Speaker 1: Welcome to NFL Daily, where we're thinking it's time for
Speaker 1: a quarterback change. I'm Greg Rosenthal here in my garage,
Speaker 1: joined by my friend Nick Shook, who just wrote up
Speaker 1: a double header's worth of games on Monday night football.
Speaker 1: Shook described to me your experience with Vikings, Bears and
Speaker 1: Falcons Raiders gross.
Speaker 2: The football was gross. It was entertaining at times, but
Speaker 2: it was gross.
Speaker 1: It was It was a weird late season pair of
Speaker 1: games where you were watching the four teams playing, and
Speaker 1: you saw one team that has a chance, a real
Speaker 1: chance to be the number one seed in the NFC,
Speaker 1: one of the stories of the year, and then you
Speaker 1: just saw three other teams. All right, let's start with
Speaker 1: two others of those teams, because I think the most
Speaker 1: interesting story of the night actually happened in Las Vegas.
Speaker 3: Two seconds laft final play of the game, Ritter all
Speaker 3: straight drop now up in the pocket, gonna hang it
Speaker 3: for the inZone and it is intercepted by Loud of
Speaker 3: the end of the game. Holy smokes your hearts and
Speaker 3: your throat. When Ridder throws it in the in zone
Speaker 3: and Jesse Bates has come away with the interception.
Speaker 1: The ball in interception that's the.
Speaker 2: End of the game.
Speaker 1: Of course, it was Jesse Bates who got the game
Speaker 1: winning play. That's what Jesse Bates does. Falcons win fifteen
Speaker 1: to nine. That was West Durham on w z g C,
Speaker 1: and what you could hear there was a sigh relief,
Speaker 1: not just from mister Durham, but from Kirk Cousins, from
Speaker 1: Raheem Morris. The embarrassment that would have come from losing
Speaker 1: to Desmond Rider. Scoring two touchdowns in the last three
Speaker 1: minutes of a game you were leading fifteen to three
Speaker 1: but just slipped awful on offense throughout would have been
Speaker 1: enough to power sports talk radio in Atlanta for a
Speaker 1: couple of weeks. Nick, I wasn't expecting to lead with
Speaker 1: this game. But I think the kirk Cousins situation is
Speaker 1: at such a code red that even though they won
Speaker 1: the game, I really am thinking they're going to bench
Speaker 1: Kirk Cousins, or they should bench Kirk Cousins. I'm actually
Speaker 1: feeling like it may happen. What was your takeaway just
Speaker 1: watching him play tonight against the Raiders.
Speaker 2: He looked like he has for most of the last month,
Speaker 2: which is a stretch in which he's thrown zero touchdowns
Speaker 2: and eight interceptions entering tonight, and he doesn't look comfortable.
Speaker 2: He looks hesitant. He looks like the pass rush, which
Speaker 2: has been in his face a lot this year, has
Speaker 2: started to mess with him mentally. His passes are not
Speaker 2: coming out with quite a month, quite as much zip
Speaker 2: as they did before. A lot of downward trajectory passes.
Speaker 2: Just doesn't look like a quarterback who feels as if
Speaker 2: or plays as if he commands the salary that he
Speaker 2: does or that he should be out there. And for
Speaker 2: a Falcons team that was very much still in the
Speaker 2: race in the NFC South, I don't think that they
Speaker 2: can waste any more time. I think we talked about
Speaker 2: this two weeks ago on our Sunday recap show, in
Speaker 2: which we basically agreed at the time that hey, he's
Speaker 2: not helping them, he's hurting them. And they won the
Speaker 2: game tonight, but it wasn't because of him, say, for
Speaker 2: one pass to Drake London. I mean, there was a
Speaker 2: lot left to be desired, including the fact that they
Speaker 2: trust him to throw on third down when they could
Speaker 2: have ran the ball and drained forty more seconds off
Speaker 2: the clock. Because you know, as I've often said, the
Speaker 2: one thing you can't afford to do is give Desmond
Speaker 2: Riddard a minute fifty to go the length of the field.
Speaker 2: And they did.
Speaker 1: They they got in position to throw two not quite
Speaker 1: hail Mary's from the thirty. You're right, they could have
Speaker 1: run the ball. I was actually surprised they let Kirk
Speaker 1: Cousins throw the ball. I believe it was what a
Speaker 1: third and nine their past midfield. The first down wins
Speaker 1: the game, but you're under two minutes to go. The
Speaker 1: Raiders don't have any timeouts. If you run the ball
Speaker 1: takes it down to about one twenty. And one of
Speaker 1: the reasons I thought they would just run the ball
Speaker 1: there is they didn't let Kirk Cousins do that much
Speaker 1: throughout the final three quarters of this game. For one
Speaker 1: hundred and twelve yards. He went eleven of seventeen. He
Speaker 1: took three sacks against the Raiders in the first half
Speaker 1: of this game. And yeah, the pressure was in his face,
Speaker 1: but a lot of it, and Troy Aikman, I mean,
Speaker 1: rather Dan Orlovsky and Lewis Ridick were pointing it out
Speaker 1: throughout the broadcast. He was just late and on that
Speaker 1: play where they did trust him, where they said, you
Speaker 1: know what you are, our franchise quarterback. If you were
Speaker 1: playing at a normal level, we would let you throw
Speaker 1: this ball. He was a beat late and that ball
Speaker 1: could have easily been intercepted. And that play was what
Speaker 1: put me over the top that I think a change
Speaker 1: is coming now. It's stupid to make predictions on a
Speaker 1: Monday night podcast. I put this out there on Blue
Speaker 1: Sky and everyone pushes back and just says it's so
Speaker 1: hard to get a rookie up to speed. And Charles McDonald,
Speaker 1: who's a Falcons fan, one of the best writers podcasters
Speaker 1: out there, is like, Falcons would never do it. They're
Speaker 1: too afraid. And I get that, but I felt a
Speaker 1: little better after listening to Raheem Morris after the game.
Speaker 1: Here he is answering a couple questions about Cousins.
Speaker 4: He's got to play better, and you know, obviously you
Speaker 4: got to go back, you got to be to look
Speaker 4: at everything. But you know, he wants to play better.
Speaker 4: He's got to play better. We got to find a
Speaker 4: way to get him to play better. And obviously we'll
Speaker 4: get to work tomorrow. That's a part of our process, right.
Speaker 4: You go, you look at the tape, you review with
Speaker 4: the people that needs to be reviewed with. You know,
Speaker 4: we get all the coordinators the room, we'll talk with everybody,
Speaker 4: and we got to play better at the quarterback position.
Speaker 1: She'll part b to that.
Speaker 3: If he can't, are you prepared to replace him with
Speaker 3: Michael Pennich.
Speaker 4: You know, we got everybody in our roster for a reason, right,
Speaker 4: We got so much to get better at. And like,
Speaker 4: those things will always be discussed. That's just the nature
Speaker 4: of the Beast and football. It's just so heavily talked
Speaker 4: about it at the quarterback position because there's only one
Speaker 4: guy out there, you know, so like for us man
Speaker 4: our mentally, he's the find a way to win the
Speaker 4: next game. That's just the mentality that we're going to have.
Speaker 1: I'm surprised people are making a bigger deal about this.
