Welcome into the NFL Report. James Palmer, Steve Whites with you. It's a Monday, but I think the Dolphins are still scoring. Steve, we got a packed show for you today. We have Leslie Fraser, the former defensive coordinator of the Buffalo Bills, breaking down what happened, Devance Joseph and am never Broncos defense. Also Omar Owiz, Tom Pellisaro, Jeff Chediaz with us every Monday. We got a lot, Steve, and we still didn't even mention that there's a lot going on in Kansas City right now.
Yeah, and that's not even on the field, JP.
I mean, look, every cutaway shot, every cutaway shot before they actually cut away from the game, was.
If Taylor Swift.
Oh and Travis Kelsey right, Look, he's a Mama Kelsey, so I guess the rumors are true he introduced her to mama, or at least somebody did up in the suite. But you know, I know the conversation is of Taylor and of Trav. But JP, here's my take on this. Okay, I'm not a big conspiracy theory guy, but oh okay, this is Patrick's being the ultimate wing man and not with the fact that he got Travis five of his seven catches in the first half to get Taylor.
Up in arms like she was. But remember Patrick Mahomes was.
On a little show this summer called Quarterback, little Netflix series that was really, really good. Well, I think he's gonna now share and an executive producer credit with Peyton Manning, and they're gonna have a spinoff called tight End, right, and Travis Kelsey who is gonna be in it? And Taylor Swift is there to get everybody and not just a football fans.
I mean, am I off base here? Do you like my theory that they're working on this? I like this. I think this is what we're really going to play.
I like the conspiracy theory because also I'm not sure how you introduced a woman to your mother within the first week or two of dating her.
We don't know that. We don't know that, don't I don't.
Know what's happening. Listen before we move on, I also say Kansas City is a hot spot for the Pittsburgh Steelers, and I'm just happy that in new airport's been built because I can can you imagine someone being being stranded that long? I've spent some time at the old kCi Airport, you know, just fighting for a cold flatbread at off the vine or some stuff out of the vending machine. But that's neither here nor there's Stave. Luckily they built
that new beautiful spot there in Kansas City. And one of the guys that I used to play in Kansas City, his name's Tyreek Hill, said a lot of things this, you know, a couple off seasons when he went to Miami, Steve, if you remember, maybe we should be remembering what Tyreek Hill was saying about his quarterback to a tunguea bi lo, how accurate he was, how much he thought of his new quarterback. Because they put up seventy points on Sean Payton and the Denver Broncos. That's a seven zero most
points since nineteen sixty six. Could have easily broken the points and the yardage marks. But really let off the gas. What's your initial take on Miami, because we will with Leslie Frasier get to the Broncos side of things in a little bit.
Yeah, I mean, look, this is stunning, right, seventy points in an NFL game, which spells a lot of things, like your offense is running efficiently. You're just totally dominating a team and also made question the effort of the opposing team. Now we're just showing a play right here, the shovel pass where two fakes a left handed no looks at right handed. What people don't know the onely
thing TWA does left handed is throw. Everything else he does is right handed, So that was kind of natural to him right there.
But let me tell you something.
But if I'm Mike McDaniel heading into next year's game with Buffalo, here's what I would do with this game tape that was just absolute perfection. I would put it in the archives and not let my team think that they're anything interesting special going into Buffalo, because you might say, look,
our offense is so great, we're flying. Look at how we ran all of these great plays you know outside and things are working in the run game where Devon a Chain and Raheem Mostert they combined for eight touchdowns in.
The run in pass game.
I would stash that and say, look, the week before we had problems scoring against the New England Pagets, who are in a division. It only gave us twenty four and we had to work for those. Buffalo is going to be the same way. So as good as we may feel about hanging a record seventy points, good gosh on the Broncos, I put it away for now and save that for the postseason highlight tape.
Aren't you a buzzkill?
Like?
What did you do to you ever celebrate any of your three sons accomplishments in any athletics or did you just always go well, you know you could have done better? Come on, listen. What I do look at this tape and I look at what happened and watching almost all of this game on Sunday, is we are seeing a really, really good marriage between one of the most dynamic, innovative play callers out there in Mike McDaniel, and a quarterback that is able to operate it the way he wants
it to be operated. What we're seeing is the balls out extremely quick. And the reason I bring that up, Steve, is what Mike McDaniel does is he puts all of these guys and positions to do what make sure they play to their strengths and he hides their deficiencies. I think that's the part that maybe stands out to me the most is when maybe their biggest weakness as an offense is pass protection is protecting Tua. What happens, We have a bunch of guys that get open extremely quickly
and the balls out of his hand extremely quickly. Don't quote me on these numbers, but I believe this season Trevor Lawrence is the only one that's gotten the football out faster than Tua has this season. So I think the other part Steve that jumps out of me is they just kind of have started this marriage with one another. This is their second season together and we're three games in and it looks like they can almost do anything because of the weapons that Tua has around him and the balance.
That they have all right, but JP, we could see that they could do almost anything. We know they played well against the Chargers in the opener, but again think back to New England.
They had to fight for all twenty.
Four of them and now that was a good game plan, and I would think Buffalo would do something similar to that. Take away the middle of the field, take away Tyreek. We know what the routes too, likes to likes to go towards right. You would think that's similar to what Buffalo is gonna go do. Who took the ball away a bunch in the on Sunday.
Correct, So again, that's what I'm saying.
And by the way, there are no participation trophies in the White household.
