Welcome to NFL Daily, where we'd also boo if we paid money to go to a preseason game in the rain and they took out Drake May after one series, give me a break. I'm Greg Rosenthal and I'm beyond lucky today. To be joined later in the show by Ali Connelly, a talented writer.
About football podcaster.
From over in the UK, who's going to talk to me about what if Kirk Cousins really isn't the guy we think he is, especially this season with the Falcons little thought experiment.
But that's going to come up after the break.
To start the show, going to go over news really quickly in the two preseason games that we had on Thursday night. And before I do that, I just want to ask our producer here, Eric Roberts, how annoyed he is at me that I'm asking him to produce on a Thursday night in the preseason while he's got his baby, Austin James making his NFL Daily debut. If you check us out on YouTube, you can see this beautiful boy and they set a hair just like his dad.
Yeah, dude, nice hair.
Maybe he'll get the mustache s geene, but yes, spit bubbles and all right now, not it at all. I'm glad you just at home and stuff, just to get some time with the kid. You know, I was off for a little bit of time, but anytime with this guy. A little bit of football too on the TV for him. No Bills games yet for him, so he hasn't got the misery. But watching a lot of Dodgers games with me, and yeah, maybe he'll be a little podcaster who knows.
There is beautiful and yeah, that is something beautiful about it. It's not like we're in the studio, but we are putting you back to work. And you can hand him off now if you want, if he if he's feeling uncomfortable. But it is cool. These preseason nights, we're gonna try to take you, especially on the Thursday nights and get you covered with all the games. So yeah, I'm making Austin, James and Eric do a little overtime. So why do
we why do we not waste any more time? We'll get to the news, Eric showing versatility, hitting the buttons it with us and on the lapp let's go back to Brandon Ayuk. I can't believe this thing hasn't happened yet it's still hanging out there days now after a report in Pittsburgh that the deal was happening from a radio station there, And I did want to just update you on what Kyle Shanahan said on a KNBR radio appearance on Thursday night.
Very interesting.
He said, quote, if it doesn't work out, and he's talking about getting that you signed in San Francisco, you always try as hard as you can to get fair value, whether it's fair value for the future, fair value for now. You're always hoping for both. Ba's got to agree on that too. We're looking at every possibility, so this thing
is getting held up. There was a report from Diana Rossini of The Athletic that kind of spelled out what seems like pretty obvious, which is like the forty nine ers are not happy with the trade terms that the dealers are bringing to the table, and yeah, they don't have any receivers to send back. And Shanahan also said, quote, there's got to be two teams tied to that, and
anytime there takes three things, it's not easy. And again they're looking at every possibility, and that when it's all said and done, the best thing for the forty nine ers and the best thing for BA.
So I just think this is happening.
The head coach would not be on the radio talking about how tricky it is to complete a trade like that. They're talking about this guy as if he's not there, and it does make you wonder whether they're trying to get a third team involved or whether there's ever a world where they're just trying to run out the clock here and get Brandon Ayuk back on the team, because
to me, that's what makes the most sense. But hearing the coach talk about it like that, almost as if he's already gone, talking about how tough it is to complete a trade, it does seem like he is going to go somewhere. I don't think Ceedee Lamb is going in anywhere. And Eric, I want you to play the sound for me. Jerry Jones. This comes after he was asked if he's in any hurry and feeling any urgency to get Cede Lamb's contract done.
This coming from KDFW Fox for such of urgency as you begin the preseason to get CD done done.
No, No, I'll like say it.
I'm just just.
I went to OH school or I went to college.
I don't want to say it, but I'm just saying.
I don't know, I don't have a sense of urgency about getting it done.
Why why is everyone laughing? Like you're at the board meeting and your boss, who's not funny at all, just made like a half joke and then everyone laughs way too hard.
That it just was.
An odd comment that he doesn't have any urgency. I think what he's saying. And he did talk a little more that they don't feel like they're losing that much with a player like Cede Lamb at this point in time.
That I get.
