Anxiety Index: What’s Next for Vikings, Commanders, Bears, Bengals and More

00:00:04
Speaker 1: Welcome to NFL Daily, where one of us just said, I forget everything. So when the day is over, everything is over. I'm Greg Rosenthal. I'm here in the Chris Wesleyan podcast studio. I'll let our listeners guess whether that was Jordan Rodrigue or Colleen Woolf who said that tough one.

00:00:24
Speaker 2: Hello, Hey, it's great to see your faces.

00:00:27
Speaker 3: Great to have you back.

00:00:29
Speaker 1: Great that Jordan made it to the show in one piece. What a journey she was in Las Vegas last night. I don't believe that she slapped Vegas.

00:00:41
Speaker 4: Yes, which when phrase that way makes me sound really professional. But no, I was covering the Monday night football game for the Athletic and I had a six am flight out of Vegas and the Monday night football game ended at about eleven thirty, yeah, Pacific time. And then I got out of there at one forty five and then went to the airport, sat in the front before TSA was open, and edited with my with my editor shout out Gary Grambling on this one, and just went over edits in a Google doc until about four am.

00:01:15
Speaker 3: A true pro.

00:01:16
Speaker 4: You know, you know now I'm here, you know, I'd love.

00:01:19
Speaker 3: To talk about football ready.

00:01:21
Speaker 1: That sounds like its actually it is like the best it's the best job you ever But you know we're out here grinding.

00:01:27
Speaker 4: Yeah, And I saw none of Vegas. And my my uber driver was judging me so hard taking me from the stadium to the airport at about two am. He was like, you know, we're right, we're right around the corner from the strip. Aren't you going to go and like kill some time there before your flight? And I said, no, I'm going to go to the airport, like I would totally lose track of time if I walked into a casino right now or something like that, like and and he's like, oh, okay, and then was quiet for the rest of the drive, and then he and then he dropped me off at the airport and then he goes, well, I guess have fun at the airport.

00:02:02
Speaker 5: No, And I was like, what a three am Vegas airport has to be the most depressing place in the world.

00:02:11
Speaker 4: It was, you know, it was like being inside a McDonald's ballpit. Oh, but I'm here and I probably smell.

00:02:19
Speaker 1: Great, Greg, I can I can appreciate the aroma from here.

00:02:24
Speaker 2: You're doing great.

00:02:25
Speaker 3: So today we're all.

00:02:27
Speaker 1: Anxious people sometimes, you know, and we all deal with anxiety in different ways. And all this news came out on Monday that was giving me anxiety and imagining all the fans and certainly the players and the coaches who are feeling anxious after the injuries, and we decided not to hit them on the Monday night recap show on the doubleheader so that we could do it here. We will also preview our Thursday night football game this week, Dolphins and Bills.

00:02:57
Speaker 3: But yes, there was something about.

00:02:59
Speaker 1: Having Colleen on the show show that maybe kickstarted this. And so what we're gonna do is, we're gonna have an anxiety index on this show. We're going to talk about seven different teams, some of whom are dealing with quarterback injuries now, some of them whom are just you know, giving me anxiety, and we're gonna put them on an anxiety index where if you're watching us on YouTube you can see I'm just gonna write it on a little whiteboard.

00:03:22
Speaker 3: We'll pick where they are in this.

00:03:23
Speaker 2: But he's very nervous about his handwriting.

00:03:25
Speaker 1: I'm just I'm nervous about this whole thing. What is your relationship with anxiety, Colleen, Well, it's a.

00:03:31
Speaker 2: Close friend of mine. I wouldn't even say friend.

00:03:34
Speaker 5: It's just like some a person that like keeps coming over to the house and staying and they're unwelcomed, like like what time is your flight?

00:03:41
Speaker 4: When are you leaving? Are you staying from dinner? No?

00:03:44
Speaker 3: Please?

00:03:45
Speaker 2: But yeah, it's been you know what, it's been.

00:03:47
Speaker 5: Fine lately, really good, chilling. Haven't seen anxiety for a sec.

00:03:51
Speaker 1: And how like would you say you like handle anxiety? And how much less anxious are you now that those methods are legal?

00:04:00
Speaker 2: Oh? Listen, you know, I just take it one day at a time.

00:04:03
Speaker 3: Sorry, let's talk. Let's like Vikings.

00:04:07
Speaker 1: Okay, So we're gonna hit a bunch of different teams, and we're gonna start with the Vikings because the most surprising injury news on Monday is that JJ McCarthy is likely out for this week with a high ankle sprain. Carson Wentz is expected to start. Aaron Jones, by the way, is also out with a hamstring injury, adding more injury to the problems that the Vikings offense are having. I might be going to watch Carson Wentz in Dublin. Same with you, Colleen. You're gonna be over there now. It could be Carson Wentz versus Aaron Rodgers, which is just a wild matchup in Dublin.

00:04:45
Speaker 3: We'll see.

00:04:46
Speaker 1: But this exercise is more to talk about the Vikings as a whole, including the JJ situation, because I think that's the biggest one they have the Bengals, We'll get to them in a little bit a little later. How are you feeling as someone who took the Vikings and the survivor picks Jordan in week one?

00:05:04
Speaker 3: You wanted to in week two?

00:05:06
Speaker 1: Yes, I did, and you opened up and I thought it was brave of you to just admit that you're just a Vikings goal.

00:05:12
Speaker 3: Now.

00:05:13
Speaker 1: How anxious are you feeling after quite a disappointing performance from JJ McCarthy and the offense in week two and then this injury on top of it.

00:05:22
Speaker 4: Yeah, I'm probably about a six or seven for the Vikings out of ten right now in terms of the anxiety scale. I had the great honor and pleasure of watching Carson Wentz's last active start, which was sort of in the garbage time of the Rams season.

00:05:39
Speaker 2: Two years ago, so memorable.

00:05:41
Speaker 4: Yeah, And so this was if Kevin O'Connell wants to win with Carson Wentz. I think he's gonna pull exactly from what the Rams did, and they used him a ton in the Designed Run game. And this is something where I think you give him a lot of layups. You know, you get the tight ends pretty activated in this, get Jordan Mason going, and you also use Carson Wentz as I called him at the time, the battering Ram from Lord of the Rings called Grand You sort of use him in that fashion to just try to present different looks and different options to the opposing defense. I think that's how you squeak out a couple of wins with this guy.

00:06:18
Speaker 3: At this point, I think he could be an upgrade from J. J. McCarthy.

00:06:21
Speaker 1: It was not just for clarity his last start, because he did get a start in Week eighteen last year against the Broncos where they lost thirty eight.

00:06:31
Speaker 4: He deleted it from my memory.

00:06:32
Speaker 1: You're right, grant that he was playing with backups for the Chiefs who were resting.

00:06:37
Speaker 4: Phokuna Coop of the record, their rookie receiving record.

00:06:40
Speaker 3: A couple of years ago.

00:06:40
Speaker 4: Yeah, so that's fair my memory.

00:06:43
Speaker 1: He will be, I believe, the first player in NFL history to start a game for five different teams in consecutive seasons, So I was there, you know, watching during the you know, Carson Wentz Nick Nick foles that year, and it's amazing to think that here. But I kind of want to talk more about like JJ and the Vikings and where they're at, because if you had told Vikings fans going into the season how panicky JJ McCarthy would look for most of his time on the field. I know he had that fourth quarter against the Bears, but his Week two start, he just was not comfortable in that matchup. He didn't show a lot of touch when he did have a couple open receivers. It was a learning experience. There's offensive line issues, There's a lot going on here. But if you had told them that the first two starts would go this way and then he would be hurt and not be able to try to improve things on the field, like that is basically a worst case scenario for how this season would start.

