May 19, 2023 • 20 mins
Dale and Matt break down the divisions based on strength of Quarterbacks
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Speaker 1 (00:04):
He's the Drive with Dale Lolly and Matt Williamson on
your twenty four to seven home of the Black and
Gold Steelers Nation Radio. Welcome back to the Drive. I'm
Dale LOLLI he is Matt Williamson and Matt, as I mentioned,
we take a look here at the league, the quarter
or the divisions in the NFL, I can speak really
(00:29):
and we'll break them down by quarterback play. This is
an Adam Shine article, and I don't typically agree much
with what Adam Shine rights. I think he writes like
a radio shock job a little bit. Yeah, yeah, so
I get that, but this is this is I don't
have a problem with what he wrote here breaking down
(00:50):
the divisions by quarterback play, So you're ranking one the
starting quarterbacks for all the teams. I don't know if
he does it here for three wee let me let
me get down here to see where the for example,
the Arizona Cardinals are at and see that'll let me
(01:12):
know that if he is counting the week one starters
or the well for example, he has combinations, so he's
he's looking at it basically for Week one. You want
to start at the top, or you want to start
the ball Okay, we'll go to eight. And I don't
think anybody would have a problem with this, this group,
this division being eighth. And that's the NFC South.
Speaker 2 (01:36):
Four news starters from week one last year.
Speaker 1 (01:38):
You got Desmond Ritter in Atlanta, Bryce Young and Carolina,
Derek Carr with the Saints in Baker Mayfield with the Buccaneers.
That is an atrociously bad quarterback group. Derek Carr is
the best of the bench, and he's about what twelfth
in the league?
Speaker 2 (01:56):
Yeah, someone around there. Yeah, and he's clearly number one
on right now. And that's no disrespect to Bryce Young.
And you don't know, I don't know.
Speaker 1 (02:06):
We know a lot about Desmond Ritter for that matter,
right right.
Speaker 2 (02:09):
I thought he was better than Mariota, which isn't saying much,
but it was still I've been listening to I don't
listen to Chris Simms a lot, and not that I
dislike him, It's just I can only listen to so
many things at once. But he's been putting out his
top forty quarterbacks, and I do like his takes on quarterbacks.
I don't always agree with him, but he is very unique.
(02:31):
I think Ritter was like thirty nine for him, you
know what I mean, Like he was not even in
the top thirty two. He was in the first episode.
So and I see that. I mean, there's a lot
to worry about there.
Speaker 1 (02:42):
I mean, he should be in that first episode. Baker
Mayfield should be in that first episode.
Speaker 2 (02:48):
That's what I meant to say is I don't know
who I'd rather play against right now.
Speaker 1 (02:51):
Quite frankly, Bryce Young should be in that grouping too.
He's never started in an NFL game before.
Speaker 2 (02:55):
Right, I mean a minimum, he's an unknown. And again, yeah,
if cars your best.
Speaker 1 (03:00):
I mean br Bryce Young. If if Bryce Young finishes
this season, is the twentieth best quarterback in the NFL.
That pick, That pick was a slam dunk.
Speaker 3 (03:10):
That was That was a really good rookie year, right, Yeah,
because guys like you know, Peyton Manning, Troy Aikman, There's
a long, long list of rookie quarterbacks who struggled.
Speaker 2 (03:22):
You mentioned Josh Allen last segment or yeah, so yeah,
they got a pretty easy number eight.
Speaker 1 (03:29):
Number seven, the AFC South, both souths.
Speaker 2 (03:35):
A lot of turnover in both those. I mean we
got three of the top four picks, you know, the
top three quarterbacks draft that have already been mentioned.
Speaker 1 (03:42):
So yeah, So in the AFC South you got C. J. Stroud.
He's listing Anthony Richardson as the starter for the Colts. Okay,
Jacksonville's Trevor Lawrence, Tennessee has Ryan Tannehill. I think a
lot of people might be putting the cart before the
whole with the Jacksonville Jaguars in terms of just running
(04:03):
away with the division or that they're well being a
contender in the AFC. I don't think they are.
Speaker 2 (04:09):
I don't either.
Speaker 1 (04:11):
I think they're clearly they're clearly the best team in
that division. Yes, but that's not saying a whole lot.
Speaker 2 (04:17):
I put a couple of bucks on the Colts to
win the division because it pays like ten to one. Yeah,
and that was kind of more of a knock on
the other three teams than boy, I think the Colts
are great.
Speaker 1 (04:27):
Yeah, it wouldn't surprise me if the Jaguars take a
step back this year.
Speaker 2 (04:31):
Right, because they took such a step forward. The one
thing I like about the Jags, and it's the first
time I think I could say this since like the
Brunelli era, is they have a coach and a quarterback.
Speaker 1 (04:44):
Yeah, but I don't know that Trevor Lawrence is out
of the woods yet.
Speaker 2 (04:50):
No. I mean he's gonna be good, I don't know
that he's gonna be great. So like on my podcast yesterday,
we did Twitter Thursday and somebody said, Burrow, Herbert, Lawrence,
start one, bench one, cut one, and I easily cut Lawrence.
Speaker 1 (05:08):
Yeah you have to.
