Welcome into Bucks Insider. Casey Phillips here, Scott Smith Bredix, coming to you from the Buck Studio presented by Ticketmaster. We have a lot of storylines again to get to.
Here this week.
Of course, we have our previous game, not the outcome we wanted, but then a big one back at home this next week to talk about as well. Let's dive into that Chiefs game first of all, and Scott, let's start with you, because I feel like sometimes the quarterback, it's like it's so obvious that we don't always talk
about it as much. But we felt like Baker has earned us really diving into his performance a little bit more and what we've seen from him, even though again the outcome wasn't what we wanted, his performance and especially in recent weeks without his top couple weapons, has been pretty incredible.
Yeah, and you know, Mike Evans and Chris Godwin went down and there was a lot of worry, understandably so, about how this offense was going to continue moving the ball, and Liam Cohen deservedly has received a lot of credit for making that happen. Over the last two weeks, seven hundred and seven yards offense and fifty points. I mean, that's generally enough, good enough to win. The Bucks didn't
win those two games for a variety of reasons. But the offense has continued to move and Liam Cohn deserves credit.
But you still have to have a quarterback that can make that work, and for him to adapt the way that he's adapted, and to make use of these new weapons and run a lot of different types of plays to figure out how to make kay Otten the number one receiver with Mike and Chris out, I mean, Baker's just moved right along like nothing happened, essentially, and we really need to give him a lot of credit for that. I mean, he continues to lead the NFL in touchdown
passes with twenty three. He's had at least two in six straight games, which only Tom Brady has done otherwise in team history. And it's the longest not only the longest active streak in the NFL right now, but the longestreak by any quarterback so far with six right games of multiple touchdon passes. I mean, Josh Allen hasn't done it, and Patrick Mahomes hasn't done it, and Lamar Jackson hasn't done it. I mean they might. They might, but they haven't as to this point. And you know, he's also
second in league in passing yards. He's pretty much top five in most passing categories, and he's doing it with a receiving core that you would not have expected to see in Week nine at the beginning of the year. If you said that the Bucks five active receivers in a game they took to overtime in Kansas City against the undefeated Chiefs would be Ryan Miller or Kim Jarrett, Trey Palmer, Starling Sharp, and Marquez Callaway. Those were the
five receivers. And obviously Kate Otton is still there and doing a lot of good work, and the running backs are are still being very much involved. I would say the one thing, and Baker himself brought it up, that probably needs to develop down the road. I mean, we're gonna get Mike Evans back at some point, but then that'll help. But the one thing that's been a little
bit missing is the explosive plays. There were no passes of twenty or more yards in last game, and the two games before Mike and Chris got hurt or including one where they got hurt, we had like twenty four explosive plays if you call that twenty yard plus passing and ten plus yards rushing, and in the last two games we've had something like eight of them, and we didn't have any explosive passing plays against the Chiefs. Still moved the ball quite well though, and especially at crutch
time at the end. So just you said it, we're almost to the point where we're taking Baker for credit, and we just thought we got a really shun the spotlight on how incredible he's been last year.
Right, and for him to do that without Mike and Chris especially lately, it means there have been a bunch of other guys that have stepped up. You mentioned that, you know, the five wide receivers that were in the game are not who you would have anticipated necessarily at
the beginning of the season. So Breed, tell us a little bit more about these guys, especially this last week, that had to step up and who they were and how much that has meant to the offense to have that kind of depth at weapons right.
Well, Kate Awton has certainly stepped up as kind of the most impactful weapon on offense for the Bucks. With Mike Evans, Chris Godwin, being out and I typically don't do stats, but for Kate Aughton, okay, he ranks top two among titands and targets, receptions, receiving yards per game, and receiving touchdowns. Since Week seven, he's kind of taken advantage of the underneath intermediate area of the field and really has shown his ability to put coverage on.
Notice at all three levels.
But I think you're just starting to see and Todd Bowles has talked about this, but his improvement as a route runner. I mean he's running routes that Chris Godwin traditionally runs. He scored on the wheel route against the Chiefs, but has really shown his ability to not only get open against man, but also to kind of his understanding of those soft spots and zones and how to maximize that. So I think we're seeing kind of the best that we've seen of kiton which is really exciting.
