2025 NFL Week 9 Late and Primetime Games Preview

18:09They did have some good injury news before we move on. Walter Nolan, their first-round pick, has been practicing. There you go. He's been activated off the PUP list. The practice portion of the activation, he's not on the roster. Same thing with Garrett Williams, who's a good young cornerback. Same thing with BJ Ojolari, who was a good pass rusher, who hasn't practiced since last August. He's going to be probably a couple of weeks away. So they could have some some players here. And I am curious, like if a team could copy whatever Denver did last week, I know they don't have the horses. But in terms of mixing up their coverages and the blitzes, there are a lot of similarities between the Cardinals defense and the Cowboys.

18:46Yes.

18:47Jourdan Rodrigue:I mean, in the Broncos, especially if they get a little extra help in their secondary, especially if Garrett Williams. I know you just don't know. It sounds like he has a chance to play. if he does play, but like the way that Denver was bracketing around the different receivers, the Cardinals, yes, absolutely. The Cardinals are able to do that and should.

19:06Patrick Claybon:It's time for the Sunday drive presented by Toyota. Let's go places. It is the Seattle Seahawks who are a three point favorite at the Washington Commanders. The over under is 47 and a half. Mike Tirico, Chris Collinsworth. This is Sunday night football, Greg, the commanders look good with their backup quarterback earlier in the season, did not work out against the Kansas city chiefs. What happens against a well-rested, very good Seattle Seahawks. It's going to be tough, but at least it's going to be tough. Apparently for Jane Daniels, he is back at practice on Wednesday and I think they're all cautiously positive that, that he is going to play this week.

19:47Unfortunately, he won't have Terry McLaurin. He has already been ruled out with a quad injury that he suffered, you know, re-injuring his quad in the fourth quarter of that game, which is really frustrating.

20:02Jourdan Rodrigue:I noticed they're not calling it a hamstring either. They were calling it that at one point during the game, but they're not calling it that now. And I'm just, if you already know you're going to sign the player and you would like to avoid recurring soft tissue injuries because that player has had a chance to actually warm his body up through the course of a scheduled exercise training camp. Just do it. Just sign the player early. They've had such a frustrating season and they're going to be able to blame injuries for a lot of it. But man, they are just thin at so many different positions that I think could be exposed in this game, whether it's their edge rush group, which is among the league worst.

20:41They're now pretty thin at the safety spot. And you think Think about that versus a Seahawks team that majors in explosive plays, that majors in plays down the field. And you have a commanders team that has given up among the most amount of explosive plays in the league.

20:57Jourdan Rodrigue:There are two things that I think really kill the commanders here. It's the Seahawks being not only fast and explosive, but big and explosive as well, because when they go into their heavy personnel sets, they're also getting these explosive plays out of those types of groupings and formations with multiple tight ends who are able to do this. And also Jackson Smith and Jigbo, who's having one of the best seasons, if not the best season of any receivers playing right now. And that bodes very, very poorly for a commander's defense that not only is having trouble containing along the perimeter, but also containing and out almost out muscling and out because they just seem like older and slower to me.

21:38Jourdan Rodrigue:And they already came into this team rebuild for under Dan Quinn. at an advanced age position for position. And you could see guys even getting blocked out of plays that should not be getting blocked out of plays. I hope to see a better plan for a guy like Frankie Louvoo, who is one of their more explosive players on defense right now, because when they use him as a spy against a quarterback who can move around a little bit, he is so often getting just mathematically taken out of the defensive plan by the offense that he has not really been a factor. So I just I really feel like you need to have him at least covering a little bit more in the middle of the field and trying to get some pressure because they are banged up along their defensive line and they weren't getting a ton of pressure in the first place.

22:23Patrick Claybon:I'm looking forward to seeing because Sam Darnold has been playing so well. And the last time, you know, the national audience saw Sam was in the game of the century and in that in the NFC North finale against against the. I thought you meant Buck Seahawks 405 a couple of weeks ago. That was pretty good. No, I mean, I mean, everybody. I mean, everybody watching on the number one show on television for the past 15 years on Sunday Night Football. And, you know, it was it was a complete meltdown from Sam in that situation. And more people will see just how well he's throwing the ball, how early in some situations.

