November 6, 2018 • 55 mins
Doug tells you why he’d rather be the Raiders than the Cowboys after the suffered another disappointing loss. He also thinks Bill Belichick was proven correct once again based off something Doug saw on Monday Night Football. Former offensive lineman and NFL analyst Ross Tucker joins the show to tell Doug if the Packers and Aaron Rodgers can still make the playoffs.
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Speaker 1 (00:00):
Thanks for listening to the best of the Doug Gottlieb
Show podcast. Be sure to catch us live every weekday
from three to six pm Eastern Time, that's twelve to
three Pacific on Fox Sports Radio. Find your local station
for the Doug Gotlip Show at Fox Sports Radio dot com,
or stream us live every day on the I Heart
Radio app by searching fs R. This is the best
(00:22):
of the Doug gottli Show on Fox Sports Radio. Boom,
What Up America, Doug Gottlieb Show, Fox Sports Radio, Coming
to you from the Sunny City of Angels Where we
got Week nine in the books, Right, week nine in
(00:44):
the books the National Football League. We are onto week ten.
Why Bill Belichick continues to look like a genius? Really
quiet about all that that riffed in the Patriots locker
room from the off season. We have some college whoop tonight.
Lottle College whoop tip off with Kentucky taken on Duke
(01:07):
after Michigan State takes on Kansas. I got some picks
for you tonight should be great. The most boring college
football season of all time continues. We will discuss the
one thing that has happened that we always wondered if
it would happen, and um um, I think a big night,
(01:30):
a huge night for one NBA team, coaching staff, franchise.
But let's start with what we saw last night. So
fourteen all tie. A matter of fact, it should have
been a lead to the Dallas Cowboys. You know, you
get a team like Titans turns it over that much
in the first half, you can't have a lead at
home going into the break a bad feeling. They did
(01:53):
find Amari Cooper and in the first half they did
run a zeke Yelliott a ton. In the second half,
he only got six touches. That being Elliott, Cooper was
modestly at best effective, and the Cowboys fell at home.
And all the huff and all the bluster and all
the hype about the Cowboys coming out of the bye week,
(02:15):
coming out of the bye week, that's what you do
out of a bye week. Oh and stop me if
you heard me this before. But Shaun Lee got hurt.
Stop me if you heard this before. But it's his hamstring.
I know, I know, I know. Well when he's healthy,
he's never healthy. So here we are Cowboys three and
(02:37):
five on a trajectory which takes him out of the playoffs.
Season not over, but feeling like it's, uh, what's the
Yogi bearra expression? It's getting late early, sure is. And
then you have the Raiders, who embarrassed themselves last Thursday
night by absolutely quitting on John Gruden. And you know what,
(02:58):
I'm here to tell you, I'd rather be the Raiders
than the Cowboys. The race to the middle does you nothing.
Don't get me wrong. The Giants still have to find
a quarterback. The Washington Redskins got blown out at home
by the Atlanta Falcons, right, a team that is mired
(03:19):
and muddled with injuries on their defensive side of the football,
and they have Alex Smith, who is Mr. Regular Season
and Captain checked out. And then you have the Eagles,
who have looked every bit the championship team with the
post championship hangover. It's not like anybody's running away and
hiding in that division. And so I'm not telling you
that the Cowboys season is lost. But even if it
(03:40):
isn't lost and they make the playoff, I'd still rather
be the Raiders. Blasphemy. I know what, Historically can you
point to the Sixers or the astros hell the Celtics,
the Bucks, all teams that understood it. Who cares if
(04:02):
you're in the middle. If you don't have the right pieces,
and then you overpay and trying to fix some of
those pieces, you're bound to be in capel and be
stuck in the middle. The Cowboys lost again last night,
which is a win for the Raids, who just so
happened to have held up a complete heist of Jerry
(04:26):
Jones and his staff and got him and gave him
Amari Cooper. Oh no, we don't want to lose Amari Cooper,
a wide receiver who's not as good as the sport
team million he's gonna be paid next year. Oh no,
but maybe we could be talked into it with a
first round pick. Oh first round pick. Oh you got us, Jerry,
(04:46):
you got us? Oh man, you just really wink wink,
not not got over on us in the trade. Oh.
Khalil Mack he's so awesome. He's awesome. Bears one without
him again this weekend. There's no doubting that he's awesome.
But he's not ninety million dollars awesome. Seventy nine million
dollars under the cap for next year. I mean they
(05:09):
are flush with cash. They are like, um, is it
was it? Scrooge McDuck, All right, do you guys remember
ducktails don't actin You didn't watch ducktails? Ducktails? Who right?
And Scrooge mc duck used to take a little dial,
a little swim in his piles of money. That's screwding
right now, swimming in his money. Vegas will float them
(05:30):
some cash because their cash poor. And oh yeah, by
the way, they have one, four, five first round picks
over the next two years. Gruden might screw it up,
but all you gotta hit on is two out of five,
and you're doing pretty well for yourself. Here's Jerry Jones
after the game that is completely capable of looking at
(05:51):
what the situation was last night. You don't have anybody
that's more capable to look at that and take it
to the practice field and take it to learn from
that for the next ball game. You see your quarterback
for the next ten years. That is the quarterback of
the Dallas Cowboys. He's young, and he's gonna get extended.
He's young, He's gonna get extended. You know what, we
(06:11):
think he's so average, we're gonna pay him at a
rate commensurate with the top quarterback in the game, which
is gonna forever hurt our ability to put more pieces
around him, which will completely shine a light on just
how average he is. Remember the Cowboys, they didn't just
change offensive line coaches during the bye week. They change
(06:32):
most of most of their coaching staff during the off season.
So you had all these relationships with the players. Those
guys are gone. The leadership of Witten is gone. They
never really replaced Dez Bryant until last week. And it's
not like Marii Cooper in the last two years has
shown the ability to be at what Dez Bryant was
(06:52):
at the peak of his career. No one seems to
know what they're doing. Shawn Lee's always hurt. The offensive
line is and as good as it's billed to be,
you still don't have the dominance of Travis Frederick. And
oh yeah, by the way, you're gonna overpay Dak Prescott
in the office season and your first round and your
first round draft pick is going to the Raiders. And
(07:17):
because the mari Cooper's set to get to be to
play under that fifth year option, you're probably gonna redo
his contract and ultimately overpay a Mari Cooper. Outside of that,
Mrs Lincoln, how is the show? Hey, Zeke Elliott? Right?
(07:38):
Has he got a second contract yet? No? Is he good? Yes,
he's actually awesome. So look, I would rather be a
team flush with cash and with draft picks, even if
I have no idea who's going to be my next stars,
as opposed to guys who have shown themselves at the
most the most important position in the NFL's quarterback. And
(08:01):
the only time you can get away with having an
average quarterback is when he's on a rookie contract. Right,
what the Bears have shown, what the Rams have shown,
what you know, pick out any of these guys on
these deals, or what the Cowboys were able to show
two years ago. But once he starts getting paid at
(08:23):
the level of a top ten quarterback, and he'll probably
get as much money as anybody in the game because
that's the way the game works, then you're gonna struggle
to continue to add pieces to hide what he really is,
which is he anytime you say that, man, I really
like it when he runs it and he's a quarterback,
(08:45):
that's telling me she's got a great personality. When I
ask you how she looks every rule in the game
has been changed and designed to protect quarterbacks in the
pocket because we have spoken, as the American sports viewers, saying,
we like guys that throw a football to a wide
receiver who catches a football. That's what seems to make
(09:05):
us feel good inside. And you can give me Cam Newton,
but he's not Cam Newton as a runner, and even
Cam Newton as a runner is bound to likely get
hurt as big a human being as he is, and
he seems like the biggest human being on earth when
you run. I would rather be the Raiders, who some
(09:26):
people call the laughing stock of the league, tied into
a ten year, hundre million dollar contract with John Gruden,
caught in between stadiums in between cities. Then I would
the biggest name in professional sports, which is the Dallas Cowboys,
with the sickest stadium, the wealthiest owner, and the biggest evaluation.
(09:48):
Because I don't care about being three and five, five
and five, eight and eight. I'm cool being really bad
if I'm purposely really bad, so I can load up
on draft picks and stop and ashway cash for the future.
That's what the Raiders have done so congratulate the Cowboys.
They have found their hideously, completely and totally average quarterback
(10:12):
for the next five years, and they're gonna get goaded
into It's not Dack's fault. I don't think it's all
Dack's fault. I don't I think the offensive line. I
think that they weren't able to find a tight end
in short notice because they thought they were getting their
Hall of Fame tight end back, but they they didn't.
(10:32):
And then they cut Daz at the last possible moment
and didn't replace him until last week. And yeah, a
little bit of bad luck with Travis Frederick coming down
with an autoimmune disease. Like these are all bad you know,
someone's bad luck and bad timing. And Sean Lee gets
hurt again, someone's bad luck and bad timing. But you've
(10:53):
got a chance to get out of this Dack deal,
and you're not going to because everyone's gonna do everything
except blame Dak Prescott. He may not be all of
the problem, but he is not the solution. Here's Troy
Aikman explained the Cowboys problems ticket This team over a
long period of time has been what it's been, and
(11:18):
it hasn't always mattered who the head coach has been.
And so to me you're asking me, I'd say there
has to be a complete overhaul of the entire organization.
You just can't simply replace head coaches and say now
it's going to be better. No, it's it's been shown
that it's not better. I've heard Jerry say, Okay, look
we're going to do it differently. I'm going to do
(11:38):
it differently. You know I can no longer. But it's
the same. Nothing changes, nothing seems to change. Be sure
to catch live editions so the Doug Dot Leaps Show
weekdays at noon eastern three pm Pacific on Fox Sports
Radio and the I Heart Radio app. The feeling you
get of being an expatriot spelled e x p a
t R I a t E is completely opposite of
(12:01):
being an ex New England patriot because those guys with
the acception, with the exception of Adam Vinitary and maybe
Chandler Jones and I guess for five games last year,
Jimmy Garoppolo, they all stink. Did you watch Malcolm Butler
(12:22):
last night? Did you? Cowhard called him an uttered disaster.
He was at least at least there had been discussed
the discussions in Nashville before the game whether or not
Malcolm Butler, who signed a huge free agents deal, would
(12:45):
be demoted ahead of the game. And now, of course
they get ready, get ready for the Dallas Cowboys, and
that continues to be a story. Mike Rabel said. When
you play man coverage, you have to look at your man.
Malcolm knows that. We talked about that. We continue to
practice that, continue to coach it. We try and show
it to him. When he does that, it's pretty good.
(13:06):
It's competitive. He challenges the receivers. When you look back
at the quarterback, your man has a tendency to move
in another direction. This feels like football. One oh one, Right,
So Malcolm Butler is not playing good football. And now,
(13:28):
of course to get ready for the Patriots who are
going to pick on Malcolm Butler. And do you remember
do you remember the narrative in the off season, Oh,
Bill Belichick sacrificed to the Super Bowl because he didn't
play Malcolm Butler. Why didn't he play Malcolm Butler? We
even jokingly asked several ex Patriots who are elsewhere, why
(13:49):
didn't the play Malcolm Butler? And what was what was
the story the I'm not talking about last year, talking
about this year. Do you know why, Because because Belichick
knew history was on his side. He had identified that
(14:09):
Malcolm Butler, whatever awesomeness he had in that one plane
in the Super Bowl, and the fact that as an
underpaid guy. Remember he entered the league as an undrafted
free agent at u f A. So they got him
on the cheap, played him on the cheap, and when
he wanted to get paid, they jettisoned him. And oh yeah,
(14:30):
by the way, he got exposed last year in the
regular season and in the playoffs. And that was against
bad quarterbacks, that was against Mariota, that was against Blake Bortles.
It was like no one wanted to tell the whole story.
He had two weeks off for the Super Bowl. The
(14:51):
week of the Super Bowl, he didn't go to the
team doctors, instead checked into a hospital, missed the team plane,
flew there on his own. In addition to the fact
he wasn't playing well, so he'd been playing poorly and
there was a no show at the team plane, the facility,
and their first workout when they got to the Twin
(15:12):
Cities and Belichick was was the bad guy for not
playing him. Bill Belichick has history on his side, and
you can sit there and go like, well, you know
his replacement got torched because they tried to have Patrick
Chung fill in for him. Malcolm Butler would have got torched.
