NFL midseason special: best rookies, true Super Bowl contenders, surprises/disappointments & more
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On this episode of Football 301, a very special recap show. Not even really a recap show of just week 10. Recapping really the first 10 weeks. Try to get a little bit of a recap show.

Charles McDonald joins me. Matt Harmon joins me. We have a three-man weed as we go over some of our favorite teams, favorite surprises, biggest disappointments, offense, defense, rookies. Who are the contenders that can hoist up the Lombardi Trophy at the end of the year? Surely none of these will blow up in our face. Really fun show. See you guys in a sec. With the Mediterranean right around the corner, your perfect bowl or pita is waiting at Cava. Enjoy our new juicy grilled steak.

or one of over 17 billion delicious combos. Order on the app or in one of over 50 CAVA locations in the DMV. One, two, three, four. Those are numbers, but you already knew that. If you want to know what number you're going to pay each month for your car, use Kelly Blue Book My Wallet on AutoTrader. They're really good at numbers. AutoTrader. ♪ music playing ♪

Hello and welcome back to Football 301, a very special Tuesday show because there's three of us on it, not just me. There's going to be two others to join. Not so much a recap of Week 10, but a...

I don't know what to call it. A in-between halfway point in the two-thirds poll, kind of a midway check-in on things that we're liking this NFL season, which teams that we think are actual contenders. That was our way to do a power rankings rather than do a top 10, which is limited to who we think are the contenders. Bottom teams, other superlatives we are going to get through on this show from the week 10 checkpoint of the NFL season. Like I said, it's a three-man weave, a very special three-man weave because

because we've got the whole group here of three people. Me, Nate Tice, and first we'll go with the usual Tuesday compatriot, comrade, Mr. Matt Harmon. How are you doing today, Matt? Nate, I'm doing great. Yeah, this is not really the midway, but it's enough data at this point to know what the hell is going on, sort of. And then we'll play off star. Yeah, exactly. Yeah.

That's how it goes. And the other to join us, it's their third member, but it's Mr. Forverts. How are you doing today, Charles McDonald? I'm doing good, but every time I think about

mid-season stuff. I just get so mad the NFL took away the cleanest version of the schedule that we had. It was fine the way it was. Maybe not to Jerry Jones, who doesn't know where the damn sun is, but for all of us who like the clean 16-8, whittle it down through the playoffs, that was good. We had a clean mid-season part. Now we're like, is it week 9? Is it week 10? Is it Monday after week 10? Come on, NFL. Help us count.

seven playoff teams on each side yeah that also isn't there 14 total so i guess that yeah i mean the three and seven jets are still like reasonably in playoff contention gotta do something about this yeah yeah no they're they're it's a little top and bottom heavy in the nfl this year it's parody in a different way i guess it would have been a good year it's like a lot of teams are like yeah we're tanking this year i don't know if they actually are saying that but not really the

Not really the draft to be doing that, boys. Kind of seems like the draft that we shouldn't be trying to get one of these top picks, but that's probably for another time. Well, actually, we're going to predict our bottom three teams, who we think we're going to have at the end of the year. But we're going to start with our shortlist contenders.

This is our shortlist contenders, our shortlist of contenders. This is the teams are the teams that we think can actually win the Super Bowl, whether you think they are final four teams, whether they make the Super Bowl teams that we actually think right now after week 10 actually have a shot to win it. You know, starting to see.

flies drop off you know teams drop away as the season goes along naturally it's how it goes but matt i'm going to start with you who are the teams right now after week 10 that you think are actual super bowl contenders yeah in terms of teams that can actually win the super bowl here i tried to go small and select so i kept it to just five teams okay for me it's the chiefs the lions the

the Ravens, the Bills, and the Packers. The hardest cut for me is probably one of the NFC East teams, Philly, I thought about, but they could also lose to damn Washington on Thursday, and then they might not even win their division. So I feel pretty good about these five teams.

So you had, who did you have? The Chiefs, the Lions. The Ravens, the Bills, and the Packers. Okay. Okay. All right. We're close. We're close. Charles, what were yours? I had the same four with the Chiefs, Ravens, Bills.

deals Lions, but I put the Eagles in for the Packers. I've been really impressed with the way that defense has come along recently. I think they certainly have a better defense than the Packers right now. I mean, it just felt like I had to throw another NFC team on there. You know, I can't just say the Lions are just, they're going to win the NFC and make the Super Bowl, even though I do think that's going to happen. It felt weird just having a list of like four AFC teams or three AFC teams and one NFC team. So I threw the Eagles up there. I don't,

know if they actually have like the overall cohesion like we've been saying ad nauseum for like a damn year now about this offense but too many good players uh the defense is coming along quick fan jill's done a good job over there secondary is playing better jaylen carter's playing better so if there's any other team in the nfc that has like the overall talent top to bottom uh it's probably philly to me as far as just competing with the lions

Yeah. Okay. I'll give mine right now because I have, all right. Chiefs, Lions, Bills, Packers, Ravens. Those were, I feel good. Like those are the ones I'm like, I feel good. And then I had a, so I don't know if I'm like saying these are in there or I just want to talk about, let's just talk about them. I had Vikings, 49ers and Eagles as kind of my next three. So I kind of did a top eight without meaning to do it. But yeah, I cheated the exercise like always.

Those were like, like you guys are saying, I think we're chiefs and lines locked like that, that like, I think everybody don't have to twist anybody's arms about that bills. I would, I feel probably third best about, I would put them if we did this power ranking right now, just offense, be able to run the ball, get explosive passes. They can, they have a really good defensive game plan stuff and they've got special teams. So that's like another team that I think is pretty easy up there.

The Ravens worry me a little, just the, I almost dropped them, but then I was like, I don't know, this offense is a juggernaut. And it's like, they can stop the run at least just past defenses, a little, a little shaky, but hopefully cold weather can help that out once the playoffs start. And, you know, maybe some windy days can make that maybe a little bit more limited, but

I think for me, the Eagles argument is actually easier to make right now than 49ers and Vikings, which if you asked me that maybe three weeks ago, I'd be like, no way. But I'm with you guys. I think I'm going to include them in this. So I think that's my sixth team. And with the Eagles, just that...

they're figuring out the run game they're figuring out their offense they're stripping some fat from it it's nothing sexy everyone's acting like the new offense they just went under center a little bit more and ran the ball uh but then i think i'm really just trusting this defense so much and that's really what made me feel a lot better about the eagles that i think this is a top eight ish defense maybe even better and i they have an offense i can get an explosive whenever they want they can run the ball whenever they want even if

I always have hesitations about Jalen Hurts' quarterback play. I've seen it work in the playoffs. So he at least has that element that I'm going to drop in there. So I'm including them on this one with the Vikings and 49ers, kind of that next group. Yeah, 49ers, neither of you guys mentioned them. What's kind of holding you back? Matt, I'll start with you. Was it Chris McCaffrey's kind of...

you know, four, nine 40 kind of maybe, maybe doing this. And the fact that they just went all the way back in with him to just, all right, well, Mason's going to get a carry. Garendo is going to get a carry. And it didn't, it didn't look great for McCaffrey. I don't know that if that's the plan, they're going to run the ball consistently. Obviously him as a passing game, Mitch mismatch really helps. But, and I, I love the way Jawan Jennings was used him as the X receiver answer for them was, was,

a creative one that I kind of had questions about coming out of the buy, like because nobody on this roster besides Brandon, I, you cause consistently played X for that team. So that was nice to see. I think Pierce halls looked really good, but at the same time,

do it against a team that's not the Tampa Bay Buccaneers that I think is one of, if not the very worst pass defense in the NFL. So I still have some questions about the actual artillery in the passing game. And then, yeah, I mean, if they're just going to go all the way back in on McCaffrey, I actually think that might not be the best thing for their run game. Their red zone issues are still kind of questionable. The defense, I don't think is a

It's not I'm not going to say it's not a needle moving unit, but it's certainly not a top five or top 10 unit across the league right now. So I was close to considering them, but I need to see a few more weeks still. I think the concerning part about Chris McCaffrey's return specifically against this defense was, OK, you got Vita Vea plug in the middle and just like by success rate.

the Bucs defense is still pretty good against the run, just in terms of success rate. EPA, not so good. So, like, they're kind of good down and down, but they're giving up explosive runs. They didn't get any, you know? And that, to me, that's the worry. That's worrisome because I feel like you could put any of us back there and we could rip off, you know, a 15-yard run at some point in Kyle Shanahan's scheme. Maybe a third and 30. Yeah, maybe a third and 30. Yeah.

But I thought that was concerning. And he just, you know, you alluded to 4940. He just didn't look explosive at all. Even on the, there was a broken play kind of where Purdy hit him on like on a wheel route near the sideline kind of. And,

She catches the ball and you're kind of waiting for like, all right, where's that second gear? And it never, never actually comes. So we'll see. We'll see what's what's like next for them and their offense. But I thought the fact that they couldn't get any explosives versus Tampa Bay on the ground at least was was pretty concerning. And like Matt said, do it again against the real defense. You know, that defense is not good right now.

