June 18, 2025 • 35 mins
We take a look at where every team has room for improvement going into the Summer.
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Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:20):
What's going on everybody, Guys and girls, Welcome back to
another edition of the Football Function podcast, available on all
of your podcasting platforms, including on Patreon if you prefer
an ad free listening experience. As always, I am one
of the hosts of this.
Speaker 2 (00:35):
Show, Michael Ritter.
Speaker 1 (00:36):
You can find me on x at Michael five Ritter
or on Instagram at Michael Ridder five and you can
find the show on Instagram at Football Function two point Oh.
Thank you guys so much for tuning in on this episode.
If you haven't already, go subscribe over on Patreon gets
you all these episodes add free a little bit early
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(00:58):
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All of those things go a long way to help
in the show, and obviously we certainly appreciate those things.
So what we're doing here on this episode, this is
going to be another post draft perspective kind of taking
(01:23):
a peek at what these teams look at post draft
and we're gonna look at it from a glass half
empty approach. And episode we did earlier in the month
was focused on the team's biggest strengths. So this time
we're going to look at it from the other side
of the coin. We are going to zero in on
all of these teams and their biggest weaknesses. Now, some
of these teams, you're gonna be reaching like you're splitting
(01:46):
hairs pretty much. In my personal opinion, there are a
handful of teams in the NFL that really have no
true like weaknesses right now. Can there be improvements? Obviously,
there's a salary cap. This isn't Madden where you can
just make whatever trade you want orchestrate a roster however
you see fit, whether it's you know, fifteen rookies out
(02:07):
of the twenty two starters or whatever. There's different ways
that you can build a team on Madden where it's easy.
It's not as easy in real life, and that's something
that every single team has to deal with. There's hurdles
that they have to go over every single offseason just
to fill the fifty three man roster and make sure
that they are capped compliant. So We're going to start
(02:30):
where we always start, with the AFC East. I just
kind of just want to preface it though, and kind
of let you guys know that, you know, we're gonna
do what we can to zero in on some of
these teams weaknesses. And obviously it's a subjective opinion. This
is just the way I see it, so bear with
me here. We are going to start with the Buffalo Bills,
and I had to go with the wide receiver group
slash secondary. Didn't really know which one to lean on here.
(02:52):
I mean, if you look at the secondary position, their
best player you can argue as their first round pick
this year, and mac Well Harston. But besides him, obviously
we know what Damar Hamlin is. Taylor Rapp came over
in free agency from the Rams a couple of years ago.
Christian Binford is someone that local Buffalo people are pretty
high on, or at least are a lot more familiar
(03:13):
with than maybe people are in the national media. And
then you got Toron Johnson on the other side. So
it's not necessarily something you look at and think, man,
you know, by default, it's almost like their weakest link
because you look at the linebacker position, Matt Milano. I'm
not going to call that a weak spot at all,
(03:34):
Like any position group that features Matt Milano can't possibly
be a weakness on your team. And then the defensive
line with the newly acquired Joey Bosa and Greg Russeau,
I believe we've made that their biggest strength in the
previous episode, So you can't really go I guess you
can't waiver, is what I'm trying to say. And if
(03:54):
you said that the defensive line was their biggest strength,
then clearly the secondary probably benefits from that, and because
of that, you have to think that maybe they're just
lesser by default. And like I said, this is a
team that is pretty damn good. They make deep playoff
pushes every year, so their weaknesses might not be the
same as your weaknesses. Like, just because the secondary is
(04:15):
the weakest link on the Buffalo Bills doesn't mean that
it would be the weakest link on other teams, if you.
Speaker 2 (04:21):
Catch my drift.
Speaker 1 (04:23):
But let's continue on here we'll talk about with another
or we'll talk about.
Speaker 2 (04:26):
Another AFC East team.
Speaker 1 (04:28):
This time we're gonna talk about the Miami Dolphins, And
I went with the offensive line here features Patrick Paul,
James Daniels, Aaron Brewer, Jonah their second round pick this year.
I'm not even gonna try to say that name, and
then Austin Jackson. So I mean, James Daniels is a
proven veteran.
Speaker 2 (04:47):
But other than that, you're.
Speaker 1 (04:48):
Really kind of reaching here whenever you're talking about you
know where this team is now. Obviously they're tied in
John new Smith. He overperformed last year as a Miami
Dolphin wide receiver position. We've already had dress with Tyreek
Hill and Jalen Waddell to a second by loa running back,
they have Devon a Chanin. They went and got Alexander Madison,
they drafted Ali Gordon, so they are pretty much set there,
(05:10):
you know, in the other position groups, and if you
just look at where they are on the defensive side
of the ball, clearly not going to be the secondary,
clearly not going to be the edge rushers of the
defensive line. Kind of similar to the Buffalo Bills. I
believe that was their biggest strength. But you know, for
the Dolphins case in their base three four defense, they
have a lot of talent spread around. You know, we
(05:31):
talked about Bradley Chubb, Jalen Phillips, Jordan Brooks, all those
guys are kind of in the linebacking core depending on
what personnel group they have, whether than their nickel defense.
If they're in like a base first down, second down
type of run stopping defense, you probably still keep Bradley
Chubb out there on the field because he's just a
vergatile defensive end slash outside linebacker that's able to be
(05:54):
pretty strong against the run. So they're kind of littered
with those type of players that are good against both.
They're more versatile, they're not they don't extremely celerate. It
just one thing, so kind of just by default, you know,
that's that's where we land here. With these teams that
are on paper pretty talented, you just kind of have
to roll with something. And with the New England Patriots,
(06:19):
I rolled with the offensive line until proven otherwise. They
made investments, right, They brought over Garrett Bradbury, they brought
Morgan Moses, they drafted Will Campbell, they already have Cole Strange.
So this is pretty much just a until proven otherwise thing.
And you know, I really didn't even look at any
other areas now, I mean, they went and got Milon Williams,
Christian Barmore was already there. Harold Landry come over. They
(06:41):
brought over Kyries Tonga in free agency from the Arizona Cardinals,
Robert Splane. I mean, they had a lot of money,
Carlton Davis in the back end to go along with
Jabill Peppers, Kyle Duggar.
Speaker 2 (06:50):
Christian Gonzalez.
Speaker 1 (06:52):
They've already been you know, pretty stout there or at least,
you know, in terms of whether their team has been
over the last few years. The secondary was surely never
the issues. And now they've made a lot of additions
on the other side, you know, getting Carlton Davis and
the other areas of the defense, like the linebacker position.
Having somebody like Robert Splane come in there, you know
he's going to be a tone setter. Obviously Mac Collins
Stefon Diggs. So the wide receiver position, which was really
(07:14):
hurting last year, got addressed. So did the linebacker group.
But I just think that I'm gonna need to see
the offensive line group, so I'm gonna need to see
them kind of put it on the field before I
just crowned them and you know, say that they out
of nowhere went from the worst pass protecting unit in
the league to a respectable one. With the New York Jets,
(07:37):
I went with the tight end position. I mean, all
the other groups have a lot of promise, they have
a lot of resources invested in them. I know, they
just been a second round pick on the tight end
Mason Taylor, you know here in the twenty twenty five draft.
They also drafted Jeremy Ruckert in twenty twenty two. I mean,
they have players, but clearly if you look at where
they are Breese Hall at running back, you could, you know,
(07:59):
possibly go Q quarterback, but I didn't really feel like
that was necessary at this point. Justin Fields has done
enough to warrant him higher on this specific exercise. Then
you know, guys like Mason Taylor and Jeremy Rutger. You know,
we're not talking about Sam Laporter or someone like that
at the tight end group, Like this is very much
a developmental position that we're going to see the Jets
(08:20):
hopefully try to work into their offense. But you know,
I guess there's really no telling. But that's where I
landed with the New York Jets. Let's take things over
to another division and let's see we'll talk about the
AFC West. We'll start with the Denver Broncos.
Speaker 2 (08:37):
And this is.
Speaker 1 (08:37):
Another one where I mean, you're gonna have to it's
a little bit of a reach. Like I really feel
like the Broncos, they don't have a whole lot of weaknesses,
but if you are going to go with one, I
went with the running back position because there's no true
stalwart there, Like there's no one there that a defensive
coordinator is going to look at and think, Okay, we're
(08:59):
really going to have to account to this guy or
account for this guy. That's not what you're thinking about
when you're playing the Denver Broncos, especially now that they
have Evan Ingram to go along with the passing attack
they had last year. They have a pretty over average
offensive line, above average offensive line. You add Everyan Ingram there,
I think that's going to make their passing game so
(09:19):
much better. So it's more so just like the pressure
is on the running back position to alleviate some of
the pressure that's going to be on the quarterback in
real time, you know, like actual pressure whenever the pass
rushes coming and defense is you know, pinning their ears
back to try to get after bow Nicks. A running back,
an effective running back can make life a hell of
(09:40):
a lot easier for that offense as a whole. Now,
let's look at the Kansas City Chiefs, another one that
I mean you're reaching here. You know, this is a
team that was in the Super Bowl. They won their
respective conference, so damn hard to do. But if I'm
going with any positional group on this team that I'm
going to look at and think, Okay, you know, needs
(10:01):
a little work, might be the secondary outside of Trim mcduffey.