But then also Scott alluded to this, but.
Sterling Shepherd, I mean just the game he had his best game as Buck and whether it was the Jet sweeps, the outbreaker is kind of stepping in with Jalen McMillan out, and then Ryan Miller I did not have that on my bingo card as to tie it up late drive scores that touchdown and I mean, this is a guy that transitioned from tight end to receiver at Furman, but also just spent primarily last year on the practice squad and really just absorbed information, took things from Mike Evans,
from Chris Godwin, and you're starting to see the fruition of that. But, like Scott said, just can't say enough about this office and staff how they've been able to supplement that production of Mike Evans and Chris Godwin that this offense has been primarily based on.
You know, it's funny that you say that Ryan Miller was a tight end at first in college because that touchdown play essentially is one that you run with a tight end a lot. They had him at the end of the line and the other team knows that he's good at blocking, and they run play action and he you know, starts to block them releases, which is usually a tight end play.
Yeah, that's so interesting.
And they've also said recently they've been having Kate out and run with traditional a little bit more wide receiver role.
So I love that. Liam's just like, well, you're going to do lead.
Yeah, Kate. You said Kate has improved as a route runner, and I think that's true. But I also think that he actually had a lot of these latent capabilities that we just didn't use them in the first couple of years. Now you have him running every route in the book, you know, and some of them like you said that Chris Godwin would normally run. So it's not just that he's improving, it's that he had these abilities and now we need them and he.
Is taking big hits, hanging out of the ball, yes, without gloves. I just feel the need to every point this out of like how amazing that combination of things is. Where he is getting absolutely smoked at times, still comes up with the grab, pops up like it's nothing. Scares me half to death every time, and then it's just fine, He's good. Yeah, And I'm like, I love that well, you know, and rightfully so we have yet there's one
of them. I'm pretty sure at that point I made a noise that was a little friend.
Yep, and I love.
We had him on the show recently and he talked about how not this game, but the one I think before where he took multiple hit in a row. He had a bunch of friends and family that he saw after the game. He looked in the text like are you okay?
Are you okay?
Okay?
He's like, I didn't realize that I'm going to look that bad until everyone was like, are you alive? Are you know?
The offense, of course, definitely has deserved its flowers. We wanted to talk about all of that, but I did want to point out one thing on the defense's last game, there were definitely moments the defense would like to have back.
Not a perfect performance, however.
I think you have got to be so encouraged by this interior of your defensive line that you see Vita Vea Elijah Cansi each getting two sacks in a game. That was incredible to see. And on a team that man, I mean, Patrick Mahomes is not an easy to sack, and I felt like that was a really great thing to see. And Vita now has double the sacks of any other nose tackle in the league and is leading
the team with five on the season. I just felt like we needed to highlight how insane that is from his position to be This has happened multiple times in recent years. Oh Vida's leading the team in sacks, leading the team in sacks and from his position, that is
truly incredible. And I had defensive line coach Casey Rogers on the radio show earlier this week, and I just wanted to play a quick clip when I talked to him about how I basically asked him tell people how amazing it is that Vita does this from that position.
So let's take a look.
Well, the thing is going into my twenty second year in this league, and if you look back through the history of the league, somebody Vita size, as usually in the NFL is very down to pacific. You know, you usually have guys that play first and second down run off the field on third, and guys that don't play first and second they run on the field. But Vita is the unique talent that he has the ability to
play first, second, and third down. And if you go back through the history of the league, how many players over three hundred and forty pounds played third down? So that's just in the history of the league. You know, you have some three tens, but no three forty plus guys over So that's a credit to him and conditioning because rushing the passages, you know, is one of the most tiring, excretiating things you can do, because you want the physical exertion that you're putting out each now, it's
just tremendous. Then to be as heavy as he is, it's just a credit to him.
Yeah, I mean, I feel like coach Casey and I talked about we could have talked about Vita the whole show, and he said that he felt like this game was probably Vida's most complete game since Casey Rogers can remember. And he also had ten tackles, three quarterback hits in addition to those sacks.
