NFL Holiday Cards, Belichick Buzz and 49ers-Rams TNF Preview with Colleen Wolfe and Jourdan Rodrigue

Welcome to NFL Daily, where we've always got a four hundred page organizational bible just nearby in case we ever need a new job.

I'm Greg Rosenthal.

I'm in the Chris Wesleyan podcast studio with my friends Jordan Rodriege of The Athletic and Colleen Wolf.

She's back, I'm back.

What's up. Great to see you, guys.

I was New Orleans jealous. It was great.

I love New Orleans.

I had only been there one other time and it was for Thursday night football, so it was really quick parachuted in and out. So this time I had a little bit more of a chance to check it out and have some good.

Dinners and New Drea, where'd you go? Where'd you go?

I don't remember the name of any of the places, but I can get them to you.

It was just like and it was so festive there. They really go.

All out for Christmas. It was so fun. And then immediately very on brand for New Orleans. My first Uber driver just immediately started talking about Lil Wayne. So there's it's thriving there in New Orleans.

I love it.

I cannot wait for the super Bowl there.

I cannot either. We were talking about it earlier. And yes, Colleen Will, we're a long way away from the summer of Connie. When you're going around the country and you were prepping, you were prepping for the Super Bowl.

I cannot wait.

When I started out in this industry, I was at roade a World NBC, and NBC sent me to the super Bowl for the very first time in two thousand and eight for the two thousand and seven season Giants Patriots, and I said, my goal, if I make it to the super Bowl in two thy and twelve, then I've achieved something.

That's all I want out of this career.

And when I got there and it ended up being for the NFL and doing around the NFL or pre around the NFL, I was like, that's it.

I'm not asking for anything more.

You can reach the mountain.

So to be back twelve years later, I can't wait. And hopefully we're going to have you here there. I don't know if we can announce that yet, but let's go.

Jordan figures crossed. And Colleen, whenever you say you parachute in somewhere, I never actually rule out the potential that you literally parachuted.

And that would be so cool and I actually would like I would.

Not she is a pilot. She is a pilot.

I don't have my license street air legal, I guess you could say, but I did go to ground school for my private and yeah, working on some hours.

Yes, and and uh a stadium at the Super Pig before a Super Bowl.

Got to watch you, Oh yeah in the sixteen. That was cool.

Let's talk a little holiday season. It's time on this show. We're gonna send some holiday cards out. I don't know if you've started receiving them. I kind of doubt either of you guys are organized organized enough to send it.

Tell me I'm wrong.

This is a total shot. But you are not wrong, Okay, And I'm sad that.

I haven't gotten any yet. I haven't gotten one holiday.

It's people that can you please me?

And Tucky will send you.

I'm gonna start sending myself guards.

Well, we'll send the cards from one figure to another, whatever you want.

It was.

It was really left wide open.

We're going to do a little TNF preview talk a little Rams giants, and we got Stafford and Purty who both took revenge on the voters of Quarterback Island. I should have said, Rams Niners rather Stafford and Purty. So we'll have a little you know, QBA Island aftermath. There was some controversy about last time, and so we'll talk about that then. But let's start with the cards. And this was your idea here, Colleen, And so I'm going to a lot of pressure. I'm gonna have you go

So I really love getting Christmas cards, which makes it much sadder that I have not gotten one Christmas card yet.

But I'm really.

Festive, I'm in the spirit. So here we go. This is my first Christmas card. Dear coach Tomlin, I know you've been in the exact same spot for eighteen seasons now, but for some reason, I can never find your address. As the Coach of the Year award.

I've been sending myself around for a while now.

So I wanted to personally greet you this holiday season and just get ahead.

Of things this year.

Christmas is a time for family, for love, for gratitude, and I'm just so thankful to have you in my life, despite never telling you before this As the longest tenured coach in the NFL. I'm kind of embarrassed that we've never spent time together. I love coaches that win, and considering you've never had a losing season and you're consistently successful with an array of varying roster talent year after year, with leadership and adaptability that deserves recognition, this seems long overdue.

Oh a, it's a holiday card day.

Public.

This is what you're missing by not sending or receiving cards.

Come on, you can send them to the network. Someone send me your dawn car.

Please do that and tell them it's care of Colleen Wolfe at NFL Daily and put the address there you can find it.

I will read one on the air.

We would if I get what that would be amazing.

Actually, I love that. I feel like in part because of the New Hard Knocks. I don't know if you guys got a chance to watch it, and we're gonna get five weeks of it. Just watching five minutes of that, you're like, oh, Yeah, that's why Mike Tomlin's never had a losing season. It's so it's so obvious that his combination of attention to detail on like the small schematic like defensive things that he doesn't get enough credit for, plus the way he gets everyone all bought in in a fresh way.

