2026 AFC East preview

0:00Robert Mays: Welcome to the Athletic Football Show presented by U.S. Bank. I'm Robert Mays. Today it is the AFC East preview. Really good conversations about some of these teams. I feel like we really chewed on what could go right, what could go wrong. Obviously the Bills and the Patriots at the top have sky high Super Bowl aspirations. The Jets and the Dolphins are in a slightly different place. But it was fun going over what that means and what success can look like for all the teams in this division with Derek and Dave. Let's get to that conversation right now.

0:42Robert Mays: Digging into the AFC East today, the one guy that comments on every single show that we do asking us to talk about the Bills is going to be really happy today. I almost as a bit, even though we're doing these all in divisional order, like the odds to win the division, I was almost as a bit going to skip the Bills and actually start with the Patriots just for his sake. But we are going to start with the Bills. It's a big Tuesday for him. Congrats to you, my man. We're going to talk about all the teams. I promise. In the division preview, we're going to talk about all the teams. We spent 30 minutes talking about the Raiders and Browns.

1:10Robert Mays: I promise you we're going to talk about all the teams. Let's dig into our preview for the 2026 Buffalo Bills. Hired Joe Brady as the head coach. Jim Leonard as the defensive coordinator. Traded for DJ Moore. Signed Bradley Chubb, CJ Gardner-Johnson, D. Alford, and Mike Dana. Lost David Edwards and Reggie Gilliam in free agency. In the draft, TJ Parker, Davison Igbenosan. I do know how to say that. In the second round, Skylar Bell, Jew Lowry, and Caleb Elarms or in the fourth round. All of those guys, except for maybe Skylar Bell, will come up in conversation, which is why I included them here.

1:45Well, let's just say Skylar Bell, excited by what I saw in the preseason. We can just leave it there.

1:50Robert Mays: Well, I expect you would be. You said he was Jamar Chase. I have a close eye on Mr. Bell. I also like how I think the last episode you did, you were like, I don't want to necessarily sit here and hype up every fourth round pick. There's nothing more fun than a rookie I liked who hasn't done anything yet. For each of these teams, we're going to start this conversation with what we are most excited to watch with this team in 2026. Derek, why don't you kick us off? What are you most excited about as it relates to the 2026 Buffalo Bills? I mean, the only real addition on the offense, which is DJ Moore.

2:22And I think why I'm so excited about it. One, it's easy to say like, well, they just didn't have anybody the last couple of years. So them getting anybody who's like a pretty good, viable wide receiver one, I think is nice. But I think this has a chance to be like the best blend of the two Josh Allens we've seen. Like from 2020 to 23, when he had Stephon Diggs, this was a chuck it up offense. Like he threw the ball 590 times a season over that stretch. Like they were one of the most pass heavy. And part of that was they couldn't run the ball very well. So of course they kind of had to. But the last two seasons without a star receiver, then leaning more into the run game, he's only thrown 470 times.

2:56Like it's been a lot more like, we're trying to put the limiter on this offense, see how that goes. And I think that this is kind of the blend between the two because DJ Moore is not as good as Stefan Diggs, but he's significantly better than the guys that they had before.

3:08Robert Mays: I find it interesting that you think the run pass splits are a product of the receiver talent and not any more like overarching i think it's a little bit of all of it i'm curious yeah what it is yeah and actually one of the we can talk about this a little bit later but one of the things i wanted to bring up is just we don't know what the offense is going to look like now that joe brady has no limiter i mean i don't think my understanding because when i was there i asked somebody about this it was like do you think that mcdermott was putting his thumb on the scale for how run heavy the offense was and they're like no like i don't think that was the case and in part and i believe that because even if maybe he wanted joe brady to run the ball a little bit more than ken dorsey was he let brian dable live the life brian dable was living multiple years in a row as the offensive coordinator for this team so even if maybe that's sean mcdermott's preference i i don't know if i fully believe that this team was as run heavy as it was because it was sean mcdermott's choice not the way that joe brady wants this team to play Also, they were really good at it.

4:03Like they're extremely good at it. So and like even even if Sean McDermott was the reason why they leaned into that more over the last couple of years, knowing that you can be that good. Why would you try to go too far away from that? which we're getting into the semantics of how we build the show a little bit. But when I prepped for the Bills, I started off with DJ Moore as the thing that excited me most. And then between who I think the Bills want to be and what DJ Moore was this past year in Chicago, not to say that he can't be good, please don't misconstrue me. But I was like, how excited should I be?

4:39Like, this is the best receiver that Josh Allen has had since Stefan Diggs. But what does that mean in 2026? which is how I wound up not being as excited as I thought I was when I started prepping, I guess.

4:52Robert Mays: We'll talk more about the DJ Moore thing in the offense in a bit. What was yours, Dave, that you were most excited to watch this season? The other big thing is Jim Leonard taking over a defense that we've watched be one way under one guy for so long. And it's not so much, they made some additions, like Dee Alford is there, they spent two big draft picks in the second round on defensive additions. Chauncey Gardner-Johnson, for as volatile as his personality is, success tends to follow him for at least a year or so. But also, it's just Jim Leonard being the voice for this defense after so long of Sean McDermott and what that means.

5:28And also trying to parse through, he was a college DC at Wisconsin and was very successful at it, and he's been in the background for one of the most successful defenses in the league in Denver for the last two years. What the hell does all that mean? Like, what does Jim Leonard want an NFL defense to look like? We will hit that in a second, because that is what I'm watching over the first month of the season.

5:49Robert Mays: What I'm most excited about, on a pretty simple level, it's just watching Josh Allen play football. Sure. I mean, he's incredible. We did, and part of the reason I wanted to do this in such an explicit way, I was with Joe Biscaglia in Buffalo after the training camp practice we watched, and we did the beat writer notebook that we do from all of the stops. And we made it like, Beller can attest to this, he edited them. We made it like 22 minutes into a 25-minute conversation, and we didn't say Josh Allen's name. And I think it's just because we just know what it is. There's nothing really to talk about as it relates to Josh Allen, and I wanted to put some numbers on that.

6:23Robert Mays: So Josh Allen, since 2020, so the last six seasons, has finished top five in total EPA among quarterbacks every single year since 2020. He has finished in the top three every year since 2021. He is absolutely the only player that has done that. He's at 751 total EPA since 2020. Mahomes is at 708. No one else in the league has more than 363. What? Lamar missed a lot of time. And he's had a couple of down seasons in there. Yeah, even if the peaks are just as high. And I think that's what's so remarkable about this run that Josh Allen is on. There have been no valleys. he has been a force of nature every single year in the regular season since this breakout happened his worst finish that entire time in the stat we're talking about is fifth it's crazy like he is and that's why i understood dave picking the bills number one in the offense draft because you can set your watch to what josh allen is pretty much every single year and when i watch this team i don't think it's as simple as josh allen carries the bills and the rest of the bills roster is disgusting we talked about the run game they've built a real infrastructure in certain parts of the offense but I think what he is capable of it honestly reminds me a little bit of it's like the quarterback version of watching Jamar Chase where there's just this overwhelming kind of force of nature physicality to the way that they play the game and I find them terrifying because of that and so when I watch this team that's what I get excited about watching even if it's not interesting or new to say that, like, that is my answer about the Buffalo Bills.

7:58Robert Mays: He's a runaway cement truck playing quarterback, and it's always very fun to watch. And we had the same conversation with Lamar when we did the Ravens preview, but Lamar has, he had the down year, whereas Josh is still chugging. But, like, what Derek and I are excited about are things that within the context of the Bills will help Josh Allen slay the dragon that he has been unable to slay. Like, that's why it's exciting to add a better receiver to the offense. That's why it's exciting that the defense might be better than it has been. But at the core of it, we should remember that we're really excited to watch Josh Allen play football.

8:31And that's that's why the DJ Moore thing is exciting to me, because we can get the best of both of them. Like if Josh Allen can be because in 20 to 2023, again, it was a lot more throwing it deep. It was a lot more kind of chucking it all over the yard, just a lot more volume in terms of the passing game. And because of it, he was more up and down because that's just a lot more. It's just a lot of stress on the quarterback to have to play that way. He threw more picks, things like that. As they've put a little bit more of a limiter on the passing offense, really not because he's an issue, but the interceptions have dropped down.

9:01They've been a little bit more consistent. And he, I think, has actually developed a lot mentally over the last couple of years and really taken ownership over what they do pre-snap, getting them into the right looks, setting protections, all that sort of stuff. So if we can get the floor being higher like it's been over the past couple of years and go back to what some of the peaks have been at his best when he's really been a throw-it-all-over-the-yard quarterback, It's like, I don't know, man, maybe he just is definitively the best quarterback in the league if we can get both of those worlds to fully blend.

9:28Robert Mays: Looking back at some historical EPA numbers for quarterbacks, I was just curious, like, who else had reached that level where it's 700 over the course of a five-year span? You go back and Brady and Peyton from 05 to 2010, like, those are the sorts of numbers. Breeze from 10 to 15, Rodgers from 10 to 15. One thing I realized, though, while looking back at some of that stuff, this is Josh Allen's age 30 season. Mm-hmm. 2007 was Tom Brady's age 30 season Peyton Manning won the Super Bowl in his age 30 season so the guys that have lived in the stratosphere that Josh Allen inhabits the age 30 seasons have been pretty good for those players yeah just throwing it out there Drew Brees was 30 when they won the Super Bowl too wow there you go so there there is a through line here for each of these teams we're gonna talk about what we are watching the first month of the season so just a curiosity, a question, something you want an answer on early in the year.

10:23Robert Mays: Derek, why don't you kick us off? What are you watching the first month of the season with these Buffalo Bills? Yeah, Dave mentioned it a little bit earlier, but it's Jim Leonard's defense. And I think there are a couple of ways we can take it. It's like how different are the coverage is going to be and all that stuff. But to me, I'm a little bit more interested in how the front personnel works out. And how does he what does he want to do with it? Like, I actually think Deion Walker in a system like this, where the nose can be a little bit more explosive, move around a little bit that's kind of what canu benton was at wisconsin when he was playing under jim leonard and i think that that can work really well uh tj sandert a lot of their other defensive linemen are like gap shooters it's like tj sanders is supposed to be that at oliver is that when he's at his best um to get a little bit more beef at like the five tech position they actually asked landon jackson to add on like 20 pounds which i actually think works for him because around the edge like he was probably never going to cut it he's just not a bendy you know move type of edge player but him being like that 280 pound just like stuff against the run sort of player I actually like that and then the linebackers are like very specific to me like run through space players and so I wonder how much they try to weaponize that and just give those guys run throughs by if you just ask Ed Oliver to cut across a guard's face that man's probably terrified and he's not going to see whatever linebackers coming behind him so I think just how Jim Leonard really weaponizes a lot of unique and I think pretty good pieces for the most part on this front the actual front the defensive line is probably the most interesting part of this to me just because you've sought out body types for a very specific type of defense for a really long time and i think the guy that i was most interested in that they were most interested in like how is this going to work was greg rousseau and they were open about that when i was in buffalo they're like we that was the guy we were like how is this going to work and he took to it really well that was a situation where very early on they were just like oh this is going to be fine like he'll be able to play with his hand off the ground.

12:10Robert Mays: He'll be an edge player for us. We're not concerned about that. The defensive, interior defensive linemen, I do think it fits those guys. Like, I think them playing in more of like a slanting, attacking style overall is probably good for this run defense overall, which we can talk about. I mean, that was the worst part of this entire team last year. They're bottom five in EPA per carry. 29 % of opponent runs went for first downs last year against the Bills. It was the second worst mark in the league per next gen behind only the Cowboys. They allowed 65 runs of 10 plus yards. Only the Giants were worse.

12:40Robert Mays: Jesus. So I think some of that is driven by the fact that when you were in, the Bills played more five-down fronts last year because they were in more base looks than they had ever been before. I mean, they were playing like 60 % base after playing 80 % nickel. Excuse me. They were playing 60 % nickel last year after playing like 80 % the last two years. And you saw the five-man front numbers, the next-gen numbers, essentially mirror that. They went from playing 80 % four-man fronts in 2024 to about 61 % last year. But those five-man fronts are all just one linebacker walked up to the line of scrimmage.

13:12Robert Mays: There's not a lot of variety involved in that. I think there's going to be a ton more front variation with this group, and I think that the group is going to feel and the scheme is going to feel more dynamic. The types of run blitzes you're seeing, the types of stunting that you're seeing. And so even if we look at these guys, and like you said, maybe TJ Sanders isn't like a two-gapping five technique, the Broncos aren't really built like that. Like the Broncos, like John Franklin Myers comes from the Jets world where they play that attack style system. And so even if we think of like five technique defensive ends or four-eyed defensive ends in a 3-4 and we think of like Patriots guys from 20 years ago, you don't have to do that if you play with a certain amount of aggression up front.