How do I know? He's gotten torched every game he's
been a Tennessee Titan. After the Alan Hearn's touchdown, which
(15:40):
he was wide open yesterday, Alan Hearns was wide open.
He hadn't been wide open at all this year. That's
one of the Cowboys problems. Malcolm Butler has now been
the nearest defender and coverage on six touchdowns, second only
to Marcus Peters this season according to the NFL's Next
Gen Stats. By the way, Marcus p r traded by
(16:01):
any Reid Why because he stares in the backfield and
tries to make plays on the ball instead of what's
the Bill Belichick expression that Sean Payton steals from, do
your job? Malcolm Butler is eighty swond He's ranked eighty
two in cornerbacks according to Pro Football Focus. Okay, let's
(16:25):
do the math here. Okay, two starting quarterbacks on every team,
thirty two teams. I'm not great at all. Like, my
son is struggling with this his math facts and his
multiplication tables, like once you get past six or seven,
he struggles a little bit here in fourth grade. But
I do know that thirty two times two is sixty four,
(16:49):
So that would make him worse at least PERF Pro
Football Focus than every other starting cornerback in the National
Football League. And oh yeah, by the way, if we
bring in slot corners slot corners we had in thirty
two more, thirty two to sixty four is to six three.
(17:15):
So if he was playing as a slot corner he
would be middle to bottom of the league. But he's not.
He's the highest paid and supposed to be the best cornerback,
and he's the worst best cornerback by far in the
National Football Here's what he told the Titans dot Com
this is a team friendly website about his struggles this season.
(17:37):
I think sometimes my problem is I'm trying to get
the ball. You gamble, you do things you shouldn't. You
just need to get back to basics. I need to
get back to my dogg ish ways. I'm gonna get
back to being real nasty man. I'm gonna play my
game and do more to help my team out. I'm
just gonna be me. Don't do you do us right?
(18:03):
Everyone like he's a one play guy like I'm he's not.
Like he's not Larry Brown. Larry Brown was famously the
Super Bowl m v P because Neil O'Donnell threw to
him like three times. Like Neil O'Donnell suddenly in the
Super Bowl former Pittsburgh Steeler quarterback was color blind and
through the ball to Larry Brown three times. And Larry
Brown got a huge deal afterwards with the Dallas Cowboys
(18:26):
and sucks afterwards. Excuse me with the Raiders. Afterwards, he's
playing with the Cowboys. With the Raiders otters, don't get
me wrong. Malcolm Butler, as for an undrafted free agent, overachieved,
and Malcolm Butler did make the play of his life
and a play to help the Super Bowl. But part
of that play was the fact that one Russell Wilson
(18:50):
did in fact stare down his wide receiver to Russell
Wilson threw the ball high because he's small instead of low.
And three it was because they watched it in film
study down around the goal line when they stacked those
two wide receivers, he knew exactly what was coming. He
got to guess, and he guessed right. The Patriots got
(19:13):
the Super Bowl last year in spite of not because
of their defense. Bill Belichick didn't suddenly become a complete
idiot and not play his best cornerback in the Super Bowl.
He played a guy that was wildly overrated, and it's
been exposed to such so far with the Tennessee Titans.
You can tell me all you want about Belichick cost
(19:34):
his team the Super Bowl. Dude, they had the ball
and Tom Brady's hands without Brandon Cooks, who got hurt
on the first series they had. You want to tell
me Tom Brady is the greatest quarterback of all time,
I'll argue with you. But if you want to tell
me top five quarterbacks of all time, Okay, he's the
most successful quarterback in the history of the sport. And
(19:56):
whatever you think of Bill Belichick, his quarterback had the
ball down five with a chance to go down score
and win the game, and they didn't do it because
his quarterback got strip sacked. And you can sit there
and go like, wow, he would have picked like all right,
how come nobody said, you know? The Eagles defense never
(20:17):
made the Patriots punt Patriots innt punt. Mr bild Gold
missed an extra point, had turnovers, did not punt the
ball once. No one wants to consider the fact the
idea that it might not have been a one possession
game if Malcolm Butler played. Because he sucked. It is
possible that the guy who has had his team appear
(20:41):
in eight Super Bowls might know a little bit more
about football, especially defensive football, which is his primary uh,
his primary attribute, or his specialty, more than me. You
former players, TV pundits, don't believe me. The last thing
(21:02):
you want to be called in the National Football League
is an ex patriot. Be sure to catch live edition
so the Doug got Leap Show week days in noon
eastern three pm Pacific. I just watched and tweeted out
one of the funniest videos I've ever seen. Um, it
is not safe for work. It is on my Twitter
page label does not safe for work. But it's one
(21:22):
fans reaction when Caleb Sturgis misses an extra point something
he did not once but twice on Sunday, and he
missed the field goal, and let's be honest, I'll put
the miss two point conversion on him as well, because
you don't go for two in the first quarter of
a game unless well, your kickers always already show him
he can't make an extra point. So the Chargers left
(21:44):
seven points on the field still won by eight, although
they needed a deflection on untimed down in Seattle to
do so. And a guy who saw every place and
every play the Chargers played this this year is Daniel Jeremiah,
who joins us on the Doug gott Leap Show. Um,
I'd like to say best team, you know, best team
in the NFL without a kicker, But I don't know
(22:05):
how to characterize, like the Charges that played really well
with exception, and they've actually played pretty well against Kansas
City with exception maybe the Rams game and part of
that kans City game. And they've done so without a
Hunter Henry who may return, and without Joey Bosa who
will return, who's probably their best defensive player. And yet
there's the kicking game and they're gonna make they made
a kicking change. Already, give me your thoughts and the
(22:25):
Charges of the team that you call the games floor, Well,
I mean, I think the encouraging thing, Doug is they
still find a way to win these games. I mean
there was a point in time I think I had it,
whereas the youth said seven. I think I had it
with six points. You know that when they left off
the table with the with the kicking situation, it should
have been thirty one to ten at Seattle. And this
is uh, this is the place where I know it's
(22:46):
not the old Seattle team, but they haven't lost. It's
ridiculous that status. They hadn't lost at home to an
a FC team since two thousand and eleven. Russell Wilson
never lost to an a FC team, and they're been
some pretty good ones that have rolled through there. So
not an easy ways to play. And I thought they
really dominated the football game save the whole kicking situation.
So the good news is the kid that they're that
(23:07):
they're signing Michael Badsley, who was filling in for a
couple of games when Caleb Sturgis was out. He was
sending for ten on all of his kicks. Now his
kickoffs are terrible, so they've got to figure out what
to do there. But I feel like you've at least
upgraded the field goal kicking and the extra points. I
mean to miss the extra points that have been missed.
Is that just you can't excuse it completely and totally inexcusable. Um,
(23:31):
all right, So when they get Bosa back, like, where
do you put them in this hierarchy of a f
C teams which went from we started the year going
like is anybody really any good in the a f C?
To Kansas City might be the best team in the
sport even with with their with their defense, and New
England beat Kansas City and continues to improve and evolve.
(23:51):
And then you have a team like like the Chargers, um,
as well as the Stealers who we think are going
to get back Levan Bell. They seem to have figured
some stuff out. Where do you put the Chargers in
this mix in THEFC? Well, all due respect to Levy
on Bell, I mean the job that Connor has done there, Um,
you know, I don't know how much better they're gonna
be with left Bell with the Chargers, they don't I
(24:12):
mean Joey Bosa. I mean that is a major, major edition.
And then if you get Hunter Henry back in time
for the last couple of games or the post did
and get him ready to go for the postseason, you've
added what I believe is one of the five best
tight ends in the NFL. So you're adding a top
five defensive player, a top five tied end in the
NFL to a team that in their last I believe
(24:32):
they finished eight and two or six and two in
their last eight games last year. They're six and two
to start. Now that's a twelve and four team over
the last sixteen games. They are. They're dangerous as anybody
in the a f C. They can beat anybody that
Chief's game, you know, early in the season, without those
two players and without a couple of drop passes, they're
right there. So I definitely think it could be a
(24:53):
dangerous team in the postseason. All right, let's get to
a couple of things and listen to your podcasts. You
should too, by the way, the podcast is called Move
the Sticks. He Bucky Brooks. You can hear Bucky Brooks
on Fox Sports Radio as well. Joined us in the
Doug Gottlib Show on Fox Sports Radio. Okay, so, um,
I'm I'm watching the Cowboys. They may they made changes
(25:13):
with other position coaches in the off season. Now they
change an offensive line coach during the bye week, they
add in a wide receiver and their offense still isn't
any good point the fingers of blame. What's wrong with
the Cowboys offense. I still don't think that the personnel
is great, you know. I think there's a lot of
blame to go around. I thought the injury that hasn't
(25:34):
really been talked about, really the two injuries that haven't
been talked about in the NFL Travis Frederick. They missed
him in a huge way of Dallas. UH. And then
the other one I would say is Cam Cam Robinson,
the left haper for Jacksonville. But with Dallas with their issues.
I mean I saw Troy Akeman came out and said
they needed kind of wholesale changes. I would I would
be in agreement there. Although your owners already came out
(25:56):
and committed to DA going forward. So he's gonna be
the quarter back. You're gonna have to build a team
around him and UH and right now they don't have
the pieces to win with that type of a formula,
a dominant tight end. They need a dominant tight end.
That's a big way to help him out. I would agree,
and look at the tight end is a major and
they had when he's in the booth, they had a quarterback.
(26:18):
He's in another booths right, and now they got um.
So I I understand the tight end thing caught him
off guard. I mean, you see the Chargers, right, they
lost their tight end to injury who may return, and
they've had to kind of cover up cover that up.
It's really really hard at the last second, uh, to
to to you know, to to find something to cover
that up. Um. But I guess we're all operating under
(26:40):
this assumption that Doc's gonna be resigned because Jerry said
Dax's gonna be resigned. But is he good enough considering
the other flaws they have? And now once you resign him,
you're not gonna have as much money to sprinkle around
and spread around. Well, you know, I don't think he's
a great quarterback. Up is what are what are your options?
(27:01):
And you don't have a first round pick now anyway,
So I don't think there's anything on the rise, and
they can do um to upgrade that decision. Um. The difference,
I would say, just going back to talking about the
charge of not having their tight end, as Phillips not
dependent on any of that, I think Doc is very
much a dependent quarterback at this point in time. He
needs a great offensive line. He used to have a
big time tight end, used to have a defense that's
(27:21):
gonna control, uh, control that that side of things so
that the games are gonna be lower scoring. He can
make or make a couple of plays here there, whereas
Philip rivers they don't have a tight end. No problem,
will go three wise and we'll find other ways to
get it done. We'll throw to the bags, will do
whatever we have to do. Um. So they have to
build a lot of pieces around Dak Prescott, and now
you don't have one of those resources with the draft picks.
(27:42):
So I think this is a very average football team, Doug.
And when I look out into the future, I don't
see how they escape that level. Uh in the next
couple of years. I think they're gonna be an average
football team for a couple of years. What about the
Tennessee Titans. Uh, they needed that. When Mariota made a
couple of throws in tight windows, they did so to fight. Uh,
you know, a couple of turnovers in the first half.
(28:03):
What's our assessment of the Titans in that a FC
South Uh, it's interesting. I mean, you know, if you're
kind of doing the college football thing and they talk
about resumes. I mean, this is a team that, uh
that beat the Philadelphia Eagles, which is a great win
for them. The Chargers saw that over in London. Last play,
you know, they get a conversion, they win that game.
They've uh, they've been very competitive. And I'll give Mariot
(28:25):
to credit. I have not been the biggest Marcus Mariota supporter,
but the last couple of weeks against the Chargers and
and in this game, and you go back to that
Eagles game, He's had some really good games this year. Now,
he's not as consistent as you'd like, UM, but he's
played well. He's he he's shown some signs there of life.