It's there's no one like him.

It has to be either Tomlin or three of the qualified in representative coaches from the NFC North opinion, like, it's got to be one of one of these guys, and Tomlin, I mean it's time, right, it's been time.

So his whole thing.

Was because he was asked about this before and he said, Coach of the Year award usually goes to a coach that is overachieved for a team that the expectations weren't that high, and for the Steelers the expectations are always pretty up there. So he doesn't really care if he doesn't get it, but I think he deserves.

I love that though, because even in even in deferring and like sort of like telling us why he doesn't care as much about it he is. That's such a flex Yes, Like I know my standard it is just higher than everybody else.

The standard is the standard, and this year's a little different though because of the quarterback.

Situation coming into the year.

The expectation high over under was about eight and a half, which is average, but for a Steelers team, that's about as low as it's ever going to be.

So I think you're onto something.

Everybody questions justin fields like switching to Russell Wilson, just you know.

He didn't know.

He always knows, and yet if he doesn't win the award, this card's going to almost seem like a little gas lady.

You know, it's like, well it turned to sunder. It hasn't like actually reached him.

Well if it gets there before Christmas that he doesn't get the award, all right, Jordan, you give us a card.

Okay, I have a holiday card from a GM desperate to keep his job. He'll do anything seriously to the team owner. Season's greetings. I hope the holiday season is bringing you warm times with family. I would like to be able to see my own but you had my key card access limited and my car keys are in my office. This also could have been an email, but for some reason I can't access my work account anymore, and it says username not found, although the check's still cash,

Wow.

I took a plane, a train, and an automobile okay, an uber to get a first hand scouting report on the qualities of fan base holds dearest in its beloved head coach. One hopeful winner even brought a wheelbarrow with two footballs in it on stage as a prop. That's the kind of confidence we're looking for at our next head coach. The actual winner, a man named Jeff Randall, brought a play card and a Trent to Starbucks Cup. We're looking for that kind of energy. I have to

A Christmas holiday card that is begging for a job.

Just a desperate general manager. Seriously, GM out there. I was immediately trying to think, like what GM has gotten that many swings up the Apple And you know what one that came to mind was Nick Asario and Tom Telesco. He did kind of get it done right on the third try with the Tamiko Ryan, So you can't have a happy ending.

I want to thank Colton Palsy, my colleague at the Athletic, because he has this great recap of the Dan Campbell look alike contest, including descriptions of the props that people brought on stage.

I love that one.

It just it seemed like an incredible atmosphere. It's looking at all then big Dan energy.

I love the women that got in the mix here, one of them legitimately just is Dan Campbell.

Is it like a cardboard cutout? Is ai? I don't even know, like that that guy right there, I mean, that's the one.

That's the guy who won. That's Jeff Randall. He won.

There's a lot of people that look like Dan Campbell.

Here's there are here's the thing there. There's no way to recreate Dan Campbell.

Like.

It is interesting though that the Mike Tomlin's the Dan Campbell's kind of the culture builder.

Maybe that's going to be a little more in style.

Yeah, And I think a lot of these Coach of the Year candidates that we're talking about have that in spades. They are they have that little extra something in terms of whether it's you're a quarterback whisperer like Kevin O'Connell or Matt Lafleur, or you're a situational master and a culture builder. I think Mike Tomlin and Dan Campbell both qualify for that, or you're just you have that culture and that reputation. This is it's hey, it's back in.

Yeah, You're not just like some generic coach that people don't remember. I mean, these are memorable people.

And he he's now, you know, kind of go up against a guy this week, Sean McDermott, which who in another world would be like a candidate for Coach of the Year, but no one really ever remembers him. I heard the Great Chris Long on the green Light podcast. I think they were like referring to him as a guy that would show up on like a sketch for uh.

McDermott, like this is sort of like an average guy. It's a composite. He's a composite guy. He's an NPC.

And that might be part of his problem why he doesn't get a lot of love is he just looks.

Like too much like an average guy. But it was really funny and.

It seems germane Ah, I've got a card that has some relation to your first card. But we don't plan this ahead of time, and that's what makes it exciting. The vibe is very different. This card is actually from Russell Wilson.

Oh, and it's to me.

Wow, I just got it. I get open it.

Did Gino Smith's card to you?

Yeah, I can just open it here And that's really exciting to me. To Greg, I'm really looking forward to this too, Greg, Mary Christmas Man yet he had it all right. Merry Christmas Man or whatever you guys celebrate And Santa Monica Rosenthal Christmas on December fourteenth, because your.

