Welcome to NFL Daily, where we're four days into realizing Daily is both a promise and a threat. I am beyond lucky today to be joined by Bill Barnwell of ESPN, the best pro football writer on the interwebs, the TV star from Around the Horn, host of the Bill Barnwell Show, the podcast, and someone who is wearing a suit right now coming straight from NFL Live. Thank you for just outshining me Bill in the first week of this show.
You know what this is like. This is like when you have ten people on the field out of play and twelve people on the field out of play. The average is a liven. The average is just straight. I feel like the appropriate garbage halfway between my outfit and your outfit for podcasting.
Yes for the YouTube bodying. Sorry, I keep starting this week talking about what we look like when most y'all are listening. I do have my Jerry from Succession you Little Slim Puppy T shirt, which I bought at like one in the morning with a Twitter ad. They work sometimes, Bill, I promise, I am not going to bring up the time I saw you speak at some bar in Manhattan for Football Outsiders fifteen years ago. But that shows how long we've been doing this together.
Yes, do you know who was in the bathroom when I gave that speech and I went to the bathroom.
Absolutely not No Raiders head coach Antonio Peers. Wow. And Giant's great Antonio Peers, who was also the subject of the first question I ever asked at a Super Bowl press conference to Bill Belichick in two thousand and seven. I just thought, I know he likes talking about other players nice more nicely than his own players. So I had some sort of Giants linebackers Antonio Piers the history of Giants linebackers question, and he totally gave me a great answers.
So there you go.
Love Antoni Appears, love the NFC, Love this entire week of NFL Daily, and Bill, I thank you for helping me wrap it up. We're gonna go through every single NFC team. We're gonna talk just like I did with Mina yesterday, about what we think is the most intriguing storyline about this team heading into training camp. Could be
part of training camp, could be bigger picture. I'll get going right now with the NFC East, and I'm gonna start with Jalen Hurts one of the quotes that I found most interesting over the last couple of months was from Jalen Hurts talking about how it's going to take him time to get ready and comfortable with this offense and that need to it, rep it, rep it until he really knows what it is, because ninety five percent of this offense is new, And that told me this
really is Kellen Moore's offense. It's not Nick Sirianni's offense. And that offense that they ran was wildly effective. Should have won the Super Bowl, Like had a much better defensive performance in the Super Bowl then either of the teams last year. That that's for sure. It didn't get it done and then slowly eroded. And it really does seem like Nick Sirianni is handing over the keys two more and I don't know how Jalen Hurts and the rest of this team is going to handle it. It's
going to take some time. But to me, that's that's the most exciting thing and most intriguing thing to me with this Eagles team going into camp.
Yeah, a couple of things, I would say. Number one, I want to see how it adjusts in terms of what it keeps from the Sirianni offense. I know, one of the big things that popped up with the Sirianni offense is that they really do not have good answers for the Blitz. They didn't have a lot of like the built in adjustments that teams have a lot of. It was just jailen, you know, make a guy miss or pass the ball up to one of your star receivers and let them figure it out. And I'd like
to see more built in answers for the blitz. But I also wonder what happens if the offense struggles early in the season, which adjusting to a new offense is going to happen very often. I think there's real concerns about, you know, are they going to abandon what they didn't go back to what worked in years with the Sirianni style offense. Are they going to you know, sort of be willing to endure some of the growing paints that happened as you adjust to a new offense, because we
did see them a couple years ago. Jalen Hurts his first full season as a starter, really shift the offense as the year went along, and it was for the better. I wonder if they might do it again and have for the worse this time.
Around, and the patients just isn't going to be there. It's never a great situation when it's a do or die year for the coaching staff. Yet there's new systems on both sides of the ball. It's a weird combination. And yet I do believe in the roster. The offense is so talented. The defense I think is more talented than people give credit for that. I think they will figure it out. Another team obviously at the top of the division. It's the Eagles and the Cowboys, and it's
everyone else. They're trying to figure out who their running backs are, who their wide receivers are. So this is one intriguing storyline to me that is about camp because I want to see how it shakes out. This is These are some position battles that matter. People were a little more surprised than I expected that Brandon Cooks would in decline last year because he had been declining in decline for a couple of years. Yeah, I don't know if he's done as an effective receiver, but he's not
a great number two. And then you have Jalen Tover and Cavante Turpin and Jalen Brooks. I don't know how that's gonna shake out. At running back, at Zeke, it's doubtell it's Deuce Vaughan, it's Royce Freeman. Like I don't know if if they're going to pick up someone during camp for either of these positions, but I am curious who ends up getting the reps.
It does feel like it would have happened by now right. I mean, there's guys out there, and a Hunter Renfer is out there who's a very viable slot receiver, has been at his best of the past. There were running backs out there who the Cowboys could have signed, could have drafted. They did not address any of those positions. They've been talking about playing Deuce Vaughn in the slot, which feels like peak off season in terms of stories.
So I actually ranked the Cowboys think seventeenth or eighteenth in my playmaker rankings for ESPN dot Com this offseason and expected pushback than I actually got. I mean, CD Lamb is a you know, a legit number one star, and yet their below average outside of tight end everywhere else. I mean they're maybe top bottom five running next situation, maybe bottom five wide receiver, two wide receiver three situation.
This offense would be doa if CD Lamb got injured, and that's great leverage for CD Lambas he negotiates a new contract.
And da if Dak Prescott wasn't making them all look better and until the playoffs getting underappreciated Washington, this is an answer we probably won't get fully till the regular season. I'm curious, you know, what does this version of Cliff Kingsbury's offense look like? But more specifically, does he have a little offensive line magic? The nicest thing you can say about Cliff other than you know, his handsomeness and his houses and his ability to make money. Let's face it, despite.