I like what Trim McDuffie does. But other than that,
I mean, you know, it is a bunch of young
guys in there, which is okay, it's not like young
guys can't play or something like that, but it's just,
you know, when you look at Jalen Watson or Jalen Watson,
Jayden Hicks, Brian Cook, and Christian Fulton, who they just
brought over from the Los Angeles Chargers, not a whole
(10:23):
bunch of star power there. And McDuffie himself, as great
of a corner as he is, I don't think they're
you know, you're going to just feel thrilled having McDuffie
out there, you know, with no help in the back end.
You know, if teams are able to just attack him,
if he's guardened, like we just saw him super Bowlf,
he's guarden aj Brown, who's gonna stop DeVante Smith, who's
(10:45):
gonna guard Dallas Godert? And you know that Eagles passing attack.
So that's pretty much where I'm getting at here is
that McDuffie's a hell of a player. But when he's
the only player in that group that really moves the needle,
then it's like, all right, come on, guys, we gotta
get some improvements. Speaking of getting improvements, the Raiders really
really need some improvements at the wide receiver position. That's
(11:08):
where I landed on for their weakest position. No true
pass catchers. I mean, we're talking about Jack Beck, Trey Tucker,
Jacobe Myers, Jhonte Thornton, Colin Johnson. I mean, come on, guys,
what are we doing here? Luckily, there's gonna be a
couple talented wide receivers entering the NFL Draft next year,
and like we said, if there's any position that you need,
you'd prefer it to be wide receiver because there's always
(11:28):
going to be resources. There's always going to be a
talented class coming in. There's always going to be free
agents that are available that are cap casualties. There's always
going to be disgruntled wide receivers that want to get
traded midway through the season or as soon as the
season's over. So year in, year out, there's ways to
improve the wide receiver position, and I just.
Speaker 2 (11:46):
Need the Raiders to do that.
Speaker 1 (11:47):
I mean, look at what they already have at the
tight end position and the running back position. If they
can get that young wide receiver, like if they can
get their Drake London, similar to how the Falcons got
Bijeon and Kyle Pity And I know Kyle Pitts can't
even sniff Brock Powers Jockstrap at this point, but you
get what I'm saying. You spend high quality draft picks
(12:08):
on skill position players and you know eventually you're gonna
have a pretty solid nucleus. And I think that the
Raiders are kind of following our footsteps there. But let's
talk about the last team in this division, the Los
Angeles Chargers. And this is another one where I feel
like kind of sort of a little bit of a reach.
Chargers are always kind of put together well on paper.
(12:28):
But I went with the secondary slash interior. Defensive line,
decent as rushers, decent linebackers. The secondary though, that's I
mean outside of Derwin James, who's always kind of been
a question mark when you're talking about health availability, is
he going to be able to play a full seventeen
game season, which you know, bet the under usually whenever
(12:50):
you're talking about a Chargers player, that's just kind of
what we've grown to be accustomed to, is the injury
bug biting them year in year out. Whenever I look
at the Chargers, though, you know, I have to land
on the secondary, especially in this division. We talked about
the Raiders not having many passing or receiving weapons from
the wide receiver position. Brock Bowers will toast you, but
the other teams in this division, do you know. I
(13:12):
know that the Chiefs don't have the most star power
wide receivers like these days, but they have a you know,
offensive coordinator and Andy Reid and a quarterback in Patrick
Mahomes that it really doesn't matter who the receiver is.
They're going to make life hell on you and you're
going to have to really buckle up your chin strap
if you plan on stopping those guys.
Speaker 2 (13:31):
So just I guess with all that.
Speaker 1 (13:34):
Being said, the Chargers are going to need more secondary help,
but they want to actually be a threat in this division.
Another division we will shift over to is the AFC North,
and I'm going to talk about the Baltimore Ravens. And
this is one of the best teams in the league.
Another major reach here if we're talking about a weakness.
But I landed on the offensive line. I mean, yeah,
they got Linderbaum and Ronnie Stanley, but Andrew Vorhees at
(13:57):
injury questions coming out, He's plugged in there, left guard
Daniel Fale and then Roger Rosengarten, who is very well
known for him calling himself a no One or a
nobody talking to Miles Garrett. So yeah, I mean, if
I'm going any weaknesses on the Baltimore Ravens, they could
possibly get slight improvements on the offensive line.
Speaker 2 (14:19):
But again, this isn't Madden. You can't just think, you know,
I'm not happy with this guy.
Speaker 1 (14:24):
Maybe I should go add you know, Quentin Nelson, Go
submit a trade for Quentin Nelson or Chris lin Strummer,
one of the more talented offensive linemen.
Speaker 2 (14:36):
That's just not the way it works.
Speaker 1 (14:39):
Moving over to the Cincinnati Bengals here we'll talk about
the secondary. That's why I landed on Dax Hill, Can
Taylor Bridge, you know, Stone Jordan Battle, DJ Turner. The
main reason why is because I like what I see
from Logan Wilson. They did just lose Jermaine Pratt as
a linebacker, but they've replaced him with Demetrius Knight Junior,
who was the second round pick this year. On paper,
(15:00):
they have Trey Hendrickson, they have BJ Hill, they have
Joseph a Psi. So clearly, you know, obviously Simon County,
you know, the twenty three third round pick, and Miles
Murphy twenty twenty five first round pick, and Shamar Stewart,
who where the hell is he at?
Speaker 2 (15:15):
Right?
Speaker 1 (15:16):
But you know, you look at one of these teams
that you know they didn't have, you know, a Jermaine
Pratt get cut as a post June one or whatever,
and they don't have holdouts. It's the secondary, Like what
you see is what you give. This is the best
they're gonna put out there this year, and it better
be enough. Whenever you talk about going up against some
of the teams in the AFC, and at the end
(15:37):
of the day, most of the time just hasn't really
been enough. If there's ever a game that you look
at and the Bengals are down or the Bengals didn't win,
it's not because the offense didn't show up or didn't
roll out of bed that morning. It's probably because they
couldn't stop a nosebleed. And having a secondary like this
is a one way ticket to just that keeping it
(15:57):
in state.
Speaker 2 (15:57):
Going from Cincinnati to.
Speaker 1 (15:59):
Cleveland, we will talk about the Cleveland Browns, and I
went a linebacker until proven otherwise. Obviously we know what's
going on with Jeremiah Abusu Corromoa on the pup list.
He's not going to play in the twenty twenty five season.
They drafted Carson A. Swessinger, and I think out of
UCLA is the second rounder in twenty twenty five. They
(16:19):
have Jordan Hicks. It's more so just I need to
see it. You know. It's kind of like the same
thing with the Patriots offensive line. Until proven otherwise, this
is the biggest weakness on the team. And you can
throw quarterback in there too, But I feel like they've
made those I guess investments. You look at bringing back
Joe Flacco, who's had success in this scheme, making two
draft picks, and Shouldar Sanders and Dylan Gabriel how it happened.
(16:43):
People are like, you know, kind of suck. Both of
the guys were sliding. People were pretty much anyone could
have drafted Shouldar. But if you would have told Browns
fans or anyone before the draft, like somehow someway, the
Browns are gonna end up with Dylan Gabriel and Shouldar Sanders,
you can't tell me it doesn't increase the percentages or
the likelihood that they found their franchise quarterback. I mean,
(17:05):
two is better than one, no matter how you slice it,
and it just increases your odds. It gives you more
swings of the bat, gives you a chance to hit it.
And that's just kind of where I'm at with the Browns.
Is linebacker, possibly quarterback, but again, you know it's really
just until proven otherwise. Pittsburgh Steelers another very talented team.
(17:26):
When traded for DK Metcalf, they have Robert Woods Calvin
Austin at the wide receiver position. Friar moves in Darnell
Washington at the tight end position, Aaron Rodgers, who's probably
going to finish his career in you know, Pittsburgh Steeler
black and Yellow. So I landed on the running back position.
Jalen Warren is officially their starter. They do have Caleb
(17:46):
Johnson who they drafted in the third round, Kenneth gainwell
as well from Philly Trace Sermons. So it is quote
unquote deep, but it's not what.
Speaker 2 (17:55):
We're used to.
Speaker 1 (17:56):
I mean, you know, when I think about the Pittsburgh Steelers,
I'm thinking about Derme Bettetts, I'm thinking about fast Willie Parker,
I'm thinking about Le'Veon Bell obviously, James Connor. Like they've
always had hard nose running back that can carry the load.
