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[Assistant] I'm blown away by Joe Burrow. And again, it's not like he's got the biggest arm ever. I think the first thing I'll say is this, and the first, you heard me say this early in the year, some of the power throws, the down the field throws were the most concerning things I saw. You know, and I went just like, damn, it looked like it got maybe a hair worse than it was at LSU.


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[Assistant] He's fixed his motion a little bit. Okay, I'll say this, that's the first thing I want to say. And then we'll get into some of the things he does. But Burrow, especially on deep throws, had a little tendency to be very just up and down, right? Here's the motion, and then...


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[Assistant] His right arm would go to the opposite pockets. My left arm to my right pocket. For him it was right arm to the left pocket. You've heard me say this many times. You watch Aaron Rodgers, you watch Mahomes, you watch Brady, the guys who can really throw the football, their arm never goes to the opposite pocket. Never. Now maybe if they have to move or something like that. But generally when they're warming up and things are perfect, their arm ends up


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[Assistant] On their opposite pectoral, across their body. Again, if you want to throw the ball far or hard that way, your arm has to go that way. It can't go from here to here, and you think the ball is going to go hard that way. That makes no sense. So he really, I think, corrected that, and this to me was the best game he had as far as power throws. But, I like that.


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[Assistant] But the, the feel, the touch, the consistency.


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[Assistant] It's off the charts for a rookie. I mean, it's just unreal.


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[Assistant] Oh, you know, it's tight coverage, the guys are running the slant and then working back out. It's tight, you gotta throw a bullseye. Bullseye!


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[Assistant] I mean, it's just, it's unreal what they're asking him to do and how he delivers all the time, let alone, yeaah, he takes advantage of all that's there to be had, you know I always say that, but when there's nothing there to be had, he can make plays.


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[Assistant] And, you know, I'm just, I was really amazed by his play overall.


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[Assistant] Yeah. It's not hard. It's not hard. Not for me right now. I like Baker Mayfield. You can win games. I'm still a believer in him.


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[Assistant] Burrow to me though can carry your team on an every week basis. He can. And he will. Especially when he gets a little more help and they can actually protect him and do those type of things. But, yeaah, I mean just...


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[Assistant] Some of the stuff and throws he makes, I mean, they're, they're just, they're unbelievable, let alone, like I said, the game is played all through him. They don't do that in Cleveland. They have to manage Baker a little bit. They know, like, if we just, if they did what Joe Burrow did, he would throw more interceptions. They know they can't do that. They can't trust him that way. Burrow, you can. Yea, he threw an interception. I get that. He's not perfect.


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[Assistant] But damn, even in the interception, it's one you can deal with. You go-


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[Assistant] It wasn't like stupid. Denzel Ward jumped 47 feet in the air and got a finger on it. He's gonna throw a touchdown. I just think he thought, man, that guy can't get that high. I'll loft it over him. And he jumped up and got a hand on it. So it's like the mistakes a lot of the times or even mistakes where you just go,


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[Assistant] Alright, he's a rookie, but even for a veteran, that really wasn't that egregious.


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[Assistant] Just some of the throws, like, you know, the throw to boid.


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[Assistant] Gutsy, you know, his, his, his feel in the pocket, the anticipation, everything like that is just very special that way.


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[Assistant] Yes, it wasn't the best pass, you know, and really, uh, yeaah, those are sometimes the hardest throws because you're going, damn, I just want to throw it so perfect just to make sure he catches it.


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[Assistant] And he's, it's a running back too, where that really goes through your mind as a quarterback.


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[Assistant] Yeah, that play basically was Spider 2 Buckeye. You always hear John Gruden's Spider 2 Banana, right? They just did it a little different way where Giovanni Bernard kind of fake motioned to the left and then he came back to the right and usually the fullback goes into the flat, but this time it was him. They got the leverage out there and he threw a strike and uhm, yeah, I mean Joe Burrow is really


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[Assistant] He, he, I, you know, I know you saw this one line, I just wrote,


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[Assistant] Holy cow! That's unbelievable! And I just want to go back to that one play that I just talked about with Boyd, as far as being the score to go up, because I want to just wax poetically about it, if you don't mind. Okay, go for it. And I'm just trying to find it one more time here, uhm, and I hate to do this, but- You loved- Alright, forget it, I won't do it.


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[Assistant] He's giving me leeway to do it. He's giving you 5 extra seconds here. Alright, so here we go. It's the end of the first half. You used your only timeout of the pod. Well, this is the, I got to use it right there. But there was the throw down the middle to go up 17-10 before the half. And not that this is a great throw. Boyd just gets a yard in the end zone and turns around.


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[Assistant] Burrow, it's a tight window, people are all around it, and he throws the ball before...


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[Assistant] Boyd really even turns around. Like he's throwing the ball as Boyd is kind of just breaking down to turn around. And that to me is really what speaks to him. The game must be in slow motion. His ability to read, recognize, throw the appropriate throw, when and when not to be gutsy.


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[Assistant] Is really high level, and I mean really really high level for a young quarterback, but, uh, yeaah, I loved him and


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[Assistant] 100%. You're right. I mean, listen, Paul asked me if Justin Herbert was a top 10 quarterback on Monday. I said, he's flirting with it.


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[Assistant] Top 10 arm? Definitely. Top 10, top 5 deep ball thrower already? Definitely. I mean, again, I would think, you know, I don't know, you guys know me, I don't look up stats or the numbers like that, but I would think since he's been in the game and starting and playing,


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[Assistant] Yes, you can't get him to do it. And you know, he does it with such ease. That's where he's special. Again, I feel like he only has to use like 70% of his power output to throw a ball 60 yards.


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[Assistant] You know, and that's an advantage for anybody in any sport. When you don't have to go max out.


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[Assistant] To do something that's very high level, right? The guy who can hit a drive down the middle of the fairway and only swing 80%, I bet you he's gonna have better control over that drive over the guy that has to swing 100% as hard as I can every time, right? Yeah, he might hit it farther every now and then, but it might be three fairways over every now and then too. But on that play especially,


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[Assistant] It's a play in the old west coast offense that John Gruden would just call it H3 double go. It's strong left, right? It's the...


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[Assistant] I back, I formation except the full back is set off strong to the left side a little bit. It's just a little quick token play action faith. The two receivers on the outside run goes and your tight end just runs a middle in cut like 12 yards straight across. So he's going to go okay.


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[Assistant] You know, who's one on one? What's the matchup I like? Set hut, let me play action fake. Wait, did my guy beat the guy one on one? And if he didn't, then he'll look over the middle and try to hit the tight end and somewhere sitting down in that little hole or if it's man to man, he'll keep running.


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[Assistant] He sees Guyton in an area where he just goes, hey, Guyton can go. And he's got a step on the guy.


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[Assistant] He just throws a ball out there that's effortless, and I'm gonna know how far that ball went in the air, but I'm gonna say it was probably, you know, only about 40 or something, 40 something yards.


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[Assistant] But it's just on the money, let alone all the other big throws he had through the day. Again, I'll say this, you asked me about the Joe Burrow. I made Joe Burrow one. Yea. All spring though, before the draft, I said Justin Herbert has the higher ceiling.


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[Assistant] You know, you see, he's got special superstar traits there. Uh, so does Joe Burrow. Again, I'm not saying I'm putting him ahead of him, but he's really, really talented and he just makes so many big time throws.


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[Assistant] No, but they have to because they're wasting their own time and everybody else's time and they're letting some teams play closer than they have to. No, again, I don't think it has to be like, oh, we have to be in the shotgun like Cincinnati and throw the ball every play, but there's still too much of like run on first, run on second. Hey, it's third and 12 because we suck at running. Can you throw it in there for a first down now?


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[Assistant] Yeah, I'd like to see them play through him more. Instead of this, run first, oh wait, the run's not working, now we need you to bail us out. I would like to see it go the other way around. Hey, throw first, get Herbert and Rhythm, and I bet you the run game then after that will be open, because people are going to start to worry about it.


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[Assistant] I would like to see that. You know, they don't necessarily make the game very easy for him. But when it comes to scenes, goes, posts, post corners, things like that.


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[Assistant] He's as good as anybody in football throwing those routes. He is right up there with the Mahomes and the Josh Allens and the Aaron Rodgers of the world. And the Aaron Rodgers? Yes, when it comes to putting those types of throws on the money with ease and being able to throw it


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[Assistant] So many different ways, like, oh, it's 40 yards, I can throw a laser six feet off the ground and bam, hit him in the chest.


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[Assistant] Or, oh, I gotta kinda throw it in between, like I gotta drive it, but there's one guy underneath, I gotta make sure I drop it over. Okay, bam, I got that. Oh, this time I gotta really throw a high touch ball to where he can just run under and get it. You know, he can do all of those and that's really what makes him, uh, really awesome.


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[Assistant] He is amazing at the line of scrimmage, right? How he can just like his feet and those little shaking, and then he's very, even though he's not like a burner, he's a good accelerator. But, like...


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[Assistant] It is fun to watch, and it's also funny, because you're like, what the hell are the Texans doing? Wait, did Eric Murray become Daryl Rivas this week all of a sudden? Like that would be the first thing I would say about the whole game. Like what, what was the Texans thinking?


