October 11, 2019 • 31 mins
We talk Jay Gruden's firing, how far behind Dan Quinn's might be and whether there might soon be a changing of the guards in NFC West and NFC North. Plus, Steelers and NFL International Series discussion, a few sneaky-good Week 6 games and lots more.
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Episode Transcript
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(00:11):
Hi, everybody, Welcome to thisweek's edition of our Pro Football Weekly NFL
podcast. It is great to haveyou all alongside and Arthur. It has
been a busy week in the NFL, starting with the first coach firing of
twenty and nineteen. Jay Gruden getsthe axe in Washington. I think everybody
(00:32):
saw it coming. I think evenJay Gruden is probably relieved, because the
bottom line is, the more peopleI talked to around the league, the
more I hear that Jay Gruden isconsidered one of the more underrated coaches in
the NFL, and that it isreally somewhat miraculous that for the most part
over the years he was in watchingthen he kept that team as competitive as
he did with arguably as dysfunctional andownership in front office situation as you'll find
(00:56):
anywhere in the league. I justhave to chuckle that kind of the segue
you use there, because he's theyou know, most people think he's the
most underrated. And then he said, maybe even Jay Gruden wasn't all that
surprised. No, must maybe assumingthat the franchise he worked for would find
a way to let go one ofthe more underrated coaches in the NFL hub
I got ask him putting on thespotter. I don't know if you know
for sure. Did you see thevideo that leaked of Jay Gordon about twenty
(01:17):
four hours before he was in factfired. He was outside presumably a bar,
He had a drink in his hand, he was chatting with a girl.
He had either a tobacco or marijuanacigarette in his mouth, and there
were some rumblings with the timing ofthis thing. As it turns out,
reports suggest that the video is actuallyfrom last year. But the fact that
(01:41):
it leaked within twenty four or fortyeight hours before he was actually fired sure
makes you wonder if maybe Daniel Snyder, maybe Bruce Allen potentially had a little
something to do with the leaking ofthat video to ensure they looked. I
don't know that Gridon deserved this evenmore. You know what's funny about Arthur
is if you were suggesting that thathappened with any other franchise in the NFL,
(02:04):
I would say conspiracy theory. ButI think about all the things that
Snyder and Allen have screwed up overthe last however long it's been about twenty
years for Snyder, I don't know, if Alan's been there the whole time,
it wouldn't be stunning to me.It is not a good look.
However it got out there anyone involved. Yeah, I don't know if anybody
can really tell if it's weed,but I guess they assume if it wasn't
(02:27):
a prepackaged cigarette, you would expectto see that. Maybe that's what it
was. And you know, itadds an interesting layer to the whole story.
But without any definitive knowledge about that, I'm going to put it aside
not indict Jay Gruden because it doesn'treally change the fact that he really never
had a chance there with all theinterference from above. Now, they also
(02:50):
have probably been the most injured teamin the NFL and over the last three
or four years, and I can'tblame the owner of the GM for that.
A lot went wrong. Bottom lineis he's done. It is interesting
that Bill O'Callahan, I'm sorry,Bill Callahan is the interim head coach,
very respected offensive well and also aformer head coach in the league in a
couple of spots, so it makessense that way you're trying not to skip
(03:13):
a beat, and yet the firstthing Callahan does is make some fairly radical
changes into their scheduling and practice regime. Yeah, they included cutting out the
music. I believe some of theother kind of thrills that they had in
the locker room there were cleared out. Callahan had the players running sprints after
practice Wednesday, all of these,you know, quite obviously he's trying to
(03:35):
restore a little bit of accountability,trying to give this team a little bit
more of an adjefter. It's beenkind of just you know, boat race
frankly for the better part of thisseason out of the gate. Now that
can go one of two ways.Maybe the players do respond, you know,
positively, and take it upon themselvesto beat a little bit tougher and
to get a little bit closer toreaching, you know, whatever it is
(03:58):
their potential as this season, andor they could just tune out completely if
they haven't already. And then thatstarts to hub to you know, to
look at the type of culture thatyou've built there and the type of players
that you either are going to dependon or or not. Some of Josh
Norman's run ins with Jake Rudin duringtheir time together have been pretty well publicized.
I remember Washington just paid ungodly amountto bring in Landon Collins. You
(04:21):
would hope he's the kind of guywho's going to help relay the interim head
coaches message, But I don't reallyhave a strong feel for which way this
thing is going to go. Allwe know at this point is that again
he's taken some of these hardline tacticsand that they've named case Keenum is the
starter again there Dwayne Haskins apparently justnot ready to contribute. The other interesting
(04:43):
story that I'm hearing around this,Arthur, is that again the Callahan head
coaching title comes clearly with the taginterim, and I'm not sure that anybody
you know thinks that he's going toget the job permanently. But I am
hearing the offensive coordinator Kevin O'Connell couldbe a front runner for the position.
(05:03):
And this could be as simple asSnyder and Allen, you know, saying,
well, you know, Shanahan gotaway from US. McVeigh got away
from US. O'Connell's another one ofthose guys. He is somewhat respected around
the league. He comes from thePatriots organization, originally a draft choice of
theirs, and it is the onename i'm hearing so far that they could
(05:27):
be interested in possibly for the jobpermanently. It is interesting, said Alicia,
one year as a quarterbacks coach inCleveland before joining Jay grind and staff.
Each of the past and has beenthere for the past three plus seasons.
A good point by you, actually, and some of those assistants who
have gone on to great success hashad coaches and maybe not wanting Washington,
not wanting to risk, you know, losing another one somewhere down the road.
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The Patriots connections make this interesting too. Of course, Cliff Kingsbury,
now in Arizona, I believe,started out in New England as a backup
quarterback, so kind of a similarpath there. Everyone knows the uneven results
of trying to uh, you know, export the Patriot way out of Foxbro.
Whether you're talking about players, coaches, front office executives, it's been,
(06:10):
uh, you know, it's it'sbeen a mixed bag at best.
And that's putting it nicely. Sowe'll see the other part of this hub
is, of course, Dwayne Haskins, the talented first rounder, falls into
Washington's lap at number sixteen overall.We did have him at Pro Football Weekly
as our highest rated quarterback, butthere were some split opinions on him in
the draft community. He became alittle bit of a lightning rod and and
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perhaps part of the thinking in potentially, you know, promoting Kevin O'Connell from
his current role is at least theyknow they have a guy who believes in
Dwayne Haskins, who they just kindof you know, put their um you
know, who they just kind ofput their stock in, and are hoping
to build around. Let's move onto franchise that many believe could be the
next one for a coaching change.It is hard to envision it happening in
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ste in season, I should say. But the Atlanta Falcon we know that
dan Quinn was on the hot seatwhen the season began. Now, looking
at the questionable performance of that footballteam through the first five weeks, they
got, you know, dan Quinntook over the defense himself, and he
got a fifty three hung on himin Houston last week, just when that
(07:17):
was seen as a turning point gamefor them. People I talked to are
telling me that there is now,with Gruden gone, no seat hotter in
the NFL than dan Quinn's. Well, yeah, when you go and put
those types of embarrassing performances on film. It's easy to understand when you look
at some of the recurring issues withdan Quinn's teams, the inability to execute
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in the red zone, some ofthe situational inconsistencies that that team deals with
seemingly on a year in, yearout basis. You know, if nothing
Goss, he has certainly earned hisspot, you know, atop this hot
seat sort of unofficial chart we're doing, or atop his warming seat, if
you will. We would assume maybeno in season change because this Hub just
(08:00):
mentioned he already cleared out his coordinators. He is, you know, coupling
as the defensive coordinator. But weshould mention Dirk Cutter. No, it
wasn't a super successful stint obviously inTampa Bay, but does have some previous
head coaching experience, you know,seemingly does have a good connection there with
Matt Ryan Julio Jones. So ifthings, you know, do get worse
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here, and it's hard to imaginehow much worse they can get than what
they just did in Houston, andArthur Blank just says enough is enough.
