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Turf Talk
The Evolving NFL: Player Trades and Offensive Innovations
What's the real story behind Brandon Aiyuk and the San Francisco 49ers? Explore the intricate web of trade opportunities, verbal agreements, and strategic maneuvers that have surrounded Aiyuk since March. We weigh the pros and cons of these potential trades, Dive into offers from teams like the Patriots, and even consider how a player swap involving Amari Cooper could shake things up. Plus, we'll dive into the versatile roles of key players like Debo Samuel and debate whether Iyuk's expectations match the current NFL market realities.
Caleb Williams is making waves, but is he the next big thing for the Bears' offense? Hear all about his impressive throws under pressure and his striking consistency compared to past quarterbacks like Justin Fields. We analyze how Williams' performance could transform the Bears' offense, especially for targets like Cole Komet and DJ Moore. Meanwhile, in Denver, Bo Nix is turning heads with his early showing, even as a rejuvenated Zach Wilson provides stiff competition. We'll explore what this means for the Broncos' future and the potential shakeup in their quarterback lineup.
Quarterbacks aren't the only players making headlines. We take a hard look at Mac Jones' development issues and the fantasy football implications, while also addressing the Vikings' quarterback dilemma following J.J. McCarthy's unfortunate injury. With the recent signing of Matt Corral, could a trade for Mac Jones be in the cards for Minnesota? We also discuss the evolving offensive strategies in football, spotlighting Saquon Barkley's role and the impact of bolstered offensive lines. Finally, get ready for a trip down memory lane with a discussion on the new kickoff rules and the possible resurgence of dynamic returns this season. Don't miss our take on how these changes could electrify the game once again.
Good afternoon, ladies and gentlemen. We are back. I'm Scott Schaus sitting here with Dewey Vance, and we have the latest training camp news here on Turf Talk. All right, where to dive in at Dewey.
Speaker 2:Um, let's just go with the hot topic that we've been hearing about every single day for probably the past. Uh, since March, yeah, since March, maybe. Yeah, let's talk about the Brandon Iyuk situation in San Francisco.
Speaker 1:The fact that he's had multiple opportunities to move on to different situations. There's been verbal agreements from multiple teams. Nothing set in stone, nothing. The 49ers have wanted Nothing Brandon Iyuke has wanted. New england reportedly offered him top three ride, wide receiver money 30 million a year.
Speaker 2:Yeah and um yeah, I don't know why he I mean, I don't know what he really expects. I don't, I'm not sure if the top market teams are going to be the Buffaloes and all those other teams.
Speaker 1:They really can't afford to trade for you and then pay you the teams that you want to go to have other priorities right now and you're just not one of them.
Speaker 2:Well, and then apparently they had the Browns trade for Amari Cooper for him to go to Cleveland, and apparently that was agreed to by San Francisco and they said, no, had the Browns trade for Amari Cooper for him to go to Cleveland, and apparently that was agreed to by San Francisco and they said no.
Speaker 1:Or Brian Ike said no to that trade Because I wonder if he thought the same thing that we all thought is if Amari Cooper is going to be going to San Fran, am I really going to a better situation than what I'm in right now? Does trading for Amari Cooper make Cleveland better? Does involving Amari Cooper and trading for Brandon Ayuk does that make Cleveland better?
Speaker 2:No, it might in the future, not this year, I don't think.
Speaker 1:They have to stay. They still have other issues at wide receiver and pass catcher. At that point your only other pass catcher that reliable is Njoku yeah.
Speaker 2:Nick Chubb is hurt.
Speaker 1:I mean, jerome Ford ran very, very well last year, yeah, but your bell cow, the guy that you're breading, the guy that is helping make the Cleveland Browns their bread and butter, oh yeah, like he's the guy that has made you relevant.
Speaker 2:If I'm going to be quite honest, they're my stable player for the past half decade. Yes, yeah, pretty sure. The only guy who's been there for maybe half a decade, for the last five years yeah, yeah, he's not there.
Speaker 1:I just don't think. Yeah, for the immediate, you know, and who knows on how well Cleveland can drive? We all know they can't really drive wide receivers. Well, yeah, the one that they did couldn't stop smoking weed. Yeah, yeah.
Speaker 2:And then so what that means for the Niners. Even if they did acquire Murray Cooper, that kind of helps them. That lowers the cap slightly. Well, not right now. Well, because they take on that contract.
Speaker 1:He is on a contract right now, but it's not. But you're still saving money in the long run from what you probably would have given just Brandon Ayew.
Speaker 2:Yeah, and I think Amari Cooper is probably just as good as Brandon Ayew maybe right now.
Speaker 1:I mean maybe right now. I mean maybe not, if the only reason that anybody would, especially from a front office standpoint, that you're going to take Brandon Iuke over Amari Cooper in any situation is, there's the four-year age gap. I think Amari Cooper is around 26. That's about it. Yeah, and Amari Cooper is my age. Yeah, so that's the only scenario for me, because me personally, right now I'm taking Amari Cooper over Brandon Aiyuk as of right now it depends who's on my team, but Brandon Aiyuk is.
Speaker 2:I don't know Brandon Aiyuk.
Speaker 1:He's super talented, but that's a really good team and that's a really good system to play in, yeah, so see, my thing is, if you were going to put a wide receiver on a team to make them immediately better, I think Amari Cooper would make a wide receiver team needy slightly better than what Brandon Aik you could.
Speaker 2:To me just Amari Cooper is just more proven to me. I agree. Yeah, I agree with that, Because I mean, like we've said before, Brandon Aik might be the better wide receiver between him and Debo, but I think Debo's more important to that offense.
Speaker 1:Yeah, he can do more. You know Brandon Iyuk, he runs better routes, he can run more routes and I think if he can do things a wide receiver better than you, like you just said, better than Debo. He can high point the ball better contested catch. But you get Debo on a jet suite man and he gets up steam. He is a hard man to brain. Now you get him out in open space. Yes.