Family leaves you for Japan. Weird.

He knew that.

It's all beautiful though, it's all family. How do I know this? Oh? I've been watching, man, I've been watching endlessly. Yeah. I remember the Around the NFL.

Podcast you did back in twenty twenty one when you said you'd rather have Mac Jones long term than me.

That wasn't even so bad.

That goofy, strident bastard almost beat Jamar Chase in the Rookie of the Year voting that year. Like, I get it, he was younger now, I was the smug way. You would bring up this bad take over and over again when I was struggling in Denver and somehow acted like you were onto my downfall.

Ahead of the pack.

We got Mac Jones ruining generations of potential NFL fans in Germany and getting Bailey zapped. Why I throw for twenty six touchdowns and eight interceptions for a coach that can't stand me?

And sure yet you nailed that one, buddy. Wow, it's all love.

Man.

I'm in a better place now. Good to see you're doing well with the new show. Been digging that. See you next. Tuesday crew, even though.

Yeah, you didn't.

Think I was the best quarterback on my own team. Yeah I heard that one too. I mean, I get it. Why would one of the greatest coaches of all time Dare change quarterbacks when they were scoring about two offensive touchdowns every game. I mean, he must not know what he's doing either. But Justin's my friend, for real. I love this team around me, for real. Forget getting a quarterback Island mentioned. What's the guy to do just to get a little respect in the streets. I married Siara

Up in the sky. That's not Santa Claus.

That's one of those sexy deep balls falling from the heavens to blow up one of your naz lazy narratives.

Win the seventh Russell Wilson, Wow.

I can't believe he used don't picture that.

Sheets of paper. Seems like for that cover there.

Was a lot of a lot of words like over libert.

Well, sometimes you get those like newsletters from people.

Is the guy?

This is what's going on?

A third day of September.

My dog breathed, Did you know that Russell Wilson has a catchphrase in Pittsburgh? No, and it's win the seventh And I guess it hasn't really caught on nationally, but he does end some of the interviews in press conferences with win the seventh huh, win the seventh Super Bowl for Steelers.

I did not know that he was doing catchphrases.

Again, got another one.

I didn't. I thought he'd kind of given up.

But I wanted him to. At least he has d centered. There's no lets, there's no first name reference by himself, there's no it's it is a collective.

Yeah, that's true, and he does deserve respect out here in the streets. I mean, he's a guy who you would have thought wouldn't have been able to handle a situation where he essentially was benched for chunk of this season.

Noted that you wouldn't have been able.

Yes, process, But to be fair, I think that section of the letter, just reading it closely, he didn't note that. Really all of us were kind of against going to Russell Wilson at the time when it was justin fields, and he is proving correct a lot of people wrong and he's been a good teammate and leader for Justin Fields. I don't think like it's it's pretend they really all get along.

You know what I really appreciated out of this letter from Russell Wilson to you, Yeah, was his graciousness.

Yeah, like really because I picked up a little different tone.

It was like a graciousness with two g's m about just how just he forgives you and he listens to everything you say, specifically Greg and details it thoroughly. Yeah, and really just even the receipts provided by Russell to you had some sort of a positive Greg spin on it.

It showed it he's a good list.

There.

He just showed he's a strong list.

I'm a little concerned that he is watching and listening to everything you're doing, and he knows when your family is not going to be in town, like do you have simply safe or ring or anything like that.

It's just a little worrying.

Is he Santa?

Where he's Santa's Russell Wilson real on the next NFL?

Do all right, Colleen, give give you another card?

Okay, here we go, where's my Music's great?

There she is?

Seasons Greetings to everyone trying to gaslight the Eagles into thinking it's twenty twenty three good tidings.

I bring to you and your kin.

It's with great pleasure I inform you that everything is totally fine in Philadelphia. In fact, things could not be better this holiday season. There's absolutely no tension or unresolved issues resurfacing, nothing to worry about other than warm wishes.

And you'll tide during this special time of peace and joy.

You know, Christmas has all always brought the wolves closer together as in my family, including Tim, including Tim, never never did dysfunctional family dynamics get in the way of what's most important, winning, winning at gift giving, at decorating, at cookies, but most importantly winning at games.

And that last one is true for aj Brown and Jalen.

Hurts to nine straight wins led them to this special time of year. And it would just be so much more cheerful if you didn't project your own problems onto a team that isn't it all scarred from the results of twenty twenty three, twenty twenty four has brought blessings that will carry over into the arms of Saquon Barkley to twenty twenty five This year is not last year.

