Transcript of 2024 Week 5 Preview

Welcome to NFL Daily, where we're fans of West Ham, but we're going to Tottenham Hotspur Stadium soon. Speak for yourself. Welcome to NFL Daily, presented by DoorDash. Yeah, I don't know why I'm a West Ham fan. Actually, I do know why. Nat Coom is my friend over there who works for the BBC. There it is. He's going to be on NFL Daily because I'm going next week. You're with me. He gave me a jersey. He gave me a jersey when I was saying I needed a team, and I went with the hammers.

Well, that's how come I'm an Arsenal fan, because years ago, I went over there in one of the teams. I think the Falcons were practicing at Arsenal. They were very nice to me and gave me some gear. So I'm all about the gunners now.

I should have mentioned we're here in the Chris Wesley podcast studio with Steve Weish and Patrick Claybun. But you know that already. It's the preview show crew. It's the preview show crew. And yes, I don't know if I've mentioned it officially on this show, but I am heading over. You're covering in the game for NFL Network and CBS.

I'll be on the sidelines.

That's pretty exciting.

Stacey Dale is here for the Bear Jags.

Yes. And so I will be there for Bear Jags as well. Keep listening to this podcast because I think we might try to do a little bit of a meetup when I tape my preview show just in one week. We're going to be taping it at the Bear's bar. If everything goes according to plan, the bears have an official team bar, and we We might let the listeners know, but we got to make sure it's locked down. For now, we're focused on Vikings, Jets, and all the other week 5 games.

Yes, and it's so much fun to look forward to. We're going from smallest to the biggest spread this week, but we start where everything will start on Sunday.

It is the Red Hot Sam Darnold lead.

There it is. Minnesota Vikings, a two and a half point favorite against Aaron Rodgers and the Jets, who scored nine points. It was a missed Greg DeLorean leg field goal from 50 to give the Denver Broncos the win at MetLife. Concerns and consternation abound in New Jersey, Greg?

Absolutely. With this matchup coming up and you're coming off a game where the Broncos really tested your protection, it's not just the cadence that was a problem. It was, where are these rushers coming from on that Denver Broncos defense? They lead the league in blitz rate. Well, you know who's number two and sends even maybe more problems that'll mess with your mind? It It is the Minnesota Vikings. Olofashinou got his first start at right tackle, really struggled. Their interior line for the Jets, which had been playing well, but had a step up in competition last week and suddenly wasn't playing well. Their young player, Joe Tippman, in the middle, too. Now you got to deal with this Minnesota crew and get this offense going.

Yeah, you got Jonathan Grenard, Alex Van Ginkle, these guys coming off the edges. What's interesting to me, too, this is a huge game for the Jets. It may not seem so, but this really kicks off a significant Second stretch, because after this, they play the Bills, they play the Steelers, then the Patriots and Texans. If they don't get a win right here, it could get a little greasy, Patrick, for the Jets. I like the Vikings in this game, not only with the points, not only because of what you said defensively, they're just finding their groove. I just think offensively with your boy, with your favorite player, Sam Darnold, Greg, your favorite quarterback on quarterback Island, they've got it working. Aaron Jones gives them options in the backfield. He's throwing the ball downfield, and they've got Justin Jefferson. They've got other players. Okay, Sauce Gardner and Justin Jefferson. Jj is not going to care. He doesn't care. So I really do like this game. And like I was saying, if the Jets don't win this, it's about to get real extra greasy coming back to New Jersey.

Justin Jefferson actually had one of the sauciest quotes of the season. It was referencing a jet because people were asking, the 49ers are coming in, and they were tough for Garrett Wilson. And he said, With all due respect, I'm not Garrett Wilson. With all due respect. And so I guess whenever somebody says, all due respect, it's like, all right, well, you're about to tell me how much respect is actually due. Aaron Rodgers, third highest rate in the NFL in quick passes, under two and a half seconds, is going to need to do that. It didn't necessarily help against the Denver Broncos, as you mentioned, Greg. And that leads me because we have this discussion every week. I know it's early in the show. We have our concerns about the Jets.Oh.

Is he going to do it?We.

Believe in the Minnesota Vikings.Are we doing it? Should we make this our survivor pick?Wow.

It's crazy. I know Jets have been on fraud watch. They have been. For you. I suddenly was convinced, Rodgers is playing well. I actually stand by the point Rodgers is playing well. I don't think he was the issue last week. But when their defense, and when Their offense had to play a much tougher opposition. Then the step up in competition for their defense this week, because if you think about who the Jets defense has played lately, Broncos, Patriots, Titans. Those are the three worst offenses in the league, just about. Now you have to make this step up. Aaron Jones against this run defense. Aaron Jones, they are a run first offense, I would say. If you look at what they're doing on early downs. He's been a top five running back. You look how the Jets run game on the defense side got washed out last week. A lot of Will McDonald just flying off the edge, and they're running right at him. Even with Javante Williams, who had been struggling, that I would pick the Vikings as a survivor pick.

I'm in. Let's go. I'm in. Let's do it. Wow. You got me. Here's a player for the Vikings. Bold. Here's a player for the Vikings, too, that I think we don't talk enough. The Gilly Locke. Okay. Fon Gilmore. I mean, this guy is He's playing, but he's a perfect fit in this defense. I just think Aaron Rodgers is... He's going to continue playing well, but there's just not enough there. They don't score.

Can we get Garrett Wilson going? There are some stats that have him in the top 10 in terms of separation. He's still Garrett Wilson. What am I missing? Look, I took him, I think 17th overall in my fantasy draft. That's definitely not going well. Neither is my Devante Adams pick right now.

You were hoping it's moved soon.

Alan Lazard is leading team in catches, and Garrett Wilson, who is explosive, is under 10 yards per catch. Can I read the Gareth Wilson quotes? I'm actually surprised these didn't get more attention. Instead, we're on Cadence Gate all week. And Gareth Wilson, their best receiver, literally said, I don't think we do a lot of different stuff, to be honest. I watch football on Sundays, and I see a lot of teams mix it up and stuff like that. I don't think we do that. I don't think we're trying to do a lot of different things. I'm actually surprised that it didn't get more pop. That was, by the way, on the Bart and Han podcast. I think Bart Scott.

Well, it depends on where your particular place of employment is. If it's in Floren Park, apparently, you can have a particular coach's name in the idea in your mouth. But if you're outside of the facility, that coach's name must be kept out of your mouth.

Kept out of your mouth. Well, so that's what it is.

Fun game, though. My name is Nathaniel Hackett.

It's nice to see you out here. That was beautiful.

Yeah. When they put this on the NFL Network schedule, this looked like probably the best of the three, but you weren't sure about the Vikings. Now we got the best team in the NFL so far.

And that's who we're going to see. Wake up, rise, shine, and watch some football. And before the game, you can catch game day kickoff starting Sunday at 07:00 AM Eastern, and you can see Aaron Rodgers sit down with Kyle Brandt. That would be good. It's not a FaceTime interview. They are literally face to face, and you We can see that right before the game kicks off. Looking forward to that game. Of course, always looking forward to NFL Network games. Let's go to the Buffalo Bills at the Houston Texans. The Bills, favored by one after their first loss of the season. What a stretch for them. They have to go to Baltimore, and now at Houston, where the over-under is 47.5, Steve. Maybe some deficiencies for the Bills that we weren't previously exposed to got highlighted on Sunday night last week.

Yeah, this is one now. We look at this like, these are teams that we really like, and you look at their victories, and they really haven't come against what you would consider like strength of schedule type of opponents. And then both times they played tough teams, they got both teams got dragged. So this is an intriguing game. When you look at what the Bills have done well, some of the matchups with the tight ends and things like, this is a secondary that can handle that. They've got the safeties with Jalen Petrie. They've got the corners that can take out what the Bills like to do in the passing game, and they've got the speed and inside linebacker that can match up with James Cook in the passing game. I like the Texans and the points here.

Look at you. Just going with the pics right off the top.

I like the Texans and the points just because they're at home. Now, they're playing a bunch of one possession type of games, which is what the NFL we've seen earlier in the season. But they seem to be gaining a little bit more traction in their identity. I know defensively, they haven't hit it there yet. Larmy Tuncil. I mean, he's just Mr. Penalty Man.

Multiple penalties every game this year.

Yeah. I mean, this is one where he's going to have to tighten that up because those guys off the edge for the bills will get after him.

