Bears Dominate Eagles on ‘MNF’ and More Surprises From Week 3

21:48John Harbaugh surely had plenty of information from Jim Harbaugh about what makes J.J. tick. And he's a cost-controlled young quarterback who can be on your roster going into a year where, frankly, you can't just go, well, Jackson will be healthy. He'll be good. But he will be healthy by next camp. But his track record so far is not that he can stay healthy. So maybe Matt Nagy, Brian Callahan, and that crew can unlock something. And J.J. McCarthy, there's something to be said for just a fresh start. There was a lot that happened, man, in Minnesota with J.J. And this is not making excuses for him.

22:25But if we are just chronologically laying it out, tears his meniscus in the first preseason game he plays, misses his entire rookie season. comes back in 2025, is the unquestioned starter. They made that decision. Everybody's watching Sam Darnold, who went 14 games the year before, going to win a Super Bowl in Seattle. Everyone's watching Daniel Jones going, light it up in Indianapolis. What's happening to JJ? He's the player of the week. Week one with the comeback win over Chicago. Week two, plays bad, gets hurt. Misses like five weeks. He has a mess of injuries all season long. He's got a new baby.

23:00He's learning how to be a dad. Everything was happening at once. And then in the offseason, he has them bring in his obvious replacement in Kyler Murray. Like, all those things kind of stick to you. And it's not that the Vikings don't believe this guy could still be a good quarterback. It was not going to work in Minnesota. So they get a fifth-round pick. They save like$4-plus million cash in cap space, gain some flexibility, avoid whatever headache there would be this season or next offseason if J.J. were still on the roster as a backup. And for J.J., he gets a new shot. So I like it all around.

23:36But in terms of the immediate future shield of the Giants, this is not like a needle mover. Yes, it brings one more into the room, but Giants can still add another quarterback if they're concerned about Jameis faltering here as we move forward. He hasn't done a lot yet. It was weird weather last week. Let's see what they put together in a game plan this week. But Jameis Winston is still going to be a part whether or not the Giants win or lose shield, however you want to take that if you're a Giants fan. So your understanding is that Jameis is going to start for now. If he falters, maybe they make a move, right?

24:09Or is it that's what they're saying publicly? Is that kind of how you view it? Could potentially add another quarterback. Could JJ play at some point? Sure. But he's never played in the scheme. He's walking in there, never been with his teammates. The worst thing for JJ is sometime in the next month, he's got to just get shoveled out there, which is always the concern. You get traded cut down as a quarterback. You get traded in season. Your odds of having success, there's not a lot of Baker Mayfields rolling in on a Tuesday, starting Thursday and reviving your career. JJ needs to sit a little bit and kind of get revived.

24:41But he does bring some things, Sheil, as you know, that look kind of like Jackson Dart. He can move around. Those quarterback movement concepts that you basically can't call with Jameis, JJ can do some of those things. So there's a lot for them to kind of experiment with and see if they unlock something. But this isn't the move to save the season. This is the move to kind of set themselves up even into 2027. Let's get another young, talented guy in the room and see what works out. I like it from the Giants perspective. And I'm not like the biggest J.J. McCarthy fan. Like if you ask me, what's the likelihood that he's going to be an average starter in the NFL?

25:14I wouldn't put that number very high. It's just based on what we've seen. And that might be unfair. He's only 23 years old, but that's like a pretty high bar to clear, you know, consistent average starter in the NFL. But the reason I like it is what you said. This is low cost. This is rookie contract, fifth round pick. And I do subscribe to the idea that if you don't have a quarterback, take a bunch of bites at the apple. Like you don't have to just put everything on Jackson Dardom. This is our guy. We can't do anything else. No, you have no idea if he's going to be your guy or not. It's like some of the coaches or GMs who say just draft a quarterback every single year.

25:47I think that's overall, you know, doesn't have to be every single year. But overall, that's a good philosophy when you don't have one. because even if he ends up being a solid backup, like that's good value for a fifth round pick. Even if he ends up being like the 24th best starter in the NFL, it's actually sometimes going to be hard to find a guy who's the 24th best starter in the NFL. So I know I'm setting the bar really low, but given the age, given what you gave up, I do like it from a Giants perspective. I think it's not even a gamble to take because if it doesn't work out, he's gone and all you spent really was a fifth round pick.

26:25Sheil Kapadia:I'm just kind of relieved to hear that we're not going to lose Jameis after seeing his like inspirational interviews and stuff this past weekend, where they ask him, how confident are you in carrying this team forward? He said, one thing I do is forgetting those that is behind and reaching forward to what's ahead while staring off into the distance. And then after, you know, it was bad weather. We will admit it was bad weather. There were, you know, different sports leagues around the country that were moving their games out of the state or different times or whatever. And they still won the game.

26:55Sheil Kapadia:And they said, you know, hey, you didn't score any touchdowns, but your thoughts on the game. He said, winning this game for Jackson, 12 points, six times two. It's for you. That's 12. So I'm glad that we're not going to entirely lose Jameis there, but I have a question for you. So you said that you reported this past weekend that there was an expectation that they would have a quarterback by as soon as Monday. And it is Monday and they have a quarterback. And you said they were calling around. So are you at liberty to tell us who else might have been in play? What was Tom hearing who might have also ended up in New York?

27:29I believed pretty strongly at that point that it was going to be J.J. McCarthy. They did check on other quarterbacks. I thought there were some other names that would make sense. I thought Justin Fields potentially could make sense just because, again, the quarterback movement stuff that you do. but that's a different style of quarterback still from Jackson Dart. Mack Jones, there was never really anything there. The price would be high for a Mack Jones, although the next team to lose a quarterback, all eyes will be on Mack Jones because that's the logical next guy up. Spencer Rattler's had interest.

28:03I don't know that the Giants ever called on him, but the Saints, they wanted a lot at the cut down to trade him because there were teams that tried to trade for him and nobody was able to get it done. Teams don't want to give up quarterbacks. Like all the Flacco stuff, on what planet are the Bengals, knowing Joe Burrow's history and knowing the importance of this season, going to trade a guy in Flacco who played at a really high level last year? Like that's part of it. J.J. was third string in Minnesota. He wasn't going to see the field unless something happened to both Kyler and to Carson Wentz.

28:36So yes, they had called around. I was fairly confident it was going to end up being J.J. McCarthy. And then obviously everybody had to see how they got through the games on Sunday. Vikings didn't have any injuries. Deal got done Monday morning. JJ got called in and he's got a fresh start in New York. That's a wild turn of events for a guy who a year ago at this time, well a year ago at this time he was hurt but two weeks before that it was hey he's 1-0 as the starter. He's the player of the week. This is going to be the guy. Again, environment means a lot. Kevin O 'Connell tried to create the right environment for him in Minnesota but there were a lot of environmental factors that came up.