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[Assistant] It's man to man press coverage. He's gonna run that little slot fade route down the sideline. There's a receiver right on the outside of him who runs like a five yard go route. They're playing man to man like they were for the majority of the day. But they did have a free safety. They did have a free safety.


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[Assistant] No, he had the two receivers on the left were actually running across the field to where Devante Adams was. But all Rodgers wanted to do because he goes, wait.


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[Assistant] He's sitting at the, you know, blue 45, he's sitting there, he's like, wait.


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[Assistant] 23 Murray is man to man on Devonte Adams bump and run. And I got this route.


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[Assistant] And then so he already knows, okay, I got it. Alright, there's the safety. Let me just keep them there.


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[Assistant] If I can just keep him there, it's gonna be a big play. And that's what he does. Yea, he just sells it. You're right, there's nothing receiver-wise to make the safety pause, but because he looks so aggressively, the safety stays there, takes a few steps, and that leaves it wide open for Adams, who's got Murray beat at that point by what, four or five yards, right? I mean, Rodgers doesn't even throw an on-point ball.


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[Assistant] And Adams does a great job of kind of backpedaling, put his foot in the ground, change direction, score, toucha. That was the game in a nutshell. That's really, if you just want to know what happened, it was a lot of bad Texans defense.


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[Assistant] A lot of stupid man to man, a lot of stupid five man blitzes, a lot of my pet peeve of, oh we blitzed the middle linebacker, we still didn't get pressure, but oh we voided this huge area and Rogers got to throw a shallow cross to Devonte Adams, a shallow cross to Devonte Adams, a shallow cross to the back, I mean, all game long.


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[Assistant] It was a perfect matchup for the, uh, Packers that way on their offensive side of the ball. You know, I thought the game would be closer because I thought Houston would be able to move the ball.


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[Assistant] On Green Bay's defense, but nonetheless, Rogers was on point.


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[Assistant] The pass game was on point. And when he plays defenses like that who play like man to man and they start to overdo it, he gets them in the right play every time. And then when they don't have pass rushers, when a team doesn't have pass rushers, you know, he just exposes you because he'll dance and buy a little time and nobody is open and then somebody does get open and you're done.


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[Assistant] They're not going anywhere. They're not going anywhere. They're actually, this is the start, they have to rebuild almost to a degree. They have so many holes to fill on their team. They don't even have draft picks. No, I know. They got issues. This is why they probably got to start thinking about this a little bit. And just going, you know what, we're not horrible at receiver.


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[Assistant] Fuller's coming to the point where we might have to pay him big money. We might lose him this, after this year anyways.


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[Assistant] So let's see if we can get something for them and help our football team. And the Packers would be one of those teams. I mean, the Packers need it. Again, you know, we've talked about them. They're not being a complete team. They're not going to beat the Bucs ever unless they get some more firepower out there and just maybe, okay, Bucs score, we can match it and keep scoring back with them.


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[Assistant] You know, it's a lot, a lot on his shoulders, his whole career with no help around him, no running game. You know, nothing really. No great defense to speak of. It's always been about Matt Stafford has to make plays. And I know it hasn't always been perfect, but it's not going to be perfect when, you know, you're, you're, you're around crap a lot in your career. And we're like, to your point,


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[Assistant] As far as making plays when nothing's there to be had, yes, he's been one of the best in football in the last 10 years. You know, the drive starts out with the only man-to-man coverage of the ga- of the drive.


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[Assistant] Atlanta plays man to man. They acted like they were going to bring that like double agap blitz. They dropped out the two linebackers. Everybody else is playing man to man.


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[Assistant] Throws the ball along the sidelines to Galaday, and it's incomplete. Alright?


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[Assistant] So, you go, ooh, okay, man, is Atlanta gonna challenge him a little bit on this drive, or are they gonna, like, I thought they were gonna play prevent. Alright, well, I was wrong. They went back to prevent the next play. And they play Tampa 2, the very next play, and they're so far off, he throws a hitch route for like 12 yards, first down. You know, they come up, they spike the ball, bam. Alright, next play. It's Tampa 2 again. Alright, here we go. He drops back.


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[Assistant] You know, and they're lining up in it to where, that's where again, I just want to go, man, do something to make a guy like Stafford think a little. But it's Tampa too, they got the perfect play. Again, he moves out of the pocket to the left.


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[Assistant] He hits Golladay for about a, I think it was Golladay, I wanna make sure. Maybe it wasn't Golladay. Could've been Amandola. I think it was Amandola, you're right, sorry. It was. It's Amandola, hits him, but typical.


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[Assistant] I mean it really was, maybe a hair high but still a great throw. Alright that's the big play you needed. They're going to have to spike the ball but now they've made themselves within striking distance because they're on the other teams 40 yard line.


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[Assistant] And you're going, ooh, okay, man, Stafford, one more big throw and they're going to be close and we know he can make big throws. So they spiked the ball and now comes the play of the plays.


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[Assistant] Right? It's two receivers to the right, two receivers to the left, shotgun. Guess what coverage it is? Tampa 2. Oh, of course. And Tampa 2, Galladay down, running down the left seam, and


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[Assistant] He's got a little pressure, but it doesn't matter if somebody's in his face, like Matt Stafford can still throw the ball 40 yards with somebody in his face. He throws a ball.


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[Assistant] First off, that's on point. Perfect. And then Golladay gets a run over before the ball gets there.


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[Assistant] There's no pass interference call. They call pass interference on every game all over the NFL all day long. Like, oh you illegally blew in his ear pass interference. Now the safety runs over a receiver and they don't call it. I don't understand how he catches this ball.


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[Assistant] That was ridiculous. You know, that was one where I look at the, like, I want to look at, you know, referees and go, I know you're trying not to influence the game, but that's so egregious. Like, you can't let that go just because it's the end of the game. You can't let a safety just run over a receiver. He catches the ball with his feet off the ground.


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[Assistant] I mean that's, that's the amazing part of it. So they get it down there. Well yeaah, he caught it at the 8 too. He caught it at the 8.


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[Assistant] Maybe it worked out. Maybe it gave them a little more room to operate down there. So now we get to that final play. Here we go. And they spiked the ball, all that, but now it's the final play. It's empty formation, three receivers to the right. The play is for Hawkinson all along. Now I know it ends up the Hawkinson, but not the way they intended it.


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[Assistant] Atlanta finally gets out of Tampa 2, and they decide to play cover 3. So they got like 8 guys across. They have like a switch release by the tight ends, the two tight ends. One guy goes up vertical, Hawkinson goes behind and outside, and then really what they're trying to do is


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[Assistant] With that, that first tight end throw, they're trying to clear it out to where now he's gonna sneak behind him, right? Because they're gonna go with that first guy and then Stafford's gonna throw it right on him as he gets into the end zone, right? It's kinda like, hey, get this guy to just to move the coverage back a little, we're gonna sneak you behind him and smash it on him.


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[Assistant] The Atlanta does a good job covering it. They don't bite on like the first guy through. They're ready for Hawkinson. And then he has pressure. And I give him a lot of credit for holding onto the football. Because this is like a play like Russell Wilson against the Patriots in the Super Bowl.


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[Assistant] You don't always get to sit there and read it out. It's so bam bam, you gotta be like, wait, I think we got the look, it looks good, ha! And then sometimes you can be like, oh no, it's not the look, it's the ball is like leaving your hand.


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[Assistant] So he pulls it down because one, I think he sees the coverage and he realizes somebody's all around him and he might not be able to get an accurate throw. And then he does this thing that he always does. Runs to the left and does his old, what we talked about earlier in the drive. Kind of the hop, skip and a sidearm throw and perfect and good for him and Maddie Patricia and all them. I'm glad they won the game.


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[Assistant] Not my man Prater though. He doesn't buckle. I love Prater. Prater's the man. And he really, being a teammate of his in Denver, he relishes that. He does. He is not scared one bit. He's actually a guy, I mean he like, he loves it.


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[Assistant] He loves to be able to walk into the locker room the next day with like his chest, like I'm the man. I know I'm a kicker, but I'm the man.


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[Assistant] No, it's not. No, it's not. That's why they make the trade for Everson Griffin. They know they need a pass rush, but you're right, like read out the schedule. They can win what, four out of their next five? I mean, I remember looking at it last night. Yeah. But they got a chance. I'll pull it up before you. I'm going to beat you. By the way, and Pete reminds me, I did pick them to make the playoffs. Ooh, baby. Yeah. They got the Colts this week, which will be tough. Yeah.


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[Assistant] You know, but then the Vikings, the football team, the Panthers, the Texans, the Bears who they should have already beat this year.


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[Assistant] You know, you look at that right there, and you go, I don't think it's crazy to think they win 4 out of 6, maybe 5 out of 6. They're at least still around 500. There is, nobody is out matching them there to where I just go, oh, they're in trouble here. I mean, every game I would expect to be somewhat close there.


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[Assistant] But I do think they'll stay in the conversation throughout the year to where, you know, last few weeks we might go, oh, this team loses, you know, one of their last two or two in a row, maybe the


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[Assistant] That's a long time ago. It is, I know, but I'm usually pretty good about this, but 2009, uhm.


