Commanders-Eagles MNF Recap + 6 Most Improved Players (with Charles McDonald)

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Speaker 1: They're gonna throw on third down in seven instead Heineck wisely, and now a flag that's gonna in essence end a game. A flag on that hit as Heineck had taken a knee should be the last play hurts underneath and now the laterals, and instead it's gonna be picked up for a touchdown on that lateral by Casey two hill, and the Commanders have won this game. And Taylor Heineke can celebrate a big road win here in week ten. Oh yeah, he could celebrate. Taylor Heinech can celebrate and annoy the entire city of Philadelphia when he's celebrating. Had to include that final touchdown by Casey Toohill. Sometimes football is just ridiculous, and sometimes it ends with Casey Toohill doing the gritty after picking up a ground ball to end the Eagles undefeated season thirty two to twenty one. The Commanders got it done. I'm Greg Rosenthal. I'm excited to be joined on this Monday night football recap by Charles McDonald. He's an NFL writer for Yahoo's Sports. I feel like I've been following him and seeing him writing about football on the internet for a while now. I know, I saw him at New York Daily News. I think he was covering the Giants. Back then. He was with my friend Josh Norris at Underdog Fantasy for a minute. Now he's killing it at Yahoo. Charles. I was worried we'd have a dud to talk about tonight, and we gotta we got a fun one. We got a weird one. Yeah, I was. I was a little worried because I was talking to my buddy and gambling exhordinaire Ben Slack before the game. I was like, I was like, yo, I was the spread on this game. I know, you know what the spread on this game is. So it was like get eleven. I thought it was interesting that the uh that Washington ended up winning by a letter on that on that play at the end of the game. But this was definitely an interesting game. I was not expecting Washington's offense to play as well as they did. But you know, the Eagles defense to have a fatal flaw, and that's from defense, and you know you might as well just stam it. Uh if you're able to pick up you know yards you need to first time, you need to. And that that made things a little bit easier for Taylor Heineke, who should be ashamed of himself for hap. Okay, you know, the more I've thought about it, and I've talked to some people even around the building here at NFL Network, and uh, everyone agrees with you, and you're right, that was an annoying celebration. Let's start there actually, because we can get into how the Commanders won this game. We can get into Jalen Hurts good, Jalen Hurts bad, how crazy the time of possession in the first half was. But ultimately the Eagles defense finally showed up in the fourth quarter. They get an interception, uh, they forced a long field goal on a short field after another turnover, they get a three and out and it looked like they were about to get the ball back. Uh what it would have been with under two minutes to go and at least a chance with no time Out's no guarantee, but down five points for Jalen Hurts, kind of a little Jalen Hurts he checked moment as we're talking about him as Pro Bowl m v P all this I was as a football fan. I think we were all excited for that. It's a third and long. You expect Washington to just run the ball there. I was surprised by the hutzpah of Scott Turner actually to throw or to call a pass. But he must have told Heineck, look, if it's not there, just get down and take the sack. Hinik doesn't see anyone open, starts scrambling around like he does, about fifteen yards behind the line of scrimmage and decide to just give up on the play. Takes a knee, and at that point Brandon Graham, who's coming after him trying to finish the game, pushes him over. He had given himself up on the play. It wasn't a vicious push by any means, but he had taken a couple of steps after Heineke hits the knee. It's the right call, it's a silly rule. It's an annoying way for the game to end. And it's especially annoying because he immediately started, yeah, pops up, starts uh, you know, gesture in for first down and celebrating. He was doing that all night. Uh, kind of like a coaches kid. And at that point I felt like he was enemy number one in Philadelphia. What was your thoughts as a former player yourself. Yeah, I played defensive line like basically my whole life. So the Brandon Graham play, you gotta know to pull up there because the name of the game now is for protecting the quarterbacks. And really, I'm pretty sure it's been a rule for a long time that if any player gives themselves up, then the play is dead right there. But especially when it comes to the quarterback, like they let the first guy touch him, but then for Brandon Graham to come in and then hidden right right there. Like, I don't think it was malicious, but at the same time, it's something that you have to call. But then to celebrate like a win on a penalty like that and to get up the big first down, I kind of like it though as someone, Um, that's annoying, and uh, you know when when I play, you know you got to celebrate the moments you're not