29:14The success of Darnold and Daniel Jones not being an insignificant part of it in terms of how people felt about everything that transpired in Minnesota. A lot more stuff happened over the weekend. We had controversial clock management late in some games. We had some teams with not a lot of offense still winning games. And we've had some teams now at 3-0 that we didn't expect to be 3-0. Some teams 0-3, we definitely didn't expect to be 0-3. What's our biggest surprises? Shields got some ideas right after this. The Ringer NFL Show is brought to you by FanDuel. Welcome to your most rewarding season ever, only on FanDuel.

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30:43This episode is brought to you by Ethos. Buying a house is one of those moments where you realize, oh yeah, I have responsibilities now. And if you have a family, you want to know they could stay in that house if something happened to you. Ethos makes life insurance painless. Get a quote in seconds, apply in minutes all online with no medical exam. Take 10 minutes to get covered today with life insurance through Ethos. Get your free quote at ethos.com slash ringer NFL. That is ethos.com slash ringer NFL. Application times may vary, rates may vary. So every Monday in the second segment of this show, and granted, I haven't been here that long, but we usually come to Shields' takeaways from the Sunday that was across the NFL, which brought me to an important point that I don't think we've discussed, at least since I got here.

31:36And Billy, I want your answer too. Sheil, how do you watch football? Just describe to me what your setup is on a Sunday, all the games going on. What are you seeing? I got three TVs on the wall, of course, had to do that. It was work-related. I had no other choice when we were doing some work on the house. So three TVs on the wall in the office. I have red zone on one, and then I have the two most important games that I feel are the most important games on the other. And so that's how I start watching. Now, once we get to the second half, the games can change. You know how it goes. Are you thought this was going to be an important game?

32:12For example, I had Patriots Jaguars on one. That's a blowout. I switched to something else. So that's kind of how I do it. And then Sunday night, Monday morning, I'm just condensed games and reading and stats and everything I can do to chew up the stuff that I missed on Sunday. So there you go.

32:29Sheil Kapadia:Billy, what does it look like for you? Well, I'm still an up and comer in this industry. I don't have the three TVs money that shield does, you know, the extra rooms where we set up the TV. So we have like the living room TV, which we just upgraded. And it's not because of like, you know, vanity is because the other one just the lights stopped working on it. So we had to upgrade it as a forced upgrade. But we went slightly larger than the last one. So that threw off my former, we would have it mounted on the wall. And then it was a white wall. So there was some room. So I got a cheap projector from Amazon.

33:01Sheil Kapadia:I would plug a Roku into that. And then I'd project next to the TV on the wall, a game that was going on. Stopped doing that because we don't have the space on the wall anymore. So now I have the main TV, usually on the red zone. The iPad will then have usually like the local game, like the Dolphins game, the one o 'clock window, and then the big game in the four o 'clock window. And then if I need anything else, I'll have the phone next to me. And then that'll have like a third game. Now, this week was tricky, not football related, but it was game 162 in all of baseball. So we had MLB Network on one of them.

33:35Sheil Kapadia:So at one point in time, we had nine games in the one o 'clock window, three o 'clock. Every single baseball game was going on, except for the the games that were in the northeast because of the weather. I had my football notebook on one side at a baseball notebook on the other side, to which my wife said, you cannot possibly be paying attention to all of these games at once. And I said, I most certainly am. And I was just taking notes. And at around like 4.35, my head was just hurting. I was like, I need a break from this. So we went down to just red zone on the one TV because it became too much.

34:09So I've got the projector. That's like the main game. Very simple. It's like whatever is on local TV because I've got a streamer and you're a little bit limited. Then I'll have, I got the two TVs going on the sides, either a second game plus a highlight show. And then I've got always Red Zone, right? With Scott Hansen in one ear. So I've got that on the laptop, kind of coming and going. So I'm taking notes on injuries and everything else. But I've gotten used to that seven hours of just Scott Hansen throwing out 8 ,000 names. And there's always one witching hour on Red Zone every year where it seems like Scott might spontaneously combust.

34:47And I think that was yesterday. I think with, there were like three games at one point that all had like a goal to go situation. It was bang, bang, bang. So it was a fun afternoon watch, Shield. I'm curious, as you step back and you review, give me something that's on your mind. Yeah, unfortunately, I think that witching hour was all bad for our Ringer 107 fix, but we'll get to that. You suck this week, Shield. They were all happening. Bad things were happening at the same time. I'm like, no, no, Scott Hanson, stop. Don't tell me that, but that's okay. It's a long season. We will bounce back. Okay, so here's the idea.

35:25It's kind of like upon further review where everyone has their takes right after the game, they're firing off takes. We got a little extra time. So here are some things I've been chewing on since Sunday. My first thing here, and this is a passion of mine and you'll probably tell me I'm unfair. So I look forward to you guys giving me a balance take here. But I think two coaches really cost their teams at the end of their respective games yesterday. Like these could be things we look back week 17, week 18, and we go, remember in week three when this happened? So here's the first one, Brian Schottenheimer.

35:59And I kind of like Brian Schottenheimer. He's grown on me. I think he's done a good job overall in Dallas, but I think a lot of eyes were on that Ravens-Cowboys game. And the way like the last 20 seconds of that game went were a disaster. But the biggest thing to me, because some stuff's out of your control, the tight end false starts, You can say that's poorly coached, whatever. Guys make mistakes. Game tied at 31. Seven seconds left. The Cowboys are kicking off. You have two options there. Kick it through the back of the end zone for a touchback or force them to return the kick. And they chose the first option.

36:34And I can't understand why they chose the first option because they kick it through the back of the end zone. And now you give two-time MVP Lamar Jackson a chance to complete a pass and set up for the game-winning field goal, which is exactly what happened. Whereas if you would have forced a return there, even if it's a decent return, they're taking off two, three, four, five seconds off the clock where they literally would not have been able to complete a pass and then kick a field goal. So that really was on my radar as I was watching that game because coaches talk all the time about situational football and they've got guys in their ear telling them, hey, here's what you should do in this situation.

37:11I think the Cowboys botched that one at the end of the Ravens game. Billy, what do you think?