Speaker 2:And then he's the guy on the team outside of him, outside of CMC, that can take a bubble screen or take a quick hitch and take it to the house and break two or three tackles. And there's not any other wide receivers that can really do that. Maybe him, dk, aj Brown, jamar guys who when they get the ball it's like tackling a running back almost those are hard to come by and the way they use Devo and how I mean. Some people call him a gadget, but I think you know he's just.
Speaker 1:he's just a super talented player, that thing you get the ball to um, but at the same time I also looked at it as at least he's not looking at it as like it's it's a money, it's a money thing. At least he's not looking at it as like it's a money thing. At least he's not bag chasing.
Speaker 2:I mean it kind of does, though, because he still wants the $30 million. He just wants to go to a team he wants to go to. I think he's going to force his way to Washington, Washington.
Speaker 1:Unless, unless he can agree, so unless they ended up somewhere around 27, 28, which I think is more realistic, realistically that he wants the fact that you want Tyree, you can the fact that you want Tyree and like um I'm drawing a blank here Um CD money. You know you want you. You're not in the same conversation as these guys.
Speaker 2:Not yet, no, no.
Speaker 1:Not yet. He's had a slow start. You know he's starting to pick up and come into his own, but at the same time I'm not even going to say slow start, because their quarterback situation was iffy until Brock Perry told them they found a guy that fits their system good.
Speaker 2:Well, that, and he's I mean, besides the quarterback situation, he's just been in a lot of different personnel situations. He's just been in a lot of different personnel situations. He's had variations of different guys. When Michael Gallup starts to kind of come up, he got hurt and so I think. And then Bray Knight's always played with Debo. He's always. I mean he didn't play with CMC, but I'm pretty sure year two CMC was there. He's always played with George Kittle. Juwan Jennings is a pretty good, is a really solid number three wide receiver.
Speaker 1:So I'm not sure if you, and adding CMC to that offense, especially when teams realize that this isn't the same injury-prone guy that CMC is going to be here every week that's going to cause them DBs and linebackers. They're going to want to try to scoot up, they're worried about him, and that leaves deep shots down the field. And that's what we were just talking about, where a lot of his yards are yak yards His yak yards are ridiculous.
Speaker 2:It's just different opportunities. It's different than Tyreek, because Tyreek is mainly just him and Travis. It's never, it's. It's. It's Brandon Ayuk, it's Debo Samuels, it's Kyle Juchek, it's it's George Kittle, cmc, whoever else. They feel like getting the ball to that Sunday. They feel like getting the ball to that Sunday Like it's a variation guys, as opposed to Seedy and Brandon Cooks, who is kind of in and out the lineup. But yeah, ultimately I do think he'll go to Washington. I think he's going to go, I think he wants to play with Jaden Daniels.
Speaker 1:I think that's where he wants to go.
Speaker 2:I think they extend him at some point.
Speaker 1:At some point, a deal. They said there's a deal in the works, that's right now, and apparently he wants a slight adjustment to the fourth year of the extension. If you know what I read, that's how that was. But they have something in place.
Speaker 2:Well, I was just saying if he were to get traded, I think I mean, if history repeats itself with the 49ers, what they've had, because they had George, they had all these players hold out and they get the deal done, he's probably going to get the deal done, but if he were to go anywhere, I'd probably say Washington.
Speaker 1:I think that'd be a good, a good, a good good guess right there, Because you know there's a reason he went over Drake. May, yeah, You're not hearing anybody. There's a reason he went over Drake.
Speaker 2:May.
Speaker 1:Yeah, you're not hearing anybody. You're not hearing anybody on Washington Talking about taking Jada Daniels job right now. No, and we're going to get to that here in a second. Yeah, I see that we are going to touch base on that here in one second.
Speaker 2:I think I've.
Speaker 1:I've set my peace on this, brandon, on you thing. Like I said, let's just get it done and let's get to week one. Let's get some football going. Let's get to the rookies now. Caleb Williams, he's going to be a problem.
Speaker 1:Yeah, you know, right now we're getting small dosages Of what he can see right now. You know, when he went against our defense Earlier, when we did have our Starting DBs, we forced back to back three and outs. But apparently I was rigged right on before I went on here that Zach Taylor pulled Our DBs due to Field conditions Not necessarily it was weathering conditions. Before I went on here that Zach Taylor pulled our DBs due to field conditions, oh okay, not necessarily it was weathering conditions and you know he just didn't find any need to risk any of his starters in a game that means nothing and where the weather is bad. You know, yeah, you know, on to week one, but I didn't really like what I saw from him when he went up against Buffalo starters.
Speaker 2:Yeah, he looked really good. I know the defense is very vanilla that they're running and the offense is also very vanilla that they're running.
Speaker 1:But he still threw that 26-yard dot on the run with a man in his face to Cole Komet, yeah.
Speaker 2:That's still, and those are throws that last year, in the past couple of years, justin Fields missed those kind of throws and we've seen the shots to Cole Kometho that he missed when he'd be running the corner outs or in the red zone.
Speaker 1:Yeah, we've seen Justin Fields miss the layups. Yeah, so far, caleb Williams is hitting the layups, and the one that really got me right it was the third and 12 to DJ Moore. That, right there, it was a third and long and he was around a couple of defenders and he found his guy and pressure and you're just looking at what you're seeing from him so far. If you're a Bears fan which we all know of one Bears fan that's really excited for this.
Speaker 2:Well, the whole DJ Moore and all the other receivers. A person we've never really seen unlocked in this offense is Cole Komet. I think if anyone's going to take off, we've seen what DJ Moore can do with any quarterback.
Speaker 1:We know what Keenan Allen can do.
Speaker 2:Keenan.
Speaker 1:Allen's a seven-time, you know seven eight-time pole ball. I don't know the numbers off my back, but we know what Keenan Allen can do. Roman.
Speaker 2:Duzier has some time to kind of get in the mix and we kind of have an idea of what he might be able to do year one and this was a guy that me and you both liked coming out of college.