Speaker 1: I mean, we draft guys for a reason. He was
Speaker 1: pretty definitive that Kirk's our guy after the last couple
Speaker 1: of weeks. Yeah, and that to me spoke differently. Now
Speaker 1: he's in the emotion of the moment and maybe once
Speaker 1: he gets back and watches the tape, and the tape's
Speaker 1: not gonna be kind. But once he realized he has
Speaker 1: to start game planning. Maybe he feels different, but that
Speaker 1: to me was Raheem Morris leaving the door wide open
Speaker 1: to go to Michael Pennox here at seven and seven,
Speaker 1: even though they're in the playoff race only one game back.
Speaker 2: It's a drastic change in tone from what he sounded
Speaker 2: like two weeks ago, which is when somebody presented that possibility,
Speaker 2: he quickly shut it down and was like, no, course,
Speaker 2: curse our quarterback. We're not thinking about that now. He
Speaker 2: like you said, he's leaving the door wide open, and
Speaker 2: rightfully so. Her cousins finished eleven of seventeen for one
Speaker 2: hundred and twelve yards, a touchdown and a pick tonight,
Speaker 2: and it could have been worse. It could have been
Speaker 2: two picks. It could have been much worse. And that's
Speaker 2: already a bad line. That's not a guy that you
Speaker 2: pay the amount of money that they're paying him. And
Speaker 2: they are in a playoff race. They have to seize
Speaker 2: this opportunity while they have it now. Their offensive play
Speaker 2: calling not really inspired. B Jon Robinson had a really
Speaker 2: nice night, which kind of kept them afloat offensively, but
Speaker 2: they can't finish drives. They haven't finished drives for weeks
Speaker 2: and it starts at quarterback. It's not hard to see
Speaker 2: the average eye, the average football fan can see what's
Speaker 2: going on. Kirk Cousins is not playing up to a
Speaker 2: starting quarterback standard, much less a franchise quarterback standard. And
Speaker 2: with the playoffs on the line, you have to consider
Speaker 2: all options so as to not waste these last three
Speaker 2: weeks with an opportunity in front of you.
Speaker 1: So I'm counting. They had seven possessions in the second half.
Speaker 1: I mean that was the Raiders. Sorry they yeah, they
Speaker 1: got seven as well. They got six points out of it.
Speaker 1: The two drives that they got went for fifteen yards
Speaker 1: in twenty three yards. If you did not watch this game,
Speaker 1: and I don't blame you, if you didn't, you wouldn't
Speaker 1: realize that the Falcons defense and special teams were completely dominant.
Speaker 1: They blocked two plunts in the game, setting Falcons up
Speaker 1: in plus territory. The one touchdown came in plus territory
Speaker 1: that the block punt set up. They blocked an extra point.
Speaker 1: The Falcons defense had four sacks. The Falcons defense forced
Speaker 1: two turnovers. The Falcons defense scored two points with the safety.
Speaker 1: It was all Falcons defense, and that's what I'm talking
Speaker 1: about and Raheem Morris knows that. And you said this
Speaker 1: performance has been coming for weeks in terms of the
Speaker 1: touchdown interception. That's right. But I actually understood them starting
Speaker 1: him in this game because I thought last week he
Speaker 1: played quarterback. He looked like Kirk Cousins, like Troy Aikman said,
Speaker 1: like he was making quick decisions. He pushed the ball
Speaker 1: down the field. He threw two awful interceptions, but they
Speaker 1: were moving the ball up and down the field, and
Speaker 1: he had a number of really good throws today tonight
Speaker 1: he played scared. This was actually his worst game of
Speaker 1: the season by far in terms of EPA per play
Speaker 1: and success rate. Their success rate was way worse than
Speaker 1: Desmond Ridder and the Raiders who have no talent. And
Speaker 1: Riddard just got there and looked terrible and was actually
Speaker 1: under more pressure than Kirk Cousins was in this game,
Speaker 1: and those sacks were like knocking them back into farther
Speaker 1: field goal range. It was just rough. And it's not
Speaker 1: even about just making the playoffs. Shook because I don't
Speaker 1: think they're going to make the playoffs. It's like, what
Speaker 1: do we stand for? Are we trying to do our
Speaker 1: best to win games. We have this kid. We got
Speaker 1: the Giants next week, Washington and Carolina, like they could
Speaker 1: win all three of those games and hope the Bucks
Speaker 1: stub their toe. But either way, Mike Tomlin says, don
Speaker 1: don't live in your fears. What would Mike Tomlin do,
Speaker 1: Nick Schuck, Mike Tomlin would make the tough decision. He
Speaker 1: would go to Russell Wilson. He would have a feel
Speaker 1: of his team that also on the outside didn't have
Speaker 1: like go to Michael Pennox.
Speaker 2: Yeah, I mean, I do think about that. The Tomlin
Speaker 2: example is actually kind of good because Tomlin did the reverse.
Speaker 2: He went from a younger guy to eveter at a
Speaker 2: time when they didn't need to, when they were winning
Speaker 2: football games, but he felt like it was the time
Speaker 2: to figure out what they had and it's paid off
Speaker 2: for them for the large part. This would be the opposite.
Speaker 2: This would be going from a veteran to a rookie
Speaker 2: in a key spot. But like Raheem said, you draft
Speaker 2: guys for a reason. You drafted Michael PENNOCKX where you
Speaker 2: drafted him above where you probably thought most people thought
Speaker 2: he was going to get drafted because of the long
Speaker 2: term plan and the curiosity of can he be a
Speaker 2: guy who helps us out quicker than we think. Yeah,
Speaker 2: we just gave Kirk because all this money, but he's
Speaker 2: also coming off an achilles injury. He's not mobile. He's
Speaker 2: scrambled to night for like the second time this year.
Speaker 2: It didn't look good. It looked like Tom Brady when
Speaker 2: he was running back in the day and not like
Speaker 2: young Tom Brady, older Tom Brady. And so you come
Speaker 2: to this point now where it's like, why did we
Speaker 2: spend that pick if we're just gonna let him not
Speaker 2: really rot on the bench, but just sit there and
Speaker 2: watch us as we continue to struggle. I think the
Speaker 2: frustrations is tonight match what you're saying, the boiling point,
Speaker 2: it's now boiling over because they know they have hard
Speaker 2: evidence that Kirk Cousins is not powering their offense to
Speaker 2: a victory. Like they had needed Bjon Robinson to go
Speaker 2: for one twenty five to night to be there, They
Speaker 2: needed the defense to block two punts and pick off
Speaker 2: Desmond Ridder once and then twice the end of the game.
Speaker 2: And even then they shouldn't have even been in that spot
Speaker 2: if they had a quarterback who was capable of finishing
Speaker 2: a game, but they don't. That's not a winning football team.
Speaker 2: And if you feel like your defense is playing well enough,
Speaker 2: which it is, and your defense has been better in
Speaker 2: the pass rush in the last few weeks, then you
Speaker 2: need to have you know, equal production the offensive side
Speaker 2: from Kirk Cousins. They're just not getting it.
Speaker 1: And thank you for pointing out Bajohn, who went for
Speaker 1: one hundred twenty five yards on the ground tonight has
Speaker 1: looked fantastic. Went over a thousand rushing yards. Algier goes
Speaker 1: for forty three, so they run for one sixty seven
Speaker 1: one sixty eight. Rather, Kirk Cousins did not add to
Speaker 1: the rushing total because even though he had that scramble,
Speaker 1: had a couple. Did he have Neil downs, No, but
Speaker 1: he somehow yet.
Speaker 2: To recover like a botch snap at one time.
