DEN-LAC MNF Recap + Gregg's Top 6 Free Agent Disappointments

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Speaker 1: Six. Who's scanning the NFL posco. Here's Heckler and that is who just refuse him to go down? Touchdown Chargers. Scott hits it, hangs it high, it's short and head, a loose fall, no signal yet and a colossal Chargers. Gosh, Harris will step it. That's good. Scott puts it down. That's It's God and the Chargers win it and overtime. Dustin Hopkins not the hero we asked for, but the hero we deserved. On Monday Night Football nineteen sixteen, Chargers over the Broncos. I'm Greg Rosenthal here with producer Justin Graver, late in the l a night as the traffic files out of Sofa I Stadium. And yes, you heard those highlights from Troy Aikman and Joe Buck and early on you could almost hear the childlike glee in their voice. Here's a football game with touchdowns and back and forth, and by the end you just here Troy with a hopeful I think it hit him on the punt return that was fumbled, because that was the only way that this game was gonna end. There were zero first downs in overtime. I'm not even gonna email NFL research. That's the first time I'm aware of that's that that's ever happened in a team managed to win the game. My god, justin Graver. The Broncos have away of just sucking the life out of these games, and this game started so different and then it just ended in the same way that I believe all Broncos games are destined to end until they end this Nathaniel Hackett Russell Wilson partnership. Yeah, the good news is the Broncos only have one more prime time game and they can flex it out. They do have a London game, which is like morning prime time and it's only in two weeks. And I don't I don't think Russell Wilson's having a Kirk Cousins primetime thing, but I do believe that you could see the weight of the world on his shoulders at the end of this game. You can also see his teammates Jerry Judy grumbling uh to his teammate about not getting the ball, and Melvin Gordon sitting there with his helmet off after getting benched and sulking for the entire game. It is incredibly bad vibes, and I can't help but notice that the one good game Russell Wilson did play this year. It was a few weeks ago, just that, like four oh five, and you know, Greg Gumbel was on the call. No one even noticed. I swear Russell Wilson played fairly well in that game. And we'll get to the Chargers. They found a way to win. Here. We spend the whole off season talking about how Russell Wilson's gonna fit, what's Nathaniel Hackett's offense gonna be, Like, what about all these off season additions for the l A Chargers? Are they the best roster in the league. Is Brandon Staley gonna stay as aggressive? And then you get to the actual season. Half of each of these teams are missing, and the game comes down to just Sear Taylor, a special teamer on the Chargers, making a heads up play by pushing uh the Denver Broncos blocker who is right in front of the punt returner Montreal Washington, just pushing the blocker into Washington. Washington fumbles it, And like I said, I think that was the only way this game was gonna end, because at that point in the game, we had had four straight three and outs in overtime and we had had seventeen straight possessions without a touchdown, and everyone is saying, how could this happen? And this is all these bad prime time games, and it has been bad luck, and Russell Wilson being on primetime four times is a huge part of it, because he's the biggest um mess right now, biggest disappointment in the NFL. But I also think it is something about this season which is unique to me, which is that offense in the passing games have taken a step back, and there's been more games like this. In general. We we see it for halves at a time, Broncos do it for entire games at a time, but like that Packers Jets game was three three at halftime on Sunday, and there's just more of this, and there's data to back it up that the numbers passing the ball have dipped precipitously uh lower yards per play, yards per attempt than there's been And I believe over sixteen years since that two thousand and seven Patriots team helped change the way offense really looks in the NFL, there are more games like this, and so as bad luck as we've had, Gray ever, with these prime time games, like it's kind of part of the story of this NFL season and what we talked about with with Dan about power rankings that there's a lot of teams in the middle. There's not really much separating this four and two Chargers team from the two and four Broncos team. But the Chargers are feeling much better about themselves tonight. Right And another issue with offensive play right now, I think offensive line play in general is down, but you also are dealing with left tackle injuries across the league. Tyrn Smith, Taylor Lawan, Rashawn Slater, Garrett Bulls, Joe note Boom, all those guys are expected to be done for the year. Two of those are the left tackles that we're supposed to be playing tonight that weren't out there, So that makes it harder to great point here, you know, Gravers filling in. We