Yeah, that, the, that, yeah, that's really it. It's the explosive run element that this offense has been missing. And that, that just is such a part, big part of a Shanahan offense. I mean, we've been even with two out with the dolphins, like they didn't, we're going to explosive runs and that's why that offense felt even worse than it should have been like, but yeah, with the 49ers and everything, that's,

Jordan Mason can get you the easy yards and the safe yards, the five yards, six yard gains. But it's like, yeah, those need to be 15 to make this offense feel like the number one preseason, number one offense. I think all of us had it. And still statistically, they're up there and everything, all efficiency stuff and everything. It's just that it's just lacking that I keep using the word venom. And I think with a running back approaching 30 with Achilles stuff.

that's just scary. It's not like where I'm like, oh, okay, he's just going to knock some rust off. It's like, I don't know, Achilles stuff is, it's a little interesting on there. Yeah, so yeah, the explosive run thing, their defense is playing a little bit better than maybe I gave them credit for, you know, especially after the Hargrave injury. Still not an overwhelmingly good defense because they have holes in it. And so that's kind of,

It's just like a lot of like, I don't think it's a bad team. I think it's a good team. Like if we're the true top 10 power rankings, they probably sneak in for me, maybe at the tail end of it. But it just doesn't feel like maybe these teams from the last two years that we've seen with the 49ers injuries, of course, are a huge part of that. But yeah, it just doesn't feel the same with that. Also, I don't know if I might have just been a slip on that. I did want to include the Packers as one of my teams, maybe before the Vikings. I don't know if I said that or not.

But I do want to include them on my list as one of the teams as contender. I still believe in the Packers, my preseason Super Bowl pick. Still believe in them. Defense isn't great. Figuring it out. But I trust this offense and I do trust a healthy Jordan Love. So I do want to include them in there if I did not. But yeah, now for the opposite. This is I thought it'd be a little bit juicier to kind of parse through because there's like 42 win teams right now. So, Charles, I'll start with you.

Who are your this? What we're going to do is we're going to predict the bottom three teams. Basically, who's going to have the top three picks in the 2025 NFL draft? Don't think any of these teams traded their first round picks. We're good. Charles, who are your selections for the bottom three teams in the NFL? Once the season wraps up, we're going to predict a little bit here. I thought it was going to be harder than it was going to be once I started digging through it.

But just for people who haven't been following the NFL standings, at this point in the season, there are double the amount of two-win teams that there were last year. We have six this year. There were three last year. We have almost 33% more three-or-fewer-win teams than at this point last year. So for people who are complaining about

the products in the league, I get it. Don't fully agree, but I definitely understand where you're coming from when you just look at how many just piss poor teams there are that have no chance to do anything this year. But when you start whittling it down, some of these situations are not nearly as dire as others. Like Miami is not in the same class as like a New Orleans or something like that. But I finished with my bottom three teams in the NFL being the Giants, the

Jaguars and the Raiders. The Saints were like a competing force, but those three, you lose to the Panthers, man. Come on. That was, that was, that was, that was basically the Giants and the Panthers, but the Giants lost to the Panthers more recently than the Saints did. So they got put into that slot.

I love that. Matt, you have a same three or any different of those three? I have the exact same three. I have the exact same three too.

I know. And I actually was parsing through this thinking like, oh, man, I'm going to have like seven teams to go through. And I kind of just, you know, the Patriots are kind of good vibing it right now. So, yeah. So how'd you come up with these three, Matt? I mean, we the three quarterbacks that might see the most time for this. These three teams down the stretch are Drew Locke, Mac Jones and some unholy combination of Desmond Ritter.

and Gardner Minshew for the Raiders, man. These three feel especially bleak. As Charles mentioned, there's so many two-win teams now, but I can squint and see some interesting moments for Cleveland down the stretch. The Titans defense, their two-win team, their Titans defense has been pretty good this year. I don't know if their offense is ever going to be remotely consistent, but at the same time, there's something there with these three operations. Like,

Like the vibes are atrocious. I think the roster talent is overall not very good. And really it just comes down to quarterback play. Like people have feelings about Trevor Lawrence and you know, whatever. Okay. Well, let's see what Mac Jones does in the, how many targets can we get to Evan Ingram offense every single week? So yeah, I think these three situations have a chance to get a lot worse before they get better. Especially, especially New York, man, because I contend that if,

Drew Locke's little few drives he had against the Eagles, like that was three weeks ago. If that was even functional football, he would already be starting games for this team right now. So that's probably what they're going to do out of the bye. They're going to bench Daniel Jones. They're going to come out. Like when Schefter's tweeting the injury guarantees and the coach is saying we're evaluating things, when we drop the E word, they're going to make a quarterback change. And I don't even know if that makes sense.

anything better for a team that does have some interesting young offensive pieces, but just feels completely like floating in the wind at this point on offense.

Oh, I know. Like the funny thing about the Giants is I actually think they're still watchable, even with the terrible quarterback play because of Tyrone Tracy, Malik neighbors, Theo Johnson. And I still like parts of the defense. So there but they were my preseason number one pick selection, like prediction, which actually might be one of my better preseason things that I just threw out there at the end. But I had the same three teams for everything you guys stated. The Giants are going with the Drew Locke experience. I know what that experience is like.

That is, I don't think he even knows what play is being called. I mean, I'm telling the first play of preseason was they were trying to run the simplest play in football, two mirrored go balls on either side. And he misread it because they were trying to get a Mulek neighbors. Like,

Paul Christ used to call him a booster play. You know, it's the plays that you run for the boosters to give you money. And like he was trying to do the Malik neighbors touchdown first play preseason, you know, like that. Drew Locke doesn't even know how to read it out. I'm like, oh, it never changed my man. You know, like I think Daniel Jones is the opposite. I bet you he's amazing on a whiteboard. There's always been my thing with Daniel Jones. Amazing on a whiteboard. Like, oh, yeah, and I'm hot here. And OK, yep, I go one to two to three. As soon as the ball snapped, that just goes out the wayside. That's someone someone that

whose brain operates the same way as a quarterback. I can, I can, except I'm not as talented or as athletic as Daniel Jones. I actually can understand what they, what he goes through. And then you're getting drew lock, which is just the complete opposite. It has no idea what's going on. He's going to chuck it though. So maybe you get some fun plays. I don't know. But don't, I think the vibes there, if he, you know, just even watching that defense kind of give up a third and long, you can see them shrugging their shoulders at times, even though they have some fun pieces and everything. Um,

Yeah, man. But just looking at the rest, I mean, we're on Ritter reps in Las Vegas. North Turner's back. So that's fun. Yeah. So we got North Turner and Desmond Ritter. If you told me that a couple of years ago, I'd be like, oh, yeah. And now 2024, we got North Turner and Desmond Ritter.

Okay. All right. We'll see how this goes. We'll see how this goes. Neither guy was in the building like two weeks ago. No, neither one. It's what you want. Your play car and your quarterback and your best player. They shipped off. Well, Brock Bowers is fun at least. And then, yeah. And then the Jags are the Jags, the Mac Jones.

I mean, he over-celebrated, I think, on that first touchdown. He wore himself out. I don't think his cardio is too great right now. But that is just – I know how that's going to unfold. I mean, that's a listless zombie team right now. I actually was just even trying to parse through some of the other teams. Like you guys mentioned the Titans. I think their defense is just too good. And I just think they have too many vets. And, like, the offense is doing some stuff that's not – I mean, it's just up to Will Levis –

brain, I guess, but at least they're not terrible. They're just bad. There's a difference. There's just that little small difference at the bottom here. Browns just have enough competency. Patriots have great vibes right now with the Drake May experience. I'll talk about Drake May at some point in the future. I'm just sitting on it for now. Saints, same thing. They got the interim coach bump. I don't know. Saints could go either way here and then Jets or

Yeah, the Jets. Yeah, that's maybe the Cowboys could be a sneaky one. Yeah. Yeah. And they take Ashton Gentry at number two overall or number three overall. You know, I could see that. That may be a path I want to build. Maybe that's a fan fiction. I want to manifest a little bit happening in Dallas. What are Ashton Gentry's thoughts on the sun and the moon? That's what we need to know before we draft him to Dallas. He thinks he is the sun and the moon.

Fair enough. Oh, my God. I wanted to put the Bears here, honestly, the more I thought about it, which is pathetic because they're four and five. Like their season is very much not over. But you watch them against the Patriots. You watch them against the Cardinals. Their season is very much over. Yeah. Even though you would think their records were inverted, you know, like the Patriots and Bears records. Yeah.

Patriots felt like such more lively team with the Bears are trotting out there. Oh, yeah, they fired Shane Waldron. Anyone got thoughts on that? We fired out its coordinator. I think it was needed. If I'm being honest, I want to always be fair to play callers and everything and say, well, you know, it's not always as bad, but I just think it was just lack of ideas. Too many ideas turned into lack of ideas and turn it to like very static play. But I don't know if you guys have thoughts on Waldron.

Watch the video of Jackson Smith and Jigla from the Super Bowl when he's asked about Waldron when they hired him and he couldn't come up with anything positive to say after 30 seconds of silence and just said he's all right. That's all you need to know.

Yeah. I mean, there's also videos on the sideline of, of Waldron, like talking to Caleb Williams and smiling and laughing. And then as soon as Waldron turns away, Williams is like rolling his eyes and stuff. So, yeah, I mean, there's just, and it wasn't there were there headlines like after week two where Caleb Williams and other guys on the roster are like going to Shane Waldron and complaining about things, which is, I mean, that's just not what you want. So yeah,

I feel like that whole building is just put way too much on Caleb Williams. I don't know that this is going to... The thing is, I just don't know that...

I don't know that anything is going to get better for Chicago firing Shane Waldron. Like Charles said, they might circle the drain regardless of Thomas Brown as the play call or anything like that. But they were running into the definition of insanity, which is just you doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results. They got to try something else, even if that's not going to address the root of the problem. Even some of our discussion we've had, Matt, about it, where we're saying they had too many ideas and we kind of gave them some props going like, hey, they're trimming the fat. It actually looks a lot better. It was just that

I felt like Waldron, he's quoted, he's a different offenses have influenced him, but he was last as a kind of like a system before he called plays with Sean McVay. So you got kind of associated as a McVay tree guy, even by me, I was like, Oh yeah, we're going to see some of the condensed stuff, see some more of this.