And you know, even Najie Harris early in his career,
he was getting a lot of touches, but I don't
think he ever reached the ceiling or the expectations that
Steelers fans had for him. So, you know, I'm looking
(18:19):
at the running back position as an area on a
very talented team.
Speaker 2 (18:23):
That could use an upgrade.
Speaker 1 (18:25):
And you want to talk about, you know, receiver being
easy to upgrade, running back is the easiest one to upgrade.
Speaker 2 (18:30):
But I just think that.
Speaker 1 (18:31):
I mean that's including Cordell Patterson too. They it's not
like they have no one. It's just, you know, if
we're if we have to identify a weakness on a team,
I'm looking at it. I'm just thinking, Man, if the
Steelers had a you know, like a big name running back,
like if they had someone that a defense had to
account for, it would probably make Aaron Rodgers' life a
(18:51):
lot easier. That's kind of what we saw happen with
the Jets. That running game was just non existent, and it,
you know, really ended up biding them in the ass.
Let's close out the AFC talking about well, first things first,
we can go ahead and get this out of the way. Texans, Colts, Jags.
All three of these teams their biggest weakness is the
(19:13):
offensive line. So we can save some time by just
digging in here and going really into detail. All these
teams need some improvements on the offensive line. Now. I
will give the Texans credit. They went out and got
Cam Robinson and Laken Tominson. They do have Titus Howard,
but when you look at everything else they have on
that offense, especially you know the pairing of Joe Mixon
and Nick Chubb, which was a fantasy of mine back
(19:34):
in you know, twenty eighteen, you talk about the Rose
Bowl Georgia versus OU. Both teams had very good running
back duos. Over At Georgia they had Sony Michelle and
Nick Chubb. Oklahoma had some LJP Ryan and Joe Mixon
obviously two of the best running back tandems in the
league that year or in the.
Speaker 2 (19:51):
Entire nation, I should say that year.
Speaker 1 (19:53):
And I just remember whether it was privately or saying
it to k Lob or someone you know around that time. Man,
you know, as great as P. Ryan is, as great
as Sony Michelle is, can you imagine a backfield that
had Nick Chubb and Joe Mixon And the fact that
the Texans have that now.
Speaker 2 (20:10):
I think that's pretty damn cool.
Speaker 1 (20:12):
And obviously their defense is pretty tam good. And their
defensive line definitely is in the knee. Let's talk about
you know, Fotacasi, Daniel Hunter, Will Anderson, Tim Settle, and
then obviously Christian Harris as he's Al Shier, Henry Toto,
Derek Stingley, they brought over CJ. Gartoner Johnson, Like, yeah,
the secondary is definitely or anywhere on the defense is
(20:32):
not a need for.
Speaker 2 (20:34):
The Houston Texans.
Speaker 1 (20:35):
So we talked about the offensive line being their biggest spot,
and as crazy as it is, it's the same thing
for the Colts. Outside of Quentin Nelson. I mean, yeah,
they had Braden Smith, who was an eighteen or twenty
eighteen second round pick, so him and Quentin Nelson have
been strong for the better part of six seven years
for the Indianapolis Colts. But outside of that, man, it
is a bunch of fart noises and they really need
(20:55):
to improve this if the offense is gonna take a
next step, specifically Anthony Richardson or Daniel Jones, whichever guy
is going to be you know, taking the snaps there.
And we talked about the Jacksonville Jaguars. It's pretty much
where they are as well. There's no big time players
there that I mean, they went out and got a
new shiny toy and Travis Hunter, Travis et and Tanks
bigbe have already been one of the better running back
(21:17):
duos in the league. Trevor Lawrence, hoping he can continue
to improve defense, has definitely got strengths all over the field.
So I just you know, I had to land on
the offensive line for all three of those teams. And
then the Tennessee Titans, where we are with them is
the tight end position, I mean wide receivers.
Speaker 2 (21:35):
Yeah, a lot of these guys are.
Speaker 1 (21:36):
Maybe a little bit past their prime, some of them anyways.
But they do have for Streppo, who has chemistry with
the quarterback already and he's not even going to be
playing as much as guys like Tyler Lockett, Calvin Ridley,
and Van Jefferson. So the Tennessee Titans, I mean tight end,
they have nobody, Like, they really don't have anybody, I
mean Gunner Helm, Josh Wiley, Chiga, Kunkwo.
Speaker 2 (21:59):
I mean is that really?
Speaker 1 (22:00):
Is that really what you're want to go into the
season with. They may not have a choice unless they
want to call up the Falcons for Kyle Pitts. Ok, Hey,
you know we'll take your call for damn sure, see
what you want to offer. Let's move over to the
NSC side of things. Start with the Merrick team the
dal cab Boys, and this is another one kind of
(22:21):
a reach. Cowboys got a damn good team on paper,
I promise you, like there's no glaring holes on this team.
At all, very talented roster, and they've made improvements and
investments all over the defensive side of the ball. I
look at the tight end position, I mean, Jake Ferguson,
Luke Schuenmaker. Yes, they're serviceable. If serviceable is what you want,
then you got it. Congratulations. But if you want your
(22:43):
franchise quarterback who gets way too much criticism, who just
got a nice little shiny wide receiver, if you want
to really make life hell for defenses, upgrading the tight
end position would be a very phenomenal or phenomenal move.
And it's weird talking about it back to back, you know,
talking about the Tie and obviously now the Cowboys. But hey,
(23:03):
I don't know if there's gonna be another tight end
that pops up here. Nope, that was the last one.
So any tight end fans out there, hopefully you enjoyed that.
Philadelphia Eagles no true weakness. You're nitpicking. I am not
even going to say that there's a weakness because they
really don't have one. What is it the cornerback position
because they lost Darius Slave Do you not remember who
they just drafted in Cooper Dejini and quinia On Mitchell like, obviously,
(23:24):
this team has no weaknesses. They are built the right way,
and bravo to everybody involved. It's not just a Howie
Roseman thing. There's a lot of people that help him out.
There's a lot of people that he calls and you know,
gets insight from about where he's taking this team and this, that,
and third, the Eagles have no true weaknesses, so you
have to give them credit there. And let's talk about
(23:44):
the New York Giants. I went with the offensive line
because of everything else that they brought to this team,
maybe running back, but they did just draft Cam Scataboos,
so let's go ahead and see what he does. First
things first, wearing that number forty four, there's a chance
he could be a staple for this New York Giants team.
But a offensive line Andrew Thomas is really the only
guy that I'm looking at and thinking, man, hell yeah,
I mean John Michael Schmidz was a fan of him
(24:06):
coming out of college. The outside of that, they I mean,
we just talked about the Eagles, how big the strength
is for their defensive line, Like the Giants offensive line
going against the Eagles, that's just an absolutely crazy mismatch.
The final team in the NFC East is the Washington Commanders,
another team that's quietly been you know, built pretty quickly.
(24:30):
And I went with the secondary.
Speaker 2 (24:31):
Just because.
Speaker 1 (24:34):
I mean, I like Louvu, I like what Wagner does
in this defense, Doranson Strong, Javon Kinlaw, Dietrich Weiss, Deron Payne,
Jacob Martin obviously, and Johnny Newton. They did bring over
Eddie Goldman as well, who can play nose tackle. He
just can occupy space there. They do have depth on
the defensive line. The secondary is the one area where
I'm like, man, I kind of saw Michael Pennix kind
(24:58):
of obvious. So he struggled at the beginning of that game,
but towards the end, once he kind of got his
feet set in his first primetime game on the road,
he was able to pretty much do whatever he wanted
through the air against this Commander's defense. And you know,
I know they didn't have Marshaun Lattimore of that game,
but it's still just, you know, with where I want
to see the Commanders go, with the way that the
(25:20):
rest of their team is kind of constructed, the secondary,
I just feel like it is a little bit behind.
It's almost like if you have like a PE class
or something like that, and you're the pe teacher and
you're watching all the kids make the laps around the track,
and all of them are you know, kind of grouped up,
and then out of nowhere, there's just like four or
five kids that are about ten fifteen yards behind, just
(25:41):
kind of running behind the pack. That's what the Commander's
secondary is in terms of this team just you know,
kind of really skyrocketing to the top of the NFL.
But the next division we will shift over to is
the NFC West. We'll start with the Arizona Cardinals. This
is a team, you know, we talked about reaching like
you don't got to between talking about the Cardinals. There
(26:01):
are holes really everywhere, specifically offensive line depth, cornerback depth,
I mean all over the place. This team is not
built to compete right away. I think that, you know,
if Marvin Harrison Junior can turn into Jamar Chase and
we see Kyler Murray look like Oklahoma Sooners or Kyler Murray,
then yeah, they're gonna be cooking with gas. But this
(26:22):
team needs a lot of help and I'm probably not
gonna pick them to win a lot of games next year.