Like the opposite of me, I feel like it every way. No.
I think they did a good job with their offensive lines in Arizona that kind of got swept under the rug like they always thought. They overperformed in terms of the talent that they had in the running game and pass protected Kyler Murray pretty well. So they're gonna need to like He's this offensive line is not that talented, And that to me is the number one concern with Gane and Daniels. It's any rookie quarterback that would be a concern and someone that didn't always have great reps
under pressure, you know most college quarterbacks do. But he was so good on the reps he was protected that it was a big difference that I do worry about that, But maybe Cliff can cook up some schemes that's going to protect his young guy.
I'm really intrigued. I sort of wonder is this going to be an offense where it operates the same way it did in Arizona because Arizona was one of the most empty friendly teams in football. They ran empty at one of the highest rates in the league, sent five receivers out into routes at one of the highest rates in the league, blocked with five players at one of the highest rates in the league. And you know, there's
ways to make that work. It's not as simple is just you know, max protecting and sending as many blockers as possible, because if you have more blockers, that's usually they defenses will add on more rushers. It isn't as simple as saying, hey, we're going to block with eight send two guys out. That'll solve our problems. But it also is easier to block with extra people, and so
they did go out and sign zach Ertz. I wonder if this is eight team that uses more too tight end sets this year it was with Benson O there as well. I wonder if they are a team that goes out and you know, tries to make Jandon Daniels's life easier by having more people in protecting than maybe there were for Kyler Murray in Arizona.
M Yeah, that's a good point because they drafted the tight end two and it just isn't that talented. I mean this is these are positions that they're not going to be stars, especially in the offensive line. But you can find some veterans maybe cuts. When I mentioned the Cowboys, like if they're going to do it, they would have done it by now. It's probably guys who couldn't make other teams rosters, which is never how you want to
build your team. But I have a feeling guys who don't make other teams roster might be able to make the Cowboys at least at running back and receiver, and maybe the Washington offensive line. Finally, the Giants. You're a recovering Giants fan, you try to hide it. I always like to bring it up. I could bring up the QB battle because I think it's going to be a battle. That's fine. I could bring up the Front four, which
is awesome. That's cool. Yeah, But I do want to get your take on my take that this Hard Knocks off season is actually the best Giant season since maybe Ben McAdoo, maybe even the Super Bowl. What do you think?
Yes, I think it's better than the Ben macadow year.
I mean that was a good that was you know, Eli kind of wasn't Eli kind of great that year? If I if I remember, like that was kind of a fun year.
He was. He was actually impressive with macadoo, really turned things around after they went out and changed change coordinators there. I I've liked it because it feels honest to me, or mostly honest to me, which you know, I think there's one like this shock this shock reaction to it of just like oh my god, they're talking this way about these players, or like that's how part officers talk about people. That is what you get from people behind
the scenes, so I know they're hiding some stuff. It does feel like I like Joe Shane a lot more and don't disliked Joe Shane, But it does feel like I like the people who are in charge of the Giants more, and it's putting in a position where they look like human beings, which after the Joe Judge era, that was the exact day Vitamin err I should say that was the exact opposite of how I felt about
the Giants' front office. So it does feel like they're humanizing the people who are making these decisions, which I think is nice.
Yeah, can we can we lay off Florio? And I saw Albert Beer write about it too. It's like, is this going too far? Are they giving away too much info? And now we're not going to get cool content. It's like they're not giving away that much. This is selectively edited. Everyone looks great. It's interesting, like, let's not be a
snitch here. Those articles you're like speaking into existence are the reasons why NFL Films will be having some sort of meeting and they'll be printing out Florio and Brier's article. It's just like, let's calm down. It's interesting. I'm just pleasantly surprised that to me, it's been more compelling than a lot of the n season hard knocks, or maybe maybe even the camp hard knocks because we've gotten.
Yeah, I agree, I agree, And you know what, seeing Drake May break down a play, it doesn't have a secret into Drake May. It's gonna be okay.
It's gonna be fine. All Right, I'm gonna have you take care of the NFC North Bill and tell me what you got for most intriguing storylines.
We're going north. Okay, So let's start with the Chicago Bears, where everyone's talked about how great the receiving core is for Caleb Williams, But what about the offensive line. They traded a fifth round pick for Ryan Bates, a guy they tried to sign us an RFA a couple of years ago. Ryan Bates was benched by the Bills after one year as a starter. He's probably gonna start at center. He played tackle and guard for the Bills. Nate Davis, they're a big free signing for a year ago at guard.
Wasn't it mandatory? Mini camp was not good last year. They're kind of relying on him to be a regular up front. Coleman Shelton figures in somewhere here. But for all the talk we have this offseason about how great Caleb Williams's situation is and it is really great at receiver and with the playmakers. Concerns about whether the offensive buying is up to the task on the other side of the offense.
Yes, absolutely, because we just don't know with this coaching staff whether they can provide like a schematic advantage for them or not. Like I have, I have high hopes because it's Caleb Williams, and like you have a lot to work with at wide receiver, but on paper it's not great. And I appreciate your professionalism, Bill and just trucking through us playing like the Hard Knocks sound underneath the giants, because I mean, like you're a TV pro now.
You literally came straight from the set. I almost feel bad now that you just went from an hour live TV to doing this. But yeah, Bears will be on Hard Knocks too. It's a long way with me saying like that's cool. It's fun to have a cool Bears team. The Eberflus glow up is awesome, and the defensive talent at least in the back seven is great. But I absolutely agree that is the number one concern for me for that team, really both lines, and it's why I'm
not going to pick them to make the playoffs. Spoiler alert for an article there are a podcast like Months from Now, because they're not. I always go like for the teams that are kind of on the border line, which they would be, like if who's the best offensive line defensive line? That it's such a dorky thing to say, but it's kind of true. It just feels like it provides a floor for a team and they probably don't have that floor on either side.
