Friskiest teams of the 2024 NFL season 01:05:30

Frisky episode of Football 301 today. Charles McDonald, Mr. Forverts, joins me as we go over teams in the NFL that are projected to win under nine games that we think should be deemed as frisky. See you guys in a sec.

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Deadline for entries is September 5th. Visit yahoo.com slash fantasy million to join and enter. Happy draft season. Welcome back to Football 301. I am Nate Tice. Great show today. A frisky show, even. We are going to go over a group of teams that my co-host and I have deemed as frisky.

Some that we consider even reverse frisky. I think that's the term we're going with at the end of the show. That's going to mean different things. I'll explain it in a second. That co-host, though, the great, the wonderful Mr. Vertz. I'm not going to say Mr. Four Vertz. Four is the first name. Mr. Vertz himself, Charles McDowell. How's it going, Chuck? Mr. Vertz. You know, it's funny. The more that I've been in this career and the longer that I've had that Twitter handle, people actually just call me that in public. What's up, Vertz?

Okay. I was like, dude, it's funny. People ask me, like, did you play wide receiver? It's like, no, no, no, sir. No, I did not. But it's a good Twitter handle. So it's easily recognizable and doesn't have any numbers, other weird symbols in it. So it's going to stay. And it's football, like, you know, football verbiage, but it's not too deep. It's like anyone that's played like NFL Blitz.

You know, like that's easy. Yeah. Much better. You could do, you could do worse. I'm going to come up with a football term that could have been worse than that. Like as far as your last name, like Mr. Creeper.

You know, like that could have been way, way worse, way worse for a surname to use. It's funny though, because I have a friend who at the time, he was basically, you know, he would get a little intoxicated and come up with Twitter handles and make dummy emails for them and just sit on the handles and sell them to people who wanted the names. And I was looking for something to change my Twitter handle to as I got it. He was like, I got four words for you. I'm like,

I'll take that. It's pretty good. Shout out to my friend Colin for giving me the four verse handle a few years ago. And here we are. I didn't know that piece of lore. I thought it just came off the dome. I thought, yeah, that's a good handle. Let's go with it. It's better than running back screen or two gapping. Yeah, something like that. But also...

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All right, we're going to go over some 2024 Frisky teams. What is our definition of Frisky? We kind of started with teams that we looked at at BetMGM that were under nine wins, nine and a half wins. So eight wins are under, eight and a half wins are under. Potential surprise teams, hard outs, you know, maybe a strong unit that's going to make it rough on the opposing side, keep this team in it. Maybe the ascent in the second half of the year, but under nine win totals is kind of how we've made the short list. And we're going to go from there.

I have a team to start off with that I've been kind of hinting at for a while, so might as well just unload it. But before I do so, that is the Cardinals. Last year, they were garbage, always roster-wise, and they kind of outperformed that a little bit. This is why we're leading to this friskiness. They've always had some interesting teams the last few years, especially with Arians and then Cliff. But yeah, so...

seven half win total seven half wins total at bed mgm i'm i've been an over better on that even when they were a little under that it's kind of moved up slowly but charles i want to hear your cardinals takes because i got a lot of them and 301 is going to stand for 301 seconds that's going to take me to probably go through that to me eight wins would probably be like best case scenario for the cardinals right uh

I think this number is about appropriate for them. And when we're talking about frisky teams, when we were talking earlier, like how we want to find it, it's kind of like teams that aren't good, but there's still a pain in the ass to play. And I think that that's exactly where this Cardinals team falls this year, especially by the end of the year.

When Kyler Murray kind of got his legs back and he was more comfortable in the offense and had gotten to actually work with the staff on game day, he was starting to look like his old self. I know the Eagles defense at the end of the year is not anything to write home about. But in that game, he looked like the Kyler Murray of old that earned the contract extension that made him one of the higher paid quarterbacks in the league, which is

He has a chance to make that deal look like a bargain this year if he plays well based on how it's aged so far. So you got Marvin. Wow, I'm blanking on the tight end's name right now. Oh, Trey McBride. Trey McBride, he's a stud. I like the ground game. Paris Johnson's a stud on the offensive line. Jonah Williams is probably like

A good ad for where they were. If you're going to swap out DJ Humphries for Jonah Williams, it's not bad. He made all that stink about playing right tackle in Cincinnati. And then he's playing right tackle in Arizona. Just kind of funny that it just ended up that way. Anyways, they're trying to tell you something, Jonah.

I do feel, though, because I do still think he's better than Orlando Brown, but that's neither here nor there. It's a good unit. The only thing that scares me is the defense. I still think the defense is probably just a year away personnel-wise, but even then, what worried me last year about Jonathan Gannon coming and taking this job from Philadelphia was just the Eagles' defense was so damn vanilla. And based on the personnel that...

the Cardinals you know had last year the prospect of that seemed terrifying like oh my god like you're just gonna come out here run spot drop cover three all day with the worst talent in the league and you're gonna get 40 points a game but no it was a really creative defense they attacked they ran a whole lot of coverages a whole lot of different blitzes and then we you know we start to see some of the stuff coming out in Philly uh this week and maybe Jonathan Gannon really wasn't the problem with their defense there at all it'll be really interesting to me to see what

evolutions they make on that side of the ball. Losing BJ O'Leary sucks. He's hurt out for the year. But I do think that they have just enough pieces where it can be like flashy fun, if not good on defense. Yeah, I... Okay, strap in. So, not saying they're making the playoffs. I think what you nailed on the head. When they were more like 6.5 wins, that has gotten juiced up. That's where I was really jumping on that number. I feel like this is a 7 or 8 win team that is going to be...

They're going to beat the bad teams and then all the good teams, you know, they'll kind of split them, but make it a hard out while one single score losses like to them. This team kind of feels like to me the second year of the Dan Campbell regime where it was like, oh, okay, they're really fighting. They're doing some cool stuff on both sides of the ball.

But I'll start with the offense. And this is what's going to drive this unit. This could have been a top 10 unit. I think when we did that show, it's going to start with the run game. Last year, this Cardinals run game. So early down runs first and second down, just running back runs. So just James Connor and the rest of the contingent back there, Michael Carter, a little bit. They ranked ninth in success rate sandwiched between the Lions and the Vikings. We all know how great the Lions run game is.

seventh in total epa generated so only teams above them were the dolphins 49ers lions ravens eagles and bills so this is a legit legit run game third boom rate after the dolphins in the lines this is all from sports info solutions by the way true media is still still just just outside of our grasp a little bit more but so if you include the qb on this though so they had you know

the pastor, not for a little bit. Clayton tune got sacrificed to the Browns for a game, which is one of the most, I'm so sorry, bud. Like I felt bad for any quarterback that could put in that situation, but when coward came back, so this run game, if you include quarterback runs, and this is where it gets fun, that jump rate, a success rate jumps to seventh EPA jumps to fifth, their boom rate jumps to first, even higher than the dolphins who had a game that scored 70 points, had all those crazy runs. They, and most are most, most are and stuff.