00:07:38
Speaker 5: Yeah, he struggled, and now he can't get the reps that he needs because he's going to be out after missing all of last season. So that's definitely not something that the fans want or the team in general. I'm sure Justin Jefferson has to be beside himself. There were a couple shots of him during the game, just like close tight shots of his face. He obviously was unhappy. But I think about Carson Wentz just in terms of Josh Dobbs last year when he came in and it was a short week, he didn't know the cadence, he didn't know anybody's names, and they ended up getting the win with Kevin O'Connell there in him.

00:08:15
Speaker 2: So this is a place that they've sort of been before.

00:08:19
Speaker 5: Obviously, Josh Dobbs kind of declined after that first game where he really went off, But I think that Carson Wentz. He's a veteran, so you could probably pull some concepts from them.

00:08:32
Speaker 4: And that's why they signed him is because he's seen a lot of football and you can pick stuff up quickly like that.

00:08:38
Speaker 1: But it also as a play and their first plan failed. They traded for Sam Howe and he just didn't work out, So that was them like taking a public l essentially.

00:08:46
Speaker 4: Yeah, and honestly they needed to go and find somebody who again could arrive late the latest possible time in training camp and then potentially need to go spot start if necessary. And you saw what Carson Wentz was doing in week one on the on the sideline, he at the headset on. Obviously he's understanding the timing of the calls. He's hearing how Kevin O'Connell likes to do things. So there's that. But the problem, the reason why my anxiety level and the index is really high for for me for Minnesota is you know, I believe in the skill players. I believe in Kevin O'Connell's ability to maximize whatever juice a quarterback has left in the tank, and I believe in his ability to adapt and adjust. But with Aaron Jones out right, and that's someone who could really help you in past protection. Still, even if he's a little bit slower in the run game itself, he can still really help you in other phases and really settle the offensive line down a little bit. It's and it's also JJ McCarthy needs, like you said, Colleen needs reps and he's not going to be getting them while he's recovering. If this was just a straight up benching, which shouldn't be, by the way.

00:09:51
Speaker 1: But if it WASNA was clear to say this had nothing to do with performance reasons.

00:09:54
Speaker 4: But if it was I would feel better because then you're at least getting him reps and practice that he needs to get. Your restructuring your entire workflow to make sure he's actually behind the scenes rebuilding that confidence. I think that anybody who watched or even you know, read reports of what was going on in practice all training camp with JJ McCarthy, it was this. They were prepared for this experience where there's gonna be streaky days and then he recovers, he recalibrates, and he really bounces back. Well, didn't get a chance to last week. Probably part of it because he was hurting a little bit after that injury and his wife had a baby. Yeah no sleep, Yeah no sleepin's.

00:10:35
Speaker 3: Performance, Jordan. That's no excuse.

00:10:37
Speaker 4: Thanks Craig. I'll go cry in the corner now.

00:10:41
Speaker 3: I know I'm saying. I'm saying, you're knocking it out of my.

00:10:43
Speaker 4: God, you're usually terrible. I would not know that you did not sleep.

00:10:48
Speaker 1: That's a negative way to view that. My anxiety, My anxiety.

00:10:53
Speaker 4: Speaking of our relationships, you're doing great. Do you want to have any like zole off or anything?

00:10:57
Speaker 1: Do you have some No, but we missed you so much last week college, let's stop. My anxiety is even higher because he didn't look ready to play, and everyone's like, well, he's a rookie, Well he's not a rookie. Like he did get a lot of the experience that you thought were gonna help him, Like this start was the last couple of weeks I think were as bad and as like worrisome anxiety inducing as certainly any start any of the rookies had last year from his class. I wondered this watching the game, and then I heard a couple people talk about, including I'll give credit Luke bron on Lockdown Vikings. I think the operation was so off that you wondered if JJ McCarthy knew how to call the plays, like if everything was coming out the right way, whether ever, like because there were some plays where it looked like people were not on the same page. You can see you multiple times where the running back is asking JJ McCarthy where the play is, and the whole operation of just like how it was coming out, and I and that would help explain to me maybe a little more of why Justin Jefferson would be upset because I know McCarthy missed a couple passes, but that you know that that's typical. He also hit one to JJ down the field, to Jeff Jefferson down the field.

00:12:09
Speaker 3: Look, he's had a couple of really nice throws.

00:12:11
Speaker 1: It's not that that's happened, but it's just looked really off. His timings looked off. Everything's kind of been in slow motion. Maybe it's the offensive line that's helping to make him look bad because they haven't been on the same page. Like Ryan Kelly, their center, who also got hurt.

00:12:26
Speaker 4: That was an issuing camp too. They were trying. When I watched their joint practices and I brought this up to my colleague Alex Lewis, who does great work covering the vikings for the Athletic They were very clearly testing out that their snap and not just timing, but where JJ likes the plate, the placement of the snap, and that led to some of the inconsistencies the pronation on the football after the snap. We mentioned this on the on the show after the joint practices. It affects your touch on the football if you don't quite necessarily know how you want to receive the football in your hand in the first place if it's spinning backwards into your hand, and then you got to spin it forward to pronate it the right way to the receiver. All of these things, I know sound like I'm on mushrooms right now, and very very small details, but everything matters, and everything gets is a little thing that gets in the quarterback's head that he's thinking about that then potentially leads to Okay, I'm thinking about this right now, So I missed my timing of thinking about the same.

00:13:19
Speaker 5: You have an inexperienced quarterback who's finishing the game with a second string center and a third string ye or left tackle too, so none of that is helping you.

00:13:28
Speaker 1: You No, the left tackle situation has been a problem. Christen Derasa has a chance to play this week. It's it's weird because part of me thought, well, maybe it's not the worst thing for him to take a step back right now because he just didn't look completely ready, and maybe he'll feel more comfortable when he comes back in In the short term. I'm not sure if Carson Wentz hurts or helps their chances of winning like this specific game against another backup with the Bengals. When I heard Ian Rappaport throw out a possible timeline, and right now McCarthy's officially week to week. He noted that there's three games before thereby against the Bengals and then at the Steelers in Browns. I would say that's an average schedule in terms of the defenses.

00:14:10
Speaker 5: Your face sum are overseas, right, are they back to back Dublin and then London.

00:14:14
Speaker 3: Yes, it's doublee.

00:14:16
Speaker 4: Nobody's watching.

00:14:17
Speaker 1: Yeah, it's the two international games. So when I say at like, technically you know that they're counted as road games, but yeah, it's with the Steelers and Browns overseas, so there's a chance, like do they keep him on ice through those three games? The Browns certainly are probably the best defense of the three. But that's a winnable schedule. We'll see. My anxiety is very high, just because, man, after missing all the last season and starting like this, you really hate to see it. I have a list one to seven and I'm and we're just blind putting this into a spot.

00:14:51
Speaker 3: We can change it if we want.

00:14:52
Speaker 1: Seven is the most anxiety, Well, no, it's we're ranking the seven teams which has the most anxiety right now? And I got to think the Vikings are going to be near the top. So right now, I'm going to put him at two. What do you guys think.

00:15:03
Speaker 4: I'm going to go to I think two is good. Two is two is right.

00:15:07
Speaker 1: Two feels good, and if we want to erase it, we can't. Right now, they're at two in the index.