23:00Patrick Claybon:And it's not like a detriment to to the Seattle Seahawks offensive line, which I think has played well. like in that matchup against the Houston Texans. If you're watching on YouTube, the exact play I'm thinking of where Sam Darnold is getting hit as he throws, and he's already made the decision to throw the ball to JSN. He already knows that JSN has won on the route against one of the better secondaries in the NFL, and if they can do that to the Houston Texans, where I know Marshawn Lattimore got the win, he got a chance to bully Hollywood Brown and got a pick against the Chiefs, but it's tough to imagine them bullying the way that the Seahawks are playing right now on offense, and defense.

23:35Laramie Tunsil also out of practice on Wednesday. And man, it's funny. These are two second year coaches. And you think about how the commanders got out the gates. But there aren't many teams. This is crazy to say with Darnold. There aren't many teams that are in a better position, I think, long term than the Seahawks because you think of the young players that are developing there. Are the commanders doing that? If you look at their recent drafts, like not a ton. And you have young guys like Byron Murphy who's developing. Elijah Arroyo's becoming a good player Nick Eman Ward. Yeah, like in this, in the secondary.

24:08Jourdan Rodrigue:We called it third safety. We love it. Like you're gonna. Biggest nickel corner in the history of the world. Yeah, yeah, yeah. He's like the power slot of, like that we see from receivers. Like now you don't even know how you're going to use him because presumably I think Devin Witherspoon will finally be back for this game. And Julian Love who hasn't been out there and they just, they have an identity. They have a system. Man, Seattle minus three. That might be coming up on my show with Cynthia a little later in this week. Let's take a break and we're going to wrap up the week nine slate a little later.

24:43Yeah, so those primetime games aren't that good this week. What do you mean? I just mean the early games are better. The early games are better.

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28:38Every Wednesday, we take a journey here. Chris Wesley in Podcast Studio. We start just as young, innocent people. And by the end, I just feel old and grizzled. We've made it to the end of the line. The last couple of games.

28:57Chris Wesseling, by the way, would really be enjoying this Jonathan Taylor season. That's a completely random thought that just popped into my head. But he loved him some Jonathan Taylor back in that COVID 2020 season.

29:09Patrick Claybon:A great season that he's having. He's not playing in one of these two games coming up. I threw you for a loop because I want to test you as a host. I'm looking down. I will fail that test every single time, Greg.

29:21Jourdan Rodrigue:Don't talk about my friend Patrick that week.

29:23Patrick Claybon:Not a good pop quiz guy. No, your friend Patrick knows. not his strong suit. The Jacksonville Jaguars had a chance to rest on the buy and maybe chance to rest here. We've got as well. Three and a half point favorites against the Las Vegas Raiders. The over under is 45 and a half. Chris Myers and Mark Slareth on the call, but Jordan, it's different now. That's Tyler Lockett is back with Gino and coach Pete. What's it going to mean?

29:48Jourdan Rodrigue:Deep side from Greg. Did you know you did that? That was a very audible. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. It's a, well, I think we're going to see a lot from the Jaguars offense. If I can just, just start there because this, we, we, what I really think is we're going to see, we always talk about coaches coming out of a buy. We've never seen Liam Cohen come out of a buy week as a head coach and what he can do to make this passing game, especially look more cohesive. I've been really impressed with, for the most part, the way that they've been able to run the ball in Jacksonville all year, but this passing game has felt disjointed, developing a like truer identity.

30:28Jourdan Rodrigue:I think for Travis Hunter is big. They've talked, there's been a little conversation about that over the last couple of weeks of maybe getting more involved on offense as well. And his target share has gone up over the last couple of games too, while his target share on, or excuse me, his snap share on defense has gone down, but also, you know, getting all of these receivers on the same page, getting a clean game from Trevor Lawrence, it's, it's all of these things at once getting this offensive line playing, like it started the year as, which I think they can against a pretty decimated Raiders front that only really has Max Crosby rushing the passer right now.

31:04Yeah, I'm curious what the Raiders look like on offense coming out because the last couple of games before the bye, I wanted to start calling them the don't want to be here offense. They're just like...

31:19Jourdan Rodrigue:That really rings off the tongue. They just were the, I just don't want to be here anymore. They did not look like they wanted to play professional football anymore. They weren't really trying. They won one of those two games, by the way. It was against the Titans, and they didn't let Geno throw the ball more than four yards. And then the next week against the Chiefs, it was just like the energy and the lack of ambition. It felt like they were aiming to be less than mediocre, and they couldn't even get there. And they will have Brock Bowers back. That's obviously just huge. And they will presumably have Jacoby Myers back who says, yes, I would.

31:59I would like to be traded and still. And maybe he will. That was what I thought the Tyler Lockett signing could be about. But that's a pretty big downgrade if that's what they do.