And defensively they're just very They're they're pretty discipline. They
gave up some big plays in London to the Chargers,
(28:48):
but last night I thought they just kind of smothered
the Cowboys. Uh. I heard on the podcast you mentioned
that Kareem Hunt, like, if not from Mahomes, Kareem Hunt
would be getting mb P m v P run. How
much of it is Hunt? How much of it is
people are so scared of their speed and their wide
receivers and they're tight end well, it all factors together,
(29:09):
the kids on pay for twenty three touchdowns, and it
feels like he's not even discussed, you know, and that's
partly because of Mahomes and a lot because Todd Gurley
as well, what those guys are doing. But um, I
think that you know, if this was if he wasn't there,
I don't know if this is something that can sustain
through the postseason. I think he's the key for them
going into the post is you're gonna be playing at
(29:30):
home in Arrow and it's not gonna be great weather. Um,
he's gonna be kind of the key figure. So right now,
I think Mahomes is the star of the show and uh,
and they're a little bit more dependent on him. I
think if they get in the postseason and they're gonna
make a deep run, uh something Andy Reid's been Uh
you know, I hadn't done it in in a while since
going back to Philadelphia, They're gonna need the Kareem Hunt
to be the focus, and I think he will be
(29:50):
the focus. What what's your what's your take on Baltimore
on what they do during this by week? I thought
they might could change. I really did. Um, we were
sitting there. You know, I read Hardball's comments after the
game on the flight home on Sunday night, and uh,
I saw where he said, you know, we want to
(30:10):
get Lamar Jackson on the field more. And I believe
he played twelve or thirteen snaps in that game. So
if you're getting you know, fifty five to sixty snaps
a game on offense, and he doesn't think thirteen is enough,
I thought, well, I mean, you might as just start
him then if you want to do it, you're stagged
it offensively. Um, you want to switch things up, I
thought with a bye week, two weeks to get him
ready to go, I was kind of anticipating we might
(30:33):
see that that change take place. But now it sounds
like they're gonna give him a series to go along
with what he's doing. I mean, I I don't think that,
you know, playing the two guys has ever worked at
any level. Um, so I don't think that's gonna end. Well,
I would agree with you. My thing is, while I
understand he's the first round pick, you don't pick a
first round pick to sit and not see him. Has
(30:54):
there been a moment when he has played quarterback where
he looked like he could be an NFL quarterback. They
haven't really, they haven't really made the offense and what
it would have to be for him to be successful.
It's totally different than what they have going for him now.
And when they bring him in now, basically it's running
zone read, it's you know, played here, or they're design runs.
So I mean to me, you have to reconstruct the offense,
(31:14):
which can be difficult to do in the middle of
the season. But I thought even the hail mary moved Doug,
you know, help mary don't often work, but it's, uh,
it's kind of looking at where you are right now
and knowing that if you don't get in the postseason,
it's gonna cost you your job. So that's usually when
you see a hail Mary get thrown. So I think
he's gonna he's gonna start games before the seasons over.
(31:34):
I really do believe that was was what happened to
Marcus Peters in New Orleans, the aha moment to the
why did any read give up on mar Oh Dad's
what was that? Was that? The aha moment? Well, I mean, look,
he's first of all, you gotta play him an off coverage.
He's not as comfortable up there in press and that's
been exposed. Um, but I thought, you know, with with
(31:55):
Andy Reid, I thought it was more about the future
and resources and where they want to where they want
to spend their money. And Andy Reid, with the way
the NFL is set up right now, doesn't want to
spend his money on a corner. Um. That's to me,
I think is it's probably gonna end up to being
a smart move. Danna Jeremiah from the NFL Network joining
us on the Doug Gottlib Show. How do we get
(32:16):
here to where the Saints are not only the hottest
team in the NFL, but many people consider them the
best team in the NFL? Yeah, I mean, look, I've
picked them to lose like four and the last five weeks,
and I've been wrong every single time. They just continue
to roll. I I have questions about them defensively. I've
seen Ryan Fitzpatrick going there and torch them and you know,
go off even though they lost through for almost four
in yards. So they're not a perfect team, but they
(32:38):
are a perfect team playing indoors and with Drew Brees
and that offense cranked up. Uh, they go out and
they get home field advantage throughout the playoffs. I mean,
that's gonna be a tough place to go in and win.
So um, it's uh, it's a dangerous team offensively and defensively.
They stopped to run their physical upfront. I still think
there's there's some holes there in the back end, but
(32:59):
they're gonna win a lot of shootouts with that offense.
And if they get home field advantage there and there,
and they're the team to beat. Okay, So how does
New England do this? Like I I try and sell
people on like, look, they're incredibly pragmatic. You know, they
do the There's an expression in basketball which is and
I think it's the same in football, which is pros
do what they do well and don't do anything else, right,
(33:21):
whereas amateurs try and show you that what you think
they can't do, they actually can do. And that's really
the Patriots, right, Like Cordelle Patterson's a wide receiver who
can really really run the football. I know he ran
at some in college run the football. Say like, all right,
we don't have a running back. Let's just make Cordillo Patterson,
who's a running wide receiver into a running back. Done.
(33:43):
But I mean you don't have Grunk, you don't have
son in Michelle, and you're still able to win a
tough game against the Packers. How do they do this? Well?
Two things. First of all, um, you know haven't worked
in Baltimore. And as you do, some you can learned
under Bill Belichick. So you hear a lot of those
things that care it through Ozzy message And it was
something we always said in our draft room. Don't waste
(34:04):
our time telling us the room what a guy can't do.
Let's tell us what he can do. What role can
he feel for us? Uh, that's where you spend your time.
And that's a sign of a good evaluator in a
good system when you say he can do X, Y
and Z, we're not gonna ask him to do any
other stuff. And that's what Bill Belichick has made a
career off of. And like some people thought, he just
kind of plucked that out of mid air, like we're
(34:25):
gonna put Cordill Patterson back there. Carried the ball like
twenty three times at Tennessee. I was like over twelve
yards on a lot of variety of ways they got
him the ball. He did it a little bit in
Minnesota at forty seven yard touchdown run with Oakland. So
there was some evidence there that he could do this
and he uh and he took it and ran with
it and just gave him a little more volume. So
(34:45):
that's what Bill Belichick has always done. The other thing
is just speak to how great Tom Brady is. And
I used a basketball analogy when when talking about him
the other day, I said, it's you know, there's open
gyms where you'll see five guys rolling together and they'll
they'll sit and wait till they get their run. Tom
Brady just comes in there by himself and just says,
give you what, never four guys you want to give me,
and and you're never going to get him off the court.
It doesn't matter if Crocs playing Sony Michelle's plan is
(35:08):
Julian Edelman suspended, it doesn't matter. As long as he's
out there, they win. I will I will, Can I
add to your can I can I change? And kind
of tinker your analogy there. Okay, So yes, he needs
four other guys to run the court, but he wants
Vets right, he wants smart guy. He would prefer smart
(35:28):
guys and guys that could know again, kind of same thing.
Know what they do well, right, as opposed to the
guy that that can't play that clears everybody out to
go one on one only let make it rain, right,
So told we all we all know that guy, which
which is amazing. And then they come in and they
run the court and you're like, wait, how the hell
(35:49):
they just run the court like they're not any good? Like, yeah,
but they know how to play basketball and know how
to play together. That's what he does with his football team. Yeah, no,
he's he's definitely he's out there playing with the guy
with the cut offs way shirt. That's what he's doing. Okay,
So I'm doing play by play with Baldi this week.
Oh yes, Saints Bengals, and I'm honestly I'm going to
(36:10):
copy money Matt money Smith, who does play by play
for you. Right, just very crisp, clean, set up calls
and then lay out and let Baldi do the rest. Right,
And that isn't that the gig And Baldy is the best.
He is the best. So you're gonna have You're gonna
have a blast. That's a great first of all, great
matchup game. No no, no A J. Green, No, no,
(36:30):
no AJ Green. I'm a little bummed about that. Yeah,
but Tyler boy, you're gonna have It's gonna be fun man.
That's that's a great game. And Baldi literally, of all
the people I've worked with, he's he might be at
the very top of my list. Absolutely stud he know,
he's so well prepared. He enjoys it. There's you know
when you work with people that love what they do,
which is more fun. And nobody loves what they do
(36:50):
more Baldy, that's funny. We had him on an hour ago.
He had he didn't have anything good to say about you.
It's it was really uncomfortable. Actually, uh we we by
the way before before I run. This is that time
of year. Romeo Lankford, I mean, can I be excited?
How are my Hoosiers gonna look this year? Better? Year two? Better?
I mean, look, no, Romeo Lankford is really really good.
(37:12):
I don't think his ego is as out of check
as the announcement was that he's going to eye you.
And I think he plays for a really good coach.
And look, you're in the Big ten where Michigan lost
so much firepower. Michigan State lost a bunch of their firepower.
Though they're still be very good. They should be pretty
good tonight. I think they lose tonight. I think Minnesota
will be better. Uh, you know, Perdue lost all of
(37:36):
their seniors. Um so I look, I think they got
a chance to compete in that league and and I
think they should be an n c A tournament team. Okay,
well we'll see. We'll see the Hoosiers. I think I
have a I think I have a game of theirs
a little bit later on the year, and I'll give
you the complete rundown of what I like and when
I don't like good enough. I appreciate your buddy. Thanks DJ,
(37:56):
appreciate Dan and Jeremiah joining us. Fox Sports Radio has
the best sport stalk lineup in the nation. Catch all
of our shows at Fox sports Radio dot com and
within the I Heart Radio app. Search f s R
to listen live. Let's check in with Ross Tucker. He's
a former offensive line in the nash Football League. He's
got a great podcast, Ross Tucker Podcast. Follow him on
Twitter at Ross Tucker NFL. Um Jerry's just like, hey,
(38:21):
look he's young, he's a quarterback. He's gonna be our quarterback.
He's gonna be extended. Simple as that, is that a
smart way for the Cowboys to look at their quarterback position. No,
I don't think so, Doug, and I don't really believe it.
I mean, there's a long history of Jerry Jones saying
things that he doesn't really mean. I mean, the last
(38:44):
time he said he wasn't going to make a change
to a coach during the season, he did like less
than ten days later. I can remember when he told
Peter King he was not going to be trading for
Roy Williams from the Lions, and then that's exactly what
he did. So I think he's as what he feels
like he needs to say at the time to get
(39:06):
his desired result, which I think right now is for
Dak Prescott to play better football. But this is year three, Doug.
Here's how it goes. If he hasn't turn around this
year and they don't turn it around, they fire Jason
Garrett and that that's gonna happen, barring something unforeseen and
them turning it around. And then what happens is they'll
bring in some quarterback guy, quarterback guru that and his
(39:30):
job will be to try to maximize what he can
get from Dak Prescott. They will not extend them before
his fourth year. They'll let him go into that year,
and that would be smart, by the way, and see
what they can get out of him that fourth year
if he plays well, if it turns around, Cowboys have
never had a problem signing a guy or given a
guy enough money to keep him. Most guys want to
(39:52):
stay with the Cowboys. Most guys want to be a Cowboy.
So let him play out his fourth year and either
give me the biggest and then or if you know,
you know he doesn't really want to sign it on
once more money and you think, then your franchise tag
him for a year there. But that would be the
smart move. I don't know if that's what the Cowboys
are doing. I don't know that the smart move was
trading for Marii Cooper, but I think that's what they'll do.
(40:15):
I think that they're there's that they're that's smart enough
to realize that's how you should go about this. I
like the story that is the Houston Texans. I do
you know J J. Watt back off injury, Deshaun Watson
back off injury, a team back from the dead. But
I remember that if not for a Frank Reich decision.
They tie in Indie. If not for Jason Garrett playing
(40:38):
super conservative, they may lose to the Dallas Cowboys. And
I don't know what's going on with Denver. I mean
advanced Joseph rightfully catching a ton of heat for kicking
a sixty two yarder and almost gifting them three points
the in the first half, and then they settled on
a fifty one yard when they could have got a
closer in um at the end of the game. So
(41:00):
I'm willing to believe that Houston was better than their
own three record, But are they really as good as
the record would tell you now? I don't think so.
I mean, I think they'll end up winning that division,
although I do think both the Titans and the Colts
are going to impress people in the second half of
the year. I mean, Doug, the last two games the
Coats to play, they rushed for over two hit yards
(41:22):
each game. Luck hasn't been sacked in three games. They
finally found the right combo oh line and then Tennessee.
That's two impressive games for them in Earl. I called
their game in London against the Chargers. I thought they
outplayed the Chargers that day. So I do think that
the Texans will have some competition, but my guess is
they'll still win that division, mainly on the backs of
(41:45):
the guys you mentioned and DeAndre Hopkins. But I don't
think that they are ready to compete with the Steelers
or the Patriots, or certainly not the Chiefs, and I
would say even the Chargers as well. So you know
they're gonna end up posting that Saturday four thirty wild
card game, and my guess is they'll lose to the Chargers.
(42:08):
It will kind of be a typical text in season.