I really like your point on how they defend the middle of the field. That's a great shot there because that's where the Bills want to win. And yet I trust the Bills a little bit more. If I had to pick it, I'd take the Bills, but this is a toss up to me. And I do have to pick it because we do a pick show, game day view. So I have to decide to check that out on NFL Network. But They've been a different defense. They've been effective. They've been better on defense overall this year, but they've been different. They've been blitzing a lot, and they're actually not getting a lot of one-on-one pass rush wins from Hunter and Will Anderson, which is a little surprising. I'm not saying they're not good players, but if you just add up their quarterback hits and sacs so far, it's quite low. I think it's a combined eight or nine total between the two of them, sacs, QB hits. That's surprising to me, and it's a really good Bills' offensive line. That's a really good matchup. The Bills are leading the NFL and pass block win rate. So it's a really good offensive line.

And you see Taran Johnson return to practice on Wednesday. He's a hell of a player. You see Taran Bernard returns, and you're like, Okay, this defense is going to be back. But then you look who's missing from practice. I don't know how serious it's going to be, but it's Deion Dawkins, their left tackle. So that's a huge one. And then Khalil Shaqir, which I would think he's going to play in this game because he finished the last one, but he's out of practice and he's been big. And one thing, and I'll throw this to you, Patrick, is we hadn't talked about on this show is that Von Miller is suspended for violating the league's conduct policy related to a domestic assault allegation that was last December. He had been a big part of their defensive line. So he is out for the next four games.

And a big part of that stretch where the bills were dominating everybody. And now the things are in the light, you see deficiencies, you see Derrick Henry, which Derek Henry hit 21.6, I believe, miles an hour on that run. That's crazy. But there was no threat for him to be caught in that secondary. I know that guys are missing. I'm looking at this.

We're watching Devorah Hamlet can run, and he's not caning a step on Derrick Henry.

That's a snowball going downhill. That's just...

You're not stopping that. Then the concerns up front for Buffalo, where the Ravens, albeit they're a good team, and they have those changes up front on the offensive line that they have to start the season with. But they were moving the bills really, really easily in the run game. Now we got a Texan team that could get Joe Mixon back. It's tough to view this. Because Nico Collins leading the entire league. He's the dude. He's receiving right.

He is a real dude.

Who's in the Buffalo Bill's secondary where you can say, All right, I feel confident that Nico Collins is-I mean, I wouldn't say that it may be about any cornerback in the league.

They've a couple. But Christian Benford, to me, is playing at a high level. He's a top 10 to 15 cornerback right there right now.

Taryn Johnson is one of the slot corners in there. Now, size-wise, he's a much smaller slot corner, but he is a real, real good. He's one of the top two or three slot corners. So if he comes back, that'd be an interesting match.

Maybe they were saving him for Stefan Diggs. This is the revenge game. I don't know if it's a real revenge game here, but-We can make one for everybody. I think in this case, though, there was some disconnect between Diggs and Josh Allen. Yes, there was. I don't know if it's a revenge game, but It's spicy. We also got this deep into the conversation about this game, where they didn't even mention, we got two of the best four or five quarterbacks here. Can't wait for that. A lot of it comes down to how much support do these two quarterbacks get? Because I'm feeling confident that they're both going to play well. It's a great Bills run offense with James Cook and with Josh Allen against a very good run defense. If the Bills can run the ball, I feel pretty good about the Bills, and I think Stroud is playing very well. Even when he's pressured, he looks good.

My My concern with the Buffalo Bills offense was when the run game wasn't working on Sunday night. It was really just balls down the sideline, back shoulders to Keion Coleman, and that's it.

The weird thing was the run game was working. They just didn't run the ball that much. But yes, they He got away from it.

Yeah, the gain script got away from them. Yolo Josh came back for a brief little bit, but they're down 21 to 3. Saw Josh two yards out of bounds, throwing a ball 50 yards down the field. It's fun stuff, but they can't be on the The Texans got the corners to handle their outside targets, which we know really aren't that great.

This is the location of what I think was probably the Nadir of the Yolo Josh era, which was the playoff game against the Texans. That was actually the moment where everyone, and I admit, I couldn't have been more wrong about Josh Allen, spiked the football prematurely. It was just like, Hey, it's never going to happen, Josh Allen guy. Like, look at this guy. And now look at him, one of the best players in the NFL for years.

Was that the weird 10 yards down the field behind the back?

Yeah, there was all sorts of things in that game. It was rough.

We love it. Keep trying to make plays. Always must see TV. But again, one of the best, at least however many people you want to have in the top five, Josh Allen is going to be in there. Or you're going to have five in the top five. We're talking about great matchups. What about two teams in the AFC East that we are thrilled to watch right about now? It is the Miami Dolphins at the New England Patriots, who are a one-point favorite with a A huge total number of 36 and a half and a half points as it was the start to the Tyler Hunt era, Steve, was exciting. But then they really, Tyreek fumbled. It just all went downhill. It was the Tennessee Titans.

It was a bad. I mean, Snoop Huntley had been there for eight days. They just didn't have much of a playbook. I actually think Miami is going to play a lot better in this game. I like, and you talk about quotes that got overlooked. I think Mike McDaniels, after that game, he basically, in a very diplomatic way, said guys on his team were making business decisions. They weren't helping out Snoop Huntley.

I know one that must have been on his mind was Jalen Waddle just had to stop to running on a play over the middle of the field where if you rewatched it, it was like, I don't even think he was going to get hit. It was weird. He had a big drop. Hill had a drop and a fumble. They didn't charge him with the fumble, but that was pretty bad effort on the fumble and just a bad play. You're right. They need their best players to play better.

I think he saw the Titans players step up to help the backup quarterback. When Mason Rudolf had to come in play. All right, those guys stepped up and rallied. How come nobody is doing it for their backup quarterback? So he seemed to put guys on notice. I think you're going to see the Dolphins' offense work a little bit, well, I think a lot better than what it's been. If they can get something going in that run game, that Pate's defense we thought that was going to be really good early on is showing some cracks. Now, they got boat raced by the Niners last week, but they're not playing as well. It's an opportunity.

So we'll see. I mean, forget cracks. This thing is busted open. We're sweeping it under the table. It's over. It's over? I mean, first of all, they don't have their best player, Christian Barmore, unfortunately. When we were talking about their defense before the season 2, we thought Matthew Judon would be involved in that. Christian Gonzales is playing well, but then they also lost their guy who had the headset that they're throwing the calls into Juan Bentley, so that hurts communication. This week, Kyle Ducker is not going to play, so that's another guy with a big contract. And Jibril Peppers, who's been one of their best players, is out of practice and is very questionable. I think this was a team that was supposed to be more than the sum of their parts on defense. But when you take away all the best parts and you take away Bill Belichick, I think that hurts.

Yeah, it's a struggle. It's a tough one to pick because the Patriots have their issues. The Dolphins got worse this week. Jalen Phillips is going to be out for the remainder of the year. Coming back on a relatively short timeline for the form of Achilles. He's He's going to have to have reconstructive knee surgery, so he's out for the rest of the season. Really sad. Hopefully, he's able to bounce back. But in watching New England, they hung close in Santa Clara. Was that the Patriots playing significantly better? Was that a down game? With all the stars, we're back for San Francisco. It's tough to really get a read on this Patriots team.

Oh, I don't think so. I think these are two of the three worst teams in the NFL. I think they're easy to read. They're They can't protect. Jacobi last game had one of his worst games as a pro. Is this a swing game?

Yes.

If he has another bad game, it'll be his last game. Because last week, he was a bigger part of the problem than he had been in the past. I don't think Drake May is going to save They gave them, but you saw that their wide receivers were pouting. This is a big story in New England, not nationally because no one cares. But Jalen Polk and Pop Douglas were pouting and having bad language and getting upset a little bit. Seemed like they weren't happy. They They've only attempted 19 throws over 10 yards. That's crazy.

Wow.

That's crazy. That's crazy. I mean, and I get it. They're on their fourth left tackle. They just lost. I'm just keep coming up with injuries. They lost their team captain, David Andrews. Oh, that's a big one, too. Probably for the rest of the season today, too. And so that's their best offensive lineman. So it's two teams that are... It's the bad vibes bowl. It's really tough.

I wonder if Andrews, if this might be it for him. He's played a long time.