At least there is an assistant therewho should know his way around, you
know, at least weekly planning asa head coach. All right, we
look elsewhere around the league and youlook at the New York Jets, and
I don't know how things could gomuch worse with Adam Gase, but I
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guess the fact that he's been withoutSam Darnold kind of says all bets are
off. He is in his firstyear there. He was able to pretty
much hand pick Joe Douglas the newGM. So we don't think obviously,
I shouldn't say obviously, but wedon't think anybody is in trouble there.
But it's hard to figure out whatelse could go wrong through the first five
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now six weeks of the season withthe Jets, Yeah, there's no doubt
about that. And you know,I'm struggling to remember in the number now,
but I know when Steve Wilkes wasa one and done last offseason,
it was only I think you couldcount on one hand that the amount of
times that had happened over the pastdecade and a half plus. So we
are not predicting that with Adam GaysAgain, he is, if nothing else,
has kind of insulated himself further bybasically, you know, choosing the
(09:30):
new general manager there, his goodbuddy Joe Douglas. What you know what
I do think the Johnson family isgoing to need to see now with Sam
Darneld making his way back from Mano, what a weird deal that was.
Never really see that in the NFL. It costs him one I think four
games, so he is now threegames because they had to buy is slated
to come back and they at leastneed to start looking competent because we know
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Luke fall doesn't appear to be anNFL quarterback. It was interesting the report
last week that Adam Gays chose togive Sam Arnold all the first steam rots
before they played the Eagles, andthat Darnold couldn't get medical clearance late in
the week, so poor Luke Falkgots thrown out there and the results were
pretty predictable from there. So curiousto see whether they can at least find
(10:13):
some form of competence, and justto see what Adam Gas can do as
a head coach, because he's notthe guy I want to make excuses for,
but you almost can't make this stuffup that the quarterback adversity that he
has had to endure as a headcoach in this league. You know,
Arthur, it is next to impossibleto put Mike Tomlin on the hot seat
when you look at the history ofhead coaches in the city of Pittsburgh three
(10:39):
over the last I believe five decadesnow, So you know, we're certainly
not suggesting that Tomlin is in trouble, but any chances that things were going
to get better probably went down thedrain with that incredibly violent concussion suffered by
Mason Rudolph. I happened to likeMason Rudolph a lot. Had him ranked
very highly coming out last year,ahead of some of those first round picks
(11:03):
that went ahead of him. Iknow the Steelers are excited about his future.
He was playing well before the injury. But now you're down to your
third quarterback. You can't figure outwhat's going on with James Connor at running
back. Defense is getting better.Their first round pick, Devon Bush has
been very good for them, probablyan early season defensive Rookie of the Year
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front runner. But the wheels areoff in Pittsburgh, and with the quarterback
situation where it's at right now,it's getting harder and harder. There's still
only two games out of first youknow, with eleven to play, and
they are the Pittsburgh Steelers, ButI'm not sure when you know, with
no certainty of when we'll see Rudolphagain. We know we won't see Roethlisberger
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until next year. It's kind ofhard at this point to suggest that the
Steelers are going to get back inthe playoff chase. Well, where'd you
have Sandford's Devlin Hodges in your quarterbackrankings? You've never heard of him til
two weeks ago. That's not true, but you get my point. He
making to start in place of aninjured in place of an injured Mason Rudolf.
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Of course, we're not laughing aboutthe injury. It was really truly
tough to watch. But Devilin Hodges, we don't know a whole lot about
him. What does it say though, because I believe don't they have Paxton
Lynch there too, What does itsay about Devilin Hodges leap frogging former first
rounder Paxson Lynch? Well, Ithink we know exactly what it says.
How I do want to ask you, since we're on the topic, I
definitely don't think Mike Tomlin's getting fired. I think the defense has actually been
playing really well. It's tied forthe league lead in takeaways. That is
(12:30):
kind of his baby on that sideof the ball. So, and they
have seemingly figured out a few thingswith James Connor and Juju Smith Schuster.
So I think things appear to begetting a little bit better until Mason Rudolf's
injury. But yeah, well we'llsee what happens next on that front.
I do want to ask you,though, about the whole charade of the
NFL apparently not having an injury aworking injury cart for Mason Rudolph. And
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I don't know if you know aboutthis story and the weird excuse that it
made afterward that he was fine towalk off the field on his own all
that is clearly not fine, andhad to have the face mask removed,
which I believe is normally a signthat they're thinking about putting a guy on
a stretcher. Well, you know, you said what about the NFL.
I think it is the responsibility ofthe home team, you know, in
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terms of having the cart, Idon't think that's done by the league.
I could be wrong about that,I don't know, but yes, it
was a scary situation made that muchscarier, and I think minimally probably what
will happen is they'll be hearing fromthe league office about what went wrong and
making sure and demonstrating to the leagueoffice that they've taken steps to correct the
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situation and not let it happen again. But at the end of the day,
it's just another example of when thewheels come off, you know,
no pun intended at all about theinjury cart. When the wheels come off,
it seems like, you know,everything that can go wrong will go
wrong, and so far it's justbeen that kind of season for them.
Yeah, there's no question about it. Again, it's but the exception of
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their deep which is actually taking thefootball away and has looked looked better,
and unfortunately now they can't take advantageof it because the offense has fallen apart
well. And you know, infairness to Mike Tomlin, you lose a
Levy on Bell, you're losing AntonioBrown. Those may have been good things
for the locker room. I'm notsure I totally understood the Marcus Gilbert trade.
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I think they felt that they weredeep enough on the offensive line to
do it and still should be oneof the better offensive lines in football.
They've never really fixed the tight endsituations since the retirement of Heath Miller.
They've brought a lot of guys inwho aren't bad, but aren't great.
And then, as you say,with the defense getting better, and that
is Mike Tomlin's area of expertise,or at least where he made his bones.
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There's no question that Mike Tomlin isn'tin trouble, but there, as
I said at the top of thispart of the conversation, serious questions as
to whether people should keep expecting thePittsburgh Steelers to bounce back into the AFC
North Race. Our thanks to allof our great sponsors. We do appreciate
(15:07):
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at this point. By now,if you're a regular listener, you know
Dan Moda is our executive producer,handles all things audio video production for all
of our broadcast work, our podcastwork at Shaw Media and Dan Joe's just
such an incredible job. And Iwant to thank Arthur's buddies that Humphreys McGee
(15:28):
outstanding local Chicago band, great music. They let us use some of their
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Thanks to the guys that Humphrey's McGeeget to their website when you can to
see when they're playing next around town. I promise you will enjoy it,
(15:50):
Arthur. We spent the first portionof this podcast with all the teams at
the bottom of the league. Rightnow, let's talk about a couple more
near the but but some not allthat impressive. I got to go to
the Los Angeles Rams last two weeks. They have given up fifty five and
thirty points. They've lost both ofthose football games. The defense is obviously
(16:14):
struggling a bit right now, offensenot scoring points like it did last year.
And although you know in that Tampagame, you assumed that was just
kind of a letdown at home,and then to go into Seattle on a
short week on Thursday night, therethere are a lot of other explanations for
it. But at the end ofthe day, nobody expected the forty nine
ers to be the undefeated team inthe West. I don't think anybody had
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the Seahawks at four and one andthe Rams currently sitting in third place with
work to do. That's right,the offense has found itself a little bit.
