Speaker 1: Welcome to NFL Daily. I think we can just say it,
Speaker 1: football is back.
Speaker 2: I'm Greg Rosenthal and the Chris Westling podcast studio. Late July,
Speaker 2: six teams already in training camp and practicing. Wow fully,
Speaker 2: not with pads, but six teams practicing. The rest of
Speaker 2: the NFL reports on Tuesday.
Speaker 1: It's all happening.
Speaker 3: Jordan Rodrieg, I'm so excited we're here.
Speaker 1: We are here.
Speaker 3: Long summer.
Speaker 2: Hope everyone you know, enjoyed their break. If you weren't
Speaker 2: listening to NFL Daily, who are you? No, Actually, everyone
Speaker 2: was listening to NFL Daily by the numbers, so we
Speaker 2: appreciate all you. We're going to continue our division previews,
Speaker 2: which I'm excited to keep rolling.
Speaker 1: Staying in the West.
Speaker 2: We're going to do the NFC West with the two
Speaker 2: teams that are at the top probably of everyone's power ranking,
Speaker 2: favorite division. It's a great division. But first we're going
Speaker 2: to do a little bit of news, and we have
Speaker 2: to start with Kyle Shanahan. This was surprising news that
Speaker 2: came up over the weekend that he was seriously hurt
Speaker 2: in a car accident. Let's start, I guess with the
Speaker 2: good news, which is that he was healthy enough to
Speaker 2: attend the forty nine ers practice that occurred on Sunday.
Speaker 1: That was their first practice.
Speaker 2: He came after the the media taping session, so there
Speaker 2: wasn't like video of it or anything, but he was
Speaker 2: there for thirty minutes talking. He's not doing all of
Speaker 2: his responsibilities right now as the head coach. He suffered
Speaker 2: a severe concussion. The injuries occurred on July fourteenth, so
Speaker 2: it was a little while back. He needed more than
Speaker 2: forty stitches. He had a broken nose, a broken hand,
Speaker 2: three broken ribs, and assistant head coach Chris Forster, along
Speaker 2: with kind of Raheem Morris on the other side of
Speaker 2: the ball, are handling the head coach responsibilities. It sounds
Speaker 2: like no one's really going to be addressing the entire team.
Speaker 2: They're just dividing into offense, defense, and special teams. But
Speaker 2: the important thing here, as John Lynch the GM pointed out,
Speaker 2: was that Kyle Shannon's on his road to recovery. They
Speaker 2: expect him to be good enough to coach the team
Speaker 2: and go to Australia in week one, and that the
Speaker 2: other party that was in this accident is also okay.
Speaker 4: Yeah, I was listening and sort of had one eye
Speaker 4: on Chris Sims the morning that we're recording this over
Speaker 4: on Pro Football Talk, where called Monday. Well, yeah, but
Speaker 4: maybe the listeners listening on Tuesdays.
Speaker 3: I don't know.
Speaker 1: I don't know.
Speaker 4: I don't judge it would be Monday, say, I don't
Speaker 4: judge what people's schedules are. So he was talking, you know,
Speaker 4: Chris Sims and Kyle Shanahan are our best friends, are
Speaker 4: really really close, have been.
Speaker 3: For famously, have decades. On the matching two.
Speaker 4: Yeah, and and was talking about how he knew had
Speaker 4: known about this and the severity of it, was getting
Speaker 4: pictures from, you know, Kyle Shanahan's wife and the family
Speaker 4: after the accident happened in that in Chris Sims's words,
Speaker 4: Kyle Shannan came really close to losing his right eye
Speaker 4: in those stitches, the forty stitches you mentioned, stitches in
Speaker 4: his face. So for me, that's it's really really scary,
Speaker 4: serious and thinking about that, and obviously glad everybody is
Speaker 4: overall going to be okay in this situation was scary stuff.
Speaker 2: And there was some conversation how come this didn't come
Speaker 2: out for a couple of weeks. There was no criminal
Speaker 2: activity that we would have seen and not everything is
Speaker 2: a huge conspiracy. That said, if it who was Brock
Speaker 2: Purdy who got in a big accident like two weeks ago,
Speaker 2: I feel like he might not have received the same
Speaker 2: consideration that Kyle Shannan did. But the ultimate thing here
Speaker 2: is that that Kyle Shannan is getting better and you know,
Speaker 2: it's almost something I just want to get to. Like
Speaker 2: the Jordan James is getting back up running back reps
Speaker 2: at the forty nine ers practice. That's excited. That's more
Speaker 2: exciting to me. But it's great to see on the
Speaker 2: k first.
Speaker 3: Day on the practice, Greg, that's like, calm down.
Speaker 1: That's why I have a separate document.
Speaker 3: He's already so fired up.
Speaker 2: That's camp notes and I have learned over there is
Speaker 2: you got to wait for them to pile up for
Speaker 2: a bunch of days until you know what matters what doesn't.
Speaker 2: So that'll be coming later this week with Shooki. The
Speaker 2: Chiefs have been back at practice for a few days
Speaker 2: here at least there are rookies and injured players, which
Speaker 2: include Patrick Mahomes. So since we last taped Patrick Mahomes
Speaker 2: where she rice both fully cleared to start camp at
Speaker 2: this point, they're not doing eleven and elevens because they
Speaker 2: don't have enough people out there. So we don't know
Speaker 2: if Patrick whom is going to do every single aspect
Speaker 2: of camp. They're obviously not practicing with pads. They have
Speaker 2: to practice for four days before that happens. But he
Speaker 2: is out there. Let's listen to Mahomes back at the
Speaker 2: podium looking slender.
Speaker 5: Russell stronger than I've ever felt as far as strength
Speaker 5: and lifting and stuff like that. And so now it's
Speaker 5: just about getting that quarterback stuff down, the stuff moving
Speaker 5: in the pocket quick, making those quick movements, reacting and
Speaker 5: steing stuff like that. I am a competitor, so game day,
Speaker 5: I'm gonna want to be out there, but I understand
Speaker 5: the process of getting myself ready to play and the
Speaker 5: regular season is more important. But we will see. I mean,
Speaker 5: the coaches and dogs will kind of make that decision
Speaker 5: for me. But I'll prepare myself like I'm gonna play,
Speaker 5: and then if I'm just doing a very hard warm up,
Speaker 5: I will take that. As serious as as playing in
Speaker 5: the preseason game is.
Speaker 2: Patrick Mahomes plays in the preseason more than virtually any
Speaker 2: starting quarterback. It's just how the Chiefs do things. They
Speaker 2: also practice with pads on and contact more than just
Speaker 2: about any team out there. It's just how they've done
Speaker 2: things and it works for them. So we might not
Speaker 2: see him in the preseason, but the fact that he's
Speaker 2: talking about getting ready to play shows he's further along
Speaker 2: than I would have expected. And I gotta say, I
Speaker 2: don't know if it's the the fade or the fit
Speaker 2: or what, but it does kind of look like Patrick
Speaker 2: Mahomes in this recovery and this rough season that they
Speaker 2: had last year.
Speaker 1: It's like he's in the best shape of life. That's
Speaker 1: what he looks like.
Speaker 4: He looks leaner to me, and I think that's important
Speaker 4: when you're thinking about you're coming back from from an
Speaker 4: injury where you don't want to put, you know, a
Speaker 4: certain excess amount of body weight or force onto the knee.
Speaker 3: Right.
Speaker 4: And then also he was basically the Chiefs run game
Speaker 4: last year, right, so you know, hope the knee is
Speaker 4: back to full performance.
Speaker 3: Right.
Speaker 4: But in general, you know, if you want to scamper around,
Speaker 4: if you're going to be running, you know, you might
Speaker 4: as well might as well be trim.
Speaker 2: There's only so much like big news that can happen.
Speaker 2: Unfortunately in the first week of training camp. It's mostly
Speaker 2: guys are on schedule, ahead of schedule, or get injured.
Speaker 2: And in this case, I think the Chiefs have to
Speaker 2: be really happy about where he's at, where where she
Speaker 2: writes is at. We also found out Mansor Delane, their
Speaker 2: top ten pick, is coming off shoulder surgery, which from
Speaker 2: an injury that he suffered during the off season, like
Speaker 2: during practice, in his words, going too hard, not supposed
Speaker 2: to be doing contact. So I don't know how and
Speaker 2: where that happened. But he is back on the field
Speaker 2: and they hope that he will be practicing fully soon,
Speaker 2: but he is practicing somewhat Unfortunately. On Monday, we got
Speaker 2: disturbing news concerning Eric Benemy, the assistant coach has left camp,
Speaker 2: the essentially the coach who's expected to run their offense.
Speaker 2: After that, his son was arrested and charged with the
Speaker 2: shooting of Eric Bienemy's wife and at their home in Virginia.
Speaker 2: And obviously, you know, we're just thinking the best thoughts
Speaker 2: for me a b Enemy. She's in stable condition, but
Speaker 2: she suffered from multiple gunshot wounds and in enemy will
Speaker 2: be away from the team in the meantime, more injury news.
Speaker 1: On the field is a good one here.
Speaker 2: Namdi Madabuicke for the Ravens has been cleared to return
Speaker 2: to practice for the Ravens.
Speaker 3: He could practice as early as this week.
Speaker 2: For now he's on the pup list, but the doctors
Speaker 2: have cleared him to return.
Speaker 3: That's significant.
Speaker 4: You know, he was so he's been so missed, his
Speaker 4: presence has been missed. And then also the injury itself,
Speaker 4: there was so there was such murkiness around it throughout
Speaker 4: the course of the season when when he wasn't able
Speaker 4: to play. So this is absolutely significant news.
Speaker 1: For the Ravens.
Speaker 2: There were reports that he was potentially going to retire.
Speaker 2: And he is a guy who's gotten all pro votes.
Speaker 2: He is a guy who to me makes their defensive
Speaker 2: line go from hmmm, that could be a problem. As
Speaker 2: Jordan slides my pen back to me, you know, just
Speaker 2: giving you a little present. Throw it you always take you.
Speaker 3: I do steal your pens a lot. You can't have
Speaker 3: this one.
Speaker 2: I mean I take them from overseas every summer, get
Speaker 2: them from Muji, and then I take bring them back
Speaker 2: and then I run out where were we we were
Speaker 2: talking about the defensive line for the Ravens and generally
Speaker 2: their defense in general.
Speaker 1: To me, you could poke some holes in it.
Speaker 2: It looks a lot different with Matdabuike in the middle,
Speaker 2: so obviously we're gonna have to keep tracking him to
Speaker 2: make sure he's healthy.
Speaker 1: But they just had one of the best quote.
Speaker 2: You know, it's not a signing, but it almost feels
Speaker 2: like signing of any team if I was thinking he
Speaker 2: was not going to join them again. He is one
Speaker 2: of the most important offseason additions, even if he was
Speaker 2: there all along. Malik Neighbors is not starting camp on
Speaker 2: the pup list. I put this in the rundown partly
Speaker 2: because I saw a lot of reaction was like he's back,
Speaker 2: Like this is great, let's boost him in the fantasy
Speaker 2: rankings and stuff. Just because you're not on the pup
Speaker 2: list doesn't necessarily mean you're remotely healthy. Just means that
Speaker 2: they want you to do some extra stuff at the
Speaker 2: start of camp. So this one was like a little
Speaker 2: bit of a TBD. Don't celebrate, don't take them any higher.
Speaker 2: I am still quite concerned about Malik neighbors is recovery
Speaker 2: and him being on the pup list or not has
Speaker 2: no influence on me.
Speaker 4: Yeah, this for a lot of the Giants in general,
Speaker 4: but specifically this situation. It is I will believe it
Speaker 4: when I see it right kind of a situation.
Speaker 2: And you know he'd still be eligible for short term
Speaker 2: injured reserve at the beginning of the season. We'll see.
Speaker 2: Let's get to the news. I know you've been waiting for.