Everything is just so spread out as offenses that it's very ISO ball. And it's just there's nothing that works in conjunction with something else. It's just always like and so even that smattering of ideas kind of talking point we've had, it still applies. Like even when they're running like good stuff, it's just that it's like, oh, nothing plays off another thing. Nothing complements each other. It's like we're just around this ballplay. All right, next, but we're just running this ballplay.

And had the stats like all the other guys, all the other play callers from that offense, not even just Kyle Shannon, but Sean McVay's particular tree. So we're talking about Tampa Bay. We're talking about Atlanta, looking at Chicago, looking at Kevin O'Connell in Minnesota. And then you look at all those guys and they're like 32nd in formation, the width of the formation. So they've used more condensed spreads. They're like 32nd, 31st, 29th, 28th. And then there's the Bears in eighth.

And it was just like, what? Did you not learn anything? Yeah. Your whole point of this offense is to make everything look the same and use the same personnel and make everything like the runs and the passes look the same. And that's why it's really hard to defend. It's just, I don't know, just ball plays. Rolling the ball out there. They weren't scripting plays to start the year, which...

I, I've never been in an offense that does the first 15, but we would script at least the first, like the first series, if that makes sense, like one through five, if that makes sense. And then the first third down play first red zone play, yada, yada. So they said they weren't even doing any of that. And this was the writing about Caleb Williams. I was like, man, it's really impressive how much they put on him. And now I'm kind of going like, was that a good thing? Like, shouldn't the coaches be doing more? It shouldn't be the vet players do a little bit more like that. Kind of. I felt myself talking about both sides of my, my mouth.

It's going to be good in the long run for Caleb. I really do think that. But right now, it's like no one's helping him. So that's why the floor just looks so bad. It was needed. I have no opinion on Thomas Brown.

I know he's got a great PR team out there, but that's my only take on him. I've been hearing about this guy for five years now. Oh, my God. So he better be dialing up some great plays. So guess how much I've heard people talk about him. Now you got to call some plays with the number one pick. Actually, he did it last year, too. He did it last year for a minute. For a minute until Frank Brank yanked it back. Yeah. Yeah.

I've been here. I've never heard more about a running back coach than Brown. So he better be dialing up some great plays, man. Rex Young almost had a 300-yard passing day with Thomas Brown. And then Frank Reich said, hold on, player. Give it back. Hold on. Hold on. I want to get fired and go to Cabo.

I got four more years on his contract. We can't be too good. The last thing I have on Waldron and the Bears is the more you hear about like how dysfunctional it was, like you never want, you never want like an NFL team to be less prepared than like stuff you were doing in high school.

you know? So like even on, even on Fridays, I remember that was the last time I played O-line and we would, we would script, we would practice like our script on, on the walkthroughs before the game. And we were doing like, you know, okay, if we get, you know, a first down here, then we'll run this. If we up and get an incomplete, then maybe we'll call this. We did that. We were 16. Like,

How are you not doing that as an NFL team? I still have to go home and do homework. This is your job. That stuff always baffles me. I don't get it. And guys and players, I mean, humans just love mental reps. Even if you don't think you need them, just be able to walk it through and go like, okay, hey, first, third, and long, we're doing this. All right, everyone good. They might run this and this. And yeah, it's just one play of 60 you might run. But isn't it better to just get the initial –

Like, hey, we feel calm and then we can adjust to all the storms and craziness happening. So, like, you're just making it more difficult on yourself. Like, if you're just not practicing those scripted plays and stuff, you know. DJ Moore was, like, the first one who made the comment about the scripted play things. And look, he's obviously... People have spotlighted his...

effort or lack thereof this year in some of his play, but, but you can, I mean, he's wearing his frustration on his sleeves. And this is a guy who played under like Matt rule, you know, some of the most dysfunctional nonsense we've seen in the NFL in Carolina. And he's just raised it. He's the one raised the alarm bells about the scripted play stuff. That's a tough look. I want to write more about it in the future, but it's like, I still believe in Caleb. Nothing's wavered there, but man, it was, it's frustrating to watch that offense. And,

And just see the trickle-down effect that happens with a young quarterback. I don't know. We can get more into it. But I don't want to shake it up. I don't want to take too long on this because we're supposed to be talking about the top, bottom three teams, not the middle 14 teams that happen in the NFL every single year. But each one is interesting in their own way. All right. We're going to take a quick break, and we're going to come back with some surprises and disappointments so far this year.

With the Mediterranean right around the corner, your perfect bowl or pita is waiting at Cava. Enjoy our new juicy grilled steak or one of over 17 billion delicious combos. Order on the app or in one of over 50 Cava locations in the DMV.

One, two, three, four. Those are numbers, but you already knew that. If you want to know what number you're going to pay each month for your car, use Kelly Blue Book My Wallet on AutoTrader. They're really good at numbers. AutoTrader. All right, we are back. We're going to jump into biggest surprises and disappointments. We're going to start with each side, or we're going to do each side of the ball, and then we're going to drop in a rookie at the end of this, but

Matt, I'll start with you. We're going to go with offense here. Your baby. What is the biggest surprise for you so far this year on offense in the NFL? Yeah, I won't belabor this point, Nate, because you and I talked about it on my show on the fantasy film room, but it's got to be Washington and their offense this year, even if they're coming off probably one of their lesser games this year against Pittsburgh, which is a tough game.

You know, look, Pittsburgh is going to give you a rock fight every single week. So that's not that big of a defense. Exactly. One of my favorite defenses, too. So I think overall, like Washington's offense. And again, I won't belabor the point because we people want to deep dive on it. They can go check that show out. But I'm just so impressed with Washington.

especially cliff Kingsbury, what they've designed this year. Uh, you know, this is a guy that I was super skeptical of the, the cliff Kingsbury hire, but I've really enjoyed what they've put out there with not a ton of talent either. This is, you know, you're watching a good product and offense when you start to kind of imagine, all right, look, no disrespect to any of these players, but what if this was somebody other than Zach Ertz? What if this was somebody other than Noah Brown? You know, some of these ancillary players eventually get

upgraded in the future, I think this could be... It's already one of the most efficient offenses in the NFL. Now adding some different layers and some more talent on it, I think would be pretty exciting. So the Terry McLaurin-Jayden Daniels connection has just been perfect. Those guys' strengths overlap so well. So they for sure, I think, have to be the biggest offensive surprise of the year. Yeah, I had the commanders for offense positive too. I don't think that...

there's any other shining beacon than what they've been able to accomplish. I mean, shoot, I thought that they were going to have the first pick and Dan Quinn was going to get fired. Same. I mean, that wasn't like out of the realm of possibility stuff. Right. That's what's crazy. It's incredible. It was incredibly wrong. And when you look, but honestly, when I look back at...

Cliff Kingsbury's you know I was sharing them with you the other day Cliff Kingsbury stats from when he was Arizona I probably would have said the same thing again like it was it really wasn't good uh but he's he's figured it out and we'll see if he hits the the usual Cliff second half wall when he's thinking about what he's going to do after this season and they call 40 bubble screens a game uh but for now it's all working uh and they're one of the best offenses in football out of

kind of out of nowhere. So I think that's got to be, obviously got to be the biggest offense surprise this year. I still, on the flip side, like as far as disappointments, Jets offense. I just thought that

they would just click better than they were. I know that it's a bunch of old guys, a bunch of guys who haven't been good maybe in a while or guys who have been banged up, but I just see the name power and I still believe in some of the individual players, but it just never came together. And I actually found it to be a little disappointing because, you know, you tell me there's an offense with even Aaron Rodgers at this point, Garrett Wilson, Devontae Adams, Brees Hall. Like, shoot, that seems pretty exciting to me. And they're just not.

Yeah, that's a little sorry. I'll start with a positive because I have thoughts about these commanders was my easy one. This team's at second and DVO way.

They're great on early downs. I'm sorry, they're average on early downs. I'll say above average, but they're doing great on late downs. So again, like Charles mentioned, I want to see how this holds up in the second half facing some tougher defenses. I'm really excited for Thursday night against the Eagles. That should be a really fun game, even though the NFL play has cratered over the last two years, I believe is the talking point that we have to say.

But the other team, I mentioned all that commanders. Yeah. Like Matt said, we've talked about it last week. I think their offensive line play has been one of the most pleasantly surprising things in the entire league. Any unit, not even just the offense, just that room as well. Jane Daniels, all that stuff, the chemistry he has, how quick he's thinking, all that stuff. It's just a fun offense to watch, even if it's not,

always my cup of tea. There's a lot of it I do like. I'm actually writing about this week, so I don't want to spoil too much. I would also say in a pleasant way, another Matt Harmon team, because he's Mr. Liam Cohen's number one fan, a little bit the Bucs. I was optimistic about the Bucs, like I was. I thought this offense could be sneaky top 10 because I just like the coordinator. I thought the offensive line improvements were

Doesn't matter who's getting banged up. Matt's pounding away on this. They just keep stepping up, keep calling good play game plans, keep like staying in. I mean, they're facing heavyweight teams and they're not really tanking like other than the Broncos game, which was kind of a wonky game. Like, I mean, they're in every game. That's when they're fully healthy. I mean, it doesn't matter. Chris Godwin, Mike Evans, all these guys getting hurt. Like now it's worse, but it's,

Guy after another getting hurt and Liam Cohen just keeps dialing stuff up and still Baker Mayfield. No, he knows how to use Baker Mayfield and knows how to use his personnel. Matt's brought up this point, like, okay, who's using the receiver screens now? All right, let's get Kate on going on them rather than just kind of like one for one in it, which is get our best player doing that. Now, best player available, I should say. So yeah, I would say the box a little bit of just their offensive sustainability. I thought it'd be a little bit more up and down. And I think just every week they're coming up with some good stuff. So I didn't want to say that in a positive way. Yeah.