He's getting up there in years. Hope not. Certainly was an important player for them. Tyrie Hill, meanwhile, tweets out, Woke up to some trade news this morning. When a guy tweets something like that out, does he know what he's doing? He's got to know what he's doing. What does he mean?

He's just Monte Adams.

They asked him about where he wanted to be. They asked about Kansas City in Miami, the reporter's there, and he said, I want to be here. I want to be here in Miami. That's an interesting thought. It's not the craziest idea if he got traded. He's barking there behind McDaniel. You I mentioned a show me something game. This is getting trouble times for not so much McDaniel, but above him, Chris Greer, I think long term. It's early in the season, but I think the two worst teams in the league. I don't think that's exaggeration, right?

Isn't it interesting, though? People are, two as a system, quarterback this and that. If two comes back, are we sitting there saying this stuff about them? If he's able to play?

We at least feel like there's some functional hope for-Correct.

Although it's funny. If this team was the Eagles, a team that gets a little more attention, Baylistic. It'd be a little more on the radar. Here are some of their scores in their last seven games. I know we're going long on this game, though, but I find this Dolphine team fascinating. 56 to 19. This is where the McDaniel era started to go wrong against the Ravens. 26 to seven. That was the playoff loss to the Chiefs. Not pretty. They also had a game where they only scored 14 points with the AFC East up for grabs against the Bills. Then this year, 31 to 10. Two have played more than half that game, 24 to 3, 31 to 12. Those are crazy scores. It's tough.

Someone will win this week. It's time for hot matchups presented by Wingstop as the Baltimore Ravens are a two and a half point favorite at the Cincinnati Bengals, who did get their first win of the season going up on the road against the Carolina Panthers last week. The over-under at 50 and a half, Kevin Harland and Trent Green on the call. It should be a fun game, Greg.

Yes.

We wanted to see a healthy Joe Burrow go up against this Ravens team. Now we finally get that opportunity.

I think it'll be a fun game, especially for you, Patrick, who leans a little Ravens. Sometimes analysis, our jobs are too easy. What reason do we have to think that the Bengals defense as a whole, and especially on the ground, is going to stop this mass unit of Lamar Jackson and Derek Henry? Because I don't have any. This Ravens running attack is looking more cohesive in terms of their offensive line. We I know the two runners are just electric, and I have no faith in this Bengals defense. If we were looking for a spicy survivor pick here, I might actually like the Ravens even better than the Vikings. I'm fine with the Vikings. We'll stick with that. But the Ravens, I feel good about the Ravens.

It's weird because you think about Lou Anerumo, the defensive coordinator for the bangles, and man, this guy is so good, and he's such a great in-game adjuster. They have not figured it out. But my thing more so is with the Ravens because they seem to have found their identity a little bit. That's a dangerous thing. They were figuring out. Remember the first game against the Chiefs, Roni Stanley kept the illegal alignment type of thing. That got in their heads. Their offensive line wasn't working first couple of games. It was mashing last week against the Bills. They were very, very impressive. They set their identity. They are not going to get away from that against the Cincinnati bangles. If they do, the bangles secondary is a little wobbly.

They managed Cam Taylor-Britt last week.

Which is It's crazy because he has been a hell of a player. He's not playing well. We know the safeties have not been good since they got rid of Jesse Bates a couple of years ago. I just think this is one we're going to see Mark Andrews finally really get involved in a wheelhouse. Isiah likely. I think we're going to see some things happening in that game as well, that part of things.

We're also going to learn whether or not it's a sustainable thing because Roger Rosengarden had his first start last week.

Played well.

Played incredibly well for his first NFL start. Derrick Henry goes for 87 yards on the very first carry. Andrew Voorheys was out, so they had to move Patrick McCarrie. That shuffling was the greatest thing to ever happen because they were having problems on the interior of the offensive line, and everything seemed to work out in their favor. My concern is on the outside with Jamar Chase and Tee Hickens and a healthy and accurate Joe Burrow. This team is not too far removed from getting Devante as well as Gargi Minshued.

But can the bangles keep up in a shootout? I think that's going to be the question for them all season. I think against a lot of teams, the answer is yes. Against this Ravens team, which, surprisingly to me, DVOA, which is just total efficiency, has them as the number one passing attack and the number one rushing attack, which is pretty wild because they've been that efficient when they have been throwing the ball. I trust the Ravens defense just so much more that, yeah, you can get into a shootout, but your defense It just really is going to make life harder. It's going to be good for Tee Higgins and Chase's fantasy numbers and Burrows' fantasy numbers all year long. I did want to mention they had Chris Jenkins come in last week, the rookie, and he apparently played pretty well. A lot of time. And B. J. Hill is maybe getting healthy, so that would help their bangles defense. But I noticed this bangles offense, for what it's worth, has faced the second easiest collection of defenses so far in the entire NFL. So they've been racking up some big numbers. This is a tougher test for them.

Yes, it is.

It's significantly tougher. I see the Ravens getting better. The bangles getting better as well. It's tough to let go of the past in those matchups because a lot of those guys Lou had success with are still right there.

That's true. A couple of years ago, they gave the Ravens everything they could handle every time they could. It's a division game. It was a different Ravens team, I mean, bangles team, but they did sweep the bangles last year. This is a Kevin Harland-Trent Green game. Surprise. This is an early 10:00 AM start. Kevin Harland, Trent Green. Love hearing Kevin Harland on a big game. Got to love to talk about a little Sunday night football after the break. We'll be back in a second on NFL Daily. Back on NFL Daily, Patrick's with me on the Sunday Night Recap shows. And the way we tape it, we finish taping, and then I race over to our film room here at NFL Network, where Chris Rose usually is, and maybe MJD. And you get to watch the Sunday Night football game. I want to be racing through this recap because I want to get to Cowboy Stealers. I'm into this matchup.

Yeah, Sunday Night Football in Pittsburgh, where the Stealers are a two and a half point favorite against the Dallas Cowboys. Mike Tariko, Chris Collinsworth on the call. We'll be waiting all day for Sunday night. And Steve, this is a offense that doesn't want to run the ball, can't run the ball if they did want to against the number one rushing efficiency defense in all of football.

Yes. And we know how good that Pittsburgh defense is. And the Cowboys, I'm surprised this number is only two and a half. We were talking before the show like, okay, this is what it is. But then you think about this is Dallas's strength really plays into Pittsburgh's strength. Pittsburgh's got more strengths in this game against Dallas. Like you said, the Cowboys aren't going to be able to run the football against the Steelers. That's not going to happen. So now Dax is going to be one-dimensional. Ceedee Lam is going to get all the attention. We know the archer is out. The Speedster, Brandon Cooke's, is out, is not playing in this game. All right, what's Dallas's left-hand offensive?

Shout out to Weiss' brain for coming up with the archer. The archer, the nickname, but not the actual name. I don't know if everyone knows about the archer, but that is a good one.

Also, there was an error where he got to fire the arrow, but then he got a letter. He got to find. He just was able to pull the arrow back but not actually let go of it.

A friend of the show, Danny Hyfetz, made a great I think that the Bucaneers literally shoot cannons and the Patriots shoot muskets out of guns when they score a touch down. I don't know. It's a little hypocritical there.

Charters shoot cannon, too. But I'm just like, so what is Dallas's offensive left hand? What are they going to go to? Because they're going to lock up CeeDee Lamb. Is it a big Jake Ferguson? Great. The Pittsburgh Steelers would love that. I just don't see Dallas putting up a lot of points. Patrick, as you brought up, no D-Law law, no Micah. It's already a bad run defense. What do the Steelers do? I mean, seriously, Justin Fields might have nine passing attempts in this game.

They hope that they can get their running game a little more consistent. I love that I saw some more designed runs and field scrambling more last week. He just hadn't been doing it the first three weeks, and that can get their offense juiced. Look, the Colts threw the ball pretty well against the Steelers. I mean, they have an offensive line to do it. Is it Cowboy's offensive line? Can they hold up? Probably not as well as the Colts did, but I think you can find holes in the Steeler's secondary. Patrick Queen has been struggling for them in terms of his coverage ability. Some miscommunications there where the players were yelling at them each other last week. And you think like, oh, well, everyone's just going to focus on CeeD. Ceed is gone. I mean, CeeD, they should be able to figure out how to help get him open, but they are almost last in the league and in motion rate. There's some talk. We're back to Green Bay where everyone's complaining about Mike McCarthy not being able to scheme players open. If you listen to the Beat writers there, it just feels like there's a little more player grumbling that maybe CeeD and Dak aren't exactly on the same page with their coach.

