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On this episode of Football 301, we hit the J.J. McCarthy sad news, sad trombone news. We also are going to go over some interesting units. Good. Some implosion candidates and kind of everything in between. Charles McDonald joins me for all that. I'll see you guys in a second.
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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. I am Nate Tice. We have a superb show. I'm going through the thesaurus of synonyms for how to describe each show outside of fun. But it's going to be a fun show today because we're going over some interesting units that
Or interesting kind of like types of players, like it could be the back seven, it could be the defensive backs, it could be a whole defense, offense, line, whatever we want. And we're going to catch up on some news because some news did actually drop. It wasn't fun news, but, you know, news, some significant news did drop in to help me do that.
To go over that news is the great Charles McDonald, Mr. Forverts himself. How are you doing today, Chuck? I'm doing good. We're back in it, and I feel it in my body. I feel it in my brain. I feel it in my bones. But we did have a week of preseason action. I actually sat down and watched a good chunk of it. We'll see what happens over the next two and three weeks because you can get a little stale when you're waiting for the real thing. But so far, so good. I had a good time this past weekend. How about you?
I did. And also we were talking about joking about this a little bit with Mina when we did her show yesterday, had our little three man weave. It's really nice because you really only have to focus on a couple of things and it's like, all right, done. All right. Quarter and a half done. So really, sometimes it's like only 12 plays. You have to watch this stuff, like the whole thing or so you can really breeze through some games. It's nice to react to something. That's just what's nice. And this is like.
You know, for me, just like, okay, this guy's in this uniform. Oh, how's it look in this role? Oh, okay. That's what I thought. Like the Falcons watching them. It's like, oh yeah, that's how I pictured it. That's much better. Okay, cool. As opposed to all this theory we have to get around. But you know what's not theory? Look at this transition. Because there is big news on Yahoo. If you like money, yeah. Yahoo Sports and NBC Sports are teaming up for a million dollar sweepstakes. All you got to do, sign up for a Yahoo Fantasy League for instant entry.
Someone's got to win a million bucks and who doesn't want to win a million bucks? It's not Squid Games either. Squid Games, either the show or like the Mr. Beast version. I don't know if I should talk about that, but yeah, it's great. Someone's got to win a million bucks by week one. Details at yahoo.com slash fancy million. Go sign up now. Also more housekeeping. We're doing another show on Thursday. It's going to be a mailbag episode.
Can't wait. First mailbag episode for Football 301. So send your emails, your voicemails, and your video notes at football301mailbag at yahoosports.com. Just so, you know, got some material to work with. And you guys have some funny stuff already that you're already kind of piping in. And you're sending it to my personal email too, the one I have on my Twitter account. You can do that. We're going to tweet something too. You can send it to that. We're going to have plenty. Can't wait for the mailbag episode. But anyways.
Getting back to the units to watch for 2024. So this could be good. This could be bad. This could be in between something interesting that we're going to talk about. Just interesting, you know, interesting units to watch in the good or bad sense or just overall we want to view them throughout this year. Then we're going to do some preseason takes at the end of the show. But anyways, Charles, before we get into those interesting units, a little bit of bad news for the Minnesota Vikings. J.J. McCarthy.
Had some knee soreness. Wasn't reported after the game or anything. It seems like he just self-reported and was like, hey, this isn't feeling right. It turned out to be a torn meniscus, and he is getting surgery on that. I have had a torn meniscus. I was not a pro football player. I was just a coach hurting it playing 21 in my off time. The basketball game, 21.
But four to six week injury, probably take a little bit longer than that till he feels near 100%. You feel like a little pinching pain, at least I did. Looks like Sam Darnold, or not looks like, it's going to be Sam Darnold's locked in as their week one starter. Kind of going away with that QB battle that we spent like 10 minutes about on Mita's show yesterday. So kind of funny in that sense. I mean, it's not funny for the Vikings or McCarthy, but...
Charles, any takeaways from this other than kind of being a bummer in McCarthy's development right off the bat? But what's your takeaways with the Vikings, McCarthy, and the whole quarterback situation there? It's a bummer. It's a big-time bummer because I thought that this past weekend, J.J. McCarthy showed enough where he could make a push for the starting role as a rookie. So for him not to be able to play maybe this season, maybe they just give him a redshirt year, that's pretty disappointing. Yeah.
Like I said, he showed some pretty good upside this weekend. I thought he had a good command of where people were going to be within the offense in the short amount of time that he's been there, but he's gone. And now we get to what we talked to Mina about yesterday with Sam Darnold, where he's
I do think that this is kind of interesting. I'm back. I'm not, not, not great. The runway is clear, right? I'm creaking in forward because the one thing that, you know, I think a lot of people who are still kind of intrigued with Sam want to see is him playing with a quality offensive coordinator. Cause you know, when he got to the jets, that was,
the Adam Gay show. Then he was with the Panthers and it looked like all right. And then obviously with the 49ers, that was never really going to be a thing for him. So now he's got a chance with Kevin O'Connell, decent offensive line, Justin Jefferson, Aaron Jones, TJ Hawkinson, Jordan Addison,
I don't know where this goes. I think even predicting where it goes is crazy because Sam is Sam and Sam could look like Tom Brady one week and Nathan Peterman the next. But this is a really good spot for him to at least show that
Can you be a starting quarterback in the NFL? And he was drafted, what, 2018? 2024? But still, we are here. He's still X amount years old. You know, that's been like the common Sam Darnold comma. I think he's like 26. Yeah, he's not even that old still. But...
as anyone that's followed or listened to me or anyone that doesn't know, just listen to football three on first time. I do like Sam Darnold. I've always been a fan. I think he still has upside, but I think it's a dice roll. That's fun. Well,
It's worth taking for the Vikings, too. I think they both need each other definitely now after McCarthy's injury because this team can compete as far as at least for a playoff spot. Are they a Final Four contender? I don't think so. I think they're a step away from that. But this is a pretty solid team. You just broke down the offense. They're kind of figuring out all the supplementary pieces. Jalen Naylor as the third receiver. Of course, they love C.J. Hamm. You can't get...
Alec Lewis from the athletic said he like did it almost as a bit with one of the practices. I was there. He asked a question about CJ ham to Kevin O'Connell. Cause he knows O'Connell and the coaching staff just love CJ ham. He's the classic guy that does everything right. But then they're like, we're going to use them in 50 different ways. But then you look at the end of the season. It's like, he's been used on the 8% of the snaps, uh,
You know, like it's barely anything. It's like four snaps a game. And so Alec Lewis got him to talk for a while about it. It was pretty hilarious. But anyways, they have guys that make sense. And the defense, I think, is going to improve. They have better pieces. They have another year with Flores. Do I think they're going to be awesome? No, but I think they're going to be like, you know, a word we keep coming back to, like feisty or frisky and hard to play against.
So I don't know this. Darnold's going to give him a chance. And when you're in the NFC, which I still think is wide open, you know, look how hurt the 49ers are. The lines are very good, but kind of, you know, they could easily have some drop off. Even if we do think we're going to talk about one of the units later or actually just like in a second, actually. But it's wide open. So this is a dice roll, you know, hey, and he can hit he can get hot.
And he can bring some different elements than O'Connell's had with QB run game stuff. So I'm just at least at the very least, just as a neutral fan, very like just interested to watch this because it's a pretty cool ecosystem and a guy that can do some cool stuff.