Jeric Goff positioned them in that gameto beat the Seahawks, I'm sure,
as you guys know by now.Over a week ago, it was
Greg Zirlines, I want to say, forty four yard miss that ultimately sunk
them. And of course who couldexpect that from Zerline. He's been about
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as the nable as anyone in thegame over the past a couple of seasons,
you know, minus the back injurylast year. So we'll see.
It's gonna be an interesting one,no doubt about it. You know,
I don't know quite what to makeof the forty nine ers. I mean,
I think the Seahawks are here tostay. I think that I feel
like the Rams are going to figureout what they've got going on. But
hub with the Niners, yes,one of only two undefeated teams left,
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I believe they will go into LAto play the Rams and it'll be easily
their toughest test to date. Iwas so impressed with what they did to
the Cleveland Browns at home on PrimetimeMonday night. Nick Bosa looks unbelievable.
Kyle Shanahan's running game looks unbelievable.They have been better in the secondary than
I thought they would be. Istill think that's a susceptible part of the
(17:44):
team, but hasn't really been greatlyexposed just yet. I don't know what
do you make of it. I'massuming you're gonna say you need to see
them beat someone. I do too, to be sure, but I am
slowly becoming more and more convinced asthey dispatch the opponents they've had on their
schedule with Relati have used us,they have. Uh and even though it
was a two touchdown win over Tampa, which is actually looked like a better
(18:07):
football team than they were on openingDay, that was a gift that the
Bucks gave them with the Jamis Winstonturnovers. Uh you know, other than
that, this Cleveland team that theypounded Monday night, that is a team
to me that has proven that theywere known nowhere near ready for all the
plot of maybe one and done.Coaches, Well, I mean yeah,
I mean everybody who overreacted to whatwas going on there with all the talent.
(18:29):
Uh No, I was really thinkingabout you among them. Yeah,
you were part of a big crowd, you know, And and I was
the naysayer. And by the way, guys, believe me. I know
I'm wrong as much or more oftenthan I'm right. Yeah, but but
but I'm not going to ignore thefact that this is what I tried to
tell everybody about. There was sothis was predictable with Cleveland, but we're
not talking about Cleveland. We're talkingabout San Francisco and their four and old
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record was not predictable. And andI don't you know, some may want
to call the pounding they gave Clevelandlast Monday night a quality win. I
can't based on what I know ofthe Browns. But they get their chance
this week. You know, they'regoing to go to Los Angeles. If
they beat the Rams, there areno more doubts, I mean, because
that makes them the team to beatin the division. They still haven't seen
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Seattle, who they'll get twice.You got the Rams desperate for a bounce
back. You got the forty nineers feeling good about themselves but needing to
prove who they are. To me, that makes this one of the most
interesting games in the league, youknow, this weekend. And then because
I just mentioned Cleveland. You've gotSeattle going there, you know, and
we'll see what happens. Because whilethe Browns to me are clearly not a
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playoff team, they are loaded withtalent on offense, and they can be
explosive when the offensive line doesn't killthem. So and remember the last time
they got embarrassed in primetime, theyturned around and embarrassed Baltimore with a really
impressive victory. And that's the pointof this part of the podcast is that
the whole NFC West is going togo a long way towards sorting itself out.
This week, Seattle actually got onlylost at home, which is surprising.
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That was to New Orleans. They'vebeen pretty good on the road,
but too much of what Seattle isdoing is Russell Wilson to me, I
need the other fifty two guys toprove to me that they're ready. They're
clearly a better football team, Ithink, talent wise than the Browns than
the forty nine ers, but Idon't know if they're ready to join the
elite, which is where they standat four and one. So the NFC
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West should sort itself out quite abit with those two games this weekend.
Then you'll hold on just real quick, club, We don't know if it
was a quality winner. You thinkit definitely wasn't a quality win over the
Browns. I tend to agree,but I got it. Just throw it
in their quality trolling job from NickBosa planning the flag? Did you make
anything of that? And I don'treally want to get into Richard Sherman Baker
Mayfield silliness because I thought that wasreally truly silly, and I know it's
an even bigger story, but toJeff on with that at all, bos
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getting its revenge a couple of yearslater and making sure everyone knew about it
afterward. I am not a hugefan of the Bosa family for a number
of reasons. Incredible football players,yes they are, and they apparently also
have incredible ties to illegal activities ifyou want to start to dig deep into
the again, not not Nick orJoey Bosa. I'm not blaming them for
(21:07):
that, but there's just there's somuch attached to that story. We could
do a whole Because you're not thebiggest Baker Mayfield fan either. Oh no,
I am a Baker Mayfield fan.Okay, as a player, I
yeah, his bluster You don't necessary. I don't appreciate it all time.
I know. I actually I ama big Baker Mayfield fan. You've been
paying attention. I mean last yearpeople wanted to debate who the best of
those quarterbacks was from day one.I was a Baker Mayfield guy. Based
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on his performance at Oklahoma. Iwish he was an inch or too taller.
I do think he has a chanceto be a very good quarterback in
the NFL. And I don't lovethe way he carries himself. But in
his case, it comes to me, at least it comes across a little
bit more. Is just kind ofbluster and cockiness as opposed to arrogance and
obnoxiousness. I don't find him tobe a bad guy, so to speak,
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for anything he's done. Um,and you know my edity. If
you're going to be cocky is theword. If you're gonna be as cocky
as he is, you got toback it up every week. You can't
back it up some weeks. Buthe's a young quarterback, so we'll see
what happens. So I let meput it this way. I'm not as
big as fan, but I'm certainlynot a detractor. I don't have a
problem with that, got it.I do have a problem with this crap
of planting flags on the emblem andall that. To me, it's just
(22:15):
unnecessary. It's one thing when youdo it in college. I don't like
it there. It's totally unnecessary inthe NFL. But hey, you know,
the forty nine ers are a youngteam that has surprised some people.
I'm not going to fall to himtoo much for enjoying it. Now,
what they have to do is nowthey got to act like they belong there.
Sure, it's the famous Vinculain party. I'm relying about what you do
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when you get to the end zone. What do you do when you get
to four? And oh, nowyou prove you belong there, you know.
And so we'll see if they keepwinning, they can keep doing that
stuff. If they start to lose, then they're gonna start to look like
asses for doing it in the firstplace. Sure, And speaking of teams
who need to act like they belongwhere they are now, and I assume
this is where Hub was going next. We've only got a couple minutes lat,
but there are a couple other biggames who want to touch on real
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quickly. The Detroit Lions. Andgranted they were off last week and they're
only at two one and one,but now they had in and faced the
four and one Green Bay Packers withthe NFC North first place on the line
early in the season. Hub isgoing to be at that game on the
sidelines for Westwood one, so I'msure he's already getting into his studies on
that one. An interesting game anda stat I came about Hub and it's
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probably nothing, not this huge revelation, but if the Detroit Lions are to
be taken for real, well whenthey go to the playoffs, they tend
to fare at least okay in thedivision. I guess that's just simple math.
