Playoff hopes for teams on the bubble: Bengals, 49ers, Colts, Broncos & more
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In this episode of Football 301, Matt Harmon joins me first to break down the Joe Douglas news being ousted from the New York Jets as general manager. But the chunk of the episode is looking at the middle class, the girthy middle class of the NFL right now, the battles for the six and seven seeds.

and the AFC and the NFC. Matt joins me as we rank. Do we think they're playoff teams? Do we think they're pending? Do we think they should just start packing it up? See you guys in a sec. You deserve a snack that's tangy, cheesy, crunchy, and deliciously, wonderfully buffalo-y. That's right. We're talking about Cheetos Crunchy Buffalo. And if you thought we were talking about something else, it's time to expand your mind. Of course, nothing beats actual buffalo wings.

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Hello and welcome back to Football 301. I'm your host, Nate Tice. Great show today. My man, Matt, joins me once again as we look at the NFL's middle class, the ones battling for that extra seven seed that the NFL decided to drop in a few years ago, and the sixth seed. So we're looking at a lot of four-win teams, five-win teams, a couple six-win teams, and we're going to determine today whether we win.

like their chances for the playoffs. Can they make a run? Can they even make the playoffs or once that should maybe start looking at Cancun? Tell me do that. And to go over a GM that will soon be in Cancun is my guy, Matt Harmon. How you doing today, Matt?

Yeah, Nate, I wish I was going to Cancun right about now. Week 12 in the NFL. Yeah, man. I mean, hey, always good to be here. Always good to be talking ball every single day. But it's definitely I would say that last week before Thanksgiving, it feels very again. Once we can pass Thanksgiving, the season goes downhill. I think we can really start to. Yeah, it is.

And, you know, it gets good. We get to start talking about the good teams. We get to say goodbye to some of the bad teams and things like that. But this is still the point of the season where, I mean, especially coming off Monday Night Football with the Dallas Cowboys and the team actually that we're going to talk about next is the one that first got this thought in my brain. There's a few teams out there where I know we are halfway through the season, but just because of where they are as a franchise based on relative to expectations, you

the way to go feels a lot longer than where we've come from. And that was the feeling I got watching Dallas and Cooper Rush throw 55 times on Monday Night Football. And I definitely have that feeling about the team that we're going to talk about here off the top.

You know who's a player that needs a lot of reps to see what he is? Trey Lance. Let Trey Lance throw the ball 55 times. Who cares? Just throw them out there. Like, who cares? Come on. No. I will say, Nate, I have to disagree with you.

only because uh probably my best fantasy team this year has cd lamb on it and if i can scam him to 90 yards via 55 pass attempts from from cooper rush i don't think if like they'll probably run some navy army offense if if trey lance is out there right so for my own selfish purposes let's keep cooper rushing there let's keep throwing him 55 times uh i i don't want to see trey lance

It's the Wendell Robinson CD. Don't call me Wendell Robinson Lamb. Correct. That's what he's going by. That's what the Cowboys have done to CD Lamb. Yeah.

making a Wendell Robinson joke about them oh I know it's that Cowboys team is so sad and it's not like the Texans were really like I mean they juiced me up a little bit but even parts of that game was making me sad too so it was a lot of sadness in Texas last night yeah oh yeah there's some joke about the eyes of Texas having tears in them or something of that sort but another franchise

They might have some tears in their eyes based on how like everything that's happened since pick a date to start. I mean, at the playoff drought, anything the Jets have fired their GM, Joe Douglas, who's been there for some time now. I told my wife this piece of news and she goes, I thought they already did that. And I was like, no, that was the head coach.

And now they're firing the general manager. So Joe Douglas fired. They have named former Browns GM and former head of the Senior Bowl, Phil Savage as interim GM. The last time I saw Phil Savage's name, he was working with me in the Alliance of American Football. He was in charge of the Arizona Hot Shots, which I actually really liked that name because it was about like the fire department.

you know, fire extinguishing crew for fire forest fires and stuff. But that's the last time I thought of Phil Savage heard his name or anything, but he is now the GM so long jets. Sorry, Yahoo social team. We won't give you an easy, easy thing to clip for the next seven weeks. But Matt, what are your thoughts on this? I do have thoughts on this other than like, okay, this was to be expected. Yeah.

Yeah, I mean, this was to be expected. 30 and 64 lifetime record for... I know, that's pretty brutal for Jets GM Joe Douglas, who was on an expiring contract anyways. He was definitely not going to be back.

Once you fire, I mean, it's pretty crazy there. People are making the joke today. They fired everybody. Now it is. I mean, Nathaniel Hackett was not fired. He was just demoted. He is, he is going to finish the season employed by the New York jets. So they haven't, they haven't quite fired everybody yet. So I, yeah, to be expected, of course, the season went off the rails so quickly and, and,

I mean, obviously it's just going to be another clean slate for the Jets next year. I think we can do, you know, kind of the post-mortem on the Joe Douglas arrows. Just to me, it goes back to the Makai Becton pick. Like he was supposed to be a guy that, oh, he's coming from Philadelphia. He's going to help beef up the trenches. And that ends up going down as a whiff, right? In a draft where there was a lot of really good tackles to come out of that class. So that ends up, I think, kind of being –

emblematic of what this entire tenure was. Obviously, he drafted some good players, but a lot of issues along the way, mostly at quarterback. Zach Wilson, obviously, at the second overall pick. And then you try to paper over that with the Rodgers experience. You sell your soul to Rodgers. And look, when you sell your soul, you gamble with a lot, and he's ultimately lost that. What I come out of this thinking is that, obviously, the Jets and Rodgers are done. And I think the first...

reaction will for people to be well. Rodgers is probably done. I'm not so sure about that, Nate, just because if I look across the NFL and how many teams are going to need quarterbacks in the next offseason, we could say that every year, but it's definitely true this year. And smart people like yourself, and I know you had Dane on the show as well, talking about the quarterback class is not necessarily all that at the top. But you look at the top seven teams right now,

just according to Tankathon in the NFL draft. Jags, they don't need a quarterback. Titans, need a quarterback. Browns, number three, need a quarterback. Giants, number four, they're starting Tommy DeVito this week, so they need a quarterback. The five Las Vegas Raiders need a quarterback. Six New England Patriots, they're good. Seven Jets. I mean, that's...

That's five of the top seven teams that need a quarterback. And it's, I know there's not five good quarterbacks at the top of the draft. I'm not even sure there's one good quarterback that should be at the top of the draft. So, and that's, again, that is just the top seven teams. You go throughout the rest. There's a few other teams that might be interested. You know, they need a veteran stop gap, all that type of stuff.

I know people are ready to get rid of Rodgers. I mean, I don't think he's played to the level that I just want to give him a starting job next year. I could see some of these teams maybe doing like Tennessee, maybe doing the gamble on the Rodgers thing next year. I bet you the Titans are just going to try. The Levis film wasn't bad this last week against the Vikings. So, you know, I had some highs, but actually the in-between moments weren't as low as they usually are with Levis. Usually you get...

You get nothing but A pluses and F minuses with him. But we actually, I saw some B minuses and C pluses in there. And you know what? I'm going to take that with Levis. But yeah, they're definitely going to be keeping their options open, I would say. But that's a great point is that

teams want to win and teams that teams get desperate and teams start going like hey we can do this like we can make this work and that's i mean shoot just that's what the jets just literally just did but imagine the raiders especially if they're you know not the top three pick you know i think they might be that that still is the funniest thing from our uh like two-thirds poll recap show was me you and charles all having the same bottom three teams that was just perfect but

You know, that's another team there too, but that's a great point with talking about it with Dane. It makes me feel a little better is that we're squinting about all these quarterbacks in the draft for next year. It's like, all right, maybe I like a lot of what he does, but then this, like even guys that get high on, Garrett Nussmeyer has two of his worst games right after that. Guys like Shadur Sanders, it's like, yeah, he does some nice things, but then it's also like,

You know, you have to wash away a lot of the trade stuff that he doesn't have. And then even like Jalen Milrow is more projecty. So it's just, yeah, again, and Cam Ward, same, is more good than great in all of his areas, even though he's, you know, he's kind of the best of this bad bunch so far. I'd take him over Pickett.

I can tell you that I have a higher grade on cam ward and a couple other guys than picket and Ritter in that class. But, uh, I, I do think that this is just a weird situation. I mean, and the jets now, even GM wise and shoot head coach wise, who wants to take that gig?

Like you got your mortgage so much of the future. You got like, you know, we got quarterback questions now, even if Rogers stays like that becomes a thing. So yeah, it's just a messy situation. They're all in everybody in the world knew they were all in. They try to make it like a two year window or even a three year window, but it felt like this season was the all in season. This is why you trade for Devante Adams. This is why he signed Tyron Smith and Mike Williams. And it's just, yeah, it's just all the worries kind of,

came up. All the worries, the possible bad came up in this year. But that's what happens when you don't have a franchise that can insulate any of that bad and keep it away from the main stuff. It's like it's going to creep in. So it's a rough one for the Chess, especially as they watch the team, their biggest foe, the Patriots, also just get another quarterback that they have to deal with. So I see here, man, that's just got to be rough. That's got to be really, really tough. But we're going to transition now.

to what are, I liked how we are, the alliterative labeling we're putting on this. These teams, are they playoffs? Are they pending for the playoffs? Are they packing it up?

That's what we are determining for these next. We're going to each conference. So it's about, you know, eight teams, 10 teams, four or five for each conference. We're going to start actually with another AFC East team. The one that we kind of no one has really figured out this team, including myself. So I actually want to hear some of your thoughts. This is the Miami Dolphins who are four and six right now. Tua Tungulovea is now Tungulovea, my bad, is now healthy.

Playoff probabilities now are at 9%. These odds, well, first off, brought to you by Producer Stone, are from NFL.com. So the Dolphins, Matt, I actually just want to hear your thoughts about them because I'm trying to figure them out. They are playing good ball, especially on the defensive side. And now that Tua is healthy on the offensive side, but maybe they just set themselves a little too far back to maybe make a run. But I kind of want to hear what you think.