The Rams, I went with offensive line and off ball linebacker.
Let's see here, Yeah, I mean, offensive line is a wreck.
You could just really just zero in there on the
offensive line, but off ballbacker Troy Reider, Omar Spates.
Speaker 2 (26:46):
They did bring in natean Landman.
Speaker 1 (26:49):
But still in this specific day and age in football,
linebackers are asked to cover and linemkers are asked to
do a lot of things. They have to be multifaceted,
and if they're not, they're probably not gonna last long.
In the NFL San Francisco forty nine ers, I went
with offensive line and secondary. I'm not too concerned with
the offensive line. Obviously they have silverback Trent Williams still there.
(27:10):
And I just believe in the scheme of Kyle Shanahan,
Like you're never gonna hear me sit here and criticize
Kyle Shanahan and think, oh, man, he doesn't know what
he's doing. Nah, he knows what he's doing. Sometimes a
roster just gets, you know, gets the better of him.
He's been so damn good year in year out that
every now and then you know you're not gonna live
up to those high expectations. Seattle Seahawks, I went interior
(27:35):
offensive line. Hopefully Gray Zabel can go ahead and fix
that a little bit. But I also went with off
ball linebacker.
Speaker 2 (27:41):
It's just an.
Speaker 1 (27:42):
Area that the best Seahawks defenses have always had good
linebackers Tyrese Knight and Ernest Jones the fourth that's what
we're cooking with there. It's not nearly enough, especially if
you're gonna stop the run in the division that you're in.
And then obviously, if you want to advance in the playoffs,
like if you want to not get cooked, if you
(28:04):
want to see Sam Darnold thrive in his first year
as a Seattle Seahawks, take care of the interior offensive line,
and then obviously, you know, you want your defense to
be able to hold up their own as well. But
that takes us to the NFC North. We're gonna start
with the Chicago Bears. I want the secondary. They're good,
but they underperformed Like last year, there was no reason
(28:25):
for the Bears secondary to be as bad as it was,
So I'm definitely going to be or going to need,
you know, a lot of improvement there. And it's kind
of the same thing where we talked about the AFC South,
where the Texans, Colts, and Jags all had offensive line
as their biggest weakness. It's kind of the same thing
with secondary here in the NFC North Bears, who we
just talked about, but I also want Packers and Vikings.
(28:50):
The Packers just lost jay r Alexander, and their secondary
was a little suspect even with jay Air in.
Speaker 2 (28:55):
And out of the lineup. And then you look at
the Vikings.
Speaker 1 (28:59):
They completely remodeled their defensive line, and you know, we've
already seen them get production out of guys like Ivan
Pace and other linebackers that have kind of filled in
there for this team. But you look at the secondary,
that's where we look at him. We're like, all right,
the Vikings are gonna be able to win some shootouts,
but we're gonna need them to.
Speaker 2 (29:21):
I guess, tighten up the belt a little bit.
Speaker 1 (29:23):
I mean, Harrison Smith probably entering his last season one
of them. But outside of that, I mean, you're really
asking undrafted free agents to kind of step out there
and play. I mean, Bira Murphy undrafted or I should
say unrestricted free agent. But Isaiah Rogers, like, you're counting
on a lot of guys that you know, really haven't
really proved themselves in the league. So that's the one
(29:44):
area where I do have a little bit of concern.
And then you talk about the Detroit Lions, similar to
the Philadelphia Eagles, there are no true weaknesses here, Like
this is the one where I'm like, on paper, the
Lions have no true weakness. They were built the right way,
as we saw them getting the number one seed. I
know they got bested by the Washington Commanders, but that's
just the way the cookie crumbles sometimes. Man, Like, you're
not gonna win every single game. You're gonna run into
(30:05):
some talented teams. You're gonna run into some buzzsaws from
time to time. And that just so happened to happen
to the number one seed lines. I mean it happened
to the Falcons a couple of times. The Packers came
into our house, wax that ass, I mean, laid it
on us, and we deserved it. You know, you don't
take a team serious enough, you don't prepare properly, they
will go into your house and they will absolutely destroy
(30:28):
you on the way to capturing their what fourth Lombardi Trophy.
Speaker 2 (30:32):
Yeah, that was that was a bad year. To be
a Falcons fan.
Speaker 1 (30:34):
Speaking of being a Falcons fan, let's move over to
the NFC South, our final division here and until'll proven otherwise.
This is the pass rush and it will always be
the pass rush for the Falcons. This needs to be addressed.
They addressed it two first round picks, but and signed
Leonard Floyd. Hopefully it can turn to production and not
(30:55):
just you know, a curse, because there's been Falcons defensive
pass rushers that.
Speaker 2 (30:58):
We've brought in.
Speaker 1 (30:59):
You know that they were good on their previous team
and they come and put on the Falcons uniform and
it's like their cursed or something. Just something happens where
shit don't go right. But we need it to change.
Speaker 2 (31:11):
We need that to be.
Speaker 1 (31:12):
The case this go around. Carolina Panthers or the next
team we'll talk about. I went with off ball linebacker
Josie Jewel and Trevin Wallace. That's what you're trotting out there.
And the last time we saw the Panthers defense, they
beat the Falcons just team to team, but they gave
up thirty eight points and I know they won forty
four to thirty eight, like you've scored more than the opponent.
(31:34):
And that is all that matters at the end of
the day. But if you really take a deep, deep,
deep look into it, you would have seen that there
was a lot of flaws in that Panthers defense, and
linebacker position was certainly one of them. Saints, I went
with quarterback. I mean, whenever you're having a quarterback quarterback
battle with Tyler Shook, Spencer Rattler, and Jake Hayner. As
(31:58):
a Falcons fan, chef's kiss like, I'm tuning into this.
I wish they had hard knocks this year just so
we could watch and get a real up close and
personal look at this debacle that's going on there in
New Orleans. But the last team we'll talk about the
reigning NFC NFC South champion Tampa Bay Buccaneers, And I'm
going with will linebacker. Right now, they have Savrotia Dennis
(32:23):
I believe is his name slotted in this position here
at the will linebacker to complement Levonte David.
Speaker 2 (32:31):
You know, they've tried guys like Devin White.
Speaker 1 (32:34):
They just brought in Dion Jones, former Falcon to go
play in the division. I think it's like his third
team in the NFC South that he's played for He's
bounced around the league quite a bit here lately, but
I just know that the Buccaneers they played better whenever
Levante David has a running mate. I know, for a
long time there was Kawant Alexander and you know, Lavonte David.
(32:56):
He's been playing since twenty twelve, so he doesn't have
a whole lot of years left. So not only do
you need an off ball linebacker that can compliment him,
but sooner or later you're gonna need an off ball
linebacker that can replace him. So I just feel like
that's a very important position that the Buccaneers should address,
probably as soon as possible. But that does it for
me here, guys, thank you so much, Like I can't
(33:16):
thank you guys enough for everything, all the loyal supporters
that come back that listen to the show, because believe
it or not, people listen to the show. It isn't
a mind blowing number.
Speaker 2 (33:28):
Some days.
Speaker 1 (33:28):
It is, like I'll be honest, like there's been times
where I've been extremely proud of what I've seen just
looking at the looking at the stats. You know, the
one time I got an email that said, hey, like
your show was I think it was top fifty or
something like that. I need to go back and look
at exactly what it said. But we were ranked very
highly in India as like the football podcast like that.
(33:53):
We were downloaded a lot in India, and the amount
of states, the amount of countries that we've been downloaded
in always blows my mind. You know, we had our
most downloaded day just May tenth, like a little bit
over a month ago in the five years of the show.
So I'm not saying that the show doesn't have a
(34:14):
lot of listeners, because you know, your definition of a
lot might be different than somebody else's definition of a lot,
or of.
Speaker 2 (34:20):
A lot like in some areas.
Speaker 1 (34:22):
This show has already surpassed the expectations that I had.
But I do know that there are people out there
that consider this show and what we do not a
success or just not interesting, which is fine. That's everyone's opinion.
People are entitled to their own opinion, and they don't
have to like the show. They don't have to love
(34:42):
the show, they don't have to listen to the show
at all. But for those of you that do, those
of you that have been loyal supporters for as long
as you have been, I cannot thank you enough, forever
indebted to you, and I promise someday I am going
to make it up to you, one way or another.
I got some pretty big things planned, but it's all
about getting the show on the track, making sure that
the wheels are rolling so we can get to the
summer and get us to our fifth regular season here
(35:05):
in the football function history. So thank you guys so much.
Have a damn good rest of your week, while passionately
in the direction of your dreams, and we'll talk to
you soon.