But this is their first test inthe division and their first test to
make a real loud statement that they'regoing to be around it for long all
this year. Yeah, you know, I have started, and I'm just
on the front end of getting intomy homework on that game and where it's
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taken. Me is still a littlepuzzled as to how they beat the Eagles
in Philadelphia and not the Chargers.We don't know who they are at this
point at two and three, theyare one of the bigger disappointments in the
league because quite frankly, I thoughtthey'd be five and oh right now,
they're not playing great football and theyhad to miss a couple field goals to
the line to get there. Yeah, you know, And so you look
(24:02):
at the at the Lions at twoone and one. We can't forget that
they were very impressive for three quartersin Arizona and then found a way to
get tied and not be able tobeat one of the worst teams in the
NFL. So they are a bitof a mystery. But you have to
call in Philadelphia and the Chargers qualitywins, you know, and so and
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the one game they lost, youknow, I mean, it was to
a good football team. So whatI've discovered and starting to break them down
a little bit, is I lookat the roster and I'm still not totally
sure how they're doing it, becauseto me, they've got some questions,
especially on defense. I can seewhere the I think Matt Stafford is a
good quarterback. Who you know,is he ever going to be one of
the best, I don't know,but I think he's very good and I
(24:45):
think that he's got some nice receivers, if not great receivers. I expect
t J. Hockinson to be thenext big thing at tight end once he
gets over his concussion. You know, he had the big start and then
slowed down a little bit. Andthere's plenty of talent on that offensive line,
which is playing better. I don'tthink they're a playoff team. The
team that has a better chance tobe a playoff team, but is better
than I expected them to be throughWeek five. And I still have questions
(25:07):
about is the Green Bay Packers.And I'm harkening back to a game last
year. It was a little furtheralong on the schedule. I want to
say, maybe it was week tenor week eleven, but the Packers hadn't
folded yet. The Lions went upthere on Monday Night. The Packers were
a big favorite, and the Lionskick their asses all over the field.
And I'm not expecting that this Mondaynight. But this is a better matchup
(25:30):
than some people realize. And Ithink a huge test for both teams.
And I'm curious to see, youknow, how the Packers defense rebounds from
the fact that they have given upnine hundred yards and I think it's fifty
eight points or something like that.In the last two games. I know
some of it was in garbage timeagainst the Cowboys, but some of it
wasn't. And the Eagles pushed themall over the field in Lambeau on Thursday
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night the week before. So arethey coming back to the norm or are
they one of the most improved teamsin the league and are they the team
to beat in the NFC North.I think they can make quite a statement
against the Lions Monday night. Yeah. I just what is as frightening as
any of it to me is thatwe really haven't seen Aaron Rodgers be Aaron
(26:14):
Rodgers yet and they're sitting at fourand one. It was Eric Jones last
week with the four touchdowns. Imean, they're getting contributions from some interesting
spots. I mean, these freeagent signings look really good. Darius Smith
and Preston Smith are playing outstanding football. Gy Are Alexander has looked outstanding.
There other there other rookie this year, excuse me. Auncton Jenkins, who
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has slid into the guard spot andis not going to relinquish it again,
is playing extremely well for them asthis offensive line comes together a little bit.
So that's what to me. IfI'm you know, if I'm someone
else in the NFC North, orif I'm a fan kind of worried a
little bit about the Packers. Ithink it starts there. We've seen Aaron
Rodgers really good in spurts. Wehaven't seen the Packers yet have to fully
(26:56):
rely on Aaron Rodgers, and that'sprobably both and bad the way that they've
sort of restructured his team to nothave to rely on him as much.
But we know he is still greatand that he is going to have his
presence felt in this thing before toolong. Well, and I think there's
a couple of realities there, andwe're gonna have to wrap this up.
But Aaron Rodgers isn't going to beAaron Rodgers again until he gets Davante Adams
(27:18):
back, because Davante Adams is oneof the best receivers in the NFL.
And as excited as they are aboutsome of this young talent around Adams at
the wide receiver position, when youno you know, Marquez Valdes Scantling can
make a big play for you hereand there, but he's going to be
a dependable number two, you know. I think that there is still work
(27:38):
to do at the tight end position. They're excited about Jay Sternberger, and
I still question the interior of thatoffensive line. And then you've got that
while it's not as radically different thethe Matt Lafleur offense from the Mike McCarthy
offenses, some of the changes otherteams have made, like the Bearers going,
you know, to Matt Naggi's offense. It is different, and he
(27:59):
is still finding his pace his placewith Matt Lafleur. I don't know how
much of all the reporting during theoffseason was true about the complete break between
him and Mike McCarthy. I don'tknow, you know, for the portion
of it that was true, howmuch of it was Roger's fault. Certainly
you're not going to see that inthe first few months between him and la
Fleur. So Aaron Rodgers is stillone of the greatest ever play the game,
(28:23):
But whether he is ever going tobe the same guy in a new
offense with new talent around him isan interesting question, and we'll see,
you know. I think he's stillcapable of winning a game by himself every
time he goes on the football field, but he does not have the supporting
cast or the comfort that he hadprior to Matt Lafleur's arrival. Yeah,
(28:44):
good points. I think the interiorof that old line is closer to getting
situated because Lindsay's playing so well andit looks like Jenkins is going to be
a keeper there. So at leasttwo thirds of it in really good shape.
And it's just an interesting juxtaposition betweenthese two teams. It's actually not
a juxtaposition. They're both doing thesame thing, finally taking a little bit
more off their quarterback by doing morearound him. We've seen that with the
Lions as well, and you knowDarryl Bubble is going to continue trying to
(29:06):
get carry On Johnson involved in andthat'll be a good test obviously for the
Packers, who were just able toadd some success against the Kelly in the
Cowboys. And keep in mind,surprise, surprise, Brian Balaga is banged
up again, and I don't saythat facetiously when he's on the great young
man. He's a good football player, but he's almost always hurt shoulder and
knee problems. Again, you gotto keep an eye on that. So
(29:27):
hats off to Matt Lafleur and hisgreen Bay Packers for being four and one
at this point. Really didn't seethat coming. Relions who've exceeded expectations.
It's going to make this one reallyinteresting Monday night. That's one that I'm
looking forward to getting up there anddoing the broadcast on. I want to
mention one other team and then wereally have to run Arthur. The team
I am the most impressed within theNFC right now has to be the New
(29:48):
Orleans Saints, because you know,Drew Brees goes down and everybody says,
all right, that's it, We'llwait six weeks he gets back, will
they still be in the playoff hunt? They have won three straight games.
They went into Seattle and won.Teddy Bridgewaters get a little better each week.
Three touchdown passes, I believe lastweek against Tampa Breeze is rumored to
be ahead of schedule. They originallysaid six to eight weeks. The New
(30:11):
Orleans defense is legit, and it'sbeen a long time since we've been able
to say that. And to me, they are clearly the best team in
the NFC right now. Yeah,it's been awesome to watch, for sure,
not just because Teddy Bridgewater is sucha great feel good story, But
that defense you alluded to, SheldonRankins makes this miraculous comeback from the rupture
to Chilles. I want to sayin January last year, he's already back
(30:33):
to being a difference maker. MarcusDavenport on the other end of Cameron Jordan,
the guy they gave up so muchto get, starting to look like
a difference maker as well. Weknow about all the talent in that secondary,
so yes, it is firing onall cylinders all of a sudden.
Fort Dennis Allen and then getting backto Teddy Bridgewater, if you can hold
down the fort for a few moreweeks and keep playing fairly competent. Last
week was his best time out yet. This is the guy who's gonna have
(30:56):
a chance to really help himself outand maybe thrust him out back into a
full time starting position. I can'tthink of any players really around the league
that are playing for more in acontract here right now than Teddy Bridgewater.
All right, guys, we gottarun. Thank you for your patience with
us for being off last week.We literally had people traveling all over the
world, not all over the country, but it is great to be back.
(31:17):
We appreciate you guys joining us everyweek. Our thanks to our great
sponsors, to the guys that umfreysMcGee for the music that dresses up the
podcast. Dan Mott does such anincredible job for us. We can never
thank our executive producer quite enough.We hope you enjoyed it this week.