Speaker 2: One of the reporters who helped confirm report the Jacoby
Speaker 2: Brissett deal is right here on my left, Jordan rod
Speaker 2: Rieg Insider. Should we should get like a down drop
Speaker 2: or something. Well, you helped confirm that Jacoby Brissett has
Speaker 2: indeed signed a new deal. I don't know if you
Speaker 2: had the terms, but I'll give Ian Rapaport where I
Speaker 2: saw it first the credit. Yes, he ut fifteen point
Speaker 2: five million dollars. Incentives would bump that up an extra
Speaker 2: five and a half million or so to twenty one.
Speaker 2: We don't know what the incentives are. That is roughly
Speaker 2: a ten million dollar raise off of where Jacoby Brissett
Speaker 2: was scheduled to be paid. He was serving as his
Speaker 2: own agent. He talked about that and said it was
Speaker 2: a little stressful that situation. But I gotta say good job,
Speaker 2: Jacoby Brissett agent.
Speaker 1: Let's listen to him.
Speaker 6: I mean, I think I gotta go out there and
Speaker 6: prove it, you know. I mean I don't think that's
Speaker 6: I don't think it mean it's a given just because
Speaker 6: the deal gets done. I think, you know, you go
Speaker 6: out there and put your best foot forward. I think
Speaker 6: at the end of the day, no matter what who
Speaker 6: money was, I think as the coach and as the
Speaker 6: people of the organization, they got to put the best
Speaker 6: person forward.
Speaker 2: So he's talking about whether he is just the starter
Speaker 2: or whether he has to earn it.
Speaker 1: I hear what he's saying there.
Speaker 2: When I saw the terms of this contract, Jordan, I said, oh,
Speaker 2: there actually isn't going to be a quarterback battle in
Speaker 2: Arizona if there was, if I was, there was any doubt,
Speaker 2: because this contract actually shows to me he doesn't have
Speaker 2: to prove it. He's the starter, right, That was my interpretation.
Speaker 2: Tell me if you disagree, No, I.
Speaker 3: Don't disagree at all.
Speaker 4: I think that when you're looking at these incentives in
Speaker 4: this contract, it's pretty clear what they what they would be,
Speaker 4: or what.
Speaker 3: They are is will you continue to be the starter?
Speaker 5: Right?
Speaker 4: How many games are you playing? How many you know,
Speaker 4: how many snaps are you taking? Like that is what
Speaker 4: these incentives seem to me to be all about. And
Speaker 4: I think it really he stood his ground. I remember
Speaker 4: telling you the story last off season when I was
Speaker 4: at Cardinals training camp and I had a conversation with
Speaker 4: Jacoby Brissett for a story I was writing for The
Speaker 4: Athletic about being a backup quarterback. He was so confident
Speaker 4: and competitively minded that he was going to work to
Speaker 4: try to get that job and Kyler Murray was still
Speaker 4: on the roster. Now it wasn't like a negative thing.
Speaker 4: It wasn't tension, none of that. It just was how
Speaker 4: he is and how he was thinking about it. And
Speaker 4: in a very non cliche I'm gonna prepare like, it
Speaker 4: wasn't that at all. It was like, no, no, I
Speaker 4: may be starting by mid season. And so he called
Speaker 4: a shot there and then he stood his ground. And
Speaker 4: I think for any of us, who are you know,
Speaker 4: in a negotiation with a ration or anyone out there
Speaker 4: who's thinking, do I.
Speaker 3: Ask for the thing? Ask for the thing, see what happens.
Speaker 4: Maybe Carson Beck has taken snaps in the spring metaphorically speaking,
Speaker 4: and the organization decides to pay you.
Speaker 2: And they didn't have to really give him this money.
Speaker 2: That's why I give him some credit. And my old
Speaker 2: boss Florio and others who are in the business like
Speaker 2: to point out when players who serve as their own
Speaker 2: agent don't do that. Well, they didn't have to give
Speaker 2: him this money, so he did pretty well. My only concern,
Speaker 2: and this could be part of the Cardinals preview which
Speaker 2: is coming up.
Speaker 1: But what the heck.
Speaker 2: Here's just a list of play callers Jacoby Brissett has
Speaker 2: played under in his career. Might not be complete. Josh McDaniels,
Speaker 2: Rod Chadzinski. That was with the Browns, right, Nick Siriani
Speaker 2: for a while, the Sirianni Frank Reich duo, but that
Speaker 2: was the longest he was ever in one place. George
Speaker 2: Gotsee was his coordinator with Miami, Alex Van Pelt a
Speaker 2: couple times with Cleveland and New England and Kevin Stefanski
Speaker 2: and then Drew Petsing last year. There's a lot of systems.
Speaker 2: There's not this system. He has not really been in
Speaker 2: the tree. There's some connection a little bit with Petsing
Speaker 2: last year and whatever. All these trees aren't, you know,
Speaker 2: necessarily pure whatever, But he's not a guy who's shown
Speaker 2: that this is the right system for him, and so
Speaker 2: I expect to see Carson Beck play multiple starts this year.
Speaker 2: Whether that starts in like week seven or ten or
Speaker 2: fourteen probably depends on how Jacoby is playing. But I
Speaker 2: think it's interesting that they're giving him this money and
Speaker 2: they've never seen him in this type of system.
Speaker 4: They must believe well and his teammates. He helped get
Speaker 4: his teammates paid, you know, he has. He Trey McBride
Speaker 4: had one of the most productive seasons last season. You know,
Speaker 4: has gotten the contract previously, but then also got the
Speaker 4: All pros and all of these things.
Speaker 2: Because he's one of six players in the NFL that
Speaker 2: is a ninety nine on Madden this year. Yeah, in
Speaker 2: a one way, he is one of the six best
Speaker 2: players in the NFL.
Speaker 4: Continued to get his targets, as we know, despite the
Speaker 4: one and eleven record that Jacoby Brissette did have as
Speaker 4: the starter. But this was also we'll get to it
Speaker 4: in the preview. Yah, it just was such an injured
Speaker 4: team and I don't want to get into specific until
Speaker 4: we start, but like it, I just think he really
Speaker 4: endeared himself to his teammates very clearly, Michael Wilson being
Speaker 4: one of them. Those guys are celebrating big time when
Speaker 4: Kyler was when Kyler left the team, and then there
Speaker 4: was sort of this this statement put out by the
Speaker 4: team in the spring that Jacoby Brissette was going to
Speaker 4: be their starter, and then they backed.
Speaker 3: Off of it because of the contract negotiation.
Speaker 4: But when that statement was initially put out, you're seeing
Speaker 4: Instagram posts from teammates celebrating this like it is really
Speaker 4: his teammates love him. And so if you're the organization
Speaker 4: and you're trying to say, hey, this is the first
Speaker 4: year under this new head coach, we're gonna give try
Speaker 4: to give you guys a shot, even though secretly we're
Speaker 4: setting up for whatever happens in twenty twenty seven for
Speaker 4: the quarterback or.
Speaker 1: Well, I'm going too many games.
Speaker 4: They have to instill at least, you know, this sort
Speaker 4: of confidence in the rest of the locker room, and
Speaker 4: I think that's what some of this money is about.
Speaker 2: That's a great point and I'm glad that they did
Speaker 2: it so people can't accuse the Cardinals of being cheap,
Speaker 2: which they have over the years.
Speaker 1: Jeremiah love By.
Speaker 2: The way getting all the RB one snaps early, so
Speaker 2: that's good to hear. Let's fly through the rest of
Speaker 2: this news and then we'll get going on this NFC
Speaker 2: West preview pop list notables I'm going to just point
Speaker 2: out from around the camps that have started. George Kittle
Speaker 2: is still on the pup list, no surpriser. Michael Williams,
Speaker 2: who was the first round edge for the forty nine ers,
Speaker 2: is on the list, so he's still not fully recovered
Speaker 2: from his knee injuries. Kyler Gordon, the defensive back for
Speaker 2: the Bears who's seemingly always hurt, is hurt to start camp.
Speaker 2: Tovandre Sweat, who the Jets traded for a big nose tackle,
Speaker 2: is also on the publist. Some people that are full
Speaker 2: go Quinnjohn Juggins not going to be on the publict again,
Speaker 2: kind of kind of like Malik Neighbors. I do want
Speaker 2: to see it, but there's been more positive signs in
Speaker 2: terms of him practicing. Puka Nakua is not holding out
Speaker 2: or doing anything like that. Both him and Alaric Jackson,
Speaker 2: their left tackle who had off field issues and who
Speaker 2: each could both be suspended by the NFL, are practicing
Speaker 2: at Rams camp.
Speaker 1: The Rams got going on.
Speaker 2: Sunday as are Nick Bosa and Fred Warner at forty
Speaker 2: nine ers camp. That's some real news. Like, when you
Speaker 2: got those guys back, we'll talk about the NFC West.
Speaker 2: The Panthers have just keep getting bad luck. Mike Jackson
Speaker 2: and Rob Hunt, who's a big important guard, highly paid,
Speaker 2: have been out for most of their camp so far
Speaker 2: with back tightness. Doesn't seem that serious, but it's just
Speaker 2: been a lot of bad Panthers news. The last remaining
Speaker 2: rookie who was unsigned in the NFL.
Speaker 3: Was Gabe Yakis.
Speaker 2: Gabe Yakis strange situation there. It was a second round
Speaker 2: pick by the Patriots who had some injuries that maybe
Speaker 2: they didn't know about when they drafted him. Not what
Speaker 2: you want, you do. Wonder if there's some conditions in
Speaker 2: this contract. But he isn'to camp and we'll see if
Speaker 2: and when he starts practicing. And I liked the news
Speaker 2: that DeAndre Hopkins was at Patriots camp, possibly as a coach.
Speaker 1: How about that?
Speaker 7: Yeah?
Speaker 1: I like that the world moves fast.
Speaker 4: They were saying he might look into some front office
Speaker 4: stuff too.
Speaker 3: I love that.
Speaker 4: I like when former players kind of explore around and
Speaker 4: see where they can contribute to an organization.
Speaker 2: We always do the happy trails to player X. I'm
Speaker 2: going to wait a little bit on DeAndre Hopkins. Oh yeah,
Speaker 2: but that's a potential Hall of Famer there, and one
Speaker 2: of the players a kind of similar style, AJ Brown.
Speaker 2: You know with the Patriots. The first ball of camp
Speaker 2: was a deep all to AJ Brown, but he didn't
Speaker 2: catch it.
Speaker 4: Well, I was gonna say, these coordinator scripts, they want you.
Speaker 2: As a bat them And now he apparently went up
Speaker 2: for one hand, didn't make the catch, and I was
Speaker 2: just thinking back to, like I distinctly remember his first
Speaker 2: days in Eagles camp. He destroyed everyone, and I was like,
Speaker 2: oh wow, that's happening right now with the Patriots. Before
Speaker 2: we go to break, let's just listen to Sean McVay
Speaker 2: on a possible Aaron Donald return.
Speaker 8: He's going to go through what he's going through right now.
Speaker 8: We'll see how his body's responding to some of the
Speaker 8: training in the way that he puts himself through the
Speaker 8: paces to know what it looks and feels like to
Speaker 8: be ready to, you know, take on what the rigors
Speaker 8: of an NFL season entail, and if he's feeling good
Speaker 8: about that, you know. Then we'll move forward and what
Speaker 8: those dates are, you know, I'll share with you guys,
Speaker 8: want to have more information.
Speaker 1: Oh that smile at the end, and the way he.
Speaker 3: Said it no poker face.
Speaker 2: It does not seem like Aaron Donald is even still deciding.
Speaker 2: I guess there's a scenario where the working out goes
Speaker 2: so poorly or he gets hurt.
Speaker 1: Or something, but it's all but confirmed at this point.
Speaker 3: I will tell you guys this.
Speaker 4: I was there on site when he gave his press
Speaker 4: conference and he was asked about the potential of Odell
Speaker 4: Beckham Junior joining the team, and he gave a face
Speaker 4: that was exactly like that. And then I was out
Speaker 4: in the parking lot where I would do often do
Speaker 4: my work because there were no at the old facility,
Speaker 4: There were no places to go and make a phone call.
Speaker 4: Got a tip that they were, in fact from outside
Speaker 4: the building source they were in fact going to.