Speaker 1: Four right, that was very bad snap. So he ended
Speaker 1: up with zero yards on three carries, which gives him
Speaker 1: the hilarious stat line on the season, twenty three rushes
Speaker 1: zero yards, not negative, not one. That's hard to do.
Speaker 1: I know there's a lot of meal downs in there,
Speaker 1: but twenty three rushes zero yards. I think it's over.
Speaker 1: And they drafted Michael Pennix. I supported the pick at
Speaker 1: the time. I said, because I think quarterbacks are so
Speaker 1: hard to get. It's a long term play. They would
Speaker 1: not have expected it to be a short term play
Speaker 1: like now. But the running games playing well. The defense
Speaker 1: since the bye, I think is playing well. I know
Speaker 1: Troy Jyekman said they got you know, beat up last week.
Speaker 1: I keep saying Troy Aikman because it's Monday night football
Speaker 1: and that's you know who I'm used to, But it
Speaker 1: was actually Orlovski and Riddick. In his interview with Scott
Speaker 1: Vanpel afterwards, I actually thought they played very competitively on
Speaker 1: defense last week until the fourth quarter where their head
Speaker 1: got carved in. But if you watch the Falcons defense
Speaker 1: all year, it was like, okay, they're pressuring Sam Dartl,
Speaker 1: they're making them pull off crazy plays. They actually were better,
Speaker 1: and they were very good the week before. They're playing
Speaker 1: better on defense. So you're letting your team down. I
Speaker 1: believe if you don't make that change.
Speaker 2: Raheem's a defensive guy and his unit is performing, Like,
Speaker 2: how can you waste that? Given that this is your
Speaker 2: second shot at a head coaching opportunity of your first
Speaker 2: season there. You got off to a fast start. You
Speaker 2: got to capitalize. It's not about like hurting feelings or
Speaker 2: protecting feelings. It's about winning football games. It's a cold business.
Speaker 2: Sometimes you got to make these tough decisions in these
Speaker 2: spots in order to preserve your job and get the
Speaker 2: most out of your team.
Speaker 1: And I actually think the future does matter, that it's
Speaker 1: not just about winning games. That you wouldn't make the
Speaker 1: change if you didn't think that. It's pretty realistic that
Speaker 1: Michael Pennox gives you a better chance to win. Yeah,
Speaker 1: because like an average rookie quarterback at this point would
Speaker 1: give you a better chance to win like an But
Speaker 1: I think it's okay to think about the development of
Speaker 1: it all. You could win all three of these games
Speaker 1: and not even make the playoffs, and that Kirk's playing
Speaker 1: that bad that the bonus of developing and seeing your
Speaker 1: guy for a little bit is worth it.
Speaker 2: Let's look back to the Eagles when they drafted Jalen Hurts,
Speaker 2: they made the switch to him, what happened the rest
Speaker 2: is history could be a similar parallel there.
Speaker 1: Let's go, okay, I'm not going to spend much time
Speaker 1: on this game. Falcons fans like, yes, your four games
Speaker 1: streak is over. It feels better to win than to lose. Absolutely,
Speaker 1: Although I'm introducing the concept first time I've heard this,
Speaker 1: at least this is a moral loss, you know moral victories. Yeah,
Speaker 1: people always like, well, we don't count moral victories. Do
Speaker 1: you count moral losses? Because it's like this, This was
Speaker 1: a win that felt morally to me like a loss
Speaker 1: when it's one score against Nizuddin Ritter. And you heard
Speaker 1: Kirk Cousins after the game, the liquidly with the sideline reporters,
Speaker 1: Laura Rutlet, just like he didn't sound happy at all.
Speaker 1: Ridder and this offense had about one hundred and twelve
Speaker 1: yards until the very end. Give a little love to
Speaker 1: Kaden Ellis ro Row, my favorite name in football. Had
Speaker 1: some good pressure, they were playing a little better on defense,
Speaker 1: and they made this Raiders offense look bad. It's gonna
Speaker 1: be a tough watch, I think with Ritter down the
Speaker 1: stretch here since here McCormick, who's played great for them
Speaker 1: at running back got hurt during the game. That was disappointing.
Speaker 1: Ritter had a couple nice passes, but more often was
Speaker 1: not on target and did not help out Brock barers
Speaker 1: as fantasy owners tonight, as the Raiders maintained their strength
Speaker 1: of victory edge over the Giants and are right now
Speaker 1: the number one overall pick for what it's worth. But
Speaker 1: that's up in the air, like they could lose out
Speaker 1: and still lose that pick. It depends on opponent's strength
Speaker 1: and everything. If both those teams lose out.
Speaker 2: Take Athon very much in full effect right now. It
Speaker 2: was funny. The Raiders a bad football team, and Antonio
Speaker 2: Pierce's expression on that final drive in which they are
Speaker 2: Ritter is checking down relentlessly because he's afraid to take
Speaker 2: a shot until the final two throws, final four throws. Uh,
Speaker 2: he's just checking out.
Speaker 1: That made a nice one to Jacoby like, yeah, he
Speaker 1: did a couple of nice throws, but he just.
Speaker 2: And then they get up to the line and they
Speaker 2: get a delay game penalty, and then they show a
Speaker 2: shot ap peers in the sideline and he's just got
Speaker 2: this look at his fists like you gotta be kidding me, Like, really,
Speaker 2: you got that. That's the Raiders in twenty twenty four.
Speaker 2: Oh my gosh.
Speaker 1: They had this drive early where they were actually moving
Speaker 1: the ball and then they line up, they set up
Speaker 1: a Jacoby Meyers pass and Jacoby Meyers takes a sack,
Speaker 1: so then it's second and twenty. Then they go minus
Speaker 1: four or five or six something like that on a run.
Speaker 1: Then it was second in twenty six. Ritter hasn't even
Speaker 1: thrown the ball here. Then they're third and twenty six.
Speaker 1: They decide, well, let's just run the ball and be safe.
Speaker 1: They hand it off and they fumbled the ball that
Speaker 1: was Alexander Madison on like what was supposed to be
Speaker 1: a safe run. And I'm thinking, like, poor Ritter. I mean,
Speaker 1: he's missing throws as it is, but he wasn't even
Speaker 1: involved in this sequence. And that's why I think in
Speaker 1: part this game had to be so frustrating for the
Speaker 1: Falcons because they really did dominate on two units of
Speaker 1: the game in terms of their defense and in terms
Speaker 1: of their special teams with their block punts and some
Speaker 1: returns like in their coverage units. It was all good
Speaker 1: for them other than the offense. But they do escape
Speaker 1: seven and seven. Let's go to the one team I
Speaker 1: talked about before, Yes, the Stars of the Night. Thank
Speaker 1: you Minnesota Vikings for showing up to this double header
Speaker 1: and being the team that you are and adding so
Speaker 1: much freaking value to this season. We didn't expect it,
Speaker 1: but I gotta admit, Sam Darnald, Kevin O'Connell, you've gotten
Speaker 1: it done. Let's go to Minnesota.
Speaker 3: Three zero Vikings first quarter, five to ten to go
Speaker 3: first and goal Darnold straight drop all playoftion to the
Speaker 3: end zone one.
Speaker 1: Justin Cheff first ten us Kevin.
Speaker 3: Yard touchdown from fame Darnold O.