But Dak Prescott took the podium just a little bit after that and he said, you know, I know y'all want to ask I got urgency for it to happen. So just a strange moment, strange times with the Cowboys, like why are you setting this message out? Ceedee Lamb actually quote retweeted it on Twitter with the lol over. It's like Michael Parsons retweeted that. I mean, we're getting deep into it. Michael Parsons could also use a new contract pretty soon. So it's never great when your player
is LOL and your owner. On the Thursday evening, a couple other very quick items of news, and then I'll hit the preseason games and again get to that Kirk Cousins conversation. Will also hit on Nick Folk, I mean Nick Foles rather retiring on Thursday. Rondell Morris, the injured reserve. I had mentioned that it looked like he had broken his leg on our last show. Unfortunately, Yeah, the third receiver for the Falcons is going to be out for
the season. Also out for the season Drake Jackson, who you might remember was a second round pick of the forty nine Ers in twenty twenty two. They put him on the reserve pup list. He's trying to come back from a really devastating injury that a Patel attendant injury. That's gonna came out. You know, it was at the end of last year all of this year, which is tough. And I bring that up because it's just a reminder this forty nine Ers defensive line is just not the same.
They were hoping to get some jews from Drake Jackson at some point in this rookie contract.
After Nick Bosa.
It's Leonard Floyd and Yatara Grossmatos as his other edge guys.
Not that bad.
Malik Collins is a starting defensive tackle on this team. It's just not the talent up front that they had a few years ago. And then finally in the news, I'm really testing you here, Eric, because earlier in the day, Jameis Winston said something that only Jameis Winston would say. And this has no news value. But I'm just happy that Jameis Winston is still in our lives.
I think that's one of the things that a lot of people forget. When you can go out, you can see practice, you can nicknack this that Paddy wag gildog a bone. Deshaun Watson is gonna turn it on. He always gonna find a way to shine when the lights come on. Man, I just ran, Can I leave off that? But I know definitely gonna het.
You can tell that man is a preacher. He truly is he. I love that man. What a what an odd guy.
But you know what, maybe the perfect backup quarterback for Deshaun Watson because he has been Deshaun Watson's biggest supporter and rhymer uh this preseason. All right, finally, let's hit the two games. I would have gone with the games first.
I was excited.
It was Drinke May's debut, but as I mentioned in the open, only one drive it was pouring rain. Maybe that had an impact on how Drod Mayo decided to give May snaps on Thursday night, Jacoby Brissett only had one drive.
May through three passes.
Two of them were screen passes, one was was a heater that was a little high for Jalen Rager that Rager got his hands on. But I don't think they wanted May out there with the backup offensive line. He actually played with the starting offensive line, which he hasn't been doing in all of camp. Hasn't really been a competition with Brissette like we expected, but they decided not to really use him tonight. So yeah, that Patriots defense look good against this Panthers team. But for the sick
I was out there wanting a few little takeaways. The Patriots did use their rookie receivers that people are getting excited about with their backups, So that's just something to keep in mind. Jalen Polk with the second team, Javon Baker with the third team not getting played with the starters yet.
It's early, my guy.
Joe Milton, their fourth Stringer got a huge ovation when he.
Came into the game.
The poor Patriots fans were booing Bailey Zappi when he came in, more booing Mayo for taking may out of the game.
But then they were waiting.
They were restless for Joe Milton to come into the game, the big armed quarterback from Tennessee, and he looked good. He looked good scrambling and checking down and then throwing a wide open touchdown pass. So kind of fun for Joe Milton. I do not think Bailey Zappy is gonna make the team even less. The takeaway from the Panthers, who were not playing their starters. They started a man
named Jack Plumber at quarterback. Jonathan Mingo was out there, had to drop early, but yeah, not many takeaways there. The Giants also played and the Giants got a w in the preseason against the Lions, who were playing their backups. Malik Neighbors actually played three drives in this game but did not get a target, which was too bad. Wanted
to see him do a little bit something. Tyrone Tracy was the clear second running back for the Giants if you're in a deep fantasy league, but Eric Gray, who was their third stringer had a big, long touchdown.
They'll both have a role.
And then I think we hit peak preseason late Thursday when it was Joe Milton and Hendon Hooker out there, both playing, And this is what the preseason's all about. If you forget Hendon Hooker was an intriguing quarterback prospect, got taken in the third round, but was coming off of torn acl Some people thought he might challenge Jared Goff at some point for the starting job. Now he's just trying to fight for a backup job behind Goff, of course, and Nate Sudfeld is the backup right now.