You have to earn them.
I know kids would have got they would have gotten a blue ribbon for seventy points.
But it's only week three. You don't win championships in September.
But yes, I would say, you know, well done by the Dolphins, but save it for those reasons. There are no Lombardi trophies. Hands it out in September.
Interesting, you got anything left on this other than we still don't know how to pronounce a chain's name A chain.
Andrew Cecilian and I were on a draft show, and Andrew asked him how to pronounce it. He said, a chain, I know, Peter King and the confident.
He said, it's a chan.
But maybe now the.
Team is coming out, well, I mean maybe field, now the team.
Is coming out. Okay, all right, unbelievable, unbelievab all right. Let le's let's move on to uh a surprise team getting a w in time?
Steve, Yeah, absolutely, that's the Indianapolis Colts, and that leads an entire discussion right here JP about three first year coaches getting dubbs, all upset dubs. And you look at the Indianapolis Colts in this game, and remember last week the last two shows we did. Boy, were we jock riding the Baltimore Ravens and how great their offense was and everything off? Yes, yeah, I mean, but look, I'm
not off It's one game. But the fact that Shane Steichen has got so many things going and one this defense is playing a lot better than I think anybody expect him to play. Right, So they went there and they really put the clamps down on this high flying offense that we were talking about was going to be so great. Yes, weather factored into it, but Gardner minshew also,
this is the second straight win by the Colts. He comes in when Anthony Richardson, who's played well got hurt last week, led them to victory, and then he comes in here and moves the ball efficiently down the field and doesn't turn it over on a day like this, This is very important. So the Colts, they're a team in this division that we did not see right now getting off to this type of start JP. So props to Saint Steiken and what he's doing in his first year in Indy.
I think he deserves a ton of credit for what he's doing. Look at what he had to deal with before they even played a game. What did Chris Ballard, their general manager, says, Steve It sucks. It all sucks. It sucks from every angle. Chris Baller couldn't stop saying sucks in the press conference with what Shane Styken had to deal with with Jonathan Taylor. And it's not like you know, it was just a distraction from that standpoint, it's your best player on your team that he's still
coaching without right now and has been the distraction. They can get Jonathan Taylor back after Week four to add to this offense that rushed for one hundred and thirty nine yards against the Ravens last on Sunday. You could add Jonathan Taylor to this group. And I think the job that he's done with Anthony Richardson so far now, the issue is he hasn't finished the two games that he started. It didn't play in this game because of
the concussion protocol. But I think you and I could both agree that how few games he played at the collegiate level. He looked beyond comfortable out there, and that a lot has to do with how he was set up to succeed by Shane Stike. And I think Shane's done a tremendous job. They're leading the division now. The other team that has a first year head coach in Demiico Ryans in the Houston Texans. Dimiko got his first win Steve over another AFC South team, the Jacksonville Jaguars.
Will get to Doug Pearson's Jaguars. But what do you think about Demico and his first win and what we've seen out of Houston.
Well, I mean, look a huge upset thirty seven to seventeen. But what was so great about this win was it was a complete team win. Right, You've have Bill Anderson blocking a fuel goal. You've got your fullback taking eighty five yard kick eighty five yard to the house. It took him about seventeen seconds, right, but it was the most beautiful, fast motion slow you should kick off return ever to do that.
And then CJ.
Stroud comes out and plays really well. Our road game plays really good circumstances. And I want to get this over to you because you know, we know last week Brian Robinson, the running back for the Washington Commanders, came here and made you feel bad about Ohio State.
But CJ.
Stroud came in here off the big Buckeye victory over Notre Dame and.
Has a fantastic game. And it's not just a fantastic game JP, c J.
Stroud has played pretty well and his first three starts to go with.
That pretty well. This is one of the best starts we've ever seen from a quarterback in their first three NFL starts. He's got over nine hundred yards. I think that's third all time through a player's first three games. He hasn't thrown interception yet, which is mar I think he's got four touchdowns and also real quick back to the buck Eys. You know he talked to after this win on the phone from the locker room, Ryan Day,
head coach of the buck Guys. Him and Ryan were chatting on the phone a little bit while he was still in the locker room after this, after this win, and I talked to some people down in Houston Monday morning, and the two things that jump out of me most Steve is this with Dimiko Ryans. They don't obviously realize that that this thing is like off and running, we're
gonna get ten wins. But the foundation that they're laying, and that's what you're mentioning with complimentary football, doing things from every aspect of the three phases of football, they do feel like players are buying in. I think that's huge, even after an zer and two start. But the stuff about Stroud that I was told was just, you know, already for coaches to say Steve that he gives us a chance in every game and this is his third game. What jumps out to Tamiko Ryans the most is that
he gets better every week. He corrects his mistakes extremely quickly. He told Albert Breer of SI or good buddied fella Buckey, no big deal, that he really nobody on the team studies harder than he does. He puts in more work studying than anybody else. And I think what we've seen from Stroud that stands out to me the most before
we get to Jacksonville. My last point on this is he has already understood the importance of limiting negative plays, and I think that's extremely big for a young quarterback to understand early. Is that if I don't hurt my team. Negative plays can come back to bite his very quickly. And he hasn't thrown a pick yet. He's already learned behind a shoddy offensive line how to get rid of
the football. The growth in that aspect, even with the run game not being what they thought it would be, so far early on him learning those things early on, He's growing by leaps and bounds. It's been wild. Yeah, you know, but I'm not surprised that's a Buckeye.