worried about your opponent. Uh. It was annoying, And yet I can understand. I don't think he was like trying to shove it and fill his face or that he planned it out. We got people in our control room who's who are saying, oh, that was his plan the whole time. It was like a flop. He this was the plan from the time he hiked the balls. Like, no, Taylor Heineke, it's not Jedi mind tricking them. And he when he's taking that knee, he's not even trying to draw a penalty. I don't think he just knew the second that he was pushed that the game was over. And that that is one image I will remember from this season, Taylor Heineke celebrating like that. Yeah, it was just a weird end to a weird game. And then even after that, to get the touchdown on the final play of the game, which uh, you know makes the final score look a little bit bigger than I think it actually was. It was. I didn't peg this to be the Eagles first loss. Oh no, I didn't. And um, yeah, I apologize. I don't even really ask questions on this show. I just rant about things that I find amusing and then just wait for you to rant. Charles Charles, by the way, you should check him out on Twitter. He does a really good job. He's one of my favorite follows and a great writer and insanely young. I'm not even gonna ask you how young you are, but I just know you're way younger than me. So you've come up uh in the game quickly, like Jalen Hurts. Let's talk Jalen Hurts and we can talk about how they limited possessions Washington. We'll get into their offense in a minute. We'll give them their flowers there at five and five, and I thought there are three game win streak that they had before last week's lost to the Charges was about as lucky a win streak as you can get. But they just wanted in Philadelphia and they're five and five in the NFC. So we'll get to giving them their flowers. But the Eagles to me are the bigger story here. Jalen Hurts in this game and the Eagles offense they get too quick touchdown one on a short field after a sack fumble of Heinuchy, and then another quick touchdown, and you think they're kind of often rolling here up up fourteen seven at that point. Then they barely have the ball for about two quarters. In the second and third quarters, they ran a total of ten plays. I mean, that is outrageous. At one point the time of possession was like thirty one to six, thirty one to seven. It ended up forty to nineteen. They had three quick drives, uh that included an interception on a pretty nice pass by Jalen Hurts that that A J. Brown couldn't take in. And then you get to the fourth quarter where the team does have a nice long touchdown drive but ultimately gets the ball back a few times with a chance to go take the lead. They aren't able to do that for for a few different reasons, a few fumbles. But I want to start with the drive that started at three six left. After all the drama back to back fumbles that they lose, they're still only down five points there. They get the ball with three twenty six left. In theory, that kind of was that Jalen Hurts go have an m v P type of drive moment and they go three and out, Like, tell me what you saw on that drive? And then just in general, what this night UH made you think about Hurts? Um? I don't know if I have too many thoughts about Jalen Hurts from that drive, I think for the entire night, UM, I know, the Eagle's offense kind of interesting because I thought that he missed you know a handful of thrills that you probably should have had Um, especially earlier in the game. We're talking stuff like quick out or being inaccurate in you know, shorter areas that field we've gotta have it. But then you you you kind of see how this offense plays and able to get guys open. It's a lot of screen passes, and he ends up I think like seven team for twenty six from the game. But overall, I don't I don't really think it was his best performance as a passer. I'm not really sure though. To me, at least, like I don't think that Washington really forced him into into doing anything crazy. I think he was just kind of off on his own accord, uh, just with you know, some of the accuracy on some of the shorter and intermediate passes. But even then, you know, he's still able to hit that long ball to Quest Botkins, which is a great throw, and then uh he immediately punished with the fumble on the back end of that. So you know, I think what Jalen hurts, who would have liked to see him Um definitely, you know, play a little bit better with that chance to come back. But to me, the more concerned areas were more at the start of the game when he was a little bit more inaccurate. Yeah, And I think that's that's part of the Hurts experience. And I get into these arguments sometimes Nate Tyson points out some of the shortcomings and Hurts his games. He's a young quarterback. Does he read the whole field quickly at this point? No, like a lot of third year quarterbacks, that's not his strength as he is he reading the middle of the field fast. Is he always that accurate in the short game? Like he can be streaky. I think he had a few plays tonight and I would include that last drive third down as one of them, where he left