Speaker 3: Bring in Odell Beckham Junior.
Speaker 4: And it happened in such a sequential fashion where I
Speaker 4: was like, this guy has no poker he really does?
Speaker 3: Whatsoever?
Speaker 2: Now will Aaron Donald be on the rams by the
Speaker 2: time that NFL Daily goes there in a week and
Speaker 2: a half. I don't think so. I don't think I
Speaker 2: don't think it would be that soon. But I think
Speaker 2: it's all but confirmed at this point. Let's take a
Speaker 2: quick break. On the other side, we are going to
Speaker 2: continue our division previews.
Speaker 1: Yes, we've already talked about them a little bit. The Cardinals, the.
Speaker 2: Rams, fending Super Bowl champions, and the forty nine ers back.
Speaker 1: In a minute back on NFL Daily.
Speaker 2: If you weren't with us on Friday's show, we debuted
Speaker 2: our new format around the NFC West Division preview is
Speaker 2: coming today.
Speaker 1: We did the AFC West on Friday.
Speaker 3: We got good reviews on theat.
Speaker 1: Okay, yeah, that's good to know.
Speaker 2: Here's the format, twelve minutes per team.
Speaker 1: We got a bunch of different categories.
Speaker 2: You will learn what those categories are in just a
Speaker 2: minute as we go through them, but let's put twelve
Speaker 2: minutes on the clock. We do it alphabetically, so we're
Speaker 2: starting with the Cardinals. You know, if we had a
Speaker 2: producer that it's like, well, don't you know, maybe do
Speaker 2: the Cardinals, Like No, We're gonna stick with the alphabetical order.
Speaker 2: We've got three Super Bowl contenders and the Arizona Cardinals
Speaker 2: in this vision, and the first category here is what
Speaker 2: is bringing us joy for your hometown team, the Arizona Cardinals.
Speaker 4: Yeah, I'm gonna just hit it right back to you, Greg,
Speaker 4: because I kind of talked about it already with Jacoby.
Speaker 4: That whole contract that gave you. It was really amusing
Speaker 4: to me. It was amusing and not in like a
Speaker 4: negative way or like I wasn't making fun of the
Speaker 4: Cardinals on this at all.
Speaker 3: I think for organization and player it was the right
Speaker 3: thing to do. It just made so much sense, But
Speaker 3: it was hilarious.
Speaker 4: Objectively, Yes, that it dragged out for that long, and
Speaker 4: that was like the main storyline around the Cardinals, right.
Speaker 1: I mean, it's like a little bit of making fun.
Speaker 2: So I will, because I love ball, I will give
Speaker 2: more of a answer here.
Speaker 3: Shots fired.
Speaker 1: Here's what's bringing me joy?
Speaker 2: This skill position group, dear my love Trey McBride, Michael Wilson,
Speaker 2: and then I'm gonna put a maybe Marvin Harrison Junior
Speaker 2: and even a little Kendrick Bourne spilled sprinkled in. I
Speaker 2: love that group, Like that's an explosive group. That's a
Speaker 2: fun team to watch. If you took that skill position
Speaker 2: group and you put them on the Panthers, like, I'd
Speaker 2: feel better about them winning the division. For instance, if
Speaker 2: you put that skill position group and put them on
Speaker 2: the Packers, I'd be like, I think they're more of
Speaker 2: a Super Bowl contender because they have that skill position group.
Speaker 2: There are other elements to the entire team build that
Speaker 2: obviously we're gonna have questions about, and quarterback is one
Speaker 2: of them, and Jacoby Pressett in a new system, But
Speaker 2: I think all those dudes are difference makers. And I'm
Speaker 2: including Michael Wilson in that group. Like, Michael Wilson is
Speaker 2: a dude. Trey McBride is the best tight end in
Speaker 2: the NFL, Jeremiah Love is one of the best running
Speaker 2: back prospects of the last ten years.
Speaker 1: Like, it is an exciting group.
Speaker 2: If Marvin Harrison is your two and Bourn's your three,
Speaker 2: that's a good situation.
Speaker 3: It is. It's layers too, which is what I really
Speaker 3: like it.
Speaker 4: And you know, there's questions about the offensive line and
Speaker 4: how that group's going to look in terms of what
Speaker 4: Jeremiah Love is actually going to be.
Speaker 3: Able to do in their run game.
Speaker 4: And then obviously you had to at least pay some
Speaker 4: respectable amount of money to the guy who's going to
Speaker 4: be throwing the football.
Speaker 3: So, yes, you have to.
Speaker 4: Make you do have talented skills, so you have to
Speaker 4: make those guys happy. They are at least going to
Speaker 4: spread the ball around and get targets. One thing Greg
Speaker 4: that I think is kind of getting slept on is
Speaker 4: Kendrick Boord, Mike and Mike Laflor Michaelafluor being the new
Speaker 4: head coach of the Cardinals and who's designing their offensive system.
Speaker 4: They're tight. Michaelafluor loves him. They have a history like this.
Speaker 3: To me, this is a sneaky player to watch in
Speaker 3: this offense.
Speaker 2: So that would give them even more levels because Jeremiah
Speaker 2: Love is a good pass catcher and it's going to
Speaker 2: be explosive. I am buying all the Michael Wilson stock.
Speaker 2: If I had to give one of the two receivers
Speaker 2: a long term contract, it's Michael Wilson, not Marvin Harrison Junior.
Speaker 2: I think Michael Wilson can be a top twenty receiver
Speaker 2: in this league for a long time. I don't think
Speaker 2: it was like you know, late catchup merchant, Like, no,
Speaker 2: he was beating some tough coverage one on one. Uh,
Speaker 2: it's a good group overall, and that actually it leads
Speaker 2: me into my most important non quarterback.
Speaker 1: So because it's all connected, I'm gonna.
Speaker 2: Go Paris Johnson Junior, who's their left tackle and was
Speaker 2: a high pick what four years ago and is steadily improved.
Speaker 2: And it's a little bit symbolic of the rest of
Speaker 2: the offensive line. But if they play as well as
Speaker 2: they could, then you have these skilled players and a
Speaker 2: pretty dynamic offensive line. Paris Johnson could be like a
Speaker 2: top five left tackle if he improves a little bit.
Speaker 2: You signed Isaac Sciamalo from Pittsburgh. You like your center
Speaker 2: fro hole the right side of the line. More questions there,
Speaker 2: But you did draft Chase Pisontas high in the second round,
Speaker 2: so that's someone you're you're excited about, and it's like,
Speaker 2: that's an offensive line with potential. So there's a lot
Speaker 2: of if if ifs in the schedules, brutal, But if
Speaker 2: that offensive line, if Paris Johnson becomes that kind of
Speaker 2: dude plus skill position, you don't need a great quarterback
Speaker 2: for that offense to be pretty good.
Speaker 4: And look, this scheme we'll see right, but allegedly it
Speaker 4: is supposed to make life a little bit easier on
Speaker 4: the protections that you have up front on those offensive linemen.
Speaker 4: And I feel like too, this is this is an
Speaker 4: interesting somalow. I've been catching some some clips right coming
Speaker 4: out of Cardinals camp early. It's early. This is file
Speaker 4: it away under things that don't matter yet, umalow against
Speaker 4: your guy Walter Nolan saw a couple of real positive
Speaker 4: reps from Sumalo coming out of Cardinals camp, so that
Speaker 4: this is this is an interesting group altogether. To me,
Speaker 4: my most important player, it just has to be Trade McBride, honestly,
Speaker 4: the non quarterback.
Speaker 7: Yeah.
Speaker 2: I said, you can't pick and you could pick a
Speaker 2: different coach if you really wanted, but non head I'll
Speaker 2: get to that.
Speaker 1: We'll get to this scheme stuff.
Speaker 4: But the the Trade McBride factor in this, in this offense,
Speaker 4: it's gonna look a little bit different, I think, and
Speaker 4: that I'll that'll come to some of my scheme stuff
Speaker 4: I want to talk about.
Speaker 3: But he he got paid.
Speaker 4: He's one of the best tight ends, if not right now,
Speaker 4: the best tight end we'll see when Tucker Craft comes back,
Speaker 4: which is like one of the best tight ends in
Speaker 4: the league, if not the best. He has gotten the
Speaker 4: respect from his peers, and also he's starting to be
Speaker 4: a little bit more vocal.
Speaker 3: About the direction of the organization.
Speaker 4: A couple of podcasts he did this offseason, he was
Speaker 4: a little bit more vocal about we need to get
Speaker 4: this thing right, We need to get this thing moving
Speaker 4: and going, get some credibility, get some seriousness here in
Speaker 4: this organization.
Speaker 2: He's the guy right now because Kittle was hurt at
Speaker 2: the end of last year, but I think even before
Speaker 2: that there was separation. And when you combine the blocking,
Speaker 2: the receiving, the down to down consistency, he's tight end
Speaker 2: one right now in the NFL. Well, you said the
Speaker 2: scheme stuff is related when it comes to McBride, let's
Speaker 2: hear about it.
Speaker 4: Yes, because this is not even a hot take, is
Speaker 4: just this is just football, Greg, which I also love,
Speaker 4: by the way, Greg, not.
Speaker 2: As much because he just picked like a little funny
Speaker 2: contract story as the thing that's bringing.
Speaker 3: You to true that means that I like it less
Speaker 3: than you.
Speaker 4: This is the team that I think has a better
Speaker 4: shot of actually playing thirteen personnel, actually copying what the
Speaker 4: Rams did. Like every team trying to use their tight
Speaker 4: ends a little bit more and load up on these
Speaker 4: tight ends so they can build at least a twelve
Speaker 4: personnel room. But everybody sort of had their eye on
Speaker 4: that thirteen personnel well, Mike laflor who helped set that
Speaker 4: in motion last season for the Rams, has a really
Speaker 4: like sneaky underrated, high high upside, high ceiling tight ends room. Obviously,
Speaker 4: Trey McBride is the headline here. Elijah Higgins has some
Speaker 4: stuff to him seriously, really came along near the end
Speaker 4: of last season. Is it more of a pass catcher
Speaker 4: He's been in a blocking role, but definitely more of
Speaker 4: like that mismatch pass catcher he was a former receiver
Speaker 4: and tip ryman who was coming off the injury. Is
Speaker 4: the guy who really activates the blocking surface and really
Speaker 4: does a lot of that dirty work, but still also
Speaker 4: can catch the ball very respectably. So this, to me,
Speaker 4: what I think we're gonna see in camp for the
Speaker 4: Cardinals is I think we're going to see Michaelafloor do
Speaker 4: exactly what the d which is established the eleven personnel playbook,
Speaker 4: because as you mentioned, they've got a respectable three deep
Speaker 4: of those receivers where they can actually do that and
Speaker 4: then translate that over into these thirteen personnel concepts again,
Speaker 4: just like what the Rams did last season. And I
Speaker 4: think of the teams that are wanting or hoping to
Speaker 4: try to do something like this. It's very sneaky but
Speaker 4: under the radar. But I think Michae Lafleur and this
Speaker 4: team has actually got the personnel and the scheme to
Speaker 4: do it.
Speaker 2: Yeah, Michaelafler their new head coach. He's a huge question
Speaker 2: like does he have the goods? We'll find out. He's
Speaker 2: sort of the forgotten Lafleur brother, a guy who, when
Speaker 2: you think about the people from the Shanahan mcveaghtreet like
Speaker 2: it took him a while to get picked, including this offseason.
Speaker 2: They were the ten team to hire a head coach.