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[Assistant] Let's see, 2009. 2009, final play of the game. Gosh. Well, I'll just go with the Vikings, but I have no idea.


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[Assistant] Definitely. You know, again, the only thing I'll say, the silver lining in all of this to me is just the fact that I, the mouth breathers of the world and some of them who were disrespecting Dak Prescott.


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[Assistant] I think they're gonna finally say, oh, maybe he was better than we thought. Yeah, I think so.


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[Assistant] No, I'm not, I would think that Washington wins a few more games anyways. I would. Through their defense, and Kyle Allen will make a play here and there.


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[Assistant] Terry McQuarran's really special. Antonio Gibson at running back, man.


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[Assistant] CD Lamb's really good, no doubt about it, not trying to disrespect him or anything like that, but Darius Slayton is an awesome football player. I mean, he's the go-to wide receiver on the Giants, and again, if he was in Dallas, alright, and had that team around him with Dak Prescott and everything like that,


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[Assistant] It would look a lot better. The stats would be a whole lot better. So, I don't think that's totally egregious. You know, and I think you can certainly...


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[Assistant] The problem with CD Land came from Oklahoma and all that stuff, so people see that and they just go, he's gotta be better.


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[Assistant] Slayden's really explosive. He's more explosive than CD Lamb. And I'm just looking at their stats because I'm just thinking of this here. But yea, 27 receptions for 429 yards for Darius Slayden. Okay? And then for CD Lamb,


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[Assistant] 53 receptions for 583 yards. So less, less, you know, yards per catch. He's got less touchdowns. Uh, I don't know. I'm wrong. I'm reading the wrong guy. Sorry. Lamb is 36 receptions for 497.


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[Assistant] I think it still would be the best team in football. We do.


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[Assistant] I would hope they would. I would. I would have a hard time thinking. But I would have a hard time thinking they're gonna win the Super Bowl of the Division Super teams here that we're gonna go through.


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[Assistant] Well, I'm with you with Hopkins and DK Medcalf. Ooh, Locket, you're not totally... I would have been...


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[Assistant] I got no problem with it. I would have had to sit and think about him and Robert Woods. Cooper Cup? Yea, maybe even Cooper Cup in that conversation too. Yea, I don't know what I'd do there. It's close. Yes, it is close. I probably would have gone with a Woods or a Cup over a locket, but I'm not mad at you there, that's fine.


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[Assistant] No, there's not a center out in the NSC West that's anything special. That's for sure. Keep going.


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[Assistant] So you're gonna put Woodworth at left tackle and then Trent Williams at right or the other way around? Yes, that's my rules.


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[Assistant] I have no idea, you know, who's graded higher on the, I mean, Whitworth is still an unbelievable pass protector. You do? Pro football?


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[Assistant] But yea, that speaks to, I mean, listen, Trent Williams is the first out ballot Hall of Famer. I've been saying that for a while. He's truly special. Uh, and he can do everything. So I get it. I got no problem with Whitworth either. I'd probably go Dwayne Brown. You wouldn't. I probably would.


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[Assistant] But I'm not mad at you for w- I think Dwayne Brown, I think what I like about him, just maybe a little more power, like run blocking and things like that. Uh, Whitworth is a good run blocker, but he kinda does it more through being crafty and I've gotten in your way, not gonna always blow you off.


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[Assistant] Yeah, I mean Tomlinson was clearly on the team for sure. So I get that. Lewis created out well.


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[Assistant] Puna Ford. Ooh, Puna Ford. Alright, I think you should take Jaron Reed.


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[Assistant] Right now. You know, and I would think at times it's hard to tell if he did the right thing or not. They ask him sometimes to two gap and do different things. This is where I get into it with certain grading people at times because


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[Assistant] I'll know a rule of a defense or an offense and, you know, look at something. They tell me they've been downgraded and I go, but yet he's doing his rule. You're giving him a bad grade, but his coach is not interested. His coach is going to give him positive.


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[Assistant] I think, I think I would go Jaron Reed clearly there. I was even going to wonder if you might go like Michael Brockers and move him inside a defensive tackle, somebody like that. But no, okay, that's fine. Fine, it's your team. It was my team, so yeah.


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[Assistant] I, I got you there. I mean, Cary Hyder's really damn good. Only thing I again would say was we're like, I would rather go with...


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[Assistant] Alright, so Chandler Jones, we're not picking him because he's hurt, right? Right. So... Right. But, yeah, so, man, it's things you miss. Nick Bosa, too. But the other guy I would think about is Leonard Floyd. You know, I don't know, again, what his grades are. Yeah. But, you know, he's probably listed as a linebacker.


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[Assistant] But. Maybe. Depending on what you're looking at.


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[Assistant] I don't think that's, I think you're good there. I'm just trying to think. The linebackers in Arizona, no, not going to put any there. The 49ers ones, you know, the only one I again would, would challenge you with is the, uh, the other.


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[Assistant] No, there's nobody that jumps out there. So I think that's probably the one. I would probably go Dre Greenlaw over KJ Red. You would. I probably would. I guess. But I got no issue with that.


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[Assistant] It was very bad early last week. The last two weeks have been a little bit better. Last week was one of his best games of the year. But I hear you there. You know, you go through...


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[Assistant] You know, the Rams have some young guys that are good, but I don't think of that caliber.


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[Assistant] Yeah, I hear you. You know, I think that's about it. I do like the Quinton Dunbar kid up in Seattle. He's been hurt. I do think he has talent. He's the only guy that can cover anybody up there, but I think all in all, even when he's at his healthiest, he's not as good as a Jason Barrett.


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[Assistant] Yeah, well, you know, what stinks too is like, you know, yeah, you got a Kyle LeMurray and you know, he just, he doesn't get to go on the field because he got Russell Wilson. So there's a lot of guys that get left off that are really good. I think the thing that jumps out to me is lack of corners.


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[Assistant] Lack of d-tackles. I think you're really wrong with the Puna forward one.


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[Assistant] Uhm, like I've said, I'd rather go with the, you know, Jaron Reed, even the DJ Jones and the 49ers, one of those, but okay, it's like you said, it's your team.


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[Assistant] Yeah, that's alright. That's cool. That's a damn good team. That offense is gonna be rough. If Richard Sherman was healthy, you'd put him on this team? I probably would, yes. I would, uh, you know, over a Verret. Verret is special.


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[Assistant] But he got hurt again last week and I don't even know, Pete, do you know what the final verdict wasn't on him? I mean, he kinda make a little cut and then it just, I don't know what happened there.


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[Assistant] You're going to have some other divisions that I think are going to be really impressive. Yeaah. You know, I still think of them looking, like, just looking to the floor. Where are you going to go next? What's the next team you're going to do? I don't know. It's open. I mean, AFC North, just off the top of my head, I go, I don't know if you got enough roster spots for all the studs they got in that division. Yeaah. I mean, what the hell are you going to do? You're going to be leaving, like, all pros off of some defensive spots.


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[Assistant] So I look at that. The NFC South, I just real quickly, I just think of that. Man, there's gonna be some studs on that group too. This is gonna be interesting. I think it's a cool exercise. Interesting, okay.


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[Assistant] Two NFC's. I agree, yes. I'm taking the NFC West all day on that one.


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[Assistant] That's good, that's a great analogy. Man, you are deep. It's like a chicken wing. Hopefully all you are full out there now.


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[Assistant] Full of football knowledge. Yeah. Uhm, you the man?


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[Assistant] Thank you. Yes, you're welcome. You're the man as well. Ah, thank you. And you'll be back next week, I'm not sure which day, Monday or Wednesday? No, I don't think I will be. You're leaving us totally next week?


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[Assistant] Uhm, that's it, Thursday. PFTPM, Chris Sims, Unbuttoned, Collaboration, The Joint Picks Podcast.


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[Assistant] Check us out. Me and Florio had a pretty good last week. My best bets weren't the best. But I'm on the right track of picking games. Listen to my information. I'm not Johnny the Shark. I don't know how to bet. But take my information and then you figure out how to bet. That's it. Peace out. Say bye bye. And clap it out. Bye bye. Bye bye.


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[Assistant] Oh yeaah, what's up? This is Chris Simms Unbuttoned Podcast, presented by Verizon. What? Did you hear me correctly? No. We are sponsored. No way. Yes, we have officially hit the big time.


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[Assistant] I mean, we've gotten the sponsor for seven minutes now and Ahmed's already asked for free phone, free service, free hotspots.


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[Assistant] It really is. It's crazy. I mean, I feel like I can't get a pick right on Sunday Night Football. And, you know, again, as much as, you know, we both, all of us, everybody that does Sunday Night Football, everything, we all respect the Patriots.


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[Assistant] I mean, we couldn't find it to pick then.


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[Assistant] But man, it's just, you know, it's hard to latch onto that. And we're, of course, you know, prisoners to what we've seen the Ravens do to just about everybody other than the Kansas City Chiefs the last two years. So that's where it was, it was hard. And yeah, we're, we're going to eat it. And Tariko gets to be the savior in New England. Did he do that?


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[Assistant] Yes, twice this year he's done it just for that reason. He's hit. He picked, he wanted to pick Seattle and he picked Arizona because we all pick Seattle. He goes, alright, well I don't want us to get trolled, I'll pick Arizona.