I mean, he was just everywhere.
And in that clip, you know, he mentioned the conditioning aspect and the fact that you know a lot of defensive linemen they either play first and second down or third down for the most part, that there are just so few guys, especially at his size, who you can leave in there all the downs. And I mean, he's just been playing an insane amount of the snaps. I think he played with sixty sixty snaps in this game.
It's position.
This is what we talked about in the off season when he did lose some weight, did all that work in the off season, with ndamakan Su and Coach Rogers has said that that's what we've seen is that now his conditioning is such that he can pass rush at such an elite level and he can stay on the
field for so long. And think how helpful, even from a defensive coordinator perspective, that is of not having to worry so much about all this subbing and if another team, you know, goes into some hurry up like you're not trying to run guys on and off. It's just the flexibility that it gives you is really incredible. Klijah Cantsy also wanted to highlight again him. I talked to him yesterday and he just mentioned how much the game has been slowing down for him from year one to year two,
which is really great. And then also I just wanted to quickly highlight Logan Hall a little bit. Not a guy that gets as much attention or praise as Calijah and Vita, but I asked Coach Rogers about him and he mentioned that, you know, a lot of that is because when we go into nickel or specific pass rush situations, he's just not on the field as often.
He's not getting the number of snaps.
But he said that he really stepped up earlier this year when those guys were injured, played a lot bigger role and even also Logan was a little bit banged up, but he pushed through it and really was able to play at a high level. Yeah, that it was one of those injured verse hurt things like everybody is during the NFL. That he was saying, he really pushed through, stepped up in a big way. And he said, this is a quote I loved. He said, he's a catalyst
for a lot of what we do. Maybe you see Calidja get a sack, but Logan forced the guy to him that gets lost in the shuffle. Because not a lot of stories are written about the guy who forced the guy. The stories are written about the guy that finished. And I thought that was great to hear that a
guy that we did draft pretty high. We don't always hear his name, but Coach Rodgers was saying, hey, you know, he really has stepped up in some big moments, forced some plays towards Vita and Kelija to help them out. Maybe they were the ones that finished it, but Logan played a.
Big part in it. Yeah.
So with that interview with Coach Rodgers. How many times was the word case?
He said, many times? Many times. Let me tell you, I can't tell you how.
Often I'm at practice and I hear someone, usually a very big person, and then it's never made.
You forgot to give them coaching.
I know you're right, I should have I should have done better with that.
I liked on that clip of the first Vita sack. How maybe in the past he might have fallen on Patrick in that and he kind of deposit him on the ground but didn't follow him, and he knows he can't get that penalty.
And especially when you're as big as Vita, I imagine that it's harder to not like you are roughing the passer, even if you're doing everything right.
Then you're so big, powerful, like he had to just gently.
And you know gravity's working extra hard on him.
So that's true. It's also very true, all right, So let's dive into the injuries at this point, what we know and what we don't know on this short week about who might be available next week.
Yes, So the Bucks conducted a walkthrough on Wednesday, and Baker Mayfield popped up on the injury report with a toe injury and Jordan Whitehead with a quad, so those will definitely be too that everyone will be monitoring this week. Mike Evans obviously didn't practice with the hamstring he's not expected to be back into off by week, and then Sterling Shepherd with the hamstring and hip, and then Jalen McMillan with the hamstring also did not practice.
Yeah, and Baker did say after the walkthrough that he would be fine. And it's worth noting that they had already planned on doing a walkthrough on Wednesday, which is normal after a Monday game, but this Thursday today was going to be a practice and they changed it last night to a walkthrough, And I think that's a reflection of how banged up the right Yeah, yeah.
It makes a lot of sense. Right.
This is also where we give our fans a trivia question to be thinking about for the end of the show.
So what do we got this week?
When the Buccaneers demolished the forty nine Ers in the Divisional round of the two thousand and two Playoffs thirty one to six, Mike Alstots scored the home team's first and.
Last touchdown of the game.
The first one was a two yard run on third and one who delivered a huge block to help set the edge for all sime.
Interesting and it's not like the left tackle.
I was gonna say.
That feels too easy, So it's got to be you're doing trickeration and here. Uh so, now I gotta think about this.