Speaker 2: He was not their first choice, so he has to
Speaker 2: prove it. But schematically and with the players that he have,
Speaker 2: it does make a lot of sense. This category, by
Speaker 2: the way, is called scheme Dream. It's where we talk
Speaker 2: some schematic stuff. I just want to point out the
Speaker 2: defensive coordinator is still the same Nick Rollis. He did
Speaker 2: some really weird stuff a couple of years ago, super
Speaker 2: creative with Jonathan Gannon who was the head coach, and
Speaker 2: everyone was like, Wow, that was pretty cool. They had
Speaker 2: a lot of injuries, not a lot of talent. Last
Speaker 2: year they had more talent. I don't think they were
Speaker 2: expected to do as much weird stuff. Then they got
Speaker 2: hurt all over again. It was less effective. I think
Speaker 2: it was partly less effective because Buddhabaker was less effective,
Speaker 2: and he's a big part of all that. Yeah, getting older,
Speaker 2: so him getting better. They're pretty deep at edge. They
Speaker 2: have Josh Sweat who's on the pup list right now,
Speaker 2: and Xavin Collins and Baron Browning and bj os Alert
Speaker 2: like guys that are decent, but it's not like the
Speaker 2: most talented group. So just keeping an eye on how
Speaker 2: creative Nick rallis and this Cardinals defense, which doesn't look
Speaker 2: amazing on paper, is going to be. But you mentioned
Speaker 2: Walter Nolan is a young defensive tackle that I really like.
Speaker 3: Let's go to the things go wrong if.
Speaker 4: Section, well, it's it really goes part and parcel with
Speaker 4: what you're talking about with their defense. If they don't
Speaker 4: look like a pro operation overall, First of all, this progress,
Speaker 4: that's all they're asking for after such a bad season,
Speaker 4: decimated by injuries. This was the number one team in
Speaker 4: a jested games lost to injuries last season per FTN
Speaker 4: and per the Elite FTN Almanag.
Speaker 3: Which I've really enjoyed.
Speaker 4: I've enjoyed the writing style of a lot of those
Speaker 4: ride ups too, So shout.
Speaker 2: Out to the second most injured teams in twenty five
Speaker 2: years in.
Speaker 4: Twenty five years since they created the stat, Like, it's
Speaker 4: absolutely wild. They lost people. They lost players everywhere the defense.
Speaker 4: They are getting back some of these really promising corners.
Speaker 4: Garrett Williams, who played some slot for them last season,
Speaker 4: is going to be back. Mac Wilson, the linebacker, is
Speaker 4: going to be back. Walter Nolan, who we mentioned is
Speaker 4: going to be back. Will Johnson was really banged up
Speaker 4: on and off last season.
Speaker 3: He's going to be back.
Speaker 4: Sean Murphy Bunting, who may at this point be a
Speaker 4: move player or maybe even a depth guy because of
Speaker 4: how Garrett Williams was playing, you know, could come back.
Speaker 4: This is going to be really really interesting to me
Speaker 4: because these are all guys I like, these are all
Speaker 4: players that I see potential in, and yet the well,
Speaker 4: the coordinator is a huge question mark to me.
Speaker 3: Still after some strong.
Speaker 2: Start, Yeah, it's less about the coordinator. I think he's
Speaker 2: fun and it's just it's the schedule. I mean, that's
Speaker 2: the things go wrong if the schedule is actually as
Speaker 2: hard as it looks. Sometimes schedules are predictable, sometimes they're not.
Speaker 2: I think the Cardinals do not fit in these bottom
Speaker 2: five or six teams in the NFL. I am more
Speaker 2: like the projections that the f DAN Almanac had. They
Speaker 2: actually in terms of just pure efficiency, had them as
Speaker 2: the twenty third best team in the league. Whch doesn't
Speaker 2: sound great, but it means you're better than eight or nineteen. Yeah,
Speaker 2: I agree with that. Like I think you put them
Speaker 2: in a in a bad division, they could come in
Speaker 2: second place like the NFC South or some other, but
Speaker 2: they are not in that division. Like they open with
Speaker 2: at Chargers and then Seahawks forty nine ers, and like
Speaker 2: can you find a way to avoid being zero and three?
Speaker 2: And then it's on paper with this division and even
Speaker 2: with some of the out of division schedule it is
Speaker 2: just absolutely brutal. And then part and parcel that is
Speaker 2: kind of like, all right, if we're winning too much,
Speaker 2: like when do we pull the car set?
Speaker 1: They could kind of tank.
Speaker 2: By going to Carson Beck at some point, like if
Speaker 2: they go to Carson Beck at week seven. I feel
Speaker 2: like the season's got to feel over in week seven.
Speaker 3: Hard and Parcel Huh, I don't know.
Speaker 2: I said that, George h ceiling floor of the team.
Speaker 2: You know, I just mentioned the twenty third team in DVA.
Speaker 2: So with the schedule, if they play to their talent
Speaker 2: and stay healthy, I still think they could scrape out
Speaker 2: like six wins.
Speaker 3: Yeah, that's my ceiling for them, sixty seven wins.
Speaker 1: But with this schedule that's hard.
Speaker 2: That's almost saying that in a bad division you might
Speaker 2: be able to win eight or nine.
Speaker 3: Yeah.
Speaker 4: Well, that's my ceiling for them is six games, and
Speaker 4: then I could see four that they could win on
Speaker 4: their on their actual schedule as a you know, so
Speaker 4: for me, four to six games is their spot, and
Speaker 4: that's fine.
Speaker 1: I feel like their floor is like two.
Speaker 2: They could be the worst team in the NFL because
Speaker 2: if they get hurt, if things go wrong again, and
Speaker 2: I know we're not trying to think about injuries.
Speaker 4: I don't think they will be they have I don't
Speaker 4: think they have competence if not like elite talent at quarterback,
Speaker 4: it's just competent. You're setting, You're just setting a stability factor,
Speaker 4: and then I think this offense is.
Speaker 3: Gonna be good.
Speaker 2: It's like, you got a couple of games against the
Speaker 2: Commanders and you know Saints and Giant's, like, you gotta
Speaker 2: win those games. Yeah, you know the others, the others,
Speaker 2: big big underdogs. Let's go to the Los Angeles Rams,
Speaker 2: the Super Bowl favorites in the desert right now. And
Speaker 2: that's part of what's bringing me joy about this team.
Speaker 2: We can get to the defense like should be as
Speaker 2: good as the offense, which is exciting. But to me,
Speaker 2: the fact that we have a super team, that we
Speaker 2: kind of got a boogeyman, that we got a team
Speaker 2: that when they're in primetime or every day of the
Speaker 2: week is kind of like the flashy team because of
Speaker 2: the Miles Garrett trade in large part, but also because
Speaker 2: of the other players. Pukinakua and you have the MVP
Speaker 2: and and all the other moves you can get into.
Speaker 1: I just like that.
Speaker 2: I it's not because my family's RAMS fans, so that
Speaker 2: that doesn't hurt, but like, I like that people will
Speaker 2: be like going at them. Every Rams game is gonna
Speaker 2: feel like a bigger game that I like.
Speaker 4: Well, it's going to be similar to what we saw.
Speaker 4: I don't even think it'll be as similar as what
Speaker 4: we saw in twenty twenty one, because what we saw
Speaker 4: in twenty two one was all this came in waves.
Speaker 4: Everybody knew that Stafford and McVeigh was going to be solid,
Speaker 4: but then they just kept adding players in waves. Now
Speaker 4: everybody's got a full training camp to get their best
Speaker 4: ready for that game on the schedule. And so for me,
Speaker 4: what this sort of reminds me of is some of
Speaker 4: that twenty eighteen stuff, some of that league rattling, concept
Speaker 4: changing stuff when the collision of a good team with
Speaker 4: a good defense or a good offense in this case,
Speaker 4: clashes and collides against us perceived super team like this,
Speaker 4: And that's for me, that's my joy is, like, what
Speaker 4: are we gonna learn out of this season? Not just
Speaker 4: from the Rams and how they're built. They're built like
Speaker 4: a what if team, Like what if we just tried this?
Speaker 4: People think people are talking with their friends in the
Speaker 4: bar or whatever they're like, wouldn't it be cool if
Speaker 4: a team just did this like Wool.
Speaker 2: What if we added Miles Garrett to Byron Young, who's
Speaker 2: a top twenty five young edge and Kobe Turner who's
Speaker 2: a fifteen young defensive tackle, and Braden Fisk, and they
Speaker 2: like Josiah Stewart, and what if we added Trent McDuffie
Speaker 2: in the back end and his old teammate give him
Speaker 2: a lot of money, and like they feel good about
Speaker 2: every position.
Speaker 1: I was trying to think of comps.
Speaker 2: People have brought up the Eagles dream team with Namdi Osma,
Speaker 2: which if you look back at the time, was more
Speaker 2: of a media creation. It was like they added like Osama,
Speaker 2: who is awesome, and like Vince Young as their backup
Speaker 2: and a couple It wasn't It wasn't the same. Reminds
Speaker 2: me a little more of just like peak Patriots when
Speaker 2: they were rolling a little bit and just like, Okay,
Speaker 2: that's the team that everyone's shooting for because they're just
Speaker 2: playing that well, and yet like are they even favorites
Speaker 2: in this division? That's that's for later. We're gonna predict it.
Speaker 2: Let's go for the most important non quarterback give Yeah.
Speaker 4: So I had a big number of factors to choose
Speaker 4: from here, Yes, because I wanted to pick someone like
Speaker 4: perhaps Kobe Turner, who couldn't finish that NFC Championship game
Speaker 4: because of the injury and then really is going to
Speaker 4: be counted on as the true knows, like that anchor
Speaker 4: that lets Miles Garrett do whatever he wants to do.
Speaker 4: Essentially on the edge, Warren McClendon, who's taking over for
Speaker 4: Rob Havenstein at right tackle. Depth along their offensive line
Speaker 4: is obviously going to be crucial.
Speaker 3: I am hope.
Speaker 4: I'm actually going to go with David Goone, a name
Speaker 4: that Dave many people have not heard of, but he
Speaker 4: is the quarterbacks coach, and this is the guy who
Speaker 4: is actually going to be in charge of getting either
Speaker 4: backup Stetson Bennett or backup rookie Ty Simpson ready to
Speaker 4: back up MVP quarterback Matthew Stafford at thirty eight years old,
Speaker 4: if anything happens to him, if that tackle depth isn't
Speaker 4: what we think it's going to be, if Aleric Jackson,
Speaker 4: the left tackle, misses time due to his legal situation,
Speaker 4: if the league decides to suspend him, this is a
Speaker 4: potential pivot point here collectively, if anything happens. I don't
Speaker 4: want to assume anything will because he was great last season,
Speaker 4: but if anything happens, backup quarterback is a huge question
Speaker 4: mark for this team and that is David Gohon's job.
Speaker 4: That is not Sean mcvay's job. Sean McVay famously is
Speaker 4: not developing these quarterbacks if they are not the number
Speaker 4: one quarterback behind the scenes. That is David Goone, who
Speaker 4: is Sean mcvay's like number one guy. The coach he
Speaker 4: has hoped to not lose the most over the last
Speaker 4: couple of years. He is in charge, and camp reports
Speaker 4: are saying so far he has been glued to Ty Simpson.
Speaker 2: I love that choice, and I immediately searched for David
Speaker 2: Goon's game blog because I was like.
Speaker 3: Well, I'm going to get a phone call because oh,
Speaker 3: you can't. Don't we keep him on the radar?
Speaker 2: I was like, I think David Goones started some games
Speaker 2: and it was the first year I covered the NFL
Speaker 2: lefty long time ago. He averaged three point four yards
Speaker 2: per attempt. That might be the lowest number I've ever seen.
Speaker 2: I mean it was only for forty attempts. He struggled
Speaker 2: in those two games for the Texans, but he's an
Speaker 2: elite athlete compared to everyone else, you know, compared to
Speaker 2: like ninety nine point you know.
Speaker 1: Six percent of people have tried to play sports.
Speaker 2: He made it to professional sports, but I just remembered
Speaker 2: he's struggle in a really difficult to watch away one
Speaker 2: hundred and thirty five yards combined and two starts.
Speaker 1: You don't you don't see that too much. I chose Pina.
Speaker 3: Mm hm, that's a good choice.
Speaker 1: It's not. Yeah, no, it's not just because.
Speaker 4: I guess you just don't great such as me. Yeah,
Speaker 4: you just picked the obvious answer.
Speaker 1: Well, they were a little thin, Like.
