December 13, 2022 • 35 mins
Jason Smith and Mike Harmon react to Monday Night Football between the Cardinals and Patriots, where Kyler Murray goes down with a severe injury and the Patriots continue to win the Patriot way. NFL Insider Jason La Canfora joins the guys to react to the biggest storylines of Week 14. Jason gives the truth about Mac Jones despite his Monday night win. Plus, the Jets will be in the market for big names at quarterback this offseason.
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Speaker 1 (00:00):
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(00:22):
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Well midway through the fourth quarter, Patriots lead the Cardinals
twenty seven to thirteen. It's been a pretty big Patriots
lead throughout the Cardinals. Of course, second play of the game,
they lose Kyler Murray to what looks to be a
(00:45):
severe knee injury. Both Adam Schefter and Ian Rappaport tweeting
out that they're going to look at it and give
more examination, but right now it doesn't look good and
non contact injury. He was running, planted his right foot
and went out from under him. So yeah, it doesn't
look like we're gonna see Kyler Murray for quite a
long time. You know, last hour we talked about his
(01:07):
future and what this is gonna mean for him going
to the offseason, was he gonna stick around, would he
have a new head coach? Not? Now it's is he
really going to be ready for the beginning of next season.
It's a very difficult thing. And when when you look
at the the situation that the Cardinals find themselves in.
Here's Kyler Murray who he has his fans, he has
(01:29):
his detractors. He is a middle of the pack ish
type quarterback in the NFL. Maybe you want to put
him in the top half of quarterbacks, um, but this
is what happens when you have a player who is
this kind of dual threat quarterback. It's great to have
the dual threat quarterbacks, but what that means is they
(01:50):
have twice as big a chance of getting hurt because
they're out in the open. Not that there's something that
could have happened with this, but just hey, the stress
of running. We don't know what it is. He comes
down a little bit, a little bit, it wrong on
on on one of his feet, and he winds up
getting hurt. And that's what's too bad because you think
about the running quarterbacks in the NFL, and it's and
and they just they're not able to stay healthy for
(02:10):
a long time. You know, it's very rare that a
guy like Cam Newton could stay around as long as
he did. But he was big enough to put hits
on the on the on the defenders, and he was
also able to get out of bounds. He was someone who, Okay,
I can protect myself when I'm running, and guys like
Kyler Murray and Lamar Jackson and all the guys that
(02:30):
like to run, it's it's more difficult for them to
protect themselves. And again, this is an anomaly because this
was him running in the open field and he gets hurt.
And it's just every time a quarterback that is a
dual threat quarterback runs, if you're a fan of that team,
like your heart is in your throat because it's a
get up, get up, get up right. Nope, don't don't run,
don't don't move, don't don't don't plant and try to
(02:51):
cut back, just run out of bounds, slide do something here.
I mean, because every time they take off, your heart
is in your throat. It's it's like that other teams
like when you see Aaron Rodgers scrambling right, or you
see somebody else grambling it's like, oh, get the first down,
get this, get this. But when you see a quarterback
who likes to run, it's okay, okay, okay, because it's
such a big part and and there's there there's such
(03:13):
a propensity because they run so much that when they
finished with the run, it's okay, okay, you're good, get
back to the hudle, get back to the huddle. Well,
because a lot of that it becomes it's such a
big component of their offense right there, not just look
at what they're doing with justin fields in Chicago, right,
a lot of it was jail break stuff early in
the season. And then well, if he's gonna run, why
don't we actually design some stuff steal from the Baltimore playbook.
(03:36):
And I've always advocated for what coach Harbass stands was
in Baltimore after Lamar's breakout year of this is what
makes him special. Right, we understand it made curtail you know,
his his stats and everything on the back end, and
he understands that. Right, everybody's on the same page in
(03:57):
terms of usage. And then well, now have for Kyler Murray.
Third play of the game goes to scramble and down
he goes he'd missed a couple of games already this season,
and you've got a team and and it's starting the
whispers there is to watch the second a se um.
You don't want to use the word quit for a team,
but it looks to me like if they could there
(04:19):
there might be an all out war on the sideline
of that. But he just beating each other up between
the coaching staff and the players as this one flows
and add the GM. Steve Kime Jason lackinfora made his
comments last hour, most of which I agreed with. And
I don't call for firings, but that that's been dysfunctional
(04:39):
for a while. And it's clear Kingsbury and Murray not
on the same page. But to your point about quarterbacks,
when when you do have a guy who is, as
we turn it, dual threat, and that's such a large component. Yeah,
it's the you take the great but then you have
the other side that can happen as well, trying for
that extra yard to get the first down, you get
(05:01):
twisted in turn. How many times with Josh Allen because
of his size as he's in the middle of a
pile or he dives into contact are you shaking your head?
Whether you like the Buffalo Bills or not, you you
like to see greatness and top players on the field,
So anytime they put themselves into what you could term
unnecessary risk, you kind of shudder a bit and get
(05:24):
getta get a little puckered because you're fearing that kind
of thing with Kyler Murray in this case, it was
gets to the outside, looks like he's gonna make make
a gain along the sideline, and and down he goes.
Now feared to be an a c l twitter at
how about a Fresco Mike get swollen dome if we
get an update on Kyler Murray, will bring it to
you at the end of the game. Again. Right now,
(05:45):
it's a two touchdown lead for New England with eight
minutes to go in the fourth quarter. But you brought
up an interesting word right there. You said quit and
to cut from the Cardinals to the Patriots here for
a second. One thing that I have always been envious
of the Patriots of. So now you know I'm telling
the truth because I'm gonna I'm gonna really give the
Patriots credit for it is not I. I The one
(06:08):
thing I have always been envious of the Patriots for
and you saw it a lot when they were in
their heyday with their dynasty. But then again, you're supposed
to win the vast majority of games when you have
Brady and you have Randy Mowson, West Welker, and you know,
you're you're a load of wasn't right for a couple
of years there and well you were your Look, you
had Hall of Fame talent defensively was Seymour and Bruce
(06:30):
Ky and ty Law. Uh, you know, you had a
lot of talent there. But even noticing it now, which
I've always been envious of the Patriots, right, is that
I always always been jealous of the Patriots that there's
never any flat games. Whenever they're playing a team like
the Cardinals on a Monday night and they're on the
(06:51):
road and they travel three thousand miles to play this game,
they start the game, they're not sharp, they lose Rmandre
Stevenson early, who has been the vast majority of their offense.
There is never any quit there is never any non sharpness.
If the Patriots lose games now, it's because they're just
not talented enough as the other team. That's why but
every game that they come in they are always the
(07:13):
mentally stronger team. And you can see it in games
like tonight where Okay, things aren't going our way early,
it doesn't matter. We're still gonna find a way through.
We're gonna give the ball to Kevin Harris, who's gonna
run for a touchdown. We're gonna all be are strong.
Who's gonna run for a touchdown? We can't let me
throw the football? All that much doesn't matter. We're gonna
find a way. They are always the mentally stronger team.
And I've always been jealous of that because games where
(07:34):
where the pages just this season, the Jets should have
beaten them twice, but instead because they come in there
mentally stronger. We're gonna wait for the Jets to make
a mistake. Hey, the Jets make a mistake. The games
they win they beat the teams they're supposed to beat,
or the toss up games are the games they win.
The games they lose are to this team is just
better than us because and you can scheme all you want,
(07:56):
but in the end, you gotta get out there and play.
And when a team is more talented than you are,
they're gonna win those games. Now, the Patriots were more
talented than everybody for a long time, which is why
they won of their games. But now the last couple
of years without Brady, with a new uh regime and
not great free agent signings and drafts that have gone
up and down. This is not a great roster. But
(08:18):
they are always prepared. And there's never a game where
I'm going to go, oh, you can catch the Patriots
sleep and in this get No, there's no catching the
Patriots sleeping. There's no maybe they're maybe they'll come up
with a flat performance. There's no maybe, just it won't
have the life the other two. No, they are always
the more prepared team. They are never gonna lose games
like that. So the toss up games or the trap games,
they don't have them. There's no such thing as that.