Yeah. Sam, Sam's really funny to me because it's like, no matter what happens on the football field, whether it's good, bad or neutral, his brain has been erased from the last play. Like he never learned on any of these. Yeah. Well, he was a linebacker in high school. Uh,
I know. Makes a lot of sense. But dude, he'll fling it downfield and look so pretty. And sometimes it'll connect for a huge game. Other times it will be picked off, but he's throwing it regardless. So,
That'll be fun. It should actually be legitimately entertaining to watch. It might not be good, but I'll be tuned in. I'm interested to see what happens. The run games could be so much better just because they're not giving 15 touches to Alexander Madison. It's just going to be naturally better. Even if Jones plays...
11, 12 games. It's going to be more explosive. He's a way better running back than they've had recently. Even Dalvin cooks last year, way better than that. And I think Ty Chandler's got some juice too. So like the run game is going to be a little bit more entertaining and then it's going to be San Dermal. I mean, we already saw a dig route that he's just like, he's letting that thing go. And, and he's, that's what he's going to do, but he's got a dude,
And Justin Jefferson, that's not even a 50-50 guy. He's like a 70-30 guy. And you have a quarterback that's going to throw up 50-50 balls. Okay, I like that. That's going to be fun. But yeah, Josh Allen, by the way, they asked him to put together his ideal foursome for golf. And he had it right away. I think Kyle Allen was one of them. But then he said Sam Darnold was one of the foursome guys. And they're like, oh, why? And he's like, just the vibes. He's just like, Sam's just...
You know, just perfectly even the keel. So it's just like you described my quarterback. He said that's exactly how he is as a foursome. So that makes total sense of the world. So we were going to do like an IU news tidbit, but there's nothing to report. You know, we'll talk about it when it happens. All right. There's our IU. 15 seconds right there. Follow Charles Robinson. Yeah, follow Charles Robinson. There you go. He'll have something when it drops. Anyways. All right. Let's get to the units. Oh, that's not bad. But let's get to them.
We'll go interesting. We're going to start with good.
We're going to just talk about a couple of good units that we want to just bring a little attention to. We've talked about one of these in our top 10 defenses pod. That is the Bears back seven. So not just their defensive backs, not just the linebackers, all of them, because I think they have three playable linebackers, a really interesting defensive backcourt. That's really fun to talk about. And I think there's someone in particular you maybe want to highlight a little bit. Was that TJ Edwards or and just or really just their linebackers in general?
Yeah, the linebackers in general, because I don't know if like I'm kind of maybe overrating their performance last year, but it's just you look at the first four weeks of the last season and they were so bad. There was a point to the first three or four weeks of season based on next gen stats where TJ Edwards and Jermaine Edmonds both were allowing 100 percent completion rate in season.
You know, their areas of coverage. Not good. Not good at all. But they got so much better as the season went along. And then, you know, kind of culminated in the Montez Sweat trade. But focusing on the back seven, Tremaine Edmonds, I thought, by the end of the season, was easily playing the best football of his career. TJ Edwards, solid linebacker, too. But like you said, the defensive secondary is...
really what gets you, gets me excited about this group at least because just imagine a few years ago, like you're breaking down a secondary to someone. You're saying Kevin Bayard, that's the weak link. You'll probably think that that's a pretty good group. Yeah, that's not the same Bayard, you know, a few years ago, but still we're looking at Jalen Johnson, Kyler Gordon, who literally over the past two or three years might be the most improved player in the NFL because his rookie year, I thought he was DOA, got to draft another one.
but he's here. And then you get Tyreek Stevenson last year, who ended up being a rookie stud for them. Taquan Brisker. They got dudes, man. I don't know if the depth is there quite yet. If you lose someone, you're probably in some trouble, but you're looking at
A secondary that should be one of the best in the league. The linebackers are one of the better linebacker duos in league. And then everything going on front, if they can just get one or two of those guys to hit that they've spent all the draft picks on recently, like you're looking at a really, really, really tough defense. So if there is going to be a way for the bears to like win the NFC North this year, as Caleb Williams develops and gets better throughout the season, I,
Like this is probably the unit that does it for them. Yeah. And the Reddit trade's not happening, by the way, because he can't be traded. Just look at this. The cap hits and everything. Not going to happen. But this back end.
This defense is just, you know, even Jack Sanborn, a Derek class and favorite and a former Wisconsin Badger. So they have three linebackers where most teams don't have one that even if you just say, oh, yeah, they're playable. I don't know how if they're pro bowlers. It's like it doesn't matter. Like most teams legit don't have one playable linebacker.
And having that guys with size, you got to look at this division they play in. The Vikings are going to run the ball, even if they are more of a finesse-y run team. The Packers are going to pound the rock. That's what they're built out. They're going to go with two tight ends as well. The Vikings might do a little more two tight ends as well. But then you got also the Detroit Lions, who are going to always play bully ball with that offensive line, the run game. That's how they're built under Ben Johnson, Hank Fraley, Dan Campbell. So having size and guys that can just...
actually hold up against that and take on those offensive linemen, like, oh, that's what's needed. And they actually have it. But the game that always stood out to me was they got a couple of turnovers in this, and maybe that's why it was the Browns game where they were just squeezing everything. So yeah, but that's why I just got intrigued by it. But then when you mentioned Kyler Gordon, his impact when he came back from his injury was as significant as the Montez Sweat trade. They're a really smart defense. And
I know some people don't like these types of defenses, like Gannon with the Eagles, where they run a lot of just basic zone coverages and they just kind of run them well. They have the dudes to do it. And that's why I don't mind it, is that I don't like that when you have nobody on the back end. That's kind of when Mel Tucker was the defense coordinator for the Bears. That's what he was doing. He was like, oh, cover three, cover two, with like nobody to do anything. Here, they have guys. They have plus positive players. That's why I just...
I think it's going to be kind of what I use for the Bills defense. It's the Anaconda defense that's going to just really just tighten, tighten, tighten on quarterbacks and then just really be bullies against the run game. Pretty stoked about it. Me too. And I think this isn't linebacker or secondary related, but going back to the podcast we had last week or the week before where we were just kind of like naming defensive linemen along the way. So Austin Booker, their rookie from Kansas, had them.
standout performance week one. And this was just, you know, raised on 2000s football brain. But the name that came to mind was Mark Anderson. You remember him? Yeah. He couldn't do anything, but just for like two, three seasons, just rushed the passer. And if you can, if you have,
you know, let's call Booker half a pass rusher. Cause he's a fourth round rookie. Uh, and he's 21. But if you have like Montez sweat, half a pass rusher, another, those guys hits plus the backend. That's a good unit. If they have their Mark Anderson, I love that. No. And well, this is the other thing too. Uh,
And this is maybe some I learned from like the, when I was with the Falcons was they're always going after the speed guys to rush the passer. It's like, you need the mix you need. And that's what's nice about Montez sweat. He's so fricking big. That's like now he can hold up against the run. So that's why you can get a booker to kind of like, all right, now we can actually get the little like short twitchy guy. No. Yeah. I great shout out. He, he, he really shined. What happened to him was he,
he was such a raw player then he went through the all-star circuit and then offseason circuit he didn't test great but it was just one of these it's like he moves better than he tests and i think he was just one of those guys where it's like all right sure dart throw let's see how this goes and i mean good initial returns they need it uh going into another back end in this nfc north this really good mc north i should say the line secondary you wanted to talk about these guys because yeah they were
they got a little identity that's really matching their defensive coordinator it's been pretty fun so what do you got for me on the alliance secondary chuck i always love it when you have teams that they go through a rough patch in one season especially a certain position and the offseason starts and they basically go like never again well that happened i i think the jets in their offensive tackle situation was a good example of that
and the Lions and their cornerback situation, you have remade the entire room. Trade for Carlton Davis, draft Terranar on the first round, draft Ennis Rickstraw on the second round. Amik Robertson's over here. You still got Emmanuel Mosley, even though he got hurt last year. They have so many...