13:50Robert Mays: And I do think that's going to be the way they try to solve problems. I mean, even DJ Jones, as like the Broncos knows, it's like he can hold up against double teams. But he came from the Niners, exactly. He's like a slant, like goat, turn back and hit a guard sort of thing. So like, I think if they take some of the flavor of that style of defense, obviously the edge players I think here are pretty different. They're a little bit longer. They're a little bit bigger than a place like Denver. But even that I think can kind of go to their advantage because I think like adding a TJ Parker, I think can be nice for them on the edge.

14:18If Rousseau really takes to it and he's been a pretty good edge setter, but if like he really takes to it in this new defense, it's like this starts to become a front that I actually do like, assuming the safeties behind them are not missing a tackle every single run. Have we said Chubb's name yet? No. That's something to watch understatement of this segment so far.

14:34Robert Mays: And he's the guy who understands the defense. He was the one guy who drafted to play in this type of defense that currently plays for the defensive line. So I think he's one of the guys that can make it come alive pretty quickly if he can stay out there. The coverage stuff I'm curious about. I mean, obviously they ran a lot of man coverage in Denver, but I think some of that is a product of having arguably the best cornerback in the world. And so when Jim Lennon was at Wisconsin, you would know this better than I would. what wasn't some man-heavy scheme like the Broncos are running. And so where they fall between the coverage menu we saw in Denver and what he was doing at Wisconsin and how it fits these players, that to me is one of the big questions because I think it's easy to graft a lot of the Broncos' ideas onto this team and have that be your projection.

15:17Robert Mays: I don't think it's as simple as that. And so that's the other part I'm watching is like on the back end, what are they actually trying to do? They ran a ton of quarters in the preseason. They were about as vanilla as you could possibly be. It was like 28 % of snaps. So I really don't know coverage-wise what they're going to try to be on that side of the ball. Which, like, I wonder, too, how much of the man coverage stuff he brings. Because they, in theory, maybe do have the corners to do it. They could. Like, Benford, I think, is absolutely good enough to do it. Maxwell Harrison, when they drafted him, like, that was the idea, right?

15:45That he could run with people and play man coverage. I think D 'Alford from the nickel can handle that well enough. So, like, they have the guys to do it. And I'm curious, too, how much do they turn up the blitzing? Like, how much do they turn up? Oh, I think they will. I think they will. It would be impossible not to. That's right. Right, coming from McDermott World, he just doesn't do a whole lot of that. And it's just preseason, but there were even second and tens. So on some of these early downs that are theoretically still rundowns, I remember seeing one play, I think it was in the game against the Steelers, it's second and ten, they send one linebacker and Green Dog the other.

16:14They're sending six guys on these relatively early downs, and so I think a little bit more of that is probably good for this defense. No one in the league blitzed less often than Buffalo over the last four years, per True Media, and it was below 20%. So even if he doesn't go whole hog like Denver Broncos style, where it's up near like 35%, anything is going to be more than what we've seen from the Bills in recent years.

16:38Robert Mays: It'll be interesting because at Wisconsin, they didn't blitz a ton, but they were just a huge simulated pressure team. And we're at a space now where, talking to offensive coaches in the training camp tour this year, one of the things that came up was just that simulators are just less effective than they were like three or four years ago. You're almost the whole goal was to get the best of both worlds where you can pick on protections, but then still get seven guys into coverage. And now I think some of it is getting the worst of both worlds where you're not actually heating up the quarterback, but you're still leaving voids because guys vacating space.

17:06And asking players who are not good coverage players to be in coverage. Exactly.

17:10Robert Mays: And so I obviously there's still there's a time and place for that kind of stuff. But I'm not sure it will be as central to his identity here as it was when he was at Wisconsin just because the league has shifted a little bit. But I do expect, I said this during the defenses draft, I picked them pretty high. I think this will be a defense, especially compared to what they have done over the last few years, where they try to make a mess. Where they just try to make a mess of things, especially up front. And I think if you're undersized, which they are, that's the right way to handle this. Watching this team over the last couple years where you had pretty static four-man fronts, there's not a ton of movement.

17:44Robert Mays: It's really easy to get picked on when you were an undersized front seven. And I actually think them being more aggressive and like the idea of Terrell Bernard just coming downhill and not catching blocks. I think that's the right thing to be asking him to do. You absolutely need to do more of that with him. Like, again, like you said, if you're going to be a we kind of sit on our heels, wait for things to come to us. You just need to be bigger than they are and tackle better than they are. And those were, I would say, two of their biggest issues the last couple of seasons. I think that's encouraging, too, because you're right.

18:13Like that is why you drafted Maxwell Hairston. Davis Enigmanosan is there too. To some degree, some of the stuff on the Bills back end feels more theoretical to me than proven, you know? I think definitely. Hairston is, we'll see.

18:28Robert Mays: He missed three weeks of camp again. Cole Bishop had some, he showed some promise last year, but I'm not ready to say that's like a proven playmaker on him. I'm excited to see him in this defense. I'm excited to watch Cole Bishop in this defense. I think he actually makes a lot of sense. I am excited about a lot of pieces of this, but I wouldn't want to roll the ball out there and just be like, we're better than you. Like, yeah, let's muck it up a little bit. Let's make it easier on these guys. I think that's what they have to do because the way they were playing before is the defensive approach, and not on the back end.

18:56Robert Mays: Obviously, they did so much wonky shit on the back end, but up front, it is the defensive approach of a team that has far more defensive talent than the Buffalo Bills have had over the last couple years. What I'm watching is obviously what Jim Leonard is doing over the first month of the season. I came prepared for that conversation. Dave, what are you watching over the first month of the season with the Bills? Like I said, we just flip-flopped it. I was excited about Jim Leonard because I think highly of him as a defensive mind. Not saying DJ Moore can't be great, but I just want to see what that looks like.

19:24Because when I was digging into it, I mean, the numbers are not encouraging for DJ Moore's second season in Chicago. And a lot of that can be explained away, right? But how much confidence should we have that it was an aberration instead of a sign of things to come? Now, you're playing with Josh Allen. That gives me a tremendous amount of confidence. And then also, Bills receiver core just hasn't been anything special since Stephon Diggs left. DJ Moore finished with a better EPA per target over the last two years than any Bills receiver other than Khalil Shakir. Khalil Shakir averaged the fewest air yards per target of, like, any qualified receiver in the NFL.

20:04So DJ Moore being a warm body who can catch the ball past the sticks is a new thing for the Bills. His ADOT last year was 11.6, which is not great, but it blows pretty much every other.

20:18Robert Mays: Pretty good for DJ Moore. There have been years where he's been more gadgety than that. And it blows like every other Bills receiver out of the water. And that's the part that I want to talk about. I looked this up last year. Keon Coleman led the team with 20 targets of beyond 16 air yards or 16 plus air yards. No other wide receiver on the team had more than nine. Well, I think Dalton Kincaid had like 14, but none of the other wide receivers. The only other NFL teams that had a receiver with no more than 20 targets of 16-plus air yards were the Jets and the Commanders. Horrendous offenses. Similar line of thought.

20:51The stat I found was the Bills were 28th in explosive passes where the ball traveled 10-plus air yards. So get the bubble screens and stuff like that out of here. Yeah, and that's I mean Steelers Jets Raiders Browns like that's who you're talking about keeping company with if I was trying to spin this in a positive way

21:10Robert Mays: If I was trying to provide some cope to bills fans about why this will look different than it look last year in Chicago I would do it this way in the Bears offense last year in the first half of the season If you needed like a big bodied in breaking route, who are you throwing the ball to? I mean Colston Lovlin ideally The first half of the season Rome, yeah It was Rome and like that's what you would do. Rome is like a bigger body receiver compared to DJ Moore In the second half of the season, if you needed a gadgety throw where you were trying to have a guy create after the catch, who are you throwing the ball to?

21:39Robert Mays: Luther Burton. Yes. And on this Bills team, if you need a big in-breaker from like a worthwhile receiver, who are you throwing the ball to? It's DJ Moore now. Before it was Keon Coleman. And if you need a guy who can make something happen after the catch on a gadgety sort of completion, who are you throwing the ball to? DJ Moore as well. And this is a play caller we know already likes DJ Moore. They did this together in Carolina. The preseason is the preseason. There were two completions that he had where it was like, okay, this is an offensive coordinator and a play caller that knows what he is doing and how to get this guy the ball.

22:11Robert Mays: They had a play action boot to the left where DJ Moore starts on the right, just runs that little drag into space. They get him the ball with a runway. He takes it like 15 yards after the catch. He had a completion on the right side where he motions down into a stack on the right side. So not out as like a solitary X receiver where you can press him and he struggles. You're giving him space to work. He runs like a deep outbreaker with a little bit of runway. It's like a 15-yard completion. That is the type of stuff where DJ Moore is still a very viable NFL receiver. And so I think if you know the right ways to tap into what he can give you, there is still meat on the bone there.

22:46There are good reasons why this happened in Chicago, but DJ Moore's target share dipped all the way to 16 % last year. That's not happening. It's not going to happen. It's just not going to happen. I might be double that here. So even if he's not as efficient as you would prefer, I just, I absolutely think he's going to be an improvement on what we've seen in Buffalo. I just, I want to, I want to take a month to see exactly what it looks like.

23:07Robert Mays: Two quick notes about the offense that I just, or a curiosity of mine and I want to see. No fullback. So what does that mean? I'm glad you brought that up. It's part of my note for later. I'll be talking about that left fullback on a different team. So no fullback. So, and this was a team that led the league in 22 personnel last year, used a lot of 21. one that's how they got base defense on the field they are the easiest candidate to say we're just going to use three tight ends to do that this year because they have the three tight ends with Kinkade Hawes and Dawson Knox but they were not a big 13 personnel team last year they're one that I assume will do a ton more of it this year the other element of the offense I want to see more of Josh Allen on under center play action within this offense it should be the centerpiece of the passing game it should be exactly what they are and exactly what they are good at he was eighth in the NFL last season in the rate that they used under center play action.

23:57Robert Mays: That should be in the top three. 100%. That should be the foundation of how you're trying to throw the ball because then you're creating separation for guys rather than being spread out. And so I want to see them do more of that because you can say that about teams that it's not conducive to the rest of their offensive identity. It's the exact complement to what they want to be as an offense. And so I just don't understand why that notch isn't getting cranked up even more. It was last year compared to what they'd done previously. Right. It should be even more. That should be 24%, 25 % up near with the top teams in the league.

24:31Robert Mays: Let's talk about what is keeping us up at night about the Buffalo Bills as we get on the eve of the season here. Dave, what is keeping you up at night about the Bills? My favorite Bob Marley song is called Waiting in Vain, and I just don't want to wait in vain for Dalton Kincaid to break out. I don't want to wait in vain for Dalton Kincaid's love. I'm worried about it. Look at the stats. He's clearly, he is an explosive efficient player. When he was on the field last year, he was third in the league in yards per route run among everybody. Only Puka and JSN were better than him. Fourth in EPA per target, third in yards per target, fourth in first downs per route run, second in EPA per route run when you're in 11 personnel.

25:14Pick the stat and it's awesome. he just wasn't on the field that much yeah the problem is how many snaps did he get on 11 personnel when he was the tight end how many so and and part of it is durability right like injuries have been a thing for him but the scary thing is it's not even just about him missing games like when Dalton Kincaid is healthy you're still talking about a guy who plays like 55 percent of the bills snaps and to be drafted whatever it was 23rd overall and be the first tight end off the board that's not nearly good enough for what I was hoping Dalton Kincaid could be. And you look at, I mean, we are the, we're the presidents of the Jackson Hawes fan club and we saw what the bills did with multiple tight ends.

25:55The splits when they get multiple tight ends on the field are very bad for Dalton Kincaid. Like they don't want to use him in those situations. And it's, this is why I wanted to talk about Reggie Gilliam. It's, it's interesting to see how this will work with, without a fullback. Like, maybe this all changes, but for a team that was so good at running the ball and wants to get into those sorts of looks to run the football, Dalton Kincaid's not that useful of a player to you. And again, that's a shitty place to be for a guy you drafted that highly who does have real deal potential, but just how big can the role for him be?

26:30And it's, I mean, it's year four.

26:32Robert Mays: I don't know the answer to that. It sounds like he has gotten stronger this offseason, that they think there's a little bit more there as a blocker. But do you really want to be using him in that way when he's hurt all the time? No, that's the thing. When he's proven to be banged up, I don't know how much I want him throwing a shoulder into Max Crosby or something. It just doesn't seem like I would want to do that. He almost is what—it's like the DK Metcalf thing coming out of college where he's exactly what everyone who loved him and also did not love him think that he was. where it's like purely as a pass catcher.