Speaker 2: Pokin Akua is dealing with this civil suit, some allegations
Speaker 2: from from a woman, and there are pictures of bite
Speaker 2: marks out there, and he made some thunder hitted off
Speaker 2: field stuff last season, and like that made you not
Speaker 2: related to that. That was like made you question his
Speaker 2: maturity a little bit. And yet you know he he
Speaker 2: has the argument for maybe the best receiver in the NFL,
Speaker 2: the most important and the reason I put him here
Speaker 2: more than anything is not just that is that it's
Speaker 2: a little thin after them.
Speaker 1: Yes, DeVante Adams was not the.
Speaker 2: Same last year, and I want I want to see
Speaker 2: DeVante Adams maybe like either stop that client or improve.
Speaker 2: I know the tight end group is great and we
Speaker 2: can get into that with the scheme and everything, but
Speaker 2: the third receiver is just not there, and so they
Speaker 2: just they just need Puka to stay and be at
Speaker 2: that level, yeah or else it it all gets a
Speaker 2: little rickety if you're counting too much on DeVante Adams.
Speaker 2: And then who do you think will be their third receiver?
Speaker 4: I think Kunate Momfield first of all, could take a
Speaker 4: step forward, needs to take a step forward.
Speaker 2: A seventh round pick from a year ago and played
Speaker 2: well for a seventh round.
Speaker 3: Rookie played well.
Speaker 4: And if you go back and you watch his tape
Speaker 4: while he was at Pitt, they were doing a lot
Speaker 4: of things similarly to what mcveigh's like former sort of
Speaker 4: pure eleven personnel offense look like. And he really he
Speaker 4: has the knack for like really understanding like where the
Speaker 4: voids on the field.
Speaker 3: Are that he needs to hit.
Speaker 2: I mean, he was on the field in the moments
Speaker 2: that decided whether they went to the super Bowl or now.
Speaker 3: It was hard because he and it was tough, tough
Speaker 3: moments for him too.
Speaker 4: But this is a player who I know they're really
Speaker 4: high on and who, like I said, absolutely has to
Speaker 4: take a step forward. Jordan Whittington, maybe is that you know,
Speaker 4: lateral receiver three, but he's going to be used a
Speaker 4: lot as a blocker and sort of like elevating that
Speaker 4: run game and getting that that you know, sort of
Speaker 4: figured out if they want to stay in some of
Speaker 4: these smaller personnels when they're run blocking.
Speaker 3: So that's someone to look at too. But this is
Speaker 3: this is a for me.
Speaker 4: It goes into scheme dream with them Greg, which you know,
Speaker 4: I know everybody's probably sick of me talking about thirteen
Speaker 4: personnel tough cookies. I'm going to talk about it all year, guys,
Speaker 4: But this is one of the stories of last season,
Speaker 4: the three tight ends on the field and basically Sean
Speaker 4: McVay taking his eleven personnel playbook and translating it directly
Speaker 4: into what his tight ends, who all could catch the
Speaker 4: ball and all could block, what would be able to
Speaker 4: do using those same concepts. And it was really interesting
Speaker 4: to me that they stayed with the two elite receivers
Speaker 4: this year, and it begged the question for me, does
Speaker 4: he now start to build in more twelve personnel, two
Speaker 4: tight ends, two receivers, understanding the depth questions that he
Speaker 4: does have and understanding where some of the skills sets are,
Speaker 4: what they didn't have was a more natural fit into
Speaker 4: twelve personnel. They could go eleven to thirteen in my mind,
Speaker 4: because he already had an entire team understanding what that
Speaker 4: eleven personnel look like. Three receivers, making them bigger going
Speaker 4: into three tight ends playing very similar pass structure. So
Speaker 4: for me, what if he builds out more twelve into camp.
Speaker 3: We don't know. We have to see.
Speaker 4: That gives them maybe like not player depth they that
Speaker 4: they do need. But another answer, should anything happen to
Speaker 4: any of the receivers.
Speaker 2: And they have great depth that tight end, it's outrageous.
Speaker 2: Kolby Parkinson has turned into a dude. Tyler Higbee has
Speaker 2: been there forever. Might be his last year with the Rams.
Speaker 1: We'll see.
Speaker 2: But they have a second round pick and Terrence Ferguson
Speaker 2: from a year ago who's very physically impressive and could
Speaker 2: take a step up. They have a second round pick
Speaker 2: this year in Max Clair. They have a guy in
Speaker 2: Davis Allen who literally some games would play more than
Speaker 2: DeVante Adams because they trusted him so much as a
Speaker 2: blocker and they were playing so much thirteen personnel. And yes,
Speaker 2: it's gotten talked about a lot this offseason. I don't
Speaker 2: think by you, just by everyone, but I don't think
Speaker 2: like I do. Think it's worth pointing out that they
Speaker 2: did it more than like more than double any other
Speaker 2: team in the league, more than probably any team in
Speaker 2: NFL history, and the efficiency with which they did it,
Speaker 2: like they were the best offense ever buy a lot
Speaker 2: if you just isolate those plays. So it was like
Speaker 2: that effective. It made that big of adherence. We have
Speaker 2: to move on things go wrong for this super duper team.
Speaker 3: Yeah, if well, we're not trying to factor in injuries here.
Speaker 1: Not really now. Yeah, it feels like for me, yeah, I've.
Speaker 4: Already presented the depth concerns that I have. Obviously those
Speaker 4: still are a factor here in this in this category,
Speaker 4: for me, it's sort of a much simpler question than that,
Speaker 4: like what if it just doesn't work, Like what if
Speaker 4: the vibes go bad or something. I have no proof
Speaker 4: of believing that would be the case, other than if
Speaker 4: like compounding injuries happen at one position group that's important
Speaker 4: or more. This is like they did it in Waves
Speaker 4: in twenty twenty one and it sort of kept the
Speaker 4: energy rolling. This is interesting to me because it's like,
Speaker 4: what's gonna be their thing that they do in November.
Speaker 4: That's always the question with this team when they're contending team,
Speaker 4: what's gonna be the new thing or the wrinkle they
Speaker 4: add in November that sparks everybody up again. So for me,
Speaker 4: it's like, Okay, all of this looks awesome and so
Speaker 4: fun on paper, what if it just doesn't work?
Speaker 1: Right?
Speaker 2: I think the two routes, and I'm picking knits, would
Speaker 2: be the defense is just good instead of great, Like
Speaker 2: it looks pretty great on paper. Secondaries especially aren't predictable.
Speaker 2: I think that goes to the like, what if it
Speaker 2: doesn't work. McDuffie and Watson come in, they really trust
Speaker 2: cam curl and Quentin Lake like it all makes sense,
Speaker 2: but between them and the linebackers, maybe that is just like, oh,
Speaker 2: it's just good not great. My answer though, is the
Speaker 2: offensive line. You know, Alaric Jackson might be suspended, we'll see.
Speaker 2: Like they played well last year. You mentioned McClendon at center,
Speaker 2: it's Coleman Shelton and Ovula has been good when he's
Speaker 2: been out there, but it's a little up and down.
Speaker 2: I just feel like that's probably my biggest concern, that
Speaker 2: that's not like a difference making offensive line. And then
Speaker 2: I could throw this into our little Land Yaps section,
Speaker 2: which is just like a little something extra if we've
Speaker 2: got it, which is you know specialties.
Speaker 4: Well, yeah, that they'd like that much like the Rams
Speaker 4: we have not spoken about, right, I mean.
Speaker 1: I probably cost them the Super Bowl last year. Over yeah,
Speaker 1: I would say.
Speaker 6: Yeah.
Speaker 4: They hired new special teams coordinator Bubba van Trone, they
Speaker 4: have Harrison MeVis as their kicker. Still big questions for
Speaker 4: me in the return game for them, They're not an
Speaker 4: aggressive return team. They started being a little more aggressive
Speaker 4: with Jordan Winnington last year, which was great, but they
Speaker 4: had some ball security issues that really cost them, and
Speaker 4: then their return coverage was a huge problem for them
Speaker 4: obviously in key moments last season and into the postseason.
Speaker 3: So that's that's a huge question.
Speaker 4: And my Land yap is Cliff Kingsbury's there, but I
Speaker 4: don't Yeah, he's going to be doing much with the
Speaker 4: quarterbacks specifically. I don't know why we keep pushing this
Speaker 4: narrative that he's working with quarterbacks this. I think he's
Speaker 4: I think there's going to be some some inter some
Speaker 4: creative stuff they might try.
Speaker 3: Well, I was gonna say oh, some spread with big
Speaker 3: bodies like that is what I would be really curious about.
Speaker 2: Seeing they played at the second fastest pace of any
Speaker 2: team in the league last year.
Speaker 1: Stafford's great at that.
Speaker 2: So I'm really glad you mentioned Kingsbury because the things
Speaker 2: that he does well tempo and then coming up with
Speaker 2: like four or five plazy treat that's like, oh, that
Speaker 2: was pretty cool, Like that's kind of a perfect role
Speaker 2: for him.
Speaker 3: Yes, in LA it's great. I agree.
Speaker 4: And also, I can't be the only one who noticed
Speaker 4: from the content that the RAMS social media team posted that.
Speaker 3: The Immortal trailer is already at training camp. It's parked
Speaker 3: right outside the door.
Speaker 1: The trailer here, the Immortal Chamber.
Speaker 3: The trailer that the silver Bullet trailer that is.
Speaker 1: A Mortal from Amortal.
Speaker 3: The chamber is parked right outside the freaking dorms.
Speaker 2: The a Mortal actually came in what fourth and MVP
Speaker 2: voting last year. It was like Stafford and then.
Speaker 3: Well, I don't have a vote, but that's what I hear.
Speaker 2: I'm working on it. We haven't gotten to the ceiling
Speaker 2: floor obviously. The ceiling is is the Super Bowl? Yeah, yeah,
Speaker 2: I think the floor. They are one of two teams.
Speaker 2: I just would be stunned if they didn't make the playoffs.
Speaker 2: It's it's hard in the NFL, like so to me,
Speaker 2: the floor is it's a tough division and you're playing
Speaker 2: on the road in the playoffs as a wild card team.
Speaker 1: That's how I.
Speaker 4: For my ceiling floor. I was curious, have you heard
Speaker 4: of the phenomenon of the Tzara death Pants? No?
Speaker 3: Okay, let me inform you about this. The Zara Death
Speaker 3: Pants are a.
Speaker 4: Very wide leg, flowy pair of Palazzo pants sold by Zara,
Speaker 4: the clothing company, that are causing young women to trip
Speaker 4: and fall in heinous fashion if they are not totally
Speaker 4: focused on the legs of the pants and they're swishing.
Speaker 4: Sort of reminded me of when I tripped over my
Speaker 4: own pants at the combine and fell face.
Speaker 1: Down right in front of you are a great physical comedian.
Speaker 4: Right in front of another set. Really embarrassing moment. These
Speaker 4: pants are stylish, and they're beautiful, and they got a
Speaker 4: lot going for them, and they look great on paper.
Speaker 3: But if you are not locked in, you're gonna each.
Speaker 2: Okay that the expectations are a lot to deal with.
Speaker 2: This is your te for McVeigh like these are the
Speaker 2: good old days. They're in them right now. Sometimes you know,
Speaker 2: it's been a fun build, like in Stafford two point zero.
Speaker 2: If you think about it's been very orderly. Wildcard loss
Speaker 2: in a surprise season, division round loss where they were
Speaker 2: rounding into i think championship form right at the end.
Speaker 2: And then last year where they're one of the best
Speaker 2: two teams in the league but they lose in the
Speaker 2: conference title Like now they are expected.
Speaker 3: Sorry, death pant.
Speaker 2: That was actually the only thing I have noticed. This
Speaker 2: is a stupid point, But they're a lot like they're no,
Speaker 2: you're those great go for it greg. Their losses have
Speaker 2: been like perfectly distributed in the Sean McVay era. Okay,
Speaker 2: when they've made the playoffs, they've lost in the wildcard
Speaker 2: round twice, they've lost in the division round twice, they've
Speaker 2: lost now in the conference championship game, you've lost in
Speaker 2: the Super Bowl, and you've won the Super Bowl. If
Speaker 2: you just sort of averaged it out, they've almost done
Speaker 2: exactly what you would expect that each time. So maybe
Speaker 2: maybe it's their time to go win another Super Bowl.