This will be an interesting one.
So you didn't look it up, all right?
I'm a rule follower, and as evidenced by the fact that I get it wrong, everybody that I do read the answer, but I still would not have guessed. Yeah, I love that, all right, So how about some milestones we're looking at this week, Scott. I know that we talked a lot about Caydtton and the fact that he has just been absolutely crushing it recently, and it looks like maybe there's some stats and milestones to be.
Looking at for him.
Yeah, kid's got at least eight catches in each of the last three games, which if that sounds unusual, it is because he's the first tight end in Buck's history to do that. Jimmy Giles or or Kellen Winslow or Alex Smith, Ken Dilger, Cambrad uh Rob, you almost forgot that one. So he's that's already tied for the second longest. Oh, he's got He has a streak of three games with eight plus catches and seventy five plus yards and that's already tied for the second longest by a tight end in NFL history.
That's incredible. I can't. It just doesn't.
I'm like, really, yeah, But then I'm like, how incredible for Kad Like we've known he's been playing well, But yeah, that that puts it into perspective.
But not even just in franchise history, but league history.
Is not terribly surprising that the person with that longest streak up six is Travis Kelcey, right, who just had fourteen kids.
That is outrageous either.
Fourteen targets is a lot, right, all right, So now let's get into the fantasy watch a little bit. Tell me what stands out to you about some of these guys on office. As we've mentioned, I imagine that people trying to figure out who from the bucks to start and use has been a bit of a conundrum, as it's like this week it's you, this week it's you, and how this offense is working.
I don't think anybody really can start any of the receivers because you just don't know who's going to get get the ball right. You can't start Ryan Miller right, and then he's the one with the touchdown. Excuse me. I think the big question fantasy a lot of the things are obviously, if you have Baker Mayfield, you're starting him because he throws at least two touchdown passes every week. I think the big question for the bucks of Rashod White.
You know, last year, Rashad White was one of the best running backs in fantasy and it was mainly because of volume, because he was the only guy running the ball and catching the ball out of that backfield. And now with Becky Irving and a little bit of Sean Tucker, that's not the case anymore. And you saw in this last game, I thought Rashad White played well, and you look at the stats at the end and he has a total of thirty five yards and that's not going
to get it done in fantasy football. Now, he scored a touchdown, so if you started him, you've came out okay. But his fantasy stats have become really dependent on touchdowns and catches, and it's just it's a little bit of a roller coaster. You may have a team where you have to start Rashod White, but if you have some other options, it's a little bit tricky there, yeah, I think.
And then Baker Mayfield just want to point out that obviously he's still second in fantasy scoring among quarterbacks to Lamar Jackson, and he's pretty far ahead of Joe Burrow and third. So but then you're playing Sam Franz, and you think of Sam frantis this great defensive team. But
I think you can feel safe starting him. They are sixteenth in the NFL and scoring defense, fourteenth and passing and twenty fifth on third downs, and that's where the Bucks have really shined on offense, so you can see them getting extended drives and scoring opportunities. So I think you're safe to start Baker against that defense.
All right.
So now this is also where we like to highlight the off the deal human interest side of some of the guys on the team. And we felt like, especially because recently we talked about Chris Godwin's gala and donating to his foundation as ages, wishing him well, thanking him all of that, we had to do the same for Mike Evans of course, right, So his gala is this Friday, and we just felt like we wanted Bucks fans to really show up big for him in a lot of ways.
And so even though I don't believe that there are still tickets for the gala itself left, you can donate to it and you also can participate in the Silent auction, So even if you are not going to the event, you can still see all the items that are up. You know, there's going to be tons of great Bucks stuff as well, so you can check out. The website
is Mike Evans Familyfoundation dot org. That's for everything with his foundation, and then specifically, if you add on the slash Annual Gala, that'll take you to all of the things about this gala. But in case you're like, dang it, I didn't realize I missed my chance to get the tickets to the gallap well, now we are basically at a month out from his bowling event as well, and that still has lanes available. So again Mike Evans Familyfoundation dot org will give you all the information about both
of these events. There's still lanes available. That is December sixth, So we definitely wanted to tell everyone please show Mike and his foundation some love and then also, of course, stay tuned for all of our coverage of it. I know I'm am seeing it, and so I believe, Bri you are going to be there writing a story about it as well.