But no, they got they start one of the worst
till lines in the league, Doug and Deshaun Watson. It's
kind of the curse, I guess that being that gifted,
he's kind of like Russell Wilson or some of the
other guys. He's taking way way too many sacks, which
drives me crazy and makes it really hard for them
(42:29):
to be able to get first downs and and put
more points on the board than the nineteen they did
against the Broncos. Meanwhile, you got Philip Rivers is not
turning it over, not taking sacks. He took one purposely
against the Seattle run out of the clock. But he's
taking eleven sacks all year, and yet you know now
they're changing kickers again. I think the kicking game has
been really deceiving in terms of how good the Chargers are.
(42:51):
So I'm gonna ask you, how good are the Chargers really? Well?
I was talking about somebody this about this today, Doug.
I mean, they've got three good receivers and keenan Alliant,
Keen Allen and both Mike Williams and Tyrone Williams. Their
old line is playing like a top five to seven
old line the league right now. Melvine Gordon is out
(43:12):
of control. He is awesome, Ekela. Their backups one of
the best backup running backs in the league. Philip Rivers
is the top five, top ten quarterback right now. And
then defensively, you've got dudes, I mean, Melvin Ingram at
the linebacker level, Jadavis Brown's playing great. On the back end,
you have Derwin James, Casey Hayward. I mean, that's that's
(43:33):
the team, thug, That's that's like every position. They've got
very good players. And so there are six and two.
Their only losses are to the Rams and the charge
I'm sorry, and and the Chiefs, and they've done it
all without their best football player, and Joey Bosta. They
could be scary good when they get him back. I
(43:55):
think that they're good enough to go on a legit
playoff Broa, and I know the charge is always blow it.
They never do it. I'm saying this year they do it.
I'm saying this year they win at least one playoff
game and maybe even give a New England or a
Kansas City or run for their money. Yeah, it's gonna
be fascinating because their their schedule is soft here as
they have you know, three three very well. We got
(44:16):
I think Oakland and Arizona, somebody else in between whatever
where they got games they can win here coming up.
Whereas a team like the Saints, who I think everybody
believes is legitimate and even better if they get home field,
their schedule is really really backloaded and as good as
I think the Chiefs are, I mean it's the Saints are.
I think their schedule may prohibit their ability to host
(44:39):
the playoffs throughout. Is that that fair? By the way,
the Chargers have Raiders, Broncos at home, Cardinals at home
before they go to take on the Steelers in the road,
and I'm with you on the Saints. What I would say, though,
is kind of crazy about that. Look what they've just done.
I mean, they destroyed the redskin who they're not a
(45:00):
great team, but they're winning that division. Then they go
on the road to Baltimore back when Baltimore was clearly
the best defense in the NFL and playing well, they
win there. They went by double digits at Minnesota in
a Sunday night game. Then they come back and beat
the undefeated Rams. Now they got to play You're right,
(45:20):
the Bengals on the road, and they play the Eagles.
Then they played the falcon to all of a sudden,
they're hot. Then it kind of slows down for them
a little bit with Dallas and Tampa Bay. And then
what's really awesome for all of us this year is
that they played Carolina two out of the last three games,
which I cannot wait because Doug Caroline has loaded. I mean, what,
(45:43):
Curtis Samuel made a couple insane plays, greg Olson had
the best catch I've seen this year. Mccaffreys the stud
and I don't know why when I see all these
lists of mid season m v P and vote for
mid Sea. Nobody includes Cam Newton. I mean, he'd be
three for me, probably behind Patrick Mahomes and Drew Brees.
Kim's playing better than he when he actually won the
(46:07):
m v P. So you're right because and by the way,
the one game in between those two Carolina games for
New Orleans is the Steelers, so it won't be easy,
but they've just won three really tough games in a row. Um,
what what do you think about the Steelers thing? With
this Levy on Bell, Like, I think we all expect
that he's going to show up because he does want
(46:28):
to collect some checks, and he does at some point,
I want to play football to show what his value
will be on the market. But does that do they
actually get better? Because sometimes you add in a versatile
weapon and a really good one and it can screw
you up. They're playing pretty good offensive football. It doesn't
actually make them better. It's a really good point, and
I think it does just from a depth standpoint. And
(46:51):
I do think he's a little bit better in the
passing game than James Conner. But you know they've won
four in a row, and I bet you they are
a little hesitant upset. The Apple cart and you know
he's gonna be making whatever it is, eight hundred fifty
dollars a week. You know, they could with send the tag,
you know, whenever he shows up, they could pull it
and not pay him. That The problem is, then they
(47:13):
don't end up getting, you know, the compensatory pick that
they would want if he leaves in free agency in March.
You know he's gonna get a lot of money from
somebody that would be you know, Steelers aren't typically very
active in free agency, so that would be a third
round pick for them in I don't think they want
to give that up. Plus, you know, the running back position,
(47:34):
they're a play away from Connor getting hurt and then
they got nobody. So I think they'll take their chances
and maybe utilize him in a specific role. I also
think this is why one of the reasons why he
didn't show up yet. I think he was gonna show
up during the buy and he's like, wait a minute,
they're doing pretty well without me. They're gonna trade me
if I go there that they might trade me to
(47:54):
somebody I don't want to go somewhere else, or they
might use me for thirty five touches a game. And
I don't know the offense, and it might hurt my value.
I want to stay in Pittsburgh now, where they'll probably
only give me five to ten touches the game. I
get the money. I know this system. It's one of
the two or three best old lines in the league.
I can show everybody I'm still healthy, I'm still good.
(48:15):
But Connor is doing well enough that they're not gonna
They're not gonna ride me forty touches. Say it again.
Can the Packers be saved this year? I don't think so.
And you know I was thinking about this today too, Doug.
Not only do I not think so, I didn't. They're
gonna fire Mike McCarthy at the end of the year.
I mean, they don't make the playoffs this year. I
(48:37):
think he's gone. Jason Garrett, I think is gone. I
think John Harballs gone. So people talk about Lincoln Riley
and the Browns. Let me tell you, I think all
of these top candidates, and Lincoln Riley is one of them.
I think they're gonna have an unprecedented level of available
jobs this offseason. I mean, you don't usually get to
(48:59):
go to a place like Baltimore that stable of an
organization with that kind of talent, especially on the defensive
side of the ball. I mean, the Cowboys are the Cowboys.
You might get a chance to go coach Aaron Rodgers
for the next four years. I mean, it's gonna be
a a buyer's market if you will, if you're a
coach and you're looking to get a job, Which is
(49:19):
why somebody's asked me that I think there's any chance
that Lincoln Riley goes the NFL. Hecky, I think Lincoln
Riley goes to the NFL. I think he's gonna have
two or three pretty awesome options to choose from. And
if you don't take it now, you never know when
it will come. And by the way, I don't mean
I don't follow it that closely, but he just said
Baker Mayfield he gets one year, Kyler Murray, I don't
(49:39):
know who he has after this. By doubt he's as
good as these two. Dude. Yeah, those those two are
pretty uh, they're they're pretty hard to they are recruiting well,
and they do have kind of the viable backup in
an Austin Kendall. But the idea that he'll be Kyler Murray,
you know because he almost beat out Kyler Murray, uh
in the in the spring. That was more because Kyler
(50:01):
Murray was playing baseball than anything else. Um. You know.
You know a team that actually is in a great
spot with one of those Wizard Play colors is the
Falcons where Sark and I know you've been paying you
mentioned how hot the Falcons are. Matt Ryan's having an
unbelievable year as those two seem to be working together
really really well. They got all kinds of injuries and
the defensive side of the ball. It's Sark, because of
(50:24):
his off the field issues, probably not hirable as an
NFL head coach, but that's okay by the Falcons because
those two are working together so well. Yeah, maybe that's
the new formula if you really want to be successful,
is hire a guy that's really really talented but has
enough off the field baggage that nobody can ever take
(50:45):
him to be the head coach? Are you? So you
get su stame, success and continuity at the offensive coordinator
and this is sort of what happened with Kyle Shanahan
second year. You know, you start to know what your
players are good at. The quarterback gets more comfortable with it,
and Stark's doing exactly in his second year. What Kyle Shanningen,
(51:06):
did you know? Because they lost those games with all
the defensive injuries, people don't realize how well Matt Ryan's playing,
how well the Falcons are playing offensively, because they lost
a bunch of those games late when they couldn't stop
anybody because of all the injuries on defense. But Stark
has been masterful. I mean, they just went to the Redskins,
whose defense is legitmat Away and put up thirty eight
(51:30):
points on the road, just murdered the Redskins. It was very,
very impressive. And anything about Stark it's two is yeah.
And this is one of the funny things being in
the media. It'll be a while before a lot of
other people other than you say it, because the narrative is,
oh he's stays like people will still just say, oh,
(51:51):
he's terrible in the red zone. Like it takes a
while for people to catch up to. No, no, no, no,
that was last year. This is this year, and they're
putting up like thirty points a game. So you're you're
slow on the uptick, but try to pay attention. Stark
and the Falcons are rolling. Yeah. Yeah, And actually, if
you went back to even the Eagles game where he
caught some heat because they weren't going in the red zone,
(52:13):
it was Matt Ryan making them wrong. Read not the play,
not the not the plays being plays being bad. But
they're working together really well. Now, Um, I got a
little dude that's a wide receiver. Is this the ball cannon?
Can you use these nine years old? Is this gonna
break a finger? Or is this thing work for a
nine year old? It is perfect for a nine year old.
You can make the speed whatever you want, you can
(52:36):
make the launch angle whatever you want. And even when
you're on the radio, Doug he can use it by
himself because you put a delay feature on. It's the
coolest thing. I got two little ones as well. They
love it. You put the delay feature to like half
a second, a second, whatever you want, Press the button,
run your route, turn around, catch it. It's amazing. I
(52:57):
can't believe a guy from my small hometown, and while
I'm missing Pennsylvania invented the thing, and now people are
buying it all over the place, Like eight NFL teams
have them for various reasons. But then I go outside
with my five and six year old and play with
it all the time. I'm not even kidding, Doug. It
would be the perfect gift for the holidays for your
(53:18):
nine year old. Hit me up after the show, text
me or something. We can work something out. And everybody listening,
go check out ball cannon dot com and check out
the videos at ball canna dot com. It's the cool.
It's the only thing my kids like more than their iPads,
which is if anybody has a kid right now knows
that's there's there's nothing higher than that. Okay, more than
(53:39):
the I pad. I'm gonna give you two stories that
you love. Okay, alright, So my my little dudes nine,
his first light football game was in Connecticut. This is
like four years ago, right, and so he had he
doesn't he doesn't like watching football on TV. He likes
He's like I like playing, but he they like, oh
little kids, they watch YouTube. So we get done. I
just told him the story. He was cracking up. We
(54:00):
get done with his first light football game and he won,
and the guys are coaching him. They were like rugby guys.
They just ran like pitches and sweeps and whatever. Anyway,
he's like crying, Now, why are you crying like that?
There were no spectacular plays at all, none, no spectacular plays.
And I was like, hey's the spectacular play happens maybe
(54:23):
maybe once a week in the NFL, maybe if you're lucky.
He's like, that's not true. I watch it on YouTube
all the times, Like, yeah, that's a compilation of highlights. Anyway,
fast forward to now what he does because he doesn't
have a ball canon, we have a trampoline and he
does uh, he does spectacular catches mostly oh b J
catches on the trampoline by himself, and he does a
(54:44):
little broadcasting announcing of all of his catches. That's what
he does. That is exactly what kids do with the ball.
In fact, I've seen him now usually on the beach
at Tailgates. I've seen him jump off you know, they
have somebody pressed the button and they off the diving
board and making Odell Beckham's Jr. Catch off the diving board.
It's really like, I'm I wish that, you know, they
(55:07):
had it when I was ken and not now when
I'm almost forty, because I would have loved to have
been done doing crazy stuff before I had orthopedic issues.
Out the ying Yang that's because you're an offensive line
in the NFL. Check out the Ross Stucker Podcast. I
listen to it on the way the work. You should
to check them out also on Twitter at Ross Stucker NFL.