27:05He's incredible. Like he's one of the best pass catchers in the league at his position. But today's point, like you can only really play him so much. When you're in 12, he even doesn't get featured as much as you want. He still has limitations. He only played 18 % of the Bill's snaps out of 12 personnel last year. That's crazy. That is, I was shocked when I saw how low it was. But that's not surprising to me. It was surprising to me.

27:25Robert Mays: Because if you know you're going to get nickel to that, what advantage is he giving you? because he's not giving you an advantage against a nickel corner. And that's the problem is that when they drafted him, it was this thing of, well, if we're in 12 and they play nickel, we can just grind them down. No, you can't. You can't do that. It's like what you've talked about with the Rams and like Terrence Ferguson. If they get into 12 and Terrence Ferguson is one of the two tight ends on the field, they don't get that much value out of him because he can't block. But when you put three, now the other guys can block and he can get vertical.

27:53Robert Mays: That is why I think we could see more Dalton Kade because if they're going to play more 13 and he's just a receiver, then I actually think that's the better way to use him. And I actually do think that is a path to him being on the field more and being more important to the offense. The reason this keeps me up at night too is Dalton Kincaid unlocking a higher level would mean so much to the Bills' aspirations. And we don't have to shy away from that. It's to win the Super Bowl. And he needs to look more like what he was drafted to be more consistently for something like that to happen. And not to say it can happen, but it keeps me up.

28:30It keeps me awake at night thinking like, what if it's just more of the same in year four and then you're heading into your fifth year option year?

28:38Robert Mays: Mine is broader with the same tone. What if it's more of the same about how we feel about this team by the end? But we get to the end of the season and their problems are no different. We need rushers and pass catchers and we don't have enough of them. That's what I'm worried about, where you can change the defensive coordinator, you can change the head coach, but the personnel issues that have plagued this team and the most important games of the year continue to plague them. Because I think that's a real possibility. I have faith that a combination of DJ Moore and the usage we're talking about with Dalton Kincaid and Bradley Chubb and a healthy Ed Oliver, and again, a scheme where you can manufacture a little bit more than they used to be able to, I think that we may land in a place where those things matter less than they have in the last couple of years in the playoffs.

29:21Robert Mays: But what's keeping me up at night is the fact that maybe we'll be facing the exact same issues we've always faced when it becomes... the highest leverage situation this is this is not the first time they've tried to address pass catcher and pass rusher in an offseason they've done this for like two or three years in a row now and it's kind of fallen flat for different reasons so like it's again i have faith that it's going to be better but there's a chance that it's just it's just not mine is like in a similar vein where i was just like but what if we find out how much sean mcdermott was kind of holding this thing together that's the part we haven't really talked about yeah like it just i i really i we probably say this too much about head coaches but he really did feel like adult in the room.

30:00They hired a lot of good coaches over his span. They did what they needed to to consistently change out the offensive coaches to change things. And they're not only losing McDermott, they lost Aaron Cromer, their offensive line coach, which I think it now just puts a lot of stress on Joe Brady as now both the offensive play caller and architect and the head coach. And I just worry how much of like taking away, like you kind of talked about earlier, some of the limiters on what the offense like, what does that look like? And can he really handle that and being the head coach? And so maybe it's me just like being a little bit too scared about this because I've seen Sean McDermott just do this job at a high level for a long time but in the back of my mind it's something I'm worried about when you give up stability

30:36Robert Mays: there is downside to moving on from stability potentially you get something that does feel more dynamic and exciting in a way that the I think if you want to be skeptical or be negative about the end of the McDermott era things just might have gotten stale and maybe this is a way to avoid that but at the same time when you've set a certain floor removing that guy increases the chances that it lowers your floor. It can always get worse. Yes. It's not guaranteed to get better. Correct. It can always get worse. What does success look like, Dave, for the 2026 Buffalo Bills? Win the Super Bowl. I tried to be nice and say get there, but if you get there, do you think anybody's going to feel good if you lose?

31:16I don't.

31:17Robert Mays: I think people would still feel good if you get to the Super Bowl. I don't think they'd feel great, but you've never done that before. Getting there and showing that this version of the team gives you a higher ceiling than any other version that when McDermott was there, I still think that would be a successful season. I don't think you have to win the Super Bowl for this to be success. That is a bar you would not put for any other team except maybe the Rams. Yeah, but this is the team that has the quarterback that has double the EPA of anybody not named Patrick Adams. But he's going to be there next year too, man.

31:48He's 30 years old, and he plays a physical style of football that is very, very dependent on him being a transformer when nobody else is. I'm not wishing that on Josh Allen, but like you only get so many bites at this apple. And if you get to the game and I know these guys weren't even babies when it happened, these guys weren't even they weren't even blinks in their father's eye when the Bills lost four Super Bowls in a row. But like when you add that on to the lore of the Bills franchise, I just I don't think there's not there's not going to be any moral victories with an MVP quarterback in his 30s losing the Super Bowl.

32:25I just, maybe that's hard.

32:27Robert Mays: You're one of a new staff. If you get there, to me, that is a successful season. Anything else is not. It's about Josh for me. You can't, I mean, think about how hard it's been to even get to this point. You can't just assume you're going to be back. So, like I said, it's harsh, but I don't think anybody's going to feel that good about losing the Super Bowl. What'd you say? I mean to me it's just get to the dance I think that winning the game is just like sometimes shit happens on Super Bowl Sunday but I think you have to get there and especially like I think that there have been a handful of seasons over the last couple years where like that should be the expectation for the Bills I think especially with as wide open as the AFC feels right now where Mahomes and the Chiefs are not their best like Lamar Jackson and the Ravens like I'm excited for them but they are turning over their coaching staff they might not be as good as we want like I just think that there's a lot of reason to believe that this should be the year that the Bills can come out of the AFC pretty handily.

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36:09Robert Mays: Let's get to the New England Patriots. Our preview for the 2026 New England Patriots. They're offseason in 60 seconds. Zach Kerr, now the full-time defensive coordinator, signed Romeo Dobbs, Elijah Vera Tucker, Julian Hill, RIP, Reggie Gilliam, Kevin Byard, Draymond Jones in free agency, traded a first-round pick for A.J. Brown, lost Klayven Chason, Stefan Diggs, Kyrus Tonga, Jalen Hawkins, Jack Gibbons just traded Kayshawn Booty to the Houston Texans. In the draft, Caleb Lomu in the first round, Gabe Ackes in the second round, tight end Eli Raritan in the third round. Dave, what are you most excited about as it relates to the 2026 Patriots?

36:48Drake May throwing to legitimately badass receivers, specifically A.J. Brown. And I think I've gone pretty hard on my A.J. Brown enthusiasm this offseason, but he was 17th in yards per route run last year. All of his metrics, considering what the Eagles offense was, are still plenty good. On top of that, as much as we talk about A.J. Brown, Romeo Dobbs finished 29th in yards per route run last year. I was curious about teams that have two receivers that finished in the top 30. There are a few. Obviously, Dallas is a big one. The Rams, Detroit. Ironically, Washington now that Stefan Diggs is there.

37:29Terry McLaurin and Stephon Diggs. I would not have guessed that. And then New England. Those are the teams. So like not just A.J. Brown, but a potential one with sky high potential, a guy that we've known can be one of the best handful of receivers in the league and Romeo Dobbs as a very, very good number two. I mean, we saw what Drake May did with a fine receiver core last year. This is an objectively good, good receiver core and it's super exciting. Yeah, I just think that this is a much better version of what they were able to do. last year i think like booty was such a he was good for them but he was such a specific player right like he purely outside purely as a vertical player there's a lot of like curls deep stop routes digs go balls and stuff like that and i think the beauty of the two receivers that they brought in is that's also what aj brown is best at like he is really good at the digs the go balls and all that stuff but romeo dobbs is also pretty good at a lot of the stuff on that vertical outside stuff and so they can put him there is how it's going to shake out right and so but they can get the best of both of it where it's like if they want that to be the focal point of a play or of a drive or of a game they can have aj brown go do all that stuff and he can just win on these dig routes if they want to beat that to be a little bit more of the decoy or later into the down sort of option for drake may and then move aj brown to the slot and get him moving on some of the slashing inside stuff they can do that and so this just feels like they have a little bit more pop and optionality in the offense that they really didn't before and like stefan digs was good last year but i don't think he's like the one-on-one winner that he used to be you had to use him in

38:57Robert Mays: the second role yes exactly you had to use him that way because because yeah exactly because booty couldn't do any of the other stuff and you think you can make an argument that at this point in his career stefan dig shouldn't be asked to do the one-on-one outside the numbers vertical stem type of things i i'm curious what they do with this not only because the way that the roles shake out are interesting because they can do a little bit of both but i think if you're trying to spin this in like a slightly pessimistic way with A.J. Brown. He did take a step back last year. It wasn't just the offensive numbers.

39:27Robert Mays: Like if you look at things that are trying to isolate the performance of the receivers from the offensive infrastructure, something like reception perception that Matt Harmon does. It was a step back for A.J. Brown last year compared to what we've seen from him at his peak. And I wonder if similar to Stefan Diggs, as he's getting a little bit older in his career, A.J. Brown's only 29, but the knee issues are chronic at this point. Like they are a consistent issue. It's one of the reasons the Rams ultimately didn't want to trade for him. It's one of the reasons the Eagles are ready to let him go.

39:53Robert Mays: If you're going to extend his career and continue to get the best out of him, asking him to do less of the stuff that you're talking about is probably the best way to do it. And with him specifically, it's not moving him inside as he gets a little bit deeper in his career and seeing if he can do it. This is who he used to be. Like So I do think that there's a world where we get a little bit deeper into the season. And even though I was trying to read about this because I was wondering, were they doing things with him more inside and on the move as like a Z-type receiver during training camp? And it sounds like it was mostly stuff on the perimeter.

40:30Robert Mays: And I, but I wonder like, how much do we see over the course of the year? Because I think you can make a really strong argument that the best deployment of the Patriots receivers is Pop Douglas in the slot. Romeo Dobbs is like a truer X player because he's shown that he can do it. and A.J. Brown being more of a move around piece than he was in Philly. And I'm very curious that that's what they ultimately land on because I think you can make an argument that's what's best for him and what's best for the offense at this stage of his career. I think that's a valid point about, and his game is so dependent on just being a physical monster.

41:02And so if you have degenerative knee issues, if you're worried about that, if that diminishes, it takes a serious toll on his effectiveness. But if he's 29 years old, I guess what I'm more briefly, what I'm trying to say is how much more could you get out of him out of like the way that he has been playing? And do the Patriots feel a sense of confidence that he's got a season or two left in the tank before they would have to worry about a pivot like that?

41:32Robert Mays: What are you watching, Dave, the first month of the season with the New England Patriots? What do you want answers on? Who's Will Campbell, really? and the full left side of the Patriots offensive line. Like Jared Wilson moved positions. They signed Elijah Veritucker. So the whole thing is really interesting, but is Will Campbell closer to the guy that struggled throughout the playoffs after an MCL injury? Is he closer to what he was during the season? How much room does he have to grow? Will Campbell allowed 42 % of his pressures and 44 % of his sacks after the MCL injury. We've talked about it before.

42:09They were playing amazing defenses and he strained his MCL. So there are many good reasons why he looked like shit in the postseason. But it's a new season. And what does that look like in year two? And I think the first month can give us a really good glimpse of that. And that's pretty much where my mind went to. I expanded it a little further. Like, what do all of the big beefy boy shifts for the offense mean? Like, obviously, you know, you mentioned Jared Bolson moving to center, which was his native position coming out of college. I thought he was fine last year at guard, but I think him being at center probably protects him a little bit more physically, which I think, if anything, is not the best part of his game.

42:47Robert Mays: He doesn't have guard play strength. No. That's not his position. He had enough to get by, not enough to be like a difference maker at that position. Yes. And so I think that adding a big, beefy guard next to him and letting him move to center potentially accentuates Jared Wilson's strengths and limits his weaknesses. And so there is a chance that with AVT, with a healthy Will Campbell, with Jerry Wilson at center, you upgraded all three of those positions in a way that you needed to. Because this team, and this is part of, we'll talk about this a little bit later, they did not run the ball well last year.

43:17Robert Mays: They just didn't, especially in the playoffs. They were 25th in rushing success rate over the course of the season per NextGen. They had a 36 % rushing success rate in the playoffs, which was like 30th in the NFL league wide over the course of the regular season. they are not pushing people around up front. But if you get better and more physical at guard, bigger and more physical at center, and Will Campbell comes back healthy, is that an area of this team that can get a lot better this year? I kind of hate that the first game of the season is a Super Bowl rematch because we just watched that.