Yep, Detroit Lions. A little more traditional fantasy football analysis here, does the Jamison Williams hype survive training camp because it is easy to hype a potential impact wide receiver in May. This is the sky More rule. If you want to go back to last year, not so easy to hype them in training camp and into the season. Jamison Williams. Of course, we can say, hey, he was injured for most of his rookie year. He was suspended for the
start of his second season. I know he had a didn't He scored that reverse touchdown for the Lions in the championship, So that was just highlight. I say pro so far, but this is a guy of the Lions traded up in the first round tick Wrap. They saw him as a superstar and it's what they need. It's like the one piece on offense they don't have is a guy who can win at all three levels. So does Dan Campbell still say he's the most improved player on the roster by the training camp.
I hope so, because Dan Campbell love him for this is very giving in terms of not hiding what where a player is at, like when he has a player he doesn't like, I'm trying to think of who it was. Was it Donovan, People's Jones? No, it was someone that they ended up cutting, Denzel Mims, And they're like, yeah, he's on the roster, like when they ask him about him and they they they let him. They let everyone know,
like we're not happy with Jamison Williams. And then they flipped late last season and I remember going back and watching a ton of Jamison Williams route hoping to do a little segment on his growth, like about what they're talking about, and I don't know if it all there.
There were some really good just regular NFL routes like comebacks where it was timed well and it was like a seventeen yard catch by Jamison Williams, and it's like, you hadn't seen a lot of that, and so that's nice, but it wasn't a ton of them, So I don't want to get too carried away. I was surprised they didn't look for another receiver. So usually teams speak with their actions, and they spoke with a lot of confidence.
And if you remember, he also had a big time drop in the NFC Championship game, but they also made an incredible catch and I'm hoping I'm remembering this right to essentially give them a chance to kick an on side kick, you know, on fourth down when they were wasting too much time at the end of the game.
So it's like he's given you some nice plays. He doesn't need to be the best receiver in the league, but if you can give you eight hundred, nine hundred yards and a bunch of big plays, they'd be thrilled.
Yeah. I mean, they did not replace Josh Reynolds after they let him go to the Broncos. This offseason in free agency, the grimmind Packers really fascinating what's happening here with their defensive coordinator situation. They hired Jeff Hafley from Boston College after he was the head coach there. Over the last four years, Jeff Haffley ran single high coverages more than any other coach in college football by a considerable margin. I think he was like sixty seven percent.
Someone else is at sixty one. Nobody else was in the sixties. He was head and shoulders about the competition when it came to single high looks. And this is a league where it's been talked about plenty that the I have to use my Jarkin correctly, sorry, single high
pour one safety, one safety in the center of the field. Typically, teams have moved to playing more dual safety coverages, more split safety coverages, play two safeties back with the hopes that you're taking away the big plays, but you're also sacrificing something up front and the run game. Jeff Haffley is going in the opposite direction, and the Packers have spent accordingly. They used a They spent a ton of money opening free agency by signing Saviory McKinney, one of
their few free agents signings. They used the second round pick on Javon Buller, who was the free safety in Georgia last That's two guys that can both play center field. But in a league that is more and more too high, are the Packers going to thrive by going to single hick coverages instead.
I'm fascinated to see that too, and see because look, Hafley wasn't working with a full deck at Boston College and got a lot of love for his creativity there. So I don't know if it was personnel issues of that that's partly why he leaned so hard into that, But we've seen it. We saw it last year with Jim Schwartz, and I think he had more talent to
work with. But defensive coordinators who take over someone who is doing a bad job and can get everyone on the same page and has a decent amount of talent can go from sub mediocre, which I think the Packers' defense was last year, to good pretty quickly. And so I'm optimistic because to me, they do have enough really good players on this defense to excel. Rashan Gary's off the ACL. Kenny Clark is still a dude. You brought
in Xavier McKinney, which was really nice. You still have dire Alexander Like I like this defense fine, and so they needed something new. I'm excited for it any any They just need to be average, and I think the offense takes care of the rest.
Yeah, but I feel like we've been saying for years, like if the Packers just have an okay defense, they're gonna make it to the super Bowl, And every year the Packers have.
I thought they were gonna be awesome a couple of years ago, but I choose to blame that all on the coaches.
Fair, not unreasonable. Last one for the Vikings, very straightforward. Would love to be a hipster and talk about like, you know, is Ivon pay is gonna you know, be the Green Dot and his second season? Like, no, is Sam Donald going to make this an actual race to week one? No?
I appreciate that, like you play the hits. Yeah, I haven't had enough QB battle talk on these two shows with Mina yesterday, And I do consider this a competition between you and Mina it is. I'm gonna You're both gonna be winning winning.
I'm the Sam Donalds of this, this comparison with Mina Kimes.
I think Donald's gonna win Week one, don't you?
Yeah?
Who do you think starts week one?
I think Sam Donald starts week one? And I think they have such a difficult schedule early in the season that I could say Sam Donald starting for a couple of weeks, a few weeks. They gave him ten million dollars. I think nine and a half was guaranteed, like or eight and a half was guaranteed. They paid him like he was going to be their starter this year if they couldn't find somebody else. They gave him more than backup money to ensure that he was going to go
to Minnesota. And I don't believe there's anything different about Sam Darnald versus what he was a year ago when he just threw some garbage time passes and I think some week eighteen passes for the forty nine ers. He was not especially great in those situations. But we've seen Sam Donald when things are perfect around him, when he has protection, when he has good receivers, when he's not trailing, he's been fine. And so I think in their head they believe, Hey, if we just do right by Sam,
he'll be okay. I don't think that's going to play out in reality, but I could see them talking themselves into that because Sam Donald is going to look good in camp, because he always looks good.