I think we're gonna have some video stuff.
So if you are sad you can't go, we're gonna try to make sure we covered enough that you can feel like you were there. So again, show Mike some love. We've been missing him on the field lately. Show him that by donating to his foundation. All right, so now let's get into next week's preview. Forty nine ers on a man a short week is not who This is not who I want to face on a short week because they're they're complicated, They're just that's I feel like
the word that I kept hearing is multi faceted, multidimensional. Yeah, and just the fact that the different ways they can use guys is so unique in this league of how many different people they have that they can throw everywhere on offense. I of course asked Casey Rodgers about having to face this group. He said, this is a quote from him. They are such a multifaceted team. Deebo can be anywhere he can be in the backfield, the slot out at number one, he can be in motion, he
can be in jet. Then maybe getting McCaffrey back plus And I thought this was interesting, he said, the mentality of the team. They are a run first team and very hard headed about it. They don't care what you're in. They believe they can run against any front, which then opens up their play action pass, which party does a great job of executing. They are one of the most difficult teams we have to prepare for, is what Casey Rodgers said.
Well, you know, I thank goodness for forty nine ers fans that they're getting McCaffrey back, because without him, their running game is sunk all the way to second in the league.
Yeah, so tragic. I don't think they've been.
A real rough road for getting one hundred and fifty nine yards a game.
Isn't that insane of just a guy like Christian McCaffrey, Which also I bet every day near fantasy owner out there trying to draft first overall that they have still had kind of production and bend that way on offense without him, And then of course how fortunate for us.
That there's a chance he comes back.
Real good timing now, we of course don't know how much he will play. Is he on a quote unquote pitch count? What is that gonna look like? So I think that's also really tough sledding of not only are you trying to prepare for them, but you don't really know exactly in what ways or how much you're gonna use him. You don't have a lot of footage from this year on what they've been.
Trying to do.
So for me, the question is can the interior get the kind of push they did this last week? Can you see from Vida and Klija getting that kind of push up the middle, and then of course, therefore, once they do that, are you able to set the edge. Are those guys being disciplined in their run game? We saw I love the play of Yah Yah chasing down Xavier Worthy. I'm like, can you use that athleticism? Can you use those strengths to if you guys get that push up the middle to not then let it escape
to the outside. With all those guys and just being disciplined, the mental side, I think is going to be so important when they do a bunch of different things. Can you stay in your lanes? Can you fill your runs the right way? Are you not miss fitting things because they can just so quickly take advantage and gash you. So I just think it's a really interesting matchup against
their against their offense. And then of course there's another offensive weapon that we didn't even mention there that just throws another ech to it.
George Kittle, who which you mentioned the run game, and he is one of the biggest pieces in their run game. He's one of the best blocking tight ends, and not only just in the NFL now, but in league history and again stats he's averaging seventy one point nine receiving yards per game in twenty twenty four, which is first among titands. And then the Bucks have allowed six hundred and twenty seven yards an average of sixty nine point seven per game two tight ends this year, which is thirty first.
In the league. Only the Chiefs have allowed more.
And Kittle's a guy that I mean, He's not just chipping linebackers and safeties. I mean if he gets his hands inside like he is pancaking a defensive end, and he that ability, I mean he blocks like an offensive lineman. He turns into a running back after the catch, but then he runs routes like a receiver, and I mean he has this speed to win down the seam. He can run a deep deep over and be to safety. Like there's so many different ways that they use him,
and that he can just take over a game. So for the Bucks defense, George Kuitt is certainly going to be a huge person that they're gonna have to key in because he plays such a major role in all facets of their offense.
Yeah, and brock Party's done a great job of getting it to him, and I think early on, you know, people talked about brock Party just kind of being a system guy, which is so funny that that's become somehow this like insult, which I don't understand.
That's what they tried to use against Rhynde.