What's going on everybody, Guys and girls, Welcome back to
another edition of the Football Function podcast, available on all
of your podcasting platforms, including on Patreon if you prefer
an ad free listening experience. As always, I am one
of the hosts of this.
Speaker 2 (00:35):
Show, Michael Ritter.
Speaker 1 (00:36):
You can find me on x at Michael five Ritter
or on Instagram at Michael Ridder five and you can
find the show on Instagram at Football Function two point Oh.
Thank you guys so much for tuning in on this episode.
If you haven't already, go subscribe over on Patreon gets
you all these episodes add free a little bit early
access as well, But if you are not a Patron subscriber,
(00:58):
this show is always going to be free, unavailable on
whichever podcasting platform you prefer. If you do decide to
listen on a podcasting platform, do us a favor and
leave us a five star rating, maybe give us a review.
All of those things go a long way to help
in the show, and obviously we certainly appreciate those things.
So what we're doing here on this episode, this is
going to be another post draft perspective kind of taking
(01:23):
a peek at what these teams look at post draft
and we're gonna look at it from a glass half
empty approach. And episode we did earlier in the month
was focused on the team's biggest strengths. So this time
we're going to look at it from the other side
of the coin. We are going to zero in on
all of these teams and their biggest weaknesses. Now, some
of these teams, you're gonna be reaching like you're splitting
(01:46):
hairs pretty much. In my personal opinion, there are a
handful of teams in the NFL that really have no
true like weaknesses right now. Can there be improvements? Obviously,
there's a salary cap. This isn't Madden where you can
just make whatever trade you want orchestrate a roster however
you see fit, whether it's you know, fifteen rookies out
(02:07):
of the twenty two starters or whatever. There's different ways
that you can build a team on Madden where it's easy.
It's not as easy in real life, and that's something
that every single team has to deal with. There's hurdles
that they have to go over every single offseason just
to fill the fifty three man roster and make sure
that they are capped compliant. So We're going to start
(02:30):
where we always start, with the AFC East. I just
kind of just want to preface it though, and kind
of let you guys know that, you know, we're gonna
do what we can to zero in on some of
these teams weaknesses. And obviously it's a subjective opinion. This
is just the way I see it, so bear with
me here. We are going to start with the Buffalo Bills,
and I had to go with the wide receiver group
slash secondary. Didn't really know which one to lean on here.
(02:52):
I mean, if you look at the secondary position, their
best player you can argue as their first round pick
this year, and mac Well Harston. But besides him, obviously
we know what Damar Hamlin is. Taylor Rapp came over
in free agency from the Rams a couple of years ago.
Christian Binford is someone that local Buffalo people are pretty
high on, or at least are a lot more familiar
(03:13):
with than maybe people are in the national media. And
then you got Toron Johnson on the other side. So
it's not necessarily something you look at and think, man,
you know, by default, it's almost like their weakest link
because you look at the linebacker position, Matt Milano. I'm
not going to call that a weak spot at all,
(03:34):
Like any position group that features Matt Milano can't possibly
be a weakness on your team. And then the defensive
line with the newly acquired Joey Bosa and Greg Russeau,
I believe we've made that their biggest strength in the
previous episode, So you can't really go I guess you
can't waiver, is what I'm trying to say. And if
(03:54):
you said that the defensive line was their biggest strength,
then clearly the secondary probably benefits from that, and because
of that, you have to think that maybe they're just
lesser by default. And like I said, this is a
team that is pretty damn good. They make deep playoff
pushes every year, so their weaknesses might not be the
same as your weaknesses. Like, just because the secondary is
(04:15):
the weakest link on the Buffalo Bills doesn't mean that
it would be the weakest link on other teams, if you.
Speaker 2 (04:21):
Catch my drift.
Speaker 1 (04:23):
But let's continue on here we'll talk about with another
or we'll talk about.
Speaker 2 (04:26):
Another AFC East team.
Speaker 1 (04:28):
This time we're gonna talk about the Miami Dolphins, And
I went with the offensive line here features Patrick Paul,
James Daniels, Aaron Brewer, Jonah their second round pick this year.
I'm not even gonna try to say that name, and
then Austin Jackson. So I mean, James Daniels is a
proven veteran.
Speaker 2 (04:47):
But other than that, you're.
Speaker 1 (04:48):
Really kind of reaching here whenever you're talking about you
know where this team is now. Obviously they're tied in
John new Smith. He overperformed last year as a Miami
Dolphin wide receiver position. We've already had dress with Tyreek
Hill and Jalen Waddell to a second by loa running back,
they have Devon a Chanin. They went and got Alexander Madison,
they drafted Ali Gordon, so they are pretty much set there,
(05:10):
you know, in the other position groups, and if you
just look at where they are on the defensive side
of the ball, clearly not going to be the secondary,
clearly not going to be the edge rushers of the
defensive line. Kind of similar to the Buffalo Bills. I
believe that was their biggest strength. But you know, for
the Dolphins case in their base three four defense, they
have a lot of talent spread around. You know, we
(05:31):
talked about Bradley Chubb, Jalen Phillips, Jordan Brooks, all those
guys are kind of in the linebacking core depending on
what personnel group they have, whether than their nickel defense.
If they're in like a base first down, second down
type of run stopping defense, you probably still keep Bradley
Chubb out there on the field because he's just a
vergatile defensive end slash outside linebacker that's able to be
(05:54):
pretty strong against the run. So they're kind of littered
with those type of players that are good against both.
They're more versatile, they're not they don't extremely celerate. It
just one thing, so kind of just by default, you know,
that's that's where we land here. With these teams that
are on paper pretty talented, you just kind of have
to roll with something. And with the New England Patriots,
(06:19):
I rolled with the offensive line until proven otherwise. They
made investments, right, They brought over Garrett Bradbury, they brought
Morgan Moses, they drafted Will Campbell, they already have Cole Strange.
So this is pretty much just a until proven otherwise thing.
And you know, I really didn't even look at any
other areas now, I mean, they went and got Milon Williams,
Christian Barmore was already there. Harold Landry come over. They
(06:41):
brought over Kyries Tonga in free agency from the Arizona Cardinals,
Robert Splane. I mean, they had a lot of money,
Carlton Davis in the back end to go along with
Jabill Peppers, Kyle Duggar.
Speaker 2 (06:50):
Christian Gonzalez.
Speaker 1 (06:52):
They've already been you know, pretty stout there or at least,
you know, in terms of whether their team has been
over the last few years. The secondary was surely never
the issues. And now they've made a lot of additions
on the other side, you know, getting Carlton Davis and
the other areas of the defense, like the linebacker position.
Having somebody like Robert Splane come in there, you know
he's going to be a tone setter. Obviously Mac Collins
Stefon Diggs. So the wide receiver position, which was really
(07:14):
hurting last year, got addressed. So did the linebacker group.
But I just think that I'm gonna need to see
the offensive line group, so I'm gonna need to see
them kind of put it on the field before I
just crowned them and you know, say that they out
of nowhere went from the worst pass protecting unit in
the league to a respectable one. With the New York Jets,
(07:37):
I went with the tight end position. I mean, all
the other groups have a lot of promise, they have
a lot of resources invested in them. I know, they
just been a second round pick on the tight end
Mason Taylor, you know here in the twenty twenty five draft.
They also drafted Jeremy Ruckert in twenty twenty two. I mean,
they have players, but clearly if you look at where
they are Breese Hall at running back, you could, you know,
(07:59):
possibly go Q quarterback, but I didn't really feel like
that was necessary at this point. Justin Fields has done
enough to warrant him higher on this specific exercise. Then
you know, guys like Mason Taylor and Jeremy Rutger. You know,
we're not talking about Sam Laporter or someone like that
at the tight end group, Like this is very much
a developmental position that we're going to see the Jets
(08:20):
hopefully try to work into their offense. But you know,
I guess there's really no telling. But that's where I
landed with the New York Jets. Let's take things over
to another division and let's see we'll talk about the
AFC West. We'll start with the Denver Broncos.
Speaker 2 (08:37):
And this is.
Speaker 1 (08:37):
Another one where I mean, you're gonna have to it's
a little bit of a reach. Like I really feel
like the Broncos, they don't have a whole lot of weaknesses,
but if you are going to go with one, I
went with the running back position because there's no true
stalwart there, Like there's no one there that a defensive
coordinator is going to look at and think, Okay, we're
(08:59):
really going to have to account to this guy or
account for this guy. That's not what you're thinking about
when you're playing the Denver Broncos, especially now that they
have Evan Ingram to go along with the passing attack
they had last year. They have a pretty over average
offensive line, above average offensive line. You add Everyan Ingram there,
I think that's going to make their passing game so
(09:19):
much better. So it's more so just like the pressure
is on the running back position to alleviate some of
the pressure that's going to be on the quarterback in
real time, you know, like actual pressure whenever the pass
rushes coming and defense is you know, pinning their ears
back to try to get after bow Nicks. A running back,
an effective running back can make life a hell of
(09:40):
a lot easier for that offense as a whole. Now,
let's look at the Kansas City Chiefs, another one that
I mean you're reaching here. You know, this is a
team that was in the Super Bowl. They won their
respective conference, so damn hard to do. But if I'm
going with any positional group on this team that I'm
going to look at and think, Okay, you know, needs
(10:01):
a little work, might be the secondary outside of Trim mcduffey.