Okay, what a nice note depended on And I like that. It's everyone trying to gases. It's basically everyone that you have in your address book.

I mean your emails.

So many cards went out. I'm out of cards.

Brandon Graham maybe include on that, like is he getting the card? I feel I wonder what the call was like and who made the first call to Brandon Graham and when he realized maybe he stepped into it a little.

Question, But you know, he seemed he didn't seem that.

I don't know, perturbed or upset or you know, on a like flu mixed bike.

It.

It's interesting he said it so confidently in the moment. It was almost like, hey, we all know about this, right and so what's interesting to me?

Flustard was the word I was looking for.

Ye, But what's interesting to me is like veterans, whether they're playing for a team or not currently able to for the team. They have their methods tried and true. They've got their ways of sort of getting everybody in back into line, back into step with each other. If especially if there are people in the locker room talking to the media about what we could work on passing, and if there are you know, some sort if there's

Know, That's what I would say privately.

I mean, that was what Brandon Graham said, and his sort of retraction is like, yeah, I just didn't want people calling out anyone in the media.

I think I think it was very it was done with purpose.

Perhaps, Yeah, I think so too. And it honestly, I like I like the mess. I like the drama. Just from the outside. I'm root for the Eagles, yes, two, but this is kind of fun and it makes it is like it makes a little sense too.

Isn't it so classic of what we know this regime to be at this point where it's like everything is going great, guys.

Yeah, Like why vibes are fine?

Then all the time?

Two vibes. That's what Sirianni said.

It's like it's like a red flag team in terms of like when you like if you meet someone and like everything is so great and it's going so well that I've got to throw a bomb into this to ruin it right, Like every it's.

Gonna be fine, guys, Everything's totally fine. There's nothing to worry about.

I just hope Jalen Hurts can meet the moment because there's just a lot on him and I and I thought about it after he made that thirty yard run last week. We know, one of his best plays of the game where he finished the inside the ten yard line kind of you know, jumped over and right after that play, which was an awesome play, the crowd's going crazy. It was that an important moment of the game. It

He's all business.

I get it, Like he is a very serious dude, but he just seems like he's gripping the ball too tight, which is maybe what AJ Brown is getting out a little bit.

It's like he has all been quite a few times wide open and AJ did not go to him, or Jalen did not go to him, or if he did, it was not a great ball.

All right, let's get your next card, George.

This SOE's a little bit shorter than Greggs.

My next one's even longer.

Oh no, to this is to the rest of the MVP, the rest in all caps of the MVP candidates From Joe Burrow, Dear Josh, se Quan Lamar, Jared and Pennay writing to wish you a very warm Mvpson's greetings. Am I right own, Jared, I know you love that one. Listen, I still consider myself a part of this group. Have you seen my stats? And boys, I know you're pulling for me too, even though it's from the warm comforts of your respective teams that haven't royally screwed each of

There you go.

I love Joe Burrow getting on our agenda by putting Pinay just even.

On the list.

I know, right, get it? That wh gets it?

You never know.

Maybe maybe if Burrow went absolutely crazy down the stretch and finished mentally crazy.

No, I mean just share with.

Him just the numbers, maybe they could be so good that he does get it.

They're not mathematically out of well that too.

According to Cynthia Freeland, I asked her last night, so how did the probability move?

She said, it went.

From like one point three percent to what looks like about five percent chance of making the playoffs now, so hey, I mean.

That's that's real.

Now.

I don't know if that those numbers, are you know, accounting for the fact that it took the Cowboys completely botching up, you know, fake pudd just to beat Cooper Rush. Like, there was about fifty eight minutes of concern that reminded you why this Spegels team is where they are and that's what makes it so fresh.

They needed this, they really needed that.

And to reiterate, Joe Burrow is seventh in EPA per dropback, seventh and totally first in completion attempts, completions, completion attempts, yards, touchdowns, and fourth in passer rating. Joe would want me to tell you that.

He is outstanding. He's a good looking young man. I watched the game yesterday.

You're getting your stacy with.

The younger with some younger generation like friends of my daughters and my friends, and there was a lot of Joe Burrow as hot talk that was between the moms and the and the just saying he's connecting on the level.

Good for him, that's great. He's winning in multiple departments.

I guess anything from the dads or they.

I mean, we talked about his outfit quite a bit.

I don't know if I thought so I was going to bring that up because I'm not even sure how to describe it, because it was just like it was a two piece matching set.

But they were like he was wearing Christmas lights lines all over.

Yeah, but and it was almost like was it yarn like? Kind of looked like yarn. It reminded me of or like a house to created for Christmas with lights.

