Bears-Vikings Week 1 MNF Recap, 49ers Injuries and an Eagles-Jags Trade!

00:00:00
Speaker 1: It is a run pass option. McCarthy takes off to the right days.

00:00:05
Speaker 2: Stunner stuff sick.

00:00:06
Speaker 1: A five toupeez JJ McCarthy.

00:00:16
Speaker 3: He is JJ McCarthy, and that is Paul Allen of k FA and great to have his voice back on NFL Daily. I am Greg Rosenthal. I am joined as always on Primetime Games by Nick Shook to talk about another big time comeback in a primetime games. Not all comebacks are equal, but this one, the Vikings trailing seventeen to six going into the fourth quarter, is an example, unlike that Bill's Ravens one the other night, that sometimes the restorative power of a great defense can lead you to a comeback. And the Vikings defense just kept stopping the Bears over and over and over again until finally JJ McCarthy suddenly got religion. On offense, everything slowed down for him and he scored three touchdowns in successive drives, usually off good field position, and the Minnesota Vikings go into Chicago and steal won twenty seven to twenty four. Nick, to me, this was more improbable than the Bills come back because the Bills have Josh Allen at quarterback and JJ McCarthy for three quarters of this game look completely lost. But that's why we watched this, That's why we love this.

00:01:37
Speaker 1: Yeah, JJ McCarthy found God, and what Kevin O'Connell did was found simplification of the offense. I mean, the operation of the Vikings offense for the first three quarters was too complex. They were having a hard time getting snaps off before the expiration of the play clock. And then suddenly in the fourth quarter it seems just pretty elementary roll out. Brought boots to the right, passes to the flat, Jordan Mason gets going on the ground, start to build momentum. You get a nice convenient pass interference call that extends the drive and you immediately capitalize. McCarthy shows off the arm by finding Justin Jefferson in a pretty tight window along the goal line for their first score. That gives them hope, much like we talked about last night, you need one play to give you hope. Then they get that stop, they get the ball right back, they go down the field again, McCarthy puts a dot on Aaron Jones and suddenly they're in the lead and we're all shocked. And it all started with I think the defense, like you said, in the simplification of the offense, taking away the complexities of it and just letting JJ McCarthy do what he does best, which is play football and make plays a quarterback.

00:02:34
Speaker 3: Yes, welcome to the YouTube audience who is watching this live. We are going to do this live every single Monday night. Appreciate you all being here. And I thought it was going to be like a bloss or to show and we're going to have some of these primetime games where you got to spice it up, You're gonna have to like find fun angles to it. But this one so much happened. And I really do go back to the defense to start nick, because it's going to get lost in this game. Because the Bears ended up with twenty four points. It's hard to forget about the first impression. People like you who are writing about this game on NFL dot com, like you have one story written and then it is rewritten, and you have this idea that the Bears offense played well and Caleb Williams makes these great passes early in the game. But until that final drive by the Bears where they did score a touchdown, they needed to score it quick. They did a good job to make it closer. They had only had ten points on offense in ten drives. That would be the worst offense in decades on a points per drive basis. They end up with a touchdown at the end, so that's seventeen points because I'm not counting the pick six that doesn't count towards your offense in eleven drives. That is actually worse per drive than the twenty twenty four Bears. That inspired a hit piece on Caleb Williams's professionalism on golong dot com over the weekend. Maybe we'll talk about that a little bit, because I thought that was an interesting back to this game. And what I would say about Brian Flores and this Vikings defense is, even though though they gave up that first drive in another field goal early, I thought they got much more aggressive and ultimately Caleb williams Is only good plays were ones that he was creating on his own, and for the most part, when he was just dropping back to pass or when they were trying a traditional run game, the Vikings defense had it stopped. And sometimes you do that enough over and over and over, even if your offense is playing terribly, eventually you could give them a chance to make a comeback, and that's what JJ McCarthy did tonight.

00:04:31
Speaker 1: Yeah, yeah, they definitely did. And I think if you examine this game, you go watch this in condensed to replay tomorrow and it's just played by play by play, you're gonna think something changed here. And the first thing you'll notice is the play in the trenches because early in this game, Caleb is making plays, but he's also got a little bit more time to throw. Yes, he has some magic. He has that throw to Romo Dunes down the sideline that made my heart flutter in real time. That ends up on that drive, a touchdown is scored and they're up seven to nothing. But from there it gradually and this is the beauty of I think of football, the in game adjustments, Because at one point he was either in the second or the third quarter. The Vikings started to win that trench battle convincingly, and at the same time, the Bears started to lose their trench battle on the defensive side of the ball, and that's when everything really started to shift. It was the precursor to then what we saw the explosion of points in the fourth quarter, and that really told the entire story because for three quarters. JJ McCarthy was constantly being harassed the game. The speed was too much for him, everything was too much for him. And then suddenly he just finds it. No, he finds it because they start to win upfront, and they won up front on both sides of the ball in that fourth quarter, and the signs were there a couple quarters earlier, and that's really what shut down the Bears offense. You're absolutely right, for as great as that opening drive was, they needed a pick six just to put another touchdown on the board, and it wasn't until that final score in the final minute and a half that they were able to get back in the en zone offensively, Like this is I hate to say it, because there's a lot of things to like from the Bears offensive showing under Ben Johnson, creativity and everything else, but there's a lot of things to fix here, right.

00:06:00
Speaker 3: So Caleb starts ten for ten and you mention that throw that he have in the first drive to roam a duneza. My god, when you see Caleb Williams make a throw like that, you just feel like everything is possible. Let's actually listen to that first quarter toss.

00:06:18
Speaker 1: Come met on his left tip swift the split to the numbers left along with Dunjay fact for throwing a tight pocket dodging now rolling.

