Bo Nix, Michael Penix, Giants offense: preseason mailbag episode | Football 301 01:07:18

on this episode of Football 301. It's Mailbag. Good to hear from you guys for, man, over a dozen questions. Charles McDonald joins me, Mr. Vertz himself. 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. Hello and welcome back to Football 301. This is Nate Tice. Today we are hearing from you guys. We have our very first mailbag episode on Football 301.

Plenty of questions. We actually had to skim it down. You guys did a great job. I'm very proud of you. I'm very happy about this because there's some great questions all over the globe, too. Got some international questions. This is an international mailbag. To help me do that and to go over some news before that, just a couple of trades happened, including his team is Mr. Vertz himself. And I'm just dropping the four completely because a few people addressed you as Mr. Vertz in these emails. He is my good friend, Charles McDonald. How are you doing today, Chuck? Good.

Doing good. Decided to do a mailbag episode, mainly because I don't have to think as much. You guys provide the content for us, and then we regurgitate it back to you. It's like some of the best things that you can do going into the weekend.

Right? It's like, I love this song. I love this song. It's like you wrote a song and you're hearing karaoke of it. Yeah. Come help us help you for a day. You know, it's a lot of work. Yeah. No, but I actually do love mailbag questions because sometimes what Chuck is saying, though, is true, though, is sometimes, though, I always feel like, hey, let's talk about the Cardinals again. And you guys do a great job of going like, hey, OK, there's other stuff to talk about, my man. And I appreciate that. So that's why I'm really looking forward to this.

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We're going to answer your questions in a sec, but a couple news items, a couple trades, one a little bigger than the other, but just want to talk about them. One involving your favorite team, Charles McDonald. That is Matt Judon going to the Atlanta Falcons for a third round pick. And also the Falcons are reportedly finalizing a deal with free safety Justin Simmons. But we'll start with Judon.

how you feeling about this trade right now charles i like it we'll see what happens that's that's kind of how i feel about it um he's been great for the patriots uh but you know last year he was hurt um he only played in four games he just turned 32 today so we'll see you know because this is the point like in a player's career where it could really start to go downhill for a player of his caliber but also

I mean, this is a move that they kind of had to make if the Patriots and the Judons' relationship had kind of deteriorated over the past couple weeks because he wanted the contract extension and maybe they didn't feel like they wanted to go in that direction. And he's available. You got to go for it, especially because they don't really have any edge rushers on the roster. And they just lost Bradley Trice to a season-ending injury.

So, yeah, you got to do it. You got to do it. But I do think that I don't really think the third round pick part is the risk here. It's more the contract you're about to hand out to him because there are some some some warning signs here that we've probably already seen the best of managing on if we're going to be real.

Yeah. I, at first I was like, this is needed for the Falcons. It's hilarious that you and I kind of lit them up the other day. And then they made a couple of moves right after. I was like, oh, okay. Like, all right, well, we're hopefully we saw something out of this. You nailed it on the head though. He's 32. He's 32.

He was just hurt. Not usually the player profile of any type of player that you'd want to be trading for. I mean, I think that's just, you know, just looking at details. That's just narrative scouting. If I want to see what happens with the contract at first, I think I saw a rumor that it was nothing has happened yet.

So that like that they've made the trade with nothing in the works. And also there's other teams interested in this bears and dolphins, other teams interested, according to Aaron Wilson in Texas as well. All of those kind of dolphins, dolphins just keep trying to like, Hey, is this edge work? Does this edge are going to stay healthy for us? I feel like they just keep getting into after one after another, but yeah,

Uh, yeah, I mean, it was needed from the Falcons. They say there are contenders. Like, I mean, again, we, we keep talking about this, like that's how they view themselves. So if you are, well, this is the stuff that you have to do. Same with the Simmons edition. I mean, that's how they view themselves. This is the narrative that they have written. So, okay. Continue to follow that narrative. So, um, and you also noticed the, uh, yeah, or mentioned the Patriots relationship with Jude on too. That's also like a big component of all these things.

So the third rounder was a little richer than I actually thought it would be because of how older he is off the injury stuff, the contract questions. I thought maybe a fourth realistically, but this is kind of when there's a market, this can kind of happen. So I think it's kind of a win-win, but it's kind of a,

a sour win a little bit i think with some of the things that happened yeah yeah it's like yeah there's a down arrow next to it it's got a little minor trade inter division trade in the nfc east jordan phillips from the giants went to the cowboys for a late round swap cowboys also signed the end carl lawson fun player but phillips

He looked like he was going to get cut from the Giants. They have a lot of beef on that defensive front. The Cowboys need beef. We've talked about this. Mazie Smith is not really – he's big, but he's not a plugger. He's a gap shooter. So they needed that guy that could beat the Jonathan Hankins. So this is a chance at it, a dice roll at it. They need that type of player profile. I think it's funny because this is kind of where you see the shift between –

DQ and Zimmer yeah because Zimmer's like like Zimmer's always had Zimmer's like there's no way you're going to be this soft at nose tackle we can't do it like it's just not going to be a thing I mean because he was there when they paid uh

Limbaugh Joseph in Minnesota. They had Pecco in Cincinnati when he was at DC there. Snacks. No, not Snacks. The other guy who's with the Browns now. That's bad. Tomlinson? Yeah, Tomlinson. That's another one.

So yeah, Zimmer's always, he's always tried to have, you know, someone that can just sit there and eat blocks and be a big, mean, scary person in the middle. And that's something that the Cowboys have not had. It's something that the Falcons never really had outside of one year of Don Terry Poe in Atlanta. So this is kind of a, yeah, he was really good that year too. And then that was that. I don't

I don't know. There's one year of Don Terry Pell and Grady just absolutely dominating the inside and it never, never happened again. But I don't think this is like a fix. It's, it's like a, it's a bandaid that

That's like a little wet on one side. So it's kind of falling off still. But Jordan Phillips, I think that's an improvement over what they had just in terms of being, you know, someone who can sit there and plug a gap in the middle. That's it. It's a body for him. It's better than nothing. It's better than trying to figure out the alternative. Like, how are we going to do this? It'll just be the classic problem the Cowboys have run into the last few years is everyone can run on us. So hopefully we get to a passing down. So, yeah, a couple of fun trades involving defensive ends. Okay.

Here we go. Hopping into the questions. Order these kind of whatever order we got them in. So, yeah, that's how we're going to go over them. So, first question. You guys did a great job. It's fun to skim through these, but we'll start with Josh Rose.

On a recent episode, you mentioned a young coach blanking on the team. It was Nick Rawls, Cardinals defense coordinator, who was really good and would be a head coach in a few years. Yeah, that was kind of a heat check moment. But yeah, still, still very optimistic about him. But who are some other rising star coaches in the position ranks who many haven't heard of yet? Not like a Kellen Moore, dot, dot, dot. And that was from Josh. Do you have any check to start us off with? I had a couple outside of Nick. Yeah.