00:15:12
Speaker 2: Oh my god, your hand right.

00:15:14
Speaker 3: It's absolutely terrible.

00:15:17
Speaker 1: It's absolutely embarrassing, and I'm going to fix it.

00:15:20
Speaker 4: I love Colleen.

00:15:21
Speaker 3: Are in the same wave like you guys.

00:15:23
Speaker 1: It's a race to the joke, so harsh. Speaking of Harsh, let's talk about the Panthers quickly. I wanted to kind of attach the anxiety to the news, and when I saw that they're missing two offensive linemen uh to injured reserve starters, I just thought they were a team that we should bring up here. Robert Hunt, who they gave a lot of money to in free agency and really did a good job for them a year ago, is going to be on injured reserve with a torn biceps. Very often that knocks you out for the whole season. Sometimes it can depend a little bit on the severity, but he's going to be gone for a long time. And then Austin Corbett, their starting center also going to ir with a knee injury. They are second to last, so it's only two weeks, but second to last in overall DVA, second to last in offensive DVOA. It's looked like it. It's not that their schedule has been that hard relatively. They played the Jags and the Cardinals like it's just a bummer for them to start out the season like this. How are you feeling about the Panthers something?

00:16:20
Speaker 5: Thinking about last season and what they after an zero and two start. What happened? Wasn't Bryce Young and ed at that point? And I think about the fact that he was able to sort of bounce back in the game this past week, and most of his mistakes were made when he was under pressure. So obviously now missing two of his offensive linemen, it's like driving a car without airbags.

00:16:46
Speaker 4: Yeah, and interior guys too. Metaphor, you know, speaking of anxiety.

00:16:51
Speaker 1: I know, Yeah, this this is one of your teams. It has to bumm you out a little bit.

00:16:56
Speaker 4: It does bumm me out because that's also too interior offensive linemen. And that's really important for Bryce Young because he has been a wee man. And so I feel like this this is gonna be really important. I really appreciate it. There was a couple of drives that he put together late in the second half of that Cardinals game, especially attacking deficits and deficiencies that the Cardinals had due to injury, that I thought was really good football that Bryce Young played. He's still feeling out his receivers. Xavier Liguette has like disappeared from this offense. Essentially, it's like all Hunter renfro and a sideline catches by Ted McMillan. But you need time to do that, and I'm concerned about this for him. Is this really sucks for Austin Corbett, who's really struggled. I mean, it sucks for both of them, But Austin Corbett just came back from significant injury and multiple surgeries and all of that, and now this is happening again. You hate to see this happen to players of their status. The offensive line was a strength of the Panthers in their run.

00:18:00
Speaker 2: Game through fifty five times.

00:18:01
Speaker 4: Yeah, and it's yeah, this this stinks. But I also feel like I after watching the last two weeks of Bryce Young, I almost don't have more anxiety because my expectations have been pretty low.

00:18:15
Speaker 1: I've always compared him to Alex Smith, like could he just be Alex Smith?

00:18:18
Speaker 2: And really, I think Alex, that's that's mean to Alex Smith.

00:18:23
Speaker 4: I feel no.

00:18:25
Speaker 1: My point was coming off his rookie year, Alex Smith had one of, if not the worst rookie seasons any record quarterback has ever had. And almost immediately the next season, they brought in and off a new coach. It was North Turner, and he improved to like average, and it was like, Okay, we stabilize everything, and and I just thought, can they do that with Bryce Young? And they kind of did that last year with Dave Canals two guys who are a little undersized. Obviously Bryce is more who are more athletic than you think. Alex Smith, I would say, is even even more athletic than you think. But who are going to have to win with anticipation and everything. And then I think about Oxmith's career and it's like, yeah, he had that second season where he got a little better, but it took about four or five more years to really stabilize.

00:19:09
Speaker 3: He had injuries. Yet I could took get with.

00:19:11
Speaker 5: The right offensive coordinator and the right head coach, and when he finally did everything started to click, and then he was pulled and then had to go out on the field and flip a coin as a captain in the Super Bowl where he should have been the starter.

00:19:23
Speaker 1: I don't know why I was sending him so much like, but that was like seven years into his career. It's a long way of saying like, I'm not as worried about Bryce's long term as I am about first of all, the twenty twenty five team, and then second of all, because of David Tepper, their owner's history, everyone that works there. Because you're going to have to show progress this year, and they haven't. It's only two weeks into the season, but they're gonna have to show progress. Dan Morgan I always thought was a bizarre hire that they hired, like internally when he was kind of the guy who was getting the team together that was there before. And they've just been on this bad cycle and you just worry about the Panthers.

00:19:58
Speaker 3: You want stability for them.

00:20:00
Speaker 1: We have the Falcons, the Patriots, the Dolphins, the Cowboys, the Jets coming up, which on paper is actually about as easy a schedule as you could have. The Falcons is the hardest of those games, so there is an opportunity here to bounce back.

00:20:12
Speaker 2: Anxiety is at like a seven for me. It's not very it's not high.

00:20:15
Speaker 4: Okay, I will say something that does give me a little anxiety, is Colleen, you mentioned that the possibility. I mean, I don't, I don't neither of us think that this actually is going to happen right away. But if there is a benching, you're looking at Andy Dalton coming back in. You're looking at the potential of three red headed quarterbacks starting games in the National Football League. That gives me a little anxiety. Whoa Carson Bentz, Andy Dalton just just a rare year. It just is it just feels like some sort of rip in the space time continuum happens after that.

00:20:47
Speaker 1: I didn't even think with Carson Wentz back, Yeah, he's got a chance to really go out there and take command.

00:20:53
Speaker 3: Maybe we could have no cheez no, bring it back, the return of.

00:21:01
Speaker 4: I can never unhear it.

00:21:04
Speaker 1: Because the expectations were so low to begin with. I'm going to put the Panthers down at like fifth here.

00:21:10
Speaker 3: Yeah, what do you think?

00:21:11
Speaker 4: I think that's too high? But yeah, I'm six for them.

00:21:13
Speaker 3: I also at the bottom here. I am.

00:21:16
Speaker 4: I am that team redhead. I just think so many of them playing at the same time.

00:21:22
Speaker 3: You're worried about them.

00:21:23
Speaker 4: Possibly something cosmically, something cosmically happens.

00:21:27
Speaker 5: Okay, all right, so keep an eye out, keep an eye out.

00:21:29
Speaker 4: Every well, look alive.

00:21:31
Speaker 1: It's always hilarious before the show where I'm like this, this show might be too quick. We got to hit the minimum for our fast show.

00:21:38
Speaker 2: And hilarious that you say that every time.

00:21:40
Speaker 4: I do, like I have new ways to scold us every week.

00:21:45
Speaker 1: I love I love a honk fest. Let's talk Commanders. Jaden Daniels might not play this week. That was surprising. He was one of I believe six players to get an MRI on the team after their Week two loss. Two of them are gonna be out for the season, Austin Eckler and Dietrich Wise, who I think were important players for them. They were starting for a reason, especially Wise, I think was a guy they brought in to add a little run defense, a veteran in that room. But the surprise was that Daniels after really getting hit quite a bit against the Packers and was limping at the end of that game. So maybe I sh shouldn't be as shocked. Got the MRI on his knee, and he's day to day. We will see. We're taping this on Tuesday, but his Week three status against the Raiders is in doubt. If you're ever gonna sit for a game calling, maybe this one would be one Gadu.