00:06:24
Speaker 3: To the right, trying to white race the bike and grows to the.

00:06:27
Speaker 1: Syard line inside the fifteen yard line. Is the catchmade? It is by Robert Dunjay.

00:06:34
Speaker 3: Bears.

00:06:35
Speaker 1: Get it done, Caleb, as he's always known.

00:06:38
Speaker 3: To do, running out of real estate.

00:06:41
Speaker 1: Catch prime time real estate for him.

00:06:43
Speaker 3: Oh, that is an incredible throw and catch. It makes you believe in everything that he can do. But when you look back in that drive and really his best moments of the game, it was him using his athleticism, which is great. I think you need to see more of that. And I was really impressed by how many times early in this game the Vikings won cleanly with four I don't think the Bears offensive line played well overall in this game, certainly not in the second half, but not really in the first half either. And how Caleb Williams made those guys miss before either just scrambling or making a throw was really positive and I think was at a more efficient, decisive level than he did it a year ago. It was really As the game wore on and I thought Flores showed a lot more looks to him in the second half, and you could almost see like his brain starting to slow. And that's happened to a lot of quarterbacks you know who have played against Brian Flores's defense last couple of years. Yeah.

00:07:43
Speaker 1: One of the first things I noted early in this game was Caleb is not because he has a tendency as he's in the pocket to stop his feet and just kind of survey. Sometimes it looks like he's freezing and then he'll rip a pass and who knows if it's going to be completed or not. He wasn't doing that early in this game. He was constantly moving like that pocket right there on that play. It's a tight pocket, but it's stout. It's stout enough for him to be able to break it, extend to play and find the receiver downfield. And he was doing a lot of that on that drive when he runs to the left later in that drive. And it all looked positive, like, oh, these are all signs of growth. But the Bears ran out of gas, like as a team, they ran out of gas because in the third quarter, Caleb's still trying to make magic, but it just ends up being like basically watching a car crash because he's trying to make these plays and just chaos is unfolding around him. There's the one play late in the game where he tries to like flip the ball towards the sideline out of desperation, gets a penalty for that. That was an example of your protection breaking down late in the game because they're running out of gas. The Bears won the feel out portion of a Week one game. They lost the adjustment portion of this game.

00:08:44
Speaker 3: Yeah, this Week one is so strange, and I really caution against taking huge, you know, takeaways, and for most of this game, my mine was going to be like I'm not really sure about the Bears offense. My bigger takeaway is just, man, the Vikings offense has a long way to go, and I think attrition and good coaching and also culture, Like you think about what Minnesota has done over the last three or four years.

00:09:09
Speaker 1: Yeah, it's a.

00:09:10
Speaker 3: Lot of winning, like especially last year, but in general, it's a lot of winning, and the Bears have done a lot of losing, and there's a lot of cohesion and answers from that coaching staff and players that they are used to getting to finally getting the weaknesses, because there were weaknesses. I can I can see some of the Bears fans in the comments and we love you that you're you know, going through this right now and actually watching a recap. I don't know if I could do pointing out the injuries. Yeah, Jalen Johnson was not in this game in the end. Kyler Gordon was inactive for this game. So two of their very best players in the secondary, Nashan Wright, who had the pick six, left this game. Who was, you know, their fourth or fifth cornerback. I don't think he returned at least as he did.

00:09:55
Speaker 1: He did, but it was pretty brief because it was it was that touchdown drive.

00:10:00
Speaker 3: So you know, that's a guy who is a journeyman at this point bouncing around, and so he leaves the game at one point. They're also without their linebacker TJ. Edwards. Now there's gonna be injuries, but I'm just trying to provide some context to the situation. I do give McCarthy credit though, because I was starting to take notes for the show and everything. I'm thinking, well, this is a good test for JJ McCarthy's leadership, because we hear how beyond his years. He is as a leader, right, and you can kind of see it, and I think they really like JJ McCarthy, but he's got to go prove it. And coming off a game like this where everything is so slow and you look completely lost for three quarters, you can't get lined up, as he said, like your eyes are slow. I thought he, you know, it was going through his progression slow. Literally some of his out routes, like the ball just looked a little slow, and that that's a little bit of a concern too, to be able to rally, like, oh, you actually showed me your leadership in the middle of that game, Like some of the throws were pretty good. I know there were open receivers, but that, to Aaron Jones was a fantastic moment. Let's let's listen if we can get Paul Allen into the show another time. Let's do it there.

00:11:08
Speaker 2: First and ten from the twenty seven it was the Bears McCarthy out of a shot gun.

00:11:12
Speaker 3: Let's have gone and picked.

00:11:13
Speaker 1: Up McCarthy looks at a Jones touch showtime and the Minnesota Vikings have taken on one point lead.

00:11:28
Speaker 3: Oh that's a great call there, and a great moment for Jones, who was really quiet in this game, but their running game him really as a receiver, a couple runs late, but mostly him in that specific play. And then Jordan Mason as a runner was a big difference between them and the Bears, who really were not able to run the ball at all. Tonight, sixty six percent, by the way of the YouTube viewers voted that JJ McCarthy is him, which I mean, this just shows you that we've got a very young producer coming up with these questions. Shout out to Chris twenty two years old. JJ McCarthy. The nick is the first player since Cam Newton with two passing touchdowns and a rushing touchdown in his NFL debut, and all of those touchdowns, of course came in the third quarter, so pretty cool. Like I was thinking about, like, oh, he's not really a rookie. He got to learn at the NFL level, but he is essentially a rookie his first game, and you saw him kind of go through the whole process tonight.