37:17Sheil Kapadia:I, you know, I'm kind of with you. I think that you think you kick it out of the end zone so that way you don't have someone get lucky and return it for a touchdown, right? So far this season, there have been zero kickoffs returned for touchdowns. The longest kickoffs returned this year, 40 yards. There's been a couple guys that return at 40 yards. If you kick it, if you ever return it for 40 yards, let's say they kick it as a short kick to like the, I don't know, 10. You get to midfield. 40 yards is going to take you, you know, fastest guys is like a four or three, but with contact, that'll probably take you a good six seconds, maybe.

37:53Sheil Kapadia:So you'd have one second to kick a field goal if you're even close enough to kick a field goal. So I see that's like worst case scenario. That's worst case scenario. Yeah. But I think I saw a stat and I think that this was the first time that there have been two field goals kicked within 10 seconds left in the game. So you never expect that to happen. You think, you know what, let's just kick it away. They'll get it at the 35 when it goes through the end zone. And then they're not really going to have enough time to make a player. If they do, it'll be a miracle. And sure enough, that miracle happened in Rio.

38:25Sheil Kapadia:So like in retrospect, you can say it was definitely the wrong call, but it's something that has absolutely never happened before. So I don't know how much you can actually blame him for that. If you're being fair, if you want to be the hot take guy, which you're known to do, come in here, throw the hot takes, get the reactions out of people. I can see why you're saying they should fire Brian Schottenheimer today. I thought in real time. I'm like, you got to force them to return the kick. Maybe those takes I should text on our group chat so that it doesn't look like I'm just saying it after the fact.

38:55But I swear, Tom, I thought in real time that they should force a return there. My question in that closing sequence was what happens on the third and goal, where it looks like Dak has a back shoulder to George Pickens is a clear miscommunication. Dak throws it like George is right to the back of the end zone. George stops and looks wide open, and the ball sails higher than I think George even could have gotten it. That was a weird play. I'd be curious to be in the film room and find out what got lost in translation there. When it comes to the kickoff, I probably would have more of a problem with it if they literally hadn't just tried the kick it in play thing with Brandon Aubrey, the previous kickoff, but he kicked it out of bounds.

39:39So it's an extra five yards. I guarantee you there's a math component. They've got the game management people there, and it's like, all right, the 35 to the 40, like that five yards matters. And also, it has to be exactly perfect for the six seconds to get it and get it to the field goal line and get down. Obviously, he got there, and they put the second back on the clock because Lamar called timeout quickly. It had to have been something in the math that we can't run the risk of giving them the extra five yards. Because you're right, Sheila, if you put the ball in play, you're at least burning.

40:11They fair catch it deep in their own territory, which doesn't help you, or you burn a few seconds off and all you have left is a Hail Mary or a lateral play. It was a strange ending to that game overall. Obviously exciting for all the fans in Brazil, but definitely just kind of an odd sequence of events that really dates back to if you score a touchdown there, again, on third down where it looks like Pickens is open, field goal doesn't matter. You're up four and then the game's different. Yeah, Schottenheimer really took responsibility for that. He's like, I probably over-coached Dak there. And I'm like, all right, I appreciate a coach kind of taking the bullet for the player.

40:47But I'm like, Dak Prescott, what year is this? He's in like year 11. I mean, they made it sound like it was like, if it's not there, throw it away because you don't want to take a sack or do something dumb where now all of a sudden the clock runs out. But there was like a lot of time there and it was a quick out. It's like as basic of a route as you could run. Like, look, and you're right. He was wide open. I thought that play was there. And I put that one on Dak. It felt like he panicked there. And we don't know for sure because he didn't want to talk about it after the game, which maybe that's telling.

41:16Maybe it's not. But yeah, they had that. They had the false start. Even on first down, they could have run the ball to at least force the Ravens to use a timeout on first down. Then they're not going to be able to do what they did at the end of that game. So you're right. There's a lot of factors. They had kicked the ball out of bounds twice, I think in that game, but we've seen the last couple of weeks, special teams has been a huge factor in these games. You look at that Bengal Steelers game, huge factor. You had a muffed pun in that game. You had a roughing the punter in that game that kept the drive alive for the Steelers.

41:46That was a close game. In week two, the Titans did something similar to the Cowboys in that comeback against the Eagles where they're kicking the ball out of bounds. These teams can't figure out, Billy, the kickoff rule. Don't you think by now it's like kicker? This is what you need to do at practice. Practice is that. It's all he has to do. It's all you have to do, and I don't mean to simplify it, but it feels like you should be able to figure it out. Kick it between the zero and the 20, do it until you get it 10 times in a row and then your practice is over. That seems like a solution.

42:13Sheil Kapadia:Can I ask you guys a question that we're three weeks in, somewhat related to your question, but definitely related to this game. We're three weeks in. How do we feel about the JJ Watt, Jim Nance pairing so far? And how do we think it's going? Because I got to be honest with you, yesterday I was kind of missing Tony a little bit. Like it was the first time that I was like, you know what? I think maybe Tony did his time. I think maybe we bring him back here because like there's something about JJ and this is not, you know, meant to be a shot, but it will come off as a shot at him. There's something about when he gets enthused that just feels somewhat insincere to me.

42:49Sheil Kapadia:Like I feels like it's almost too enthusiastic, too much of a put on like we're supposed to be having fun. I'm going to have extra fun here. And it just feels a little bit forced to me. Am I alone on this? So the energy. I hear what you're saying with the enthusiasm. Now, I think of that often when people are talking about football. I'm like, all right, settle down. My default is like everybody settle down, which people don't appreciate because people like to get excited. So I hear what you're saying there. I hadn't thought about Romo not being there. I haven't felt a strong feeling one way or the other to them.

43:23I'll tell you who I do enjoy more in Tomkin, if he wants to chime in on WADA, not Nancy Ken. but I feel like Brady's really improving. I mean, that call on that Herbert interception, just coming out, calling it a meatball sub. Now none of the hipsters can defend Justin Herbert because like Tom Brady just told you that was a bad throw. You can't tell me on Tuesday when you're watching the film that no, no, no, that wasn't Justin Herbert's fault. That was Quentin Johnson's fault. So I feel like Brady now has really moved up my power rankings, Tom. The number one thing that former players have to be able to do is cut it loose.

43:57The thing that you would say if you're on your couch with your buddies watching the game without any curse words, although Tom violated that last week, like that's the thing you've got to say in the moment. You've got to say your actual emotions and your feelings. You know, John Gruden got a reputation for a long time on ESPN is like, oh, it's just always this guy's awesome and all that. But like John in the second half of games, if a team was bad, you could actually hear him getting mad and talking about how bad it was. I don't understand that, man. You would get those pieces. That's the thing.