Speaker 1: Great job there by Paul Allen. Great job by our
Speaker 1: producer extraordinaire, Eric Roberts, because I see what you did
Speaker 1: Eric there. You had the call from Paul Allen on
Speaker 1: kfa N, but then you got the audio from the
Speaker 1: TV copy with Justin Jefferson shouting out Randy Moss. Really
Speaker 1: touching moment before the game, Jake Reid and Chris Carter
Speaker 1: coming out holding up Randy Moss's jersey. Randy Moss announced
Speaker 1: that he's battling cancer and he's got a Moss cancer
Speaker 1: in his words, and so we send the best to him.
Speaker 1: In a really cool touch by the Vikings and Kevin
Speaker 1: O'Connell specifically apparently came up with that idea. An awesome
Speaker 1: job by those two wide receivers who showed up on
Speaker 1: like a day's notice and made their way to Minnesota,
Speaker 1: made their way to that game. To honor the great
Speaker 1: Randy Moss. They get to win thirty to twelve. That's
Speaker 1: the best way you can honor Randy Moss. With great
Speaker 1: wide receiver play, I think they got it tonight. Other
Speaker 1: than that one justin Jefferson drop, he goes seven for
Speaker 1: seventy three in a touchdown. Addison had a really nice
Speaker 1: contested catch. Wasn't the best offensive games shook by the Vikings,
Speaker 1: but their defense controlled it throughout. They jumped out to
Speaker 1: that early lead on some short fields and even if
Speaker 1: Kevin o'cada and Sam Darnold were both bemoaning kind of
Speaker 1: the lack of efficiency on offense, they put up thirty
Speaker 1: points in This game. Was never competitive. That's what mid
Speaker 1: December games are sometimes against bad teams. It didn't make
Speaker 1: me feel any worse about the Vikings, that's for sure.
Speaker 1: Nice win by the Vikings thirty to twelve.
Speaker 2: I had some mild concerns just because you know, Chicago's
Speaker 2: defense has had its moments over the last year, right
Speaker 2: Like that's how Eberflus kept his job going to the season.
Speaker 2: Was their defense carried them to some late season victories
Speaker 2: and looked like it was coming around. And at times
Speaker 2: they've been, you know, a tough draw for opposing offenses,
Speaker 2: and it felt like they were at times tonight. Sam
Speaker 2: Darnold at times looked a little hesitant in the pocket,
Speaker 2: He froze a couple times, he made some questionable decisions
Speaker 2: in where he was throwing the football, But ultimately it
Speaker 2: didn't really hurt them much because they're just a better
Speaker 2: team and a lot of that had to do with
Speaker 2: the defense. You go into a game against a rookie
Speaker 2: quarterback and Brian Flores is coordinating your defense, what's gonna happen? Greg,
Speaker 2: They're gonna blitz the hell out of you. And that's
Speaker 2: exactly what they did. Sixteen blitz is the blitz rate
Speaker 2: of forty four point four percent according to Next Gen Stats.
Speaker 2: They get fifteen pressures, they get a couple of sacks,
Speaker 2: They make Kayleb Williams run for his life. Yet again,
Speaker 2: there was one play in particular, I don't know how
Speaker 2: long he held the ball for.
Speaker 1: Might it was over ten seconds? Yeah, I did check
Speaker 1: that one. It was over ten seconds.
Speaker 2: He evaded like four rushers, He jumped at one point
Speaker 2: to avoid getting taken down from behind and just flung
Speaker 2: a ball out of desperation. Like that's been the story
Speaker 2: of the Bear season, but especially tonight. The Vikings do
Speaker 2: a great job defensively, like you said, gave him some
Speaker 2: short fields they were able to convert. Sam Donald didn't
Speaker 2: look his best Justin Jefferson had that drop. But ultimately
Speaker 2: they are the superior team and they took care of business.
Speaker 2: As a team with this many wins does right on track,
Speaker 2: even on a night when everything's not perfect, and they
Speaker 2: get a convincing victory in front of a national audience
Speaker 2: in all white, snazzy uniforms and continued to train on forward.
Speaker 1: Oh, it was not a good offensive performance. My reason
Speaker 1: I wasn't concerned is it's a team game. You're not
Speaker 1: gonna have your a offense every week. I think they've
Speaker 1: had pretty close to that for the last two or
Speaker 1: three weeks. It was more like a C minus passing game.
Speaker 1: You know, Darnold barely gets over five yards per attemptary,
Speaker 1: he's under six. He had that interception, which was on
Speaker 1: a fourth down. He just wasn't that accurate under pressure.
Speaker 1: It was the opposite of what he's been all season.
Speaker 1: He went eight for seventeen for seventy three yards. Most
Speaker 1: of his throws were under ten yards. It was actually
Speaker 1: one of his worst games, I think because it was
Speaker 1: one of the offensive lines words games, And that's probably
Speaker 1: the concern moving forward. Brian O'Neill loo's banged up. He
Speaker 1: has not played well lately even before This makes me
Speaker 1: wonder if he already was hurt, and so that is
Speaker 1: a little bit of a concern. But the running game
Speaker 1: was great. Aaron Jones was awesome, and the defense was dominant,
Speaker 1: and the offense also was efficient on those first couple
Speaker 1: of drives to take a two score lead right off
Speaker 1: the bat. So the situation of the game does matter
Speaker 1: to me, and you're just not going to have that
Speaker 1: a performance every week in a long season. So I'm
Speaker 1: willing to give that part of the game a pass
Speaker 1: because we are grading the whole team. And it was
Speaker 1: a really good defensive effort where Caleb looked just lost overall.
Speaker 2: Yeah, I mean, he had a rough outing. I do
Speaker 2: caution against the people that haven't seen the Vikings very much,
Speaker 2: and because they're on national TV tonight, this is like
Speaker 2: one of their first looks at them and they think, well,
Speaker 2: Donald's nothing special, because he's been a lot better than
Speaker 2: he was tonight. I also am just mildly concerned because
Speaker 2: I just like to think in the next month ahead,
Speaker 2: as we approach the postseason. In this Vikings team, I'm
Speaker 2: always trying to poke holes in teams, and I think
Speaker 2: about depth, and right tackle was an issue when O'Neill
Speaker 2: left this game, and David Kessenberry came in and is
Speaker 2: not good and became a clear weakness and it affected
Speaker 2: Sam Darnald. So like I worry about depth, but I
Speaker 2: also just worry about you know what, if this is
Speaker 2: a blueprint. You have to have the personnel obviously to
Speaker 2: deploy this, but when you face some of the better
Speaker 2: NFC teams when you get to the playoffs, this is
Speaker 2: a blueprint to be able to counter this offense. Can
Speaker 2: the defense then stack up on it. I'm just trying
Speaker 2: to find the little things that maybe take a team
Speaker 2: out from you know, being an elite contender to something
Speaker 2: below that. Just to prepare myself and separate some from
Speaker 2: the other.
Speaker 1: Well, there's such a huge difference between the one seed
Speaker 1: or the two seed and the five seed, and those
Speaker 1: are the three most likely seeds that the Vikings could have.
Speaker 1: Their playoffs start Sunday in Seattle. Now they're not one
Speaker 1: and done the next three weeks, so you don't have
Speaker 1: the same sort of pressure, but the rest of their
Speaker 1: season is against playoffs or in the case of the Seahawks,
Speaker 1: potentially playoffs adjacent teams. On a short week against a
Speaker 1: team that's going to really need a win and has
Speaker 1: a dangerous defensive front, which I think could give this
Speaker 1: offensive line problems if they're not playing well. Then you
Speaker 1: have the Packers. Tough division game. Again, that's kind of
Speaker 1: why I gave them a little bit of a pass.