They're on the same page with each other But not necessarily with what's going on with the offense.

Yeah, and I think sometimes people do a lot of reading into sideline frustration. Losing is not fun. Losing isn't fun, and CeeD is, of course, used to score a lot of points. This Cowboy's offense has traditionally been good, and a lot of that relies on Dak Prescott and his ability at the line of scrimmage. But it feels like the whole plane is built out of that right now. And every single first down the Dallas Cowboys get, it's like he's doing particle physics back there. You're right. To not just diagnose the defense, but he's weaving out a three and four people and getting back shoulders to Jalen Tolbert. It's hard to imagine it being consistently sustainable on the road in Pittsburgh.

I agree. I'm torn on who to pick this game. I'm not ready to do so just because I think the Steelers have their sense of flaws and their offense. Sure. Justin Fields is playing a top 10 to 15 quarterback right now, and yet the offense is still pretty rough around the edges. That's asking a lot out of him. I trust Dak more to make more with less. But to back up what you're saying about Dak, I love it when you have nice nerdy statistical backup for points that we just see with our eyes. Everything seems hard for this cowboy offense. The cowboys are first or last, depending on how you look at it, in tight window throw rate. Just the smallest windows that Dak's thrown into, and this goes along with it, they are last in separation, overall average separation for their wide receiver. So everything's condensed.

That is interesting. I would have never thought that. But that goes-It's because you got one guy that can get open and that guy is getting doubled and then everyone else in the scheme. Even like Brandon Cooke, like the archer. I mean, this guy's a speed burner. He's supposed to be getting behind people.

He was. So he's out for this game, as you mentioned. I think he'd been playing through something. That must be. Because they said he stayed in New York to get a procedure, and he did not look right this year. The one thing I just want to say is I want more of Darna Washington. Yes. Oh, my God.

Two hundred and eighty pounds coming at you from a tight end position.

Seeing him run down the sideline in his other shutdown catch. Build the whole plane out of fields in Darnell Washington, and I'm entertained. Let's go.

I just want more. This is a perfect game for him to get going.

It's all Georgia trio. There you go. There you go. There you go. There you go. There you go. There you go. There you go. Justin Fields making it work. But you mentioned Dak. Dak's always going to be high on the tight window throw percentage because he takes those chances and he makes those reads and he can make those throws. But just how much of it do you want? Where are the layups in this offense? And maybe without Brandon Cooke, there's more Kavante Turpen. They get action in the screen game, put Turpen out wide. But who knows, man? It's a tough watch. And then Jerry's telling Jane Slater this week that they're out on Devante. There's no more money in Texas, apparently. They can't make a number much work. What are they doing, man?

A lot of cap space, by the way.

I think that there's- They have a ton of cap space.

No, there is.

I'm just saying you can look at it. They've got cap space. They have among the most cap space in the league.

Why wouldn't you want to get... You could say what you want about Devante Adams. That dude is a dog. He is a grinder. He practices hard. That's the type of dude you need to set an example for everybody on that roster.

I think Devante could move a few jerseys. It makes sense to me. It makes sense to me.

The real purpose, the real mission.

We'll see. Speaking of Devante Adams, the Las Vegas Raiders on the road at the Denver Broncos. The road warrior, Denver Broncos went on the road to Tampa, got a win. On the road to MetLife, got a win. Now, the Broncos and Bo Nicks are two and a half point favorites against Garner Minchou and the rest of the crew, with the total sitting at 36, Greg. Did Bo Nicks show you enough at MetLife?

No. What do you mean? I mean, he showed me enough to believe that you can't possibly keep winning like this. No. It's a couple of times now. His bad throws are bad. I think he struggled with the Rain, hand size alert a little bit because those throws were coming out crazy. Then the Rain died off in the third quarter, or especially the fourth, and he actually did look better. I think that was at least part of it. The Denver run game was a little better, but really, they're going to have to win with defense, and a great defense. A great defense, when I think about picking this game, I'm like, What do I really trust with either of these teams? Right now, it's the way that Vance Joseph is calling that defense.

It's amazing.

Zack Allen, 23 pressures. I know it's not a perfect stat, but pass-rush win rate, the top two defensive tackles in the NFL are Zack Allen, which is surprising, but not so much when you watch these games. He's been great. And Malcolm Roach of the Broncos. Those were the top two. So that's a good start if you can get some heat on Garner Minchou.

Well, I mean, look, this is one, it's going to be It's going to be a lot of run game. Vegas is going to have to run because Devante Adams is not playing. I think he's played his last game in the Silver and Black.

Not really a lot of threats. Missed practice with a ham string injury. Max Crosby also out of practice.

Yeah, I think Max will return this week. He missed last game. He's trying to get right. The dude hates missing ball games. But what else do you have offensively? I mean, you got the tight-end, Brock Bowers, and he's a real one. He's fantastic, right? So now we're going to... Great. Vance Joseph will go ahead and take care of that. We're not going to let him beat us. I just don't know if Vegas can score. I think that 36 number is perfect for the over and under. This is not going to be a high-flying ball game right here. Just a consistency. I mean, Vegas' defense, Patrick Graham's got some good stuff working as well. I just think this is one where if I have to trust the defense, the way the Broncos have played the past two or three weeks has been as impressive as any team in the NFL.

The number one passing efficiency defense in all of football, six in rushing defense, number six in pressure rate, going up against the Raiders team, that's in the 20s or 30s in all of those stats. I'm looking over how impossible would it be to average over four and a half yards per carry which Juvante Williams did in a football game where your quarterback had negative seven passing yards in the first. Isn't that crazy? I believe in the Broncos run game, simply based on the fact that they're able to do anything with Bo Nicks attempting so many of his passes short of 10 yards around the line of scrimmage.

I think so many of those completions last week were behind the line of scrimmage. That's the thing that's crazy is he had so few, and the completions that he had were behind the line of scrimmage. I was going to say it should be better weather, but if he's not a good bad weather quarterback, Denver is not the city for you.

I think things will improve with time. You have to project-He did play in Oregon.

I mean, he played as a bad weather. Okay.

I'm getting them over. You'll get there. That was a tough watch. I went back, I was just like, This is crazy.

Yeah, but sloppy conditions. I mean, that's not going to happen every week.

By the way, assuming that Devante Adams doesn't ever play for the Raiders again, which feels very safe at this point. Yes. They don't have enough weapons. He played with six different starting quarterbacks in the time that he was there. That is crazy. He was barely there.

That's quite Larry Fitzgerald-like who played with 46 in his years with Arizona.

I have seen some revisionist stuff where it's like, Devante should have stayed Green Bay. They had years to make him that offer. The Rodgers contract came in between that. Then they come in after the fact. It was like, Oh, yeah. He had the same offer on the table that the Raiders gave him. When? When did that offer come in? Let's be honest. He wanted out. He wanted an opportunity, and he took it. The Raiders just went south. Because they didn't want to pay their quarterback either.

The latest in Devante Trade rumors, reporting, ESPN had the Jets and the Saints were atop his wishlist. So, man, he loves that Derek car.

He loves Derrick. And look, I think the Saints would love to have him.

He's seen what life is like without either of those two guys. Yes. And he's like, You know what? I want to go.

He is a great fit on the Saints.

Here's the thing.

He's a great fit.

With both of those teams, though, they could both be blown up after the season. Would he really want to go to either of those teams? Because the Jets struggle. They're blowing that thing up.

Well, he might become a free agent. Who knows? He's due 35 million next year.

Non-guaranteed.

Life is short. I think if you're Devante Adams, even if you're not getting any more money from a new contract this year, I think he's like, Well, I don't want to spend the next 12 weeks with the Raiders. I want to go to a team that can be in the mix. He might not even require more money right off the bat this time around.

If I were him, I'd be pushing to go to a place like Buffalo.

Yeah, if he wanted to check it down, he would. But this is This is about being somewhere where the remainder of his career can have some significance to somebody, and he does not see that. And I understand why he does not see that.

As I said yesterday, Garner Minchou is not going to be on quarterback island, Patrick.