44:31That's where Tom, who spent 20-plus years in the NFL learning from Belichick, don't say anything, be just very much in the middle on every single issue and stay out of trouble in your building, stay out of trouble politically, all that stuff. He had to wash that stuff out of him. It had to be completely flushed. I think Tom's done a great job. I know that when he made his debut, which is a while ago at this point, And it was like, oh, it was, you know, a little bumpy. But I thought that last year the arrow was pointed up. And I think Tom keeps getting better and better.

45:01Sheil Kapadia:Did you get a little shot he took this week, guys, at the Bills, where they're kind of like in the, you know, overhead, like, blimp shot or whatever. They showed the old Highmark Stadium. He's like, oh, the old Highmark Stadium. He's like, man, I lost two games. He goes, it would bother me if I didn't beat them 33 other times. And then they just go back to, like, the Bills. He's just letting it loose now. He's letting it... The thing about JJ, the enthusiasm is one thing. I just kind of felt on some of those calls, like JJ's read about having fun in a book. So he's trying to put that into action, you know?

45:32Yeah. I think here's the other thing though. You have to be yourself. Like, yeah, no matter what. And I think that's just, I think JJ, that's like his actual personality. I mean, he's a pretty straight line type of the dude. I think Tom's got a little bit more of that, you know, that rascal in him, but that's, you know, let's see, like JJ goes directly. Like he was on the desk, right? At one point at CBS. And then he starts doing games. Now he's on the number one team out of nowhere where he didn't have like off season reps with Nancy. It was just like, Hey, Tony got in some trouble. You're up, buddy.

46:04That's a bit. I'm not like making any excuses for him. I haven't like sat there and broken it down. I'll let other people do that. But it's, it's a reps thing, man. You find out right before you're about to go do this. I, hell, I got, I found that out. I wasn't supposed to be on the sideline and Netflix in week one. It was kind of like, hey, here you go. Like, there's a little bit of... That was natural, Billy. I would say that would be an example. You know what I mean or you don't. You know what I'm saying? You were the best. All right. I wasn't fishing for a compliment. My point is, when you don't have the time to prep, it's like, all right, I guess we're doing this thing.

46:36JJ kind of is doing the same thing. So let's give him the season. We'll evaluate JJ at the end of the season. I'm going to keep an eye on it, Billy, for you. Come back with a stronger take. I didn't feel like I had a strong enough take there on the Watanians combo. Okay, I gave you the Cowboys. The other team, the Houston Texans. And I think D 'Amico Ryans is a very good coach, but man, he has had a rough start to the season. And generally in the past, I'm always hard on the coaches who don't go for it on fourth down. I'm like, come on, be aggressive. Listen to your analytics team. He's very conservative on fourth down.

47:07I'm not even gonna kill him for that because I understand you're a defensive coach. The defense is the strength of your team. But the basic timeout usage and game management, I don't think enough people were watching this Texans-Colts game because this I thought was pretty egregious. So if you didn't see the game, they're up 17-16. They drive, they take the lead, they're feeling good. They got their defense on the field. Then the Colts complete a couple passes and then they run the ball with Jonathan Taylor. They're in field goal range with a minute six left, just needing a field goal to take the lead.

47:39At this point in the game, time's not a factor for the Colts. They have two timeouts. They're in field goal range. Like they can do whatever they want. They can run it. They can pass it. They can do whatever they want. If you're the Texans, you got to start thinking about getting the ball back. And they don't. And they sit there. And they don't call timeout. And they don't call timeout. And the clock ticks from 106 to 29 seconds. And then he calls a timeout at that point. And then the Colts end up kicking a field goal. And then how does this whole thing play out? Texans offense gets the ball back.

48:0911 seconds left. They complete a pass. But guess what? It's not like the Ravens game. They can't kick a field goal. And they have to throw up a Hail Mary. Whereas if they would have called timeout earlier, they would have had more time on the clock. Maybe they complete one more pass and they attempt a field goal. And this one I'm okay with, you know, especially being critical because D 'Amico Rines was asked about it and he was basically like, that's on me and I have to do a better job of that. So I'm still not out on the Texans. They're 0-3. I don't think they're cooked. I still think they have a chance to salvage this season, but the little stuff kind of around the edges, around the margins are not going their way.

48:45and some of that self-inflicted, I think, early in the season.

48:48Sheil Kapadia:So you mentioned the 106, which is when they got into field goal range, but they got into it with a five-yard run. Right before that, they had completed a 20-yard pass to get them to like the 45 with 148 left. So they could have stopped the clock there already. They still had their three timeouts. I guess at that point, they were waiting to see what are the Colts going to do? Are they going to get close enough? We don't want to kind of help them out here by stopping the clock and get them more time. But the 106 to 29 was egregious because you're seeing it play out and the Colts are just very casually and leisurely walking to the line.

49:20Sheil Kapadia:They got the playcock down to, I think, two seconds where it's like, well, I mean, if the Colts don't call a timeout here, they're going to get a delay of game. So someone's got to call a timeout. So then they bail them out. They do it 29 seconds, 24 seconds, 21 seconds, as you mentioned, and then they get it back with no time. And even that last throw that they had was kind of a miracle that CJ Stroud threw it out of bounds and they even got the one second left because they almost didn't even get a shot at that last play because he took so long to get rid of it and get it out of bounds. So it was a bad one.

49:49Sheil Kapadia:I mean, if you're the Texans, it's bad because this is a division rival of sorts. So you lose another division game. You're 0-3. The silver lining, I guess, is you could say, well, they were 0-3 last year and they made the playoffs, so it's not time to panic yet. But they're having those redstone struggles still. They turned it around a little bit, but the play clock, I mean, you give him an extra 40 seconds there by using a timeout, you'd think that they would have had plenty of time to get three, four, five more plays in there and get within field goal range and get at least an attempt up to win the game.

50:19Sheil Kapadia:So I'm with you. That was probably the worst of the two coaching decisions this week. I rewatched that sequence right before we're recording this. What stood out to me was I actually didn't mind the letting it run down to 29. When it's 105, Laquan Treadwell pops up just past midfield and is like rushing, hey, hustle up to the ball. The coach's like, no, no, no, let's slow it down. The score is 17-16. Neither offense was very good in the game. And the Texans probably aren't going like, hey, if we give C.J. Stroud 45 seconds instead of 15 seconds, we're going to have a great shot. Your best chance is you got one of the best defenses in the NFL.