I mean, honestly, the more I started looking around at these staffs, I was like, I don't know because I do feel like-

Right, because I feel we've already talked about Drew Patting before. He's the offensive coordinator of the Cardinals. So I didn't want to go there, but it just seems like some of these teams, like the Patriots, some of these other teams have gone back and just hired guys who have been OCs before. But if I was going to go with a name to watch, you probably want to watch what Zach Robinson's going to do in Atlanta, just because he's...

from the McVeigh tree, quarterbacks coach with the Rams, used to work at PFF too. So,

So, you know, maybe he's got some... Yeah, it's an interesting profile. And he's going to have a veteran quarterback, too, to help kind of get him going. So maybe Pat Sting and Zach Robinson are two guys that I would circle. But guys that, you know, I felt excited about, I was like, I don't know, maybe I kind of need to watch some more. I kind of need some games. Yeah, that's kind of how I...

kind of in the same spot. So yeah, the Cardinals guys, which is Rawls and Petsing. Patrick Graham, defense coordinator for the Raiders, but he's been around. That's not like a newish name. He's had his chances, you know. He had his chance, yeah, and he kind of wavered back down, but he's kind of getting a little bit of a swell right now. You know, he's got such interesting, like, you know, he's got some Patriots to him. He's kind of been at some few teams, yeah. Denard Wilson, defense coordinator for the Titans. Got the Ravens background. Got a fun background. Been on a few teams. Eagles a year before that. DBs.

And any time you got good DB play, they're a lot like old line coaches where it's like, oh, you're getting the most out of these four or five guys at a time. Oh, I'm keeping an eye on you. So he's one. When they're a play caller, though, it's much different. So I got to see that. I did a couple of college guys, Ryan Grubb going to Seahawks offense coordinator. Again, have to see how it goes. Jesse Minter, defense coordinator for the Chargers, come from Michigan. He's had some NFL background, too. So he's in the Harbaugh.

school academy right now that that might be a year or two away before they kind of get that swell but those are guys i'm keeping an eye on as kind of like okay you're young and interesting and not just a shanahan disciple yeah but that's really it's like seven tier shanahan guys now right you know yeah the bobby slicks of the world and that's been what's kind of the interesting shift where uh

where we saw a bunch of defensive coordinators hired and people like, whoa, what's going on here? It's like, guys, that well might be dry. And now there's all these young defensive guys that are like, okay. Right. You can't just hire anyone who's just sat at breakfast with Kyle. You got to do some due diligence here. Right. Control C, control V. All right. So next question from JC.

Hey, congrats on the new show, Nate and the gang. Thank you. Question for you. With the NFL being so cyclical, what is the offensive response to Mike McDonald, one of those young defense coordinators we just talked about, and Jesse Minter, disguised defensive meta that seems to be spreading? Seems like play action crosses were the response of Seattle Cover 3. Yeah, yeah, yeah. All right. What should we look for next? That's kind of just this question. I do have a couple thoughts on this, that we're going to be an article, but

Not happening. So might as well use it on a podcast answer. So this is great. I love this question. More all purpose place, meaning because the defense is so doing a little bit of everything and moving so much, you want stuff that has answers to everything. Traditionally in the rug game, that's outside zone. Defenses have some good answers against that now. So now I think it's going to be more duo and variations of that or, uh,

read option, like front side duo read. If anyone's playing college football 25, you're running a bunch right now. So those types of plays that have answers to whatever the defense brings, because it's all about number count. You can't run counter certain plays against certain box counts. Like the numbers just don't add up. Pass plays, all purpose pass plays, which means you need to have to have a dude at quarterback because they have to read the whole field. They have to diagnose a coverage, five, seven, five step drops, seven step drop stuff where you're

if it's cover two, I have to hit the dig on this play. But against man, I'm actually going to this route over here. So you'll hear me talk about a lot of plays. Why cross sale those types of plays that have answers against whatever coverage they are. So that's what I think is the next answer. But the thing is,

Those are hard to do. And that's why defenses are doing it. Like they're, they're making them, you do the hard things. And so it makes a ton of sense. So I was wondering if you have any thoughts on this. Yeah. Well, I was about to say in response to that, like we, we just saw the, the Ravens and the AFC title game for the second half. Like the chiefs could not move the ball at all. You get the strike from a homes to Kelsey where Kyle Hamilton had literally perfect coverage on the play.

And it was still a touchdown and then one other drive. But outside of that, you know, even even when you especially when you have the players like Baltimore does, even even people like Mahomes and Andy Reid will still struggle against it. I do think that some of these defensive coordinators, like especially like a Brandon Staley type.

you get a little too comfortable with your personnel and you're like, okay, well then this is how I can just always run things. Like if you're going to be a team that wants to disguise a bunch of stuff and run like five man boxes, yeah, you might need to have Aaron Donald because the counter to that is, well, I don't know.

I'll just line up in 12 and just run on your ass. Pound the rock. Right. We'll run duo. And if you want to run a bunch of, you know, disguise coverages on the backside, maybe we can find someone who's rotating out of a gap. And next thing you know, we got someone running off to the races. Got it slant over quick enough. Yeah, just. Right, right. So it's all it's all a cat and mouse game. But man, I would really just love some teams to just get.

in 12 or getting 21 and just pound the rock and see what happens. Cause I don't think that most teams like have the collection of front seven talent where they'll be able to stop it every week. That's it. Next gen stats had the thing after the combine. It's like DBs and front seven players are,

getting lighter and lighter than ever and offensive linemen are getting heavier than ever so it's just lean into it just literally lean into the heavy guys I mean the Rams are doing it already and I think others are doing I think that's what teams are doing like that it's gonna be an answer for a later question but yeah like plenty of tight end stuff I know 12 personnel is so kind of

passe to kind of always go, Oh, that's the next thing to tight ends. It's like, it's always been a thing, but now we're kind of getting coaches are better at using these guys that aren't maybe the best blockers and stuff. Like Sam, the Porter is a great example of that last year, Kincaid this year with the bill. So, but also you mentioned like Andy Reed sometimes has issues and West coast guys. This is, they want to get to the perfect play.

The perfect play with the perfect answer with the perfect route against the perfect coverage. That's why there's stuff so wordy. That's why it's so specific. It's getting guys in certain spots. That's why these defenses do well against them because then they go, oh, you're running the cover three place. Psych, it's cover two. Like you better find it like a bailout answer. And that's why I think sometimes those guys get caught once they get outside the opening script and they have to actually read what they're getting every play. So it's kind of fun that seeing these defenses kind of taking it to the

the, what's the meta right now? This one I wanted to answer. This was from Zach because this player kind of has had a nice week and it's kind of, you know, making us feel a little better about him. But Zach's question is, how do you foresee Brian Thomas Jr., receiver for the Jags, fit in Doug, Doug, he just said Doug's offensive scheme, Doug Peterson's offensive scheme. There's only one Doug right now. So much has been made about-

Much has been made about this downfield ball winning, which pairs well to Trevor. It does. I don't have an answer about this, but no one has talked about his speed in the horizontal game. The Jags spam mesh unlike any other team. Not wrong there. Do you think BTJ's skill set will help him run away from defenders across the field on shallow and immediate crossers? Hoping he's not a one trick pony and the team is less fragile. John Shipley, our friend who covers the Jags, has said that no one can keep up with Thomas deep. Like he has wheels and could go deep. He

He, even though he had a really cool finish in the game the other day, he's not like a ball winner. He's not a dunker to me. He's like, he's such a unique player. I saw comparisons to him, to T Higgins. I thought that was awful.