But hey, Garner Minchou did get some wins last year for the Indianapolis Colts, where Greg was asking, How does he keep getting away with this? And now maybe they have Joe Flack. Is it Anthony Richardson? Either way, they are in Duval taking on the Jacksonville Jaguars who are a three-point favorite despite the fact that they have had the 2024 Jacksonville Jaguars season, where there's players only meetings discussions. There's the players aren't calling the plays, and the coaches can't play, Greg.

Vibes down horrendously. Yeah. Doug Peterson asked on Wednesday, Have you lost the locker room? And his answer was, No, I have not lost the locker room. I understand why you asked that, but it's a tough one to answer. There's no way to answer that.

What does it mean, by the Yeah, I've lost him.

I mean, you mentioned, Minchou having such an impact on the Colts.

It wasn't that long ago that we were talking about how ridiculous it was. They were letting Minchu get all the first-team reps over Trevor Lawrence. I mean, at this point, Trevor Lawrence isn't playing any better than Garner Minchou this year. I hate it. It is. I'm shocked by it, but the ball's not going where he's aiming it to go.

He looks like he's just a non-confident player right now. Look, Look, they've got to get this win. Otherwise, they're winless going over to London to play the bears. They have got to get this win. The flame is red hot under Doug Peters, and the only thing is, there's really nobody on his staff who can take over. Maybe Mike McCoy, if they were to get rid of him. So I don't think his job security is in immediate danger.

You got to win a game. If you go to London and lose to the bears and the patriots and lose this game, you can go in seven or seven.

Then things Change. I mean, Shad Khan is not trying to lose games over in his home, away from home in England. But the way the Colts, their quarterback situation, I think they're fine. This is a game where I think they're going to be able to move the ball. John, the Taylor is nicked up, right?

Yeah, he's out of practice Wednesday. He has a high ankle sprain.

So we don't know if they're going to be able to run the ball, but teams are throwing the ball against the Jags, man. They're finding matchups all over the place.

I have a case for positivity in Jacksonville. This offense in the past game has mainly been funneled these past couple of years between Evan Ingram and Christian Kirk. Christian Kirk coming back from that offseason surgery, slow start. Evan Ingram only played one game this season. Now we've got both of them potentially being on the field and healthy for the first time.

Ingram changes things. Ingram changes things. I mean, that is Trevor's guy.

Because that's why Trevor's downfield passing rate, one of the highest in the league right now. They're taking nothing but shots. I think a lot of that is because Evan Ingram is not in those particular spots where Trevor trusts him to make plays.

Gabe Davis has not worked out so far for them, just hasn't had the production. Brian Thomas looks like a great draft. He's a real one. When the ball's near him, he's made some really nice grabs. But yeah, they've been struggling in the red zone. Really, any stat you want to find on offense, it's not good for the Jaguars. Then again, they're going up against a Colts defense who lost Taekwan Lewis. He's going to injured reserve. Not a name, but he's the third out of four starters off their defensive line that's out and on IR. That's pretty major. You still have Grover-Stewart, you have Liatu-Latu, but that's big. Flacko was taking some reps in practice, but Richardson is limited. He's day to day. We're not sure if Richardson is going to play. It's disappointing because for as much credit as Flacko got, man, that run game was absolutely cooking, including early against the Steelers. Richardson was a huge part of that. Their first drive and a half, he gets a TD first drive, gets them into field goal range before the injury, the second drive. I wanted to see that come together. And even if he's out there, he's banged up and Taylor's not there, that's their whole offensive identity.

They could find a way to get a win with Flacko, but it's just you want to be building on what your team is actually going to be.

And that offensive line is playing well. I mean, that's something if you-Pitman and Downs might not mind Flacko being in there just because there's more volume.

But as you Anthony Richardson had a couple of great balls to Michael Pitman Jr. Early in that game before he left. He was getting involved. Downs looks good and healthy. There's cases for positivity for both of these teams. You may feel really different for whoever comes up on the wrong side of this one.

Oh, my gosh. That's a great point.

The Colts could have a fantastic manage the season situation. They get out of this game three and two after the start they've had, they will feel great about it.

The Jacks lose. To your point about Evan Ingram, 114 catches last year. I mean, that's how much as a tight-end he means to this team.

It is a real need. Right now, things are real tough for Trevor and the Jags. Let's get back to Sofi Stadium next. As the Green Bay packers on the road A three-point favorite against Matthew Stafford and the Los Angeles Rams, both of these teams, with late heartbreakers last week. And Greg, we keep seeing Matthew Stafford have team on his back, but it's starting to feel like that burden is a little bit too much of a load to carry.

Yeah, it's a lot. And this game is a big one for them. It's before their buy week. They do not want to be one and four heading into their buy. Then again, I thought, didn't they have a game like this last year? They had a game, again, I think it was backup starting against the packers, and they lost it. And they going into their buy. They were three and six at that point, and they managed to come all the way back and have a chance to... And they made the playoff.

I see Brett Rippen with the Green Bay. It started as the Rams cut him immediately after the game.

That's rough. I think there's a lot to worry about with the Rams team because the defense, it's gone from good enough, certainly last year, to not good enough this year. They're getting a lot of pressure, and this is what happens when You lose the greatest defense player of all time, and your coach, who is a good one, and Rahim Morris. They're weirdly first in pressure rate, which makes me question the pressure rate stat. And yet, because they're still one of the worst defenses, they aren't finishing plays. They only have seven sacks, and it's not affecting other quarterbacks enough. It's a lot of Jared Verce and Fis flying by the quarterback, and so they just need to figure that out.

Yeah, it's more like a proximity alert thing, and we got maybe we need a better way to contextualize. I love the proximity alert.

That is beautiful. I'd coin that money.It's.

Well done.It's like the horses and handgranades step.

Right. It's a lot of guys flying by, and then the quarterback steps up in the pocket and makes a play on them, I think is what's happening.

Yeah. How are the packers only a three-point favorite? Because there will be more packer fans in that stadium. Again, this is not saying anything about Rams fans. Packers fans show up everywhere. It's going to be a home game on the West Coast for Green Bay. We We talked about it. Staff replace his hard out. He just doesn't have guys who can move the ball. Jordan Love going to get back. He's going to feel a little bit better offensively. I think this is one where Green Bay is going to ring up a ton of points and put it on the Rams.

I tend to agree. Their pass rush hasn't been great. I know there's some Packers fans out there that really want a little more out of Kenny Clark and Rashaun Gary. They're big ticket players who've been pretty quiet. It's game change. I just want a normal game out of Jordan Love. He's had a weird season. The opener was extremely weird on that field. He was a little all over the place. Last week, he's coming back from an injury. He didn't look 100%. That was a really up and down game. And so he just needs to settle in, and he can feel better. If he doesn't pick up a third down, that he's got Daniel Wieland on his side. There you go. This Irish punter is a problem. I mean, this guy had a 74-yard punt last week. He created a shutdown by having a punt so good. It went over Minnesota's shoulders there and created a short field. This guy, the Irish punter, he's the man.

This guy, the Irish punter. That's my guy. By the way, I'm looking at last 10, packers are nine and one.Wow.Over the Rams as well. I knew there was something where McVay had problems against Lafleur.

The guy that I'm not at all concerned about, who I think has a huge day, is Jaden Reid going up against this Ramsey.

How good is he?

Yeah, he's explosive. Because for years, everybody was looking for Debo Samuel, and he's not Debo Samuel with the ball in his hands, like prime Debo. But just purely as a receiver, I think he's better than peak Deebo was. And he's faster.

I mean, he's not going to be as physical. No one's as physical, and he's a smaller player. But I agree with you. He's a weapon in a similar way to Deebo. That's a good call.

Yeah, this is going to be Josh Jacobs. I think this is one where just Green Bay's offense. When you look at the Rams defense, is there something where you say, Can they get it together? Or is it one where the damn M just breaks on this defense? Because you talked about Averse and Fisk are fantastic, and Byron Young gives them a little something. But where else are they making enough plays, especially when you're facing an offense like this with a quarterback who wants to get his mojo going.

And a great play caller, too. Great play caller. The secondary is, I don't know what they were expecting exactly. It was patched together, but I think they expected better play, maybe out of the safety position. They've been okay, but...

Quentin Lake is a pretty good player.

It was very jarring to see DeAndre Swift in a bear's offensive line that could not run the ball.

Oh, my gosh. Just gash him.

Yeah, it's tough. It's tough right now in Los Angeles.