Charles touched on the Jets a little bit for disappointing. I'll segue into mine. Jets a little bit for me. I kind of, I see them like they're, I thought their highs would be a little higher because even when they've played well, like even a couple of weeks ago against the Texans, it was more like,

Garrett Wilson being a fricking hero rather than like, oh, this is some good game plan. And, you know, it was just kind of, and this is what Rogers wants. He wants to control a lot of it just shows to me that, you know, this is why you want some coach influence to, to adapt to what's happening in the NFL rather than running your greatest place from 2014. But I'll say my disappointing stuff is just like, look at AFC South offenses. That that's kind of, that's really my, cause I was like Colts Texans,

Jacks, I guess, too. Titans were whatever, but the Colts, just their whole thing, their most disappointing team for me, I would say, just how they're going about things. Texans offense, we've talked about it, but just the offensive line, the woes that they've had there, the run game is just atrocious unless Joe Mixon's pulling off something. And then C.J. Stroud has to play hero ball, which he's doing at times, but as soon as he throws a pick, everyone just goes, what's happening to C.J. Stroud? Yeah.

he could have a whole drive of five hero throws, avoiding a sack, getting the ball off. He throws the one pick or he takes a sack. Man, Stroud's dropped off this year. I don't know why. So them just as a whole have been very disappointing. Then just the whole Jags.

Actually, the numbers for the Jags haven't been bad when Trevor's been in there, but still, just the mistakes that they make, the lack of layers they've added to that whole offense, which I kind of knew going in, but I'm still – my expectations weren't high, and I'm still let down. I'm butchering Malcolm in the middle line. Charles, you nailed the Jets. Matt, did you have any that you wanted to drop here for disappointing offenses?

Yeah, just Colts for me. You kind of led into it there too. But this is a unit that should all be growing together, right? And it's just gone off the rails so fast to the point that should we just fire everybody and start all over again? Which I think is really disappointing because I thought Shane Steichen coming into this year was in inner circle in terms of play caller. And I don't even think his stuff is bad necessarily. I just don't know that it always fits everybody.

I think they're caught in between a lot of different stuff right now where it's like, all right, we're trying to sort of keep some of this older stuff that we did with RPOs and quick hitting passes and things like that. But we're also really trying to lean into Anthony Richardson and his talents and his abilities. All right, now we got to scrap all that and we got to start Joe Flacco. And that's obviously been nothing short of a show. So again, it's disappointing because they have so many good...

interesting young players they have a veteran offensive line they have a quarterback that they should be incubating and I guess I could I could like I could let him off the hook if they're just trying to give Anthony Richardson a beat and then put him back in there in a few games but they don't say that they they they never present it as that and so it makes me skeptical that that's the idea here so I just think everything that's happened there has been such a complete and utter letdown yeah hi uh it's been very upsetting for me because I felt like too it's like a home game

Flacco making those mistakes, especially like he did last week.

And then it was just like, you know, last two weeks early, but even last week, first pick picks it or first play pick six, like throwing a pick on a screen, just like all these mistakes get strip sacked, which was just, you know, and then he's still, the receivers are still dropping the ball, which I was just like the irony of that. So it wasn't just Richardson there, uh, like make it by getting all the bad luck there, but yeah, that just that whole operation. And it shows that it's not just play calling that head coaches have to deal with, you know, it's personality management and team management and all that.

And that for me is why I'm just still trying to parse what the hell happened, because it's just like it feels like so much of them are like, yeah, I want to play them.

But, you know, but it's just, you know, maybe some ulterior stops happening there. Charles, you have any Colts thoughts? I don't think we've really hit on the Richardson news together, but you have anything to shoot from the hip on? They're a goddamn disgrace right now. That's my Colts thoughts. Okay. Okay. Okay. We're so, so much of this, this discourse on Twitter. And maybe this is just because I'm becoming an old fart curmudgeon now.

I don't really understand where any patience has gone on anything that's happening as far as like

not even just quarterback development but just like we just lost a whole bunch of like hall of fame caliber players that just retired over the last few years and people kind of expect these guys to just walk right back in and say oh true yeah you know we're gonna get patrick mahomes lamar jackson josh allen development we're in one year bang all these guys and for josh was a little longer but bang within one year all these guys like mvv caliber quarterbacks that was just

an outlier. You know, we're giving up on Anthony Richardson after 10 games. After 10 games, we're saying that the Bears make the wrong pick. Like, bro, chill out. Just breathe. You know, these guys are so young. They're so early in their careers. It's going to take some time. And just like the week to week back and forth, I really want us to just kind of get over that because I

half of y'all aren't even watching these games in the first place. So let's be real. And I know none of you guys who are out here is calling Caleb Williams terrible. We, she didn't play great on Sunday. We're out here actually watching bears Patriots. I wouldn't have watched that. That wasn't my job either. That was boring as hell, but we still need to have a little bit more just overall sense and the core about this. And I think that expands past just like, you know, some of the young guys, you know, just being able to look at things a little bit more context. Like,

That Jaguars-Vikings game was horrendous. But look at what happens when you pull Trevor Lawrence out the lineup and put in someone who is like a replacement level quarterback. That should give you some level of thought to how good Trevor Lawrence actually is, but...

you know, the first time he throws a pick when they have a new head coach next year, it's just going to be, oh, bust, he sucks, because we are the ones who called him the generational prospect, can't miss, number one overall pick. I never heard Trevor Lawrence say that. I never heard Caleb Williams say that. Wrecking with yourselves, people. We got to have a conversation about this. About what? What do you want to say? What is the conversation? Then what? Do that for the rookie left tackles.

Like do it for the non-quarterbacks and non-receivers. Like, are we going to have, you know, defensive end, rookie defensive end discussions too? Like where's the Dallas Turner stuff? You know, like any of those, like it's just quarterback. Get your NBA out of my NFL. Like get your NBA brains out of my NFL. Like that's why I just want to yell at people. It's like not only these guys are stars that you can look at because it's just looking at box score stats and going, well, in NBA, it's a lot easier when a guy goes,

you know, nine of 20, you know, and scores like we can just look at the box score stats and go like, Oh, he scored 30 points. That's easy. He hit this many threes. That's easy. He had five blocks. That's easy. But you look at the NFL guy throws for 175 yards and you say he was good. People go, Hmm.

Like, like it's just the craziest thing you've ever said. It's just like, well, that's why that's why it's context. Like not every yard is built the same. You might see the most impressive two yard throw of your entire life, but it's just two yards. Once in the final box score, even it doesn't matter what anything else happens, but yeah, we've all just aged five years. I know. I know. The other thing I've noticed too, and this is even commentators. I've really noticed that on a lot of passing plays, um,

Everyone's looking downfield and doesn't acknowledge what happens in the pocket when a quarterback's throwing the ball. That's something I've really noticed as an epidemic. I don't even say a pandemic.

going on is that a guy throws the ball and you know CJ Stroud was just off on that throw as he's getting like whacked in the knee I saw another one someone had one god it was a night game too so I'm just trying to think what the reason is the funny part about this is that you can't even see downfield on half the broadcast yeah for real the only thing you can see is the damn pocket and I know it's football purist guy but like you actually do have

To watch the film. This is why, like, I've largely just like stopped to meet about quarterbacks on Sunday because, yeah, Caleb Williams, when I'm watching live, it looks like crap. But I know they're extenuating circumstances. I can only see six players on the field at a time on each side. So what are we doing here? I see you guys get gloved up. You don't see that happening on the field or see a running back or that's nothing protection rules.

running back misses one oh offensive line sucks well you know deandre swift's supposed to take that guy like you know that matters too but all right all right that was just the offensive side let's get to the defense uh so we now we're going to biggest surprises and disappointments for defense because we already just just tied a nice bow on the offensive side i guess all right matt

Biggest surprise so far on the defensive side of the ball. And I mean this in a positive way. Yes, because I get a lot of thoughts about a negative unit. But for me, for sure, it's got to be Chargers defense is the biggest surprise because I know that some people hate this about me, but I don't watch college football during the season because, you know, I try to have a

Sorry, fellas. I'm happily married and I like to have, you know, a day of my life that isn't dominated by a sport. But so I don't watch a lot of college football during the season. Charles is disgusted with me over there. That's why you skip work in the middle of the week so you can watch football on Saturdays, you know.

I'm not commenting on that. So I wasn't super familiar with Jesse Minter or any of that stuff, but obviously watched a little bit when I was watching receivers go against and always generally impressed with Michigan's defense and everything like that. But still, the depth chart wasn't exactly like, all right, yeah, we're littered with a bunch of dudes here in terms of

in terms of the LA Chargers defensive depth chart, but I've just really enjoyed everything that they've put out this year. So fundamentally sound. They play a lot of coverage. They're really good against the run, despite not dedicating extra resources to stopping the run. They're just, I'm really high on this team overall, period, but defensively is the area that they've surprised me the most. So they're definitely my biggest surprise.