T. Higgins is a dunk artist. Thomas is like a silky smooth. He can bend really in weird ways. He's just a unique guy. Having said all that, I do think he'll be good on the yak stuff because he's not going to be breaking guys off and juking guys, but he can bend and he can

accelerate very quickly for such a tall long-legged guy so so yeah short answer is i i do think it would fit uh pretty well any thoughts on the jags offense right now trying to be nice about him right now yeah he's not like it's not like quentin johnson but no but he is kind of like a small ball big receiver

And I think that that can distort people's views because you're like, oh, 6'4", 200 pounds. You know, he's probably a huge contested catch guy. No, he's running deep and he's going to get by most guys. It kind of makes you think back if you saw the training camp clip today of Brian Thomas just

torching some poor DB for the Bucs. Makes you think about Jaden Daniels flipping that play to all go in the Jets game last weekend. Because that's what he was throwing to. And he also had neighbors on the other side. That's speed that can get your teammates drafted. And it's something that they're going to have to lean on. But yeah, I do think that can be a part of their game because...

it's going to have to be a part of his game because it's not like you can just pigeonhole him in the one role that kind of overlaps with Gabe Davis. Like, no, he's going to have to be forced to do a lot more stuff just because of the composition of this roster. But he's at least got the tools to do it. He's got a good quarterback. We'll see what happens. He'll figure it out. Like, I'm optimistic about him. I think it's just that he'd be a slow starter.

in his career. He's not going to be a guy that's like, oh my God, he's not going to Anquan Bolden it in week one to go for 200. But I think it's going to be more like he's going to be a steady climber. It's just good to see. It's like, oh, they found something for him right now, which is of course...

I mean, this dude ran a 4-3-3 at almost 6-3 flat, 6-2 in 7-8, 2-0-9. Like, that's flying. Like, that is, I know we get kind of jaded, like, we think 4-3-3 is like, oh, it's not 4-2-1. 4-3-3 is so freaking fast, and he actually shows the 4-3-3. So, yeah, it's a cool player. Just a unique player. I've been struggling to find a comparison for him, like, historically in my head. Dane Brugler used Chris Henry.

as a comparison and i thought that was an interesting one um former bangles and west virginia guy uh but that yeah i i've been trying to figure out one but so we'll see i'll see if one hits my brain but martavis is still in the league kind of yeah that's a pretty good one because martavis is probably what six two he might be taller than that that's a rip who did he just sign with martavis is six three and a half look at you two eleven look at you hey four four two hey you nailed that i remember he was faster like on field

He's way faster on field. Yeah, he's way faster on the field. No, he's...

21 plus guy, 21 miles an hour. He's way fast. All right. Next question. This one was a fun one, so I might not give a good answer. So I might want to answer this in a later mailbag, but we'll get into it. But imagine for Matt C, imagine you had a time machine and could go back no earlier than 1990 armed with the things we know about football in 2024 analytics, strategy, drafting, et cetera. You are tasked with taking over as GM and coach the 1990 Patriots worst record in the league.

How does it take your how long does it take your team to become dominant? What are the three to four primary advantages you have based on the benefit these last three four years of football? Did you have any thoughts on this? I always want to use this at a different time because I want to marinate on it But I have a couple kind of like cheats on it. I did think about this I would just be so curious to know like who what what what skill set does my quarterback have? Cuz I think cuz do it if I can if I can if I can break out like

Because 1990 Patriots, I know that because the reason why Patriots fans cherish this run so much is because they were just absolute garbage before all of this happened. They're quarterback for, they started three quarterbacks that year, six games, six games and four games.

Yeah, it was bad. The highest QB rating was 76. But see, here's the thing. Some of the scheme trends you see in the league, it's cyclical, right? So if you go back and you watch... There's a ton of old...

full NFL games up on YouTube, if you go back and watch like the Dan Reeves Falcons with Michael Vick, it looks like a lot of stuff you see in college. And yeah, it's just not a shotgun. Yeah. And then Jim Moore came in and was like, no, you're going to drop back. And then the dog fighting stuff happened and blah, blah, blah, blah. Yeah. But so I, I do wonder like if you were just to come out in 1990 and just start running like

we're running Eagles, like RPO, 12 personnel, just all stuff like that. Like how off guard would people be? I know they would for a while, but they would adjust and they would figure it out. They're facing a run and shoot then a little bit. Right, right. Yeah, Warren Moon. Like this isn't totally, totally foreign.

Run and shoot. And they also faced like, I mean, this is West Coast was starting to take hold. They took a couple more years before that start kind of spreading. But that's when it all started kind of merging all together. But they were, I mean, guys are airing it out. It's not like,

totally foreign concept. Like you said, no one was in shotgun. I thought more that this would be a Biff Tannen almanac, almanac thing from back to the future too, where now I have the, the, the almanac and I, I know all the draft history. So I was like, yeah, like, let's look at this next draft class, the 1991 draft class where we had the number one pick the real Patriots traded it to Jimmy Johnson, Cowboys who are wheeling a deal. And then, uh,

Brett Favre was in this draft class in the second round, of course. So I figured that he'd be my answer somehow, some way, you know, make sure he stays. Boston might not be the best area for him, though. No. Well, Atlanta wasn't for sure. So I know. Yeah, I know. He needs to go somewhere where there's nothing to do, you know. I know. And there's no team in Salt Lake. So it's.

The offense that I might pluck, it might be like the 2015 Bruce Arians offense where Carson Palmer's... You guys are all running West Coast? No, no, no, no, no. Our ADOT's 20. Our ADOT's 20, dog. We're taking 11-step dropbacks and throwing 40 yards down the field. Yeah.

It's the most pure dropback football. And I think we had a question that we might not get to, but it was about kind of like your preferred offense or whatever. And it's always Arians. Like Tom Brady operating that offense is like,

We'll probably never see that match again. Like a guy that's able to get rid of the ball in two seconds and also push the ball like 15 yards a pop. Yeah. Just absurd stuff. I know. I, I, yeah, I was like kind of looking the, I think it was the 93 draft class was where you could really like, if you did your picks right, we don't deal with,

Kind of hopefully Favre works out some kinks. I'd really wheel and deal for that draft class. You get like Willie Rolfe. You get like there are some real players in that class. So I want to maybe next mailbag we'll really address this one, but I'll get to the next question. Okay, we're going to take a quick break and get back to more of you guys' questions. Okay, it's time to commit.

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We are back and we are getting to William S's question. Hi, Nate slash Charles. This is a question I've wanted to ask you in a mailbag for a few years now. When O-line experts sneak about, speak about how offensive line prospects slash players are talented and physically gifted or not talented and physically gifted, how does that translate on the field? What are the on-field tells from line play that tells you whether or not the guy is a physical freak or an average athlete?