In camp, right, I was gonna say, like, there's very little reason to think that JJ McCarthy in his rookie season is going to look better than Sam Donald at picking up a new NFL offense against air. Sam Donald's issues come when the pass rush is coming and he
just does some inexplicable things. And I do think he's gotten better as a pro because he had that Panthers season where until Week eighteen he put together a really strong string of games that was like, hey, I can be a league average quarterback and he collapsed in Week eighteen and that always stuck in my mind and he'll throw that in there. But he's a real dude, and he's more talented than JJ McCarthy was coming out of college too, So I think they're going to fall in
love with him. It probably will have more downs than ups once you get over a long regular season timeline and then you see J McCarthy. But I have for long, a long time kind of been annoyed by the Donald hive, and I kind of want them to have one moment going to give them that, and I think this is it. I think he's gonna have a moment because Kevin O'Connell's pretty awesome, and I think the situation for either quarterback is great. Yeah, all right, that's AFC North, I mean
NFC North and NFC East. We are going to take a quick break and we're gonna come back with the other two divisions, and even a little bit of news will be right back back on NFL Daily. Bill Suit really fits that music. It's just it's serious.
It looks like it came from Super Bowl five.
I love it. It honestly just puts me in the mood. And let me know if y'all agree out there. We have an email address. I was gonna mention at the end of the show, but why not now NFL Daily Podcast at gmail dot com. Let us know what you think of the music. We're gonna do news here for the first time on this show. Look, this show's gonna be a lot different. Bill. I launched in maybe the last completely dead week. Next week will be a hybrid week where it's still pretty dead. And so these types
of shows to me, are their preview type shows. They're different than it's gonna be once the news is happening, and it's gonna be a real news heavy show to start. But We got a little bit of news on Thursday, so Eric hit the sound. Oh wow, thank you, Joe Buck. Yeah, the Titans sign Jamal Adams. That came out of nowhere.
I like that.
Denard Wilson, who's their defensive coordinator, was his position coach with the Jets. I do feel like Jamal Adams is still a big enough star, and I know he's like that's not his playing level right now that he is worth having his own little news items in a show like this.
What do you think though, Well, your sound was seemingly dialing into America Online. It kind of feels like that was the last time Jamal Adams was an impact player in the NFL, and that's unfair. I do think Adams at his best is a player who can be really valuable, and I think that can be really thoughtful about how you're going to use him. Seattle seemed like they went back and forth, like they found spots for him as
a blitzer his first year that were really valuable. He got injured a bunch, he was not good in coverage, and I think there's a real question about whether he's going to be a safety or something closer to a linebacker or really maybe best as some kind of hybrid player. I actually really liked the idea of him being in Mike McDonald's defense before they cut him, which I had to cut him for cap reasons, for financial reasons, he
was making too much money. But I do wonder, you know, going forward, if he plays regularly, I would assume he'll be, at least on paper, a safety. But how often does he play in the box. How often does he blitzing the quarterback? Because that's really what his game is at this point. You don't want him in coverage. You don't want him against tight ends, don't find to want him against slot receivers, you don't want him against Deebo Samuel.
But rushing the quarterback, being a guy who does you know, factor in when you're blitzing, I feel like that is kind of a useful player in the right spot.
Yeah, Dinard Wilson, who, as you know, Bill comes from Baltimore, and the Mike McDonald tree. We're going to talk about that on Monday actually with Nate Tyson and Jordan Rodrige.
Like, oh wow, these coaches the stars.
Yeah it is. We're going big in the first week. I'm excited about that. Show. This defense is weird. Kenneth Murray is heavily involved. Also a player that hasn't been great in coverage, Like I love the lagarious need pick up. It seems uneven. We don't know much about Wilson. I think it's a below average group in terms of talent. But I think Jamal Adams is worth a shot like these prices, like he absolutely is worth a shot. Also
worth a shot the NFC West. I'm gonna do my most intriguing thing to start with about the Arizona Cardinals going into this year, and it's just Kyler year two and Drew Petsig's offense. Kyler Murray's twenty six years old, Like I could do the whole like he's only this much older than Michael Pennix. But it's a thing like we do not need to write the book on Kyler Murray.
We have seen players that talented who in their first four or five years of their career, they're good and you see the talent, but they're maybe not exactly what you expect, and they get more mature, they get more football intelligent, they get more emotionally intelligent. They take big hits like a torn acl that keeps you out for half a season and you come back, and I thought
he was a nice fit last year. I went back and watched his offseason tape and I thought he did some things just from a plane from the pocket perspective and making good decisions that he hadn't always done before. And he wasn't quite all the way there physically, but he was pretty good and a full year healthy in this offense with Marvin Harris and Junior. I'm really excited because to me, he is still box office and like he gets I believe slept on a little bit as
a guy. That's like, would it be that shocking if Kyler Murray when Bill Barnwell is writing his Week eight MVP, like Ladder, I know you do that. I used to do that. Like that, Kyler Murray's on it. He's literally been on it like twice before. It would not be that shocking if it happens again where he just like starts really hot and is the old exciting Kyler Murray.
The way you said I used to like it was, oh my god, Yeah, that was something that was something you know. I don't I'm above that now, but in the past I used to do that now.
I used to do it weekly. That's all that was in my mind. I assigned it to myself. It was fun. I should do it here, I should do it on the podcast.