Speaker 2: Let's take a break and let's come back with another team,
Speaker 2: another pair of teams we think could win the Super
Speaker 2: at least I think the fourth nine is good.
Speaker 1: They're up next.
Speaker 2: Back on NFL Daily. H's some big divisions right off
Speaker 2: the top. We're continuing it on Wednesday. But have we
Speaker 2: got AFC North? I think NFC North North. Okay, But
Speaker 2: we'll have a show in between. More on that later,
Speaker 2: that'll be with Nick Schubb. For now, we're talking about
Speaker 2: a team in the San Francisco forty nine Ers who
Speaker 2: are already practicing like the Rams, like the Seahawks. That's
Speaker 2: giving me joy? What is giving you joy about this
Speaker 2: forty nine ers?
Speaker 4: Remembering that Mike Evans is a forty nine Ers, yes,
Speaker 4: which I know is a sense of really sore point
Speaker 4: for Tampa Bay Buccaneers fans, and I think that's totally
Speaker 4: fair to feel your feelings on that. But watching him
Speaker 4: walk into forty nine Ers camp via social media and
Speaker 4: then some of the practice reports about him, just like
Speaker 4: going up for catches already, and just how he just
Speaker 4: looks like the receiver one there it to me. It
Speaker 4: just makes so much sense to me. And I know
Speaker 4: he's coming off of the collarbone injury.
Speaker 3: I understand all of that.
Speaker 4: But it just brings me joy that they've got a
Speaker 4: bona fide wide receiver one and there's like lore to it,
Speaker 4: and I just think it's going to be a fun
Speaker 4: year for him.
Speaker 8: Yeah.
Speaker 2: The report that like Purty's first deep ball, which omens
Speaker 2: favorite reportedly did not hit on almost at all and
Speaker 2: practices last year, is to Mike Evans and he has
Speaker 2: separation and he.
Speaker 1: Makes the play.
Speaker 3: Omens inside, I'm into it.
Speaker 2: It's very similar to what's bringing me joy about the team,
Speaker 2: which is just that they won't go away. Yeah, that
Speaker 2: they've won twelve games in three the last four years
Speaker 2: and here they are right back. Last year was supposed
Speaker 2: to be a step back and it really wasn't. And
Speaker 2: that the offseason, including Evans, gave me joy, Like I
Speaker 2: just think Evans and then the Osa Odigie Zua trade
Speaker 2: was just exactly what they needed for those just checking in,
Speaker 2: you know, they traded a mid round pick, they got
Speaker 2: these guys. Evans took way less money to play for
Speaker 2: the forty nine and just because he wanted to, and
Speaker 2: they got Odigi Zua for a low pick price, like
Speaker 2: a third round pick, and he's exactly what they needed.
Speaker 2: And they bring back Drake Greenlaw where he belongs, and
Speaker 2: even some of the lottery kind of defensive back tickets
Speaker 2: they bought Jack Jones Nate Hobbs like those makes sense
Speaker 2: to meet Jack Jones in the middle already supposedly a
Speaker 2: two interceptions like tipping passes and stuff at practice. So
Speaker 2: I just think they had a really good offseason, considering
Speaker 2: they were kind of limited by all these big salaries
Speaker 2: at the top of their docket, including Trent Williams who
Speaker 2: got a new deal. I think they really did well.
Speaker 2: That leads me into my most important non quarterback, Nick Bosa. Okay,
Speaker 2: just because he's one of those big salaries, and he
Speaker 2: missed a lot of time in twenty twenty four too,
Speaker 2: and then he missed almost all last year with the
Speaker 2: ACL was the second time. And they just the way
Speaker 2: they're built. I know DIGGI Zoo is going to help
Speaker 2: in the middle, but he's like a second guy, you know,
Speaker 2: like right now, you need four or five guys. I
Speaker 2: just don't think they have enough. But they really don't
Speaker 2: have enough if Nick Bosa isn't like capital Nick Bosa
Speaker 2: one of the five best pass rushers.
Speaker 1: In the NFL.
Speaker 4: The way that they're going to do some of their fronts,
Speaker 4: and reports out of training camp already have have shown
Speaker 4: Raheem Morris mixing with some five man fronts too, and
Speaker 4: so Mikel Williams at some point coming back into full
Speaker 4: speed is going to be really important for them.
Speaker 2: Yeah, the first round pick right now, they actually have
Speaker 2: been using Romelo Height in their starting lineup, a third
Speaker 2: round pick.
Speaker 1: Which I like.
Speaker 4: I like eventually as a little bit of an out
Speaker 4: wider player if they're going to play some of these
Speaker 4: wide five man fronts, because I like him as a
Speaker 4: little bit more of a speed right purely off the
Speaker 4: edge as a rusher, and that sort of goes into
Speaker 4: some of the mix of players that they're gonna have
Speaker 4: along this front. You're right, Nick Bosa has to be
Speaker 4: outstanding for them in order for this to really come
Speaker 4: to life, because you're just looking at when you play
Speaker 4: odd fronds like this, you're looking at mathematical equations and
Speaker 4: how you can be a plus two over someone else's
Speaker 4: blocking plus one or plus one and a half if
Speaker 4: they have a chip. So I really really like what
Speaker 4: they're trying to do. Are they healthy enough to do it?
Speaker 4: Which is why my most important non quarterback is their
Speaker 4: medical staff. Okay, and I know that's a little on
Speaker 4: the nose or tongue in cheek or whatever, but the
Speaker 4: forty nine Ers had the fifth most adjusted games last
Speaker 4: due to injuries in twenty twenty five per FTN Almanac.
Speaker 4: It felt like more because of some of the players
Speaker 4: who were injured. Fred Warner's coming back, which is practice.
Speaker 4: That's another reason for joy overall. If you like football,
Speaker 4: you like watching Fred Warner play football. He's practicing, and
Speaker 4: I think he elevates even a maybe not as explosive
Speaker 4: Dre Greenlaw, who had some flashes when he was healthy
Speaker 4: and then has been dealing obviously with the injuries too.
Speaker 4: George Kittle will obviously at some point be back. We're
Speaker 4: not sure yet about the Australia game. Jake Tanjis would
Speaker 4: back him up at that point. Played well last year,
Speaker 4: got the contract. Nick Bosa, as you mentioned, Mike Evans,
Speaker 4: like I mentioned, is coming off the broken collarbone. Rock
Speaker 4: Perty was banged up through the year and missed games.
Speaker 4: Ricky Pearsall was banged up and missed some time and
Speaker 4: hasn't quite taken that next level yet. Christian McCaffrey is
Speaker 4: thirty years old. Mike Evans is thirty three, Trent Williams
Speaker 4: is what thirty eight, So you're reaching like the end
Speaker 4: of this era and they just keep going. They're like,
Speaker 4: you know, they just keep like respawning essentially, and this
Speaker 4: medical staff, to me, it becomes the most important quarterback
Speaker 4: in this organization.
Speaker 2: Yeah, and it's been rough for a couple of seasons,
Speaker 2: but that staff's been there for a long time and
Speaker 2: it just feels like it's been bad luck.
Speaker 1: But yeah, you may.
Speaker 2: And it's not just the old player like Michael Williams,
Speaker 2: the first round pick who's probably more of like a
Speaker 2: run a run stuffer. They need to they need to
Speaker 2: stay healthy. You're you're absolutely right. My scheme dream is
Speaker 2: gonna be about what you mentioned with Raheem Morris, who
Speaker 2: was great last year and he wasn't calling the plays
Speaker 2: for the Falcons on defense that was Jeff Oulbrook. But
Speaker 2: a creative defensive mind. You know they're going to be
Speaker 2: I want to see what they do to change in general,
Speaker 2: like what do you expect? Do you think they're going
Speaker 2: to be as wild as a Falcons twenty twenty five defense,
Speaker 2: because you do that in part when you don't have
Speaker 2: all the horses and like I said, like I like
Speaker 2: odg Azua and Bosa and everything, but it's it's relatively thin.
Speaker 2: The defensive tackles have a lot to prove outside O
Speaker 2: Digizua and the edges do two and like the secondary's fine,
Speaker 2: but I think this team could use a little uh
Speaker 2: Raheem Morris sprinkling in some creativity.
Speaker 1: Yeah.
Speaker 4: We've talked about this with a couple of other teams
Speaker 4: in our past preview, the Raiders being one of them.
Speaker 4: This is a much more talented defense than that, so
Speaker 4: I don't want to compare them by any means one
Speaker 4: to one here, but I think they're going to need
Speaker 4: some scheme like you mentioned, and I think for Rahee
Speaker 4: Morris again, mixing up with those odd fronts, those five
Speaker 4: extra man fronts are going to look like mixing up
Speaker 4: their secondary a lot, which I think is going to happen.
Speaker 4: You know two players who really took a step forward
Speaker 4: during their rookie seasons last year. One of them is
Speaker 4: going to play up front at knows Alfred Collins for them,
Speaker 4: and he was a factor at times and he is
Speaker 4: expected to be that again. If you're going to play
Speaker 4: those types of fronts, like it really does help to
Speaker 4: have that anchor point where I call it sort of
Speaker 4: the center of the solar system that everything else can
Speaker 4: orbit and rotate in these different rush packages around that player.
Speaker 4: And then upton Stout, who it was bumpy, Let's not
Speaker 4: be you know, incorrect here, Like it was bumpy at
Speaker 4: first as a rookie. He was thrown into it playing
Speaker 4: right away, he's five foot nine, played a lot bigger
Speaker 4: than he actually is, and then really through including through
Speaker 4: the postseason, really really took another step forward. And so
Speaker 4: when you've got Nate Hobbs who's dealing with injuries, and
Speaker 4: Jack Jones, and then you've got like Diamond or Leonard
Speaker 4: who you know should be should be held and playing better,
Speaker 4: like it just it's like to me, they're going to
Speaker 4: mix a lot of their defensive backfield. They're gonna make
Speaker 4: things or try to make things as cloudy as possible
Speaker 4: for the quarterbacks. It's almost like we hope that our
Speaker 4: coverage sets the table a little bit for our rush,
Speaker 4: and eventually our rush when healthy, comes together to help
Speaker 4: the coverage.
Speaker 3: Near the back stretch of the season, when teams are
Speaker 3: going to be trying.
Speaker 2: To throw long on projected starting players in the secondary
Speaker 2: Ronardo Green, second round pick, Gyre Brown, third round pick,
Speaker 2: Malik Mustaffa fourth round pick, Diamino or lador who's been
Speaker 2: there for a while now, fifth round pick, Upton Stout,
Speaker 2: third round pick, Marcus Siegle fifth round pick. They really
Speaker 2: need some young guys to step up and be guys.
Speaker 2: Barnwell did a or no Aaron Schotz did a ranking
Speaker 2: of the best teams in terms of under twenty five talent.
Speaker 2: He had the forty nine ers twenty seventh. I think
Speaker 2: that's instructive, like they're just not a team. They need
Speaker 2: some of these younger guys to get better, although a
Speaker 2: lot of those guys already over twenty five. What do
Speaker 2: you think Kyle's going to do while we're still in scheme?
Speaker 2: Is that where you're looking something on offense?
Speaker 4: Yeah, well I was looking at defense because they were
Speaker 4: twenty seventh in defensive DVOA and to me that's the
Speaker 4: biggest thing they were. What offensive DVOA was number two?
Speaker 1: So I know Kyle doesn't like try to be as like, hey,
Speaker 1: look at.
Speaker 3: Me, and yet he just does what he does.
Speaker 4: That's the thing is, like, you know, I think we've
Speaker 4: been waiting for a long time, or we say we've
Speaker 4: been waiting for a long time about Okay, well, when
Speaker 4: does Christian McCaffrey take less carries and turn more into
Speaker 4: this like respectral receiver.
Speaker 3: They already they already.
Speaker 4: Throw the ball to running backs on thirty percent thirty
Speaker 4: three percent of their of their past plays anyway, So
Speaker 4: that's like, I don't know how much you even want
Speaker 4: to increase that because then it takes balance away elsewhere.