Hope my question makes sense. It does. Way too often I hear you guys speak about how X tackles a physical freak without saying how that translates to that player being good. Thoughts? I would say the first thing is probably like,

If you're, like, a tackle or really, really any of the five that's, like, consistently getting your head across on, like, reach plays and outside zone plays, like, you're consistently getting across, especially, like, if you're trying to block over, like, a center trying to block a one or a guard trying to block a three or a tackle trying to block, like, a six or a seven. If you can, like...

consistently get to the outside shoulder, you're probably a pretty good athlete. And yeah, I'm still so like Falcons centered when I think about the NFL that I think even like the comparison from like Drew Dallman and like what he's able to do, because I think he's a good athlete, you know, but it's not always like,

actionable athleticism because it's like, yeah, like he's someone that can get to the functional. Right. So he's not, he's someone that can get to an outside shoulder of a defensive tackle, but he's on the ground. Right. Yeah. Or he'll get blown back. Right. Or he'll get blown back once he gets there. Or, or he's a guy that's like,

You know, because some of these guys, if they know they're not as strong, you'll see them take like a back step first so they can like loop around in front. But now you're giving up ground before you even hit someone. So it's not really a viable plan all the time. But I think that's one of the good tells if someone's a good athlete or if you're in pass pro and –

you know, it's never going to be perfect. Right. But if you're someone who gets beat on initial move, but you kind of kick back and recover and still stay on balance, that's another good tell too. Yeah. I, my, most of my stuff is just osmosis for my dad and which is he likes big guys that can move. So his big thing was what you just finished on was how they recover and every guy is different. And I know that's kind of,

Very broad answer, but some guys it's technique and they have good hands and they can know how to reset their hands and everything. But you see a guy maybe bend and like reshift his feet back into the right spot. You see a guy with foot quickness and reset his feet somehow. You see a guy be able to have one hand, get themselves back into position and get into two hands.

So recoverability is kind of one of those things that you'll see. Bend is the number one thing. Bend meaning can this guy bend? If you see a guy or if you've ever seen someone power clean or hang clean or squat, that's what I mean by bend. How they sink down and get underneath, get their hips underneath. And that's what you look for. Then seeing when you see a guy that's just start looking at heights and weights with this. Okay, maybe a guy that's 6'3", 3'10".

Okay, you better be able to bend. But maybe a guy's 6'5 and a half, 335. Oh, wow. That's where it's the sliding scale of that being impressive. Like, Dahlman doing it, yeah, you better because he plays at 290. Jason Kelsey, hell of a player. But he's playing at 270. Yeah, he better be able to bend because that's how they win. That's how he recovers, bending and being an athlete. The other thing is...

- What do you mean? - When we watched Tristan Wirfs, like that was the thing with him. 'Cause he was 330 pounds. And I remember I tweeted a clip. I was like, oh my God, like this guy's amazing. And someone clipped back to me and was like, dude, he's getting beat like off the snap on something.

okay, but no one's getting close to the quarterback on any of these plays because he's still able to recover and then push down. So, yeah, I think even thinking of specific examples, like when you see someone get beat kind of, but then they're able to recover enough just to wash someone way outside the pocket. Yep, that's another sign of a pretty good athlete. And like you said, sliding scale. If you can do that 330...

That's where we're cooking. The, the, the last thing, and this is my dad's biggest tell, and this is why I was way lower on Evan Neal and Trevor Penning is that is, are they on the ground? It's you mentioned Dolman pulling it. Who cares if he can move? If he's on the ground, if they're trying to finish and it's, they were like two yards. Okay. They, they got their initial run block one step, two step. And then that guy just throws them by and their head, their heads down. They've fallen over themselves. They look like a toddler that ran too fast. Um,

Like that is, that's usually a sign of not a good athlete because that's balanced. That's finished. That's being able to bend, keep your feet and do all those things. So that's just like a little telltale sign for me. If a guy can keep his feet, uh,

Yeah, and he can bend. This is why I love Tyler Smith. That guy never was on the ground. And yeah, his feet. Oh, he has so many holes. It's like hand placement is so fixable. But being able to bend at 330 pounds, I cannot teach that. There's no drill that is going to let me teach that. So yeah, so I can go on this for years and years. This is one we'll get the big guy on one time. Let him rant rave about this. Yeah, we should just...

Feed him Trevor Pettingcliffe before he comes on. Oh, yeah. He told me he's going to start watching film more. He's going to tweet some clips out, he said. So we'll have to look out for that. Yeah, but next question from Abbey or Abbey. So I'm sorry if I'm mispronouncing that. Abbey. Okay, we're going to Abbey. Hey, Nate Charles. So the Rams paid Jonah Jackson and Kevin Dotson big money this offseason. And a lot of people were talking about how this was largely due to the offense running more dual last year. One of them being me.

which demands high level guard play to work well. It does a lot of double teams, makes a lot of sense. So paying those guards will, in theory, let them lean into a lot more and do it well. On that note, I want to ask about what other player acquisitions, whether big or small, will have the biggest impact on their new team scheme in terms of what they're running and how they're running it. There's more to it, but that's the gist of the question.

Got any? Kind of the, you know, just someone, maybe a little identity shift, a little anything like that? I got a couple. One we covered the other day, the Lions Corners. Yeah. That was one I kind of... That's a good one. Yeah. If you want to hear about it, we talked about it on our show on Tuesday. But yeah, the Lions Quarterbacks additions was one for me. What about the opposite direction, like teams who have lost? This morning, I watched some of the Graham Barton...

slaughter against DJ leader. Yes. Against the Bengals. And like, that's something where it's, it's a subtraction, but it's absolutely going to have to change the way that, uh, you know, our, our pal big Lou calls the, uh,

the Bengals defense because when you're missing that kind of plug in the middle, it really affects every single thing that you're trying to do on defense, right? So I think, you know, if you're just looking at like one-on-one conversations

swaps like that. I do think that losing DJ reader and now you're going to, you know, a Sheldon Rankin's BJ Hill, Chris Jenkins, junior interior, the guys are probably gonna get moved off the ball quite a bit. Unless BJ Hill just hits like a superhero arc in his like career. I think,

I think TR, TR Tark got released, so maybe they can hit him up. What's the deal with him? He keeps getting cut. I think he's got character stuff. That's why he fell in draft anyways. And then, and then Titans, he kept button heads with Rabel. I think, you know, that's perfect. Perfect. People just get tired of you after a while, you know? And then that's the thing. He goes to Texans. He actually, I think he kept his head down.

And then, okay, where's my money now kind of thing. Yeah, so I know he's a hell of a player. But he's perfect for what the Bengals need. So maybe they can hit him up. I actually DJ reader with the Lions, but the Lions are actually really good against the run last year. Their third EPA per rush. So kind of helping that out.

I also had Colby Parkinson, and this is slash the ascendant, the ascendance of Davis Allen for the Rams. So tight ends for the Rams. I think they're going to be, this is Mr. 11 personnel, Sean McVay. I think because of their, what they want to do this year and what I think they're going to lean into and maybe take some reps off of Cooper cup and Puka Nakua. So they're not fitting up on guys all the time is more tight to tight end looks. I think there'd be one of the teams. And I'm not saying every play, but rather than none, but rather than none,

more like five to six a game, which is a big bump for them. So those guys I'm interested in because one's a good athlete now and Parkinson's a fun blocker. Brian Burns with the Giants.