No, I'm sure you aren't.
Brian Robinson sens his best regards as well, so does Lou Holtz.
But look coasting the two teams that we thought were going to be leading this division at this point. Tennessee.
They get held under one hundred yards of offense by the Browns this week. But the Jaguars, right, they were the team.
And look, nobody's out of it in this division.
But we thought they would have a little mojo, right, Calvin Ridley coming in, Trevor Lawrence, some of the moves that they made to further bolster their team. JP They are not playing good defensive football right now, and offensively they still seem to have a lot of things to work through in large part of the offensive line has not played well. They just seem little disjointed. Doug Peterson, Yeah, Doug Peterson came out and said, Hey, maybe.
They're just trying to live up to the hype too much.
Yeah, reading your press clippings does not comments you want to come out of your head coach's mouth this early. I thought they would come out of the gates, Gangbuster, Steve, considering how they finished the regular season last year and how excited they were for the start of this season with the way that they played and coming so close
and arrowhead in that postseason game. I'm curious with everything Doug Peters had set after the game and set on Monday in terms of there was a lack of effort at times, that there was more energy coming from the Houston Texans that they're getting beat in the trenches. You mentioned the offensive line. There's no pass rush there either mentioned the offensive line issues for the Texans. C. J. Stroud wasn't sacked once, and that's that's on the defensive line,
I think more so of the Jacksonville Jaguars. Before we get to break, my last point would be this, Steve that I think maybe the trip to London might be best for them. In two weeks, They're gonna spend two weeks over there play back to back games in London. If there's issues with distractions, reading press clippings, things like that, maybe going across the pond as they say.
Oh, you didn't do it, dude.
Come on, Nobody over there likes that phrase. Nobody over there likes that phrase. Just to like you hear that, Let you hear that. I'm gonna ask Tom if he likes to use across the pond. Coming up, we got Tom Pelis Sarah coming up after the break. He's gonna give us a boatload of info. He was at the game between the Chargers and Vikings. He's got tons of things from that game. Also, Omar Rowiez was at that
stunner where the Cowboys went down to the Cardinals. Ward of the NFL Report coming up, Back of.
The NFL Report and Jay Palmer and Iron now joined by Tom Pella Serra, one third of the Insiders, which you can catch daily on NFL Network and on NFL Plus.
Tom, thanks so much for joining us. You know you got a busy day. Could you catch us up?
First off, on some injury stage quarterback, you're car Charges wide receiver Mike Williams.
Let's start out with on Derek Carr.
Steve Who Tennis Allen, the Saints head coach, just confirmed a short time ago, is dealing with an ac joint spring. Alan says that Carr is week to week. Also says they're not even gonna rule him out for this week's game against the Buccaneers. As Alan put it, we dodged a bullet here that it wasn't something more significant. You can see him getting ragged all to the ground there by Rashaan Gary against the Packers in Sunday's game. Car
ended up in a local hospital undergoing further evaluation. That often happens when you have an injury that potentially could lead to something being punctured or some type of an internal thing. He underwent tests. It was not that severe. Now it's going to be a matter of how quickly does he heal, how quickly does the pain the swelling go away.
That will guide where the Saints go a quarterback.
If Carr can't go, then Jameis Winston would presumably be the next man up. The news not as good on Chargers wide receiver Mike Williams. He suffered a torn eight in Sunday's win over the Vikings. The Chargers knew it was bad on the field just looking at the mechanism
of the injury. They weren't entirely certain until Williams underwent the MRI on Monday, but that confirmed as a season ending type of an injury for Mike Williams at a time that LA is going to be coming off of their first win of the season in thrillian fashion against the Vikings. Now, obviously they still have the likes of
Keenan Allen and Joshua Palmer. First round pick Quintin Johnston now begins to come to the forefront here, not entirely the exact same skill set as of Mike Williams, but there have been some encouraging moments for Johnson so far during training camp. Now he's going to get his shot for real beginning this week.
So, Tom, you were at this game, and that's why I kind of want to ask you this question, and it's in two parts, and you handle that two part or brilliantly, So I think this is going to be a walk in the park for you. Like J. C. Jackson is a healthy scratch right, and you know what you're paying him as a corner. That's a, I think, just a microcosm of what's happened to this Chargers defense
so far. The other part of it is we talk about Mike Williams going down, but we've seen Kellen Moore and Justin Herbert just kind of hit the ground running offensively in the way that they performed on that side of the ball. Tell me about that marriage offensively, But also if they just play okay defense, can the Chargers go.
On a run here?
Well?
First of all, James, I think it's important to note that the Chargers have been dealing with some injuries so far on defense. Joey Bosa, who's their star pass rusher, only played a very limited number of snaps in Week two. We played a little bit more in Week three, but
they don't have him entirely full go yet. Or when James dropped out with an injury on Sunday, Jase Jackson not active because of non injury related reasons, and they're middle linebacker Eric Kendricks, the former Viking, also not out there right now as he deals with a hamstring injury. So you've got a lot of moving parts. I thought that it was notable that when the Chargers went for it on that fourth and one did not get it at their own twenty four yard line, the LA defense
was challenged there. They were going to have to save the day for these and sure enough, the backup to Eric Kendricks Ben Nieman is the one who's got blanket coverage on the NFL's highest paid tight end, TJ. Hawkinson knocks that ball into the air. Kenneth Murray comes up
with an interception. It's not where anyone would like. They've had to adjust some things in terms of how they're playing Schematically, they're a little bit different than what historically for Brandon Staley coming out of that vic Fango type scheme is a shell defense. This year we've seen them play a lot more man cover one, so they've had to make some adjustments based on who's on the field.