Yeah, I think I'd give them like pending for this one. I don't think they're quite packet up here because I agree with you. First things first, the defense has been a pretty impressive unit, I think, throughout, especially on the back end. I think they've played pretty good coverage. Jalen Ramsey still having a, you know,

you know, I don't know if he's at the peak of his powers, but he's still a very, very good player. And then what they've gotten up front from guys like Calais Campbell, even as they've dealt with injuries, you know, chop Robinson, not a perfect prospect, but he's had his moments of late. I think they've created, they've done some good things up front to create pressure. Obviously the Rams game sticks out, even though,

We'll talk about the Rams in a second. That's their big bugaboo. When you can pressure Stafford, the plays have basically been DOA this year. But the Dolphins did a really good job doing that. So their defense has been impressive to me. Offensively, I know there's a lot of complaints in the fantasy world about what's up with Tyreek. Jalen Waddle is completely useless. But

These ancillary players are beyond useful for them. The Jonu Smith plays rule. You think about the idea of Jonu Smith and what he is. He's this athletic move tight end who can create plays in space.

he's been exactly the type of player you probably want to drop into the 2022 and 2023 Miami Dolphins offense because you create so much space with these wide receivers and the speed on the outside. I think McDaniel even said this in a recent press conference. Why is Johnnie Smith producing? Well, look at all the space created by these guys on the outside, especially because...

I don't think they've done maybe enough or I don't think they've done a good enough job conceptually evolving in this offense. So they're really just running the same plays, but now they have some other... Yeah, they're running the hits, but now they have a few other counter punches, not schematically, but personnel wise, whether it's A-chan as a receiver, but especially Johnnie Smith. You just look at tight ends since week eight. He has the sixth highest successful target rate in the NFL right now, does Johnnie Smith. He's behind Kittle,

Josh Oliver, Trey McBride, Brock Bowers, Mark Andrews. And it's not even a bunch of big plays because he's only had 37 and a half percentage of his plays have been have been like 10 plus yards, even though he's getting seven yards after the catch per reception in this span. He's just been a nice addition to this offense. So I think with Tua being back, Tua showing some of the skinny Tua stuff, like making plays. I'm sure you can detail how he's been.

creative off script and then adding some of these guys like John who a chance as a pass catcher, even if they're not getting the same production of the wide receivers, it makes me a little more optimistic about the offense than certainly we were during the non two weeks.

Totally. The little bit of creation he's dropping in there is really nice to see. Just a little bit. He's not going to make a living on it. You're not expecting Josh Allen or Lamar. All of a sudden, Tua is just going to act like that. But just enough. If things aren't perfect, just keep the play alive. But I actually started diving into some stats. When Tua is on the field this year, the Dolphins are ranked fourth in combined success and explosive play rate. Wow.

This is what we expected. The top 10 offense, like just like we said, the preseason, just like no matter what, they'll figure it out. I totally agree with you that there hasn't been that schematic. Wow. This is the new thing that they're doing. It's more like you said, just more of the same. You could tell they like John O'Smith right away, though, because they're handing them off some like jet sweeps and stuff this preseason. So obviously they want they're like, oh, this guy's interesting. But that is you nailed it. That's such a great point that.

These auxiliary roles have been weaponized now. It's not that like, oh, we're designing plays for them. But then if you are the third guy, the auxiliary target on a concept or the secondary target on a concept, it's a lot better when you have a guy like Johnny Smith that can take it to the house or create an explosive. When if you just have an NPC at tight end, it's like a four yard, five yard game. Oh, yeah. I really like one of these guys.

I was going to say the other time they have is Julian Hill, who is a nice little dirty work guy for them. I've kept my eye on him. He's like a deep, deep, deep stash for dynasty. I'm just going to give a throw that one out there. They like him. They've been playing him as an last year's undrafted rookie. And then they keep playing him. I mean, he's played. He plays like 30 something snaps every game.

But that's the other tight end. So I think the offense, though, in any way you shake it, it's a top 10-ish, top 12 offense with two on the field. The run game gets weaponized more. Great call with the H-hand stuff as using him as a receiver. They've really weaponized those kind of swing passes stuff. Defense, statistically, it's like...

They're more middle of the pack, but I feel eye test wise, they are much better than that. They make it hard on offenses. That Rams game really stuck out to me when they played the Cardinals. That was a really good game matchup wise and all those types of things. Cause I watch every fricking Cardinals game. They still have talented players up front. Zach Siler, Salyer, who like,

that's pretty funny. The, his wife, I think came on Twitter one time. He was like, when's everyone going to stop calling him underrated? He got paid already. I love that. When like the wives of the girlfriends are sister. Yeah. That's right. Like you get your stand up for your man. I love that. It was a good, I'm like, right. Right. But Jordan Brooks has been good for them too. Great. Shout out with Ramsey. I looked at their schedule. They have the 27th ranked remaining schedule by DVO way, which is now an FTN fantasy. So they host the Patriots.

at the Packers, host the Jets at the Texans, host 49ers at Browns at Jets. So they have, you know, winnable games, four of them, but then three really tough ones. So it's a mix there. If they get hot, yeah, they have a chance. Like you said, the odds before this was 9% from the NFL. That feels about right, but I'm not counting them out completely. Like, I do think they're playing good ball. They can maybe make some noise, make it tough at least on the rest of the team. So

I think if I had gunned ahead, it's not so much packing it up. It's like they have one box ready. But they're still going like, we're not sure if we're moving yet. We still kind of like this. So I'm going to have them more pending with one box ready. I'm going to have a one step below you. But they're a live one. They're a real live one. Going with the next team in the AFC.

A team that I feel like we always watch because their offense is incredible, but other aspects, not so much. This is the Bengals, Cincinnati Bengals, who are four and seven. They also have a 9% playoff probability from stone via NFL odds. The Bengals, we just watched them this weekend, an amazing night game against the Chargers. That was a lot of fun, but we kind of know what their woes are with the defensive side of the ball. But Matt,

When you look at the Bengals, look at what they have remaining, what are you feeling? Or are you feeling that they are playoff pending or are they packing it up? Bengals make me sad, man. They make me sad because...

Uh, man, I kind of I kind of always roll my eyes at the whole like this quarterback would be the MVP if his team was playing better. I mean, isn't that the whole point of the award? Yeah, I know. We've lost the plot on that. And the other thing was to the statistical breakdowns where all the MVPs are. Well, it's always a top two seat is like that doesn't mean we have to vote that way.

just because that's, you know what I mean? I've always... It's become a self-fulfilling prophecy where it's like, well, this is what we have always done, so it shall always be. Like, if an MVP, if they're the sixth seed, like, say, like, the Ravens end up the sixth seed and Lamar, I think Lamar has the best case. I am...

totally fine giving him my vote. Like, you know what I mean? Like I just, I, yeah, sorry, but I, I don't know why that, like you said, it's a self self-fulfilling prophecy that they've turned it from a, a statistical quirk into like, no, that's what we have to vote for now. So yeah, sorry. It's like those people, the elite, the elites of, uh, of NFL voters and stuff like that. Yeah. You like to drop the oligarch word out there. Well, but that really is though. That really is. That is really the NFL media oligarchy. Yeah. Yeah.

For sure, bro. Not us here on the underground. We're here for the people. We're here amongst the people. We're going to have the people's vote. That's right. That's right. But the whole point of me saying that is because obviously Burrow, I think, is having his best season this year. I think this is one of the most dynamic offseasoners

offerings he's given of late. So it's just a shame that it is wasted on a season that I do think is trending pretty hard towards Pack It Up. And it's crazy because it feels like the last ride for the Burrow, Chase, T. Higgins trio. And every time I watch this team, I'm just kind of

how are they ever going to be anything else? I get it. You know, you can find receivers anywhere sort of, but it's not as if somebody here like is stepping up, like ready to just become T Higgins and give you the specific dimension. Cause to me, when T Higgins is out there and what makes them like a team that I should, I should be sitting here saying like, no, we cannot give up on them because when Higgins is out there and Chase is out there and Burrows out there, they just have a real unique,

not like advantage. And I know that some people really want to see more from them from a schematic standpoint. I'm almost like, forget schematics. Like you've got, you've got, you move chase around, do creative, all that stuff. And then also have a guy in T Higgins, who's just going to always win in the intermediate area. Like forget schematics. That's a competitive advantage right there. So I, I love that they lean into that, but at the same time, the defense is just, it's, it's,

is hopeless. I, I, there's nothing, I mean, there's nothing really more to say about it. I, I'm very high on the chargers. We've talked so much about the chargers. That is like, that's like my, my team this year has been, has been the chargers, very pro chargers pod, but I think some of the performance from the Bengals defense, they turned it up a little bit in kind of the third quarter, especially, but there were also some chargers inflicted errors, I think in that as well. So for me, it's just, I just don't see how that side of the ball, uh,

You know, can do anything to really make up the gap here. At four and seven, it just... It feels too long of a road. Especially, like I'm sure as you're going to highlight, some of these matchups coming up here. Oh, yeah. Well, they...

It's a mixed bag, the remaining schedule. They're 24th Steelers at Cowboys at Titans, which isn't a total easy out. But then Browns, okay, Broncos, Steelers. So it's kind of a no kind of easy buckets kind of schedule remaining. Maybe the Browns, that's about it. But they still have some Browns defenders that might not be happy about that. When Higgins, Chase, and Burrow are on the field together, their combined –

sex rate is 65%. The Lions lead the league right now at 63.5%. So it's, it's the best offense in the league when those three are on the field. So that, that, that like, like you said, it's like, you want this, they, the chemistry they have, the, you know, chase and burrow are on another level. They've been playing together now for what? Six, seven years straight. Yeah. And what,

But with Higgins, too, when he's out there, it's just even the feel that Burrow has to throw him open, even underneath stuff. He'll throw stuff behind him. And Higgins is like, no, I know why you're throwing it behind me. But, you know, like Higgins has the trust of the. That's a good point. Yeah. Yeah. The missed throws. There's missed accurate throws. You know, like you accurately misplace a throw to throw it away from defender. And like Higgins understands that. Like you could see him going like, oh, you're throwing behind me. That means I now have to roll into this catch.

That just comes with, I mean, the best ones do that because they have time and reps at it, and they chuck at the ball more than anyone. I'm sure they do it in practice. But, man, it's just, I totally get why they want to invest in this, or why they kept this afloat and haven't traded Higgins or anything. But it's like, is this going to continue? What's going to happen this offseason with all that? And I think now, this was the bet they made. Hey, we got these offensive guys, defense, we're going to try and restock the cupboard, and draft guys, and hopefully they can develop.