And Hooker showed some moves and looked okay in a game where Drew Locke for the Giants took a bunch of big hits, left with an injury pretty early, but Joe Shane their GM said it wasn't anything serious. He could have come back into the game. And that's about it for my preseason takeaways. We'll hit more on your Monday morning show with Nick Chuck all the rest of
the game's all fourteen games. But before I go, I do want to point out that during that Giants game, they were testing out the Hawkeye system for first down measurements, so close measurements.
Is it a first down or not? Or is it a fourth down? Stop?
Let's listen to Phil Simms as part of the Giants broadcast crew with Bob Poppa in the preseason.
I don't know about what we're doing. What'd you call it?
When we're gonna now? But how are we going to use it?
If it takes this law?
Okay?
You know, we just run the chains out.
Yeah, yeah, the lasers taking as long as they would if they were longer. It's a virtual animation, Yeah, bringing the Backsley family and get the chains out there. Well, yeah, it's preseason trial the new stuff in the NFL. I understand. I'll look at it is okay, there you.
Go, okay, And yeah, if you're watching it on YouTube, you can see they actually have a graphic for it, kind of like they do in tennis when you put up the Hawkeye graphic and the ball was way short. I think they just wanted to test it out. Hopefully they work out the kinks there. That is not a system that was ready to go clearly, uh for prime time,
but they're just trying it out in the preseason. It is apparently not going to be part of our regular season, But how about Phil Simmons back in the booth for a preseason game. It's a circle of life, like you, probably started out that way, worked his way up, did a bunch of Super Bowls, and now he's back with Big Blue. We're going to come back after the break.
I know it's early for a break. This is our only one of this show, which I'm excited about, but we're going to take a quick break and on the other side, I'm going to talk to Ali Connolly, one of the smartest football heads out there, and we're going to do a deep dive on the Falcons offense and why I'm just a little skeptical, a little worried about how Kirk Cousins is going to look this season. Okay,
we are welcoming in Ali Connolly to the show. I'm excited about this, not just because he's wearing a Red Sox hat over in the UK, and not just because he hasn't slept at all in two weeks, because he's covering the US team in the Olympics for The Guardian.
I'm sorry for giving you extra work.
Ali, right now when you're cranking then well, there's nothing gets me more excited than discussing Kirk Cousins. So what a wonderful moment to take out of my life to dig into Kirk Cousins.
Yeah, you said, like, why can't you be covering some other team? The US is just like racking up these medals. But it's been a lot of fun. This is gonna be fun. Ali is one of my favorite voices in American football. Although he covers football football for The Guardian overseas and obviously the Olympics these couple of weeks, but you can't check out his American football content at his newsletter,
the Read Optional Newsletter. And he also does podcasts with John Ledyard, who we've had on the show before too, and I really love their podcast, so I really recommend. I don't pay for like a lot of sports content, but I pay for that and it's really good.
So check out Ali.
And I wanted to have him on this show because I thought, yeah, he'd be a fun guy to hit a one issue topic. You know, they have like one issue campaign, like a one issue politician. This is a one issue show in theory, and that one issue is Kirk Cousins. And I do have some issues with Kirkcuons.
But before I get to that, I did want to just mention that Nick Foles announced that he is going to retire an Eagle at their home opener, and having you on the show, you always have good takes on quarterbacks. I just wanted to get your view of Nick Foles and where that two game run the NFC Championship against the Vikings and then the Super Bowl against the Patriots ranks in your mind of football you watch, because weirdly,
I almost think it's underrated. People remember the Philly Special, and what I remember is a bunch of throws into pretty good coverage that Nick Foles should never have been hitting, like throw after throw after throw, one of the greatest performances in Super Bowl history. After putting up a forty burger in the NFC Championship. Just want to give Nick Foles some love.
