2025 NFL Week 16 Saturday and Early Games Preview

00:00:04
Speaker 1: Welcome to NFL Daily, where we love a little Saturday football.

00:00:09
Speaker 2: I'm Greg Rosenthal here in.

00:00:11
Speaker 1: The Chris Westling podcast studio with my friends Patrick Clayband and Jordan Rodrieg for the week sixteen preview, and yes, the first of two weeks where we got the Saturday games are back. That's how you know Christmas's Club.

00:00:26
Speaker 3: Yeah, it's that you're in the stretch. You're in the stretch, run, Greg, and the Saturday games big part.

00:00:32
Speaker 1: It's like right when you don't have time necessarily on Saturdays. But it's nice this first game that we'll talk about. It's actually opposite to Lane's first ever college football playoff games, though my attention will be divided, but we're not going to be recapping those till Sundays, so I have.

00:00:48
Speaker 2: A lot of time to catch up.

00:00:49
Speaker 4: This is a big Greg weekend.

00:00:50
Speaker 3: This really is, and it'll be perfectly fine Greg for you to not second not just second screen, but.

00:00:56
Speaker 5: To vote your full attention to the wave.

00:01:00
Speaker 3: Obviously in the colleg football playoffs, but in the professional ranks. The Philadelphia Eagles are six and a half point favorites at the Washington Commanders.

00:01:09
Speaker 5: The over under is forty four and a half. It's Joe Davis and g red.

00:01:13
Speaker 3: On the call where the Commanders have not seen things go great. The defense, Marcus and company got to win last week and the Eagles bounce back. How big do they continue that bounce this week?

00:01:25
Speaker 5: Right?

00:01:25
Speaker 1: I think it continues to be significant. The Commanders are one of thirteen teams eliminated. I meant to set that up at the top, like we're going into the last three weeks, there's only nineteen teams that have a chance to still win the Super Bowl, and it will be down to eighteen at the end of this game when the Eagles win, because that will eliminate the Dallas Cowboys. There's very few elimination scenarios I saw this week. In fact, I think that's the only one. Somehow that the Cowboys are the only other team that's going to be eliminated. There's not a lot of reason to believe that the Commanders defense hold up. I guess the main one would be that what we saw last week out of Philadelphia, where it's a lot of under center for Jalen Hurts, doesn't carry over facing a non Raiders competition.

00:02:11
Speaker 4: Yeah, well, we I liked.

00:02:13
Speaker 6: I mean it's hard not to like what you saw against the Raiders at any point during this year for any team, but I liked what Philadelphia was doing. Like we talked about more play action for Jalen Hurts, you saw this offense and Kevin Pittula and probably Nick Sirianni who said a couple of weeks ago, he's got a little bit more involved in the defense in the offense as well, trying stuff. That was a team to try stuff against. That was a game to try stuff that you need to install into your game plan ahead of the stretcher on stretcher and that that was what we saw, and I expect to see that as well against the Commanders, who you know as well as I think Marcus Mariota has played in relief of Jade and Daniels. This defense just can't It just can't hold up, and there's no reason to expect it to.

00:03:00
Speaker 1: I have a great stat from our friend Bo Wolf on the All PHLI podcasts. The three games in which Jalen Hurts has been under center the most, and yes that last week percentage wise was the most all season are their three highest EPA per play performances of the season. That feels like a correlation, and I think most of it is actually the passing game. It should open up a lot more diversity in terms of the running game. The running game last week still wasn't like amazing, and I think that's what's really keeping the ceiling lower. But anything that can help Jalen Hurts in the passing game out where you have these great players is a great thing. So I think this is an important step to keep checking these boxes as they get to the playoffs.

00:03:44
Speaker 3: It was a fall off for Sakwan's big twenty eight rush yards over expected game against the Chargers went down to five, but it was still in the positive okay, where Saquan had spent a good portion of twenty twenty five in the negative there.

00:03:56
Speaker 5: And I feel like a lot of.

00:03:57
Speaker 3: That is in a similar because there was only two targets for DeVonta Smith in that Let's not bash our head against the wall against the Las Vegas Raiders.

00:04:06
Speaker 5: We're in the stretch run.

00:04:08
Speaker 3: We've secured this lead against the woeful team with our former backup quarterback playing against us in this one, and so yeah, the Eagles are a team that you know can can vary the effort against the team like the Raiders, and honestly, considering the way the Commander's season is going, I think they can do that again.

00:04:24
Speaker 2: They're just changerous enough.

00:04:25
Speaker 1: Playing them twice in three weeks, it's a great coaching test if we think that the offensive coaching staff of the Eagles is really poor. Like if you're playing a team twice in three weeks, I do think that's a chance for if one of the teams is really well coached, to find a solution in one of those two games.

00:04:40
Speaker 6: I'd like to see Jalen Hurts run the way that he did too last week. That was his highest rushing yard since Week four against Tampa Bay, and it was only forty yards, but it made a big difference. He set them up in key scoring position multiple times, so he was making smart decisions. And frankly, I can't believe I'm uttering the sentence because of every thing we know that Saquon Barkley accomplished last year.

00:05:02
Speaker 4: But it takes the.

00:05:03
Speaker 6: Pressure a little bit off of Saquon Barkley when you have that threat a little bit more dimension in ways that teams just really weren't scared of earlier, especially when they weren't under center as much.

00:05:13
Speaker 2: You know, it's having a good year.

00:05:14
Speaker 1: The old Football Outsiders slash prospectus curse of three seventy five. This was a big deal in the fantasy community back in the OTS in the early twenty tens. You know, once you go over three hundred and seventy five carries or touches for a season, the next season the running backs traditionally fall off significantly. And this year Derek Henry and Saquon Barkley.

00:05:36
Speaker 6: I mean look at their offensive lines though too. I mean, like the eagles Are offensive line is also not what it was last year.

00:05:42
Speaker 5: Yeah, I think neither were there.

00:05:45
Speaker 3: The big two for me correlation and causation. Sometimes they get in fights in people's heads.

00:05:51
Speaker 2: It's a lot of work. At tell, it's a lot of work. You know, who didn't have a lot of work last week.

00:05:55
Speaker 1: I like looking at like the snap counts and sometimes like the Eagles defense barely played against them, so.

00:06:00
Speaker 2: They're fresh, like you know, I mean, I mean it.

00:06:02
Speaker 1: I actually think in a short week it should be a pretty significant difference. And like one defense played about thirty five snaps last week and the other played sixty five or seventy.

00:06:11
Speaker 2: That's a nice little edge for the Eagles, who like.

00:06:14
Speaker 1: To keep their defensive starters on the field, they're not doing a lot of rotating, but it felt like they were rotating last week because they barely played.

00:06:20
Speaker 6: And I have to say, I don't think we're talking enough about the season that Cooper dejene is having. I think, especially if you go we've talked about this before, the way that he attacks space and the way that he suffocates the air around receivers, around tight ends.

00:06:39
Speaker 4: You could play them in any matchup.

00:06:40
Speaker 6: And what was cool about last week, and yes it was the Raiders caveat caveat, but what was really cool that last week is that if they flipped them, if they tried to flip the matchup and attack a different part of the field, Quentin Yon Mitchell is right there breaking up passes and making plays.

00:06:53
Speaker 4: I think that this defense is.

00:06:54
Speaker 6: Also regathering itself, regrouping after a little bit of a murky middle there.

00:07:00
Speaker 1: If you've noticed a lack of commanders stuck here, it's because they're I feel like the most pointless team in the NFL, right because there's worse teams, but they're the most pointless because they're just playing out the string. With and I went and checked this one of the oldest teams, not just there by far the oldest team this year, but one of the oldest teams this century, top five oldest teams this century. So it's just like so many of these guys won't be there, including like Debo, he's their leading receiver. He has six hundred and four yards this year. I don't think he'll be there. Noah Brown, by the way, he's out for the season. He barely played, but he got hurt last week. So it's like, what is there left to say about that.