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[Assistant] No timeouts. No timeouts. Exactly right. You know...


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[Assistant] You want to protect the end zone, and certainly want to protect it with Deandre Hopkins. I mean, we know he's going to be the go-to guy, but yeaah, I think there's things in that play where you just go, why are we showing so much, you know, attention to the guy 15 yards over the middle of the field? So what if they throw to him? The game's over if they do. Let them hit him.


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[Assistant] You know, and I would even be, you know, a little critical too of just going...


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[Assistant] You know, so what if they throw to the guy who's 15 yards downfield and he's gonna go out of bounds and catch the ball? So what? You still have one more play, now there's less room on the field, less windows, cause you're closer to the end zone, it's harder to throw a Hail Mary actually from the 30 or 35 yard line. You know, either way.


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[Assistant] Murray is unbelievable, and he just showed it on that freaking play once again. Every quarterback in football gets sacked there, where he was. I mean, basically...


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[Assistant] But Mario Addison, the rush, they did a good job for the most part all day long, kinda containing him as far as when it was a pass play and he had to scramble and extend plays. But he's just so elusive and strong and he's just his speed to the edge and then the setup to throw it. And when he, when it left his hands,


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[Assistant] And I saw it was Hopkins, and I went, oh man, at first it was just him and two guys. I was like, you can ask the guys in the viewing room yesterday. I went, oh man. And then, as soon as it hit his hands, I was like, oh, he caught it, he caught it. And I was pissed, because I picked the Bills to win. Not that I was rooting against, you know, Kyler Murray or anything.


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[Assistant] Look, they know you have to, you know you have to buy time. If you're thinking about before the play, like, I'm going to the end zone with this, you want to buy time.


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[Assistant] You know, not only one to just let your receivers get down there, you'd like to buy time to where they get down there and they can kind of get set in a spot. You know, if you really look at Aaron Rodgers and his successful ones,


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[Assistant] He's bought time, the guys get down there and can kind of create a position and now they get to see the ball go up. So they can really follow it and track it and do those type of things.


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[Assistant] And I think when he saw 97 Mario Addison make a little move towards the inside, he went, ooh, I can get around. And Addison did a good job of recovering and grabbed his jersey, but he ran through it.


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[Assistant] But I think that was his thought. I don't think it was designed. It didn't look like it to me. Uhm, but he's just...


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[Assistant] It was something that Coach Dungey and I talked about as well. We talked about this on Sunday Night Football last night. It was something we talked about. You know, I think if you saw like, you know, other defenses, and I don't want to like say anything negative. I mean, Sean McDermott is one of the better defensive minds in football.


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[Assistant] But yes, I would argue like again, if I'm going to hold the standard of situational football, I would bet you if New England was in that situation, they would have jammed DeAndre Hopkins off the line of scrimmage. They would have gone, wait, we're going to let this guy who can go 360 dunk on a basketball court and do a, we're going to let him go post up in the end zone.


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[Assistant] And then jump over us and he's got arguably the best hands in football as is. I mean, DeAndre Hopkins' hands are phenomenal. We know that.


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[Assistant] You know, I did a thing with him on my podcast last year. I have giant hands. You know that. His hands dwarfed mine.


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[Assistant] You know, and that just, I mean, just, they're like, they're like mitts. They're oven mitts. I don't even know what they are. But uhm. Yea, almost you could treat it like a gun or something.


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[Assistant] You disrupt, now you cause the quarterback to look somewhere else because he might go, wait I want to throw the Andre Hopkins, wait he's only 12 yards downfield and I'm here so now I'm going to do something else that throws you out of your rhythm let alone takes that guy ability away to get down the field like we're talking about and set up in the end zone.


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[Assistant] Yeah, like, who cares about, like, Larry Fitzgerald number 11? I mean, it's unbelievable, really, when you look at that. But can you rewind that again, Kristen, one more time?


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[Assistant] You know, I don't know if it's necessary to sit there and cover him with two guys basically, 33, and try, uh, Edmonds were over there. And really, I would also argue that even with like, uh, Jordan Poyer, where he was in the middle of the field.


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[Assistant] Like at that point, why are we following a deep crosser 20 yards down the field? You know, once he escaped the pocket and started to do that, the game was over. I mean, it was three or four seconds in the pocket, run out. I mean, and there was only two seconds left on the clock. So you really could have said throw the ball anywhere you want. We're just not going to let you throw.


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[Assistant] It's a low probability, there's no doubt.


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[Assistant] I still think it's better than 1 for 20 though. You do? With people like DeAndre Hopkins and really basically, you know, Poyer got to be there, yea, to make it look like 3 on 1, but it was really 2 on 1 for the better part of that. And you're talking about a guy who has the best vertical out of those guys there, is the tallest out of those guys there.


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[Assistant] And again, it's not a disrespect to anybody in the bills, secondary, anything like that, but you know, these freaky receivers, I've just had an experience a little bit with guys like Brandon Marshall and let's say Roy Williams, who went to your Detroit Lions, you know, the number seven pick in those guys. Like in those situations,


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[Assistant] Yeah, it's one on two or one on three. No, it's not fifty-fifty.


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[Assistant] But they're so freakish and so good at playing the ball and figuring it out that I think it's better than 1 for 20. I think it might be like 3 or 4 for 20, something like that, just to give a


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[Assistant] You know, I know you're not here for every podcast, but one of the things I've been talking about with them a little bit is people are on to their passing game. You know, I mean, again, it's 22 of 32 for 245. And let's not forget 45 of them came on the last play of the game. So really it's, it's, he was in the high one nineties, you know, there before the last drive.


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[Assistant] Their offense will not be able to survive with just throwing the ball, spread it out, you know, Texas Tech throwing the football. No.


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[Assistant] It's not diverse enough that way in this day and age in the NFL. Teams are too good. The players are too good. They break it down. It's just too simplistic for this day and age in the NFL. This gives them another element to go, whoa, watch out. It was impressive what they did. I mean, we know the Bills aren't great at stopping the run.


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[Assistant] But either way, it was creative run schemes. I mean, it wasn't just, hey, inside zone. They were pulling guards. Of course, you talked about the quarterback plays. There was some draws, everything like that. But that is going to give them a great schematical advantage. I mean, I really felt like, early on in the game especially,


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[Assistant] Between the run game, some personnel sets, and some formations, I went, Whoa! Okay, Arizona!


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[Assistant] We can build on this. This is going to diversify them a little bit. You know, because again,


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[Assistant] You know, hey, it's 32-30, and this isn't a great defense. They're gonna play some defense at some point, and it's gonna be able to go, wait, no, we have a great secondary, and we can, you know, cover you, and then we are pretty well coached, so now we got the right scheme to cover your schemes, and we can do it man-to-man.


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[Assistant] And I think this will do it. Because what you saw, I mean, whether it was the pulling guard plays and Drake and Edmonds running it up the middle, but think about the first thing you said.


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[Assistant] Tyler Murray didn't get touched on those runs. Right. Because they're worried, like, all of a sudden there's, there's, there's weight to those running plays with their running backs. Now the linebackers and the safeties are going, damn, they're gashing us with the run game for 10 yards. We gotta watch the running back, watch the running back. Oh wait, he kept it? Well, he's gone, cause I can't catch him. See ya.


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[Assistant] And I think it's a special thing and even a little bit more play action.


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[Assistant] Uhm, but I was very excited about what the Cardinals did to Buffalo.


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[Assistant] And this is why I picked them. They were all over some of their past concepts. And I've seen this from time to time with smart D coordinators on this offense. Uh, and I think this run game will give them another, you know, schematical advantage to not let teams overplay their hand.


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[Assistant] I wrote this down because this actually, Miami did it to them a little last week too. I think this is gonna be a new thing too, where, you know, again, the NFL is a copycat league. I can tell you from my own experience, in 2006,


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[Assistant] You know, at the end of 2005, we threw a lot of short pass game, right? Quick game. John Gruden's got all these, you know, great plays to get the ball to your hands quick, all that. Team stopped rushing us, and they just started to go, well, put my hands up, I'll bat the ball. You know, Chris is, you're not going to be able to throw through there.


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[Assistant] And he ain't running. So yea, exactly right. No, you're right. So that, so that happened to me a little at the end of 2005, but then going into 2006 season, you know, we play some games early on, people go back and they watch the film. Wait, we got to get ready to play them. They see that it becomes a copycat thing. So now every time I drop back, people aren't rushing and they're putting their hands up. You're seeing it a lot with them. One, because he's short.


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[Assistant] Two, they got a lot of quick short throws in the screen game and the receivers and all that. And it's just one other way to not let the great skill set of Kyler Murray stress you out to go, okay, we could take away these passes even though you're there on the edge to stop him from running or whatever else. Right.


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[Assistant] I'm curious here. Our boss is here watching us.


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[Assistant] So let's see how good this was. He's not that cute with a mask, or not that tough with a mask on that's got like flowers on it and stuff though.