Yeah, that's what stands out to me. I just have this image burned in my mind of the greatest defensive mind in the history of the sports, brain melting on the sideline. He couldn't figure out why am I double brightening people? And Nick fo Foles is throwing seeds all over the field and his brain just folding away. I mean, there's never been anyone have that kind of run obviously where you come from. You know, if you think back
in twenty thirteen, he played Dynamite under chip Kelly. Then he comes back after the Sam Bradford trade and they just reinstall a bunch of the chip Kelly stuff. And it always makes me laugh because almost the two things that are remembered of the Philly special you mentioned, then
people talk about, oh, Doug Peterson, the RPOs. They brought the RPOs, And I was covering college football at the time, and I was speaking to a bunch of college coaches just laughing at how rudimentary these RPOs were and how scrambling all these NFL guys who had been to all these college programs to figure out how to stop this stuff, and it was just the most basic things ever they couldn't deal with. But when you go back and watch him, that stuff is there, and it's relevant and it keeps
stuff moving. But he's mostly just driving things all over the field, like you sent, a tight coverage, just completely out of his mind for like a six week stretch, particularly those two games you mentioned that. I just don't know if we'll ever see someone put that together against that kind of competition again.
Right, That's the thing that gets me with football that you can't tell me that Joe Montana or Brady And that was one of his best Super Bowls too.
It wasn't as flashy, but he was awesome in that game.
You can't tell me that any quarterback played any better, in particular in the two biggest game stretch.
Like I was there.
I happen that happened to be a year where they were sending me around to cover the playoff game, so I was there for all three. I'll always remember Matt Ryan missing Julio Jones one on one with a chance to beat the Eagles at the end of that game, I think was first or second down, and like, you never know what would have happened. And then yeah, being at those games they had, he just had magic and
he was so good. I always thought the first half of Raven's forty nine ers was as good as I've seen a quarterback play in one half of a game Joe Flacco, but I think Foles would top him. So I just wanted to give a little love and that'll be a fun night on the home opener for the Eagles.
All right, let's get to our one issue. It's Kirk.
I gave you a couple options of what to do, but I thought you might be a fun one for this show.
We haven't done a show quite like that.
And yes, it's a one issue show, and the one issue is Kirk Cousins. And the question that I'm posing is what if the bad Kirk Cousins shows up this year? And I'm gonna lay this out almost like a prosecutor. I'm definitely coming from the angle that this is more possible than people think. I don't know if you have an opinion on it going into it, Ali, So I'll let you start with just like your experience with Kirk over the years.
Oh, my experience over the year, I think is the same as everyone where it's just like that you get these strange three week moments where you look at yourself and goes, Kirk Cousins really good. You don't want to tell anyone. You kind of texting your friends, be like should I say this out loud? Kirk Cousins may be incredible? And then he inevitably disappoints you and you go, why is a team sticking with Kirk Cousins, This makes no sense. Why are they giving him so much money every year?
And there's a weird thing with him where there's not really one thing you hang your hounds like. He does this at a special level. You can go through everything, you can break down everything grunually and says that one thing he just bosses at and it doesn't really exist. He's pretty good a lot of things. Most notably, I would say, is like sack of voidance when pressured, which is huge for a guy coming off the injuries, coming off with an achilles. But even that then gets into okay.
So if that drops a little bit, whether it's you know, goods timing, whatever it is, it just don't lets them to move and navigate the pocket. So let's say in your scenario worst case Snart that drops by five, six seven percent. It's like, okay, the one thing this guy was like really above average app comes back to average and the rest of it is just like pretty good. It's it's quite scary, and I think they've got so
many questions everywhere else the Falcons. I think this idea that they were all for years and years, there are a quarterback away they spent all these high draft pics and all these talented guys playing on the perimeter. I just don't think that's quite that true.
Yes, that was part of the issue with me, is when everyone was like, well he's joining the super Bowl ready roster, this is ready to go, I don't see it.
And we'll get to that and then the other part of it.
And I gotta say, if anyone wants to check this out on YouTube, you know, like subscribe, we're trying to build it. I mean, you don't not look like Kirk Cousins. I mean just a little bit with like a hab and that's a compliment. I mean his team America. He's a good looking guy.
I get this three times a week. When the Netflix documentary happened my life, I didn't leave the house and I knew when you text me, I was like, I can't believe this guy asked me to do this. I kind of believe of all that he's like, you know who I thought off the guy who looks just like Kirk Cousins, good time.
I didn't know.
I got to admit Ali, I mean i've seen you. I think you know your profile and like a Twitter page, and but we've never we've never spoken, we've never met.
It is good to talk to you.