00:12:23
Speaker 1: Yeah, that brain can be filled with knowledge from a year spent on the sideline and that's all fine and dandy, but until you're thrown to the fire, you don't really know how you're going to react, and we saw both sides of that coin tonight with him being slow early. But I love the point that you made about culture and about JJ McCarthy's leadership because once he just got to playing football, he has this endless sense of confidence that came from being a successful high school quarterback, from going to Michigan and winning a ton of football games and being the leader of that program for multiple years. They win a national championship in his final game. He knows nothing but success and how to battle through adversity. Remember this is a quarterback who had to play a few games with that as head coach on the way to a national champion when everybody was criticizing them. He leads them through that fire. And this pays me because look at the shirtom. We're in an Ohio state national championship. This pains me to say this, but I'm being completely honest right now. He was forged in that fire. This is a different fire, and by the fourth quarter he had settled in enough, he'd adjusted to the temperature to be able to deliver. And I think that that's a big reason why Kevin O'Connell felt so confident in making him his franchise quarterback and moving on from San Darnold because he saw that in him. But that the Aaron Jones involvement. I like the way you broke down those running backs too, because I thought that was a really interesting part of their offense, especially in the second half. Aaron Jones is essentially an exclusive third down back. He's a pass catching back. Jordan Mason is the ball carrier between the tackles for most of this game, and it worked out well because it balanced their offense when they really needed it in those late moment in those later moments in the fourth quarter, which allowed them to spark this whole comeback. But the culture thing is what's most important to me, because, like you said, they've done a lot of winning. How many teams in the NFL would be in that situation. Offense is going nowhere, quarterback looks overwhelmed, your star receiver's got one catch, nothing's going right. You're on the road, hostile environment, primetime week one, and they would have folded. Not the Minnesota Vikings, because they've been there, They've done that, and even with a new quarterback, they had the perfect quarterback, at least with the mental makeup and the physical abilities to deliver in that in that spot.

00:14:17
Speaker 3: Yeah, because you know he's young. Jay Justin Jefferson's not young. Javon Hargrave, who I thought had a great game, great game in his first game for the Vikings, is not young. Two sacks for him. Josh Mattellus was all over the place. Andrew van Ginkel, you know, almost picked off that Caleb passed for a screen. One of the most exciting plays in all of football is a screen pass to Andrew Van Ginkel's side of the field, and it was one of the reasons I thought Caleb was getting spooked. You know, we have a comment here that Caleb was missing deep shots from the first quarter onwards, and I do think his accuracy is something to talk about here because they were ten for He was ten for ten on the game. A lot of them were checked downs. I thought that was good process, like he was making the right decisions. I thought he was decisive when he was in that early script. But if you remember it shook. His first miss of the game was to a wide open I want to say it was DJ Moore, it was him or Adunze on a fourth down. Either in the red zone or close to the red zone while they're going in for a potential scoring and that was his first miss. They had gone for a fourth down earlier on that drive. And I didn't blame Ben Johnson for feeling it. I think that was the best home crowd we saw in any game all weekend long. Like it was an incredible atmosphere there, Like it was just rocking and you're feeling the flow and the receiver was open and Caleb just missed him. And there was about three or four throws tonight where the receiver was open and he missed him. And I think it was more timing than anything, like him deciding to make the throw late and then trying to hurry it or whatever it was. But it was some of the issues that you saw a year ago out of Caleb Williams. I don't I don't want to bury him. I don't. I don't think this was an awful performance by him, But ultimately it was a disappointing one the way that it started in the way that it finished.

00:16:05
Speaker 1: Yeah, I agree. His accuracy did wane in the latter portions of this game, for sure, and even on that last desperate drive he had DJ Moore open down the sideline and missed him there too, and that was a timing thing too, because his eyes were in the flats earlier. But I think, you know, things that the Bears need to correct going forward. I was very concerned by their inability to really push the ball even beyond ten yards. Like that first drive works out so well, it makes a lot of good decisions with checkdowns and everything else, but a lot of his attempts for swing passes. By the second half, Brian Flores's defense had adjusted and we're like, we're taking that away. Van Ginkel obviously being the shining example of that almost picking one off and we know how good he isn't doing that from his previous years in the NFL, and it felt like they had no real other options, and even when he had guys open, Caleb would miss them. And those are the things that you can work on. Those are the kinks that you're going to have to work through under a new coach and a new scheme and everything else. But I also think that it points to a big part of Caleb's growth this season is going to be less reliance on your arm talent, more reliance on the way that this scheme is designed to work, which comes down to timing because he has a howitzer for an arm and I hate that people use that term so much, but it's true. With him, he's got a freaking cannon less reliance on using that arm. Strength, more on delivering on time in the scheme will help this offense get to the next stage.

00:17:21
Speaker 3: Yeah, while we're at it, you know this this go long piece and I recommend everyone go read it themselves. Tyler Dunn, who's a good journalist and you know, had that article about Sean McDermott using nine to eleven as a rallying cry a couple of years ago and which spurred on a Bill's like winning streak, right, you know, he dropped it right in the middle of like the lowest moment of their season, and then they went on a winning streak. And while this game started, I thought like, oh, is it another effect here of like the second he drops some incredibly negative article about someone, like they take off after that first drive. But man, it really got after Caleb Williams using scouts coaches people that were in the building about how he reacted to coaching, and I think it was almost a direct response to the reporting that happened in Seth Wickersham's book, which really put all the blame on the coaching. And I don't have a take other than you should read it and that it was interesting and that that situation to me is still lingering, and I thought it'd be really interesting to hear. Ben Johnson asked about that specific piece because it took on Caleb Williams's work, ethic and his personality and his leadership ability in a really personal way from direct sources. Let's not focus on that too much. A couple other little things tonight. So of all the Week one games, like this one was about the Week oneiest. You know, it's like I don't know, like I want to see what these teams are like in week four, you know what I mean, Like they're just figuring stuff out. It's really great for Minnesota to get the way and I think we know this defense is going to be really good. I think we know Dennis Allen can coach up some defense. And I was really impressed with what the Bears did for two or three quarters, and so there's some good things to feel about. It's like, let's revisit in week four, Like I think we're just like getting out the kinks there. But some of the big questions that I had about the Vikings going into this game. One, do they have enough receiver depth behind Justin Jefferson, you know, like I'm still a little worried about that. How is this new offensive line look? Christian Darisa did not play in this game, so he is still not healthy. And then would the interior line that they brought over from Indianapolis look? Okay? Mixed results, I would say most, you know, not amazing most of the game. And then the Bears, like how would their new additions look, especially on the offensive line, not amazing? Like to me, it's just it was a feeling out game where the culture kind of won over everything else.