the pocket before it really needed to be left, and I think he thought maybe he had a running lane there and he didn't. But it was something where they got quick pressure on him one of the two plays before that, and it looked like something like a busted play call. I'm not even sure what what happened on the second down. And then he kind of panicked in the pocket on the third down, and that was to me, like a young quarterback play, and it was a reminder he hasn't been in this spot that many different times. It's the first time they've trailed in the second half this season, and that that was just a moment where you wanted calm out of your quarterback. And it was just one play, that third down, but there was one or two other plays similar to that. I think Troy Aikman pointed them out where where he left the pocket panicked a little bit quickly, And that's the growing process for for Jalen Hurts. And he didn't end up getting the ball back. Yeah, I mean this is his start, so uh, we're not even at two full seasons of him uh being an NFL starter yet. So I think I tend to think that the young quarterbacks in the league, especially you know, over the past, you know it's called six years having having pretty good and it's kind of adjusted or maybe warped our expectations on what what a growth line looks like. And I feel like Jalen Hurts is still on a really good pattern for for himself. Tonight didn't work out well. Uh, maybe you still want to see some more him from as a pastor, but in terms of like where he's grown, I think, you know, his skill as a quarterback has unlively improved since he got here. But you know, you're still seeing some of the young quarterback mistakes, like that third down stack. I thought he built the pocket a little bit early. I don't know what Russian lay he thought he's saw, because there was nothing there. I mean he it seemed like he ran right into the arms of whoever is rushing at three tech. He freaked out a little bit. That was kind of his his version of a Kirk Cousins play, just a different version of that. And for the most part, it wasn't like an offensive line is collapsing type of game. They just didn't have the ball. They still average five six yards per play, which for the Eagles is not that much, but they only had forty forty seven yards players rather uh over the course of the game. No, I, he's one of the most improved players in league. We're actually gonna do a quick list at the end of this of just some of the most improved players, and he's one of them. He was one of the most improved players last year, and he's one of the most improved players this year. He's absolutely like an NFC pro bowler right now. This won't hurt his mythical m v P talk, but even that, there's nine games left to the seven or eight games left of the season for them. I'm not too worried about that. I think Washington did a nice job taking it away, and for the most part in the fourth quarter he played well, went right down the field, made a nice throw to Water in that drive, had that beautiful deep throat to Walkins, and then Watkins, Yeah, you know, fulfilled something I've always noticed, which is if a guy makes a diving catch or hits the ground as a receiver and gets up, it's a it's a fun It's never it's always bad luck because you're it's to me, it's almost like ah, like you know when you when you see a guy who you know has really good hands and they kind of take their eye off the ball and start running the field and they just kind of drop it. It's like you're so preoccupied on what's next, you forget about the part where you need to hold on to the ball. So I was kind of with you, like when he got up and started running, and I was like, oh no, no, no, no, no, no, no, Like it's either going to be a touchdown or a turnover. H And you know, he got so excited, he got uh, he was on his way to the m zone, got hawk from the ball just popped right out, And I mean and that that's one of those plays like you gotta have that, especially when you're when you're in that specific moment of the game. Uh, because you know who knows, like maybe Hurts does finish that drive and they punched him for the score. Uh, maybe I would change, you know how how we feel about this performance. But uh, man just really unlucky. He's trying to do a little bit too much. I mean, I remember, uh last week, you know, I'm I'm a Falcons fans for people who don't know when the Falcons played the Chargers and you have to play where Austin Eckler fumbled the ball and then Falcon's defensive tackles tap On Graham, who never touches the ball, picks up the ball and starts running with it. And while he's running, I'm like, bro, fall down, just fall down. You're do it too much. And he let go of the ball and the Charges got it back. Sometimes you just gotta know when to quit on the play was Yeah, Like I struggle with this sometimes, but I try never to forget. As as I get older, you'll see you know I'm an old I'm an old man doing this job, and after a while you realize so much of what we talked about over the course of the week, good or bad, is just based on completely random, mass like luck plays that that's gonna change everything