Speaker 1:We thought that was going to be a. Really, we thought he was a really good a steal in the second round. Really, I was hoping, you know, he could have solved, you know, one of our tight ends. He just wasn't there. I like Cole Komet coming out of college. I like Cole Komet a lot. Yeah, yeah. So this is it's why he got the extension.
Speaker 2:Yeah, he got the extension for a reason. Without the production, he still got the extension. A lot of people were wondering, like why it's Xander?
Speaker 1:Look at what he's working with and now we might see he's going to. I think he's going to be the security blanket that Caleb Williams is going to need. Yeah, every rookie.
Speaker 2:I mean the Dalton Schultz to CJ Stroud. Yeah, most young quarterbacks, they love us, especially a veteran tight end too. Yeah, who's been like a Kyle Pittson this year waiting for this opportunity to finally get a consistency at quarterback. Finally get a guy who's willing to take and make the layups Not only has to be a slam dunk. Caleb looked really good, really quick, wasn't too? I mean running through the dot to Cole Comet. But a lot of it was in the pocket, a lot of it was pocket work. He wasn't, he wasn't trying to do too much he was able to make the little flip play the pocket awareness little flip play to DeAndre Swift.
Speaker 2:Was that Swift, or okay, I thought.
Speaker 1:I think it was Swift. I wasn. I think it was Swift. I wasn't sure if it was Kala Herbert.
Speaker 2:I didn't watch it, I just watched tape, but yeah, that was an impressive play. On. To another rookie who shredded my young defensive backs, I'm going to say it was our team's young DBs, bo Nix.
Speaker 1:Yeah, so far. Yeah, he's gone through his progressions. Somebody that Dooley wasn't really high on, I'm going to be honest, neither was I. I wasn't the big Bo Nix was somebody I liked. His freshman year, yeah, but he went toe to blow To blow for blow with Justin Herbert His freshman year. I thought maybe he could take that next step up and he just never did. And then when he went on to Oregon, which is a more pass friendly conference pass friendly team, I thought the system fit. He got with a coach that fit him a little bit better, but maybe right now he's, maybe that's the same situation in Denver.
Speaker 2:Yeah, and he's got a good receiving core that has kind of been tucked away sort of outside of Corlin Sutton yeah but does Zach Wilson breathe down his back?
Speaker 1:He's got Zach Wilson breathing down his back. Who also would report camp reports, just saying that he is rejuvenated.
Speaker 2:Yeah, and he looked good Sunday too. He looked all right Sunday too, and I think all three of them I mean it's still A-man's job. I mean they got the veteran, they got the guy who they just drafted.
Speaker 1:I personally would like to see Zach Wilson take the job. I would love to see Zach Wilson. I would love to see Zach Wilson come and thrive, and even if he doesn't stay and hang around, next year he could end up in a situation where Denver could get a fifth-round pick out of him. Yeah, if he comes out and he shows that he can play. Because they drafted Bo Nix for a reason, they're going to give Bo Nix a shot.
Speaker 2:Yeah, so if he comes out and he plays, yeah, but they also traded for Zach Wilson for a reason, mm-hmm, to bring in competition. They're the same exact age.
Speaker 1:You know, maybe just a guy that you know, maybe kind of like the Kirk Cousins situation, just on a cheaper scale. You know just a guy to help my guy develop? Yeah, an older quarterback that might have experience, but it's just maybe he's just not there yet. Give him some time to learn and try to adjust, you could have a breakout.
Speaker 2:You're like maybe a Baker Mayfield. He likes to take shots downfield.
Speaker 1:Corlin Sutton likes to catch deep balls, you know maybe he could end up in a situation maybe like a New Orleans. Yeah, their quarterback situation is, if you know, maybe he balls out this year and maybe New Orleans picks up the phone and gives a call and says, hey, we'll give you a fit, or maybe my boy, spencer Rattler, just seals the deal on that job and that would be nice. That would be the best case scenario.
Speaker 2:That would do as I told you, so that would be a good scenario for them too, especially financially. Yeah, because he's late round, pick super cheap.
Speaker 1:And Derek Carr just shaved a bunch of money off of his contracts. Maybe, if he comes in and they start out 0-2, 0-3, maybe they look at the fifth round rookie. Did we get the gym here Speaking?
Speaker 2:of fifth round rookies, or I should say sixth round rookies.
Speaker 1:Joe Milton. Yeah, Joe Milton. Right now he's taking the big throws instead of the check downs that Drake made. I think Drake May is going through the playbook, I think so. I think that's what the coaches are telling him take the easy, dink and dunks A lot of people were criticizing the. I think it was like a screen pass.
Speaker 2:I was like that was, that was so, yeah, oh, dink to the screen.
Speaker 1:Dink to the screen. So you're telling me he's doing what the play was designed to do.
Speaker 2:Man, that's crazy how that works. Coach calls a play and I actually. That's crazy how football works, man, how football works, man. But yeah, exactly, Come on man.
Speaker 1:We just drafted this guy third overall. You think I'm going to have him open up the playbook and let it rip. Yeah, I mean we're going to find out, because right now Joe Milton to me at least, year one has no threat to Drake May's job as of this year. Could we see, maybe in a year?
Speaker 2:or two, a Kirk Cousins and.
Speaker 1:RG3 situation To be continued, but for now, this year, they're going to let Drake May go. Or maybe even let him. Let Jacoby Brissett go, but right now Joe Milton, for the short term, has no threat to Drake May's job.
Speaker 2:I'll tell you what, if, if. I'll tell you what if. If Jacoby Brissett solidifies the job as the starter, I think there's a chance we could see Joe Milton before we see Drake May. I mean maybe in a package or two, just like a wildcat pack. I think they're going to try and use Joe Milton, maybe in some sort of fashion.
Speaker 1:Like a Taysom Hill kind of thing. Taysom Hill-esque Maybe, because he's definitely not Taysom, he's got a better arm.