Speaker 2 (05:09):
I mean, just I don't know as much as I've
really seen one year of the guy. He may be great,
I'm not. I mean the competition in that conversation was
pretty rough. And I started Burrow, I benched Herbert, and
I cut Lawrence.
Speaker 1 (05:21):
So here's the thing, Matt, that playoff game against the
Chargers last year, they were down, they were down. That
that was more about the Chargers losing that game to
me than it was Jacksonville winning it.
Speaker 2 (05:36):
Did he throw like four picks in the first.
Speaker 1 (05:38):
Four interceptions in that game right right, completed less than
sixty percent of his passes. He was not good.
Speaker 2 (05:44):
I would love to build my team around Trevor Lawrence.
I think he's going to be really good, but out
of the woods yet, you know, like the Sando Tears
will probably be a Tier two guy and ascending, and
I guess I agree with that, but you know, a
step back from the organization and the quarterback could happen.
(06:04):
I mean, I don't think that's crazy talk at all.
Speaker 1 (06:07):
He had four games last year where he did not
throw a touchdown pass. He had one, two, three, four, five,
six others where he threw one touchdown pass. So he
had ten games last year where he had one or
fewer touchdown passes. Now, what he did a much better
job of last year was taking care of the football. Yeah,
(06:28):
until he got to the playoffs, and he threw five
interceptions into two playoff games.
Speaker 2 (06:33):
And if you recall, because this kind of ties back
to pick it, much of the season, I want to
say about the first half, he was at the bottom
the league two in red zone stuff. You know, as
young quarterbacks are. You know, people kill Kenny for that,
but that's what people, that's what these guys do.
Speaker 1 (06:49):
He was eleven for twenty three fo one hundred and
seventy four yards against the Eagles.
Speaker 2 (06:54):
Well, I remember that was a nasty game too.
Speaker 1 (06:56):
He was twenty two of forty three. Now he had
three hundred and ten yards, but twenty two to forty
three with no touchdown passes and the loss to the Giants.
Speaker 2 (07:05):
Yeah, but for this artical he carries a lot of
weight in a positive way.
Speaker 1 (07:10):
Yeah. And in that division, he's far and away to number.
Speaker 2 (07:13):
One, right or compared to the NFC South.
Speaker 1 (07:16):
I mean, yeah, he's he's if you're looking at those
eight quarterbacks, he's he's number one.
Speaker 2 (07:21):
He's number one, and he'd be your favorite one to
build around, you know. But he's number one already.
Speaker 1 (07:26):
But he's not. I don't He's not a superstar yet.
Speaker 2 (07:29):
I don't think so either. I don't think so either.
Speaker 1 (07:30):
Like, there's still there's still growth there that needs to
be done. That brings us to number six. The NFC West, Oh,
they've got two situations that are completely a mess right now.
So youve got Arizona with Kyler Murray and Colt McCoy.
You got the Rams. Really it should be three, because
(07:52):
you got the Rams with Matthew Stafford. Now I don't
know if he's going to be ready to play football
game this year. You've got San Francisco with Brock Purty,
Trey Lance, Sam Darnold. They've three guys listed here, right,
And then you got the Seahawks with Gino Smith. Matthew
Stafford's the number one quarterback in that division, and he
might not play football again.
Speaker 2 (08:12):
He wasn't very good last year right when he did.
I mean he was very good two years ago. And
I'm a Stafford guy, but we saw this with Ben.
I mean, a big time arm dude that has major
elbow issues or whatever, you know. I mean, like at
his age.
Speaker 1 (08:27):
Can he transform himself like Ben did and start right,
you know, dinking? And like I see all these the
over under for win totals and power rankings and things
of that nature, listing the Rams is a decent team,
I don't see it.
Speaker 2 (08:43):
They're like eight and a half or something like that.
They're horrendous.
Speaker 1 (08:46):
I go under all day on that all day.
Speaker 2 (08:49):
I think their offense. I can tell a story where
their offense is decent. If Stafford, you know, stays healthy,
the defense has no chance to even be close to good.
Speaker 1 (08:58):
No, they're gonna have to win shoot, and they don't
have the they don't have the weapons to do it.
Speaker 2 (09:03):
Side notes. I we broke down Seattle's draft today on
my podcast, and sure they're a hot team. This looks
like back to back rookie classes that are really good.
For Seattle reaping the benefits of the Russell Wilson trade.
Only if Gino's good. I mean, right right, I'm not
out of the woods that, oh wow, they got themselves
(09:25):
a quarterback. I mean, he's had like ten good games.
Speaker 1 (09:30):
Yeah, and they were on the first half of last year.
I'm just calling up Gino Smith's stats here for last year. Now,
he was off to a ridiculous, really kind of unsustainable start.
Last year.
Speaker 2 (09:42):
He was he was quarterback in the league for.
Speaker 1 (09:44):
He was completing well over seventy percent of his passes.
And you know, just so if you look at the
second half from let's say a week from the time
they played the Arizona Cardinals on he had in that
time time span, there's four He threw seven interceptions in
(10:06):
the second half of the season. He had eleven for
the year. So seven of those interceptions came in the
second half. All those three hundred yard games that he
would they didn't they didn't. They weren't there.
Speaker 2 (10:19):
They weren't there.