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[Assistant] Playing the Denver Broncos in 2004 with Jake Plummer and Mike Shanahan, the coach. Brad Johnson couldn't throw it real far. I could launch it over 70, but we were on our own 5 yard line and Gruden put me in with like 9 seconds left to throw a Hail Mary. And I wanted to be like, first off, I think my arm might fall off if I try to throw this as far as I can right now. But, uh, it's, I don't think I threw one in college.


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[Assistant] And I didn't throw one in high school. I don't, no, I never threw a Hail Mary in a game. Okay, never happens. Disappointing.


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[Assistant] I mean, a great way for him to answer after kind of a shaky second half, right? I mean, it was not smooth at all by any stretch of the imagination for the Bills in general. Hey, we can't forget. Yeah, he threw two interceptions, uh, in the second half, right? They were both in the second half. Yes. You know, they had the 12 yard punt.


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[Assistant] That set up the field goal. That was a big moment in the football game. But they hung in there. They really did it. You know, you were there at the end of the game when they were down 26-23. They hadn't really done anything on the offensive side of the ball in quite some time.


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[Assistant] So you're sitting there just going, I don't think they're going to be able to pull it off. I don't think so. And you know, and unlike Arizona, Josh Allen and the Bills, they can't run the ball.


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[Assistant] And as you saw, that became an issue for them in some of their stale points of the game. Because Arizona just basically said, yeah, I mean, we know you might run it here and there, but we don't really care.


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[Assistant] So they get like nothing. Nothing on the other runs. They get nothing. I know. And it's like, you know, I don't really know what to tell you because it's a pretty talented O-line. I don't look at it as like, oh wow. It's just, they came out this year as a passing football team and that's kind of been their M.O. Singletary is not great as a runner. Moss has been injured.


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[Assistant] And now I think they've gotten into some games between their defense and everything like that to where they can't ever work on the run game. You know, it's always like,


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[Assistant] No, we gotta throw, or, you know, our defense is getting, so you gotta catch up Josh Allen. It's just, so it's never lend itself to being able to go like, hey, we're gonna focus on the run game. Our defense will slow them down this week, and now we'll work on the run game. No, the defense doesn't slow anybody down any week, really. And they don't ever get that option, really. Uhm, but I think the big story of the day, more than anything,


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[Assistant] Is kind of what you said, the fact that the Cardinals didn't have to worry about the run game. And hey, Vance Joseph, ex-head coach of the Denver Broncos, man, he's doing some cool things on defense. He really is. And I think the big thing where I want to say, I've mis-evaluated the Cardinals and where we all got to start giving them credit.


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[Assistant] Their back seven, okay, is legit. I mean their back seven. We talk about Simmons the first round, top ten pick.


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[Assistant] Hicks at linebacker, okay, and then you get into Buddha Baker and Patrick Peterson and Dre Kirkpatrick and I'm missing other people. Oh, Byron Murphy, who's a really damn good football player. There are other safety 34 Thompson. He's a pretty damn good football player.


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[Assistant] Yes, they are. You know, where they're not real talented is their front four. But, because Vance Joseph is...


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[Assistant] Doing all these stand to the line of scrimmage. You don't know who's blitzin', who's runnin'. And basically, you know, and I'm gonna pull up this because this is to me one of the cool things. They played some snaps in this game where they played no defense alignment. Not one defense alignment in the game. And they would play...


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[Assistant] Forty-eight, I just want to make sure I get all the, or forty-nine Kyle, Kyle, Kylie Fitz. Forty-eight Isaiah Simmons, okay. Then you got Jordan Hicks at middle linebacker. You got fifty-one Tanner Vallejo, another linebacker. Hassan Riddick, number forty-three. And Buder Baker, thirty-two. On certain plays, all seven of them at the line of scrimmage.


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[Assistant] All seven are linebackers or DBs. So no defensive linemen. No defensive linemen. Defensive tackles. And they're just going, wait, we're athletic.


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[Assistant] We might rush three, we might rush five, we might rush four, either way we got people here to contain Josh Allen if he wants to extend plays, and then the people that we got drop out are athletic, and they'll be able to cover and do things that way. So I really gotta give Vance Joseph a lot of credit. I really do.


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[Assistant] I thought his game plan was pretty special and the fact of his, you know,


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[Assistant] Really do Josh Allen things where we see him kind of like buy time and take over and scramble around. He made one or two plays like that yesterday.


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[Assistant] But it wasn't a ton, and I think that was the big thing. It was because Vance Joseph had the right approach on the back side, and they covered well. I think that's the other thing I was shocked by. Kirk Patrick, Patrick Peterson, Byron Murphy Jr., they covered Beasley Diggs and, uhm, Mackenzie.


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[Assistant] Really well. They really well, okay? To where, you know, I would usually say, man, you play man to man against that group and John Brown and everybody like that, they're gonna torture you a few times. Yea, they made a few plays, but it wasn't like...


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[Assistant] Gashes and people wide open all over and I think that was really the impressive part of the game to me.


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[Assistant] I would not anymore. And I would have told you like two or three weeks ago, I'd go, no, there's no way, not with the defense, not with that predictable spread offense. If they can run the ball and do just stay consistent with that, doesn't always have to be effective, but just keep doing it just to keep people to respect it. And then if their defense can cover that way,


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[Assistant] You know, and Vance can figure out ways to be creative. Yeaah. They're gonna be a pyre in the NFC. Hey, one thing we know.


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[Assistant] The NFC is up for grabs. Why can't Arizona beat the Green Bay Packers? Why? Tell me why. They got more talent on their team than Green Bay. So Green Bay is the number one seed right now. You know, that's where it's just amazing. So yea, it's wide open. And they got some things that are really cool. Where I worry about them is that they have to play great running teams. And fortunately for them,


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[Assistant] There's not really one of those teams in the NFC playoff picture either, except for maybe the Rams, and they're gonna get the face off of them and play them twice a year soon anyways.


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[Assistant] I don't. I don't. I don't see how that's gonna change. I don't. They're just gonna have to go back to the drawing board and figure out.


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[Assistant] When teams want to play us that way, what is going to be our next move? How are we going to compound it and do those things? It's a special unique matchup and some special athletes by Arizona. Yeah, like I said, you know, I worry about them if the team has to run the ball, but when it comes to speed passing game,


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[Assistant] You know, I think I and a lot of us in the media and everything have dropped the ball and how talented they are and how the game favors them that way. And we've seen them.


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[Assistant] You know, two of the last few weeks, Russell Wilson, Josh Allen, huh, big moments, we can continue, we can make some plays, do those type of things. It speaks to the athleticism they have.


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[Assistant] That's cool. I mean, I think that should be legitimately in the running. That had a little bit of everything there. And yea, you're right, just off the top of my head, I can't think of too many more exciting games than that. I mean, Arizona's Seattle's.


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[Assistant] Rams are a tough matchup for Seattle. I picked the Rams to win the game, just so you know, just so you can give me credit on one pick this week, alright?


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[Assistant] Yeah, I mean I think there's, hey listen, there's a reason first off that they've beaten the Seattle Seahawks five out of the last six times.


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[Assistant] And the only time they lost, Zerline missed a very easy field goal last year in a Thursday night football game. They have something to it. The biggest thing, and they have right now, is they have playmakers. Especially on the defensive side of the ball. And let's just talk about Leonard Floyd. Leonard Floyd, first off, has always kind of gotten a bad rap because he's not a sack machine.


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[Assistant] He was a top 10 pick, went to the Bears. He's not a really gifted, gifted pass rusher, but he's a really gifted, awesome football player. He can do everything. Yeaah, he's not going to be the kind of guy that gets you 12 sacks year after year after year. No, it's not what he does.


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[Assistant] He's awesome in the run game. He's awesome in pass coverage. He's awesome at sideline to sideline tracking people down. And he's awesome from when you're playing quarterbacks like Russell Wilson. Because they can't scramble and run and buy time and do those things.


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[Assistant] I mean, that for the most part yesterday, the front four of the Rams was able to keep Russell Wilson from running around like a madman and creating plays. Really, not a lot of front fours in football could do that. But that's because of Donald.


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[Assistant] Floyd, Brockers, those guys, that group, they're so athletic, they're pretty disciplined, that they're talented enough to run a guy down like Russell Wilson. And then, hey, I'm excited, I'm gonna do the deep dive on this on Wednesday, cause I wanna see what they do.


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[Assistant] But this was part of the reason I picked the Rams in the game. I said in the picks podcast on Thursday, I said, before the bye week, the Rams have been doing a little bit of, hey Jalen, you cover this guy, we're gonna do this coverage over here. And I went, ooh, I like this, he's $20 million a year, he's a freak show, and


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[Assistant] He gave DK Metcalf all he can handle. There's not really many people in football. I don't know if there's anybody.


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[Assistant] I don't think there's anybody other than Jalen Ramsey that could match up with DK Metcalf. Strength wise, speed wise, like Stefan Gilmore.


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[Assistant] That can match him speed-wise, but strength-wise was an issue when they played. Jalen Ramsey, no. Jalen Ramsey's a big human being and he's tough and physical and great that way. I want to see if Russell left some completions on the field that shouldn't have, should have attacked him more. Uhm, but either way, that's phenomenal, phenomenal by two star, star player.