That's a good one. Charles, what about for you? I was going to do Chargers as number one, but I think I'll take the Eagles too as a surprising unit. Only because it started to look like last year in Miami, maybe Vic Fangio had kind of hit the wall. The game passes everyone by, but

I don't think that was true. Or what we're seeing this year obviously isn't true. Probably just need a little burst of personnel that the Eagles were able to get. Cooper's genes had a great season. Jalen Carter's coming up. Like I said earlier in the podcast, they just look like a really cohesive unit on defense, which if you were looking at it just –

you know, around this time last year, they didn't really seem possible. So I always find like the year to year improvements, like with boost that big and the Eagles chargers to be really impressive. So I just give a shout out to big fan jail and the Eagles. Cause I think what they're doing actually gives them a chance to contend in the NFC more so than, than the office. Cause we already know the offense is good, but if they can, you know,

play defense in a way that will boy some of the, you know, inconsistencies that come with having Jalen hurts as your quarterback, then they have a real chance of going to run. Yeah. These are both good ones. Uh, yeah. Chargers right now are eighth and DVOA Eagles are seventh. Uh,

Uh, chargers are third and combined success and explosive play rate, sexual rate Eagles are second. So I, and I'm with you on both of these, that these are two of the most pleasant surprises, especially the chargers one, because I was like, if they're average this year, that's a great tip of the cap to what they're doing. And now by all metrics, top five, top six, top eight, some, no matter how you parse it,

Have they played the toughest schedule? No. But again, when you, you have to make the bad offenses look like that. And that's what they've done. They're really well game plan. They have more horses than you initially think, even if some of them are,

graying horses you know you know some older statesmen out there but they still and they have some young guys really stepping up and playing well it's like it's not a perfect defense as far as personnel wise but they're making the most of what they got eagles too the boosts of the young guys they do such a great job limiting explosives primitive tackling for that too like they're

That's the thing with these Fangio defenses that I think people misconstrued was, oh yeah, they limit the explosive plays. Well, if you're going to allow a lot of underneath passes and runs, you got to tackle because then you don't want those four or five yard gains to turn to 15, 20 yard gains. That's how you get, that's how you become the Chargers defense under Brandon Staley the last couple of years. It was like, oh yeah, we're going to play too high.

Well, you got to hit a guy. You got to create some explosives for the defense. Otherwise, you're just giving up eight yards of pop and you can't win that way. So I would say those two easily, just how they're playing, game plans, improvement of players. And then the last one would be the Broncos, who I didn't think were going to be bad this year. I thought they'd be more of an average, above average defense. And they are sitting, they're still at the top in combined sex rate. They're fifth in DVOA.

Another defense hasn't played a ton. They're about to go through a slate of games, though. But I just think that, I mean, shoot, even just watch the Chiefs game last week. They're going to make it tough on a lot of teams. Their offense is getting together, too, getting it together, too. But yeah, that Broncos defense has been a nice, pleasant surprise and honorable mention for the Lions. Yeah.

Like they're, they're, you know, actually becoming a good unit, like a legitimately good unit. They're third in DVOA, 13th in combined sex rate. So like they're, they're sitting there too. What's that kind of top 10, top 12 ish unit, which has been a nice surprise too. They need it. I mean, but that's why they're so good. Disappointing though.

I don't know who I want to go with. Matt, you said you had something juicy here. Who's your most disappointing defense? I mean, I have an easy one, but I want to hear yours. I don't know if it's juicy because it's kind of obvious because they're a pathetic defense. But when you look at the bottom five defenses in terms of EPA per play, it's Jacksonville. Okay, I can see that. Who

Who's playing, even if people like Ryan Nielsen, who's playing on the back end for them. Well, yeah, nobody does anymore. But my short list of props, the praising the Panthers or the Panthers are down there. That one's obvious. They don't have any good players. And then they lost their best player in week one. The Bucks, even if people respect Todd Bowles, you know, they have issues in the back end and they've always been pretty.

They're pretty bland and vanilla at this point, like veteran quarterbacks and Reuben Park Bengals. None of their recent defensive draft picks have really hit. So like all those are I could I could have seen that coming into the year. The one that's really surprised me is Dallas is down there, too. And that's my biggest disappointment because I mean, their defense is humiliating. I mean, yeah.

Their offense is probably trying to catch up now at this point because they're playing Trey Lance, who looks like he doesn't even know how to play football. They're down to the deep reserves at wide receiver, throwing real passes to Kavante Turpin in the NFL in this stage. Not what you want. Their offense is trying to catch up, but all year long that defense has been rough. I thought the Mike Zimmer hire was interesting.

And then lost interest in it probably about 30 seconds into the season. They have a lot of the same... I mean, Al Harris is the defensive backs coach for a minute there now. And he's not new this year. And the defensive backs look like, what are they coached to do? And I think a lot of it is the change in systems, of course. And just none of it has really trickled down. The secondary is a mess. The pass rush obviously has dealt with injuries. Parsons hasn't been there. And they're just...

hopeless stop in the run. So yeah, I think Dallas has to be in terms of defensive disappointments and number one on the list for me. Yeah, you kind of hit on both mine. Cowboys and Jags defense is for me. And they're also going to be another

superlative that we're going to get to later. But those are mine as well. But Charles, what about you? Most disappointing defenses so far. I'm pulling straight from the Steve May Smith playbook here. Ryan Nielsen, how dare you do this to me? How dare you? I praised you. Dude, I spent a year...

A whole year talking about how this guy changed the Falcons defense. And for the first time in my whole life, Falcons defense, which was still filled with scrubs, like they have been every year since basically Matt Ryan was drafted. They finally put up some like quality efficiency numbers. So my take was, yo, if he can do it with this, then going to a defense that has objectively more talent than the Falcons do should be a walk in the park.

And they've been horrendous. And I know that they run a whole bunch of man coverage. Our friend John Shipley, who covers the Jaguars, does a great job, basically has been saying, like, dude, Tyson Campbell gets hurt and the whole defense falls apart. Okay, Tyson Campbell's a good player, but that should never happen. One point.

Right. It's not like we lost damn Darrell Reifus, you know, we didn't lose Richard Sherman. We didn't lose Ed Reed. We shouldn't be falling to like the pits of hell because our CB one is out of the game. So, um, I thought he would do a whole lot more for like the defensive line production. Um, I thought they would be better blitzing than they were because all of those things were true for Atlanta last season. And, um, it just hasn't come to fruition in Jacksonville at all. And, uh,

I would be absolutely stunned if he is still

employed by them by the end of the season because it seems like everyone's about to get canned. So Ryan Nielsen, dude, I stood up for you. You don't even know me, but you're very important to like the summer takes that I had because they were all rooted in my reality as a Falcons fan. And you made me look even sillier than I always do. I love that. Our friend, our friend, Richard Johnson, who is a Jairus fan. Oh my God. Yeah.

Oh my God. He's like, Hey, I got to talk to you about this. I got to talk to you about this take. I'm trying to find the on off splits for Tyson Campbell right now, but it's not like when he's on the field, they're like amazing. Yeah. Jack was friends. They've been like, yo, I thought you said Ryan Nielsen was good at this. I swear he was last year. I don't know what happened to y'all. That's not my problem. I swear to God he was good last year. Yeah.

I guess they actually are a lot better with, with, okay. They, they're the worst. Okay. I always look at combined, just simple stats, success, rank, supposed to play, right? They're dead last in the NFL without Tyson Campbell. So I mean, easily to like, not even, no one's even close to him. 40.2%, which is, so they let opposing teams just be successful, like over half the time with hidden explosive plays. And then when he is on the field, it's,

Okay. They do become a top 10 defense when he is on the field. So apparently Tyson Campbell is the most important player for the champ. Yeah. He's champ Bailey apparently, but no, I'm, I'm with Charles. Uh,

That one's been... If anyone actually cared about the Jags, they just want to be more of an egg on my face about it. But that's the thing is that with that team right now, everything's just kind of a joke and a question mark or a sad face. So there's just a continuation of that. But I'm with you on that, Charles, that they've been extremely disappointing. I thought some of the players would play even better with what they've had. It feels like everyone's just kind of been meh and making mistakes. It's just like...

It's just no intelligent play there where I felt like their past team where Nielsen's defense last year was so smart and just so sound with the game plans and varied what they did every week. So, yeah. And then the Cowboys were so disappointing. Yeah.

Week one against the Browns, I was like, oh, there it is. Zimmer's got the third down pressure looks. Look at this stuff. Oh, Deshaun Watson has no idea what's going on. It turns out it's just Deshaun Watson didn't have any idea what was going on. And maybe I extrapolated that a little bit too much. So I'm with you guys on both of those. Yeah, I should have said 30 seconds into week two is when I lost interest in the Mike Zimmer experience. But that was it. I was like, there it is. There it is. I think they went like one for 12 on third down. I was like, Zimmer, oh, yeah. Cowboys are going to have the best third down defense. Just watch this. Yeah.

And then, yeah, that's just unfolded this way. Favorite rookie from the year so far or most surprisingly good rookie, I guess is a better way to put it. I've got surprising and disappointing rookies. Let me go. And they're all receivers. So I stayed in the wheelhouse for this one. Shut up, Charles. For surprise. He's got a fastball and he's going to throw it.

Yeah, I mean, come on. For surprises, I went with the two Panthers rookie wide receivers. Yeah. Both of which, which is obviously Jalen Coker, the undrafted player, and Xavier Lee Gett, the... Yeah, of course. Everybody knows. All those Coke heads rise up. Yeah, but no. Xavier Lee Gett, the round one player, you know, he's... I don't think he's...

you know, like perfect or anything. He certainly has some flaws in his game, but I love the way that they've used him. I actually think he's been better against man coverage than I expected, mostly because they take advantage of his strengths, which is all these runway routes. They get him on quick outbreakers to really like the way he's been used. I think they've got a future with him. Coker is a guy that I didn't get a chance to chart in the off season. And really this year so far, I've just been so impressed by how clean his game is. I think he translates really well to

a power slot player for them. He led the team in target share in the game against the Giants. I'm hoping that he doesn't get just erased because Adam Thielen was activated off IR because Thielen is really only a power slot player at this point because I think they've got a future with these two guys. So that's my positive surprise. I don't know if you want me to do my disappointment here too. Yeah, do your disappointment real quick. I'm not saying that Xavier Worthy has been worthless for the Chiefs.

But he has been like the meme of what you'd imagine the negative outcomes for him as a player have been. I mean, he can't make contested catches. He gets tackled by a sneeze. He doesn't play well on the perimeter. And there's just no there's no proof on film, period, that he can be like a high volume player for them. So I get that they weren't expecting him to be that most likely because I

You know, Rasheed Rice was supposed to be there. Hollywood Brown is supposed to be there. But it's just pretty lackluster everything that's happened with him so far. And again, I don't see a lot of evidence when I just watch him in isolation that, oh, it's just if they just haven't fully incorporated him yet or this, that and the other. It's just not a lot he's bringing to the table here. So.