43:46But hell of an opportunity. You don't need to watch the first month.

43:50Robert Mays: We're going to find out in the first game whether some of this stuff is valuable. You know how they play in week two? No, I don't. Pittsburgh. Okay, two fronts right out of the gate. You've got a lot of opportunity to prove yourselves. And the last one among those, like, I include bringing in Reggie Gilliam at fullback. Like, we just talked about the Bills losing him, and he's, like, he's about as good as it gets in terms of, like, moving shit around in the run game. You know who else I throw in there? Raritan. Yeah. They, the combination of Hunter Henry and Austin Hooper as your tight ends this year, and it's honestly why I'm a little bit bummed Julian Hell got hurt.

44:20Robert Mays: Yeah. Because they really did very consciously try to add more blocking bodies at tight end this year because, God bless Hunter Henry for what he is as a receiver. that's not what he is as a player and Austin Hooper is so deep into his career and that's never even what he was no it's again so they really didn't have anybody to fill that role within the offense and so if you can get a little bit more of that with Raritan and you add Reggie Gilliam to the mix on top of the physicality you're potentially adding to the left side does this feel like a sturdier group than it did a year ago and by the way again we'll touch on this a little bit later that would make me feel better because this is the type of stuff that I find myself a little bit worried about with this team as we've talked about them over the last couple weeks.

44:58Robert Mays: My, what I'm watching over the first month of the season, can Zach Kerr do it again? They were really good in the back half of the year. They were really good. The last like 10 games they played, they were about as good as, not like elite, elite defense, but like if you could slot them into that next year and they were, they were that good. In the back half of the season, 10th in EPA per play per next gen on defense. A couple caveats to that. Here are the quarterbacks that they played in the back half of last season brady cook quinn ewers justin fields joe flacco jackson dart half a game from snoop huntley the two starting two of the four starting quarterbacks they played in the back half of the season were justin herbert and baker mayfield both of whom played on offenses that were bottom 10 in epa per play in the back half of the season they did not play a lot of good teams they just didn't and even in the playoffs they didn't play a lot of good offenses.

45:49They got Stidham in a snow game.

45:50Robert Mays: So they got Stidham in a snow game. They got that Justin Herbert bottom 10 offense in the back half of the season. They got C.J. Stroud imploding. That's who they played. And then they got Sam Darnold like on a downturn. And I know he had played really well earlier in the playoffs, but like it's not like Darnold was like some earth shattering quarterback that year. The Seahawks offense was plenty good. It was probably the best one they played over the playoffs. Yes, and the defense played well. They played well. I'm not trying to take away from that, but there is some context to be added to what their back half of the season defensive statistics look like.

46:19Jackson Dart, I think, was the only guy you named before Herbert and Baker, who's, like, gonna start for his team this year. Yes.

46:27Robert Mays: And even as backup quarterbacks, there's some pretty rough ones in there. Brady Cook and Quinn yours is a different sort of conversation that we're having. If you expand the, like, you know, the threshold low enough, he is the worst quarterback in everything. Every time I pull up the stat sheet, I'm like, there's Brady Cook. All right, who do I need to scroll up to find? The other part, other two things I'll throw out about the defense in the back half of last year, in the second half of last season against block boxes. So we've talked about this a decent amount on the previews where you have as many blockers as defenders at a given play.

47:00Robert Mays: The Patriots were dead last in run defense success rate against block boxes in the back half of the season. They played with a lot of lighter boxes early in the year, and then they started getting heavier over the course of the year, I think because they knew they didn't have the dudes to hold up. But when they did not have more defenders than blockers on defense, they were dead last in run defense accessory. They were worse than the Bengals. They were worse than the Giants. And so there are elements of this defense. And then the last one I throw out, they blitzed 40 % of the time starting in week 14 because they don't have the rushers.

47:32Robert Mays: And that's another thing with this team. They didn't have the rushers last year. And now you're in a spot where your best edge player is probably Draymond Jones, who that's not what he is. He might help in the run defense. You can make an argument the run defense gets better because of him. But then what's the tradeoff between him and Tonga? Right. Yeah, that's a great point. So I traded away their Bindi guy, not traded, sorry, Chase on just left in free agency. But there even if you even if you get better in the run, like your Bindi sack guy is gone. So that's the those are the things where it's like, OK, I do feel like Zach Kerr has to really do it again for this to be like a high level defense, because I just don't think there are a lot of elite players around this defense.

48:14Robert Mays: And I think beyond the lack of elite players outside of like Gonzalez and the interior guys, I think that there are questions about just the overall quality of some of the position groups like Ed Rusher being number one in that. I mean, that's the thing that is like keeping me up is like it's defensively. It is a thin. It's a thin team. It is a thin team. The defensive line is thin, obviously with Tonga leaving. Corey Durden played a decent amount last year, but he's not the same player that I think Tonga was. And at that point, you're leaning on like Leonard Taylor and Joshua Farmer, who I think you would want to see more of going into the season beforehand.

48:45I think their linebacker group is thin even among the starters. I think Christian Ellis is a pretty specific and mediocre-ish level starter. And then the guys behind him, it's like KJ Bray and a sixth-round rookie. And then even a corner, their other outside corners right now are, according to our lads, Channing Canada and K 'Ron Prunty, who Prunty is a fifth round pick this year. It's like if some of these guys go down, and I think the corner is very specifically important. Carlton Davis last year, that was the first time he's ever been healthy for an entire season. Yes. It's probably just not going to happen again.

49:15Robert Mays: That's not an exaggeration. That is factually correct. That is literally true. That's probably what kept us awake about the Patriots last year. It was. I remember Robert was like, what is the point of bringing in a corner this old who gets hurt all the time? And it was like, yeah, if it goes wrong and he misses eight games again, which like it's what we said about Safford. It's like, well, last year it worked out. Well, his back is still the same. Carlton Davis is still a guy who gets banged up all the time. It could absolutely happen. Before last year, he played 17 games last year. Four games missed, four games missed, three games missed, six games missed, two, two, three.

49:46Robert Mays: So he's missed at least a handful of games in every single season of his career. And his most games played before last season was 2020 when he played 14. And so I think the expectation should be that he probably misses a little bit of time and the depth is just not really there behind him. That lends itself to what's keeping me awake because you're playing games with the best thing about your defense. Can earnestly, can somebody explain to me what's going on with Christian Gonzalez? Can somebody explain why he's the guy that's waiting on a contract? If I'm missing something that I should know about, I'd love to know.

50:22He, to me, is in the blank check territory of corners. There are like four of them, and he's one of them. I got these numbers from the wonderful guys over at FTN. Last year, among cornerbacks, qualified cornerbacks, Gonzo was sixth among corners in EPA per target, seventh among corners in coverage success rate, and he was the best in coverage DVOA in the league when he was targeted. And he's 24. He just turned 24. I don't understand. If there's like, you don't have to prove it to me. If there's like a latent injury concern that I don't know about, I'd love to hear about it. But like, this just seems like a guy who the deal should have gotten done in the spring.

51:05Like the minute he becomes eligible, you're just like, yep. Okay. What's the top salary? You got it, Christian. And instead, Devin Witherspoon got his deal. Trent McDuffie signed this year. I don't know. This just, this doesn't feel like it should be a hard one. But as of recording, he doesn't have a deal yet. And he is the best thing about this Patriots defense. Him and the two tackles.

51:26Robert Mays: That's what it is. That's not fair to Milton Williams. He's awesome too. But Milton Williams makes a shitload of money. Christian Gonzalez probably should too. And when you look at what they were, especially in the playoffs, their numbers and man coverage in the playoffs were insane. It was like two and a half yards a snap when they played man in the playoffs. And you don't do that. You can't do that without having Christian Gonzalez. He is a central part to the defensive identity that really carried you in the back half of the season. So I'm with you on that. What is keeping me up at night? I've danced around this a lot over the last month or so.

51:59Robert Mays: I think this entire thing is built on a more fragile foundation than you want it to be. And it extends to a couple different areas. The first part that I think is worth pointing out, we did this and kind of stumbled into the idea when we were looking at the Seahawks roster and just how well they had drafted over the last few years. and you looked at all of the in-house draft picks that were central to making up the overall quality of Seattle's roster, and then even if you go back to the Eagles roster the year before that, teams into winning Super Bowls. How many guys that are in-house rookie contract players for the Patriots are actually making an impact on this team this year, or are set to make an impact on this team this year?

52:39Five? Like, and I think that number is smaller if you say even just above, like, average starter. Like, Jared Wilson will make an impact. I don't know if he's above an average starter necessarily. And what's Will Campbell? Is he above that line? Yeah, I don't know. And you just spend a first-round pick on Caleb Lomu, who's a backup for you. Which, like, maybe in two years you see great fruits from that. But, like, again, this year it's not going to do a whole lot for you. Five sounds about right.

53:01Robert Mays: The 2003 and 2004 draft classes for this team are nonexistent outside of Christian Gonzalez and Drake May. That's it. And so it's just really hard to be a very good NFL team for an extended period of time when you are made like this, when you've had to dip into free agency and the trade market to find the difference making players that you have. And it is possible at the end of all of this that the quarterback is so good that it doesn't matter. That's possible. The 2024 draft class is so great because you would absolutely do it all over again because you have Drake May. Yes. And nobody else is on the team.

53:37Nobody else is even on the team. They're not there. It's crazy. I'm not even exaggerating. Nobody else is on the team. And they drafted like eight or nine guys that year. They sure did. It's not like it was a four-man draft class or whatever.

53:47Robert Mays: It's possible to do this because you still, Milton Williams is the type of player, impact-wise, that you can't usually find in free agency. A.J. Brown, getting him for a first-round pick, you can wield these sorts of resources when you have a quarterback on a rookie contract. We've watched teams do this. The Bengals, you probably could have said something very similar about the Bengals early in the Joe Burrow tenure. You're like, man, those draft classes are a disaster. Like they have nobody that they drafted that they're really counting on. They had to sign every single player on their defense.

54:15Robert Mays: Well, when you have Joe Burrow and Jamar Chase and a lot of money to throw around because your most important players are on rookie contracts, you can do that. So it is possible to do this. It just feels more fragile than it does for the teams that have drafted really well over the last couple of years. And even that's a good point, though, because the Bengals did it for, what, one or two more years? And then they kind of started to hit a run. And some of that is Joe Burrow getting hurt, but it's definitely not just Joe Burrow getting hurt. I will say this. This is pure hopium. I can't believe I'm just like tied to the Patriots as a team I believe in after all these years and all the heartache they've put on me.

54:49Anyway, if Will Campbell and Jared Wilson are good, like what I'm.

54:54Robert Mays: That's a huge part of this, by the way. The 2025 draft class could make you feel a hell of a lot better. Absolutely. The two offensive linemen, Travion Henderson is going to touch the ball a lot this year. I would imagine Kyle Williams snap count is going to go up after booty got traded. I don't know, man, you signed Romeo Dobson that deal and trade a first round pick for AJ Brown. I'm not sure Kyle Williams is in the cards. I just mean in like over the course of a season, whether it's for injury or anything else, like I would imagine he's got a role to play. Craig Woodson was Craig Woodson. I'm very excited about Craig Woodson this year.

55:25And then like I said, pure copium, but like if Gabe Ackes and Eli Raritan can do something for you early,

55:32Robert Mays: but there's a really banking on that as a team that i think people believe should win the super bowl or be in it this year it has to happen but if it does these last two draft classes could be could be carrying a lot of weight for you i think it's the overall roster quality and some of the missed draft classes and feeling that as you look at the depth and overall just quality across the board and then again it's the play out front on both sides of the ball they couldn't stop the run in the back half of last year and they couldn't run the ball in the back half of last year if everything you guys are saying about the interior of the offensive line and the left side of the offensive line can take a big step forward and we talk about those physical contributors that they've added in like ancillary pieces then that changes the discussion for me but I just think you're putting so much on the quarterback and the passing game and the corners with how you are currently built that it's it's to me just feels more fragile than it does for some of the other contending teams and that is what is keeping me up at night and has been I mean it definitely is like it's it's so tried and true that like just winning on both sides of the trenches like I don't know if that necessarily every team that wins the Super Bowl is the best like dominates in the trenches but it's an easy way to stay consistent and to be able to hold year over year and be that level of good those are the two biggest questions I have about the Patriots are like can you hold up and run defense which I think Draymond Jones helps but I still don't know like without Tonga like you mentioned like what is the trade-off there really like I don't know if it's necessarily any better I like the offensive line pieces but it's easy to see like maybe Jared Wilson is just like a slightly below average sort of player maybe Will Campbell does kind of have and then you just have a bunch of average guys and then Elijah Farah Tucker like probably will not play a full 17 games because he just hasn't in a while in a year and a half hard to count on it and even before that the in 2024 was really the only like fully healthy season he'd had he's time the couple of seasons before that with different uh injuries and so i do see how it can fall apart at least with the offensive line they've insulated themselves a little bit with like depth like with a bunch of guys who have done like greg van roden has done it before caleb lomo's a first round pick they drafted darius crown over who i think is decent like at least with the offensive line they gave themselves options the the defense though i'm pretty scared about if one or two dominoes start to fall morgan moses is 35 i have my issues and questions with Lomo.