They hit a wall there. They lost Jesse Bates and they kind of just haven't figured it out. They're what? 25th combined sex rate, 28th in EPA per play, 27th in DVOA. It feels like

If they don't get a sack from Trey Hendrickson, it's just if the offense is competent, they're just going to beat you down. Their defense just can't hold up over four quarters no matter what the offense is doing. So if the offense just hits any lulls, it's like, well, game gets away from them. That's just not a fun way to live. As someone that lived through the early 2000s Vikings, this reminds me a lot of those teams. But yeah, I think they are packing it up because it's just –

they've been throwing haymakers in some of these matchups and playing their butts off and they just can't pull it off. And now they have a tough schedule. They have AFC losses. It's just, I think it's just too much to make up. Even if I just love this offense and think, you know, obviously it's the top five offense, no matter how you slice it. It just does. Like you said, it kind of feels like, Oh,

Is this the end? A little bit of this trio? And it's kind of a little sad because Burrow's playing so phenomenal. As an athlete, his sack avoidance has been amazing. It's... Yeah, he's playing just phenomenal football right now. He's hit 13 times on Sunday night. I mean, and he still had...

an excellent performance. It's just, it's crazy what he's doing. He had a run against the Giants where he hit 20 miles an hour. Like he, he's just, he's rolling. Oh, I, sorry. I actually meant to bring this up with the John New Smith thing. Sorry. My brain just want to go back to this. Did you see,

what happened after he scored that first touchdown and he threw the ball up in the air. I, I did not, but I was, I just did the fantasy pod earlier today with Sal veteran. He told me, he told me about this, but I didn't see it. So hilarious. Yeah. So Johnny Smith just scores and does well. A lot of NFL players does just throws the ball in the air as high as he can. Like he's not thrown to anyone and the ball goes into the stands and

and ends up landing right where his family is. That's insane. And the video is hilarious because there's not like a fan, like the person recording it is just a random fan. And it wasn't like he was just like, oh, that's his family right there. You just see all these people with John Newsmith jerseys on. And it's like, that has to be the family right there. But it's just, yeah, life's funny sometimes. That's when you know you're on a heater.

Well, you know, you're on a heater. Yeah, especially when I picked him up to for as a weekly flyer to pick up Trey McBride. And I was like, yeah, this is going great. One of my redraft leagues. But yeah, that that's kind of how I just with the Bengals. It's I think what you said just makes you sad. They kind of really do make me sad a little bit because I've just been enjoying the offense. I know people have qualms with it.

And poor Zach Taylor can never do anything right. Like if they do, if anything's wrong, it's his fault. Anything's right. It's all Joe Burrow. And it's, this is the offense. This is what Burrow loves. And so this is what the Bengals offense until, and when he's there, this is what it's going to be probably for the rest of his career, some version of what you're seeing right now. So it's just kind of funny. They, they run six, seven money plays and,

burrow reads them perfectly because he's so smart and then they run a couple change-ups off of it so if you want to beg for motion or beg for a difference it's like well talk to your quarterback because that's what it's gonna be so i do i do want to apologize for zach taylor sometimes or apologize to him because be like i i know you're doing some good things here even if you're not perfect but yeah yeah that's the bangles they are set great uniform matchup too by the way them

them and the chargers. That was, that was great. All right. We're going to take a quick break and then we're going to wrap it up with some AFC and then start getting to the NFC. 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.

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We are back, continuing with the AFC, a team that started making me a little happier this past week. I got my smile back a little bit with this team. That's the Indianapolis Colts, who are 5-6. NFL, Via Stone has them at 30% odds to make the playoffs. Their remaining schedule is 24th. It's tied for 24th, I should say, when DVOA is in.

And that is they play the lines. They're at the Patriots. They have a bye week. They're at the Broncos and a phenomenal loser leaves town match host, the Titans at the giants host, the Jacks, Matt, what do you think about the Colts? Are they packing it up? Are they pushing it here? What are you, what are you thinking? It was nice to see Anthony Richardson back out there and probably have the best game of his career. Uh, so it worked, uh,

results over process one of the worst messaged moves of all time hey two two weeks on the bench everything is fixed I I'm being facetious I don't know about that but there was a lot you know I think to me the big difference watching Richardson this week is that we started talking about this when he was benched especially in that Texans game it started to feel like

We're like things are slipping here like we are going down a path. Yeah, we're starting to press. We're playing chaotic. Where is this the guy that even if he hasn't been a consistently accurate quarterback and nobody on planet Earth would come here and be like, well, actually, no, he was. No, like he was not a consistently accurate quarterback.

at any point. But he was also never a guy that played chaotic or made poor decisions or had some of these operational errors that you talked about before he got benched. That was what started to happen. You didn't see a lot of that this week. There were definitely still some throws he left on the table and missed throws and things like that, especially early in the game. But as the game went on, he settled more into it. He felt confident.

Michael Pittman talked after the game about, and I'm paraphrasing a little bit here, he said, rhythm is confidence. And when you're in rhythm, you get confident. I would say that this was the first time all season that I felt the Colts were intentionally leaning into the rhythm of the passing game because that's one thing I really liked about Shane Steichen as a play caller is that

when you've got like Gardner Minshew under center, this, even if it's Gardner Minshew and the ceiling is so low, it's a path. It's a passing game. It has a lot of rhythm and it has a lot of like, all right, we've got easy buttons. We've got layups. We're making, we're leaning into life being easier on our quarterback. It felt like, because all right, now we've got,

a guy that can do a lot more than Minshew. Let's lean into all these deep route concepts. And we've got, you know, Michael Pittman on deeper routes and we've got Alec Pierce out there and all those things. And like, let's make Pierce the primary read in this concept and things like that. And it leaned into sort of the volatility where I think a guy like Richardson almost would help if you met in the middle here, somewhere between Minshew land and, you know,

70 yard heaters to Alec Pierce three times a quarter. So I think that they found this, this felt like the first time from like watching the route concepts and things like that back. It felt like the first time we really, we really saw kind of a meeting in the middle here. So, and Richardson, I think responded really well to it. So for me, I'm still going to give, I'm going to give them pending here just because it really does come down to that week 15 matchup, their first game off the buy. And what have we said? You've said this all year. This team needs a bye week.

Get to the bye week. We're going to get to the bye week. First game out of there is this game against the Broncos, which I mean, I don't know how I'm going to feel about this offense against that defense because it is still Richardson. It is still a guy that I'm not fully, fully ready to trust in yet as a clear defense.

advantage under center uh but yeah i think that's going to be the big tell here is that game yeah they're they're four and four in conference right now and then yeah that broncos game is everything i mean because lions okay i'm not you know i'm not i'm not guessing they'll win that one even if they have it at home at patriots they are the better team even if the patriots are playing better ball right now but you know hopefully you win that one and then you have to buy

That Broncos game is everything. Like they have AFC, you know, tiebreakers with some teams, but that one is the huge one, especially how the Broncos sit in the AFC. I think that, yeah, they're two and four right now against the AFC. We're going to get to them in a minute. But yeah, the Richardson, especially in the second half, you could feel it calming down. And there's so much in the last few weeks where it was like, he is making the right mental decision, but his feelings,

feet were not cooperating with his mind and not saying bad footwork or anything i would say it was too bouncy or he was like hey i'm right here okay i'm just gonna confirm that i'm right okay i'm right now i'm gonna throw it which would throw up with his arm just threw off the timing of the offense just where you said didn't you were talking about some rhythm with the play calls and everything he didn't feel in rhythm he felt like he was like he felt very robotic

And that's not why you draft Richardson and draft all that. It's like he has more polish than people think, especially in the pocket. But you want to just play loose like all these guys. Caleb Williams, this was the same discussion I had last week. Stop being so robotic and play football, be a quarterback. And you could just feel it in the second half. He went.

12 of 18, 169 yards, one passing touchdown, nine passing first downs. So half his attempts were for first downs, one rushing touchdown in the second half. And those rushes, you could see him going like, I am about to prove myself to this entire fricking locker room. And there's no helmet tapping right here. The touchdown, he just blows over two Jets defenders and you could see him get up. And I'm sure that was almost like, no,

Not a lot of guys can do this as therapy, but I'm sure that was a therapeutic moment for him to kind of go, I'm about to do this. And it worked as opposed to, I'm about to do this and I fumble and the ball flies 10 yards in the air, or I'm about to do this and keep this ball. And I hit it on Jonathan Taylor's leg. And, and, you know, he still had one of those, but that's the thing is.

Just one. It wasn't catastrophic, but you got to do all the in-between things to add it up. So that's a great point. You're talking about how it's like they were probably so excited about all the what's launched at 70 yards every play stuff. And as opposed to maybe balancing the offense and this game felt balanced. It actually felt like how I expected this Jets team to look, especially offensively. They're actually at the 13th remaining schedule by DVOA. I just accidentally copy and pasted something, but their defense is

is okay. It's not atrociously bad. It's more that 16 to 22nd best defense. That's how I feel about him, which kind of was what I was going into this year. Leo Toulatou's had some nice moments. DeForest Buckner getting healthy helps. But you're betting on this offense. You're betting on Richardson just coming into his own. Going against the Lions is a little dicey. Lions defense is legitimately good, and they can take it to you. But how you get them is if they want to run all that tight man coverage, run them out of it.

have Richardson just run, run, run, run, run. Also interesting styles matchup there. Lions will try out base and I'm getting ahead of myself. Colts will do a bunch of sub stuff. Lions also give up the most yards per game to slot receivers in the league and obviously Josh Downs is by far their most important offensive player I think at this point. Pass catcher at least.

And that's actually, Eddie Mitchell actually had a little bit better. No, Downs is obviously their best pass catcher. I had this too. Oh, the Broncos game when they come out of the bye. I was going to say this to you on the spot. So this is great. Don't let me forget when they play the Broncos that everyone is targeting the Broncos slot. They don't want to target Riley Moss. They don't want to target Sertan. And so they go after McMillan.