you say, and try not to get too carried away, is what I'm saying about those two or three totally random plays that change a game, change the season, and and they add up and it doesn't mean too much to me. Differently about how I feel about the Eagles long term. Their turnover luck over the course of the season, though, probably was gonna correct at some point. They lead the league in turnover margin. Your your friend again, Ben So like getting a lot of pop on this show, had a nice little graph that pointed out they were plus fifteen going into this game. No one else was greater than plus six, which is just outrageous. They had more turnovers if you count that last play, and you do uh in the official score book. They had more turnovers in this game four than they had in the entire season coming into this game, which was only three. And and that was huge for Washington, who has been terrible at forcing turnovers, and one of them and I'll just mention this now before we get to give in the commanders some flowers, because I know Eagles fans will whine about it. One of them came on a face mask penalty for Dallas Goddard. So this game will not, you know, come without controversy. The undefeated Eagles season ends with a couple of shaky uh calls. One wasn't a bad call, but just a stupid rule and a stupid way to end the game. And then this was a bad call. The face mask on Dallas godder uh is part of a fumble that ends up leading to a second Joey Sly fifty five plus yard bomb. I mean, the Eagles were quite unlucky. Everything that could go wrong in this game went wrong. Yeah, And I hate to be someone that wants to give these referees more power over the game and take more time from us like actually watching football. But do it. I feel like with with some of these bigger penalties, all right, you gotta be able to look back at it, like if we can look back and see, oh, Davis's knee was down when he got touched with the ball, I don't understand why you can't rewind it two more seconds to see that there was a face mask uh on the way down. It's all about just getting they're watching that and they're just cringing at everything that's gonna happen, like, oh my god, we we messed up. We messed up. But I don't understand why that's in the rule book. But you can't pull that back either, And I think like that should be extended to even you know, we're talking about these field flipping passing interference penalties too, Like we should be able to take a look at that just if we're gonna we're gonna care about ever getting everything right. I mean, I think it would be a terrible TV product, But we've got we've gotten down that road. You know, we've gone down that road because of past interference and Rams and Saints a few years ago. I don't think they'll go back to pass interference. But I'm with you. The sky judge is becoming a bigger part of the game, and the NFL doesn't get much credit for it because when things go well, no one talks about it. But actually this season the games are shorter than they've been since Now. That's mostly I believe because of the style of play that's happening. You're getting teams like the Commanders and the Eagles also that are just grinding out these long drives and the way defenses are playing and and that just makes the game go quicker. And that's great. But part of it too, is that the sky judge has coming quick We don't have these long replays anymore. With the guys under the booth the way that they've had New York make quick replays. And then sometimes even when a play isn't challenged, correct mistakes that are allowed to be corrected quickly has improved. It's just subtle. And I'm with you, Charles, I think it can be. Just keep expanding it. They expand it like a little more every season. The sky judges a little more involved this season than than they were or the New York office. And yeah, like if you're already reviewing it, make it like a scoring play where you can review every element of the scoring play, even if it's not the part that's being challenged. You can review different elements of it. Allow the element to also be you know, some amount of penalties. Now I don't know if they're going to get into the past interference, but face mask feels like one you can definitely throw in there. That's easy everyone watching at home. That would have been a five second thing. Yeah yeah, And on a play that that's big. I just feel like that's one of those moments three you have to give it right, all right, And like you said, like we all saw the face mask, like I don't even know how they how they missed in real time. Like sometimes I feel like I just don't know what these guys are looking at right. I don't either, because I thought there was no one there, but then when they showed one replay, there was one guy on the side judge looking right at it. Yeah. And it's the same thing when you know you've plays on the sideline where you're trying to figu out as a catch where he's a touchdown, and there's been there's been a lot of clear situations where we get the call wrong the first time. I'm like, come on, well, I'm then I always bring this up that when I've watched the game on a