00:19:50
Speaker 1: Yeah, I thought there was some mental errors made by the Bears offensive line. Now, there was a holding call that was terrible, but there were false starts. There were issues in the operation that are to of a team under a new coach, but also like they're they're lingering issues from previous Bears regimes that like, you got to move past that, and I think you will over time.

00:20:08
Speaker 3: They had just twelve penalties shook for one hundred and twenty seven yards. I mean that's when I said this was the Week oneiest game. I mean, the Vikings had eight penalties for fifty yards, which is not great either, but twelve for one to twenty seven is crazy. That's gonna make Ben Johnson crazy.

00:20:22
Speaker 1: Yeah, of course. And these turnarounds don't happen overnight. I mean, anytime that I've been asked about what do you think about the Bears this season, I think Caush's optimism. It didn't happen overnight with the Lions when Ben Johnson was on that staff as the OC, it took him a while and they finally turned the corner. So I definitely recommend patience. You see some things to like, yes, but it's gonna be a work that you know, a work in progress is gonna take multiple weeks or months and everything else. And you're gonna look back on this game. Dang, we lost to the Vikings in Week one. We shouldn't have lost that game. You're gonna move past this at some point and hopefully it's gonna be produce better results.

00:20:56
Speaker 3: Yeah. So I should have mentioned at the top of the show. I'm just so excited to be on with you, Nick and talk about this game that you know, Monday Nights are not just about the game. We are gonna hit some news from around the league. In just a little bit, we had a trade including the Eagles. We had some big time news in terms of injuries, in terms of the forty nine ers. I think you know, before we move on from this game, is there is there anything else that you want to get out there, Because like Jordan took the Vikings as a survivor pick, and I thought that was extremely bold and it just shows that she's a she's a ball knower, and she was she was honking on text tonight too about how good like she was talking up Jordan Mason, and I like how you pointed that out too. I'm curious if you have any other major takeaways before we.

00:21:48
Speaker 1: Move I like the team that Ryan Poles has constructed, Like Tonal Passno makes a big play and I'm like, he's in Chicago, Oh, just elevated from the practice squad. Like that's a deep dive on a former relattively a high pick that played in Kansas City that suddenly you're like, you know what, let's give him a shot, Let's give him some money. Makes a play, And I do trust the process with this team, I'd like their receiving corps more than I did last year. I worry about the Vikings receiving core for the next three weeks, But overall, this is gonna be one of those games. Like I said, it's week one, We're gonna look back and it's it's probably not gonna indicate all that much to us other than that. The discourse on JJ McCarthy this week, it's gonna be real annoying because they're gonna get a lot of oh he's a gamer.

00:22:31
Speaker 3: The Ohio State thing because it was going poorly. You thought you were gonna the football.

00:22:35
Speaker 1: I put this on. I put this on five minutes before we did the show.

00:22:40
Speaker 3: Okay, well that was a bad choice. I mean, what were you wearing.

00:22:42
Speaker 1: Before, like the cutoff T shirt? I'm at home.

00:22:44
Speaker 3: Fine, give the give the viewers what they want.

00:22:48
Speaker 1: You know, I gotta have some I gotta have sleeves for professionalism.

00:22:51
Speaker 3: We're I mean, you want to see.

00:22:53
Speaker 1: This all show.

00:22:53
Speaker 3: I don't know you're you're you're an athlete showed off. Yeah. There were good performances by the Bears defensive line, especially die A Dengbo, who was a pickup in the offseason. Had a nice night with the Sacarbon Dexter, who's been a slowly improving player on the interior, was better. But yeah, it's it's gonna take a minute here. I think for Ben Johnson to get this offense in sync. A lot of those penalties were on the offense, and it will be a test of him as well, like how much patience can he have as a coach, because you can tell he he like grips that play sheet pretty tight. I also think JJ McCarthy has to like almost figure out maybe how to do less. I wonder if Kevin O'Connell got in his ear about that because because that pick six came after you know, he was checking. He was changing the place way too much, way too much, right, Yeah, I got to that point.

00:23:45
Speaker 1: The first four plays he's like checking and I'm watching the play they break the huddle with nine seconds He's out there trying to check to a different play. I'm like snap the.

00:23:51
Speaker 3: Ball right and and like they were having trouble like getting the snap off and everything. But it also was like, man, this is your first start, and I get what you're trying to do and everything, but it's almost like he was trying to show too much that he's ready and all the things that he learned, because it felt like almost every play he was changing. And that would be fine if, like I saw him changing into good plays, but he kept changing into bad plays like that pick six. But man, all that matters is how it ends. And uh, you know, I hate I hate like, oh he's a gamer analysis but a little like Michael Pennox, I thought at the end of that Falcons game, I know they didn't win it, man, I just thought JJ McCarthy made a ton of winning plays when it really mattered, and that matters, Like he ended up with one hundred and forty yards, the whole team only ended up with two fifty. Like I'm not gonna pretend.