Don't give up, Ellis. My daughter, of course, a big Rams fan. This is a big game for them. I really mean it. Before the buy, getting to two and three would be huge for them. Packers would be in a world of four, too, if they lost this game after losing to the Vikings. We'll be back in just a second on NFL Daily. Back on NFL Daily. A couple of surprising just notes for you on our next game. Patrick, Browns Commanders. First of all, Greg Olson doing a Browns Commanders game in Week 5 shows you that commanders are becoming one of America's teams right now.

Got to watch him. Got to watch him.

Second of all, a man named Jason Banetti is the play-by-play guy. Not familiar with his work, and they slide him right into a big chair with Greg Olson while Joe Davis is doing baseball.

That shows me that I believe in Jason. Just that situation, I believe Jason Banetti is going to call in on.

I cover these anunciors, Steve, like some people cover teams. So I truly might watch this game specifically to do a little Banetti scouting. That's a big spot for them to put him in. That's a lot of confidence they have.

That'll be great.

I'll tell you what you're not going to tune into this game for, to see the high flying, Deshaun Watson-led, Cleveland Brown's offense that lost a nasty game on the road to Garner Minchou last week at these commanders who are a three-point favorite, which maybe should be a bit more, and the hottest quarterback right now that's not named Jared Goff in the entire NFL, Jaden Daniels.

Yeah, that's really interesting that they're only favored by three. It really shows that they're still waiting information that came before this year and what they expect this Browns team to be because that's not reflective of the team that they are, which is one of the worst teams in the NFL. I mentioned DVOA, total efficiency. They have the Browns actually dead last. They had Miami 31. I think the Patriots were 30. And that's because their offense is dead last. Now, Watson played better last week, but the offense was still really struggling. And this should be a get-right type of matchup. But if you're a commander's optimist, maybe you watched last week's game and you thought, Okay, is Dan Quinn's defensive philosophy starting to take hold here? Frankie Louvou flying all over the place. Bobby Wagner, the cornerbacks playing better. It was just one game, but after three really tough performances, they looked like a decent defense, and all they need to be is decent. I think this team is a contender. They just need to be the 21st best defense in the league, and this team has a chance to make the playoffs.

It was funny. I was actually talking to Dan Quinn about something Tuesday night, the head coach for the commanders, and he was like, Cleveland gives you a million different things to occupy pie preparing on both sides of the ball course defensively with Jim Schwartz. They do have some players that match up well with what Washington likes to do offensively. You have J. O. K, one of my favorite players who can spy. They use him a lot as an inside linebacker who can spy Jaden Daniels. They've got some pieces that are nice little counter chips. I think people, when you look at this three-point spread, are still waiting for Washington to see if they can handle being a successful football team. To go back to Aaron Rodgers says, How do we handle success?

Handle it well last week. That was my whole theory of like, They're on the road a second time, short week, against a decent enough team, and they put a 40 burger on them.

It could have been worse. Yeah, Jaden was amazing. In Cleveland, there are offensive line issues. Deshawn, he just does not look right in any way, shape, or form. Running the offense. I mean, not even throwing the ball or getting things going in that realm. It just does not look functional. But again, Washington, like I said, it's a prove it game for the defense with Dan Quinn and Joe Witt on that side of the ball. Their corners are still something. That's going to be an all-season long working. Just their personnel is not that great, but they do love some things they saw with their safeties up the spine as the new term goes of the defense. We know how good those tackles are. You mentioned the inside linebackers. They like the way they function and how other guys built off of that.

Little Jerry Newton, the second round pick I was into during draft season, getting some more pop.

Yeah. I think they feel better about their defense, but I think offensively, they know it's not going to be a layup just because Jim Schwartz has got some pieces that counter some of their strengths.

Well, The weakness of the team is we know it's zeroed in at the quarterback right now, who, if not for Bo Nicks, would have the worst EPA on dropbacks. Right now, he's second worst, negative 51 and a half. The The rounds, it's all on Jim Schwartz. They blitz of almost 48% of dropbacks on second down.

Meanwhile, this might not be the dude to be blitzing against, though.

Jaden Daniels is getting rid of the ball quickly. Teams are playing with their He's close to the line of scrimage, and it's not working. When the bangles are sending zeros, they're hitting the shots to get you back out of that. Some folks are charting regression, and I would that against a traditionally good Browns defense. I'm just going to need to see him struggle before I say that.

Yeah, and the defense that you think about with the Browns, they would have gone into Vegas last week and absolutely dominated. I'm not saying they played poorly, but they just It was like two even teams. They gave up 152 yards rushing to the Raiders. Yeah, who don't run the ball well. A lot of that was those wide receiver, end-around type stuff. I mean, the commanders can take advantage with their speed in Jaden Daniels' legs with the over-aggressiveness sometimes. Grant Delpit said before last week's game, it was a must win, and then they lost. Whenever you lose, it must win, I just chalk up the next week as a loss, too. It's dark there. They're spending more cash. Jim Haslem, he just gave his coach and his GM, I think an extension. Am I wrong? As you should. He's spending more cash on players than any team in the league. They are the second All this team in the league.

Yeah, that's because they keep converting all those future years into cash. Just real quick, we can't get out of this without talking about Brian Robinson and what they're doing with the running game in Washington. That's why those safeties are playing up. I mentioned it yesterday on the pod, Anthony Lynn, being their run game coordinator, helps out a lot. It keeps Cliff Kingsbury from going against his tendency to throwing the ball too much. When you've got a stud like him, Eckler could be back as well this game. This is why They're dominated.

As good as Jaden Daniels is, I couldn't believe how much pass pro he had last week. It was against Arizona. He was not known for rushing the passer, but he's just sitting back there chilling. That's a great job by their front.

Yeah, and it makes it extra tough because you got to be under control when you're rushing Jay and Daniels. Then when you get Maldon front on top of that, that was the recipe. Again, 50 would have been easy. An easy 50. Dan decided that he wanted to. I'm sure Cliff might consider he wanted it. But as Greg pointed out, they're still paying him.

Yeah, he's still cashing those checks from the card house. He won twice last Sunday.

That's awesome. All right, to our next game, it's the Carolina Panthers who traded famously with the Chicago Go, bears. Here we are, the payoff of the trade. Dj More on one side, Caleb Williams on the side with him, and Price Young is watching as Andy Dalton starts for the third straight game.

Former bear starting quarterback, Andy Dalton.Yeah..

Another Dalton revenge game, two weeks in a row. Chicago is a four-point favorite. Here's Steve. We got Kenny Albert and Jonathan Vilma on the call. The bears can run the ball now, apparently.

Well, they ran it against the Rams, who we were just talking about.

The Panthers defense has been no great shakes.

Which is just, gosh, where did the Panthers do well? I mean, that's one thing you have to ask yourself. This is one of the things for Chicago. Let's see if they can get it going. This is an important stretch for them, but let's see if they can get it going. Any game, they should win. They've got the defense to put the heat all over Andy Dalton, force a couple of takeaways, and then offensively, get the run, try to get the run to balance the pass Last game, don't put a ton of it on the rookie quarterback. But I just think four is probably about the right number for this because I don't see Chicago necessarily rolling over everybody because they're still working through things. But if we're seeing Caleb Williams in this run game, getting it going against Carolina, to me, I think four is a really nice number with the Beers on top.

It just hasn't clicked for Caleb Williams yet. There were a couple plays last week where he was so stuck in the pocket, refusing to move his feet that you almost could hear the coaching point of, Don't bail out too quickly, but he literally just wasn't moving. I don't think that's a natural thing for Caleb Williams.

His feet were just-Dus planted.dus planted.

He had people around him, and he hit a bunch of his short passes, and he didn't make mistakes in the running game. That was effective for him a week ago. This is an opportunity against a bad defense. You have the Jags, me and you will be at that game, Steve. If you're in the UK, you can see me. I'll be on Sky Sports on the sidelines. So we're both sidelines.

Both sidelines. I'll bump into you, Greg.

Maybe I'll say hi. Sweet. What a gift they've been given. It's higher over there. Yeah. A gift they've been given by the schedule gods. I mean, to get a bang the Rams team, then the Panthers, then the Jags, then the buy, then a Cardinals team that has some issues. You can make some hay here and we can get going. I just want to see Caleb be a little more comfortable.