Uh, and they, they, they really pepper him. So like that, that's also like that. There can be a juicy downs matchup. Uh, it's McMillan. Yep. Jake, Juan McMillan. Yeah. The, the car or the Falcons only targeted Sertan twice and they're both incomplete.

And the rally Moss and McMillan got targeted 16 times. So teams are teams know what Sertan is. And then just go, okay, find the other guy. So yeah, no, that's a great point. Actually, it's a great transition too. I'm with you. I'm pending. I've kind of bought back in a little bit with the Colts and all the way there, but this was what I, that game was exactly how I pictured this operation before the kind of tires started coming off. So once I get to Dubai, I'm really optimistic about them. Yeah. 30%. That's about right.

Going on to the Broncos, though, that team I just mentioned, they are 6-5. They have a 68% chance to make the playoffs. Their remaining schedule is at Raiders, host the Browns, host the Colts in that game we just talked about, at Chargers, at Bengals, host the Chiefs.

okay that's that's some toughies in there uh they are two and four like i said against the afc and they all of their remaining games are against the afc so that is going to be an interesting slate of games for this broncos team how are we feeling about the broncos pending at that two-thirds chance to make the playoffs or do you think that any boxes should be packed for them

I think they're pending. I'm definitely not packing up, obviously, with them. I think they've been too good this year. You mentioned this a few weeks ago. They play like complimentary football and I couldn't agree more. That is how this whole team feels right now. And yeah, I mean, it's funny. They have a week 14 by and come off and play the Colts like that week 14 by to week 15 game is going to be so important for this one. Obviously, that's going to be a fun one to preview and talk about. But I would say that.

games against the Raiders and the Browns feel a little bit better for Denver going into that by then. Yeah. I mean, look, Patriots is what it is, but Lions this week for the Colts. So that, that matchup, like I said, is going to be very, very important. It's in Denver too. So that's obviously a nice advantage for them. But yeah, look, I, I think,

Bo Nix has obviously been a big talking point this week and I've spent some time studying this offense and watching things like that because Peyton Sean Payton was just such a weird figure to consider this year because you know it's been a minute I think since we've seen him do what he wants to do because obviously nothing that happened last year with Russell Wilson matters at all so it was just kind of like I'm not taking any of this seriously because I don't think this is the quarterback this coach wants and I don't think like

Every offense becomes the Russell Wilson offense. The Steelers offense is the Russell Wilson offense, just like the Broncos and the Seahawks before them. Every offense becomes the Russell Wilson offense. So none of that really mattered to me. And then at the beginning of this year, I think it is okay to say

I'm sure the people listening to this show, we were probably harsh on Bo Nix to start the year. I think it's okay to say that the stuff at the beginning of the year was not good. The film wasn't good, and I don't love the way the offense really felt, but that's still a play caller getting used to a rookie quarterback. If we give certain

certain teams grace we got to give this one that grace too because i think the last month or so it's felt really good for bo nicks and i would say that he just looks like he has a really good grasp on what he's being asked to do he understands where guys are supposed to be these receivers are not special i don't think at all um but they are doing some like creative things with marvin mims yeah um they're doing some i mean interesting like crossing routes where bo nicks just

He's he's accurately getting the ball out on time and setting these guys up for yards after catch opportunities. Is it like Josh Allen take the game over stuff? No, but I think he's confidently, accurately and successfully playing.

running the offense and right now for a rookie quarterback in the back half of his season I think that's good enough with this defense to be a playoff team so I'm still giving them pending I'm not like writing their ticket to the playoffs because I think this Colts game will matter a lot and at the end of the day you know I think the Chargers and the Ravens are shoe-ins for the other two spots so it's really just down to this the this seventh seed in the AFC but that that's kind of just where I'm at with this team right now

I am too. Like the odds of them two out of three times making the playoffs, that feels perfectly right. And this is this, it was kind of, I don't know if reassuring is the word I want to use, but I'm going to use it right now. It's nice to see sometimes maybe this old school mentality.

complimentary football actually get rewarded and like make the playoffs like yeah they're not going to make a run it's just because they have limitations in the passing game but they can they are really good on defense you know you know better they snuffed out the falcons falcons had no shot they they i mean the broncos were doing cool stuff with their fronts and stuff like that like they they are able to game plan and they got talent all three levels so that defense is like it's very legit are they the best in the league i don't know but they're top five that's how i view them

But then offensively, the run game has really come to its own. I mean, Javante Williams has looked nice for a few weeks. Now they got Adria Castame getting run out there. This is such a Peyton Saints thing when he's just rolling three running backs. I know the Ingram Camara stuff, but oh my God, this is them to a T. This is like the 2014-15 Saints all the way. The compliment I'll give Bo, because Bo Nix.

I'm going to talk about both sides. I have compliments for him, but I still have criticisms is the compliments are he doesn't make a lot of mistakes is he's not putting the ball in harm's way. He is finding checkdowns a lot, but he's also finding them. And hey, those play action shots that they do that Sean Payton loves to do. He is finding the net neutral answer when the shot play isn't there.

And that is that's good. The bar is high or the floor is high for this offense because of that, because of the lack of negative plays. He still will take a bad sack where he runs backwards, but it's not that crazy. The offensive line is legitimately a very good offensive line. Like they are really good and really well coached and really sound. The training wheels are pretty big in this offense. It's a ton of play action. It's a ton of screens. That's why the stats are kind of a little shaky when you look at Nick's.

Like, I shouldn't say shaky. They don't match the eye test completely. And I know people want to make this an argument and everything. He is definitely playing better. Way more just sound and not as chaotic as he was the first few weeks. Sean Payton's done a great job of narrowing things down for him where everything is just a two or three

player read. That's what play action plays do. He gets a lot of nice third down opportunities where it's not third and 14, third and 12, like because the run game is good because they play, you know, sound football. And he's actually, you know, been pretty accurate underneath, uh,

doesn't push the ball much even with the one that he did push the ball like in drop back settings he doesn't push the ball that much that's not that his style you know it's very selective so we'll have to see when he has to drop back 20 something times straight drop back i mean not just passing the ball straight drop back no no play action no feign hey bow read the whole field and figure it out uh it's still tbd on how he could do that like a lot of rookie quarterbacks but you

he's fine. For what they are for this Broncos team, it's very much needed. He can create a little bit, too, bringing that rush, you know, Kibbe run element as well, which is a nice little wild card to throw in there. I think they are...

They're a good team. I just am not on board with the Bo Nicks. Wow, this guy is Rookie of the Year. Why isn't anyone talking about him? I think he gets a lot of help, but he has played a lot better. I will say that, but I'm still just not on board with that because it's hard to watch through, go through all this and still see some meat left on the bone with all. But I think they are definitely pending. Like I said, the 66% chance to make it feels properly right. But that Week 15 game is going to be really juicy against the Colts.

All right.

kicking on Broncos transfer. Like, what the hell? Like, come on, man. You can't like that is as complimentary as I would get because it's just, I think that was pretty good. I think that was nice. That was, that was a nice middle ground taken. I mean, look, we're saying they have two thirds odds to make the playoffs. Like that's, that's good. And I mean, look, just, just to give it one more compliment here for bone X, he's his pressure to sacrate is great this year. I mean, it is, it's, it's up there with, yeah. Lamar Jackson, Josh Allen, uh,

Jordan Love, those are the top three guys. And then it's right there, like Derek Carr and Bo Nix and Brock Purdy. He's in a pretty good rate for avoiding sacks and things like that. So I think you're right. He doesn't take negative plays. That helps a lot. I mean, look at some of these other rookie quarterbacks that can't... I mean, Caleb Williams can't stop taking negative plays at times. And I think, obviously, he's not helped out by the design of his own offense. We've talked...

ad nauseum about that. Let's definitely never talk about it again, but we've talked ad nauseum about that. But at the same time, like this looks like a well-constructed offense. They get a lot out of some. Okay. You, why? Yeah. And he's getting a lot of real reps out there. Yeah. Look, I do like the design shot plays. And like I said, I think it's, it's been, if anything, it's been a fun, uh,

watch seeing Peyton and Nick's kind of meet each other in the middle. And I liked it. It's sometimes it's been combative and that that's cool in football too.

I like watching the Broncos because, again, the offensive attack is something after my own heart. And the defense is just so sick. And I like how the defense takes it to whatever offense. Sometimes it doesn't work, but most of the times it does. So I like the Broncos. I'm enjoying these last two teams we talked about. I've really enjoyed. I enjoyed watching the Colts last week, at least. But the Broncos, I've enjoyed watching this whole year. Getting on to the NFC, actually the Broncos opponent last week, the Atlanta Falcons, who are 6-5.

sitting pretty at 6-5 in the NFC South. 73% chance to make the playoffs. I'm going to go over their schedule real quick. They have a bye week this week. Then they host the Chargers. They're at the Vikings. They're at the Raiders. They host the Giants. They're at the Commanders. They host the Panthers. So interesting little slate there. When you are looking at this Falcons team who have been a little bit

I don't know. I don't know if disappointing is the word for the last couple of weeks, but just a little lackadaisical maybe the last couple of weeks. What are you thinking about that, Matt? Do you think they're pending? Should they pack it up at 73% chance to make the playoffs or any chinks in the armor a little bit for them as well?

Well, I think we can't talk about them and not talk about the Bucs at the same time because that's really the crux of this. That's fair. Bucs are the next team, so that's fair. Right. And because they've already... The Bucs have already lost to the Falcons twice. So they have a huge uphill road. But...

but the Falcons come off that bye and they face the Chargers and the Vikings. And I think that is such a big test for this offense because this offense, as expected, because I think it's well-designed and Kirk is Kirk and they have good players and they have an offensive line that's not one of the worst in the league from a pass protection standpoint, they can just...

mow down a bad defense and particularly this Bucks defense right I mean they can absolutely destroy a bad defense however you go into Denver and you're just you get smoked you know even even the Saints defense which isn't good this year that was more door more towards special teams that loss you know things like that that's not so much on them but even still like the Seattle game I

Michael Donald's a good coordinator, even if that's not the most talented defense in the world. The Saints are coming off the Coach Riz bump. There were some moments where Kirk was a little too Kirky in that game. You know what I'm saying? But then you go against teams like Dallas and Tampa Bay. You're going to mow those teams down. So you come out of the bye. I'm very curious as to what adjustments we see, if anything, because –

like some teams you can you go into a bye week and you're like okay I can see like with certain teams like the Bears and things like that this obviously didn't work out this way but that's a team that would have been like all right going into the bye and making this tweak and that tweak and then they didn't do any of that and they come back and they stink you know so that's a whole nother conversation but with the Falcons it's like

I don't know that if I'm sitting here saying like, all right, you know, Zach Robinson gives me a call. Like what should I do during the bi-week random podcast host? I don't know that I'd have like a laundry list of things they need to change up. Cause I like so much of what they do. But at the same time coming out of that bi-week, you're getting the chargers, you get in the Vikings. Those are two big games. I think, because if you can't, if you look like a,

to below mid offense against two good defenses there. And obviously two defenses, I think, have been really well coached in L.A. and Minnesota. That's going to say a lot, I think, because on the other side of it, again, I don't think we can have this Falcons conversation without talking about the Bucs.