32:08Patrick Claybon:I don't want to be here. Also, also famously, the Eric Bledsoe tweet from 2017 when he was just he was done in Phoenix and tweeted. I don't want to. And it worked out. So shout out to that. And I don't want to dump on this game too much because we got the two Heisman finalists from last year facing off against each other, literally, because Travis plays both ways. Unlike in some matchups, we say guys are going head to head. They never see each other. Travis and Ashton Gentry could play against each other on the same play. There's excitement there and a chance to see how they incorporate him into the offense a little bit more, perhaps as the primary receiver in some situations here.

32:49Patrick Claybon:against the Raiders defense where, yeah, you can work on something. I believe that when I see it because he's just been a slot only guy and they force fed him the ball in what was ultimately garbage time against the Rams.

32:59Jourdan Rodrigue:You can be a primary receiver out of the slot. Sure. Especially in this offense. Liam Cohen did that with Chris Godwin a couple years ago. I'd love to see it, but he seems like he has further to go. It's the same conversation every week on offense than he does on defense where he's putting up really good reps against Devontae Adams. That's it is. And it is very valuable that he can do that because I think he's their best outside corner.

33:22Patrick Claybon:Yeah, that's the consistent problem for Travis Hunter, the wide receiver. It's not technique or reps or understanding the offense. It's Travis Hunter. The cornerback is the best cornerback for the Jacksonville Jaguars. Well, and and that Trevor Lawrence is throwing him the ball and Trevor Lawrence hasn't been consistently accurate or at least comfortable in this system. So that used to be something Trevor Lawrence was really good at was pocket presence with all of his defenders early in his career. where like, well, he avoids sack. He's good in the pocket. Like that Trevor Lawrence needs to come back because to me, he's not good in the pocket right now.

33:50He is taking sacks. A lot of the sacks the last few weeks were on him.

33:53Jourdan Rodrigue:And he has the worst completion percentage in the NFL against zone coverage right now. And so this is like, you have to be better when you're a spatial manipulation offense, which is what Liam Cohen wants to be. You have to be better at throwing against zone and he's just not. And so that's where I'm like, okay, this offensive scheme, especially in the past game. It's out of the same coaching tree that we see all over the league. It is built to exploit zoning defenses. And we have a quarterback who is statistically the worst in the NFL throwing against zone coverage right now according to NextGenStats.

34:30Jourdan Rodrigue:That's a huge problem. Well, we got Pete Carroll and a man-heavy team without a lot of talent here for the Raiders to hopefully solve. Maybe they're not man-heavy. No, they're zoning more. They're 84 % of their snaps.

34:43Patrick Claybon:Perhaps a team-wide edict. Sit down in the windows. We're not carrying through the windows.

34:47Jourdan Rodrigue:Sit in the windows. Be a pie.

34:49Patrick Claybon:Sit in the windows. You get there. You look for Trevor. You don't move. And then maybe everybody will feel a little bit safer over the middle for the Jacksonville Jaguars. You guys ready to get to our last game? Sure. Let's do it. Sure. Because Tyler Shuck is going to start for the remainder of the season. Jordan Rodriguez taking on the Los Angeles Rams who are favored by 14 points. They're going to do it at SoFi Stadium. Welcome to the league, rookie. Here's the Rams' defensive front. The over-under is 43-and-a-half. Kenny Albert and Jonathan Vilma are there. How do you expect this one to go?

35:25What could go wrong, honestly, for Tyler Shuck

35:28Jourdan Rodrigue:against one of the most exciting young group of pass rushers and interior defensive linemen in the entire NFL, also coming off of a bye, also with their defensive coordinator scheming really well around some deficiencies that they've had. on the perimeter without Darius Williams, without Akella Witherspoon. Well, they've had Darius Williams. He's banged up. Without being able to play as aggressive in coverage, that pass rush is getting home. I just think they're going to be an absolute nightmare for Tyler Shuck, who has, in Greg's words, seen a lot of football. He hasn't seen a lot from the field, though.

36:02You know what I mean? He's seen it from the sideline.

36:04Jourdan Rodrigue:That's how you call people old. Yeah, I get it. I just mean, Spencer Rattler is a much more experienced quarterback, which is another reason to get Shuck on the field in a way, is that this guy just hasn't started a lot of games in his career, despite that age, because of all the injuries that he had throughout his college career. I think if you're going to look at a positive, and I think he was okay when he came in last week, maybe he'll give these receivers more one-on-one opportunities. Rattler was playing it pretty close to the vest. Now, I don't know if they've earned it. Like, Alave's had a lot of drops.