we had some scheduling, uh snaff foods, and right as we're about to start the show, you know, yeah, me and Graver doing it tonight, and he just goes feel free to carry the load. It's like, thanks, thanks, I will feel free for that. But look, you've deserved to get more carries. You're like Lottavius Murray putting Melvin Gordon on the bench. Like, not that Lottavius Murray is the greatest player in the world, but he had some juice there tonight. He was one of the few offensive players that I think you can say had a good night because I think he earned himself a role on this team moving forward. Just about no one else did it that. And it was a great point you made on the offensive lines, because that was a key part of this game. The Broncos pass rush pressured Justin Herbert at the third highest rate of his entire career. Now you wouldn't totally think that because he was only sacked two times, but he did a good job getting rid of the ball. They were throwing the ball so short, and so many people like myself are upset about what they're doing to our beloved Justin Herbert with this insanely low average depth of target and these insanely uh low average completion He completed thirty seven passes out of fifty seven attempts for only two hundred and thirty eight yards. But part of the reason that that's the case, and part of the reason they were running the ball on first and second down so often late in the game they didn't run the ball much. But when they got the ball in overtime in field goal range, they ran it on first and second down. And I'm thinking, let Justin Herbert win the game for you, but I think they were afraid of that pass rush at that point, which the Broncos were winning snap after snap, and so they thought, let's just run it twice, Let's lose three or four yards, then let's hurt. Let Herbert bail us out with a really good pass to Mike Williams under pressure for nine yards. And that was about like as close as we got to a highlight there, because that made it shorter for Dustin Hopkins, who was playing through an injured hamstring, and he hits it for thirty nine yards. He was Hopkins. I mean, the way he fell to the ground after every kick, it was dramatic, was crazy. I was just thinking, like, this game is gonna end in a time, because even if the Chargers kick a field goal here, like, can we trust that Hopkins is healthy enough to kick it well? But he was putting everything he had into that they were getting better each and every time he suffered the injury early in the game. The first field goal he took was the thirty seven yard or at the end of the second quarter, and yes, he fell to the ground in pain. They had a they had their punter do a kickoff where it just dribbled through somehow for a touchback. It was so ugly, but luckily, like the Broncos barely scored the rest of the game, so it didn't really matter. And Hopkins got stronger and stronger as it went. And so again like a clutch kicking performance is the best we could do on this Monday night football. But you have to reserve a spot in the kicker club for Dustin Hopkins. I mean, he was the toughest guy on the field, Yeah, he was. And like looking at the buck score and seeing Justin Herbert coming in at four point two yards per attempt and it was something like the the average um you know, per completion. He completed thirty seven passes. To do the math there that out that's outrageous, and yet he was by far the best quarterback in this game. Well, we're gonna get to Russell Wilson quickly, and I'm sure people don't really need to hear that much about this, but but we're going to give it anyways. But here quickly are some of the uh the chargers like targets and yards. Joshua Palmer, I've just made a couple of good catches here, but I'm not in love with the way he runs after the He's a number three, and right now they're asking him to do more. He's twelve targets, nine catches fifty seven yards. Ekeoler sixteen targets, ten catches forty seven yards. Gerald Everett seven targets for twenty nine yards on five catches. Mike Williams, their best player, six targets for seventeen yards on two catches. Those are just shut down by pat Sir Tan absolutely, but I think it would have served them well, as Troyman was pointing out, to give him a few more chances, especially when they were in field goal ranger in the red zone. I believe that Mike Williams made one of the all time catches in overtime, and they did not challenge it because it looked like such an improbable catch, and more importantly, because Joe Buck and Troy Aikman did not recognize that there was a legitimate chance he caught that pass. It's weird how the announcers have influence. But Tony Romo talks about this whenever Jim Nance says, I'm not so sure that was out of bounds. The coaches always challenge the coaches are watching the broadcast, people upstairs who can just watching the broadcast, and if the announcers really flag it, then they flag it, and otherwise I don't think they're bold enough. And Troy in that moment didn't say anything, and we didn't get a ton of replays. But I went back and watched it, and I think it might