like credible bodies. We'll see how many actually develop out to be good. But even just having this group here, I think it's a big step from where they were last year. And then you start pairing that with the defensive line they have. The run defense should be pretty good. They got a big front in the middle. Aiden Hutchinson has developed into a pretty good pass rusher. So,
it's a stretch, I would say, probably to imagine that two rookie cornerbacks are good in the same defense. But still, that's why you go out and trade for Carlton Davis. That's why you have some of these other veterans that you can bank on or at least get dice rolls to see where they are from last year and injuries that happened to them. I think that this has the chance to be, I don't know, good, but
like a slightly above average, which is a big improvement from where they've been over the past few years. So the line secondary, especially with the rookie cornerbacks and Carlton Davis trade, I'm really interested to see how that plays out.
Yeah, Aaron Glenn kind of, even if some of the stuff was kind of telegraphed, I always appreciated, especially the second half of the last year, that he was always trying to just do stuff. You know, if they weren't good at it, they at least tried to throw stuff against the wall rather than just stand there and just take it on the chin, like some defenses do. They're just like, sure, we're not good. All right, there's another 12-yard gain. That was fun. I've really taken to...
looking at corners as like relief pitchers in baseball or just pitchers in baseball, you almost have to like draft them in bulk. It's like, yeah, some are going to get hurt. Some are going to stand up, but we just need bodies at this problem. And then, okay, a couple worked out here. Like you said, I don't know if both corners could be good, but even if one hits, it's
Boom, you're good. Much better than where you were. Carlton Davis hasn't finished a full season in a while, but he's so much better than what they've had. And he's just perfect for what this defense is because he has an identity as a corner. He's so feisty. He's so, you know, offense players would say handsy, but he has an identity. You know, he's tenacious and he's going to have some fun in this defense because they're going to play a lot of man coverage. And that's what he's going to love doing. He's going to take it to a lot of receivers and have fun with it.
um it was funny in the pre-draft process i had described ns rake straw as like a diet coke carlton davis and we were doing our draft show with dane brugler and and dane was like oh yeah you know that kind of that makes sense and then
they trade for Carlton Davis and then they draft Dennis Raikstraw. We're all just kind of laughing. And then, cause he has the exact same type of style, even if he's just smaller. And then Terry and Arnold, same thing. Terry and Arnold has been a really fun personality already. And that kind of is reflected in his play. So I, I thought this was probably, uh,
I should have more interest in this defense because they, some of their young guys are really improving. McNeil's a star. You know, they, Jack Campbell, I think is better than people have made him out to be. Maybe I'm just a sucker for big, fast linebackers. Maybe if you can't go in the right direction all the time, but I still like him. And Brian branches, you know, awesome too. So I don't know. It's one of these I've really grown. Like,
It's like the Bucs offense and like the Lions defense have really grown on me the last kind of couple of weeks as I've really like studied them. So that was a great shout out by you.
But they are already dealing with injuries, though. What was that? Let me see. Yeah, that's probably when they're small. We're kind of seeing that a lot in this preseason. Rick straws, an ankle injury and turn Arnold has an upper body injury. Okay. So we'll just shut up. We'll just leave that dot dot dot. Yeah. Okay. We'll get back to it in a couple of weeks and see where they're at. But actually, we'll be back in just a minute. We're going to take a quick break to pay the bills and we'll be back with some more interesting units for this season.
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All right, we are back. I liked how you used credible. I usually exclusively is just incredible. And you said credible. Credible. I like that. It was just like, yeah, they're credentialed. It sounds a little nicer than average. You know, I liked it. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. You guys are real NFL players. You guys are starters. Credible starters. That's the threshold. I like that. Yeah. All right. But now for another credible question.
unit. They might be a little better than that. That's the Packers defensive line. I was really more studying Lucas Van Ness just to see what was going on with him. He played a decent amount, but he actually looked really good on this front. This defensive front might be
might be something you know they uh they like they have kenny clark obviously who is like still young like how old is kenny clark now because he entered the league when he was like uh he's like 27 28 right now that's insane yeah he's made three contracts 28 yeah he's about to turn 29. he's been in the league since 2016. that's insane i was still at the falcons then that's crazy uh but yeah still have kenny clark but
these other guys is what makes them, you know, makes it a lot of fun. Uh, Devante white, who you have experience with as a Georgia fan, uh, Carl Brooks, who I have kind of, you know, really fun little young player that they drafted in the sixth round last year. Uh, Rashawn Gary is still there and still a good player. You can still run zone, read stuff on them. And, you know, Preston Smith is still there, but,
But I just kind of want to take a minute to say this defensive front is, I think, more than interesting. They're interesting plus to me where they can be more of a standout unit than maybe I anticipated going in. I want to see how they hold up against the run. Might help if they get more of a loaded box now. But, you know, they don't really have that size. They have more kind of gap shooters. But still, I really like the juice that they're going to bring at the quarterback and maybe be more of an explosive defense.
one that I'm kind of a little more interested in now, especially after watching him in the preseason. Do you have any thoughts on the Packers defensive front? I'm trying to see if any of these guys are your favorites. I know you've been kind of a Kenny Clark guy, right? Oh, yeah. Kenny Clark, because funny, when you said 2016, I was like, what was I doing in 2016? I was like, oh, that was one of the first prospects I would break down. I used to, I broke down. I used to do like videos on front seven players and their responsibilities and stuff like that. And Kenny Clark was the first one I did.
and now I'm 30. And I was like, wow, okay. That's why you knew that age, right? I'm barely older than them. Yeah. Yeah, I had to think about what I was doing back then. But just as far as the Packers defensive line goes, I think what's interesting about this group is they've invested so much recently, by the way, of draft picks into this unit. I just counted seven since 2021 defensive line and edge players that they've drafted. So, you
You know, I guess they're going by the philosophy of just like, shoot, man, one of these guys got to be something. Asked me something. I'm still pretty bullish on Lucas Van Ness, even though he had a pretty quiet rookie season. I think Devontae White, he had like a weird profile coming out because he was old, but also a freak athlete and played well. And he's like had his moments where he's come along, but still putting it together. But the rest of these guys, I feel like it's just...
If we go back to the word credible, you know, it's not... Maybe you don't have 10 Kenny Clarks, right? But you got one Kenny Clark and a bunch of guys that can play around him and kind of crush heads, especially, I think, against the run. They should be pretty good this year. I do wonder some about, you know, as our friend Justice Mosqueda has said a bunch to us, wonder about, like, some of their interior rush stuff. But if you're still banking on Wyatt and...
you know, some of these other guys to develop. It could be a good unit there. I think that's the defensive line at the very least is going to be a pain in the ass to run against.