I like what Trim McDuffie does. But other than that,
I mean, you know, it is a bunch of young
guys in there, which is okay, it's not like young
guys can't play or something like that, but it's just,
you know, when you look at Jalen Watson or Jalen Watson,
Jayden Hicks, Brian Cook, and Christian Fulton, who they just
brought over from the Los Angeles Chargers, not a whole
(10:23):
bunch of star power there. And McDuffie himself, as great
of a corner as he is, I don't think they're
you know, you're going to just feel thrilled having McDuffie
out there, you know, with no help in the back end.
You know, if teams are able to just attack him,
if he's guardened, like we just saw him super Bowlf,
he's guarden aj Brown, who's gonna stop DeVante Smith, who's
(10:45):
gonna guard Dallas Godert? And you know that Eagles passing attack.
So that's pretty much where I'm getting at here is
that McDuffie's a hell of a player. But when he's
the only player in that group that really moves the needle,
then it's like, all right, come on, guys, we gotta
get some improvements. Speaking of getting improvements, the Raiders really
really need some improvements at the wide receiver position. That's
(11:08):
where I landed on for their weakest position. No true
pass catchers. I mean, we're talking about Jack Beck, Trey Tucker,
Jacobe Myers, Jhonte Thornton, Colin Johnson. I mean, come on, guys,
what are we doing here? Luckily, there's gonna be a
couple talented wide receivers entering the NFL Draft next year,
and like we said, if there's any position that you need,
you'd prefer it to be wide receiver because there's always
(11:28):
going to be resources. There's always going to be a
talented class coming in. There's always going to be free
agents that are available that are cap casualties. There's always
going to be disgruntled wide receivers that want to get
traded midway through the season or as soon as the
season's over. So year in, year out, there's ways to
improve the wide receiver position, and I just.
Speaker 2 (11:46):
Need the Raiders to do that.
Speaker 1 (11:47):
I mean, look at what they already have at the
tight end position and the running back position. If they
can get that young wide receiver, like if they can
get their Drake London, similar to how the Falcons got
Bijeon and Kyle Pity And I know Kyle Pitts can't
even sniff Brock Powers Jockstrap at this point, but you
get what I'm saying. You spend high quality draft picks
(12:08):
on skill position players and you know eventually you're gonna
have a pretty solid nucleus. And I think that the
Raiders are kind of following our footsteps there. But let's
talk about the last team in this division, the Los
Angeles Chargers. And this is another one where I feel
like kind of sort of a little bit of a reach.
Chargers are always kind of put together well on paper.
(12:28):
But I went with the secondary slash interior. Defensive line,
decent as rushers, decent linebackers. The secondary though, that's I
mean outside of Derwin James, who's always kind of been
a question mark when you're talking about health availability, is
he going to be able to play a full seventeen
game season, which you know, bet the under usually whenever
(12:50):
you're talking about a Chargers player, that's just kind of
what we've grown to be accustomed to, is the injury
bug biting them year in year out. Whenever I look
at the Chargers, though, you know, I have to land
on the secondary, especially in this division. We talked about
the Raiders not having many passing or receiving weapons from
the wide receiver position. Brock Bowers will toast you, but
the other teams in this division, do you know. I
(13:12):
know that the Chiefs don't have the most star power
wide receivers like these days, but they have a you know,
offensive coordinator and Andy Reid and a quarterback in Patrick
Mahomes that it really doesn't matter who the receiver is.
They're going to make life hell on you and you're
going to have to really buckle up your chin strap
if you plan on stopping those guys.
Speaker 2 (13:31):
So just I guess with all that.
Speaker 1 (13:34):
Being said, the Chargers are going to need more secondary help,
but they want to actually be a threat in this division.
Another division we will shift over to is the AFC North,
and I'm going to talk about the Baltimore Ravens. And
this is one of the best teams in the league.
Another major reach here if we're talking about a weakness.
But I landed on the offensive line. I mean, yeah,
they got Linderbaum and Ronnie Stanley, but Andrew Vorhees at
(13:57):
injury questions coming out, He's plugged in there, left guard
Daniel Fale and then Roger Rosengarten, who is very well
known for him calling himself a no One or a
nobody talking to Miles Garrett. So yeah, I mean, if
I'm going any weaknesses on the Baltimore Ravens, they could
possibly get slight improvements on the offensive line.
Speaker 2 (14:19):
But again, this isn't Madden. You can't just think, you know,
I'm not happy with this guy.
Speaker 1 (14:24):
Maybe I should go add you know, Quentin Nelson, Go
submit a trade for Quentin Nelson or Chris lin Strummer,
one of the more talented offensive linemen.
Speaker 2 (14:36):
That's just not the way it works.
Speaker 1 (14:39):
Moving over to the Cincinnati Bengals here we'll talk about
the secondary. That's why I landed on Dax Hill, Can
Taylor Bridge, you know, Stone Jordan Battle, DJ Turner. The
main reason why is because I like what I see
from Logan Wilson. They did just lose Jermaine Pratt as
a linebacker, but they've replaced him with Demetrius Knight Junior,
who was the second round pick this year. On paper,
(15:00):
they have Trey Hendrickson, they have BJ Hill, they have
Joseph a Psi. So clearly, you know, obviously Simon County,
you know, the twenty three third round pick, and Miles
Murphy twenty twenty five first round pick, and Shamar Stewart,
who where the hell is he at?
Speaker 2 (15:15):
Right?
Speaker 1 (15:16):
But you know, you look at one of these teams
that you know they didn't have, you know, a Jermaine
Pratt get cut as a post June one or whatever,
and they don't have holdouts. It's the secondary, Like what
you see is what you give. This is the best
they're gonna put out there this year, and it better
be enough. Whenever you talk about going up against some
of the teams in the AFC, and at the end
(15:37):
of the day, most of the time just hasn't really
been enough. If there's ever a game that you look
at and the Bengals are down or the Bengals didn't win,
it's not because the offense didn't show up or didn't
roll out of bed that morning. It's probably because they
couldn't stop a nosebleed. And having a secondary like this
is a one way ticket to just that keeping it
(15:57):
in state.
Speaker 2 (15:57):
Going from Cincinnati to.
Speaker 1 (15:59):
Cleveland, we will talk about the Cleveland Browns, and I
went a linebacker until proven otherwise. Obviously we know what's
going on with Jeremiah Abusu Corromoa on the pup list.
He's not going to play in the twenty twenty five season.
They drafted Carson A. Swessinger, and I think out of
UCLA is the second rounder in twenty twenty five. They
(16:19):
have Jordan Hicks. It's more so just I need to
see it. You know. It's kind of like the same
thing with the Patriots offensive line. Until proven otherwise, this
is the biggest weakness on the team. And you can
throw quarterback in there too, But I feel like they've
made those I guess investments. You look at bringing back
Joe Flacco, who's had success in this scheme, making two
draft picks, and Shouldar Sanders and Dylan Gabriel how it happened.
(16:43):
People are like, you know, kind of suck. Both of
the guys were sliding. People were pretty much anyone could
have drafted Shouldar. But if you would have told Browns
fans or anyone before the draft, like somehow someway, the
Browns are gonna end up with Dylan Gabriel and Shouldar Sanders,
you can't tell me it doesn't increase the percentages or
the likelihood that they found their franchise quarterback. I mean,
(17:05):
two is better than one, no matter how you slice it,
and it just increases your odds. It gives you more
swings of the bat, gives you a chance to hit it.
And that's just kind of where I'm at with the Browns.
Is linebacker, possibly quarterback, but again, you know it's really
just until proven otherwise. Pittsburgh Steelers another very talented team.
(17:26):
When traded for DK Metcalf, they have Robert Woods Calvin
Austin at the wide receiver position. Friar moves in Darnell
Washington at the tight end position, Aaron Rodgers, who's probably
going to finish his career in you know, Pittsburgh Steeler
black and Yellow. So I landed on the running back position.
Jalen Warren is officially their starter. They do have Caleb
(17:46):
Johnson who they drafted in the third round, Kenneth gainwell
as well from Philly Trace Sermons. So it is quote
unquote deep, but it's not what.
Speaker 2 (17:55):
We're used to.