00:24:44
Speaker 1: We had eighty five yards after three quarters, Like I'm not gonna pretend it was some great put but but it matters, like it mattered to me watching that pen X game.

00:24:52
Speaker 3: That man, he played his very best on his last you know, few drives of the game. We have a question asking do you think JJ's performance in the four it is more telling of his potential or O'Connell's ability to develop quarterbacks. Look Kevin O'Connell's ability to develop quarterbacks at this point is unquestioned. I think he is one of the best to do it. I don't know what JJ McCarthy is going to be long term based on this performance, but uh, I guess my answer then is more O'Connell.

00:25:23
Speaker 1: He's got moxie like I'm gonna sound like he's a gamer, but he does have moxie like you know, at the end of the day.

00:25:28
Speaker 3: I think it could be both. But but O'Connell, I've seen him do it with you know, Josh Dobbs and Nick Mullins in some similar spots. So i'll give the nod to O'Connell for now. But a great a great first game for the Vikings to get off and running. Unfortunately, they did lose Blake Cashman there with the hamstring injury at one point. Okay, let's take a moment here, let's reset if you're if you're listening to the audio, We're going to take a break right now. Let's get into the news. It is time for deliverying results presented by Uber Eats. Yes, I want to mention that Tank Bigsby was traded tonight to the Philadelphia Eagles. Nick Shook. I wouldn't have been surprised if this trade happened a week before the season started, but I was surprised that it came out on Monday night, right before this game began. The Eagles send a fifth and a sixth round pick to Jacksonville for Tank Bigsby. The Jaguars now have thirteen picks in next year's track, which is absolutely outrageous. Clearly a strategy there. It reminds me a lot of what James Gladstone, their general manager, did when he was in Los Angeles one year, just loading up on late picks because they don't even have their first round pick because of the Travis Hunter trade. But they have thirteen picks now and Tank Bigsby goes to the Eagles. What did you think about this?

00:27:03
Speaker 1: This has been a storyline that we've tracked since before camp started, but it was centered not on Tank Bigsby. It was centered on Travis Etn. It was such a buzzworthy topic at the time that Liam Cohen had to come out and express plenty of confidence and appreciation for what Travis Etn brought to the Jaguars. So I'm thinking, Okay, whoever doesn't win this battle in preseason is going to get traded, but I'm leaning Etn, so I'm a bit surprised to see that Bigsby gets traded because he led them in rushing last year. He outperformed Travis Etn. But what we didn't consider is that they've played a game already, and in that game, Travis Etn ran the ball sixteen times for one hundred and forty three yards and suddenly, guess what, Tank, pack your bags are going somewhere else. The other end of the trade that I have a lot of questions about is the fact that he went to the Eagles, the same team with Saquon Barkley in the backfield, the same team that went got aj Dillon as a power back, the same team that has Will Shipley in the backfield, which is not as soon inspiring player, but I like him as a player. So the question I had was, is Shipley hurt? Is Saquon dinged? Or do they miss what they lost in Kenny Gainwell And they feel like they needed to add another player in their backfield and Tank was the perfect guy for it. So we'll find out. But it's the Eagles accruing talent because again they're in their title window.

00:28:17
Speaker 3: I think it's so funny that they've become a team now that is majoring and running backs. Yeah, like that's not what we thought they were gonna be. And yeah the comment there that it's root and toot. In time, we'll get to the Jaguars side of it. But everyone who bought stock, like me and Basel Tutin, not just in fantasy but just in reality in the preseason, is celebrating because I think this trade is absolutely about him from the Jaguars side. But the Eagles, to me, I think are more interesting because they're trying to win a super Bowl. And you said it, I thought AJ Dillon looked good in that like one or two carries that they gave him in that game. Will Shipley they like a lot, so maybe we will hear about an injury. I don't think of Tank Bigsby's certainly as a Kenny Gainbell type. They are missing that in theory. I think that's that's kind of what Will Shipley would be. But maybe they just want to have depth. Maybe they're not happy with with aj Dillon, but they gave up some real capital, like a fifth and the sixth round pick is is a real trade, and they seriously wanted to improve that room. So they were thought about nick as like team analytics, running backs don't matter, don't pay the running backs, and also the what's the other position that doesn't matter? Inside linebacker, just like we don't need to play linebacker team and who they bought literally the best inside linebacker due now in the NFL.

00:29:41
Speaker 1: Yeah, but they bought low.

00:29:42
Speaker 3: We bought low.

00:29:43
Speaker 1: They bought low on Bond last year and then you know, made out like Gangbusters. And then they spend a top pick on Johat Campbell. So it's like, right now, that's a.

00:29:50
Speaker 3: First DROB pick and they just gave a contract to Bond, And I think it's it's kind of like the Lessons, if we want to think of them as analytically minded, moneyball all all that. Like it's just looking for edges, and at a certain point, after everyone copies what you're doing, like the edge becomes doing the opposite.

00:30:09
Speaker 1: Of zig you zag, Right, It's.

00:30:13
Speaker 3: Basically like doing stocks. Do you like Bacial Tutan? Do you have a hot take on him?

00:30:18
Speaker 1: I've already facial Tutan put down a great forty time with the combine. He like kind of set the running back to stay on fire in Indianapolis, and he was the talk of the town that night. He also seemed to have an issue with ball security, and Camp kind of faded into the background as they went through the preseason. I think a lot of that was because of the trade rumors with Etn and who was going to go between him and Bigsby. But it felt like he was running back three in that depth. Right now he's running back two. I like him as a as a big play potential guy because of his speed, but we don't have a lot of proof because he's a rookie and everything else, and because et N is the lead back, So as a spell guy with big play potential, yeah, I do like him. I wouldn't buy as much stock as you did, but it's aspirational stock anyway, and it's worth nothing, so why not buy it all.