It's fun. You have every right to do that. I think the thing about Kyler Murray that makes that so accurate is this isn't like an Andy Dalton situation where Andy Dalton was kind of okay for four or five years and then just had that one year where everything went right. The offensive line was healthy, he had great playmakers, and he had a career year that was so far beyond when he played at any level for any significant period of time. Kyler Murray was an MVP candidate earlier
in his career at mid season. I think that was the year. I want to say, the Bills hell Mary year, right where it was they beat the Bills.
In the game. If things fell off a cliff but yes, yes, no, but.
That was at that point of the year. It would not have been shocking in the slightest to go and talk about Kyler Murray as a not an MVP favorite, but certainly deep in the MVP discussion, and we have not seen him number one. With all of all the following being true, we've only seen him in a Cliff Kars offense before last year, which Cliff might not be a great NFL scene. That's not out of their own
possibility that he's upgraded. Massive offensive coindator Richard Petsi, he has not been one hundred percent, which in last year he was, like you said, he was better. He could run, but he was not necessarily consistently one hundred percent. And last year I believe when he came back Marquis Brown was pretty much hurt for the vast jump that stretch, about the entire stretch, which meant he had probably bottom
three NFL wide receivers for that entire stretch. He had Trimick Bride, which helps, and James Connor was really good last year. But now you're adding a legit potential number one receiver in Marvin Harrison. To me, I think it's so much better around him this year that that's absolutely within the range of outcomes for Kayler Murray is an MVP caliber campaign. It's also he could be the twenty fourth best quarterback in football.
And oh see, that's that's where I pushed back. I don't think he could be. I mean, as long as he's healthy. I think his floor is middle of the pack. And I know there's more good quarterbacks than you think. When you actually write out the list, you're like, Wow, the seventeenth best quarterback is pretty good. But to me, that's his floor. That's how much I believe in him. And I think this offense ran really well for the most part schematically. It was a really good running game
at the end of the last year. And he'll help that. And yeah, I expect Marvin Harrison Junior to be awesome. Maybe I'm just projected, but Trey McBride already is awesome to me. He could be a top five quarterback. I don't know why I went a top five tight end. I don't know why I went MVP, Like I just I guess just put a was not playing in that. You put a mic in front of me, and it's like, I just feel like I gotta go first take. I just I'm excited. I'm excited to see what he does.
Let's go to the Rams. Little drum beat this offseason, gotta be careful in OTA's this does tend to happen. But the Cooper Cup revival season is just it's been sprinkled out there. We're friends with JB. Long, who's there play by play announcer, and I've seen in a couple of other players, just people just who are there and they just see what cups look like this offseason, and
maybe it's just hope. They're hoping for this guy who put together one of the all time great wide receiver seasons only a couple of years ago, that he could get back to where he even close to where he was because he was so far from that last year and just health wise, we're not gonna learn much other than he needs to get to week one like that. But by all accounts, he's looking explosive in a way that he maybe hasn't even in OTAs, even in practices
for a couple of years. So that's just one thing I'm intrigued by and watching because I think they need that to be as good as everyone thinks their offense is going to be. Our friend Mina had them, I think number two in her Air best offenses. I think that that only happens if cupp Is is close to where he was a couple of years ago.
Showan Fay is going to make the Hall of Fame one day, and I'm gonna be grumbling about the twenty twenty two season when they were down like two touchdowns on the fourth quarter and he was still throwing like bubble screens to Cooper cup And I'm like, you have as the only good player on your offense. You're going
to get ruined if he gets hurt. And then of course he did get hurt and then missed the chunk of twenty twenty two, and then he was even when he was playing last year at the restretch, for he was on one hundred percent like the fake kepnsisting he was healthy and Cooper cupperul go like the entire game and get one target. So I'm still skeptical he was one hundred percent for when he was on the field last.
Year, absolutely wasn't. You could just tell what his movement.
He wasn't And and to me, having Pukinakua goes a long way. I don't think he has to be the guy from the crazy season, which is loving more and more like a huge outlier. But the other factor here is I'm not sure Kyon Williams is going to be there because Kyen Williams has a history of foot injuries. Sean mcvayh has a history of downplaying or fight out lying about the severity of injuries. You know, if you have Kyen and you have Nikua, I think you can
get by without Cup. But when they had all three in the field last year, Matthew Stafford would have been number two in the NFL and QBR, which maybe relates to Iimena was so optimistic about their chances. But I think Cup, you can't count on Cup, like, even if you're feel good about him right now, he's a receiver. I think he's Is he thirty or thirty one? Now? Is that's that my? Yeah? Say that you know you're not at that age. I don't think you can count on any receiver to be as good as they were
three or four years ago. That is just the reality of aging curves in the NFL. I don't think he's going to fall off a cliff, but I do think if you can get what you got from him when he was healthy last year for a full season, I think you'd be happy with that.
I need more. I need more. He was not he was just he was just a guy last year. I think he would say that, and I think that's why the people around the team. They knew what he was really going through, and I think they feel, at least for now, that he's not going through that in a way that probably hasn't been true since Yeah, that season twenty twenty one. He is thirty one years old, so he can be a number He can even be a number two. That's a great point about Kyrien Williams and
their actions drafting. Blake Korm might speak to that, and he might do a pretty good facsimile if Kiraen Williams isn't right. I'm looking at the forty nine ers next and just wondering if and how they keep everyone happy, even in a world where Brandon Ayu gets his contract. There's just a lot there and they've done a great job with it. But George Kittle's coming off a pretty serious core muscle surgery injury. He doesn't seem like he'd
be unhappy if he's not getting enough targets. But I think he was having more fun last year when he was back to being like George Kittle. So you have Ayuk, you have Debo maybe it's his last year with the team. You have a first round pick in Pearcel, you have a guy in Juwan Jennings, who's low drama certainly, but just got a contract too. And it's just it's a
lot of mouths to feed. And I hate it for the forty nine ers and their fans that I think a team that's been this close year after year after year, they have a lot of the same negatives of what happens when you win at Super Bowl without actually having won the Super Bowl, like the disease of more that pat Riley likes to talk about, and the expectations and you being circled on everyone's schedule, and they have all of that stuff, and it's just hard, and they've done
a great job kind of keeping it together. I give them so much respect for I think that's the hardest thing to do in the NFL is like make the Final four the Final eight almost every year, and they've they've done it. But I do worry about the human side of this and can they kind of keep everyone happy with their roles, especially the skill position guys.