This run game has a chance to be a legit top five kind of real identity maker for this team. And I think they added to it. You already mentioned Paris Johnson Jr., total star. He's awesome. You should watch him practice, too. He's a hard practice player. I went to two practices, by the way, last week. I should also mention that. You mentioned Jonah Williams. I think their Clayton Adams, their line coach, is very good. I like him. I like Drew Petzing, their offensive coordinator. They were doing a lot of fun stuff with the tight ends, not even just Trey McBride, but

adding tip, tip Ryman at having a Isaiah Hodge. I always want to say Isaiah Hodges. It's Elijah Higgins. Isaiah Hodges searches the Elijah Higgins in my brain, but he's a nice little player, but yeah, they have three tight ends and they're going to use them. They did three tight end looks in seven on seven at practice, which I thought was hilarious. Like I don't really, you don't really see that they were practicing that this is their primary look three tight ends and two tight ends. Um,

Michael Wilson is a nice like complimentary receiver does some dirty work stuff. Yeah. And Greg Dorch kind of a nice folk here, but he's actually a good slot guy and how they're going to use them as a nice little, you know, 1525 snap games. And I think he'll be a real high like high value guy. So yeah, I'm just super excited about this offense. Kyler when I was at practice was locked in. He was phenomenal and

in the two practices I was there. And while also like when the special teams drills were happening, he wasn't just hanging out. He was working, helmet on, working at stuff with Marvin Harrison Jr., with other guys, with coaches. So I really think there's a lot of maturity happening from him that he's

I mean, should be primed to be the comeback player of the year. Like really, he could have a real strong year this year. And I think they're just, yeah, the whole team is just kind of sitting on this where they're growing. They're going to be feisty. I think they're perfect frisky for this kind of exercise. And just real quick on the defense. I know, like I said, I wasn't kidding about the 301 seconds. But the youngest defense coordinator, their defense, you nailed it. So you kind of put it. They're not going to be good, but they're going to be interesting.

And their defense coordinator, Nick Rawless, is the youngest coordinator in the NFL. And it's kind of his show. Gannon's kind of like, you know, helping, but it's really, it's Rawless' show.

He's a star. He's going to be a head coach in a few years. I got to talk to him a little bit. He's really, really good. They got their players playing really well. Guys like Dennis Gardick, Roy Lopez. Roy Lopez was a practice squad Texans player. He's decent now. I just really like digging what they're doing. One last name I'm going to throw out there is Garrett Williams was a defensive back. He showed some stuff in practice and had a nice season last season. So

really, really check out this Cardinals team. I think they're going to be a fun watch, a frisky watch. Insert F word there. Good F words in there. But yeah, I had to start about the Cardinals because I felt like I just didn't put a pin at the shelf for a month or two. Well, I wanted to ask you while you were going on your 302 seconds there, how did Marvin look at practice? Because I feel like when the Cardinals season ended,

You kind of look to me, you look at the skill group that they had at the time. Michael Wilson, good player, probably a number number maxing out like a probably low end number two. George is a good player, but, you know, he's like five, seven, a hundred, 180 pounds. And you're looking at like, man, they just had a wider steeper one. And you can move these guys into roles that are more appropriate for them. You could really start taking off. And here comes Marvin. So how did he look?

Like a star right away. Uh, practice is already hard too, which is always good to see, but, uh, he's so smooth. And that's why I can get how scouts saw him. And this happens. Scouts see him in person. They go, Oh, he's not that fast. Even if you watch him on tape, doing stuff and all that, sometimes that's better when you just watch guys on tape, uh,

You watch him in person, he's just so smooth that he's in fifth gear the entire time and comes in and out of breaks. He's already an advanced route runner. He had a couple drops in one-on-one red zone period, but that's not like...

like anything I'm going to like, I shouldn't even talk about it. It's not that big of a deal. It just happened. You know, it wasn't like, Oh my God, he has a hands issue. It's like, it just happened. Like happens at practice sometimes, but he looks like a star. And like, that's another thing is like with the tight ends. Like, I think that's going to be really cool. Like they might go three tight ends. The only receivers, Marvin Harrison, Jr.

all right, defense, are you going to let James Conner run down your throat or are you going to single up on Marvin Harrison Jr.? And with Trey McBride as a potential really good guy to work against a linebacker or a safety or something. And a scramble threat, too. And a scramble threat. Yeah, they got a stew going. They got something going down there. I was digging how practice was around all those types of things. So moving on over to the AFC, this is another team that

We both kind of want to headline this friskiness with. And it's like when you really look at the roster, it's like, oh, yeah, they got something to them. And they got some new pieces as far as coaches, new pieces as far as roster. And that's the Tennessee Titans. So, Charles, when you first look at the Titans, where's the friskiness, the frisky meter kind of start for you? I mean, you got...

Two really good veteran wide receivers with DeAndre Hopkins and Calvin Ridley. And you're hoping that those guys can just ease whatever transition Will Levis is still going to be going through this year. The defense has enough players where they can be frisky. I think you do have some dangerous spots at off-ball linebacker and maybe at safety, although they did just sign Quandary Dix, so that's probably patched up. But the reason why I think the Titans are frisky is

when you start just kind of looking at the high-end talent that they have, it's a good collection. Now, the reason why their win total is 6.5 is because the depth is not there just yet. And also, Will Levis is still an unknown, even if you are...

are optimistic about his chances to turn into a long-term starting quarterback. It's just when you look at a team that's got DeAndre Hopkins, Calvin Ridley, Jeff Simmons, LeJarrius Sneak, Quandre Diggs, it's not a bad group. It's not a bad group. And then even with the prospect of guys like, you know, JC Latham potentially turn out to be a great offensive lineman, they're going to be a tough out, even if they only win like, you know, six or seven games this year or maybe even five of Levis' struggles. But still, tough, tough team to play.

It is. I know variable always kind of had them as a tough team to play. And it kind of just feels the same, even with those Callahan now. Yeah. Uh,

I want to see what the offense is because it's the OC and the head coach are kind of grab bag guys. I mean, that's a compliment where they kind of adjust based on the quarterback and their offensive system. So I can't just go, it's a Shanahan thing or it's going to be this. So I have to kind of see how it goes. But I'm optimistic. They've come from decent places. Nick Holes called plays at UNLV a couple of years ago and actually did a pretty good job there. He's been on like 20 different staffs. He's still young though. And then you have Ryan Callahan, like I said. But Bill Callahan is worth his weight in gold.

That's like the biggest addition on this entire team, I feel like, because that's a booster. The Bill Callahan hire was funny because there were, I saw a couple people, not too many on the internet going, nepotism, he hired his dad. Hold on. This is not, not the same stuff like when we're talking about, you know, some idiot hiring his kid to do some job he's not qualified for. This is one of the best offensive line coaches in the league. It's a discount.

yeah that's what they got i don't think people realize that they let him out of his contract in cleveland to let him go here that never happens that would never happen if they weren't family and everything so yeah they should be thanking their lucky stars can we get more nepotism going can we get more of these guys in here latham mccallaghan is exciting though that's exciting to me it's good and like latham makes sense that's kind of his type of dude just a

big mauler. I think we're both really high on him. I had him as a top 10 guy period in this draft, not like I had him as a number three tackle and close to the top two guys. Um, but I, yeah, really, really like him. And then Skronsky, uh, the left guard had an up and down rookie season. I'm not going to right away just go, Oh, this guy's a star, but I do trust that he'll grow and especially get him with Callahan under him. I think Cushenberry was huge. The center. Yeah. That's, that's a big addition too. So yeah, Callahan, Cushenberry, Latham, that,

That that's a nice little working up front for what they had a weakness. The pass catchers are cool. You already hit them. I, after doing the study on Will Levis, I became a lot more bullish on him. At least to have a chance to, you know, you want a quarterback. If you're not going to get like a star level guy, I got to get hot.