have been one of the great catches we've ever seen, and it might have been overturned. I don't know if there was the right view of it. We could have had a beautiful play. We kind of improved that Herbert Yards per attempt. Yeah, we could have. But luckily the Chargers come out with the wind anyway, and now they're tied with the Chiefs. Oh my god, it's what It's what I wanted because I just felt like this Broncos team deserves to be two and four. I don't think the Chargers deserved to be four and two, but it was the better result I think it was the more fair result. All right, let's get into Russell Wilson, you know, before we go, and we're still aways from going by the way. Sorry. Russell Wilson in the first half of this game completed his first ten passes. And it was really interesting because I do this Monday night football coverage in the UK. If you guys actually have stayed up to four thirty in the morning in the UK or five o'clock in overtime and watch this, send me a tweet because you are true fans and you're listening to this like you're a glutton for punishment. They started the game and I'm sitting next to Marias Jones drew and he said, even as he was going ten for ten, they don't trust him. They're managing Russell Wilson in the way that they're calling the game, kind of like you would manage Bailey's appy, you know, like yes, the number they were coaching him up. Well, like let's give him credit. He also made a nice throw. He had two nice plays on the run. One was to Eric Tomlinson. Another was where he did the Russell Wilson thing and he just kind of spun around and then there was a receiver wide open. But the plays instructure, for the most part, were very protective sort of plays. They were mostly trying to run the ball and it was working. But even though the numbers were good, Yeah, someone who's watched a lot of NFL football, he played in it is saying like he wasn't really doing the regular Russell Wilson things and going through his progressions. And then after halftime he ended up going three for eleven for fifteen yards. He took four sacks and they had negative thirteen yards of offense passing after halftime. That is insane. Well, he had that one third down play that he took a sack on where he had the running back wide open right over the middle of the field or somebody, and that was like that was to start the game. So that's where it can be misleading. Where ten for ten, yes, but literally before that play call they send Jerry Judy, I believe it was in motion, which gives him a very clear indication zoner man. And he knows who to go to if its own. He knows who to go to if its man, and on that play, it's just you know, if it's own, a simple dump off the dulcitch who you know, uncovers immediately literally no one on him. And Troy Aigman said his eyes aren't disciplined, like he's looking for the bigger play. But it just seems strange to me. But it also supports what critics of Wilson and I've said this too, and and I'm leaning on people that know the game even better, have said in his time, and you can see it. It's in the numbers. Never in his time in Seattle did he uh excel at the short passing game or throwing over the middle a quarterback. Right, those are just two things that he's never been good at and he needs it now, like he just needs it in those spots and he doesn't have it. So even when it's going well, you know, they put up what ten points uh in the first half, including a late field goal drive which was good uh in only fifty three seconds, and then you go negative thirteen yards passing in the second half in overtime. And it's not like he didn't get chances. Uh. He had seven possessions, uh, four three and outs, one ball where they got a field goal where they got the ball in field goal range and they didn't get a single yard after that. It was as ugly as it gets. And you have former NFL quarterbacks like Dan Orlovsky pointing out on Twitter the lack of fixes that the Broncos offense make in terms of protection is high school stuff. And the Chargers saw it and they started just sending heat. Once they sent that first blitz that Drew Tranquil got through, they blitzed every passing down situation the rest of the game. Tranquil got a couple of sacks, James got a sack, Cleo Mac had a sack, and a few hits that that didn't come on a blitz. But they had no answer for like where to slide the protection, even when two NFL quarterbacks, they're saying, this is high school offense stuff. Well, the double a gap blitz that essentially won the game at the end, there was just like you have Mike Boone picking up one of the blitzers, but there's too many guys in Russell Wilson, It's like he doesn't even see he doesn't pre snap read the blitz and know that he has to get the ball out quickly. He's just like predetermined that he's going to hold the ball and he continues to hold the ball. He did do a really nice job like stepping up in the pocket and finding Dulcitch for that one touchdown play, but that was like the only play he really maneuvered the pocket. Well, even the Judy one, he should have been sacked by Mac and he got lucky that he got