50:57Keep the Colts from getting into field goal range. Which, by the way, Spencer Schrader had a groin injury earlier in the game. If you watch it, they're looking at a 60-yard field goal until the last play where they actually get it closer than that. there's a steering contest that takes place because the Colts aren't using their timeouts D 'Amico's probably going aren't they going to call a timeout at some point what I thought was weird was then the timeout of 29 there was something they obviously didn't like but then you call timeouts on second and third down so why you're conserving it there as opposed to let it run again let it run again and make the Colts call it or run it down to two seconds and then kick a 60 yard field goal that was the part that I just thought was was a little bit off but again I'd love D 'Amico didn't give a whole lot.

51:40He rarely does on those game management situations, but that's where I was left confused. It's either one or the other, either. Hey, make them run two plays and kick a really long field goal or conserve all the time you can. They kind of split the baby on it. And you know, obviously you saw the results, which was Schrader hit. I think it was a 53 yarder after they had the completion to get themselves into range. And your right shield didn't leave a whole lot of time left for the Texans to go back. Yeah. To your point, the defense, I mean, you would think because they had a drive. They had the go-ahead drive, kick the field goal offensively, and you just need one stop from your defense that's supposed to be this top five unit.

52:16And I'm not saying they're playing poorly. They're overall playing well, but it's like you look at the strength and weaknesses of that team and you kind of need them to be an elite unit. You know, kind of like what we're seeing with the Vikings so far this season, where it's just like, no, they are going to win the games for you. And you would have liked to see them shut down that Colts offense with, you know, you give it up, but big explosive to Laquan Treadwell on the biggest drive of the game there. I think that was disappointing for them as well. Well, we'll see. Maybe they get Nico Collins back and that offense can get going a little bit.

52:47All right, so those are my coaching things. Now, here's my next thing here upon further reveal. Two teams had what I'm going to call, and I'm just trying this out. You know, I don't know if this is going to stick with the ringer NFL show or not. I'm going to call them deodorant wins. Okay. They got a little BO, you know, It can mask it for a little bit, but you might need to do something else. It might be something in the diet. It might be something's going on with the laundry detergent. It's on your shirt. Some of those dry fits nowadays. The stink kind of stinks. Okay, you don't know what I'm talking about.

53:19But anyway, it's a BO issue and you won a game, so you're feeling good, but I think there are still issues underneath the surface. That's what I'm trying to say here. The first team here, The Denver Broncos. Okay. Wild Sunday night game. Very fun game. They come back. It felt like last year once again where you're looking at it going, wait, how are they in this game? Wait, how are they leading this game? And then you look up at the end and it's like, oh, they won again. That's what the Broncos did all of last year. Maybe they'll do it again this year, but I feel like there are some issues there underneath the surface.

53:58They get outgained against the Rams by 225 yards. Little trivia question for you guys. Okay. in the last 35 times a team has outgained its opponent by 225 yards, how many times do you think they lost? 35 times since the start of last season. Zero. Billy? Two. One. One and 34. All over it. Split the difference. Fantastic. Good job by you. You know, you talk about D 'Amico Ryan splitting the baby. We're splitting the baby and coming up with the right answers here. one in 34 and they end up being the second team to win a game despite being out gained by that margin so I think offensively you know I remember us talking after that first Broncos game and we're like man the broadcast is really being like Davis Webb he's got a short lease Chris Collinsworth saw that and was like that's nothing wait till you hear me he's like Sean Payton could be taken over play calling duties in the third quarter of today's game trust me I know Sean he's not going to let this slide They had 67 yards in the first half.

55:03I was like, this is kind of crazy that all of the analysts on these games are basically like Davis Webb. You have a short leash. Now they got some things going. I don't think it was perfect. I don't think it was a great offensive performance overall. And so now you look at it. I think they've had one good offensive game out of three. I think they're in an okay spot. You want to just pile up wins early in the season. But I still have quite a few questions about the Broncos early season performance here.

55:30Sheil Kapadia:I don't like this. You got to pick a side here. You're getting right up to the line to call this team a fraud. And then you're like backing up. You're like, I think that they're going to turn this around. No, I didn't say that. Yeah, you said like the B.O. game. I'm sticking with my preseason, Billy. 10 and 7 wildcard team for the Broncos. Here's the thing, Billy. Okay, we have 18 weeks here. Yeah. You got to pace yourself. Like there might be a week 7, I want to call them a fraud or something. So I'm not doing that yet. People have a short memory, okay? This week, they're mad at us about the whole Brock Purdy situation.

56:01Sheil Kapadia:Tom, are they mad at you about that? I had to take myself off as a collaborator on the Instagram post with Billy's quarterback tears because my entire mentions was just people calling him a moron. I couldn't take it anymore. I decided to bail on it. You got used to it. I'll say this on the Brock. The second half does count. Yeah, the first half was not good. It's 16-0. And they're in a hole. But it seems like there's a little bit of, they're kind of figuring out what their offensive identity is as a whole. It's not all Davis Webb. It's how are we using Jalen Waddell? How are we using Pat Bryant, who's one of the breakout stars in the NFL in the early portion of the season in terms of being a playmaker?

56:44They've had this rotation in the backfield because guys keep getting hurt. So they're trying to figure out those things. Bo Nix plays well in the big moments. And by the way, the Rams, who looked like they were coming out of the gate on both sides of the ball who were unstoppable just kind of crumbled in that second half. Now, they get an extremely unfavorable call, the Rams do, on the interception, which I saw that again. That game was replaying this morning when I was on the bike. I was just watching it going like, I don't know that that's, there's any way you can convince me that's pass interference.

57:18But I believe it's Pat Bryant on that play, right? Throw the arms up, soccer style, go down and draw the call. The Rams, no Puka, no Miles Garrett. Aaron Donald played 35 snaps, one quarterback hit, one tackle. This is probably what we should have expected from Aaron Donald out of the gate. He's been out of the game for a couple of years here. They look mortal right now. They're without some really, really good players, but they weren't able to finish it out. Jalen Watson dislocated his shoulder. There were a lot of things going on with the Rams, but the team that everybody had anointed going in, once they got a little bit beat up, They're struggling to close out these games.

57:55Now I'm blaming Sean McVay for being as frustrated as he was last night.

57:58Sheil Kapadia:I think that they, okay, first game, they were not good offensively, right? They had the second drive of the game, 68 yards. They score a touchdown against the Chiefs. The rest of the game, they didn't have a drive that went over 20 yards. That was a bad offensive performance. You said they had one good offensive performance. I'm assuming you're talking about last week when they played the Jaguars. It's the good offensive performance, right? So they had a 72-yard drive, a 76-yard drive, 45, 64, 56, 57. They had good drives put together. This game, I think part of the problem was they didn't have many drives, right?