Here.
You saw them going with a different lineup at corner. They thought that that gave him the best chance to win. It was not entirely clean. Justin Jefferson, it seems like it's going to get one hundred and fifty yards on everybody he.
Faces on it.
They did not break in the biggest moment in that game, and La is able to come away with a win. As for Kellen Moore and that marriage with Justin Herbert, I think that that's been you know, there's certainly been bumps like you would anticipate coming out of the gate. They did stay in Justin Herbert's language, which was a big deal. In other words, they didn't change all the terminology.
They wanted him to have that level of consistency as he moved move forward here it's more vertical passing than he's done in the past. You saw some of those big plays, So keenan Allen make a big play throwing the football down the field too. Remember they haven't had Austin Eckler for these past two games because of an ankle injury. Well, what happens when you don't have Austin Eckler and no offense to Josh Kelly. You've got different
backs in the backfield. Nobody's respecting the run. They're beginning to play to take away the pass here, and that didn't change a whole lot. You did this, Leslie Frazier mentioned, have a lot more blitzer that the Vikers were trying to throw at Justin Herbert. They still were able to get those explosives. And I don't know how old Keenan Allen is at this point. He's like thirty four. He still looks like he's absolutely in his prime and had a monster day against the Vikings.
He's thirty one. In the words of Brandis Daily, he still has his stinger. Tom, we got about oh, sorry seconds.
Added three years for you there, that's all right.
But we got about forty five seconds.
Way, he looks, I think you're accurate.
Yeah, Kirk Cousins three. A lot of conversation about potential trade. Could the Vikings just dump him? Is that feasible?
Like? Why why would they dump him? Right now? Over to one three?
But could he potentially be moved?
Well, first of all, Kirk Cousins has a no trade clause, so he would have to approve any deal. And if your cousins and you're trying to get to one more big time pay day, it's Kirk Cousins. Maybe he's got three more big paydays, but at least one more come March. Going to a new team that maybe isn't the best situation,
not having the familiarity. There's some potential dangers in that the Vikings also, even though they're owen three here, I have not gotten any sense that they look at this and say we got to tear it down, trade everybody and start over. They've been challenged out of the gate, They've played a bunch of close games. They won all those close games last year. This year all one possession games, all losses. But you don't go out and trade for cam Akers. You don't go and sol sign Dalton Riisner
two moves they made last week. If you're not anticipating we still could be competitive right now in twenty twenty three. Maybe we're having a different conversation as we get closer to the trade deadline here, But right now, guys, I would not say that that is the focus for the Vikings here, still trying to figure out, okay, what's our path forward to be competing in the NFC North where this point two games back, but a long way to go.
Tom Pete, thank you.
I can't believe Tom, real quick, Tom, I can't believe that you would undersell Kirk Cousins like that and say he only has three more paydays left. I mean, I can't believe you would disrespect kirk guarantee money three more pay days I.
Think twenty fifteen, so he's on year nine consecutively of having fully guaranteed money. Listen, it's gonna be an interesting quarterback here because you've got Ryan Tannehill is also pending free agent. You've got uncertain features from a bunch of guys right now who are currently under contract with teams. Maybe there are trades that happen in the offseason. Also, as a quarterback class in the draft that is considered to be really, really good.
It's gonna be fascinating. Thank goodness.
We're still like six months away from that, but it's not that far away.
Yeah, okay, I know you have to wait about it.
Can't wait for that. It's gonna be good. Tom Pete, thank you so much for joining us. Brother, Get some rest, all right. And in the big upset of the weekend in the desert, the Arizona Cardinals spring for an upset of the Dallas Cowboys, who everybody thought we're gonna go seventeen and oh but Arizona oh to two.
Start very competitive.
Each of those games. See Josh Dobbs, a quarterback, come here and lead the upset. So let's bring in our Omar Ruiz, who was at that game.
Omar, you went.
Into the Cardinals locker room after that game, what was it like? Because this is a team everyone said, Oh, they're gonna be drafting the first overall pick next year.
They're gonna absolutely stink.
But they had every game in every game this year and then they upset the Cowboys.
Yeah, well, they have a locker room full of confidence.
This is a team that feels they should be three and oh and all that stuff about thinking the Cardinals are going to be the first pick in the draft and all the naysayers. They've heard of all that, not necessarily through media reports, but Cavon Wallace and Kaisier White both said that their family members have been them about how badly the Cowboys were gonna beat them, and they're
looking forward to getting back at their family members. So it's a team with growing confidence that never stopped believing in themselves even in those deficient games against Washington and against the New York Giants. So for them to capitalize on the Dallas Cowboys at home was big for them.
Omro, I'm curious what the take is being there and in the locker room with players talking about their head coach Jonathan Gannon and his first season as a head coach. To me talking to people in Arizona Monday morning, it was this, we might have blown leads in second half of both of our first two games, but what does it show us in the first half when our team came out what appears to be prepared, probably not as
talented as most of the teams in the NFL. Let's just be entirely honest, and they're smart, made good decisions to get those double digit leads early. Something's going right early in these games. And the people in Arizona I talked to point two, that's coaching right, that's preparing your players during the week in the early portion of the games. Maybe we have to learn how to win as part
of that. What's the take with this team and Jonathan Gannon, Because to me, this is maybe Steve in all honesty, looking at all three of their games, one of the bigger surprises of a team coming out and playing as well as Arizona has with the talent that they have.