Maybe they, again, maybe the Chiefs didn't expect that. Maybe they just took a vanity player in the first round, which is totally fine. They can do that. Who cares? They're undefeated. None of this really, really matters. The bottom line for them. I'm more so like, I'm more so pointing the finger in the mirror back at like the outsiders at how could the Chiefs let, or how could the league let the Chiefs get Xavier worthy of the bills? How could you do this? Well, again, I know none of it matters. They're still going to win the Super Bowl and go undefeated and all that stuff. But he just really hasn't brought anything to the table for them.

Turns out being like 150 pounds is an NFL player is a little tough. You know, it's a Mac. He's making fun of me that I keep dropping the weight every time I break him up. Like it went from one 65 to one 62 to one 50 or one 60 to one 58. I think about one 55 now. He'll be one 40 by the time that he's like, we'll, he'll be the Superbowl trophy will weigh more than him when Mahomes hoisted up. Okay. But there's some truth to that. You know, like when you take the combine and you,

When you're looking at extremes on the weight, if you see someone that comes to the Combine

And they're like 365. They're probably close to 400 walking around. Right, right, right. You know, if you see someone at the combine and they're, you know, 171, probably walking around about like 158, you know? So it's a sliding scale. But like if you told me Xavier Worthy right now weighed in the 150s, I wouldn't doubt that really at all. Which is just objectively. And they ain't making him any faster either because I've seen a lot of just like go routes where he's completely the corner is step for step for him. So, yeah.

160 shows up more than 421 every single time. But that was always my argument against where the other than stuff you bring up is one of them, but also...

it's a replaceable skill set. Like it's a skill set. I can find a fast, small guy in round four, you know, like you can find guys on early day three that can be that role. Like you can't take a guy day one or day early day two. I know first round, but even day two to be a more scheme proof role. That's going to stand out every single day. I'm not just one that we have to dial up. Me, Cole Hardman's taking all of his gadget touches. That's not good. You get drafted at four to one to get the gadget touches, not have someone beat you out on that. So, um,

Charles, your rookies that have been your most surprise, the ones you've liked the most, I guess, most through the year, and I guess your disappointment if you got one. For surprise, I'll go Tyrone Tracy for the Giants.

Only because I remember when Charles Robinson and I were working on all juice team. This is actually one of the few like real arguments we had because when I watched Tracy at Purdue, I was like, Oh, this guy's been like a receiver. I'm out. They'll get it. I don't like it. And he was like, Oh, you know, talk to some scouts. I really like him. But we ended up not putting him on there. And now I realized probably should have just listened to him and put him on there. Cause he's been, he's been excellent. You know, as, as,

there's the Giants have made a whole lot of mistakes, but lucking into Tyrone Tracy after letting Saquon Barkley walk is, I mean, it's obviously not a one for one comparison, but it's a start towards getting back to having like a functional offense. So that'll be my surprise because I think we just when you look at when you when you look at like his draft status compared to the production, that that's got to be a big, big win for them on the

flip side I don't really have too many rookies I feel like I'm just like super duper disappointed in but the fact that Mike Penix hasn't beat out Kirk Cousins yet so especially after you lose that game to the Saints I'm like Raheem Penix time let's go can't be doing that

kirk tober's over kirk november we're done arifa uh uh arifa san and i just worked with that the athletic he had a great tweet when someone was like oh my god i can't believe kirk cousins checked it down on the fourth down and he's like quote tweeted like who wants to tell him yeah just strap in you're gonna get a lot of those that's the kirk i know uh yeah so i i yeah that that's kind of what i'm

watch. I know for my, I kind of want to see most of it. It's kind of like, I don't know if it's a surprise, but really it was Brian Thomas Jr. and how quickly he took to the NFL. But, you know, someone that I thought was going to take some time to like matter and he still has plenty to clean up, but how quickly he affected the game for the Jaguars and literally being the fastest player in the league, which is that I knew he was fast. I didn't realize that he was the fastest guy. He's reached the top highest top speed for a ball carrier this year. And maybe Zach Frazier,

It's been a nice – when he's been healthy, the center for the Steelers. Watching him last week against the Commanders was a joy. I was trying to make a little cut up. I got distracted by some other stuff that happened in that game, but mainly George Pickens. Yeah, Pickens. Trying to eat the face off Mike Sanstrell from the Commanders. So that would be one. But Zach Frazier. And then the Eagles rookie defenders. But, you know, Cooper DeGene and Quinion Mitchell have been –

pleasantly surprised about how quickly they've impacted the game. I like both of them coming to draft, but yeah, very disappointing. Disappointing. I don't know. They're rookies. That's kind of how I always go about it. I would say, I don't know. I don't know. I don't know if I'm disappointed in anyone particularly. I guess maybe

some of Roman Doonze's kind of like detail. I thought he would maybe, oh, Jalen Polk, I guess has been disappointing. That'd be another one. Speaking of Washington receivers. Yeah. I would say Jalen Polk's actually been disappointing. So I will say that just because the stuff he's struggling at right now is what I thought he would be cleanest at dirty work. Good.

Good hands, good ball skills and see his comp. It was some of its confidence related, which is a rookie thing. But I also thought that he would kind of be a little bit ball proof from that, but we're seeing him pick up. They dialed up a touchdown for him, but maybe jail and poke a little bit. Cause I thought he would just kind of maybe never thought he was gonna be a star, but I thought he'd be useful right away. We're going to get to there, but maybe he's disappointing. All right. So now we're going to take our last break and then we're going to come back with a couple more superlatives to wrap this up. Yeah.

When you visit a state as big and diverse as Texas, there are a million different trips you can take. Let's say you've got an appetite for whitewater kayaking. You can get your own. So this is why they call it Devil's River. Trip to Texas. Or maybe you have an actual appetite. I'll take a pound of brisket, six ribs, three links of sausage, and a piece of pecan pie. Trip to Texas. Go to TravelTexas.com slash get your own for the only trip to Texas that matters. Yours.

Someone asked me the other day, do you know how many devices the average home has connected to their Wi-Fi network? Here's a hint. It's a lot. Xfinity knows this number is growing by the year. That's why they engineered their gateways to handle hundreds of connected devices, all to keep us connected to the good stuff, like streaming, gaming, internetting, and more. Visit Xfinity.com, call 1-800-XFINITY or visit a store to switch today.

Xfinity. Bring on the good stuff. Restrictions apply. Not available in all areas. Okay, we are back with Football 301. We are going to wrap this up.

We'll start with our favorite thing that we've watched so far this year. Our favorite thing to watch so far this year. Charles, I'm going to start with you because you smiled when I said this. I feel like you got a good one here. I couldn't help but come up with, like, my brain is just wired to trolls sometimes. So the answer that I came up with was basically watching Antonio Pierce fumble his way through this year, one press conference at a time.

I started off with the preseason quote where he was like, bro, paraphrasing here, but he was like, bro, I don't know who's going to win this damn quarterback battle. I wish they both play better. We'll see what happens. Then you're flip-flopping. You're getting upset throughout the week.

You go into the bye, right? You fire, what was his name? Luke Getze, who they fired? Right before the bye. They fired the offensive line coach and quarterback and offensive coordinator. Right, right before the bye. And then when he's asked about like, what's next? He said like, basically, I don't know. You come back. And we're not practicing during the bye. Right, we're not practicing during the bye either.

And I've long come to the conclusion that Antonio Pierce doesn't actually want to be the head coach of the Raiders. Like, it's cool having the title head coach of the Raiders, but actually being the head coach of the Raiders, I don't think is something he's all that interested in. Which gets to my next point of just randomly, oh, here's North Turner. What? What?

Where did that come from? So I just think the whole path of Antonio Pierce from being like Herm Edwards' right-hand man in terms of just nuking Arizona State's football program for a few years. Then he just gives a show cause for seven years, eight years? Yeah. Yeah, dude. Longest ever. Then they both just jump back into their normal jobs. Like Herm's like, oh, I'm back at SportsCenter. Antonio Pierce gets to go be an NFL coach.

And he just keeps rising through the ranks despite never actually doing all that much except just beating up on crappy offenses in the second half of last season. They have no direction. They have no guidance. And he's showing that in their press conferences. And I think like the unprofessional is like the unprofessionality of it is like breathtaking and actually really, really entertaining because you never know what he's going to say. But in some way, he's going to be conceding defeat before things actually even start.

Hey, man, he's getting advice from Marvin Lewis and Tom Coughlin. You know, they have like 40 ex-head coaches on that staff. My dad's right down the road. Maybe they should call him. If I didn't want to be a head coach, I would also hire 40 former ex-head coaches. So much about head coaching, too, and this is kind of taken away, but just inside.

baseball inside football is so much of it is just scheduling. And this is what Nick Saban got a lot of praise for about how clean his schedules are. So he would have stuff a year out planned in advance. Like if we win this game, this is going to be our schedule. Um,

And I know that sounds silly, but it really matters because you are, I mean, there's so much military with football and so much about like scheduling and organization and practices and meetings and all that. And I do want to share a quick little backstory, a quick little thing I heard was that Antonio Pierce changed the practice schedule because he's not a morning person. So he like bumped practice to the evenings.

And not because of the heat in Vegas, because they have an indoor. But just because he's not a morning person. So he shifted the entire schedule to practice in the afternoon and the evening. That's something I heard through the grapevine. But Charles just talked about unprofessionalism. So yeah, that's a little bit of this. This was supposed to be a good thing. This was a favorite thing to watch this year. No, but this is my favorite thing to watch. Antonio Pierce's press conference. Yeah, I've never seen it before. I cover Adam Gase and Pat Shermer, and I've never seen someone quit at all.

as before the week can get started in the way that he does. It's baffling. Yeah. He acts like how people thought Dan Campbell would be. Yes. That's kind of, that's, that's, that's what's kind of like, that's how he goes about it. When Dan Campbell got hired, that's what people like Antonio Pierce is actually doing.