So I had no idea, but yeah, you and Kirk, there's a real resemblance. And I love it. I love it for you and for our audience. So everyone and you got to it right away. Everyone thinks of Kirk Cousins as this consistent quarterback because at the end of the year, you think, okay, he's not quite top five or eight, but he's better than average. And he's just
been this steady presence. And I think about back to our around the NFL days with Chris Wesseling, who always really believed in Kirk, and I think he was proven right over time that he was a better quarterback than the rest of us thought that. And he would always make this case that you see five, six, seven game stretches where he's brilliant, where he's you know, one of the best quarterbacks in the league. And what I kind of came to in the end was he's one of
the streakiest quarterbacks in the league. That maybe it's a feel thing, maybe it's a confidence thing. I don't know what it is, but if you go and look throughout his career, he has some really incredible streaks positively, some incredible streaks negatively, and sometimes it's within games, sometimes it's within seasons.
It depends.
And we happened to end last season on the best he's ever played, I would say, or certainly up there as the best.
So that's the last thing that.
We remember and you think, Okay, well, maybe he's just turned a corner and he's a different Kirk now, And I think, like, well, when was the last bad streak? And I think, oh, most of the season before, Like you, if you look at weeks two through seventeen, I know I'm cherry picking here, but pff, like most of that season he was twenty aeth out of thirty nine and PFF grades. I know they aren't perfect, but had a lot of late comebacks. Wasn't really playing that well this year.
I remember in the twenty twenty season, like a disastrous start to that season where people just thought he was done and then he ends up finishing the season really strong, And it just got me thinking about like that, Kirk Cousins, it's a little different than how people think about him now. And if they happen to start the season with bad Kirk Cousins and he's coming off inn Achilles and he's in a new system.
What does that look like?
Does panics set in with Michael Pennix there and everything around him in Atlanta?
Yeah, And I think it's strange with him because I think kind of what the general possession be is at his best right, triggering off on play action, turning them out play action. That's what people think of as Kirk Cousins. I personally think he's at his mess when he's got the whole field in front of him. We get into him, do we get guys out and he can just dice people and play matchable. He just picks it and goes
with it. And when you dig into the numbers, he is one of the best empty quarterbacks the league is see in the past five six years. He just crushes people out of empty, and yet no one ever gives him a decent dose of empty. Now they see him a ton, they watch all the film with him there around him more, they see all the flaws of the roster. Maybe can limit how much you would want to run of that stuff, But he's always been able to average against the blitz. When you run empty, it limits what
you can do blitz wise. It limits what you can do coverage wise. It's why you know, people get upset when they see rookies in empty and why they're not giving them protection. Well, it makes the game a lot easier for him. You can just pick and go. It limits the defensive shell, It limits what they can run in terms of blitz pads. It makes the game a lot simpler for the quarterback. I look at that Falcons roster and I think, would they not just be best saying we are kind of a tempoee from the gun.
You know, if you're a turn the back play action team, that is a lot more talk on moving and rolling and all those kinds of things. With the injury, but just no one's ever had enough faith in him to say we play five out consistently and you just pick can go. And it would be a funny thing to say to a franchise and a fan base, like, hey, all season rests on way putting Kirk in the gun thirty five times twenty and empty. I'm going to try and pick people up out the Super Bowl. That's stuff
the Peyton Mounting does. That's suff the Matthew Stafford does. That's not really what we think of as Kirk Cousins. But that's when I dig through his game, that's where I like him the most.
This is why I wanted you on because that is a really fascinating way to think about it. And that's part of you know, if I'm building this case against Kirk, and I again, I have nothing personal against Kirk. I think he'll be a better than average starter, but I think they're needing him to potentially be more than that. And yeah, I even went back and looked. Actually, you know,
we do the QB Index on NFL dot Com. I did it most years, and Chris did it, and Mark did it one year two and I went and looked, and I know we're not perfect, but he only finished one year in the top ten. So it's like, you know, it was always like twelve thirteen. He hit one year where he was eighth. Last year he was certainly on his way. What you say is fascinating because Zach Robinson was part of I guess if you're making a case
some question marks for him. I looked back at some games where he did struggle because I just wanted to remember sort of what went wrong when he did struggle.