00:22:42
Speaker 4: Raiders defense erasure. They looked pretty good minus a sixty yard justin Herbert Baum.

00:22:46
Speaker 3: Okay, I'm just saying we'll start with you.

00:22:48
Speaker 1: Then you just wrote the piece the definition of a backup quarterback piece. No one can write about backup quarterbacks for at least like three years on the internet because Jordan did such a good job. It was like in oral history style on what it's like to be a backup quarterback on the athletic And you know, one of them was Marcus Mariota, who I do believe, based on how he's looked in Washington in the regular season and the preseason, is one of the best backups in the league.

00:23:12
Speaker 2: He's also thrived with Kingsbury before.

00:23:14
Speaker 4: Yeah.

00:23:14
Speaker 1: Right, so I'm just saying, if it was on a knife edge of whether he could play or not, you feel good about me.

00:23:20
Speaker 4: Yeah, this is the lowest on my anxiety. Okay, you're having Marcus Mariota running that offense. He is one of the best backups in the league. He could still start games for a team if it was the right fit for him, with coordinator and line and all those things, as it would be for so many the way that one reason I really liked doing that piece, Thank you for mentioning that, was because I really wanted to know how people take information that they're never actually using. You know, in real life, they just absorb this massive amount of information and studies, but they never actually get to use the things that they learned and the things that they're doing in the film room and teaching. You got to get ready. Yeah, and so now he's going to get if this goes the way that I think it will, he'll get the full week of reps. And he's already doing the same types of early morning walkthroughs that Jaden Daniels is doing with the quarterbacks coach with Cliff Kingsbury. Marcus Marriott is doing that with Tavita Pritchard, the quarterbacks coach. Like they're doing They're trying to keep this as even as possible for the sake of the rest of the offense, and I think that's a really important and mature kind of way to look at it. One thing that is sticking out to me early. I think remember last year and Colleen, I think you were on top of this one. We were keeping stats for like teams after they had played the Lions and how beat up they were after they'd played the Lions. I think the Packers are the new team this year.

00:24:39
Speaker 2: Oh.

00:24:39
Speaker 4: I mean watching them to watching the way that they hit Houston kind of competing for that a little bit, but especially the way that they went after Jadeen Daniels. I mean, you really want to protect him and the Raiders don't have much of a pass rush, but you know, it's like you still you want to play a capable quarterback against Max Crosby.

00:24:59
Speaker 3: One.

00:24:59
Speaker 1: A huge advantage for that is just from the schedule makers. You cannot have a bigger schedule advantage rest wise.

00:25:06
Speaker 3: Than they do.

00:25:07
Speaker 1: They were they had a Thursday night game, the Raiders at a Monday night game, and the Raiders have to come all the way to the East Coast. I mean that that is a pretty big deal, not just coming off rest, but for all the players early in the season. That's tough having had to play so much watching them like are you I don't know.

00:25:23
Speaker 5: Well, so the only thing that would bump up my anxiety meter a little bit higher is just the fact that Jaden Daniels and Terry McLaurin just to have they're off, like their connection it's not there yet.

00:25:35
Speaker 2: There's just they're out of rhythm.

00:25:38
Speaker 5: And now it's sort of like the same thing with JJ McCarthy with Jayden Daniels, he's not going to be able to find that rhythm. And I feel like this whole the whole contract situation, all the negotiations, it really does make a difference whether or not you get that practice time and you get that rep those reps during training camp because we're kind of seeing that now play out.

00:25:59
Speaker 4: Turns out, if you already know you're going to eventually extend the player, you should do it before training camp. I don't get it.

00:26:06
Speaker 2: Why why do they do this?

00:26:08
Speaker 1: Because he wanted like more than they were willing to give, and then they were putting all this all this out there.

00:26:13
Speaker 3: It's like, how dare he ask for this? Like he wanted this top shelf stuff.

00:26:16
Speaker 4: Oh yeah, Just Terry McLaurin, who's like the Spider Man meme of Spider Man standing in front of the train when the organization is in total dysfunction, holding it and straining to keep everything together as like the face of that organization forever. We don't need to really quarterback.

00:26:33
Speaker 1: I have a little anxiety though that it was the worst game of Jadon Daniels' career.

00:26:37
Speaker 3: Yeah, and I think the opponent I.

00:26:39
Speaker 4: Mentioned after week one, I thought they looked a little too loose.

00:26:42
Speaker 3: They were a little on the even in week one.

00:26:44
Speaker 1: They have Josh Connerly, who's their first round pick starting at right tackle right now. He leads the NFL and pressures allowed. Now that'll happen after going against Michael Parsons and Rashan Gary. But you know, you struggled a little bit in week one. He's had tough matchups. Well he might have, you know, Max Crosby on the same side of him this, so that that could be difficult.

00:27:01
Speaker 3: You know, you lose echlier.

00:27:03
Speaker 1: That's not a massive one, but I do wonder if it was after one year of Cliff Kingsbury, whether you know he has a next move, and I think they will, and I think I'm not worried about Jaden Daniels at all. But I do think that the depth of the weapons on this team is not great behind McLaurin and Deebo Samuel. So are we we're going to put them last?

00:27:25
Speaker 4: Though?

00:27:25
Speaker 3: Of these?

00:27:26
Speaker 1: Ultimately they're the only one with Jaden and Daniels on their team of all these.

00:27:30
Speaker 4: Yeah, And I'm contextualizing in the fact that we don't necessarily think this is an extended injury. Yet we don't know. And also I think they've got the best backup in the league.

00:27:38
Speaker 3: Okay, So are we going to we want to put them at the bottom?

00:27:40
Speaker 4: I think so.

00:27:41
Speaker 3: Don't be angous the need for me, don't be don't be new.

00:27:46
Speaker 4: I've really taken a command of the love that.

00:27:48
Speaker 5: It's also interesting that Mariota played for the Raiders too, even though he just never started for them.

00:27:55
Speaker 1: You know, all right, let's do one more before a break the Kansas City Chiefs, sirreh too. I don't know if you guys heard. It's hard being on top. And do you feel guilty as an Eagles fan for sending great individuals like Nick right into a shame spiral?

00:28:16
Speaker 5: Oh my gosh, you know, I'm so sorry for everyone out there that is reeling.

00:28:20
Speaker 2: But you should have known that this was going to happen.

00:28:24
Speaker 5: I look at this Chiefs offense and obviously they're going to not look the way that they did before. But even the way that they did before, they weren't an explosive offense. And now you're down your top two best pass catchers.

00:28:38
Speaker 4: You're gonna have some issues.

00:28:39
Speaker 5: But they're not going to be able to sustain this with Patrick Mahomes just trying to do everything himself. And this is so unfamiliar this territory for them starting the year off oh and two after losing a Super Bowl too. I just I don't know how the team comes together, but Kansas City is known for figuring these things out mid season or anytime during the year.

00:29:03
Speaker 1: I think multiple things can be true here that it is different than it's ever been.

00:29:07
Speaker 4: Because they see they seem anxious. You see Chris Jones snap to snap, talking back and forth to the aligneman opposite him and talking on the sideline, and he seems anxious. They seem like they're tight right now.

00:29:19
Speaker 1: It's hard being on top, and like they will bounce back. They lost two one score games, which was their their magic potion a year ago. Yeah, just figure out a way to good teams to very good teams. At the end of the year, we could look up and the Chargers and the Eagles could be two of the if not the toughest teams that they face all year, along with the Ravens. And so their one score, you know, losers in those games. That's not something to totally panic about. But to me, it was like they were only watching it within one score because they were the Chiefs. It was like their old one score magic of They are really well coached and they have one of the greatest players of all time, and they have all the organizationally institutional sort of culture that they're not going to get blown like that was the only thing that's keeping them close. Because I look at the players and I do think there's a talent gap here, especially on the defense. So my anxiety is way higher on the defensive side because they're going to get those players back.