And he can get hot. And that's a first, the baseline I want to work with. Okay. This guy can push the ball. Maybe, you know, he can launch some stuff. He's tough. Create a little bit. That's not the worst kind of baseline to work with. I've heard good things so far. Like they're kind of, they're kind of like kind of tempering expectations. Like, but they were like, yeah, all, all signs are up. Like all signs are good so far. Um, as far as how he's taken to the offense.

Yeah, it's frisky. Defense got Jeffrey Simmons, LeJarrius Sneed, Roger McCreary rocks. Do you see Shane Ray's on this roster, though? I did. I did. I had to double check that that was the same Shane Ray. See, I got flashbacks or war horror flashbacks about that because the 2015 draft class, that was the first draft class that I covered.

So there was a lot of time spent arguing Vic Beasley versus Shane Ray versus Dante Fowler. And then, you know, you get like three or four years removed from that draft class. You're like, oh my God, why did we waste any time talking about any of that? Vic Beasley has flashed in the pan year. Dante Fowler has been in the NFL consistently the longest. And then Shane Ray, our friend,

uh, justice Muscata said that his three cones, a four cone, because he ran in almost eight seconds. Yeah. And I was, well, Shane Ray was a great example for me. Cause I was like, man, look how crafty this guy is. Like, look at that. Although, you know, he had like an advanced pass rush set and then he tested. And then I met him cause he came, I was with the Falcons. He took a visit and I, you know,

Former quarterback. I was a little hefty at that stage, too. That's why people were asking me if I was a former tackle instead of quarterback. But I towered over him. And I was like, we can't spend a top 10 pick on that. Your top 10 picks should be my size, at the very least, and freaky. The sack leaders from that class, by the way, Daniil Hunter, 87 and a half, taken in the third round. Yep. Preston Smith.

And number one, second in that class. I love Preston Smith. That was a draft hit for me. Second rounder, Zedarius Smith with 60 sacks. Fourth rounder, Frank Clark, who had a first round grade by everybody, but dropped because of character stuff.

58 and a half. Yeah, the Bud Dupree of all people at 53. The Marcus Golden at 51. And then we get the Dante Fowler at 45. So, yeah. It's funny because we were talking earlier today in our text about Emmanuel Forbes, the commander's cornerback who's really struggling and he's super duper underweight for his size. But

that kind of made me think of this draft class. We're talking about it. This is way off, off subject, but still in the first round of that 2015 class, right? Like you just said all those guys that are good that were drafted in round two and beyond. Think about how like literally physically small the guys who went in round one were. Vic Beasley, who he showed up at 246 at the combine. I don't know if he was ever that way again for the entire time he was in Atlanta. Yeah.

Yeah. Shane Ray, like you said, wasn't the big guy. And Dante Fowler, he was, I think, maybe a little bit more like explosive, like linearly, but still not a big dude. And then you get, oh, wait, the 6'5", 270, Daniil Hunter, 6'2", you know, 275, Z'Darrius Smith. Oh, wait, these are the guys that are winning because they can actually, yeah.

you need to be big and strong to play the big and strong game sometimes. Oh, Fowler discussion was so exhausting. It was like even in the building because he had like three sacks against like East Carolina. You see you in the bowl game. Yeah. Yeah. And then the bigger schools, he really didn't. And he, he wore the big towel.

Always like that. That was like his trademark for a little bit. They were the big like Gatorade towel as he played. Oh, yeah. I have I have I have a few friends from North Carolina, some good friends that played football at ECU during that time period. And I remember that class. They were like, bro.

Dante Fowler in that bowl game killed us. He's like, he's going to be a beast in the NFL. He's going to be a beast. It's like, ah, maybe he's just better than you guys were, but not actually. Better than Conference USA. Yeah, better than Conference USA champions or whatever, something like that. Yeah, the mid-level SEC Florida team is going to be decent. Yeah, I think that makes sense. We got time for one more little oddball player related to this Titan stuff. Yeah, go for it. They have, every time I see Daniel Brunskill play,

name still on a roster. It's amazing because I remember when he was... I think his first year in the NFL was Shani's last year in 2016 with Atlanta, somewhere around that time frame. And he was a

tight end that was playing left tackle in the preseason for Atlanta at 270 pounds and getting his absolute ass handed to him constantly. But he just kind of stayed in there, kept fighting, kept digging. Now he's like a serviceable guard. I think that that's one of the... It's a body transformation that nobody cares about that kind of blows my mind every time I see him still on the roster. For a minute, he was probably one of the worst starting guards on a good team, period. And it was just remarkable that he kept sticking. So I... My...

Story with my Daniel Brown scale story was when I was with the AAF, the Atlanta legends, I tried to sign him as like, as like one of these guys I was trying to find there's a loophole because he played at San Diego state. He was technically the San Diego fleets guy, but because he was last with the Falcons, uh,

I was trying to argue that the pro rights trumped the college rights because the Atlanta rights there. And it turned into a whole thing. And I could tell everybody was like, we don't care. But it's like, I need somebody. I need an offensive lineman. And he ended up going to San Diego Fleet. So I was like, oh, okay, good for him. And then the next year, he freaking goes with the 49ers, starts seven games. Started 14 games last year. And it's like, this is actually the best role for him. It's kind of like a swing backup. But you're right. Yeah, total transformation from what he was because he was –

skinny, skinny at San Diego State early in his career. But yeah, that was our first little batch. After the ad, we are going to go with some teams that take a step back, take a deep breath and go, oh yeah, these guys, they're not bad. They're a lot friskier than we realize. We'll do that after the break. See you guys in a sec.

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All right, for these next teams, this next section, I want to look at them. Like I said, take a deep breath and remember just the cast of characters involved. Remember what's happened recently. Let's have memories longer than a goldfish, which I sometimes have. Look back maybe with what we're working with here. We're going to start with the Seahawks, a team that won nine games last year. Yes, their point differential was negative, but they still had an expected win loss of seven and a half, which is currently their win total.

I'm BetMGM. Charles, when you check out the Seahawks right now, what are you thinking of? What do you think of this kind of team, this new coach, Gino Smith still there behind center, everything with the Seattle Seachickens, I'll call them right now.

seven and a half it feels low to me maybe I'm assuming the division has to play a role in this because you still have the 49ers the Rams we just talked about the Cardinals potentially being a team that could win a game against Seattle with the right circumstances um

But man, I just look at Geno Smith, who I think is probably the most undervalued player, like contract wise in the NFL. That's not named Patrick Mahomes. Then you have a good wide receiver trio, even if it's a bit flawed with DK Metcalf, Lockett and Jackson Smith and Jigba.