00:30:59
Speaker 3: It's not he's in the mix, he's he's now going to be a major factor. Because Travis Etn is a really good running back, and I thought he had his best game of his career. It really wasn't just that long run. Just overall. He looked patient, It looked like the system fit him. I think he can run with power. He's obviously got the speed. Like he's not a powerful guy, but I think he's shown he could run inside the tackles enough. But he's not a guy you're going to want to give twenty five thirty touches to in a game. And when Tutin came in for ETN after he ripped off that seventy one yarder because he was tired, like Tutan's first run, his jump cuts are so violent and he just jumped from one hole laterally but also while moving forward to get like an eight yard run. You just you just know what when you see it, I think he's special like it. You know who he reminds me of is Joe Mixon as a runner, And Joe Mixon isn't running a four to three, But I just mean in the like the violence of the way Joe Mixon cut coming out, I think like, oh man, that's spicy. And I get a little vibe from that from Tuton so fun. We get a nice little Monday night trade and yes, that was delivering results. I think Touton is going to be delivering results. And it's presented by Uber Eats, where you can get the best deals on game Day Food all season long, the official on demand delivery partner of the NFL Order. Now, okay, let's go to the injuries that we found out on Monday evening, our insiders confirming that George Kittle is going to be out multiple weeks. Kyle Shanahan ended up talking about it and saying that injured reserve is at least a possibility for George Kittle because it's gonna be multiple weeks after leaving on Sunday. And then the bigger surprise is that Rock Purdy is uncertain for Week two. I mean, he stayed in that and I thought he played a lot better than the highlights would have indicated in terms of the interception, but he is now uncertain for their Week two game. Yeah.

00:33:10
Speaker 1: I actually went back and watched this game again today just to get the full play by a play review of it, and I was trying to spot when I thought he might have hurt the toe, and I think it happened when Julian Love came in on the blitz and sacked him because his foot got planned awkwardly. But I'm shocked that first off, Kyle said that the toe injury is more important than the shoulder thing that he's dealing with. I'm shocked that he finished that game and was able to make that throw on the run at the end of tan just for the touchdown. With that injury, It's maybe one of those things where the adrenaline everything else, it doesn't start to really hurt until the next day, and then he realized, oh God, I'm in a tough spot. I am concerned that. I'm not concerned that they don't have Kittle because there's ways to make up for that. Granted, they don't have a lot of receivers healthy, so it's a loss, but they were able to win that game without Kittle. He left in the second quarter. I'm more concerned if you don't have Rock Perdy, how this suddenly just shrinks your offense as hole and a foot issue is something that could linger, you know, and you know how important feed are, especially the guys like quarterbacks. So it's interesting on the Kittle side, because Kyle said a few weeks, Ian Rapport reported three to five. Short term ir makes sense. The extra week might make sense, like if your windows three weeks and you want to go four and designate to return that sort of thing. I think that would make sense. Since it happened in week one, you have a longer runway. But I wrote this when I wrote it up today. It wouldn't be a forty nine Ers season if somebody important didn't get hurt early like it. It's just a repetitive thing with them, and it bums me out.

00:34:35
Speaker 3: I'm very concerned. I think they have a few pillars in their offense. And yeah, Chris points out in the comments, we love all the comments guys that that CMC is now the healthiest guy in San Francisco, just as we all suspected. So they have a few pillars that make them special. It's Christian McCaffrey, it's Trent Williams, it's George Kittle and prety. I think think does elevate ultimately the people around him. A toe injury is very concerning. But Kittle's thirty two years old, and I know he's coming off one of his best seasons of his entire career. But he is thirty two years old and starting the season with a hamstring injury at that age, and he is a player that has had injury issues that have kept him out is concerning because they are just not the same without him. Juwan Jennings left that game with an injury. It doesn't sound like that when it is going to be overly serious. I do think they have something really good in Ricky Piers. I'm not saying there without weapons, but Trent Williams had one of the worst games of his career. I was shocked rewatching that game. I've never seen Trent Williams struggle that much.

00:35:42
Speaker 1: Yeah, he might just play better than m Colt mckivit's played better than him.

00:35:46
Speaker 3: On Sunday, speaking of Colton mckivit'z he's signed a contract extension since we last recorded. Good job by you setting me up there, Nick Schuck. I thought it was a very reasonable one, considering he's like an average tackle, and average tackles get paid, you know, twenty million plus on the open market. And so I think we criticized the forty nine ers for waiting till the last second to get all these contracts done and then everyone gets upset. Well, this is an example of them maybe changing their ways. So good job by them there. I am concerned, especially if Purdy does not play, and I was referring to how I thought he did better, then you could tell me if you disagree. There were some groaners like that the interceptions were really good plays by the Seahawks, but he threw a few up for grabs. But he had five or six awesome throws in that game, didn't you think? And yeah, I agree, and held up under pressure, I thought pretty well.

00:36:39
Speaker 1: Yeah, on the rewatch. That's the part of why I went and rewatched, because I'm like, I watched this live, maybe not on an exact play by a play basis, because I'm, you know, got like five games up or whatever. I think there was four in that window, and I went back because I felt uncertain about how his performance really went because the one thing that stuck at The two plays that stuck out in my mind were the second interception he threw and then the touchdown path he threw, and the Ernest Jones interception was a great play I think made by Ernest Jones. So I wanted to run it back, and I agree. I think that there were more positive throws than negative throws in that game. He comes through in the clutch as well, and he did it without George Kittle out there too, So yeah, I think that the highlights common example of how the Highlight package doesn't always do a guy justice. I look at Dylan Gabriel's Week two preseason game as another example. Watch every play to truly get an understanding of how a quarterback played.