And I think he's a quarterback that relies a lot on timing, a lot on anticipation, that really counts on his receivers to be on his same page, and a lot of times when things go wrong, it's because he trusted them almost too much, and he was working with young receivers which were pushed off their spot or they weren't in the right spot, and he just is throwing
to an area. And I think about Zach Robinson and everyone says, Okay, this is going to be great because he was in this Kevin O'Connell offense.
It's similar.
Zach Robinson is coming from Los Angeles, he's really been in this offense his whole career. Kyle Shanahan, Jay Gruden, it's all similar. But I do think it's a first time coordinator, a first you know, joining two new teams, and I think Kirk is at his best and maybe you saw this. This is year what three with O'Connor, last year year two rather right, and he was getting
comfortable in that offense. Is some concern first time coordinator, brand new playmakers, a lot of young guys and a new coordinator, and I don't think Zach Robinson is going to have the confidence to do it as old boss Sean McVay did with with Matthew Stafford, and yeah, go out of shotgun and just start and letting him cook.
Although that would be fun.
Now if that happens week one, I will remember this conversation.
I think, you know, it's funny people are excited about Zach Robinson. The reality is because Zach Robinson, for his friends of all the SMALLTI football writing notes from his days back at PFF. So everyone knows in text, everyone's in the text chain. It's like, oh, this is exciting. One of us made it true.
This is my corner.
Get on the coaches who kiss up to the writers too. So in this case, I don't think it was intentional. He just literally worked at PFF, so everyone loves him for it. Yeah, and he got there really quick.
And it's you know, I think people are just saying ultimatic, Well, he's going to bring the show. McVay offfense. We have no idea. He has no track record outside of writing about football and then working with one of the smartest people in the game to know what is his own idea of football and is the guy who comes in with a philosophy. He's going to implant it no mind. What is he a guy who will adjust to the quarterback or just to the rest of the roster. Will
he find that through the season? Is a guy who you know, offensive coaches are all different. Some of them have a huge playbook and trim down. Some of them start with very little and build up. We have no idea with him which way he is. So that's going to be fascinating to see. And they just have so many question marks on how these pieces actually fit together. And going back to the LA days, the thing with O'Connell that was really interesting to that empty point. They
completely remade how they ran empty. It was different than anyone else in the league when he was in LA and he was responsible for that under Shaw McVeigh. I don't want to bore people too much of the granular details, but they ran it differently to everyone else. Zach Robinson continued that, and his main thing was redoing the wrong game. They kind of spent two seasons doing two different things. We want to remake the passing game. They built this
different empty system, then we'll remake the wrong game. It's all from eleven. It's all different stuff with receivers than we've done before. So is he bringing that whole thing in one with him with Kirk to Atlanta? And you've got to imagine they spoke about it before and right, is he bringing Kevin's playbook from the year before or is he bringing the updated one from last season that
has both of them fused together. It's to me the most interesting kind of like big picture offensive thing the league is what exactly does Zach Brombinson think is the
right idea for football? Because he's had two of the best playbooks, I would say, of the past two seasons, and now he's got all these different players who again the kind of like right to nerds like me get excited it's positionless football, and then when you boil it down, it's like I would like to have three good players who line up in three spots and play really well. I don't really need them to move around a lot.
What you end up with is Bijon is your primitive receiver, London in the slow where we putting pits and it all falls down because it's just nice sometimes to have a true above average X receiver.
Yeah, and look I think they do with Drake London. I think he's going to have a great season. I don't see why he would in Pitts just has to be healthy and at least I think he can be a positive contributor. What the ceiling is there, I think that's a question. Now Bajan is there. That's like they do have weapons. I'm curious how you think this personnel group. And one thing I always keep an eye on is
offensive lines that had been playing well. I tend to just not assume anything when a new staff comes in because it's just the position group to me that depends the most on coaching and scheme and v Robinson you mentioned it is coming from a great scheme and that's that's a point in his favor that Raheem Morris chose this guy. And Raheem Morris has been around and that was his choice and I give him. I give Raheem Morris benefit of the doubt hera that he's choosing a
good guy. But how do you think this Atlanta group that they have there, you know, under Arthur Smith doing all that crazy run blocking that they were doing, how do you think it fits with with this scheme?
Yeah, and it's well they brought a bunch of that friends too, like if you go through the Falcons offensive staff, there's like just like four advises hanging around to it with the rohms lush year. This is random guys, so I do ask game specialist stuff. And it was with the Rams for three years, so they brought a bunch of people with them too. It's not just Zach Robinson coming with Rahiem. I think what they ran last year.