Speaker 1 (10:20):
He threw one hundred and eighty three yards against the
Jets one ninety.
Speaker 2 (10:25):
It just it wasn't great, No, I mean, not that
he was horrible in the second half of the year.
But the first half of the year was easily the
anomaly of his career.
Speaker 1 (10:37):
And oh, by the way, from that Arizona game on
at midseason, they went three and five down the stretch
right when he wasn't Superman.
Speaker 2 (10:47):
No I Hunderson here. So pulling this up real quick, too,
is he was thirteenth in EPA or in the second
half of the season. Like to me, that's kind of
a ceiling. Like if he's the thirteenth best quarterback this year,
that's as good as it gets.
Speaker 1 (11:05):
Yeah, And the problem for them was in the first half,
in the first first half of the season, he was
top ten.
Speaker 2 (11:14):
Right right, right, he was like six for the first
half of the sea.
Speaker 1 (11:16):
Yeah, so that tends to balance out, Like that's like
a three hundred guy hitting three hundred in baseball over
the first half of a season. But he's a two
sixty hitter for his career. Chances are when the season's
over he's gonna be at two sixty again, which means
that second half he hit about two twenty right right right.
Speaker 2 (11:35):
And some of them you know this better than I do.
I mean, some of them are what do they say
in Bulldoorum, you know that's need a flare they wanted
to drop. You know, sometimes it's the ball lands where
they're not hit them where they ain't you know, but
you're really the same player.
Speaker 1 (11:49):
But sometimes that's how you got to the three hundred.
Speaker 2 (11:51):
That's right, That's what I mean.
Speaker 1 (11:52):
Things were going really well for Gino Smith in the
beginning of the year, and it goes well in the
second half.
Speaker 2 (11:58):
Yeah, you're a two to eighty hitter. That half the
year you hit three hundred and the other half you
hit two sixty. But you're really swinging the bat to say, yeah.
Speaker 3 (12:07):
Uh.
Speaker 1 (12:07):
Moving on to the number five division, the NFC East.
Speaker 2 (12:14):
East.
Speaker 1 (12:14):
Yeah, Dallas with Dak Prescott, the Giants with Daniel Jones,
the Eagles with Jalen Hurts, the Commanders with Sam Howell. Well,
Sam Howe brings that, you know, drags that down a
little bit. Yeah, but you got Dak Prescott and Jalen
Hurts and really Daniel Jones. They're all making money.
Speaker 2 (12:30):
They're all making money. They al I mean, Hurts had
a huge year. I I cheated and went up to
the next division. I would have the East over the
next division, Okay, without a doubt. To be honest with you.
I mean, I don't think Jones is great, but I
wouldn't say he's a weak link.
Speaker 1 (12:49):
I mean, oh yeah, I agree with you. I think
I think the next division get way overrated.
Speaker 2 (12:54):
Yeah, because they lost their best guy too, by the way, Yeah,
that would.
Speaker 1 (12:59):
Be the NFC North with Justin Fields, Jared Goff, Jordan Love,
Kirk Cousins. Right, Kirk Cousins is like quarterback fifteen. So
Jordan Love I have no idea what he is. Jared
Goff is maybe quarterback thirteen or fourteen.
Speaker 2 (13:17):
On his good days, right, even after a really rough
statistical year. I'm taking Dak over all four of those guys.
Speaker 1 (13:26):
I'm taking Jalen Hurts overall four of those easily taking
Hurts overall, though, And Daniel Jones is every bit the
equal to Cousins or Goff. Maybe not quite equal, but
it's close.
Speaker 2 (13:38):
And I mean, I guess I'd rather have loved than
how but they're both unknowns.
Speaker 1 (13:44):
Right, Yeah, they essentially got the same number of career starts.
Speaker 2 (13:49):
Yeah, right, and we've seen about the same from both
of them and pro you know regulation games, you know,
regular season games.
Speaker 1 (13:57):
That takes us to number three, which is the AFC
imagine that a division with Patrick Mahomes, Russell Wilson and
Justin Herbert as third easily was one a year ago.
Oh with that, I mean it was talked about as
being the best division ever.
Speaker 2 (14:15):
Yeah, boy, Carr is the week link in this division.
It was the narrative one year ago.
Speaker 1 (14:22):
Well, no, they got Jimmy Garoppolo manning that. And I
don't know. I don't know on what planet. And I
like Jimmy g as much as anybody, but I don't
know on what planet he is better than Carr.
Speaker 2 (14:36):
I wunna say the same thing because, oh, by the way,
Carr plays most games at least, I mean, yeah, he's
a gamer, or I mean, Jimmy's never out there, and
when he is, I don't think he's as good. Like
I could easily paint a picture where the Raiders win
four or five games and Jimmy plays eight of them,
you know, or something like that. Yeah, am I not
for this. I think Russell Wilson might be good this year.
(15:00):
He was so bad last year.
Speaker 1 (15:02):
I don't think he'll be as bad as he was
last year, right, But I don't know that he's that
guy anymore.
Speaker 2 (15:08):
I don't either, But It's funny because I thought he
played much better after the coaching change. He went from
like the worst quarterback in the league to just being
below average. So it wasn't like that was the Russ
of old. But I was listening to like Nate Tice,
who's Mike Tyson's or Mike Tyson's son, and he was
Russell Wilson's backup quarterback at Wisconsin, and he said, ever
(15:31):
since I've known Russell Wilson, he does not want to
be the run by the seat of the pants guy.