00:37:24
Speaker 3: Wait, that was the good Dylan Gabriel.

00:37:26
Speaker 1: Wonder that was the Dylan Gabriel game, his first one where he threw a really bad pick six. Yes, and the rest of the game was pretty good. Yes.

00:37:33
Speaker 3: That I lost track of my Dylan Gabriel games as one does good context. I had a whole segment plan for brock Party tomorrow. If you watch our show on Tuesday, me and Jordan rod Rieg are gonna do good omens bad omens. For the twenty twenty five NFL season, the forty nine ers first drive of the season to me, was going to be a good omen. They got the ball in the five yard line. Brock Party was under heat over in in that drive, and he kept finding receivers that weren't really open. And I've become a rock Pretty defender lately. I don't think he's amazing, but I think he's I think he's a plus quarterback who makes a lot of difficult throws that aren't really there, And I think he elevates actually the people around him, and even if he makes some mistakes that prevent him from being a top eight quarterback, like he's a value add It was better than I think people think, and that is no longer going to be my good omen, Chuck, you got to be able to audible Sometimes wouldn't really make sense for tomorrow's show. So I'm glad we got him in here. You know what I'm also glad to get in the rest of the news is actually sponsored. It's time for our Kickoff Week recap, presented by Nationwide. I predicted on Sunday night's show, Nick, you might remember that Brian Dable is going to make the change at quarterback because they asked him after the game if he's considering a change, and he said yeah, and then he didn't answer the question. And when coaches are noncommittal, I've learned over the years they're gonna make a change. Now. I should have been a little more careful. That's always the case when that happens on Monday. It's mostly the case when it happens right after the game and they're emotional, and in the end, I was wrong. I'll wear it when I'm wrong Brian Dabele, you proved me wrong.

00:39:28
Speaker 2: Do you intend to start Russell Wilson this week? Yes? Yep? Okay, I mean and after a game. You know, it's an emotional game, it's tough game. You know, didn't play particularly well, I would say collectively. But in terms of making any of those decisions really at any position or schematic changes, I'd like to, you know, do it with a clear head and watch watch the tape. And again, like I said yesterday, that that game wasn't just doesn't fall on Russell Wilson.

00:40:01
Speaker 1: Oh okay. First off, I have your back because I got a similar vibe from his response the window in which he delivered it. You're right, after the game, can't take it, you know, completely, one hundred percent at face value. You got to take it with a grain of salt. I don't think you were wrong here because I think that eventually he's going to make this decision. And I think Jordan explained it perfectly on the show yesterday, which is that in that goal line scenario when they failed to get a touchdown, they had like seven plays down there and they end up settling for three. He made that decision. As if I can't watch this anymore because I ran this game back today and I had the same conclusion where I was like, I cannot believe that you couldn't punch the ball into the end zone from there. And it's not a running game thing. It's the fact that Russell Wilson in this game. I know he already broke it down yesterday, but there were multiple times where pocket's pretty clean, and if his first read's not there, he's looking to take off as if it's twenty fourteen, not forgetting that it's twenty twenty five. That's a bad sign to me. So I could have seen him making this change, and he's gonna make this change because these things are not going to go away against different opponents. This is going to be a consistent issue. Malik Neighbors bailed him out a lot in that game, and I think over the course of the next month, if not sooner, Brian Dabel's patience is going to run out, just not this week.

00:41:13
Speaker 3: You mentioning that got me thinking, I thought you were maybe going to go conspiracy theory here. The Giants are an organization where ownership has gotten involved with quarterback decisions in the past, famously making Ben McAdoo bench Gino Smith for Eli Manning. We've seen how their you know, influence, I guess in the Saquon Barkley situation was more or less ignored. But we've heard whispers that Daniel Jones was essentially given that big contract because ownership believed in him and wanted him so much, when maybe the front office and especially the coaching staff had mixed feelings about him. And that's given them, in a sense, a longer leash, Like they know in that building that Daniel Jones wasn't really all on the decision makers there, and ultimately it's all going to be about Jackson Dark. But you just never know who's getting involved, whether it's the general manager or ownership. These are decisions that are bigger than just the head coach, especially I think in New York, and I don't think Russell Wilson played well at all, but they might feel like, for whatever reason, it'd be unfair to bench now that Dark has another week or two, whatever it is, and so Russell Wilson will get at least one more chance, and we'll see who do they have on the schedule this week. I should know this. I'm putting on the spot.

00:42:42
Speaker 1: Well, Luckily I have Jesus in front of me. So they're playing the Cowboys in Dallas.

00:42:46
Speaker 3: Oh, that's a spicy second. I don't think it's a bad matchup to have to have.

00:42:53
Speaker 1: If it's a disastrous game, I think because I think that public perception plays a factor in them sticking with Russell Wilson, especially if ownership wants him to stick with Russell Wilson. Brian Ables coaching for his job. He does not have total patience to let it play out like Mike Tomlin did last year with Russell Wilson. I'm sure he wants to make that change, and if ownership is involved, it's a perception thing. We can't look like a chaotic organization after one week. We have to stick with them for another week. But if they go to Dallas and get smoked and Russell Wilson's terrible, that change is going to happen.