Mike McDonald teared around the defense and you've gotten, you've tried to get some personnel upgrades over there. We'll see what happens. That unit was really bad last year, so...

if they're going to get better and pass the seven and a half wins, it's probably going to be on Matt's side of the ball. But if I'm looking at this and I'm a Seattle fan, like honestly, if they finish eight and nine, which would be over the win total, I feel like that would be a pretty disappointing season, all things considered, because Geno Smith is a good player. And last year he played well in some pretty terrible circumstances because the offensive line was not good and they weren't healthy. So if you can just get guys back on the field and get –

the progression on the offensive line moving back in the right direction. I just don't really see how this team would fall to like six and 11 or seven and 10, which is kind of in the frame of this win toll. - Yeah, you kind of look at either side, like, okay, how they went eight or nine, the other side seven or six.

This team to me is just surprising. Yes, if they win nine games again, but it's actually a little more sustainable, a little more consistent. That's what it feels like. But the fact that it was even lower than that. So I thought eight and a half maybe is what I checked and saw seven and a half. Yeah, this team is more than frisky just because we got to start with the quarterback, David, at least the guy that's in the top half of the league. I think any way you shake it and a guy that at times can play like a top eight top even like have moments that are like elite, like true throws that are special. Yeah.

And not a lot of teams have that. And it's kind of surprising to me that I think we don't, we kind of lose that in the muck of, because what happened with our offensive line last year, even the guys that we thought were going to be the stars, Charles cross was injured most of the year and, you know, throughout the year, I should say. And I think he has pro bowl potential based off his rookie year. And when I, when I saw him in college, Abe Lucas will kind of put a pin in him, but they improve the interior. Even if it's just adding bodies that are average, um,

that's an improvement to what they had last year, which kind of kneecapped their whole season. I'm high on Christian Haynes. I know he's battling for the right guard spot right now, but he was a top 40 player for me in this draft. I already talked about Gino. I like the running backs. I'm partial to Charbonnet, but Kenneth Walker's explosive. And really, I just want to talk about their OC, and that's Ryan Grubb. I'm extremely bullish on him. He...

Sometimes when college only guys that haven't been in the NFL, I have some hesitation. Like, all right, do you only know those hashes? Do you only know those formation rules? So I have to see how it translates. He's not a heavy RPO guy. He has them in there, but it's more like an NFL level where they're sprinkled in. More package plays like bubbles and flats, which is very real in the NFL.

He gets to a lot of formations with shifts and motions, but none of it's unbalanced and breaks the rules for the NFL where it's like the 4x0 stuff where there's nobody towards the boundary. So it's all real to me. And he gets to it out of tempo, which shows to me that's a lot of good communication happening. And he was doing it at college, which, yeah, it's a lot of stuff that I think translates really nicely. So

I think this offense just comes down to a line health. That's it. It's just how that unit comes together. But this offense could be sneaky top 10 and a defense that I think from play caller wise is going from below average at best to, I think, very good.

That's already improvement. I think their fronts can be awesome. Like as far as stopping the run, I should say, like they're gonna be really hard to run against, which makes sense because they play against the 49ers, the Rams and the Cardinals. Three top 10 run games. Makes sense that why they want some beef up front and want to stop this. And they were really bad at run defense last year. They were so bad. You know, in addition by subtraction, no more. Yeah. Bobby Wagner, no more Jamal Adams, who were kind of, you know, handicapping their defense a little bit.

Devin Witherspoon rocks. Yeah, I'm keeping an eye on them. I think they're kind of getting blown by the wayside even a little bit because I'm excited about the Rams. I think the 49ers are the 49ers. They're the favorites. And the Cardinals are an earlier frisky team, but it's kind of like

This is a tough division. The Seahawks shouldn't be slept on by any means because, yeah, they got some pieces and they got some, I think, really good coaches too. Sonny Jobin-Hankins. Yeah. Nose tackle. Dude, he is a... I'm glad you mentioned him.

Good player. And he's one of these guys that I don't even, I guess it's just because like the run stopping has been devalued to a degree, but like I've been clamoring for the Falcons to sign him since like 2017. Because all he does, he gets like these one or two year deals, plays his ass off. He's a damn good nose tackle, stuff from the run. He's been doing this for damn near a decade. So I think that addition is,

Plus, you already have Leonard Williams. You have Brian Murphy. If you can get anything out of Draymond Jones this year, like you said, that's a good front. And I think that those, right, it's beef. And those guys, as a foursome up front, that makes life easier for, you know, Mafe on the outside and some of the other edge rushers that they have that are still developing. So it's promising. I think, you know, some of the cornerback spots, maybe outside of,

Witherspoon, maybe you're still looking for some consistency there. But overall, if this defense is still bad, I'm just assuming you probably missed on some draft picks and some free agent signs along the way this offseason. I would be surprised if either unit, offense or defense, was outright bad.

You know, like if they're below 20th, but if they both finished middle of the pack, okay, that's probably more likely, but it's like Julian Love got kind of roasted, you know, that got the extension and everything. Like he makes sense more for McDonald than he did for the old Seahawks guys because they're more staple zone players.

I almost said gentle rotations, but easy to read rotations. I'll call him as that as a former quarterback going to McDonald, who's Swiss army knife kaleidoscope scheme, just everything, everybody doing everything that I think love is better with that. Cause that's how he was kind of better with wink, you know, too. So that's kind of, I think he's a better fit for this defense scheme a little bit and they got no WOSU spelling injuries, you know, some juice on the outside. Yeah.

Frisky Seahawks. Frisky Seahawks. Going on to a former Seahawks Super Bowl opponent. Yeah. Tie that one in. Run the ball. Run the ball, Pete. Is the Patriots. This is, I think the Patriots right now, their win total is at four and a half. The lowest in the NFL. I thought they were tied with a couple other teams. They're the lowest right now. Below the Broncos and the Panthers at five and a half. Patriots played the Panthers tonight in preseason. Yeah.

But four and a half, Charles, how does that make you feel? It makes me feel that Vegas is just terrified of the Patriots offense, right? Because this Christian Barmore going out with blood clots, you know, hopefully he can get on the field again at some point in the future. The day our top 10 defenses pod came out and I had the number two defense. That was tough.

Heat-seeking missile. Hope he comes back healthy, man. Yeah. It's not a fun one. Yeah. Getting healthy first from blood clots is the first big thing. So hopefully he can come back and resume his career at some point. There's no way to really put a timetable on that. But that was the big blow. But even with him gone, this should still be a pretty good defense. The secondary should be good. They still got some guys on the edge. The linebacker room is solid.

So to me, when I see four and a half, it screams that the prediction here is that their offense is just absolutely nothing, which I don't think that's impossible, but I just think they have enough to get past four and a half. I'm still concerned about just for this year, kind of how the wide receiver room plays out. I don't know if it will be actually good this year. I like Jalen Polk. Can

Kendrick Bourne's a solid player, but still, I wouldn't say that that's actually a good group. And then you're dealing with Jacoby Brissett and Drake May, rookie quarterbacks. There absolutely is a disaster scenario where this goes really poorly this year, but...