Speaker 1: It's a division game. The Bears know this team pretty well,
Speaker 1: you know tonight like it held them down. And then
Speaker 1: you're at Detroit, which could be for the division to
Speaker 1: finish up the season before a potential playoff run. If
Speaker 1: they win all three of those games, they have a
Speaker 1: real chance at the one seed. If they win all
Speaker 1: three of those games, they will be the NFC North
Speaker 1: champions over the Lions. Which is crazy to think they
Speaker 1: control that their fate as it were. I hate using that.
Speaker 1: I don't want to say that ever again on this show.
Speaker 1: But they went out and they win the division. I
Speaker 1: think it's going to be very tough with that slate
Speaker 1: to win out, but they will absolutely be tested. And
Speaker 1: I think this was a good warm up from them.
Speaker 1: I love what I see out of Jonathan Gridard. I
Speaker 1: loved what I've seen out of Blake Cashman. They survive
Speaker 1: no Stefan Gilmour, hopefully they get him backed defensively that
Speaker 1: they did everything they wanted to do. The Bears were
Speaker 1: two of fifteen on third and fourth down combined, and
Speaker 1: so that was really impressive. And I know it's the
Speaker 1: Bears and Caleb just won't let go of the ball,
Speaker 1: and that was a big part of them succeeding. But
Speaker 1: I think it's partly because Minnesota has showing them so
Speaker 1: many different looks.
Speaker 2: Yeah, and I also think that the protection could be better,
Speaker 2: but that's been the case for them pretty much all season.
Speaker 2: I'm not worried about Caleb. I think they have their guy.
Speaker 2: He has some incredible talents that have exceeded my expectations.
Speaker 2: It's just a matter of improving the situation.
Speaker 1: I'm a little worried. I'm a little worried.
Speaker 2: What are you worried about?
Speaker 1: That? He just isn't seeing the field well. He was
Speaker 1: frustrating Troy Aikman in this game, and that can easily
Speaker 1: click into place with a better coach and probably will
Speaker 1: next year. Like I just the ceiling for him is
Speaker 1: so high. I was thinking he was, you know, one
Speaker 1: of the best prospects I've ever seen. That he's missing
Speaker 1: some open receivers. The game seems a little fast for him.
Speaker 1: In his default right now is just to not throw
Speaker 1: an interception, which is fine, it's not working well right now,
Speaker 1: but just you would like to see the processing, the
Speaker 1: decision making. But yeah, he's a rookie. I'm not worried
Speaker 1: about him being a good NFL player, but just hasn't
Speaker 1: been a good This is almost like a worst case
Speaker 1: scenario for what I thought his rookie year could be,
Speaker 1: and it's happened.
Speaker 2: You know, Oh I think it could be. It could
Speaker 2: be much worse, I think than it is right now,
Speaker 2: because I've seen enough proof to make me think, all right,
Speaker 2: he's got it. It's just that the situation around the
Speaker 2: coaching staff needs to be better. There are times where
Speaker 2: the speedy game, as you mentioned, kind of speeds him up.
Speaker 2: They were in a red zone situation tonight where he
Speaker 2: had a guy open on a fade and he just
Speaker 2: overshot him in the corner of the end zone. The
Speaker 2: throw was of those, but that's a rookie thing. That's
Speaker 2: the thing that happens when you're still here, though, because.
Speaker 1: He was accurate. He was accurate, like, and he's trying
Speaker 1: to make all those extra plays and it's just like.
Speaker 2: But how much of that is how much of that
Speaker 2: is a product of knowing that you have to be
Speaker 2: a bit of a hero and trying too hard. I
Speaker 2: know it sounds simplistic, but trying too hard in those
Speaker 2: situations I think is is that's why that happens at times.
Speaker 2: I just think that the natural talents there and if
Speaker 2: you make the situation run better, he'll He'll be fine.
Speaker 1: Absolutely. I just I was so confident that he's going
Speaker 1: to be a good pro and still am that. This
Speaker 1: was the baseline to me of like close to the
Speaker 1: worst case scenario. I mean, the team is four and ten.
Speaker 2: And they've lost their coach, lost coordinator.
Speaker 1: He's struggling out there. Everyone's frustrated. A lot of it
Speaker 1: is on the coaching, Don't get me wrong, I have
Speaker 1: no doubts long term of Caleb Williams. But I have
Speaker 1: been test driving a theory which even at the dinner table,
Speaker 1: I'm I'm getting pushed back that's bias, And I know
Speaker 1: people think it's biased, but I'm really, I really don't
Speaker 1: think it is. I think if you redrafted right now,
Speaker 1: I would take Drake May first.
Speaker 2: Oh God, here we go. Okay.
Speaker 1: I don't think that's crazy.
Speaker 2: That's fair. I mean, and we also.
Speaker 1: Don't like other people that are smart not I shouldn't
Speaker 1: say other people like had Drake Not many, but some
Speaker 1: people had Drake May higher than Jayden Daniels, and some
Speaker 1: like Nate Tice even had him higher than Caleb Williams
Speaker 1: going into it. So I think if you went into
Speaker 1: it with that, I think all things considered, he's shown
Speaker 1: the most like pro traits, especially with his age and maturity,
Speaker 1: of of all three of them. If you're like factoring
Speaker 1: in the age and the experience all that, I don't
Speaker 1: think it's crazy. I think all three of them are close.
Speaker 2: And let's let's remove the Patriots Association for a second. Okay,
Speaker 2: And I agree with you with what you're saying with
Speaker 2: Drake May. Do you think that Jayden Daniels does better
Speaker 2: in this offense than Kayleb Williams has right now because
Speaker 2: Jayden far and away looks like the best quarterback in
Speaker 2: this class so far, not.
Speaker 1: Rookie season, So I don't want I don't want Commander's
Speaker 1: fans to get into his He's had the best rookie
Speaker 1: season and is in a perfect situation for what he
Speaker 1: has needed to do. And uh, yes, I think he
Speaker 1: would be doing better in this system.
Speaker 2: Because then that that's number one. Yeah, that's your first pick.
Speaker 2: Okay again, I'm Sammar years. Okay, that's fair years and yeah,
Speaker 2: and you worry about durability whatever else, But what I
Speaker 2: saw is not.
Speaker 1: Even about durability. It's like Jayden does what he does
Speaker 1: really really well. I think in terms of being able
Speaker 1: to manage the pocket, stay in the pocket. I think
Speaker 1: the situation around mate is so bad. And if you
Speaker 1: look over the last two or three weeks, like find
Speaker 1: me the negative play where he's not making the right decision,
Speaker 1: He's been He's done things in terms of his decision
Speaker 1: making and his accuracy and his boys that I did
Speaker 1: not expect this early. And you know, the physical tools
Speaker 1: are there if and when the right coach and system
Speaker 1: are around him. Jaden's floor is exceptionally high and is
Speaker 1: clearly higher than Drake May's right now. But the kids
Speaker 1: three years older, like that means a lot to me,
Speaker 1: Like he's played a lot more football, Like that's a
Speaker 1: lot three years ago.