to that one. I mean, yes, he's still athletic enough to you know, run around a little bit and find someone wide open after four or five seconds. But these guys that he's playing with aren't as good as Tyler Lockett and DK metcalf at doing those scramble drills with him. And so yes, that one time he you know, he made it, but he held onto the ball five or six seconds at play, and ultimately that's not gonna work for him. He's not lamar uh and he's not Russell Wilson from seven or eight years ago. So you'll hit a couple of plays here or there, but then you can get into long stretches where there's no structured offense. And I do put a lot of it on the coaching staff too. Yes, you would love Russell Wilson to be like Tom Brady or Aaron Rodgers uh and and be able to set all these protections. Blah blah blah. Yes, he would love him to be able to coach up his young receivers. I mean, the thing that made Tom Brady specials, even as like a fifth year quarterback, He's got afterthoughts at wide receiver sometimes and he wouldn't make them into good players. And Russell Wilson's not doing that. That's said. Bailey'sz appy is coming into this game over the weekend for the Patriots, for instance, and there blitz in him like crazy the last couple of weeks the Lions and the Browns, and I know those aren't good defenses, but all of those blitzes are getting picked up. And it has nothing to do with Bailey z Appy. It's the offensive line and it's the coaching more than anything. And so the coaching is absolutely failing and Russell Wilson is absolutely failing and shrinking, and it's happening together, and it's happening with everyone watching in a way that I personally can't quite remember for a you know, likely future Hall of Fame quarterback that's still young, you know, and it's in is coming off where he was productive like, I can't think of this big of a decline, certainly not in like a new location as a as a guy who got all these picks traded for We're into like kind of different territory at least for the last twenty years in terms of what's happening, and it's depressing justin thankfully, other than that London game, they're not they're not going to be in primetime to write. Um. I mean, the Broncos hired a bunch of guys into positions that they hadn't held in the past, like promoted people into new positions, and it's like they don't really have hardly anyone experienced at the role that they're doing on their staff. And that's one of the reasons. What did you think about the decision not decision, but just the entire management the last regulation drive for the Chargers where they end up just running the clock down to one second and throwing a hail Mary that comes up ten yards short of the end zone justin Herbert takes a huge hit against a three man rush. What were your thoughts on that whole sequence. I I wanna defend Brandon Staley instinctively because he thinks differently. He's aggressive. I like that he's trying to do different things. And yet the end these end of games sequences are you know, very broncos like and there in the second year, and last week was messiest hell against the Browns too, And not just that they went for but the way that they set up these plays, like you don't want to get caught in the third down situation that they were were there, they they have a quick pass to Ekeler uh for no gain. Uh. In that situation they do pick up a first down, they get to third and one, and then they throw a no gain pass to their fullback at that point. I don't think it was crazy actually to do what they did and run it down because at that point they were in trouble. They could have been hyper aggressive and hurried up and gone for it on fourth and one and and I I understand why you would want to do that. I want to be aggressive, but these are the same people are who are killing for it last week and this situation, I think asked for more caution because of the way their defense was playing, and I think they were really confident that they weren't going to give up any points to the Broncos, so they would take over time at that point. The problem was they just didn't get first down. How are you running a third and one pass play on a pass that's short of the sticks, like they just they have all these short yardage plays and people kill them for going for it on fourth down. They're bad at it, like they're bad at third and fourth downs. In short yardage passing the ball. They actually were good at it today, like third and four, third and three, third and five. They were hitting those third downs. But when they get in these fourth down situations, justin they tend to go with these quick passes, these out routes, and they get deflected half the time. They got deflected twice tonight. The only reason they picked up the first fourth down they went for was it it deflected off of the right. I do think they had some success. Maybe I'm crazy, like running the ball the third and fourth and short or third and charge. We weren't mad in short yards tonight. That was one of the things they did. They had a fifteen play drive in the first half. Uh, they had a fourteen play drive