He wants to be Drew Brees. He wants to be
the small compact pocket quarterback. And now he's Drew Brees's coach.
Speaker 1 (15:45):
You know, here's the problem is he's not Drew Brees.
He's not that accurate.
Speaker 2 (15:49):
He's not as right right right.
Speaker 1 (15:51):
He doesn't have the talent of Drew Brees. And I
like Russell Wilson as much as anybody does. But the
last two or three years of Russell Wilson has not
been good.
Speaker 2 (16:02):
Agreed, And I'm not saying he's be a top ten quarterback.
But I always look at these guys like their stocks,
and his stock price would be lower. I would buy
his stock right now with intentions of flipping it in
week ten.
Speaker 1 (16:17):
That takes us to number two the.
Speaker 2 (16:22):
Stand alone, although Mahomes and Herbert have a lot of weight,
But the other.
Speaker 1 (16:26):
A FC East with Josh Allen, Tua Tagovailoa, Mac Jones,
Aaron Rodgers with Josh Allen, Aaron Rodgers like that carries
some types, but.
Speaker 2 (16:40):
I guess so were Mahomes and Herbert. I mean, yeah,
number one is now, I mean one is the AFC.
Speaker 1 (16:47):
North exactly with with that group, and I'll think he pick.
Speaker 2 (16:52):
It up for Jones. Oh yeah, do you want Tua
or Watson? Yeah, it's almost a wash. Yeah, yeah, I
don't know.
Speaker 1 (17:06):
I don't know that Tua ever play full seventeen games
in his career. I just think that's who he is. Yeah,
you know, Aaron Rodgers to me is one of the
best to ever do it. Josh Allen.
Speaker 2 (17:22):
I thought Burrow was better than Alan.
Speaker 1 (17:23):
Burrow was better than Allen last year.
Speaker 2 (17:26):
Rod is like total apples oranges. But I don't know
who I'd rather have.
Speaker 1 (17:31):
I mean, if I had to, if I'm lining up
to win one game, I'll take I'll take Aaron Rodgers
over Lamar.
Speaker 2 (17:39):
Yeah, probably, Yeah, but they're on the same tier nowadays
they are they are best in the league, but they're
not far off. They're both top ten guys.
Speaker 1 (17:49):
So you know, when we talk about the Steelers, the
toughest quarterbacks that they play are in their own divisions
a n percent true. In fact, if you look at
the divisions the Steelers crossover against this year, they're all
at the bottom of this. Like, the next best quarterback
that the Steelers face is Trevor Lawrence in Jacksonville, and
(18:14):
that's the seventh best they play that division. They play
the AFC South.
Speaker 2 (18:19):
And we didn't say great things about Lawrence, but I
think we both realized he could be great. They could
be during at that point of his career, middle of
the season. He might be great, but he's not out
of the woods yet right. Oh, by the way, the
top three divisions are all in the AFC.
Speaker 1 (18:36):
Yeah, the Steelers also play the NFC West this year.
That's the number six quarterback divisions. They play the sixth
and the seven And when they have a game against
UH Detroit with Jared.
Speaker 2 (18:52):
Goff, Yeah, and that means a lot of respect for
golf in the last year, but he's still in the
car or Cousins level.
Speaker 1 (18:59):
Yeah, without a doubt. And I go back to and
they play the Raiders with Jimmy Garoppolo, the worst quarterback
in that division.
Speaker 2 (19:08):
So if you listen to last segment, we said a
lot of good things about Picket, and it's not just
because we're on steel Nation Radio, and we cited some
people from outside the you know, that are impartial, and
we think he's trending the right direction. Now, the opposite
could be true of what I'm about to say, But
the Steelers might have a quarterback advantage in ten or
(19:31):
eleven games next year.
Speaker 1 (19:33):
They very well could.
Speaker 2 (19:34):
I mean when it comes to that point of the season,
we might go there Sunday morning going, well, see, yours
are the better quarterback.
Speaker 1 (19:41):
Yeah. I just could certainly see that. I could certainly
see that in at least eight of their games.
Speaker 2 (19:48):
I mean some of them, if they played right now, they.
Speaker 1 (19:50):
Would be no, no doubt like would you rather have
and again, would you rather have Picket right now? Or
Jimmy Garoppolo leaders Hannah Hill to or you know, Tannehill.
Speaker 2 (20:01):
Yeah, are what they are and getting worse because when
you play those guys too, it might be like, oh,
Jimmy looks done. Tannehill looks done. You know, like one
year ago you'd be like, Matt Ryan might be pretty
good for the Coles. Yeah right, all right, they'll all come.
Speaker 1 (20:22):
Yeah. When they hit it, they hit it hard.
Speaker 2 (20:23):
And if he's ascending, you know, hey.
Speaker 1 (20:26):
You can subscribe now to The Drive. Every episode we
do is available for you to download. Subscribe today through
the Steelers Mobile app, the iHeartRadio app, and wherever you
find your podcast. He is Matt Williamson. I am Dale, Lollie.