Matt, what's your favorite thing to watch this year? Yeah, my favorite thing to watch is not an active train wreck, but I would say Packers offense has been really fun to watch this year. These things are both after my own heart, so I appreciate it, guys. This is great. Scheduling bullshit and fun offense. Yeah, that's what football is all about. No, with Packers offense, man, I think...

Obviously, in the fantasy space, it's tough to predict this offense because there are so many good players, but that's what makes it really enjoyable to watch is that a lot of what you heard from Green Bay in the offseason was that

they knew they had a lot of talented players and they knew they were all very different. So what they wanted to do was kind of use each individual guy to attack certain parts of certain defenses. And I think they've kind of pulled that off a little bit, um, specifically with like Romeo Dobbs, who I don't think was good as a rookie, like period. I just don't think he was a good, consistent player, but he's been kind of their answer when they get single coverage on the outside and like, all right, we've got to look over here. His,

his success rate over the last four weeks is in terms of when he's targeted is like 67% because they can just go to him in these ISO situations and Jordan loving him are always on the same page. He's probably like the first receiver ever to throw a fit and then immediately get like rewarded for it. So that's especially a guy who's not like a superstar player. So he's been fun to watch in this offense. Tucker craft has been fun to watch is just like, all right, I'm in trouble.

My reads aren't open downfield yet. I'm under pressure. Let's just dump it off to Tucker Craft in the flat who has no air yards per target but a bunch of yards after the catch. That's been fun to watch. Obviously, I think they've unlocked Jaden Reed even more as an intermediate and downfield threat. The play that they drew up for him at the end of...

which game was it uh with with malik willis i think it was the the one right oh right right before the bye uh or right before the game where jordan love came back i don't know whatever but whatever the titans and then they had called titans and colts games i think they were yeah somebody think it was titan's game maybe whatever anyways yeah they drew they draw up that play uh for jayden reed which is pretty sick and he's just such a he's such a break glass in case of emergency player even though he's talented enough to be

like 130 target player in any other offense. So that's pretty cool just to see that and all the dimension they have out there. And I really enjoy what Josh Jacobs has brought to the run game too. He's not putting up crazy numbers or anything like that necessarily, but it's just good, consistent production. I think it also allows them to get to more gap scheme runs than they did with Aaron Jones. So overall, just really like the way this offense works from a functionality standpoint and the versatility of it is also really fun.

Love that. Yeah. I enjoy watching the Packers designs every week. So that, that's an easy one. I, I can, I concur with that one, Matt, especially when, even when Malik, when Malik Willis is out there, it's still fun to watch. It's not just like a total drop off. That's just a different type of attack that they go to, which is fun.

They just go to high school ball. They just go to high school. That's it. Which is fun. It's the, it's the swing tee, not the wing tee. It's the swing tee. That's how I like to look at it. But yeah. And then Jordan love, I love watching too. And so yeah, great call. Their designs are so good watching them go against, you know, once they do the Vikings defense is a lot of fun because it's just what they, well, funky defenses that are funky attack that comes at them and how they game plan around it. Yeah. My favorite thing to watch is really, I mean, the dudes at quarterback, um,

Having dude-like years, Lamar Jackson, Justin Herbert, Joe Burrow, Josh Allen, Patrick Mahomes. That's who I refer to as the dudes at quarterback right now. And watching them all excel in different ways this year. It's been just fantastic to watch and watching them just all kind of reach this new form. Weird, quarterbacks, when they reach their prime, get better. Maybe we shouldn't pull our hair about maybe young players

early 20 quarterbacks having initial struggles and inconsistencies. And we should just wait. Um, but that's what these guys all look like right now. Um, all enjoying them in different ways. I'll say Bijan Robinson. It's been a joy to watch every week. Football answer watching Bijan this year. It's just beautiful to watch, man. And really Atlanta was the wrong game in general, but man, Bijan is just special to watch. Uh,

And then I don't know if I, I'll, I'll victory lap these, but I'm, I'm taking my victory lap answer, but the Cardinals offense is something I enjoy to watch. And that that's of course, Trey McBride's Ascension, just the whole offense. And then the lines and Bill's offenses. I enjoy watching every week just because they're attacks after my own heart. Like there's a lot of Wisconsin and these attacks, they just happen to have some, a lot more talent than Wisconsin ever had, but I am enjoying the run games and everything they do off of them. But then we're going to wrap it up. Preseason takes, uh,

One, we're going to victory lap and one is going to be the one that we want to take back. I already hinted at a couple of mine, but I'm going to start with, we're going to victory lap this. Start with some positivity before we end this. What is a, I'll go with you, Matt. What is a preseason take that you want to victory lap so far with six-ish weeks to go in the NFL season?

I mean, so many to choose from. No, but being more optimistic than most people about the Chargers offense. Yeah. We were take shopping over the summer. That was one thing I kind of started to come out there with. And, you know, Chargers coming out of the bye week.

our third and neutral pass rate this year behind only like the Bengals and the Browns, because that's really all those two offenses do, which I mean, Hey, color me shocked that a smart coach doesn't run his offense the same way with Justin Herbert, as he did with like Alex Smith and Colin Kaepernick, you know, 10 years ago. So pretty wild stuff. But yeah, I also think these players are pretty good. The usage for Quentin Johnston has been so nice to see. I mean, I,

we've talked about this before nate but like his touchdown against the titans on sunday when he's just crossing the entire length of the field and it's just it's like a pure crossing route how many times is he able to do that during his rookie season never it was always just running straight lines down the field routes against press man coverage i don't think he's a perfect receiver i don't think he's a number one i don't even necessarily know he's like a number two but he's a

functional role player in this offense is great to see lad is often a lad is awesome the interior of the offensive line has been maybe a little bit disappointing but Herbert evades sacks more than any other quarterback in the NFL so I just it always came back to Herbert and I think that the kind of the fear-mongering of the Greg Roman Jim Harbaugh run heavy ways was a little bit overstated

Right. When, when you have Lamar Jackson and, and that personnel with the Ravens, it's a little different than when you have, even though Lamar can throw and everything, when you have Justin Herbert and their personnel, which one do you want to kind of lean into and everything? So yeah, no, you've been a charger. Yeah.

He looked good running the ball.

He gets him in space and then he kind of stumbles and then like crawls across the ground. And then he like, didn't know how to celebrate. Like you knew he wanted to like do like a rage, like, ah, but he like didn't know how to do it. Cause he's Justin Herbert. So you like, kind of like,

I want to use a word, but I know you can't, I can't use it. It starts with an S, but he, he like, like he like just flakes the ball and he like, he doesn't know what to do when he's celebrating, but it's kind of like, it's fun to kind of see him doing that. Like, as opposed to what he used to do. Yeah. I don't know. They're playing fun. They got great vibes right now. I enjoy watching the chargers, both sides of the ball. Charles, how about you?

I said before the season, KOC, Coach of the Year, Vikings could win the NFC North. I don't think they do it because the Lions are that good, but feel good about, hey, they're 7-2. They want some slop against Mac Jones. Technically still on the right track, even though I don't think they're as good as they were week two or week three. All right. I like that. I just Cardinals optimism and then Giants number one pick.

And then my last one would be like Josh Allen, MVP candidate. You know, it's Lamar right now, but Josh Allen's sneaking on. He's right there. And really just Bill's optimism, I should say. I mean, snuck him into the top 10 offenses, but I just never thought there was going to be a huge drop off with this team. I thought it was just a revamp. But they're ahead of schedule on both sides of the ball. I think Bill's just look really good right now. I'm pretty fired up about them. All right. Preseason take that you want back. Charles, I'm starting with you.

What's something that you want back? We kind of hinted at a couple. Yeah, I hinted at a couple. I mean, take what I want back. Bro, I barely care about anything I say once it comes out of my mouth. If I'm wrong, I'm wrong. I don't get fired for being wrong. So I stopped caring about that a while ago. But...

In general, commander is number one overall pick. That looks ridiculous right now. That's really all I got to say about that. I thought they would have, yeah, worse. I thought they would have like a bottom five offense, bottom five defense. Instead, they have a top five offense and a bottom five defense, which can run you a bunch of games. I think that's pretty fair. Matt, what about you? One that you want back?

Yeah, Bears is a playoff team in the NFC. I definitely want that one back. I think they're closer to picking fifth overall than being the fifth team in the NFC playoffs. So yeah, I think that obviously saying that right now, it seems obvious. But going back to the preseason, I think that one thing I've started to kind of just

Yeah, maybe this is I'm retconning it or it's hindsight analysis, but it just always felt like the Bears were too in awe of Caleb Williams. You know, even you go back to like the...

the post-draft press or the post-draft phone call with him. Well, yeah, the hand signals making up the hand signal. Yeah. The bear signal, but also like Maddie refluxes call with him after they drafted him. And he's like, I love you. I like you. It's like, dude, calm down. Like you can tell that he was like, this is my ticket to keeping this job, you know, for 15 years or whatever. And I think they just put a lot on a rookie quarterback's shoulders. I think that they're a classic team that, um,

your route concepts suck and you, you can't, you can't pass protect because your rules are terrible and your players are mid and your ancillary guys can't pass protect. Doesn't matter that you have, it doesn't matter what receiver your receivers names are. Cause I wouldn't say any of these three guys are playing up to the potential either. And it's just, they have, they're a classic, like too many egos in one room too. So there were, I think there were a lot more warning signs that were there with Chicago that you kind of yada yada it over because of, again, some of the names on the roster. Yeah.