(08:39):
For I knew coming in this game, like they're gonna
win this game because the Cardinals look as as as
good as the Cardinals are talent wise, what do they
really have going on in this right? They're done. They're
the Patriots are the stronger team. They're gonna win this game. Ya.
As we we look at the Patriots year after year,
(08:59):
the thing that holds them back is build the GM, right,
It's not that the coach. You could argue that one
we basically just saying give me fifty three guys, let's
go to work, and he gets the best out of them. Now,
you had losses this year. You've got six Bears in
Green Bay. Okay, those are two bad losses. They got
run over literally by the Bears Packers. They lose by three.
(09:23):
And then there are other losses Miami, who up until
last night everybody was doing all they could to jenu
flect at the altar of two and Mike McDaniel. You
got Baltimore, perennially strong team, had their ups and downs.
But this is the part of the season back in
the early part of things where Lamar Jackson and the
(09:44):
offense was playing well. Then you have losses back to
back to Minnesota at Buffalo and while nobody believes in
Minnesota they were winning one score games and guess what
that was another one score game thirty your final and
then the law us to Buffalo. So you have an
opportunity tonight to go back above five hundred. And that's
(10:04):
kind of where the Belichick teams in the post Brady
era are right, he's a five hundred coach with this
this roster, but the biggest indictment is always just the
evaluation and the spending on wide receivers and tight ends.
Tonight Hunter Henry could is like doing jumping jacks down
the field just on the bat Arizona doesn't throw to
(10:25):
cover tight ends all year long, and then on their
their big scoring drive, he had a thirty nine yard
reception down inside the five. So it's it's that kind
of situation. Defense is ranked six in the NFL, given
up just eighteen point eight per game, so you're going
to be in games. Then it's just a question of
whether you can coax that offense beyond the twenty point threshold.
(10:50):
And guess what with the talent assembled not happening with regularity.
Whatever you think of Patricia, whatever you think of the
play calling, which is really conservative, make gives Todd Bowles
and Byron Leftwich and run for their money, right, And
we want to go down that road that you're you're
not giving yourself a chance working down field to make plays.
(11:11):
So I don't even know if they have a guy
right in the should be able to match up with
most most quarterbacks. He got hurt today and had to
leave the game. But you're you're doing immediate checked out
and just saying all right, we're just gonna have a
great screen game. Okay, fine, but eventually you still you
gotta do a little more than Nick Folk kicking field
goals to finish off games against better teams. And so
(11:34):
that's where build the GM. At some point, someone's got
to say, all right, you know what, you could pick
the rest of this squad. You can have the defenders,
you seem to find running backs. Okay, that fit what
you want to do, right, Stevenson, Harris, Harris, all these
guys and just keep going back like the two to
three man run runners that they've had, the backfields going
(11:55):
back years. It's always been there. What's been the bad
spot except for those glory years? Wide receiver trying to
find guys and when you go into the free agent
marketplace going oh, that's another team's trash, we're gonna go
fix them. No, you're you're not the quarterback whisperer that
is Lincoln Lincoln Riley or any of this stuff. No,
(12:16):
with wide receivers, they almost go to die like they
do in Chicago. Wow, And that's a place where receivers
go to you never see them again. Bears to bring
them in for a second, just because I made the comparison.
I got a lot of money to spend. You got
a couple of decent component parts, right Cole comets starting
to flash a little bit with Justin Field. Do people
(12:37):
even know that Chase Claypool is on the team. I
don't think people even he hasn't really done. They brought
They brought in Claypool, Darnell Mooney got hurt. And you
have all this money to spend, You're gonna have great
opportunities at the top of the draft. Who the hell
is signing unless unless Justin Field sends them a gift
basket and convinces them and does a hard sell of
(13:01):
you want to play with me, I really want to
play with me. You got something special. They got over
a hundred million dollars to spend. I'll be very curious
to see what wide receiver says, Yeah, I'll go play
in Chicago on that field at Soldier Field, Will will
will Justin Fields throw to me? You can block down
field for him? Where do I sign? That's what I
want to do? Pittsburgh for all those years right, you
(13:23):
had good wide wide receivers. But what was one of
the prerequisites you had to engage as a block. Oh yeah,
if you couldn't block as a wide receiver, they didn't
want you around. My hindes Ward was there for so long.
It's great downfield blockern hero and he taught all those
other guys that's what they did. But I'm telling you
that I'm just jealous of the There's no there's no
let up, there's no off games, there's no we're not prepared,
there's no if you play a team that's a toss
(13:45):
up or a team they're better than they're gonna win
the game. Yeah, I just forgot forgotten Pierre Strong Radar today.
We gotta make sure we give him his proper love too.
We could talk about how complicated other banks make it
to adem credit card rewards, or we could talk about
how with Discover you can redeem rewards for cashing any
amount at anytime. I mean, talk about amazing learn more
(14:06):
discovered dot Com slash redeem rewards. That's discovered dot Com
slash redeem rewards terms. They do apply well. Coming up
next in the tire Rack dot Com Studios. I think
y'all are gonna come around to a big bull prediction
I made last week for the NFL's coming up next
Right here, Jason and Mike Fox Morocco. It's Morocco Morocco, Morocco,
(14:28):
the Magnificent Don Morocco, Morocco, Molec, the Rock, He's the Rock.
Morocco the Rock. But he was the Rock. He was
the first rock. Don Morocco was. Then there was the Rock. Well,
first it was Don Morocco. Then there was the movie
The Rock, Welcome from the Rock. Then there was the Rock.
(14:49):
Dwayne Johnson. What about Dwayne Johnson? He was he was well,
he was Rocky Rocky. Not was Rocky Rocky Johnson Rocky
Johnson moroccoll. Be sure to catch live editions of The
Jason Smith Show with Mike harmon weekdays at ten pm Eastern,
seven pm Pacific on Fox Sports Radio and the I
Heart Radio app. So Much NFL to get to joining
(15:12):
us now on the Hotline, No One Better, Odyssey Washington Post,
NFL Insider Extraordinaire. You can follow him on Twitter at
Jason Lock and Flora. Jason was working on a twenty
thousand words story on the National Champion Syracuse Orange and
soccer and how they should just replace Morocco in the
World Cup. Jay, what's happening? Yeah? Man, when I was there,
(15:35):
I think I covered maybe one game for the Daily Orange,
and I mean they would play it like up at manly,
like they were like redheaded step child, like the men's
soccer program, like it was such an afterthought. And now, look,
I'm an old man, so it's been a long time
and things tend to change. But yeah, it's hard for
(15:56):
me to get my head around Syracuse as a soccer powerhouse.
But that's that's a beautiful thing. Yeah. Hey, at least
Gregg Burr Halter is not the coach, so we're okay,
We're okay, Okay, don't don't even wind me up. He'd
better not be the coach when I wake up tomorrow morning.
There better be a statement from US Soccer bur Alter rain.
Now let's get it on. Burt Halter assigned to a
(16:17):
five year all right, So, look, we saw the big
injury with Kyler Murray tonight, and look at the curdles
this season. It wasn't go anywhere there four at eight,
you saw the non contact injury. How much does this
affect his future as far as the off season, would
he have been someone that would have been a trade
candidate or maybe now maybe isn't because who knows how
long his injury is gonna wind up being. Would he
(16:38):
still have been there? No? I mean I think, Um,
that's kind of it's it's kind of Geo and Bear
Halter esque. Um, yeah, the manager will be gone and
the player is going to stay. Um whether he got
hurt or didn't hurt or whatever. Um, they're stuck like
they're they're committed, man, Like they just did that thing.
(17:00):
The numbers are off the charts, and I don't know
anybody else who's you know, going to watch the film
and say, let me take that off their hands, let
me give them a whole bunch of that and let
me let me work with this. Um. But I don't
think Cliffs back. I don't think Cliff thinks he'll be back. Um,
you know, Cliffs. People should be exploring every college job
(17:23):
with vigor. It doesn't matter when they did an extension,
Like Frank Reich and Chris Broward just got extensions, you
know what I mean. Like John Robinson just got an
extension and he's out. Um, it's it's not tenable. It's
people aren't going to show up for it, people aren't
going to support it. It's it's been an unmitigated disaster
(17:46):
and he's not gonna change and like enough, it's broken.