57:51Robert Mays: Even if he's a first-round pick, I'm not sure I would feel good about him having to play this year. And Morgan Moses is somebody that's missed time. We talked about Carlton Davis's injury history. And again, AVT, it'd be great if he played 15 games this year. I don't know how good you can possibly feel about that. This is the negative view, by the way. This is what is keeping me up at night. I don't think this is the most likely outcome, but when we've talked about the Patriots a lot over the last month and I have my reservations, these are my reservations it is funny because everything you said makes sense to me and i think i don't worry about it as much because it's dependent on expectations like i know this team was just in the super bowl but and we can transition into what makes this a successful season i'm curious about your answer to that i'm not holding them to that type of standard my measure of success for the patriots is silence the schedule frauds narrative and like get back to the playoffs Like if this team reaches the divisional round of the playoffs and loses, I think that's a successful season.

58:48Robert Mays: I 100 % agree with every single bit of that. That was pretty much my answer verbatim. If this team gets back to the playoffs, they will have earned it. And I know you can't objectively forecast a schedule ahead of time, but it is much, much better in totality than last year. Last year, they got the NFC South for starters, which they swept. and they also drew the Raiders, Titans, and Giants by virtue of a last place schedule and went 3-0. That's seven wins right there. I don't see that this year. The NFC North replaces the NFC South on the schedule. You get the entire AFC West, and by virtue of winning the division, you open the season with Seattle, Pittsburgh, and Jacksonville.

59:29There's no way we won't know if they're good in December. I think I said that a couple months ago. So by the time we get to the second half of the season, we'll know if this is a legitimately good team or not. And so if they get back to the playoffs, we can nix the whole product of your schedule narrative. Which offense do you feel better about, the Jags or the Patriots? Oh, man. Patriots. I think the Patriots. I do think the Patriots because I think— That's mostly based on the quarterback. It's a lot based on the quarterback. I think Trevor Lawrence is good. I think Drake May is a true difference-making sort of player.

1:00:04And I think if the biggest question I have for both of them is what is the offensive line going to look like, I think I'm a little bit more scared of Jacksonville, honestly. I do think Liam Cohn does a lot to help them schematically. That's the other part. Whereas I think Josh McDaniels does less of that, and it's a lot more in, like, can the quarterback get the ball out and throw hot? But I do think that Drake May is good enough at that that it works. So I would probably say the Patriots, by just a hair.

1:00:27Robert Mays: I was just curious, because the offensive line concerns are probably in a similar range for both of them. and so it depends on how you think about some of the other stuff i will say and again maybe this shouldn't have the prominence that it does watching their protection plan get picked on the way that it did in the super bowl bad that was another one where it's just like man i those are the types of things that you're sitting there in the back of my head if this if this is like i don't know would nine and eight be disappointing for the patriots yes i think so because what's it what success for me nine and eight and you get to the playoffs that's not happening in the afc you don't think No, probably not.

1:01:00I think because I think we talked about like leaving playoff teams out. I think the NFC is not as hard. The AFC, they're going to leave off like two or three pretty. Absolutely. And so that's going to be tough. All right. Well, whatever record you need, like if they go 10 and seven and they're the six or seven seed, is that a disappointing season? I think for me, if you end the season and we're talking about them still like one of the eight to 10 best teams in the league at the end of the year and then going into next sixth season, I think that's success. I don't think you have to get back to the dance.

1:01:26Like that's unrealistic. We knew they shouldn't have necessarily been there last year.

1:01:29Robert Mays: I totally agree with everything you guys are saying. The way that I framed it was prove that last year was real. Yeah. Right? Prove that last year was real. And that can mean a lot of different things. But if you come out and you're a top three, top five offense again, that is enough for me to believe that most of what happened last year and the important ways was real. Firmly make the playoffs. Like, but the way that we're talking about you at the end of this season is, yeah, you're absolutely one of the 10 best teams. Like, even if you are a wildcard team because you play in the division with the Bills.

1:01:57Robert Mays: Firmly make the playoffs. Like, let's worry about all the other teams that are in the Hunt graphic. You're two games up on them as like a 10 or 11 win playoff team if you don't win the division. And then feel like a real team in January. And I think that probably involves winning a playoff game. Yeah. I think getting to the divisional round is a good bar for me. The AFC playoffs may be so loaded that they lose on wildcard weekend to a really good team. I think that doesn't discount what could be a successful season. I think that version of it, if everything else we said actually comes true, I'd be okay with that.

1:02:32Like, was Jacksonville's season a disappointment just because they played the best game of the wildcard round? Well, it's different when you're coming off

1:02:39Robert Mays: a Super Bowl appearance. Fair. But, like, if the Pats lost a game like that in the wildcard round, I'm not going to ding them to. I would, that's, yes. They run into the fourth seed Texans. I'm going to be like, well, they do that. All right, before we get to the Jets, let's take another quick break. When it's time to scale your business, it's time for Shopify. Get everything you need to grow the way you want. Like, all the way. Stack more sales with the best converting checkout on the planet. Track your cha-chings from every channel, right in one spot. And turn real-time reporting into big-time opportunities.

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1:03:32Robert Mays: Let's get to the New York Jets. Our preview for the 2026 New York Jets. They're offseason in 60 seconds. Frank Reich in as the offensive coordinator. Brian Duker in as the defensive coordinator. Most of their staff turned over. It would take me an hour to list off all of the changes. Traded Jermaine Johnson for Devondre Sweat. Traded for Geno Smith. Brees Hall back on. Brees Hall is just back on an extension now. It was on the tag when I made these notes for the buyer. Byersaw the off-seasons list as I'm repurposing them. Joseph Asai, David Anyamana, Demario Davis, Kingsley Anagbari, Dane Belden, Nashawn Wright, Andre Sisko back, the rest of those guys over in free agency.

1:04:07Robert Mays: Lost Tony Adams, like I said, Jermaine Johnson, John Simpson, Elijah Vera Tucker, Quincy Williams, Michael Clemens, and just for Dave, Nick Folk. Wow, I don't even have that in my notes. Way to go. Pickers are people, too. In the draft, David Bailey, Kenyon Sadiq, and Omar Cooper Jr. year all in the first round, D 'Angelo Pons in the second round. Derek, what are you most excited about as it relates to the 2026 New York Jets? I'm excited to see another year of this young offensive line get to step up and hopefully a run game with more normal quarterback play. Because I like, I think there are fair questions about Frank Reich.

1:04:43Geno Smith did not have a good year last year. Last year's quarterback situation in New York was like truly untenable. We just had

1:04:48Robert Mays: the Brady Cook conversation. And Justin Fields had multiple games where he threw for fewer than 100 yards left. Like, it was as bad as it could be. Take a moment and relive the Broncos-Jets game with me. I'd rather not. I'd just rather not. I'd rather not do that at this stage in the calendar. And so, I think... Football's too close. I don't need that anymore. The new football's too close. I'm so desperate for football that I'd be happy to turn that game on right now. And so, I just think, if the passing game can even be, like, the 24th best in the league, just, like, normal low mediocre bad i do think it actually gives the run game a little bit more life and like armand membu is an 18-wheeler truck man like that guy is incredible already josh myers is a totally acceptable veteran center i thought joe tippman when he moved to guard last year when avt got hurt played pretty well that was one of those two weeks into the season revelations where i was just like oh yeah i was like all right like that that again the week one game against the steelers doing a lot of heavy lifting for any jets offensive optimism but with joe tippman specifically that's where we got our first glimpse of it.

1:05:48Robert Mays: They liked him enough to extend it. Yeah. Yes. And now he gets an offseason where it's like he's locked into being the guard now. Like last year was a little bit of like shuffling the chairs of like, oh, shit, this is something I have to do. And so him getting a year really settled in there, I think, could be nice. And then Olufoshanu on the left side is like, I think we're all still waiting for him to like really take that step. But he's a totally solid player. I think especially in pass protection, he does a good job for them. So I'm just excited that this offensive line hopefully gets a more normal environment to work in and can we can maybe see the best of them i'll extend it just to the young players the young intriguing players across the entire roster i think there's a lot of them yeah membu in year two fashanu in year three david bailey devondre sweat's a really good player yeah like them getting that trade for james for jermaine johnson i really like that i think that makes a lot of sense for where they are right now and we'll see what we get from the rookie pass catchers obviously it's been a weird summer for sadiq he i do not think he's on the public so he will play early in the season most likely, but probably in a limited role.

1:06:45Robert Mays: I think there are a lot of young guys I'm keeping an eye on with this team, even if maybe their hopes for this season are pretty tempered for a lot of reasons. When you have that many big time draft picks, that tends to happen. Similarly, I'm just, if I'm looking for a reason to be optimistic or excited about the Jets, I need to see why Aaron Glenn was a hot commodity as a head coaching candidate. He's calling the defense this year. He did not do that. There's some weird circumstances around how that wound up happening, but he is calling the Jets defense. And considering they traded away Sauce and Quinnen Williams last year, they spent a lot of resources on microwaving this thing.

1:07:28Like, you might not think of the Jets defense as this star-studded unit.

1:07:32Robert Mays: It was all pretty modest investments, though. Like, they didn't break the bank for any single free agent. They just signed a lot of free agents. A million of them. Considering this was one of the bottom five defenses in the NFL, they spent the resources for this to be a much better unit. Yes. I mean, you listed off the names, but, like, having Demario Davis wear the green dot for you, David Bailey pairing with Will McDonald, Kingsley Inigbari and David Onyemata are there to Vandre Sweat. They traded for Minka Fitzpatrick. D 'Angelo Pons is Aaron Glenn's guy. That's like the cornerback of his dreams.

1:08:07And so, yeah, you're right. They are all modest expenditures, but the Jets seem to have given him the resources for this to be a respectable unit. And if you're going to keep Aaron Glenn beyond this year, that's kind of my expectation. Because, like, what are we doing here otherwise? Absolutely. If Aaron Glenn is not making a tangible difference on a defense that has some talent on it, not the most in the NFL, but enough to not be embarrassing, which is what they were, by the way, We should probably mention a defense that finished with no interceptions last year, a defense that had 1.7 percent of opposing drives end in a turnover, which, again, according to FTN, is the worst number since 1993.

1:08:50That is not good. 1.7 percent of opposing drives ended in a Jets takeaway. It can't be a whole lot worse than it was. And the Jets have spent for this to be respectable. and I'm excited to see if Aaron Glenn can do something with that because that was the hope and the expectation when they hired him.

1:09:10Robert Mays: I think they tried to split the difference with their offseason moves this year between not robbing the future but also gesturing at the idea that we're giving you enough to judge the job you do as a defensive play caller. And I agree with that. That's exactly where they landed. Like if you look at the signings, Joseph Osai is the only one with a real amount of guaranteed money that goes beyond this year. Demario Davis, two-year deal,$15 million guaranteed. That's obviously a short-term, pretty much de facto one-year deal. Every other guy they signed, Anya Mata, Kingsley Anikbare, Dane Belton, Deshaun Wright, Andre Sisco coming back, every single other guy was a one-year contract.

1:09:46I don't want to make it a habit of agreeing with Woody Johnson about really anything. But if Woody Johnson told Aaron Glenn, you should be able to have a middle-of-the-pack defense with what we've provided for you this year, I think I agree with that.

1:10:02Robert Mays: do you agree with that? The front, I think, can be okay. The secondary concerns me. The secondary scares the shit out of the corners. Can you even, we use this term all the time, can it be regular bad? Can you have the 21st defense in the league with what we've provided for you? I think that's possible. Which that I think is attainable. I think that's doable. My problem with this is, the things that the Jets defense should be good at under Aaron Glenn, they were terrible at last year. The only team with a worse success rate when playing man coverage per next gen last year than the Jets was the Chicago Bears.

1:10:35Robert Mays: The Jets signed one of the corners from the Chicago Bears to play for their defense this year. And like to the way that their cornerback room is. He's not starting because he missed all of training camp, but that was something they invested in. And like the way that their cornerback room is constructed, it's like all guys who are like six, two plus. But in my mind are like not necessarily like physical. Like if you're going to be like the six, two plus level corner, you need to be like really jamming hands on. You need to be like LeJarius Sneed at his best. And like, I kind of like Desaria Thomas coming out of college.