00:30:17
Speaker 3: On offense.

00:30:18
Speaker 1: They have Patrick Mahomes on offense, they have Andy Reid helping out with the offense. I think the offense can still be top shelf. I don't know if they have the dudes on the defense.

00:30:28
Speaker 4: Ultimately, Yeah, we talked about spags and how brilliant he can be in scheming up pressure. But it got to a point against Philadelphia where you're almost stretching yourself too thin with the amount of blitzing that you had to do because you could not rush with four And that's a Chris Jones comment, you know, And that's something where it is really strange for me. And he's I believe, started slow in the past before and then really turned it on at the end of seasons and all of that. So I don't necessarily rule someone of that lea talent ability out. But you mentioned the talent gap, it's also an age gap between the two players Travis Kelcey and Chris Jones and who they most have to rely on outside of Patrick Mahomes. And then there's a sort of a middle age group that hasn't quite come up to where it needs to be. And then there's a lot of young players. You guys know, I love Josh Simmons at left tackle. There's still going to be some bumpy moments with a rookie who is starting for you, Xavier Worthy, who's not on the field yet after some accidental contact by Travis kelce and then this defense there's a lot of missing there's a lot of missing pieces in terms of this collective unit that we're so used to seeing not only rush as one, but also attacking coverage as well.

00:31:44
Speaker 2: And they can't run the ball.

00:31:46
Speaker 5: And even when Xavier Worthy returns, he's not going to be one hundred percent with this harness or whatever he's going to have to wear. You're still waiting for Rashi Rice to come back. You still have what four games left now, and they're in a really tough division now with the Chargers looking good.

00:32:06
Speaker 4: I think my giety who gain advantage now by the Chargers, which is so rare to have that happen. And the Chargers suddenly have not suddenly, but over the last two years have the best defense in the league not named the Philadelphia Eagles.

00:32:19
Speaker 1: So they're at the Giants this week that there'll be a heavy favorite there. Then they're back home for the Ravens, at the Jaguars and the Lions before Rashid Rice's back. So you think about this early schedule, it's really front loaded, and so them not being kind of fully ready for the start of the season is going to come back to get them. And you know, I started by saying multiple things can be do they can bounce back, but still not be the old Chiefs. And you think about that Patriots, and that is the comp because no other team in history has made it as far in the playoffs as the Kansas City Chiefs in the entire NFL history consistently other than that those Patriots teams. And yet you look at that run and there were many years where you pretty much knew that they didn't have it, that they were short a number of pieces, and you tried to convince yourself like the national media or the local fans would, but like you know, the years they just had like no running game or their defense didn't make sense. And because it's Tom Brady and Bill Belichick, it's like they still were getting to the wildcard round before they get blown out by the Ravens, or they get to the divisional round or even maybe to the conference championship before like Peyton Manning takes care of him.

00:33:24
Speaker 2: But like they right.

00:33:26
Speaker 3: They had shortcoming.

00:33:27
Speaker 1: And that's what this team feels like to me, because I don't know where the help is coming from. Nick Bolton like he's one of those middle aged younger players, he looks old like he's taken too many big hits, and then you're trying out some of these same guys Charles Amana, who Derek Noddy on the defensive line and it's I just don't see it. So my anxiety level is it's quite high, and it hurts when you're used to being the best. If you're just like pretty good, Like there is a different sort of anxiety.

00:33:53
Speaker 5: What did you guys think when you were watching that game and it was so close at the end, where because normally if this.

00:33:58
Speaker 2: Was even last year or the year before, you'd be like, oh god.

00:34:02
Speaker 1: I was thinking, I can't believe the Chiefs are in this game, but they're not going to do it.

00:34:05
Speaker 4: That was yeah, And I was thinking call miss team wins and that's the Eagles.

00:34:09
Speaker 2: Yeah, it didn't feel scary.

00:34:11
Speaker 1: Wow, it sounds like we're anxious. I thought they were going to be on the bottom of the list because of the Chiefs. We have the vikings at two and yes, the visual accompaniment, the production value is so high. Right now with my little whiteboard, where do you want to put them?

00:34:27
Speaker 4: I'm going to put them at four personally because they still have Patrick Mahomes right, That's the thing and they're getting guys back once they.

00:34:34
Speaker 1: Do Champagne problems, like ooh, we might be this five seed, like you know, I mean.

00:34:40
Speaker 5: I'm thinking more of like a three I feel, but we could keep them at four.

00:34:45
Speaker 2: We'll see see how it pans out. But for me, it's it's higher all right. Xiety.

00:34:49
Speaker 1: So far, we've gone over four teams, the Vikings, the Chiefs, the Panthers, and the Commanders. Let's take a quick break, hit a few more teams and t NF after the break.

00:35:00
Speaker 3: I'm anxious about this segment? Is it working back on NFL daily? So Colleen, when you.

00:35:15
Speaker 1: Say you get to the end of the day, everything is over, you're just like it's kind of like you're rebooting a computer the next day and everything that happened before.

00:35:26
Speaker 5: Doesn't matter, Like if the hard drive just erases, Like I'm working off of ms DOSS on a massive computer that.

00:35:33
Speaker 2: Is very outdated.

00:35:35
Speaker 5: The software has not been updated a super long time.

00:35:38
Speaker 1: Another a positive way to look at it would be, you know, I see a lot of kind of faux spiritual stuff on Instagram whatnot of like live in the moment, and that's living in the moment.

00:35:49
Speaker 5: That's that's what I do now, just like I'm present bewhere, your feet on the ground.

00:35:54
Speaker 1: It's all that matters does down that and the three teams we have left to talk about. Okay, So we hit the BANG situation pretty hard on Sunday night. I don't want to repeat what Nick Schook and I said on that show. Joe Burrow is having surgery on the turf toe. He's officially on injured reserve. As of Tuesday, they activated Brett Rippon to the active roster, another one of your backups in your piece. I don't know if they were cursed orre It was good luck because technically he's making a lot more money.

00:36:25
Speaker 3: It was not for Joe Burrow.

00:36:27
Speaker 4: It is my fault, Brett Rippins.

00:36:29
Speaker 1: Brett Rippin's getting a game check this week, and before he was getting the practice squad check, so he's going to be active. They also signed Sean Clifford and Mike White to their practice squad, so they have a coming.

00:36:41
Speaker 4: God, the room is full, yes, Oh my god.

00:36:44
Speaker 2: What happens with Kirk Cousins?

00:36:46
Speaker 4: Like, is no one is this not? I feel like Atlanta just doesn't want to let him out of the building. Really, I feel like they there the reports that you've heard so far is that they're asking for so much, okay, right. As the season continues, we'll see if that changes. But the reports early on this year is that they're asking an egregious amount, right, and we'll see how that shakes out. Before the trade deadline, I predicted we didn't have the tiny table in here, but I predicted that we'd see at least two quarterbacks traded that's right deadline this year. I think he'll be one of them.