Yeah, that's a whole different like debate we can have. But I mean, brock Party in the two games versus the Bucks five hundred and eighteen yards, five touchdowns, zero interceptions, one hundred and forty nine point eight passer rating.
So I kind of like the stats we were using earlier in this dal.
Yeah, these haven't been as good, don't we should We should ignore these stats, But yeah, it's interesting the Brock Party. And I remember, I think Tom Brady even earlier when he was commentating on a forty nine Ers game, remembered our first matchup against them that he was thinking, like, how are we letting.
This mister irrelevant?
And I mean, I think we first start, that was his first start, and I think we've all seen he is not mister irrelevant. He is really able to take that offense. And we focus on Deebo, we focus on Christian McCaffrey for good reasons, but he can get it to George Hill. He can do a lot more than just be a quote system quarterback.
Yeah. When I remember that game vividly and when we were getting ready to face them, the whole storyline was this could actually work because Brock Party is going to do exactly what Kyle Shanahan tells him to do, and that's what Kyle wants out.
Of his quarterbacks. And so my favorite coach.
Was, but I mean, like, you need to do this exactly, And you thought mister irrelevant getting his chance, he's not going to stray from anything. And then we got there and he's bombing it away and running around and throwing on the run, and like, this is not what I thought was going to ask this and this, and he's bombing away and so he's been much more than a system quarter for sure.
And then let's talk a little bit about on their defensive side. There's a lot of ways we could go with this. I mean, you have their incredible edge rushers, they They've got a lot going on the defense. But I feel like Fred Warner is the guy that we most need to talk about because of their whole defense.
I feel like this is a guy that we talked about is maybe one of the best linebackers in the league over a very extended period, and it seems like he gets talked about similarly to how we have talked about Levonte David of just such admiration, such respect for the way he plays the game. What do you feel like he means to their defense and how it could affect what we try to do on offense.
Yeah, that same game we were just talking about a couple of years ago. Years ago, I remember going into it thinking this isn't fair because they have all these weapons on offense, and they also had like the league's top ranked or top two or something. Defense. They're not there anymore. They don't have that same completely oppressive defense in every way. As I mentioned earlier, I think they're
sixteenth in the points allowed something like that. But Fred Warner remains the heart and soul of that defense as good as ever, even if maybe they're not quite as strong in some other areas. Fred Warner continues to be the best off ball linebacker in the NFL, and particularly in terms of pass coverage and controlling the middle of the field. There's just no other linebacker in the league whos anymore close in terms of shutting down the middle
of the field to opposing quarterbacks. And he has two interceptions already, He's got i think six passes defense. He's just unparalleled in that regard, and he can really change the way an opposing offense has to operate. I think he's really the key to their whole defense. I know, Nick Bose is amazing. They have some nice corners, uh in Diamador Lador and Tarvarius Ward a lot of letters too. I mean those guys have the longest names, Dim and Tarvarius.
Yeah that's pretty great.
Yeah, but then you have Fred Warner in the middle like normal name ye, incredible player.
Yes, all right, So let's do our answer to the trivia question now, as everyone has been waiting to hear this trick oration.
So he's he came into the game to be He sometimes played full back. This year he came into the game in this case he lined up as a tight end and it was a Hall of Fame defensive tackle warrants.
App Yeah, that was a beyond trick trivia question.
Who sat in the block for this?
I guess well, he came in and defensive well, and you see it's a little hard to see in all in all the trash there, but he had a key block and then he gets to celebrate with him at the end, and.
It was just the size of the shoulder. Don't jump on me.
I'd be like, no, no, thank you.
Also, that may show even more how strong Michael was than any other play he made, is he didn't crumple when a chumped on.
There were times we even threw the bald. Warn said he had a touchdown her too. He's very famous for having this weird happy little dance when he scored a touchd on against Atlanta.
And I will forever be sad we have not stuck with throwing to Vita Vea for similar reasons.
I love a good person getting to.
Be involved that you don't. I love a big man touchdown more than anything. Now, do I want Vita to get hurt.
Playing off no idea?
However, I'm like, it's pretty fun and I enjoy that.
All right.
Well, that is going to do it for us on this edition of Bucks Insider. Thank you so much, as always for joining us. We'll see you next week.