Yeah, I thought they would end up more average-ish on offense than I thought was the defense. I was going to be like, oh yeah, the defense is going to carry them, but now even the defense is dropping off. So it's like, all right, what would you say you do here? No, the offensive optimism though, I think a lot of people waved away the offensive line and that's what always scared me, especially with a young QB that wants to hang in there in the pocket.

Caleb's also playing, and I talk about both sides of my mouth with this. He wants to show that he's a pocket passer, which he is. That's something that he got underrated with as a prospect. But I think now there's the, oh, it takes too long to hold on to the ball. And it's like, no, he should go create more, which is now that's not conducive to what they're doing on offense. The ego stuff you brought with the receivers. I mean, you trade for a guy, Keenan Allen. You trade for another guy, DJ Moore, and then pay him after he has his best year as a pro. And then you draft another one in the top 10. All right.

Who am I going to ask to do to block the D end? All right. How about block on a screen, Keenan Allen? Yeah. Oh, my God, Keenan. That was so bad. And that one. Yeah, that one, too. Like just the details of everything. So I understood when some bears optimism, but I just, you know, this is just not the way that should be going. They should be ascending right now. And they're kind of dropping off, obviously, when you fire your offense coordinator. So, yeah.

I, um, speaking of that breath, let's talk about benching a guy and maybe, uh, not going the way we expected for me is the Colts. That's the preseason take. I would just say anti Richardson optimism, the Colts optimism. And again, there are still some offensive stuff there that I like was Shane Steichen. I am not totally wavering off of that. I like the run game stuff. I think they're figuring out the past game stuff. They should have just never benched Richardson. Just what would you, I was optimistic about it. You guys, but you guys think you're going to win the whole fricking thing. You got Gus Bradley, a defense coordinator.

That's something I should have maybe not waved away. I was like, oh, you can do it. You get the 18th defense. Yeah, but he's more going to be like 26th. So now you need the offense has to be top eight to be valid. And just everything that's happening there is just, yeah, I want that take back. Maybe it was a year early on it. Maybe I should have let this one go through. But yeah, that one I want back. And then the Cowboys-Jags defense stuff is definitely...

another one that I want back, but we already, I already nailed that one. I already went to that. Hey, just free advice for the Colts too. And any other NFL folks that are listening to this, if the receiver that you paid in the off season has a back injury, how about you just, you just say like, buddy, we're going to put you on IR. That's, that's nice that you want it. That's nice that you want to play. Thanks for your effort. But like you got 20 million in the off season, you're all set. We don't want you out there, you know,

Looking like, I mean, we're not going to win it all this year anyway. So that you don't, you know, look like a 50 year old man trying to catch contested passes. Like, let's, let's not have that. A.D. Mitchell did have his best game as a pro though. Even with the fumble. Yeah. They recovered it though. But he, uh, that was the most detailed game. A.D. Mitchell had. So maybe, maybe there are some positive things with some of the young players. I'll go trees back out there. Who knows what the Colts man just put fricking AR back in there. Just.

I just, it's just not good. It's just not good. All right, we were going to do some favorite niche players. You want to drop one of those real quick before we wrap this up? I'm going to go Darnell Washington. Tucker Craft is another one. Jawan Jennings. Milton Williams. Cam Bullock. Safety for the Texans. Nice. That's a great one. I think his...

His development this year matters a lot in terms of the preseason projections about the Texans' defense because it's kind of hard to spot, oh, this safety looks weak, defensive tackle looks weak. But if one guy on safety pops, then that can clean up some of the problems that they had on defense. No, great call. Yes, but the spine's their issue. So, yeah, having a guy like that is a huge deal. No, that's a good call. Matt, do you have one real quick to wrap this up? A little knee shout-out. I love the Darnell Washington call. Yeah.

Capital Y tight end. Yeah, and I like when they get him involved in the pass game. Like, throw that big-ass dude some routes in the flat and have him make a couple tackles. Yeah, I mean, that's all Russell Wilson can do. It's slant, flat, go route, that's it. So, yeah, just make sure Darnell Washington is running those flat routes.

You know who figured that out in 2011? Paul Christ. And we went to, won the big time championship doing that. We're on just those plays. Yeah. No, Matt, I love Darnold Washington. The mountain that rides. Tucker Kraft is another one. I, and Justice Hill. I'm really enjoying Justice Hill and Jawan Jennings. I just had to throw that out there. And Milton Williams. Milton Williams is going to get paid after this year by somebody. Defense alignment for the Eagles. Make sure you watch them this Thursday.

All right. Before stone kills us one coach that you want to give a shout out offensive coordinator, defense coordinator, offensive line coach, special teams coach, any assistant coach. You guys want to give one shout out to, or maybe two. Well, you took my Liam Cohen one and I've said that enough, but it's also Zach Robinson. So, so Charles doesn't have to, uh, I've enjoyed like the, the passing game designs in Atlanta are really fun. Cause they just get everybody opportunities out of the slot, which is going to be important in this next game against Denver. Cause pastor tan obviously is like a pure outside corner. Um,

I think Darnell Mooney is like 41% routes from the slot. Drake London's at like 38%. Even Kyle Pitt's like 37%. And obviously, Ray-Ray McLeod is 46% slot route percentage. So that's pretty cool. Nobody is...

I know, Nate, you and I talk about how's this going to work if they move Drake London around? Can Darno Mooney play X receiver? He's definitely helped them stretch the field. He's been a fun niche role player that's actually one of the most productive receivers in the league. So I don't know if you can really call him a niche role player. But just the fact that they get everybody opportunities out of the slot, I think that's been a really fun design and wrinkle for their offense. I'm going to give a shout out to Joe Gilbert, Panthers online coach.

They don't suck, which is the Icky's playable again. They've meshed with the new offensive guards pretty quickly. They've got a new center in, and that's like the one piece of their team that isn't complete dog. So I'll give him that. Joe Gilbert. He was my freshman year offensive line coach at UCF. Really? I've been around some great coaches, man. Joe Gilbert of my quarterback coach was George Gossie. He's the tight end coach for the Ravens. The tight end coach was Brent Key, who was the head coach of Georgia Tech.

Uh, then I get to Wisconsin and it's like, you know, Chris, Dave Dorn, Charlie, Charlie Partridge, who was the head coach bounced around. Now he's an assistant. Bealma, obviously Joe Rudolph's offensive client coach with Notre Dame. I just have one guy after another was really good coaches really worked for me. Uh, but, uh, no, but I'll, I would say coordinator wise, Jesse Manor, we talked about Bobby Babbage, who's defense coordinator for the bills. That's kind of a Bobby Babbage, Sean McDermott joint coach.

Um, but I, I have to give him a shout out cause leaning into the cover two stuff's really fun. How good the linebackers play, which I know he has an influence on. And then, yeah, uh, Ben Johnson, Todd Monken, Drew Petzing, officer coordinator for the Cardinals and wrap it up with that. Wrap it up with some favorite coaches. That's a good way to end up football 301.

That was fun, guys. Thank you for joining me for the three-man weave. Thank you, everybody, for listening. We'll be back on Thursday with a special guest. First, we'll do a little bit with Charles to preview Week 11. And then I'm bringing in Dane Brugler from The Athletic, who just dropped his updated big board, his updated Top 50. My updated Top 50 dropped on Yahoo two weeks ago. We are going to do a little big board off. You know, just compare.

You see, you know, just see what we're doing. Oh, you ranked him there. Why? We can't wait to do that with Dane. It's going to be a lot of fun. We're going to pair those big boards, but I am Nate Tice. You can find me at Nate underscore Tice. Matt, where can they find you this week or always? I should say. Yeah. At Matt Harmon underscore BYB, not participating in the NFL product discourse on the internet.

I like that. Charles McDonald, where can they find you? You can find me on Twitter at Forverts. I will be participating in the NFL discourse by telling everyone to go find the nearest dispensary ASAP and show up. You got like 15 more years to watch Caleb Williams, guys. Buckle in. We're 10 games in. Because your Mahomes take is always Mahomes is the most underrated player in the NFL. And then when everyone's kind of getting tired of Mahomes and the Chiefs, it's like,

He's not even 30 guys. Like this is going to be a long time. And we're just like, we're just entering the middle years right now. So just wait.

But yeah, like I said, Charles will be back a little bit and Dane Brugger will be joining me on Thursday. I can't wait for that. Send those mailbag questions. We'll get to one at the end of the Thursday show. Football301mailbag at YahooSports.com or leave us a five-star review wherever you get your podcasts at. Also, subscribe to us, follow us, rate us five stars, like I said, or yell us on Twitter if you don't want to raise five stars. But, you know.

You can do a mixture. You go five stars and then yell at me or Charles or Matt. That works as well. You can also watch us on YouTube, on the Yahoo Sports YouTube channel. If you want to see us talk about this, we have fun graphics on there. We'll have more visual elements as the weeks come along. Thanks to Brett and Stone behind the scenes for making us look and sound good. Oh, also follow Yahoo Sports on Snapchat. Get that one last little plug in there.

But thank you guys so much for listening. We got a fun show on Thursday. This was a great time. Thank you all for listening. Talk to you soon. When it comes to family vacations, there are a million different trips you can take. You can get your own

Trip to Texas. Or if you prefer a vacation from your family, you can always get your own Leave the Kids with Grandma trip to Texas. So go to TravelTexas.com slash get your own for the only trip to Texas that matters. Yours.

Someone asked me the other day, do you know how many devices the average home has connected to their Wi-Fi network? Here's a hint. It's a lot. Xfinity knows this number is growing by the year. That's why they engineered their gateways to handle hundreds of connected devices, all to keep us connected to the good stuff like streaming, gaming, internetting, and more. Visit Xfinity.com, call 1-800-XFINITY or visit a store to switch today.

Xfinity. Bring on the good stuff. Restrictions apply. Not available in all areas.