
a pretty cool thing to happen in your pocket.
Speaker 3 (13:56):
Yeah, I keep thinking about, like, so that's illegal, Well,
that's not illegal, but it's illegal to launch yourself over
to use another player to launch yourself that.
Speaker 2 (14:05):
Can't use leverage.
Speaker 1 (14:06):
You can't push off the guy, you can't push down
on him, and you can't land on people. But if
you can just slot out jump over him, that is permitted.
Speaker 3 (14:13):
Right, which applies to basically no one but not actually
no one. And so I was just thinking throughout the time,
like I wonder, you know, how people are going to
stop this, because like I don't understand why he wouldn't
be able to do that all the time. I guess
theoretically you could do is have somebody stand up would
be the way to do it, but like.
Speaker 1 (14:32):
Well, no, the the way that you stop it with
him specifically. Yes, it's gonna be hard. The way the
most teams stop it is these guys don't know what
they're doing. They're not going to have athletes. They're going
to land on somebody. They're going to get a penalty,
which we've seen a bunch of those, you know, even
recently in the NFL. It's just yeah, go ahead and
try it. It's not gonna work. With Will McDonald. I
have to imagine that the Buck special teams coordinat will
(14:54):
be looking at that, uh through the or see me
whoever the Jets are playing this week, their special teams
coordina will be looking at that through the course of
this coming week. But that also set up the third
consecutive Baker Mayfield led comeback drive to win, and I
talked about it on game day morning yesterday about like
the way that they do it. So basically every Thursday,
(15:16):
their wide receivers coach Brian mcclennan will present They spend
like upwards of fifteen minutes on it, which doesn't seem
like a lot of time, but in the course of
like the very regimented game planning week, it's a good
chunk they'll go through all the two minute stuff with
the entire skill group go over like here's the main
coverages that the opponent plays, all this stuff, and they
go in the quarterback room they talk about, you know, exactly, like,
(15:38):
all right, what are the best plays? They come with
a really small menu and as Josh Grizzard in the
ear of Baker Mayfield talking about, Hey, not just what's
the next play call, but hey, this one we got
to get out of bounds. Hey, here's what we're going
to do after this snap. The way they've got the
communication down seems like it's really really good. You don't
want to live in too many situations, but if you
have to, it's better to be.
Speaker 2 (15:59):
Really good at them.
Speaker 1 (16:00):
And oh yeah, sometimes you just got bake being bake
out there. And he continues every week the show. How
how cool and calm for a guy who gets as
fired up as Baker Mayfield does. He is so at
home make a big time throws like that to a
Mecca Buca with the game on the line. I mean,
it's it's remarkable when you watch how Baker operates in
those those high pressure types of situations.
Speaker 3 (16:20):
Yeah, and it really is so perfect for someone like
you know, he obviously is pretty fiery. Now he's chill
in other ways, but he's pretty fiery. It actually lends
itself to his skill set because he can just be quick, decisive,
uh you know, find the read. He likes hit it
knowing that in two minutes. The defense also can't be
as complicated, as they have to go fast as well.
(16:41):
They get to get the call and it's all fast.
He seems to be like sort of perfect for that situation.
A Mecca Buca. By the way, that catch on the
side and there's a juggling catch on that juggling catch
that did they get that too? I can't even remember that.
Speaker 4 (16:57):
They not even review it.
Speaker 3 (16:58):
And then I went looked at it this morning and
like probably should have been a catch just based on
my eyeballs.
Speaker 1 (17:05):
I mean that wild part about it a Mecca book
is like you talk to people in the draft process
like I do, and just kind of the scouting the
plus's minuses, Like the downside of a Mecca Buka in
part was just like the explosiveness. Is he going to be,
you know, able to do those special things? Like he
was the good, solid, really smart guy comes from a
(17:25):
great program, but like you know, the the upside of
like a Ted Roll McMillan, who I would fully anticipate
it is going to make plays as this season goes on.