And I don't know obviously what happened to Kyler if
it's an you know, is it a multiple ligaments you
know tear. I don't know. Is he gonna be ready
for the start of camp under that new coach? I
(18:08):
don't know. Um, but that franchise is really in no
man's land, Like if it really is you know, um,
when they're adding people like DeAndre Hopkins and and and
what you know, when they should have been trading Chandler
Jones at that time and really trying to kind of
reconfigure themselves rather than bringing in guys who have a
(18:31):
year tops maybe a couple left in their prime. Um,
it's not a very good roster there, perpetually suspect in
the trenches. Um, yeah, it's it's And I don't know
what the next coach is gonna look like. And if
they let Steve come hire another coach, they're out of
their minds. Like I I know that the owner loves
(18:53):
them and it's great that you guys, you know, a
party in the suite together and hang out and your
boys and pull parties and let's row it up. But
like it's a billion dollar, you know, multibillion dollar franchise
and people pay good money to support this and the
general manager, there's no reason he shouldn't have been fired
years ago. He shouldn't he should have been fired after
(19:13):
the d u I. He should have been fired after
the Steve Wilkes tobacco. You could come he should have
been fired after the Rose and like, you could come
up with so many things where you're like that should
have been the end, Like and you let him put
together the Wilkes staff and that was a failure. And
then you let him run Wilkes out of there like
he was the problem. And then you let him go
out on a limb for this g Q model, right,
(19:37):
and we're gonna sell that now when he was trying
to get college coordinator jobs and you hired that staff
for him because he didn't know what the hell he
was doing, and that's a disaster. Like when is enough enough?
That's a question I've been asking for years. I'm glad
that you hear the chorus jumping in. So it's getting louder. Uh. Look,
(19:59):
let's jump up to the afternoon game. Forty Niners roll
behind Purty, they lose Deebo Samuel. Uh. It seems for
the well probably the rest of the regular season. Well
we saw, I mean, I thought Todd Bowles coach defense.
It looked like Matt Matt Birdie was out there playing
against a bunch of scrubs on a pickup game. Yeah,
(20:20):
I mean the Bucks are They're not professional grade right now.
I don't know what they do. Well, it's it's hard
to say they have a discernible um like what are
their strengths, you know what I mean? Like, what are
their positives? I didn't sixteen and a half. I didn't
(20:40):
think they were going to get to ten, let alone
sixteen and a half points in that game, and they
were lucky that they didn't get shut out. They can't
run the ball, they can't throw the ball deep. All
they want to do, you know, seems like all left
which wants to do is throw the balls to the
running backs. But when you play a team with linebackers
like that, it ain't gonna work. Uh, defensive, especially once
(21:01):
the Vita Vea goes down like I don't really know.
You know, the linebackers seem to have gotten old really quickly.
The secondary is so beat up. It's never really been
what they thought it was going to be. Um, they
don't make plays on the ball in the air. I
like Todd a lot. I think Todd Bowles is a
great defensive coordinator. Uh he's uber conservative as a head coach,
(21:25):
and I think that overriding sort of vibe of playing
not to lose tends to seep into a team's culture
and they start to find ways to lose rather than
find ways to win. I mean, if you want to
talk about two people with completely disparate personalities, completely desperate
philosophies about football, completely disparate mentalities about how to how
(21:48):
to manage a football game, it's Bruce Arians and Todd Bowles.
But that's what you know, those are the two extremes
that they've gone to. Um. The team isn't built anymore
for the long term, justifiably, so they're sort of all
in right there, Like the Saints are like the Rams.
They kind of have had these windows that they've been
trying to keep open with older quarterbacks. I know, Breeze
hasn't been there for a minute, but they certainly mortgage
(22:10):
the future multiple times with him there, and it seems
like some of those credit card bills are come and do.
I don't know if ownership is going to be content
like they're gonna probably I guess, to win that division,
but I don't think they're gonna do anything in the playoffs,
and then there's gonna be some real decisions for ownership
to make about, um, who's a part of the future
and who's not. Brady is not going to be back.
(22:31):
I mean, I don't see any scenario where Brady's back there. Um. Yeah,
I it's a really tough watch right now. And they
look they look like a team that that don't know
who they are. They look like a team that we're
heading into Christmas and they have no idea what their
identity is. On the other side, I said Matt Purty,
(22:52):
thinking of the old obviously it's Brock Purty. Um. So,
given all of the problems with the Tampa baits out
of things, I mean, they may have found themselves a
nice solution to where maybe Tom Brady doesn't have San
Francisco even as a long distance dedication call anymore. Yeah,
(23:12):
I mean, Carl Shanahan is going to have some decisions
to make. Um. Garoppolo was playing his way back into
an extension there, but then he got hurt. And that's
always the problem with Garoppolo. She seems to be hurt
most of the time when you need him most. I
don't know how they can bank on Trey Lance. And
we'll have to see about party. You know, they turn
around and play on like every every game's gonna matter
(23:34):
here as you kind of try to sort through this
and obviously to this point, through the half he played
in the first week and then I guess what, he
played a little played into the third quarter in this
game and then they yanked everybody because it was a blowout.
So we still haven't seen him through an entire full game.
But what we've seen of him has been, I mean,
nothing short of masterful. You know, Does that continue? Is
(23:55):
that who he is? Um? I don't know. There seems
to be a lot of clay to mold there though.
I don't know. Do they need a veteran in that
mix somewhere next year? Knowing that this kid is super
young and Trey Lance has barely played football, do they
just trade Trey Lance for whatever they can get for him.
(24:15):
I don't know that. I think they're with that way
that team is constructed. I think you're gonna need a
veteran quarterback there of some um stature. Whether it's the
freaking goat or not, I guess remains to be seen.
But I mean, I'm actually working on a piece for
the Washington Post right now. Try to come up with
five teams that you think are a fit for Tom Brady,
like that they would want him and he would want
(24:36):
them back. I don't know that. I don't know that
there's two, and I had a hard time getting beyond three.
Where like, because he's gonna be super selective, like he's
gonna be super fickle, Like he ain't going to Carolina,
Ain't going to Atlanta, Ain't going to Nashville, you know
what I mean, Like you ain't going to Indianapolis. Like
they gotta want him and need him, and he's got
to want them back. I don't know how many teams
(24:57):
there are, no j We talk about this last week,
and I feel like he is playing for his football
life the next few weeks if he doesn't get a
tick up in production and show that I could still
be somewhat of the guy. There's gonna be teams you're
gonna say yes, sorry, there's like eleven quarterbacks we can
take in the first round of the draft this year.
I don't know that we're gonna go all in and
(25:18):
say yes, you're gonna bring us a victory, like he's
playing for his NFL life. Yeah, I mean, I think
there's something to that. And and look, will he come
out in the first round of the playoffs and have
an epic Tom Brady game and then they lose the
next week. But it's like you could see that there's
and I think you tends to play like there's no
(25:38):
doubt in my mind he can still play. And he's
still for me, a top twelve quarterback in this league.
But like everything's got to be right around him obviously
at this stage of his career. And I don't know
how many teams are going to check all the boxes
that he wants checked and then they're gonna, you know,
he's also going to check all the boxes that they
(26:00):
want checked. I mean, I think it's San Francisco possibly,
I think it's Miami possibly. I think it's the Raiders.
Maybe and then for me, it's the field, and like,
I don't know how much of the field really makes sense.
He's on Twitter at Jason Locke and Flora That is
(26:20):
at Jason Locke and for Odyssey. Check out that piece
coming up on the Washington Post. That'll be a companion
piece to the Syracuse Soccer national title. Right, I'm talking
to the editors and I'm trying to effort sufficient space
to chronicle this, uh for one of America's great newspapers.
Very nice taking, easybody. We'll talk to next. Be sure
(26:41):
to catch live editions of The Jason Smith Show with
Mike Harmon weekdays at ten pm Eastern, seven pm Pacific. Hey,
what's up everybody? It's me three time Pro Bowl of
La Warrington, and I couldn't be more excited to announce
the podcast called Up on Game? What is Up on Game?