So what I'm gonna say sounds dumb, and usually when I say that, it actually is dumb, but I swear it's not. They benefit in a way. Even thinking this in my head, I feel them. They benefit in a way from how often their star players get injured.
Yes, right, Like I get it, I get it, like their.
Element of Okay, well, George is missing a couple of games. I guess we're gonna have to go with more you know, more Debo in the offensive playing camp by this week. Oh deebo is hurt, well, George brand and I it's going to be the focal point of the offense. CMC's banged up. Okay, we're going to throw the ball more. Like like it almost benefits them in a way because you don't want to lose those guys for the entire season.
You want to have them healthy for the postseason. But when you have Deepo missed a couple of games, I think that has sort of like natural built in windows for other guys to get the ball more, and it opens up opportunities for Juan and it opens up an
opportunity for Peer Salt to play more. I don't want to see anyone get injured, but it feels like that's the way to do it, or its split faster or just just just turn into the Chip Kelly Eagles and just play as fast as possible and get as many plays as possible as the wait for the Numers to do this.
Yeah, the positive spin to that, which is is that they can survive injuries in a way that just other teams can't and they're built for it, and injuries are
going to happen. So you're absolutely right, and so that it's a great it's a great retort, and it's absolutely true what you're saying about people getting there is like, one of the reasons the Celtics had one of the greatest seasons in the regular season of all time is all the guys that would take games out like they loved it when two of their five best players were off because then Jalen Brown and Derek White could just eat for a night and then they'd be off for
a couple of nights, and Tatum and Holiday who porzingis could eat for a night and it's like, yeah, it kind of works better that way if everyone, yeah, takes
a turn. It's like this podcast, you know, you eat I E the Seahawks, E. They are the last team in the NFC West I want to talk about and yeah, I'm I just am intrigued by how Mike McDonald is going to use a handful of specific players in this defense because he definitely has I think more tools to work with than people really think, Like Draymond Jones was a really compelling player before last season in Seattle where he disappeared, How is he gonna use him? Byron Murphy
is just a ball to watch on film. I think the Rams wanted him and the Seahawks wound up getting him, Like, how is he going to use him? Tyrel Dodson had a run in Buffalo that was really impressive at the end of last year and is going to be playing linebacker.
And then mostly Devin Witherspoon, who Pete Carroll did a great job and I think any coach would, but especially Carroll's great with the secondary and just how is this, you know, defensive coordinator who is as good as anyone in the last two years work with a group that I think's above average. I think I think it's a better defensive group than people give credit for the edge rushers like not stars, but deep it should be fun and I don't Again, it's another team where I don't
think they need to be great. I think the offense will be good enough that if the defense is just solid to good, they're They're going to be much better than a year ago.
You know, we always talk about or I don't know if we eve and I always talk about the idea that when a team gets rid of a coach, they typically go for the opposite coach with their next higher So you know, you would figure Pete Carroll kind of old school but players coach, you know, but a defensive minded coach. Maybe you flip it, maybe you figure an offensive minded coach, a guy who maybe is a little more of a little more Coughlin esque maybe when it
comes to his personality. But they did not do that. They hired another defensive coach, which is going to lead to a really fascinating kind of reveal. Right, I mean on paper, you're right, Seahawks will get They have a lot of impressive pieces. I mean someone even like like like Greek Wohlan, who was really good as a rookie. She's going to take a step backwards last year. Julian Love made the Pro Bowl last year, if I'm not mistaken. You know, they signed Jerome Baker, who I think has
been a good linebacker you know in his career. Boy in Mafe was good last year. There's a there's a lot of stuff. I think that we're gonna find out are those guys as good as we expected? Are those guys as good as our reputations? Just like mcdonald'll get the most out of them. And Kinder revealed that maybe Pete Carroll's defense is not all that great by the time he left, or do we find out that Pete Carroll actually still a pretty darn good defensive coach. Maybe
those players are not as good as they seemed. I feel like this is almost a referendum, strangely on Pete Carroll on his way out the door in Seattle.
I mean, I think Pete Carroll's was a very good head coach over the last five or six years, or a good head coach. But I don't need Mike McDaniel to tell me anything. The defenses are bad, Like go to your old site, you know, go to your go to DVOA.
You know.
Now you can see it at FDN, like they were literally below average. I think every year, or maybe every year but one for seven years, and he's a defensive coach, and they put a lot of resources into it, and I think he was so good at all the other aspects of coaching that it made up for it, and they had enough offensive talent too, and so you can't
just look at that number. But they weren't an effective defense, and so I think it absolutely makes sense that Mike McDonald's going to do a better job with their defense. Let's take one last break. We're gonna do our final division, the NFC South, and then we're gonna wrap up the week just a little bit after that. Back on NFL Daily, running through thirty two teams in two days. My guy Bill Barnwell handling the NFC with me. We've been doing this long time. Bill's it up and down business. Bill
Barnwell goes nowhere. He is a foundation upon which this business is built.