right after that. So in the second quarter they had two drives that took up three over fourteen minutes total between the late first quarter and second quarter, which is crazy, but that's the offense that they are. Every week there is stationed to station, boring six yard pass at a time. Offense. They average three point six yards per play, the average a yard per play less than the Denver Broncos tonight. And I just got to think there's a better way here with Justin Herbert as your quarterback. I really think it's a case where he makes He's a deodorant that makes everything look better and so that they're coaching is not great either on offense, uh, but he saves it for the most part, and so that they don't take a lot of heat. I'm going through now and counting and I'm at five third and short runs that were successfully converted by either on third down. Overall, it's a lot, man, that was frustrating. What a game the Broncos. Here's what the Broncos are extra frustrated because they really have something on defense. I would put them in the top three defenses in the league right now. They're paying. They just brought Justin Simmons back. Certans insane. Baron Browning is insane, Like, you know what when you see it. He looks like a young Robert Quinn. He is so explosive, outrageous, and I know, like his combine numbers were crazy and he was playing inside linebacker, like they really found something. Randy Gregory didn't even play in this game. Um, but they're getting a ton of pass rush each and every week. They have a great secondary. I think their their defensive coordination a Viro who's who's new. He's doing a great job. And I think that makes it even more frustrating for them, and they're gonna be getting even more and more annoyed that they are bawling out each and every week and the offense just can't do anything. Alemit Yeah, it's it's I mean, sorry, it's just like putting everyone in a bad mood. I'm not trying to like be too down, but what else are we gonna say? It's tough. Yeah, here's here's the thing that the charges are foreign too. They don't the quality of these wins the last couple of weeks where it's been if he it doesn't matter. They're not like the Broncos. They have justin Herbert, they have Khalil Mack. J. C. Jackson has been a problem for them. But they have Derwin James. They will get back Joey Bosa. They have Austin Ekeler, They're getting back Keenan Allen. They've had levels this season, moments this season where they looked quite good. Uh, this has actually been very unchargery. They are usually so much better than their record. Right now they've played much worse than the record. But I don't think it really matters. They just need to keep moving forward and find a way to improve because I think they can. Their left tackle Jamari Sailor. Actually Sailor has played well enough and that he hasn't killed them. They were really they really miss Corey Lindsley when he's out. Do you have anything else to say on this game? I've said way too much. I just think neither of these teams deserved to win. And as much as I wanted to like get out of here on a Monday night late, I was rooting for a tie at the end of it, because that's what I felt like. They just both deserved to win. So like, just just see your Taylor made that play. I was like, we I was up in my seat, get me out of here. Yeah, I was. I was saying two people around us because we both had this conversation a second ago. But um, was that a penalty? Can you push somebody into the returner? And it's like, I don't care if it's a penalty and the game so it's not I thought the same thing at first, and and uh quickly it was told like, no, of course you can. You can block whoever you want to block. It's it's great if you block him into the player. They coach him on that. So that was a beautiful play and and it saved them, and then the charters defense. For the most part, it was was good tonight. I mean, but everyone's good. J C. Jackson did he get benched at the end of this game? Did he? I don't know, but he's part of my next list. So every weekend Monday Night Football, I have a little top six list, uh to end the show. And even going into the show, I thought this was risky because what if Russell Wilson has a good night. But I just thought, uh, six most disappointing offseason acquisitions this year. I hate to be negative, but with j C. Jackson in this game, who's was the highest paid free agent? Uh? In terms of guaranteed money in this entire off season was J. C. Jackson biggest contract and Russell Wilson in this game, I just thought, Hey, I get into the off season, so let's do top six uh or bottom six offseason acquisitions this year. Uh. This this might feel mean, but I threw in O. J. Howard at the end. He didn't even make the bills. He he had the most. He had the most guaranteed money of anyone that did not make a team this year, three million dollars. Number five Allen Robinson. I know he had a little bit of a production on Sunday, uh, but it's not it like, if you had to choose right now, if you're the Rams, do you want to keep squar Nick for the rest of the year or Allen Robinson for