He was in the spirit, guys. Didn't you hear how much in the spirit he was in.

His According to my sources, he he ate it, you know. He he looked great.

Yeah, might we get you in that outfit?

My last card is that would be great. I would not I would not eat. My last card is from Bill Belichick to exactly twenty nine. NFL Team Owners starts out very traditionally, when the magic of Christmas fills the air.

I hope you find it everywhere.

I have found anything, but over the last few months, after watching the human Detrius on the field and the hackneyed tragic comedies that qualify for game plans in twenty twenty four, surely you felt that something integral was missing from this twenty twenty four season.

Namely me.

Oh, sure you could have found me on McAfee or the Underdog show Coach with Michael Lombardi and Matt Patricia two point zero, or The Man in CAF on Monday Nights, or The Breakdown, a show with Peyton Manning that should be football Nirvana and yet no one has told me they watched it no One, or inside the NFL on the CW, which at one point aired opposite The Breakdown Wow, Or in my role with or in my role with a thirty third team as a strategic advisor, which means

Haha. Wink emoji So a holiday threat?

Yeah, wink Emoji's new.

Yeah, just like he tried to end it yeah after Wow.

Yeah, he's learning. You know he could really I mean with language like that, he could really connect with the youths.

You know, this guy could really use a break Bill Belichick. So I hope he does get another job. He doesn't have enough.

Now he doesn't all of those jobs. And the news that came out from our friend Ali Connolly and Insider, let's talk about it right now. Outside of this card. Ollie Connolly, who's been on this show three or four times, including co host in London, does an awesome job. One of the best exes in OS guy has been reporting about Bill Belichick. So let's just go over what he reported to He said in his words that Belichick had agreed to become the UNC next UNC coach, although the

Pretty amazing.

So Belichick would actually have a GM.

He would have Now that's not fair, that's not fair. Maybe later in his career at the very end when he was not runn but think of a lot of good personnel people came from that tree.

But he wants full control over what's happened.

But yes, Scott Pialde was never totally in charge, if that's your point, Nick Casaria.

No, we feared to another direction. But yeah, so this is this is obviously a huge story. This is significant. Kudos to Ali. By the way, we're going to start referring to him as insider Ali.

Oh.

When I opened up the post this morning, I was like, what the hell, why is Kirk Cousins breaking news? Yeah, all of a sudden, because they look so similar to me, We really I have to they really don't. Yeah, this is. It's also significant because it's there's more reporting and shining a light on some of the dysfunction that's been happening and the infighting among the board of trustees group over

He would be the next head coach.

This whole story, to me, the most important thing from it was that Belichick had already sent this to NFL teams that he is ready to go work for UNC because of something I've been saying on this show he is not confident whatsoever that he is going to get an NFL job, and he loves football and he wants to coach. In fact, I would surmise that if he's doing all this, he's guessing he won't have a job

It supports my theory that.

He has been phoning in these media appearances, which has been really disappointing to me.

I have listen you personally also really I kind of feel like it could be a marketing ploy too, like, Okay, look at look at all of the people who want me NFL, Like I could be going here. You could lose out on me, like people want other people who were wanted by other people.

That was what the card was all about. Yeah, you know, he sort of he sort of got to.

That, Yeah, what does he have time to write all of these bibles?

Well, that's that's what I was getting at. His full time job has been making this bible and trying to get jobs while he got all other media jobs here.

I hope he copyrighted the phrase the Belichick Bible, because if none of this works out for him, sell that thing man, bind it into an actual book and sell.

It would be the best seller immediately.

Yes, the Bill Walsh book Finding the Winning Edge is just that, his sort of bible on football and is one of the most famous and treasured football books of all time. I can guarantee you Bill Belichick has it, and it's up on his thing, and it'll cost you like one hundred and eighty bucks on eBay to get it. It's out of print, but he is the next guy to do it. That would be amazing. Give him a job. I hope you UNC gives him the job. Someone gives it.

It would be interesting to watch him navigate again a very modern and rapidly changing college football. So do landscape, particularly at that school. I cannot state this enough how significant, And this is Brendan Markson Ralf Ruso at the Athletic reporting on this for several months now. The infighting and the interpersonal drama that is happening over it at UNC with the board of trustees and between them, the athletic director and the chancellor, and to throw a figures such

You know, well they have it in the past. I saw a story that said where they ranked in terms of nil money and they were behind my two lane Green Wave, way low in the ranking. So they are not a team, they're not an organization.

Fascinating structure over there.