Speaker 2: It's hard to separate quarterback from situation, I think, and
Speaker 2: we often do that unfairly to quarterbacks that go into
Speaker 2: really bad situations and don't produce. I think I'll go
Speaker 2: back to him catch the Browns in ninety nine and
Speaker 2: through two thousand and one. I mean, he had no weapons,
Speaker 2: no offensive line, right, but like May missed one throw
Speaker 2: in his game against Arizone, Like I know, you finished
Speaker 2: ten for ten in the first half and everything else,
Speaker 2: but he only missed one throw. And then I went
Speaker 2: to Jayden's game and I was like that was pretty
Speaker 2: damn good too, Like he.
Speaker 1: Was great too. Even the number as bad as the
Speaker 1: situation is, the success rate the aper play all that
Speaker 1: with the QBR with Drake me is actually quite good.
Speaker 1: It's like above league average starter, which is crazy. So
Speaker 1: I am I am greaty on a curve. I think
Speaker 1: it's a fun discussion. Uh, clearly this game didn't give
Speaker 1: us enough to talk about. We just diverted into that bill.
Speaker 2: Come to the NFL Daily four.
Speaker 1: Yes, absolutely love this Vikings team in what they're giving us.
Speaker 1: It's just a great, great fan base. I love the
Speaker 1: fan bases that are getting rewarded right now, the Vikings.
Speaker 1: Maybe the Lions fans don't feel like they're getting rewarded,
Speaker 1: but take the big picture, they are the Bills. Like,
Speaker 1: we have a lot of potentially really fun Super Bowl matchups.
Speaker 1: Let's take a quick break, Nick, we're gonna come back,
Speaker 1: we're gonna do some news, and then we're gonna give
Speaker 1: out our Captains of the week. Back in the nut,
Speaker 1: back on NFL Daily. Not a ton of news on
Speaker 1: this Monday night. Most of the news is unfortunate news
Speaker 1: because it's injury related. And we'll start with Patrick Mahomes.
Speaker 1: Further tests on his ankle revealed a quote mild ankle
Speaker 1: high ankle sprain. According to our national NFL insider Ian Rappaport,
Speaker 1: I don't know what a mild high ankle sprain is, Like,
Speaker 1: I've never heard that before other than you know when
Speaker 1: it comes to Patrick Mahomes. But it's a high ankle sprain.
Speaker 1: And Ian put out a little video that I saw
Speaker 1: in Blue Sky which suggested it might make some sense
Speaker 1: that he sits out this Saturday game against the Texans
Speaker 1: in hopes of getting ready to play on Christmas against
Speaker 1: who is it on Christmas?
Speaker 2: The Steels Steelers. Yep.
Speaker 1: Now, I'm not a conspiracy theorist, but it's like Netflix,
Speaker 1: you know, they're sweat and they don't want Carson Wentz
Speaker 1: on Christmas, like giving you a big lump of call.
Speaker 2: Yeah, but at the same time, do you want Carson
Speaker 2: Wentz on a Saturday. No. But I'm not happy, you know,
Speaker 2: I think.
Speaker 1: Yeah, I think it's a rare like Chiefs Texans game. Yeah,
Speaker 1: that's like, yeah, in the middle of the afternoon.
Speaker 3: No.
Speaker 1: Yeah, but it's just more realistic that he could miss
Speaker 1: the first one and get the second one at least.
Speaker 2: I mean, frankly, I'd set him out for the next
Speaker 2: two games to preserve his health for the playoffs, and
Speaker 2: maybe he comes back to you know, play the Broncos
Speaker 2: and affect their seeding if they, you know, reach the playoffs.
Speaker 2: So it's wise like you've gotten to this point for
Speaker 2: a reason, is so that you have a little bit
Speaker 2: of breathing room to be able to do something like
Speaker 2: this if something unfortunate like his injury has occurred. We
Speaker 2: know what the Chiefs are about. They're chasing a three.
Speaker 2: There is no need to risk him on a Saturday
Speaker 2: game when you have a short week after that. I
Speaker 2: don't think it's good. I mean, they could lose one
Speaker 2: or two of those games. Does not really bother me
Speaker 2: very much without him, because their offense isn't all that
Speaker 2: spectacular with him now. He elevates them and converts third
Speaker 2: downs and does the magic things that he does. But
Speaker 2: I'm not overly concerned about this long term. I would
Speaker 2: really worry more about can he play in the playoffs
Speaker 2: than can he play this Saturday In the next Wednesday.
Speaker 1: I have to admit I have not watched that game
Speaker 1: back yet. I'm playing it's next on my list. I'm
Speaker 1: gonna watch it Tuesday morning. He had the lowest PFF
Speaker 1: grade like for a game that he's had and I
Speaker 1: don't know how long forty three I was like, I
Speaker 1: can't remember ever seeing that with problem well bruised and battered,
Speaker 1: So I think, you know, physically he could use the
Speaker 1: time now. The only thing I'd push back on is
Speaker 1: that the one seed is huge for them. The Bills,
Speaker 1: the way they're looking in the the Jets and the
Speaker 1: Patriots twice in the final three weeks, they're unlikely to
Speaker 1: lose any of those games. The Chiefs can only lose
Speaker 1: one more game and hold on to the number one
Speaker 1: overall seed, and the schedule is not easy. You know,
Speaker 1: the Texans are not playing well, but that's a good defense.
Speaker 1: And then the Steelers, I think is an even matchup
Speaker 1: right now with the Chiefs, if you're asking me to
Speaker 1: set that line, I don't believe in the Steelers quite
Speaker 1: as much as certainly the Ravens, who they are underdogs
Speaker 1: or the Eagles of teams like that, but them in
Speaker 1: the Chiefs, like that's not an easy game, not an
Speaker 1: easy defense. So these aren't guaranteed wins, even if Mahomes
Speaker 1: is playing, and so it's really interesting to watch how
Speaker 1: they manage this. And I think he is quote unquote
Speaker 1: built different that that's what Ian rapped, you know, Ian said,
Speaker 1: and it's true he has played through injuries before, but
Speaker 1: it's one thing to play through him in the playoffs.
Speaker 1: It's another thing to do it in week fifteen or sixteen.
Speaker 1: So we'll see what happens. I'm very curious. It adds
Speaker 1: a little intrigued to this one seed, even though it's
Speaker 1: not in the way that you want. Let's go to
Speaker 1: more bad injury news. The Lions got surprising news on
Speaker 1: David Montgomery. He has a torn PCL. He is likely
Speaker 1: to miss the rest of the season. That's a heartbreak, heartbreaker,
Speaker 1: because he is the heart and soul of their team,
Speaker 1: Ali McNeil. It's been confirmed that he has a torn ACL.
Speaker 1: He was playing almost at a Pro Bowl level, I
Speaker 1: would say was their second best defensive lineman when Hutchinson
Speaker 1: was there, was their best alongside Darius Smith, who's been
Speaker 1: great for them since Smith showed up. Brutal, brutal injury there.
Speaker 1: And then Carlton Davis has a broken jaw and is
Speaker 1: out about six weeks, which would give him a chance
Speaker 1: to return late in the playoffs, maybe the NFC title
Speaker 1: game if you just did the math out, but he's
Speaker 1: going to be out for a while. He's their best,
Speaker 1: you know, outside cornerback. It's just brutal. You feel for
Speaker 1: everyone in involved there. I know it's just football, but
Speaker 1: like the fans and Dan Campbell and most importantly these
Speaker 1: players who were part of this magical journey, and especially
Speaker 1: a guy like Montgomery, just to be taken out of
Speaker 1: it is absolutely brutal.