Well, I think the complete buy in for Jonathan Gannon has been there, and that's something that I've seen since OTAs all through Mini camp training, camp and now the regular season. It's interesting to point out the fact that they've outscored their opponents fifty four to twenty in the first half of the season.
So to your point, they're coming out prepared, they have a.
Solid game plan, and you figured they've had a good they would have a good game plan against Dallas, specifically on defense, given Jonathan Gannon and Nick Rales, the Cardinals defensive coordinators history in the NFC East with the Philadelphia Eagles, And I asked Jonathan Gannon after the game, what tangible lessons maybe they learned from those first two losses, because of course they kept saying that they have to finish
and they have to change how they finished games. But what tangibly might have they worked more diligently to finish this And he said, you know, if they're going to allow teams to go down the field of them, don't allow them to go quickly. In other words, limit the explosive plays. And that's something they did against the Dallas Cowboys. And then to buckle up in the red zone, and we saw Dallas go one.
For five in the red area.
Kaizer White that big interception on Dak Prescott to essentially seal the game. And what was interesting is White said in that play call. Throughout the week at practice he kept messing it up, but obviously in the game did not mess it up when it mattered most. And he said he was on point the entire game, even though he struggled with it during the week.
But yeah, this is a team that's bought in.
And I asked Gannon also, did you need this win, you know, to validate everything for the foundation you guys are laying and he said, no, you know what they do on a daily basis. You know they believe in their process driven, not necessarily results driven. That's something he's been preaching the entire offseason. But certainly feels good to get that win and something that you know they don't necessarily feel validated by, but understand it's a results driven league.
Soids again getting a w and coach speak.
According to Omar right there, Hey, oh, we appreciate you, I tell you what. With the way Josh Dobbs is playing right now too, I think that is something we need to keep watching because he's playing at a starting quarterback level. Omar, Luiz, we appreciate you joining us here on the block. And coming up, JP, we are going to get some insight from one of.
The best defensive coaches in the.
NFL past few decades, passing my ideas on that Broncos defense. We had no d in it on Sunday against the Dolphins here on the NFL Report.
I'll be brief.
Obviously that was embarrassing and.
Tough to watch.
Aside from the kick return, there weren't a lot of positives to take from that game.
I know that you said it's embarrassing, but this is kind of an historic game. I'm third time the team has scored seventy points over seven. What's the question?
I mean, what's the question?
I just finished telling you historically embarrassing. Next question.
As Broncos coach Sean Payton hitting a reporter with the next question, James Palmer, we are now joined by a former NFL head coach when we're a longtime defensive coordinator and class of twenty twenty three Black College Football Hall of Famer Leslie Fraser, who's now a.
Member of our NFL Network crew. Least good seeing you.
Good, good to be here.
Thank you guys for having.
Me, absolutely so.
Lest We're starting right there, start right there, seventy stacks, right, they got seventy points hung on them.
From what you saw in that game. We know the Dolphins.
Dolphins offense is explosive, but what is going on with that Broncos defense to get abused like it did?
Yeah, well, first thing, Steve, you know, just seeing that tone by Sean that press conference, that gives you an idea or probably what everyone is spilling in that locker room as well. I mean, as a coordinator in this league on defense, no one wants to experience what those
guys experienced yesterday. And yeah, there's gonna be some humbling moments during your season if you're in this league long enough, but to experience what they did yesterday, it just I mean, Sean said it was embarrassing in so many.
Ways, but that happens in this league.
But what I saw was at times the tackling wasn't what you wanted to be. Obviously, there's some things and they can do better schematically. And I know Vance Joseph, he's a really good football coach, good guy, and he's gonna work as hard as he can to get things turned around. I know that meeting today with the players is a tough one. But you can see even on the clip that you're showing the tackling man, it just showed up over and over and over again. Nobody could
find a way to make a play. And at some point, you know, you want to try to stop the bleeding, someone has to stand up and make a play, and that just didn't happen in that ball game yesterday. So you really want to go back to the fundamentals and the technique that's necessary to help you to improve. And then you got to go back and say, what about our scheme? You know, what are we gonna have to
do schematically to get this fixed? And they've got some issues that's obvious based on what happened this past weekend, then even a week before when Washington was able to come back in the second half. I mean, so there's some things that have to be worked out and they've got a lot of work ahead of them. But that was that was tough to watch for everyone.
You're exactly right, when you give up over three hundred and fifty yards running and over three hundred and fifty yards passing, the balance of the beatdown almost hurts even even worse. Let's push this forward to some other because I want to pick your brain in terms of putting your coaching hat on here and Brandon Staley and it is one fifty one remaining in the game. It is fourth in inches, they're up by four from their own twenty four. Now, analytics will tell you that this is
what they should do, go for it. I want to know from a coaching standpoint on the sideline, what would go through your mind, your staff. I kind of just want to get a feel for this whole moment and what you think what would be your kind of your your process.