That's kind of fun. You know, I think that's just more of a fun addition. I think just because they have some real juice and everybody's kind of a nice role. Like they're going to, him and Lawrence are going to really, Giants defense look good, man. That first preseason game, they're looking good. I'm feeling good about that take. Even though they're starting all rookies at DB. Oh, and Deontay Banks is playing more in the slot. So keep an eye out for that. Last one. I feel like the Rams, they're probably the cleanest example of this because they're

Sean, because NFL coaches can be stubborn and a lot of guys are signing, signing players to like fit things that they already want to do. But Sean is he's, he's changed his offense a ton since he first came. It was running the, the Rams offense since like 2017 was his first year there. It's not even close to like the same thing that he was running back then. So,

I think that they're probably the cleanest example of that, but you might be looking more at losses more than gains when you want to frame this question. Yeah. Yeah. Because you feel them more and then you see how they have to adapt on it. No, I think like even losses that are positive. That's why I'm pretty positive about the Seahawks defense. It's because like the guys they lost is actually going to be a good thing. Yeah.

Oh my God, this is hilarious. So Stone just hit us up. Producer Stone just said, T-R-T-A-R-T, just signed with the LA Chargers 60 seconds ago. Jim will fix him. Jim will fix it. Yeah, he'll get them right. Candyman. Say Candyman three times in the mirror. T-R-T-A-R-T, T-R-T-A-R-T, T-R-T-A-R-T.

Okay. Oh, the last one was Xavier McKinney with the Packers because they're going to be more. Yeah, because I was going roster by roster. I was just looking at every team like, who did they sign again? Because I talked about the front the other day or we did. They're going to be more cover three team. A little zag kind of compared to what everyone else is doing right now. He's a deep post safety. That's why I wink at him there because they ran a lot of man coverage and blitz stuff. So, yeah.

That makes a lot of sense for what they're going to do. They drafted Bullard, who you have experience with, and he's going to be more of the box guy. He's a smart player on tight ends, more of the move around guy. So, yeah, those two additions I thought would be a nice DNA shift there. They need it. All right. Next one. All right. Here we go. This is Ryan.

I have heard and appreciated your analysis of Bo Nix and this Broncos offense. He's talking to both of us because we were both on the show, both your show and the Mina Kime show. I'm actually in a minority of Broncos fans who mostly agrees with you.

Oh, mostly agrees with what you're seeing and I'm still very skeptical on where this Peyton slash Knicks marriage is going. My question, where do you see this offense going schematically? Both for Bo's rookie season and long term. I'm having trouble imagining Peyton signed up to run the Oregon offense for the rest of his career, but I also can't really see his under center run game meshing with the Oregon run RPO based offense.

God, you're just pulling out this thread. This is great. In fact, I thought we saw a bit of a schematic clash in the Colts game where Bo took few, if any, dropbacks from under center. So that was from Ryan N.,

You want to start or you want me to go? I had a mean little quip joke that popped into my head. We got to where do you see his offense going? Horizontal is where I see it going. That's a succinct way to put it, though. Because, I mean, look, here's the deal. You drafted a quarterback at 12 that does things that most quarterbacks can do. You know? Like, there's no...

There's no physical trump card with him, and you're still dealing with adjusting to the game as a rookie. And even in the game, we just saw that people were...

we're impressed by, you look at the final numbers, it's six yards in attempt. You know, it's 15 for 21 for 125 yards. That's not that good. That's a picket. Right. That means we really struggled to move the ball that day. We didn't. But yeah, we completed a bunch of passes. But for what? Who cares? Like, we're not converting anything. Like, you want to talk about

Like schematically, where could this go? I don't know, because you need so many good players for this to work.

And they don't have many. So, you know, I would have guessed they're going to do a lot of, you know, stuff that would fall under like cheese category on Madden or CFB 25. We're running like a bunch of RPOs and we're running like play action sliders so we can just get them on the move and no one's shooting through gaps trying to kill our little quarterback. I don't know. I don't really see Madden.

Like if you're a Broncos fan, what is your best case scenario for what Bo Nix hopes to be? Like he's already 24 years old. That's what I keep coming back to. If this was a 21 year old that started two years in college and okay. All right. What can we grow with this?

He's old. He is. That's where you have to start with. And it has to be something said, and I have to kind of reemphasize this where everyone goes, well, Burrow was old. Okay. Burrow is the mid nineties Houston rockets. When MJ retired, he's the exception to the rule for all these rules because there's so many things he's the outlier on. But Bo Nix is, he's a older player. That is a nickel and dime guy. When you said horizontal, that nails it. It looks like it's going to be a heavy, quick game and RPO offense. Yeah.

And I, whatever reason, and I thought Sean Payton's kind of football dogma would be wanting to push the ball more, more play action, more true five-step drops, more, you know, like we're going intermediate. We're attacking that 10 to 20 yard area, what Breeze was so good at early in his career. But he was, I think he's like, well, no, I like that old offense, the 2017, 2018 Saints where it was,

brutally efficient offense that was just, I mean, Breeze's success rate that it was like 55%. Like no one's going to touch that number ever again. And they had a good run game. So that that's what maybe in his head is what he actually wants.

Do you have Drew Brees with 200 starts under his belt playing for you? Like, that's what you need to do that. You need the hyper efficient operator. And I think the narrative they told themselves was, well, Bo Nix is a vet. He can step right, you know, that 24 years old, he can step right in and run this. But when I watched him in that first preseason game, this is why I've been a little negative or a little more negative than others. I'm not saying like, boom, nuke it. He's never, never have a chance to start, but this is where my concerns lie is that

That third down scramble he had, and this is just one play example, but third down scramble he had gets the first down. Everyone's like, well, that's a great flash of his athleticism. Shows off his scrambling ability. That play was a mesh concept, which I know for a fact Bo Nix has run at Auburn and at Oregon and probably in high school. Everyone runs mesh.

He passes up not one, but two open reads that I know are part of the progression on that concept. I know that for a fact. You might just say, well, only one of those should be the guy. Okay. Well, one of them was open and he had a clean pocket, a clean NFL pocket. I should say maybe we would have to hitch up a little, but that would be hitching up into the throw, which is an NFL. That's a clean pocket.

He turns it down, tries to scramble, break contained. Yes, he gets by against backups of the Colts defense. But in the NFL, that's not going to you. You could do that once or twice. You can't. That's not sustainable unless you're a freak.

You have to take those, especially if this is how you're supposed to win, because he's not an overwhelming athlete and he doesn't have an overwhelming arm. His first play, his first pass, stick nod concept. Everybody runs stick nod. Sean Payton loves stick nod. That's a tight end running stick nod, five to six yard route. Then he gets upfield down the seam and it's usually out of empty and the quarterback will go left to right, cross field or eight.

He does a cross field read correctly, which if you're teaching, be like, okay, he probably could have hit his number one read, which is the little choice throughout sit on the other side. He progresses, he's late, and he throws the ball inside where the tight end almost gets killed. Yes, he progresses, but he's late and he throws the ball inside, which are both no-nos. You never throw late over the middle.

And that's it. He didn't do that in college. And I know it's one preseason game, but that's the thing. I think he's already kind of done. Like this is him. So that's where I, what are we getting out of this? Which is what you said, horizontal. So yeah. Why take him at 12? That's, that's where I just gave him back to you. Take him in the second. There's less pressure on it and you're fine. That's where he should have gone. And even if like you're scouting, even if you're scouting narratives for the bone Nick stuff, like,

Dude, you're aiming for the worst version of Drew Brees? Like, what is this? Because the thing with the late career Drew Brees stuff is...

is that offense was built out of necessity, not because that's what they wanted to run. He was 40, right? He was 40. His arm returned to grease and pulled pork. There's nothing in there. And let's try and roll with it. Right. And like you said, that works when you've had 200 starts and have had MVP caliber years and have won a Super Bowl. But for that to be your starting point,

that's not good. Like you said, I think you said on the last episode or last week's episode, you compared freaking Caleb Williams to Purdue Drew Brees because that's what Drew Brees was when he got to the NFL. He didn't become, you know, the Bo Nix variant until he was like 39 years old, man. Correct.