58:29Sheil Kapadia:So in the first quarter, they had one four yard drive and that, and then they had a second drive that was 40 yard. They missed the field goal. The Rams just kind of controlled the ball. Second quarter, they had a short seven yard drive to start. And then they had a 21 yard drive. They did nothing with that. So they had a bad first half. They weren't able to kind of hold on the ball and they weren't able to milk clock at all. They've just, they had two drives and they both sucked. And that was all they had. Third quarter, they have the six yard drive. They start off bad again. Then they have a nice 42-yard drive, 52-yard drive.

58:55Sheil Kapadia:Both of those are touchdowns. You made my head hurt, Billy. What's that? It's a lot of numbers. You're making my head hurt. Keep going. Yeah, I'm just saying that they had like a nice 65-yard drive to end the game. They got bailed out by a pick six also, which got them back in the game. So like the problem is they're not having long drives if they're not scoring. And then they don't get the ball back, so they're not able to score. But I think it was fine. I mean, they did okay. They had decent drives, half of their drives. It's just the Rams are a good team. I didn't think that, you know, that Rams would be one and two right now.

59:25Sheil Kapadia:Did you? And they did get bailed out on the fact that they overturned an interception, but I'm not, I'm not all down on the Broncos right now. Yeah. They don't have to apologize. They're a good team. They're a talented team. Like you said, they beat a good team. September. I think that, you know, there is a theme around the NFL that September is about like piling up some wins and figuring out who you are. I'm just saying they do need to still, that's still on the to-do list for them offensively is figure out who they are, But maybe in three, four weeks, it's going to look a lot different there.

59:53But yeah, were you struck by Collinsworth? I mean, Tom, what's with the announcers here just being like, Sean Payton's going to grab that play sheet any moment now. This is twice in three weeks, both times they've been on national TV here. One, they all know Sean. And Sean, most people in the league would have said, you'll take that play sheet from his cold, dead hands. It didn't work out that way. There were organizational decisions made to hand it over to Davis Webb. Two, they spend like an hour with Sean in a production meeting talking about the offense. And I'm sure they can hear the way that he speaks about it.

1:00:30And he's going to sound like a guy who would call it a certain way and has certain things he'd like to see fixed. And then when they watch the game and those things are not fixed, they just assume that Sean is going to insert himself. I'm not saying you're saying that we get to January and Davis Webb hasn't replaced as a play caller. But I don't believe that's the plan. I'm confident it's not. And I think that if you see more stretches like they had in the second half of that game last night, it's going to buoy the fact that, all right, this is a young, really bright coach who needs reps. He hasn't had that many.

1:01:01They had a preseason game last year. That's fine. But that's not this. He's doing it for the first time. He's a really young guy. If you're going to invest in it, it's like a young player. You don't start a rookie middle linebacker for two games and then go, no, that guy sucks. Let's take it away from him. Let's play the veteran. And with a player, at least he can get back in the lineup. Once you take away the play calling from Davis Webb, it's over. You can't give it back to him. Maybe Sean finds ways here and there to inject a play call. He's clearly not doing it now because we all see him with his hands on his knees for that L4, L5 spine deal that he's got going on right now.

1:01:37But he's got the play sheet. I'm sure he's got designs on it. He's trying to let Davis Webb have some space. It's a really, really difficult job to have that microscope on you, both externally and internally, every single week.

1:01:47Sheil Kapadia:they're also still in a game out of first in their division. Like the world's not ending for them. They'll be fine. Yeah. Okay. All right, Billy. Pro Broncos. I have a question. You like the horse? Yeah. What do you got? What kind of bike were we riding there, Tom? Like an exercise bike? I caught that too. I was wondering about that too. I mean, I'm not outside and watching a game. Just to be clear, that would be against a variety of traffic laws. It's a branded bike, but I don't know who sponsors this show. Who's your instructor? Can you give us the instructor name? I think that would be a tell.

1:02:20Sheil Kapadia:That would be a tell. I like that. No free ads. I like that. He is on a bike. He is watching football while he's on. Okay, the other deodorant team here, the Minnesota Vikings. Nine first downs in that game. It made me a little bit nervous. Now, maybe it shouldn't. Maybe there's just going to be a team that they're going to win a lot of games and their defense is going to dominate every single week. But man, that was kind of hard to watch, that offense. and the Vikings have had so many different quarterbacks over the years, and I understand all the things. Kyler Murray's first game back, Justin Jefferson leaves the game.

1:02:53I'm not saying it has to look perfect. It doesn't even have to look average, but it's just something that, you know, we're keeping an eye on here at Kapadia headquarters of what the Vikings are doing offensively because their defense is incredible through three weeks. I mean, Brian Flores just comes out with a bunch of guys you've never heard of and they're just dominating. But I think that's the point. I know you don't want to see Kyler miss the type of throws. You don't want to see the short drives. But this is strategic. They have adopted the stance. We've got the best defense in the NFL. All we have to do is not mess it up.

1:03:31If we had a score, if at any point they fall down by 14 points, I think you'll see them open it up more. They did a little bit yesterday. Jordan Addison had a couple of big catches. They had the one big play. They had the punt return touchdown. And other than that, they're kind of playing possum. like that that that's their plan going in they feel like we can win with defense as long as we don't mess this up don't have turnovers don't have kyler throwing the ball into double coverage threw the pick on the first possession of his first game at the vikings don't have that happen right now they had no jefferson as you mentioned shield in for most of that game so he got hurt early aaron jones is like dragging his leg he's gutting it out because that knee does not feel good.

1:04:10So he's trying to find his way. You know, Juwan Jennings has been sort of a non-factor so far. Jordan Addison's kind of your main threat. But you don't need to do that much. I guarantee you, if they fall behind, if it gets into a track meet type of game, they'll open it up and you'll see them throwing the ball downfield more. But right now, it's just like, hey, if the read's not there, throw the ball away. We'll punt. We'll just punt over and over. We won a game with Max Blossom throwing for 52 yards last year. We'll play this way. It might be ugly, but we're winning. We're 3-0. I don't see them backing off that, even though they'd like to be more efficient, obviously, if they move forward.

1:04:47I guess, Billy, their job is not to entertain me, I guess, is what I'm learning here, unfortunately.

1:04:52Sheil Kapadia:It's the hometown team for Tom, and he's fine with what's going on, so who are we to argue? 372-yard punting yards. If you like punting, yesterday was for you. Oh, Tampa Bay had 426. Lots of punting in yesterday's game. I was going to give an incomplete, honestly, to the Vikings, because you're here saying, like, oh, B.O. team, maybe something. It's like, Come on. Kyler's been out the first two weeks, essentially. He's back this week. We're still kind of figuring this thing out if you're the Vikings. Here's the problem. It's week three, so it's early for everybody. But you know what? You still got to have some takes.