You're listening to the Drive here on Steelers Nation Radio.
We'll be back to finish up the show right after
this
He's the Drive with Dale Lolly and Matt Williamson on
your twenty four to seven home of the Black and
Gold Steelers Nation Radio. Welcome back to the Drive. I'm
Dale LOLLI he is Matt Williamson and Matt, as I mentioned,
we take a look here at the league, the quarter
or the divisions in the NFL, I can speak really
(00:29):
and we'll break them down by quarterback play. This is
an Adam Shine article, and I don't typically agree much
with what Adam Shine rights. I think he writes like
a radio shock job a little bit. Yeah, yeah, so
I get that, but this is this is I don't
have a problem with what he wrote here breaking down
(00:50):
the divisions by quarterback play, So you're ranking one the
starting quarterbacks for all the teams. I don't know if
he does it here for three wee let me let
me get down here to see where the for example,
the Arizona Cardinals are at and see that'll let me
(01:12):
know that if he is counting the week one starters
or the well for example, he has combinations, so he's
he's looking at it basically for Week one. You want
to start at the top, or you want to start
the ball Okay, we'll go to eight. And I don't
think anybody would have a problem with this, this group,
this division being eighth. And that's the NFC South.
Speaker 2 (01:36):
Four news starters from week one last year.
Speaker 1 (01:38):
You got Desmond Ritter in Atlanta, Bryce Young and Carolina,
Derek Carr with the Saints in Baker Mayfield with the Buccaneers.
That is an atrociously bad quarterback group. Derek Carr is
the best of the bench, and he's about what twelfth
in the league?
Speaker 2 (01:56):
Yeah, someone around there. Yeah, and he's clearly number one
on right now. And that's no disrespect to Bryce Young.
And you don't know, I don't know.
Speaker 1 (02:06):
We know a lot about Desmond Ritter for that matter,
right right.
Speaker 2 (02:09):
I thought he was better than Mariota, which isn't saying much,
but it was still I've been listening to I don't
listen to Chris Simms a lot, and not that I
dislike him, It's just I can only listen to so
many things at once. But he's been putting out his
top forty quarterbacks, and I do like his takes on quarterbacks.
I don't always agree with him, but he is very unique.
(02:31):
I think Ritter was like thirty nine for him, you
know what I mean, Like he was not even in
the top thirty two. He was in the first episode.
So and I see that. I mean, there's a lot
to worry about there.
Speaker 1 (02:42):
I mean, he should be in that first episode. Baker
Mayfield should be in that first episode.
Speaker 2 (02:48):
That's what I meant to say is I don't know
who I'd rather play against right now.
Speaker 1 (02:51):
Quite frankly, Bryce Young should be in that grouping too.
He's never started in an NFL game before.
Speaker 2 (02:55):
Right, I mean a minimum, he's an unknown. And again, yeah,
if cars your best.
Speaker 1 (03:00):
I mean br Bryce Young. If if Bryce Young finishes
this season, is the twentieth best quarterback in the NFL.
That pick, That pick was a slam dunk.
Speaker 3 (03:10):
That was That was a really good rookie year, right, Yeah,
because guys like you know, Peyton Manning, Troy Aikman, There's
a long, long list of rookie quarterbacks who struggled.
Speaker 2 (03:22):
You mentioned Josh Allen last segment or yeah, so yeah,
they got a pretty easy number eight.
Speaker 1 (03:29):
Number seven, the AFC South, both souths.
Speaker 2 (03:35):
A lot of turnover in both those. I mean we
got three of the top four picks, you know, the
top three quarterbacks draft that have already been mentioned.
Speaker 1 (03:42):
So yeah, So in the AFC South you got C. J. Stroud.
He's listing Anthony Richardson as the starter for the Colts. Okay,
Jacksonville's Trevor Lawrence, Tennessee has Ryan Tannehill. I think a
lot of people might be putting the cart before the
whole with the Jacksonville Jaguars in terms of just running
(04:03):
away with the division or that they're well being a
contender in the AFC. I don't think they are.
Speaker 2 (04:09):
I don't either.
Speaker 1 (04:11):
I think they're clearly they're clearly the best team in
that division. Yes, but that's not saying a whole lot.
Speaker 2 (04:17):
I put a couple of bucks on the Colts to
win the division because it pays like ten to one. Yeah,
and that was kind of more of a knock on
the other three teams than boy, I think the Colts
are great.
Speaker 1 (04:27):
Yeah, it wouldn't surprise me if the Jaguars take a
step back this year.
Speaker 2 (04:31):
Right, because they took such a step forward. The one
thing I like about the Jags, and it's the first
time I think I could say this since like the
Brunelli era, is they have a coach and a quarterback.
Speaker 1 (04:44):
Yeah, but I don't know that Trevor Lawrence is out
of the woods yet.
Speaker 2 (04:50):
No. I mean he's gonna be good, I don't know
that he's gonna be great. So like on my podcast yesterday,
we did Twitter Thursday and somebody said, Burrow, Herbert, Lawrence,
start one, bench one, cut one, and I easily cut Lawrence.
Speaker 1 (05:08):
Yeah you have to.
Speaker 2 (05:09):
I mean, just I don't know as much as I've
really seen one year of the guy. He may be great,
I'm not. I mean the competition in that conversation was
pretty rough. And I started Burrow, I benched Herbert, and
I cut Lawrence.