And you have to evolve your game. But people don't realize some of these older guys, even Peyton, Sean, or Peyton Manning. Yes. Was a better athlete than we realized. Yeah. He's not running a four, four, but he's not running a five, nine. Like he was at late in his career. He was running like a four, eight. And like, he could do bootlegs. He can move around and scramble a little bit. It's like, it's like, you gotta remember. He had a gun too. And he had a hose. Oh my God. He had a, I know it's like a, and now he was just like good, like very good. A seven on the scouting scale. It's.

And also on top of it, if you're an older player, that's supposed to be this assassin. This has always been labeled. His footwork is more skittish than Drake May. And Drake May, all I hear about is Drake May's footwork. Nick's footwork is worse than May, in my opinion. So that's another thing. I don't know. It's just none of it adds up. And yeah, it's kind of left me in a weird spot when I'm watching the Broncos because I want to get around. I like champagne as a play card. I just can't get around on it.

All right, we're going to take another break and get back to the last grouping of your guys' questions. All right, we are back. More of your questions. This one's from Alex. Is the Raiders' decision to hire Tom Telesco one of the worst or at least one of the most baffling GM hires ever? Just to put it in context, the Chargers were 84-92 while Telesco was GM. That's a lot of games. With a whopping two playoff wins in the decade he was running the show.

This despite having a top 10 essentially every season. Oh, yeah. And maybe the most important context, he got fired before the season was over in 2023 because the Chargers lost 63 to 21 in embarrassing fashion.

to the Raiders. The same Raiders that only a month later hired him to be their GM. What exactly about the last decade of watching the Chargers as a division rival would make Mark Davis think, yeah, that's the guy I want in charge of my roster? I feel I've heard Nate in specific be critical of Telesco's draft history and general strategy. I thought this would be a fun opportunity to address just how insane the context is around this hire since GM hires don't get discussed that much in general.

I thought there left to say, I know he nailed it. I mean, I was reading. I'm like, yeah, this, this is right. There's he goes. I feel Nate. It's like, yes, you have. This is exactly kind of what I've kind of just throw my hands up at. Okay.

There might be a little bit of a Red McCombs here. I know a Red McCombs when I see it. I have no inside knowledge of this. And why I'm saying that is the Raiders are paying off a lot of old staffs. So that might drop the rate that they can give out there. So that's who you're maybe bargain shopping. Maybe just a recently fired GM that who cares if it was in your division. He knows the league. He's plug and play. We don't have to groom anybody else. So maybe that's a little bit of that. Why I was never...

This is great. I love talking about Telesco. I know he lets Staley always just have to answer to stuff too. And Staley wasn't great by the end there, but Telesco was always just like, Oh, sorry guys. Sorry. JC Jackson didn't work for your scheme. And JC Jackson's a great example.

He never understood the players he was drafting for what this team was running on offense or defense It was players for players not matching. What was a need or a scheme fit? So like no they had no blocking tight end for forever They had no running back to help out Eckler and passed like even though the guys they did draft weren't good in pass protection Which is like where they needed help at never had interior depth They never had a spine of a defense even though Staley at the end was like that's their defense They're gonna go light boxes like that never they never addressed that and

The medical staff was always a mess. And that's that's on the GM to me and maybe some of its owner. But that's on the GM because you are the general manager of the entire team. So all these kind of things where it's just like he never understood what actually his team was. So, yeah, that's that's my I have plenty to let's go thoughts. But it's their team's already done. But we'll see what they do with quarterback of the future. Maybe he's got a hot hand for QBs.

It's the 63 to 21 and then hiring that guy to be your GM. That's all you need to know. Mark's budget's a little tight. So yeah, you might have to hire the GM you beat, 63 to 21 with Aiden O'Connell as your quarterback. When the money wasn't made outside the NFL, that's when you start kind of piecing things together. All right, next one from Justin. This is a you question too, or you answer, I should say.

This question isn't as damning as it comes across through text. You want to have the statement. If Drake May has fallen to eighth overall and the Falcons had selected him despite the dire needs on defense and having just signed Kirk Cousins, who has been more volatile than people are recently recollecting? That's about Kirk Cousins. Would you have still considered an egregious decision? If not, considering our collective poor track records of procrastinating...

prognosing, oh my God, whatever, of predicting which first round quarterbacks will have success. Thank you. I'm not an English major, man. I was a math guy. Are we not admitting the problem was not selecting a quarterback, but the lower evaluations on Pennix? Is that not a faulty reasoning? Hypocritical even. Okay. What he's basically saying is if it was Drake May, would your tune be different? I'm letting you take, handle this one. Of course it would be because he's a better player.

that's it situation does matter but the players you draft do matter as well yeah and like sure there's i mean it's the nfl anything can happen like we a future world where

Pennix is better than Drake May. Like, it's not impossible. I mean, who knows? They've been NFL players for a week. You can't say anything's not going to happen. But I know if I had to roll the dice, I know which one I'm taking every single time. So that's the truth. I mean, and to be honest, I would have felt the same way if it was J.G. McCarthy. I've been like, okay, I can stomach this. But...

The 24-year-old quarterback with bad knees that doesn't like to throw over the middle is, I don't know. And I still think there's space for Penix to be a starter because he's going to hunt big plays and you're going to hit on some of those. But overall, I don't know. I don't think that the profile, it's not something that you really ever see hit in the NFL, which is why a lot of people were pushing back against it.

Yeah. Age and there's going to be another question. I'll talk more about this, but yeah, injuries. So yeah, some of the play style things may, that's why I just really like may you also kind of look at the age and I know not every player's the same. Every player is different. Every, some guys are going to hit later and send later in their career, some earlier, but like you also just have to, like you said, it's bets, right?

I know for a fact, and I could do studies on this, that the younger guys can have more room for growth. Guys with a better arm, better athleticism are going to have more room for growth. That is not just like theory. It's basically proven. Like it's just physics of like athletes and people. So that's why May makes more sense for this timeline that they talked about. Panics to me would have made sense if.

If the Vikings ended up with Penix and they maybe still had Darnold, that would actually have made a little bit more sense because they're saying, hey, we have nothing attached with Darnold. But all right, Penix, he can hit the ground running because we have a pretty ready-made roster.

For more about Sam Darnold and JJ McCarthy's situation, please check out my column on Yahoo this week. Listen to basically everything we've done this week. Oh, yeah, right. I know. I know. The guest shows I've been on. But, yeah, it's all about what you're chasing and what the high-end play of these guys are, especially if you're drafting top 10. You can find guys that can perform what I think he – what Penix has nice traits. Like, I do think there's a role – like, he could start in this league –

It's just that what else do you have? Like I'm watching him already. I do see him going one to two to three, but he knows what he is and he knows his play style. So it's like, this is him. So again, when you're that old and have that player profile, what else are you trying to tap into? So, but Nick P had a question that kind of matched up with the Falcons question and also kind of like a traits thing. But I'm a Falcon. Nick P said, I'm a Falcons fan who's trying to figure out how to feel about Pennix. Same.