Arthur Smith, I've said this many times. I think he's one of the great RUNG game design frauds of our era. I think he runs two cool things. There's like a weird wind back block that goes viral and people get all excited and say, Wow, this guy really schemes up cool stuff. I think when you dig through it, most of it's nonsense. Forty percent of that offense last year was midzone forty percent. That's just like as poorly constructed a RUNG game in twenty twenty three as you could
even imagine. And that stuff works when you have Derreck Henry running over everyone and people say, this guy really knows how to scheme up a run game. Running four percent mid zone with a running back like Jon Robinson is just incorrect. Let's say not good coaching. So they've got a lot of work to do in the rung game, and I've got no idea exactly how they're going to draw that up. You know what they do with the rams so well is they run out of ten, they
run out of eleven. They're able to cheat to way, which is the kind of meta trend in all of football. How can I run two back football without putting two backs on the field and how close can I get? What is the trade off of the best possible receiving option. Who's a good enough blocker? Is that a tight second tight end? Or do I have Cooper Cup? And if I have Cooper Cup bought a cheeko if we win a bunch of games like that's what everyone's looking for.
And when you run through the falcons, I think that line is a really really solid interior double in climb, but a dent in the front and let someone go to work. And so that makes sense to me with what the Rams did. But where it falls down slightly is so we have pits and he's in line, not going to happen. Drake London I think works best as a power slot personally. Does he want to dig someone out inside. Is Ray McLeod going to go in and
dig someone out inside? So they find themselves in this situation where if you're not going to have those guys play inside and we're running the ball from a smaller personnel grouping, now you have to try and find a way to move people and that does not over the athletic line. They are a forward facing line. They double and they go. I think Bergeron has a chance, but he moved inside last year, struggled a little bit. He's
rarely springy, but he's not a huge flyer. So again they come down to what is our philosophy versus what can I actually do with the personnel we have. I think there's a world where you can make it fit. But I think it's telling they brought in the Titans from San Francisco. They're like, we need more beef.
Charlie Guy, Charlie Werner.
It's Ross Dwelly because yeah, you look at the receivers and I don't know if you want if Drake London can do some of the Cooper Cup type stuff. I mean he's at least a bigger frame, certainly, But they lose Rondell Moore to what sounded like a serious injury. He was going to be part of the offense. Darnell Mooney, you know, I like too laningrad like myself, but not a guy you would want out blocking on the edge by any means. And yeah, there's gonna be an adjustment.
And that kind of gets to, you know, the next part of my case here, which is more than just x as and o's and it's something Kirk Cousins has talked about and maybe he has overcome what he thought was his biggest issue as a pro, which you could sometimes see on the field that he thought he was almost so critical of himself, always seeking perfection so much
as as a quarterback. And again my friend Wes wrote about this too, that sometimes he kind of fritz out, and people remember him lining up behind the guards in big moments, but the whole Kirk can't play that well and the clutch thing or primetime was like a little overstated, but there were moments where he absolutely fritzed out in
a way that top level quarterbacks don't. And I'm just thinking, and maybe this is going too far psychologically and just the situation that they're in, the Expectations are very high. They drafted Michael Pennock's number eight overall, he was not expecting that. He's made it clear he's not a fan of that. Who would be a fan of that. If you're Kirk Cousins and their defense, we don't need to spend time on their defense. But I just think it's safe to say a talent wise, it's a bottom five unit.
They could be trailing in a lot of game.
The schedule is pretty difficult early defense of the defenses they face Pittsburgh, Philadelphia, Kansas City, Saints, Bucks. You know those are tough defenses early. To me, just add all that stuff up together and a guy who wants to be comfortable and it's a lot of new things, and I think, is there a chance here where it just becomes very difficult on Kirk Cousins, the human on top of just Kirk Cousins that the football player.
Yeah, I think you mentioned it. With how his game goes. When he gets baddie gets really grim, he has a chance to create a you'll just have quotes's way, like what just happened in the third quotes was he was dealing people up. Its weird. So if that could sustain over two to three weeks, that could be pretty ugly. The only thing that I would say, I guess his defense is he didn't choose this. He had every possibility just roll back to minnesot It's an easy keep it rolling.