Speaker 1 (05:21):
So here's the thing, Matt, that playoff game against the
Chargers last year, they were down, they were down. That
that was more about the Chargers losing that game to
me than it was Jacksonville winning it.
Speaker 2 (05:36):
Did he throw like four picks in the first.
Speaker 1 (05:38):
Four interceptions in that game right right, completed less than
sixty percent of his passes. He was not good.
Speaker 2 (05:44):
I would love to build my team around Trevor Lawrence.
I think he's going to be really good, but out
of the woods yet, you know, like the Sando Tears
will probably be a Tier two guy and ascending, and
I guess I agree with that, but you know, a
step back from the organization and the quarterback could happen.
(06:04):
I mean, I don't think that's crazy talk at all.
Speaker 1 (06:07):
He had four games last year where he did not
throw a touchdown pass. He had one, two, three, four, five,
six others where he threw one touchdown pass. So he
had ten games last year where he had one or
fewer touchdown passes. Now, what he did a much better
job of last year was taking care of the football. Yeah,
(06:28):
until he got to the playoffs, and he threw five
interceptions into two playoff games.
Speaker 2 (06:33):
And if you recall, because this kind of ties back
to pick it, much of the season, I want to
say about the first half, he was at the bottom
the league two in red zone stuff. You know, as
young quarterbacks are. You know, people kill Kenny for that,
but that's what people, that's what these guys do.
Speaker 1 (06:49):
He was eleven for twenty three fo one hundred and
seventy four yards against the Eagles.
Speaker 2 (06:54):
Well, I remember that was a nasty game too.
Speaker 1 (06:56):
He was twenty two of forty three. Now he had
three hundred and ten yards, but twenty two to forty
three with no touchdown passes and the loss to the Giants.
Speaker 2 (07:05):
Yeah, but for this artical he carries a lot of
weight in a positive way.
Speaker 1 (07:10):
Yeah. And in that division, he's far and away to number.
Speaker 2 (07:13):
One, right or compared to the NFC South.
Speaker 1 (07:16):
I mean, yeah, he's he's if you're looking at those
eight quarterbacks, he's he's number one.
Speaker 2 (07:21):
He's number one, and he'd be your favorite one to
build around, you know. But he's number one already.
Speaker 1 (07:26):
But he's not. I don't He's not a superstar yet.
Speaker 2 (07:29):
I don't think so either. I don't think so either.
Speaker 1 (07:30):
Like, there's still there's still growth there that needs to
be done. That brings us to number six. The NFC West, Oh,
they've got two situations that are completely a mess right now.
So youve got Arizona with Kyler Murray and Colt McCoy.
You got the Rams. Really it should be three, because
(07:52):
you got the Rams with Matthew Stafford. Now I don't
know if he's going to be ready to play football
game this year. You've got San Francisco with Brock Purty,
Trey Lance, Sam Darnold. They've three guys listed here, right,
And then you got the Seahawks with Gino Smith. Matthew
Stafford's the number one quarterback in that division, and he
might not play football again.
Speaker 2 (08:12):
He wasn't very good last year right when he did.
I mean he was very good two years ago. And
I'm a Stafford guy, but we saw this with Ben.
I mean, a big time arm dude that has major
elbow issues or whatever, you know. I mean, like at
his age.
Speaker 1 (08:27):
Can he transform himself like Ben did and start right,
you know, dinking? And like I see all these the
over under for win totals and power rankings and things
of that nature, listing the Rams is a decent team,
I don't see it.
Speaker 2 (08:43):
They're like eight and a half or something like that.
They're horrendous.
Speaker 1 (08:46):
I go under all day on that all day.
Speaker 2 (08:49):
I think their offense. I can tell a story where
their offense is decent. If Stafford, you know, stays healthy,
the defense has no chance to even be close to good.
Speaker 1 (08:58):
No, they're gonna have to win shoot, and they don't
have the they don't have the weapons to do it.
Speaker 2 (09:03):
Side notes. I we broke down Seattle's draft today on
my podcast, and sure they're a hot team. This looks
like back to back rookie classes that are really good.
For Seattle reaping the benefits of the Russell Wilson trade.
Only if Gino's good. I mean, right right, I'm not
out of the woods that, oh wow, they got themselves
(09:25):
a quarterback. I mean, he's had like ten good games.
Speaker 1 (09:30):
Yeah, and they were on the first half of last year.
I'm just calling up Gino Smith's stats here for last year. Now,
he was off to a ridiculous, really kind of unsustainable start.
Last year.
Speaker 2 (09:42):
He was he was quarterback in the league for.
Speaker 1 (09:44):
He was completing well over seventy percent of his passes.
And you know, just so if you look at the
second half from let's say a week from the time
they played the Arizona Cardinals on he had in that
time time span, there's four He threw seven interceptions in
(10:06):
the second half of the season. He had eleven for
the year. So seven of those interceptions came in the
second half. All those three hundred yard games that he
would they didn't they didn't. They weren't there.
Speaker 2 (10:19):
They weren't there.
Speaker 1 (10:20):
He threw one hundred and eighty three yards against the
Jets one ninety.