I just think they have enough baseline competency to get over four and a half. Even Jacoby Brissett, if they have a situation where he ends up starting, he's shown that he's the best quarterback Cleveland's had in the past, you know, 10 years probably. That stretch that he had when he was in for Deshaun Watson. So,

If they decide to sit May, that's a viable option. And even if May plays, I think there's going to be enough playmaking there we can get over like four wins. It seems really, really low to me, especially with the help they're going to get on defense. It has me kind of checking my own

football like dogma like going like wait am i just like overvaluing these guys which i i've been guilty of like you know a guy like kj osborne or kendrick bourne they're dirty work guys they do a little bit of everything and i i always like those guys you don't want to build the whole plane out of them but you know they're nice to have about half your seats built out of them uh but i i remember you said with the defense like even without

Christian Barmore is like, this is a easy to me, top 10 defense. Like, I think that's an easy call. It's one of my takes that I would actually be like, yeah, I feel really good about that take because I don't think there's going to be much difference in defensive play calling. Yes, you're losing, you know, one of the goats or the goat, I should say, but Bill Belichick, but,

you're losing not much as far as what they were doing day to day, as far as what their, what installs are. The language is the same. They're returning everybody like first team and second team on defense. That's why they could have gone so much offense, you know, on this draft.

But I think all three levels have good players, solid players that fit the scheme perfectly. So to me, this defense, I was just like, they'll carry him, at least for some games. Keep it in it where some of these offenses in the league, at least the bottom 10, are kind of...

Let's throw a dart, spin a wheel. Like we don't know what kind of performance we're going to get out of them. But if you have a defense to rely on, that's going to help pick sixes, short field position, lots of punts, lots of possessions, you know, uh, get the ball in midfield because they, you know, the offense went three down the other side, uh,

But I just think this offense, if I just had to break it down piece by piece, it's like the O-line is eh. But I'm interested in their O-line coach and Scott Peters. And I'm interested in what they're a year away from being anything like even I think remotely average. But I don't think it could be. I think it's better than bad, bad. They just have no depth.

Weapons-wise, Pop Dogos has got some juice. And I think he's legitimately good. I don't know. He's not number one. He's probably more like a high-end three. They've got a lot of threes. But they're all fine. They're all solid. They're all smart players. They're all going to kind of break zone and all that. So they're a year away from being anything. We all know that. And I think that's the Drake May timeline. But I think this team, they're going to be a little tougher to beat and tougher. They're not going to just be like a team that everyone's blowing out by double digits. They're going to be in a lot of games and making it tough on offenses. Yeah.

Do you know who the Patriots have? I was just looking at their depth chart, going back to our Jonathan Hankins conversation with the Seahawks. Out goes Christian Barmore. In comes Mike Purcell.

For those who don't know, Mike is Mike is just he's kind of like Hankins to probably a little bit of a lesser degree. Yeah. Where it's like, you know, if we need a body to come in for a year, it's kind of kick ass. We'll go get Mike Purcell for two million dollars a year. So he's over there in New England. And I would imagine that that would probably be one of your like your early down Barmore replacements because he can do that.

Yeah, you can plug it up. And that's the thing. They're all built on size. It's not like the Cowboys when they lost Hankins, they were just screwed because everybody else is gap guys, gap shooters, like Belichick for better for worse, drafted a lot of the same types of guys. So it's kind of, you know, and I mean, Julian's back like that seems to be kind of like,

over a little bit. I mean, Christian Gonzalez rocks. Like he was looking like a star already. I don't know. It's, it's just a unit. Like they were, they were just a dead, like a dead team last year. And they kept, they really stripped a lot of the bad parts and kept a lot of the good parts. That's, I think that's why I'm bullish on them. Even before we're talking about like,

my Drake may Island ownership, you know, anything like that. So maybe it's just how I talk myself into it. It's like the way that I, I almost feel conflicted with this when told because I,

I see four and a half and I'm like, oh man, that feels low. But I'm also like, man, if they went six and 11, that's, that ain't bad for where you were last year. But that's also in the range of like four and a half. You know, I think what I object to is this being the lowest one in the NFL. I think that's the more. Yeah. Stronger take more so than it being four and a half. Yeah. I'm not even looking at the roster or the roster, their schedule.

At Bengals, home Seattle. At San Fran, home Miami, home Houston, home Jets, home Jets. At Titans, at Bears, home Rams, at Dolphins, home Colts. They legitimately play all viable playoff teams. No, that's crazy. Actually, now that I look at it. Okay, so four and a half. Okay, well, that's into the bye week. Then they go at Cardinals, at Bills, home Chargers, home Bills.

Wow. Okay. We'll put a pin on that four and a half for a second. But yes, they're going to be frisky now. They're going to be frisky. The defense is going to be good while Drake May is going, what the hell is going on out here every single week? That's going to be a lot. I bet you those first practices when him going against that defense, he was probably just like, oh, wow. Watching Brian Flores against J.J. McCarthy at practice, I went to Vikings practice, it was like,

And even Kevin O'Connell was like, no, we want this. Let's make it really hard in practice so games are easier because these guys are bringing some crazy stuff every single day. Actually, let's go to Tom Brady's old stomping grounds. This is my transition here to Tom Brady's newer stomping grounds. The most recent one, I should say. That's the Tampa Bay Buccaneers. Remember them?

They won their division last year. Matt and I did a segment earlier this week, and basically the whole segment was like, Bucs are like, remember them? Are we kind of forgetting about this? Looking at the Bucs right now, Charles, where are you starting with? Because for me, it's just looking at the roster and seeing a lot of the same guys and actually improvement everywhere, and that's kind of like why I'm leading in with the Bucs in this section. Yeah, they're going to be competent. They're going to be tough. If we're going back to that criteria of,

teams that you hate to play. I mean, they're, they got some ass kickers, man. It's just funny though, because I remember, you know, when Tom Brady retires, like,

You kind of have this window for a minute where if you wanted to, it was attainable to jump up in the draft, go get an Anthony Richardson or get into that range if they were willing to spend the assets. Because I thought that might be the play. You're playing without some money because you just won a Super Bowl. Your quarterback just retired.

Let's go get another one. Let's take the swing. We'll play the hot hand and see how it goes. But they're like, nah, let's just, let's just keep this in cruise control. We'll go get Baker Mayfield. We'll, we'll go get some defensive players. We'll resign our guys. And we will just be like the middle class of the NFL, the representation of the middle class of the NFL, Tampa Bay Buccaneers. Uh,

They should win, you know, eight, nine games. And if they beat up on the NC South, like tens in reach. I don't know if Baker Mayfield is a good quarterback. I mean, well, I know I don't think he is. I shouldn't say that. I don't think he's a good quarterback. But at the price...

He's playable at the price for like $33 million a year compared to what some other guys are getting. That's fine. You still got some weapons on offense. The offensive linemen, you got Wirfs and Graham Barton. That's a really, really good start for continuing to build a good unit up there. And then on defense, you have...

All the continuity in the world where Bowles is entering another season as a head coach, another season as a guy overseeing the defense. Vita Bay is here. Kalaji Kansey should be better in year two. Antoine Winfield just got paid. I mean, this defense still has some good players on it. And, you know, they might not be world beaters, but...

They should be competent and a team that, you know, can really get some teams to lose. And remember, they were they were, you know, a driver two away from potentially pushing the lines and getting to the NFC title game. So this team, they're not bad. They're definitely not bad. And in the NFC, that's really all it takes to maybe go on a run.