sideline, I'm always amazed that any call ever gets right, and it it does give me a It gives you an appreciation for football players, of course, but it also gives you appreciation that officiating is impossible, that at certain point it it almost feels like there's no way humans could officiate these athletes who are so fast and strong doing all these different things with all these different rules that it's almost impossible, and the fact that they're not even worse is almost a minor miracle. There are ways they can improve it. I'm not saying I'm not being a company man, but just watching it, you're like I, I I wouldn't know anything that goes on, but a play like that seems that's so clear in real life and and on video. You've gotta be able to fix that at least. Yeah, And to be clear, agree with you on your take on how difficult to on how difficult referee is. But I'm still gonna complain about it. Oh yeah, I know it's part of it. Let's give Washington some credit here, because for three quarters of this game, it felt like they were playing the game of their lives. And I think the fourth quarter is going to give a different feel to people because at that point it's almost like the command has remembered who they were, and the Eagles remembered who they were. And if that clock kept ticking, if we if they played five more minutes, or if they didn't have three or four kind of crazy things go against them, they were gonna come back and win that game. But for three quarters, they really did everything they wanted to do. They finished with forty nine rushing attempts. Most of them were in those first three quarters because that's when they had a thirteen play drive, a twelve play drive, a sixteen play drive, and a fourteen play drive. At one point, they had five straight scoring drives before that Taylor Heineke interception, which which did turn the game around in the fourth quarter. Um, do you feel like giving Scott Turner any flowers or Taylor Heineke any flowers or do you just want to give it all to Terry McLaurin. I guess would be the guy Terry McLaurin. I don't, I don't, Okay, I don't really think that this is like some genius game plan or anything. Like the Eagles. They have a clear week this Jordan Davis is not in uh and even when Jordan Davis hasn't been in the game, it's not like they've been even like a league average frum defense. So this is the time to kind of span it Like I was surprised when at the end of the game. I think it was Trey Aikman he said, you know the Washington they ran for three point one yard for carries, and now it's like that can't be right, like that, that can't be right, Like I just I watched every play to that. How is that correct? But like you said, they kind of got back on they've playing defense well in the fourth quarter. But I think you know, Terry, uh, Terry, Terry mclauren, he's been incredible, Like I think he's really stepped this game on to another level this year. He's kind of he's kind of entering that like unguardable sphere of players because it's not like he was going up against a cupcake opponent tonight. Darry Slay and James Bradberry, they've probably been the best cornerback goal in the league this year. Uh, and now Terry just kind of comes in and makes it look easy. So, uh, you know, here's here's another storyline during the broadcast I thought was interesting was like the insinuation that Carson Wentz is going to get this job back, like because they asked thee at the end of the game, like, you know, if this is your last start for the season, how's it feeling? Like? Why? Why the hell would that be his last start? Yeah, you don't ask that, and that's fine. I gotta admit. I entered the game thinking if Heineke plays like he did last week, or really, honestly, if you watch these Commanders games, Heineke has not played well every game. Every game he gives the opponent three or four chances. And I do buy into there's something about the fourth quarters, and they've found a way to win these crazy games. And it's been luck sometimes and sometimes it's been good plays by him or just giving these guys a chance. And I and I thought, they're gonna have to win this game if Carson Wentz is healthy for him to start next week. But they did win this game, so there's no question. And I don't know if once it's gonna be ready anyway. Heineke played well, though, I would say this was as as well as he's played all year, and would be right there with the best games that he played all of last year too. To me, it's this in the playoff game that he played as as his best two games, because for the most part, he made good decisions. He he skied a couple of throws. He does that every week and if there's a safety back there, then it ends up being an interception. Uh. He he threw that pop up that ended up being intercepted where he thought his arm was better than it was, and that seems to happen every week. But that was really the one really bad decision. For the most part, he made three or four nice throws to the outside. He got the ball out quick, he kind of you know, went where the defense was telling him to go, and it was like that was a good version of Heineke and it