The discomfort, I think, is going to be on the Carolina Panthers side. Matching up these teams, the Bear's defense is the clear plus in this one. As great as the Andy Dalton revolution has been, and it's nice to see them be a functional football team, watching Matt Stafford fail to make plays, and again, the accumulation of circumstances that he's facing probably played a role in that. But this Bear's defense is just so good, and it's tough to imagine. Four points feels about right. I'm with the odds makers here.

I saw a headline from Panthers camp today that was their coach, Dave Canales, saying, Deontay Johnson is not available in a trade, which I was like, why was that? Is that a question? Why was that? I I didn't think that was. Why would he be?

He's good. I don't think the Panthers are sellers right now.

No, I get it. I think he's... Is he on the last year of his contract? I believe he is. So I guess naturally, maybe in three or four weeks, if their record was really bad, teams could come calling. But they want to produce. This is the first year under Dave Canales. I think they would like to have Deontay Johnson long term. They should not be in the business of giving away weapons, and they should feel better. Their offensive line playing better. And Leget had a nice... Xavier Laguette had a nice game. Those are the types of things if you're a Panthers fan, you really are looking towards. Some of these free agents, can they work out on the offensive line? Can Laguette work out? Deontay Johnson work out? And then, okay, these are guys we can build with.

And they've got to form some type of nucleus because right now, they don't really have a ton of building blocks.

Perhaps. Is the Pittsburgh Stealers active and trying to find wide receivers for a long time? Maybe the breakup shouldn't ever happen.

Oh, boy. Yeah, that's fair. I think they're happy with Dante Jackson. That's a rare case where it might be a win-win, where both teams are relatively happy. But I'd rather have Deontay Johnson, to your point.

Let's go to a little Monday night. Yeah. Are you ready for some football? The New Orleans Saints at the Kansas City Chiefs who have been struggling on offense, who have lost their top wide receiver, a five and a half point favorite. Of course, Joe Buck and Troy Akemen on the call, Greg. Five and a half.

That's a big number, That feels like a lot against the good Saints team.

Yeah, it's almost like they're just begging it. Forget the five and a half. I mean, I am going to be very tempted to make the same mistake I've made so many times in the Patrick Holmes era. Dare to doubt this man at home because it feels like the Saints are better than their 2-2 record, and the Chiefs aren't as good as their 4-0 record. When those two types of teams match up, I tend to pick it evening out. This Chief's offense really testing the ideas that Andy Reid is going to have because he's going back to sky more on third downs. I was like, That's not working out. You got Kareem Hunt back in the building. He ran well, but that wasn't the plan. You know what I mean?

It will be moving forward.

Right. They wanted to be more explosive this year, and I think they had four explosive players. Rashe Rice, Hollywood Brown, and Isiah Pacheco are now gone. Those were three of the four. The fourth, the rookie worthy, is an exciting young player. Can you build more of the offense around him? I think that's going to have to be the challenge as they move forward. I don't know if he's ready for it right yet.

I do. Okay. I mean, we've seen it.

Yeah. Why aren't they using him more? Maybe just, I don't know. Andy Reid does slow play rookies quite a bit.

And we talk What are they thinking about? First four games are their preseason. Let's figure out what's working. They've had to adjust some things because of the injury. Everything I've seen out of Xavier worthy, again, if they decide to lean on him now, I think he could have a Zee flowers type of impact Before, they're not putting the pressure on him. Now, they're putting the pressure on him. I think he's the type of player who can go big. It's just a thing against the Saints. Saints got the DBs. Like, Ty Matthews is going to be sitting over the top of him all game. There's not going to be the type of space that he's been getting, and that's something they're going to have to stop. So can Andy Reid find out to figure out some things underneath? It gets a very solid Saints defensive front. So it'll be intriguing. My thing, though, is, to me, this is more of what are we going to find out about the Saints? Are they the team that was hanging 40 on people the first two or that is decent offensively because they're going up against one of the top defenses in the NFL in terms of making you earn everything that you have to get?

And are the Saints that type of offense? We saw they looked like they could play that type of game against the Falcons last week. They just came up short at the end of the game. So I don't know. I think this is more of a tell on what the Saints are going to be because I think they're a pretty good football team, but against this defense on the road, we'll see.

They are Saints 0-2 in close games. They got two blowouts. That 0-2 featured some of the most catastrophic mistakes that you could ever possibly imagine. They could very easily be 4-0. The Kansas City Chiefs have not been in a game that wasn't a close game. They came down to the wire because, particularly of the injuries and the offensive struggles, Patrick Mahomes, the lowest mark of his career, 5.1 air yards per attempt. So if we want to behavior worthy, getting all these downfield shots, they're just not available in this offense. I feel like between Nagui and Andy Reid, and probably the quarterback as well, those low percentage opportunities, they feel like they're going to be off the field very, very fast if they don't hit those. And so they don't go to those shot plays as much. This feels like an opportunity where it's not wishcasting to say the same thing, no, and get away. No. This feels very realistic.

I think the offensive line is the biggest It held up well enough last week without Eric McCoy, without Césaire Ruiz, two interior players, McCoy, really key. But that was against the Falcons. That's a team you can survive with the shaky offensive line, Trevor Penning and everything. Now you got to go up against the Chiefs in their front with Chris Jones playing a Hall of Famer. And George Carlaff week after week. George Carlaff continues to grow up. That worries me a little bit. It'll be tougher. But I do think there's an opportunity. I think the one The one counter I would have to what you said, Patrick, is those catastrophic mistakes, that's a hallmark of this Dennis Allen team. Alvin Kamara in the locker room afterwards was very pointed about it, that they make dumb mistakes. They don't win games that great teams do. He was very frustrated because of the blown opportunities that this keeps happening to us over and over.

Well, look, you keep on doing the same thing over and over again. That's a habit. So that's an issue. You don't beat Kansas City by beating yourself.

And Kamara is saying that playing with broken ribs. Yeah. In a game, I can't imagine the level of frustration to go out there and have a performance like he did with broken ribs and to see them lose to a team that didn't score an offensive touch down.

That's the thing. I mean, that game in particular, I think the Eagles game was more some mental errors. That was a mental error by Rasheed Shahid, but you I wouldn't think that that would ever happen again, that the pick six was a little crazy. I do like the Saints in this one, I got to admit.

Yeah, I think. I don't. I'm bored there.

I don't like the points, but I like the Chiefs.

I keep blowing it, just expecting too much of the Saints team.

Let's go to a game in Seattle coming off that Heartbreaker score fest against the Lions. A six-point favorite against Malik Nabors and the New York Giants. For some reason, People keep putting dimes on promos about the Giants, and I just have to audibly change it. The same Malik Nabors and the Giants. Seattle, favorite by 6, 43 and a half. Andrew Catalan, Tiki Barber, Jason McCordy on the call, Steve, where Gino played great. He played a spectacular football game, but the defense literally could not get Jared Goff to throw a single incompletion.

Yeah, look, they had four starters in the front seven who were all down. I don't know if they're getting any of those guys back. First, let's go back to your announcers. Jason McCordy.

Doing a good job. Is spectacular.

He's really, really just a hell of an analyst. Props to him. But to get back to this game, the sixth number looks big to me for Seattle because defensively, they had their issues. You saw how Detroit really put some good secondary players, Rick Bullen and especially Devon Witherspoon, in tremendous conflict. I don't know if the The Giants have the players necessarily to do that or the quarterback to do that or the play caller to do that. But until Seattle gets fully healthy up front, there's going to be some opportunities there. But Seattle is going to score. The Seahawks are going to put points. We saw a lot of Kenneth Walker.

He's special.

Now, they're going to continue to rely on him. Finally, he looks super healthy. I think he's going to be able to run the ball against the Giants. That's trying to get those pass rushers who are very good for the Giants on their heels. Then Gino just dialing it up. But he's got going with DK Metcalf is really special. Look at Kenneth Walker right here.

That's one of the more athletic plays I've ever seen.

When he got flipped over, lands on his feet and just keeps going. I mean, his ability to change direction, it probably drives their coaches crazy every now and then because he'll have a minus seven thrown in there. He'll lose some plays, but my God, it's fun to watch when it works. It's working more and more. I think he's gotten better and better as a pro. I think their offensive line has improved the last two weeks. I agree. Because they were just a tire fire the first two weeks where you're thinking, It's a big, big problem. The last two weeks, it's been more like, Okay, if you're closer to average... I didn't think Gino was pressured too much against the lines. When he was, it tended to be the longer developing place where he held the ball and he made it happen. I think that's a good sign for them against a pretty good front. Burns is getting a lot of pressure. He's not finishing plays. Kavon is coming off a big game. You got Dexter Lawrence. I think this is damning with faint praise, but the Giants are a good one and three.I think they're actuallyI would agree with that.