We'll be back again next week withanother edition of our Pro football weekly NFL Podcast
Hi, everybody, Welcome to thisweek's edition of our Pro Football Weekly NFL
podcast. It is great to haveyou all alongside and Arthur. It has
been a busy week in the NFL, starting with the first coach firing of
twenty and nineteen. Jay Gruden getsthe axe in Washington. I think everybody
(00:32):
saw it coming. I think evenJay Gruden is probably relieved, because the
bottom line is, the more peopleI talked to around the league, the
more I hear that Jay Gruden isconsidered one of the more underrated coaches in
the NFL, and that it isreally somewhat miraculous that for the most part
over the years he was in watchingthen he kept that team as competitive as
he did with arguably as dysfunctional andownership in front office situation as you'll find
(00:56):
anywhere in the league. I justhave to chuckle that kind of the segue
you use there, because he's theyou know, most people think he's the
most underrated. And then he said, maybe even Jay Gruden wasn't all that
surprised. No, must maybe assumingthat the franchise he worked for would find
a way to let go one ofthe more underrated coaches in the NFL hub
I got ask him putting on thespotter. I don't know if you know
for sure. Did you see thevideo that leaked of Jay Gordon about twenty
(01:17):
four hours before he was in factfired. He was outside presumably a bar,
He had a drink in his hand, he was chatting with a girl.
He had either a tobacco or marijuanacigarette in his mouth, and there
were some rumblings with the timing ofthis thing. As it turns out,
reports suggest that the video is actuallyfrom last year. But the fact that
(01:41):
it leaked within twenty four or fortyeight hours before he was actually fired sure
makes you wonder if maybe Daniel Snyder, maybe Bruce Allen potentially had a little
something to do with the leaking ofthat video to ensure they looked. I
don't know that Gridon deserved this evenmore. You know what's funny about Arthur
is if you were suggesting that thathappened with any other franchise in the NFL,
(02:04):
I would say conspiracy theory. ButI think about all the things that
Snyder and Allen have screwed up overthe last however long it's been about twenty
years for Snyder, I don't know, if Alan's been there the whole time,
it wouldn't be stunning to me.It is not a good look.
However it got out there anyone involved. Yeah, I don't know if anybody
can really tell if it's weed,but I guess they assume if it wasn't
(02:27):
a prepackaged cigarette, you would expectto see that. Maybe that's what it
was. And you know, itadds an interesting layer to the whole story.
But without any definitive knowledge about that, I'm going to put it aside
not indict Jay Gruden because it doesn'treally change the fact that he really never
had a chance there with all theinterference from above. Now, they also
(02:50):
have probably been the most injured teamin the NFL and over the last three
or four years, and I can'tblame the owner of the GM for that.
A lot went wrong. Bottom lineis he's done. It is interesting
that Bill O'Callahan, I'm sorry,Bill Callahan is the interim head coach,
very respected offensive well and also aformer head coach in the league in a
couple of spots, so it makessense that way you're trying not to skip
(03:13):
a beat, and yet the firstthing Callahan does is make some fairly radical
changes into their scheduling and practice regime. Yeah, they included cutting out the
music. I believe some of theother kind of thrills that they had in
the locker room there were cleared out. Callahan had the players running sprints after
practice Wednesday, all of these,you know, quite obviously he's trying to
(03:35):
restore a little bit of accountability,trying to give this team a little bit
more of an adjefter. It's beenkind of just you know, boat race
frankly for the better part of thisseason out of the gate. Now that
can go one of two ways.Maybe the players do respond, you know,
positively, and take it upon themselvesto beat a little bit tougher and
to get a little bit closer toreaching, you know, whatever it is
(03:58):
their potential as this season, andor they could just tune out completely if
they haven't already. And then thatstarts to hub to you know, to
look at the type of culture thatyou've built there and the type of players
that you either are going to dependon or or not. Some of Josh
Norman's run ins with Jake Rudin duringtheir time together have been pretty well publicized.
I remember Washington just paid ungodly amountto bring in Landon Collins. You
(04:21):
would hope he's the kind of guywho's going to help relay the interim head
coaches message, But I don't reallyhave a strong feel for which way this
thing is going to go. Allwe know at this point is that again
he's taken some of these hardline tacticsand that they've named case Keenum is the
starter again there Dwayne Haskins apparently justnot ready to contribute. The other interesting
(04:43):
story that I'm hearing around this,Arthur, is that again the Callahan head
coaching title comes clearly with the taginterim, and I'm not sure that anybody
you know thinks that he's going toget the job permanently. But I am
hearing the offensive coordinator Kevin O'Connell couldbe a front runner for the position.
(05:03):
And this could be as simple asSnyder and Allen, you know, saying,
well, you know, Shanahan gotaway from US. McVeigh got away
from US. O'Connell's another one ofthose guys. He is somewhat respected around
the league. He comes from thePatriots organization, originally a draft choice of
theirs, and it is the onename i'm hearing so far that they could
(05:27):
be interested in possibly for the jobpermanently. It is interesting, said Alicia,
one year as a quarterbacks coach inCleveland before joining Jay grind and staff.
Each of the past and has beenthere for the past three plus seasons.
A good point by you, actually, and some of those assistants who
have gone on to great success hashad coaches and maybe not wanting Washington,
not wanting to risk, you know, losing another one somewhere down the road.
(05:49):
The Patriots connections make this interesting too. Of course, Cliff Kingsbury,
now in Arizona, I believe,started out in New England as a backup
quarterback, so kind of a similarpath there. Everyone knows the uneven results
of trying to uh, you know, export the Patriot way out of Foxbro.
Whether you're talking about players, coaches, front office executives, it's been,
(06:10):
uh, you know, it's it'sbeen a mixed bag at best.
And that's putting it nicely. Sowe'll see the other part of this hub
is, of course, Dwayne Haskins, the talented first rounder, falls into
Washington's lap at number sixteen overall.We did have him at Pro Football Weekly
as our highest rated quarterback, butthere were some split opinions on him in
the draft community. He became alittle bit of a lightning rod and and
(06:32):
perhaps part of the thinking in potentially, you know, promoting Kevin O'Connell from
his current role is at least theyknow they have a guy who believes in
Dwayne Haskins, who they just kindof you know, put their um you
know, who they just kind ofput their stock in, and are hoping
to build around. Let's move onto franchise that many believe could be the
next one for a coaching change.It is hard to envision it happening in
(06:56):
ste in season, I should say. But the Atlanta Falcon we know that
dan Quinn was on the hot seatwhen the season began. Now, looking
at the questionable performance of that footballteam through the first five weeks, they
got, you know, dan Quinntook over the defense himself, and he
got a fifty three hung on himin Houston last week, just when that
(07:17):
was seen as a turning point gamefor them. People I talked to are
telling me that there is now,with Gruden gone, no seat hotter in
the NFL than dan Quinn's. Well, yeah, when you go and put
those types of embarrassing performances on film. It's easy to understand when you look
at some of the recurring issues withdan Quinn's teams, the inability to execute
(07:39):
in the red zone, some ofthe situational inconsistencies that that team deals with
seemingly on a year in, yearout basis. You know, if nothing
Goss, he has certainly earned hisspot, you know, atop this hot
seat sort of unofficial chart we're doing, or atop his warming seat, if
you will. We would assume maybeno in season change because this Hub just
(08:00):
mentioned he already cleared out his coordinators. He is, you know, coupling
as the defensive coordinator. But weshould mention Dirk Cutter. No, it
wasn't a super successful stint obviously inTampa Bay, but does have some previous
head coaching experience, you know,seemingly does have a good connection there with
Matt Ryan Julio Jones. So ifthings, you know, do get worse
(08:22):
here, and it's hard to imaginehow much worse they can get than what
they just did in Houston, andArthur Blank just says enough is enough.