got them to a point where if they could run the ball in the fourth quarter that they would have won a little more easily. Yeah. I think I think this was the best game of the season, which is interesting given the opponent, because this the Eagles defense that's been kind of smuggling everyone one uh that they've played this year. Uh. And I look, I mean coming off of that game, I would be hard pressed to bench him just because you kidding me, right, And it's do you have to factor in like with the other optionists too. It's not like Carson Wentz was killing it before before before he got hurt. And to me, you know, Robert very seems like one of those guys where he's gonna go, well, we're what like four or three and one with with Taylor Handkee four and one something like that, So we might as was just keep riding hot hand and he's a vibes coach coach for sure, and hey, look Taylor is doing this to his credit. Just find Terry find seventeen. Just give him a chance to go find the ball, um And that seemed to be working for them. But you know, I thought that it was impressive that The impressive part to me was that they just kind of just kept going with the run and we're really able to run as many places they were. I think one time in the fourth quarter they had run like twenty four plays the Eagles five plays, all right, And anytime you can just kind of sail on the ball like that in in and keeping the offensive that's cut off the field, I know that, you know, we we've kind of learned a little bit more about the true value is time of possession. But you know, when it when it's that stark, I think it's something that really matters. And he gave him a cushion going to the fourth quarter at least, and I think that that and a little help from the official just enough to help them keep the away right. The theory is that you wear them down and then by the end of the game you'll really be rolling. That did not play out. They had eighty one plays to the Eagles forty seven, but the fourth quarters when the Eagles boat up and and and stopped them. But it was kind of uh, before we get to the most improved players, we're gonna hit it soon and Torrio McLaurin. I wouldn't put him on there because he's been so great throughout his career. Where I'm sitting in the Chris Wesleyan podcast studio and even as a rookie, Chris Uh, my friend and co host former co host, said, Oh, this guy is gonna be special and you can see the next level trades. I'm with you. I think if he was like on the Vikes, for instance, are on a team that had a legitimate pass passing attack in quarterback, we would we wouldn't put him in Justin Jefferson and Stefan digs his class quite yet, but I think he's a lot closer than then people realize like that he's in that I think now you have to make the list because there's so many good receivers, but he's getting close to that top ten range um and maybe he would be right there. But one last thing on this game would be that when you mentioned the yards per carry, that really struck a note because in the first drive, even when they went all the way down the field, this was the ultimate like Ron rivera and defensive minded coach's vision of a game, like well, if we just get three yards on first down and four yards on the second down, and then where you have a third and short, then we you know, then it's third and manageable and we can we can keep it going. That was the whole game. Was like Brian Robinson three yards, Gibson four yards, and then on third down they would get their four yards again and it just kept happening over and over like that. Robinson and Gibson ran for eight combined forty attempts. Do you want to know how many what their long run was Charles eleven and they only had one more than seven. They had forty nine rushes, only one more than seven. But everything was three and four and three and four and they just kept hitting. And that's like, to me, that's like Ron Rivera's dream, because I'm with you. Time of possession is totally overrated. Uh. And sometimes when teams try to shorten the game, it just like shortens how quickly they lose when they try to do that against the Chiefs. But when you're significantly worse than the other team in this case they are, it's not a bad idea to to shorten the if you can really pull it off like this, like less possessions means more randomness and and basically a shorter game and that and worst teams can win a shorter game. Yeah, I was just kind of surprised that. I guess what one surprises for me this this season really is how bad Philadelphia has been against the run. Like if you're if you're game playing for that defense, like that has to be a core part of what you're gonna do, because, Uh, passing the ball hasn't been all that successful against him, I mean Terry mclauren. I mean it's like watching this passing really did anything outside of Terry mclauren. Uh. The leading receiver was Curtis Samuel, who had two catches for twenty eight yards. Ah, but for whatever reason, they can't stop the run, which is interesting because you know, I know, Fletcher Cox is a little over the hill now, but they still have Tiffon Hargrave and guys like Mill and Williams