Speaker 2:No, he's got a way better arm, Way better arm than Taysom Hill, not saying he's.
Speaker 1:Taysom Hill, but just in that type of role. Yeah, in that type of role, yeah, I could see that because he's got that, because he's way bigger yeah.
Speaker 2:He's more athletic and he's easily the most athletic quarterback on the roster. You should not be that big.
Speaker 1:You should not be able to be that big and be able to do backflips like that. That's crazy.
Speaker 2:Nah, yeah, yeah, he's got a rocket. I mean you saw the throws that he made. I mean he was going downfield. I mean and that was a real thing about a real question about him at Tennessee was his accuracy downfield? He showed it in the preseason game. I mean, although it was preseason, those guys are learning new coverages too. I will say the deep ball was kind of open, but at Tennessee he missed those.
Speaker 1:Maybe you're right about year one, but it took about year two-ish for Washington to realize that the fifth round guy that they had was better than the first round guy.
Speaker 2:I don't necessarily think he was better. I think the first round guys kept getting hurt.
Speaker 1:See to me, that's see I was talking about. Maybe from their standpoint.
Speaker 2:Yeah, yeah, yeah, because.
Speaker 1:RG3 didn't get along with anybody. There was already a portion, you heard it. He didn't see eye to eye with Jay Gruden and I agree with you there that I don't think. I think he was playing through injuries, especially his rookie year he was playing through injuries.
Speaker 2:He had no business playing through them. Well, Mike Shanahan ran him into the ground his rookie year. I think their offense was zone read option Like that's. You can't yeah, you can't have that be your base, Especially not he's not. Lamar has never been hurt until he got to the NFL. Rg3 had already tore his ACL by the time he got to the league, so I think it was that big.
Speaker 1:I think it was a shoulder injury or he had a knee yeah, the knee.
Speaker 2:They knew what they were getting into when they picked him. But yeah, I think maybe year two, if Drake may even play. I mean, who knows, we might not even, I don't know.
Speaker 1:Which I think we do. I think we have to see, especially if New England wants to prove that they can play and they want to win games. Yeah, yeah, that's true, you're going to have to see. You're going to have to throw Drake May in there.
Speaker 2:Yeah, but just like I've been saying, just like I had to defend Mac Jones for the first couple years, who's more man thrown the rock to?
Speaker 1:I guess we'll see if he can make the plays that Mac Jones could under duress. Yeah, I mean yeah some people make. Mac Jones also didn't show any flashes as he digressed. That he didn't. You know the good quarterbacks, at least show something.
Speaker 2:Yeah, yeah, no, absolutely yeah.
Speaker 1:You know damn it, at least I'm out here cooking. But I'm out here cooking with Kid Cuisines.
Speaker 2:Yeah, at least I'm yeah, I'm giving you something. Yeah, Looking like all right, if you give him a couple guys we can. Yeah, absolutely yeah. Like a Joe Joe, yeah, Joe Andrew, Like those kind of guys. Josh Allen, Shoot Lamar.
Speaker 1:Some of the guys you know he wasn't doing anything. I remember. You know, even just in, not even just from a regular football argument, I could take my argument to fantasy football. You could have started any defense against the Patriots and you could have gotten a solid 20 points. That game Factual.
Speaker 2:If I'm going to be quite honest and I don't know for the guys that don't play fantasy- football pick sixes. Well, I think I always draft a Bills defense. For the past three years, I always draft a Bills defense. It was one of my defenses. I can't go about him. Jj McCarthy out for the season.
Speaker 1:Yeah, he looked really good in the first game too, he looked real fluid. He was playing against again. He was also playing against guys learning new coverages. At that point he wasn't, but he did show that he can throw it, he can sling the rock down the field we got to acknowledge these guys are learning new playbooks too.
Speaker 1:No, I did, and there's reports that I was listening. I was touching up on an opening drive. It was moving the chains. It was moving the chains I'm sitting here I'm listening to, and they got a guy on there that's reporting from the vikings training camp and they said, you know, from the guy that they got from otas, compared the jj that they got from otas compared to the jj they got from training camp was almost night and day. He says, um, that what we were seeing in preseason, them, them, throws down the field, the reads, that's what we were seeing in camp, that's what we were seeing in practice. And, granted, I do think Sam Darnold still would have got the job.
Speaker 1:It was all recorded that he was still the favorite, that he wasn't quite there yet, in which Dewey did call that at the beginning of his bold prediction of the season.
Speaker 2:I heard it was going to take still a lot, a whole lot of work. It was going to take a whole lot of game. He had a lot of ground to gain. On Sam Darnold, I mean this kind of sucks for him though, because I know he wants to be out there. Especially a rookie season Now it's kind of like a redshirt year. You got to just kind of sit back and learn mentally and get healthy again. As far as I'm concerned, I've never heard of him really dealing with a lot of injuries or any injury in college, so this is really just a really tough situation for him. And then also, I mean, Sam Donald's been hurt before too. So now this goes into the question can Jaron Hall and Nick Mullins, who, when they both got their time to play last year for the Vikings, both struggled last year, although Justin Jefferson, I'm pretty sure, was injured for quite a few of those games for Nick Mullins he was. He missed a lot of those games for Nick Mullins.
Speaker 1:He was. He missed a lot of those games. I don't think he even—because he didn't even come back until like what B-11?
Speaker 2:Yeah, so I'm going to give them maybe a pass, but those guys have both struggled when they got their time to shine, so maybe they'll look to sign another quarterback or so. I'm not really too sure how they'll go about that. I know they signed Matt Corral from the UFL today, so a team with a shaky offensive line, and I'm real curious on what's going to happen with their quarterback depth.
Speaker 1:I'm hoping Sam stays up healthy and balls out, though, so do I because that way, or somebody I believe it was Nick Wright that said that the Vikings should look into trading for Mac Jones. Oh no, I might have. I think that's what I had seen.