Speaker 2: Yeah, I mean, one of the biggest components to reach
Speaker 2: in the Super Bowl or at least making a deep
Speaker 2: playoff run is staying healthy. Like that's that's really what
Speaker 2: separates some of the best teams from teams that could
Speaker 2: have been there and aren't. And the hits keep coming
Speaker 2: for them at a level that almost matches the forty
Speaker 2: nine ers at this point, and they've done a pretty
Speaker 2: good job of plugging holes in the dam. The Davis
Speaker 2: injury is going to be significant because of the state
Speaker 2: of their secondary as it was before. He didn't play
Speaker 2: perfect by any means. He had moments where he could
Speaker 2: have been better. But what's really going to matter the
Speaker 2: most is that defensive front. I think Alee McNeil losing
Speaker 2: him after you lost Hudgson already, Zadarias Smith played I
Speaker 2: think less than fifty percent of snaps on Sunday. They're
Speaker 2: trying to rotate guys and they're trying to make it work.
Speaker 2: That's going to really hurt. And then, of course David
Speaker 2: Montgomery won half of this great backfield tandem. There's been
Speaker 2: games where he's just put it away. We go back
Speaker 2: to way back to Week one, where they just run
Speaker 2: it down and throw their opponent to salter with that
Speaker 2: victory and overtime, and now you're left with just Jamior Gibbs,
Speaker 2: who's a great running back. But it just takes away
Speaker 2: all these strengths of your team. How many can you
Speaker 2: weather before it takes you down as a team. That's
Speaker 2: what concerns me the most.
Speaker 1: It's crazy to try to think about ranking like because
Speaker 1: they've had so many big losses now, they just haven't
Speaker 1: had many on offense. And my thought has been all
Speaker 1: along that, look, if you have the best offense in
Speaker 1: the league and their offense is still relatively healthy, you
Speaker 1: have a pretty good chance to win two home games
Speaker 1: to make the Super Bowl. Now you got to get
Speaker 1: to those two home games, and to do that, you're
Speaker 1: gonna have to win in Chicago next week like their chances.
Speaker 1: You're gonna have to win in San Francisco on a
Speaker 1: Monday night football game. Not a gimme, but like their chances.
Speaker 1: And then you're gonna have to beat the Vikings in
Speaker 1: what is almost the start of the playoffs in wiki
Speaker 1: team possible. Maybe the Vikings will trip up a couple
Speaker 1: times before that it's unlikely and make that easier. Maybe
Speaker 1: they can get luck that way. But if you have
Speaker 1: the best offense in the league, you have a chance.
Speaker 1: And I still think they can be about the best
Speaker 1: offensive league even without Montgomery. Jamiir Gibbs and David Montgomery
Speaker 1: are not the same. Montgomery as the heart and soul
Speaker 1: of this team. He is the guy you trust to
Speaker 1: get those big yards to close out these games. He
Speaker 1: is an exceptional running back. Jamiir Gibbs has been on
Speaker 1: this team now for a little while. Like he could
Speaker 1: be top three running backs in the league good Like
Speaker 1: that is how good he is in terms of his
Speaker 1: pure talent. His yards per touch rushing and receiving compared
Speaker 1: to Montgomery are not close. So ken Jamir Gibbs step
Speaker 1: up a level here and give us five six games
Speaker 1: where he's the best running back in the league. I
Speaker 1: actually don't think that's that crazy of a thought. As
Speaker 1: great as Saquon Barkley as I'm not saying he's gonna
Speaker 1: have a better season, I'm just saying for five games,
Speaker 1: can he give you that sort of production. I think
Speaker 1: he's that good where he could give you that sort
Speaker 1: of production.
Speaker 2: I think the most important facet of this offense is
Speaker 2: their offensive line, which is still intact. And as long
Speaker 2: as that's intact, you're still going to have a pretty
Speaker 2: good chance of winning. Provided you can get a few
Speaker 2: more stops than you did against Buffalo on Sunday. That's
Speaker 2: going to be the big Achilles.
Speaker 1: Heal right, Carlton Davis, you know he's a man corner.
Speaker 1: They love to play man corner. You just those don't
Speaker 1: grow on trees. So even though it felt like he
Speaker 1: got picked on here or there, like I thought, he
Speaker 1: had a really good season for them, because what they
Speaker 1: ask out of their guys is a lot. We're going
Speaker 1: to fly through the rest of these The Titans and
Speaker 1: the Browns are primed to change their starting quarterbacks. If
Speaker 1: there's one thing we're known for here at NFL Daily,
Speaker 1: it's the maxim that if your head coach does not
Speaker 1: commit to your starting quarterback on a Monday, a change
Speaker 1: is coming on a Tuesday. And the Titans did not
Speaker 1: commit to Will Levis, the Browns did not commit to
Speaker 1: Jamis Winston. So look for those changes. Stay tuned for
Speaker 1: more on that, and that does make me think maybe
Speaker 1: Raheem Morris, who did not commit to Kirk Cousins, is
Speaker 1: going to make that change those moves. I'm not going
Speaker 1: to say they're soft tanks. In fact, the Titans I
Speaker 1: think have a better chance to win with Mason Rudolph
Speaker 1: Brown's a little bit of a soft thing.
Speaker 2: That curiosity about dtr Man it rains.
Speaker 1: The guy more likely. What that tells me is they're
Speaker 1: not bringing back Jamis as like a backup or.
Speaker 2: Yeah, honestly, I very much questioned the future will Levis.
Speaker 2: I know it was one game, but so bad. It
Speaker 2: was so bad it wiped out all the good will
Speaker 2: he'd built over the last six weeks. And I'm very
Speaker 2: curious to see if they make a move in a
Speaker 2: different direction in the off season.
Speaker 1: Now I expect they will. He's either going to be
Speaker 1: their backup or not on the Titans next year. That's
Speaker 1: my expectation. It's a weird note. Sam Hubbard, the Bengals
Speaker 1: edge to who got a big contract a couple of
Speaker 1: years ago, suffered a torn knee ligament that happened on
Speaker 1: his touchdown catch that he made as a defensive end.
Speaker 1: If this this was like another team or another story,
Speaker 1: or a player that was a little more relevant to
Speaker 1: the playoff race. You'd be like, man, that's crazy. It's
Speaker 1: just crazy to because Sam Hubbard's been there a long time,
Speaker 1: been a really good player for them, and I don't
Speaker 1: think they're going to keep him going into next year.
Speaker 1: I think they're gonna cut him because of his contract.
Speaker 1: So his last play as a Bengal is likely catching
Speaker 1: a touchdown pass from one of his very best friends
Speaker 1: in the world, Joe Burrow. Those two are really tight.
Speaker 1: It's the weird story. Just wanted to note it for
Speaker 1: the audience. That's all I got for you. Shook on
Speaker 1: that one.
Speaker 2: Well, maybe he stays in Ohio and goes and plays
Speaker 2: in Cleveland next year.
Speaker 1: Who knows, wouldn't surprise me. The forty nine Ers suspended
Speaker 1: Devondre Campbell for the last three games of the season
Speaker 1: for conduct detrimental to the team, and the Ravens announced
Speaker 1: that Deontay Johnson will be staying away from team activities
Speaker 1: this week, a mutual decision with the team, according to them.