Ross thanks so much, Man Dremu
Thanks for listening to the best of the Doug Gottlieb
Show podcast. Be sure to catch us live every weekday
from three to six pm Eastern Time, that's twelve to
three Pacific on Fox Sports Radio. Find your local station
for the Doug Gotlip Show at Fox Sports Radio dot com,
or stream us live every day on the I Heart
Radio app by searching fs R. This is the best
(00:22):
of the Doug gottli Show on Fox Sports Radio. Boom,
What Up America, Doug Gottlieb Show, Fox Sports Radio, Coming
to you from the Sunny City of Angels Where we
got Week nine in the books, Right, week nine in
(00:44):
the books the National Football League. We are onto week ten.
Why Bill Belichick continues to look like a genius? Really
quiet about all that that riffed in the Patriots locker
room from the off season. We have some college whoop tonight.
Lottle College whoop tip off with Kentucky taken on Duke
(01:07):
after Michigan State takes on Kansas. I got some picks
for you tonight should be great. The most boring college
football season of all time continues. We will discuss the
one thing that has happened that we always wondered if
it would happen, and um um, I think a big night,
(01:30):
a huge night for one NBA team, coaching staff, franchise.
But let's start with what we saw last night. So
fourteen all tie. A matter of fact, it should have
been a lead to the Dallas Cowboys. You know, you
get a team like Titans turns it over that much
in the first half, you can't have a lead at
home going into the break a bad feeling. They did
(01:53):
find Amari Cooper and in the first half they did
run a zeke Yelliott a ton. In the second half,
he only got six touches. That being Elliott, Cooper was
modestly at best effective, and the Cowboys fell at home.
And all the huff and all the bluster and all
the hype about the Cowboys coming out of the bye week,
(02:15):
coming out of the bye week, that's what you do
out of a bye week. Oh and stop me if
you heard me this before. But Shaun Lee got hurt.
Stop me if you heard this before. But it's his hamstring.
I know, I know, I know. Well when he's healthy,
he's never healthy. So here we are Cowboys three and
(02:37):
five on a trajectory which takes him out of the playoffs.
Season not over, but feeling like it's, uh, what's the
Yogi bearra expression? It's getting late early, sure is. And
then you have the Raiders, who embarrassed themselves last Thursday
night by absolutely quitting on John Gruden. And you know what,
(02:58):
I'm here to tell you, I'd rather be the Raiders
than the Cowboys. The race to the middle does you nothing.
Don't get me wrong. The Giants still have to find
a quarterback. The Washington Redskins got blown out at home
by the Atlanta Falcons, right, a team that is mired
(03:19):
and muddled with injuries on their defensive side of the football,
and they have Alex Smith, who is Mr. Regular Season
and Captain checked out. And then you have the Eagles,
who have looked every bit the championship team with the
post championship hangover. It's not like anybody's running away and
hiding in that division. And so I'm not telling you
that the Cowboys season is lost. But even if it
(03:40):
isn't lost and they make the playoff, I'd still rather
be the Raiders. Blasphemy. I know what, Historically can you
point to the Sixers or the astros hell the Celtics,
the Bucks, all teams that understood it. Who cares if
(04:02):
you're in the middle. If you don't have the right pieces,
and then you overpay and trying to fix some of
those pieces, you're bound to be in capel and be
stuck in the middle. The Cowboys lost again last night,
which is a win for the Raids, who just so
happened to have held up a complete heist of Jerry
(04:26):
Jones and his staff and got him and gave him
Amari Cooper. Oh no, we don't want to lose Amari Cooper,
a wide receiver who's not as good as the sport
team million he's gonna be paid next year. Oh no,
but maybe we could be talked into it with a
first round pick. Oh first round pick. Oh you got us, Jerry,
(04:46):
you got us? Oh man, you just really wink wink,
not not got over on us in the trade. Oh.
Khalil Mack he's so awesome. He's awesome. Bears one without
him again this weekend. There's no doubting that he's awesome.
But he's not ninety million dollars awesome. Seventy nine million
dollars under the cap for next year. I mean they
(05:09):
are flush with cash. They are like, um, is it
was it? Scrooge McDuck, All right, do you guys remember
ducktails don't actin You didn't watch ducktails? Ducktails? Who right?
And Scrooge mc duck used to take a little dial,
a little swim in his piles of money. That's screwding
right now, swimming in his money. Vegas will float them
(05:30):
some cash because their cash poor. And oh yeah, by
the way, they have one, four, five first round picks
over the next two years. Gruden might screw it up,
but all you gotta hit on is two out of five,
and you're doing pretty well for yourself. Here's Jerry Jones
after the game that is completely capable of looking at
(05:51):
what the situation was last night. You don't have anybody
that's more capable to look at that and take it
to the practice field and take it to learn from
that for the next ball game. You see your quarterback
for the next ten years. That is the quarterback of
the Dallas Cowboys. He's young, and he's gonna get extended.
He's young, He's gonna get extended. You know what, we
(06:11):
think he's so average, we're gonna pay him at a
rate commensurate with the top quarterback in the game, which
is gonna forever hurt our ability to put more pieces
around him, which will completely shine a light on just
how average he is. Remember the Cowboys, they didn't just
change offensive line coaches during the bye week. They change
(06:32):
most of most of their coaching staff during the off season.
So you had all these relationships with the players. Those
guys are gone. The leadership of Witten is gone. They
never really replaced Dez Bryant until last week. And it's
not like Marii Cooper in the last two years has
shown the ability to be at what Dez Bryant was
(06:52):
at the peak of his career. No one seems to
know what they're doing. Shawn Lee's always hurt. The offensive
line is and as good as it's billed to be,
you still don't have the dominance of Travis Frederick. And
oh yeah, by the way, you're gonna overpay Dak Prescott
in the office season and your first round and your
first round draft pick is going to the Raiders. And
(07:17):
because the mari Cooper's set to get to be to
play under that fifth year option, you're probably gonna redo
his contract and ultimately overpay a Mari Cooper. Outside of that,
Mrs Lincoln, how is the show? Hey, Zeke Elliott? Right?
(07:38):
Has he got a second contract yet? No? Is he good? Yes,
he's actually awesome. So look, I would rather be a
team flush with cash and with draft picks, even if
I have no idea who's going to be my next stars,
as opposed to guys who have shown themselves at the
most the most important position in the NFL's quarterback. And
(08:01):
the only time you can get away with having an
average quarterback is when he's on a rookie contract. Right,
what the Bears have shown, what the Rams have shown,
what you know, pick out any of these guys on
these deals, or what the Cowboys were able to show
two years ago. But once he starts getting paid at
(08:23):
the level of a top ten quarterback, and he'll probably
get as much money as anybody in the game because
that's the way the game works, then you're gonna struggle
to continue to add pieces to hide what he really is,
which is he anytime you say that, man, I really
like it when he runs it and he's a quarterback,
(08:45):
that's telling me she's got a great personality. When I
ask you how she looks every rule in the game
has been changed and designed to protect quarterbacks in the
pocket because we have spoken, as the American sports viewers, saying,
we like guys that throw a football to a wide
receiver who catches a football. That's what seems to make
(09:05):
us feel good inside. And you can give me Cam Newton,
but he's not Cam Newton as a runner, and even
Cam Newton as a runner is bound to likely get
hurt as big a human being as he is, and
he seems like the biggest human being on earth when
you run. I would rather be the Raiders, who some
(09:26):
people call the laughing stock of the league, tied into
a ten year, hundre million dollar contract with John Gruden,
caught in between stadiums in between cities. Then I would
the biggest name in professional sports, which is the Dallas Cowboys,
with the sickest stadium, the wealthiest owner, and the biggest evaluation.
(09:48):
Because I don't care about being three and five, five
and five, eight and eight. I'm cool being really bad
if I'm purposely really bad, so I can load up
on draft picks and stop and ashway cash for the future.
That's what the Raiders have done so congratulate the Cowboys.
They have found their hideously, completely and totally average quarterback
(10:12):
for the next five years, and they're gonna get goaded
into It's not Dack's fault. I don't think it's all
Dack's fault. I don't I think the offensive line. I
think that they weren't able to find a tight end
in short notice because they thought they were getting their
Hall of Fame tight end back, but they they didn't.
(10:32):
And then they cut Daz at the last possible moment
and didn't replace him until last week. And yeah, a
little bit of bad luck with Travis Frederick coming down
with an autoimmune disease. Like these are all bad you know,
someone's bad luck and bad timing. And Sean Lee gets
hurt again, someone's bad luck and bad timing. But you've
(10:53):
got a chance to get out of this Dack deal,
and you're not going to because everyone's gonna do everything
except blame Dak Prescott. He may not be all of
the problem, but he is not the solution. Here's Troy
Aikman explained the Cowboys problems ticket This team over a
long period of time has been what it's been, and
(11:18):
it hasn't always mattered who the head coach has been.
And so to me you're asking me, I'd say there
has to be a complete overhaul of the entire organization.
You just can't simply replace head coaches and say now
it's going to be better. No, it's it's been shown
that it's not better. I've heard Jerry say, Okay, look
we're going to do it differently. I'm going to do
(11:38):
it differently. You know I can no longer. But it's
the same. Nothing changes, nothing seems to change. Be sure
to catch live editions so the Doug Dot Leaps Show
weekdays at noon eastern three pm Pacific on Fox Sports
Radio and the I Heart Radio app. The feeling you
get of being an expatriot spelled e x p a
t R I a t E is completely opposite of
(12:01):
being an ex New England patriot because those guys with
the acception, with the exception of Adam Vinitary and maybe
Chandler Jones and I guess for five games last year,
Jimmy Garoppolo, they all stink. Did you watch Malcolm Butler
(12:22):
last night? Did you? Cowhard called him an uttered disaster.
He was at least at least there had been discussed
the discussions in Nashville before the game whether or not
Malcolm Butler, who signed a huge free agents deal, would
(12:45):
be demoted ahead of the game. And now, of course
they get ready, get ready for the Dallas Cowboys, and
that continues to be a story. Mike Rabel said. When
you play man coverage, you have to look at your man.
Malcolm knows that. We talked about that. We continue to
practice that, continue to coach it. We try and show
it to him. When he does that, it's pretty good.
(13:06):
It's competitive. He challenges the receivers. When you look back
at the quarterback, your man has a tendency to move
in another direction. This feels like football. One oh one, Right,
So Malcolm Butler is not playing good football. And now,
(13:28):
of course to get ready for the Patriots who are
going to pick on Malcolm Butler. And do you remember
do you remember the narrative in the off season, Oh,
Bill Belichick sacrificed to the Super Bowl because he didn't
play Malcolm Butler. Why didn't he play Malcolm Butler? We
even jokingly asked several ex Patriots who are elsewhere, why
(13:49):
didn't the play Malcolm Butler? And what was what was
the story the I'm not talking about last year, talking
about this year. Do you know why, Because because Belichick
knew history was on his side. He had identified that
(14:09):
Malcolm Butler, whatever awesomeness he had in that one plane
in the Super Bowl, and the fact that as an
underpaid guy. Remember he entered the league as an undrafted
free agent at u f A. So they got him
on the cheap, played him on the cheap, and when
he wanted to get paid, they jettisoned him. And oh yeah,
(14:30):
by the way, he got exposed last year in the
regular season and in the playoffs. And that was against
bad quarterbacks, that was against Mariota, that was against Blake Bortles.
It was like no one wanted to tell the whole story.
He had two weeks off for the Super Bowl. The
(14:51):
week of the Super Bowl, he didn't go to the
team doctors, instead checked into a hospital, missed the team plane,
flew there on his own. In addition to the fact
he wasn't playing well, so he'd been playing poorly and
there was a no show at the team plane, the facility,
and their first workout when they got to the Twin
(15:12):
Cities and Belichick was was the bad guy for not
playing him. Bill Belichick has history on his side, and
you can sit there and go like, well, you know
his replacement got torched because they tried to have Patrick
Chung fill in for him. Malcolm Butler would have got torched.
How do I know? He's gotten torched every game he's
been a Tennessee Titan. After the Alan Hearn's touchdown, which
(15:40):
he was wide open yesterday, Alan Hearns was wide open.