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[Assistant] You're right, no one has been able to do that. Nobody has been able to do that. You know, Patrick Peterson had a good stat line against him a few weeks against Arizona, but he was open a ton. I blamed Russell Wilson at the time for not working him more. Yesterday, again, I was watching a lot of games, but that game had a lot of attention and eyes on it for sure.


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[Assistant] It didn't look like it was a day where I went, mmm, I think DK's been open a lot. Russell just didn't throw it over there. No, I don't think that. And it's another lesson I think, you know, again, for when they have to play, maybe the Rams in the playoffs or something like that, they gotta find more ways to get DK Metcalf the ball. They got to.


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[Assistant] Like a 49ers Deebo Samuel. Speed sweeps like Chase Claypool gets. Like, where's wide receiver screens that we see Deandre Hopkins get? Where are some of those plays? Where are pick plays to get him open? I know he's the freakish Greek God looking wide receiver.


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[Assistant] You know, every now and then, Greek God faces Greek God in the NFL, and then one of them needs a little bit of a schematical help. And, you know, that was a tough one for him yesterday.


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[Assistant] Well, it's not what's wrong with Russ. It's just, again, you know, there's no running game to talk of in Seattle. It's all on Russell Wilson.


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[Assistant] You know, the Rams offense stayed on the field, and like you said, they had their way with Seattle. The score was more dominant than 23-16, or the game was more dominant than 23-16. I mean, uh, so he's forced


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[Assistant] There's gonna be. There's gonna be. If you have no run game, you have to drop back and throw and make plays and do things like that. You know, at times you're gonna do things where you go, man, I wish I wouldn't have done that, but okay.


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[Assistant] And at times you're gonna go, man I'm trying to make a play and do something to jump start our football team and it backfired. Alright.


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[Assistant] He's saved their ass more times than he's burnt them, that's for sure. Hey, the interception...


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[Assistant] You know, with 17-10 Jared got fumbled against Jamal Adams. He had a wide open person down the sideline. He moved up in the pocket. I don't know why he then went back to him and threw the ball.


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[Assistant] For the interception, when he could have ran, he had a one-on-one where he might score a touchdown, at least he's gonna get 10 or 15 yards. Uh, but blew a moment there, and our man Williams. Uhm, the two picks on the day.


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[Assistant] He's the, he's their Drew Brees, he's their emotional leader, whatever you want to say. He's the guy that gets everybody orchestrated, let alone, he's an awesome football player. He really is. He's a true thumper.


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[Assistant] He's a thumper who was always downgraded because, oh, he's not quite as athletic as, you know, the Darius Leonard's of the world and we want a guy that can run and cover more. He's worked on that aspect of his game and he's really phenomenal at that as well. There's nothing he doesn't do.


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[Assistant] No, I mean, the 49ers, the 49ers, you know, really kind of hand-wrapped some gifts for them. And we're like, hey, it's not Thanksgiving week yet, but we want to be thankful for having us down here in New Orleans.


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[Assistant] You know, we're up 10-0, but please get back in the game here. As a housewarming, here's the football. I mean, drop and puns, drop two puns, fumble, I mean, don't get a fourth and one.


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[Assistant] Uhm, but the defense played awesome, special teams played awesome, and we don't talk about all three phases of the game quite enough.


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[Assistant] Well, I don't think they'll look a whole lot different. You know, will they be able to call every formation and play and will he be able to have nine checks of the line of scrimmage like Drew Brees? No, probably not. I think that's what you saw yesterday. They just went, hey, let's, let's take it slow. The guy, it's a new offense. It's week 10. He hasn't done anything. We had no preseason this year.


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[Assistant] So, he's got, he hasn't seen live bullets since last year when he threw that pick six in overtime to get the 30th interception of the year against the Falcons. Hasn't done anything since then.


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[Assistant] You know, they, they played it smart. I think they felt like, hey,


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[Assistant] We're in, we got, we finally got control of the game. Drew's out as the second half at 17-10. We feel good about what our defense is finally doing now. We're starting to slow down the 49ers and things like that. To where they just went, alright.


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[Assistant] We're not gonna let him lose the game here. Right. And I think that was smart. Now the big thing is too,


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[Assistant] They, they, yes, they will. I mean, I think if Jameis Winston gets to play some consecutive games here, because you know, to what you said first off with Drew Brees, that, that's, that's a hard injury. I don't even care how serious it is. If it's sore, and you're throwing arm, I mean, I've had hurt ribs before, you know,


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[Assistant] When you breathe, it hurts your ribs. Let alone, I'm gonna extend my body and twist to throw a ball and then let my arm fold and do all those things. It really bothers you. And he's got shoulder problem too right now. So he's really beat up in that area.


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[Assistant] And yeaah, I would think that they would go with Jamus. Yes, they'll have more of a downfield passing. But within that, they're going to lose some of the mental gymnastics of where


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[Assistant] Hey, Drew Brees has been running this offense for 15 years. You know, it's just like...


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[Assistant] That was the final straw, no doubt. But they'll lose part of that. But maybe yes, will they gain a...


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[Assistant] A few play action passes and deep shots with the Jameis Winston? Yes, I would think so. You know, the other thing to take into account here too is, and Florio has brought this up, the Tastem Hill thing.


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[Assistant] Does he play backup? Or do you keep him in the role he's in?


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[Assistant] Or is he the backup to Jameis Winston now? How does that work?


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[Assistant] It is a playoff defense. It's a good defense. It is. I mean that front four is big and really will not be out physicaled by any team in football. You know, Leonard Williams is your starting defense end.


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[Assistant] He's, he's a starting defensive tackle for most teams. Now the fact that he's playing defense ends because he's a freak athletically and all those things. A lot like Leonard Floyd, people look at him as a bust because he's a top 10 pick and he didn't get 20 sacks a year. So he's a bust, right? No, he's not.


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[Assistant] He's a really awesome, complete football player. That's never gonna be a 10 or 12 sack year guy just like we talked about with Leonard Floyd.


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[Assistant] You know, it's him in, yeaah, there's quickness and he can beat people that way, but he wins with power, he wins with quickness against interior offense alignment, he never loses battles. There's great value in that.


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[Assistant] When you go, well, what do his bad plays look like, right? We always look at highlights as evaluators. Oh, here's his good plays. Whoa, look at all the, well, I'm big to me is always going like, let me look at his bad plays. Cause if his good's great, but his bad is like, he's on his back being pancake. That's not good. His bad is like double team that gets moved nowhere.


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[Assistant] And he just stalemates them. I mean, he's a really good football player along with the rest of the size they have on that. And then Patrick Graham, their D coordinator from New England.


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[Assistant] Who I worked with there, you know, you just see him and Brian Flores, they got great minds. I know Flores is in Miami, I'm just saying, but they were in that staff together.


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[Assistant] And they're, they're taught the right way. And they were all over Wentz and his crap yesterday. And all over the, the Eagles pass concept. You thought the Eagles pass offense might be better. Hey, Alshon's back. You know, Goddard's healthy. Fulghum's there. Rieger's in. Negative Ghost Rider. Same crappy Eagles offense. Giants were


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[Assistant] I'm still gonna give the Eagles the advantage. I am. But I think the Giants are clearly the team.


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[Assistant] To be that challenger. I do. Uh, and you know, only just why we're sitting here, I just like to look at the giant schedule. Okay. To get a feel for it. Yeah.


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[Assistant] They got some tough games. You know, Bangles, Seahawks, Cardinals, Browns, Ravens, Cowboys. That will not be easy.


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[Assistant] I'm saying, I'm saying let's throw TJ Scott in there. Let's, let's start it up. I mean, he's gotta continue to lead football or be towards the top in sacks, which I know he's about a half sack out from being the league leader right now or whatever.


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[Assistant] But yeaah. You know, that's been lost. That's been lost. You know, it's just annoying. It's always the quarterback on the best team. That's the MVP. That's it. They won the games. The quarterback deserves all the credit. And that's it. You know, and I don't know. I grew up in a time in 1986. The NFL MVP was Lawrence Taylor. Last time a defensive player won it. That's stupid.


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[Assistant] That's just stupid, I don't know how to say it. I mean, the fact that that's the last guy to win an NFL MVP on the defensive side of the ball. But, yea, why?


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[Assistant] Watt all over Burrow yesterday. I mean, Bud Dupree. It's probably the best pass rushing duo in football. We know it's the best pass rushing front four in football. I don't think there's any way to deny that.


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[Assistant] And, you know, I really thought where the Bengals could keep it close is short passing game. Burrow will get it out of his hands quick. But it seemed like on TV, Pittsburgh had people dropping in the right areas to take away the pass game. And it just made Burrow have to go like, oh wait, I can't throw it to him. Let me go to the next guy. And by that time that happened, he had people all around him.


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[Assistant] And, uh, Watt's phenomenal. I would really like to know too, and Pete, maybe he can look this up before the end of the show.


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[Assistant] Like I bet you, next to the other top tier pass rushers, TJ Watt, as impressive as he is, and he is clearly one of the best pass rushers in football, I bet you,


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[Assistant] For the ones that have played all their games, right, the equal number of games, I bet you he has less pass rush attempts than a lot of these top people in sacks. They, they don't care. They drop him into coverage a lot. So he has certain series and things every now and then, and I go, well, three or four plays, he didn't rush the quarterback. He dropped into coverage. So it just tells you how effective he is.