Speaker 1: So that's here. We quit on the team news update
Speaker 1: for the night.
Speaker 2: I thought it was really funny that the verbiage that
Speaker 2: came away from the Devondre Campbell situation sounded a lot
Speaker 2: like John Harbaugh talking about Deontay Johnson, and a lot
Speaker 2: of people were like, they're just gonna cut him, And
Speaker 2: I was like, I bet you he gets suspended just
Speaker 2: like Deontay did. And sure enough, it's three games instead
Speaker 2: of one, but it's still the same result.
Speaker 1: Right. The NFLPA, I feel like, is getting involved in
Speaker 1: the Deontay Johnson thing, if I had to guess. And yeah,
Speaker 1: because when they said mutually and that he's not suspended,
Speaker 1: it's like, all right, we'll pay you while we figure
Speaker 1: this thing out. Suspending means we're not paying for you
Speaker 1: paying you. They suspended him last week. Now there's something
Speaker 1: in between Devondre Campbell. They're not gonna pay him. We'll
Speaker 1: see if the NFLPA, you know, appeals, We'll see if
Speaker 1: Devandre Campbell gets another job. It's too bad people are
Speaker 1: just gonna think about him this way. But he was
Speaker 1: kind of nearing the end of the line anyways. Yeah,
Speaker 1: he had some nice runs, you know, he had that
Speaker 1: you know Pro Bowl run in Green Bay. More importantly
Speaker 1: shook just for me and we gotta get we gotta
Speaker 1: get out of here. We gotta get you to bed. Actually, no,
Speaker 1: you just drank coffee. You gonna get just.
Speaker 2: Drink a midnight drink a midnight coffee. Yes, twelve thirty am.
Speaker 1: Coffee man. I said, the show is going to be quick,
Speaker 1: and now we're getting on.
Speaker 2: No, go ahead.
Speaker 1: Vondre Campbell was half of the five hundred words that
Speaker 1: I wrote about the Falcons linebacker corps at halftime of
Speaker 1: the Super Bowl against the Patriots, because him and Dion
Speaker 1: Jones were killing the Patriots and Tom freaking Brady for
Speaker 1: the first half of that game, and I was like,
Speaker 1: I'm going to write something about their defense and kind
Speaker 1: of focus on Dean Jones and Campbell, and yeah, that
Speaker 1: never got published. Let's go to uh my favorite part
Speaker 1: of the week. Let's go to Captain's Corner, presented by
Speaker 1: Captain Morgan. Let's have you get us going show.
Speaker 2: All right, extreme bias here. And I know you can't
Speaker 2: see this because we're not on YouTube in this portion
Speaker 2: of the show, but I am wearing a Kent State
Speaker 2: Golden Flashes hoodie. Okay, that's my alma mater. And there's
Speaker 2: a guy in the NFL who has traveled quite a
Speaker 2: road to get to this point. Now he's only a rookie,
Speaker 2: but he's been through plenty of adversity already. His name
Speaker 2: is Devontes Walker. He played receiver at Kent State. He
Speaker 2: hit the portal and went to North Carolina. But because
Speaker 2: he had played he had been at multiple different programs before,
Speaker 2: he was ruled ineligible at North Carolina by the NCAA.
Speaker 2: It made a huge stink in the college football ranks.
Speaker 2: Everybody was upset he should have been eligible. He was
Speaker 2: supposed to be then he wasn't. Mac Brown and everybody
Speaker 2: came out with a statement against it, and then eventually
Speaker 2: the NCAA reverse course and he was eligible. Well, now
Speaker 2: he's in the NFL, and I thought it was a
Speaker 2: savvy pick by Eric Tacosta and the Rams when they
Speaker 2: picked him up in the off season. He recorded one
Speaker 2: catch on Sunday for a touchdown. A touchdown that was
Speaker 2: a spectacular grab in the back of the end zone
Speaker 2: which we played. Not sure if it was actually a touchdown,
Speaker 2: but it stood on the field and he finishes with
Speaker 2: twenty one yards and the touchdown. That's my captain for
Speaker 2: the week because he's a Golden Flash former Golden Flash
Speaker 2: for a tar heel got his touchdown.
Speaker 1: Kent State rough rough season for what are you guys
Speaker 1: called the Flyers.
Speaker 2: The Golden Flashes. We went oh to twelve, Golden flash.
Speaker 2: We are the worst program in college football because we were.
Speaker 1: Oh, that's tough, that's tough. I've been there. Tulane was
Speaker 1: pretty close to that for a few years. They're out
Speaker 1: of that. You know, who knows. You could be playing
Speaker 1: in the Gasparilla Bowl before long, like two litters this year.
Speaker 1: Tes Walker best known as the guy who was like
Speaker 1: kind of disappointing me when I was watching Drake may
Speaker 1: film last year, but like was making someplace, you know,
Speaker 1: making someplace. My captain of the week is gonna be
Speaker 1: who I believe to be the best wide receiver of
Speaker 1: all the rookies. Talking about redrafts, I'm taking Brian Thomas
Speaker 1: Junior number one. Sorry, Malik Neighbors. There's only so many
Speaker 1: guys that are six three six ' four two fifteen
Speaker 1: like Brian Thomas and moves like he moves it, has
Speaker 1: great hands. I was like, I saw this tweet over
Speaker 1: the weekend. They were like, when was the last guy
Speaker 1: that came out that ran sub four three five that
Speaker 1: actually had good hands. I don't know what dropped. There
Speaker 1: was probably a Xavier Worthy player like inspired the tweet.
Speaker 1: I don't even know, And I'm like Brian Thomas Junior.
Speaker 1: He just came out. He's doing everything. He was so
Speaker 1: good in that game on Sunday. He made mac Jones
Speaker 1: look fantastic. The burst that he has to go from
Speaker 1: zero to sixty and that you know, using car turn
Speaker 1: in like a second on that forty one yarder on
Speaker 1: the crossing route was just like it was unbelievable. But
Speaker 1: he ended up going ten for one oh five. It's
Speaker 1: hurting his yards per reception because you know they're only
Speaker 1: going to throw the ball short, but he made so
Speaker 1: many people miss. He's a yak god. He's got the hand.
Speaker 1: He's a much better route runner than anyone expected this early.
Speaker 1: He is awesome. I'm feeling good about having him number
Speaker 1: three on my Offensive Rookie of the Year ladder or
Speaker 1: number four, whatever it.
Speaker 2: Was, number four, I'm checking it right now, and.
Speaker 1: Conky was three. Now he's up. He's moved up over
Speaker 1: the last week. He's now up to number three. That's
Speaker 1: how much I like Brian Thomas. That was the Captain's
Speaker 1: Corner presented by Captain Morgan. It's delicious and crisp, perfect
Speaker 1: for game day with friends. Spice it up. Visit Captain
Speaker 1: Morgan dot com to find a Captain near you. Please
Speaker 1: drink responsibly. Hit that music, Eric, I didn't want to
Speaker 1: cut you off shook, So if you have anything left
Speaker 1: to say, you can use.
Speaker 2: I mean, I'm cruising off of this ice coffee that
Speaker 2: I drink in twelve three that morning. I'm ready to go, baby.
Speaker 1: Okay, you know, look when when shook his shoehorning a
Speaker 1: Kent State Golden Fire tedes Walker reference, you know he's
Speaker 1: feeling comfortable, and that's what you know. Football is back.
Speaker 1: I'll see you Tuesday.