He hadn't been wide open at all this year. That's
one of the Cowboys problems. Malcolm Butler has now been
the nearest defender and coverage on six touchdowns, second only
to Marcus Peters this season according to the NFL's Next
Gen Stats. By the way, Marcus p r traded by
(16:01):
any Reid Why because he stares in the backfield and
tries to make plays on the ball instead of what's
the Bill Belichick expression that Sean Payton steals from, do
your job? Malcolm Butler is eighty swond He's ranked eighty
two in cornerbacks according to Pro Football Focus. Okay, let's
(16:25):
do the math here. Okay, two starting quarterbacks on every team,
thirty two teams. I'm not great at all. Like, my
son is struggling with this his math facts and his
multiplication tables, like once you get past six or seven,
he struggles a little bit here in fourth grade. But
I do know that thirty two times two is sixty four,
(16:49):
So that would make him worse at least PERF Pro
Football Focus than every other starting cornerback in the National
Football League. And oh yeah, by the way, if we
bring in slot corners slot corners we had in thirty
two more, thirty two to sixty four is to six three.
(17:15):
So if he was playing as a slot corner he
would be middle to bottom of the league. But he's not.
He's the highest paid and supposed to be the best cornerback,
and he's the worst best cornerback by far in the
National Football Here's what he told the Titans dot Com
this is a team friendly website about his struggles this season.
(17:37):
I think sometimes my problem is I'm trying to get
the ball. You gamble, you do things you shouldn't. You
just need to get back to basics. I need to
get back to my dogg ish ways. I'm gonna get
back to being real nasty man. I'm gonna play my
game and do more to help my team out. I'm
just gonna be me. Don't do you do us right?
(18:03):
Everyone like he's a one play guy like I'm he's not.
Like he's not Larry Brown. Larry Brown was famously the
Super Bowl m v P because Neil O'Donnell threw to
him like three times. Like Neil O'Donnell suddenly in the
Super Bowl former Pittsburgh Steeler quarterback was color blind and
through the ball to Larry Brown three times. And Larry
Brown got a huge deal afterwards with the Dallas Cowboys
(18:26):
and sucks afterwards. Excuse me with the Raiders. Afterwards, he's
playing with the Cowboys. With the Raiders otters, don't get
me wrong. Malcolm Butler, as for an undrafted free agent, overachieved,
and Malcolm Butler did make the play of his life
and a play to help the Super Bowl. But part
of that play was the fact that one Russell Wilson
(18:50):
did in fact stare down his wide receiver to Russell
Wilson threw the ball high because he's small instead of low.
And three it was because they watched it in film
study down around the goal line when they stacked those
two wide receivers, he knew exactly what was coming. He
got to guess, and he guessed right. The Patriots got
(19:13):
the Super Bowl last year in spite of not because
of their defense. Bill Belichick didn't suddenly become a complete
idiot and not play his best cornerback in the Super Bowl.
He played a guy that was wildly overrated, and it's
been exposed to such so far with the Tennessee Titans.
You can tell me all you want about Belichick cost
(19:34):
his team the Super Bowl. Dude, they had the ball
and Tom Brady's hands without Brandon Cooks, who got hurt
on the first series they had. You want to tell
me Tom Brady is the greatest quarterback of all time,
I'll argue with you. But if you want to tell
me top five quarterbacks of all time, Okay, he's the
most successful quarterback in the history of the sport. And
(19:56):
whatever you think of Bill Belichick, his quarterback had the
ball down five with a chance to go down score
and win the game, and they didn't do it because
his quarterback got strip sacked. And you can sit there
and go like, wow, he would have picked like all right,
how come nobody said, you know? The Eagles defense never
(20:17):
made the Patriots punt Patriots innt punt. Mr bild Gold
missed an extra point, had turnovers, did not punt the
ball once. No one wants to consider the fact the
idea that it might not have been a one possession
game if Malcolm Butler played. Because he sucked. It is
possible that the guy who has had his team appear
(20:41):
in eight Super Bowls might know a little bit more
about football, especially defensive football, which is his primary uh,
his primary attribute, or his specialty, more than me. You
former players, TV pundits, don't believe me. The last thing
(21:02):
you want to be called in the National Football League
is an ex patriot. Be sure to catch live edition
so the Doug got Leap Show week days in noon
eastern three pm Pacific. I just watched and tweeted out
one of the funniest videos I've ever seen. Um, it
is not safe for work. It is on my Twitter
page label does not safe for work. But it's one
(21:22):
fans reaction when Caleb Sturgis misses an extra point something
he did not once but twice on Sunday, and he
missed the field goal, and let's be honest, I'll put
the miss two point conversion on him as well, because
you don't go for two in the first quarter of
a game unless well, your kickers always already show him
he can't make an extra point. So the Chargers left
(21:44):
seven points on the field still won by eight, although
they needed a deflection on untimed down in Seattle to
do so. And a guy who saw every place and
every play the Chargers played this this year is Daniel Jeremiah,
who joins us on the Doug gott Leap Show. Um,
I'd like to say best team, you know, best team
in the NFL without a kicker, But I don't know
(22:05):
how to characterize, like the Charges that played really well
with exception, and they've actually played pretty well against Kansas
City with exception maybe the Rams game and part of
that kans City game. And they've done so without a
Hunter Henry who may return, and without Joey Bosa who
will return, who's probably their best defensive player. And yet
there's the kicking game and they're gonna make they made
a kicking change. Already, give me your thoughts and the
(22:25):
Charges of the team that you call the games floor, Well,
I mean, I think the encouraging thing, Doug is they
still find a way to win these games. I mean
there was a point in time I think I had it,
whereas the youth said seven. I think I had it
with six points. You know that when they left off
the table with the with the kicking situation, it should
have been thirty one to ten at Seattle. And this
is uh, this is the place where I know it's
(22:46):
not the old Seattle team, but they haven't lost. It's
ridiculous that status. They hadn't lost at home to an
a FC team since two thousand and eleven. Russell Wilson
never lost to an a FC team, and they're been
some pretty good ones that have rolled through there. So
not an easy ways to play. And I thought they
really dominated the football game save the whole kicking situation.
So the good news is the kid that they're that
(23:07):
they're signing Michael Badsley, who was filling in for a
couple of games when Caleb Sturgis was out. He was
sending for ten on all of his kicks. Now his
kickoffs are terrible, so they've got to figure out what
to do there. But I feel like you've at least
upgraded the field goal kicking and the extra points. I
mean to miss the extra points that have been missed.
Is that just you can't excuse it completely and totally inexcusable. Um,
(23:31):
all right, So when they get Bosa back, like, where
do you put them in this hierarchy of a f
C teams which went from we started the year going
like is anybody really any good in the a f C?
To Kansas City might be the best team in the
sport even with with their with their defense, and New
England beat Kansas City and continues to improve and evolve.
(23:51):
And then you have a team like like the Chargers, um,
as well as the Stealers who we think are going
to get back Levan Bell. They seem to have figured
some stuff out. Where do you put the Chargers in
this mix in THEFC? Well, all due respect to Levy
on Bell, I mean the job that Connor has done there, Um,
you know, I don't know how much better they're gonna
be with left Bell with the Chargers, they don't I
(24:12):
mean Joey Bosa. I mean that is a major, major edition.
And then if you get Hunter Henry back in time
for the last couple of games or the post did
and get him ready to go for the postseason, you've
added what I believe is one of the five best
tight ends in the NFL. So you're adding a top
five defensive player, a top five tied end in the
NFL to a team that in their last I believe
(24:32):
they finished eight and two or six and two in
their last eight games last year. They're six and two
to start. Now that's a twelve and four team over
the last sixteen games. They are. They're dangerous as anybody
in the a f C. They can beat anybody that
Chief's game, you know, early in the season, without those
two players and without a couple of drop passes, they're
right there. So I definitely think it could be a
(24:53):
dangerous team in the postseason. All right, let's get to
a couple of things and listen to your podcasts. You
should too, by the way, the podcast is called Move
the Sticks. He Bucky Brooks. You can hear Bucky Brooks
on Fox Sports Radio as well. Joined us in the
Doug Gottlib Show on Fox Sports Radio. Okay, so, um,
I'm I'm watching the Cowboys. They may they made changes
(25:13):
with other position coaches in the off season. Now they
change an offensive line coach during the bye week, they
add in a wide receiver and their offense still isn't
any good point the fingers of blame. What's wrong with
the Cowboys offense. I still don't think that the personnel
is great, you know. I think there's a lot of
blame to go around. I thought the injury that hasn't
(25:34):
really been talked about, really the two injuries that haven't
been talked about in the NFL Travis Frederick. They missed
him in a huge way of Dallas. UH. And then
the other one I would say is Cam Cam Robinson,
the left haper for Jacksonville. But with Dallas with their issues.
I mean I saw Troy Akeman came out and said
they needed kind of wholesale changes. I would I would
be in agreement there. Although your owners already came out
(25:56):
and committed to DA going forward. So he's gonna be
the quarter back. You're gonna have to build a team
around him and UH and right now they don't have
the pieces to win with that type of a formula,
a dominant tight end. They need a dominant tight end.
That's a big way to help him out. I would agree,
and look at the tight end is a major and
they had when he's in the booth, they had a quarterback.
(26:18):
He's in another booths right, and now they got um.
So I I understand the tight end thing caught him
off guard. I mean, you see the Chargers, right, they
lost their tight end to injury who may return, and
they've had to kind of cover up cover that up.
It's really really hard at the last second, uh, to
to to you know, to to find something to cover
that up. Um. But I guess we're all operating under
(26:40):
this assumption that Doc's gonna be resigned because Jerry said
Dax's gonna be resigned. But is he good enough considering
the other flaws they have? And now once you resign him,
you're not gonna have as much money to sprinkle around
and spread around. Well, you know, I don't think he's
a great quarterback. Up is what are what are your options?
(27:01):
And you don't have a first round pick now anyway,
So I don't think there's anything on the rise, and
they can do um to upgrade that decision. Um. The difference,
I would say, just going back to talking about the
charge of not having their tight end, as Phillips not
dependent on any of that, I think Doc is very
much a dependent quarterback at this point in time. He
needs a great offensive line. He used to have a
big time tight end, used to have a defense that's
(27:21):
gonna control, uh, control that that side of things so
that the games are gonna be lower scoring. He can
make or make a couple of plays here there, whereas
Philip rivers they don't have a tight end. No problem,
will go three wise and we'll find other ways to
get it done. We'll throw to the bags, will do
whatever we have to do. Um. So they have to
build a lot of pieces around Dak Prescott, and now
you don't have one of those resources with the draft picks.
(27:42):
So I think this is a very average football team, Doug.
And when I look out into the future, I don't
see how they escape that level. Uh in the next
couple of years. I think they're gonna be an average
football team for a couple of years. What about the
Tennessee Titans. Uh, they needed that. When Mariota made a
couple of throws in tight windows, they did so to fight. Uh,
you know, a couple of turnovers in the first half.
(28:03):
What's our assessment of the Titans in that a FC
South Uh, it's interesting. I mean, you know, if you're
kind of doing the college football thing and they talk
about resumes. I mean, this is a team that, uh
that beat the Philadelphia Eagles, which is a great win
for them. The Chargers saw that over in London. Last play,
you know, they get a conversion, they win that game.
They've uh, they've been very competitive. And I'll give Mariot
(28:25):
to credit. I have not been the biggest Marcus Mariota supporter,
but the last couple of weeks against the Chargers and
and in this game, and you go back to that
Eagles game, He's had some really good games this year. Now,
he's not as consistent as you'd like, UM, but he's
played well. He's he he's shown some signs there of life.
And defensively they're just very They're they're pretty discipline. They
gave up some big plays in London to the Chargers,
(28:48):
but last night I thought they just kind of smothered
the Cowboys. Uh. I heard on the podcast you mentioned
that Kareem Hunt, like, if not from Mahomes, Kareem Hunt
would be getting mb P m v P run. How
much of it is Hunt? How much of it is
people are so scared of their speed and their wide
receivers and they're tight end well, it all factors together,
(29:09):
the kids on pay for twenty three touchdowns, and it
feels like he's not even discussed, you know, and that's
partly because of Mahomes and a lot because Todd Gurley
as well, what those guys are doing. But um, I
think that you know, if this was if he wasn't there,
I don't know if this is something that can sustain
through the postseason. I think he's the key for them
going into the post is you're gonna be playing at
(29:30):
home in Arrow and it's not gonna be great weather. Um,
he's gonna be kind of the key figure. So right now,
I think Mahomes is the star of the show and uh,
and they're a little bit more dependent on him. I
think if they get in the postseason and they're gonna
make a deep run, uh something Andy Reid's been Uh
you know, I hadn't done it in in a while since
going back to Philadelphia, They're gonna need the Kareem Hunt
to be the focus, and I think he will be
(29:50):
the focus. What what's your what's your take on Baltimore
on what they do during this by week? I thought
they might could change. I really did. Um, we were
sitting there. You know, I read Hardball's comments after the
game on the flight home on Sunday night, and uh,
I saw where he said, you know, we want to
(30:10):
get Lamar Jackson on the field more. And I believe
he played twelve or thirteen snaps in that game. So
if you're getting you know, fifty five to sixty snaps
a game on offense, and he doesn't think thirteen is enough,
I thought, well, I mean, you might as just start
him then if you want to do it, you're stagged
it offensively. Um, you want to switch things up, I
thought with a bye week, two weeks to get him
ready to go, I was kind of anticipating we might
(30:33):
see that that change take place. But now it sounds
like they're gonna give him a series to go along
with what he's doing. I mean, I I don't think that,
you know, playing the two guys has ever worked at
any level. Um, so I don't think that's gonna end. Well,
I would agree with you. My thing is, while I
understand he's the first round pick, you don't pick a
first round pick to sit and not see him. Has
(30:54):
there been a moment when he has played quarterback where
he looked like he could be an NFL quarterback. They
haven't really, they haven't really made the offense and what
it would have to be for him to be successful.