Yeah, and FC, yeah, they're a division. I mean, it's just like, I like how they match up against everyone. Having, you know, Bowles' defense is kind of one-on-one. It's a, he's a knuckleball pitcher. That's what you just have to get used to. It's like, that's what he's going to do. He'll get gashed in some games. He has bad matchups, but the other side of it is,

Watch him in the playoffs. Watch what he can do against hurts sometimes or some of these quarterbacks and offensive lines that can't prep for this wonky stuff he's throwing at you. And they bring everyone back. Like even like, all right, Devin White leaves. Okay, I know he's got name recognition. He's been a neutral at best player over the last few years. So that's not as severe as people think.

I think their back end is really cool. Jordan Whitehead's back. He had a nice season last year with the Jets. Winfield's a star. Jamil Dean's solid. Is it Christian Eisen or Isian? Isian? He's their slot guy. Yeah, he was like a rookie undrafted guy. He's in the slot. He actually was interesting last year. But the defensive front improved. Kalijah Canty, you mentioned him. But yeah, him next to Vita Vea makes total sense. Total opposite pairings. It's what you wanted with Grady Jarrett and Jonathan Hankins. Kind of a plus version of that.

But that's where this, I think the defense is at the very least always frisky with bulls and they have the horses to pull it off. And then offense it's, I think there's gonna be some Baker regression and most of you has on third down there. Third down passing scheme is a lot of like Baker find Mike,

Mike, make a play. And that works. It just can be very up and down. People have been paid off of that type of offense and have made a living off of it. But usually maybe a better quarterback. But last year, I think overall that might drop a little bit, but overall their efficiency will improve and kind of offset it.

So they might not be as explosive, but they'll be more efficient just because you mentioned Graham Barton. Luke Gedeke is an improving player at tackle. Like just other pieces they added, Liam Cohn, maybe a little more cohesive in the run game. But last year, this is like my little Baker stat, why I think there might be a little bit of regression here was he was in EPA. He was 12th overall, just total generated EPA.

He was 18th on early downs, first and second down, and he was sixth on late downs, third and fourth down. Success rate, 21st overall, 24th on early downs, seventh on late downs. That's a lot of like chucking it and high up and down. Screw it, Ben.

that's how he plays it works with mike evans but it can you can it can drop off at any time but you know they have godwin jill and mcmillan they have some really fun weapons uh so yeah i i've just really come around on the bucks again because i did this last year where i kind of took a breath and like you guys are whatever you guys aren't serious and but then you go they have a lot of good pieces yeah it's uh yeah the bucks i feel like they're just gonna be permanently in this kind of

upper middle class. Do you just put them in the middle class? You didn't even say upper middle class. Yeah, they are team 16 to me. I don't know. That's kind of how I feel about them. Team 16. If they're NFC South, that could win you 11 games if you get lucky. I think the last thing I have on this defense is I'm kind of fascinated by their edge room this year because

I'm not, and I'm not saying that they're going to be this good on defense, but it kind of reminds me of like those, like those mid 2000s, early 2010s Ravens defenses where they just had like six dudes who were like B minus pass rushers. And over time that ends up being okay for them. Cause even when you get down to like,

Anthony Nelson on the depth chart. He's not a bad player to have at depth. It's funny, I'm looking at our lives right now and they have Randy Gregory with DNR next to his name. I was like, did he die? And I was like, wait, no, that means did not report. Yeah, not do not resuscitate. But even if you can get anything out of Tim, I think they have an interesting combination.

Interesting combination. He's kind of the Tyson zone where it's like, you believe anything? Yeah, kind of, yeah. But overall, I'm really interested in this defense. I think they're going to be tough because you still have your star in the middle, and then I think they have just enough guys in the background. And also, if we're going to continue, the underrated veteran defensive line game, William Golston. He's been a Buck his entire career, and he has been just...

you know, a good rotational player that they have them that walk out the building. And I think that that's actually really, really cool. The unsinkable William Golston. That is, oh my God. Yeah. Billy Golston. I played against him when he was at Michigan state. Now, now I'm a podcaster here with Yahoo and writer. No, but that's a great shout out. I, I Joe try on, I had some nice moments in Logan hall. Like they're all like, you said perfect, like B minus B players. But when you have a lot of them and Vita Bay, I would say is an a at his role. But like that,

that works that works and they add a little bit more to it and let's can't see be be himself too because go can't can't he's a guy look his highlights are great but there's a lot of plays where he's he's in the dirt he's about four four to five yards away from where he should be because he got blown out of the gap but when you got beat away and some other sturdy guys next year you can take those chances i think it all works well together it does it does no i that's that's

That's the Bucks. It all works together somehow, someway. It always comes back to that. But we're going to be back with our last section, which is going to be, we're going with reverse frisky. And I know how that sounds, but we'll be back in the middle with it. All right, we are back and we have two teams, both that start with the letter C.

We were not trying to be alliterative there. It just happened that way. But we're going to go with reverse frisky. So teams that are still part of this group that were below nine wins, that we maybe are not feeling that they're a little bit more dull this season. But Charles, you wanted to start with this team.

And I'm curious where you're going with it. I have some things to add because they're already being very much themselves so far. But who is that you want to start with for the reverse frisky section? The Chargers are at eight and a half wins for next year. And I don't know if this is just me kind of continuing how I feel and what I've said about the Chargers this offseason, where it's like, can we pump the brakes here a little bit? You know, because it started first with

Chargers fans being pissed that they didn't take neighbors and took Joel Alton instead. And it's like, you need an offensive tackle and a wide receiver. Yeah. You needed both things. And, you know, one's going to help you in the pass game and the run game. And the other one, quite frankly, would have been a little bit of a luxury pick for a team that

didn't have time for a luxury pick. I mean, you were picking fifth overall originally. That's your pick. You didn't even trade for it. So obviously things went really poorly last year. And some of that was due to Justin Herbert's injury and him missing the back half of the season. But they still lost 63-21 to the Raiders last season. That's the thing that happens. So I think that this team, probably still a year away, I will say I do think that there's some serious...

diamond in the rough wild cards here that could boost them into the other direction. I think if Jesse Minter, the defensive coordinator, if he's as good as he says, as people have said about him and his success from Michigan can continue to the NFL, kind of like Mike McDonald did, Michigan and Baltimore. Same path.

Hopefully he can do it in Seattle too. That changes things because now if he can start to get things out of Derwin James, get him started to play like a pro bowl safety again, get Asante Samuel to kind of turn things around, that's a game changer. But if I'm still just going off what I've seen most recently, I think they'll be frisky. I think they'll be a tough out, but just talent wise, especially when you look at the wide receiver room, they're already a little banged up there. Lamakaki's been in and out. Quentin Johnson picks.

It looks like it's a pretty big miss so far. So I still think you're probably going to have a bunch of inconsistencies in the pass game, even with how good Herbert is. I just think they're a year away from getting over that eight-win hurdle to where you're really competing for a playoff spot because you still got Mahomes twice in the division and the Chiefs.

that's still a pretty big talent mismatch as things go right now. The Raiders defense is going to be frisky. You still got to play other AFC teams that are really, really good. I just think this is going to be, they need one more offseason to me just to get to actually where they want to be. So I think more like six or seven wins wouldn't be that surprising for the Chargers.