Speaker 1:Somebody was talking on that camera requirement, but I was like Mac Jones doesn't give you more on the table than Sam Darnold. Somebody was talking on that camera, I can't quite remember. Mack Jones doesn't give you more on the table than Sam Darnold Not a bigger arm, not a better athlete. That's what I was going to say.
Speaker 2:Sam Darnold is a better athlete, bigger arm yeah, there's nothing that Sam Darnold and I went number one in that draft. Yeah, Sam Darnold probably was number one in that draft. Yeah, Sam Darrell probably was number one in that draft.
Speaker 1:Yeah.
Speaker 2:Whose draft was that?
Speaker 1:That was. That was Jamar's draft. No, that was Trevor's draft. Oh okay, maybe he doesn't go for Trevor, maybe number two he goes over Zach Wilson. You think, yeah, yeah, yeah for sure.
Speaker 2:And he's a USC kid, yeah for sure. Which's a USC kid? Yeah for sure. Which he? Ultimately, that's crazy. He just ran back at the Jets. That's insane. But yeah, like, yeah, not a chance, not no chance of Mac Jones going there and being better than Sam Donald, a guy who, uh, had a decent debut. Michael Penix he really showed off some arm strength.
Speaker 1:Yeah, he was letting it zip they said he's done.
Speaker 1:You know they said Morris said he's done for the preseason, which rightfully so. You know I just had this debate with someone about playing preseason week three and I was, and I remember never in the history of football have they ever played starters the last week of preseason. That's bad omen written all over it. Yeah well, and there's, even if it is for just two or three drives. You're not going to live with yourself if Anthony Richardson goes out there and tears his ACL. You know an Aaron Rodgers-type deal and it's the week before the game.
Speaker 2:Yeah preseason week three is.
Speaker 1:The wrong coach in the right situation. You're on the chopping block. If he's not going to make it from you doing this stupid decision. You know what You're not going to make it.
Speaker 2:Yeah, that's a final audition for the guys trying to make the team. Yeah, that's what week three preseason is. Yeah, he looked really good. And then, like you said, Kirk Cousins is already hurting camp. He's already missed practices. Michael Panks worked with the ones Like there's a big chance he might. If they get a little cushion in the NFC North, they might sit him a game or two towards the end of the year. We might see a Michael Penix in year one.
Speaker 1:But then it raises the question what if Penix performs in those first two games? Do you keep Kirk on the bench? Do you make the decision to win football games instead of a business decision?
Speaker 2:I'm going to assume Kirk will be ready for week one probably. But if he's not, what's balling out to you?
Speaker 1:Okay so I'm not saying necessarily balling out, okay. So I'm not going to say he's going to put up these big, crazy numbers, all right. So what I'm saying is he makes the big conversions, he keeps drives alive, he's showing that he can, you know, he can zing it, play a clean game, yeah, plays a clean game. And if he leads you down, you know, say, if Kirk isn't, if he leads you down, you know, on a game-winning drive to put you in field goal range. Or say you need to go 60 yards and you need six and he does it, oh, you can't take him out. Yards and you need six and he does it. Oh, you can't take him out. That's what I'm saying, like not not even say you know, and he's being efficient, he doesn't, he might not have the big numbers. What if he says that you know, if it's, you know, two, 20, a touchdown, and you know, but he's, but he's, you know, got 64% completion. You know what I'm saying.
Speaker 2:Not the big numbers, but the big plays and if he's getting the ball to the guys that Atlanta Falcons fans have been wanting to get to Drake London, kyle Pitt, if he's getting the ball to those guys and they're winning games, then you can't take him out. There's no way it's going to be a Tom Brady Drew Bledsoe situation. All the way different round picks, but Drew Bledsoe had just signed the biggest contract in NFL history prior to that offseason, so contract in NFL history prior to that offseason so or the season prior.
Speaker 2:So I think I mean, if he does go in there and performs, you can't pull him?
Speaker 1:I don't think you can, because exactly because at that point you're making a financial decision over a team decision. This guy is showing that he can play. And then now, at that point, does that make Kirk Cousins expendable? Maybe, again, we'll find out later on. I don't think he would get traded off the bat. No, no, because you're still going to want that insurance policy, at least for the rest of the season, and then somebody out there is going to take up a contract.
Speaker 2:That's like this. Somebody out there is going to be like okay.
Speaker 1:Kirk Cousins is going to help us right now.
Speaker 2:The thing is, though, with that move, once you make that move, you can't go back Like there's no. Like there's no. If Michael Panics plays bad, there's no, all right, we're going to start Kirk. No, there's none of that. There's there's no going back. Yeah, you're committed. You're committed to his development. Yeah, you're locked in. There's no, because if he starts first two games and he balls out, and come week seven he throws I'm not sure who they play, but let's say, he throws four picks against the Saints and they lose, or something like that.
Speaker 1:And he goes on a couple and he has lose or something like that. And he goes on a couple and he has a not even that, say. He goes on a couple of string of bad games you're going to have to ride that out.
Speaker 2:You got to ride that out. Yeah, there's no, just like under Desmond Ridley, you have to ride out. Yeah, so I don't think Kirk's going to miss week one. I's looking good, yeah, he's looking good.
Speaker 1:yeah, but hypothetically, if he does miss a couple games. But you know who didn't look good today? I mean, he was efficient based off of the numbers, but Daniel Jones.
Speaker 2:Daniel Jones, I will say the one deep shot to what Hyatt was.
Speaker 1:He did have a nice little dot that could have been a touchdown. That could have been a touchdown to his numbers instead of one to dead in Singletary. But I did mention that I do give credit where credit's due. That was a dime. Yeah, he didn't put the money on the ball, he put the ball where it needed to be.
Speaker 2:My perception to Jalen Hyatt wasn't that bad? I don't necessarily, no.
Speaker 1:The first one, the pick six. I didn't necessarily the pick six, I didn't necessarily the pick six. Yeah, the pick six. He should have thrown out of bounds. Yeah, the pick six.