00:37:20
Speaker 1: We got a while, We got a while to go time. Yeah, because you think like he would fit this offense. I think Kirk Cousins that said, Jake Browning has been in that building a long time. In twenty twenty three when he played, you know, by far, the most football he's ever played at the NFL level and really got to the point where he got a nice contract and he's staying with Cincinnati. For the seven games he started, he led the NFL in completion percentage. He was eighth in QBA ESPN's QBR that season. In games that Joe Burrow started, they were five hundred and with Jake Browning they were you know, four to three. I'm not saying that that's that meaningful. But the offense wins are not a quarterbacks no that so I said in games that Joe Burrow started, you know, they weren't they didn't have that record, but the team made up for it, and they made up for it in interesting ways. The offense was totally different with Jake Browning. It was a lot more like the Sean McVay Tree, Kyle Shanahan Tree offense were used to seeing under center play action and much different than the kind of Joe Burrow. I'm just back in shotgun call, you know, almost running the offense myself. And on paper, their schedule overall isn't that tough if you look at the average opponent. But the defenses they play coming up are brutal at Minnesota, at Denver, and then they have the Lions at home and at Green Bay arguably three best defenses, plus the Lions where you got to try to outscore them.

00:38:47
Speaker 2: So that's no wonder they have so many quarterbacks.

00:38:49
Speaker 4: Yeah, they're like, it's bodies, they're loading bodies. They're like, yeah, they need more.

00:38:55
Speaker 1: Actually, oh wow, do you think they have enough defensively offensive line coaching? Weapons, No weapons, yes, weapons, I just mean overall to do kind of what they did a couple of years ago. But on a longer trajectory, if it's three months minimum, that means he has to, you know, play about twelve games. Let's say, can can he go five and seven, which gets them to seven and seven and then Joe Burrow can return.

00:39:21
Speaker 5: If they lose four straight these four straight games, like they that team falls apart.

00:39:26
Speaker 4: Put them on ice at the point. Yeah, I don't buy it yet. With their defense, I think they've showed in terms of their run defense, they showed flashes. I don't buy it yet. On their defense, their weapons are the best among the best in the league. If not the best one and two that you can possibly have, that's great. They've got even a great three. They've got a good pass catching tight end. You know, but think Chase Brown could run the ball. You know, I don't buy it with their offensive line, especially coming up against these groups that these defenses that they're coming up against. You know, yes he looked good, and yes, scheme can get you to a certain point. But when we talk about these crazy streaks for backups and all of that, we don't often say Zach Taylor's name. We say, like Kevin O'Connell, Matt Lafleur with what he did with Malik Willis and all these different types of things. I think Zach Taylor, I'm a little anxious for him in terms of he needs to kind of prove what he adds brings to the table.

00:40:24
Speaker 1: That's always been my thing, that's that he's the Polosher of NFL coaches, Like he's totally fine, you know, but like you're not super excited. And yet he kind of did prove it with Jake Browning before that was in some ways like the highlight of his NFL coaching career that they developed this kid, Jake Brownie, who not a lot of people had high hopes about, and their offense was pretty good with him. And oh, by the way, he led a comeback victory in which he entered, you know, behind on the scoreboard and he threw a couple groaners in terms of interceptions, but he also led them on like a ninety plus yard Touchdow drive to win the game.

00:41:00
Speaker 2: Yeah, he completed what nine of his last ten passes, So you're gonna adapted.

00:41:06
Speaker 5: But I do like the fact that so many of his teammates are talking about how chill and calm he is, even when everything else seems chaotic around him. That he's just like a very I think Yoshibas said he's just a chill bro like he's just easy to have a good rapport with. So that's that's nice. At least he's not like freaking out out there.

00:41:28
Speaker 3: Yeah.

00:41:28
Speaker 1: I asked how the Wesleyan Brothers were feeling about it, and they they they had some level of optimism that they he can keep the ship aflow. They also pointed out that his that Jake Browning's girlfriend is conventionally attractive, So just throwing that out there. That was one of the comments. Where do we put the Bengals on the anxiety Now?

00:41:47
Speaker 2: Everyone's googling this myself, so.

00:41:50
Speaker 1: You know, are they the team were of the most worried about on the bank list.

00:41:56
Speaker 4: I'm more I'm more worried about Joe Burrow in a vacuum than I am about the Bengals.

00:42:01
Speaker 3: That's the thing.

00:42:01
Speaker 1: It's more of an existential like losing the season, you know, another season and he's just turning into an injury prone quarterback.

00:42:10
Speaker 4: Oh, I hate that label.

00:42:12
Speaker 3: First seem are they number one on this list?

00:42:15
Speaker 4: Yeah? Well, they they maybe three him won for sure. That's where I'm torn.

00:42:23
Speaker 1: It's all we got to write the Bengals name, you know, in general, you guys, where do you feel?

00:42:27
Speaker 3: I don't know. I think three. Let's go three? All right? Right now?

00:42:31
Speaker 1: The number one spot is still up for grabs. This is a very confusing idea. I want to talk a little bit about the Jets. So we were so high on them to Justin Fields is in the concussion protocol. I just wanted to get that in the show. We'll be quick. We've talked a lot about the Jets. I'm curious to hear what you think, Colleen, because yeah, they had like the worst case scenario for week one, which was like everyone was so excited about a moral victory and then they got the doors blown off them in week two.

00:43:00
Speaker 3: What is your anxiety about this Jets do?

00:43:03
Speaker 5: I feel like if it's if it's on an anxiety meter like level that is just within not the one on the whiteboard, but just a different one, it would be like crippling self doubt.

00:43:14
Speaker 4: But that is the Jets to me, right in Coster syndrome. We've just seen We've.

00:43:20
Speaker 5: Seen this movie so many times and it just feels like the ending. It's not different ever, Like they come out with different iterations of it, but it's always the same result. And it's just I can't imagine. I'm so sorry to Jets fans out there.

00:43:34
Speaker 4: I would put them lower. If we're put them, I'd put them lower, actually, because there was so much hope after out of that Week one. But it was like genuine there was proof of concept on their tape, and like they have good young players along this offense. Even you know Brice Hall, he'll bounce back and all of these things. But they've got Brayln Allen behind him, who looks great. Garrett Wilson is obviously locked in for a while. I am such a believer in our on Membo. Their offensive line looks good justin fields. You're gonna get feast or famine games with him. You just are coming into the season. You knew that. But when he's great, he plays like the best quarterback in the NFL. And when he struggles, you get these dips, right and so then and then obviously you know him him being out, you're gonna have to to sort of make hay with that or him being the excuse me, the concussion protocol potentially being out you might have to make hay with that. But at the same time, we came into this season saying about the Jets just want to see progress, right, So that's why my anxiety isn't as high as because you are seeing probably well.

00:44:33
Speaker 1: You can't you can't have too many of those Week two type of games. That was as bad a game defensively as almost any in the Robert Salad. Really overall, like it was an embarrassing performance. But yeah, my anxiety is a little less for the Jets. So I'm gonna put him at a five because it's about the process. But Darren Muji some of the moves that he made the GM in the offseason. Jamian Sherwood was a linebacker they gave a big contract to is not working out right now. They did not add enough of the wide receiver position. They were a little thin there. They kept this guy Michael Clemens, who all Jets fans wow, just hate because he gets a personnel foul penalty and he's not much of a passage or every single game.

00:45:11
Speaker 4: You feel like brought the spiked bat or something to He's.