It's totally different than what they have going for him now.
And when they bring him in now, basically it's running
zone read, it's you know, played here, or they're design runs.
So I mean to me, you have to reconstruct the offense,
(31:14):
which can be difficult to do in the middle of
the season. But I thought even the hail mary moved Doug,
you know, help mary don't often work, but it's, uh,
it's kind of looking at where you are right now
and knowing that if you don't get in the postseason,
it's gonna cost you your job. So that's usually when
you see a hail Mary get thrown. So I think
he's gonna he's gonna start games before the seasons over.
(31:34):
I really do believe that was was what happened to
Marcus Peters in New Orleans, the aha moment to the
why did any read give up on mar Oh Dad's
what was that? Was that? The aha moment? Well, I mean, look,
he's first of all, you gotta play him an off coverage.
He's not as comfortable up there in press and that's
been exposed. Um, but I thought, you know, with with
(31:55):
Andy Reid, I thought it was more about the future
and resources and where they want to where they want
to spend their money. And Andy Reid, with the way
the NFL is set up right now, doesn't want to
spend his money on a corner. Um. That's to me,
I think is it's probably gonna end up to being
a smart move. Danna Jeremiah from the NFL Network joining
us on the Doug Gottlib Show. How do we get
(32:16):
here to where the Saints are not only the hottest
team in the NFL, but many people consider them the
best team in the NFL? Yeah, I mean, look, I've
picked them to lose like four and the last five weeks,
and I've been wrong every single time. They just continue
to roll. I I have questions about them defensively. I've
seen Ryan Fitzpatrick going there and torch them and you know,
go off even though they lost through for almost four
in yards. So they're not a perfect team, but they
(32:38):
are a perfect team playing indoors and with Drew Brees
and that offense cranked up. Uh, they go out and
they get home field advantage throughout the playoffs. I mean,
that's gonna be a tough place to go in and win.
So um, it's uh, it's a dangerous team offensively and defensively.
They stopped to run their physical upfront. I still think
there's there's some holes there in the back end, but
(32:59):
they're gonna win a lot of shootouts with that offense.
And if they get home field advantage there and there,
and they're the team to beat. Okay, So how does
New England do this? Like I I try and sell
people on like, look, they're incredibly pragmatic. You know, they
do the There's an expression in basketball which is and
I think it's the same in football, which is pros
do what they do well and don't do anything else, right,
(33:21):
whereas amateurs try and show you that what you think
they can't do, they actually can do. And that's really
the Patriots, right, Like Cordelle Patterson's a wide receiver who
can really really run the football. I know he ran
at some in college run the football. Say like, all right,
we don't have a running back. Let's just make Cordillo Patterson,
who's a running wide receiver into a running back. Done.
(33:43):
But I mean you don't have Grunk, you don't have
son in Michelle, and you're still able to win a
tough game against the Packers. How do they do this? Well?
Two things. First of all, um, you know haven't worked
in Baltimore. And as you do, some you can learned
under Bill Belichick. So you hear a lot of those
things that care it through Ozzy message And it was
something we always said in our draft room. Don't waste
(34:04):
our time telling us the room what a guy can't do.
Let's tell us what he can do. What role can
he feel for us? Uh, that's where you spend your time.
And that's a sign of a good evaluator in a
good system when you say he can do X, Y
and Z, we're not gonna ask him to do any
other stuff. And that's what Bill Belichick has made a
career off of. And like some people thought, he just
kind of plucked that out of mid air, like we're
(34:25):
gonna put Cordill Patterson back there. Carried the ball like
twenty three times at Tennessee. I was like over twelve
yards on a lot of variety of ways they got
him the ball. He did it a little bit in
Minnesota at forty seven yard touchdown run with Oakland. So
there was some evidence there that he could do this
and he uh and he took it and ran with
it and just gave him a little more volume. So
(34:45):
that's what Bill Belichick has always done. The other thing
is just speak to how great Tom Brady is. And
I used a basketball analogy when when talking about him
the other day, I said, it's you know, there's open
gyms where you'll see five guys rolling together and they'll
they'll sit and wait till they get their run. Tom
Brady just comes in there by himself and just says,
give you what, never four guys you want to give me,
and and you're never going to get him off the court.
It doesn't matter if Crocs playing Sony Michelle's plan is
(35:08):
Julian Edelman suspended, it doesn't matter. As long as he's
out there, they win. I will I will, Can I
add to your can I can I change? And kind
of tinker your analogy there. Okay, So yes, he needs
four other guys to run the court, but he wants
Vets right, he wants smart guy. He would prefer smart
(35:28):
guys and guys that could know again, kind of same thing.
Know what they do well, right, as opposed to the
guy that that can't play that clears everybody out to
go one on one only let make it rain, right,
So told we all we all know that guy, which
which is amazing. And then they come in and they
run the court and you're like, wait, how the hell
(35:49):
they just run the court like they're not any good? Like, yeah,
but they know how to play basketball and know how
to play together. That's what he does with his football team. Yeah, no,
he's he's definitely he's out there playing with the guy
with the cut offs way shirt. That's what he's doing. Okay,
So I'm doing play by play with Baldi this week.
Oh yes, Saints Bengals, and I'm honestly I'm going to
(36:10):
copy money Matt money Smith, who does play by play
for you. Right, just very crisp, clean, set up calls
and then lay out and let Baldi do the rest. Right,
And that isn't that the gig And Baldy is the best.
He is the best. So you're gonna have You're gonna
have a blast. That's a great first of all, great
matchup game. No no, no A J. Green, No, no,
(36:30):
no AJ Green. I'm a little bummed about that. Yeah,
but Tyler boy, you're gonna have It's gonna be fun man.
That's that's a great game. And Baldi literally, of all
the people I've worked with, he's he might be at
the very top of my list. Absolutely stud he know,
he's so well prepared. He enjoys it. There's you know
when you work with people that love what they do,
which is more fun. And nobody loves what they do
(36:50):
more Baldy, that's funny. We had him on an hour ago.
He had he didn't have anything good to say about you.
It's it was really uncomfortable. Actually, uh we we by
the way before before I run. This is that time
of year. Romeo Lankford, I mean, can I be excited?
How are my Hoosiers gonna look this year? Better? Year two? Better?
I mean, look, no, Romeo Lankford is really really good.
(37:12):
I don't think his ego is as out of check
as the announcement was that he's going to eye you.
And I think he plays for a really good coach.
And look, you're in the Big ten where Michigan lost
so much firepower. Michigan State lost a bunch of their firepower.
Though they're still be very good. They should be pretty
good tonight. I think they lose tonight. I think Minnesota
will be better. Uh, you know, Perdue lost all of
(37:36):
their seniors. Um so I look, I think they got
a chance to compete in that league and and I
think they should be an n c A tournament team. Okay,
well we'll see. We'll see the Hoosiers. I think I
have a I think I have a game of theirs
a little bit later on the year, and I'll give
you the complete rundown of what I like and when
I don't like good enough. I appreciate your buddy. Thanks DJ,
(37:56):
appreciate Dan and Jeremiah joining us. Fox Sports Radio has
the best sport stalk lineup in the nation. Catch all
of our shows at Fox sports Radio dot com and
within the I Heart Radio app. Search f s R
to listen live. Let's check in with Ross Tucker. He's
a former offensive line in the nash Football League. He's
got a great podcast, Ross Tucker Podcast. Follow him on
Twitter at Ross Tucker NFL. Um Jerry's just like, hey,
(38:21):
look he's young, he's a quarterback. He's gonna be our quarterback.
He's gonna be extended. Simple as that, is that a
smart way for the Cowboys to look at their quarterback position. No,
I don't think so, Doug, and I don't really believe it.
I mean, there's a long history of Jerry Jones saying
things that he doesn't really mean. I mean, the last
(38:44):
time he said he wasn't going to make a change
to a coach during the season, he did like less
than ten days later. I can remember when he told
Peter King he was not going to be trading for
Roy Williams from the Lions, and then that's exactly what
he did. So I think he's as what he feels
like he needs to say at the time to get
(39:06):
his desired result, which I think right now is for
Dak Prescott to play better football. But this is year three, Doug.
Here's how it goes. If he hasn't turn around this
year and they don't turn it around, they fire Jason
Garrett and that that's gonna happen, barring something unforeseen and
them turning it around. And then what happens is they'll
bring in some quarterback guy, quarterback guru that and his
(39:30):
job will be to try to maximize what he can
get from Dak Prescott. They will not extend them before
his fourth year. They'll let him go into that year,
and that would be smart, by the way, and see
what they can get out of him that fourth year
if he plays well, if it turns around, Cowboys have
never had a problem signing a guy or given a
guy enough money to keep him. Most guys want to
(39:52):
stay with the Cowboys. Most guys want to be a Cowboy.
So let him play out his fourth year and either
give me the biggest and then or if you know,
you know he doesn't really want to sign it on
once more money and you think, then your franchise tag
him for a year there. But that would be the
smart move. I don't know if that's what the Cowboys
are doing. I don't know that the smart move was
trading for Marii Cooper, but I think that's what they'll do.
(40:15):
I think that they're there's that they're that's smart enough
to realize that's how you should go about this. I
like the story that is the Houston Texans. I do
you know J J. Watt back off injury, Deshaun Watson
back off injury, a team back from the dead. But
I remember that if not for a Frank Reich decision.
They tie in Indie. If not for Jason Garrett playing
(40:38):
super conservative, they may lose to the Dallas Cowboys. And
I don't know what's going on with Denver. I mean
advanced Joseph rightfully catching a ton of heat for kicking
a sixty two yarder and almost gifting them three points
the in the first half, and then they settled on
a fifty one yard when they could have got a
closer in um at the end of the game. So
(41:00):
I'm willing to believe that Houston was better than their
own three record, But are they really as good as
the record would tell you now? I don't think so.
I mean, I think they'll end up winning that division,
although I do think both the Titans and the Colts
are going to impress people in the second half of
the year. I mean, Doug, the last two games the
Coats to play, they rushed for over two hit yards
(41:22):
each game. Luck hasn't been sacked in three games. They
finally found the right combo oh line and then Tennessee.
That's two impressive games for them in Earl. I called
their game in London against the Chargers. I thought they
outplayed the Chargers that day. So I do think that
the Texans will have some competition, but my guess is
they'll still win that division, mainly on the backs of
(41:45):
the guys you mentioned and DeAndre Hopkins. But I don't
think that they are ready to compete with the Steelers
or the Patriots, or certainly not the Chiefs, and I
would say even the Chargers as well. So you know
they're gonna end up posting that Saturday four thirty wild
card game, and my guess is they'll lose to the Chargers.
(42:08):
It will kind of be a typical text in season.
But no, they got they start one of the worst
till lines in the league, Doug and Deshaun Watson. It's
kind of the curse, I guess that being that gifted,
he's kind of like Russell Wilson or some of the
other guys. He's taking way way too many sacks, which
drives me crazy and makes it really hard for them
(42:29):
to be able to get first downs and and put
more points on the board than the nineteen they did
against the Broncos. Meanwhile, you got Philip Rivers is not
turning it over, not taking sacks. He took one purposely
against the Seattle run out of the clock. But he's
taking eleven sacks all year, and yet you know now
they're changing kickers again. I think the kicking game has
been really deceiving in terms of how good the Chargers are.