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[Assistant] He's, he's been really good, and I think he is certainly in the running for comeback player of the year. I mean, first off, he's famous for his big right arm. He's Big Freakin' Ben.


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[Assistant] Okay, and yeaah, he tore a ligament in his elbow in his throwing arm. So, I mean, I think there is something to that. Yeaah, the story's not as cool as Alex Smith, but as far as results and what you're doing on the field, it's cooler in that aspect.


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[Assistant] And, the thing I'm, this is where I'm like, hey we know Steelers defense, and they're still not a great running game.


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[Assistant] There's a lot of pressure on Big Ben, because there's no run game. And the thing I love that he does right now, and we didn't always see this from him, he's really managing games the right way.


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[Assistant] And not that he's managing the game completely, but he's managing it until he realizes, okay, wait, this is how they're playing us.


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[Assistant] And now I've got it figured out and I can start making throws and let it go. But old Big Ben would have been like, Oh, they're playing us a little crazy. Oh, screw it. I'm Big Ben. I'll make a play and dance around the pocket and get off me and I'll throw it. And you know, he'll make plays, but then he'd go, Oh, well that's a dumb interception. Damn. They were controlling the game and now they're down by seven.


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[Assistant] Third downs. Dude, do you know that, that is, I can't, I'm gonna, that's a Wednesday, what the **** happens.


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[Assistant] 0 for 13 with those weapons Cincinnati has. And Joe Burrow is as like elusive as anybody in the game right now as far as in the pocket to where he couldn't make a play and get a first down or something. That's amazing to me.


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[Assistant] 40 less? I-I would think if you gave him 40 more attempts, he's gonna get another two or three sacks and he leads football. You know, at least. Depending on the right opponent, it might be more than that. Who knows? But, okay, thanks. Okay.


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[Assistant] They are a really good football team. They are, and you know, when they can run the football like that, they're tough to beat. It's two weeks in a row, we've seen them just...


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[Assistant] They did it to the Browns last week, and now they do it to the Broncos. Those running backs are unbelievable, but when they can control the clock and do those things, you know, their defense is not super talented. They got some young, talented pieces that I'm excited for, but right now it's not a special defense, but they're well coached.


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[Assistant] And they're aggressive and tough on that side of the ball. And Heath has had a good year. And the strengths of their defense is their secondary. There's no doubt about that. When you get into Trayvon Mullin and Arnett and, you know, Lamarcus Joyner and Abrams and Heath, that's a pretty damn good group. They put a lot of pressure on them.


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[Assistant] And they got into a game where it was like, okay, you're gonna have to throw the ball to come back and beat us. And they made some plays. He did a great job. You know, the one that sticks out to me more than anything was the interception near the goal line, right?


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[Assistant] Uhm, I think it was that one, if I'm remembering that correctly.


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[Assistant] You know, the game was still in the balance there to where I believe it was a 13-6 moment


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[Assistant] The Broncos are down there close right before the end of the first half and he throws a ball over the middle that gets intercepted and, you know, just...


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[Assistant] Great play by Heath, but I really wanna say is, Andrew Lock.


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[Assistant] Well, it's just too aggressive. Anybody that watched the game yesterday, I mean, I think that would be apparent. You know, he's, that's the one thing when I watch film with him right now, I love his talent. It's just not every play has to be a 20 yard completion.


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[Assistant] He's got to dial it back a little bit and play the position and stop, you know, you know, stop playing backyard football that way. That's a little concerning to me there. I'm glad they gave him the vote of confidence, but yeah, he put his team in a lot of tough spots yesterday in a game where their defense was struggling as is, and he kind of just helped them get pounded even more.


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[Assistant] Uh, my headline is there's three phases of football? Three? Okay. Because all we ever talk about is offense and defense. Alright, that's all we do.


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[Assistant] That there's more to the football game than just offense and defense. You gotta beat the team in totality, and they make you play that third phase of the game. The Miami Dolphins, they're special teams, you know.


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[Assistant] That gave them the advantage in this football game. It really did. Whether it was the block punt to start the one play, one yard touchdown drive, or they're setting up for a field goal and the Chargers jump off sides.


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[Assistant] And the rest of it was defense, managing the game, and special teams. And I, you know, again, it's something I fall in the trap of too, too many times.


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[Assistant] But it is such an important facet of the football game. And I don't know, the Dolphins just between what they did in the Rams and the Cardinals and what we saw yesterday.


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[Assistant] It just, hey, it doesn't always have to be about the quarterback and throwing for 300 yards and doing that. They're doing it a different way. And two is just making the plays that he needs to make when the time is appropriate. And it's perfect right now for a young quarterback and everything they got going there. So that was cool.


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[Assistant] He was, and then when they run the ball and do those things, you know, he's got a nice rhythm when he throws play action passes and doing those type of things. I like what they're doing. Ultimately, is their offense as dangerous right now as it would be with Ryan Fitzpatrick? Maybe not, alright?


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[Assistant] I think ultimately this will be the better offense if they want to go into the playoffs and win some games and be a better team all together. I don't think, you know, Ryan Fitzpatrick, yea, they could have had games yesterday where maybe he would have been in there and they would have been in the shotgun and he would have thrown for 300 yards and three touchdowns and looked good. But I could also tell you in that same game, he could have thrown four interceptions and lost to the game just as easily.


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[Assistant] They're, I believe, playing a style of football in which the head coach believes in. I think that's why he wanted to. Let's run the ball, we'll move the pocket, we'll take some one-on-one shots. And Chan Gailey, I think, is doing a phenomenal job.


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[Assistant] Because I think, you know, traditionally he wants to spread the field out and throw the ball that way. But he's gonna go, hey, we're gonna get A down, and before we, before we get to B, we gotta get A down. And then when we get to B, we're not gonna move to C until we know how to write uppercase B and lowercase B, and then we'll move to C. And I think that's the right approach for a young quarterback like that.


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[Assistant] I mean, he really did. He hit the whole hard. Yea, they had a running game. I mean, it just, again, it just shows you how many good, talented running backs are out there.


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[Assistant] Back to basics. Okay. What I'm talking about is running the football. Two tight end sets. Get underneath the center, Tom Brady. I know, because in, you know, New Orleans, they signed Antonio Brown. They had to get in the shotgun and throw at every play. And guess what happened? They got their butt swept.


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[Assistant] You talked about it. Carolina's played everybody close this year. Everybody. They were dominated yesterday. They were dom- after the early little surge they had to go up 14-7 and everything like that.


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[Assistant] The Bucks really found their way. And why I say back to basics, because this has been a theme that I've been talking about here on the podcast with the Bucks.


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[Assistant] To me, they have been at their best offensively all year. Not that they have to run for a hundred yards, but just when they get in those formations to make you think that Cameron Brayton Gronkowski are really good at both phases of the game. So that can stress you out.


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[Assistant] You know, and here you go, if you're watching on YouTube, look at the percentage of plays under center this week as compared to what we saw in other weeks previous.


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[Assistant] Right. And the Giants game the week before that was 38%. Which, again, I would just like to say, they barely beat the Giants. They were lucky to do that.


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[Assistant] There was only 16 snaps of two tight end sets those two previous games. Yesterday there was 37.


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[Assistant] There's two things it does. And this is why I like it. You know, of course we want to run the ball. It helps out the pass game and all those things. But Brady is amazing at play action. And that's where Gronk and Mike Evans and all of them can make big time plays. And then the other aspect of that is these two tight end sets underneath the center.


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[Assistant] When Brady does drop back, no play action, just drop back to pass, he's been best when he has that extra tight end to block. And that gives him the confidence to go, wait, I'll sit in the pocket and I'll make the big throw here. I know I'm gonna have time. And to me, that's what they did yesterday. Brady wasn't even on his A game yesterday. I know he was 28 or 39.


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[Assistant] Like, no joke, he should have been like 35 for 39 for 498 yards. He missed some wide open throws. But who cares? He's gonna go back and go,


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[Assistant] They're gonna go, okay, you missed them, so what? You'll hit them next time, but this is the right way to play. We proved that. And I think with all those stars, they got a receiver, they'll all be happy with, they got touches, yeaah, it wasn't groundbreaking, but they got enough touches and you win, that'll, that'll keep the receivers quiet.


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[Assistant] Not that they're all lying and like, it's not the best in football, but it's really good and it's got size. It's got real size. They'd be crazy not to kind of impose their will. And just real quick on the defensive side of the ball, early on, it was like


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[Assistant] The Saints came again. You know, Carolina runs the Saints offense. And it was like, well, you're just going to let them dink and dunk you for five, are we just going to let Teddy Bridgewater Company just go down the field on you like this? And it's like they went down 14-7 and they went,


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[Assistant] Enough. We've had enough. We're gonna blitz and we're gonna get in your face and play man to man. To me that's when they're their best. I don't know why they've gotten a little into this like soft zone coverages and we're gonna play it safe. To me that is not the best Buccaneer's style of defense.


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[Assistant] That's why I'll still stand by. I don't give a damn what they looked like this week or last week. I'm still gonna sit here and tell you, I still think the two best teams have the most potential in the NFC.