00:45:14
Speaker 1: Done a lot and he got that. He got that fifteen yarder against Josh Allen. So they're low on the list. Let's wrap up with the Bears. They're zero to two, and they made this segment because Jalen Johnson, their cornerback, sounds like he's possibly out for this season, and it just brings up like they're banged up in the back end of their secondary on top of the inconsistencies they're seeing out of Caleb Williams. So I think Ryan Poles is going to feel the heat a little bit more than Ben Johnson, because Ben Johnson, to me, is more important in that organization. I know they gave Poles a big contract, but he gave well they mean a lot to like.

00:45:54
Speaker 3: The Poles generations. But yes, I hear what you're saying.

00:45:58
Speaker 1: I'm just saying he got he got generational money for the next five years.

00:46:03
Speaker 4: Okay, Greg, because clearly that's what I was talking about.

00:46:06
Speaker 3: I know you're not. I'm just saying, yes it. Ryan Poles is.

00:46:09
Speaker 4: Like congrats to the Poles family for many generations. From within the context and structure of the organization, it does not mean a gd thing if the head coach is in charge of everything and splits the power balance in a way. As the season continues to where he is running the show, then that extension the years on it specifically do not mean anything.

00:46:30
Speaker 5: I'm just so excited to bring up the Polls family now all the time.

00:46:33
Speaker 2: We should send them a Christmas card, we should start a list.

00:46:35
Speaker 1: He had, you know, four high picks, so everyone was all excited about the Dj Moore trade. That you get Dj Moore, you get all these extra picks. You end up with Caleb Williams. Everything ended up so perfect, but you do need to hit on those picks. I think Colston Lovelin's going to turn out to be a really good pick, but it was hard not to notice in this game. You know, between him and Luther Burden, they didn't have a catch. Those are their first two picks. Then their next two picks were literal health these scratches, their left tackle Ozzie Trappela, who they thought would maybe start, and then Shamar Turner or a defensive tackle at a position they're banged up in thin And that's where you wonder a little bit about the coach and the GM if everyone's on the same page internally.

00:47:13
Speaker 4: I know there is optimism about Ozzi Trapilo over the long term, throwing him out in certain situations probably wouldn't be the healthiest thing to do, especially you know, Braxton Jones was awful this last game. Was something like nine pressures that he allowed. But at the same time, like you have to walk that line almost like you do with quarterbacks. Is when do you put the new left tackle out there? And of course playing on the right side before that's that's different. Ben Johnson. The reason I have so much anxiety about this is Ben Johnson called out several of those players that you just mentioned when asked about it earlier this week by the Beat reporters there basically saying like, we're looking at the things they do away from the ball, and we'll see who wants to play the most. Oh, Like he basically was like, they're going to earn they're going to earn their looks, they're going to earn their targets, they're going to earn their snap based on everything they do when they're not being targeted, and all of those things that we know are so important to him that he lost his freaking mind over all throughout training camp, the little details when you're not actually the one getting the ball, it goes the anxiety goes beyond the quarterback, who I think I saw progress from Caleb Williams this week, despite the fact that the score was so lopsided. I'm anxious about the defense. The denistance is off. We should have let you know before the showistis the denisance that we saw for three quarters is very much off. We're calling it at this point.

00:48:32
Speaker 1: It's so it's so tricky judging early in the season because you don't two games, right.

00:48:36
Speaker 3: You also don't know schedule.

00:48:38
Speaker 4: Wise, two games and a lot of gum.

00:48:40
Speaker 3: Like okay, looking great against J. J.

00:48:42
Speaker 1: McCarthy for three quarters apparently like a lot of defenses probably could have could have done that in Week one, and so you don't really know. It's like last year when the Saints had those those great games.

00:48:53
Speaker 4: What I was going to say, taking the.

00:48:54
Speaker 1: Words right out of my mouth, Yes, like they ended up in the in the end, having faced two of the words rush defenses in NFL history, But no one knew that.

00:49:03
Speaker 2: Clint kobyac is amazing.

00:49:06
Speaker 1: Okay, Bears, I guess the only spot left is number one. But we can make a change. Do you think the Vikings, the Bengals or the Chiefs deserve to be at number one over the Bears, or do you think you're most anxious about the Bears. I agree with your point about Caleb Williams. We can talk about him on the previous show. I think he took a step forward, even if some of the bad things were similarly.

00:49:26
Speaker 4: I think, And let me explain my particular brand of anxiety. It's called high functioning anxiety. Okay, Basically, what it means is you're anxious pretty much all the time, but you also use it as a sort of an adrenaline drip to fuel you into working as much as you possibly can. Yes, and that's what I think the Bears have, and that's why I put them at WOK and I think they are going to need that. Honestly, that is the particular brand.

00:49:53
Speaker 1: The fans are so disappointed right now. To me, the Bears and the Vikings are one so really because they don't know about their young.

00:49:59
Speaker 4: Sou much different.

00:50:00
Speaker 2: At this point in the year.

00:50:01
Speaker 5: Ben Johnson was even like, we're not going to look fully fired, not even after Forgate Exactly.

00:50:06
Speaker 4: It's a great point to bring up, Colleen, because I did not expect them to look great. I know, Gay, this is going to take some time. I think we all knew that. However, I think you need this palpable tense anxiety that drives you into really honing in on the details. So when people look at your board on the screen, they're going to get mad at this obviously when they hear the explanation. This is why why, Yeah, this is why I think that they are.

00:50:32
Speaker 1: I think I might be more personally anxious about the Vikings because I think there's nothing worse than an off season of excitement, and now they're in this weird period for a couple of weeks where there is part of I think every Vikings head, you know, fans head, and it's not fair wondering.

00:50:47
Speaker 3: Like, shoot, did we get the right quarterback?

00:50:49
Speaker 1: And I think Bears fans feel that too, And that's why I think, yeah one and two, but at least Caleb's shown a little more, well, leave.

00:50:56
Speaker 5: I'm way more anxious about the chiefs of the Viking interest and you guys, I like it, but the chiefs for me are higher.

00:51:03
Speaker 4: What what if we put Yeah, well, I'm going to do some erasure.

00:51:07
Speaker 3: We're gonna talk about Thursday night football.

00:51:10
Speaker 4: Oh right, who is the anti anxiety team? Who's a vibey team like a zen.

00:51:15
Speaker 3: I think are like the me of of teams, you know.

00:51:19
Speaker 4: I think we owe to break.

00:51:20
Speaker 1: I'm a lot of things. I don't think anxious is one. I'm not anxious is now one of them. Oblivius is maybe one.

00:51:28
Speaker 4: I often describe you as a calming presence in my life.

00:51:32
Speaker 1: Shut up, all right, I'm going to put the Vikings now number one. I'm sorry to the Vikings fans and the Bears. The Bears are going to be number two. And yes, if you're curious, the final list Vikings, Bears, Bengals, Chiefs, Jets, Panthers, and Commanders. As written by your local eight year old boy. It's beyond anxiety in Miami. They are twelve and a half point underdogs in Buffalo on a short week. Yes, it's the Prime Video team with Al Michaels and Kirk Herbstreet. Let's listen to Mike McDaniel, the Dolphins coach, talking about why he thought TNF was actually a good thing for the Dolphins.

00:52:14
Speaker 6: Thursday night games. Are you know after a loss that they can be a blessing because you have no time to think about anything else? And quite literally, you know I kind of paint a picture that I think they the team is, you know, understanding, is that every moment that your spend not preparing, that you spend thinking about anything but the opponent is going to serve you in the worse.

00:52:44
Speaker 3: M He looks older.

00:52:47
Speaker 1: The things that happens to NFL coaches has now happened to Mike McDaniel.

00:52:51
Speaker 2: Yeah, he's it's aging like presidential years, so.