36:35Like, they've lost contested catches. Juwan Johnson's had a lot of drops. but maybe a little daring do a little throw it up to these guys. Cause that should be a advantage on paper for the saints in this matchup are the receivers versus those Rams corners should be. I mean, they're much more talented. Shahid is there's been.

36:59Jourdan Rodrigue:Alave. Shahid.

37:00Patrick Claybon:There's, there's been, it falls off a little bit. Those guys. I do think because I know there's Bill's fans out there who have like Rashid Shahid dreams. It seems like the pay structure here where like it wouldn't make a lot of sense to me for the Saints to trade the one asset that they're not spending a lot of money on. Right. I keep hearing it's like that teams would rather, you know, teams would want Rashid Shahid like the most of the Saints. I was like, yeah. Yeah, of course. Yeah, he's great. So what the Saints? You would think so. So this is a big game here because here's what the Rams haven't done in eight weeks into the season.

37:37They haven't beaten an NFC team. What a weird schedule. They are 5-0 against the AFC. They finished their AFC schedule. They are the champions of the AFC South. They also beat the Ravens in that one extra game. That's very strange. They're 0-2 in the NFC. They got to start stacking up some conference wins.

37:55Jourdan Rodrigue:Puka Nakua and Rob Havenstein should both be back this week. They're limited early in the week in practice, but Sean McVay told reporters that they're trending in the right direction. That guy has no poker face, so I'm pretty sure he's telling the truth here that they'll be back. This is also, stick with me here, a bit of a Brandon Staley revenge game. Oh, yeah. But inverted. But inverted because Brandon Staley was the one who got the job over Chris Shula several years ago, and now Chris Shula is coordinating one of the best defenses in the NFL. So it's a reverse revenge game, right? No.

38:28Patrick Claybon:Yeah. No, it's just a revenge game. He did springboard into a head coaching position

38:32Jourdan Rodrigue:because he coordinated Sean McVay's defense.

38:35Patrick Claybon:I am. Everyone's friends. So we've been surviving, guys. Yeah. We have survived. We've been thriving, I would say. With some big names. Not just surviving. We haven't had to sweat one out. In fact, you could say, I think, one, two, three, four, five. These are the top five offenses in the NFL. We do not have the Bills available anymore. We don't have the Lions available. We don't have the Packers, the Chiefs, or Danny Dimes and the Indianapolis Colts. So I ask you if the Coach Shula revenge game against Brandon Staley, are we taking the Rams to keep taking these top offenses? We're not going to have a lot to choose from here in a few weeks.

39:14Patrick Claybon:Do we want to get risky now or later?

39:17Jourdan Rodrigue:I'm kind of shocked to show with me on it has waited this long to pick the Rams. I think it's easy. I was thinking of getting frisky with the Seahawks on the road. But why go crazy on the road, especially against Jaden Daniels, when you have Tyler Shuck at home? I'm sure there'll be some Saints fans here. Of course. They're familiar. I saw Tyler Shuck in the preseason against the Chargers. I can't even remember. It was the Chargers. Oh, he's got familiarity with the facility. Yeah, he knows what to do. He knows where to go to the locker. Yeah, well, let's go Rams. Rams is our choice. good luck to the Rams.

39:57We're all counting on you. We've been on fire all season. We really are. I think, I think we sweated out like a half with the bills in week four. I forget what that game was where the Titans started out a little fast in that game. And then since then it's just been like kicking our feet up and, and just enjoying a big fat blowout fun week here in the studio.

40:19Jourdan Rodrigue:And caring a lot. Yes, but we're not done yet. We learned a lot. we learned about the different ways you can use the word in this show. I think that one is okay. I don't remember. No one's. It is.

40:33Patrick Claybon:Well, yes. Well, in the show in that instance, if the show was, if it was a converse, you would be able to do it. It's definitely not in the show. That's going to be airing on the NFL channel, by the way, we never remind people, but you can check us out on the free over the air NFL channel. If you have wifi over the air. Yeah. or whatever. I guess broadcasting. I guess that's true. You know, it's on Roku or whatever. You can also check us out on YouTube. We always appreciate if you like, if you subscribe, leave us a comment on Apple and Spotify. We haven't asked for that in a while. Five stars, please.

41:11We will be back Thursday and we will be making picks and we will be talking Thursday night football. Shooky and I will see you then.

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