I'm working with Justin Jefferson, I got Kevin O'Connell. No one's going to criticize me whatever. He chose this in partnership with this offensive coordinator, basically saying that these guys have better weapons. Overall, I think this gives me a better chance and I get all this money. It would be peculiar. I think to go in there and then kind of like receid back from the ownership of like this is what I wanted. It's like, well, this is why he didn't walk in thinking this defense is good.
The fact they were able to cobbles mean to again last year was a mining miracle with the way they played to even try and run in again saying hey, we're a man coverage team without a pass rush. Next season, it's like you are going to get smoked all over the place. They need to. I think pretty bad rookies to actually play well this season. This is not going to happen. They didn't play well in college so yeah, he's going to be down in games he picked it for.
I'm guessing personal relationships and the chance to play with those receivers and probably a slightly better offensive line that that's kind of touch and go, I'd say so, and the division so but to your point, yeah, when it goes was bad with Kirk Cousins, it gets grim quick.
That's sort of where this all started for me, that there are just a lot of ingredients for a difficult start or a difficult.
Season, and then you just think of it.
I think the pressure on him, not just just football wise, that county on him to be as good as making this a Super Bowl contender.
And the problem he's got too, Greg is Penix is probably going to light it up in pre season. He is going to rip through trading camp. I refuse to follow the way you have to do for work. All the different reports, I guarantee without looking blind taste says that there is every report out there that, oh my god, Penix looks so special. It's been a little quiet, I gotta say I have.
It actually has been a little quiet, to the point where I was like, is he struggling down there? I need to talk to someone they also have a quiet media contingent in general. But I have been looking in some of the numbers and stuff. It's been a lot more positive on Kirk. So there's a point in favor.
For there we go, but he can spin it and the flaws that I think grim Penix Penix's game who I would never have taken the first round on let alone where they did it with the situation. They had just a bizarre decision then and even worse in hindsight, I think. And if it torches the building to your point, because they knocked the confidence of a fragile guy before he even walked through the door, would be an all time bag fumble from a team who just gave him
that much money. That could be one lingering thing. If Pennix is just a great practice player because he's not being touched and he can just rip it all over the place, that could add to the burden.
I'm looking forward to it.
I just think this team is you said it in terms of the scheme, questions of how they're gonna run it, I'm fascinated by. I'm not rooting against Kirk Cousins because of this podcast. It's just one of those situations that I feel like has a lot of variability and people are assuming too much of what's going on there and it could be a struggle and it could just be
one of these stories we're tracking. As much I loved having you on Olly Connolly, it's like come for the Kirk Cutter his cousins analysis and you know, mild criticism and stay for the total side swaye by Arthur Smith, just killing my optimism about like, hey, maybe Justin Field's running a bunch of read option stuff.
It's gonna be fun and in Pittsburgh. I love that you just killed it. You mince no words.
Yeah, I minced no woods around all the Smith Matt kind of did. The guys who I think are fraudulent people and somehow get huge media reputations for reasons that remain unclear to me. Then I'm happy to be the guy who will stund up of the stunning in front of the shopnel to take out all the Smith. I think I've been proven right by by history on that one, and I will be this season.
Like like I said, everyone should check out read Optional and the podcast that he does with John and the writing, and honestly it's almost humiliating how well you do it and how much you know when it's your side gig at this point, you're like, you're covering soccer as we would call it at this point.
Yeah, but I always says people like when people are watching Done to the Dragons, I am just cranking Coastal Carol the film that is, like, I get a glass of wine on on Sunday nine tonight, just watch Coast like Carolina. I'm I'm a side guy, Greg, but I'm able to do podcasts and take you show to auth the Smith.
So that's that was great.
Having you, Ali, and I hope we can do it again. That is it for this week's worth of NFL Daily. Will we be back, first thing in your feed on Monday morning with Nick Schuck breaking down all the winners, the losers, the notes from the rest of the weekend, the first full preseason weekend. Yeah, enjoy, you're watching You're watching Olympics athletics at the highest level.
You know.
I'm watching, you know, the Sean Clifford Michael Pratt battle and getting super into it.
So enjoy.
I'll see you later, Ali, Thanks for having me, all right, We'll see you next time.
On NFL Daily