But it was like, well, that's that's just in a
different category. Ebuk is like the safe guy. He doesn't
look like the safe guy right now.
Speaker 2 (17:39):
He looks like one of the best players in the
league at the position.
Speaker 1 (17:43):
He's been unbelievable and by the way, probably isn't even
playing one hundred percent because he's been dealing with that
that roin issue that he had over the last couple
of weeks too.
Speaker 3 (17:51):
Yeah, I mean, it's I'm really curious to see what
he becomes.
Speaker 4 (17:55):
The pre draft process is the best.
Speaker 3 (17:57):
I mean, I know you love it like I love it,
But guys just sort of get painted into sort of
what people think they are. And like, you know, is
he like the fastest guy on earth? Is he a
game breaker?
Speaker 4 (18:10):
Like? I don't know, but certainly productive enough.
Speaker 3 (18:15):
And you know, however long Mike Evans ends up playing
for the Bucks, maybe this is last year. Like he
sort of as intimated they got some they got some
weapons to take his place.
Speaker 1 (18:25):
Mike Evans will see MRI on Tuesday. Sounds like Corey
to toa bowles. They're thinking it's a lower grade hamstring,
not as bad as some of the ones in the past.
Would be good news. They still have Chris god Went
out there. They still have Jeling McMillan out there. There
are guys come back and Tristan WARF's they're left tackle.
They're getting those guys back. Yeah, sometime over the next
four to six weeks here, so some boosts coming real quick.
(18:46):
Monday Night Football. We got Lions and Ravens tonight. Ian
two of the teams that the last couple of years
have been looked at as among the favorites in their
respective conferences. Both went through some bumps. In the Ravens
case is shootout loss to the Bills. In the Lions case,
just kind of a flat performance Week one against the Packers.
Speaker 2 (19:03):
What are you looking for tonight?
Speaker 3 (19:05):
I'm looking for about thirty five Fantasy points from Derrick Henry.
Speaker 4 (19:09):
It's not asking for that money.
Speaker 2 (19:11):
Say I need the same thing.
Speaker 1 (19:12):
I need Derek Henry to outscore Jared Goff in a
non PPR league, which if you look at the estimates,
that's pretty close. It's very outscore. Just I think I'm
down one point. We need like one and a half
more than Jared Goff.
Speaker 4 (19:26):
I think that my opponent's done. I need thirty five
from Henry, which he's done before.
Speaker 3 (19:32):
Ins aggressives aggressive, But like you know, all we need
to do is just break three like sixty yard touchdown
runs cerly Derek Henry is capable of that. I would
say my sense on the Lions has been there going
to be a work in progress till probably like mid year.
Like they had, you know, for a team that kept
(19:53):
its head coach, obviously, they had almost unprecedented staff turnover
and teaching wise, that's really hard, and then they lost
a lot of their great offensive linemen.
Speaker 4 (20:05):
And so.
Speaker 3 (20:07):
You know, I would say it's probably gonna take a
minute for them, but I expect them to be good eventually,
which is why tonight you sort of wonder how it
could go because the Ravens are not like that.
Speaker 4 (20:18):
Ravengs are just just really good.
Speaker 3 (20:22):
So I think it's gonna be a real challenge for
the Lions, but I'm for sure looking forward to it.
Speaker 1 (20:26):
Lions, by the way, just put Marcus Davenport on injured reserve,
so some continued pass rush issues. There a lot to
come here on NFL Network over the next seven days.
We're the Dublin well not us, Judy's there, We're not.
So Steelers are going to be there. That game live
exclusive on NFL Network next Sunday, bright and early, nine
(20:49):
thirty am Eastern Time. And again you can catch the
Insiders everywhere, five days a week on the podcast and
on YouTube Tuesday, Wednesday, Friday to mem Eastern Time on
NFL Network.
Speaker 2 (21:00):
For Ian, I'm Tom. We'll see you next.
Speaker 1 (21:02):
Jome
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