Speaker 2:That was bad. That was bad.
Speaker 1:Yeah, the pick six. I was going to say, yeah, you should have, you knew you should know better Than to throw something like that the Jalen Hyatt ball.
Speaker 2:That was just a 50-50 ball.
Speaker 1:At that point, bro, at that point I'd Pick six. You're giving up two compared to seven. Yeah, yeah, that was I watched the whole game, or at least, if you're going to do that, dude, you got the arm. Dude, even if you're falling and you're just leaning it back, dude, you got the arm to sling it out of bounds. Get the ball out of bounds. Don't try to make a play where there's nothing there.
Speaker 2:Yeah, so hopefully I mean I will give him a little break because his first game back after tearing his ACL, so I'm going to give him a little bit of a break because he's, you know, hasn't played football with his first rebuilt ACL. So I mean I'm going to give him a benefit of doubt for this one game. I imagine he's going to play a little more in the preseason he has to?
Speaker 1:I would assume he would have to. I mean, because they've got what one more game left? Everybody has one more game, Always. Second game, yes, second game.
Speaker 2:So I don't know, maybe not he might I think they'll use more so the joint practices for more reps rather than preseason Maybe. Maybe it's interesting. It'll be interesting to see what happens with that.
Speaker 1:And if he does play, I'd say there's going to be no more than one or two drives. I don't think he's not going to play as much as he played the first one.
Speaker 2:No, I don't think so. He shouldn't. For sure not Because he played the whole first half.
Speaker 1:I like to give him the benefit of the doubt too, because again, like you said, it's his ACL injury. But I haven't been big on Daniel Jones in a while. We both have talked about that. I believe that financially and locker room and franchise fan base-wise, they made the wrong decision. Yeah, they should have paid Saquon and they could have paid Saquon and tagged Danny.
Speaker 2:Tagged him? Yeah, tagged him. See, if he played this year, they could have dumped him off.
Speaker 1:Yeah, or they could have dumped him off, and then you really are committed, because this hard knocks. It's only I'm rooting for CMC to have that AJ Brown-like game where he gets the gm fired yeah, no, no, no, no no the aj no, the aj brown game, the revenge game when he got, when he went off against the titans for 100 and plus, something like something you said cmc, did I say cmc? Yeah, aj brown, the aj brown like game. You know where he goes off and gets that GM fired.
Speaker 2:Well, because that was super corny how they're. Do you want to leave for a couple million dollars or do you want to be in a Giants ring of honor Like bro, I'm young still, like I'm trying to win, yeah, do you want to take a pay cut?
Speaker 1:Yeah no?
Speaker 2:Or do you want to get paid more money and go to a better team Like huh, right, huh, but y'all, but y'all ain't trying to pay me that much, but y'all expect me to stay on the worst team.
Speaker 1:Yeah, you can, you. You tell me you can't match. You can take these. Yeah, you don't want to. Yeah, explosive player, you want me to take all these extra hits and that's the thing is he was willing to keep taking them extra hits. You know the Saquon Slater? To me, it's ridiculous that, oh, he's always injury prone. Well, here's, riddle me this, riddle me that, batman. When you're the only player that's doing anything on the team and you're getting the ball 12 more times than the next guy, that is 12 more times that I'm getting tackled. That is 12 more times I'm getting slammed. 12 more times I'm getting hit. Yeah, I'm a running back and, like you said, half the people that are talking about that ain't going to take a fraction of the hits that he takes.
Speaker 2:Yeah, and the thing is now it's going to be like a CMC situation where it's like, ah, I don't have to get the ball, these next three plays in a row. Ball, these next three plays in a row. You're going to throw it to AJ Brown and you're going to throw it to Devontae Smith and we got Dallas Goddard.
Speaker 1:I even have reliable backups behind me, like Kenneth Gainwell, who they'll get involved in.
Speaker 2:I got a guy that.
Speaker 1:Can I have a quarterback? That's him right now.
Speaker 2:I got offensive linemen like I get to run behind Lane Thomas, lane Johnson yeah, who's a Hall of Famer?
Speaker 1:He's got the Hawaiian.
Speaker 2:Malayata. I get to run behind him instead of Willie Hernandez.
Speaker 1:What. Come on, bro Whole prediction right now, while we're on a CMC Barring anything stupid happening, he's going to lead the league in rushing yards. Yeah, I said it, saquon, saquon.
Speaker 2:I could see that, or I could definitely see yards per carry.
Speaker 1:Mm-hmm.
Speaker 2:Yards per.
Speaker 1:Because, look man, christian McCaffrey led it at 1,200 last year. Yeah, that is true, the running backs aren't getting the same, the same volume anymore Derek Henry and Christian McCaffrey. And Derek Henry was right behind him at 1100 yards. So for me to say that Christian McCaffrey can end up with a, you know, a 1200 yard season, you know, if he plays 16 games absolutely.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I said it here, that'd be crazy. 1600, that'd be crazy, 1,600 yards.
Speaker 1:No 1,300 yards Through 16 games, because we already, because we had them Winning their division, they're not going to play Week 17, maybe 16, if they've already Got the division Clenched by them. Yeah.
Speaker 2:That's doable. That's for sure doable, because he did that with the bad Giants.
Speaker 1:Yeah, he did that behind A bad offensive line.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I imagine, because he did that with the bad Giants. Yeah, he did that behind a bad offensive line. Yeah, I imagine his yards per carry is going to go up. His touches per game will probably go down, which is probably going to be good for him because he's got a lot of needs, yeah, so touches go down, yards per carry goes up.
Speaker 1:He might not get the rushing touchdown it's yet to see because the touch push might not even be as effective without Jason Kelsey there we it's yet to see, because the tush bush might not even be as effective without Jason Kelsey there, we're yet to see. But what they have going for them is that Jalen Hurts can squat the weight of the D tackle. That's trying to get him.