At least there is an assistant therewho should know his way around, you
know, at least weekly planning asa head coach. All right, we
look elsewhere around the league and youlook at the New York Jets, and
I don't know how things could gomuch worse with Adam Gase, but I
(08:43):
guess the fact that he's been withoutSam Darnold kind of says all bets are
off. He is in his firstyear there. He was able to pretty
much hand pick Joe Douglas the newGM. So we don't think obviously,
I shouldn't say obviously, but wedon't think anybody is in trouble there.
But it's hard to figure out whatelse could go wrong through the first five
(09:05):
now six weeks of the season withthe Jets, Yeah, there's no doubt
about that. And you know,I'm struggling to remember in the number now,
but I know when Steve Wilkes wasa one and done last offseason,
it was only I think you couldcount on one hand that the amount of
times that had happened over the pastdecade and a half plus. So we
are not predicting that with Adam GaysAgain, he is, if nothing else,
has kind of insulated himself further bybasically, you know, choosing the
(09:30):
new general manager there, his goodbuddy Joe Douglas. What you know what
I do think the Johnson family isgoing to need to see now with Sam
Darneld making his way back from Mano, what a weird deal that was.
Never really see that in the NFL. It costs him one I think four
games, so he is now threegames because they had to buy is slated
to come back and they at leastneed to start looking competent because we know
(09:52):
Luke fall doesn't appear to be anNFL quarterback. It was interesting the report
last week that Adam Gays chose togive Sam Arnold all the first steam rots
before they played the Eagles, andthat Darnold couldn't get medical clearance late in
the week, so poor Luke Falkgots thrown out there and the results were
pretty predictable from there. So curiousto see whether they can at least find
(10:13):
some form of competence, and justto see what Adam Gas can do as
a head coach, because he's notthe guy I want to make excuses for,
but you almost can't make this stuffup that the quarterback adversity that he
has had to endure as a headcoach in this league. You know,
Arthur, it is next to impossibleto put Mike Tomlin on the hot seat
when you look at the history ofhead coaches in the city of Pittsburgh three
(10:39):
over the last I believe five decadesnow, So you know, we're certainly
not suggesting that Tomlin is in trouble, but any chances that things were going
to get better probably went down thedrain with that incredibly violent concussion suffered by
Mason Rudolph. I happened to likeMason Rudolph a lot. Had him ranked
very highly coming out last year,ahead of some of those first round picks
(11:03):
that went ahead of him. Iknow the Steelers are excited about his future.
He was playing well before the injury. But now you're down to your
third quarterback. You can't figure outwhat's going on with James Connor at running
back. Defense is getting better.Their first round pick, Devon Bush has
been very good for them, probablyan early season defensive Rookie of the Year
(11:26):
front runner. But the wheels areoff in Pittsburgh, and with the quarterback
situation where it's at right now,it's getting harder and harder. There's still
only two games out of first youknow, with eleven to play, and
they are the Pittsburgh Steelers, ButI'm not sure when you know, with
no certainty of when we'll see Rudolphagain. We know we won't see Roethlisberger
(11:46):
until next year. It's kind ofhard at this point to suggest that the
Steelers are going to get back inthe playoff chase. Well, where'd you
have Sandford's Devlin Hodges in your quarterbackrankings? You've never heard of him til
two weeks ago. That's not true, but you get my point. He
making to start in place of aninjured in place of an injured Mason Rudolf.
(12:07):
Of course, we're not laughing aboutthe injury. It was really truly
tough to watch. But Devilin Hodges, we don't know a whole lot about
him. What does it say though, because I believe don't they have Paxton
Lynch there too, What does itsay about Devilin Hodges leap frogging former first
rounder Paxson Lynch? Well, Ithink we know exactly what it says.
How I do want to ask you, since we're on the topic, I
definitely don't think Mike Tomlin's getting fired. I think the defense has actually been
playing really well. It's tied forthe league lead in takeaways. That is
(12:30):
kind of his baby on that sideof the ball. So, and they
have seemingly figured out a few thingswith James Connor and Juju Smith Schuster.
So I think things appear to begetting a little bit better until Mason Rudolf's
injury. But yeah, well we'llsee what happens next on that front.
I do want to ask you,though, about the whole charade of the
NFL apparently not having an injury aworking injury cart for Mason Rudolph. And
(12:52):
I don't know if you know aboutthis story and the weird excuse that it
made afterward that he was fine towalk off the field on his own all
that is clearly not fine, andhad to have the face mask removed,
which I believe is normally a signthat they're thinking about putting a guy on
a stretcher. Well, you know, you said what about the NFL.
I think it is the responsibility ofthe home team, you know, in
(13:15):
terms of having the cart, Idon't think that's done by the league.
I could be wrong about that,I don't know, but yes, it
was a scary situation made that muchscarier, and I think minimally probably what
will happen is they'll be hearing fromthe league office about what went wrong and
making sure and demonstrating to the leagueoffice that they've taken steps to correct the
(13:37):
situation and not let it happen again. But at the end of the day,
it's just another example of when thewheels come off, you know,
no pun intended at all about theinjury cart. When the wheels come off,
it seems like, you know,everything that can go wrong will go
wrong, and so far it's justbeen that kind of season for them.
Yeah, there's no question about it. Again, it's but the exception of
(13:58):
their deep which is actually taking thefootball away and has looked looked better,
and unfortunately now they can't take advantageof it because the offense has fallen apart
well. And you know, infairness to Mike Tomlin, you lose a
Levy on Bell, you're losing AntonioBrown. Those may have been good things
for the locker room. I'm notsure I totally understood the Marcus Gilbert trade.
(14:18):
I think they felt that they weredeep enough on the offensive line to
do it and still should be oneof the better offensive lines in football.
They've never really fixed the tight endsituations since the retirement of Heath Miller.
They've brought a lot of guys inwho aren't bad, but aren't great.
And then, as you say,with the defense getting better, and that
is Mike Tomlin's area of expertise,or at least where he made his bones.
(14:41):
There's no question that Mike Tomlin isn'tin trouble, but there, as
I said at the top of thispart of the conversation, serious questions as
to whether people should keep expecting thePittsburgh Steelers to bounce back into the AFC
North Race. Our thanks to allof our great sponsors. We do appreciate
(15:07):
them being with us. We alsoalways like to try and thank Dan mod
at this point. By now,if you're a regular listener, you know
Dan Moda is our executive producer,handles all things audio video production for all
of our broadcast work, our podcastwork at Shaw Media and Dan Joe's just
such an incredible job. And Iwant to thank Arthur's buddies that Humphreys McGee
(15:28):
outstanding local Chicago band, great music. They let us use some of their
stuff for our bumpers and our soundbeds, and we do appreciate that they're
also obviously huge NFL fans, andso that's where that relationship comes from.
Thanks to the guys that Humphrey's McGeeget to their website when you can to
see when they're playing next around town. I promise you will enjoy it,
(15:50):
Arthur. We spent the first portionof this podcast with all the teams at
the bottom of the league. Rightnow, let's talk about a couple more
near the but but some not allthat impressive. I got to go to
the Los Angeles Rams last two weeks. They have given up fifty five and
thirty points. They've lost both ofthose football games. The defense is obviously
(16:14):
struggling a bit right now, offensenot scoring points like it did last year.
And although you know in that Tampagame, you assumed that was just
kind of a letdown at home,and then to go into Seattle on a
short week on Thursday night, therethere are a lot of other explanations for
it. But at the end ofthe day, nobody expected the forty nine
ers to be the undefeated team inthe West. I don't think anybody had
(16:37):
the Seahawks at four and one andthe Rams currently sitting in third place with
work to do. That's right,the offense has found itself a little bit.