00:07:34
Speaker 3: They've They've made the decision for us, you know, shutting down Jayden Daniels just in the way that they've been playing as well, and also for the Eagles before we go to there our next game. Jalen Carter in those two losses before he had procedures down both of his shoulders. I think that was something that was a big factor in those losses with Kaylen Carter playing hurt, and keep an eye on his practice status this week as we get closer to that game, not because it's going to matter against the Commanders, but as the season continued.

00:08:03
Speaker 1: You know what's big, it's Greg Olsen in an Island game. So I've been I've been wishing for him to take over for Kirk on Thursday Night football. That seems like a logical spot where we could just have Greg Olsen in our lives in an island game.

00:08:16
Speaker 2: Here's Greg Olsen in an Island game. There we go a nice Saturday afternoon, Like.

00:08:21
Speaker 5: You feel like the evaluators need to see good stuff.

00:08:24
Speaker 1: Well, no, it's more I think America aka me, I get super Bowl wasn't enough. We could just enjoy a Greg Olsen game without any distractions except for two lane beaten no Lane in Oxford.

00:08:38
Speaker 2: Let's go no Lane.

00:08:41
Speaker 4: Oh I got that? Oh that's so good?

00:08:43
Speaker 5: That is?

00:08:43
Speaker 1: That is a T shirt being sold at Shout out to the campus connection over at T Lane this week.

00:08:48
Speaker 4: Oh I hear here. They've got a good staff over there.

00:08:51
Speaker 5: They're great.

00:08:52
Speaker 3: Hopefully, hopefully somebody's band plays a classic ludicrous hit. Green Bay at Chicago. The over under is forty six and a half. Green Bay favored by one and a half. Christian Watson limited in practice. Like on the practice field, we're considering the way that that injury happened. Concerned about that, but congratulations to the Green Bay Packers. Kevin Burkhart and Tom Brady on the call. It's another Saturday game eight twenty pm Eastern, so Greg should be well lubricated and celebrating a way win. Jordan, do the Bears get revenge from a couple of weeks ago.

00:09:27
Speaker 6: Man, I'm so excited for this game because I do think the Bears have a real shot at this This is gonna be tough, though, because I just think that the Packers, regardless they're missing so many players, A banged up Christian Watson sounds like he's gonna play reading some of the reports coming out of Green Bay. And then also Josh Jacobs is banged up. He had a monster game last week, but he is playing through some stuff and so that's certainly a factor here.

00:09:51
Speaker 4: But I love the way the Bears are playing.

00:09:54
Speaker 6: I think both of these teams are so well coached and have really had to relearn in different ways their identities at various points of the season, and a lot of that has come through showed through in the coaching. So this is going to be really fun. I do think the Bears have a real shot at this one.

00:10:09
Speaker 1: Yeah, they they get them twice in such a short order, and yet it's such a different Packers team. Obviously without Parsons, you know who can step up a lot of It's a lot of these draft picks that you know, it would like to get more out of. Lucas van nest Inigbari, who's a good player, but like, are you gonna get one on one pass rush wins? Rashan Gary, who's quietly had a pretty quiet year considering he's got Michael Parsons on his team. He's not a recent draft pick, but a guy they pay a lot of money too. So it's it's those guys needing to step up. And I think it's a it's a big Lafleur moment. Yeah, I mean this.

00:10:47
Speaker 4: Is Island Lafleur moment.

00:10:49
Speaker 2: Well yeah, you just think about it.

00:10:50
Speaker 1: It's year three with Jordan Love, It's year seven of Lafleur. They've kind of been building. The Lions are kind of out of the way right now in the division, and yet you're gonna have to come up with some great stuff because Jacobs I expect to play. He didn't practice Wednesday, but amazing last week. You would expect him to play. But Zach Tom's out of practice, and I think there's an argument, maybe not against the Bears, but there's an argument that Zach Tom is almost as big an injury as Parsons just because of the way it makes that offensive line shake up and maybe like two three positions are now going to be worse on the offensive line if you're without Zach Tom. So there's a lot of like holes to plug for Lafleur against this Dennis Allen defense. Your guy, you got to give some left to da Oh yeah, you know, but they're doing well with what they got.

00:11:40
Speaker 3: They are and you know, we've seen this team continuous friend of being able to force and create those turnovers. And you know, if you look at last week, like the Johnson interception where he just took the ball away from Jerry Judy and like, oh, that's the Browns doing weird stuff. Now the Bears have continued to do that for most of this run late in the season, where Michael Parsons was the reason ultimately when we made our picks a couple of weeks ago that I went with the Green Bay Packers, and also the fact that it was at home. Now that the roles are reversed in both of those situations. I think it's a Packers win. It was a great game. I mean, excuse me. The Bears went, yeah, we're a great game. Or they able to run the ball. You wondered if they were going to be able to do that. And I think that, as you said, the cascading impact of what you're asking defenders to do, SAMs Parsons goes down to a spot where somebody gets uncomfortable. And Ben Johnson, you know, the receiver of the brisk handshake that got a lot of attention and discussion and that there's fun Coach beef here is going to be able to exploit that.

00:12:43
Speaker 6: Oh yeah, this is a micro revenge game for Ben Johnson, who talked a big game in the opening press conference and then lost to Matt Lafleur. And I think that to your point, Patrick, whoever runs the ball better, and I do think it will be the Chicago Bears because of the way that they've been running the ball behind Jandre Swith and Kyle Mannungai Kyle man Ung dude, as those who know know, this offensive line in Chicago is freaking mashing people like they're mashing people like I'm seeing a version of Jonah Jackson out there that I never thought I would see again, Like they are obliterating the line of scrimmage and it's fantastic and it's.

00:13:21
Speaker 2: Something that in the second half of that game, it.

00:13:23
Speaker 6: Is something that is quite a statement for them to make this year. And Caleb Williams has been talking about how he's nicknamed the offensive lineman as characters of the Avengers. Now I'm not very cool, so I only know like two of these, but I'm gonna read them to you. Here's what Caleb. This is courtesy of Zach Pearson. What Caleb Williams calls each player on the offensive line from the Avengers. Ozzie Trappello is Wolverine, Joe Toney is Doctor Strange, Drew Dollman is the Hulk, Jonah Jackson is the Red Hulk.

00:13:56
Speaker 4: Darnell Wright is Bucky.

00:13:58
Speaker 6: And he said he calls Darnell right Bucky because he wears that massive brace on his arm, which is a reference that I understood.

00:14:05
Speaker 3: And if you want to get me, if folks want to get itchy, Caleb on those there are there are some situations where you know, Wolverine and Red Hulk are affiliated with the Avengers, as you know, we had new Avengers.

00:14:15
Speaker 4: In which one was Harrison Ford.

00:14:18
Speaker 5: Harrison Ford was the Red Hulk.

00:14:19
Speaker 4: Okay, got it.

00:14:20
Speaker 1: So you're saying it's a bit of a stretch. No, Well, his accuracy here is like it is on the field. Sometimes great, but every once in a while it's ten yards over.

00:14:29
Speaker 2: A guy said, they're.

00:14:30
Speaker 3: All Marvel characters, so that should that could have been the confusion, you know, But yeah, Caleb's fun and a wolverine, an actual Michigan wolverine.

00:14:38
Speaker 5: Being a wolverine makes.

00:14:39
Speaker 2: Sense, so he's Yeah.

00:14:40
Speaker 6: I was gonna say, I think the dot connecting there was a too big of a list.

00:14:45
Speaker 1: I like that one, and I liked how he played last week against the Browns, where, look, that's defense is as tough of a matchup as the one he had the week before against the Packers defense with Michael Parsons, and he made really quick decisions. I think the first half of that game was as clean as amazing as a half that he's played as a pro, and he still was very good in the second. And it makes me think, like he is a cold weather quarterback. You know, you can't you can't get the weather out. Some guys they don't look like a cold weather quarterback. Kleb and Jordan Love, for that matter, those are two cold weather quarterbacks. The weather's not going to enjoy the aerial attack in this game, is what I'm trying to say.