They don't face the Falcons again, which is tough because they lost both games to them. But their next three games are Giants, Panthers, Raiders. That's on the other side of defensive tests. Yeah. Yeah. The slog of schedule is a little bit different between these teams. When I'm looking at the Falcons and what really spoke to me

It's just every worry I had about their defense before the season is, is like rearing its ugly head right now. It's like, it's like, Oh yeah, that's why Simmons, you could get Simmons. Oh yeah. Judon wasn't, you know, isn't an ideal fit for what they do. They got no pass rush. Like you can feel against the Broncos game. So, cause,

Because Sean Payton always has his quarterbacks take very deep drops off seven step stuff while extended play action. And a Bo Nix will add a couple of yards on top of that. So Bo Nix is like 11 yards deep in the pocket.

And I would say no Falcons players, one yard upfield. So it's Bo Nix with 10 yards of room as he's like going through the play action stuff that happens sometimes, not every time a team runs play action. Can anyone win on the interior? Can someone beat a tight end? Nothing. Just nobody. Nobody's pushing. Nobody's nothing. And so it's for me when I watch this Falcons team, the great point about them being two ups on two wins up on the box is

Not only just overall, but just having those two games on them is I've just seen those cracks come kind of get a little bigger. The right tackle, you know, Caleb McGarry, who's played well this year. That's that he's looking more like Caleb McGarry that I know that the center, you know, has been a backup with Dolman and stuff has been,

Been kind of overwhelmed by that Broncos front last week. And it's not like you're going to face like easy defenses as this goes along or if you hit the playoffs. They just those cracks, the lack of Kirk Cousins mobility, like they still don't run a lot of bootlegs with him. They still don't move the pocket that well, which will help out if teams start teeing off. If you have to drop back a bunch, you got Kirk Cousins checking the ball down on fourth and long.

You know, like it's so Vikings fans just going like, hey, just wait for October to end, guys. Kirktober is one thing. You got to wait for November. And they're always they're right about it. But the defense can no pressure. You can run on them. They don't they don't give up explosive runs, but you can just pepper them, just pop them in the face over and over. They give up gashes in the past game. That's kind of what I expected out of this defense before the year. And I mean, all the stats, their bottom five, bottom six and everything you look at.

So it's up to the offense, which wrong game is still have some great moments. Drake London still stud. But I mean, shoot, I watched that Broncos game and they were completely outcoached on that side of the ball. And that's supposed to be their strength. Broncos were running. I mentioned this earlier, but they're running fronts that I was waiting for the Falcons to adjust as I watched the game. And they just kept trying to run stuff like fronts that like on zone fronts.

zone fronts. The Falcons are such a heavy zone team that it's that whole 6-1 stuff with Fangio. Same kind of thing that the Broncos are trying to do, but they're doing a lot of guys head up and defensive line head up with the guard or head up with the center and stuff. And what that does is it takes away double teams. And so zone becomes a lot

There's other answers, but your stable zone stuff becomes a lot worse because it's just like there's no double team to climb to the linebacker then. So everybody's singled up. And if one guy loses, it looks bad. Or if two guys lose, that looks really bad. And that kind of kept cropping up against the Broncos. And it's like, all right, well, now you're going on the NFC like.

You play the Eagles again in the playoffs, they're ramped up now. You play all these other teams in the NFC, any of the NFC West teams, okay. But I don't know, none of their matchups in the playoffs are that juicy. But watching the rest of the season, it's Chargers-Vikings isn't easy. Those are two of the top five defenses with pretty feisty fronts. And then Raiders are Raiders, Giants are Giants. Now they're starting Tommy Cutlets again. But then you get Commanders.

who who knows what's going on in that game but like how the commanders have been playing the last couple weeks now getting into that game is gonna be interesting so i know i i they have a three out four chance you know according to the nfl.com but i like it feels a little worse than that um but i i still saying they're pending um but it's just you know it's not as as not as flawless as maybe it looks i mean that's just how that division feels and then yeah you get to the bucks and

who they're down two games to Falcons. They don't have the head-to-head. However, what they do have is they have the easiest remaining schedule, according to DVOA. At the Giants, at the Panthers, host the Raiders, at the Chargers, there's that game again, at the Cowboys, Panthers, and Saints. So, yeah, the Bucs getting a little bit healthier. Mike Evans coming back. Jamal Dean may be coming back. Tristan Wirth's hopefully coming back soon.

Is that how you feel about the Bucs? Are you packing up or pending for them as they kind of hit this easy slay schedule? I got to go pending with both. I mean, just because it's really comes down to how these two teams. I mean, it sounds so stupid and obvious. It comes down to how these two teams finish. Yeah, it really does, because I think your points about the Falcons are so well taken, especially on defense. Like Justin Herbert, if you look at the combined Cleveland quarterbacks, Jordan Love, Kirk Cousins.

He's fourth in terms of deep throw average depth of target under center. Like, how is he not going to throw for 300 bills against this damn Falcons defense this weekend with the lack of pass rush, especially at the interior? That's been the bugaboo for the Chargers. Yeah, I think this is that that looks like a potential loss for the Falcons to me. Again, it's tough with the Vikings. And then, yeah, that Buck schedule and the fact that like the fact that they have managed to.

duct tape the offense together with Kate Otten and screens to the running backs. And I mean, Rashad White, like doing some real deal downfield. I mean, he won like a contested catch in the game before the game before the buy, like they really receiver, right? And Sterling Shepard out routes. Can't go football 301 without mentioning Sterling Shepard out routes. Talk about the bucks. Like,

They've managed to do all this and now they might get Mike Evans back. I mean, that sounds like an offense I want to bet on with a play caller that I've really enjoyed this year. And obviously a quarterback who really feels dialed into what the system wants from him. And the run game is so much better this year, too. There's a lot of those matchups at the end of the season that I could see the Bucs run all over. So it just feels these two feel pending. And obviously destiny is tied together here.

Yes, I know. I wish they had a week 18 matchup or something like that, but they already got those games in. That's huge for the Falcons. But like, shoot, like Falcon schedules by Chargers Vikings. Okay. Bucks is Giants, Panthers, Raiders.

the Bucs could have a one-game advantage in three weeks. It's not out of the question. So I'm with you that it's pending for both of these teams and that the Bucs are more alive than maybe you would think at first blush. Huge missed opportunity by NBC to not make this the Week 18 NBC Classic Sunday Night Football. This decides the last playoff spot. Which team's going to the playoffs and which team is about to have a really bad next couple of weeks?

I know, right? I know. Let's be the schedule makers in there. I know. Usually you get the Falcon Saints week 18 and they didn't even do that. They went, no, we're going to do the different matchups in week 18. We're going to go Falcons, Panthers and Bucks Saints. So maybe they wanted the Marshawn Lattimore, Mike Evans, Bruja hot, but instead Lattimore gets traded and you don't get that anymore. And you got the Saints or whatever. Yeah. I don't know that that one, as I broke it down more, I was like, oh,

okay, like the Bucks are more alive than I thought before I did kind of did this. And especially getting those guys back. And like you said, I love their offense. I, I, I know it's one of your favorites and we've talked about 20 fricking times. It feels like, but man, they just keep getting it done. All right. We're going to take one last break and then we are going to get to the entire NFC West. See you guys in a sec. Morning. People wake up for peace and quiet. McDonald's breakfast. People.

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After the end of a good fight, you deserve a nice cold reward. Medela, you put in the hours, the energy, the tough labor, because you know the bigger the fight, the better the reward. Medela, the mark of the fight. Brick responsibly. Beer imported by Crown & Port Chicago, Illinois. All right, we are back. Bring us home with pending or pack it up and we're going out west. Follow me on the Oregon Trail. We're going to start with the Seahawks.

Seahawks are 5-5. They have a 19% chance, according to Stone via NFL. That's just what I'm calling it now. They have the 10th hardest remaining schedule by DVOA.

They got, you're going to hear a lot of the same ones now because there's a lot of FC West matchups here. Host the Cardinals at Jets at Cardinals. I hate when they do that. Two out of three games against the same team. I hate when the schedule's like that. Host the Packers, host the Vikings at Bears at Rams. So that's four games on the road.

some juicy ones in there too all right but the seahawks man they just have a huge win against the 49ers what how are you feeling about them because they are again one of the teams i'm i just can't i can't get my finger on them whatsoever week by week i change how i feel about and how every aspect of this team but how you feeling about them matter they packing it up they're pending anything else any other a literal p word you want to throw in there

Well, this is so difficult with this entire division because it does kind of feel like even though all of these teams are good, are any of them realistically going to make the playoffs over Minnesota, over...

over green bay and either one of washington or philadelphia and obviously philadelphia's in the driver's seat there because they they won that game on thursday night and they look like the better team right now their their defenses sick it's incredible um jalen carter i mean best player maybe in week 11 period across any game he was incredible on thursday night so it's just it's it's tough when we're talking about this division sort of in this in the

in this sense because we might be battling for one spot here. And I really, like call me weak right off the top, I don't really have like any conviction over on how I feel about really any of these teams right now. And Seattle sort of embodies that because defensively, I think they did a pretty good job coming out of their bye. And that's obviously one that, you know, we've joked that they were just

Cycling out linebackers left and right, like Mike McDonald's going back to the drawing board. None of we do this. We actually need that with with the linebacker play in Seattle. I think they did a pretty good job shutting down windows, especially on in breaking routes. They went to a lot of those classic like Jawan Jennings outbreakers did the 49ers. I thought that was a pretty good defensive pitch coming off the bye.