Speaker 2:I wouldn't be shocked if he gets more catches If they try to use him off the backfield a little more. I know the Eagles have kind of been lacking a real receiving running back since shoot Darren Sproles, and that was forever ago.
Speaker 1:Matthew Judon finally out of.
Speaker 2:New England. Finally. I mean wasted his prime, yeah, after leaving Baltimore.
Speaker 1:He did get a. He did get a ring. He did get, he got a ring.
Speaker 2:Was he on the ATL team? Was he? I don't think so. I think he was still Because he didn't get there. Until I think about After, like right before COVID, I want to say Maybe two years Before COVID.
Speaker 1:I don't feel like he's been there. Maybe I feel like he was drafted for years, yeah. Yeah, he was with Baltimore for the longest.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I'd say he was a Baltimore-style career. Yeah, yeah, came out of Division II.
Speaker 1:Crazy yeah. Yeah, yeah, he was a.
Speaker 2:But yeah, for Atlanta. This means I mean it's kind of racist to question, you know, your kind of question. I mean people in general are like why didn't they draft Chop Robinson this and that? I mean although they probably see this in hindsight but they cleared that, they kind of covered that void that was missing on defense.
Speaker 1:Junot only been there since 21. Why do I feel like he's been there way longer than that man?
Speaker 2:and maybe it's just yeah. Because he was there for Lamar's first MVP, I know that.
Speaker 1:Maybe my time of perception is getting old, because I'm just getting old.
Speaker 2:Yeah, but that's a big move for ATL. They got a pass rusher now.
Speaker 1:Because that's all that defense has really been needing Is an elite pass rusher Like that I don't think they've had a double digit sack guy Since Vic Beasley.
Speaker 2:Yeah, that was the ATL year, yeah that was the ATL year. Yeah, it was almost 10 years ago. The 2018 game yeah, I'd say that's almost yeah, that's close to a decade ago, almost yeah, so, and obviously they have the best safety in the league right now Jesse Bates.
Speaker 1:Mm-hmm. And they also brought in another veteran, safety, to line up next to him with Justin Simmons. Because, it's crazy to me, just two years ago you could argue that Justin Simmons was better than Jesse Bates and they were both in the same secondary he was best safety in the league 100%.
Speaker 2:Now they're together. That's easily the best safety to do in the league and for this guy to be on the market for this long is crazy, you know.
Speaker 1:I knew he was just going to bide his time. He hasn't been pushing and I called right before. He's not going to go. He is not going to be on week one and not be on a team.
Speaker 2:Yeah, the regular season was not going to start and Justin Simmons not be on a team. I thought he was going to be with Mika. I thought he was going to, so did I. I think that's what he's trying to find.
Speaker 1:So did I and the deal fell through. I was worried about that for a while because the Steelers' defense is already elite championship ready right now. Just having TJ Watt on there With Mika, TJ Watt is just crazy. He might arguably be the best football player in the league because him alone makes your defense a championship caliber defense. Just him alone. That's a championship caliber player right there, a lot of other teams and the fact that he fell over.
Speaker 2:people like John Ross, and now you got Alex Highsmith falling out too. You got Mekin running the middle of that defense, pass-wise yeah, justin.
Speaker 1:Simmons. And then, not only that, you have one of the probably the second hottest up-and-coming corner behind Sauce Gardner coming up right now with Joey Porter.
Speaker 2:Oh, joey Porter, and he's not talked about no, not enough, not enough, at least, no, not enough, at least, no, yeah, not enough.
Speaker 1:I think after this year and I hate to say it Joey Porter's going to put himself in the same. He might be in the same conversation with Sauce and Pat Sertan. I wouldn't be shocked. I wouldn't be shocked either I wouldn't be shocked.
Speaker 2:It's in his bloodline. Yeah, and I love that when he guards anyone he lets them know I'm here. I love that. Yeah, that move I think may have for real solidified them to take the division, because that was really the only question we had was pass rush. They have the defensive backs, they have the offensive line, they got the weapons and offense. Now they got the quarterback. I mean, apparently, from what looks like it, they might have two quarterbacks. So, yeah, this is Atlanta's division. I think it runs through ATL. Maybe Shake and Bake can make something happen. They kind of brought a lot of that offense back and, you know, with a little more familiarity I think maybe they can make some noise, but it's looking like it's.
Speaker 1:Atlanta's show.
Speaker 2:It's Atlanta's division to lose, yeah absolutely Maybe, even if Penix even takes over.
Speaker 1:That's what I'm saying. It's not the quarterback situation, Unless something you know unless lightning strikes twice in the same place, you know no matter who's taking snaps it's Atlanta's division, it's their division, ATO's, it's the Dirty Birds' division to lose?
Speaker 2:Absolutely yeah. So I know Atlanta Falcons fans are geeked out.
Speaker 1:Yeah, if I'm an Atlanta Falcons fan, I haven't been this excited really really since the first few years of Matt Ryan, because you know, at that point where they went to the Super Bowl, you really didn't. We knew Matt Ryan could play, but that was kind of that was kind of like his big breakout year, but he had been in the league for almost a decade?
Speaker 2:Yeah, I think. Yeah, probably over 10 years.
Speaker 1:Yeah, because I was in. I think I was in middle school when he was drafted. I might have been in the eighth grade.
Speaker 2:Eighth or ninth grade, his rookie year. That was 2017, when they went to the Super Bowl.
Speaker 1:I think he was drafted in what? 08? 08, yeah, yeah so 10 years?
Speaker 2:yeah, yeah, so he had been there for a minute, but that was yeah, he should have a ring. That's crazy Sheesh.
Speaker 1:Maybe it's time to land, yeah, maybe, yeah, maybe this, maybe this go around. Um, to wrap it up, we have one more thing to talk about his. Uh, well, actually a couple more things to talk about we got, we've seen something. We don't really see a lot. Yeah, somebody made it back out from the gulag yeah, the suspension actually got lifted yeah, somebody went and gathered the dragon balls on this one man.