00:15:22
Speaker 5: It feels like, does that just mean guys that can throw the ball hard?

00:15:25
Speaker 2: Probably?

00:15:26
Speaker 6: Okay, yeah, yeah, if it feels like a rock, they're probably.

00:15:30
Speaker 4: Yeah.

00:15:30
Speaker 1: They had a career high to in play action last week and he avoided taking sacks and last week yeah, and actually no, I'm thinking of the Packers game. He had a career high in the play action against the Packers. So you know, they always look to do something. They're a second half running team. They've just been so effective sixty two percent success rate against the Packers last time. There are a lot of logical points kind of put pointing towards Chicago splitting it, and in general, when two teams are relatively even, I expect to split in a in a tight series. And yet I just there is something about me that believes in like the Packers have like been together a long time and maybe we'll find a way to win this game.

00:16:09
Speaker 6: Anyways, Ben Johnson may avenge. Oh there it is instead of a revenge game.

00:16:15
Speaker 5: Yes, maybe, and that's what they do.

00:16:18
Speaker 4: No, thank you Caleb for the riding fodder.

00:16:21
Speaker 1: Yes, no, Roman Donsay or Luther Burden at practice on Wednesday. Now it's a Saturday game. So considering that Burden was he was in and out of that game. I thought he finished it. Maybe he didn't finish it. So that is that is something to watch. And Odonsay has been out, so that would not be the same Bears team that you want. But you mentioned the turnovers. They are plus twenty in terms of turnovers. There's only one other team. It's the Jaguars, who I think six behind them. That's even more than plus ten. So not only are they, you know, not turning the ball over and doing it like, they're doing it at a level that no team in the NFL is even close to.

00:16:56
Speaker 3: Yeah, which could make the variance pretty high. Yeah, we go back to that Dan Quinn Cowboys team a few years ago. It's time for an update on one of my favorite things that I'm tracking here this twenty twenty five season, as we discuss the Los Angeles Chargers at the Dallas Cowboys, who are favored by two and a half the over under is forty nine and a half. Adam Amen on the call along with Drew Brees Greg Rosenthal, Greg, how do you feel things are going? I know you had some coaching up for Yeah Breeze. HOW'SHW Breeze doing.

00:17:27
Speaker 1: I can't say I was locked in. He had the forty nine Ers game last week. It was on game pass. You don't get a full feel, So I'll look into that this week. I want to watch that. I feel like it's been getting a little better. Okay, a little more energy, all right, a little.

00:17:43
Speaker 5: More energy, a little better. What do you think about the football game here? I think the Cowboys somehow favored. They can't stop anybody. Krek No.

00:17:51
Speaker 1: I really am into the Drew Brees of it all because he's just kind of slid in here in the mid late season.

00:17:56
Speaker 4: Because a sudden change situation.

00:17:59
Speaker 1: Yeah, he is like Tommy DeVito in the backups, ad except.

00:18:04
Speaker 5: This is a this is a this is a fall of a circumstance.

00:18:09
Speaker 1: Well, yeah, that's he he replaced, would say, not as light as those backup quarterback commercials. Mark Mark Sanchez got braided, came in. I'm shocked that the Cowboys are favored. I know you don't like talking about the line, and it's there to inspire, you know, people to spend their mind talking about I get.

00:18:32
Speaker 4: That he's in your head.

00:18:35
Speaker 1: But in two and a half at home is kind of the classic ad we don't know what to do with this game type of line, which is fair, but man, don't you know you've got to get give the Chargers a little bit of love. I think what's underlying the numbers here is that the Chargers maybe have been winning ways that are not necessarily repeatable. But I would push back on that because I I think the defense of the Chargers is the most repeatable group in this game right now. I actually trust them more than the Cowboys offense.

00:19:07
Speaker 6: Yeah, they're rushing the passer Odafeoe was the missing piece as well as getting Khalil Mack obviously back from injured reserve and Tuetuli Pilot having a great season. This statistic is courtesy of my Collie get the athletic Daniel Popper, who hunted this up for us today in his great story over on that site. They when those three are on the field together, they are getting pressure at a fifty five percent rate.

00:19:31
Speaker 4: The league average is around thirty six so.

00:19:33
Speaker 6: When those three are on the field rushing together getting pressure, it is an incredible difference that this has made. And it allows Jesse minter truly and you can see it come to life on the field to play the coverage structures behind a pass rush like that that he wants to play. And Odafeoi has seven sacks and nine games. He really was I guess the damashek jenga piece for this defense to help bring what they really want to do to life.

00:19:57
Speaker 1: And the crazy part, and this is courtesy of The Guiltiest Charge podcast, they had no I really like what they're doing. And Oway is basically rushing on the interior and last week they really scrambled Mahomes and I went back to watch it after I heard them point it out. They just rushed three like most of the big passing downs, Oway on the inside, the other two on the outside, and they created a ton of pressure. I mean, you can't do that type of stuff every week. But the three of them, in terms of their pressure rate, they are you know, three of the top twenty edges if you count Oway as an edge in the NFL in terms of like QB hits and big play rate and so that is a great combo and it's taken no offense to bud dupree him off the field. So then it's it's just been a big upgrade. And Mac as great as Oway as Mac is kind of the key because rewatching that game, my god, yeah, stuffing the run, he might be the best run stuffing edge in the league.

00:20:55
Speaker 2: In addition to what he's doing.

00:20:57
Speaker 1: That dude's age list obviously like a Hall of Famer, but it's remind me a little bit of like Kurt Warner with the Cardinals, where it's just like, man, he's just making sure he's a Hall of Famer with this Chargers Streakly yeah, career, you know what I mean. It's just like it's another whole chapter of an incredible career.

00:21:11
Speaker 3: There will be no need to come back at forty four years old to play for the the Raiders or the Bears.

00:21:17
Speaker 5: It's like Khalil Mack will be in and good.

00:21:20
Speaker 3: And I just wish, you know, prior to the completion of the trade, if little brother had told big Brother, hey, we plan on rushing him on the inside, if you guys thought about doing that before, like you know, the numbers go through the roof and adaphe Ohway is the best defensive pass rusher in the history of the NFL.

00:21:38
Speaker 1: After the trade, they're basically not making him do stuff.

00:21:41
Speaker 6: He's bad at a lot of concept and I love that. And I'm not trying, like, please, listener, I'm not trying to mansplain the listener.

00:21:47
Speaker 4: But think about when you're rushing.

00:21:49
Speaker 6: Three right, think about that's eight people behind him that you can put a quite the cap over the back of this defense, and that's part of the reason they're they're getting some of the takeaways that they're getting and.

00:22:01
Speaker 4: They're able to confuse these quarterbacks.

00:22:03
Speaker 6: I love what you said earlier about winning in unconventional ways and leaning on this defense with so many injuries, and obviously Justin Herbert's been amazing, but like so many injuries along that offensive front, leaning on what is like a like a stability factor that happens to be incredibly decisive and really influence a game in significant ways.

00:22:27
Speaker 4: It's not just like a.

00:22:30
Speaker 6: Stable piece of the equation that is like maybe hidden like a kicking game or which is great or something like that. No, this actually affects the outcomes of these games.

00:22:38
Speaker 1: And it's really been great since the bye week, especially now, this will be the best offense they've faced since the bye week.

00:22:43
Speaker 2: So I'm looking forward to it.

00:22:44
Speaker 1: And you do get the full Cowboys, you know, Arsenal that you're going against, except the offensive line is a little banged up.

00:22:52
Speaker 2: I went into the season.

00:22:52
Speaker 1: Talking about I thought this was the biggest boom er bust offensive line.

00:22:55
Speaker 2: They've had great moments, they've had bad moments.

00:22:57
Speaker 1: They're definitely not playing their best right now, and they're injured and we don't have all the Tilers available. Let's hear from Shoddy, your guy talking about Dak Prescott's availability down the stretch, Joe Milton, if you guys are eliminated, is there at any point where you'd.