But offensively, I do love that they leaned into what I would call intentional usage with Jackson Smith and Jigba, whereas previously it's been...

all right let's just dump him off screens and flats and like he's kind of our layup receiver because Gino you know he's under pressure we need to we need to get the ball my my this is I'm just guessing my theory on that is like why he was such a short and constricted kind of route player for them is because they know their their offensive line stinks and they want to give Gino a quick answer to pressure and like okay let's let let's let it be Jackson Smith and Jigba but you're still neutering a guy that maybe he's not a future elite receiver but I do think there's like a

like a Keenan Allen range of outcomes for him as a player, maybe like a Bud, like Keenan Allen type of player, because he's, he's such a good route run. Like let's let him get down field, you know? And I think they did a really good job. There's a couple of plays where like JSN is the farthest or he's a, he's a slot receiver, but he's on the line of scrimmage and DK is kind of in a condensed set with him. They're like a little bunch and they worked those guys on like combination routes together. And I think that that works a lot better for me than just,

DK's the far boundary receiver and JSN's in the slot. They're kind of doing things in isolation of each other. So I love that. That felt like something that was a nice wrinkle added to the offense coming out of the bye. But at the same time, I still don't know that I think this

Offense as a whole totally feels cohesive. I think the run in the past game is a little too siloed, and I don't know if those are just a stylistic thing between Kenneth Walker being more of an under center back and Geno being more of a shotgun type of quarterback. So that always is going to feel tough to me. So I'm going to give them – I think I'm going to give this entire division pending, but I feel very like both sides of my mouth on the Seahawks here. Yeah. I know the Seahawks are hard for me because –

my head is saying pack it up my heart is saying pending i think that's how i'm going to go with this one uh it's the it's a tough schedule but it's like they're all playing each other these mc west teams so that's gonna be so interesting but but the old line played way better uh you know making the change at center after connor williams retired with although what i'm not even gonna look it up although all the wotimi from michigan i actually really liked him in college so i it was he had a good game like actually not even just like oh pretty good like

a good strong game at center. Abe Lucas was back at right tackle for most of the game and what a difference he made when Nick Bosa was still healthy out there. He was holding his own one-on-one. He lost a couple times but holding his own which is a big difference from Stone Forsyth like just being a traffic cone you know for whoever was pass rushing out there which

matters a lot i i was optimistic about ryan grubb going into this year i think i have now seen some limitations of a god i'm going to use this as a derogatory term a college guy uh sometimes those ball plays those x's and o's that you draw up on the whiteboard don't look as good when you don't consider the protection and they you know in practice it's like oh yeah five man protection let's run everything 20 yards deep and then

You get to the NFL and it's like, oh, we only can do that once or twice, not 14, 15 times like we did at Washington. And so maybe the bye week helped. It may be kind of just, you know, the coaches met and they shook it off and they're like, hey, we have to do this. We have to do this. Having a competent center and a much better right tackle. What's so funny, too.

They get a right tackle. Abe Lucas is back out there looking good. And then Charles Cross probably has the worst game of the season. It's like their best player on the line, their left tackle, has his worst game. It's like they just can't figure it out. Like Leonard Floyd looked like an all-pro against them. But you mentioned JSN. That was...

I will say this. I know he had good yards, good catches, but overall, that was Jason's best game as a pro, as a CEO. Yeah. Like just overall, the all encompassing things as a blocker. He had, he was really getting in there. Him and Lenore were battling each other. Demond, Adore, Lenore, his feeling zone. There was an out of structure play where Jason's just such a smart player. And that's why I think why it,

He's such a hard player to talk about because he's not overwhelming at anything or athletically or size, but he's just more of a crafty, smart player. But yeah, he had a feeling zone. He had a win from the outside. You're talking about him being on ball. He had one on ball outside. He was just the Z because the tight end was on his side and he ran a dig and got open and caught it. And I was like, you could do that.

I saw you do that like twice in college, but he had three catches, three targets from the outside. One of them was a screen, but you got to see Grubb.

I thought in the second half grub called a phenomenal game. He does make good adjustments, but sometimes he has to because his initial plan sucked. So I was trying to be optimistic about him all year, but that was kind of like my like, oh, I'm like, all right, let's pick it up, man. You're wasting a lot of ball plays trying to test out. You only get it's not college where you get 80 plays. You get 55, 60 plays. All right. So they better be good ones.

and I got to see some cool design stuff from him. Like finally, here it is. Like he set up a couple of screens in the second half. They were great. The defense, like you said, they made some improvements on the linebacker. They're figuring it out. They're figuring out the linebacker position, but they're, they're finding themselves a little bit, but, uh,

They can pull off tough wins, and I really think that they can hang in all these games that they have remaining, but they can also lay an egg at any time. So there's such a tough team. Not a bad team, not a great team. They're one of the many teams in the middle, but this is an interesting schedule. They're going to be in all these games. I don't know what the spreads are going to be, obviously, but it's going to be a lot of tasty matchups. So they could go any which way, like I said, Hart,

saying pending, but head is still saying pack it up a little bit. But moving on to another NFC team, the team the Seahawks just beat. That is the San Francisco 49ers. We're also 5-5 and have a 30% chance to make the playoffs. And also their Super Bowl odds are still way up there, which is just the respect that this team gets and what they have. But how are you feeling about the 49ers right now, Matt? Oh yeah, big deep breath. That was me before I took my notes on them too. Oh.

When we start the schedule, when we trot out their schedule, just so just to set you up. I'm looking at it, but go ahead. Go ahead. Third hardest remaining schedule by DVO way. There are one in three in the division right now, which is not good. Three and four in the conference right now at the Packers, at the bills, host the bears, host the Rams at the dolphins, host the lions at the Cardinals. Whew.

And your quarterback's got a bum shoulder right now. Yeah, now that. Now that. Man, it's so funny because there were times in training camp it just felt like one thing after another. Obviously, they had the holdouts. They had the injuries. And it just felt like your first-round picket receiver gets shot. And now, by the way, he has to just be like a full-time player because of injuries, which I've been watching Pearsall lately for the reception perception rookie report. And it's just like...

I think he's been fine. Like, I mean, he's been fine, which to me, I'm like, I don't want to judge him too harshly because the guy was shot in August. And oh, by the way, he didn't even have like a normal off season because he dealt with injuries. So it's just kind of,

This is the first four games of his career, which is four games is the sample I use for the rookie reports. It's like, okay, well, let's put him up there. But I also don't want to judge to our show because this was not the plan that he was going to be a full-time, almost a full-time player for them based on what happened in the... I mean, shoot, even when they drafted him, I'm sure they imagined like, yeah, this will be kind of something of a redshirt year. And it just feels like now everything has been accelerated. I actually have a theory that drafting Pearsall...

I've been sort of talking about this week. I think drafting pure style actually was probably more of an extending Jennings to in conjunction. And now because these guys are seeing the field together, it's making me think like this is all just been faster than we wanted here in San Francisco. I think they wanted to move the offense more towards this like drop back spread, put it in like away from the Shanahan stuff. And I mean,

just the typical the concept of that offense and move into more let's get Purdy in the gun and spread the field and he can use his legs as an advantage and they've been doing that but then also like not with all of the players and it kind of feels like they're caught between two worlds and now oh Jennings and Pearsall are on the field and like Jennings is really really good player and Pearsall I think will be good in time but like Debo's not the same player that he was anymore he's not really like a

consistently positive force in the offense. Kittle's missing time. McCaffrey's it just felt like back in training camp with all this stuff going on. Maybe this just wasn't their year. And then I sit here going into week 12 and I think why do that Seahawks loss all the things we just said and then that schedule maybe it's just not their year like I and which sucks because of where they are as a franchise and everything like that. They're coming off a Super Bowl loss, but it's

Sometimes you just don't got it and that's where the fates have you. And I kind of just feel that way with San Francisco right now. It's really hard to make runs in the playoffs year. Make the playoffs first off and then make a run every year in my...

truly be a Super Bowl contender like they have been the last few years, really, the last five years. Man, it's just so hard. It's all the stuff that, like, at first you say, okay, yeah, get Ricky Pearsall. Juwan Jenks takes another step forward this year. He looks so good. Oh, wow. If you just told me that, like, in week 12, we're like, oh, yeah, those guys are really stepping up. I'd be like, so this offense must be... Rules. They must be booming. If you told me the auxiliary guys are stepping up, but all the stars are...

not star Kittle when he's been out there has been absolute stars been phenomenal just when he's been out there, you know, he's battling injuries to like the,

Some draft advantage the 49ers have had the last few years is they do not care about medical concerns with college prospects. And that's sometimes what you see when they all get hurt at once. Ayuku's gone. Like you said, Debo's was nice at the beginning of the year. He kind of feels like a 90% Debo or 85% Debo. And Debo does not feel like Debo Samuel without CMC on the field because of all the inverting stuff that they do with those two.

And then you got CMC who looks like 85% CMC. He's just still smooth, still a good route runner. He has opened up the passing game a little bit, but the run game is still lacking teeth. And this is still, like you said, even if you want to shift to more of a drop back, maybe their own version with the Rams do where it's kind of this like, yeah, the drop back game is really good, but then they have a real strong run game as well. Let pretty kind of operate a little bit more.

You still need that run game to have teeth. And it's been fine efficiency wise. It just is not the same where it's like, this is the best run game in the NFL or top three in some way, shape or form. And yeah,

maybe cmc keeps working off that rust but he just doesn't look right uh or it looks good but not cmc and that's a big difference about what this offense needs and then pretty dealing with the shoulder whenever you see pretty scrambling a bunch on the first couple drives i'm like oh this can be a long day for the 49ers because it's their opening scripts are so pristine usually so if he's scrambling

This isn't going as you guys planned. So this could be an interesting day. That's what happened last week even. And then just look at the defense. Nick Bosa is now dealing with a groin and ab injury. Traveris Ward has been battling injuries. Might be coming back this week, I think. But you can tell they're missing him. And the defense is good. I actually don't hate it. It's just that there's holes, and the holes are glaring. Watching the Seahawks, the Seahawks who have been a struggling offense for some of this year, just basically find Devondre Campbell and

and go attack him. Where is he? Oh, he's on the line of scrimmage? We're going to run jet sweep at him. Oh, okay, there he is off ball. All right, run an inside-out route. Get him out in space. They used to not have that just glaring weakness. They had fine at some of these other spots. But going from Dre Greenlaw, who was like, I mean, some people have him as a second-team all-pro, and he's been battling. He's working his way back from Achilles. I think he's working some off-field stuff now.