You asked, along with my fellow old bowler t J.
Hudshman Zada and Super Bowl champion. That's right, Plexico Birds.
(27:06):
You can only name a show with that type of
talent on it. Up on Game We're going to be
sharing our real life experiences loaded with teachable moments. Listen
to Up on Game with Me, Labar Arrington, t J
Hudgmansatta and Plexico Birds on the I Heart Radio app,
Apple Podcast or wherever you get your podcast from Monday
(27:29):
night football is over. The Patriots beat the Cardinals. The
Cardinals lose Kyler Murray potentially for the rest of the season.
It looked like a really bad knee injury. It does
not look good according to reports, but no official diagnosis yet.
And a win for Mac Jones. Very pedestrian night to
(27:50):
thirty five through the air in an interception. Hey he won.
You know, I'm sorry. I'm never going to buy Mac
Jones as a start. He's never gonna buy him because
he's just a guy. He is just a guy. Just yes,
he's seven and six, thank you, Bailey Jappie. He's always
(28:11):
been just a guy. And yet last year it was
he's Tom Brady. Okay, no, he's not no no one.
He could develop into something special, That's what it was.
Nobody said he's Tom Brady. Drafted a guy at thirteen.
He's a game manager at best, right, That's who That's
who Mac Jones is. He's having a Zack Wilson type season.
(28:33):
Has got seven touchdowns and eight picks. The guy just
isn't good. He's a game manager with the Patriots winning
with a great defense and enough running backs, because clearly
when you lose Remondre Stevenson doesn't matter. We still got
guys coming out of the woodwork running. Harris Harrison Strong,
Ben Jarvis green ellis the law first. Yeah, the legend
(28:54):
we're bringing to Harris. He he runs for forty four yards,
has a big run, a touchdown run. It doesn't They
just keep throwing guys out there. Anybody could be running
back with the Patriots. They just you'll get out there,
You'll give you the ball, hold onto it, and you
could be a star. But I'm just never gonna believe
him Mac Jones because he just isn't that good. He's
not dynamic, he's not somebody. He's someone who is just okay.
(29:14):
He's a rookie on a rookie or he's a second
year player on a rookie deal. That if you had
an unbelievable, unbeatable team, could Mac Jones be okay? Yeah,
But this is a team Mac Jones plays on. So
the Patriots, even if they find a way to squeak
into the playoffs, you got a month left to go
and everybody's seven and six? How far are they really
gonna go? How far? Because Mac Jones is just a guy.
(29:36):
You overdrafted him. You thought he was gonna be a star.
You thought I can win with this guy, and and
maybe he's the next Tom brad All and you were
just wrong. He is just a guy, be and he
continues to get propped up there Mac Jones Jones, he
is just a guy, just uh guy. Yeah. I think
there's a oh my god, Bucky Brooks right Sunday mornings,
(29:57):
he and I a couple of hours we're chopping up together.
The firm is part of the show for the first
hour that like he always talks about quarterbacks, as you know,
are are they the the the truck or are they
the trailer? Right? Are they pulling a longer? Are they
just along for the ride? And there's very few guys
that you would say, as we watch Optimus Prime run
them up, are are the trucks right? There's very few guys.
(30:21):
Everything else is it's got to be perfect. Mac Jones
is one of those guys in that trailer. You can
decide where he is in terms of if you're putting
seats back there, how far. You want them towards the
front in case something happens and he needs to dive
in that debate we can have all day, but there's
a lot of guys in that same boat where things
have to go perfectly. And we've talked about it a
(30:44):
lot tonight. Even though the running back situation, for going
back a long long time, you invoked the name of
Ben Jarvis green ellis you go back to Corey Dylan.
You talk about some of these guys that have been
in Patriots uniforms, and yes, the running backs situation back
Kevin Falk, talk about James White, all of those guys.
You've always had a multi pronged approach coming out of
(31:07):
the backfield that's worked pretty well. Receiving wise, Come on, man,
with Brady, you had Welker, and you had uh Randy
Moss for a bit, and obviously Gronkowski was just such
a difference maker. Otherwise you got a bunch of jags
running around. Give me an actual number one on this team.
Let me see if Mac Jones any better, right, Josh
(31:29):
Allen was a guy until Stevon dig showed up. Yeah,
just Mac Jones guy. He's seven and six, tied with
your Jets. Now you, Jack, are my just guy. Now yeah,
I got it. What You're my number one guy. You
(31:51):
are just a guy. That's just jacked, Jack Palance said
to Jack Nichols. You guys, you Mac Jones, you are
just a guy. Be sure to catch live editions of
The Jason Smith Show with Mike Harman weekdays at ten
pm Eastern, seven pm Pacific on Fox Sports Radio and
(32:12):
the I Heart Radio app. The Jets lose to the
Bills and and Mike White's injury a very big story.
The Jets get good news on him. They expect him
to play this weekends. The suddenly red hot Lions. Now
here's Rice Zigg and Santa Zag Because you know how
much I love Mike White, and he's brought all kinds
of energy to the team. His teammates love him. You
don't get any tougher than that. And come back out
(32:33):
to play that game, and they still nearly pulled off
the win. But they beat the Spreads. That's sure. They did.
They did, they did. But here's the thing. I love him,
but he is I love him, But Mike White is
a band aid to save the season. That's what he is.
(32:55):
Is he I like to say that the band way
is a band aid to save the season. Every No, no,
I get the first bit of up. No. I'm just
telling you the reality. They have said save the season.
And the Jets offense the last two weeks has been terrible. Now,
all I gotta do is get in the end zone
(33:15):
one more time again, one time against the Vikings and
they win. They don't just don't fumble, don't turn the ball.
They couldn't do it. The offense has been bad. And yes,
the Bill's defense is pretty good, but you gotta be
able to put the ball in the ends. On the
Vikings past defense is terrible. You couldn't get in the
ends you hold. I know the offense has disappeared. And
it's the second straight game where the defense because the
(33:37):
Jets defense is now one of the top five defenses
in the NFL. It's not even debatle is it as
good as the Broncos or the Niners. No, but it's
right there just below that. They're not anywhere right now.
Three through five. They are just that good. And it's
another game where the offense has let down the defense.
This is going to be yes, stick with Mike White
the rest of the way see if he can say
(33:59):
the season because the Jets arrived a year early, they
weren't expected to be this competitive this early, but they
are because their defense came together in a large way.
But you watch, trust me, I'll tell you exactly what's
gonna happen in the off season. The New York Jets
are going to go over the top and all out
for a new quarterback because this is a team that
believes in rightfully. So we can be a championship team
(34:21):
if we get somebody to put some bleeping points on
the board. We have a great offering. Guys keep getting hurt.
The offensive line still got a good offensive line. We
have the weapons we need at wide receiver, yes, the
weapons running back. Yes, we need a quarterback. It's all
they need. They have everything else, and the defensive backs
of the defensive line, they have everything else. The pressure
to get a quarterback will be so immense and everybody
(34:43):
is going to be on the table for them. The
Jets will be linked with everyone. Derek Carr, They'll be
linked with Lamar Jackson, Aaron Rodgers, Ryan Tannehill. They'll be
linked with everyone because they will have no choice and
the pressure will be so much. Joe Douglas is gonna
have to go get a quarterback because you can't go
back to Zack Wilson. He's clearly shown he's not the guy.
Can you trust that Mike White is gonna be able
to do? They're gonna go all out. They're gonna be
(35:04):
linked with every quarterback in the off season, and they're
gonna get a big one because they have no choice. Yeah,
it's it's certainly the one year where you may have
seven or eight veteran quarterbacks that are available. Right either
let go entirely so free agency and what are you
willing to spend versus situations like Lamar Jackson And we've
(35:25):
talked about quite a bit. Is he a guy destined
for the franchise tag? So would Baltimore take picks in
exchange now? Trading him in conference but not within the division?
Maybe they like Tyler Huntley enough to move on. Who knows,
they got that big way over Pittsburgh, but certainly, uh,
the wheels will be spinning. Can't wait
Thanks for listening to the best of The Jason Smith
Show with Mike Harmen podcast. Be sure to catch us
live every week night from ten pm to two a m.