are pretty solid players too good against the run, you know. But but when they get down to like I think, to me, like one of the most stark areas where they really stink is like some of these c gap runs, like where they're trying to just either just like go off tackle there because their linebackers are so bad at filling and run. They're so bad. I've been in and I mean, look, look, I don't even feel right slandering him because I don't even think he's playing the requisition right now. So yeah, he's more of a the past defender. Yeah. More it was like overhanging strong safety is that can like masquerade as a linebacker every once in a while, But when he's playing linebacker every step it looks really really bad. So I kind of wonder what the Eagles, like, what's the deal with the Kobe Dean is he is to just not because I feel like if you if you if you look at the state of the linebackers, and then just you picked the Kobe Dedan. Why not see what can happen. I don't know what happened there for him right here, that is, they clearly have a fatal flaw and we'll see if it's actually fatal. And the Eagles would tell you, well, if you're going to have a flaw, let it be run defense. That's sort of how they've set up their personnel. It's how they've set up their scheme, or maybe not their personnel, because you're right, they have a lot of good defensive lineman. They should be better at it. NA Kobe Dean has played four defensive snaps this season. I did not see him on the field tonight. Uh, it is crazy. Maybe he's still coming out for that injury. I know he's healthy enough to play, but they need help there. And it's interesting looking at the Eagles upcoming schedule. This loss kind of keeps the Cowboys in the division race. I mean, if they won this game, they would have been three games up, which doesn't sound insane, but when you only have eight left to play, and and you have some easy games on your schedule, like that's a lot of games to be up. Now it's only two and the Cowboys get him again, and the Giants are only one game back. You know the team you used to cover, uh, And here's who's coming up on their schedule. Some Jonathan Taylor. I mean, I don't think they'll have problems with the Colts, but Taylor looked a little revived last week. Then you got the Packers, good run game, Titans, good run game. You're gonna have the Cowboys a couple of weeks after that. You got the Giants two different times. Um, so they will be testing, and the Bears good call. So those are a lot of good running teams. They're they're kind of like in the crosshairs here. That's that's the trend of two NFL. It's all about the run. It's really not all about the run, but it's part of it. Yeah, And honestly, you can even if that team is given up, that team, man, I think by they play Week seventeen, by that team, I don't know, Joe, it might be you know, coaching the Saints, uh for the for that week and Camara will be on vacation or something. I don't know what's up with that team. Let's get quickly to the most improved UH teams. So to shout out to the Commanders, you're gonna be in the wild card race for a little while, and the Eagles to take a step back. I'm not worried though. Most improved players, all right, I had to just like a list. I usually do a list here, and I'm not gonna put you on the spot, Charles. I'm gonna throwout six players here as as my most improved list here, and I'm not gonna put them in order this week. I don't feel like it. And you can. You can just tell me what you think and who you if I'm missing anyone, or what order you would have them on. Stin Derrisaw is on the list for me. Left tackle for the Vikings. People thought he might be a problem for them, and he's ended up being a great left tackle. It's really interesting to see these second year left tackles improve. It just happens over and over on your team used to cover I don't are you. You're not a Giants fan, but you kind of have a soft spot for him at this point. Uh No. I used to cover the Giants and the Jets, and I don't really have a soft spot. No but you live in Brooklyn. No, so you're just like annoyed by them then then and they're they're just like fan I got my home problems, bro, Yeah, you got a lot of problems. I'm trying to think who would be the most improved on the Talcons but for the Falcons. Okay, let's hear. I was looking at the tackle list and I thought of that. I thought like, that's a little too deep for me. Can I really speak intelligently about Caleb McGarry. Not really, but I've heard he's played well and when I've watched them, like they hold up and he's good in the running games. He's nasty. Yeah, he used to be really bad and now he's pretty good. So all right, So I don't know if he's making the officialist, but i'll throw out Dexter Lawrence on the Giants has always been good, um, but he's taken another step. Derek Brown of the Panthers, I've mentioned on this show. It's a guy who just hadn't done a lot as a top ten pick over his first three years, and he is gonna get paid. Greg Rousseau of the Bills quiet rookie year where he did not play much and has popped. I know he's hurt right now. Uh, I'm not putting Gino on this