1:05:21You got to talk about what you observed. This was their success rate is a metric that just measures how often are you producing a positive play on offense. This was their worst offensive success rate in 20 years as a franchise. So all those quarterbacks who played last year, they were actually producing a positive play at a lower rate in this game than any of those. So that's the only reason monitoring the situation. I probably now looking back, I think I could have rephrased the segment, you know, like we're monitoring the situation, something like that. That way you can't yell at me and say, Sheila, it's week three.

1:05:53They had this, this and this. I said, I know. I just said I'm monitoring the situation. Maybe we do that next week.

1:05:57Sheil Kapadia:Can I give you some good news? Yeah, please. Dolphins are coming to town next week, so they will get right next week if they're ever going to get right. With no Devon A-chain. Yeah. With no Devon A-chain and you're going to go up against the best defense in the NFL. Maybe this is the week. Maybe this is the week you go in and you go, you know what? We can probably turn it over a couple of times. The Dolphins are the team. They're well coached. I mean, they were in that game against the Chiefs, but they don't have the horses right now. This is year one of a very long, a multi-year build. Maybe next week you are, Kyler.

1:06:30Let's kind of have the training camp mentality. Let's see what you can do. Let's try to get something going here. Although then he throws a couple of picks and the fans start to panic even more than they already have about the offense. 3-0. It might be ugly. Maybe this is the 2000 Ravens, Trent Dilford style of play. It honestly, like, it's not a terrible comp other than you don't have Jamal Lewis in the backfield to run for 2000 yards for you. Yeah. Listen, I picked him to make the playoffs. I'm happy. Keep piling up those wins. Yeah. KOC. Do you want another one, Tom, or are we taking a break here?

1:07:02No, I'll bring it. What do you got? Okay, one last one. I was thinking about Billy. what's the biggest surprise in the NFL this season? You know, we're through three weeks here. Nothing's concluded, but Chargers being 0-3, that surprises me. I thought they were going to be a playoff team. Texans being 0-3, that surprises me. I thought they were going to win that division. But you know what I landed on? A team we probably haven't talked about enough, and I feel like we should talk about them now because they haven't had a lot of success in recent years. The Las Vegas Raiders. Wow. Being 3-0. I mean, is this the story of the first three weeks of the season and you watch them and it's not fluky?

1:07:39It's like Kirk Cousins is just marching them down the field and Clint Kubiak's in his bag and Brock Bowers returns. And it's like, is he just open on every single play? This is incredible. And here's the thing I like about him. You can tell a well-coached team when you're watching maybe one of those screens that you have on on a Sunday. and they're mentioning guys who you've almost never heard of, like Cody White, Hezekiah Masses, Mike Washington Jr. I mean, these guys are making monstrous plays. That doesn't happen by accident. That, to me, if you're a Raiders fan, that's the sign of our coach kind of knows what he's doing because no one expected anything from these guys and they're having major contributions and we're 3-0.

1:08:26So yeah, I think the Raiders deserve a little love here with their 3-0 start. I don't know anybody that was predicting them to get off to such a hot start. And they've kind of flipped places with the Chargers. With the Chargers, it's like they look like they're going to be the last place team. And maybe the Raiders can be a little frisky here.

1:08:42Sheil Kapadia:Listen, they're playing for first in their division this week against the Chiefs. So this is a sneaky big game for the Raiders, is it not? Biggest game in how long? Probably since the playoff season? That Chargers won on like a week 18, right? When was that one? Where was the weird, are they going to try to tie, or are they going to try to win that entire sequence? That's got to be the last truly big game. And it's in Vegas, right? So this is on their home field. The black hole is going to be going absolutely bananas. Yeah, the Raiders are a great call. These are winnable types of games. You didn't look at the schedule and go, but gosh, this is so tough.

1:09:22Other than I don't think we had them beating the Chargers. To me, though, the Chargers are still the biggest surprise. And yesterday was the most competent. It looked like the Chargers, at least. But the offense and Justin Herbert just continues to scuffle so much. You can honestly throw the Patriots in there, too, Sheel, if you want to talk about biggest surprises. Them getting boat raced by the Jaguars is not a good omen. And Drake May, along with Herbert, the only person with a lower passer rating through three weeks that Herbert and Drake may right now is Jameis Winston. That's where we are in the early stages of this season.

1:09:59I just think it's the Chargers. We talked about it a lot last week. Nobody thought they would lose two out of the gate to the Cardinals and the Raiders. Again, a competent, looked more like the Chargers type of effort in Buffalo. The Bills, though, woke up and finished the game off, even on a week where it didn't look like they were playing their best football. And it doesn't get any easier for L.A. because they're going to Seattle this week. we talked about that previously though with the chargers were like they might improve and it might just be too late when you look at their schedule you know if they're playing a different team then maybe they win that game but to have five takeaways i know people have seen the stats already but i'm sorry i have to repeat it last 10 years when the chargers have created five takeaways they're two and two the rest of the nfl when they create five takeaways 66 four and one I mean, I don't understand.

1:10:50It was like, you kept looking at the score going, how are the Bills still in this game there? Every time I look up, they have another turnover and the Chargers just couldn't take advantage of it. And it's like, Jim Harbaugh, I didn't even get to with the game management stuff because it's kind of the least of their concerns. But man, he's had a lot of fourth and ones, fourth and threes. It's like, you're going up against Josh Allen. You might need to do more than just kick a field goal in this situation. And they just can't get out of their own way. Herbert with the interception. and just all the other stuff going wrong with them.

1:11:20I almost feel like we're, Billy, we're chargers out. It's like, is there anything else left to say at this point other than what are they going to do at the end of the season?

1:11:29Sheil Kapadia:I mean, they've also had really big drops on wide open passes that would have changed drives. So like, even sometimes Herbert, it's like, okay, if Herbert's going to hit Quinn Johnson in the chest and he's going to drop it, like what else can he do here? But man, that felt like the game that they needed to steal. Like five turnovers, that one was there and it was ready for them to kind of right the ship. Yesterday, the Seahawks showed us that they are beatable. So maybe, you know, you go in and you're like, okay, we can get a little roll on here. We beat the Bills on the road. The worst thing that could have happened to the Chargers, by the way.

1:11:58You want Seattle flying high at 3-0 and thinking it's going to be a K-1.