Eastern seven to eleven pm Pacific on Fox Sports Radio.
Find your local station for The Jason Smith Show with
Mike Harmon at Fox Sports Radio dot com, or stream
us live every night on the I Heart Radio app
by searching fs R. This is the best of The
(00:22):
Jason Smith Show with Mike Harmon on Fox Sports Radio.
Well midway through the fourth quarter, Patriots lead the Cardinals
twenty seven to thirteen. It's been a pretty big Patriots
lead throughout the Cardinals. Of course, second play of the game,
they lose Kyler Murray to what looks to be a
(00:45):
severe knee injury. Both Adam Schefter and Ian Rappaport tweeting
out that they're going to look at it and give
more examination, but right now it doesn't look good and
non contact injury. He was running, planted his right foot
and went out from under him. So yeah, it doesn't
look like we're gonna see Kyler Murray for quite a
long time. You know, last hour we talked about his
(01:07):
future and what this is gonna mean for him going
to the offseason, was he gonna stick around, would he
have a new head coach? Not? Now it's is he
really going to be ready for the beginning of next season.
It's a very difficult thing. And when when you look
at the the situation that the Cardinals find themselves in.
Here's Kyler Murray who he has his fans, he has
(01:29):
his detractors. He is a middle of the pack ish
type quarterback in the NFL. Maybe you want to put
him in the top half of quarterbacks, um, but this
is what happens when you have a player who is
this kind of dual threat quarterback. It's great to have
the dual threat quarterbacks, but what that means is they
(01:50):
have twice as big a chance of getting hurt because
they're out in the open. Not that there's something that
could have happened with this, but just hey, the stress
of running. We don't know what it is. He comes
down a little bit, a little bit, it wrong on
on on one of his feet, and he winds up
getting hurt. And that's what's too bad because you think
about the running quarterbacks in the NFL, and it's and
and they just they're not able to stay healthy for
(02:10):
a long time. You know, it's very rare that a
guy like Cam Newton could stay around as long as
he did. But he was big enough to put hits
on the on the on the defenders, and he was
also able to get out of bounds. He was someone who, Okay,
I can protect myself when I'm running, and guys like
Kyler Murray and Lamar Jackson and all the guys that
(02:30):
like to run, it's it's more difficult for them to
protect themselves. And again, this is an anomaly because this
was him running in the open field and he gets hurt.
And it's just every time a quarterback that is a
dual threat quarterback runs, if you're a fan of that team,
like your heart is in your throat because it's a
get up, get up, get up right. Nope, don't don't run,
don't don't move, don't don't don't plant and try to
(02:51):
cut back, just run out of bounds, slide do something here.
I mean, because every time they take off, your heart
is in your throat. It's it's like that other teams
like when you see Aaron Rodgers scrambling right, or you
see somebody else grambling it's like, oh, get the first down,
get this, get this. But when you see a quarterback
who likes to run, it's okay, okay, okay, because it's
such a big part and and there's there there's such
(03:13):
a propensity because they run so much that when they
finished with the run, it's okay, okay, you're good, get
back to the hudle, get back to the huddle. Well,
because a lot of that it becomes it's such a
big component of their offense right there, not just look
at what they're doing with justin fields in Chicago, right,
a lot of it was jail break stuff early in
the season. And then well, if he's gonna run, why
don't we actually design some stuff steal from the Baltimore playbook.
(03:36):
And I've always advocated for what coach Harbass stands was
in Baltimore after Lamar's breakout year of this is what
makes him special. Right, we understand it made curtail you know,
his his stats and everything on the back end, and
he understands that. Right, everybody's on the same page in
(03:57):
terms of usage. And then well, now have for Kyler Murray.
Third play of the game goes to scramble and down
he goes he'd missed a couple of games already this season,
and you've got a team and and it's starting the
whispers there is to watch the second a se um.
You don't want to use the word quit for a team,
but it looks to me like if they could there
(04:19):
there might be an all out war on the sideline
of that. But he just beating each other up between
the coaching staff and the players as this one flows
and add the GM. Steve Kime Jason lackinfora made his
comments last hour, most of which I agreed with. And
I don't call for firings, but that that's been dysfunctional
(04:39):
for a while. And it's clear Kingsbury and Murray not
on the same page. But to your point about quarterbacks,
when when you do have a guy who is, as
we turn it, dual threat, and that's such a large component. Yeah,
it's the you take the great but then you have
the other side that can happen as well, trying for
that extra yard to get the first down, you get
(05:01):
twisted in turn. How many times with Josh Allen because
of his size as he's in the middle of a
pile or he dives into contact are you shaking your head?
Whether you like the Buffalo Bills or not, you you
like to see greatness and top players on the field,
So anytime they put themselves into what you could term
unnecessary risk, you kind of shudder a bit and get
(05:24):
getta get a little puckered because you're fearing that kind
of thing with Kyler Murray in this case, it was
gets to the outside, looks like he's gonna make make
a gain along the sideline, and and down he goes.
Now feared to be an a c l twitter at
how about a Fresco Mike get swollen dome if we
get an update on Kyler Murray, will bring it to
you at the end of the game. Again. Right now,
(05:45):
it's a two touchdown lead for New England with eight
minutes to go in the fourth quarter. But you brought
up an interesting word right there. You said quit and
to cut from the Cardinals to the Patriots here for
a second. One thing that I have always been envious
of the Patriots of. So now you know I'm telling
the truth because I'm gonna I'm gonna really give the
Patriots credit for it is not I. I The one
(06:08):
thing I have always been envious of the Patriots for
and you saw it a lot when they were in
their heyday with their dynasty. But then again, you're supposed
to win the vast majority of games when you have
Brady and you have Randy Mowson, West Welker, and you know,
you're you're a load of wasn't right for a couple
of years there and well you were your Look, you
had Hall of Fame talent defensively was Seymour and Bruce
(06:30):
Ky and ty Law. Uh, you know, you had a
lot of talent there. But even noticing it now, which
I've always been envious of the Patriots, right, is that
I always always been jealous of the Patriots that there's
never any flat games. Whenever they're playing a team like
the Cardinals on a Monday night and they're on the
(06:51):
road and they travel three thousand miles to play this game,
they start the game, they're not sharp, they lose Rmandre
Stevenson early, who has been the vast majority of their offense.
There is never any quit there is never any non sharpness.
If the Patriots lose games now, it's because they're just
not talented enough as the other team. That's why but
every game that they come in they are always the
(07:13):
mentally stronger team. And you can see it in games
like tonight where Okay, things aren't going our way early,
it doesn't matter. We're still gonna find a way through.
We're gonna give the ball to Kevin Harris, who's gonna
run for a touchdown. We're gonna all be are strong.
Who's gonna run for a touchdown? We can't let me
throw the football? All that much doesn't matter. We're gonna
find a way. They are always the mentally stronger team.
And I've always been jealous of that because games where
(07:34):
where the pages just this season, the Jets should have
beaten them twice, but instead because they come in there
mentally stronger. We're gonna wait for the Jets to make
a mistake. Hey, the Jets make a mistake. The games
they win they beat the teams they're supposed to beat,
or the toss up games are the games they win.
The games they lose are to this team is just
better than us because and you can scheme all you want,
(07:56):
but in the end, you gotta get out there and play.
And when a team is more talented than you are,
they're gonna win those games. Now, the Patriots were more
talented than everybody for a long time, which is why
they won of their games. But now the last couple
of years without Brady, with a new uh regime and
not great free agent signings and drafts that have gone
up and down. This is not a great roster. But
(08:18):
they are always prepared. And there's never a game where
I'm going to go, oh, you can catch the Patriots
sleep and in this get No, there's no catching the
Patriots sleeping. There's no maybe they're maybe they'll come up
with a flat performance. There's no maybe, just it won't
have the life the other two. No, they are always
the more prepared team. They are never gonna lose games
like that. So the toss up games or the trap games,
they don't have them. There's no such thing as that.