Same with my friend over here. After the shock value of drafting him. Shock value is a great way to put it. I'm trying to stay neutral in this situation. Yeah. Until it's time for him to play. What does concern me is that I know you and others have said one of his negatives is that he doesn't and or struggles to throw over the middle. How common is it for QBs to improve on that once they're in the league? What are developmental steps to doing so? Thanks. I'll just... Yeah. I'm still trying to figure this out whether...

I want to do a more of a long-term study on this. It's something I, why I prioritize guys throwing over the middle is it kind of the traits that usually that shows means good things that translate. So shows anticipation, shows understanding of the play, shows understanding of the defense because you have to anticipate where lanes are going to open up and you have to have willingness to push the ball. I,

actual balls. So I think that that stat and that trait is something I will have to, like, whenever I wrote about Pennix, I wrote about, or I talked about Pennix, I wrote about JJ McCarthy, Jane Daniels, and Bob throwing over the middle stuff, and Justin Fields, and Russell Wilson. It's because I watched them and go, well, they're not attacking over the middle. And then I look up the stats and go, well, they're not throwing over the middle. And

You can get by if you have other aspects of your game. If you're a good scrambler, if you can create a little bit, if you're really, if you're a hyper-efficient underneath guy, but that's where the juiciest areas of the defense are. It shows other traits that transit to other things. And unless you're really a Shanahan guy, like that's kind of a prerequisite in that offense anyways. Like, I don't know how much, how workable it is or how much you can improve at that. Maybe go below average to average, but,

but I don't think you can go like below average to great. I think it's just one of those traits that it's like, you have to have some feel for it. But that's, you know, I think quarterbacks only drop off from college to the pros. Like Jalen Hurts was a very good throwing over the middle in college when I was studying this, but that was the offense. You know, it wasn't a ton of them. It was a lot of, you know, play action, Lincoln Riley, one guy would sit over the middle. So yes, it would count over the middle, but it wasn't the seams, the digs, the big boy throws, not that he won't throw it about down the field, but yeah,

So yeah, long answer. It's just, I don't know how much you can improve, but it is something I do value. Haven't studied long-term, but Penex though, longer, shorter answer on him.

He will throw over the middle, but he's not good at it. It's because that's where his throwing style, the longer platform, he kind of takes that extra second to throw. That's where it shows up. He's throwing over the middle. He can't really just get those guys in stride all the time, consistently at least. So anything to add? I just took all the air out of the room. No, that's good. All right, let's go through the next one. He's going to be on ice until 2027, whatever.

it's like the ending of a marvel movie it's like okay well yeah the stinger when it's like okay we'll we'll see that villain in four years

All right. But, oh, this is kind of a follow-up question that kind of ties in this. Emily asked, what personal conviction do you have about QB play at the moment? That could be totally wrong two to three years as you continue to learn. Throwing over the middle. So, yeah, that's one right now. The other one would be for me is QBs have to hit a certain scramble threshold. Traditionally, I like the guy that never scrambles and dices you up.

But I don't know if guys can live that way these days. Stroud's trying it and he's really, really freaking good at it. So maybe you can. So that might be one I kind of have. Do you have any kind of stereotypes on my guys? I had it's funny because I had one earlier, but then it like totally slipped my mind. I should have written it down.

I have to write it down, man. I know. Yeah. The CTE and turning 30 thing is just not, it's not always conducive towards remembering things. But I think if like one thing you had to, if there's one thing that like I'm convicted about that could be totally wrong is I think people need to drop how much they care about like interception totals. I love that.

It just depends on where they come and how they come. Because, like, dude, if... Because people will point at Josh Allen, throw, oh, he threw, like, 18 interceptions. Like, dude, how many of them are, like, on 13 to 18 and he's throwing the ball 50 yards down the field? It's like, okay, that's basically a point. Or a high-risk, high-reward. Right. But come on. Come on. We can't live in the... Like, you can't be, like, excited about Bo Nix and...

being scared about Josh Allen, like in the same breath. And there are a lot of those people who exist because they're just like so risk averse. But no, you got to gun it. You got to go down, throw it down the field. And I believe that people will finally, eventually, hopefully catch up to the light with that. Because look, how many high interception totals with Josh Allen do you need to see where he's still ranking like top three in EPA per play? Okay. Or every stat, period. Right. Come on. Come on. Let's get over this.

yeah he doesn't take any sacks and he creates explosive play after explosive play yeah it's it's fine to throw interceptions if you're adding up if you you contribute elsewhere that's it brings us back to like the guys that the bow next conversation if you're just gonna nickel and dime well you better be amazing at it or you better be a great scrambler to like help create other things so uh next question from alex p hi nate charles i'm alex from brazil

Wanted to ask if the Colts have a real shot at the division title. If the Steichen Richardson combo hits plus a lot too on defense, maybe the easy schedule can help. Not a Texan Stroud hater here. Just wondering if you guys think it's possible for Andy to pull that off. And my answer is yes. I think so. They almost won the division last year. Yeah. I think they're just a live underdog. I think their offense could be really good. I have them in my top 10 and I

I believe that. And I think the back end of their defense isn't great, but the front seven is pretty solid and they can stop the run. And now they add a little bit more juice. So yeah, I think, I think they're a live dog. I think anyone in that division is live. I think it's AFC South. It's going to be a lot of fun. Yeah. That's all. They got Richardson, man. Jonathan Taylor. It's going to be fun. It's going to be really fun. Strap in guys. It's going to be cool. All right. Last question here. Last main question. There's one tweet I want to answer, but last main question. Tyler M.

Big fan of the show and listening to you to get to the details on some of the underage storylines and subplots around the NFL. So I figured I'd ask a question that nobody is asking. What is the best case scenario for the Giants offense? Can they be a league average unit or is that insane? I don't know if I want to read the rest of this.

I think that's insane. He said he still believes in Daniel Jones. So I'll just, I won't read that out. So, but thank you, Tower. You think it's insane? Yeah, I think that's nuts. Like, dude, and hopefully this is for your sake. I get old takes exposed in a few months and you can have a good laugh at my expense. But like, you don't just go from having maybe, maybe the worst offense of all I've ever seen. And I know that they were, they were dinged up last year.

It was bad, though.

To me, you're putting way too much on Malik Neighbors for you to think that this could be an average offense. The running game, I would expect to be one of the worst in the league now that Saquon's gone. I've been a Devin Singletary fan, but he's someone that needs help to kind of get going. I don't know if he quite has that here. I think outside of Neighbors, the rest of the wide receiver group is at best...

wide receiver threes and a good offense. There's just, there's no juice here outside of the one rookie. And I think that that's a bad recipe for, for trying to actually get things and go on. But Hey, maybe next year when Theo Johnson's got another year in the league and Daniel Jones is on another team, you'll have a, have some success and get that league average offense. You're looking for it. I, I do like Theo Johnson. Uh, the, the,

Yeah, they're a year away offensively. I'm excited about the defense, legitimately. But yeah, the offense is one of my picks for maybe bottom three in the league, and it starts with the line. Andrew Thomas rocks, but it's just kind of like they need two more guys in my estimation. Yeah, and you

You mentioned that Singletary's slow-mo. He's good if you have a good line. He's going to get you the yards you block for, but if you don't, he's not explosive enough to really create. He'll make a guy miss. That's why he's awesome slow-mo, but then it's like two-yard gain. It's not like a guy misses and it's like, oh, touchdown. No, it's like, yeah, he just got a couple yards there.