Speaker 1 (17:56):
I mean, you know, when I think about the Pittsburgh Steelers,
I'm thinking about Derme Bettetts, I'm thinking about fast Willie Parker,
I'm thinking about Le'Veon Bell obviously, James Connor. Like they've
always had hard nose running back that can carry the load.
And you know, even Najie Harris early in his career,
he was getting a lot of touches, but I don't
think he ever reached the ceiling or the expectations that
Steelers fans had for him. So, you know, I'm looking
(18:19):
at the running back position as an area on a
very talented team.
Speaker 2 (18:23):
That could use an upgrade.
Speaker 1 (18:25):
And you want to talk about, you know, receiver being
easy to upgrade, running back is the easiest one to upgrade.
Speaker 2 (18:30):
But I just think that.
Speaker 1 (18:31):
I mean that's including Cordell Patterson too. They it's not
like they have no one. It's just, you know, if
we're if we have to identify a weakness on a team,
I'm looking at it. I'm just thinking, Man, if the
Steelers had a you know, like a big name running back,
like if they had someone that a defense had to
account for, it would probably make Aaron Rodgers' life a
(18:51):
lot easier. That's kind of what we saw happen with
the Jets. That running game was just non existent, and it,
you know, really ended up biding them in the ass.
Let's close out the AFC talking about well, first things first,
we can go ahead and get this out of the way. Texans, Colts, Jags.
All three of these teams their biggest weakness is the
(19:13):
offensive line. So we can save some time by just
digging in here and going really into detail. All these
teams need some improvements on the offensive line. Now. I
will give the Texans credit. They went out and got
Cam Robinson and Laken Tominson. They do have Titus Howard,
but when you look at everything else they have on
that offense, especially you know the pairing of Joe Mixon
and Nick Chubb, which was a fantasy of mine back
(19:34):
in you know, twenty eighteen, you talk about the Rose
Bowl Georgia versus OU. Both teams had very good running
back duos. Over At Georgia they had Sony Michelle and
Nick Chubb. Oklahoma had some LJP Ryan and Joe Mixon
obviously two of the best running back tandems in the
league that year or in the.
Speaker 2 (19:51):
Entire nation, I should say that year.
Speaker 1 (19:53):
And I just remember whether it was privately or saying
it to k Lob or someone you know around that time. Man,
you know, as great as P. Ryan is, as great
as Sony Michelle is, can you imagine a backfield that
had Nick Chubb and Joe Mixon And the fact that
the Texans have that now.
Speaker 2 (20:10):
I think that's pretty damn cool.
Speaker 1 (20:12):
And obviously their defense is pretty tam good. And their
defensive line definitely is in the knee. Let's talk about
you know, Fotacasi, Daniel Hunter, Will Anderson, Tim Settle, and
then obviously Christian Harris as he's Al Shier, Henry Toto,
Derek Stingley, they brought over CJ. Gartoner Johnson, Like, yeah,
the secondary is definitely or anywhere on the defense is
(20:32):
not a need for.
Speaker 2 (20:34):
The Houston Texans.
Speaker 1 (20:35):
So we talked about the offensive line being their biggest spot,
and as crazy as it is, it's the same thing
for the Colts. Outside of Quentin Nelson. I mean, yeah,
they had Braden Smith, who was an eighteen or twenty
eighteen second round pick, so him and Quentin Nelson have
been strong for the better part of six seven years
for the Indianapolis Colts. But outside of that, man, it
is a bunch of fart noises and they really need
(20:55):
to improve this if the offense is gonna take a
next step, specifically Anthony Richardson or Daniel Jones, whichever guy
is going to be you know, taking the snaps there.
And we talked about the Jacksonville Jaguars. It's pretty much
where they are as well. There's no big time players
there that I mean, they went out and got a
new shiny toy and Travis Hunter, Travis et and Tanks
bigbe have already been one of the better running back
(21:17):
duos in the league. Trevor Lawrence, hoping he can continue
to improve defense, has definitely got strengths all over the field.
So I just you know, I had to land on
the offensive line for all three of those teams. And
then the Tennessee Titans, where we are with them is
the tight end position, I mean wide receivers.
Speaker 2 (21:35):
Yeah, a lot of these guys are.
Speaker 1 (21:36):
Maybe a little bit past their prime, some of them anyways.
But they do have for Streppo, who has chemistry with
the quarterback already and he's not even going to be
playing as much as guys like Tyler Lockett, Calvin Ridley,
and Van Jefferson. So the Tennessee Titans, I mean tight end,
they have nobody, Like, they really don't have anybody, I
mean Gunner Helm, Josh Wiley, Chiga, Kunkwo.
Speaker 2 (21:59):
I mean is that really?
Speaker 1 (22:00):
Is that really what you're want to go into the
season with. They may not have a choice unless they
want to call up the Falcons for Kyle Pitts. Ok, Hey,
you know we'll take your call for damn sure, see
what you want to offer. Let's move over to the
NSC side of things. Start with the Merrick team the
dal cab Boys, and this is another one kind of
(22:21):
a reach. Cowboys got a damn good team on paper,
I promise you, like there's no glaring holes on this team.
At all, very talented roster, and they've made improvements and
investments all over the defensive side of the ball. I
look at the tight end position, I mean, Jake Ferguson,
Luke Schuenmaker. Yes, they're serviceable. If serviceable is what you want,
then you got it. Congratulations. But if you want your
(22:43):
franchise quarterback who gets way too much criticism, who just
got a nice little shiny wide receiver, if you want
to really make life hell for defenses, upgrading the tight
end position would be a very phenomenal or phenomenal move.
And it's weird talking about it back to back, you know,
talking about the Tie and obviously now the Cowboys. But hey,
(23:03):
I don't know if there's gonna be another tight end
that pops up here. Nope, that was the last one.
So any tight end fans out there, hopefully you enjoyed that.
Philadelphia Eagles no true weakness. You're nitpicking. I am not
even going to say that there's a weakness because they
really don't have one. What is it the cornerback position
because they lost Darius Slave Do you not remember who
they just drafted in Cooper Dejini and quinia On Mitchell like, obviously,
(23:24):
this team has no weaknesses. They are built the right way,
and bravo to everybody involved. It's not just a Howie
Roseman thing. There's a lot of people that help him out.
There's a lot of people that he calls and you know,
gets insight from about where he's taking this team and this, that,
and third, the Eagles have no true weaknesses, so you
have to give them credit there. And let's talk about
(23:44):
the New York Giants. I went with the offensive line
because of everything else that they brought to this team,
maybe running back, but they did just draft Cam Scataboos,
so let's go ahead and see what he does. First
things first, wearing that number forty four, there's a chance
he could be a staple for this New York Giants team.
But a offensive line Andrew Thomas is really the only
guy that I'm looking at and thinking, man, hell yeah,
I mean John Michael Schmidz was a fan of him
(24:06):
coming out of college. The outside of that, they I mean,
we just talked about the Eagles, how big the strength
is for their defensive line, Like the Giants offensive line
going against the Eagles, that's just an absolutely crazy mismatch.
The final team in the NFC East is the Washington Commanders,
another team that's quietly been you know, built pretty quickly.
(24:30):
And I went with the secondary.
Speaker 2 (24:31):
Just because.
Speaker 1 (24:34):
I mean, I like Louvu, I like what Wagner does
in this defense, Doranson Strong, Javon Kinlaw, Dietrich Weiss, Deron Payne,
Jacob Martin obviously, and Johnny Newton. They did bring over
Eddie Goldman as well, who can play nose tackle. He
just can occupy space there. They do have depth on
the defensive line. The secondary is the one area where
I'm like, man, I kind of saw Michael Pennix kind
(24:58):
of obvious. So he struggled at the beginning of that game,
but towards the end, once he kind of got his
feet set in his first primetime game on the road,
he was able to pretty much do whatever he wanted
through the air against this Commander's defense. And you know,
I know they didn't have Marshaun Lattimore of that game,
but it's still just, you know, with where I want
to see the Commanders go, with the way that the
(25:20):
rest of their team is kind of constructed, the secondary,
I just feel like it is a little bit behind.
It's almost like if you have like a PE class
or something like that, and you're the pe teacher and
you're watching all the kids make the laps around the track,
and all of them are you know, kind of grouped up,
and then out of nowhere, there's just like four or
five kids that are about ten fifteen yards behind, just
(25:41):
kind of running behind the pack. That's what the Commander's
secondary is in terms of this team just you know,
kind of really skyrocketing to the top of the NFL.
But the next division we will shift over to is
the NFC West. We'll start with the Arizona Cardinals. This
is a team, you know, we talked about reaching like
you don't got to between talking about the Cardinals. There
(26:01):
are holes really everywhere, specifically offensive line depth, cornerback depth,
I mean all over the place. This team is not
built to compete right away. I think that, you know,
if Marvin Harrison Junior can turn into Jamar Chase and
we see Kyler Murray look like Oklahoma Sooners or Kyler Murray,
then yeah, they're gonna be cooking with gas. But this
(26:22):
team needs a lot of help and I'm probably not
gonna pick them to win a lot of games next year.