That's what it is. I think it's just that I've been more, they were kind of an afterthought to me and I've really looked at it. I was like, Hey, I actually like a lot of these players. And, and I checked the preseason game and again, it's a small sample size alarm bells, you know, all that before I have to say this, but they're going against Cleveland offense and they were just taking it to them. And they had some of the starters playing Cleveland did some, some of their actual guys that they're going to be playing this year.
And I just thought guys were taking turns. They had more juice on third down with Karl Brooks and Devante White on the interior. And that's what you said. That was a worry from justice. And actually, I was like, oh, okay. And Van Ness was making it tough on the outside. He was a tight end murderer, which is like, great. If you can do that right away, that's a role for you. And yeah, he just moves different. He's young. He hasn't played a ton. And they're trying to get him reps. And that's why I'm pretty excited about him. Quay Walker, though, like.
First couple steps, they ran a draw play. I think he was about seven yards backwards before when the ball was handed off. He had no recognition on it. Still working on it. New defense, but still working on it. That's like high school stuff, you know? Get your depth.
Who cares if you're at 4-4? Might as well get there early. I remember one of my friends in college, he had a problem with that. Getting way too deep when we were running draws and our coach, he was like, man, how do I figure this out? Our coach was like, use your effing eyes, man. Just look. It looks the same. Run. Look and run. Draws look different than passes. I don't care what anyone says. It's so funny. I know, but whatever. It was Mate Teo was the biggest biter of
of play action I've ever seen. And we, we just ran, when I was at Pitt, we almost upset him, his, his big Heisman year. Like we had a play just called after him, like tail or something like that. We ran the play action and it was like, he was in the backfield.
And it was like, by the time the quarterback even turned around, it was just like a wide open touchdown at a tight end. But yeah. So I just always, it cracks me up sometimes with these linebackers. Walker runs like a 4-4. It's like, just chill. You're going to get there. You will be able to get there. Trust me, you'll be fine running down that seam. Going on to, oh, Aaron Rodgers' new team. I feel like these guys are just always going to be just tied together. Brett Favre's two teams. Jets offensive line.
I feel like they're pretty interesting. They're healthy right now, which is just like knock on wood if you're any Jets fan right now, because that's going to just drive your entire season. But where are you at with the Jets offensive line right now, Charles? The same spot I'm at with the whole team. Like, it should be okay if guys are healthy. I thought Fashanu had a mixed bag in his first game, which is
I think expected. He played, played most of the season last hurt or most of last season hurt. I mean, he's a rookie. So I wouldn't really expect him to come out and just like flat out dominate from day, from day one, but he should be,
I would hope, like in line to start a right tackle and then you can make Morgan Moses a swing tackle. Because I talked earlier how some teams will say never again and brought the Jets off in the tackle situation. Tyron Smith, Olufesanu, trade for Morgan Moses. I think that qualifies as we would never want to be in that situation again where like Carter Warren is starting games for them. And for a penny and for a pound. Right. Yeah. Yeah.
Or 300 pounds. I don't know if this offensive line will be good per se. I still am pretty worried about the interior. I'm not sure...
As good as he is, I'm not sure if AVT, Elijah Barrett Tucker, is someone that you can really count on to be in there for 17 games, which is sad because when he plays, he's really damn good. And then on the flip side, on the other side of the line, you're going to have Joe Tippman at center, which we'll see, and John Simpson, who's, you know, to me, like a replacement level guard. But if the tackles are good...
And Aaron's willing to just kind of sit there and run the offense. Man, they still have weapons. Like the Aaron Rodgers to Garrett Wilson connection, even though we haven't seen Aaron Rodgers play in, you know, almost two seasons now, I'm still excited about that. Even though I do think Rodgers is one of the biggest wild cards in the league. This, this offensive line, it's,
It's got the pieces that they didn't have last year that maybe can just buoy this offense enough for them to actually get to the playoff, which is – it's been a while, man. It's been a while. I mean, even the play that Rodgers got hurt on, you could see he didn't trust the offensive line. Like, it was that quick game. They cut blocked, and he was bailing already. And that was from – remember last preseason, they were playing like the Panthers or something in joint practices, and it was like they can't block anyone. Yeah.
So even hard knocks, they just kept bringing up the offensive line, bringing up the offensive line. It's like, gee, I wonder what they think the weakness is. Yeah, I think that's what it was. They got a bunch of
high variance filling guys i mean tyron smith i mean this is the whole offense i should say mike williams is one of those but uh tyron smith yeah if he plays he had a played a chunk of the games last season if you get that that's great he's still a plus starter it's just you never know what you're going to get out tyron smith how many games is that going to be so again you're just kind of right back to square one sorry you get back to that exact same situation and everything
I also just think, for Sean, I'm right there with you. He's still another young guy. For Tucker, I'm the same way. But it's just that I just keep coming back to it. It's like, I want this to hit because there's actually some really... With this defense, this could be a good team. But it just feels like that's such a smaller percentage than what's actually going to happen. And it's just like, what...
I'm waiting for the other shoe to drop. It's like, who's going to get hurt first? And I know that's not fair to Jets fans who want this to be perfect and everything. But I think that's why I just can't get over the top, even if I just really, really like a lot what they have going on. God, oh man, I had a guy too. Let's just get Hassan Reddick to camp. Then we can do the next steps after that. Yeah, well, then also their former coach,
First round pick, uh, McKay Becton is now like a guard with the Eagles at Stoutland university. Um, and actually he actually looked okay. God, he just moves different. He's still kind of like a little wild horse, but God, I watched the preseason. He just moves different. So that's funny. Cause I, I never would imagine that he would play guard. Although also I wouldn't have imagined that he would run into as many injuries as he did. Right. Um, earlier in his career with the jets, because I think what gets lost sometimes is,
is how good Makai was as a rookie. I thought he was going to be just like worse. Baldy called him Highway 77 for a reason. You just get behind Becton and he's going to move like four people out the way. And the injuries, like they sapped a lot of the movement ability, I think. As far as just like being a tackle and being a pass buck on the island like he used to, I don't know if that's really still in his wheelhouse. But,
Guard is an intriguing move that honestly just for size reasons. I hadn't really pegged him I thought he was just gonna be like a backup tackle and flame out But if he can actually play guard at what six seven three seventy? Biggest alive, you know, it's funny the the Makai stories I feel like almost every day at training camp some Eagles reporter my guys throwing up again, but he looks alright and
it was like the first few days, every single one. I was like seven times today. They were like a Becton, Becton barf count. I know it's, I always just like that scene, that kind of reclamation projects with so I, I known good coach. It's like, it's not like a mystery that Stoutland's good. You know, Callahan's another one of those guys, especially in offensive line that you kind of like, Oh, I want to see what he does with them. And if that guy flames out there, it's like, all right,
Yeah, that's it. Like, you think this guy's going to improve if he didn't there? I like maybe this last stop. So I do want to give the Becton watch a little shout out right now. Going on to the 49ers.
Their defensive backroom right now, pretty interesting. They have one of our favorites, Malik Mustafa. I think it's Malik Mustafa, actually, I've learned. But anyways, I think someone corrected me. But Mustafa from Wake Forest, safety, 49ers. Seems like he's having a strong preseason. And then now Ambry Thomas is injured. But Chuck, first thoughts when you are looking at that 49ers defensive backroom. I feel like over...
Really, since Richard Sherman left the 49ers, that secondary has not been discussed all too much, especially when you just look at all the other pieces on their team. It kind of goes on the back burner because you're looking at even just on defense. You've got Dick Bosa, Fred Warner. We've had Eric Armstead, DeForest Buckner and DeFon Hargrave. And you go to offense, we already know what goes on that side of the ball. But.