(08:39):
For I knew coming in this game, like they're gonna
win this game because the Cardinals look as as as
good as the Cardinals are talent wise, what do they
really have going on in this right? They're done. They're
the Patriots are the stronger team. They're gonna win this game. Ya.
As we we look at the Patriots year after year,
(08:59):
the thing that holds them back is build the GM, right,
It's not that the coach. You could argue that one
we basically just saying give me fifty three guys, let's
go to work, and he gets the best out of them. Now,
you had losses this year. You've got six Bears in
Green Bay. Okay, those are two bad losses. They got
run over literally by the Bears Packers. They lose by three.
(09:23):
And then there are other losses Miami, who up until
last night everybody was doing all they could to jenu
flect at the altar of two and Mike McDaniel. You
got Baltimore, perennially strong team, had their ups and downs.
But this is the part of the season back in
the early part of things where Lamar Jackson and the
(09:44):
offense was playing well. Then you have losses back to
back to Minnesota at Buffalo and while nobody believes in
Minnesota they were winning one score games and guess what
that was another one score game thirty your final and
then the law us to Buffalo. So you have an
opportunity tonight to go back above five hundred. And that's
(10:04):
kind of where the Belichick teams in the post Brady
era are right, he's a five hundred coach with this
this roster, but the biggest indictment is always just the
evaluation and the spending on wide receivers and tight ends.
Tonight Hunter Henry could is like doing jumping jacks down
the field just on the bat Arizona doesn't throw to
(10:25):
cover tight ends all year long, and then on their
their big scoring drive, he had a thirty nine yard
reception down inside the five. So it's it's that kind
of situation. Defense is ranked six in the NFL, given
up just eighteen point eight per game, so you're going
to be in games. Then it's just a question of
whether you can coax that offense beyond the twenty point threshold.
(10:50):
And guess what with the talent assembled not happening with regularity.
Whatever you think of Patricia, whatever you think of the
play calling, which is really conservative, make gives Todd Bowles
and Byron Leftwich and run for their money, right, And
we want to go down that road that you're you're
not giving yourself a chance working down field to make plays.
(11:11):
So I don't even know if they have a guy
right in the should be able to match up with
most most quarterbacks. He got hurt today and had to
leave the game. But you're you're doing immediate checked out
and just saying all right, we're just gonna have a
great screen game. Okay, fine, but eventually you still you
gotta do a little more than Nick Folk kicking field
goals to finish off games against better teams. And so
(11:34):
that's where build the GM. At some point, someone's got
to say, all right, you know what, you could pick
the rest of this squad. You can have the defenders,
you seem to find running backs. Okay, that fit what
you want to do, right, Stevenson, Harris, Harris, all these
guys and just keep going back like the two to
three man run runners that they've had, the backfields going
(11:55):
back years. It's always been there. What's been the bad
spot except for those glory years? Wide receiver trying to
find guys and when you go into the free agent
marketplace going oh, that's another team's trash, we're gonna go
fix them. No, you're you're not the quarterback whisperer that
is Lincoln Lincoln Riley or any of this stuff. No,
(12:16):
with wide receivers, they almost go to die like they
do in Chicago. Wow, And that's a place where receivers
go to you never see them again. Bears to bring
them in for a second, just because I made the comparison.
I got a lot of money to spend. You got
a couple of decent component parts, right Cole comets starting
to flash a little bit with Justin Field. Do people
(12:37):
even know that Chase Claypool is on the team. I
don't think people even he hasn't really done. They brought
They brought in Claypool, Darnell Mooney got hurt. And you
have all this money to spend, You're gonna have great
opportunities at the top of the draft. Who the hell
is signing unless unless Justin Field sends them a gift
basket and convinces them and does a hard sell of
(13:01):
you want to play with me, I really want to
play with me. You got something special. They got over
a hundred million dollars to spend. I'll be very curious
to see what wide receiver says, Yeah, I'll go play
in Chicago on that field at Soldier Field, Will will
will Justin Fields throw to me? You can block down
field for him? Where do I sign? That's what I
want to do? Pittsburgh for all those years right, you
(13:23):
had good wide wide receivers. But what was one of
the prerequisites you had to engage as a block. Oh yeah,
if you couldn't block as a wide receiver, they didn't
want you around. My hindes Ward was there for so long.
It's great downfield blockern hero and he taught all those
other guys that's what they did. But I'm telling you
that I'm just jealous of the There's no there's no
let up, there's no off games, there's no we're not prepared,
there's no if you play a team that's a toss
(13:45):
up or a team they're better than they're gonna win
the game. Yeah, I just forgot forgotten Pierre Strong Radar today.
We gotta make sure we give him his proper love too.
We could talk about how complicated other banks make it
to adem credit card rewards, or we could talk about
how with Discover you can redeem rewards for cashing any
amount at anytime. I mean, talk about amazing learn more
(14:06):
discovered dot Com slash redeem rewards. That's discovered dot Com
slash redeem rewards terms. They do apply well. Coming up
next in the tire Rack dot Com Studios. I think
y'all are gonna come around to a big bull prediction
I made last week for the NFL's coming up next
Right here, Jason and Mike Fox Morocco. It's Morocco Morocco, Morocco,
(14:28):
the Magnificent Don Morocco, Morocco, Molec, the Rock, He's the Rock.
Morocco the Rock. But he was the Rock. He was
the first rock. Don Morocco was. Then there was the Rock. Well,
first it was Don Morocco. Then there was the movie
The Rock, Welcome from the Rock. Then there was the Rock.
(14:49):
Dwayne Johnson. What about Dwayne Johnson? He was he was well,
he was Rocky Rocky. Not was Rocky Rocky Johnson Rocky
Johnson moroccoll. Be sure to catch live editions of The
Jason Smith Show with Mike harmon weekdays at ten pm Eastern,
seven pm Pacific on Fox Sports Radio and the I
Heart Radio app. So Much NFL to get to joining
(15:12):
us now on the Hotline, No One Better, Odyssey Washington Post,
NFL Insider Extraordinaire. You can follow him on Twitter at
Jason Lock and Flora. Jason was working on a twenty
thousand words story on the National Champion Syracuse Orange and
soccer and how they should just replace Morocco in the
World Cup. Jay, what's happening? Yeah? Man, when I was there,
(15:35):
I think I covered maybe one game for the Daily Orange,
and I mean they would play it like up at manly,
like they were like redheaded step child, like the men's
soccer program, like it was such an afterthought. And now, look,
I'm an old man, so it's been a long time
and things tend to change. But yeah, it's hard for
(15:56):
me to get my head around Syracuse as a soccer powerhouse.
But that's that's a beautiful thing. Yeah. Hey, at least
Gregg Burr Halter is not the coach, so we're okay,
We're okay, Okay, don't don't even wind me up. He'd
better not be the coach when I wake up tomorrow morning.
There better be a statement from US Soccer bur Alter rain.
Now let's get it on. Burt Halter assigned to a
(16:17):
five year all right, So, look, we saw the big
injury with Kyler Murray tonight, and look at the curdles
this season. It wasn't go anywhere there four at eight,
you saw the non contact injury. How much does this
affect his future as far as the off season, would
he have been someone that would have been a trade
candidate or maybe now maybe isn't because who knows how
long his injury is gonna wind up being. Would he
(16:38):
still have been there? No? I mean I think, Um,
that's kind of it's it's kind of Geo and Bear
Halter esque. Um, yeah, the manager will be gone and
the player is going to stay. Um whether he got
hurt or didn't hurt or whatever. Um, they're stuck like
they're they're committed, man, Like they just did that thing.
(17:00):
The numbers are off the charts, and I don't know
anybody else who's you know, going to watch the film
and say, let me take that off their hands, let
me give them a whole bunch of that and let
me let me work with this. Um. But I don't
think Cliffs back. I don't think Cliff thinks he'll be back. Um,
you know, Cliffs. People should be exploring every college job
(17:23):
with vigor. It doesn't matter when they did an extension,
Like Frank Reich and Chris Broward just got extensions, you
know what I mean. Like John Robinson just got an
extension and he's out. Um, it's it's not tenable. It's
people aren't going to show up for it, people aren't
going to support it. It's it's been an unmitigated disaster
(17:46):
and he's not gonna change and like enough, it's broken.