Speaker 2 (10:25):
It just it wasn't great, No, I mean, not that
he was horrible in the second half of the year.
But the first half of the year was easily the
anomaly of his career.
Speaker 1 (10:37):
And oh, by the way, from that Arizona game on
at midseason, they went three and five down the stretch
right when he wasn't Superman.
Speaker 2 (10:47):
No I Hunderson here. So pulling this up real quick, too,
is he was thirteenth in EPA or in the second
half of the season. Like to me, that's kind of
a ceiling. Like if he's the thirteenth best quarterback this year,
that's as good as it gets.
Speaker 1 (11:05):
Yeah, And the problem for them was in the first half,
in the first first half of the season, he was
top ten.
Speaker 2 (11:14):
Right right, right, he was like six for the first
half of the sea.
Speaker 1 (11:16):
Yeah, so that tends to balance out, Like that's like
a three hundred guy hitting three hundred in baseball over
the first half of a season. But he's a two
sixty hitter for his career. Chances are when the season's
over he's gonna be at two sixty again, which means
that second half he hit about two twenty right right right.
Speaker 2 (11:35):
And some of them you know this better than I do.
I mean, some of them are what do they say
in Bulldoorum, you know that's need a flare they wanted
to drop. You know, sometimes it's the ball lands where
they're not hit them where they ain't you know, but
you're really the same player.
Speaker 1 (11:49):
But sometimes that's how you got to the three hundred.
Speaker 2 (11:51):
That's right, That's what I mean.
Speaker 1 (11:52):
Things were going really well for Gino Smith in the
beginning of the year, and it goes well in the
second half.
Speaker 2 (11:58):
Yeah, you're a two to eighty hitter. That half the
year you hit three hundred and the other half you
hit two sixty. But you're really swinging the bat to say, yeah.
Speaker 3 (12:07):
Uh.
Speaker 1 (12:07):
Moving on to the number five division, the NFC East.
Speaker 2 (12:14):
East.
Speaker 1 (12:14):
Yeah, Dallas with Dak Prescott, the Giants with Daniel Jones,
the Eagles with Jalen Hurts, the Commanders with Sam Howell. Well,
Sam Howe brings that, you know, drags that down a
little bit. Yeah, but you got Dak Prescott and Jalen
Hurts and really Daniel Jones. They're all making money.
Speaker 2 (12:30):
They're all making money. They al I mean, Hurts had
a huge year. I I cheated and went up to
the next division. I would have the East over the
next division, Okay, without a doubt. To be honest with you.
I mean, I don't think Jones is great, but I
wouldn't say he's a weak link.
Speaker 1 (12:49):
I mean, oh yeah, I agree with you. I think
I think the next division get way overrated.
Speaker 2 (12:54):
Yeah, because they lost their best guy too, by the way, Yeah,
that would.
Speaker 1 (12:59):
Be the NFC North with Justin Fields, Jared Goff, Jordan Love,
Kirk Cousins. Right, Kirk Cousins is like quarterback fifteen. So
Jordan Love I have no idea what he is. Jared
Goff is maybe quarterback thirteen or fourteen.
Speaker 2 (13:17):
On his good days, right, even after a really rough
statistical year. I'm taking Dak over all four of those guys.
Speaker 1 (13:26):
I'm taking Jalen Hurts overall four of those easily taking
Hurts overall, though, And Daniel Jones is every bit the
equal to Cousins or Goff. Maybe not quite equal, but
it's close.
Speaker 2 (13:38):
And I mean, I guess I'd rather have loved than
how but they're both unknowns.
Speaker 1 (13:44):
Right, Yeah, they essentially got the same number of career starts.
Speaker 2 (13:49):
Yeah, right, and we've seen about the same from both
of them and pro you know regulation games, you know,
regular season games.
Speaker 1 (13:57):
That takes us to number three, which is the AFC
imagine that a division with Patrick Mahomes, Russell Wilson and
Justin Herbert as third easily was one a year ago.
Oh with that, I mean it was talked about as
being the best division ever.
Speaker 2 (14:15):
Yeah, boy, Carr is the week link in this division.
It was the narrative one year ago.
Speaker 1 (14:22):
Well, no, they got Jimmy Garoppolo manning that. And I
don't know. I don't know on what planet. And I
like Jimmy g as much as anybody, but I don't
know on what planet he is better than Carr.
Speaker 2 (14:36):
I wunna say the same thing because, oh, by the way,
Carr plays most games at least, I mean, yeah, he's
a gamer, or I mean, Jimmy's never out there, and
when he is, I don't think he's as good. Like
I could easily paint a picture where the Raiders win
four or five games and Jimmy plays eight of them,
you know, or something like that. Yeah, am I not
for this. I think Russell Wilson might be good this year.
(15:00):
He was so bad last year.
Speaker 1 (15:02):
I don't think he'll be as bad as he was
last year, right, But I don't know that he's that
guy anymore.
Speaker 2 (15:08):
I don't either, But It's funny because I thought he
played much better after the coaching change. He went from
like the worst quarterback in the league to just being
below average. So it wasn't like that was the Russ
of old. But I was listening to like Nate Tice,
who's Mike Tyson's or Mike Tyson's son, and he was
Russell Wilson's backup quarterback at Wisconsin, and he said, ever
(15:31):
since I've known Russell Wilson, he does not want to
be the run by the seat of the pants guy.