00:23:16
Speaker 3: Want to see him play?

00:23:17
Speaker 5: I want to win, so plan would be to play doc.

00:23:20
Speaker 2: Yeah, all right. I never understand.

00:23:23
Speaker 1: I mean, I guess I understand the question, But why why would you sit Dak Prescott or or any starting quarterback?

00:23:30
Speaker 2: It always seems like a strange, strange idea to me.

00:23:33
Speaker 5: I just wonder, if you're Jill Milton, how do you feel you got.

00:23:40
Speaker 2: Milton at Why.

00:23:44
Speaker 5: Am I in it?

00:23:46
Speaker 3: My concern for for Dallas is, ever since that first half, like George Pickens went up for a catch against the Detroit Lions, came down. Hard has been listed with knee injuries since and his performance has fallen off. And of course he playing through all the different things, like that's the Cowboys superpower. And you know with Bland like to a certain extent, you look at a particular rep of the Cowboys defense and everybody is coming back from a major surgery and like they can't cover, they can't rush the passer, and like I know that the Greg Roman of it all and the Chargers we found about the offense, so guys are going to be open, lads are going to be running by himself.

00:24:26
Speaker 2: Well see, I mean the last two weeks it's been rough. The Greg Roman.

00:24:30
Speaker 1: He has not beaten the allegations that he had in Baltimore, like there just weren't guys there for Herbert. I actually thought the offensive line played pretty well last week for the Chargers. That wasn't necessarily and it reminded me of the game I was at watching in person where I could see it. None of those are receivers who are very talented, we're open, although they were often in the same area. You would think this week could be different because yeah, they've struggled in Dallas and Quinn Williams this is a big absence is in the concussion protocol and not at practice, meaning he's probably not playing.

00:24:59
Speaker 2: Deron Bland also not a practice.

00:25:00
Speaker 6: And Matti Refluse, I mean, for all the Denissance commentary, Mattieberfluse is quite quite under the microscope here. And Jerry Jones has even said that they're looking at everything, which is like the death knell for anybody on the staff, and they're evaluating over the last couple of games, and you could see it, so it might not matter that receivers are running the exact same routes and stacking on top of each other in confusing ways for Greg by Greg Roman, because there's not a lot of people covering other people when you're talking about the scheme of that of that Eberflus defense.

00:25:37
Speaker 1: Right now, I have a little trivia for you before we take a break. And this game is interesting. I'm obviously taking the Chargers. I might have to take that on the Pick Show with Cynthia. Which the streaks still going, the greatest streak in sports, eleven straight, winning week three and l last week there was a man playing for the Los Angeles Chargers last week you played forty three snaps. That was very recently a member of the Baltimore Ravens and was once I believe, a top my free agency rankings in a given off season.

00:26:12
Speaker 2: Can you name that man?

00:26:14
Speaker 1: I was stunned when I went and I was like, who is that number? Thirty one on the field? I believe it was last week?

00:26:20
Speaker 5: All right, So the number, it's not Tony Jefferson.

00:26:23
Speaker 1: It was a different number on the Ravens. I believe he was thirty two on the Ravens. This is great podcasting. Here a disappointment, I would say, with the Baltimore Ravens is playing for the Los Angeles Chargers right now.

00:26:34
Speaker 5: Oh, multiple of them. That's nice.

00:26:36
Speaker 2: Just well, yeah, that's true.

00:26:37
Speaker 4: I looked it up.

00:26:38
Speaker 1: So I can't say Marcus Williams. I mean maybe only I'm interested in this. But former Vigati was still at New Orleans Saints. Great, I don't think he was. He wasn't in the league until last week when he played a full compliment of snaps for the Chargers. So they're just making it happen all over the roster.

00:26:55
Speaker 2: Let's it's funny.

00:26:55
Speaker 4: It's like it's either Tony Jefferson or.

00:27:00
Speaker 5: I would have been here for a long time. I did not think Marcus.

00:27:02
Speaker 2: I didn't.

00:27:03
Speaker 1: I did not know that either. But that's that's why they that's why you watch. I guess, all right, let's take a break. We'll come back on the other side for a game that's been disrespected. It didn't even make it into the first block of our show, and it's disrespected, frankly by the announcers Fox.

00:27:18
Speaker 2: The seign to the game, Chris.

00:27:29
Speaker 1: Back on NFL Daily before we took a break, you know, Patrick said, I had a Daily Plaza like drive by on the announcing crew. But Fox ranks the announcers. They you know, they tell you before the season, what's our number five team, what's our number sixteen? I'm just going off of that, and they essentially assigned their number sixteen to the Battle.

00:27:53
Speaker 2: For the NFC sound title. That's kind of crazy.

00:27:56
Speaker 5: So who are you saying is being disrespected here?

00:28:00
Speaker 1: Gate the team, NFC Box and the Panthers deserve better.

00:28:04
Speaker 3: And you're saying that based off the hierarchy from Fox, not necessarily your evaluation.

00:28:09
Speaker 1: Fox is telling you that the Vikings Giants is a better game, okay than that, right, Greg?

00:28:16
Speaker 4: Sometimes you just walk right into it.

00:28:18
Speaker 3: Greg, You're Greg heat check warrant commission here, as we look forward to the game of the year in the NFC South, the Tampa Bay Buccaneers three point favorites in Charlotte against the Carolina Panthers. The over under is forty five and a half. Chris Myers and Mark Laar, who we love and appreciate, are on the call. Jordan, Yes, it was an annoying as predicted game for the Panthers against the Saints. They lost, They lost the big opportunity. Do they get it back against Baker?

00:28:49
Speaker 6: This is quietly one of the best games of this of the slate. The stakes are so high for both of these teams, and I think the Panthers are so streaky and like you mentioned, such an infuriating way where the teams that you maybe whether it's the line or or you know us as analysts or whatever, that you would not expect them to beat, they dominate or at least come down to the wire and win at the last second. And then the teams that you would expect them to struggle against or excuse me, the teams that you would expect them to beat easily, they just don't. And this is one of those games where I think Tampa Bay's kind of shown a little bit of those streaking qualities too. So it's two teams that have just been unsteady against a variety of different types of opponents and schemes and game plans all season, or at least for Tampa Bay the second half of the season, and now colliding in like the ultimate back against the wall game, and you know, I expect your chaos.

00:29:47
Speaker 1: I mean, these teams are both seven and seven, and I think it's fair to say neither of them are as good as their record. I mean, the Bucks are two and five in their last seven games. The Panthers, yeah, in theory, you expect them to win. I guess big against the Saints, but there was a reason, Like the line wasn't that big, Like they don't beat anyone big. They had that one Falcons win, But everything else comes down to the wire. And the thing that concerns me the most about them is that they're a bad running team, Like their whole identity was about running the football. Since Week ten, they are either thirtieth or thirty first in EPA per rush or success rate, and that's where it was just one play that the game turned in New Orleans, and it was a simple play, was not being able to pick up a fourth and one where the Saints stuffed them. But the whole game changed then and it was part of a running game they just haven't been able to rely on now for a while. I actually thought Bryce Young played very well in that game. Their offense actually played very well. There just wasn't many possessions until that fourth quarter, basically until that moment. But I think it's asking a lot for Bryce to have, like a better than average passing attack if the running game's not good and the defense is at best.

00:31:02
Speaker 6: Yeah, Rico Dawdell's taken a step back from the excitement earlier in the season, and you know, this offensive line is still, to me, is still perfectly capable of being an above average group, and I think they're one of the more underrated groups in the league.

00:31:16
Speaker 4: As a whole.

00:31:18
Speaker 6: The player that I really am interested in seeing continuing to emerge as Jayalen Cocher for Bryce Young, because over the last couple of weeks he's played fantastic.

00:31:27
Speaker 4: He obviously was injured.