00:52:56
Speaker 1: He's feeling a lot of pressure. You know, in this matchup, he's lost sixth straight. If you think about these two teams, a couple of years ago, the Dolphins were that fun, up and coming, trendy team. They go to Buffalo in the snow. I remember watching that game for that game, Oh, you were at the game. It was a great game, I think because.

00:53:16
Speaker 2: The Dolphins almost won. They came back. It was a close game, right, I.

00:53:21
Speaker 3: Was at the game. I think it was a Saturday night game.

00:53:23
Speaker 1: I was at Hanana with Lakeisha, our friend, watching that game, and it was so close. It was great and it actually was like a moral victory. People were like, you know what, they can play in the snow.

00:53:32
Speaker 3: It was tough.

00:53:33
Speaker 1: It was back and forth, but the Bills came out and won. And since then they've played five more times. The Dolphins have been close a couple times, but they've also been blown out three of them. It's not a good matchup for the Dolphins, even in good times. And you think about this Bills offense, especially their running game. I think they are are fifth right now in DVOA. They are first overall and EPA per play, and I think people kind of sleep on how good this running game is, even outside of Josh Allen running the book.

00:54:03
Speaker 5: That's the that's the matchup for me that I highlighted first was James Cook obviously coming off a huge game, and then this Dolphins run defense has just been obliterated these first two weeks. They allowed one hundred and fifty six yards to the Colts in Week one and then one hundred and twenty two to the Patriots. And now you have James Cook and Josh Allen they're gonna eat.

00:54:27
Speaker 3: And little Ray Davis mix in there. Yeahs.

00:54:29
Speaker 4: And that's the cool thing about what the Bills can do on offense is, Hey, let's say James Cook had a massive workload and you need to, you know, rep share a little bit going into a certain matchup. Where you'd think, Okay, this is a safer one to split a little bit, and then also present different looks, more unscoted looks that maybe the Dolphins wouldn't be expecting out of the two bags or out of Ray Davis, who I mentioned this before. Seemed like Joe Brady had so much fun scheming up plays for you know, whenever he has been in the game. Yeah, this is really concerning. I think where I fed up with the Bills. Eric, I know you're listening closely on this one. It was I dramatically underrated how much this offense could band aid over the defense because I'm still concerned about the Bill's defense right I'm concerned about upfront at Oliver getting injured before last week's game. He is their best defensive player. I'm concerned about their depth along their line. I'm concerned about their safeties and their corners. I am concerned about their linebackers and the angles that they've been taking against the run. And I think the thing that happens is that Josh Allen and the absolute power and dynamism and the multiplicity of what this offense can do and the depth that it has run and pass now makes that to where you almost you almost forget to worry about the Bill's defense. I still am, but maybe should not have been quite so worried out of the gate.

00:56:03
Speaker 5: I think they'll probably look a little bit better, so you should rest assured this week against the Miami offensive rest assured me?

00:56:09
Speaker 1: Yeah, sure, Yeah, Dolphins are down a few starters on the offensive line the Bills. You mentioned at Oliver, he hasn't been at practice, so it sounds like he's gonna miss this game. To Ron Johnson, their excellent slot cornerback was back at practice on Tuesday, so that's trending towards returning. Matt Mulano might return to practice on Wednesday, but did miss Tuesday, so he might be out too. I actually think the Dolphins, you know, offense, look like the Dolphins offense for the most part against New England. If they're gonna win, it's gonna be by scoring a lot of points. It's going to be by running the ball. Devon eight Chin has looked pretty good. The problem is, like the difference in these two teams when the quarterbacks are pressured. Obviously, Josh Allen is incredible. Yeah, when he's pressured, When Tua tongue of Ailoa is pressured, he just gets sacked.

00:56:53
Speaker 3: I couldn't believe this.

00:56:54
Speaker 1: On PFF he has a pressure to sack ratio of fifty percent. They're actually according to like pressure person. Now he gets rid of the ball quickly, not as quickly as he used to, but still quite quickly compared to average, like one of the fastest guys in the league. But he is kind of panicking. He is not a guy who can come up with an out of structure play, and he is just going down. And Joey Bosa one thing I regretted not mentioning on a recap show, had one of the most Joey Bosa games ever in Week two. He's played twenty six snaps and had seven pressures, two forced fumbles, a sack, and a quarterback hit. And they're really using him in the ideal way for Joey Bosa, just like thirty snaps a game, and he looks really fresh.

00:57:36
Speaker 3: So that's one really positive thing.

00:57:38
Speaker 5: Two at the beginning of the season, just how he doesn't have to be the guy there now, which it's different, it's a way different role for him, But mentally I think that that's probably really helping him because he just knows he can pick his spots and be so super dominant.

00:57:52
Speaker 4: Yeah, and let's not forget too that after two more games they get Michael Hoyt and Larry Ogunjobi back, and that's going to be really significant when I talk about worrying about their depth all along the line. That's another really good inside and outside pass rusher that you get in Michael Hoyt, who they're so high on over there, despite the suspension for substance issue illegal substance, I'd probably butchered that d D.

00:58:15
Speaker 3: Yeah, I haven't slept, guys, no one would have noticed. You're nailing it. I like the hat, I like the chain. It's all working.

00:58:25
Speaker 2: Thanks Grect.

00:58:27
Speaker 3: I feel like that's the new one. Usually how I come in, it's just it's just Tuesday for Colleen.

00:58:35
Speaker 1: I think last thing I'll say in this game is I think the Dolphins pass rush has probably been the most disappointing part of their team, where a lot of the resources are Chop Robinson's been very quiet. After a great rookie year, Bradley Chubb, Jalen Phillips haven't really been making a huge impact. And again they're going up against the.

00:58:55
Speaker 4: Most continuous offensive line in football, right right.

00:58:58
Speaker 1: Yeah, year after year, week after week. It's the same guys, and it is really a weapon. And so it's a tough matchup for them, and they will mix it up in terms of what they show. Josh Allen, I think you have to disguise, you have to confuse him, because I do think that's that's something that doesn't show up in the box score. But man, Josh Allen is just on another level mentally. I think it's true with him and Lamar. It's not like they weren't before, but you play six seven years in the NFL, they are now to me at their very fully formed like like intell, you know, athletic peak, and obviously they're only going to keep getting smarter in terms of experience, but now they're at another level, Like, you better send some disguises at Josh Allen or else he's gonna kill you.

00:59:44
Speaker 3: I don't know.

00:59:45
Speaker 1: Maybe the Dolphins cover twelve and a half at the very least, but it would be shocking if one. Yeah, twelve and a half, Okay, that's the prime video game. We will preview every single game on our mega preview show AFC and an NFC are you going to be ready for that?

01:00:03
Speaker 3: Like you will get some sleep.

01:00:04
Speaker 4: I was ready for this.

01:00:05
Speaker 5: You no what.

01:00:08
Speaker 4: You don't have to get ready if you stay ready.

01:00:09
Speaker 1: That's right, that's I'm fired up. Let's take a break and come back in about twenty four hours.

01:00:17
Speaker 3: The NFL Preview show amazing. Every single game.

01:00:23
Speaker 4: That was a pro host pivot.

01:00:25
Speaker 1: You've done it, Steve Weiss in the in the studio, Patrick Claybahn in the studio.

01:00:31
Speaker 3: We'll hit every single game. I can't wait.

01:00:32
Speaker 4: It was great to have you back for great to be back. Love you guys.

01:00:35
Speaker 3: We will see you next Tuesday.