I would be, yeah. I'd be more leaning towards the under two just because, well, one, they're already acting like the Chargers. This was yesterday's or two days ago's practice from Daniel Popper. This is who was not practicing. Justin Herbert, who has plantar fasciitis, by the way, which is a lingering injury. So always remember that. That's a two-week in boot plus two months before it feels...

kind of okay and then probably another couple months after that before you're like actually okay yeah it's not a fun one but derwin james levin conkley joey bosa trey pipkins uh jamari salier hayden hearst ben mason kamani vidal and junior colson junior colson who i'm very high on but that's their starting linebacker which is like one of the most glaring weaknesses on this whole team he is very important for this defense to even be competent to me this year outside of they're saying the right things are like hey we're behind khalil mack and joey bosa

Bosa's already missing practice already. You know? Clu Max, Ben, this has been a long time. He's like in year 12. He's getting up there. I know. Derwin James, I think, is going to improve no matter what. He couldn't get worse. Last year, he was actually like average at best, which really...

It wasn't... Big drop-off. He just... And you can tell. You even talked about it. He just wasn't locked in. He wasn't engaged. And the fact... That's how bad it was that one of the guys that I would rate as a high-end competitor in this league, I would give the very good, excellent, greatest competitive leadership kind of player that you want...

is saying, yeah, I didn't have the fire last year. That's how bad it was in LA last year. It's going to take a lot for this team to build up those good vibes. Harbaugh's going to bring some weird good vibes. But it's... I really... They're going to take some time before they... I think they can launch forward to the next step. But I...

That's why you take Joe Alt instead of neighbors. You're not putting a Band-Aid on a bullet hole. You're trying to actually patch it up and get it better. That's why you invest in offensive line, keep the quarterback upright, and then go from there. So I'm with you that I'm reverse frisky on them this year, but I like where they're going long, midterm, long term, because that's the harmonization of it. This offseason was a good step for them to get moving back in the right direction, but...

you know, like it just all starts like where so much outrage there was for the draft pick. Like, man, I don't think you guys get where this team is right now. They're not, they're not my league neighbors away from winning the Superbowl, you know, go, go get your, your right tackle. You got, if they're healthy, what could be the best off the tackle deal in the NFL in, in short time, they're still, they're still acquiring the pieces. I mean, just look at me.

They sprinkle first rounders on receivers like Pez's, like people have. So to me, it's easier to find that guy, the guy that can be the one. I know everyone's going, oh, there's only four or five of them, than to build a good offensive line. We've talked about this kind of work. We're like, oh, the Lions by default kind of have the best offensive line right now. It's like, that's a weapon. Everything else can move around. Guys can get hurt. That a good offensive line or an elite offensive line, it doesn't matter.

who your second receiver is or your main running back is. You can just trot those guys out until you find one because the line and the quarterback, you can just build around. What did we say at the start of this? We were talking about Beasley and Fowler and Shane Ray. Sometimes you just see big and strong people to be big and strong people. You look at the Lions. First round pick of Taylor Decker. First round pick of Frank Ragno. First round pick of Penn A. Sewell. They spent money on Vitae, the guard. And even...

I mean, he's okay. Yeah, he's okay. But they put the investment in, right? Yeah, Jonah Jackson was a day two pick. It doesn't come out of nowhere. Even the Eagles. He's been.

Yeah. Yeah. Even the Eagles who, you know, they're losing Jason Kelsey. They drafted a guy in the second round to sit behind him for two years. This was a plan like these building an offensive line. It isn't just out of nowhere. That's why even some of these teams earlier, I've talked about their friskiness is I mentioned their offensive line coaches because that is matters that, you know, that's just because my own biases, but also just because that's how you can surprise people is if you can have a competent line, that's not a weakness because that that's what,

tears apart seasons is offensive line injuries and offensive line incompetence so yeah even the seahawks they're their offensive line coach they won the joe moore award last year at washington like i kind of like that like that that's another kind of feather in their cap so uh the last team yeah and we're gonna this is the last reverse frisky team and this is kind of a talk about offensive line too actually that's kind of maybe lead us here that's the washington commanders

Yeah, we had this team out in the air even before the kind of joint practice reports against the Jets. They were kind of cropping up today. And those are joint practice reports. We have to see preseason, all that game, all that stuff. But Washington Commanders, Charles, where are you at with them? Why are they reverse frisky for you to start? Because when I see the Patriots are four and a half, this is the team I think should be there. Six and a half, I don't know. I mean, I guess their schedule's...

it's somewhat, it's not even so imaginable. It's still kind of difficult for where they are, right? Because the Eagles, even when they're division, Eagles, it's a tough out. The Cowboys are diminished version of themselves from last year, but that's a tough out too. They're still like good. That's the thing is, we've been a little lower on the Cowboys. This is still like a 10 win probably team, like 9-10 win team. It's, the Cowboys,

stuff is more just frustration with jerry because dude why are you you're you're not maximizing what you could be doing this year and that's it's yelling at him for sleeping in the bed he made that's what that's what kind of what's going on or whatever i don't said something meaner but yeah well i'll say something mean about the commanders uh i i i just i don't understand what what their plan was this offseason really i just i don't i don't really get it um

Because, you know, you go out and you have like the spat with...

Brian Johnson. No. Oh, Ben Johnson. Ben Johnson. The Eagles article on the brain. Well, Brian Johnson's another offseason articles and quarterback off its croches. Yeah. You have to spout Ben Johnson. You settle on DQ. DQ brings Cliff. And just like to be just to keep it real, like to go from like Ben Johnson as a prospect to Cliff Kingsbury running your offense. That's that's

It's a pretty big drop off. Then you look at the offensive line play. I don't really know where you're supposed to hang your hat on and where you're going to get any real good positive play from this group this year. You throw in a quarterback who is known for taking risks and taking gambles, and he's going to get sacked a lot this year. So just like the offensive line and quarterback setup is,

How could you possibly say his team's going to win seven games? And that's not even including the defense, where you still have a good defensive tackle room, right? For whatever reason, they've decided to just, you know, not flip anything with John Allen and Deron Payne saying, those are the guys, we'll trade off the edge rushers, but we're going to keep these guys. But then, like, you go out and get...

Cleland Farrell, got Dante Fowler's back with DQ again. Dorrance Armstrong is here. Dorrance Armstrong's a solid player, but if he's going to be your best... They're rotational guys. Right, not edge ones. Guys to build around, yeah. And then don't even get me started on the secondary, where you got Emmanuel Forbes, who...

I don't know if you can start in this year because he's gotten up to 170 pounds from last year. And then you have Bobby Wagner in the middle of linebacker. This is just it's a slow defense. And that's not the kind of defense that Dan Quinn has ever thrived with. Like he needs to speed because he asked guys to cover a whole lot of ground, especially on the back end.

So I think this season has disaster written all over it. I think that Jaden Daniels could be in Sam Howell territory this year where we start tracking it again in week eight. Like, hey, he's on pace to break the sack record. Let's keep an eye out on this because the situation really is...