Speaker 1:They went and gathered the Dragon Balls on this one man. They went and got the seven Dragon Balls. Arden Key had a six-game suspension lifted. Yeah, you don't see appeals get overturned even though, I'm not going to lie, I'm not too familiar with them. But the fact that you had it overturned like that's a big deal, Like really you won. You won at this point, Bravo to Tennessee and whoever was representing him in that case, you know, I have to tip my hat to you. You had a hell of a lawyer, yeah.
Speaker 2:For sure. Yeah, the guy got I think it was six sacks last year at career high. Unfortunately he's on the Tennessee Titans Womp, womp, womp. But I mean this is great for Tennessee because they've had a lot of injuries already in camp and they have their.
Speaker 1:Their defense is already, you know their secondary. Once you get past that first level, the Tennessee defense is sus.
Speaker 2:Yeah, yeah, a lot of. It's a lot of kind of recycled players. Once you get past that first level, the Tennessee defense is sus. Yeah, yeah, and a lot of it's a lot of kind of recycled players and like a lot of Mitch and Match.
Speaker 1:Vrabel's not there, no more. So who knows how the defense is even going to?
Speaker 2:look and they got an offensive-minded coach. It kind of looks like a.
Speaker 1:So you know, we haven't seen how it's going to look. It could flip-flop around here, so could the offense look better? The defense be a liability this year, maybe Because the strength of that team last?
Speaker 2:year, all year, the strength of that team was the D-line. Yeah, yeah for sure, yeah for sure, but that's not saying much either. No, it's not, it's not saying much. They kind of look like a Madden team, and on top of that they lost somebody.
Speaker 1:They lost a big piece when Danico Autry went to the Houston Texans, so they lost a guy that helped make yeah. So they're kind of in champs right now. You know they did get Tavondre sweating that, but again, we just don't know what it's going to look like. But what we do know what it's going to look like right now is the new kickoff.
Speaker 2:Yeah, yeah, yeah, sure, I like it a little. I mean, at first it kind of looked like a freaking, it looked like a glorified drill a little bit.
Speaker 1:Yeah, but uh, I thought it was pretty sick uh, once it once I saw some returns and I saw some some nice collisions and I'm not a big fan of it at first, but I think it might be something that'll grow on me, especially if especially if you know, if I see something good come out of it. If I see something good come out of it, it brings something back into the game.
Speaker 2:As a person that likes returns, I like it. I've seen quite a few returns already.
Speaker 1:When I say at first I didn't like it, I'm telling you I was dead set against it. I don't like it, I wasn't jiggy with it, but I think the more as I watch it, the more I'm like.
Speaker 2:Honestly, for a minute I was like get rid of the kickoff at this point.
Speaker 1:Yeah, see, because I was even talking to the guys in our fantasy league At this point. Why don't you know? We just added punt return yards. Why don't?
Speaker 2:we add kick return yards. It was kind of just like an opening ceremony kind of thing.
Speaker 2:Yeah bro, even to the whole Super Bowl. They didn't return a single kick in the Super Bowl. Yeah, but now that this kind of setting is in place, I do think we'll see probably the kick returners back. We'll see. This year we saw in the NFL draft a lot of guys got drafted to return kicks. It seemed like I mean by their college stats, I mean they were mostly just returners or super fast guys. So I think we'll see their return in the NFL a lot more often. I think guys like Cordell Patterson and you know we'll see guys like Josh Cribs and we'll see maybe guys who are known for being returners, you know, like you know I mean hell dude.
Speaker 1:You touched base on quite a few players that might have been late round sneaks that might be perfect for this.
Speaker 2:Yeah, and like this would have been perfect for like a guy, like a Jamal Agnew a couple years, like I know he's a little older now, but like he was returning kicks when it was hard to return kicks.
Speaker 1:And speaking of that, not that it was much of a debate anyway, but this only makes Devin Hester, the undisputed no contest, argue with yourself. Oh yeah, you'd be better off looking at this wall over here and arguing with that than trying to argue with me, because I'll just walk away from you.
Speaker 1:Yeah, Devin Hester's easily the best kicker tournament, yeah, and it's what got him inducted into the Hall of Fame. And even if somebody does go and break his record, say this does stick, and this is just the new NFL thing. If somebody breaks his record it means nothing to me.
Speaker 2:No, I mean because it's a lot easier.
Speaker 1:It's a lot easier because essentially the teams can't even move the offense and the defense can't even move until you get the ball. Yeah, when before? Yeah, like I said, when you actually had to return and you had to miss blockers down feet and you had to cut and miss and run through and making stuff look easy. Yeah, Devin Hester goaded.
Speaker 2:Yeah, for sure. Yeah, because, yeah, your guys were spraying at you full speed before you even touched that. But while you're up in the air looking at the ball, yeah, that's nerve-wracking, that's high adrenaline.
Speaker 1:We've seen players where Devin Hester's caught the ball and immediately got hit and bounced off, and took it to the crib and all he needed was just enough, about six or seven inches, just enough to make you miss. And he was on Slower than daylight. Yeah, he had 99 acceleration and speed. So all he needed was, you know, once he took off, he didn't. He keeps going. Yeah, a rare breed. There's no slowing down to that. The return of the kick return, yes. And to finally wrap it up, we have some good news for everyone and hopefully by the next episode we will have our first sponsor and we will have our promo codes up. So stay tuned for that. We were pretty excited about that. It's to get our foot in the door and it's a great opportunity for us. And thanks for everyone for sharing and following and supporting us.
Speaker 2:We greatly appreciate it and once we release more information about it, we do think it's something that a lot of our listeners will actively enjoy and hopefully use. It will be a tool that helps you guys out a lot.
Speaker 1:Especially you know, just to drop a little bit for our sports bettors. Yeah, Actually, specifically for our sports bettors. You know, we can't wait, we can't wait to release the news, but there it is. There's uh, we're going to wrap it up tonight. Hope everyone has a great night. We are signing off, Go watch.