Without him, going to Devondra Campbell has been a huge negative. That's a big gap going from very good to below average or even poor at times. So Fred Warner does all he can. You know, I like other guys like I really am a big fan of Demondor Lenore. But then you got Malik Mustafa, who I like, who's a safety. But you're relying on these new faces that they weren't probably keen on relying on going into this year. Good, maybe long term. This would be a good thing. Get these guys reps.

It's just not kind of the, again, lacking teeth, lacking venom on both sides. So they're also, like I said, one and three in division three, four in conference. They got a really tough schedule. It's a good team. They're just not there. And I don't know. They're just not, like you said, it's just not, it doesn't feel like their year and they still have that.

shoot, a decent chance, 30% chance to make the playoffs. Yeah. I I'm, I'm more packing it up than pending with them. Even if my answer is pending, just cause it just, that's a tough schedule and they just don't have that weaponry that it feels like they've had before. So God, it feels weird though. Cause I look at them like you're a good team, but you're not a bad team, but you're not even an average team, but you're five and five and you just don't feel right. Just trying to diagnose that a team on the upswing kind of the opposite at six and four,

Was this 40 straight podcasts I'm mentioning this team? That's Arizona Cardinals. The Arizona Nate Tices.

Arizona A. Tices. Yeah, I'm glad to be. I have no red, even though I went to Wisconsin in my wardrobe. I have to go find that back out. But the Cardinals are at 65% chance according to the NFL.com via Stone. 21st ranked remaining schedule by DVOA. They're 2-0 in the division. They have wins against the 49ers and the Rams, which is huge. 3-3 in conference. Their remaining schedule is at Seahawks, at Vikings, homecoming.

host Seahawks, host Patriots, at Panthers, at Rams, host 49ers. So interesting kind of little slate of games there. They're coming off their bye week. How are you feeling about the Cardinals right now, Matt? I feel pretty good. I feel pretty good about this team. I feel good. And the reason is, you know, as we've got how many times have we talked about the Cardinals offense and how, like, okay, it might be a little volatile, but, you know, like,

They're figuring things out. And they did start to figure things out, you know, towards the really before this bye week. I mean, I thought many of these games before the bye were great. You mentioned that like back and forth affair they had with the Dolphins. I thought they really finally found some good. That was where it started to kind of turn around from the Marvin Harrison Jr. usage.

side recall I mean he still doesn't get a ton of like layups and things like that I mean I did the did the rookie report on him and like zero zero percent screens no no attempts in space in terms of like catches with the opportunity to break a tackle in space 0.7 percent of his routes were flat routes I mean he's just 14.7 percent slants which is

which is absurdly low that, that if it was in the full historical database, it'd be one of like the lowest numbers, or at least like bottom 10. Go to undergraduate school. We're dropping you right into grad school. Yeah. So it's, it's still, it's still one of the more difficult roles in the NFL. But I mean, we've started to see the dig routes really come up out routes and things like that, that intermediate breaking routes, as opposed to just everything being vertical, which is the routes. Like, I mean him and Murray connecting on some of these out, like outbreakers on in the, in the end zone, uh,

obviously that big fourth down against the Dolph or the big conversion with the Dolphins. That was key. So we started to see his role evolve. It was right around this Dolphins game. The Bears game, just a professional, like go beat up on a team that's kind of circling the drain right now. They did that with the run game especially. And same thing with the Jets in the next one. And they kind of beat them every which way, both through the air and on the ground. So that was impressive. But then again, talking about the Cardinals offense all this time, it was just wait till they get out of their bye week.

And then we get games against the Seahawks twice. We get the Patriots. We get the Panthers. Even some vulnerable defenses like the Rams, which they're great up front, but their secondary can be abused. So this is now we're in the good part of the schedule, I think, for Arizona. And they just feel very buttoned up. It feels like a lot of the hard work that they spent in –

on the offense, like, okay, yes, Marvin Harris Jr. is going to get a PhD in playing wide receiver here. He's not going to do, we're not going to Mickey Mouse it with him. Well, he's playing really well in that role right now. And they're starting to connect on some of those plays in the run game, you know, Kyler Murray and being more disciplined under center. And like, he's playing really good football right now, even defensively. And like everybody that always kind of wants to yada yada the Cardinals defense, but some of that, like,

funky three safety stuff is actually put some teams into, into a, into a bind over there on that side of the ball. Even if it's, they're still not going to be one of the best defense in the league, but they're more difficult to play against now defensively than certainly at the start of the year. So I think they're trending in there. They just feel like, whereas,

49ers feel like they're trending in the wrong direction. The Rams, we'll talk about them, but the Rams and the Seahawks both kind of feel stuck in neutral. This feels like a team that's going in the right direction at the right time, coming out of their bye week with good matchups. I'm easy to say they have the best odds, but I feel the best about them in the division right now. I do too. Yeah, like you said. Yeah, easy to say, but no, I really do because...

God, you nailed it, though. The offense after that Dolphins game, one of my more favorite games in recent weeks, like just reviewing it and watching it all.

But Marvin Harrison Jr.'s role, Trey McBride just keeps ascending. I mean, you could see Sauce Gardner give up on the season after Trey McBride threw him off on that crossing route and just tossed him. And yeah, then he gets caught again against A.D. Mitchell. Sauce Gardner's like, enough of these crossing routes. I'm tired of it. The James Conner run game, lead run game has been great.

Now they're adding some changeups. They kind of stripped away some of the other stuff they were doing early in the year, but they're the team that runs pinpole more than anybody, and they're really good at it. That's what that touchdown against the Bears at halftime was, pinpole.

They'll get to that. Trey Benson's rolling now. They're running back that they drafted. And you can see some of his explosive juice. He caught a swing pass against the Jets. And the Jets were worried about tackling James Conner. And it was like, you got to tackle Trey Benson too. He broke like four tackles on a swing pass. And he just brings a nice different element. And again, this team...

Harrison Jr. discussions have led most of our discussions on it or most of our analysis on it, it feels like, this year. Where it was, I think, Marvin Harrison Jr.'s kind of role in making them do the hard stuff and then paying dividends down the road kind of is the entire team. They're very old school. Right point. Guiding the rookies along, making them do the hard stuff. We're not going to spoon feed you.

sometimes I go back and forth on whether this is right or not, but that's coaching. You've got to figure it out with each guy. But they're very much more like the Steelers, where it's like spoon feed them, packers too, earn the role, and then second half of the year, after the bye week maybe, boom, boom, boom, boom, boom. Then you start seeing that ascension. And that's why I kept going, like, they need a bye. The Colts, they need a bye because that's what I was hoping to see. But them, they at least have had plenty of proof in the pudding that it's working. It's just that sometimes there's some inconsistencies. The Commanders game is one of them. But

offense feel really good about. They sit up in the stats, underlying stats I look at. They're great. They're top five, top six. They can run the ball. They're explosive in the pass game. They got two good weapons already and a nice auxiliary weapon to Michael Wilson. That's three. And Greg Dortch is decent, too. So they got four decent guys. Elijah Higgins had an explosive catch. Has had touchdown catches as well. So it's like they're cooking in the pass game now, too. Kyler's playing the best offense.

quarterbacking of his career. He's handling more. He's learning to take singles, even if he wants to hunt home runs. And, you know, I found, he found a check down. I want to say Stephen Ruiz tweeted it. It was Stephen Ruiz, Derek Lassen. But they, they tweeted like, Cowher's in the pocket. He's in the red zone. A pressure starts getting there. And then he like,

Old Kyler was spun out and tried to create something, and then he found the check down. And he's done that before, but how quickly he found the check down, I was like, oh, you're really cooking now. This is quarterback Kyler all the way. But the defense, though, defense is 12th in DVOA, which kind of surprised me. They didn't feel 12th. But since week six, so the last six weeks of games, they're 15th in combined sex rate and they're 15th in EPA per play.

So maybe, you know, they're in that middle tier as opposed to, if I thought when looking at these stats, they'd be like 22nd, 24th, maybe. But the first half of the year, they were 32nd, 31st. So even that statistically, they're sitting more average than

that's huge. They're ahead of schedule. They, and they play hard. They play fast. They make it tough on passing games. Cause they do a lot of funky stuff. You talked about the three safety stuff led by Buddha Baker. They, they, they play hard and they're really well coached. So yeah, I feel best about this group that we've talked about and the Rams. And we're going to talk about them in a sec, but including them, I feel best about the Cardinals record wise and just,

pending this for the rest of the playoffs. So really excited for these matchups that they got. Even though special teams is well coached, just a well coached team. Going to the Rams. Very professional operation. Very professional operation, which is just a whole drastic change from what the Cardinals have been. First under Steve Keim and Bruce Arians and Cliff Kingsbury. Now moving on to the Rams. 14% chance to make the playoffs. Just coming off a win at New England. They are 5-5.

They have a... I didn't get the ranking on there. Oh, fourth hardest remaining schedule by DVOA. Two and one in the division. One loss to the Cardinals. Three and four in conference. Their remaining schedule is hosting the Eagles at Saints, hosting the Bills at 49ers at Jets, host the Cardinals, host the Seahawks. All right, Matt. The Los Angeles Rams. How are you feeling about them? I'm pretty close to pack it up with the Rams. Okay.

I'm really nervous about this matchup this weekend because, uh, Sting,

And I think these two things go together. Stafford coming into last week was the lowest rated quarterback under pressure from a passer rating standpoint. Now I think he's about third in terms of guys who have taken 50% of dropbacks. But he's in the Bo Nix, Will Levis zone. Okay. Okay. Danger. Danger. Not good. You don't want to be in the Will Levis zone. Will Levis is actually better.