Don't go.
So I told you I had to get on with customer service at ESPN plus just to read your articles and Zachlow's. I gotta admit it's both.
Good, exactly.
It really bothered me somehow my cookies were messing it up, and I'm just too old and I had to get into But yeah, the best writer out there, you're gonna help us go through the NFC South and then we'll do a little little extra and say.
Goodbye, beautiful. Let's start with the new Orleans Saints because there's like a weird game of reverse life wage happening in New Orleans. Alvin Kamara when he signed his deal with the Saints, I think, was five years, seventy five million, one to fifty million dollars a year or his agent one to fifteen million dollars a year on paper, So he had a basically fake, unguaranteed salary for his final year, a big leap in his final season up to twenty
two and a half million dollars. He is not going to make that, and there's noise going to make it on the open market, but his agent hasn't holding in, I guess because he can say, hey, listen, I'll take a fifty percent pay cut if you guarantee next year. But Alvin Kamara has been below four yards to carry each of the last three seasons without Drew Brees, and he is not an eleven million dollar player at this
point of his career. But he also has no trade value at He's making a little under twelve million dollars this year. There's no real trade value for him, so the Saints can't really get anything for him. So to make him happy, do the Saints who are generous with their money, guarantee him eleven million dollars next year. Does Kamara get traded? Is there a team that suddenly wants him? I don't know, but what happens with Alvin Kamara in New Orleans?
Love that you brought this up because this is one of those rare offseason stories that I think actually could result in a guy changing teams or real holdout or something happening, because I think multiple things can be true with him. Yeah, he's now worth that right now, and so hold out seems a little crazy and maybe indicates he's just not incredibly thrilled about some aspects of what's going on there in general. And he wouldn't be the
first player that that's true of. But those numbers lie, and I trying to check my bias because I love Alvin Kamara. He's still a really good running back. Now, maybe not above enough above league average because the explosiveness is not the same, but his intelligence, his receiving ability, his ability to make guys miss in a small area and maybe turn three into seven versus three into thirty
like he used to. I really do believe if he was on a better, more cohesive run blocking team over the last couple of years, those numbers would look a lot different. But I also love that dude. Man. I mean, so, maybe my eyes are lying to me, but that's what I believe, and I do believe this is a real thing that you're bringing up in Marshaw Lattimore another one. I know. He showed up for Mini Camp two and
that does seem to have settle down. I think they they want to keep Latimore and they know how valuable is him. But the Saints are a team more than any team in the NFL. I feel like where you could just see something like, oh wow, that happened, kind of like the Chauncey Gardner Johnson trade a couple of years ago, it wouldn't surprise me in August.
M Yeah, I can see it. I have a lot of running back and rushing related ones for the NFC South. But Carolina Panthers. Does Jonathan Brooks come off of the pup list in camp? This should be on paper, a much better rushing situation. The Panthers spent a ton of money at guard on Robert Hunt and Damian Lewis, and if Brooks is healthy ish, he's not really a lot of competition. Miles Sanders is a sunk costs at this point.
Tuba Harbard has been fine, but it's not like they're going to have Trooba Hubbard keep Jonathan Brooks from getting onto the field. There's no reason to rush him. I guess, like you don't want to have him reinjure his knee. But on paper, he's by farther their best running back, and in reality, they want to do everything they possibly can to get Bryce Young back in a good place as quickly as possible.
Yeah, it's it's a shame to me that as good as he looked, big power back with nice you know, movement ability, and he's coming off in ACL and it was in November, Like that was not an early season injury, and it just feels like they're not going to be fighting and playing with a full deck early in the year. I also look at Xavier Legett as a guy that's like maybe, but it's gonna take some time. You know, it does not seem like he's a guy that's going to have a full command of like the NFL route
tree right off the bat. And so the two guys you're adding to really help with explosiveness along with Yantay Johnson and try to make this offense more watchable. Frankly, I'm just thinking of it from a selfish perspective, like might not be all the way who they are until twenty twenty five. So that's my work with Brooks.
Fair legit Tampa. I'll go with one more running game and then get to the Falcons who are not rushing game related ken Liam Cohen and first round pick Graham Bardon on track what has been a horrific Tampa Bay Buccaneers running game, and I will refer to the NFL's Next Gen Stats project here. In twenty twenty two, the Bucks ranked thirty first in expected yards per carry, and they were thirty second, and then in twenty twenty three
they were seventeenth in expected yards per carry. They were thirty second again in yards per carry in reality, So maybe pin that on Rashad White if you want to. You can pin it on the general offensive confusion losing Ryan Jensen to a basically career ending knee injury. But this is a team that has had absolutely no run game the last two seasons, and they've changed the quarterback, they've changed the coordinator, they've changed basically everything but Tristan
Wurf's and the receivers. Does this new group get the running game going for once in Tampa Bay?
I hope so. But you know what, this is their four coordinator in four years, Is that right?
I believe? So?
No stability really since Arians left and Liam Cohen is a little bit like Alex Van Pelt in New England as the guy that's like testing the bounds of do all the McVeigh Shanahan Tree guys work because they were the guys that mcveay and Shanahan weren't picking really, So Van Pelts the coordinator and he was, you know, under Stefanski and Liam Cohen only lasted a year with the Rams and now he's with the Bucks. And Canalis did a great job last year at least with the passing game,
and I think it was cohesive. Yeah, I worry about that. I worry about this team just kind of poor Bucks fans. It's like they just won a Super Bowl and they just won a playoff game in the divisional round, and yet they do care about how much attention they get
and they're just not going to get much attention. They are like as off the radar as a team with as much recent success as as they've had and all these division championships in a row could be And it's partly because, yeah, the offense looks like it's gonna be blah at.