Speaker 4: I think that, like it's again, you're gonna just see
Speaker 4: these guys do what they do. You'll see wrinkles, you'll
Speaker 4: see motion, different wrinkles. I hope you see more of
Speaker 4: a mix at running back because I just think that's
Speaker 4: more sustainable down the stretch. But really, what Kyle Shanahan
Speaker 4: does that is so effective is he takes his elite
Speaker 4: personnel who happened to be a mixture of personnel and
Speaker 4: he moves them all around the field and it just
Speaker 4: it has been the.
Speaker 3: Bread and butter.
Speaker 4: It is hard to defend the quarterback is playing excellent football.
Speaker 4: When you have that combination, I don't think you need
Speaker 4: to like think to overcomplicate it. I think you just
Speaker 4: go do what you do and expect that those guys
Speaker 4: will perform the way that you're used to.
Speaker 2: I hate that McCaffrey had four hundred and thirteen touches
Speaker 2: last year, the most in the NFL, the most he's
Speaker 2: ever had in his career. I just don't think he
Speaker 2: can expect the same season, which is why things go wrong.
Speaker 2: If you they just look old, you know, Yeah, it's
Speaker 2: just a common That's that was my I think the
Speaker 2: roster solid. I really believe in Purty. We haven't talked
Speaker 2: pretty here. We've talked about him before this offseason. I
Speaker 2: think he's a top ten quarterback. But Trent Williams was
Speaker 2: down a little bit last year, not much CMC could
Speaker 2: he feel the impact of last year. Kitt Killy's a
Speaker 2: pretty big deal at his age, you know. Mike Evans
Speaker 2: I believe in, but he is thirty three years old,
Speaker 2: Greenlaw Warner Bosa.
Speaker 1: You know that.
Speaker 2: Add it all up and like and the secondary could
Speaker 2: could get fried a little bit in the back end.
Speaker 2: So that that's to me that if things go wrong
Speaker 2: with a very tough schedule, it goes for the entire division.
Speaker 4: You know, I've talked about the defense a lot. That's
Speaker 4: a big my if things go wrong. They were a
Speaker 4: at times a ledweight. This this offense put some really
Speaker 4: interesting things together with two different quarterbacks. Mac Jones played
Speaker 4: really well. He's still the backup there to me. They've
Speaker 4: reshaped their receivers room a little bit, which is really
Speaker 4: interesting now featuring Christian Kirk, who was sort of.
Speaker 3: In and out of practice.
Speaker 1: He's already and it's going to miss some time.
Speaker 2: I'm not stated while we were taping cap strain, which
Speaker 2: is the worst early Yeah, so that's.
Speaker 4: Terrible, and that kind of we were wondering even if
Speaker 4: he was going to even make this roster because of
Speaker 4: some of the other They still have DeMarcus Robinson on
Speaker 4: the roster. Dejehn Stribbling is someone who you know, the
Speaker 4: middle round pick, your second round pick. He was an
Speaker 4: example of a team going very scheme dominant in their
Speaker 4: evaluation and not looking at the consensus board and not
Speaker 4: looking at all these things. They were literally taking a
Speaker 4: scheme player and taking him where they wanted to take him.
Speaker 2: And that wasn't like Brandon Nayuk. He kind of reminds
Speaker 2: me of Brandon Nayuk when Ayuk was coming out.
Speaker 4: Really interesting, really really interesting player to me. I'm curious
Speaker 4: to see how he does. They are going to need
Speaker 4: him to be a factor early on, and it's sort
Speaker 4: of a rare thing for a rookie receiver to really
Speaker 4: separate in this system. But if he can, if he
Speaker 4: can block, if he can can just sort of be
Speaker 4: fearless across the middle of the field. They got him
Speaker 4: running drift routes already out there, which tells me, which
Speaker 4: tells me something because that's a predominant scheme in that system,
Speaker 4: or predominant concept in that system. I think he's an
Speaker 4: interesting player to watch for me. You heard some buzz
Speaker 4: about him after the fact.
Speaker 1: They need they need some young players to step up.
Speaker 2: He is high on the on the list of possibilities
Speaker 2: floor ceiling as we wrap up, You know, they are
Speaker 2: on my list of teams that can win the Super Bowl.
Speaker 1: But this is not a big three to me.
Speaker 2: It's a pretty big difference between the Rams Seahawks and
Speaker 2: forty nine ers. So the floor is, you missed the playoffs.
Speaker 2: It's a tough schedule and very likely, Like what do
Speaker 2: I give their chances to win the division?
Speaker 1: Let's say.
Speaker 2: Fifteen to twenty percent max, Like, you know, compared to
Speaker 2: the run in three. I mean no, see that's what
Speaker 2: I'm saying. It's like more like one in six to me. Yeah, one,
Speaker 2: And so that means they're all in the NFCS, right,
Speaker 2: So that means you're playing road games in the playoffs.
Speaker 2: Tough place to be.
Speaker 4: Yeah, it's interesting to me they have one. They're one
Speaker 4: of the highest floor teams. We saw what they drop
Speaker 4: off to backup quarterback when things are going well. You know,
Speaker 4: we saw that they're pretty solid. You know, they don't
Speaker 4: have depth, a lot of depth on defense that I
Speaker 4: feel confident in, but on offense, I feel confident that
Speaker 4: this team, based on what we saw last year, is
Speaker 4: going to find a way. So for me, this is
Speaker 4: a super Bowl team at best, really really high floor,
Speaker 4: even playoff team at their worst.
Speaker 2: Okay, we got to start writing these down. You can't
Speaker 2: put everyone in the playoffs.
Speaker 3: But I hear you, oh you can't, weird, Well, we'll
Speaker 3: do that right before the season.
Speaker 2: The Seattle Seahawks will definitely be in the playoffs in
Speaker 2: our projections. What is bringing I need joy about the
Speaker 2: defending Super Bowl champion Seahawks.
Speaker 3: I like their off season.
Speaker 4: I like hearing you know, some of these guys kind
Speaker 4: of go into off season mode and we get to
Speaker 4: learn more about their personalities.
Speaker 3: I like to hear them on podcasts.
Speaker 4: I really got a really really like sort of beam
Speaker 4: of joy listening to Grey's Abel on Chris Lung's podcast
Speaker 4: the other day, just talking about what he learns from
Speaker 4: other teams, what he learns from players. I think they've
Speaker 4: got a real like student mentality on offense and defense
Speaker 4: and special teams in that building coaching staff as well.
Speaker 4: And that's something that really brings me joy, is just
Speaker 4: like listening to him and them in general talk about
Speaker 4: their process.
Speaker 2: Yeah, because they're still like a new team. It's a
Speaker 2: mix of young and old, but a lot of young
Speaker 2: players like Gray's Abel. Let's listen to him on the
Speaker 2: green Light podcast with Chris Long from Yo House Media.
Speaker 7: Well, first off, Kobe Turners like my kryptonite right now
Speaker 7: in the game of football. Like I don't know what
Speaker 7: it is, He's just Scott. My number just works me
Speaker 7: every single game. But it's so cool because, like like
Speaker 7: I said, as much as you want to like hate
Speaker 7: the Rams, like they're all really good dudes across the board,
Speaker 7: and like Kobe for an instance, is like he's out
Speaker 7: there and he just smiles, like he just plays the
Speaker 7: game for the love of the game. He's what makes
Speaker 7: the game fun to play against.
Speaker 2: Defensive blindman Dable has a chance to be one of
Speaker 2: the most dynamic you know, run blocker. His best reps
Speaker 2: last year were just absolutely outrageous. This team kind of
Speaker 2: like grays Abel. It's just like laying in the cut,
Speaker 2: but it's like sneaky dynamic. That's what's bringing me joy
Speaker 2: that we have a super duper power led by Sam Darnold,
Speaker 2: like what in an average offensive line. Like I like
Speaker 2: that different team builds can work, Like this is the
Speaker 2: first defending champion and I went back through this century
Speaker 2: that I was really thinking is like really led by
Speaker 2: defense since the last Seahawks championship and then you have
Speaker 2: to go back to the Bucks and Ravens.
Speaker 1: It's just rare.
Speaker 2: It's a different team build and it's not just like, hey,
Speaker 2: they won one Super Bowl by the numbers like DVOA, Like, yeah,
Speaker 2: that seems a little over its skis, but they had
Speaker 2: them as one of the five best teams in the
Speaker 2: last fifty years, Like they were that good. We had
Speaker 2: two just completely dominant teams last year. One of them
Speaker 2: was the Seahawks, and I just like the idea that
Speaker 2: they kind of follow in the steps of their coach.
Speaker 2: I think that's maybe like why they're a little laying
Speaker 2: it really tim, but it's it's just an incredibly talented
Speaker 2: defense and team in general. That's it's different than the
Speaker 2: superpowers we've seen lately, which are all just offense, offense, offense, quarterback.
Speaker 4: Yeah, they're a catalyst and that is probably the highest
Speaker 4: compliment I could pay a team or like a team
Speaker 4: build in general, and that they are also forcing people
Speaker 4: to ask the question this offseason of our defense is
Speaker 4: back in charge? Like do they have like the the
Speaker 4: power sword back in their hand?
Speaker 3: Right?
Speaker 4: And I think that maybe it's the slightly different framing
Speaker 4: of the question that's actually accurate. Is I think it's
Speaker 4: more possible to build outlier teams that are led by
Speaker 4: outlier defenses like this when the product of quarterback play
Speaker 4: has really risen to about medium to very good in
Speaker 4: the majority of you know quarterbacks who are starting full time.
Speaker 4: So I think that that also helps it make it
Speaker 4: possible you can focus your attention on really having this
Speaker 4: identity like this. It is possible to build an outlier
Speaker 4: defense that just like kicks doors down and just rex
Speaker 4: people and we'll keep evolving. Like that's one thing. Defense
Speaker 4: is hard to predict year over year. We talk about
Speaker 4: this a lot. You talked about it with Aaron Shotts.
Speaker 4: This is not a defense to me that I worry
Speaker 4: about because they do reflect the head coach, and they
Speaker 4: did not lose, you know, concerning levels of personnel, and
Speaker 4: they have an identity. And even with nickhim and Worry
Speaker 4: starting the year on pup which was out of nowhere,
Speaker 4: the ankle surgery and all of that that he had
Speaker 4: this offseason, I still think that this is a team
Speaker 4: that just knows what it's about and has a philosophy
Speaker 4: a teaching philosophy as well, and it's a really cool
Speaker 4: to watch.
Speaker 1: Could he be the most important non quarterback Emon Worry.
Speaker 2: Because he does help unlock them, not really substituting and
Speaker 2: changing on defense and McDonald, I don't know if it
Speaker 2: was just because he was getting pushed by a reporter.
Speaker 2: It was Greg Bell in Seattle, but he was very
Speaker 2: noncommittal about Emon Worry not just being back for Week one,
Speaker 2: but anytime. But it might have just been mcdonaldant not
Speaker 2: wanting to answer the question, but I do wonder you know,
Speaker 2: if they missed a lot of time, they would really
Speaker 2: miss Nick Invatory.
Speaker 1: I was thinking about him.
Speaker 4: For most personnel neutritarizer, personnel neutralizer, what do you have?
Speaker 4: I actually have je Jeri and Price on there. I
Speaker 4: think that because they lost Kenneth Walker. The thing that
Speaker 4: about running backs is, I know we don't like immediately
Speaker 4: like gasp and clutch our pearls when running backs changed teams.
Speaker 4: We did with Saquon Barkley again outliers. I'm not chasing
Speaker 4: outliers here, chasing the mean, which is usually you can
Speaker 4: get somebody else who can come in and affect the team.