This is one of the most important units on any football team. And I would say for the past few years, they've kind of gone a little bit unheralded. I know you have guys like Hufanga, who was an all-pro. Travarius Ward, he's had his moments where he's played well. But I really do think one of the interesting things about this unit is the potential safety trio combination.
between Hufanga, Jair Brown, and Mustafa. That's something I would not want to get in the way of if I was a running back because all three of those guys, they play with their hair on fire. I think it kind of matches the overall intensity of the defense. And then even when you're moving outside of them,
Lenore, he's a solid cornerback in his own right. He's good nickel. Yeah, he's a good nickel corner. So if like Renardo Green, their second round pick, can move into the starting lineup and compete for time...
man, I really think that this secondary might be good. And I think they probably need it to be good because I don't think the front, and just in terms of defensive lines, not quite as good as it's been in the past. I think Javon Hargrave, he's starting to hit the other side. Nick Bosa is obviously still Nick Bosa, but they don't quite have the depth that they had maybe a couple of years ago, like when D'Amico Ryans was coordinating things over there. So I think they're going to need their secondary to be good. And they at least have...
upside and reasonable levels of hype where you should, I think you should be buying stock on this unit.
Yeah, that's where I'm at is that Ward was really good last year and kind of helps when you have a little bit of a pass rush. He can play a little feistier rather than getting stuck in a lot of spags, blitz situations. But yeah, Lenore and him are just like, yeah, they're plus players. It doesn't even matter outside of that. That's more than a lot of teams have. Figuring out the other corner spots can be huge because Lenore is the outside corner when they're in base and when they go to sub, then he's the slot guy. So they like, that
That was huge for them last year, figuring that out. They had what's his face from the Falcons, Isaiah Oliver there for a little bit. And he was getting shredded and made me look like a fool. And then they're like, okay, after their bi-week, they put Lenore back into the slot and they're like, okay, we just got to hide this other corner. We figured it out, you know, scrap heap it. But I also think you brought, you brought, I know we're talking about the secondary, but the front thing was Hargrave. There's a bit of a Hargrave tax there.
Because he's such a gap shooter and such a get-up-the-field guy, he kind of got caught a little bit because that's how Bosa is too. Armstead and Buckner before that, they were kind of the brawler guys, the really going to hold up. You kind of need a mix of these guys. So I think they've realized that, and that's why they get Collins. Maybe there's a defense. Now they understand maybe what they have and can kind of adapt better.
off of that because I think that was a little bit of a like, oh, shoot, okay, this is a little different because they were a little worse against the run last year than they have been typically. But this is, you know, again, supposed to be talking about secondary, but I am interested in the Devontae Campbell signing because they sucked out of base last year and now they got actually like a workable linebacker. So I am interested with that. But yeah,
Devondre was tweeting his ass off about how bad the Packers were like all summer. So he better show out. Saying that Joe Barry is basically the worst thing that ever happened to him, which is interesting because he did have a good season over there. He's like, not like my guy, Brandon Staley. Yeah, not like Brandon Staley.
It's like, hey, this is similar. This guy has similar defense. You know, the Hargrave-Malik-Collins pairing is interesting. It is, isn't it? Now that I think about it, because, dude, you're looking at... The Collins thing is a little...
different than people are or not different. It's like, I think people have kind of, I, even I have kind of like just lost that in the wayside a little bit. Me too. Like, honestly, I didn't realize he was here until just a second. But this, this defensive line group is,
All right. Nick Bosa, Malik Collins, Javon Hargrave, Leonard Floyd. Dude, we're running draw every play. Are you kidding me? Yeah. Because they're going to shoot up the field. They're going to shoot up the field. Yeah. So I know. And I think this year they're going to say that's a feature and a bug. I don't know. It's different. It is. You usually get one unique kind of a brawler type. That's just kind of the styles make fights kind of thing.
It's got to be a feature because what Javon Hargrave, he's probably about 30, right? He's not changing. I think I signed him at 30. Yeah, he's not changing how he plays at this point. No, that's 32. Leonard Floyd's 30. These guys are who they are. And I will say, luckily, you have Fred Warner because you're going to have to clean up
off of what those guys make. And, you know, it's not all negative. It's a give and take. Right. Yeah. I know we sound really negative. We sound really negative right now. But no, no. It's still like a very feisty defense. Very white teeth here. I say this from experience as someone who loved to get up the field when I played
I used to get put on timeout all the time where a coach would be like, no, you're sitting in the B gap, okay? You're not going to fly up the field and chase the ball. You're going to sit here and let someone else make a tackle. But with these guys, I think they're just going to try to wreak as much havoc as possible. Yeah.
And then Fred Warner on the back end is going to clean up. That's it. And let's then play fast too. That's why Ward can play feisty and those guys can play fast and take chances. It's because they know up front they're going to take chances. So, yeah, I'm just curious how it comes together. It was last year. They have an identity on base downs. It's really third down. I'm interested in how that all comes together. But moving on to, I know we haven't really talked about any kind of sexy positions. So let's get to that. Let's get to the reigning Super Bowl champs, the Kansas City Chiefs.
Bunch of new faces on offense. Where do you want to start? Because they're really trying to go for an identity shift on offense, which I think is, again, I like the script. I'm not sure if the characters have been casted correctly. Yeah, let's start with the receivers because I know I've said this to you probably a bunch of times, but it's like in a vacuum.
If my team just added Xavier Worthy and Hollywood Brown, it might be a little bit more. But this team just won the Super Bowl by basically throwing to, what, two players by the end of the season? Yeah, maybe three. And with a shaky run game. Yeah, with a very shaky, inconsistent, to put it nicely, not credible run game. Yeah.
But yeah, uncredible. But here's the thing with the Chiefs that everyone knows by now. You got 15.
when you got 15, you're just, you're just playing a different game. I mean, they won the super bowl with Kadarius, Tony point shaving for half the year, right? This is as, as much concerns you could have about worthy and Hollywood Brown. This is so much better than where they were a year ago. It's so much better. And I would say it's for this year, it'll probably be just about average, but they won the super bowl with bad. So they're on the sliding scale of the chiefs. I,
I'm excited because I love bombs away my homes. I don't, I think anyone who thinks this is going to be Tyreek Hill is sadly mistaken. Hill is like 200 pounds built like an absolute tank. Worthy is close to 160 pounds and he's small. So it's going to be a situation where they're, they might have to get creative to get Xavier Worthy open and,
It's a small wide receiver duo between him and Hollywood Brown. You're combined like 300 pounds between the two of them, a little over 300 pounds. But they can fly. They can fly. And that should be enough for the Chiefs to start looking like the offense that people expect them to be because they still were a good offense last year overall. But
But it didn't feel the same. And even Pat said the same thing. He was like, last year was not fun. I was like, really? Really? That's what not fun looks like? You got like a top 10 offense? Okay. All right. It's over. It's probably because he was just like, oh, again. And as he runs out of the pocket and throws something across the field again. He likes doing it, though. Don't want to fool you.
Yeah. But I thought that was, that's a great point. And something I got to come back to always is I've always been a big believer that it doesn't have to go from my crap to like, great. It just has to go from my crap to not crap. You know, it has to go from below average to average and that's an improvement or below average to above average. And that's two tiers improvement. And that's, that's a great point about these receivers is Holly Brown is like a high end three, maybe even a low, low end two at best, I think in a good receiving room.