list because he never actually played. I'm with Gina. I. I believe that he's been this good the whole time, he just never had a chance. So but I will put to Ah. Do you think to A deserves this list or did he just need the chance? Um? Yeah, I think there's definitely a lot of areas for two has improved. To me, I think the most exciting part about the Dolphins offense is how damn good might McDaniel is, Like, yeah, he might be the best play caller in the league. Like if there's any one of those guys that was like the actual boy genius stuff, the Shanahan squad, squad seems like Mike Dan really has got something to figure it out. But that two was definitely improved. He said, what parts of his game? What parts of his game has improved? Oh, I think just like the constituency on the deep balls, I think he's picking it and finding his spots better. Like and I will say that Tyreek Kill and Jaelan Wad will definitely give you a room for error on this. But uh, he's he's been able to find out like a a timing pattern that works for his arm strength where he's still able to pin passes on the sideline like right when he needs to or is or if he's able to, uh even just give guys a chance to get him open down field, Like sometimes I feel like to uh throw the ball earlier when he's throwing the deep balls, fast throwing the balls like Tyreek Killing and Jelan Waddle because he knows like, well, I can't. I don't really have the arm strength to afford to wait here, so I gotta let go of his faster. And when people do really get about arms trade, it's not because I'll see people. Well, he threw the ball fifty yards field, Well, yeah, like every NFL quarterback can do that. It's about how long it takes all to get there. Like a key throw tonight. Uh TWA would have thrown that half second quicker and it wouldn't have been as big of a air balloon, but he would have thrown it quicker to give his receiver a better chance. You're right. His timing on out routes too. I know most of it's over the middle of the field and everything, but his timing is excellent. He he has gotten better. You're right, McDaniel, is that dude. That's why Kyle Shanahan tried to stop him from leaving him for all those years and tried to like hide him. Yeah. I think from your list though, I would probably go with with Derek Brown okay as number one, just as someone like who has improved there. Not only there their their play this year, but like you said, like the career outlook kind of has shifted for him. Yeah, he's gonna get paid. Yeah, he's probably playing like that guy that that they drafted him to be. I was, I was, I wasn't like the biggest Derrek Brown thing coming out of the draft because I was I was like, you know, I preferred the guys who are going to be three like one gap penetrators, three technique types. But you know, he's starting to figure that out to his game too, Like he's gotten really explosively, really strong. Uh. And I think you know, it was interesting because when the Panthers were going through their trade deadline stuff, uh, and it was coming out where the reports were like Derek Brown was one of their untouchables. You know, I was talking to people and they're like, really, Derek Brown was like, go go watch him play this year. It was just this year, but I understand the thought process if you just watched him play this year, like he looks fantastic. Yeah, he is that dude. And there's not many of those dudes. And there used to be kind of a cliche that those types of guys developed slower. I don't know if that's even true, but like the Ted Washington types, which you don't even see in the NFL, but he's the equivalent of a Ted wash Ington type who's just big dude. And yeah, I'm not usually into those guys before the draft, but let's give him his flowers. Sure, we'll put him at number one. I guess McGarry snuck on the list now that I counted it as number six. Christian Kirk was another guy I would throw out there just because I didn't think Christian Kirk had everything that he's had in his game this year. He's shown to be like a nice slot that can get vertical. Uh, you could do it all too, Charles. You stayed up late. I appreciate it. I hope like no one is you know waking, You're in Brooklyn, so I'm guessing do you share walls with other apartment dwellers? Like, are you waking them right now? I'm actually on the first floor. I'll look to you. You know, I never got to that point when I was in New York for for ten years and uh, if I was screaming on a podcast late at night, They're like people were annoyed at me. So hopefully no one. I definitely got lucky with my living situation. I'll say that for sure. That's nice. Charles does a really great job. He's at Yahoo. UH. He's a great follow on Twitter. Check him out there. Appreciate having you on. Uh and we'll do it again, and thanks you. You gave us good luck here, Charles. We've got a fun game, all right for Charles, I'm Greg. We will be back on Tuesday. We have a special guest. Oh yes we do. We have Mark Sanchez joining the show. It's not confirmed. It's not confirmed, but we'll try to get him on the show. Let's show up, Mark Sanchez, come on, we need you heat the call