Speaker 4: The thing that does make me concerned and then also
Speaker 4: really I'm curious about I'm not ruling this out at all,
Speaker 4: just very curious about it, is that while Seattle had
Speaker 4: the six best explosive play rate on offense last season,
Speaker 4: and obviously a ton of that was Jackson Smith and Jigba,
Speaker 4: who was phenomenal, they also got a lot of their
Speaker 4: you know, tone setting and evening pace, evening explosives out
Speaker 4: of Kenneth Walker in the run in the pass game,
Speaker 4: So like I've always done explosive plays as ten plus
Speaker 4: ten or more plus ten plus yards run or twenty
Speaker 4: plus yards pass. And he had the sixth highest explosive
Speaker 4: play rate among running backs who caught at least thirty
Speaker 4: passes last season per next Gen. And he was, you know,
Speaker 4: one of the more explosive play creating runners as well
Speaker 4: in the NFL per next Gen. And so I think
Speaker 4: that when you're looking for another place to get those
Speaker 4: explosives from, and Seattle was a very explosive, dominant offense,
Speaker 4: you're looking at the run game, you're looking at what
Speaker 4: Kenjidarian price do. I think he's really really talented. So
Speaker 4: I'm excited to see. But this is exactly where I'm
Speaker 4: looking at, is how can we keep this offense moving?
Speaker 4: We know the defense will sustain. How do we keep
Speaker 4: this offense staying middle to great as they were all
Speaker 4: last season?
Speaker 2: And it was a very inconsistent offense, including in the playoffs,
Speaker 2: Like it wasn't great in the Super Bowl for the
Speaker 2: most part, it wasn't great in that forty nine ers game.
Speaker 2: Like they weren't great down the stretch. They were up
Speaker 2: and down. They were quite good the first half of
Speaker 2: the season, and Donald's talked about that as he still
Speaker 2: is like mad that he didn't play better in the
Speaker 2: Super Bowls, like enjoy it, bro, But to your point, yeah,
Speaker 2: Price didn't profile as like a heavy workload guy. They're
Speaker 2: using him a lot in the passing game in the
Speaker 2: early days of practice, but it's going to be him
Speaker 2: and right now George Hallani is taking all the first
Speaker 2: team reps and so it's going to be maybe Halani
Speaker 2: and Price at the beginning of the season. Zach Sharbon
Speaker 2: he's coming off a torn achilles JSN is my most important.
Speaker 1: Nine quarterbacks well picked because like.
Speaker 2: I really don't have any doubts about him, but he's
Speaker 2: just he's gonna have to be justin Jefferson Jamar Chase
Speaker 2: like year after year, Like if he just continues on
Speaker 2: this pass, he's going to be a Hall of Famer.
Speaker 1: Yeah, you know, the falloff is just big too.
Speaker 2: Like Rashid Shaheed, I think in year two in this
Speaker 2: system can can help out. And you know, we didn't
Speaker 2: even mention they have a new offensive coordinator and Brian Fleury,
Speaker 2: which is a little bit of a concern. Maybe maybe
Speaker 2: that's part of your scheme dream here, but either way
Speaker 2: with Cooper Cup and Shaheed, it's still a pretty big
Speaker 2: fall off to like weapon two. So JSN just has
Speaker 2: to be that, dude, what is your scheme dream choice?
Speaker 4: Yeah, Well, something that we didn't mention enough, well, I
Speaker 4: say we is in like the ecosystem of media in general,
Speaker 4: was that how damn good their special teams was last season?
Speaker 4: They were number two in special teams DVOA. They're coached
Speaker 4: by Surprise A Harba. Jay Harbaugh is their special teams coordinator.
Speaker 3: Here's what they do.
Speaker 4: That is different though about it, and it's it's when
Speaker 4: you have a defensive minded and also defensive play calling
Speaker 4: head coach, as Mike McDonald, is your tendency as a
Speaker 4: you're not in control at all of the offense, which
Speaker 4: is where things may to me a big question mark
Speaker 4: is a later part of the conversation. But you can use,
Speaker 4: or you can decide to weaponize your special teams unit
Speaker 4: in as like an extension of what you do on
Speaker 4: defense and also use it as what you can control
Speaker 4: as a defensive coordinator on offense.
Speaker 3: That's exactly what they did.
Speaker 4: It wasn't just that their their field goal unit was
Speaker 4: great and Michael Dixon had what like ten touchbacks or
Speaker 4: ten inside the twenty punts no touchbacks, which is incredible,
Speaker 4: so consistent and flipping the field for them, but also
Speaker 4: that they were like really aggressive in their returns, in
Speaker 4: their coverage, in their field goal unit defense, they just
Speaker 4: they they were foot on the gas the entire time.
Speaker 4: And to me, that is clearly Mike McDonald and j
Speaker 4: Harbaugh deciding to say, we're not just going to make
Speaker 4: this a neutral phase of our team like most teams
Speaker 4: in the NFL still do, especially after the kickoff rule changed.
Speaker 4: What we're going to do is we're going to use
Speaker 4: this as an extension of our best unit and our
Speaker 4: best phases on the field, our explosive plays on offense.
Speaker 4: So this is an extension the return game obviously an
Speaker 4: extension of that, and then our aggression on defense.
Speaker 3: And that's exactly what they did. That's exactly what this
Speaker 3: special team is.
Speaker 1: Well them a super Bowl.
Speaker 3: It was incredible.
Speaker 2: I mean, I don't think they win without It's hard
Speaker 2: to be elite special teams year after year after year,
Speaker 2: although some teams have pulled it off. We'll see if
Speaker 2: the third Harbaugh can do it. I mentioned new offensive
Speaker 2: coordinator Brian Florey, the tight ends coach from the forty
Speaker 2: nine ers, make your rival a little worse. I'm not
Speaker 2: as worried about him as you normally would be. It's
Speaker 2: a third you know, coordinator in three years under Mike McDonald,
Speaker 2: which isn't great because the rest of the staff, their
Speaker 2: run game coordinator, their offensive line coach, they're all still
Speaker 2: in place. Things go wrong if I think the offensive line,
Speaker 2: like their improvement was a little overstated last year. And
Speaker 2: I don't want to get too much into injuries, but
Speaker 2: Charles Cross, you know, Abe Lucas, they've had injuries in
Speaker 2: the past.
Speaker 1: You know, they're a little weak in the middle.
Speaker 2: With Anthony Bradford, like, they were an inconsistent offense, and
Speaker 2: I think that was a reflection of the running game,
Speaker 2: which was inconsistent, which was a reflection of the offensive
Speaker 2: line for the most part.
Speaker 1: Darnold a little bit, you know, has has highs and
Speaker 1: lows two.
Speaker 2: So to me, that's that's where this goes wrong, is
Speaker 2: if the offensive line goes from like inconsistent to kind
Speaker 2: of bad. You know, I think I think there's a
Speaker 2: route that that happens with tough schedule and that you know,
Speaker 2: you're if you're not the tenth offense in the league
Speaker 2: like last if you're suddenly like the seventeenth, and then
Speaker 2: it just it all gets harder for a defense to
Speaker 2: carry you.
Speaker 4: Yeah, I think variants is things go wrong if if
Speaker 4: the variants, like you sort of have mentioned, dips too
Speaker 4: low on one side of the ball. They were so
Speaker 4: consistent in two of the three phases, defense and special
Speaker 4: teams last year, particularly November onward when special teams really
Speaker 4: took off for them with Rashid Shaheed on the team.
Speaker 4: To me, if they're variant steps too low on offense,
Speaker 4: that's when you start to stumble things compound. That's a
Speaker 4: number of different factors. That could be offensive line that
Speaker 4: could be, what does their run game look like? That
Speaker 4: could be, you know, are the tight ends still playing
Speaker 4: at this high level? That could be can they still
Speaker 4: use all the personnel that they are who are there?
Speaker 4: Can their receivers you know, Cooper Cup had a nice season,
Speaker 4: certainly showed up in big spots down the stretch for them,
Speaker 4: But can they can they continue to sustain behind JSN?
Speaker 4: These are all things where if your variants it is high,
Speaker 4: that's a concern to me. You know, you saw some
Speaker 4: with the offense last year. I don't really have anything
Speaker 4: else that I would be worried about with them.
Speaker 2: Yeah, I mean, look, they I guess the defense wasn't
Speaker 2: always great. The Rams smoked them a couple of times,
Speaker 2: you know, so that's that. I guess that's just a
Speaker 2: very specific we have to beat the Rams and ultimately,
Speaker 2: like our defense lost the battle two straight times at
Speaker 2: the end of the season, they made the big plays
Speaker 2: they won. I just think they just want to be better.
Speaker 2: They don't want to be giving up thirty points a
Speaker 2: game to the Rams. But yeah, it's hard to put calls.
Speaker 3: We see something a little more bespoke from them in those.
Speaker 2: And it won't be until late in the season. That's
Speaker 2: part of the weird schedule.
Speaker 1: I don't like it.
Speaker 2: Seahawks Rams are playing two of the final three weeks
Speaker 2: of the season, so stupid. I know, first games on Christmas.
Speaker 4: Give me one in November, right, Yeah, I hate that
Speaker 4: they don't love football. The schedulement.
Speaker 1: Ceiling.
Speaker 2: Yeah, Like, I just don't see a world where you
Speaker 2: don't power rank these two teams, the Rams and the
Speaker 2: Seahawks is the best two teams in the league. I
Speaker 2: guess I'm not that creative going into the season. I
Speaker 2: know it's going to change at some point. There will
Speaker 2: be some week obviously where we don't believe that. But
Speaker 2: right now roster schedule, even the biggest Darnold skeptics of
Speaker 2: us have to admit he's fitting nice and comfortably and
Speaker 2: then in a good middle of the NFL. So yeah,
Speaker 2: the floor I think is is that, Yeah, you're playing
Speaker 2: on the road in the in the playoffs because you
Speaker 2: don't win this division that you only you know it's
Speaker 2: a tough schedule. Overall, you win eleven games or something
Speaker 2: like that, you know that you're not like a world beater.
Speaker 4: Yeah, this is a repeat Super Bowl champion team at
Speaker 4: their best, still a playoff team at their worst.
Speaker 2: Okay, So now we get to the part though, where
Speaker 2: you have to make a choice. I'm assuming and I
Speaker 2: don't want to assume. Are you putting the forty nine
Speaker 2: ers third and Cardinals fourth?
Speaker 3: Yes?
Speaker 1: I am too.
Speaker 3: Crazy, crazy how that works. We're both like biting our nails.
Speaker 1: I don't know, why do you think about it before?
Speaker 1: Now it's July twenty seven. Why did I assign that?
Speaker 7: I know?
Speaker 1: Why did I assign this?
Speaker 7: Now?
Speaker 1: I want to wait until it's almost this season.
Speaker 2: I'll go Rams in the regular season over the Seahawks.
Speaker 1: That's my choice.
Speaker 4: You if if the Rams, it's the Miles Garret trade.
Speaker 4: To me, it's the quarterback and the Miles Garrett trade.
Speaker 4: And like, let it be known Seahawks fans before you
Speaker 4: come for me. I've been holding it down for Sam
Speaker 4: Darnold on this particular podcast for quite some time, all.
Speaker 3: Right, and I still am.
Speaker 4: It is the trade for the best player in football
Speaker 4: and a quarterback coming off the MVP season for me,
Speaker 4: So I'd put the Rams at one.
Speaker 3: It's tough, the Hawks at one. A ro Matthew Stuffers.
Speaker 2: It's tough to repeat, but it's tough to be where
Speaker 2: the Rams are at, too, which is like the highest
Speaker 2: possible expectations and yet you know you're not coming off
Speaker 2: that win.
Speaker 1: That's that's tough. That's it for the NFC wes.
Speaker 3: We did it, really messing with our cuticles on that one.
Speaker 1: I know, I was like, did why did I? Why
Speaker 1: did I assign in order?
Speaker 3: Now you know how I feel, always subject to change.
Speaker 1: We will be back on Tuesday. Hit that music.
Speaker 2: Thank you to everyone who checked us out on the
Speaker 2: Fast channel, NFL Channel will be on there a whole
Speaker 2: lot more as the season gets going. And of course
Speaker 2: thank you to everyone who subscribes give us a review
Speaker 2: on YouTube.
Speaker 1: We have a show on Tuesday with Nick Schuck, More
Speaker 1: Camp News and at All Under twenty five team. We'll
Speaker 1: see you that