00:31:28
Speaker 6: He started the bulk of the season with dealing with an injury that he received during at the very very end, right before the season actually began, and where we thought Ted McMillan could was going to start lining up in all of the receiving spots because he had a couple of games that were highly productive doing so, and there's a lot of excitement about it. Jalen Cocher sneaky is that guy. He's lining up wide thirty five percent of the time per next Gen, he's in the slot sixty percent of the time. And then you know, obviously he can come out of the backfield very rare occasion and then lining up tight to the condensed formation or close to the stack, and he's giving the quarterback above a one hundred passer rating at any alignment and he's producing, he's getting open, and so for me, it's like, Okay, does he now start to become somebody who can really affect this passing game in a way that I think we thought And it's a rookie. It's a rookie season for t MAC. There's no doubt coming from me on him. But Jalen Coker is the one who's really affecting defenses right now, and I.

00:32:25
Speaker 5: Think it's a you need Jalen Coker in this game.

00:32:28
Speaker 3: Considering the way that Jammel Dean has played and the side matchup between Dean and t MAC, It's going to be a lot of Jamel Dean, yeah on T MAC. And I want to pick the Carolina Panthers in this game obviously. Like I'm a huge Bryce supporter. There's no secret to anybody that listens to this podcast, but the Bryce numbers against the blitz where you need to be able to play and have success offensively against the blitz, and if the run game is bogged down like Bryce's EPA per drop back is negative thirty against the blitz. Wow, this season that's five or more, you know five and end up because you have to add in the heavy blitz numbers. He's right there with Shador and Dylan Gabriel and also Baker Mayfield where I'm trusting the Bucks defense a little bit more than the Panthers defense. Although Tyler Shuck's getting people here here late. I don't think it's as big as an indictment as it would have felt several weeks ago.

00:33:27
Speaker 5: The way that they played. I know j. C. Horn had a shot at one.

00:33:30
Speaker 3: Of those game changing interceptions that just kind of glanced off his fingers. It was the Saints really limiting the opportunities. And that's what it's been like for the Panthers in these these close games where it's like it is that one fourth down, it is that couple of opportunities because the defense is either getting the ball out and getting the offense back on the.

00:33:51
Speaker 5: Field or its long laborious drives over and over.

00:33:55
Speaker 1: No I mentioned how bad they were running the ball, they're equally bad stopping the run. So in terms of what football coaches back, certainly in the seventies and eighties, but they still talk about it's.

00:34:05
Speaker 2: Like you want to run the ball, you want to stop the run.

00:34:07
Speaker 1: The Panthers are one of the worst teams in the NFL at doing that right now.

00:34:11
Speaker 2: That needs to turn around, but we.

00:34:14
Speaker 1: Don't know if the Buccaneers are really ready to be a team that takes advantage. Let's listen to Baker Mayfield this week, because the expectations they were different than where this team is at, and yet everything's still in front of them.

00:34:25
Speaker 2: If they can get their act together.

00:34:28
Speaker 7: The finger pointings only happen and if you have bad culture in the building. So that's that's not a problem we have to deal with. And we met on a Monday with the offense and I told him what I said in the postgame press conference. I said, it's on me. It's on this group. I expect us to be able to score more than twenty eight in the situation like that and put it out. It put the game out of reach. So if you just nip it in the butt in the beginning, the easy thing to do is point at the defense because of the situation's the last thing you see in the game. But if you look at the whole game, you look at the way it played, Blame me, don't blame.

00:34:55
Speaker 6: Todd a little recency bias comment Terry from Baker Mayfield. Look at the last thing suning game, I will say, and I appreciate that he's doing that. The Bucks have turned into from one of the best defenses in terms of success rate that they started the season with. They are very susceptible, especially to the explosive play. They've given up one hundred and eleven explosive plays this season. And that's that's worse than like the Ravens, for example, or the Saints and so where you can some of the like bits and pieces look stable, and some of the like little pieces that offenses take out of them look stable for most of the game. They have been for weeks, highly susceptible to the explosive play.

00:35:37
Speaker 1: I don't know what to think about this game. Zion McCollum, by the way, is out for the year. The Bucks cornerback who got a big contract and struggled all season. Didn't seem healthy, but it was kind of picked on like Bucky Irving has not been the most effective running back on that team. Sean Tucker and Rashad Wait have have been better on a per snap basis. It's a big offensive rookie of the Year battle. If you look at Tea mac and a Mecca Abuka's stats, they're almost identical in every capacity. I'm not saying they're even the only two candidates, but it's interesting they'll go against each other twice in the final three weeks. I'm I'm feeling generous. It's the holiday season. Oh, I might just give this game to Jordan. I feel like you can enjoy.

00:36:18
Speaker 4: Uh, I'm gonna get in the mud and love it.

00:36:20
Speaker 1: Myers and Schlereth on the call, No, I really want this game. It's great, but it does it does feel like a big time Jordan game.

00:36:26
Speaker 6: And also, you know, speaking of I look forward to what other games he gives me and then gives himself as a you are sounding, uh like you've got something plotted.

00:36:35
Speaker 2: Here that that Herbert game I want to watch.

00:36:40
Speaker 3: And to circle back to how we started, uh, this segment of the podcast. I believe it was Baker Mayfield in the school book Depository with the Cleveland Browns driving through Dalley Plaza when he talked about bad culture and a chance to pick up his team but also maybe send some rounds down the range.

00:36:57
Speaker 1: Also like a little bit of a humbo Braget's like, hey, you got to score more than twenty eight points? Is like, well, twenty eight points per game would be like the best offensive of them.

00:37:06
Speaker 6: All I can do is put up, you know, twenty eight points, and that's on me.

00:37:11
Speaker 4: Like, okay, how.

00:37:12
Speaker 3: About an offense that consistently scores twenty eight points. That's the Buffalo Bills, who are favored by ten on the road at the Cleveland Browns defense, which has seen a lot of things go the other direction these past few weeks. The over under is forty two and a half. Iron Eagle and JJ Watt greg on the call. The only thing that I am interested in this game. Does Miles get one and a half?

00:37:37
Speaker 1: I don't think so well, because, Okay, Josh Allen does take some sex. I believe more this year.

00:37:43
Speaker 8: Now.

00:37:43
Speaker 1: I'm doing that off the top of my head. Traditionally he doesn't. But this is a great offensive line, and it's obviously a situation where I think they could be playing with a positive game script. And so you think of Spencer Brown and you think of Dion Dawkins. There's not many tackle combos in the NFL that are better than that. And considering how easy it's been to run on the Browns defense the last couple of weeks, a little surprising.

00:38:08
Speaker 6: Josh Allen has taken the second most tied the second most number of sacks he's taken in a season in his career since twenty nineteen. That was thirty eight. Right now he's at thirty three, tied for his twenty twenty two.

00:38:19
Speaker 1: Yeah, so that's been a problem for them this season, such a big change from last season. It took fourteen all season, which is incredible. I just don't know if he's going to be dropping back more than twenty twenty five times in this game. Stea right, nor should Yeah. I hope you're right, But it doesn't seem like they need to. They're just worried about winning a ball game.

00:38:37
Speaker 4: Yeah, and run the ball, run the ball, run the ball, run the ball.

00:38:41
Speaker 6: I don't have much to say about this Cleveland Browns unit, like let it end, right, I said that about the Giants last week.

00:38:48
Speaker 4: Let it end. For God's sake, let it end.

00:38:50
Speaker 1: Let's actually hear Josh Allen a last minute edition great producing Behind the Glass by Eric Roberts and Jason Klein.

00:38:59
Speaker 8: No thought about it. I do like highlight tapes, but I don't like being a part of other people's highlight tapes. I mean, he's an absolutely tremendous football player. He's one of the greatest of all times. And yeah, I mean he's he's a force to be reckoned with.

00:39:16
Speaker 1: I should have noted that was Josh Allen talking about the stack record, not Eric Roberts and Jason Cleman talking about Miles Garrett coming at him.

00:39:23
Speaker 6: It might as well have been, you know, Eric Roberts. You know he had that clip queued up. It's probably what he's you know, listening.