1:11:05And like Brandon Stevens has had his moments. But they are not, to me, like bully you at the line of scrimmage guys. And so I think if there's anything that's holding me back on this being like a pretty, like at least an average defense, it is the corners. Like that scares me a lot. Just looking at the front, I'm like, that could be like the 11th best defense in the NFL. Like if everything hits. The cornerback room is definitely the flaw in my grand design here.

1:11:28Robert Mays: But even still. Safety room too. I mean, like, Dane Belton is, I'm not getting excited about that. Mink is pretty deep into his career. Like, the entire secondary leaves me a little itchy. And that's not even what's keeping me up at night. I know that Glenn did not have quite the same degree of hype and expectation as Ben Johnson. But it was very much this tandem of DNA-changing coordinators that were so highly sought after. If Aaron Glenn is anything resembling that type of coach, it's enough that this shouldn't be an embarrassing defense. So that's what you're watching the first month of the season.

1:12:01Robert Mays: As they reshape this defense in his image, what does this end up looking like? What are some of the other elements of that that you're keeping an eye on? Well, and I just think too, like I think reshaping in his image, one, they now have Tavondre Sweat, who is just a nose tackle, like one, you know, zero technique that they just did not have before. Last year, it was a lot of Harrison Phillips who at this stage in his career, I just do not think can hold up at that level, like at that spot. And so I think bringing in Tavondre Sweat, I think takes a little bit of, takes a little bit of the stress off the linebackers, which I think could be really, really nice for them.

1:12:30They bring in Demario Davis, and we talked about Quincy Williams, I think, being a nice signing now for Cleveland. He had worked with Mike Rutenberg before, who was the linebacker coach a couple years ago. Him and Aaron Glenn just clearly did not agree on how to play football. Like, I just don't think that he was the best fit for what they were trying to do. He's a very aggressive downhill player. Demario Davis is a lot more, like, put together. Mentally, he's a leader for their defense. So I think him just potentially being able to get them in and out of different calls, I think, helps. Like you just have so much more.

1:12:56And with Minka back there, too, like he's a guy who I think is like pretty mentally aware. And so I think just getting those two guys in like helps them a lot in that front.

1:13:02Robert Mays: Demario Davis is a stabilizing factor. Even this deep into his career, I don't think can go understated. He also he's still a tone setter. He was there were plays in the preseason where it's like the second quarter and he's flying around like a madman. I'm like, you you're you don't have to do this anymore. Even talking, multiple coaches this summer, just kind of unprompted, brought DeMario Davis up to me that coached him in New Orleans and just talked about him as a leader and a locker room presence, like generational all-time type stuff about what he's doing for your locker room. And when you watch the Jets defense last year, they were lost.

1:13:37Robert Mays: They were lost in the wilderness. And so having somebody like DeMario Davis come in and just be at the center of that thing, even if he's 70 % of all pros and Mario Davis. I actually do think that has a chance to make a really big difference just in how buttoned up and professional this entire thing feels. I'll say this. I think that can happen. The fact that it needs to happen after you hired a defensive-minded head coach probably isn't okay. A little worrisome. Makes me re-sad that DeMario Davis is in a situation with a rebuild instead of putting a Super Bowl contender over the top, which is what I was hoping for back during free agency, but that's water way under the bridge at this point.

1:14:17Robert Mays: If you're trying to shape your culture, though, and reshape it and pull it back from the abyss, I actually do think he is the type of guy that can give you your best shot at doing it. And the last thing I would say for reshaping this into kind of his image, David Bailey being his version of like Aiden Hutchinson, where it's like, in run defense, it might not be the best thing, but it is like off the edge, off the weak side, to go get it. It's like, okay, I get why he wants that in his defense. And you have Osai and Enigbare to eat some of those snaps on early downs. They're good strong side defensive end guys, yeah.

1:14:51Robert Mays: I like Kingsley Enigbare. He's good. Demario Davis was your guy if I wanted to see him on a contender. Mine was Kingsley Enigbare. He may play 30 snaps a game, but I thought he could just be a good rotational piece on a good defense. He like won them one of the Bears games. Like where he like punches out a ball at the end. I was like, he like won them that game. He's just a useful rotational player. the nfl the defense is is fairly talented for how you view the jets like they were like an all-time bad defense in a lot of ways last year yes i completely understand that dave what are you watching the first month of the season with the jets i assume we'll know really quickly whether gino has a little bit left in the tank or whether it's so over i don't even want to talk about it i know it's terrifying but there's some degree of infrastructure in place here for gino to be successful.

1:15:39Like Derek already talked about the offensive line. The tackles make you feel really good. Garrett Wilson perennially underrated. Brees Hall is there. Yeah. Like this looks it's it's better than I think you would give it credit for provided Gino is anything resembling Seattle Gino and not 37th in EPA per play like he was in Vegas last year.

1:15:59Robert Mays: I don't want to step on it. I don't want to step on my what's keeping me up at night. It relates to this. Is it keeping you up at night waiting to find out if Geno has anything left? No, no, it's not that. It's not that. It's more about the systemic concerns. Frank Reich is calling plays, correct. And like that part of it, I think is extremely fair. My cope about Geno Smith and how he played last year and how he might play a little bit better this year. Geno Smith's biggest problem, even when he was playing really well, is he's going to hold onto the ball and he's probably going to get hit and take sacks.

1:16:27The Raiders offensive line last year and run game was as bad as it could possibly be. So not only are you in more third and sevens, third and eights and stuff, You just don't have a line that can ever hold up in those scenarios. I don't know if the Jets offensive line and run infrastructure is going to be elite, but if it can at least get back to average, it's like I think Geno Smith can play not embarrassing football the way that it looked last year.

1:16:47Robert Mays: I'll just do this now, okay? The talent around him, especially up front, significantly better than it was with the Raiders last year, even though Dylan Parham is one of the five offensive linemen, which I do find funny. It's significantly better. and then if Jonathan if Chris Myers or Chris Myers who's the f***ing center for the Jets Josh Myers oh Josh Myers Chris Myers was the Texans center in like 2011 if you just want to look that up Katie so and then if Chris Myers gets hurt Jordan Meredith is now the backup center they traded for Jordan Meredith so now we'd get 40 % of the Geno's last year way too many familiar faces in this hole right now I can't believe you're doing this to me the talent is undeniably better here is my concern with the Frank Reich stuff this is not about oh man, like he didn't do a great job and that's why I have all these issues.

1:17:37Robert Mays: Over the last five years in the NFL, there have been 13 offenses that have had negative 90 passing EPA or worse. 13 over the last five years. So you essentially get two and a half a year. Two of those were coached by Frank Reich. Of the 13 in the last five years. So it's the Matt Ryan year and then the rookie Bryce Young? Matt Ryan year and the Bryce Young year, okay? And if you were trying to explain that away, if you're a Jets fan, I understand this. All right. Well, the Panthers' offensive line wasn't very good in 2023. Their interior was bad. But you had Iki Iquanu and Terramo at the tackles.

1:18:14Robert Mays: And you had a small quarterback. Fine, right? Like, the interior of the line wasn't great. Small quarterback, that's a rookie. Maybe explain that away a little bit. In 22, yes, you have a statuesque Matt Ryan back there. The offensive line for the 2022 Indianapolis Colts was the same as it was for the 2023 Indianapolis Colts when they were one of the best seven offensive lines in the league? What's the control factor here? We've seen his last two times as the offensive play caller. The offense is bottom out to a degree that we do not often see in the NFL. Very similar, by the way, to the 2025 Raiders.

1:18:55Robert Mays: And that is my concern here, is that even with better players, we see systemic things like this where the entire bottom falls out of it and he's done it twice in his last two times as a play caller. That is my concern. I'm open to it being better with better players, 100%. But it is keeping me up at night that it absolutely might not be. That's why this is just something I'm watching in the first month of the season. I did not say I was excited because I'm guessing by week three or week four, we'll be like, Gino, okay, looking good. Or we'll be like, okay, we can close the book on this matter and we can close the book on Geno.

1:19:32We don't have to write back this time.

1:19:34Robert Mays: I just don't think we properly appreciate how impossible it is to not drown in the quicksand when you're a part of one of these offenses. And these offenses come every single year. When you're watching them, when you're living it, I lived it with the 2024 Bears. It's awful. And there's just no getting away from it, even if you've got some decent players on the team. And that's another really good example. A lot of the players, I mean, they obviously improved several spots along the offensive line, but the systemic concerns were way beyond what individual talent you had on the roster. I'm glad you brought up the 2024 Bears because if I was trying to cope, Geno was passable in Seattle with Shane Waldron as his offensive coordinator and also with Ryan Grubb, who lasted one year in Seattle.

1:20:19That was another team that was starting to crumble from the inside out, though.

1:20:22Robert Mays: Mm-hmm. It was the 2024 Seahawks. Completely. But you would take even the 2024 version of Gino in a heartbeat over what Gino was in Vegas last year. 100%. Like, yeah, he was normal that. Not, holy shit, how is this an NFL team bad? And if that's what we get out of Gino and the Jets this year, that would be a good thing. The 13 seasons of negative 90 EPA. The Jets have two of them. Yeah. Last year of Joe Judge. Last year of Bill Belichick. Last year of Lovie Smith. Last year's Titans. or six of the other ones that's brutal that's it is we are at the end type stuff and that has been frank like's last two stops as an offensive play caller and i will say like the panthers one i do give him credit for i've made you know my opinions on bryce young especially as a rookie he was like unplayable and then the offensive line i think was a disaster that year the colts one is the one that scares me and really more analogous to this situation yeah where it's a relatively talented offensive line you have a quarterback who's last year or two of his career probably or at least towards the end and pretty statuesque.

1:21:25In fact, Gino's not going to move. Matt Ryan was not going to move at that stage in his career. And their arms have gone a little bit. Matt Ryan did not have the same arm in, you know, 22 that he did three or four years before that. And neither does Gino right now compared to like 23.

1:21:36Robert Mays: Gino, what Gino showed in the preseason, there's enough there for me to think it could be okay. The arm is totally fine. It's in 22 and 23. It was flying out of there. Yeah. So it is a little bit different. I think that's right. But to me, it's again, it's more about the systemic things. and we, I don't, that didn't mean to step on what I'm, what's keeping me up at night, but that is what is keeping me up at night. What I'm watching the first month of the season, just how the young pass catchers come together. Mm-hmm. Mason Taylor year two, like what does the multi-tight end stuff look like? Garrett Wilson just being in a relatively normal offensive situation, maybe for the first time in a very long time, which it might not be.

1:22:13Robert Mays: We just spent five minutes talking about it, but it might not be. Garrett Wilson has never had a normal NFL season. No. Garrett Wilson is very good. He has never been in a normal NFL offense. High on the list of NFL players I really empathize with. As much as you can empathize with a guy who's got millions and millions of guaranteed money. Tens of millions, but yes. Tens of millions of guaranteed money in the bank. I mean, is 40-year-old Aaron Rodgers the best quarterback who's ever thrown him a pass? By far. Yeah. It's him more like Joe Flacco, I think. So 40-year-old Aaron Rodgers is the best extended quarterback play that Garrett Wilson has ever had in his entire NFL career.

1:22:46Robert Mays: And did you enjoy watching 40-year-old Aaron Rodgers? That Jets team was even worse than what the Steelers teams are right now. So I really would love this just to be a baseline level of normal for both Geno's sake and for Garrett Wilson's sake. And then we'll see what we get from the other guys. Like, I know it's been kind of a strange summer for Omar Cooper, and he's been kind of falling in and out of how much they're going to use him and rely on him, but I think he can be a useful player in the NFL. And so that entire group of young pass catchers, just what do we get out of them? What does the deployment look like?

1:23:17How does it unfold? You might have said it. Did you not say your guy's name? Oh, and A.D. Mitchell, of course. Obviously, we are like, wait, Mitchell is the number two receiver.

1:23:26Robert Mays: Of course, that was a big part of this. So there are just a lot of guys where I'm like, all right, I want to see how this goes. I get I have reservations, but I want to see how this goes. Derek, what is keeping you up at night about the 2026 New York Jets? I'm just a little bit worried that this staff feel like dead men walking a little bit. And it just goes like I really loved the hiring of Aaron Glenn when they did it, because like Dave said, like, I don't think anyone thought he was quite as good or important to the line. success as Ben Johnson, but he was an awesome defensive coordinator there.