I think they've been better. I looked at the rest of the one and threes here, I think there's eight or nine teams. I would say that they're like the second best one and three team. I mean, that's the least-There it is.

Hang the banner in MetLife, bro. Yeah. Who are giving the first?

I'm giving Burro the first. Burro and the bangles the first. I would think I'm just an average weekly play. I think they've probably been a little better than the Rams and maybe the Cardinals. I just think they're okay. They're all in the same area, but they're just not great at anything, but they're not terrible at anything either. They're just a little below average at everything.

If you're looking for a terrible Giants stat, you go back to 2022. On downfield passing attempts, Daniel Jones has thrown more interceptions than he has completion.Okay.

I take it back.Excuse me, touch downs.I take what I just did.On.

Downfield There were several times on that game on Thursday night where Giants' receivers were open. They were open, and the ball placement was so bad that the Cowboys defense was able to get back and make plays, or the ball just wound up being uncatchable. And after seeing the Seahawks defense go up against, again, the most accurate quarterback on the night in NFL history, it's going to be a feel good reprieve to see number eight on the other side.

It's interesting. The Danny Jones deep ball conversation. Some folks are just saying because the injuries, he just can't uncork anymore. I don't know if there's any factual truth behind it, but you just see over and over when he's trying to throw that deep ball, it is not getting there.

Yeah, I take back what I said that they're just below average everything because they're terrible at throwing the deep ball. That's a big factor. Especially you got Malik Nabors. Right. When you have Darius Slate, and that's what he wants to major in, and he's a good NFL player. He's not a great one, but he's a rotation. He's a good player, but you're not taking advantage of him. You're not taking advantage of Jalen Hyatt, who barely get on the field for this team. You're going up against some cornerbacks who can play sticky man coverage, and that just limits what you want to do. I don't think they'll win this game, but I don't know if I trust the Seahawks to be blowing teams out either. I can see this coming down to the end between the Giants and the Seahawks. Why not?

Yeah, why not? Jason McCarty will really give us a good insight on it as well.I.

Think he's doing a great job.I think he's excellent. But I'm glad you shouted him out.

Yeah, indeed. Great. And shout out to Eugene Cyril Smith and everything that he's doing in Seattle. Let's get to our final game. It is another game, speaking of the NFC West, a division matchup between the Arizona Cardinals at the San Francisco 49ers. We're trying to figure out these teams right now. It's 49ers favored by seven, but it's just up and down, Greg. We see the Arizona Cardals come out. They hang a billion points on the Rams, and then the offense has been slow ever since. And looking at San Francisco, when are they going to be the 49ers that we know-I think they were pretty close to it.

Now, the Patriots are the Patriots, but they controlled that game. They got up 20 to nothing. They had their good players come back in terms of Debo and George Kittle. I like the direction that they're going. I think they're getting fantastic play out of Brock Purdy. I talked about him on quarterback Island. I think he's playing better than when he was an MVP candidate a year ago. I think He's legitimately one of the five best quarterbacks in the league so far this year. If your quarterback is playing that well and you have all this talent around him, the defense, that's the question. This is a good week to continue to try to get healthy because Kyler is just a little out of rhythm. His eyes kept coming down and seeing the pass rush last week. He's maybe trying to do a little too much out of structure. He did it against the Ram so much where he's just out there and it's the Kyler show that he might have fallen too much in love with it the last couple in the weeks, and you're not seeing a lot of making throws at the back of his drop and in rhythm type of throws to his receiver.

Yeah, the last four games with these teams, the 49ers have just rolled Arizona. There's a potential for this to happen right here. Jordan Mason is going to get some rushing yards here. He's just got it working. I don't care what defense they're playing. Their offensive line. I mean, look at this right here. That's what you call playing on a thread, that zone stretch scheme. And he just breaks the first tackle every You're not going to get a clean look at him, but he's just a typical now Niners running back where he's going to get positive yards. We're watching video of him in the red zone, cut back. He's getting into the end zone. That's going to happen against the Cardinals. They're not great at any level in tackling. It seems like Buda Baker has got 17 tackles every game coming up from the safety spot. That's going to open up things in the run game. This is one, Rock Purdy. If he throws the ball 24 times, I'll be surprised because I just think that he's going to be able to run the ball. Debo is going to get some runs. Off that, I think this is going to be a heavy rushing attack by the 49ers at home.

I'm glad you brought up Brock Purdy, because it's getting lost. Brock Purdy is leading the NFL in passing right now, 1,130 passing yards this season.

He got more than Gino?

Under 20% of those have been after the catch. So this collective Brock Purdy fraud watch criticism where it's like, Oh, this is all yards after the catch. And, Oh, Sam Darnold should come in and play instead of him. And like, Brock is playing very good football with the team, not being the guys who are consistently in and out. We've seen Trent leave games, come back. Iuk has had a slow start. They had to rely on Jouhan Jennings. Brock is playing really, really good football right now, and the Arizona Cardinal.

It's a young player. It makes sense that he's improving a lot this early in his career. He's played so much in such big spots. And you think of him because he was Mr. Irrelevant as like... And I maybe fell victim to this, too. He's just this guy that isn't going to be as talented. But we expect talented young quarterbacks to keep improving in their first five years before they are fully formed. We're seeing more of the fully formed Brock Purdy. He can continue to get better, but he's not afraid to throw deep. No. His percentage of deep throws is sky high, yards per attempt. He's leading the league by half a yard. I can't question his decision making. He's running the ball pretty well, too. This Cardinal's defense, after a decent three weeks where you're like, Oh, they're playing a little over their skis, came back to Earth, and that was the Cardinal's defense you expected to see a week ago against the commanders.

Yeah, and When I get back to Brock. I mean, you've heard me say it over and over. He's a killer. He is a dude who, when it comes down to it, you test him, he's going to rip it to you. He's not someone who's going to take a shot. He's not Jay Cutler type, I'm going to show you my big arm and try and rip it in there. But he finds the receiver, he is not afraid to throw the ball to where it's supposed to go to, to throw Juan Jennings or whomever who might be covered. I'm going to put it to where you're going to catch it and you're going to make the play. I just think he's a winning quarterback, but not in the, Oh, he's a winner type of thing. He's a guy who's going to be able to lead you to victory. I think he's showing that, like we talked about, just everything that they've been without, they've got him.

The payoff run, I think, is going to get a little lost because they lost that game. But the fact that he was in a position where he to make a drive to avoid a really tough loss in the division round, and they get it done. He was a big part of the reason they were trailing by so much at halftime in the NFC Championship, but to respond like he did. I will always remember his drives at the end of the Super Bowl in the way that I remember Tom Brady's 2007 drive to take the lead over the Giants as one of the best moments of his career. It really was. And then they lost the game anyways. That's how it happens. Brock Purdy had some incredible moments in in the biggest of spots, and this is not that, but they do need to win. Suddenly, you lose at home and against the Cardinals, and you're two and three, and everyone's panicking. Trey McBride is expected to be back for this game. That is good news for the fantasy tight-end Apocalypse of 2024.

It's nasty out there. There's tumbleweeds, and people are fighting for cat food. The tight-end world is tough.

I got people picking up Elijah Higgins and starting them in my league. It's like, who? What?

Getting psyched up by Isiah likely after week one.

Good call, Steve. Yeah, Gino does have Brock by 52 yards. Okay. So Gino is still number one, but hey.

To Greg.

What a world. What a world that everyone just accepts like, oh, yeah, Gino. He's a top 10 quarterback. He's the man. It's just accepted. It's not even controversial. Not at all. I don't know. Let's go.

It's just facts. That's what we deal. That's what we deal in.

What we also deal in here, factual analysis, information, a little bit of fun in the Chris Wesley podcast studio. Always love doing this preview show with Steve Weish and Patrick Claybon. Thanks for watching NFL Daily presented by DoorDash. Yes, I'll be back Thursday night. Fun game. Love the NFC South. Bucks, Falcons. Going to be wrapping it up with Jerold McCoy. Really excited. Join me live on YouTube about 10 minutes after the game. I'll be with Jerold. And on the podcast version of the show, also have Ron Rivera for a little discussion. So we got superstars. Football is back.