00:39:29
Speaker 1: Oh, he's seeing all the national heads that they're like, well, I guess if you have to pick an AFC team, the Bills are as likely as anyone. And they need to they need to keep winning. There's a lot of reasons to believe that. I'll continue this week.

00:39:41
Speaker 5: Yes, we believe in the Buffalo Bills.

00:39:44
Speaker 3: Also again shout out to and Again it's been a lot of torture discussion with the Cleveland Browns twenty twenty five draft class. Top to bottom things have panned out, especially considering Harold Fannin as well.

00:39:57
Speaker 1: As and Yet I don't think that should save their front office when they're paying three or four different offensive linemen who are no longer playing well or healthy and aged into next season even if they're not on the team. And the same thing with Njoku and of course Deshaun Watson, like they are in a rough situation. I don't want to get into a long one with that. I did want to know one thing I noticed last week is Cooks. Brandon Cooks had like a drop at the beginning of that game, and then he has one catch in sixty five snaps for the Bills, and Keon Coleman is back to just playing significantly more than Brandon Cooks. But so that's on the offensive. On the defense, defensive side, you know who's been getting it done, like.

00:40:36
Speaker 2: All the old guys.

00:40:37
Speaker 1: Like last last week it was Jordan Poyer off the couch, Matt Mlano looked pretty good.

00:40:43
Speaker 6: White look totally different than he has.

00:40:47
Speaker 2: Daekwon Jones. I don't know how old Daikwon Jones.

00:40:49
Speaker 1: Is, but it feels like he's been in the NFL for fifteen years. And just just shout out to those guys getting it done.

00:40:55
Speaker 5: They've gotten the spots play.

00:40:56
Speaker 6: What a great play by Trudeavius White for that interception against New England. And we talked about this too, the second half of games. If we want to talk about defense, is bringing it consistently now across the entirety of a game.

00:41:07
Speaker 4: We want to see it still.

00:41:09
Speaker 6: But the Bills in the second half of football games have been rock solid all season.

00:41:13
Speaker 1: And there's this idea that they's somehow lesser than they've been in previous years. Look the team that they almost made the Super Bowl at least I thought they would have if they won that overtime game against the Chiefs. They lost six games that year. Two seasons ago when they were right in the mix, they lost six games that year. Like last last season they lost four game. You know, they were a better but I don't think they're that much different. You know who's leading the NFL right now in yard differential, which I think is a good stat Yeah, you've gained more yards than your opponent.

00:41:40
Speaker 2: The Buffalo Bills, like leads the NFL.

00:41:43
Speaker 1: They're a good football team, and yet they're very likely to be a wild card.

00:41:47
Speaker 6: I like how you pose the question as if we could possibly guess that it was the Cleveland.

00:41:51
Speaker 1: Brown I would have thought it'd be the Rams or someone else other than the Bills, But it's Bills.

00:41:59
Speaker 2: The Bills are very likely.

00:42:00
Speaker 1: I don't want to disappoint all the fans out there to be the wild card, because even if the Patriots lose to the Ravens, they will hold the tie breaks if they win their last two games against the Jets and Dolphins, which is not you know, a definite, but so even if the Bills lose out and they get a little help this week with the Patriots losing to the Ravens. Even then, in a tie scenario, the Patriots do win the division over the Bills because of that Dolphins lost.

00:42:29
Speaker 6: I know you're glad to fit that little note in right at the end of the segment here.

00:42:33
Speaker 5: No, he just wants to he wants to prepare.

00:42:35
Speaker 4: I don't want to.

00:42:35
Speaker 1: I don't want to in the Patriots because that We've got more ballgame to talk about.

00:42:39
Speaker 5: You know, Yeah, let's get let's get to a ball game. We talked about it.

00:42:43
Speaker 3: AFC perennial AFC contender with a generationally talented quarterback. This is another one, but they're not a contender anymore. The Cincinnati Bengals are favored by five and a half points at the Miami Dolphins. We're gonna run twin excuse me, quinn ewers out and Jordan, do we have a do we have crystal updates?

00:43:04
Speaker 5: How are we feeling crystal updates? Where the vibes could be down horrendous for everybody involved.

00:43:10
Speaker 6: Yeah, I mean we've sort of kind of read the comments from Mike McDaniel correctly here that Tua Tongue I Looo was likely going to get benched, and now he has been he's not even the backup. He's the emergency third quarterback for this Miami Dolphins team at this point.

00:43:27
Speaker 4: And among the many.

00:43:28
Speaker 6: Contracts that have been uh have sort of bogged down this team over the years, this is going to be one of them. In fact, I think what surprised me was some of the reaction coming from a player who's like not even in the building right now.

00:43:43
Speaker 4: Via Tyreek Hill on social media.

00:43:45
Speaker 1: Yeah, he had, he had a tweet with this day a peace sign.

00:43:50
Speaker 2: Who knows. I think that.

00:43:51
Speaker 3: It's it's normally a gift of the guy chucking the deuces and and vanishing, and so.

00:43:57
Speaker 6: That's yeah, that he's And then I'm also like, our do you know if you're going to be there next year?

00:44:01
Speaker 1: Buddy? Like, well, I think that's what he's saying. THEA and extra sea since Tua's bench too.

00:44:08
Speaker 2: But uh.

00:44:08
Speaker 1: He also said that Toron Armstead t staid, in his words, started all this by wanting to be a podcast. I don't know if I take Tyreek Hill's comments too seriously. I think he's I think he's lightly jabbing Toron Armstead. He left tackle has been the least of their problems. By the way, this year, Patrick Paul, So, yeah, Quinn yours, Quinn yours there, it is one of the highly most highly recruited is this school college players of the decade?

00:44:34
Speaker 6: Didn't really work out that next quarterback to start since Chris Sims.

00:44:39
Speaker 5: Well, no, we've we've had Colt McCoy in any number.

00:44:44
Speaker 4: Oh, I forgot you know what.

00:44:45
Speaker 2: People always forget.

00:44:46
Speaker 4: About Colt McCoy.

00:44:48
Speaker 2: I'm trying to think there's got to be other ones. No, that's it.

00:44:50
Speaker 1: People always Vince Young, yea offensive rookie of the Year, Vince yeng Vince Young.

00:44:56
Speaker 4: Yeah, I couldn't forget about Vince Young.

00:44:58
Speaker 1: So I want to point out, because people didn't believe this when I sent it out on Blue Sky today, that Quinn yours did have one of the best throws of the year. And so if you're watching us on YouTube, we appreciate you like and subscribe. But you can see Quinn youwers deliver a dime fifty yards air yards down the field while getting run over. And when I showed you this the first time, Patrick, you said, well, I wouldn't have believed it until.

00:45:25
Speaker 2: I saw it, and now you've completely forgotten it.

00:45:27
Speaker 1: Yeah, No, I see it from multiple angles getting hammered, dropped it in the bucket. I believe that's to Westbrook or Kine down the field.

00:45:34
Speaker 5: No, that d s Grege. That's it.

00:45:37
Speaker 3: The Quinn youwers Escridge connection a highlight for the twenty twenty five Dolphins where hopefully you know to of fins of spot and he gets healthy. Clearly there's something physically going on with a tongue. The velocity falling off of the map that the hotter balloon to waddle was when I thought, like watching that game, the game that I wanted to needed the Miami Dolphins to win.

00:46:02
Speaker 1: Not a call to other quarterback, well when the velocity's gone, because I promise, like to those just you know, discovering to a tongue of Ioloa in twenty twenty five, he used to have more of an arm than this. You know. It's crazy though that the line moved like five points with Quinn e were so I was like that that seems aggressive, just just for the difference between the two of them. I'm sure Mike McDaniel's thinking, I know the team's not as good, but when they when they put a little scare in the playoffs with why am I forgetting his name Thompson. What was Skyler sky Skyler Thompson a couple of years ago. I'm sure he's wanting to show his wares, and it's against a vulnerable defense that will be without Trey Hendrickson. Shout out to Miles Murphy, first round pick for a few years ago, who's playing pretty well.