You can make that work. Rice can be your quasi-two. Actually, it looks like he's playing week one. Looks like dispensational stuff keeps getting pushed back. He's available. He's your Z. Brown can take the top off. You can work Worthy in on some of the stuff that he does well, which is
you know, not getting hit, but also running. But it was, you know, again, like you said, it's better than MVS, even if it's a different identity. I think they said, okay, that, that identity is over. Let's turn a new page. We try to do some bully ball stuff. Juju Smith, Schuster MVS. I liked it. Now I think it's going to be a mix of speed, speed, speed,
and then some 13 personnel stuff, you know, with Jared Wiley, who's another new face I'm excited about, kind of weaponize the three tight end look, maybe get a really fast receiver out there, dare defenses to go big, and kind of make them pick their poison. So, yeah, even if I didn't, like, I'm like, okay, I'm not totally fired up about Hollywood Brown and Xavier Worthy. It's like,
in this ecosystem with Patrick Mahomes and what they're trying to do. Okay. I like it a little bit better. Um, also they do have a guy. I got pretty fired up about the draft process at left tackle Kingsley. Sue and Mattia out of BYU. Um,
I know. I practiced it a lot. I still can't get Tua's last name right, but I can get Kingsley Suamata. Yeah. But yeah, he was a five-star recruit, Oregon guy, transfers to BYU. Just a bundle of tools. He's one of those guys. Not a lot of big guys can move like him. And I think the Chiefs thought the same way. But I think he was going to be really raw, and I thought they were going to work him in. But they said, nope, starter, left tackle.
figure it out and he actually looked okay and and he's got a good old line coach he's got my homes to help him out he's got joe tooney next to him he's got some pros uh so i i i really like him and i i'm curious i it's a little earlier than i thought his trajectory would start but let's go for it i thought this was a great landing spot for him but uh did you watch kingsley at all uh during the process oh yeah during the draft process i did um and i i have the same exact eval he's raw
But he's a freak athlete. He's dancing there. Yeah. Right. And the thing is with the Chiefs, his competition was Wanya Morris,
And he hates Wanda Morris. Yeah. There was no choice. There was no choice but to start Kingsley, which I ultimately think will be a good thing for him. Because when you play, again, you have 15 behind you. So there's a big margin for error on what you can do. Because it's not like Patrick Mahomes was getting top-tier, perfect tackle play over the past couple of years when they've been winning these Super Bowls. It's been...
Barely passable to be honest with you. Oh, David Smith wasn't no right. I'm trying to be nice here Yeah, it was a lot of bad tackle play so at least here you are you're rolling the dice and
If it doesn't work out, you'll probably be fine. But if it does work out, I mean, this guy has the upside to be, to me, like an all-pro tackle if everything goes right for him because it's just so hard to find guys that size, that height, that weight, that move in the manner that he does. So as soon as that pick came in, I was like, oh, that's classic Chiefs. It just fits so perfectly. Yeah.
And I think I'm in the second round. I mean, I had a late third. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Because anytime the Chiefs are picking, it's going to be in the 30s. But yeah, I had a late first, early second grade, and I just kept bumping them up. I had him hired in Tower Guyton. I went to the Cowboys. I just thought Kingsley showed a little bit more, like showed a little bit more pop to him with his play. Yeah.
And I think he had a little bit of... Some guys get this. Some of these five-star guys that aren't at the biggest schools, they get a little bit, wait till the pros, you know, kind of go, I'm waiting till I really show up, really work at it, which...
you know, also makes you a little edgy if you're drafting those guys. Like, hey, you're not going to crank it up and be like a worker every week. The NFL is even tougher. He goes to a perfect landing spot. Again, you go to with a quarterback he has to respect and an offensive line coach he has to respect with other offensive linemen that he has to respect. And so sometimes that's where you get the best out of these guys. Even if they're like maybe a little shaky work ethic. I don't put anything on them because it's not like a verified thing or anything like that. But this is kind of the whisper mill about them. But
So far, so good. It looks like, like you said, it's going to pay dividends down the road. It really is. That's what helps when you have a freaking quarterback like Patrick Mahomes. All right. We're going to take one more minute, and then we're going to cover some units that we think are implosion candidates to wrap this show up.
All right, we are back. Football 301. We're going to do some implosion candidates, some implosion units, and then a lightning round with some preseason standouts. We kind of mentioned a few, but a few more that we want to throw out there. But implosion candidates, where do you want to start us off with, Chuck? You know, let's just get the Falcons out of the way. Let's just get us out of the way. Batting leadoff. Batting leadoff, yeah. The Falcons defense. Man, oh man. I just...
When Braylon Trice got hurt, their third-round rookie edge out of Washington, when he got hurt and he's going to be out for the season, I was like, oh, my God. DeMarco Hellams also got hurt in the third play of the game. It looks like he's going to be out for the season. And he had actually turned out to be like, hey, nice little third safety in the seventh round, but he's gone. So I don't see outside of...
Jesse Bates and AJ Terrell, I don't see where there's any playmaking on this defense whatsoever. Unless Grady Jarrett comes back from his ACL at 30 years old and just rocks it like he used to before he was hurt. And it just makes you go back at the offseason and be like, man, if you guys really want to compete this year, you could have used the eighth pick on defense or trade it down and pick the quarterback and then use another asset on defense. It just...
This is shaping up to be, I think, a really, really long season on defense for Atlanta. And they already were thin personnel-wise, and now they're losing guys. I don't know where the pass rush is supposed to come from. I don't know where the coverage from outside of Terrell and Bates is supposed to come from. But, hey, we got Kirk Cousins and Michael Penick. Hey, it's because you're not going to be picking them.
in in a top half of the round anymore you're gonna be picking so late in the 20s that you're never gonna have the chance to get a quarterback do i bookmark that quote so fast oh my god there's a lot of quotes i've bookmarked and it's just like i i don't keep mean to keep piling on on it but it's just like yeah just keep i'm not i don't want people to forget it because that's like stuff happens oh look up in the preseason they figured this out and then we know stay the course keep the message uh
Yeah, they could have had Byron Murphy look damn good for the Seahawks too. That would have been some juice that they could have injected in there. Yeah, the pass rush has been an issue in Atlanta for forever, over a decade, 12 years, 13 years. And they kind of were going, we're going to get some size guys. And I was like, okay, I like Trice. I was a big fan of Trice. And then Doris, it made sense for this defense. What Raheem Morris at least liked to do with the Rams, kind of some hybrid fronts up front. And Doris kind of fit that to a tee.
But, you know, those are day three guys. And you're saying you're competing. And it's just like a lot of like nothing. Like every draft pick, they might not get much out of this year for a team, again, that says they're going to be competing. And it's going to be you're paying the Kirk Cousins stuff. So you want cheap talent. And that's kind of the flip side of it. I know you say that you go to Penex and you can flip that coin. But, you know, we'll see how coin flips work. But.
I'm just like, I keep looking at this defense. I'm uninspired. I know Raheem Morris. We're both Raheem Morris fans, I think. But he's come out and said, oh, yeah, I'm used to kind of a hodgepodge group with the Rams. And I agree. Yes, he is used to it. But they had one guy in particular on that defense. Right.