Well, from an operational standpoint, James, you know you you probably have someone in your your one of your analytics guys talking about the probability of success if you go forward, and you may have a coach on your staff, your assistant head coach, if you have one or one of your confidence who's telling you on the headset, Hey, coach, they need a touchdown to win the game. They have
no time out. If we punt, make them keep the ball in bounds, there's a very good chance we're gonna win this game on defense if we punt the football and make them have to go to the lift of the field. So you're hearing that and you've got to be able to dissect that information and then make a decision. And you know, Brandon made the decision to go forward.
The analytics didn't work, and you know, at there are times where you need to override analytics and sometimes go based on how your team is performing or where you are in the ball game. And didn't make a decision as a head coach, and in this case, he made the decision and it almost backfar.
But let's se Okay, this is the question I've had because you know, we know Brandon loves to do this stuff, play this analytics game, go for it on fourth down.
You talked about the situation of the game.
They got Kirk Cousin and Justin Jefferson and you just gave them twenty four yards to get into the end zone. If not for some nincome poop behavior that they did when they got the ball back, they would have won that ball game. So is there anyone who could get in Brandon Staley's ear and say do not do this and it do not run a fullback dive over the right. Yeah, it wasn't a freaking spectacular play.
Yeah, you know, personally, I don't I don't want to second guess the play call.
Yeah, you're right.
The hindsight, you could say maybe they should have run a different play. But going forward in that situation is what I have a bigger problem with, not so much to play call. And it's just the defense was probably playing as better than they played in the first couple of weeks. Yes, so make Minnesota thankful to drive the field and and and make them have to make some plays. Uh, but you know they chose not to do that, and it almost cost them uh to end up.
Being oh and three.
Fortunately, Minnesota doesn't spike the ball when they had an opportunity to to try to gather themselves, especially with TJ. Hockinson being a little bit banged up and then justin uh suffering with cramps.
Uh.
So you know, you think they needed a blow and that was an opportunity to get that done. And you saw the comments by Kevin and he really felt like he should have spoken to h Kurt got word to him to go ahead and spike it to get those as a chance to get their breath. But they didn't, and they hurried up, tried to make a play and it and it cost him quickly.
Lesson should we would you get Kirt Cousins the past saying wait for his coach to spike it. He'd been in this league a long time, He's done some great things. Sometimes I veteran quarterbacks. Got to make a veteran quarterback play.
Oh yeah, I've been around some great quarterbacks in no situations Peyton Mann and been one of them. I mean, you know he's going to take control in that situation. And I know that that Kurt, you know, has the confidence of the coaching staff to be able to spike that football in that situation. They work on it all the time and they're two being a drill and a hurry up situations. So would not have put anybody out
of sorts if he had chosen to spike it. For whatever reason he didn't in that moment, and that it ended up costing him a ball game.
I feel like you could watch the tape of the end of that game, lesson and just teach coaching, uh for hours and hours about about how it went down. I got one last one for you, and I know we gotta be a little quicker with this. You wanted to talk about teams that can get to the quarterback with four pass rushers or four rushers or four man rushers,
what is going to be the importance? So I can watch that as a more educated fan this season, that's going to change the way some of these defenses can compete down the stretch.
Well, James, you as you watch the league and you see how it's definitely a passing league, and Miami is obviously a great example of that, and other teams as well that are doing a good job of throwing the ball around. If you have to rely on five and six man pressure to get out of the quarterback, kind of like what Minnesota was trying to do yesterday. I think they blitzed justin you know, fifty percent of the time.
And when you're doing that and you're not able to rush with four, you put your secondary at peril and now you run the risk of giving up explosives. And that's kind of been the Chargers problem throughout the season
and other teams as well. But when you look at the Browns, you look at the Bills, you look at even the Jets, the Cowboys, teams that can rush with four, it gives you a better chance to be able to affect the quarterback and take the football away as well versus trying to, you know, bring five or six and exposing your self can do.
I love it. I love it. I love that we have your mind, Leslie to have on this show because mine's all right. Steve's is better than mine, but yours is better than both of ours. So I appreciate it. We're gonna have you back on I think next week. See, let's have Leslie on just as many times we're gonna.
We're gonna.
We're gonnakeep ready.
Keep him in here, man, we need the knowledge.
Appreciate it.
You need it, man, we need it. You got it, you got it, Leslie. Coming up on the NFL Report, we're gonna talk to Jeff Shadia about one and only Brock Party. I think Brock deserves a little more credits.
Yes he does.
Steve agrees. Let's break down party. Coming up on the NFL Report.
Week five is a big international matchup that can be watched exclusively on NFL Plus.
It's the Bills and.
Jaguars at Tottenham Hotspurs Stadium in London, October eighth, at nine to thirty Eastern time. Sign him today at plus dot NFL dot com, and this is the NFL Report which is available on roku, to b Pluto and all of your other fast networks. And there's also the podcast you Know What. Else Where you can find out more information is on NFL dot com slash first read. As we are joined by the author of First Read and he has the first Read block.
Jeff Shedea. Jeff, thanks so much for joining us. JP.
You know, Jeff lives in Kansas City and right now they're famous for a little bit more than the Chiefs and barbecue, just a little bit.
It's it's it's Taylor Swift Town now basically the Travis Kelce and Travis Kelce's mom in the suite, about three hundred people in there with her. I've never seen that many people in one suite, and that many black guys were in red outfits going nuts.
Yeah, it was. It was definitely lit in Kansas City.
In fact, they talk more about her being there than they do about the game right now.
Well they should have.
The game was trash woked them.