Jeric Goff positioned them in that gameto beat the Seahawks, I'm sure,
as you guys know by now.Over a week ago, it was
Greg Zirlines, I want to say, forty four yard miss that ultimately sunk
them. And of course who couldexpect that from Zerline. He's been about
(16:59):
as the nable as anyone in thegame over the past a couple of seasons,
you know, minus the back injurylast year. So we'll see.
It's gonna be an interesting one,no doubt about it. You know,
I don't know quite what to makeof the forty nine ers. I mean,
I think the Seahawks are here tostay. I think that I feel
like the Rams are going to figureout what they've got going on. But
hub with the Niners, yes,one of only two undefeated teams left,
(17:21):
I believe they will go into LAto play the Rams and it'll be easily
their toughest test to date. Iwas so impressed with what they did to
the Cleveland Browns at home on PrimetimeMonday night. Nick Bosa looks unbelievable.
Kyle Shanahan's running game looks unbelievable.They have been better in the secondary than
I thought they would be. Istill think that's a susceptible part of the
(17:44):
team, but hasn't really been greatlyexposed just yet. I don't know what
do you make of it. I'massuming you're gonna say you need to see
them beat someone. I do too, to be sure, but I am
slowly becoming more and more convinced asthey dispatch the opponents they've had on their
schedule with Relati have used us,they have. Uh and even though it
was a two touchdown win over Tampa, which is actually looked like a better
(18:07):
football team than they were on openingDay, that was a gift that the
Bucks gave them with the Jamis Winstonturnovers. Uh you know, other than
that, this Cleveland team that theypounded Monday night, that is a team
to me that has proven that theywere known nowhere near ready for all the
plot of maybe one and done.Coaches, Well, I mean yeah,
I mean everybody who overreacted to whatwas going on there with all the talent.
(18:29):
Uh No, I was really thinkingabout you among them. Yeah,
you were part of a big crowd, you know, And and I was
the naysayer. And by the way, guys, believe me. I know
I'm wrong as much or more oftenthan I'm right. Yeah, but but
but I'm not going to ignore thefact that this is what I tried to
tell everybody about. There was sothis was predictable with Cleveland, but we're
not talking about Cleveland. We're talkingabout San Francisco and their four and old
(18:52):
record was not predictable. And andI don't you know, some may want
to call the pounding they gave Clevelandlast Monday night a quality win. I
can't based on what I know ofthe Browns. But they get their chance
this week. You know, they'regoing to go to Los Angeles. If
they beat the Rams, there areno more doubts, I mean, because
that makes them the team to beatin the division. They still haven't seen
(19:14):
Seattle, who they'll get twice.You got the Rams desperate for a bounce
back. You got the forty nineers feeling good about themselves but needing to
prove who they are. To me, that makes this one of the most
interesting games in the league, youknow, this weekend. And then because
I just mentioned Cleveland. You've gotSeattle going there, you know, and
we'll see what happens. Because whilethe Browns to me are clearly not a
(19:37):
playoff team, they are loaded withtalent on offense, and they can be
explosive when the offensive line doesn't killthem. So and remember the last time
they got embarrassed in primetime, theyturned around and embarrassed Baltimore with a really
impressive victory. And that's the pointof this part of the podcast is that
the whole NFC West is going togo a long way towards sorting itself out.
This week, Seattle actually got onlylost at home, which is surprising.
(20:00):
That was to New Orleans. They'vebeen pretty good on the road,
but too much of what Seattle isdoing is Russell Wilson to me, I
need the other fifty two guys toprove to me that they're ready. They're
clearly a better football team, Ithink, talent wise than the Browns than
the forty nine ers, but Idon't know if they're ready to join the
elite, which is where they standat four and one. So the NFC
(20:22):
West should sort itself out quite abit with those two games this weekend.
Then you'll hold on just real quick, club, We don't know if it
was a quality winner. You thinkit definitely wasn't a quality win over the
Browns. I tend to agree,but I got it. Just throw it
in their quality trolling job from NickBosa planning the flag? Did you make
anything of that? And I don'treally want to get into Richard Sherman Baker
Mayfield silliness because I thought that wasreally truly silly, and I know it's
an even bigger story, but toJeff on with that at all, bos
(20:45):
getting its revenge a couple of yearslater and making sure everyone knew about it
afterward. I am not a hugefan of the Bosa family for a number
of reasons. Incredible football players,yes they are, and they apparently also
have incredible ties to illegal activities ifyou want to start to dig deep into
the again, not not Nick orJoey Bosa. I'm not blaming them for
(21:07):
that, but there's just there's somuch attached to that story. We could
do a whole Because you're not thebiggest Baker Mayfield fan either. Oh no,
I am a Baker Mayfield fan.Okay, as a player, I
yeah, his bluster You don't necessary. I don't appreciate it all time.
I know. I actually I ama big Baker Mayfield fan. You've been
paying attention. I mean last yearpeople wanted to debate who the best of
those quarterbacks was from day one.I was a Baker Mayfield guy. Based
(21:32):
on his performance at Oklahoma. Iwish he was an inch or too taller.
I do think he has a chanceto be a very good quarterback in
the NFL. And I don't lovethe way he carries himself. But in
his case, it comes to me, at least it comes across a little
bit more. Is just kind ofbluster and cockiness as opposed to arrogance and
obnoxiousness. I don't find him tobe a bad guy, so to speak,
(21:53):
for anything he's done. Um,and you know my edity. If
you're going to be cocky is theword. If you're gonna be as cocky
as he is, you got toback it up every week. You can't
back it up some weeks. Buthe's a young quarterback, so we'll see
what happens. So I let meput it this way. I'm not as
big as fan, but I'm certainlynot a detractor. I don't have a
problem with that, got it.I do have a problem with this crap
of planting flags on the emblem andall that. To me, it's just
(22:15):
unnecessary. It's one thing when youdo it in college. I don't like
it there. It's totally unnecessary inthe NFL. But hey, you know,
the forty nine ers are a youngteam that has surprised some people.
I'm not going to fall to himtoo much for enjoying it. Now,
what they have to do is nowthey got to act like they belong there.
Sure, it's the famous Vinculain party. I'm relying about what you do
(22:36):
when you get to the end zone. What do you do when you get
to four? And oh, nowyou prove you belong there, you know.
And so we'll see if they keepwinning, they can keep doing that
stuff. If they start to lose, then they're gonna start to look like
asses for doing it in the firstplace. Sure, And speaking of teams
who need to act like they belongwhere they are now, and I assume
this is where Hub was going next. We've only got a couple minutes lat,
but there are a couple other biggames who want to touch on real
(22:56):
quickly. The Detroit Lions. Andgranted they were off last week and they're
only at two one and one,but now they had in and faced the
four and one Green Bay Packers withthe NFC North first place on the line
early in the season. Hub isgoing to be at that game on the
sidelines for Westwood one, so I'msure he's already getting into his studies on
that one. An interesting game anda stat I came about Hub and it's
(23:21):
probably nothing, not this huge revelation, but if the Detroit Lions are to
be taken for real, well whenthey go to the playoffs, they tend
to fare at least okay in thedivision. I guess that's just simple math.