Well, to your point, I found it really interesting that he was talking to directly to the chancellor and not the athletic director, because that's usually how it goes when guys are hired to be a head coach.

And when you're going for a job like he is, he might think this is a long shot actually that UNC does all this, but he is absolutely prepared to take the job if they are willing.

To do all that. Succession, Yeah, Steve Belichick.

Would have to take over baby succession.

And they would be fine with that. Apparently you're not going to be able to pull that off at the NFL. So I want Bill Belichick back in our lives and I want him happy, and that's coaching football and clearly not doing podcasts, even though I think he could have had a lot of potential if he actually put the energy that he put into coaching into doing that.

Take someone please think of Bill Belichick and throw him a w Oh my god, would someone please about think of him.

It's about On.

That note, we will take a break and we'll be back talking about two teams that badly need a w the Rams and.

The forty nine ers.

There's in a football so I want.

Back on NFL daily.

That Belichick thing happened to It means we can get our UNC correspondent, David ee More back in. That would be a lot of fun. I just know I just made his day, even just saying his name. Like no one wants clout more than any of it.

He has reason for upim as the Panthers too. Yeah, like love that for him.

Panthers have the most feel good three game losing streak I've ever seen.

It's awesome. Everything's all right.

It's the time of the show for our T and F preview presented by Amazon Prime Video. Even going into last weekend, we didn't know how important this game would be if the Niners and Rams had lost to the Bills and Bears, respectively, would feel kind of like a

The coaches now are in a place where they have like an ominous respect and friendship happening. Right although when they play each other not so much. These teams freaking hate each other though, Like there are players in both

And the first time they play this year, the Rams stole one. It's a big reason why they're in position to possibly make the playoffs. Was that late comeback in a game that San Francisco kind of dominated.

Early Shanahan had won nine straight games against Sean McVay, and now in the regular season, now Sean McVay has two in a row, so he can start his own.

Little streak here.

But I think one of the most interesting things about this game is the fact that Pukanakua and Cooper Cup will be playing together for the first time against the forty nine ers. It's never happened before, so that I

Couple of good last week they used them more vertically. Everything they did last week was awesome and got Rams fans like my daughter and wife thinking, oh wow, like maybe they're gonna do it again because when their offense is humming like that, that was as impressive an offensive performance as we've seen all season long. If they can run the ball on the forty nine ers and then be that efficient with the big plays, they don't have

They control their own destiny, and they really do.

They could even afford to probably lose that Cardinals game because Seattle has such a hard schedule and go in with a chance. So I think it is very fair because they've done it in the past, and because their ceiling games are that high. To think, man, maybe they are revnant. Back up again the offensive linet. Tell me what you've seen out of them, and tell me why you think they went empty so often. So that's what they did very often. It means no running backs in

And very successfully. Do you think they keep doing that?

Yeah, Well, in part it's because they trust their offensive line a little bit more. It's just going to be the third game this year that that group as intended will be together because of the injuries early in the season. But they also go empty because Matthew Stafford likes to use it to get teams to declare their pressure. So all of the different intricacies that a team could send against you, whether it's extra pressure, stand under pressure, the types of even the types of like body language or

That's hasn't been happening quite as much this season end.

Yeah, because I would say the receivers aren't necessarily it's not the fastest group in the league. I mean, even Pu Kunaku, who's an absolute superstar, it's not necessarily they're not going to like wow you early in the route necessarily other than some of these really physical catches. And we know Cooper can he's still got some juice left in him, and some of that short yardage stuff as well,

That catch on the sideline, Yes, with that body control was yeh.

Walcker is so correct. Pukakua does in fact rule and part of it is he has no he has no fear or like the biggest thing for him is he loves football and he does not want to let anyone down in the in particular Matthew Stafford. Matthew Stafford can put him put it on him in any particular way with with the catch radius that Pooka has, and the trust that these two have developed, in part because Cooper was injured for so much of last year, has really developed.

I love him like I do.

Wonder in this game if the forty nine ers defense, like I feel like that game like no one rarely watched that game live. When I went back to watch it, I was like, Wow, this was a great performance by Purty.

Yeah.

We're going to get to the quarterback Island element to this in a second, but let's get through sort of what the game talk to. Perty had one of his best games of the season after getting kicked off quarterback Island. Just like Matthew Stafford. He was pressured on forty eight percent of his dropbacks against the Bears, which is a really high number. And yet barely had an incompletion. He was throwing with anticipation. He was fantastic. Kittle is having a great, great season.

Yes, he's having an all pro level for his position.