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[Assistant] Are still the Saints and the Bucks. They, to me, have the most potential to be complete football teams. Yes, as you saw again there yesterday with the Packers, there's issues. And you're right. It's, oh, you know, my guy delivered. That's what it always is with Green Bay. It's always he's got to deliver.


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[Assistant] He's gotta make it happen. And it wasn't pretty yesterday. I mean, yea, they had their issues. You saw it once again.


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[Assistant] The inability to stop the run game became an issue.


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[Assistant] You know, and there's no room for error for them on the offensive side of the ball. Devontae Adams at 17-10, he's going to make a big play. He fumbles the ball. They get a short field, the touchdown. You know, Rogers throws in interception a series or two later and all of a sudden you're going, damn, we're getting in the fourth quarter and they're losing to Jacksonville. They were kind of controlling the game early and what the hell happened?


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[Assistant] So uhm, yeaah, it's an ability of them to be consistently able to dominate the line of scrimmage in the run game at times, and then they're, I will always say, this is two years in a row, their interior defensive line


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[Assistant] It's just not talented. I don't know any other way to say it. And they have issues stopping teams that have a little size and talent at running back.


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[Assistant] Got some skill and talent, and they got some receivers that will scare you in Jacksonville, to where I think you just can't go all in on stopping the run, but it doesn't matter. Even when Green Bay goes all in on stopping run, they don't stop it. They went all in on, you know, Dalvin Cook.


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[Assistant] They couldn't stop it in certain plays. There's just not enough physical playmakers in the run game. They are a pass rush defense. That's what they are. And if the game doesn't become that, then they're in a game. That's just the way it works for them.


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[Assistant] Because that custom gives a little flexibility, right, to go, hey man, you know, throw an extra guy in the box, let's see if we can just make it a little more crowded in there. You know, they have to be a little more reluctant to do that without Jair Alexander, who's, you know, one of the best corners in the game.


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[Assistant] And I had a drive, so I'm driving home... After your... After the pregame show of Football Night in America.


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[Assistant] And I'm driving home, and first off the wind almost blew me off the highway, but then I get into like the residential part of town, I had to pull over.


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[Assistant] I couldn't see. I never had it rain so hard. I literally was like, wait, is my window foggy? I could not, because I'd never seen it like that. I had to pull over for about five minutes and let it stop. But yea, we had some weather system here.


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[Assistant] That's the story of the game. There's no other way. All we're gonna be talking about is run game, run game, run game in this game on both sides of the ball. Honestly, it's weird to say this. I do think the weather hurt Baltimore than it did New England. Why? You know, because I think...


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[Assistant] Baltimore's pass offense had a little more potential to make some plays in the game than New England did. And that was taken away, let alone when it starts to rain like that, it makes the track slower.


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[Assistant] And we know the fastest guy on the track was number 8 wearing white and black last night. So that slows him down just a little too. Not to say that it was much, but, you know, the elements I do think favored New England more than they did Baltimore in this particular matchup.


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[Assistant] Well yeaah, they use him the right way. His skill set still has a tremendous impact on the football game because of his ability to run and what Baltimore has to do to worry about that aspect.


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[Assistant] So, yes, and to answer our friend from Wales, I do think he's doing enough. You know, one...


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[Assistant] Hey, there's not a lot of talent around him in the past game. He did have the COVID issues and all of that. You know, this is, I've always told you is an extremely hard offense and you're not going to just digest it all in one year. It's going to take a little time. I think by the way he's playing, you know, and


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[Assistant] I don't know how much of the game you watched on TV last night, but Collinsworth and Al Michaels.


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[Assistant] Spent minutes gushing about New England, gushing about Cam Newton.


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[Assistant] When have you ever heard that at a New England? I've heard the same type of things.


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[Assistant] You know, I've had the same kind of comments made to me by people up there, that like, the quarterback competition was over on the second day, because Cam Newton had already taken control of the team. There was no competition. The whole team was like, oh, you're Cam Newton, you're the man. He's got tremendous leadership and energy, and there's something about him that you're hearing the Patriots like. There is an advantage he's bringing to their football team.


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[Assistant] Right, because I think they still looked at it like, eh, he's still our best player there, and he's our best leader on our team. And he worked really hard. So our team will be able to give, you know, give him the free pass for not playing well after COVID and all those things. And he's bounced back.


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[Assistant] Honestly, the last three weeks, other than the fumble on the last play against the Bills, he has played three perfect games in a row. Perfect! Like, managing the game with no talent. Cam, you can't make a mistake or they're gonna lose. And he hasn't done that two weeks in a row.


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[Assistant] And there's a lot of pressure on him right now to make that happen. Now, to what they did in the football game.


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[Assistant] It's like we went back to 1964 and Vince Lombardi. I mean, I don't know, Pete.


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[Assistant] Full back lead the way, pulling guards, smash mouth football, extraordinaire is what we


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[Assistant] I mean, last night it was one after another. It's the most well-coached run attack in football. Not necessarily the most creative. I'm still going to give Shanahan all the creative, but when you talk about


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[Assistant] The execution of the running game and then they run the run they wanna run into the right look every time.


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[Assistant] You know, there's a code for asserting running plays, right? We'd like to run this play against this defensive front that gives us the best advantage to be successful in those things. They're always running the exact right play into the right front.


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[Assistant] Let alone, they have a special offensive line.


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[Assistant] And yeaah, I took the ravens to win this football game. And I know Kalais Campbell wasn't out there. I still, even as good as this offensive liners, but I did not think they would be able to move the ravens the way they did.


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[Assistant] They moved the ravens and, you know, the formula was eye formation runs, screens, and a few play action passes.


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[Assistant] And honestly, I don't know if they intended to do this or not. If it just fell this way, but me with New England, I would bet you it did not fall this way, that they intended to do it. With these run plays when they picked Perfect, man, a lot of the times the guys they stressed out,


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[Assistant] We're the rookies. It was, there's Patrick Queen. What are you gonna do? You haven't seen this run. What are you gonna do? Oh, Malik Harrison. Oh, rookie linebacker. What are you gonna do here? I don't know. We put you in a position there. I don't think you've had to defend this all year long.


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[Assistant] Oh, you know, 92, Madubuke, I'm probably saying his name wrong, the defense attacker from Texas A&M, I apologize.


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[Assistant] But even a few run plays for him where you go, he's at the center of the point of attack of who they're trying to stress out here. So to me that's just another thing where I look at with New England.


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[Assistant] To stay in 21, Baltimore famous for their secondary, their blitz packages, everything they do. They couldn't do any of it. It didn't matter. Because New England just said, ISO, pulling guard, eat that, eat that, eat that. And it really was phenomenal that way.


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[Assistant] I mean, first off, again, this is where New England is special. Clearly not the more talented team on the field.


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[Assistant] This is where COVID-19 hurt them, because their greatest advantage is that weird guy who wears the mask and, and you know, cut off sleeves. Belichick is their greatest advantage. And this is where, you know, him and McDaniels, let's just talk about all three touchdowns. I mean, first off, New England, yes, trick play, touchdown.


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[Assistant] There we go. Seven and seven. It's not easy to score once you get down in there close against the Ravens. I think they realize like, ooh, we're right on the fringe here. We don't want to get any closer to run this play. Let's run it now and score a touchdown instead of getting down there in the nine. And then we can't find a way to throw it in and we have to kick a field goal.


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[Assistant] I just want to make sure I got this right. Oh no, that was touchdown number two, was the trick play by Myers. Touchdown number one was brilliant. The pick play behind the line of scrimmage for the running back coming out in the backfield.


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[Assistant] Tell me somebody I've never seen anybody do that. No. Negative Ghost Rider. I have not.


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[Assistant] You know, that's just, to me, that's brilliance again. Oh yeaah, okay, you got Lamar Jackson, okay cool, kick that field goal, we'll score touchdowns. I mean, that's where they're amazing, but to run that play and to know that


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[Assistant] Baltimore, the guy that's butzing on the edge, if he has the back that comes at him free, he's gonna have to hit him to let the guy who is covering him man to man to get over there and get in time.


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[Assistant] They just went, oh that guy that you're supposed to slow him down, we're gonna stop you, and you won't be able to even slow our guy down. Walk in touchdown. And then...


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[Assistant] The third touchdown, which I just want to make sure I got this right,


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[Assistant] Because they got an empty set and they usually run the quarterback draw up the middle.


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[Assistant] And Baltimore sold out to stop the up the middle run. And New England probably knew it and said, hey, go ahead, sell out. We'll pull out the edge. And you're right. There was no, he didn't get touched. There was nobody even there for the guard to block because they had game planned it so perfectly. That's where they're just next level.


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[Assistant] Uh, and I'm amazed by them. And you know, Cam Newton, it wasn't brilliant, but he managed the game the right way and they out physically.


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[Assistant] They, they did things to Baltimore that Baltimore usually does to other people.


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[Assistant] Yeah, that's, that's underwhelming for the Ravens, because it really, and a lot of that is Lamar Jackson scramble yards and things like that, too, to where it's not like, oh, we lined up and just beat your butt into the ground and ran the ball that way. There's a difference between that. Um, Lawrence Guy,