And I don't know obviously what happened to Kyler if
it's an you know, is it a multiple ligaments you
know tear. I don't know. Is he gonna be ready
for the start of camp under that new coach? I
(18:08):
don't know. Um, but that franchise is really in no
man's land, Like if it really is you know, um,
when they're adding people like DeAndre Hopkins and and and
what you know, when they should have been trading Chandler
Jones at that time and really trying to kind of
reconfigure themselves rather than bringing in guys who have a
(18:31):
year tops maybe a couple left in their prime. Um,
it's not a very good roster there, perpetually suspect in
the trenches. Um, yeah, it's it's And I don't know
what the next coach is gonna look like. And if
they let Steve come hire another coach, they're out of
their minds. Like I I know that the owner loves
(18:53):
them and it's great that you guys, you know, a
party in the suite together and hang out and your
boys and pull parties and let's row it up. But
like it's a billion dollar, you know, multibillion dollar franchise
and people pay good money to support this and the
general manager, there's no reason he shouldn't have been fired
years ago. He shouldn't he should have been fired after
(19:13):
the d u I. He should have been fired after
the Steve Wilkes tobacco. You could come he should have
been fired after the Rose and like, you could come
up with so many things where you're like that should
have been the end, Like and you let him put
together the Wilkes staff and that was a failure. And
then you let him run Wilkes out of there like
he was the problem. And then you let him go
out on a limb for this g Q model, right,
(19:37):
and we're gonna sell that now when he was trying
to get college coordinator jobs and you hired that staff
for him because he didn't know what the hell he
was doing, and that's a disaster. Like when is enough enough?
That's a question I've been asking for years. I'm glad
that you hear the chorus jumping in. So it's getting louder. Uh. Look,
(19:59):
let's jump up to the afternoon game. Forty Niners roll
behind Purty, they lose Deebo Samuel. Uh. It seems for
the well probably the rest of the regular season. Well
we saw, I mean, I thought Todd Bowles coach defense.
It looked like Matt Matt Birdie was out there playing
against a bunch of scrubs on a pickup game. Yeah,
(20:20):
I mean the Bucks are They're not professional grade right now.
I don't know what they do. Well, it's it's hard
to say they have a discernible um like what are
their strengths, you know what I mean? Like, what are
their positives? I didn't sixteen and a half. I didn't
(20:40):
think they were going to get to ten, let alone
sixteen and a half points in that game, and they
were lucky that they didn't get shut out. They can't
run the ball, they can't throw the ball deep. All
they want to do, you know, seems like all left
which wants to do is throw the balls to the
running backs. But when you play a team with linebackers
like that, it ain't gonna work. Uh, defensive, especially once
(21:01):
the Vita Vea goes down like I don't really know.
You know, the linebackers seem to have gotten old really quickly.
The secondary is so beat up. It's never really been
what they thought it was going to be. Um, they
don't make plays on the ball in the air. I
like Todd a lot. I think Todd Bowles is a
great defensive coordinator. Uh he's uber conservative as a head coach,
(21:25):
and I think that overriding sort of vibe of playing
not to lose tends to seep into a team's culture
and they start to find ways to lose rather than
find ways to win. I mean, if you want to
talk about two people with completely disparate personalities, completely desperate
philosophies about football, completely disparate mentalities about how to how
(21:48):
to manage a football game, it's Bruce Arians and Todd Bowles.
But that's what you know, those are the two extremes
that they've gone to. Um. The team isn't built anymore
for the long term, justifiably, so they're sort of all
in right there, Like the Saints are like the Rams.
They kind of have had these windows that they've been
trying to keep open with older quarterbacks. I know, Breeze
hasn't been there for a minute, but they certainly mortgage
(22:10):
the future multiple times with him there, and it seems
like some of those credit card bills are come and do.
I don't know if ownership is going to be content
like they're gonna probably I guess, to win that division,
but I don't think they're gonna do anything in the playoffs,
and then there's gonna be some real decisions for ownership
to make about, um, who's a part of the future
and who's not. Brady is not going to be back.
(22:31):
I mean, I don't see any scenario where Brady's back there. Um. Yeah,
I it's a really tough watch right now. And they
look they look like a team that that don't know
who they are. They look like a team that we're
heading into Christmas and they have no idea what their
identity is. On the other side, I said Matt Purty,
(22:52):
thinking of the old obviously it's Brock Purty. Um. So,
given all of the problems with the Tampa baits out
of things, I mean, they may have found themselves a
nice solution to where maybe Tom Brady doesn't have San
Francisco even as a long distance dedication call anymore. Yeah,
(23:12):
I mean, Carl Shanahan is going to have some decisions
to make. Um. Garoppolo was playing his way back into
an extension there, but then he got hurt. And that's
always the problem with Garoppolo. She seems to be hurt
most of the time when you need him most. I
don't know how they can bank on Trey Lance. And
we'll have to see about party. You know, they turn
around and play on like every every game's gonna matter
(23:34):
here as you kind of try to sort through this
and obviously to this point, through the half he played
in the first week and then I guess what, he
played a little played into the third quarter in this
game and then they yanked everybody because it was a blowout.
So we still haven't seen him through an entire full game.
But what we've seen of him has been, I mean,
nothing short of masterful. You know, Does that continue? Is
(23:55):
that who he is? Um? I don't know. There seems
to be a lot of clay to mold there though.
I don't know. Do they need a veteran in that
mix somewhere next year? Knowing that this kid is super
young and Trey Lance has barely played football, do they
just trade Trey Lance for whatever they can get for him.
(24:15):
I don't know that. I think they're with that way
that team is constructed. I think you're gonna need a
veteran quarterback there of some um stature. Whether it's the
freaking goat or not, I guess remains to be seen.
But I mean, I'm actually working on a piece for
the Washington Post right now. Try to come up with
five teams that you think are a fit for Tom Brady,
like that they would want him and he would want
(24:36):
them back. I don't know that. I don't know that
there's two, and I had a hard time getting beyond three.
Where like, because he's gonna be super selective, like he's
gonna be super fickle, Like he ain't going to Carolina,
Ain't going to Atlanta, Ain't going to Nashville, you know
what I mean, Like you ain't going to Indianapolis. Like
they gotta want him and need him, and he's got
to want them back. I don't know how many teams
(24:57):
there are, no j We talk about this last week,
and I feel like he is playing for his football
life the next few weeks if he doesn't get a
tick up in production and show that I could still
be somewhat of the guy. There's gonna be teams you're
gonna say yes, sorry, there's like eleven quarterbacks we can
take in the first round of the draft this year.
I don't know that we're gonna go all in and
(25:18):
say yes, you're gonna bring us a victory, like he's
playing for his NFL life. Yeah, I mean, I think
there's something to that. And and look, will he come
out in the first round of the playoffs and have
an epic Tom Brady game and then they lose the
next week. But it's like you could see that there's
and I think you tends to play like there's no
(25:38):
doubt in my mind he can still play. And he's
still for me, a top twelve quarterback in this league.
But like everything's got to be right around him obviously
at this stage of his career. And I don't know
how many teams are going to check all the boxes
that he wants checked and then they're gonna, you know,
he's also going to check all the boxes that they
(26:00):
want checked. I mean, I think it's San Francisco possibly,
I think it's Miami possibly. I think it's the Raiders.
Maybe and then for me, it's the field, and like,
I don't know how much of the field really makes sense.
He's on Twitter at Jason Locke and Flora That is
(26:20):
at Jason Locke and for Odyssey. Check out that piece
coming up on the Washington Post. That'll be a companion
piece to the Syracuse Soccer national title. Right, I'm talking
to the editors and I'm trying to effort sufficient space
to chronicle this, uh for one of America's great newspapers.
Very nice taking, easybody. We'll talk to next. Be sure
(26:41):
to catch live editions of The Jason Smith Show with
Mike Harmon weekdays at ten pm Eastern, seven pm Pacific. Hey,
what's up everybody? It's me three time Pro Bowl of
La Warrington, and I couldn't be more excited to announce
the podcast called Up on Game? What is Up on Game?