00:43:20
Speaker 3: Fair. I should have mentioned, by the way, with San Francisco, if perty does not play this week, they are in New Orleans. So if you were ever on the fence to play or sit him for one week, sit in New Orleans and then they're home for the Cardinals and the Jaguars, who I think are competitive, fun maybe even playoff teams if everything breaks right. But it is one of the softer portions of a pretty soft forty nine ers schedule, So I guess if this was going to happen, it happened at a pretty good point. Just some other real quick items of news as we wind down here. Nick Ammon Warri is a candidate for injured reserve for the Seahawks. Tarvarius Ward, who had a good first game for the Colts in concussion protocol, the Panthers defensive tackle they picked up to Shawn Wharton is out two to four weeks. Any of those stand out to you as particularly important? Shook em and worry happened about four plays into that Seahawks game.

00:44:20
Speaker 1: Yeah, that was a big bummer for them, and I think he would have made a difference, especially in the way that this game unfolded with pretty leading them down the field and throwing that touchdown pass, especially with the game that Rik Woollen had. The help over the top from a safety, with the athleticism that even Warri brings to the field would have been a pretty big boost for them. So that one probably sticks out to me the most Scharvarius Ward, veteran cornerback concussion protocol. You hope that's a pretty quick turn for him. Panthers. I mean they need every they need their bodies, They need everybody available right now to bounce back after the game that they just had. So but yeah, I think that Emon Warri is probably the one that sticks out the most. I'm also looking through the players right now because watching the game back, it was DeMarcus Lawrence. Oh my god, he had a few plays there where I'm like, who is zero Lawrenson? A zero all over the field like he would.

00:45:09
Speaker 3: He's one of those players I should I if I still wrote, maybe we'll make it into a podcast. It'd be a good offseason podcast. It's not the Hall of very Good, but I just think it's like great, like all time great players that I have like no chance for the Hall of Fame, Like DeMarcus Lawrence is one of my all time favorite players. That it's not at that level, but he's just He's just a dude. A couple other little items I'll just run through. Julian Blackman, who is a starting safety for the Saints, could be out for the season. Denzel Perryman for the Chargers or Linebacker out two to four weeks, Texansight and Cook keid Stover out a few weeks, and Kendrick Bourne signed with the San Francisco forty nine Ers. That was Kickoff Week recap presented by Nationwide. Nationwide is so much more than a great insurance company. They're one of America's largest financial services companies too. For your insurance and financial needs, Nationwide is on your side. Just a couple other quick things here. TMZ reported that Tyreek Hill, his estranged wife Keita Vaccaro, has accused him of abuse on filings related to their divorce, and she accused in this report which was from TMZ, but had the documents reported that he had an argument that escalated to physical violence last week. There were eight different times that that happened, according to the allegations, including punching her in the stomach while she was pregnant. Also alleged to punch in the face and choked. He does not face criminal charges, but Tyreek Hill has a history going back to college and in the NFL for abuse incidents, and the NFL has a wide berth of what they want to look at that could go under the Personal Conduct Policy so that is something just to keep an eye on. I didn't want to end the show on that news, but I did think it was, you know, good for people to know. So I do want to ask you something. Putting you on the spot shook. You know, we got you on all these primetime games. This is it. You know, we're going to be back on Thursday night. We got a double header and that's pretty exciting.

00:47:18
Speaker 1: Welcome back.

00:47:19
Speaker 3: They're actually good games. I I'm gonna put you on the spot because you're not in like the Tuesday Wednesday shows where we kind of take a step back and do some analysis like that. Give me one team or player that after one week changed your mind that you feel a little differently about after one week.

00:47:37
Speaker 1: Okay, it's not a primetime game, despite me being on all the primetime shows.

00:47:41
Speaker 3: It should be anything.

00:47:42
Speaker 1: Yeah, it's not a player, and it's not a team. It's a it's a position group. It is the Colts offensive line. We spent so much time this offseason lamenting how they mismanaged the you know, depending free agents that ended up going elsewhere and how it was gonna set them back offensively. And you're gonna put Daniel Jones behind an offensive line that's not gonna be as strong as it was last year, and it already wasn't very strong. They held up pretty damn well Week one against the against the Dolphins, that Dolphins front that we know they've invested heavily in, that was ready to pin their ears back and get after Daniel Jones wasn't really able to do it, we know the day that he had. But running that game back today, I was just very impressed by how stout they were up front, and so they changed my mind in just one week. We'll see if it holds up over the course of the season, but in one week I was very impressed by them.

00:48:32
Speaker 3: Of course we're gonna end the show. It's like, oh yeah, it's a big time ratings grab. We're just gonna go for the easy like low hanging fruit, cowboy sock shook goes Colts offensive line. If my over under Win Totals podcast with Nick Wright that we put up a couple of weeks ago where I'm trying to keep my undefeated record of the last three years going. Well, First of all, we did eight picks this year, so I'm not staying undefeated, but some of them after one week I already have regret about the Colts might be on top of that list under seven and a half. I don't think Daniel Jones is gonna play like this all year, man that they have some winnable games on the schedule. There are actually some really talented players on that roster. And one thing Shane Stikeen's gonna do. He's gonna like win eight or nine games. You know, that's all I got to do.

00:49:21
Speaker 1: That's true, That is true. I will say I Dale Jones had a great game. I'm not going to take that away from him. He also had some turnover worthy throws that weren't picked.

00:49:29
Speaker 3: So he also took two massive hits during the game. So yeah, we could be right back to Anthony richardson land if it goes wrong. Shook appreciate you. This will be the only time I think we go Thursday, Friday, Monday. So we appreciate everyone who joined us on the YouTube live stream. We appreciate everyone who has made this first full week of the NFL Daily Schedule a treat and a success, and we love how that the numbers are growing and all the feedback that you guys have given to We're looking forward to a good week. I will be back in the studio on Tuesday with George and Rodrigue. I mentioned good omens, bad omens. We'll get into the news Monday. Man, these comebacks. If it stays this good all year, like this might be the highest rated YouTube live show there is. We'll see it Tuesday