See he's at eight hundred yards. It's him or Bowers that those are the top two for me. Debo, let's talk about Debo for a second. Debo had a funny tweet afterwards. I don't know if you saw this, Colleen, what is tweeted out? He's not struggling at all, just not getting the ball.

Oh my god, a receiver that's like upset that he's not getting the ball?

Is that what's happening here?

We were seeing a screen cap of it with four million views, but you can no longer find it because he has Does.

The views match the amount of times he used the exclamation point?

He's deleted it? He is getting the ball. He's so much less effective as a runner than he's ever been. He's not breaking tackles. He's not the same Deebo. Samuel I put it like when he had an anticipatory throw early in that game that Perdy found him down the field.

I was like, oh my god, more of that.

I haven't seen Deebo catch a normal receiver like passed on the field and so long, and they do give him the ball six seven, eight times a game and he's not the same guy as before. So was this uptick, Colleen? You think for the forty nine ers, like their defense and their offense playing a perfect game just a blip or did they go on one of their late season runs too, Because I wouldn't put it pass them. I've just seen them win too much, especially in this matchup

I think if one of these two teams is going to go on a run based on their game last week, it's going to be the Rams.

This is kind of what the Rams do also.

I mean, I thought it was interesting last year they went seven to one after their bye.

This year they're six and two.

They both struggled both years they struggled before the bye, so they're kind of following that up. They were so good on third down eleven of fifteen. That was an area that they completely struggled in. I think they were converting thirty three percent of the time. That was third worst in the entire league. So now that they're healthy, this is the offense that they kind of envisioned and that I thought was going to be the case all

And I think that's what we're going to see.

Keep slowing me down with them, and they have a massive pile of data from last year about getting hot this time of year and then just going right. If they would have won that wild card game against Detroit, no team wanted to face them in the playoffs, and you heard that pretty publicly from people after the fact.

Say, is what it starts.

Yes, but Josh Allen went into like god mode, like omniscient ball playing at that point. But you know, and you can't do a lot against that if you're a defense and you're reeling from explosive after explosive after explosive that he's compounding against you. But they need more from their defense. They need more from their defense. When a quarterback works out of structure, they need more from their defense. Tackling after the catch, they need more from their secondary.

So they need more from their young pass rushers I would say they got They got run over in that Eagles game, which wasn't really about the pass rushers. It was about physicality. And in the last two weeks they had a twenty five percent pressure rate and then they had a twenty two percent pressure rate against Josh Allen, which is really poor. So is this young group hitting a bit of a wall.

We'll see. We don't know.

If Williams is not practicing on Tuesday, neither's Nick Bosa. That's good news for the Rams, but you're right, the Rams need to get it going. But ultimately it is kind of about Stafford and now we get to the QB Island of it all, because this game will be really interesting for the QB Island discussion. One of the reasons when of the reasons said the same, why Matthew sav not about the QB Island seff one of the

I've been going through it. I think I've sent you like thirty texts about this fret I'm a fretterer. I'm a catastrophizer. It's part of what propels me through the season to get work done because I can never be behind on anything. And in this case, I am fretting and catastrophizing because I tried to be a good teammate on Quarterback Island after Greg Rosenthal and Colleen you were

He's had stood by your man.

He's had some highs, and he's had some real crash outs and some very erratic game And I thought, I'll be a good teammate. And because I was the one that fought for him so hard, I will say, Okay, let's talk about pulling him back and then we can revisit. At the end, we voted and all of that, and it was a triple no vote. We were all on

I think he was I.

Don't necessarily agree with that, because he's been playing great football. But again, we were down to ten spots and it was supposed to come down to a tongue of I love who's been statistically extraordinary over the last several weeks, and it was going to come down to Geno, a debate between Geno to a probably Stafford again yes, and

I don't love that he's saying that this is a Colleen move.

Well, what it was.

What I was was I didn't understand the rules in the moment, which.

Is a problem.

You're so confident, the host of the show.

No one pointed out to me at the time. We heard from a lot of listeners and what I said to Jordan on.

Multiples and I've been in not.

At as the executive producer of this segment, as the originator. It's just, you know, a little controversy, isn't the worst thing. People are responding that they're very upset.

That I can say that because your guy played great last week and the guy that I introduced to vote off played amazing.

Here's where I could get you're conflating things. Vote.

In the end, Stafford was not getting on that island me using the ripcord or not riptide or not he was.

He was not getting on it. I was.

I actually went into the Stafford discussion with the open mind. I had a list of about four or five guys, and I thought, maybe he's on, maybe he's not. He was kind of on my borderline, so I was surprised when you brought him up. But once we went through the conversation, it was clear both Steve and I would have had to a tongue of iloa over Stafford. We did have Sam Darnold over Stafford, and we put him on, and from the.