Yeah, it does feel like the post Kurt Warner Cardinals, right, Like, you know, you guys made it to the Super Bowl. But if you asked fans to name thirty two teams, they'd probably get thirty and forget the Buccaneers unfortunately. I feel bad. They're a fun team to watch. Their best defense is really fun.
They were last year.
Yeah, and if they had any sort of running game, I think the offense would actually be good. So hopefully they can just get to like twenty fourth in yards per carry. If they could just not average like three point four yards per carry every single week, that would be fun. Atlanta Falcons thirty second and final team in Gregg's breakdown. Are the Falcons really gonna go into the
season with this as their pass rush? I mean, their top two rushers last year by sack total six and a half each, Kaleas Campbell and Bud Dupree are both gone. Their biggest additions is offseason were James Smith, Williams from Washington and Rooke o ro ro rooke Oh row row row too many rows. Uh, that's on me, I apologize, and Brilin Trice So a couple of rookies to the front seven. Not really a lot there at edge rusher even last season with dupre as their primary edge rusher.
You know, they have Lorenzo Carter, they have some young guys. But for a team that signed Kirk Cousins, which tells me they think they're capable of making the postseason this year, for a team that has pieces in the secondary, kind of shock, they did not do more to add pass rushing in terms of veteran pass rushers to this roster.
I love that you brought this up. I love that you've been like a little more negative, I would say than me and Mina in this exercise. And that's that you need. That's I need to need a little bit of that because when I when I've heard like the Kirk Cousins like Joins already made Super Bowl roster, this team was lucky to be average last year. I mean, I'm not saying Arthur Smith like did a good job
maximizing their talent. That's that's not my point. But they were lucky to win as many games as they were. They had a profile of more of a five or six wing team like the rest of the NFC South. That because their schedule was unbelievably easy, not even in division, but out of division, they all looked like a little better. They weren't average. And defensively, you know, Ryan Nielsen goes to Jacksonville and you get Raheem Morris, who has done a great job as a coordinator, but pure talent, I
think it's bottom five in just pure defensive talent. And so when you're a coordinator for a team like that, especially with a pass rush other than Jared and Onyamata are good inside. But uh, I don't know. I don't see it as some Super Bowl made ready roster because the defense matters, and there's there's some questions on the offense. Obviously, cousins Is health is number one, but it's more about the defense.
Yeah, I mean you named Jarrett and on your moda, those are good players, but aren't they both on the wrong side of thirty.
Yes, yes, and on your matter coming off coming off two really good years, but also two really good years in this style system, which isn't quite the same in his best two years. So yeah, and Jesse Bates is there and Ajterrell is there, like they have dudes, but it's kind of like the Cowboys receiver group. It's like it kind of doesn't matter if you have two dudes
in the secondary. If you have two or three spots that are just way below league average, those other two can only help you so much, right, All thirty two teams, we did it. We did it, Bill, you did sixteen, but.
I did sixteen. I feel like I could have credit for this one, but I'm happy to take credit for Mina's accomplishments at any time. So I'm happy I did all thirty two. Wonderful work by.
Me, And yeah, wonderful to spend this week starting this show NFL Daily and my after dinner Mint today. It's a nice little way we wrap up the show here. Bill is just answering like some questions I've heard from the listeners I've had won specifically from a friend a friend of a friend Dallas, friends with my guy Stephen, who is just like, can you tell? And I've seen this from our listeners too, just like, what's the regular season schedule gonna be?
Like?
So I'm just doing some housekeeping here, Bill, and I'm pointing out, like, yeah, of course we're going to have a great preview show and I'm really excited about that, and the details of that are coming, and we'll have
our Sunday night recap show. And I love as an NBA fan, I love the shows that go live right after the games and you can either watch it right afterwards or you have it in your podcast feed like an hour later, or at worst, if you're you know on the West Coast, you know, you wake up and you play it. And so that we're gonna do all that, like the Monday nights, Thursday nights obviously preview the recap shows. And I've told you who's who's going to be part
of it. I told you who's on Monday. I'm really excited. It's a fun show coming on Tuesday with Colleen Wolf and Patrick Claybon and a special guest there. And so that is it from a scheduling perspective. And I want to thank you Bill for joining me and Mina and everyone that's been on this show this week and everyone that has reached out those closest to me, and then also the listeners look it's been challenging. It's been a week too, Like it's been a lot jumping into this.
But I'm so excited about just making this show better and doing it every day and like growing with it because it's gonna get better and it's fun right now. And I don't know, I'm just so corny that like I love football, like I really do, and I love y'all, and like I love being able to do this, and I appreciate everyone close to me who's been reaching out this week. It does mean a lot to me. And if you've made it this far in the show, you are one of those people. You are close to me.
And Bill is just laughing over there, but yeah, the email addresses NFL Daily Podcast at gmail dot com. Any thoughts, any questions, We're gonna start integrating that into the show so listeners can reach out. You're doing overtime, Bill, You're off. You did an hour of television and now an hour here. You are done. Thank you, my friend, my longtime.
Friend of course. Greg. A lot of people myself included, are rooting for you. So hope you guys enjoyed this week's shows. Hopefully it didn't drag it down happily you to save you for the end of the week. You got the stars out first, but anytime, Greg.
Not at all. We wanted to go big first week, and I was like, Meana and Bill would be great. So yeah, we will be back on Monday. As I mentioned earlier, Jordan Rodrigue and Nate tay Tice talking talking schemes, getting dorky, getting at getting a little dorky, I gotta admit, And then we'll have some fun with Colleen and Patrick on Tuesday. Until then, Greg Rosenthal for NFL Daily, See you next time.