00:46:48
Speaker 2: Well.

00:46:48
Speaker 4: You know what really struck me.

00:46:50
Speaker 6: I know this whole situation is a mess in Miami, but what really struck me was the word choice that Mike McDaniels that Mike McDaniel used. He said he needed convicted, And I'm like, oh, because to me, that speaks about decision making and confidence and a lot of things in the subtext of using that word versus deciding to say literally anything else.

00:47:13
Speaker 1: Yeah, not a quarterback that's throwing playing with confidence. I do think just because teams always need quarterbacks, they could probably get someone to pay. I'm gonna put over under fifteen million dollars of to US fifty five, and the cap hits a little less if it's a trade versus a cut, and you save it off the fifteen million dollars. I just think someone will maybe take them on as like a backup one bee.

00:47:37
Speaker 3: What about to a talk of our Loa's entry into the Kyle Shanahan's School.

00:47:41
Speaker 5: For quarterbacks who used to throw good? And yes throw good too.

00:47:44
Speaker 2: Okay, what is that a school?

00:47:45
Speaker 4: Frands?

00:47:46
Speaker 1: Yeah, you send you send Mac along to some team that's willing to give up too much for Mac Jones, and then you bring in to a as a discount for Rock.

00:47:56
Speaker 2: Pretty I like that as a backup next year. That makes sense.

00:47:59
Speaker 1: Let's take a break and we will wrap up the early games.

00:48:05
Speaker 2: From Sunday back on NFL Daily.

00:48:16
Speaker 1: We got three more games to get to and it's sad none of them have playoff ramifications. But we're good broadcasters. We're gonna good podcasters. We're gonna make them interesting. And also we've got the late game preview that's coming up too in the feed.

00:48:33
Speaker 3: Oh, it's more than interesting. Great because you have a tale of two cities and two quarterbacks. Because JJ McCarthy and the Minnesota Vikings, fresh off a win against the Dallas Cowboys, Jordan Rodricks looked pretty good on offense other than throwing the ball to Justin Jefferson against a Giants team that has the hopes the fates of the most important city in the world, where people have to try extra hard because of the media and Jackson Dark getting a whole lot of attention. Which quarterback has the better rookie performance this time?

00:49:05
Speaker 4: What a setup.

00:49:07
Speaker 5: It's impactful.

00:49:08
Speaker 1: JJ's played like a rookie, but not technically a rookie.

00:49:12
Speaker 6: He's given him a red shirt, He's given him a red show.

00:49:16
Speaker 4: Yeah.

00:49:16
Speaker 6: So I liked what I saw for the most part from JJ McCarthy last week.

00:49:22
Speaker 4: This is similar.

00:49:24
Speaker 6: Remember last year when we would watch some Caleb Williams, and Caleb would make these throws that you don't believe are even possible every once in a while, and then there would just be a lot of learning curve in the middle, and then obviously you know the scheme and every it was such a mess there. Not the case in Minnesota. But I'm kind of getting those vibes where like he's starting to understand his variant a little bit more now. Whether or not he understands the dance moves he's supposed to do in the end zone or not, I'm not sure, but I think we heard a little bit from him this week on the gritty.

00:49:59
Speaker 9: I did it in practice, and I was told not to do it, so it just me, you know, being who I am. It's like, oh, now I'm more enticed to do it. But if it's that open, obviously, just getting the end zone no matter what, and be coachable and do what my coach says. So I'll definitely get a minus for that one.

00:50:15
Speaker 5: That's that's nine right there.

00:50:17
Speaker 4: No, I'm gonna touch the butt.

00:50:20
Speaker 2: It turned from nine to.

00:50:21
Speaker 1: JJ mid conversations because then he realized how it sounded. He was like, if Kevin O'Connell, who did laugh about it? When I first read the quotes without.

00:50:31
Speaker 4: Their face, it was totally fun Yeah, like.

00:50:33
Speaker 1: He's laughing, Kevin O'Connell's laughing about it. But I was like, oh, he told him not to do it, and so then he did it.

00:50:39
Speaker 2: That's kind of funny.

00:50:40
Speaker 5: Nobody tells me.

00:50:40
Speaker 2: But then nine just turns right into what's that movie with?

00:50:44
Speaker 4: Is it James McAvoy's the Actor Splice or something?

00:50:47
Speaker 5: Yeah? Split its split, Yeah, one of the one of the regrettable Shamalan franchise.

00:50:51
Speaker 2: So many to choose from.

00:50:54
Speaker 1: JJ is now leading or the NFL in Big Time Weight, which is really kind of an indictment on the uh really that he's tied with Stafford. Yeah, I mean, I'm not surprised just because I mean I am surprised.

00:51:10
Speaker 2: What am I saying? I'm shocked?

00:51:12
Speaker 1: But last week he had a ton and he hasn't had a ton of throws, big time full Wait, it's just a stat and usually it's the best quarterbacks in the league that are at the top of that stat. If it's not like, it's usually fluky player. So he has me to your point. It's a big type place. And I do think his final three weeks is going to be really important for how we kind of evaluate his offseason and season if he continues to play like this for three more weeks. In the last two games are against the Packers and the Lines, and he looks good, like want, I feel completely different than I did.

00:51:48
Speaker 3: Salvage And speaking of you know, like James McAvoy. Occasionally we do see Jackson Dark have great performances within a regrettable franchise, and there's Jackson Dart and then there's the absolute opposite. First read, isn't there Oh well, yolo, I'm gonna run out here and smash my head into somebody. Stay safe, please, Jackson. Which one do we get here.

00:52:11
Speaker 4: Or on the ground.

00:52:12
Speaker 2: This is a brutal matchup, I think, yeah, oh.

00:52:15
Speaker 4: Yeah against this defense.

00:52:16
Speaker 1: Yeah, to figure out the first half of that game was as bad as he looked last year, I mean this year against the Commanders, and then second half he played well. I just think they're gonna throw a lot on them.

00:52:25
Speaker 7: Now.

00:52:26
Speaker 1: They do have a good offensive line that you know, maybe they can communicate and figure out the protections better than most would. But one of the things on the other side too is JJ like they've gone almost all eleven personnel the last couple of weeks and that's really helped them, like to the point where people are like, maybe we should have done this sooner.

00:52:44
Speaker 4: Yeah.

00:52:45
Speaker 6: Well, when people talk about simplifying something, I mean, that's that's what they mean. They're they're running most of their concepts out of one look, and where that could sometimes bite you in the butt if against certain defenses, in this case, it's it's fine because it gives everybody claire and speed with which to make decisions, because it's they're not sifting through multiple personnels.

00:53:05
Speaker 4: Or changing the formations.

00:53:07
Speaker 6: I mean they are, but like they're not changing the personnels within the same play, which I think would help a younger quarterback out.

00:53:13
Speaker 2: And technically still alive.

00:53:15
Speaker 1: Here one of my worst over under picks of the year, Vikings over eight and a half not eliminated. Oh, I mean they would have to beat the Packers in the Lions in a row, but not eliminated. Little Daylight with this winning streak.

00:53:29
Speaker 5: Uh, the Daylight has you.

00:53:30
Speaker 4: Guys almost lost me there for a second.

00:53:33
Speaker 5: Oh my god, the Daylight has come to a close. In Flora Park.

00:53:37
Speaker 3: The New York Jets going on the road to the New Orleans Saints, who are favored by four and a half points. Tom McCarthy and Ross Tucker on the call where the oddsmakers have noticed the same thing. We have Tyler Shut playing pretty good ball right now, Gret.