He wants to be Drew Brees. He wants to be
the small compact pocket quarterback. And now he's Drew Brees's coach.
Speaker 1 (15:45):
You know, here's the problem is he's not Drew Brees.
He's not that accurate.
Speaker 2 (15:49):
He's not as right right right.
Speaker 1 (15:51):
He doesn't have the talent of Drew Brees. And I
like Russell Wilson as much as anybody does. But the
last two or three years of Russell Wilson has not
been good.
Speaker 2 (16:02):
Agreed, And I'm not saying he's be a top ten quarterback.
But I always look at these guys like their stocks,
and his stock price would be lower. I would buy
his stock right now with intentions of flipping it in
week ten.
Speaker 1 (16:17):
That takes us to number two the.
Speaker 2 (16:22):
Stand alone, although Mahomes and Herbert have a lot of weight,
But the other.
Speaker 1 (16:26):
A FC East with Josh Allen, Tua Tagovailoa, Mac Jones,
Aaron Rodgers with Josh Allen, Aaron Rodgers like that carries
some types, but.
Speaker 2 (16:40):
I guess so were Mahomes and Herbert. I mean, yeah,
number one is now, I mean one is the AFC.
Speaker 1 (16:47):
North exactly with with that group, and I'll think he pick.
Speaker 2 (16:52):
It up for Jones. Oh yeah, do you want Tua
or Watson? Yeah, it's almost a wash. Yeah, yeah, I
don't know.
Speaker 1 (17:06):
I don't know that Tua ever play full seventeen games
in his career. I just think that's who he is. Yeah,
you know, Aaron Rodgers to me is one of the
best to ever do it. Josh Allen.
Speaker 2 (17:22):
I thought Burrow was better than Alan.
Speaker 1 (17:23):
Burrow was better than Allen last year.
Speaker 2 (17:26):
Rod is like total apples oranges. But I don't know
who I'd rather have.
Speaker 1 (17:31):
I mean, if I had to, if I'm lining up
to win one game, I'll take I'll take Aaron Rodgers
over Lamar.
Speaker 2 (17:39):
Yeah, probably, Yeah, but they're on the same tier nowadays
they are they are best in the league, but they're
not far off. They're both top ten guys.
Speaker 1 (17:49):
So you know, when we talk about the Steelers, the
toughest quarterbacks that they play are in their own divisions
a n percent true. In fact, if you look at
the divisions the Steelers crossover against this year, they're all
at the bottom of this. Like, the next best quarterback
that the Steelers face is Trevor Lawrence in Jacksonville, and
(18:14):
that's the seventh best they play that division. They play
the AFC South.
Speaker 2 (18:19):
And we didn't say great things about Lawrence, but I
think we both realized he could be great. They could
be during at that point of his career, middle of
the season. He might be great, but he's not out
of the woods yet right. Oh, by the way, the
top three divisions are all in the AFC.
Speaker 1 (18:36):
Yeah, the Steelers also play the NFC West this year.
That's the number six quarterback divisions. They play the sixth
and the seven And when they have a game against
UH Detroit with Jared.
Speaker 2 (18:52):
Goff, Yeah, and that means a lot of respect for
golf in the last year, but he's still in the
car or Cousins level.
Speaker 1 (18:59):
Yeah, without a doubt. And I go back to and
they play the Raiders with Jimmy Garoppolo, the worst quarterback
in that division.
Speaker 2 (19:08):
So if you listen to last segment, we said a
lot of good things about Picket, and it's not just
because we're on steel Nation Radio, and we cited some
people from outside the you know, that are impartial, and
we think he's trending the right direction. Now, the opposite
could be true of what I'm about to say, But
the Steelers might have a quarterback advantage in ten or
(19:31):
eleven games next year.
Speaker 1 (19:33):
They very well could.
Speaker 2 (19:34):
I mean when it comes to that point of the season,
we might go there Sunday morning going, well, see, yours
are the better quarterback.
Speaker 1 (19:41):
Yeah. I just could certainly see that. I could certainly
see that in at least eight of their games.
Speaker 2 (19:48):
I mean some of them, if they played right now, they.
Speaker 1 (19:50):
Would be no, no doubt like would you rather have
and again, would you rather have Picket right now? Or
Jimmy Garoppolo leaders Hannah Hill to or you know, Tannehill.
Speaker 2 (20:01):
Yeah, are what they are and getting worse because when
you play those guys too, it might be like, oh,
Jimmy looks done. Tannehill looks done. You know, like one
year ago you'd be like, Matt Ryan might be pretty
good for the Coles. Yeah right, all right, they'll all come.
Speaker 1 (20:22):
Yeah. When they hit it, they hit it hard.
Speaker 2 (20:23):
And if he's ascending, you know, hey.
Speaker 1 (20:26):
You can subscribe now to The Drive. Every episode we
do is available for you to download. Subscribe today through
the Steelers Mobile app, the iHeartRadio app, and wherever you
find your podcast. He is Matt Williamson. I am Dale, Lollie.
You're listening to the Drive here on Steelers Nation Radio.
We'll be back to finish up the show right after
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