His name's Aaron Donald. And yeah, and with Aaron Donald, it solved a lot of issues and created a lot of good situations. They had some fine players and they did, he did, like, this is why he got this head coaching job. And actually I was pumping him for it was because of what he did with kind of the no name defense, but he still had Aaron Donald. So in gray, Jared, as much as we like him is not Aaron Donald and he's coming off an injury and he's 32 and all these things. So it's just not, I'm trying to add it up. And it's, this might be a shootout.
Atlanta offense again, I shoot out team I should say where it's just they're gonna give a bunch of points and it's just gonna be kind of a little slapdash I'm kind of yeah that they can employ pretty quickly because I just don't know who the aces are especially the front seven my midseason prediction for the Falcons is we get We get a headline from somewhere saying Raheem Morris mulling taking over defensive play calling duties and
That's my prediction for the Falcons here. Is there a lake pun in there? No, we're just dry over here. Lake overfills. Morris takes over. Yeah, no, it could go back quick. That's what I think.
like we've pumped up Brian Nielsen a little bit and that's why we're excited about the Jags defense. It's like he did a really good job with not the greatest players in the world. That's why we like them so much. Yeah. Richie Grant got put on a poster a few times last year and hopefully they get Justin Simmons. That could be interesting. I don't know.
All right. Just mentioned the Jags. Perfect transition here. Yeah, this kind of keep taking shots at this team because I just kind of want to kind of keep coming back to it and just how fragile it is. But the Jags offensive line in the run game, I think we both wanted to focus on it. But when you look at that front and you look at their potential up there, what do you think, Charles, with the Jags? It's okay. I don't even know. Okay might even be a stretch because I feel like run blocking wise, I
It just wasn't what it quite needed to be. And I don't think they have, and this sounds crazy to say, because I actually do really like ETM and the explosives he brings, but it doesn't feel like they have the running back skill sets in order to actually play with an up and down off the line at times. They need like a thumper. It doesn't have to be sexy.
You're right. They need someone to just get in there and say, hey, it's going to be four yards and that's that. But I look at this group, and obviously one of the problems last year with the Jaguars offense was they just couldn't run the ball efficiently or consistently. Sometimes ETM will break off for a 40-yard run, but there's a lot of plus ones, plus twos, minus ones, minus twos.
in the same wavelength of carries. I don't know if they made enough improvements. I guess really the only improvement is going out and getting Mitch Morse and putting him over Luke Fortner at center, which is... It's fine. It's fine. It's fine. But overall, it just goes back to...
What has been so frustrating about this team all offseason? It's like, man, you had so many chances to do something about where you are and whether it's poor self-scouting, whether it's not understanding where you are with other people you're negotiating with. They just didn't quite get across the finish line where they needed to. I mean, I think Adam Harrison is going to be a good player over at right tackle. But we all know offensive line, that's the sum of your parts unit. So if you have one,
Brandon Scherf's definitely on the decline. Mitch Morse has been on the climb for a while. Left guard, Ezra Cleasland is... NPC. NPC. And Cam Robinson is close to an NPC too. Decline too. Like, yeah, sharp decline. Yeah. That's where it's at. It's...
When you first look at it, you're like, okay, I recognize that name, Brandon Scherf. I recognize that name, Mitch Morris. Okay, okay. But you got to also be updating your kind of takes on these guys. Because, yeah, Scherf, again, just injuries caught up with him. It is what it is. That's why he's under decline. He tries and tries to get there. He just can't move how he used to. He can't move people how he used to. So you don't even get that kind of like...
finisher, double-team mover that you like. Great shout-out to Harrison. He's a very good player. That was a hit. I make fun of Balky all the time, but he was an absolute hit for them. What I don't like about Morris is that
We just talked about how the running game needs a plugger running back. I also thought they needed that at center. Like they needed in Morse is a finesse center. He's a polar. He's decent pass protection. He also can kind of be all over the place mentally and pass pro. Like he can kind of lose himself, which is like, oh no, not again. We're getting more of this. Trevor's just gonna be running for his life again. And they got Cleveland, like you said, as an NPC.
it's just, it's, it's again, it's very boom busty. And I thought this offense needed more sure things in the run game. I thought that they could really go for some, just even if it's not sexy, well,
at least is just something you can rely on and be efficient because the past game has been so nickel and dimey. And I do think they're going to try and push it a little bit more. So that was encouraging to see Trevor look phenomenal in the preseason game. But hopefully you see some more Luke Farrell reps. That's what's so sad about this Jags offense that you're relying on Luke Farrell reps.
That's where they're at, though. But you need, again, this is a term I always came back to last year with them, is they're fragile. It's a fragile ecosystem. One guy gets hurt, this thing is done. But not just receiver or O-line, it's both. So, yeah, it's not what I like. It's not what I want to see. The term that comes to me when I look at the Jaguar supporting cast, high difficulty. Because this seems...
Like, you are going to have to be pinpoint to make this work every week. You got... We just talked about the running game and how inconsistent they are. You got the Gabe Davis, Brian Thomas Jr. duo, which is like, man, that's reeks of inconsistency. Like, you got to give it to Brian Thomas, the inconsistency nod, because he's a rookie. Gabe Davis, like, this is just what he is at this point. And then Christian Kirk in the slot, but also Evan Ingram's, like, best in the slot, too. So it's like, man, I...
how's it coming together it's the island of misfit toys right um
So I don't know. Do I think Trevor's good enough where this can look respectable? Yeah. But man, this is tough to make the playoffs with this unit. It's going to feel like the offense from two years ago, I think. The Jags offense from two years ago. That's where it's like there's going to have some nice moments and everything, but there's going to be times where it just feels tight. And that's just been a running theme with them. And it starts with the offensive line, really, because they can't drop back. You know what it is? It's like a basketball team that relies on long twos.
Like just contested long twos. You just said high difficulty. That's what this offense is. It's no gimme's, no threes. It's just ISO ball twos. Just 18 footers, like too much Kobe film for this offense. Joe Johnson. Yeah. It's the ISO Joe offense. That's really what this feels like. Yeah, I know. It's just the easy buttons just never there.
Very boom busty. But I threw this one right at the last minute, and it's almost just a one-hitter. This was because... This could be a two-parter thing, because I'm maybe getting ahead of myself on the lightning round for standouts in preseason, which was the Bucs offensive line, Graham Barton, Cody Mock looked a lot better. Even some backup guys were actually looking really improved. I was kind of digging it. Kyle Trask had a couple nice moments as well. But also...
That's on the back on the other side that they played the bangles bangles defensive line. Oh my God. Like it's bad. It's really, it's a bad thing. It's, it's bad. Like DJ readers gone and you feel it even more. And I know it's backups and rookies and all these guys playing, but it didn't like guys that they're going to have to rely on this year. Like Chris Jenkins, just they were getting moved off the ball and it gets a bucks offensive line that I knew would be improved, but they weren't playing all their guys either. So yeah,
Yeah, Bengals defensive line better start working the phones because that could be that could be bad Because here's it like here's like the trick that fan bases will talk themselves into it's kind of like where you started where it's like Yeah, I know these guys are backups. Yeah, Chris Jenkins not gonna be a starter but like the projected starters are Sheldon rankings and BJ Hill rankings at this point He was really really good at one point. But I think at this point he's like he's like your third defensive tackle and
that comes in and plays some reps and gives you the gas. Right. But to have him be like your full-time starter, I don't know. I don't know. I don't know. And I feel like it just feels like over the past few years, like this defense has just like slowly bled talent and started to deteriorate. And now we're here. Like, I don't really know how to project this defense at all this year. Signed Geno Stone.