00:53:53
Speaker 1: That is a real look in the mirror moment for the Jets, that they're four and a half point underdainst New Orleans, and I don't think it's enough. I'm taking New Orleans easy. I mean, this is one of the worst defenses we've seen with the Jets. We've seen Chuck look pretty good in tougher situations. The thing about Shuck that I love and you're seeing it on his highlights is if it's a third and thirteen that man has thrown at fifteen yards, there's no checking it down. His guy might be covered pretty well and man covered. He's throwing that ball in there, and for the most part, it's gonna be accurate, and Devon Bailey's gonna be making some place for him. Devon Bailey's been great the last couple of weeks. He got banged up at the end of that game, but he's really helped him out a lave. Dominated in the final two drives of that game after being quiet. Chuck has really opened my eyes and it's what the end of the season is all about for a team like the Saints.

00:54:51
Speaker 6: Yeah, and the Jets. They can't get pressure, so they blitz a lot, which is great news if you're Tyler Schuck because yes, his season overall is a limited sample size, but he's thrown three touchdowns no interceptions against the Blitz this season per next Gen, one of nine quarterbacks who have not thrown an interception against the Blitz this year. And so it's there's nine, right, the real nine.

00:55:16
Speaker 4: Authentic now.

00:55:17
Speaker 6: But but I feel like it's good because they're going to throw the kitchen saying down them because again they're not getting pressure any other way. This is another like build out your offense type of game. This is another We've said this about some of these matchups over the last couple of weeks, especially for teams that are beyond the pale at this point. This is a try stuff a figure stuff out kind of game, especially for that Saints offense that's putting it together. Saints defense is much improved as well.

00:55:43
Speaker 1: Tyler Schuck used to wear the number nine. I can't wear it there now Now he wears six because six is three less than nine. That's the explanation close enough. Okay, maybe it's the upside down nine, like they missed the field goal, or like that's legitimately the I don't know.

00:56:02
Speaker 2: That was the explanation that I found for it.

00:56:05
Speaker 1: You know, he couldn't couldn't wear the nine there, understandably, quick eyes, quick eyes, Tyler Stuck like he's making he's making quick decisions.

00:56:13
Speaker 4: And Aaron, well, he's seen a lot of football, Greg, he.

00:56:15
Speaker 1: Has seen a lot of football. That man has been around a long time. You know who else, says Aaron Glenn, whose defenses have not performed how he's wanted them to the last couple of years. He fired Steve Wilks, the defensive coordinator. This week we hadn't hit that yet. And yeah, I think it's going to be more of Glenn I guess now calling the plays for the Jets.

00:56:37
Speaker 5: Looking forward to the future in Florn Park.

00:56:40
Speaker 4: A lot of picks see what they knew with him.

00:56:43
Speaker 5: We'll see.

00:56:43
Speaker 1: Chuck's got to keep it going to because Michael Pennock. You know, Michael Pennocks had a great four games. Everyone got excited about Jackson Dark after three or four games. I think we felt differently about than we do now. So that the real test being an NFL quarterback like we've seen guys pop up. Will Levis had some moments as a as a rookie court back. I want to see him land the plane here shout shout out.

00:57:04
Speaker 6: To Chase Young very very very very very quietly having a little bit of a comeback here, a little resurgence.

00:57:12
Speaker 1: How about the Saints, like they might might pressure rate, you know this year where everyone was staying they would draft one overall help. They're over under very much on the table and they might not be drafted in the top eight or nine picks at this rate.

00:57:24
Speaker 5: You know why front office great decisions.

00:57:28
Speaker 1: Oh yeah, they're going to resign Mickey Loomis the forty year contract after this.

00:57:32
Speaker 2: Oh let's let's let's go crazy. We lost double digit games again, so let's get nine.

00:57:39
Speaker 5: Excuse me it was ten before.

00:57:42
Speaker 3: Let's get a forty year deal for the best in the game. Kevin Harlan and Trent Green on the call for CBS as the Mahomes list. Kansas City Chiefs are favored by three and a half, but they are on the road at a Tennessee Titans team that has the hottest running back in the game right now in Tony Pollard going up agains good rushing defense.

00:58:01
Speaker 5: Am I crazy? Jordan? Were thinking that Cam and the Titans have a good opportunity to knock off Gardner? Minshew here, You're not.

00:58:09
Speaker 4: Crazy at all.

00:58:10
Speaker 6: No, Ma Homes Chiefs are eliminated like bad vibes, rebuild vibes in multiple phases of their team dealing with the aftershock of them homes injury. The Titans just kind of have been playing for the hell of it for most of this season. Yeah, I do think absolutely, I think the Titans have a shot in this one.

00:58:31
Speaker 1: Well, the Chiefs also their practice report and you never know, like but it just felt like a practice report.

00:58:38
Speaker 2: Of a team that no longer has anything to play for. Maybe maybe not.

00:58:42
Speaker 1: But Juan Taylor he's been out, Wandia Morris has been out. But Trent McDuffie also injured. Hi Rice I believe was out of a protocol. He's in the concussion protocol. So they're just not they're not going to push players maybe to play, not that you would escape the protocol without him being able to pass the test, but I don't know.

00:59:02
Speaker 2: They might not. They might be pushing players to play through injuries.

00:59:05
Speaker 5: Right now, understandably.

00:59:07
Speaker 3: So, yeah, especially the events when you talk about the Kelsey's and the Chris Joneses of the world. I mean, we say it, it was true three seasons ago. You go on these extended postseason runs where they've they've come out of the Wildcard on a couple of these times to go to the super Bowl and gone on the road to go to the Super Bowl. They've played extra seasons worth of football, Like it's not you know, it's not like questioning their fortitude if they choose to sit some guys here after being eliminated and you know, shout out to Gardner Minshew in the run that he had after he invented RVs and racial hair, where you know, he gardnered a lot of attention in the national media. But you know you asked famously, Greg, when does he stop getting away with it? I think you're December twenty twenty five, maybe when Gardner Minshew stopped.

00:59:55
Speaker 2: Not a bad matchup for him, though.

00:59:56
Speaker 6: Jeffrey Simmons coming right up Adam, right up the gap right there, potentially a threat in the passing game too.

01:00:04
Speaker 2: That's that's true star.

01:00:06
Speaker 4: The two way Star. I thought it was going to be Travis Hunter, but it's Jeffrey Simmons.

01:00:10
Speaker 1: I went and checked this because on the podcast previously, I was like, I think Jeffrey Simmons could be the first team All Pro. He's actually never been that before, and I was like, well, I gotta think, like, are there any other options this year before I just make a statement and it's like, no, Jeffrey Simmons is clearly one of the two. He's pretty clearly the one. His pass rush win rate is miles beyond any interior rusher, his pressures, anything that you would want to look at, miles beyond. So just an awesome season, and yet this team is one of the worst pass rush teams outside of him in the NFL. Brock Purdy did not get sniffed a week ago, and so I don't know. Gardner Minch is a good player as a backup. Remember that cold season, I wouldn't you know, I'm still picking.

01:00:51
Speaker 4: All I remember is.

01:00:54
Speaker 6: Yeah. I was to say, all I remember is the true disappointment emanating from Shane Steichen after Gardner Minshew missed that fourth down brow That's what I remember. I also Jeffrey Simmons has fifty one pressures. Just wrap your head around, brain around that. That is wild one pressure.

01:01:10
Speaker 1: I also do want to address since this is the Kevin Harlan game, I've received a lot of criticism from members inside the building. Really just one member of how I read the Hanukkah prayer in the voice of Kevin Harlan, which I thought it was more of the spirit. That's what That's what the Hankkah season holiday season is all about. But to quote the slack I reserved I received during it, you sucked at the blessing. I mean that seems harsh and I got that in person too, And yeah, It was very direct, but I I stand behind it, and I know some of our Jewish listeners and other listeners that they enjoyed it at least, so I'm.

01:01:58
Speaker 2: Not gonna do it again. It was spirited, and let's take a quick break.

01:02:03
Speaker 1: We're gonna come back and we're gonna talk about some of the biggest games of this week. We got Steelers Lions, we got a big time jag spot. We got Patriots and Ravens on Sunday Night football that'll be in our late and primetime game preview coming up in the field

01:02:18
Speaker 4: And the Raiders are there too,