It's lightning in a bottle for getting sacked in the backfield. Quarterback who holds onto the ball forever in an offensive line that can't block. Yeah. I'll start with the defense. It

You mentioned the defensive tackles. They're both studs. Either guy could be a DT1 on any team, the upper echelon one too. But it's everything around it. It's even, okay, Jerry Newton, who I really liked, maybe another defense tackle there, another guy they could throw in at Spice. He's battled injuries already. You already mentioned Bobby Wagner. Wagner is a net negative at this point in his career. He's probably going to be playing every snap.

So that what the Seahawks ran into last year was rather than have them in coverage on third down, they had them rush the passer. But that kind of made you predictable. And that DQ has always kind of had that issue with his defensive stuff. I should say issue. It's a feature and a bug is that they want to run a bunch of simple coverages and run them fast. Speed, speed, speed. We're going to beat you with speed. We create so much chaos that even if you're right, you're wrong. That is their philosophy.

Micah Parsons helps with that. What else the Cowboys had on their defense helped with that. So they were able to hit the ground running with that kind of just speed, speed, speed everywhere. He tried to build up in the Falcons. They kind of always had issues with inconsistencies and everything. They were still small. Yeah, that's the issue is that they have a lot of small guys. It's small and slower. Even a guy like the nickel they drafted out of Michigan, Micah Parsons. Yeah, very smart player.

really smart. He's a good football player, but he's tiny. And, and that's, so it's another guy that, that battles with size go to offense and,

The tight end they draft from Kansas State, I picture it as like a Noah Gray hybrid fullback tight end, you know, draft him in the fourth round. They draft him early. He's small. You know, he's smaller for the tight end position too. Jane Daniels, smaller for the quarterback position. So again, they're making a bunch of exceptions about speed and size, and that's not a good formula to kind of build around. I know they're kind of patching things together, but

But that's why, yeah, six and a half is like that feels right. And below that feels even better because of just what they're at, where they're at. Like, what are the pieces they're going around? Everyone loves Scary Terry. But Scary Terry is not tier one. He's a mid-lower tier two guy at receiver. I like Jahan Dotson. He's kind of been up and down his career. This will be a good offense for him. The math on offense is just crazy.

not adding up to me. You have an offense that's going to be, try to be hyper-efficient in the passing game because they'll run a lot of quick game. That's just what Cliff does. That's what actually Daniels is pretty good at. If you take sacks in that type of offense, you need explosive plays to counteract that.

I just don't know where those are coming from. The runs aren't adding up like in money ball. Like, you know, it's just like they don't add up in my head where if I think this this offensive line that's very patchy, that's a work in progress, the progress, then they have guys that are kind of OK. But there's gonna be some QB run game. They'll be interesting to maybe offset that. But where are the explosive coming coming from outside of deep balls to Terry that are 50 50 balls at best?

So, sacks plus lack of explosives is not a good equation to have. I was about to say, you might not know where the explosive plays are coming from, but someone on that offense does, and his name is Jaden Daniels. We're going to get a lot of Jaden Daniels hero ball this year. We're just trying to make something happen because they might be starting a third-round rookie at left tackle.

against Michael Parsons and the Eagles and the Giants six times a year. Every argument. But that's the thing. It's like, how do the, I know we looked at the schedule, but how are the Patriots at four and a half? And then we just kind of broke down these teams and you look at position by position. It's like, what kind of, where, where are the differences of strengths and everything that even though I could tie down, they have Zach Ertz out there.

It's like the Cardinals are like, no, we don't want to play Zach Ertz. Like that's how his career ended. It wasn't like the Cardinals were, I mean, Trey McBride's good, but it wasn't like, you know, it's an all-world dream team they were trying out there last year. So Commanders, yeah, definitely reverse Frisky. I don't know what that is. Good luck blocking your own division. That's how I feel about the Commanders. Good luck blocking your own division, let alone the other teams.

I know that's what you always want to is watch your young quarterback running around and trying to make a whole bunch of plays happen. That's Jalen too is like how I think he's going to hit is kind of being a fast Teddy where he's just nickel and diming and then creates every once in a while with his legs, you know, just like a faster version that can just do a little bit more.

Not Mahomes, not Josh Allen, not Lamar, not those guys. I know that's not fair to compare anybody to those guys, but guys that every play they can break, contain, create a throw, break, contain, create a throw. Like Daniels actually thrives with kind of smooth operation. Like that's actually more his style than I know we see the rushing numbers. We see all that. That's just a different than his actual style. So again, just a little scary, but closing it up. That was fun. Fun with the friskiness.

But we're closing out today. We'll be back on Tuesday with another episode with Matt Harmon. I'm Nate Tice. You can find me at Nate underscore Tice. That's Charles McDonald. You can find him at where, Charles? Mr. Vertz, I already spoiled it, but where can we find you? Find me on Twitter at 4Vertz, where I'm mostly tweeting at the EA college football account, telling them to patch the game. Oh, yeah. You got any patch takes or patch updates? Huh.

It's like what you, we, we took, we probably took a good five steps forward, but like two and a half back. Okay. They, they, they, they broke some stuff while they were fixing it, but it's, it's,

mostly in a better spot than it was yesterday. Mostly. I still kind of wonder, what were you guys working on the past three years to a degree now that the initial shock has worn off? But I'm still playing every day. They had to get Mo Bamba in the game. Yeah, every single stadium. Every single stadium. Yeah, it wasn't even special. I thought it was just going to be a couple. How's the 32-team...

I see where you're going. Dude, we have some. You're the commissioner, right? I am. We have a lot of users losing to the computer. Like a lot. It's not going on Heisman, right? No, it's on All-American. We have four minute quarters. We've got people not to throw our friend Richard Johnson under the bus, but he's playing a Florida and he lost to like UCF 42 to nine. I'm like, dude, realistic.

well i feel like what are we doing here we've got we've got users like as ranked teams losing to unranked cpu teams it it's bad out here but

My Memphis Tigers, we just landed a four-star quarterback, and since no one knows how to recruit, we're about to land a five-star running back, too. So I might have to bolt to a new job. You have a fence around Mississippi? No, no, Memphis. No, I know, but Memphis recruits Mississippi big. Oh, no, basically the personal area.

There is Tennessee. Tennessee is user-controlled in the league, but they don't really know what they're doing. So I'm just picking off Tennessee players right now and trying to build a fence. You PlayStation players, man. I know. I know. Play. Play. This is what Kevin Nash talked about. Join WCW. There's about five people that get that. But...

Subscribe to us at Football 301, please. It'd be great. Follow us, rate us. Five stars, hopefully. But you can also watch us on YouTube. We're on the Yahoo Sports YouTube channel. Check out all these videos, plus plenty of great content. Plenty of Olympic stuff as well.

Charles, me and Matt are also doing voicemails. Next Thursday, we're doing those. Oh, just me and you, Charles. Next Thursday, we're doing voicemails. That's awesome. Send in your questions. Football301mailbag at yahoosports.com. That's football301mailbag at yahoosports.com. Emails are great. Videos and voice notes are even better. Thanks to Stone, Adi, Brett, everybody behind the scenes. We'll be back on Tuesday. See you guys then.

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