Maybe you get something from DJ Turner or Cam Taylor Britt, but man, it just seems like this defense, they really need to start pumping talent back into that side of the ball.
they knew the offense was about to get expensive. So they were trying to, you know, inject some young defensive talent to, you know, kind of turn it over. Just, uh, it's not always sunny thing. It's a self-sustaining economy. I don't even know what economy works. Uh, but that, but that's kind of what happened where they didn't get the fill in like the, the new soldiers didn't line up, like didn't sign up and didn't like progress to fill these spots. Uh,
Mike Hilton's still a good player, but again, he's not always playing full seasons. They have a lot of nice B-minus players, but they have Trey Hendrickson's going to bring juice against the pass game, but he's not going to do anything against a run. That's just Trey Hendrickson. So you need some beef. You need some guys that can hold up. BJ Hill, fine player. Fine. Much better with a better player next to him.
Sheldon Rankin says, I just looked it up, plays about half the snaps a year. He played about just under 600 snaps last year. So he plays about 500 snaps a year.
They got about 500 snaps and you'd fill in that. That's what that means. You need another guy to be taking these snaps. And I, it just looks, I know it's a first person game. I know you just don't want to extrapolate too much, but this was already a concern for me because this defense gave up so many explosive plays last year that they need them to be hodgepodge. They need them to do something because they, if they want to be a contender, you can't have these weaknesses like, like this, especially in the run game.
It just doesn't hold up. This type of bad around defense doesn't hold up in the playoffs, and that's what this team wants to do. So, yeah, kind of wanted to – sorry, Bengals fans. I haven't talked to you. Bengals, I haven't talked about you much, but did you want to bring kind of a magnifying glass on the ant kind of moment there to kind of burn it? But getting to more preseason standouts. Who you got? Lighting round. Lighting round, it pains me to say this, but I'm going to go with Talisa Fuanga.
The new left tackle for the States. Right. And I say that because my expectations for him are so low. Not as a player, just at left tackle. Right. We're on the same page there. Yeah. Because it's not really. I don't know if in the past he played left tackle at Oregon State, but last year he definitely did not. And I even wondered if he could play center in the NFL. I thought he was a guard. I pictured him as like a right guard.
Yeah, that's why I picture him as a guard. And then, you know, it's kind of the over analysis part where I was like, I was like looking at his legs and I was like, oh, maybe he's kind of a center. His ankle flexion. Yeah, ankle flexion. Yeah. But I had never pegged him for a left tackle. But here's the thing with the Saints. Trevor Penning is so bad right now that you can't, you really can't play him at all. And you definitely can't play him at left tackle. So, right. Fulanga has kind of become the default.
left tackle because who else are you going to put out there? You don't really have anyone else. First game, passing grade, which is a lot more than I expected. I thought you were going to give the PFF passing grade. Then I realized you're saying he gets a passing grade. No, that's exactly kind of what I thought. I was like, oh, this is going to be an adventure. He's fine. He's technically refined. Speed rushers would give him an issue. But guess what? He reminded me of a little bit Decker.
with the lions taylor decker yeah that's kind of how he moved a little bit where it's like okay it's not great but he got he's you know he's got some good technique and everything and speed gets him some issues but way better than i thought penning is just gonna be i think it was like no he can't play like he's unplayable like and i know we're just sound like we're piling on but it's bad it's he was it was bad in that preseason game um eric mccoy looked good though i will give him a shout out i must say every time i i uh
I hear Penning's name. I think about the podcast I did with your dad a couple years ago when we went over the offensive line class. And he was basically just like, Penning, dude, this makes no sense to me. I don't get it. And I remember one thing I asked him, I was like, well, you say he moves so bad and, you know, he tested, like, basically one of the best athletes to ever walk through Indianapolis. Like, how's that happen? He was basically like, that happens sometimes. Yeah.
I'm going to look up his testing. He did test like a freak. Yeah. Yeah. I think on the relative of his leg scores, he had like a 9.99. 6'7 and an eighth, which is 94th percentile. 34 and a quarter arms. 10 and eighth hands. Ran a sub 4.9. 4.89, which is 97th percentile for tackles. 88th percentile broad jump. 98th percentile three count.
That's big for my dad, too. He loves three-cone testing and 71st percentile shuttle. If you just looked at that, you'd be like, oh, yeah, just take them. We'll figure it out. But this is why you got to watch these guys. Because if you watch them, you saw that was all fake tough guy BS that doesn't actually work. Give more positive stuff. Brett's going to hate me, but Steelers offensive line. Broderick Jones had a couple of nice moments. Oh, Jalen Petrie.
Texans DB human missile man. He had some really nice moments preseason. I'm just literally just going through my Twitter and just seeing who I tweeted about Lucas Van Ness. Good one. Oh, Quantez Stiggers, the DB, the corner for the Jets. Have you heard about this guy? I have because I live up here.
Yeah, true. True. Do you know his background? No, I don't. I don't remember his background. I know I've seen some stuff. It's pretty cool. Yeah, so I do want to bring him up because he had some nice moments. Yeah, he was a few things. So he was a freshman. He went to end up at Lane College in Tennessee, which I believe is a JUCO. Oh, no, it's a HBCU. And he dropped out. So, you know, a little bit recruited. His father died. So he joined the fan-controlled football league.
You know, the one that had Johnny Manziel? Yeah, our friend Eric Alko was involved in that. Yes. So that was in 2022. So he's 20 years old playing that. Then he balled out, gets caught, goes to the CFL because of Toronto Argonauts, balls out there. He was the CFL's most outstanding rookie. He was an all-star, all as a rookie. Goes to the Shrine game, Alko, like you just mentioned, gets drafted in the fifth round. This dude is feisty.
He's cool. I wanted to give him a shout out. He had some couple really cool moments in the preseason game. Last one I'll give a shout out is my guy John Bates, tight end for Washington Commanders. He was blocking his butt off. Hey, man, Farrell Brown, tight end for the Seahawks.
A couple of Cardinals defenders too. Katrell Clark looked cool. Yeah. Roy Lopez. Got to shout out your Cardinals before we get out of here. I know, man. It's just every rapid fire is Cardinals rapid fire. Got to get it in. Anybody else? We got it. Wrapped us up. Put a bow on it. I think we're good. We're good. Yeah. Enough rookie quarterback talk. We're done with that. We'll move on. We'll get a second preseason game before I have anything more to say.
But yeah, closing it out today. Like I said before, we have a mailbag on Thursday. So get those questions in. The email again is football301mailbag at yahoosports.com. Get those emails. They are great. But videos and voicemails are even better. We'll also tweet some stuff. So maybe you can just yell at us on Twitter like you always like to do. Those Twitter accounts are I'm Nate underscore Tice. Charles is at where Charles?
Four verts, baby. Four verts. Not five verts like Jayden Daniels ran, checked into for that deep throw at the goal ball, which I still am laughing at. But subscribe to us. Please follow us. Please rate us. Please. Please. Any of those things would be great. Also, check us out on YouTube at Yahoo Sports YouTube channel. You also can follow Yahoo Sports on Snapchat too, young people.
I haven't. Yeah, I'll just leave it at that. But thanks to Brett Stone and Adi, everything you guys do beyond the scenes. We will be back on Thursday with those mailbag questions and we are out.