But this is their first test inthe division and their first test to
make a real loud statement that they'regoing to be around it for long all
this year. Yeah, you know, I have started, and I'm just
on the front end of getting intomy homework on that game and where it's
(23:41):
taken. Me is still a littlepuzzled as to how they beat the Eagles
in Philadelphia and not the Chargers.We don't know who they are at this
point at two and three, theyare one of the bigger disappointments in the
league because quite frankly, I thoughtthey'd be five and oh right now,
they're not playing great football and theyhad to miss a couple field goals to
the line to get there. Yeah, you know, And so you look
(24:02):
at the at the Lions at twoone and one. We can't forget that
they were very impressive for three quartersin Arizona and then found a way to
get tied and not be able tobeat one of the worst teams in the
NFL. So they are a bitof a mystery. But you have to
call in Philadelphia and the Chargers qualitywins, you know, and so and
(24:23):
the one game they lost, youknow, I mean, it was to
a good football team. So whatI've discovered and starting to break them down
a little bit, is I lookat the roster and I'm still not totally
sure how they're doing it, becauseto me, they've got some questions,
especially on defense. I can seewhere the I think Matt Stafford is a
good quarterback. Who you know,is he ever going to be one of
the best, I don't know,but I think he's very good and I
(24:45):
think that he's got some nice receivers, if not great receivers. I expect
t J. Hockinson to be thenext big thing at tight end once he
gets over his concussion. You know, he had the big start and then
slowed down a little bit. Andthere's plenty of talent on that offensive line,
which is playing better. I don'tthink they're a playoff team. The
team that has a better chance tobe a playoff team, but is better
than I expected them to be throughWeek five. And I still have questions
(25:07):
about is the Green Bay Packers.And I'm harkening back to a game last
year. It was a little furtheralong on the schedule. I want to
say, maybe it was week tenor week eleven, but the Packers hadn't
folded yet. The Lions went upthere on Monday Night. The Packers were
a big favorite, and the Lionskick their asses all over the field.
And I'm not expecting that this Mondaynight. But this is a better matchup
(25:30):
than some people realize. And Ithink a huge test for both teams.
And I'm curious to see, youknow, how the Packers defense rebounds from
the fact that they have given upnine hundred yards and I think it's fifty
eight points or something like that.In the last two games. I know
some of it was in garbage timeagainst the Cowboys, but some of it
wasn't. And the Eagles pushed themall over the field in Lambeau on Thursday
(25:53):
night the week before. So arethey coming back to the norm or are
they one of the most improved teamsin the league and are they the team
to beat in the NFC North.I think they can make quite a statement
against the Lions Monday night. Yeah. I just what is as frightening as
any of it to me is thatwe really haven't seen Aaron Rodgers be Aaron
(26:14):
Rodgers yet and they're sitting at fourand one. It was Eric Jones last
week with the four touchdowns. Imean, they're getting contributions from some interesting
spots. I mean, these freeagent signings look really good. Darius Smith
and Preston Smith are playing outstanding football. Gy Are Alexander has looked outstanding.
There other there other rookie this year, excuse me. Auncton Jenkins, who
(26:34):
has slid into the guard spot andis not going to relinquish it again,
is playing extremely well for them asthis offensive line comes together a little bit.
So that's what to me. IfI'm you know, if I'm someone
else in the NFC North, orif I'm a fan kind of worried a
little bit about the Packers. Ithink it starts there. We've seen Aaron
Rodgers really good in spurts. Wehaven't seen the Packers yet have to fully
(26:56):
rely on Aaron Rodgers, and that'sprobably both and bad the way that they've
sort of restructured his team to nothave to rely on him as much.
But we know he is still greatand that he is going to have his
presence felt in this thing before toolong. Well, and I think there's
a couple of realities there, andwe're gonna have to wrap this up.
But Aaron Rodgers isn't going to beAaron Rodgers again until he gets Davante Adams
(27:18):
back, because Davante Adams is oneof the best receivers in the NFL.
And as excited as they are aboutsome of this young talent around Adams at
the wide receiver position, when youno you know, Marquez Valdes Scantling can
make a big play for you hereand there, but he's going to be
a dependable number two, you know. I think that there is still work
(27:38):
to do at the tight end position. They're excited about Jay Sternberger, and
I still question the interior of thatoffensive line. And then you've got that
while it's not as radically different thethe Matt Lafleur offense from the Mike McCarthy
offenses, some of the changes otherteams have made, like the Bearers going,
you know, to Matt Naggi's offense. It is different, and he
(27:59):
is still finding his pace his placewith Matt Lafleur. I don't know how
much of all the reporting during theoffseason was true about the complete break between
him and Mike McCarthy. I don'tknow, you know, for the portion
of it that was true, howmuch of it was Roger's fault. Certainly
you're not going to see that inthe first few months between him and la
Fleur. So Aaron Rodgers is stillone of the greatest ever play the game,
(28:23):
But whether he is ever going tobe the same guy in a new
offense with new talent around him isan interesting question, and we'll see,
you know. I think he's stillcapable of winning a game by himself every
time he goes on the football field, but he does not have the supporting
cast or the comfort that he hadprior to Matt Lafleur's arrival. Yeah,
(28:44):
good points. I think the interiorof that old line is closer to getting
situated because Lindsay's playing so well andit looks like Jenkins is going to be
a keeper there. So at leasttwo thirds of it in really good shape.
And it's just an interesting juxtaposition betweenthese two teams. It's actually not
a juxtaposition. They're both doing thesame thing, finally taking a little bit
more off their quarterback by doing morearound him. We've seen that with the
Lions as well, and you knowDarryl Bubble is going to continue trying to
(29:06):
get carry On Johnson involved in andthat'll be a good test obviously for the
Packers, who were just able toadd some success against the Kelly in the
Cowboys. And keep in mind,surprise, surprise, Brian Balaga is banged
up again, and I don't saythat facetiously when he's on the great young
man. He's a good football player, but he's almost always hurt shoulder and
knee problems. Again, you gotto keep an eye on that. So
(29:27):
hats off to Matt Lafleur and hisgreen Bay Packers for being four and one
at this point. Really didn't seethat coming. Relions who've exceeded expectations.
It's going to make this one reallyinteresting Monday night. That's one that I'm
looking forward to getting up there anddoing the broadcast on. I want to
mention one other team and then wereally have to run Arthur. The team
I am the most impressed within theNFC right now has to be the New
(29:48):
Orleans Saints, because you know,Drew Brees goes down and everybody says,
all right, that's it, We'llwait six weeks he gets back, will
they still be in the playoff hunt? They have won three straight games.
They went into Seattle and won.Teddy Bridgewaters get a little better each week.
Three touchdown passes, I believe lastweek against Tampa Breeze is rumored to
be ahead of schedule. They originallysaid six to eight weeks. The New
(30:11):
Orleans defense is legit, and it'sbeen a long time since we've been able
to say that. And to me, they are clearly the best team in
the NFC right now. Yeah,it's been awesome to watch, for sure,
not just because Teddy Bridgewater is sucha great feel good story, But
that defense you alluded to, SheldonRankins makes this miraculous comeback from the rupture
to Chilles. I want to sayin January last year, he's already back
(30:33):
to being a difference maker. MarcusDavenport on the other end of Cameron Jordan,
the guy they gave up so muchto get, starting to look like
a difference maker as well. Weknow about all the talent in that secondary,
so yes, it is firing onall cylinders all of a sudden.
Fort Dennis Allen and then getting backto Teddy Bridgewater, if you can hold
down the fort for a few moreweeks and keep playing fairly competent. Last
week was his best time out yet. This is the guy who's gonna have
(30:56):
a chance to really help himself outand maybe thrust him out back into a
full time starting position. I can'tthink of any players really around the league
that are playing for more in acontract here right now than Teddy Bridgewater.
All right, guys, we gottarun. Thank you for your patience with
us for being off last week.We literally had people traveling all over the
world, not all over the country, but it is great to be back.
(31:17):
We appreciate you guys joining us everyweek. Our thanks to our great
sponsors, to the guys that umfreysMcGee for the music that dresses up the
podcast. Dan Mott does such anincredible job for us. We can never
thank our executive producer quite enough.We hope you enjoyed it this week.
We'll be back again next week withanother edition of our Pro football weekly NFL Podcast
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