Sound of it, we probably both had you. So in the end, like the same thing happened. You made the right decision in the moment.

And you this is gaslighting. This is what dictators should know when they don't give you a vote. You should have We should have had the opportunity to discuss and vote, because if we're really going to talk, there was really and all of the deleted footage because I was not in this show. If people could just hear all the footage that didn't make it in the show about how you thought there was less spots than.

For actually, well that was just losing track of.

We would have had you would have had you know, we would have had of a Colleen movie. You would have had one spot to bait between. And I'm serious. I went back because I'm I've been a knots over this. So I went back and I looked and I listened, and I went back and I did the scouting report and all of that, and I took notes because I'm a psychopath and you're giving that literally, I know, like literally giving.

I was gonna ask you if you have any Here's the thing, though, here's the thing, this is my hobby.

Here's the thing. The QB island.

The projection, the QB Island placement is not a projection. It's not a look ahead to see what you're going to do. We could have done that.

Oh, you could make it whatever you wanted. That's what I heard the last time.

Apparently you could.

But it's about you can make it when it's greg the rules.

Are you It's about what you've done and party got booted off. Perty I thought had maybe his best game of the season last week, and because it wasn't against the Bills in the national window, it didn't get any attention to So he responded to the challenge that we

He was not getting on, no matter what, no matter when you brought him up. So don't put it all on Jordan, is what I'm saying. It wouldn't have happened, Thank.

You, Greg, And now i'm phil Calmer, but I will say the thing that should have happened is we should have been allowed to debate over the final opening between Gino and Stafford, although he was getting on Gino to Sam Donald and Matthew Stack.

You no reality television, A little controversy is good. Finger out.

You know what's great is the motivational tool that this clearly clearly provided truly to people who do not listen to the show in that Rockberty and Matthew Safford, to your point, Greg had incredible.

I wouldn't. I wouldn't incredible.

I assume that Kelly Stafford's she's got ears everywhere who knows?

Yeah, she does.

I don't know. Guys, how about that.

Sleep number ad too? I like that that's.

Trying to get a sleep number in general, but I mean in terms of this whole discussion that you guys are having. Can't go back, only can go forward. So hopefully there's debate in the next one.

Thank you Colleen for wrapping no problem.

So that's what happened last week.

Wow, I've been losing sleep as well. Jordan.

Oh, yes, I guess I'm going to pick the rams, but I don't believe it. I'm just gonna I I my head actually says forty nine ers. But because I want to be on the side of my family, you know, I want them to be happy. Ultimately, I'm going to just pick them because I don't actually know what's going to happen. Little no in fact, so it doesn't matter who I pick, as we'll pick what I'm rooting for.

I mean, who do you actually think is gonna win?

Something in my head just says, actually the way seasons go, like the forty nine Ers are gonna are going to ruin this like idea of a late season run by the Rams. Something says that, I think, and then neither one of them, you know, ends up making the playoffs, and it's just annoying. I just don't want that to happen. So I'm gonna I think the Rams are gonna win.

Okay, good, it is going to be raining, looks like looks like it'll be raining. Obviously outdoor stadium. The Rams don't have a ton of experience playing outside in elements being a California slash covered team. Although that sideways lightning for that Chargers game was a bit crazy, that one, oh that isle years ago. If the Rams can be this team that they showed against the Bills, like they they really they let it all hang out, right, And so if they do that again, I think I don't

Us out on Blue Sky, gonna calm.

I thought it was for a while like a Bruski Yes, I then realized it's Blue Sky.

Yeah, definitely not Buski out. The forty nine Ers are favored by two and a half.

I feel some game in the elements.

I get that I feel better about just taking the points with the Rams than I would about picking either team, because it is truly a coin flip to me. That was this week's TNF preview, presented by Prime Video. Be sure to watch the Los Angeles Rams take on the San Francisco forty nine Ers this Thursday on Prime Video.

That is it for this show. I'm looking forward to.

We got a special extra show dropping into the feed later this week.

Oh shoot, Colleen Wolf is going to be a part of it.

My friend Anthony Jesselnick, with whom I do the Jesselnick and Rosenthal Vanity Project Jarvy and also as a new Netflix special out. We're gonna sit down with him and just have a little extra show and that'll drop in to your fees later in the week.

Keep it, keep an eye on that.

The next time you'll hear us, though, we'll be our previews show that's gonna be with my good friend Patrick Claybahn and special in studio guest Campbell. Love that look when a fictional Russ Wilson or is he fictional is writing a card to me.

You know football is back.