Oh yeah, yeah, it was over pretty fast. That probably got her more airtime. Right if the game was good, you wouldn't see I've seen her as much. There's like thirty shots of her in that contest.
That's great. I heard Jeff was watching the game as a drinking game with the rest of his buddies, and every time they showed Taylor Swift. By the end, Jeff could barely write his article. That's what I heard, Jeff. Let let's talk about there she is. If you're you're missing this, if you're a slag podcast, Taylor Swift and a bunch of guys, ego nuts, everybody's going nuts. Donna Kelsey's actually rather reserved as a whole. I'm curious, Jeff, because you wrote about this in the article about the
other side of the ball. Not Patrick Mahomes and Travis Kelsey, but this Chief's defense. We've all spent a lot of time around the Chiefs. September is usually when Steve Spagnola is getting hammered, right, Remember it was it a couple of years ago. They were giving up more yards per play than any team in NFL history through like the first five or games. This defense is different and maybe, as you put it, the best defense Mahomes has ever had.
Well, I think it's not even close.
And it's it's not even close really, because you've got a lot more athleticism, a lot more speed, a lot more versatility. You know in the past, you know Spag's defense can be pretty complicated. He has all these different pressure packages and coverages.
He likes to roll out.
But this team has been together for a while now, this unit, and you're seeing some of that maturity, some of that experience pay off for them. They still have the hammer up front with Chris Jones, but young guys like like Leo Chanal and George Carloftis and Mike Dana even feeling in the duque Uzama or Rocky are starting to make an impact. But really on the back end where you've got I think adding Drew Tranquil from the Chargers is a big pickup for them. And then obviously
you've got Lugerius Snee. You've got Trent McDuffie, two corners who are really good, really good in coverage, can blitz, do a lot of different stuff.
They can throw a lot at you with this group.
Jeff, think because Chris Jones wasn't there all I'm sorry, James, because Chris Jones wasn't there, that some of these other players were able to kind of step up and maybe learn get some repetitions that have advanced or sped up accelerated this process.
I think two things happen, and James knows this from being around the Chiefs. I think Spags had to be a lot more flexible with the young guys, even last year playing young guys with not him his mol but he found a way to do it.
So I think he learned a new put a new trick into his bag.
But then secondly, that first game when they did not have Chris Jones, he came out and talked about them playing as a unit, staying focused, staying together, And I think that's what they learned with that you play defense that way, you don't worry much about all the splash plays and all the big highlight plays that you can do a pretty good job.
But that's what they've been doing.
I say it all all the time, James, that the best thing about this defense right now. They don't ask guys to do things they can't do.
That's that's genius and that part of I'll make this point real quick, what I was gonna say. I remember talking to a safety justin Reidduring training camp and he was like, you have no idea because you mentioned the secondary Jeff no idea what camp has been like for me this year compared to last year when I was like learning my parts and also teaching six other rookies
their positions in the secondary. The secondary just has a better cohesion to it, Steve, because everybody's not just learning it for the first time, and you have safeties trying to get everybody where they need to go. That's a different part of this group we've seen, and obviously if they don't have to cover as long with Chris Jones on the field, that helps you out too.
That's right, Hey, Jeff, you know before we did the show today, you know, James was talking about potential MVP candidates were discussing the show, and I said, one guy we can overlook is brock Perty Right, he's not going to necessarily create the tool like stats. But you wrote in your column, we have got to stop thinking about this guy is a good story because he is a legitimate stud NFL quarterback.
Yeah, that was the whole thing with the column was respect and guys who finally should be getting a lot.
Of suppose us wondering when it's going to fall.
Apart from him and Rock Purty certainly leads that category because when I watch him play now and knowing how people talked about him in this offseason, I mean, there was so much there's so much confidence in what he does now, there's so much of a sense of he's still playing within himself, but he knows he makes the play. He knows he can make the place he has to make what he's called upon. He can use his legs, use his arm, then put them in bad positions, then turn the ball over, and.
It writes Steve quietly.
That's what gets you to the MVB conversation, being consistent and playing on high profile teams that win a lot. So I totally agree with you that he should be in that conversation.
I remember having a conversation with Kyle Yuschek who was telling me, like, listen, he's a completely different guy, Jeff. When the lights come on for a game, he's like, he's the epitome of a gamer. Just his savviness, his intelligence, his ability to be just because of his mind. He's a step faster than you think he is when the game is actually happening on Sunday when he needs to buy some time. But to me, the thing that stands out to him to me the most is you can
put things I'm told in late Saturday night. Hey, we're gonna change it. I know we're working on this way, Kyle says to him all week now, we're gonna flip it, and we're gonna do it Saturday. He can make that. That doesn't bother him one bit. Is the stature though, the physical statue of Rock Party affecting him because you're a man of much much acclaim in your stature, Jeff, Is that affecting Rock Party in terms of this MVP discussion because he's a g gaglio shucks guy walking into the building.
Well, you know what you know when I when I do my MVP ratings, h for the for the first read, it's what I've been blown away by in this first three, which is how hard it is to find people you really believe in who you can make a case for. And two us running away with it right now. And I think Tyreek Hill should be in that conversation. And you could have made a case for Michael Parshers before
this past weekend. But there's a lot of opportunity for someone like him in a season like this to step into that conversation because a lot of the guys who you you know, you expect to be there, like like Joe Burrows justin Herbert's and Josh Allens, they're not taking off in the same way, and so we still have to have people to vote for and talk about. And he's going to have played enough big time games. And when he's playing these games already, he looks the part.