The Rams, I went with offensive line and off ball linebacker.
Let's see here, Yeah, I mean, offensive line is a wreck.
You could just really just zero in there on the
offensive line, but off ballbacker Troy Reider, Omar Spates.
Speaker 2 (26:46):
They did bring in natean Landman.
Speaker 1 (26:49):
But still in this specific day and age in football,
linebackers are asked to cover and linemkers are asked to
do a lot of things. They have to be multifaceted,
and if they're not, they're probably not gonna last long.
In the NFL San Francisco forty nine ers, I went
with offensive line and secondary. I'm not too concerned with
the offensive line. Obviously they have silverback Trent Williams still there.
(27:10):
And I just believe in the scheme of Kyle Shanahan,
Like you're never gonna hear me sit here and criticize
Kyle Shanahan and think, oh, man, he doesn't know what
he's doing. Nah, he knows what he's doing. Sometimes a
roster just gets, you know, gets the better of him.
He's been so damn good year in year out that
every now and then you know you're not gonna live
up to those high expectations. Seattle Seahawks, I went interior
(27:35):
offensive line. Hopefully Gray Zabel can go ahead and fix
that a little bit. But I also went with off
ball linebacker.
Speaker 2 (27:41):
It's just an.
Speaker 1 (27:42):
Area that the best Seahawks defenses have always had good
linebackers Tyrese Knight and Ernest Jones the fourth that's what
we're cooking with there. It's not nearly enough, especially if
you're gonna stop the run in the division that you're in.
And then obviously, if you want to advance in the playoffs,
like if you want to not get cooked, if you
(28:04):
want to see Sam Darnold thrive in his first year
as a Seattle Seahawks, take care of the interior offensive line,
and then obviously, you know, you want your defense to
be able to hold up their own as well. But
that takes us to the NFC North. We're gonna start
with the Chicago Bears. I want the secondary. They're good,
but they underperformed Like last year, there was no reason
(28:25):
for the Bears secondary to be as bad as it was,
So I'm definitely going to be or going to need,
you know, a lot of improvement there. And it's kind
of the same thing where we talked about the AFC South,
where the Texans, Colts, and Jags all had offensive line
as their biggest weakness. It's kind of the same thing
with secondary here in the NFC North Bears, who we
just talked about, but I also want Packers and Vikings.
(28:50):
The Packers just lost jay r Alexander, and their secondary
was a little suspect even with jay Air in.
Speaker 2 (28:55):
And out of the lineup. And then you look at
the Vikings.
Speaker 1 (28:59):
They completely remodeled their defensive line, and you know, we've
already seen them get production out of guys like Ivan
Pace and other linebackers that have kind of filled in
there for this team. But you look at the secondary,
that's where we look at him. We're like, all right,
the Vikings are gonna be able to win some shootouts,
but we're gonna need them to.
Speaker 2 (29:21):
I guess, tighten up the belt a little bit.
Speaker 1 (29:23):
I mean, Harrison Smith probably entering his last season one
of them. But outside of that, I mean, you're really
asking undrafted free agents to kind of step out there
and play. I mean, Bira Murphy undrafted or I should
say unrestricted free agent. But Isaiah Rogers, like, you're counting
on a lot of guys that you know, really haven't
really proved themselves in the league. So that's the one
(29:44):
area where I do have a little bit of concern.
And then you talk about the Detroit Lions, similar to
the Philadelphia Eagles, there are no true weaknesses here, Like
this is the one where I'm like, on paper, the
Lions have no true weakness. They were built the right way,
as we saw them getting the number one seed. I
know they got bested by the Washington Commanders, but that's
just the way the cookie crumbles sometimes. Man, Like, you're
not gonna win every single game. You're gonna run into
(30:05):
some talented teams. You're gonna run into some buzzsaws from
time to time. And that just so happened to happen
to the number one seed lines. I mean it happened
to the Falcons a couple of times. The Packers came
into our house, wax that ass, I mean, laid it
on us, and we deserved it. You know, you don't
take a team serious enough, you don't prepare properly, they
will go into your house and they will absolutely destroy
(30:28):
you on the way to capturing their what fourth Lombardi Trophy.
Speaker 2 (30:32):
Yeah, that was that was a bad year. To be
a Falcons fan.
Speaker 1 (30:34):
Speaking of being a Falcons fan, let's move over to
the NFC South, our final division here and until'll proven otherwise.
This is the pass rush and it will always be
the pass rush for the Falcons. This needs to be addressed.
They addressed it two first round picks, but and signed
Leonard Floyd. Hopefully it can turn to production and not
(30:55):
just you know, a curse, because there's been Falcons defensive
pass rushers that.
Speaker 2 (30:58):
We've brought in.
Speaker 1 (30:59):
You know that they were good on their previous team
and they come and put on the Falcons uniform and
it's like their cursed or something. Just something happens where
shit don't go right. But we need it to change.
Speaker 2 (31:11):
We need that to be.
Speaker 1 (31:12):
The case this go around. Carolina Panthers or the next
team we'll talk about. I went with off ball linebacker
Josie Jewel and Trevin Wallace. That's what you're trotting out there.
And the last time we saw the Panthers defense, they
beat the Falcons just team to team, but they gave
up thirty eight points and I know they won forty
four to thirty eight, like you've scored more than the opponent.
(31:34):
And that is all that matters at the end of
the day. But if you really take a deep, deep,
deep look into it, you would have seen that there
was a lot of flaws in that Panthers defense, and
linebacker position was certainly one of them. Saints, I went
with quarterback. I mean, whenever you're having a quarterback quarterback
battle with Tyler Shook, Spencer Rattler, and Jake Hayner. As
(31:58):
a Falcons fan, chef's kiss like, I'm tuning into this.
I wish they had hard knocks this year just so
we could watch and get a real up close and
personal look at this debacle that's going on there in
New Orleans. But the last team we'll talk about the
reigning NFC NFC South champion Tampa Bay Buccaneers, And I'm
going with will linebacker. Right now, they have Savrotia Dennis
(32:23):
I believe is his name slotted in this position here
at the will linebacker to complement Levonte David.
Speaker 2 (32:31):
You know, they've tried guys like Devin White.
Speaker 1 (32:34):
They just brought in Dion Jones, former Falcon to go
play in the division. I think it's like his third
team in the NFC South that he's played for He's
bounced around the league quite a bit here lately, but
I just know that the Buccaneers they played better whenever
Levante David has a running mate. I know, for a
long time there was Kawant Alexander and you know, Lavonte David.
(32:56):
He's been playing since twenty twelve, so he doesn't have
a whole lot of years left. So not only do
you need an off ball linebacker that can compliment him,
but sooner or later you're gonna need an off ball
linebacker that can replace him. So I just feel like
that's a very important position that the Buccaneers should address,
probably as soon as possible. But that does it for
me here, guys, thank you so much, Like I can't
(33:16):
thank you guys enough for everything, all the loyal supporters
that come back that listen to the show, because believe
it or not, people listen to the show. It isn't
a mind blowing number.
Speaker 2 (33:28):
Some days.
Speaker 1 (33:28):
It is, like I'll be honest, like there's been times
where I've been extremely proud of what I've seen just
looking at the looking at the stats. You know, the
one time I got an email that said, hey, like
your show was I think it was top fifty or
something like that. I need to go back and look
at exactly what it said. But we were ranked very
highly in India as like the football podcast like that.
(33:53):
We were downloaded a lot in India, and the amount
of states, the amount of countries that we've been downloaded
in always blows my mind. You know, we had our
most downloaded day just May tenth, like a little bit
over a month ago in the five years of the show.
So I'm not saying that the show doesn't have a
(34:14):
lot of listeners, because you know, your definition of a
lot might be different than somebody else's definition of a lot,
or of.
Speaker 2 (34:20):
A lot like in some areas.
Speaker 1 (34:22):
This show has already surpassed the expectations that I had.
But I do know that there are people out there
that consider this show and what we do not a
success or just not interesting, which is fine. That's everyone's opinion.
People are entitled to their own opinion, and they don't
have to like the show. They don't have to love
(34:42):
the show, they don't have to listen to the show
at all. But for those of you that do, those
of you that have been loyal supporters for as long
as you have been, I cannot thank you enough, forever
indebted to you, and I promise someday I am going
to make it up to you, one way or another.
I got some pretty big things planned, but it's all
about getting the show on the track, making sure that
the wheels are rolling so we can get to the
summer and get us to our fifth regular season here
(35:05):
in the football function history. So thank you guys so much.
Have a damn good rest of your week, while passionately
in the direction of your dreams, and we'll talk to
you soon.
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