1:23:55And I just thought that he would be able to bring some of that here. And not only was that like the defensive structure not there last year, but the entire team's like culture and it just feel like they were just not put together as an NFL football team. So I'm a little bit worried on that front. And then they

1:24:09Robert Mays: just when a team is embarrassing on one side of the ball, non-functional on the other side of the ball and fires its entire staff in the first offseason. You are you worried about that? I'm a little bit worried about that franchise. And again, because this will probably be the last time we can mention it a team who their head coach was a DB himself a DB's coach and then a defensive coordinator could not get an interception that's a little bit freaky to me and again that's partly a talent issue but even some of the worst defenses ever are going to get a couple of those and so that worries me and then again it's not like the staff that they rehired this off cycle off season cycle gets me like super excited it's guys like Frank Reich where it's like it's been five years since they've probably called a good offense and so I'm just a little bit worried that this is just not going to really go anywhere.

1:24:51It'll probably rise to the talent of the guys they signed on defense, which makes them a little bit better. But I'm just worried whether or not this is a staff that can make this roster better than it looks right now.

1:25:00Robert Mays: That's exactly right, Lent. The staff might not be it. I talked about all the Frank Gregg stuff and then the defense last year dead last in EPA per drop back last season. Dead last. Part of that is the turnovers. The fact they didn't create any, but they were still bottom eight in success rate. And that takes the turnovers into account. The corner room is concerning right and the angelo ponds missed most of camp jarvis brownlee is going to be their starting nickel because ponds hasn't practiced like i just i don't know how good i feel about this defensive staff's ability to get the most out of that secondary after the way that last year went and i said everything i need to say about the offensive staff dave what is keeping you up at night about the 2026 new york jets this is going to sound like i'm writing off the 2026 team and I can live with that whatever so much of your optimism as a Jets fan is based around having three more first round picks to use in the upcoming draft and what keeps me awake at night is it never works out as cleanly as you want it to when you think you have a hall like this like they just picked number two in the draft in a year where you that doesn't give you a path toward a quarterback what are the odds that they're actually shitty enough to finish with the first or second overall pick or the odds that the quarterback class is as sexy as we want it to be what are the odds that the Colts Packers and Cowboys are as bad as you want them to be I mean they had three picks in this past draft and they pick I mean they had two which was non it was a one quarterback draft and then they picked 16th and 30th or whatever it was like the Cowboys are trendy contender picks the Packers are usually a good team and we saw what the Colts looked like when Daniel Jones was healthy I would feel so bad for Jets fans if they crawl through this river of shit and at the end of it they're picking like 8th 19th and 24th because as fun as it is to make three first round picks like that's not good enough if you're trying to completely revamp this franchise and draft a quarterback of the future and all that good stuff and because we always say well we can you can use all that capital to trade up for a quarterback not if there's only one or two and in the like in the 2024 class where it was drake may and jane daniels and kayla williams nobody was moving off those picks because the guys are good enough to not want to move off of those picks i'm just gonna say right now i don't know if it's gonna be a problem i think they might be bad enough where they'll be in position to draft a quarterback i sitting here right now i think you're probably right but like if geno can tap into it one more time like all it would take is to go five and 12 and you might be up shit creek and i know that sounds very doom or gloom but that could be true if let's say let's say it's a two quarterback class picking fifth isn't going to be good enough it's just not and i like you have to hope that there are four or five quarterbacks and there is there is a world where that can happen of course that is i was talking to somebody in the front office over the last month or so then they were just saying that there's no way for us to know this now but this could absolutely be a quarterback class where there are five or six guys similar to what it looked like in the Caleb Williams-Bowdenk's draft.

1:28:06Robert Mays: That is very possible. It's part of the hope, and it's part of what I think makes for a successful season for the Jets. So let's dig into that. What is a successful season for the 2026 Jets? I think it's a tough needle to thread for this team to be successful while also feeling good for 2027. But I think you could do it. It depends on what your definition of success is. and my definition of success has nothing to do with wins and losses for the jets this would be the case for both of the next two teams here are here are my bullet points aaron glenn shows you why he was a desirable coaching candidate david bailey looks like the number two overall pick and it's a huge quarterback draft class and arch and dante moore and lenore sellers and whoever the hell else you want to name like all of them are good and you go into 2027 feeling like you'll have a chance at a quarterback.

1:28:56Robert Mays: I don't think the Aaron Glenn part matters. Sure. For success, if you are the New York Jets franchise, the young guys look good. You have an indisputable core of young pieces heading into next year, no matter who the coach and quarterback are. Yeah, I guess if you're really drilling down on it, like Aaron Glenn being there is immaterial to like the long-term outlook. But, and I guess it depends on who would even be available. but if I'm trying to look at it in the lens of feeling good about this year's team, it would be nice if you felt like you had a difference maker on that side of the football.

1:29:36I think you need the young players to look really good and promising, and if that amounts to Aaron Glenn turns things around such that you do feel good about him, that is a great cherry on top.

1:29:47Robert Mays: To me, that's a downstream effect. That is not a necessary component. If you're a Jets fan and Aaron Glenn does not prove to be it, but David Bailey looks like a monster and you get like four or five incredible splash plays out of Sadiq and the tackles look great and you have like all these young guys chipping in, I would still feel like that's a success. To me, it is all about the players. It's all about the players. Yeah, I think that's right. Although Aaron Glenn being good at his job would probably go a long way toward making those guys look good. That's the sticking point. is how good can the players look if the staff is bad enough where you're automatically moving on from them halfway into the season.

1:30:25I do overall agree, though. Like, if I was a Jets fan, David Bailey, the offensive tackles, and Garrett Wilson are, like, my primary concerns. Like, let's really get the most out of those guys and let's have Garrett Wilson be healthy and productive.

1:30:40Robert Mays: I'd like one of Sadiq or Cooper to flash before the end of the season. I'd like one of those two guys to show me something. Or even Pons. I think at least one of those other top 50-ish picks has to do something. Oh, and also, I mean, this is pie in the sky, but screw it. Like, root against the Colts, Cowboys, and Packers, too. Let's get those. Let's go. Let's get those picks up. The Colts are a bottom-out team in a way that I think is underrated. We'll get to that division at some point, but I agree. I don't necessarily bet on it, but among those three teams, the Colts could absolutely be picking them.

1:31:14There's always one or two teams that just like, oh, shit, I didn't think they were going to be. I mean, the Cardinals last year, nobody thought they were going to be that bad. And then they were that bad. Yeah.

1:31:22Robert Mays: Let's get to the Miami Dolphins. Our preview for the 2026 Miami Dolphins. They're offseason in 60 seconds. Hired Jeff Halfley as their head coach. John Eric Sullivan as the GM. Bobby Slogan is the offensive coordinator. Signed Malik Willis, Greg Dolchich, Cleland Farrell, and a bunch of other guys for about a million dollars. Traded Jalen Waddell for a first-round pick. Another day three draft capital. Cut Bradley Chubb, Tyreek Hill, Tua Tagvaluola, Alec Ingle, Julian Hill, and Cole Strange all move on. In the draft, they made 10 ,000 picks. Caden Proctor, Chris Johnson, Jacob Rodriguez, Chris Bell, Caleb Douglas, Will Kazmarek, Kyle Lewis.

1:31:56Robert Mays: What are you most excited about with the 2026 Miami Dolphins, David? This could be the peak of offseason cope, and I know that Bobby Slowik is calling the offense in Miami, so we'll see how that goes. But I'm pretty excited to watch this run game specifically when you consider the pieces on the offensive line, Devon HN got his extension quietly, like not only explosive, but very efficient considering what the Dolphins were as an offense last year. And Malik Willis, obviously, at the very worst, and not to say that he can't add anything as a passer, but you know for sure he can add an explosive element to your run game.

1:32:37So with a very mobile quarterback who rushed for a first down 37 % of the time over his last two years playing, which admittedly not a huge sample size, but a good bit more mobile than Tua? Just for starters? Yeah. I'd say so. Yeah, I think you could say that. A quarterback like Malik Willis, a running back like Devon A. Chan, super excited about Patrick Paul, Caden Proctor playing between him and Aaron Brewer. The offensive line in general, I just think has exciting potential. this might blow up in my face but in august i'm excited to see what this looks like it's just an offense this is has a chance to be very unique and it was unique in different ways

1:33:17Robert Mays: under under mike mcdaniel but i think i just love this framing it'll be it'll be unique it'll be unique this reminds me actually a fitting because it's the afc east it reminds me of us talking ourselves into what the jets could do with just the exact same thing yes exact same thing it's the same thing so much fun with it the difference is at least justin fields was never really a good passer in like any extended sample in the nfl and not that maliqueless has an extended sample it's not extended it's only like 60 some odd dropbacks but at least on those dropbacks he's like by far the most productive quarterback in the nfl and obviously that's you know playing on a packer scene that's really well constructed it was very specific game plans in like i think when you're pitch pinch hitting as a quarterback you can get away with stuff in a one or two game sample that you're not going to get away with in that 17-game sample, which we'll talk about that later.

1:34:08But at least when he was doing that, it was electric, and you can at least give him some amount of praise there. And then on top of Devon H.N., who, like, I think it's underrated how— I think we watch him in the McDaniel offense, and you see all the just runway stuff that he's doing on the outside, and it's like, oh, he's incredible. He is, as a down-to-down running back, like, as good as anybody in the league.

1:34:28Robert Mays: He is phenomenal. Even going back and re-watching the preseason stuff and what they were doing, Like him as a between the tackles runner, he's so underrated. He's such a good player. That's my answer by far. It's just Devon A. Chan behind this offensive line. You got 320 at left tackle, 360 at left guard, an all pro at center, 325 at right guard, and then whatever Austin Jackson is. I didn't look it up because it wasn't important. But the other four parts, 7A in year two, it's a lot of beef and a very little fast man behind it. I'm excited to see what that looks like. I want to believe that six weeks into the season, all of us football geeks will be like, yeah, I know their record's not good, but are you watching the Dolphins run the ball?

1:35:11This is electric stuff. If you are an oddity I want to tune into. Absolutely. And I think they honestly, like, they can be. Like, the receivers I have a lot more questions about and we'll get there. But, like, if I'm just looking at quarterback, running back, and the offensive line, I'm like, that's kind of enough to be, like, an interesting offense.

1:35:29Robert Mays: Dave's point about the Jets is the perfect thing to bring up, though. We were having this exact same conversation about the Jets last year. The reality is often nowhere near as fun. But like I said, it's August. What are you watching the first month of the season with the Miami Dolphins, Derek? I mean, just like Bobby Slowik 2.0. And I know that, obviously, what he was, especially at the end in Houston, it was kind of vanilla. It was a lot of just like play the hits sort of Shanahan stuff. And the run game in particular never really got off the ground. I'm wondering how much of him being on this staff last year and like not only just getting to see some of the Mike McDaniel stuff a little bit more up close, but it's like with these exact players for the most part.

1:36:10And like, obviously they lose Alec Engle. It's not necessarily one for one, but the offensive line is mostly the same guy.

1:36:15Robert Mays: And there's a fullback on this team. And there is a fullback on their 53. And so like, I'm just curious, like how much has he taken from the failings that he had in Houston, then seeing one of the best run game designers in the NFL get to do this on this exact team. how much of that can he really put together and drive things forward so I think I'm just really I don't even know necessarily what I think it's going to look like like I don't know how much of it is it going to go back a little bit more to the stock standard Shanahan stuff is he going to do a lot more of the weird stuff because like by the end of last year like the second half the the Dolphins run game was like a like a wildcat like T formations like they were just doing like weird weird stuff it was like a wing T offense I almost kind of think you can do some of that with Malik well listen actually let him do some more of the running like I wonder how much of that they continue to hold in the offense I think the problem is when you you have to come to that in the back half of the season when you have the guy that is at the center of all of that it's different than I sat and watched that guy for eight weeks yeah and so I wonder how much of that you can even glean but I I'm very curious about the slow 2.0 thing that's exactly where I landed with it as well for all the excitement we potentially have about the running game since Since 2021, okay, so we have 160 NFL seasons since 2021.

1:37:30Robert Mays: The Houston Texans in two years under Bobby Sloick finished 150th and 152nd in those 160 seasons and success rate per next gen. They're really, really, really bad run games. The offensive line talent is undeniably better here by a long shot. Even if you go back like two years, the two previous years before you even got there, those Texans teams are like in the bottom 15. The Texans have been such a bad running team for so long. It's actually kind of crazy. But Bobby Slug, I think, did have a hand in that. So what does the run game look like? Because I do think that you look at the numbers, just how much zone running the Texans were doing back then, where Bobby Slug comes from, even what the Dolphins were doing last year.