the rest of the year. I actually think it's a pretty easy choice. You would choose squar Nick. He's helping more and An he has more production, more versatile. So it's just like that's um, that's a pretty big letown. Number four is Carson Wentz just because of what they gave up for him. I don't think he's playing particularly better or worse than he's played the last couple of years. So that's more on the Washington Commanders for giving up so much for him. Uh, when Matt Ryan went for a third round pick and it just that didn't make any sense. And now Wentz's going to be out for the five weeks. We'll talk about that on Tuesday show. Number three is J. C. Jackson. Supposedly he was lighting it up in training camp, but that's what they said about Allen Robinson too. Then he had an injury. He maybe came back too quickly uh from it. But he's also going to a different system. And I tell you there's something about defensive players, especially when they leave Belichick that I don't know. He was an undrafted player who got better and better and better, and he's not as good in his own and man, and he got confused a couple of times tonight. Uh. He's number three. Number two is Baker Mayfield. We've we've talked too much about Baker Mayfield. I think we'll see him again this season, but uh, I would say he's he would be my pick as the worst starter Week one starter uh in the NFL this year, but I think Russell Wilson would be right there. Like if you're ranking all thirty two starters this year, just in terms of how they've played this season. Who is Where is Russell Wilson Like in marks QB Index, we can ask him. I I can't imagine putting him anywhere higher than twenty nine or thirty like Davis Mills is in that mix. But I think Wilson's hurt them more and he's obviously number one on this list. Uh, something's got to change. The Broncos beat writers are out for blood with Hackett because Wilson has all this guaranteed money. He's not going anywhere, so something's got to change. This is a level of struggle, bus I. I just can't believe it, even as someone who's kind of been a bit of a Russell hater. I'm this is too much like I'm not enjoying it. This is too far gone now. It feels mean to pile on. I did a quick Twitter search while you were um talking there in Michael Davis replaced J. C. Jackson at quarter cornerback midway through this game. It makes sense. Michael Davis has started a lot of games for the Chargers well over the last few years. Something's up. J. C. Acton is a really interesting player. I could talk about him a lot, but he had his ups and downs. He's had his ups and downs in life. He had his ups and downs as a Patriots. An incredible confidence player. When he gets going, he gets going. But they always say at cornerback, like what a great gift it is to forget about the last play. He is extremely streaky. He can be the best cornerback in the league, or he can struggle hard for a couple of games. He had taken out that sort of streakiness in the last year or two, um, but he's certainly in a rough streak now and maybe feeling the pressure. Hopefully he gets better. Hopefully the Chargers get better, and hopefully they flex out the Broncos from that Week fourteen primetime game. Hopefully Monday Night Football gets better. But I think, who do we have? Bears? Monday Night football has been great all season. This was the first UH dud on Monday Night. It's been pretty good for the most part. But yeah, we get better, Pats Patriots. We'll get a special guest for that. I'm I'm excited. You did great. I'm sorry if I carried it too much. You know, I just think listeners should know that. Like every time I asked you a question, you put your head into your hand and like leaned on the desk. Why what does that even mean? Just like I can't believe I have to talk him. No, it's more just like sports. It's more, I'm just frusted by this game. Sports are supposed to be fun, and that that's what I That's what kills me. If you're a Broncos fan. Sports are supposed to be fun. And yes, it's it's terrible they're two and four, But man, is this Russell Wilson experience not fun? Yeah? You know, I mean I guess that would be the case no matter what if they were two and four, But the way they've gotten to two and four with one of the worst passing games in the entire league. Oh, man, is this not fun? Trevor Simeon was more fun than this. I mean he would get out of his hand quicker at least probably right. More fun. Yeah, I think Joe Flacco was more fun. This is a good lesson is Teddy Bridgewater was more fun? They all were more fun than It's a good lesson in never having high expectations, because the only thing that can come from that is disappointment. Okay, that's our summary uh of NFL season. No, there were a lot of great games this weekend, just they weren't the primetime games. Hopefully they get better this week. We're gonna get better on the Tuesday show because we'll have Colleen Wolf in the chair along with Dan Mark and I. Until then, I'm Greg Rosenthal for Justin Graver. It's been a thin slice of heppy. No, wait, that's damaged xpit. I'll see you on Tuesday. Heed the call.