We'll see. I know they like Tracy. We'll see if Eric Gray's anything. But again, it's like the line's not going to overwhelm you. Drew Locke's already hurt, misreading everything. That was atrocious by him, by the way, in the preseason game. He missed about five. Neighbors didn't get any targets there because Locke wasn't getting him the ball. And it's not just me being an annoying fan or anything. It's me truly watching it, reviewing it, and going like, they were designing plays for neighbors to get the ball. And he's just turning it down, just like that.

I don't remember if it was on this show or Mia's show where I described Sam Darnold as like, whether good or bad, he never remembers what happened the play before. But Drew Locke, he takes it a step further because Drew might be in practice and might not know what just happened on the last play because it's like he's throwing the same picks for five years. It's like, dude, are you going to learn or is this just it? And I guess we learned that this is just it.

You say they remember the previous play. It's like, doesn't remember the play call. I mean, the first play, this was hilarious. This is how it wraps up. But everyone ran this this preseason, which is really funny because it's a staple play. So it will be a run play, usually duo with two tight ends and two receivers on the other side. And if the box is loaded or a box is kind of too high, then you just pound the rock.

If they load the box and single high, then you just check into a mirrored pass concept. So rather than 99 with a tight end down the middle, it's just this heavy protection, go routes, stop routes on either side, two corner. It's the same route. You pick your best matchup and go. Usually do it if you have a good receiver. My dad used to run with Moss. Like, that's why you did it. But they did it with neighbors because they were like, yeah, we're going to show off our new shiny toy. First play of the game, preseason. Let's let's rock.

But Locke gets fooled and throws it against cover two, or tries to run against cover two, where the play's dead. There's no outlet there. He has to check it down. But instead of checking it down, he takes a rod. And it's like, of course, this is how he gets hurt. So I just thought it was...

It's funny, they were trying. They were trying. Yeah, if you're like not Lamar Jackson and your quarterback running against cover two, you're going to get hurt most likely. Everyone's just waiting there to pump you. Yeah, there's a difference between like how Mahomes and like Prime Rogers did it where you get that sneaky first down and just get out of bounds. You're not getting hit.

you're yes you're scrambling but there's a difference when you're trying to juke guys oh and then i have to slide last second that's like you get like three guys hitting you like those add up like that yeah it's not a good sign you know quarterback i used to love watching run

And it's so random, but Blake Bortles, I used to love watching him run, like read options and stuff when Hackey was there. And when he was scrambled, cause like, oh dude, like you should have been a tight end in college, man. Like that was your calling, but somehow you ended up as a quarterback. He got rich, he got rich at least. Darnold's got a little bit of that too. That's probably why I like him too. Did have one last like tweet question I just want to throw out here.

He was talking about like a full team, but I'm going to assume he means flag football here. Draft your starting offensive defense for Team USA for a hypothetical 2028 Olympics football team. But let's say we're doing the flag football stuff, which NFL players are apparently very interested in. Yeah. A little bit of marketing in LA, wouldn't you? Do your brand. And go get a couple gold medals. I know the owners are not happy, but whatever. I think that's what, five? Fight back, NFLPA. Yeah.

Yeah, fight back. Let these guys have a life. Look, you could tear your ACL in practice. You're going to get hurt. You have a risk of getting hurt any time you expose yourself to that activity. All right, so don't be so scared. Let's go. Go play the preseason. Do you have any players you want to see in there? B. John Robinson. Oh, yeah. Good call. He played two ways, too. B. John and Jameer Gibbs were two of the first guys that came to mind. Yeah, you want juice.

You want like speed guys. I mean, Tyreek would be the ultimate. Basically, all these guys who like when you watch their clips and it's just like them breaking someone down in open space. Like I bet DeAndre Swift would be an incredible flat football player. Right. Yeah. Because he doesn't have to read anything. Just make that guy in front of you miss. It's a great call. Lamar would automatically be the quarterback I'd want, even in four years, because he's still in his prime.

Yeah, I know. It'll be Mahomes for sure. You want Mahomes too? Well, no, I think it will be Mahomes for the Olympics because he's going to have like seven Super Bowls by then. So who better? He's just trying to find something new. This is his Birmingham Barons. I actually wrote like a jokey portion about this on a four verse a couple of weeks ago. And I was like Googling the ages of people and Mahomes will be about to turn 32 for the next Olympics four years from now.

32 or about 32 or 33 i'm like oh my god there's still so much more there's still so much more here that's what i have to like everyone that complained about him the year they beat the eagles and everyone's like well you know he's not doing it all like just it's like you guys don't realize how young he is like strap in like we're just seeing like also you just don't understand what you're watching people who thought he was like mid in that eagles game was like oh my god please i know he's evolved to newest level so yeah that's what

He's playing a whole half of the preseason. So actually, it's good to say we actually get to see a little bit of his first throw of the preseason. It's a bootleg. It just stops and throws this one over the middle between two guys. And it's like, if anyone else did that, that's the highlight of their week. No one tweeted it.

I watched it. I'm just like, yeah, that's expected. But if like freaking Caleb did that or Jaden Daniels or any of the rookie quarterback or any second, if Anthony Richardson did that, I'd be like, oh, but yeah, my home's just expected. That's why he's in his own tier. That's fun. Yeah. Thanks guys. Thanks for those questions. You guys did a great job. I will be back on Tuesday.

And we will, are we doing that one in person? No, no, no. That's the one following that. Next one's not in person, but the one after that, we'll be doing a person in LA, which will be a lot of fun. But I am Nate Tice. You can find me at Nate underscore Tice. Where can they find you, Charles? Probably on Twitter at four verts and people will call me Mr. Vert. So I guess maybe I'll eventually change my Twitter name to that too. I love it.

I love it. It's better than Mr. Hands. But that was one I just loved. There's several emails, maybe half a dozen that said, Mr. Tyson, Mr. Vertz, or hi, Nate, Mr. Vertz, which, yes, thank you. I love this so much. But make sure you subscribe to us wherever you get your podcasts. Follow us, rate us, watch us on YouTube.

on the Yahoo Sports YouTube channel. Follow Yahoo Sports on Snapchat too if you're into that kind of thing. Next time we do the mailbag, we'll kind of make sure we keep tweeting it. But if you have questions right now, we will check all of these. So send your questions for next time. Just a couple we didn't get to that I want to

Dovetail on next time. We'll put a pin in for next time. Football301mailbag at yahoosports.com. That is football301mailbag at yahoosports.com. Those emails are great. If you want to send a voice note, that'd be a lot of fun. Maybe we'll get into when some teams start losing. Those are always a great time when maybe...

Guys are on some substance since calling in, but thank you guys. And also thank you to Brett stone and Addy behind the scenes. Thank you to you, Chuck. We'll be back on Tuesday. Hope you guys have a great weekend. Thank you so much. See you next time.