1:38:08Robert Mays: You'd assume there'd be a decent amount of that. You've got some big boys there. And they were doing some more pull stuff and gap scheme runs in the preseason. So how much of that do we see? How much variety in the run game do we see? and the other part of it that i expect them to lean into more they use a ton of multi-tight end stuff in the preseason i think we'll keep seeing that the name uh name of which you probably know this the broncos the tight end they took in the justin joley justin joley's a dolphin now so they picked him up in uh as a waiver claim so they'll have him kazmerich dolcic and they use a bunch of two tight end sets in the preseason and they use a lot of fullback stuff in the preseason in 2023 2023, the Texans were, the Texans had a fullback on the field for 25 % of their plays in 2023.

1:38:52Robert Mays: That season, CJ Stroud led the NFL in the percentage of his dropbacks that came against base defense. And that was a very successful passing game compared to what you would expect. The Texans were ninth in 2024 in the same metric, was about an eight percentage point drop when they stopped using a fullback quite as often. And so can you diversify the run game a little bit with this offensive line can you play on your terms with getting heavier bodies on the field and simplifying things for your quarterback and tap into some of the things that were good about the Bobby Sloan experience in Houston and then try to improve at some of the things that were poor in part because of your offensive line personnel.

1:39:30Will Kazmarek would be high on my list of names to know if you're looking for that Jackson Hawes sort of guy who even as a rookie is just mauling people as an extra tight end that's a for being a you know a third round pick on a team that doesn't to have high expectations. I think that's an interesting name.

1:39:47Robert Mays: He's going to play. Yeah, he is. He's going to play a decent amount, in part because your other tight end is Greg Dolchich, who for any excitement you could have about Greg Dolchich as a pass catcher, I'm not sure he's moving defensive ends by himself. No. Well, and like God knows what at receiver, so it's like you might as well start putting the tight ends on the field. Dave, what are you watching the first month of the season with the Dolphins? Malik Willis has thrown 89 passes the last two years. he's probably going to throw more than that in the first month of this season alone i just what what what is this guy i loved what he did in green bay i one of my favorite player development stories of the last few years is the packers getting him for a flyer two years ago was it or three whatever 20 2023 season right i think it was after 24 season into the 24 season because 2023 was the year where him he played him and levis yeah played a couple It's such a cool story.

1:40:40And obviously he got a life changing amount of money over it. But now we just see what what this is. And it's not an ideal circumstance. But as we've just laid out, I think it's it's better than than you would probably give it credit for on the surface. And so what can he do with it? What does he look like? What are who are the Dolphins primary pass catchers? How much can this running game health help him? I mean, who who's Malik Willis other than a surprisingly pleasant backup? quarterback. That's what we know him as to this point. And so I don't think it has to be more complicated than that.

1:41:14Robert Mays: I think a lot of people were excited about him potentially getting an opportunity after the way that he played in spot duty last year. So let's stay excited for the opportunity because he is getting it, even if it's in less than ideal circumstances. Not hopeless, though. Like, yeah, not a hopeless. I mean, it's tough, man. I mean, even if the running game is good, the idea that you're going to be thrown into a combination of Jalen Tolbert, Malik Washington, Caleb Douglas, maybe Chris Bell. Even if you have hope about what Caleb Douglas and Chris Bell can eventually become, Caleb Douglas had a couple nice moments in the preseason.

1:41:47Robert Mays: Chris Bell is much more talented in the third-round prospect and should be back sooner rather than later. We're still talking about rookie receivers. Like, your two most important outside pass catchers, I think even by the end of this season, let alone the long-term outlook of the franchise, are rookie day three picks. maybe not hopeless, but certainly not good. But that's what the money's for. And I at least, like, in a majority of cases, the offenses and situations that really feel like they crumble and just give a guy no shot, it's the offensive line. Like, it's truly one of the worst in the league.

1:42:20I don't think that Miami's going to get there. I think that they're talented enough that that's not where they should arrive. And so they'll at least keep him upright enough. Whether or not keeping him upright so he can throw to Malik Washington does anything, probably not. But at least I think he's not going to get just like battle scars by Halloween.

1:42:37Robert Mays: The only devil's advocate thing I would say to that is that we talk about crumbling infrastructures. That was the Texans problem in 24. Offensive line talent was a part of this. They were getting picked on by all of these teams just manipulating them in pass protection over and over and over again. The game I think about, the game I still go back to, it's not even the playoff game where they were getting destroyed. that Packers game that season where Jeff Halfley just ate his lunch over the course of four quarters and they were throwing every weird pressure and simulated and everything in the everything under the sun at them and they had no answer for it that would be the other part of slow look 2.0 like have you learned a little bit about yourself and what your plan there has to look like to prevent people from picking on you because this is it keeps I keep going back to this idea of when you are in a situation like that and those are the systemic concerns the talent matters less because you feel it less and so even if the players are better how much do you feel the individual talent across the offensive line if the situation is bad and i think the situation needs to be better even if the players are from what we saw the last time bobby slowick was an offensive coordinator i mean it's a good point because like again i'm willing to leave the door open that slowick is better but we know for a fact that Mike McDaniel made this offensive line better than it was.

1:43:53And so maybe the different, maybe the dearth, like how big that gap is between those two is bigger than I'm giving credit for.

1:44:00Robert Mays: What is keeping you up at night about the 2026 Miami Dolphins? David? Did our GM cook? Or are we going to be looking back on this draft class as a lot of disappointing players? It's very similar to the Jets where all I want is to be excited about some young guys and they're not all guys that John Eric Sullivan drafted. Like you want to see Patrick Paul continue to ascend Jonas Evan. I, if Kenneth Grant had a big season, how exciting already on IR. Oh, holy shit. I missed that for like for the year or did the short term. I, he was not on this all. He's not on the starting. He's not on the depth chart.

1:44:38Robert Mays: Opening season on injury reserve is why our return. He will miss the first four games of the season at least, which is brutal. That is already a blow against my hopes, but you made 13 draft picks. if I feel good about, I don't know, four of those guys, is that setting the bar too high? Considering how young this team is? I think it depends on what good means. Like, how good can you feel about Kaczmarek? But, like, if he plays a role for an offense, if he's what you want him to be in that role, if one of the two receivers flashes a little bit, if Proctor looks good, like, I think if four to five of those guys feel like contributing pieces by the end of it, you would feel really good about this draft class.

1:45:16proctor johnson jacob rodriguez caleb douglas kasmarek chris bell yeah if if most of those guys look like players and i feel like john eric sullivan really crushed this draft class uh that's that's my hope and that's what's keeping me awake at night because i've done this long enough to know for every time we get excited about these huge draft class classes i mean we just talked about the Patriots and how only one guy from 2024 is even on the team anymore. It's rare when a big draft class like this ages super well. Ask Washington. Another great example. It can change the fortunes of your franchise if you do it.

1:45:55And that's why I would be losing sleep is like, are we about to reboot this team with an insanely good foundation? Or is this going to look stupid in two years? I mean, I think for me, it's and maybe I'm thinking too much because like this year doesn't really matter in terms of results but like the secondary is heinous the secondary

1:46:14Robert Mays: is an indication of the overall roster quality right exactly that's just the area where i think it's right apparent yes i think the whole roster obviously has a lot of issues but you do see it the most in the secondary like they're starting five right now juju brentz at corner who flamed out in indianapolis after starting a little bit as a rookie jason marshall who was a fifth round pick for this team last year uh dante trader who was also a fifth round pick for this team last year. Zane Anderson at safety, who has played 145 snaps in five NFL seasons, most of them with the Packers in 2024. And then Chris Johnson, who is your first round pick.

1:46:47And it's obviously first round pick, but still a rookie. And you're never entirely sure what you're going to get out of that guy. And I think Johnson played a lot outside in college. And also he's a rookie, as you just laid out, playing in a secondary with no help. So that's not great.

1:47:02Robert Mays: Right. Mine just extends to that thought process about the entire team. It is one of the thinnest NFL rosters I can remember staring at on August 31st. And we knew that was going to happen. I was comparing them to a team I want to talk about a little bit. I want to talk about what success looks like. And the team that I had in mind, they were paying about 35 % of the cap in dead money in year one of Arisa. that the dolphins have 196 million dollars in dead money i mean that's what half 60 percent it's it's insane i mean it's just insane you can't build an nfl roster this way and they know that they knew that they were going to have to take a disgusting stomach churning amount of medicine this year and that's exactly what's happening but when you look at it man holy shit like the secondary is a good indication of it to me do you know who's currently slated and that this our ads whatever the depth charts are we don't have a Dolphins b-rider and so I did not check the current update on the 53 like I could for a lot of other teams do you know who is currently slated to be the edge rusher opposite chop robinson on the Dolphins depth chart right now Josh Uche Josh Uche and that's I was gonna say him or Robert Beal I know is on this roster and that's the other small thing too like this this is where i think the season can get like emotionally demoralizing for them i'm sorry if that's like way too dark their edge players are all like 250 and i if you're a bad team and you're just getting slammed it's in the run game it's hard to live it's hard to live and that that's that's my concern is that it's so bad yeah it's just demoralizing over the course of the year but you'd hope that you can have some flashes by the offense and that can be enough but they're they're in a really really tough spot just with the roster they could practically put on the field, given the way that this team was built over the last few years.

1:48:54Robert Mays: They spent an insane amount of money to kick the can down the road financially, and they didn't make any draft picks. The Dolphins didn't make any picks for the last like five years. They made fewer picks than any team in the league. If you look back at like the last several draft classes, in 2022, the Dolphins made zero top 100 picks. They made two picks in the first four rounds. In 2023, the Dolphins made two top 100 picks and two picks in the first six rounds. In 2024, you get Chopper Robinson, Patrick Paul, and then Jalen Wright in the fourth round. But again, only two top 100 picks. And then last year, you get Kenneth Grant and Jonas Savanee.

1:49:30Robert Mays: Kenneth Grant already not playing. There just weren't any picks high in the draft over the last several years. And all of them, essentially all of the mid-round swings did not work out. So there just aren't any players on this team. On top of the fact they have$200 million in dead money. I'm going to remember the dolphins as an example of the argument people make, which there's validity to it. The cap's not real in the sense that it'll never stop you from doing something you want to do. The cap will absolutely f*** you. And that's what the dolphins are dealing with. You got to pay the bill for a year at least.

1:50:04Robert Mays: Yes. And for them, they're paying it kind of for two years, like a year and a half. Because next year, Tua is still on the books for about$50 million. But even with that, they'll have$100 million in space. The consequences of your actions will come up eventually. And yeah, you can just clear it out quickly. That's the thing. That's why it's worth it. To be clear, it is worth it. There can still be big time consequences, even if they're just one year consequences. But this is what your roster can look like when those decisions don't age well. So what is success for the 2021 Miami Dolphins, 2026 Miami Dolphins?

1:50:39Robert Mays: that's actually a very telling Freudian slip, be the 2021 Lions. Yeah. Where the young players look good and you have some give a shit to you. You have the line. The line is where you can rest a lot of your faith, a lot of your enthusiasm. Here are some players on the Detroit Lions that played more than 500 snaps in 2021. Oh, this is going to be good. Jerry Jacobs, AJ Parker, Jalen Reeves-Maben, Nick Williams, Dean Marlowe, Charles Harris, Tracy Walker III, Armani or Warrior? Mizzou legend Charles Harris. He's one of those players that bounced around for longer than you think, by the way. And played okay near the end of his career, but still.

1:51:21Robert Mays: And Charles Harris, by the way, had 52 pressures on that team. No one else had more than 21. That's the Chop Robinson. Let's take this a step further. Chop Robinson is your Charles Harris, except he's an in-house young player that you can really get excited about. But we have seen horrendous roster situations in the NFL where you can be at least a little bit enthusiastic about it by the end. If you're playing hard, you're getting the most out of the talent. And here's the other comparison. Who was the number one receiver on the 2021 Detroit Lions? Fourth round rookie on Ross St. Brown. And he did most of that in like the last eight weeks.

1:51:58Robert Mays: If Chris Bell or Caleb Douglas, if you have that sort of guy because they have the opportunity, be the 2021 Lions. That is success if you're the Dolphins. Be 80 % of that. They won three games. Play passable football while getting an exciting year from a lot of your young players. And it would be a bonus if Jeff Halfley gives you some degree of confidence that he's a dude. That's the 2021 Lions. If it's not a dead three wins and it's a you made teams earn it as much as they possibly had to sort of three wins, I think that you can live with how that looks. And that's how the Lions were that year.

1:52:35Robert Mays: Yeah, they were they were making teams earn it even if they only won three games. That's what I said with it. All right. That is all we've got for the Dolphins and all we've got for the AFC East. We'll be back tomorrow with our next division. Until then, appreciate you guys listening. We'll talk to you soon. Thanks for tuning in. Make sure to hit that subscribe or follow button so you never miss an episode. If you enjoyed what you heard, please like, comment, and leave a rating. We'll see you next time.

1:53:09There's nothing like my American Express Platinum card.

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