(42:51):
So I'm gonna ask you, how good are the Chargers really? Well?
I was talking about somebody this about this today, Doug.
I mean, they've got three good receivers and keenan Alliant,
Keen Allen and both Mike Williams and Tyrone Williams. Their
old line is playing like a top five to seven
old line the league right now. Melvine Gordon is out
(43:12):
of control. He is awesome, Ekela. Their backups one of
the best backup running backs in the league. Philip Rivers
is the top five, top ten quarterback right now. And
then defensively, you've got dudes, I mean, Melvin Ingram at
the linebacker level, Jadavis Brown's playing great. On the back end,
you have Derwin James, Casey Hayward. I mean, that's that's
(43:33):
the team, thug, That's that's like every position. They've got
very good players. And so there are six and two.
Their only losses are to the Rams and the charge
I'm sorry, and and the Chiefs, and they've done it
all without their best football player, and Joey Bosta. They
could be scary good when they get him back. I
(43:55):
think that they're good enough to go on a legit
playoff Broa, and I know the charge is always blow it.
They never do it. I'm saying this year they do it.
I'm saying this year they win at least one playoff
game and maybe even give a New England or a
Kansas City or run for their money. Yeah, it's gonna
be fascinating because their their schedule is soft here as
they have you know, three three very well. We got
(44:16):
I think Oakland and Arizona, somebody else in between whatever
where they got games they can win here coming up.
Whereas a team like the Saints, who I think everybody
believes is legitimate and even better if they get home field,
their schedule is really really backloaded and as good as
I think the Chiefs are, I mean it's the Saints are.
I think their schedule may prohibit their ability to host
(44:39):
the playoffs throughout. Is that that fair? By the way,
the Chargers have Raiders, Broncos at home, Cardinals at home
before they go to take on the Steelers in the road,
and I'm with you on the Saints. What I would say, though,
is kind of crazy about that. Look what they've just done.
I mean, they destroyed the redskin who they're not a
(45:00):
great team, but they're winning that division. Then they go
on the road to Baltimore back when Baltimore was clearly
the best defense in the NFL and playing well, they
win there. They went by double digits at Minnesota in
a Sunday night game. Then they come back and beat
the undefeated Rams. Now they got to play You're right,
(45:20):
the Bengals on the road, and they play the Eagles.
Then they played the falcon to all of a sudden,
they're hot. Then it kind of slows down for them
a little bit with Dallas and Tampa Bay. And then
what's really awesome for all of us this year is
that they played Carolina two out of the last three games,
which I cannot wait because Doug Caroline has loaded. I mean, what,
(45:43):
Curtis Samuel made a couple insane plays, greg Olson had
the best catch I've seen this year. Mccaffreys the stud
and I don't know why when I see all these
lists of mid season m v P and vote for
mid Sea. Nobody includes Cam Newton. I mean, he'd be
three for me, probably behind Patrick Mahomes and Drew Brees.
Kim's playing better than he when he actually won the
(46:07):
m v P. So you're right because and by the way,
the one game in between those two Carolina games for
New Orleans is the Steelers, so it won't be easy,
but they've just won three really tough games in a row. Um,
what what do you think about the Steelers thing? With
this Levy on Bell, Like, I think we all expect
that he's going to show up because he does want
(46:28):
to collect some checks, and he does at some point,
I want to play football to show what his value
will be on the market. But does that do they
actually get better? Because sometimes you add in a versatile
weapon and a really good one and it can screw
you up. They're playing pretty good offensive football. It doesn't
actually make them better. It's a really good point, and
I think it does just from a depth standpoint. And
(46:51):
I do think he's a little bit better in the
passing game than James Conner. But you know they've won
four in a row, and I bet you they are
a little hesitant upset. The Apple cart and you know
he's gonna be making whatever it is, eight hundred fifty
dollars a week. You know, they could with send the tag,
you know, whenever he shows up, they could pull it
and not pay him. That The problem is, then they
(47:13):
don't end up getting, you know, the compensatory pick that
they would want if he leaves in free agency in March.
You know he's gonna get a lot of money from
somebody that would be you know, Steelers aren't typically very
active in free agency, so that would be a third
round pick for them in I don't think they want
to give that up. Plus, you know, the running back position,
(47:34):
they're a play away from Connor getting hurt and then
they got nobody. So I think they'll take their chances
and maybe utilize him in a specific role. I also
think this is why one of the reasons why he
didn't show up yet. I think he was gonna show
up during the buy and he's like, wait a minute,
they're doing pretty well without me. They're gonna trade me
if I go there that they might trade me to
(47:54):
somebody I don't want to go somewhere else, or they
might use me for thirty five touches a game. And
I don't know the offense, and it might hurt my value.
I want to stay in Pittsburgh now, where they'll probably
only give me five to ten touches the game. I
get the money. I know this system. It's one of
the two or three best old lines in the league.
I can show everybody I'm still healthy, I'm still good.
(48:15):
But Connor is doing well enough that they're not gonna
They're not gonna ride me forty touches. Say it again.
Can the Packers be saved this year? I don't think so.
And you know I was thinking about this today too, Doug.
Not only do I not think so, I didn't. They're
gonna fire Mike McCarthy at the end of the year.
I mean, they don't make the playoffs this year. I
(48:37):
think he's gone. Jason Garrett, I think is gone. I
think John Harballs gone. So people talk about Lincoln Riley
and the Browns. Let me tell you, I think all
of these top candidates, and Lincoln Riley is one of them.
I think they're gonna have an unprecedented level of available
jobs this offseason. I mean, you don't usually get to
(48:59):
go to a place like Baltimore that stable of an
organization with that kind of talent, especially on the defensive
side of the ball. I mean, the Cowboys are the Cowboys.
You might get a chance to go coach Aaron Rodgers
for the next four years. I mean, it's gonna be
a a buyer's market if you will, if you're a
coach and you're looking to get a job, Which is
(49:19):
why somebody's asked me that I think there's any chance
that Lincoln Riley goes the NFL. Hecky, I think Lincoln
Riley goes to the NFL. I think he's gonna have
two or three pretty awesome options to choose from. And
if you don't take it now, you never know when
it will come. And by the way, I don't mean
I don't follow it that closely, but he just said
Baker Mayfield he gets one year, Kyler Murray, I don't
(49:39):
know who he has after this. By doubt he's as
good as these two. Dude. Yeah, those those two are
pretty uh, they're they're pretty hard to they are recruiting well,
and they do have kind of the viable backup in
an Austin Kendall. But the idea that he'll be Kyler Murray,
you know because he almost beat out Kyler Murray, uh
in the in the spring. That was more because Kyler
(50:01):
Murray was playing baseball than anything else. Um. You know.
You know a team that actually is in a great
spot with one of those Wizard Play colors is the
Falcons where Sark and I know you've been paying you
mentioned how hot the Falcons are. Matt Ryan's having an
unbelievable year as those two seem to be working together
really really well. They got all kinds of injuries and
the defensive side of the ball. It's Sark, because of
(50:24):
his off the field issues, probably not hirable as an
NFL head coach, but that's okay by the Falcons because
those two are working together so well. Yeah, maybe that's
the new formula if you really want to be successful,
is hire a guy that's really really talented but has
enough off the field baggage that nobody can ever take
(50:45):
him to be the head coach? Are you? So you
get su stame, success and continuity at the offensive coordinator
and this is sort of what happened with Kyle Shanahan
second year. You know, you start to know what your
players are good at. The quarterback gets more comfortable with it,
and Stark's doing exactly in his second year. What Kyle Shanningen,
(51:06):
did you know? Because they lost those games with all
the defensive injuries, people don't realize how well Matt Ryan's playing,
how well the Falcons are playing offensively, because they lost
a bunch of those games late when they couldn't stop
anybody because of all the injuries on defense. But Stark
has been masterful. I mean, they just went to the Redskins,
whose defense is legitmat Away and put up thirty eight
(51:30):
points on the road, just murdered the Redskins. It was very,
very impressive. And anything about Stark it's two is yeah.
And this is one of the funny things being in
the media. It'll be a while before a lot of
other people other than you say it, because the narrative is,
oh he's stays like people will still just say, oh,
(51:51):
he's terrible in the red zone. Like it takes a
while for people to catch up to. No, no, no, no,
that was last year. This is this year, and they're
putting up like thirty points a game. So you're you're
slow on the uptick, but try to pay attention. Stark
and the Falcons are rolling. Yeah. Yeah, And actually, if
you went back to even the Eagles game where he
caught some heat because they weren't going in the red zone,
(52:13):
it was Matt Ryan making them wrong. Read not the play,
not the not the plays being plays being bad. But
they're working together really well. Now, Um, I got a
little dude that's a wide receiver. Is this the ball cannon?
Can you use these nine years old? Is this gonna
break a finger? Or is this thing work for a
nine year old? It is perfect for a nine year old.
You can make the speed whatever you want, you can
(52:36):
make the launch angle whatever you want. And even when
you're on the radio, Doug he can use it by
himself because you put a delay feature on. It's the
coolest thing. I got two little ones as well. They
love it. You put the delay feature to like half
a second, a second, whatever you want, Press the button,
run your route, turn around, catch it. It's amazing. I
(52:57):
can't believe a guy from my small hometown, and while
I'm missing Pennsylvania invented the thing, and now people are
buying it all over the place, Like eight NFL teams
have them for various reasons. But then I go outside
with my five and six year old and play with
it all the time. I'm not even kidding, Doug. It
would be the perfect gift for the holidays for your
(53:18):
nine year old. Hit me up after the show, text
me or something. We can work something out. And everybody listening,
go check out ball cannon dot com and check out
the videos at ball canna dot com. It's the cool.
It's the only thing my kids like more than their iPads,
which is if anybody has a kid right now knows
that's there's there's nothing higher than that. Okay, more than
(53:39):
the I pad. I'm gonna give you two stories that
you love. Okay, alright, So my my little dudes nine,
his first light football game was in Connecticut. This is
like four years ago, right, and so he had he
doesn't he doesn't like watching football on TV. He likes
He's like I like playing, but he they like, oh
little kids, they watch YouTube. So we get done. I
just told him the story. He was cracking up. We
(54:00):
get done with his first light football game and he won,
and the guys are coaching him. They were like rugby guys.
They just ran like pitches and sweeps and whatever. Anyway,
he's like crying, Now, why are you crying like that?
There were no spectacular plays at all, none, no spectacular plays.
And I was like, hey's the spectacular play happens maybe
(54:23):
maybe once a week in the NFL, maybe if you're lucky.
He's like, that's not true. I watch it on YouTube
all the times, Like, yeah, that's a compilation of highlights. Anyway,
fast forward to now what he does because he doesn't
have a ball canon, we have a trampoline and he
does uh, he does spectacular catches mostly oh b J
catches on the trampoline by himself, and he does a
(54:44):
little broadcasting announcing of all of his catches. That's what
he does. That is exactly what kids do with the ball.
In fact, I've seen him now usually on the beach
at Tailgates. I've seen him jump off you know, they
have somebody pressed the button and they off the diving
board and making Odell Beckham's Jr. Catch off the diving board.
It's really like, I'm I wish that, you know, they
(55:07):
had it when I was ken and not now when
I'm almost forty, because I would have loved to have
been done doing crazy stuff before I had orthopedic issues.
Out the ying Yang that's because you're an offensive line
in the NFL. Check out the Ross Stucker Podcast. I
listen to it on the way the work. You should
to check them out also on Twitter at Ross Stucker NFL.
Ross thanks so much, Man Dremu
Host
Doug Gottlieb
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Does hearing about a true crime case always leave you scouring the internet for the truth behind the story? Dive into your next mystery with Crime Junkie. Every Monday, join your host Ashley Flowers as she unravels all the details of infamous and underreported true crime cases with her best friend Brit Prawat. From cold cases to missing persons and heroes in our community who seek justice, Crime Junkie is your destination for theories and stories you won’t hear anywhere else. Whether you're a seasoned true crime enthusiast or new to the genre, you'll find yourself on the edge of your seat awaiting a new episode every Monday. If you can never get enough true crime... Congratulations, you’ve found your people. Follow to join a community of Crime Junkies! Crime Junkie is presented by audiochuck Media Company.
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If you've ever wanted to know about champagne, satanism, the Stonewall Uprising, chaos theory, LSD, El Nino, true crime and Rosa Parks, then look no further. Josh and Chuck have you covered.