1:12:02Sheil Kapadia:You don't want them having all week and having Mike McDonald and the staff being like, cannot happen again. That's the worst thing. I'm listening to the commanders. Worst thing that could have happened to the Chargers with now the Seahawks. headed back home. There is another 0-3 team that just lost its quarterback. We'll talk about the latest on Baker and the Bucks after this. This episode is brought to you by Orgain. Go harder and push farther with Orgain Creatine. It helps improve muscle size, strength, and power when combined with a regular exercise and weight training routine. Orgain Creatine is certified with informed choice, which means it's tested for prohibited substances in sports.

1:12:44Upgrade your performance with Organe Creatine, available at Amazon, Costco, Walmart, and Whole Foods. These statements have not been evaluated by the Food and Drug Administration. This product is not intended to diagnose, treat, cure, or prevent any disease. This episode is brought to you by Nationwide. A football team is so much more than a set of players. It's a complete roster filled with depth and grit. It's offense and defense coming together to make something unstoppable. It's like how Nationwide is so much more than a great insurance company. They're one of America's largest financial services companies too.

1:13:23Insurance and financial services together, that's a whole team in and of itself. Team Nationwide. For your insurance and financial needs, Nationwide is on your side. Nationwide Investment Services Corporation, member FINRA, Columbus, Ohio. This episode is brought to you by Core Power Protein Shakes. In football, staying ready isn't just about what you do on game day. Good recovery is just as important to be prepared for your next matchup. Core Power Protein Shakes help you keep going after your workout with high quality protein to build muscle and electrolytes to help hydrate. This shake has all your recovery needs in one bottle.

1:14:04Available in 26-gram and 42-gram protein options. Visit corepower.com to learn more. Some pretty key injuries coming out of the week three Sunday in the NFL. We mentioned Devon Achan, torn ACL, out for the season in Miami. Wasn't going to be the difference between them winning the Super Bowl or not, but that much harder for the Dolphins even just to try to function now on offense without their best player. Giants lose their best defensive player. In Brian Burns to a torn ACL. We talked earlier in the show about the quarterback moves that they've made. This is honestly part of why they didn't trade Kayvon Thibodeau, is at least they have depth at that position.

1:14:41But Burns is the tone setter that everything comes from on that defense. He got it out after not practicing, and now he's out. Big there. J.C. Horn, Panthers corner. This one cannot be overstated. It's a quad injury. It's got a really wide time frame. He's getting additional opinions, but it's minimum six weeks from what I'm told. So he'll go on injured reserve, be out for a long time. And now the Panthers, Adriel Rivero, are going to have to try to stick this thing together. You hope Bryce Young is okay. He got a little bit banged up in that game. You hope the offense bounces back after a tough day in Cleveland, but it's not going to be easy defensively.

1:15:19And then there's Baker Mayfield, who was in a ton of pain, not making light of it. But we may have to start a list, Sheil, of people who appeared to be in the most pain on the field. Like Caleb Williams was up there. Baker might have topped it in terms of how much audiovisual you had of the level of pain. Dislocates his thumb. And you could see it on the replays. The thumb basically disappears. He's following through four fingers, no thumb. He went under one test. There's no ligament or tendon damage. There was no fracture. So he's going to get back. The problem is like, this is not 1990s Brett Favre where you break your thumb and like they tape it up and you go throw.

1:16:06Like he's got to get the grip strength back. He's as tough as anybody. This is not a toughness issue. This is a functionality issue, which means barring something wild happening, Jalen Daniels, who played like 19 years at Kansas, is going to be stepping in for an 0-3 Bucks team shield that needs a win. this is tough because I can't I could make the case Baker Mayfield were healthy I could see myself making the case the Bucks are going to be okay it's not a great division because if you look at their first three games and how they lost those games week one they have what four turnovers against the Bengals week two they have the weird weather delay they have a chance to win that game on the final possession and then week three their defense plays terrific I mean Brian Flores deserves credit, but Todd Bowles had the Vikings offense in a blender for that game as well as we just discussed on the previous segment.

1:16:55So I could be like, you know what, there's still a lot of talent on this team. Baker Mayfield's going to be okay, but now you're 0-3 and you're going to be without him. And to your point, you're starting a rookie quarterback. I don't know if things could possibly get ugly here. If they're a team that Billy all of a sudden, we're checking out, Tom's got a tweet out that they actually made a move for a veteran quarterback. Do they try to salvage their season? and do something like that, it really feels like it could go either way for them.

1:17:22Sheil Kapadia:Well, I believe unless the internet fooled me, which it did not fool us on the Martin Luther King quote last week. Amazingly. Yeah. I believe that Todd Bowles said the good thing about being going through is we're only a game out of first place, which is absolutely true and just incredible that they're in that division. It's funny how you said this is not 1990. You can't just tape up the thumb like he's Brett Favre. Because I was thinking like, if you tape it strong enough, you can pretty much tape that thumb into place, right? And then just do almost like the cast where like the tips of his fingers are loose.

1:17:51Sheil Kapadia:And he has like the motorcycle type thing. Just that one thumb is in place to hold the ball. But I guess we're not going to be going that route, Tom says, with Baker. Which is funny because like Baker is notoriously tough to his own detriment, right? And he will go out there and he will play through things he shouldn't play through because he's just like that guy. And for him to sit out because of a thumb has to kill him with all the other things he's played through, I would think. Jalen Daniels, by the way, I was only slightly exaggerating. Six years at Kansas, the rare guy who played six college football seasons without transferring.

1:18:24How far back does he go? I just pulled up. I didn't realize this. Jalen Daniels' first college game. It's in 2020 in the COVID season against Coastal Carolina. Isaiah likely had a touchdown. That's how long Jalen Daniels was playing college football. A guy who's now on his second contract in the NFL went up against him in that very first game. I haven't gotten the sense, even back in camp, I didn't get the sense the Bucs were trying to trade for a veteran quarterback, even though you looked at their roster, it was like, they got Jake Browning behind Baker and then this undrafted rookie. They felt that strongly about Jalen Daniels and the juice and everything that he brought to the table.

1:19:01And he's essentially a veteran at this age. They thought he could step in. But same point I made on Jameis Winston, which is, yeah, they re-signed Jameis, they gave him an extension. No team sets up their roster going, Yeah, we put the backup quarterback in for 14 or 15 games. Let's see how this week goes. Let's see what the Bucs may or may not try to do, try to bring in a veteran here. One more question. Feels like we've got another one every single week about the quarterback position. We are back on Wednesday here on the Ringer NFL Show. Thanks to everybody for tuning in today, wherever it is that you tuned in.

1:19:36For Arjuna, Chris, the whole team behind the scenes, Billy and Sheel, I'm Tom Seat.

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