So higher pass already. Yeah, not where you want to be. And according to X-Men stats, the Rams have allowed pressure 2.51 seconds on average this year, which is the fastest in the league. I think those things, there's a, there's a,

a correlation there. They give up so much quick pressure. And some of it's because offensive line talent, you know, the offensive line injuries and things like that, but shoot, they got a bunch of their guys back on, on against the dolphins a couple of weeks ago. And it, it looked worse. And some of that I think is because they've shuffled so many of these guys around from what the original plan was, you know, it was like, Oh, Steve, he was going to play center. Now we're going to scrap that. We're gonna play Jonah Jack. Well, now they're hurt. Like we don't have a lot of time together and things like that. So,

And I think that's contributed to issues and communication. Because offensive line, yeah, talent is good. Of course, you want talented players, but you also want chemistry. You want timing. You want time on task and rhythm and communication. And the Rams definitely have an issue with communication and reps together. So...

That makes me nervous, especially against a matchup with the Eagles defense, which, like I said, is number one in EPA per play since coming out of their bye week. Cooper DeGene rocks. Great tackler. I know that's your boy. Cooper DeGene rocks. Slot player. He's majority been a slot guy. Great tackler. Great coverage player. He feels like, look, he's a rookie, so...

obviously like McVay and Cooper cup and Puka and all these guys like doing some of the big slot stuff can put him in a blender because you're rookie, but based on the film so far, he looks up to the task of being able to handle that. Uh, Quinn, John Mitchell on the outside, it's just like been one of the best perimeter corners in the league this year.

They've got – Kobe Dean's playing better at linebacker. Jalen Carter's dominating. This offensive line that is switching guys around in the interior and has communication issues, you tell me Jalen Carter's not blowing up like three, four critical plays this weekend. And I know this is just one game, but I think it's indicative of the fact that where this team is right now. It just feels like –

I felt really, really bad about them coming out of that Dolphins game. Very spooked at the results of Stafford under pressure and just where he is right now because of that at this point in his career and how much like what a heavy lift a guy like that has to do to be the creative arm angle Stafford that we know when you're giving up the fastest pressure in the league and

amid communication issues and all this stuff and then like okay you go and you go and beat the Patriots not resoundingly but you beat the Patriots you beat up on that defense you have a great performance that doesn't really move the needle for me because it's just where the Patriots are at this point so yeah like unless they can really beat it let's take a beat if they beat this Eagles team it's cheap because it hasn't happened yet they beat this Eagles team this weekend then I'm more towards like oh yeah I don't know but right now just how I feel about this matchup going into it I

I'm pretty concerned about where this team can go. And even just the remaining schedule. I mean, then they had the bills and two weeks after that, like that's not going to be a fun one for them. I still trust the offense because just I'm like, okay,

In theory, they get all those skill guys back. Now they're healthy. It's like, oh, yeah, they should be cooking. Now the offensive line is healthier. Oh, here we go. Here we go. Here we should ramp up. So I'm hoping in theory, again, that cohesiveness as they get more reps on more time on task, like you said, the one negative play wipes them out.

Like that, that's the way it's just, they have to stay on schedule. Stafford has had some brilliant moments throwing and stuff, but like you said, he's not moving that well. Him and cousins move about the same cousins coming off an Achilles, but they are like, they kind of just, that's, that's how they operate. He has to sit there. He's a rocket launcher from the pocket, but it's not creation or everything. So they always, and why I want to say that is,

They have to be on script and on schedule. If they can stay on script and on schedule, they're going to dice you. If they all of a sudden get into anything off script, anything where Stafford has to be off script...

If they can't get to their run game all the time and set stuff up, that kind of takes a lot of this offensive way. They have to be in a neutral game script, even with Stafford chucking the ball. It's just how they have to be. What worries me too is the defense was getting a lot of hype and Jared verse was getting a lot of hype when everyone just pointed out his pressure rate numbers. And even when me who put them as defensive rig of the year halfway, I was kind of like, I don't really believe this. It's as a whole. And when they can pin their ears back, yes, they can get after the passer and everything.

you can block them up pretty easily. And if Fisk doesn't win right away, who's playing well,

uh or verse or byron young or kobe turner or any of these guys they don't win right away and you block them up it's gash city it's like you they give up so many passing they can't hold up on the back end um but also you can pepper them in the run game like you it's not explosives but you can get those five six yards like it's nothing that's just not a great that's not a formula that i love a team that

Yeah, every team wants to be in a neutral game script or a positive game script, but it just seems so much can make them go off of it as opposed to where they're going to control it. There's too many variables that are making them come off of that. Again, maybe the offensive line does get cohesive. Maybe they do really shore up and ramp up the rest of the way. You said you were probably packing it up. If I had to stack these teams, even if they're lowest in the NFC, I would put them second right now, believe it or not. Yes, because...

Just at least I trust their offense. Like I would trust that they can get to the, some of the things that they want to get to. I mean, shoot what they did to the Patriots defense last week has Patriots beat writers, like trying to break down slot usage film and man coverage. Yeah.

No comment on that. And I keep wanting to go, Hey, it's the Rams offense, man. Those rules don't apply. You know, bunch rates and zone or how they, how you have to play these guys. So, yeah, I don't know, man. I hear you. I hear you. But at the same time, we're, we're talking about a team that you're worried they can get gashed in the run game. They get smashed by explosive plays and that they're, they were questionable at best on the pass protection. And we're talking about two of their next three games are against Philadelphia and

And Buffalo. And then they got 49ers. They got Cardinals. They got Seahawks who aren't like a slouch. Like, you know, yeah, they truly only have like even the Saints are peppering guys right now. Peppering teams right now with the bump. Like they really have one poor offense that they go against the rest of the year. That's the Jets. Yeah, I know. I just...

Maybe it's just I'm watching too much Patriots stuff. And I'm like, oh, they beat the Patriots. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Maybe your Drake May bias is influencing how you feel about the Rams. I am. It's like, man, you know, they stopped Keishon Booty again, man. Like, look at that. They stopped Booty again. Great. Man, they really snuffed out that Antonio Gibson run. Yeah, that's really why this defense is doing well. But I don't know. I just have faith in the offense and

But man, they really are like an eight, nine team, aren't they? We're really just looking at the schedule. It's just so hard to like find the, okay, they got this one. Like all of these are going to be battles, which is great for us as neutral fans, but like picking them to make the playoffs. Yeah. It's like all four of these teams could be playoff teams. And I'd be like, I'm like, yeah, they deserve it. But like you said at the beginning, it probably is only going to end up being one because they're going to just beat each other up. And none of them have that kind of overwhelming, easy schedule. And they're not an overwhelming team themselves. So yeah.

That's fun. I'm going to put them at pending, though. You're packing it up. I will put them at pending because I'm a coward. Yes. But no, I know that was great. Thank you for going over the middle class with me of the NFL. Matt Harmon, what are you working on this week? I know they can find you at Matt Harmon, B.Y.B. underscore B.Y.B. But where else can they find you? What else are you working on this week other than 20 podcasts?

Yeah. Men of men of the people, men of the middle class, anti-oligarchy podcast here at football 301. Yeah. That's us. Yeah. I mean, yeah, I'm hosting a thousand podcasts. It's LA bias coming through right there. You're like, yeah, I miss, I miss LA a little bit. I,

You keep saying that. It's been four or five months. You've been dropping that in. I don't know. We'll see. We'll see what happens with my life. But yeah, I mean, for now, I know what's happening with my life is hosting a 100 podcast. Focus on week 12. Week 12. Yeah. Yahoo Fantasy Forecast. Nate Tice will be on tomorrow for the Fantasy Film Room. So that's going to be great. We'll figure out what we're talking about at some point. I know Colin, while we've been on the pod, has pitched me like,

a hundred ideas. So I'll maybe repitch those to you here. So we'll, we'll be doing that tomorrow. Like I mentioned, the reception perception rookie report is out. We got, that's a, that's a big one. So I've been finally, I can step away from some of the rookie wide receiver film. Unless the Broncos bros want me to get some Devon valet or Troy Franklin up in there that maybe that'll be any surprising ones. Can you drop a hint there or am I,

Yes. No, for sure. I can drop you some surprise ones. I mean, it's not surprising now because of what we saw on Sunday Night Football. But this was published last week before Sunday Night Football. But I mean, the Ladd-McConkie success rates are pretty berserk. I'll tell you this one just in, you know, maybe Stone will kill us because Ladd-McConkie has the highest success rate versus Mann in the class.

despite the fact that he only has run a screen on 1% of sample routes, a flat on 2% of sampled routes, and less than 20% slants, which is like within the NFL average. His most commonly run routes relative to the NFL average, despite being like a tiny slot receiver, out routes and dig routes. So, I mean, he is like, he's running real deal downfield routes and has the best success rate versus man in the class, which, yeah, he's a slot guy compared to like Harrison on the outside and things like that. It's worth the context, but...

but he's, yeah, he's, he's a sick football player. He was definitely the biggest riser for me coming out of this. Ever since that Panthers game, they played and we talked about it though. There was like week three or whatever. I was like, Oh, here it comes. Here comes the lad. Last stock. And I got him in no redraft leaks because that's how it works. It didn't take any of my own advice. Uh, but no, that's a good one. Lad really stood out. I'd see others getting on the lad train, but it's deserving. He he's the real deal. A lot of fun, a lot of fun in college, a lot of fun now. Uh,

Yeah, me and Charles will be back on Thursday previewing week 12. Charles and I will also be doing a Sunday recap show for the first time. So check that out. We'll be doing the day games, morning and the afternoon games. Morning for me and afternoon games for me. But doing it while we record. We'll be recording during Sunday night football and get that out in the air Sunday night. But so make sure to check that out. Send those mail back questions. We're going to answer one on Thursday.

Football 301 mailbag at YahooSports.com. Subscribe to us. Follow us. Rate us five stars. If you don't want to raise five stars, yell at us on YouTube. Matt, me, or Charles at four verts. I think you can get us on Blue Sky too. Definitely just Charles. Only yell at Charles. Just Charles at four verts. Make sure. No underscore nothing. At four verts. Also make sure to watch us on YouTube on the Yahoo Sports YouTube channel. You can rate us there as well.

Thumbs up. Always like the thumbs up. Those are always great. Subscribe to that as well. Thanks to Brett and Stone behind the scenes. Thank you all for listening. See you guys next time.

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