He looks like a guy who knows what he's doing, who's having an impact beyond just being along for the ride.
Yeah, and Jeff, you know, last Thursday night, I was at their game against the Giants. I was with future Hall of Famer wide receiver Steve Smith. He said he the one that he loves about brock Perdy is he does not put his receivers in harm's way. And when that happens, your receivers, as we see in Deebo, Samuel and Brandon I you can kitdle, they will reciprocate. Lastly, Jeff, in your column, JP and I have been talking about
this guy since the jump. Deshaun Watson has a real tough performance Monday night against the Steelers and bounces back against the Titans has his best performance of the season.
What about DeShawn and is this.
Final ron step we need him to see him take for us to get back believing in him again.
Well, I was one of those people who thought that it would be interesting to see what this offense would look like. And you don't want to see Nick Chubb go down for the season, but without him being a part of it and having more put on the Shawn's shoulders.
And so I was really encouraged by what I saw.
I know a lot of scouts I've talked to then the offseason talked about the pressure on him and how he's got to live up to that contract.
But he felt like, to me, a quarterback who was.
Trying to play his role in an offense that wasn't really designed for him. You know, he's a wide open, three four wide receiver type guy, throw football down the field, improvise and sometimes it's hard to be what he was being asked to be. When Chubb was healthy, and so, I felt like he seemed more comfortable, He seemed more confident. He knew that he was going to have to make
plays for this team to win. And he responded, I mean it's still he had to keep saying he deserves a past for all the time he missed, but he's still figuring out how to get back.
To the level he was at before all that stuff happened with him.
Yeah, they changed a lot from what they did in that back end of the season with him last year, and then this offseason has his input big time into what they were gonna do with him and Kevin Stefanski putting him in the gun pretty much every snap is what Deshaun wants to do, and they're starting to listen to that a little bit because he feels so comfortable back there. What I'm curious about, Jeff, and we'll get finished this up real quickly, is do you think a
performance like the one he had here? And then he strings together a few of those. To me, the confidence level might be the thing that changes. And then we start seeing the player that we saw in the past.
Do you see that?
Oh yeah, no, doubt well, and be honest with you, the way their defense is playing right now, I'm sure he recognizes that I don't have to do it all right now.
I've got a great defense.
I don't have to make all these phenomenal plays for us to win games. Take care of the football, move the team, give him the end zone. Let that de go to work. They can win a lot of games doing that. Yeah they will. And that's what we're going to talk about next. Jeff, We're gonna have you on next Monday. Maybe I'll have on Thursday, maybe.
Talking about the first three that length, because it's the topics that I love the most in this show. I'm not gonna lie these are. This is my favorite block coming about to Miles Garrett as we close out the show, jet Za, Buddy enjoy Tello Swift, Miles Garrett, three and a half sacks. Also a play that Steve and I have never seen before that isn't in the statue. More Miles Scaret coming up on the NFL four. Welcome back to the NFL Report, James Palmer, Steve White with you
as Steve. As we closed this out, we talk a lot about Miles Garrett in the show, because what did I say, what was my favorite offseason move in the entire NFL?
That was Jim Schwartz, Jim Schwartz going to be his That would be Schwartzy Jim Schwartz.
That would be Jim Schwartz going and teaming up with Miles Garrett. Our thought was twenty sacks for Miles Garrett. He had three and a half. He's getting himself towards that number twenty. But what I want to talk to you about is not the three and a half sacks. I want to talk to you about a play that was not in his stat line, and that is a delay of game penalty Miles Garrett caused by going from each end of the defensive line. He lines up on one side. The Titans try to bring two players over
to match up and help out their tackle. He runs over to the other side of a defensive line. The Titans shift both those players back to the other side. This goes back in fourth three times to the point to what happens. The playcock runs out delay a game on the Titans because of Miles Garrett. Have you ever seen a play like that, Steve, in your life happen at the NFL level?
Never, because typically it is okay.
An offensive player goes in motion, somebody follows him, the strong side of the line'll shift over.
Something like that.
We saw this now on the defensive side, Miles Garrett. It's a viral video. It's fantastic. Starts out on the defensive web side two tight ends are there, he moves over to the right side because that areas Smith, the actual defensive end lines up on.
The left side.
Both tight ends follow him to the right side. Then he's like, oh, this is how we're doing things. Let him go back to the left side, and they both go back. I've never seen anything like that. I don't know why the Titans just didn't strongsided or do something like this, but it was a weird call.
But it's because he's that disruptive JP.
You talked about last Thursday, how he's lining up over center.
He's wrecking shop. He has four and a half sacks on the season.
But he's freeing up everybody else because Jim Schwartz is moving him around like this. And now we're seeing all of these absolutely insane reactions.
Because he is great.
To me, he is the leader in the house for defensive player of the year.
Although TJ. Watt right now might also have something to say about that.
I think you're exactly right. And you know, we talked about the three and a half sacks. Talk about all the sacks. How about this defense as a whole? Essentially they've given up one touchdown. Steve in thirty four drive. That's a decent outing for Jim Schwartz as he starts his tenure as a defensive coordinator. Kevin Stemanski says, the teams try to stop Nile's Garrett. What happens, He still wrecks the game for Steve White. I'm James Palmer. This
was the NFL report on Monday. See it Thursday. As we look at Week four,