You asked, along with my fellow old bowler t J.
Hudshman Zada and Super Bowl champion. That's right, Plexico Birds.
(27:06):
You can only name a show with that type of
talent on it. Up on Game We're going to be
sharing our real life experiences loaded with teachable moments. Listen
to Up on Game with Me, Labar Arrington, t J
Hudgmansatta and Plexico Birds on the I Heart Radio app,
Apple Podcast or wherever you get your podcast from Monday
(27:29):
night football is over. The Patriots beat the Cardinals. The
Cardinals lose Kyler Murray potentially for the rest of the season.
It looked like a really bad knee injury. It does
not look good according to reports, but no official diagnosis yet.
And a win for Mac Jones. Very pedestrian night to
(27:50):
thirty five through the air in an interception. Hey he won.
You know, I'm sorry. I'm never going to buy Mac
Jones as a start. He's never gonna buy him because
he's just a guy. He is just a guy. Just yes,
he's seven and six, thank you, Bailey Jappie. He's always
(28:11):
been just a guy. And yet last year it was
he's Tom Brady. Okay, no, he's not no no one.
He could develop into something special, That's what it was.
Nobody said he's Tom Brady. Drafted a guy at thirteen.
He's a game manager at best, right, That's who That's
who Mac Jones is. He's having a Zack Wilson type season.
(28:33):
Has got seven touchdowns and eight picks. The guy just
isn't good. He's a game manager with the Patriots winning
with a great defense and enough running backs, because clearly
when you lose Remondre Stevenson doesn't matter. We still got
guys coming out of the woodwork running. Harris Harrison Strong,
Ben Jarvis green ellis the law first. Yeah, the legend
(28:54):
we're bringing to Harris. He he runs for forty four yards,
has a big run, a touchdown run. It doesn't They
just keep throwing guys out there. Anybody could be running
back with the Patriots. They just you'll get out there,
You'll give you the ball, hold onto it, and you
could be a star. But I'm just never gonna believe
him Mac Jones because he just isn't that good. He's
not dynamic, he's not somebody. He's someone who is just okay.
(29:14):
He's a rookie on a rookie or he's a second
year player on a rookie deal. That if you had
an unbelievable, unbeatable team, could Mac Jones be okay? Yeah,
But this is a team Mac Jones plays on. So
the Patriots, even if they find a way to squeak
into the playoffs, you got a month left to go
and everybody's seven and six? How far are they really
gonna go? How far? Because Mac Jones is just a guy.
(29:36):
You overdrafted him. You thought he was gonna be a star.
You thought I can win with this guy, and and
maybe he's the next Tom brad All and you were
just wrong. He is just a guy, be and he
continues to get propped up there Mac Jones Jones, he
is just a guy, just uh guy. Yeah. I think
there's a oh my god, Bucky Brooks right Sunday mornings,
(29:57):
he and I a couple of hours we're chopping up together.
The firm is part of the show for the first
hour that like he always talks about quarterbacks, as you know,
are are they the the the truck or are they
the trailer? Right? Are they pulling a longer? Are they
just along for the ride? And there's very few guys
that you would say, as we watch Optimus Prime run
them up, are are the trucks right? There's very few guys.
(30:21):
Everything else is it's got to be perfect. Mac Jones
is one of those guys in that trailer. You can
decide where he is in terms of if you're putting
seats back there, how far. You want them towards the
front in case something happens and he needs to dive
in that debate we can have all day, but there's
a lot of guys in that same boat where things
have to go perfectly. And we've talked about it a
(30:44):
lot tonight. Even though the running back situation, for going
back a long long time, you invoked the name of
Ben Jarvis green ellis you go back to Corey Dylan.
You talk about some of these guys that have been
in Patriots uniforms, and yes, the running backs situation back
Kevin Falk, talk about James White, all of those guys.
You've always had a multi pronged approach coming out of
(31:07):
the backfield that's worked pretty well. Receiving wise, Come on, man,
with Brady, you had Welker, and you had uh Randy
Moss for a bit, and obviously Gronkowski was just such
a difference maker. Otherwise you got a bunch of jags
running around. Give me an actual number one on this team.
Let me see if Mac Jones any better, right, Josh
(31:29):
Allen was a guy until Stevon dig showed up. Yeah,
just Mac Jones guy. He's seven and six, tied with
your Jets. Now you, Jack, are my just guy. Now yeah,
I got it. What You're my number one guy. You
(31:51):
are just a guy. That's just jacked, Jack Palance said
to Jack Nichols. You guys, you Mac Jones, you are
just a guy. Be sure to catch live editions of
The Jason Smith Show with Mike Harman weekdays at ten
pm Eastern, seven pm Pacific on Fox Sports Radio and
(32:12):
the I Heart Radio app. The Jets lose to the
Bills and and Mike White's injury a very big story.
The Jets get good news on him. They expect him
to play this weekends. The suddenly red hot Lions. Now
here's Rice Zigg and Santa Zag Because you know how
much I love Mike White, and he's brought all kinds
of energy to the team. His teammates love him. You
don't get any tougher than that. And come back out
(32:33):
to play that game, and they still nearly pulled off
the win. But they beat the Spreads. That's sure. They did.
They did, they did. But here's the thing. I love him,
but he is I love him, But Mike White is
a band aid to save the season. That's what he is.
(32:55):
Is he I like to say that the band way
is a band aid to save the season. Every No, no,
I get the first bit of up. No. I'm just
telling you the reality. They have said save the season.
And the Jets offense the last two weeks has been terrible. Now,
all I gotta do is get in the end zone
(33:15):
one more time again, one time against the Vikings and
they win. They don't just don't fumble, don't turn the ball.
They couldn't do it. The offense has been bad. And yes,
the Bill's defense is pretty good, but you gotta be
able to put the ball in the ends. On the
Vikings past defense is terrible. You couldn't get in the
ends you hold. I know the offense has disappeared. And
it's the second straight game where the defense because the
(33:37):
Jets defense is now one of the top five defenses
in the NFL. It's not even debatle is it as
good as the Broncos or the Niners. No, but it's
right there just below that. They're not anywhere right now.
Three through five. They are just that good. And it's
another game where the offense has let down the defense.
This is going to be yes, stick with Mike White
the rest of the way see if he can say
(33:59):
the season because the Jets arrived a year early, they
weren't expected to be this competitive this early, but they
are because their defense came together in a large way.
But you watch, trust me, I'll tell you exactly what's
gonna happen in the off season. The New York Jets
are going to go over the top and all out
for a new quarterback because this is a team that
believes in rightfully. So we can be a championship team
(34:21):
if we get somebody to put some bleeping points on
the board. We have a great offering. Guys keep getting hurt.
The offensive line still got a good offensive line. We
have the weapons we need at wide receiver, yes, the
weapons running back. Yes, we need a quarterback. It's all
they need. They have everything else, and the defensive backs
of the defensive line, they have everything else. The pressure
to get a quarterback will be so immense and everybody
(34:43):
is going to be on the table for them. The
Jets will be linked with everyone. Derek Carr, They'll be
linked with Lamar Jackson, Aaron Rodgers, Ryan Tannehill. They'll be
linked with everyone because they will have no choice and
the pressure will be so much. Joe Douglas is gonna
have to go get a quarterback because you can't go
back to Zack Wilson. He's clearly shown he's not the guy.
Can you trust that Mike White is gonna be able
to do? They're gonna go all out. They're gonna be
(35:04):
linked with every quarterback in the off season, and they're
gonna get a big one because they have no choice. Yeah,
it's it's certainly the one year where you may have
seven or eight veteran quarterbacks that are available. Right either
let go entirely so free agency and what are you
willing to spend versus situations like Lamar Jackson And we've
(35:25):
talked about quite a bit. Is he a guy destined
for the franchise tag? So would Baltimore take picks in
exchange now? Trading him in conference but not within the division?
Maybe they like Tyler Huntley enough to move on. Who knows,
they got that big way over Pittsburgh, but certainly, uh,
the wheels will be spinning. Can't wait
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Jason Smith
Mike Harmon
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